Mega-sized mommy adrenaline

My kids were trapped in a hot car!!!!!

I put my purse and diaper back down in the car and since Aiden was fussy, I did what I normally don't do and put my keys down in the car too so he would stop pulling at them and I can just get the kids in the car quick and get on my way to the grocery. I let Hailey climb into her seat as I buckled Aiden into his. Then I went over to buckle Hailey in her seat. All the doors closed now, I walked around the back of the car, as I do every time I put the kids in the car and I heard the doors lock. I stopped in my tracks. No. No, no, no, no, nooooooo!! This can't be! I ran to all of the doors and pulled on them but the car is locked. The hatchback is locked. Everything is locked. My keys are in the car. My phone is in the car. I don't have a house phone. I don't have spare keys.

I tried to get Hailey to unlock her door but she couldn't. I found a neighbor across the street that came out of her garage as I was standing on the sidewalk wondering who to ask for help but still be in sight of my car. I didn't like being so far away from my kids, especially when they needed me. My neighbor let me use her phone to call my husband but since he was working and didn't recognize the phone number, he didn't answer. Okay... my car has OnStar. We don't have the service enabled right now but I figured with some $$ they could turn it on and unlock my car so I called them. They said no. They said to activate my account I would have to be inside the car and push a button. Oh my gosh.

OnStar said they will connect me to 911. What??! Is this really happening? OnStar told me to leave the phone with my neighbor and go comfort my kids. I played peek-a-boo with them like I do when getting gas to try and calm them down. I still tried to see if Hailey could unlock her door but she couldn't. My neighbor came over with 911 on the phone and they said that they were sending out the closest available help. He kept asking me if the kids were in distress and I said no. Eventually I could see through the tinted windows that Aiden's face was completely sweaty and he looked red. I asked 911 when help was going to be here and he said they were on their way but when I told him how Aiden looked, he said I need to break a window now. He sounded really serious and figuring that he is experienced at this, I needed to get more serious about the situation so I did what he said. I broke the front windshield under his direction and a neighbor with long arms came and reached through the glass to unlock the car door.

I got Hailey out of the car first since I was by her door. She seemed a little sweaty/hot but okay. I got Aiden out and he was completely red, screaming, and totally soaked as if I dunked him in hot water. He was very hot to touch. I know all the crying he did definitely worked up his body heat too. I immediately took his soaked onesie off and took Aiden and Hailey inside to cool them off. I put Aiden in the kitchen sink putting water on him and a wet hand towel. I was asking 911 when they are coming and he was still saying soon. Now keep in mind, it took several minutes to break the windshield. At this point I wasn't so calm anymore. It was taking what felt awfully long and I felt that I had been through a lot all by myself that I shouldn't have been. Finally after about 5 more minutes, the firetruck came. By that time everyone had cooled down well and calmed down. They were very nice and checked the kids out and we agreed that all was okay. Hailey even got a pink fire-man hat. :)

All in all, my kids were in the car over 20 minutes and 911 took minimum of 15 minutes to get here from the time that OnStar contacted them. I think the big problem with 911 was the transferring from OnStar took time and there is confusion as to who services our neighborhood. We live in Ocoee but Winter Garden is who came. Yet when my sister was leaving our neighborhood the other day, she saw a firetruck from an Apopka fire station here. (A very nice cop showed up 5 minutes after the firetruck left and said that he came as soon as he could, that he had to come from downtown). When I had to call 911 a few weeks ago for something, it took them a few minutes of transferring before they could put in the call to send someone out.

I praise God that my kids are safe and healthy, for my neighbors across the street, for the helpful man on 911 and the firemen and policeman that came to help. Everyone is well and my insurance fully covered the cost since it was my windshield that I broke.

The facts:
My kids were buckled in their seats with my keys in the front of the car so, they couldn't have hit the lock button.
There is absolutely NO lock all doors button in the back of the car. Only the manual lock on the door that locks only that door.
I have ran the scenario over and over and cannot get my car to automatically lock the way it did. Even acting as my daughter if she locked her door with her foot.

Lesson learned: Keep my keys with me and keep a spare key somewhere!!

Cute braided scart 100% recycled material

At my Etsy store OohLaChic I added a cute scarf I made out of 100% recycled jersey material.

OohLaChic - My Etsy store!

I recently started creating flowers out of material and putting them on gator clips, pins, headbands, etc. I am having so much fun with it I decided to sell them on Etsy is - a site for handmade items.

Click on the link below to see my store! :)

OohLaChic

One brown widow is too many!

The other day I went outside and took quite a bit of basil from my herb garden (it was getting so big!) Then the next day I went to water my herbs and I noticed something in my basil. A nasty spider web with something in it. I pulled it out with a utensil and then I noticed the HUGE spider next to my hand crawling away. Then I noticed the orange hour glass on the belly. Uh oh. A brown widow! Then I noticed more brown widows flowing from my herbs. UH OH! Later that night I took my husband outside to show him where I saw the brown widow and we found the entire back patio completely infested with them. We easily saw 20 but probably more. I couldn't believe my eyes. I have never ever seen anything like it.

