Flurries???

Ok, so this is what snow flurries with no accumulation look like in our neck of the woods........
This afternoon around 2 .......

And at 6pm..........
I will update with a pic when I get up in the morning and see what these flurries really amount to. Weather I tell ya, you just never know what to expect.

My Favorite Room

This week over at An Iowa Mom she is asking all of her reader to tell her a little about ourselves. Today we are supposed to blog about our favorite room and post a pic.

My favorite room of the moment is the dining room, quite simply because of this brick wall. We moved into this townhouse in September from an apartment in the same complex. It was pretty much sight unseen so the first day that I came in and saw it I was in love instantly. Not with the whole place mind you but with this wall. I just love the look of it. Kinda makes decorating hard, but we were lucky that previous tennants had some screws in there already so we just kinda hung stuff where there was a spot.


My other favorite that I have to mention is my penguin collection. When I was pregnant with Bubba, I had a dream that I was at an aquarium and a penguin got loose. We were inside a building and people were chasing this poor penguin to no avail. As we were walking down a hall, the lost penguin ran up to me and jumped into my arms. Reluctantly I gave him over to the proper officials, but as a reward I got to go meet the killer whale, another of my faves. So, after Bubba was born, I began collecting penguins. I am suprised at how many penguins I come across, even from years ago. I am quickly outgrowing this little shelf and am going to have upgrade.

Works for Me: Cutting down the after school tantrums

Bubba goes to preschool 4 days a week for a whole 2 and a half hours a day. When he gets off the bus though, the whining insues followed by the tantrum when we get inside because he wants a snack not lunch. We have the same fight everyday and I have yet to figure it out, that is until the other day.

Bubba got off the bus as usual and started his normal routine. We got inside and he stood at the gate crying for a snack while I was getting ready to fix lunch. Then it hit me!!!! Let him help. So, for the past few days he gets to cross the kid free barrier into the kitchen and make lunch with mommy. Not only does the whining and crying stop, he eats lunch!

I start work on Dec 1st, but until then Bubba will be helping mommy make lunch on a daily basis.

Be sure to stop over at Rocks in My Dryer for more great Works for Me Wednesday links.

Strange News Tuesday

So, I decided to start Strange News Tuesday as my own special weekly post. I am fascinated by dumb criminals and strange news so I thought this would be fun! Feel free to join in, just comment here and link back to me please. Also feel free to use my image.

Our first story comes to us from Fl and The Stuart News.
Boy Allegedly Hits Mom With Saw, Offers Her $5
If nothing else the title makes you say what, but the story gets better. Apparently this 11 year old boy got mad when his mom tried to make him take his meds. He left the house and was found by mom at another location hitting a tree with a saw. So, she does what I am sure any of us moms would do and went up to her son. He then turns and hits her in the head with the saw. SAY WHAT???!????!??? Ok, there is more to this story, this poor boy is troubled and has tried or threatened to do things in the past, but at any rate he hit her with the saw, in the HEAD!
Realizing what he had done he begins to beg mom, who let me remind you is now bleeding from being hit in the head, not to call the cops and trying to bribe her with a whole $5. How funny this scene must have been. This 11 year old begging mom not to call the cops, "please mom I will give you $5 not to call the cops, I didn't mean to hit you in the head with a saw."
Good news I guess here is that mom did indeed call the police and the boy is facing an aggravated battery charge.
Follow this link to read the story in its entirety.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check back next Tuesday for the next Strange News Tuesday.

Pay it forward Friday

While looking at blogs today I came across An Iowa Moms blog. She does this great thing called Pay It Forward Friday where you visit one of your blog roll blogs, leave a comment, then visit one of their and so on. I thought it looked like fun so here we go. Don't forget to click the pic above and check ou the other Pay It Forward Friday links.

My first stop off my blog roll was Rocks in My Dryer, a daily stop for me. She has some great posts with weekly posts to look forward to like Works For me Wednesday and Saturday Linkage.

From Rocks in My Dryer I made my way to Don't Try This At Home. I may have to add this to my daily lists of blogs that I visit. Granted she hasn't posted in a few days but heck aren't we all guilty of that? At least I will have something to look forward to when she does post.

From there I made my way to Scribbit. This is written by a mom in Alaska, and I LOVE her creativness. I am a crafter want to be and am feeling inspired by her acorn crafts and edible pilgrim hats. Stop by and check her out!

Well, sadly that brings me to an end of this Pay it Forward although I am off to check out Scibbits blog roll. I am looking forward to next weeks pay it forward. Until then have a good week!

A little pain, but less stress.

