mother's day

I really hate when things don't go my way. It never fails - you have an idea in your mind of how a day is going to go, and then you hit a bump in the road.

Yesterday morning I got up to take a bath. I heard Bella yelling from her room to get up, so I went and got her, stuck her in the bath with me and figured I could kill two birds with one stone that way. I went to start shampooing her hair and OH MY LORD!

Panic set in. What do I do? I don't know how to handle this. It's mother's day...and I need mine!

L - I - C - E. Lice. On my child. IN MY HOUSE. ON MOTHER'S DAY! Is this some kind of a joke?!

So, Jeff went to church (yes, unfortunately when you pastor a church, few things can relieve you from your duties behind the pulpit) and I stayed home and disinfected my house. And everything in it. While wearing a hazmat suit. (Just kidding about the hazmat suit. But don't think I didn't consider it.) As most of you probably know, there is no shortage of hair in our home. Tackling lice is no easy task anyway, but this - this is ridiculous. I had a momentary lapse in judgment and considered shaving my head. I didn't.

The funny thing I found about it all, was that even though de-lousing my home and everyone who walked through wasn't my idea of how to spend Mother's Day, it was still a really good day. It's just one of those things that come with being a mom. One way or another, I got to spend the day with my sweet little Bella - and later that day, my own mom. And because it has to be said - I appreciate her SO much more now that I'VE been the one to stand and shampoo, comb and pick lice out of someone's head, and wash everything in your home.

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!

blowouts

Blowouts are bad. You're never prepared for it. They interrupt what you're trying to do, stop you from getting where you're going. They leave a mess of debris in their wake. You're lucky most of the time if it doesn't cause a whole new chain of events to take place - a sort of domino effect. No matter how mild, how much control you happen to get over it when it happens or even if you anticipate it coming, it ends up costing you money you didn't want to spend in repairs and replacements. Most of all, you're lucky if you or someone else don't get killed in the process.

Yes...diaper blowouts can be extremely dangerous.

Yesterday evening when I got off work, Jeff and Bella met me to go get a bit to eat and do a little shopping. Bella seemed to be a little grouchy, however it was nothing that a little "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" on the iPod couldn't cure. When we were done, Jeff took me back to my car and was helping me put in her in my car when he realized she was soaked.

And the he realized that she wasn't just wet.

He was freaking out. I knew there was no change of clothes in the car or her bag, so I wasn't sure what to do with her. So, I took her into work, propped her up on the dryer in the break room and stripped her down. After we gave the security camera a good show, we left with Bella wearing nothing but a diaper, her shoes and her new spring jacket. It was at a time like this, I appreciated my mom instilling in me the importance of multiple layers. Even if it is 70 degrees outside :)

Don't worry Lebliss girls...I cleaned the dryer off good when we were done.

Lesson learned: always carry an extra set of clothes. ALWAYS.

yana gets a haircut

I wanted long hair so bad I could taste it when I was growing up. Unfortunately, my mom didn't want to take care of it (In hindsight, having 3 kids of my own now, I don't blame her. Man, I hate the taste of crow.) so I was punished with the Dorothy Hamill haircut, which I'm not even sure was in style then. So...I decided that I would never make my daughters, if and when I had them, cut their hair off if they wanted it long.

Yana has an abnormal amount of hair to be 6 years old...and its super curly at that. She recently decided she wanted a haircut, and has practically begged for one for several weeks now. After making sure that it was really what she wanted, here are the results:

Before:
The casualties:

And, after:

tuesdays are speshl

I hate Tuesdays.

I don't have anything personal against Tuesday. But the schedule that engulfs my weekly Tuesday usually makes for a less than enjoyable day. I always pick up Zeke and Yana from school, but this year some genius decided it was good idea for them to go to school at 8am, meaning they get out at 2:20. Which means I have to leave to pick them up no later than 2. And Bella's naptime is at 1:30. You can see where I'm going with this.

I try to lay her down for an early nap, but she's just not ready for one. So we fight it out for a while until she finally does, which just means that she's in a little less of a bad mood on our way over to get them and back. What that also means is that by the time we get back home, she's tired again, but she doesn't really want to take another nap because she's already had one.

So...as you can imagine, much of my Tuesday is consumed with screaming. It's fun.

For the past few weeks, and for the next few, I've been doing a bible study with my mom and sister on Tuesday nights. That's usually something enjoyable to look forward to, however, it also means that after Jeff gets off work and gets home, and we eat dinner, he's left with the aftermath of the bad moods. I know this, and it causes me to have a less than enjoyable bible study.

