Momo and the Evils of the Internet

So, my Facebook feed has been filled with this really creepy picture of a creature called Momo the last few days. Supposedly, this creature had been spotted in YouTube videos, basically telling kids to self harm and even kill themselves.

To me, it had the feel of a hoax, but I asked Emily about it. She had heard about it but hadn't seen it in any videos she's watched. Though she tends to only watch verified YouTube accounts like DanTM. She mostly watches DanTM, which I don't mind him but Todd finds it annoying.

I asked her what she would do if someone on YouTube, like Momo, told her to commit suicide. She looked at me like I was crazy and told me that, of course, she wouldn't listen. I showed her the picture of Momo and she was also unfazed by that. Honestly I was more creeped out by it than she was, to the point that she found a bunch of pictures of Momo on her tablet and kept trying to show them to me to freak me out.

In the midst of this uproar, I've seen posts from other parents that say they aren't going to let their kids watch YouTube anymore. Of course, it's up to them but I think it's an overreaction. I watch a lot of YouTube too, though for me it's mostly Disney World vlogs. There is a lot of great content on YouTube.

But this kind of goes back to the old adage that the internet is evil. Social media, too, is supposedly not a good thing either. I honestly get really tired of hearing both of those. Neither is evil, the internet and social media are really quite neutral. They can be used for good, they can be used for evil, though I do think that different sites and platforms try to keep the evil at bay as best they can.

The internet is an incredible tool. As someone with chronic pain, it allows me to have contact with people even when I'm not able to leave the house (or my bed in some cases). And I don't think there is any reason to keep kids off the internet.

It may be because I only have one kid, but I tend to know exactly what Emily is watching or playing. I've sat through god knows how many unboxing videos on YouTube and I do like watching some of the video game walkthroughs with her. I also let her have her own YouTube channel - I'm the one who puts up her videos. She doesn't have a lot of followers - it's pretty much a couple of my friends and a couple of hers. But she'll film her own walkthroughs and do unboxings. She enjoys it and loves to be able to call herself a YouTuber.

In the end, I think if we keep up with what our kids are watching and playing, and have honest communication with them, things will be ok. Though I'd be happy if I didn't have to see that Momo picture again! It is really creepy!

Kids and Dragon Con

Dragon Con 2012

Dragon Con is coming up at the end of this month, and 80K+ people will descend onto downtown Atlanta. And some of those people will be kids.

I, of course, am the mom of a child. And even though Emily is 9, she will not be joining us for Dragon Con this year. There are several reasons why we choose not to bring her. For one, Dragon Con is overwhelming for adults and I know that it can be for kids as well.

You see, Emily has been down at Dragon Con a couple of times. The first time, we brought her down for the parade when she was 11 months old. She was ok, until the Netherworld (a local haunted house) float rolled on by. She got scared and just started wailing, so we headed out.

The 2nd time was when she was 3, almost 4 years old. She came down to Dragon Con with us to march in the parade. She did really good but soon just got tired and cranky. Todd took her back to my aunt and uncle's after the parade and we decided then that she would have to be much older before she returned to Dragon Con.

In the years since, she's gone to quite a few smaller cons. Lexington Comic Con, SC Comicon and ConCarolinas just this year. And she does great there, but still we choose to leave her with the kind local relatives who watch her while we are at the con.

I personally don't think little kids belong at Dragon Con. It's just too much, and I'm sure that it's hard for the parents to juggle the things they want to do while taking care of their kids. I'm sure there are people out there who disagree with me. I'm also one of those people who would never bring a baby or toddler to Disney World.

If you choose to bring your kids, be warned. It's crowded, there is tons of walking you and your kids will have to do. There are going to be spots where it's going to be hard to get a stroller through, especially if it's a big one.

Other things to look out for are costumes that show a lot of skin and some costumes that could be scary to kids. Most cosplayers wait until after dark to wear their racier costumes, but there is still some that might not be entirely appropriate for kids during the day. Just depends on your parenting style and how sensitive your kids might be to scary stuff.

For parents who want to go to Dragon Con, but have to bring their kids, I'd recommend getting a room in one of the host hotels or someplace close. That way you have somewhere to go when your kids start getting overwhelmed and cranky. Otherwise, get familiar with the Kaleidoscope track that has lots of programming geared towards kids.

And next year, we will have the child in tow for Sunday only. I think she may be a teenager before she gets to come on Saturday, unless she wants to march in the parade with me. She wants to go, but she doesn't really understand the scope of what Dragon Con is. Especially the way her dad does Dragon Con - running around to get autographs and look at the dealers room all the while going fast without stopping for a lot of breaks.

