Happy Birthday Ginger...

My little sister, Natalie, and her beautiful family celebrated my late sister's Birthday on January 25th with cake and ice cream, and a Happy Birthday song. Their precious Maggie is a spittin' image of Gin!!!

My sister, Dawn, has discovered a new talent...

My sister has been ill for several months to the point where she can't drive and at times must use a walker. The doctors are clueless. One of my family's favorite quotes from the movie Dirty Dancing is "NOBODY PUTS BABY IN A CORNER!" Well, that's my sister's attitude. She has used this time to be still and draw nearer to God as He unfolds what He has in store for her in this next season of life. She has discovered a new talent and passion. Painting. Look at the beauty God creates through her when she picks up a paintbrush. Just amazing! She is such an inspiration to me.

Dawn's rendition of Monet's "The Cliff Walk" 

Monet's "The Cliff Walk"

Obviously, my sister's is a bit better:) She uses acrylic paints, whereas Monet uses oil. Acrylic dries much faster, so you can't blend the colors on the canvas. You have to blend them before putting them on the canvas. If these are Dawn's first attempts at painting, can you imagine what her art work will be like in years to come??? I've already put in my order!

My little Fashionista!

Emma had so much fun with the grocery bags today! She played for about 2 hours, no kidding!!! (I know, I know, I forfeited my "mother of the year" award by letting my kid play with plastic bags). But, she was so creative with those bags! My little fashionista made outfit after outfit with the bags. She made a path with them and walked down it. She even laid them out like they were snow and made a snow angel on them. Why in the world to we spend money on toys when we could just give our kids plastic bags!?!

Ellie's 5th grade project... It was assigned before Christmas Break!

She worked on this project for about a month! I always dread 5th grade projects. I remember when each of the boys had them, yuk! I just have one more little one to get through this project after Ellie!

Shopping for a new company car...

Yesterday, we went to buy a car. The company Keith previously worked for picked up his company car on Friday. Keith starts his new job on Monday. The new company offers a car allowance rather than a company car. Keith had been doing research all month narrowing it down to a few types of cars that would be dependable and get great gas mileage. He drives a lot with his job. Our search didn't start off too well. When we'd get to a place where we had seen an ad for a car at an unbelievable price, they would tell us that we just missed it. They just sold the car right before we arrived. (Bait and switch) These salesmen were so slimy in their dealings. They all said the same kinds of things, just in different ways. When I asked if the seats in a certain car were leather or pleather, a salesman said, "Well, they look leather to me." In other words, they're not! That's like saying, "Well if you want them to be leather, then they are." It was ironic, it just so happened that every place we went that day had mis-priced the very car we were interested in. Some "gal" in the shop accidently marked it too low and they were actually losing money on it. They were planning on marking it back up the next week. But since they had it marked at that price, they would stand by it, but really couldn't come down on the price. (Really, because Keith has been doing research all month and has seen that car at that price for 3 weeks in a row!). It was beginning to get sadly funny. Keith and I finally made an offer on a Toyota Camery. The guy said, "Let me let you talk to my manager" (that would be the "closer" in car talk). The "manager", obviously worked out. He came in with a huge grin and walked straight over to Keith and felt his muscles and said, "Oh, do you work out?" Once they found out the car was for Keith, they would ignore me and begin shmoozing Keith. Yuk! Then the guy said, Look I'm losing money already on this deal, I just can't afford to lose any more. We got up and said, "Okay, this was just our first stop, we have other places to go." Then the other guy said, "Oh, come on Bob, can't we do something for these nice people?" (good cop / bad cop) Then Bob squatted down and covered his face (so theatrical) and said, "Well, I guess I can come down a hundred dollars." Keith and I got up to leave, then the other guy said, "Bob, Can't we do better than that?" Then Bob said, "Your killing me Paul, whose side are you on? Let me go crunch some numbers." Bob went to "crunch numbers", leaving Paul more time to try to make the sale. Paul said, "Keith, from one baseball player to another, I'm on your side buddy". (Of coarse he had asked Keith earlier if he had played sports in college and it just so happened that they both played baseball. What are the chances they found something in common?) I didn't know whether to clap for the performance or throw up. When Bob finally came back in, he said, "Guys, I really just can't do any better. You wouldn't miss out on a great car for just a few hundred dollars would you?" I said, "You wouldn't miss out on a great sale for just a few hundred dollars would you?" And we got up and left. (In the words of Barbie Fashion Fairy-tale Secrets, Don't mess with the dress!) Finally I just prayed for God to lead us to a place where we'd find a great deal on a great car and a salesman with integrity that was just trying to earn an honest living. We actually found one! He was so nice and so not pushy. He didn't try one sales pitch. It was so refreshing. He would just hand us the keys to the cars we wanted to drive and simply answer our questions. When we asked to see the car facts for the cars we were interested in, he showed us. Car facts show you if the car has had one or more drivers. It also tells you if they have been in any accidents... We got an amazing deal on a Nissan Altima. Keith even asked him to replace the 2 back tires with new ones and he did. As you can see, the girls got bored and began throwing rocks in the parking lot. I said, "Yikes, please don't hit a car!" Kids seem to have a way of hurrying up the paper work.

