My first show...whether I wanted it to be or not!

We ventured out to the beach today, like so many other people did! I went to the beach Tuesday and Thursday and there were not nearly as many people out those two days like there were today! The other two days I went, I wore my apron back tankini, it has an open back. Today however, I chose to wear my black and white tankini which has no straps, it's more of a tube top! I wanted to let the strap lines I had from my other bathing suit get some sun.

Cade is scared of the ocean, I think it could be the waves he's scared of, although I'm not 100% sure. It's funny he is scared of the ocean because he isn't scared of the pool or the bath tub. He will climb into a bath tub by himself, turn on the water and plug the tub! He also has no problems climbing into a pool, whether an adult is with him or not! I will say it does make going to the beach with him easy since he stays away from the water! The waves weren't very big today, it was definitely calm compared to yesterday. Since it was so calm, I decided to take Cade into the water, past where the waves were breaking. The beach we went to today had tons of shells in the water, right where the waves were breaking. It hurt trying to get past that part because there were so many, I guess my feet are tender. When a wave broke it would send shells crashing against my feet and shins and that didn't feel really good either. But once we made it past the breaking waves it was calm with just tiny waves coming in from the ocean. We were waist deep, although when a wave came in it would rise to about chest level. Cade was a little whiny, not liking the waves that came in, but the purpose of going out there was to help him over come his fear! We stayed out for a little while and then I ventured back to the shore with him.

I spent the next couple of hours tanning in my chair and watching Cade! While he doesn't venture towards the water, he will venture towards people, especially if they have food! He'll walk up and look at them and it never fails, they always give him whatever it is they are eating! I think he must have an, "I'm really cute, can I please have what you are eating," face that he puts on or something! I do try to keep him away from people! But he is a very busy little boy out there! And usually the people he walks up to are people he's already been walking up to because he is so curious and they go on and on about how cute he is! He really is a big hit at the beach! The other day this guy was throwing trash away and Cade was watching him as he did it. As the guy threw the trash into the bag Cade started clapping, which is what we do at home! The guy thought it was so funny! It was just a little later when he was eating and Cade walked over to investigate! He walked away with a Capri Sun! I probably don't have to worry about lugging a cooler out there any more! He could just pan handle off the beach goers! Actually they think he is so cute they just want to feed him!

Just before we were going to leave I decided to take Cade into the water again. Going out before did nothing to help his fear! He wouldn't even stand on the shore where the waves came in after they broke! This time I waited till really small waves came in to break, I had learned my lesson before with the shells! I started in and made it past the breaking waves. Just in front of me my two nephews, Caleb and Patric, were out on their boogie boards. As I headed to them I saw a bigger wave coming in, this wave began to crest a bit too early! It broke right where Cade and I were, sending me tumbling towards the shore with him. All I could think was, "don't let go, don't let go, don't let go!" I was afraid of losing Cade in the wave, I didn't want that to happen. I did my best to try to keep us somewhat above water as this wave had us tumbling about. Cade of course was screaming in between going in and out of the water. I managed to hang on to him and survive being thrown around in the ocean. The wave had broke early and had sent us back towards shore. I started to stand in order to try again, but as I did I realized that my bathing suit top had been pulled down in the chaos of being thrown about by the wave!

I immediately dropped back into the water and tried to fix my top! But unfortunately that wave had pushed us right to the very spot where all the waves were breaking! So as I was trying to fix my top a wave broke and sent us tumbling again! All I had to do was stand up because the water was very shallow, but if I stood up I would have been exposed to all the beach goers! My dignity was so great that it would not allow me to do that! Another wave came crashing down on us and then my bottoms were pulled down a little, so I definitely wasn't going to stand at that point! I had Cade with one arm and with the other I was try to scramble to fix myself before another wave broke! But the waves were coming in so fast that I could never quite get myself together before we were sent tumbling again. My adrenaline kicked in as I fought to keep us both above water, while trying to tug at my bathing suit, and keep the entire beach from seeing me naked! I began to panic just a little bit as Caleb happened to come in on the next wave that came crashing down on us. I yelled at him to had me his boogie board, he kind of just stared at me. I asked again for it and told him to take Cade. I'm sure he could sense the panic in my voice as I yelled at him. He took Cade who was at this point screaming from being bashed over and over by the never ending waves. I held the board in front of me as I again tried to fix myself before another wave broke. But the waves just kept coming in and breaking, knocking me and my bathing suit about. Tara had been standing on the shore just in front of me, totally unaware of what was taking place, because she was in the middle of texting someone on her cell phone. The crashing sounds of the waves were so loud that our screams could not be heard. I screamed at Tara to come help me. I don't know what she could have done, maybe stood in front of me so that I could have had something blocking me...I don't know. As she looked at me and took notice of the situation, she did as any true friend would have done, she busted out laughing at me! It was great!

