Miniature Glee

My oldest is part of the chorus club at her school.  "We may be small, but we are mighty" seems to be the theme of the choir directors, they are also ladies who are a little wacka-do but you love them like they are your grandparents.  This past week, before school got out, they gave their last performance for the year.  They belted out such hits as "Froggy went a courtin'" and "put a little love in your heart", it was fun!!!  My girl was super excited, mainly because we bought her new clothes and also because she got to perform in front of a "small, yet mighty" crowd.  Unfortunately, no one really shows to see them unless their kid is also in the club.  All I know is that Glee has nothing on my girl and her chorus club, I know we could take them if we had a regionals competition to go to........either that or their sweet, small smiling faces would knock them out and they wouldn't be able to sing thus letting us win :) 

Bachelorette Shenanigans

Over the weekend I went away with some of my very best friends and some of their friends all in the name of celebrating the upcoming nuptials of one of my best friends.  We loaded up a decorated van on Friday and weren't returning until Sunday afternoon.  I was pretty excited, I had never been to Santa Barbara, except maybe passing through and we have stopped in Solvang a couple of times but I have never stayed for the weekend.  The first night we ate at a super yummy Japanese restaurant called Something Fishy, they did the whole fire show in front of you and the food was delicious!  The next morning we were picked up and went on a wine tasting extravaganza.  We visited 3 wineries and one olive oil place and had lunch in between.  I think I fell in love!!  It is so beautiful up there and we had perfect weather to make it even better.  Don't believe me?  Take a look.......

As I had mentioned before, we made a stop at an olive oil place after the first 2 wineries and right before lunch.  The name of the place was Global Gardens and it was a quaint little store that doesn't look like much but it is amazing.  The store owner had a small table set up outside under a big pepper tree, she gave us each a roll and proceeded to let us tastes some olive oils, vinegars and my all time favorite, the walnut oil.  Everything she sells is organic.  You can find mustard's, nuts, soaps, dishes, all kinds of things.  I came home with a Spanish mix, it is mainly olives, garlic, olive oil and some seasonings, they say it is great on pasta and I am super stoked to try it out.  If you are ever in Los Olivos, you have to stop in and try some samples and pick up a few things and if you don't think you can make it, check it out online!!!!
After the day of wine tasting and a little bit of relaxing, we headed out for dinner and some dancing.  It was a great weekend that I will never forget and I am hoping wont be my last.  I think my girls would like a trip up sometime to get out in the fresh air and beautiful scenery!!!

Let's Laugh A Little

Things on here have been kind of serious lately.  Between my friend being stuck in Japan during the radiation nightmare and the government shut down, it is pretty serious and depressing and that's not at all what I am about.  So, to lighten things up, enjoy this video of my cousin.  He is a fun, free spirit who can always make you laugh and an amazing guy.  Enjoy :)

A Proper Birthday Post

I have been feeling guilty for not writing a birthday post for my youngest who just turned 2.  I wouldn't feel guilty normally, it doesn't mean I love her any less, but all of my other girls have had one so she deserves one too, not one riddled with ER visits overshadowing her beautiful day.  I wont be writing her entire birth story, it may be beautiful to me but I am sure you wouldn't mind me skipping the details of my slimy baby and girly parts.  However, I do have to mention how much of a moron I was and how close I was to having her at home.  I had already taken my oldest to school and was home alone with my middle girl and started to feel pain that felt like gas pains.  It felt nothing like labor.  I mentioned to my sister over Facebook (oh technology) how I felt like I was having gas pains every five minutes.  She told me gas was not timeable and to be careful and the next thing I knew, my mom was calling and she was on her way.  And thank God for her, by the time she got down here and picked up my oldest from school, I knew it was labor pains......and the hospital is a good hour away.  Needless to say, she was born within 45 minutes of us getting to the hospital.  Good job mom!!!!  So glad my little gas bubble was born in a hospital!!!
So, to celebrate her 2nd birthday, we ventured down to Sea World.  The girls love this place and it isn't too much to do all in one day.  Not to mention, Elmo is there now and we cannot leave without a giant hug fest.

The next day, on her actual birthday, we had a family party.  yes, the morning did not start out right and yes, it put me way behind schedule and yes, the food was not that great and the cake was embarrassing, but we were together and celebrating the life of my sweet girl and because of that, I say it was perfect.  So, it may be a little late, but Happy Birthday my sweet angel.  you bless us each and every day with your sweet smile and your infectious laugh.  You brighten mommies day when you are right next to her helping with the laundry and I don't think your sisters mind when you help clean their rooms too.  You are practically perfect in every way!!!!

