Adventures of Darth Daddy

Is this still here?

2009-05-21T22:17:00.003-04:00

Man, I remember a time when this blog was the world to me. A means to keep track of my thoughts, reach out to others, and just vent when I needed to. Those were the days.

Now, I tend to open up Facebook, start to type something, and then just close the browser. Too damn many people have tried to use my blog ramblings to screw with me. Someone even tried to use my "religious" ponderings to get me kicked out of my (Christian) martial arts organization. And I was the senior instructor!
Someone recently posted a message that he came across my blog, and was glad to see it. He was happy that he wasn't the only one in my position (stay at home dad).

I don't think I deserve the accolades anymore - the ones who deserve it are the ones who haven't been silenced by dipshits who try to use your own words against you. Keep up the good work ya'll - I'll keep checking in from time to time. Maybe soon I'll find a new pair and be back at it full force.

Thanksgiving 2008

2008-11-27T14:45:00.000-05:00

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving everyone!!

Closer to the end of the year

2008-11-19T23:36:00.002-05:00

Darth Landon now has 4 teeth. He has stood several times (unaided), but still has not started walking.

My fingers took 15 minutes to dethaw (I created that term), but it was worth it. I just got in from decorating the outside of the house for Christmas. Still have more to do, but I got lights on the roof and the peak of the house. I also managed to put a 4ft tall Grinch inflatable on the porch roof.

Things are as busy here as they have every been. Busy schedule with the 3 boys, martial arts programs, repairs on the family fleet (mostly brake jobs). Now that they end of the year is approaching, things are only going to get worse. Both mine and Darth Logan's birthday are in December, as well as 2 Christmas performances at different schools, work , and all the "trying to get more work"! I'm starting to fill the calendar with Santa work.

Not much else to write. Hang in there, and I'll do the same.

He can STAND for that

2008-11-05T23:36:00.002-05:00

I've been in hiding.

But I had to post that yesterday, Darth Landon stood (unaided) for a full 15 seconds. Hasn't taken his first steps yet, but he's on the way.

Tooth number 3 made it's appearance a few days ago.

Looking back

2008-06-13T23:22:00.002-04:00

As Darth Landon has begun to become mobile (starting to use his knees to crawl, and refuses to stay in one spot), I happened upon a video tape I had made a few years back. In it, Darth Lance was about the same age as Landon is now - it was unbelievable watching that tape. Logan was soooo young - and his speech was monosyllabic. And Lance could only screach, and was barely able to pull himself up. Amazing how much has changed over the past few years.

The other day, Logan was talking about ghosts and monsters - and said that if I even saw one, it would "Scare you the HECK!"

Then again, the other day we were driving, and some jackass cut us off. Logan called him a "meat ass". I frown on my kids using that kind of language (specially at the age of 5), and promptly corrected him (that is, AFTER I was able to get control of myself from laughing so hard!!)

Clapping, fishing

2008-06-08T01:55:00.003-04:00

Just a few quick things:

The baby clapped yesterday - his first time doing so. He turned 9 months old, and thought that dada was worthy of applause!

I took the older 2 boys fishing today (their first time). Didn't catch anything, but we had a great time, and discovered the largest Popsicles known to man (pictures to follow soon).

Today, I took both Darth Logan and Darth Lance to a "free fishing day" at a city park. The heat got up to 112 degrees today, so we stayed in the shade as much as possible.

After we were done, we sswung by another park to enjoy a bit of the Indian festival (Native American) that was going on. Made beaded necklaces, got feathers for our hats - then headed towards home.

Cept that it was so damn hot (no AC in the truck yet), that we got super thirsty. We were passing a YMCA, and decided to stop in to refill our cups with cold water. After we had a few sips, I looked at the boys (we were all in shorts), and decided to go swimming. No towels or change of clothes - but what the hell. After about a half hour of splashing around and cooling off, we finally headed for home.