Just things to consider if you are thinking about bringing your kids to Dragon Con!

The Build A Bear Kerfuffle

Emily at Build A Bear a few years ago

We are a family who loves stuffed animals. I was never a doll person as a kid but I loved my stuffies. I still even have my Pooh Bear from when I was a kid. Emily and Todd both share this love, so we have made many, many trips to Build A Bear Workshop over the years.

I was vaguely interested in the "Pay Your Age" promotion they had going on. It wasn't something I was able to do though because Emily is still in Michigan with her grandparents. I didn't have to work yesterday and I wasn't feeling great, so I watched the whole thing unfold on the internet.

After promoting the hell of it on social media, I'm not sure why Build A Bear wasn't prepared for the onslaught of people. Especially because parents love a great deal since kids and their toys are expensive.

I'm a reader of comments when something like this explodes and it was interesting to read them yesterday. People were pissed, and that's putting it mildly. The amount of people who felt Build A Bear owed them something was astounding. And the people who waited in line for hours, the longest time I saw was eight hours, was crazy.

In the end, Build A Bear closed their stores because of safety concerns and then they sent everyone in the club (including me) a coupon for $15 off. I thought that was pretty awesome because now Emily can go and get a new bear once she gets home. And since she's 9, it will probably be close to the "Pay Your Age" price.

I learned that is is better to sit on the sidelines and watch than battle the crowds. And in this case, everyone wins because the $15 off is quite generous since some of the bears are less than $15.

Did any of you go to Build A Bear yesterday? Tell your story in the comments!

Summer Adventures - Carowinds

One of my goals this summer is to experience some things Emily hasn't ever done before. Our first summer adventure ended up being Carowinds, an amusement park a couple of hours from where we live.

I work from home at a company that is based out of Texas, but there are only a few states were they hire at home people. They usually do a company picnic in the summer and a Christmas party, but I've never been to either mostly because of timing. But when it was announced that the company picnic for the Carolinas and GA was going to be at Carowinds, I jumped at the chance.

I got a ticket for me and a guest (which was Emily) for free, plus they provided lunch! I had been wanting to check out Carowinds anyway, and to do so for free made it extra awesome!

Emily and I got up bright and early that morning and drove there. We got there just before 10 am when the park opened. We easily found the tent with the person from my job who had the tickets, and we entered the park.

When we got inside, there were several Peanuts characters waiting. Emily met them all and we got pictures. It was a good thing because we never saw the characters out and about for the rest of the day. Sadly, Snoopy wasn't there so we didn't get to meet him.

Most of the people who were there at opening headed to one of the many roller coasters, but we headed all the way to the back of the park to ride on the Plants vs. Zombies ride. We had no wait and it was an ok ride. You got on these bike things after you picked either to be a plant or a zombie and then you shot at your enemies. The bike thing would jerk and move sometimes. It was fun to do once but neither of us wanted to do it again.

From there we went and rode on Boo Blasters which was another shooting game. The ride vehicle took you through a haunted house and you shot at things. I liked this ride a bit better, in fact we rode on it twice before moving on.

We then rode the bumper cars and did a ride in the Planet Snoopy section which was all Peanuts themed rides for kids. The park was starting to fill up a bit and we had some time before lunch so we decided to ride the white water raft ride. The line was long, and much longer than I had thought when we got in line. But finally we rode, and it was fun!

From there, we went to the picnic area. We had to show our tickets which had a lunch voucher and we found the pavilion my work was at. I didn't know anyone there because no-one from my team had come, but there was yummy food. There was hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, potato salad, cookies and a variety of drinks. We ate up and then headed back to the car to drive to the water park section of the park.

I was a little unsure about how much Emily was going to like to the water park because she doesn't know how to swim and still isn't thrilled with water on her face. She's much better than she was when she was younger but she still doesn't want to go underwater.

We started small. There was a little kids area that had a small water slide that we went down several times and then we went to one of the wave pools. Emily loved this so much! She loved jumping in the waves and letting them push her back.

As we walked around we found another kids section but this was for bigger kids. There was about eight different water slides and we went on most of them. And on one of these, Emily's head actually went under the water. I always had her go down the slide first and then I went after her. She didn't freak out and she was really excited to tell me that once I went down the slide.

After another stop by the wave pool, we got changed out of our swim suits and drove back to where we were before. We spent about 3 hours in the water park.

Once we were back in the regular park side, we stopped and got some Italian ice as a snack. We did more rides, mostly at Planet Snoopy. Some of the rides were kid only, so I just watched from the side and took pictures.

