Monthly Archives: July 2011
The Night I Got Arrested and Changed My Name to David (not really)
Don’t be alarmed by the story I’m about to tell you. Here on the other side of things the baby and I are just fine, so just sit back and see the humor in the story.
I’ve been absent from the blog this week. Adaline’s birthday is coming up in just two weeks and I’ve been busy making and planning things for her party. Yesterday after spending the day making her party hat and then a balloon wreath, I finally sat down to relax. My mom was there to help out with Adaline while I finish things up. All of the sudden I started cramping. The cramps were down really low, almost in my pelvic area, and there was some pain in my lower back too. This didn’t feel like gas pains, or labor pains, or the kind of cramps I had during my miscarriage…it was really different from any kind of cramp I’d ever had before.
Well, long story short after about 20 minutes of the cramping I started to bleed. It wasn’t a lot of blood. It was very light and only when I wipe…it was a very light red (a pinky orange). I was 11 weeks and 4 days and I knew that if I was losing the baby there isn’t anything that they could do about it. Still I decided since I was cramping and bleeding I should go to the ER and get checked out just in case. I went upstairs to get dressed while my mom called to see if she could find someone to sit with Adaline. While I was upstairs I called Cool Daddy at work and told him what was going on. He said he’d find someone to come in for him and he’d take me to the hospital.
My hubby came straight from work and took me to the hospital while he was still wearing his uniform. We arrived at the ER and got checked in at 8:48pm, at this point I wasn’t cramping anymore and I was feeling fine other than being nervous and worried. We sat for a while before another desk nurse called me back to ask me some details. I was sitting in a wheelchair and hubby was standing next to me. After the nurse finished asking me questions, she looked at my husband and said, “Are you related?” and when he said that he was my husband she started to laugh. She said, “Here’s what I thought was going on. I thought you were taking her to jail and had to bring her to get checked out first. Then I thought, wow, she’s awful nice to be going to jail.” Of course we both started to laugh and I said, “He had to leave work to bring me here and he didn’t change first. Thanks, honey.” So there I was, a pregnant hardened criminal waiting to get checked before heading off to the slammer 😉
They got me into an ER room and into a gown. There was some waiting and waiting and then eventually and ER doctor came in. He said that he’d do an ultrasound to check for a heartbeat, they’d draw some blood to check my HCG levels, and take a urine sample to check for a urinary tract infection. So they gave me a cup and I went to fill it up. Right next to the toilet was an automatic toilet paper dispenser with a mind of its own. I was barely near it when it started dispensing tp onto the floor (and you don’t think I was going to use that do you? *shudder*). Then when I needed to use the paper and I waved my hand all around it nothing would come out, I had to reach my hand in there and yank some out. When I was all finished and walking away it started dispensing tp all over the floor again. Nice.
After all of the toilet paper fun the nurse came in and took my blood sample. Then she rolled in the portable ultrasound machine. And then we waited and waited and waited. Another nurse popped her head in and asked if we were down with the machine yet. I told her they’d never even used it and she said she would wait. A little while later the doctor came back in and said they were taking the ultrasound machine to someone more urgent. Eventually he came back at 10:44pm and we got this ultrasound thing started.
The doctor did an abdominal ultrasound (thank goodness), he showed us the baby and it appeared to have a good, strong heartbeat. He didn’t do the thing where they measure the heartbeat and tell you the number. Either this machine didn’t do that or he didn’t know how. So while we didn’t get a number of how strong the heartbeat was, we could see it and it looked good. The baby wasn’t moving (probably sleeping), although I thought I saw an arm move just a little.
The doctor said he was waiting on my test results and then we could go home. I was to call my ob the next day to let them know what was going on and to come back to the ER if I started soaking pads (I was barely bleeding at this point). Then he gave us a copy of the ultrasound. My husband looked at it and said to me, “Is your name, David?”
There on my ultrasound was the name David So-and-so, who I assume is the guy that got his ultrasound before me and the doc never bothered to change the name. Boy, won’t David be surprised to find out he has a uterus…and he’s pregnant!
After the doc left they seemed to forget about us again for nearly an hour. Hubby finally went to stand outside in the hall where a nurse spotted him and apologized and said that a shift change happened and he has my discharge papers. He apparently didn’t have my test results, but he assumed that everything was fine since they were discharging me. No one told me my HCG level. Oh well. I was too tired to care at that point. We got in the car to go home at 11:44pm.
So near as we can tell everything is fine with mom and baby. I never went to jail and I hear that David is already picking out names and lining up interviews. The End.
