a little perspective and a little laugh

In my professional life, there have been many things I have experienced/heard/seen pretty much on  a daily basis that help me put things in to perspective in my own life and be grateful, humble, and want to go home and hug my husband and son. This week probably took the cake on those experiences.

In the town I work in there was a fatal car accident that killed an innocent family due to road rage of another person. In that family, four were killed and one survived thus far. One of them that was killed was a 5th grader at the school I work in. I did not know this kid and he wasn't a client of mine but in the role that I am in at the school I went around with the principals and school counselors to the classes this boy was in as they told them of the accident and the death of their classmate. A lot of them, this was how they found out who died in the accident for the first time. I haven't seen many things if anything sadder than a room full of kids and a teacher and staff crying over the loss of their classmate and student. I talked with several kids who were friends with him that were having a rough time with it as to be expected.

Several things are really sad about this incident. One, these people were completely innocent in this situation and just happened to be the car the reckless people hit. Two, everyone was killed but one. That one still may not make it but even if they do they have to learn of the deaths of the rest of their family members. It has been a lot to take in.

I hesitated about writing this post but decided to anyways. One I felt like I needed to get it out and two it makes you think or at least it does me. Life often changes in a blink of an eye. I have had different experiences like this before in my life where something happens to make you realize just how precious life is and how we are truly blessed in so many ways that we take for granted from day to day. My prayers and thoughts are with the family, the school, and the students and I am asking for your prayers as well.

Now for a little laugh that is much needed after such a dark and ugly post.

(picture taken with my phone and not the best quality)

This is my silly son at his friend's birthday party trying on her dress up heels. Yes he wore them and liked to wear them however he almost fell several times, his foot hung of the edge most of the time, and he cried and threw a major fit when we had to take the shoes off to go home.

you gotta take the bad with the good

This week has been a stressful week (already) for a couple of reasons. I think the first thing started last week as I put on my favorite jeans for work and realized they were awfully tight. I could get them on and could manage them okay standing up but sitting down was not at all comfortable. Then this week as I try to figure out what is going on. Was it those jeans that shrunk or have I just gotten bigger? Well to my dismay I have just gotten bigger as when I tried on my other jeans, the majority of them were either uncomfortably tight or I could not button them.
What puzzles me is I really didn't think I was eating any differently. I bring my lunch to work and have lately not been super hungry at night. I normally eat relatively healthy. To make this matter worse is most people don't want to hear when a small person like myself complains of gaining weight so there are only a few people that I can talk to who understand. It's not that I care how much I weigh, in fact I haven't even stepped on a scale. I don't care what size you are it never feels good to not fit in your clothes. So, I have started back to running, done a lot of crunches and leg lifts, started drinking more water, and trying to better watch what I eat (and I say that very loosely).
My other problem is my migraines started back daily again. I don't know what is up with that. I am off birth control and on the same preventative that was helping go for over a week with out one. So, I have a message in with my doctor to see if I need to increase my medication or change it. He talked about putting me on a Betta blocker. I recently talked to a co-worker who just started on one and it helped he tremendously with her headaches. He kind of hesitated to give me it at first because it is for high blood pressure and my blood pressure is relatively low so it might lower it even more which I guess is not a good thing.
Anyhoo, this couldn't come at a worse time. Since changing jobs I don't have my normal insurance for another month. I only have a short term policy for like if an emergency happens. It doesn't cover a lot, especially on prescriptions. I just have a discount card. For example, the medication that I take when I do have a migraine is $270 without insurance and $218 with my prescription card.  Also, with that medication your only allowed 9 pills a month by your insurance and with me having them every day I can go through that pretty quickly. I am hoping for a return phone call tomorrow from the doctor to try something that might help. I know eventually they would go away since I am off the birth control but I don't want to go every day having a migraine until they do.
The good news is I got a check in the mail from my previous job for my share in the profit sharing of the company. I knew it was coming some time but didn't know when. It is a nice size check and one that I intend to deposit and put all of it to my student loan. It will be a big chunk of what I have left to pay on my loans and not much makes me happier than paying off debt. I know I am weird like that.

