Don't Hold the Applause

So you had a few days of some chewy, moist and delicious updates and then whoosh...gone for a day or two. That typically happens after one of these hospital visits. They are tiring. They are long and draining. The day you get back you are a bit spent, and in many cases mopping up loose ends that were left undone prior to the departure from your home.

Sometimes it takes a few days to get back on track.

And anyway...sorry for the delay in the Big Recap. I understand some people were very concerned, because when it comes to me and no blogging, many times the lack of blogs goes hand in hand with me fighting the bad stuff.

So...how'd the trip go? Overall very well.

Bennett's MRI currently does not show any re-growth of tumor cells, that's very good. He will have another MRI in 3 months. The Oncology team noted something strange in the right hand side of his brain, some kind of malformations in and around the temporal lobe.


Now, I am gonna worry about that for a while...even though the surgeon after he reviewed it said 'You just can't get worked up over that right now...they read it a little too closely down there...I don't see anything in the MRI or in Bennett that leads me to believe there is a problem there.'

And I trust the guy, despite his Steelers affiliations.

So I will try to keep that out of my mind for now, and worry about it only if some kind of problem arises from there. Though I wonder if those malformations are in any way connected to his lack of communication. Only time will tell really.


It's funny...both the surgeon and the epileptologist feel the communication will come, so much so they just sort of shrug off my statements of worry and say 'It'll come.' And I don't mean they blow me off, or don't give my concerns their proper due...they just are trying to show me by example how I should worry a bit less than I do.

But man...do I worry about shit.

But as my wife pointed out on the ride home, I have issues. She said it in a very supportive way, it was her way of saying 'Look, you had problems BEFORE the birth of Carter [source of first anxiety attacks]
, BEFORE this happened with Bennett. You had a rough life, you need therapy, you need help.'

I don't argue with that at all.

As for the EEG that Bennett had, no seizure activity was seen. The final report mentioned some sort of slowing or something, but that was attributed to the areas of the brain that were simply not there any more. But there were no spikes, no hypsarrhythmia, no funky readouts. It was not interpreted as a grossly abnormal EEG.

How 'bout that? That is...hm, lemme think. Well...even Mr. Negativity here can't NOT see what a huge thing that is and how utterly super cool.


And I am. It's great.

So...are we 'out of the woods' on the possible return of the tumor? No, but Step 1 went well. Are we 'out of the woods' on the seizure puzzle? No, but Step 1 is going well, we aren't changing any of his meds and as long as that 'other area' doesn't do something funky, I don't see any reason why his seizures would return spontaneously unless the tumor comes back or the scar tissue gets really wacky, which the MRI suggests is minimal.

And of course, we are far from 'out of the woods' on figuring out how to help him make the most of who he is and figuring out who he is and what his capabilities are. That's the journey when you really just condense it.


As far as that goes, as of Monday Bennett will be starting ABA Therapy for 35 hours a week. Full time. He will be attending an Autism school, and I am hopeful that the one on one situation will be just what he needs. I will be his chauffeur. 2.5 hours in the car for me a day and everything else we have to do to make this work are SMALL prices to pay for this school. It could be a HUGE difference maker for him.

Huge.

Last thing...I have been very negative of late. I'm entitled. But one thing this week has made me very, very happy. I have been saying 'Clap! Clap!' and Bennett will clap his hands and laugh. Now, for most of you parents with 'normal' kids who at one point were 2 years and 3 months old that probably doesn't sound like a big deal.

But for Bennett, it is a very, very big deal. You have to remember...this is a boy who was playing pattycake before (as my soul sister Danielle refers to it) the Seizure Monster grabbed him by the throat and choked the childhood out of him. This is a boy who was saying 'Hi Dada!' and waving to me when I came in and who now doesn't always even respond when you call his name.

For Bennett, that simple communication of performing an action based on a verbal suggestion? It is a major, major first step on the long and winding road of learning how to teach him whatever he is able to learn. For me...well, it gives me hope, something that has been in short supply lately.


