When it rains...

Cuteness

2009-10-04T23:52:00.001-05:00

RIP Teddy.

2009-08-26T08:12:00.000-05:00

Q-tips.. who would've thought....

2009-08-24T18:47:00.002-05:00

This is what I heard from the backseat of the car:

Blake: Why don't horses drink milk?

Cole: Well, a big horse, like a momma horse, when she has a baby, can make milk in her belly. Then her baby can stick his nose up there by her belly and drink the milk. I think it drinks from the horses Q-tips. Yeah.. that's what its called. Q-tips.

I was (quietly) CRACKING UP in the front seat.

Cole lost his first tooth!

2009-08-08T23:25:00.001-05:00

Cole lost his first tooth today. The tooth fairy made an appearance last night. This morning Cole told me he really didn't want the $3 that was left for him. He really wanted $7..."but I guess you have to lose a big-o-tooth for that!"

He was talking to his cousin Jenna and found out she got more money than he did from the tooth fairy. He wanted to know why. I told him Jenna lived in another state so they must have a different rate. LOL

Ryan's Grandma

2009-08-06T22:22:00.003-05:00

Ryan's grandmother passed away this evening. She was 74.

She smoked nearly her whole life and in recent years, been dealing with emphysema. That with heart issues eventually led us to this summer where there was basically nothing they could do for her. Any health issue that came up was not treatable because her body would not survive a surgery or being put under anesthetic. Last week her health took a nose dive and Ryan's mother and her sisters started caring for her round the clock. The Visiting Nurses helped some, but a majority of the care came from Pam.

We've used this whole experience as a teaching example to Cole as to what smoking cigarettes can do to a person. For whatever temporary high or release smoking can give a person, will catch up to them later. Like it did for Betty. To be brutally honest, she died a slow and painful death. Her lungs lacked the capacity to breath properly, thus adding strain on her heart, causing heart issues. You're pretty much suffocating. She wished for death. She was ready to go.

Ryan seems to be handling it fine. He mentally prepared himself for this long ago. We were even discussing everything with the kids this week preparing them for the funeral home and funeral ceremony. Cole is very smart about things like this and he has loads of questions. I answer them truthfully, and plainly.

I hope for peace for Ryan's mom. She took a majority of the care of Betty and had to see daily the slow death creeping in. She was afraid to walk in the house and find her mom lying on the floor (how she found her grandmother). She wasn't sure if she could handle it. She was there with her today, with her sister.

Tomorrow they'll make the funeral arrangements and then I'll learn more about the plans.

Yesterday Ryan asked if I thought his grandma would make it to Christmas. I told him I didn't think she'll last 2 weeks. Then last night I asked Ryan if he thinks he should go visit his grandma as sort of a last goodbye. He said "I don't know, what do you think, would you" and it cut through me so quickly I couldn't answer for the tears welling up in me. I just kept thinking if I had one chance.. JUST ONE CHANCE to talk to my grandma and grandpa Schwartz again or to have had the chance to say goodbye, I would take it in a heartbeat. I miss them so terribly much.

Brothers...

2009-07-27T10:46:00.000-05:00

Cole and Blake arguing... Blake tells Cole "Well Grow Up Cole!" this is a 3yr old talking to a 5 yr old. Classic.

Road trip to Chicago: Two podcasters meet best selling author

2009-07-21T17:04:00.000-05:00

By Brandi Hess

It was early Monday morning when I gathered up my MacBook Pro, two headset microphones, podcast notes and headed for the door to meet up with my good friend Luz Moskos. We had a long drive ahead of us as we took off for Chicago en route to a Borders bookstore. Why drive over 6 hrs to go to a bookstore that’s also located in Evansville? Simple. We wanted to meet our favorite writer, New York Times best selling author, Charlaine Harris.

It all started back in January. We just finished reading the famed “Twilight” books and I was trying to talk Luz into reading another series I really enjoyed. She reluctantly decided to give them a try and quickly fell under the same spell. We called each other, discussed book plots and details over lunch, traded books during our kids’ play dates. It was obviously clear--we couldn’t get enough of Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse southern vampire series, we couldn’t stop talking about them, and we were completely drawn to a new genre of books called paranormal romance.