Ali's Allies

Today, Nash and I participated in our 3rd annual Easter's Seals walk with Ali's Allies. Well, the first year we signed up and donated but didn't make it because Nash was only a few months old and had a rough night the night before. We walked this year and the year before. Our cousin Ali who has Williams Syndrome is the reason we walk. She receives tons of services through Easter Seals and loves it there. She is such a sweet little girl. Ali and her family has had been through a lot with her physical problems. Her family does an awesome job taking care of her.

The group picture. Our group raised over $1300 for Easter Seals.

This year Kat and Nate joined us for the walk and we all had a great time.

      Thanks to everyone who participated and donated to our team.

An Awesome First Day

Today was Nash's first day at Mother's Day Out. I have been both looking forward to this day and dreading it. Last night did not go so well as he didn't sleep well because of his stopped up nose so I had to wake him up to get him ready for school and I was afraid of how that was going to play into his day but he did awesome!

Nash about to walk out of the door to go to big school.

What's funny is when I took this picture he at first had a hold of his lunch box but it was so heavy from all that it had in it (an ice pack, two sippy cups full of milk and juice, a lunchable, grapes, and cheez its) that he quickly set it down. He likes to wear the back pack though.

On the way to school, I was on the verge of tears but Nash was so happy and excited about big school that I was able to hold them back. When we pulled up, he said "BIG SCHOOL!" and then started rattling off all the things I have been telling him about big school like "I play with friends, I color, I play with toys!". He went in and immediately started playing and didn't even look back. I talked with the teacher some and didn't even say bye because I was afraid I would start crying and I didn't want to make him upset when he was doing so well. I had my cry on the way to work though and got it out. I am so glad he did so well with going. I don't know what I would have done if he cried or didn't want to go. I think I probably would have called into work and sat with him until he felt more comfortable.

So, I called and checked on him about 10ish and the report was that he was doing great and was enjoying story time at the moment. I took off early today so I could pick him up on his first day. When I got there he was so excited to see me and ran to me. He told me about what he did at school and I have asked him a million questions about it too. I got the below report about his day and couldn't have been more happy with how it went. He even sat on the potty twice, ate most of his food, AND took a good nap rather easily.

He did this and decorated his "mail box" today as their art for the day.

I couldn't be happier about how today went and hope every day goes as well as today did.

Big Things are Happening

This week has been a big week for Mr. Nash. Saturday night Chris and I went to a movie and to Babies R Us to order Nash's converter kit to turn  his crib to a toddler bed. We get there and to my surprise they had one in stock. I wasn't really planning on converting his crib this week but since we had it Chris put it together on Sunday. Right away, Nash loved it and did real well. He calls it his "big boy bed" and loves that he can get in and out himself. The first night he went down easy, fell asleep, and stayed asleep all night in his bed.

So, since that was such a success Monday I randomly decide I want to try go wean him off the paci. My thought was I have a week until he goes to Mother's Day Out where they prefer the 2 year old not to have paci's or just have them a nap. So, my thinking was if I take it away cold turkey that would more than likely freak Nash out since he loved it and wanted it so much so I tried the method of cutting the tip off which worked pretty quickly. It was comical to watch him at first put it in his mouth,  try to suck on it and take it out and look at it again trying to figure what was up with the paci ( I had to turn my back to him to keep from him seeing me laugh). I have to give him credit because he is pretty smart. The first time he figured out something was wrong with the paci he said "no Mama, the red paci". Little did he know it had been altered too. So, long story short he did this several times over the last couple of days and has decided that the paci's are broken and he wanted to throw them away. So we have. However, due to this change he has been super whinny at times. It is getting some better. It has been hard for him to go to sleep. That combined with the new toddler bed means I have had to lay with him in his toddler bed (Yes I lay on my side facing the rail with my feet off the bed) until he falls asleep. Any sugguestions of other things that would work I am for. He woke up some during the night the first night but each night thus far has gotten better so keeping my fingers crossed that it will continue in that direction.

