Lets Get Flexible....The LENOVO Yoga 11s and how its reshaping my life!

A few months ago I received an amazing opportunity to join with an elite group of individuals who share my love of technology...The Lenovo Insiders.  I wasn't quite sure if I had what it takes to keep up with these folks, but I knew we all shared the same love...a passion for amazing technology.  I was literally in love with my Yoga 11 S the moment I took it out of the book.  It was Orange, funky and sleek, and while I was excited to get started, I was a tad intimidated by its potential.

 

 

 

I knew that this machine was one of the most flexible gadgets on the market.  It literally rotates into a tablet and is able to work in so many modes.  I wasn't quite sure how it would impact my life, but I knew it had potential to enrich it in so many ways.  Over the course of the last few months I've been putting this laptop through routine workouts and it has never let me down.  Its has amazing battery life for mobility and its lightweight and sturdy frame make me feel confident to take it anywhere we go...including the car for my sons to watch movies on while we travel.

 

 

I would consider myself a budding techie, a mom, a teacher, a novice blogger, a reader and baker and a twitter party fanatic, and at each level the YOGA has impressed.  I love the tent mode on the device...so helpful while working in the kitchen:

 

 

 

It has come in handy numerous times and always makes me feel like I am ready to whip up anything at a moments notice.. I especially like using it to watch Youtube videos of how to while I'm cooking, great sound quality and image, its like I have the chef in my kitchen coaching me along.

 

 

One of the most dramatic impacts this device has had on my household is the way it is utilized by my sons.  The fact that my Yoga 11 s has amazing picture quality draws my sons in, but the true bonus of it is the fact that the machine is touchscreen.  The touchscreen feature has been an amazing confidence booster for my sons who often felt awkward using a mouse (although I love using my Lenovo mouse).  For little hands the touch screen is ideal, allowing them fluid mobility and so many opportunities to fine tune their motor skills.  My boys use the Yoga to create art, read books, play games and complete academic programs.  The last of which has made me joyous both as a mom and an educator.  Here is my 4 year old using the Yoga to work on his ABCmouse.com program, a program we have been using to prepare him for kindergarten this fall:

 

 

This is an engaging device who has added excitement and confidence to his abilities.  He is a little pro maneuvering between boards all at the touch of his finger.  I also find that the YOGA 11 S is the perfect sized tablet, when used as such. It allows both my older boys to put their heads together and play games.  Here they are playing the Disney app "Where's My Water 2" :

And while they seem sort of serious in this pic...trust me they are having a ball! (That game is intense)

When I am able to get my hands on my own device I use it often to read articles online, while sneaking in some relaxation (with 4 boys 6 and under, that's the only way to get some)

 

 

 

So in the few months I've had the yoga, its literally transformed the way I look at technology.  Some devices claim to do it all...THIS LAPTOP LITERALLY DOES! I will be returning to work in a few weeks and I cant wait to share with you all soon how the Yoga's flexibility, portability and sheer genius enriches my classroom!  

 

And because I want you all to have a chance to experience this amazing technology for yourself I wanted to share that Lenovo is running an amazing contest RIGHT NOW to win, you guessed it, Yoga technology.  Don't walk RUN and get ready to be flexible....in life that's what it takes to succeed these days. 

 

Please head over to  http://www.lenovoyogamyway.com to check out the details and be sure to follow my friends Lenovo on Facebook and Twitter, they are constantly rewarding their followers with amazing giveaways and equally amazing knowledge!

 

 

Stay tuned!!!

 

*I was compensated for this post but the ideas and opinions expressed within are 100% authentic and mine alone"

 

 






Dilemmas....the conclusion of this tale and the beginning of my life as a Mom to 4!

In my previous post I alluded to a new monster that had awoken within after my gallbladder surgery. It was FEAR plan and simple. After lying in a hospital for nearly three days post surgery I returned home to my life, but nothing was the same. Taking my gallbladder didn't help me to sleep, it didn't help me eat, and worst of all it didn't take away the knawing pain in the center of my chest. I was at a loss as to what was happening to me, so I researched post surgery complications. I self diagnosed, I became obsessed with the idea that I had blood clot in my legs and that they were going to dislodge and destroy my heart. I went time and time again to have my legs scanned...I went to the ER again for breathing issues...worried that they'd find clots in my lungs. I was unravelling and it was happening fast. The weight kept dropping off me, and by May of 2012 I'd lost over 35 pounds in about 7 weeks.

I was in a constant battle with myself. I would try to talk myself out of the late night ER visits, or pushing my drs for ultrasounds of my legs. I tried not to fixate on the pain in my chest, my irregular breathing, my varicose veins, the pounding in my head. I tried and I failed. Post gallbladder surgery I had numerous scans, ultrasounds and ER visits. My family was concerned, I stopped functioning in all aspects. I was a machine...my sole purpose to find out what was wrong with me and fix it so I didn't die. I was terrified of death...fixated on it, felt like it was lurking for me just around every corner at every hour of the day. Then one night, about my 3rd trip to the ER in two weeks I came face to face with the reality of my actions.

