It's Just a Job

Two for the Road

I just love this photo that Mike took two weeks ago! :) I still don't know how both of them fit inside this Little Tykes truck, but they did! :)

Not for the Weak of Stomach

I don't have a very strong stomach when it comes to smelling and handling the two fore mentioned things. It is okay when I am taking care of my own bodily functions, but when it comes to others, there is a reason why I never pursued a health care career.

Yesterday I came home to Brody vomiting all over the floor. I mean literally vomiting on the floor. My husband was chasing him around with a Glad plastic reusable container (not any more) and telling my son he needed to stop running around and sit down with the Glad container. When we finally got him to sit, we were able to take his temperature and it was over 100. I gave him some Tylenol and held him on my lap. He was lethargic, at best, and kept telling me how thirsty he was. I gave him small sips of Pedialite which resulted in his release of all I gave to him.

We were finally able to get Brody to sleep at 10 p.m. At 11:45 p.m., he was crying at his door telling us that he had pooped. Well...it wasn't just a normal bowel movement for him. When my husband opened the door to his bedroom, I immediately was hit with the sharp, sickening smell of very bad diarrhea. All I will say is that Brody's lower half of his body was completely covered. My husband tried to remove his clothing and in doing so, a spray of the disgust flew up and fell all over the carpet and bedroom door.

I was trying very hard not to lose what I had in my stomach. My husband picked Brody up and immediately started the bathtub. This meant that I was left to take care of the filth. I will not go into the details, but I will say that it was a milestone for me. I never thought I would be able to stomach what I did. I guess I was wrong! :)

Predestination or Chance?

Predestination. I am a thorough believer in it. I think that all things happen for a reason and that it is all part of a larger plan already conceived and waiting for us to live it out. I met my husband totally by chance...or should I say, predestination. :) I found out I was pregnant with my youngest son when I my oldest son was four months old, which was totally unplanned. Would I have had either of these things occur in any other way? No. I would not.

I must admit that I have had things happen in my life over the last three years that have made me ask, "Why is this happening?". I have realized that these things have happened for a reason and that it is all part of a larger plan. Although my life is difficult at times, I know the difficulties will not last an eternity.

A Momentus School Year

Today is the last day of preschool for Brody until next fall. This morning I reread all of the entries that I made in his notebook for school. This was the method of communicating with his teachers on his speech therapy. I am truly amazed by his progress over the past eight months. For instance, last summer Brody could verbalize about 15 words. Now, he has a vocabulary that I cannot even begin to measure...it has grown so much! :) I teared up when I wrote my final entry in his notebook this morning. I cannot believe that my child who once couldn't even ask for a drink of juice now tells me what his favorite kind of juice is! My husband and I are truly amazed by his progress. Next year he will no longer be in the special education setting preschool, he will be in a more challenging class that will meet four days a week instead of three. My husband and I no longer need to speak for Brody, he can speak for himself!

An Odd Accident

I have decided to change the name of my blog. The reason being is that I am not too much into ranting and raving these days. I find that the time I am able to spend on my blog writing about the things that are on my mind, or what is currently going on in my life is truly a prescription for my soul.

Yesterday afternoon my husband, children and I witnessed a car accident on 35S at the Dodd Road exit. A SUV had rolled over several times and landed in the ditch. My husband immediately pulled our car over to the shoulder and I got out of the car. Two other vehicles, one behind us and one in front of us, also pulled over. The woman who was in the car behind us was an off-duty ENT and and older man was in the car ahead of us. It had appeared that the driver of the SUV, a woman, had either been reading or making a cell phone call. She was not concerned about her well-being; just a package of papers in a tan envelope. I thought this was odd behavior considering this person had just been in a car accident. After we made sure she was well enough to get out of her vehicle, the ENT took over and we left. As we were driving away, I wondered about the mystery surrounding the envelope. What were the papers? Why was she so distracted? What truly caused her to roll her vehicle on a sunny, dry day? Whatever the reason was for the accident, I hope this person will be okay.

Determinations, Decisions and Divorce

My husband received the determination from the Dept. of Employment and Economic Development on his unemployment claim and the statement given on their website was "ineligible indefiantely". What? Doesn't that sound a bit harsh? I thought it was. We do not know what this means, but it does not sound very good. We will have to wait to see what the actual paperwork states when it arrives in the mail.

