Karma

I angered the Karma gods today at Target. It was bad enough that I was there shopping on Christmas Eve, but I figured I was okay because I was shopping for some props for tonight's Christmas Eve service. However,I did the bad shopper thing and stashed an item on a shelf where it didn't belong because I was in a hurry and too lazy to take it back to its proper place.

Bad move.

As I left the parking lot I realized that they had charged me for 3 bedding sets instead of 2. An overcharge of $50! Yikes! I had been in such a hurry that I didn't notice that my bill was wayyyyy bigger than it should've been. Oops. Karma's payback was me having to haul my "too-busy-to-do-the-right-thing-self" immediately back to Target, finding a parking spot, standing in the return line and feeling remorse for not doing the right thing in the first place.

Why does God have such a great sense of humor?

--Laurel

Grand Theft Auto

Travis has been full of bits of wisdom today. Here are two examples:

"Mom, if you don't have a license, you don't have any money. If you don't have any money, you steal a car. Since you don't have your license, you drive it in the wrong direction. Then you'll get a ticket. That wouldn't be good."

Should I be worried that he's thinking about stealing cars and not having any money at the age of 4?

As we were headed to his Dr's appointment in Newport Beach, I proudly showed him the hospital where he was born (Hoag). Travis's response:

"I was born in Newport Beach? Cool! Then I must speak English!"

I won't touch that one with a ten foot pole!
--Laurel

Dr. Travis

Travis came home with a bag of Christmas goodies from his friends at school. One of the items was a Superman wand filled with tiny pebbles of gum. As he shook them out to share with us, he gave us the sage advice to only eat 5 or 10 pebbles at a time. When quizzed as to why he gave this statement:

"Because if you do, you'll end up in the hospital like Mommy!"

If I had only known that chewing too many pieces of gum was my problem--that would've saved me alot of trouble!

Dr. Travis Baker everyone...he'll diagnose all your problems for you with one fell swoop of his 4 year old intellect.

--Laurel

Just a Note

I don't have much to say, I just got tired of looking at the last post for so long. I'm working on a big "Thank You" post, but that will have to wait for a couple of days. (My brain is working better than yesterday, but not quite ready to put together large blocks of thought yet.) So, yes, I'm alive and yes, I'm doing well. I'm just trying not to do too much...kind of hard to do when you're a mom of 4. So, until my next post...take care and enjoy the sunshine! (For all my socal friends.)

--Laurel

Too many rocks and too much water

These past few weeks have been fun around the Baker house. "Fun" as in one weird illness after another. Of course we've gone through your typical cold virus's and stomach flu's...but we went a step beyond this time. Let's just say we're giving our health insurance a run for its money at this time. I am so thankful that we have it!

A couple of weeks ago after a pre-Thanksgiving dinner with friends I ended up in massive pain, curled up in bed with a heating pad on my back. I thought maybe it was just a back spasm. Nope. Gallstones. Joy! Since then the pain comes and goes, but it definitely isn't going away. I get my gallbladder laparoscopically removed on Monday morning at 10. Thankfully, it's outpatient surgery and the recovery time is incredibly short compared to the oldfashioned way of removal. The downside is that it's right before Christmas. The upside? I'll be able to eat more than just bread and mushy apples. I've lost weight on this diet, but I'm seriously coveting pizza right now. The word "pizza" alone conjures up images that make me drool. Yeah...it's that bad. So hopefully, in a couple of weeks I can enjoy a slice of pizza again.

Now the more heartwrenching story of the two...

On Monday morning, I walked into the boy's room just as Travis was waking up. As he rolled out of bed, he gave a pitiful cry and was unable to walk. The poor kid could barely even crawl. My heart totally sank. It was absolute deja vu. When he was 2 he developed a viral infection of his right hip that had the same symptoms--inability to bear weight on his right leg, let alone the ability to walk. Fast forward to this past Monday, I dragged him to the Dr. and of course by the time he got there he seemed perfectly fine. However, when she checked his hips he seemed to wince a little bit, but we thought that was more due to a possible injury of his knee. She told me to get an X-Ray on Wednesday if he didn't get any better.

On Tuesday it was worse. He couldn't even flex his hip let alone walk. When we picked up him he couldn't even wrap his legs around our waists--it hurt him to much to even be held normally. I took him in for his X-rays a day earlier than prescribed and they found excess water on his right hip. By the end of the day he still had his limp but was gearing back to his normal behavior.

This morning he's back to his wildman ways. I'm sure he's going to be okay, but it's aweful to see your kid go from being robust to being completely dependent on you for everything. He has an appointment on the 22nd with the pediatric orthopedist....in my honest opinion its a revisit of the synovitis of his 2's. I never realized that having a "cold in your hip" was a real thing. With Travis I've found it be true.

So there you go...I've got too many rocks and Travis has too much water. You can just call him "Tiny Tim" and me well...just don't call me late for dinner after my surgery!

--Laurel

Unkind Surpise

I have nothing more to ask of my boys than this: Please hit the inside of the toilet bowl when you use the bathroom. There's nothing like sitting on a wet toilet seat. Yes. It is disgusting, thank you. To those of you out there who have girls only...consider yourselves blessed. If you have a boy I empathize with you--I have three of them!

*Shiver*Gag*

--Laurel

Goin' Fishin'

At this precise moment there isn't much to blog about in my life. The kids are wasting their minds watching empty cartoons. Billy is off at work and I'm wasting time on the internet.

Like I said. Not much to say.

I swear each day is like fishing and waiting for a blog story to bite. Some days are slower than others, and occasionally there are days you can't keep up with the catch. Let's just say today has been a kick back and snooze in the boat kind of day. So, on that note, I'm going to go take an actual nap...that's always guaranteed to create some sort of chaotic breakout good for blog fodder. We'll just have to see.

Until then!

--Laurel