I'll keep you posted.

OUT...

Meatloaf Would Be Proud

So we went over today to see Dr. Lachhwani, the Epileptologist who has basically been the Quarterback of Bennett's case ever since we transferred his care from Nationwide Children's Hospital of Columbus to Cleveland Clinic.

Appointment scheduled for 11:00 AM, and we finally saw him around 11:38 AM. Because of this I do not bitch. First of all, shit happens, but secondly because of how quick he is to act and react to things.

He asked us about all we were up here to do. At this point we were supposed to have the following done at the 6 month pre-operative milestone:

1. MRI
2. Blood Work
3. Neuro-Psychiatric Follow-Up
4. 2Hour Follow-Up EEG
5. Surgical Follow-UP
6. Oncology Follow-Up
7. Epileptologist Follow-Up

Yet, as he observed on the appointment chart, that there was no EEG, no Neuro-Psych and no Blood Work scheduled. This annoyed him. He knows we come from a distance and thinks someone should have done a better job on their side to make sure we got the appointments that we needed in one block.

We told him we thought so too, especially since we have 3 things all in a row tomorrow, and only one thing, our meeting with him, today.


That just won't do, he said as he picked up his cell phone and started making calls. He got us in to do the EEG at 1:30 PM, and the blood draw and lab work for after 4. That fast. Amazing dude. Liked him from the beginning, in case you are only a recent reader of this blog. It's why I don't give a shit if he is three hours late for an appointment.

He does make stuff happen. Neuro-Psych was out...not enough time. But 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

So that's what we did. The appointment with Dr. Lachhwani was just really asking us how he was doing as far as seizures. He hasn't had any, and of course Dr. Lachhwani was very happy about that. As for the learning/cognitive/behavior stuff, he again, like I expect the doctors to do tomorrow, stressed to give it time. To be patient. To be hopeful.

He told us his two greatest assets were the two of us, and he feels like Bennett is in excellent care. He liked that we had enrolled him in a special school for 36 hours of ABA therapy a week.

Anyway, it was like any other Epileptologist appointment. Caution, watchful eye, happiness about aspects of progress, happiness about the lack of seizures, and a stress by the doctor on optimism...that it helps everybody to heal.

I didn't tell him how down I've been of late. Why pee in the dude's corn flakes right there?

EEG was as it always is, as far as getting the leads on. Oy. Screams as if he is being tortured. Which I guess he is. Poor guy. But, then he fell right to sleep and so did I almost in that dark room.


I sneaked a peek at the EEG. I know shit about EEG. But it appeared calmer to me than what I was used to seeing. But, of course, every time the tech clacks in notations and junk I get nervous. But if something is amiss I know I'll get a call soon with a request for us to come in and see Dr. Lachhwani.

After that, sticking the kid while I AND Jen have to hold him down. More screaming. Over quickly. Then back to RMH, some rest...a bite to eat and a trip to Rite Aid when I was told by Jen that the wipes I brought were for cleaning counter-tops and junk and we were out of actual baby wipes.


Hey...I'm a dude. I'm not genetically pre-disposed to know the difference between butt wipes and wipes for cleaning a countertop. I clean counter-tops with paper towels or a sponge, not wipes. Besides, the box said it takes care of 99% of the bacteria...and there's a TON of bacteria in a turd my friends. Anyway...how was I supposed to know?

Tomorrow, MRI which Jen takes Bennett to alone while I stay back, pack bags and load the car and clean up the RMH room and launder the sheets and towels. We meet up after the MRI, with the car fully loaded and parked at the hospital. Then it's an Oncologist Follow-Up and Surgeon Follow-Up. Then head back to Columbus.

Gonna be a long one. Not sure if they will have MRI/EEG results tomorrow or not. Be cool if they did, but I am not betting on it.

OUT...

RMH Funkiness

In Cleveland now, staying at the Ronald McDonald House.

