Quotes in my home

Here are a few quotes I like and have hanging in my house.
I obviously did not make these up, I just like them. If you want to find out the origin of these fine words; use Google.

1. In a world where you can be anything, be yourself.

I love this. In today’s society it’s really hard to be yourself. I think this is a good message and even though they can’t read yet, I still have it on my daughters’ wall.


2. Do more of what makes you happy.

So true. Why wouldn’t you? This is hung in my head not in my house.


3. We may not have it all together but together we have it all.

This is in my dining room and has been for a while. It makes sense to me and my life

4. Always kiss me goodnight.

Ok, this really isn’t my favorite but I do have it my bedroom which I guess means something. I don’t like going to bed angry at anyone because most things aren’t that serious. Which brings me to…

5. Life goes on.

6. Do not disturb. I am already disturbed enough.

This one is on my calender this month. Maybe I'll hang it on my front door when the month is over.

The other ones are vinyl stickers for walls, which I love. They are fairly simple to put up. I got the ones in the photos through Ebay.

Inserting a contact lens in a baby's eye

As I mentioned before, Ava had a congenital cataract in her right eye. After the surgery she started wearing a contact in her right eye and patch on the left to strengthen her "bad eye." This is when the everyday struggle began.
Can you imagine putting a contact lens in a baby's eye? Neither could I. There was no way this was happening to me. The ophthalmologist tech showed me how to put it in. I held my baby down, Ava screamed and was fighting it, the tech pried her eye open and was jabbing her eyeball with her fingers so many times; it was painful to watch. She finally got it in and said, "now it's your turn" Oh, hell no. I managed to do it after a few tries and she sent me on my way. It must've been a fluke because when I got home it was not that simple. I don't know who shed more tears, my 8 month old or me. Everyday my husband held her down. Every day I yelled at him because I couldn't get the contact in. I was angry and frustrated with him, myself, people who had perfect babies and God for not giving me a baby with normal eyes. I felt so alone because everyone would tell me things like "It's no big deal, at least your kid doesn't have cancer, it will get better, etc." I didn't want to hear that but essentially, they were right. We finally were able to insert and remove the contact with little struggle. It was still a two person job and my husband would wake us up at 4:30 a.m. before he left for work so he could pin her down and I could pop the lens in. Eventually I got sick of waking up that early and learned to it on my own. The everyday struggle became as routine as brushing our teeth. This is all a distant memory now. She no longer wears a contact, as she got an IOL implant (this is what old people with cataracts usually get and wasn't recommend for kids her age)but the patch on her eye is still a battle, it's more of an annoyance than anything. I will go more into the contact issues, blackout lens and patch issues later.
If you look closely you can see the contact. It looks kind of like a bubble in the middle.

Project: Painted Paper Shades

I bought some Redi paper shades at Home Depot. They are super cheap and easy. You don't have to measure in advance you just cut them with scissors to size. As always, I just eyeballed mine. I liked the gray ones we put up but the white seemed way too boring. I like color. So we decided to paint them. I had fabulous ideas in my head but am not an artist and had no stencils, so I figured this would be a project the kids can do with me. That way, if it looks awful I can blame them.

We painted three different shades and used blues for each one.

For the first we dipped the brushes in paint and splatted them.

This was a huge mistake because there was more paint on my floors, wall and our clothing then the shades.

Then we did stripes and circles for the others.

Here are the results.

See what I mean about being artsy? It would look totally cool if they were stenciled or had a neat design.
We had fun doing it and it's a great way to display artwork. These would look especially great in a toy room or kids bedroom. I'm not sure how long paper shades last. I don't recommend using so much paint or being too rough like my kids were because these are only paper.

Project: Enjoy the little things

I recently realized my kids really are growing up. My baby is four and my oldest is five. I really like the ages they're at now. They are fully functional and can do a million things on their own. If we need to go somewhere it's so easy; they can put their shoes and coats on, open the car door, get in and buckle their seat belts all on their own. I know, this really doesn't seem like much but trust me, it's a big deal. It would be even better we lived somewhere where we could eliminate the coat part.
I do not miss them being babies. The baby stage is kind of annoying and boring to me. I do know that I will miss the stage their in now and I want to try to enjoy it as much as possible. Here are a few things to make sure to do before they get too old.

