Our Oldest Daughter is Not Doing Homework

Hey there. Our oldest daughter is giving us issues and it's frustrating the hell out of me. Her teacher requires that my daughter returns a reading journal with our initials and a homework log signed by a parent. We have yet to see a reading log. Her excuse for that was that her teacher had not assigned any yet and the homework log disappeared after she took a week off while she was sick. Her excuse for that was that her teacher didn't assign homework for a week (which was hard to swallow but we believed her) and then she merely "forgot" the book in school for the following week. Now, my wife receives a call from her teacher stating that no homework has been turned in the past few weeks and the reading log has not been completed since who knows when. Needless to say, we are extremely upset and disappointed. ESPECIALLY, since just 2 days ago, she was awarded medals and a certificate for outstanding academic achievements. It sucks as a parent to come crashing down after such a high.

Now, we are upset and my daughter is at home. I haven't had a chance to discuss with my wife, since I'm at work. She conveyed this conversation to me via text messages. This isn't the first time that we've had issues with homework. We just don't know what kind of punishment would fit the crime. We've taken away TV and games, we've taken away her play privileges, and we've even sat her down at the kitchen table for a full week. Yet, we continue to have this issue with her and homework. Any suggestions to alternate forms of discipline? And the fact that she does well in school is what is frustrating the hell out of us. She gets the student of the month, author of the month, great leader, and other types of accolades from school, but what is it about homework that is just not registering with this one young. We'll figure it out... Until then, later.

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It Was Just One of Those Days

Hey there. Anything that could go wrong, will go wrong. I've heard it many times before and usually you don't get the worst of things. Well, yesterday, it finally happened.

Monday morning started out rough. We got up late and after rushing the kids to get ready, we were out the house approx. 10 mins late. I go to the van to turn it on and it won't start... Are you kidding me?!?! Our new van, which we have not had for a month is not starting. I tell the kids to go back in the house while I tinker with the battery. After about 5 mins, I figure that I can't deal with it now and load up the family in our car, the 5 passenger Mazda. It was a tight fit for our family of 6, but we all squeezed in OK.

Things start to look up when I get a call from my aunt saying my little cousin, who has been in the hospital for over a month, is being released. She is throwing her a welcome home party at her place and wants us to be there. "Great!", I think. Then, a few hours later... The hospital is not releasing her. Are you kidding me?!?!?! They kept her admitted while they deal with her insurance so the welcome home was canceled.

Then, we had our kids' assembly at their school. They were being honored for scoring advanced on the California state tests. I tried to leave a few mins early, but of course, my boss detained me for a bit while I "debriefed" him on the day's work. I left the office later than I wanted too and barely made it in time for our son's assembly (I missed our daughter's). After sitting through the whole assembly, our son's name wasn't called. Are you kidding me?!?!?! We sat through the assembly and they didn't call our son up to receive his award and medal. After a few moments of confusion, the school got it right and acknowledged my son, along with some of his classmates, and awarded them their medals and certificates, BUT.... they did not allow pictures due to them being rushed on stage and then out. A huge bummer.

On our way home, I called some people that were selling a wireless guitar and wireless drum set for Guitar Hero World Tour. My brother broke my Rockband drum set and I need a replacement. This couple is selling their set for $45, which is a steal, so I called them up to let them know we're on our way to pick em up. We meet up with them and they still have the drums and guitar in the original box. Everything looks good. I go home and the Xbox 360 craps out on me... Oh man... 3 red rings of death. So I take the time to fix it and after some time, I finally get it working. I set up Guitar Hero Metallica and I start the game. I check the drums and everything seems OK... until I try the orange cymbal and it's not registering. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?! I could not believe the day I was having... After check it out, it looks like the wire connecting the cymbal has been severed. Needless to say, I was upset... I sent a message to the couple to tell them it's busted and they offered a refund. I told them that I'll try to fix it, but if I'm not successful, I'll let them know and they agreed to give me a refund it doesn't work out for me.

I then fed our son, at close to midnight and after lying him down for bed, I realize that the van is not starting and I need to take care of that. I go and grab my light and head outside with my tools. I remove the battery from our car and van and place the car battery in the van. As soon as I hook it up, the back light in the van turns on. Oh man... The kids must have switched on the light and didn't turn off, causing the battery to drain. I turn it off, throw the battery in the van (to be charged later today) and go back inside for some sleep. Time? 2:00AM

Man... It was just one of those days... Later.