The wife thought that we fell in the river and got eatten by fish! (we were gone quite some time)

Airbag light on my 98 Blazer

2008-05-30T00:03:00.003-04:00

Problem solved. Thank God for Ebay. I didn't actually buy anything, but it's sure nice to be able to SEE what something looks like when it's removed. I got to see what the front airbag sensor looked like. (STILL can't locate it on the truck though)

More importantly, I got to see what the passenger and driver airbags looked when removed from the vehicle. My truck doesn't have a switch to turn the passenger side off. That's pretty much ruled out being able to put the oldest boy in the front seat. I've barely been able (by very limited seat selection) to fit 2 safety seats and the infant carrier in the back seat. SO, I was able to locate the wiring connector, and unplug the front airbag.

Won't that create a problem with getting the car inspected, you ask? WHy yes it will. That damn airbag light in the dashboard is a major pain the ass. I took the truck to get inspected, and that light refused to turn off. As a result , it failed. I read that there is a fuse that you can pull, but that it will make the light stay on , rather than make it go away.

The answer - I took apart that damn dash board, and removed the instrument cluster. Pretty simple, I must admit. I disassembled the cluster, and found 2 led lights that are on a motherboard. So much for just plucking the bulbs out. I was afraid to remove them for fear that it might mess up some other electrical system.

Now I can't say what you should do next if you are having the same problem, but it sure would seem easy enough to cover those lights with some black electrical tape, so when you turn the car on, the lights won't shine through.

This wouldn't 'fix' the airbags, just the light problem. If you WANT airbags, go to a garage and get them fixed. I personally don't want them, and am not at a loss for not having them wired anymore.

Playing catch up

2008-04-28T22:01:00.002-04:00

When I started the blog, I hoped to find a few things. A means to vent when I needed to. To connect with others in a similar position as mine. As a means to keep a journal of what went on in my mind, so my kids can later look back and see me for who I am.

I've really been shying away from blogging for over a year now - since I beheld the problems that it has the potential to create. I've often had people tell me that they are proud of how I seldom hold anything back, and feel comfortable saying it like "it is". Problem is, I just ain't as comfortable with it as I once was. I've considered creating a separate blog (a private one) to continue with, just for my kids - but the idea of not being able to connect with others out in the real world makes that seem kinda lonely. I got plenty of "keeping to myself" already.

So, I will try and get back on the horse. There will be, of course, certain taboo subjects that I will try my best to refrain from. I've noticed, of lately, that religion is a subject I am best to keep my mouth shut about.

That said - on with the show...... There's a few things that I've been meaning to blog about lately...

1. Men - ya'll are some nasty no aiming sombitches. This is coming from a father of a 5 and a 3 year old. There is nothing (NOTHING) nastier than having to take my kids potty, and spend 10 minutes cleaning it before I would DARE let my kids sit on it, or come in contact with it. There are even times when I am forced to march my little potty warriors back to the table, and tell the wife that she needs to take them (hopefully, the ladies potty won't be as bad). We've even had 1 nasty incident where the smell and heat of the mens room caused me to throw up (followed of course by my son throwing up, because he saw me do it). Now anytime we go into a public bathroom, and I start coughing, so does he. For the love of all 5 power rangers - AIM DAMMIT!

2. Why the hell is everything so damn expensive???!!! The YMCA wants $50 -$150 for activities, like kids tball, or soccer. Even the local parks are charging $50. Good luck finding a martial arts school that offers classes for less than $100 a month (and without a 3/6/9/or 12 month contract.) Here's what I think about contract - if the company offers customers a service (at a fair price) that doesn't suck, you don't have to worry about locking people into a contract.

3. F*CK gas companies! I have 2 antique cars that will probably NEVER see the street again, cause I can't afford to run them. One has a 440 engine, and the other a 472. If these greedy profit driven fuckers would just be happy with 2 billion on profit, instead of 4 billion, maybe every goddamned thing would 't be jacked up in price. I'm sure glad I didn't invent an engine that works on milk! Holy shit! Seen milk prices? You have if you have kids. There's a martial arts seminar that is 2.5 hrs away from me. I have to factor in gas in the total price, and see if I can afford the TRIP! Not the seminar, but the damn TRIP!

