Tuesday, May 29, 2007

More Contests...

Adventures in Baby Wearing is having a contest too! Check out these cute earings by Cheeky Jewelry....





I'm so happy it's summer! I've done nothing but read blogs all day and shirk my responsibilities!


What's on Your IPOD?

More specifically, what helps you get your move on, when you're working out? I'm gonna list mine and I'm hoping ya'll have some suggestions for me, because I need a little something new to spice up the workout. I've got to get off this plateau I've hit.

(* Beware some explicit lyrics)


Justine's Workout: (That's me)



1. Beautiful by Bethany Dillon

Because that's what I want to be....

2. Eye of the Tiger by Survivor

Charlie put this one on my list because he thinks it's funny that I like to box.

3. Fergalicious * by Fergie

Because that's the goal....

4. It's Showtime! by David Lee Roth

HOOOOOOOO-WEEEEEEEEEEEE!

5. Get the Party Started by Pink

I love the Angry Chicks...

6. U + Ur Hand * by Pink

Good for boxing and ditto the Angry Chicks. I sometimes repeat this one a lot, helps me run. (And I use the term "run" loosely.)

7. Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper

Gotta have a sense of humor...

8. Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson

Goodbye song for Ice Cream. Or Fat. It works both ways.

9. Wind it Up by Gwen Stefani

I dare you not to.

10. Girl all the Bad Guys Want * by Bowling for Soup

Another of Charlie's picks, because, obviously I am... (not)

11. Family Affair by Mary J. Blige

I love the commercial that plays this song where the chick is walking and all the famous good-looking guys are checking her out. Some kind of water, wouldn't they be hacked that I can't remember the brand!

12. Whip It by Devo

Whip it good!

13. Goodbye to You Patty Smyth

Cause I'm an 80's girl.

14. Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson

Take a risk, take a chance....

15. One Last Breath by Creed

That's usually all I've got, it's cool down time...

16. Brave by Nicole Nordeman

I wanna be.


Okay, as Pat Benetar would say, HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT! FIRE AWAY!

Fun Contest

Look at this cute bag!






You could win it, but I hope it's me and not you. Just go to Pinks and Blues Blog and sign up! Hurry, times short... and may the better girl win!

Friday, May 25, 2007

Another Day in the ER

Yesterday I ignored the number one rule of parenting.

Okay, maybe not specifically the number one rule of parenting, but more specifically the number one rule of "What to do when your child calls from school saying they're sick". I'd been in the driveway talking to my neighbors when Melee' called early in the day..

"Hello."

Silence "Um........Mom? It's me. .......Melee'."

"Yes baby?"

"Um...I need some lunch money..........I owe some money,........and they won't let me have my report card if you don't bring it today."

"Okay, how much do you need."

"Um..fifteen dollars..........I mean,...........I don't owe fifteen dollars,.............but I think fifteen dollars would be good."

As I get a lot of calls from school, I wasn't totally shocked when I looked down and saw the school's number again on my caller ID at 2:20 in the afternoon. But when I answered the phone it was Melee' and he was crying. His stomach hurt really bad and he wanted me to come get him. We usually have to work our way up to the cry, so when he started with the cry, I put the Little's in the car and drove over to the school. My red flags went up when I rounded the corner to the nurses office to find him doubled over and bawling. His tears can be alarming both in their size and voracity, but this was a new one even for me. I could tell by the look on the nurses face that this was something she had never experienced with Melee', and she has a lot of experience. So I asked if she could go get my niece from her fourth grade room and I got on the phone with the Dr.'s office, told them I was wondering about his appendix. They said to come over right away.

On the last day of school, the mothers on my block, fill up coolers full of water balloons, we arm ourselves with our best water guns and let the kids have it as they walk home from school. When I pulled out of my driveway I had left my neighbor Chase as she was filling her balloons. Safe in the knowledge that I would be right back, I didn't even close my garage door. So I made a quick call to Chase to let her know we would be headed to the Dr. and would miss the festivities and would she please be on the lookout for John just in case I wasn't back in time for the Jr. High bus.

We got to the Dr.'s office and waited. His pain had subsided. There I sit with two toddlers and two fourth graders in an 8 X 8 room with eye-spy being our only entertainment for the half hour wait. In the meantime, Chase and my other neighbor call me to see if everything was alright. "You know what it is?" Sharen says, "It's that fifteen dollars worth of lunch!"

