magic.rox

The next project Rachel and I have is to actually finish a room in the house.  That room being my daughter Taylors’ room.

We are installing new baseboard trim, a new entry door and a new closet door.  Her room is going to be painted a light pink and the existing trim in her room will be painted a beautiful color named “whipped white.”

On deck after that is the remodeling of the downstairs.

On Monday, my daughter became a big sister!

Her mother gave birth to a baby boy, who’s name is Zayden Carmer.

While I haven’t been able to speak to Taylor much, she is very excited about her baby brother and loves him to death.

I’m happy that she’s happy, which is something that has been real lacking in her life lately.

Hopefully we will have a lot of fun this weekend when she comes over.

Wednesday, all of us (Me, Rachel, Taylor and Dad) are embarking on a journey I have made many times in my life.  We are going to a little bump in the road where my 3 aunts and 2 cousins live in Oklahoma.  The trip is somewhat less exciting as it used to be, as there is no Speed Trap in Watts anymore.  I might get my aunt Beth to talk on camera about how that Speed Trap became history, as she was involved in it.

The total trip is roughly 700 miles, and can be done in as little as 8 hours.

All of us have never made this trip together, so it’s going to be very, very interesting.

It used to be all about how fast I could make it there, but as I’ve aged, I’ve wanted to see things along the way.

This time we are going to stop at the George Washington Carver National Monument.  He’s the guy who invented countless uses for peanuts.  It’s on our way, and I’ve never stopped before.

The reason for this trip?  My aunt Beth is having a “family reunion” of sorts for the 4th of July.  We are going to stay at her house, which could double as a B&B.

I also have a delivery to make, as my aunt Laura sent me 13 8-tracks and 2 cassette tapes that she wanted transferred to CD.  The 8-tracks were a disaster, but I hope she still loves me.

I hope that someday, they can make the trip here.  It would be great to show them around for a change.  I’m hoping that perhaps next summer one of my cousins can come out for a week or two.  I would love it.

It’s been 2 years since we’ve made the trek, and I must say I’ve missed my aunts.  Their southern hospitality is something that is not found ’round these parts.

Taylor has spring break this week.  She stayed last weekend with us, and is staying the evenings with us thru tonight.

Over the weekend we celebrated Easter with my wifes’ family bright and early on Saturday, and on Sunday with my family.  It was honest to goodness pure family fun.

We’ve missed Taylor tremendously, and hopefully sooner than later she’ll be up here permanently.  This weekend her mom and step-dad moved the majority of their belongings up here to their new home.  It’s about 30 minutes away, but that’s better than 4 hours.

We have been very busy, but having loads of fun.  Taylor got 2 new video games for the PS2 from aunties Brenda & Michele.  She got Petz Cats 2 and Madagascar.  The Cats game is more like a “beginner RPG game.”  I don’t like it much, but she does.  I do enjoy the Madagascar game though, as it is like the movie.  The best part is you get to “be” all the main characters, unlike most video games.  Taylor plays until it gets too hard, and then daddy takes over.

Taylors nighties were getting a little tight, so we got out my vintage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles PJ’s.  I wore these in the late 80’s and they’re still rockin’ in 08!  It kind of reminds me of this picture.  Taylor’s only complaint?  “These feel like boys clothes!”  That’s cause they are!

I’m gonna miss her when she goes back to Tennessee, hopefully for the last time.

I received an interesting e-mail on Wednesday.  The e-mail, from a family researcher, has been doing a lot of reading on this and my wifes’ blogs.  The subject line read this:  Lawmaster Family History — The SECOND Strangest email You’ve Even Received

What his message was telling me, changes everything I have grown to learn about the origins of my family name.  Kinda scary!

My father has always told me that my family name, Lawmaster, derived from a swedish name, “La-meis-ta.”  He has always said that when the individual with that name immigrated to the US, he married a native american woman and it wasn’t socially acceptable at that time.  They decided to “americanize” the name to Lawmaster.

This guy has a completely different theory, and I must say it is more believable than the story my father has told me all these years.

From the documentation he has shown, and what he has said the name started in this country with Wendel Laumeister who was a 1750 immigrant to York, PA.  He was German (is that why I married a crazy Dubois county German?).  It was then changed to Lowmaster.

