Travel giggles

We recently traveled to Washington DC to see my husbands brother.  The trip was great, and I will get to that at a later date.  Something I cannot stop laughing about in my head has got to get out.  So we are in the airport.  We have just gone through security check number 3 where you actually have to take shoes and stuff off and we are waiting for the train, or shuttle to pick us up and I found myself giggling.  I look around and everyone looks as if they have either just had a "quicky" or just plain forgot to get dressed.  One man, for example had his pants unzipped he was tucking in his shirt, one shoe off and belt on its way through loop number 4.  It was so hard not to stare.  The lady next to him was fixing her hair, and adjusting her shirt.  Do these people not realize I am looking at them?  I kept hoping Tatum would say as loud as possible that those people need to get dressed at home, or some other Tatum thing, but she didnt.  Im telling you...It was like a really really fat guy on a moped.  I couldn't stop looking at them. Then we all boarded the shuttle, and I haven't been able to stop internal giggles since.

yummy yummy

Camden has been eating solid foods since about five months.  His favorites are avocado, banana, and sweet potatoes.  Tonight he had squash and sweet potatoes.  I am doing all of the foods myself with my trusty food processor.  If I may make an observation.  Squash smells an awful like a certain illegal substance that some use for medicinal purposes.  Anyway, so he was sitting at the table in his hippo chair he kept rocking back in forth to show his excitement.  Of course since I had never seen this from him I had to take a picture.  After taking the picture I saw my husband in him.  Since both have footy pjs it wasn't a huge leap.  Anyway he is just not as much of a fan of the squash.  So I switched over to sweet potatoes, which as previously stated he LOVES.  Tatum has not been feeling well today.  Flu to be exact has attacked my sweet girl.  She called out to me, and so I got up to tend to her needs.  She lay there so pitiful, yet peaceful.  She had not touched any of her dinner so I tried to sit and encourage my little damsel in distress.  I stroked her hair and tried to encourage her by telling her that she will be feeling better again soon. 

I paused for a moment to listen to Cam in the other room.  I heard...NOTHING???
That's not necessarily a good thing.  Since Mike is at work, and could not assist me I had to then leave Tatum and go check on my other sweet baby.

HE LOVES SWEET POTATOES.  I knew my daughter was an independent little chick, but come on. Came is 6 months old.  This is not okay.  I just had him....kinda.  I went in to find my sweet baby boy taking care of his nutritional needs on his own.  Of course I then had to let my dogs in to clean up the floor, but I don't think they minded.  I think Cam was just trying to help mommy, cause he knows Tatum doesn't feel well.

This cant be happening

Tonight was life group. We switched to Tuesday night because thoe weds group gots so big. Anyway, the end came and we were asked for prayer requests. I wasn't gonna say anything because I always say something.lately it's been all praise reports. Tonight had decided I wasn't gonna say anything. People are probably tired of hearing my voice anyway, and i don't want to seem like that person that always has a "thing". Then as if i had no control over my arm i saw our Paster looking at me. I then told everyone of the 10 or so people about my dad. This has been something that has been on my mind for a while. I had not said anything because I know my dad, and he would not want to be made a big deal out of when it comes to this. When I was about one my dad was in a really bad car accident. We are talking about may never walk again kind. That's exactly what they told my mom. I have been told my whole life that dad and i learned how to walk together. So tonight as i kinda recapped about this event i started to feel the tears welling up. I hadn't realized how upset i was until now. My dad went to the dr the other day. It's not something he does often, or ever. He knows what happens to him. He's reminded everyday. He is in pain every day. No one knows it because he doesn't tell people. He is strong, and works harder than almost anyone i have ever known. He doesn't ever ask for help. He got bad news. He was told both knees need replacement. His ligaments are shot. He has no insurance, and no way to get his real knee and prosthetic knee replaced. I explained this to the group, and as i heard what was. Coming out of my mouth i then repeated what i have always been told. We learned how to walk together. I began to cry. I try not to let people on the outside see me cry. My family sees it all the time. Matter of fact if you have seen me cry it probably means i trust you. I quickly excused myself after asking for prayer and got composure. So if you are a believer and you are reading this, please pray. He has so much to do still. He needs his legs to do a lot of it. What's hardest is knowing there is nothing i can do. I don't like not being able to fix for my people. I know, i know...He's probably trying to work on that in me.

