N is for Nixing Netflix's Stream

In reply to ECP's FB post:
We went back to DVDs with Netflix for that reason. Did you know that kids can watch hours and hours and hours of Streaming Pokemon movies and insipid sitcoms that they never knew existed?! Adults can loose all control of kids and selves while hours of life are drained out of them on the altar of entertainment.

Tomorrow & Today

1stly: Tomorrow N has surgery for his second implant, bilateral. We leave our house at 4:30 in the morning.

The doctor, the doctor's office and the hospital haven't really told us anything to expect. This is disappointing. I've been reading things online, some is very out of date. Sigh.

2 Facebook comments I left at 2 different places:

Andrew, you are right. On my list of things I don't get: why DO (many) women run around 90% naked. If it is that comfortable why don't men, aside from legal restraints, do it too? AND! Why would there be the double standard legally for men? Must be like TV and politics ... men must be in suits, big, pasty & nasty while women have to be rail thin, in tight suits, and have   (usually long) hair, show legs, and feign sweet bitterness. 

RE: Rally to Restore Sanity:

--> "Hard times and not end times."

AND! I love that Tony Bennett sang. This is the team I want to be on. Let's make America better, not just bitter. And, let's laugh a little on the way.

Stamakajuna

L is for Lio by Mark Tatulli

Since the dorky (very) Deseret News has taken Lio out N doesn't even read the funnies anymore. He used to get up and RUN outside to get the paper ... I wrote to the section editor (2x) but no reply. Although the images are glum and odd there is an upbeat quality to the cartoon. We are really missing it. Dan Piraro (Bizarro creator and all around nice genius guy) sent me to the Washington Post to read it online. Sigh. Back to/on the computer again. It is a wonder we don't all have chair sores on our bums, like oozing bed sores you'd see in a negligent convalescent home.

N was crying!

N was so sad this morning he was crying that Lio (see below) was taken out of the Deseret News! I helped him write this:

I am 9 years old and I really like comics, especially Lio. Lio is the best! I wanted to read Lio this morning and I was so sad because Lio was gone. And then when Fort Knox appeared it looked so ugly and it is really dumb. So, why did you take it out of the paper? Please bring Leo back!

To give is to grow.

I've been feeling rather negative lately... well, extra negative.

N's hearing/processing is getting worse. Need to find a solution. Will an occupational therapist recognize something? This is a Big deal and I don't know what to do about it. The vicissitudes of his hearing drive me nuts, and really drive him nuts. No one else (except Dr. Pitt) seem to think it is unusual. They seem to think, "What?! He's deaf! Whaddya 'xpct!?"

Called Dr. Warren today about a 2nd implant today. He seems like a great doctor.

More Dr. visits. J's hip hurt mysteriously today. Another Dr. visit?

Lovely conversation with MVL and we even set a date (Woot! Woot!)!

Ginger was groomed today!

Noticed that I love to wash my hands in COLD, very cold water. One thing for the 25 random thing list.

There are yicky dishes in the sink.

Oh yeah, don't do Shrinky Dinks in the microwave, as N did. It kills (as in Dead) the microwave. Helium balloons and their strings kill ceiling fans too. FYI, just trying to help.

Hello from San Francisco! I'm at the Apple Store ... charging my now faster phone and debating the merits of a new computer... hmmmm. There are many merits of a new computer...

FYI To add to the poem below add:

bird poop in the brunette's hair

Washed out in a bookstore's sink

Dead car battery.

Love the tattooed and pierced AAA men that came to jump our battery

Gama, quoting an irate female shopper swore like a sailor, just to make me gasp, which she did!

K will be playing Daddy Warbucks

C is doing the 72 hour kits!!! Wahoo!

N & I played on the beach this morning.

Love SF radio.

Someday, I'd edit these posts better. Just the facts. Just the facts.

My two youngest children (N, 9 & M, 5) have AB CIs. I feel that we are adrift and don't know where to go for specific advice. Nether of our children seem to be able to wear ear level CI, they fall off and are so expensive that it makes us nervous to let them wear them to school. Our insurance won't cover a 2nd. We don't know where to go for extra speech therapy and it is so expensive! We are currently driving 1 hour to the University of Utah. To get the CIs mapped we need to drive 3 hours to see Dr. C P. Dr. C S and his office have not been very helpful or responsive. The Utah School for the Deaf and Blind is a bureaucratic quagmire and also don't provide services since our children are no longer in their system. We do not live in an isolated area. I look forward to hearing from someone soon. My mobile number is ... and our home number is ... . Thank you for your attention, H

This is Summer.

