Mom’s Babbling | One Moms World Mom Blog - Jen Houck

Heavy Heart Tonight in Florida

November 13, 2007 By Jen 12 Comments

Do you see those happy faces on my mom and dad with Madisyn at her preschool graduation? I am missing that right now.

For all that don't know we made the move from NC to the Tampa Bay Area at the end of this past June. I thought this was the best move for us and would help Scott career wise and help Lyndsee with her Asthma. We were so happy to do the move!

Fast forward almost 5 months now. I am loving this area we have moved to. We are in a great neighborhood and close to anything and everything we ever wanted. Well so why the heavy heart Jen?

My parents are in NC so that is about 11 hours distance away from here. We are a close tight knit family and have always been. We call each other several times a day and usually seen each other about every other day and would go out on weekends together to do a variety of stuff. The girls loved going to see their YAY YAY and Paw Paw, so this has been a drastic change being a way from them. I thought I was doing pretty good with the distance apart until I started getting wind of what my dad was going through!

It just breaks my heart to know he is so down in the dumps, just feels like there is no life left in him since his pride and joys are so far away from him. He calls throughout the day to talk to me and the girls and you can just tell in his voice the pain he is going through. I talk to my brother and he sends me IM's during the day saying Dad isn't right Sis. He just paces the floor and says life just isn't worth it . I am crying writing this. That is my dad everyone… and I am causing the pain that he is going through. Do you know how bad that hurts? I never once thought he would experience this pain or he would be dealing with the situation this hard. I am worrying so bad that what if something happens to him, I am going to be the cause of it? I would never ever let myself get over that. I have always been a daddy's girl. Don't get me wrong, I love my mom dearly, but she has momma's boy (my brother) and I just have always been daddy's girl.

When he calls and says I miss you and love you sis. It just isn't the same without you here. I try to deter the conversation to talk about other things, but is just doesn't work. Why does this have to be so hard? Why did I think the move to Florida was best for our family? Why did I not think of other's emotions? Why am I so freaking stupid? All the Why's… that will probably never be answered.

Dad, I just want to say… I am sorry. I didn't mean it to be this way. You know I love you with all my heart and look up to you so much. I would never intentionally hurt you in anyway or make your life miserable. You have done so much for our family and was such a hard working man to provide for the family. This is your retirement years and life suppose to be enjoyable and not miserable. Will you ever forgive me Dad? I promise to make this right. I just don't know how right now, but hopefully I will see the light and God will steer me in the right direction. Please know the girls love you and YAY-YAY and they will never forget you. They talk about you all the time and I make sure to bring up the different stories you have experienced with them.

Dad please put chin up and let's get through this together. It's helping me write all this out too… even though the tears are flowing, its helping! Remember we are all here for you no matter what. Love your one and only girl!

If making my dad feel like this wasn't enough, I have my step-daughter back in NC as well. Now you might think since I say step-daughter that we have a rough relationship. It's actually the totally opposite. Yes at first it took an adjustment period, but now we have the best relationship any step-mother/step-daughter could have. We talk about everything and she knows she can come to me for anything. My girls love her so much as well and miss her dearly.

I was on IM talking to her tonight and she said:
"like no lie if i never got another gift for Christmas in my life i would just be fine i miss my family so much"

That was hard to read that. What have I done? KK… this is to your big girl… I love you dearly and we miss you so much with your crazy self. Only 30 more days and you will be here and we can all party like there is no tomorrow. I am sorry for taking your dad across the states, but just know we thought this was such a great career move for him. You know I would never ever intentionally hurt you or make you sad. I only want to protect you and love you. You make us laugh, you make us cry, you make us smile just by all you do and the love you have for us. You know we want you here so much, but I know the schooling thing is once in a life opportunity for you. I'm so happy that you are sticking this out, but the other part of me is sooo sad that you can't be here with us. I'm praying God will show us the light on what to do so we can be one big happy family again. I love you missy mae and never forget that. Like I have always said we are just a phone call and airplane ride away ok? Missing you.. Love your second mommy!