A bit of funkiness this trip. Whoever stayed in the room before us did NOT clean the sheets. As I took them out of the closet to make the beds I noticed a bit of a funkiness to them.

No outright BO or foul smell, just...not right. They did not smell like freshly laundered sheets. Of course, it's late on a Sunday night, the Linen closet is locked and I have no desire to go bother the night caretaker. So I go to the laundry room to wash the sheets myself.


All out of soap.

Someone did not refill all the pre-measured soap cups. So, I looked in the bin of all the soap cups that people had dumped their liquid detergent into their laundry from and then tossed in the bin. Took me 20 painstaking minutes, but I managed to consolidate some of all that into a full cup.

Sheets are being cleaned as I write.

Tomorrow only one appointment with the Epileptologist, probably just to go over the medications, ask follow-up questions and the like. I expect no major issues tomorrow other than Bennett getting extremely bored, and maybe us too.

Tuesday is the MRI. Let's hope that there's nothing growing in his melon except the good stuff. I assume we will go over MRI results with the folks we have appointments with that afternoon.

You know...I appreciate the RMH charity in a major way, I really do. But holy cheese I hate staying here. It is SO fucking sad. So many kids, so many issues with them. It only adds to an otherwise overloaded mental weight. But, like I said...I appreciate the charity. In our current financial situation staying at the hotel next door just isn't in our budget.


So, we'll hide in the room as much as we can. Read, play with Bennett and I'll try to avoid so much contact with the occupants of the house. It is just killing me this time out to see them. Or...I may take a different approach if I can find the balls. I might just go around and start up some conversations and see where it leads.

But gotta LOCATE the balls first. And those babies are pretty shriveled with cowardice at facing these medical issues of late.


Anyway...probably by now the sheets are ready for the dryer. Wish me luck. I'm hoping there is a fabric softener sheet lying around.

OUT...

Holland Sucks

Not the actual country of Holland, mind you. I have nothing against it. In fact, I've never been there. From what I hear they have some lovely windmills and some over-the-top porn, but honestly that is the extent of the very limited and likely flawed knowledge I have of the place.

I'm talking about something entirely different. Most parents of so-called 'special needs' children are probably aware of what I am talking about. A very beautiful piece of writing by Emily Perl Kingsley, a former writer for the television show Sesame Street, winner of 12 Emmy Awards, and author of several children's books. This 'poem', called 'Welcome to Holland', is the author's attempt to explain what it was like to raise a child born with Down's Syndrome.

The piece wants to lead you to believe that even though you think you're life is going to turn out one way, but instead it turns out entirely different, that in order to cope and to hope and to get the most out of the experience of the life you are now living you need to embrace it, and look for all of the good things in this new place and forget about the place you THOUGHT you were actually going.


In a nutshell, the piece tells the story of a traveler, who planned and prepared all his/her life to go to Italy, and instead ends up in Holland. Differently put? When life throws a pile of lemons in your face, you need to make lemonade out of them.

But I have news for you. It isn't all that easy for us simple folk.

Yeah, here I am, busting the balls of the poem 'Welcome to Holland', something that is sure to draw the ire of many people who use that poem as a guideline to life. Why am am I doing this?

Because I have two emotions of late that are consuming me bit by bit. Sadness and anger. I seem incapable of expressing anything BUT those two things. I don't know why now as opposed to at other times. I don't know how to change it. I don't know how long it will last. I don't know if what I am experiencing is 'normal' for a 42 year old man in this situation or if I am just a Class A Jackass.

Probably the latter.

But people need updates. I realize that. The e-mail quantity tells me that. I understand it. I appreciate it. When you're mother sends you a message asking 'Are you ever going to blog again?' you realize...oh shit...some people actually DO depend on this thing for information and check it regularly. I get it, and in some way...there is some comfort there.

