Sex is one of those topics that can be hard for parents to bring up with their kids. I often hear how someone dreads the birds and the bees talk when their child gets older. I used to dread it, too, but then I figured out how to avoid THAT conversation. Ready?
Do it now.
No, I don't mean sit your infant down and give them all of the gory details. That would go over well, wouldn't it? I'm sure they would care so much... :P What I mean is, don't wait until a certain time to lay it all out for your child.
With A, the "talk" has been ongoing. We often go over body parts and what everything is for. However, since she is 3 years old, we do it at her level with her language. She doesn't know what sex is in detail, but she does know that a girl has ovaries and eggs and a boy has testicles and sperm. When the sperm and the egg meet, they can form into a baby. She knows that breasts are for feeding a baby; that one day she will get a period. We don't shy away from information, we just give it to her in small bits that she won't be confused by. She has books that have illustrations of the body, and specifically the reproductive systems. She is allowed to look at those as much as she wants and ask questions. Her questions are answered in a way that she can understand.
For us as parents, we believe it is important to teach A about her body but not in a way that she would feel ashamed by it. I think a lot of people have trouble talking to their kids about sex (especially older children or teenagers), and sometimes I think it is due to society portraying sex as a healthy part of life, as shameful. I do not want A to feel ashamed. For that reason, we don't use other names for her or anyone else's body parts. She knows the words vulva, vagina, and penis and uses them regularly (and always has). She knows that those are private areas and that it's not okay to touch anyone there and that no one should touch her there.
I used to be so scared for this aspect of parenting. When you think about sitting your pre-teen down and giving them all of the information they need to make a good decision regarding their sexual health, it can be so scary. That is why I decided that I wasn't going to wait. A needs to know these things now, not when she's hormonal and going through puberty. Kids learn things so young these days, and usually from a source that is neither knowledgeable or appropriate. I would rather teach her things the right way at a young age than to try and have that conversation with her later when she has already "learned" it all. That way, I feel that if the topic comes up elsewhere, she will feel comfortable to bring any questions she has to me without fear that she shouldn't know that stuff. We will have also already created a bond of trust regarding sex and her body and she won't feel like anyone is keeping anything from her. Most importantly, she will have all the information she needs to make a smart decision if anything ever comes up with friends or a boyfriend, or anyone. (Of course, that doesn't mean she will MAKE a smart decision, but she will have the ability to.)
I think, in the end, it is just important for us as parents to be the ones to teach our children what is right. Like I said, they are learning this stuff at a younger and younger age. The time frame most parents think they have before this topic comes up just isn't there anymore. We don't want to have to try to fix what someone else might have told them. Why not just do it now, while you still can safely?
Monday, May 26, 2014
Saturday, May 24, 2014
And we meet again...
Hey all! I bet your were probably expecting this to be another one of those mom blogs where we write awhile then give up on it huh? Well, lucky for you we didn't give up just had some life things going on that kept us away for awhile. But now we are back baby! (Excuse me I have just always wanted to say that). :D
Just in case you forgot who I am, my name is Tori.
I'm a 26 year old stay at home mom. I do book and product reviews on my own blog, and do some freelance work for extra income from time to time. I am married to a wonderful, sometimes frustrating, but I love him dearly man. His name is Josh. We have been married almost eight years. He makes me laugh like crazy, and never cares that I am always a little ditzy and that crazy odd things always seem to be happening to me (now us). LOL
We have two wonderful boys that keep us on our toes. Lucas 6, and Levi 3. They are always so much fun, they say the darndest things, are smart as can be, and there is never a dull moment. Things can get a little crazy here and there, but if things weren't a little crazy now and then it wouldn't be called life right?
I have a wide variety of interests. Some (but definitely not all) of them are writing, reading, spending time with family and friends, water, gardening, and just anything fun.
Now let me fill you in a bit on where I've been. It's been crazy and I may leave quite a few things out so forgive me. haha.
We found an apartment that fits our family (yay!). We are going to start the house hunting process in a couple years and are getting things financially right in the meantime so we will be ready.
Other than that I would just put it as we have had a lot of family stuff, health stuff, car troubles, etc., going on that has kept us pretty busy. Stressed at times, but God has really seen us through and I am so grateful for that. I can't even begin to put into words how thankful.
So we are chugging along, and I am excited to be back to blogging with the other wonderful ladies that are part of this blog.
I'm sure we will provide endless entertainment for you guys, and give you our take on tons of different topics. Hopefully you will find them informational, and they can help you in some way. If you would like to hear us speak on any topics in particular just remember you can leave your requests in the comments or just zap us an email at thecaseofthemissingcheerios@gmail.com
We would love to hear from you, and are always excited to meet our readers.
