so according to my mom my brother got up last night in the middle of the night, passed out in the bathroom on the floor and must have hit his face on something so they took him to the er where he got 7 stitches in his chin, an MRI and some fluids...turns out something is weird with his kidneys and he is at home...i am not sure what is going on now, but it seems strange this would come on all of the sudden.
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Friday, December 26, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
merry christmas
Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.
"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."
VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
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"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."
VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
Mail me!
Monday, December 22, 2008
today at work was exceptionally hard. along with faith, one of our oldest clients, 3 months shy of his 102nd birthday died last night, according to his daughter he was snug in his bed, blew his caregiver a kiss goodbye, and quietly died, as she said "a true vieneese gentleman til the end." Sunday, December 21, 2008
i have been reading the updates about Faith all day...For those of you not in the know, Faith is one of my high school friends Corey and Jessica's newborn twin daughters. very early on in the pregnancy the dr's (she actually saw the perinatalogist that i saw with all 3 kids) told them that Faith would most likely die either at birth or shortly after as her head did not form properly-her twin sister Addison was fine. Jess has been keeping us all updated on her condition and the twins condition on her caringbridge website...
Jess was supposed to deliver on the 7th of Jan but those girls had other ideas (twins usually do) and late last night (saturday) both girls were born....it's been about 36 hours since birth and Faith is still alive and holding on. According to Corey the hospital has let him take her everywhere, she has been outside and seen snow, met her older sister Elizabeth and spent time with Addison who is in the NICU. Addison was born at the same weight Mya was 4 lbs 14 oz and is lazy as they say (Mya was too-not eating enough etc...) but is not on any major monitors etc..(this too was pretty similar to Mya)....
From what it sounds like from Corey's messages, they are just waiting to see how much longer Faith will keep alive; it sounds like they have both told her its OK to "go home" but she is still here.
I don't think I can think of much else worse in the world than knowing your child is going to die and spending the day(s) with her and waiting for her to die and there is not much you can do about it. as a parent, its a bad thing.
Right after I got the email that the kids had been born and saw their snapshots I pretty much had to hug the 3 monsterrugrats, as much as they tire us out, try our patience, make us miserably happy and cause dale to lose it often, we love them quite a bit...
happy solstice to all and if you are of the praying to a higher power type, feel free to wing a prayer up for the montiho family...
if you arent of the praying to a higher being type maybe just a good thought out in the universe would suffice.
as for me, i lit a candle for faith and for her family.
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Jess was supposed to deliver on the 7th of Jan but those girls had other ideas (twins usually do) and late last night (saturday) both girls were born....it's been about 36 hours since birth and Faith is still alive and holding on. According to Corey the hospital has let him take her everywhere, she has been outside and seen snow, met her older sister Elizabeth and spent time with Addison who is in the NICU. Addison was born at the same weight Mya was 4 lbs 14 oz and is lazy as they say (Mya was too-not eating enough etc...) but is not on any major monitors etc..(this too was pretty similar to Mya)....
From what it sounds like from Corey's messages, they are just waiting to see how much longer Faith will keep alive; it sounds like they have both told her its OK to "go home" but she is still here.
I don't think I can think of much else worse in the world than knowing your child is going to die and spending the day(s) with her and waiting for her to die and there is not much you can do about it. as a parent, its a bad thing.
Right after I got the email that the kids had been born and saw their snapshots I pretty much had to hug the 3 monsterrugrats, as much as they tire us out, try our patience, make us miserably happy and cause dale to lose it often, we love them quite a bit...
happy solstice to all and if you are of the praying to a higher power type, feel free to wing a prayer up for the montiho family...
if you arent of the praying to a higher being type maybe just a good thought out in the universe would suffice.
as for me, i lit a candle for faith and for her family.
Mail me!
Monday, December 15, 2008
why i hate christmas
1. decorating. I have to take a full day off work to put all this stuff up around and outside my house. does anyone help, no. can anyone help, no. then 30 days later, it all comes down and i have to put the stuff i took down to put the stuff up, back up.
2. storage. i have NO storage in my house, zero. we have a bi-level. that means, no basement. all the extra space in my house is used to store the christmas shit. tree, bins of crap, wrapping paper, 87 different kinds of garland.