I had gone to bed around 12. Couldn't sleep...breathing became labored, my heart rate was sky high. I felt the pain in my chest, my shoulders, my lungs. I went to the ER room. They did a work up...EKG, blood work, IV and even put dye in my blood to do a scan to see if there was clots. My levels were high...could just be post surgery levels but they were sending me by ambulance to the hospital. I panicked not the hospital...I hated it there... I ended up in a unit where I was observed for a day...Ivs inserted, so used to needles drawing blood and fluids being pumped through me by now that I didn't recognize myself. My arms were covered with bruises from Ivs, and blood draws. I had remnants of surgical tape up and down me. It was out of control. I was out of control. I'd been run through every test, every scan, every scenario and dr after dr assured me, my health was good, my heart was great, no blood clots, nada. I was talked to about why I was feeling this way, and I was assured I was fine. I went home, got in the shower and got to my knees and prayed and cried. I was NOT ok...something was very wrong...my physical pain was real, drs had missed signs before....but as I looked at the bruising on my arms, the tape around me, the holes from needle upon needle I realized that it wasn't my body that was problematic...it was my MIND.

Unless you've struggled with anxiety, cyclical thought patterns and OCD behavior you can't fully appreciate the panic that it produces.  Be thankful if you can count yourself among the decreasing few who have never had your brain harass you and bring out physical symptoms to torture you and evoke Fear. Some will say to cope, just get over it...and some who have been where I sank, will say find a life raft and hold on till you can breath again! I had a life raft...it was my Mom. She pulled me up, she pulled me through and she encouraged me to seek medication. I returned to my dr...explained to him all my thoughts, my travels, my fixations. We did a quiz...we talked about past behaviors. He applauded me for recognizing I was struggling. He gave me script for anti anxiety medication...he gave it and I took hold of it without no reservations. This was a road I hadn't tried...maybe just maybe it would offer me something I'd lacked for the last two months...peace of mind.  

So I started taking this medication I also stopped taking anything that could cause blood clots too, like my birth control pills. Within a week I had adjusted to my new medication and while the thoughts were there, I was finally able to control them. I started to come out of a state of panic and return to myself. I was better than Id been in a long time. I was 40 pounds lighter, I got my hair done, I took a spa day, I saw friends, I laughed...I was a new version of myself. Id been reborn. My husband and I spent time together again, watching our shows and relishing in knowing I wasn't going to be whisking myself off in the middle of the night to the ER. My sons stopped asking me everytime I left the house if I was going to the Drs. The weather was gorgeous, we took family trips to the park, visited my parents, and started putting the dark few months behind us.  My physical symptoms disappeared and I felt beautiful and happy and whole!

Somewhere in all that happy came a day Ill never forget.  I just knew I was pregnant. I knew it days before I missed my period. I knew it because somewhere inside Id always wanted a third and this would be the only way it could ever happen...accidentally. To be fair my husband was aware that I was off the pill, we'd been careful about timing, but I knew that I was pregnant.  6 days before my missed period, I took a test, it came up positive. I was trapped between fear and elation. I couldn't believe it so two hrs later I took the 2nd test...same result. Something was odd about this pregnancy....I felt it. I worried. I googled all sorts of things. I looked up ectopic pregnancies and twin pregnancies because my back pain was so intense. I dreamt of twin daughters. I was known for saying things like, "this will be the babies room, unless there is two of them." Somewhere within me I knew that something was different. And at my 8 week appointment I begged my dr for an early ultrasound to be sure. I went alone, and what I saw on that screen was miraculous and terrifying...I had two babies growing within me.

When I think of the shock that followed now and the tears and the fear...I want to go back and tell myself, these boys are your gift.  They reshaped you, they are miracles. They are one cell...that became two of the most precious souls in my world. They are the anchors to our family. The missing piece Id wanted. When I think of the path it took for them to get here. I would give up my gallbladder again, be riddled with fear, struggle with anxiety and walk through Hell for their existence...I just didn't know it then.   God has a sense of humor...I say that a lot...But I also know that the title of this tale probably should be "You cant always get what you want....but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you NEED" (Rolling Stones)

Side Note: I went off the anxiety medication during my pregnancy, I wanted to give my sons the best chance at health since they were up against some tough odds being identical twins and destined to come early. I made it! Id hope I be ok without the anxiety medication, but within a week of their birth I was drowning...the difference was, this time I knew how to save myself, and I did.

