One Down....

So we've had these fish for quite a while. We've lived in this house for three years, and we had them for at least 3 before that. I didn't go out looking for fish to buy, or otherwise add to our brood, it just kind of happened.

I had a friend who gave fish as the "party favor" at her child's first birthday. My daughter was two and my son was not quite 6 weeks old. Both children got a fish that day (Tank and Orange-Orange). One died before the sun set the next day. And since it was already lovingly named by the two year old I felt obligated to get a new one. Thanks to the refractive nature of the glass bowl, she didn't realize there was only one fish until I was able to spend the twenty or so cents to replace.

Not to much time had past (several months, not quite a year), and these guys died. No big deal. And then, sweet Aunt Chelle gave each child a Beta fish while they were in her care for a weekend while we attended a football game. I can't complain - it was free babysitting. Now, my son was around 2, totally into the fish. We went through a few Beta's before I decided no more. Then, the cuteness of the children, and their willingness to spend their own money, got to me and I caved and took them to Walmart to get more fish (Cosmo and Melman). I steered the children to the "Gold" variety, helped them pick their bowls and a decorative bowl statue and we were on our way.

It wasn't until we moved in here that the fish moved in together - thanks to a slip of the bowl in the ceramic sink (my fault, not the children's). With nothing else to move Cosmo into, he and Melman became bunk mates; and have been until last week when Melman died. Upon looking back, I think it wasn't old age that took him, but the jump into the colander during his bowl cleaning that lead to me having to pick him up. I may or may not have had detergent on my hands at the time. This may or may not have killed him.

Well, Cosmo started looking sick. He just sat at the bottom of the bowl. Bryan was convinced he was on the way out too. I had changed the water after Melman's death and thought surely old age was taking the toll on him too. Then cuteness prevailed again, and Julia convinced me to splurge and I spent twenty nine cents and let her get a new fish.

So now we have Kevin. A cute goldfish variety that is silver on his bottom half with a blaze, neon orange top half. Very cute. And much smaller than Cosmo (chalking that up to being much younger). The craziest thing is that Cosmo has perked up and isn't just laying around on the bottom anymore. So instead of being on the countdown, "One Down, One to Go", kind of thing, we're back where we started. Again.

We have all decided that Cosmo was suffering from a bout of depression due to Melman's passing. Now we're all taking bets as to how much longer these guys will be with us.

Just a Parking Space

Julia is doing a Power Point Presentation and needed these photographs. The bottom two are of my neighbor, reguilding the monument last fall. The other is a stock photo of the Iwo Jima monument showing the monument and the golden area that my neighbor and her guilding friends re-guilded.

These pictures are needed due to her presentation being about gold leaf guilding. Her class is learing about WWII battles, so we thought this was a pretty neat coincidence!

Pictures for Julia's Power Point.

Jailbird Updpates

Jailbird #1: Sentenced reduced from Burglary 1 (15 years to Life), to Possession of Stolen Property over $1000 (not more than 5 years) due to lack of physical evidence of him being in the house.

Bond: $50,000. If he can make bond (coming up with 10%), he will be under house arrest and have an order against him to stay more than a mile away from my neighborhood.

Getting ready to have another count of Burglary against him.

Jailbird #2: Still sitting in jail, waiting for a Preliminary Hearing to be scheduled.

Just thought you'd want to know.

Mocking Birds and Jail Birds

Mocking birds...they mock. They can sound like chickadees, blue jays, wrens.
And this morning the new sound I heard was the sound of a door alarm. Our door alarm.

Mocking birds. Yep, they mock. As I sat this morning, windows open, I realized I was wondering why our door alarm was going off. Pretty funny how it got my attention. Then I realized it was just a bird.

Jail birds...did you know that both of our burglars are sitting their lousy asses in jail? Yep. I even went to the bond hearing of the sex offender (bond denied due to the charge against him with a possibility of bond in 3 weeks). Let me tell you, he was scary. The hearing was held via closed circuit TV from the jail, so I didn't have to be in the same room with him, and he was STILL scary looking (and acting).

The preliminary hearing for the other jail bird (who's bond was already denied previously) is coming up on May 5th. He's been sitting in jail since March 19th with no option for bonding out. I plan on going to his hearing too. Hopefully he'll either be denied bond, or it will be so high he won't be able to afford it.

Funny Thing

So last night we put the kids to bed and I started my nightly couch sitting routine (trying to watch the bunch of nothing that was on TV last night, and starting to play cards on the computer). Bryan was sitting on the other couch, forcing the issue of watching the military channel because "there's nothing else on" (and sadly he was right).

As I sat, with the laptop open and on my lap - cause you know, I'm getting ready to play something, anything other than having to watch whatever it is that Bryan has chosen to watch - and I heard the "bing"on my iPhone, notifying me that I had an email. I chose to go see what the email was on the laptop. And in this day of identity theft, imagine my surprise when this comes from Apple:
"How to reset your Apple password" was the subject. The body of the email read like this:

"To reset your Apple ID password, simply click the link below. That will take you to a web page where you can create a new password.
This link will expire in three hours."

Since I haven't been to my Apple account in a few days, I got a bit nervous until it dawned on me that this must mean that Legare was trying to download a new App to his iPod Touch. While he was supposed to be going to sleep! So I called him to the den to ask him.

Luckily he didn't lie and was honest about trying to enter (multiple times) what he thought my password might be so that he could get a new App. We laughed about how iTunes ratted him out and how he should always come ask me first.

I'm glad he was being honest. I rewarded him for this by not being mad. And Bryan and I got a big kick, and good laugh, out him him being "outed" by the electronic gadgets.

WHAT IF....

What if I had been awake at 4:30 several weeks ago?
What if I had been sitting on the couch when those thugs decided to come into my house, or upstairs?
What if I had heard that noise on that night?
What if I had found myself face-to-face with them as I came down the hall, or got up to see about a noise?

What if my dog hadn't woken up, what would they have taken then?
What if they had looked into the kitchen and seen my laptop on the table?
What if then they had looked into the den and seen the others?