But, I have been resisting this blog for one very simple reason. I am so full of negativity right now it hardly seems right to come on and just bitch and bitch and bitch about any aspect of anything. ESPECIALLY when there are so many, SO many, people experiencing things FAR FAR worse than what I am going through.

Why, just yesterday, two people whose blogs I subscribe to posted updates and it had been a while for both. BOTH of these people are going through way more than me, and yet both have found a way to remain very positive despite all the crap life is throwing at them and their beautiful, innocent children.


I envy people like those two, or Ms. Kingsley, people who rise above the shitty plate they have been served and become inspirational, noble people. It really is the key to a contented life, no matter WHAT your circumstances are.

Me? I am a simple, mediocre person, and I cannot seem to rise to that level and become more than the bitter, broken, scary human being I am as I sit here writing this. Maybe, someday...that could be me, that person who is inspirational rather than a force of raw, frayed negativity.

Maybe. Someday. I hope so. But not today.

And I say that I am mediocre not to belittle myself, but it's just an admission of fact. Fame will likely not be my destiny. Nor fortune. I will probably not cure some horrible disease. I will not score the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl. I will not walk on to a stage to cheering crowds. I will not be thanking the Academy.

I will be somewhere, making my way through life as best that I can, doing things that in the Grand Scheme of The Universe in Totality (or at least Earth) will hardly be a blip on the radar. I will likely have a small, somewhat insignificant obituary on the day that I die, and very few people will even know that it has happened. My funeral will be small and not covered by all the networks.


You know the truth is I have always been fairly cool with that. As long as I had my inner circle, my family unit, my few close friends and companions. I never wanted to be anything OTHER than mediocre when it comes right down to it...and simple? I like that. The less complex my life the better.

But nothing is simple right now. Nothing. And as I watch my world coming apart around me I can find pleasure in SO very little. I can find positive in so very little. I've talked about perception before. Probably in one of the few recent blogs I bothered to write. You can look at a glass as half-full or half-empty, and much of the power you have over that is something within your own ability to influence.

A good comedian, who is in the hospital recovering from an attempted suicide once said this.

'People ask me if I am a glass half-full or a glass half-empty kind of guy. I'm a glass half-full kind of guy, no question. But what's IN the glass tastes like shit.'


And that's where I am today. I don't know where I am headed, I don't know what it is going to take to start going in the opposite direction from down. Because when you get to a point like this mentally, even good things are bad. Only a few people out there probably even understand what that means.

Clearly I need help. Clearly I'll have to spend some real time and effort trying to get that help. And clearly I will put it off for as long as I can as I am often prone to do and this thing in me will linger and get stronger.

Such is the way of things in Lillyworld.

But there are updates. Always updates.

Bennett still does not really speak at all. He still cannot communicate with us or we with him. We still play the guessing game, ala an infant, to figure out what he wants. He has a very difficult time with a lot of things. He still does not procees things like a TV show and watch a learning program or anything like that.

If you hand him a piece of finger food, he must place it on the floor, touch it with his index finger, pick it up, then put it in his mouth and eat it. He rubs the air vents for 20 minutes at a time. His fascination with wheels is remarkable. There are many times when he loses it...in a very Rain Man kind of way, where he becomes inconsolable and even hits himself.


But...he laughs, he smiles, he plays. He runs, he goes up and down the stairs very easily now. He's figuring out how to use a spoon. He can engage with a toy for quite a long period of time. He interacts with other children and people as best he can, more instinctively than intellectually.

And...he has had no seizures since his surgery. Not one. And yes, despite where I am mentally, I appreciate the HELL out of that. Tomorrow we go to participate in a Stroll for Epilepsy, a charity fundraiser for Columbus.

I swear to you, if I see a kid having a seizure I will not be able to stop the tears. Seizures, seeing them happen to a child and knowing what they do to a child...well, it's pretty much one of the most shitty things I have ever had to know in life.

Monday and Tuesday? We go back to Cleveland Clinic. He will have an MRI, meet with the Epileptologist, the Neuro-Surgeon who cut out the tumor, and the Neuro-Psychologist. An EEG will likely be in his very near future.