I will be blogging on Saturdays, so I look forward to seeing you all again soon! :)
Just in case you forgot who I am, my name is Tori.
I'm a 26 year old stay at home mom. I do book and product reviews on my own blog, and do some freelance work for extra income from time to time. I am married to a wonderful, sometimes frustrating, but I love him dearly man. His name is Josh. We have been married almost eight years. He makes me laugh like crazy, and never cares that I am always a little ditzy and that crazy odd things always seem to be happening to me (now us). LOL
We have two wonderful boys that keep us on our toes. Lucas 6, and Levi 3. They are always so much fun, they say the darndest things, are smart as can be, and there is never a dull moment. Things can get a little crazy here and there, but if things weren't a little crazy now and then it wouldn't be called life right?
Now let me fill you in a bit on where I've been. It's been crazy and I may leave quite a few things out so forgive me. haha.
We found an apartment that fits our family (yay!). We are going to start the house hunting process in a couple years and are getting things financially right in the meantime so we will be ready.
Other than that I would just put it as we have had a lot of family stuff, health stuff, car troubles, etc., going on that has kept us pretty busy. Stressed at times, but God has really seen us through and I am so grateful for that. I can't even begin to put into words how thankful.
So we are chugging along, and I am excited to be back to blogging with the other wonderful ladies that are part of this blog.
I'm sure we will provide endless entertainment for you guys, and give you our take on tons of different topics. Hopefully you will find them informational, and they can help you in some way. If you would like to hear us speak on any topics in particular just remember you can leave your requests in the comments or just zap us an email at thecaseofthemissingcheerios@gmail.com
We would love to hear from you, and are always excited to meet our readers.
I will be blogging on Saturdays, so I look forward to seeing you all again soon! :)
It's been awhile!
Whats new? We got a new home! My family and I are buying my parents house. I grew up in this house, so it has been fun changing things up and making it ours! Soon after we moved in to our new home, a dear friend of mine and her two boys stayed with us for about six weeks. It sure was an adventure. In the meantime, my son was diagnosed with Autism. I knew it was coming but it was different actually hearing it from the doctor. My daughter has been having some medical issues, and she has had many tests, starting with ruling out one of the scariest diagnosis a child could have. I thank God it is not cancer. Some of her symptoms have calmed down, so now we are just trying to find out what it could be. My mother has had surgery and hospitalizations in the past few months. In the midst of this I was juggling four online classes, and I ended up having to drop them for this semester due to all the chaos previously mentioned! Thankfully, this month things seem to be calming down and we are starting to settle in our new home!
OH!! A couple of great things that have happened the last few months besides getting a new home: We got a new puppy! Sullivan aka Sulley(Keagan named him, like the monster from Monsters University). He is now about 12 weeks old and has doubled in size...I think he is going to be HUGE!
We went on a MUCH needed vacation! We went to North Carolina for my brother in-laws wedding. It was fantastic! I LOVE my new sister and her family. It was a beautiful trip, and we had so much fun:)
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| Laynie at the wedding |
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| Keagan at the wedding |
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| Mountains! |
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| My love! |
One other thing I feel the need to mention because it was AWESOME!!! I did the color run with a few friends last weekend! IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! Everyone should try it!
I am excited to get back to blogging!
Thursday, May 22, 2014
We're back! ~priddymomma
Hey guys! It has been a while, eh? We moms know how the things we desire to do (blogging, for instance) get put on the back burner quite often. In this case, it looks like it was removed from the stove entirely. We're hoping to change that and get back to it. {Thanks for reading! I post Thursdays!}
Wow. When we last left our heroes, I had just had a jolly good time with my van in the sinkhole/pot hole outside of our crappy little rented house. That seems like a decade ago. I will give you the highlights on the van, if you care. If not, skip to the next paragraph. Turns out the van was flooded with gas, mostly from my husband flooring it as he tried to get out of the pot hole/bottomless pit. It cost an arm and a leg to repair, and we had to open a line of credit to do it, which was really kind of awful, but with tax season right around the corner, we figured we'd pay it off when we got our tax return (which we did). We had another BIG VAN THING since then, but unrelated. It only cost half as much as well.
{Hello impatient folks!} We were searching for a house when I left off here. Uh...wow. This is a really long story to relay, so I'll give you the highlight reel. We liked a place that was a short sale (code for "in your dreams/takes forever!"). When the tax check came in February (because we were on it like that), we put in an offer for the place. FIVE WEEKS LATER, we still hadn't got a response for the bank. And then a new place went up for sale. It was perfect. We went to see it the day after it was posted, and we weren't even the first to get to see it! We made an offer that night, and two other offers were already standing on the place! Long story short, they accepted our offer the very next day and our conditions and even paid for our first year of flood insurance when it was discovered to be in a flood plain. They are awesome.
