Miracle Monday

It's Miracle Monday and today I'm asking for more prayer for Gracie Jean Lockyer.

I need to give you all an update as she has had a very rough week. (The text in quotations is taken directly from Gracie's CaringBridge site.)

She was scheduled to have a heart catheterization on Thursday but they couldn't do the procedure because she took a turn for the worse on Wednesday night.

"She has had a continuous fever; there is no profusion to her hands and feet (meaning they could not get a pulse); her lactic acid has been going up; they have increased her vent and added additional heart medicine; she has needed blood and fluid but she has a tendency to fill up with the fluid quicker than she should, making her "septic"".

At one point on Thursday, they "were told that she went into shock. Her blood pressure dropped to 40/20 and she had no blood flow to her arms and legs. They added epinephrine--a heart medicine--and went up on her other heart medicines."

And while they were doing a test on her abdomen, they discovered that she has a fracture in her femur. "Because Gracie has never been able to maintain nutrition in the PICU, she has weak bones. Sometimes sick babies are as fragile as old people." So her leg is now in a little cast.

Her parents, Todd and Amanda, have become tired and weary. You can hear it in their posts on Gracie's CaringBridge site.

They continue to put their trust in God but they as well as Gracie, need our prayers.

Please pray for Gracie and Todd and Amanda.

If you would like to share a miracle, it's simple. Just post a miracle on your blog and link it back here using Mr. Linky below. Please mention "A Mom's Life" and my URL in your post. And if you want, you can use the Miracle Monday button in your post as well.

PLEASE NOTE - when linking make sure to link to your Miracle Monday post. Do not link to the front page of your blog. If you have any questions, email me and I will be glad to help you. My email address is in my profile.

Have a great Miracle Monday!

Miracle Monday is now closed. Please come back next week if you would like to post a miracle. In the meantime, please browse the Miracle Archive on the sidebar for inspiration!

Meet Bob.

My good friend Tracy wanted to see a picture of my new do - the one that I style with my trusty curling iron.

So here it is....

I got it cut about a month ago and didn't bother to post about it because basically it's just a simple bob. And to be quite honest, I'm not that thrilled with it.

I've had bobs before and well, they're just bobs. They aren't trendy or stylish or anything special.

But bobs are classic, elegant and timeless. Three adjectives I frequently use to describe myself.

Oh, I kid.

I guess I'm just not sure what to do with my hair.

I guess I keep thinking that a new hairstyle will suddenly make me look 10 pounds thinner, will suddenly make my house cleaner and more organized, will suddenly make my kids better behaved and will suddenly put a little bounce in my step.

Clearly a new hairdo isn't going to do any of that.

So, I might as well come to terms with the bob. It's just hair. And that's all.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

But for some reason, I keep looking.

So if you see someone with a timeless bob flipping through all of those over-priced hair magazines in the supermarket letting out a big long sigh, that will be me.

I'll be looking for the perfect hairstyle that not only suits my face shape and my hair type, but one that also promises weight loss, a clean house and sweet kids.

Wish me luck...

Jagged Little Pill

My daughter loves to play with her brother and the two boys that live next door. Most afternoons the little boys are pretty accommodating and don't seem to mind a 4 year old girl tagging along.

Any why would they?

Sarah may be wearing a dress and plastic heels but she can get down and dirty with the best of 'em.

She's already the kind of girl I always wished I was. She's girly, pink, soft, and glittery on one hand and tough-as-nails, let's-play-in-the-dirt, I'm-not-afraid-of-anybody-or-anything on the other hand.

So today,when the boys told her they didn't want to play with her, she took it all in stride.

She came in the house, told me what happened and started singing the following song:

Boys are mean.
I don't care.
They aren't my friends.
I only like girls.
Boys are mean but not my brother.
Because booooooys arrrrrrre meeeeeeeean!

Alanis Morissette would be so proud!

Here's a picture of Sarah, last week before her declaration of boy hate, hanging out with the boys watching a big truck .

I'm alive!

Just wanted to check in and let you all know I survived the Great Hair Drying After the No-So-Great Dropping of the Hair Dryer in the Toilet!

Last night at dinner my husband was lamenting the fact that I didn't lay the dryer outside in the 90 degree heat to speed up the drying process.

I was just thankful that I had dropped it into a fresh bowl, so to speak. Because around here, you never really know what's going to be floating around in the toilet.

It was bound to happen sooner or later...

So, hypothetically speaking, how long does it take for a hair dryer to dry out after it falls into the toilet?

O.k. So I'm not asking a hypothetical question. I'm being serious.

Do you think it will be safe to use my hair dryer in the morning?

With a set up like this, it was bound to happen sooner or later...

And yes, that's a curling iron you see behind the hair dryer. And yes, I know it's not 1987 but I still love my curling iron. Please don't judge me.

I got my hair cut into a bob right before I went on vacation and if I use the flat iron my hair looks a little too blunt and too chic...totally not me. Well, not chic anyway. I can definitely be blunt.

And I have never been able to dry my hair using the round roller brush so, I have to use the curling iron on the ends of my hair.

At least I'm not using it on my bangs. With 5 gallons of hair spray.

Because THAT would totally be 1987.

We can all rest easy tonight.

Usually after I go grocery shopping, I throw my list away.

Not this week. It was driving me crazy that I couldn't read that one item on my list. So every time I walked into the kitchen I picked it up and scrutinized it a little more.

With no luck.

And of course, I brought it to you guys here without much luck as well....