Here I was with my bathing suit top pulled down and my bottoms not in place either! All I had was a boogie board that I was holding in front of me, which for some reason I kept trying to wrap around myself, but those boogie boards aren't very bendable! The waves just kept coming, I had but seconds in between each one to try and fight with my suit before the next wave knocked me over again! It began to seem like a hopeless situation! And my best friend in the whole world was up on shore laughing at me! Ok, I can't say that if the situations were reversed I wouldn't have been laughing at her!

Over and over again I was knocked around. I struggled against the waves pushing me forward and the receding force of the water as it tried to suck me back into the ocean. It was a struggle to maintain my position against an almost simultaneous pushing and pulling while at the same time trying to fix myself! Just as I would get one side of the suit in place another wave would come in and knock both me and suit around, my efforts were almost pointless!

I have no idea what happened, whether the hand of god came down from the heavens and stilled the water, or there was just a long pause before the next wave broke. But miraculously I managed to get the top and bottom of my bathing suit in place and stand! I could hear the angels singing hallelujah as I stood! I staggered in towards the shore, my body tired from the struggle. I did all I could do, I threw my arms up on either side of me and kinda leaned forward like I was taking a bow, with a big smile upon my face! I wasn't sure if anyone took notice of the show, but if someone had, I wanted to bow!

I walked back to my chair and collapsed into it, it was then that I realized that my bottoms were full of tiny shells! I could feel them poking me! As I sat there I began to feel the stinging of all the tiny cuts I had scattered about on my legs. As I looked my legs over I could see little amounts of blood escaping the cuts I had from the shells on the ocean floor!

Luckily I managed to escape that situation with out being butt naked on the beach...but I think it's safe to say that Cade will be terrified of the ocean for the rest of his life!

When we got home the first thing I did was shower! As I peeled my suit off the clattering of shells falling out could be heard! You should have seen my bathroom floor it was covered in tiny pieces of shell! At the very least I got a really good exfoliation courtesy of the ocean!

Brownie the Dog - A Touching Tail~

We hear stories of pet adoptions all the time. A family finds a dog and brings their new pet home. But how do we know if this pet really likes their new family? You never hear of a dog choosing their family.

I have a tail to tell about Brownie the Dog. A dog who went on a search for her new home and found the very best family a dog could ask for! She took matters into her own hands!

One morning right before Easter I woke up and started my normal routine. I let the dogs out and noticed a puppy standing outside. I of course wondered where she came from, but didn't have time to investigate. I had to make sure Kai was getting ready for school and get the baby dressed and fed. We finished getting ready and we went outside to head to the car. This puppy was very friendly and greeted us as we walked out. She even followed us to the car and was as sweet as she could be. I backed out and didn't expect to see her when I returned home. I dropped Kai off at school and headed to the gym. I returned home and there this dog was laying on my door step!

I thought for sure she must belong to someone in the neighborhood. I just knew someone would come looking for her. But no one ever did and she never left the yard! Instead she played with the kids and our other dogs and looked as happy as any dog ever did! The kids eventually named her Brownie, probably because she was brown, but the name stuck. And so did she! She never left. She slept outside and was always ready and waiting anytime we went outside. Weeks passed and still she never left and no one ever came to claim her. Tara finally bought her a bright pink collar and we invited her into our homes. Sometimes she stays at my house and sometimes she stays at Tara's house. We have shared custody! LOL!

I have never seen a dog more happy to wear a collar than our Brownie! Of course the pink collar isn't too pink anymore! It's dirty from swimming in our pond with the other dogs!

I don't know where Brownie came from or who she could have belonged to. I think she may have even been dumped in the neighborhood. Who knows. But I think Brownie was wondering around when she came upon our land. She saw that there were other dogs and kids that she could play with. She was fed and had a place to sleep. She even had a pond to cool off in and woods to explore. I think Brownie saw our property as a kind of Dogtopia! And so she adopted us as her new family.

She is a good dog! She knows the command 'sit' and she seems to be house trained for the most part. She is very loving, although sometimes she forgets just how big she really is! She doesn't realize that her size is capable of knocking Cade over! When she first arrived we had a problem with her knocking Cade over when she greeted him! She would run up and jump on him, knocking him over, and then she would lay on the ground in front of him and try to snuggle up close to him. All the while Cade would be crying because this dog just jumped on him and knocked him over! We finally got her to quit doing that. She didn't mean him any harm, she just didn't realize how big she was!