Well better late then never!



Bubba has been fighting an ear infection for over two weeks now. We ended our meds on Saturday and that night he began running a fever. So, even though we already had an appointment scheduled for Wed., I called Monday and we were seen right after lunch.

Bubba was already freaking out since last time we were there the Dr. had to clean the wax out of his ear and accidentally scraped his ear canal when he moved. So, she goes to look in the ear again and it is full of wax again and his throat is red. She decided to swab his throat while we already had him on the table. Well, that triggered his gag reflex and the emptying of his stomach contents. Then she sent in a nurse, well two nurses, and they flushed his ear out. A few minutes later it was determined that he still had an ear infection.

So, his Dr. prescribed Augmenten. Now, Bubba will NOT take medicine and I have to mix it in his milk, which usually works well. So, we struggled with it for 2 days and decided today that we weren't getting it in him and made the call to the Dr. They told us to come in for a shot.

Let me just tell you. I hate to see my little guy in pain. I also hate that since the last few times he has gone to the Dr. have been what his mind see as traumatic, I am going to have a hard time getting him to go again, but it is so worth it to know that he is getting the medicine.

So, for a few minutes of screaming and crying and a little pain later, my baby is on his way to healthy ears. I know it may not win me the mommy of the year award, but it beats the vomiting that can come along with him taking meds, and the stress of me worrying about him not getting his meds.

Make sure you click on the logo at the top of my post to get other great Works for me Wednesday post by some of the wonderful bloggers on thje net.

Disgustingly cute!

SO, today I have a parent teacher confrence with Bubbas teacher. Bubba goes to special needs preschool and last year it was run by the county this year by the city. That would be ok if they kept any of the people from last year that worked with the kids but they changed everyone from the therapists to the bus drivers and he has even had 3 of those so far and getting a new one Monday.

When we went in for open house and met his teacher my fears were realized. She is straight out of college, which is not a terrible thing, but just some things she has said and done in the short span of the year worry me. To top it all off she is young and disgustingly cute.

I asked her if the OT (occupational therapist) and ST (speech therapist) would be there as they would attend last year, and she said no that it was hard to have a time when they would all be able to meet together. So I told her that Bubba was going for an OT assessment so that we could get him some extra OT and she says "Have you tried having him squeeze one of the squishy balls while he watches t.v."? Ok, this came after I explained that he was having behavior problems and had just started scratching and biting us again.

When I asked her what they did in OT at school she says well I know they are working on cutting and handwriting. So I asked if they did sensory things like tactile play or swinging and explained how much calmer he was after swinging and she says "too bad we don't have access to a swing."

So, I am going to this meeting at 8 and really hoping to not become "that parent" today. You know the ones, where teachers shutter at the thought of a conference or IEP meeting. But, if I have to be that parent to get what my Bubba needs then so be it. Look out school Bubbas mommy is on her way.

Beddy Buddin

Ok, so having a speech delayed child can be a extremely funny thing! Take this conversation for instance.

Bubba coming out of potty :"uh-oh my beddy buddin"

Mom "say what"

Bubba "My Beddy Buddin, fix it"

Mom "say what!? Show me what you need help with"

Bubba "My beddy Buddin" while pointing to his button on his pants.

At this point I was cracking up and could not hardly talk. I knew he was saying belly button but I could not figure out what he needed me to fix.

Sorry for a short post today, I have two kiddos rolling in the floor asking to go outsiide and according to Bubba he "needs" to play outside. Since the weather man says this is going to be the last time this year that we see 70 I guess I need to take them out, so out we go only to retun in a few min with the inspiration for tomorrows post I am sure.

Bubba Tested Mommy Approved

Well, this is my first of what is hopefully many Works For Me Wednesday posts. If you click the pic above you will find yourself at not only a wonderful blog, but today a place to find all the information you need to arm yourself with for Christmas shopping for the little rugrats in your life.

Bubba is a rough and tumble boy who puts his toys through more tests then toy creators could ever think of. Below you will find a list of some of his and our faves.

Disney Pixar Cars Toys :
This link will send you to a page that contains all things Cars related. Bubba has a ton of these cars and some that we have even had to buy twice. He crashes them, submerges them in water, and a few have made it down the steps or have bounced off a wall or two in a tantrum. He loves the new mini cars which is just their way of making us restart our collection. He plays with these cars over just about anything else. I guess this is why we are panning on spending what we think is a crazy amount for the car eating Banchee this year. But, we KNOW he will play with it.