I did make Emily ride the Carolina Skytower which is a ride that takes you up really high and you slowly go around in a circle to see the park and the Charlotte skyline in the distance. I really enjoyed it - it was very relaxing.

We had supper at Chick-Fil-A and then Emily rode more Planet Snoopy rides. We even rode on a kiddie roller coaster that was very exciting. I was out of spoons at the end and just let her ride to her heart's content while I watched. We ended up leaving at 9 pm, an hour before the park closed, because I was beyond exhausted. Of course, 11 hours in an amusement park will make one exhausted even without chronic pain.

All in all, it was a fun day! I'd like to go back and maybe even get season passes next year.

Up Next - The Drive-In

ConCarolinas 2017

ConCarolinas is one of my favorite cons. It's small but has a lot of activities. And a lot of my friends attend which makes it a lot of fun. ConCarolinas was actually Emily's very first con when she was only 8 months old! But this year we did a few new things, including staying overnight at the hotel for the first time.

Emily and I got up early on that Saturday morning and make the trek to Charlotte. We made good time but when we pulled into the hotel, I noticed that there were no parking spots anywhere nearby. I pulled the car up to unload it and made the decision to pay for valet parking. That was a great decision because we left the hotel several times to get food.

The bellhop loaded our stuff onto a cart and took it to our room. It only took a minute for us to get our badges and we got down to the dealer's room just before it opened. We went around the room and Emily exercised great control until she saw Pokemon cards. She had to get some! The only thing I bought was some decals for my new car.

After that, we went back to the room so I could change into my Tightrope Girl costume then hurried down for the costume contest pre-judging. Thankfully I was first to be judged, because both Emily and I were pretty hungry at that time.

I changed again (this became a theme for the day) and we went to get lunch at McDonald's. We had a bit of time, so we went down to the pool for a bit. It was really relaxing and nice to cool down because it was hot out!

After that, I changed in my Princess Leia costume and we went to the gaming area to play D&D. We had a lot of fun, and Emily's character helped us a lot in the combat with her sleep spell! Next year, hopefully we can go down on Friday and play in more D&D games.

Once the game was done, it was time to change back into my Tightrope Girl costume and go down to my friend Mikey's concert. It was great, though I did have to run back up to the room because I had

forgotten my gloves. I had to leave early to get lined up for the contest. Thankfully it was in the same room so I just got Emily settled in a seat in the 3rd row and left my purse and glasses with her.

This was my first costume contest I've ever been in so I was in the novice category. There were some other great costumes there too. I had no idea what I was going to do on stage and I started to feel really nervous.

In the end, I pretended like I was walking a tightrope and then posed in my pose for a moment. It was really fast. Then it was time to go back to the waiting room to wait for everyone else to have their turn on the stage.

Once everyone was done, they had us all come out on stage. We stood there while they read off the winners of the film festival as the judges decided who won. The novice awards were read off first and to my great surprise, I won 3rd place!

The best part of the whole weekend was when they read my name off, a tiny blur in the 3rd row jumped to her feet, her hands thrust in the air as she cheered for her mommy. It was awesome!

The other winners had great costumes too. A Newt Scamander cosplayer won best in show and he deserved it - his costume was really great!

It was about 6:30 pm once we got done with the costume contest so I got changed again. We went and got Cookout for supper. We watched Disney Jr. on TV as we ate and then we headed back to the pool for some night swimming. I was pretty beat by that time so we didn't swim for too long. I let Emily watch some tv while I got things packed up to make things easier in the morning.

The next day we got up and went swimming again for a bit. Then we got everything packed up. I went to the valet / bell hop station to get some help. I figure if I'm paying for valet parking they can come up and get our stuff. 

I knew it may take a while, and so did the guy at the valet station. He told me he would send someone up as soon as possible. Sadly, I had to call down several times before someone came up. It took over an hour. By that time, Emily was convinced that we had to live there now.

We got our car which they did pack up for us, and went to get some lunch. After lunch, we went back inside to do one more spin around the dealer's room. There was a booth that had geek-inspired sweets so I got Emily a Pokemon sucker and a BB-8 cookie.

As we were leaving the dealer's room, I rounded a corner and realized that Emily was gone! I freaked out as I paced the hallway not wanting to go too far away. My friend Mikey happened upon me mid-freak out and he went to the dealer's room to look there. All of a sudden, Emily reappeared! She had gone into the bathroom and had thought I was following her. I had lost her but she didn't know she was lost.

We went and told Mikey that we had found her and then headed out. After stopping at 7-11 for slurpies, we headed on home. It was a very fun weekend (except for the losing Emily part) and I look forward to next year's ConCarolinas!

