Happy Times Three

There is so much to be happy about today but I have narrowed it down to three

1. Last night the Astros beat the Cardinals. They were losing and then came back at the top of the 7th for a five run inning. It was really great to watch such a come back. Andy Pettitte was awarded with the win too. Go Andy and go 'Stros!
2. Today is the last day of school for Little Man and Mouse. Starting tomorrow I will get to sleep beyond 6am if I choose or I can get up early. It is my choice for the next 11 weeks or so.
3. Tonight Mr. Daphnewood and I are going out on a date. Lots of romance is forecasted in the future for Daphnewood.

You see, plenty to be happy about!

Happy Post Number Two

My mom bought me a pack of baseball cards this weekend. Guess what I got? I got a Mickey Mantle gold card number MM2001. It's worth $50! A single card! That was a fun find. Then last night, Little Man wrote a book. I have posted it without the cover below. Enjoy and have a HAPPY day!

It is hard to tell but the first box, he drew the "I" (eye) on shiny blue foil paper. The second box of the claw, he took a sword toothpick and broke it apart for a sharp effect. On the third box he wrinkled tape and the fourth box he rolled the tape for a sticky effect. It was too cute.

Seven Straight Happy Posts (number one)

I have decided enough with whiny, negative sad posts. For seven straight posts I plan on only writing about happy stuff. It may take longer than a week since I don't post everyday but only happy happy happy vibes coming from Daphnewood. So here goes happy post number one:

I get to get Solin for the summer. Her uncle said yes I may pick her up this weekend. I don't have to take her back until late July. Whoohoo! Not only that, but since Solin lives in Houston, Mr. Daphnewood is taking me an Astros game! Oh my gosh I can barely hold my excitement. That part isn't written in stone but I plan on stocking up on Astros items while in town whether or not I get to go to the game. AND I am going to eat real tex-mex food which is very scarce in KC. Yes yes yes! I have done the happy dance about 50 times already.

Andy Pettitte

* Baseball Post*



The Astros have been losing again. The Giants skunked us but they are a good team. The Nationals (who beat us 3 games in row) are NOT a good team. Today Andy Pettitte pitched and we lost 8-5 but most of their runs happened when Pettitte pitched. So many people are coming down on him like he sucks or something but let me tell you, no one person can lose a baseball game. How about our hitters leaving bases loaded? That sure would have helped to drive in those runs. Andy had one at bat and managed a hit while driving in a run. No one mentions that. I am just saying BACK OFF OF ANDY!!!! He'll come around and be the stellar pitcher like he was last season.

I feel so much better. I like to only have positive vibes when it comes to baseball but I have found that sports can make monsters out of people. When did it stop being "just a game"? I miss the old days.

image taken from Houston Chronicle

In His Own Words

M-Boy talks about his surgery

M-Boy's Surgery

Well it went pretty good today. The cholesteatoma had grown back and destroyed to two processes off of his stapes (ear bone known as the stirrup). That was bad news but explained why his hearing went so bad. The doctor said he pulled it right out and since this guys does this kind of thing everyday, I believe him when he says that the chances of regrowing are very slim. So no more tumor! The mastoid also had a build up of scar tissue that he cleaned out then he installed a prosthesis to mimic M-Boy's lost ear bones. Hopefully in a few weeks M-Boy will be hearing better than ever. Overall the day went good. It was bad about the tumor growing back and the mastoid being cluttered with scar tissue but the ear looked healthy and ready for new life. I am soooo tired. M-Boy is sleeping right now and I think I will sneak in a nap. Thanks for your prayers everyone. I'll have to tell you more tomorrow about the whole "child of a doctor" treatment. I'll post pics too.

Little Man Sums Up Education

Yesterday I was watching Little Man do his final week's homework. They get a packet on monday and turn it in on friday. I figured he must be excited that this is his final packet of the second grade.

Me: Can you believe that you are almost done with school? Soon you'll be a third grader!

Little Man: yeah yeah whatever. I don't care about school. All it is, is practice for being a grownup.

Ladies and Gentlemen, a cynic at age 8.

