Week Before Christmas

Here are a few quick pictures that we took this weekend at Sheri's father's house. Rick (Sheri's dad) and Betty (Sheri's step-mom) had the day all planned out. It was very organized, which of course when it comes to a bunch of kids is a good thing. First we arrived, ate lunch, then grandpa pulled the kids around in sled with his 4-wheeler. After that the little heathans frosted cookies where you will see Triton is a bit more interested in eating the frosting instead of applying it to his cookie. Afterwards they all watched a kiddie movie about Santa and puppies? Santa Paws? I think it was called? Anyway we didn't get to stick around for that because Quinn decided on a busy day such as that that she didn't need to nap. She was mega fussy and thus we had to depart. Triton of course didn't want to leave. He and the two youngest boys of course weren't sitting and watching the movie, they were running around making a mess with the million toys of which they had access.



Quinn and Mommy, my two beauties.

Papa Rick, that is what all the grandkids call their grandpa Rick, and Quinn.

Triton is in the middle between his two cousins Drake in front and Bailey in back. In the far sled are his other two cousins Keaton and Jackson.

Triton, Drake and Jackson all frosting their cookies.

Well, It Turns Out

So, I guess my last blog wasn't that funny. There was only one person "besides Sheri" who thought it was funny. I didn't give any warning to any of you who read it before hand so as to get an honest reaction. Sheri of course knew it never happened so that is why she thought it was funny. My cousin Brandon is a bit sick like me and he thought it was funny too.
The most amazing thing that I discovered from you all is that you pretty much believed it. I wonder if it was because of the way it was written or you all think that I could in fact do something that horrific? My own mom cried as she read it and tried to call me before finishing it. I guess she let the phone ring twice before hanging up when she got to the bottom and read the part about it being a practical joke. One person out of my family and friends doubted it from the very beginning. My cousin Josh and I are so alike that I am sure that is why he never for even the slightest second thought that it could or did happen! Thanks Josh for being the only one that knows and believes I am and always will be a decent enough guy to not hit his wife! I love you and always will.

So yeah my mom was in town and stayed with us "at her house" the whole time she was here from the 16th of October and left the 26th. It was so great to see her, it had almost been a year. She has hair again after all the chemo. It grew back all curly though. I guess that can sometimes happen after being exposed to chemo! Last time she stayed in town she stayed here at her house and also her mother's. I was glad that she didn't leave us this time because I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could. I felt bad that I did go golfing two or three times while she was here, but I did take off work all the days that she was here. Her and I went to a few movies while she was here.
We saw "Devil", it was really good. We also saw "Hereafter", it was really good until the end. It kind of ended abruptly and didn't really have a conclusion at all. Devil was a classic M. Knight movie. I have mentioned in past blogs that I love his movies. All of them except for "The Happening" for some reason that movie just didn't float my boat. Sure he did Avatar (The Last Airbender), but it is kind of a kids movie. I liked it and it was better than I thought it was going to be, but I think that he had to follow what has already been written to a certain extent. I don't think that my mom too much cared for "Devil" she would say it was okay. That is where I get my thing with 99% of movies just being okay. A movie really has to stick out for us (my mom and I) to say that a movie is good. I think that I would say I like more movies that her in the sense that I would say they are good, but I think she looks simply at the story and the acting. I love to watch how a movie is filmed from different angles and originality is great too. So a movie that is okay to her can be good to me simply because of the directing.
So, I also got my mom to play Mariokart for the Wii. I figured I could talk her into that because it is a simple game. You basically push one button and steer with the controller as if you were driving a real car. She competed with Triton and beat him probably 65% of the time. He drives better than her on the game and knows the courses better, but he loses interest and goes in circles half of the time. It was crazy that she played though because she doesn't like games like that at all. She has never like Nintendo crap all that much except one game way back in the day, I think I was in 4th grade when I awoke to my mom playing this one game in my room on my small black and white television at 3:00am or so. It was a game called The Battle of Olympus, it is kind of like Mario except it is about mythology. Most everything else was the same though as far as challenges and control. The greatest story within that story about my mom playing mariokart is that I was able to trick her into being on camera. We have a flip video that is wicked easy and fast to operate. Without her knowing I setup the camera while we played. My mom has always hated cameras and having her picture taken, so when she didn't notice me setting it up I was grateful. One reason was she was able to act natural and another was the fact that it captured her doing something with Triton and myself. It was funny watching her steer because she would over-correct much like a new student in drivers ed. Triton and I play mariokart all the time and we hardly move our hands and arms while driving. My mother on the other hand was all over the room. She had me laughing so hard watching her on the screen that I was crying. My stomach hurt so bad because I was relating her driving on screen to a new boy or girl trying to get their license. She obviously has known how to drive a real vehicle for so long that you would think that she would know to make small easy corrections? I guess the fact that it is a game changed her way of thinking because she was on one side of the road/screen in one second and the next instant she was on the opposite side wheeling her way back to the other. Whether or not she will say she liked playing it I am sure that she did.

You never think

Well, I know it has been awhile since I have blogged and for that I am sorry. Sorry that I haven't been doing it and maybe if I had blogged I wouldn't be in the predicament that I am in at the moment.
It is embarrassing to think that I am faced with criminal charges. I have a lawyer that is super confident that I won't be facing any jail/prison time so that is good! It would serve me right though and this might be my last blog for sometime since I won't have access to a computer when serving community service. I am just seeing myself along the highway with the other people who have let these tough times bring them down as well. All of us freezing, picking up the litter that those inconsiderate pigs throw out of there car while driving carefree in their expensive automobiles. Okay not only the rich litter, I am just sour I guess about those who don't care about this planet.
So here it is, since I am imagining that you are wondering why I have a lawyer and everything else. One night about a month and a half ago Sheri and I were stressed about the kids screaming and Quinn was being a terd and wouldn't let us sleep for more than 20 minutes. I guess it took our toll on us and one night it all came tumbling down the mountain. Sheri usually always gets up and takes care of Quinn because I hate getting up because I don't sleep that well anyway. Well after working 4 of my long nights and taking care of the kids in the daytime while Sheri worked I was excited to get some much needed sleep. I remember falling asleep and waking up like 3 times to Sheri getting up and catering to our little (scream every minute) daughter. It was probably 3 in the morning and I wasn't happy at all. The 4th time that Quinn woke up Sheri let her cry and cry (which she usually doesn't) and it was pissing me off like no other. I nudge Sheri to go get her and she yells at me to go and do it myself. I am wicked pissed and go to get up to try to tend to little miss crying angel Quinn. Now when I have to get out of bed I have to crawl over Sheri because our bed is on a corner. I remember this whole moment like it was yesterday and the moment will forever be etched in my brain. Thank goodness it was dark so I don't have to see it in my mind over and over, but then again maybe it should be something that should haunt me. I was in a rage yes, but I never imagined that this situation could ever happen. I am kind of rushing to get out of bed and I must have been a little groggy too but I tried to miss Sheri's body parts while hopping out of bed. I kind of mount over her and ease passed her and not touch her when usually getting out of bed. When in a hurry this didn't work too well and I accidentally slipped and fell on her abdomen with all of my weight on my elbow. In an instant and what feels like an eternity in my head now as it replays over and over, Sheri probably in a reaction to being pummeled from my elbow kneed me in the crotch.
This next part is very hard to write and I can't believe that I am able to write all of this as tears are streaming down my face. I probably won't even hit submit when posting this blog as it is a shame to me, but in case I do have to go to jail I want everyone to know that I am so sorry.
There is no excuse for what happened even though it was maybe a simple reaction from all the stress and having my jewels crushed from a knee, but in no time flat I thought maybe Sheri did it on purpose and retaliated by hitting her. I hit her in the face! Being so tired I don't know how a fist could have had so much velocity. I obviously made contact and must have landed this rage adrenaline filled punch to Sheri's nose and eye socket area. Her nose broke and her eye was hurt pretty bad, but I have heard that she is healing well. She even had three broken ribs from my fat ass crushing her from the initial fall to her mid section. Blood instantly covered her face and pillow. I felt panic rush over me and I tried to hug her and tell her I was so sorry. She raced out of the room spilling red everywhere on her way out of the room and down the stairs. She called the police and I don't know if she even grabbed toilet paper before calling them. You know how in the movies or in an accident the police take forever to show up! Well on this night it seemed as though they were here in an instant. I didn't have time to grab Quinn and follow Sheri down the stairs and see how badly she was hurt (since I discovered that there was a river of blood after getting Quinn and turning on the light) before there was a knock at the door. I could see cop car lights and couldn't believe that I was going to jail. I am sure that I would have done the same thing if I was Sheri. I don't blame her at all. And since this story is all fiction and never happened I can forgive her and I hope that you all can forgive me. It isn't even April Fool's.