What if they had come down the hall to our bedrooms?
What if I had just not been so tired when I heard Willis walk down the hall?
What if I had decided to listen, or follow Willis down the hall?

What if they had vandalized things - like cutting up the tv or couch downstairs?
What if they had taken Legare's book bag as a carry off bag (would he have been ok after that)?

What if the sex offender had decided to offend again?

What if they had seen my keys hanging on the post downstairs?
What if they had seen Bryan's that were in his unlocked car that was sitting in the driveway?
What if I had left my purse and phone in my unlocked car?
What if they had the gun they stole from across the street when they got here?
What if they had shot my dog when she came down the hall?
What if worse then that had happened?
What if I had just woken up and had a chance to see them, or tackle them?
What if we had all been woken up scared and terrified in the middle of the night?
What if my kids were now scarred for life over this?

What if "they" come back to look at "the scene of the crime" and decide to go for one more load of stuff?
What if that's why the neighbor's dog is barking?

What if they don't catch this guy?
What if the other one gets off?
What if he can make bail (when the time comes)?
What if I keep having the "what if" dreams?
What if making bail makes the "what ifs" worse?
What if the "what ifs"don't go away soon?

What if this happens again?
What if God hadn't protected us so?

I have played every "what if" scenario I can think of in my head since this happened. Sadly, there's hundreds more. I have decided that the best thing that could have happened if you get bruglarized, did happen. We slept through it. No one was hurt. Things of not much significance were taken. No one had to confront these guys. They didn't ransack the place.

And because of all of this, I say God is good! He is so many things to me, and on that night, He was my protector. What if I hadn't had Him?

HOLY SHIT

A Sex Offender (attempted lewd act on a female child under 16 - her age is listed as 8) was in my home. Gotta read what the story was in today's paper.

And here is his SLED Sex Offender registry page.

I HAD NOT Lost My Mind

It has been three weeks since I woke and found out we had been burglarized. I'm sorry that's all I've posted about lately, but it has really been the thing that has been on my mind.

I don't think I wrote about it initially, but the morning it all happened, after I found my purse safely on the counter upstairs, I went straight to the dining room to check on Bryan's mamma's silver. After seeing that the box was there (hhhmmm- I actually haven't opened it - another thing to do in the morning), I glanced up at the corner, glass door-front china cabinet and something missing caught my eye. Crystal. Not whole shelves of crystal, just several pieces from a top shelf and an odd open place on the bottom shelf. I brought it to Bryan's attention and he quickly removed the silver storage box. Then he (and a few other people over the course of a week or so) kept telling me that maybe I had misplaced the crystal, taken it somewhere, or had otherwise done something with it. Why would people who stole Wii's, xBoxes and their games want crystal?

After a week or so, I started thinking that maybe I had broken some and not remembered (though I was having to talk myself into this scenario), or that I had offered them up for some party that I hadn't remembered. I didn't really buy this scenario either, but what else could have happened? And if the crystal was missing, at the hands of these burglars, then this would mean that they had breached the sanctity of my living quarters and come upstairs. So I was starting to buy the "maybe an old housekeeper or her assistant had picked some stems over the course of their cleaning and I hadn't noticed" excuse. Because, let's face it, the other option was not one I wanted to deal with...bad people in my home.

But the housekeeper as thief didn't add up either...I haven't had a house keeper for over a year, and I had just hosted the "Cookie Swap turned Gift Exchange" in December, having brought out(and had) all of my crystal.

But for two weeks I still fretted over the crystal. And Friday, when the Detective made her third trip to my house to deliver some more recovered items, she let me know that the suspects had started getting blabby and brought up some crystal. At this point, she had not brought up to them anything about me missing some crystal. So Friday was the day she let me know that I had not been losing my mind. And I felt vindicated.

And then quickly, I felt violated all over again. The violated feeling had gone away with the first delivery of recovered items and then "poof", gone with delivery number three and the realization of intruders in the living quarters.

Other missing things surfaced this weekend. Not only had they taken my Vera Bradley bag that I used for my Bible Study tote, but they had take Julia's large and her small Vera duffel bags that were in the laundry room, under the laundry table. We realized this when we needed them to pack with this weekend. More violation.

So all in all, here's the rundown of crap they got from us....

One Wii Game Console (w/ cords) - RECOVERED
4 Wii Wands - RECOVERED
1 “Motion Plus” accessory (wand extender) - RECOVERED
4 Wii Nun chucks - RECOVERED
1 Wii Microphone

1 Xbox Game console (w/ power cord) - RECOVERED
4 controllers - only one recovered
1 Xbox IR remote control and receiver

Game Cube wireless remote receiver

Vera Bradley Bags – "Vera", "Large Duffel", "Small Duffel"
Crystal – Gorham Lady Anne
wine glasses – 3
goblets – 2
highball - 1

Wii Games (18 +) - 19 RECOVERED

Xbox Games (13+) - 10 RECOVERED

Game Cube Games (15+) - all but 6 RECOVERED (we had added to this list and I don't have the new count.)

I can't wait to see if there's a fourth trip of recovered items. I'll be sure to let you know.

Rotting In Jail

That's right...there has been an arrest made. I received a phone call this morning from the detention center that there had been an arrest made (there supposedly were two perpetrators, so there hopefully will be a second arrest coming).

I haven't talked to a detective to have any true details, just the officer from the detention center that there was someone being detained there. He wanted to know if we wanted to be alerted if bail was posted...well of course I do.

Nothing else has been returned. I'll keep you informed of the next step.

Recovered

In one week's time many things have been recovered. I don't know the details...but one car from somewhere in the neighborhood.

Our Wii console. All 18 Wii games. 4 controllers with 4 nunchucks and 1 motions plus attachment. The "gun" accessory, and 1 Game Cube game. 1 Tiger Woods golf game that we had forgotten about.

Hopefully some kind of future arrest...CPD is hot on the trail.

Still missing - the Wii microphone (we're not going to play Boogie for a while, I guess), the Xbox and its games, all but one of the Game Cube games (those can be played on the Wii).

