A Love Letter

Dear [every restaurant that facilitates online delivery],

I love you.

I love you with every lazy fiber in my soft doughy body. My sand-blasted sinuses thank you. My gray, pasty, mouth-breathing face thanks you. My vice-gripped forehead thanks you. But most of all, my hungry boys thank you.

Yours forever,

The Chick That Just Ordered Two Pizzas

Confounded Comments

Ok somebody help an old lady out here. For some reason, it seems Blogger is setting up people's blog comment entry form differently now. And also for some reason, it seems to be a format that is specifically designed to keep me from commenting on all my friends' blogs!!! Go ahead and call me a paranoid conspiracy theorist if you want. I don't care. JUST TELL ME HOW TO USE THIS NEWFANGLED THING!

Oh sure it looks all intuitive and simple and friendly. Sitting there looking all simplistic and not evil. But I assure you. It is an implement of torture, my friends.

This is what it looks like.

I select the profile (in the "Comment as:" drop down). I've tried the Google Account (because I have one), the name + URL, and a couple other. I fill in my comments, I select the profile and I hit Post Comment. I've even tried Preview. And all my comments just disappear.

Anyone know the trick? I know some of you have posted to these kinds of comments before. I'm wondering if it's a limitation of FireFox. Maybe I have to try it in Safari (I'm a Mac now so I don't do IE).

Whoever solves this issue for me will win my undying gratitude and a bit huge sappy blog post about how awesome you are.

You're all beautiful. Don't change.

How To Feel Old In One Easy Step

This past Friday evening, I was able to hang out with 4 really cool friends. Three of which are friends from my Boston music scene days.

Kay & USAMike were in town with their band Letters To Cleo. A million years ago, my band had opened for Letters To Cleo up in Boston. Kay & USAMike are now married and living in LA. They write, produce, manage, perform - they do it all. They're both extraordinarily talented. Kay is behind the My Friends Tigger and Pooh show on the Disney Channel. She wrote and sang the theme song and incidental music for that show. She also pitched that show to Disney and they ran with it. Kay has also written lots of songs for Hannah Montana and various movies (everything from Josie & The Pussycats to Care Bears). She voiced the singing voice for Josie in the live action movie. I have the soundtrack and it actually rocks. She and USAMike collaborate with a lot of other musicians. I'm just very happy for them that they are making a good living from music. It is an ugly business and can eat you alive. Fortunately, these two have figured out how to do it without being eaten.

Jess & Jeff are two friends now living in my area of Texas. Jess and I were in a Boston Rock Opera production of the Rocky Horror Show together. Seems like that was a million years ago. She's a total sweet heart and we've kept in touch - strangely - through our myriad of mutual friends. I would always see her commenting on a friend's page on MySpace or Facebook. Recently, we realized we both lived in the same area and started talking. This past Friday was our first successful attempt at actually getting together.

I was nervous about meeting Jess's hubby. Their Facebook pictures look very hip and cool. I am anything but hip and cool. They are in a band together - still doing the music thing. I've met enough rock-star-wannabes to be wary of people who are still in the music scene. There are enough of them out there who care too much about the cool/hip factor and it can make a normal person like me feel very out of place. So I was worried about meeting her cool hubby.

As it turns out, both Jess & Jeff are just completely normal goofballs like me. As we all kept saying, we are all quite dorkitudinous. [Spell check loved that word!] I immediately felt at ease with both of them. I mean, keep in mind, I haven't see Jess since before Pokemon Boy was born. Probably 1999. We met for dinner at a little pub down town. We hung and talked. We regaled her hubby with stories of the old Boston music scene. He's from Chicago so doesn't know much about the Boston bands.

Eventually, we texted Kay to get her where abouts. She was headed to the club so we all went over. It was SOOO awesome to see Kay again. I hadn't seen her since Jan 2008. So the last time she had seen me, I was mid divorce. I was also wrestling with depression, anxiety and had just started having migraines. I was also a lot thinner - ah the lovely Divorce Diet!

The last time I had seen her wonderful hubby USAMike...I don't even know. It was when Pokemon Boy was maybe...a year old? We had all gone to their house near Boston. So that would have been 2001 or 2002? Not sure. But way too long.

I hugged them both until their heads popped off. Well, not really. But you get the idea. We did all the intros and hung a bit backstage.

They toured the Texas leg with a band called Cruiserweight. They were awesome. Then Letters To Cleo went on. Now, I have to tell you, when I was doing music and photography in Boston, I rarely ran into these guys. I knew who they were but wasn't a big fan. At that time, there was an explosion of female fronted bands where the ladies were playing up the cutesy pie factor. As a chick who built her entire music persona on "tough chick", I couldn't stand the baby doll girls. I thought Kay was one such vapid chick. Over the years, God did his thing where he put us in close proximity and I realized she was an awesome person, ate some crow and got a great new friend or two out of it. But anyway, as a band, Letters To Cleo has really grown. I personally think they are so much better now than they were back then. Kay is a great front person. USAMike is a great guitarist. They're both awesome song writers. I'm very impressed and glad to know them both. The rest of their band are awesome guys, too.

During their set, Jess, Jeff and I amused ourselves by taking pictures with our various cameras. After the set, we went backstage to say our goodbyes. I'm telling you, at 12:30 midnight, I'm usually either in bed with my iPod Touch playing Sudoku or asleep. So when Kay texted me after the show saying, "Hang around," I wasn't sure I'd make it. Doesn't she realize I'm OLD?!

The band had a meet & greet to sign autographs. I knew I wouldn't make it that long. So we hugged the sweaty rock stars and headed out.

Once at our cars, we realized it had been about 5 hours since we had eaten. So Jess, Jeff & I headed out to an awesome all-night diner thang. I remember thinking, "I am too OLD for these late hours," but I wanted migas!

We hung at the diner for a long time just yapping and eating. I just had so much fun hanging out with these two. Eventually, we parted company and I drove home. I was so tired but made it home fine. I went to bed around 3:15am. This used to be normal for me - back in my 20s. Which was 20 years ago!!!!!

As we all know from multiple previous posts, my mom ROCKS (can I get an amen?). She knew I'd be out later than normal (I doubt she'd thought 3am, though). So she took my boys for a sleepover and planned a morning of fun for them so I could sleep in.

I had a blast. But didn't recover from the late night as quickly as I did 20 years ago. And I have to tell you, my self esteem was struggling. Nothing like hanging out in a club full of very fit and hip people younger than you to really feel good about yourself. HA!

I had a blast. But it reminds me that I have chosen the path in life that suits me. I love being a mom in the suburbs. I'm not a rocker chick any more. Singing backups in my church worship band suits me perfectly. I have never been more fulfilled musically. And I have the freedom to see my friends perform now and then.

God sure has put some cool people in my life.

A Conversation With Lil'Bro

A conversation with Lil'Bro today. I was putting lotion on my arms and he was on my bed playing his Nintendo DS.

Lil'Bro: What's that smell?
Me: Maybe it's my lotion. [extends arm for sniffing]
Lil'Bro: [sniffs] Oh.
Me: Do you like it?
Lil'Bro: [without looking up] It smells really bad.

Excellent. I'll inform Lubriderm immediately.

Updates and Unimportancia

I love making up my own words. It's fun. Unimportancia should be a word. Blogger spell check hates my made up words. I am glad it doesn't force me to correct them.

