Stories About Jesus by Gwen Ellis

Stories About Jesus by Gwen Ellis is a children's book of very simple kid friendly bible stories. It's a large hard back book full of big colorful pictures. It consist of about thirteen short easy to understand stories. I read it to my 7 yr who thoroughly enjoyed it. What I really loved about it was that the stories were all presented as loving and positive. I remember trying to find a children's bible story book to read to my two oldest children when they were little, and quickly realized that the stories that were presented were presented in a very negative and scary light that little children did not need to be hearing. They told of horrific things that God supposedly did. That's not the message I wanted to send to my children about God! This book does not do that at all. It tells of many good deeds that Jesus did to help people, with God's help of course. It's a wonderful kid's book. I'm glad I chose it from BookSneeze's list of complimentary books. I would recommend it to anyone who has children.

Lack of Sleep

Why in the world does it take me sooo long to get the kids and myself in bed every night??? I start trying to get the kids in bed around 8:30pm every night, but for some reason I can't get everyone to actually settle down and get quiet until about 11pm every night! We are usually running around and busy all day. After I pick the kids up from school, I usually head to my second job, tutoring. Many times when I'm on the way home, I stop off at the grocery store, and by the time I get home it's late. Even so, it's still non-stop when I get home. I have to make sure everybody's homework is done, cook dinner, wash clothes, check email, make sure everyone has taken their medicine, give my little one a bath, and then try to find time to give myself a bath. There have even been times when we were so busy that I forgot to get my first grader to do his homework, and remember it after we have finally laid down in the bed. Then I feel like a terrible mama! Don't get me wrong, I love my boys dearly, but what I can't understand is why does it have to take a good 3 hours every night to get them to settle down and in their beds?! I'm tired! I've also noticed that the last few days my 7 yr. old has been very very irritable. He crys at the drop of a hat, and doesn't want to get up in the mornings for school. He's obviously not getting enough sleep either. Mix that with all 3 of them fussing and fighting and that equals one very exhausted mommy!!! I couldn't even take a shower tonight. I actually ended up having to step out of the shower butt naked to yell at my kids because they wouldn't stop fussing and calling my name. I hope I didn't tramatize anyone!! On top of everything else, my 15 yr. old just decided he would stop talking to me about 4 months ago. I have tried everything, punishing him, bribing him, even taking him to counseling. Nothing has worked. It's like trying to play a constant game of charades! My middle son's right behind him, at the age of 14, totally different personality though. Wow, who knew this would be so hard?? My children are my life. They are what keep me going everday, but I could definitely use a little R&R right about now!

Beach Trip For The Day

The weather has been beautiful these past few days and I got a crazy whim to put the kids in the car Saturday morning and take off to the beach. The trip down to Panama City, Fl was a little hectic with 3 boys. Especially since my middle son had been grouchy that morning. Although once we finally got out on the beach, everyone seemed to calm down and enjoy themselves. The water was beautiful and clear, but very very COLD! My 7 yr. old (Alex) was ecstatic. I don't think he stopped smiling the whole time we were there! He wanted sooo badly for me to go out in the water with him, and there were lots of people in the water surprisingly, but seeing as how my ankles and feet were numb from just stepping in the water, I had to decline. So he turned his interest to helping his brothers dig the biggest hole in the sand ever! That held their attention for quite sometime, which was nice. My oldest son and I enjoyed laying out and catching some warm rays from the sun, and watching Alex try to catch one of the many seagulls flying overhead.

After spending 2 or 3 hours on the beach, we were all getting pretty hungry! We packed up and headed out in search of somewhere to eat. We decided to eat at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville in the new Pier Park. It was the first time we had been there. We sat on the top deck and enjoyed the beautiful weather while eating our GIGANTIC hamburgers and sandwiches! It was delicious, but needless to say, we all had leftovers which we ate after we got home. The kids wanted to go to the arcade afterwards since I usually always take them there when we're at the beach, but I told them mom was tired and it was time to go home. They were a little disappointed at first, but got over it pretty quickly. The only thing that would have made it better is if we had stayed the night, but all in all, it was a good day!!