Up on my soapbox

I like to think that I can hold my own in a political or world view conversation.  I may not be the brightest bulb in the box but I feel like I can hold my own.  However, I rarely like to get political, it can turn the best of friends into enemies and in this case, the most loyal of readers who decide to never read again.  If you are reading this blog because you found me on the UBP, let me apologize for the following statements in advance and promise you that I am not on here as a political blog and this is a very rare occasion, I just feel as if I am being called out and need to step up upon my old, creaky soapbox that is rarely used and make a statement.  Ok, now that the disclaimer is over, here goes..........
This whole government shut down is a pain in my ass!!!!!  yes, I said ass, that too is rarely used on here but it defines exactly how I feel.  I get that there are differing views and people want to see things go one way as opposed to the other, but those very same people make hundreds upon thousands if not millions per year and can go without getting a paycheck for a couple of weeks.  They may just need to eat at home and not go to the mall for a bit but it wont hit them hard.  The people it will be hitting hard are people like me.  Military families who make as little as $23,000 a year fighting for your freedom.  No, I am not one of the ones who make $23,000, luckily it has been years since we have made that little but I can tell you we don't make a heck of a lot more.  So, to think that maybe next week when we would be getting paid and heading to the commissary to do some grocery shopping and hopping online to pay bills, that instead we will be sitting ducks without a penny coming in, it scares the heck out of me.  I have been getting messages from people who want me to stop being so negative and look on the brighter side and realize that the military is not the only ones who will be out of pay and possibly out of a job.  Trust me, I feel for everyone who is in this position but I don't see a brighter side.  And I don't see the people who make the big bucks who are the ones deciding whether or not I get a paycheck offering up any of their millions to help subsidize for those who will be getting nothing, or even offering a pay cut, maybe instead of making 2 million a year they can opt for 1.5 million and have the rest go back to help stimulate the economy.  It makes me mad that the "small" people of this great nation will be the ones who are most affected and the ones who are in the most need.  So no, I will not stop being "negative" about this.  I think that I am a very positive person who has taken a ton of crap thrown on her plate and turned it into something pretty.  I feel like an emotional magician most days but on this, well, it just stinks and you cannot turn something stinky into a good smelling rose no matter what you do.  Ok, thank you for your time, lending me your ears, now can someone give me a hand and help me down form this dang box, it is a little creaky and not used to having someone on it :)

What a rollercoaster ride!!!

As mentioned previously, my oldest had an accident and ended up with stitches in her upper lip.  Well, the following day.........ok, maybe I should do a disclaimer, if you are eating or drinking any sort of liquid especially if that substance is milk or anything else milky looking or if you have a weak stomach, please move on and read something that will not make your skin crawl and make you hate my blog for life.  With that said, the following day we noticed puss oozing (one word I do not particularly care for but it is what it was doing) out of her stitches and her lip was extremely swollen.  We took her into her pediatrician and he told us what we knew already, it was infected.  He asked how it could have become so extremely infected (so much so that he squeezed a ton of puss out of her lip and still it proceeded to come out, he even mentioned it exploding and popping stitches if not taken care of), I had no clue, she hadn't been eating and we were cleaning it really good and I thought back tot our trip to the ER and that's when it hit me, they never cleaned her wound.  Not once, she was seen by a doc and a plastic surgeon was called and nothing was ever used to clean the wound.  She was simply stitched up.  How could I have missed that and not said something?!!  Needless to say, our doc told us they should have cleaned it but there was nothing we could do about that now, however she would need to have surgery to fix the problem.  The surgery would go a little something like this, sedate my girl, proceed to open her lip back up and then some, clean it out like it is spring cleaning and stitch her back up.  My heart dropped.  The thing is, I would normally be nervous for sedating my child but in this case, even more so.  between the meds my girl takes and her Epilepsy, being sedated can be very scary.  I have been told by many a doctor how she would stop breathing and they would be breathing for her and then all of the nightmares she would be having coming out of the anesthetic.  Stop breathing?  Breathing for her?  I know this to be routine for them but it is not for me and I was scared beyond measure.  I had that brief nightmare of them telling me that she didn't wake back up and me having to go in and see her poor lifeless body on the table and say goodbye.  Yes, that may be morbid but lets not lie here and say you never think those things.  It is a brief moment of "this can happen" and then you snap yourself out of it and pray and hope that everything turns out int he complete opposite way.  And in this case, it did.  the plastic surgeon cut a small incision in her lip (while she was wide awake) and said it looked a lot better than the previous day and that the anti-biotic she was on seemed to be working and that as long as we drain it and clean it a couple of times a day, she would be alright.  I wanted to shout a good ol "HALLELUJAH" right there in the office but I waited until we were outside int he hallway.  As soon as the door shut to the office my sweet girl let out a huge breath and grabbed me and hugged me so tight.  I did so in return and we rejoiced for no surgery!!  and in the best way to celebrate, we went across the way to the mall and let her pick out something, Lord knows the girl deserves something special for being a rock star through all of this.  I am hoping to have much brighter and shinier posts now, along with pictures and hopefully funny stories.  thank you for all of the prayers and support for me and my girl through all of this!!!

