IT'S A BOY! Riot Smith

I know, I know. It’s about time. You’ve all been wondering and waiting to see my new baby. Well, what do you expect? I mean just look at his little face. I can’t get enough of him. So without further hesitation, I present to you my new baby boy, Riot. He was born March 11th and came in weighing a modest size of 8lbs 14 ounces! He was a strong healthy boy too. Now me, I gave everyone a scare. Didn’t mean to but it happened. There were lets say some complications during the c-section. Nothing was where it was suppose to be.
The following day I woke up with the worst pain in my belly I’ve EVER experienced and my heart pounding. When I looked down, it was red, and swollen. I called for a nurse and at one look she grabbed my doctor. I had red streaks running up and down my stomach. At first I thought it was new stretch marks. Not so much, it was something worse. The doctor touched my stomach and I about passed out from the pain. He performed some more tests and grabbed another doctor. By this time, I couldn’t handle life anymore and was slipping in and out.

The next thing I knew it was a few hours later and my room was full of family. My bladder had been paralyzed, kidneys shut down among other things. To top it all off, I had to get two blood transfusions. Yeah, that isn’t very fun either. But, hey I was on morphine (which I found out I HATE! I can’t stand the way it made me feel.)

So a week later, I got to come home with my baby and got an amazing surprise! Someone, ONE OF YOU READERS, contacted a photographer (Jen Smith) of RJS Photography and purchased a session for my baby! (But they wanted to keep themselves anonymous) So here is my HUGE THANK YOU! I thought it would be nice to share a few of my favorites so whoever you are (amazing friend) can see how cute of a gift you got our family.
THANK YOU AGAIN!

Paisley said.....

The other night while putting our son to bed we couldn't find his little dog. He loves this pet, it's his therapy. Me, not so much of a fan of something that will piddle on my carpet. But anyway, you do anything for your kids to be happy and calm.

Well, Seth would not go to bed with out this dog to sleep next to him. He wondered around the house whimpering, "Chester, here boy." After ten minutes, no response my husband and I call out for him.

The little voice of my 4 year old daughter yells out, "He's in my room. He was tired."

We walk into her room and find her snuggled in her bed smiling. My husband asked, "Where in your room is he? I can't see him."

Paisley's beautiful blue eyes brighten up as she smiles. "He's in my closet."

Why she locked the dog in her closet is still a mystery. What made me a little nervous for the future, this was the same smile and giggle she made when we opened the door and found the dog in the dolly bed.

Baby Shower, Ring, Scarf, OH MY!

Wow, a lot has happened. So, this post is going to jump all over and talk a lot about me, sorry in advance. First off I owe you all photos of my ring my husband got me for my birthday (back in December). We have been married going on eleven years and he surprised me with this amazing gift on my birthday. I guess he'd gotten it a while back and couldn't decide when to give it to me. I had no clue, but I think he did AMAZING at picking it out all by himself. He even got the size right. Don't mind the blury fat fingers.

I also got a gift from my friend Gretchen Stelter who lives in Portland. She is also an amazing editor if anyone is in need of some editorial work. My camera is not wanting to load my photos so The scarf looks a lot like the one Gretchen is wearing( click on the link to see photos.), but mine has a peace sign and the words love on it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it and wear it all the time.. Here is a link to her site. Double R Design.

This past weekend my friends gave me a baby shower. I'm having my fourth baby in a few weeks and have never had a baby shower. I had no idea what I was missing! We did an open house style shower because I'm not a fan of shower games and really I just wanted to sit and chat with my friends. We had a good turn out and I really want to tell each of my friends Shannon, Ashli, and Andrea for giving me a shower, and all of the rest of you who came THANK YOU very much. I appreciate everything you did and gave me. My friend Shannon posted some photos on her blog of the decorations (which were over the top and the treats amazing!) Here is the link to see the baby shower pictures. Shannon made me a plate for my baby's room with his name on it. Love it. You'll see it in the photos.

Who wants to be a Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner?

I love pictures of babies. That being said, my friend, Jen Smith of RJS Photography is giving away a photo shoot worth $175. Believe me it's so worth entering in this contest. All you have to do is comment on her web site and here is a link. (click HERE)

Now, if you still don't believe me, here are some samples of her work. Plus there are a lot more on her site. Good Luck to any and all who enter.

A Clog in the Kitchen Sink From HELL!

