Caught on Camera

I'm waiting for my birthday to (hopefully) get an iTunes gift card, so I can download some songs. Until then, I just listen to them on YouTube for free.

While listening to songs last night, I looked at the suggested videos on the right hand side of the screen and saw one about the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004.  I didn't know very much about the disaster and my curiosity got the best of me.  The video was only ten minutes and I had ten minutes to spare so I put my earbuds in and clicked play.

I finished the video and realized there were six more ten minute videos to watch.  I couldn't stop at the first one so I continued on.

The documentary, Tsunami: Caught on Camera, is a compilation of personal videos that people took before, during, and after the tsunami hit.  Most of the people involved were tourists, visiting different countries for Christmas.  There were a couple families, newlyweds, bachelors, and locals that contributed.

I did fine through the first couple of clips but then things changed, the earthquake hit, and the tsunami was coming.

(If you want to watch it, scroll down and bypass my spoilers)

The scene that started it all for me was a German family standing on the beach,  watching the tide suddenly go out, and wondering what was going on.  They could see the waves crashing in the distance but had no clue how large they were until they saw a military ship get sucked into the ocean.  At that point, the husband, who was filming, yelled to his wife to run.  They screamed back and forth and then the wife said, "I can't carry both children by myself!"  The father took their oldest daughter, who through her tears started saying, "I want to go home!"  That's when I lost it.

The thought of the fears that these people faced, initially not knowing what was happening, then realizing they were in danger and within seconds, having to run for their lives.  Then the fear of not knowing if you'd come out alive, if your children would be safe, what the aftermath would be like.  I just couldn't imagine.

At this point, LaVor went to bed and I told him I'd be there in a couple of minutes.

One of the next scenes was an interview with a mother and father, who were vacationing in Sri Lanka.  They took their 5 year old daughter, Isabella, with them as they thought she'd be old enough for the plane ride and to really enjoy the vacation.  They had a leisurely morning and were in their room when the tsunami hit.  The mother described the scene of them running for safety, with her daughter in her arms, gripping her neck tightly.  She talked about the difficulty breathing and the fear of drowning.  Then a large wave hit and took Isabella out of her mother's arms and swept her away.

I had to stop watching there.  I was either going to have horrible nightmares or cry myself to sleep.  And I did the later.

I got into bed and LaVor asked if I had been crying.  I told him I was and he asked why.  I described the clips of the German family and when I mentioned Isabella, I burst into tears.  I told him, "I just couldn't imagine".

When the shooting in Connecticut took place, I was of course sad but I never cried.  Which is so unusual for me because I clearly don't have a problem expressing my emotions.  I actually wondered why I wasn't feeling more upset about the situation.  I saw so many other people express such grief that I began to think I was a cold-hearted human being. 

I don't know what's different about the tsunami but I've been crying all day and can't stop thinking about the thousands of people who tragically lost their lives.  Maybe it's the raw footage and seeing the dead bodies and hearing the stories first hand.  I don't know but it has certainly affected me.

I want to hug The Lime a little longer, kiss LaVor every chance I get, and continuously give thanks to my Heavenly Father for all that he's blessed me with.

Because I really just can't imagine.

It's About Time

Have you ever checked your blog stats to see who is looking at your blog?  You can't see specific details but you can see some links that they're using to get to your blog, what country they're from, how many times your blog is viewed a day, week, month, and year.  It's interesting.

But also creepy.

This is what one of our stats looks like:

Entry	Pageviews
United States	12354
Russia	420
Switzerland	66
Germany	31
Netherlands	21
Japan	20
Egypt	18
Ukraine	17
United Kingdom	15

The United States is a given, Switzerland is easy, England is understandable, but Russia, Egypt, and Japan? No clue! So for that reason, LaVor and I have decided to make our blog private. We keep our Facebook private, we do our best to keep The Lime safe, so why not make sure we know who's viewing our blog.

I'll give it a week before doing the deed. If you'd like to keep tabs on us, leave your e-mail in the comments section.

Wipeout!

Yesterday was GORGEOUS! The weather was so inviting and warm. LaVor left for work early which meant he arrived home early. Just a short bit after he came home, The Lime woke up from his nap. LaVor suggested we do something outside to help us enjoy the weather just a smidge more. We put some air in The Lime's bike tires and we were off on an adventure.

