The body does you bad

Update: They don't know what I have.

They know that I do not have rheumatoid, sjorgens, or lupus. But they also know that I had a high sed. rate which means I have inflammation. This was a bit surprising since I didn't feel like I was having a flare up at the time. I've probably just gotten use to that level of inflammation, which is a sad thought. I also have low Vitamin D, even with all the milk and cheese and whatnot that I eat.

So, I've been placed on plaquenil to treat the inflammation and to hopefully stop the flare ups and therefore stop the damage. It's a drug that causes GI issues and can lead to blindness over an extended period of treatment. I have to go to the opthamologist every 6 months to look for eye changes. It's also a drug used to treat malaria, so I'm all set to go to africa now. I also have to take a super duper vitamin D pill once a week, which can also cause nausea. But it also causes constipation, so maybe it and the ridiculous amount of iron I'm taking every day will stop the diarrhea from the plaquenil. You know, silver lining and all.....

Traitorous body

I know I have been remiss in posting to the blog. I just don't seem to have much that I want to really write about lately. Not sure what that's all about. But here I go on another tangent.

Most of you know that I have struggled with painful attacks every so often that make my joints hurt. This has been going on for probably 10 years or so. I've been tested and scoped in just about every way possible and nobody could find anything wrong with me. Basically, I was told to take some ibuprofen when it hurt, which was okay at the time.

I've been pretty awful about going to the doctor for some time. You get tired of saying the same things over and over and nobody ever finding anything wrong with you. But my attacks have gotten much more severe and I have pain that doesn't go away even when the attack is over. My knees hurt so much that I avoid stairs all together. If I chase a kid, I can hardly walk the next day, I can't push in the clutch without it hurting, and it's hard to get in and out of my seat. So, I finally went back to the doctor. Got yelled at for not taking care of myself and sent back to the Columbus Arthritis Center.

During my visit to the arthritis center, I was stabbed three times to get blood and x-rayed enough to probably exceed my radiation allowance for a year. My knees had been x-rayed the last time I was there, and showed nothing. This time, it showed that I have arthritis in both knees. I've had constant pain in my lower back, so for the first time, my back was x-rayed and it showed a pretty good curve of the spine, scoliosis. Even though scoliosis runs in my family, that was a surprise. I was given some physical therapy exercises to do, told to go to Aquatic Adventures and join the arthritis swim program there and take alleve and tylenol arthritis strength.

I was actually pretty upset by this information. In six years, whatever connective tissue disease I have has permanently damaged my knees. What the hell is it going to be like in another six years? Not to mention, that spinal curve. Can't fix that. The best I can hope for is to live with this level of pain for the rest of my life. It isn't going to get better, but it will probably get worse. I was hoping for something that could be fixed with physical therapy or maybe even a minor surgery. Not this.

I can't tell you the number of people who've tried to point out the silver lining. "You know, they can do wonders with knee replacements now." I just try and smile, I know they mean well, but that isn't really something I'm dying to go through, okay folks?

I go back on Wednesday to see if the blood work reveals anything. I'm not holding out much faith since many of these things can't be found in blood work unless you're having a flair up at the time. Even then, they might not be able to find it. If they can identify it, there's an even smaller chance that it might be one of the ones that they actually have a therapy for.

I am doing better with all of this, adjusting to the idea. Still sucks, but not as depressed about it. But dang, one of those physical therapy exercises hurts! :)

events

Saturday, Mia and I went to the North Market Farmer's Market to get preservative free apple cider so that I can make hard wassail cider for Beth and her sister. Mia had fun looking around, although she had a pretty bad cough. The hard cider is stinking up the basement right now. Then later in the day I scrubbed and sanitized two cases of beer bottles, primed the chocolate stout that was in the secondary and bottled it all. This is a tedious process and not one I particularly enjoy. Hopefully, I can one day convert to a keg system and not have to mess with bottles and waiting 3+ weeks to drink my beer.

Sunday we all went to Young's Jersey Dairy for the pumpkin festival and to meet up with Max's birthmom. The kids had a lot of fun running around and playing in the hay and bouncers. Max even decided that he liked to feed the goats!

Monday night Mia woke up screaming. When I asked her what was wrong she stuck her finger in her ear and announced, "ear. hurt." So, at 9:30 pm Beth ran her to the children's urgent care. Her ear was full of pus and the eardrum bulging painfully. Beth brought Mia home while I tried to find a 24 hour pharmacy. Beth ran back out to the get the medicine and finally made it into bed around 12:45 am. That was a great night!

Wednesday I was out in the field all day and had to leave bright and early in the morning. Met up with Bryan in Lancaster and then drove down to Pomeroy. It was cold and kept misting on us while we drilled through concrete and took a gazillion soil samples. I'm sore today from it all.

Today I went to the CASA annual breakfast. This is a big fundraiser for CASA and they usually ask for some of us to help set up/tear down and to attend the event. We sit at tables and talk about what we do and why we need these folks to donate money. I was there at 6:30 am and I'm strongly advocating for an annual lunch instead of breakfast (too early!). It was interesting that most of the speakers ended up crying at some point. What we do has an impact on all of us and it's hard not to show it.

Tomorrow I get to go attend the manager's meeting in place of my boss who is on vacation. Woo hoo!

Fun

So, I went to a supervised visit between my CASA kids and both of their parents. It started poorly and I should've realized early that maybe I just wanted to turn around and go home.

The National Youth Advocate Program (NYAP) building, where the visits are held, is in a questionable part of town. I never feel particularly threatened there but I do become much more alert while in the area. The building has a weird entrance and I always forget that if I turn down the wrong road, it is technically one way the wrong way for me to enter the parking lot. This time I decided that I would be a good example and go around the block so I could enter the correct way. In doing so, I got stuck behind a car full of folks who stopped to talk to a man and a woman on the street. Of course this led to what I believe was a drug deal. Then everyone turned around and took a look at me, dressed up in office clothes, glowing all white and conspicuous. I just kinda smiled and nodded my head, and put the car in reverse. They must have seen that I was harmless and probably looked nervous, because they all laughed and drove off or returned to their corner.

Things only get worse from here.

The father is at least 6'5" , 270 pounds and a felon fresh out of prison. The caseworker told them something about me and he immediately demanded that I leave. Which of course I didn't. Just to make matters worse, for him, the youngest ran to me and gave me a hug. I had to force him to go visit with his parents and chase him off (gently) every time he came back to me. This did not make dad happy. But he decided that he would ignore me, which I was fine with.

