As if April hasn't already been crazy enough...

Levi scratched his eye on Monday, probably with some sand from the playground. I picked him up and noticed that his eye was very red, but not goopy, and it didn't seem to be bothering him at all. I figured it probably wasn't pinkeye (thankfully) and took him home. Tuesday morning, it still wasn't goopy (this is a good sign) and the redness had mellowed to a pink color. I took him to school and made an appointment with the pediatrician for today.

She looked at it, and decided to look very closely, since there seemed to be some bumps or something right next to his iris. She used an orange dye to color his eye, and then shone a blue light on it. Sure enough, those bumps showed up better, indicating that they were scratches in the white of his eye (or the sclera, for those who care for technical terms.) His cornea is smooth and scratch-free (hurray!), and the sclera will probably be fine. She prescribed some antibiotic ointment (the same stuff they put in newborns' eyes) and said for him to come back on Friday. At least it's nothing major.

I just hope this doesn't let May think it can start this way and then try to compete with April for the Crazy Month of the Year Award. Remember, I have to start packing soon.

We won 6 games straight!

Hi, guys, this is A.J.

My team, the Pirates, won 6 games straight! And we have one loss. We lost our second game against the A's. This is all the teams in the order we played them:
Cubs, A's, Padres, Angels, Dodgers. Then we have a little break.
These are my teammates:
Me, Amanda, Luke, Davis, Antonio, Jason, Matt, Johnny, Reese, Robin, Ryan, Demetrios, and Marty.
Two of my best friends is on the Angels. Two of my friends are on the Cubs. Christian and Caide are Cubs. Jaedon is an Angel, and so is Miles. One of my friends is on the A's. Oliver is on the A's. One of my friends is on the Dodgers, Xavier. Two of my friends are on the Padres, Chris and Chris.
We won the 6 games straight from the Cubs to the second Cubs. We lost our second game against the A's.
That's all. Bye, everybody.

Love,

A.J.

Levi's just so funny!

Most kids play "house." Levi plays "Uncle Jon." He has convinced his friends to let him be Uncle Jon, and the others are dads or grandpas or big brothers. They walk around holding babies (Levi, as Uncle Jon, was holding baby Levi, until it was clean-up time, when baby Levi became all grown up and was put back in the house.) Apparently, it's pretty funny.

All week, Levi has been saying, "I love moving, Mommy." He hasn't even seen the house yet, but he knows that it has a pool. It was 100+ degrees on Monday and Tuesday of this week, and both of the boys were begging to go swim in the pool. Only, we don't live in the house yet, and someone else still does. They didn't like that so much.

Levi has a new girlfriend. Her name is Ellie (you like this Tami?) and she's adorable. They have their napping mats next to each other, and one day each put their hand out touching during nap time. They're pretty cute. Only, now Levi is saying he has to go to Ellie's house because she told him she has some surprises there. I don't even know where she lives, or who her mother is. I keep hoping he'll forget about it, but with Levi, that's not really likely. Oh, well.

From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere. Levi is certainly one of them.

We do...

have a new address! AAAAAAAGH! I'm very excited. Pictures won't be available for a while, since it's currently still occupied. But, I can tell you about it! And, you might even be a bit jealous. :D Can I just say how excited I am about this? I am ridiculously excited about this.

Description:
It's a house (yeah!) with three bedrooms and three baths (yeah!).
It has lots of storage, with TWO walls of cabinets in the garage.
It has a covered porch which has become a sunroom. (Why is it that several places we've lived, plus my parents' house, have sliding doors in the house? Are we magnetically attracted to these things, or something?)
It has a nice patio in the back, with space to play basketball or maybe even ride bikes.
There's grass. And...a pool.
Yep, we'll have a pool, and just in time for Memorial Day!
And, one of the best parts, it's quiet. Right now, we live on a very busy thoroughfare, and with cheap, crappy, and old windows, we hear every rev of every engine. We live with bus fumes, and extra smog (I know, it really is possible to have extra smog in L.A.) And after May, we won't have to anymore. We will be able to leave the windows open on lovely nights and not hear a motorcycle or bus engine, or perhaps even fewer police cars. Wouldn't that be nice?

So, we'll send out "new address" announcements, sort of like birth announcements, once we actually move to those on our Christmas card list. If you'd like to be on it, send me an email at divingcardinal at gmail dot com (without all the spaces and such.) Then, you can look us up on google maps, and ooh and aah at the pool that's visible from aerial photos. Won't that be fun!

We are very grateful to all of you who sent up some extra prayers for us. This house suits our needs very well. It is even something we would possibly be interested in buying, but we'll see about that in a year or so.

We might...

have news about the prayer request! But, I won't say for sure until it's finalized! I'm pretty excited! Yay!