The other day, I saw our very own King George II (President Bush, to the rest of you), and a reported was questioning him. The reporter started by stating that it looked like gas would hit $4 a gallon by summer, or fall. He was cut short by our smart ass (oil invested) king snickering "You know that for a fact? I hadn't heard that" (hehe). Think about this, King George - when the hell was the last time you had to dig around in the limo for change to put gas in? When was the last time your ass had a $10 bill in your wallet, and 3 kids in the backseat, and had to seriously decide between lunch for the kids, or 2 gallons of gas to get them to school tomorrow? Fuck you! Maybe we outta create some bicycle with armor (like a Pope mobile bike), and make his ass ride around on it for official functions. I hate being nickel and dimed to death - and seriously hate being $4 a galloned to death as well.

Dear Mr President,
Please don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining.
Your unloyal subject.

3. Airbags. The airbag light in my truck (98 Chevy Blazer) stays on when it damn well feels like. Almost made me fail last years annual vehicle inspection. I don't really care if it works or not, and I need to get that damned dashboard light to stay off. Any ideas? I thought abotu pulling the dash apart, and removing the light, but I'm not sure about how much shit is attached back there (how easy it would be to pull and resintall), and I've also heard that the lights are not bulbs, but leds (so Im scared to screw with it, and cause an electrical surge in the system).

I thought about drilling a hole right through the front of the console, hopefully hitting the bulb.

I've read of people pulling a fuse, but that there are other systems linked into it, and the truck doesn't run right again.

I've also read a bunch of people (online) who suggest taking the truck to Autozone, and they will scan it for free. Autozone by me don't know shit about this. If there is a bad sensor in the front, that needs replaced, that means paying fullprice to a mechanic to run the test. (that sucks!)

Any suggestions would be great. (it only need to be deactivated during the inspection, but can be permanently dead if needed)

Hey Kev!! (I'm no slacker)

2008-04-14T23:05:00.001-04:00

I tried to post a comment on the "Im no slacker" web blog site, and got the following message. The hyperlink led to a second page that told me that BAD BEHAVIOR was blocking me because I suck or something.

Error 403

We're sorry, but we could not fulfill your request for /wp-comments-post.php on this server.

Your Internet Protocol address is listed on a blacklist of addresses involved in malicious or illegal activity. See the listing below for more details on specific blacklists and removal procedures.

Your technical support key is: 44e4-8954-1366-73cd

You can use this key to fix this problem yourself.

If you are unable to fix the problem yourself, please contact zezz at swbell.net and be sure to provide the technical support key shown above.

Craigs list posting

2008-04-14T22:34:00.002-04:00

Ok - I just found this on Craigs List - am I the only one that finds this hilarious?!?! I want SO BAD to send knock knock jokes to them!

FREE CLOCK (MOYOCK)

Reply to: sale-642709200@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-04-14, 10:09PM EDT

FREE CLOCK. BROKEN GLASS. DOESNT WORK. SERIOUS EMAILS ONLY.

Location: MOYOCK
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 642709200

Some pics of Landon

2008-02-27T23:36:00.002-05:00

Picking it back up again

2008-02-19T22:21:00.003-05:00

I really need to start posting again. Been kinda shy since my martial arts blog blew up in my face. I need to watch what I post - but that has never been a trademark of mine. Not here and certainly not in real life.

Anyways:

BABY NEWS:
A week or two ago, the wife accidentally gave the baby soy based formula. It was a brand new can, but it was the same exact brand as what he had on New Years night - the night that we almost lost him. Shortly after his bottle, he had a similar reaction - throwing up and slowed responsiveness. Not nearly to the degree as new years, but enough to make us suspect that what we had here was an allergic reaction to soy.

We took him in to have him tested, but the test needs to wait a week or so. We just had him in for an MRI, and after 6 times of sticking him, they couldn't get the sleepy drug into him. We had to cancel the mri. And my little pin cushion had no more veins for the soy test to draw from.