Anywho, we moved, the kids had their joint birthday party (Cheerio Champ is 6, and Princess Cheerio is 2!), we hosted Easter brunch two weeks later, and two weeks after that we had our housewarming party. Whew! Talk about a whirlwind!
All of that assumes that you have been reading. If you haven't, welcome! I'm priddymomma/Heather. I will be your oftentimes sarcastic, sometimes witty, always-trying-to-be-funny blogger. Yay, right? Just what you needed in your life, I'm sure. I am a stay at home mom to two adorable, though very loud children. I am happily married (8 years!) to my high school sweetheart.
If you were to step into my household right at the moment, you would find my daughter maybe falling asleep finally for her nap (nope. False alarm). You would hear my son (again with the loud), though not see him as it is quiet time for the little monster, and he is in his room. And you would find me, typing at the computer, with poor posture, frazzled looking, and wearing yoga pants that are at least as old as my son.
My husband just called to see if there was anything he could do or get for me on the way home. Isn't that sweet? Actually, he does that nearly every day, and I can't decide how I feel about it. Does he do it to be sweet? Does he do it because he wants to make sure he doesn't have to run out again once he gets home? Or does he do it because he doesn't want to get in trouble for having an abysmal memory/selective hearing and completely forget/miss something I mentioned the night before that I needed for him to do on the way home? I don't know.
See? You'd also see me being a lunatic about nothing. You would also see toy chaos all throughout the house, except in the kids' rooms. Ironically, they don't seem to want their rooms to be messy. Go figure. You would wonder why I haven't cleaned up from lunch yet when it ended an hour ago (because I am a free person, okay??).
What I would like to stress to you mothers and fathers out there is that I am not perfect. I am in no way a perfect parent either. And if only perfect parent people blogged, it would be extremely boring. In fact, reading a perfect parent blog I'm pretty sure would result in an instant need for me to commit a violent act. Like, for instance, going on a mommy rampage through my thigh high lawn (long story), smashing dandelions with a purple plastic bat while screaming incoherently. Just throwing that out there. Quit looking at me like that!
No judgement here, dudes. Laugh, cry, fart. Whatever! I hope to be able to bring a bit of humor to your day, to help you to laugh at yourself (and me of course), and to bring some topics to mind that are important so that maybe we'll all learn a little something here if we're lucky.
Until next time, then! :)
Wow. When we last left our heroes, I had just had a jolly good time with my van in the sinkhole/pot hole outside of our crappy little rented house. That seems like a decade ago. I will give you the highlights on the van, if you care. If not, skip to the next paragraph. Turns out the van was flooded with gas, mostly from my husband flooring it as he tried to get out of the pot hole/bottomless pit. It cost an arm and a leg to repair, and we had to open a line of credit to do it, which was really kind of awful, but with tax season right around the corner, we figured we'd pay it off when we got our tax return (which we did). We had another BIG VAN THING since then, but unrelated. It only cost half as much as well.
{Hello impatient folks!} We were searching for a house when I left off here. Uh...wow. This is a really long story to relay, so I'll give you the highlight reel. We liked a place that was a short sale (code for "in your dreams/takes forever!"). When the tax check came in February (because we were on it like that), we put in an offer for the place. FIVE WEEKS LATER, we still hadn't got a response for the bank. And then a new place went up for sale. It was perfect. We went to see it the day after it was posted, and we weren't even the first to get to see it! We made an offer that night, and two other offers were already standing on the place! Long story short, they accepted our offer the very next day and our conditions and even paid for our first year of flood insurance when it was discovered to be in a flood plain. They are awesome.
Anywho, we moved, the kids had their joint birthday party (Cheerio Champ is 6, and Princess Cheerio is 2!), we hosted Easter brunch two weeks later, and two weeks after that we had our housewarming party. Whew! Talk about a whirlwind!
All of that assumes that you have been reading. If you haven't, welcome! I'm priddymomma/Heather. I will be your oftentimes sarcastic, sometimes witty, always-trying-to-be-funny blogger. Yay, right? Just what you needed in your life, I'm sure. I am a stay at home mom to two adorable, though very loud children. I am happily married (8 years!) to my high school sweetheart.
If you were to step into my household right at the moment, you would find my daughter maybe falling asleep finally for her nap (nope. False alarm). You would hear my son (again with the loud), though not see him as it is quiet time for the little monster, and he is in his room. And you would find me, typing at the computer, with poor posture, frazzled looking, and wearing yoga pants that are at least as old as my son.
