Tag Archives: Burbs

Tweet Tweet, what’s that sound?

All of a sudden, I am hearing twees, chirps, buzzing, and dings left and  right.  What the heck is going on here?  I can’t keep up!  From twitter, to Groupme, from Facebook, to Whatsap, everytime I open my phone there are at lease 18 new notifications.  You would think I’m overwhelmed by the constant inflow of social media alerts.

Nope, not I!  I thrive in this constant communication.  Knowing that I’ve got things to do, people to respond to, and taskes to complete keeps me on my toes

I wake up in the morning with a list of goals to accomplish.  Now-a-days it seems like my list is longer than ever, but that just means more structure.  This type A mom thrives in structure.  Calendars, lists, charts, and spreadsheets are my Christmas.

As I move along responding to those tweets, chirps, dings, and buzzes, I think, “Hmm…what a great blog post!”  Along with the soon to be written post on public restrooms, recipes, and toilet paper.  Don’t miss any of it.  If you want to stay on top of those quick instant posts, follow me on Facebook or Twitter.

Until I write again,

MamaRupp

 

 

Why was that mom crying?

This afternoon, we decided to kill the 2.5 hours that my daughter was in school by hanging out at a nearby park, instead of turning around and driving the 20 minutes back to our house for us to turn around again and drive the 20 minutes back to pick her up.

me at the top of a giant jungle gym made out of ropes

It was like every other park day.  There was nothing special or different, except since this was a new park, a much bigger park that I’d only been to a few times before, I kept my cane with me the entire time.   We climbed, ran, explored, and made friends with other mommies and kids.

Jack at the top of a hill with a multistory treehouse in the background

As we walked to our car when it was time to leave, we passed a mom with her little boy who were also leaving the park.  The mom was crying as she said, “Sorry I’m so emotional, but she’s so beautiful.”  It wasn’t until we’d passed her up a few parking spaces that I realized she wasn’t talking on the phone.  She had been talking to my husband about me.

Neither one of us could figure out why she was crying.  He’d caught her watching us earlier while we played.  He said it looked like she’d already been crying.  Maybe she was having a bad day?  Maybe she was overcome with empathy while watching a blind mom play with er son?  Maybe she has someone in her life who’s recently gone blind?  I don’t know, and I can’t stop wondering.  I also can’t help feeling like she somewhat felt sorry for me.  Perhaps that’s why her comment about me was directed to my husband instead of directed to me?

Think Love, Be Love

I saw this photo on Facebook this morning and just had to share it.  This week threw me a few curveballs that could have left me angry or discouraged. Instead of letting those initial emotions take charge of my reaction to the situations, I interpreted the situations as a chance to turn my passionate personality into a powerful one with action instead of reaction. I choose to live life with love in my heart, create and emanate positivity, and shun away all things related to anger and hate.

Dr. Wayne W. Dyer also shared this photo saying,

“Think of the people you know who give love in response to negative energy that’s directed their way. There aren’t many people who respond lovingly in that situation. The ones who do are able to because they have love to give away. They know that it’s impossible to give away what they don’t have, and they’ve gone that extra mile to acquire what it is that they want to both attract and give away. If love and joy are what you want to give and receive, then begin by taking stock. What have you got to give away? What are you giving out to the universe, and thus, what are you attracting? Remember that you can’t give away what you don’t have, but you can change your life by changing what’s going on inside.

Low energy attracts low energy. Low energy thoughts, such as anger, hate, shame, guilt, and fear, weaken you. And they attract more of the same. By changing your inner thoughts to the higher frequencies of love, harmony, kindness, peace, and joy, you’ll attract more of the same, and you’ll have those higher energies to give away.

To begin to change what’s inside you, become more loving toward yourself. In your thoughts, cultivate an inner voice and attitude that’s 100 percent on your team. Imagine an inner self that only supports and loves you. You might schedule a certain time of day when that’s the only thought that you allow yourself to pay attention to. Gradually this loving attitude will extend to other people. You’ll begin to receive this energy back and ultimately be able to send thoughts of love and joy to everyone and everything in your world.

Make a pact to remind yourself often of this secret of not being able to give away anything that you don’t have. Then work on your personal program of self-love, self-respect, and self-empowerment, and create a huge inventory of what you wish to give away. If what you give is self-respect and self-love, the universe will return the love and respect you’ve been radiating. It’s really so simple. As the Beatles said: “The love you take is equal to the love you make.”

Finding Time to Blog

I apologize that it has been over a month since my last blog.  I started Blind Mom in the Burbs last April.  At the time, my son was only six months old and my daughter was two and a half.  Our computer was in the back corner of the family room.  Now, My son is sixteen months, daughter is almost three and a half, and the computer is in the music/workout/computer/den in the very front of the house.  You can only imagine the difference a year makes.

Finding time to blog when you are home alone with two toddlers, is like finding time to breathe when you are under water.  It’s practically impossible.

Let me tell you about my morning.

My husband and I are on our second week of a 45 day cleanse.  This means, for 45 days this mama cannot eat pork, eggs, dairy, gluten, drink alcohol, on a strick eating schedule, and to top it all off, NO COFFEE.  I am going to be honest.  Last week was tough.  I started off my first day of NO COFFEE with a horrible hangover from going out the night before for a friend’s birthday.  Now that the coffee withdrawals are gone, I have found that burst of energy I was told about, and I feel great!