Wonder Woman

No spoilers for those who haven't seen it - though if you haven't seen it, go and see it! It's awesome!

I loved the movie, it was excellent, but I also am loving the fact that I was able to take my daughter to see a movie that I wish was made when I was a kid. I loved the Wonder Woman tv show when I was small.

I do admit that I did tear up during different parts of the movie, in part because Emily was sitting beside me watching Diana kick all kinds of butt. I felt similar things when we went to see Ghostbusters last year, which both Emily and I liked quite a bit.

I'm very happy that my daughter is growing up in a time where she can see women being able to shine as the stars of their own universe. Wonder Woman does fall in love, but she still had her own drive and her own goals.

Basically, Wonder Woman made me so happy as a geek, as a woman and as a mom. My husband did see it as well, and he really enjoyed it too. So go see Wonder Woman!

2nd Grade Field Trip!

I don't volunteer at Emily's school a lot because I never know how I'm going to be feeling from day to day. But Emily really wanted me to volunteer for the 2nd grade field trip to the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site, so I did.

I took Emily to school. The other parents and I helped out in the classroom until it was time to go. I actually carpooled with some friends of mine which made the trip a lot more enjoyable.

Once we got there and everyone was unloaded, we hiked up to a small amphitheater. We were led in acting out one of Carl Sandburg's poems, which was cheesy but fun, by one of the park rangers. Then the classes split up and went to different activities. I had four kids I was in charge of, including my own and one of Emily's friends.

Our first stop was the goats. They divided the class in half and some went to pet the goats. We stayed and the kids got to try milking a fake goat and then they did a milk bottle craft. They learned about the different kinds of goats Mrs. Sandburg raised.

Finally it was our turn to pet the goats. All the adult goats in the section we went to were female. And there was also a bunch of baby goats, two that were only a week old! They were super cute and Emily loved petting them. She was very gentle with them too, which made me happy.

Once our time was up, we went to our next activity which was hiking around the lake. It wasn't a hard hike and the kids kept looking for snakes. They were sad they didn't see any, but they did get to see a cool waterfall.

The last stop was to learn about butterflies. They watched a short video and then did a few activities about the life cycle of butterflies. There was a craft there too, but we were running out of time so they only got to color their butterflies. Emily's teacher said they would finish it at school.

The kids went on the bus and the grown-ups piled into their cars and we went to a nearby park for lunch. After everyone ate, the kids got the chance to play on this really cool playground. I was starting to feel wiped so I just watched to make sure no-one got hurt.

After getting back to school, I took Emily because there was only a half hour left of school. It was fun, though we did quite a bit of walking that made me sore. But Emily was very glad I could come which makes me glad I did it!

2016 - Year in Review

Image: openclipart.org

This year has been an interesting one. The celebrity deaths have been hard to watch. The ones that have hit me most have been Ron Glass and Carrie Fisher. The election was a shitshow all around and I can't deny that I'm not frightened by what may happen in the years to come.

But on a personal level, 2016 wasn't too bad a year!

It was a Disney year, and Disney years are always good because of going to my favorite place in the world. I also didn't need to go to the ER at all this year which is huge!

We joined the Y on January 1st of this year and I started weight training a few months after that. I didn't lost a lot of weight but I gained a lot of strength and stamina, which was something I really needed! I'm hoping to build on that in 2017.

Girl Scouts became a huge part of our lives this year. We went through our first cookie season and Emily got to go camping for the first time ever! We actually have gone camping with the Girl Scouts three times this year.

Both Emily and I made new friends thanks to scouting! And Emily was very excited that her two best friends ended up in her class for 2nd grade.

Emily worked very hard in school to become a much better reader. She has grown so much - including in height. She's almost as tall as I am! In addition to Girl Scouts, she also got more involved with church. She is in the children's choir and active in the elementary youth group! She was also in our church's Christmas pageant as Innkeeper #1 and an angel.

 I'll post about my goals for 2017 in a different post, but while I'm not glad to see 2016 be gone soon, it wasn't too bad of a year for us.

Disney Trip 2016 - Final Thoughts!

This is the final post of my Disney trip report! To start from the beginning, click here!

The whole reason I started planning this trip was an incentive to recover after I got very sick and had a bunch of seizures. It was a scary time for me and having just the thought of Disney World helped me along. It also helped me get stronger. I spent a lot of this year at the gym, walking and doing weight training. It really paid off because even though I was walking many miles in a day, I wasn't really sore the whole week.

Of course, we also celebrated Emily's birthday since she happened to be born in my favorite month of the year. She got a lot of attention from her birthday button and she loved that!