My husband just called to see if there was anything he could do or get for me on the way home. Isn't that sweet? Actually, he does that nearly every day, and I can't decide how I feel about it. Does he do it to be sweet? Does he do it because he wants to make sure he doesn't have to run out again once he gets home? Or does he do it because he doesn't want to get in trouble for having an abysmal memory/selective hearing and completely forget/miss something I mentioned the night before that I needed for him to do on the way home? I don't know.
See? You'd also see me being a lunatic about nothing. You would also see toy chaos all throughout the house, except in the kids' rooms. Ironically, they don't seem to want their rooms to be messy. Go figure. You would wonder why I haven't cleaned up from lunch yet when it ended an hour ago (because I am a free person, okay??).
What I would like to stress to you mothers and fathers out there is that I am not perfect. I am in no way a perfect parent either. And if only perfect parent people blogged, it would be extremely boring. In fact, reading a perfect parent blog I'm pretty sure would result in an instant need for me to commit a violent act. Like, for instance, going on a mommy rampage through my thigh high lawn (long story), smashing dandelions with a purple plastic bat while screaming incoherently. Just throwing that out there. Quit looking at me like that!
No judgement here, dudes. Laugh, cry, fart. Whatever! I hope to be able to bring a bit of humor to your day, to help you to laugh at yourself (and me of course), and to bring some topics to mind that are important so that maybe we'll all learn a little something here if we're lucky.
Until next time, then! :)
Monday, May 19, 2014
It HAS been a long time, hasn't it? - Leslie
Hey everyone!
I know we haven't been the best at keeping up with the blog as of late, but we are hoping to change that. I have been gone longer than some of the others due to health reasons. I will get into that, but first I want to explain the purpose of the blog and then introduce myself again for anyone who may be new.
My name is Leslie and I will be contributing (mostly) weekly to the blog. I used to write every Saturday, but now you will see me on Mondays. Our topics will include everything from books, to parenting, to personal issues and current events. We choose a new topic every week and on their day, each contributor will then write a post on the topic as they see fit. We believe it is a great way to get different viewpoints on many subjects. We always consider suggestions for weekly topics, so don't hesitate to send us your ideas!
As I said, my name is Leslie. I am a 26 year old mom from Indiana and I am engaged to graphic artist. Don't get any ideas! My art is terrible. My daughter is 3 years old but I am convinced she is going to turn 30 before I do. She's growing so fast!
I love to read. In fact, that is usually what you'll find me doing if I have any free time. I also like to write, but I wish I were better at it. It would be great to be able to write like one of the many great authors I have read. Unfortunately lately I haven't been able to do much more than that due to health issues.
That takes me into where I have been for the past year or so. It might be a bit long-winded, so I apologize in advance. I also plan to shorten this version tremendously, which unfortunately means I will leave out a lot of details. If you are interested in that, let me know.
Last June I went with my fiance and daughter to Pennsylvania to visit my fiance's family. Being the bed he grew up with, it was smaller and softer than I was used to. One night I slept funny and woke up with the worst pain in my neck. Of course I attributed it to the bed, and got through the rest of the week okay. When we got home, I was still having problems with it. In fact, it was getting worse. After waking up several nights with severe pain moving across my back (sitting on the couch is the only thing that helped it, for some reason), I went to the emergency room. They didn't really examine me at all and sent me home telling me it was just because I slept funny and probably had a muscle spasm. Another late night trip to the ER a couple of days later and they still said the same thing. Finally I got into my family doctor who ordered x-rays. On them, he could see spasms in my back, but he also said he saw a cyst inside my spinal cord for which he referred me to a neurosurgeon. Long story short, through MRI tests, the neurosurgeon found two brain tumors and a small tumor inside my spinal cord. The tumors were causing fluid to build up around them which was what my family doctor saw on the x-ray. He said the cyst around the tumor in my spine was what was causing my pain. In September, due to it's larger size, the neurosurgeon decided first to remove the tumor on my brain stem. The surgery went well, but a couple of weeks later I started to get horrible headaches. It turns out I had developed hydrocephalus. In October, I had another surgery where a shunt was placed to relieve the pressure from the fluid build up on my brain. Unfortunately the tube that connected the shunt itself to my abdomen pulled out of where it was supposed to be and the doctor had to go back in and fix it. That was surgery 3.
I got a bit of a reprieve from surgeries for the rest of 2013. I was referred to an oncologist after the first surgery just because we were dealing with tumors. The tumor itself turned out to be one called a hemangioblastoma. That means the tumor was a very bloody one, but wasn't cancerous.
