Monday, December 31, 2012

My YeAr In ReViEw 2012

This year has been a rough year for me. It has also been filled with many good memories and blessings as well.  So as my nose drips continually down my face, on this New Year's Eve, let's review the wild and wonderful happenings of 2012.

ThE BaD,  tHe UgLy, aNd ThE bUgS

1. The year of firsts without my mother (The Grief 365 Badge)
2. My female surgery in January ( A Scrape, A Burn, 6 Incisions, 4 Units of Blood, and a Little Heart Shaped Suprise
3 .Moving to Kentucky (see any of the 5 posts from 5/12/12-6/30/12)
4. The Ant Infestation, the first one of my life.  I did not post about it, because I was too busy in hand to ant combat!
5. Breaking my leg at Roanake Island Festival Park, on check in day of our second OBX beach trip.  Yeah, that one sucked.  BIG time! ( Top 42 Things I Have Learned So Far From Breaking My Leg,   Even More Things I Have Learned From Breaking My Leg, and GoodbyeHardware;NakedMommyAloneTime )
6. Spiders (Mommy Lesson #35-Bravery and Today's Random Thoughts)
7. The major sucky life event that happened 3 weeks before Christmas ( Shakin' the Foundations)
8. Grief (Son Of A......$#@%^ )


ThE GoOd, ThE fUn, AnD tHE bLeSsInGs

1. My wonderful husband.  He is the besand has taken care of me through this rough first year without my mother, and during all my illness.  He has stepped up like a champ!  I love you with all my heart, oh soul mate of mine! But here's a little funny on him, and men in general! (Man Habits I Live With)
2. My beautiful, healthy, hilarious little punkin doo, otherwise know as the 4yo (Mommy Lesson # 36- The Plastic Devil and the Silver Lining, Tears, a Tea Party, and Smuggled Chili, and My 4yo Living Christmas Tree)
3. Vacations. Atlantis, Lexington for a week when the big storm hit, and the power was out, OBX two times, Tennessee twice, and Florida for Thanksgiving(which was the one year anniversary of my dearest mother's death).  I am a very lucky girl.  Best hubs and daddy EVER! (Beach Therapy)
4. Reconnecting with a long lost Aunt, who passed away later in the year. (A Last Afternoon With My Aunt)
5. My 20 year High School Class Reunion (The 20 Year High School Reunion, and The Reunion Review)
6. Connecting with and getting to know my paternal biological sister and other two paternal biological brothers...although why the middle brother's wife defriended us all on FB and nobody knows why, so scratch that, make that 1 bio-bro.
7. Family snuggle time.
8. Daddy and punkin doo hugs and kisses.
9. Family.  I have the best family hands down anywhere.  I love my daddy, Nana, my MIL and FIL, and my GMIL and GFIL. Love you guys!
10. Besties.  I have the best friends a girl could ask for! Love you all! (Oldies, Chocolate, Sex, and Tweezers)
11. The birth of my first nephew.  My brother and sister in law were blessed with a healthy, happy, bouncing baby boy!  Proud Auntie G here!

 
So that is all Folks! After reviewing my good and bad lists, it sure seems like I had a lot more blessings than bad stuff.  Even though the bad stuff was pretty huge.  I feel incredibly blessed.  Blessed with my soul mate, a beautiful child, wonderful stepkids, great parents, wonderful in laws, moving back to my home state of WV soon, and the bestest friends, that would drive 2 hours to hang out for 2 hours on Christmas, or meet me at the drop of a hat when I am in town, or pick up right where we left off friends, that a girl could ask for!  Happy that I am able to blog, and people like what I have to say!  Feeling incredibly blessed and very thankful!  Here's to a fabulous 2013!  Happy New Year  Everyone!




