Meme from my sis

1. My uncle once:
drank beer out of a baby bottle at a surprise family baby shower for me. And it was so hysterical. Actually, 3 out of 4 uncles did this, and one underage cousin. At one point, someone dropped a beer-filled bottle, (bad idea to contain carbonated beverages!) and the nipple swelled up to 8 times normal size with pinpoint prickle streams of beer spewing out. Laughed so hard my belly hurt, and being 33 weeks along at the time, that was a serious belly.

2. Never in my life:
could you talk me into bungee jumping. Hot air balloon riding, someday, maybe even para-sailing, but not bungee jumping. I would get to the bottom of the jump and puke.

3. When I was five:
I started kindergarten, and the most exciting thing was that I no longer had to take a nap with the other kids (babies). Oh...how I miss those days. We had a mock election, it was 1980, and Ronald Reagan LOST to George Washington.

4. High school was:
awful. I was no where near cool and kids are mean.

5. I will never forget:
the days following Christopher's birth.

6. Once I met:
Cowboy Bob! My sister and I were on his TV show, and got to meet him and his dog Tumbeweed, I think I was 6, (which would have made her 3) and she kept running off the set to chase camera cords and cameramen.

7. There's this girl I know:
who just had a baby boy, and I am praying very hard for them.

8. Once, at a bar:
I saw a boy I went to high school with (and had a huge crush on) DJ-ing in the corner, and I was tempted to go talk to him (more than I'd done in high school) but he was smoking up a storm, and it made me nauseous.

9. By noon:
I'm ready for a nap. Wait, make that 11, no 10 a.m.

10. Last night:
My child got Pink Eye. I had to call all my friends who we had just seen and confess that we exposed them. I hate making phone calls like that, and this is the second time in 3 weeks we've had to call people because may have exposed them to some highly contagious awful disease.

11. If only I had:
millions of dollars...the people I'd help, my friends and family, the poor, others like Chris. Yeah, and I would take Chris to DisneyWorld!

12. Next time I go to church:
will probably be February because my son keeps getting anthrax and cooties. Haven't been since Christmas Eve.

13. What worries me most:
is the health of this baby.

14. When I turn my head left I see:
a sea of computers, three towers on a first level, and another one on top, with the sides open and wires and crap all hanging out. Can you tell whose zone this is?

15. When I turn my head right I see:
Chistopher's unfinished Baby Book lying open, and every CD we own piled in half a dozen giant stacks, because we're totally excellent at starting productive projects and not finishing them. The CDs were piled up like a year ago, and brought down in hopes of a. getting them out of Chris's reach, and b. loading them onto the computer so we could have MP3s of everything we own. At least in the last two weeks I've been making progress on the baby book. That only took me 3 years.

16. You know I'm lying when:
I can't look you in the eye. I'm a terrible lyer.

17. What I miss most about the Eighties is:
roller skating. It's about the only physical activity wherein I had skills. We used to put my "blaster" out on the sidewalk, and roller skate in the street or parking lot to classics artists like the Bangles or Tiffany.

18. If I were a character in Shakespeare I'd be:
yelling "Out out damn spot!" Chris has pink eye, and I've washed my hands so many times in the last 12 hours that my skin is already cracking.

19. By this time next year:
we will be a family of 4. That makes me smile.

20. If I ever go back to school, I'll:
pursue a degree in gemology or jewelry repair. I want to open my own bench in the basement, where my friends (or clients) can come, have a cup of something festive, while I do their repair RIGHT there. No having to worry about letting your wedding ring out of your sight, plus I get to yap, which is what I do best, and stay home with the kids, but have my own flexible schedule to work while they're at school.

Friday Fill Ins

1. It's January; I love the snow. I even don't mind the ice, it's so pretty on the trees, as long as I (or anyone I love) has to drive on it. I hate winter driving. Speaking of which, Ice tonight and snow tomorrow-woohoo.

2. M&M cookies is what I crave most right now. When we visited the model home, they had chocolate cookies with pink m&ms that hit the SPOT!

3. Cork and wine go together like salt and pepper. I kind of miss being able to drink.

4. A good glass of milk is so nourishing. We ran out last night, God Bless Kathleen who brought some to MOPS, not even knowing how depressing a breakfast with water can be; I was craving it fierce. Don't think I can make it through breakfast without it again. Am sending Eric out as soon as Chris is down to go get me more. Milk, amazingly, quenches the hunger, calms the quease, full of all kinds of good things, and come to think of it....goes so darn well with M&M cookies...hmmmm.

