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For most of SJ’s life she has had a decent amount of hair to play around with.

BUT, most of the time it looks like a mixture between a sea urchin and a disregarded cat toy.

 Seriously. I have sent her to school with unintentional dreadlocks before. For that reason I am ready for her to have her first haircut. As I am envisioning what it will look like and how she will feel sitting in the salon like a big girl, it occurred to me that she won’t be able to wear her implants during the haircut. I don’t care, and I don’t think that she will mind at all, but it was one of those aspects of the cochlear implant that I never thought about before. It made me wonder what it would feel like if I had my hearing turned off for a haircut. I asked around at SJ’s school for insight from some of the more experienced moms and teachers and they said that they usually leave one on and then switch sides during the haircut part. I’ll probably just leave them off tomorrow, since she is still very comfortable either way right now, but it’s good to know for future haircuts.

When I say this is her first haircut, it’s true for the most part, but when she had her surgeries she had to have her head shaved in the area of the incision. This photo was taken shortly after her first surgery.

 You can still see the scar from the incision just above her ear. At one point I posted this instagram which shows how trendy my preschooler was without even trying.

 Who would have thought that the side shave for girls would become so popular right when SJ had the side of her head shaved! Most of the time you can’t even tell that there are varying lengths because she wears a head band all the time, but when she doesn’t you can see where the shaved parts are growing back in and it’s in-between her chin and shoulder now.

That is why I decided to go with that length for her haircut. As long as we are going to be cutting it anyway why not just even it out? Here is one last photo of her which I took this morning before she had her headband on. It gives a bit of an idea of what we can expect tomorrow.

I think she’ll like it, but I guess we’ll see. She’ll be a cutie pie no matter what. That’s for sure!

Cue up the spy music! It’s been two weeks since the 7th annual gala for SJ’s school (the theme was 007) and although I was the photographer, I didn’t have any pictures that I was in. Now that I got a hold of a some I am ready to blog away!

The hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and food was all wonderful. 

The speakers were great, and there was a fantastic James Bond parody video that was done by one of the school’s alumni who is now in High School. He was witty, charming, and so well rounded. What an encouragement to see a deaf student from the same place SJ is in who is now thriving as a young man. The school hasn’t been around that long, so he is one of the earliest students. The video was probably my favorite part.

Second to that though would have to be the band. The Naked Karate Girls (don’t let the name fool you, they are none of those things) are the ultimate party band. So fun, so entertaining. They keep the crowd engaged and there is NEVER a dull moment with these guys.

The perfect Pinterest mom! That is what they call me. They really do, and all I can do is laugh, because I know how far from perfect or Pinteresty I really am. I love being creative and throwing parties, but this last party threw me (for a loop that is).

First was the ice storm that hijacked our original date at the last minute, and honestly, that messed everything up. Although, weather related issues are not the most irritating thing to me because I know they are out of my control. There are other things that I could say “if only I was more organized” Or “If only I had more money”, but Martha Stewart and Oprah combined can’t change the weather, and so I can rest assured that it is in God’s hands and I just need to go with it.

Then there was SJ’s hair, which is another thing that only God can control. Normally I don’t fuss with it AT ALL, but this was her big day and I thought rag curls would be cute.

We did a practice run the day before and they were soft, delicate, curls that smoothly hung around her youthful skin like a porcelain doll.

 Then the day of the party they were a little different, but not necessarily bad.

 By the end of the day she looked more like when Claire went crazy on Lost.

It’s all good though, she is still a cutie pie.

The hair and the weather weren’t the only things that didn’t go as planned. I forgot to add mint leaves to the punch and the matching table cloth that I bought was left at home. The slideshow of SJ that I planned to have on loop ended up showing my computer screen saver most of the time. None of that really mattered, but when the balloon that I purchased on the internet and decorated by hand flew into the galaxy (which was Z’s description) that is when I thought I was going to loose my cool.

It looked so cute and easy on Pinterest.

The directions were simple. Buy some donut shaped latex balloons from your local party store, paint them, and decorate with paper sprinkles. Easier said than done, let me tell ya. In all fairness I did a practice run and it turned out fine, but it was without helium, which apparently makes a big difference.

The first problem I encountered was that I could not find these balloons at my “local party store”. I couldn’t even find them at a far away party store in Kentucky. I tried. So by the time I realized that I needed to special order them I had to choose expedited shipping. The day of the party when I had them inflated, one of the balloons looked more like a defective heart than a donut. It’s okay. Don’t be a party Nazi I told myself. I thanked the employee and took my 4 balloons out to the car. When I got in the apartment I only counted three balloons and one of them was the wonky one. I guess I lost one somewhere along the way. Oh well, keep moving forward. The fourth problem was that when I painted the balloon it sank. It sank and landed flat on the painted side! Everything I envisioned for the party decorations was turning into a real flop! Not to be detoured I did a light coat of paint on the final balloon and used a small portion of the MANY sprinkles I had tediously cut out (and end up throwing away). It was decent. I could handle the idea of one lonely donut balloon floating next to the birthday girl as she blew out candles on her donut cake. It was all going to be okay.