1. Blow bubbles; in your car, in your house, outside, anywhere. Bubbles are cheap easy and fun. Sometimes it seems messy and like a hassle but it’s really not.

2. Let them blow milk bubbles, but only sometimes because this can get obnoxious.

<3. Build a sand castle with them and bury each other in sand.

4. Let them play on the mud and dirt.

5. Let them paint and don't get mad when they get it everywhere.
v
6. Let them do play dough and don't get mad if it gets everywhere.

7. Cuddle and hug and kiss them as much as possible, even if they are interrupting what you are doing.

8. Let them sleep in your bed, sometimes.

9. Play pretend with them.

10. Let them have fun and have fun with them.

Notice, I'm not very crafty or original with these ideas, these are simple reminders. It’s sad because there are days I do not want to do anything at all with my kids and they completely annoy me. I know before I know it they will not want to do anything at all with me and I will completely annoy them. I need to stop and enjoy the little things, do the play dough and paint with them and not only set up and then go clean the kitchen or do laundry. It is important to interact with your children and not just bark orders like I find myself doing. As I mentioned before, I am trying to get better at not yelling and getting annoyed all their messes and spills. I love my kids to pieces. I really don’t want them to grow up.

Project: Cataract removal

Ava’s eye does not define who she is as a person and I try my hardest not to even realize that there is anything wrong with it. I tell myself not to be upset or take her vision as a loss when you can’t lose something you never had. Perfect vision is what she never had. She was born with a cataract on her right eye. She also developed a hemangioma on her lip within the first month of birth. I was too worried about the big red ugly birth mark to even notice that her big beautiful eyes were not even functioning properly. I, along with three doctors completely missed this. By the time spring rolled around I was out walking more and the sun was finally shining after a cold winter. This is when I realized she was squinting. I brought it to the pediatricians’ attention and he told me it looked like squinting because the bridge of her nose was too wide; wait it out. I waited a week and brought her back in. He told me pupils come in different shades. I was angry because by this point I knew there was something drastically wrong with my baby’s eye. During this month I finally got the internet and a computer (it was 2007, I should’ve had technology by then but somehow managed without) so I could continue researching eyes. I took her back in few days after the prior appointment and stated she has cataracts, pupils do not come in different shades and we need to see a specialist. He wrote me a referral and I had to wait a month to get in to the ophthalmologist due to the pediatrician not thinking it was an emergency. That specialist diagnosed her with a cataract in her right eye and sent me to another specialist who performed cataract removal surgery on her eye that week. Of course, I had to get another referral. When I picked up the referral I remember the doctor who thought there was nothing wrong with her eye, taking her to the room and checking again. This time he saw it, couldn’t believe and called in all of his associates to take a look at my baby’s freak show eye. He said in his 100 years of practicing he had never seen anything like it. By now it was July and Ava was now about nine months old. Too see her in that tiny hospital gown with IV’s in completely broke my heart. The surgery went well but her vision was completely shot and her brain was never trained to use that eye. I cried; my baby wasn’t perfect and never will be, she might not drive, read, walk or do anything a child with vision can do. So far she proved me wrong and will prove me wrong through out her life. This minor surgery was nothing compared to the challenges ahead with contacts, patching, another surgery and life. Oh, and while all of this was going on, I found out I was pregnant again.

This was right after the surgery. It looks worse than what it was.

Project: Fix the gross chairs

I have the ugliest dining room set ever. Not only is it ugly, it looks filthy, disgusting, completely outdated and partially broken but I am still thankful for it. We got the set from the people who owned the house before us. I actually had the nerve to ask during the closing if we could have it (it was the only thing left in the house so I figured they didn’t want it.) They said no. Oh well, no loss considering we really did more drinking then eating at that point of our lives. To my surprise I got am email saying we can have the table (maybe they realized it’s the least they can do knowing that we bought the house at the high end of the market and is now worth half of what we paid but that’s a whole other story.) So they brought the table back, and it’s been here ever since.

As you can see the chairs are awful. I’m sure I could’ve cleaned them better and more often but in my head I thought we were going to be buying a brand new dining room set, soon. Six years later, I’ve finally had it and decided to reupholster. This project didn’t cost me a dime because I used an old table cloth that I had in a bag for Goodwill.