At this point the neurosurgeon and the oncologist suspected that I had a disease called Von Hippel-Lindau disease. That is where tumors form throughout the brain, spinal cord, and sometimes on the kidneys and pancreas. I still haven't been able to get the test to confirm it 100%, but every doctor I have come into contact with is pretty much convinced that is what it is.
The neurosurgeon ordered more MRIs to check my thoracic spine for tumors. Fortunately, the rest of my spine is clear. However, they did find tumors on my kidneys and possibly cysts on my pancreas. I was referred to a urologist who did a biopsy in December on the largest tumor on my left kidney. That did turn out to be cancerous, though I couldn't give exact details about it. The urologist turned out to be a little... eh? He said it could wait a little while and he didn't seem concerned, but I also didn't much like his bedside manner. My neurosurgeon (who I LOVE) referred me to another urologist who I am seeing now. I recently had more tests to check my kidney function and another MRI to check sizes of tumors and things like that, but I haven't heard from the urologist's office for another appointment to talk results and surgeries so when I get that information, I will pass that along.
In March, I had another surgery to remove the second tumor from my brain. He removed a portion of my skull to get to it and that is still off, so that freaks me out a bit. Other than that, it was also a hemangioblastoma, so not cancerous, and recovery has been really great. It seems to baffle the doctor how well my recovery goes, especially from brain surgery. At this point I am just waiting to hear back from the urologist to see what happens next. I know that for the cancer, radiation and chemotherapy won't have an effect. They said it won't help at all. The only option is surgery. When I find out more, I will give another update.
So, that is me and what has been going on. I hope I didn't ramble or stray too much. That's hard when you have a whole family of people who are distracting! I will be back next Monday with a new topic. Hope to see you there!
Again, if you have any topic suggestions, e-mail them to thecaseofthemissingcheerios@gmail.com or leave them in a comment!
I know we haven't been the best at keeping up with the blog as of late, but we are hoping to change that. I have been gone longer than some of the others due to health reasons. I will get into that, but first I want to explain the purpose of the blog and then introduce myself again for anyone who may be new.
My name is Leslie and I will be contributing (mostly) weekly to the blog. I used to write every Saturday, but now you will see me on Mondays. Our topics will include everything from books, to parenting, to personal issues and current events. We choose a new topic every week and on their day, each contributor will then write a post on the topic as they see fit. We believe it is a great way to get different viewpoints on many subjects. We always consider suggestions for weekly topics, so don't hesitate to send us your ideas!
As I said, my name is Leslie. I am a 26 year old mom from Indiana and I am engaged to graphic artist. Don't get any ideas! My art is terrible. My daughter is 3 years old but I am convinced she is going to turn 30 before I do. She's growing so fast!
I love to read. In fact, that is usually what you'll find me doing if I have any free time. I also like to write, but I wish I were better at it. It would be great to be able to write like one of the many great authors I have read. Unfortunately lately I haven't been able to do much more than that due to health issues.
That takes me into where I have been for the past year or so. It might be a bit long-winded, so I apologize in advance. I also plan to shorten this version tremendously, which unfortunately means I will leave out a lot of details. If you are interested in that, let me know.
Last June I went with my fiance and daughter to Pennsylvania to visit my fiance's family. Being the bed he grew up with, it was smaller and softer than I was used to. One night I slept funny and woke up with the worst pain in my neck. Of course I attributed it to the bed, and got through the rest of the week okay. When we got home, I was still having problems with it. In fact, it was getting worse. After waking up several nights with severe pain moving across my back (sitting on the couch is the only thing that helped it, for some reason), I went to the emergency room. They didn't really examine me at all and sent me home telling me it was just because I slept funny and probably had a muscle spasm. Another late night trip to the ER a couple of days later and they still said the same thing. Finally I got into my family doctor who ordered x-rays. On them, he could see spasms in my back, but he also said he saw a cyst inside my spinal cord for which he referred me to a neurosurgeon. Long story short, through MRI tests, the neurosurgeon found two brain tumors and a small tumor inside my spinal cord. The tumors were causing fluid to build up around them which was what my family doctor saw on the x-ray. He said the cyst around the tumor in my spine was what was causing my pain. In September, due to it's larger size, the neurosurgeon decided first to remove the tumor on my brain stem. The surgery went well, but a couple of weeks later I started to get horrible headaches. It turns out I had developed hydrocephalus. In October, I had another surgery where a shunt was placed to relieve the pressure from the fluid build up on my brain. Unfortunately the tube that connected the shunt itself to my abdomen pulled out of where it was supposed to be and the doctor had to go back in and fix it. That was surgery 3.