A Pokemon Story

Mouse, my 14-almost-15-year-old daughter, loves Pokemon. She has since she was 7. She likes to play and doesn't care what others think about it. Her confidence often has others around her finding cool stuff about pokemon too. You know how it goes, if a cool person likes something then it must be cool, right? Anyway, she decided to enter this nationwide contest. First she had to qualify. There was an online quiz. Only 64 people per city are chosen in her age group. If she would have won she would have gone to NYC to compete in another contest. Then if that one was successful off to Japan for a world wide competition.

This is how it went. She qualified. That in itself was amazing to me. I found out that she was in a group called "13 and up" and anyone could enter. You didn't have to live in KC. So Mr. Daphnewood drives her over to the Missouri side for this contest. He said it was like a Star Trek convention where everyone was dressed up like Spock or Klingons but in this case Pikachu and Japanese anime characters. There were no children present. My daughter was the youngest. Wait, not true. There were 2 other kids but they were there to cheer on their father who had entered the contest.

So Mouse draws her competitor. He was 38 and flew in from another city to compete. 38 freakin years old! He doesn't work. He plays Pokemon all day! All of those people were like this. How my daughter qualified in the first place I will never understand. Of course she lost. She gave him a good run for his money but in the end couldn't compete with someone who had so much time to build up his pokemon. Some other over 30 person won the whole competition but I was livid. Why on earth would they match up kids with adults? I have been so mad about this for a week. I am just now able to write about it. We have been telling her that it is not a good thing to only play video games. But who gets rewarded in instances like this? The wacked out weirdo who takes delight in walloping children. Mr. Daphnewood said the guy was nice and felt bad about beating her but I still think kids and adults should not be in the same category.

Drama Update

First of all, I think I should let everyone know that M-Boy will be serving his detention monday after school. When I called the VP he was really nice and not mad at all. I listened to what he had to say while all the while thinking of Temple Grandin (an adult autistic woman). He told me that M-Boy was such a sweet kid and doesn't realize what he is doing is rude. He screamed at this girl in class (very loudly) because the girl told the teacher M-Boy didn't have his assignment with him. Well they are partners and she couldn't lie to the teacher. So M-Boy took it out on the girl. This was the second offense too.

In one of Temple Grandin's books she talks about getting fired from a job because she would never shower. And she talks about her mom and grandmother being harsh with her but if it weren't for them, she wouldn't know right from wrong. So, I agreed to the detention. The VP felt that M-Boy didn't deserve to be put with the bad kids so he will be sitting in the office instead. M-Boy is terrified of detention so I think ( I hope ) next time he gets mad at someone in class, he won't yell and embarrass the poor kid.

Thank you to all. You knew where I was coming from about being soft. It comes from love and desire to protect but sometimes, like the song goes, you have to be cruel to be kind.

I am not sure how much I can post this week. It is surgery week. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Call Me Drama

M-Boy has surgery wednesday. I got a voice mail this afternoon (about 30 minutes ago) from the vice principal at M-Boy's school saying that my son needs to be disciplined for an incident at school. His last day of school is technically on the 30th but since his surgery is on the 24th, I wasn't too sure he would be going back after that. So that means that this man wants to give my son detention on friday monday or tuesday. Help me! I know M-Boy should watch his mouth and not bully others but come on people! He is a little stressed and he has to work double time to get his finals done BEFORE the surgery. Everyone else has 3 extra days. Mr. Daphnewood says M-Boy should pay. Why is it so hard for me to be strict with M-Boy? I can be that kid's biggest advocate but at other times I know I hold him back by being so soft with him. I hate this!

The Post Brought to You By the Letter "C"

First Kimananda did this post. Then she gave Leslie a letter who in turn gave me the letter "C". I know most of my readers have done this but here are the rules. Choose 10 words that start with "your" letter. Write them down and tell what those words mean to you. If anyone wants to do this post too, just ask me for a letter and I will gladly send one your way.



1. Children- specifically MY children. They are by far my greatest contribution to this world and they happen to be my dearest treasure.

2. Christ- I don't always have the answers but I know someone who does and that is Jesus Christ. If it weren't for Him, who would I pray to? I don't go to church but I am always talking to Christ.

3. Chocolate- When Jesus takes a moment to answer me, I have some chocolate in the meantime. Oh the rich darkness, the goodness, the calming soothing effect of bittersweet tastiness....need I go on? I'm embarrassing myself.