This trip was a lot of firsts for Emily. First time at Epcot, first time on a roller coaster and first time going to the Halloween party. She enjoyed it all which made me happy!

My favorite part was finally getting to wear my Tightrope Girl costume to the Halloween party. I got a lot of compliments on it, especially from cast members.

Even the hurricane was interesting. It was a little scary but I hoped that Disney would do their best to keep us safe. And they really did and did their best to keep people entertained while the parks were closed.

I also want to give a shout out to my travel agent, Sara Varney at Mouse Fan Travel. This is the 2nd trip she's helped me plan and she's a really good travel agent. She got all of our dining reservations that we wanted and even called us the day before the hurricane was suppose to hit to make sure we were ok. Fabulous customer service right there!

All in all, Disney World still retains its place as my most favorite place in the world! I can't wait to go back hopefully in a few years!

The End of Summer

Even though it's still very hot out, the signs that summer is coming to an end are all around. My daughter starts school on Monday and a lot of kids are already back to school. Labor Day Weekend (aka Dragon Con) is next weekend and of course, September is only a few hours away.

This summer wasn't very exciting for us. We went to a few birthday parties and went swimming several times. We watched Star Wars in the park and went camping. But a lot of our summer was inside because of the heat and the thunderstorms.

I'm not a huge fan of summer. I'm either roasting or freezing. The weather has been crazy this year with a lot more extreme storms than usual. So I'm glad to see summer going away.

Of course, that's partly because we have a lot of exciting stuff coming up in the fall. Disney World mostly, but also Emily's birthday. We are also going to go to the Eliada Corn Maze with the Girl Scouts and of course, there is Halloween.

Even though it probably won't feel like Fall for a while, I'll be decking my halls with Halloween things as soon as we get home from Dragon Con. Mostly because I love my Halloween stuff but that means I can have it up longer since we'll be at Disney the first week in October.

I hope you all had a wonderful summer and have an equally great autumn season!

Birthdays and Wrestling

A couple of weeks ago, my dearest husband got another year older. Generally he doesn't care for his birthday but since he shares a birthday with my dearly departed mom, I make him celebrate. Earlier in July, I had heard a commercial on the radio that the WWE was going to have a show on his birthday in Asheville.

I had to buy tickets for his birthday. They weren't very expensive and I knew he would enjoy it. Plus Emily is old enough now that she could come with us. Todd and I's 2nd date was at a WWE house show, and that was also the date where Todd asked me to move in with him. So wrestling has been a big part of our love story.

The show took place on the campus of UNCA. Todd and Emily got in first because I ended up having to go back to the car to take my purse back. Their security was tight to the point that it was a little ridiculous, especially since I wasn't the only one who had to walk back to their car to put their purse back.

But finally I got in and found our seats which contained a Todd and an Emily. Our seats were very good considering how cheap the tickets were. We had some time before the show started but they were showing clips on the big screen from previous shows. Plus Emily and Todd went to get some snacks.

Finally it was time, and the show started. I wasn't sure how Emily would react. She's seen some wrestling on TV with us, but live shows can be quite loud sometimes. But she got really into it! She would pick a favorite wrestler or tag team and she would root loudly for them. Sadly for the first view matches she picked the heels so her people didn't win.

Todd and I have been watching WWE for long enough that we know the wrestlers and have our favorites. But Emily didn't find a favorite until the middle of the show. She really, really wanted to see some women wrestle. And finally she got her chance. She loved watching the women wrestlers, and she loved the Women's Champion, Sasha Banks, right off the bat. She kept talking about her for the rest of the show.

There was an intermission, and a few more matches before we got to the main event. We luckily got to see Dean Ambrose, who is currently the World Heavyweight Champ, wrestle against Chris Jericho. It was a great match!

Emily stayed awake and entertained the whole time. She cheered and yelled a lot! She also fell asleep on the way home because it was way past her bedtime.

We had a good time though. It was a great way to celebrate the birth of my husband!

Pokemon Go!

If you've been on social media at all in the last few days, you've probably seen pictures and articles all about Pokemon Go. I was too old when Pokemon because a big thing to get into the cartoon but I did play several of the DS games. Pokemon Sapphire for the Gameboy Advance was my favorite and I still have that game.

Not long ago, Emily discovered the Pokemon cartoons on Netflix and got hooked. The Easter bunny brought her a Pikachu stuffed animal and she has a small collection of Pokemon cards. When this app came out, she was really excited to play.

