A Guest Post By Rammi

All the way from London, England... Today's post is bought to you by Rammi!
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Hello. I'm Rammi, and I shall be taking over Jennifer's blog for today... I feel the power already! I've been ranting and raving all NaBloPoMo about random things like my laziness and my inability to give proper directions, and today seems to be no different. For some reason, I decided it would be a good idea to write about mummy bloggers... As if I didn't need any more enemies. ;)

I'll admit it. It might be sort of a blogging faux-pas to do this, but I generally have an aversion to mummy/mommy bloggers. The phrase "married and babied" (or something similar) usually sends me running for the hills. Out of all the things a girl can say about herself, is her marriage and how she squeezed out a couple of kids really the most interesting thing she can say in all the years she's been on the planet? Does she not have anything else to say than "I married [blah] and my kids are [blah] and [blah]?

A person's hobbies, views on life, her relationships with her family and friends, all the things I like to read about in a blog... These seem to be lost in a sea of "Thomas just did his first poop today! I'm so proud of him!" I mean, besides being extremely TMI - for some people like to snack whilst they work at the computer, and this can be off-putting - of all the things in the world to read about, why would I care about someone's son managing to do a basic human function that everyone needs to learn eventually? I would be worried if he *didn't* poop!

["My son is severely constipated" is a better blog title than "My son finally did it in the potty!!!111!!"]

...I think you can tell by now that I don't have any children (and probably won't for quite a long time after this post). ;)

Anyway, after reading some of the blogs that fall into this category for a while, I've started to realize (albeit a bit late) that "mummy blogs" are more than documenting their child's accomplishments and milestones, which I, as a stranger on the internet, lose interest in quickly.

One blogger I follow talks about the pain of losing her first child, the impending birth of her second, and all the feelings she has on the way. She is the only blogger that manages to move me to tears with almost every post, and I admire her strength and bravery in sharing all of this to the world.

I've also looked through a lot of Jennifer's posts. When she does blog about her children, I'm struck by how good her parenting skills are; she seems to know how to handle every situation her kids throw at her.

[I'm mentally making notes for my future kids; they have many groundings and amazing birthday parties in their futures.]

When in doubt of what to do, I've found that there are always people online who have done it before, and bloggers, whatever they blog about, are always willing to share their wisdom.

These blogs also have a ready-made audience. For close friends and family, this is a quick and easy way to keep updated with how their friends/relatives are doing, what mischief they're getting up to, and what to buy them at holidays.

[Btw, my birthday's 14th December, a month from now. *cough cough hint hint*]

But what sells mummy blogs to me after all is that there is always something to blog about, whether or not the kids are being infuriating or angelic.

Coming from a girl who spent ages at 1AM – because I don't want my family to think I'm weird or anything – taking detailed pictures of her microwaves for a future blog post due to a lack of inspiration, always having something to blog about is a good thing.

Thanks for letting me borrow your blog, Jennifer! Hopefully, I haven't managed to offend too many people...

Another One Bites The Dust

Catherine joined the grounded crew this week. Her grades are not the problem, her room was. It was nasty. Dirty dishes, old dirty clothes, nasty old trash. It was awful. The strange part is she is willing to clean everything else. She’ll scrub the toilets, clean the kitchen, and take out the trash. But she just refuses to clean her room. So there went her shot at NaBloPoMo, since her computer has been taken. I had a parent teacher conference with Catherine’s teacher today. She made the honor roll, of course, but she is slacking off on doing her work. Apparently, she thinks she is so smart, she doesn’t need to do more work. She has also been slacking on her reading, so her teacher and I discussed upping her reading time from 30 minutes Monday through Thursday to 90 minutes every day. That way she can finish her larger books. Also, her teacher would like her to expand her selections from just Harry Potter. Overall, she is a good student. Her teacher says her social skills are getting better too. She does need to learn to match her clothes. Maybe if she could find them in that mess of hers. We are getting it cleaned out this weekend.

Carolynn’s grades improved this week. She also did all of her chores and homework. So she is being permitted to go to her friend’s birthday party tomorrow. She is still grounded from internet, her phone and going anywhere else. If her behavior continues to improve, the grades climb, and the chores get done, she could be ungrounded before Christmas.

Speaking of kids in trouble… Tabi and Kathy’s son Ethan is with us tonight. Apparently, he didn’t do some school work and was told he would not be permitted to go on a family outing this evening to his brother’s choir performance if he didn’t get it done. As you can guess, he didn’t get it done. So he spent most of the night sitting at our kitchen table reading. He read all the books he brought with him, and two we had here. He ate some macaroni and cheese and now he is helping Catherine burn old school papers in the fireplace. It’s our first fire of the season.