Here's only a few of them...






Needless to say, after much toil and debate, I had to let go of my herbs and let my husband spray them down with poison to kill the spiders. My husband will be working for the next few weeks to kill the spiders and clean up our toddler's toys (they spiders found them as homes) to keep in the garage. Our back patio will be useless. :/ We just can't risk it with kids.

What did we ever do without Google?

What did moms ever do without Google? I think so many times a day "Oh, I'll just Google it!" (It is oh so accessible on my iPhone now too)

I am reminded that even though the internet has a ton of helpful information, some of the best advice can be from our own moms, friends at a play date or a phone call to a sister. There is nothing like real, first-hand advice from people who have experienced the gum in hair emergencies or a child taking a clonk on the head.

If mom is upset, everyone is upset

Have you ever felt down? Just plain old yucky and negative and that you just can't do anything right? I am struggling with that right now. :/ The saying is "If mom is upset, everyone is upset". I do not want that to be so in my household. As wives and moms, the truth is we do set the tone. As I was thinking about this I was reminded of the following Scripture...

2 Timothy 1:6&7
For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

The dictionary says kindle means to start, to excite or to stir up/set going. What is kindling in me? Am I stirring up lies and negativity? Am I meditating on yuck and therefore yuck comes out? This week I am challenged to stir up what I know God has implanted in me... a spirit of power, love and discipline. Yes, this means I have to discipline my mind!

The world says if I have a reason to be upset, then be upset and let everyone know it {FB official?}. And let's just get down to it... a woman's hormones say the same thing! It is hard to meditate on the Word AND meditate on yuck at the same time. The world says we have a right to act the way we feel. The Scripture says to be disciplined and have self-control. What happens when we make that tough first step to follow the Lord? Most would say we get a ball and chain. But o'contrair! We begin to find freedom! There isn't any freedom in feeling the way we want to feel and doing whatever we want to do (sin). In fact, Jesus came to break the bond of sin. Romans 6:5-7 says For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.

So, if we are born again, believing Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior and only because of His death on the cross and resurrection we are freed from the bondage of sin, we may then die to our flesh (aka doing whatever we want, whatever feels good or feels right in the moment) and find life in Christ. John 11:25 says this - Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die."

For most people, it is easier to work in small steps so maybe ask this question... Am I showing the fruit of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Start with the first, love, and work on that. Then move on to joy and so on.

Is it herb or herb?

I like buying plants at Lowe's because if my green thumb is broken, I can return a dead plant that I bought there (with a receipt that you have to copy so it doesn't fade) for up to a year! With that in mind, and the fact that I was constantly buying herbs at the grocery store, I bought some herbs for home. I have a tomato plant, a cucumber plant and some flowers of Hailey's mixed in there too. So far, so good!

Balls of cake on a lolly pop stick = cake pops!

So, this was my first attempt at making cake balls. (Recipe here. I was really determined to have my cake balls round and not flattened on one side from sitting on a flat surface. So, I took a coupon to JoAnne Fabrics and bought a long block of styrofoam. Then I took a metal measuring spoon and scooped out the styrofoam to make places for the cake balls to sit.



I then covered the styrofoam with Glad Wrap Press'n Seal (I love that stuff!!) I then cut the styrofoam into four blocks so that they would fit in my freezer.




I got so into my project, I didn't take any more pictures until I was done. But this is the final project. How did I make the board the pops were sticking out of? I found a shallow thick cardboard box in the pantry. I covered it with Christmas wrapping paper but exposing the back side which was white, and then took a screw driver to make the holes for the cake pops to sit in. It held up so well that I can use it again! :)

My family rules! And we have rules too...

I love the blog Jones Design Company. She created a Family Rules art print that I would have loved to buy to support her but instead I had to be inspired to make my own. I liked the rules that she had...

Be kind
Creativity is always encouraged
forgive, forgive, forgive
Make good choices
Have Fun
give (lots of) hugs
Say your prayers
Love One Another

So I took scrapbooking paper that I already had, typed the rules in Microsoft Word in the fonts that liked. I put one rule on each page at the top. Then one page at a time, I printed the rules out on the scrapbooking paper, making each page/rule on a different scrapbook paper pattern and this is what I got...




Then I cut the paper that said "...Family Rules..." on it to the size of the frame I would use. This would be the paper that I would glue the rules onto. I cut the rules into strips of paper and glued them in order onto the Family Rules paper. Then I put it in a picture frame that I already had and this is what I got...



So, please go check out Jones Design Company's blog and all the prints she has for purchase. They are adorable! But, in case you are like me and must be crafty with the things you already have and like what she did, you now know how I did it! :)