So much personal information...but this is my backstory to the mom I am today. Without these trials I wouldn't be the mother to four boys....id be a mother to 2, a thought that today is just unimaginable :)

Mommy Dilemmas- Part 2

When I last left off in my post I referenced how March 2012 would forever alter my life and set me on a VERY different path then I'd ever imagined. In the middle of March 2012, I got sick! It wasn't like I had the flu, or I ran a fever. It wasn't even like having pneumonia, which I've had before. It was wake up in the middle of the night and drive yourself to the emergency room kind of sick, because you are pretty sure the pain in your chest is the onset of a heart attack and you don't want to alarm anyone. In retrospect pretty stupid for me to get in the car, but I didn't want to wake my kids, my husband, anyone....I just wanted help and fast! I can't even tell you how many nights I made in into the ER or how many times I visited an Emergency Care facility in the coming two weeks. I will say it was at least three ER visits before I found a hint at what was happening,
Thankfully my cousin is a phenomenal doctor who has a ton of patience, He listened to me, and tried to assure me that I was going to be ok. after two EKGs and numerous tests on my heart he was confident it wasn't that. Even with his assurance I would find myself up in the middle of the night staring at the ceiling. Pain coursing through my chest, sure that I wasn't going to make it till morning, and feeling desperate to find a way to live. I was 33, I had two young kids, I couldn't die and leave them without a mother, God wouldn't do that would he? And yet I know it happens, I know it's possible and this thought terrified me....the thought of leaving behind my children.
In the three weeks that followed the initial onset of my illness I lost weight...a lot of weight. I couldn't eat and I couldn't sleep. Every night I was awake weighing whether these heart pains were more intense than before. I needed help, I needed answers!
So a bunch of tests were run again, and after a trip to the ultrasound tech, I found a glimmer of hope. she looked at my gallbladder and told me it was filled with stones and that more than likely it would need to come out very soon. I told her my symptoms and she assured me that sometimes, quite often in fact, gallbladder attacks can mimic signs of a heart attack. FINALLY!!! I had a direction to go in, but my dr was on vacation, couldn't get a reference, enter my cousin, who found me a NEW dr in hrs and set up a consultation with an surgeon. I was so hopeful this would be the resolution I'd been waiting for. the surgeons advise, take it out....when? I wanted it resolved that day....he said ok next week. Ill never forget him telling me that he wasn't sure that this would resolve my issues, that quite possibly I was experiencing anxiety as well...I sort of laughed, anxious, hell I was terrified!
In the 1st  week of April just about 21 days from the start of my fiasco, I underwent the only surgery of my life. My mom and Husband sat in the waiting room for my laparoscopic procedure which was to take an hr, and have me released that same day.  I would be in surgery for nearly two hours.
I wasn't conscious for the part that would have terrified me most...the last vision I'd had was light and fear, and I woke up to excruciating pain, I remember the nurse in recovery (ironically my cousin) asking how bad the pain was on a scale of ten and I was a solid 10! I knew something strange had happened to me, I just didn't know what. She talked fast to calm me, I was ok, everything had gone well, my gallbladder was out, there had been a lot more stones than they thought, the dr had had to put in a drain, I was going to have to stay the night. What my Mom and husband were told by my Dr. "She had more than a thousand stones, it was one of the worst gallbladders I've ever seen!" And this man had told me I could have waited a month, two to remove it, It prayed on me that had it not come out when it did, I could have died!
I spend the worst two days of my life in a hospital room! It was scary and horrid. I hated every minute I was there and had it not been for my Mom and husband I might have folded right then. It was horrid to have a drain in me, terrifying to be surrounded by death. I hated the drugs, and couldn't move without help. I had devices on my legs to keep pumping bloods through so I didn't get a blood clot too. It was a battle, but two days later I went home praying that everything was behind me.
A week after my surgery Id lost about 25 in a month, I couldn't eat much, so I'd lose another 18 before the end of June. I'd love to tell you this was the end...but it wasn't. In the wake of my experience a new fear had been born, one that would send me reeling into dr after dr office and ultimately on a path to my destiny as a twin mom....

Mommy Dilemmas-Part 1

I have to say that one of the greatest dilemmas of my life as a Mom has been the back and forth of what is the "right" thing to do when deciding to stay at home with your child (children) or return to  your career. In my case I've ended up in a sort of Limbo Zone knowing full well I will return, but not really committing to the when of the matter.  You see I know something others who fully commit to one or the other might not, they both leave you with guilt and relief!

You may be wondering what qualifies me to discuss either, and I'll just state that the following has been my experience.

