Cobb County Schools Comes Through

Erin went for an IEP meeting with Cobb County Schools two weeks ago.  They went over Shannon's evaluation and they decided that she qualifies for speech therapy through the school district.

So Shannon will get picked up for daycare on Fridays, taken to therapy, and then brought back to daycare when they are finished.  All this and it is free!!!  Great news for us.  

So now she will go to Cobb therapy on Fridays and private therapy on Saturdays.

A positive sign of her speech development came in the way of ice cream.  Before Shannon couldn't move her tongue around the outside of her mouth.  She couldn't stick it out straight and when she did stick it out it would just go to the side.  They called it lazy tongue.  

We went to Chick-fil-A for ice cream the other night.  Shannon got it all over her lips and she stuck her tongue out and licked it all off in a circular motion.  A great sign that she is getting more control of her tongue and that her speech patterns will begin to take off.

Miss me?

I've totally been slacking on the blog.  I blame Facebook.  Updating my status was taking over for my blog.  I'm sorry.  I'll be better.

Things here are going well.  Shannon got into speech therapy and has been doing it for a few weeks now.  Only bad thing is that it is on a Saturday.  It is at a private therapy place.  On Thursday we find out if Shannon qualifies for aid through Cobb County School District.  Since Erin works for CCSD, our chances should be pretty good.

The family got a MacBook Air as a gift from my parents.  Totally unexpected.  We were expecting to get the used PC laptop that they got an Air of their own to replace.  This computer is so thin it is amazing.  Only complaint so far is that it only comes with an 80 gig hard drive.    

Not only did we upgrade to a MAC, but I also hooked up a wireless router for the house.  Combined with the MacBook it has already changed our lives.   Shannon spends much more time on the computer now and it is great to be able to be on the computer anywhere in the house.  We haven't had a single problem yet.

Happy Anniversary

Happy 6th Wedding Anniversary to Erin and I.

6th year married.
15th year as a couple.

Gas

Strange days in Atlanta. Almost like jumping in a time machine and experiencing what it was live during the gas shortage of the mid 70s. There is no gas in Atlanta right now.

Not only downtown, but the surrounding metro area as well. Hurricane Ike cut off our supply. Because of the air pollution in Atlanta, we have to have a special mix of gas. Once those refineries lost power, we lost our supply.

The Governor of Georgia got the special gas put on hold so we can have any gas we can get. The problem is he took too long to do it and everyone is panic buying. If there is a station with gas, you better be ready to wait for it.

On Friday I was lucky enough to fill up both cars. We had been down to a 1/4 tank in each one. I filled Erin's car and only had to wait 10 minutes. Later in the day I had to wait 30 minutes to fill my car. I can't imagine waiting in line that long and then not getting gas. I got lucky.

On the news there are stories of fights breaking out, people getting shot, and police officers having to be called in to manage the lines.

We are told that the "crisis" could be over by this week or by next week. Who knows? Most stations have only one grade of gas for a few hours and then the numbers come back down off the sign again.

Speech Evaluation

Erin took Shannon to her Speech Evaluation on Wednesday. Here is how she summarized the session:

It went surprisingly well, in that Shannon participated more than I thought she would. The speech therapist ran a few tests and Shannon is showing some articulation (pronunciation) problems which makes it hard to understand what she's saying. She also has a weak tongue, so we have some exercises we have to do with her. She will need some speech therapy, but her delays are mild and should improve fairly quickly. We won't get the final report with scores and everything for about 2-3 weeks.

Now the problem is finding a speech therapy slot for her. We need to have an after school spot since Mike and I are both working. Every place around here has at least a 2-3 month waiting list. So, I'm trying to see if Shannon will qualify for services through the school system. The school will provide transportation to and from daycare (I'm still checking on that), and, best of all, it's FREE. Oh, did I mention that our insurance doesn't cover speech therapy for articulation disorder? Just another obstacle. So, I'm really hoping she'll qualify for school-based.

Speech Therapy

It looks like Shannon is gonna need to have some speech therapy in the near future. Erin had her friend over to give Shannon an "unofficial" speech evaluation and she scored below average.

This Friday we go to the pediatrician for Shannon's yearly check up and a hearing test. Once she passes the hearing test (while we think so will) then she is going to Children's Health care of Atlanta for her official evaluation.