3. endless family functions. i love my family, on each side. they are all wonderful and good and very very nice. the problem is that by jan 1st, i have had at least 5 christmases. this is, i will admit, partially my fault.. after the disasterous "3 christmases in one day" of 2005 where by the last christmas of the day my girls were THROWING presents at my dad to OPENOPENOPENNOWNOWFASTFASTMOREMOREMOREMORE. and screaming and crying as they were, overtired, overstimulated, overexausted and chrismas overload. i decided "THERE SHALL BE NO MORE THAN ONE CHRISTMAS PER DAY." so this means my schedule is usually as follows:
work christmas party (which I plan)
twins christmas party (which i cook for and bring presents to, and scream at the kids not to wrestle with the other kids and please dont stand on that there and dont step on the baby twinlets crawling around)
christmas eve with my parents, which may or may not include my extended moms side of the family (which is better if it does since my cousins are awesome and this means i dont have to have a separate "that side" of the family christmas) but i could have one so we will throw in:
that side xmas
christmas day with dales family (fun and relaxed with a good breakfast/brunch, its mostly the highlight of the season since its only the few of us)
opening presents at our house (somewhere this happens in between all this and this year we get mr bear, so thats a plus)
baumer family xmas-not too stressful, but we drive to whitewater and there are something like 1982726 people all crammed in aunt margies small house and with all the second cousins (ages 9 to 3 ish and i think there are 4547 of them) it gets a bit cramped, at least if its warm we can send the kids out in the back 40 to run around with the dogs and horses.
then there are random work potlucks, possible dale work functions and 6 days later? owens birthday.
by about this time, i start to hate christmas.
4. gifts. I shop all year, we have approx., 209298298732 people to buy for, and about 232632987 people i feel i should get something small for (neighbors, friends of friends, my 287987391273192743 family members) and its important for the kids they have an EVEN number of presents between them-plus owen has a birthday 6 days later which means even more gifts. i am wrapped out, bowed out, shopped out and broke. plus now that the kids are actually aware of TV and commercials I am innundated with the "iwantthat" over and over and i actually have to buy crap for st nicks-which is fine because we did the "here are new crayons and glue sticks for school" which made them happy but that will only work, at most, another 2 years, then i get into the "i better get _____ since _____ in my class got ____and you must hate me."
5. christmas carols/songs. i love christmas carols. i love christmas songs. i do not like them since oct 31 non stop on 99.1 wmyx. after 2 months of the little drummer boy and that retarded song about a kid who wanted shoes for his dying mom. I WANT TO DIE.
6. Christmas cards. i get mine done before thanksgiving. they sit in a box till dec 1 and then i mail, every year i forget like 5 people and have to dig through all the mostly empty xmas stuff boxes to find the remaining cards and send them out to people i forget. its not a reason to hate christmas per se, it just annoys me to have to dig through boxes.
7. "that house is better." this is according to my kids. this grandma is the better grandma. "why?" she gives us gum and has fun toys. "well what about your other grandma?" she always gives us clothes. so i get to explain how each grandma doesnt have to give anyone anything at all if we are going to complain.
8. the santa threat. "be good or santa wont bring you anything." it doesnt work, its never worked and yet i find my self saying it at least 10 times a day.
no more christmas. can we just skip it and move right towards groundhog day?
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2. storage. i have NO storage in my house, zero. we have a bi-level. that means, no basement. all the extra space in my house is used to store the christmas shit. tree, bins of crap, wrapping paper, 87 different kinds of garland.
3. endless family functions. i love my family, on each side. they are all wonderful and good and very very nice. the problem is that by jan 1st, i have had at least 5 christmases. this is, i will admit, partially my fault.. after the disasterous "3 christmases in one day" of 2005 where by the last christmas of the day my girls were THROWING presents at my dad to OPENOPENOPENNOWNOWFASTFASTMOREMOREMOREMORE. and screaming and crying as they were, overtired, overstimulated, overexausted and chrismas overload. i decided "THERE SHALL BE NO MORE THAN ONE CHRISTMAS PER DAY." so this means my schedule is usually as follows:
work christmas party (which I plan)
twins christmas party (which i cook for and bring presents to, and scream at the kids not to wrestle with the other kids and please dont stand on that there and dont step on the baby twinlets crawling around)
christmas eve with my parents, which may or may not include my extended moms side of the family (which is better if it does since my cousins are awesome and this means i dont have to have a separate "that side" of the family christmas) but i could have one so we will throw in:
that side xmas
christmas day with dales family (fun and relaxed with a good breakfast/brunch, its mostly the highlight of the season since its only the few of us)
opening presents at our house (somewhere this happens in between all this and this year we get mr bear, so thats a plus)
baumer family xmas-not too stressful, but we drive to whitewater and there are something like 1982726 people all crammed in aunt margies small house and with all the second cousins (ages 9 to 3 ish and i think there are 4547 of them) it gets a bit cramped, at least if its warm we can send the kids out in the back 40 to run around with the dogs and horses.
