Stormy Saturday

This morning, I woke up at 6:30, snuggled next to a certain blond haired little boy.  The thunder boomed loudly outside, shaking the house, and the rain began splattering against the pane. 

Son Number Two moved his head closer to my body.  He clung to his blue blanket and his monkey, Coco. 

I peered over at him and he said, "Coco is afraid, Mommy."

I told him, "Coco doesn't need to be afraid.  It's storming outside, not in here." 

His eyes shone with fear, and I wrapped my arms around him bringing him comfort.  He looked at me with his huge blue eyes, and smiled showing his rows of baby teeth.  If this moment could last forever, I thought.

Thwarted Thursday

I was laying in bed last night, slight insomnia, i.e., not too bad.  I thought about my blog.  I didn't write my Wayback Wednesday post last night, because I was too tired AND I didn't feel like scanning photos.  I wanted to write about my trip to Macchu Picchu.  I guess I'll save it for another day.

Then I remembered I did not do my goal post this week!  CRAZY!!!  I think this may be one of the first times I've missed posting about it.  I've been off my game with writing this week.  Instead I'm watching the black cloud, which brought chaos and doom into our life last week, slowly roll on by and move out of lives. 

I have lost THIRTY pounds now. Last week, the stress was harming my eating habits.  This week too, I have been reluctant to eat.  I have put food in my mouth and made myself chew.  I had one day this week, Tuesday, where I felt like I could eat everything in sight.  I guess stress will do that to you! 

My soft goal is to lose 20 more pounds.  My hard goal is 30.  I don't know how I'd look at 30 pounds lost.  Everyone tells me I look damn good now!  I can see the loss most in my face.  I'm feeling much more happy with the way I look.  I also have muscle now too, which is incredible! 

Random tidbit for the day, but Mattel agreed to make a Bald and Beautiful barbie.  If you don't remember, here's the link to that previous post. I will buy one when they come out.  I want Darling Daughter to know that some people are bald.  I am a member of the Facebook community regarding this request for a bald barbie: http://www.facebook.com/BeautifulandBaldBarbie.  The woman leading the fight has a daughter who has lost her hair to cancer.

Baldness can be a common denominator among women.  On Friday, I was sitting in the waiting room while Hubby was having surgery.  I recognized a woman who works on my floor at the office.  I've never said "hi," to her before, but I immediately knew her face. 

I sat down next to her and she said, "I guess we're a member of the same club...breast cancer?"

I shook my head, "No, actually I have alopecia." 

We began talking, and we talked to entire eight hours we were there.  I went by her office yesterday (right next to mine), and she gave me her catalogs on wigs.  She brought a wig for me to try on too.  Her hair has begun growing back, as her cancer is in remission.  I loved the fact that our mutual baldness brought us together.  She is older than me, and she is someone I might not have spoken to otherwise.  We had a lot in common, sitting in the hospital waiting for our Hubby's, and speaking about hair loss, family, and life.

Cross One Off My List

This year, I've been trying to figure out what I want to do with my life.  I guess, one never stops searching for their greater purpose.  My greater purpose is not copying a bunch of papers and preparing board books and sitting in meetings.  The job works for now, but I want more.  I want to be able to go to my job and feel fulfilled and happy when I come home. 

Well, I had a short list of jobs I thought I might possibly like to do.  At the top of this list was of course WRITING, but everyone knows you can't make money writing. Here's the rest of the list: teaching, veterinary medicine, working for a non-profit, lactation consultant, and nursing. 

I'm really too old to go back to school for medicine, so "doctor" didn't come up on my list.  There's no way I would want to spend the next four to eight years in school again, especially with three little ones. 

Well, this week I decided nursing is not for me either.  I don't know why I have such a hard time taking care of other people.  I guess I'm just too selfish.  Hubby has been a GREAT patient, except when he won't listen to me.  Oh, so maybe, not such a great patient.  He has been good about asking me to bring him food and water and other kitchen-related items while I'm in the kitchen.  He won't sit still though.  I attribute this to the fact that he is a natural mover and shaker, and he's trying to quit smoking.  Both making sitting still rather tedious. 

Maybe I'd make a better nurse if I was only nursing people and not responsible for the kids, my job, and cleaning the house.  My house is going to hell in a hand basket.  I need to clean.  The upstairs looks like a tornado went through.  Number One's room is so messy.  He won't ever clean it.  I have about 47 loads of laundry to do.  I need to vacuum.  I need to sweep and mop.  So far, the kitchen has been cleaned every night since Hubby's accident, but not much else. 

Anyway, I'm crossing nursing off the list.  It is not my forte.  Teaching--who knows?  I've been to Elementary School a lot lately, and I know teaching elementary school is not for me.  I've often thought being a high school English teacher would be fun, but I don't know if I could deal with attitude from the kids. 

Lactation Consulting pretty much requires a nursing degree.  You have to have 1000 clinical hours before you can practice, and our market already has a lot of lactation consultants.  When Darling Daughter was born, the LC who came to see me told me only 20% of people leaving the hospital in our town actually nurse.  This percentage astounded me, knowing the benefits of breastfeeding.

Who knows about veterinary medicine.  I still have nightmares about the crazy cat I dipped once...

And non-profits don't pay much...
Still searching.

Gardens of Paradise

This evening the kids were stir crazy.  They needed to get out of the house.  Hubby needed some peace and quiet.  He needed to rest and heal.  I took the kids over to my parents' house.  They love going over there, running and playing, releasing their pent up energy.

My Mom and Dad's house is surrounded by flowers.  Spring has sprung here in the South, and it was a perfect day to snap some photos of the kids and some great scenery.  Mom and Dad were cleaning up the big limbs and working in the garden.  They grow a lot of their food since they're vegan.

Darling Daughter stayed with me, letting me snap photos of her with the flowers.  The boys ran off and played in the dog cages.  Son Number Two rode around in his "Lightning McQueen" car.  He was playing camera shy today, so I really only caught this photo of him:

You can see how tired he was, after having refused to nap.  He's trying to give it up, but his little body is not quite ready.







While the boys played a little bit, Big Mommy, Darling Daughter and I walked around snapping photos.  I'm not good at remembering the names of all the flowers, but they were beautiful, and I just have to share them.

This is a pink dogwood bloom

These are native azaleas

This is my favorite, but I don't remember what it's called.

Afterwards, we all sat in the bench in front of the house, playing with the kids and making them laugh.  The boys were loving the sunshine, but they were so tired and ready for bed.  Darling Daughter hammed it up some more for me!

And Son Number One and Son Number Two decided to let me snap one of them together:

What a fun, beautiful day!  I'm so glad I took my Zyrtec before I went over there!