That was until, I got in the car to leave and low and behold the balloon that could barely hold it’s own weight in my apartment had suddenly found it’s true calling and turned into the lightest, free flowing balloon in the world. It was out the door and up, up, and away before anyone had a chance to do anything about it. I am the grown up here and my six year old was  consoling me saying “It’s okay mom. It’s just a balloon.” and I was like “wahhhhhhh!” J asked me if I at least had a picture knowing that I always take pictures on my phone of every. little. thing. But not this time. I was in too much of a hurry.

However, this wasn’t my party so I couldn’t cry if I wanted to. This was SJ’s party and what a  party it was. I will reveal all the glorious details of it later, but when you see it you will know that it didn’t happen without any hiccups. Every time I throw one of these parties I learn something. I learned that sometimes you just have to take a deep breath and when your balloon idea isn’t working you may just have to let go.

This year SJ was invited to her first birthday party! She’s been to many parties with us as a family, but this was HER friend from school so her brothers and dad stayed behind. It was a ballerina theme at a dance studio and SJ’s first time to be a part of dance class. She loved it. Most of the girls there go to her school. They all looked adorable and proved that deaf girls CAN dance!

Stretching (way to go SJ, reach those toes)

Dancing to the Frozen sound track of course. 

Later that day I made her cake and she said “birthday” it was the first time I had her say it and it was all on her own. She has been very excited about her special day. Unfortunately the party that was originally scheduled for Sunday ended up postponed. I was really reluctant, but we didn’t have a choice. There was hail and ice followed by snow. The roads were just too treacherous. School was even cancelled the next day and it wasn’t nearly as bad. I know even Texas gets a wee bit of snow or ice on occasion in March (they did this week I believe, someone correct me if I am wrong), but when we lived in Texas I would joke that SJ’s birthday made the flowers come out because we would see the first blossoms of spring right around her birthday. In Ohio the flowers are not so kind. I always know I am taking a gamble with the weather when I throw an outdoor party, but I thought I was safe having an indoor party in March! Oh well, the good news is we did celebrate last night and I will elaborate on all the donuty mayhem fun that took place once I get some photos to show off. I am also waiting on a photo that was taken at the gala so that I can tell you all about that too. The messy mom has a lot to catch up on. Now that the donut party is out of the way I should have a chance to get to it.

For those that haven’t already seen my rant about the latest Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue you can read it here.

I received a very prompt response from Target after emailing my complaint to them. I was pleased with how genuine their reply was because it appeared that someone actual read my message. Unfortunately I was disappointed that they chose to dismiss my complaints by hiding behind the guise of diversity. Here was the response

“I’m sorry to hear you’ve been offended by the sports Illustrated Swimsuit magazine featured at Target®.

I am so anxious to share what a great time Z and I had on our first “date” that I am blogging about it the night of. I always figured J would do the cute little daddy daughter dance and all that business, but the thought of anything comparable with my boys never crossed my mind. That was until I was chowing down on waffle fries and literally saw a knight in shining armor. Well, it wasn’t a real knight, but it was a life size suit of armor inviting mother’s to make reservations for a medieval themed evening with their sons at Chic Fil A.

He has been talking about this outing since I first brought it up a couple weeks ago. Last night when I tucked him in he said “I love you mom” and I said “I love you son” and then he replied in his little Charlie Brown voice “speaking of son, tomorrow is mother son date night!” It was sweet.

I have been keeping a little bit of a secret from my blog. I didn’t want to complain all month long, but now that I am feeling better it’s not really complaining, it’s more like documenting. Basically, we started the winter strong and our family was healthy. I was giving kids vitamins and making them drink orange juice. I even bragged about escaping the flu when so many others had it over the holidays, but I must have jinxed it because at least one of us has been sick ever since! It has been RIDICULOUS.

First Z, then SJ, then me. We were dropping like flies. One after the other week after week. Everyone hates to see their children sick and I’ve noticed many comments online that say things like “I wish I could be sick and not them, it just breaks my heart”.  I said the same thing, only I realized two things about that statement.

1. Kids are much more resilient and what was a 5 day minor bug for them was a 3 week desolation period for me.

2. When your kids are sick you can take care of them. When you are sick they don’t take care of you. In fact they still need you to take care of them. So everyone looses.

It’s a nice sentiment, but as long as we are “wishing” for things, I think I will just “wish”, or better yet pray for everyone to be well.

Now for those wondering what in the world attacked my body and had me down for 3 weeks plus, I will torture you with all the gorey details. The first week was flu like symptoms, and just when my fever broke and I thought I was on the mend, I started coughing my head off. So after a week of this I got Google and social media to get remedies.

