View From The Hills

A dear friend sent this quote to me, it’s so perfect. 

“Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return”  -Mary Jean Iron

Amen.

*If you don’t have children, you might not find this story about my child interesting.  Just saying. 

Blake peed on the potty last night.  I screamed, he screamed.  It was a beautiful moment.  While Mom is here, I have decided that I’m not going to full-on potty train just yet, but I’m still trying to get him used to the idea.  I mean, he’s in size 7 diapers for crying out loud. 

So tonight I decided to set him on it again before his bath.  Expectations were high after last night.  Nothing happened.  No biggie, I tell him.  He takes a bath.  I’m pretty sure he peed in it.  I’m trying to be cool about that.  After, he gets out and pees on the rug.  Nononono.  I sit him on the potty to calmly show him that this is where we go.  Nothing again.  We sing the 5 Little Monkeys song twice.  Still nothing.  But he did stick his entire arm in the toilet.  Awesome.  Bath again.  OK B, scoot off to your room.  So my darling child trots off to his room and pees all over his books.  Are you kidding me?!  After I have cleaned that up and had a short memorial service for one in particular, I get distracted on the phone with my sister.  My baby-in-the-buff continues to happily play-and, I kid you not, he pees AGAIN. 

What the fruitnut?!  I know my child is playing dumb.  He knows where to pee.  I also know that he does not want to.  I get that he’s not ready.  I guess the lesson learned is mandatory diaper at all times.

Ladies and Gentlemen, a cellphone photo dump.  I take pictures on my phone all the time and don’t always do anything with them.  So without further ado…

I saw many things in Baltimore in my back and forth hospital days.  This 24 hour day-care (that will do your child’s hair, take them to the dr, and deliver your WIC) made me chuckle, but I think now it mostly makes me sad. 

Keeping with the theme, I present the billboard which could also be called “Cross Your Legs, Not Your Fingers”.

I have a fear of running out of coffee creamer.  And coffee.  For awhile I was experimenting with what I was going to use as my creamer, and Stu got alittle bent out of shape with how many options were sitting in the fridge.  He made me take this.

And from the book of Blake:

Above is Blake in his new 4T footie jammies.  I don’t think there’s anything better than footie jammies.  Also above is Blake modeling Mr. Potato Head’s glasses.  To the left you’ll see the extent of help I have around here.    Also shown is B with the train set that belonged to his daddy as a boy.  Stu’s parents brought this on their last visit and it has been the most amazing toy.  He has played with that train set, uninterrupted, for hours at a time.  It is so special because Stu’s parents remember saving up for that toy which was pretty expensive at the time.  It turned out to be quite the investment.

Next, speaking of cute boys, is the adorable Mr. Noah Llorens, sitting in my new minivan wishing his mother loved him enough to buy him one. 

The lovely Kelli Hillmar helping me turn my basement into a hospital room. 

That’s all for now.  I have a few more, but I’ll let you guys just be on pins and needles ’til then.

That’s what they call it when they move you out of ICU here, but don’t have you in a regular room yet.  So we are sitting in the family waiting area having one of the family parties that Mom swore we’d been having the whole time she was here.  What she doesn’t know is that until now we have been too exhausted and traumatized to “party”.  We’re feeling a tad more festive now that it feels like she’s making a good step in the right direction.  I have so many stories to tell you, but only a few minutes right now.  Mostly, I’m getting more and more perspective on how precious life is.  It’s been very hard to watch people dealing with their sick children here.  I want to go home and squeeze mine. 

My sister and dad leave tomorrow, and I have my Aunt Sandra ’til Monday.  I don’t really know what will happen after that.  I try not to feel heavy with responsibility, because help keeps arriving just when we need it.  That whole “one day at a time” idea is taking on new meaning.  For now, I’ll just be glad to be away from ICU.  I’ll think about the rest tomorrow.

My mother’s heart is getting an upgrade this week.  She will be undergoing open heart surgery to hopefully remedy the effects that her Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy has had on her heart.  Besides that her heart is under great stress, her quality of life is so poor.  We are excited to have found such a talented team of doctors here at Johns Hopkins who are ready and able to help.  She will be recovering here in Maryland with me, and hopes to one day get back to Texas.  She’s already a little homesick  I think.

She’s all set for Wednesday, 10am.  My sister and I are going to try to keep everyone updated via this blog.

Bookmark it, subscribe to it, or whatever it is you do to blogs.  I’ve had so many people call to ask for updates, that we think this may be best.  (I didn’t forget you Uncle Robert!  Well, I guess I didn’t call so you could argue I did.  Sorry. )

Again, here’s the actual web address: http://twosistersoneheart.wordpress.com/

I’ll probably still let some thoughts out here too.  Count on it.

ps. We do have a loving brother and our blog title is not meant to exclude him.  But he does seem to be allergic to this sort of thing.  Besides, Two Sisters, One Brother, and our Mom’s Heart was a much more tedious title.

http://wcbstv.com/consumer/cash.clunkers.success.2.1108544.html

When will our government decide that maybe it can’t bail us out of everything?! I really try to avoid political rants. I hate discussing it, even though I keep up. But Stu’s parents told us about the Cash for Clunkers business last night and I was humored. But I was ready to take them up on their offer. We don’t technically have a clunker, but many dealerships are offering great deals just to get people in anyways. How little foresight must our President have to not realize that his butt can’t cash the checks he’s writing?!