Sorry It's Been So Long

First I want to say sorry for taking such a long break from blogging. I have had so much going on. I always have a ton going on, but I guess more than usual this time. I've had some personal issues with my oldest son; he's 15 now, and not liking his mama very much these days. I'm doing everything I can to make things better, but I'm pretty much at a loss at this point. I just hope these teenage hormones and attitude problem doesn't last too long, because I don't know how much more of this I can take.
Besides that, I just had another surgery on Dec. 30. Shoulder surgery this time. Recovery has been sooooo painful! I had no idea. My cervical fusion I had in June was a breeze compared to this!  On top of the normal pain, I also had complications and ended up in the E.R. twice a few days after surgery. I had bruising from the base of my skull down my right side and down the bottom of my back bone. I couldn't breathe, was very light headed, in unbearable pain, and running a fever. I called the surgeon- Dr. Baker Jr. @ Houghston Clinic in Columbus, Ga and he asked me "what do you want to do, it's Sat. night; what do you want to do?" First off, it was Sunday night, and Second of all, it doesn't really matter what night it is when you think you're dying! I thought he might be able to give me some of his educated knowledge and tell me if what I was going through was normal or should I be worried and maybe head to the E.R. Thanks, doc! Didn't mean to mess up your weekend! So I spend the day in the E.R. and find out my blood pressure is high, my blood count is at 21, and I have internal bleeding that they can't be sure has stopped without admitting me and observing me overnight. Since I had 3 kids at home alone I told the E.R. Dr. I would have to go home for the night and come back the next morning so they could recheck my blood count. The next morning my blood had not decreased from since the night before so the bleeding seemed to have stopped, thank God! The Dr. told me to start taking iron pills, which I have done, and am feeling much better. My BP is still up a little and my I can feel my heart flutter every so often, but it's going to take some time for my body to adjust. My middle son was absolutely wonderful those first 3 days after I came home and did everything for me. If it had not been for him I have no idea what I would have done! Thank you so much, Devin! The next week I went into the office to see Dr. Baker Jr. for a check up. I sat in the office for almost 3 hours before seeing the Dr and when I did see him he left the room before I was through speaking with him and never came back. I asked him a question about exactly what he had found during the surgery, he was going to show me the pictures and called for the girls in the office to come in and bring them up on the computer. At that point he left the room, got on the phone, and never came back!! That was MY TIME, MY 5 or 10 minutes that I sat there all day waiting for! It was very RUDE, to say the least!
To add a little more stress to my life, I am in the process of applying to graduate school. I have been working on getting up everything I need to apply since my surgery. I need to retake the GRE exam because I made a 900 on it last time and that's probably not good enough to get me in. I just hope my new scores will have time to be processed and sent to the university before the deadline. Everything is due in by Feb. 15 so I am cutting it really close. . If I don't get in this time I will have to wait a whole other year before applying again. I trust that whatever happens though was meant to be. So wish me luck!

I Just Won 8 Swag Bucks on www.swagbucks.com

I Just Won 8 Swag Bucks on www.swagbucks.com

Long day, but good news- I think!

I had a new doctor's appointment with one of Houghston Clinic's shoulder specialist that Dr. Pahl referred me to. I had know idea what he was going to say. After 26 years of chronic pain and no real answers, I expect to still go in and get no answers! Well today I was wrong. I am loving Houghston Clinic more and more! Dr. Gerringer informed me that I had bursitis in my right shoulder, and he thinks that is what's causing the muscle spasms and keeping my right side so tight all of the time, and in so much pain. There is a fine line between shoulder and neck pain. It all begins to blend together after awhile. The muscle pain spreads and it becomes hard to distinguish the actual area/focal point that the pain is actually coming from. My confusion about whether the whole problem had actually been coming from my neck or was possibly in my shoulder all along was a little more clarified by the doctors today. It put me more at peace to know that many patients have a problem with both areas and only realize it after they take care of one area and are then still in pain and have to move on to the next area. It pretty much confirmed my suspicions of what I thought may be going on with myself. What do you know, I'm not such an unusual case after all. There are many people out there with the same problems as me. The Dr. said my x-rays looked good, and afterwards he put a big shot of cortisone under my shoulder blade. I don't want to get to excited yet, but I SO pray that it will help! Good nite, everyone!