The caseworker was sitting next to me and told me that she hadn't been feeling well. About half an hour into the visit, she took a drink from her gallon jug of water and promptly inhaled it. She started coughing and then ended up vomiting all over the floor, repeatedly. The oldest kid thought this was fabulous and kept yelling, "She's barfing! On the floor!" The caseworker couldn't leave because the visits are supervised. So, I had to go run all over the building begging for someone to come relieve her. Amazingly, none of the other social workers really seemed to care and it took awhile for one of them to eventually come down and relieve her.

At the end of the visit, I found myself outside in the parking lot with everyone and 4 caseworkers. The everyon, including the caseworkers, then vanished and left me alone with the parents. Dad was pretty ticked off at me and was under the impression, thanks to the caseworker, that I was the bitch who took his kids and controlled everything about the case. That was a little nerve wracking, considering he has issues with violence and all. In the end, I kinda got him to understand my roll, although I'm not going to be on his Christmas card list or anything.

That was a very hard 3 hours and I was the amusement for the CASA office the next day. Hey, at least somebody had some fun out of it all.

Wild Things

Today we trekked down to Zanesville and visited The Wilds. This is land that AEP used for mining coal back in the day. A neat piece of history, Big Muskie was the machine that did the mining at this location. It was the biggest earth moving machine ever made. It's a machine that is near and dear to most AEP employees. There are pictures in our corporate office of the bucket holding a whole marching band, with plenty of room to spare. Anyway, when the mine was closed the property was reclaimed with 6 inches of top soil and a lot of envasive plants. It was then donated and became The Wilds.

You can take safari-like tours and get close to rhinos, giraffes, bison, etc. I wasn't horribly impressed, but Max and Wilson liked it a lot. Max announced that he wants to go back. Mia, of course, was not happy that the animals could get so close. She was very annoyed that the rhino was near us and kept yelling no at it and then decided that she wouldn't look at the animals any more and would just take a nap. AEP fed us lunch, which Mia was very excited about. So, all the kids were happy in the end.

When we got back home, I decided to do some yard work. Mainly, taking the lower branches off of three pine trees. These trees take up a huge part of our yard and attack me when I mow. Not to mention they create a cave that draws kids and dogs into it and grows poison ivy. I now have a huge amount of branches to dispose of some way, but have discovered that two of the trees are perfectly spaced to hang a hammock! I'm totally excited about creating an adult space in the yard.

Neat sounds

Beth called me into the kitchen with, "You might want to come see this." Best kid routine ever.

Bunks

Max and Mia got bunk beds last Thursday. Max is very excited about sleeping up high and was even mostly ok with moving into the "babies" room and Wilson moving into his old room. When Mia saw them for the first time she yelled, "Look! Playground!" Notice that each bed has a little storage cubby in the headboard.

There is some rustling around and giggling at each other. But they do pretty good. Max is learning to turn on his light so he can see the ladder in the dark.

Max got a new transformers bed set, which he was almost more excited about than the bed. Tonight I went in to check on him and didn't know where he was. He was laying in the storage cubby. I don't know how he fit, but I did have to break the news to him that he couldn't do that anymore. It was all I could do not to laugh.

Mia has done very well in her big girl bed. She takes her sleep pretty seriously and I thought she would do well. She has a very cute bed set with flowers and bees that Aunt Katy gave her.

We did have one incident the other night. We hear Mia yell, "NO!" and then start hysterically screaming. I was very afraid that she had really hurt herself. Beth went back and asked what had happened and Max said that "The horse might have been too low." Max has a big Black Beauty horse puppet that Mia has HATED from the first time she saw it. Max knows that it makes her have a fit and we are pretty sure that he dangled it over the edge of the bed at her until she saw it. It was all we could do to not bust out laughing. It is such a typical big bratty brother thing to do. I can almost hear him thinking to himself, "Oh, Mia. Look up here." Heh.

C is for Cookie!

Max has been talking a lot about Cookie Monster. He brought home some art that he colored of Cookie and a big paper cut-out doll of Cookie (which he slept with for a couple of nights). The teacher sends home a folder every Friday that has important papers and communication from her. In the Friday folder we found out that Cookie had caused some mischief at school. Apparently, Ms. Young used Cookie to help the kids find important places like the gym and library. He "stole" their cookies and they hunted him from the library to the gym and ended up in the principle's office. Ms. Campbell-Sauer, the principle, had caught Cookie there and had kept the cookies for the kids. It sounded cute to me.

2022

Max started kindergarten yesterday. It's been quite the event. Since kindergarten is only half day (although that has been mandated to change in 2010 by the state!), arrangements for getting him to and from school had to be made. Fortunately, we got into the am session and the daycare can transport him.

The week before school started, the kids at the daycare practiced getting on the van, buckling their seat belts, getting off the van and walking to their classroom. This was very exciting to Max and I was given frequent updates like, " Bryce missed my school and had to go back!"

On Tuesday, I took him into the daycare and he got all sorts of tags put on him and his backpack. Then he was assigned a seat in the van next to his "big". The big is an older student who will help the younger one with their seat belt and helps them get to the school. Then the daycare takes roll-call and off to the van! I was there taking a bunch of pictures and then I hopped into my car and drove over to Ridgewood and waited to get more pictures.

When they got off of the van, Max could care less that I was there. He had practiced what to do and he was going to do it without my help. All the parents and teachers were very amused at his confidence level. It was obvious I was his parent and it was also obvious that I was not needed or even particularly wanted. He only got confused at one point when he has to make a turn to go down the kindergarten wing. Luckily, they have a teacher who is stationed there to help them remember.

He found his room with no help, marched right in, found his name, then marched right over to his assigned spot to hang his backpack, found his assigned seat and told me goodbye. I took the hint and beat it out of there before I crimped his style too much.

One of the daycare teachers asked me if I was sad or excited. I told her I was excited, which I am. He is ready to have some more challenges. It wasn't until I was walking back to my car and thinking about how on his own he was in this new stage of his life that I started to cry. I had thought that he would be coddled a little bit more. I had assumed that he would be dropped off right in front of the door like the bus kids, he isn't. I had assumed that the volunteers that get the kindergartners and walk them to their class would get him, they don't do that unless he rides the bus. He has to do it all, and he is perfectly capable of it. I'm proud that he did such a good job, especially compared to some of the other kids in his class. But it hit me suddenly that he is much bigger than I think of him and that I am running out of time with my little boy.

