Remember The Troops This Christmas...

Click on the title to see a great video. My husband is home with us this Christmas, but thousands of soldiers are away from their families and this time of the year is the hardest part of a deployment.

To Lighten the Mood...

The other day I had lunch with 2 of my unmarried friends.

One is engaged, one is a mistress, and of course I have
been married for 20+ years.

We were chatting about our relationships and decided to
amaze our men by wearing a black leather bra & bodice,
stiletto heels and a mask over just our eyes. We agreed to
meet in a few days to exchange notes.
Here's how it all went:

My engaged friend:
The other night my boyfriend came over and found me wearing
a black leather bodice, tall stilettos and a mask.
He saw me and said, 'You are the woman of my dreams.
I love you.' Then we made love all night long.

The mistress:
Me too! The other night I met my lover at his office and
I was wearing the leather bodice, heels and mask
over my eyes and a raincoat. When I opened the raincoat he
didn't say a word, but we had wild sex all night.

Then I had to share my story:
When my husband came home I was wearing the leather bodice,
black stockings, stilettos and a mask over my eyes. As soon
as he came in the door and saw me he said…

"What's for dinner, Batman?"

Once again...

Trying to shut up those who believe an unborn child is STILL a child... Because why should freedom of expression run BOTH ways, right? Just click on the title to read the whole story...

ACLU Nutjobs are at it again! Leave our Veterans ALONE!

Twitter kicks *ss! (grin) and youtube rocks too...

Happy Father's Day...

I love you Daddy! Thank you for always being there and loving me... even the times it drove both of us nuts!

Always Remember...

Just The Thing For Mother's Day! (SMIRK)

Doug Powers made me giggle today...

Missing My Miracle, My Angel, My Sam...

Why Women Can't Sleep...

WHY WOMEN CAN'T SLEEP

Have you ever wondered how a woman's brain works? Well....it's finally explained here in one, easy-to-understand illustration:


Every one of those little blue balls is a thought about something that needs to be done, a decision or a problem that needs to be solved. A man has only 2 balls and they take up all his thoughts.

Attention All Photographers!!!!

Attention All Photographers

(especially if you live in or close to a military town) check this out!!!

I can not express in words the impact that your time could have on a military family.

On a YouTube trip it would seem...

Never too late to dream...

Beautiful! Click the heading above to see the most inspirational thing I've seen in awhile. I couldn't find a video that would let me embed it here, so you just have to click the link. Trust me, its worth it!

Click here for a giggle...

Powers makes me giggle!

The Mom Song...

The Ghost Breakers...

Made me giggle so hard I almost wet myself...

Finding the silver lining...

So today has been an interesting day...

I have several different types of fibromyalgia flares. Some are straight pain flares... like the aches you would get from the flu and arthritis on massive steroids. The pain flares suck but, believe it or not they are the easier ones to deal with. Take some pain meds and limit my movement for a day or two and I can bounce back with minimal amounts of cursing under my breath when the children bounce off of me.

Then there are what I call SENSORY flares. These suck worse than just about anything on the planet. Anyone who has ever had a bad migraine headache (or even a major hangover) can get a very basic idea of what a sensory flare is like. With a migraine (or killer hangover) your senses of hearing and sight get mega sensitive. Every small sound or bit of light is amplified 10 times its original strength. A slamming door or an overhead light cause intense physical pain... Now take that concept, that ultra-sensitivity, and apply it to ALL your senses at the same time.

I feel like I have some small comprehension of what it must be like to be stuck in an Autistic mind and body because these particular flares often lead me to curl up in a dark quiet room with my eyes squeezed shut and my fingers in my ears hoping to stop the painful sensation overload. My toddler running his fingers across the back of my arm feels like someone has pulled the edge of a hot pan from the oven across my flesh... scalding, searing pain that makes my muscles twitch and jump to escape the touch. Changing a dirty diaper or taking out the trash smells like what I would imagine wading through waist deep raw sewage would.

The only major up side to this type of flare (and talk about searching for a silver lining!) would be the rare opportunity to lock myself alone in a pitch dark and quiet room while letting my highly sensitive taste buds go nuts over bits of dark chocolate melting on my tongue... If only all the overly sensitive stuff could be that good!

Soap Box of the Day...

Could someone please tell me why this is OK on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, but on Facebook it is pornographic material? I think someone has their priorities a little screwed up (and it's not Mr. Rogers).

happy sniffles...