****Warning three people have called and didn't understand that this is an actual joke (it didn't really happen)*******


Here are a couple of updated pictures of the kids. Triton is in preschool now, only one day a week. In January he is going to be going 4 times a week and will be having lunch at school. When talking it over with the ladies at the school I almost started crying because I knew that my boy is growing up. I will explain more about that and how my mom was in town to visit this last month as well in my next blog.

Quinn and Cousin Parker

Quinn in her bouncer.

Happy Girl.

Quinn visiting with her cousin Parker whom is a day younger than her.

Move over please, paparazzi is here taking pictures of me Parker.

A Quick Cutie

I have no clue why we haven't thought of getting a picture of big brother holding his sister? I was inspired the other day I guess. I was upstairs trying to get little Quinn to stop crying. She hates to be in the same place for an extended period. She also can't stand being alone, most of the time. So, I get her upstairs and she finally quits fussing. Triton follows because he likes to get into stuff upstairs. I decided to see how good Triton would be if Quinn was in his lap and I told him to hold onto her. I set him down, then sat Quinn in front of him and they were fine. I told him to stay there so I could run downstairs and get the camera. I run as fast as I could in hopes that he didn't let her tip over and get the camera. I run back up and the camera battery is dead of course. So, I run back downstairs and get the flip video. That is why the quality of the picture isn't that great, but I think that it is way cute nonetheless. I took like 20 seconds of video and was happy as could be that I was able to get a still shot with the both of them looking at the camera. Triton is smiling of course because he loves to be in front of the camera, and Quinn isn't fussing and is not drooling. So, I won't be too upset that I didn't get a smile from her as well. She is for sure a drooler! Triton never really did drool at all even when teething, but little Quinn is bound and determined to be unattractive. She holds her tongue in the front of her gums and just drools and has spit bubbles in the front of her mouth 90% of the time. This was another reason that reinforced my opinion of her not being that cute of a baby. I see her in her cute moments with no spit and a huge smile and I know that she is getting cuter day by day.

200? Scroll to see pics of Quinn if you don't want to read the novel

So, I have always told myself that I would never weigh 200 pounds or over! All my life I have ate what I wanted and for the most part I was able to keep the weight off. Senior year of high school I remember the year that I was losing muscle and definition. I never worked out other than P.E. classes in junior high and high school, but I seemed to have a nice flat stomach and yes I had a six pack back in the day. I never had large arms, but I could beat 99% of people in high school at arm wrestling.
A quick funny story about that is there was this kid in high school same grade as I and he knew that I was good at arm wrestling. At the end of junior year he said that he would bet me that he could beat me by the end of our senior year. He was a football player and I wasn't. He was popular and I wasn't, not that that has anything to do with the story, but he was the kind of kid who didn't talk to you because you weren't in the same social crowd as he. Thus he was a nice kid, and we ended up having the same class I believe throughout our senior year. I know we did for at least half our senior year. He and a small group of us trouble makers sat in the back. It seemed once every couple of weeks he would challenge me to arm wrestle. He was determined to win this bet. Well it turns out that he never could beat me and I hate to say that he never really put up that much of a fight either. I never really had to struggle to win a single match against him. You might think that just because he was a football player doesn't mean that he was that muscular. Well this is where the story turns in my favor and therefore I will always have something to brag about. You know at the end of the year when they have those dumb sayings about certain classmates like he or she is the most likely to become an astronaut, or he or she is most likely to become a serial killer. I remember some classmates had titles of what they already were in high school. Like maybe they had nicest personality or prettiest smile. This young man who will remain nameless for his sake was voted the biggest guns in school. Guns meaning his arms! He was huge and his arms were probably twice the size of mine. Arm wrestling is probably 60% techinique and 40% muscle. This is how and why I was able to win. The bet was a measly $5 and at the end of the year I told him that he better pay up. He didn't ever pay me! He mustn't have had the money. Some years later I was working at a bowling alley and he and his friends came in to bowl. I asked him if he had my money and he kind of smiled and laughed it off as he walked away and went to bowl. When none of his friends were watching he came up and gave me 5 one dollar bills! I thought it funny at the time. It is just a little notch on my I am better than the best belt.
Enough bragging and on to that notch in the belt remark. I have been gaining the pant sizes these past few years. I am not fat by any means, but for me I feel like I am obese. It is hard to think of yourself fat in this day and age if you are my weight when you can simply look at 80% of the people and know that they are fatter than you. Dang this country is fat! This does not mean that I am out of the clear when it comes to having good health though. Nor is an excuse to keep letting myself go.
I found out a little over a year ago that I am insulin resistant, which is a really nice way of saying that you are lazy and fat. A person can do minimal exercise and eat proper and never be insulin resistant or have diabetes. Of course there are the few cases in which a person that both exercises and eats correctly can become both. They are few and far between those lazy fat people like me. So, this last year after finding out that I was indeed insulin resistant my doctor asked what I wanted to do (eat better or get on pills)? I didn't want to take pills, but he suggested that we do it and see how it goes for awhile. I was on pills for 6 months and I went back in again. He found out that my numbers were extremely better and that I was almost out of the clear of any fright of becoming diabetic. A couple of numbers where a bit high still, but the overall average had me in the average safe realm. So, I haven't been back in almost a year (I have to go in sometime next month and it will be a year) and the first six months I still wasn't eating right. I was gaining weight and my excuse was the pills. I knew that they were helping keep my numbers down so why eat right? That is partially the excuse that I had for not caring what I was eating. The other is the fact that food is yummy! I love food and it loves me. Well, my pills ran out, they didn't run out exactly they just are going to cost a ton more than they have because of the yearly discount thing. So, out of nowhere (knowing that my pills aren't worth spending that much money) about a month and a half ago I decided to start eating better. When I had my insulin resistant test a gentleman there told me to get a book about dieting when being insulin resistant. I bought the book, but didn't really ever open it up. I kept it nearby so I knew where it was, but I never really cared (again because I knew that the pills were helping).
Six or seven months ago I was working out a bit and weighing myself here and there. I was at 198 the last time I weighed myself. I stopped working out and kept eating whatever there was to eat. I might imagine I got over 200? Who knows? If I didn't weigh msyelf how was I to know if I was over 200 or not? So, after eating a ton better this past month and a half I decided to weigh myself. I was wicked scared because I was afraid it would say 200 or more.
I weighed myself on our scale at home first because I know that it is a bit off. It said that I weighed 185.5, it was such a relief you don't even know! I weighed myself the next day on the same scale of course and it said 183. I knew that I had probably lost about 10 pounds even though I knew that the scale was off. I weighed myself at work (where I knew that it would tell me the truth and I was hoping it said that I was under 190) and it says I weigh about 187.5 pounds. It is way nice to be going the other way for a change. I opened that book and found some info and ideas on how to balance meals. The weirdest discovery in all of this is that I don't go to the fridge and see nothing. I don't go to the cupboards and see nothing. The same food is in there now, there is just so much of it. Before it was "there is nothing to eat" and I drive to McDonald's or Burger King. I go to the fridge now and see so much more food! Haha it isn't because I had already eaten it all in the past! With this diet book there are even certain types of food it doesn't matter how much you eat you can just keep eating it. This is the much larger side dish now that goes with my much smaller regular dish. I eat probably about a can and a half of vegetables a day with my meals.
Sheri's birthday was August 6th and we went to Olive Garden. I had a Caesar salad before my meal. My meal consisted of Chicken, Broccoli and Asparagus! Sheri looked at my meal when it arrived, saw me eating and she said "you are doing way good on your diet". I told her it really wasn't a diet now and that I eat more now then when I was just eating whatever. I really did surprise myself with that meal because the noodles looked so good on the menu. I did have a slice of her and Triton's pizza, but I didn't eat one bread stick! You know how good bread sticks are there too, all warm and tasty! So, I am doing good with eating better, but really haven't had that much extra energy yet. That will obviously come from working out, which is the next step/goal. I first want to see how my numbers are from the visit to the doctor. Plus the more weight I lose before then the less I will have to carry while on the treadmill.

