I get by with a little help from my SITSter!

Today my sister Caryn and I are featured in the amazing blogging community known as SITS (The Secret's In The Sauce) that is 7,999 women strong!  We are a community of women bloggers who know that there is true success in numbers and we strive to uplift and engage each other through leaving comments on each others blogs. 

If you haven't found a community of bloggers yet I can't encourage you enough to join SITS and follow their activities which include introducing a Featured Blog each day and highlighting Women on the Move.  They also offer great Education about blogging and social media and we have a lot of fun sharing our favorite products and such in the Style section.

Why not head on over there now and read the story about my sister and I and laugh at the old picture of us!

Its a good thing I don't believe in luck

The past two weeks have been rough.

I'm okay, the Trouble Brothers are okay, but my husband has really been put through the ringer.

First, he missed an entire week of work with what can only be described as either Ebola or the worst case of dysentery in the history of the universe. For seven straight days he and the bathroom were close, personal friends and he ran a constant fever over 102 degrees. In the beginning his symptoms appeared to be influenza given the constant upper respiratory symptoms he was suffering from in addition to the blinding headache and body aches. However, three days later when he was not showing any signs of improvement and was actually worsening the doctor performed more tests and we found out what he was really battling was salmonella poisoning.

This Monday he was given the okay to return to work but told to only work 4 hours a day and no heavy lifting or exertion.  Apparently this salmonella bug can stay in your system for quite some time and continue to wreak havoc if you aren't careful.

Yesterday Mid-Atlantic and Northeast was blasted by one helluva storm that left in its wake rain, sleet, ice and then over 10" of heavy snow that fell in less than 5 hours.  The storm started just as Mike was leaving work for the day.

He made it within ten miles of our house when he was caught behind a three-way road blockage.  He couldn't go forward due to a fallen tree, couldn't go back the way he came because of another fallen tree, and couldn't go the only other route because of the steep incline and no momentum to get up it.  So, he waited two hours hoping a plow would come along and in the process his car became stuck in the snow too.  By this time he had been in the car for almost four hours.

I immediately got on Twitter and Facebook and began tweeting for help from anyone who might have lived in the area and could offer him shelter or assistance.  I then tweeted Maryland's governor, the State Highway Administration, and I called the State Police and the local salt truck silo closest to his location.  All of the above told me they were headed that way but didn't know when they could get there.

Panic ensued.

I kept thinking of how I would feel if I was stuck in my car in the middle of nowhere with nothing to eat, nothing to drink, and no way of staying warm for the night except for the 3/4 tank of gas in my car.  I knew that if I was in his place I would have frantically looked for crumbs under the boys' car seats and with my luck I would have needed to pee so bad my back teeth were floating.  Clearly, it would have been a panic attack of mammoth proportions!

Cause that's just the way I roll.

Thankfully, my hubby is infinitely more level-headed and easy going than I!  I talked to him often on his phone and he reassured me that he was fine.  He wasn't cold (YET!!!), he had some leftover juice from his ride into work that morning, and he was listening to his ham radio to pass the time.  He would get out every so often and clean the car off and use a binder as a shovel to keep his tires clear and then he would get back in the car to warm up again.

After I put the Trouble Brothers to bed I tried to get some rest.  Its been a crazy time here at Casa de Banshee with the schools being out and my boys' restlessness over being stuck in the house reaching a fevered pitch.  I was already exhausted before I got the call that hubby was marooned in a snowbank.  Needless to say I tried to get some sleep but I kept having nightmares of abominable snowmen, the #1 fan from Misery, and something about the Donner Party that I would rather not repeat.

Needless to say I chose to just wait up for him after that.

At 2:17 am Mike walked through our front door cold, wet, and really really tired.  As it turns out the plow never did made it to where he was because of all the downed trees.  He cleared a path to get his car out using the binder and then spent the next 5 hours navigating backroads, roadblocks, and streets that were reduced to parking lots.  Eventually he made it back onto the Baltimore beltway and then onto 1-795 North to the main street that takes you right to our neighborhood.

I would really like to say that his car (which I will now refer to as the "Toboggan") was parked safely outside our condominium, but it isn't.

He had to abandon his car in a snowdrift a mile from our house due to the number of cars that had slid sideways in the middle of the road.  He walked that mile wearing slacks, a leather jacket, and dress shoes!