An update on my Blackberry adventures:
I went to the Blackberry website before accosting that poor boy at the Sprint store. He sells all sorts of phones. If I want Blackberry expertise, I should start with Blackberry. After searching through their website, I found a Q&A forum where someone had my exact problem. The resulting instructions were NOT intuitive and were nowhere in the manual that came with the phone NOR were they in the dowloadable PDF manual on the phone. So...apparently, in order to use your Blackberry, you either need to buy it from one of those stores that will do all the unintuitive setup FOR you, or you have to go searching on their website to get instructions. And a further mini-rant is that the instructions were in about 4 different responses in a conversational thread between an annoyed consumer like myself and some smug techie that answered as if his instructions should have just occurred to the consumer. Smug techies. [shudder]

So the things I want to work on my phone are working. I can get email from my two main accounts all in one email interface. Nice. I can Facebook. And if you know me, that's akin to saying "Oh good, there's oxygen here!" I can take a picture and have it uploaded on Facebook within 30 seconds. Which I like. So now all my friends know exactly what that Frisco Melt looked like that I had for dinner last night. They are also seeing many more casual shots of my kids. And let's face it, the world needs more pictures of my kids.

The one caveat that I'm still holding out on is the bill. The plan I got boasts unlimited email, texting, internet and "data". In my mind, this means I should just pay my monthly rate and then extra charges for roaming and going over my daytime minutes. A friend in Boston just dumped all her internet capabilities because the same plan ended up charging her for all sorts of "data" even though she was on the "unlimited data" plan. When she called to complain, they explained some vague lawyer-like stuff about how data going OUT was covered but data coming IN wasn't. Or something like that. She wasn't very clear. But she warned me to watch my bill for that kind of hook. Today, I will call Sprint and say, "Hey, can you define exactly what 'data' is in your contract here?" Because I use a LOT. The emails I get and the Facebooking alone could put me well up into the million dollar mark very quickly. So we'll see.

But for now, I love my Blackberry. So JenKneeBee, you were right. Big learning curve but well worth the effort. So far...

Things that I have thunk last night or this morning:
Should one really need needle-nose pliers in order to get the foil cover off of a local generic half & half creamer bottle? I believe the answer is NO. And yet, my needle-nose pliers remain in my kitchen drawer.

Stop stressing over Adam vs. Kris. It's just a TV show!!! They'll both do awesome and make way more money than you or I will. So just let it go, people.

Hmmm...Isaiah 54:5 doesn't really say what a lot of people think it's saying.

Why does Blogger spell check want to capitalize the word "internet"? Is it a person? Does it command respect? I'm not quite clear on this.

I'm still having problems with people posting pictures with titles like "Bob and I". I want to send them all links to a previous rant of mine on that very subject. But I don't want to be a smug techie.

He's just not that into you. And by "you", I mean ME.

Those car oil commercials with the sadistic Scottish/Irish dude running around yelling, "Think with your dipstick, Jimmy!" really annoy the snot out of me. Aside from the sophomoric penile innuendo that should insult most American males (because you see, this company thinks you'll buy their stuff if they make a penis joke. You get it?), it's just stupid and low-brow. And to prove what a lousy ad campaign it is, I don't even know the name of the oil. No matter how clever or annoying you think an ad is, if it isn't leaving your brand or product name on the lips of everyone who sees it, it ain't workin'.

An annoying commercial that does work? Head-On. Stupidest commercials in the world. But I don't know a person who can't tell you what the name of the product is! And even better, most people could tell you what the product is supposed to do.

Things I'm excited about:
Tonight, I will have to eat crow. I eat a lot of crow these days. Here's a little tip - a warning, if you will. If you sneer at something, make fun of something, think you're better than something/someone, you can pretty much bet money on the fact that you will end up having to deal with that something or someone later in your oh-so-smug life. You will eat crow.

I have always laughed at people that made a huge deal out of preschool graduations. Seriously, a cap & gown for 4 & 5 year olds? Do I look like I'm made out of money for frivolity? Wait. Don't answer that if you've seen all the frivolous stuff in my house. But my point here, folks, is - I thought preschool graduation was totally dumb. And anyone who buys into is an idiot.

Hello. I'm an idiot.

Tonight, Lil'Bro will graduate from his preschool. Fortunately, they didn't make us buy caps and gowns. I think they know all the parents are scraping just to pay for the school. But Pokemon Boy, my parents and I will head to Lil'Bro's preschool tonight to watch a little ceremony. And I'm thrilled pickles about it! I'm pure hook, line & sinker about this. So make fun all you want. I don't care. I own my hypocrisy. I own my former snobbery. I eat the crow with relish!! My boy is gradumificating from preschool!!!

I can't wait to see my friends' band this Friday night!!! Weeeeeeee!!! My mom rocks for taking my kids for a sleepover. I haven't seen Kay since January 2008 when she was doing backup vocals for a little show that popped through here. I haven't seen her husband USAMike since...wow...I'm not sure how many years. We chat here and there through Facebook but that's not really hanging out. So this will be REALLY cool. And I also get to see another former Boston rocker pal, Jess, who now lives in Austin, too! We haven't been able to get together so it will be a bonus to see her there, too.

Ok. That's it for today, folks. Randomosity and unimportancia for everyone!!! Peace out, yo.

[I'm so street.]

The Jury Is Out

Every two years, I am allowed to keep up with the exponential progression of technology by upgrading my cell phone. Which is nice, seeing as how the most cutting edge of cell phones goes completely archaic 5 minutes after you get it home.

Today, I went to my local cell phone provider store because A) they have a new location next to the Starbucks by my house and B) I qualify for an upgrade. Yippee! I get to get a new phone!

What I really want is an iPhone. I love them. Like 5 to 8 year old boys love a Nintendo DS, so do I love the iPhone. I am an Apple marketer's dream. But alas, that phone is sold exclusively by AT&T. And when I priced the cost of switching over to said provider and phone and the plans you'd need in order to have it do all the cool and nifty things you want it to do? Twarn't worth it. I will stick with my iPod Touch.

I pondered the Samsung version of a touch phone. It was nifty. But had the same problem. To have it do all the nifty things you want a web enabled phone to do, you have to pay too much. And it just felt like a cheap immitation of the iPhone. If I get a touch phone, it will be an iPhone. Some day, my sweet iPhone. Some day.

I pondered all the other phones. I made the poor guy pull about 6 different phones out of boxes so I could actually heft them, feel the weight, check the size compared to my pockets, etc. If anyone is looking for some good "open box" deals in my area, let me know and I'll give you the address of the store.

I went with the Blackberry Curve (a red one - this photo is all I could find that matched my newer model). It's a cute phone. It's very functional. It has a full QWERTY keypad (ie - you don't have to press one button three times just to get to the 3rd letter on that key). It can handle web and email if you want but you don't HAVE to buy the plan for those features like the other touch phones. It comes in red. Very important. I'm pretty sure all phone designers have understood that you MUST offer phones in a minimum spectrum of black, red and pink. I am girly enough to wear pink Converse but NOT to have a pink cell phone.

I bought the upgrade, got the info on the $100 mail-in rebate, switched to a new number (goodbye old 617 Boston area code), transferred over my whole contact list and headed home. I called a few people so they'd have my new number. I emailed everyone on my email list to give them my new number. I put the kids to bed and then sat down with my new phone and the instruction manual.

Now, maybe it's just me, but I'm thinking that if an instruction manual says, "From the home menu, select option A", there should probably be an option A on the home menu. Now granted, I did not graduate from college. And I've only been writing instructional and technical documentation for a good 13 years. But I feel pretty confident that the instruction manual that comes with a phone should actually represent what a consumer might actually FIND in the phone.