I am merely assuming here, but I think due to the ways of record keeping at the time, Lowmaster was easily changed by accident to Lawmaster.  Everyone writes differently, and have you ever wrote with a quill?  It’s not the easiest thing in the world.  Believe me, I know.

It is nice to connect with someone who has a broad sprectum of knowledge regarding family history issues.  I have given him names, and he’s came back with dates that I was unsure of.  Hopefully this will be a long lasting relationship.

One piece of information he gave just blew me away.  He said that a common ancestor of ours is recognized by the SAR and DAR as a Revolutionary War Patriot!  Whoa!  I don’t know of any family members being in a war besides my grandfather, who played a major role during World War II, in the pacific theatre.  He was a part of the crew who installed all of the passive radar systems in the fleet.  From what he told me back in 1996, he was on shore leave in Washington, DC when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened.  That is also where he met my grandmother, she was working at the Pentagon.  He was immediately ordered to New York City to install systems on the Atlantic Fleet.

I am now trying to get correct and accurate data about my whole family.  This is not that easy because my uncle lives in Michigan, his kids are in Florida and Arizona.  I have 3 aunts in Oklahoma, 2 of them don’t speak to the other.  My grandfather died in 2000, taking many things with him.  He was a great man, and I miss him dearly.  My grandmother is a wealth of information though, but much time has passed and it is hard to remember things from 60 years ago.

I’m still waiting on some information from my aunts in Oklahoma.  I might call them today, but I don’t know if that would offend one of them due to religious beliefs.

I haven’t posted much lately due to many reasons, in particular I haven’t had much time.  We had Taylor for a week, much needed bonding time with my daughter.

In that week, we went here, there and everywhere in between though.

My wife, Rachel, wrote in her blog a day by day synopsis of what we’ve done.  Check it out HERE!

So I’m catching up……

Rachel and I had 5 days off for Thanksgiving this year.  Eigenmann Hall, where we work, was essentially shut down.  We visited with many people and did many things with our time.

Wednesday:  Taylor came up to spend her time off with us.  It had been a while since we last saw her, and we sure missed her.  She brought along her 2nd grade pictures, which I think are the best she has had thus far.

Thursday:  A very busy Thanksgiving.  I must say, I’m very thankful for all the friends and family I have around.  We started the day early and headed to my memma’s house.  We didn’t stay long, just long enough for Taylor to see her memmas’.

We then headed over to Basswood, where we used to live, and where my dads’ family’s Thanksgiving has been held for a little over 10 years now.  This year was much different, there haven’t been as many children around since I was a child.  Overall there was a feeling of happiness, although there has been some much felt losses.  We ate a little bit, talked and spent some time mingling.

Then we rushed the 3 miles or so back to our home.  As this year we hosted the Lee family (my in-laws) Thanksgiving.  Not fifteen minutes after we got home, my mother and father in-law showed up.  This was destined to be a blast.

We had prepared the turkey last Friday night as it was originally planned to be last Saturday.  A certain football game in Atlanta changed who showed up and I think the atmosphere for all.

We followed directions on how to prepare this bird from both of our mothers’ and added a little thought of our own, and voilla!

Overall, I think this was a Thanksgiving to be truely be thankful for.

Friday:  Mom, Taylor, Rachel and I went to see the new Disney movie, “Enchanted.”  I must say this is one I have wanted to see.  Two enthusiastic thumbs up on this one.  We then spent the rest of the day with my memma, Taylor and her had loads of fun playing Connect Four.

Saturday:  Taylor and Rachel primered the hallway while I rehung our dining room chandiler and installed a new receptacle.  The girls seem to like to brush versus rolling paint.  We then ran some errands and went to the MCPL.  Taylor has been wanting to go for a while, but it’s hard to do when you’re 2 states away.  She found some interesting books about “Dumb Bunnies.”  So we all read and laughed.  After getting back home we got a special visit from my little sister.  She flew out last minute from Phoenix!  Sadly her BFF’s dad was killed in a wreck.  We capped off the night by watching E.T. The Extra Terrestrial.  I hadn’t seen it since I was Taylor’s age.

Sunday:  After playing Uno Attack for what seemed like forever, Taylor left for Tennessee around 1:30.  Rachel and I seemed to act like teenagers for the rest of the day.  We paid for it once the sun fell though.