LeapFish and Make-a-Wish Foundation Team Up to Make Dreams Come True

Hey there friends. I'm glad that something like this came up. Recently, my family has been through a tough ordeal with my cousin's sickness so seeing a worthy cause like this definitely warms my heart. Jacob, a young one of 4 years old, has Atresia. By definition, Artresia is the "absence of a normal opening or failure of a structure to be tubular." This can affect anything in tubular nature such as the esophagus, the aorta, pulmonary valves, to name a few. Needless to say, the disease is life threatening and claims hundreds of young one's lives a year. LeapFish and Make-a-Wish Foundation have teamed up to alleviate some Jacob's pain and is granting his wish to go to Disneyland. But to do that, they need our help.
Help out by participating in Leapfish's tweet-a-cause. Leapfish is donating $.05 for every tweet that is done through the link. Simply click the link and then click on the "click to tweet" button. It's that easy. At the time of this posting, there have been 833 tweets and that includes my own.

It's that easy to help out a ill boy achieve a goal. Please check out the tweet-a-cause and send out your tweets. If you care to donate a little more, they site makes it easy to donate a little more than the $.05 that your tweet will generate. Let's work together to help Jacob realize his dream. Thanks, friends.

My Little Cousin is Winning the Battle with Meningitis

Hey there. As I've mentioned before, my cousin has been battling meningitis. I am grateful to post that my little cousin is being released from the hospital today! Oh man, is that some great news of what!? I thank all of you that left comments with well wishes and I thank those that left their story in the comments. We were bracing ourselves for a long fought battle with disease but it turns out that my cousin made a wonderful turn for the best and things are looking up. The last time I went to go see her, she could not speak but was allowed to go out in the courtyard of the hospital to hang out with family. The breathing and feeding tubes did some damage to her throat so she was recovering from that. Since hospitals no longer allow children inside, they made special arrangements for her to be allowed outside to hang out with her siblings and family.

My aunt just sent me an Email inviting all of us to her place for a welcome home party. Looks like the family will not be spending Thanksgiving in the hospital this year and Thanksgiving will have a special place in our hearts this year. Thanks!

Need Some Awesome Speakers for Your iPod?

Hey there friends. We've all seen the commercials for iPods. People dancing, while walking down the street with earphones listening to iPods. The white earphones are almost iconic and once someone sees them, they instantly recognize that the user is listening to an iPod. The problem with earphones is that you cannot share the iPod with friends and you're the only one listening to music while shutting everyone else out. Well, not anymore! Check out the Yamaha PDX-60 Ipod speakers!

This easy to use and portable bad boy runs on wireless technology so that you can use it everywhere and anywhere. It uses the Yahama "Yaired" technology to ensure that your Ipod will get superior sound quality without any lag. And since the iPod can be charged at both the speaker and it's cradle, you'll never have to worry about the iPod running out of juice. Did I mention that it's compatible with the iPhone as well? Imagine watching a movie on you iPhone and experiencing rich, quality sound to go along with it?

We don't own a radio at home. All the music that we listen is music that we have on CDs or bought off of iTunes. All of which is placed in our iPod. Our iPod works as our music player at home. The downside to this is that we can only listen to it when it's plugged into our computer or for single use when my wife and I are working out. Having a device like this would greatly enhance our music experience. Since we won't have to share a set of headphones while working out, we would be able to listen to our workout mix and do exercises without being attached to each other by headphones. And the fact that it's wireless really takes the cake. No one likes wires. They can be messy and look awful all bunched up in a corner. The fact that the Yamaha PDX-60 can go anywhere really makes it the device to use for all our iPod listening needs.

The black one above is more my taste, but if my wife finds out that there's a pink one available, she may fight tooth and nail to get that one. lol It comes in four colors (pink, blue, black, and grey) so that you can color coordinate it to your iPod. Technically, it's my wife's iPod so she may end up winning the battle of the color. It's ok though. As long as we're both enjoying the music, I can't complain. Later!