It was during one of our lunch chats I brought up the idea of podcasting our discussions on the Harris series to share with other fans. Podcasts are similar to radio shows, in digital audio or video format and are recorded, then stored and syndicated on the Internet. Podcast listeners can search by topics using directories like iTunes to subscribe and download episodes.

Luz was ready to give it a try and we launched our first “Wake the Dead Podcast” episode in March.

Fast forward to July. Charlaine Harris was scheduled for a book signing at a Borders store located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook, IL and we knew this was our chance to meet the author, snap a picture and have her sign our books with all the other fans in tow. Luz thought I was aiming too high when I told her I contacted Harris’ publicist and requested a recorded interview for our podcast. She ate her words the day I got the confirmation email back from the publicist and our interview was scheduled before the event.

Harris’ popularity has risen quite high within the last year especially with the help of the television adaptation of the Sookie series on HBO. “True Blood” is now in it’s second season and is gaining ground as HBO’s most popular show since “The Sopranos”.

With all this heightened celebrity, Luz and I were very honored to have the opportunity to meet Charlaine Harris privately, interview her for our podcast, and have her personalize and sign our books. The event turned out to be the largest book signing she’s ever had with over 630 people in attendance.

We finished up the podcast in the hotel room the next day, packed up our gear and left Chicago even bigger fans of Charlaine Harris (if that’s even possible) because of her down-to-earth personality, humble attitude, and gracious love of her fans.

Since it’s launch, our podcast episode of Charlaine Harris’ interview is one of our most popular podcasts to date. We have subscribers and website visitors from all over the United States and other countries ranging from Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland and Canada. Our website, www.wakethedeadpodcast.com, has had the honor of being added to HBO’s “True Blood” website, and our podcast has been ranked in the top 100 literature podcasts on iTunes.

On the way home to Cannelton, Luz and I were dreaming up ideas for our next road trip to feed our passion for paranormal romance literature. Who knows, maybe it’ll be San Diego’s Comic Con in 2010? One can dream.
______________________________
Brandi Hess and Luz Moskos are both from Cannelton and record their Wake the Dead Podcast roughly every 2 weeks. Their website is at www.wakethedeadpodcast.com and can be found on iTunes, Twitter and Facebook.

It's been ages

2009-06-22T11:34:00.002-05:00

But life goes on over at Facebook. Seriously.

The Boys.
A couple of weeks ago I was folding clothes and the boys were outside playing. I hear one of them crying. (no big deal) then it gets louder as I hear them walking closer to the door. I glace toward the door and I can see Cole telling Blake to be quiet, calm down, don't tell mom.

Blake comes in, bawling, and walks over to me. I ask what's wrong. Cole says something.. sounds like "he smashed his fingers" and so I start looking over his hands. And Cole says no, his head. and I look and found blood gushing from the back of Blake's head all down his back. So I pick him up and rush to the bathroom yelling for Ryan to come take a look. (He just laid down to sleep since coming in from the night shift.)

We start cleaning it up a bit to see how bad it is. He has a small, but DEEP, cut. I know immediately it'll require stitches. Blake stops crying. He has a really high tolerance for pain.

Anyway, during this whole scene Ryan and I are trying to find out what happened to Blake. Who did it? Did he fall? What happened? Here's a few things Cole said: "I don't know", "Blake was holding a rock above his head, then let go and it hit him in the head.", "Blake threw a rock straight up in the air, and it landed on his head."

None of this added up, obviously. The cut wasn't on the top of his head (consistent with him dropping a rock on his head). You could tell Cole knew what happened but he wasn't talking. He has certain expressions when he's lying. He knew he was in DEEP TROUBLE. On the way to the doctors office (kinda like an urgent care facility) because it was, of course, Saturday morning, when all the major kid related crisis's occur, I told Cole I must know what happened so I could explain it to the doctor so he could fix Blake's head. -- No matter what, I wasn't going to yell at him, or he wouldn't be in trouble. I need to know! So he caved. He said "I don't want you to be mad".... "I told Blake to move, and he wouldn't move, so I tried to throw the rock OVER his head." .... "but it didn't make it and it hit him in the head"

Nice.

