No, not my birthday-that is Thursday, silly. Which means you totally have time to get a present overnighted at this point.

I meant- It’s moving day…

Having a blog is a lot like having a party at your house. Except you never know when someone is going to drop in. Which means you sort of have to keep it ready for guests at anytime.

And just like your house, after a while the walls need a fresh coat of paint, the weeds need to be pulled and it probably wouldn’t hurt to clear out some of those junk drawers.

Can you believe I have been blogging now for 5 years? What started out as a way to update family has certainly taken me on a roller coaster ride in that time. That metaphor is totally intended by the way.

Sure, I have been playing around online creating, running, selling sites for the last 12 years as I went about my merry way but my little blog? Pretty much always been my quiet space to just write and talk about the kids.

But a funny thing happened in all those years. My kiddos sort of grew up. My youngest will be a teen very soon and my oldest, driving. And remember how mortified you were by the fact that your parents dared to breathe as a teenager? Well, multiple that by about 1 million times and you may have an idea of how embarrassing it is to have all of this history online about them. I am assured I am quite literally ruining their lives…and apparently I am a little creepy too?

So, dear friends, we are packing up and moving on. No, not just me….you too! The boys are mortified that 1000’s of strangers know that they like their names spelled out in tater tots and that they were completely satisfied that I got rid of all the monsters under their bed by using lavender air freshener. What they don’t realize is that you are not strangers at all. You’re my friends from all over the world. You’re not creepy stalker people AT ALL! Well, not all of you anyway.

So, grab a box—and not just a light one—we have people to see and things to do, and there is something fun already waiting for you! *sounds creepishly like Dr. Seuss, doesn’t it?* Whatever. Get yourself on over to Mom Off Track and check out the new digs with fabulous graphics done by Chris Bird. While you are there, sign up for the new feed and please ‘like Mom Off Track’ on Facebook.  Mom Off Track has a mobile version too! See you soon!

Just FYI that I am back on my genealogy kick. Don’t know why. Just am. Roll with it, k?

I love haunted houses. House histories and ghost stories are the stuff sweet dreams are made of. So, imagine my excitement when I found the house of my great-grandfather 7 TIMES removed is in the National Registry and tours are offered!!! The Van Wickle House is preserved in an area called “The Meadows” in Somerset, NJ . It’s a modest Dutch farmhouse but, O M G! The house is available with many of the belongings to tour???

Freaking cool, huh?

Even more cool?

It’s been reported in several places as being haunted with 5 spirits-him and his wife are the most prevalent of the 5!

OK, I am about to pee my pants now, or go book airline tickets. Someone hold me back. Or offer me a place to stay if you’re near there.

This tops my 2011 Bucket List….what’s on yours?

Answers for my poor confused friends as to why people keep referring to their sun worshiping friend Barb as a “SnowMama” exist here. It’s amazing the depths mothers will go to for their children. I am a SnowMama and more than proud of it!

Disclaimer: I am compensated in a variety of incredible ways to participate as a Snowmama. However, I truly believe PCMR and NAC rock or I wouldn’t bring my family there!

In a surprising announcement this morning, Bearemy, the head bear in charge of Carters stuffed animals has revealed they are preparing for the worst. It is now being widely speculated that the secret bear stuff formula may be among the documents Assange is preparing to release next. We asked many of animals for their reaction…

I'm shocked. Interpol has our full cooperation.

I'm so scared! This could be the end of the stuffed animal industry as we know it. BTW-does this shirt make me look fat?

All stuffed animals need to take necessary precautions. I am busy sniffing out more details and will update you as necessary

I have the encryption key and I am not afraid to release it. Power to the people-keep the net free baby!

Busy making love not war....

Bwwwaahhhhaa, Bearemy will ultimately learn the truth...

Project Objective: Complete overhaul of Carters room to accommodate the over bearing, over priced ($60,000!!!), and over ugly new Clinitron bed and possible lift system. This new equipment is necessary for his upcoming surgery. He will not be allowed out of it for 6 weeks after a 2 week stay in the hospital. A fun room is a must!