Today has been no different. Bella is currently laying in her bed screaming. I am determined she won't win, but my sanity may get the better of me soon. Yana has knocked everything off of the playroom table about 5 times after I've told her at least that many to put it all away. Zeke, no matter how many times I've told him that the Wii won't turn on and I don't know why, has stood in front of it, pushing the power button over and over saying "The tv says no signal. I pushed the power button and it should come on when you do that, but it won't."

I've had my usually Tuesday rant where I've told them all in the most loving way possible that they are all driving me crazy :) I always follow it up with "I love you, but you are all driving me nuts."

Yana just came and gave me a handmade card that said "I love you Jess" on the outside and "You are speshl" on the inside. So even though I feel like I might lose my mind because everyone is driving me crazy, I can't help but remember that Tuesdays are "speshl" even in spite of their craziness.

Happy Tuesday :)

v. a. c. a. tion: funny update

1) Rear turn signal bulb burned out. Add that to the list.

2) Left to replace the turn signal bulb. Backed over an entire box of scrapbooking supplies that I forgot to take in the house when I cleaned the van out.

3) Arrived at Walmart to have the bulb replaced. Sales associate says to me about the service worker standing right next to her at the desk "You can ask him yourself if we do that." The same associate then proceeds to put my information in their system as "Gassisa McCarty". Really?

Thanks Walmart. Once again your stellar customer service has exceeded my wildest expectations. Not.

4) They kept my keys. I had to go get the kids out of the car after checking the vehicle in. This seemed to anger the anti-theft system when I had them unlock the door for me from the inside, which followed by persistent honking of the car horn for the next 5 minutes.

Overall - you can see how it was a great day. T-minus 18 hours til vacation....and counting.

images from the weekend

Bella tried on my headband for size...

...and enjoyed a cookie with Sophie.

A bunch of ducks invaded the parking lot by Dooley's Bagels.

hydrocephalus

It's been almost a year since Bella was diagnosed with hydrocephalus. It seems crazy to think that almost an entire year has passed since she had surgery. Since then, she's had her first Halloween, first Thanksgiving, first Christmas, first birthday, started crawling, talking, walking, etc. I look back then and remember feeling like my world was crumbling around me. She's doing so well now, it's hard to imagine sometimes that it even happened, that she actually has a shunt in her brain that's doing this amazing, important thing that her body can't do on its own.

I remember seeing her right after she came out of recovery. It was so sad. She was so lifeless and helpless and I couldn't even hold her. A friend of mine had come to visit and she told me about a friend of hers named Jennifer - who I had actually met on a few occasions - who had a daughter that was born with hydrocephalus and had already had several surgeries. It was good to know at that moment that someone else understood what I was going through.

The next day, I got a phone call in the hospital room. It was Jennifer's mom. She said she just wanted to tell me that they were praying for us, that they understood what we were going through, that she didn't want us to feel like we were alone in our experience and if we ever needed anything or just needed someone to talk to about it, all I had to do was call. I don't think she knows to this day how much that phone call meant to me. I don't think I knew, until this day, how much that phone call meant to me.

Saturday, Jennifer participated in a Hydrocephalus walk in Iroquois Park and her story was featured on Fox 41. The link is below if you'd like to read it.

Jennifer's Story

My sweet little Bella, post-surgery and now.

max

Since March or April, Bella has been "cruising." It's a term used when babies start "walking" but still hold onto stuff, like walls or furniture. It's another one of those bittersweet milestones - you're so glad to see them learning and developing, and yet you realize that once again your life is changed forever. We'd been trying to coax her into walking to us, even letting us hold her hand, but she'd have no part of it. About 3 weeks ago, we were at the park and she saw a little girl close to her age walking around. I put her down on the ground and off she went. Since then, she's been wanting to walk everywhere, but she still holds on to our fingers while she does it. She's made some short strides on her own, but still a little unsure of herself.

Yesterday, me and the kids went to a friend's house. They have two older boys who Zeke and Yana are friends with, and my friend, Michele, also keeps her cousin's little boy who is 21 months old. When Max woke up from his nap, her walked over and gave Bella a hug. Apparently, that was all the coaxing she needed! She decided to strut her stuff and show him what she was made of, and off she went. (Should I be worried?)

Since yesterday, I can't get her to sit down. She's walking everywhere! And pretty well at that!

Ignore the nut hollering in the background. ;)