Big Girl

On August 24th, Mia turned 2. It doesn't seem possible. She had a couple of friends over for a little celebration and proceeded to cry when we all sang to her. But I think she did have fun. On her birthday she wanted, "Pizza!" for her dinner. She's crazy about pizza.

Mia has changed so much in the past two years. She started out as this tiny little peanut and everywhere we went people asked if she was a premie. The picture below is right after we brought her home from the hospital, only two days old.

Now, I call her tank girl. She's so strong and coordinated and she makes the boys look a bit slow. We have signed her up for gymnastics, which I think will be a blast! can almost count to 5 by herself and strings together whole sentences now. She even has shown a lot of interest in potty training. Such a big girl. I can't help but wonder where the time has gone.

String Band Aids

Beth called me at work this morning sounding all like the cat who ate the canary. I asked her what was up and she informed me that our oldest had a wound on his knee and the daycare was concerned. Would I go and look at it? I told her I would and then I received a picture message from the assistant director showing me the wound. It looked ugly, but I couldn't really see it very well so decided to go in person.

Max had been trying to get on one of the new 3-wheelers at school, lost his balance and fell on the edge of the concrete patio. When I got there I wasn't sure how bad it really was. It wouldn't stop bleeding and seemed to do more when he walked around. I called the doctor's office and they said that the fact that it was bleeding more when he walked meant that he would probably need at least one stitch. Problem was, the doctor's office didn't do any suturing, and the children's close to home centers didn't open until 3p. I could go to the ER but I really didn't want to sit around for hours. The nurse told me that it would be ok to wait for the close to home to open since it would be only 5 hours after the injury occurred. Apparently, they don't like to suture wounds after 7-8 hours.

So, I went back to work for awhile, leaving at 2pm to go and get him. When he figured out where we were going he announced that his knee felt all better now, really it does.....

The nurse who first looked at it thought it was just superficial. Then the doctor came and and looked at it better (and more painfully). She felt that it was deeper than it looked at first glance because it was swollen. She wanted to talk to the suture expert. Max heard the word stitches and got very concerned. He didn't like it too much when the suture person came in. She told him that he would need a couple of string band aids and that it was no big deal.

A few minutes later Max was laying on the gurney with me holding down the top part, another nurse laying on his legs while the other one injected his cut. He screamed something horrible and I felt just awful. I can't imagine that doing the sutures without the lidocaine would have hurt as much as getting the shots did. He has 4 sutures and a HUGE bandage. The location on his knee makes it a bit harder to keep safe and they want him wearing the ace bandage until the sutures are removed in 14 days.

After the shots and he had calmed down a little bit, Max sobbed at me, "Momma, I love you." It just about broke my heart.

Camping

Max, Mia and I left for Helen, Georgia and the Unicoi State Park on Wednesday afternoon. My plan was to go into work in the morning and pick the kids up after lunch hoping they would nap. I did go to work and I did pick up the kids, they didn't do much napping though. Before we got to Cincinnati Max complained that this trip was taking too long!

I had taken the van in for an oil change and to check the breaks the day before. We were on the road for about 20 minutes when an idiot light came on. I couldn't even guess what it meant and had to pull over to look in the manual. It was the check tire pressure light. Easier said then done. I had to drive all over the place to even find a tire gauge and then discovered that the tire pressure was only in the 38 range. Not sure why the dumb thing was complaining but I let out some air and it made it happy for a few more hours before it came back on. I finally had to get the pressure down to around 33 before the light would stop.

We stopped at the Holiday Inn in Knoxville, TN and the kids loved it. It was a big one with a conference center and much room for running, which they did for the next 2 hours. We then went to our room and watched So You Think You Can Dance all in one bed together. Mia fell asleep with the TV on and Max decided he wanted to go to his own bed and sleep after the show.

We got up and ate breakfast at McD's per Max's request and then got on the road around 8am. We arrived at Unicoi around noon. Mia was not thrilled with the new surroundings and all the new people. At that time there was a total of 20 family members milling about. She took a couple of days to warm up, but then discovered that they all had food and where willing to share. Her kind of people.

Max went fishing for the first time and caught a little bluegill. He was very pleased with himself. One of the things he has been fretting over is whether or not there is water with fish in it here in Ohio. He and Mia also went to the Babyland General Hospital, the original hand-stitched cabbage patch kids were started here and continue to be made. It's located in what use to be a real baby hospital and originally all the cabbage patch kids were given names that the real babies born there had. Max liked it so much he want back again with the older kids. Mia marched into the gift store and announced, "My baby" so Aunt Vicki bought it for her. Spoiled kid.

Max also went on a 3 mile hike and kept up with his Uncle Steve. Nobody can keep up with Steve and everyone was amazed. He loved the hike and I see more of this in his future. He also went tubing down the Chattahoochee River with me and after his initial nervousness wore off, had a great time.

We did have one incident. Max had tried to climb up the back of the pickup truck and the tailgate came down throwing him to the ground and striking his head on a stone. It was a bloody mess. Fortunately, it was a small puncture and didn't require stitches.

Max loved his older cousins to the point of worship. Wherever they went, he wanted to go too. He kept up with them and even helped them build a dam. When it was time to go, he was sad. He wanted to know why I was putting up stuff because, "we live here now".

Mia was content to just hang out for the most part and eat. She was having a good time but was ready to go home. When we got in late last night she just grinned and grinned while Beth hugged her. It was a long time to be away from Mimi.

I had some excitement on the way home. The Garmin suggested a route that I wasn't familiar with and I thought I would give it a try. It wasn't until it was way too late that I realized where it sent me, The Tail of the Dragon. This is a famous stretch of 11 miles with 318 curves in it, popular with motorcyclists and performance sport car drivers. Those folks looked like they were having a good time. I was in a mini-van and absolutely miserable. I don't get motion sickness and I was driving, but I still felt like I was going to barf everywhere. That was the longest 11 miles EVER. Now, I can refer to myself as a Dragon Slayer which almost makes up for it. I kinda wish that I would've bought one of the T-Shirts that had the map on it. Check out the map here.

What's in a name

For many years I've been planning on changing my name to Hollenbaugh. Lately, Max has been asking about my name and why it's different than everyone else's. He has been annoyed that I'm not Momma Hollenbaugh. This morning I decided to do something about it. I filed all the paperwork and published the notice to have my name changed. The court hearing will be on August 20th.

No, I will not miss the name Richmond. Originally, I thought the name just didn't mean anything special to me. But in reality, the name has bad memories attached to it and I'm looking forward very much to it going away.

