Winter for Dummies

Living in Kansas for the past 28 years I’ve seen quite a few winters.  We’ve had snowy winters and sunny winters.  Very freezing cold winters and pretty mild winters.  So I feel like I’m sort of an expert on winter.  I’m sure Fox News and/or CNN would love me to be an expert on one of their many worthless shows!  So here are my pros and cons to winters in Kansas…

 

Pros:

·         I love winter clothes.  Boots, leggings, chunky sweaters.  All of it!  I love it, I love it, I love it!

·         Snow days rock as a kid!  Unfortunately…see con for what we deal with as an adult.

·         Snow is so pretty!  And I’m pretty sure the saying is true that every snowflake is unique! Again though…see con for what snow turns into.

·         I love snuggly days when you can spend inside with your loved ones (or yourself!) drinking some hot cocoa, watching a movie and sitting in front of the fire place.  A little piece of heaven. My next house WILL have a fireplace.

·         It’s fun to watch your kids play in the snow.  And as a kid it is super awesome to play in it.  I remember so many fun days growing up where I just spent hours outside playing with my friends.  Even into high school we would have snowball fights and ride sleds.  So much fun.

·         Winter here means football playoffs and college basketball.  Two of my favorite times of year sports.  So much competition!

 

Cons:

·         You never know what to wear.  Your day can start out freezing cold (negative degree wind chill) and by the afternoon it is in the mid-50s.  Heavy coat, parka, hat and gloves?  For an adult it’s a little easier but as I’ve learned in the last year with a Kindergartener who goes outside for recess, it is much more difficult.  If they go out in the morning then the heavy coat is a necessity, but come the afternoon recess Leo is a sweaty mess.  Or chooses to not wear his coat.  Either way…lose-lose.

·         Your skin gets so darn dry.  No matter how many humidifiers you have running or how much lotion you slather on, your fingers will be dry and cracked at some point in the winter.  Throw in all the yucky-yucks going around and hand washing hits an all-time high, you could possibly see blood.

·         Your heater will at a very inopportune time stop working.  It never fails.  I’m not saying every year, but at least once every 5 years something will hit it wrong and it will say sayonara.  And you will freeze your fanny off.

·         Snow is not always as pretty as they make it look on tv.  The first 30 minutes of a snowfall is awesome.  Especially if it’s dark and you can see lights hitting it.  But after that it gets brown.  And mucky.  And cars drive all over it and squish it and sometimes make it look black. Not pretty anymore.

·         Snow days are not considered sick days for adults.  So if you have kids in school and they have a snow day you have to take a vacation day.  And sometimes you have to scramble to find someone to watch your kids because you can’t miss a day at work.  Yay.

·         Ice sucks.  Enough said.

 

So there are my lists of pros and cons.  Take from it what you will. After making my list I have decided that I am a fence-sitter when it comes to winter.  I much prefer fall but will take winter to get my fall! Visit Gretchen (http://secondblooming.typepad.com/second-blooming/2013/01/spin-cycle-winter-things-ive-been-thinking-about.html) and see all the other spins about winter as well!

 

Blue in the Face

Gretchen said she would give me some good topics to do some meaty posts.  This week she chose colors and I don't think she knew what she was getting herself into!  And honestly I didn't either but this topic couldn't have come at a better week.  (Well technically it could never have came and I would have been fine with it.)

Tuesday we picked Jacoby up from daycare.  It was like any other day.  When we got there his teacher told us that he had fallen face-first down a (baby)slide but that he hadn't acted like it bothered him.  He didn't cry and he just laughed.  I noticed a few scratches on his face but took it in stride.  He didn't seem bothered by it so I wasn't too concerned.  I took the boys over to my mom's to eat dinner and after we had eaten we moved to the living room.  Mom had put a few toys on the floor for Jacoby to play with and I sat him down.  He immediately started crying, which he sometimes does, but this time it was a little different. He took a big gulp and then didn't make any more noise while he was crying.  He'd done that before but then snapped out of it.  This time he didn't.  His face started to turn blue and by this time I was FREAKING out.  I snatched him up and threw my finger down his throat hoping he wasn't choking.  When that still didn't get him roused my mom took him and did the same thing.  At this point his head kind of flopped back and his eyes rolled back in his head.  Finally he came to.  I was shaking and my mom had her phone out ready to call 911.  He seemed dazed and pretty listless but after about 20 minutes he started acting semi-normal.  I went home with the boys and called our doctor to see if I should bring him in.  The nurse said some kids do that but if it would make me feel better I could bring him in.  Since he had already taken a bottle and was resting comfortably I decided he was ok and to let him be.

