I Slept ALL DAY (literally) // The True Meaning of Christmas

I'm not kidding. I went to sleep last night, and woke up a few minutes before 6PM. So, literally, I slept all day. Ah, the joys of an auto-immune disease after Christmas!

After I woke up, I watched Wall.E with my family. No screaming, yelling, fighting, or emotional abuse from my father, either. He got that stuff out of the way yesterday...no later than a minute after we were up.
Nice, huh? But all in all, it was a nice day.

Wall.E- Officially one of my favorite movies. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend you do!

Now my mom, Sam, and my father are watching The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. The reason I'm not watching it, is that I'm just too worn out. Yes, after sleeping ALL DAY, two hours sitting in my wheelchair had me worn out. But I don't mind, really. It felt good to sleep, and I'm content watching House with my cat on my lap and typing an update.

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I think this is the first year that I truly understood the meaning of Christmas. GOD, the Creator of the universe, sent His son, a part of Himself, to earth, born of a poor, young virgin, in a place made for animals, to experience pain and suffering, and then died on the cross, for us. And not only did He die physically, but spiritually, too. For three days He suffered the fury of hell, and rose again, to form a New Covenant, that we may have true life! That we may be forgiven of our sins, and be welcomed into Heaven when our mortal bodies die, to live eternally with the One who is God, the one who is true, pure, agape Love, the Great I am...and great He is! And what must we do in return? Nothing, except accept His gift of Love.

Christmas is a celebration of the sending of God's son to earth...the King, born a poor child, in a lowly manger...t0 live and die, for us.

I've Been Tagged!

I've been tagged by "Warrior on the Outside, Pirate on the Inside!" aka the update page for Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia warrior Owain and his lovely mom =)

The Rules:
*Link to the person who tagged you.
*Share 7 random/weird facts about you.
*Tag 7 people at the end of the post, and include links to their blogs.

~I know what I'm getting for Christmas because I ordered my presents! My mom isn't very computer-savvy (if you don't use it ya lose it!) so she let me order the items that had to be ordered online

~I have two dolls and lots of stuffed animals. Hey, they make me happy, so who's to say I'm too old for it! One is an American Girl I got from my grandma, and one is a "Sew Able" doll which I was given by a wonderful lady named Marianne. The dolls head is bald (there are two types of them, prosthetics, and cancer, and I have the cancer one) and I have a wheelchair for her, too.

~I collect Coca-Cola memorabilia and other vintage finds, as well as cool pins

~I love sewing and want to learn to knit

~I really miss my hair, and sometimes still reach my hand up to twirl it, only to find it's not there.

~Sometimes people think I have cancer (between the short-short hair, taking methotrexate, and having to wear germ masks frequently, it happens, and embarrasses me because I have it easy compared to kids with cancer)

~I can't read music whatsoever, but can sound out most songs on the piano and memorize them (right now I'm working on Silent Night, What Child is This?, The Little Drummer Boy, and a few others)

***EDIT***
I just noticed that I forgot to tag 7 people! Duh!
Okay, so I'll tag....hmmm, well, I'm only going to tag one person, but if you'd like to do this, have at it! I tag
Zack Please keep him in your prayers, he's in a lot of pain and they're not sure why.

What's Wrong with this Picture???

Can't figure it out? Here's a hint- It's green and scaly, and has it's own movies.
Yup, you guessed it! It's none other than Godzilla.

Last I checked, God was in the bible, not Godzilla!

Oh, yeah, and the shephards arm is missing as well...probably done by the same 11 year old that put Godzilla in the manger scene!

You Know You're a "Smiles and Trials" Groupie When...