I got a bit of a reprieve from surgeries for the rest of 2013. I was referred to an oncologist after the first surgery just because we were dealing with tumors. The tumor itself turned out to be one called a hemangioblastoma. That means the tumor was a very bloody one, but wasn't cancerous.
At this point the neurosurgeon and the oncologist suspected that I had a disease called Von Hippel-Lindau disease. That is where tumors form throughout the brain, spinal cord, and sometimes on the kidneys and pancreas. I still haven't been able to get the test to confirm it 100%, but every doctor I have come into contact with is pretty much convinced that is what it is.
The neurosurgeon ordered more MRIs to check my thoracic spine for tumors. Fortunately, the rest of my spine is clear. However, they did find tumors on my kidneys and possibly cysts on my pancreas. I was referred to a urologist who did a biopsy in December on the largest tumor on my left kidney. That did turn out to be cancerous, though I couldn't give exact details about it. The urologist turned out to be a little... eh? He said it could wait a little while and he didn't seem concerned, but I also didn't much like his bedside manner. My neurosurgeon (who I LOVE) referred me to another urologist who I am seeing now. I recently had more tests to check my kidney function and another MRI to check sizes of tumors and things like that, but I haven't heard from the urologist's office for another appointment to talk results and surgeries so when I get that information, I will pass that along.
In March, I had another surgery to remove the second tumor from my brain. He removed a portion of my skull to get to it and that is still off, so that freaks me out a bit. Other than that, it was also a hemangioblastoma, so not cancerous, and recovery has been really great. It seems to baffle the doctor how well my recovery goes, especially from brain surgery. At this point I am just waiting to hear back from the urologist to see what happens next. I know that for the cancer, radiation and chemotherapy won't have an effect. They said it won't help at all. The only option is surgery. When I find out more, I will give another update.
So, that is me and what has been going on. I hope I didn't ramble or stray too much. That's hard when you have a whole family of people who are distracting! I will be back next Monday with a new topic. Hope to see you there!
Again, if you have any topic suggestions, e-mail them to thecaseofthemissingcheerios@gmail.com or leave them in a comment!
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Frozen: a story/rant~priddymomma
Hey guys! Normally, I would have a topic to write on. We're still adjusting to the new year I think. We'll get more organized as time goes on (I hope!). Instead, I will treat you all to a ridiculous story about how I've spent the last day. Yippee!
I live in Indiana. I don't know if you, reader, are anywhere near Indiana or follow the Indiana news (because everything cool happens here, doncha know?). In case you missed the headlines, we recently got a good deal of snow. Twelve to thirteen inches worth of snow fell and drifted, making roads ridiculous. School has been out in my city for the entire week, which I'm pretty sure wouldn't happen even if the apocalypse had an official start date for next Thursday. It has just been quite bad.
I live practically downtown. As a result, I have to park at the rear of my house. I get to the drive from an alley. Normally that isn't an issue, but add thirteen inches of snow and that gets a bit tricky. Plows don't generally come through alleys in my area (do they anywhere??), so this never got plowed. It got packed down and iced over, but never plowed.
Yesterday, my husband was required to be at work. He naturally got stuck in evil alley of death. We shoveled and moved and shoveled and moved until he was clear and on his way.
He got stuck once on the way back in the alley after work, but some friendly guys passing gave him a push.
But what truly blew was when my husband attempted to leave for the library (and damn it! I just remembered we never returned the movies so now we have late fees! Gah!). There happens to be a pothole at the end of our drive, sort of off center. My husband hit the pothole and I have been pissed off ever since.
Stuck in a pothole with his left front tire with his nose in the alley, we try to dig him out, but the alley by now is four inches of solid ice. And we are also in a pothole, so pretty pointless. We can't get it to go forward or backward. We've tried everything else we can think of, and only managed to sink further. Hubby went into the house and came back with a garden trowel. Seriously. That was the best idea we had. And it did help. We managed to get the van forward out of the pothole.
FOR WHATEVER REASON, my husband did NOT have the foresight that the back tires would follow the path of the front. You guessed it. Bang. Left hind tire is now stuck, and that is a pain for a front wheel drive van. Not only that, but now we are blocking the entire alley and no one can get through in either direction.
We rocked that sucker and after twenty minutes almost had it out. We were at the pivotal moment. One more push would do it.......and then the engine died. Yay? The puppy (and by puppy I mean engine) will turn over, but it won't catch to actually start it. Like maybe it isn't getting fuel or something. I don't know. I don't speak car. I speak human. And human cusses quite a lot at a time like this.
