Tenuous

......thin.......fragile............wouldn't trust it to do its job..........

this is how Max's doctor described his ear today......

Max's 7th tube was laying in the ear, about to fall out.
I was prepared! My plan was to tell the doctor to pull it out and we would wait for the next infection. Max will be 11 this year. He has had 7 tubes. I am sure he has outgrown all of this hullabaloo and another surgery is not necessary!!

The doctor looks in the ear, sticks some sort of device in the ear and pulls out the tube. He looks in the ear again and makes a groaning noise.

"WAIT", I say.

"You need another tube, Max." says the doctor.

"NO, he doesn't!" I say.

My favorite doctor looks at me, amused....eyebrows raised....waiting to hear my professional opinion.

"We can wait and see how he does without a tube."

Dr. Muppet looks at me like a father would look at a pleading child and then turns back to Max's ear.

"Tenuous is the adjective I would use to describe this ear. We can't wait. It could cause damage. It is bad. We can't wait."

And then I start to ache all over like the flu as he starts to tell me how according to the note he received from the allergist, the history of Max, blah blah blah.......Max will need a CAT scan first, then possible Sinuplasty (this will be his 2nd) and he will check adenoids (this will be his 3rd) he will put in another right PT tube (this will be his 8th) and then he will do a culture on his "something or nothers" (which were explained to be like nose hairs that beat away bacteria and Max's may not be working) and send them off to some lab out west.........

I looked at Max as we walked to the car. I felt like crying or throwing up.
"How do you feel Max? scared? sad? mad?"

Max: "I am ok, I am used to it........."then he grinned and his eyes sparkled "I wonder what the Tube Fairy will bring me tonight!!"

VOTE! It is your duty.....

It is voting time here in Memphis and Classic MAZ is joining in the spirit of voting!!!

My profile picture on facebook is a year old. I think it is time for a new updated version of myself since I have let my hair grow for a year. I have provided a few pictures from which my readers can choose:

       (by the way...those of you who see me often and think "why doesn't she fix her hair?"...now you can see that I DO fix my hair...because in these pictures I do not have any leave-in-conditioner to weight it down to a more normal fro....here is the clean normal look)

Picture A is the "Uncle Joel Picture". My mother tells me all the time that I look just like her younger brother, Joel. 

His senior picture from the 1960s (??) looks just like this but his mustache is thicker   :)

Picture B is the "Roseannadanna SNL Picture".

Picture C is "MAZ after 6pm Picture".

 If you don't vote, I will have to put a normal picture of me and the boys smiling appropriately........

Quite close to the Proverbs Woman!!!

Megan Mijo van der Bijl

You need to write her name down because this won't be the last time you read it!!

 In two weeks she will graduate from high school. Her summer will be a whirlwind of playing for the Opera of Memphis for the second year in a row and then off to college!! She is an excellent Pianist and brilliant in academics! She is Salutatorian and has received a music and academic scholarship at Belhaven University!! (I wish I knew exactly what to tell you...it is very impressive!!) ......(She was offered a full ride at Ole Miss too!)...She is tall, slender, poised and well spoken. Most importantly she loves the Lord and seeks His Will in all things.

Megan is 18 years old, the oldest of 6 children. She is my NEICE!!! I am so proud of her. I can't even begin to describe Megan in a few words:

gracious, loving, obedient, kind, gentle, giving, quiet, funny, smart, selfless, helpful, respectful, talented, wise, discerning, fun-loving, witty, beautiful, leader, listener, seeker, one-of-a-kind!!!

She had her moments as a toddler (hee hee) but she was a great teenager and now is becoming a wonderful woman. I want to take a minute to reminisce...

I remember when Jeff and I were first dating and Megan would stick her tiny 2 year old feet in his big work boots and put on his ball cap and without turning her head she would look off to the side at him......

I remember her sitting in my lap and wanting me to read her a book but I couldn't. My sister would fix Megan's hair on top of her head like a palm tree. Megan would switch her head back and forth and beat my face with that dang palm tree!!!

As a teen...Megan was never the annoying, attitudinal teen (her mom may have a different story). She has always been very mature and never embarrassed herself or her family. She has been a wonderful role model for her younger sister Hannah (who is also fabulous and will get her own post when she graduates in 5 years). 

As Megan heads to Belhaven and starts a new chapter in her life she can do something that many 18 year olds can not do......

She can be proud of how she led the first 18 years of her life!! She has made many wise choices. She has listened to her parents and grandparents. She has chosen her friends wisely. 

AND..........if she truly is WISE, she will always be nice to her Aunt Margaret!!!!!!!!!

2 nosepickers

2 "NO" picks

and...I realize one of these reviews might make some of you brainy literary people cringe.....

I read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Jasper Fforde's The Big Over Easy.

I was so excited to read Frankenstein. BUT phooey phooey!! Mary Shelley loved to yammer yammer!!! YES!! I know why she wrote the book, I know what you are supposed to glean from the book.....BUT I wanted a good horror story and I felt Mary Shelley had the talent and the story in her hands and she threw it away! Too much yammerin about other stuff!! I wanted more action!

SAME with The Big Over Easy!! This book is about a detective, Jack Spratt, who is over the NCD (Nursery Crime Division). Humpty Dumpty has been murdered. Jack and his new partner, Mary Mary, must solve the case. Jack has made arrests in previous cases but no charges had been made:

       "can you confirm that you have the lowest conviction/investigation ratio of any department in Reading?......sheep rustling from Miss Bo-peep. Two arrests, no charges. Failure to properly take care of livestock by 'Boy' Blue. One arrest, no charges. Cruelly putting a cat in a well. Johnny Flynn arrested, no charges brought. Kidnapping of Hansel and Gretel with intent to commit cannibalism. One arrest, no charges. Criminal spreading panic of sky falling. One arrest, no charges. Bluebeard. Died awaiting trial. 'Goosey' Gander, freed on appeal. Mr. Punch, arrested for wife battery, throwing a baby downstairs and illegal possession of a crocodile. All charges dropped."