Coolest Family on the Block is committed to helping you find creative ways to have fun and make memories with your family all year-long. Don’t miss an idea, tip, or trick…subscribe and have updates sent directly to your email!
Guest Post: Making the Most Out of Every Day This Summer
This is a guest post by Theresa from Our Life in Words. Please stop by and visit her great blog!
My girls (ages 9 & 11) were only out of school for a few days when I heard, “Mom, I’m bored!”
My first reaction was what my mom used to say to me, “Is your closet clean and tidy? All your clothes hung up? Are your dresser drawers organized? Are all of your socks in the same drawer?”
As much as I never wanted to turn into my mom, summer is a great time to teach kids organization and how to clean up after themselves.
Summer is also an opportunity for parents to spend quality time with their kids doing all of those things they wish they had time to do during the year. It doesn’t have to take a lot of money.
Here are some fun *free* things you can do with your kids:
*Have a water fight; use the hose, water balloons, Super Soakers, rags & buckets
*Wash the car together – kids LOVE this!
*Make homemade play-doh together and play with it
*Go for a bike ride
*Go for a walk
*Play frisbee or catch
*Make a tea party for your little girl and use your real china & dress up
*Find a patch of lawn that doesn’t have any grass, turn the hose on and make mud pies with your son
*Make roads in the dirt with your boy, play with matchbox cars
*Check out what free summer programs your library is offering
*For more ideas on fun things to do with your kids for free over the summer, check out books or parenting magazines in your local library!
Work on school skills:
*Play Mad Libs – Kids LOVE Mad Libs and they are a great, fun way to teach parts of speech.
Google Free Mad Libs or check out Education Place.
*Play Math Bingo – I bought this game in the Dollar Store and my kids LOVE it!
*Sign up for summer reading programs at your local library
*Write a story with your kids. Start with a sentence and ask your children to each add a sentence. If they are too young to write, write it down for them. Have them illustrate it.
*Keep a journal with your kids of all of summer fun you have. Press flowers from your walks and glue them in. Or take photos of your fun and glue them in.
“The days are long, the years are short.” ~ Gretchen Rubin
Make the most of every moment with your child because childhood doesn’t last forever!
Do you have any suggestions for frugal fun this summer?
Theresa is a former teacher who spent nine years as a stay at home mom. She now works part-time as the Assistant Children’s Librarian at her local library. She blogs regularly at Our Life in Words and weekly at Three Thinking Mothers.
Oh, no he didn’t!
I’ve sung my hubby’s praises on this blog before. I’ve told you why he’s so awesome, and showed you cute things he’s done, and the great Mother’s Day gift he gave me. Despite the picture I may paint here (my husband is a lot of wonderful things…but) he’s far from perfect. There are plenty of things that he does that leave me scratching my head or screaming at the top of my lungs…I just try to leave it off of the blog. Today is not one of those days, my friends.
On Friday night Adaline spent the night at my mom’s house. I woke up with a sore throat and decided to spend the day in bed. Cool Daddy had the weekend off so he was planning on painting our front steps and porch. I told him to get a color like what we already had…white with the slightest hint of blue. At some point my mom called to say that Adaline was upset and was asking for me, and since I only live a block away I tossed on some clothes to walk over to my mom’s house. I knew that I’d need to go out the back door so as not to walk on the freshly painted porch…but I decided to pop my head out of the front door to make sure my hubby had his keys. I opened the front door and saw this…
(Insert theme music from Physco here)
And then there was this
And this
Oh, yes. It wraps around the side of the house!
If this color looks familiar to you but you can’t put your finger on where you’ve seen it, let me help you.
Maybe it was here…
Or here…
Or even here…
What the…?
When I opened up the door and took a look at the paint on the porch and then looked at my husband. He had his faced all scrunched up and was bracing himself for an ear-lashing from me. “What? Why? I said white! Oh my goodness…why did you keep painting all of this, you wasted an entire day!” He gave me reasons such as, “It looked gray on the paint chip (??? I asked for white!), I thought it would lighten up as it dried (And turn to white?), I thought I should ask you to come and look at it and then I decided not to (Because your brain fell out of your ear?).
Just to give you a visual of what the previous porch color was…
Yeah, it’s just a tad off. 😉
Even though my hubby was still hard at work painting when I opened the door to this catastrophe, once I had indeed confirmed that it looked awful he was immediately embarrassed and wanted to go to the hardware store right away to get new paint before too many neighbors saw the porch. Naturally I said, “You are never picking out paint colors alone again.” So after stopping by my mom’s house to console Adaline and fill my mom in on the porch paint madness, I…with the sore throat, pregnant, having not showered yet that day, while it was 90 degrees outside…went with my husband to the hardware store.