Basically Shannon should be talking better than she does now. Using 3 word statements and verbs. Right now she is a mix of one word statements and baby talk. She does talk well at times, but overall she should be doing much better.

She was technically born a month early so that might have something to do with her development. We shall find out next week.

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On a brighter note, Shannon went to her orthopedic doctor for a yearly check up on her feet and everything looks great. We don't have to come back for another check up for 2 years.

Happy Birthday Erin

Happy 32nd birthday to the mother of my child!!!

To celebrate Erin decided to go to the dentist and have a cavity filled. Now that is a birthday present.

Guitar Hero III

After much back and forth I finally decided to buy Guitar Hero III last week. I wasn't really interested in spending 90 bucks on the game, but when I discovered that Best Buy was selling it for 60 bucks I was all over it.

I can't believe I waited this long to get it. After the first day I was hooked. I've played it before and had a good time, but wasn't sure I could maintain enough interest to own it. I'm playing about 2 hours a night now. Erin has to yell at me put the guitar down.

I'm working my way through the Easy level right now and have started to hit songs with multiple chord progressions.

Shannon loves watching it. After each song she either says "more" or "again" to get me to play on. I'm more than happy to satisfy her request.

What an additive game and a fun way to connect with music.

Hospital Visit

I spent most of my Tuesday morning in the Emergency Room.

At about 5:30am my left arm went numb. I thought maybe it had fallen asleep and that it would just go away. I started doing shows and at 7am the numb feeling didn't go away. So I decided to leave and go to the ER.

I was put on a heart monitor, had X Rays taken of my chest, and I was given a CT scan. Everything came back normal. The doctor believes that the numbness in my arm is from a pinched nerve in my neck.

I have also been having pain around the incision from my hernia surgery. When I would bend over and straighten back up I felt stretching or tearing going on. I went back to the doctor who did the hernia surgery. She said that everything was normal and that it could be a nerve inflammation or groin pull. She gave me a steroid shot for the pain.

The CT at the ER confirmed that everything is fine.

Today my arm isn't as numb, but my fingers are still numb. I was given a muscle relaxer to help with that.

Back Home

We made it back home on Friday morning. We left on Thursday afternoon and did the 15 hour drive back. After much debate we decided that after 3 weeks away we just wanted to get home and passed on staying at a hotel. So Erin and I split up the driving and we made it home at 1:30am.

Shannon was great in the car. Her only complaints were when she had to go to the bathroom. Once again she stayed glued to the portable DVD player. Her favorite selections were Maisy and a DVD that has episodes of Barney, Thomas, and other Hit Entertainment shows.

It was a fun filled 3 week and we got a lot done.

We did:

~Duquesne Incline
~Pittsburgh Children's Museum
~Primanti Brothers
~Pirates/Yankees Game in Pittsburgh
~Blue Jays/Yankees Game in Toronto
~Saw my brother graduate high school
~Saw a college friend I hadn't seen in 10 years
~Had a big birthday party for Shannon
~Spent a day on the North Fork Wine Trail with friends and family
~Saw a friend of mine that I haven't seen in 15 years
~Yankees/Rays game in New York

Shannon's birthday went off without a hitch. Only two no shows and everyone seemed to have a good time. It was hard to talk to everyone that I wanted to cause I was running after Shannon with a video camera.

Got to go to the old Yankee Stadium one more time before they move next door. we went to Monument Park which I have never been to before. The wait really sucked. We got there just as the stadium opened and we still waited a long time to get in. We were all lined up on the ramps to the upper sections which were extremely hot.

We had a great time but it was great to sleep in my own bed again.

Happy Birthday Shannon

Today is Shannon's 3rd birthday.

We are on Long Island to celebrate. A family BBQ today and then the big kids party on Saturday at Wood Kingdom. Both should be a good time.

Erin just gave her a Dora birthday mylar balloon and her face lit up. She hasn't let go of it yet. Ina few hours I have to pick up the Disney Princess birthday cake from Walbaums.

Pittsburgh and Toronto

I'm in Buffalo right now.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we were in Pittsburgh. Took us about 11 hours to get there. We went on the Duquesne Incline, went to the Children's Museum, had lunch with Jerylin at Permanti Brothers, and took in the Yankees/Pirates game.

