Here are this weeks Seven Quick Takes
1
Ryan is doing much better than last week. I was able to visit him every day this week, by myself, so spent a lot of time in his bed with him (he has a huge, adult-sized bed) sitting at his feet talking, laughing, and making him play cognitive games. He actually played with me for a full two hours on Weds. which was awesome.
He is down to 50% supplemental oxygen on the vent – we’d like to see him down to 30% to protect his lungs. I can’t believe we only have two weeks until his scheduled surgery – only five more expansions to go. Pray we can expand each of these times so we have enough skin to go forward with the surgery.
2
Natalie thinks it is so great when I tell her I’ve done something she just did or is going to do. For example, tonight she scratched her ankle with her toenail from the other foot. I said something like, “Oh, I know that hurts, sweetie. I’ve done that before.” You know, just trying to be empathetic. She looked at me and said, “Why do you keep telling me you did things I do?” I said, “Because I’m really old and so I’ve already done a lot of things you do.” “Oh,” she said. “Have you fallen down and scraped your knee?” “Yes,” I replied. “I’ve even fallen and broken my arm.” “Aw,” she said. “Poor little mommy.”
3
I started exercising again this week. I did one night of basketball, one night of P90X (ab ripper) and two mornings of walking. I know, not very much, but it’s more than last week. I wasn’t sure how my ankle would respond so I am ramping up slow.
The biggest thing I notice is that I am ravenous. I eat breakfast at 7 or 7:30 and by 10 I am ready to eat my arm. I ate a sandwich and half a bagel for my morning snack today and then had lunch at the hospital. So, I decided to hard boil a bunch of eggs and start snacking on them. I’m tired so I’m rambling, but stick with me here.
I stuck the eggs on to boil tonight, forgot about them, and let them boil the entire time I was putting the girls to bed… I laid with them (the girls, not the eggs) for at least 20 minutes so they could have mommy time. I’m not sure how good the eggs will be, but I’ll let you know. One thing I’ve decided though is that I need to stop so much multi-tasking before I burn the house down.
4
Ainsley is a very polite child. Today when she was playing dolls with Natalie in the car, I heard her say, “Scuda me (excuse me), I want to talk to Polly (Pocket).” I think Natalie was talking to me at the time instead of paying attention to Ainsley.
5
My sister-in-law is here this week helping me with the girls and the house. It rocks. I come home from the hospital: the house is clean, dinner is made, and the girls are happy. I’m going to miss her when she starts school next week. And unfortunately, shock of all shockers, I have yet to receive any applications in response to my classified ad.
6
Ainsley is obsessed with fingernail polish and lip gloss. She asks me every morning if I will ‘haint’ her ‘hails’. Tonight she jumped out of bed to go potty and then crawled back in beside me. She got really close to my face (in case the dark made it so I couldn’t hear her I guess) and said, “Wed I way up, hen I have hi(short i)-hoss? (a.k.a. when I wake up can I have lip gloss?) I think I might have a girlie girl on my hands. Can someone tell me what to do with one of those?
7
Last week when my sister, Dottie, left my house she forgot there are two (not one) toll booths to go through on her way home. She took two quarters from my house, but it still wasn’t enough change. She ended up having to pay 60 cents worth of toll… in pennies. She said the teller took the money, but wasn’t very happy.
This reminded me of the time I went through the exact change booth thinking I had my smart tag with me. At the last minute – like when the bar wasn’t lifting and I was trying to figure out why – I realized I was driving my mother-in-law’s car. I slammed on my brakes and dug around for change. I could only find 55 of the 75 cent charge. I even got out and looked under the seat. Totally embarrassed, but not sure what else to do, I approached the cabbie behind me. I asked him if he had 20 cents I could bum off him. He glared at me while handing me the quarter in his hand.
This week’s question is: What is your best toll booth story?
(c) 2016 Leighann Marquiss
Comments (18)
I am so totally stealing your 7 Quick Takes for my blog.
I love that you are getting one on one time with Ryan and that he is feeling so much better!!!!!!
I love the “poor little mommy”!!! That is way too precious!
The obession with lip gloss and nail polish is cute, but you are in so. much. trouble. Especially when she decides to get into it by herself without permission. This will happen, I promise. My older daughter has ruined most of her clothes by leaving lip gloss in her pocket and then washing her clothes like that. I finally banned all lip stuff that doesn’t have a screw top lid.
In regards to your classified add… for some reason verse 15 of Proverbs 31 always escaped me. A few months ago it hit me… Proverbs 31 woman is NOT SUPER DO IT ALL AMAZING WOMAN!!! She has servant girls for crying out loud! She plans the days work for her servant girls?! Seriously?! Where do I get one of those???!!!
I think I might owe the toll people money from one time when we got in a cash only lane forgetting we only had our check cards. That was like 2 years ago and I can’t remember if we ever paid them or not and I have no idea how to find out!