If you’ll remember, last year at this time I made a deal with the world… If I promised to volunteer, the world would give me a job. (Check it out here.) Anyway, I went then and volunteered at the Salvation Army. Last winter I spent many of my hours ringing a bell and collecting donations. And the world provided me with a job at a prison. All was good. Not too long ago, the prison gave me a special award for my volunteer service. That is when I realized that the world didn’t think one winter of bell ringing was worth the amazing job. So when Gary from the Salvation Army called last week, I knew I had to go. Yesterday David and I went down there to fill out the forms. So starting soon, you will find me ringing a bell in front of the Stater Bros. on Saturday nights. You will find David there on Monday and Tuesday nights. You will also find us down there several days a week, counting out the kettles for deposit. We are doing a good thing.

Our TV is broken. We just got it in March so it is still under warranty. They are very willing to fix it for free, but I have to take it to the nearest repair shop. The nearest repair shop is in Yucaipa. So it’s kind of a pain, but what can you do? I can’t afford to buy a new TV. (This is what my Grandpa would probably do. But I love him.)

Yesterday was Aunt Chris’ 60th birthday. We went over for cake and took her a present, despite the fact that she specifically said no presents. Mary and Tonya (some wonderful friends of theirs, and now of mine too) were there and their friend Connie (who I have met a couple of times). It was fun. I hope she had a nice birthday.

David is sick. I have been pumping him full of medicine and he has been asleep most of the day. I have been making him drink orange juice and take vitamins too. He has no health insurance, so he needs to stay healthy.

If you recall, I am doing a blog swap for NaBloPoMo this year. I did it last year too. (Check it out here.) So for tomorrow, look for a post from Rammi right here on Tropical Fruit. And head over to her blog and look for a post by me. There are four other sets of swappers joining us in the swap for tomorrow so check out these great blogs tomorrow and see the results.

Stacey of Say Something Stacey will be swapping with Brandi Hassouna of The Day After

Bonnie Kaplan of BK's Reviews and Reflections will be swapping with Miranda of Compost Happens: An After School Special

Aurora McBride-Moore of Tales Of A Frumpy Mocha Princess will be swapping with Roxy Adams of ...snippets...

Katie Conrad of Gnomes At Night will be swapping with Johnny Pez

Blog Swap!

For starters, you've probably noticed that I'm not Jennifer. Or maybe you haven't, because I haven't started talking yet. Or typing. Ah, you know what I mean! I tend to babble, if you hadn't caught on...Jennifer was a brave soul for agreeing to swap blogs with me. Thanks Jennifer, for letting me take over your pretty little fruity blog today! I'm Sierra, and I usually blog over at my place, I'd Blog That! Come on over and visit sometime :)

When I saw the NaBloPoMo blog swap post, I thought it sounded like a lot of fun. I wasn't sure what to expect, having never done a blog swap before, but I figured I'd give it my best shot. But after signing myself up, I panicked. What would I write about?!? I had not a single idea floating around in my brain, and only a day or so before the deadline! Holy canoli. What had I gotten myself into? I tried to brainstorm a little, but to no avail. My brain was my enemy. Creativity was evading me. I decided to forget about it for awhile, and just wait for a brilliant topic to pop into my head (a very dangerous tactic, don't try this at home on your own blogs!) Last night, I decided not to shoot any silly sounding ideas down that came through my brain (like I usually do), and just gather them all up to sort through. I was thinking about today, Thanksgiving, and what it means, especially this year. I don't usually contemplate the holidays as I have this fall. They mean a little more to me than they usually do. I realized that Thanksgiving, and more specifically, what I'm thankful for this year, would be a perfectly good topic for a blog post! So here I am. And there you are, going "ohhhh, great, another sappy 'I love my family and friends' Thanksgiving post!" But do not fear. I will not get sappy. Or at least not too sappy. Deal? Deal.

This year, I'm thankful for many things. The usual: family, friends, roof over my head, healthy food to eat, plenty of clean clothes to wear each day, a safe neighborhood, a bright future, opportunities, and tons of other stuff. But because of recent events in my life, some unexpected, some just tougher than I was ready for, I am especially thankful for one specific thing this fall. Health! My health, and the health of my friends and family, is so important to me, and I often take it for granted. Whenever I get sick, I realize how much I value my usual health. Joni Mitchell sure knew what she was talking about when she sang "don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone". Why is it that it often takes a bout of pain, suffering, or turmoil to make us realize how good we normally have it? It would be much nicer if we just appreciated each moment and each person in our lives and didn't have to endure the loss and sorrow of losing those close to us, or losing our health. When our normal days are challenged and replaced with hours full of illness and discomfort, it turns our world upside down, even if ever so slightly.

