WHAT A DAY!

Today was one of THOSE days! As always- when your husband is out of town- whatever can go wrong, will go wrong! HA! Well this time “the disaster” happened as he was leaving. So let me write the extremely long version of the things that have been happening. In the beginning of week Aaron received  devastating news that his Doc Michael Allen Booth from Iraq deployments had taken his own life. As much as it saddens me every time we hear they have lost an other buddy, this was extra hard even on me, because Doc made so many great movies while the guys were in Iraq, it put a smile on my face knowing that my husband was doing O.K. , even without knowing Doc personally there was  that special bond of appreciation for all he did. Aaron had hard time with Doc’s death too, he felt obligated to go and pay last respects, because h knew that many of the man he served with were unable to go and right now he has the time and means to do so. So after going back on forth on his decision about flying out to Phoenix, Arizona he took the final  step and bought the ticket. So before the trip there was some business he had to take care of- my car has been leaking coolant- slowly, but steady and seemed like a ticking time bomb just waiting to burst . So last night he set a goal to take care of it- unfortunately no store around here had the part- figures, so we went for a quick fix that should do the job until he would get back.

Now, fast forward to this morning: We were running extremely late and underestimated how long of a drive it actually was to get to Ithaca , NY, even though we have done the drive quite a few times. As we were only 3 miles away from the airport and 20 minutes from Aaron’s flight taking off, we heard a POP and in horror watched a stream of fluid left behind by our car. But we made it the airport parking lot. No hugs and kisses goodbye, just panicked looks of what to do and me quite strictly telling Aaron to run and catch his flight, is how we parted. Thank goodness for cell phones! Within 2 minutes of all this taking part, a very kind man came up to me, looked under the hood of my old but most of the time faithful, Explorer, and said: “That is not bad at all, we can fix this! “  And he did(more details to come)! So after an other quick fix and me holding back tears because of how overwhelming all of this was, me and the kids went on going to our favorite place in Ithaca- Scienceneter- an amazingly awesome kid’s museum, where I took a deep breath and collected all my thoughts. We stayed there long enough for Aaron to call me right after he had landed for his layover. My husband is my strong rock- close by and from far away, he keeps me grounded and level headed in pretty yucky situations . And this time it was my turn to return the favor too, he was dealing with mayor guilt for leaving us at that airport parking lot with no clear directions of what I should do next, HA!

Now, an other fast forward: no shops could get me in any time soon, so I went with plan B- go to a store, get the part and hopefully someone would help me change that part. And the store clerk did come out and helped me by holding up my hood, ha-ha, because even that part of my good ol’e Explorer has seen better days. And I did put that part- heater control valve, in all by myself!!! Even though this man works at Advanced Auto parts he wasn’t much of a fix-it-man.

Now that you know the details of the story, here is the “life lesson learned” part:

*It’s good to have some extra tools and odds and ends in your car. The man who helped us at the airport, dug trough his sister’s truck(she’s a farmer’s wife) and found a multi tool and some clamps to fix the hose. Also, he had just landed and instead of catching up with his family, he didn’t hesitate and came to help without me even asking. And I didn’t  even ask him for his name. But he made a good point:”Pay it forward”, good deeds pay back when you least expect it. I always knew this and have always followed this golden rule and in times like these it is reminded me that we as a family always do the right thing for a reason, it will pay back when most needed. I am so ever grateful for this stranger’s kindness!!! And on top of the kindness, also his compassion- he had just landed at 9:30 a.m. coming from Las Vegas- meaning he most likely spent his night flying, not to mention the time change!!!

*It’s good to keep as calm as possible- especially when you have two kids in the backseat and their eyes are glued on you! Keeping my cool, kept them calm(Ethan) and happy(Jack). Ethan got out of the car to see what was going on and also learned a great life lesson hands on! He had some very great questions and conclusions as we drove away from the airport.