With me armed with my phone and Emily with her tablet, we walked around our neighborhood a-hunting Pokemon. It took some getting used to but we started to catch them all. On Sunday, we went to three different parks because I was out of pokeballs and needed a pokestop.

Fletcher Park had a ton of pokestops and we caught quite a lot of pokemon. Kate's Park and Jake Rusher Park had a few pokestops and some pokemon too.

We didn't see anyone else playing the game but Emily and I had a lot of fun. I hate to admit it but Emily is much better at the game than I am. She's actually passed me by as she's on level 6 and I'm still on level 5.

I know some people are sick of hearing about Pokemon Go but I think it's refreshing to see my friends having fun with this game. This year has been terrible in a lot of ways, so it's nice to see something happy get some attention.

For now, both Emily and I will continue to try to catch them all!

Holding Hands and Growing Up

Image: www.acclaimclipart.com

Tomorrow is the 4th of July and I have a lot of memories of spending this holiday with family. Growing up my uncle was the head of the FOP in my parent's hometown and he was in charge of the fireworks show every year.

Quite a few years, we'd get to sit in the special "police and families only" area which was the best seat in the house. The fireworks were very popular so downtown was always extremely crowded. And even though we had a place to watch the fireworks, finding parking was always hard to do.

One 4th of July we had a long walk back to our car. It was very crowded and I happened to be holding my mom's hand. I was probably at least 14 years old, maybe a little older. And the sight of two females holding hands caused some drunken guys to start catcalling and making fun of us.

My mom shut them down pretty quickly - she didn't take crap from anyway. But I was very embarrassed and I refused to hold her hand again. I don't think I ever held her hand while walking for the rest of her life which is something that now that I'm older makes me profoundly sad.

Kids hold hands all the time. They hold hands with each other, with their teachers and their parents. There is nothing wrong with it. But as we age, seemingly holding hands becomes something more. Something only to do with your boyfriend / girlfriend. Something sort of sexual which thinking about in a logical way seems a bit crazy.

I asked my own daughter what she would do if someone made fun of the two of us holding hands. She looked at me like I had two heads and said she'd yell at them and still hold my hand. I think she has more than a little of my mother in her.

Since my mom is no longer here, I'd encourage everyone to hold hands with those they love before they are gone. I shouldn't have been embarrassed that day long ago. She was my mom! And even if she hadn't been, there is nothing wrong with two girls holding hands for comfort, for love and for safety.

Visit From Dad

Most of our family lives in Michigan. Usually Todd's mom will come down once or twice a year, sometimes with his dad too. But it's been a couple of years since my dad has been down to visit.

He drove down the middle of last month after Emily got out of school. Emily was very excited to see her Pop-Pop, especially since he brought her a bunch of fun rocks. Emily has been into rocks a lot lately.

The first full day he was here happened to be my day off so the three of us went off to find rocks. We started off in West Asheville at the Asheville-Biltmore Gem Mine. Emily had a great time mining through a bucket of dirt and rocks to find treasures. She was especially excited that she got fool's gold! My dad was able to identity most of what was in her bucket and she got a whole bunch of rocks to take home with us.

From there, we went to downtown Hendersonville. Our first stop was the Mineral Museum. The museum was small but it was also free. There was a lot of rocks and even an exhibit on glowing rocks

The coolest thing was Emily getting to crack a geode to take home. They made a big deal about it and called everyone around in the museum to watch. But Emily was the one to help pull the lever down to get it cracked and of course, since my dad paid for it she got to keep it.

From there, we walked down the street to the Team ECCO Aquarium. It was a very cool little aquarium with lots of different kinds of fish and sea life. There was even turtles you could touch but Emily wanted no part of that. I touched them though, they were very cute!

We called it a day after that because we were all pooped. It was a lot of walking especially in downtown Hendersonville.

plus a dinosaur head!

The next day, we just hung around the house mostly. I ended up in bed with a bad migraine. We all went out to dinner but I ended up getting even more sick when we got home so I pretty much was out of it.

My dad's brother lives in GA so we had thought about all going down there for a day trip. But in the end, it was my dad and Emily who went for the whole day. I was still feeling sick so I slept a lot but Todd and I did get a chance to go to the movies. It was nice to just spend the day with my husband. That happens only a couple of times a year.

Dad and Emily got back late that night and my dad was starting to suffer from a pretty bad cold. He had planned on leaving on Monday and drive straight through but because he wasn't feeling good he decided to leave on Sunday, which was Father's Day. It was nice to spend a little time with my dad because I have't seen him on Father's Day in many year.

All in all, it was a pretty good visit. I wish I hadn't been so sick but it is what it is. Emily got to spend quality time with her Pop-Pop, which was mostly the point of the visit!

