guessing game...

This only works if you don't already know, so some of you can't play...


I've been busy (since I got my big bottom out of bed) planning something special for our family. Here's a photo to give a little hint.

Can you guess what it is?


More hints to come- if you need them!

Song for Sunday: No more sleepy dreaming...

Nothing fancy here- I just heard this song on the radio before I fell off the face of the earth. This was the second concert I ever attended- after NKOTB. HA! My cousin sent me a video clip of the opening act for TFF on this tour, Ocean Blue just the other day. Ah, the memories.

Being sick and falling behind in everything, I have been sort of forced to "break things down" and to re-evaluate some of the many commitments I've gotten myself into...

Break It Down Again
by Tears for Fears


Break it down again

So those are my dreams
And these are my eyes
Stand tall like a man
Head a strong like a horse

When it's all mixed up
Better break it down
In the world of secrets
In the world of sound

It's in the way you're always hiding from the light
See for yourself you have been sitting on a time bomb
No revolution maybe someone somewhere else
Could show you something new about you and your inner song
And all the love and all the love in the world
Won't stop the rain from falling
Waste seeping underground
I want to break it down

Break it down again

So these are my schemes
And these are my plans
Hot tips for the boys
Fresh news from the force

When it's all mixed up
Better break it down
In the world of silence
In the world of sound

" No sleep for dreaming" say the architects of life
Big bouncing babies, bread and butter can I have a slice
They make no mention of the beauty of decay
Blue, yellow, pink umbrella save it for a rainy day
And all the love and all the love in the world
Won't stop the rain from falling
Waste seeping underground
I want to break it down

Horsin' around
Pray to power
Play to the crowd with your big hit sound
And they won't simmer won't simmer, won't simmer down
Play to the crowd

It's in the way you're always hiding from the light
Fast off to heaven just like Moses on a motorbike
No revolution maybe someone somewhere else
Could show you something new to help you
With the ups and downs
I want to break it down
Break it down again

Break it down again
No more sleepy dreaming
No more building up
It is time to dissolve
Break it down it again
No more sleepy dreaming...

Saltines and Sprite

I've been sick again. Like violently ill, little petechiae all around my eyes, lying in bed for two days sick.

I've developed a love/hate relationship with Sprite & Saltines. I'm so glad they stayed down (the third time I tried.) But I am really tired of them. Oh, and chicken broth.

I don't know if it was really bad food poisoning (but I don't think I can go back to that Thai place I had for lunch on Thursday) or another virus or my gallbladder. I hope it was food related so that it is 1) not a virus that is going to strike the girls, which would be ten times more awful and 2) never to return and incapacitate me again which is pretty likely if it is my gallbladder.

Before I got sick, I took Little Sis to the doctor because she was up off & on all night Tuesday crying out and even saying, "OW! EAR!" Sure enough, she had an ear infection- the doctor thinks her eardrum actually ruptured. I feel awful, because I had no idea until it was that bad. I worry and wonder about ear infections with my girls all the time, but usually I feel like I err on the side of hypochondriac parent. Not this time.

So, Little Sis is hurting and grouchy and miserable and has to be given antibiotics orally and via drops in her ears. And then I began "yodeling into the porcelain canyon" (as this crazy survey called it-check out their other euphemisms, some I've heard or said myself, and others are a little gross, even for me). And poor Daddy was left to take care of all of us.

And he did an awesome job. The house even looks okay. I mean, not that I'm surprised. It's just that when one of us is out of comission for whatever reason, it can be hard to keep up. But he did it. And he gave a feisty toddler her medicine and brought me crackers and made me broth and got everyone ready for bed (except I did have to go in and fix Little Sis's blankets and say the right things in the right order to tuck her in. That girl is beyond OCD, and she just started talking.)

Little Sis seems to be doing much better-sleeping through the night and barely touching her ear. We go back this week sometime to make sure the perforation is healing.

I've kept stuff down for over 24 hours now (knock on wood). I woke up yesterday feeling TONS better, but I am still feeling really weak and like I just had the stuffing knocked out of me. In a way, I guess I sort of did! But I am so happy to have gotten out of bed, had a shower, and watched my girls play.

I stayed home from church this morning because I'm still pretty worn out (and even though hubby says they look fine, I think all the broken blood vessels around my eyes are rather disturbing). But tomorrow, Hubs will head back to work and I'll be trying to jump back into things full speed ahead. Hopefully that will include blogging.

To review:

I both love & hate my Sprite, Saltine & Chicken broth diet as of late.

AND being forced to rest. Kind of nice, if circumstances were a little less throw-uppish.


I hate throwing-up.

AND ear infections.

AND looking/feeling like I got beat up.


I love my sick little toddler, my loving preschooler and my care-taking hubby.

AND my mom, and aunt, and friends who gave me advice on how to take care of myself and when to head to the ER (which didn't have to happen, thankfully).

AND the people who are still reading my blog after I take days of absence and return with a post about hurling. Why are you so good to me?

More confessions of a bad mommy...

Back when I first started blogging, and before I found MckMama's "Not Me Monday," I used to confess my embarrassing mom stories in a "confession" post like this.

Since it's NOT Monday (and, for that matter, since I'm NOT MckMama- even though I enjoy reading her blog and am very excited that she is now a Compassion blogger heading to Kenya in a bit- but just ME) I've decided to confess again. Anew. So here goes:

Last week my daughter's dance teacher told me that Big Sister needed new dance shoes. I think she told me this because the last time she needed new shoes, no one told me (even though Big Sis has been extremely verbal since she was, I don't know, exiting my womb) and I found out because the poor child was bringing home filthy tights from dancing without any shoes at all.