A neighbor adds useless advice. "Try backing it out." If my vehicle would start, perhaps that might be useful, kind stranger. I call my dad and ask him to help. He shows up, gets stuck a bit (in his truck), and tries to jump us. No change. Gets some starter fluid from a nearby gas station. Some change. Almost starts, but no cigar (I don't condone smoking anyway). And he gives up because by now it is night and it is COLD! Not much to be done but to call a tow. Now it needs repaired anyway.
We head inside and call the two main companies that do towing in our area. Both refuse to come out, because the van is located in an alley. We get this other place on the line, only to learn they can't come out until the next day at least. Their tow truck is being serviced. Really? Grr...so we decide to just wait until morning.
This morning dawns and we call up our mechanic and tell him what happened and that our towing choice (not much of a choice, huh?) is going to be bringing it by in a few. "Don't worry about it, I have a company I usually use," says our mechanic, "but it'll take him two or three hours to get over there." As it is 8:30 in the morning, we don't see this as a problem. Mechanic says he can probably get it in today at least to look at it and tell us what is up. Cool. Tow guy will call before he shows.
Four or five hours later, no call, no tow. So we called the mechanic and the guy says tow man came by to access the alley and decided he needed his big truck, which was out on a job. He'll call when he's on his way.
Still no call and the mechanic is about to close. He says he'll keep in touch with the mechanic for us and relay the information. Forget that. Hubby calls up the tow company directly, only to find out they came by earlier and decided that they couldn't help us. I especially like the part where the called and told me so I wasn't sitting around with my thumb up my butt, waiting for a tow that wasn't coming. That was good business, that was.
SO...we called the original guy we had planned to use back and practically begged him to come out. He did, was there within an hour, did the job in less than ten minutes with little trouble, and got tipped accordingly. And THAT is how a business should be done. Phew!
After 26 hours of ordeal, we only managed to get our vehicle to the mechanic. Actually, that's assuming the tow guy didn't just steal our van. That would be my luck.
To be continued...*dun dun DUNNNN!*
I live in Indiana. I don't know if you, reader, are anywhere near Indiana or follow the Indiana news (because everything cool happens here, doncha know?). In case you missed the headlines, we recently got a good deal of snow. Twelve to thirteen inches worth of snow fell and drifted, making roads ridiculous. School has been out in my city for the entire week, which I'm pretty sure wouldn't happen even if the apocalypse had an official start date for next Thursday. It has just been quite bad.
I live practically downtown. As a result, I have to park at the rear of my house. I get to the drive from an alley. Normally that isn't an issue, but add thirteen inches of snow and that gets a bit tricky. Plows don't generally come through alleys in my area (do they anywhere??), so this never got plowed. It got packed down and iced over, but never plowed.
Yesterday, my husband was required to be at work. He naturally got stuck in evil alley of death. We shoveled and moved and shoveled and moved until he was clear and on his way.
 |
| ***Dramatization. Not actually my alley. |
He got stuck once on the way back in the alley after work, but some friendly guys passing gave him a push.
But what truly blew was when my husband attempted to leave for the library (and damn it! I just remembered we never returned the movies so now we have late fees! Gah!). There happens to be a pothole at the end of our drive, sort of off center. My husband hit the pothole and I have been pissed off ever since.
 |
| ***Not a dramatization. That is my van at the bottom. That's me looking on. |
Stuck in a pothole with his left front tire with his nose in the alley, we try to dig him out, but the alley by now is four inches of solid ice. And we are also in a pothole, so pretty pointless. We can't get it to go forward or backward. We've tried everything else we can think of, and only managed to sink further. Hubby went into the house and came back with a garden trowel. Seriously. That was the best idea we had. And it did help. We managed to get the van forward out of the pothole.
FOR WHATEVER REASON, my husband did NOT have the foresight that the back tires would follow the path of the front. You guessed it. Bang. Left hind tire is now stuck, and that is a pain for a front wheel drive van. Not only that, but now we are blocking the entire alley and no one can get through in either direction.
We rocked that sucker and after twenty minutes almost had it out. We were at the pivotal moment. One more push would do it.......and then the engine died. Yay? The puppy (and by puppy I mean engine) will turn over, but it won't catch to actually start it. Like maybe it isn't getting fuel or something. I don't know. I don't speak car. I speak human. And human cusses quite a lot at a time like this.
A neighbor adds useless advice. "Try backing it out." If my vehicle would start, perhaps that might be useful, kind stranger. I call my dad and ask him to help. He shows up, gets stuck a bit (in his truck), and tries to jump us. No change. Gets some starter fluid from a nearby gas station. Some change. Almost starts, but no cigar (I don't condone smoking anyway). And he gives up because by now it is night and it is COLD! Not much to be done but to call a tow. Now it needs repaired anyway.