Okay enough about me, take a look at my cute little baby girl. She is such a cutie (NOW)! Okay so those of you who don't know Triton was an oddity. He came out of his mom with no gross goop on him, he wasn't all purple and wrinkly like you see on the television when a mother gives birth to a baby. This actually scared me the first time I saw him because I was expecting to see a wrinkly, purple, gross goop all over him alien. Instead he comes out looking like he is ready to golf 18 holes with his daddy. It was the weirdest thing.
Quinn on the other hand was the exact opposite of Triton, she did in fact come out all gross and wrinkly! I for sure didn't expect her to come out like Triton, but I did expect a cuter baby! It is the meanest thing to say and I know a ton of you are going to think I am a horrible father, but I did not think that she was cute at all. I knew she wasn't a troll like some babies but she wasn't very cute right out of the wome. Not even for at least a month or two after either. I am not one of the parents who thinks that there baby is cute no matter what (obviously). Some parents you see their baby and they are like isn't he or she so cute? You are nodding, but in your head you are saying no, please keep this alien baby away. He or she might win the ugliest dog contest! Okay that was overboard and I didn't think Quinn was near that extreme. Look at her now though with her cute little smile. I hope my eyes haven't glazed over and all of you are thinking "keep that alien baby away from me"! I am imagining Quinn reading this when she gets older and just hating me for it! Oh well, I can tell her that I was an ugly baby. I know this from pictures and a few uncles have even told me that I wasn't a cute baby, and I am not heart broken about it! Anyway, blog over here is my baby girl at almost 4 months old.

Quick Pics

Baby girl with her mom and dad on the day of her blessing.

Triton on the Fourth of July where he got his little patriotic tattoo/sticker on his cheek.

Triton riding his birthday bike, one of three times that he has tried? For some reason he isn't to keen on trying to learn how to ride a bike!

Not Sure About This One?

I haven't had time to get online and post. I am writing this blog to simply yack away for maybe a minute or two who knows? Thus the title of the blog. This could be an all day read or a simple, why in the heck did he even bother posting?
Golf has been okay, I am always trying new things and I think I am going to take another lesson to get rid of all the thoughts in my head and maybe focus on one or two things? I paid for my cousin Josh to take a lesson this last week. He had thanked me many times before he had even taken the lesson. I told him that he could thank me if the lesson helped him. I know that expectations are high after a lesson and your score might actually get worse. From the looks of his game today that was what happened. He had his lesson and loved it, said he learned a lot and was stoked to try to use it. Today was the first time that he was able to use it on the course. I could see the lesson helped, but his old swing is still there and it will just take time. I hope that he gets better because I would love to lose to him and not to Henry's luck. Henry is such a roller coaster, he will shoot 100 one day and 78 the next, but the one thing that cracks me up about him is his luck. If I had Henry's luck I would be down kissing the feet of the golf gods everyday. True he hits a great shot here and there, but there is still about 50% luck in his game. This last week at a golf course with a lot of trees he was whining because he was in the trees all but like 4 holes on the front. After counting I had one more tree trouble shot than he did and I was still winning by 2 strokes.
Funniest thing I ever heard him say was about 3 weeks ago and then I will get off the golf subject. He was in this little group of trees and he hits a shot toward the area of the green/fairway and it hits another tree. We didn't know where it had gone and of course he is expecting the ball to be in the fairway. He drives up and is looking around and I see a ball that was over behind this other tree. I asked him to check that ball because it was the only one around. It was about 20 yards left of where the ball had hit this other tree. He drives over to this ball and says the most funniest, horrible, donkey quote I have ever heard. He says "how the heck did my ball end up here"? This is such a rediculous thing to say because A. He had hit the tree in front of him pretty hard so any normal person would expect the ball to go anywhere. B. He always expects his ball to be playable and in the middle of the fairway, because he always is in the fairway after hitting moronic horrible shots. It just cracks me up that he is as lucky as he is and then it just puts salt on the wound that he isn't grateful for his luck and expects it. It is nice to be an optomist don't get me wrong, but there are times that you should admit to your luck and stop whining when your opponent has one lucky shot per every twelve of yours!! If he is golfing horrible and I have one good break, he turns into a baby saying what a good break you there! One if I am golfing bad I could care less how lucky he is because it is my fault for golfing bad. So I probably don't even notice a few of his great breaks because 2 out of ten rounds I golf horrible. When he is golfing horrible and not getting every break that he is expecting to get he gets on me for being lucky! Crazy, but true?
Okay enough about golf. Onto the fact that Triton is catching on to potty training really good. We put a diaper on him when we go places but that is because he hasn't used a big toilet yet and is comfortable with his little potty training toilet. We ask him all the time if he has to go pee when he is running around the house with underwear on. At first like 2 weeks ago he would say no all the time and he still does, but he has been informing us lately that he has to go. Before and still occasionally he would leak a tiny bit, say potty potty and would finish in the trainer which is great. However the other day he was watching his TV while I was feeding Quinn and Sheri was getting ready in the bathroom (make-up or hair) and he come running up to me without his underwear on saying potty potty, which meant that he had indeed gone potty. It was the first time that he ever went by himself without us asking him or making him or helping him take his underwear off quickly. It was a great moment. He is excited to learn that duty now that he knows it saves him from me having a spank on his toosh! Yes I tried to spank him at first to get him to pay attention and it might have worked only a bit, but mostly it probably made him more timid. I didn't do it every time or anything like that, it was mostly when he had poopoo. This turned out to not be a good thing because the little boy jumped on a band wagon of "I'm Sorrys". I would tell him to lay down so that we could change his diaper or underwear and he would say Sorry, Sorry. This saddened me quickly and I stopped spanking him. What is even more sad is that he says sorry for everything now! The boy saddens his dad, but that is what I get for being a bad daddy. So, I started the encouragement thing. When he started first going in the potty I would act so happy and proud and I probably was and kids are supposed to want to do whatever provokes that action in their parents, but at first he didn't care. He just didn't want to sit on the potty. He has used it more and more and of course we cheer for him and it has helped him a lot. Good Boy Triton, so sorry about the spankings.
The little guy has been rather hyper this last week. We went golfing with Sheri's dad and he was hyper all that day. We get done golfing today get home and take a bath and he is running around the house naked because I was cooking him food and feeding Quinn at the same time. He, out of nowhere, starts hopping around like he is on a stick horse saying "spank, spank"!! While slapping his own @ss! I wish I would have gotten it on camera because I am sure that he was slapping himself hard enough to leave marks? Crazy kid I tell you. I couldn't stop laughing, but I had to because I didn't want him to keep doing it.
Triton had his 3 year old doctors appt. a few weeks ago and the doctor wanted to have his speech tested again because he was concerned about Triton not talking again. This is fine, but I am wondering if this doctor gets a percentage of the money that goes to the speech place. Last time when Triton was not even 2 he wanted us to take him in and they kind of tested him but wondered why we were bringing him there at such a young age. They said that Triton was probably a bit behind but wasn't too concerned and gave us some pointers and we followed and thought that he was doing better. We lack here and there, but we had been helping him and forcing him to use words.
We take him in to this different speech therapy place this time because I wasn't impressed with the cleanliness of this last one. I don't know where all the money that these places make goes because the people that work there aren't very professional when it comes to dress, intellect or simple manners? So, this new place tests Triton and says that he is about ten months behind and is in the severe category. So, we are like okay you are expensive but if this is needed of course we will do it. Sheri takes Triton to his first two appointments, the first being his test and then the next where they work with him. Work with him?? These little sessions are like $190.00 a piece and that is for a 53 minute session? That is fine like I said if they are doing what is needed and it will help him. Sheri said that she wasn't sure how his first session was going to help because she didn't really do anything. I figure okay maybe this is just a first session thing where they get Triton used to the facility and get him comfortable with the councilor so that he can be taught more easily.
So, I take him to his second session and the facility is better looking and cleaner than the last so that was a plus. The lady that took my little man was an elderly woman probably 60 and she wasn't too professional looking in dress or courtesy. Sheri said that this lady played with Triton on day one and didn't really try to get him to say a thing just played with him and used words to inform him of everything he was doing or playing with. This is something that we basically do at home. I sit there this whole hour and she doesn't try to get Triton to say a thing? She doesn't say a word to me to help me with him at home either. She or whom ever is charging a butt load of money to do nothing. I don't know where the money is going, but it seemed to be a complete waste. As well, she coughed into her hand and didn't wash or sanitize before playing with the same toys that Triton was playing with right after doing it! I am a person that is a germophope true, but if you want to keep taking family after family's money then at least have the decency to wash your hands after coughing. So, he isn't going back there and we are going to find a preschool program to get him into. He will be around more children and it will be less money. Money like I said wasn't the issue we have no problem paying the money but at least do something with the child for more than 53 minutes a week for the amount that you charge! I mean I should have asked to see this lady's credentials and how she is so special to get paid so much, but she probably would have handed me a boogery tissue with her name on it. Oh yeah, SHE DOESN'T USE TISSUES!!!
Okay I am finished venting about that for now. Needless to say we won't be taking him back there again. I have made my little boy watch a few more movies that encourage him to use words instead of letting him watch Tom and Jerry all of the time. He loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Sesame Street which are great, but when I need the big television I let him watch Disney movies or whatever he usually wants one his own smaller TV, but lately he has been forced to watch "Your Baby Can Read" videos, he doesn't like them much, but he is getting used to the fact that we aren't going to let him slack anymore.
On July 4th (Sunday) I was able to bless baby Quinn. It was such a great experience and I will post some pictures of her in her dress. I wasn't nervous as much about blessing her as I was with Triton but I cried more this time during the prayer/blessing. I am not a person that likes to talk ask anyone who knows me. It has been easier for me to relay feeling on paper. Not because I don't like to talk, I don't for sure like to talk, but it is because if I talk about anything that is emotional to me I cry like a little baby! I always thought that I would be a good actor in the sense that I could basically cry at any time, so the emotional scenes of a movie wouldn't be at all hard to pull off.
Like posting this blog about Triton not being able to talk is emotional to me, but of course I am not dripping tears on the keyboard as I am typing, but I have no doubt if I were to talk to anyone face to face about it that I would bawl like a little school girl with a skinned knee! Alright I guess I am finished with this post, and will hopefully have pics on the next one.

