Post-Thanksgiving Update

I haven't written in a while and we got some much needed time off over the holiday so I figured I'd try to put an update out here.

THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

THURSDAY
Thanksgiving was fun. We went to Mimi's as we normally do. She tried to get out of it but apparently my sister threatened her with 'I'm not coming up to visit unless you cook and have Thanksgiving at your house' so she relented. Everyone pitched in and made something and all the normal people were there, Me, Ale, Isaac, Pax, Mimi, Chuck, Autumn, Gaines, Dee, Jed, Jed's 2015 girlfriend Lisa, Zip, Chuckie and Kevin.

From what I've gathered from talking to everyone after this was one of the better Thanksgivings. Everyone had a great time. I know I did. I don't think Mimi had a great time. She takes it upon herself to do too much and I think that causes her stress. Maybe that's where I get it from.

FRIDAY
We didn't really do anything but relax and recover. I played games and hung out her Ale and the babby.

SATURDAY
Tried to set up a lunch with Autumn and Gaines so we could hang out since they made the trip the whole way here. It didn't work out so Ale and I had our own lunch which was awesome. They did come over afterwards to our house and hung out so it worked out anyway.

SUNDAY
Just did more relaxing. Got a lot of database work in.


EMPLOYEE YEAR END BONUS

We received bonuses at work for the holiday. Nothing great but better than nothing is how I'll politely describe that. The problem this year is that Ale and I got different amounts but somehow in their system the gave us the wrong ones. I got hers. She got mine. We weren't supposed to know that but we did. The official story as I understand is that there was just an error. On the paper they give you when you go into the meeting the amount was crossed out and rewritten, the deposits were wrong in our bank accounts, redacted and redeposited and the statements on the ADP website are also incorrect. Instead of fixing mine they gave me a second bonus to make up the difference. Why they didn't do something to resolve this before handing them down is something I do not understand. It really reflected badly on whoever is in charge of that and I heard all the managers were irritated as well.


MORE EX DRAMA

The boy texted me the other day at around 9-10 pm (which is super late for me, luckily I was up) telling me he was scared and that I should come get him. Mom and Anthony were fighting. What I found out was going on was that apparently she found a new boyfriend or crush or something and for some reason told the boy about it. (This must have been part of the plan because it is naive of her to think telling the boy anything will not get back to the relevant person) In hanging out with her current boyfriend (who from what I understand is just a babysitter to her) the boy must have slipped and said something. The guy immediately latched on to this and made the boy spill his guts as to everything he knew. This caused this guy to go into some sort of rage. He broke the plasma TV, her phone and it got physical between her and him. Obviously she has attempted to cloud the true events of that altercation as she is wont to do with severely confusing misinformation after the fact. The worst part, the part I find unconscionable is that she straight up puts the blame on that on Isaac. She texted me that it was his fault. Everyone has known she is incapable of taking responsibility for anything that has happened to her in her entire life but now she is starting to blame her children. I am doing my best to set the boy straight but man is she in his head. I fear for his future with the things she has done to him. I can tell he is getting smarter and can see what's going on but it some cases she still has him wrapped around her finger and it is really saddening. The boy was not the one who got a new boyfriend before breaking up with the old one. She did. I truly do not know where her head is at.

Anyway I did find out that instead of getting a PFA against this guy as she told me he promised that he will pay for the TV and phone, get a job and everything is just hunky dory and they're back together. What a wonderful gesture. You certainly wouldn't want to lose your rent-free house, etc, etc. I give this 3 months. He'll be back on the couch and everything will be as it was. Some people just don't learn and can't move on. Again as the boy gets older he will see.

I got another text of some sort recently basically saying if she can't get free healthcare for the boy then she will do nothing else to help provide it and it will fall to me to handle. Wonderful parenting! You don't pay for anything you can't lie to welfare and get for free but I'm somehow always portrayed as the bad guy to her.



BOY DRAMA CLUB

I told the boy at the beginning of the school year that he needs to get more involved with things and to do that I suggested that he join some sort of club. I don't care what. My first choice would have been some sports team but as long as you pick something I don't care. I found out at the beginning of the month that he had chosen the Penn Middle Drama Club. Ok good enough. I'm cool with that. So for the first play being held in December they had chosen to perform A Charlie Brown Christmas. Again that's fine. That's a classic. He did not chose to participate as an actor. He chose to be a part of the Stage Crew. This all makes me happy. I guess his job is to make set pieces and move them in and out during the different scenes. Good job boy. I am proud of you and I can't wait to go see the play (Dec 17th) so I can see you in action. My only concern (as it usually is): is his mother capable of getting the boy there and back to all his practices he needs to be at. My vote is on 'Extremely Unlikely' . He already needs to stay over Friday night since she can't get him there for Saturday's rehearsal. He needs to be there every single day next week and that worries me as well.

I did have a weird experience picking him up the other day from there. Apparently every parent that has a kid there tries to jam into the back parking lot when rehearsal is over and there's not enough room so a traffic jam is created. When I pulled in and saw that I parked in a lot that was away from all that and figured I'd just walk over and get him then come back. Well just as I got out of the car some guy, I don't know who, the principal, a teacher, someone who felt they were in some position of authority, sharply barked at me if they could help me. Of course me being me I instantly had 5 smart ass things I could have said but I bit my tongue and just as politely as I could answered, 'Nope just picking up my kid'. I don't know if he was confused at my refusal to get in the traffic line like every other sheep or what but it was unsettling to me.


