Saturday, June 21st, 2008
I know that most of these will have readers thinking a little about their behavior. These are based on my experiences growing up in the Heart of Dixie.
Lindsay Mulder
- Fat kids are only cute if they belong to someone else.
- Just because people don’t say that your children aren’t hideous doesn’t mean that they aren’t. Stop finding modeling agencies for your ugly kids.
- A politician’s wife supports him. She knows she’ll live in infamy for being married to an alpha male.
- You are only special to your family and friends.
- A hundred years after your death, nobody will care that you existed.
- Regardless of what they say, people don’t like hearing stories about your dog.
- If you are a woman and you join a predominantly male company, don’t whine when they won’t include you in their conversations.
- Women that file lawsuits because a man looked at them too long need to be fired for being too sensitive. Our husbands may work there. You make them uncomfortable.
- If you go out in a short skirt, halter- top and high heels, you WILL be looked at. Stop whining.
- If you don’t want to run the risk of being groped, think twice before heading out to a bar in the middle of the night and getting plastered (more…)
Posted in Awkward Experiences, Funny Experiences, Life Experiences, Relationship Experiences | 2 Comments »
Friday, June 6th, 2008
If only I knew then, what I know now life would be a lot different. Life might have been easier, decisions might not have been so hard. But thats the beauty of life. The unknown day that lies ahead of us. The simple fact is that, if we did know then what we know now, we would all be a bunch of smart ass’s. Life’s lessons, that only life can teach us, would never be learned. Thats why I am thankful that life didn’t give me the easy route. It chewed me up and spit me out. And for that, I will be forever grateful.
February 26 2003 9:00am
I was running late like a typical 17 year old. Life waited on me, I didn’t wait on life. It was that ignorant notion that got me into where I was going in the first place. “Not a care in the world” seemed to be my life motto at that typical time. I was nervous, I mean who wouldn’t be? Life would never throw me a bunch of cards I didn’t know how to play. Never. I was wrong. (more…)
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Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
It was january 12,1994. I was then 13 years old. My mom was at work . My older sister and I were cleaning up the house, getting ready for bed, it was shortly after 10:00pm. And our mother would soon be home from work. She would usually get in by 11:00pm. She was on the second shift. She worked as a nurse at a nursing home from 3 to 11pm.
We received a phone call from her job around 10:15pm from one of the nurses she worked with asking us, what kind of medicine did our mom take? At the time we knew she had high blood pressure but we were not sure of the type of medicine she was taking. We were to young to know. I then told the nurse to call my grandmother and I gave her the number, I stated to the nurse she would know more about that then we would.
(more…)
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Saturday, February 23rd, 2008
How often do we take the people around us for granted, especially those closest to us? Often I would say. Because they seem to be always around, we don’t think much about appreciating them and letting them know we love them.
Ever since childhood, my grandmother Susie had been there for me. she always gave selflessly and made sure we got the best things even though she wasn’t all that affluent. After I married, I moved to another state and busied myself with work and my immediate family. Susie couldn’t visit because of ill health, while I kept using my job as an excuse not to visit her. Just a year back, my aunt told me Susie had passed on quietly in her sleep. At first I didn’t believe it. But then it hit me. I wept bitterly the whole night. I realized that never once had I told her how much I loved her. All it would have taken me was a few minutes of my time to give her a call but I had not done so. Now I know how important it is to tell those you love how you feel.
The simple lesson - don’t wait till it is too late to tell someone you love him/her. What may seem so insignificant may haunt you for the rest of your life.
Breeze
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Thursday, February 21st, 2008
“Mommy, I want some chocolate milk.” Stormy then bellowed from the family room.
“Sure thing.” I said as I got up from the computer chair and walked into the kitchen. Opening the door to the fridge, noticing that chocolate milk was something of a memory. “Shoot.” I mumbled as I went in to explain to the little monsters that there was to be no more chocolate milk. Four smiling faces were waiting there. Staring up from their movie. Looking at me with hope in their eyes.
“We are all out of chocolate milk” I calmly said.
“No…. I want chocolate milk!” they all screamed. Their faces turning from angelic to demonic within seconds.
“Okay.. I will go to the store.”
“I want chocolate milk now.” the five year old bellowed.
“We are gonna die of being thirsty.” The angry mob chanted.
“Mommy is getting dressed right now. I just have to put on some clothes and makeup.”
Now, trying to reason with a five, four, three and two year old is just not gonna work. They do not know reason. They are so self-centered it is funny. I moved as quickly as I could. Trying my best to get dressed without making them even more angry. The twelve year old trying to put the two year olds little shoes on. “Mom.. Isaiah kicked me.”
“He is two.. It could not have hurt you.” I said.. Hoping he would be shamed into silence.
(more…)
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Sunday, February 17th, 2008
It’s been 9 days, 16 hours and 12 minutes since she took her last breath. I had a thought in the back of my head once we took her off life support, that my mom would just come back. She’d wake up and say “what are you guys doing here wasting your time, the gutters need to be cleaned”. We’d all laugh, tell mom we knew she would make it and joke how she really scared us while we drank coffee. She’d complain that her throat hurts and we’d never tell her about all the tubes she had in (knowing she’d be pissed about that.)