*Even the smallest help can make a big difference- the clerk from the auto store only held up my hood, but if he wouldn’t had, I would’ve had “mission impossible” to achieve, because let’s face it- Ethan is short and not yet strong enough to hold up a heavy hood of an Explorer for a prolonged period of time and to hold it high enough. There was a  point  made by Ethan , by the way, when I mentioned something to him, that the men kept lowering the hood and it kept hitting my head, ha-ha- “But, mom,”Ethan said,” he did come out and offered to help and I think that it was very nice of him,because without him, you might've not been able to do it!” Thank you Ethan for a point well made.

*Look at the good in every good situation a.k.a. every dark cloud has a silver lining- something I learned from my mom ever since I was little. Things could’ve gone a lot worse- a)we might’ve never even made it to the airport, the whole hose blow-up could’ve happened just 10miles away from airport and Aaron would’ve missed his flight.  b) the car could’ve overheated and caught on fire or something!!!! c) no one would offer to help and me and the kids would have to get it towed and rent a car and spend a whole lot of money on unnecessary expenses d) here are lot more if’s I don’t even know about!!!!

So all together the conclusion is- I rock, because I fixed that part myself- it might be put in sideways, but it is in  and got as home with no leaks or weird noises, or steam. And when you want to sit and complain that the whole world is against you just because things do not go your way…well sit back and look at all the good things in that not so pleasant situation and quit whining!!! There are some amazing people in this world and I am happy that I have the ability to appreciate it and the skill that my mom gave me; let me repeat myself: “Every dark cloud has a silver lining”

So go out and enjoy your lives to the fullest and let not small speed bumps stop your journey!

The times…

Once again I have about 4 blogs that I started on and never finished…maybe one of these some of them will get there. I’m just hoping that this one will meet a different fate.

On to my big philosophical thought of the day…

As I was sitting here going through song after song on YouTube- starting with “Beach Boys” and onto “Queen” I was really starting to think that some evil force has delayed my birth by about 30 years. Such great music was created in the 60’s and 70’s, and even 80’s! Just the though that I will never be able to see “Queen” and Freddie Mercury in live concert- breaks my heart. What also lead me to wonder, if I was old enough to follow pop culture at that time which path would I have taken- stay conservative with all the old values or go all out liberal.

And to be honest with you, I have no idea what kind of path I would have chosen. I started out living under communism what parents absolutely opposed , too many of my family members had suffered from the occupancy of Latvia and the regime of not having any freedoms and fearing to express what they believed in. I mean I flunked Russian in second grade and my parents were somewhat OK with it, if my memory is not failing me my mom might have even been supportive of that. We took part in  Baltic Chain and cried when this song came out :

And when 1991 rolled around the corner and USSR army took over the streets of Riga and took over the TV, the radio and brutally made themselves present at the “Preses Nams” building where all the newspaper and magazine offices were, and  Latvian people barricaded the important government buildings to not let Russian OMON (Special Militia Force Brigade (Russian acronym OMON) ) , my parents welcomed the change with their arms wide open. In August of that year my dad illegally distributed the paper that he worked for, out of the trunk of his car. Yet I do not see any similarities to events that occurred in my young childhood to those that were going on in USA some 25 years earlier.

Either way, I am loosing my trail of thought and going to finish this blog up with conclusion that back in the 60’s and 70’s I would’ve probably stayed quite conservative. Even though I was raised to question the order of things and challenge the norm, what is making a bit difficult for me to stay a very devoted Christian , because any kind of religion is more about following than questioning…

In the end I am happy to be living in “my time”- in these times we have and I am grateful to have the freedoms that my sons are growing up with.  PEACE OUT (wink, wink) !!!

CATCHING UP

Once again I have been slacking, I guess life tends to get a bit hectic around these parts- busy mornings with Jack, going to gym and Ethan’s homework and baseball games and practices. By the end of the day I am beat! To my defense though- I have 3 blogs that have been started, but never got finished, so I think I will just go ahead and delete them and hope that this one will get finished.

PART 1: processed foods

A while ago I made a commitment to never make instant mashed potatoes again. We have always been instant mashed potatoes kind of people. Then a while ago I made them from scratch 3 times in the row(!!!)- record for me. And then again I went back to instant, this time for the last time! The sodium just killed me, the taste was unbearable and the feeling of fakeness just overwhelmed me. So from now on we are only making mashed potatoes from REAL potatoes with good ol’ milk and my favorite- cream cheese. And it only takes extra couple of minutes.