PNC is a beautiful park. It is small and wide open. Seeing the Roberto Clemente Bridge and the city landscape over the outfield walls was awesome. Definitely one of the best parks I've been to so far.

Got to PNC Park early to watch batting practice. While we were watching I got a position right up against the wall. So I held Shannon and we watched the game. We were all decked out in our Yankee gear. We noticed a Yankee walking over to the wall. He pointed at Shannon and handed her a baseball. She was so excited. She held the ball the whole game and when we got back to the hotel she slept with it.

Yankees won 10-0 and Joba got his first win as a starter.

3.5 hours of more driving got us to Buffalo. We have been spending time with my family and on Friday we went up to Toronto to see the Braves and Blue Jays play.

Rogers Centere formerly Sky Dome was ok. PNC really spoiled us. Totally different feel with the retractable roof and hotel as part of the stadium. Compared to PNC which is wide open.

It took us 3.5 hours to get to Toronto. We fought through the rush hour traffic and made it 15 minutes before they opened the park. Erin, Shannon, and I were decked out in our Braves wear. As we got in, we went right down to the third base line and into left field to watch batting practice.

Charlie Morton who is a relief pitcher for the Braves walked right over to us and handed Shannon a ball. Two baseball games and two baseballs for Shannon. Very cool stuff.

Rogers Centere also had a great kids area for Shannon to play in. Erin and I would take turns watching her while the other went and watched the game.

The Braves won 4-0.

On The Road Again

Our 3 week vacation starts on Tuesday.

First stop is Pittsburgh. We have tickets to see the Yankees vs. Pirates on Wednesday at PNC Park.

We are spending 2 nights in Pittsburgh and then we drive up to Buffalo. My brother Casey is graduating high school so the family is all getting together for the big event. While I'm in Buffalo, Erin, Shannon, and I are going up to Toronto to see the Braves vs. Blue Jays at Rogers Stadium (formerly Sky Dome).

We stay in Buffalo till July 1st and then head to Long Island. On the way we are stopping in Scotia, new York to visit with Renny Tallman and her family. Renny was a really good friend of mine at Ithaca and I'm excited to meet up with her. Haven't seen her in 10 years. She has a son that is Shannon's age and younger daughter.

Her son was actually due the same day that Shannon was due to be born. Shannon went a month early, Jimmy went late. So neither hit on their due date.

On Long Island we are going to have a kids birthday party for Shannon, hit the North Fork Wine Trail, and go to a Yankees game with the Kenneys. This will be the last Yankee game I will see in the old stadium.

We are due back in Atlanta on July 11th.

Lots of driving, but a lot of fun planned. I will try my best to update the blog as we go so keep checking in.

Passing Of A Comedy Legend

George Carlin died on Sunday from heart failure. He was 71 years old.

His influence on the comedy world will never be forgotten and can't be measured. Not only was he a Grammy winning comedian but he also had such a wide range playing roles such as Rufus in both Bill and Ted movies to a Catholic priest in Dogma.

Now that I have a child I get to also hear his voice while watching Thomas The Tank Engine.

Back in L.A. I did a report on him for my Government and the Media class about the 7 Dirty Words. A legal battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court. I read off all 7 words in front of the class (on a dare) and couldn't stop laughing. I barely got them all out. I was crying I was laughing so hard. One of my favorite memories about my semester in L.A.

You can read all about the controversy here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_dirty_words

The 7 Dirty Words was a bit that appeared on his album Class Clown. Hear it here:

Kitchen Project Finished

We have officially finished the kitchen today.

All of the pictures and decorations were hung back up and Buck installed the new light.

Total cost for entire project: $1853

Old Light

New Light

Completed Kitchen

Another Angle

View From The Dining Room

Old vs. New

Kitchen Floor Day 3

Day 3 was a pretty short day. Just a few left over things that had to be done. The transitions for the living room and dining room were installed, the base boards and window sills were painted white, and our door to the backyard was refitted to fit the frame better.

Everything from the contractor is now done. All that is left is for Erin and I to move all of the stuff back into the kitchen and hang everything up. We got most of it done on Friday.

