Do I feel lucky? That is an understatement. I have a daily reminder of just how lucky I am…ok…so I guess you wanna know what my reminder is and why I’m lucky…well…I tell you…the first thing that came to my mind when reading the prompt for today’s blog was my Pregnancy with miss Savannah…You see I was in Virginia for the majority of the term and boy was it rough…I worked at Walmart as a stocker. That got changed to light stocking when the dizziness and seeing stars started.. And of course they put me in stocking the babies section… coincidence.. I think NOT! Well I just kept getting worse…at first the doctors thought it was my sugar..so…I carried little peanut butter crackers around work with me…then they switched me to Cashier so I didn’t have to lift anything thinking it was the stress…well…none of that helped…I was still seeing spots, getting dizzy, sick to my stomach, swollen, and migraines (which mind you when you are pregnant the meds to get rid of the migraines are non existent )…it was miserable…I went back and forth doctor to doctor with problems….then one visit my blood pressure was up enough that the doctor said no more work…soo…I hang out at home…it wasn’t too bad to begin with…by then I was about 6 months along…well it drastically got worse, I was tired…and I don’t mean a little tired I mean so tired that getting up out of bed to go take a shower wore me out so bad that before I could even get dried off and dressed I would lay down on the bathroom floor and sleep…and of course woke up wet, cold, and tired
Then talk about stress..my uncle wasn’t doing well and he was in the hospital..I get a phone call from mom…”you might want to come home and see him, we aren’t sure how long he is gonna make it”….so the next day I call my doctor, mind you i’m 8 1/2 months along and have been told bed rest only! But it is my UNCLE!!! Mind you I had a large attachement to him…more so than some may have but I didn’t have a father growing up and he and grandpa were my subs And good ones too…so…the doctor tells me ok…go…but we contact the hospital my uncle is at to make sure they take my insurance in case anything were to happen…ok…so I get back home…see poor Steve and my mother looks up at me and says…”you don’t look too good” So she gets a nurse to check my blood pressure…I think no biggy..this is all over the stress of Stevie!!! But the nurse isn’t happy…not that I blame her..140 over 105 isn’t a good set of numbers…so they lay me down on a bed to try and calm me down so numbers will drop…in the mean time my mother goes to check on Steve. Well…the nurses come in and out and all the while the numbers just keep rising…slowly but still rising…so they call a doctor..the doctor comes in…by talking with me he finds out what I’ve been fighting for the past couple of months and turns to a nurse and says put in a catheter and get an iv in…so WOOOHHHH what’s going on! He got my records and he was NOT a happy camper…He couldn’t believe the doctors in VA hadn’t told me much…I remember them (VA Doctors) saying if we don’t call then your tests are all fine…so…I never thought anything of it…but this doctor panics when he sees it all together…He claims that I have been showing signs for Pre eclampsia for a LONG time…ok…not bad…well not great…but not that uncommon…the panic…well…left untreated or managed right and poof now I have toxemia …well…he explains this to me as he puts it “my baby is taking too much from my body and if not brought into this world immediately I will begin having seizures, stroke, possibly go into a coma, and then die, both of us!!!” Sooooo…C-section it is…my mother comes back to the room to find out…yep…she is gonna be a grandmother NOW! Well not so fast there doc…the nurses say they can’t get me ready for a c-section…I just ate…so…the iv goes in and some meds are administered with the warning of this is gonna probably burn…HAAAA that is a joke…I felt like my whole body was on fire!!! I was told the meds would help the blood pressure go down so I would get through the night and they could do the c-section in the morning…ok…so they give them to me…but the numbers aren’t going down….at 170 over 130 they take the phone out of the room, turn all the lights out…turn all monitors away from me so I can’t see them..all buzzers and noises are silenced…all in hopes that it will help…well…I had a LONG night! By morning I had no neck I was swollen sooooo much…and of course still had the high blood pressure…high enough that the anesthesiologist wasn’t too happy about giving me any kind of meds from his end…so into surgery I go…Well duh…Miss Savannah was born at 8:28 am on 8/28/03 ! Now how cool is that! And 100% healthy…a surprise to the doctor…

So yet again…one little prompt brought back sooo many memories…So I can honestly say that every morning I wake up to a reminder that not only am I lucky to have a healthy little girl…but I’m also lucky to be alive! So YES I am very lucky!