Again...thanks to my wonderful husband for having that serial number!

Wii Love Charleston PD

That's right...the investigator typed in our Seriel number into the Pawn Shop data base, and this morning around 11:00, I got a call that she was bringing the Wii back. There were only 6 of the 18 games, and only 1 of the 5 controls, but still. They found our Wii.

And they have the name of the girl who turned it in and they're trying to find her for questioning. And because "Burglary" is the charge - a pretty hefty one considering that means it was done in the cover of night (and people were home) - they are hoping that she will crack and drop some names and details. Then maybe we can get more stuff back, our neighbors up and down the street may be able to get their iPods and cell phones, and one neighbor may actually be able to get their car back. Well, I guess all that is pretty wishful thinking. But I can dream, right?

When we got the Wii console back, the detective wanted me to boot it up. When we did, we found several new "Mii"s that were not ours. Looked like one was created by a girl - and from what I saw on the evidence bag, it's the same name as the one who turned it in. There were a few other created by people with initials that I didn't recognize and a guy's name that I didn't recognize.

All in all, as we did the list of missing items, we realized that between the old xBox, the Wii and the old Game Cube, at least 46 games were stolen. Guess that's why they needed my Vera Bradley bag.

So, a pretty odd week ends on a much more decent note than where it started. And I'll get to end the evening grilling out on driveway on this beautiful day!

While You Were Sleeping

It started with the dog waking in the middle of the night and me hoping she didn't want me to get up to let her out. This was in the wee hours of the morning - I don't really know when, 'cause this time I didn't look at the clock to see how much more time I had to sleep.

At 6:15 the alarm went off and I did the unusual thing of snoozing until 6:30. I hadn't done that since I had kids that need to be up and getting ready for school.

I headed to the kitchen, making sure the children were awake as I passed by their rooms. All was o.k .considering it was the first true day to require waking up since the time changed. I began getting ready to make breakfast when the dog came into the kitchen and wanted out - NOW. She usually wants out, but this time she didn't do her normal saunter, she wasn't waiting around. Which I thought was an urge to go potty.

As I was letting her out, it occurred to me that I could see light shining from the garage onto the driveway. This was not a good sign, this probably meant that Bryan left the light on, potentially inviting someone into the garage. Or, a bay door could be open possibly letting the dog out into the neighborhood (just an FYI - we never leave our garage doors open at night).

So I went down to check and I found not only the light on, but both bays open. CRAP. I checked my car (because I usually leave my purse in it), and the door was not shut all the way. My purse wasn't inside (I won't make you wait on this one....but it was up in the kitchen for the first time in like, EVER). So I headed in to see if my purse was in the house when I turned around and realized that our hide a key was in the door and then it dawned on me that the playroom light was on. So, I went in. And then noticed a big pile of papers where my Vera Bradley bag had been. And of course I kept getting more irritated at Bryan for leaving the bays up (he likes them up when he's outside) and leaving the key in the door. As I entered the playroom (did I mention my house is raised, so the garage laundry and playroom are on the ground floor and you go up stairs to get to the main part of the house?), my eyes took a second to focus on the fact that the entertainment console was bare. That's right - BARE (except for the dust).

And by BARE I mean no Wii console, no XBox, no games, no remotes, no cords. Nothing. Simply nothing. Luckily the TV is big and mounted on the wall - not so easy to pick up and take.

Long story short - I spent the morning with the finger print crew, mid morning thinking someone was in the house because of an opened door that had previously been closed and locked (this required the second visit of Charleston's Finest), mid afternoon shaking in my boots and answering a plethora of phone calls from concerned friends, loved ones and lock smiths. And then this evening I got a call from a neighbor telling me we weren't the only ones...about 4 other houses on his end of the street had been robbed. We don't know if they had been burglurized as we had been (the trespassory breaking and entering of the dwelling of another at night with an intent to commit a felony therein - and yes, they were in my house while we were upstairs sleeping), but apparently it had happened all over the neighborhood.

So back to the dog getting up in the wee hours, I think she heard them, went to check them out, and actually kept them from getting away with more. I keep thinking maybe they came upstairs because I am missing several stems of crystal from the dining room. And I keep saying "they" because the officers informed me that a patrol of the neighborhood was made in the middle of the night due to another neighbor calling because of seeing suspicious people out and about. So there was definitely a they.

So sad the fridge is out of beer right now. I sure could use one.

'Tis But a Mole Hill

Resume, resume, resume....my eyes are going crossed due to the nit-picking details that go into creating a resume. Oh, my neck...oh, my eyes.

Well, needless to say, that because of all of the time spent in front of the computer over the last week or so (or in the dentist chair because I broke my implant crown - yay me!), I have fallen behind on my laundry. But because I have been doing little loads at a time, Mt. Laundry is just a mole hill right now.

No More Mt. Laundry

Since the New Year, I've been doing a load of laundry a day (this I learned from my Momma). Doing things this way usually includes 1 load of towels a week. And believe it or not, this actually makes it feel like I'm not really doing laundry at all. I highly recommend giving it a try.

Well, last week we had a "head lice scare" and everything in the house got washed, including EVERY towel, last Wednesday.

Well, fast forward to this morning. It was time for towels again, and I thought it looked like the pile was bigger than it should be. As I begin placing the towels in the washing machine, I realized that there were WAY TO MANY TOWELS TO FIT ALL OF THEM INTO THE MACHINE (did that look like maybe I was a bit frustrated? Well, I was). After I did a quick count, I realized that my small family (2 adults, 2 pre-pubescent children) had dirtied 13 bath towels and numerous wash cloths and hand towels. This didn't even included the 3 kitchen towels I wanted to clean. With all of these smaller towels, I'll round 13 bath towels to a total number of 15 (even though, all-in-all there were more, I figured the smaller ones added up to a total of 2 bath towels.

15. That's almost 4 towels a piece. And I think most of this excess is being fueled by the children's use of towels. Is it just me, or does 13 (much less 15) seem a bit excessive?
I know what my "Parts of the Day" will be tonight around the dinner table.