I’ve had the perfect start for this year. Wait, really I haven’t and this is why. On Saturday morning, my husband noticed the water backing up from the dishwasher into the kitchen sink. He put on his Man Belt and got to work with a plunger. The water instantly shot out of the other side and landed right on his back. Don’t laugh yet, it gets better. He’s ticked, I mean really mad. He moved on to the plumbers snake and twisted that sucker to its breaking point. NOTHING. We went and bought an acid that’s supposed to eat through anything. Really, the bottle said it would eat through rags. What the bottle didn’t say is the fumes could kill an army. Still the clog stayed put.

My husband spued out a few choice words and I told him to call a plumber. He yells back, “Screw that. I got this! I can fix it myself and cheaper than hiring a plumber.” I knew that was the kiss of death. Nothing ever good comes after that saying.

He cinched up his Man Belt a little tighter and bought a new, longer plumbers snake. After shoving the 50 foot metal hose down the pipe, WE FOUND THE CLOG. Bad news, it was something so tight it bent the snake accordion style.

The next thing I heard was banging of power tools getting pulled out of the garage. “Heaven help me now!”  Sure enough the saw fired up and a pipe was being cut. I prayed for a miracle. Or at least for my husband to not chop off any of his body parts.

All of a sudden I hear, “Oh. My. Gosh.” I could have crapped my heart through an eye of a needle right then, but luckily it stayed in place. I took off down stairs, waiting to find my husband covered in blood. What I met was an invisible wall of the most horrible smelling order ever and my husband looking up at the severed pipe in disgust. It looked like what you see inside of a raw sausage link. What seemed to have happened, when we were building our house the plumber made too many bends in the pipe from the garbage disposal to the main drain of the house causing six years of discarded food particles to build up little by little until it became packed—solid.

We ended up replacing that entire length of pipe, about ten feet. It was too packed to even start to unclog. It’s a dang good thing we didn’t have the basement finished or we would've had to replace the ceiling too. But, my husband rubbed it in my face. He did save us money. The total cost of the repair, $40. My husband’s pride—priceless.

Oh, P.S. When I get the time, I have to show you what I got for my birthday from my husband. Plus an awesome gift from my friend, Gretchen Stelter.

Lottery Winner!

A few days ago three ladies won a million dollars on a Power Ball ticket. My husband and I (who were extremely jealous) got talking about what we would do with the money if we had won. Thankfully we both had the similar ideas, but then it came down to the question; would we share it with family or friends? This is where we found out we are true soul mates. We had almost exactly the same answer. Although this was only a dream for us, it did get me thinking. What if? Would I really share or not share? Well, I'm asking you. What would you do?

Sex and Sexy Scenes In YA Books

Hey all you writers out there, I found a great post from a blog I follow The YA-5 called "Sex and Sexy Scenes In YA :Let's Look At It A Different Way" I think you might want to read. It's about sex in young adult books. It's always a big topic at conferences I go to.

This article has some good points and explanations. I agree that when you write a scene it needs to fit. Also, it needs to have meaning to the plot. It's always hard to decide if you are going to add sexual content to your story. For me, it's a hard choice because I write young adult, but young adult (to me) isn't children. Young adult is, in my eyes, 15 and older. Now 15 is still young, but we do need to face and understand that 50% of teenagers (sometimes more) are sexually active in some way.  Now I'm not saying "yeah, go ahead and let your teens read steamy romance novels."  What I am saying is if sex is put into literature that teens will read it needs to be done properly and tastefully. Now that's enough of my soap box. Enjoy reading the post. 

Tooth Fairy! Where are you?

The Tooth Fairy seems to miss our house-a lot. My son lost a tooth two days ago and that stinking fairy skipped him over. This tragedy seems to happen almost every time someone in our house looses a tooth. But, come on now, give this fairy a break. She just can’t get herself up in time lately.

I got tired of hearing the kid’s disappointment in the mornings when the tooth would still be under the pillow and no money in its place. We made a designated spot that we now put the teeth in waiting, on the kitchen counter. No missing it now.

This Tooth Fairy failed again. This morning I woke up to my 4-year-old-daughter wailing that the Tooth Fairy (she has named her Tinker Bell-go figure) didn’t come. After consoling the upset child, she just knew that our cat had scared the Tooth Fairy away and that’s why she didn’t come. She also came up with a plan and made a sign of a cat locked in the garage and a map of where the tooth will be waiting. Wow, I’d hate to think what she is going to do when it's her tooth.

