The Laugh of a Child

Well, this week has been a long and stressful one. Between the car decided to needing to be fixed on Wednesday instead of next week to going to pick up Jack yesterday to find out that he has begun to hit the other kids in his class at daycare. Yesterday was the day that I got to a completely overwhelmed point. I cried quite a few times between Wednesday morning and yesterday afternoon.

Being a parent is the most rewarding and stressful job in the world but it has one of the best perks in the world. Jack has got to be the most happiest child I have ever met. He loves to laugh - all the time. I love to hear him laugh. His laugh can make the worst day 10 million times better. It can make my lonliness and sadness disappear.

Here is a video of his laugh. Hopefully if you are having a bad day it will help you to have a better one.

When It Rains It Pours - UPDATE

Well got a call from the mechanic - the day got better. The guy with the shop said that it was something we already knew needed to be fixed. It just so happened that it didn't want to wait until next week when I was going to take it in. The even better part is that the mechanic is just going to add it to the bill for the work being done next week. Oh Happy Day!!!!

When It Rains It Pours

I feel overwhelmed. Sometimes I feel like it is all crashing in on me. Today is one of those days and it is only 10:30 in the morning. When Jack woke up and then woke me up I kept thinking that today was going to be a great day. Jack was in a great mood and very helpful this morning. Things were going great until I got off of the interstate at the exit where Jack's daycare is. I got to the light and had to stop and all of a sudden the car started spitting and sputtering and acting like it was going to turn off. I freaked out because I had just taken it to the shop on Monday to get an estimate on a few things that I KNEW were wrong with it and needed to be fixed - well this wasn't one of those things. I had prepared myself yesterday for the mechanic's bill next week but not for this. I was less than a mile away from the auto shop and Jack's daycare (they are only a few blocks from each other). I had to stop a few more times because of stop lights and each time I would put the car in park and either turn it off or rev the engine. I finally made it to the garage - I had called my mom and asked her to come and pick Jack and I up. I also called my boss at the church - I absolutely love her - to let her know that I was having car trouble and wasn't sure when or if I would be in. My mom arrived, we got Jack to the daycare leaving the car at the shop to fix whatever is wrong with it. After we dropped Jack off, I took my mom to work and then headed to the church to talk to my boss. She is great and listened to me tell her everything that happened this morning. I asked her if I could work on Friday instead of today and she said yes to just go home and try to get everything figured out.

Before today, everday felt like it was raining on me but today it feels like it is pouring.

Because he thought he should tell me

Yesterday while at work Jon called me on my cell. In the midst of our conversation he asked me what the message from me on Skype was about and I told him to just listen to it and call me back. I told him to give me 15 minutes to finish something I was doing at work. Well 15 minutes came and went and then another 15 minutes came and went and then he finally called me back. Do you know what the first thing he said to me was? He said “sorry I lost my connection because there was an explosion so close that it shook the whole building and I could hear it and feel it.” The first thing that came out of my mouth was DO NOT EVER TELL ME OF ANOTHER EXPLOSION WITHIN 100 MILES OF YOU. He was so nonchalant about it and it totally freaked me out. I told him that I didn’t want to talk about it. Ever. Why do men feel the need to share things like that with the women in their lives when they know that we are sitting back here in the states worrying about things like that every waking hour? After he talked about a bomb exploding he just moved into another topic of conversation like it was no big deal. Why is it that men say women are so frustrating and hard to understand?

On a much lighter subject….

On Monday, I put a package in the mail to Jon with a webcam in it. Well last night as I am pouring milk in my Lucky Charms (that I had for dinner - Jack had a lunchable and I have no shame for that dinner either) my skype is ringing. So I answer it as I normally do when Jon calls but when I look back at the screen I notice that a video screen is popping up. Jon borrowed someone’s webcam and called us using that. I wish you all could have heard Jack saying “Hi Daddy” I started crying. He stood and talked to Jon for 10 minutes and then never left the room. I am simply amazed at this 2 year old that is my son. He has taught me so much over the past 3 months and he doesn’t even know it. He is the reason that I get up every morning. He is the reason that I am still the caring and loving person that goes out of my way to take my best friend to the airport even when she lives in St. Augustine and the airport is in north Jacksonville and offers to drive to St. Augustine to take care of her 2 dogs while she is out of town. He shows me love everyday no matter how tired I am, no matter if the laundry is done, if the floor is vacuumed, if I look a mess or actually like I took 5 minutes to get ready. He loves me because I am his mom and for that I am forever grateful. I know that he misses his daddy but he is only 2 and doesn’t really realize that 3 months have passed. I could tell that last night by the way he stood in front of this computer and just talked and talked and then went and got his trains and showed Jon his trains because he knew that he hadn’t seen them and then when I wanted to talk to Jon Jack looked at me and said “no Mommy”. What a great way to end the day. Sorry for getting all emotional.

In Need of a Maid (or Rent-a-husband)

Yesterday was tiring. Everyday is tiring. I really wish my husband was home to help me do these things. I wonder if hiring a maid would help. Probably not - wishful thinking. I woke up at 7 am yesterday morning with a day full of things to do - it was my day off. I wish I could say that I sat around the house and did nothing but that is not the case. Yes, Jack was already up and ready to go. I got him dressed then proceeded to get myself dressed. I had to get his stuff ready for daycare for the week. After I got all of that taken care of, I gathered up everything that was going in Jon’s package. All in all it only took me about 30 minutes to get everyone and everything ready and to the door. Let’s just say I had never been so happy to get into the car than I was that morning. After I dropped Jack off at daycare, I went to the post office. Has anyone noticed that it takes a ridiculous amount of time to get in and out of the post office? I had to mail Jon a webcam and it took me about 35 minutes to get it mailed out. My grandmother was giving me her bedroom furniture and her and my uncle were brought it over yesterday. They got there by 9:30 and we had to take down my bed, take my clothes out of my old dresser and mover my bookshelf - which by the way is full of books and I wasn’t taking them out. We had everything set up and all of the extra furniture taken out of the house and into the bed of my uncle’s truck by 11 am. After my uncle and grandmother left, I proceeded to do laundry, wash dishes, change the cat litter and vacuum - well try to. My vacuum died - I have a 90 pound black lab. With black hair. That is everywhere. I went non-stop all day yesterday. I wonder if I should invent a rent a husband business - that would be awesome. Only 9 more months.