So while I've been able to change the display font to all sorts of silly and unreadable fonts and have called a bazillion people in my contact list, I still cannot get the web browser to work, nor have I been able to set up the email capabilities. I also have not found about 6 of the menu items the instruction manual insists I should find in the home menu.

I have 30 days in which to try out my new phone that is - I was told - the top selling phone in America. Even topping the iPhone. I am convinced I will love it. Because my church bass player likes his. And I trust him because he's a total technerdian like myself. But better. And more smarter.

Tomorrow, I plan to make the guy at the wireless store earn his day's wages. I will go back in with my lovely 30 day trial period phone. I will bring the oh so informational instruction manual. And I will ask him to show me where these elusive menu options are. And to show me how to set up the features I paid extra for. And when he shows me all sorts of steps that aren't in the manual, I will then ask him to please inform the Blackberry technical writing staff (which is, no doubt, NOT housed anywhere in America these days) that they kinda missed some vital info and to please stop half-assing it and write a manual that represents what their product actually DOES. OR...when he shows me that I totally didn't read something that is really obvious, I will come back and post a big ol' "DOH!" post telling you all how stupid I am. But I'm kinda thinking it will be the former.

Year Three: Hardly Any Tics!

Man, does God rock or WHAT!



Three years ago this month, Pokemon Boy was diagnosed with Tourette's. As with any diagnosis, your mind immediately jumps to the worse case scenario and your heart breaks.

We have attacked this diagnosis with prayer first and close monitoring by his doctors, therapist and teachers second. As I've stated in many previous posts, Pokemon Boy hardly has any physical tics. Most of his issues revolve around his anxiety issues and difficulty controlling his frustration and anger. And that last bit is pretty much something I still wrestle with so I'm not willing to lay it at the feet of Tourette's.

Today, we had a parent/teacher conference with Pokemon Boy's 3rd grade teacher. She came in around the holidays after his initial 3rd grade teacher "retired" with no notice. This replacement teacher has been an answer to prayer. She is awesome. She is very present and cares greatly about each of the students. The initial teacher seemed to be going through the motions and appeared very overwhelmed. So yay God!

In the conference, Ms. Rockin' Teacher told us (Pokemon Boy was there, too) that she hasn't seen any tics except maybe the one where he shows his top front teeth every now and then. I have to agree. That's about the only one I see. And it's quick and not very noticeable.

Also, his anger issues and meltdowns at school have been getting better. He doesn't seem to have a "nemesis" at school or at church any more (usually a girl with whom he feels competitive). Ms. Rockin' Teacher suggested that Pokemon Boy work on creating a tool box of tricks over the summer. Little tricks he can employ when he's feeling the frustration or anger get the better of him. One that he already uses in gym class is, if he starts getting angry or frustrated, he goes to get a drink of water. His gym coach suggested this one. So Ms. Rockin' Teacher suggested he use that in her class as well. So over the summer, we'll be working on things like that.

She really encouraged him. She told him that she feels he has the skills and tools to enter 4th grade and be very successful.

But the fact that physical tics are what clued us in to the possibility of Tourette's and now there hardly ARE any? That's purely God right there, man. Three years into it, he's at the age where symptoms can really start escalating. But he's not stressed about it. And neither am I. We both figure God's got it. No matter how it goes from here - God's got it.

Prayer Request for Donnie

For those of you connected to me on Facebook, you've already seen this. For the rest of you, I have a prayer request for all my warriors.

Don Perreault is a high school friend of my former boss, Michelle. Michelle has been a huge support to me in my recent life. She has done everything from babysit my boys to cover my butt at work during my divorce. She was the Mama Bear that protected her "kids" on our team with a ferocity usually only appreciated by us. She is a fiercely loyal friend and I'm so lucky that she will remain my friend even though both of us were laid off from the Big Ol' Financial Company.

That said: Michelle is a Facebook addict like me. She has been working tirelessly to reunite many of her high school friends. She recently looked up Don's name in Facebook, not expecting to find him. You see, Donnie had cystic fibrosis as a kid. Most CF patients don't live past their teens or twenties. Donnie has been beating the odds for 49 years now. He even ran - and completed! - the New York City marathon back in 1994!!! This guy is amazing.

Here is Donnie crossing the finish line of the NYC Marathon back in 1994:


Donnie's lungs are not doing well. He has described it to Michelle as having a totally clogged nose and having to breathe through a straw. Can you imagine?

Anyway, yesterday, Michelle told me that they were all excited and terrified because Donnie had received the call - a lung donor had been found! So off he went to the hospital. For some very serious business. A post from one of his friends on his Facebook support group page sums the terror and suspense up quite succinctly: "He called me en route to tell me. He was very nervous, couldnt talk. He texted and I called back. He said he would be in surgery for ten to twelve hours, and in a drug induced coma for at least a week. He then said he'd be in the hospital for six weeks on a ventilator."

So yesterday, I told Michelle that I was all over it. I started praying as we were IMing about it. I told my Facebook friends and I know lots of them started praying, too.

This morning, I logged on first thing and asked Michelle for a status. There is good news and bad news. The bad news is, the transplant didn't happen. Donnie was prepped and drugged and ready to go. When the lung doctor got a look at the donor lungs, he decided they weren't in good enough condition. So now he waits again. The good news is, the doctors recognized bad donor lungs in time.

As you can imagine, this is incredibly stressful and frustrating for Donnie, his family and all of his friends. If you feel led, please pray for them. Pray for good donor lungs to become available. I know that's a weird thing to pray for because someone has to die in order for Donnie to live. But it is a part of the great circle of life. I just ask that, if someone has to die, please let them be a donor and please let their lungs be viable for transplant. But also pray that Donnie's lungs can sustain him until the transplant. Pray for peace for him and his loved ones. Pray for God to be seen in this whole ordeal. Pray however you're led.

Thanks all. You guys are awesome.

If you'd like to join his Facebook support group, you can find it through my Profile/Info page. It's in my Groups listing. It's called Catch Your Breath for Donny.

A Day Off With Lil'Bro

Most days, Lil'Bro asks if he can please PLEASE stay home with me. Seeing how my days should be filled with job-seeking tasks, I insist he go to school to play with his friends. Especially since his school is awesome, safe and costs me MONEY.

Yesterday, he asked again, knowing how I'd say no, you have to go play with your friends and have creative fun all day long. So when I surprised him by saying, "OK," I'm pretty sure he wasn't sure if his ears were working.

So yesterday, I kept Lil'Bro home with me. On the drive home from dropping off the elementary school boys, Lil'Bro informed me that, first, he would play his Nintendo DS. But once he was done with that, he would play with me. An itinerary at the age of 5. Nice.

We started by getting Burger King breakfast sandwiches and taking them home. This time, when the girl said, "Would you like to try some Cini-minis for a dollar today?" I actually said yes. I usually hate their marketing ploys. But today was a special day and we were going to have some Cini-minis!!

Lil'Bro was true to his word. We ate our breakfast and then he played some Nintendo DS. I started some laundry. After a short time, he informed me he was ready to play with me now. So we played Kerplunk! I never had that game as a kid. So was more than happy to buy it for my boys a couple of years ago. I love this game. Love it. It's genius is in its pure simplicity. After Kerplunk! (Lil'Bro totally won), he watched some TV while I cranked out 4 loads of laundry.


Lil'Bro was getting annoyed with his hair constantly tickling his eyes. So he suggested a hair cut (trim). Nice because he needed one. So he sat still for a haircut.


For lunch, I gave him the choice. Bad idea. Back to Burger King for some chicken tenders, apple fries and Star Trek toys. After lunch, we stopped by CVS, filled the car with gas and went to visit grandma and grandpa.

