Trimming the Plants

My daughter recently learned at school that is is healthy to sometimes trim your plants back in the winter to allow for new growth in the spring. In an attempt to help our only surviving houseplant get a head start for next spring, she got a pair of scissors and trimmed our plant. She cut approx. a 1/2 inch off each leaf.

I thought the plant looked a little different when I was getting ready for work this morning. When I asked who cut the leaves of the plant, my daughter happily said, "I did it to help the plant grow!" I smiled at her, hugged her and told her that, trimming the plant means cutting off dying stalks, limbs or leaves from the plant and that you should cut them off near the roots. She was sad and asked if her "trim" job would kill the plant instead. I told her, I didn't think it would, and that it would be OK.

So now our houseplant has some funny looking leaves, courtesy of our well-meaning daughter.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas, That Will Never Come

Here I am sitting at home enjoying a supposed to be relaxing on a nice Sunday afternoon, yet I can't seem to get my mind off the weather. The windows are open, to let in the cool air, because it is a balmy 80+ degrees in Texas. You would think it was early Summer with the recent weather we have been having. For crying out loud it's December and it's so warm outside you could wear shorts. Now, I'm not a big fan of cold/wet weather, but isn't that what we are supposed to be having in December? I want the cold weather. I want a fire in the fireplace. I want some hot chocolate; I don't want a suntan! I can't remember the last time it snowed where I live. Someone did tell me it snowed at my current home the year before I moved in. Maybe I cursed the place? I think I remember about 5 years ago it snowed enough to make a snowman with the family, but "Frosty" melted the next day. Like I said before, I don't want 5 foot snow drifts to trap my family indoors, but a little snow would be great. Maybe, just maybe, if I prayed hard enough, God would send us some snow for Christmas. Pleeeeaasssee God let it snow for Christmas. Even Texas deserves a little white stuff from time to time.

The Last 13 Books I Have Read

Just to let you know what types of books I read; here is a list of the last 13 books I have read.

1. Lilly's Ghosts by Laura Ruby
2. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
3. FAMILY Rules: Positive Parenting with a Plan (Grades K-12) by: Matthew A. Johnson
4. The Silent Witness by: Sir Lionel Luckoo
5. Saddam's Secrets: How an Iraqi General Defied & Survived Saddam Hussein by General Georges Sada and Jim Nelson Black
6. The 10 Best Decisions Every Parent Can Make by Bill and Pam Farrel
7. The Martyr's Song by Ted Dekker
8. Obsessed by Ted Dekker
9. Deadline by Randy Alcorn
10. House by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker
11. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
12. Junie B., First Grader: Dumb Bunny by Barbara Park
13. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

How to Turn a Dime Into $100

Today started out as pretty much a normal day. Nobody wanted to wake up and go back to school and work after spending time off for Thanksgiving. Despite the temptation to stay home and just sleep, I managed to get up and head off to work. I had been at work for about an hour when I one my co-workers, interrupted my class. She had a "While You Were Out" phone message for me. This struck me as strange, since normally I just return any calls after instruction time. She had a weird expression on her face as she told me, "It's about your son, you might want to step outside to read this." Of course I read it right away. The message was from the school nurse at my son's school. The message said, "Dime stuck in his nose!"

After initially bursting out in laughing in front of my room, I composed myself and asked if the message was real. After being assured the message was real, I got on my cell phone to find out my beloved wife had been trying to reach me, and had left a voice message. My wife's voice message confirmed, what the phone message said, my son had a dime stuck up his nose. The nurse had tried to get it out, but she was afraid because it was stuck up there pretty good, that it might have caused some minor damage to his nose, and she recommended we take my son to a Doctor, or the E.R. to have it removed. To bad my wife was already taking some time off to take my daughter to the orthodontist. So I had to go show the note to the program director and ask for the rest of the day off. If the situation wasn't happening to my own kid, it would have been hilarious. Ok, it was hilarious anyway, but I really didn't want to miss work.

By the time I got permission to leave, my beloved wife had already picked up the kid from his school. I took him to our family doctor where we spent about 10 minutes waiting to see if the doc can work him in to his already busy schedule. Since it was not an "emergency", he could not work my son and his 10 cent booger into the schedule. Meanwhile my son is worried he is going to snort the dime into his nasal cavity and swallow it, or choke on it. So we left the doctor's office and went to the E.R. After much paper work and another 10 minute wait, the doctor finally saw my son. She told him, that they could try to use high air pressure and blow the coin out or they could try to pull it out. He opted to have it pulled out. (Darn it, I really wanted to see the dime fly out his nose and roll across the floor!) After failing a good grip on the coin, they told us they might have to send him to a specialist and they might have to put him under anesthesia to pull it out. This scared my son and he started to "blow his nose" over and over again. By the time the nurse returned, the dime and finally slipped down enough that you could see it again. They gave my son a pair of small pliers and he pulled out the dime for himself. (I think they ought to give us a discount on the bill for that!) He thought it was funny that they put the dime in a Bio-Hazard bag because of the snot and mucus on it. It would have been more funny to me, if it wasn't for the $100.00 co-pay this will cost us, after insurance. For a 10 cent problem, it cost us 10 times as much to have it removed. It also cost me a day of my sick-leave.

You always hear about stuff like this happening to other people's kids! I guess my wife and I are just one of those "other people" after all. At least I got the rest of the day off after all. Oh, by the way -- He was trying to do some sort of magic trick for his friends in P.E. Some trick boy!

For my son's version of this story Click Here! For my wife's version of the story Click Here!

Tis the Season to Be Jolly and Overcrowded

Tis the season to be Jolly, Fa-la-la-la-laa, La-la-la-la!
Go to Wal-Mart it's overcrowded, Fa-la-la-la-laa, Hey, I need some service over here!

This time of the year creates so many mixed feelings for me. I love the weather. I love the tradition of putting up the Christmas Tree (ours goes up tomorrow). I love the focus on the birth of Jesus. I like watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and A Charlie Brown Christmas on the television. I love the extra long break from school and the anticipation of opening gifts chosen just for you. I also love to watch those I chose gifts for open their presents as well.

Despite all the things I love, there are also several things I don't like. I really don't like the overcrowded stores, Especially Wal-Mart. The customer service there is bad enough already, but it is especially bad this time of year. Even though I like some Christmas songs, I don't like listening to the same Christmas songs, over-and-over again. I guess I'm just a Scrooge, or a Grinch, when it comes to the songs. To bad for me, the Christmas songs are one of my wife's favorite parts of the holiday season.

Just 30 more days to go!!

Help the United Nations Feed the World

This is not a joke...you can actually help feed the world's hungry people just by playing a game.

Go to a web-site called Free Rice. The game is a vocabulary game. For each word you guess the correct meaning to, the sponsors of the site will donate 10 grains of rice through the United Nations World Program. You would think these rich sponsors could do a little more than 10 grains of rice for each word, but we do what we can right? So go and play a little while and know that in your own small way you are helping to feed those who need it the most.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!