Chipped

Seems strange but every year around this time, I start to ponder about my chipped vertebrae. I know I've mentioned it previously and this is how it happened...I


I I lived in the middle east with my family of origin from the time I was 12 years old to about 15 years old. My dad worked for the government in the country of Oman and we lived in the city of Salalah. It was a great experience living there and contrary to popular belief, there are parts of the middle east that are great places. We had made friends with a family that was from New Zealand and they had a girl that was my age. We all went camping out in the sand dunes and when I say sand dunes I mean sand dunes. These things are huge. Some have at least a mile circumference around them. It was out in the middle of no where. In the states, the middle of no where could bring to thought some places like rural Nevada where the nearest town is a couple hundred people and where the nearest hospital is rural but has an emergency room. Rural where we were meant the nearest town consisted of a few flocks of goats and sheep and several families living together and the first aid center had band-aids to assist in an emergency (you'll see how this ties into the story)

We had camped with our friends once out there and after they moved back to New Zealand, our family decided to camp there alone with one of our Omani friends who's name is Siheed ( it means Happy in Arabic and proncounced sigh-heeed. That's who is in the 2 pictures). Our friends had left us a snowboard that we had used last time to sand board. No bindings, no boots, no nothing except bare feet standing on the board going staight down.

I was thrilled to keep trying this new sport and didn't realize instead of going full speed straight down one should carve from side to side. I vaguely remember the night before the accident but not much else. Apparently, I headed straight down on one of my runs and at the bottom hit a slight incline and without knowledge or equipment flew off of the board and hard onto the sand. The sand is packed so hard it's like hitting ice. I laid face down in the sand for a few seconds not breathing and my brother was just a few yards away and ran over and turned me face up and cleared the sand that was covering my face. I'm sure I lost some brain cells on that fall and if my brother hadn't been there I would have lost quite a few more!! I was unconscious for the next few hours as my parents raced me back to our home town a few hours away by car. Not before they stopped at the nearest town at the first aid clinic which offered band-aids to help. Thanks but on-wards. I regained consciousness half way through the ride back. There was a family we had come to know who's husband was from Egypt and a physician in the local hospital. X-rays and tests showed I had chipped one of my neck vertebraes and had suffered a concusion. I've been told for the next few weeks I couldn't remember much of anything including what time dinner was, although I had just asked 2 seconds ago.

Thank you, Jesus that I healed.

Potty Training and thoughts

Soo, I've been contemplating trying to potty train Morgan again. The first attempt 3 months ago did not go well and we reverted back to diapers after 2 days as mom was sick and tired of cleaning up poop and pee everywhere! I have been looking for signs to see if she is ready. Morgan's vocabulary has grown alot over the last 3 months and I could tell she was putting cause and effect together better. What was the clencher for me was when she was learning her numbers and put the 2 in the right place in the puzzle. She looked soo proud of her self and exclaimed I did it, I did it!!. ...That's when I decided to go for it.

Off came the diapers and out came the toliet. I decdied to do it cold turkey. She was happy to wear her panties. She peed on the carpet after 10 minutes and looked so surprised! I told her that it was yucko (new word, thanks papa!!) and that she had to keep Thomas the train (on her underwear dry not wet)...Worked like a charm!! She has been telling me when she has to go for over 36 hours and no diapers even at night...Dare I say it!!! I think she did it!!!! Go Morgan!!

OOh We did tell Morgan that in order to go to Little Lites and play with Sadahs (Morgan's word for friends) she had to not wear diapers....Maybe that did it.

On other thoughts, Andy is off tomorrow for 2 nights and 3 days in the Delta with his friends to do his airsoft stuff. I miss him already but I know I can do it...Just one day at a time

Trust

I'm going to a great Bible study on James that I'm really enjoying and getting into. On our discussion last night on the 2nd chapter of James, somebody said the phrase how you don't have to trust in order to show mercy. I have always paralleled the two and thus have not shown mercy where I should be.

We also discussed the difference between trust and faith. Those two seem identical.

Wouldn't it seem that you couldn't have trust without faith?...Good thoughts

Thomas the Train....ooh NO

Morgan is a new fan of Thomas the Train. While I was off galvanting down under, Andy took her to see the live show. She was hooked!!! and since then we have gradually gotten more parts. First the Thomas engine then the track and NOW we have to listen to the same Thomas song over and over and over. She is having quite a few fits over this..

So as I type, the song is playing for the hundreth time. I'm sure it will be playing in my dream...save me !!! No more Thomas...No we don't love you Thomas...I'm sick of you!!!