After picking up the school boys, they all stayed at my house. Homework was completed in record time. Then we had freezer pops and freeze tag in the back yard. There was only a few times I needed to intervene. Pretty much, they were all awesome and entertained themselves. I made lemonade, peeled a few oranges, handed out an apple or two. It was very nice and very low maintenance.


PokemonBoy:


Lil'Bro:


Neighbor E.G.:


Neighbor A.R.:


Freeze Tag:


This time off to pretend at being a stay at home mom is probably some of the best time I've had in my life. I wish Monster.com had listings for stay at home moms. Darn.

Which Level Did Dante Have Spammers In?

Dear comment spammer "Sexy",

Thank you ever so much for spamming my comments with your strange Asian characters that were live links to who knows what kind of sites. Thank you so much for putting your useless and annoying spam comments on 10 of my posts, in no particular order, spanning 3 years of my entries. That was fun, going to each one and deleting your comments. Good times, that.

And thank you for forcing me to have to use Comment Mediation. Because, you know, I love having an extra layer of work to go read and approve comments on my blog. I'd like to thank you for making it difficult for my actual friends and family to see real-time comments in my posts. I'd like to thank you for making the choice to join the scum of the earth career path of spamming. You're only one rung higher than hackers, in my book.

So thank you for making me break from my usual attempts at supporting families of Tourette's children or spreading light and laughter. Because these kinds of asides are just uplifting to everyone. So, well done "Sexy".

Oh, and on the subject of your obvious misnomer, your spamming efforts are anything but sexy. Please feel free to do some emotional house cleaning and let me know if you join the human race.

Sincerely,
Tourette's Mom - a new addition to the comment moderating bloggers

The Bunny Lady

I have that sickness where, if you laugh once, I will die beating that same horse to death in order to squeeze another laugh out of you.

So to that end, The Bunny Lady (as she has been dubbed) has been born. I'll show you the videos that I made for my friends on Facebook.

April 8, 2009 - Bunny Lady is born
This is the first appearance. I was just playing with the effects in PhotoBooth on the Mac. I did a few "Dating Videos That Missed The Mark". This one is the one that got the most responses and the most laughs. My former boss called me and couldn't even talk because she was laughing so hard. Oddly, I have gotten no dates from this video.


April 27, 2009 - Bunny Lady sings Happy Birsday
My brother-in-law Pat has a great sense of humor. He and his twin brother celebrated their birthday on the 27th. I decided they needed an entertaining birthday message. The Bunny Lady stepped up to the plate.


Today - A PSA on Swine Flu from The Bunny Lady
Many of my friends and I are amazed at the panic surrounding Swine Flu (which isn't even swine flu). I mean, I get that the flu can still kill people. And my heart goes out to anyone who has lost someone. But what gets me is how quick Americans are to jump on the fear and panic band wagon. My former boss in Boston just called and has been pulled into her doctor's office because of chest congestion and general yuckiness. Because she recently visited here (Texas), they are freaking out and making her wait in her car until they can come down with a surgical mask and bring her in a back entrance. Precautions are one thing. Pandering to public hysteria another. So after hearing this, The Bunny Lady felt very strongly that she needs to fight the message of fear.


If you have any special occasions that The Bunny Lady can help you with, please let me know and I'll post something on YouTube for you!

A Grammatical Pet Peeve

I'm a math major. Or, to be correct, I was a math/compSci major and then dropped out of college after my junior year. So it amuses me to no end that a math/sci dropout can get this right and so many other seemingly edumacated people CAN'T! I know it's a really silly and petty pet peeve but it drives me nuts when I see a photo album entitled "Pics of Bob and I". Really? You have some pictures of "I", do yah? As far as pet peeves go, that's right up there with pronouncing "ESC" words as if they were spelled "EXK" - like EXspecially or EXscape. But I digress.

When to use "Me" vs "I". It's really pretty simple once you get down to it. I'm bad at explaining it, however. So I went to the interwebs to get some explanationating assistance.

Here is a very good write up from http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com/difficulties/ime.html. If you don't want to read the whole thing, skip to the bottom for a very good boiled down rule of thumb.

I vs Me

Mistakes made with these two English pronouns have been increasing exponentially for years. The difference is actually very simple - let me explain it to you.

I

I is the first person singular subject pronoun, which means that it refers to the person performing the action of a verb.

I want to go.
This is the one I like.
You and I need to get ready.
Tom and I are going to the movies.

Me

Me is an object pronoun, which means that it refers to the person that the action of a verb is being done to, or to which a preposition refers.

David told me to leave.
He gave me ten dollars.
Between you and me, this is a bad idea.
She needs to talk to Joe or me.

The Bottom Line

This confusion usually occurs when you have I/me connected to another pronoun or name with "and" or "or." I believe that the confusion begins when someone says something like "John and me are ready" and that is corrected to "John and I are ready." The speaker then thinks, "Oh, the word 'and' means that I should always use I." This is not the case. "And" has nothing to do with it; the reason you say "John and I" in that sentence is that "John and I" are the subject. If they were the object, you'd use me: "He told John and me to get ready."

If you are not good with grammar concepts like subject and objects, there is still a very easy way to decide whether to use I or me: try out the sentence with just I or me (or if you need a plural, we or us - "we" is equivalent to "I" and "us" is equivalent to "me."):

He told Tom and (I or me?) to get ready.
He told I to get ready? NO
He told me to get ready? YES
Therefore, He told Tom and me to get ready.

If John and (I or me?) get married, we'll have two kids.
If me get married? NO
If I get married? YES
Therefore, If John and I get married, we'll have two kids.

Just between you and (I or me?), this is a bad idea.
Because "between" needs to be followed by a plural, we'll use "we" and "us" to figure this out.
Just between we? NO
Just between us? YES
Just between you and me, this is a bad idea.

And whatever you do, please don't use a subject pronoun and object pronoun together.

He and I - correct: "He and I are going to town."
Him and me - correct: "She told him and me the truth."
Him and I - WRONG
He and me - WRONG

Ok. This college dropout is done being a grammar snob. Man, I really need to get out more.

The Hissing of Summer Garages

Well I sure do live in Texas. Those of you on Facebook with me already know about this. So bare with me.

Last night, I was putting the boys to bed. Lil'Bro needed Buddy - his favorite stuffed dog. He was in the car. I asked Pokemon Boy to run into the garage and grab Buddy. He didn't feel like it. I didn't blame him after his big day yesterday. So I went into the garage, opened the back door, grabbed Buddy and slammed the car door. That's when I heard it. This weird hissing. Like I had somehow punctured one of the tires and it was just blowing air out of a small hole. I stood in the doorway back into the house listening. Was it a pipe that just blew a leak? Was it a tire? How could I have popped a tire by closing the door? What in the world? If I had been outside, I would have thought a sprinkler head was freaking out. One tiny part of me thought...could that be a rattlesnake????

Then my mind did what happens to lots of people who are now dead. It started talking me out of the most terrifying possibility. I started telling myself "Man, get a grip! You're totally overreacting. There's no WAY you'd have a rattlesnake in the garage!" Pokemon Boy came up behind me and said, "What is that noise?!" I may be trying to talk myself out of the rattlesnake scenario but I wasn't risking his life. I shooed him back into the house and followed him quickly. I stood there thinking, "Now what?"

I grabbed the phone and went out the front door. I opened the garage door from the outside. Maybe I could see from that angle better. As the garage door opened, the weird loud hissing started. As soon as it stopped, the hissing stopped. Oooookaaaay...could the garage door opener be freaking out and making some weird hissing sound? Kind of doubt it. So I took a step forward and the hissing (now, unmistakably having a rattle quality to it) started again.