Share This

hmmm…now that is a very very hard one…we actually counted our ornaments last year to find out how many and scared ourselves…800…so you might well imagine why it is hard to pick a favorite! When I was only a baby my mother started the “get her an ornament every year” routine and it stuck…of course if everyone does that it adds up That and of course mothers being mothers, mine several years just “had” to get more than one..One of those..”it is just sooo cute”, or “doesn’t that just scream Kristen”. Ok…so she was usually right..or actually always right..I’ve loved every one of my ornaments..so I guess you can say I’m an ornament fanatic..well..yeah I know it sounds weird but I guess I am…I know…maybe there is a Ornaments anonymous group for us adicts…ok..or I doubt it…but it would be kinda cool to show them all off…now see…there I go…pretty much no one but me wants to see all my little ornaments…

Ok…so back to the question at hand..my FAVORITE ONE. So after all that I guess I really do have a fav…My Granny started the snow babies collection for me and I have to say that the set that spells out Joy is at the top of my list..Those simple little ornaments remind me every year as I’m begrudgingly tromping through the cold for a real tree (gotta have real there is just nothing like that smell), then fighting with the lights…you know…the ones that inevitably have a few that don’t work and you have to search the whole string…then lugging all our decorations out of storage…and then to the ornaments….I get to that set and it is like a kick in the head of “hello…duh…that is what all this is about”

Getting to see my family has become an amazing event (yes I know..I sound like I’m getting old..and I’m not..) But I really did finially have to grow up and admit it isn’t always about who gets the most gifts or what they got…

It’s the look grandpa gives grandma because she just had to move that snowman yet again! “It has to be just right” as she would say. Or driving up the driveway at night seeing all the little candles in the windows and a pretty wreath on the door…with of course the ribbon that was tweaked and tweaked till perfect. Seeing the pure smiles on people’s faces when seeing family they hadn’t seen in a while..or listening to all the old stories…because of course, you get everyone together and those stories you put in the back of your head and never wanted to mention again manage to be at the for-front of someone else’s thoughts that evening Its the smell of fresh fudge..or getting to like the batter bowl…you know you’ve all done that…it just gets to be extra special around the holidays because DUH there are a LOT more of those bowls It’s finding the best card ever! We all took notes from Grandpa!!

Needless to say time has gone and we are a few family members short this year. But we are pulling together like always and I’m sure will still have some of those stories to tell, the licking of the bowls (Savannah is around now so gotta share), and Tons and TONS of laughter and a few tears..With my new camera I get to throw in photographs galore right…And whoooo hoooo…add another ornament to the stack…

Now WHHHHEW…Can you believe one little question like that made me think and I guess in this case type soooo much… so..ask yourself…what is your favorite ornament or decoration…and what is it’s story

Share This

Ok…so it wasn’t me as a newlywed, not that much has changed even once I got married! Lets see…how about the time that I wanted to make snicker doodles like grandma used to make soo..I get the recipe from grandma. First of all…let me say to this non cooker I about panicked when I saw a measurement that said a “pinch”…what the heck is a pinch? Or how about the one that said “dash”…yet again…I was lost…so I guess…get it all mixed up…it smells right…looks right…even the dough tastes right…but once cooked do you think it was right??? NOPE! I didn’t get cookies I had little snicker doodle CAKES! Ok…so that was go number one…well I really really wanted to do this…so the next go around I beg grandma to help…so she measures everything and all I do is stir, make balls, put on the cookie sheet and bake…no fail right?? WRONG! They still turned out like cake…well we were both baffled this time…so grandma wants to make another batch..this time she did it the next day when I was at school…so no help from me..And yep you guessed it…they were cookies, not cake, and WONDERFUL!!! Needless to say that was the first of many cooking disasters I would make and was the beginning of my end in the kitchen! So I got smart, I married a GUY that cooks! Yep ladies, I don’t cook the hubby does, and he cleans..this mother of 1 wiffeypoo only has to do the laundry…and heck most of that gets to go to the cleaners so I even get out of that I know…lucky me!!!

Well…no one is home right now and I’m hungry…so yes…I’m off to brave the kitchen…that very foreign section in our little home..

Share This