We arrived at the park just about an hour before it closed. Down the path and over the bridge we went when The Lime found a puddle. "Go through it!" LaVor yelled. The Lime glided into the puddle and then stopped, right smack in the middle, put his feet down, and they sunk in the mud. "Go help him!" I yelled to LaVor. But he reminded me that we have a little boy and that's what little boys do. So The Lime spent the rest of the ride with wet and muddy shoes and socks.

It didn't take The Lime too long to find another puddle to ride through. Thankfully this time, we were right next to him and caught a glimpse of the horsehair worms before The Lime made his entrance. We suggested he avoid the puddles from then on. I can deal with mud, not strange worms.

What a horsehair worm looks like, via Google

We found squirrels, woodpeckers, and termites. The Lime rode and rode until he asked us to carry him. To distract him from the urge to be carried, we decided to have a race. Bad move on our part. The poor dude was going down a little hill and wriggled out of control. Scrape! went his knees. Baaaaahhhh! went The Lime. Tears ran down his face and blood ran down his legs. A few candy hearts calmed him down on the way home.

Unfortunately, the weather today is not as great and The Lime only wants to wear shorts. So I'll bundle him up on top and adore those cute, skinny, scraped up legs until they're healed.

The Festivities

I suppose I should document The Lime's birthday festivities, considering the month is over tomorrow.

Because of the huge amount of guilt I felt last year, having to work on The Lime's birthday, I took this year off.

We started the day off with the hopes of The Lime running through his doorway covered with streamers. Except when he opened the door, he said, "What's this?!" and was extremely confused. Once I showed him what to do, he thought it was cool. But we might try something with balloons for next year.

I bought a Living Social deal for Fairyland back in September. LaVor wasn't too thrilled to go so I decided to take The Lime, along with my parents. When we arrived, The Lime asked where Disneyland was. Whoops!

We got our key and began exploring. It's definitely old and some of the speakers didn't work, but then we found a hill and that's when the fun began.

They had large pieces of cardboard that you could slide down the hill on. The Lime had a blast and I got a workout climbing up and down, up and down.

We watched a puppet show of "Goldilocks" and then headed over to the pirate ship. Some little boy kept saying, "Cowboys can't ride pirate ships!" The Lime was oblivious to it but it made me sad. I hate seeing people, especially my kid, get picked on.

We overheard some parents talk about a train, so we were on the hunt. To my surprise, it was a tiny one, with only four cars, and the line was long. But The Lime wanted to ride it, so we patiently waited. Unfortunately, someone beat us to the blue car and we got stuck with the yellow one. He wasn't thrilled, obviously.

Then we saw the carousel and had to make another stop. Parents aren't allowed inside of the gates at the carousel but the lady that was in charge was so extremely nice and The Lime had a blast.

Weeks prior to his birthday, I asked The Lime what he wanted to do for his birthday and all he'd talk about was going to the McDonald's playground. Lunch was spoken for and we went to the one near my sister's so she and my niece could join us.

The rest of his day was spent taking a nap and then going grocery shopping. We like to party hard around these parts.

But we had to save our energy for the real party that we had the next night.

The Lime had never been bowling but decided on that for his party, with a pizza dinner to follow. He had a blast and I think everyone else did too. Minus his meltdown when we left, I'd say it was a success.

There's something about our family and having beer-like bottles at our festivities.

Most people assume that because I make cakes, that my kid has ornate birthday cakes. Unfortunately, The Lime has gotten the short end of the stick and even ended up with a store bought ice cream cake last year. So this year, I decided to make it special. I showed him several pictures of what we could do, offered several different flavor ideas. While at the grocery store, he was attracted to the Funfetti box (because it was blue), so that's what I did. I have no shame in taking the easy way out and making a box cake. Especially since I was driving myself mad getting everything else ready. So a blue, Cars, Funfetti cake is what he got.

He opened gifts, the kids played, adults talked, and everyone had fun.

Happy birthday, dude!

In Good Hands

Our morning was spent at the library, returning books/movies, checking out new items, exploring the new computers, and attempting Storytime. The Lime was doing well until the teacher gave him an orange egg shaker rather than a blue one. We barely made it through the song and then it was out to the puzzle table.

Prior to Storytime, while The Lime was trying to figure out how to use a mouse rather than swiping the computer screen, I saw two moms walk into the library, each holding a child. It wasn't long before one mom said, "Okay Sweetie! I've got to go but ______ will take good care of you!" The little girl cried and cried and cried. I noticed they didn't go into Storytime but I could hear the crying continue throughout the session.

