personal blog
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Have you seen the new BornFree Twist and Pop Straw cup? Not only are these cups cute, they are spill proof and like everything BornFree makes they are BPA free.
Jill had a great idea to use these sippy cups as party favors for her son’s second birthday. You can check out her cute table set up using the cups on her website.
Since the Twist and Pop cups are a new product you might not be able to find them in your local store, but they are available on the BornFree website. I am really excited to try these with Cora, as she has had so many feeding issues. She prefers a straw to a sippy, but our current cups make a huge mess!
These cups would make a great birthday gift for the one year old in your family! BornFree wants to help you celebrate by giving away 5 Twist N’Pop Cups and 5 Trainer Cups to one of my readers. WOO HOO! I know how much you all love BornFree so I am excited to host this giveaway.
To be entered to win these 10 cups from BornFree leave me a comment. Giveaway ends Wednesday August 4, 2010.
Thanks for hanging in there with my Week of Repeats, the packing is going well. I have two young ladies from church coming over tomorrow, so I should be able to get a lot accomplished with the extra hands! This post was originally published on my personal blog July 18, 2006. If I remember correctly we were about one month in to the deployment at that time and I had settled into my role as Mom to Conqueror.
Today was a wonderful peaceful morning and as I sat in my chair feeding the baby a wasp flew in. Okay… well the first half of that statement is a complete lie… but I would love to have a peaceful morning!
Actually, my neighbor woke me up to let me know that we didn’t have any water, then the kids woke up one by one, and begin the morning cereal ritual. Basically it involves me pouring immense amounts of Honey Nut Cheerios into bowls and then watching the starved children devour an entire box of cereal in one morning. I can’t wait until they are teens!
I then played patty cake with my two year old for about 15 minutes. That is about 7 minutes longer than anyone should have to repeat this rhyme. But she was happy.
Kids ran in and out the front door as I yelled to remind some of them that they didn’t have pants on and that they still needed to get dressed. Finally I settled into my chair to feed the baby. All was well.
Then began the -in and out of the back door- routine that occurs for most of the day. My almost 10 year forgot to shut the door and within a minute a huge wasp flew in.
Chaos begins…
I start screaming for a fly swatter. No one can find it. Cupboards are turned upside down in hopes of finding it. More running in and out, which provokes more yelling from me to shut the door, lest we allow the entire family of wasps in the living room.
Finally, my 12 year old daughter rolls up a magazine and starts hunting the wasp in the living room. My son and I are shouting directions at her. At this point I am in full combat mentality. I want that wasp dead. I am not going to allow it to terrorize my family, and heaven forbid come anywhere near the baby!
I finally trade baby for rolled up magazine. (of course the baby is completely asleep for all of this!). This wasp is tricky. It flies in my pottery (it knows I wouldn’t dare take a swat at that). It flies under a giant paper whale hung on our wall (another story…), it flies behind the computer, on the ceiling, finally it makes it’s fatal mistake and lands on the ground. I begin to beat this wasp with all my might. Kids are shouting and cheering. I signal for my son to get a paper towel so we can flush the remains. I have saved the day.
Happy has asked me to write about this part of our story. I’ll try to do my best to explain what happened when she asked me for a divorce and the aftermath of that phone call. If you are new to my site you might want to read the previous chapters in Our Story before reading on.
Happy let me know that we’d been living separate lives, more than the miles required. I hadn’t been writing her and although I was able to call pretty regularly we rarely discussed anything important. She lived her life in Florida with our daughter and I lived mine in Panama with work and whatever diversion I could muster. We had no basis to remain married and Happy made it clear that she wanted out.
I didn’t know then why I fought the divorce but there was no way I was going to let this marriage end. I didn’t know Happy or my daughter but I was determined to give the marriage my all and fight for it until I knew I’d spent everything I had to save it. Looking back, it seems so illogical and without any hope. (Aside – Writing this part of our story is even now convicting me that my passion and dedication has waned over the years. What I felt then was extreme sadness and loss but that motivated me to action. I need to regain some of that drive and serve my wife and family with the same zeal I had when I thought all could be lost)
I got leave from my command and flew home the next day. I don’t remember the ride home with Happy but I’m sure it was either frosty or hot but surely not cordial. We continued to fight for the next several days about whether we would divorce, how we would go forward and whether there was a future at all for us.
