Thank God for Leah

My hands are still trembling making this post quite hard to type, but I going to continue in honor of Leah and her selfless courage.  I met some moms at the Coralville Park for a playdate and picnic lunch this afternoon. We thought what better way to celebrate the first truly nice day of spring than with a picnic?  Apparently this was every other moms thought as well because the park was packed.  We were all just sort of getting there, trying to say hi and chit chat while keeping an eye on our kids running like mad through the playground.  I went to check on Graham, who is now completely obsessed with going down the big, "twisty" slide, when I saw Leah frantically asking other moms about a little boy in a yellow t-shirt.  As I looked over to where she was pointing I saw this little boy running full speed straight for the duck pond.  My heart just stopped.... surely he will stop.... surely his mom will scream his name and he will turn around... but nothing happened, he just kept running. 

Without a thought Leah kicked off her sandals and began sprinting down the hill after the little boy.  I was still frozen, but I managed to yell "does anyone have a little boy in a yellow t-shirt" and the elderly daycare lady (or maybe his grandma) I had seen walking down the street with 5 kids popped her head out from behind the slide.  I turned around just in time to see the little boys head disappear down the slope into the water.  I panicked and began running as fast as a could after Leah. 

I have no idea what thoughts were running through Leah's head at the time, but she never hesitated, she jumped right into the water and grabbed that little boy who was flailing face down in the water.  I got to the edge as she pulled him up sputtering and screaming bloody murder.  Leah was standing in thigh deep water, that little boy would never have had a chance.  I pulled him out and another mom and I stripped his soaking wet and freezing cloths off as the elderly lady finally arrived.  I expected her to give him a huge hug and be in tears of joy and thanks... but no, she kind of yelled at him.  Told him he was bad for running away and to stop crying for his mommy.  Really?  This little boy was still in diapers, he's terrified and freezing and doesn't know any of the rest of us from a hill of beans and you scold him.  I get what he did was wrong, but really, he couldn't have been more than two.

I just keep playing the scene over and over in my mind and thanking God that he is alright.  What if Leah hadn't seen the little boy running, what if she hadn't gone after him... I can't even imagine the outcome.  That's somebody's baby boy and Leah saved his life today.  I am so proud and honored to be Leah's friend.  Her selfless courage, her natural 'mom' instincts, and just her God given willingness to help others has me in tears.  If Leah was not at the park today... I can't even finish.  Thank you Leah for being an amazing mom, and amazing friend and an amazing woman!  God truly shows us his power through the actions of others. 

I had tears in my eyes the whole way home from the park as I looked in the rear view mirror at Graham sleeping so peacefully in his car seat.  I could hardly put him in his bed when we got home, I just wanted to hold him forever.  Thank you God for always watching over my family and keeping them safe.  And thank you for giving me such wonderful friends!

Update to the Shoe Fiasco

The Heart Gala was last Saturday, and as you may have read I was having quite the shoe fiasco.  I bought a super cute dress with which sage/ light green/ lime shoes would have looked awesome.  After searching every local shoe store, I ordered shoes online from Zappos.com.... and I hated them  :(

In Zappos defence, the shoes were the size I ordered, the shipping was free and they were delivered within the 3-4 days as promised.  But when I opened the box I found that the shoes were really a more odd yellow than lime green, which didn't really match, and I probably could have used a half a size smaller.  Even with those changes, they were just not all that I had hoped for.  So in sheer desperation, I.... just bought a different dress.



Which in the end probably worked out better anyway.  The dress was on sale, I already had shoes to match and to top it off, I found out the theme of the Gala was "A Black and Gold Evening" so my dress was a hit!  The Gala was super fun this year.  Tim did a great job as Co-Chair of the event, lots of younger couples we knew came and we even got to go out afterward to watch the UNI game (not so great ending to that, but you can't win them all).  So now the question is, do I return the other dress, which I still really love, or do I continue to search for shoes in hopes to be able to wear it to a wedding or something in the future?  Oh the drama...

New Do

In honor of this week's forecast being nice and warm we got Graham's hair cut.  Usually I just have them trim it up a little and cut around his ears, but this time I decided to go with the official "little boy's hair cut." 

[caption id="attachment_168" align="aligncenter" width="470" caption="Uh Oh, mom caught be in the tub."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_169" align="aligncenter" width="470" caption="Taking a bath after our hair cut!"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_171" align="aligncenter" width="470" caption="Say Cheese!"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_170" align="aligncenter" width="470" caption="All spiffed up and ready for church."][/caption]

 

The hair stylist put gel in his hair and spiked it all up, but Graham didn't like it.  He said it looked scary, poor kid  :(  So she just made it look 'messy' and he thought that was way better.  "I like the messy," he kept saying.  She also gave him a sucker to which he yelled "Mom I didn't cry and I got candy"  about 10 times jumping up and down.  All and all, I think the hair cut was a success.  He looks so darn cute, it just doesn't look like Graham to me.  He look so grown up.  Time is flying by way too fast!

