What I've Learned This Week

1.) Having a chronically ill loved one really sucks.

2.) Teaching long division to an 8 year old who has no interest in learning long division will make you want to pull every last hair out of your head. But when said child FINALLY gets long division, you will feel like you just climbed Mount Everest. At least temporarly.

3.) When your garden has finally started to actually produce beautiful, big ears of corn, which your non-veggie loving husband and children will acutally eat, don't get too excited. When it is just about ready to be picked, the neighborhood hoodlums, rather deer, will come and trample your garden and eat... EVERY. LAST. EAR.

Precious Letter

Gabriella's Keyboarding instructor has had the students doing assignments lately relating to what you want to be when you grow up. The latest assignment required the students to write a letter requesting an interview for a position involving what they want to be when they grow up. I thought Gabriella's letter was precious and had to share it.



Dear Dr Wilson:

Hi, I am writing to you for the position you have. My friend is a doctor and told me about the open position. I have been searching for a position for a month now and would like to interview for resident pediatrician.

I think you should hire me because I would make an unbelievable doctor. I want to work for you because that is my dream. My strengths are working with children. I love working with children and helping people. My education has an A+. I went to school for 12 years.

I have went to school for 12 years. I did a few practice years at Florida Hospital in Orlando. I have been doing practice years with children.

May I please have an interview? I think I would be great for the position. Please contact me at 407-333-0463. Thank you for your time and patience.

Sincerely,


Dr. Gabriella M. D., MD


I pray, Gabriella, that the Lord guide your every step and grant you every desire of your heart. You are a precious gift and, yes, you are "unbelievable"...unbelievably wonderful ;)

Little Ballerina

Ava has been asking about going to dance classes for some time now. We finally found a studio nearby that seemed like a great fit for what we were looking for. We stopped by and watched a class and were invited to come back for a free trial class.



To say Ava was excited about this oppurtunity is probably an understatement ;)




Shall we say things went a bit sour from that first picture above? It turns out they switched class days and Ava was so bummed!

The good news is, we went back for the new class time and Ava LOVED the class. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera that day! I did go ahead and sign her up for the class so more smiling pictures are on their way ;)

Foggy Morning Conversation

Ava-"Ooohhhh, it's white out!" followed by squeals and giggles ;)

Ava and Gigi

Trying to Lighten Things Up

My sweet and precious little has been having struggles with rectal bleeding since potty training back in September. The pediatrician finally allowed us to get a referral to see a gastroenterologist this week. The gastroenterologist believes all is well but would like to do a colonoscopy on my sweet girl to be sure. It absolutely breaks my heart to see her go through this and I dread the day of the prep as well as the day of the procedure. She had two especially concerning bleeds this week and the pediatrician said if it happened a third time in 24-48 hours, she wanted to admit her to the hospital and just get all the testing done in a more timely manner. I was telling Gabriella and Chase about it and Chase asked me why she would need to go to the hospital.

"So we can get to the bottom of this situation, Chase" I told him.

Chase's response, "Literally!".

I love that boy ;)

Ava is at Work with Me Today

Pray for me ;)

I Thought it Was Why

I remember when Gabriella and Chase were the ripe old age of 3 and everyone telling me kids that age love to ask the question why. They did. It did not seem as exaggerated as many people seemed to say it would.

And now I have this beautiful, bright and precious little 2 year old running around. She has quite the vocabulary and is already showing signs of being quite the voracious little reader ;) She frequently requests that I tell her a story, which oftentimes means, just talk to me about everything. Lately I have noticed that these "talks and stories" are laden with the repeated questioning by her of "where".

"Mama, where Chase go?"

"He went to the rodeo with Papa and Daddy."

"Where?"

"The Rodeo?"

"Where?"

"In Kissimmee."

"Where?"

"At the Silver Spurs Arena"

"Where?"

"In Florida"

"Florida! There are lots of thunderstorms in the summertime. In Florida!"

Frustration

This has been a frustrating week for multiple reasons; including broken and ruined things:

Frustration #1: Paul broke my iphone. The screen is totally shattered and it turns out that At&t does not insure iphones since they are a product of Apple. ***big SIGH***

Frustration #2: Gabriella left the garage freezer open and I had to throw out a bunch of food. A friend on Facebook commented that she knows I treated Gabriella with much grace in regards to the incident. Is telling an 11 year old, sarcastically, that they had to pay for the ruined groceries with their own money considered handling the situtaion gracefully?

Ways to Save the Planet

How to save the planet #1: Shower Outside.

The BIG Conversation

Yesterday, Paul decided the day had come that Gabriella should be given "The Talk". You know, the one that people like me totally dread, aka the birds and the bees talk. He insisted that the day had come and he did not mind telling her, but thought it should come from me. He said he would want her to look back and remember me telling her rather than her dad having to tell her because her mom is a chicken ;)

I had bought this set a few months back, but it turns out the books are very not me. The first book in the series of 4 is targeted at the 3-5 age range and I did not even want to read that one with Gabriella, let alone any of the other 3 books. Paul and I prayed and then he called Gabriella to the room and then he left me. All alone. With those books.

I knew she already had a basic understanding about her own body growing up and puberty thanks to her one year in public school last year. But we have never really had any "sex" conversations. I asked her yesterday what she knew. She told me that she knew people had to have sex to have a baby. I asked her where she learned that information and it came from the son of a family I used to work for who is a year younger than G. That made me very unhappy, but we moved on. She told me what she thought that meant which was very vague and involved her telling me you had to get in bed naked. So, I gave her the basics and PRAYED she would not ask me any other questions. Especially nothing personal...