GAS LEAK

The other day we came home from work and found several trucks with red flashing lights parked on our road. It wasn't the police so I guessed fire trucks. maybe someone had a kitchen fire or something. it ended up being the gas company. A guy came to our door to tell us that there was a leak in the line somewhere between our house and the meter on the road and that they shut our gas off. We needed to call a plumber and get it fixed before they would turn it back on. I called Chuck right away and he was in denial about it. He talked to the neighbors and got it all straightened out. I guess there really did end up being an issue because he had to pay $1000 he said to get someone to fix it. It was only out 2 full days and wasn't that big of a deal to us.


STAR WARS

Star Wars: The Force Awakens comes out on Dec 18th. I definitely want to go see it and take the boy. He wants to go with his friend Dylan so I friended his mom on Facebook so I could communicate with her and figure something out. We're definitely going when I planned so we will definitely see it. Hopefully we can work something out because this is the kind of movie you see more than once so I'm cool with going again.


CONCLUSION

Sorry so long. I should try and keep up with this more but that's okay. I finally got a good thing going in my database to log life as we go and that makes me happy. Ale makes me happy. Isaac is doing okay. Pax is the most cutest bestest babby ever. I think things are going to be okay.

Don't Forget

The happiest time in my life is right now. The best time in my life is right now. I love spending time my wife and boys. This is why I've toiled and suffered for 40 years to get to this point. When they look at me and smile because they are satisfied, it's the best feeling in the world. I can see now that this is time I will look back on when I'm old and say 'Yes, this is the time I knew I'd made it. When I was at my happiest.'

Trail Extension

I went to ride the other day and I took the PT Cruiser using the brand new bike rack my dad found in his garage. It uses ancient strap and buckle technology which can be confusing but if you mess with it long enough it does actually work.

When I got to the trail I saw something new right at the start. There was a picnic table and a new sign. My goodness what was the news?!?

Future - Trafford thru Murrysville to Export

Oooh What does that mean?! I knew they'd be extending the trail sometime in the future. When I first started riding this was pretty much immediately after the part that took it to Delmont opened so I've never know the trail any different than how it is now.

They're coming FROM Trafford TO Export? That seems confusing. Where the heck is there currently a trail in Trafford to come from? How long will this take until we can ride on it? Most importantly, where will the Penn Trafford connector section be? There is no way they cannot have at least an extension that hooks us in to the main trail if it the main trail can't actually go that way. Now I don't want so many people on it that a person can't reasonably ride their bike in safety but I feel everyone would enjoy it and it would get lots of traffic from PT people if we had access. I'm probably going to have to give them money and join so I can somehow have a say in this. I'm sure there have to be PT people already trying to sway someone. There were also some maps and brochures on the post so I just need to mail that in now.

I thought about how cool that will be when it happens for a large stretch of my bike ride and that was nice.

That was until I found someone's phone. It was on the ground in the tunnel right before the mile 4 marker. I wasn't even planning on going that long but I was feeling good. Plus I devised a plan for next week to finally ride the entire length of the West Penn Trail. I'm going to park at the parking lot I found at the 5 mile marker and go to the end and back however long it takes me. So I figured if I"m going to start at the 5 I should ride the other half of the trail up to the 5 so over the 2 weeks I hit every part of it.

Anyway so I go through the tunnel and I see a snazzy electric portable phone. I don't know if my first thought was 'Screw it' because I did ride by but something stopped me and I turned around and grabbed it. It wasn't broke or anything so I put it in my pocket and kept going. So then I started thinking about what I was going to do and how. I figured when I got done riding I could just find a likely contact and call it to see if they could get a hold of whoever this was but then I thought 'No'. I don't want to go through dudes phone. I'm sure its nothing but what if hes a weirdo or a closet cheating freak or mafia or who the hell knows what. I yelled out at a few people I passed asking if they lost a phone but no luck.  By the end I was decided to just drop it off with the cops.

Of course that was an affair. How stupid am I to go walking right up to police and give them me to beat up or whatever? They were right on the way home though (after my GPS took me in the stupidest circle I ever took) in the basement of an old brick building with this locked steel door and camera and stuff. I rang the bell and just as I thought no one was coming and 'Should I just leave it here on the ground' some (obviously) big, bald cop opens the door and I'm pretty sure he just said 'What?' gruffly and not "How can I help you?'. I just said Lost and Found and handed it to him. I said I found it on the bike trail and he took it and I bolted. Hopefully whoever lost it got it back.

40TH ANNIVERSARY BIRTHDAY SPECTACULAR!!!

I turned 40 this past weekend so I planned a nice weekend out for the occasion.

Day 1 Friday July 31st

• We first waited out for the Dark Pit amiibo
• Went to the David L Lawrence Convention Center for ReplayFX
• Went to Pappy's

Day 2 Saturday August 1st

• Left to go to the beach
• Arrived at the beach after much driving and traffic
• Swam and beached for a few hours
• Came back via the shuttle to get our Neptune photo
• Had pizza

Day 3 Sunday August 2nd

• Went to Sandbridge
• Saw the USS Wisconsin
• Drove back to Pappy's
• Grilled out
• Had cake

Day 4 Monday August 3rd

• Played frisbee
• Drove home
• Stopped to hang out with the boy and eat food

Yay! Fun! I'm 40! :O

Continued Success

I own 2 acres of land. I have an 11 year old son and a 3 month old son. I have the most beautiful, real, soulmate that anyone could possibly hope for. I have every amiibo released so far. I get to play all the awesome new games that come out on the best systems. I have plenty of awesome bike trails to ride to my hearts content. Now I just got a promotion at work. It doesn't feel like a promotion you see on TV or in a movie but I think it's pretty darn good. Certainly turned this year around from the way it started. Let's hold this together and keep moving forward to even better stuff.