Happy told you I was an atheist. After the constant fighting and occasional cursing session from me, Happy’s parents suggested we meet with a Christian counselor. I was at my wit’s end and agreed to give it a try. The concepts he suggested to me seemed a little odd but I accepted the books he gave me and read them. Two of the books I remember are: Larry Crabb’s Inside Out
Both books had a profound effect on me. Smalley’s book outlines how a Christian is to live for his wife. He covered servant leadership and referred me to scripture to support his claims. I recall reading Ephesians and thinking how backwards the ideas seemed to me. I threw up my hands and decided to try some of the ideas out in our marriage – I mean nothing else seemed to be working.
Later I read Crabb’s book and leaned about the need for internal change rather than external coverings over the same selfish heart. I knew I couldn’t be selfless on my own power so I realized I needed something, someone, greater than me to lead me to serve my nascent family. I discovered that I wasn’t the end all be all of an evolutionary process but a child of God who hadn’t been serving Him and couldn’t serve my wife and daughter without Him. I’d been nearly broken by my failed marriage but He gave me the lifeline I needed to be redeemed from within and then he showed me what I needed to to do to redeem my marriage. I became a Christian because those ideas that seemed so foreign to me worked. I tried to serve my wife in the ways the Bible teaches and began to see a change in my heart and hers. It was counter-intuitive, I worked to deny my selfish desires and to serve her and my daughter as much as I could. Something strange began to happen in me. The more I served them, the more I wanted to serve and the happier I became. I felt the flickerings of true love start in me. I have to be honest, I wanted to love Happy and be loved by her but until I met Jesus I didn’t know how. Don’t get me wrong, God showers His blessings on believers and non-believers as He sees fit. I’m not saying that non-Christians can’t love, I’m just saying that its a lot easier to love when you’ve met the source of all love.
Let me be clear, I’m not perfect and I’m not even close to be best husband and father in the world. I get angry and say stupid things all the time. I fall back into selfishness and don’t do near enough for my wife and kids. What Happy saw in me was and is not from me. It is only God’s work in me that she saw then and that I need to let shine forth for now and forever.
Thanks for letting me share a part of my side of our story.
Writer’s note: This is the story of how I became The Happy Housewife. I am writing as I have time and try to publish a new chapter every few weeks. This page will be updated when I write the next chapter. If you don’t want to miss the next installment you can subscribe to my blog.
A few weeks ago I was asked if I wanted to try some BornFree bottles for Cora. I was using Dr. Brown’s bottles because I liked the vacuum tube, which reduces fussiness. When I found out BornFree had a similar system, I decided to take them up on their offer.
BornFree bottles are BPA free, which is very important to me as a mom. If you are not familiar with the issues surrounding BPA in plastics here is an excerpt from a Scientific American podcast.
Why should you care? Well, BPA is a component of the polycarbonate plastic in eyeglass lenses and DVDs among other things. And high levels of it have been linked to heart disease, diabetes and liver failure in humans, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.
In fact, the National Toxicology Program warns that BPA may cause babies to develop abnormally. The Canadian government went so far as to ban it in baby bottles as well as listing it as a toxic substance. But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency maintain that BPA is perfectly safe.
Congress, for its part, is considering banning the substance in some products. In the meantime, note that items made from BPA are typically marked with a number seven. These plastics should never be microwaved or exposed to hot liquids—heat can dissolve BPA into what you’re drinking. Better safe than sorry.
I fall into the better safe than sorry group and am trying to eliminate BPA plastics in our home. Especially ones that touch our food.
Personally I liked the shape of the BornFree bottles as they are short and fat. This means they are less likely to tip in the fridge and with 16 hands reaching in there on a regular basis, bottles tend to get knocked around. They also fit nicely in my cooler bag, which was a problem with the taller Dr. Brown’s bottles.