Well?

I entered last weeks tournament because I wanted to win and get enough money to get myself a new bag for my clubs. I accomplished that goal, somewhat! The tournament was a two day event and after day one I was three behind the leader. I had a very good day of golf and shot an 80 at a par 72 course. It is good for me and pretty good for my flight. There was another gentleman that shot a 77? I was paired up with him and three other guys on the second day. Some guy shot an 82 and another an 84. I figured that I would only have to beat the one guy that shot a 77. I have no idea how he shot a 77 because he wasn't that good. I ended up beating him by one stroke on the second day (even though I did horrible on day 2) and the guy that shot an 82 the first day shot a 75 on the second day! He must have been sandbagging before the tournament because he said that the 82 he shot on day one was the first time this year that he had shot under 90 all year! Right....... And then you conveniently shoot a 75 to break 80 the very next day! Okay if you feel good about sand bagging then so be it. So, he won first place Gross which means before handicap is added in. I tied for first in the Net portion which is obviously after handicap is added in. I won the above trophy and $195 credit for the pro shop. The bag that I wanted was $199 so I wasn't too mad about paying the extra and the tax on top because the tournament was only $35.00. That is if I had to pay extra, when I went in to get the bag, the nice gentleman behind the desk said that we would just call it even. So I didn't have to pay the extra, what a nice guy right? I was very happy with my prize and with the results, but I wasn't happy with my golf on day two. I shot an 84 on day two. I guess I can't complain since I got what I wanted that being the new golf bag.

Triton's birthday was on the 22nd and we had a little party for him at Sheri's mom's. Pretty much everyone else had plans already or were out of town so his party was little this year. This is him getting ready to blow out the candles.

Big boy eating his cake, he must have liked it because he ate most of that piece you see here. What a cute boy he is.

Here is the little chubby cheeked boy opening presents. He is still cute even with cake crumbs all over his face.

Baby girl oblivious to what is going on around takes a little nap.

We got Triton a bike for his birthday but the one that he decided he wanted wasn't at the store so we are waiting for it to be delivered. He had a chance to go home with one from the store but he liked others better just from their small picture. Heck even now days if I have a chance to leave the store with something or wait for an order I leave the store with it! What a little "Big" boy he is to have the patience to wait. Happy Birthday Triton.

