Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

Did anyone happen to catch this show last night on Fox?

At first I pshaww'ed it too, but, can I please tell you HOW hysterical it was? Hysterical because these kids are SMARTER than the adults on the show!

They have a panel of six 5th graders that answer the same questions given to the adults. The contestants are able to get help from the kids (similar to the life-lines on Millionare) if they need to.

The first contestant was a man with a Bachelors, Masters, AND LAW degree, and he did not answer one question on his own. The questions that he earned money for were answered by the student helpers (I certainly hope that they get a percentage, if not, they're getting ripped off!).

You can visit the website and take a test to see if *you* are smarter than a fifth grader.

I took it.

I will not reveal the results...although, I will reveal that I at least scored higher than the first and second grade level.

(D'ohhh!)

I guess I'd better study up before I start helping Colin and Landon with their homework.

What about you?? Are you brave enough to take the test?

If not, at least check out the show. You'll be shocked at how stupid the contestants can look and you can feel.

Random bits of nothing....

Woo-HOO! We closed on the old house yesterday. It's now official. We are the owners of only ONE home.It was a strange mixture of emotions to sign that little house over to someone else. Happy, because who the hell wants TWO house payments, and just a little sad.



Both of our boys were brought home from the hospital to that house. I still remember the blue balloons and streamers all over when we arrived home with Colin. When Landon came home, Kelly and Colin had decorated the driveway for us. I cried when I saw it, but of course that could have been the post pregnancy, raging hormones.(Don't ask about the socks up to his knees. I didn't dress him that day. I think it was my stepmother.)




The couple who purchased it were a good bit older. For some reason, I pictured a younger couple like ourselves...getting ready to start their family like we had. In fact, they are retirees moving down from New York to get away from the ice and snow. Of course, as you can see, every NOW and then, we get a good snow here. Maybe once every ten years anyway. It's normally melted in 2 or 3 days, even after 17 inches covering the ground. I'm sure they can handle it with all the experience they've had though.


She was a hoot. As soon as she confirmed that we were the sellers, she asked if she could give me a hug, and then she smooched me on the cheek. She reminded me a little of my late Grandmother, so I guess it was alright. She couldn't stop gushing about how much they loved the house and how they couldn't wait to move in. She even pulled out pictures they had taken a month or so ago that she's been carrying around in her purse. She wants us to stop by some time and even come over for a visit. I don't know about that. It might be a little weird, especially considering that she has an affinity for wallpaper...ick! We'll see. We still have friends in the neighborhood, so we'll at least ride by. I'm just glad someone is there who will love it as much as we did. Goodbye little house!

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Landon just got his third haircut. It was about time. The poor kid had hair all over the place. She actually used the clippers and really trimmed up the top. My little baby is gone. In his place is a little boy. I know that's really a good thing, but I just can't get over how quickly they grow up. It makes me want another one....ALMOST! Those ten months that Landon didn't sleep through the night even once aren't that far gone for me.

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Instead of singing in church this past Sunday, I worked the pre-school room for a girl who hadn't gone to a service for the past 4 weeks. I'm glad she was able to go, but Oh. MY. Gosh. I was about to DIE in there. One of the worst kids was MINE!!! I'm sure he behaves better when I'm not there, but good Lord! I'm just not cut out to be a pre-school teacher. I think they should all be granted saint-hood, because I was ready to strangle a few after about ten minutes in the room. When we got out, a few people mentioned that they missed seeing me up on stage singing. It was a pretty good feeling. I'll be back this Sunday gettin' my groove on..yippee!! If you're wondering, it's not your normal church choir. It's a praise team, and we sing a lot of mainstream music in addition to contemporay Christian. I love it.

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Both boys have been really sick over the last week and a half. Landon ended up with strep throat, and Colin had one nasty virus. It lasted NINE days people. NINE frickin' days. I had the worst cabin fever I think I've ever had. Colin will finally be going back to school for the first time in a while tomorrow morning. I know that both of us are looking forward to it.

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I think Kelly has strep now too. He's off to the Doctor after work tonight. God forbid I get it because you know, Mommies aren't allowed to get sick. So far so good (fingers crossed, knocking on wood.)

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We have a really cool creek that runs through our new backyard. Saturday, we were outside and we met one of our neighbors. Nice guy with two girls and a SWIMMING pool! Gotta love that. He informed us that he has killed two, large, cottonmouth snakes in the time that they have lived here. Ask me how I feel about us playing in the backyard now. He did say that supposedly mothballs keep them away. I think I just may invest in a large quantity of them once Spring arrives. I wonder if the smell will keep the neighbor-kids away too after I coat the backyard with them?

