Wow...I suck!

Has it really been since November? I posted nothing in December? That was the month I finished my first semester in the Adult Learning Graduate Certificate at Hopkins, went to London (England, that is...), and then there was that little thing called Christmas...and New Year.....
So.....quick recap......
Relief
Amazingly fun, special, father-daughter bonding
Family, hysterical, food....foood......food....
alone....shocker!

Okay, there it is! I'll add some real posts coming up. I'd love to say it was because I was so busy, but I must blame it on the Wii. I am now addicted and feel that I may need to quit my graduate studies, and possibly my job in order to keep up with the Wii in the way that I would like to.

Stay tuned for fun info and awesome pics....maybe I'll even look into using some of the Web 2.0 tools I'm learning more and more about.

I know "Life isn't fair", but.....really? C'mon!!!!

Every November the landscapers in our community will suck up the leaves if we rake them, blow them (the leaves, not the landscapers), or pick them up one by one and put them into the common areas.
Well, I have one Japenese Maple in my backyard. My neighbors have a huge, honkin' regular maple in the backyard which dumps all of its leaves and fargin' gumballs into MY backyard. So, how come I just spent 1.5 hours raking out my backyard (and still have 1/4 of it left to go), and my fargin' neighbor spent 20 minutes and brought out 3 wheelbarrows full. Are you FARGIN' KIDDING ME???? 3 WHEELBARROWS. You may think I'm exaggerating, but really....I'm not!!! I took a picture of my piles, and his little clump of leaves, but I can't find the transfer cord. I'll post them as soon as I find the cord.
I am a 40 year old, 50 lb overweight, single woman with high-blood pressure, asthma, and allergies to the trees from which those leaves came. I have 2 kids, a full-time job, and I go to school. My neighbor is in his 50's, athletic, in great shape, married, no kids, retired military...retired, not working.....
Yanno, 80% of the leaves in my backyard and 100% of the gumballs come from his fargin' tree!!!! But, I sure am glad that he got his 3 wheelbarrows full outta his yard.....And, DON'T EVEN get me started on the front yard!!!

Fall sucks!

Okay. Here are the pics. Guess which one is mine?

Tools for Teaching

I use television as a teaching tool with my children. Particularly shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, and Boston Legal. I do this mostly with my 14 year old son, and explain that they often go for the extremes and dramatization for ratings. But, I can’t even tell you how many conversations have been generated this way.

I was blown away by my son’s insights this week which relate to my sister’s blog: thefairfax.blogspot.com and the response he had to a VERY similar thought process.

Drew’s school has been studying The Holocaust. An Auschwitz Survivor visited his school this week and spoke with them. He said that half of the football team was crying over the loss of this man’s family, the numbers tattooed on his arm, and the impact of him witnessing his sister’s death and the shooting of others. TRAGIC! I cried as he spoke about it! His eyes were red-rimmed as he was telling me.

Boston Legal had an abortion storyline this week. Drew and I discussed the issues and reasons for abortion. I explained that I don’t believe it should be used as a method of birth control and that if one has unprotected sex, abortion should not be the backup to condoms or other birth control methods. He understood and was thoughtful of that. Then it moved into “in cases of rape”. And, I brought up the issue of “medical cases” and “genetic testing”. When I related this to his sister with Cystic Fibrosis, the conversation floored me.

What if we had known before Ginny was born that this fetus had Cystic Fibrosis and was an expensive, time-consuming, emotionally draining disease and that we should consider aborting for medical reasons….
Drew’s response was “That’s just like the Nazis”. WHOA!!!! WOW!!! This 14-year old boy has been so stricken by the discrimination which was carried out against a group of people in a “long-ago” generation that he has applied it to his own life and is seeing it from his perspective in HIS generation. WOW…..

What a thought-provoking young man! Did I raise him? Did he really come from me? How amazing of an intelligent, sensitive young man! God, please, please keep his insight and sensitivity intact as he grows into a man.

Lane 4 is No More

And, this makes me sad......

Our cabin on the lake in Idaho has had the address of Lane 4 since I was born.....Hell...since before my Father was born. This lake has been an integral part of the Smetheram Family history since at least the 1920s. And, that cabin has always been on Lane 4.

To conform to modern times, the county decided we needed to change the name (I think it was for the purposes of emergency services, but I chalk it up to the government nosing in). We submitted names which had to do with Moose......moose have now become an integral part of Lane 4, so we thought that would be a great match.