Trail Fest 2015

Apparently I have evolved into a cyclist. My goals is to ride 500 miles this year.

Here are some links to some of the places I go. Hopefully I'll come back and clean this up a bit.



http://www.post-gazette.com/life/recreation/2015/04/04/Cyclists-look-north-to-progress-on-the-Erie-to-Pittsburgh-Trail/stories/201504040012

http://friendsoftheriverfront.org/trails/three-rivers-heritage-trail/three-rivers-heritage-trail-status/

5 STAR TRAIL
http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/index.aspx?nid=1007

WESTMORELAND HERITAGE TRAIL
http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/index.aspx?nid=1010

GREAT ALLEGHENY PASSAGE
http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/index.aspx?nid=1008
http://www.atatrail.org/

RTC
http://www.regionaltrailcorp.com/

My GMO stance

I see this big controversy regarding GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) and I wanted to state my case, how I see it at this point. I see some benefits but for right now I am against them because I see abuse. 

When I say I'm non-GMO I mean the kind that is sprayed and bred with poison so when they spray it with other poison to kill the weeds/bugs it doesn't also die. That shit cant' be good for you and from everything I read it's not. 

• New Generation of Genetically Engineered Crops Found to Drastically Increase Use of Toxic Pesticides

• Move Over, Round-up: USDA Approves 2nd Generation GMOs That Can Withstand Even Deadlier Herbicide

I'm not against the type where they change something genetically in the seed/plant/fruit to make it better in a non-poison-resisting way. I think people lump these differences together and it can be confusing when the subject comes up for discussion.

I understand the benefits of the second type and I believe the goals strived for by those are worthy and necessary but only if it is done in an open, transparent way that has been fully tested and approved by the FDA or USDA. This assumes the organization is not paid off by corporations by stocking it with lobbyists and former employees and fully understands the consequences to the people to which it serves. Unfortunately I don't see a lot of that. I see corporate profits put above health concerns. 

Here is some more reading you can do on the subject: What You Need To Know About GMOs

I also don't understand the resistance these companies have to labeling these products. As far as I know if any company ever has made an improvement to a product or created a new product they wish to sell, THEY TELL EVERYONE! They spent countless dollars getting the word out via advertising. They shove it down your throat and throw it in your face until you give in. What is happening here is the exact opposite and why wouldn't a normal person be suspicious. These companies are doing everything they can to keep people in the dark about it. They don't want you to know which products contain GMOs and which do not. They are suing cities and states that are trying to inform the public with labeling laws to try and stop them. Why in the world would someone do that? If these products are so great and everyone should want them then why hide this fact? I absolutely do not trust this and neither do most countries besides the US as it is banned in countries across the world but obviously money talks here and if you can pay off the right people you can circumvent the people's health concerns. 

To Label Or Not To Label

In short I do not agree that this generation of people should be guinea pigs for these corporations to test the effects of these crops on people. We can wait a few more years until you perfect it before you roll it out and avoid giving everyone cancer. How will you make money if you kill off everyone?

No Consensus

Have I Finally Made Positive Progress?

I feel like I'm happy. What's wrong with me? :O

Usually when I accomplish things I feel as though that was expected to be accomplished and I barely get any joy of them but lately it has been different. I don't know if it's the meditations or the babby or what but I feel happier recently, more appreciative and I think I like it.

THE MEDITATIONS
I read a bunch of meditation books towards the end of last year and got some guided audio meditations on my phone I have been listening to. I've been learning to clear my mind and be in the moment more. In my life so far my brain just runs future scenarios. Whether they be I wish this interaction would have came out differently this way or planning for a future interaction I know will be happening that what it does always. Maybe doing that distracts me from being able to do other things I don't know. I have been clearing to clear my mind and then focus on what it does, label it and put it behind me. What I try to picture I try to describe as Super Mario Galaxy when I talk to someone about it. I picture the nothingness of space and myself flying through it and extraordinary speeds as when Mario gets propelled from planetoid to planetoid in the game. I picture a huge star that more than fills my field of vision but I am still far away from it but that is where I'm going; enlightenment. When I get distracted and my brain goes off on tangents as soon as I realize that I picture that line of thinking as an asteroid or something I temporarily landed on but the realization breaks it up and it crumbles behind me as I once again continue forward towards the light. I think that is working for me. Some days I can calm myself and clear my head rather easily, some days it just doesn't happen for me but I think continuing to try is worth it. I can push my brain to do more for me.

THE BABBY
Maybe it's the babby. He is super cute after all. Ale and I came up with the idea of Pax long before she ever moved here. When she finally got pregnant and he turned out to be a boy and then was born healthy things all seem to go according to some plan. I haven't had a newborn baby in so long I almost forgot what it was like but it's wonderful. I feel I love Ale even more for successfully producing such a wonder. Her family visited for almost a month to come see him and help her take care of him and they just left this past weekend and dang do I miss them. It was wonderful to have them here. I really enjoyed their visit and was sad to see them go. I feel sad when I think they will miss the babby being so far away. I feel like more of a family than we were before somehow. If I can just get my mom, Aunt Dee and Elaine to cooperate and help us with daycare we could even entertain the possibility of another little bundle of joy. That has to happen real soon though.