I tried everything from honey and cinnamon, to lemon ginger tea, to gargling salt water, and yes I did resort to plain old over the counter medications. On one of the many sleepless nights of relentless coughing I had a fever and I ended up throwing up from all the drainage, so I decided I had better get my butt into an urgent care. They immediately put me on a breathing treatment and conducted an X-ray. It turned out to be a really bad case of bronchitis. They gave me 4 different prescriptions including a steroid, cough syrup, an antibiotic, and an inhaler.

About three days later I still felt like garbage and I couldn’t ignore the painful stitch in my side. Overnight it felt like it wrapped around my chest and became very difficult to breath and coughing was even worse. The pressure and pain was almost unbearable. I called the Doctor and although it was extremely inconvenient I was advised to come in again. I ended up having (and I am still at the tail end of) PLEURISY. Not fun. I know one other person that has ever experienced this and they commiserated with me. Pleurisy is an inflammation of the lining of the lungs. If you look up “sharp stabbing pain in the chest” you will find Pleurisy. Literally.

When I saw a picture of a knife on one of these medical websites, I almost laughed at how perfectly the description fit, but laughing would hurt so I just smirked. I also smirked about this description from wikipedia

“The defining symptom of pleurisy is a sudden sharp, stabbing, burning or dull pain in the right or left side of the chest during breathing, especially when one inhales and exhales” 

Don’t worry, it’s mostly just painful when YOU BREATH! Do you see why that might be a bit debilitating? Anyway, it’s caused by an infection, and to treat the pleurisy you have to treat the underlying cause of the infection, which I had already been doing. The Doctor gave me another prescription (long story short I ended up not filling it). I took pain medicine to get through the worst of it, and as my coughing and other symptoms subsided I became a functioning contributing citizen again.

I like to take a natural approach to treatment whenever I can and I embarrassed, but grateful for all the ways the pharmaceutical companies have helped me this year, but I really hope I don’t have to go down that road again. I can’t take any more sickness. I quit. I am done. We have been dealing with all of this since 2014 began and I am just going to declare in faith that the worst is absolutely behind us! I hope you all are well. If not, you can gripe to me. I will feel your pain, and potentially a sharp stabbing sensation in my side.

There are a lot of big events coming up for our family, which means we are entering into one of those crazy fun seasons. You know, the kind where you are overwhelmed, but at least it’s all for the right reasons? I can sum up most of our calendar with pictures of invitations

For starters. I just finished designing SJ’s Donut Party invitation and I am so excited to be in party planning mode.

That is not what the invite says. I censored the details.  

Greetings Island also has so many adorable birthday invitations to check out!

I already gave a disclaimer to my family, but this will be the only big theme party this year because it is SJ’s “golden birthday”. She is turning 4 on the 4th. When Z turned 4 on the 4th we threw a whopper of a Veggie Tales party and it was the bomb diggity (or insert more current trendy word that describes a really fun party).

People are still going crazy over this party on Pinterest, which makes me smile almost as much as a silly song with Larry.

In other SJ news, her school has an annual Gala, where philanthropists from all corners of the metroplex get gussied up in order to raise donations and awareness for her school.

It’s quite the occasion, one I didn’t plan on ever participating in until we reached a much, much different place in our lives. However, the opportunity has presented itself for me to be the photographer which would allow J and I to attend at no cost. Not only that, but J gets a free tux rental which he will is getting fitted for TODAY. Boy oh boy, I can’t wait to see that guy in his black tie ensemble. And I am looking forward to get my glam on as well. Obviously photos will follow, but we still have 10 more days before they roll out the red carpet.

Almost as exciting, but not quite as extravagant is the mother son date “knight’ at Chic Fil A.

I was at our local CFA a couple days ago and saw the invite for mom’s to take out their boys for a special medieval evening and Z was thrilled with the idea. When I went to RSVP the spots were all sold out, but I hated to disappoint my little man because he was so looking forward to the one on one time. As it turns out I could book a reservation for one that is a little further out. My plan is to pick him up from school the day of and go straight there. J and Z have gone out to ball games, restaurants, and nature walks as father and son before, but I have never had any intentional alone time with Z, so I think this will be really special and long overdue.

The final invitation is for the valentine’s party at Z’s school.

This is the first year for any of my kiddos to exchange Valentine’s. Z has worked hard at filling his name and 22 classmates names on each individual Valentine.

I am hoping his “cards” are well received. They are McDonald’s Valentine’s. To be honest, I am not a McDonald’s lover at all, but we usually go there  once a week because it’s the closest play land and with the weather being the way it is it’s our best chance for exercise. The valentines are actually coupons for free items (i.e. apples, juice or milk, ice cream).

They were 12 for a dollar and that leaves two extra coupons that we can use when we go in for our weekly exercise and therefor the pack of valentine’s ends up paying for itself. It’s a frugal kind of love.

I can’t believe February is already half over, and the rest of the month will fly by even faster no doubt. Do you have any plans for this short, but LOVABLE month? Did you purchase or make valentines this year?  I want to hear about it.