What made me think of writing about this, was my experience from store bought meatballs just today. I had some frozen meatballs in the freezer that I decided to thaw real quick …yeah, that didn’t end up all that well- by the end of thawing process they were slimy and smelled bad, one fell on the floor and I am still going over that spot to trying and getting all of that mushy mess cleaned up. GROSS!!! So from now on we are living as processed food free as possible. What gives great opportunities to sneak in all the extra veggies as I possibly can. The other day I bailed on my meatloaf plan and made something quite yucky looking what I would like to call “meat bake”, but it had about 1/3 meat and the rest of it was fresh herbs and veggies. And kids asked for seconds!!! - what is not a common occurrence in this house.  So out with the old yucky and in with the new unappealing good for you stuff :) .

PART 2: Jack

Jack had the tubes put in his ears and adenoids removed 2 months ago, and that is when we found out that the poor kiddo could barely hear. So needless to say that up to that point I had lots of very hard days when I would be a nervous wreck trying to figure out why my 2 year old was not talking. Ethan had been a wonder child when it came to speaking. On his first birthday he was pointing at everything asking “What’s that?” clear as day and had quite a word count. By the time he was 2 he would talk to you as clear as adult without using any “baby” words in full sentences.  I am not a parent who compares kids- I think it just drives parents mad and they push their kids to be someone they are not, but having two sons who are SOOOO different from each other can be quite tormenting.

However, Jack is finally starting to catch up. he is passed the stage where he had to relearn everything he had known about sounds and is crossing over from learning to make basic sounds to forming words and even putting some together in 2-3- word combos. It is not an overnight process but we are slowly getting somewhere. About 2 days ago he figured out how to say “OK” and so far that is the cutest word he has said so far- the way he pronounces it, is just ADORABLE! And as much I never expected to have a child with speech delay, it has been quite the adventure for these last 2 months to see his hearing and speech develop, since with Ethan it was a natural process.

PART 3: baseball

In Latvia we DO NOT have baseball, so I still have no clue about 95% of the rules this game has. But it sure is a great American past time. This is only the  second season of Ethan playing it, so he is not the best player on the team but he has learned to have fun with it. And this year he is not T-ball anymore, what makes me wonder if maybe we should’ve kept him in T-ball for an other year, but he is liking the challenge of more advanced rules and playing. And he is having quite the advantage of being as short as he is, because most of the kids pitching are way taller than he is, so he can easily just walk to first base after having some good judgment. But that took a little while of practice. In his first two games my little son was jumping up, with the bat swinging in the air above his head trying to hit the ball!!! What a sight , let me tell ya! I think me and Aaron had some serious stomach cramps for laughing so hard. But after some one on one practice time with his dad he is getting awesome at judging which balls to hit and which ones to pass up. Last game he walked to the first base once thanks to all the hard work.  Now we need to work on NOT hitting the ball straight to the base.

PART 4:gym

I have been going to gym for little under 2 months now, since I took a break from doing anything working out related for about 3 years,and loving it! I am not doing any dieting just working out and it really does feel good and works out great for me, since I am one of those people who live to eat, not eat to live. So far I have gone down at least one pant size and lost about 12 pounds, so it’s working just fine :) and I have a LOT more energy what is quite essential these days since Jack has decided to be a future runner- that boy does not walk, he runs! Our walks should be called Jack’s jogs. What I should start counting those in my workouts because we probably walk close to a mile every day.

And I think that this will be it for now. Check in later to see what nice things you can read about :)

Catching up

It’s been a while since I blogged and surprisingly we have stayed pretty busy! I started gym on Monday of last week and WOW, I am loving it and somewhat hating it at the same time! It’s been almost 3 years since I worked out, so it has been a bit of a physical challenge , but the feeling afterwards is amazing. Well I take that back, by the time Thursday rolled around I could not move off the couch! Cutting out caffeine and starting to work out pretty fast will get you feeling pretty weak, but on Wednesday night I went tanning…overdid it- burned myself bright red. So Thursday I spent the whole day wrapped up in the blanket on the couch. Aaron has night class on Thursday so he was able to entertain Jack all day while I cat napped all day- got to love a college man! And a great dad and amazingly caring husband!