Many, many, many themes were discussed for this new bedroom. The plan was to paint a large mural on the walls.  Finally Toy Story won out and my plans changed. I love Toy Story but lets be honest, at Carters age this is a phase. If it gets him through the in-room prison part of this recovery than that is fabulous—but I am not about to make a permanent wall mural.

Google to the rescue….I came across this Toy Story room done by HGTV that has a much more mature look and used it as the general game plan to get started.

Progress:

Day 1:

• Room gutted and cleaned
• Painted all four walls blue
• Moved dresser and armoire to room and placed along walls to provide as much open space as possible for access.
• New curtain panels with black out liners

Plans:

• Make a giant etch-a-sketch calendar
• Use vinyl wall decors to add the characters in. Using these instead of painting so that it can be removed quickly and painlessly when Toy Story wears out its welcome.
• Communication Command Central to include larger Google TV, xbox and wii. Doing my research on Google TVs now.
• Parachute men on ceiling

When it is all done I will do a massive post on creating a room a special needs respite room while maintaining some sense of fun. But until then I will update the progress on the project so that if any of you have some great ideas on how I can add to it….PLEASE CHIME IN!

The number one piece of advice that you get from well meaning doctors, nurses, disabled adults, the garbage man, the waitress and your family is………

treat your special needs child like every other kid.

Yeah, here is the thing about that-they are not like every other child:

• Every child doesn’t struggle to get dressed in the morning because their legs won’t cooperate.
• Every child doesn’t have an average of 2-3 surgeries or hospital stays a year.
• Every child doesn’t have to turn down invitations to friends houses because they have too many stairs.
• Every child doesn’t have learning disabilities that make learning certain subjects next to impossible.
• Every child doesn’t have a major therapy goal to learn how to pour milk.
• Every child doesn’t spend their birthdays, christmas, halloweens, being monitored for infections
• Every child doesn’t have to be worried that the thing they are allergic to is hidden in every day items

So, this is my collective scream at everyone who loves to pass on that tidbit of well meaning advice. You know, the one who honestly has no idea what the hell they are talking about? I would gladly treat my kid like he is just like every other kid. But the fact is, he isn’t. BUT, just like every other MOM I love my child more than myself and that is why I bend over backwards to make his life the best it can be.

Seems I have been everywhere on the net these days ‘cept here. So, what is up with me? Lots of business changes.

I sold The Coupon Cupboard but am staying on as the Blog Editor for a while so all the PR reps out there can keep sending me those awesome opps.

Have a fun post coming out Wednesday at Mom It Forward showing you our haunted house preparations. Look for it then.

I am blogging as the Wheeling TravelingMom on TravelMoms.com. I will be posting lots of fun places to visit and travel when someone in your family uses a wheelchair.

I am doing the project development on a really wonderful online project that I will share in the next few weeks.

Starting to work with the incredible Maya of Meme Tales on some cool stuff coming out for the Carter Bear Club.

Getting ready to throw an another awesome party with Mile High Mamas for the Jewels For Hope campaign with Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Wrapping up Spina Bifida Awareness Month.

and trying to breathe…..

Many of you know I am a HUGE Survivor fan. Not the type that would try out….I don’t eat bugs and my idea of camping is one hotel room for our 4 person family. But the type that has watched every single episode in the last 20 seasons. The one who would wait for Thurs (now Wed) night to come every week.

But this season has me bothered….In a way that surprised even me.

There is a girl (Kelly B) who is a single leg amputee. Meaning she wears a prosthesis on her leg.

What I can’t wrap my head around is how her tribe reacted to her out of the starting gate. Right away she was targeted as the person to go home because she was a ‘charity’ case. One contestant (Shannon) went so far as to say if he was in the finals with her he would just give her the money. REALLY? You would survive 38 days in the jungle without your family to turn around and give the million dollar prize to someone just because she had one leg?

What’s interesting to me is that this social dynamic is taking place among US citizens 30 or younger. Has disability awareness really gone that wrong???

I won’t spend much time on that person who keeps saying things like “She better not take leg off or I am going to throw it in the fire”. To me, that is a disgrace on the producers of Survivor for allowing that to be aired.

