Munchkin

Tonight we had family game night and played one of our new favorite games Munchkin. It took forever for Damon to explain the instructions. I was getting impatient because I was in a huge amount of pain. I went to dinner with the girls in my family we went to dinner and to our favorite shopping store Hobby Lobby. After this adventure my foot was in pain. Enough pain to call over the nurse and resident foot specialist in our neighborhood.

Thanks Southfield Medical Team - I really feel we have the best neighbors.

Speaking of Munchkins we have a new little addition of a munchkin in our family.

Tytan Dallas was born on Friday the 29th of January. He is so cute and Damon and I totally think he looks like his Mom.

May we all be grateful for the little munchkins in our lives.

Brighter Light

Today I was cleaning and came across these poems that were read in the hospital room as I first had the opportunity to hold my Little Livi.

Dear God,
We are the heartbroken,
we have cried so many tears
for our unborn child.
The pain we feel
is so deep and raw that
There are no words to express our sorrow.
Lift our hearts from this sadness,
Comfort us with your love,
We ask for your peace for we have
tried so had to succeed.
Help us to accept that there
is so much we may never understand.
Grant us your guidance
In making a decision
for the next course of action.
Restore our courage
So we can see tomorrow
in a brighter light.

-Ms. Janice Cave -

May all our tomorrows be filled with a brighter light.

Love Affair

For those who know me well...know that my love for the store IKEA has been a long love affair. It started in Arizona and California and I decorated with IKEA items in my dorm room and received many compliments on all of my stylish decor.

Here is our conversation last night.
Damon: Tell me about the details for your ideas with the downstairs bathroom.
Corrine: (Very excited to report details and that Damon is interested.) A white cabinet in the corner, a new rug of a bright color. A white shelf in which I will add white vases and plastic flowers and of course the nice piece of art that I bought a year ago and still has not been put up yet.
Damon: Vases and Plastic flowers....how much is this going to cost. Like 200.00.
Corrine: What are you thinking....more like 50.00 with my coupon savings.
Damon: Oh with the plastic flowers and vases .....it sounds like a bathroom that my Grandma would have.

Corrine thinking...Wow your Grandma most have been a stylish woman. What does he think? My decorating style....a Grandma?

Just you wait and see...I am going to take pics of the transformation and you can let me know if it is a Grandma's bathroom!

May we all be excited about new transformations.

Stomp

My little nephew Kai Bear came to spend the day with his favorite Auntie Re-Re. Kai loves to help me in any way that he can. He loves coming behind me when I am walking with the walker and push my butt down the hallway to the bathroom. He knows a cute booty when he sees one - Oh yeah.

Now I have to enlist the use of my walker and a walking boot to move due to my recent surgery. The boot on my right foot is higher than my left foot and I continue to have my limp in my walk as I did before but it is clearly noticeable.

I went to let Ella out the front door and I hear this stomp stomp noise.

It was Kai he was walking like his Auntie Re-Re left leg fine, right leg a big stomp. It amazes me how much the little ones look up and copy your every move. Even if you are stomping along.

May we all dance to the song in our hearts and stomp along. May we all be aunts that our nephews can be proud of.

Love

I came across this message as I was eating at one of my favorite restaurants with some of my fave people. I got this for a friend of mine that is facing a trial and hardship who is showing that she has a spirit of steel.

Love

Being deeply loved by someone

gives you strength,

while loving someone deeply

gives you courage.

May we all have courage.

Piece of cake

Today I left the house at 5:30 am too early I believe and left to get my right foot fixed. Now this makes it surgery number 13 on my body. I was excited because I have been walking on the side of my foot and it has been causing major pain in my knee and hip.

Before all of my surgeries I would be in complete panic and worry all night about the surgeries and be in complete meltdown when I went to check in for surgery. Not anymore. I am a new woman - when it comes to surgeries.

I checked in very calmly. The IV went in my left hand - note to self this placement is great better than the right.