On Wednesday, Jennifer and I attended a preliminary meeting at Step by Step Academy, the special 'school' for children with Autism and other Developmental Delays that we have been trying to get him enrolled in. We were on a waiting list. A spot opened. He starts February 8th. Monday through Friday, from 9am until 4pm, he will have ONE ON ONE ABA Therapy. We are hoping this will be very good for him.

Why am I not screaming for joy on the mountaintop? Cause that has got to be a great thing right? Yeah, it is a great thing, but like I have said...my 'mental condition' is too fucked up right now to experience the hope or the joy for what should be, SHOULD BE, a step in a better direction.

Actually, my Mom said it best, when I had my last phone call with her to tell her that Bennett got into the school. She asked me why I didn't seem all that happy about it.

'Happy?' I said. 'Nothing really makes me happy. It's great that he got in, but I don't feel any differently today than I did yesterday. I can't get to that kind of a place.'

I struggled with trying to come up with an analogy for her, but she actually gave me a GREAT ONE. One that I will use the rest of my natural life.

'I think I understand,' she said. 'I guess it would be like me asking someone why they weren’t really happy with their nifty new prosthetic leg.'


That summed it up for me right there. Yeah, the new prosthetic leg is cool. BUT I LOST MY LEG AND AM NEVER GETTING IT BACK. Yeah, the enrollment in the special school is great, BUT MY SON HAS A DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITY AND ODDS ARE HE WILL NEVER REALLY LIVE THE LIFE I ALWAYS DREAMED OF FOR HIM.

So, that's where we are with Bennett. I struggle with finding and latching on to the positives, that's my problem. There are positives, certainly. There are also negatives. Could be better. Could be a lot worse.

Eventually, my hope is that I'll stop being pissed off. Then things can really start looking up. For all of us.

As for Carter, poor little guy. He hasn't been in Taekwondo for two weeks. First, he pics up Strep Throat. Really zings him. He had not been sick in a long time too, but this one cooked him pretty hard. On top of that, he gets some kind of Scarlet Fever that then gives him the most awful, itchy rash...lasted for DAYS. Only now has it started to clear up.


And that, in the longest nutshell you will ever see, is what's up in Lillyworld right now. I'll try to not let it go this long again. 2.5 weeks is a long time to leave people whom I care about and who care about me and my family in the dark. I'll endeavor to pull my head from the confines of my butt a little more often.

OUT...

Fledgeling Ass-Kicker

Nope...no update on Bennett and all that stuff. Still want to, but I'm having a difficult time putting everything down in a manner that pleases me. Scratch that...not pleases me...in a manner that is as precise as I want to be. Not sure why precision means that much to me, sometimes I just let my cyber-lips flap away, but these are dangerous grounds sometimes, and I want to be sure I say exactly what I mean and mean exactly what I say.

And yet, despite the numerous starts/deletes on a Bennett-Specific update, I am still compelled to put SOMETHING in here, if for anything else just to let those that read this blog (as a way of keeping tabs on whether or not I've finally jumped into the Great Abyss) know that I haven't, as yet, taken that plunge.

So...in the meantime, enjoy this picture of Carter in his Taekwondo uniform, not sure what the technical name is of the outfit. He did NOT want this picture taken, for some odd reason.


Anyway...he is up and down about whether he digs Taekwondo or not. Sometimes he says he likes it, sometimes he says he wants to stop. Never know if I should push him or let him so what he wants. That's one of many aspects of parenting a kid when it comes to sponsored activities that I am FAR from really knowing what the hell I am doing.

I do think it's funny that the World Taekwondo Federation initials, that they use on their stuff, is WTF. That always makes me laugh.

But I'm easy.

OUT...

OK, I Admit It...Something's Up

Yeah, yeah...my head is in a shitty place.