OK. So I know that when I'm all hormonal and growing another human being I can cry over toilet paper commercials, but I'm fairly sure this awesome story would have made me bawl even if I wasn't on a baby hormone high.

Quick update...

saying goodbye at the end of R&R

My cousin Julie is officially a "MRS." now! Congrats to her and her Handsome new hubby Jeff! Yay for wedding bells!

My cousin Rachael, who's son Carrick I requested prayer for awhile back, has her beautiful and healthy boy home with her where he belongs now! Thanks so much for your prayers!

My husband was home for R&R in February and tomorrow marks the start of month 12 for this deployment. We are on the downhill slide now! YAY!

OH... and in November we will be adding an R&R souvenir to the family!

Yup... He is strutting around with his chest all puffed out... SO PROUD he "knocked me up" over R&R. Yay, for babies! (Last one for us though, four is a good round number.)

Feeling a little emotional tonight...

Rant of the day OR Obama to remove MD's rights...

Abort73 Graphics / Abort73 Shirts

THIS is officially the first major thing to thoroughly piss me off about the current administration.

Removing the RIGHT of health care workers to refuse to participate in the murder of an unborn child for religious or ethical reasons... That would be like forcing an Orthodox Jew to eat pork or forcing a radical Muslim into a bikini (only worse because to those of us who believe a child is a child even before birth... IT WOULD FORCE SOMEONE TO MURDER ANOTHER HUMAN BEING)!

It seems to be socially unacceptable to force a person to actively participate in activities they do not believe in... unless of course, that person believes that an unborn child is an individual (different DNA than it's mother) and (worse than that) might even be a Christian!

OH SHAME!

Why should it no longer be OK to tell someone that you will not personally help them kill their baby?! There will ALWAYS be "Dr.s" who will be happy to assist in that particular procedure - let's face it:

Abortion is big business in America.

Yet another reason to love boobs...

I have always liked Salma Hayek as an actress and, as an added bonus, I think she is incredibly beautiful. (If I was a guy or not straight and blissfully married, I would SO put her on my people to do list...)

After reading an article on ParentDish about a beautiful and wonderful gift she gave to a mother and her starving child during a UNICEF visit to Sierra Leone in September 2008, Salma Hayek has officially moved to the very top of my favorite celebrities list.

When Wedding Cakes Go WRONG...

And, in honor of my cousin Julie's upcoming wedding I would like to share some wedding cakes posted on Cake Wrecks. To remind her Mom that there ARE worse things out there than a western themed wedding, and to make everyone else gasp/smile and/or giggle while frantically calling their baker to make sure they have a "backup cake" ready in case the original is delivered in less than expected condition.

NICU Flashbacks & Requested Prayers...

Me holding Samantha in NICU 4 1/2 weeks after her birth.

Tonight my heart is broken for my cousin Rachael and her husband Corey. Rachael gave birth to the couple's first child on Wednesday night... two months early. Little Carrick is in NICU, breathing on his own, and from my cousin's brief email description, seems to be a fighter.

Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers, they are going to need it.

I can't help but have flash backs to when Samantha was born two months early. I remember so vividly the feeling that, somehow, I had failed my child. I felt betrayed by my own body and angry that there was nothing I could do to make things better. I was terrified of loosing my daughter before I ever really had the chance to know her and I wanted to find a way to protect her from all of the pain that comes along with an extended NICU stay.

Mostly I just felt helpless and confused.

How and why could this happen to us? What could I have done differently to make her enter the world healthy and full term? How did my WHOLE WORLD suddenly shift to dramatically revolve around this tiny piece of me? How is it possible to love someone so small SO much more than I have ever loved anyone, including myself?

My heart is broken for my cousin, not because I think her son will not survive, quite the opposite. My heart is broken because I have been in her shoes, and I know how it feels to be a mother who must watch her child fight for every step, knowing there is nothing you can do except watch, wait, and pray that God will pull you through.

When You Change Careers, Do It RIGHT! LOL!

A gynecologist had become very fed up with malpractice insurance and HMO paperwork and was feeling burned out. Hoping to try another career where skillful hands would be beneficial, he decided to become a mechanic. He went to the local technical college, signed up for classes, attended diligently, and learned all he could.

When the time for the practical exam approached, the gynecologist prepared carefully for weeks and completed the exam with tremendous skill. When the results came back, he was surprised to find that he had obtained a score of 150%. Fearing an error, he called the instructor, saying, "I don't want to appear ungrateful for such an outstanding result, but I wonder if there is an error in the grade." The instructor said:

"During the exam, you took the engine apart perfectly, which was worth 50% of the total mark. "You put the engine back together again perfectly, which is also worth 50% of the mark." This equaled an A. After a pause, the instructor added:

"I gave you an extra 50% because you did it all through the

muffler, which I've never seen done in my entire career."

