Woo Hoo We have a winner.

Ok, I can't tell time. It is now 9:45ishPM, and I said that I would post around 12:01 or so. But I have an excuse. Really I do. Wanna hear what it is? Well I'm telling you anyway. Andre, Jordan, Mickey, Isa, Johan, Lana and Levi.

Anyway, on my contest post, even though there are only 13 comments listed, really there are 14. Blogger wouldn't let one person get back on to leave another comment with the link to her blog where she posted a link to here.

Anyway, on to the winner....
According to random.org, I put in the numbers 1-14, and asked for a random number, and the number that it gave me was 12. So the winner is Jennie B! Congratulations Jennie, you have won a coin purse. I need your information, so if you could kindly send me an email - my email addy is listed on my profile page, we can set up you getting your gift.

Thank you all for the wonderful comments. Because of your comments, and posting of the contest on your blogs, another $16.00 will be donated to Basura Bags as well.


Onto what I would do if I had 1 million dollars to donate.
A long time ago, I came across a website called Casa De Angeles - House of Angels. And when I visited that site, it touched my heart, and I cried. I had a strong - feeling I guess is the word? - that I was supposed to do something along those lines. I still feel that way. Everytime I click on that site. So if I had a million dollars, I would use alot of it to open up something along the same lines in Honduras. Something that would make a difference. I am a strong believer that even making a difference in one persons life can snowball into alot of people. A pass it on so to speak. I am also a firm believer in education being able to make a difference in someones life as well. It can be a great equalizer. And knowing the education system in Honduras, having something like Casa De Angeles - where education is included - could make a major difference in peoples lives.

If I had extra, I would donate the rest to Casa De Angeles. They do such good work, and make a major difference in many lives.

5 things...

I have been tagged by Andrea over at Swamp Suburbia. She tagged earlier this week, but it took me a while to get everything down. I had to think. Anway....

5 things I want my kids to know.

• 1. You are my blessings. I love you each with everything that I have. I am proud of you all.
• 2. You are a son/daughter of God. All things are possible through him.
• 3. Material things are nothing. Its who you are that is important.
• 4. Take time to travel. Get to know different cultures, the experiences in travel can enrich your life.5.
• Don’t underestimate the value of an education. It can open up your life in a way you can’t even imagine.

5 things you want to tell you children when they are grown up.

• 1. Tell and show those that you love them – it could be the last time you ever do.
• 2. Be appreciative for everything that you have. It can be gone in an instant.
• 3. Take the time to get to know who you want to spend the rest of your life with. It isn’t a race to see who marries first.
• 4. It is better to be alone with yourself, than to have “settled” so that you aren’t
• 5. Things happen on God’s time. You may ask why is this happening to me, but there is a reason for everything. It may take a while for you to see it though.

5 things you want to tell your child before you die.

• 1. You are my joy, and I love you.
• 2. You are special and you are beautiful.
• 3. I am glad to have been your mother. You have taught me so much.
• 4. I hope that I have been a good mother in your eyes. I have always done my best, and made my decisions based on what I thought was the best for you.
• 5. Family is special, and family is important. Don’t let silly things keep you from loving and enjoying your family.

5 things you want your child to know before she dies.

• 1. How special they are – both to me and to the Lord.
• 2. The unconditional love that children give. And being responsible for those children and that love.
• 3. The joy that is being in a happy and healthy marriage, and sharing your days, the joys and the sadnesses with someone.
• 4. The feeling of helping. Helping someone less fortunate than you, helping someone in need.
• 5. Knowing the value of being and having true friends. Friends, that while they may not always agree with you, they will always support you, and offer you encouragement. They will never judge you.

That was really hard, it took a lot of thinking and thinking, and even more thinking. Now I get to tag some of you to see what you would say. I would like my sister Jennie at Learning to Adjust, Kelly at A Canuck in Cancun, Susan over at Life With My 3 Ro's, Heather over at Love & Laughter, and Erica at Life of a First Time Mommy. Hope you all have fun doing this!! It was for me!!

