Meme Time!

The rules are to link the person who sent this and leave a comment on their blog so their readers can visit yours.
~Post the rules on your blog
~Share 7 strange/weird facts about yourself
~Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and link their blog
~Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

1. I can touch my nose with my tongue.

2. I love the show Ninja Warrior.

3. I secretly wish I was Alton Brown.

4. I have absolute zero grace or agility. I am clumsy and run into things a lot. This gave me many panic attacks while planning my wedding. I hate looking like a dork on accident, but love to do it on purpose, and make people laugh!

5. Sometimes I feel like God let me get older without becoming an adult. I will all of a sudden look around and wonder how on earth I got so much responsibility and get scared.

6. I am still an emergency junkie. It's been 5 years since I've worked EMS, but I still get this glint in my eye and get my juices flowing when I tell the old stories. That was the heyday, man! I did some really cool stuff, saw even cooler stuff, managed to help a few people out in the process, and got a life's worth of interesting stories. Every once in awhile I actually drool while watching Trauma: Life in the E.R.

7. I just realized how much of my life is invested in reality TV and got a little bit scared.

I tag Steph, from Thoughts and Things.

I tag Beth, from Journey as a Birthmother.

Angela, over at Confabulations by Me.

Chrissy at Getting it off my Mind.

Sarah at Adopting Again.

Jamie from Bringing Beauty from my Pain.

Mamasita at Colors of Grace.

__________________________________________________

I also have an award to give out. YAY me!!



The VERY FIRST person who comes to mind is Andrea! She is over at Free and Loved by a Mighty God. Andrea has a 7 year old daughter and is fostering a family of little boys, and I just love that girl's heart.

As always Tammy over at Praying for Parker gets a nod. Parker is just the cutest little dude, and his fragile health makes him all the more appealing wrapped up in his miraculous package. I just adore Tammy and Parker.

Last but not least is Kristy over at Thoughts and Ruminations. Even though she has country music lyrics posted their today, she's an amazing woman, mom, and has an amazing heart. Kristy ROCKS!!

There, I got my award and meme done. Whew, that's a lot of linkin' up to do!

A New Spring in My Step

I knew that having my typical daughter, first son with DS, then adding a teenager and a second son with DS would not be an easy lifestyle. I knew that when my husband took a job that had him living outside of our home for 10 months, that I would be spread even thinner. Then when Schmoozer started having medical issue after issue, and Bert's behavior would not get any better, and Rockstar just kept having trouble, I started going down hill. I got tired, very tired, then exhausted, then depressed.

I am familiar with situational vs. clinical depression, and I knew that I had a severe situational depression, but never got treated. After all, how do I find time to take care of me?

Finally, with Schmoozer mostly under control and just hearing aids left in a long line of ailments, with Bert settling in and just awaiting the results of the sleep study and whatever intervention that necessitates, and with Rockstar settling in and getting ready for college, I have a wee bit of time to indulge myself. I am finally getting treated for a neck issue that I've had for years, and feel so much better. I am seeing easier days coming, and man does it feel good. My burden is lightening little by little, and it finally feels manageable.

The corner turned when I found out that we will most likely have zero out of pocket expense for Schmoozer's hearing aids. (Picture me with a giddy mom face here).

....and did I mention that the Chief and I are getting away for a night. To a resort with an indoor waterpark. :-)

Strange but True

It is strange to me, it really is. It's strange how important sex is to men. After having my procedure done, I was ordered not to place ANYTHING into my vagina for 2 weeks.

The Chief nearly passed out when reading that portion of the instruction sheet.

At the end of 2 weeks, I can say this, my husband is a much more pleasant, much happier, helpfuller, and more kind, gentle, and tender man when he's getting it than when he isn't.

For me, 2 weeks without...eh, no big deal, for him, devastation. I think it's just how men are wired. By looking at the Chief, one can easily see that he is a highly testosterone charged man, but even I did not fully understand the extent to which this affected his sex drive, and how much this release affected him as a person.

After finally making it through the 2 weeks, he is singing, happy and pleasant this morning. I guess that will teach me.

Bert has a loose tooth. I am SOOOOOOOO not ready for him to loose teeth. I'm a bit disappointed that he won't understand the tooth fairy thing. In our house we prefer to avoid clouding Christmas and Easter with bunnies and men in red suits, we "play pretend" about these things, but never actually teach the kids to believe. So when it comes to the tooth fairy, mom has a hayday. Silly, I know, but I'm sad that he's loosing teeth before he's ready for the tooth fairy.

Now for me. I'm perturbed at myself. Seems one of my spinal nerves is pinched. Like, in my neck. I don't know exactly how or when it happened, I've had pain in my neck and shoulder for time immemorial, I always thought it was just my scoliosis. But with the tingling in my back and right hand, it was time to bring it up at my annual neurology appointment. I see her for migraines, and this was supposed to be a check up for that. She ordered a test called Electromyogram with Nerve Conduction Studies. That means she stuck needles into my muscles to see how much electrical charge they produce at rest and while flexed, and also shot electricity into the nerves to determine if they are conducting appropriately. No, it's not as bad as it sounds. From this she determined that I have nerve impingement at the level of my 8th cervical vertabra, which is most likely caused either by disk herniation or arthritis. An MRI will show if I need physical therapy or surgery, but I will certainly need one or the other as this is getting more and more uncomfortable daily.