Saturday, December 29, 2012

Christmas Carnage and Temptation

So apparently I am on a roll.  Today is the day that has been earmarked for cleaning up the rest of the Christmas carnage.  You all know what I am talking about.  The half boxes overflowing with each family members stack of new clothes, pajamas, socks, and underwear.  In the living room, and under the tree.  The boxes of blue ray players, GPS systems, iPod docks, surround sound systems, this years new Christmas ornaments, calendars, boxes of candy, stuffed animals, the stack of new movies, new books, the gigantic bags and boxes from grandma and grandpas houses respectively filled with coloring books, glow bracelets, light up necklaces, PlayDoh, and various other little kiddie items, that I do not even want to unpack. The new electron-O-gadget for your child and box that goodness forbid, we ACTUALLY throw away, cough cough sputter. The infomercial toy boxes, the disco ball and box, the new Jim Shore statue and box, the new enormous Disney Barbie castle(ie todays Barbie Dreamhouse equivalent for those of us born in the seventies), and the entire cast of Cinderella in Barbie dolls. The tub toys mermaid contraption, and of course the new Santas little helper Barbie. 
  Okay.  So you get my point.  So to further, my oh so tempting, procrastinator tendencies, of putting off the cleaning up of my house, and restoring order in the wake of the Christmas carnage, are six more things that are making it impossible to get started.  When I woke up this morning, I woke up to the most beautiful snow covered back yard landscape.  The 4yo has been dying to make a snowman.  The last time it sowed, we made snow angels, and played in the snow-mud, but there wasn't enough for a snowman. Today there is.  But the snow bibs, heavy coat, snow boots and gloves are outside, in the car, in the snow.  Argh! Number two, we both woke up this morning with the results of our recent horrible colds coming out of our noses.  Right, yummy.  I blew my nose and out comes yellow.  The 4yo sneezes, and out come two big, long, thick strings of fat mucousy, yellow snot.  Straight down her face, covering her mouth, so she screams, "Mommy, heeeeeeelp, Mommy, Mommy, MOMMY!"  Mommy to the rescue with a roll of toilet paper, while trying not to puke!  We have surpassed the boxes of tissues in this house, we are to the 'toilet paper' stage.   That, dear readers, without little snot machines running around, is the point when all the occupants of your house have exhausted so many boxes of tissues, that you say 'screw it' and resort to toilet paper.  This is because you yourself feel like crap, but mommy isn't allowed to be sick, so you resort to toilet paper to keep from showering everybody, dressing everybody, listening to everybody's increased whining, and dragging everyone to the store for more tissues, in fear that it will inevitabley turn into a full blown shopping trip.  Number three, I have the two most recent issues of my favorite magazine, that I have read religiously since the fourth grade, People Weekly.  I would love to curl up on the couch and just have a lazy reading day, not to mention that Nook gift card I received burning a hole in my purse, but alas there is Christmas carnage to attend to.  *Sigh*.  Number four, our home state of WV, has a team playing in the Pinstripe Bowl today, WVU.  That one is not until two pm, so I may turn that one on while cleaning.  While I went to Marshall University(the smaller in-state rivalry school), I was raised in a WVU household.  We cheer for both.  And last but by no means the least, numbers five and six, my father's Christmas Chex mix and the chocolate no-bake cookies, both of which he is locally famous for.  Every year he and my mother would make these two favorites of mine and my little brothers.  I was so proud of my daddy when he continued the tradition last year, right after we lost my mother. These are foods made with love.  I just want to soak up all their lovey dovey sweet and salty goodness. I am tempted to sit around with my snotty nose, and my snotty nosed kid, and eat chex mix and chocolate cookies all day while we watch WVU in their bowl game, snuggled up under my favorite kitty cat childhood blankie.  Just to make you jealous...
  But I cannot.  I neglected to mention the bedroom full of mounds of clean clothes that need to be folded and put away.  These have been neglected due to the fact that we have been traveling back and forth between WV and KY for the last two weeks.  We have been up I-64 and back eight times in the last two weeks.  I kid you not.  So....hang on a sec............aaaaaahhhhhhh chex mix and chocolate cookie fix.  Yuuuuuumo.  Heaven.  Okay I can think again.  Maybe I can motivate through all these temptations, with the help from a couple of them?  Yes, I think so!  So laundry is in, couple of boxes are emptied, dishes are started, and I think we will go play in the snow before it melts, and satisfy my 4yo's desire to build a snowman!  Then I will tackle the Christmas carnage while watching the Bowl game!  Anybody want to drive to KY to help? Any takers?? Just kidding!  The chex mix is all mine I tell you, ALL mine! Hah! Have a great day!  And for any of you wondering, yes those are my cute little Christmas socks in the picture!