N is for N is 8 = Painting by Lee Bennion!

Latest news: Lee is working on N's painting. Can't wait to see it. He loved sitting for her! LOVES attention.

N is for Nice I-spy! & N's unusual baptism pic.

Happy happy boy. I finished the top of N's quilt. He loves it and I am very happy that I made it. I started with S's and now have one to go. It is cut and splayed out on the dining room floor. A bout of insomnia will get it DONE. I don't know what I will create in the future but I don't know if my children will ever love anything so much as these quilts, for them. Each child takes pride in each square, choice, color, combination, pocket, stitch. When they are all finished, backed and bound I hope to enter the stack of 5 as ONE -- a tangible manifestation of my neurosis, I mean Love of creativity and SKJN&M.
I'm making a crazy quilt top for S to take to DECA Nationals and maybe a crazy quilt of sorts for Ginger.


This is funny. Last October at N's baptism, the primary president loaded up the Polaroid (remember those?) and fired off a shot. This was the first picture on the role! (Dos Equis is a brand of beer, in case you don't know.) "Stay thirsty" isn't a bad theme for a baptism talk... change the meaning a bit to suit a sweet 8 year old though!

Small Talk & K Cake

Hey K!~ It's a spoon, not a shovel!!!

Tomorrow is K's 14th birthday! We are celebrating tonight with a triple layer lemon cake (Ashley's recipe). (Giving Stephanie H the day off.)

While mixing and heating and stirring and removing, N asked, "Mom, what does 'remove' mean?"

This is happening a lot lately. As N reads more and more, he is coming across words that don't add up to either his experiences or maturity. It is clear that his language/vocabulary is missing some critical and basic words. I need to keep a list. Review them with him.

The kitchen conversation continued:

H: M, what do you want to be when you grow up?

M: I want to be the same like S [sister S], cause she sings on the radio. And I want to drive too. And I'll drive safe.

And tres chic, like Mlle. S, to boot!

I've been making a lot of these flower pompoms lately for our entryway. They are from a great $10.00/5 Martha Stewart kit at ?! Wal-mart.

M is for the newish word Maker. As in, "I'm a maker."

Found this idea via a random email that I get from CraftStylish. N's quilt top is nearing the final stages and as I sew it together I am also piecing a crazy quilt together. S wants to take her I-spy quilt to the Deca Nationals but that's a No. I do want to send her with something homemade. I think I'll take the crazy quilt scaps and sew them into a pillow case. I like this pin cushion -- one day.

As I've sewn N's quilt together I've seen that one row is ONE square short. Where did it go? Which fabric was it?! Ashley suggested that I take pictures. Glad that I have...the run away square appears to be a bright blue ducky pattern. Ah ha! See it? :o

N, C & M told some lovely jokes tonight at the AG Bell Speech Fair. It was cute and they did a good job. C & N wore nifty bow ties, just to be funny. The theme was sports. There was NO way I was going dressed as an enthusiast of spin.

All the children who performed tonight were amazing.

Becky White called me repeatedly to see/make sure we'd be there. We were and even Devan and Gama joined in the fun. Turns out Mr. Tim Smith (:P USDB Superintendent) made an announcement that USDB is going to build a NEW building for USDB/South, under the able direction of Marilyn Madsen! Turns out the Alpine School Dist., (under the assistant-superintendent's direction Mr. ROB Smith, Tim's son) has arranged for USDB to use the land that it has used for +20 years at Orem Elementary. (Michelle & I suggested that brilliant idea about 4 years ago only to be told that the then Lame-o SuperInt. didn't allow Alpine to talk to parents. So Alpine Sc. Dist. (Rob Smith) stopped talking to us.) Gee wow?!

The description of the future building sounded like he was reading the letter I wrote to the state big wigs and also the J2H Vision Statement. No one besides Tim, Marilyn, the Alpine School Dist & the State Legeslature were given any credit. It will be modular. Opening next September. Oooh ahh. Grand.

Wash my hands of it. I do wonder if Becky wanted me there to hear that. Later when I cordially congratulated Mr. Smith and he cleverly demurred to Marilyn, who Kim Saul [Didn't she retire from USDB?] called the best USDB Pre-school director in the state. (She is the only one with that title.)

Next year K, J, N & M will be going to Walden! I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that all goes well. Another year of 5 children & 5 schools/ways will pretty much do me in.