EWWW

Have you ever heard of skin tags? EWWWW GROSS! How about armpit hair? I mean really?  Why Lord?  Whats the point of it?  Its so icky! Matter of a fact lets discuss that for a moment. Why do I have more hair on my face than my two beautiful brothers have on their entire bodies?  Did the hair get left behind in the birth canal, and since I was a c sec baby it was not forced off??  Its just not right.  I'm just sayin.

This was the last time we were all together at the same time.  Its almost 7 years ago.  I tried to find a picture to demonstrate how handsome they are, and to show the face hair on me, but it was my wedding day so I was freshly shaven...

Back to the matter at hand. SKIN TAGS EWW.

So my handsome husband comes to me and says he has a skin tag. Now before you think I am horrible I got his permission to discuss this.  He comes to me and tells me, and I find out its in his arm pit.  This apparently is a somewhat normal place to get them.  I know someone else that had some and she got rid of them, and told me all about it.  Obviously I wasn't gonna leave my baber hanging, so I told him about it.  Later on I see him trying to one handedly start the removal process.  It goes like this:  tie a piece of thread or floss around the base of the skin tag (puke) one that is accomplished take some manicure scissors and just snip it right off.  Well it sounds easy enough.  This is of course unless your skin tag is in your hairy armpit, and you can only use one hand.  I see him doing this, and I wont lie to you.  I let him try...just a couple of times.  I then offered my assistance.  There we were.  My husband sprawled across the bathroom counter(not in an ooh la la way) arm over head and me leaning over trying to get this thread around the base of this skin tag.  They are creepy people.  They look like balls of skin that could fall off at any second...but they don't. Its a bodies way of giving small and subtle false advertisement.  The thread was goodish brown.  His pit hair is dark brown maybe black.  As I hear birds cooing in the jungle of hair I realize I cant see the base well enough so I am gonna have to trim some of this stuff.  ( I am exaggerating for dramatic effect. Go with it.)  SO I finally get the thread around it but its too high up still.  Mike sits up and says to just leave it there.  Its taken to long and he has freeked himself out.  At this point for me there was no turning back.  So I convinced him I would be able to get it now because of..( lets face it. I made something up, cause it was just oogy enough to make me need to get it done. Whatever it was worked cause I went in for the round up of the century)  SO now I have the thread on around the base, and its starting to turn white.  I get the scissors and I look down and he says"ice, get some ice."  Now hes freaking me out, cause the pure fear of what he was about to let his wife do has just come across his face.  So I go get some ice.  All the way up the stairs my heart was pounding.  I kid you not.  I was going in for the kill, and I was so frightened.  It was my suggestion, my idea, and he is scared now, and I am scared, but the thing is white, and Ive gotten the ice and there is no turning back!!!  I let the ice sit to numb.  I grab the tag between my finger tips, and as if I was outside myself I did it.  SNIP.

Laura: "Oh crap. Are you okay?"

Mike: " yeah I think so"

Laura: I say nothing here because my knees have buckled beneath me, and I am sitting on the floor raising my hand to the sky and I can feel the little ball of skin between my finger and nail.  I am about to pass out.  I have just proven why I could never be in the medical field. However, I will say I did make sure the patient was okay first before I collapsed.  I was light headed, and I couldn't decide if I was going to puke or not.  I just started saying "get it off, get it off".

The good news here is my brave husband who is bleeding from his pit area has now taken it from me and is playing with it, and I am still faint...but at least he is laughing.  Not at me...Id like to think with me.  I will tell you now, I thought I killed him.  In that split second I thought poor Tatum was going to walk in and find her daddy bleeding out through the tiny whole in his armpit, and her mommy bleeding from the head, because if I was going to faint I would have ended up hitting my head on the toilet, and there we would have been.  No one would have known.  They probably would have though murder suicide by way of manicure scissors.  Case closed.  I almost died that day.  I am happy to say that the blood stopped gushing from his pitted area, and I didn't pass out.  I did feel really bad for quite a bit, and very oogy all night long.  I mean come on!  Pit hair and skin tags?  Double whammy!
I will say though his deodorant smelled nice, and he really made me laugh.  See how powerful love is?  Even in the face of death it shines through.