Yesterday's Ravens/Patriots game and the Cardinals/Packers game were both nice nuggets of coolness over the weekend. Though I was EXTREMELY unhappy about the outcome of both of Saturday's games. I did not want Cincinnati to lose to the Jets, and I was mortified to see the Eagles lose to the Cowboys for the second straight week.

Friend of mine put it very well...the window has probably closed on the Eagles for a while as far as their Super Bowl hopes are concerned. Sucks.


So where was I? Oh yeah...back to the poop thing. My mind HAS been in such a shitty place lately and it has affected my blogability as you may (or may not have) noted. How you like that? New word. BLOGABILITY. I just invented it. Probably not, some numbnut probably said it already. Doesn't make it any less cool, just means I probably am not going to go down in history as the inventor of a new word.

As I rounded the corner from 2009 into 2010, I had hoped that I would feel a resurgence, a sense of renewal, a revitilizationn so to speak. Didn't happen. Maybe I was a fool to believe it would.

I mean really...what would make January 1 any better than December 31 if you really get right down to it? Nothing. Except you. And in the past while I have had the strength to initiate positive transition using the famed New Year's Day as the springboard, this was not the case this year.

Just didn't have it in me.


Been very hard for me to 'keep my chin up' or 'have a positive spin on stuff' when Life just feels so...I dunno...hard. And this coming from someone who has been through some hard stuff in his life, who has often battled depression. Who has often WON those battles, in fact more times than I ever really give myself enough credit for.

Been taking an anti-depressant called Lexapro of late. It is not, though, for those of you unfamiliar with the way these kinds of medications work, a 'happy pill'. It isn't like, say, taking an opiate...where you have this false sense of well-being for a few hours and you love everyone and everything. Doesn't work like that.


Frankly I don't know enough about the bio-chemistry to TELL you how it works, all I know is what this particular medication type does for me emotionally. It does not take away my depression. It does not take away my anxiety. It seems to, for me, suppress some of the more intense emotions that I might normally have associated with depression.

No, it isn't Domo Aragoto, Mr. Roboto, either. I do HAVE emotions, they are just sort of muffled. Sort of deadened. Actually, the best way to describe myself when I am experiencing most kinds of emotion is sort of like it feels when you walk around outside the spaceship in the game Dead Space (which my wife has officially now accused me of playing too much).

Everything is muffled in your spacesuit, sounds I mean, and all you really hear very well are the sounds YOU make from within your spacesuit, your breathing, your grunting, your screaming in terror and so forth.


But the Lexapro does not help me much with anger. It does some, though not as much as I like, so I have outbursts sometimes, when things feel like they are just too much for me to handle. Sucks too, because as it normally goes these outbursts are always directed to the people you love the most, because those are the people you are AROUND the most, so when the outbursts occur guess who gets caught in the cross-hairs?

Perception is everything, isn't it?

How you choose to view your life, how you choose to perceive things around you, being positive or being negative...that's the real key to understanding the nature of your very existence from day to day. I wonder what it is about some people? I know some of these people, who have an amazing ability to just take some turd life hands them and ask for seconds, to laugh in the face of tragedy and kick negativity's ass no matter how bad it gets.

I envy those people. They have remarkable resilience. Faith is a big part of that, but I've known non-spiritual folks who can do it too. It's certainly worth further study, don't you think? Some head-shrinker somewhere ought to be writing a research paper about why some people lean towards the positive and some people lean towards the negative when it comes to the glasses with which they view the world.

I'd read that.


So anyway...that's, in a nutshell, an update on me and my life which, now that I think about it, reveals absolutely nothing. Other than the fact that I feel like shit lately and have been doing less blogging because of it.

Maybe tomorrow I'll tell you how Bennett has been doing, a real 'report' so to speak. I'm a bit curious myself how to put all that into some kind of perspective.

Later...

Two Birds. One Stone.

A little backstory.