Probably Boring

Golf.
I will label each topic so my mom can skip over the boring ones. Okay, so we know that I have been struggling with golf all year. I have tried so many new things in the past two to four years I don't even know where to begin. You might simply say take a lesson! The club pros should be able to help him. Well, my main issue has always bean hitting a wood whether it be the driver or three wood. I have taken lessons and I wasn't able to get the kind of help I wanted. I was told to change my grip, I thought that worked and it did help a bit, I am kind of using that old grip and the new one (new being 2 years). When taking lessons the club pros that I worked with all said that I had a good swing and would try to get me to think of things that would enable me to keep my own swing yet score better. I knew that something wasn't right with my back swing and nobody would address that issue even if I told them that was what I thought was my main concern. They said, no it is fine you don't have to worry about that.
A couple of weeks ago I was mega pissed again and was thinking of taking yet another lesson from someone else this time. I had to skip one of the biggest tournaments of the year because I had no confidence. I am always in the yard swinging a club and hitting plastic or foam golf balls while Triton is hitting real golf balls. He is getting way good by the way, you would not want to stand in front of him while he is hitting even if you were 20 yards ahead of him. If he hit you it would hurt for sure. So, we are out in the yard and I am trying anything and everything to get my club head to remain square at impact. I would think I would have something and try it on the course and it wouldn't work. This has happened what seems like a million times in the past 4 years. Before Sheri went back to work from being on maternity leave I was able to golf early in the mornings on my days off. 3 weeks ago I had a new thought process. It is to make sure that not only is the club head lined up and address but that my shoulders are as well. Of course the pros have told me this, but with my swing I wasn't able to stay lined up with either because of my swing plane. I threw on another thought process and that was to hit down on the ball. I thought that I had always been doing this but I actually wasn't because the pros tell you to swing through the ball. Swinging through the ball is what was causing me to duck hook the ball. A duck hook is horrible, it is when the ball takes off and just does almost a U turn in the air and flies left. The most distance I have had when duck hooking the ball is maybe 200 yards. My normal drives were anywhere from 100 to 200 yards and of course always left. So, I was lining up the driver, lining up my shoulders and now hitting down on the ball. This was starting to work a bit, but once I added in another thought it seemed to all come together. That was to take the club up and to the outside in the back swing. I had always been told to keep the club head low and to extend in the back swing. This caused me to come over the top with the club. I have three thoughts that I tell myself while setting up to the ball now. They are line, back, down. Line is for line up, back is for bringing the club back instead of under, and down is simply hitting down on the ball.
This is only about a week and a half in mind you, but in my last three rounds of golf I have only had one drive that was a bit of a duck hook. I am calling it my new swing now, but since these last three rounds with the new swing I probably haven't had a drive under 250 yards, unless it was into the wind. 250 yards isn't special by any means, but it is when your usual shot is 50 - 100 yards behind that. These drives are in the middle or just off into the rough as well. Whereas before they would be way left and in the woods or deep deep rough. So of course I figure out something a week after a big tournament. I was upset that I missed it, but thinking on it now I might not have won my division because I was still tinkering. My last round of golf was on a cold windy day and I was only 8 over par. I was still tinkering with it on the front 9 but it all seemed to come together on the last 8 holes. I was 7 over par after triple bogeying ten. Then from hole 11 to 18 I was only one over and that last bogey was a three putt from 20 feet, pretty dumb. So, there is a tournament this weekend at a course that I hate, but I am expecting to win. If I can play half of the holes the way that I finished this last weekend then I will win first place easily. I am expecting to win my division with no problems. This is a 2 day tournament so if I can have 18 really good holes then it is mine for the taking. My confidence it at an all time high. So, I will hopefully start fulfilling some of them golf goals that I had made for myself at the beginning of the year. These goals were if you didn't read them in a previous blog to
Drop to a 6.5 handicap.
Score 10 or more eagles.
Shoot par at least 5 times.
Never allow Henry to win.
Now Henry has beaten me a few times this year, but I didn't have the swing that I wanted. He shouldn't beat me ever again this year and I will keep posted about that. I will still be happy if he doesn't beat me again because this new swing is great. 6.5 handicap, wow I was really optimistic huh? Right now it is at a 14.9 and if I drop to an 8 by the end of this year I will be happy so maybe that goal of 6.5 can be raised to an 8? Shoot par 5 times this year is a lofty one too, but if I can start making long putts and keep the same swing I had this last weekend then that one could happen no problem. 10 or more eagles? That one is probably not going to happen, but I will sure try. I have had more eagle opportunities this year than ever, I just can't make a long putt like I said. I am loving the new putter and trying out a new swing for the putter as well. It has helped me too, so everything is coming together and I am hoping to post a new blog Sunday night telling everyone that I did win the tournament like I knew I was going to.

Poker.
I had given up poker for a couple of months and didn't really miss it at all. I would still watch new poker programs on the television, but that was about it. I didn't play didn't really want to. There wasn't the normal live game either or I probably would have played even though I hated the game because the people are nice and it is fun most of the time. 4 weeks ago the game started back up and I had a chance to go on my day off. I took home the most money that night and was able to go the next two weeks after that and I haven't lost yet. I haven't won much have you, but not losing for me is great because I hate to say have bad luck. I would like to blame it all on luck, but I can see that taking a break from the game a lot of it was my attitude and the way I was playing. I decided to have my uncle transfer my money back to me on the websites that I had told him I was just giving to him. I had transferred somewhere around $75 on two websites. He had kept track of what I gave him and he transferred $27.70 back to me on pokerstars and $46.00 back to me on Fulltilt. That $46 was actually on Doylesroom, but he wasn't allowed to transfer on that site for some reason. I didn't mind because Fulltilt has this new style of poker that is fun and fast. So, since deciding to start playing poker again I haven't lost one session. I have made over $87 in 10 sessions. Over $50 of that is from playing a live game not online. My goal online is to win $1.00 per session for my first 30 times. It should be easy since after only 7 times I am up over $33.00. I think I am playing better and having a little better luck. I am not having the urge to play as much after taking that long break, but that is a good thing.

QT

Quinn is doing good, I guess these last 4 days Quinn has slept pretty good. Maybe it was just after her worst night with me that she decided to start sleeping better. Last weekend I had the luxury of staying up with her while Sheri slept. I had been talking to my mom on the phone for about an hour and she knew that I was tired from sleep deprivation, but she wouldn't believe that Quinn would keep me up for at least another 2 or 3 hours. I got off the phone with my mom at about 9:30 and figured Quinn might let me sleep at 11:30 or midnight. This little darling angel of mine decided to have her most pissy night ever. She wouldn't sleep for more than 15 minutes even though I was doing everything I could think of to assist her. I also had a tee time to get of for at 5:30. She finally fell asleep at 2:00am I got up at 5:00 when she made a noise and I made Sheri take over and I still went golfing. I was not happy with baby girl that night I tell you what because she was basically awake from 6:30 pm to 2:00am with only them little 15 minute power naps. She wasn't even happy after these little naps either, she would wake up so fussy and angry! I think that she had bad gas. I guess one day this last week she allowed Sheri to sleep from 10:00pm to almost 4:00am or just after? I think that she has been sleeping good for Sheri but Sheri herself can't catch a break because Triton has been a sick boy for the past 3 nights. Maybe Quinn just knows that Triton is keeping mom up so she doesn't have to? Poor Triton he is the saddest boy when he is sick.
About 5 days ago Sheri said that Triton decided to get up for the day at about 7:00 or 7:30. He usually sleeps at least until 8:30 and sometimes 9:30. I was watching Triton that day and I saw him laying over by his TV watching cartoons. I asked him a question and he didn't move. I decided to walk over and see if he was alive. He was sleeping in the middle of the day? We haven't made him take a nap since Quinn's birth and since he got up early that day I thought he was just tired. It must have been more than that because Sheri said that he wanted to go to bed before 8:00 that night. She took him up to bed and he slept the whole night. He got up even earlier that next day and was a big sluggish here and there, but I guess that following night he threw up in his bed and has been sick ever since. We might give it another day or two before we take him to the doctor. Poor boy!

Who's Your Daddy?

Here is little Quinn fast asleep, during the day of course! When taking care of her and seeing her in different moods I have noticed that she resembles Gary Sinise? This is kind of weird because I play cards with Gary Sinise's father from time to time. I hadn't seen the old timer in a while because there hasn't been a game in some time. This last week he showed up and I was pullling into the drive when he was exiting his vehicle. I ran to catch up with him to tell him the news about the new arrival to my family and shared my insight on how much Quinn from time to time looks like his son. Without missing a beat he informed me that Gary hadn't been in town for years. It flew over my head at first because he is a nice guy and I didn't figure him as a prankster. I finally caught on to the fact that he was saying that there was no way that Gary could be the father! Hahaha!

A quick pic of little Triton at the golf course.

Quinn vs Triton

Round one obviously goes to Quinn! Okay so this wasn't caused by baby girl. A couple of weeks ago Triton was outside terrorizing the cats. I could care less if he is giving the cats a hard time but on this day he was doing a no no. We were outside in the yard and I was trying to figure out the dumb golf swing and I turn around and see that Triton is in the flower garden. That is a big no no by itself however he was also throwing the rocks that are in the garden at the cats. I told him to get his butt out of there in a stern voice and he turned and ran right through a couple of hanging branches from the rose bush. He didn't really cry except when I held him still to pull a thorn that was barely stuck on his face under his eye. I knew that he didn't know that his face was bleeding and we played outside for some time after that. We came inside and I decided to show him his face in the mirror to see if he would freak like I suspected. He didn't freak out totally but you could tell that he was upset and thought that he was in instant pain after seeing his scratches. I felt bad for him after it happened but he is fine and all healed up now.
Here are a few pictures of baby girl. She is doing well except she thinks that nap time is when we are awake and awake time is when we need to sleep. She is pretty sick right now too. She has caught a cold and is mega stuffy. I have never heard a baby that has so much mucus and boogers blocking airways. Poor Quinn.