Win Something and Make a Difference all at once

If you had one million dollars to give to a charity, or to make a difference in the world, what would you do with that money? Who would you give it to? How would you put it to good use? While I don't have one million dollars to give to anyone, I would like to hear what you would do with the money.

For the next week I will be holding a contest that has two types of winners. There will be a winner (or more) from those who leave coments, and there will also money donated to help a cause.

Here is how it works. From now until noon EST next Sunday - February 24th - I want you all to post a comment telling me what you would do with those million dollars if someone gave it to you. Tell me about your charity, or how you would make a difference. Then next Sunday, at 12:01 - or so, I will randomly choose a person (or more) as the winner.

What do you win, you ask? The winner(s) will win a coin purse from Basura Bags. There will be 1 winner chosen for comments 1-99. for 100 - 149, another winner, 150-199 another winner and so on and so on. (yes I know I dont usually get very many comments, but one can dream right, LOL).

Also - for every comment posted, I will donate $1.00 to Basura Bags. And if you post about this contest in your blog, then come back and leave me a link in my comments, then that comment will count as a $2 comment.

I will tell what I would do with the money next week, when I post the winner(s).

Be sure to check out Basura Bags to see the good work that they are doing - helping those in need, as well as recycling.

COMING SOON

Sometime in the next few days a contest is coming. So make sure to check back tomorrow or Sunday so you could possibly win something.

Can I say how proud I am to live where I do. Checking out the local news on Yahoo!, I came across these three articles. (and when I say local news - local means in the surrounding states it seems, LOL)

Man at the McDonalds Drive Thru...
He tried to rob a McD's drive thru with a KNIFE. My favorite part though is he brandished the knife, then asked for more sugar BEFORE asking for the money. We all know how stingy McD's is with their sugar

Teacher files lawsuit...
Teacher wanting to file a lawsuit is given the green light on his suit. The reason for the lawsuit? He was fired for painting with his BUTT.

I guess he didn't want to be the dad...

Dont forget to check back.

Can I speak to the patient please?

Yes its long... just imagine how I feel. I had to live it

telephone ringing...
--Hello?
Hi! Yes this is John Hopkins calling to discuss the surgery details. Can I please speak with Johan?
--Um... this is his mother. Can I help you?
Oh no, I'm sorry, we have to speak to the patient. Patient confidentiality, you know.
--Ok. Johan, come here, telephone.
... after a lengthy pause you hear Johan say... I go hospital fix my hand
--This is his mom again - do you need to speak to me now?
Im sorry, I didn't realize he was only 2.
Thinking to myself - um the point where I said this is his mom didn't give you a clue?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Johan had his hand surgery yesterday. Woo Hoo what fun. When he was born, two fingers on his right hand were fused together, and as they grew, the skin on the bottom pulled his middle finger to the side, so once the seperated his fingers his middle finger was curved. You can sort of see it in this picture. His surgery was to put a pin in his finger to help straighten it out.


It started with me not being able to go to sleep - you know doing all of those last minute things I have to do. So I got to bed at around midnight. I let Johan sleep in my bed so I wouldn't wake up everyone else getting him ready. He looked so sweet and peaceful laying there.


3AM came way to early, but I had to be at John Hopkins at 4AM, so I had to get up. My mom arrived and told me to be careful that it was all ice outside. Great. I went outside and fought the ice on the car. Eventually I won. It was raining, but it was barely above freezing. AND the heater in the van decided it didn't want to work either. I was worried that the window would fog up, so I got to make my way downtown with the windows cracked. Anyway, we got there 15 mintues late, got signed in and everything was going well. Johan was smiling and happy until it was time to put on his gown. When it came time to put it on he started to cry. He didn't like the doggies on the gown he said. I think his real problem was that there were a bunch of infants there that were crying - I am assuming they were crying because everyone had been there for 3 hours or so, and they couldn't eat until after the surgery, so they were hungry. Thats my guess anyway.

