O Tannenbaum

Wie treu sind deine Blätter...

We found out that our favorite Xmas tree place has been sold to the town so we only have 2 (maybe 3) more years to purchase our trees here. I’m bummed, we really love the quality of tree we get from these folks.

Or maybe I’m bummed for another reason

Bummed isn't the right word...nostalgic. 

Because now I've got this

No matter what his age...I'll keep him

4th of July at Fransted Campground

We celebrated the land of the free and the home of the brave by heading north to the mountains. This was a bit of a bizarre trip for us.  We went up on Friday and hit NO TRAFFIC – so the trip that generally takes 3.5-4 hours took a little over 2. We started the night off with the neighbors fireworks. They were amazing. Spotty was a bit bummed that he didn’t meet any friends, but we told him “dude, we have only been up here for 3 hours and we set up camp and now its dark and are watching fireworks, don’t worry about it – you will find friends to hang out with tomorrow. 

I love seeing Spotty Chop first thing in the morning. I think he is adorkable!

Saturday was the Franconia parade and it did not disappoint (short, sweet and no traffic). 

these guys loved boy toy and spotty chop's decorating so much they gave us all leis 

boy toy likes to photobomb

When we got back to camp Boy Toy asked if he was going to head down to the fields to see if anyone was hanging out. Spotty said no, that he didn’t want to anymore. We convinced him to go down and just see what was up, he could always hang with us. Well he went off and found some folks to hang with, and we never really saw him again.  They were from Ohio, 3 kids 15, 12, 9. The 12 year old is reading the same series Spotty is (it’s the BEST), the 15 year old just got super smash brothers for the DS3 and hadn’t played with anyone before (Spotty is a pro) and the 9 year old loved river tubing.  

Spotty had a blast. He did come up to eat on occasion and we had to hit Chutters so he agreed to do that and that was kinda it.  Boy Toy and I hung out with our friends parents. I read, Boy Toy helped plant some plants. It was a very relaxing trip, even if we didn’t get to spend any time with our boy (who then felt guilty that he didn’t spend any time with us – don’t feel guilty – you make friends, it’s what you do.)

A present for Moo!

Let the Camping begin!

We spent Memorial Day in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It was bitterly cold Friday night and Saturday wasn’t much better. That didn’t mean the weekend was a loss, on the contrary we had a splendid time! I packed the car whilst Boy Toy was at work and Spotty was at school. It went really well, really fast. I should have known that something was wrong. Somehow the heater, stove and we thought Boy Toy’s clothes didn’t make the trip with us. 

The heater would have been nice as it was below freezing, but we survived. The stove would have been even better, but Boy Toy managed to have a fire burning and water boiling so there was tea, coffee and hot coco. Saturday morning Boy Toy decided that he wanted breakfast and he wanted breakfast at the Littleton Diner. We have been coming to Littleton for…27 years or so and we have NEVER eaten here. We always say that we should and we finally did. The food was great, the service was fantastic, we will be back. We did our typical Chutters run. We told Spotty Chop to come up with the 5 things he really wanted because we have a bag (or 3) from Chutters that he did not finish. There is SO MUCH candy that he just can’t seem to say no to anything, and a lot of things that seem like a good idea at the time turns out to be stuff that he only wanted a piece of. We reminded him that we would be back in July (twice!!! Moo and Family are coming with us later in July!!!!!!) So Spotty got a lot less candy, but got the things he really wanted (plus a few…cauz it’s the first trip to Chutters for the year).  Spotty wanted pork chops for dinner and luckily the cooking grate came with us. Boy Toy cooked us up some incredibly tasty chops and baked potatoes. Is there anything that tinfoil can’t do? There was an ice cream social that we of course attended because ICE CREAM IS A GOD GIVEN RIGHT, not a privilege. Even if it is below freezing.

Sunday was gorgeous. Boy Toy and I wanted to take a hike, but Spotty really just wanted to hang out at the campground, so we hung out. Cribbage and board games were played, 

reading was read, knitting was knit and Spotty was having a great time with a bungee cord. I honestly have no idea what he was doing, but he was entertaining himself (something that he says he can NOT DO without VIDEO GAMES – big bone of contention lately and we are like “no dude, you can, you just gotta try” – later Sunday night I said “you were having fun with the bungee cord?” and he is all “I had a blast” so I said “that’s what we are talking about when we say “entertain yourself” – it was a light bulb moment…I hope). 

