Scared of what 2014 will bring

I wound up taking Tom to the ER last night. We discovered he has an abscess around his left tonsil area. I rang in the New Year sitting in an ER room. Not ideal by any means. The hospital doesn't have ENT with privileges so they were going to transfer us to Tulsa. Tom and I were waiting to hear back from the nurse about transporting him via ambulance. I asked why I couldn't take him and now know I should keep some curiosity to myself. The nurse explained to me that the IV was part of the reason they would transport him, but the main reason was the possibility of his airway being cut off completely during transport. Words that I don't accept in a stress free manner...morphine...ambulance...blocked air way...surgery.

I have a friend that does a terrific job of pointing out the silver lining in each less than positive situation. Another friend was suggesting people take part in RAK's as the goal for the last day of 2013. My silver lining last night came in the form of two children, Hunter (age 5) and his sister Journey (age 2). They were sitting outside of the room next to us, their dad was frantically speaking with the staff about his son (Mason, not sure of his age but at least double digits) that was in Diabetic shock. Dad explained that mom was in Colorado, they had their NYE festivities as most people do, and it was discovered that Mason had become unresponsive. Dad called 911 and got him to the ER as quick as possible, but had no one to care for the two little ones. Those two sweet little babies were sitting in the walkway scared to death. They could hear their brother screaming, cussing, fighting the ones around him as he was coming out of his state of shock. Dad was torn, trying to help the staff and Mason deal with the situation, and still trying to remain calm and strong enough to comfort his other children. They sat there, crying, covering their ears, trying to find out if their brother was okay.

I was dying on the inside. Those poor, scared babies...but I'm a stranger so I would likely make them even more uncomfortable. Tom was in the process of being discharged (he has an appointment this morning to get his problem taken care of for good) we asked dad and he agreed to allow Hunter and Journey to come sit on our hospital bed and watch TV. The nurse brought some color sheets and crayons. My heart was tugged on even more when Hunter looked at me with tears in his eyes, and with a shaky voice stuttered out "My sister Journey and I are REALLY scared right now. Our brother Mason isn't right. He is screaming, and fighting, and it's because his diabetes."

We wound up getting discharged and having to leave. The nurse said that the kids would be taken care of and they could continue to sit in our room. My last day of 2013 was a no good day for sure. My first day of 2014 was spent leaving one hospital to come home to a sick great nephew that had to be taken to another ER in Tulsa. Poor Julian has croup. I'm starting this day with an unpleasant trip to Tulsa to see an ENT and get Tom on the mend. I'm blessed. I'm thankful. Everything could be SO much worse.

The 'Other Side'

It is a dreaded time of the school year on the 'Other Side' of the world. Most schools are getting ready for Fall Break. That means parent teacher conferences. I do not look forward to meeting with the teachers. 

I hear the same thing year after year. 'Mrs. Lemons, your child is a wonderful student! What a joy to have in class! Sure, (s)he is struggling with getting (her)his assignments in, and is failing my class, but they have to potential to do great and I just love (her)his smile! 

Every year I have walked away from these conferences frustrated, upset, and deflated. Then I get home and all of my friends have begun posting on social media about the results of their meetings. 'Johnny's teachers ALL said he was a model student! He has an A+ in EVERY SINGLE SUBJECT, and is on the Presidential Honor Roll!'

I don't openly post updates about my meetings. I don't comment on the posts of others either. When I read these posts I feel inadequate. I've failed as a parent, yet again, and am emotional because I am not able to post the same thing. Ever. 

I wonder if parents of Johnny realize what their proud moment does to the 'Other Side' of the coin? It's the same with our babies/toddlers. While other parents are bragging about how Susie was pulling up on her own at 4 months, walking at 8 months, and speaking full sentences before their first birthday, the Lemons mom is reading it and feeling sadness and despair because the Little Lemonhead can't even complete a full sentence and he is four years old. 

I do what I can and I love my kids just as much as the next mom. But, my tear soaked eyes and my hurting heart won't let my fingers respond to your joy.  

Sincerely, 

Mom from the 'Other Side' 

Create organization on your iPhone with subfolders!

This is not my typical type of post. It seems easier for me to just blog this and then if anyone searches the internet or asks me again, I can simply paste a link instead of having to retype everything =)

If you have an iPhone then you probably have a lot of apps! There are several different screens that you can swipe your way through and try to find each app. OR, you can organize them into subfolders! It is really very simple to do, but not so easy to describe. I'll give it my best shot....