On my walk to and from the court house I had some adventures. I ran into a pack of aggressive hippies lobbying for the libraries. They practically came to blows with folks who politly declined their handouts. While trying to escape that craziness I almost tripped over a casket that was on the sidewalk. It had signs on it, and the same ones on a couple of guys wandering around, stating that the funeral board had buried a felony. Ok. Lesson for the day, do not walk on the statehouse side of High Street.

Dad

I believe that I met Ralph when I was in second grade. I'm a little fuzzy on the details because at the time, I didn't really care for the guy that much. My mom and I lived in a crummy apartment complex, and I was constantly being terrorized by the neighborhood bully, and my father would occasionally come and see me. Well, up until the time he dropped me off at home and told me right before he drove off that he wouldn't be back anymore because he was moving to Florida.

My mom and I moved into Ralph's house in South Charleston. I still didn't really care that much for the guy. I pretty much stayed in my room upstairs, which as far as I was concerned was the best part of the whole deal. I had two rooms upstairs all to myself!

My mom worked weird shifts and often wasn't home when I got home from school. So, I would start dinner for me and Ralph (it wasn't that fancy, but I was a wiz at making a baked potato in the microwave). Eventually, eating dinner with just the two of us brought me around to becoming very fond of him.

He had to travel out of town a fair amount, but when he came home he always brought me a package of Mallow Cups. To this day I still associate this candy with him and will always buy some when I find them. I also remember that I had a goofy pair of red and white stripped PJs that I wore all the time and Ralph called me an embarrassed zebra.

He would take me fishing with him pretty frequently. I can remember a trip we took, the location is a bit fuzzy but I think it was in Michigan, and I was having no luck catching any fish. Being little my skill level wasn't so great. Ralph, however, was catching them left and right and I was frustrated. Then a couple of times he needed to do something in the boat and asked me to hold his rod for him. As I was holding the pole I realized that I had caught a fish! It took me years to realize that he had hooked the fish and let me think that I had done all the work.

When he and my mom broke up, Ralph was the one to tell me. We were getting ready for fishing and he told me how it wasn't working out with them and that it didn't have anything to do with me. He also told me that we would still get to see each other. I'm crying as I type this because I can still remember how much that hurt. I knew that he would stop seeing me just like my father had and I would be all alone again. Fortunately, Ralph is nothing like him.

He continued to take me fishing, every year he took me on a week long trip to Lake Erie, he come to see me in school plays and band concerts. When I needed a new trumpet, Ralph was the one who got it for me. And considering that band was the only thing keeping me in high school, that trumpet meant a lot. And he's made it to all of my graduations. I'll tell anyone who cares to know that he was the only adult in my life while I was growing up who seemed to give a damn about me. Without him, I don't know how I would have turned out or frankly if I would have even made it.

Happy Father's Day, Ralph. I love you.

No clever Title This Time

Max got his glasses and thinks he is pretty cool. He was super difficult at the eyeglass place and they couldn't really adjust them correctly. I noticed that they are a little crooked and when he took them off today one of his ears was pretty red. So, we'll need to go back and try to work on that. He is very concerned about breaking them. He was afraid to move his head too much for fear they would fall off and break. When I picked him up from school he ran up to me and announced that he did not break his glasses today! In the car I had the windows down and looked back at Max. He was holding onto his glasses for dear life. When I asked him why it was because the windows were down and would blow off his glasses. I did have a five minute talk with him before he got his glasses about how they cost money and he needed to be careful and not break them. Apparently it made an impression. I wish I knew what exactly made him listen to me so carefully, because it's never happened before!

He started going to the "babies school" this week and it has been a bit of an adjustment for him. It is a very long day 7-5:50ish and he is a wreck when he gets home. He was use to me picking him up from his old school around 4:30 but we only have one vehicle that can haul around all the kids, and Beth uses it to get everyone to school and then work. She has this plan of leaving a car at the daycare the night before, driving the van to daycare and then transferring to the car so I can bring my car there after work and pick up the kids in the van. We have not tried this plan out because I get tired thinking about it. I have all my work stuff in my car and will have to transfer it back and forth, blah. But we cannot afford another vehicle that will hold them all.

Anyway, in three days the teachers at the new school taught Max how to swing like a big boy. He is really very good at it now. They said that he is doing well.

In other news, we have fence posts in. It's been a joy getting this project started, so who knows when we will actually have a fence instead of just posts. But at least it looks like progress.

Lucky 13

Beth and I celebrated our 13th anniversary yesterday. It's amazing how time flies. Lots of things have happened during that time. We've had three houses and one apartment, I've had 7 different jobs, Beth has had 5 different jobs (I think), I got a bachelor's degree, and both of us have received our masters, we survived two homestudies and adopted two great kids along with surviving one pregnancy which produced one cool little dude. In the beginning we couldn't buy groceries at times and now we've progressed to being broke all the time because the kids are eating so much!

I remember the struggles we had when people first found out about us. I lost some close friends and my relationship with some of my family members will never be the same. Nobody from my family came to our wedding, none of them have ever even asked about it or when our anniversary is, and was only reminded that it isn't legal and therefore doesn't mean anything. But Beth's sister was in the wedding and interested in the planning details. Beth's parents both came and they always send us an anniversary card. We had a lot of great friends show up and suffer through the heat and mosquitoes to show us their support. Although I doubt any of them thought we would be were we are now.

I remember some of the fun we had doing the planning. The cake lady looked super uncomfortable when she realized who was getting married and the tux place had to empty out the dressing room of men so I could try on a tux. But the best of all was the experience we had at the Beavercreek Florists. They were THRILLED to be involved with a wedding for two women. As far as they were concerned it would be twice as much flowers. They even convinced me to wear a wreathe of flowers in their exuberance. At the reception they had even delivered a little engraved vase congratulating us. They were awesome.

It's been a fun 13 years and I'm looking forward to seeing what we get ourselves into next. I love you, Beth.

Biscuit and Eyes

This morning I was getting ready to head out the door and had put Daisy in her hall. I was getting a few things together and heard Wilson making a noise. Based on the noise, I knew he had something in his mouth and most likely it wasn't something that I approved of being in his mouth. He came around the corner making sucking noises and he had one of Daisy's basted dog biscuits in his mouth. He finally decided it wasn't worth the effort and handed it over to me. He must have worked for a long time to get that through the baby gate and poor Daisy had to watch him do it!