The doctor came in and started with the standard questions.
When's the last time you ate? "12:00"
Vomiting? "No"
Diahrea? "No"
Fever? "No"
Where does it hurt? "Here"
Show me with one finger.
Does this hurt? "No"
Does this hurt? "No"
Does this hurt? "TSSSTT" Bingo!
Have you gone to the bathroom today? "No, it doesn't hurt like that."
What does it hurt like? "Like 12 shots in my stomach at one time."

So she turns to me and says she can't be sure, blah, blah, blah, but he's indicating the right area, so she wants to send us to the surgeon. She leaves the room and I start my flurry of calls. First to Charlie, then to my brother to see if he can pick up the kids and watch them, then to Chase and Sharen to have them meet John at the bus and after hitting him with a water balloon, tell him Krull is coming to get him.

After some bloodwork and tears, the Dr. comes in and hands me the surgeon's number and a map to the Texas Children's Pediatric hospital in South Houston. As I don't like to drive in unfamiliar places during traffic and while looking at a map, I called Charlie and softly whined "I WISH YOU WERE ALREADY HERE, WE HAVE TO GO TO TEXAS CHILDREN'S AND I CAN'T DO THAT BY MYSELF!" "I'm on my way baby, I'll be there in five minutes." (Woops, maybe I shouldn't have yelled." By the time I got to the counter to pay, Krull was there to take Zoe and the Little's. No problem, he'd take them to his house and they would order pizza and swim in his pool.

On the way to the hospital there were lots of tears over having missed the water balloons and swimming with friends, then John called and wanted to know could he please stay so that he could go down the street to our pool and play with all his friends. I said no, that I was sorry, but if we ended up in surgery (which I'm whispering so as not to further alarm Melee') that he would have to spend the night at Krull's. There was much arguing (him) and apologizing (me) and it ended with him hanging up on me. We get to the ER and there is no line. We sign in and before we can fill out the two page form we've been to the

Admitting nurse:

When's the last time you ate? "12:00"
Vomiting? "No"
Diahrea? "No"
Fever? "No"
Where does it hurt? "Here"
Show me with one finger.
Does this hurt? "No"
Does this hurt? "No"
Does this hurt? "TSSSSTT" Bingo!
Have you gone to the bathroom today? "No, it doesn't hurt like that."
What does it hurt like? "Like 12 shots in my stomach at one time."

The Attending Resident:

When's the last time you ate? "12:00"
Vomiting? "No"
Diahrea? "No"
Fever? "No"
Where does it hurt? "Here"
Show me with one finger.
Does this hurt? "No"
Does this hurt? "No"
Does this hurt? "TSSSST!" Bingo!
Have you gone to the bathroom today? "No, it doesn't hurt like that."
What does it hurt like? "Like 12 shots in my stomach at one time."

And finally to the radiologist to do the sonogram, but she threw us a curve ball:

Vomiting? "No"
Diahrea? "No"
Fever? "No"
When's the last time you ate? "12:00"
Have you gone to the bathroom today? "No, it doesn't hurt like that."
What did you have for lunch? "A bean burrito and more beans."

Charlie and I just looked at each other and started laughing. That, my friends, was the most expensive bean burrito I have ever had to pay for. That's right, he had 911 gas.

Oh, they went through the whole nine yards, took the pictures. Made him drink Gatorade to see if he could hold it down. The actual surgeon came by and went through the questions, told us if it was appendicitis, that it was too early to tell and to watch him closely for the next twenty-four hours, blah, blah, blah...

But Charlie and I both knew it was all about the bean burrito. In the meantime, my brother Krull had text messaged Charlie and said, "Dude, your son just threw a steamer in my pool. You owe me BIG!" And that's just two reasons why poop jokes are a big hit around the table every year at our Thanksgiving Dinner!

It's been thirteen years now that I've been a mother, and I don't know how I could have forgotten. The number one rule is ALWAYS MAKE YOUR KID SIT ON THE POT BEFORE YOU TAKE THEM TO THE DOCTOR!

Monday, May 21, 2007

Four More Days Till SCHOOL'S OUT!

First of all, whoever wrote The Twelve Bugs of Christmas, needs a good, swift, kick in the ass. I wish I knew David A. Carter so that I could just walk right up to him in the middle of May and just put my boot right in his butt. I've been upstairs for the last ten minutes singing, "On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 12 yuletide bugs a-yodeling, 11 Nimble Bugs a nibbling, 1o Festive bugs a flying...." I could have jumped right out the second story window. Because you see, when someone discovers a book that they like (and usually one that you don't) they want you to read it everyday over and over and over...