4. Clemens, Roger- It wasn't until this man signed with the Houston Astros that the team breathed life. Whether or not he plays this year doesn't matter to me. He has helped the rest of the team realize that they can be a competitive group that wins more than it loses. Plus, the games have been a lot more fun to watch too.

5. Computer- this little machine gives me a profession, it keeps me connected to far away places and far away people. It has made banking easy and gives me endless hours of enjoyment.

6. California- my home state. I was born and raised there and will always hold it dear to my heart. I will probably never live there again because it is too crowded.

7. Car- my car is my personal sanctuary. Winnie the Pooh had his thinking spot and I have my car. I can escape to anywhere I want to go. If I want to go to a movie I get in the car and drive there. If I want to go to Europe, I get in my car and park then daydream. I love my car.

8. Cholesteatoma- a vile word that strikes fear in me. This type of growth is what destroyed M-Boy's inner ear bones and started the long road of surgeries. I only write about this word because it has consumed much of my time as a parent.

9. Cinema- I love movies. I own about 600 DVDs and nearly 300 points on my AMC movie watcher card. I really enjoy watching movies alone too. No one talks to you and you can laugh out loud without disturbing anyone.

10. Cat- I am a cat person. There are cat people, dog people, cat & dog people and people who don't like either. Just 4 types of people in the western world. I think it says a lot about a person when they lump themselves into one of these categories. In fact, which are you?

Whirlwind

My life has been busy. I haven't been able to blog (read or write) so here are a few bullets from Daphnewood

• Sometimes people really suck
• I haven't watched an Astros game in 1 week. Apparently they have lost most of those games
• Little Man has 17 big fat tomatoes on his plant already and 12 cherry tomatoes on the other one.
• I had a great Mother's Day

Have a happy monday everyone.

Visions From The Dead

A few years ago (more like 8) my aunt nearly died. Actually she did die, twice. Her first time was when they discovered her GBM, a grade 4 brain tumor. She was on the table and died but they managed to bring her back for one more year. When she came out of the surgery and short coma afterward she was full of stories and visions of being dead. My aunt was happy and at peace. She said she saw her mother and Jesus. My aunt was NOT a religious person but yet she still saw Jesus which made me wonder. She told us she was taken around heaven and was told it wasn't yet time for her but soon. Little did we know that "soon" meant 10 months later.

Anyway, I spoke to her on the phone when she woke up and she told me that she loved me very much and saw my life. She said she knew everything would be okay for me and my kids. She said my husband would finish medical school and we would be married for a very long time and be very happy. Sometimes when I am feeling blue and wondering if Mr. Daphnewood's residency will ever be over I think of this vision from my aunt. I hold dear to it. I know some people don't believe in near death experiences. They try to explain it away saying it is firing neurons in the brain. I am not so sure. All I know is that my aunt died on that table and came back. She said she saw her mother and Jesus and heaven. She was peaceful and not afraid of death. She actually seemed to welcome it. To have such knowledge would be great, wouldn't it?

Work & Play

Since I was sick last week I have a lot of make-up work to do. I didn't say much on this blog about being sick but it was pretty awful. I had the sore throat/stuffed up nose thingy. I got to use my shower soothers though (Thanks Etchen!). But now I have lots of files that need to be scanned to I will have to work double time to catch up. I don't mind since I have a bunch of new DVDs to pop in while I scan. Ah, technology rocks!

*Baseball section feel free to skip * The Astros had a really bad weekend. Not a single win. Oh well, only the rookies pitched and they are still doing pretty good for rookies. I think RoyO or Andy Pettitte will pitch tonight. The good news is that just in a week or so we play the Rockies all over again and we can return the favor of a sweep ;) *Baseball section over*

Friday was my mom's birthday. I took her casino-ing. We had an awesome steak dinner on Saturday at the steak house at the casino. They had these corn muffins there but the were not your ordinary corn muffins. Oh no, they were blue corn chipotle muffins. They were served warm with fresh butter and they just melted in your mouth. Plus, the mac n cheese had green chiles, bacon and cilantro in it. My ribeye steak was so heavenly. It was really reasonable too (about $25 a person). The funniest part to me was that she didn't want a birthday cake, she wanted Krispy Kreme doughnuts instead. Oh well, it was her birthday and queen for the day.

