Friday the 13th My son's 9th Birthday

table all ready for birthday breakfast of waffles & ice cream - and you get to open your presents at breakfast. Start off the day with a BANG!





around 1 PM we had friends over for cake. The original party plan involved an obstacle course outside and target practice with a bow and arrow (the toy version) but it has been raining for three days so... we did hot potatoe (crazy they all like it) and musical chairs (they love that one too) and then hung a pinata from the railing of the stairs.

I am not one of those moms who knows how to decorate a cake. I squeak by with using toys... this is supposed to make you think of Frodo, and Legolas and Gandalf and a nasty ring wraith...



like I said, it has been raining a LOT. Places are flooded. People don't have power. So... some of the guys at DataXstream (my husband's company) decided to come hang out with us for a while since they were amongst the "don't have power" and we are in the "do have power" grid. They brought the birthday boy "Lego Rock Band" which was incredibly cute and fun. And then they hung out with the small people until Clone Wars came on the Cartoon Network. After which the small people went to bed and the grown ups played Lego Rock Band until about midnight.

That is Matt, basis admin, gettin' into "The Final Countdown."

Oh and the cake came from:
You or your friend requested the www.cooks.com recipe below:

----------------------
SCRATCH CHOCOLATE CAKE
----------------------

1 c. butter
1/2 c. shortening
3 c. sugar
5 eggs
3 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. cocoa
1 1/4 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla flavoring
1/2 tsp. baking powder

Cream butter, oil, and sugar (I melt my butter and
shortening in the microwave). Then add eggs, one at a time.
Add flour, salt, baking powder, and cocoa. Then add milk and
vanilla. Beat with a mixer until well blended. Pour in a
greased and floured bundt pan and bake at 350 degrees for
about 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.


TOPPING:

2 1/4 c. powdered sugar
3 tbsp. cocoa
1/4 c. melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla
3 or 4 tbsp. milk

Cream above ingredients until smooth and spread on top of
cake when it is cool. The topping will be thick on top of
cake.

We buried Eddie on Wednesday.

It was actually very healing for me. The priest was lovely and loving and he chose to speak about Jesus crying from the cross "My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?!" Which was such a good reminder as we sat there mourning my young cousin.

My Uncle composed himself to speak, and did so, reminding us of the my cousin as a very young child, shy but always smiling. A happy boy. He was. My Uncle reminded those in attendence, especially the young people who had come to honor Eddie, to live with love in their hearts.

My Aunt & Uncle opened up their amazing home to us all and then stood there and did more consoling of others than they did receiving consolation. They are always like that. Immeasurably gracious.

We left and my husband noted; "your Aunt looks amazing. She's grieving and she looks amazing." And she did. I will have to remember to tell her that later on.

I am grateful to my friends, online and in person, who have left me such kind words. Thank you.

Eddie

We received a phone call today around 1 in the afternoon. My cousin Eddie has died. It was not expected. He is young. A teenager. His mother found him, or so we heard. Arrangments are being made for services and we will hear abut them when there is more information.

I believe when someone dies it is important to stop and say their name and remember them.

Eddie I will remember you.

I hope Ross and Ian were there on the other side to guide you on to the next place.

"Death is not the end." I believe Gandalf said. "But a beginning."
I need to look it up. He says it in the city of Minus Tirith, to Pippin, before they go into battle.
I think this is true. I hope I'll meet you there one day.

And a Birthday

My love was born November 1st. All Saints Day. He reminds me REGULARLY that he is a Saint. uh huh.
Well, it has been a bit of a mad house. And we've been seriously distracted by other things for the last few weeks and so the birthdays (there are two at Halloween) were a bit, well, not the usual. I didn't even remember to buy the guy a cake. And I am the sort that like to make a cake, but he is an icecream cake guy and he is unusually stressed so I have been under the gun as far as "making a mess" is concerned (nothing sets my man off faster than a messy house.) I did get his waffles and icecream ready in the morning for breakfast - that is tradition. My mom's family are waffle on your birthday people. My mom always did it with ice cream and strawberries. My husband really likes this particular tradition.
And we had a good dinner. And then he and the boys went out and picked out his icecream cake.

Like I said, its been a bit disorganized and uptight - so I didn't have candles...
and then we played EA Games's "Lord of the Rings" for hours. 4 of us at a time. That was great.

Yellow is bewitching

Halloween Photos again
because they are so cute

My yellow witch was so darn pleased with herself. It was wonderful. And we did up her make-up so under that floppy yellow hat she was all pink and pretty. Nobody believed I made it-
My pretty little witch:

and here she is posing

busy, busy, shockingly busy

Can you tell me where this song is from?

I'm busy, busy, dreadfully busy
You've no idea what I have to do
busy, busy shockingly busy
much, much too busy for you!

anyway - I find myself in the regular dilemma - start from the now or catch up? but I'm so very linear in thought: beginning, middle, end.
besides.
I had bragging to do:

lets begin with sewing.
I promised I'd sew for Halloween. I mean, where do you find a yellow witch, a purple wizard and a blue wizard? really?
and then well...
a series of misfortunate events...
and so on Saturday Otober 31st I sewed. And sewed...

and then Tiger said; "thanks mom. you really made my Halloween special." a trophy. an absolute trophy.

H1N1 - Oh Joy!

We kept Dragon home from school Monday. He stayed with his dad and I went and worked at my preschool class. Tuesday I took him to the MD. He tested positive for both H1N1 and for Strep. Double whammy!!! So I called school and said he'd be out for the week per doctor's orders.
We stopped by the pharmacy on the way home and 30 minutes later I got a phone call. The abuterol and amoxicillian went through insurance just fine but there is an issue with the tamiflu. WHAT? The pharmacist is clearly frustrated - they need a two day approval process for the tamiflu but by then it will not do him any good. What do I want her to do? Make it up. "It will run you about $150.00" she says just to make sure I'm clear. Yikes.
I call the insurance. Apparently the doctor needs to call and verify the prescription. Seriously? It isn't like I stole a pad and wrote it myself. But I'm a bit irritated. I mean - have you been in a pediatrician's office this fall? They are swamped. SWAMPED. They do not have time to waste arguing with insurance. But- this is a highly contagious virus right? I cannot really afford not to get this straightened out. And besides, the principal of the thing is, it is insurance and it is supposed to cover prescription drugs. Period. So I call the doctor's office and I get Anne on the phone. I love Anne. I tell Anne my issue and she calls insurance to figure out what their deal is... and then I mention the bottle is going to cost me $150.00 and Anne gets hot. HOT. You can tell she is hollering at who ever is on the other end. Anne gets the doctor and the doctor, the insurance and the pharmacist have a 3 way call going. I end up just buying the darn bottle because by now it has taken hours and my understanding is that we need the Tamiflu to get into his system as soon as possible. INSANE!
It boils down to this. This area is out of liquid tamiflu. So the pharmacists are mixing up solution out of tablets. To do this they end up making an extra teaspoon of the tamiflu. Insurance doesn't want to cover the extra teaspoon. In the meantime they have wasted how much of my day? How much of the staff at the doctors office's day? How much of the pharmacists day?
So we will see. If I have to take another kid to the doctor this week with flu like symptoms I will be making sure the doctor calls the over ride number before I leave the office. But still, that is 15 minutes they could be spending with a patient.
But if you google it you can buy the bottle from Canada for $75.00. Ridiculous!