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The laptop has officially been given to someone else, so I'm back to the desktop computer which is in the basement. That means that I won't be on as often as before, which in all honesty, is probably a good thing.

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I'm off to start on dinner. I have cooked a LOT in the last two weeks. YEAH for me! I can actually still do it! We've been turning on the 80's music while I cook and while we eat. It sure makes for a fun evening, although, my four year old now insists on making the family room into a mosh pit with his little brother. I keep telling him that was a 90's thing, but I just don't think he believes me.

70 Degrees Today!!

I am SO excited!

I don't care HOW sick these boys are...we are getting out for some fresh, WARM, air! I'll truck them around the neighborhood in the double stroller if I need to.

Oh, and by the way. One of the saddest things I have ever heard is a one year old who has lost his voice. Poor little guy.

He's still running around with a smile on his face and laughing his husky little laugh. You'd never know he was sick if you couldn't hear him.

Big brother, on the other hand, is the biggest grump in the house.

Let's hope this mess passes soon!

Bored, bored, bored

So, I'm bored with my template. I'm looking to liven things up a bit and maybe that will change my mood in the blogosphere.

If you notice something strange, then I'm probably playing with my template. So far, no luck in finding one that suits me, or one that I can make work correctly.

Any suggestions??

Gracias in advance!

Landon has been asleep for FOUR HOURS straight....

Anyone think I should go wake him up?

I'm thinking yes.

Yep, we've got the crud in this house.

Colin has had a fever every night since Sunday, and Landon came down with one this morning. I'm just praying I'm not the next victim to fall to these nasty germs.

I'm going to go walk around armed with Lysol for the rest of the week.

Out, OUT, damn, GERMS!!!

A Toddler's version of pick up sticks

I must not be challenging Landon enough.

His latest "thing" is to open the pantry door and rifle through all of the items that he can reach. Luckily, he started this at the old house, so when we moved I decided to put all of the canned goods up a little higher (can you say OUCH!?).

Tonight, I was sitting here reading an email, and he was doing his regular search of the pantry. All of the sudden I heard a noise that did not bode well for Mama.

Somehow, he had managed to open a box of linguini pasta and dumped the entire *pound* of it on the floor. Fun, fun, fun!!

For the last 10 minutes we've been picking it all up and throwing it away.

On top of it, my 4 year old is turning in to a comedian.

As we're cleaning up, he looks at me and says, "Now this party is really starting to pick up"....get it?? Hahaha!!

Some days you just have to laugh your way through it!

What a sick world

This makes me want to vomit.

In a world where there are families that are desperate to have a child.....

Why?

Starting to wonder...

You know, the whole Anna Nicole thing has me thinking.

She just had a baby 5 months ago. Her son died 3 days after the baby was born. There is a very real thing called post partem deppression and I'm SURE that she was dealing with it.

Poor Britney (and I actually mean that sincerely) just had a baby....a few months ago I guess? I'm not sure of the exact date, but only a few days or weeks later, she filed for divorce from her husband (probably a wise decision, but a hard one nonetheless).

I think this girl needs help, and she needs it fast.

I hope everyone stops gawking (and I readily admit...I was a gawker) and intervenes before she does something to hurt herself, or her kids.

It's so sad that fame and money can destroy someone so easily.

Can someone please tell me what is wrong with this girl?

I guess it's a personal choice, you know, how you want to wear your hair, but WHAT in the world were you thinking??

I hear you on Dateline complaining about the paparazzi and all of the unwanted attention, which, as a mother, I can understand because I wouldn't want my kids exposed to all of the hype either, but your actions totally show the world that you *want* all of this nonsense following you.

Are you upset because Anna Nicole's death has totally overtaken the tabloids and E-news shows? Are you mad because your panty-less portraits are no longer the talk of the town?

Honey.

You're a mother.

Please reign it in.

I'm all about having fun, but if you don't get your shit straight, those boys of yours are going to end up with an idiot who calls himself "K-fed"....and I don't know which is worse right now, you...or him.

Just my unsolicited advice because I *know* everyone cares what I think.

Question

Do you believe that Heaven can exist without a God?

I'll explain the reason for the question later...I don't want to sway your answers and I want to thoughtfully write out *why* I'm asking....

Have at!

Colin is officially signed up for T-ball!!!

He will start playing on March 13th.

Wow, it's so hard to believe that my "baby" is going to play a team sport!

