Brag, Beat, Variance

WSOP time is upon us once again and in honor:

Brag: I have a wonderful baby boy and hugely supportive awesomely involved husband.  Beat: My husband is in Vegas playing the WSOP while said baby is suffering his first major illness.  Variance: I've swallowed my parenting pride and learned it's okay vital to ask for help.

Apologies to the poker community if I messed that up. :)

As is summarized above, we had an unfortunate first this week: Colin's first ER visit.  He started seeming unwell mid last week, but Friday night he woke up wheezing and having difficulty breathing.  After calming him down and calling the doctor, we were on our way to the ER.

Colin finally asleep at the ER

 Colin has Croup.  Apparently it's somewhat common, but terrifying.  My pediatrician told me it's the only thing he's ever taken his children to the ER for.  The ER visit was awful, but I can't imagine it could be anything but at 2 am on a Friday night.  It took four hours and of course there was an extremely intoxicated patient in the waiting room.  The past two nights have been hell.  In the middle of the croup, Colin cut his first two teeth.  And while it might be related to teething, he may be starting a growth spurt judging by his sudden increase in milk demand.  Talk about the perfect storm.

It's been the hardest few days we've had since those first difficult days in NICU.  I'm incredibly grateful my mom was here to help me, I don't know how I would have done it alone.  I'm also very lucky that when I thought about what would happen if I were alone, a long list of people I could call for help came to mind.  Parenting is hard, maybe even impossible alone.  I'm so grateful I have so many people around me to help.

Baby is currently napping and I'm hoping he's feeling better soon.  Daddy is due home after his current tournament.

A full weekend of San Juan Capistrano.

Gavin and I adore San Juan Capistrano.  We attend mass at Mission Parish and often eat brunch in one of the nearby restaurants.  We loved the theater when we visited, and even got a kick out of Swallows Inn.  I like the history, the architecture, pretty much everything about the little mission town.

This weekend we spent pretty much all weekend in San Juan.  In fact, we made 4 total trips!

First, we attended a Haiti relief Charity event at J Serra High School.  Gavin and I were both really impressed with the school.  Gavin couldn't believe they had Tennis Courts, I couldn't believe they didn't have barbed wire or metal detectors!   The tournament was interesting.  We both had fun.  After I busted, I went a little crazy on the silent auctions.  I'd rather not disclose all the items we brought home!

Much of this came home with us...

Casino Action!

You don't mess with this guy.

Sunday morning, we attended our regular mass.  A bit later, I meet with a new sponsor for my RCIA/conversion.  Looking forward to eventually joining the Church!  Sadly, I don't have any pictures of our church, I will work on that in the near future.  In the meantime, I have a picture of the Old Church in the Mission.

My final trip to San Juan was with the lovely Miss Alyssa for some orange picking.  It's always fun with Alyssa.  Plus, I got a little mini tour of San Juan along the way.

So overall a wonderful weekend.  I think I should spend more weekend in San Juan.

Breast Cancer Awareness

Everyone Deserves a Healthy Pair
Breast Cancer Charity Tournament Hosts

October is breast cancer awareness month. Gavin and I have participated in a few breast cancer fundraisers and charities including participating in the Avon Walk twice. We were very excited when we were invited to a Charity Tournament for the Susan G Komen 3 day last weekend.

These feet can change the world!

I'll admit, they are braver than we are. 40 miles is a long way to walk... While numerically it may not make sense, I suspect that 60 miles is more than twice 40 miles when you're at mile 39!!

I've posted a few pictures highlights from the evening, including Dr. Hope and Lady GaGa, but I really need to sort out flicker so I can share pictures more readily. Good luck team at the Komen San Diego Walk! Thanks for a great evening!

A flyby of the first NAPT

The PokerStars.net NAPT (North American Poker Tour) kicked off this weekend in Vegas. I made the trip out with Gavin, although I headed home today to get back to work tomorrow. We arrived late Thursday. Friday we saw my parents for a bit, met up with Gary for dinner and then went to the Celebrity Charity Tournament. I nearly played, but decided 500 with rebuys was too much and watched instead. The highlight was meeting Donny Wahlberg, my serious childhood crush. It would have been awesome to meet him anyway, but it helped that he turned out to be an awesome guy.


After the charity event, Gavin and I met up with Kevin and went to the Stars party. T Pain was really awesome. I wasn't sure how it would be, but I thought it was funny and fun to watch. We didn't stay too late as Gavin had to play the next day and I was heading over to see my mom for her Birthday. Gavin sadly busted late Day 1. But I had a good day with my parents, I helped them with some ceramics stuff and they had their first poker experience. Saturday night, Gavin and I decided the best course of action would be room service and UP!. Excellent decision, in my opinion.
The trip to Vegas was a bit of a whirlwind. I got to see some of my friends, although not much and I missed others altogether! :(





Today, driving home across the desert inspired me to get serious about my garden. I had already removed all the plants from my chosen garden area, but the soil seemed too dense and didn't seem to be draining well. I stopped by Home depot for amendments and ended up with a few tomato plants (I figured I'd be quite upset to work so hard and have no actual planting done to show for it!) "Turning" soil is hard work, even in a mini garden! A few hours later and I think I made progress.

I hope that hunting down the rest of my plants will keep me busy (well, in addition to my regular activities...) while Gavin is away this week!