RIP old friend...

Sunday was a very sad day for me.  I lost a very dear friend of mine....

(Yes, I know my nails are painted adorably but please focus on what really matters...)

I dropped my Kindle...so many books I wanted to read while on vacation...I am heartbroken. (If you think I am kidding than you do not know me at all.)

My apologies to you my old friends...And message to my new friend "Ignorant Anonymous"

I am doing a quick (my version of quick at least) to let you know I am now monitoring my comments.  I try not to use the word hate very much, but I am going to use it right now.  I HATE IGNORANCE.  I had a comment (that I erased so I don't ever have to see it again) that was really ignorant, malicious, and in very poor taste.  It seems that their is someone who isn't even brave enough to stand up for what they "believe",  who left a very vulgar comment (anonymously).  I am sorry for those of you who may have read it-as you know from visiting this blog in the past: this isn't that kind of blog...AT ALL.  I do not say the words that were in it (think of the worst cuss words you can-they were in it). It talked about Mitt Romney in a very negative light. Although I am a Republican (a conservative one) and happen to be a member of the same church he is, I have not come out to support him-or any of the other candidates for that matter.  I wouldn't support a candidate just because they were Mormon.  You will know at some point who I support because I am pretty vocal (if asked or provoked) about where I stand politically.  Actually I can be pretty vocal about where I stand on just about anything.  I was shocked when I read the comment and for about 1/2 a second I was livid.  And then a peace came over me.  Heavenly Father must have known I REALLY needed to see the positive in this.  Guess what?  I found it.  If "ignorant anonymous" (my little nickname for the person who has WAY too much time on their hands) found my teeny, tiny, little blog and felt they needed to lash out at me because I am a Mormon, then I must being doing a pretty good job letting the blog world know what I believe and how I live.

And just in case you ever come back to my blog, here is a note to you ignorant anonymous:

Dear ignorant anonymous,

I want to thank you for you message.  All though it was in very poor taste and shows just how ignorant you are, it actually made me feel pretty good about myself.  You knew I was a Mormon.  A compliment that no vulgar or cruel words can take away.  I know that my Heavenly Father and His son (my brother and yours too by the way) Jesus Christ love me.  Your words don't change that.  It just makes me cling to what I know to be true even more. Your words just reinforced the path I am on in this life.  I have bad days were I doubt myself but I am loved and life is good!  I hate ignorance.  I don't hate you because you are a human being that our Heavenly Father created, and though ill informed-you are still a child of God.  Based on the message you left I can only assume some where along the way you have had contact with a member of our church who was not living what they professed to believe.  I am really sorry for that-where there is good there is always evil.  I hope that at some point in your life you will take the time to understand what we as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints really believe.  I am not sure where I would be with out it.  Maybe I would be where you are-in a place in my life that the only thing I can do is try to bring other people down and not even be courageous enough to stand behind the words I have written.  I could go on and on but I won't.  If you do happen to be reading this don't bother come back to my blog to put hateful words on it.  Comment moderation is a good thing. :)  Have a great day because I know I will!

Remember two things...

That is a little Dave Matthews reference for any other fans out there. Did anyone catch it?  I will be really impressed if you did.  Really it is just a catchy title to say I have 2 things I want to say and to remember.  Because sometimes I forget...

*We have old cars.  I am glad because when you have an amazing husband like I do, you don't have to pay tons of money to repair said cars.  New cars require being hooked up to a computer so it's microchips (or whatever) can tell the mechanic what it wrong with it.  Our cars are too old to be so fancy.  Aaron saved us $400 (which may as well been a million since we are poor college students) by being manly enough to fix the alternator on the Jeep.  He is pretty darn awesome...And cute too if I do say so myself.