Here I Go Again

I am exhausted! I spent today in the Dr.'s office with my 6 yr old, Alex. He has "viral croup", whatever that is. The Dr. just gave him some cortisone for inflamation around his vocal cords, and said he would be fine. Yesterday was MY day in the Dr.'s office. For those of you that don't know, I had a cervical fusion done on my neck 3 months ago. The pain hasn't got any better since the surgery, and the Dr. thinks it's a different disc giving me trouble other than the one that he operated on. Great!! So now I'm headed back to get ANOTHER MRI. Then he is talking about putting me through some painful test that is supposed to help distinguish the correct area of the problem.  I don't know the name of it, but he says I will hate him afterwards. Not looking foward to that or to the thought of going through spine surgery again! I have spent the last 26 or so years with constant non stop muscle spasms, and in DAILY, EXCRUCIATING, PAIN!! I was only taken to a chiropractor by my dad when I was a kid so I spent the first 8 or 9 years in the chiroprator's office, sometimes 2 and 3 times a week, EVERY week. When I hit my 20's I started seeing medical Doctors. I bounced from one doctor to the next trying to find some kind of relief. They would look at me, without even listening to what I had to say or doing any x-rays, and tell me nothing was wrong with me, that I was stressed, or better yet just act like they didn't even believe me. I would go home and cry and start doubting myself, thinking maybe there isn't anything wrong with me, maybe it is stress. Then the excruciating pain would kick in again, and I would realize there IS something terribly wrong! Some days I would wake up and not even be able to turn my head from side to side. The doctors blamed it on me going school, on me having kids, etc, etc, etc. They would tell me to exercise or take alieve. What a joke!! I have had many steroid injections, botox injections for the muscle spasms, facet injections, massages, injections in my occipital nerves in the back of my neck in order to stop the cooling, searing (as I call it) pain in my right temple and above my right eye, spent money on therapy, and medicines. When I'm not at work, I spend most of the time with either ice or heat on neck and shoulder, along with creams, like "capsacin" -which will make your skin feel like it is on fire. I have spent many, many years having to self medicate just to make it through the day. None of these things have helped a whole lot, they just kept me from killing myself. Although the pain has caused me to have some seriously crazy thoughts, like stabbing the back of my shoulder with an ice pick over and over, or taking a knife and cutting off the right side of my neck and right shoulder (of course I know better). Even after an MRI was finally done about 2 years ago, the doctors still acted like they didn't even have a clue, regardless of the fact I had been describing the exact symtoms of a pinched nerve all along, and that the MRI showed a bulging disc, bone spurs, degenerative disc disease, foraminal stenosis, and constant spasms. Work is a whole other ball game. At this point I can barely get through two or three shifts a week at work. The entire time I'm there, I am in pain. The longer I'm there, the tighter and more painful my neck and shoulder get. This isn't good considering I have three children to support and rarely receive any child support for my two oldest. On top of having to push through the pain at work, SOME of my co-workers have been less than kind to me to say the least. They have made fun of me, called me a hypocondriac, criticized me for not doing more work, and even laughed at me! This abuse and unempathetic attitude from my co-workers has not only been hurtful but also made it that much harder for me to deal with work. All the while, I have worked, put myself through college, and raised 3 boys, basically on my own.  Now I finally have a doctor who will listen to me, and believes me. I just hope he can help me. My two oldest sons will be grown soon, and my oldest will probably be going off to college soon if he gets his wish. I just want to be without all of this horrible chronic pain so that I can enjoy my children more, and so I can enjoy life a little more. Please say a prayer for us, and I will update as soon as I know more.