I've had three months filled with three surgeries, three recovery periods, three months worth of gauze and partial showers, three weeks after three weeks of feeling better and then feeling worse...it's been emotionally, physically, and mentally draining. I admit it. I won't play down the fact that this whole thing has been exhausting. Much more than I ever expected. For one, this most recent surgery was an emergency, unplanned surgery. I made the drive up to see my surgeon (two hours north of me, and he's worth every mile) two Fridays ago, not sure what to expect. I'd had complications with my skin not healing properly, and other details I won't go into for TMI purposes, but I knew something was wrong. I was having a lot of pain, and with it having been a little over two weeks post surgery, I shouldn't have been. I entered the doctor's office with slight trepidation that Friday, but I never expected to hear the words "I'm so sorry--you need to have surgery immediately to get this taken care of." My heart flip flopped. I half expected them to squeeze me in to the O.R. schedule that very day, with the amount of concern the doctors had on their face. The soonest they could fit me in was Monday, and I had a high risk of infection until the problem was taken care of, they said. My heart rate increased, my mother entered the room, and I realized all the implications of what this new development meant. I'd have to drop out of school for the remainder of the semester. My biggest fear. I was doing A+ well in all my classes, and looking forward to getting them out of the way (I'm currently in the process of completing my pre-requisites to enter nursing school, and every extra semester means more work and more time until I can apply).

My most recent surgery was a couple of Mondays ago. It's been about a week and a half. I had a surgical drain tube in my chest up until yesterday, and I was enduring excrutiating, almost unbearable pain for that entire time. I had never encountered such intense pressure in my chest, such hurt welling up inside my heart. It literally hurt to breathe. Hurt to cough. Hurt to move. Hurt to just BE. I'd never had to deal with such a crazy pain before, and it took almost everything out of me. I couldn't breathe deep enough to gather breath to talk as loud as normal. I couldn't do anything but sit in a maroon La-Z-Boy in the living room all day, watching movies (but no comedies-they might make me laugh, which would, in turn, make me cry from pain). Thank goodness for my laptop, which kept me company for a week and a half. I watched my TV shows online, tried to type some emails, keep up with my online Psychology class...it all required an enormous amount of effort, both mental and physical, because I could hardly lift or move my right arm (part of the surgery I had included cutting deep into my chest muscle, which is were the majority of my pain has come from). But, *knock on wood*, as of yesterday at about 4:40PM, I've FINALLY gotten some relief from all this terrible pain! I got my surgical drain pulled out yesterday, and it immediately relieved a ton of the pressure in my chest! Hurray! I'm still in pain, and by no means completely well yet, but I am in awe of how much better I feel today just because of the drain tube being gone. I'm amazed. The pain was so hard to deal with, and I was just about ready to give up out of frustration and exhaustion...that I am especially thankful for any measure of relief, and so blessed by just how much better I feel today.

But I have dealt with nothing, NOTHING like this . Or this . Or this. Ovarian cancer. Childhood leukemia. Liver failure.

And those beautiful, strong, courageous women and children? They make me want to sit down, tears in my eyes, and thank my lucky stars every moment of every day that I am healthy. I am well. I have a strong body, and a sound mind. I am a lucky, blessed person to be able to say that. And so today, I am thankful for my health.

Todays guest post was brought to you by Sierra.
This is all part of the NaBloPoMo "Blog Swap".
Don't forget to go check out my post over on their site, I'd Blog That!

The Life of Gena

David's sister Gena sent this delightful look into her 16 year old life. So I am sharing it with everyone. Enjoy!
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Four Things About Gena

Four movies i've watched over and over
1. fast and the furious tokyo drift
2. harry potter
3. kung fu hustle
4. jurassic park

four tv shows i love to watch
1. csi
2. the closer
3. house
4. stargate/stargate atlantis

four places i have been on vacation
1. japan
2. thailand
3. phillpines
4. mexico

four of my favorite foods
1. chicken and dumplings
2. sweet and sour chicken
3. fried rice
4. ice cream

four places i'd rather be right now
1. with greg sanders
2. in baguio
3. with eric szmanda
4. back in time to slap that dumb vet who killed booger

Gena’s Asian Vacation


This looks like Japan.


This is a very obvious American man standing with some very interesting looking Asian people.


Tourists on an elephant.


Big Asian city... she didn't say where.


Gena, Jasmin (I hope I got the name right), a guy with a camera, and a snake.

Gena's Dog


Gena's Dog... She didn't say his name.

Gena's Room


Messy Room


Messy Room Part 2