See why such a heavy heart tonight? It helps so much to journal this and getting it all out of my feelings tonight. I love all my friends and family and thank you all for being there for me during this time. Life just wouldn't be the same without all of you in it and I mean that with all my heart.

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Filed Under: Mom's Babbling

Autumn Is in The Air

October 28, 2007 By Jen 4 Comments

Cool crisp nights, leaves changing colors, sitting around the fireplace for game nights…

:pinch: A girl can dream right? Can you tell I'm missing the wonderful fall days in NC?

But hey we are still swimming at the beach and in our shorts and t-shirts so beat that NC peeps. HAHA… just joking. Just had to have a little fun tonight.

We had one busy weekend. My parents surprised me by coming down for the weekend. It was good for us all. My girls missed them a lot, you could really tell. I'm sure Yay-Yay and PawPaw had an awesome time hearing Madisyn's singing debuts and Lyndsee's comical debuts. I don't think we have laughed so hard in such a long time.

We experienced trunk or treat at the church and then also had the fall festival here in our development that was put on by the HOA. Madisyn was having a huge blast with it all but Lyndsee made sure she stayed close to mommy or big sissy!

You know I love this time of year when the holidays come about. It just brings a whole new meaning to family I believe. I love seeing my girls eyes light up and having fun at the fall festivals and trunk or treat. Then I know Thanksgiving will be next then Christmas. I LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT! Its a busy time of year that's for sure, but that is what I crave and I love all the hustle and bustle. It just warms my heart.

Here is a couple picts from this weekend's festivities:

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Filed Under: Mom's Babbling

Beating The Rush Hour Traffic

September 27, 2007 By Jen 5 Comments

This morning made me even more proud that I get to work at home. You see my brother has been living with us for a bit and has decided to go back home to NC for a while. We went online yesterday and bought him flight tickets and we picked the earliest flight available because we knew the traffic would probably be bad.

I rise and shine at 5:30am this morning and get the girls and I ready and we are out the door by 6am. His flight leaves at 8:00am and we are only about 20 minutes from the Tampa Airport. Well gooooood golly. That 20 minute drive turned into a hour and 40 minute drive. I couldn't believe it. The traffic was bumper to bumper at 6am this morning and then all kinds of wrecks everywhere so this meant fire trucks and ambulances trying to get through. I was like oh my gosh where do I go to let them by to get to the wreck. I was literally sandwiched in four lanes of bumper to bumper traffic. Lyndsee is freaking out on me. She has this love/hate relationship with her carseat well this morning was her hate relationship, then she cannot stand loud noises so the sirens were just making things worse. AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

I kept thinking Dear Lord, please let me always be able to work at home, because Jen would have a darn heart attack if I had to go through this everyday. I just don't get how peeps can do this every morning. The hubbs does it and he never complains. Maybe you get use to it I don't know, but that traffic was just insane.

I just knew he was not going to make his flight. We get to the airport and practically are running through with his luggage. I felt like we were in some kind of movie. The girls are cracking up at us. We get to the ticket kiosk right as they were putting up lane closed for his flight. PHEW! They took him Thank GOD! So we said our good bye's and tears. (I LOVE MY BROTHER SO MUCH, We will miss him). He was off on his flight and here the girls and I get to go back on the wonderful road. I thought surely traffic would be less by now. Nope, we got to do the hour and half drive back home too with bumper to bumper traffic sigh!

Rush hour I will beat you because Jen hopes and prays she does not have to do join you again anytime soon .

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Filed Under: Mom's Babbling

America Being Strong For Others

September 19, 2007 By Jen 5 Comments

I found this video on another blog tonight and it gave me chills and warmed my heart so much. You just don't know how I am so glad to see America embracing this gentleman with disabilites. Instead of making fun of him, they joined in with him to finish singing.

