Mama's Got a Brand New Heartrak Heart Monitor!

Ah, the fun of being 40!

Thursday I got to go to Olathe Medical Center to grab me a heart monitor. I've had palpitations for years ... no big deal. My dad had them and his mom also has something heart-related. Palpitations alone I'm not really concerned about because they don't affect my daily life and are not frequent.

But here's the power of reality TV: I saw Victoria Gotti on Celebrity Apprentice and had to Google her to see what the hell she was even famous for (besides her dad) because they kept calling her an author. Turns out she wrote a book about her mitral valve prolapse. MVP would NOT be a good thing to have because it would make me tired, and I can't afford to be tired.

So I finally decided to grab the heart monitor. It's so easy ... I just put this credit card-sized dealy jobber up to my heart when I have issues and push RECORD. Later I call a real person from a land line and download the recordings. I'll do this for 30 days. I don't have to wear anything around all the time.

So my points are:

1. Reality TV can be good. There is a reason for everything. Thank you, Mr. Trump, for choose Gotti for your show.

2. We need to take care of our health. I kept putting this off because I didn't want to leave the kids to do it, but they had a BLAST with Jordan (as always) playing outside, and I even got to have a nice lunch alone and get some writing work done. (only child = alone as natural habitat and it feels nice sometimes)

This is a full-service blog. I don't judge you for watching reality TV and I'm telling you to schedule some sort of -opsy today whether you need it or not.

Little Juvenile Delinquents in Kansas City, MO (Guest Post)

/Since I messed you over the last 2 days with no pictures on the blog (by the way, I can see the pictures just find when I go to the site ...so apparently I can see dead people, too?), here's a bonus post from Happy Elf Mom over at Homeschool and Etc. about a pressing issue that needs your opinion, help, attention, etc.


Less than two weeks from now there will be a vote on this proposal.  Any school-age child can be interrogated at the park or shopping center or... oh, just anywhere in Kansas City including the sidewalk in front of your house.  No crime needs to be committed for the cops to put YOUR kid into the paddywagon and bring him in downtown.  The officer simply needs to suspect that your child is truant.

First off, "compulsory education" is an oxymoron, but leaving that aside for the moment, there are about a dozen and one problems with this proposal.  I live about three blocks from Kansas City and parts of Kansas City are part of our school district.  Stay with me, now...

Today, my public-schoolers don't have school.  (It's Professional Development day, which means teachers are doing their dopey workshops and celebrating diversity and stuff.)  Kansas City School District (KCSD) schools are in session.  Were the law in effect today, my teens could be accosted for going to the park about a mile away from my house.

Guess what?  We also have spring break during an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT WEEK than KCSD.  And sometimes we call snow days and they don't.  Add to that the fact that our district has ten elementaries, bunches of middle schools and high schools that all have DIFFERENT start and end times and you can see where an officer might be confused as to what time "school" is really in session when he's thinking of picking up some random kid.

And I don't think my district is the only KC-area district with a few differences in attendance dates and hours than KCSD.  Nevermind that KCSD faces *immediate takeover* by DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) and DESE may decide to divvy up the district piecemeal to five *different districts* in the very near future.  Five different districts which may have different start and end times even within their borders.  Five different districts that have long weekends at different times.  (I'm counting about six in our district alone this year that are probably different from KCSD.)

I'm thinking cops have other things to do than carry ten different district schedules, and also worry about whether they're going to pick up the wrong kid sometime whose parents will start a stink in the media.  I haven't even gotten to this idea of homeschoolers being left alone just yet in my post, and I've been rambling for a while now.

HSLDA is currently collecting stories from homeschoolers who have been harassed or bothered in some way during the "school" day because of homeschooling.  They're encouraging members and other concerned people to emailLegalC@hslda.org and promise to keep stories confidential unless specific permission is given to use publicly.

Sometimes it isn't even about homeschoolers.  Sometimes it's about American citizens of all ages having reasonable rights.  I wrote HSLDA and told them that as of right now, I've *never* been harassed by police or school officials for homeschooling.  And I'd like to keep it that way.


Bloggy fans, weigh in in the comments section, please!

"I Love Ya Like a Love Song BABY!" by Callie and Sam

Who needs a TV when you have kids? DANGIT, they are entertaining! And I certainly don't pay for cable when I have this MTV-quality duo's video right here on my own blog and in my own foyer (that's a teeny tiny entryway for those of you who don't speak French). Enjoy Spring Break!

When Stuffed Animals Travel, Part Two

Dear Sam, Eva, Callie, Michael and Joel,

We had so much fun the other day we begged your dad to take us to work again with him.  So yesterday we went on another adventure, and once again we had so much fun, we wish you all could be here with us.