Quick substory to the babby I wanted to add.
We did have a bit of trouble with him at first. The feeding part did not go as planned. Unfortunately Ale's body was not cooperating with the plans to breast feed him and was only producing a few ounces of milk per day when Pax required much more. This is upsetting to Ale and that made me upset but I understand and it's not her fault. There's nothing you can do. The doctor's keep saying 'Oh it'll probably all work for the next baby'. Well that's great and all but what the hell is this one supposed to eat. He's the one screaming right now that he's hungry. >.< It took us the whole first weekend to figure that out (which was miserable) and that somehow set some red flags off when we took him for his first doctor's appointment. They expected him to lose a little bit of weight but not as much. We told them what we found out but they scheduled another appointment in a week to make sure we were on track. Then when we went to that appointment weight was good but now his temperature was low for some reason and the lady was alarmed about that. I may have taken this the wrong way but it seemed to me it was a threat that she would insist the babby go to the hospital if it doesn't rise in the next 20 min. I definitely did not like how she imparted that information to us. I had to jam the babby down my shirt, skin to skin, to warm him up enough so we could leave but at least that worked. A few other things that may have caused me some slight worry:

• There is the red mark on his nose and one between his eyes that hasn't gone away yet. 
• He had some skin issues at first too, flaky and such but that seems okay once I started using that lavender smelling babby lotion on him. 
• I feel weren't weren't washing him enough and he got some bad babby acne before I started taking care of that.
• Also after a bath one day and a few other times I've noticed his had a weird pattern of small red circles all over his skin. People have since explained that away to me but I still didn't like it.

Besides all that though he's perfect. :D


Anyway the point of all this is I'm happy. I feel happy. I am noticing that I am and feel happy which makes me even more happy. I don't think that used to be the case. Whatever is going on I like it and want it to continue. I love my wife and family!

East Suburban Pediatrics

I don't know if I like my baby's doctor, East Suburban Pediatrics.

We had to take Pax there for his appointments. Since we haven't done much research and the guy who delivered him was affiliated with this place it seemed easiest to go with them but I'm not sure I like their attitude.

The first appointment was a few days after he was born and I guess we alarmed them first because we didn't feed him as much as he needed over the weekend because we weren't sure how her milk was working. When they weighed him he weighed even less than when he was born. There was some concern there so they made us come back for another appointment in like three days or something to check his weight again to ensure that we figured it out even though we told them we did. Apparently that wasn't good enough.

We come back for appointment #2 and his weight was fine but now they give us this his temperature is too low stuff. Hey you are the ones who just took off all his clothes and let him lay out in this office naked for 30 minutes. What did you expect? This time they got all alarmed about that and wanted to make sure he went back up to an acceptable range so we had to sit there after we put his clothes back on and wait or they wouldn't let us leave. We sat there and waited 20 minutes then they took his temperature again. It did go up but not sufficiently up enough for them which was irritating. They gave us another 20 minutes but if it isn't up enough this time they are going to insist we go to the hospital. I don't like people telling me what I have to do especially you Doctor Dingess (yes that's her real name). I ended up jamming the baby down my shirt against my skin for 20 minutes which made me start to sweat but then luckily the last time at which temperature apparently it was good enough for them that really irked me and scared me a little bit.

Overcomplicating

I got an email from the school district:

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date:		Thu, Mar 12, 2015 at 1:07 PM
subject:		Volunteer Policy Changes for PTSD

Dear Parents:

There have been many changes to state policies as outlined in Act 153 that require the school districts to revise their policies on clearances for staff and volunteers. Penn-Trafford School District will now require all employees and volunteers of a school district to get their clearances every three years. The district will ensure that the staff requirements will be met. We have also updated our Volunteer Policy #916.1 to reflect the new requirements for all volunteers.

While we encourage parent participation in our schools, please be aware that to volunteer for the Penn-Trafford School District you must have current Act 34 (PA Criminal History) and Act 151 (Child Abuse). Current clearances are ones that you obtained within one year of the date that you would be volunteering in the school. Once you receive your clearances, they will remain in effect for three years per Act 153. At the end of the three years, you must obtain new clearances if you want to continue your role as a volunteer. If you have not lived in the State of Pennsylvania for ten consecutive years or more, you must also obtain Act 114 (Federal Criminal Background Check). If you have lived in Pennsylvania for ten or more consecutive years, you must sign Affidavit 153.1 (sample attached) stating that you have not been convicted of one or more of the crimes reportable under Title 18 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes or equivalent crime in another state, territory, commonwealth, or foreign nation. If you have received your clearances in the past two years, they will not expire until the third year from the date the clearances were issued. In other words, if you received your clearances this school year you should be good for two more school years.

Act 34 and Act 151 clearances take as long as six to eight weeks to process, so you are encouraged to apply for the clearances as soon as you decide to become a volunteer. Each form will be available online. We have links to this information on our school website.  We also have the online copies of the forms on the website. The schools do not send the forms to the state. It is the responsibility of the volunteer to complete the forms and pay the fees. The forms are $10.00 each and require a money order to complete. If you do the criminal record check online, you will pay online so no money order would be needed using that method.  As soon as you receive your clearances from the state, please take them to the school office so the secretary can make a copy for their file. If you have a record, please make an appointment with your child’s principal to discuss it. Minor incidents that do not hinder the welfare of a child do not prevent one from becoming a volunteer.

Act 114 clearances require the volunteer to get fingerprinted. These clearances cost approximately $28.50. The forms and procedures for Act 114 will be available at your school’s office and linked to our website.

If you volunteer for any overnight trip as a chaperone, you must have current clearances. This means you must submit the forms for Act 34, Act 114, and Act 151 that are less than one year old. 

Also, all volunteer coaches are required to have current Act 34, 151, and 114 clearances instead the waiver mentioned in paragraph #2 even though they may have lived in Pennsylvania for ten consecutive years or more.

Definition of Volunteer: A volunteer is a person who services the district without compensation on a planned and approved basis.