HAHAH Leighann you are too funny! I’m glad Ryan is feeling better! 🙂
Don’t feel bad about the boiled eggs – I did something similar – only I never done it before this story I’m about to tell you – I had cooking group (i was a student at that time and was only allow to observe and help out a little bit) the supervisor that day said she forgot to boil the eggs ahead of time before group because we were making something with it I think purple eggs – she didn’t say what to do and I didn’t ask because I thought it was kind of embarrassing but figured it shouldn’t be too hard to boil water right ? so I got the pot out and filled it up with water then wait for it to boil. And smiled because I thought “sweet, I did it!” Well the patients came in and one of them goes “where are the eggs?!” (when she looked into the pot) I didn’t want to say the answer and wanted to make her think so I said “where do you think the eggs are?” she said “in the fridge” so she went to get them and the supervisor looked at the pot then looked at me and went “OH NO!” I’m like “what?” she said “you’re suppose to put the eggs in first then the water to boil or else they would explode or crack if you put in the eggs after it boils.” I’m like “ooops, sorry!, did I forget to mention I have no cooking experience?” From that day on, I now know how to make boiled eggs. 😀
Don’t feel bad though, we ended up having a nice cooking group and well, there’s a first for everything! I had to tell you.
So the toll booth ? HAHA So you’ve seen me, I’m short right? so my experience with the toll booth isn’t with the change but when I go to pull up to grab the ticket out I can never pull up close enough to get the ticket without having to put my car into park, take off my seat belt, and open the door because even having the window down the whole way my arm was never long enough to reach for the ticket, so it takes me a while and I look back and there’s like 6 cars behind me waiting patiently. I just smile wave politely and go my way 🙂
Will continue praying for Ryan!
Have an awesome day! 🙂 Michelle
I forgot to comment on the “multitasking story” I used to be really good at multitasking – I still am but up until recently, I noticed that I lost my touch. I have to lip-read people because I can’t hear fully well (thus, hard-of-hearing). Well a few weeks ago, a friend stayed overnight at my house and the next day we left for work. We walked on the sidewalk to the parking lot. She was talking and I was walking and lip-reading. Therefore I wasn’t paying attention to where I was walking. The sidewalk is kind of narrow and we had to walk beside each other so I can lip-read or else I can’t hear from the back or the front of the person. Next thing I know I go “oHH OUCH!” I ended up spraining my ankle.I thought it was kind of funny, limping in the parking lot, but when I got into my car I realized it was the ankle I use to hit the brakes and the gas pedals, that was kind of painful. HAHA I’ve had worst – I once ran into a light pole outside when taking a walk with a friend and hit my forehead – wasn’t too serious so it’s all good! 🙂
AH, the toll booth… When I was driving someone else’s car the same shock hit me as I was in the Smart Tag lane. Oh no!! I didn’t have a single thing on me, so the guy in the toll booth wrote out a “bill” for my money to be sent by mail! So I had to pay the toll, plus postage. Way to lend someone $.35….
Loved reading the seven quick takes. Think I might borrow the idea for my own blog one day! 🙂
Glad to hear Ryan is doing better. Will continue to pray he gets stronger before surgery.
As for the girlie-girl stuff I have one of those too(although she can definitely wrestle her brother with the best of them as well!). I have to make sure we have extra time when getting ready so that she can put her lipstick on. Either that or make sure I have some she can wear in my purse and do it on the way! 🙂
Sorry about not sending in my application yet, but I’m honestly so no qualified in all those areas!! I’m with ‘mothergoose’ about the servant girl thing. lol
As for the boiled eggs, I tend to forget to time them sometimes(I like cooking them about 10 minutes) so then I end up trying to guess and worrying if they’ll be way too runny or too hard.
And we don’t have alot of experience with toll booths around here. Our experiences on vacation usually consist of my husband driving and me trying to read the signs to make sure we get in the right lane!
Anyway, I’ll now wrap up this impossibly long comment. Hope you have a great day!! Love and prayers,
Tyra
wow! LONG comments…i’ll try to make it short 🙂
first, your eggs will be fine. i’ve done that. they still boil fine.
second, girly-girl? bailey is blowing my socks (or skirt or tutu or hair things or ribbons) off with this! i’m not sure what to do either…i’m not a girly-girl, and neither is rebekah. mostly, i just go with it (when reasonable) and smile 🙂
Cute stories! I love how your little girl talks about nail polish and lip gloss. Adorable.
I’m interested to know how those eggs turned out – I love hardboiled eggs for snacks and I’m always remembering at the last minute that they need to be taken off the burner. So many close calls with having left them to boil WAY long 🙂 Glad to know someone else tries to multitask and ends up causing problems too!
i don’t have a story, but i think yours is hilarious!! and sorry about no takers on your classified ad. apparently there are no perfect mothers out there willing to take over for the already perfect mom who currently has the job. . . you’ll be glad you stuck with it!
Glad ryan is feeling better.