You see it was Disability Awareness Day at Fenway park. This gentleman that was singing is autistic and he got tickled in the middle of the song hehe, well the crowd just joined right in with him and helped him finish the song. Watch the video and see how this was such a fantastic way to warm my heart to see Americans do this.

Click Here To Watch the Video. Share your comments below!

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Filed Under: Mom's Babbling, Mom's Brag Moments

What Is My Accent

September 14, 2007 By Jen 4 Comments

Everyone knows I can't deny my accent .

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The South That's a Southern accent you've got there. You may love it, you may hate it, you may swear you don't have it, but whatever the case, we can hear it.
The Midland
The Inland North
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

So what is your accent?

Also please take a minute and head over and help my friend Val name her tagline for her new going to kick-butt photography website! I so wish she lived closer to me!!!

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Filed Under: Life in Florida, Mom's Babbling

Throwback Thursday Pregnant Mama

September 13, 2007 By Jen 9 Comments

I had professional pictures done when I was pregnant with Madisyn my oldest daughter. I wish I would of had them done with Lyndsee. I always wanted one of Madisyn looking up at my belly .

Here I am at 32 weeks with Madisyn:

And one I took of myself at 32 weeks with Lyndsee.

Boy my hair has really grown huh? hehe. I think this is the longest my hair has ever been. I loved seeing my belly grow. I miss being pregnant sniff sniff!

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Filed Under: Memes, Memory Lane, Mom's Babbling

An Informational Day for Mom

September 11, 2007 By Jen 13 Comments

As some of my friends and family knows Lyndsee has had one more ride since she has been born. First off she was born blue since the cord was wrapped around her neck twice, they called in several people to be prepared for her and they worked on her and after what seemed like forever I finally got to hold my baby girl. All was well with life since I had my two beautiful daughters with me at home until…..

Around two months of age, we had to rush Lyndsee to the ER. She couldn't catch her breath and it was just awful having to to see her like this. She was diagnosed with RSV and stayed 7 days in the hospital in an oxygen tent. One of the scariest times of my life and you better believe this mom was right there in the tent with her .

Well ever since then she has had asthma problems and had to be on the breathing machine much of her life. I felt like she could never catch a break until fast forward we made our big move to Florida. I am proud to say she has not had one asthma attack since our move 2.5 months ago. Praise the LORD! Instead she has started having these severe stomach cramps, that is awful to watch. She clinches up into a ball and holds onto whatever she can find the fastest and shakes. It really scares us seeing her like this and I make sure I am right there with her ever step of the way to get her through the pain. It really brings Scott and I to tears seeing her like this. I took her into the doctor last week and she immediately said we needed to get a good allergist and asthma dr here in Florida to take over with Lyndsee's care.

We had our visit today and I really learned a lot of information. She was telling me as far as Lyndsee's asthma goes, she was in what they call the honeymoon period. It is where asthma patients move to a new environment and their immune system has to get use to the surroundings. It usually takes about three months until their system gets caught up which means honeymoon period where everything is all good and well . She said October season here starts the bad allergy/asthma season so we want to be prepared. She also put a light up Lyndsee's nose and seen it was really inflamed. She listened to her lungs and she has said right now Lyndsee is considered mild asthma but not to count our blessings too early. We are starting her back on the pulmnicort twice a day and the nasal spray to relieve the inflammation. The pulmnicort suppose to help prevent the onset of asthma attacks since we are coming up on our end of the honeymoon period and also busy allergy/asthma season. I am thankful Lyndsee takes the breathing machine like a pro, but I guess since it has been a part of her life since she was 2 months old she is just use to it .