The cut only required 2 stitches. It was so deep the doctor could see his SKULL when examining the wound. Since Blake didn't lose consciousness and was acting fine, he didn't need a head scan. But we had to monitor him the rest of the day to make sure he was acting okay. (high alert for head wounds since Natasha Richardson's death)

All is fine.

No more rock throwing for Cole.

Now Blake tells everyone.. in a cute little pouty voice. "Cole threw a rock and hit me in the head and I had to go to the hospital and I had to get stitches."

And he's such a trooper. He didn't cry or anything after that first initial shock of the injury and coming in the house. Even when the doc gave him the numbing shots to prep for stitches. He even poked an area that wasn't numb and Blake just winced. that's all.

Again.. high tolerance for pain.

That was brilliant.

2009-04-13T01:34:00.002-05:00

Easter.

Since the boys were already egg-hunt out and they visited with Ryan's parents on Saturday, I planned to spend the day with my parents on Sunday.

Mom calls me first thing in the morning to see when I was coming over. Then mentions that I could help her figure out where to plant flowers and I could help dad stain his wine racks. The main word here: HELP.

We get there and Dad's in the process of bottling homemade wine. His patience was wearing so I jumped in to help out. We ended up bottling 30 bottles of two different kinds of wine. Then it was time to help mom with her flowers. Every place and arrangement I suggested didn't work for her. She put things where she wanted them and I did all the planting. She didn't touch a single plant. Then on to helping dad stain his wine racks... which turned out to him helping me carry the racks outside and then me and Cole staining them.

So in all, I bottled wine, planted flowers and stained the wine racks all while my parents watched. It was that moment... as I was driving home... that I realized they were brilliant. They managed to keep me there the entire day while I did their chores for them, without me clearly realizing it until later.

Brilliant.

Neat-o

2009-04-03T21:55:00.001-05:00

My friend Luz and I have created a podcast to discuss our favorite books:

http://www.wakethedeadpodcast.com/

What's up with that?

2009-03-11T10:03:00.003-05:00

I forgot about blogger, quite honestly. I was blinded by the joy that is Facebook. So if you really want to keep up to date with me, join be over there.

Otherwise.. I don't know how often I'll update.

Here's what's been going on...

January: Inauguration of Barack Obama. woo hoo!

February: Pretty much a blur. Had an intense week and a half of work in there. Passed the 4th anniversary of my grandparent's death. I still think about them everyday. We went to the Farm and Tractor show in Louisville since the kids love farm equipment. Then we went to Lynn's Paradise Cafe for dinner. It was fun.

March: So far this month has been busy. I've been laid off. I'm co-organizing a new organization called Perry County United for Change. It's a service organization (non-partisan) to do things on a local level, but in coordination with Indiana for Change and Obama for America. It will range from doing one-day service projects like cleaning up a playground or painting a school, to hosting workshops/forums on healthcare, economy, energy, etc.

I designed a website for St. Michael Church in Cannelton. It's a pro-bono type of project since it was my Grandmother's church and she was a devout Catholic. This is the church's 150th anniversary. They've been undergoing a massive restoration process and the results are fantastic. Even though I'm not catholic, I appreciate historic buildings and fine craftsmenship. The church is definitely a hidden gem of this area.

I'm going to start podcasting. I'm pretty excited about it. I ordered the equipment last night. I read several techie articles on what I needed, how to get the software to work, etc. I'll be podcasting with a friend and we'll be starting in two weeks. We'll need to decide on the title and format. Basically it's about books. We've both have forged a very good friendship over Twilight and then Charlaine Harris' Stackhouse series. I'd like to have a podcast focused solely on Stackhouse. And then a second on books in that genre. We'll see how it goes. We're planning a road trip to one of Harris' appearances. The one that sounds most appealing is in Shreveport, LA. But secretly I could totally do DragonCon in Atlanta. It's more of a sci-fi pop culture conference and I'll be around my Jedi friends of The Force ;)

Some post-birthday singing

2008-11-11T07:21:00.001-06:00

oh yeah.. OBAMA WON!