Un-Doing 3 Years of Dog in One Afternoon

For the last year I have been telling Tim we need to replace the carpet in our house because it was trashed.  Before we had Graham we had 2 dogs, one of which was a rescued Australian Shepard (Brinkley).  Brinkley was a very loving dog, but due to conditions in his life before living with us, he had some "issues" we'll call it.  The poor dog was terrified of EVERYTHING, men, cars, loud noises, flashing lights, you name it and the dog had some phobia about it.  So Brinkley clung to me like glue, all the time.  And when he wasn't clinging to me, he was hiding in our master bathroom panting due to something that must have scared him?  The poor guy just loved me to death.  Tim, well he loved Tim a little because Tim fed him and took him for walks/ to the dog park, but outside of that, Brinkley was truly a mama's boy... until we had Graham  :(

Brinkley still loved me when I came home from he hospital.  He missed me and was really interested in seeing and sniffing on Graham, until he cried... it was all over from there!  As soon as Graham opened his mouth and tha first cry came out Brinkley bolted out of sight and because Graham was with me almost all the time, Brinkley was completely lost.  How could I be his protector if I was with that crying 'thing' all the time?  So for 3 months Brinkley did one of 3 things: he hid in the bathroom (why he felt safe there no one knows),  he went out in the backyard and wouldn't come in (this was wonderful of course because Graham was born in January and we had like 3 feet of snow in the backyard, everyone loves dragging an 80lb dog through knee deep snow to get him to come in), or he threw up EVERYWHERE!  He was so nervous about the baby and the baby swing and the baby monitor or baby toys that he just couldn't take it and he threw up  :(  Emma, either out of sympathy for Brinkley or because she herself is somewhat neurotic, also took to this throwing up.  So between Brinkley, Emma and Graham, who was the world's most projectile vomiting baby ever, my carpet literally was destroyed... or so I thought.

Tim really wasn't pumped about spending the money to put in new carpeting, so I finally convinced him a good professional carpet cleaning might do the job.  Oh do I love professional carpet cleaning!  On Monday I called a Cleanup business some friends of ours own and asked for an appointment.  Today at 1:00, Greg came to clean my carpets.  Greg, I was so excited at what an excellent job you did I almost hugged you, but I thought it might be inappropriate seeing as we just met.  My carpets look brand new, woo hoo!  :)  No mo dog puke, no more formula stains, it was like magic... well except for poor Greg was here for close to 2 hours trying to get that 'magic' to work, poor guy had no idea what he was getting himself into.  Needless to say I am more than thrilled with my newly cleaned house.  Now I just need to figure out how to keep it clean.  Maybe Graham, Tim and Emma will just need to start living outside... the weather is getting nicer  ;)

Natural Born Leader

I have thought about going back to work part-time or one day a week many times since Graham was born.  For a long while I felt like this desire to work again made me a bad mom.  Why would anyone who is given the chance to stay home and not work ever want to go back, unless it was because you didn't like being a mom, right?  Wrong!  Being a stay at home mom has endless perks, being able to see your child grow and learn, being the one to teach and play with him, and being there to give love and support at an hour of the day.  At the same time, staying at home does have some downfalls, such as being alone all day, and for a person who thrives on adult interaction, this one downfall was almost a deal breaker.

As Graham has gotten older, this downfall has become less and less of an issue because we are able to be more involved.  We have music classes and MOPS, kidercise or tumble tots and moms groups, so we are constantly meeting up with other people/ kids for playdates etc.  I have met tons of great moms and have made many wonderful new friends who I cherish.  I can vent to these moms, I can ask advice, tell stories and just chit chat about all the crazy mom stuff, and they know exactly what I am talking about because they live and breathe it everyday.  So now that my need for adult interaction is met, why, ever so often, do I still feel this urge to get a job? 

I think it boils down to what Tim calls "being a natural born leader."  He says I love to lead things, and you don't have to tell him this, but he's right.  I love it!  I love planning and preparing, I love having meetings about topics outside of potty training and making babies.  It's the thrill of the event coming together and the satisfaction of knowing I pulled it off.  It's like some crazy business 'high' I get from leading.  I know, I know, I'm a nerd, but I admit that outright  :)  And no matter how much I try to be the leader of the household, there is only so much 'leading' that can be done over laundry, dishes, cleaning and caring for children.  I get little 'highs' now and then when Graham learns something new or has a whole day without an accident, but those are really his accomplishments.  I tried becoming the 'leader' of the calendar and our schedule, but Tim's work activities quickly won that battle.  I just want need more.

Having taken Tim's advice (wow that's two for Tim in one blog) I have started getting more engaged.  To begin with, I am going to co-direct VBS at our church this summer.  I figured it was a small step I could use as trial to make sure my skills aren't too shabby after 2 years off.  With any luck, things will go smoothly and hopefully this fall I can take on some other leadership roles with church, maybe MOPS or volunteering.  Here's to the re-birth of the leader in me!

