Summer Feet

I don’t know where this came from, but my sister posts it every year and every year I find it just as poignant:

Alright ladies, it’s that time of year once again!!! I think we need to be reminded of a few things. So my sisters, PLEASE, raise your big toes and repeat after me below…

The Open Toe Shoe Pledge
As a member of the Cute Girl Sisterhood, I pledge to follow the Rules when wearing sandals and other open-toe shoes:

I promise to always wear sandals that fit. My toes will not hang over and touch the ground, nor will my heels spill over the backs. And the sides and tops of my feet will not pudge out between the straps.

I will go polish-free or vow to keep the polish fresh, intact and chip-free.
I will not cheat and just touch up my big toe.

I will sand down any mounds of skin before they turn hard and yellow.

I will shave the hairs off my big toe.

I won’t wear pantyhose even if my misinformed girlfriend, coworker, mother, sister tells me the toe seam really will stay under my toes if I tuck it there.

If a strap breaks, I won’t duct-tape, pin, glue or tuck it back! into place hoping it will stay put. I will get my shoe fixed or toss it.

I will not live in corn denial; rather I will lean on my good friend Dr. Scholl’s if my feet need him.

I will resist the urge to buy jelly shoes at Payless for the low, low price of $4.99 even if my feet are small enough to fit into the kids’ sizes. This is out of concern for my safety, and the safety of others. No one can walk properly when standing in a pool of sweat and I would hate to take someone down with me as I fall and break my ankle.

I will take my toe ring off toward the end of the day if my toes swell and begin to look like Vienna sausages.

I will be brutally honest with my girlfriend/sister/coworker when she asks me if her feet are too ugly to wear sandals. Someone has to tell her that her toes are as long as my fingers and no sandal makes creepy feet look good.

I will promise if I wear flip flops that I will ensure that they actually flip and flop, making the correct noise while walking and I will swear NOT to slide or drag my feet while wearing them.

I will promise to go to my local nail salon at least once per season and have a real pedicure (they are about $20 or $25 and worth EVERY penny).

I will promise to throw away any white/off-white sandals that show signs of wear… nothing is tackier than dirty white sandals.

Bloggin’ kind of day

Sometimes I don’t blog because I just downright think I’m boring. 🙂

Which may be true, but apparently I have enough friends who are mildly interested in the day to day activities of this stay-at-home-mom that I should update you every now and then.

As many of you know per my facebook updates, B is still overwhelmingly snotty.  We have finally put him on children’s Zyrtec, much to our chagrin, simply because the benefits of clearing up his respiratory system far outweigh the risks of medication.  Not to mention the benefits of not needing Albuterol.  WOW, that stuff is awful.  He might be able to breathe better after one of those breathing treatments, but the toss-up is that it makes him Crazy.  With a capital C.  So, yeah, I’ll take some allergy meds over that any day.  We’re still not sure if it’s working, it’s only day one, but I’ll keep you posted.

In the midst of all this sickness, life has continued moving with all the good and bad that comes with it.  And I’ve had a few aha moments recently.  I find so much joy in my life as a mother, wife, and follower of Jesus Christ.  I hope I never take for granted the small blessings I come across every day.  Our church is doing a teaching emphasis on prayer and I’m working very hard in this area of my life.  Abiding in Christ is a continual process.  I am learning to be more grateful, and that He wants me to pray about everything!  Since I had Blake, it has given me such fresh perspective on the relationship God wants from us.  He loves us, wants to hear from us.  And just as parents know that answering every request from your children with a “yes” isn’t the best thing for them, it doesn’t mean we don’t want good things for our kids.  My child would be on cookie and WonderPets overload if I gave him everything he wanted.  Obviously, he doesn’t always know what’s best for him.  Sometimes, as he gets older, he’ll have to go through struggles that I can’t assist him with.  I won’t always be able to rescue him because sometimes he’ll need these struggles to become a better person.  But because I love him, I’ll always want good things for him.  I think this is how God looks at us.

On the way to the ER with Blake last week, I prayed, “Please let this be quick Lord”.  So simple, and rushed even.  There was not a soul in the waiting room.  We were rushed in and attended to as if we were the only patients in the entire hospital.  I did not forget my prayer, or to be grateful.

On our way to the airport (to leave DFW-with Captain Crazy Albuterol Pants in tow)  I prayed that this flight would be easy.  Flying with Blake and without Stu is hard enough.  But the fact that we are still too cheap to buy him his own ticket since he’s still under 2, and he had been so sick, made me very nervous.  Can I just tell you that my child was unrecognizable during this flight??  On Southwest I usually grab a seat for him (even though he’s a “lap infant”), and hope that it’s not a full flight.  The flight attendants usually don’t mind as long as I tell them what I’m doing.  He got to buckle up in his own seat for both flights!  What a relief.  He sat and quietly played for 4 hours!!  No movies or anything!  For 30 minutes straight, he played with a slinky!!  He “read” books, snacked, even laid down in my lap to nap for a bit.  I sat on a plane and read a book, which is something I haven’t done in 20 months!!  He turned right back into Captain Crazy Albuterol Pants as soon as we landed, but I was so grateful for that answered prayer!

One more, then I promise I’ll stop.  I dropped my phone yesterday.  Breaking phones is simply something I do.  But this one is new, and I was extremely frustrated that I might have done it again.  I held that phone and I prayed as if it was life or death.  Stu fidgeted with it that night and voila, it works!

Some may believe in coincidences, fate, and karma, but I find those all to be such fickle ideas.  I’m good knowing I’m not in charge.

