This Thanksgiving was hard for me. Last year I expected not to make it back to Indiana as we had only moved to Missouri on November 1st. But I couldn't help but hope to make it home this year. Turns out there was no use in having that hope. We didn't have the financial means to make it 5 1/2 hours one way (we drive a gas guzzling Durango for crying out loud!). So we had to work really hard to get our money together enough to make a real Thanksgiving dinner.
We literally broke the bank getting turkey, potatoes, stuff for gravy, stuff for chicken and noodles, etc. We managed to get enough to have a great dinner and leave literally $10 in the bank. So it was not easy to put together but we managed.
Then a few days ago my mom told me about my uncle. He has cancer. I guess it could be called stage-4. He's on chemo and from what mom explained he basically has to make a choice - either stay on the chemo and stay cancer free until the chemo eats his body or stop the chemo and let the cancer eat his body. It is either quality of life or quantity of life.
The best part of the day, I got to tell my uncle I love him. It may be the last time I get to do that. I'm thankful for my family. I'm thankful for my friends. And I'm thankful I got to tell my uncle I love him before I lose him.
Peace, Love and Coffee
♥Mandy♥
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
That was a long weekend
So, as I said before, I have two kids. They're both boys and only a little over 2 years apart in age. My youngest will turn 9 December 5th and his older brother 12 on January 31st. With that said, here was the "adventure" of the weekend:
My boys got invited over to a mutual friend's house this weekend. They left Friday night and stayed through until Sunday. Sunday around noon I got a phone call telling me that my oldest son had a rash on his face, he was swollen and looked "pretty bad". When I explained I didn't have a vehicle available (as my husband was at work 20 minutes away and he couldn't leave until his shift was over) the mother that had called told me she was sure he would be fine and that she'd given him some allergy medicine.
So as soon as my husband was home we went to get the boys and assess the situation with the oldest child. We gathered the youngest and I went straight to the bedroom where I knew the oldest would be playing video games. I knocked on the door and when someone responded I opened the door. I took one look at my child and said, as calmly as I could muster, "Get in the car, we need to get you to the hospital."
The rash that was "sure to be fine" is poison ivy to the extent that my child's left eye is completely swollen shut, the entire left side of his face is swollen similar to how people often look when they are allergic to bee stings. The poison ivy starts just into the front edge of his hair line, covers his entire face from ear to ear and down to the collar line of his neck. He has also informed me he has it on his "no-no" spot.
Please someone explain to me how that was considered to be nothing more than "pretty bad" and "sure to be fine"? Had the tables been turned I would have been telling the woman, get dressed, I'm on my way to get you and we can get this kid to a doctor immediately. I would not have let the fact that she was without a vehicle hinder the situation. I certainly wouldn't have said "I'm sure he'll be fine. Just let us know when you're on your way."
I felt the situation was handled very poorly by the parents of my children's friend. I do not understand how she was able to look at him and even think for one moment there wasn't a need for a doctor to be seen immediately.
Okay, I'm going to start going in circles about how upset I was at this point, so I'll stop here. If I get the picture loaded to the computer I will add it to a future post and refer back to this post at that time so you have the opportunity to judge for yourself how the situation should have been handled.
Until then I bid you all:
Peace, Love and Coffee
♥Mandy♥
My boys got invited over to a mutual friend's house this weekend. They left Friday night and stayed through until Sunday. Sunday around noon I got a phone call telling me that my oldest son had a rash on his face, he was swollen and looked "pretty bad". When I explained I didn't have a vehicle available (as my husband was at work 20 minutes away and he couldn't leave until his shift was over) the mother that had called told me she was sure he would be fine and that she'd given him some allergy medicine.
So as soon as my husband was home we went to get the boys and assess the situation with the oldest child. We gathered the youngest and I went straight to the bedroom where I knew the oldest would be playing video games. I knocked on the door and when someone responded I opened the door. I took one look at my child and said, as calmly as I could muster, "Get in the car, we need to get you to the hospital."