This quote made me want to read an interesting story............NO!!! It was weird. It could have been cute and great but it brought in all kind of different story lines and characters. I was lost half the time and I have no clue how it ended. I think a robot was involved.......

I do not recommend The Big Over Easy.

I have to recommend Frankenstein.......but I was disappointed!!

                  

Classic MAZ reviews The Road

I live in Memphis. The weather in April can either be cold and snowy, hot and humid, rainy, breezy, miserable or pleasant. It is always a gamble. All last week it was sunny, 80 degrees and shorts weather. Today, Saturday, I sat on the porch in a sweater.....covered with a quilt and finished a book that I started seven days ago. Cormac McCarthy is the author of The Road, Child of God, The Orchard Keeper, Outer Dark, The Stonemason, The Sunset Limited, Suttree, and No Country For Old Men.

I saw the Oscar winning movie, No Country For Old Men. I loved the movie until the end and then I thought "how horrible". It is a dark movie with a "non-hollywood" ending. But weeks later, I decided I really liked the movie.....I really loved the story.

The Road is the only book I have read by Cormac McCarthy. I was hooked from the first paragraph! I love the style of writing. I love the story. It is a dark story of survival in a world of desolation. You follow a loving dad and his young son as they travel alone. Everything is burned. There is nothing left. They are hungry and scared. They are in danger of "bad people" that are also roaming America for "food". There is no hope. What future do they have? As you read you wonder what you might have done in the same situations. I really enjoyed this book. 

My next purchase will be Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. It is based on historical events in the 1850s on the Texas-Mexico border involving a 14 year old Tennesseean kid, Indians, murders, scalps, and America's westward expansion, and the mythology of the "wild west"........sounds great!!!

HOWEVER.....until that purchase.....my next READ......

I am currently reading Jasper FForde, The Big Over Easy. So sit on the edge of your seat waiting for a review but be careful and don't fall like Humpty Dumpty (that's a clue).

Jeff, next time use the treadmill.....

Apparently, Jeff had a stressful day at work and needed a stress release......I wish he had just run on the treadmill......

OH, ok.....he wasn't angry....well, not before he started.....hee hee...

Everytime the boys played on this thing, something broke. We decided to take it down before one of our boys broke!!

Jeff said he tried to take it apart with the socket set but "it didn't work" because the wood "was too soft and rotten"....

But I think he really just wanted to use the ax and crowbar!!

The boys enjoyed the demolition!!

A Big Let Down

I was working in my backyard today when I looked down at my pale white skin. My heart skipped a beat! Could it be? Could all my reading and watching of the horror genre have paid off?? My skin was sparkling and shimmering in the sunlight!!!

A smile spread across my face. I was pleased. Team Edward.......not that I prefer vampires over werewolves.....but being a female.....I would much rather have sparkly skin than a thick furry coat! (reference to the Twilight series for you non readers....vampires)

I was saddened tonight. After I showered, I put on my fairly new lotion. My eyes glanced over the words.....Oil of Olay.....moisturizer.......body lotion........sparkles.........WHAT............DERN!!!

Ok, so the reading and watching of the vampire, zombie, alien and supernatural has not secretly given me any special powers. That is a big let down..................so I can't blame my faint mustache and unibrow on werewolf powers???

Jack's latest painting/creation

We recently had to scrub the house from top to bottom and do some rearranging due to Max's new allergies and medical issues. In this process, Jack got to design and paint his own room. We have been in our house for 9 1/2 years and his room has never been painted. Just many, many posters have been put up and taken down over the years!!! He was very excited and did a fabulous job.

These are the old windows we have not replaced yet. I told him he could paint the molding....I don't care about these old crappy windows!!

The dots you see all over the walls are indeed the many tack and nail holes from over the years!! It took one whole afternoon to spackle and sand and then clean up that mess!! 

This is the new window that  cost a fortune!! I threatened his life if he got a speck of paint on this window!!

This is the whiteboard, cork board and magnet board (behind the door) from when this was the school room (the first year I took them out of school to home school).

This is the grey wall (old windows) with blue molding....black curtains (because I have not been able to buy grey or U of M type curtains yet. The bed has grey and blue striped sheets and a grey cover. His tiger from infancy and a robber/ man that my mother-in-law made at the request from Jack. He also painted the blue shelves. 

ahhhh, the lighting is better on this picture! You can see his creativity with the grey/blue wall!! Notice his new Memphis Tiger desk lamp!! The built in book shelves on the left have his comic book collection that he inherited from Jeff!! He painted the inside of the shelves grey and the outside blue!!

Here is the opposite wall which is also grey/blue. It has another blue shelf. Again, my new window....and not a drop of paint on it!!! His fish tank on an antique desk.

Thank goodness he wanted to keep the whiteboard, cork board and magnet board (still behind the door). I was not looking forward to filling in all THOSE holes!! He wants to use the whiteboard for "air soft" planning and such..... He painted the cork board blue and we bought a UM magnet for the magnet board. He has already hung stuff.....as you can see!!

Jack did 85% of the painting and only because I did the really high molding and the sanding....to keep it out of his lungs!! He designed the whole thing! 100%

I would like to bring your attention to a couple of things.....Jack is working hard to do advanced math and science courses because he wants to go to Vanderbilt. He is interested in Robotic Engineering. He now has a U of M bedroom. He has Florida Gator braces on his teeth. Those are Germantown sports balls on the shelves behind him..............hmmmmmm