Kelsey (Holy Mama!) is writing a book and is asking for what she calls "book research". She wants to know if anyone has ever had to have their ring cut off by medical personel. Here is what I emailed her:


I had only been home from the hospital about a week from giving birth to my second child. I was home alone with a 2 year old and a newborn. Hubs was at work in another town about 30 minutes away. I was getting dressed for the day and saw my wedding rings in my jewelry box and decided that most of my pregnancy "swelling" had gone down and it would be safe to put them back on. (I guess I should tell you that I had gained 70 pounds!!!! during my pregnancy thanks to daily trips to Sonic for fries and a hot fudge sunday. My fingers had started to swell around my 4th month so I had to take them off then, which mortified my mom every time I saw her. "People are going to think you're not married and have two kids out of wed-lock!" she would tell me. Sorry ma.) So I see the rings in my jewelry box and remember what my mom kept telling me so I put them on, all three rings (the actual wedding ring and two bands). As soon as I put them on I knew I shouldn't have. What was I thinking!?!?My fingers still looked like fat little sausages. I knew I needed to get them off NOW!
So I start calmly but gently tugging away. That didn't work. I grab a bottle of lotion, lather my entire arm in it and pull. Again nothing. Only now my finger is turning a deep reddish color. So I run downstairs into the kitchen and grab a bottle of dish soap and douse my finger in it and try twisting and turning those cursed rings! They aren't gonna budge. By now my 2 year old watching my with big eyes and the baby is crying and hungry, wanting to nurse. And now my finger is a weird shade of purpley-red. And it's sorta numb. And I cannot see the bands on the underside of my fingers. And my entire hand is throbbing. I start to panic. I called my husband. "Cut it off" he says. I know we do not own anything strong enough to cut a ring off, besides some hedge clippers. Haha No way. So the only thing I can think to do is load my 2 year old (who is still in mis-matched p.j.'s, with wild hair and a dirty face from breakfast) and a screaming hungry newborn, who needs a diaper change, into the car and drive myself to the E.R.
I make it there in less than 5 minutes and march in there with my crew and plop my fat purple finger up on the counter and tell them I need to see a doctor. NOW. I sign my name on the paper and continue to just stand there. Waiting. Surprisingly they take me back right away. I'm not sure if it was because I had a "true" emergency or because my 2 year old and newborn were screaming their heads off. The triage nurse looks and my finger and had the nerve to ask me what happened. Well, duh! Can't you see that I tried to put my rings on when I knew they were still too fat?? By now I am in tears too. It hurt. and I was scared. She takes me to a room 2 seconds later a dr. comes in with some tools. He takes my hand and proceeds to bend my now very dark purpled finger back so he can see where the rings are. OOWWWWCHH! He then pushes this tool up under my ring and it clamps down hard on the ring and then SNAP. He pries the first one off my finger. And then he does it two more times. Finally some relief. But I still couldn't feel my finger and it was still purple. The dr. reassured me that the feeling should come back with in an hour but it might be bruised for a while. I fed and changed the baby before we left the hospital and then we drove home. I called my hubs (and a few other people) and told them about my day. Everyone laughed their heads off at me. I didn't see what was so funny. I lost my wedding rings and almost my finger. I didn't see the humor in any of it. My finger stayed bruised and sore for almost 2 weeks. I had some broken blood vessels that were pretty gross looking but other than that, I was fine. I got my rings fixed but it was another 8 months before I would try them on. My mom just had to get over the fact that I looked like I had two kids out of wedlock.

Conversations with my kids

Micah-3yr. and I were walking into Wal-Mart and I had a tight hold on his hand and he says to me "Mommy! You're choking my hand!"


Tyler-5yr.: Mommy, what was your name before you were a mommy?
Me: My name was Amber. And that's what other people still call me.
Tyler-5yr.: Oh. Can I call you Amber, too?


Brooks-8yr. comes running into the house and announces, "I have the power of healing! Micah just threw a brick at me and it didn't even hurt!"

Micah singing Bon Jovi's song "Shot thru the heart":

Chocolate a heart!!! (Shot thru the heart)

And you're toooo late!!!!!! (And you're to blame)

Narlin' you give love (Darlin' you give love)

A bad day. (A bad name)

He sings this so much that I catch myself singing it right along with him, his words and all!

I'm back, again...

Our computer got struck by lightning a week ago so I have been unable to get on the internet. Up until yesterday when we replaced the fried-up modem, I've been wondering around in circles, wringing my hands, wondering what to do with myself since I couldn't get on the net and read blogs. Not Really. Actually, I have been very busy. I did miss getting on the computer but I've had a lot going on these last few weeks to keep my mind off not having a computer. So here is another long update.

~I finally got into the eye doctor and I can finally see again!! I got new contacts and I even ordered some glasses to have just in case I might need them. I swore I wouldn't wear them b/c I'm not a big fan of having something on my face but I have been wearing them a lot more than I thought I would. See, for cheap plastic glasses, they're not so bad.

~I ran another 10K (6.2 miles) last weekend. I did OK considering it was VERY hot and there were some other issues. This topic will get it's own blog entry because I've got a bone to pick with the race directors.

~Sunday we went to JM's parents church (the same one we left) so he could see his dad who had just gotten back from Bulgaria and to see his mom on Mother's Day. Then we drove down to my parents house were the whole family was there, except my dad, who is in Kentucky working. The whole family hasn't been together since Christmas so it was nice. JM took the older boys and my brother to see Spiderman 3 so it was mostly just us girls and my mom. While the boys were gone, Jamee and I made dinner for everyone. We all ate and sat around talking until it was time to get back on the road. That was probably the last time we will all be together like that for a while.

