Back to Life, Back to Reality

I went on vacation with the fam last week to St. Joseph, MI.  Beautiful beaches!!!  We really had a great time and it was so nice to be our family of 5 again after being away from Ben so much this year.  Sometimes I think God puts things in our lives to make us appreciate what we have.  I guess it is easy to take for granted what we have.  This year God has helped me learn to appreciate being together as a family.  Something so simple, but so easy to take for granted.
So here are some pics from our vacation.  Just had a relaxing time - each day we just did whatever we felt like doing that day.  And usually we didn't even get  going til mid morning. (I guess cuz Ben let me do my favorite thing - sleeping in :)  When I got up each morning all the kids were fed and breakfast was already cleaned up - can't get any better than that!!!

JJ eating ice cream at Sherman's

boys watching the sunset

Aubry on the dock by the boat

Aubry riding the waves

Isaac making sand angels

my boys :)



Shopping for Service

I went to McDonald's today and ordered a large unsweet tea.  It's only $1 and pretty good.  I know, I know I should just make my own - as it is much cheaper.  But sometimes I just can't help it.  I love those Styrofoam cups.  Anyway I went through the drive through and got my tea.  As I was going down the road, I took a drink and it was terrible.  It wasn't even drinkable.  So as I got close to the camper I stopped by the McDonald's that I usually get my tea from and went in to see if they could just put some of their tea in my cup since this one was so bad.  It was about 2:30 in the afternoon so not very busy.  There were at least 10 people "working" up front.  One older couple was in front of me and the older lady ordered a Big Mac.  The worker said do you want a meal and the older lady said no she just wanted the sandwich and the senior drink.   Then I heard the worker say do you want a small, med or large and the lady said small.  Then while 9 people stood around and "worked", the older lady walked off with her big mac and drink cup and then this one lady yelled after her to come get her fries.  The old lady said I didn't order fries and the worker lady said yes you did it's on the screen.  The worker lady who hadn't even taken the order sat there and argued with the older lady.  Meanwhile, I was standing by the register waiting to be helped and there were the other 9 workers standing around talking .  The worker finally just threw out the fries, but didn't offer to give the lady her money back.  A few minutes later someone came over and said can I help you.  I told them the story of the bad tea and she said just a minute and the manager yelled from across from the room and said that they were a different franchise and had nothing to do with them.  Then she yelled at the worker to just give it to me, but then she ended up getting it herself.  I was very polite when she rudely handed me the tea and said most of the unsweet tea tastes bad.  I replied that I order almost every day from their drive through and the tea was always good here.  I did at that point get a little smile.  But did look down in my tea and notice she didn't put ice in it.

All this to say that service varies so much at different places.  If you go to a Chic-fil-A - you will always get quality service and anything you ask for they always say "My Pleasure" (Even the teenagers).  You go to McDonalds and you get people simply doing their job with no training and how to treat the customer.

On to the grocery store - My favorite is  Publix - extremely service oriented.  Very friendly and take the groceries out to the car and they seem to enjoy doing it.  Cookies  and balloons for the kids and coloring books if you ask.  I used to never shop here due to their prices being a bit higher, but now that I have started couponing (and yes, I use couponing as a verb)  I have learned that they can actually be cheaper than Wal-Mart.

So my summary is that McDonald's service is similar to Wal-Mart.  And the top customer service places are Chic-fil-A and Publix.

So I ask, Is it worth it to pay a little extra or go a little farther to go to a place that has great customer service?  Sometimes, yes, but I will still hit Wal-mart for a few things and will still get the $1 tea at McDonalds.  But most of the time I will choose Chic-fil-A (plus their food is much better) and I do most of my grocery shopping at Publix - with coupons of course. 

Cloudy with a Chance of Organizing

It's an overcast cloudy day and oh so muggy.  So while at the dentist with my kids (who were all cavity free - YAY)  I was trying to think of things to do today and I just couldn't get the idea of cleaning out JJ's room which has essentially become the toy room.  I had organized it about 6 months ago, but it is in pretty bad shape now.  If anyone has any tricks to get kids to put toys back the exact way they found them - I'm all ears. 

Anyway I went to Wal-Mart to buy some organizing supplies and hopefully make it easier for the kids to keep the room a bit neater.  Although this is probably wishful thinking. Someday my wish is to have a wall of built in shelves that hold those oh so cute canvas baskets.  Yes, Mike and Steph  - I am jealous of your toy wall. 