An EEG came back clear. So we really REALLY feel that soy is the culprit.

MARTIAL ARTS STUFF:
Well, I've found a new home from home. When I need a break from home, I go to my dojo. When I need a break from my dojo, I have found a wonderful Kung Fu school to visit. It's really good to be hooked up with a christian martial arts organization. No fussing over contracts, or membership fees, or all the trappings of commercial dojos. Just nice people who want to share the art. I learn new things, and am invited to share my experiences to broaden the scope of their students. I even founded an Aikido Fellowship. With luck, I'll be able to work with some local churches and organizations, and set up training times. It's good to turn a hobby I love into something that I can pass on to others. My sons love it too (specially Logan).

More to type, but I need to hit the hay. 6am comes earlier and earlier each day.

Brain Doctor today

2008-01-15T10:35:00.000-05:00

Later today, we have our visit with the neurologist.

Say, have any of you ever experienced a flash fever? Not sure if i mentioned this earlier, but the other day, I was in the garage for a while working on a broken washing machine. It was cold, but I was dressed warmly - even had a knit cap on my head (and over my ears).

Came inside for bed, and BAM - forehead was on fire, and my body was shaking. I was freezing, even to the point of teeth chattering. Slept for about 3 hours , with fever dreams. (Repetitive tasked dreams that wont let you actually get any rest), like filling and refilling a glass of water.

When I got up the next morning, I was fine. Appetite didnt come back till the following day, but no more fever.

Weird

More about the baby

2008-01-13T22:30:00.000-05:00

We had our visit to the cardiologist. They were only going to repeat the ekg, but I was a pain in the ass enough that they conceded to also doing an echocardiogram. I may have been a pain in the ass, but it's MY baby.

It made no sense to simply repeat the ekg - if the results had been the same, it still could have been a false abnormal reading to to the placement of the leads. The prior ekg read a let axis deviation. Simply put, his heart was tilted to the left. Most infants, if anything, have a right tilt.

Anyways, the ekg showed a slight abnormality, and the echocardiogram showed that he has PDA ( Patent Ductus Arteriosus) . There is a small channel (tube) in the heart, that passes blood from one side to the other. In the case of most infants, this passageway will close itself within the first weeks of birth. Darth Landon's hasn't closed yet, but it's still within a realistic time frame to not freak out or expect surgery. They want to check him at 1 yr old, and double check that the tube has indeed closed

The symptoms of PDA are lack of appetite, shortness of breath - none of which the baby has been showing. If anything, since the New Years Eve incident, his appetite has increased.

So - it's highly unlikely that this PDa thingy caused the problems - and we have an appt with the neurologist next week.

Still lookin for answers..

Oh - one more thing for you watch out for - the newest SCAM

2008-01-13T22:18:00.000-05:00

Poor people have a new scam. no more of that boring 'standing on the street corner' mess. The new scam is to drive their car to a parking lot (Walmart, KMart, Grocery Store, Wendy's, etc), and approach people for money. The boohoo story is that they have run out of gas, and desperately need to get back home, or to their job, or whatever. I got taken twice but f*kers like this, and finaly today, caught one in the act. The wife went into Walmart, and I stayed in the car. This trailer park reject rolls up in a pick up truck, scopes out his prey, and starts approaching people with a "I ran out of gas" story. Mind you, he had enough gas to pull into the spot next to me - AND it was the 2nd time he repositioned his truck.

He finally gets some money from a woman - walks back to his truck, and sits in the back seat. He watched her until she left, and as soon as she did - BOOM - his ass was right outta that seat and back to begging.

He made a mistake when he decided to roll up on my wife and son as they returned. I was out of our truck like a Swat team - cut him off on his approach after he initiated verbal contact, ordering him back to his vehicle, and told the wife to get the boy loaded. Then I stood guard until they the family and 'stuff' was secured.

Con artists piss me off - but when they approach my family....

What is with these crazy bastards?!