Max is very left side oriented. He might as well not have a right hand and will always kick a ball with his left foot. He found one more thing on the right side that he has no use for, his eye. His right eye has been crossing for a few weeks and we had to take him to the specialist this morning. He was a trooper through it all, even though he didn't enjoy having his eyes dilated. He has to wear glasses to try and correct the issue. He got to go pick out his first pair of glasses and was pretty insistent on which pair he wanted. He was pretty upset that he didn't get to take them home with him today, but we will get them soon. I'm not sure how it's going to go teaching him to leave them on, it should be an adventure!

Fishing

I left work early this past Friday and drove down to Cambridge where I met Ralph. We were all set to enter the AEP Fishing Tournament on lake Seneca. There was a tournament meeting on Friday night, where they went over the rules, had a cookout and raffled away prizes. Everyone got a prize and a tournament hat.

We spent the night in the motel and got up bright and early, 4am, on Saturday to get the boat down to the water. It was very foggy out, which made driving and boating a bit of a challenge. The fish were biting early, most not keepers, but still fun. Then we hit a dry spell. I did manage to catch two of the three keepers that we entered into the contest.

During the fishing I was having a lot of fun looking around. It is a pretty lake, I think. And I saw a lot of birds including two common loons, some ducks and geese with their babies, a Baltimore Oriole, pileated woodpeckers, and what I originally thought was a golden eagle (which would've been incredibly rare here in Ohio) but I believe was a young bald eagle flying over the lake looking for fish.

We didn't win or place, and my co-workers fished better than us (which I'm sure I'll pay for later), but it was a lot of fun being outside and fishing with Ralph which I haven't done in a long time.

Ring!

So, I'm on call from the 22nd until somewhere around the 4th. One REC had to have surgery, the other is on vacation and for two days, the last Ohio REC is in Maryland to play golf.

It hasn't been too bad so far. Had one station spill where 265 gallons of mineral oil was pumped onto the ground when a valve snapped. A couple of other minor calls. It just takes a bit of adjustment to how I live. I have to always have the stupid phone and a bunch of important numbers with me. Sometimes I'm good at that, other times I forget. Mia and I went to the grocery store tonight and as soon as I walked in I got a call. I didn't have a pen or any of the numbers I needed, so we got back into the car and ran home. That was annoying. I also discovered that I can't hear the phone ring while wearing headphones and listening to music. Thank goodness for office mates who noticed that I was not answering my annoying phone and poked me.

We'll see how the rest of it goes. Hopefully it will be uneventful.

Best

I sit knee deep in dog hair in my car. There's dog hair everywhere in the house, including on the cats. The kids look like little yellow labs.

I keep picking up sticks out of the middle of the yard, but they keep coming back. I wrestle a 70 pound dog when I meet another dog on a walk, and sometimes I loose the fight. People are vigorously jumped on when they come to visit and the cats are constantly being poked by a big, wet nose.

BUT....

Daisy and Wil have become best buddies. Wilson will call her while he is eating and offer her his food covered hand to clean. Wilson will crawl up to Daisy and head butt her (his way of saying I love you). And Daisy will come and lay down next to him whenever she can. One of the things that Beth and I had discussed when considering adopting her, was the fact that it would be a very long time before we could trust her around the baby on the floor. We were wrong about that. Here you see him leaning up against her just petting and petting her.

Every now and then Wilson will roll over and lay down on Daisy.



Wilson's love of Daisy has even inspired Mia to get in on the action. Here you see her petting Daisy, but what you don't see is her giving her a hug and then a big kiss. Considering how afraid Mia has been of all things furry, this is huge. She walks around singing, "Daisy, Daisy".

Max has been leery of Daisy. She runs vigorously up to him, which scares him even though she has never once jumped on him. I have been trying to teach him to just stand his ground and everything will be fine. The other day, she came running up to him, and he very nervously stood his ground and told her, "Sit" which she promptly did. He burst into a huge grin and it was like a light bulb went off, "The dog will do what I say!" I just about emptied out the house of dog treats after that moment. Max has been strutting around the house commanding her to sit, no, leave it, and stay. He has even been assigned the nightly duty of giving her dinner. He tells her to sit and then he'll release her to go get her food.

Max has also found another very good use for Daisy. One of the dreaded wood boring bees showed up yesterday. He started to cry and pointed at it. Daisy looked over and then chased the bee away. Another one came and Max didn't cry, he just pointed at it and told Daisy to go get it, which she did.

In three weeks Daisy has taught my kids courage, confidence and the joy of just sitting and loving on a pet. I have been trying in vain forever to do this. And on top of that, she has proven herself to be a mighty protector of the kids. She just might be the best dog ever!

Queens

Mother's day was nice, even if the babies were sick and we had to cancel our mommy's night out. Beth got a water garden, and Max made her and I bracelets. Max also made Beth a crown, because "she is the queen of his heart." I think that might be the most precious thing I've ever heard. All the kids worked on a mother's day sign for Beth with their hand prints and artwork.

I got a box of petit fours (yum!) and a fancy pants iPOD Touch, which is super dooper cool! I was stuck at work today but I had a bazillion songs to listen to and the movie Wanted to watch during lunch. Ahhh, Angelina Jolie fits in my pocket!

In other news, I've started busting up sod in the yard for the vegetable garden and soon for the new flower bed under the front tree. This is not an easy job. And neither will be spreading out the two yards of mulch and soil that was delivered to my driveway today!

How did this happen?

Wilson is now 1 year old. Sigh. It just doesn't seem possible. He is walking on his own, although not all the time. Has 5 teeth and working on the 6th.

I made him spaghetti for his birthday dinner. Here's his spaghetti face!

The cake was a hit!

He is starting to develop quite the personality and it's turning out to be a bit ornery. I can't wait to see what this year brings.

Today

Beth was explaining that Cinqo De Mayo is the day that marks the mexican army defeat of the french invaders to Max. He got all excited that the mexican army defeated the french darth vader.

Max was spelling his name to me and announced that he has ball in his name and that was totally awesome (Hollenbaugh).

Mia can almost count to 5, which I find amazing. Sometimes she gets a little confused, but other times she gets almost the whole way all by herself. I'm amazed at her vocabulary too. She's so different from the boys. It's like she's on a personal mission just to make them look slow.

Wilson took a whole bunch of steps all by himself this evening. He had an adoring crowd of me, Beth, Max and Mia cheering him on. Max thought it was really cool and Mia just wanted to hug him. Everyone clapped for him. He thought he was pretty hot stuff and grinned and clapped too!

Public Service Announcement

Since the world's gone crazy here's my attempt to bring a little sanity back.