The broken paci

As mentioned above Nash starts "big boy school" as I have been calling it next Monday. I have tried to prepare myself mentally, prepare Nash for what to expect, and prepare by getting the things he needs for school. Below is a super cute monkey lunch box and pre-school backpack I found on line that I thought Nash had to have.

He also has a Mickey Mouse blanket and pillow set  coming any day now and a new pair of tennis shoes. So material wise he is all set. However, I am nervous about Monday. It's going to be another big day. I really feel like Nash will do good. As I have been talking about it to him, he gets so excited and tells me pretty much every day that he wants to go to school. I am just preparing myself for a tearful day Monday, calling and checking on him during the day, and rushing there from work to pick him to see how his day went.

TCOYF

This is what my night stand looks like.

As most of you know I was having awful side effects from my birth control. First it was just horrible periods and then it was headaches turned into migraines turned into daily migraines. My last attempt at the pill was the mini pill with a preventative for the migraine and I was having migraines every two days and awful side effects from the preventative I was on. So my doctor advised me and I totally was already there myself to stop hormonal birth control. My only other option (as my doctor's office apparently does not do diaphrams anymore) was a copper IUD.  A friend of mine told me a horror story about it and the cost and etc. I decided not to go that route.

So I went this route. My friend, Kat, uses this method and has been successful at both getting pregnant and not getting pregnant for several years so I thought I would take a look at it. I have borrowed the book and am reading it and starting to use the method and am excited about it.

Basically, the book educates you about your body and the whole ovulation process. So, in a nutshell you chart your waking tempature every morning before getting out of bed and chart it along with other signs your body is giving you to let you know if you are fertile or not. I have just started charting and I started mid cycle and right after getting off homromal birth control so I am going to give it a couple of months to totally rely on it once I can tell what my body is doing and be more comfortable with it.

I am excited about it for several reasons. The main one obiviosly is I am glad to be off hormonal birth control and not have so many migraines. My migraines are getting less frequent and will eventually stop once the effects of the hormonal birth control gets out of my body. Also, I am kind of a nerd and I am excited to be educated on my body and being able to know what it is doing.  Another thing I am excited about is normally I am pretty regular and I hope I will get back to that soon. Once you kind of have it down you can short cut the charting to a little over a week a month where you can track the fertile phase and then be done with it until the next one comes.

Yes, if I could just take a pill and not have to worry with it I would probably do that because that sounds so much easier. However, this method makes perfect sense. Once you have it down it really isn't that time consuming, I will know exactly what my body is doing and can use that info to both avoid pregnancy and possibly get pregnant again in the future.  An interesting fact the book talks about is that women are only fertile for a short while (about a week). Men are fertile twenty four seven but women most of the time have the hassle of birth control and all the other "side effects" that come along with it. Never thought of that before.

Sick

Ughh...I hate being sick. I woke up early Sunday morining around 3ish with a migraine, nausiated, and cold chills.  The migraine and nausia went away  with medicine but all day Sunday it felt like I was drugged. I couldn't stay awake. Good thing Nash was being good and wanted to watch some of his movies. Then I took the entire nap with Nash and could of slept more. I layed down all afternoon in and out of sleep.
Today, I am home sick and I hate it. I have slept most of the morning and just got enough energy to get on the computer some. I woke up  this morning with the intentions of going to work but when it was all I could do to shower and I still felt tired after 10 hours of sleep I figured I better stay home.  Tomorrow, I am going to make myself go. I don't like missing work espically a new job that I am still learning. They are real understanding but I don't like it. Also, I don't like laying around all day feeling lazy and not at all productive. Maybe, I will be better tomorrow. Hopefully.