I opted for t-ball because a good friend of his has signed up to be on this team as well. Colin is a sweet little man, but not the most outgoing or social creature. He likes to be in familiar places with familiar people, if not...he retreats into his shell. I thought playing on a team with someone he knew, would help it to be a more positive experience. I don't want to be one of those mothers that *forces* their child to play something they don't want to...but I also don't want to pay a $55 registration fee only to have him back out at the last minute.

We'll see how it goes. There are no points scored or outs in these games (and they still call it t-ball huh??). I think for now it just helps sponsor a team atmosphere, foster working together, and hopefully just a joy for playing sports.

This may not necessarily be his thing, but I'm glad we're going to try it. He may end up being a music geek like his Momma (the boy can sing, AND he writes his own lyrics, already! You should hear his very own version of twinkle twinkle...it's rockin'!)

I just can't wait to see who he's going to become and all of the things he's going to enjoy!

Welcome the the world Alayna Rose!!!!

Please join me in congratulating Melissa and Victor on the birth of their precious little girl...just a tad earlier than expected!!!

They are all healthy and happy and enjoying their baby-moon.

I can't wait to see pictures!!

Presidential News Conference

For one thing, this always pisses me off because the 10 minutes of tv time I get where I'm not watching Jack's Big Music Show or Maggie and the Ferocious Beast is very precious to me.

The other reason that he pissed me off today is this:

Why is it that he kept reffering to decisions that HE has made? Why HE decided to do a certain thing (all of this referencing sending more of our troops to Iraq)?

I also want to add that I totally support our military personnel, but hearing about death after death gets a little tiring...and I haven't even lost a friend or a family member.

I don't follow politics normally (look at paragraph # 1 in this entry...most of what I read I see on the Yahoo short list of news for the day), but did I misunderstand things when I thought that we were not ruled by ONE person? Don't we have a Democratic process where things are supposed to be voted on by different groups of elected officials who are supposed to be the voice for the general public??

When did our country turn into a Dictatorship and ONE person was making decisions for all of us??

Was I giving birth at the time, because I guess I don't remember much after that.....?

What the hell is wrong with our world?

This makes me absolutely sick.

Who the hell does this stupid kid think he is that he has any right to take human lives? How f*cked up can you be to go out and do something like this?? It takes me back to Columbine...I was actually teaching Spanish at a High School in Greenville at the time. Talk about a wake up call. I felt pretty safe up until that day.

I wonder about his parents too, not judging them, but wondering about the guilt that they are going to be left with after this tragedy. I bet they will ask themselves a million times over *what* they could have done differently.

I'm doing the best job I can to raise my boys, but whose to say that they would never do anything like this? I can only hope and pray that they won't, that they see and appreciate the value of life and the respect that we should have for it. I hope that I can instill that in them.

I pray for those families, and that community as they try to heal after this.

These are the things that almost make me feel guilty for bringing my children into the world.....

My next big adventure

The other day, my hubby asked me what I would like for Valentine's Day.

My response.

"A tattoo."

Yep...I'm headin' to the dark side people.

I'm not going to get anything big or where it will be readily available for the *world* to see, just something on my lower back. Something to add a little excitement to life (wink,wink!)

Hopefully I won't chicken out.

Update to follow soon.

The funk

and I don't mean a kind of music.

Colin is sick as a dog, and Landon just recovered from something he had over the weekend. I tried the denial tactic and *insisted* that Landon was only teething and that was causing his fever....but it didn't work.

I picked Colin up from school today and his teacher said he started out the day wired, and then slowly disintigrated in to a puddle of mush. Walking to the car, he could barely keep his eyes open and he absolutely INSISTED that he was not tired, and that he felt fine. We went out to lunch and he proceeded to lie down in the booth with his head on his jacket and pass out. If you know my child, you know that this is unheard of.

Yep...you feel just fine kid.

So, we're home. He's upstairs in bed with a big 'ole dose of motrin in his system and he's watching the Cars movie. Translated into Mommy language, that means he's taking a nap.

I guess I'd better get the clorox out and start wiping everything down. Hopefully this funk will by-pass the grown ups in this house.

Ya...right.

80's Night at our House

So...I've been a good wife the last two nights, and I have actually COOKED dinner! I'm so proud of myself that I could bust!

While I was being so creative and all"home-makey", I decided to take some inspiration from my friend OneHung and turn on our 80's music channel to keep my energy up.

I think I'm going to keep this practice going, because oh how the memories started coming! This turned the most mundane task into one that was pretty fun, and oh....my kids think I'm nuts now because of my dancing and singing.