The filler in mom and little girl, Lily, were sitting at the same table that The Lime went to. Not long after we sat down, Lily stopped crying and was distracted by the plethora of puzzles to choose from.

After about 10-15 minutes, Lily began to whimper (mind you she's not even 2) and ask for her mom. The filler in mom said, "Crying is not acceptable right now. Your mom is not an option. You need to stop." I couldn't believe my ears!

Then the filler in's child crawled off and she left Lily at the table with me for about 10 more minutes until I had to evacuate the premises due to The Lime's bowels. I'm no child abductor but if I wanted to snatch Lily, I could have and the filler in would have had no clue. It broke my heart.

It broke my heart that Lily simply needed to be comforted and she was told to stop. It broke my heart that Lily's mom obviously trusted this other woman to take good care of her child and it wasn't happening.

It did make me grateful that The Lime has been in great hands, for the last three years, while I've had to work. Even though he cried every time I left, I knew it wasn't because my sister wasn't treating him nicely. He freaked when I would leave him with LaVor...he just loves his mom.

I never have to worry if he won't get a hug or if his owies won't be kissed or if he'll sit in his diaper too long or if he'll go hungry.

Every time I tell someone that my sister and I switch off working days with baby-sitting days, they tell me how lucky I am. And I'd have to agree.

If only Lily had an Auntie to love her as much as The Lime is loved.

How Rude!

From Urban Outfitters

I never really thought about it before, but I suppose my job is customer service related. I'm the first thing a patient sees when they walk in and their last impression of the office as they leave. Despite it being EXTREMELY hard at times, I try to represent the office well and make every effort to keep my cool in heated situations.

My family celebrated my Mom's birthday last night and on the way to dinner, I made a slight detour to grab some balloons. Since I was a last minute balloon buyer, the store's staff rang up my merchandise but helped the others in line before blowing up the balloons (which I was fine with).

The second person in line was a crotchety old woman, on the hunt for purple beads. In her loud, demeaning voice, she explained to the employee that she had called two hours before, to inquire if the store had purple beads in containers. She said the man on the other end confirmed that they did. Well, according to the customer, not only did they not have purple beads in containers, they didn't have purple beads at all!

Then the stones started flying.

"If you don't have something, then you shouldn't tell people that you do!"
"Get off that microphone thing and find someone who can help me!"
"Why don't you help me find them! Isn't that what you should be doing anyway? It's called good customer service!"
"Maybe your staff needs to communicate better!"
"You're the one I spoke to on the phone!" "No he's not. He just started work an hour ago."

At one point, the crazed woman looked at me with a smirk on her face, hoping to get a "You tell 'em!" look in return but all she got were some rolled eyes.

As I stood to the side, listening to all of this, I could not believe how rude some people can be. And I was so impressed by the employee that kept her cool, despite being yelled at for something she had nothing to do with.

The customer and a new employee began looking around the store for the infamous purple beads. If the customer hadn't been so rude, I would have chimed in and told her they were on the display right behind her, during her rampage.

T H I S Much

I just walked into the garage to get some hot chocolate packets, only to find LaVor's work clothes and boots taking up most of the entryway. Right next to his stuff were The Lime's boots.

I've said it once and I'll say it again...The Lime wants to be just like his daddy.

While I was getting ready this morning, I could hear The Lime asking for "Daddy". He might have been dreaming because he only did it a couple of times and then fell back asleep.

After I got him up and dressed, The Lime said he wanted to show LaVor something. I was still in his bedroom when he walked down the hall to our room. He got to the doorway, looked in and let out an, "Awwwwww!" when he realized LaVor had already left for work.

I immediately called LaVor so they could say good morning. They talked for a couple of minutes and then The Lime said, "I love you so much! I love you THIS much!"

I don't know what happened on the other end of the line but it made me cry.

He sure loves LaVor, even this much (we stretch our arms out as far as they'll go).

On the way to my sister's, The Lime reminded me that Daddy was going to pick him up at the end of the day.

I'm used to it now, but if LaVor isn't able to pick him up and I show up, The Lime throws a major fit. I am certainly not his favorite (unless he's hurt, then I get to cuddle him) and I'm fine with that.

I love that The Lime and LaVor are best buds and that they love each other THIS much.

(My sister shared with me the sweetest little story this morning. When she went to drop The Lime off yesterday, she didn't initially see LaVor's work truck. My niece spotted it and The Lime apparently got so excited, little tears started forming in his eyes. Geez! I just love 'em!)