At this point, the ex had called so I had him on the phone and was filling him in. I looked in to the left, in the corner just beyond the garage door opening and I think I saw a rattler (or snake of some kind) coiled up under my ladder. I'm still not sure. It could have been some old rags back there. But at the time, I was pretty sure I saw a snake with its head up off the ground. I told the ex I had to go call someone and ran inside.

I don't know who you're supposed to call at 9pm to come get a rattlesnake out of your garage. But I called 911. They'd know. My heart was pounding and my kids were freaking out. Well, Pokemon Boy was scared. Lil'Bro was scared but asked if he could go look at it. NO YOU CAN'T GO LOOK AT IT! You...you...BOY!

The 911 operator was nice. And he said sure, I was correct to call them. He told me the sheriff was on another job but he put me next in line. I guess a deadly snake in the garage trumps some other things. He told me to leave the garage door open so the snake might leave. If we shut it, he might go deeper into the garage.

Twenty minutes later, a very nice sheriff showed up. This sheriff was smart. He hates rattlers. I don't blame him. But I figured he had a night stick and a gun. I had bare feet and...a broom? He gingerly checked the perimeter of my garage with his flashlight. My car was still in there so he was a bit too close to the sides and junk there. After he check the perimeter, I got in the car and pulled it out of the garage. We both stood in the middle of the garage and checked more. We made a lot of noise. Nothing. No rattle. No hiss. No movement.

That's all he could really do. He told me to call back if I heard it again. GAH!

I know, I know. Welcome to Texas. And people that live in the country get these things in their houses all the time. But the people I know have brains and still don't like the snakes. Familiarity or not - they're dangerous and should be feared.

So last night, I did a lot of praying. The boys prayed, too. I told God, I am SCARED here. I don't want to live in fear. So we asked for a God snake barrier around the house. Then we extended it to our neighborhood. Then we extended it to everyone we love. So you guys are all protected from poisonous snakes!

After getting the boys into bed VERY late, I picked up my iPod and opened my online bible. I searched every verse for snake, viper, or serpent. And the verse I chose to claim in prayer was Psalm 91. It is one that I've sent to sick friends. It's one that sustained me through my divorce. I love it.

Psalm 91 (New Living Translation)

¹ Those who live in the shelter of the Most High
will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
² This I declare about the Lord:
He alone is my refuge, my place of safety;
he is my God, and I trust him.
³ For he will rescue you from every trap
and protect you from deadly disease.
⁴ He will cover you with his feathers.
He will shelter you with his wings.
His faithful promises are your armor and protection.
⁵ Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night,
nor the arrow that flies in the day.
⁶ Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness,
nor the disaster that strikes at midday.
⁷ Though a thousand fall at your side,
though ten thousand are dying around you,
these evils will not touch you.
⁸ Just open your eyes,
and see how the wicked are punished.

⁹ If you make the Lord your refuge,
if you make the Most High your shelter,
¹⁰ no evil will conquer you;
no plague will come near your home.
¹¹ For he will order his angels
to protect you wherever you go.
¹² They will hold you up with their hands
so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.
¹³ You will trample upon lions and cobras;
you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet!

¹⁴ The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me.
I will protect those who trust in my name.
¹⁵ When they call on me, I will answer;
I will be with them in trouble.
I will rescue and honor them.
¹⁶ I will reward them with a long life
and give them my salvation.”

So today, I was still scared. I just kept God in my head all day. I know he understand fear. So he took care of us. I went into the garage a few times. Got the car out, back in, back out again. No events. My fear got less and less. But I'm on guard.

This evening, I was talking to my friend on the phone. He's the dad of one of Lil'Bro's little classmates. I told him about the snake. He insisted on coming over to check the garage. I didn't like that idea. I don't want to be responsible if something did happen to him. He came anyway. He took this big 10 foot pole I have that extends to clean windows and the like. He poked around behind everything in the garage. We made all sorts of noise. Nothing. No hissing, no rattling, no movement of any kind.

I think the snake is gone. I think God got him out of there. I'm still asking God for that barrier around the house. It's snake season. They're coming out now. So I will be vigilant. I'm still on guard. I'm still really wanting to buy snake boots or the full regalia. But I know God's got my back. And I gotta "cowboy up" as one of my friends put it. Gotta get used to this.

Welcome to suburbia in Texas.

Oral Surgery: Good Times...Goooood Times

Well today, Pokemon Boy had his oral surgery. Yes, because I assumed my child had low maintenance teeth like me, I never rode him about brushing or flossing. I didn't take him to the dentist until he had an issue. So his first time was this year - at the age of eight. Granted, I went for the first time at 13 and only had like 2 small cavities. But apparently, I was lucky.

So my unlucky son had to go under general anesthesia today to get one baby molar extracted, two of them crowned and two of them filled. All the molars were sealed.

We were covered in a ton of prayer. And it showed. Pokemon Boy was incredibly calm all day. His appointment time was 11:30am. We got there at 10:45am. They took us back into pre-op around 1:30pm because they were running late. Around 2:15pm, they gave him the "happy juice". It's ibuprofen and something that basically makes kids act drunk. At about 3pm, they came to take him into the OR.

He was completely patient during the whole wait. Even though he hadn't eaten since the night before. He had his last sips of water at 6:30am. I wasn't eating or drinking for solidarity. And by noon, I was parched and cranky. He just kept waiting. Oh yah - did I mention that he brought his Nintendo DS with him? I think that had a tiny bit to do with his amazing patience. At one point I said, "Thanks for being so patient, bud." Without skipping a beat he says, "Of course I'm patient. I AM a patient. Ha ha!" Too funny.

The only nerves showed up when they came to take him away. He kept joking, "Well, I'm one hour closer to the end of my life," which I privately didn't find funny. So when they came for him, the nurse asked, "Do you have any questions?" He said, "Just one. Where will you bury me?" The nurse was horrified but he thought it was funny. Anyway, as he left, he looked back and said, "Are you sure they won't hurt me?" The nurse and I assured he would be fine and not feel a thing.

About 45 minutes later, the doctor came in to tell me she had finished and Pokemon Boy was in recovery. Wow! About 30 minutes later, I could hear a fog-horn of a wail from down the hall. Oh boy. Pokemon Boy fog-horned all the way back to the post-op room. He had a real rough time coming out of the anesthesia. He was very confused & frightened. He kept crying, "Don't let them hurt me!!!" and "Is it all done? Completely??"

If you've ever had general anesthesia, one of the weirdest things is how you have no concept that time has passed. I remember for one of my surgeries, they were putting me under. And suddenly I was being woken up. It was like they were going, "Oh wait, we have to tell you one more thing before you go to sleep." Just no concept of time at all. So I think what was happening was that Pokemon Boy thought he had woken up during or before the surgery. Yesterday, he was very nervous about that happening. That would explain why he kept saying, "Don't let them hurt me!" When I assured him it was all done and he was in post-op, he kept asking me "Are you sure? Really?"

The nurses also explained that some people have this reaction when coming out of anesthesia. One nurse told me, "I'm just telling you this for his college years: he will be an UGLY drunk. What's going on here is just like the 'tears in your beers' you see with some drunks. You need to warn him not to drink because it won't be pretty." I thought that was very funny. But also completely agree with her!