2008-01-13T22:10:00.000-05:00

Is it justme? Or are some of you out there (people with blogs) that have been having weirdos post some crazy shit recently?

The other day, we went out to eat, and 'ran into' the owners of that horrible McDojo I used to go to. Didn't say anything - never knew if they saw me - but later that SAME night, someone posts a comment to my blog. It was posted to an entry WAAAAY back to 1995 or so, was that specific dojo related, and sounded like some 15 year old punk on Red Bull. The comment stated how I was a wimp and such, cause I hung out with the kids at the dojo, and was a scared to train with the real adults at night. This rant went on for a few paragraphs. But it didn't add up. I only trained at night, never met the guy they said taught there (who could apparently kick my ass) . It was as if a complete stranger came across that entry , and felt compelled to type shit .

ANDs

Just last night, some pick from CA visits my blog around 2am, and posts this little gem.

It also was from 1995. What the f*ck?? The coment made it sound very personal, and factually incorrect. Who the hell are these fruit loops with too much time on their hands??

ps. Info on the second guy:

Host Name	pool-71-104-206-242.lsanca.dsl-w.verizon.net
IP Address	71.104.206.242 Disease [Edit Label]
Country	United States
Region	California
City	Yucaipa
ISP	Verizon Internet Services Inc
Returning Visits	0
Visit Length	7 hours 26 mins 27 secs

That's right - 7 friggin hours this asshole was on my site. I don't get it

Visit to the cardiologist

2008-01-11T20:12:00.000-05:00

Thanks to all who have commented their support and concern over Landon. Much appreciated.

We had our visit to the cardiologist today. They performed another EKG on him, which yielded slightly different results, but still indicated a left axis deviation of the heart. He said that in most cases, if any axis deviation is present, it's to the right in infants.

They followed up with an ultrasound. End result was that they discovered Landon has something called a PDA.
They said that it is small, nothing to be concerned about, and will probably resolve itself by the time he reaches 1 year old. THey want us to return when he is one to be rechecked.

Bad thing is that this PDA thing (according to the Dr) could not have been the cause of Landon's episode. So we're still in the dark there.

We have an appt with a neurologist next week.

So far , so good

2008-01-04T00:46:00.000-05:00

Another eventless day with the baby. But the whole reality of what happened starts to kick in again when it's time to feed him. Today, he let out a loud burp, then gurgled a little, and my heart bout stopped.

Call me uberfreaked, BUT...until he find out what happened...

We go NOWHERE without my cell phone. I charged it with $10, and it's good till April 1st.
No more Old Country Buffet
No feeding the baby without the phone close by
The wife is NOT to use the canister of formula that she used that day
No more dipping the pacifier in the macaroni and cheese
And if we EVER have to go back to that same hospital again, I'm going to jail. We waited entirely too damn long in chairs. I wonder how embarrassed the hospital staff would be if you asked to use their phone, and called an ambulance to take your kid to a different hospital.

*(Something I wanted to note) - Logan got an mp3 player to Christmas. I loaded it up with 80's songs he asked for, and one of them was "You're the best" from the Karate Kid sountrack. In the ER waiting room, Logan climbed up in the seat next to me, started callign Landons name, and then started to sing to him...
"You're the best around, nothings gonna ever keep you down..."

That's when the tears started (mine, not his). It was such a touching moment. My 5 year old had picked such a powerful line to sing.

THE WEATHER:
It's turned bitter cold in the last few days. Even snowed for a few minutes the other day.

Other stuff:

If anyone happens to have QUICKSITE 2.5, or Web Page Construction kit 4.0 - can you please send me the registration code?? I've been using this program for years, and it recently UNregistered itself. I remember when I bought the program, that the code wasn't included. I had to call the company, and they said "Oh yeah - we forgot". I can't find the install disk, where I wrote the code on.

Follow up visit with the pediatricians

2008-01-02T20:26:00.000-05:00

Well, he's still alive and kickin. No problems today. We made a follow up apt with the kids dr. After hearing all we had to say, he was stumped as well, but tends to favor the idea of a seizure. He scheduled us an appt with a neurologist.