then there are random work potlucks, possible dale work functions and 6 days later? owens birthday.
by about this time, i start to hate christmas.
4. gifts. I shop all year, we have approx., 209298298732 people to buy for, and about 232632987 people i feel i should get something small for (neighbors, friends of friends, my 287987391273192743 family members) and its important for the kids they have an EVEN number of presents between them-plus owen has a birthday 6 days later which means even more gifts. i am wrapped out, bowed out, shopped out and broke. plus now that the kids are actually aware of TV and commercials I am innundated with the "iwantthat" over and over and i actually have to buy crap for st nicks-which is fine because we did the "here are new crayons and glue sticks for school" which made them happy but that will only work, at most, another 2 years, then i get into the "i better get _____ since _____ in my class got ____and you must hate me."
5. christmas carols/songs. i love christmas carols. i love christmas songs. i do not like them since oct 31 non stop on 99.1 wmyx. after 2 months of the little drummer boy and that retarded song about a kid who wanted shoes for his dying mom. I WANT TO DIE.
6. Christmas cards. i get mine done before thanksgiving. they sit in a box till dec 1 and then i mail, every year i forget like 5 people and have to dig through all the mostly empty xmas stuff boxes to find the remaining cards and send them out to people i forget. its not a reason to hate christmas per se, it just annoys me to have to dig through boxes.
7. "that house is better." this is according to my kids. this grandma is the better grandma. "why?" she gives us gum and has fun toys. "well what about your other grandma?" she always gives us clothes. so i get to explain how each grandma doesnt have to give anyone anything at all if we are going to complain.
8. the santa threat. "be good or santa wont bring you anything." it doesnt work, its never worked and yet i find my self saying it at least 10 times a day.
no more christmas. can we just skip it and move right towards groundhog day?
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Monday, December 08, 2008
Sunday, December 07, 2008
i had a bit of a snit the other night, whereby late at night i told dale as much as i understand that because i get home 1st and it makes 100% sense that I should cook dinner every night, I was a bit burned out and wished he knew how to do more than breakfast (waffles or pancakes in toaster) and peanut butter and jelly and it would be nice if he could cook every now and again.
i am teaching him sloppy joes for lunch in about 10 min. i had to show him how to do grilled cheese last week. maybe i can get a whole day off from cooking soon. that would be awesome.
still reeling from my bosses decision to bail from the firm. it doesnt make sense to anyone in the office...if you havent noticed already, we (the usa) doesnt have the best economy right now and its going to be hard to convince clients to jump ship to a new firm during a bad market....and i am convinced that people just dont like change...i dunno, monday at work should be interesting!
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i am teaching him sloppy joes for lunch in about 10 min. i had to show him how to do grilled cheese last week. maybe i can get a whole day off from cooking soon. that would be awesome.
still reeling from my bosses decision to bail from the firm. it doesnt make sense to anyone in the office...if you havent noticed already, we (the usa) doesnt have the best economy right now and its going to be hard to convince clients to jump ship to a new firm during a bad market....and i am convinced that people just dont like change...i dunno, monday at work should be interesting!
Mail me!
Friday, December 05, 2008
one of my bosses resigned today and went to a different firm (merrill lynch) i was a bit shocked, a bit dismayed, and more than a bit depressed by that. he was a really great boss and it was good working for him for the past year.
but hey, if someone would give me 200% of my base salary (and lets say I made 200k a year) up front to move firms, yeah, i guess i would move too.
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but hey, if someone would give me 200% of my base salary (and lets say I made 200k a year) up front to move firms, yeah, i guess i would move too.
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