My man is nothing if not determined!

Its now 10:00 am and hubby's boss just called and wanted to know why he wasn't at work.  I resisted the urge to use expletives in the background while he told him his tale of the commute from hell (which has apparently frozen over!) and his boss' response was to "Give him a call when he was on his way into the office".

That man is lucky I don't know where he lives.

Want to hear about other bloggers snowed in this week?!  Why not come on over to the Blizzard BlogHop sponsored by Household6Diva

Eight is great!

January 20, 2003

ONE

TWO

 THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

 Happy Birthday Sam!
Today you are EIGHT and eight is GREAT!

 You loved your Mr. Men and Little Miss figurines.

After our little party you immediately went to the Mr. Men and Little Miss website to play.

Stream of Consciousness Sunday

I thought I would join my friend Fadra today in her Stream of Consciousness Sunday Meme.

I have to write for 5 minutes, I can't edit, proofread, or spellcheck anything I write...This, my friends, could be interesting.

So, here goes nothing (or everything):

I;ve never had a blog troll.  I remember when I went to my first SITS conference in Baltimore and Tiffany said that you haven't really made it as a blogger until someone comes on your blog and leaves a snarky evil comment that leaves you spitting nails.  I've never had anyone do that.  And that kinda pisses me off.  It makes me wonder if maybe I am not stirring the pot enough.  NOt shaking things up and really making an impact in this blog of mine.  I don't want to be a Pollyanna blogger who only paints unicorns adn rainbows and all that happy go lucky "yeah, my ikids have autism but its really easy to handle and its all la de freaking da over here".  Because its not.  Most of the time I am left feeling like I am barely hanging on to sanity.  I am very opinointed but I have a hard time expressing it for fear of hurting someone's feelings.

For instance, I despise Jenny McCarthy.  I think she should have been knocked off her autism-advocate pedestal years ago.  Right around the time she first opened her mouth and pretended to have a clue about what she was talking about.

I am pissed at Andrew Wakefield and the way he falsified his data and caused a shit-storm with his first reports that claimed vaccines cause autism.  I would not want to be him when he faces the gates of heaven. 

I guess what I am trying to say is that I have opinoins, they are not always pleasant and they are not always nice.  I don't have any blog trolls but perhaps in the future when I start stating them more I may.

And I'm at peace with that.


If you would like to join the Stream of Consciousness Sunday meme simply visit Fadra's blog by clicking on the handy dandy button at the top of this post and follow the rules she has set.

5 Ways social media saved my life

*This was cross-posted to the MomzShare blog located here.  If you are a woman (not just a mom!) living in the MD/DC/VA area and you would be interested in joining our quarterly events you can get loads of information on our site!  We'd love to have you!


I began my journey as a blogger in the winter of 2008.  I had a number of friends who had blogs to keep their extended family in the loop with current events and photos of their family and they urged me to start blogging as a way of recording my roller coaster ride as a single mom of two boys with autism.  I had always enjoyed journaling when I was a teenager and so I figured I'd give it a go and see if my family and personal friends might get a kick out of some of my adventures.

Little did I know that blogging was only the doorway into what would soon become salvation for this lonely stay-at-home mom.

Here are 5 ways social media saved my life and in the process, my sanity!

1)  You're not alone.
No matter what kind of day you are having there is always someone else on Twitter, Facebook, or a blog who not only feels your pain but shares it.

Maybe you are a brand new mother with a screaming infant with colic, perhaps you just received a diagnosis of breast cancer, or your husband just announced he wants a divorce. You can bet your bottom dollar someone else in the Blogosphere or Twitterverse is out there not only wanting to talk about it but is willing to do so at 3 a.m.! 

2)  Conferences, social networking events, and brand-sponsored soirees is the new Girls Night Out!
You buy your tickets, catch a plane or a train, and before you know it you're back in the hay days of letting loose with the gals, eating good food, drinking fine wine, and laughing it up while 6 of you cram into one hotel room for a weekend.  You haven't had this much fun since your bachelorette party 10 years and 3 kids ago!
And most of these gals you just met for the first time that morning!

Blogging and Twitter has opened up a whole new society of friendships that closely rival the traditional "I've known her all my life" variety.  Some of the best friends I have made in the past two years I have only seen once or twice in real life but I talk to them everyday on Twitter, Facebook, and my blog.  They are my tribe and with them I feel whole.