Saturday Buck is coming over to hang the new light that is going over the kitchen table.

Erin "Redecorates" The Fridge

Kitchen To Living Room Transition

Finished Product -- Nothing Added Back Yet

Looking Into The Living Room

Kitchen Floor Day 2

The kitchen is almost done. Day 2 the floor got finished and a second coat of paint went up on the wall. The dish washer is back in the kitchen and reinstalled.

Two transitions will be put in as well. One that connects the living room with the kitchen and one that connects with the dining room and kitchen. A thin strip of the carpet had to be cut away in order to make the transition fit correctly.

Everything should be all wrapped up by Thursday. The base boards and window sills still have to be painted white. Once the contractor is done, Buck is gonna come over and install a new light fixture.

Transition To Living Room

Pantry

Transition To Dining Room

Space Where The Fridge Should Be

Finished Floor and Paint

No Stove Yet

Looking In From The Dining Room

Kitchen Floor Day 1

Good day...and welcome to day 1.

So far everything is going well. The dish washer and the stove have been taken out of the kitchen and put in the garage. The fridge has been moved around the kitchen but has stayed plugged in the whole time.

Most of the flooring is down. It might have been all done but Cobb EMC blew out the power to my whole subdivision. So no power, no circular saw to cut the laminate.

Some of the paint is up. Pretty much the bordering around the room. Erin and I are both really happy with how the paint and flooring go together.

Both the floor and paint should be done by Wednesday.

More pictures:

Our Contractor Patrick

Old Floor, New Floor

Old Paint On Left, New Paint On Right

Kitchen Floor

Starting on Tuesday we will be getting a new floor put into the kitchen. We are upgrading from our standard builders linoleum (which Erin absolutely hates) to a much nicer laminate.

Erin doesn't like anything about the floor. The pattern, the color, the big scuff mark by the fridge, you name it.

This is pretty much her project. It was her idea, she picked out the laminate and she picked out the new paint. Did I mention the kitchen will also be painted a different color? We are going from our Baby's Breath color to something called Arabian Sand.

We hired out a contractor to do the work. I'm exhausted just from taking everything out of the kitchen so that the work can be done.

Funding for this project comes from our economic stimulus money. We still haven't gotten our check yet, but we are already spending it.

The before pictures:

Baltimore

I spent May 17th and 18th in Baltimore. It was Best of the Boys weekend and a great time was had by all.

A few of my high school friends are in a fantasy football league with me. There was a bet made that whomever makes it the furthest in the playoffs wins a steak in the city of his choice. We titled the bet Best of the Boys. Buck won the bet and picked Morton's in Baltimore.

I did most of the planning and organizing for the trip. Mainly because no one else was doing anything. I contacted the Orioles sales office and bought group tickets. I also set up 6 hotel rooms and got a deal that only cost each person 33 bucks.

Highlights of the trip:

• Had lunch crab cakes at Inner Harbor. Saw some street performer juggle fire.




• Dinner at Morton's. The porterhouse did not disappoint and everyone loved my big surprise. We had special custom menus printed for us with Best of the Boys at the top of it.




• Smoked cigars in the rain and then walked around looking for a place to drink. By the time we found one it was last call.


• 2 hour rain delay for the Orioles game on Sunday. So we hung out at Pickles Pub outside the stadium. Then hung out in the famous Camden Yards Warehouse drinking beers till the rain let up.




• Got to see 7 innings of the game before we had to leave for the airport. The game itself was pretty dull, but the Orioles did put Best of the Boys up on the scoreboard for us. Very cool stuff.

Was very scared that the game was gonna get rained out. I had never seen a game at Camden Yards and who knows when I was gonna get back to Baltimore. Thankfully the rain let up and Camden Yards became the 10th baseball stadium I've seen a game at.

Check out more photos at: http://community.webshots.com/album/563573944WWILbW

Work Around The House

We've been doing a lot of different things around the house these past few weeks. More recently we spread 20 bales of pine straw across the slope in our backyard and Erin planted flowers.

A tree service came over and scaled back the two trees we have in the front yard. Cost us 200 a tree. The trees had never been trimmed or pruned before so it really need it. One of the trees was almost touching the house.