2008-11-10T14:59:00.002-06:00

Surprisingly, I'm just now getting around to blogging about OBAMA! woo hoo! It was an intense weekend leading up to last Tuesday. I was at headquarters all day doing data entry, organizing volunteers, etc. But to sum up what I've been feeling, here's an excerpt of an email I sent a friend:

From my friend:
Hey Brandi, I continue to be impressed with your organization of Perry County. Four years ago it went for Bush (Can hardly say it) by 7 votes and this time it went for Obama by 2000 or so. Super effort. Thanks for making our country better.

My response:
It wasn't too hard for Perry Co. to vote Democrat. The past few elections the Democrats swept all the races. But you're right, Bush won four years ago and I don't know how! I can't find a soul that voted for the man ;) Seems like a lot of the people here are Democrat on a local level, but align more with Republicans on the national level. Guns, ProLife, Religion, etc.

We worked hard this election year. Starting way back in the primary. A small group of about 7 people organized for Obama. We were up against our county dem chair (who publicly supported Hillary) and a big undercurrent of 'good ole' boy' politics when one big guy in charge says to support Clinton, everyone else followed suit. We obviously didn't win the primary, but we had a good showing in numbers. We started campaigning again in August and by September I was out 2 or 3 times a week knocking on doors. My two boys with me the entire way. Cole (5yrs) loved it. He kept his own clip board and would record the Obama supporters for us. We got a record number to early vote and to vote on election day. It was a wonderful success! Our local dem leaders heads were spinning at our undying tenacity for Obama.

The main issues here were race and ignorance. Some people still believed he was muslim, or he's going to take their guns, or "he's too slick". Some said they weren't voting for a N**** and shut the door. We did our best to inform them of facts, but some people just won't open their minds. I would point to my boys and tell them our country needs a change, and Barack Obama is that change. This is for their future.

Thats why it was so important for me to have them along for the ride. It's a historical moment in American history and they can share a piece of it. Hopefully Cole remembers it when he gets older. On election night I called Cole before his bedtime and told him of our victory. I said "Cole, Obama won! WE won! All that hard work and knocking on doors paid off! We have elected a great president!" and he says "we don't have to knock on doors anymore??" I laughed and said "No, we don't have to do that for a while" and he asked "So what are we going to do now?" It's a simple question for him, but to me, it really struck me. He was ready to do more. And I felt like he learned an important message along the way, he learned to be a community organizer. A community activist. Volunteerism. Which is probably worth as much to me as Obama winning!

Blake's costume

2008-10-28T12:15:00.000-05:00

Pumpkins

2008-10-04T13:25:00.004-05:00

Today me and the boys went to Owensboro to pick up a load of pumpkins for next week's Cannelton Heritage Festival. Here's some photos from today:

Obama on the Economy...

2008-09-21T18:15:00.000-05:00

While Barack offered solutions, John McCain went before the nation to continue lying about Barack and to offer more of the same disastrous George Bush policies that got us here. The Washington Post even said, "On Economy, Obama Offers Ideas, McCain Blames Rival."

Here are some key elements of Barack's plan:
--A $1,000 emergency energy rebate to help families with high fuel costs right now while putting $50 billion into job creation to get our economy back on track.

--Families making less than $250,000 a year will get a tax cut three times larger than under John McCain's plan and will face absolutely no tax increases.

--While John McCain has voted against raising the minimum wage 19 times, Barack would raise the minimum wage and set it to rise automatically with inflation.
--Invest $15 billion a year in green energy research to reduce our economy's dependence on foreign oil and create 5 million American jobs a year.

There's a big difference between the change we need and the Bush-McCain politics we need to leave behind.

Watch the video for more details and share it with your friends now:

http://my.barackobama.com/economyblueprint

Gone with the wind

2008-09-17T09:09:00.002-05:00

Hurricane Ike ripped through Indiana like a bat outta hell. That's right. You just read that correctly. A HURRICANE in INDIANA. Minus the rain and swells of flood waters, we had anywhere from 70 - 85 mph winds.