According to the CDC, in the US for the year 2005:
Number of deaths: 2,448,017
Death rate: 825.9 deaths per 100,000 population

Number of deaths for leading causes of death:
Heart disease: 652,091
Cancer: 559,312
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 143,579
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 130,933
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 117,809
Diabetes: 75,119
Alzheimer's disease: 71,599
Influenza/Pneumonia: 63,001
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 43,901
Septicemia: 34,136

In the US, 2009:
Swine Flu: 1 (a visitor from Mexico)

In the World, 2009:
Swine Flu: 168 (suspected)

Shut Up Swine Flu and Shut Up Useless Media.

Sproing!

Today was the first class of dog obedience. Daisy is officially the class clown. She was very good when I asked her to do something, but in between she was so very excited. They eventually gave her a peanut butter kong to try and distract her for a bit so she wouldn't have a heart attack. At one point the whole class was laughing at her because she decided to show them all her jack russell terrier impression, leaping into the air with all four feet clearing the ground. One of the trainers commented that they had never seen such a big dog do that before! She was play bowing at all the dogs, even the ones trying to bite her nose. At one point she got bored, laid down and rolled over onto her back with all her feet stuck up in the air and scratched her back. It's very hard to describe but very funny if you see her do it. Only 6 more weeks to go!

Already?

It's Sunday night and time for the week to start all over again, sigh.

I washed Daisy today and for a water dog, she wasn't really into it. But lordy be that dog sheds! I'm not sure how there's any left on the dog by the amount I've swiffered off the floor. We took a long walk this morning and another one tonight. She walks beautifully when it's just me, and not so well when the whole family is out. She has just decimated a peanut butter kong and is now happily chewing a chewie. She gets to start her obedience classes on Wednesday.

We had family pictures today. I prefer to just torture the children with this, but Beth insists on making us all get our picture taken. I was bribed with dinner out if I participated. It's so very entertaining trying to get all of us looking and smiling in the right direction. Max doesn't understand how he is suppose to pose, Mia is yelling "NO" and Wilson is crawling off under the radar. We got some good pictures which we will have to share soon.

Max is afraid to go outside. We have these annoying wood boring bees that look like giant bumblebees all around the place. They come every spring and terrorize him. They are kinda aggressive and will buzz all around your face, but they don't try to sting. Max doesn't care. He is just hysterical when forced to go outside. I'm pretty sure that Mia and Wilson think he's crazy.

Beth is chillin' out working on her brain training game for the Nintendo DS. I keep telling her that her brain is gonna get too big for her head soon if she keeps it up. I'm just hanging out here with a cat on my lap typing up some useless stuff and pondering going to bed.

Daisy

Meet Miss Daisy, a yellow labrador who is 10 months old and now lives with us.



She use to belong to a friend of Beth's boss, but the wife developed life threatening allergies and Daisy had to find a new home. She lived with 3 kids in her previous house who adored her, and in fact came to us with a blue nose from a kid with a marker.

She has to learn a few more manners and get socialized a bit more, but she is really a good dog for a pup. She's house broken and has had only one accident, which was my fault for accidentally scaring her.

She gets so excited when she sees the kids. I do have to be careful with her since Max and Mia get scared so easily when it comes to dogs. But as you can see from the picture above, Max already likes to play ball with her and Mia says, "Hi Daisy" in the mornings and hasn't cried once at her.

We still have one whole side of our yard not fenced in yet (fence guy comes out Friday) but she shows absolutely no interest in getting away from us.

The cats are amusing. Emma hates her, Poster is a bit worried, and Anubis commands the dog respects her authority. They are all getting use to each other nicely. Fieffer HATES the dog. When she gets near his cage, he lunges at her with his front paws and acts all "I can take her!" There is no free bunny range time at the same time as Daisy.

It is a lot of work having a puppy, especially one that weighs 65 pounds. I walk her a mile in the morning, play ball with her for however long I can in the evenings and another mile walk before bedtime, all the time working on her leash manners and obedience. I think having absolutely no way to avoid all the exercise will be good for me too!

Vacation

We survived our vacation to Brown County Indiana. I wasn't sure based on how the trip started, a van full of stuff and crying kids. Then Max had an accident and Wilson barfed all over the place. But once we got there things seemed okay.

This was the cabin we rented. It was a lot of fun. Three bedrooms and two baths, with a walking trail and camp fire area and a hot tub used by Beth and Katy. The first night there I saw deer just off the porch and there were all sorts of birds including pileated, red bellied and downy woodpeckers.

Aunt Katy and Wilson hanging out during the camp fire.

Max peeking over the railing from the second floor.

Mia and Max rolling around in the kitchen.

Wilson loved the stairs. I think he managed to only be eaten by them once.

The Story Inn located in Story Indiana. It's a fun place. While we were there a bunch of horses from the horse camping area showed up. Mia looked at them and announced, "Neigh!"

Max, Mia, Beth and Katy went hiking in the state park one day while I stayed home with sleepy Wilson. I got a little peace and quiet to read my book.

We also did a fair amount of walking around Nashville, a historic artist colony. Much stuff to look at and be tempted to buy.

Overall, a good time and Aunt Katy was a real trooper with the chaos that comes with us and the kids. She even wiped noses, which was more than we expected from her! Now, back to work.

He's 5!

Max had his 5th birthday on Wednesday. There was the birthday celebration at school which was attended by Beth and Grandma. Then he got to go to lunch with both of them and spent the rest of the day at the zoo with Grandma.

All he wanted was a blue lightsaber, which Beth and I got for him. The thing lights up and makes all sorts of noises. He loves it.



He had his birthday party on Saturday at the Galaxy. It has a three story indoor playground which the kids loved. Ryan is in the playground above. The kids also got tokens and were able to play games to get tickets which they traded in for prizes.



Some of the party goers. Max got a lot of great presents and some fabulous hand made cards. He got a night in shining armor with a handmade card of a night slaying a dragon from Ryan. He's been running around wielding the sword and threatening everything. He got a cool track for his matchbox cars which connects to some other tracks that he has from Tori and Dom. He had them all connected into a giant car thing yesterday and it was pretty fantastic.

Birthday boy with pizza sauce face.

Max told me that he wanted a planet cake for his birthday. It took me a bit to find the perfect place to do it, but I was successful.

Now we have to get ready to leave for Brown County tomorrow.

40

Max's school is celebrating their 40th year. Today, all the kids in the school got to participate in making a giant 40 in the parking lot while the fire department used their bucket truck to get the photographer in the air. Here's a time lapse video made by the Columbus Dispatch with the picture at the end.

