Blog Again, Blog Again, Jiggedy Jig

Yesterday morning I woke up at 5:00am from a nightmare I had. It was a weird nightmare, and I find it is a recurring one that I have often. Or at least the "theme" of the dream is recurring.

I dreamed (dreamt?) that I was yelling at the top of my lungs at someone who had made me really upset about something. The theme that is recurring with this dream is that in real life, when someone has upset me greatly or caused me stress, I will dream that I am yelling at them. Weird huh? Well, if you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you should know I am weird.

I think that this form of dream is my mind's way of decompressing. Because sometimes, sometimes I really do want to yell at people. Be honest now, you probably do too. Have you ever had someone say or do something really offensive to you, and it stuns you so you don't know how to react? I had that happen the other day. Someone gave me a sideways comment (which I hate - it's so manipulative) and the more I thought about what that person said, the more it bothered me. I finally took it to the Lord and poured it out to Him. But it might have helped at the time if I had been able to do what I do in my dream - yelled at that person. :) Not really.

Speaking of nightmares, I am now the mother of three teenagers. Our little Peanut turned thirteen on Friday. I remember a time when I wondered if she would make it past age one, let alone turn thirteen. Prior to her heart surgery when she was a year old, her health was pretty precarious. (For those of you who might not know, Peanut has Down syndrome.) For the first year of her life I had a recurring nightmare of when my doctor came into the room and told us he thought she had Down syndrome. It was as though I would rewind that awful news in my mind every night. But that stopped when she had her heart surgery. I realized then that her health and her life were so much more important than a diagnosis - and I loved her so dearly that the thought of losing her overcame the fear I had of raising a child with a disability. Her surgery was so successful, and she recovered so beautifully and thrived so completely afterwards, that I finally allowed myself to focus on the fact that she would be able to grow up. And she has been a joy to raise. I am very thankful she is a part of our family, and I would not want her to be any different than she is.

This weekend the Hubs is working the night shift, so I might be back to blog again. Because I can never sleep when he is not home. Me no likee the night shift. Maybe the dog can sleep in Kyle's place. Except she snores and yips when she sleeps. Oh wait, Kyle does that too. ;) I like to tell the story of a dream he had once that he was eating a giant peanut M&M. He woke up with his pillow soaking wet. True story!

Sweet dreams!!

Blog Block

I DID IT AGAIN. I thought of The Most Clever Blog Title Ever but did not write it down. I know now what I need to do - I need a Blackberry. Then I can blog whenever the inspiration hits me and these things won't flee from my brain faster than a...faster than a....faster than.......Huh. I forgot what I was going to say.

Anyway yesterday evening I had to take Thing 5 to the clinic - he'd been coughing and was starting to get "punkier" by the minute. I did not like the sound and look of his respirations and he had a low-grade temp. Wouldn't you know it, he's come down with pneumonia too. I'm not sure why these nasty bugs have decided to roost in our household this past month, but today I'm fighting back. Echinacea, garlic, vitamin C, lots of fluids, and lots of prayer. Thing 5 also had to start up nebulizer treatments again - his oxygen levels were low and he was laboring to breathe. I do not like the albuterol nebulizer treatments, as they make him quite hyper, but so far we have not had to start the steroids. The doctor did prescribe some in case he worsened but he is doing much better. I'm thankful for that because those steroids make him so miserable, he literally squirms uncontrollably - and his emotions are in super high gear for a couple days. Hopefully he'll be able to kick this bug on its hinder with some good rest and lots of TLC. Plus I'm disinfecting the house as much as I can. I am eager to be able to throw open the windows with some warmer weather and really give the house a good airing out. With breathing issues I have to be very careful what kind of cleaning products I use. Once it is warmer I'll send the kids to the park one of these days and really do some deep cleaning with the lysol and bleach.

Tomorrow we'll be celebrating the Risen Saviour and I plan to make a big ham dinner. I bought a huge ham, which I'll throw in the oven with my brother-in-law's favorite glaze - a can of cherry pie filling. Yum. I also plan to make cheesy green beans, a white cake with pink vanilla frosting and pastel sprinkles (very spring-like) and of course potatoes and my homemade bread. As Rachel Ray says, "Yum-O!"

'Scuse me while I go clean the drool off my keyboard...

H.N. - This Blog's For You

I had a friend ask me yesterday when I was going to update my blog. I think that makes for 3 or 4 readers now. ;) But like I said before, I don't blog for the readers, I blog because I like to write. If someone gets some entertainment out of it, or laughter at my expense, then even better. I do worry about my friend though, if the only entertainment she is getting is from this blog. I'm going to need to take her out to dinner or something.

Yesterday I thought of the Most Clever Blog Title Ever but within a split-second it was gone from my mind! I absolutely hate when that happens. I will sometimes have a poem pop into my head, or the lyrics to a song - and if I don't immediately write it down I will forget it. Usually the poems come into my mind at night or when I wake up, so they usually don't get written down. I have a lot of unleashed poetry floating around my brain. I have a friend who can write these beautiful, thought-provoking poems that will just touch your soul. I can't do that with poetry though - if I think about the lines too much it never works for me.

Recently we've had lots of Adventures in Flood Fighting in the Fargo-Moorhead area. Kyle, along with Thing 1 and Thing 2, helped their fellow Civil Air Patrol volunteers to sandbag and build dikes in many needed areas. Thing 2 and I also went sandbagging a couple times in Dilworth and Moorhead. If you've never been sandbagging, you are missing out. I must admit though that my left shoulder is still recovering. I've bought a lot of Advil this past month!

One afternoon when Thing 2 and I were busily sandbagging at a site in Dilworth, they stopped all production and announced that Governor Pawlenty of Minnesota would be visiting the site. So they had us all gather into a group, and in the Governor walked with his entourage and a couple of security guards that looked like they could throw a really full sandbag a very long distance. The Governor (who I noticed smelled very nice in that dusty, cold and damp place that smelled like clay and wet sand - funny how you notice those things) stood just a few feet away from me and gave a short, inspiring little speech and pledged his help and support. And do you know what I did? I'm so embarrassed. I started to cry like a little girl. No, I'm not kidding. I was tired, sore and very concerned for many dear friends who were possibly in danger of losing their homes. After his little talk he of course, like any good politician, went around to shake hands. And do you know what he did? He shook my hand and asked me, "Are you okay?" Boy did I feel dumb. He probably thought my house was going under water as he spoke. (By the way, we were in no danger whatsoever of flooding where we live.) The poor Governor probably also thought I should be medicated in a locked room somewhere. His body guards were probably in high alert when he came over to shake my hand. Duh. Anyway, I told him I was just fine and went back to fill sandbags, but not before I sincerely thanked him for coming. It was an honor to meet him - but I wish I would have thought to have him autograph a sandbag or something!

So, that is all I have for now. H.N., if you are reading this, I'm sorry this isn't a better post. I'm a little tapped out now for writing. It's a mighty good thing I don't write for a living!!