I guess they would have figured that out eventually anyway right?

So, here's my blast from the past!! The Bangles and, "Hazy Shade of Winter".

Enjoy!

A Mini Superman....

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers for my friend and her son Colin!! This little guy is bouncing back so quickly, you are going to be amazed!! Here are the latest updates on my new hero from Anita!

2.7.07 at 10:18am

Alrighty, where are we... Colin is doing wonderfully! They extubated him last night around midnight. He had to have some oxygen but that isn't unexpected. He is off of blood pressure medicine and hasn't had any problems with irregular heartbeats. They took all of his lines out this morning. All he has now is his chest tube and the I.V.s He's started taking liquids and just a bit ago had a popsicle. He is complaining about the tube and lines which is good. :-) The nurses say a complaining kid is a healthy kid. :-) They will be moving him to the general care floor later this morning. They plan to have him up walking tonight or in the morning if he is feeling up to it. The nurse seems to think if he continues improving like he is we will be home in five days. Its just a matter of when his chest stops draining and he feels better. They started him on a "water pill". The bypass machine causes inflammation of all the organs and make the body retain water. They are giving him that to help get rid of it. They orginally thought he may go home on it, but that doesn't seem to be the case. :-)
All those prayers are being answered. :-)
hugs,
Anita

2.7.07 at 3:44pm

We are in our own room! Colin is still doing wonderfully. He still is on some oxygen, but we are going to try and take him off when he wakes up. They set him up some in the bed, but haven't had him out of it yet. As soon as he wakes up I'm going to get the nurse and we are going to put him in the chair. By tomorrow he'll be running the halls. :-) He's been sick to his stomach some, so he's not eaten since the popsicle, but that's okay. I've got some Jello for when he gets up. So hopefully he will eat that and feel better. He REALLY wants chocolate milk and donuts. :-) I can't wait to give them to him. Oh!! THere's a computer right next to his bed, so I can update the carepage while Colin is napping. This is wonderful! I was beginning to have computer withdrawl. Guess that is it.
I'll update when there is anything new.
Anita

Today at 7:56 am

Colin had a pretty good night. He was up once during the night and climbed in and out of bed by himself. His chest tube is still draining pretty good. It has to drain less than 50 for 24 hours before they will take it out. He is currently draining around 110. But that's okay. He is doing way better than we thought. He is still having tummy pains. We don't know if its from the morphine or from hunger. He hasn't eaten anything since Monday night, so I would think he'd be hungrey. I ordered him a ton of stuff for breakfast just to see if any of it would strike his fancy. The nurse is also going to see if we can switch him to a different drug. They are going to get him and walking some today. Colin wasn't interested in it earlier, but I think once he sees the playroom he will want to get up more. They've got a lot of really neat stuff in there. :-)
I guess that's all for now. :-)
Anita

Since we're talkin' recipes

Onehung posted a few recipes that he tried out over the weekend. They all sounded great, so I thought I'd share what we..ahem...*I* had tonight. It was easy, and very tasty! Not from scratch, but hey, I'm the mother of two small boys with a husband who works round the clock...cooking anything other than a waffle in the toaster oven is an accomplishment! What sucks is the clean-up afterwards..especially because I'm the only one who eats it. The boys enjoyed their plain noodles and apples...a pretty typical meal for them. I've just given up fighting that fight.

Here goes!

Penne Pasta with Chicken and Vodka Sauce
(Vodka sauce is a creamy tomato sauce w/vodka in it..you can't taste the vodka, but it does have a unique flavor with a little "kick" to it)

Ingredients:
1 bottle Barilla Vodka Sauce (availabe near the spaghetti sauces in any grocery store)
1 pound of penne pasta
1 bag of Steamfresh garlic peas and mushrooms
about 10 frozen chicken tenderloins


Place frozen chicken in a deep sided fry pan with olive oil and season with salt and garlic pepper seasoning. Saute until cooked through and then remove from the pan and slice into small pieces. While cooking the chicken, cook pasta according to instructions, drain, and set aside. Cook the peas and mushrooms according the instructions in the microwave. Pour the vodka sauce in the saute pan and heat on low heat. Add the peas and mushrooms, chicken, and pasta.

ENJOY!

He's doing great!

I talked to Anita about 30 minutes ago and he is already trying to wake up!! She said that they are encouraging it, *but* he still needs to be on the ventilator. He's having a hard time with his carbon monoxide levels being a little high, and his blood pressure needs to come up. As soon as that happens, he will be off the the vent. He's connected to several tubes for various things such as drainage, and also is connected to a defibrulator (sp??) in case they need to shock his heart for any reason (let's hope they dont!).