Now please lets all pray that this Tooth Fairy can wake her very exhausted behind up and get this job done. TONIGHT!

Moved To Tears

The other day my husband and I were walking through a store that was displaying art. I know, what a date. An art gallery, but hey it’s free and gave us time to talk. Now I need to back up a tiny bit. As some of you may know, lately I’ve been going through some tough times emotionally with this pregnancy and my oldest son. Although I’ve shed a lot of tears, I’ve grown too. (Not only in my waist but spiritually as well.)


My husband and I had moved passed the paintings and came to the still art section. This tiny 4x5 picture caught my attention. I pointed at it and cried. My husband clueless to what I was doing, put his arm around me and asked what was wrong.

“That picture. It’s so personal to me. I’ve felt that so many times.”

By this time, my husband saw the picture I was referring to and understood. It was of a woman weeping against a rock and Jesus comforting her. Not like a full on bear hug, but a gentle touch, letting her know He understands and is hurting along with her.

I wiped my eyes and got the heck out of that section. I didn’t want anyone to see me crying. But the image left a permanent mark with me. As someone who works in the art genera, I hope my work has an impact on someone like this picture did. Even if it’s just one single person.

Here's the picture that moved me to tears.

I need some help?

I posted this essay a while back, but now have changed it. The reason being, I might enter it into a contest. This contest is for woman of my religious background and life style. Why I'm posting it again, I want feed back. Like; does it need to be longer, more in depth, more personal, you aren't relating, connecting, or caring who this is about. Or if I totally went the wrong way with it and need to start over. Any who, take a read and leave a comment on the link above this post.

I Still See You

A tall brown haired boy flips on the kitchen light. I follow him to the counter and pour him a bowl of cereal. I give my son his breakfast and kiss the top of his head. It’s five o’clock in the morning and I can’t help but smirk at how even the sun gets to sleep in. Yet, I’m up and starting my day.

My little boy snarffs down his Fruit Loops, bounces across the room, humming a deep monotone, and flapping his hands together with out a care in the world. His name is Seth and he has two disabilities; Autism and Fragile X Syndrome. You never know when the symptoms of either trial he lives with will strike. Some days are good and he seems happy and calm. With the good comes the bad and on those days it can be challenging to see his real sweet spirit inside.

Seth puts in his favorite DVD of Harry Potter. While waiting for the player to load, our family dog enters the room and licks Seth’s face. I love the sound of the giggle Seth lets out because it’s a contagious chuckle that grows into belly jumping laugh.

Suddenly, Seth remembers the movie but something is wrong. The DVD isn’t playing. He tries restarting it, but it just won’t work. Seth’s face wrinkles and big tears roll down his cheeks. He turns to me and utters one word from his very small vocabulary.

“Help.”

I open the tray and out slides the disc. I pick it up and find it covered in sticky finger prints. After cleaning it off, my heart sinks. A crack ran all the way across the center of the DVD. Clean or sticky, it will never play. I return to Seth to break the bad news.

“Seth, I’m sorry but this can’t play anymore.” I hold up the disc. “Look at this right here. See, it’s broke.”

He doesn’t understand and cries again, this time flopping down on the couch. I turn around to go back into the kitchen. Seth see his shoes on the floor next to him and grabs them.

The next thing I know something hits the back of my head. I snatch the shoe from Seth’s hand. After a few minutes, my arms are bloody from trying to calm him down. I say a silent prayer and ask for some help. Not for myself, but help for my son to give him some kind of comfort and the ability to calm down. I open my eyes and something shinny catches my attention from under the couch. Reaching with my fingertips, I pull out another copy of the movie.

Puzzled how it got there and where it come from, I put it into the player. The movie starts with out any problems.

Seth immediately calms down and realizes what he has done to his mother. His eyes fill with sorrowful tears. Seth tenderly blows on the scratches, digs, and bite marks that cover my arms.

The movie’s theme music plays in the background as his big green eyes, still filled with tears, look back at me. Kissing my cheek, he says, “Sorry,” and wraps his arms around me.

“Seth, I love you too.”

As his mother, I know that even on the hard days when the Autism takes over, my little boy is still behind those green eyes struggling to understand his frustrations. So in these moments when he looks at me, I let him know I can still see him.

How else would I mean?

This morning I found my son playing with play dough in his bedroom. This is a no-no at my house. The kids know (well should know by how many times I've told them) that play dough is meant for the kitchen ONLY. This is how the conversation went.