News...

Since A.J. fainted last week, we went to the pediatrician yesterday. I described the latest incident, which I thought was terrifying, but she just nodded and said "yeah, yeah." She said it sounds like he has been having vaso-vagal fainting spells, just like his Grandma does. Only, he's a bit more active (like crazy active) and so he is more likely to have incidents than she was as a child. Therefore, this is relatively good news. He is just a sensitive kid, and faints when his body doesn't like what has just happened to it. We will have to live with it, but he has been given no restrictions, though I'm guessing football might not be the sport for him. Thankfully, he loves baseball, which is a great sport for him to keep playing. In the future, when (because I have no doubt it will) it happens again, we have a set protocol to follow, and everything should be fine.

1. Lay him down. This we didn't do on time on Saturday, which prolonged the duration of the ashenness and poor mental state.
2. Monitor his pulse, and do not allow him to sit up until it has reached at least 70 beats per minute.
3. Keep him seated for another 10 minutes or so, and then he may stand and walk.

Only call paramedics if he's completely unconscious for at least a minute, or his vital signs don't improve. So, hopefully, we won't be having crazy big medical bills all the time. We just have to get everyone else to not call 911 every time he hits the ground.

Now on to Levi. Surprise! He went to the pediatrician yesterday, too. When I went to pick him up from school (daycare) on Tuesday, his teacher Miss Valerie says, "This weird thing happened today."
"Oh, no," I thought.
She goes on to explain that while they were at Webby (the dance company they have come do "P.E." for the kids once a week) she noticed he was staring off into space. His friends tried to get him to come with them, even touching him. His face was completely expressionless and did not react to anything. For an entire minute. Now, he loves to pretend, but he always has that sly little grin when he's pretending. There was none of that on Tuesday.
She finishes the story with, "it made me think of the seizures that I've seen in videos." Although, by her description, I knew what she was talking about long before she said the word seizure. When we visited the neurologist for A.J. last year, he asked us about this very behavior.
So, now we get to go back to the neurologist, not exactly my favorite guy, but there aren't a lot of choices. Only, it's not for A.J. like I expected. It's for Levi. What a week. I'll update again after we have some more information on him, but that will likely be a few months. (Ridiculous, I know.) Until then, we have to keep a calendar of "spells," as the pediatrician called it, and take a picture of him when he does it. Thankfully, at least everyone we know out here has a camera phone with them basically all the time. I love my new camera, but this isn't really a reason I had planned on dragging it around all the time. I'll keep you posted on any other new, exciting, or unexpected happenings around here.
It sure hasn't been boring around our house lately.

WHERE TEMPLES ARE

Hi peoples.This is A.J.


Temples are everywhere! I know that there are more than 120 temples in the world!They can be in any country.Like the U.S.A.or Canada and even Australia!they can be in many places.

love,
A.J.

First Experience with...

the ambulance.

Sigh.

Today was quite the day. The Pirates were playing a great game against the Dodgers. A.J. got the assist in all three outs in the first inning (he was playing pitcher, and just gobbles up every ball he can reach. See the video from a few weeks ago.) He hit pretty well, and was having a great day. Except when he got doubled off second because the ball was caught while the boy stood on second, which means the infield fly rule should have been in effect, and therefore, he wasn't really out. Oh, well.

He got back up the next inning, ready to go again. He had made it to second, was on his way to third, and decided to slide because he saw the third baseman racing him to the bag. His slide was perfect, until he ran out of room, and hit the base hard enough to knock the helmet off his head. He arched back, grabbed his back, and collapsed to the ground. His coach, who was standing at third base and is a doctor, thought he had knocked the wind out of himself, by jarring his back when he hit the side of the base.

We made it back to the dugout, and since he had dirt all over his face and in his mouth, I was trying to get him to wash his mouth out with some water. I couldn't get him to talk to me, or hold himself up. Coach John and another dad who is also a doctor decided he looked awful and called 911.

Thankfully the firemen were just up from the ball fields having a training day. They took him and Aaron to Children's Hospital. I met them there after picking up all our stuff, with a lot of help from the dads. The team gave A.J. the game ball today, and all of the boys and coaches signed it. He knew that injured athletes are supposed to wave from the stretcher, so he waved with his game ball. Since the EMT's were worried about his back, they had completely immobilized him, cervical brace and all.

Fortunately, a friend of A.J.'s had a game immediately after ours. His mom was so thoughtful, and took Levi for us. Levi also likes this family a lot, and was completely willing to go with them, especially once they mentioned Burger King.

Once at the hospital, A.J. underwent a CT scan and an EKG, but once again, it all came back normal. We'll be calling the pediatrician once again, and see if we can start investigating again. Maybe we'll get some answers eventually, and maybe we won't. But, I'd sure like to know what's going on.