5. Let us dare to Believe. In HOPE all things are possible.

6. Buy my home. Eric and I are getting the itch to move to a bigger place, but it will take work to get the house ready. On the other hand, WE built this house, and we've loved it, and if not for the fact we're already at capacity with another on the way, we'd stay here. I hope whoever buys this house recognizes it for the treasure it is.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to (little late) a home cooked meal of Ham and Cheese casserole, tomorrow my plans include BU Game! and Game Night and Sunday, I want to take a nap--duh!

More Wordless Wednesday

A story in pictures:













And I cried all the way home.

Head Start for Wordless Wednesday

Hate Waiting?

Well, not only do we hate waiting in isolation, waiting to see if Chris really does have whooping cough, which we are fairly sure he doesn't.
But.....



Remember how I wrote about how we this family tradition of the Wise Men traveling the house until Epiphany. They don't reach the manger until Epiphany.

Apparently Baby Jesus has no patience either. Baby Jesus went to see the Wise Men! He couldn't wait to see the Wise Men, and he moved to them. We didn't see that one coming! But if anyone has the power....

Ch. 4 The Mommy Diaries

Odd that I should finish Chapter 4 on this week. The questions gave me a lot to ponder.

1. When was the last time you asked for help? I've been blessed with a group of friends and family that are in touch enough to know when help is needed. When Chris had his Feeding Tube surgery last May, and I was asked if there was anything our MOPS friends could do, I said yes, please bring food. From our previous surgeries, we would come home, and the last thing we felt like doing was cooking. All we wanted to do was sleep, and then our bellies growling would wake us. It is such a load off to not worry about that. Chris, with all his issues, and even getting pregnant with him required support. Even this week, being in "isolation" because he MAY have Whooping Cough I received multiple offers for help. The Sweetest Offer was from one friend offered to run errands and drop supplies off with a "secret knock" so as not to get possibly exposed to our cooties.

2. How hard is it for you to ask for help? What do you think holds you back? Well, it used to be harder for me. Pride was an obstacle, but not so much now. But since Chris, I've found that in letting others help me, help us, they get a blessing too. For not only is it a gift to recieve, but also to give. And by asking for help, or letting someone who wishes to help us when we need it, we are Letting them Give to us, and that's a gift too. Some folks that have offered help to us were merely acquaintances, now they're family. And they get to see Chris's light. Christopher's name means Christ-bearer, and he does that. It's his Gift from God really, he has this light, and those that know him get to witness the miracle that he is. You know how they say, it takes a village to raise a child. He's a child that really has a village that helps.

3. Oftentimes failure to seek out aid from someone else stems from an issue of pride. What has got you thinking you are capable of handling it all on your own? Funny how that last part practically yells to me, DOLT! Don't you know God is in control and you are NEVER ALONE?! Yes, I used to have Pride. Now I don't have pride in things that I juggle, because I'm a terrible juggler. I have pride when someone says to me, Chris is a great boy, or in spite of everything, he's thriving. God Gives me all I have, and it's not so much pride but gratefulness and a recognition of those blessings from above that I carry now instead of pride.

4. Do you view offers of help as debts you must pay off as quickly as possible? No. More like, there's a running tally of those in my head that jumped to help us out, and now I know that They are people I can count on in a time of need. Like, creating a list of who to ask when there's a big favor, or people to let know that Chris needs prayer, the people I can count on as our prayer warriors and helpers. Also, there's the concept of Pay It Forward. By accepting help with Chris so early on, and recognizing what a blessing it was, I try to help out and offer help to others when it is possible.

5. What will it take for you to view the help you receive as acts of grace with no return favors expected? This one doesn't really apply to me in the way of viewing them, because I see these offers as grace-filled Gifts, and perhaps not with return favors expected, but maybe I just want to remember to pass it on. When that person is in need, to remember that they helped and I'll try to help too, or pass on the help. It actually happened this year to some folks at church (Sometimes people know us because we're in the choir, but sometimes we only know their faces, so the entire church adopted Chris)this a family who I hadn't met formally until they brought food when Chris was born. I got to know them through that gift. Then this year, their daughter got a benign brain tumor that had to be removed and was in the hospital for a while. Having been there, done that, we stopped by with a care package. In this case it wasn't so much a case of 'well, they brought me food, I should bring them something because I owe them' but more of a case of remember how I felt, remember what I needed, they are our friends now and how can I help them?

A Prayer Request

Dearest Prayer Warriors,

I ask you to please pray for Baby Andrew, the son of a friend of mine, who was born 2 days ago at 26 1/2 weeks. His Mommy was due a week after me. He arrived larger than anticipated, at 2 pounds, 3 ounces, and he sounds like a real Champ. Given the giant umbrella of problems associated with being such a preemie, he's doing well, they are optimistic, but it's a daily battle. He's a little fighter, and he and his family are going to really need our prayers. So please pray with me.