So that is how Brownie the Dog found a family and that has to make us the most special family around...because a dog chose us!

Brownie found her 'achuna matada'...no worries for the rest of her days!

The North Carolina Coffee Cup Massacre!

Have you ever seen something that just didn't make sense...and your eyes are seeing it and sending the message to your brain, but your brain is like, "hey stupid, what you are seeing isn't possible!" And your eyes are like, "ummm yeah it is, haven't you heard, 'seeing is believing'!" So while your eyes and your brain fight, you have neurons or something misfiring in your head...and you stand there all confused and looking around for something that makes sense? Yeah, me too! LOL!

I was mowing the lawn...unfortunately the grass just keeps growing and doesn't realize I have a 19 month old baby I must keep up with! But we were doing pretty good! I was mowing and he was playing right in the area I was in. I had a little kiddie pool set up, so he was in and out of that. I had just a little bit of water in it, since when mowing you are going back and forth and it is nearly impossible to have your eyes on a child at every second. But the area I was mowing was a small one, just the little part in front of my house. So I was never very far from him and I kept a constant check on him.

It was just before lunch and I had just finished mowing. I was putting back the chairs to my lawn furniture and a couple of other things that I had moved in order to mow. Again, if I had my back to Cade I was constantly checking behind me to make sure was he ok.

I had just slid a chair under the table and turned to get Cade and go into the house. So as I turn and start to walk towards him, I noticed he was walking towards me and staring down curiously at his hands. He was turning his hands and looking at something that I began to realize his hands were covered in. I then noticed that his legs, chest, and arms had this same substance all over them. Then my heart bounced in my chest as I realized that it was blood.

But the situation didn't make any sense, he was quite covered in blood, but he wasn't crying. There was blood every where and yet there was no worry, panic, or tears of any kind coming from Cade. He was just staring curiously at it, as if it were finger paint or something. My eyes darted around the yard looking for anything to help me make sense of the situation. Quite frankly if someone has that much blood on them, well they should be crying! That should just be a rule! Covered in blood...ok cry! I wondered to myself if I had perhaps hit the dog with the lawn mower and she was bleeding to death. But nothing was out of place and there were no signs of anything that could explain the scene before me. The whole thought process only took a matter of seconds and my brain was just not comprehending what was going on.

I hurried to him and began checking him to see just where the blood was coming from. He had so much of it I couldn't tell where it was coming from. As much as there was I just knew there had to be a gaping hole somewhere on his body. I stripped him down to his diaper and still had no idea where he could be bleeding from. So I rushed him into the house and into the bathroom. I put him in the tub and began rinsing him off in order to find the source of the bleed. He was standing in front of the faucet and had his right hand on the side of the bath tub. His hands were so bloody that the side of the tub was smeared with blood. I used a cup to rinse his body, so there was blood splashed about the tub. Had anyone walked in at that moment, they surely would have thought it a scene from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre! Never at any point did he cry, so I just couldn't figure out what he could have done. I never found the gaping wound that I was sure I would find.

I soon found the source of the bleed, it was his right thumb. He had a vertical slice on the ball of his thumb, not directly in the middle, but to the outside right. It wasn't more than a few centimeters long. Blood was coming from the slice quite fast, so I grabbed a towel and applied pressure to get it to stop, which took a few minutes. I couldn't believe so much blood had come from such a tiny wound! After the bleeding had stopped I tried to determine just how deep the incision was. I would have never taken him to the doctor for such a tiny cut, but because so much blood had come out, I kind of thought it must be deep. It wasn't gaping so I had to apply just a tiny bit of pressure on either side in order to open it. But when I did that blood would spurt out. I couldn't tell how deep it was, so I determined it was deep enough to see the doctor. I put a band-aid on him and then wrapped his thumb with medical tape in order to keep pressure on it. I also didn't want him taking the band-aid off and messing with it.

I called the doctor's office and explained the situation. They of course told me to bring him in right away because if he needed stitches that was something that needed to be done as soon as possible. I was sweaty and dirty from mowing, not to mention the smears of blood on my arms from carrying Cade inside. I wiped myself down with a wash cloth and changed clothes. Then I dressed Cade and left for the pediatrician. I have never ever left my house looking as I did. My hair was wet with sweat at the top of my forehead and the base of my neck. I appeared sweaty in general and my feet and legs were dirty. I wore flip flops while mowing, which I know is a no-no, so my feet were clearly dirty from being sprayed with the fine debris that came out from under the mower. While it wasn't a life threatening emergency, it was something I couldn't take time to shower and beautify myself for. So I looked like white trash from the sticks when I walked in. To top it off, Cade's Nike sandals were wet because he put them in the pool, so he was barefoot! We were a sight!

