There's Nothing To Do...

How often do we hear our kids say these words? 

The last few days I have heard several neighbors and community members complaining about teenagers vandalizing homes and cars, usually by "egging." This is the kind of behavior we used to reserve for Halloween.  Apparently someone either got bored or lost track of their calendar. That was the simplest explanation anyway.

The more I thought about it though, the more I looked around, the more I realized that teens today don't have a whole heck of a lot to keep them occupied (well, besides mind-numbing video games).  Not that this is an excuse for misbehaving, it is definitely not.  Still, back in the dark ages when dinosaurs and I roamed this town (in my teen years), we had two movie theaters within one mile, and a bowling alley too. Good clean fun.  Our parents could easily drive us with our friends to two roller rinks or a couple of teen clubs. We even had indoor/outdoor movie theaters.  Boy do I miss the drive-in...

We would ride our bikes (Hey, remember those?  Exercise!) We would hang out at the town pool or the beach in the summer. We went to camp. We ate dinner with our families every night and actually appreciated the occasional night out. We introduced our friends and dates to our parents.  We would never bring someone into our home without doing so.  We didn't curse in front of our parents. We respected them. We respected ourselves.  Our parents would carpool. They would know where we were and who we were with.  They would care.  They were there.  We weren't being sucked into screens and neither were they. 

Just sayin'...

Them's the aches

A little over a month ago, my 9 year old daughter started complaining of chest pains. Serious chest pains. She basically felt like she was having a heart attack, several times a day. We saw the doctor, who diagnosed her with something called costochondritis, which is an inflammation of the cartilage between the upper ribs and the sternum. It results in sharp pains that mimic a heart attack.

Usually this condition resolves on its own within a week or so. My daughter was on limited activity. She took Advil for the pain, promethezine to keep from coughing (that makes it hurt worse), and Tums to prevent stomach upset and keep the diaphram from pressing on it.

We've been back to the doctor at least four times. He has said it's healing but slower than usual. We thought she was doing better, then yesterday it got worse again while walking to church. Then again today while reading in school. I called the doctor again and he's sending her for a chest xray tomorrow.  I don't expect it to show much since the ribs may be in the way, but at least we can rule anything else out.

Wish us luck.

The Times They Are A Changin'

I know I'm not the only one who uses my cell phone as an alarm clock.  So logically, I'm not the only one who experienced this phenomenon yesterday.  Then again, this is MY cell phone, and it did come from a caveman, who sold it to me for a couple of sticks so he could build a fire.  I thought it was a little strange how his caveman clothing had the Sprint logo on it and a name badge... but I let it go.

Silly me.  The problems started after Sandy.  The phone was fine until the storm hit.  Right after that, it stopped taking a charge.  Or it would take several days to take one, and then the battery would run down in an hour.  Really bizarre.  Then I noticed my kindle fire charger fit the phone, and while at first it still took forever, after a while it began working normally.  Can you tell I am not ready to buy another phone?  Sure I'd love a new iPhone.

I'm the kind of person who holds onto a phone for a millennium   So if I'm going to buy it, I'm going to get the 64 GB phone, so I can fit a bazillion photos on it, and a Cadillac while we're at it since I need a car too.  And with the cost of my daughter's 3 dance classes and costume fees, my son wants new kicks, a new phone (his is better than mine of course) and yadda yadda yadda.... everyone who has kids with expenses can feel my pain.  Kids come first.  So a new phone will wait.  I'm just glad this one pulled through.  For now.  Or at least I thought so.

Until this last weekend and Daylight Savings time.  Now, I've never ever ever changed the time on any cell phone I've ever owned, including this relic.  They have always changed automatically, from 1:59 to 3:00 A.M. on Sunday morning.  So when I went to bed Saturday night I set my three alarms for 7:15, 7:20, and 7:30.

It was a REALLY good thing yesterday was a sunny day.  Because the sun woke me up.  I got up and checked my phone, which said 6:50.  I thought that was very strange, since the sun was not supposed to rise until 7:15.  I checked the cable box... which said - yes, you guessed it - 7:50.  Some not-so-nice words left my mouth then.  I used the bathroom and went back to my bedroom, just in time to see my phone change... to 8:00!!

So... if the sun had not awakened me, my alarm would never have gone off.  Because according to my phone, the clock would never have seen 7:15, 7:20, or 7:30 on Sunday morning.  Because according to MY phone, they just did not exist.

And yep, we were a half hour late to church.  But hey, it's almost Spring.