The turtles

This summer Nick decided to get a fish tank.  He filled it with fish and turtles from our lake.  I would have never thought our family would be so entertained by four turtles but this is a season of Covid when movie theatres are shut down, restaurants are starting to close again (thanks to our "wonderful" governor but I digress) and sports are still not being played so we have resorted to full blown entertainment from a bunch of turtles.  When Nick announced he was naming his big bass Anthony Weiner and one of his turtles Jeffrey Epstein I realized my 14 year old was naming his creatures after sexual predators.  I shrugged it off, after all it has been a good source of entertainment as we've watched Anthony Weiner get bigger and bigger.  Last night Nick took Weiner out of the tank to examine his mouth.  His concern was whether or not Weiner's mouth was big enough to eat Jeffrey Epstein!  I can't make this stuff up.  Turns out Anthony Weiner's mouth is getting bigger but not quite big enough (yet) to swallow Jeffrey Epstein.  If it weren't for Covid we might not have had such entertainment from turtles named after such notorious felons. 
The picture is of the deck Nick made so Jeffrey Epstein, Cleopatra, King Tut and Gilford could sun themselves!  That Nick....he's always thinking. 

Jay - the giant giraffe

Jay went to a Halloween party last night.  I let him borrow my absolute favorite costume!  When I told him he could borrow it, he said, "I wasn't even going to ask because I know how protective you are of that costume."  Ha! 

 One of my all time favorite pictures.  The $100 some dollars I spent on this costume was and always has been worth every penny.  Nick loved me being his momma giraffe that Halloween when he was 4 years beautiful and oh so innocent.  

The Book Signing

Mom really wanted to have a book signing party for Kim and I.  Even in the midst of COVID, we had a successful and safe party. It meant a lot to Kim and I to do this and we enjoyed every second of it. I know it has made my mom proud and I am humbled and thankful. 

We have received so many positive comments on our book.  If you ask me what my goal was with the book it was to inspire people and encourage them but it was also to tell my dads story - a story that he certainly never could have told himself because of his disability.  I wanted people to know he was broken, just as broken as anyone else, including Kim and I, but I wanted people to see him for who he really was - a wonderful father who at his core loved his girls and loved our mom. I also wanted my mom to have a clear understanding of what she went through which due to her stroke she can't remember everything. I want it to be a keepsake for our four kids, even though Lauren will probably be the only one to read it.  I joke that my boys might read it one day but it will probably be after I'm dead and gone and they are missing me (or something like that, ha). 

Jenna has been my friend for YEARS!  We like to say we're old church friends and we are.  Every time I am with her I'm reminded of how much I miss her as we don't see each other as often as either of us would like.  I sure love her though.  She makes me laugh out loud every time I see her.  

My dearest friends (above and below).  I am so humbled by my friends who showed up to cheer Kim and I on.  I'm so blessed with amazing women in my life. 

My dear friend, Karen Neal.  Next to Mary, she is the other spiritual confidante in my life.  She offers me sound, biblical advice. 

My boy!  Jay showed up before the party started just to say Hi.  Again, I joke he probably won't read the book but my hope is one day he'll crack it open and it will provide him encouragement at the time he needs it most. 

Sweet Jenna and Mary!  I am forever grateful for Mary's beautiful foreword - which I should note didn't require one edit!  Her words were eloquently beautiful and I'm so honored her words are the first words you read in our book.  

Even in the mess of life, God is good! 

Best Weekend Ever

The beauty of being friends with Mike and Jenny for as we have been is we know each other's children. We know the best parts of them and we know their quirks.  For a boy mom like myself I get to be a part of Faith's life.  I have never spent much time thinking about what my life would be like if I had had a daughter.  What's the point, I don't have one, and truly at my core God knew exactly what He was doing when he blessed me with Jay and Nick.  All weekend I was surrounded by mother's and daughter's and I was reminded of the beautiful bond between them and I am incredibly thankful Faith has invited me to be a part of hers. She is truly the sweetest and I pray that one day I'll be a wonderful mother in law to daughter in law(s) who will invite me be a part (however small) into their lives. 

I got to meet Faith's roommate, Lauren.  Her mother, Tami, came and they were both so delightful. I enjoyed getting to know them. The cool thing about Bama is kids from all over the country go there. I met people from NY, CA, NJ, and NH, just to name a few. That being said there is a reason we go to college when we're young.  I did great until about 8pm on Saturday night.  By then I was exhausted.  I laughed at myself when I got into bed on Saturday night.  I had my sleep mask on, my snore strip on and my 2 tylenol pm by my bedside. It was pitiful but honestly I did great Thursday and Friday night which is pretty good for this 46 year old!  

Faith - Thank you!  I love you to the moon and back. I loved seeing where you live, meeting your roommates and friends.  Mostly you made this boy mom feel extra special!  
 

The Sickly Sieberts

 *I'm part of a writing group.  A few months ago one of the topics we were asked to write about was "A Story Our Children Should Know." Below is the story I wrote.   