On a different note, does anyone know what happened to The Bean's Dad?
I clicked on the link to his blog, and it's a dead link. Tried to Google him, and got nothing.

New Years Eve terror

2008-01-02T00:54:00.000-05:00

I'll start this entry by saying that the baby is alright now. There's a happy ending (so far).

New years eve, the kids and wife and I decided to venture out to eat, and take a run to our favorite thrift store. We ate an Old Country buffet, and everyone was in good spirits. We drove to the thrift store. The baby had woke up, and wanted fed. The wife gave him about 1 ounce of formula, and he went back to sleep. The wife had gone her own way in the store: she had the baby and Logan - I had Lance. When we finished shopping, we headed out to the car. The baby woke up, and spit up. He spit up enough that we needed to change his outfit. SO the wife changes his otufit and diaper - and he spits up more. Then we notice that he's rather unresponsive. He's alive - and breathing - just not alert. We thought it might be that he was sleepy, but we were still worried. Rather than the 20 minute trip home, we decided to divert to her parents house, not more than 5 minutes travel time away. Figured we could get him out of his carseat, and get a better assessment. We made it about 1 minute down the road when the baby started spewing again - in large volumes. The wife was turned backwards in her seat, and I could hear the baby barfing, and coughing. I pulled over, and got the baby out. His throw up was milky - same color as formula - but God, there was so much of it. And the baby was worse. Much worse. No eye contact, no tracking of his eyes. pupils fixed and dilated - breathing was low and deep, and no muscle control whatsoever.

We had no cell phone - so we jumped back in the van, and drove a block down the road. I ran in and called 911. Within about 2-3 minutes, we had a firetruck and ambulance there. The baby started to regain some of his color (he went ghostly pale) once they put him on oxygen. But he was still very unresponsive.

We get to the local children's hospital within about 30 minutes, waited in the waiting room for about 3 hours, and once they finally got us a room, he started to snap out of it. He was able to lift his own head, his eyes we open and alert, he'd track us as we moved, smiled, laughed, cried once he realized how hungry he was. It was as if he had been short circuited for 3 hours. He never lost consciousness, but 'woke up' 3 hours later.

We saw no visible signs of seizure. No eyes rolling, no body flailing. The Dr's told us that at this age (3 months old), seizures in infants tend to be violent. He had not fallen on his head, no blunt force trauma, no signs of seizure. They monitored him for 2-3 hours after that, and ended up finding out nothing. At least not what caused it. They did an ekg of his heart, and it came back normal. They tested his blood, and his sugar level was fine. Now, he had just gotten breast fed right before they did the blood test, so that may have altered the results. He is up to date with his shots - but had not received a vaccination in over a month or so. In searching online for similar symptoms, I've come across sites with parental horror stories of similar happenings within hours or days of the child being vaccinated.

I dont know. We have no idea what happened to our baby.

To recap, in case you're reading this from a Google search, and have experienced the same thing...

Within 30 minutes of feeding, the baby started to throw up. No projectile vomiting, just a gurgling, drolling throw up.
The amount of throw up was large. No visible object, like a button or pill.
Lack of muscle control. No neck control, not able to hold up head, not able to clench fist of fingers.
Breathing was slow and faint
Eyes were fixed and pupils were very dilated. If any eye movement, it was sluggish. Eye lids were almost shut - just barely open, like he was peeking.
No fever - body was not hot . Body temperature seemed to drop, and particularly his cheeks got cold and clammy.
Oxygen seemed to bring back some color to his face, but did NOT effect his unresponsiveness.
3 hours later, (give or take), he snapped out of it as if someone had thrown a switch.
Once he had recovered, his heart rate, respiration rate, and pulse ox levels were well within normal parameters.

All the trouble started around 3:30-4pm. We were discharged from the hospital around 11:30pm.

So far, the baby has been eating and sleeping well. He is attentive, responsive, and appears to be back to normal. We have a motion monitor on his bed (with an alarm). But we're clueless what happened - or if it might strike again.