So here’s some pictures of yesterdays adventures.  Your dad sure knows how to start a day because he took us to sit down breakfast and we had ham and French toast with lots of butter and syrup .

So next we started up the mountain, it’s funny when he says that because we’re not actually driving straight up the side of a mountain, it’s more like we’re winding up between the mountains.  Anyway he said we gain about 2000 feet of elevation, which is almost half a mile up.  So here’s a picture of the valley where town is and we are just starting to go up.  Notice the mountains in the background with snow on them.

So about half way up Spike had to get out and tinkle.  So once he finished your dad let us climb in some sage brush.  I was kind of prickly and we got stuck, so your dad had to get us out.  We think we’ll go tree climbing with Joel some time so we can learn how to not get stuck.

We saw some funny signs on the way up.  We thought this sign was funny.  They put this up because there are deer all over the place up here.  Your dad almost hit one coming down the mountain last night.  He was probably going too fast and had to slam on the brakes pretty hard.  I’m glad he didn’t hit the deer.

This is a sign we don’t like.  H2S is Hydrogen Sulfide, which can be present if gas leaks from the pipeline or the well sites.

Anyway we got to work right away.  Your dad didn’t drink coffee because of lent.  So here’s the show where we talk shop.  Actually here’s where your dad complains about being away from home.

And two hours later when that got old we went outside for awhile and stepped on frozen puddle ice crunchies.

After awhile of that we decided to go north and get some work done.  So we got out the laptop, opened up the project and typed  for about an hour.

Next we inspected the cabinet for the 34^th time for about an hour.  There are 6 cabinets out here so that took the rest of the day.

Well that was our day.  I told your dad to put this picture in of his Jeep.  He likes driving in the mud.  He actually had to clean the side windows off so it was safe to drive.

Your dad says we’re coming home today - yeaahhhh.  It sure will be nice.  We had fun up here but we miss you and can’t wait to get home to someone who doesn’t snore through the night.

Love you, XOXOXO, see you soon

Spots, Lucky and Spike

When Stuffed Animals Travel to Evanston, Wyoming

Now for the exciting part of our day ... part one of two parts of emails from Daddy from Wyoming. I think you'll agree that he's a rockin' dad for sending these emails from the stuffed animals the kids send along with him and for also sending postcards to all 6 of us! Here's the first one:

Dear Sam, Eva, Callie, Michael and Joel,

We are having a blast out here, we wish you were here.  Here’s some pictures to show you what we have been doing.

We changed hotels yesterday, because the other place was a dump, and here at the Hampton Inn we get points for free hotel rooms on our next vacation.  Anyway the maid was really nice and snuggled us up together.  Callie you would like the bed it is nice and cushy, warm and soft.  We think Sam and Eva would have a blast bouncing on it. 

Your dad is taking good care of us and sleeps with us every night.  But we told him that we wanted to get out of the room and go to work with him and see what he did.  He said okay and we got to go the very next day.    He had to make sure we were safe on site because they have rules to keep us safe.  Here we are with our protective boots, hard hat and reflective vest on.

We had a good breakfast and he loaded us in the car for the ride ‘up the mountain’.  Here is a picture of us riding to work with him.  There is snow all over the place, and it sure is pretty.  The gravel road is pretty rough and bumpy.

He said that if he had a pick-up he would let us ride in the back, like he lets Joe and Michael do, but since he didn’t he let us hang our heads out the window instead.  Notice that your dad’s Jeep is muddy.  It’s warming up into the mid 30’s so the snow is melting and making a huge mud hole here.  He likes to go through the mud real fast.

He even let us drive even though we didn’t have drives licenses.  He said that we drove pretty good, but not as good as Joel.

Here’s what it looked like going ‘up the mountain’.

And here’s a picture of what it looked like up on top of the mountain.  Way in the background you can see another mountain range.

The first thing we did when we got to the top was to play in the snow.  We didn’t have Michael here to make us a snow fort so we just had a snowball fight and made snow angels.

The next thing we got to do was really cool.  We got to ride on some construction equipment.  The first thing we got to ride on was a gigantic front-end loader. Your dad had to put us up here cuz it was way too high for us to climb. It was greasy and dirty, but it was a blast seeing them move mountains of dirt.  Sam you have to try this you would love it.

The next thing was even awesomer.  It was an excavator.  When you grow up and run one of these Sam you have to take us along.  It was even greaser and dirtier, but boy can you dig a hole fast with one of these. 

Anyway gotta go now.  We love you all and you dad says hi and that he loves you all and misses you very much.

XOXOXO,

Spike, Spots and Lucky

And because I'm all proud to be an Amazon Associate these days, I like to tie in a book or other rec for you on some of the blogs because I love books and I like being educated about stuff. So here is a book for those who are travel widows with kids like me: