Sydney had a doctor's appointment today--another follow-up for the weird warts she has. They are starting to get better--they have spread some, but even the new ones are starting to look dried up, so that was all good. She also has a boil on her arm, for which the doctor prescribed an antibiotic cream. She has had it almost 3 weeks I would guess. It got really big, but it has shrunk and now has a scab on it, which is good. I also spoke with the doctor about Sydney's "sensory" issues. I have always noticed that Sydney has certain sensitivities-mainly with noise and touch (socks and jeans issue). The doctor said (and Marlene had already told me this) that Sydney probably has some hypersensitivity to noise and touch, and recommended I read a book called "Sensational Kids". She said her daughter has a lot of the same issues, and they ended up doing an Occupational Therapy evaluation, and she sees an OT for her sensory issues. She told me after I read the book to talk to her and let her know what specific 'symptoms' Sydney demonstrates, and then we can go from there. She said the sad thing is she didn't learn anything about this in medical school--it all came about from the research she has done after seeing her own daughter have melt-downs and issues with senses--mainly auditory. She said she has a few children in her practice that have this. She also said we are catching it at the perfect time--where we can help her before she starts school.
Thank you Marlene for helping me to understand this, and thank you Dr. Heidi for being such a great doctor. I am very blessed.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Sad Day
Mom called this afternoon to say that my brother-in-law's mother Phyllis passed away. We've known for weeks it was coming, but it still made me cry--made me sad. I am sad for Ryan who has such a big heart and is such a softie. This will hit him hard. I am sad for Sarah because she and Phyllis spent a lot of time together and had a special relationship. I am sad for Roger who now has no parents left on this earth. I am sad for the whole family and am keeping them in my thoughts and prayers, as trite as that sounds.
Take care Kern family--I love you--let me know what I can do to help.
Take care Kern family--I love you--let me know what I can do to help.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Happy Birthday Sydney!
Five years ago today, I was in my hospital room holding my brand-new baby girl. It was snowing a lot like it did today, and my sister came to stay with me--even though she was spending time with her friends scrapbooking. Kory had gone home with Morgan. I remember we dressed Sydney all up in one of her new outfits, and the really sweet nurse took her out of my room so I could get some rest, and she got a really cute picture of Sydney. On the way home from the hospital, I remember Morgan saying, "Good thing she wasn't a boy, or we would have had to leave him at the hospital!" Wow that doesn't seem like all that long ago, and then again it does. . .now she's my little 5 year old that can't wait to go to kindergarten!
Happy Birthday my dear little girl! I love you so much!!
Friday, February 13, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Cold is a Relative Thing. . .
I just got this e-mail from a lady I work with. I love it! Enjoy!
COLD IS A RELATIVE THING. . . . . . ..
65 above: Floridians turn on the heat.
People in Montana plant gardens.
60 above: Californians shiver uncontrollably.
People in Montana sunbathe.
50 above: Italian & English carswon't start.
People in Montana drive with the windows down.
40 above: Georgians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, woolhats.
People in Montana throw on a flannelshirt.
35 above : New York landlords finally turn upthe heat.
People in Montana have the last cookout before it getscold.
20 above: People in Miami all die.
Montanans close the windows.
Zero: Californians fly away to Mexico ..
People in Montana get out their winter coats.
10 below: Hollywood disintegrates.
The Girl Scouts in Montana are selling cookies door to door.
20 below: Washington DC runs out of hot air.
People in Montana let the dogs sleep indoors.
30 below: Santa Claus abandons the NorthPole.
Montanans get upset because their Snow-mobiles are hard to start.
40 below: ALL atomic motion stops.
People in Montana start saying...'Cold enough fer ya?'
50 below: Hell freezes over.
Montana public schools will open 2 hours late.
COLD IS A RELATIVE THING. . . . . . ..
65 above: Floridians turn on the heat.
People in Montana plant gardens.
60 above: Californians shiver uncontrollably.
People in Montana sunbathe.
50 above: Italian & English carswon't start.
People in Montana drive with the windows down.
40 above: Georgians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, woolhats.
People in Montana throw on a flannelshirt.
35 above : New York landlords finally turn upthe heat.
People in Montana have the last cookout before it getscold.
20 above: People in Miami all die.
Montanans close the windows.
Zero: Californians fly away to Mexico ..
People in Montana get out their winter coats.
10 below: Hollywood disintegrates.
The Girl Scouts in Montana are selling cookies door to door.
20 below: Washington DC runs out of hot air.
People in Montana let the dogs sleep indoors.
30 below: Santa Claus abandons the NorthPole.
Montanans get upset because their Snow-mobiles are hard to start.
40 below: ALL atomic motion stops.
People in Montana start saying...'Cold enough fer ya?'
50 below: Hell freezes over.
Montana public schools will open 2 hours late.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Accountability
Sorry it's been so long since I've posted! I have no valid excuses.
Something in an e-mail I received today sparked me to post. I've been hearing a lot about accountability lately. . . at dinner with my sisters and Mom, at lunch today, in the news. . . and I think about it a lot at times. I just wish people would realize that their actions do not just affect themselves, and other peoples' actions do not have to affect us quite as much as WE ALLOW THEM TO! So here's a part of the e-mail I received today. It's from Nan Russell from a series of articles she calls "In the Scheme of Things".
"In second-day clothes after a canceled flight, we used the provided kits to brush our teeth and create some semblance of presentability for this unexpected stay. Working from a darkened hallway after room check-out, we waited for the evening shuttle to take us back to the airport, hoping for a positive outcome during this winter blast.
When we arrived finally at our destination, we were anxious to collect our luggage and head home for warm showers. But we found ourselves waiting in a line - this time to report missing luggage.
What happened next startled me. I couldn't help overhearing the conversation between a father and his college age daughter behind me. She was joining her family for a week's snowboarding vacation and her overstuffed snowboard bag had arrived but her suitcase hadn't. Turns out, she'd left that morning from the east coast and her bag had something in it she wanted to wear that evening. So she was whining a bit about the inconvenience.
But it was her father who focused the conversation. Reminiscing with his daughter about tidbits from past travel mishaps, it was clear that this dad was used to escalating his outrage until he got what he wanted. Ranting about the inefficiencies of small-town airports and incompetent airline employees, his venomous words fueled their plan.
"Maybe you should do what you did in St. Thomas" she suggested, offering to start the process by demonstrating her dismay to the agent first. "I can cry if you want," she offered. "No," he said. "Let me handle it. I'm in the mood to let someone have it and at least get you a free ticket or at some vouchers."
It wasn't their frustration over displaced baggage that surprised me; it was their calculating approach to an unintentional mishap. They viewed this incident as an opportunity to "get something." For the rest of us and the harried agent, their actions "gave something" - a bout of toxic emotions into our environment.
It's funny, that same afternoon in the darkened hotel hallway while catching up on email, I'd read a daily mediation about actions. "All things are important - they all count," it reminded.
I believe that's true. Our actions and words have a ripple effect. On the positive side, you never know when a seed you plant or the behavior you demonstrate may be someone else's inspiration. On the less than positive side, how many generations of this family or others like them, will act like victims spewing negativity into a collective world over minor incidents.
In the scheme of things, our actions do count. And it's the positive everyday ones that give most of us a way to contribute to and mold the kind of world we want to live in. This incident served as a reminder to me - the world needs a lot more of our help on the positive side."
It certainly gives me something to think about. . . one of my friends posted something on facebook saying, "Today I'm going to be 80/20 instead of 20/80" Somebody asked her what it meant, and she said, "I'm going to try to be 80% positive instead of 80% negative." I love it. I think we should all give it a try and see how it not only affects ourselves but the people around us as well!
Something in an e-mail I received today sparked me to post. I've been hearing a lot about accountability lately. . . at dinner with my sisters and Mom, at lunch today, in the news. . . and I think about it a lot at times. I just wish people would realize that their actions do not just affect themselves, and other peoples' actions do not have to affect us quite as much as WE ALLOW THEM TO! So here's a part of the e-mail I received today. It's from Nan Russell from a series of articles she calls "In the Scheme of Things".
"In second-day clothes after a canceled flight, we used the provided kits to brush our teeth and create some semblance of presentability for this unexpected stay. Working from a darkened hallway after room check-out, we waited for the evening shuttle to take us back to the airport, hoping for a positive outcome during this winter blast.
When we arrived finally at our destination, we were anxious to collect our luggage and head home for warm showers. But we found ourselves waiting in a line - this time to report missing luggage.
What happened next startled me. I couldn't help overhearing the conversation between a father and his college age daughter behind me. She was joining her family for a week's snowboarding vacation and her overstuffed snowboard bag had arrived but her suitcase hadn't. Turns out, she'd left that morning from the east coast and her bag had something in it she wanted to wear that evening. So she was whining a bit about the inconvenience.
But it was her father who focused the conversation. Reminiscing with his daughter about tidbits from past travel mishaps, it was clear that this dad was used to escalating his outrage until he got what he wanted. Ranting about the inefficiencies of small-town airports and incompetent airline employees, his venomous words fueled their plan.
"Maybe you should do what you did in St. Thomas" she suggested, offering to start the process by demonstrating her dismay to the agent first. "I can cry if you want," she offered. "No," he said. "Let me handle it. I'm in the mood to let someone have it and at least get you a free ticket or at some vouchers."
It wasn't their frustration over displaced baggage that surprised me; it was their calculating approach to an unintentional mishap. They viewed this incident as an opportunity to "get something." For the rest of us and the harried agent, their actions "gave something" - a bout of toxic emotions into our environment.
It's funny, that same afternoon in the darkened hotel hallway while catching up on email, I'd read a daily mediation about actions. "All things are important - they all count," it reminded.
I believe that's true. Our actions and words have a ripple effect. On the positive side, you never know when a seed you plant or the behavior you demonstrate may be someone else's inspiration. On the less than positive side, how many generations of this family or others like them, will act like victims spewing negativity into a collective world over minor incidents.
In the scheme of things, our actions do count. And it's the positive everyday ones that give most of us a way to contribute to and mold the kind of world we want to live in. This incident served as a reminder to me - the world needs a lot more of our help on the positive side."
It certainly gives me something to think about. . . one of my friends posted something on facebook saying, "Today I'm going to be 80/20 instead of 20/80" Somebody asked her what it meant, and she said, "I'm going to try to be 80% positive instead of 80% negative." I love it. I think we should all give it a try and see how it not only affects ourselves but the people around us as well!
Saturday, January 24, 2009
I Pledge. . .
I saw this video the other day on msn.com, and I thought it was pretty cool. I don't usually talk about politics in public much, but after hearing that Rush Limbaugh told his listeners to do everything they could to make our new president fail, I thought that was extremely unamerican and unpatriotic of him. Does he want this country to fail or does he want this country to succeed? Anyway, I thought this video spoke volumes. . . whether or not you voted for President Obama, I feel it is every citizens duty to do what they can to help out--even if it is in a small way. Check it out. . .
I Pledge
I Pledge
Thursday, January 15, 2009
My New Addiction
It should be organizing, or playing with my new iPod, or scanning my negatives, or doing laundry (now THAT's funny!), but it's not. It's called Facebook. I love it. It is so fun! I go a little overboard at times--I now have 40 friends. Most of them are people I went to high school with, but some of them are people Kory went to high school with (they're the ones that found me on there), some are just old friends, and some a co-workers. It lets me know what they've been up to, and every week I have new friends that I don't talk to often enough. LOVE IT!! If you haven't joined yet, you should--then I can kidnap you! You'll never know until you join!
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Organization/Organizing/Organized. . . whatever
I was reading my sister's and cousin's cool blogs trying to think of something to write about. I could not get my thoughts organized. I had their blogs stuck in my head. My sister writes about something she holds very near and dear to her heart. It affects her whole life every day, and her words are profound. My cousin writes about her photography, which is an amazing talent, and the words she uses to describe the photographs are passionate and have so much heart. I sit here, logged into my blog, trying to organize my thoughts, and I am critical of myself as I don't have the talents they have. Their blogs have a purpose, a meaning. Mine is a bunch of gobbledy-gook that I type when I feel like it. "BUT," I say to myself, "It's MY gobbledy-gook, so OWN IT!" It's at this point that I happen to look up at the hanging light above my table--gross--I can see bugs in it. The kitchen table I am sitting at has glue and tape and school papers from Morgan's school project, along with catalogs and mail, and Morgan's new American Girl doll. Errr--it frustrates me, as just last weekend I had the table completely cleared and I cleaned and shined it all up. "A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place." That is DEFINITELY NOT the quote that describes this household. Now that my thoughts are organized because of my frustration, maybe I can actually write something interesting like the other blogs I read. . . or not. . .
I told myself today I was going to do some organizing. Whether I get very much done doesn't matter--just do something I tell myself. Instead, I got on the computer. Bad idea. Then I don't want to get off. You see, I'm overwhelmed by all the organizing I need to do. Believe me, I have had the best of intentions for YEARS (I'm ashamed to say how many years). Because I have so much to do, I set my goals too high. So, today, my goal is not high--anything I get done will help me feel good about it. In the past, I would buy all these cool plastic organization thingies--boxes, shelving units, etc, etc, and I would have all the cool 'stuff' to get it done, and I would start, and get overwhelmed, and then I would quit and be disappointed because I didn't reach my unobtainable goal of getting everything done in one day, weekend, month, etc. and to top it all off I have wasted money on "thingies". More disappointment. I love watching the shows on TV like Clean Sweep where a whole team comes in and makes you go through your stuff and either keep, toss or sell things. Then the team re-does 2 rooms and magically transforms them and organizes your stuff. I think to myself, "Hey I could do that!" (Who do I think I am, "Magic Organizer Woman" with no kids and nothing to do? More like "Delusional Woman".) You see, I am really good at setting myself up for failure. Granted, it's not life threatening, and I won't lose my job over it or my family, but it does take me down a few notches, and I get upset, frustrated, depressed, you name it. Dumb huh? Plus, there's this other issue, of which I get REALLY cranky about--I can go about organizing and do a great job and feel good about myself, but there are 3 other people in this household who don't feel the accomplishment about it like I do, and quite frankly they don't really care about my organizing. They have other priorities. So, when I get things organized, they very quickly (and maddeningly--to me) undo everything I've completed in a matter of days. I'm not saying it's intentional, but they just don't really think about it. When I went through and organized the toy room, I put labels on the cool clear plastic drawer sets that were in there so they knew that one drawer was for Polly Pockets, one drawer was for Barbie's and Bratz dolls and the other drawer was for their clothes. Well, you should see it now. Most everything has been thrown into bins, and forget about trying to find something down there. I guess at least it's picked up, right? But, I feel that all my hard work was just washed down the drain. Why organize? That's the attitude I have after leaving that room trying to find something. And then I'm cranky.
So, I've decided, in this moment, this day, the best I can do is try to keep MY own stuff organized and not sweat about the stuff over which I have no control. How's that for a New Year's Resolution? Maybe I'm setting myself up for failure yet again. . . .
P.S. Please note the sarcasm in this post--it's not all serious! Some of it is meant to be humorous. I came back and re-read and thought it sounded kinda, well really, negative, and that is not my intention. :-)
I told myself today I was going to do some organizing. Whether I get very much done doesn't matter--just do something I tell myself. Instead, I got on the computer. Bad idea. Then I don't want to get off. You see, I'm overwhelmed by all the organizing I need to do. Believe me, I have had the best of intentions for YEARS (I'm ashamed to say how many years). Because I have so much to do, I set my goals too high. So, today, my goal is not high--anything I get done will help me feel good about it. In the past, I would buy all these cool plastic organization thingies--boxes, shelving units, etc, etc, and I would have all the cool 'stuff' to get it done, and I would start, and get overwhelmed, and then I would quit and be disappointed because I didn't reach my unobtainable goal of getting everything done in one day, weekend, month, etc. and to top it all off I have wasted money on "thingies". More disappointment. I love watching the shows on TV like Clean Sweep where a whole team comes in and makes you go through your stuff and either keep, toss or sell things. Then the team re-does 2 rooms and magically transforms them and organizes your stuff. I think to myself, "Hey I could do that!" (Who do I think I am, "Magic Organizer Woman" with no kids and nothing to do? More like "Delusional Woman".) You see, I am really good at setting myself up for failure. Granted, it's not life threatening, and I won't lose my job over it or my family, but it does take me down a few notches, and I get upset, frustrated, depressed, you name it. Dumb huh? Plus, there's this other issue, of which I get REALLY cranky about--I can go about organizing and do a great job and feel good about myself, but there are 3 other people in this household who don't feel the accomplishment about it like I do, and quite frankly they don't really care about my organizing. They have other priorities. So, when I get things organized, they very quickly (and maddeningly--to me) undo everything I've completed in a matter of days. I'm not saying it's intentional, but they just don't really think about it. When I went through and organized the toy room, I put labels on the cool clear plastic drawer sets that were in there so they knew that one drawer was for Polly Pockets, one drawer was for Barbie's and Bratz dolls and the other drawer was for their clothes. Well, you should see it now. Most everything has been thrown into bins, and forget about trying to find something down there. I guess at least it's picked up, right? But, I feel that all my hard work was just washed down the drain. Why organize? That's the attitude I have after leaving that room trying to find something. And then I'm cranky.
So, I've decided, in this moment, this day, the best I can do is try to keep MY own stuff organized and not sweat about the stuff over which I have no control. How's that for a New Year's Resolution? Maybe I'm setting myself up for failure yet again. . . .
P.S. Please note the sarcasm in this post--it's not all serious! Some of it is meant to be humorous. I came back and re-read and thought it sounded kinda, well really, negative, and that is not my intention. :-)
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Something So Small. . .
. . . can really snap you out of your fog. This morning, as we were leaving for day care, Syd spotted my dad's bowling trophy. She said, "Mama, what's that trophy for?" I said, "My dad won it--it's a bowling trophy." "How did he win it?" she asked. I said, "He was in a bowling tournament and did really good and so he got a trophy." She then said, "Did he get a lot of strikes?" I wondered to myself how she would know that you have to get a lot of strikes to win at bowling, but then I remembered she likes the bowling game on our Wii. "Yes Sydney, he did get a lot of strikes," I said. "Was he a good bowler?" Yes Syd, he was. . . Ahhh-that little moment made my whole day. Just a simple little question from her turned into a little sweet moment.
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