There was also start of the season cake! We do love us some cake. So we hung out down by the big tent, Spotty painted a dragon, we played ladder ball and some board games. Boy Toy cooked us some steak and more taters. It was a perfectly relaxing day. We had a fire Monday morning (tea and coffee were needed) and packed up so that we could go to Polly’s Pancakes. They remodeled over the winter. The building was starting to collapse. So they tore down the 100+ year building and put a new one up in its place.  It is now heated and air conditioned and fully handicap accessible and the best part? It really looks the same. It is bigger, but they didn’t try and cram more tables in (well, maybe a couple). It has the exact same look and feel. We were so happy! The old building was so perfectly charming that we were afraid that it would be lost. But they did an exceptional job. We were well fed for our 3-4 hour trip home.

We stopped in at Boy Toy’s oldest brother’s as they were having a cookout. Spotty and his cousin Terminator had a water fight, they ended up getting so wet they jumped into the pool (one of those quick to set up jobs you can get at Walmart/Target) it was perfect for splashing around. I think we finally got home around 7 or 8 pm. EVERYONE took a shower and then off to bed.

I didn’t mention video games, not because they didn’t happen, but because I am a bit grumpy about it. Spotty Chop is having an incredibly difficult time unplugging. We are trying really hard to help him unplug, but not make it seem like a punishment. Spotty has a 3DS that he really hasn’t been playing at all since he got his tablet (Simpsons Tapped Out rulz!!!!) so I purchased a Harvest Moon game for me and some monster hunter 4 game for Boy Toy. As we are all WELL aware Boy Toy and I are huge gamers and I thought it might be fun to have our own games to play when Spotty was busy with his tablet. 

How much gaming time do you think I got? And Boy Toy? Did you guess 0? Yea – so lesson learned do NOT buy a new game(s) before a trip unless all you want to see is the top of Spotty’s head hovered over the 3DS. I should have realized that a) internet is rare in the mountains,  b) new games are new games, and I happen to be a great game picker outer and c) unplugging is impossible when the lure of a new game is at hand. 

What did you just say?

Back in 2009 I got my hearing checked. Primarily because Boy Toy wouldn’t shut up about my not listening to him.  Well funny thing. Apparently I had some hearing loss. They wanted me to schedule an appointment with a doctor and blah blah blah. I never did anything about it because it seemed as if the only person I couldn’t hear was Boy Toy. And really was that such a bad thing?

Fast forward to now. I made another appointment, but this time made sure I was also seeing the doctor after the hearing test. Why? Spotty Chop tells me he loves me all the time. Lately I can’t understand what he is saying. When he needs me and he calls out for me I don’t respond, because I don’t hear him call me. I can’t even tell you how horrible it is to realize that you aren’t hearing your kid tell you he loves you. My sadness knows no bounds.

So what happened? I had a hearing test. My results were not “normal”. Well, as the technician said “you having hearing loss this young isn’t normal to begin with, but the graph of your hearing loss isn’t normal either. “

In “normal” hearing loss it looks like this. 

As  you age your ability to hear high pitched sounds (including consonants)  decreases. But this generally doesn’t start until your late 60’s or 70’s

This is what mine looks like. 

We can see that I can hear the low pitches as well as the high pitches. It the middle stuff that is all wonky. Basically I can’t hear vowels. Unless they are loud enough.  Apparently vowels aren’t as important as consonants because consonants convey most of the word info and they act as breakpoints for syllables. Which is why this hasn’t really affected me too badly up until now.   

So what does this mean? I have to get hearing aids. Both ears. I am less than pleased about this outcome. It pretty much blindsided me.

I have been a bit freaked out by this, but I am slowly coming to terms with it.  I mean

 a) it’s not the end of the world and

 b) good fucking god things could be so much worse.  I have a couple of friends that are dealing with an unimaginable amount of hurt right now. Hurt that I wouldn’t wish on too many people (there are a couple though…) so as I so often say “suck it up buttercup” it is what it is.

There is good news though.

a)It is genetic, but not hereditary, so I won’t pass this on to Spotty.  

b)  I have only lost 5-10 decibels since 2009, so the loss is going kinda slow 

c) There is also some really promising research going on right now with stem cells. They think within the next 50 years there may be a treatment for this that would regrow auditory hair cells. This is cool because currently there is no treatment for this type of hearing loss. It can’t be cured.

So it looks like I will be wearing my hair down a lot more often in the future.  God DAMN it now I will be dealing with frizzy hair too. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhh

PREACH