A.J. is fine now. He came home and played the Wii for a while, so he's feeling pretty good.

What a day.

Is It Real or Is It Monty Python?

A 549 day with nothing to do but wait for baseball season to start. Darn this extra long spring training. Well I thought many of you loyal readers would enjoy a little bit of truth that's stranger than fiction. Here, first read this article about a student in Britain arrested for turning in a lost cell phone to the police station.

Then read this expertly crafted reddit comment by user acegibson:

I think it's all a Monty Python sketch.

"I'd like to return this cell phone."

"Markenson's, two doors down, thank you."

"No, no. I didn't buy it, I found it."

"Best of luck getting a refund then, thank you. Good day."

"No, you don't seem to understand. I'm turning it in to you."

"If Markenson's won't give you a refund, why should we?"

"No! You're the police! I found this cell phone and I want to return it to its original owner."

"Oh, I see. Harry, have any of the boys reported a lost cell phone?"

"Don't think so, Grimm."

"Sorry, it's not ours. Perhaps someone at Markenson's lost it. Good day."

"Damn it all! I know who the owner is! I called them on this very phone! They're coming here

to collect it as we speak!"

"Why would they be coming here? We don't have it."

"Of course you don't, you git! I have it! It's right bleedin' here!"

(shows the officer the phone)

"So the owner of that phone..."

"Yes."

"is coming here..."

"Yes."

"to pick it up."

"Exactly!"

"And what, pray tell, are you doing with it?"

"I found it!!"

"Oh, did you?"

"Yes, I did."

"And how did you find it?"

"It was just laying there."

"Was it?"

"Yes."

"Alright, you're going to have to come with me, Mr. Findy Fingers."

"What for???"

"Are you or are you not the owner of that phone there in your hand?"

"I'm not!"

"So you admit it!"

"This is insane! I found it! It was just laying there!"

"That's what they all say. Come now, let's have a DNA sample."

"Oh, bollocks!"

"No, sir, we just swab your cheek. That's a good chap. Come along."

"This is ridiculous! I merely found this phone and turned it in out of a sense of civic duty! I

didn't expect a sort of Spanish Inquisition!

(looks at door)

"I said, 'I didn't expect a sort of Spanish Inquisition!'"

"Yes, we heard you, sir, didn't we, Harry?"

"Loud and clear, Grimm."

"But I thought..."

"Obviously."

"Then this isn't...?"

"Afraid not."

"I see."

"Quite."

"So you'll be wanting my DNA then?"

"There's a good chap. Has anyone ever told you you look like Michael Palin?"

"I get that a lot."

(The door opens. An Eric-Idle-looking fellow comes in.)

"Can I help you, sir?"

"Ah, yes, I'm here for a phone?"

"Markenson's, two doors down, thank you."

Wow, when I read that I was totally picturing Graham, Michael, Eric, John, Terrys J. and G. performing this in my television set. It would have been a classic sketch, but it's hard to compete with reality, and they didn't have cell phones in the 70's.

Here's a random St. Patty's day photo for you before I get back to goofing off.

She's a Pro

So I do have this habit of buying things and using the nearest available holiday as an excuse, but in this case the Nikon D200 sale that Best Buy is running was just too good to pass up. I just didn't have a conveniently located holiday to blame the purchase on until Mother's day...or Easter I suppose. Didn't know when the sale was gonna end and I hadn't seen anything close to BB's price anywhere online, so I jumped at it. And I'm not cruel enough to hide it from her for three months, so as a result you will all be rewarded with much nicer photos.

We don't actually own any lenses for the thing yet, but Bethany's professor has sundry and vintage Nikkor lenses for lab use that she borrows freely. She took these great shots with it on Saturday:







We could never capture those kind of expressions with our lesser cameras. Professional looking, huh. Well that thought reminded me of our dinner conversation the other night. We have begun to structure our dinner conversations recently in order to keep the boys at the table longer and so that they recognize that it's a family time and a time to communicate and share our days with each other. The way it goes is that Bethany asks "who had a good day today," whereupon everybody raises their hands, A.J. and Levi usually most emphatically. Levi will then say "ask me about my day first," so we ask "what made your day good." And he tells us everything that he did or did not do that day. Yes the days can get repetitive, but those of you who know Levi will know that that fact won't prevent some pretty interesting zingers on a routine basis.

The other night he was giving us the rundown on his day and noticed mommy take a big drink of milk. "Wow, mommy, you're a great drinker. You're the best. You're a better drinker than even me or A.J or daddy. You're a pro of drinking." Now we haven't had regular tournaments in the house in quite a while but back when we did, A.J. was pretty tough to compete with:



But Levi was most impressed with mommy.