20 Years Later and I'm Finally Not Looking Back Quite so Hard

Today used to be a day that I watched for on the calendar. Watched for it. Waited for it to. And dreaded its arrival. The whole month of February used to cause me lots of stress (for many reasons that happened in a succession of years after the thing that happened on the 21st).

20 years ago, the 21st was a Tuesday, I believe. I was at college and was getting ready for a 4 way mixer (2 sororities and 2 fraternities)...it was going to be a blast - we even had a t-shirt printed for this one! I had eaten dinner and went back to my room to primp. My mother called. We chatted about the goings on of the day, and the Mixer that awaited me that night. Her call waiting beeped, and since this was the days before caller ID, she decided to let me go get finished with my party preparation and go see who was calling on the other line. So we said our "I love you's" and went about our ways.

I arrived at the party, began drinking some beer (not quite legal, but I was close enough know one said anything), dancing and taking pictures with my friends with the "Flash" (photographer) who was there. The party hadn't been going for too long when someone told me that Bryan was looking for me.

Now this took me by surprise, because we weren't mixing with Bryan's fraternity. Why in the world was Bryan here? This was really odd. They wouldn't let him into the party because he was not an invited guest, so I had to go the front for him. The look on his face was very serious. My mind kept wondering why he looked so seriously serious. We hadn't been arguing, no fighting, but my mind kept wondering why in the world he was picking a mixer as the appropriate place to break up with me. And what had happened for him to even want to break up with me?

I simply couldn't get my mind around it. Plus, I had just started catching a buzz, he was going to ruin that for sure.

So, as I get to the front, show him my surprise at him being there, and then try to get him to come into the party, he gently tells me that he needs to talk to me. I say o.k., let's talk. To which he tells me we should probably go outside. He's being very tender, not at all like he's getting ready to dump me, but my mind is still on the "what is he going to do, dump me?" train of thought.

So we go to the parking lot, and he somehow tells me (this is kind of blurry) that my dad has had a heart attack and that we need to go home.
....
....
....

Wait. Did he just say that my dad had a heart attack?! I was just on the phone with my mother and she didn't say anything (turns out that call waiting was the frantic phone call from a collegue of my father's that they had called 911 because they thought he was having a heart attack). Why would Bryan know and not me? Is Dad alive? When did this happen? How am I going to get home? Do I need to call my mom? Where is my mom? Is my brother with her?

Oh, so many questions. And Bryan didn't know how to answer them. All he could say is that my mom had called and needed him to come get me so that I could come home. At the time she called Bryan, Bryan thought Dad was alive. But I could tell he wasn't really sure.

So somehow I find myself back in my room on the phone trying to reach my my mom. I somehow get to the CICU waiting room. I don't recall how I got the information to even get the number to that phone or how I even knew which hospital to call. Bryan may have had that information. Before I can actually get to Mom, I remember that my Godparent's answered and told me that he was alive. They asked me how I was and then passed the phone to my brother. I knew I would get the straight scoop from him. He was 4 years younger than me and a Junior in High School at the time.

Joe sounded awful. Simply awful. He told me that Dad was alive. But when I asked if I needed to come home (tonight or could it wait until tomorrow), without hesitation he said that I had to come home RIGHT NOW.

Oh no. I don't even remember if I got to talk with mom or not. Everything got really blurry.

My mind started racing. I had a lot to get together so that I could get on the road ASAP. Bryan has said he would drive me ...I didn't need to be driving. Not only because I had recently had a few beers, but because it was late and it was a 4 hour drive to get home. I had to let my roommate and suitmates know that I was going home and that I didn't know when I would come back. Oh, and that I also wouldn't be attending our Sorority's formal in Atlanta this weekend.

I think I finally got home somewhere around 4:00 am. And when I say home, I mean the hospital. The 4 hour ride hadn't taken quite that long - Bryan had a good lead foot. Don't forget that 20 years ago was before all college kids had cell phones (it was even a big deal for parents to have cells at this particular time), so during this long ride home I had no updates on Dad's condition. Had he gotten better? Had things turned sour? Or had he really been dead this whole time and no one wanted to tell me over the phone?

I had no idea what the news was going to be when I arrived at the hospital.

I found my way through the maze of halls and up to the CICU, where the waiting room was full of loved ones. I think Momma and Joe were in the room (but they could have been somewhere else at this particular moment in time). I think my Godparent's were in the room. But I really don't remember who was there. I think it was Joe that I saw first. I think I burst into tears. Please, someone tell me if my Daddy is still here! That was all I could think.

I was relieved when I found that he was still with us. And apparently doing fine. I think there were more tears. The nurse found out that I was "the patient's" daughter, and she broke the "only every 4 hours" visitor rule and let me go in to see Dad. Mostly because Dad had been asking a lot about me. He was worried about how long (and how late) Bryan and I were on the road, and she knew it would ease his stress level (which would be good for his heart). So, the wonderful nurse let me in the see my Daddy.

My mom was the true Steel Magnolia. She did all the right Mom things. Hugs and kisses and lots of reassurance that Daddy was fine. She also warned me about all of the hoses, tubes, needles and machines that Dad was hooked up to. She didn't want me to be alarmed. She also cautioned me that I needed to be careful if I hugged him because his chest was burned from the 11 (yes, that was ELEVEN) different times they had to hit him with the defibrillator to keep him from leaving us.

Holy Cow! This was a much bigger heart attack than I was thinking it was.

So as I enter the room, I am relieved to see Daddy smiling at me. I think we're all a bit upset, but I was trying very hard not to be crying when I went into his room. I didn't want to upset him (most of you know what a great crier I am).

And Mom was right, there were more tubes, hoses, cuffs, and beeping machines than I had ever seen in anyone's hospital room before. And it was HOT in there. They had apparently pumped so much blood thinner in Dad, that at this point, his blood was running ICE. I swear it was every bit of 80 degrees. And even under about 4 thermal blankets he was still shivering.

