Had a childhood flashback thanks to my daughter yesterday.
It is that time of year! The commercials are already starting and two things arrived in the mail.
The Amazon and Walmart Wish books arrived in the mail!
Let me say that these are a FAR cry from the HUGE wish books that I went through growing up. And we certainly had a few to go through –
Montgomery Ward ….
Sears …
And JC Penney (which was our favorite)
We’d spend hours looking through these wish books, thinking that these were commissioned by Santa. After all, we were creating our list of toys that HE was going to bring. Our folks told us constantly that they had to pay him for them!
I remember the above page like I was still 5 years old. We actually had that treehouse!
The above page was one that had a huge black circle around that Millennium Falcon! Santa did bring it to me that year, incidentally!
Anyway, back to my daughter. She is at that age now where she wants a say in what she wants for Christmas. So I grabbed a pen and we opened up the Walmart Wish Book (which was more like a cheap magazine). Her finger pointed to toy after toy. “Circle that one for me!” “I think Bubby (her brother, Andrew) wants that. Circle it for him!”
I circled and circled many items. It was insane! I circled doll houses, electric cars, Paw Patrol, Cocomelon, and Gabby’s Dollhouse stuff. There was something on every page. There were even times she would offer special instructions. For example, when we came to this …
…she made sure to say, “I want this Barbie house. With the Barbie car. And all the Barbies, ok?”
She is a hoot and it was a lot of fun going through the books with her. Now we wait to see if she is on the Naughty or Nice List, right!?
Click bait, according to an online definition is: “something (such as a headline) designed to make readers want to click on a hyperlink especially when the link leads to content of dubious value or interest.” While I don’t think this is the case, I do find it very suspicious.
Have you noticed this in your blog notifications lately? There will be a “like” from someone I don’t know. They almost always have a real person’s name. Now, in the past, if someone liked a post, I would go to their site to see if it might be one I’d want to follow. That is, until recently.
Just today a post from a few days ago got “likes” from people I didn’t know. However, if you look closely at them, you’ll notice something odd:
“Tony,” “Madelyn,” and “mary” all have this “amzn.to” link attached to their “page.” There have been plenty more people with this same type of link. A few weeks ago, I clicked on a person’s picture and saw the “amzn.to” link pop up in the browser and I exited quickly. I never did see where the link went.
Has anyone else noticed this? I find this kind of stuff SO very annoying!
I am a bit overwhelmed today. So overwhelmed that I wasn’t sure I’d want to write. However, I feel I need to.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, I had a doctor visit to discuss the results of all of the ADHD testing. I will tell you that it was about as thorough as you can get. Some of the tests seemed silly, but I guess the tests are very scientific and really do give accurate results.
The doctor visit went over the results with me and we discussed the diagnosis and plan of action. She also sent me a copy of the full report, which I couldn’t read until long after the phone call because I couldn’t read it on my phone. I printed it at work and read it in its entirety.
Now that I think about it, overwhelmed may be an understatement. The break down of the various things that the tests showed were accurate and made me realize that there were things I knew I did, but never ever connected it with ADHD, dopamine or other neurotransmitters and how they played into my daily life.
So I officially have a diagnosis. Two of them actually. First, yes, I have ADHD – the combined type. Second, I have Dysthymic Disorder, which is basically long term depression. That was a shock, because I really felt like I was over that. I have good days and bad days, but never felt as though it was a problem anymore. Apparently, it is.
So now, we have a plan of action. I have another appointment at the end of the month to put it all in place and move forward. Based on our discussion today, this plan should really help me in many ways. That makes me look ahead with the hope that things get better and life is a bit more controlled and … normal.
The last few posts have been all about books, so I figured I would just toss out a bit of an update.
We Have Curbs
The road project is almost done! We have curbs! We should have a street soon and hopefully sidewalks and the rest of my driveway, too! This headache cannot be over fast enough!
I’m on the Google!