So with my newly discovered energy this morning, I decided to put away the laundry, tidy up the kids rooms, clean the play room, and scrub the bathrooms before a play date this afternoon.  I just assumed both my children were in the family room watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  I should have  known better than to assume.  After a little while I went in there to check on them, not finding my son I immediately knew where to look.  As I turned the corner down the hall towards my bedroom I could hear the water running.  When I got into my bathroom, I found he had climbed up the tub, onto the counter, and across the sink (the sink we’d turned the wather off to since he had been found sitting in there before with the water on full blast).  He had made his way across the counter to the other sink and turned on the water letting it run over my lotion bottle, soap dispenser, and a glass candle (which he must have broken when dropping it in the sink.  When I went to pick him up, he had a piece of glass in his hand a scraped it across my cheek.  I usually keep all of the bedroom doors closed when he’s awake, but like I mentioned above, I was in the middle of cleaning.  Thankfully all of the broken glass was mostly contained in the sink, and he had no cuts on him.  My cheek is fine.  That is just an example of how that little booger keeps me on my toes.

Please don’t think that I am complaining.  This is merely an explanation of why I have not been blogging.

Any and every time I sit down, whether it be on the couch, ground, or computer chair, my kids think it means it’s time for them to climb all over me.  They are at such an adorable age.  I just can’t justify shewing them away so that I can sit at the computer.  They are only this little for so long.  Before I know it they won’t want anything to do with me.  Oh geese, I’m getting all teary eyed just thinking about that.  So for now, I am spending all of my energy keeping up with my two active toddlers and making sure to fully absorb all of the love they have to throw at me.  This doesn’t mean I’m not going to blog anymore, just not as frequently, because by the time those little ones are ready for bed, so is their exhausted mama.

30 Days of Thankfulness; Day 6

November 6, 2012

I am thankful for the angels disguised as nurses this day three years ago in the Labor and Delivery Unit of Summerlin Hospital.

At my 39 week prenatal appointment I was informed by my nurse that I could schedule an induction date if I wanted to.  So of course, being the schedule freak that I am, I jumped right at the chance.  My biggest fear about going into labor was that it would happen while the hubby was fighting a fire and I wouldn’t be able to get a hold of him.

It was a Thursday.  Jokingly I asked my doctor, “How about tonight?”  He scanned his calendar and replied, “OK come in at 8:00pm.”  My husband and I exchanged nervous glances in realization that he wasn’t kidding.  As we left the office, I called my mom in Northern California to tell her to start heading to the airport.  In the next few hours, we managed to clean the condo, go out for pho, drop our dog off at a friend’s house, and pick my mom up from the airport.  I checked into Summerlin Hospital’s L & D unit just before 8:00pm with no clue what the next seventeen hours would be like.

It all started off so calm and relaxing.  The room smelled of lavender from the air freshener I’d brought.  Soft smooth melodies from our birthing playlist floated in the background from the iPod.  Friends came and went.  We didn’t know the sex, but there were two names scribbled  on the dry erase board, Marley James for a boy, and Marley Jane for a girl.  Then some time in the middle of the night it all changed.  The contractions became unbearable.  My body must not have handled thpain meds or the epidural very well.  I got so cold that my teeth were chattering and my knees were rattling.  No amount of fuzzy socks or blankets could warm me up.  My blood pressure dropped to 60/20 and I had to spend the rest of my time in labor wearing an oxygen mask.

Then at 1:12pm on Friday November 6, 2009, after an hour of pushing, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.  But something was wrong.  She wasn’t crying.  I had about thirty seconds of skin to skin while the doctor cut the umbilical cord.  I was so out of it all I remember was my husband kissing my forhead and telling me, “Great job Mama.  It’s a girl.”  Somewhere in the room, angels disguised as nurses were with my baby.  They were saying, “Come on Marley, breathe baby, breathe.”  I couldn’t let myself panic.  Weak from labor, I just let the tears roll down my cheeks as I listened for what seemed like an eternity until the sweetest most delicate cry broke free as my daughter grasped for her first breath of air.

I don’t remember those Angels names, but I am forever thankful to them for being there to help my baby girl breathe her first breaths that day.

30 Days of Thankfulness; Day 2

November 2, 2012

I am thankful for my friends I’ve made since moving to Las Vegas

It is not always easy when you are a blind mom in the burbs of Las Vegas.  This isn’t the most pedestrian friendly city.  Between the hot tripple digit summers, the wind storms, the freezing winters, I can’t exactly walk everywhere with my little ones in their double stroller.  There have been many times I’ve called friends to pick up milk, diapers, or even just to come over and read me the dosage directions to a new box of medicine.

When the word got out about the wreck, concerns and support came pouring in.  Everyone wanted to know if there was anything they could do.

The stress of my hubby’s accident kept me in a sour mood for days.  Once my friends found this out, they all made it their goal to put some sweetness back into my mood.

I don’t have any family in town, so knowing there are friends who I can call at any time of day or night for any particular reason helps to make Las Vegas feel like we live in a small close knit community.  We take turns watching each others’ kids.  We borrow each other’s clothes and jewelry, We share recipes.  We go out for drinks.  We gossip over coffee.  We throw each other birhtday shindigs and showers.  We hand down our children’s clothing.  We understand that sometimes things come up.  We don’t judge or criticize, but rather offer comfort  and hugs.

I wish all of my friends could live in the same city as me, but then there’d be no reason for me to visit SF, Austin, Tampa, Seattle, Virginia, Hawaii, China, Sweden and everywhere else in the world.