Of course I hugged and kissed Daddy. Deep inside I was kind of afraid to touch him, I don't want to hurt him, or knock covers off of him and make him cold. He and Mom showed me how strong his heart looked on the monitor. He showed me where all of the monitor leads were hooked, and the bruises and burns on his chest (while kind of laughing I might add). And mostly he just looked like my dad. Only he was hooked up like he was in an ER-type TV show.

And then it hit me. I almost lost my Dad. I could have arrived and found my dad not here. At this point I had been running on adrenaline since about 9:00 or 10:00 (whatever time it was when Bryan came to get me). And the adrenaline decided to turn in to a rush of relief. And this rush decided to come over me as I stood there in Dadd's room. And I almost passed out.

That's right. I was trying not to stress out Dad, and here I go, almost monkey-ing in his room. I'm going to blame it on the heat in there. Did I tell you how hot it was in there? After I got a cold cloth (and I think some smelling salts, but I may be remember a part of a different hospital room story that I'll try to remember to write about later), I got myself together enough to try to keep it light and laugh at myself so that Dad wouldn't have to be worried about me of all things. And that's when I tried to have a moment of comic relief. And that's when I outed with, "Daddy, you know if you had done this 24 hours earlier, I could have saved the $6.00 I spent today at the Laundry Mat." (of course meaning that I could have brought all of that dirty laundry home instead.) I think it worked - we all laughed.

And that is what we still all laugh about today. Although today almost went by without me calling Dad. I actually saw him today and forgot to tell him Happy February Birthday. And when we did talk, he reminded me that next year he'll be legal. Good Ol' Dad!

20 years after a major heart attack, with no other cardiac events to follow, is a pretty big milestone I say. Along the way, he stopped smoking, was invited to DC to receive the Ecotrin Heart Award a few years later (the actual award was an amber colored, Bacarat crystal heart), and has lived to see both of children get married and become parents.

Happy February Birthday, Daddy!

(And if anyone wonders the reason for the heart attack...in short, an allergic reaction. To drinking non-stop coffee and smoking non stop packs of cigarettes as he got through the long hours of working around the clock to keep a television station on the air - and equipment repaired in it - after Hurricane Hugo hit in September, just a few months before.

It was so much nicotine and caffeine that he had basically saturated his body and his heart finally had an allergic reaction to all of it. No blockages. No bi-passes. Just no more nicotine and no more all day caffeine.)

There's No Place Like Home

Suzy went home today! Yay, Suzy!
She is my friend's niece who was hit in the head by the pine tree while building a snowman last Saturday. To read her story, go to this journal on Caringbridge.

Snow, Man!

The snow was fun, but short lived. It was soft and fluffy enough that rolling snowman body parts literally picked up all the snow in its path. We started the night at Folly Beach with friends (it was our Winter Break from school) and as we drove back to the house Saturday morning (all of about 3 miles), it was like a line was drawn - from where the snow didn't stick, to where the winter wonderland started. And the snow just got deeper as you went further inland (duh, right?). Here are a few snow picks... when I can find the others (meaning, I've done this in multiple parts and can't figure out where I've saved them to the computer) I'll post more.

Miracle Worker Pictures

Whew...the play is over. I didn't realize how much time I actually had during the day until I got it back. I miss it a bit (the play that is...I know Julia does too), and I'm so thrilled that Julia was able to be a part of a performance that was truly a great piece of art. I have uploaded a few pictures to share with you. Of course, I wasn't able to take photos during the performances (I was able to attend 3, I was backstage for 3 others). It was a fantastic first time experience.

Here goes.....

These are the directors, the main director, Mark, is an attorney by day, avid actor (you should have seen his bio) and director by night. He had a remarkable attitude and Mary, the Assistant Director and Stage Manager, was equally wonderful. This photo was taken after the final performance.

Helen Keller, the cutie with the blue bow, her "Mom and Dad and Brother" and Annie Sullivan to the left. They were wonderful. It was weird seeing "Helen Keller" being such a normal girl, smiling, laughing and giggling with the rest of the girls during the intermissions when she was able to come sit with us. Sometimes "Brother Keller", aka Tyler would come back stage and sit too. The girls loved him, he was constantly making them laugh.
Julia as her "Old Crone" character standing in the door that she opened during the play to say her lines. She was a Perkins Institute Girl (the school for the Blind that Annie Sullivan came from), and these are some of the friends she made standing with her. She started as a Perkins Girl, and ended the play as a Crone...that's why she looks so creepy. I had several people say she "looked like a booger" and some others say she was a great "Creepy Girl". She was thrilled when she "got" her Crone voice. The director told the three crones that they should play around with what they thought their crone sounded like, and bring him their interpretations. He really left it up the them to come up with the sound and then he directed their delivery.
The smiling Crone. Those are just odd shadows on the dress, there were no stains. Notice the boots. I think she was as excited about the boots as anything. We had to purchase them (the stage/wholesale discount of $11.00), so they are now in her closet. She can't wait to wear them again.
This was actually taken during the curtain call. The girls who saw me take it gave me grief for taking pictures during the performance. My defense was that there was no flash, so they shouldn't have cared, ha.
The theater is very small. There are only two dressing rooms that the principle actors used (and there were a number of costume changes for them), and since there were 9 girls, they got to have a little spot in the props warehouse. Can you say COLD. This was during the run of our unseasonal 20 degree nights. We couldn't get the space heater to get above 55 degrees. Lots of blankets were in use. This shot is in the back part of the warehouse...we didn't go back that far, I just thought it would give a great impression of the kind of place we were being housed.
Julia putting on her creepy makeup - lots of white powder and purple under the eyes and in the hollows of her cheeks.
Cute little Solomon. He was the only little boy hanging with all of the girls. He is 9. He was in charge of the dog that was in the show. He is Annie and Helen's servant that stays with them while they are in the garden house. He is in his "sleeping clothes" here..

Here's Ryan, the dog. He was precious. Much cuter than the picture shows. He was also very gas-y. Lot's of HEAVY air biscuits. Back stage mothers were also in charge of walking him during the two intermissions. We got to go through the door in the back of the warehouse and walk him in the cobblestone, foliage lined alley. He was a hit with the actors and the audiences. He was "Momma Keller's" dog in real life. He won the role after the pretty, yellow lab blew it during opening night. He was never on stage when the house lights were all the way down and when he came out the first time and the audience oohed and aahed at him, he started barking. Annie Sullivan did a great job of doing an ad lib around it.Julia and some of the girls hanging out, waiting. In her Crone makeup.
All of the girls. Hanging out again. Waiting some more.
I'm sure I'll upload some more later, but this should do for now.

Oh, on a total other note, this week I got my hair done. I toned my blonde (I used to really be blonde without any help), and darkened it up. I like it. Only the people at my Bible Study noticed. I guess no one noticing (including husband) must mean it looks fine, otherwise I'm sure he would have said otherwise. Maybe a picture of that soon. Oooh, and of us playing in the snow we're supposed to get tonight. We NEVER get snow that sticks (2000 was the last time and 1989 before that). How exciting!

6 Down, 4 to Go

Julia actually didn't have rehearsal tonight. Or basketball. Or cotillion. We actually got to have supper as a family. And bedtime for her was 8:00, not the 11:00 or 11:30 it has been. And those times have become such the customary thing that she said she wasn't tired at 8:00. So she went to bed and read for while. That must feel like a luxury for her about now.

She's definitely been a trooper. This coming Thursday, Friday and Saturday night and Sunday's matinee are the final performances. It's been such a long time coming that it really is hard to think of it being almost over. Pictures will be coming soon.

Video is on YouTube

Just got an email from the director of The Miracle Worker. He has posted a rough video of Saturday night's performance.

In the scene where all of the little girls are on stage, Julia is on the crutches in the back of the little girls that are on the left side of the screen. (her giving Annie the gift from the girls hasn't happened yet)

Then...when there is a boy in the upstairs window, in some scenes there are people standing in the downstairs doors...Julia is the eerie girl in the middle door.
Click HERE to see it.

Revelations from the Children

1st...I found out yesterday that my daughter has officially reached the age where "just my presence" embarrasses her. I found this out when I asked what they thought of my presentation of the check for the MUSC Children's Hospital fundraiser that their school did. I was met with some "you did great"'s and even a "you didn't even embarrass me". This statement led to the conversation about when that may have started. Then my precious son blurted out that he still likes having me around.

Thank you, Legare. You are my hero.

We also discussed the workings of a typewriter. This discussion was at the tail end of the kids letting me know how much they enjoy "keyboarding" during computer class. That's when I realized that my children will probably never use a typewriter. They will never know how to properly load paper into one or understand the true meaning of using white out. They'll look at the typwriter (even the electric ones) as I used to look at the old "candlestick" telephones...just some old thing that may be fun to play and pretend with.

The same will probably hold true for lots of things....
cassette players and 8 tracks, lp/record players, walkmen, bag phones, built in car phones, computers that used to fill entire rooms, tests where you fill in the bubble for your answer, just to name a few.

Sad isn't it?

2 Down, 8 to Go

That's right, The Miracle Worker opened Friday night. So far, they've done two performances and there are 8 to go. The next 8 are made up of Thursday, Friday and Saturday night performances and Sunday matinees for the next two weeks.

Aside from the fact that I really feel as if my daughter did a fantastic job....being a blind girl on crutches handing a gift to Annie Sullivan, and then being a scary looking, crotchedy old woman with an eerie voice, the play was fantastic! The cast and director really nailed it. The story was great (as you probably know, who isn't intriged by Helen Keller?), but laced with some funny (to me) unexpected lines. I am so glad to be able to say that if you are to go just to see Julia, you won't be sitting around waiting for her to come on stage, you are really getting a great dose of theater that she just happens to be in.

There is a rumor that there will be a clip on youtube. If that happens, I will be sure to post to let you know. In the meantime, here are some pictures of the Perkin's Girls portion of the play. Julia is the cute one with the crutches.

Suck and Blow

For those folks who don't believe in the power of the central vacuum system...
I changed the bag and cleaned the filter today and found the following...
1 - permanent marker
1 - yellow crayon
1 - partial, card board toilet paper roll (could have been a paper towel roll)
20 lbs of fur and dirt

I was expecting the fur and dirt and maybe the crayon.
I don't recall sucking up a marker OR a cardboard roll.

A shower is a MUST when I'm finished. I'm gray and covered from head to toe.
That sucker kept on sucking even though those things were in the way.

Glad I thought to change the bag today - now I'm sure it will suck even harder. Watch out Legos and American Girl outfits...Here I come!

Felix is so Good, He's Getting Hired Out

You all know the stories of Felix earning his keep here with our family. I've talked about them here, and here.

Well, we have a favorite little haunt around the corner from the children's school. It's a very European "corner store" that sells a little bit of everything. Coffee, sodas, snacks, candy, baked goods, produce, boxed food items, beer, wine, milk, etc, etc. They even make the best crepes you have ever had. I had never had a savory crepe before eating theirs, but you can serve me one of theirs with goat cheese, ham, spinach and dill sauce any time. And that's just one of them that I'd take any time. I've slowly eaten my way around their crepe menu and haven't found one that I wouldn't get again.

So anyway, back to Felix. The other day I decided to stop and let the children get an after-school snack since I had some "Uncle Ken Money" (that's what the children are calling the money Mom gave us for Christmas because she said Uncle Ken always used to say you needed "walking around" money), and there was plenty of parking on the street.

Well, with all of the very unusual cold weather we're having, the rats have apparently decided to move in to the little store (very old, historic building with plenty of drafty holes) and Legare and I happened to see one. Well....we made light of seeing this furry creature when we went to the register and they were lamenting the recent "move in" that had taken place and that they needed a cat. Well....

....I shared with them the stories of Felix's prowess and they seriously asked if they could borrow him. So after I dropped Julia off at her play practice last night, Legare and I took Felix to the corner store.

With Litter box, food and a toy in tow. As we got there I took him straight to the back room (the room with the fancy beers and milk coolers). He got a scent and right away went around sniffing out the place. He was doing this all the while letting out the saddest cat cry you ever did hear. I think he thought we were going to leave him and never pick him back up. He finally went under a beer cooler and stayed.

Legare and I said good bye and good night, we left the girl my phone numbers in case she needed us, went on our way. Needless to say I thought about Felix all night. You could also tell that the other cat and the dog were kind of acting odd. We all wondered if we imagined it or if they were wondering where the heck Felix was.

Anyway, I picked him back up this morning after dropping the children off for school. I got there right before the store opened and we saw no signs of a dead rat. We did see signs of two TWIX bars being eaten. I don't know if they were there before or after we left Felix. At any rate, we can see no evidence of Felix being up to his normal stunts.

I offered to let them try it again. I also offered to help them pick out a cat at the Charleston Pet Helpers. We'll see what happens.

Giving Things Away

You know me...I read some blogs like I read magazines. One that I enjoy reading is over at "Nothing But Bonfires". I have been reading her for some time and enjoy reading her insights, reviews, travel stories and most recently have followed her fun while she planned her wedding (this past September).

Her new thing is that she gets asked all of the time to review products and then she usually gets one to give away to her readers. She has given away one or two Nintendo Ds's, facial products, and a miriad of other things. She collects comments and then gets a random number generator to pick the winner. So far I haven't been lucky.

She currently has two giveaways going on over at her blog. One of the giveaways is for a nifty little device called a Viliv X70EX. The other is for some wonderful sounding French facial products.

You can enter her contest too. Just go over there, read her review, and then answer her question in the comments section. Easy as that! Winning....well, there will probably be 1000 (give or take) entries, so you never know. But one day....my luck has to break, right? And if you win, I want to at least see your new gadget!

Was Mickey Mouse really a Mickey Rat?

Mickey Mouse made everyone love him. He had big, cute ears, big, dark eyes, and a super long tail.

He was a rodent. And his pointy nose and long tail really point to rat-type rodent, wouldn't you say? But we all loved him; because he was so cute!

I don't mind rodents. I've had hamsters and hosted the school Guinea Pig at our house this summer. I even enjoy looking (and occasionally oohing and aahhing) at rodents in pet stores. But I draw the line when they move into my house not in a cage. You know...just move in because they like my digs. I can't, and don't, tolerate it.

You may remember me mentioning some of the times we had run ins with mice when we lived under the red tin roof. These little mice were very cute, but very irritating. Always in the food cabinets. We trapped some, sticky trapped one (never again), and then trapped some more. We even let Felix have a run at getting one out of the cabinet in the kitchen. It took him about 10 seconds. I am not exaggerating. It may not have even taken that long.

So here I am at the new house (not that it's really new anymore since we've been here three years, it's just not the Red Tin Roof) and several weeks ago I walked the family to the car as Bryan took them to school and a motion caught my eye. It was a mouse in the dog's water bucket. So, I took it outside and poured it out. The poor little guy had been treading water for quite some time and just laid their catching his breath (ie: panting hard) when I dumped him out. I then realized that this mouse was pretty big for a cute gray mouse. Then it dawned on me that his nose was a bit pointy and his tail was twice as long as his body. OK...I had a rat. And I had just let him go.

What to do??? Get Felix. So I went and got Felix and introduced him to the still panting and out of breath rat and went back inside. I peered out of the window a few times and could see Felix up to something with the rat. After an inspection later I found no rat, but Felix seemed awfully content.

So a few days later, Bryan and I noticed a rat (or two) scurrying away in the mechanical/furnace room. There are a few places where you can access the bowels of the house if you're the size of a cat, so what did we do? We went and got Felix and put him in the mechanical room.

We then went next door to visit our neighbors and have a cocktail. About 10 minutes later we got a call from Julia that there was a dead rat in the floor of the playroom. NICELY DONE, FELIX!

So for a few days, we just let Felix come and go as he pleased in the furnace room. I thought we were done. I was also wrong.

We then began noticing rats in the garage. Up on the shelf where we store the pool umbrella, on the tool table, running up the vacuum cleaner line, and even simply scaling the drywall at face level scaring poor 11 year old girls.

So...Felix got to stay outside for several nights. But I never saw a dead rat. I also didn't really see them much after several days. Then they were back. I went and bought a BEAR TRAP of a rat trap as well as a conventional snap trap for rats. A few bags of poison were also thrown around some of their favorite haunts (away from my pets). All of this before Thanksgiving, and still no dead rats.

Until yesterday.

Driving in after getting the children from school there was a rat in the process of dying from poison in Bryan's spot in the garage. So he got scooped up and slung into the marsh behind the house. Then, this morning, the bear trap rat trap had done it's job and caught one too. Get that...nothing for weeks and then two in one day.

And let me tell you, even though they are in the bowels of my house and garage (luckily no evidence of them anywhere else), and even though I don't, let me repeat, DON"T want them in my house, I still feel awful when I see them dead or dying. Why...because I love animals. And because they are so danged cute. Seriously...see....

Happy and Funny Snipits from the Last Week

My college alma mater is going to the ACC Football Championship game in Tampa, Florida. GO TIGERS! (Clemson Univeristy for those of you who may to be familiar).

My husband and I are lucky to have a close group of friends all going together. We are also lucky enough that one of these friends has family that lives in Tampa and her Dad has helped secure a "Suite" of seats in the stadium. We will all be spliting the cost of the tickets (there are 8 seats, 8 of us going) and the catering of food and drinks to the suite. These petite athletic boxes (as I like to call them) are enclosed and climate controlled. But since it's balmy Tampa, there is also the option of opening the window so we can enjoy the weather, the atmosphere and the sounds that go along with college football. We get to do this on December 5th.

Our wonderful team has never been to a conference championship game (our conference has only been big enough to split and have this championship game since 2005). Being conference champion used to be something that happened regularly, but we haven't been Champs in a long time (long string of coaches).

So...Tampa, here we come.

Next...out of the mouths of babes..."So Mom?" (coming from Legare), "what is a taint?"