Golf and Stuff

The weekend after Quinn was born Henry and I played in a golf tournament. It was a two day doubles tournament held at a local course in town. It is at a course that I can't stand because a round of golf at this course is at least going to take 5 hours! That is horrible! I might get to that later, but hopefully not.
The first day of the tournament was a scramble format, which means that you and your partner tee off and then both of you play from the same spot after that. So, if I were to drive the ball into the trees or out of bounds and Henry drove his ball in the middle of the fairway we would obviously play from his location and not worry about my drive. That is actually what happened most of the day too. The weather was horrible, winds were probably 20-30 miles an hour, it snowed a bit here and there and it was pretty dang cold. Henry and I knew that we would have an advantage golfing in those conditions because we always golf in that poor weather anyway. When others are in their homes hiding and waiting for warmer weather to golf in Henry and I are out on the course freezing our butts off. That was a main reason that I agreed to golf with him. He has been golfing pretty good this year so far. He didn't disappoint on day one either. I bailed him out only a few times, but either than that he held me up. We had a 4 shot lead going into the final day.
Day two wasn't much better as far as the weather but it was about 10 degrees warmer. Still pretty windy and again we had a snow flurry or two. There were three teams that shot a 2 over score of 74 on day one and we had a great day of golf and came in with the lead of a 2 under 70. We knew that we would be paired up with one of the teams that were tied for second. I love pressure and competition. I figured that the group we would be paired up with would be better than us and probably stuck up. I can't stand people that think they are better than others and I treat them the same way that they probably treat everyone. To begin the day I could tell that one of the guys was this way and wasn't sure about his partner. This second day of golf was a best ball format. This means that both people play their own balls during the entire hole. Thus if I score a 6 on a hole and Henry scores a 4 we would take the 4 and again my score wouldn't matter. We extended our lead on this team by one on the very first hole because Henry and I both parred and both of them bogeyed. The second hole I had an eagle putt and so did the other guy who was the stuck up one on their team. Henry drained a 50 footer from off the green for birdie and gave me a go ahead and make sure I get my eagle putt to the hole. I missed the eagle and birdied the hole as well. This other guy on their team missed his eagle putt as well. We kept extending our lead on these guys all day and they only beat us 1 hole out of 18. The one guy that I wasn't sure if he was going to be stuck up ended up being an alright fellow, his partner the one that I sensed thought he was better than us seemed to keep that demeanor the whole day even though we kicked his butt. After hole 16 we were even par on the day and I felt that we had the tournament in the bag. We ended up bogeying the last two holes to shoot a 74 and a total score of 144. We get back to the clubhouse and see that there isn't another team that was in our flight that was under 150. There was however a few scores that hadn't been posted yet. Come to find out that one of the other teams that was tied for second to begin the day shot a 69 to go along with their 74 and beat us 143 to 144. It seemed a little fishy that their score wasn't posted until our score was figured? We won credit in the pro shop and only lost out on $50 a piece for not getting first and maybe a trophy. I found out as well that after this tournament was over that one of the gentleman on the winning team was re-rated, which means that during tournaments his score is substantially better than that of his scores that he is posting to establish a handicap, so he isn't allowed to golf in that same flight anymore. It is basically a way to say that he is a sand bagger and cheats to win. He still gets this win and we lose out on a tournament that we should have won so who cares right? Maybe not! It is nice to know that Henry and I deserved first even though we didn't win. True we could have parred the last two holes and still won, but we know that we didn't cheat like their team did.
Henry golfed really great like I mentioned he held me up most of the time. After we teed off on a short par 3 on hole 16 Henry said that he was shaking. It wasn't extremely cold and he isn't one to shiver because of cold anyway so I asked him why? He said that he couldn't handle the pressure like I could and he was nervous. He must have tapped into something to golf as good as he did because it was the best I have ever seen him golf. In the past I mentioned that he is so lucky it isn't even funny. That weekend he didn't really have any lucky bounces or anything like that. He just golfed good and also took home money for closest to the pin and a couple of other extra money pots. I shot an 84 on day two and he shot an 80 and this is on a par 72 course. We golfed this last weekend a week after the tournament at an easier course and he shot over 100! I told everyone that I was glad he held it together for the tournament and won me some money! I am getting a new putter with the money that I won, it supposedly has been ordered and I can't wait to have it in my bag. It is so pretty that I might have to sleep next to it a few nights to begin with to let it know that it has a new loving home! I need a new driver but I can't stand woods so it was basically get a new driver or a new putter. I figured that 70 percent of the game is putting anyway so I went with the putter. I need a new bag as well but I have wanted this style of putter forever. A new bag and driver will have to hold on until I can first of all hit a wood with some consistency and win more money in another tournament to get a new bag and a new driver.
This is my new putter!!


Okay enough golf. Quinn is doing great and a little less than a week after being born she had her first doctor's visit. She had already gained 6 ounces and the doctor said that is basically unheard of. She isn't a good sleeper at night! During the day she sleeps pretty good and even with the television blaring she sleeps right though it. At night when it is quiet is when she wakes up tossing and turning! It is frustrating and Sheri is having a hard time with it. I just came back to work tonight and Sheri is dreading being home alone for so long with no back up parent to help at night. I hope and pray that she will do fine and I will help her out a ton on the nights that I don't work. Quinn had better sleep through the night before Triton did that is for sure! We tended to him throughout just about every night for 9 months. He was out first and of course we were worried with any little noise that he made so we would jump at his every whimper. We finally tired of it and decided to let him cry himself back to sleep one night and since then he has been a great sleeper. I am thinking that Quinn isn't going to get the same treatment, but for right now with her being so small and needing eat every 4 hours we can hold out for awhile.

Wow

So, I know that I mentioned that my cousin Josh was having a baby as well. They were due three weeks after Quinn. They moved back into town a little over a month ago and were to have their third visit with the girly doctor on the day that Quinn was born. They decided to go to the same doctor that Sheri goes to, but they hadn't met her yet because she had been busy with probably deliveries and what not. This day Josh blamed us for not being able to meet her because she was helping with Sheri's delivery. I thought that they might be able to meet her after the delivery but Josh and Kim didn't get to the hospital until after the birth and Sheri's doctor had already left. I informed Sheri's doctor that she was going to be delivering my cousin's baby in a couple of weeks and we would see her then. I told her that they had just moved here and she hasn't met them yet, but that the baby was coming soon.



I was driving home the night that Quinn was born to put Triton to bed and hopefully myself (I slept like crap even though I was awake over 24 hours). On the way home I was thinking that it was going to suck if I went back to work and Josh and Kim had their baby, because I wouldn't be able to be there. We had joked about how it would have been cool to have them on the same day because Josh and I are like brother's. He lived with us when his father was living with my mom. Shalee his sister was obviously living with us too and in fact lives with us now. So, he and I are very close and have shared many beds and baths together. When we were younger that is, it wasn't like the other day okay! We obviously knew that Kim wasn't going to have her baby on the same day because she wasn't due for almost three more weeks.



The next morning after trying to catch up on sleep I was getting Triton ready to go back to the hospital to see his mom and his new sister when Josh text me. His text read, heading to the hospital Kim is in labor. I replied with a one word text saying "Liar". He said that he was serious and that they were almost to the hospital already. I guess she had been having contractions since they went to bed and really bad ones since 4 am. They got to the hospital just before ten and she was so far along that she couldn't even get an epidural. She was in a lot of pain and I felt bad because Sheri wasn't even in nearly the same boat as far as pain was concerned. The baby was born just before 11:00am. His name is Parker and here is Quinn and Parker. Only one day apart but we will probably be able to have combined birthday parties throughout the years. I hope that Quinn and Parker can be as close as Josh and I have been our whole lives. I was so happy that I was able to be there and not at work. I love you Josh and Kim. It was so cool that we were able to go through this basically together.