For this project I used:
An old table cloth (or fabric)
Screw driver
Scissors
Powerful staple gun (if you don’t have one, use hot glue)
Hot glue gun (if you don’t have one, use staple gun)

To take off the seat you will just flip the chair upside down and unscrew. Once the seat is off, set it on the table cloth or whatever fabric you plan on using and cut around it, with about 2-3inches of extra fabric for pull.
Tip 1: If you’re careless, lazy and not good at lining things up, do not use stripes or any pattern that will be obvious if it’s not perfect. Tip 2: Wash and iron the fabric or it will be a wrinkly mess like mine.

I then thought I was going to whiz right into this by stapling away but unfortunately someone in my household bought the wrong staples for the gun, so I used my trusty hot glue gun and glued away. I folded the corners in way that I would with gift wrap. Some turned out better than the others, some had too much fabric (I’m lazy and did no form of measuring what so ever.) Just make sure you are pulling the fabric tightly around the seat so there is no slack.

Screw the screws back in, make sure the chair pads are aligned or they will be crooked, like my first attempt. Repeat with all chairs. You will probably need to vacuum after if there were a lot of crumbs and crud going on during the removal process. You might as well scrub the chairs while the seats are off. I regret not doing that with mine but I didn’t have the time.

So simple and while not the best and most professional jobs, for using an old table cloth, I think it looks a million times better. Can someone please tell me why I didn’t do these six years ago?

Should I get a career?

As my 30th Birthday approaches, I am starting to wonder what I should be doing with life. Don’t get me wrong, I love my life and am way more happy then I ever thought was possible. The only thing possibly missing is a career. I don’t necessarily want one right now but in the future I’d like to have one that I enjoy and am good at. For now my less than part time job suits me and my family perfectly fine.
Every day there is a new career I think about having. Nursing is one of them, then I think of the disgusting things that come along with it and the fact that people’s lives would rely on me. I often think about being an ultrasound tech but then I realize that has downfalls too, like doing an ultrasound of someone’s testicles. Teaching is another option I thought I would love until I realized my only love was having the summers off. Then I think maybe something in social work, since I did go to school for that. Then I see the Chicago ghetto neighborhoods and realize I don’t stand a chance. Also, most things require going back to school. The list goes on about my day to day career prospects. I’ve decided to put together a list of my previous jobs, besides babysitting, to see if that will help lead me in the right direction. I tried listing them in order but lost track.
1. Shady Lawn (grill/cart girl/dishwasher)
2. Princess Café (busser)
3. Subway (professional sandwich artist)
4. Village Woods (wait staff)
5. College Dorm (housekeeping)
6. Kmart (layaway attendant)
7. Pizza Hut (phone and counter service)
8. County Line Towing (personal assistant/dispatcher)
9. Ihop (server)
10. Briar Nursing (server and activity aide)
11. YWCA (before and after school and camp teacher)
12. Parklawn Home (residential facilitator)
13. Will County Clerk (clerk/scanner)
14. Mooseheart (family teacher)
15. Tiny Tots (daycare teacher)
16. Thrivent Financial (assistant receptionist)
17. Bill Kay Ford (internet sales/telemarketing)
18. Ridgeland Animal Hospital (receptionist)
19. Bakers Square (hostess)
20. Jewel (deli girl)
21. Ingalls (registration/customer service)
22. Playskool (teacher)
As you notice these are a lot of jobs and I’m probably missing a few. None of them were amazing and I only use three on my resume. What is amazing are the amount of great and horrible people I’ve met and the skills I’ve acquired throughout the years. I’ve also learned never to judge someone by their job title. I am not unintelligent because I work at a front desk or cleaned dorms and you are ignorant if you think so. I chose to work as little as possible because thankfully that works for now and is what makes me happy. Isn’t happiness the key to life anyway? Maybe in time I will have a 9 to 5 suit job that pays the big bucks but I highly doubt it. The corporate world doesn’t even sound appealing to me anymore but congrats if that makes you happy. I can see my daughter will be a CEO in no time.

Actually, after writing this I decided I want to travel and eat for living, maybe the Travel Channel is hiring.
If you have any career ideas for me, please let me know.