The Men Who Love Me, Part 2

So last week was HIGH FIVES for my dad. He's great. I'm incredibly lucky to have him for a dad. This week, however, we're back to HIGH FIVES for Lando, my wonderful, amazing, thoughtful, loving husband.
Monday, I felt like pooh. The best word I can conjure to describe how I felt was malaise. I was achy. I had a head ache. My tummy felt unsettled. I didn't feel sick per se, but I didn't feel right either. Tuesday, however, I woke up with a full blown stomach flu. I had some tea and graham crackers for breakfast, hoping that would settle things down a bit. Instead, it all came rushing back out. I made it through the morning by watching some kiddie shows with Marissa on the couch, then went ahead and took a nap when Marissa took hers. We woke up in time for me to throw up again before I needed to go get Mason. When we all got back home, I was dizzy and just felt awful, so I decided it was time to see if Lando could come home early from work. I called, not feeling particularly hopeful that he'd be able to skip out early, but he surprised me and said he could. He got home pretty quickly, sent me to bed and started playing with the kiddos. I spent the rest of the afternoon/evening sleeping and throwing up while Landon handled all the kid stuff. After the kids were tucked in, Landon decided to do the grocery shopping (which had been put off for nearly two weeks as Mason was home most of last week with strep throat). When he got home, he came upstairs to check on and comfort me before I went to bed for the night.
The kids woke us up bright and early this morning, but Landon got up with them and let me sleep until he needed to leave to take Mason to school and go to work himself. When I came downstairs, Mason showed me what Dad had done after I went to bed the night before. He had chopped fruit, vegetables and cheese for easy snacks to feed the kids. He cooked pasta and put them into individual sized containers for meals for the kids. He made smoothies for breakfast, freezing the extra for later. He basically did everything he could to make my day easier since he couldn't be home again to let me sleep all afternoon. He had also stocked the house with lots of stomach flu friendly items for me to eat in an effort to get back to normal. Then before he left for work, he promised he'd come home as early as he could.
So, in short, the man did everything in his power to take care of me as best as he could even in his absence. Why? He wants me to be okay. He wants to make sure all my needs are met. He wants me to be comfortable and happy. Because he loves me.
Boy was I ever lucky the day I convinced Landon to marry me. I am so grateful that I get to be that man's wife!
Post Script: As I sit here at the computer, I hear Landon downstairs doing the dishes. Wow. I love that man so much. I don't think I deserve him, but I am sure grateful he's mine!

The Men Who Love Me, Part 1

Half of this post is like a week late, but between Mason having strep throat, Landon having an intestinal bug which he then passed onto me, not much has been accomplished in the last week (although I did manage to strip beds and disinfect much of the house between Landon getting better and me getting sick). Anyhow. Better late than never. Gratitude is patient, right?
So, last Monday, Landon was on day 2 of a massive hangover. He decided to come home for lunch to eat something really basic and hopefully catch a quick nap. After accomplishing both of those modest lunch-time goals, he climbed into his car to head back to work. Only, his car wouldn't start. Landon came back inside, declared the battery dead, and asked me what we should do about it. I went out, also attempted to start the car ('cause I have magic car starting powers or something), but was met with the same fate as my husband. We remembered we had some jumper cables from an old "roadside emergency" kit my parents gave us years ago. Landon and I pushed the car out of the garage and parked it on the road (facing the wrong way -- silly us) and attempted to jump-start the car. It didn't work. Landon went in and looked up jump-starting on the interwebs to make sure we were doing it right, found some helpful advice, and we tried again. Again, it didn't work. At this point, though, it was time to pick up Mason and Landon needed to get back to work. So we picked up the boy and dropped Landon off at his office, and I went back and worked on the car some more with some advice from my dad and auto mechanic brother-in-law. Still, my jump-starting efforts were unsuccessful.
At that point, my BIL the mechanic was thinking that after three unsuccessful jump-starting attempts, perhaps it wasn't a dead battery. He said we needed to get it to a shop, preferably his. So, I spent much of the afternoon trying to figure out how to accomplish just that. After spending way too long on the phone with our insurance company, we found out our roadside towing coverage only covers a tow to shops contracted with the insurance company. If we want to use our own shop (which, duh, we do), it covers all of $50 of the towing expense. That wasn't gonna get us to my BIL's shop. Not even close. Feeling frustrated and overwhelmed, I decided to give up for the day and worry about it in the morning. After getting Mason to school and Landon to work in the morning, I met up with my mom for some shopping. I told her of my ordeal the day before, and she told me to ask Dad to come and tow the car for us on his trailer. When I got home from shopping and lunch with Mom, I gave Dad a call to ask for his help.
When I got a hold of my dad, which in itself is no small feat, he informed me that he had lent his trailer to a friend and wasn't sure how we'd get the car on the trailer anyway. I informed him that I was a total bad ass, but he still wasn't convinced. He said he'd think about it and call me back. Maybe ten minutes later, he called and said he was going to go pick up a battery, bring it down and see if he could get the car going enough to get it up to my BIL. Keep in mind, my dad lives an hour away if you come straight to my house from his. Since he stopped at my BIL's shop to get the new battery James had already got me, it actually took him closer to an hour and a half. So my dad arrived a couple of hours later with a new battery and some equipment to test whether the alternator was working. He switched out the batteries, made sure the alternator was getting power to the battery, and VOILA! we had a working car.
I am so grateful for my dad, who loves me enough to go pick up a new battery for my car, drive it all the way to my house and swap out the old one (maybe 10 minutes of work for a 2.5 hour roundtrip drive). I am blessed to have him in my life. He's a wonderful man, and I love him so, so much!