Making His Move

Caden is such a different baby then Morgan. His personality, crying, moving. Everything is different. Caden is determined to move!! I remember Morgan didn't roll over till almost 4 months. Caden was there at 3 months and he loves to be on his tummy where Morgan would stay on her back at all cost.

Caden is trying to crawl so hard. You can see his motivation. He's trying to get to where his big sister is! he wants to play too!! One thing that both kids are alike in...they both LOVE cartoons and the computer.

You know you're getting older...

when the slides at playgrounds are to scary for you to go down and your toddler goes down them no problem.

We went to coconut bowl as a family on this past rainy Saturday. We played a game at bowling which was low key, although my 2 and 1/2 year old had a higher score then me (my justification is she used bumpers and that thing that rolls the ball down for you). I might have to use that one of these times.

We then went over to the play area. It's humongous and has multiple levels and slides. Morgan was in heaven with all the balls. Andy went in with her and then it was my turn to face the monster. I seriously had butterflies in my stomach going into that thing. For some reason, the crowd that was in there for me was different. It was mainly of pre-teenagers or teenagers playing tag and running through rooms knocking people over and hiding in the slides. Excuse me! I'd like to go down them. A complete madhouse. I started to feel like the 'uncool adult' that ruins kids fun. One of THOSE adults. Oh well. When the slides did open up, I couldn't believe how fast those things are. I'm SURE they've made them faster then when I went down them as a kid;) I went screaming down one which of course made my husband double over in laughing when I met him at the bottom. Did I mention, Morgan was fine, just me screaming.

I have complete more sympathy and compassion for my mom. I vivdly remember her being terrified of roller coasters and on one of our trips to Disneyland all three of us kids 'tricked' her into going onto the Thunder Mountain roller coaster. We told her it was a slow one and not that fast one that she kept seeing go by. My poor mom screamed her lungs out. I don't remember her being mad at us, just glad the ride ended fast!. May I be as brave and patient mother as mine was.

Siblings #3

The order of my siblings is my sister is first and then I'm 2 and 1/2 years younger and then my brother is 2 years younger then me. As I'm sure everyone knows, growing up you fall into tendencies with your siblings. Fights and spats that reappear over different circumstances but basically the same issues. You form your automatic responses and frequently refer back to specific points growing up together where you either grew really close or farther away. I always remembered that mom and dad made us apologize to each other and ask for forgiveness. We had to be specific for what we were sorry for and then ask forgiveness and then the other person would say I forgive you. I had no idea of the complete significance of these words until later in life. Usually it was just the routine to follow.


Being with my siblings as adults and a vacation that we willing chose to be together for was good. The first week went by with barely an argument. After a week though, the same annoying habits came up. My sister and I in the past have always teamed up together as our opinions are very similar and how we express ourselves and it's usually my brother on the out. Old manipulative behaviors came out of all of us and it was like a flash back seeing our spats. Seeing how we are all adults, we got to choose to hang out with each other and work things out or not. Not every moment was pleasant and still plenty of annoying habits and little manipulative tendencies. At least with a vacation, there is an end in sight!

The 2nd to last night of the vacation, my sister and I got into a spat and my brother (surprisingly), was the one who finally blew the horn and called time out. The next morning, I called out to my sister, I'm sorry for snapping at you last night and my sister saying I'm sorry to and then we both said I forgive you. I had another flashback to when we shared a room when we were teenagers and asking for forgiveness in the dark after the light went out.

It made me cherish the old memories and the new ones.

Back to Square One and Siblings #2

As you probably figured out, I'm back from Down Under. Great trip and great memories. While I was down there though, Caden was such a tropper. He was carried everywhere and because of how late some of the matches would go, we all wouldn't get to our flat ( rented apartment space) until midnight or 1 am.

Caden would fall asleep on us at the tennis arena but then would wake up when we got home. Prior to going, Caden would fall asleep by himself with minimal crying throughout the night. With our crazy schedule on mommy's vactaion, Caden got use to falling asleep in our arms and not sleeping in his crib.

When I got home that first night, Caden screamed bloody murder for about a good hour in his crib and when we wouldn't pick him up he would scream harder and Andy exclaimed "what did you do to him!" OOH well, in the name of vacation, our lives got re-arranged. Sleepless nights again. it was worth it. So back to square one as far as getting Caden use to sleeping in his own crib and going to sleep by himself.

On a side note, Morgan loves feeding her baby brother she insist on helping mommy each time. Check out Caden's face in the picture above. Andy and I couldn't stop laughing. What would life be without siblings. Maybe simpler in some ways but way more boring

Next Post Sibling#3- Some good and old sibling habits