Our central air was also on the fritz so we had an HVAC guy come and look at it. Turns out our A/C unit was leaking Freon and a lot of it. Our unit holds 4 pounds and apparently it only had 1 pound in it. After a few tweaks it runs as good as new. Another thing in the house that has never really had service before.

In a few weeks we will be redoing the kitchen. Erin and I are spending our economic stimulus money on new flooring and paint. We hired a contractor who is gonna do all the work. So we are looking forward to that.

Some pictures:

Erin Planting Flowers

Before

After

Before

After

HD

I finally joined those lucky souls that have HD at home. We have an HDTV in our bedroom so I decided to upgrade. Erin paid for the $200 upgrade and it goes down as my Fathers Day/Birthday present.

The guys that Directv sent over were scheduled to be at my house at 4pm. They showed up at 2:30pm. I locked Daisy in the garage and they went to work.

I removed my older box and moved that into Shannon's room. So now she has a DVR that can record 100 hours of Dora if she wants it. One guy started to hook up the HD box and the other guy began putting up the new dish. They had to remove the old dish from the side of my house and put the new one up on the roof.

All went well and when it was time to check everything there was a problem. The HD box wasn't recognizing my second satellite line in. So the guy went back outside and did some things and came back and still no 2nd line. He reset the box. Still no 2nd line.

The whole time I'm just kinda hanging out in the room reading up on the HD box and checking out the work. He resets the box again and still no 2nd line. I think look behind the TV and notice another coax cable going nowhere. So I ask, "What about that cable? Is that the VCR coax or the 2nd line." He tells me he is sure it is the 2nd line and checks again.

He follows the cables again and.....HE HAD THE VCR COAX GOING INTO THE SATELLITE BOX INSTEAD OF HAVING THE SATELLITE COAX THAT WAS COMING IN FROM THE WALL. As soon as he switches the wires out and resets the box.......my 2nd line was back.

The moral of the story is if something doesn't work, always check the easiest solution. It may actually be the problem and you might save some time. In this guys case, he would have saved himself an hour and not looked like an idiot in front of a customer.

Either way my HD is hooked up and I'm ready to watch TV the way it was meant to be watched.

Bruce Springsteen

Erin and I went to see Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band on Friday night. It was a very entertaining show. We are pretty much Greatest Hits fans. We don't know much of the album cuts. I've always heard how great it is to see Bruce live and we knew going in that he wouldn't be playing the hits. So we were set up to not be let down by the fact that he didn't play Glory Days. Which of course he didn't.

We have been listening to his new CD the past couple of days and he played a few songs off of that. Highlights from the new album were Devil's Arcade, Long Walk Home, Last To Die, and Radio Nowhere. There was an interesting cover of Blinded By The Light. The place went nuts from Badlands and Born To Run. He also did Erin's favorite Bruce song Thunder Road. She was excited even though she thought the timing as all over the place. I enjoyed hearing Murder Incorporated.

He opened the show with a video montage to Danny Federici (Bruce's keyboard player) who passed away about a week ago. During the show he thanked the fans for all their cards and prayers, saying "We appreciated it much, his family appreciates it much." The song Blood Brothers played and you couldn't tell if the band was playing it or if it was pre recorded. It sounded recorded but the harmonica part sounded live.

The whole band brought great energy to each song and Bruce's face looked like it was in pain as he played. He handed out a few of his harmonicas after he played them and one went to a little girl who just lost it. At one point Bruce was on his knees in front of the crowded and a few people were actually reaching up and playing the guitar with him.

Max was slamming the drums and everything Clarance went up to do a solo the place went nuts. Clarance seemed to shuffle around the stage and before the encore instead of going off with the rest of the band he sat on a throne in the corner of the stage.

A few fans in the front had signs with song titles on them and Bruce grabbed two of them, showed them to the band, and then placed the signs at the bottom of the mic stand as they broke into the song.

He ended the show with American Land which was this really cool Irish jig type of song. They even put his teleprompter on the screen so we could all follow along.