The BornFree bottles also have one of those, who knows how it works but it does, valve and vent system to reduce vacuum build up and help reduce fussiness. The nipple on the bottles is more natural (sorry, couldn’t think of any other way to describe it), and seems like it would work well for breastfed babies who take an occasional bottle.
Over all, I really like the BornFree bottles. They are easier to take care of and clean compared to the Dr. Brown’s bottles and are dishwasher safe. Cora seemed to like them too. I wanted to get a picture of her using the new bottles, but then I realized I am the main photographer and feeder, hmmmm.
I realize that BornFree bottles are not the cheapest choice, but it is important for me to buy a bottle that reduces fussiness and is BPA free. Everything BornFree makes is BPA free and this weekend all the products on the website ship for free in celebration of Father’s Day. They sell everything from sippy cups to teethers and even glass bottles!
The generous folks at BornFree have gone a step further and are offering two of my readers BornFree gift packs. Included in this gift pack are four bottles and a sippy cup. Even if you don’t have a baby, this would make an awesome baby shower gift! To enter the giveaway leave a comment. For a second entry tweet about this contest and leave a comment. This contest ends Tuesday June 23rd Cora time.
Here are a few tips that were emailed to me by a reader when we were on our Disney vacation. I completely agree with the fireworks/ ice cream idea. Main Street is a madhouse after the fireworks.
Animal Kingdom- if there is a big crowd going INTO Animal Kingdom, go into the Rainforest Cafe Gift shop- walk all the way to the back – on the other side there are turn styles to get into the park – no one ever uses these.
Magic Kingdom – if you stay to watch the Fireworks, here’s a couple things; if your kids can hang out a little longer – get some ice cream at the ice cream shop on Main Street, then sit at the tables and watch EVERYONE leave, once everyone is gone, you’ll get to see the lights on the castle change and then go off.
If you need to leave with everyone else and need to ride the monorail – If the main monorail is crowded – go to the one that is for the resorts. It goes to the transportation center anyways and it’s a lot less crowded ( a good tip if you have a stroller).
Speaking of the ice cream shop – they make GREAT ice cream sandwiches that are bigger then the ones you buy at the carts. You can easily feed two or more people off one sandwich.
If you have extra time during your visit. Get over to the Beach and Yacht club (either by walking from Epcot or driving in and telling them you want to eat at the soda shop) Go to the soda/ice cream shop that’s out by the pool – Order the kitchen sink – it’s about $20 some dollars but can feed more then 6 people. It’s EVERY ice cream and topping they have. They ring a bell and announce your family name and say what your about to eat. It’s a lot of fun.
If your at Hollywood Studios and want some good coffee drinks or cheap snacks – stop in the book shop/coffee shop next to the Sci Fi Diner. I like to go sit in there with a coffee and cookie while my family goes on Star Tours or the Muppet show for the upteenth time.
Note: From now on dh will be referred to as Sailor. If you are new to my site you might want to read the previous chapters in Our Story before reading on.
After our three weeks together Sailor left for Panama. For several weeks we called and wrote letters talking mainly about our newborn daughter. She was an absolutely delightful baby which was good since I had no idea what I was doing. When she was seven weeks old I went back to school full time and she spent three days a week at the babysitter’s house. During evening classes she hung out with my family and never lacked for attention.
As time went on Sailor and I drifted slowly apart. His letters came less and less often until they stopped coming all together. I busied myself with school and friends and adjusted to life as a single mom. I still wrote regularly with baby updates and mailed videos of her swinging in her swing or sitting in her chair, but only because I felt obligated.
Finally Thanksgiving weekend I decided it was time to have a talk with Sailor. I called him and told him I wanted a divorce. We were two different people, with two different lives, and we had nothing in common. Wasn’t it better just to call it all a big mistake and move on? Sailor didn’t see it that way at all. Even though he had stopped writing he still had a daughter whom he cared very much about, he wasn’t about to lose her…
He told me there was no way we were getting a divorce and if I proceeded he would fight me for custody of our daughter. This upset me terribly because she didn’t even know him, he had only seen her for 3 weeks of her life. How dare he try to take away MY daughter. To make matters worse he informed me that he was purchasing a plane ticket and would be arriving the next day so we could work things out.