Thomas the Train:
Who doesn't love Thomas if you have a boy? Bubba LOVES his choo-choos, and we have found that the wooden sets frustrate him because they are constantly falling apart. Last year we bought him some of the Take Along Thomas sets and he now plays tear free. He is even getting to the point where he can put it together himself. These are great because when you are done the track fits neatly inside whichever house or building they came with. Nice and easy most of the time. I have found it is just easier to teach him to clean them up if I keep the tracks and trains in a bucket and a seperate spot for the buildings.

These are a few of our favorite things. I would list girl toys, but Monkey just isn't into toys all that much unless it involves stealing what Bubba has and having him tackle her to get it back. Someday she will learn she doesn't like to be tackled, that or I may end up with the first woman NFL player.

Make sure to head on over to Rocks In My Dryer for more great toy ideas!

I DID IT!!!!!

I voted for the first time EVER!!! I am so proud. I finally have the right to complain about who is or isn't in office and how their decisions are affecting my life, or at least how I think they are affecting me lol.

So I will paint you the picture.
"Prepare to wait in long lines as record numbers turn out today to vote" local news reporters are telling me. So, I decided to get brave and go with one child in tow, Monkey is pretty good especially in large crowds where her shyness tends to kick in. Well, that is until some stranger talks to her then she has to tell the all about Bubba going to school on the bus lol, guess it could be worse.

I decided that I would check out the parking lot and see if I could judge the masses inside, from the outside it looked like a smooth process. No one was camped outside and there were actually cars leaving the parking lot with people wearing their I voted sticker, so I braved my way in, snacks in pocket to subdue Monkey should too many strangers talk to her.

We walk in and to my shock there were about 5 people in line waiting for one of the 5 booths. So I tell them my name, prove who I am with my ID, and get my glorious card to slide into some mysterous slot to be found later. Only one stranger decided to be brave enough to talk to the toddler attatched to my leg so the wait was rather smooth, then it was MY TURN!

I swear I could hear some sort of presidential music playing as I walked up to the machine and read the instructions. Then to my suprise fireworks began firing when I slid in the card to activate the machine and pressed the button to get going. Then it all came to a screeching halt. I KNEW who I wanted to vote for for president, but for all the other foreign names that were on my screen I was frozen. So, I did what any good human would do, I first went by the party that matched who I voted for president and if that was not an option, I went with the best sounding name. I know I know not the best way to do things, but it got me through the process. I was sad when there was no cheering crowd when I was done, but am proud to say that survived. I am also proud to be able to say that I VOTED!

Silly Ear

This past Wednesday night Bubba was falling asleep and told me that his ear felt silly. So, being the wonder mommy that I am I told him to go to sleep and it would feel better when he woke up. He woke up once and told me it was feeling silly again but went back to sleep so I figured it was water in his ear.
When he woke up Thursday once again his ear was still silly so after I sent him off to school with a note about said silly ear I made a Dr's appointment. When Buuba came home and found out that he was going to the Dr he said it was all better lol, but did not melt when I told him we were going anyway so I crossed my fingers for an event free appointment.
So we show up at the Dr's office and wait our turn in the lobby where we were able to practice for trick or treating that night (yes our town changed t.o.t night to Thurs. Don't get me started) with the witch that is walking around passing out candy. Finally Bubba is called back and it's show time. He HATES having his ears and mouth looked at. She looked in his ears first and decided to take the crazy I mean smart route and clean out his ear so she can see better. Three people and lots of screaming later we held him down long enough to learn that he did in fact have an ear infection.
So I am going to spend what is left of the 10 days mixing medicine into his sippy cup and trying to hide the taste, praying that he does not taste it and throw up everything in his stomach in the process. So far so good.

Wonderful blog I just found

This is a great new blog that I have found through my hunt for free stuff this week. There is a new post every Tuesday written by Karen, or recently her husband Todd, about their lives as parents. I highly suggest checking it out and scrolling down a few posts to find out what KTSIKIFOTSO stands for ROFL. It is a great blog so click on the pic above and check it out. You can also check out http://www.sillymonkeez.com/ for some great Monkey gear lol. Some great stuff there.

Welcome

So, this week begins Bloggy Giveaways Quarterly Bloggy Carnival you can check it out here since I can't get Blogger to link it right now. http://www.donttryit.com/bloggy_giveaways/ Thanks to checking out so many georgeous and wonderful blogs today though I decided to try to become a bloggin member of society. So here is the start lol, but don't get too excited yet since a few minutes ago there were over 800 different blogs listed with giveaways, I am going to be one busy momma this week. So, in the meantime check out the link above and enter to win some fantastic stuff!
Off to comment some more,
Bye for now.