The set list:

Reason to Believe

Out in the Street

Radio Nowhere

No Surrender

Blinded By the Light

Your Own Worst Enemy

Trapped

Murder Incorporated

Prove It All Night

She's the One

Livin' in the Future

The Promised Land

Bobby Jean

Point Blank

Devil's Arcade

The Rising

Last to Die

Long Walk Home

Badlands

Encore:

Thunder Road

Born to Run

Rosalita

Tenth Avenue Freeze-out

American Land

Back In The Saddle Again

Back in Atlanta and the trip went well.

Long Island was fun, but cold. Shannon got to spend a lot of time with her cousin Caitlin. Every day we took them somewhere different. One day was to a park that just recently opened down by Lake Ronkonkoma. It used to be a trailer park and the town bought over the land and kicked out all the trailers. Now there is a really nice big play ground right on the water.

Another day we took them to Wood Kingdom where they got to play on indoor swing sets and inside big moon jumps.

Most of the week was filled with family visits. Got to see my mother, grandparents, as well as Erin's family and some of her AOB sisters.

Tried to do the 18 hour drive in one day but didn't even come close to it. We ended up stopping in Salem Virginia for the night after driving for 10 hours. Then getting back on the road the next morning.

Shannon did really good in the car. She didn't have too much to complain about and would tell us when she had to go to the bathroom. Each leg of the drive we would stop at a McDonalds and let her run around on the play ground.

Tallied up all of our gas receipts and the whole trip came out to $312.55. Still cheaper than buying 3 plane tickets.

On The Road Again

We leave for New York today. It is overcast and rainy in Atlanta right now so the drive looks like it is gonna be a grey one.

Driving to Roanoke Virginia today and we are crashing with the Mathers for the night. That leg of the drive should take about 7 hours.

Saturday we leave in the morning and finish the drive to Long Island. Should get in in the evening.

The car is packed up and loaded with entertainment for Shannon. She'll have a bag of toys at her feet, a portable DVD player in front of her, and a bag full of smaller bags with Apple Jacks, Cherrios, M & M's, pretzels, you get the point. The goal is to keep her as quite as possible. If she starts getting fussy and whiny then it is gonna be a looooong ride.

We will be up in New York for about a week. Erin is on spring break so we are going to visit family.

It's Been A While

Sorry for the lack of blogging on my part. Not due to the fact that there is nothing going on, more due to the fact that I just didn't have the time to do it.

Here is what has been going on:

• The family went to Buffalo to visit my relatives. While we were there we went to a country club that my father belongs to for an Irish themed dinner. Irish food, drink, music, and dance we all had. Shannon loved the dancers and we even asked to dance with them. She had a blast. She usually is standoffish with people she doesn't know but she went right to the girl. Once all the dancing was over and the floor cleared off Shannon wanted more. She actually went over to one of the dancers, grabbed their hand, and wanted them to dance with her gain. Very cute. When there wasn't dancing going on Shannon was running around the dance floor with all the other kids.
• Easter was fun. I (I mean the Easter Bunny) set up a trail of plastic eggs from Shannon's room, down the stairs, and it lead right to her basket. We took Shannon to mass and she was very good. Sat for the 45 minute wait and the hour mass. Thank God for Apple Jacks.
• Played Rock Band for the first time over at Susan and Jason's house. I've never played Guitar Hero either so it was all new to me. What an addictive game. They should just call it Crack. I played mostly Bass cause I was a big wussy and didn't want to mess up on the Guitar. The highlight of the night was my vocal rendition of "Won't Be Fooled Again" by The Who. My score was like 169,000. I crushed it. Shannon had a lot of fun screaming into the microphone and loves when her daddy does his 80's rock screams. She even tried to play guitar and do a few beats on the drum kit.
• Plans are underway for a trip to Buffalo in June. First stop will be to Pittsburgh to see the Pirates and Yankees. All 3 games are sold out so I had to buy tickets on Stub Hub. My first time doing it and it went fairly smooth. Once we get to Buffalo, we are going to go to Toronto to see the Braves and Blue Jays.
• Plans are underway for the "Best of the Boys" dinner. Buck won the fantasy football bet so we have to take him out for a steak dinner. The city of choice is Baltimore. We are going to see the Orioles play the Nationals that weekend.

That is pretty much what has been going on.

Big Apple Circus

Took the family to see the Big Apple Circus two weekends ago. It was the first time Erin and I had ever been to the BAC and Shannon's first time at the circus.