*ahem*

Sorry, just needed to vent. I'm sitting here with my hair color on my head so I have approximately 25 minutes to fill you in since Mother's Day. I'm going with Light Ash Brown today with the highlight kit. I usually go Dark Ash Blond, but the other day John said, "Why is the hair on the top of your head black and silver?" and I said, "Because that's my real hair color." and he said "Oh! (pregnant pause) Well, it's just that it looked really shiny next to the orange color."
Man, do I have a lot of work to do before that kid starts dating. *sigh*
SO, I decided to shoot for a color a little closer to my original one and hopefully not something out of a four pack of Crayola Crayons.

It feels like I haven't written in F-O-R-E-V-E-R! Time flies when you're flunking the seventh grade. No, he's not really flunking, it just always feels like it. Actually he got a perfect score on his reading TAKS test and I was able to get him back into Honors English and Social Studies for next year. He's very excited and I'm happy for him. It's only taken me four short years to swallow the fact that this just isn't going to get any easier. The counselor told me the other day not to worry because if he doesn't grow out of it, they have colleges that specialize in helping kids with this attention deficit. "COLLEGE! YOU MEAN HE MIGHT NOT GET ANY BETTER ALL THROUGH HIGH SCHOOL AND THEN I HAVE TO LOOK FOR SPECIAL COLLEGES!" And that little piece of advice only cost me a hundred dollars. Can you imagine what the tuition for one of these special colleges runs?

I hit a big milestone last week. I've lost 29 lbs. and am finally back under 200 lbs. And yes, it turns out I took a little artistic liberty with the cartoon version of myself here on the blog. Of course, that's what I thought I looked like, till I met that fat chic in the mirror up at the gym. Luckily I'm starting to feel like my old self and the next goal is 175. Continuing to get up at 4:15 every morning and sticking to my diet should be a piece of cake in the summer time, right?

Right?!

Well, I've gotta go "Wash that grey right outta my hair...."

Saturday, May 12, 2007

A Mother's Day Tribute to Me

As Karen and I walked into Mrs. Bell's section of the fourth grade mod, I realized we were expected to fold ourselves into two tiny rows at the back of the class to await the start of the "Mother's Day Program". After a few minutes of rearranging and squeezing ourselves in, as more mothers arrived, the substitute teacher apologized for Mrs. Bell's absence and said that the kids were ready with their program and would take it from there.

Sam started the program and it only took me a few seconds for it to register with horror, that the each of the kids would be reading aloud a letter that they had penned for us in honor of the day. As a group we shuffled around frantically for the kleenex box at the back of the class and I crossed my fingers as I sat on my hands and prayed "Please Lord, don't let my letter have TMI. Amen."

The following is my Happy Mother's Day Letter from Melee':

Dear Mom,

You have been kind to me for almost 11 years.

You always think of what I want. Like signing me up for baseball when I wanted to. You buy me things like video games. You always like me to be happy. You support my life.

Mom you have also been extremly cool through my life. You can take the heat of 5 children at one time. Another awesome trait you have about being cool is that your very modern style. My friends always like what I wear.

Helpfulness, is something you're great at. You help me on all my projects, especially the food project in 3rd grade. You also help me with problems, like when I had an inner ear infection.

I know for a fact that you're smart. You're the fastest thinker I know of. Plus you're 96% of the time right. You have a solution to every question or problem. Those things describe you.

Sincerely,
Jeremy

After the nervous laughter died down, I recieved my crepe paper flower and sighed with relief as another mother took her turn on the hotseat. It wasn't until later that I got to review my letter and take it all in. Not a bad letter all things considered, my kleenex moment was "You support my life.". You should have seen the mothers in the room, who know that I have four kids, do a 180 in their chairs at the mention of "you can take the heat of five children.". They don't know that I watch my niece in the afternoons. They must of thought I had one tucked away in the attic. And I love the fact that "my modern style" is all about him and has nothing to do with me. The kicker was "Sincerely".

Where's the love man!

I can see there's much work to do before next year's Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day to you All!

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

More Bad News

We took Charlie back to the doctor to have a new x-ray and see if he could quit wearing his couch cushion, I mean sling.

I came along because I wanted to make sure that he asked what would happen if he were to land on that shoulder again. After all, I do share DNA with my Worse Case Scenario Mom. I thought he'd say that it would shatter his entire shoulder. That it would be unrepairable. But is that what he said?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....

What he said was...

"Oh! You can't break it. It won't break."


That's right, they told my Thinks He's Twenty, Evil Kenievel, Need for Speed husband that he's now indestructible on the right hand side. I look for him to go out and break the left side soon and he'll be halfway to being the Six Million Dollar Man.