Quinn is obviously on the left and Parker on the right. It was kind of funny when we were discussing names that we were thinking of naming Quinn with Josh and Kim because Parker was on of the names that Sheri liked back in the day. Josh said that Sheri had to negate that one from our list because it was theirs and they were sure on that. I guess they were because that is little Parker now.

Josh is a proud first time daddy. Kim is now a mother of three and of course Josh thinks of her two girls as his own. This is her first boy and Josh is a man having a boy as his first child. Three generations and six children all of the people on my maternal side of the family have had a boy as their first child. I am proud of Josh in that sense, but of course that has nothing really to do with how manly a man is or isn't.

Baby Q is here

Her name is Quinn as most of you already know. She was born today and weighed 7lbs 14 ounces. She is 20 and a half inches long and has the longest feet. Triton had short little fat feet, probably why he was able to walk at 9 months. Quinn might not walk until she is 5 with her huge feet. They are long and skinny, amazing how different she already is from her brother. Here is just a couple of pics before I slip into a coma after this long day.

Triton visits with his new sister.

Rodeo and A Fall

So this is Sheri...I decided that I needed to start writing things down as well. One reason being that due to Jason's schedule he sometimes misses out on going to activities and family outings. A perfect example happened a few weeks ago. Triton and I attended the Dodge National Circut Rodeo with some family on April 10th in Pocatello. Not a normal scene of ours by any means, but a great experience of spending time with family and something new for Triton to experience. I thought Triton would have a good time, which he did.
We went to the matinee for lack of a better term because we had more than one young child in the group. My dad and step mom Betty, sister Brooke and husband MJ, brother Tyson and his wife Mary with there three kids Bailey, Keeton, and Jaxon, brother Matt and his wife Jaime with their son Drake, and last but not least Triton and I.
We started our day at 9am when we all met for breakfast at Smitty's. From there we car pooled to Pocatello. As we got close the the doors there was a little Shelton pony (I am guessing) that the kids could pet. Triton liked that but was also a bit hesitant. We entered on the north side of the Holt Arena and had to walk down the ramp to our seats on the other side of the stadium; but it turned out to be a good thing because we walked right by a lot of people on horses warming up and getting ready for the events. Our seats were fairly good, but ended up being stretched out a bit. Just after things got started my dad came down and sat in Triton's seat and Triton sat on his lap quite a lot. He ate popcorn and Mike and Ike's and really into what was going on. I recorded some vidoes of him clapping and cheering as seen here. I think Triton's favorite event was the bareback horse riding and the same thing only with saddles....not sure what they call that one. Oh and running up and down the ramps from the seats to the concessions, during the break. I thought he would fall asleep on the drive back but didn't. I guess he was thinking too much about all he had seen.

Not long after we got home I went with my mom and sister to a grocery bulk sale at Smith's, to get some food storage items. On the way out the day went from great to horrible. When we go to a store generally Triton sits in the seat for little kids, but once in a while I give in and let him sit in the bucket. When I allow this I usually pull the cart while I walk right beside him, just in case. Well on the way out Triton was in the basket and i was pushing from the regular location...he decided to stand up. I immediately stopped pushing and was telling him to sit down, but he didn't listen and I stupidly didn't walk around to the side...as you can probably guess he fell out.
It all seemed so slow motion...as I watched what happened, I went over all the stupidity of what I had done wrong and the horror of it. He hit the pavement with his back and the back of his head. That image will forever be burned into my brain. I was terrified as most mothers would be. I was trying to remain as calm as possible because I didn't want to freak him out worse by my reaction. But I couldn't stop the tears as I picked him up and hugged him to me. I was so scared! My Mom was that extra help to me in remaining as calm as possible. I know I am not the first mother this has happened to, nor will I be the last. I have seen a similar situation personal happen to a little girl in Sams Club. It is a hard thing to deal with. I know I am a good mom, but I still have guilt for my role in the events, and why shouldn't I?
Well, to finish off my story I watched him pretty close for the rest of the evening. He seemed fine after a little while....running around and playing, his eyes seemed fine, but that night he slept next to me. I knew I wouldn't get any sleep if he was in a different room where I couldn't hear him breathing and check on him with that much ease. Triton was blessed! He will probably never remember it but this will be a traumatic event forever to me.

On a lighter note Jason had the day off on Saturday 4/24. He got up early to go golfing, came home and took a nap. After Jason's nap we decided to let Triton pick out a new movie and go try to fly a kite as it was windy. It was between Madagascar 2 and A Bugs Life. Triton chose A Bugs Life and that has been all he has watched since. By the time we got to the play ground the wind was getting stronger. Triton went down the slide and climbed a couple toys before he decided he wanted to help daddy put the kite together. Once that was done, which took both Jason and I the wind was pretty strong, but after going through all the trouble we tried to fly it for Triton. One of the wings was curling a bit the wrong way so we knew it wasn't going to work that great. we got it up but each time before too long it would turn left and come dive bombing down. Triton has been out golfing with Jason but not much else yet this season so it was a good time for all three of us to get out of the house together.

One last thing before I end. It is Monday April 26th and still no baby yet. Her due date was Friday, April 23th, but not surprised she is late as Triton was three days late himself. I go see the doctor again today and hopefully we will have a new baby girl very soon. As soon as she arrives we will post some pictures and tell you her name. Donnetta, be on the look out for some videos, wish you were here!