I checked in and was told to go sit in the chairs behind the reception office. That was good because I knew I was going to be seen pretty fast. I also wouldn't have to sit in the main waiting room with people staring at me and wondering why I came to a doctors appointment all dirty! So I sat down with Cade in my lap and for the first time actually started to relax a little. After a couple of minutes of just sitting there something really weird happened. I was suddenly over come with some serious emotion! I just had an overwhelming urge to cry my eyes out. It took everything I had to control my emotions and not break down and cry. And I couldn't understand why! I knew the cut wasn't so bad and I knew Cade was ok, it wasn't a life threatening injury. Looking back, I think I went into auto pilot when I saw Cade covered as he was with blood. I have never been in a situation where so much blood came from one person. So I think when I finally arrived at the doctors office my auto pilot shut off and my body took up where it left off. So I suppose crying would be a normal reaction if you saw your son covered in blood and didn't know where it was coming from or how bad it was!

It wasn't long before the nurse called me into a room and had me strip him down to a dry diaper. I had to take a minute and compose myself so that I wouldn't lose it when I had to explain the situation to her. She weighed him, took his temperature, and asked me a couple of questions. We were then sent back in the room to wait for the doctor. It took a little longer for the doctor to come in. She came in and of course asked what happened as she unwound the medical tape from his thumb. I explained what had happened and felt like the worst mother in the world since I really wasn't sure what he could have cut himself with. I truly was never more than a few feet from him and had a pretty constant eye on him. I just couldn't figure out how he could have cut himself and had enough time to smear blood all over his body because I was right there! But the blood was rushing from his thumb really fast!

The doctor determined it wasn't too bad, but it wasn't exactly something that could just be left to heal on it's own either! He is only one and the cut was on his thumb. The doctor went to get the PA who she told me does all of their stitching. The PA came in and determined that putting a stitch in his thumb would probably just rip him further because it was on the ball of his thumb. So she cleaned the wound really good and applied glue all around his thumb, being careful to keep it off the cut. She then applied butterfly strips to help keep it closed so it could heal. She then wrapped a little bit of gauze, the kind that sticks to itself, around his thumb. He sat there the entire time just watching her as she did it. She told me that any other kid his age would have five nurses holding them down so she could do it. She said, "he's very curious." I was thinking, I know..tell me about! That's why we are here! He is too curious for his own good!

She then wrapped his hand up so he couldn't remove anything she had just put on his thumb. He didn't like that part so much, but he still didn't have to be held down! She thought for sure he would have the gauze off in no time. But he actually adapted and moved on! He didn't allow his bound up hand to hinder him too much!

I had planned on removing the gauze on Monday. But he was very restless and had been messing with his hand in his sleep. So about 4:30 in the morning on Monday I cut the gauze off! I don't know why she thought he would be able to get the gauze off, I tried peeling it off and couldn't find an edge! So that's why it was cut off! I removed the gauze on his thumb as well as the butterfly strips because I knew he would take them off anyway! The cut on his thumb wasn't shut all the way. Actually it appeared as though it had closed but re-opened because of the moisture. His hand was sweaty when I took the bandage off. So I think all the gauze was hindering the healing process. He even had sores on the knuckle of thumb, the webbing between his thumb and hand, and the top of his wrist. I am assuming it was from his hands sweating all weekend.

We went back to sleep and by the time we woke up again his thumb had scabbed. It's hard to believe that there was so much to-do over such a tiny cut!

It was a clean cut, straight into the thumb! I later scoured the yard for signs of anything so sharp he could cut himself. I came across a coffee mug that belonged to my sister-in-law Tara, who lives right next door to me. The handle had been broken off and one of the edges pricked me as I picked it up. It didn't cut me open, but I could tell that it was sharp enough to! I found the coffee mug in the pool. So my best guess is that he picked up the mug and threw it into the pool. I can't imagine why it broke because it was a plastic pool on top of grass! But I think that he probably leaned over and tried to pick up the handle which then sliced his thumb. So we had to talk to Tara's boys about leaving cups outside that the baby could get a hold of and cut himself with.

Never a dull moment I tell ya!





The picture below is a good picture to give you an idea of just how close we were. I stopped the mower right there by the pool, which is where he was. I had planned on moving the pool and mowing the grass after I put everything back. The bush on the right is a rose bush which sits right next to Tara's house. I was on the other side of that bush putting something back, the side closest to the pool. Just to the left is where my house sits, which you can't see. So really we weren't so far apart and it didn't take me that long to put everything back. Not to mention I stopped the mower right by the pool which is where he was and I never saw him with a coffee mug or bleeding! Kids are fast!