Tude

Mia had a note sent home from school the other day saying that she was doing the exact opposite of what was asked of her and did we know why? We've got some ideas, and welcome to our world of the terrible twos! (and she's only 19 months!)

Exhibit A: I was in the middle of doing something and Mia came up to me with a book saying, "Please." I told her no, and she stomped her foot and brought her eyebrows together a little. Then repeated, "Please" as if to say, I know I didn't hear you right the first time. I told her no again, and she stomped and brought the eyebrows even closer. This repeated about 3 times until the eyebrows were completely together and she was giving me a serious drop dead look.

Exhibit B: Mia had a runny nose and wanted to rub it all over her face. I was explaining that we don't do that, we use a tissue. She gave me the frownie, eyebrow glare and then stuck her finger up her nose. I told her to stop it, she cocked her head at me, raised an eyebrow and shoved the finger back up the nose. So, I sent her to time out. Afterwards, I called her to me and explained that she has to do what I say. As I'm talking, she looks at me and shoves her finger up her nose. Before I can say anything, she stomps her feet, spins around, marches over and puts herself into time out.

Exhibit C: Although this is funny, I think it still shows some attitude. Last night I was tickling the tar out of her and she was laughing like she was going to split in two. I decide to aggravate her and ask her if she was ready to go to bed. She shook her head no, then waved her hand like she was trying to shove me away, then took her binkie out of her mouth and spelled, "N-O" put the binkie back into her mouth and then asked me to tickle her again.

Oh, I hope she makes it to two......

Whew!

It has been a busy week!

On Sunday our brand new, stupidly expensive washer and dryer arrived. These things are pretty awesome. I can put a queen sized comforter and blanket in there and still have room. Max is overly excited about them. He likes to watch them spin.

Monday night the pet sitter came over to meet the critters in preparation for our vacation to Brown County Indiana in a few weeks. The kids were all having a melt down when she arrived and it was a bit rough having the evening routine messed with, but at least the pets will be all set.

Tuesday was the quarterly all day staff meeting. These things are rough on me, but I got through it. Flew to Max's school, flew home and tossed him into the house where Sheila and the babies were waiting for him. Then drove like a mad woman to the Franklin Park Conservatory where Beth was waiting for me and the CASA volunteer dinner. It was a good time with good food and cookies. Awards were given, and I got a couple of them. One for not missing any monthly reports (which seems a bit odd to me. We sign a document that we will do monthly reports, so do them already people!) and rookie of the year. It was nice to get the rookie award, there were about 6 or 8 of us who won the award out of 150 or so that were eligible.

Today was the other part of the staff meeting along with more domain administrator training (yuck)! Tomorrow I visit my CASA kids and then hopefully Friday will be easy!

Zoom!

Conflicting

It is possible for something to be great and totally suck at the same time. This is the idea that I was trying to impart to a group of potential CASA Guardian Ad Litems this morning. I think it was a message that caught them a bit off guard.

I think a lot of people go into this thinking how great it will be to help kids who need help. And that is true. But this is a job like no other. We don't get to just hang out with the kids and be their friends. In fact, we have to figure out a way to be their friends, but not actually be friendly. We need them to open up to us, but they also have to understand that there will come a time that we won't and can't see them anymore. It's important that they know this so they don't feel abandoned all over again when the case closes. But how do you explain this to very little kids? I try, but it doesn't really click.

These kids don't need us to be their friends or to feel sorry for them, they have enough of that already. They need us to advocate for them. They need us to make calls over and over to the caseworker who never returns them. They need us to try and hunt down their parents who are not wanting to be bothered, after all they have free babysitting right now. They need us to complain, and complain, and complain that they aren't getting the services they need. And they need us to deal with the disappointment that we aren't actually getting anything accomplished, get over it and try again.

The volunteers asked me how much time I really spend on the case every month. And I told them, it's true, I only document about 5-7 hours a month. This, however, does not take into account all the time I spend thinking about it. I spend time thinking about and trying to figure out a new game plan to get the caseworkers attention or to convince him that I'm right on the rare occassion that I actually communicate with him. I'm thinking about who at the CASA office might actually have a new idea to get what I need. And in general, I'm thinking about the kids. For the first couple of months, I couldn't sleep at night after I visited the kids because I couldn't get them out of my mind.

Another volunteer asked me if there was a lot of satisfaction in the job, I looked at her like she was a bit stupid. I told her that I often feel like I'm failing these kids. But then I remember, I am at least TRYING to get these kids through the system whole. Which is a whole hell of a lot better than what anybody else is doing. I might not make much progress, but I keep plodding along.

Funny thing is, this is how almost ALL of the CASA/GALs feel. As I'm saying these things the director is sitting next to me nodding her head in agreement. This is the job. It absolutely sucks. But every month I pull into a driveway and there are three faces staring out the picture window waiting for me, the only stable and consistent adult in their lives. And that is a great feeling.

Jellyfish

Max is kinda into jellyfish, and coincidentally they made jellyfishes today at school (out of paper plates and crepe paper). This spurred the evening's conversation on the way home. He asked questions about their mouths, what parts are stingy, and if they eat bad guys. I told him no, bad guys are too large for them to eat. So, he proceeds to explain to me, "Yeah, they probably only eat their heads, and then drop their bodies. That's very wasteful."

Creepy kid.

baby love

Max has a friend Peter whose birthday was today. To celebrate, Peter's mom picked Max, Peter and his brother Carter up from school early and took them to play. When the babies got home, they were a bit confused as to where their big brother was located. Wilson crawled into Max's room and sat down, very quietly saying, "buh" look around the room, "buh" repeated over and over. I picked him up and told him that Bubba would be home soon, but he crawled right back into his room and "buh" all over. It was just like a lost baby animal calling for its mom.

Wilson adores his big bubba. Max was on the floor the other day crying for some pouty reason. Wilson decides to march over to him and love on him by putting his head up against him and cooing. He will do this whenever he possibly can.

Pothole

This picture (which is super small for some reason) came from the archives at work. It is a horse car that operated in the city of Columbus during 1892. It was replaced by the electric trolley which was powered by Columbus Southern which became part of AEP. I'm amused at the really awful road conditions of West Broad, and especially the destinations (asylums and cemeteries).

Growing up

Max had his kindergarten screening today. He got to have his picture taken for his student ID. I'm amazed that a kindergartner needs a student ID but apparently it is used for everything including lunch. He got to go with the kindergarten teachers while us parent types sat around listening to the principle tell us about the school.