I went upstairs  took a quick survey...

This is actually how I found the room - pretty sad :(

Then I did the dump - I took all the toys and dumped them in a huge pile in the middle of the floor.

The Dump!!

Not more than two minutes after I finished the dump - I received a phone call from the Call Center asking for showing for our house.  I think my heart stopped for a minute and then I realized she asked for a showing tomorrow - PHEW!!!  But still had a huge job on my lap and the rest of the house to clean, mow the lawn and fix the kitchen light that I broke this morning. 

More of the Dump!!

Here is the finished product.  I only left out the toys that they seem to play with the most.  3 bags of garbage and 5 bags of toys to give away. 

Now named the toy corner - contains all the main toys the boys play with.

And the book and game shelf - decorated with stuffed animals - and yes we have already given at least 100 stuffed animals to Goodwill.

After I gave a demonstration of how to properly put a book on the shelf and how the cars only go in the car bucket and so on - I put the kids to bed!!!

Now off to clean the rest of the house for the showing...

Heaven is the Face...

So maybe a little deeper thought today....

I was driving in the car today and listening to the radio and the Stephen Curtis Chapman song came on called "Heaven is the Face".  Of course I cried as I listened to it, then a whole bunch of memories flooded my brain.  So if you saw me driving down Woodruff road bawling my eyes out, now you know why :) 

It brought me back to the day when Isaac was 10 months old.  He'd had his transplant 5 months earlier and everything had been going great.  We took him in to the hospital for some IV fluids late one evening and we finally got a room around 3am.  We were woken up by the nurse early that morning (I'm not even sure what time it was because it is all a blur).  She said Isaac was seizing and she didn't know how long he had been like that.  The whole left side of his body was non responsive.  They took him down for a Cat Scan, but had to stop several times because of the seizures.  The moved him to the PICU and his respiratory rate was low, but they weren't really doing anything except monitoring his seizures.  The doctor in charge was not calling his transplant team and communicating with them, so our home health nurse who had come in her jammies the night before to help us and was up at the hospital that morning called Cincinnati and told them what all was happening.



Isaac in Greenville, they kept the EEG on him to monitor the seizures he was having.


Cincinnati Children's hospital flew a jet plane down to get Isaac and we flew up that day.  Ben drove up as there was only room for 1 parent.  Isaac was placed in the PICU and intubated to help him breathe.  The next day he kept crashing and the doctors were pumping him full of every medicine they could think of, even some that were very risky and we had to weigh the options of using very high risk meds or risk not fighting whatever it was that was attacking his little body.  Of course we went with using the medicines.  They kept running all the tests they could think of and still couldn't find what was wrong.  In the meantime he was getting worse.  The evening of the first full day we were there, the doctors pulled us aside in a room with sofas and tissues and sat us down (this is the room you don't want to go to).  They pretty much told us they had tried everything they could think of but he just kept deteriorating.  They offered to call our family for us.  Most of our family were already on their way.  This was also when I noticed we were in a room with a window leading to the room next to us.  A long time ago, I had asked a nurse why would they have a window in some of the PICU rooms and she told me it was for when a child was close to dying, they would use it for the family members and they would open up the curtains so the family members would be close by.  Well, I noticed that the room next to us,  that our window led to, was empty. 



Isaac in Cincinnati the day he almost went to Heaven.

About an hour later, as Ben and I were in Isaac's room he was crashing again.  And let  me tell you it is nothing like TV.  There were doctors and nurses everywhere, but they were completely calm and worked together so well and quietly.  They had already called in the chaplain who was in the corner of the room praying.  Ben and I were standing at the end of the bed holding his feet.  I remember praying to God and saying "ok, if this is what you had planned for Isaac's life, I will accept it, but I would really love to keep him in our family and I wouldn't know how to tell his 3 year old sister if he died."  Then this strange, calming peace came over me and I just felt like whatever happened it would be ok.  I felt like God was right there in the room with us and was calming me.  It was a very strange feeling, but very peaceful.  Isaac pulled through the night and then the next day.  Then they put another patient in the room next to us (a good sign).  The doctors to this day still call it a miracle.