Examples of Volunteering: The following activities are samples of volunteering in our schools that occur on a regular or a one-time basis which require clearances: Wisdom Program, Accelerated Reader and Support Programs, Student Store, Basket Raffle, Box Top for Education Sponsor, Cameras for Classroom Sponsor, Historian/ Scrapbook, Recess Helper, Lunch Room Helper, Shop for Education, Weekly Readers, Bulletin Board Helper, Fitness Fridays, Campbell’s Labels, Friends of Sunrise Library, Library Helpers, Public Relations, Book Fair Helper, Santa Shop Helper or Wrapper, Field Trip Chaperone, Fun Day Helper, After School Clubs and Special Events Sponsor or Assistant, Home Room Party Chaperone, Homeroom Parent, Accelerated Reader Store, Track and Field Day Helper, Picture Day Helper, After School PTO Events and any other role or duty designated by the principal.

If you have additional questions, please contact me or your child’s principal.  In addition, your child’s school will be sending out information shortly regarding dates when we are bringing fingerprint services to your child’s building.

Dr. Matthew Harris

Superintendent

Frequently Asked Questions:

Question:  If a parent comes into the class to do a presentation, do they need to have clearances? Answer:  The parent will not need clearances because they are not working with a child.  They are serving as the guest of the teacher and will not take a supervisory role or be alone with a child.

Question:  If a parent or grandparent wants to attend a school play or Breakfast With Your Child Day, do they need to have their clearances?
Answer: The attendee will not need clearances because they were invited by the school to either watch their child perform or socialize with their child as they eat. The attendee in this case is not volunteering and there will be staff members in charge of supervision.

Question:  If a parent is scheduled to be on recess duty once a month, do they need clearances? 
Answer:  They need their clearances because they are performing a service where they have direct access to children.

Question:  If a parent volunteers for only the Fun Day event at the end of the year, do the need clearances? Answer:  They will still need their clearances because they are working with or supervising children.

Question:  If a parent receives their clearances but can no longer volunteer to finish out the year because of family emergencies, do they need new clearances during the following year?Answer:  The parent will not need new clearances until the end of the three year time period expires. The clearances are good for three years from the time that the parent receives them.

Question:  If a parent has a retail theft conviction, will they be able to volunteer? Answer:  The parent will still be able to volunteer as only records for items under PA Title 18 Consolidated Statutes or equivalent crime in another state, territory, commonwealth, or foreign nation prevent you from volunteering for an organization.

Question:  Why do we have to obtain clearances to volunteer in our schools? Answer: It is a requirement of the state mandated PA Act 153.

Question:  When do the clearances expire? Answer:  The clearances expire three years from the date that is listed on their clearances.

Question:  If I received my clearances on August 15, 2014 to start the school year, do I need to get them again? Answer:  The clearances expire three years from the date that is listed on the clearance so you will not need them until August 15, 2017.

Question:  If one of my clearances has expired, will I be able to volunteer? Answer:  You will not be able to volunteer as the district’s policy requires all 3 clearances, or 2 clearances and a waiver for the fingerprints if you are a ten year consecutive resident of the state of PA.

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I normally don't care about this stuff. It doesn't affect me. I work like a normal person so my time is occupied with none left to volunteer but why are they overcomplicating it so much? I wanted to respond to this email but I felt if anyone even read it they'd probably feel I was causing problems or something so I decided to post it here instead. I actually did get my clearances when Isaac started kindergarten but thanks to this I know they are long expired. Good thing the PTO put up the money for me to get them rather than me spend my own. I don't need a piece of paper saying that I'm not a nutso. 

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So you can get the clearances, work with the kids for 3 straight years with no issues but then some mystical deadline arrives causing you to become invalid, sounds awesome! This is troublesome enough to dissuade me from volunteering and I'm sure many others as well. What you are going to have left to serve are a bunch of bored, 'supermom' housewives with agendas! Not an environment I would choose to subject my children to. Hopefully you are working with the State to come up with something better. Sounds like another screw the 99% of normal people over because there are 1% nutso people out there that we have to overprotect our children from. 

Just my 2 cents. 
-Marc A Cartwright

Pax Oliver Cartwright

Pax was born.

Ale did say she was having some sort of back pain that was followed up by informing me that's a sign of labor. That was in the evening of Tuesday March 3rd. I also recall her telling me as we were going upstairs probably around 8-9 that night that she felt something going on down there in the general belly area. All I know from that point was that at 12:45am I was awakened by Ale who seemed to have some concern. She said she started having contractions around 10 and they were 5 minutes apart and now they are 3 minutes apart. I advised that we should call the doctor as we were told and see what they say so Ale did and they said we should go ahead and go to the hospital. I took a quick shower and I told the boy what was going on and to make sure to text me when he goes to catch the bus. He has been very responsibly handling this for a while now. I also grabbed a small bag of stuff to do. I didn't think to take clothes. Ale had 2 bags full. She had snacks and all kinds of goodies, At least she reminded me to make sure the car seat base was installed so we were good to go there.

I guess we got to Forbes around 2:30am. It was raining like crazy and there were huge puddles and streams of water on the road. I told her this was going to make a good story! For some reason I pulled around the front as usual thinking that one door int he front was the regular emergency entrance. Apparently that was not the case. It was a visitors and it was locked. We walked the entire way around the building in the dark to the back. This is where the emergency was. We went to the desk and told the lady what was going on and she took our info and had a guy there with a wheelchair for her pretty quick. We went to one room where a nurse was taking her vitals and some young Asian female resident doctor lady came in and measured her after about 20 minutes and decided Yep! you guys are staying and having a babby!