So I finally got him dressed and his mood got darker and darker. That is until the anesthesiologist came over and asked him if he wanted some happy juice. He looked up all pitifully and shook his head yes.






My son will be an awesome drunk if he ever decides to drink. He will be the one at the party making everyone laugh. Before he had his happy juice he kept taking the blue hat off, and just was fighting me on everything. After the happy juice he was laughing at everything, pulling the hat over his fac and just giggling. He was falling over to the side - back and forth - just laughing.






Then they took him back, and a little over 2 hours later it was all over and done with, and time to go back and see him. Poor thing was still asleep. When he came to I was asking for more happy juice. Man he was upset about everything. I WANT COOKIES. I WANT A CAR BAND AID. I WANT MY PANTS ON. I WANT MY SHIRT FIXED. It's amazing how a thing as simple as a car tatoo band aid can fix things though.


I was so happy when it was time to go. Until I tried to get his coat on. I zipped up his coat with his hand inside and he had a fit. DONT WANT MY HAND IN MY COAT LIKE THAT. Me being the mean mom I am, I told him to deal with it, and when we got in the car I would take his coat off. That worked until it was time to pay for parking. I set him down, but kept a hold on him with one hand since he was still drugged, and I didn't want him to fall over. Well he took that chance, threw his arm up, started to fall, I threw my money half on the counter half on the floor trying to catch him. I was so glad when I finally got him buckled into the car.

On the way home he was crying he wanted something to eat, so I gave him the bag of potato chips that came with my lunch at the hospital that I didn't want to eat. And I got him a fruit and yogurt parfait from McD's. his discharge instructions said no fried foods and no dairy. Bad Mommy.

I finally got home after going to 4 different pharmacies looking for his meds and my mom ran out the door, ready to go home. We got home around 1PM.

Fast forward to 6PM. Johans splint/cast came off his hand and he had to have it on for at least another week if not longer. Man I am so tired, and now I have to go to the ER? Thank God I asked the Dr where should I go *if* it were to happen, becuase I know my children, and I knew the splint wouldnt last a day. But I had hoped it would last the night.

Isn't it neat how they put a yellow ball on the end of the pin - so that it wouldn't catch on anything in case the splint did fall off? And his finger looks much straighter already too.



So now we are at our local ER, where everyone with the flu is there, and we had a 3 hour wait to get to the back, and into a bed. We finally got to the back, I laid him on the bed and he started to have a fit. I DONT WANT THE TV ON. Ummm, ok, I can turn it off. And off it went. The rest of the night passed fine, and finally at 11PM we made it out of the hospital. I was so tired, if Johan could reach the pedals, I would have let him drive home. It was after midnight though by the time I got everyone in bed.

I think Johan was glad to be home too.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that....

