Wanna win something?

Yes, you!  You can win a lovely necklace made from Ethiopian beads!  My friend Tamara is giving away a necklace in honor MB.  It took a long time to get MB home, and my sweet friend Captain Murdock is a little less crazy now that he's home.  You can go see pics of the cutie at her website. 

BUT if you want to WIN a NECKLACE, you need to go read Tamara's blog and leave her a comment.  ALSO, while you are there, you can buy some necklaces and really cool baskets.  Your money will get you these great products, and help widows and children in Ethiopia.  So, go there, look around, comment and maybe have some retail therapy too.   

To sum it up, in honor of this guy (the one in the middle)

go here and comment to win one of these

Then go shopping while you are there, you know, just in case you don't win. 

Beware of the Dot

Yes, that's right, I said it.  Beware of the Dot.

.

Did you see it, that dot. It is SCARY!  I mean, scream in terror scary.  What?  No, the dot is not scary?  Hmmm, tell that to JENNA!!!

Yes, my daughter, the fearless one, the one who jumped off a diving board last summer, the one that jumps off of anything, the one that tries any act, eats anything, the one that squishes bugs on Ant Smasher on my phone (and even got up to 804 points!), the one who's forehead was removed, reconstructed and put back again, yes, that normally fearless daughter is afraid of a dot.

.

It started a couple of weeks ago.  There was this fuzzy dot in the bathtub, like a piece of lint from her washcloth, and she started SCREAMING. Terror, pure terror, like Santa was there or someone was poking her with a fire stick.  Terror.  Sheer fear.  Over a dot.  A piece of lint.  Next to nothing.

I thought, hmmm, weird, toughie is having a hard day. Whatever.  Then 2 nights later, same thing in the bathtub.  Over a small dot in the fish bath mat we've had since Cale was born.  She was FREAKING out.  Even out of the bath, water is gone, we were touching the dot on the bath mat, and she started crying, it hurt me, it hurt me.  Oh. My. Gosh. The inanimate bath mat dot hurt her.   

The next bath was with Cale, and while she didn't cry in terror the whole time, she was still afraid of any dots, pieces of lints, or bubbles that would go by. She sat the whole time in the far corner of the tub, all wadded up, much like an unborn baby.  It was quite ridiculous.  Since then, she's had 2 baths, both of which she took standing up and crying the whole time.  Tonight, she even stood on ONE FOOT so that it was even less of her to be near the dot.  Oh, and tonight the dot that was going to kill her was a scratch in the bathtub.  Nothing I could remove, that's for sure. I did put a wash cloth over it, but when the wash cloth floated away, watch out, BAD NEWS!!   It's back, the dot is back!!!  aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!

I know I cannot make my 2.6 year old daughter realize that this is totally IRRATIONAL behavior and a completely irrational fear. I try to help her see that these things, real or imagined, will not hurt her, that she is safe, that she is fine, that it's just a bath, but she's not hearing any of it!!  And I am thinking that yelling won't help, although my patience is wearing quite thin. And laughing out loud just seems cruel, even though I'd kinda like to. I want to validate her fear and feelings, yet encourage her to be brave. Blah blah blah. Not. Working!

.

So, dear friends, this momma needs help!  Anybody out there have any tips, besides letting her get filthy and develop a rotten stench from not bathing?  And if you are going to say, it's just a phase, forget it, don't even comment! 

And of course, beware of the dot!

.

Big Girl Bed!!

Have you heard that my Jenna is a monkey?  Well, if you hadn’t, now you have. She’s a climber.  Climbs up the cabinets, climbs up on beds, climbs up on the table, climbs up the rock wall on the playset, climbs into her crib, climb, climb, climb.  We were afraid she was getting a BIT to efficient at climbing to be able to stay safely in her bed, so a few weeks ago, we made the leap ourselves to take our baby out of the crib.  Daddy, of course, had no problems.  It’s time, he says.  Mommy, of course, got all emotional. My baby is too tiny for a big girl bed (i.e. her crib with the side taken down).  She’s too little; she’s just a 2 ½ year old baby, IT’S JUST TOO SOON!!!  But one night shopping at Target with the kids, I finally picked up the Minnie Mouse bedding I’d been eyeing for weeks and said to Jenna, do you want a new blanket for a big girl bed??  And so it began. 

Turns out Jenna loves her big girl bed. Loves to jump on it, loves to sneak out of it after nap time to climb on the bathroom counters, loves to sneak out of it during the night to come sleep with us, loves to go try to wake up Bubby in the night to play, loves to come to the living room 294 times after we put in her bed to tell us she needs a drink, to go potty, a snack, to brush teeth, to read books, to see Cale, to snuggle, to watch a show…..you get the picture.  No really, she does fine it her big girl bed for a wired, hyper, active, happy 2 year old.  And I guess really not too tiny for it either.