To get my wife’s perspective, check out http://raclee.blogspot.com

All in all, a very good five days.  Very good indeed.

Last night I received a call from my daughters mother.  Taylor had a seizure!

I was almost certain this was over, when she was around 1 she had a few seizures.

This brought me into an immediate depression with thoughts that I had passed it to her via my DNA.  I was assured by the doctor’s that since I was not born with epilepsy, I could not pass it to my children.  I’m starting to doubt that.

There are 2 events that occurred that could have actually given Taylor an impact to her brain to eventually cause epilepsy.  When her mom was 3 months pregnant with her, she had a bad car accident.  She broke her ankle and did a number on her nose.  Her car was turned into a V shape.  Then, when Taylor was a few months old an incident occured with my mother.  My mother was watching her for the day, she went and got some groceries and upon her return to home, placed Taylor on the counter in her car seat.  Taylor proceeded to rock a little bit, and she fell to the floor, face first.  She had a black eye that just made you cry.

Taylor had a few seizures a few months after the 2nd incident occurred.

There are some strange coincidences around this though.  Both my sister and I have epilepsy, and it started around the same age.  In both cases it has been contributed to blows to the head, but it can’t be proven to the Nth degree.

I hope my daughter doesn’t have to go through this horrible condition.  I believe it makes you a better person inside, but nobody wants their children to go through things such as these.

Hang in there Tator Bug.  Daddy loves you.

UPDATE:  I uploaded the Vamipress picture to the Herald-Times website and it’s on there! 

Since my child is a girl, she has mainly wanted to be “cute” things.  This year was a departure on that theme.  She recently dyed her hair a bright red, and decided to be a Vampiress.  I must say I think she pulled off the scary part quite well from the pictures I have seen.

She has been an M&M, an Angel, a Kitty, and a Pretty Witch on previous Halloweens.  This has been the first Halloween I have been apart from my daughter.  Her mother and I have always tried to make a point to go out with her trick or treating.  This year was impossible with the distance between us.  I’m sure it was great though.

You should be proud Taylor, as a Vampire was my favorite thing to be on Halloween!  I love you and miss you sweetheart.

I have this strange feeling of pride and sadness.  Every year, my daughter enters different stages of life that make me love her even more.  This is one big step in my eyes.  The sadness you ask?  When she isn’t my little girl anymore

Over the past year, I’ve forgotten how much mental energy an office job takes.  My stamina has long gone away.  Most of this week, I have been exhausted by this new job.  I’m not complaining, just explaining.

We have been “address cleaning,” as it’s called.  To put it in layman’s terms, we are sent database tables which have names, addresses, citys, states and zipcodes.  Sometimes they have more information, such as a student ID numbers or e-mail addresses.

The purpose of address cleaning is to format the addresses to the USPS standard, which can be very interesting if you haven’t had to do that before.  Did you know that there is a way to shorten almost every street name, IE drive, road, lane, etc.?

The tiring part is these tables, some were as small as 300 entries, but others were as large as 6800!  When we thought we were done, they were checked, and the remaining errors were shown to us.  Nothing bad, just constructive criticism.

Thursday night after work we went and picked up Taylor in Louisville, Ky.  My mom helped us out and took a half day off of work and drove to Clarksville, TN to pick her up.  They then drove back to Louisville where we met at her house.  We then had to drive back home so I could make it back to work in the morning.  We left as soon as we left work, and got back home around 11ish.

Lets just say I was of no use to anyone on Friday, and luckily my new job is very flexible and I was able to work only 6 hours.

So today I am doing some home remodeling and it goes much smoother with my lil helper!  I’m re-installing our stair hand rails to a much more comfortable position, with new hardware.  And I’m patching the rest of the holes in the drywall.  We also picked out our paint colors, which hopefully will be done before Thanksgiving.

I miss my little girl every day she’s not here with me.

Daddy misses you Taylor!

It’s been a long time since I last posted.  Part of me feels bad for leaving it abandoned for so long, I wouldn’t even have this if it weren’t for the kindness of Editor B.

Since starting my new job, I have felt “disconnected.”  My life has been connected to computers and technology since I was a teenager and I haven’t had the time to enjoy my computer much lately.  I cannot access computers while at work

Many things have happened since then, so I will update.  Hang on, cause there is much to say.