• You wake up at 2am and think to yourself, "Oh, no! I didn't check on the Reeds today!"
• You can name all 11 of the Reed children
• You have gone through all of the Smiles and Trials archives
• You can name all 11 of the Reed children AND put the faces to the names!
• You go to the store and see a Hannah Montana barbie and think to yourself, "It's Anna Montana!"
• Every time you see a Groovy Girls pet, you immediately think of Sveta and Zha-Zha
• Every time you see a llama you start to giggle
• As sitting down for dinner, your husband asks, "So, what'd Christine cook up today?
• When someone is having problems with their children, rather than referring them to a parenting book, you refer them to the Reeds

Okay, so not ALL of these have happened, but the ones in bold have!
I may add more later, but I just had to share! I guess you could call me a Smiles and Trials groupie!
Thanks to the Reeds for "keeping it real"! You are an inspiration! I know I'm not the only person who's been helped by Christine's blog, and I speak for many when I say, THANK YOU!!!

Here's a big "hurrah!" (yes, I actually say that!) to-

Christine............John

Adam..............Rachel.............Caleb

Sveta...........Annalyn.............Julia

Anna............William..............Andrew

Jonny.............Dennis

Check out this give away from MckMamma!

Today Renee (and her husband deployed husband Frank, daughters Kennedy, who has Down Syndrome & bravely battled leukemia, Kassidy who is 9 years old, and her sons Kameron, age 7, and Keeghan, who is a year old) from Life With My Special Ks introduced me to MckMamma (and her husband Prince Charming, precious MckKids, Big Mac, MckNugget, Small Fry, & MckMuffin, aka MckMiracle) and her blog My Charming Kids and the contest she's holding.

As you probably know, I LOVE photography. It is my therapy, it is my way of looking for the good in life, and documenting the bad, so that people can become aware of the problems in this world and help be a part of solving them. So when I heard that part of the prize was camera lenses for whatever camera you have, I freaked out! How cool would that be? Think of how much that could improve my non-profit photography project,Memories and Miracles Photography! And get this- all you have to do is check out MyCharmingKids.net, post a comment, and post about it in your blog!

"TOAST"

I was reading a post in one of Christine's blogs, Smiles and Trials, and it inspired me to post an entry here in my own blog. A pretty unrelated entry, but an entry none-the-less. Here is an excerpt from her post and the comment I left.

"Thankfully, and friends can vouch for me, I have a "Bring it on" attitude! If it weren't for this attitude, I would have already been toast by now. ;)"

That excerpt made me laugh and inspired my own post... The reason is that any time my instant messenger freezes up (usually the rest of my computer follows. I only talk to one person on the IM, who is my mom's friend, as well), a little pop up comes up, and says, of all things, "TOAST".

So even when my computer is crashing, and my day is going askew, there's always a little giggle to be found, and some fresh "toast"!

Even on halloween he's a McCainiac (seriously, too funny!)

No disrespect to those with other opinions....I just had to share this for those who do share the same!

Sam and my father walk up to neighbor (who is also an "Obamanos")

Sam: TRICK-OR-TREAT!!!

Dad: Wait, Sam!

Sam: What???

Dad: This is an Obama voter! Be careful! He'll take your candy and give it to the kids who didn't come trick-or-treating! He's going to "spread the candy around!"

Sam: Huh? That's not even funny, dad!

Dad: Yes, son, it's not funny! That's the point!

Yes, even on halloween my dad is a McCainiac!!!

The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant...

I found this at someone's blog and decided I had to post it. You will laugh your head off!!!

http://www.losteyeball.com/index.php/2007/06/19/56-worstbest-analogies-of-high-school-students/

So here is the post:

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Apparently the washingtonpost held a contest in which high school teachers sent in the “worst” analogies they’d encountered in grading their students’ papers over the years. (I place “worst” in quotes because many of these actually strike me as quite witty). The top 25 of these have been circulating around the “Sandra Bullock” (”net”, get it?) recently, but I decided to post all 56 that I was able to find. Here they are, in their order of objective funniness (in my opinion):

1. Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center.
2. He was as tall as a 6′3″ tree.
3. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
4. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.
5. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
6. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
7. The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
8. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
9. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
10. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
11. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.
12. The lamp just sat there, like an inanimate object.
13. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
14. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
15. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at asolar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
16. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
17. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
18. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.
19. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
20. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
21. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.
22. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.
23. Even in his last years, Grand pappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it hadrusted shut.
24. He felt like he was being hunted down like a dog, in a place that hunts dogs, I suppose.
25. She was as easy as the TV Guide crossword.
26. She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.
27. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
28. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
29. “Oh, Jason, take me!” she panted, her breasts heaving like a college freshman on $1-a-beer night.
30. It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.
31. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
32. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
33. The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can.
34. Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.
35. Her date was pleasant enough, but she knew that if her life was a movie this guy would be buried in the credits as something like “Second Tall Man.”
36. The thunder was ominous-sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.
37. The red brick wall was the color of a brick-red Crayola crayon.
38. She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from screen doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again.
39. Her pants fit her like a glove, well, maybe more like a mitten, actually.
40. Fishing is like waiting for something that does not happen very often.
41. They were as good friends as the people on “Friends.”
42. Oooo, he smells bad, she thought, as bad as Calvin Klein’s Obsession would smell if it were called Enema and was made from spoiled Spamburgers instead of natural floral fragrances.
43. The knife was as sharp as the tone used by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) in her first several points of parliamentary procedure made to Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) in the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton.
44. He was as bald as one of the Three Stooges, either Curly or Larry, you know, the one who goes woo woo woo.
45. The sardines were packed as tight as the coach section of a 747.
46. Her eyes were shining like two marbles that someone dropped in mucus and then held up to catch the light.
47. The baseball player stepped out of the box and spit like a fountain statue of a Greek god that scratches itself a lot and spits brown, rusty tobacco water and refuses to sign autographs for all the little Greek kids unless they pay him lots of drachmas.
48. I felt a nameless dread. Well, there probably is a long German name for it, like Geschpooklichkeit or something, but I don’t speak German. Anyway, it’s a dread that nobody knows the name for, like those little square plastic gizmos that close your bread bags. I don’t know the name for those either.
49. She was as unhappy as when someone puts your cake out in the rain, and all the sweet green icing flows down and then you lose the recipe, and on top of that you can’t sing worth a damn.
50. Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.
51. It came down the stairs looking very much like something no one had ever seen before.
52. Bob was as perplexed as a hacker who means to access T:flw.quid55328.com\aaakk/ch@ung but gets T:\flw.quidaaakk/ch@ung by mistake.
53. You know how in “Rocky” he prepares for the fight by punching sides of raw beef? Well, yesterday it was as cold as that meat locker he was in.
54. The dandelion swayed in the gentle breeze like an oscillating electric fan set on medium.
55. Her lips were red and full, like tubes of blood drawn by an inattentive phlebotomist.
56. The sunset displayed rich, spectacular hues like a .jpeg file at 10 percent cyan, 10 percent magenta, 60 percent yellow and 10 percent black.

Last night I asked my mom what circumcision was. So she drew me a picture, and explained it. I said, "Like peeling a banana?" and she said basically, yes.

This morning my mom asked if I wanted a banana with my breakfast. I said, "sure", and she got me a banana.
As she went to leave the room I called out, "wait, Mom, I need you to circumcise it for me!"

"EEEEWWWWWWWW"

In a galazy far, far away...

...There was Sam!

Grandma Lois came over today, which was a nice treat, and Sam and Mom (and Grandma for that matter) rushed around getting Sam's project for school done. I got to go outside and take some pictures, the best of which I'll edit in later or post tomorrow after I've backed them up (glances over at the special ks) and size down and watermark the ones to remain on the computer (again glances over at the special ks). In the meantime, here are some pictures of Sam and Grandma I took today (only about half of them! Sam decided my camera was "kinda cool" and that "maybe" he wouldn't mind to pose for a few pictures)

Alexandra Mikaela 2008 all rights reserved!

Thick Skinned

I have cat hair under the keys of my laptop (one of the cat's favorite seats), so I was fishing it out of the keys today...

Mom: Alex, pick those toothpicks up off the bed! The last thing I want is to have toothpicks under the sheets tonight poking me and have to pull apart the bed again!

Alex: I am!

...

Alex: Um, mom, speaking of toothpicks... *points down to foot, with toothpick sticking out of it*

Mom: At least it wasn't me!!!