I love your little Ainsley. She is so funny and sweet. She’ll get along great with Lexi. Lexi is my princess. She is not into the lip gloss but she cries when I pick out a dress for her in the morning and she knows it won’t flair out when she spins.
Don’t know what to tell you about the non interest in your position. I would love a helper too. I came down this morning and Abby was standing in the kitchen sink. The other day, I came downstairs and Buddy was sitting on the counter next to the sink. The water was on and the sink was nearly full of water and bubbles. My “servant girl” could of easily prevented that if I had one.
Love ya leigh and all your family. Keep up the good work. Give ryan a kiss for me on his chubby litte face.
That’s wonderful that Ryan is doing better, and I loved the cute stories about your girls. We’ll keep Ryan and your entire family in our prayers.
I’m glad to hear Ryan is doing better! Thanks for the update – I can’t believe the surgery is so close!
Eggs – I’ve recently learned how to make hard boiled eggs in a different way that might help. Instead of boiling them for like 3 minutes, put them in cold water (add a tablespoon or so of vinegar so if the eggs crack they won’t leak into the water; don’t worry, it won’t make the eggs taste like vinegar) and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute, then remove from the burner and cover. Let them sit 15-20 minutes, then drain, rinse with cold water and put in the fridge. Of course, you have to watch them for a minute, but then you have 15-20 minutes to do something else! Plus it’s much more forgiving than when you just boil them. I’ve let them sit for 30 minutes and they’ve been fine.
And as for the toll booth, I do have a story but i wasn’t the one driving, so I won’t share their name (although you might guess who it was). The driver decided to pay in pennies, but was too impatient to wait while the toll booth operator counted it all out. Long story short, they started yelling at each other, even while we were pulling away from the booth. I think that’s why I’m always paranoid about making sure I have enough money in easy to count money when going through tolls!
Dulles Toll booth – a women for years would always pay for the person behind her. Nice way to pay it forward.
I found that out being stuck in traffic too many times and sitting talking with the toll booth worker who was always there in the evening rush hour.
Love the stories.
1. so good to hear about ryan. i can’t believe it’s 2 weeks away. praying!
2. i always felt closer to my mom when she let down her guard for a second and told me how imperfect she was. i think it makes you more like a “real person” and not just a “mom”.
3. my mom let me use the stove by the time i was 7. i went through a phase where i was obsessed with hard boiled eggs until that fateful day i forgot about them until the smoke alarm went off. to this day, i can still remember the smell and look of burnt boiled eggs.
4. polite kids melt my heart and help to redeem all the bratty kids out there!
5. if OT school doesn’t work out, i would love to be a nanny for you. i’ve grown up being a babysitter and a nanny and i think it’s because my mom struggled to be a housewife for 2 kids 16 months apart in an unfamiliar small town with no immediate family or friend support.
6. definitely let her be girly, but always affirm beauty from the inside. <3
7. jersey has always been infamous for their numerous toll booths. my dad would RACE through the toll booths throwing change into the bucket. i don’t know the true percentage of how many times he actually got it in, but i think it was just a game to him because my mom and i reprimanded him constantly to slow down. he was the real reason E-Z pass was created. i love EZ pass, but sometimes i kinda miss the theatrics of my dad throwing change.
happy saturday! <3
On a long trip, we figured we were on the last leg when we reached one of the New York bridges and so we spent the last of our pennies on dinner for the kids at a fast-food place. Then we got in the car and drove across the bridge, only to find a toll booth! Fortunately, we were allowed to write a check for the 50-cent toll!
I’m glad Ryan is doing well and that you got to play with him!! We are still praying for you all!!
I know you were kidding about burning the house down, but my mom actually did just that! She was putting on make-up, with hot rollers in her hair, talking on the phone and frying chicken. She started a grease fire in the kitchen that burned the kitchen, dining room and laundry room and they had to replace the ceiling in the whole house!!
On to the requested story-toll booth: About 2 months ago I went to Bethasda Medical Hospital to “sit” with my friend Angel. Her husband had surgery and she wanted me to come help her with her 3 month old twins and 4 year old (& Lars was there too!)Long story short it was a very long day and Lars didn’t have a nap. When we were finally on our way home around midnight Lars was crying so hard in the car he had thrown up all over himself and then fallen asleep! I pulled up to the toll booth with an EZPass in the car, but the arm didn’t go up! The lady walked over to the car (I was in EZ only lane) she wanted me to give her a credit card, but I couldn’t find my wallet. After what seemed like 20 minutes, me never finding my wallet and the lady waking up Lars from talking so loud, the car behind me paid my toll! So I was on my way.
Best toll booth story: Got a ticket in the mail. Ooops, must have missed that toll booth. Yes, it was Dulles Toll road. Question: Why do they have planes flying close to the ground when we are supposed to be concentrating on the booths? Also, so glad that you are not laying eggs & maybe Alexis WAS your answer to your AD.
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