A real "BUM"mer!

Sooooo guess what happened to me this weekend??? I got a urinary track infection! I called my family doctor and left a message for the on-call doctor to call me back asap. That was at 1:00. I called again and again and they never called me back. Turns out they were having phone issues. I was going down hill fast; by 5:00 I was sitting in the urgent care center. At that point I was running a slight fever and going to the bathroom every 5 minutes. The doctor said, "You have a pretty bad UTI. Do you want the shot? I'll still give you antibiotics, but this will just help get rid of it faster." I said, "Sure." The nurse came in with a shot full of thick serum. I said, "Is that gonna hurt?" She said, "I'm not gonna lie." But she wouldn't look me in the eye. I had a bad feeling about it. I said, "Well, I really hate shots and since the doctor gave me a choice, I might just change my mind." She said, "Well then we might just see you back in a couple of weeks if the antibiotics don't work." Honestly, I don't know why they wouldn't work, I rarely ever take antibiotics. It's not like I've built up an immunity to them. And, I've never had a urinary track infection before. Anyway, she told me to drop my drawers. I said, "I don't have a lot of junk in my trunk, so be careful." She gave me the shot, and I said, "Oh, you were gentle, that didn't even hurt." She said, "Just wait about 2 minutes." I got scared. She was putting her stuff away and then bam, it hit me like a sledge hammer, literally! I was like, "MOTHER OF GOD! WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME???" She said, "I'll be back to check on you in a while, just walk it off." I started pacing the floor and the pain just kept intensifying by the minute. It felt like someone was hitting the entire backside of my leg from my bum to my ankle with a hammer. I started to black out because the pain was so intense. I quickly sat in the metal folding chair. (What I wanted to do was lie down on that nasty floor and curl up in fetal position while I died a slow painful death.) I was sweating profusely and freezing to death all at the same time. I was shaking and felt like I was going to vomit. I was sitting between the door and my purse and wanted to open the door and cry for help or grab my phone out of my purse and call Keith, who was in the waiting room, to come get me. I couldn't reach either. I think I was going into shock from the pain. I just kept rocking back and forth in the chair and begging God to make it stop. I was in labor for 18 hours with Tyler and effaced 8 centimeters with no drugs, but this pain even topped that! 

By the time the woman came in to check on me, about 15 minutes later, I shook my finger at her and said, "What you gave me was pure evil! That stuff you put in me is wicked! I hope to God you never give that to a child!" She said, "We do, but we split it in two and put half in each cheek." I said, "Don't ever do that, it's wrong." I asked her if she has ever had that shot before? She said, "No". I said, "It should be illegal!" I told her how it felt, then limped out of there. So please tell everyone you know, or at least everyone you love, not to ever get that shot!  

When I got home, I read about the shot online and it is usually given to patients with  pneumonia, meningitis, and other life threatening illnesses. It’s extremely potent! Unless the shot is absolutely necessary, they should be required to ask the patient, “Ma’am, would you like this shot? It may help get rid of the infection faster, but I must warn you... For the first 20 minutes following the injection, you will wish you were dead. We like to stay out of the room during that time because we generally don’t like to see patients convulsing and drooling. Some patients even threaten our lives during that period. Afterwards, however, we will come in to drag your bruised behind out of the room and over to the check out desk while you are half conscious, so you can pay us.” 

Last few days of Christmas Break...

Video: Elf Emma and Murph Dog!