A good friend of mine is getting ready for a trip to Italy. He’s been learning a bit of Italian in preparation for the trip. Because he is my friend, and as weird as I am, he decided to Google whether or not the School House Rock songs from the 70’s were available in Italian! When he did his search … who popped up??
THIS is why we are friends (among other things)!
In over 5 years, I’ve never noticed!
Andrew will be two in less than a week, so Sam and I took the kids to get pictures. We also did some family photos.
In the 5 years we have been married, and all of the pictures we have had taken, we’ve never printed them out to hang them. Sure, we have some that we had done on the wall, but there are so many that need to be hung.
Sam told me how she wanted to redo a wall in the living room and we began to go through photos to see which ones we wanted to hang up. As we talked, she said we should probably patch the wall and maybe repaint. The following conversation took place:
Me: You know what we should do?
Sam: What?
Me: When we paint, we should make one wall a different color.
Sam stared at me like I was growing a third eyeball.
Me: What?
Sam points to the wall next to me and says, “THAT wall IS a different color!”
I turned and looked. I swear, it did not look different! The way the light hits it, I never noticed the two being different.
Me: No it’s not!
Sam: YES, it is!
So I get up and walk over to the corner where the two walls meet …
Me: Well, how about that!? It really is a different color!
Sam just stared at me in disbelief.
Yes, we have lived together for 6 years. I never noticed!
Wish Me Luck
I should know tomorrow what the results of all that ADHD testing shows. I’m hoping for some answers!
They are the sunshine of my life
I love the fall whether, even if it does feel more like summer. I just love spending time outside with the kids!
I have just finished this wonderful book and there are many words I could use to describe it: warm, funny, sad, thought provoking, emotional, happy, and … magical. This was such an easy read and such a great story. It is a fictional story, but I found myself wanting to meet the characters in real life.
This was a book that was a suggestion on Goodreads. I don’t recall if one of my friends had read it or not, but I was intrigued by the story. It was one that I had my local library order for me. When the email arrived saying the book was on hold, I had totally forgotten about it. Once I started it, I couldn’t put it down. I finished it within 48 hours.
I was unfamiliar with the author, Joe Siple. According to the publisher (Black Rose Writing) “Joe Siple is the USA Today bestselling author of The Five Wishes of Mr. Murray McBride, winner of The National Indie Excellence Award, The PenCraft Award, and named 2018 Book of the Year by the Maxy Awards. The story topped Amazon bestseller lists in the US, Canada, and Australia.”
Here is the Goodreads synopsis:
With all his family and friends gone, one-hundred-year-old Murray McBride is looking for a reason to live. He finds it in Jason Cashman, a ten-year-old boy with a terminal heart defect and a list of five things he wants to do before he dies.
Those wishes aren’t easy ones.
He wants to kiss a girl.
He wants to hit a home run in a major league baseball stadium.
He wants to be a superhero.
He wants to find a boyfriend for his mom.
He wants to perform real magic.
Together, they race against the limited time each has left, ticking off wishes one by one. Along the way, Murray remembers what it’s like to be young, and Jason fights for the opportunity to grow old. But when tragedy strikes, their worlds are turned upside-down, and an unexpected gift is the only thing that can make Jason’s final wish come true.
To a degree, the story reminded me a bit of the Pixar movie Up! Both focus on the relationship between an old man and young boy. That relationship starts a bit rocky, but grows into something very special. Let me be clear, though, they are two very different stories. It will warm your heart and maybe even make you shed a tear. Please be sure to let me know if you read it. I would love your thoughts.
I found out from the publisher that there is a sequel. It has a bit of a similar plot line and I may have to add it to my list of books to read. It is called The Final Wish of Mr. Murray McBride.
Recently, I was made aware of the NetGalley site (www.netgalley.com), where I could actually read books that had yet to be published. I created an account and began searching for a book to read. It didn’t take long to come across The Blues Brothers by Daniel de Visé. I requested to read it and was granted the opportunity.