Obama,
I appreciate the offer (to pay for my house, car, medical insurance, ect. with my own tax money-and to then control it) and the fact that you really seem to want to help. But, Dude, I think you have some problems of your own to deal with. Put the shovel away. You might drown in that hole you’re digging.

This is the nicest way I can even imagine to say it.  This is the pillow that hangs on my front door while Blake naps each day.

It is my goal in life to be a kind, compassionate, loving person.  Nothing challenges me more in these areas that someone needlessly waking up my child.  Stuart calls it my Mama Bear Face.  He’s right.  Fierce emotions run through me in any scenario where I feel that someone might want to harm my child, make fun of him, or WAKE HIM UP.   So today, when a nice young man selling magazine subscriptions rings my doorbell, not once, but twice, while apparently ignoring my kind request, I wanted to simply knock his head off.  And while he’s going on (and on, and on) with his story about how he’s trying to move up in the company and provide more job opportunities to other at risk men and I can help him by buying 3 magazine subscriptions, I’m thinking several things.

1.  My baby is upstairs talking in his crib because he thinks someone just came to see him, so sure, LET ME HELP YOU.

2.  Gosh, I hardly get any useless mail these days.  It would be fun to pile my mailbox up with more.  (which brings to mind a recycling rant that I will save for another day)

3.  Dude, if you really want some help from me, here’s some great advice: This company is scamming you and using you for cheap grunt work in order to sell stuff.  You are probably going to find that this is not your road to success.  Let me name some reputable places in the neighborhood I know are hiring, and will not require you to barge in, uninvited and usually unwanted, on people’s homes day in and day out.

I seriously don’t know anyone who doesn’t know where to find a magazine if they need/want one.  This is NOT a good business venture.

I’m going to stop here.

I have a love/hate relationship with the cereal isle.  Upon my initial turn into isle, I feel a rush of exhilaration.   So many choices, so much sweet goodness, packed with nutrition (even if it is done quite unnaturally).  But soon the rush turns into complete confusion.  I buy different cereals for different reasons.

I have my luxury cereals that I eat when I want something sweet but am trying not to inhale a plate of brownies (Lucky Charms and Peanut Butter Captain Crunch being the favorites-but even in the luxury category I get very overwhelmed with choices).

Then there’s the “healthy” but still a little luxurious cereals.  These cereals contain as much sugar as my luxury cereals, but have no cartoon characters on the front, so I feel that they must be healthier (Honey Bunches of Oats, Basic 4, Banana Nut Crunch).  The “healthy” luxury cereals are tricky, because some of them have so many calories and fat that I might as well just eat the brownies.  But they have fiber, which is good, right?

Then there are the “fit to feed my child” cereals.  These are the low sugar cereals like Kix, Cheerios, Chex.

And the last cereal glitch is the price of cereal.  I refuse, refuse, refuse to buy cereal that is not on sale.  I’m pretty frugal in general, but for some reason full price cereal gets me more riled up than most items.  So even if I have found a cereal that might be acceptable, if it’s not on sale we have to go back to the drawing board again.

So I wander.  I must walk up and down the cereal isle 5-6 times.  The people working at the grocery store know to just work around me.  And here’s the funny part.  About 50%  of the time, I just leave.   Yesterday I found it so overwhelming I couldn’t take it anymore.  I left the grocery store disgusted with my poor decision-making skills.  Today, I found some at Trader Joe’s that I’m hoping will be a winner.  The cereal isle at Trader Joe’s is smaller.  That’s a good thing I think.

I have more to tell you about my grocery store visit, but it’s almost my bedtime.  You’ll have to cross your fingers that I’ll remember to follow up.

I am overwhelmed everyday, not just today, to see what an amazing father Stuart is.  From the outside, when you see him, I’m sure you agree that he’s a great dad.  But from where I am, I can see he’s extraordinary.

One of Stu’s God-given gifts is his love for children.  His heart goes out to every child he comes in contact with.  He wants to take care of them all, love them all.  What a man to raise children with!  He inspires me to be more compassionate and to love as Christ does.  His children, no matter what trials we go through with them, will never doubt their daddy’s love.

Stu, I love you!

Happy Father’s Day!

Every now and then I come across something too good to not pass on.  A guest blogger, so to speak. Without delay, I pass on Summer’s Farewell:

Tonight I packed up and said goodbye to a dear, dear friend. It’s never easy
to end a relationship, but this one was especially difficult.

Summer