This is part of my God is Faithful thread.  I know that sometimes, whether it is a consequence of my own actions or simply His will, hard times fall.  But I am grateful that my Heavenly Father wants good things for His children.  I am in awe that I can call on Him when I need Him.  It brings tears to my eyes because it comforts me so much.  Being a “believer” is not what makes me a child of God.  Being created is.  He considers all of us His children.  But just like I want a relationship with my child, so does He with us.  That’s you.

🙂

Adventures of Russell and Todd…and Blake

Sometimes the most interesting uncles are the ones who aren’t related.  You know, the friends of your dad that he’s so close to that we just call them “uncle”.  I grew up with one.  In fact, I was quite startled at about age 13 to discover that Uncle Sammy was not actually my dad’s brother.

Blake has several extra “uncles”.  Russell and Todd being the most infamous.  He’s gotten to see both of them over the last couple weeks and it has been super fun to watch.  Gosh I hope they don’t corrupt him.  I’m working so hard here.  Anyways, here are a couple snippets of their time together.

Note the cheese bribe.

A little reading time.

A little post-dinner conversing.

Cattywhompus

I received this email from my brother today. He is currently a misplaced Texan, living in Chicago with his family:

A couple of weeks ago I took the optimistic step of setting all the double-windows in our house back from their winter, closed-up configuration to the open, summer version. It’s a pretty involved process. Daina probably knows what I’m talking about. Ask her for the details. After I finished, Krista announced that they were “all cattywhompus” and as such, in need to further adjustment. Now, I like to think of myself both as a fine student and an advanced user of Southern language. For example, many items which I can’t lay my hand on right now are in fact “over yonder.” I might “reckon” I could go retrieve them, but if my britches aren’t on fire I ain’t gonna get on it right this instant. Before I do so, you can be certain that some time will pass while I’m “fixin to.” However, “cattywhompus” has somehow completely eluded me up to now. Like all other southernisms, it means exactly what it sounds like. After a close look at the not-quite sealed off gaps in the screens and the back-panes slightly off their runners, I had to admit it. They were plainly cattywhompus. No other adjective would do. So, after fixin to do it for a couple of weeks, I finally got up the gumption to get after it this weekend. A little WD40 eased the way (no need for duct tape this time) and now there’s not a single cattywhompine window on this godforsaken Yankee snow-bunker. My beautiful wife can sleep with ease. I’m grateful to her for the new word. I’ve always known there was a belle under all that city-sophistication and now I have some powerful evidence. And I have to admit, the windows look a lot better too.

Boo for sick babies

You know, I recently put up a facebook status about how my baby was sick again. A friend with older children commented that her first son was a sickly child too and that it will get better as he gets older. I remember thinking, “my kid is not sickly! Why did she say that?”  Umm. I guess being sick with something new every couple of weeks consitutes sickly.  He really is such a good sick baby though.  It usually just means he’s a little more snuggly than usual.  A few weeks ago his doctor said he was wheezing and showing “early signs” of pnumonia.  I thought that was so bizarre because I was guessing a cold.  We went through a course of antibiotics and he seemed better.  Friday night though, he coughed all night.  I’m not even exaggerating.  I don’t know how he slept.  When we woke him up at 5 am the next morning to get to the airport (that’s right), he was running a fever.  UGH.  I decided to get to Texas where at least I would have some help this week if he was sick.  Stu will be in Sweden all week, otherwise I might have kept him home.  He was a great flier this time.  Unfortunately, I think that was due to lethargy.  He slept or laid down the whole time.  Thank goodness he had his own seat, he was able to put his head in my lap and spread out.  I do love Southwest. 

 When we got to my sister’s house the wheezing started.  I knew we had to give in and have him looked at, so we headed to the ER.  Daina’s husband sent us to a new children’s hospital and Plano, and WOW.  First of all, there was not a soul in the waiting room.  They brought him right in and moved so fast!  Secondly, it was awesome and new and clean and shiny.  And they were blowing bubbles.  And they had a slushy machine (Daina and I picked blue flavor).  They did an x-ray and found that he doesn’t have pnumonia, but his airways are “irritated” due to a respiratory virus.  The doc said this would probably lead to bronchitis and possibly pnumonia if untreated, but he was able to get breathing treatments to help him clear out his lungs.  The treatments help so much.  Aunt D stepped right in and took care of Blake the whole time.  He loved it.  It’s amazing how quickly he takes to Daina no matter how long it’s been since he’s seen her.  Here’s Aunt D and B getting breathing treatments:

 

Daina regretted taking him for his x-ray though.  Besides that he just been swished away from watching Bear in the Big Blue House (our regular hospital lifesaver), he had to be physically restrained for the test.  By the time they returned, they were both crying.  So sad. 

Things are better today.  I miss my husband already though.  Sweden actually feels farther away.

Blog to blog

I couldn’t help it, I’m blogging to tell you to read my cousin’s blog.  Can any of you answer the question he asks at the end?  Maybe swine flu is not the only “pandemic” we should be worrying about.

Our Prayer…

Today was Blake’s “baby” dedication.  I put in in quotes because he looks way too old for me to be calling it that.  Simply put, today we publicly committed to raise our son on the Christian Faith and our church committed to assist us with that phenomenal task.  At times like this, we do find it a little sad to be so far away from our families.  However, not having them here today makes them no less essential in my mind.  But as we stood in front of our church I realized how immensely blessed we are to be a part of such a spiritual family.  I was overwhelmed.  And fulfilled.  I know that while God has called us to be away from our families, He has still met our needs.  What a comfort!  Thanks to those of you who took part today and especially to the Hillmar’s who took some pictures for us, and who I know will also be essential in the life of our boy.  Pastor Steve prayed that Blake will grow up to be a “mighty man of God” and I will continue that prayer as long as I have breath.