Anita also told me that instead of using a human valve for the replacement, they used one from a COW!!! Huh?? It's not FDA approved, but obviously, they've done this many times before. The Doctor said that there is a far less chance of rejection with the bovine valve versus the human one. Crazy stuff!

She said he knows that they are there with him, and his color looks really great.

Awesome news to hear!!

They still need prayer, because the first 48 hours after the surgery are the most dangerous. Le'ts just hope he stays strong, and continues to improve as he has been!!!

Colin is out of surgery and doing well!

Anita posted to Colin's care page that he was out of surgery at 12:30 today and that everything went well. He came off of the bypass machine with no problems (that was the scariest part), WHOOO-HOO! :)

They were going to be able to see him around 2:00. Still no updates after this one, so I'm guessing that no news is good news.

Thanks everyone! I'll let you know how he's doing when I find out!

Many prayers needed for a friend and her son

Blog friends.

A good friend of mine, Anita, and her family are going through a difficult time right now. They are currently in Michigan, awaiting surgery for their four year old son, Colin. (Our son's have the same name...one of the many things that drew us together and that we have in common.)

Here is the procedure that Colin is having in the morning, and the description of his heart problem in Anita's own words:


He is having a procedure called the Konno-Ross procedure.

Colin has a congenital heart defect called aortic stenosis. His aorta valve is really narrow. This causes his heart to have work harder to pump blood.

He had a heart cath in May, unfortunately is was not very successful.

In the Konno-Ross procedure they take Colin's healthy pulmonary valve and replace his diseased aorta valve. They will then replace the pulmonary valve with a cadaver valve. They also have to replace the part of Colin's heart where the valve connects. I'll see if I can find a link that explains it better.

I copied and pasted this from the U of M website. This is exactly what Colin will be undergoing.

"Valve replacements alone are not always enough to relieve the narrowing out the ventricle. Sometimes the whole area leading out of the ventricle to the aorta is too small. The supporting structure of the valve, called the valve annulus, may be too narrow even if the leaflets are opened up as far as possible. In these cases the valve replacement is performed with a procedure called a Konno procedure. This involves enlarging the left ventricular outflow tract and the valve ring. It is done through an incision into the outflow tract of the right ventricle and the septum or wall between the right and left ventricles. A patch is placed in this area that enlarges it. The Konno procedure can be done with any type of aortic valve replacement.Ross procedure: This is one type of valve replacement operation. The surgeon makes an incision down the center of the breastbone. The heart is stopped for a brief period of time while a heart lung bypass machine supports the body.The coronary arteries are removed from the aortic valve and the diseased aortic valve is removed. The person's own pulmonary valve is then removed from its position in the right ventricular outflow tract and sewn into place as the new aortic valve. The coronary arteries are then reattached to the new valve. A tissue valve, called a homograft or an allograft, is then sewn in the place where the person's own pulmonary valve was removed. This valve is from a human donor and is not live tissue so it will not be rejected by the person's own immune system. It is expected that the tissue valves will need to be replaced in five to ten years but since this is a fairly new procedure the actual frequency of valve replacements is not yet known."

So...as you can see, this is a very scary situation for them. I can not imagine one of my boys having to undergo such a serious surgery.

please pray for them. They need all they can get.

His surgery is scheduled for 7:15 tomorrow morning, and will last anywhere from 3-6 hours. He will be on a ventilator for a few days and then in PICU for at least a week being heavily sedated so that they can manage his pain. Once they wean him from the vent, he will be moved to a regular floor. Hopefully they will be home in three to four weeks.

I'll update as soon as I hear how he is doing.

Thanks.

HYSTERICAL!!!

Can you tell I've been visiting Youtube a lot lately??

This is not a show that I normally watch, but for some odd reason, I happened to catch the end of this episode a while back. I laughed so hard I nearly peed my pants!

For any nursing Mother, Husband who has supported a nursing wife, anyone who has even TRIED to wean a child from nursing.... you will find this all too appropriate, and roll on the floor, laugh your ass off funny!

I wish they had more, because the rest of the show gets even better. This will do for now though!

Enjoy!!

SNOW!!!!

We woke up to a full blanket of snow this morning!

We have had about 3 inches and it's beautiful. Colin is in heaven, he keeps wanting to taste it...ick!

Toto....... I don't think we're in South Carolina anymore!