Our power went off immediately. The siding and trim on the house started pulling off. Shingles came off as well. We found some of our house stuff, who knows where the rest is. Toys and playground equipment started blowing away.

We did retreat to the basement during the wind storm. Since the house is an A-Frame and the entire front is windows, they were rattling and the wall was bowing in. That side of the house was taking the brunt of the storm. We were afraid the windows would shatter at any moment.

We didn't have any trees come down near the house. They're on the edges of the yard. There was a pretty big one that fell over the road to our house that Ryan and a neighbor had to clear away.

My parents are still without power. They were told they'd have it by the weekend. Hopefully sooner. They had nearly every tree in their yard break apart and thankfully not hit their home or garage. Ryan just left to go over and help with the clean up. Dad said he was outside watching everything and he's never seen anything (wind) like this. ever. Wicked, Wicked Wind. They're using a generator to keep their fridge going.

In town, nearly everyone sustained some sort of damage. Ryan called the insurance company about the roof and they said they'll be dealing with this for the next 6 months. Some were luckier than others. I called our contractor who's about to start work on our house. He was at a home in Tell City that had a large tree land on the roof and went through the top floor. They had to get a crane lift it off the house. Also in Tell City, the roof of the post office (all copper) peeled off and rolled up in a ball like a tin can. (see pic)

Perry County also had a casualty along with several injuries from people being outside and struck by trees.

I honestly don't see how people live in Hurricane regions. To have to deal with the wind, plus rain and floods. It's a triple threat. And to have to deal with it on a week by week basis. This is an unusual occurrence for Indiana, but the Gulf States and Coast get hammered every week it seems. I think it's worse than living in Tornado prone areas. At least with those, they can hit and miss areas.--They're selective on the destruction. The Hurricane wipes out entire towns and communities... and in our case here, gave the entire county wind damage to their properties. (Tornado's can do that too, but Hurricanes seem to be the varsity quarterback at it).

I won't be forgetting this for a long time.

Canvassing for Obama

2008-09-07T11:10:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I knocked on 130 doors in the Cannelton/Tell City area weeding down the list of Obama/McCain/Undecided voters.

Fortunately, if we had to vote today, Obama would have it :) -- and it was a pretty diverse cross sampling of residents.

I've done political "drops" before, but that only consisted of putting a brochure or flyer on a resident's door and leaving. Yesterday was a real canvass of knocking on doors, asking the homeowner for their support/who they're supporting and then moving on. 9 hours worth.

The kids joined me on half the journey. Cole really enjoyed knocking on doors with us. Future activist perhaps? That's out of character for him. Blake wore his shirt "Its your vote, it's my future" Its absolutely true.

We are the CHANGE we've been waiting for.

"Celebrity" "Elitist" come on!

2008-09-05T09:05:00.002-05:00

Give me a break people.. Barack's roots are more humble than mine. Accusations from the other side that he's a celebrity or an elitist is crazy considering one of Cindy McCain's outfits at the convention cost $300,000.

That's right. more than my house! Who's a celebrity now?

Inked

2008-08-25T23:42:00.002-05:00

The kids were copying off of my dad. Scorpion tattoo on Cole. Blake gets the skull and crossbones. cracks me up.

Something I noticed in these pictures... you can really see that fleck of brown in the kids eyes. Blake's eye is half brown, half blue and Cole's is one quarter brown and 75% blue.

Passing the torch...

2008-08-25T23:22:00.000-05:00

From Denver...

2008-08-25T22:09:00.003-05:00

Kennedy brought down the house! Here he didn't think he'd make it to Denver, let a lone speak. And his words.. wow. If you watched that without getting teary-eyed then you're not a true Democrat.

My girl, Caroline Kennedy, made the introductions:

"Their stories are very different," said Caroline Kennedy, daughter of John F. Kennedy. "But they share a commitment to the timeless American ideals of justice and fairness, service and sacrifice, faith and family. Leaders like them come along rarely. But once or twice in a lifetime, they come along just when we need them the most."

"I have come here tonight to stand with you to change America, to restore its future, to rise to our best ideals and to elect Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States," Kennedy said to a standing crowd.

