How To Say No

I read an article yesterday about how to say no in three sentences. And just in case, the three of you who read this blog are interested, here is the link to that article. 

This article hit home for me as recently I evaluated the things I have said yes to.

I sat and prayed over those things I am involved and literally asked does this bring me joy? Does it take more time away from my family than I am willing to give? Does it stress me out to be involved? Do I lose slept over it? 

As I started to analyze each club or team that I belonged to and ask those questions, I realized my answers were yes to the majority of them. 

It was at that point I decided to step away from the groups. I can say I took the classy road and thanked each person that asked me to participate and let them know I was taking a step back. 

I didn't totally back out from everything, I kept myself involved in two things. And to be honest I'm still considering those two things. 

My family time and personal time are precious. I do not want to be involved in things that take away from them.

So as the new year moves forward and if the opportunity arises for me to be involved I have decided to be very picky about what I am involved in. 

 

Happy 11th Birthday R2!

 

 This little firecracker turns 11 years old today. 

Eleven years has gone by so fast. I feel like just yesterday you were five and I was walking you down the kindergarten hallway at school and BLINK, now you are eleven.

Your laugh is infectious. Your wit is humorous and you use sarcasm at all the correct times. You have a love for the outdoors and when ever possible you are outside. You enjoy baseball and basketball and I love to watch you play. You are very encouraging to your teammates, always telling them good job or giving them a high-five. You have a fierce love for your brother, dad, and me. You have a love for God so big it amazes me. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY R2! I love you!
 

The Great Sickness Of, Who Am I Kidding, We've Started Out Every Year Sick

Yep, we've started off every year for the last six years with someone being sick. The only year we didn't was 2015 and it must have been a fluke. Or we were over exposed to germs after being at Disney during Thanksgiving and we had built up our immunity.

This past week R2 had been feeling under the weather and running a low grade fever. Not enough for him to stay home but just enough for him to feel miserable. By Friday I knew I did not want to go into a long weekend with him sick so I took him to the doctors office. 

Let me say I love our pediatrician. He is amazing and so is his partner. My kids like both of them. There are two other doctors in his practice that I do not feel this way about and lets just leave it at that. So I called the pediatricians office Friday morning and our regular doctor was already booked for the day so I was stuck with one of the less than stellar physicians in the practice. I wasn't happy about it but my priority was R2 so off we went. 

The nurse took all the vitals and then put us in a room where we waited a few minutes before the doctor came in. He listened to R2's breathing and asked me if he had asthma. I said no and he said really? I'm thinking to myself at this point, hello!, you have his chart and if I said he doesn't have asthma and you are hearing something funny please let me know. He says nothing is wrong and to keep doing the over the counter meds we have been using for the past few days. Red flags are going off and I ask are you sure because he doesn't have asthma and if something is wrong we are going into a holiday weekend. He says he's fine and then tells us to have a good day. 

R2's cough just keeps getting worse all weekend and bright and early Monday morning I call the doctors office and make an appointment with our pediatrician. We go into the office at our scheduled time and our doctor checks R2 and out and then says he has bronchial pnenonmia. AWESOME, said no one ever. I thank out doctor and let him know that we were here on Friday and the doctor then didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with him. He apologizes and says a few other things to me and then sends over R2's three prescriptions to the pharmacy we use. 

So R2 now has daily breathing treatments, a steriod pack, and an antibiotic pack. And by last night he was feeling just a little bit better.

All that just say I'm tired of the great sickness. I hate it when my kids are sick and there is nothing I can do but sit with them. I'm ready for some wellness.

Hello 2016

Well I think it's safe to say that we have been adjusting to the new year quite nicely. Going back to school/work was a whole other issue but we have adjusted. 

We really enjoyed our two week break. We slept late, watched tv, and ate way too much food. 

The first week of was a flurry of family visits to celebrate the holidays. We had Christmas with my brother and niece on Monday and then on Tuesday we had Christmas with Hubs' side of the family. His parents are getting older and the issues that occur with age make for some hilarious events in our family. 

Wednesday Hubs and I saw the Blue Man Group. All I can about this is if you haven't seen them, you must! 

Thursday was Christmas eve and we attended candle light service at church and then went to the BFF's house for homemade pizzas and desserts. Then it was off to look at Christmas lights. Friday was Christmas where I proceeded to accomplish my goal of staying in my pj's all day. And I'm happy to report, it was glorious. 

And since too many days have passed since then I can not tell you what we did over that weekend. Sorry. 

The second week off was just as busy only it was running the boys to from baseball workouts or returning items that we didn't want. But Thursday everyone came over for some good old fashion grilled hotdogs, snack food, games, and fireworks. Yep that's how we roll on New Year's Eve. Oh and let me just say this, it was so cold while we popped fireworks in the rain that I broke out my portable propane heater that I use while attending baseball games in freezing cold weather. Here's the proof that I stayed nice and toasty warm. 

And once again on New Year's Day I managed to stay in my pj's all day. I think I finally took a shower around 9:00pm only to put on a clean pair of pajamas. 

Oh one other exciting thing that happened is that over the course of the first week I began to get more and more disgusted with our livingroom furniture. I like our couch, it's only two years old but the chairs, not so much. They needed to go. One of them is so old it's been around longer than Hubs and I have been married. So we made a trip to Houston to go look at furniture. I looked around our town but there wasn't anything that spoke to me and said oh I just have to be in your livingroom. And I can say that Hubs and I are now the proud owners of two new livingroom chairs. One chair is a leather power recliner. As R1 says we are fancy since we have a power recliner. Truth be told I would have preferred not to have a power recliner, to me that is just one more thing that can break and what if the power goes out, I can't put my feet up and relax. The other chair is what I call my mama chair. It's got a higher back and is over sized so I can sit sideways and hang my feet over the side. Or curl up in it with a good book and a blanket. 

I have decided that you know you are an adult when you get exciting about purchasing anyone of the following:

new car
building a home
new furniture
new appliances
new light fixtures/ceiling fans
new back porch furniture
new rugs

See, I told adult happiness!

And now I'm off to curl up with a blanket and a book in my new leather power recliner, because I'm fancy like that.