I am officially not going to read the newspaper for awhile. I am not going to listen to the news on the radio or watch it on TV as much. I cannot take the bad new anymore!

Child pornography, murder, budget deficits, war, arguing politicians, new weapons of mass destruction - enough! I can no longer subject myself to the daily depression of what horrible things do unfortunately happen in our world. Around the corner and across the globe.

I am now going to visit happynews.com once a day. It is not a site of hard hitting journalism. It is not the best website in the world. But, each day that I have visited this site I have smiled about something. And that says a lot to me.

So, check it out! And thank you to my sis-in-law, who first told me about Happy News when she decided that the bad news just had to stop. =D

My biggest worry today was supposed to be getting my dog to the vet. She split one of the pads on her paw and it looks like we need somebody else to bandage it. That and the new washer & dryer are being delivered this afternoon (let's hear it for doing laundry from then until next Monday - hooray.) But my focus was abruptly changed at about 8AM.

My older son (9yo) woke up just out of energy - seemed very tired. He ate and went back to bed. I made him get up and he told me that his body just felt really tired, really  heavy. His stomach hurt a little. No fever, but he just looked off so I told him he could stay home. I'm always suspicious, so I verified nothing big going on in school, nothing to worry about, actually going to miss his after school activity.

Within the 1/2 hour things got very scary. I got the other 2 to the bus stop & called my  husband. We decided that it would be best to just head to the emergency room with my son and not mess around waiting for an appointment time. I had no idea what was going on, I only knew that it was out of the realm of anything I had dealt with before and I was very scared.

My son seems to be fine now, but all the way to the ER I was trying to remain outwardly calm while in my head the voice was screaming "Your son is going to be wheelchair bound for the rest of his life! He'll still be able to do what he wants with a lot of help, but this is going to be hard!" Honestly, that's what I was telling myself while I tried to engage him in brief conversation that he wasn't up to having.

Once I carried him into the ER and they asked me to write down the complaint, my hands started shaking uncontrollably. I almost couldn't write anything. Thankfully, my husband arrived just then, so I felt less alone and vulnerable. THANKFULLY, it seems as though my son is fine. In good health. But I'll most likely be keeping too close of an eye on him for a little while. And I will never forget that helpless feeling. The fear in his eyes. The strength I didn't want to need.

I was recently bullied into a Facebook account by my brother and some cousins (LUV my family!) and am actually enjoying the experience. My family is tight, but we are spread across the country, so this helps us stay connected, share pictures, family news, etc.

One of my neices dropped me as a friend a month or so ago. I sent her a quick message and requested her as a friend again. She told me when I originally joined that she had accidentally deleted my request, so I was just like, "Eh, silly kid!" And then she dropped from my friend list 2 more times - the last one evidently for good.

I talked with her step-mom today (my sil) and was told that my neice is distraught with having adults as friends on Facebook. She won't friend an aunt on the other side of the family at all. WTF. I have been surprised at myself for how hurt I actually feel by her rejection. I mean, it's just Facebook. I'm still her aunt and all.

Chatted with the teen about it. She is friended by all of  the aunts, uncles, cousins, etc thru this and I have had a few of her friends reach out to friend me. She told me that she finds it bothersome to have these adults online as part of her network, but that she would never unfriend them 'cause she knows they'd get pissed.

Hmm, I understand needing your space as a teen. I'm going to stop bugging her. But, honestly, I would never have unfriended my aunt.

I had some spare time this afternoon and ran to the mall to grab a much asked for costume necessity for the teen. She would like to be the Cheshire Cat this Halloween and informed me MONTHS ago that Hot Topic has perfect cat ears, etc. in a packet. So, off I went. Great music playing, so immediately found needed package and just shopped around a bit.

 I found myself perusing the hair dye section thinking "Well, maybe she'd be interested in dying some hair in purple stripes with her costume! This stuff says it's water based and only lasts thru 5-6 washes, and what teen would say no to some purple stripes for awhile, right?!" In the back of my mind, I was also telling myself that she hadn't asked to have me try dying her hair purple at all as part of this deal and I might just be wasting $13 or so . . . . . until the salesperson stopped by to help me.

 I thought it was ironic. He stood there with his shaved head, quite a few front strands left long, tatoos and guages in his ears and handed me a package of purple hair extensions saying, "You might want to think about just getting these instead of the dye. You can even cut them to the right length."

 Now, obviously, he thought I was shopping for myself and didn't look the purple hair part of it all. I told him that I'd send my daughter in to thank him from stopping her mom dying her hair purple. Really, I need to grow up!

My teen overheard a man tell his young daughter that, quietly, when they were about to step into line behind us at Cub. Then she heard him explain that this choice was being made because our family was in that line - referring to us by our last name. She found it dsiturbing, I have been thinking about it since then - and I'm not sure why.

First, I can't imagine how the teen and I could be that intimidating. And, honestly, didn't I get out of middle school DECADES ago?

Secondly, I would like to know who this man is. Whose father is he? Not necessarily because I am feeling wierd that somebody dislikes my family that much - more because I am so antagonistic that I might go out of my way to be friendly and say "Hi!" when I saw a member of his family!

Have you ever had this happen? Why do people spend so much energy on negative aspects in their lives?