They then took us to another room on the fourth floor. It was a big nice room. Here they do everything in the same room. You deliver here. The bed was super high tech and there were lights and all the tools necessary right there. Ale put on one of those hospital gowns and started getting machines and tubes hooked up to her. For about 2 hours a few nurses came and went and looked at the output of the machines. We weren't entirely sure what was going on or how this was going to play out. They asked her if she wanted the epidural shot and she was like if I need it, I need it. In the next hour or so Ale got a little uncomfortable. She was starting to feel some pain. She was laying on her one side moaning and didn't even want me to rub her. I remember walking over to her and she told me her water broke. I could definitely see something that collaborated that had happened. Shortly after that they kicked me out of the room for 10 min while they administered that shot. They said to keep it sterile but I was the only one that had to leave so I'm not sure what that accomplished besides keeping me from seeing what happened.

When I came back in things were happening. There were definitely more people hanging around. Something was going to happen. Ale wanted to start pushing but the nurse was trying to get her to hold back. Apparently she dilated super quickly but not quite enough yet. In a few minutes that didn't matter anymore. The real doctors were there and they pulled sections of the bed off and transformed it into the birthing cradle machine. At one point so many people were yelling at her trying to tell her how to breathe. I know it was confusing for me let alone her. I wanted to yell hey how about one person but she followed along just fine and it wasn't a big deal. I think it only took a good 4-5 pushes to get where we needed to be. The doctor showed me that you could see the tip of the head in there. They pulled out this suction cup vacuum machine and when enough came out that they could grab onto they sucked his head right on out of there. That was wild! Now she had this baby head sticking out. It was purple! Yikes! I'm pretty sure he snipped things a little wider to help get the baby out. Not cool. They grabbed an arm and pulled him out. Welcome to the world Pax! They started toweling him off and this time I got to cut the real cord. They took him to a little side table to make sure all was good as they were sewing everything back together. Lots of blood. Poor baby but she took it all like a champ. The whole 9 months she never really slowed down too much. She went from contractions to birth in what seemed like a few short hours. I am super proud of her and what a great job she did.

Pax was born at 07:19am on 2015/03/04



7 pounds 13 ounces
3.544 kilograms

20 1/2 inches
52 centimeters



We lived in that room for 2 days. It was crazy. I played a lot of Majora's Mask on 3DS. The couch thing they had for me to sleep on was not super comfy. They did have lots of blankets and pillows so that was good, I took a bath in the fancy whirlpool tub which was so sweet. That gave me good experience as far as criteria for the type of bathtub we want in Dream House. Ale got her meals served to her but I had to eat scraps. I did get a steak dinner the one night but that was it, The one night I did go to cafeteria it was closed. I didn't mind. Mom, Isaac and Aunt Dee visited the one day. It was a bad snowy day. Thankfully my mom was able to help us and watch Isaac for the 2 days we were  in there. Lisa still after 16 or so weeks hasn't fixed the van so he couldn't go there. One day I walked over to the doctors office where Ale went for the bay to deliver them papers and get a new appointment. I got to walk across the sky walk thing which was fun.



They gave the babby hearing tests and blood tests, They did the circumcision. (Now we have to glob huge amounts of A&D ointment on his parts every time we change him) We had nice nurse ladys come in and take care of stuff for us, We learned not to shake the babby via informative DVD. I gave in and let the middle name be Oliver over Mycroft and had to fill out the birth certificate and social security number forms accordingly.  We stole all the free stuff they told us we could have and maybe a little extra.

It is so nice to have a cute little babby again. He is so precious and so adorable. We love him so much. I posted about it on facebook and I think that first picture is probably the most popular picture I ever had as far as number of likes and comments. It is nice that everyone is so happy for us. It makes me feel good. I am happy now. I don't need to wait. Ale is the best and Isaac is the best and Pax is now also the best. 

I forgot how this went it's been so long but the first few days are the keep babby alive phase. It's up to us now to know to feed the babby and not squish the babby and do enough to keep him alive until his
first appointment on Monday. We had a little bit of trouble with that so far. It appears as though the milk didn't just magically start coming out right away so we had to give the babby some formula here and there but Ale is good at making the babby latch on every time anyway so he learns, Luckily today Sunday it has been noted that for sure the works is functioning and we see there is milk happening. Hopefully that continues to work out and the babby is not starved for nourishment,

Just a couple of other things we noted:

• super snotty one day, he squeaked when he breathed out his nose and it was so cute sounding
• flaky skin
• feet look way better
• wasn't scared of the vacuum sound
• flails his arms knocks pacifier out, already maybe doesn't like be swaddled
• neck is strong, can already hold his head up sort of

We will see what they say at the doctor's appointment on Monday.

New Carpet

I think we were doubtful when we first heard that there were plans to get us new carpet but it happened and we are so happy.

You remember the old carpet right?
So dirty that even after we used one of those steam cleaning machines you rent at the store your feet/socks would still turn black if you walked on it. Plenty of marks and burns and other gross crap as well. That's where it started we told the landlord that we couldn't put the baby on that and it seemed like it was well past time to re-carpet this place. Ale started sewing a quilt thinking this would not come to pass.