I guess my overall shock here is this: here is a woman who for all intensive purposes is a contributing member of her tribe, decent at challenges (better than some) and seems to be a nice person being targeted simply because people think a jury would hand her the money because she is ‘disabled’.

I am sickened and saddened to see this generation act as though this is the US in 1960′s.

We teach our children that ALL people have different abilities, some may walk with two legs, some may walk with one, some may wheel, some wear glasses, some have brown hair, some have blond. But we are equal and valuable. Did this tribes generation of people miss that message?

Kelly B is a PERSON who happens to wear a prosthesis. The idea that she is a charity case is a level or ignorance I thought as a western nation we were over.

Changelog: August 16th

One of the best days of my life

One of the worst days of my life

My littlest guys birthday

A bridge to a new reality

The night before I was feeling odd. 34 weeks pregnant. Too early for it to be the baby coming. Went out to dinner for a ‘last chance’ date while the inlaws watched the oldest. Something wasn’t right. Left dinner early for a quick trip to the ER for an ultrasound. They patted me on the head like they had the 6 other times I had done this during this pregnancy, marked my folder with a ‘nutty mom’ and sent me on my way.

Next day…still not feeling good. “Stop being such a hypochondriac”, I remember saying to myself. “There is nothing wrong with the baby. If there was they would have seen it in all the ultrasounds or when they took your appendix out at 21 weeks pregnant. You’re a nut. Take a nap.”

Fell asleep for a few hours. “Maybe I should take a shower?” I thought. The warm water felt great and I made my way down the stairs where Bob was playing with a toddler sized Con. He looked at me with a strange face and said “I think we should go to the hospital”. “Really, why?” and then I felt the revolt inside my body happen. Oh my god! Was I really going into labor? It was too soon. The room wasn’t ready.

Bob called my mom who lived about 20 minutes away but I couldn’t wait. We sat in the driveway waiting for her to get there to take Con. All the doors in the house wide open as Bob had rushed me to the car.

Screaming at Bob on the I-10 freeway to hurry as fast as he could. I knew today was the day. My precious little boy was coming. A little early but OK…we would deal with that.

Got to the hospital and I was now screaming for the anesthesiologist. Where the hell was he? With each contraction I screamed louder for him. Finally a nurse grabbed me by the hand and told me “He isn’t coming. It’s too late. You are going to have to do this on your own. NOW”.

WAIT??? WHAT???? No, no, no, NO, that is NOT the plan here lady. It was my first lesson in learning that Carter had his own plans. Mine were about to become merely an after thought in this grand scheme.

….and then there he was. A little screaming ball of fury being taken over for his apgar scores since he was 6 weeks early.

And then we were jutted into an alternate universe. At least that is what it felt like.

Bells, alarms, lights, hurried codes over the speaker system. There was something terribly ‘wrong’ with the baby. They rushed him out of the room. Bob looked at me and in that brief second our lives irrevocably altered. I remember saying “GO. Go with him. I will be fine”. Because it didn’t matter if I was bleeding to death at the moment (I wasn’t). Carter was all that mattered.

Bells, alarms and whistles gave way to hushed tones, scared residents and quiet tears. It was a janitor who told me what was wrong. In broken English she said the two words that haunt me to this day: spina bifida. What? What was that? I read about that somewhere in a baby book I remember. But my baby doesn’t have that because I had the blood test for it. I had 6 ultrasounds. I had my appendix out for gods sake. There is nothing wrong with my baby.

But there was. At least in the physical sense. Because I can tell you as sure as I know my name that there is nothing WRONG with my baby. He is a beautiful, complete soul who happened to be born with an open spine. He is both one of the three loves of my life and my hero.

Each family, each person all have their own reality. Ours is both the same and different from the many people living with spina bifida. And while, no, spina bifida was not in my plans we try to live each day as if it were merely an after thought in this grand scheme.

This post is the kickoff to a blog hop being sponsored by another site of mine, Spina Bifida Connection. If you would like to read more peoples stories of living with spina bifida or you would like to link to your own post on the subject use the linky below!