A Conversation With M-Boy

M-Boy and I had this brief conversation a while back. It still haunts me.

M-Boy: Mommy, how many chromosomes does a sea turtle have?
Me: Oh gosh, honey I don't know.
M-Boy: I thought science was your favorite subject.
Me: Why can't you ask me normal questions like "how do you make a bologna sandwich?"
M-Boy: Was there any subject that you were good in when you went to school?

And the pupil surpasses the teacher.

Little Man the Sneaky Has Leg Pains

Little Man needs to have some blood work done. He gets leg pains and feet pains at weird times. They are so bad that he cries. The thing about Little Man is that while he is a very sensitive child and can be hurt by words, he is no wimp. I have witnessed him smashing his finger in a car door and not shedding a single tear. He has cut himself with blood dripping out of the wound just to say "hey Mommy, do you have a bandaid?" His pain threshold is high. So we are just getting an idea of what is going on with his young body and starting with blood work.

If you remember recently he had to get the MMR vaccine. He was brave and didn't cry but he had an allergic reaction to it. His arm got huge and swollen and very red. He didn't like that at all so he is wary of needles now. So all this week I have been trying to get him over to the lab to have his blood drawn but he has an "excuse" everyday. He tells me that he is having testing done and cannot miss it, or they are having a contest for 'no tardy tuesday', or he really wants to eat breakfast at school for a change. Well it is thursday and I finally caught on. Yeah, I am getting slow in my old age. We are going this morning to have the blood drawn. Isn't he just the sneakiest kid ever?

Friends With Money Movie Review

I saw the movie Friends With Money today. I wasn't real sure what to expect and I am glad of that because my hopes were not high. Have you ever watched one of those movies that has GREAT acting but a really lame story? This movie was kind of like that. I mean the story was okay, just unfinished. I like things in tidy little boxes and this movie definitely did not tie everything up for me. So I would say wait until the DVD unless you love Jason Isaacs like I do. Gosh that guy is hot. All the actors were really good, they just didn't have that much to work with. If you are into artsy kind of fare then go for it. Again, FANTASTIC acting, just a so-so story.

A New Day

Well last night I got a little heated and passionate about certain "things". I have read all of your comments and appreciate the honesty of them all. Leave it to Spencer to mediate with promises of drinks and a hot tub soak. Love ya, Spence! I backed down a bit today and have decided to make my voice heard through my vote. I have not voted here in Kansas just yet but I did register almost 2 months ago. Rowan, the foreigner among us, speaks sense. There is no quick fix and there is ALWAYS two-sides to a story.

So now that I have that immigration temper tantrum out of the way, I had a new day full of regular ol' Daphnewood drama and fun. M-Boy is to have surgery on May 25th. His doctor said "I think I have about a 50-75% chance of restoring [M-boy's] hearing". Why do doctors do that? I don't want to hear a percentage! I would have been happier if the doctor would have said "there are no guarantees but I think we can help your son to hear again and since he is almost deaf in that ear, it certainly wouldn't hurt to try". Doesn't that sound so much nicer? Well I think it does.

It is absolutely GORGEOUS in KC today. I have spent many hours out there so far and will be going out again shortly to get Little Man from school. I am going to try to start answering or commenting on your comments from now on. It just seems to be good manners and I love when you all do it to my comments so be looking for that. Wanna hear something kind of ironic? I am having taco salad for dinner tonight. Viva Mexico!

Let The Hate Mail Begin

Honestly, I have been on the fence about this immigration situation. Kansas City did not close down or even came close to being disrupted by the rallies today. So now after reading several news stories I am ready to stand one way or another. My stance: shut the hell up! America is NOT anti-immigrant. America is anti ILLEGAL immigrant. My father jumped through hoops to come to this country. Why should those who sneak across the river in the middle of the night get preferred treatment? When I see people waving their homeland flag instead of the stars and stripes I get livid. At first I was thinking "oh let those who are already here, stay" but now; no way. I have changed my mind and will not be bullied into voting for law breakers.