Before we left for the hardware store I had to take photos…and since my husband was suddenly so embarrassed I hung a sign before we left lest any passerby thought we intentionally painted our porch that color (even though we sorta did).
The note reads:
Yeah, that’s NOT the right color!
(Never let Papa Smurf paint your porch!)
He showed me the paint chip he’d selected.
Yes that indeed looks very gray
(or not at all…and again I asked for “white”)
This is the color that I selected.
And here they are together.
When we got home from the store that evening my husband started putting the first coat on right away. He worked until it was dark out and I think he got everything covered with at least one coat. The next day he finished it up and here it is now…
Tada!
I had him replace the flowers in the front too since I didn’t care for the previous ones he planted over a month ago. I think the petunias look great, but it’s kinda hard to see in this light 😦
Now he has to find a way to get the blue paint off of the bricks so that it doesn’t look as though a Smurf was squashed on our sidewalk.
Believe it or not I wasn’t actually mad, I was mostly…confused.
And mildly amused…mildly.
When I went back upstairs that night before he went outside to repaint the porch he said, “I love you!” and I said, “I love you, too. Thanks for the blog post.”
This post is linked to…
3.) A bad day.
Did you see last week’s Writer’s Workshop post?
Read about 10 (Obscure) Shows I’d Like to Make a Comeback!
Related Posts:
*Large Marge Update 2: Some more stair/porch related stuff.
Coolest Family on the Block is committed to helping you find creative ways to have fun and make memories with your family all year-long. Don’t miss an idea, tip, or trick…subscribe and have updates sent directly to your email!
Guest Post: Coolest Mud Pie Cake Ever! (Recipe)
This is a guest post by Retha from Mommy Bee Wisdom. Be sure to stop by and visit her blog 🙂
Fitting name right? I have tried for 5 years now to out-do the coolness of this cake and have failed. It was so cool, I have had sisters since copy me, so now I figured is the right time to share it.
Supplies you will need:
2 Boxes of Chocolate Cake mix (I always use 2 to 4 depending on the guests).
2 tubs of Chocolate Frosting (keep this number equal to the amount of cake mixes).
2 bags of gummy worms
A wheel barrel (toy plastic and washed with dish soap)
A shovel (toy plastic and washed with dish soap)
If you want this a bit more girly, add one small terracotta pot and a fake flower and some pink gloves.
Instructions:
1. Follow the instructions on the cake mix box. Bake each box separately, trust me on this one.
2. Allow the cakes to cool completely, then frost as you normally would.
3. Spread the gummy worms over the cakes.
4. Now very carefully pick up each cake and dump it into the clean toy wheel barrel.
5. With a spatula run it through the cakes to make them look nice and chunky.
6. Sprinkle a few gummy worms over the top of the cake.
for the girl cake put a shovel full of cake in the pot and insert the flower, stick it on top of the cake and lay the gardening gloves over the edge.
7. Insert the shovel into the cake.
TA-DA!
Now you have the coolest ever mud pie/gardening cake!
Retha Barton blogs at Mommy Bee Wisdom where she teaches other moms that living life from scratch isn’t as hard as it sounds. Retha shows you that you can make it without a lot of money and that sometimes doing things the old way can be more rewarding.
Related Posts:
*Guest Post: Food as Tradition – Norwegian Butter Cookies: Another recipe guest post by Retha!
10 Shows I’d Like to Make Comeback
I don’t watch much tv these days. I recently had my heart broken by a tv show and on top of that my basic cable “package”, which only gives us 10 channels, doesn’t offer many options for tv viewing. But whether you have 10 channels or 310 this one fact remains…they just don’t make good tv shows like they used to.
When Mama Kat offered “A list of 10 old TV shows you’d like to make a comeback.” as a writing prompt for this week’s Writer’s Workshop…I knew I couldn’t pass it up.
It’s hard to narrow the list to just ten…and many of the shows that I would pick have actors who have left us long ago. At the risk of being the 126 person to say, “Bring back The Cosby Show!” (and seriously…bring it back!). I thought I’d take a different approach and put out a plea for some shows you very well have never heard of. To give my other favorite shows of all time the recognition they deserve I have listed them at the bottom of this post in no particular order with no additional commentary.