ConCarolinas 2016!

This past Saturday, Emily and I made the trek to Concord, NC to attend ConCarolinas. It was the first time in years that we've gone and both of us were really excited.

I donned my Tightrope Girl costume and Emily in her Kairi costume and we made the two hour trek. Driving in a corset was interesting! We made it a little before 10 am and quickly got our badges. From there, Emily wanted to check out the dealer's room.

I tried to encourage her to look at everything before spending all of her money. She did ok but did end up buying a Beanie Baby Unicorn coin purse almost right away.

We saw my friend, Mikey, and bought one of his coloring books. We mostly wandered around after that until Emily declared she was going to die from hungry. We found that one of the food trucks was set up and we got a couple of hot dogs. We enjoyed our meal on a patio area and got to watch some SCA knights do battle.

After that, it was time for Live Action Hungry, Hungry Hippos. It was an activity for the kids but the parents had to get involved too! Emily thought this was great fun but it was hard for me! I was still in my corset and Emily isn't exactly a lightweight anymore. We did about five rounds until I basically said no more! She got a ring pop as a prize and she was very happy with that.

parents had to get involved too. We had to wheelbarrow the kids to the middle of the floor where the kids had to grab as many balls as they could then we dragged them back to their respective corners.

We did some wandering around after that. She got to spin the wheel at one table and I got to answer a trivia question. I answered it correctly and won Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. Emily practically screamed with joy! She also gathered a lot of candy from the different tables - it was like geeky trick or treating.

After a trek in the blazing heat back to the car, I got changed into my 2nd costume. My Kaylee costume is still very geeky but it's much, much more comfortable to wear. It was nice to not be corseted anymore.

We went to a panel about the lack of Rey toys and female characters in general. I found it interesting but Emily got bored after a bit. She is apparently still a little too young for panels

I wanted to see the costume contest but Emily didn't really. I offered her a compromise - that we could sit in the very back and she could play with her new stuff while I watched the costume contest. She agreed and had fun quietly playing with her Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. There were a lot of amazing costumes to see!

After the judging of the costume contest, we slipped out to get some dinner because now I was hungry. There were several other food trucks but one was wasn't open and the other was just a dessert one. So we opted to get hamburgers and chips. We went to the lounge area inside and had a nice little dinner.

It was getting to be closer to my friend Mikey's concert so we went to the room where it was going to be. We had an hour beforehand so we just stayed and watched the belly dance show that was happening right before the concert.

The belly dance show was very entertaining. The theme was Star War vs. Star Trek so all the dances were inspired from those shows / movies. By the end, Emily was trying to belly dance to the music herself!

After that, it took a few minutes for Mikey to set up and then his show got rolling. Emily, ironically, spent some time coloring in Mikey's coloring book while Mikey was singing. I enjoyed the concert a lot. I've only seen him live once before at the Browncoat Ball in 2014 but sadly I don't remember it because of my seizures. I pretty much sang along the whole concert!

After Mikey was done, we headed out. It was after seven and we had a two hour drive home. The drive home was uneventful and Emily slept most of the way. She says she wants to go the whole weekend next year.

ConCarolinas is a great con! Lots of great people, fun entertainment and lots of geeking out!

ConCarolinas and Me

ConCarolinas is a mid-sized con that takes place outside of Charlotte every year at the beginning of June. It's a great con because a lot of my friends go to it and it's like a mini Dragon Con without the massive crowds.

It's been a few years since I've been able to go to ConCarolinas, but on Saturday Emily and I are heading there for the day. I'm very excited to go for a lot of reasons. Emily's excited to show off her Kairi costume and go to Mommy's friend's concert (Mikey Mason!).

Emily was about 8 months old whens she went to her first ConCarolinas. It was her first con ever! But more important than that, ConCarolinas was instrumental in me realizing that I had Post Partum Depression. I wasn't excited for the con and I knew I ought to be. This caused me to finally get help and get back on a good track.

We went back the next year. I did some gaming while Todd chased around a mobile Emily. It was at this con that Emily had her first picture with a celebrity. Claudia Christian who played Susan Ivanova on Babylon Five thought Emily was so cute that she wanted a picture with her. Claudia Christian's husband sent Todd a copy of that picture. It's the first one in Emily's Hall of Fame Scrapbook.

I've had other great experiences at ConCarolinas and I'm sure this coming Saturday will be no exception. It's a great convention and everyone in the Carolinas should check it out!

Making the Most of Each Moment

Image: inspirationalstorytellers.com

Over the last few days, the world has been in mourning for Prince. I wasn't a huge fan of his, but I was taken aback by how young he was. Only a few years older than my mom was when she passed so young from cancer.