Friday, December 28, 2012

Shakin' the Foundations

It feels like I have not written in forever, with the holidays and all, but I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas with family, friends, and loved ones.  My family had a very good Christmas.
   We have also had a very long and hard three and a half weeks.  One of those situations, you know the ones, that threaten to shake your foundations.  We have come through the worst of it on the other side, but are still working through the middle.  The good news is that we will be moving back to our home state of West Virginia. Yay!  Now to find a house, in West Virginia, while we still live in Kentucky!  We have done nothing but travel back and forth for the last two weeks! I am pooped! And we haven't even started packing!  Here's to hoping our landlord will be understanding about us breaking our lease!
   My husband and I were talking, and just when you get over a life changing event, something else comes along and blindsides you.  Whether it is fate, karma, or God testing you, there will always be trials and tribulations.  That is what makes it life.  It is not what happens to you, but how you deal with what happens. With grace and hope is how we roll.  Oh and me constantly blowing sunshine and positivity!
  Seriously though, after mom dying right before thanksgiving last year, my almost bleeding to death a few weeks later, my surgery last January, recoup time, our moving to Kentucky away from everything and everybody we knew and loved for the next step on the corporate ladder, a year of firsts without mom, breaking my leg in August, convalescing and recuperating , marking the first anniversary of her death, and then being released to walk after a three and a half month broken knee/leg ordeal, I felt like I could breath a sigh of relief. Then the bombshell dropped four days after I was released to walk. Aahh life, why must you test me so?  Just when life gets back to normal, why must you jerk the rug out from under me again?
  Am I the only one who feels like I am constantly being tested?  Like the good in my life must be equaled out with bad?  I am a glass half full kind of girl.  I am the one who finds the positive and the silver lining in everything, and makes the best of sour apples.
  So in the midst of what has already been a crazy almost four weeks, and a crazy packing and moving probable next four crazy weeks, I wanted to do something fun with my 4yo.  So we go to have lunch and she plays at the indoor play park.  We then go to the store and return home.  And what to my wondering eyes appear?  My 4yo and eight bags of groceries round my feet , crowded near. 
  Okay, okay, wait just a second.  That is entirely too cheerful for what just happened.  Chuckin' the cheerfulness out the door, or in the door if I could!  We have one of those pesky insert, push while your jiggling side to side, front doorknob locks, that you simultaneously have to pull and up and down twist and baby.  Wiggle, wiggle, push, twist and up, and down and wiggle and jam some more.  It is seriously bordering on the pornographic what you have to go through to get into my house.  So tonight the babying took on a new meaning.  Begging and pleading entered the picture.  As I juggle my 4yo, the groceries , and my purse, the key breaks off in the lock as I am babying it.   Guess it's seen a lot of use huh?  Anxiety rushes down my spine.  I try to remain calm and not spout the plethora of colorful curse words that enter my head, as I try to figure out what to do next.  I try to insert the rest of the key, and push, and shove, and turn, etc.  All to no avail.  Well, actually, the broken piece did go in a little farther.  So now I am determined I can shove it in the rest of the way, and get my child out of the freezing cold and inside our warm, toasty house.  Idea number one was a fail.  I put the 4yo back in the warm car, while I march back to the front door, determined I will beat this door.  My husband has tried to show me how to jimmy a lock several times.  I was not a proficient pupil.  Next time I will pay attention. I call my dear old hub, who is at work out of town, and tell him what has happened.  He walks me through how to jimmy our current door.  I tell him I will try, and let him know if we get in or not.  No such luck.  I am a weakling.  Where are my pro fitness and bodybuilding brother and sister in law when you need them? Oh, hah, that's right , in WV, where we should be! ARGH!  Never mind the fact that we don't have a spare key.  My husband used to work right down the road, and I have been a stay at home mom.  Not anymore can I just swing down the road and grab his key.  So a little foresight would have been helpful in this thirty degree situation.  Okay, what to do now?  I peer across the street at the only friendly neighbors we have.  Both their cars are home.  Maybe just maybe they will help poor little old stranded me.  I am desperately trying to remember if we gave them anything yummy back in June, when the power was out for a week, and when we left to hole up in a hotel, we gave them the remaining contents of our fridge.   So I call the mom across the street.  I tell her it's me and I have an emergency, and ask if I can borrow her husband.  I then explain the situation, realizing that the first sentence out of my mouth sounded a little suspect, and if she has just seen what I have been doing to our front door, she probably wouldn't lend him to me!  She said sure, she would send him right over.  She is a doll!
   So Mr. next door neighbor comes over, and I explain the situation, including a descriptive narrative on what I do to our doorknob every day to get it open.  The funny part was, he brought some foamy white greasy stuff to help.  Bahahahaha!  So I tell him how my husband described how to jimmy the lock.  So he tries it.  As he is trying it, he tells me he has never done this before.  Great!  I just turned Mr. next door neighbor into a dirty felon!  But it works, the door popped right open!  Choruses of Hallelujah fill the air...wait, that was only in my head. I profusely thank Mr. next door neighbor for saving the day. Then we proceed to chat for a little bit.  Then I get the 4yo out of the car and into the warm house.  She gives Mr. next door neighbor a hug, a thanks, and a branch from a tree in our yard! Hah! Four year olds!  Sooooo...we are safely in the house ,the groceries are in the fridge,  the end of my front door key is still safely in the lock, and I owe my neighbors some  chocolate chip cookies!  See?  Negativity gone, and positivity back as the warmth seeps into my bones, and I put on my favorite pajamas.  Plus when I logged into Blogger to write this lovely post for you, I got an eleventh follower! Yay me!  Simple things make me happy! Welcome and happy and hilarious reading!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Tattler Thursday