Runts, rum nuts, corn, clams. My handwriting is worse than I thought!

I knew it couldn't have been any of those but I did find out that many of you think cream cheese, cheddar cheese and ice cream would make a fine meal. What are you guys doing for dinner Saturday? I'd love to have you over!

But the one thing that really struck me was how many of you actually do TYPE your lists! I was shocked and amazed because honestly, I was only kidding about typing up my list.

But now that I hear how many of you actually do it, I may have to consider it. I just don't think I'll ever be that organized though.

Maybe...one day when the kids are in college. When I finally get all of our pictures in picture albums. When I finally organize my closets by color and season. When I finally clean out the filing cabinet and get rid of the bills and miscellaneous paper work dating back to 1999.

O.k. so maybe I'll never get around to typing my lists but it's something to aspire to.

Anyway, last night, I was at my parent's house. In the summer after dinner we go over and sit on their front porch and rock in the rocking chairs and chat.

After about 15 minutes, Mom bolts up in her rocker and says, "The list! What about the list? Did you ever figure it out?"

"No!" I exclaimed. "I have been looking at it all day and I still can't figure it out."

So I ran back home to get the list so she could look at it. My photography skills are lacking so it was hard to really get a good look at it on my blog.

She started looking it over and the best she could come up with was "Riunite".

I just laughed. Because it's not 1981 and I'm not even sure they still make Riunite any more. (After a quick Google search, it appears that they do!)

So we started talking about what I was fixing for dinner this week to see if that would help me. Since the kids are in VBS this week (and they get dinner there!) I only really had dinner plans for the weekend.

On Saturday, we had steak and tortellini salad.

And that's when it hit me!

RED ONION!

That's it! Red onion! That was it. My husband looked at the list again and still didn't think that scratch could be red onion. But it is. It's red onion!

So what appears to be "R-E-A-squiggle-N-T" is really "R-E-D-O-N-I".

The pen ran out of ink on the "D" making it look more like an "A". And what I thought was a "T" being crossed is really an "I" being dotted.

I know. I know. I really need to start typing my lists.

But at least we can all rest well tonight knowing I figured it out.

The tortellini salad was delicious by the way.

I guess I'm going to have to type it!

I have to have a grocery list when I shop. Otherwise, I come home with a trunk full of groceries and no actual meals.

Unless you consider cream cheese, cheddar cheese and ice cream an actual meal.

I have a very simple method. I keep my grocery list on the refrigerator. During the week I write down the things we have run out of and then the night before I go shopping, I figure out what we will be eating for dinner every night of the next week and then add the items I need for each meal to the list.

Now here's where I should mention that I have horrible handwriting. It was never good. Ever.

And then I took typing in 10th grade and it has only gotten worse.

You can probably see where this is going.

There will always be one item on my list that I can't read. I will get to the end of the list and there will be one thing that isn't crossed off and I will have to stop my cart, scratch my head and try to determine what that item might be.

Usually I can figure it out. I mean, it is my own handwriting after all.

But this week, I stumped myself.

For the life of me, I can't figure out what it is.

It is over in the left hand column which is where I put any items that would be in the produce/fruit/deli section of Wal-Mart.

See it there under lettuce? It looks like it starts with an "r" and I can sort of make out an "n" and a "t". But I can't for the life of me figure out what it is. (Sorry for the poor photography.)

I even showed it to my husband after I got home and asked if he could make it out. I was met with scoffing and mocking. "You want me to figure out what's on your list?"

So I'm asking you, my dear friends on the Internet. What is it? What's on my list? Any suggestions?

It's driving me crazy. Normally by now I would have figured it out but it's already been two days and I am stumped. I guess if it's something we really needed, I will have an AH-HA moment right as I am fixing dinner.

But I hate having AH-HA moments when I am in the middle of fixing dinner.

If only I had pretty handwriting like Holly's!

Maybe I should just start typing my grocery lists.

Miracle Monday

Happy Miracle Monday!

If you are a regular reader of A Mom's Life, then you know all about the trouble we've just had with our trampoline.

A tree cracked and split open two days after a big storm and crushed our trampoline.

Miraculously the tree fell around 5:00 AM. I am so thankful that it did not fall during the day when my kids and their friends would have been in the backyard.

If you visit here regularly, then you also know that my friend Jennifer's husband came right after work that day with a 3 foot chain saw and made quick work of cutting up the tree. He even took the wood!

The tree falling and the trampoline being ruined were annoyances but I realized that evening how blessed we truly are - friendship is a true gift from God.

And a friend that owns and operates a 3 foot chain saw can also be considered a miracle!

If you would like to share a miracle, it's simple. Just post a miracle on your blog and link it back here using Mr. Linky below. Please mention "A Mom's Life" and my URL in your post. And if you want, you can use the Miracle Monday button in your post as well.

PLEASE NOTE - when linking make sure to link to your Miracle Monday post. Do not link to the front page of your blog. If you have any questions, email me and I will be glad to help you. My email address is in my profile.

Have a great Miracle Monday!

Miracle Monday is now closed. Thanks to all who participated this week. Please come back next Monday for more miracles!

Peter on marriage, again.

I have written previously about the fact that Peter does not want to get married.

I had this brief conversation with him yesterday:

Peter: "Mommy, I'm never getting married! Wanna know why?"

Me: "Why? Why are you never getting married?"

Peter: "Because if you get married, you have to share all of your money with the girl!"

Hmmmm...I think he's been talking to Daddy.