Jenna’s Big Girl Bed….Daddy took the gate off and made it all nice and pretty for her while Cale and I distracted her in the living room

Climbing in her bed

So happy!!!  She loves her bed!!

She’s snuggled in with Dolly and is ready for sleep!

Ni-night Sissy!!

Change The World Wednesday

A stolen title, a stolen idea...well, let's go with borrowed. You see, my sweet friend Captain Murdock (her mom is crazy for naming her that, huh?!?!) is on her way home from Ethiopia after a fabulous adoption court hearing resulting in the words, "He is yours!"  She started this Change the World Wednesday thing, and since she's on a jet plane on this glorious Wednesday, I took the liberty of stealing or borrowing her title and doing a Change the World Wednesday post.  I'm not saying it's what she'd say or even a topic she'd write about, but it's a post nonetheless!!

On our way to Cale's football game Saturday morning in our small town, we passed a weary looking man wearing very ragged clothes carrying 4 worn loaded bags.  He captivated me, and I said, "Eric, is he a homeless man?  I've never seen a homeless man here.  We don't have homeless people here. I can't believe I just saw a homeless person here."  I carried on so quickly, and if you know Eric, you aren't surprised he just looked at me and said, "It appears he is homeless."  Then I started in with my incessant talking again.  "Doesn't that break your heart? Can we help him? How could we help him?  I wonder where he's going, what he's doing?  I hope his bags aren't heavy."  All the while, Cale and Jenna are in the back seat with their jackets, sweatshirts, pop tarts, water bottles and cozy shoes.  Cale says, "Mom, what's wrong with that man?"  My only response was "He doesn't have a home honey."  

He doesn't have a home.

There are people in MY TOWN where I've lived for all my life and some of them don't have a home. This was shocking to me. I've always thought we were far removed from the city and the problems of downtown, the hurt of homelessness. Now, I've know we have our share of poorness, maybe even poverty.  I know there are struggling families in my town, in my neighborhood, in my kid's school.  But I had never seen a homeless man walking the streets of my town.

Jenna and I dropped Cale and Eric off at the game, and we headed back to the convenience store for some donuts and a cherry coke.  And I drove right past that man again.  I waited to see which way he would head and decided to take my chances and buy him a coffee and donuts.  On our way back, there he was, just making progress in his walk to nowhere.  The song on K-Love was about walking our faith.  I thought it was talking directly to me.  I stopped, he was on the opposite side of the road, and I asked him if he'd like a cup of coffee. He declined. I asked again, saying, "sir, I just bought this coffee for you at the convenience store, won't you take it and warm up a bit?"  He declined again, saying, "I better not. I'm trying not to take things from people."  Again, I can't understand this I guess, so I said, " I bought this coffee for you. Will you please take it?"  Again he declined, reiterating his decision and personal goal not to take things from people. (Why he has that thought, I have no idea.  Maybe it has to do with his circumstances? Pride? His place in his walk? I have no idea.)  And he added, "I'm trying to quit drinking so much coffee."  I finally let the man reject the coffee, said God Bless you dear and left him there, on the side of the road, dirty, cold, carrying a heavy load. What was I to do???

There's another man, I call him Tom. He has a bike with a basket, he carries lots of bags, and he always wears his coat, even in July. I see him frequently around my workplace.  I've asked around, other people that work there have seen him too.  I pray for him when I see him, I even gave him all the cash I had on me one day, all of $8.  That day, I drove past him in the parking lot, but I felt God saying, help him, help him, help him.  I had to BACK the car up, gave him the piddly amount of cash I had and said, God bless you sir.

There's another couple guys, I don't have names for them, that frequent one of the corners on our way to Children's Mercy, when we got to take Jenna for any appointments. Eric says it is not always the same guys, with the signs, asking for money.  I don't know about that.

Change the World Wednesday.  What do we do to change this part of our world??  There are so many homeless, so many hopeless, so many unemployed.  So many reasons for homelessness. Alcohol, drug addictions, job loss, family falls apart, no support system, no money. 

What can you do?  

• pray
• find a soup kitchen, a city mission, whatever
• find a local organization to do volunteer work
• buy someone a cup of coffee and hope you have better luck than I do
• check with your church and see what ministries they or your local minister group has in place already
• if you are in my area, http://www.missionsouthside.org/  They are doing lots of great things around these parts! 
• check with your local city or county government and see how you can help their outreach organization
• call Salvation Army, they can direct you to how you can help
• add to my list!!!!

I'm sure there's other ways to help. I'm sure there are better ways to help.  And maybe this isn't your passion. Maybe yours is homeless pets. Fine, go help them!  On this Change the World Wednesday, get out of your comfort zone and reach out to someone who needs reaching out to.  Do it. Now. GO!!!