Alas, the county shot down our moose....names, that is. Apparently, there are too many Moose-type names in existence in Kootenai County. I had some really great suggestions:
Evil Squirrel Lane - in honor of the squirrel which tortured my sister this past summer
Twin Moose Lane
Moose Lane.....but my Dad knew those wouldn't be accepted by the county. He proposed to honor the Quail which run around from the empty lot next to us, to the empty lot across the street. So, now it will be known as Covey Lane.

It sounds so trendy. How can I make fun of Lane 4, and the quaintness that is Idaho with the name Covey Lane? How sad that we are not able to honor the Moose of Twin Lakes!

At least The Lightning Bar is still there! Please do not take that away from our Idaho repertoire....

Here's to you, Lane 4! Cheers to you, Lane 4! Regardless of the Covey, you will always be 4th in my heart!

My mantra will get me through...

I'm going to London. I'm going to London.

Whatever else is going wrong, or stressing me out, or concerning me...

I'm going to London. I'm going to London.

Regardless of my finances, and the stress therein.....

I'm going to London. I'm going to London.

Even if I have to bend over and take it for the next 4 years as I'm over-taxed and have to charge my groceries to my credit card on a more frequent basis....

I'm going to London. I'm going to London.

Even if my "wealth" is being shared to help those less fortunate, and I may have to work at McDonald's in order to afford living.....

I'm going to London. I'm going to London.

Philosophical Question: If you tax anyone who makes over $42k to spread the wealth to those who don't, how close is that to socialism?

OK. Don't go political Ape-shit on me! This is my angst-filled opinion, who agrees that there needs to be change. I just don't think it needs to be so drastic, and that action plans need to be formulated, and agreed upon before jumping into things.

BESIDES, this is my blog and I'll whine if I want to!

I LOVE my horoscope!

NO...I am not an astrological guru or freak.... my horoscope is on my Yahoo page, so I see it every day when I open up the internet. Check out today's!

November 03, 2008
Gemini (5/21-6/21)

Unless it's the big boss dictating a firm rule, you don't have to obey anyone except yourself, today. If people are trying to put restrictions on what you can do, work your way around them! You are the one in control of your life, and it's the right time to remind yourself of this face. Point your ship wherever you want it to go, and start off on your journey. Just fulfill your own goals right now -- worry about following all the rules later.

HYSTERICAL!!!! That's pretty much me on a daily basis :).
So, I forwarded this to my supervisor and gave her a heads up in case she saw my ship pointing toward the Bahamas!

CF Appointment - 10/29/08

Good stuff at today's CF appointment. I'll provide stats, then some awesome research news...as close as ever to a cure!

Height: 54.7 - up 1.3 in.
Height %: 10% - up 1%
Weight: 76 lbs. up 3.75 lbs.
Weight %: 22% - up 1%
BMI: 17.83
BMI %: 49% - GOAL = 50%.......last visit 52%..... The kid grows which is what they want, AND gains over 3 lbs, but her height didn't go up as much as her weight.....Go Figure! Time to get out the stretching machine again :).
PFTs (breathing test) = 108...decrease of 7 from last appt., but still excellent!
Last throat culture showed light pseudamonas. OK. We are doing the TOBI every other month, so we are doing what we can for now. If it were to drop massively, then we worry (some of the other PFT stats indicate this could be margin of error).

RESEARCH NEWS:
Dr. Z was on rounds today. She heads up numerous research projects and reports out to the medical community and the local parent community on this at least yearly.

I asked if there was any research down the road for a DeltaF508 & R1162X person (Ginny's "mutations", as they like to call them!). She told us there had recently been a very promising research on the GG-something group. We all have CFTR channels which just happen to be blocked in folks with CF. Different genotypes lead to different manifestations.

So, this recent research caused the CFTR channels of the GG? group to act as the CFTR channels of "normal....non-mutant" people. WOW!!!! Basically, a cure of the issue, but not a way to be off of medicine and breathing treatments.

There is a research study of the same type coming for those that have the "x" codon. Lucky us!!!!!! She may be eligible to particpate, but she may also be too healthy to participate. Regardless, let's get this medication on the shelf so Ginny's CFTR channels function properly while she has no lung scarring and issues!!!!

I'm tired now.....