Nerve block - no crying, no ventilating. Simply laid flat on my stomach and then the nerve block went in behind my right knee. Wow - piece of cake. Woke up the surgery was done in two and half hours. Results: No need for bone graft - hip hip hooray! They removed the bone in my foot that was causing me to walk on the side of my foot. They put in one more plate and screw in my foot. My third toe and some other toes the joints were shattered and they had to put silicone joints in. My toes have pins in them. Literally they look like pins that my Grandma uses to sew!

The bottle nerve block is working!!!! This is how it is suppose to go not like the last knee manipulation I had.

Here is to my new foot!! Thanks to everyone who has kept me in their thoughts, prayers.

May we all be grateful for excellent nurses, excellent doctors, for Vicodin and bottle catheters. For all our feet that are flat and help us walk properly.

Tug of War

Yesterday I used the last of the dog food for Ella and Mazie and dreamt of a beautiful outing as a dog family going to Petco all together to buy dog food.

Ella loves to go in the car and loves to go on rides. Mazie does too. They both usually fall asleep on long car rides and enjoy the time spent in the car.

As a dog mom I had this dream that as a family of four we would have a wonderful time and enjoy each others company all together in a friendly dog store. This was a great idea but this is how it turned out.

Mazie leaped from the car and was doing fine being on a leash until we got through the sliding doors and then decided that she was no longer going to walk and laid there with her leash on. Mazie chose to have a melt down. As a dog mom, I thought "I can handle this". Come on Mazie I thought. This was suppose to be a fun family outing. Many customers came through the sliding door and saw Mazie and laughed. After what seemed like forever the Petco trainer came and put a treat in front of Mazie's nose without letting her eat it to get her to move and then proceeded to do a sales pitch for Mazie coming to dog training class taught of course by her.

Meanwhile my trying to be again financially savvy came in with two coupons for the dog food. I thought that they wouldn't allow me to use both during the same transactions. I had a plan. Damon would go and then I would go to use the coupons. No big deal right.

Well at this time trying to pull Mazie through a tug of war through the store. I realized Damon was in charge of our other dog Ella. Where was Ella? Well Ella decided that she didn't want to stay and hang around while we stood there for hours trying to use our coupons for the best deal with the dog food.

She ate her leash. Yes ate it in half and now she was free to roam and run the Petco with no control.

What turned out to be a bonding family moment turned into a really expensive outing with Ella no requiring a chain leash in order to prevent her from chewing away her freedom. I decided that with Mazie what a tug of war it was - simply to get dog food.

What I learned using coupons is great on dog food only if you don't have to buy a leash that is destruction proof from a dog with razor teeth. In trying to save money we spent more money than expected to ensure Ella's safety.

Lesson Learned: Sometimes events in life can be planned. Sometimes they can't - therefore a tug of war may occur. Take a step back and laugh because sometimes that is all you can do!

Words to Marie : Be open and practice. Practice with "dog children" might help me to become a good human mom.

Remember

The events in Tucson and watching the TV and seeing the medical
helicopter makes me relate to my accident all too much.

It has brought make to remembrance the time I was in the ICU. I remember coming out of my medical induced coma. It is like waking slowly up from a dream. Each day I would wake up a little bit longer. I know what it is like to use all your strenghth to simply open your eyes. I know what it is like to be trapped in a body that you don't even know what happened. I remember trying to do sign language with my mom and sister and having to be restrained because I was getting frustrated with them not understanding what I needed or what I was trying to say.

I remember the breathing tube and how much I hated it. I tried pulling it out numerous times not conscious of how this was saving my life.

I remember how simply hearing Damon's voice would calm be down. I remember the comfort of sweet peace by sleeping and not hearing all the medical equipment go off all the time.

It is said that right after my accident my heart rate was exteremly high and the medical staff could not figure out what to do and gave me medicine to try and lower the rate but nothing was working. Damon then decided to place Livi in the bed next to me. I wish I could remember this but I only have a picture to share this memory. Needless to say my heart rate went down. What a little miracle.

May all the survivors and family members and the families grieving remember that everyone's life is a miracle. May they all find the miracles they need to keep fighting.