My daughter has officially graduated 1st grade, and left the state.  She took my heart with her.  With the help of my wife (thanks Rach) we made her a goodbye present.  A DVD filled with a slideshow with pictures of her and everyone who loves her.  It also included video of many of her loved ones saying goodbye and giving some life lessons.

I’ll miss you sweetheart!

My video business has suddenly picked up.  I am now more busy than not with projects people are wanting me to do for them.  I am going to advertise for the first time as well.  It also helps out high schoolers so I say why not?  I have also added a new service:  Cassette tape to CD or MP3 transfers! 

Work has been crazy.  I have been pushed to a point where I no longer think of it as a possible career anymore, just a job.  I am treated like scum, which is also what I clean.  With the heat and humidity, I can barely stand it.  Just like a few of my co-workers.

My little sister has moved in with us for a couple of weeks.  Her lease was up, and she has a new place lined up.  It’s just a matter of timing until she gets in.

We have picked up the pace on house projects.  Over the last few weekends we have removed the hideous wallpaper around our home.

Interestingly enough, underneath all of this were drawings.  These drawings were made by the children who lived here at the time.  We only have the kitchen and Taylor’s room to go.  Currently I am prepping the walls for paint.  We need them to be as perfect as possible for the deep, rich tones we have decided on for paint.

I also installed a new light fixture in our dining room.  We found a beautiful set for the dining room and foyer areas.  The one for the foyer has 2 tiers and is much larger.  Installation will be a different story though, as the ceiling is 1 1/2 stories high.

I cut down the dead tree in our backyard, that was fun!  I haven’t done that in over 10 years!  I have cleaned up much of it, but there is a lot more to go.  I am saving as much as possible for firewood, as I would like to use my fireplace sometime.

I wrecked my truck:(

The damage isn’t bad, just the bumper and a side piece to it.  I was returning from mowing at work, and while backing up jack-knifed my trailer.  It’s easy to do with a trailer that’s so small you can’t see it behind you.  And it just happens that my neighbors grandson just wrecked his truck which is essientially the same as mine.  It’s totalled, but the bumper is good!  I spoke with him today and I might get a new bumper on the cheap!

Hopefully once a few things settle down, I can start posting more often.

While at Disney, we got to meet Mickey in all of his different attires.

Our first day, at Animal Kingdom, we met Safari Mickey.  He’s my favorite.

Our second day, at MGM Studios, we met Sorcerer Mickey.

Our third day, at The Magic Kingdom, we met regular Mickey.

We also met many other characters.  Here’s the list: Goofy, Pluto, Minnie, Donald & Daisy Duck, Chip & Dale, Rafiki from The Lion King, Baloo from Jungle Book, Friar Tuck from Robin Hood, Briar Bear (movie or show unknown), Buzz Lightyear and Woody from Toy Story, a cat from Aristocats, Sully from Monsters, INC and Abby Mallard from Chicken Little. Taylor was very excited about getting their autographs as well.

We could have easily spent our whole time at Disney just getting pictures and autographs with characters.  The lines to see the princesses was 80 minutes long!

We all love this picture of Taylor and Sully from Monsters, INC.  She was very excited to meet him, and he even scared a few people.  This is one part of the trip she really enjoyed, meeting characters from her favorite movies.

How time flys when your having fun.

We kept busy on our trip to Orlando and Daytona Beach Florida.  Our first three days were spent primarily at 3 different Disney theme parks, Animal Kingdom, MGM Studios and of course what I call “Disney World” but is formally known as The Magic Kingdom.

The ladies had some troubles on our trip.  Taylor was getting over strep throat, and Rachel was was starting to have symtoms of what is now known as bronchitis.

The most breathtaking part of the trip was our visit to the beach.  I had never been to Daytona Beach before, and it had been around 25 years since I had been to the atlantic ocean.  To keep Taylor away from the typical Spring Break festivities we went to the north side of Daytona.  We got to actually drive right onto the beach!

I was amazed at how fine and soft the sand was, and how calming the sounds of the tides were.

We took over 300 pictures and shot almost an hour of video.  I am currently working on uploading the pictures, and will post some as soon as possible.

Now it’s back to life as usual, and next week we have our new heat pump installed.  Right before we left we received our electric bill, $260 - ouch!