Bizzy bee

Sunday was church. Mike was off so we were able to go as a family. Monday was time to finish school for the week. Tuesday was school for 3 hours with a bunch of bra burners, and our first orientation for the fire department. It went so well. We made them laugh, we made them cry, and for the first time Mike saw me in that setting. Wednesday was life group. Thursday one of my besties started a bible study for our home ladies at church, and Friday it snowed in San Antonio. Some might say the equiv of  h* e* double hockey sticks freezing over. The kids sled up and down the driveway. You can either say because I am that pimp of a mom, or we are that lame. (if its the second of the two: the idea came from my sweet friend Erica.  If its the first...well Erica already was mentioned...sooo...) It's been a crazy week. Successful for sure. What I'm wondering is when will things calm down? If one more person says 18 years...

yes...they closed schools for that...

Wait...slow down...it's already the start of another week, my baby girl starts school in 6 months, my baby boy is a few days away from being 1/2 a year old. Can't we all just slow down? I'm just sayin.

      ** Its been a couple of days since I wrote this and I was lovingly reminded by said bestie that on Wednesday of the week here mentioned we spent at her house due to a power outage at our house that lasted 12 hours.  It was 27 degrees outside. SO COLD. This was what was missing in the crazy week.  Without this the week seemed not so crazy. Thanks to besties that remind you that you are forgetful.

Lead Me.

I must be crazy.  I keep thinking this to myself.  I have actually probably thought this almost my whole life.  Its the thing that people think when they are convinced that they can change the world, or a city...or even a fire department.  There I was...in the Command Chiefs office discussing final preperation for what will be the launch of a program that I am starting.  S3AFD has a mission to raise communication between firefighters and families to lower divorce rates, reduce suicide attempts, and give an overall unity to those who keep us safe in the face of danger.  Its a great plan right? 
Well thats what the union chief thought when he approched me about needing to do something, and I pitched him the whole idea.  Nealry two years later its actually happening.  To be honest my husband seems niether surpised nor board by the notion that I would be founder and president to a group that hold government status, and may be taken on as a pilot program throught the united states.  Hes used to the crazy I bring to the table I guess.  To be truthful, no one who knows me seems to impredded in either direction.  Today as I sat at that meating I just kept praying in my mind for God to lead me.  terrified?  Yup, you better believe it.  There is all of the what ifs that we have to talk about here...

What if I do not bring honor to my husband?  What if it fails?  What if I screw up?  ahhhh yes.  However there are the others to consider.  What if my relationship grows stronger with not onlu God but my husband?  What if marriges are saved? Later on in the day between family visiting, school work, and children two songs came to mind.  Lead me by Sanctus Rio   and Legacy by Nicole Nordemen.  Now I am not sure why lead me...cause thats really a mans prayer.  But man if Legacy didnt make me cry when I sang it.  Who am I kidding...so did lead me.  Could it be that God gave me those two?  Tears are pouring down even now thinking about it.  Terrified?  Yup.  Lead and coverd in his grace and love.  Absolutely. 
http://www.sanctusreal.com/
http://www.lyricsbay.com/legacy_lyrics-nichole_nordeman.html