But that’s not how it happened. When they took the tubes out, I stood on the outside of the curtain. I didn’t want to miss a thing. I needed to be there for everything. I heard some horrible noise of choking and gargling that I’ll never get out of my head. Then the nurse rushed out from behind the curtain, told me to get the rest of the family, it’s not looking to great. I ran to the waiting room, and as I opened the door, my sister was there. You could see the tears filling up in her eyes as I yelled “everyone needs to come, the nurse said we should all go in as soon as possible”.
Everyone rushed in to hold mom’s hand or foot or anything they could hold on to. The look on my dad’s face is the one thing that would make me break. I could barely hold my body up. It’s heart breaking to see that look, and wonder if he’s thinking about their first kiss, their wedding day or even each one of their babies coming into the world.
We all stood there crying, turning red and gasping for tissues, sleeves or each other. My mom was free of all tubes except her IV. They kept that in as they gave her shots of Morphine for any pain. Her breathing was all over the place and it was almost like a heavy snore. The nurses would come in and suction her mouth out. It was horrible to see your mom or ANYONE for that matter, so incapacitated.
For the first 2 hours, we all sat in the room, unbearable as the noise and thought of losing our mother was it was harder to not be in the room. We all wanted to be there. Maybe we all thought there was a chance she would come back, or we all just wanted her to know she had a very special place in our hearts and we loved her deeply.
After the first 2 hours, we took turns having a few in the room at a time. After 5pm, Lauren came so I had some company. Lauren coming gave me some break. We talked, watched some TV & played with silly puddy. Most of the guests left around 10pm. I went in with mom around 11pm and sat with her (as did Denise). Dad had left around 11:30pm & so did Brian. I came out of the room around 11:45pm to see if any of my other brothers wanted to leave… Mom was hanging on strong (at least that’s what I thought). Shortly after, my sister came out b/c the nurses were planning to turn mom. Not long, did a nurse come out and tell us our mom was very close to passing. Frantically we rushed in. I tried to call Dad on his cell and Doryan called the house. Dad JUST got home and was coming back to the hospital bringing Damien (dawn wasn’t able to go through it).
I wonder if my mom knew we were all there in the final 30 minutes. It was the HARDEST thing I ever had to endure. Watching her heart beat go from 150 (which is pretty high) all day drop to 120, 110, 100, 90, 80 and then hit 50… I quietly pleaded with my mom to wait for dad to get there so he could be with her too, and her heart beat went up to 100. I took that as my sign that mom knew I was there and wanted dad to be there. Five minutes later, Dad, Doryan and Damien walk in. Dad goes to mom left hand side and holds her hand. My mom is turning a shade darker and you could tell it was coming. The breathing came much more shallow. The sadness in the room was over bearing. Her heart beat drops slowly and I prayed for it to either happen faster or for it to turn back. It slowly went down to 20, and then she stopped breathing but her heart beat continued. We watched the monitor and everything hit 0 and blanked. I gasped. Yes, I gasped just like on TV. I gasped and sobbed. Mom had passed. My heart sank so low I could have died a long with her. Maybe a piece of me has. The nurses came, shut everything off. We all said the very last word “I love you” and walked out. I sat in the room for another 2 minutes talking to my mom, kissing her forehead and telling her that she would be always be in my heart. Everyone already walked to the waiting room, I followed behind.
It was 12:44am when mom passed. We sat in the waiting room for 15 minutes waiting for the head nurse to come talk to dad. Once the nurse came in she went over logistics for my mothers body to be transferred; basically giving him the “rules”. She asked if anyone wanted the flowers. No one did. Those flowers represented the days we spent in her room, hoping and praying for her to come back. I couldn’t bare to have them in my apartment. The nurse also asked if anyone wanted to go in one more time to see her. I needed to. I needed to know that this wasn’t a joke, that is was over and my mom had left me. I needed to see her, to tell her I loved her for that one last time.
Posted in Life Experiences, Sad Experiences | No Comments »
Friday, January 4th, 2008
We have done this for three years straight and from my experience, it has been great. We have a large group of family members to buy for when you count extended members of the family and trying to buy for all of them just gets too expensive and time consuming. So I suggested we put all our names in a hat and draw to see who buys for who.
There are some simple rules, if you don’t have a job or are a student, you are exempt and don’t have to buy for anyone unless you want to. Spouses can’t pick each other’s name. There is a $75 limit on gifts. These three rules have made it a pleasant and fun time around the Christmas tree.
This has worked quite well for the following reasons:
- You can focus all your time and creative efforts on one person.
- It saves money. Even with the $75 suggested amount you will save. Even if you spent $20 per person you would spend over that with only 4 gifts.
- The quality of the gift is much greater. Would you rather have a $20 or less gift OR a $75 gift.
- It opens up more gift ideas since you can now spend a little more.
I can honestly say this has made my Christmas less stressful and more fun. The only problem is trying to avoid getting the same name as the year before, but we allow anyone to trade names or we’ll do a redraw if this happens. Good luck next year! Here are some other holiday gift ideas to simplify your gift giving.
Posted in Life Experiences, Relationship Experiences, Shopping Experiences | No Comments »
