Anyway she keeps busy after school and on the weekends playing “girl games” online. They have come a long way with the selection of girl games that are available these days. There was a major outcry for more girl games about 10 years ago and they have tried to fill the void to accommodate the female population that likes to play games with all of today’s technology and gadgets.

I think Ms Pac Man was actually the first video game that was aimed at the more feminine crowd. We have come a long way since the 80’s haven’t we. If I had all the money that I spent on those games that were in all of the popular bars and taverns, I’d have a nice check book balance.

I have to say that this is another case where I think these people are NUTS!  I’m glad that the baby was placed in protective custody and I hope the parents never get it back!  And I hope that the parents are locked up for a very long time.  This is a case when I think that the courts out to have the right to force sterilization on people, because in my own opinion people like this should never be allowed to have children again!

Every summer I like to take my family to the A Maze’n Farmyard in Eden Valley, Minnesota. It is a day trip that we all look forward to each summer. I pile everyone into the car, pack some snacks, and start our trip. Before I leave I make sure I set my security choice alarm system in my house. Our destination is only an hour’s drive from our house. Everyone enjoys the day, from my youngest toddler to my teenager.

When we get to the A Maze’n Farmyard, the highlight is the barn where the smaller animals are kept. The children can enter the pens to pet the animals. They have a variety of animals, from kittens and puppies to goats and pigs. After we pry the children away from the petting area, we head out to the maze to see how well we can find our way through the maze. The gigantic slide is also a big attraction. Occasionally we will play a game of mini-golf after we visit the animals.

After the children are tired of petting the animals and going down the slide, we usually get a small snack in the gift shop. They have a variety of snack foods so everyone can choose their favorite. At the end of the day, we pile back into the car and head home while the children tell us their favorite animals they saw at the A Maze’n Farmyard.

I wish people would stop leaving the door open; I don’t enjoy having bugs in the house!

Ahh… the circle of life.  I think maybe we should just suggest that we go visit them at their house instead, so we don’t have to go all nuts and fortify our house with all the newest safety equipment!  Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see them, but if we go to them, then they are the ones who have to make sure the baby is safe.  And, we can decide when the visit is over and leave to come home when the baby is cranky!  I think I’ll suggest that to my wife!

Having computers certainly would have helped me back in the day. The only way I managed to graduate was from a lot of help from tutors that my parents managed to find and pay for their assistance. They usually weren’t the kind of people that I would have liked to spend that amount of time with during what I considered my free time after school was over and done with, I can tell you that!

Today’s students can receive help with an Online Tutor, now how cool is that? My niece has been receiving Math help by Tutornext.com since her parents have been having issues with her school work this year. It’s pretty cool to have an Online Math Tutor to turn to. They seem pleased with the assistance that she is receiving so far. The school year is half way over, so if she can just keep on taking advantage of her Math Tutors Online she should make it all right. Next year she will be starting Junior High and that will be a whole new ball game for her. Man time really flies, hard to believe that this one will be starting Junior High all ready.

I’m sure that she wants to make sure that whatever she uses will be something that has not been tested on animals.  She was mortified when she learned how makeup is often tested on rabbits.  I won’t go into details here because I don’t want to upset anyone, but believe me, testing makeup on animals is cruel.  So anyway, she wants to buy the beauty essentials necessary to obtain a clean and fresh and natural look.  That always confuses me – why wear makeup if the goal is to look like you aren’t wearing makeup?

Tonight she recruited my wife to help her go through her closet to look for the cropped denim jacket and the Jessica Simpson Clancey Boots that she wants to wear on her big date with Trevor.  This big date is actually several weeks away – it is for a Valentine’s dance at school.  But she wants to pick out the perfect outfit and make sure everything fits and “goes” together and is clean and not missing any buttons and seams are all properly sewn.  Or maybe properly ripped – it is hard to tell in this day and age when the kids walk around wearing what they wear!  Some of the things they wear look like the old clothes my wife threw out into the rag bag years ago!

Yes, it is truly amusing to watch the women fuss so much over their appearance.  Makes me glad I’m a man!

We did manage to provide the new mother with some nice gifts that the wife found online. We found jellycat products along with some wow toys, barefoot dreams, skip hop, envirosax, petunia pickle bottom, and appaman merchandise as well at loulouscorner.com. They are known for unique gifts, baby toys and designer baby clothes. Lou Lous Corner is an online speciality boutique that offers free shipping for orders $65 and over and has same day shipping for orders placed by 1pm EST. My wife discovered Lou Lous Corner a few years back and has used it many a times, so I thought I’d give a shout out about them for a change of pace in this mainly male dominated blog.

My oldest brother ended up in Tennessee with his wife and their kids. Tennessee is a beautiful state, we enjoy visiting them when we can and always enjoy the scenic drive up and back, as well. They seem to be doing well there, they have good jobs, a nice home and terrific kids. Of course there has to be at least one in bunch that makes life a challenge. In this case it would be their middle son.

This kid has had some issues with drug and alcohol, but they are doing what they can for him. In my brother’s last email, he informed us that they were checking into sending him into Tennessee Drug Rehab, sometime after the Christmas holidays are done and over with. Drug Detox isn’t something to play around with, so they want to make sure that the Residential Drug Rehab Center that they send him to will be a good and healthy environment that will help him through the whole Drug and Alcohol Rehab process.

The whole family is keeping them in their prayers. Drugs and Alcohol are bad news. The statistics on our teenagers and young adults that use drugs and alcohol are down right scary. We hope that my nephew will come out of treatment a much better person and live a long healthy and prosperous life.