1. MST3K:
If you don’t know what that abbreviation stands for than chances are that you’ve never seen this show. Mystery Science Theater 3000, called MST3K by fans, was a series about a man named Joel who is trapped on a space station by an evil scientist and forced to watch bad movies. Joel created robot friends, Crow and Tom Servo, out of spare parts and to keep sane, Joel and the robots provide “commentary” by cracking jokes throughout each film.
My dad introduced me to the show when I was in high school with episode 312 Gamera vs. Guiron. By the “Hello…thank you!” scene I was hooked. It takes a special kind of person to see the humor behind MST3K and you’ll either love it or you’ll hate it. I personally found it hilarious and I’d love to see it make a comeback. But I only want episodes with Joel. You can keep Mike.
Hello…thank you! Oh so funny!
2. Swans Crossing:
I think I’m one of the five people in the world that remember this short-lived teen drama series that aired in 1992. One of the few actors from Swans Crossing who managed to make it out with her career still alive was Sarah Michelle Gellar who played mean rich girl, Sydney Rutledge. The summer before 8th grade my sister and I would watch this show every afternoon and then play some Super Mario Brothers on Nintendo back when video game controllers still had joysticks. No, it wasn’t near as good as our beloved Saved by the Bell…in fact it was downright awful…but we loved every awful, cheesy, minute of it! For more info about Swans Crossing click here or here
The Swans Crossing Theme Song
You also don’t want to miss this video of Mila’s Birthday Party Invitation (starts at 5:00).
3. Fifteen:
Another short-lived teen drama of the early 90s was Canadian-American teen soap opera, Fifteen, which ran on Nickelodeon from 1990-1993. It was equally as cheesy as Swans Crossing, but with slightly better production quality and a longer run on air. It still wasn’t as awesome Saved by the Bell (what is?), but it had the right amount of drama and crushes and whatnot for a teenage girl.
Looking for a well-known actor from Fifteen, how about this guy right here…
Ryan Reynolds played the role of Billy Simpson.
Watch a young Ryan Reynolds at work with the ladies…
4. Today’s Special:
Do you remember the Nickelodeon show that ran from 1982-1987 about a department store mannequin that comes to life at night and hangs out with a security guard and a mouse who are puppets? Well, I do! It was called “Today’s Special”. Sometimes the mime was a little creepy, but overall I enjoyed the show as a kid.
Today’s Special Theme Song
5. Danger Mouse:
Danger Mouse is a superhero/secret agent mouse who works with his sidekick, Penfold, and he is awesome! My sister and I loved Danger Mouse as kids. It too aired on Nickelodeon.
Danger Mouse opening
6. Banana Man:
Bananaman was a cartoon short that aired on Nickelodeon in 1983 after Danger Mouse. It’s about a boy who turns into a superhero whenever he eats bananas. I don’t remember too much about it except that my sister and I liked it at the time…probably because we associated it with Danger Mouse, which we loved.
For more banana goodness try here
Bananaman opening
7. Sharon, Lois, and Bram’s Elephant Show:
The Elephant Show was a Canadian children’s show which aired on Nickelodeon from 1987-1994 starring singing trio Sharon, Lois, and Bram. Admittedly I watched much more of this show at 15 than I ever did at 8. I don’t know, I loved all of the kid’s songs and how hokey it all was. I think that lame is fun and cool…so what do I know. And guess what…you can like them on Facebook! 😉
Sharon, Lois, and Bram’s Elephant Show opening
…and don’t forget about Skinnamarink
8. Pinwheel:
Pinwheel was a kid’s show that aired on Nickelodeon from 1977-1990 using cartoons and puppets that interacted with humans. It was pretty awesome. You may remember watching Paddington Bear or Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings on Pinwheel. Or you may remember the theme song:
Pinwheel, pinwheel, spinning around.
Look at my Pinwheel and see what I’ve found.
Pinwheel, pinwheel, where have you been?
Hello, how are you, and may I come in?
Pinwheel, pinwheel spinning around.
Look at my Pinwheel and see what I found.
Pinwheel, pinwheel, breezy and bright.
Spin me good morning, spin me good night.
Pinwheel opening
(although it’s different than I remember, this is probably an earlier version)
9. Nancy, an operator here at the Disney Channel:
Okay, I know that it’s not a “show” and the Disney Channel is now “free” (for those of you who are willing to pay for standard cable or more)…but wouldn’t it be awesome if Nancy popped up on the Disney Channel every so often trying to sell it to you? My sister and I loved Nancy and I still remember when my mom finally picked up the phone to order the Disney Channel my sister and I were standing right next to her asking, “Are you talking to Nancy?!” I’m guessing it wasn’t her 😦
10. The Office:
I know that this show is still on the air…but being a pessimist and all I’m not predicting a bright future for the show now that Steve Carrell is gone. I hope I’m wrong, but I miss him already!