OK, it's official! It's time to take this page interactive! Today is the first ever Tattler Thursday! Sponsored in part by my lil punkin doo being up half the night hacking, coughing, drowning in a sea of snot while trying to breathe, with an icky cold. Yes dear readers, the snotties, coughing, hacking, poopies, and congestion have hit our house. So it's time for you to tattle! Time for all the stories about the yuckies from in the trenches parenthood! Yes mommies and daddies, aunties and uncles, and grandparents too, it's time to spill all of those hilarious, gross, and nasty stories! Stories about poop squishing out of diapers, bff's babies using your mouth for target practice, puking all over grandpa's sweater, pooping everytime a child is around a certain grandparent, sticking your hand in it, etc. Anything goes!  So ready, set, GO! Get to tattling! Leave your tattle tales in the comments below, or in the comments section of this post on my blog, wildwonderfulgingerssnaps.blogspot.com! I can't wait for you to start cracking me up! Happy posting!

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Oldies, Chocolate, Sex, and Tweezers

It has been almost three weeks since my last post.  I know, I know, you all thought I fell off the face of the earth.  Well here I am! Happy, plucky, cheerful, blowing sunshine up everybodys wazoo, old me! I am back!  My family has had a monumental two weeks.  Our world has been turned upside down, here three weeks before Christmas.  Monumental disasterous upside down.  Like we haven't had enough happen in  the last year, actually the last four years to last a lifetime, but I digress.  So I have been a little busy, and preoccupied to say the least.  I will not go into details, but those of you that pray, please keep praying for my family! 
  So my momma always taught me by example, and in lesson, that when the going gets tough, the women are the pillar of strength for their family, and the tough go to momma.  Mommas are the ones who hold families together(no offense to any awesome daddies out there).  My momma was the toughest old bird I ever had the pleasure of knowing.  Those of you that knew her would definitely agree. I have found this to be true.  Especially in the last two weeks.  Geez, more and more, I am beginning to feel like my mother!  We are starting to see the beginning of the other side.  Baby steps. Even pillars of strength need a release.  That is what this post is about.  Stress relief, not the actual stress.
   When you find yourself in circumstances that do not allow you to openly express your opinion or your personality, but require you to be a perfect little lady, you need a stress reliever.  When you have been too strong for too long, you need a stress reliever.  When you have to be the bad guy, you have to get it off your chest.  When you feel the need to blow off some steam, or else you are going to bite your tongue off, you need a vent line.  When your patience is all out of patience, you need a mini break.  When you are at the point, or feel yourself getting to that point, everybody needs one they can call.  That drop anything friend, that will meet you for breakfast in the blink of an eye, on very short notice, when they already have other plans, that will let you vent long, hard and nonstop about anything and everything that is rocking your world.  They saved lives and they do not even know it!  The kind of life saving friendship, where you have known the person your whole life, that you can pick right back up where you left off without missing a beat.  I am a very lucky girl to have many of these lovely lifelong friends. My "oldies" so to speak.   I would like to thank Miss M for being such a doll and meeting me for breakfast the other morning!  I love you girl!  Thanks for the much needed shot of sanity!
   The other stress reliever in my life is always by my side.  I never leave home without it.  I am in love.  I feel immediately calmer when my hand slides down the cool metal.  As my hand closes, and I get a good grip, I immediately feel more powerful, more in control of my destiny.  As I aim at my target, push the cool metal together and feel it touch the other side and pull, I feel like nothing can touch me now.  As I get my intended target, At that moment, instant relief and self gratification rolls down my spine.  I am then as relaxed as if I have just eaten chocolate or had sex(my other two favorite releases, no explanation needed).  So I aim again, and again, and repeat until I am satisfied.  I seriously cannot leave the house without them.  I freak out if I lose them.  Even if I canot use them at any given moment, I can reach into my purse and touch the cool metal, and it calms me. I use EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I must have them with me at all times, or know their whereabouts.  I confess.  I am an obsessive compulsive tweezers addict.  There is nothing that comes between me and my tweezers.  Except my family these past two weeks.  When we were reunited today in the car, I felt instant relaxation, as all the stress left my body.  All is right with my world again.  Well almost.  Balance has at least been restored to my eyebrows, and that pesky chin hair.
 