*I went to the doctor today for my follow up on the whole not being able to breath thing. (Asthma does that to you sometimes.)  She said I sound much better (and I feel much better) and was pleased.  I admitted that I dusted, vacuumed, did laundry, took Jake to his book club, and then his b-ball evaluation for Upward...and that I felt it's effects last night with a long coughing attack.  My inhaler did work to stop it and I could breath again. To this she said: "I am glad your inhaler worked but you must take it easy."  Oh right I forgot...So, I learned for the 2nd time this week that I need to let my lungs recover.  I just couldn't stop myself.  I had to vacuum Jake's room because he has allergies (and he is a sad vacuumer-he gets that from his dad.)...and after that I just couldn't stop!  Why do we do this as women?  Any way-I am officially resting until my 10 days of steroids are done...I hope I don't go insane by then.  I am on day 4 of 10...One major bummer of the steroids...guess what one of the side effects is?  Not being able to sleep!!!  I didn't read the little sheet that tells you what the side effects are but I asked my doc today and she said "oh yeah, I meant to warn you about that."  I didn't go to sleep until 3 am last night...The other nights I only slept slightly better.  What a bummer that I am supposed to be relaxing and taking it easy and I can't even sleep!!!!  It is going to be a long 6 more days...

Want to feel like you have accomplished something when you really haven't?

Go to Pinterest...It is addictive.  I have gathered ideas on how to organize, decorate, homeschool, etc...When I really should have been doing all these things.  And yet I don't feel like I have wasted time because I am "planning" to do these things even better than I was doing them before.  It is like a little vacation for your brain while gathering things you love into one pretty, and somewhat organized place that you don't even have to dust.  Does it get any better than that?  Maybe being the person that came up with all these brilliant ideas...I will have to work on a board for that next...."My Brilliant Ideas!"-it may be blank for a while. :)

What do you do after a night at the ER? and A Simple Pleasure

Look pitiful so that your mom will let you eat Ritz crackers and watch cartoons all morning.

 But seriously my boy deserves a break...
Last night after Cub Scouts we went over to our next door neighbors to chat with her about the dog sitting we will be doing for her this weekend.  She is the owner of Bear, Sadie's best dog friend.  He is younger than Sadie and still has his razor sharp puppy teeth.  Do you see where I am going with this?  Jake was throwing sticks for Bear while we were talking and Bear jumped up to get the stick from him right as he was getting ready to throw it...Next thing I know, Jake screams and blood is dripping down off his wrist.  Fast forward 20 minutes and we are sitting in the ER waiting. We were pretty lucky  we were only there for a total of 2 1/2 hours which has got to be some kind of record.  Looking around the waiting room there were just a bunch of people that honestly looked liked they had no reason to be there (which made me happy.  I am not a fan of germs, blood, or puke that comes out of anyone other than my own family).  No wounds (besides Jake of course), broken bones, or even coughing.  Just people with their wristbands on, chatting with whoever brought them.  It was kind of strange actually.  Usually you see all sorts of creepy or gross things in the ER.  Luckily for us Jake's "flesh wound", as he was calling it, was it for blood.  Aaron said they were probably there to get out of the heat and into the air conditioning. :)

Jake entertained the hospital staff and us while we were there.  The man who checked him out and took our information before being seen was amused when Jake told him he didn't need stitches-just a band aid and we could call it good.  The man also asked if Jake had any recent illnesses or infections (no), and Jake asked if the wart on his thumb (that we have been to the doctor 6 times for to have them freeze off and we have gone through a box and a half of the at home freeze kits and large amounts of duct tape.  This wart seriously will not go away.  Next stop dermatologist..) counted.  The man laughed and told him it didn't. :)  When we actually got into the room another man (maybe a nurses assistant or something) came in to get more info. and tell us what we could expect.  He looked at Jake's wrist and said it needed stitches but because it was a dog bite (more like a tooth slash.  Bear didn't chomp down.  His tooth just made contact.), they may not close it up because of the risk of infection-they wanted it to be able to drain.  Jake was so happy that he might not need stitches and told the guy it really wasn't that bad.  To this the man said: "It looks pretty bad to me."  When the doctor came in to numb it, she was telling Jake it shouldn't hurt.  Jake looked at her and said; "Shouldn't?"  She laughed and said: "Oh you caught that part did ya?  You are pretty bright, because most people don't hear that part." (It did hurt by the way...) Before the stitches were put in she took out this big bottle (a one liter maybe) of saline solution to clean it out and told Jake she was going to clean out the wound and that it wouldn't hurt but it would be cold.  He looked at the bottle and said: "You are using that whole thing?". I guess you had to be there to see his facial expressions for most of these moments but we were all chuckling the whole time and I had to document them.  Especially when the doctor showed him the "fish hook" she used to do the stitches after she was done.  Jake took one look at it and said: "I don't know how I survived it!"  He is one funny kid.
I think his humor and quick wit is a defense mechanism because he had a few moments of tears.  Aaron was joking with him in the waiting room about rabies and how they use part of your intestines to treat you for it.    We obviously know that Bear does not have rabies (and that intestines aren't used to treat you for it...), but it was more than Jake could take and tears started to well up in his eyes.  Which Aaron didn't notice right away because he thought was being so funny.  Way to go Daddy. :)  Turns out in stressful situations Jake can only handle his own jokes, not other peoples.  