Apparently I liked a lot of Nickelodeon back in the day and apparently Nickelodeon relied heavily on Canadian and British shows in the 80s. Most of these shows aren’t even available on DVD and that makes me sad. I’d be happy to buy a bunch of DVDs of quality 80s/90s kid’s programming and show that to my kids all of the time rather than some of the junk that’s out there now. We exclusively watch PBS now (then again with only 10 channels we don’t really have other options!).
What are some tv shows you’d like to see make a comeback? Let me know in the comments!
Honorable Mentions of Great TVs Past:
Classics: I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Bob Newhart Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, Welcome Back, Kotter!, Get Smart, and All in the Family.
Family Shows of the 80s/90s: The Cosby Show, Growing Pains, Full House, Family Matters, Step by Step, Saved by the Bell, Home Improvement, and Boy Meets World
Other great 80s/90s Shows I Loved: Perfect Strangers, Who’s the Boss, Family Ties, The Wonder Years, Alf, Mama’s Family, and Golden Girls
80s/90s Cartoons: Muppet Babies, Care Bears, Jem, Rainbow Brite, Strawberry Shortcake, He-man, She-Ra, Gummi Bears, My Little Pony, Wuzzles, Popples, Pound Puppies, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Duck Tales, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Captain Planet, and Animaniacs
Other Writer’s Workshop Posts:
*Funny Things Adaline Says
*Dreams and Aspirations
*Friends Don’t Get Friends Grounded (as an adult)
*15 Reasons Why My Hubby is Awesome
*The One That Got Away
*In School Suspension
*The Newsboys Wouldn’t Ditch Their Friends
*Youth Camp Stinks
Guest Post: Planting Flowers and Practicing Skills
This is a post from Amanda at Gratefully Growing in Grace who also brought us the Breakfast Basket guest post on June 7. Amanda has a great blog, so be sure to stop by for a visit!
Planting Flowers and Practicing Skills
My name is Amanda and I’m visiting again from Gratefully Growing in Grace where I write about baby, toddler, and preschool activities, crafts I attempt, recipes I manage to cook successfully, and as any good mommy blog includes, cute stories, photos, and videos of my children.
I’ve been blessed to celebrate three Mother’s Days and each year I have asked for the same thing: a mushy card, a photo of me with my children (I have a special frame for the photos), and flowers to plant. My only stipulation is that we all plant the flowers as a family. Doesn’t my husband have an easy job of thinking of Mother’s Day gifts and activities? This year was the first time my son could really help plant the flowers. He could dig the holes with me, choose which flower to put in the hole, place it there, pack the dirt around it, and water it. We had a blast and I can’t wait to have a home where we can plant more flowers and for my daughter to be able to help us – maybe next year!
We had so much fun planting flowers that I wanted to find a way for us to do it again and again. After reading an article (sorry, I can’t remember details because I usually read when my brain is tired to begin with) about preschoolers practicing hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, I came up with an idea. I’m sure it isn’t original, but my tired brain thought it was brilliant at the moment.
I bought a small storage basket with holes and a few artificial flowers at the Dollar Tree. I rounded out my artificial flower pile by having my mom donate some of her extras. I used a wire cutter to trim the flowers up to be single stems without a lot of extra leaves and stuff on them.
I washed all the flowers in soapy water and let them dry because I’m a germophobe like that. Next, I gave the pile of flowers and the basket to Mini Me and said, “Let’s make a garden!” Simple as that, we turned the basket on its side and began using steady hands to poke the flower stems into the nifty holes. Tada!
The first time Mini Me did this is took approximately 2.5 minutes and he was off and running. I was crushed that my brilliant-but-not-so-original idea was such a dud. But… he came running back to it later after I’d taken the flowers out and wanted to do it again. Then the next day, he wanted to plant his garden again. I started making him put the stems in the smallest holes for more practice. One day he lovingly made a garden and presented it to me, asking if I could keep it on the table for decoration all day. Awwww… Mother’s Day lives on and my preschooler’s fine motor skills are being fine tuned!
Amanda is the author of Gratefully Growing in Grace where she blogs about baby, toddler, and preschool activities, crafts she attempts, and recipes she manages to cook successfully.
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Fun and Dysfunction 