For the last month I have been been harboring feelings of sadness over my husband's loss of employment. I have tried to keep my feelings at bay, but I am too transparent...evidently. People have been commenting around me that I am not my usual self (not quite sure what that means). I sometimes just want to scream, "I'm falling apart, okay? Just let me cry." I pray every night for more strength to get through this. I just feel like things have been in a downward spiral and I want to control it. The decision I have made is that I need to stop. I need to stop crying and letting all of the pressure of what has been going on control me in a negative manner. All that is happening is for a reason, and it is nothing that I have control over. It is all part of a greater plan, no matter what is happening, and I need to embrace it instead of trying to fight it. Decision made.

Someone very close to me told me today that she and her husband are getting a divorce. Since I myself am a divorced person, I know what it is like to have feelings of unworthiness and depression. She told me the "spark just died" and that it was like living with a roommate. The similarities to my experience were quite the same. The only difference between her experience and mine is that she has a child. I have no idea how hard that would be, nor did I try to tell her I knew what she was feeling because I didn't want it to come across as being patronizing. My heart, thoughts and prayers go out to my dear, M. I know she will need them.

In Memoriam

For the first time in a very long time my husband and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings in West St. Paul this past weekend. I was told by one of the bar patrons that two people who used to frequent BW3s when I did had passed away. I was in shock. I thought I would share brief thoughts about both men who were always chipper and had such positive attitudes: Lango and Jams.

Lango, or Pat as his friends would call him, would always be at the fourth bar stool in from the right at BW3s. He was very intelligent and was always willing to share his knowledge of vast subjects with anyone who cared to listen. He spent most of his free time in the Cayman Islands, and loved to offer up his residence in the islands to anyone who wanted a "real vacation". I knew Pat because I would always go to BW3s to play trivia every Friday afternoon (when I would come home from St. Cloud State on the weekend). Pat passed away on May 22 from brain cancer.

Jams, or James, would usually be seated next to Pat, or close to him. He always spoke very fondly of the love of his life, Theresa. He was, however, a tremendous flirt. The name I always used in playing trivia with him was "Smoke" and when I would win, he would say, "Ah, there she goes again...Smoke gets in your eyes." He made me laugh and always had a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. James passed away in April due to complications from diabetes.

As Tennyson wrote:
I sometimes hold it half a sin
To put in words the grief I feel;
For words, like Nature, half reveal
And half conceal the Soul within.

A Full-Night's Sleep

I am in pursuit of a full-night's sleep. If there is anything that I could have right now, that would be it. This whole week I have not had the chance to sleep through the whole night. Here is a run-down of this week's events that have kept me from sleeping:

1) Sunday - Brody didn't want to go to bed because, "It is still light out." Bedtime for Brody: 10:30 p.m.--with coughing from allergies starting at 1:00 a.m.
2) Monday - Brody wet the bed and tried to change his Huggies Pull-Up on his own and couldn't find one and began yelling for me at 1:30 a.m. After I changed all of the bedding he went back to bed, but I couldn't.
3) Tuesday - I tried to go to bed at 8:00 p.m., but Byron wanted to snuggle with me. Who am I to turn that down? The snuggling, however, turned into Byron repeatedly touching my eyelids to wake me up. Bedtime for Byron: 11:00 p.m.
4) Thursday - American Idol finale and I finally went to bed at 10:00 p.m. Byron started coughing at 12:18 a.m. and kept coughing every hour on the hour until 4:18 a.m. when I went downstairs and slept on the couch.

Granted, I shouldn't have stayed up to watch Idol last night, but I wanted to be sure I saw Adam lose to Kris. :) Perhaps this Saturday night when my children are at my in-laws' house overnight I will finally get my full-night's sleep. :)

Brody and Byron

I just came across this photo again. It was one of 27 that I took for our Christmas photo...and I am not over exaggerating... :) I love my boys!

American Idol: Winner or Loser?

Okay, I have to admit that I was completely and totally SHOCKED when Ryan Seacrest said Kris was in the top two. As soon as I heard that, I knew that Adam was going to be in the top two...acutally, I didn't even wait to hear it from Mr. Seacrest. I turned the TV off. I was very disappointed that he had lost, but did he? I remember when Chris Daughtry was voted off and everyone was in utter shock. Look what happened to him! He wound up becoming a multi-platinum selling artist. Another Idol "loser" was Jennifer Hudson; she was voted off quite some time before the final five that season and she became an Academy Award-winning actress. Some people who have won American Idol have kind of fallen off the radar...Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino and Taylor Hicks.