Also Ethan is done with his state testing- thank goodness we are done with the first year of that! Although I will miss our slow mornings before school together and me driving him to school. Ethan is absolutely a school bus kind of child! He just loves riding on the bus, personally my mother’s opinion about his love for the bus is this- he is an extremely social young man and would not miss ANY opportunity to spend even more time socializing with his friends.

Also Jack is recovering great from his ear tube placement and adenoids taken out. First day was quite rough, second day was very slow but by the third day he was just about back to normal. Unfortunately he got the extreme case of one unpleasant side effect- stinky breath! And let me tell you, that little boy was STINKY! and snotty. Seeing all the gunk coming out of his nose was so sad, yet reassuring that this procedure definitely needed to be done! And as much as I’d love to see him talking already we are getting there. Every day he discovers new sounds he can make and HEAR, in a way it is definitely delayed in Jack’s case, but it is so reassuring to me- he will talk one day. Just imagining that he was barely able to hear and who knows what his own words sounded to him. So we are in the process of relearning basic sounds and how to put them together to form words. I just wish his favorite word for now would not be “no”, ha-ha!

Also we managed to have an other snow storm here up North, after being spoiled by couple of nice , warm days in upper 50’s and very low 60’s, Mother Nature had snow storm planned. Unfortunately we were so busy enjoying the warm weather that I did not take any pictures, but there will be other chances. I just can not wait to get out there again and let the kids be wild little outside creatures and for Ethan to start brushing up on his baseball skills.

NO PICTURES

Ethan is going trough “no picture” stage. he either hides or covers his face, or just runs away-screaming, or makes a ridiculous face. On top of that it is winter and he has discovered the great feeling of “licking your upper lip while it’s cold and windy outside”…not a pretty site when it turns all red and chapped,and cracking… Looks like a red mustache- YUCK! So at times I avoid taking pictures of him, even if he possibly might be in the picture taking mood. Although the other day I tried sneaking a picture of him and he looked at me, covered his face and said(in a shocked voice) : “Mom, you just can’t do that!!! “ …and then he walked away. I was stunned- never knew there were privacy laws that protected little boys from their mother taking pictures of them. But ok, I guess… So I am being extra revengeful without him knowing about it and posting the cutest picture of my firstborn who is growing up way too fast. Enjoy!

YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR

SHOES

 

To put this simply- I have children who are show snobs. It is not their choice, I’m sure-they are little monsters who despise shopping   , but they just have very finicky feet! However, I must say, Ethan did not start out that way- as a baby and toddler he had some shoes and boots from Wallyworld and did just fine. Jack has not been so lucky- last year he ended up with a HUGE blister from Target sandals and even Nike’s didn’t bend enough for him to walk right, he’s been my Stride-Rite child from the very beginning when he started walking, what is not cheep!!!

Either way, what triggered me to write about this, was Ethan’s winter boots. After we moved to PA and it’s harsh winters the boys needed some snow boots, what by the way is impossible to get at the end of January because even the northerners here are putting out flip flops o their store shelves around this time of year, so after long search I got the last pair of not so cool looking snow boots and working looking boots for Ethan. This was last February- a year ago. So Ethan got about a month worth of use out of his snow boots last year. And about 3 months this year. And they were DONE! The Velcro didn’t stay closed anymore, so my poor child ended up running around with socks at times- IN THE SNOW! Given the fact that no stores carry snow boots his size anymore at this time of year, we decided that he could make do with the work looking boots for the remainder of the winter. HA! That was wishful thinking- a week later those had a hole in them. Their use added up to about 3 weeks total… I did only spend about 20-30 dollars on both of those  pairs of boots, so it’s really not that bad, but still. I guess I am too poor to be cheep.

So from now on I am sticking with what I preach- I am NEVER buying any cheep shoes for my kiddos ever again! I’m going with the brands I know I can trust and the ones Ethan has put trough his own test already.