Diamonds

Today I went with my friends to celebrate a Birthday of a dear friend. Soph and Kai came along to celebrate with us, since I can't drive. That is one of the biggest bummers I have is not driving. I have to rely on every one's schedule and beg, like I am in junior high to take me places. A huge loss of independence for me, at times very frustrating because I wish my right ankle would bend. It doesn't and it won't until my surgery next week, so instead I have to learn how to bend.

Bending has always been hard along with change for me. I like routine and organization, knowing what comes next. This has been a big life lesson in learning that life is not as you always think it should be.

Then I reflect on how things bend and it is usually from some type of external pressure. Wow - this relates to my accident in all kinds of experiences.

One of the things that I learned from the firefighter luncheon that I went to in November was that the engine was broke in two ways . The top of the engine was forcing the bottom part of the engine to crush my legs harder as the firefighters tried to rescue me from my mangled car. I remember this as they were asking if my legs were hurting with the pressure.

I relate this to life that as bends and pressure come into our lives sometimes it is external and we have to wait it out until we bend.

Maybe the bending isn't exactly what we wanted but maybe through the bending and the pressure we might come out a more beautiful diamond.

Here is to making bends and pressure into our own diamonds.

Inspire

definition of INSPIRE. transitive verb. 1. a: to influence, move, or guide by divine or supernatural inspiration b: to exert an animating, enlivening, or exalting influence on ...

Yesterday it was my Mom's birthday celebration and we went out to dinner. Happy Birthday Mom! Thanks for being there for me through the toughest year ever.

My mom is a great example to me to being there for others. Each week she and a bunch of ladies in the neighborhood go and assist one of her neighbors that has a rare form of Lou Gehrig's disease or technically known as ALS Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

My Mom has visited with this friend for over 27 years and they go to dinner with a dinner group and have been there for each other through many hardships and life experiences that wrench your heart.

My Mom and I went to visit Carol after her birthday dinner. Carol and I talked about how we are bigger and better than our bodies. Our bodies do not determine who we are or what it is to contribute to life. Carol has no control of her shoulders down to her hands. She can no hold her head up. But what Carol does have is her control of her spirit, attitude and feet. She uses her feet for everything. She can turn on light switches with her feet. She opens her doors with her feet and also locks her doors with her feet. She even pets her dog with her feet.

Carol and I talked for an hour about the why's. We don't know why this happened to us. We might not ever know. What we do know is that we have been pushed to the edge of our testimonies and faith about life and that without these experiences we might not have never met the people we have.

Carol inspires me. Simple as that. We all have life experiences that we could scream, yell and give up on the world because this has happened without our permission or without our control. She inspires me because she simply lives and takes one day at a time and tries to make it the best she can.

"It is not good for all our wishes to be filled; through sickness we recognize the value of health; through evil, the value of good; through hunger, the value of food; through exertion, the value of rest.
- Greek Proverb "

May we all take it one day at a time and maybe write a quick note to someone who has inspired us!

Roadblocks - literally

This morning we woke up and were ready to hit the I-15 south freeway and shop for Livi's Festival of Tree - that we are going to do this year. We got on the freeway with high hopes that we were going all the stuff on sale - Our 2011 Frazier goal - to be financially savvy this year!

We get on the freeway and it was at a stand still. Literally road block. We were not able to get anywhere fast. I get frustrated fast because it seems like when you want to do things- even good things - you always get roadblocks.

I am sick and tired of roadblocks but realize that they are a fact of life. I try to see to look at it this way. Maybe the roadblock was there because we needed to take a detour!

May we realize that a roadblock may simply be a detour to a better place and a better time or a better experience. May we all survive our roadblocks!

New Year - New Things

Here is to 2011, it can't be any worst than 2010, I say for me at least. Here is to a new beginning and a new start.

New things - I ( hold your breath) ...actually made Lion House Rolls for a dinner we were having with friends and they turned out! Here is to baking in 2011.

New things - We saved 6 dollars on our grocery expenses due to me cutting coupons! Here is to saving money.

New things - New goals. Here is to trying to have hope and faith that simply everything will work out. Even though it might not be the way I wanted it to be.

I am who I am because of 2010.

May we all recognize the new things in life and may we all have a great 2011.