3)  Its not a hobby...its a business!
Every time I hear someone from outside the blogging community call what we do a "hobby" I want to rap them upside the head and hand them this post by Queen of Spain:

The Business of Mommyblogging

Now what was that you were saying about our little "hobby"?! 

4)  I have a voice and I'm not afraid to use it!
All of us have a passion.  Perhaps yours is promoting green living or supporting a woman's right to breastfeed in public. Maybe you have a child like mine who has autism and you'll strive to make their voice heard all the way to the steps of the U.S. Capital if needed.

Social media has given each of us the power to support our causes with more than just a written check and to do so from the comfort of our own homes or the local Starbucks.

It has empowered our opinions, our voices, and taught us that when they are combined they move fast and carry great weight!

5)  Lord knows some days I just need a good laugh.
If I'm having a craptastic day complete with a sick kid, a grumpy husband, and menstrual cramps that remind me of childbirth I am NOT in the mood to put on pants, wash my hair, and make myself presentable for human company.  What I am in the mood for is a good laugh.  STAT!

At moments like this I know my salvation is only a twitter feed or a facebook picture away and my friends are all too happy to go to any means necessary to give me the laugh I so richly deserve.

What about you?  What has social media done to make your life easier to handle?  Has it made is more difficult in any ways?

Life is a risk

The television, internet, and print media are rampant with medical studies reporting risk factors for autism.

Fertility treatments.
Advanced maternal age.
C-sections.
Jaundice.
Vaccines.
Living close to a highway.
Pregnancies spaced close together.

Perhaps if I was a young woman considering pregnancy I would want to read these reports and weigh the risks. But I can't imagine any of them swaying me from my desire to be a mother and give birth to a miraculous mix of both myself and my husband.

The facts as I see them is that life itself is a risk.

When I get in my car to run an errand I am facing a risk.  The risk that someone may ignore a traffic signal and run smack dab into me.  The risk that I my car may break down and leave me walking three miles to the nearest gas station for a tow.

One of the only guarantees we have is that life is not without risks.

Having a child is in and of itself a great risk.  There are so many things that can go wrong.  When I was pregnant with my boys it seemed like almost all of them happened to me.

During my pregnancy with Sam I had hormonal imbalances that required progesterone suppositories for the first 12 weeks.  Almost immediately upon seeing the plus sign on the pregnancy test I was struck down with the horrible vomiting known as hyperemesis.  By the fourth month I had constant urinary tract infections that meant I had to take Macrobid daily until delivery.  Very early on I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes that brought with it the need for twice daily insulin injections.  When I was 33 weeks pregnant I had the scare of my life when Sam's heart rate accelerated to 240 beats per minute unexpectedly.  Thankfully the tachycardia righted itself rather quickly and when he was born it was gone and in its wake left him with only a slight heart murmur.  Then when I was 35 weeks pregnant I developed PUPPS.  Sam was delivered by planned cesarean section due to his large size and his especially large head.

In the midst of the medical and hormonal chaos of my pregnancy I never once faltered in my desire to protect and love the son I carried inside me. In fact, the desire to have a child was so strong that I was willing to go through the same risks and complications a second time.   Each and every one of the complications (besides the tachycardia) I had during my pregnancy with Sam was repeated in my pregnancy with Noah.  It was difficult, it was painful, and it was exhausting....but my sweet Noah was totally worth it.

I was willing to risk everything and anything to bring both Sam and Noah into this world.  All the risks in the world were no match for my desire to be a mother....no matter what child I was blessed with.

And that included the risk that my sons would develop autism.  Or down syndrome.  Or cancer.  Or nothing at all but the regular skinned knees of childhood.

I knew that no matter what obstacles they might face in their life I would be there beside them, supporting them, and encouraging them until the day my life ends.  For me, the risks of having a child was something I was not only willing to face but completely at peace with.

My hope is that these scientific studies being released at breakneck speed will not deter a couple from considering the risks while at the same time searching their hearts and earnestly asking themselves which risk is greater.

Because love in and of itself is also a great risk.

In case you needed a good laugh

A Facebook friend of mine posted this a few days ago and I really had to share it here with all of my blog and Twitter pals.

Enjoy!