Me: "Get this play dough in it's container and down stairs now. Or, I'm going to kick your butt!"

7 year old: Looks up at me with a blank stare.

Me: "Hurry up! I'm not kidding!"

7 year old: "You mean literally?"

Really?!?! How else would I mean. Well, I guess they've caught on to my empty threats.

Listen

Our SUV turned the corner by my father-in-law's shop a few blocks away from our house. I spotted his camper, aka Minnie Winnie, parked out front. An overwhelming feeling deep in my chest told me to slow down. I hesitated on doing so because I knew my autistic son has an obsession with the camper. Seth feels like he’s driving a bus. When we go camping he spends hours upon hours playing in the front seat.

This feeling grew stronger as we passed the front of the shop. I wasn’t speeding but the intensity of the prompting was overwhelming. Seth freaked out and pointed at the Minnie Winnie screaming, “Stop! Stop!”

I slowed our speed to a crawl knowing it would only irate Seth. Leaving him to think I might stop and when I didn’t things could turn very ugly. With our wheels moving only 10 MPH the unthinkable happened. Seth threw open his door and jumped out.

Did you know at 10 miles an hour you can skid your tires when you slam on the brakes? I found out you can. I bailed out after him and found him running back to the shop, headed right for the Minnie Winnie.

A cuss word slipped out of my innocent mouth as I slide back behind the wheel, flipped a u-turn, and pulled into the shop. Seth on the other hand was in total bliss. He had his camper and not a scratch on him.

My father-in law witnessed the show and was shaking at about the same tempo as myself. I swear, this kid is going to put me into pre-term labor. It makes me sick to think about what would have happened if I hadn’t listened to that feeling and slowed down.

Kids School Projects?

Ever notice when your kids have school projects you end up doing them? Yep, we just had one of those. My autistic son didn’t really have to do it, but he wanted to. I‘m a sucker for letting him do whatever the other kids his age are doing, (meaning; scouts, sports, and school stuff. I’m not that cool of a mom).
This project was his fourth grade Idaho History point project. Out of a list of like 100 things to do, he wanted to make a log cabin out of pretzel sticks. YAY, just what I wanted to do. *insert sarcasm* But, we did it! I cut out the frame with cardboard and Seth glued the sticks on like siding. After 2 hours we were finished, well all but the roof.

I’m kinda a perfectionist when it comes to crafty things, hence why there are an absence of them in my home. I wanted to have a roof look “realistic”. So a bright idea popped in my head. BEEF JERKY! The big wide sheets of it. It worked and looked awesome.

With the roof on, we got to looking at it. There was a big gap all the way around where the ceiling meets the walls. Seth (this is the part where he takes after me) grabbed some cotton balls and put over it, like snow. So we put the cotton around the cabins bottom too. Seth even made a pretzel deer to stand out side the cabin. See, he’s my son.

All in all, it was a good project, but I’m so glad the school system likes to make the parents work too. That said, the next project he wants to do is make a real wooden pioneer bench. YE-AH…. Dad, you get to help with that one.

New Parent Freakouts

Today I got really baord and watched the TLC network and laughed. On the show “Bringing Home Baby” a couple of new parents entered the journey of having their first child. The new parents seemed eager to be a good mommy and daddy and said they were “looking forward to sitting around the house and just looking at the baby." Well, the baby had other plans. She cried every waking minute. She pooped all the time and this is where it got interesting. The mother changed a diaper and freaked out. “It is runny and black! Oh my gosh, she is sick!” I need to tell you right here, the mother is a physician. A PHYSICIAN! You’d think she might know that a newborns poo is tar like. A few more hours go by and she is still freaking out. Her husband is trying his best to consul her that their new baby isn’t sick. The dad gets an idea and calls a Dula to come help them. Turns out the baby was fine. The reason for all the crying, Mom wasn’t feeding the baby long enough and the messy diaper was normal.

I laughed because the mom was a physician. That probably won’t help her get a lot of business. I understand that everything is new when you have a baby, but I agree that when you have your first baby you should have some kind of parenting class behind you. I did on my first and it saved me so much stress.
But I admit I was still in the dark on a lot of things. I still am. What are some of your first time baby freak outs?

Leave Your Stamp.