But then yesterday, the news that Michelle McNamara, who was a writer and the wife of actor Patton Oswalt, had died in her sleep. She was only 46 years old and had a seven year old daughter, which is the same age as Emily.

With all the health issues that I have plus my mom dying at age 51, death is something I think about quite a bit. Only God knows when I'll leave this earthly plane, but honestly it could be any time for anyone.

That's what it's so important to make the most of each moment as you can. Our time is so limited in the grand scheme of things.

Yesterday there was also a local news article about a 178 year old tree that was cut down despite a petition to save it. That tree had lived twice as long as most humans do. I read some of the comments and someone posted that from the pictures the tree was rotting from the inside. I don't know if that's true or not, but it's a powerful image.

Don't rot from the inside. Make the most of each moment as much as you can while on this Earth.

A Happy Life

When I was growing up, I always imagined myself in a big house, with lots of kids and of course a handsome husband. It's funny how things are different than what I thought, but as I approach 40 my goal is to have a happy life.

My house isn't big, but honestly I wouldn't want it much bigger because that would be more space I'd have to keep clean. Our house has enough room for the 3 of us, plus the cats, along will all of Emily's stuff (mine and Todd's too but she has more!)

My marriage is happy, even after nearly ten years. I adore Todd and he seems to be fond of me too, of course. Our family was completed many years ago with the birth of Miss Emily and we have three cats who are her furry, little siblings.

Todd mostly likes his job. Like most people, he has bad days and good. I really don't like my job but I'm able to work part-time which gives me time to do other things as well as rest when I need to. Of course, I do have chronic pain and Todd has MS. But I try and not let my pain get me too down. Plus Todd's been in remission since the initial diagnosis so he tends to ignore it.

Emily is a happy kid. She has lots of friends at school, loves learning and loves being a Girl Scout. It's a joy to be her mom and watch her grow. But I'm glad there is just one of her. One and done as far as kids go works best for us.

We don't make a ton of money but we make enough to be able to do fun things. We go to conventions, mostly Dragon Con, and Disney World. We are hoping to make it over to Italy in about five years. Todd wants to start seeing the world. I want to start visiting the Disney parks around the world, so same thing.

I suffer from depression and anxiety so some days the clouds get really dark and stormy in my head. But all in all, I have a happy life. It's something to remember on the not so good days.

Selling Girl Scout Cookies

If you don't know anything about Girl Scouts, you probably at least know about their cookies. It's the time of year when girls stand outside stores hawking their delicious cookies.

I wasn't ever a Girl Scout but I was a Campfire Girl. We sold chocolate bars and I hated going door to door to sell them. I'm not a good salesperson even to this day.

When Emily wanted to sign up for Girl Scouts, I knew that selling cookies was going to be part of it. And I knew that I would be selling cookies as well - since Emily is only 7.

This past Sunday was the first cookie booth Emily ever did. It was for three hours outside the Hendersonville Walmart. I wasn't sure how Emily was going to do. I was afraid she was going to get bored and cranky. But she proved me wrong!

It took her a bit to get into the swing, but she yelled 'Cookies for Sale!" with the other Girl Scouts helping man this table. When we got a customer, she would hurry over and explain the prices and kinds of cookies. She would help get the money and hand the change back.

She had a lot of fun and it was a great experience. It helps the girls learn skills they will need - like making change. And we sold a ton of cookies which will help their troop out!

We are signed up for two more cookie booths and I'm sure now that Emily will do a great job. If you see any Girl Scouts selling cookies, consider buying a box or two. If you don't want to eat the cookies, you can always buy a box that will be sent overseas to the troops!

The Star Wars Experience

Last Friday, I took my daughter to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The movie was amazing and there will be no spoilers in this post, though I think you all should go see it as soon as humanly possible!

But seeing this movie that is part of a fandom that was and still is huge for me in the theater on opening day with my daughter was an amazing experience. We went to an afternoon showing in 2D but the theater was still packed. We had gotten there really early so we were able to get great seats.

With popcorn and drinks, we settled down to watch the first new Star Wars movie in a decade. As the words "Star Wars" burst onto the screen, I got a little teary eyed as I watched my daughter getting excited to see the movie.

Emily enjoyed the movie as well. Her favorite character was BB-8. She is also a big R2-D2 and C-3PO fan. We laughed, I cried as we watched the movie and I look forward to seeing the upcoming ones with her as well.

Star Wars is a family experience for me. Like my father before me, I love sharing this universe that I love with my child.