The rash that was "sure to be fine" is poison ivy to the extent that my child's left eye is completely swollen shut, the entire left side of his face is swollen similar to how people often look when they are allergic to bee stings. The poison ivy starts just into the front edge of his hair line, covers his entire face from ear to ear and down to the collar line of his neck. He has also informed me he has it on his "no-no" spot.
Please someone explain to me how that was considered to be nothing more than "pretty bad" and "sure to be fine"? Had the tables been turned I would have been telling the woman, get dressed, I'm on my way to get you and we can get this kid to a doctor immediately. I would not have let the fact that she was without a vehicle hinder the situation. I certainly wouldn't have said "I'm sure he'll be fine. Just let us know when you're on your way."
I felt the situation was handled very poorly by the parents of my children's friend. I do not understand how she was able to look at him and even think for one moment there wasn't a need for a doctor to be seen immediately.
Okay, I'm going to start going in circles about how upset I was at this point, so I'll stop here. If I get the picture loaded to the computer I will add it to a future post and refer back to this post at that time so you have the opportunity to judge for yourself how the situation should have been handled.
Until then I bid you all:
Peace, Love and Coffee
♥Mandy♥
Monday, November 15, 2010
Why am I awake?
I have been up for almost a straight 24 hours and am getting ready to head into work for a grueling 8 1/2 hour shift. I generally take a nap in the morning after I send the husband off to school around 4:30 a.m. CST and then again after the boys get on the bus around 8:30 a.m. CST. As it is, this morning I wasn't able to get myself to fall asleep during either of those time so here I am (mostly) wide awake and getting ready to head to work. I have a feeling this may end badly, but I also know I don't have a choice. I work for a place that carries a "no fault" attendance policy. So, leaving early would only give me points and after a certain amount of points you have to pray that someone will have mercy on you and not fire you, per policy. I have been extremely fortunate up to this point that my direct supervisor is amazing and awesome and wonderful and she has forgiven many of my points - because I had doctor notices for illness primarily. However, I don't have any points to spare so I am stuck at work through the duration and I will be doing so on little to no sleep. Yay me /sarcasm. Wish me luck as I have a feeling I'm going to need all I can get.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Update 11/12/2010
So I've decided to start a new blog here. I have an existing blog over on LJ for personal use. However, there are many followers to that blog that are friends that I need to be able to rant or vent about without having to privatize or set specific lists for who can or cannot view it. With those thoughts in mind I bring myself here. This is a public blog, however, I am not going to set invitations to my friends to read this. This is my one sacred place. If people I know personally happen upon this blog and choose to follow I want it understood very plainly that I will not discuss what is posted to this particular blog. This is the one place I want to feel that my thoughts, opinions, rants, moans, groans, bitching and griping can be voiced without repercussion for getting it off my chest.
With that said let me introduce myself: My name is Mandy. Feel free to also address me as Molly or Mollywobblez. I am 32 years old. I am the proud mother of two very boyish boys. My oldest, Matthew, will be 12 on January 31. The youngest, Anthony, will be 9 on December 5. I have been married for 10 years to a wonderful man named Kevin. I provide all that information as I'm sure those three will have starring roles in many of the things I blog about.
I also have some wonderful friends. The only down side to those wonderful friends is that not one of them lives in the same state as I do. One lives in Nebraska, another in Oklahoma, one over in Pennsylvania and the other all the way in Maine. I will speak of them often and in order of location: Liz, Marissa, Chrissy and Lizzy. I also have friends and family back in Indiana which is where I am originally from.
So brief background: born and raised in Lafayette, Indiana. The area is known for Purdue University, home of the Big Ten team; Boilermakers. I attended Purdue for 1 1/2 semesters many years ago. November 1, 2009 we moved over to Missouri. We're in what is often referred to as a southern suburb of St. Louis, De Soto. Moving from a very large college town to here was a culture shock. But I like it here and call it home, however, home is still Lafayette, Indiana. My mom and dad and all my aunts and uncles all live in/around that area. Most of my cousins also live around there as well, except one that lives over in Texas and has since he graduated college more years ago than I can honestly remember.