We heard before Xmas to look for the end of February and then as that time approached a guy did come over to meet with Chuck and check things out. After that meeting it was definite. We were told we were scheduled for 02/24. Yay! I immediately started moving things off bookcases, etc to make it easier for later. Chuck said he would come over that prior weekend to assist with ripping out all the old carpet. Those 2 days, Saturday and Sunday were pretty crazy. You had to start pulling out the carpet on the edges and kind of cut it down to a strip and just keep going until you got it all. Under that was the padding and you ripped that out next. There were lots of staples holding that in so after that grab a pair of pliers and pull all those out. The amount of dirt that was under that carpet was extreme. In our bedroom we found newspaper from 1976. Even crazier under that was more newspaper, from 1946! We moved out as much stuff as we could shoved it in the back room and in Isaac's room. The only places we could since there either was no carpet or wasn't getting new carpet. It was a messy, dirty job but except for one spot in the computer room where the padding was stuck to the floor underneath, most everything came out pretty easily.

My mom came over and cleaned. That was not pleasant. Although she is a super good cleaner (as you would think someone who has spent every Saturday of their lives cleaning and re-cleaning their home would be) she was super bitchy about it. I was not dealing well with this conflict. If you insist you need to come over and clean that's fine but do we need to hear over and over how horrible you think we are because our house is below your impossibly high standard of clean? I don't think so. That didn't stop her. A couple times we almost started yelling shit at each other but it never exploded. I would like the focus of this article to be on the new carpet but this insane cleaning part has to be explained.

By the end of the day Sunday we had bare wooden floors.

Finally Tuesday came and I took a 'work from home' day from work because I knew I would have to be there to help move furniture around. I was not used as much as I thought I would be but it was still good that I was there. The one guy showed up and seemed irritated that there was still furniture around. Hey man there is no where to put it. What do you think we were supposed to do with it? We forked everything into the living room so they could do the computer room, the stairs and our bedroom. Once that was done we could move everything over to clear that room out. There was really no issue there and the guy did calm down but I thought he was rude and I think with his temper Chuck almost blew up but luckily we kept a lid on it.

Mainly I stayed in the boy's room working on my laptop until I was needed for something. It worked out okay. The other installer guy was nice and kept trying to engage in friendly small talk. In about 5-6 hours they were done and we started putting everything back. Apparently there is a lot of loose fuzz in new carpet because every time I've vacuumed it so far it's filled the canister up with fuzz.

The worst part again I hate to bring this up but my mother came back to iron our curtains or something. She was there when we weren't and when we came back and saw that everything was rearranged in a manner that I knew my mother favored and we got a little irate again. Furniture was moved, things that didn't need touched were touched, she even freaking rearranged our refrigerator magnets. That was quite enough. She insisted she come back to clean the boys room since he missed out on all this but as politely as I could, I declined. Fortunately she didn't push it. What a weird situation I was put in there. We all were grateful for her willingness to help but the way she did it, it was not worth it to us. I'd rather pay someone to come in and keep their damn mouth shut.

We had to make some new rules to keep this carpet as awesome as possible for as long as possible.

• No eating of any kind. 
• No drinks unless it's in a container that has a lid. 
• No shoes. 
• Someone must vacuum the carpet every weekend without fail. 

Hopefully the baby doesn't puke all over it and ruin it.

No Good Year Continues...

I woke up Saturday morning (01/24) just like any other morning. I rolled over and like many other people the first thing I did was grab for my phone. I saw several missed calls and messages from my dad, mom and aunt. I knew instantly what had happened. Blair was dead.

Sure enough I got a hold of my aunt and my father within a few hours and both confirmed it. I found this article in the paper that morning. I guess Blair wasn't working the entire week we left him on the ridge and Friday evening he took a gun and drove up to this state park by himself and ...... they found him a few hours later.

We had just used a whole Saturday last weekend to get his stuff out of his house and moved it to Ligonier out by Kevin and Lisa. Blair was in a weird, non-communicative daze the entire time. I wasn't sure what to think. I knew he was probably upset, etc. so I made sure to tell the boy to give Blair a hug to make him feel better. That was obviously not enough.

From what I had heard him and his wife were having issues and it dealt with possibly both his health issues and alcohol use. I have been told that due to his 30+ years of welding his lungs were having serious problems as well as other things and I guess although I know they had big fights and stuff previously over alcohol use. It hadn't stopped and accordingly to Mary Jo it was worse than ever. She seemed super bitchy when we were there. It was such an inconvenience for her. That was not a good attitude to have. Was she just hurt that this was happening or was she seriously that much of a cunt?

Also the week before I got wind of an episode regarding an overdose of sleeping pills. Apparently when they went to the doctor though they either didn't test him for that or there was no evidence of abuse but I wonder. My dad instantly was in denial about that but both my sister and I knew it was a serious warning flag. I don't know what everyone else outside the family knows about what happens. It is a secret? Are people asking questions? I just am keeping quiet about it but again it seems like someone could have intervened in some way to prevent this tragedy.

I was called upon to go to the funeral home with everyone else and talk to the funeral director. We had to hash out his obituary and everything. We were all pretty sad. At least Mary Jo had lost her attitude. I'm sure as mad as she was about whatever was going on, no one wanted this to happen. For second I thought I was invited to help pitch in to cover costs. That was scary because if you read my last blog this was not a good time. I would have done what I could but luckily rich Mary Jo stepped up to cover it. She also got first pick through all Blair's things we moved and took what she wanted. She says the will left everything to her. I'm sure it did. Anyway after lots of cry breaks this is what we came up with.

It would have been nice to have a heads up this was going thru his mind. Was his visits to the doctor giving him information that things were worse than we could imagine? Was he suffering in some way that he couldn't bear to take? Why didn't he talk to anyone? He was only 57 years old and I couldn't picture whatever was happening couldn't have been the worse thing that has ever happened to him. We still could have objected but at least had some understanding if he just would have opened up to someone. I think people are secretly hoping something was seriously wrong so at least we can point to that and feel a little bit better. The way it happened left everyone without answers and super sad. It was so so sad to watch my dad break down crying a bunch of times. When I first heard I was angry. Angry the way I was when I heard Matt (Dan's brother) attempted to kill himself. Why would you be so selfish? Just fucking look at what you've done to everybody that cares about you. How could anything be so fucking bad that you would do that? I did get sad several times as the enormity of it hit me but when that fades the anger remains.