The Hilliard school district only offers half day (really 2.5 hours) of kindergarten in all the elementary schools but one. The one school is near us and is multi-age so the kindergartner are in with first graders. To transfer to that school is based on a lottery and there isn't much hope of actually getting in. I really hate the idea of half day kindergarten. The principle even mentioned how kindergarten today is what my first grade was. How are they suppose to learn all that in 2.5 hours? I read a study that showed kids who go to all day kindergarten are ahead of half day kids even in the third grade, some education union in Ohio states that Ohio teachers want full day kindergarten, so why don't we have it? The answer, the state of Ohio only considers kindergartners half a student for state funding, no matter how long they are in school. Stupid state. But, considering how much taxes I pay for this stupid school district, you'd think they might be able to spring for the other half. I feel that this is taking a step back from what he has now. They won't have time in the 2.5 hours to have music, art, gym or language lessons which he would get if we kept him at St. Joes. Sigh.

So, we get a letter sometime in the next couple of weeks that will tell us how he did. Sometime before the end of the school year, we get another letter informing us of our morning or afternoon assignment. I don't have a clue what we will do if we don't get the morning shift. The daycare will only transport to and from the am and we don't have a plan B.

Max is fairly excited about all of this. He was upset when I told him we had to leave and go to his school. He announced that he "wants to be 5 RIGHT NOW!" I've realized, that I don't want him to be 5 or go to kindergarten. I'm perfectly happy with him being 4 the rest of his life.

Vampire!

I have been joking that the kids are sucking the life out of me. It appears that Wilson has decided to grow the right equipment to actually get the job done. His teeth are coming in a different order than usual, and he skipped getting the two top front teeth and has moved on to the lateral incisors. Effectively growing fangs. The doctor said it happens and that he will probably, eventually get the central incisors, "He just might look like Dracula for awhile."

I just thought this picture was cute.

A much needed laugh

Max saw this sign on the way into school. We had a discussion about how that means you can't turn left. So, he pointed out everyone of these he saw on the drive and stated, "Can't turn left here."













Max saw this sign and announced, "That means no peeing here!" His logic is pretty good, I think.

It's not funny.

Thursday: Around midnight Wilson wakes up and refuses to go back to sleep. At some point after that, Mia barfed everywhere in her bed and didn't cry. So, in the morning she was covered in dried barf. I also started to not feel so well around midnight. Convinced myself to go to work, proceeded to get sick at work (automatic flushing toilets not your friend in this scenario), and came home to be miserable.

Friday: Around 3am, Mia barfed in bed again only this time she woke us up. Unfortunately, she also woke up Wilson who refused to go back to sleep. I had puky in bed with me and Beth had wide eyed on the couch. (We need a bigger bed so we can fit more kids in it). Later, Beth gets the babies from school and we find out Wilson has been pooping all day and Mia, "was not herself." Mia ate some pancakes and about an hour later exploded all over the place. And now Beth is in bed looking whiter than a ghost not knowing for sure which end something is going to come out of.

This has been the worst freakin' winter ever. My boss is upset that I'm always sick or a kid is always sick, but Beth can't take time off because her lovely work has come up with a no more than 3 days unexcused policy (and she can never get one excused, so there you are.) I feel like it's a race to see which one of us gets into big trouble at work first.

I have scrubbed and mopped everything tonight, even though I still don't feel all that great. I feel like I'm living in one big germ.

Ewwww.....

Monday:
Kid #1 has explosive poo.

Tuesday:
Kid #1 still pooing.

Wednesday:
Kid #2 barfs all over the place while eating dinner.
Kid #3 has pus coming out of his ears.
Kid #1 has a rash.

I can hardly WAIT to see what the rest of the week brings!

How Many

How many workplace services employees does it take to change a light bulb? None. It can't be done.

Here's an example of how absurd our world has become.

We have a fluorescent light bulb that is blinking in our office. We let the workplaces services guys know, and they have come to assess the situation, twice. They are concerned that part of the light fixture is over a section of cubical. Thereby prohibiting the safe use of a ladder. This means that they would need to build a scaffold to span over the 5' 5" tall cubicle wall. If they build a scaffolding to clear the cubical, they would be at 6' above the ground. Once you are 6' or higher, our safety policy states that you must be tied off in the event that you fall. If you tie off, it must be to something that can hold 4,000 pounds so you don't break whatever you've tied off to and plummet to your death. Since this is just a normal office, drop ceiling, nothing can be used for the tie off. Therefore, the light bulb cannot be changed or even removed to stop the flickering.

Our concern for safety has effectively made changing a light bulb a life risking procedure that is prohibited by the company. Next, I will be forced to roll around in a bubble to keep from hurting myself.

Barnaby

I had to go pick Max up from school sick today. He is currently laying on the couch, eating a graham cracker, drinking some sprite and watching Walle-E. Life is apparently good.

In the beginning of Wall-E, the song "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" from Hello, Dolly! is playing. It goes like this, "There's a world outside of yonkers. Way out there beyond this hick town, barnaby. There's a slick town, barnaby" Max hears and attempts to sing, "There's a sick town, Barbie." I don't know why, but I found that to be hilarious.

And he just got up to use the potty, looking over his shoulder at the movie and slammed right into the wall. He stopped, looked at me and started laughing. He doesn't have a fever, I checked.

Destination

So, I got a Garmin for Christmas, you know one of those things that talks to you and shows you a map of where you are going? Anyway, Max loves this thing. It drives me batty when it gives me directions, but he insists on having us be told how to get to everywhere we might be going.

When he first saw it he remembered, "Grandpa has one of these. Is he Roger?" He loves to point out when the river appears on the map. But best of all, he takes the directions given very seriously. Today, I was told by the Garmin, "Take ramp right." but I still had a few feet until I could turn right on said ramp. Max thought I was going to miss the turn and yelled at the top of his voice, "Take ramp right, Momma! Take ramp right!" Then, I was told to turn left, Max, "You know you have to turn left." So, now I have the Garmin and Max annoying me half to death.

But when we get home, it is very amusing to hear, "We have arrived at our destination....finally."

Numbers

This morning, Max was being a pill at the breakfast table. Beth had told him a bunch of times to stop and eat. She finally had enough and started counting, by the time we get to three he better be doing what we asked or it's time out. Well, she very sternly says, "One!" and a tiny little voice promptly says, "two" (Mia) and then Max cracks up and yells, "Three!" and by that time we were all laughing and had lost all sense of authority with the children.

He did eventually eat his breakfast.