In my opinion, there was nothing to work out. This had all been one big mistake, it was better to move on with our lives than to continue. Nevertheless he arrived the next day with plans to stay for a month.
Much to my surprise my parents were completely behind Sailor, they did not think we should get a divorce and were determined to help us work it out. They even scheduled several sessions with a counselor they knew from church. This caused me to grow even angrier as I now felt the entire world was against me. I really believed it would be better for my daughter and I to start over, it could not be good for a child to grow up with two parents who didn’t even like each other.
At our first counseling session I steeled myself in the chair with arms crossed determined not to show one ounce of emotion. I answered the questions with one word and listened as Sailor claimed to want to work things out. I thought to myself that he was only doing this to get back at me for wanting to take his daughter, he says one thing to the counselor and then does something else when we are together. With each counseling session my bitterness grew and grew.
Finally at one of our last sessions (before Sailor was to return to Panama) the counselor gave sailor a stack of books to read. He told Sailor that he must read them in order for our marriage to work. I remember thinking that no book in the world was going to make our marriage work, but at least I didn’t have to read anything. School was starting in a few days and I would have plenty of homework to keep my busy. The counselor also told Sailor he would need to write me a letter once a week once he was back in Panama. Sailor assured him that he would, while I knew there was no way he would keep his promise.
Finally Sailor returned to Panama and I was free once again. I knew it was only a matter of time before he went back to his old ways, once he didn’t have my parents and the counselor checking up on him. At the end of the first week I was surprised when I found a letter from Sailor in the mailbox. I was even more surprised when I opened it and found out that he had been reading some of the books the counselor had given him.
As the weeks went on more and more letters arrived in the mailbox. Sailor was eagerly reading every book the counselor had given him. I was hesitant to believe he could change. During this time Sailor received new orders. He We would be moving to a small town in West Virginia.
Was I ready to move away from the safety and security of my family? What about my degree, I only needed 30 more credits to graduate. Would I be moving back in with an angry man or had he really changed? And what about our little girl? Was I ready to be a full time mom without the help of baby sitters, grandparents, and an aunt and uncle?
What change had occurred in Sailor, that made me think I should give this marriage another try?
Writer’s note: This is the story of how I became The Happy Housewife. I am writing as I have time and try to publish a new chapter every few weeks. This page will be updated when I write the next chapter. If you don’t want to miss the next installment you can subscribe to my blog.
This is Our Story, or the story of how I met my husband, got married a few weeks later, and eventually became The Happy Housewife. This story has a beginning, but no end… yet. I publish a chapter every few weeks, so if you don’t want to miss an installment subscribe to my blog.
As I sat on the airplane a feeling of relief swept over me. There was no sadness, not even regret, just relief to finally be free of my problems (or so I thought). My relief was short lived as shortly after everyone boarded the plane I heard my name being called over the intercom system. It was at this point in my life that I realized why innocent people run from the police. I knew I had done nothing wrong, but I didn’t want to come to the front of the plane. What could possibly be the problem? I was not going to get off that airplane, I was leaving and no one was going to stop me.
After about 30 seconds of contemplating not identifying myself, I realized I did not want to spend the night in jail in a foreign country (not sure why I thought I would end up in jail) and I made my way to the front of the plane. Once I reached the front they told me there was a problem and that I need to go to security. I could not believe this was happening. I was led off the plane and through the airport where eventually I ended up in a room with several security people and all my luggage. My luggage was not the nice black stuff with wheels and zippers either. It was old with clasps that made a clicking sound when they were shut, except the clasps didn’t work so well so we had duct taped my luggage together so it didn’t fall apart.
The duct tape had been cut off and my luggage was open and they were going through all my stuff. I felt like this was all a very, very bad dream, but it wasn’t, it was real and happening to me. Then a female security guard patted me up and down as I watched in horror as they tore apart my luggage. Finally after several minutes they decided I was not a threat I was told I could reboard the plane. My luggage however was in total disarray and I began to accept the fact that my stuff might not make it to Miami.