We head inside and call the two main companies that do towing in our area. Both refuse to come out, because the van is located in an alley. We get this other place on the line, only to learn they can't come out until the next day at least. Their tow truck is being serviced. Really? Grr...so we decide to just wait until morning.
This morning dawns and we call up our mechanic and tell him what happened and that our towing choice (not much of a choice, huh?) is going to be bringing it by in a few. "Don't worry about it, I have a company I usually use," says our mechanic, "but it'll take him two or three hours to get over there." As it is 8:30 in the morning, we don't see this as a problem. Mechanic says he can probably get it in today at least to look at it and tell us what is up. Cool. Tow guy will call before he shows.
Four or five hours later, no call, no tow. So we called the mechanic and the guy says tow man came by to access the alley and decided he needed his big truck, which was out on a job. He'll call when he's on his way.
Still no call and the mechanic is about to close. He says he'll keep in touch with the mechanic for us and relay the information. Forget that. Hubby calls up the tow company directly, only to find out they came by earlier and decided that they couldn't help us. I especially like the part where the called and told me so I wasn't sitting around with my thumb up my butt, waiting for a tow that wasn't coming. That was good business, that was.
SO...we called the original guy we had planned to use back and practically begged him to come out. He did, was there within an hour, did the job in less than ten minutes with little trouble, and got tipped accordingly. And THAT is how a business should be done. Phew!
After 26 hours of ordeal, we only managed to get our vehicle to the mechanic. Actually, that's assuming the tow guy didn't just steal our van. That would be my luck.
To be continued...*dun dun DUNNNN!*
Thursday, January 2, 2014
5 Books to Share with the World~priddymomma
Hey guys! Long time, no see! Did ya miss me? On second thought, don't answer that. Sorry I fell off the bandwagon there. I was sick for ages, and then I was crazy busy with Christmas planning and family things. Honestly, I just didn't feel like stressing about one more deadline. I am back now on the regular.
This week, we're covering books again. Here are five books that I read and immediately wanted to share with the world.
5.)
This book is light-hearted and frankly hilarious. Put it this way: I was in labor and laughing out loud at this book, even though it desperately hurt to laugh. It was a great distraction. I would recommend getting it as an audiobook for labor though. I kept losing my place during contractions.
4.) A true story, this book blew me away. It is proof that we can never truly know how completely we can change the lives of the people we encounter. Every bit of kindness makes a difference. A busy woman takes time to have lunch with a poor child, and the resulting friendship will blow you away.
3.)
Okay, so I'm actually not finished with this one yet. It has made a great deal of difference in how I think about the foods that I put into my body. The book is aimed from a religious perspective, but I would encourage you to read it whether you are a believer or not. The author makes excellent points. My current favorite is this: if you are spending time in excess (or energy, money, etc.) on something that you wish you weren't, what is missing in your life? You are clearly filling a void with something that doesn't fulfill you. The author says she was filling her belly with food when she actually needed to fill her spirit with God. I think it applies for people addicted to electronic devices, gambling, television programs, you name it. An eye opener, for sure.
2.) For those of you that do not know, I'm training to be a women's self defense instructor. In my studies, I read this book. I immediately wanted to share it with every woman I know. Every PERSON I know. This would be useful to teach in schools! I highly recommend reading this book. It just might save your life one day.
1.)
This book gets my place of honor for a simple reason: it saved my marriage. I don't know that my husband and I would have been able to make it through the rough patch we hit four years ago if it weren't for this book and what we learned from it. We learned that we had been showing love and affection for each other, but not in ways that the other person could recognize it. If I ever meet Gary Chapman, I will kiss him straight on the mouth.
We take requests for topics! Comment here or on our facebook fan page. Or email us at thecaseofthemissingcheerios@gmail.com
See ya next week! :)
This week, we're covering books again. Here are five books that I read and immediately wanted to share with the world.
5.)
This book is light-hearted and frankly hilarious. Put it this way: I was in labor and laughing out loud at this book, even though it desperately hurt to laugh. It was a great distraction. I would recommend getting it as an audiobook for labor though. I kept losing my place during contractions.
4.) A true story, this book blew me away. It is proof that we can never truly know how completely we can change the lives of the people we encounter. Every bit of kindness makes a difference. A busy woman takes time to have lunch with a poor child, and the resulting friendship will blow you away.
3.)
2.) For those of you that do not know, I'm training to be a women's self defense instructor. In my studies, I read this book. I immediately wanted to share it with every woman I know. Every PERSON I know. This would be useful to teach in schools! I highly recommend reading this book. It just might save your life one day.
1.)
We take requests for topics! Comment here or on our facebook fan page. Or email us at thecaseofthemissingcheerios@gmail.com
See ya next week! :)
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