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YES, I picked up the toothpicks, but I did a lot of moving around on the bed, so they came out of their neat little pile. Anyways, moral of the story: never set toothpicks down on your bed! (And having a thick-skinned foot doesn't hurt either!)

Have a great day!!!

the pooping dog and nitrates... ?????? A REALLY random night!

"And now, class, we come to the nitrogen fixing bacteria. Here is a dog. It's supposed to be a dog anyways"
*points to tiny stick dog with no ears or nose, with it's tail straight up*
"See Alex, he's going to poop...I know it!"
"Hey Mom! You made me miss what's decomposing into ammonia!"
"His poop!"
"No, Mom, I think the dog died"
"No, he's going to poop!"
"MOM! Let me do my class!"
*throws miniature rubber duck at Mom*
*rewinds DVD*
"And it starts to decompose"
*rewind*
"And it starts to decompose"
*rewind*
"You know Alex, he's going to poop!"
"MOM!!"
"When dogs, and animals, and plants, die, the nitrifying bacteria comes and it starts to decompose"
"THE DOG DIED! NO!!! NOT THE DEFORMED PUPPY!!!"
"WHAT? HE DIDN'T POOP?"
"NO! HE'S DEAD!"
"MOM! Now I've missed how the puppy decomposes!"
"The bacteria stuff ......."
"MOM! You made me miss the next part! Please stop talking! I don't have another duck to throw at you!"
*rewind*
*...*

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We're a bit hyper tonight... It's not our fault the teacher was talking about plants in their convertables going to the drive through to order nitrates!!! (No, seriously, she did...and she has huge glasses, a red afro, and a wardrobe full of shoulder padded, flower printed, 80s style dresses! AND an undescribable accent from who-knows-where...maybe space.......

I hope she doesn't read this!

I may post more tonight, though no ne has even seen any of my posts yet...wow...talking to a wall...er, cyberspace...depressing, isn't it?

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EDIT

So things got even more funny! So here's a quick summary... BTW, Sam is my little brother..."Mom" is my mom"

Mom: Sam, I did a terrible, terrible thing...
Sam: YOU ATE YOUR FACE???
Mom: Where did that come from???
Mom: I accidentally killed a earth worm.
Sam: YOU ATE ALEX'S FACE???

Alex: SAM!!! I'M BLOGGING ABOUT YOU!!!
Sam: WHATT???
Alex: It's just me telling the world about you except no one reads it. So I'm talking to myself
Sam: COOL!!!

Mom: Get out of my bed!
Sam: I'm watching Alex blog!
Mom: It's better than what I have to watch Alex do
Alex: I HATE YOU!!! *jokingly*
Mom: They're teaching her to roll over in physical therapy!
Mom: It's sad when you have to be taught how to roll over!
Mom: But then again, it took you a long time to learn to roll over when you were a baby, too!
Alex: YOU'RE MEAN! *jokingly fake sob*

*Sam rolls out of the room in Alex's wheelchair*

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Sam: WHHHHHHAAAAAHHHH!!! *CRASH*

*Sam comes running in the room, panting*
Sam: By the way, I hijacked your wheelchair!
Mom: Uh, we know that
Sam: I tested your brakes, Alex!!!
*...*
Sam: I went into the kitchen, full speed, then slammed on the brakes!!!!
Alex: I'm not cleaning up the skid markes!
Mom: I know, I'll be the one cleaning them!
Mom & Alex: WEAR YOUR HELMET!!! *family joke*

*Sam runs into the room*
Sam: THAT WAS SO COOL UNTIL I HIT THE FRIDGE!!!!!!!!!!!

*Sam comes full speed prepared to come into the

Mom: Sam! Stop running around!
Sam: I'm not running around!

Sam: CHECK........THIS.....OOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHOA.

Mom: WHERE'S THE WHEELIE BARS????!?!!!?!?!!!!?!?!?


Mom: Sam, come here! I think I have a better sized wheelchair for you...maybe you won't get hurt in this one!
*Mom holds up a doll-sized wheelchair*

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I think you get the drift...we have so much fun once dad's out of the house/sleeping