"Together we have known success and seen setbacks ... but we have never lost our belief that we are all called to a better country and a newer world," he said. "I pledge to you that I will be there next January on the floor of the Senate."

"Nothing, nothing is gonna keep me away form this special gathering tonight," he told the crowd.

He compared Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, to the late president.

"We are told that Barack Obama believes too much in an America of high principle and bold endeavors," Kennedy said. "But when John F. Kennedy thought of going to the moon, he didn't say, 'It's too far to get there -- we shouldn't even try.'

"Our people answered his call and rose to the challenge, and today an American flag still marks the surface of the moon."

He added: "This November, the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans. So, with Barack Obama and for you and for me, our country will be committed to his cause. The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on."

Michelle Obama deserves her own post in itself. She'll be the best First Lady in history.period. She's awesome and she's Barack's best campaigner.

...

And how funny is it that Caroline Kennedy just shut down Wolf Blitzer's silly questions.

Funny...

2008-08-22T21:11:00.001-05:00

Sue, this one's for you...

WATCH: Obama, if you don't text us soon, CNN will go insane!

All of Friday morning, Barack Obama kept his VP announcement a secret from the media. With no actual news to report, the CNN team was running around like a Wolf Blitzer with his head cut off.

Barack Obama's Million-Dollar Text Message?

2008-08-22T20:59:00.000-05:00

Interesting article:

Barack Obama plans to announce his VP pick via email and text message, perhaps as soon as this weekend. Great stunt. How much will it cost?

Sending out a bulk email won't cost Obama much, and it will be free for anyone who gets it in their inbox. But as anyone who's sent or received a text message knows, the wireless business doesn't give those away.

Estimating how much Obama spends -- and how much the U.S. mobile business will receive -- depends on a few factors: How many people have signed up to receive the message; what percentage of those people pay for bulk text-message plans; and how much Obama's campaign pays to send out its bulk messages. But via a combination of guesswork and homework, we figure that the VP announcement could generate as much as $3 million for the U.S. wireless business, split evenly between Obama's campaign and his supporters. (Full assumptions and math below.)

No matter what the cost, Obama's getting his money's worth: A mailing list full of devotees he can send more messages to, like "VOTE!" on election day -- and lots of buzz.

Our assumptions:

We've gone ahead and made a variety of assumptions and run them through a handful of scenarios. Some of the data -- like the number of people signed up to receive the message -- is a flat-out guess, which is why we've provided a number of ranges. But industry sources have provided us with decent numbers on text message pricing.

We assume that Obama's campaign will pay a text message aggregator between 5 cents and 10 cents per person for each message it sends. Aggegators buy text message capacity from carriers in bulk and resell it to organizations like Obama's. We're told that 5 cents per message is a ridiculously good deal that the aggregator would basically be providing at no profit -- something many companies would probably do just to say they handled Obama's text message campaign. 10 cents per message, per person would be a decent deal. We're ignoring any monthly retainer that Obama's campaign pays the aggregator for their services.

We assume that 50% of Obama's recipients will have to spend $0.20 to send/receive the text messages, or an average $0.10 per person. comScore M:Metrics estimates that about 34% of U.S. wireless subscribers pay for a monthly bulk text message plan. Those people are essentially getting the message for free. The remainder of wireless subscribers have to pay a "casual" messaging fee, which we think runs around $0.20 per message. But Obama's audience skews young and tech-savvy, and the ones who sign up for a VP text message are even more so. So we're assuming that half of his recipients are have a bulk plan and are getting it for free -- meaning the average cost is ten cents per person.

We assume that the entire transaction generates a minimum of 6 charges: 3 for Obama, 3 for the recipient. In order to receive the Obama message, supporters have to send his campaign a message (VP to 62262 or OBAMA). Then he will send a confirmation message back. Then he'll send out the actual update. Each one of those messages generates a charge for both sides. We're assuming it costs Obama the same amount to send and receive a message.

We don't know how many people have signed up for the message. This is the most important variable, but the one we have the least insight into. Presumably at some point in the campaign, perhaps as soon as this weekend, we'll hear how many message were sent out, and we can revisit our math again.

Word

2008-08-22T12:48:00.000-05:00