I got 30% off of the tickets through work and we ended up sitting 4 rows from the ring right by the entertainer entrance.

It was a really fun show. It didn't have all the glitz and glamour that Ringling Brothers has. It has more of an old school kind of feel to it. There were only three "clowns" (The Huesca Brothers and Grandma) and the only animals were poodles and horses.

There were all kind of different acts including juggling, tight rope walking, hula hoop artist, a gymnastics troop that did all kind of high flying flips, and a 3 person body support thing. That was really cool. 2 men and 1 woman. All climbing all over each other and doing different poses. They were also colored gold.

Shannon went through a whole range of emotions. She was curious, scared, happy, and terrified all at the same time. I think her favorite part of the whole experience was getting a pretzel.

She did enjoy the dancing that went on between acts. She spent the whole time with her hands balled up into fists or holding her very sweaty palms together. The whole time she couldn't take her eyes off the ring.

Pretty much what I had expected from her. She is afraid of toys that move by themselves so I was sure that she would be a little scared at times.

Worst Customer Service Ever?

It still blows my mind that an American company can send their customer service department overseas. I understand that it saves them tons of money but you'd think they would value their reputation in the marketplace over saving a few bucks.

I've dealt with overseas customer service before. Most often while setting up 4 XM radios for my family. This week I had to deal with Magellan and if I had any hair to pull it would have been all over the floor. Their customer service is in India and everyone I talked to was extremely hard to understand. Not only that but they lie to you off the bat. There is no way that I talked to a Nick, Steve, and Bob with those accents.

Both Erin and I have Magellan GPs units that we got for Christmas two years ago. The windshield mount on Erin's broke. I called them last November to ask for a new mount. They told me that it was on backorder and to check back in a few weeks.

I let 3 months go by without hearing from them so I decided to call them and check up on things. They told me they discontinued the model I have and they don’t have replacement parts anymore. On their website they have to exact piece I want for sale for 40 bucks. When I asked if they could just give me the one on their site they repeated that they didn't service my model anymore.

They did say that what they could do was replace my entire unit with a brand new one. So I agreed to that. They needed to put me on hold to get some info. Then I'd give them some info and they would put me back on hold. This went back and forth for an hour, 55 minutes of me being on hold.

They finally get all my info and say that a new unit will come in 2 to 3 weeks. Once I get it I have to Fed Ex or UPs my old unit back to them. So it takes 3 weeks to get me a replacement but I have to send back my unit in 3 days?? I actually have 30 days to send it back before they charge me for the new one.

Mind you I only wanted the windshield mount that I can get at any Best Buy for 10 bucks.

So in the end I get a newer model GPS. I told Erin that since I went through all this she is getting mine and I'm keeping the new one. I spent entirely way too much time on hold through this whole process and even had to call back at one point and regive all the info I had already given.

I just wish companies like this would think about the consumer for a change instead of the bottom line. Support the companies out there that are still keeping American jobs in America. Trust me. It will save you loads of time and aggravation.

No More Crib

Erin and I finally decided a few weeks back that is was time for Shannon to take the next big step in her life. We believed that it was time for Shannon to come out of her crib and into her first toddler bed.

Erin's sister Veronica had bought Shannon a Dora toddler bed for Christmas. We put it aside for a few weeks until all the Christmas madness calmed down. I finally put it together and we placed it right next to the crib.

Shannon was very excited and was even helping me put the bed together. She helped me take some of the polls out of the box and line them up. Then she handed me things as I went along.

She left to go play with mommy, but came back up as I finished putting the bed together. It actually came together pretty easily. We topped it off with a set of Dora sheets and a Dora pillow.
As soon as I was done I told Shannon that it was ready to go. She jumped right in and pulled the sheet over her. "Look, Dora. Dora!" She was very excited.

She didn't sleep during her nap time that day. I think she was too excited. She did sleep in it that night and the crib was forgotten about. I left it in her room for 5 days and took it apart while she was at Gymboree. When she came home all she could say was "Wow!"

A huge step for Shannon. The transition couldn't have gone any better. To this day she hasn't left her room at night and as soon as we put her to bed she stays there.

Right After The Bed Was Put Together

First Night In My New Bed