Here's the whole family in front of the house we grew up in. It's official. The house is sold and my parents are moving.

~I'm not a big believer in Mother's Day (I think you should honor and love your mother everyday, not just one Sunday a year) but my kids still got me a very sweet card and a beautiful necklace that Blake-10yr. picked out. Those kids know how to melt my heart!

~My brother left for South Dakota this week. I think he is going to be working at the zoo but he's not sure. He just wanted to get the heck out of Mississippi after he graduated and he loves S.D. so that's where he went. I already miss him.

~We went Memphis for Blake's appointment with the allergist to find out why he is still breaking out in hives all the time. It was a long trip and one I'm sure Blake-10yr. wishes he could forget about. I loved the doctor, he was very laid back but very through, asking us every detail of Blake's daily routine. They did the food and environment testing on him (59 shots in his back!!!) and it showed nothing. He has out grown all of his previous food allergies he had when he was a baby. I felt totally helpless standing there watching them stick my boy over and over, him jerking with every stick. After the 5th stick, he broke into tears and so did I. To make it even worse, they had to stick him 4 more times to see if he was allergic to himself. You read that right. You can be allergic to yourself. Who knew? Anyway, he's not. So they stuck him yet again and took 4 viles of blood to be sent off to see if he has any underlying problems (like mono or lupus) that could be causing the hives. Then we were sent home with 3 different types of meds, another Epipen, and Blake with a very sore back and arms. We go back in 6 weeks. Blake says no way.

~Brooks-8yr. and Micah-3yr. stayed in Columbus with my mom Sunday thru Wednesday night. It was so much quieter in the house without my loud, energetic little Mikey. Chandler-8yr. is also gone to visit his Mamaw in Arkansas for a few weeks. So I only had three kids Wednesday. I didn't know what to do with myself. Blake suggested that we go to Toys-R-Us. So we did. And I actually had fun and didn't have migraine when I walked out of there 2 hours later.

~Without going into too much detail I'm going to tell you what has been keeping me so busy. And stressed out.

My sister.

I love her but she has so many problems. I want to help her but she doesn't want the help. She is Chandler's mom. My nephew who has been living with us since November. She has a daughter that she has already had taken away from her and now she is going to get Chandler taken from her. I don't know what else to do. I even let her move in with us so she could get her life straightened out and get away from that psycho creep she calls her boyfriend. That only lasted 4 days, I kicked her out yesterday. My only concern is the safety and well-being of my nephew. He has already seen, heard, and been thru so much. He misses his mom but she won't act like a mom. So I'm going to fight for him. I just hope I'm doing what's best for him.

~That about sums everything up. I think hubs and I are going to be able to get out of town for a quick getaway this weekend. We are just going to be gone Sat. and part of the day Sunday. He has a job to do up near Memphis so I'm going to help him and then we can enjoy some much needed time together. It will be fun.

Camping Pics from 2 weeks ago....

Remember I told you about my 22 year old brother coming up a few weekends ago and babysitting this crew of 6 on Friday night and then taking the older 4 kiddos camping Saturday night? Well, here are the long awaited pictures!

Sunday JM, I and the little kids came out to the campsite and then we went on a long nature walk looking for a good place to fish. We never did find a good spot but we all sure had a lot of fun!

Mitch (my brother), Micah-3yr. and Chandler-8yr. getting their poles ready for some fishing:

Following Daddy:

Shelby-6yr. being Daddy's girl:

Miss Know-It-All

Here is a little conversation I just had with my sweet daughter.

Shelby-6yr.: Mommy, I want to be just like you when I grow up.

Me: Why? I'm not so great.

Shelby-6yr.: YES you are!!

Me (smiling): Really?? Ya think I'm great?

Shelby-6yr.: I don't think, I know.

I've been having issues with my contacts lately. I need to get into the dr. for a check-up so I can get a new prescription and order a new box of contacts since I have none left. I'm down to wearing only one contact in my right eye. Not good considering I'm extremely near-sighted and I can't see anything unless I squint real hard and hold whatever I'm trying to see right in front of my face. And no, I don't have any glasses to wear. I don't like them and won't wear them so I don't waste my money on buying them but now I wish I had an emergency pair for times like this. I've been one-eyeing everything for over a week now. Again, not good but I can't do anything about it until next week when I go to the eye dr.

To make matters worse, my left (and only) contact started bothering me this morning. My eye was watering and I couldn't stand it any longer so I had to take that one out too. So now I am completely blind as a bat while my contact soaks in some solution for the day. I have had that thing in my eye for over 2 weeks so it was time to take it out. I know, I know. I take such good care of my eyes.

The kids all know how blind I am. I've told them how everything is just a big blurry blob and I have a hard time seeing faces. So Blake-10yr. and Brooks-8yr. thought it was a perfect time to play a trick on me. They had already gotten dressed for the day. Blake-10yr. in a white shirt and Brooks-8yr. in an orange shirt. I was at the computer and I called them to come do something for me. They came in the room (but were still standing far off so I couldn't "see" their faces). I said something to Brooks and Blake, while wearing Brooks's shirt, answered me. Uhhhh........what's going on?? Then I realized that they were trying to trick me into thinking Blake was Brooks and Brooks was Blake. They were just giggling their heads off, thinking they had fooled me. Sorry guys, I may be blind, but not that blind.