So his recovery was very loud. He was crying in that yelling way. And not screaming. If you've ever met someone that can really PROJECT (like me and Pokemon Boy), you know what I mean. He was crying LOUD. He would answer me LOUD. Even saying, "OK" or "I'm sorry" was at like 952 decibels. So once he was awake enough, I had to make him focus on me and say things like, "Honey, you need to wake up enough to control your voice. You're talking very loud and there are other people recovering here." Then he'd try to "whisper" which brought it down to kind of loud talk. But it was quieter than the LOUD.

As he finally started snapping out of it, he'd be laying there watching the TV in his room and suddenly his heart rate would race and his face would screw up like he was about to start crying again. And just as suddenly, he'd calm right down.

By the time they were ready to kick us out, he was calm but still VERY groggy. When they brought the wheelchair for him, he got upset and asked, "How long will I have to use THAT?!" They explained it's normal procedure for leaving after surgery.

He slept most of the way home. Right now, he's sitting on the couch playing his DS and watching Sponge Bob. He's pretty mellow. He's hungry. Already polished off some applesauce. Now he wants pizza. Can't have that yet. So I must run to find something for him to eat.

Just thought I'd let you all know it went really well. I think the peace he had going in was definitely from God. The procedures went well. We're home and in a pretty normal routine, all things considered.

Oh, my mom picked up Lil'Bro from day care. And she brought us all dinner. Seriously, I'm pretty sure I have the coolest mom in the world. For me, that is.

Fortis Vox Pro Deus

Here's a little something for y'all. It's about the only recording of my voice since probably the late 90's? I'm learning how to use some recording software on this lovely new iMac. It's very basic but very fun. I loooooooove harmonies. So I did a little experiment this afternoon and put a partially written praise song together. I had to make it into a movie because Facebook doesn't let you post pure MP3 files to personal pages. So forgive the quick toss-together. And enjoy.

A Dentist Visit WithOUT Anxiety

In contrast to Pokemon Boy's visit to the dentist a while ago, Lil'Bro had his first dentist visit today. Granted he's five so they don't have a lot of expectations and you can slip a lot past them the first time. But he also doesn't have any of the anxiety disorder Pokemon Boy has either. It was a whole different visit. X-rays? Done. Cleaning? Done. Cavities? None.

I really was so proud of him. He did everything he was told. He didn't like the little plastic things you bite down on while you get x-rays because they cut into the roof of your mouth. I don't know anyone that loves those things. But he bit, held it and released exactly as told. The cleaning, he told the lady he didn't want her to squirt water into his mouth. She said, "How 'bout we try it just once and see how it goes." He agreed and everything went fine.

Since his visit was completely stress free and no drama, I was able to think about taking a picture with my cell phone. Something I hadn't been able to do for Pokemon Boy's first visit. Which bums me out. But oh well.

Here is a picture of Lil'Bro getting his cleaning. They give the kids sunglasses to wear under the bright lights. It's a bit washed out because of the lights but it's cute anyway.

Chili - Come An' GIT IT!!

Dudes, I made enough chili to feed ALL y'all. But my church friends ate most of it already. Sorry.

Tonight, we had an awesome Chili Social at my house. Most of our small groups (or home groups) meet on Tuesday nights - they alternate weeks. Mine is like the 1st & 3rd Tuesdays of each month. Another one meets on the 2nd and 4th. So on those rare 5th Tuesdays in a month, ain't nothin' goin' on (I like apostrophes). I heard someone saying that on Sunday and said, "Since no one has small group, we should all come to my house for dinner." Robert said, "Are you serious?" I thought for a second and said, "Sure," knowing full well that my house was in a state of chaos. So it was officially announced at church. Very last minute.

So as I cooked enough chili to feed my whole neighborhood, I thought, hmmm...I might be making just enough or I might be eating chili for the next three months. You never know how many people will show up to these things.

As it turns out, I think we had around 15 adults and about 15 kids? Something like that. They were all moving around too much to count. My mom joined us, too. Oh, and one neighbor kid who heard us talking about it in the car after school. He fit right in and had a blast! It was so cool.

Tonight's dinner made me SOOO happy! I grew up in a church that had lots of issues. But the one thing it did right was Family. All of our extended relatives lived in other parts of the country. So my childhood church WAS our family. They used to have these pot-luck dinners after church. Everyone would bring their best comfort food and I'd be in heaven with all the differing forms of Jell-O mixed with various things like marshmallows, pecans, pineapples. Everyone would eat and us kids would run around wreaking all sorts of havoc. The adults would sit around talking - which of course seemed all sorts of boring to me at the time.

Tonight, we all got our chili, cheese, chips and other foods that didn't start with the "ch" sound. Some sat at the table. Some sat in the living room watching American Idol. Some stood. The kids were running around upstairs, downstairs, chasing each other with light sabers, swords, and pillows.

It felt like home. Not just because it was IN my home. But because this is my "forever church", as someone put it tonight. This is my family. These are my thick & thin. These are the people God sent me after all my prayers while moving down here. I stood around watching them thinking, oh yah. God sent me the best of his people.

It totally felt like home.

Why God And My Handy Man Totally ROCK

Subtitle: Things I've Done That Will Make You Feel Much Better About Yourself

A couple of weeks ago, I started having water pressure problems in my house. They would come and go. But it got consistently worse. Right around the time I noticed the water pressure issues, I was putting top soil down on my lawn, patching up bald spots or filling in low lying places hidden in the grass.

A couple of days after putting down the top soil, I noticed that a large patch always seemed damp while the rest of the patched spots were lighter colored and very dry. Hmmm. I noticed a large strip of yard between my house and my neighbor's that was constantly wet. Ugh.

I gave it a week to fix itself. If you ignore it and don't talk about it, it will go away. Yes. This theory has rarely worked for me. So by yesterday, I was pretty convinced I was looking at a broken pipe somewhere. Possibly in my house, maybe next to it, maybe the sprinkler system. I didn't know. But I could see big dollar signs. And it was making me sick.

Last night I said, "Please God. Let it be something small. Let it be something we can handle quickly without huge drama and huge cost!" But even as I prayed this, I thought, this may be one of those life lessons God needs me to learn. Suck it up, little girl. You're a grown up now. Sometimes you have to pay for grown up repairs. Guh.

This morning, I finally called my friend Wyatt. He's been my "Bug Guy" and handy man since we moved here. He and his wife and daughters are awesome friends and I adore them on many levels. They were some of the first close friends I made at my church. But mostly because Wyatt will come take care of ants, termites, field mice, etc. Blyeck! And he also fixes stuff without charging me an arm and a leg. He doesn't mind when I chick out on things (like trying the ignore-it-and-it'll-go-away thing). He doesn't judge. He just shows up and fixes whatever is wrong. And since the ex took off, Wyatt and his awesome wife Shari have kind of kept an unspoken eye on me. They'd probably deny that but I know they have.

Anyway, I called and said, ok, how much do you know about plumbing? Or do you have a plumber you work with that you trust? I told him what was going on. He made a promise to show up today. This is a guy I called last minute, with a full slate. And he insisted he'd check it today. Because - he reasoned - if it really IS a broken pipe that's leaking, I am wasting lots of money that I don't have. See? He's very protective of his single-mom, laid-off friends.