Marissa is Hilarious

I'm going to steal an idea from my friend Megan's blog... She calls it "Seen and Heard". It's a way to record some of the adorable/weird/funny things your kids do and say. No, it's not about gratitude per se, but I can say that it's moments like these that make me feel most grateful that I get to stay at home to raise my kids.

Seen and Heard:
Marissa comes into the office where I am on the computer. She has the box of Qtips in her hands, then I notice she has one in each ear. She says, "Look it Mom! I flying!!" and then moves her head from side to side as though it were an airplane gliding through the sky.

Heard:
Marissa repeating over and over and over the word, "whine" in her whiniest voice. "Whine, whine, whine!" This simultaneously annoys me and cracks me up.

Heard:
Marissa yelling downstairs, "Geo-orge! Geo-orge! Where are you?" I assume she was looking for the curious monkey and not her grandpa.

Heard:
Marissa whining her way up the stairs (this time with the more conventional whining technique, not the repeating of the word "whine"). When she gets to the top of the stairs, she stops whining, says, "Where's Mom?" and starts searching for me. There is not another sound out of her her, whine or otherwise, until she sees my face. Immediately, she starts "crying" and throws herself dramatically into my lap.

Seen and Heard:
Marissa throwing herself onto the ground dramatically. "MOM! I fell down. I stuck!" She neither fell down nor is stuck.

Seen and Heard:
Marissa making silly faces at her reflection in the window at Togo's as we eat. She giggles uncontrollably until she can make another face. She then looks at me and says, "Mama! I so funny!" and makes another silly face at herself. I ask, "Are you so funny, Rissa?" Marissa says, "Uh huh! I so funny. And weird!"

I think Marissa might be our little actress. She certainly has a flair for the dramatic, but for now, she's mostly just cracking me up. Thank goodness that little girl came to live at my house.

My Family Rocks

I was blessed to be born into a large family. Being the sixth of seven kids definitely had it's share of problems growing up (i.e. being left behind at church more than once because one of your siblings is mad at you and assures Mom that you went home with your older sister in her car). There was always a lack of personal space and privacy and the ability to keep something secret, and there was almost always at least one person with whom you were upset or who was upset with you. However, there were lots of benefits of being part of a large family. There were always playmates. There was always a bigger person around to help you, comfort you, etc (at least when you're among the youngest). There was always someone to defend and stand up for you when you're facing adversity (even if the same person who is now defending you punched you the night before). I loved growing up in a big family, and my large family continues to bless my life even now.

Case in point:
My sister's husband is a mechanic (as I have mentioned before). Since neither Landon nor I know much, if anything, about cars, we feel incredibly fortunate to have someone we know we can trust to work on our cars. Landon asked me earlier this week to take his car up to James (our BIL) for an oil change. Right before I left yesterday, Landon mentioned that his "Maint Required" light was on. I noticed that his mileage was just over 60,000, and decided the light was to probably to remind him to get the scheduled maintenance completed. Since this wasn't what I had originally scheduled, I called James to see if they'd be able to do the work that day, and if so, how long it would take. I was assured they could get it done and that they'd do it as quickly as possible.
Then my other sister arrived at the shop to pick me up and save me from having to hang out at the shop all day waiting for my car. She helped me switch over Marissa's carseat IN THE POURING RAIN. Then she took us back to her house, fed us breakfast, and entertained us all the morning long. When it was time to go get my car, my sister loaded up her kids again (in the rain) and took us back to the shop. She helped me switch over Marissa's carseat in the rain again. Then, get this, she thanks me for coming to spend time with her.
I went into the shop to pay for the maintenance on Landon's car, and my brother-in-law apologizes for the high estimate his employee gave me when I dropped the car off (it was too high?) and assured me that he charged me way less. I assured him I would be totally happy to pay what other customers pay, which is already incredibly reasonable. Isn't it enough that I know I can trust that he's looking out for me and my family every time I bring our cars to him? He laughed a little, and then still gave me a 20% discount on parts and labor (basically cutting my price to barely cover his own costs). Then he invited my family over to play at his house over the weekend.