Happy Birthday, how about a trip to the ER?

Yesterday my baby girl turned 2 and a fabulous day of dinner with family and friends had been planned.  We took our annual trip to Sea World the day before so we were excited to be at home eating good food and being around the people we love most.  I was thinking about the day she was born, how she has gone ever so quickly from this

to this

Do I even have to mention that they grow up way too fast?  If you are a mom or a grandma or an aunt, I am pretty sure I do not,  it is crazy how fast time flies!!!!!  As I sat reminiscing and making my list so that I can go to the store and come home and bake the cake and............what the heck is that, who is screaming?  Let me say this, once I heard the death curdling scream, I did not go running in that direction.  My kids have a tendency to fight (I know, only my kids right?) and sometimes while fighting they scream like someone is killing them and the first couple of times I went running and found nothing, I became numb to it.  Now I stroll down the hallway and think of how I can tell them that screaming like that is bad unless you are actually hurt or in trouble in a new way so this time it actually gets through to them.  As I am thinking this, I turn to go into my oldests room, where the source of the scream is still coming from and it is then I see her, her face is covered in blood and her hands sit below her chin and they are dripping blood because they are so full of blood.  I quickly went from "we don't scream like that unless....." to "WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED?!!!"  I quickly got some paper towels and washcloths to clean off her hands and try to see where the blood was pouring from and eventually saw her lip sitting wide open, the kind of split lip where you can see her teeth even though her mouth is closed, it was pretty bad.  I tried calming her down, she was getting really worked up and the last thing I wanted was for her to go into a seizure.  So, we calmed down as much as an 8 year old with a lip wide open can and she told me how her sister had come in the room and threw a sippy cup at her.  And no, not the one you see pictured above, that is my angel child ( I know this statement may change at one time or another), it is her attitude riddled middle sister who thinks throwing things lately is a good way to vent anger.  I knew I had to get my girl to the ER for some stitches so I had to deal with my middle one later.  However, I did have her come in the room to see the damage she had done, hopefully that will stick in her head and she will not get so angry next time.  So, off to the ER we went.  Now, I knew it was bad but I also knew it could look bad but end up with some stitches and be done.  I also know that maybe motherly instincts of "this is pretty bad" sometimes turn out right, and the in this case, the doc agreed with me.  Her lip was not only split, the muscle that runs through there was pretty tore up.  It was not only her lip but also the skin above her lip, it was pretty bad.  So, a plastic surgeon was called and we waited for him to get there.  He said he could put it back together but that we needed to come back throughout the week so he can keep an eye on it.  We still ended up having the party for my youngest, having family and good friends around was good for my girl, however, she was milking it for everyone.  But as I said before, can you blame the girl?!  Today she is eating through a straw and not able to really speak due to the massive swelling and pain.   I am positive it will heal nicely and hopefully she will not have any more stitches to her face.  This makes 22 total in the past 5 years, those are all stories for another time though :)  Happy 2nd birthday my beautiful Hayley, I look forward to spending so many more with you and I promise to have better food and a prettier cake next time, I also plan on no ER visit where I can actually pull that off :)



Ultimate Blog Party

What is going on?  I have been blogging for a while now and today I get on and check some of my favorite blogs and everyone is talking about this Ultimate Blog Party.  After watching a little brief tutorial, I think I might be able to handle this.  What better way to connect with others and fulfill my appetite to read more blogs?  So, here it is goes........

My name is Kaleena and I am a mom to 3 beautiful little girls.  We have been down a long and windy path these last couple of years but we are forging through it with grace and dignity.......some might say with laughter and little bit of absentmindedness <-------- is that even a word?  Anwyas, what you will find here is stories of my girls as they grow into amazing women, fun outings with friends, freak out moments and just plain fun.  I have also started my own small business making cupcakes and custom order cakes, you can find that link on the left, Lovin Oven Bakery (my fourth baby).  I hope you find this blog fun and uplifting and maybe even sometimes inspirational, however, I ask that you do not quote me on any of this :)  Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to "meeting" you!!!!