Seriously...I got this question. I asked how he heard it used in a sentence, because he clearly asked what one was. No "It Ain't" contraction here. And I asked him to use it in a sentence.

He then said that it was on one of the "Harry Potter Puppet Pals" skits on youtube. And then he said, "You know, like Leprechaun Taints".

Hhhmmmm..... This caught me off guard. To say the least.

So after a bit of thinking, and telling him it was a word that could get you in trouble, I told him about the contraction. And then I told him how it described areas of your body. I then reiterated that it was a word that could get you into trouble. And I also let him know he should stop watching things on YouTube without my presence.

He understood the "words that can get you in trouble" concept well due to the trouble made the week after Halloween when the older boys in the neighborhood taught him the game about how you make a word by "taking the first two letters of FUn and the last two letters of duCK". He thought that game was great and took it to school to share it with others. Yay, us! We've been calling it the "Fun Duck Incident".

Let There Be Light. Please!

I have hung a new bathroom fixture in the hall bath. Why? Well...the old light fixture had burned out 2 of the new CFL bulbs in 3 months (both on the same side), and since they're supposed to last for years I was getting nervous that there was a short or something in the old fixture. So OUT it went. And when it came down, guess what I found? The whole socket was hanging on by a thread. Nick of time!

I tried to have the new fixture hung before everyone got home from school/work so it could surprise them when they turned on the light. Before the "hanging" project got started I had to mount a metal "plate" to the outlet box that was behind the sheet rock. Unfortunately for me, the directions left out one, key step of how to attach the light fixture to the "plate" that you just mounted on the outlet box.

(Various shapes and sizes of outlet boxes)

The problem was that the "fixture screws" (that I put through the plate before I mounted it to the wall) were too long. When I added the decorative "nut", that shows on the front of the fixture to hold it on to the wall, there was way too much room between the nut and the surface of the fixture. Like about 1/4 of an inch of screw was showing, NOT securing the fixture to the plate. So because I thought I put the wrong screws in, I found myself re-hanging the thing to put in shorter screws. Which meant I had to take off the fixture AND the plate.

I did this several times with several increasingly shrinking screws (maybe 5 mount jobs in all for this one fixture). I finally called the customer service number and they told me that I had skipped the step about how to adjust the "little nuts" on the "fixture screws". I looked back over the directions and this step WAS NOT THERE. Very frustrating.

Basically the fixture screws got threaded out of the back of the plate and their little nuts hold them tightly in place. Bad thing was that when I went to reattach everything to the wall, the screw heads stuck out of the back of the plate. which they were supposed to do. But since the outlet box wasn't exposed (because it had been sheet rocked over, remember) there was no empty space for the screw heads to back into. So, after detaching everything again, I took a screw driver and poked holes in the sheet rock so that the screw heads could back into the space inside the outlet box.

After all of this, it was very rewarding to show off the new fixture to the family. I didn't get it done in time for the children to be surprised by it, but they got to enjoy helping me finish and getting it ready for when Bryan got home.

And man...I had no idea that there could be so much light! It's almost blinding.

A Star is Born

Well, not quite born, but definitely incubating.
We went to The Miracle Worker callback last night. After arriving and having the group of girls called upstairs for a quick video to introduce themselves and their ages, the director came down and let us know that we were there because our girls were going to be in the production.

What?! IN the production?! Oh my gosh - in the production! Julia's dream is coming true. She is going to be a "Perkin's Institute Girl" in The Miracle Worker. This is going to be a great introduction to theater for her because the role will also have her aiding in the placement of set props during the performance, being a (digitally altered) voice in Annie Sullivan's head during her nightmare sequences, and we'll find out later if she will be an understudy for Helen Keller. The director has promised at least one performance for the understudy. OH MY GOSH! That's all I can keep thinking to myself.

I am so proud of her for wanting something, researching the possibilities and following through with me to help her get there. I hope that this experience will enrich her in good ways. We'll see if this bug sticks, or if this will be enough to cool her jets.

Since We Last Spoke

Since we last spoke I have taken Julia to another audition. This one was for "The Miracle Worker" (you know - the story of Helen Keller). She had me put on the application that she was trying for the role of "A Perkins Institute Girl" (girls from the school Annie Sullivan came from) or Helen Keller (in that order).

That was Monday. I will admit that I think the role of Helen Keller would be a little much being that she's never been in a true theater production before. I was excited at the order she wanted me to put the roles in on the application. Well to be honest, I think she just wants to do something, anything. Right now acting may be a glamorous thing in her head, but I think given the opportunity she would really be good at it.

The director told us on Monday he would let us know one way or the other by Wednesday. That's today. I was told he would touch base by email. Around 7:00 this morning, I went online just because I was killing time while Bryan was getting ready for work (the children had a teacher work/conference day - no school - yay!) and almost overlooked the email from the director. His name wasn't familiar to me and I almost sent it to the spam folder until I read the subject line: "Callback List for the Miracle Worker".

Of course, I got excited. Then I got nervous. This could be a good letter, or a "thanks, but no thanks" letter. The opening of the letter said thanks for bringing our children, the role of Helen Keller had been cast and that the following list of girls (about 15 of them) were being called back to re-read for the Perkin's Institute girls. (still nervous)....

....so I scanned to the bottom of the list looking for her name (our last name starts with "W", remember). No Julia. Shucks.

Then it dawned on me to scan the whole list. And there her name was, right smack in the middle. I was so excited! I shared this new with Bryan. He was excited too. I was going to wait until Julia woke to share the news with her (remember - no school today).

After Bryan went down to go to work, he saw the children in the playroom and brought them back up. When I shared the news with Julia, she was very excited. No wait, she was VERY EXCITED.

So on Monday I'll be taking her back to re-read. If she gets one of the roles of the girls, it will also entail being the voices of some of the voices in Annie Sullivan's head/nightmares, and helping move set pieces on and off the stage during the performance. Oh yeah, and a possible understudy role of Helen.

So, keep your fingers crossed. We'll see what Monday brings. I'll be sure to let you know.