No such luck...

"So, you and Daddy had to have SEX to have Ava?" she asked with a very concerned and grossed out face.

"um, yeah..." I squeakily answered.

"Do you want any other babies" she questioned with even more concern.

I mumbled something about not being sure.

She looked around the room for a few moments and then turned to me and said, "If you do want another baby, I think you should adopt"

Yesterday and Today

To say that my family life was difficult growing up is probably quite an understatement. My parents fought like the proverbial cat and dog and did not seem to care when little ears were right there listening. Many issues during childhood made me feel terribly insecure and anxious...

My father has never been an easy person to please. Everything was questioned, nothing was ever good enough. The biggest problem with this is that it is still happening today. It extends from the simple things like when I make a meal that is beyond the usual, I hear, "Well, I have had worse" all the way to, "You should have done this long before now" when I had worked my a$$ off and graduated in 2007 just 4 months after having Ava. Several months back, I decided to apply for the nursing program at school because I just did not know what to do next. There were over 500 applicants to the program. The day I received my acceptance letter I felt so proud that I was one of the chosen students out of so many. Never did I hear a word of congratulations from my father. What I did hear was, "forget about that, why can't you go to medical school. You are not getting any younger".

The truth is, I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to be a nurse. I just have struggled with what I should be doing and I chose to apply to the program. It is no wonder that I struggle with such indecisiveness in nearly every predicament that comes my way, even seemingly simple ones. It is diffult to choose where to eat because it might not go well and I will be to blame. How can I make big decisions like what I should do with my life?

I don't want to be like my parents. My life is bound up by anxiety, confusion and chaos. I don't want this for my children. I want to be my kid's greatest cheerleader in life, their support, a boundless source of love. I am so tired of my self worth being measured by my success on unjust scales of other's judgements.

The Tale of a Dirty Dog

So, the cord that Gigi ate was not from my Rebel. I don't really know what the cord was from, but I digress...



Last week, I put Gigi out on the patio because she was driving my a bit crazy. I let her back in and she was covered in dirt. I don't know what the heck happened to her, but that will be the last time I leave her unattended outside.

GiGi

I really want to say that I hate my dog, but since that sounds really mean, I will say that I strongly dislike her. Ava has been up this morning since 2:30. The night before, I spent 6 hours in the ER with Chase. Needless to say, I am TIRED!!! My lovely Bischon decided this morning to chew anything she could get her grubby, razor sharp puppy teeth on. This includes the cable for my camera and my glasses. I would post pics for you, but I can't...she ate the camera cable! We should have stuck with having just one dog...Madison!

Words of the Week

Disappointed- Aren't I a little old to feel like my birthday was a disappointment?

Tired- I really need a good night's rest!

Thankful- My dad's procedure went well this week.

Excited- Taking the kids to Blue Springs on Friday and am hoping there will be lots of manatees to see. I know the kids will enjoy it!

Starbucks- I really, really, really want a mocha frap!

Oxymoronic- I ate a chocolate dipped ice cream cone from McDonald's while reading a Biggest Loser book from the library. I am hoping reading the book is at least a start ;)

New Cell Phone!

I got my iPhone this past week that Paul bought me for Christmas (he could not find one before Christmas...maybe because he waited until December 23rd, but I digress ;) I plan to use this little piece of technology to help me with my lofty goal of being more organized this year. It is pretty neat, even if I don't know too much about it yet.

The calendar feature allows you to add your events and then set reminders. Two reminders, in fact! Because people like me apparently need all the help that can be mustered up! I entered in my events and set the reminder for 1 day before said events. And 1 hour before, you know, in case I forget the day before reminder.

I will be more organized!
I will be more organized!
I will be more organized!

Publix Shopping Trip 1/20

I went to Publix today to take advantage of some good deals they have going on. As usually happens to me, the cashier questioned just about every coupon I presented to her. It seems that many of the cashiers at the stores that I frequent seem to think that my coupon savings will be directly debited from their paychecks :( I had two coupons for 1 free jar of Aunt Nellie's veggies which the cashier said I could not use since I did not buy any veggies. The cashier standing next to her waiting to take over gently asked, "what exactly do you think beets are?!".

Before coupons and specials, my total was $103.99. After all of my savings my total was $39.97!!!

FYI-Publix is supposed to accept their coupons even if they are expired, but not manufacturer's coupons. Not sure if most people are aware of that policy. That policy helped me score some great deals today!

Typos and Bad Grammar

I really can't stand typos, misspelled words and bad grammar. Each of these things stick out like a sore thumb to me. So, I am especially aggravated that TWICE, in just one day, I typed something incorrectly on Facebook. Of course, I don't know how to delete what I already submitted and now I feel like an uneducated dummy!

Horses

On New Year's Eve, Paul, the kids and I were planning to take a quick trip to the zoo and then run some errands. When we drove by, we saw that the horse were by the fence so we made a pit stop to pet and feed them, especially since Ava loves them so.


It was an absolutely gorgeous day. We would have stayed with the horses longer and forgotten about the zoo, but Gabriella and Chase started arguing and things went downhill quick so we headed out after G attempted body slam her brother. It was fun while it lasted!

Christmas Cookies

Call it a jovial mood or a moment of madness on my part, I let the three kids make and decorate cookies on Christmas Eve in the morning. Much fun was had by all...of course when it was time to clean up, the kids were too exhausted to possibly lift a finger to assist with that effort!

Resolutions

For accountability purposes...

1.) Be a better wife and mother (quality time)

2.) lose weight

3.) organization

Here's to a great year!