On a side note, as my husband and I were watching Idol last night we were subjected to the awful lyrics of Jordin Sparks' new song, "Battlefield". My husband...without pause...came up with his own lyrics...
I am a bodyman
I am a bodyman
I use my Bondo
I use my Bondo
You need your car fixed, I got it covered
I use my Bondo
Along with his singing, he also had a little interpretive dance that went along with it. Who knows...if they ever open up the age range on Idol....:)

Surreal or Cereal?

My husband is still waiting to find out if he is able to receive unemployment benefits or not. I look on the Minnesota Dept. of Unemployment every day (at least three times or more). There is not an estimated date as to when his case will be complete, even though they NOW have both sets of documentation on the matter. I know that patience is a virtue, but in this case, I have none.

I keep rereading my blog from a few years ago when this happened last...I am trying to get myself back into the mindset of how awful the experience was then in comparsion to now, but I cannot. I feel selfish and want some type of answer. I know this is not what I should be feeling, but I cannot help it. I am praying for strength to keep myself from freaking out over the purchase of Nutrigrain bars versus the Roundy's brand of cereal bar. Isn't this petty and insane? I know it is, but I guess I will just have to be silent in my issues of $.25 cents verus $.79 cents.

Monday, Monday

I have never liked Mondays. I never wake up in the morning on a Monday and say, "Yes! It is Monday and I get to go to work!" No. You will never hear that from me. I am the least motivated for the week on Monday. I never seem to get enough sleep on Sunday before having to get up for work. I think I am getting my point across. Tuesday, I am really looking forward to your presence. This Monday has been long enough already! :)

Eight Years

This weekend it will be eight years that have passed since I graduated from college at St. Cloud State. So much has happened in eight years:
1) I have had two marriages
2) I have had four pregnancies
3) I have had two children
4) I have had five jobs
5) I have owned seven vehicles
6) I have moved five times
7) I have had four cell phones
Most importantly....
8) I have had zero regrets

An All Time High

Last night as I was waiting for "American Idol" to come on and see Adam go home (yeah, right...only in my dreams), my husband was cruising through our basic cable channels looking for something to watch. He came across a James Bond film that I have never seen before: Octopussy. Octopussy? What the??? I have never heard of this film for some reason. I asked Mike if it was a joke, and he said no. I guess it was made in the early 80s. Immediately the perverted part of me asked, "What? Does the main female character in this film have eight v-jay-jays?" I mean, seriously...

This was not the highlight of my last 24 hours, however. Today when Brody came off the school bus from preschool, I looked into his Cars backpack and saw that he had made me a present. The present was inside an envelope made out of yellow construction paper. I first pulled out a card that had a foam yellow and green flower on the front of it that he had made. I opened the card and inside it read:
Thank you, Mom for making me grow. - Love, Brody
I lost it. Right then and there with the Cars backpack in hand I started outright bawling...uncontrollably at that. Brody looked at me and said, "Don't cry Momma. It's going to be okay." That made me cry more and I explained to him that I wasn't crying because I was sad, I was crying because I was so happy over his gift. He looked confused as any three-year-old boy would look and waited for me to stop. I will not discuss what the actual gift was inside because I might start crying again. Let's just say that it had to do with small hand prints and a deeply moving poem. Yes, we are definitely on an all-time high (I can say I pulled this post title from the obnoxious song from the Octopussy soundtrack...thanks Rita Coolidge).

Job Lost; Job Found

Last Friday I received a phone call that I have received several times; it was my husband calling to tell me that he had lost his job. Although I must admit that hearing this news made my head immediately pound with blood and I felt my breath quicken, I wasn't upset. I wasn't upset because I realized that it just isn't in the cards for my husband to be employed at this point in our lives. How can I be mad over that? I cannot.

All things happen in life for a reason. I know many people I have met over the years have taken offense to my belief in this, but it is one of my core beliefs and I am unwilling to negate on it. Is it awful that I need to tighten down even further on an already non-existent budget? Yes, but things could always be far worse than what they are. I am not looking for worse, but I know it exists.

My husband may have lost his job OUTSIDE the home, but he has found an even better position inside our home. :)

The Write Stuff

I went to the Bloomington Arts Center over the weekend for the center's 6th annual book fair. It included a lot of hopeful writers who were looking to publish or write the next best-seller. Some of these folks were so desperate that they clung to each word that came out of a supposed marketing guru's mouth. I was asked to attend the guru's seminar on promotion and e-marketing, but it was lackluster at best. She didn't have anything to share that I didn't already know. I am glad that the "desperados" at least received something out of it.

