When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.

Henri Nouwen

Thursday, February 26, 2009

End Of My Rope

I've been taking care of sick kids for the past 6 weeks and I've reached the end of my rope. Yesterday, amid birthday family stuff for Ryan, I was taking Noah to the doctor and my husband for x-rays while battling an ear infection of my own. This is seemingly ongoing and has been for quite some time. This morning Ryan woke up and threw up all over the living room, couch and bathroom. I'm so frustrated I could scream. To top it off, when I bring it to my husband, he just tells me he's dealing with his own stuff right now (hence the x-rays). I try to tell him that I know he's dealing with his own stuff but while he's dealing, I'm still doing. The kids still need clothes, the dishes still need to get done and dinner somehow still ends up in front of everybody. I'm standing on one leg and it's getting wobbly.

How can I be sensitive to him while tactfully asking him to get off his duff and help me out a little here?

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Is This Thing On?

Actually, it doesn't really matter if it's on or not. I just need to vent a crisis moment, and it's the kind that, if I vent it to my husband, there will be panic in the streets.

Ladies, I hate my job.

I feel like I can't take one more day of cooking or dishes or laundry or making menus or arranging schedules or grocery shopping or encouraging children to do anything other than sit like lumps in front of the TV.

No joke. I'm actually sitting here in my filthy kitchen thinking "I can't take this anymore. I hate all of it."

Have any of you ever been there, and how did you survive it? Because I think that's all I can do - wait for the moment to pass. Getting a day job will only add "Day Job" to the above list. Bleah.

It's cool if you haven't been there. Like I said, just needed to vent.

Thanks for the forum, Ami!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Someboy else please post

I'm so sick of my post so if anyone has anything else going on in their lives that they want to share or need support with please post it, my post is old and lame.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

How long will it take?

Every time I seem to being doing great and not thinking about a baby, it comes rushing back at unexpected moments. I'll be driving and singing along to music and having a great time and next thing I know I'm crying at a red light. I'm not crazy or even sad but can't seem to let go of the feeling that something was taken from me. I have trouble being humble and trusting in the Lord, when I don't see where He's going with something. And I know we can't always see where our paths are going but I'd like a road sign from time to time....
I'm just wondering (out loud? well as loud as my typing is..) how long it will take for my wounds to heal or at least toughen up a bit.
It feels like I wear a sign that states, "Hello, my name is Ami and I can't have any more children." and that diminishes my woman-ness. I'm less attractive and broken. My head knows that it's not true (and my mirror....hahaha) but my raw, aching heart will believe anything right now.
I'm just venting and not looking for sympathy or anything. I just know that a group of mothers would understand this more than anyone else.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Here's the Thing...

I've been under so much stress lately, I've actually gained about 20 pounds in the past month or so due to all the self medicating I've been doing (peanut m&m's). I wanted to just vent it all out and relax. School's going to have to wait until spring because of a clerical error with my application. I specifically started back in April to get every thing in order so nothing would go wrong and still have to wait because of that. That stinks but I'm going to use my extra semester wisely and fix our poor credit (funfunfun).
Then Ryan's school lost his application so I had to go downtown Prosper to enroll him in person. I'm wondering if this is a common occurrence...lost applications or just a fluke that both of ours were lost/mistyped the same week.
On top of everything, my brother's coming to town in a few hours (dundundun). He's, ummmm...how do I put this delicately?....a militant atheist who hates everything I believe in and the way I'm raising my children (awesome). It's not so bad when he comes with my sister or his girlfriend but he's coming by himself this time and I'm bracing myself for an attack and possibly having to throw my only brother out of my house, which pretty much sucks!
Then we have a dead something stinking up the walls and I've spent all morning calling pest control and handy men to find someone who will actually remove it, instead of cleaning my house for my upcoming family visit. I have a party I'm throwing on Saturday (You're all invited, I swear...we just sent out the invites last night, though) and I'd love it if my house didn't stink and I don't have to host a party on my lawn.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

This is a rant.

Hi ladies. I miss all my Texas girls! I have something I need to get off my chest, and I can't do it on my regular blog. And I'm hoping it fits here, even though it will be much like preaching to the choir.

I am experiencing something here in California that I don't remember coming across once the whole time we were in TX. It's the backhanded support/takedown all in one. Case in point:

This Friday, my family is leaving for Disney World. We planned this back in January, and have been saving for it for longer than that. It's our 10th anniversary celebration, and we decided to do something with the kids; eight days at Disney World. Extravagant, I suppose, but 10 years is a big deal!

You know what I heard from sisters in TX when they heard about that? "Wow, that's so neat!" "Oh, you guys are going to LOVE it!" "How fun for you!"

Know what I've gotten from my BFF and others out here? "Oh my gosh I HATE you!" "Oh, Miss THANG is gonna go live at Disney World!" It's always said with a wink and a smile, and obviously they're teasing, but cripes! I think women (and especially LDS women) have it hard enough without adding petty envy thinly disguised as "harmless" sarcasm.

I'm not a frivolous person. In fact, my husband likes to tease me about my pragmatism. We try to do fun things occasionally, but it's always planned out and budgeted. It bothers me a lot when I get teased about being a big spender. That part is my own problem, I know, but I think it would be a great service if more women treated each other like I was treated in TX. It's also a lesson I learned from an older sister of mine while I was growing up:

If your friend/sister/neighbor is excited, be excited for and with her. If she's happy, be happy for her. Be selfless. We all have our turns. Sometimes you're flying high and you can afford to be easily happy for someone else's good fortune. Sometimes life stinks, and you can still be happy for others, and hopefully they'll be there for you in return.

That's my rant, and now I'm done. Thanks, Ami, for giving us a place to "talk" with others Girls. :)

Monday, August 4, 2008

Nerves

My big appointment is tomorrow morning. I'm so nervous. I've never done anything so big like this by myself. Jason's always been right by my side and he can't get away tomorrow so I've had to figure it all out and prep myself for what's coming. Well, this isn't the big, big appointment...it's the big appointment where they make sure I'm ready for the big, big appointment. It's nerve wracking to think that in 3 weeks I'll be officially sterile. That's it. No more child-bearing years...not that they've been that great to me. It's the finality that's getting to me. At 28 I will no longer be able to have another baby. It's a little hard to swallow.