I have been a fan of The Blues Brothers since it hit theaters. In my opinion, it remains one of the best movies of the 1980’s. I was aware that the characters were created on Saturday Night Live and that was all I really knew about how the film came to be. Looking back now, I guess I just assumed that it was something that Lorne Michaels gave his blessing to like Wayne’s World or the Coneheads movies. That wasn’t necessarily the case. As a matter of fact, it was quite a fight just to get the characters on the air!
As I dove into this book, I learned the backstories of John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. It was interesting to walk along side them on the road as they rose to fame. I also loved reading about the other now famous names that they worked with prior to coming together at SNL, how they landed their gigs at 30 Rock, and the idea that eventually became The Blues Brothers.
The book does a fine job of also giving readers a look at the personal lives of Belushi and Aykroyd. It was hard to read about the struggles that Belushi had with drugs. I was unaware of the steps that he had taken to try to break free from them. Sadly, we all know that he eventually succumbed to them.
Making a movie is certainly not an easy thing. Throughout this book, you will learn how an idea led to a huge script that had to be cut down, how the amazing musicians were put together, and how many of the great R&B singers came to be a part of the film.
Blues Brothers fans will love this because of the familiar stories and the ones they haven’t heard. There is a good mixture of both. There were plenty of stories in the book that will make me watch particular scenes in the film a bit more closely because of things it revealed.
I truly enjoyed the book and will be rushing out to get a hard copy of it when it is available March 19, 2024. You can preorder it on Amazon now if you wish.
I want to thank NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this before it was published. I look forward to my next read!
This is a book that I have seen come up more than once as a recommendation for me. I have seen many friends post about it, and I was on the fence about reading it. Then, my son’s speech therapist came over and said that it was a good read with a powerful ending. I decided to take a chance on it.
While I thought the ending was as powerful as the speech therapist did, I found it to be more of a book for female readers. I even told my wife that it reminded me of an episode of Desperate Housewives.
Here is the synopsis from Amazon:
“Expertly, subtly and powerfully rendered….[The Whispers] delivers a sucker-punch ending you’ll have to read twice to believe.”—The New York Times Book Review
“[An] electrifying…razor-sharp page-turner.” —Carley Fortune, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After
Featured in summer reading recommendations by Good Morning America, TIME, ELLE, The Washington Post & more
On Harlow Street, the well-to-do neighborhood couples and their children gather for a catered barbecue as the summer winds down; drinks continue late into the night.
Everything is fabulous until the picture-perfect hostess explodes in fury because her son disobeys her. Everyone at the party hears her exquisite veneer crack—loud and clear. Before long, that same young boy falls from his bedside window in the middle of the night. And then, his mother can only sit by her son’s hospital bed, where she refuses to speak to anyone, and his life hangs in the balance.
What happens next, over the course of a tense three days, as each of these women grapple with what led to that terrible night?
Exploring envy, women’s friendships, desire, and the intuitions that we silence, The Whispers is a chilling novel that marks Audrain as a major women’s fiction talent.
The Goodreads Synopsis gives you a bit more…
From the author of THE PUSH, a pageturner about four suburban families whose lives are changed when the unthinkable happens–and what is lost when good people make unconscionable choices
The Loverlys sit by the hospital bed of their young son who is in a coma after falling from his bedroom window in the middle of the night; his mother, Whitney, will not speak to anyone. Back home, their friends and neighbors are left in shock, each confronting their own role in the events that led up to what happened that terrible night: the warm, altruistic Parks who are the Loverlys’ best friends; the young, ambitious Goldsmiths who are struggling to start a family of their own; and the quiet, elderly Portuguese couple who care for their adult son with a developmental disability, and who pass the long days on the front porch, watching their neighbors go about their busy lives.
The story spins out over the course of one week, in the alternating voices of the women in each family as they are forced to face the secrets within the walls of their own homes, and the uncomfortable truths that connect them all to one another. Set against the heartwrenching drama of what will happen to Xavier, who hangs between death and life, or a life changed forever, THE WHISPERS is a novel about what happens when we put our needs ahead of our children’s. Exploring the quiet sacrifices of motherhood, the intuitions that we silence, the complexities of our closest friendships, and the danger of envy, this is a novel about the reverberations of life’s most difficult decisions.
The story bounces between the four women and their families. At times I had to remind myself who was married to who (just like Desperate Housewives)! There were characters in this book that I just hated because of their actions (just like Desperate Housewives). At the same time, there were plenty of times that I just needed to know what happened next or why a character did something.
As I said, the ending was worth waiting for and everything the various reviews stated. Yet, while the main storyline is wrapped up, I found myself wondering about many of the sub-plots. What happened to that couple? How does that neighbor’s storyline tie up? I don’t know, maybe it is a good thing that I wanted more.
I admit that this book isn’t for everyone, and that is why I didn’t title this a “Book Recommendation.” However, I post this because I know of a few followers who might enjoy a nice book filled with drama and a good ending.
You may remember that we recently bought some new appliances at our house. When they were delivered, the guys who brought them cut the boxes up to get the appliances out. They also took the remnants of those boxes when they left.
For one brief moment, as our fridge was being delivered, I remembered my dad taking the box and cutting a hole in it for a door. He cut out a window and my brother and I had our own box fort. This memory came and went as they cut up the box.
My wife ordered a few things from Sam’s Club this week and they sent the items in a decent sized box. It did not take the kids long to “get in the boat” and take it for a ride …
Then they hid in their club house …
…which is where they played for quite some time!
Who needs toys when you have a huge box and a fantastic imagination?!
The fun lasted for a few hours … until Andrew found out that the box did not make a good trampoline.
I have posted this quote before, but it fits today (and hopefully will help). My grandfather once told me, “Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere!” Despite the truth of that, I find my mind all over the place.
As you are aware, my youngest son recently had a second surgery for his laryngomalacia. He had a follow up visit with the ENT last week and the swelling was still there. The doc said that it should have been gone by now. They did a scope in the office and found that aside of the swelling, everything looked good.
The ENT then sent off a note to the pediatric sleep neurologist saying that he didn’t feel that Andrew’s apnea was something with his throat. He told her that he thought it might be something neurological. She thought that might be the case, too. Andrew actually had a visit with the pediatric neurologist this week. We walked away from that visit with more questions and some concerning possibilities.
He is already in speech because of the original delay. Now, he is dropping syllables in words, or changing them to a different letter. “Mommy” is now “monny.” “Daddy” is now “dah-eee.” The speech therapist had noticed that it seemed as though he was losing muscle tone in his face. The neurologist feels the same way.
It was a very long appointment. At one point, after reviewing the symptoms and giving him an exam, she said, “What am I missing?” She thought a bit more and presented the plan. We are at the point where we need to start ruling stuff out. There were many procedures ordered and we are going to be very busy.
He will have a 24 hour EEG, a brain MRI, generic blood workup, and yet another sleep study. The EEG will help rule out seizures. The brain MRI will help to rule out cerebral palsy. The sleep study will evaluate where his apnea is at and the possibility of another CPAP machine. The generic blood work is to rule out things like Fragile X syndrome and other possible genetic disorders. He will also see a specialist to rule out things like Muscular Dystrophy.
As a father, these things brought my stress levels sky high. Andrew has already been through so much. I don’t want to have to put him through any more, but we need to know what’s going on. Our neurologist applauded Sam and I for being proactive. Our medical backgrounds really made us question a lot, and she said that we are ahead of the game.
Sam keeps me balanced. I expressed my worries to her and she told me that we can’t worry about what we don’t know yet. There are a lot of possibilities, but until we have something to worry about, Sam and I will pray that all will be ok.
It helps me to write this down for a couple reasons. First, seeing it in front of me “gets it out.” Next, it allows me to fill folks in who are asking about what is going on. Finally, it allows me to expand the prayer chain. If you pray, can I ask that you keep this fine young man in yours?
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 