I know I wasn't best friends with Blair but he was still my family. My family that is now one elder less. I wish this wouldn't have happened. He never had any kids for some reason. The Cartwright line is in my hands to continue it. Pax would have loved you too Blair.

No Good Year

I can't say I've had a good year so far. I feel a lot of negativeness.

JOB
First off my supervisor Kristen has put in her two weeks and quit. We all went to Social on 01/16 for her last day party. From what she tells me there was just too much pressure and something finally pushed her over the edge, she couldn't do it anymore. I don't like that. A bad place to work uses up every ounce of everything from a person and then discards them. A good place cares for their employees and makes sure they are happy and healthy and taken care of so they can do the best job possible. I wish her the best but I need to worry about myself and my family. I know they are not going to promote me to her job but I figured if I can help with as much as I can hopefully they can help me in return. If not we'll have to see who will. I"m going to need a bunch of money to pay for things (see below) and I am not yet where I think I need to be here.

BOY
Apparently the boy is still missing school because of this whole big thing with his mother's van. This started before Xmas break and is still going on. I don't know what the problem is over there or why in the hell does it persist for so long. Obviously it ended up me being the one that had to throw money at the problem to resolve it. I sent a letter to the boy's school to make sure they knew what was going on and there were things out of our control that we were doing our best to maintain.

MONEY

• At the end of January the car insurance is due. That's a grand. 
• This stupid high interest loan needs paid off as soon as possible. We have to pay that off to start with the mortgage stuff and building our house. 
• The baby is coming. It's going to cost a fortune to have and to keep since we both work. Ale is hesitant about asking Aunt Dee about babysitting. 
• We will probably have to pay a little bit when we file our taxes instead of getting money back because last year was a year that she claimed the boy. 
• Now Chuck has raised our rent like $80 a month out of nowhere.  

I am not enthusiastic about our financial future.


BABBY
One day Ale got really upset when she felt the baby was not moving enough. I know at one point they told us 8x in 8 hours and then I think it upgraded to 10x in 1 hour twice a day. Well she didn't feel it was moving enough and got super upset which then upset me. Luckily the doctor was the next day and when I kept pressing her about it she seemed to think if she paid attention that the baby was moving enough. We brought it up to the doctor and she suggested to take an hour off and just sit there and pay attention. Apparently everything is okay now but that was a scare I didn't need.

VIDEO GAME CONSUMERISM
I had Majora's Mask 3D pre-ordered on 3DS as soon as it was available to do so. One day I came home and read on the internet that there was going to be a Limited Edition version with an awesome Skull Kid statue. I checked the websites but it sold out in less than 2 hours. I kept poking around and even visited a store to check but apparently that was the stock. It's gone now. I am not very happy that I was not given a shot at buying this as I most certainly would have.
Also a new wave of amiibos have been announced so I have to worry about getting my order in before they all disappear again. I need to keep my collection at 'obtaining one of every single one available'. This is not a fun game to play. Me and my stupid possessions should not cause me such anguish.

MORE MONEY
I got ripped off at least twice so far this year on food purchases. I swear I have always checked my receipts but I must not be doing a great job lately. That and I don't like the conflict of bringing it up to somebody.
It took me 3 years to fully fill a punch card for Brooklyn's Pizza to get a free X-Large pizza. I finally went to cash it in and ordered a pizza and wings. Somehow that order came out to $22. Somehow I got ripped off there.
We stopped at Sheetz just the other day to get food for the boy who was home alone after school while we were at the party for Kristen. I got him a thing of popcorn chicken and fries. It came out to $13. Somehow the lady added all these coffees on my receipt and only minused off one or two so I ended up paying for one or two. WTF!? I must be more vigilant in stopping and checking my receipt after I buy something and say something if I notice it's wrong.

FAMILY
Blair is still having trouble with MaryJo and it seems that whole thing may be done with. It all starting with drinking and her kids were worried she was partying too much. (Yeah thanks for interfering in a grown couples business kids) So it started out they both quit then I noticed at family gatherings she was allowed to drink but he wasn't. Then I hear he could drink if she drank with him but not by himself. Sounds like a bunch of crap to me. You can't make someone stop doing something if they don't want to. Especially if you feel you can do whatever you want. So he drank by himself one day and she flipped. He took it very hard and the decision was made to leave. I had to help him this past weekend get all the crap out of his house and to a place out in Ligonier by his buddy and funny enough his first ex-wife's sister (who recognized me!).  He seemed to be in a daze the whole time. I feel bad but you don't want to have to deal with shit like that. The best part was when she came out screeching what a horrible inconvenience this was for her. Seems like you made the right decision Blair.

HEALTH
Health-wise I had a crazy thing going on with my right ear for a few days. I was hearing out of it very strangely in a way that I have never experienced before. Some people said I was getting an ear infection, others said it was just ear wax. I tried to clean it out then Ale bought me some drops and a few days later it seems to be okay but it was still worrisome to me.


Anyway some of things are bad, some may only seem bad to me but damn if you compile them up like this I truly am not having a good year so far. I need to focus, do what I can to fix what I can and not worry about the rest. Here's hoping this is the worst that I have to worry about for a while and that the rest of the year turns out to be a good one that moves my life forward and especially that the baby is born healthy and happy.