Now the part came in where we talked about her awful stomach cramps. She really thinks that Lyndsee is experiencing reactions to food allergies. Lyndsee did have food allergies as an infant, but when I weaned her at 18 months I started reintroducing foods back into her system. I guess that was the wrong thing to do, but I honestly didn't know. So for four weeks she cannot have dairy, peanuts, shellfish, or citrus foods. Oh boy! My child loves milk and she loves peanut butter so I am going to try and find alternatives for her. After the four weeks we are going back in for a skin test. She is going to test her for environmental and food allergies so we can figure out what is making these severe stomach cramps. I am to keep a food log too for when she has the cramps, I need to write down what she just had to eat. Her pediatrician told me to stop diary and peanuts last week so we are on day four right now without these things and today I am proud to say she has only had two episodes of the severe cramps, versus yesterday where she was still experiencing about 2 and 3 epidsodes a hour so I'm hoping the dairy and peanuts are getting out of her system. I so hope this is all it is and it can be fixed even though Jen is going to have to get creative with food since Lyndsee is so darn picky with what she eats. This is a child that would not eat any foods at all until I weaned her at 18 months. She refused all baby foods, anything, it was all mommy milk.

They have scheduled an Upper GI for this coming up Monday Morning to make sure there is nothing else too causing the stomach cramps. I'm praying there is nothing else involved!

Now the biggie… I blogged about this a few weeks ago. Read here about where I was talking about her cafe au lait marks. Lyndsee has had these since she was born but they are now multiplying and getting larger. It seems that if there are 6 or less there should be no problems. Right now Lyndsee has 9 including a very big one reaching from her shoulder to her elbow. This is a marker for neurofibromatosis. I really need to stay off the internet reading about that, because its always negative news online. We are seeing a specialist this Thursday for this and then seeing a geneticist in November. That is the fastest they could get us in. Sometimes I just sit at the computer and cry when I read stuff about the neurofibromatosis. Lyndsee's pediatrician told me last night, Jen stay off the internet from reading right now. It's only going to scare you more. I just can't stop though. It scares me to think Lyndsee may have this and what it means for her. This is coming from the worry wart Jen! Anyways I am going to try and not read anymore about it online and let the specialists do what they do best, but I do like to go in with some kind of information so I'm not going in blind with no knowledge at all. The pediatrician has really been helpful with all our questions and telling us more information about the neurofibromatosis. She is making sure we see all the right specialists in order to get a correct diagnosis.

Anyways it has helped typing all this out. I know it is long but you can see where my mind has been for the last couple weeks. My girls ARE MY WORLD and I try to be the best mom ever and make sure I am doing all the right steps for them, but sometimes its hard not to question myself if I am actually doing good enough!

If anyone has any information on any of these topics discussed today, I would love to hear feedback!

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Filed Under: Little Sis, Mom's Babbling

Mommys Night Out at Starbucks

September 6, 2007 By Jen 12 Comments

Today has just been one of those days and I feel like I am getting to that point where I need some ME TIME. I really don't get that often… maybe once ever six months or so which is totally not enough. Moms should get out and rejeuvante themselves ever couple weeks or so.

Well I just got off the phone with Hubbs… he is on his way home from work and he said Jen just take the evening go grocery shopping and stop off at Starbucks and enjoy your favorite drink there. AHHH… I'm so excited I can't even hold it in I just had to share.

How often do you get out and have some me time? I'm thinking about starting a mommy's night out here in my new city. Not sure if I will or not but its something I have been thinking about it. I know one blogger Stefanie that lives really close to me, so I should see what she thinks .

I'll be back a renewed mommy tonight .

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Filed Under: Just Because, Mom's Babbling

Mommy Running High Gear

September 6, 2007 By Jen 2 Comments

Sorry for the lapse in posts here.. Just had a lot going on past couple weeks business and personal wise. I figured hey if I don't have anything positive to say then just stay away. Have some crucial specialist appointments coming up for my baby girl Lyndsee, so that has been on my mind alot tooo.

I do miss my blogging friends though so I'm off to read me some good ole blogs

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Filed Under: Just Because, Life in Florida, Mom's Babbling