Lots of rumbling

PART I

Yesterday Jack had tubes put in his ears and his adenoids taken out. As much as I was hoping that we could skip the adenoid removal, we didn’t get lucky on that. He went in happy and came out so miserable, since he’s been congested to start with anesthesia messed with his breathing quite a bit and he ended up needing a breathing treatment, but it made such a big difference! Doctor told us that his ears were full of gunky and thick fluid and his adenoids were quite enlarged, normally kids go in for this procedure with clear fluid and a little enlarged adenoids, so I’m happy I did not fight this procedure like I had planned in the beginning. Either way, yesterday we had a cranky and miserable little two year old, his nose was leaking non-stop and he would not let us wipe it, his face was swollen and Jack-a-Boo was extremely drowsy. Here’s a picture of Jack being miserable: , had to insert a black and white pic here, the colorful version was a bit graphic with yuckiness.

However, after a good nights sleep he is back to being himself with added thoughtfulness about things, he can definitely hear better already, we’ve been reading books- a lot of books, and he has been listening to every word with such amazement and stillness, Jack  definitely has his hearing back! Also he has been forming his words a lot better, he has been saying sounds that have not come out of his mouth since last spring. As bad as I felt yesterday about being helpless to make him feel better, it was all worth it! A brand new world of discoveries is ahead of my little Jackson man and that makes my heart smile!

 

PART II

Why YES!!! I did post a picture of a soda warning label! I have never noticed it before, maybe because Pepsi and Coke doesn’t have one or maybe I am not too interested in soda labels. Either way it caused me to laugh and get angry at the same time! It also reminded me of the movie “Idiocracy” – by the way it is a funny movie and definitely worth watching, I would even go as far and recommend watching it. Where has the world come to these days that we need warning labels on soda bottles? Have most people lost any common sense? Are the law suits caused by  common stupidity really so much out of control? I suppose this is as bad as all the warning on coffee cups warning you of the hot contents- there must be people out there that do not realize that the coffee they just purchased might be hot, therefore  burn their mouths, our if being spilled burn their skin? I just saw a warning label on a knife the other day that said that it was sharp- really? Either way, what I am getting  at, is this- how much government regulations and stupidity warnings do we really need? I understand that in order to protect kids from some extra stupid parents we DO NEED car seat laws and kids should definitely wear helmets while riding their bikes and other moving objects! Helmets are a God’s sent. Here is true story about how helmet saved Ethan from some serious head injury: When Ethanjuga was about 4 years old his favorite thing to do on his bike was to to gain full speed coming down the barely declining sidewalk by our house on post and crash into grass. And because of this insane activity he had, I did insist he wore his helmet; what most of the time he try to avoid. Good thing I was extra persistent this particular time, because something either happened to his steering ability  or he had an extra crazy “brainstorm”- Ethan was flying down the sidewalk , turned the corner(he usually went straight all the way down) and crashed head first into the wall of our house! His helmet needed to be retired, for it had come apart! His head was fine though, I wish I could say the same thing of his knuckles-those body parts didn’t get as lucky- scraped, bloody and bruised. Now, let’s get back to my rumbling about common sense- if my son did not have his helmet on this particular day, it would’ve been my fault if he got hurt- that’s common sense. However some people seem to think that nothing is their fault and possibly would’ve tried to blame the company who manufactured the bike or how about being more extreme and blame the wall, watch out brick manufacturer! It makes me so mad and ridiculously giggly at the same time. Fat people suing McDonalds is an other one- WOW! People still suing cigarette companies – double WOW!

So when it boils down to it- use common sense, take responsibly for your own actions and quit being an idiot! No wonder the modern world is getting more dumb  day-by-day. We are told exactly what to do without needing to even think for ourselves anymore, and instead of being paranoid  about everything, just  think about it for a minute and you will not have disastrous consequences. I’m afraid that if we keep up this pace  my grandkids will be required to wear safety equipment on playgrounds and our food will be served at room temperature- even if it should be hot soup or cold ice-cream(we wouldn’t want burned tongues or brain freeze ).

That’s all for today, have a good night my friends!