I am grateful every day for my family. I'm grateful that there are so many people who love me and are looking out for me. I'm grateful for the many things they do for me to make my life better, easier, more joyful. And even though I often wonder what the heck my mom was thinking when she kept having all those babies (7 babies is a whole lot of babies!), I'm sure grateful she did.

mish-mash

As Landon so kindly pointed out via Facebook, my blog is feeling a little unloved. Whenever I have a period like this where no blogging happens, I generally don't have a great reason for it. Sometimes, I just don't feel compelled to blog. I guess that's why I've never been the best at keeping a journal regularly. I'm just hit or miss, and lately, there's just been a lot more miss than hit . . . Anyhow, I'm writing today for the sake of getting something down, not necessarily because I felt overwhelmed with gratitude and/or frustration, which are generally the two things that get me writing. As such, today is going to cover a bunch of small things that for which I have been grateful recently.

Thing 1: Mason is an amazing kid (I'm nothing if not redundant, I know).
On Monday, I was on day 4 of an upset stomach (11 years post-diagnosis, I'm still not great at eating with my lactose intolerance in mind). After I picked Mason up from school, I laid down on the couch. Mason took it upon himself to make a snack for himself and Marissa. The two of them ate happily together as I moaned to myself into the couch cushions. Mason finished his snack and came to check on me. As I was laying on my face, he came and rubbed his little hand on my back and asked if I was okay. I assured him I would be fine and told him my tummy was hurting. Mason offered to fetch me some medicine to help me feel better. I declined, thanking him for being so thoughtful, and sat there feeling so proud and grateful for this amazing little man. Then, the dude picked up a dirty diaper I had taken off of Rissa earlier but hadn't gotten around to throwing away, took it outside to the diaper champ and disposed of it properly. He came back in and picked up some video game junk that was on the floor and put it away. Again, I thanked him for his help, and he happily returned to playing with his sister. I just watched him in amazement, overwhelmed by how thoughtful, kind, loving my little man is. I really lucked out the day that kid came to live with me.

Thing 2: Holy crap, my mother-in-law is super freaking awesome!
My in-laws are fantastic generally, but in particular, my mother-in-law rocks. I don't think it's possible for me to deserve such an amazing person in my life, but I'm sure glad I have her. This weekend, she offered to keep our kids the whole weekend. Like, I dropped them off Friday afternoon and didn't pick them up until late Sunday afternoon. The whole, entire weekend. My kids were so happy to be there and had so much fun that neither of them could be bothered to talk to me for more than 60 seconds when I called to check in on them. Landon and I got to rest and sleep in and take it easy the whole weekend, which any parent will tell you is like the best thing you could ever hope to happen, but when we showed up to get the kids, it got better. Upon our arrival, Kelly was taking my favorite cookies out of the oven for us to take home. Then she tells me that she washed all the kids clothes. Then, get this, SHE thanks ME for letting her have the kids. Sometimes, when I am frustrated with my husband, I remind myself that Kelly is part of that package, and it makes it a little easier to get over whatever happens to be bugging me that day. I am so incredibly lucky that Kelly is my mother-in-law. And because I'm actually a selfish and bad person, I secretly hope I never have to share her with anyone else. I'm so glad that my brother-in-law is a bachelor and has no children because my family gets to have all of Kelly's love and affection. So lucky are we!

Thing 3: Marissa has become quite the cuddle bug, and I LOVE it!
I know I've talked about this before, but Marissa isn't as affectionate as her brother. I don't know if that's just how she is or if it's because I couldn't co-sleep with her like I did her brother or what. She's just not as snuggly, and that's fine. However, recently she's decided she needs snugs with Mom first thing in the morning. I love snugs in the morning! Landon goes and brings her to me, she nuzzles into my armpit and we snug for as long as I have time to before I have to get Mason ready for school. It's been awesome to get this affection from my little girl, and it's starting to spill over to other parts of the day. Like, if I go and lay down on the couch when she's watching her show, she is thrilled to snuggle into me for the duration. In fact, the other day when I was feeling sick, she happily snuggled me while she watched movies and shows most of the day. It was like heaven, having her happy to be with me, sitting still and staying out of trouble. Believe me, I'm taking advantage of this cuddly period because, with Marissa, who knows how long it will last. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to love on my baby girl for the first time since she was tiny!!