I'm an only child and the extended family mentioned above is very important to me. I also was blessed with having a true best friend. After 16 beautiful years of friendship I lost her to uterine cancer; June 27, 2009. It has been a long, hard year without her physically present in my life. Each day I think of her and each day I miss her.
And I have rambled enough for one entry. I am sure to have much more to say. I hope I did not bore you with the introductions. I promise to bring some sorts of thoughts and opinions about things such as: my job, my friends, my friendships, my family (in particular rants about my husband, I'm sure) and anything else that happens to be of interest to me at the time I make the entry. If you have specific topics you would like me to tackle, ask and I will give my thoughts. Also, I love to write stories (often referred to as "fics"). If you have a particular fandom or pairing or cross-over you are interested in or even a specific kink that tickles your fancy (I have a friend that enjoys stories about struggling with pickle jar lids or having hands glued together) you can always approach me with those ideas and I will do my best to accommodate. Obviously I don't know all fandoms so I will only tackle the ones I feel confident in writing, but I will do what I can.
And now that I've covered all the shameless plugs on what you can expect to hear from me, I close this post.
Thanks for reading and happy blogging:
♥Mandy♥
With that said let me introduce myself: My name is Mandy. Feel free to also address me as Molly or Mollywobblez. I am 32 years old. I am the proud mother of two very boyish boys. My oldest, Matthew, will be 12 on January 31. The youngest, Anthony, will be 9 on December 5. I have been married for 10 years to a wonderful man named Kevin. I provide all that information as I'm sure those three will have starring roles in many of the things I blog about.
I also have some wonderful friends. The only down side to those wonderful friends is that not one of them lives in the same state as I do. One lives in Nebraska, another in Oklahoma, one over in Pennsylvania and the other all the way in Maine. I will speak of them often and in order of location: Liz, Marissa, Chrissy and Lizzy. I also have friends and family back in Indiana which is where I am originally from.
So brief background: born and raised in Lafayette, Indiana. The area is known for Purdue University, home of the Big Ten team; Boilermakers. I attended Purdue for 1 1/2 semesters many years ago. November 1, 2009 we moved over to Missouri. We're in what is often referred to as a southern suburb of St. Louis, De Soto. Moving from a very large college town to here was a culture shock. But I like it here and call it home, however, home is still Lafayette, Indiana. My mom and dad and all my aunts and uncles all live in/around that area. Most of my cousins also live around there as well, except one that lives over in Texas and has since he graduated college more years ago than I can honestly remember.
I'm an only child and the extended family mentioned above is very important to me. I also was blessed with having a true best friend. After 16 beautiful years of friendship I lost her to uterine cancer; June 27, 2009. It has been a long, hard year without her physically present in my life. Each day I think of her and each day I miss her.
And I have rambled enough for one entry. I am sure to have much more to say. I hope I did not bore you with the introductions. I promise to bring some sorts of thoughts and opinions about things such as: my job, my friends, my friendships, my family (in particular rants about my husband, I'm sure) and anything else that happens to be of interest to me at the time I make the entry. If you have specific topics you would like me to tackle, ask and I will give my thoughts. Also, I love to write stories (often referred to as "fics"). If you have a particular fandom or pairing or cross-over you are interested in or even a specific kink that tickles your fancy (I have a friend that enjoys stories about struggling with pickle jar lids or having hands glued together) you can always approach me with those ideas and I will do my best to accommodate. Obviously I don't know all fandoms so I will only tackle the ones I feel confident in writing, but I will do what I can.
And now that I've covered all the shameless plugs on what you can expect to hear from me, I close this post.
Thanks for reading and happy blogging:
♥Mandy♥
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