Sheri

MarioKart Wii

If you don't know MarioKart is the best game ever! It has been a favorite of mine to play since the Super Nintendo came out with it. For the Wii it is even better because you actually steer with the remote control. You know how back in the day you would make fun of the person playing a racing game because they were steering while they were playing. Back then it wasn't how the controller worked and therefore you were made fun of as if you were sticking your tongue out while playing as well. Times have changed and now the controller can sense your moves and steer the Kart while you mimic the movements of actually driving. MarioKart comes with steering wheels that you can place a remote into, but we have come to notice that it isn't advantageous and we just steer play without it.
Triton has played just about as long as we have, but he of course isn't very good. He plays as Yoshi about 90 percent of the time and that is the green dinosaur above. We usually play with all three of us even though Triton is slow he isn't really affecting the outcome of races. We don't have to wait for him to finish a race because the computer characters always place above him and the race is over when 11 of the 12 people finish because it is obvious that the 12th place person finished in 12th. I can't remember when, but we were so excited when Triton would finish a lap by the time we finished the 3 lap race. We would cheer him on and tell him he was doing so good. He had been getting better and would even finish two laps by the time we finished three. He of course gets bored with it here and there and just tries to run over bananas on the course or get blown up by lava vents. For the most part he has been getting much better. We hardly ever just let him play by himself because we enjoy playing too, but when he plays alone he can usually finish any race under 5 minutes. Pretty good considering he is not even three years old. There are 12 racers, like I said, and he had never finished a race in time to beat any of the other computer controlled racers. Last week when I was taking care of him during the day after work I noticed on this one race that he was on his last lap by the time I finished the race and I was cheering him on because he had a good shot to get 11th place. He was so close but didn't get in in time. That night when I awoke to prepare myself for work Sheri informed me that Triton had finished a race in 11th spot. I was upset that I didn't get to watch but of course I was happy for him. I told her that he almost did it earlier that day as well. She then said that he also placed 4th in a race as well! Oh my gosh, that is so cool! We have of course been trying to potty train the little monkey so we let him play Wii while sitting on the potty. He isn't able to jump around and be the little A.D.D. monkey that he usually is when he sits on the cough. He plays much better while sitting on the potty because he has to sit in one spot. I guess she had to help him a tiny bit and tell him to use certain objects that assist you throughout the race. He will usually use objects by himself, but not right off the bat. So he got fourth place and I didn't get to see! I still haven't seen him finish a race in 11th or better while playing two players with him.
This last week (April 22nd) we bought a router so that I could play MarioKart online and see how good I was compared to the nerds who are probably online and live the game. The router was taking forever to install and we just gave up for the night because there was a basketball game on and my friend Scott had come over to watch it with me. Triton had been playing MarioKart by himself while I was messing with the router and while Sheri was cooking dinner. What a good woman I know! Anyway, Scott and I gave up on installing the router like I said and walked into the living room where Triton was racing. I noticed that he was in 5th place on this particular race with just over a lap to go. I cheered him on saying "good boy". He turned and looked at us while he kept his finger on the gas. I told him to look at the screen and pay attention. Like I said I have never seen him finish a race ahead of anyone so I was making sure he was paying attention since he was doing so good with only a lap to go. He was doing so good. I don't remember telling him to use any objects that he obtained but maybe I did? He did turn around two more times looking at Scott and I but I quickly told him to watch what he was doing. The game was on 150 cc and that is the fastest hardest single player level there is and he was doing great. I can't remember any small details on how he did it, but he actually finished in first place. I was so proud of him. It is an easy course but not easy to get first place on. I imagine that I myself would only get first place on that particular race 70 percent of the time.
I was finally able to play MarioKart online and found out that I am not as bad as I figured I would be. You hear stories about how people think that they are really good at a game and they get online to play against others only to find out that they are nothing compared to the nerds that live the game. There are a few players online that can beat me, but I am way better than I thought. I wouldn't want to play any of them nerds for money but I am probably better than 9 out of 10 people easily. I think it is fun playing online but I can tell that Sheri doesn't too much care for it. There is a lot of waiting for games to load and there are a lot of players that are better than her too. Sheri has gotten good don't get me wrong she can beat me 4 or 5 races out of 12 but she doesn't like the online for some reason.
Bowling is over thank goodness! Or! Am I really glad that it is over? I ended up taking another golf lesson from a local pro. I have been getting better each year but if my game isn't progressing and I start getting discouraged I take a lesson. They tell me some simple thing that might help me and I have mentioned in the past that it really hasn't helped at all. I watch a ton of golf and try to replicate what I see. I can catch on to things really fast and integrate them into my own game. The thing that I thought was going to work great this year hasn't helped me too much. It has helped a bit, but not to the degree that I would like. I have had more eagle putts this year than I ever have had in all years past and that was all due to my own studying of the game just by watching the pros play on T.V. I was mad after golfing the weekend before last because I was starting to revert back to being pretty bad again. I wasn't focusing and was making mistakes that I never make so I took another lesson. The local pro knew that this last week was going to be bad weather in the late days of the week so he squeezed in a little 45 minute lesson on one of his busiest days (Monday). He is one of the nicest guys ever. He loves Triton and actually allows Triton to go behind the desk and play in the range ball bin. The bin probably has thousands of balls in it and is the size of a small hot tub. Triton plays in there and of course loves it. Triton went golfing with us this last Friday and the same guy came out and asked how I was doing when we got done with the 4th hole. Triton was freezing. It wasn't that cold but Triton was shivering. We put my uncle's leather coat around him and he stopped whining. The local pro while talking to us noticed how cold Triton was and offered to take Triton back to the clubhouse with him! We only had a few more holes to finish and Triton stopped whining so I declined his invitation. How nice is that of him to offer that though? It wasn't that cold outside and Triton had been out with us when it was way more colder so I didn't know why he was shivering? We got done with 9 holes and I decided to leave early and not finish the round. I got Triton home and he was still cold. I washed his hands in the sink to warm up his arms and hands. We walked into the living room to watch the television or play MarioKart. I changed Triton's diaper and noticed that his arms and hands were still freezing. I cranked up the heater and put Triton under a blanket with myself and we warmed up. He was acting funny ever since the 3rd hole. I thought it was because he was cold, but like I said he had been out with us when it was way colder. The first 2 holes he was his normal self trying to golf with us and from then on he was just sitting in the cart freezing.
A little later I took his temperature just to see if he had a fever. He wasn't coughing or sneezing but he did feel warm to me. He had a small fever of just barely over 100 so I gave him some children's Tylenol and figured he would be fine. Sheri got home and I told her that she might not want to come with us to the last night of bowling because Triton has a fever. He wasn't acting any better and his fever actually got way worse. The Tylenol didn't seem to help at all? His fever went up to just under 102 and Sheri decided to take him to the doctor. They tested him for strep nothing, looked at his ears to see if it was another earache/infection and nothing? I guess they want to test his urine to see if he has some sort of a kidney infection maybe. He has acted like his normal self since then, but we don't know what is wrong with him. He has been having stool issues for the last few months where it seems that he is always constipated so maybe that has something to do with it? Who knows? I just hope and pray that he is okay. We weren't able to get much of a sample of urine from the little man because he hates the sticky bag thing.
So back to the whole am I glad that bowling is really over thing? I am glad just because of the frustration that I have had all year but of course the last night is when I might have figured something out. I switched over to the golf lesson in the previous paragraph's because that is where the last night's bowling good stemmed from. I had asked a friend and a really good bowler to try and help me a little over a month ago with my bowling. He tried to help me and gave me some pointers on how to improve. For the last 8 years I haven't really been a good bowler. I used to be somewhat good and even bowled a couple perfect games but since whatever happened to my train of thought or whatever bug I caught I have had no confidence. I have had friends try to see what I was doing wrong and they would all tell me the same thing "you are trying to hard", "you need to do this or that". Nothing was helping and depending on how next year goes I might actually quit bowling. If next year goes like this last week of bowling then I won't even have to worry about giving up on the game. While this local golf pro took time out of his busy day to give me a quick lesson he noticed that I wasn't following through correctly. I know that I was following though but didn't know that I should have been following though differently. I wasn't able to golf any day until Friday (the day that Triton was sick and also the last day of bowling for the year) because the weather was bad so I wasn't able to try out what the pro had told me until then. It helped a lot and I was actually at even par after 5 holes on a pretty dang windy day. The last 4 holes were into the wind and I ended up still shooting a 41 not good for the great start that I had but better than I was doing. Anyway I went home and tended to Triton like I said and for some reason got to thinking about bowling. I was wondering if my bowling follow through was the same as my golf swing. I knew that I didn't have much of a follow though and never really have. Even back when I was averaging 213 I didn't have that much of a follow though. I shadow bowled a few times just wondering how I could take what I learned from golf and use it to my advantage and maybe improve bowling as well. Dale is the guy who tried to help me a month or so ago with my bowling and he was trying to help me follow though. Of course anyone who has tried to help me in the past years has told me the same thing (follow through) but my "bowling" swing wasn't allowing me to correctly follow through. I only thought about it like 15 minutes or so that day before bowling and right before bowling it entered my mind again. The bowling league has an allotted 10 minutes of practice time before bowling starts scoring to allow players to loosen up and warm up. I was throwing the ball pretty good during practice. On another note we were bowling against Dale's (my coach a month before) team. Midway through the first game he asked me if I had been practicing? I jokingly told him not to give me any false hope that I was bowling better. I was scoring my better and felt much better about my release. I bowled a nice 230 game and fell off a bit the second with a 178 or something. The last game was almost over and Dale asked me what happened and why I was bowling so much better. He has seen me struggle all year and the many years before this one so he knows that the game has not been fun for me. I told him about the golf lesson and how it helped me think of something different and allowed me to have a follow though. My last game was 198 and I finished with a 600 series so that is pretty good after only trying one new thing. If I am able to remember how to allow myself to have a swing that will give me a proper follow though then lookout because I should be averaging over a 200 again next year and maybe having some good games. Fingers crossed because I would love to have another 300 before I die! I think I finished this year with a whopping 184 average! That is almost kill myself material! If I can remember how to do what I did to finish the last night of bowling this year and carry it over to next I will be fine. If it doesn't work and I have another year like this one next year will probably be my last.