Wyatt and one of his guys showed up this afternoon with a pick axe and shovel. I felt nauseated. Pictures of my entire yard dug up with hundreds of broken pipes exposed raced through my head. He checked my sprinklers and pretty quickly ruled out that the sprinkler pipes were burst. Yay! He checked the outside faucet and found huge pressure. He checked the inside faucets and found low pressure. "When's the last time you changed your water filter?" Um...says me...I didn't really want to tell him that I was basically 2 months past the changing time. I'm never that bad! So he pulls out my water filter. It was BROWN. Might mean nothing to you if you don't have one. But I've never seen it like that. So basically, my laziness caused my water filter to get so clogged, water couldn't get into the house! Fortunately, I had INTENDED to change the filter. This intention meant I had actually purchased the filter back in January when it should have been changed. So I had the filter. And Wyatt is tall and can change it very easily. As opposed to my Hobbit-on-a-step-stool routine. So bippity-boo and I have a clean filter.

Did I feel totally stupid? Absolutely. Did I care? NO. You know why? Because I was figuring I'd be using somewhere upwards of $10K to have my entire sprinkler system replaced! If not, I knew I'd be throwing a couple of thousand at whatever the problem was. But I already had the 20-something dollar filter on hand. And Wyatt wouldn't take any payment. As he put it, he had to drive this way anyway.

So God rocks because he TOTALLY came through on my "please make it something small" prayer. I hadn't even asked for FREE! And he sent my awesome friend Wyatt to show me how easy the fix was and not make me feel stupid about it.

I have to figure out something yummy to make for Wyatt & Shari.

Randomosity And Such

I was relating the dentist story to my neighbor friends yesterday. They made me feel better about Pokemon Boy's behavior. I had really been chalking that whole thing up (or most of it) to his anxiety disorder. Their daughter is a year older than him and just had her first visit last year. Her visit went very similar to ours. Although, they say it took them one and a half hours to get her xrays!!! Pokemon Boy's xrays took a little while but nowhere NEAR that! Probably not even 10 minutes. They also said she was fearful and tearful about the cleaning - and uncooperative. And she has no anxiety issues that I'm aware of.

Then I spoke to one of my sisters today and related the story to her. She has such an issue with dental procedures (shots to the mouth, in particular - *shudder*), she takes meds in order to go. This horrible reaction actually started due to an abusive dental assistant.

Quite a few people have related their fear and horror about dentists. And it makes me feel better in relation to Pokemon Boy. But it makes me SO sad. Because my former Boston dentist ROCKED. He was SO in tune to people's fears regarding the dentist, he was exactly how ALL dentists should be. It just stinks because there are SO many awesome dentists. But since we only go every 6 months, if you get a bad one, you feel kind of stuck. It's such a hard thing to switch. Most people will just put up with it since it's basically 2 to 4 days out of your year. But you shouldn't. If you get a lemon, try another one. THEY have to transfer your records. All you have to do is tell them where. It's worth switching if you have a bad experience.

So today was Pokemon Boy's first day back to school after his spring break. And I got a call from his teacher. Oh boy, thought I. BUT...she was calling to tell me that he go a 100 on his TAKS reading test. For those of you like me that have no clue what that is - it's standardized testing that all the kids take in 3rd, 4th & 5th grades in our elementary schools. It's one of those all-day testing things. Very scary for 3rd graders as it's their first time taking an all-day test. He was very nervous. But he came home feeling like he probably did ok. That was a few weeks ago. So this is very cool. I'm so proud of him. And I'm so thankful that he got this nice success right at this particular moment.

So YAY Pokemon Boy!!!!

Anxiety Disorders and The Dentist

Pokemon Boy had his first real dentist appointment this past week. Yes, he's eight. Yes, most parents bring their kids to the dentist way before they are eight. I never went until I was 13 and had very few cavities. I made the assumption that Pokemon Boy would have my teeth. Plus, he's such a non-sugar eating kid. Plus, I'm lazy. Throw stones all you perfect people.

Anyway, it was our first visit to this dentist. So you have to fill out all the forms and check all the boxes. I can usually just check all the N/A boxes for all of the diseases or disorders. For Pokemon Boy, I had to check the box that indicated he had a "mental disorder". Man, I hate those lists. "Mental disorder" is not what I would put. But they didn't label it any nicer. I'd prefer neurological issues or something. Ah well, I can't always get the euphemisms I'd like. So I had to check the box that came close enough. Guh. They left a place to indicate how I thought my child would react to treatment. I put something like, "He will be scared and nervous but I think he will cooperate."

Fortunately, this place is a kids' dentist office. They deal only with kids. And therefore, they have dealt with it all. Almost everyone in there is amazingly patient and has mad skillz with the kids. The guy who took Pokemon Boy's x-rays was amazing. I could hear Pokemon Boy asking rather frantically, "What IS that? Is it going to hurt?!" and such. He patiently explained all of the equipment and got the x-rays.

When it was time to get him into the reclining chair, he wouldn't have any of it. He asked, "Is that so I can't get up? Will it keep me there?!" Wow. There are times his anxiety disorder really surprises me. I can never predict where his mind will go and what will freak him out. The reclining chair really freaked him out. They finally talked him into the chair (with quite a few mom-glares from me). At the first visit, it's just x-rays and a cleaning. So they showed him the electric toothbrush and the suction thing. He wouldn't let them use the suction thing. The way it's set up, there is no spit sink next to the chair. So they had to accommodate him, letting him get up and walk to a sink to spit. It didn't scare him. It just "didn't feel good." *sigh* They got his teeth counted, examined and cleaned. Unfortunately, the tooth cleaning woman should not be working with kids (in my opinion). At one point, Pokemon Boy was really upset and didn't want her to put anything in his mouth. He was starting to cry and I was pulled into another room for a review of his x-rays so I couldn't really help. Well, I guess she said to him, "You are crying like a baby. You're a big boy and shouldn't cry." Yes. Very good. By all means, eight year olds LOVE being called a baby. Right up there with being accused of liking the opposite sex. He was VERY upset by her comment. I can see where she might have been going with that comment but it was a poor choice for a kid clearly very freaked out.

So during the whole visit, he questioned everything. Which is pretty normal for an eight year old's first dentist visit. But he wouldn't let them do anything until he was ok with their answers. He pushed their hands away a few times when he was freaked out. All in all, it was less than ideal. But it could have been way worse.

To top it all off, my hopes of no cavities were stupid. He may not eat tons of candy or cake but he drinks juice and lemonade almost exclusively. He'll drink water periodically. But I am an idiot for not paying attention to that. Sugared drinks of any kind sit on the teeth. Even if you brush twice a day, all of that sugar just sits on your teeth for most of the day. YARGH. Anyway, he has to have major work done on three molars (baby teeth, fortunately). One has to be pulled.

So based on his reactions in the office for just x-rays and cleaning, they can't do the work in the office. They are going to put him under general anesthesia to do it all. It kills me. Mostly because all of this was easily avoidable if I had just been diligent about his brushing and flossing. Oh well.

Pokemon Boy is very anxious about the procedure. He's asking me how they'll put him to sleep and the truth is, I have no idea. He is really scared of needles even though he has always done well with them. The thought of the gas mask scares him even though he's had it three times before and did fine. It's so much easier to do surgeries or major procedures on little kids. Because they don't know what to expect. They don't invent scenarios in their heads. And they don't really retain the memories of it.

So while Pokemon Boy's anxiety disorder doesn't horribly affect his day to day life, it's situations like this where it rears its head. And I feel so helpless. And while we're being honest here, I just felt so frustrated in the dentist's office. I should have tried to prepare him for what was coming. But I didn't - opting for not making him worry about what was coming. I never know what to do.