That night he woke up around 2:30 and would not go back to sleep.  This was very uncommon.  I was really starting to worry that something was wrong with him or that the fall had somehow caused him to start acting like a crazy person.  The hubby was already going to work a little late that day due to a dentist appointment so I requested he stay home with Jacoby and take him to the doctor to ease my worried mind.  So off I went to work while my boys stayed home.  He took him to the doctor and they did X-rays on his little head and did an exam to make sure all was well.  Thankfully he doesn't have a skull fracture but the doctor thought he might have a slight concussion (not sure how you determine this in baby's or why he couldn't definitively say whether he did or didn't but I digress).  He also said that some kids have what they call breath holding spells and that it could have been triggered by the fall or he could just be doing it to do it.  Let me tell you...after reading up on this litte charade that little kids pull I am not ok with it.  Also, I have read multiple articles saying this could last up until the child is 6!!  I couldn't even imagine.  Since Tuesday he has done it one other time where he has actually passed out and tonight he started to do it but finally came to before he actually passed out.  The doctor said that hopefully once the pain subsides from his little fall he will go back to just normal temper tantrums but from what I've read I'm not counting on it. 

One other thing I've read on multiple sites is that you can't give in to their whims of what they are trying to succeed by throwing the tantrum.  But honestly, I don't even want to do anything to make him cry.  He seems to be crying most when we are setting him down or when we put him to bed.  I'm not really sure what is going on with him but I'm not ok with it.  I told my co-worker and my mom that I'm going to have to start drinking heavily to be ok with my little guy passing out. 

So...blue has been on my mind (and Jacoby's face) since Tuesday.  I've been researching, and learning CPR.  I've been anguishing over this and praying and still my mind has not been eased.  So if you could think happy thoughts that this too shall pass quickly I would appreciate it!

11 Things About Me

Vandy over at http://tttandme.blogspot.com gave a little questionnaire in the form of an award and I figured I wanted to do some meaninglessful posts so this would meet that! (Ha!)  So here is a little insight into me!

Do you like snow? I love snow.  I really love the beautiful-ness of it.  I do NOT like driving in it.

What is your favorite part of the holidays? My favorite part of the holidays is spending time with all my family and friends. 

What is your running late need dinner on the table go to dish? Burritos/Mexican food.  Easy-peasy.

 What is your favorite eating out food? Lately I have had a hankering for some Hibachi food.  And since I never get it, it’s all I can think about.  But there is an amazing restaurant in town, that is a little pricey, but so delicious.  Their garlic fried rice is to die for!

What is the most recent movie you watched? At home—The Lion King.  It was on Disney.  At the theatre—Les Miserables.  So amazing!

What is your favorite time waster on the internet--outside of Facebook and Twitter? Probably my Google reader

What is your favorite outdoor activity? I’m not a big outdoorsy person so I would say either sun bathing or swimming

Do you enjoy holiday shopping or just shopping in general? I love all shopping!

What is you favorite TAB (Tasty Adult Beverage)? Strawberry daiquiris. Yum!

Do you exercise regularly? What do you do? I had been doing really well getting up and exercising but the new year has thrown me off my groove.  But I have a few workout DVD’s and I got Just Dance 4 for Christmas which has a workout feature.  So I’m anxious to try that.

If you were granted the ability to have one household chore done at the snap of your fingers, what would it be? Can I say everything?!  Haha.  But my least favorite chore is cleaning the bathroom.

 

Mission: Will Be Complete

Happy new year everyone!  The Christmas/holiday season has taken every last ounce of energy I have had so blogging has definitely been on the backburner.  Anyways…we have a mission this week.  A Spin Cycle Mission.  To let you know what our missions (AKA: resolutions) will be for this year.  So here we go…

 

1)      I would like to maintain my weight loss that I have had this year.  Since having Jacoby I have knocked about 50 pounds off my body and would like to keep it that way.  Let’s do this.

2)      To help motivate myself for mission number 1 I have signed up to complete my first 5K.  And this isn’t some namby-pamby 5K.  It’s called the Warrior Dash and not only is it a 5K there are also obstacles involved.  It is April 27^th and so my training starts now.  So this mission is to be able to complete this at an honorable time.  For me that would be probably 30-40 minutes.  I can do it!

3)      Keep the house in order.  I feel like I do so well for awhile and then just fall off.  So I would like to get back to my daily chore list and each night complete the thing that needs to be done so that way I’m not scrambling at the end of the week trying to do it all.

4)      Read 1 book per month.  I have started reading my Kindle a lot more and have found some books that I really would like to read.  And Santa got me a lovely Amazon gift card so I can stock up on some books.  For the month of January my book is Mindy Kaling’s ‘Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me.’

5)      Blog more about more meaningful things.  There seems to be a lot going on in our lives and I have not done as good of a job keeping everyone updated.  And while not all of you will be interested in what Leo and Jacoby are up to, I would like something to commemorate it.  So no however many posts a month.  I just want to be able to post some non-fluff items a few times a month!

 

And there you have it.  My 5 missions to complete this year.  I can do it! Go visit Gretchen and give us your missions!

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