Wordless Wednesday - BEAUTY!!

Epic Fail

Our sermon Sunday at church was on Epic Fail.  You know, like when you fail, but not just in a normal maybe no one will notice kind of way, but an epic huge-o gigantic kind of way.  Our pastor was really talking more about when you are urged or convicted to act by the Holy Spirit, but you rationalize your way out of it. And by the time you realize your rationale is stupid (my rendition of the sermon!), you've missed your window to do a really cool God thing and the blessing that would've gone with it. Or you just feel like a big bag of doo doo when you don't do what you thought you were supposed to be doing.  Anyway, I had my own kind of Epic Fail on Sunday....

So, he's preaching on the Epic Fail, and we are reading in Luke 22, and I didn't bring my Bible to church because (are you ready for this excuse) it's just a lot to wrestle my kids, bags, purse and big ol' Bible....see, enter stupid rationale!  My fix for this part of my fail is that I'll use the Bible app on my phone!  How cool, just carrying it all the time.  Well, Joey is preaching, and I am fiddling with my phone, trying to search/pull up the right scripture, and I'm feeling really guilty for playing on my phone, even though I'm looking up scripture!   I finally find it, and I'm scrolling down to find the right verse, and it pops up, audio program loading.  OH NO!  OK, my phone's on silent, so surely it won't make any noise, but I back out of the Bible anyway, just to be sure. BUT all of a sudden MY PHONE STARTS TALKING!!!  It's this really monotonous man voice, and he's reading Luke 22.  And I CAN'T make him stop!!!  I tried to hide my phone, cramming it between my knees and trying to make is stop!  I had the Bible program off, it was on silent, I didn't know what to do!  I finally turned my phone off, but the man kept talking until it actually shut down, which felt like approximately  32 minutes, but was probably more like 32 seconds or less.  Meanwhile, I am cracking up, my mother is cracking up and the Lafferty family in front of me is cracking up. Silently of course!!!  At this point, I'm watching Joey, wanting to make sure he's not heard any of this nonsense, and he is just a preachin away as if I have not disrupted anything. GREAT NEWS!!    Carry on friends!!!

Carry on, until Kendra thinks she's clever and asks the family that sits in front of them if they heard something talking during church. And of course she did. And then Joey chimes in that he heard it too...WHILE PREACHING!!!  And a girl who was sitting in the opposite corner, yeah, she heard it too!!  And her husband who was at the back door, HE heard it too!!!  Joey even said that everyone on the other side of the church was looking our way.  Know what all that means?!?!?! 

EPIC FAIL!!!!

The moral of the story....

When you don't take your Bible to church, it's like going to the pool without your swimming suit.

When you choose to use your Bible app at church, it's like if your swimsuit fell off at the pool!

And a serious side note, I sincerely apologize if my crazy app distracted you at a serious moment for you.  I hope you were able to get back into the sermon!

Oh Strep, You Haunt Me!!!

In the old days or PJ (Pre-Jenna), I would delight in a Strep Diagnosis. I would go to the doctor and say, "my throat hurts and I have a fever, please test me for strep." I would walk away with a sore hiney from the penicillin magic shot that would make my strep throat disappear!  I would take Cale in and say the same thing. A strep diagnosis meant there was medicine to help you!  It meant I didn't have to hear the dreaded "It's just a virus, push fluids" which really means, "sorry sweetie, suck it up, it'll get better in 7-21 days!!!"   Those are DREADED words in my book. However, in AJ times (you know, after Jenna), things have changed.  Ever since our first and hopefully last case of strep head, I am terrified of strep. THEY (infectious disease docs) tell me it was a one in a million thing and that for Jenna to get strep head again, it would be another one in a million chance. Well, I say Jenna likes to beat the odds and can be that one in a million, again.  And need I remind you that I had my tonsils out to eliminate part of the threat of strep.  And I have ordered a bubble to keep her in and am waiting on its arrival...

So, Mr. Cale has been running a fever since Wednesday morning sometime. Nothing seemed to help break the fever, he just kept on being a little hottie, even if we alternated Tylenol and Advil.  So, I called the doctor today and my favorite Nurse Kelly called me back. She suggested that we take him in, strep is going around and he had 3 of the 4 main symptoms...

1. Fever - CHECK
2. Stomach Ache - CHECK
3. Headache - CHECK
4. Sore Throat - no check

So good Daddy takes him in, and the doc takes one good look at him and says, "Oh ya, I think it's strep. Let's do a strep test."  And lo and behold if it doesn't come back positive as strep, which used to woulda been my favorite diagnosis, if a diagnosis had to be made. 

But now....

I am moving Jenna to China til Cale is not longer contagious, which is sometime tomorrow morning.  Because LORD HELP ME if that girl gets strep head again!!!!!