I arrived in Florida and quickly settled back into my old life, well except for the fact that I was married and pregnant. I spent my days hanging out at my parent’s house (I had no car) and my nights watching basketball on television with my dad and a few friends. Dh and I spoke occasionally on the phone, but I did write him a letter almost every day (remember life before email). I am not sure what those letters said, I think I just felt it was my duty to write them. The more time that passed the more we grew apart.
As time came for the baby to be born we made arrangements for dh to fly to the states. I decided it would be better for him to arrive after my due date just in case the baby decided to come late. Thank goodness I did that because my due date, June 20th, came and went. By June 21st I was miserable. By June 25th, I decided that I wasn’t ever going to have the baby. By July 1st I was desperate. I arrived at my appointment with plans to beg and plead for an induction. It was July in Florida and I was miserable!
Fortunately my doctor decided to check me to see if I was ready to be induced. I was 5cm so he sent me to the hospital to have the baby. When I arrived at the hospital there were no available beds and since I wasn’t in labor they wouldn’t admit me. The nurses encouraged me to go for a walk to help move things along and I would be admitted. I walked for 15 hours! From 9 am to midnight my mom and I walked the mall, the hospital, the parking lot and every place else we could think of. Every few hours we would return to the floor where they would send me away because I wasn’t in “active labor.” Finally at midnight after walking the entire day plus not eating my mom put her foot down. She told the nurses they either needed to admit me or send me home, but those were the only two options.
They admitted me.
By that time I was completely exhausted, my feet ached, and were covered in blisters from walking all day. They decided to break my water and surprise, surprise we had a baby 45 minutes later.
Our little girl was born 14 months after we got married. We were officially a family.
Dh arrived in the states when she was three days old and for three weeks we “played house.” I think the constant, feeding, pooping, and crying (me not the baby :), distracted us from the myriad of problems I had left down in Panama. For three weeks things seemed alright. Perhaps I had made a mistake in leaving, maybe things weren’t as bad as I thought. We were two adults, surely we could work out of differences.
Now that there was another person involved, things suddenly became a lot more complicated.
We decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and visit one of our local parks. Today we visited Quiet Waters Park, in Annapolis, Maryland. This park is beautiful with miles of biking/ jogging trails, lots of open fields, a few small playgrounds, one large playground, as well as boat rentals in the summer and a museum.
There is a fee to enter the park in a car, but admission is free for military and dependents.
Here are a few pictures of our afternoon.
Sculpture Gardens
Isn’t it funny how you can take a kid to a park and all they want to do is run up and down the stairs?
A small pond with ducks and turtles, I wonder if you are allowed to feed them?
Winding roads
Excited about something…
Loving the park…. Sleeping like a baby 🙂
Lots of space to throw the Frisbee.
We will return soon.
Cora continues to improve each day. Feeding her is a struggle because she is a very sleepy baby but she did gain 2 ounces so she now weighs 5 pounds. Still not up to her birth weight, but we go back on Monday for another weigh in. The good news is her bilirubin levels dropped and we were able to take her off the biliblanket!
This is awesome because it means we actually get to hold her and she is not attached to anything! I never thought that would be a big deal, but it really is.
She had her first bath on Wednesday night. I decided she needed to have all the remnants of the tape and bandages from the NICU removed and they were pretty sticky. She didn’t love her sponge bath, but she didn’t hate it either. She really loved being wrapped in a warm towel once it was over.
One of my readers was kind enough to send me her daughter’s outgrown preemie clothes, which was a total blessing. Cora has been getting tangled up in all the newborn stuff and I was worried she could hurt herself (not sure how, but I am a mom, I worry) wearing her current wardrobe.
Here are a some pictures from the past few days.
Last moments on the biliblanket.
Free!
Nice and alert after her bath (I don’t know why I wasn’t smiling, I really was in a good mood).
Loving the warm towel.
Snug as a bug ~ Dad is the best swaddler in the world!
For those of you who read my blog for all the tips and advice, don’t worry I’ll be writing about other stuff soon. Amazingly there are people who know me in real life who still chose to read my ramblings so this is an easy way to keep everyone updated on our sweet Cora. Until then, please enjoy the great guest posts from some of my readers.