Holy Moly! I've been getting A LOT of blog visits from out of my area. It's fun to see all the little red dots grow into bigger blobs as more visit, but it got me thinking. You all know where I'm at, but where are you visiting from? On the comment link above leave just what state or country you are viewing the blog from. If you want to add how you found this blog that would be fun too. Thanks all for playing along.

XOXO,
Laci

WriteOnCon

Hello all you writers out there. The last two days have been full of knowledge and the best part is there is still one more day! What is it you ask? Well, you inquisitive reader you. There is a huge writers conference going on NOW and it's FREE! WriteOnCon has been full of "workshops" and live chats from big and important people in the publishing biz. There is still one more day to attend so click over now. Oh, and don't feel bad about missing anything. The lovely promoters have done a great job at archiving everything so it's a simple click away and your brain can be filled with knowledge you won't want to miss.

Here is the link. WriteOnCon

I worked out this week!

Okay, it’s been a week and I have done some kind of workout everyday. Shocking, I know. I do feel better and suprisingly the scale is saying I am lighter, although my goal of not being out of breath isn’t met yet. But lucky for me neither is the thirty days I gave myself to complete this goal.


I want to add, I’m drinking enough water to fill a swimming pool everyday. Which in turn now I have to scout out bathrooms like never before.


Thanks to a comment from Amber that I took into consideration, whenever I crave sweets, I eat watermelon or grapes. IT WORKS! I don’t like the taste of chocolate that much anymore.


So there is my update on the getting healthy goal. Can’t you just wait to find out what I have planned for this coming week? My body is going to be in shock from soda withdrawals. Yes, I’m going to cut out ALL soda. This should be interesting.

HELP! I hate looking at myself.

I have a confession to make. I loath my self image. It’s horrible and wrong.


This post is going to be hard for me to do because I’m putting it all out on the line to be commented on. Growing up I was always in perfect shape. I should have loved my body then, but did I, NO. Why was this? Honestly, there were a lot of factors to weigh in on the reasons, but we aren’t going to get into it because this isn’t a pity party for Laci. This post is to make a point and set a goal for myself.

My self image has gotten to the point that I’m unhealthy; physically and mentally. Physically because I’m over weight. Mentally because when I see myself I want to break the mirror. Yes, I’ll admit up front I’m bigger now then EVER—even after giving birth. That is huge for me, a 5 foot 1 inch gal.

How did this happen, well I'm an emotional eater. I eat when happy, sad, tired and depressed. Now I know none of you ever do such a thing and I'm the only one. But food is darn good, but I must be strong in this battle. Wow did that sound cheesy or what?

So here is my goal. I WILL get into shape. I’m not talking about a weight goal. I just want to be able to run down my block and not feel like I'm going to keel over two houses down. So the answer, I’ll do some kind of work out everyday for 30 days and see if I feel any better. Seriously, I don’t like feeling this crappy about myself. I want to do this all naturally with no diet pills, drinks, protein bars, or some kind of magical fat dissolving shots. I don’t think that would be healthy, especially for me. It would only masks the problem and wouldn’t teach the life style needed.

I will update my blog at least once a week to tell you how it’s going. If anyone has some tips I’d love them. Comments are on the top of this post.

Wish me luck. I’ll need it.

Way to go DADDY!

I knelt down and rummaged through the leaves, hunting for our daily treats. The deep red fruit begged to be picked. Paisley’s tiny hand reached for the ripened strawberry.

“Howee Hell! The stupid bird ate it.” She stomped her heal and placed hands on hips.

I froze half way in my attempt to grab a handful of strawberries.
“What did you say?”

With her nose crunched, she pointed at the half eaten berry. “The birds ate my strawberry!”

“I see it did, but what did you say before that?”

“I don’t want to say it again.”

“Where did you hear that word from?” I held back a smile because I already knew her answer.

“Daddy. He says ‘Howee Hell' all de time.”

“Well, I think we need to talk to Daddy when he gets home.”

“Yeah, and he’s gunna get his a** kicked huh?”

SAY WHAT???!!!!
Here we go again……

In a Tough Spot?

I can honestly say I look at the glass half full. In a tough situation, I will find a positive. It drives my husband crazy sometimes, (He's a half empty glass person) but I don't want to live my life worrying about stress. I hate that feeling. I love to be happy. I admit sometimes I'll release my claws and have melt downs, but "it cleanses the soul" as my grandma would say.  This video clip is a perfect example of how I make a tight situation into something positive. So in other words, if I was a mouse this would be me.