It would be comical if there would be a contest for writers that would mimic "American Idol" and it could be called "American Writer". People would come for tryouts and bring their tattered copies of manuscripts for judges to read. I am not quite sure who the panel of judges would be, but it would have to have a variety like Stephen King, Danielle Steel and J.D. Salinger (perhaps it would be enough to draw him out of a reclusive life).

Finding My Strengths

I have been so incredibly busy lately with my new job, so I really haven't had the chance to blog. One of the things I completed at work the last week was the "StrenghtsFinder" test. It is part of a book that is written by Tom Rath (which is also a #1 New York Times Bestseller). The book explains what each "strength" is and how one can identify with a different person who doesn't necessarily have the same "strength". The following were identified as my "Top Five Strengths":

• Achiever - "You feel as if each day starts at zero...you must have something tangible completed by the end of the day."
• Input - "You collect things...yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting."
• Learner - "The process, more than the content or the result, is what is most fascinating to you."
• Belief - "Your work must be meaningful; it must matter to you."
• Woo - "You enjoy the challenge of meeting new people and getting them to like you."
  

This really pegged me well!

Sticking your nose in it

My husband's employer asked him yesterday to check a box that was on his original application form (from three months ago) that asked if he had ever been convicted of a crime. I do not believe it was intentional for him to have ignored the box, even though he has. Over 18 years ago my husband did something stupid with a group of "friends" that gave him a raw deal. My husband explained this to his employer and then asked if he would be fired over it. His supervisor said, "I do not know."

Okay, what is the point here? Why in the world would it make a difference after you have been working for an organization over three months? It sounds pretty shifty to me. We have already decided that if my husband is fired, we will be contacting an attorney. As my husband said, would you punish a 12 year-old dog for something the dog did when it was a puppy? It is a pretty good analogy and I don't understand why now, after three months, would his nose need to be pushed in it?

The Birthday Song

This was forwarded to me in an email. I thought it was rather interesting to see what song has been popular on all of my "birthdays". I really despise the song that was most popular the year I was born.

DECEMBER 4
The #1 song in the U.S.A. on this date in history, according to Billboard magazine.- Click on a song to hear a portion of it in iTunes; you must have that software installed to listen.- If the song is not available in iTunes, the link will go to Amazon or somewhere else.- You can purchase more detailed historical data from Billboard research services or from Record Research.- Return to the main page.
THE 2000s
2007 ... "No One" by Alicia Keys
2006 ... "I Wanna Love You" by Akon featuring Snoop Dogg
2005 ... "Run It!" by Chris Brown
2004 ... "My Boo" by Usher and Alicia Keys
2003 ... "Stand Up" by Ludacris featuring Shawnna
2002 ... "Lose Yourself" by Eminem
2001 ... "Family Affair" by Mary J. Blige
2000 ... "Independent Women Part I" by Destiny's Child

THE 1990s
1999 ... "Smooth" by Santana featuring Rob Thomas
1998 ... "I'm Your Angel" by R. Kelly & Celine Dion
1997 ... "Something About the Way You Look Tonight/ Candle in the Wind 1997" by Elton John
1996 ... "Un-Break My Heart" by Toni Braxton
1995 ... "One Sweet Day" by Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men
1994 ... "On Bended Knee" by Boyz II Men
1993 ... "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" by Meat Loaf
1992 ... "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston
1991 ... "Black or White" by Michael Jackson
1990 ... "Because I Love You (The Postman Song)" by Stevie B

THE 1980s
1989 ... "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel
1988 ... "Look Away" by Chicago
1987 ... "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" by Belinda Carlisle
1986 ... "The Next Time I Fall" by Peter Cetera & Amy Grant
1985 ... "Broken Wings" by Mr. Mister
1984 ... "Out of Touch" by Daryl Hall & John Oates
1983 ... "Say, Say, Say" by Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson
1982 ... "Truly" by Lionel Richie
1981 ... "Physical" by Olivia Newton-John
1980 ... "Lady" by Kenny Rogers

THE 1970s
1979 ... "Babe" by Styx
1978 ... "Le Freak" by Chic
1977 ... "You Light Up My Life" by Debby Boone
1976 ... "Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)" by Rod Stewart
1975 ... "Fly, Robin, Fly" by Silver Convention
1974 ... "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas
1973 ... "Top of the World" by The Carpenters