Judgy McJudgerson

These past two weeks for me have been such an emotional rollercoaster. My mother was in the hospital last week! Goodness gracious really? Not again! At least my parents have an agreement to alternate their hospital episodes. In spite of that I’ve had a pretty good 2 weeks. Being in the hospital this time was a complete different story then when my dad was there, I don’t know how many of you remember Doug the man with the amputated leg, but that was my dad’s neighbor in his hospital room. He was quiet, serene, and alone. This time God thought it would be fun to shower us with bright neighbors. J

As I laid across the bottom half of my mom’s hospital bed trying to be a comfortable pregnant lady, I heard the LOUD snores of my mom’s neighbor. I thought, oh great, we are going to have to listen to that for a long while! This lady slept through everything! Nurses poking her , our conversations, the really loud crazy woman down the hall screaming her head off “I know you’re there……. I know you’re there…… dinner is all paid for ……. what are you waiting for!? I can SEE you!” she screamed. All this going on around her and still the neighbor, fast asleep and snores galore. That is until her family arrived. Two African American women, her daughter Ashley, 26 and niece, Kikki , in her thirties filled the room with boisterous voices. They said hello to us with bright smiles. Kikki had 4 missing teeth, and Ashley was well overweight and wearing an America’s Next Top Model T-shirt. Oh boy my mind, as much as I hate to admit it instantly filed them into healthy stereotypes. They started unpacking a bag and took out body shower and requested towels from the nurse. Start of my nasty thoughts: Really you’re going to take a shower here!? REALLY. Why don’t they just go home and shower? Cheese and rice, this is a hospital where there are sick people and you waltz in asking for towels to go shower in a shower where sick people shower. Ewwwww. End of my nasty thoughts. To kill time, I prepared to paint my toe nails when both Ashley and Kikki were back from their showers, they both looked refreshed and clean wearing the same bottom halves as they were before, they had fresh shirts on and white towels hid their wet hair. As I was trying to take my nail polish off, Kikki looked over at me and yelled, “Wait , wait, wait” and excitedly looked in her bag ,producing nail polish remover pads she shoved them at me saying , “Use these, they are better.” She smiled her four missing teeth smile at me and my heart hurt with love for her. Here I was being such a Judgy Mcjudgerson and here she was being KIND and loving towards me! After a little while I got to talking to both of them and learned that Ashley’s mother had been in the hospital for EIGHT months!!! Going in and out a couple of days at a time but always ending back in the hospital due to her severe Sickle Cell Anemia. I learned that they HAVE to see the hospital as their home because they have been there for EIGHT months being a support system for their mother/aunt! Holly Molly I felt like such a little piece of Sherman oaks when I realized how badly I had judged them without even knowing ANYTHING about them, but what they looked like. They ended up being the funnies people that just brightened my day with their stories and laughs! I’m so grateful that I was able to experience this. I’ve always tried my hardest to NOT judge people and to see the positive in everyone, but oh how fast and easy it is to let that slip. How many times do you go around judging people without being able to hear their side of the story? Had I not talked to them I would have never of been put in my place! I urge you today to pay attention to your thoughts and live conscientiously of how you view people around you. Take the lead and learn someone before you have a nasty thought. Learn them before you license yourself to put them in a stereotype. Choose love over judgment, and you’ll live happier!

Have a beautiful weekend!!

Mothers Day

Mother: what does the word mother mean to us? Life? love? Nag? Hehe Whatever mother means to you, just know that without one carrying you around for 9 months or so you would not be reading this email right here, right now.

My husband and I went to a baseball game the other day and my mind started wondering, mostly because of the insatiable rude foursome that sat directly in front of us, I kept thinking to myself ,” Cheese and rice, their mothers would be so disappointed by their behavior!” AND then my mind wondered to a different realm, as it often does, and I thought; Holly molly, ALL of these people sitting here were once babies and they were ALL once inside a womb! (Fathers, do not get squirrely on me, we ALL know you had 50% part in this “creating life” miracle, just hang in there till 6/20 for your email k.) ALL of these people including ME and YOU once made our mammas so uncomfortable by pushing her insides up so far to make room for us, that it caused little mamacita to have the world renowned pregnancy side effect….. Heart burn! Your mother sacrificed precious nights of sleep because you were having a party in her uterus, playing fun games like; stick your hands, feet, or whatever else fits into mommy’s ribs, for hours on end. Your mother saw the deterioration of her once Godly like figure, yes I said Godly thank you very much, turn into a nice rounder version full of fun veins, stretch marks, weird lines down her belly, hair in places she’s never seen, you name it! She suffered from Pregosaurus Virus, a virus so severe that it takes over the brain and causes furious attacks on husbands, poor defenseless husbands whose only fault was chewing a smidgen too loudly. Co-workers were loathed by your mother for their less than appetizing lunch that infiltrated her nostrils and sent her running to the bathroom to hurl four times in a row. Your mother had to endure the renouncement of cute shoes in order to fit her tamale sized chunkers into more appropriate and less painful kicks. And let’s not forget that she was probably so breathless from going to the bathroom every 20 minutes that sadly enough, towards the end of her pregnancy she counted the game of not peeing her pants her cardio! She probably cried and cried because of the joy she felt when you moved in her tummy! She would sit and wonder which one of your parts was sticking out through her belly and biting her nails at the thought of being a good mother for you. Let’s not leave out the part that we all know about but we never wanna imagine. The fact that she either had her stomach CUT open and had the worst time at begin able to get up from her hospital bed after surgery for some time, all to have you in her arms safely! OR she pushed you out of her v jay jay! Let’s face the facts, that just looks painful. I can’t imagine what it will be like but I’m sure it isn’t a walk down 5^th avenue. All of this she endured for you to have life. This mother’s day make sure you thank your mother for all that she endured to have you. Be thankful for her and feel blessed to have such a tough cookie as your mother. If she’s no longer in this world say a little something for her in her honor because she deserves a bloody medal!! Give it up for all the mothers in the world, love on them not just this weekend but always!