How I got my iPhone 4 from this...

To this...

If you touch an icon on your phone and hold your finger on it for a second or two, all of the icon's on the screen will start shaking. Keep your finger on the icon as you move it around the screen. This is how you will start to create your sub folders. It made sense to me to keep my calculator in with my already programmed Utilities folder. I just happened to hover the icon over the folder and the screen changed and allowed me to drop the calculator into the Utilities folder! Then I just played around until I discovered the iPhone is really a lot smarter than I thought. I dropped the Pandora app onto the iTunes icon and it created a Music folder. I dropped the Instagram app onto the camera icon and it created a Photography folder. Then I got curious to see if I could rename the folders, sure enough! So now my phone is completely organized! Here is a bullet point list to show what to do.

1. Press and hold the desired icon on your homescreen until all of the icons begin to wiggle.
2. Continue pressing down on the icon and move it with your finger over the icon you would like to move it too (for example, if you wish to store FB and Twitter together, move the Twitter icon over the FB icon).
3. Hold it over the desired icon until a sub folder (of sorts) drops down.
4. Release the icon you are moving.
5. To rename the folder, hold the desired folder until all of the icons begin to wiggle.
6. Once the sub folder has dropped down, you are then able to touch in the text box with the title for the folder.
7. Erase the original folder name and retype the new name.
8. Touch anywhere else on the screen and it should save the new name and close the sub folder.

Manic Monday fo sho!

DOMESTIC GODDESS

That is a title I have been attempting to ROCK lately!!! Good grief does it take practice to achieve that title! It seems so simple when you look everything up on the internet. There are TONS of blogs available to help you along the way. D.I.Y. at it's finest!

Two weeks ago, I decided to make some breakfast burrito's for my husband and kids. It was poor judgement on my part to make such an attempt on a day when my sons speech therapist was supposed to be at my house. Bless her heart! She only commented on how delightful all of the food smelled one time! I learned from my mistake and decided to make some more on Sunday, ya know, the day for rest! It would have been SO SUPER simple, if my kids could handle the same amount of heat in their food as my husband. Since that isn't the case, I have to make two separate batches. At the end of the day, I had about two dozen burrito's for the family to enjoy!

Since we moved, I've been trying really hard to be disciplined enough to follow a family meal plan. A couple of suggestions that I have found is to always be PREPARED!!! Plan ahead! Those are two concepts that I truly struggle with, but I am making a helluva attempt! 

I bought a 20 lb bag of potato's from Marvins grocery store in Chouteau. For $9.99 a bag, how could I pass it up?!?! In order to make the most out of my purchase, I needed to do something with the 10 lbs that I still had hanging around. 

Twice baked potato's it is!!! So super simple! Right? Uh...well...just watch and see. 

I started off with 25 potato's. I wrapped 18 of them in foil and peeled the remaining 7 to use for making the skinnytaste garlic mashed potato's for tomorrow night. I remembered from my last attempt at twice baked potato's that if you don't coat them with something the skin will just rip right off. So glad I remembered it AFTER I had already wrapped them all in foil. Yay me! I got to unwrap each one and spray them with Pam, then re-wrap them. UGH!!!

I bought a new ceramic bladed vegetable peeler. It is DA BOMB!!! I got the other taters peeled to boil and mash up. By this time it was 5 pm and my little one was exhausted!  I was forced to pause the taters and concentrate on getting my kiddo to sleep. I also had a pot of water with a bullion cube boiling away on the stove. By the time I got the baby asleep enough to lay him down the water had completely evaporated in the pan. The bullion was caked on. UGH! I squirted some dish soap in the pot, added some more water, and stuck that bad boy back on the burner. Cleaned it in a jiffy!

So while I am in the middle of all of this...I find out...the plumbing is backed up!!! Yay! The plumber gave me the break I wanted by saying use as little water as possible. That means NO DISHES...which means...NO EATING AT HOME!! Woo Hoo!

We got back home around 10:30 because we went to my moms to take showers for the night. Finally, at midnight...I got all of the taters stuffed and put up. 

Whew! Two dozen breakfast burrito's, an entire meals worth of mashed taters, and   36 twice baked potato's...


WOW!!! That's a LOT of work!!! I am thankful to have the opportunity to plan and prepare for my family. I am excited about the time when it will come much easier!!!

All My Friends Are Doing It!

Yes, all of my friends are doing it! Not me though, because I am not a follower. I walk down my own path.

