Happy Anniversary to my Parents

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Yeah, it's not the prettiest graphic, but you try searching for 37th anniversary pics . .

Anyhow, today is the 37th Wedding Anniversary of my parents (congrats to them)!

As simple math'll tell you, they were married on this date in 1970 (the day of the Marshall football team airline crash) and remain together to this day.

Seems like just yesterday the whole family celebrated their 25th anniversary . . an event easily remembered since the entire family had food poisoning the day of the event, complete with stomach pain and vomitting, and my Dad couldn't even make it to the dinner . . my sister, who was to host the event, was worse off then I was and so I picked up the duty, cracking a joke to the crowd about how my Dad finally got cold feet, a quarter century too late . . probably wasn't as funny in person as I remember it, given that 12 years ago I was a shy, ill-spoken young man.

Anyhow . .

I must say since my Mom went into the hospital their love is pretty apparent, as Dad visited her every day without fail . .

So Congrats to them and a sincere wish for 37 more years together!

* * * *

My Mom is home, btw, and yesterday she and I went for a walk. She made it to the far end of the block and back and I was very happy with her effort . . plus she wanted to show off how much weight she had lost (~60 pounds) since the ordeal started. Without meaning to sound mean, the eight loss is very evident. She has the makings of a 'normal' figure, whereas before she was bloated and often draped herself in nightgowns for convience sake, giving the appearance of no form at all.

Odd I never noticed, but my Mom is very petite. Not a large woman in frame or height. It is a wonder of science that a 6'3" very large framed man (regardless of weight) could come from her and a 5'11" medium build father . . go figure.

Good thing I have the same behind-the-left calf birthmark as my Mom, and the same ears as my Dad or I'd wonder . . . j/k

:)

The Quest for the Missing Wood Carving

You wanna know how my family spent the half hour before dinner last night?

Trying desperately to finagle a wood carving we'd bought in Nassau out from the bottom of a 10"x 6", 10 foot deep gap in our floor.

The hole is the remnant of a discarded cold-air return vent in our dining room. With the remodel it was re-routed, and only the before mentioned 10" x 6" opening remains. It's covered by a reasonably heavy metal grate, but if you get past that it's a straight but narrow shot straight down into a gap created between the foundation and the newly-installed shower in the basement.

My son - whose Dennis the Menace hijanks have now slipped past cute into anger-inducing - decided over the course of several weeks to dump the statue, numerous utensils, an earring from YaYa's halloween costume, pencils, markers, and God knows what else into this hole.

I spent days searching for that carving and even looked up a reasoable look-a-like online for $49. I was OBSESSED with finding it and until Parker dumped something down the hole in front of me I never thought of the grate - after all, I didn't think he was strong enough to lift it.

So I spot the statue and we start a Baby Jessica rescue party, sans life-threatening situation.

Lisa twisted wire hangars together into a 12 foot pole with a hook on the end (oh, did she hate those dry-cleaning hangars before that - Faye Dunaway style - but didn't they just come in handy?) and started the rescue.

YaYa and I both dismissed the attempt as doomed to fail, and I had visions of having to hack into the shower wall. . .

But she got the dang thing up.

She actually retrieved it. Kudos to her.

And when I showed Parker the carving, hoping for a sign of remorse?

Just a glint in his eyes and a maniacal smile.

Slapinions 3rd Anniversary!

November 9th marked the 3rd anniversary of this journal. I'd like to thank everyone who's stopped by and/or commented.

I greatly enjoy doing this and I only wish I had more time to devote to it.

Here's to another year of Slapinions!

Lauren Gets her Ears Pierced!

Tomorrow is our Xmas picture, so at the last minute we found a babysitter (Our friend Chris) and took Lauren to WalMart to have her ears pierced. Both of her sisters had it done promptly at two months, so we were a bit late with the newest addition.

Unfortunately, our 3 south side stores were unable to do it (one wanted immunization records!) so we wound up all the way at the Capitol Drive location, clear across Milwaukee.

We picked out a pair of heat-shaped diamond (like) earrings and away we went. Here are the last photos of a non-pierced Lauren:

And then the event began:

She looks happy, no?

But all that lasted about as long as it took to hit the shutter. It helped that they did both the ears simultaneously.

Her crying ended the minute a bottle found its way into her mouth. The ladies gave her a 'Certificate of Bravery' (which was darn cute!) and we thanked them and returned home.

Here's a side shot of the new bling-bling:

Some shots with the Folks

How cute are these!

Just one shot of Beauty

Pics of My Lovely Baby

These were all taken since last Saturday in an attempt to document her smile (which showed up for the first time Sept 23rd)

Please bear in mind that the mess around my darlin's collar is from a recently cleaned up spitup - we do keep our kids relatively clean. And the red eye . . man, I need to get my software running at full speed.

Meanwhile, just focus on the face people, focus on the face!

 

Parker Update

I hope to do a full post later (yeah, right!) but a quick update on my in-house Maker of Trouble and Mayhem:

We took him to the ear doctor and his left eardrum did not vibrate, a sign of potential fluid behind the ear. He was also placed in a soundproof room (on Lisa's lap) where he responded to different audio frequencies coming from speakers around the room. On low pitches to his right he did not flinch or respond at all. He scored a 20, which is the minimum for 'effective' hearing, but it was an average based on some high scores mixed in with some very low ones.

The results are inconclusive, in part because he was just coming off an ear infection. He'll be retested again after three weeks.

* * * *

YaYa and Lu got their report cards today, and not a black mark or below average assesment on them! (admission: Lu actually had one, related to her speech development. But since her lisp is not her fault and we intend to ask about speech therapy, I do not consider it a mark against her on the report).

Their school photos came in too - I'll try to scan and post them at a later date.

One Year!

It's now been 365 days since I quit smoking.

 I last inhaled or even held a lit cigarette a year ago today, on the cusp of departing for our Disney vacation. I never thought I'd succeed; honestly I'd have bet money on my lighting up the minute I returned home to Milwaukee.

It didn't happen, and I'm duly proud.

Sure, it killed my diet and I'm now a minimum of 60 pounds heavier than I was then, but what the hey . . . it was still worth it. At least now when I hack I know it's a cold and not tar waiting to be expelled.

How's that for a visual?  :)