The Search was On

Tim and I are going to the Iowa City Heart Gala next Friday and since Tim is the Co-Chair of the Gala this year, I thought a new dress might be in order... yeah!  I, of course, totally procrastinated because I had no intention of taking Graham on this excursion, not to mention this is one of those semi-formal/ business casual deals were no one really knows the correct dress code.  So I finally made myself go on Saturday, I mean why not, it had snowed and was cold and I only had 6 days until the Gala, it seemed like the appropriate timing  :) 

I found a great dress at Von Maur that not only would work for the Gala, but would also work for a wedding I have to go to next month, double plus!  Here's the deal: the dress really needs cream or lime green shoes to go with it.  No problem right?  WRONG!  Apparently lime green is not an "in" color this spring and therefore lime green shoes are no where to be found and by no where I mean I checked every store that might have sold shoes in all of Iowa City and Cedar Rapids and I found one ugly pair, not in my size  :(  So I could have resorted to cream shoes, but for some reason I just don't like hate cream shoes.  They just don't do it for me at all, plus part of the allure of the dress was that green shoes would have looked awesome!

After 2 days of complete local shopping failure I resorted to the internet.  Wow, hundreds of green shoes to choose from, very few in lime green.  So here is what I ended up with:

They are not totally my favorite and I was hoping for something with a little more heal, but when you are looking at really slim pickens, I don't think these are a horrible option.  Now we just have to pray that they will be shipped to my house in time for the Gala to Friday.  Here's to having faith in the US Postal Service!

Odd Neighbors

I truly believe everyone has odd neighbors or at least that one guy who you just honestly wonder about.  But I would have to say, and I know some of my neighbors, Amy,would totally have to agree, our neighborhood has an over abundance of oddness!

For instance there is our neighbor kitty-corner across the street, "crazy cat lady and family."  These neighbors have who knows how many cats and their cats are indoor/ outdoor cats.  Not that odd except for her cats, who they let out, keep getting 'lost.'  So she runs over has ringing my doorbell all in a tizzy b/c  "X" cat can't be found.  Lady, write this down, if you want to know where your cats are at all times, don't freakin' let them outside to run around.  And in the same breath she is asking about her missing cat, she insists on putting in a little plug about how her daughter just loves kids and really wants to babysit Graham and how she would come with her daughter to make sure she did a good job etc.  Really lady, you can't even keep track of cats.  What makes you think I am going to let you watch my child or even into my house for that matter?  If this were a one time occurence you could let it slide, but upwards of 6 times is strikingly odd!

Now we also have our neighbors to the left, "The Hermits."  They never, ever, ever come outside.  NEVER.  They have an 18 month old, baby Hermit, and I'm pretty sure with the exception of the ride to and from daycare that that poor kid never sees the light of day.  They never open any of their blinds, they close the garage door before getting out of the car and the only time I ever see anyone outside is on the rare occasion that the lawn gets mowed, so maybe 6 times a summer.  Really, I know nothing about these neighbors, not names, dog's name, nothing and we have lived here 3 years.   And attempting to say hi is a waste of breath as a head nod is your most likely response.  How antisocial can you be?  I am your neighbor, not an ax murderer.  After several failed attempts to make contact, I have since moved on to my newest odd neighbor: Mr. Garage Stander

Again, this guy poses absolutely no threat, he just strikes me as odd.  Mr. Garage Stander lives in the one duplex I can see directly out my kitchen window.  If this were not the case, I would probably have never noticed him, but every time I open the blinds, wash my hands, rinse a dish or really do anything in the kitchen, I can see right into his garage.  And there he is, Mr. Garage Stander, standing in his garage, ALWAYS.  Literally, I have seen this man at 6:30am, noon, 2 in the afternoon, 11pm and even once at 1am,  just standing in his garage, smokin' a cig.  I get that a guys got to have a cig now and then, and the fact that he doesn't smoke inside I add as a plus to his character, but at all hours of the day?  When does he work?  When does he sleep?  To add to this mystery, Mr. Garage Stander's attire is beyond bazaar.  There is the occasional pair of jeans, but his usual attire consists of blue flannel pajama pants, with I can only guess to be giant polar bears all over them, a white t-shirt, a plaid, flannel coat and slippers.  As if the man is eternally in a state of sleep, only waking up to have a cig and then quickly returning to bed.  Mr. Garage Stander has several dogs, 4 I think and at least one dog, but no more than 2, must accompany him on his cig excursion at all times.  These dogs are very well trained.  Like him, they never leave the garage and they just stare out towards the road as in a trance. 

Since the weather has gotten nicer and Graham and I have been spending more time in the back yard, I have studied Mr. Garage Stander a little more.  It seems that almost every other time he is out, he is on his cell phone.  The conversation can't be very exciting as I never hear him raise his voice nor does he really even move.  He still just stares into the street and the only reason I know he's on the phone is he is holding it to his ear.  Maybe he works from home taking inbound calls?  Who knows, but I kind of like the mystery, so no sence in spoiling the fun by walking over to say hello  :)

So those are my odd neighbors, or at least the ones I have met/ seen so far.  I'm sure there are many more, I just need to be patient.  I am going to add the note that:  all I have written in this post was nothing more than fun.  I don't hold any grudges, dislike or hard feelings towards any of my neighbors!  I'm almost certain that each of these people's blogs include posts about me, the crazy lady who is always chasing her kid and dog around the neighborhood, or at least I hope they would  :)