• I was one of the winners for Karen's (The Rocking Pony) Most Embarrasing Moment contest. I don't know if thats good or not. I mean its awesome that I won, but is it really that good that I have one of the most embarrasing moments? And that I have so many of them?
• Levi is sick... AGAIN. I took him to the doctor on the 23rd of January, and he had Pneumonia. We were in the ER yesterday, and he again has it. They think he may have asthma too. But they said they aren't going to diagnose him with that yet, but that it is a high probability.
• Levi is such a skinny little baby. Yesterday at the hospital he was 3 months 8 days old. And he weighed in at 20 pounds 1 oz. My poor little boy - he is going to waste away from not eating enough.
• On the way to the hospital yesterday, I was sitting at a redlight and I had to laugh. Every corner was filled with people waving signs for who they want you to vote for. One corner had Hillary supporters, and the other three corners had Obama supporters. What made me laugh though was one of the Obama corners had tons of red, pink and white ballons and a bunch of HUGE red mylar heart ballons and their signs said "Vote for Obama, he wants to be your Valentine"
• On Thursday I spent the afternoon at the dentist. The entire afternoon. Why the entire afternoon? Because I am one of those people that try to get as much done at once as possible. So I made an appointment for each child that needed to go to the dentist. 5 kids had appointments that day. And this dentist office is SLOOOOOOOOOOW. We were there for almost 4 and a half hours. That was fun. Because there is nothing more fun than sitting in a hot stuffy office for so many hours with 5 kids, 5 and under and two pre-teens. The office had tons of crayons though for the kids. Just nothing for the kids to color on. Unless you count the walls, the tables, and all the reading books they had. I think they just like to torture the parents.
• At the ER yesterday I got to go with the younger 5. That too was tons of fun. Especially when two of them had to go to the bathroom, and the bathrooms are at the end of the hallway. I finally got a movie in the VCR, laid their coats on the floor and lade them all lay down on the floor and watch the movie.
• They did say that Levi doesn't have RSV but I don't believe then 100%. The doctor came in and said Levi's results came back in and it is negative. I said to her, well thats funny because the specimin container (they had to suction his nose out to ge tthe mucos into a container) is sitting right there on the counter. So how did they do the tests if it sits here. The doctor picked it up, and walked out with it, then 5 minutes later came in and said that was an extra specimin that they took, and that we can go. Well since I had to hold Levi's head and arms, I know they only took one specimin. But I was ready to leave, and having had to deal with RSV before, I know what to look for and when to bring the baby back to the ER if needed.
• There are only 99 days left until we are in Honduras!!
• Johan has his hand surgery on Wednesday. We have to be at John Hopkins at 4:30AM.
• I really dislike Micaella's teacher at headstart. When it was time for Mickeys parent teacher conferences in November, I had to fight with this woman to get a phone conference. I basically told her that I wasn't coming in and she could either have no conference or do it on the phone her choice, because I wasn't bringing in 7 kids to talk to this woman for 5 minutes, especially when Levi wasnt even 2 weeks. Not happening. Isa's teacher had no problem doing the conference over the phone for me. Nor did Mickey's teachers last year have a problem having phone conferences with me as well.
• Its parent teacher conference time again. I had an appointment with her on Friday, but when I woke up, my hands were swollen and hurt so bad, there was no way I would be able to make the conference. So I called her and told her and she told me to come in on Wednesday. I told her that Johan had surgery, and wouldn't be able to do that. So kept insisting that I come in on my way HOME. With an almost 2 yr old child who will be in pain, or out of it, or both. Not happening. And I told her that, and she kept insisting. So guess who isn't going to have a prent teacher conference. I did however have the parent teacher conference over the phone with Isa's teacher.
• I am dealing with some news that I just got - I am not going into it - but I am now a mess, and I don't know what to think or do with the information that I was given. I have 7 kids, so curl up in a ball and cry the day away isn't an option.
• I crossed off more things on my list. On Friday I went to the post office and applied for the passports for everyone else. I was the third person in line, and when they came out to hand out the numbers the second guy had a fit. Looking at me he started yelling, I was second, I was second. Um, no one was saying he wasn't. Calm down. I had to laugh though because as of Feb 1st, there is a new passport application, and he had the old one. I on the other hand had the new ones for everyone, so I still got to go ahead of him.

An embarrasing moment...or two

Has anything really embarrasing ever happened to you? Something so embarrasing that you dont even want to share it? Well share it. Karen over at The Rocking Pony has a give away going on. All you have to do to enter is share one of your MOST embarrasing stories. If she gets over 100 comments then she will do 2 giveaways. And you can enter more than once. I already entered twice. I have many many bright red memories to share, but I don't know if I feel like that big of a dork to share them ALL, LOL.

But go on over, read my two embarrasing stories, laugh at me, leave a comment sharing your own, and you may win something.

Check her out!!!