That strange, peaceful feeling that I had experienced was kind of embarrassing, I was actually feeling bad about feeling peace while Isaac was so sick and crashing.  But a couple of weeks later as we were having dinner (thanks to a friend who came to the hospital to stay with Isaac),  I decided to go ahead and tell Ben about it.  He was shocked when I told him, because he had had that same strange, peaceful feeling at the same time.  That was when I knew that God had put that calming, peaceful protection around us.

Isaac - today :)



Good Cheap Summer Fun!

JJ, Isaac and Aubry watching the sharks

First stop - Chattanooga Aquarium!  (only cheap this time because we had already purchased the annual pass), but anyway good, cheap fun this time.  We decided to only go to the the ocean building this time so we would have time to play in the fountains. 

Kids touching the sting rays

Aubry caught a butterfly in the butterfly garden

Don't be shocked - yes that is Aubry and Isaac sharing a butterfly.

After the aquarium we headed outside and stopped by the car to change the kids into their swimsuits.  Then first stop, the waterfall stairs that lead to a big pool at the bottom.  Bonuses for me - viewof the Tennessee River and shaded.

Aubry in pool at bottom of waterfall stairs

Isaac, JJ and Aubry

Then we went up the stairs the another place to play in the water.  Unfortunately my phone battery died so I didn't get any picture - (and yes I do take most of my pictures with my phone - someday on my wish list is a nice camera - but that will be down the road).  The kids loved following the path of  water with rocks - very cool looking - someday we'll go back and I'll get some pics.

Isaac, JJ and Aubry

Kids had a great time and got worn out - which is always a plus. 

Gotta love summer!!!

Summer Campfire Food - Yummy!!!

 

We had a delicious campfire last night!  With yummy fresh veggies and fruit from the market.  And I'm all about simplicity - so the easier and more relaxing, the better.  So here is our menu. 





Grilled Corn on the Cob.

Take sweet corn and remove the silk and then put the husky things back over corn.  Place over campfire for about 10 minute turning one time.  Pull off husky things (and I even lived in central Illinois for awhile, but I still don't know all the technical terms) - and leave on the stem - this will be the handle for holding the corn (then we don't have to wash all those little green things we usually put in the end of the corn).  After pulling off the husky things then roll in butter and sprinkle with salt.  Delicious fresh yummy flavor with a hint of campfire. 



Isaac being a typical boy and playing with the fire!



Fresh Blackberries and Strawberries

Buy or pick fresh strawberries and blackberries.  Rinse and Eat.  Yummy and simple - and best of all healthy!!

Aubry stealing some blackberries!

All Beef Hot Dogs with Whole Wheat Buns

I stopped by the Sara Lee Outlet and picked up some Whole Wheat Buns for 79 cents!!! Gotta love a bargain.  Grill some hot dogs and add your favorite toppings.  Ben likes just cheese, Aubry and I like relish and ketchup Isaac and JJ like just ketchup. 

Chow Down and Enjoy Eating outside!!!

Family Time

So many of you know that we spend part of our time in a camper with Ben in Chattanooga.  Well, we went to Chattanooga on Saturday to go to Ben's work family night out at the baseball game.  We had a lot of fun and I was able to meet a lot of people that Ben works with. 



JJ holding on tight because the guide was being sarcastic and said that we were going to go fast and we better hold on.

 On Sunday, we got up and went to the open air market and got some yummy blackberries and strawberries.  We tried these blackberries dipped in white chocolate and I'm not even a white chocolate fan, but the combination of flavors was delicious.  Aubry had a yummy chocolate covered strawberry.  The boys had pretzels from this amazing bread stand. 

After our trip to the market we decided to use our Groupon for the Chattanooga Duck Ride.  The Duck is one of those vehicles from 1944 used in the war that went on land and water.  Kids had a lot of fun especially when we went down the ramp and splashed into the water.  Ben and I enjoyed the history.  The ride was a bit on the slow side, I think the guide said it can go up to 6 mph.  So needless to say Ben didn't get his fast thrill, but we had a nice time. 

After a quick lunch, we decided to go to the fountains to cool off.  I envisioned the kids just dipping their feet in and cooling off, but that isn't what happened.  The cool off resulted in both boys being completely soaked.  Isaac went completely under and JJ's clothes were completely drenched.  It was one of those moments where as a mom I just had to step back, relax and remind myself that a little water wouldn't hurt the kids.


All in all a great family day, with minimal fighting and just good relaxing fun - and thanks to Groupon - very cheap :)