If I just keep telling myself that - only 9 more months.

A Tribute for a Hero - Part 2

So this past Friday was the homecoming and funeral for Navy Captain Scott Speicher. What an amazing sight to see all of the people of Jacksonville all over the city out lining the streets for a quick glance at the hearse. My sister and I went to Forrest - where Speicher went and graduated from (as did we). Here are some pictures from Forrest as well as some from just outside of the cemetery where he was finally laid to rest. It was simply amazing.

A Tribute for a Hero

Tomorrow, the city of Jacksonville will be paying tribute that has been waiting 18 years. Captain Scott Speicher was shot down the first night of the Gulf War and no one in the United States government or US military was quite sure what happened to him - if he was dead or alive. So for the past 18 years the military and the government have been looking for him and been changing his classification from Killed in Action to Missing in Action to Prisioner of War - everything. 11 days ago with help from some Iraqi people they found the remains of Scott and this afternoon he returned to Jacksonville soil. Tomorrow, they are going to be taking him around to the places that meant a lot to him - his church where he taught Sunday School, his high school where he graduated, the base where he served and his final resting place. They will also be going to our veterans memorial wall. His high school is also the high school that my mom, aunts, uncles, me and my sister graduated from. The base where he served is the base where my uncle served. His final resting place is a beautiful resting place home to many and home to a dear friend of my family.

Please keep his family in your prayers as the day that they have waited for is finally here.

Shopping is a Girl's Best Friend

The title pretty much says it all. My laptop has officially died. I don't know what is wrong with and I have a good friend that works with computers everyday that can't even tell me what is wrong with it. So tomorrow I am buying this-

It is a mini laptop. It has a webcam so I can talk to Jon. I will get it in black. I am so excited about it.

In about a month I am going to be buying this from IKEA - my most favorite place in the whole world.


I LOVE THIS LOVESEAT!!!! Jon will hate it but it is completely me. He complains about some of the shorts that I buy. I will buy Jack this bed -


I of course will buy other things than those two things but I just wanted to share those. This weekend, my grandmother is giving me her dresser and bed that her and my grandfather bought 50 years ago. They are both made out of solid wood. The dresser is huge and has a beautiful mirror and the bed is a 4 poster bed. Once I get them all set up and everything arranged I will take some pictures and post them.

A Diagnosis

So yesterday morning was full of doctor's appointments (see previous post for why). Report number 1 - Jack's ears are all clear. That is such good news. Report number 2 - I have been diagnosed with strees induced migraines. Hmm I wonder why?! My doctor put me on Topomax - which is a daily migraine prevention medicine. Side note - he got real serious when we were talking about this drug and he looked at me and said "Now there is one important side effect that I like to tell my patients about." I was sitting there thinking "Oh great he is going to tell me that if I take this that I am going to turn green" or something horrible like that. He then proceeds to tell me the side effect - (pause for dramatic effect) weight loss. I looked at him and told him that he would not be getting any complaints from this patient if I came down with that side effect. Back to report - he also gave me samples of 2 other meds to take for breakthrough pain. I am so happy to know what was causing the headaches and even happier that there is a medicine I can take for it.

This has nothing to do with all of that but I thought I would share anyway - my laptop has officially died. I have been putting off buying another one but it seems that I must now make that purchase. I am going to get a Dell mini.

Again this has nothing to do with either one of those things but tomorrow night my bestest friend Jess and I are taking a night off from our children. Her husband is a police officer in St. Johns County and works all the time so she is in the same boat as me (kind of). We are going to the Kenny Chesney concert tomorrow night and we are both so excited we can barely stand it.

That is all for now.

a quick prayer request

I promise a longer post tomorrow. Tomorrow morning I have to take Jack to let the doctor look at his ears. A few weeks ago, he came down with a really high fever for no apparent reason. I know that many of you don't know this but around his first birthday, he was at the end of a cold and one day spiked a really high fever. I'm talking 101 and higher. That day both Jon and I stayed home with him and boy am I glad we did. I called his doctor to schedule an appointment for that day. We gave him the standard Tylenol and Motrin and waited out the morning until his appointment. We had lunch with my mom at her work before we went to the doctor. On our way to the doctor, he got real quiet in his car seat and I turned around and realized why. He was having a siezure - it was brought on by a sudden spike of his fever. We pulled over and called 911 - when the ambulance got there his fever was 104. Needless to say he had another that night and we spent 4 hours in the ER. He had what is called a febrial siezure. Dr. Chally can't tell us if he will ever have another one so anytime he gets a fever we immediately call the doctor and she usually works us in. Anyway I got him in to see the doctor when he came down with this last fever and he had the beginnings of an ear infection. 10 days worth of medicine and now a recheck. He keeps getting ear infections in this same ear. Pray for a good outcome.

Also, please pray for me. I am going to the doctor at 11:30 tomorrow morning. For the past few weeks I have been having migraines - really bad ones at that. I had one a week ago Saturday that had me curled up in the bathroom floor in tears. Pray that the doctor can figure out what is wrong.