More Monsters of the Yard...GOSH!

This is not for the faint of heart! If you have a weak stomach...proceed no further! Perhaps I am just over reacting, but then again...no, because I feel sick to my stomach now!

Cade and I spent the entire day outside. Him playing in the pool and me tanning in my lawn chair. I finally laid him down for a nap a little before two. I went back outside and fell asleep on my lawn chair on my stomach...so now I have the oddest tan lines on my arm because my head was laying on it! But that's not the bad part!

Duke, my sister-in-law Tara's dog, stayed outside with us most of the day. Tara is out of town for a wedding in Virginia...So I am on dog sitting detail. After Cade woke up, I went inside and we both showered. I put a diaper on him and remembered Duke was still outside. So we both went outside so that I could let Duke in his house.

I let Duke in his house which is right next door to mine....not very far at all! I came walking back towards my house in just enough time to see Cade start to put his fingers in his mouth...but there was something dark, kinda a purplish color on his fingers. I grabbed his hand before his fingers could make their way into his mouth! Upon further inspection I noticed that this same substance was also on his face, splattered about in various places, his forehead and nose, as well as on his chest and his other hand. I was looking at him and wondering what he got a hold of. So thinking out loud, I said "a berry"...This of course made me nervous because there are berries on many trees around my house, we even have raspberries growing. So my first concern was what kind of berry it was, I know some are not for human consumption. So of course I start looking around the area where we were. One of my patio chairs was right next to him. I saw a large round something sitting on the chair. What ever it was had burst and I could see the same color inside this "berry". But it was an odd color on the outside, a grayish color, it was so large it looked like a big blueberry or perhaps a small grape.

My first thought was that it was perhaps decaying and that would explain the odd color. I was still holding Cade's arm by his wrist, so I picked up this berry thing and told him lets go and proceeded towards my door. I was heading inside to clean him up and throw the berry away. I looked down at the berry to figure out what it was and more importantly where it possibly could have come from. As I turned my hand to get a look around the berry, my stomach jumped into my throat!

Realization struck...I looked down at Cade and said, "EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW....Cade....oh Cade....ewwwwwwwwwwww" as I hopped up and down. It wasn't berry juice spattered about...it was blood! That "berry" was no berry at all, it wasn't even a species of plant...it was the largest, most bloated tick I have ever seen in my life! I didn't even know they could get that large! I flinged my hand out in order to toss the little blood sucker away from me....it made me even more sick when it stuck to my thumb. My knees were coming up high one after the other, kinda like I was running in place, as I hopped around shaking my hand in order to GET IT OFF OF ME, saying ewwww the whole time! I call it the "hibby jibby" dance, the stationary version of course! I did the hibby jibby dance that day with the snake...but that wasn't the stationary version, that was the fight or flight version, of course in that case I chose flight! LOL!!!

As soon as the tick finally flung off, I grabbed Cade and went running inside! The whole way trying to control my stomach, as the thought of him picking up that tick and obviously squeezing it so hard that it burst ran through my head. My head was literally spinning! I washed him up with antibacterial soap, nearly in tears.

The funny thing is that, he found my reaction funny. So the whole way he was saying, "ewwwww" and laughing and trying to hop like me.

I went outside with a napkin to retrieve the little monster so that we didn't have a repeat of the little blood bath. I was thinking, maybe I saw it wrong, that couldn't have been a tick. That was way too big to be a tick...So I glanced at it again after picking it up with a napkin...Nope IT WAS A TICK ALRIGHT!

I am still disturbed! I have this thing with ticks. We live in a wooded area, so it's not uncommon to find them on the dogs. But I always have Tara remove them because my biggest fear is trying to take one off the dogs and having it burst....So that is why this disgusts me so very badly! Because one burst and Cade almost....I'm not even going to say it...

I just don't think my stomach can ever recover from this! I don't think I will ever eat again in my life! It reminded me of a story that my Mema and Papaw told me that involved my Dad (when he was little) and a frog...and two bricks...I don't know which is worse...

The things kids get into! I just don't see how in the world he could have found that stupid tick in the yard! Granted it was rather large, but that's almost like finding a needle in a haystack! So Gross! Being a single mom is great! I should probably just name my blog...Adventures of a Single Mom...Cause I would not have retrieved that tick if I didn't have to! I would have sent a man to do it! LOL! I am a girl, I am a wimp, and I have no problems admitting that!