When I became pregnant with my oldest, my hubby and I were both in our late 20's, we were right in the heart of that phase of life when you're working on making your mark in your career and proving that you have great things to offer. I had just been given an Honors program to revamp and teach and I was involved in numerous clubs and activities at school as an advisor. I was excited, nervous and knew I would be returning to work after my baby was born.  I mean, I had a lot of responsibilities to my students, my administration, my livelihood! And then I held that 7 lb 5 oz baby boy in my arms and I could have cared less about the papers I hadn't gotten graded in a timely fashion, or the upcoming Spirit week and the students disappointment I wasn't going to be there.  I just wanted to hunker down and escape into this tiny little man who had completely enchanted my world.  Life became a blur and the thought of going back to work literally made me ill.  How could I leave this helpless little baby with strangers.  So a plan was made.  I would return to work the following school year when my son was 6 months old. He would be with my Mom three days and in daycare two.  It wasn't ideal but it was what we needed to do financially. The irony of the tale is that three days before I was scheduled to return to work my husband got a raise that nearly doubled his salary...it was a huge blessing for our family, but my return to work was already set in motion.

That September, I begrudgingly started back to work, except if I'm honest a huge part of me didn't make it back.  Gone was my motivation to get involved after school...I was out the door and to that daycare or my Mom's as quick as I could be.  I was missing my son's life and others were there to do the things that my soul ached to be doing.  So I did what any logical person would do when they feel like they are being torn in half, I devised a plan to be whole. All I needed to do was have another baby.  My husband was on board with the idea, since he wanted two and he wanted them close in age.  So when Z turned 1, we began trying for our second, little did I know I was already expecting. It was perfect we saved and saved and I returned to work that next September knowing Id be home with my boys by November.  The plan, I would take a year and a half off and then return to work.  You see I am blessed with a  unique opportunity, thanks to my Union and our contract, that my district will hold our position for two years while an individual is out on maternity leave. It was this knowledge that was my salvation in many ways in those days. So I made it through those two months as a shell of the teacher Id been before and into the delivery room and my return to being a SAHM.

But this time staying at home wasn't what I'd envisioned. With a 21 month old and a newborn life was hectic; my husband was working incessantly to make sure that we stayed afloat. It was a trying time for me, I'm pretty sure in retrospect I suffered from post par tum depression and I found myself failing in many ways.  I wasn't the mom in the magazine coming up with clever activities for my toddler to do, and my baby who was very easy to care for always seemed to be pushed aside. I felt guilty everyday that I wasn't holding him enough as I chased his brother around and ashamed that I used the TV to watch my two year old while I made dinner.  I was a mess in my personal appearance, hardly dressing myself and taking no interest in anything but trying to be a great mom.  I completely lost myself and while I fought it and felt such guilt over it, I missed my classroom.  I wanted to be among my students discussing literature and life, instead of building puzzles and changing diapers.  I missed the dialogue with my peers. Having a 40 minute lunch to make phone calls without crying or screaming babies was a luxury a place where I was actually able to drink a HOT cup of coffee seemed like heaven.  And of course just that thought of longing for where I'd been made me feel ashamed and horrid. What kind of a mother doesn't want to be a SAHM?

For 14 months I stayed home with my boys, and when the time came to return to teaching I was relieved and tortured.  I hated knowing that I was institutionalizing them at such a young age. That they were going to be cared for again by someone other than me, but a part of me knew that walking away from my career would be a grave mistake as well. So I buckled up, found a routine and delved into a juggling act that I expected would be the remainder of my career.  And it came in waves, the guilt every time I dropped them off, or missed a milestone. It was bittersweet to hear their teachers talk about the funny or sweet things they said, but I threw myself wholeheartedly into my role as "working" mother. I found many delights in the days that followed, that I came home feeling like I had more to give then when Id been with them all day. My mantra became that I would give myself 100% to my students when I was at school and leave my job at the door when I came home. And I did. I didn't grade papers at home while the boys were awake, I savored the hours I spent with them and felt blessed that unlike many career moms I still got summer vacation to adventure with them and every break they had Id be home planning exciting events to entertain and enrich them. I was finding a groove, I was committed to the role of working mother, excitedly revamping my curriculum and school and planning vacations for us to take.  We had a new home, a new car, and my sons had each other.  Life was finally headed on a comfortable path and the guilt was held at bay. Everything would change in March of 2012...I just didn't know it at the time (Come back to read Part 2 of Mommy dilemmas)

A new beginning....

In 2010 I started a blog for myself, in 2014 I'm starting another for a larger audience I hope. Here you will find the story of a teacher lady who is bringing up four very active boys! All of them have awesome dimples like their father, the youngest ones are twofold! Ok sorry I went all Brady Bunch theme song there :) Why now? Well I'm very active on social media currently, you can find me tweeting as @queenof5guys or @fivemenandalady and I'm realizing I have a lot to say. Hopefully you'll join me here as I journey to explore the rest of my thirties and my life as a "boy" mom and "twin" mom both which somehow often get separated from the title of a Mom. I'm hoping I can tell you my stories and somewhere in there you will find wisdom, humor and a touch of adventure! Join me as I journey through all things muck and mire and make it to the other side!