A very Beautiful Beagle!

Nathan (see the shoe) took this picture. I think it is one of my favorites of Ginger the Beloved and very Beautiful Beagle. Don't snuggle a bit too close though... she snaps, when sleeping, in her dotage.

2008 beach day

Isn't that about the best My Space/Facebook style pic ever?

What else would a 16 year old spell out?

This is the greatest! N's pants were soaked, falling down and his undies were going up. No matter he was delirious!


SF at its best. :) Two cars in the space of one!

:: Holiday Break :: 2

Kudos for KSL!!!

Thanks to everyone who told me about this story on KSL-5. The Cedar City family's plight is exactly the same as ours. Now that my computer is back on my desk I finally am able to look up the story. Here is the link:
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=5047066

The following is my comment:
Thank you KSL for covering this story!

My son Nathan also needs a second implant. We fought the fight with SelectMed as well. (They are indeed SELECTive.) On the day of the final appeal the Let Them Hear attorney flew in from CA, we had a journalist there, I showed a video and had a brief presentation... it took 11 months to get to that point and then, surprise surprise, my phone rang as we were driving out of the parking lot and we were told that just that day they had changed their policy regarding cochlear implants. Nathan was 5 at the time and was so happy! He, and his sister, were born with a condition that caused their hearing to deteriorate. Their hearing issue is our family's only major health issue.

The 11 months cost him the ability to differentiate many sounds and his speech is very affected. During that time he was angry, destructive and very lonely. His is still frustrated and often isolates himself. He spends a lot of time with books.

As small business owners our insurance rates went up and up as our coverage went down. It was especially frustrating for us since we didn't qualify for medicaid and would have to completely deplete our savings, and borrow money, at the time we were told it would cost us $80,000 for one implant. Time was also of the essence since people learn to speak/hear best in early childhood. Hearing, in general, is an invisible and discriminated disability. The hearing aids ($2000 each) and batteries really add up. When we appealed for hearing aid coverage, for our infant, we were told they are cosmetic.

Another issue in Utah is the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind. KSL please visit the Utah County preschool facilities. 25 year old, broken, NOISY trailers. Please chat with the entrenched, retrogressive administration. Ask about the USDB's budget and especially about weak services for the lucky Utah children who have implants, especially compared with other states' programs.

Thanks for listening!

Ranch Dressing.

N doesn't eat anything unless it has a cartoon character on the plasticcrap that it is sold in. This drives me nuts. The junkier the better. He is pretty thin since I don't buy a lot of that stuff. He is banished from the dinner table to eat alone at the counter (OFTEN) because I can't stand his little sneers about the HOMEMADE, FROM SCRATCH, GOOD & GOOD LOOKING food I make.

He doesn't eat fruit or vegetables... ever. He told me he'd eat carrots in his lunch if I sent Ranch Dressing with them. I really pretty much hate Ranch dressing; like salsa it is Everywhere. I mean it is at restaurants, at home, at every meal, on every plate, left on every counter, smeared on every corner of the sink. Most importantly it makes everything look and taste the same. Unlike the ubquitous salsa it doesn't look like vomit left in the sink! (Ugh.) -- It looks like bird deposits.

Bottled salad dressing is just silly. It is full of chemicals and sugar and salt and goo that is completely unnecessary. On occasion I buy it and am usually disappointed. Salad dressing is the EASIEST thing in the world to make. My folks used to buy Trader Vic's vinaigrette but that isn't on the market these days, and probably never has been in Utah.

I made the following Ranch Dressing and everyone loved it. LOVED it. Everyone, Except for N.
I used buttermilk, lite mayonnaise and lite sour cream. I found it at http://allrecipies.com/
It was submitted by Dawnia. (Thanks!)

INGREDIENTS
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon dried chives
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream, chives, parsley, dill, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.

Hi H,

Between Half Moon Bay and Pigeon Point Lighthouse, the San Mateo beaches we saw last week were San Gregorio State Beach, Pomponio State Beach, Pescadero State Beach, and Bean Hollow State Beach. The kids went digging, running and getting wet and sandy at Pomponio Beach. We saw the 'green flash' there. The Walgreen C.D. photos are from there and the Pigeon Point Lighthouse.
You can look up Green Flash on Wikipedia.

xxx, ooo, hugs,
Mom


Just right for her new Facebook pic.


Hey Kids! This is a Ph-one-boo-th! Phonebooth! Kinda like what Superman used... you know what I mean? No.