friends | A Thankfully Imperfect Woman

Sep 23

A Bad Day and a Wake Up Call

It was a day.

A day like no other.

Where so many major things that could go wrong, did go wrong. Or so I thought.

First a neighbor hit my parked car which was parked along the side of our house (not my normal spot) and about 4 inches into the alley. Accidents happen, I get it, I gave him a hug.

Then the police officer stopped by and gave me a ticket for “parking in the alley”. Seriously. And indicated it was my fault that the accident happened. And he proceeded to hand me a ticket, tell me I could pick up the accident report later today, and apologized, while frustrated tears rolled down my cheeks. I hate crying when I’m frustrated, but sometimes it just happens anyway.

I then dropped my car off at the dealership for an estimate and borrowed my mother-in-law (and her car) to drive two hours to a dr appt.

On the way to the appt, a young boy crossed the road running after his Momma. She was about 40 feet ahead of him, plugged into her earphones. I hit the brakes, which thankfully prevented me from hitting him as he proceeded to run ahead of me (ps, I was driving through a green light). As I laid on my horn, in an attempt to alert the Mom, she decided to scream at me. Seriously.

The Dr. appt brought news I didn’t expect, but I guess I’m glad he wants to be so thorough. An MRI is scheduled for next week to see if there’s a reason for the piriformis syndrome/sciatic pain. He’s leaning towards surgery, but I don’t want to go that route yet.

An attempt to get the youngest child a cell phone at AT&T was thwarted as my husband is the primary account holder…even though he doesn’t even use a cell phone. ‘Oh whatever, I’ll do it online’…was my thought. Her birthday isn’t until Oct 7 anyway.

A few stops and we came home. Enough is enough, I’m done.

The car had been delivered with a repair estimate of $4,000.

I’m on my second glass of wine.

And then I see a FB post saying prayers are requested for a friend of mine.

And then I get the message that her son was in a terrible ATV accident on Friday night and she didn’t even know about it until Saturday, after he’d had brain surgery. He’ll be having his jaw wired shut tomorrow for about a month, and his eye socket is fractured. He is doing well now, thank God.

And that’s when I realized that all the crap and frustrations I went through today are nothing.

My babies are healthy. I’m home. I’m safe. My car is just a thing. I can pay the stupid ticket. The little boy is safe. I pray that his Mom will keep him safe from now on. And Gab’s cell phone is just a thing. I have just little things to complain about.

And now I turn my attention to praying for Nate and his Mom and Dad. Lord, please give them all the chance to complain about the little things that can go wrong in their lives.

Amen.

Patty O

Sep 16

3 Comments

The Red Fred Project…Join Me

Have you heard of this project yet?

If you’re like me, you haven’t. It was just introduced to me by my good friend Karen, who knows the creator.

I don’t think there’s much I need to say beyond…please, please take a moment to click on the link and watch the video, then read what this project is all about. You may want to grab a kleenex…

The Red Fred Project: 50 Books by 50 Critically ill Children

My heart is filled with love for this project, from the beginning of working with a critically ill young person and their family, to the end result of the book and book sales, which The Red Fred Project gives to the family to help with their medical costs. This truly is an incredible project. It’s not just about life or death…it’s about giving a child who is chronically ill a chance to be creative, a feeling of purpose, about leaving a legacy and an incredible memory for that child’s family to cherish.

Loving & empowering children, and helping families in need. This is what life is about.

I’m going to send in a donation…do you want to join me?

They need $75,000 by Sunday, October 13th to move this project forward – so please – donate soon! If they are short of their goal, by a penny, none of the funding happens for the project — no one’s donation goes through. Even now, the people who have pledged will not see their money leave their account UNLESS The Red Fred Project hits its goal in October. Give now, give generously, give what you can…every little bit helps!

And then share their link on your facebook page, twitter account, and every other account you’re on…copy it and hand it out at work, church, the dog park, the laundromat, local restaurants, on the bus, in the subway, to your mother, to your brother, to your sister, to your mother’s brother’s sister-in-law…just share it with everyone!

Patty O

Sep 10

2 Comments

My Daycare Baby Started Nursery School Today :'{

Is it just me?

Do other daycare providers get teary watching their little peanut march off to school?

Mind you, it’s just nursery school, but sheesh…how did she get this old? It seems like just yesterday that Elena, at 3 months old, came to stay with me.

{Sigh}

I love these little peanuts.

I am very excited for Elena – she is going to have such a great time! The one advantage for me is that I get to enjoy some one on one time with her little sister. I know we’ll both enjoy some quiet snuggle time!

I had to giggle this morning as we were working on Elena’s little person for school…Nicole needed one too. So here they are…Elena and Nicole working on these two cute little paper people…with button eyes, crayon clothes, and twine hair. I felt the twine hair was perfect as little Elena’s hair usually shows up at my door in the morning with a rat’s nest in the back…with Elena in tow, of course! Remember The Winner of the Worst Bed Head Competition?

We had it all set up on our coffee table and there we were…all sitting on the couch with our projects. Elena picked out blue buttons for her eyes and little red buttons for a smile. Longer twine hair on Elena’s and short little pieces for Nicole’s (since her hair is just starting to really grow). Both paper dolls came out pretty cute. I wish I would have taken a picture for you…but alas, we were running like crazy people this morning.

Now Nicole is napping and Elena is just getting off from school and will be back soon. I can’t wait to hear about her day!

{sniff, sniff}

Our baby is growing up Jen and Blake! I know, I know…your baby. But I still count you guys as extended family, and I’m pretty sure your girls think they have 3 older sisters…and trust me, Alex, Sam and Gabi love your girls! And don’t get me started on Tim…little fingers…wrapped around…sound familiar?

Happy Back to School everyone!

Patty O

ps…Gabi started 7th grade this year. {sigh} Same height as me. {sigh} Size 9.5 feet. {sigh} Our baby’s growing up too. {sniff, sniff} 🙂

pps…thanks to Pinterest and Dr. Seuss for the photo.

Sep 7

2 Comments

The Adventure Called My Life

I was just sharing a comment and advice for a fellow Sjogren-ite and I remembered one of my best…or worst brain fog moments. There’s brain fog and then there’s brain damage. Sometimes I swear I can hear Bill Cosby saying…”Brain Damage!!!” In fact, I’ve used that comment for each of my girls at one moment in their teenage-dom.

As I’ve gotten a little older, I’ve experienced the normal…can’t remember names, addresses, phone numbers…or the mixing your children’s names up, spewing every other name and the dog’s name before you get to the correct one: “Sam, Alex, Motzy…GABI!”

But now there’s the moments of not being able to get the words out correctly. It’s the speaking of words like: clockwork and saying wock-clork. Hrmph. At least with a blog I can catch them before it goes into print.

– You know the saying ‘If you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at’? –

I laugh…a lot.

And so does my family.

And I’m so happy I can provide such good entertainment…

The best moment of all with outright – tears running down the cheeks, side-splitting, I can’t breathe anymore, belly laughter came months ago when we were going to watch a movie. I yelled (not whispered mind you) into the kitchen – “Let’s have POPCORN”! Or at least I meant to yell that.

What came out was “Let’s have COP PORN!!!”

Huh…

{insert head thunk}

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

Yes, this is my adventure.

Welcome to it!

🙂

Patty O

ps. Have I written about this already? Hrmph…darn memory!