When You Change Careers, Do It RIGHT! LOL!

Vent of the day...

So, I am EXHAUSTED! I want to blog, but I'm just not sure I have the energy tonight... So, you guys get a very brief update:

Samantha has been hospitalized well over a thousand miles from me (which, in case you are wondering, sucks big green monkey nuts). She ran fever all weekend long and her O2 sats were... well, less than great at the clinic this morning. She has BOTH the Flu (and Yes, she did get a Flu shot this year) AND Scarlet Fever. Leave it to Sam to get horribly ill right after Mommy leaves town... (grumble, grumble)

Meanwhile...

Dad's incision from his "let's chop out 75% of your liver to get all the cancer" procedure has opened up enough that you can see the internal stitches. He went to the ER and they think he has another infection and are dosing him up on broad spectrum antibiotics while they wait for the culture to grow something shnazzy (and by shnazzy I mean "ewwwwww! gross!)...

And HALFWAY across the freaking country...

I am worried about Sam & my Dad and feeling utterly helpless and useless knowing there is NOTHING I can do to help. My Mom is going to run herself into the ground trying to take care of Sam and worry about my Dad too.

And without someone there to bug the royal CRAP out of my Dad (Yes, I KNOW you are reading this, and you KNOW how hard headed you are!), he likes to ignore/blow off/live in total denial of anything that makes him feel slightly off. Dad is the kind of guy who wouldn't mention heart attack level chest pain to anyone until you noticed him holding his chest and turning blue... And EVEN THEN he would do his best to convince you that "it doesn't really hurt that bad..."

STUBBORN MALE. Exhibit #1 - My Daddy.
(I just point this out because I'm so worried he will ignore something significant that will come back and bite him in the rear later...)

Please pray for Samantha and my Dad... and DEFINITELY pray for Mom. She gets to deal with Dad's stubborn nature AND all of the *SARCASM* "brilliant" medical professionals in that area*SARCASM*! Yes, extra prayers for Mom.

And for your daily dose of giggle, you should go check out Cake Wrecks explanation of why you should never order a cake over the phone . It made me fall off my yoga ball...

Link of the day (things EVERY woman should know)...

Start spreading the word: Abort73 Graphics / Abort73 Shirts

Angels & Pilots & Luggage, Oh, My!

Hello again Blogland! I am home now and finally feel recovered enough from my trip home to update. My four month visit with my family in Texas went (mostly) well. There were a few minor hiccups from time to time, but nothing major. I am thankful that my grandparents were able to put up with me, the boys and all our stuff in their space for four months. I was able to spend quality time with my family, be there to help out when Samantha had her operation, and be there to help Mom (and irritate the crap out of Dad) when he had his operation. I will tell everyone more about family interaction and operations in a later post (when the boys are NOT climbing the rafters).

I flew back to North Carolina on January 10th. I have never been a big fan of Delta Airlines, but since Army Support Services made (and paid for) my airfare to Texas and back I had no intention of arguing about HOW we got there. I arrived at the airport in Odessa an hour before my flight was scheduled to take off thinking that would be more than enough time to get checked in and through security (even with my four heavy carry on items and a gate checked car seat). I was apparently wrong. The one employee trying to get people checked in at the desk was way overwhelmed. She honestly was doing her best, but the people in front of me in the line had overweight bags that they decided to unpack and repack without moving to the side. By the time I grabbed my boarding passes (and later discovered I was missing one for each flight), rushed through security with the boys and our stuff and got to our gate, the plane was getting ready to leave. We were lucky that the door had not been shut yet and we had just enough time to RUN down the ramp and get into our seats before the plane pulled away from the gate. About an hour and a half later we landed in Houston, gathered our things and prepared to change terminals. An electric cart met us at the plane and took us as far as the bus that runs between terminals. After that, I was on my own. We were dropped off at our connecting terminal and discovered our flight was leaving from the extreme opposite end from where we had been dropped off. By the time I reached the gate, lugging four carry on items, a large car seat and two small (easily distracted) boys, I was in serious pain. I had started having back spasms and couldn't even think of getting comfortable enough to rest for fear that the boys would wander off and be snatched. We had time to grab a quick bite to eat and get loaded onto our plane.