You would think that I would have learned my lesson and check the dumb dance bag every once in a while, or at least ask my child over & over if her shoes were pinchy until she caved.

But no. I had to be informed by the teacher that her shoes were definitely too small.

In my defense, I must say that

1. Big Sister's feet have just undergone a huge growth spurt. I saw it coming, and the dance shoes were confirmation. Time for new tennis shoes, dress shoes, everything...
2. Dance is an "extra-curricular" at her preschool. I am not absent-minded enough to actually drive my daughter to a special dance lesson each week, sit there with her while she practices (or out in a lobby) and then drive her home without noticing her trying to cram her feet into her tap shoes ugly-stepsister-style. I'm just absentminded enough to barely remember to send the dance bag with her on Tuesdays, and almost never check to see if the shoes are the right size...

But it gets better. Or worse...

I checked the consignment store for new, er, old dance shoes but had no luck. I planned on hitting Payless this weekend, but a stomach bug foiled my plans.

So last night I scrambled into the hand-me-down shoe bag and found my old ballet shoes and some too-big tap shoes. When I woke Big Sister to get ready for school this morning, I quickly slipped one of the shoes on her feet to be sure they weren't ridiculously ginormous, and then crammed them into the dance bag with the too-small shoes. I figured if she didn't have a pair that fit, she at least had options.

More embarrassing than being told by a near stranger that your daughter needs new shoes? Yes.

But it gets better. Or worse...

I was wiping down tables after snack while the Mom's Morning Out kids played outside, when my friend Megan stuck her head in the door and told me someone was looking for me.

It was the dance teacher. I was probably already blushing.

I can't really remember the conversation because I don't really want to. I know I told her something about being sick this weekend. And I think I even told her that the new/old ballet shoes used to be mine (why?!).

And then she said that she just wanted to let me know that the tap shoes I sent were both the same feet.

Apparently we had two pairs of the same size, and since I only tried on one of the "pair" I didn't realize it. I just shoved them in the bag before herding the girls into the bathroom to run a wet comb through their curls.

So, not only am I the lady who doesn't know when her kid's shoes are too small, or who sends her with hand-me-downs including a 25 year-old-pair of my own, but I am also the goober who sends TWO LEFT SHOES.

(Insert appropriate "two left feet" dancing joke here, but after what I just spent on Tap shoes, Big Sister better be twinkle-toes.)

Beautiful Day

The weather today was beautiful. After a morning filled with chores (Mommy & Daddy) and playing with the same old toys (Big & Little Sister) we all decided we needed to get out of the house!

So, we headed to the meadows.

The girls were super ready to hit the swings again.

And the slides too.

Little Sister even went down the tall slide by herself (with Hope, while Mommy took Big Sis to the potty. Mommy's nerves probably could not have handled it. Especially after Little Sis jumped up & down on the bridge.)

But her favorite of all were the swings.

Big Sister enjoyed them too. She is learning trying to learn to pump.

After playing for a while, we joined our friends for dinner. Grilled outside. In January. I just hope it doesn't get crazy cold again, because after today, I'm ready for Spring. Which, for someone who loves snow as much as I do, is saying a lot!


I hope you were able to have some time to relax with your family on this holiday, even if you weren't able to enjoy a three day weekend. I also hope you take a moment to remember the man and mission remembered on this day. I'm planning on reading the chapter about MLK in one of my favorite books, Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey. I highly recommend it.


"What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love." ~Martin Luther King Jr. in his speech "Where do we go from here?"

In the name of love, what more in the name of love?

(Ok, that's not the same u2 song as the title of this post, but it is a song by the same band, about MLK, and the ringtone for my phone before it went all crazy on me. So why not?)

Song for Sunday: this is all

For anyone hurting, or wondering where God is when bad things happen...

All That I Can Say
by David Crowder Band

Lord I'm tired
So tired from walking
And Lord I'm so alone
And Lord the dark
Is creeping in
Creeping up
To swallow me
I think I'll stop
Rest here a while

And this is all that I can say right now
And this is all that I can give
And this is all that I can say right now
And this is all that I can give, that's my everything

Lord didn't You see me cryin'?
Oh, and didn't You hear me call Your name?
Wasn't it You I gave my heart to?
I wish You'd remember where you sat it down

And this is all, this is all that I can say right now, I know it's not much.
But this is all that I can give, yeah, that's my everything.
This is all that I can say right now, right now, I know it's not much.
But this is all that I can give, yeah that's my everything.

I didn't notice You were standing here
I didn't know that that was You holding me
I didn't notice You were cryin' too
I didn't know that that was You washing my feet

And this is all, this is all that I can say right now, oh I know its not much.
But this is all that I can give, yeah that's my everything.
This is all that I can say right now, right now, I know it's not much.
But this is all that I can give, yeah that's my everything.

yeah that's my everything..
everything...

Sign it ,share hope...

As I was reading more information coming from Haiti and the relief efforts, I came across this petition. It is asking US officials to rush visas to orphans in Haiti who have already been legally adopted by American citizens. Basically, these little ones are just waiting on either a passport from the Haitian government or a visa from the US, and we all know how tedious red tape can be. Adoptive American parents who have already welcomed a Haitian child into their families and hearts would like to bring them home. What easier way can there be for you or I to help one tiny person in Haiti to gain access to food, clothing and clean water than just to sign this petition and urge our government to move on this opportunity quickly.

Please click on the link above and sign your name. If you want to do more, or are skeptical about online petitioning, please contact your representative about the issue. For more information, here is the blog of an orphanage in Haiti (not in the immediate disaster area) where I first read about the petition.


I'll try to write about something "normal" later this evening. I think I have a stomach bug, so no promises. Yuck.