That one impatient lady really irked me. I don't really blame her. They were way behind because some girl's procedures went way longer than expected. So she really didn't have the time to coddle some upset kid that she thought of as too old to freak out. I understand that. But it was just the kind of thing that puts your stomach in knots as the mom. There's an element of wanting to rip her head off. There's an element of embarrassment because you know your kid is under the eye of other people who don't understand his issues. There's an element of heart ache that your kid is so stressed out over something that may now become one of those totally feared and hated things. I have never had issues with going to the dentist. And I think some people work themselves into a big tizzy over it and turn it into a big deal unnecessarily. I hope he can work past this and not have it be a big deal every time.

Thankfully Pokemon Boy believes in God and prayer. He has asked me to pray about his teeth every night. Mostly for peace about the upcoming procedure. Which is a month away. So we're praying about it. And I'm actually asking God to fix his teeth. I have no idea where God stands on that but it can't hurt to ask. Mostly I ask God to make Pokemon Boy ok with the whole concept.

*sigh*

In The Waiting Room With Lil'Bro

So today, the boys visited their play therapist. Pokemon Boy asked a week ago to see him after some anger issues. Things are ok with him. But while he was in with the play therapist, Lil'Bro was with me in the waiting room. The play therapist let him select some toys to bring out into the waiting room with us. Here are some snippets from our 30 minute wait:

Lil'Bro pretends to shoot me with a toy cap gun. I feign injury and collapse into a chair.
Lil'Bro: "Don't worry mom. It's a pretend gun."
Me: "Are you sure?"
LB: Opens side door for caps. "See? No batteries!"

Lil'Bro walks up handing me a toy.
LB: "Mom, can you help me open these hand cups?"

Aside from the cap gun and hand cuffs, Lil'Bro had also selected a plastic sword. I had no sword. But I had my iPod Touch. And I had downloaded the Lightsaber application. All it does is make light saber sounds from the Star Wars movies as you move your iPod around. It's simple, silly and it totally ROCKS. Lil'Bro was thrilled to have a 15 minute light saber/sword fight with his mom.

The waiting room has some duplo blocks and a Mr. Potato-Head/Darth Vadar set. Lil'Bro got Mr. Potato-Head all decked out and proceeded to talk real deep as he walked Mr. Potato-Head around.
LB: "I am DARTH TATER!" [which is what it's really called but it's hysterical coming out of a five year old in a "deep" voice]

Those were just some highlights of 30 minutes in a waiting room with my five year old.

A St. Patty's Day Rant

Brought to you by the woman who was nearly run off the road about 3 times tonight on her way home from having dinner with a friend.

Dear Idiots Who Are Not Sitting In Jail Charged With Vehicular Manslaughter,

You are idiots. Yes, I realize that as a God-girl I'm supposed to be forgiving. But for the moment, you are idiots.

Please explain to me where in the story of St Patrick's abduction to Ireland, escape back to Britain, fifteen years of religious training, return to Ireland and subsequent missionary work with Christians in Ireland, where is the part about where you're supposed to go drink yourself into a stupor and then get behind the wheel to wreak havoc on the open road? I must have missed that part in my readings. Or on the History channel.

To the chick in the baby blue Jaguar that nearly took out the right side of my car, I hope you didn't eventually kill anyone else. Happy St Patrick's day! I'm sure he's up there going, "Great job, lass!"

To the car with the Cheech and Chong smoke coming out of the sun roof that nearly took out the LEFT side of my car, then nearly careened into the guard rail, somehow recovered control only to ride about 6 inches off the back bumper of that silver car flashing your lights for about 2 miles, right ON! You have captured the spirit of all of St Patrick's hard work.

To the red 5 door car that nearly took out my left front headlight and then sped through stop signs into my own neighborhood, I hope you are appreciating the fact that you're now puking in your own toilet and not one in the county jail.

Hoist a pint. I get it. I did it. But dang, people, killing others with your stupidity is NOT part of this holiday.

Sincerely,

The Sober Chick Who Only Made It Home Because God Totally Rocks

My New Favorite Romantic Movie!

Thanks to everyone who sent sweet notes about Clark. His funeral will be this Saturday out in Cali. Our pastor and Clark's brother's roommate are flying out there tomorrow. It is expected that the turnout will be massive. I always think that is such a wonderful testimony to how much that person touched this world. God is good and I know he will bless that gathering.

And in a very unnatural and awkward segue... I am in LOVE with a romantic movie. In LOVE, I tell yah!

I have always loved the 1944 version of Jane Eyre with a young Orson Wells and an impossibly lovely Joan Fontaine. But - having been a math/science dork with a reading block - I never read the book. And therefore never understood the layers of pain that brought Jane to Thornfield Hall. They hint at sadness and abuse but nothing like that of which Ms. Bronte wrote. No sirree Bob!

So in my quest to dig into the whole period piece romantic drama, I began with movies based on Ms. Austen's stories. And still have many of them on my NetFlix queue. But I broke it up with a version of Jane Eyre. It's another one of those amazing love stories that really is bad stuff for us single, recently divorced chicks to watch. And yet, watch I do.

I selected the 2006 Masterpiece Theater (pronounced in my head as "thee-tah") version of Jane Eyre. It's two discs and I'm cheap so I get one at a time. As I write this, I am fully in love with the first disc and am DYING until the second gets here. Ok, dying is a bit dramatic. But I can't wait and am giddy like a moon-eyed school girl with anticipation! [Note to self: Get out more.]


First off, the story starts when Jane is a bit of a girl. So again, thank you British story tellers for actually giving us all the back story which totally makes the rest of it all make SENSE. And the young Jane is brilliantly played by Georgie Henley (most recently Lucy in the wonderful Chronic-WHAT-cles of Narnia).

And then the movie cuts to the actress who plays the adult Jane and I am a complete sucker. Because she LOOKS like she could be the younger actress all grown up. I'm a sucker for actors that actually LOOK alike when the story needs them to. In this case, the adult actress acts the role out of the park. Grown up Jane is beautifully played by Ruth Wilson - with whom, I admit, I am unfamiliar. But she's just the right amount of gorgeous but "not quite a true beauty" as one character cruelly observes.

Now Mr. Rochester, here is a tough casting call in my opinion. He needs to be handsome enough but not too much so. And he needs to be strong, brooding and on the edge of mean. But in a sympathetic way. Yah, is that asking so much? Well, whoever the casting director was on this did a great job in my book. Toby Stephens gallops into screen and I am all excited because I've only ever seen this actor as a bad guy in a Pierce Brosnan James Bond movie. So here he is, all strong, brooding and on the edge of mean.

Let me tell you, the friendship built between Jane and Mr. Rochester is completely believable. And it's so real, it makes me think I want to relate to men like Jane does. With complete honesty and no hidden agenda. As the respect builds and begins to change to something more, it is palpable and made me root for them, even knowing the ending. Oh it's just genius!

I love it love it love it. I cannot WAIT for disc two to get here. And I think this will go on my Christmas list for 2009. I could watch this over and over and over.

So there's my new favorite romantic movie. For now.

Goodbye For Now, Clark

Today, one of our extended church family passed from this life into the next. I know that I should be happy for him. Clark isn't suffering in pain any more. He finally gets to meet Jesus face to face. We all know he's in a better place. And though I believe all of that with all my heart, it still just makes me sad. Sad that a 16 year old should have to die. I only met Clark a couple of times. He's the youngest brother of two of our church members. They're all such a great family. His older brother and sister are two of the finest people I know.

Anyway, a lot of you were praying for Clark and I thank you. His family sent a message to our pastors thanking everyone for their prayers. Clark's family believes he is with God and knows they will see him again when we're all there together. But the human reality is that they will miss him terribly until that happens. Your continued prayers for their family would be appreciated.

I just wanted to share a picture of Clark here. He is a wonderful kid. I have no doubt heaven is loving having him there.