It’s funny how fast your children's childhoods can pass in a blink of an eye. There are certain seasons you think you’ll never forget but time marches on and memories fade. Some seasons you try to forget and for me it was years filled with illnesses, stitches, E.R. visits, surgeries and even hospitalizations. . My son, Jay, who is now 18 wins the prize as being my most sickly child. However, Nick, my 14 year old, although wasn’t as sickly but more injury prone which is demonstrated by his yearly mother loads of poison ivy prompting doctor visits and steroid injections. 

During Jay’s first year of life he battled ear infections, high fevers and what seemed to be a runny nose that never stopped dripping. He endured five ear infections within three months and when he was eleven months old he had surgery and got ear tubes. I was hoping the tubes would cure a lot of the issues he was having but as we headed into winter he was so sick his pediatrician thought Jay should be tested for cystic fibrosis.  Thankfully he didn’t have it. When Jay was two he used his nightlight as a step ladder in order to see a tractor. He cut his foot which prompted our first trip to the E.R. There was also the time he got his fingers caught in an elevator door and the time he grabbed my hot curling iron, a battle scar he still sports today. 

When Jay was four and Nick was six months old Jay got walking pneumonia and Nick got RSV. I remember I spent days going back and forth between Jay and Nick’s rooms giving them nebulizer treatments. Eventually they got better, however, Nick got RSV again two years later while I battled an awful case of fifth disease.  This bout of RSV wasn’t as friendly - of course it wasn’t, it never is when mom is also sick.  Fifth disease was odd because for me I would run a fever at night but be fine during the day so I was still working.  I would work all day, come home, run a fever and then have to sit outside with Nick in the cold because the cold helped silence his cough and calmed him down. Of course it couldn’t have been a steaming shower!  You might wonder where my husband was in all this. While he is instrumental in building the boys into who they are today, he was pretty much worthless when it came to illness and small children. 

When Jay was in second grade he had his tonsils and adenoids out which was a turning point for him. He had so many issues with strep throat that after he had his tonsils and adenoids out it’s pretty fair to say he rarely missed any school after that, other than the occasional stomach flu. When he entered high school and played football and basketball he suffered two concussions. It was after the second concussion we decided his football career was over. 

Respiratory issues aside we’ve also had our fill of vomit in our house. In December 2007 my niece, Lauren, was born. She was a preemie and remained in the Nic-U while the rest of my extended family spent Christmas Eve together. Around 2 a.m. on Christmas morning I remember the dreaded sound of “I’m a child getting ready to barf” as Jay ran down the steps in order to make it just in time to our bedroom as he proceeded to throw up all over our carpet. I remember as we got him cleaned up he walked past the Christmas tree which had presents underneath it and in the most pitiful voice said, “Boy, that Santa sure got here fast.” I was horrified because we had been with my sister all evening.  If we exposed her to the flu she could not visit Lauren. The flu ended up going through all of us that December but thankfully never hit my sister. 

In 2013 we went to TN on vacation. Nick ended up getting dehydrated our first day and got a migraine headache and threw up. It was scary but thankfully he was okay. It was the next summer in TN when the boys got some kind of flu bug and they spent our last night bent over a toliet. I would run back and forth between the boys improvising with a waste basket a few times. In the morning I left a $10 bill on the counter for the cabin owner to buy a new waste basket since my boys had annihilated hers. Somehow we made it home with just a few throw up stops during the 10 hour drive. We made it home just in time for Mike to start complaining about his stomach.  It hit me 2 days later. Good times. 

Then there was the summer when Nick was 3 and Jay was 7. As older brothers often do, Jay was terrorizing Nick and Nick thought he might be able to get away by jumping through a window. That Nick can be resourceful when he wants to be but I’m not sure how he thought he would jump through the window but he tried. He ended up shattering the window and cutting his arm which by the grace of God required no stitches. This incident happened on Mike’s watch and Mike said when he heard the glass shatter Nick was barefoot.  Mike immediately told Nick not to move, knowing he’d cut his feet. Nick froze. Although Mike fell short in dealing with sick kids, his effectiveness in getting the boys to listen was always top notch.  

When Jay was in third grade he and his dad got into a rough and tumble wrestling match on the floor. While wrestling Mike accidentally rolled onto Jay’s finger, breaking it. What was innocent and playful fun between father and son turned into an interrogation from doctors and nurses. It got even worse when Jay’s finger didn’t heal and an infection developed. Surgery was performed and an infectious disease doctor had to be consulted. After two days in the hospital and having to endure being asked about 100 times how Jay broke his finger, we were finally released to go home without a D.C.F.S. escort. 

My children were probably not any sicker or more injury prone than any other kid. After all they are boys. They did survive their childhoods and so did I, which oftentimes as a full time working mother who had a one hour daily commute was kind of a small miracle.  I choose this topic as a story they should know because one day - God willing - they will be a parent and when you’re in the trenches with your kids, no matter what is it, you don’t ever think you’ll get out of it but you do.  It’s a matter of moving forward, seeing the humor in things and knowing that eventually you will get on the other side of it.