To look on the bright side:  I was glad to see a coupon that I could use for one of Jake's favorite treats, that was on sale BOGO free (I got it for $1.20 that is 20cents a bar.  It tastes even better when it is so cheap.).  Out of all the not fun stuff, it is definitely a simple pleasure to let Jake eat a yummy Klondike bar BEFORE lunch and cheer him up.

You can do things like that when you have stitches.  In fact it may actually be a mandatory step in the healing process.  Jake's sweet face when I told him I didn't just get his antibiotics (you have to take them with a dog bite), I also got him a treat is definitely my simple pleasure.  What is your simple pleasure today?  It may very well be that you weren't in the ER last night with your child getting stitches. :)

Simple Pleasures: Air Conditioning and fans...

We live in North Carolina. It is hot here. It has been in the mid to high 90's all week...It's only June 2nd. I ask this every year: If it is this hot now, how hot is it going to be in July and August, our 2 hottest months? We are already in the "it is too hot to go outside for any length of time" phase. It is stinkin' hot...My simple pleasure today is air conditioning and fans that help the cool get pushed around the room. Enough said.

What is your simple pleasure today? Check out Cocoa's and you can get some cool free printables she found. :)

Why I can never leave the house again...

....Because of the neighbors we have. No, not the people. They are all very nice....In case you didn't know this about me: I HATE SNAKES. Today while talking with our neighbors (who had been doing some yard work and found 2 snakes that they chopped up), Sadie started to chew on something and ran back to our front step with it in her mouth. I went over and pulled it out...It was part of a snake. I had in my hand...part of a snake...To put it mildly....I FREAKED OUT. Then when I picked Jake up from school she found it on the step (I left it there in my nervous breakdown and thought Aaron was going to pick it up for me...) and got it again. I freaked out again and went in the house and let the men take care of it. So, now I think everything that moves is a snake. Aaron was doing some yard work and cleared this much space:


In that amount of space he killed 3 snakes....3...in that small amount of space. One was even a Cooperhead. Wonderful. Snakes apparently love all the beautiful green ivey...(You can see the pile of stuff he cleared sitting on the drive way in front of the space he cleared. He was hoping I would help bring it to the curb...I am trying to work up the courage..) I called my mom and told her the great news and she told me to put the house up on the market. :)

I wonder how many this spot on the side of the house (that we forgot about raking) has in it...
Could there be on hiding in this tiny pile of leaves the wind blew up by the front steps...A better question is why are there still leaves falling in Spring? Do they ever stop falling Mom and Dad?
I was just putting in a load of wash down in the cellar and wondering as I looked at the piles of sorted laundry if any had slithered their way in the house...I am going to have snake nightmares tonight I can tell already...
**Update! (and not a good one..) I went across the street to borrow a shovel (the one we have is in Spartanburg-my Dad has a flat one on the end, but Aaron needed the pointy one...and yes those are the technical names for them) from our neighbor and told her about the snakes. She said "Oh, the small Cooperheads? Yeah, I see them everywhere." She said this as if it was no big deal and she wasn't surprised at all. She sees them every spring when she cleans out around her bushes. She then went on to tell me there was a dead one on the sidewalk in front of her house...I didn't look for it...(She also told me about the huge snakes she used to see on their farm...Why did she have to tell me about the 8 foot long black snake?)..Fast forward until 7:30 pm when Jake and I were letting Sadie out to do her business in the front yard (she is afraid of the shadows in the the back yard at night). The same neighbors dog, Sam, was out and he came over to play with Sadie. We walked him back home after a few minutes and I carried Sadie back to our yard....Guess what I almost stepped on (within about a inch)? THE DEAD SNAKE!!!! Seriously! I am going to say an extra special prayer to not have nightmares tonight!!!!**