After what I can only describe as a “grueling” 16 hour drive, we are here.  Travelling at speeds ranging from 80 to 110mph, was quite interesting.

Here we are arriving at our hotel

Our first days’ adventures were Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Epcot.  Taylor really enjoyed meeting all the characters at Animal Kingdom.

The wireless at the hotel isn’t that swell, so this will be my only post on the trip.  I just thought I would post this for all who are interested.

Tommorow’s schedule:  MGM Studios and back to Epcot.

Tonight, my daughter had a musical program at her school.  It included the entire 1st grade class.  The name of the program?  Bugz, and each child was one.

There were ladybugs, army ants, butterflys, a praying mantis, a stinkbug and a maggot.  My daughter was a beautiful butterfly.

I recieved some news while at this program.  It has been announced where my daughter will be moving, Ft. Cambell, KY.

It is the closest solution possible, which should be good news.  I’m just not taking it well.  Was it the fact that I was “stuck in the middle” of 2 very strong personalities? (my ex and my wife)  Or was it that I am so tired of this job and can’t wait for this vacation?

Anyways, I enjoyed seeing my daughter up on stage having fun with her soon to be ex-classmates.

The teachers are fun to look at too! :)  Especially my daughters’ teacher, Mrs. P

My lovely daughter, will more than likely be moving away from me in around 3 months.

When I was first told of this, I took it in stride.  Now is a different story.  Since I have to work on the weekends (when I generally have my daughter) I don’t get to spend the quality time I used to with her.  That’s all she really wants.

2 of the nights I work, I am alone.  I’m all alone right now.  I could be washing a tractor or trailer, but I’m not.  I’m contemplating my life right now.

I don’t know how much I could go on about how I’m pissed off at the “system.”  My hands are tied when it comes to anything regarding keeping her here.  I try to think of myself as a good parent, but I have my self doubts.

Through what my daughter tells me, the environment she has at home is not kind to her.  She thrives on attention and participating in creative endavors.  I like to call her my “little helper.”  She enjoys helping me around the house.  She even helped me with demolition of my garage.  It makes her feel like she’s a part of something, that’s one thing she doesn’t feel when she’s at home.  She just feels in the way.

I was raised in a similar situation and I really feel for her. 

She had a cat named “Polkadots,” her stepdad didn’t like Polkadots, so he went out a bought a dog to scare her away.  Which worked.  This theme seems to run it’s course through every aspect of my daughters life lately.

I’m not trying to blame here, nothing I say or do will change the end result.  Ever since I met her stepdad, I think he felt threatened by me.  Until he left for basic training, I couldn’t even talk with my daughters’ mom alone.  Now he will just have an inflated ego because he’s in the army.

Part of me feels that she would be better off to stay with us until her stepdad and mom get the big picture.  When you have children, your wants and some of your needs become secondary to theirs.  I don’t want to start that argument though.

I hope our upcoming vacation to Disney World will show Taylor that she is loved, and will always be loved by her daddy and Rachel.  I am starting to work on a present to give to her before she leaves.

This is hurting me worse than any thing I can imagine.  Compounded by the problem that I cannot fix it, I can only deal with it. 

We are officially planning our spring break vacation now.  Since my daughter has told me that she didn’t really enjoy her recent trip to Oklahoma, we have decided to do something we know she will enjoy.

Rachel and Taylor have not been to Florida.  I haven’t been since I was 9ish.  That was a horrible vacation, as it was bone chilling cold (for Florida anyway), roads were closed, hell Disney and all the other resorts were closed most of the time we were there. 

We haven’t worked out all the details yet, but we are going to the Orlando area.  That is solid as a rock right now.  Hopefully I can borrow my mom’s car again (more room is a plus), Thanks mom!  The next step is figuring out a way to get to NOLA from there.

I have been yearning to meet Editor B & XY for a while now.  I feel as if this may be an opportunity that I do not want to miss out on.  I think a day or 2 wouldn’t be too much to ask, as we are staying in Orlando for 3.

I guess I’ll see how this turns out.

Off Guard

Originally uploaded by LML Video Services.

It is alive, especially in my 7 year old daughter! With her step-dad’s help, she dyed her hair a bright pink, almost purple. It’s starting to come out, but she had to take her school pictures like this.

The joys of parenthood