My how you've changed

So if you have known me for any amount of time you know one thing. Things are constantly happening, moving and changing around me, and my family. Some are by choice, some not so much.  So how have things changed now?  Well simple and easiest new change is I have chosen to go back to my natural hair color.  Seems easy enough I know.  However, what you don't know is what this means.  There were a couple of reasons that I chose to change my hair color after I had my son.  Change was one of them.  At the young age of 12 I started dyeing my hair.  Mind you that at 10 my life changed forever.  Not only was I a ten year old that had already started going through puberty, I was taken away from all of my friends and most importantly my dad.  God had a plan. A girl needs her dad as much as she needs her mom.  Part of that is continued encouragement, and a reminder of acceptance.  Since I didnt have a lot of that I thought I needed to change myself to be loved.  I was the  little girl who thought that what she saw on TV or movies or whatever was how I was supposed to look.  I never starved myself, or had any other eating disorders.  I just changed myself.  I wasn't happy.  I get board with myself very easily, and I always would say that's the easiest thing to change.  I have been every color in the book..mostly.  I have been every length in the book.  Anyway while I was pregnant I did nothing.   Satan hates me.  By the way he hates you too.  He wants us to doubt, to hate ourselves, to be destroyed.  So at some point I apparently got antsy again and I dyed my hair blond.  Everyone loved it, and I thought that was what mattered.  My husband thought it was pretty, huge in my book, and for the most part I liked the way it looked.  However I realized something.  There is unrest in my heart.  Satan hates me.  Don't get me wrong.  Dye your hair that's cool, and I am sure I will again..for the right reason.  I realized though that I had done it for the wrong reason, and then I realized something really sad.  I have allowed some people in my life...no wait...a lot of people to hurt me.  I have allowed them to convince me I am not worth loving, not worth standing for, whatever or however you say it.  I allowed that.  Lets face it.  We all know that I want to be loved.  Go back and read about Best Friends being possible.  Yet the only one that matters is the one that not only knows my actual hair color and loves me.  He knows how many hairs I have...and even more...he knows everything.  He knows my worst, and He thinks I am worth EVERYTHING.  He thinks I am worth loving, standing for, and even dieing for.  I know easier said than remembered, but its true.  A person can live a lifetime and not be loved for who they really are by someone here on earth.  All I can do is try and not be like that.  To love to the best of my ability for who a person is.  I know probably some that read my blog are thinking yeah right...she sucks at that...but guess what...if you still love me, then you are doing what I am talking about.  Loving like Christ does.  Okay I'm off the box.  Now the other thing that has changed is I am now a full time student.  HA..HA HA.  Right cause being a stay at home mom of two, founder and president of S3AFD, and a tryer of being a good friend and family member isn't enough.  I know.  I'm crazy, or stupid.  Depends on who you are.  Ill tell you what though.  The one that knows better of how busy I am than anyone is my biggest supporter of continuing education.  Mike has been so wonderful.  He may just want me to be able to make money one day to help get a really good RV to retire in, or mustang parts.  Whatever the reason it means the world to me.  That all being said my initial desire to cook through a cookbook...well...I may be doing it, but you probably wont hear about it.  Cause lets face it.  I should be working on one of my papers that's due this week, but instead I am telling you that I had a bit of a break down and told Satan to shove it, and leave me alone in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by dyeing my hair.  A side not though...there has been some successful recipes, and some not so much.  Black bean soup form Paula Dean yall...yummy yummy.  I am thankful for my friend  Keke for supporting my cooking habits, even if some of it sucks, and my spouse unit for still thinking I am pretty great even when he could have had a burger and fries for so much less and it would have tasted so much better.  One more thing...I used to love sports.  Then I went and did something so stupid.  I dated a few pro players and began to hate all sports.  Recently I have been able to watch some and I think I like it.  Which I think is just something God kinda healed in me too.  Yeah. I know what your thinking...this chick is wack.  Whatevs yo. At least I know it.  So On February 6th there will be a boring brown headed woman screaming for the Packers, and hopefully surrounded by the people who love her anyway. (that's me)

Black Bean Soup
5 slices of bacon, finely chopped
½ cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 (15.25 ounce) cans of black beans drained
2 (14 ounce) cans chicken broth
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder ( I used more based on our spicy desire)
Sour cream and cheddar cheese for serving
Cook bacon over med-high heat for 3 minutes or until just beginning to brown.  Add onions and garlic and cook until onion is tender.  Add beans, broth, cumin, and chili powder.  Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes.  Spoon ½ of the mixture into a blender and process until smooth, but be careful when using a blender with really hot food.  ( I used my immersion blender). Return mixture to pan and combine with the other ½ of the soup.  Mix well and serve.  Serve this with sour cream and cheese if desired.