Flight number 50 from Houston to Atlanta was where my travel experience made a turn for the better. After we pulled away from the gate the safety demonstration started and my boys (thankfully) fell asleep. My back spasms were getting worse and I could feel my muscle strength going as the pain got worse. Taking a muscle relaxer when I still had one more connection to make lugging the kids was not a viable option so I made the next best choice. When the flight attendants came by with the drink cart I ordered a $7 mini-bottle of rum and some orange juice. Halfway through my drink I could feel the knots starting to ease a little, but was still fairly certain I would be unable to make my connecting flight on time. As I was lost in thought trying to figure out a way to make my body cooperate, an angel appeared at my side in the form of a flight attendant named Gwen. She had the flight roster in hand and had noticed that I had requested help between gates. I explained a little about Fibromyalgia and that I was traveling alone with my two small boys. She asked if there was anything that she or the rest of the crew could do to help with the Fibro flare I was having, and I explained that I had purchased rum for that because it was as close to a muscle relaxer as I was willing to take with no one to help me with the boys. We chatted for awhile and she asked where my hubby was (because we are apparently a very obvious military family) and I filled her in a bit more about that. She took the time to thank me for my husband's service and our family's sacrifice (which always makes me tear up a bit) and then excused herself to speak with the pilot. When she came back, she let me know that they had radioed ahead for two wheelchair escorts to be waiting for us. One for the boys and I, the other for all our stuff. The flight crew also comped my drink for the flight. As our plane landed I realized I had about 30 minutes to get to my next flight... two concourses over.

The pilot came over the speaker to thank everyone for flying with Delta and their partners and then added a special thank you to the military members and their families on the flight. I felt the tears well up again as everyone on board burst into applause to show their appreciation. Gwen asked if I thought I could make it to the end of the ramp where the wheelchairs would be waiting and I gathered my things to make as much of a dash as possible. The gentleman who had been seated behind me was kind enough to take two bags to carry up the ramp for me and as I neared the front of the plane I noticed that the pilot himself had come out of the cockpit to help us up the ramp! As I settled into the wheelchair the pilot handed my youngest son to me and, again thanked us for our family's sacrifice. I thanked him as I was swiftly wheeled away and (once again) felt my eyes water over the acknowledgement. We made our connecting flight with, quite literally, seconds to spare. The rest of our flight home was thankfully uneventful and when we landed I was too happy to be home to even care that some of my luggage did not arrive at the same time we did!

So, to the ENTIRE staff of flight 50 from Houston to Atlanta on January 10th: Thank you from the bottom of my heart! You made a very stressful day so much better, and I do not have words to adequately express my gratitude. You have made my opinion of your employer go up quite a bit and I am so pleased and thankful that you were all SO WONDERFUL to my boys and I.

God Bless Every One Of You!

And to Gwen N.:

You Rock! Thank you for your compassion and understanding. You blessed my heart that day...

The Good, The Bad & The Future...

So, today is my birthday and in two days I fly back to North Carolina. I am both happy and sad. I am looking forward to being in my own space again (and WAY happy that I will have my good bed back soon). Darrell gets 18 days of R&R shortly after the boys and I get back home and I am ecstatic about being in my husband's arms again! I'm looking forward to restoring the routine that helps the boys behavior so much, but has been impossible to keep during our visit to Texas.

I am NOT looking forward to leaving my daughter behind again. I know that being here with my Mom & Dad is truly in her best interest right now. I know that the same routine the boys thrive under in North Carolina would not work as well for Samantha. I know that my parents do a brilliant job of caring for her and creating an environment where she has grown and flourished. I know that she has reached SO MANY developmental milestones since she moved in with them, and I am certain she would not have reached them as quickly as she has, had it not been for the encouragement, love and support that she receives here. (Not just from my parents and grandparents, but from our entire church family and close friends.)

Even knowing that I am doing the best thing I can for her right now, it breaks my heart for her to be away from us. Her brothers love her and enjoy playing with her more than I could have ever dreamed they would, and they miss her almost as much as I do when she isn't with us. I think that it wouldn't hurt so much to leave her here if I thought I could meet her needs as well or better than they do here... But that is the kicker. KNOWING that I am not able to meet my beautiful girl's needs (and that someone else can) kills me inside. And I am so afraid of the day when she will get too big for any of us to properly meet her needs... at least right now she is with people who love her and will protect her from the bad and ugly things in this world. I pray that God takes us all home long before I have to put my daughter's care into the hands of strangers.