But not because I want too. I want to be a follower. All of my friends are taking steps to enrich their lives. Most of them are finding exciting and fun ways to add exercise to their lives. They are losing pounds beyond anyone's expectations! 

I can't follow them. I am gaining the pounds they are losing! I changed my Zumba schedule to accommodate the school time that I need. Now, instead of leading four or five classes a week, I am only enjoying two a week. I have noticed things that are different since I changed my schedule. 

Sore! Yes, that is right...less class time means more soreness! When I had a full schedule I very rarely experienced any muscle soreness. I can certainly feel every squat, arm raise, or crunch now! Good grief!

Weight gain. Since I backed myself down to two classes I have packed on almost ten pounds! I can feel it for sure! My cargo's are tighter, my neck feels all bulgy and gross. I won't go into any further detail about that.


I get far more excited about each class than I used too. I've always looked forward to class. Spending time with amazing people, sharing successes in our journey, encouraging each other when we notice one needs it, like a family does! I guess it's true what they say about absence making the heart grow fonder. 


I still get mounds and mounds of encouragement! Just the other day, like she knew I needed to hear it, a friend sent me a message to let me know that her group of four friends have lost a total of 119.8 pounds since starting Zumba! That is PHENOMENAL!!!


I'm ready to get on board. I want to join the crowd. I have close to twenty pounds to lose. A little secret though? It's just about all I can do to manage the workouts I get right now. I am taking pain medicine that gives me the whoozies, makes me feel slow and unintelligible, but makes the pain go away, even if only for a few hours. 


I'm getting it fixed. Slow and steady wins the race, right? I'm getting another injection February 2nd. I am more than overjoyed at the thought that by the middle of February I will be pain free again. All I can say for that time period is "Look out world, here I come!"


Until then, hope y'all have fun in your exercise adventures! I'll see ya in about a week and a half!

Green Hair!

You read that title right! I am going green. I have put green (aquamarine) peek-a-boo highlights in my hair before. That is not what I am referring to this time though. Maybe another time!

I usually use Garnier Fruictis Sleek & Shine in my hair after every shower. I don't know that it really does much. I just feel better about myself after I use it. 

In my recent journey to becoming more of a granola mom and frugal, I decided I would see what I could do to minimize the $3.99 bottle and make it a healthier version (chemical free) for my hair. 

I found this website and decided I would give it a try. I went to Whole Foods to get the supplies because I didn't want to mess with ordering it all online and didn't know where else to get them. I think next time (if there is one) I will get the supplies online. I am not sure how many uses I will get out of this attempt, or how effective it is going to be, but dropping $42 on the counter just so I could say I made it myself is CRAZY!!!


I am also going to add my own mix to this recipe and see what happens. I am a natural brunette. I have some red in my hair as well. I have a lengthy list of things that I want to use my money for and if I can manage to not have to pay to have my hair professionally done then I am one up on my goal. Instead of using plain purified water, I steeped some black cohosh tea in the water. Maybe it will help keep my hair a pretty color? I don't know, maybe my hair will wind up being green after all!

My Cup Over-runneth!

Week One of Insanity!

That's right, I am on the path to insanity again. That path that causes me to become overstressed, overtired, and my brain to be overly full. Welcome to Spring semester of 2012! I have four very challenging classes this semester: Principles of Finance, Legal Environment of Business, Entrepreneurship (I always struggle with correctly spelling and pronouncing that word!), and Human Resources Management. 

In the past I have had a very negative attitude toward college. I am not one that is willing to put my family life on the back burner for anything. That being said, there have been many occasions where my school work has suffered. 

I was truly concerned about my ability to be successful this semester. Since my family just got out on our own again, I was afraid that I would be over run with family responsibilities and never make time for school. I am positive that even though my mom never voiced a concern, she has been stressed about it as well. 

After week one mom, you can rest easy and relax. My rock, my strength, my husband was perfect this weekend. He may not have gotten much done on his 'Honey-do' list, on the other hand, I got all of my school work complete on a comprehensive level. 

He made me breakfast. 

He made me coffee.

He did the dishes.

He washed some laundry.

He put away the babies toys before going to bed. 

He got the kids to help with a happy heart as well.

If every week winds up as successful as this week did, I will be beyond blessed! I am so incredibly thankful for a wonderful family! I have experienced the detached, uninvolved husband that could give a rats ass about my needs. I am also thankful that I no longer have that problem!

Don't tell anyone, but I'm actually looking forward to this week and seeing what all I can accomplish!