Merry Christmas to everyone

2007-12-23T02:53:00.000-05:00

These 3 screwballs have been driving me crazy! But in a good kinda way.

Been real busy with the kids. The older boys have 3 hours of presool a day, so I get some 'baby time" each day.

I'll try to get back to posting more.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

Kissing my 2 year old goodbye

2007-09-28T00:42:00.000-04:00

Not as sad as the title seems - Lance will turn 3 years old Friday. I realized as I kissed him goodnight (he was already asleep) - that it was the last time I would kiss my little 2 yr old Lance goodnight. Tomorrow, I will kiss my 3 year old good mourning!

Things have unbelievable around here - busy busy busy . I can't make it from one side of the house to the other with the same thought in my head. I'll leave one room to go do something - and end up somewhere else, doing something else. 3 days later, it'll cross my mind that I forgot to do 'something".

HE is here!

2007-09-06T11:17:00.000-04:00

It official - Around 8-9am today, LANDON GABRIEL (hereafter to be called 'Darth Landon'), made his entry into this world!

He is 7lbs 14 oz, and 19 inches long.

Mommy is recovering nicely. Better, in fact, than she ever did with the other 2 c sections.

I have to pick the boys up at preskool, get them lunch, and then we're all heading over, so they can see their newest family member.

(When Logan received the phone call about Landon, he was EXCITED!
"Lance, we have a brother - we have a BROTHER! Im happy - I wanted a brother...(long pause).. So, was it a BOY brother, or a GIRL brother?"

Last few hours

2007-09-05T21:10:00.000-04:00

Sewer line is fixed - we can flush and wash now. A while back , we had a sink whole develope in the front yard. The city blew us off regarding fixing the underlying SEWER problem, which resulted in my front yard leaning to the right. I remedied that slightly last night, after I shoveled ALL the dirt that the crew left dugup, after they broke the pipe and went home. They had to bring in a dirt truck to fill the hole today.

First day of preschool went great for both boys.

We're all over the inlaws now, trying to get both boys to go to sleep. Im already dead tired - can only imagine how much my ass is gonna be dragging by 6:30am, when we have to give the hospital a warning call.

We've decided on the following names:

boy: Landon Gabriel
girl: Kylee Rayne (our original girl name from the very first pregnancy)

I'll keep you updated.....

Ya'll aint gonna belive this shit

2007-09-04T14:52:00.000-04:00

Ok - the boys start preskool Wednesday

The new baby is being delivered on Thursday

My old Firebird stopped running . I suspect it needs a new fuel filter or pump. The inspection was expired, and the tags just expired as of September, so I pushed and pulled the car ino the driveway. And GOOD thing I did.

Today, as we were leaving, a construction crew took over the street. They are tearing down one house across the street, and building 3. They had lumber delivered, equipment to tear down the existing house, Virginia Natural Gas trucks, city inspectors, and (last but NOT LEAST) city sewer workers. If it drove a truck, they parked it in front of our house. (we live on a dead end street - one way out, and the carpeted it)

Our escape was narrow, but we made it out - and went to Burger King. Upon return---

The whole front of our house was blocked off - as were all the neighbors. They were digging a whole where my Firebird had been parked (before I moved it). Had I left it there, they would have had it towed.

I wedged in between two of their trucks, and they didnt like that. They finally opened a spot onto my front lawn, and we parked.

Coming up the front steps. my son spotted a dog layin in front of our door. Not OUR dog. So we had to deal with a stray thinking it was home. Hated to call the doggie cops, but I didn't want the old pup getting hurt.

THEN - the city workers break the sewer pipe. They tell me that we can't do certain things - like laundry, or flush the potty, or run our water, or wash dishes. He says that ehy might be able to get a crew out to fix it in an hour - that was 3 hours ago. They put pallets over the whole (with orange cones), and left for the day.

So on top of all that's already going on - we have lost use of our sink, our dishwasher, clothes washer, AND potty!