Over the Post-Christmas weekend, I went with Jen and our boys to a small town near Cincinnati for a Christmas party there attended by the folks from Jen's Dad's side of the family. We stayed at a Bed & Breakfast overnight. Very cool. A good time was had by all. Now, my sister-in-law Mandy has a couple of boys, Jackson and Anthony, and they were there too.

Well, I had my laptop, was showing some people a bunch of photos on my computer. Mandy comes over and I show her some shots of her kids and Bennett that Jen took with her camera that Mandy had never seen. Later, she asked if I'd hook her up with some. Sure. Why not?

But, you know me...if I have One Stone (a photo project) and Two Birds to Kill (a request for said photos and a Blog to keep updated) then why not take advantage of it?

SO...Mandy, here are the ones I could find. Just click the pics to go to the larger pic, and then download the large pic. The rest of ya? Just enjoy all the rampaging CUTENESS...

Now...I have GOT to get around to sorting through all my Christmas pics.

OUT...

More Block Figures I'll Probably Eventually Lose

Due to some recent financial issues, I won't be able to grab nearly as many Kubrick figures as I had been able to in 2009, or if I do, I better do so by always keeping in the back of my mind one of my Collecting Commandments...never buy anything unless you are prepared to let it go after you get it to stir up some cash.

Anyway, I still have hundreds of figs that I have yet to shoot and show here in these pages, my sort of 'unofficial' collecting archive, so I certainly won't run out of material for a while.

First up we have some acquisitions I made this year to the Alien collection of Kubrick figures. I finally got the evil android Ash, no idea why I waited this long, he wasn't a rarity or anything.

Picked up some nice stuff in an Aliens themed box set...the Alien Queen and the Power Loader with Ripley were really the key pieces in the set.

The rest of the stuff was pretty much re-hash to fill all the space, a repaint (and a bad one) of the original Alien and some Alien Eggs. Great...just what I needed, more Alien Eggs.

Last but not least from the Alien universe, the 400% version of the original Alien creature...sort of. It is more of a figure that is designed to look like the original Kenner TOY that came out around the time the film did, in the late Seventies, early Eighties I think. That's really what is cool about it, especially the packaging, which I did not show here, on the inside of the brown case. Very retro-homagey. Nice.

OUT...

Win...And In...

Congratulations to the Baltimore Ravens, who, despite a dismal 9-7 season, managed to squeak into the playoffs by beating the Raiders today. Second year in a row that we've made the playoffs. Nice.

And, since Wes Welker may be SERIOUSLY injured now, our chances of a win in New England just improved. Now is the time though...Baltimore has never beaten New England in their young history as far as I know, and I hope this is the time that our losing streak against them ends.


Should be a fun wild card weekend. I will be alone most of that weekend as Jen is taking the kids up to her sister's, so it'll just be me, football, X-Box 360 and take-out.

Sweeeeeeeeeeet.....

More Cute PRE-Christmas Pics

Still from the Facebook upload last week. Haven't 'processed' the stuff from our weekend trip or the good Christmas morning stuff yet. Soon...soon...patience. Besides, I have to get the most out of my content. Waddya gonna do? Besides, pictures of kids are ALWAYS fun.

Bennett is sick today. Poor little guy. Sounds like he has a chest full of phlegm...sucks. You can't give kids his age any Mucinex or anything. Hopefully he'll cough all that junk up soon and be done with his illin'. He's been sick a lot lately...but that, actually, is about the most normal thing about him being 2 years and 2 months old. They get sick a lot.

Anyway...on to the pics...which are all technically 'PRE'-Christmas Day, actually. A smattering of Pre-Christmas events, the 'Layton Christmas Party' and the 'Lilly Thanksmas'. 'Thanksmas' is what I call our new tradition of my Mom and my Step-Dad coming up from Arkansas between Thanksgiving and Christmas to celebrate both holidays. Just occurred to me though...I did not bake a turkey. Dammit...completely forgot. Next year.

OK, now...REALLY on with the pics this time...












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