Saturday, December 1, 2012

My 4yo Living Christmas Tree

So there I am in the shower.  A blissfully uninterrupted shower.  I can hear my 4yo playing in the living room around our Christmas tree.  Then She comes in and asks,"Momma, can you smell me?"  Oh dear!  So let's rewind a couple of days shall we?
  I had my last doctor's appointment regarding my broken leg last Thursday.  I was given permission to walk.  Words I have been waiting since August the eighteenth, when I broke my knee and leg, rather badly, in two places, to hear(still crutches and cane as needed during therapy).  So I was jumping(ie walking) for joy!  So my daddy met me at my doctors appointment, and we went to have a celebratory lunch after.  After all, it was him and my daughter I was with, when on a family beach vacation, when I fell and started this journey!  So it was appropriate that we were celebrating together!  He brought me a singing feel better frog equipped with a right leg brace(purple of course)and a crutch, and a Yankee candle that I had wanted, that smelled like pine and Christmas.  He also bought me two Yankee candle room sprays.  One that smelled like Christmas, and one that smelled like pine!  I love my daddy!  So fast forward back to today in the bathroom.
   So to answer the 4yo's question, yes I can smell her.  She smells rather strongly, like a gigantic Christmas Tree!  Normally this would pose no problem.  She did not get it in her eyes or her mouth, so wer'e all good right?  Wrong!  We are going to meet my mother in law and oldest daughter for lunch and winter formal shopping with daddy(my husband has the best taste in the family, with eldest daughter a close second.) Shouldn't be a problem right? Wrong!  My mother in law is smell sensitive.  She is allergic to any candles, lotion, perfume, room spray, you get the picture.  So dragging a huggy 4yo who smells strongly like a christmas tree may pose a problem.  We are talking, when we were out of town together in June, she gave us the keys to their truck, and opted not to go with us to dinner, because she was hacking and coughing because I put on perfume.  It is not her fault, but smells make her deathly ill, and give her a migraine.  Albeit, she is a little dramatic at times with the coughing and gagging, but she really is sensitive.  Which has been a learning curve for me , because I come from one big like to excercise out right to perfume family.  So I am now no longer enjoying my solo uninterrupted shower, I am mentally brainstorming a way to tone down and cover  the tree smell.  When I get out of the shower for the first time in four months on two feet, I do no happy happy dance of joy to celebrate, instead I am brainstorming how to not shower, but un-pine spray my child.  Yes MIL is allergic to Febreze too.
   So after clean clothes, powdering my child, lotioning to try to cover up the smell, and taking time to breath and get dressed, we are ready to go and meet the MIL and sissy the oldest.  I can no longer detect the odor.  Hopefully MIL won't be able to either!  We shall see!  If she does, I promise to take a picture of the face that is sure to ensue at my little 4yo living Christmas Tree.