Rockstar gave blood last night. The world almost ended. Last I checked it's still turning, but it's still in jeopardy. When the Rockstar doesn't feel well, the whole turn of the planet is in jeopardy, or so it seems. She has her pathetic face on and the voice to go with it. I highly doubt she will challenge herself to the noble calling of blood donation again soon.

Conversations with Beaner and other observations

***Picture added just for fun.***

Yesterday was the opener of the firearm deer season here in our grand state, which meant the Chief was MIA for 15 hours, and upon arriving home, spent 2 more hours doing paperwork. Rockstar has cheerleading now, which means she is gone from 7:30am-7:30pm on Thursdays, and that leaves me having dinner with Beaner, Bert and Schmoozer.

We had PHENOMENAL fresh mock chicken legs from Frank's Market in Downtown GR, and some pretty impressive conversation to go with them. Bert and Schmoozer are not verbal, but that's OK, since Beaner is ready, willing and able to make up for it. Here is a sample:

Beaner: Mom, have you ever heard of Elvis?

Me: Yup.

Beaner: Why was he so popular, his voice is kinda weird, ya know, really low, like.

Me: Well, he was one of the first Rock n Roll stars, he pioneered a new kind of music.

Beaner: But his hair, it went kinda like whoop over his head, it looked funny.

Me: But the girls at the time thought hair like that was so cool. Papa Jack did his hair like that, ya know.

Beaner: He DID?! (bubbling over with laughter)

Me: Yup, and he looked pretty handsome that way, Grammy sure did think he was handsome!

Beaner: EEEEEWWWWW. So girls liked Elvis a lot, huh?

Me: Yup.

Beaner: Did he really dance like this? (holds right hand out in front of her while right foot is in front of the left, shakes her hand and hips)

Me: Yup, they thought that was really scandalous then.

Beaner: Why was is scandalous?

Me: They thought it was too sexy.

Beaner: Eeeeeeeewwwww. Elvis grew up in a little log house, with dirt floors, did you know that?

Me: Hmmmmmmm....really?

Beaner: What was Elvis' middle name?

Me: Hmmmmmmm....I know I know it, but I can't think of it! (I just looked it up, it's Aaron, which is what I couldn't come up with, but knew.)

Beaner: Was Elvis a Christian?

Me: I know he sang a lot of songs about Jesus, but I don't know what was in his heart.

Beaner: If he sang about Jesus, I bet he's a Christian, I'm gonna meet him when we go to heaven.

Me: Cool.

Beaner: Why were the 70's sooooo cool?

Me: I didn't know the 70's were cool, I thought the 70's were groovy.

Beaner: What's groovy?

Me: It's the word people used for cool in the 70's.

Beaner: They wore pants that went out to HERE (holding her hand about 8 inches from her ankle).

Me: Yup.

Beaner: I think they looked funny, why was that so cool, er GROOVY?

Me: It was just what people thought was cool at the time. We change our minds about what is cool a lot, like every year or two, so when we look at what was cool about 30 years ago, it looks really funny now.

Beaner: Did you have pants like that?

Me: No, my mom has a kind heart.

Beaner: What songs did Elvis sing?

Me: Oh, like "Heartbreak Hotel", or "Love Me Tender".

Beaner: Sing 'em for me.

Me: No, I'm not that mean.

Beaner: How old were you when Elvis died?

Me: I'm not sure, I was really little.

Beaner: What were you like when you were little?

Me: A lot like you.

Bert slept through the night last night. Yep, he's 5-1/2, but it's still a thrill when he sleeps through the night! He's had the cold that won't quit, and for 4 weeks has been struggling to sleep. It's typical for him to get up at least once a night, average of 2 times, but with this cold, it's been several times a night, every night. Now this is what sucks; I woke up several times and had to go check him because I was certain he could not still be alive and sleep through the night. He was, and he did. Today is swimming day at his school. YAY Bert!

Schmoozer woke up with a fever. With his tummy, of course he had to barf a couple times because anything not quite right makes him barf. Not the CVS barfing though, just normal kid-sick.

I've been on birth control again. We don't use it for pregnancy prevention, more as horemone therapy for my freaky ovaries. I have PCOS, so BC is therapeutic for me. I was off BC for awhile, and we all suffered for it. (I'm not so nice without horemonal intervention). But the best thing, the very best thing about BC is the boob effect. I am VERY small breasted. I maxed out at a small B in my late teens, and blossomed to a full C during pregnancy and nursing, but the after affect of all of that hard work has left my boobs rather flat and saggy, and barely an A cup. Thankfully, a little bit of horemone therapy has plumped them up a bit, and I am the proud owner of one nearly B, and one decent A cup breast that no longer reach below my xyphoid process. YAY ME!

Sensory Diet Part 2

My OH My!

On Bert's Sensory Diet there is VIBRATION. So, I go to order a vibrating massager online. Let me just tell ya, when you Google something like "massaging vibrator", hold onto your hat, your parental controls are about to go haywire, and you will get an eye full if you turn off the controls. Tee hee hee.