The Hobbit as a teaching tool

My husband and DDO partner-in-crime is away on business this week.  As a result, Pink and I have not felt like playing.  Mostly, because we want to wait until he comes home to experience Update 31 and the three new quests together.

Instead, Pink and I have been watching the extended version of The Hobbit-An unexpected journey.  We have been watching about 30-45 minutes a night before her bedtime.  Just the two of us, sitting on the couch with popcorn and a movie.

There are many quotes that I loved from the books and movies, but this is one of those teaching moments.

Pink, my rainbow baby, be that ordinary folk that helps keep the darkness at bay.  Remember each day to perform some act of kindness and love.  Be the person who brings courage to others.  Love, Mommy.

On This Day…

Facebook has an app that I love right now.  It is On This Day.  It shows posts from previous years that you posted on the day.  Some have been funny and some remind of a sad day.  Seeing pictures of our kitty, Buggy, last Christmas has been bittersweet.  But today I came across some of my favorite.

It was Jan 2 2011.  We were running characters through the Desert Explorer area when I had to go AFK to start dinner.  So, I had Gamer Child hop on and run my character while I cooked dinner.

This is Facebook showed me this morning:

Look at her emerging technique!  Only eight years old and already showing her gaming skills!!!  She was so cute and tiny.  I just loves her cheeks in the first picture.   She is so intent on playing.

We have gotten her playing recently now that she is healed from the surgery but she ended up with the nasty virus that is going around.  She spent 12/30 in the emergency room with 103.7 temp and a heart rate that was way too high.  Her endurance is low and she cannot cough well because of stilling healing from November’s surgery.  She was quite happy to see 2015 leave even if she was too sick to stay up to watch it go.

2016 will be Gamer Child’s year!

Happy New Year’s Eve

May 2016 bring you all the best loot ever!!!

2015 in review

So WordPress sent everyone their year in review stats.  Not bad considering that I did not start until late Spring.  I am looking forward to an awesome 2916!

 

 

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,400 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 40 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Geekmom Facepalm

Seriously, I forget to make sure that I am wearing my feather falling boots when jumping to the giant in Gianthold ONCE with my daughter and she has to ask me this each time we jump.  With push to talk so that the whole party hears her asking you…….

“Hey Gamer Child, clean your room?”  so there…….

Halfling Commando Raids

We all show up for the raid.  Grab two suckers…I mean stalwart companions.  Head into the raid.  Who just went afk?  Everyone here?  Haggle gear off?  Remember, we are running to the entrance.  No stopping.  Ready, set…..BIO?  Okay, make it quick.  Ready now?  Phone call?  Okay.  Ready, set, GO!

Half the party wipes.  Restart.  Remember, running while invisible means NO SHOOTING THE MONSTERS!!!.  Remember, no shooting.  Ready for buffs?  Who went link dead?  Sigh…..

You should see us in a room full of levers….

 

A truly Thankful Thanksgiving

I am very thankful this Thanksgiving.

I am thankful to have Gamer Child home as she recovers from her ordeal.

I am thankful for my home.

I am thankful for my husband who spoils me rotten.

I am thankful that my younger daughter is having a better year so far….knock on wood….

I am thankful for my new kitten, Phoenix.  He can be a punk-a$$ brat but is as loving as can be.  He is currently spending the day cuddling Gamer Child.

I am thankful for a gaming community that sent prayers and well-wishes for Gamer Child’s recovery.

I am thankful again for that gaming community who sent gifts to cheer her up.

I am thankful even more for the gaming community who posted things that made her smile, even through intense pain that morphine was not controlling and the fevers that broke through the medicine.   Smiles that broke through the tubes in her body and across her face. As a parent watching her struggle with pain, those brief smiles that you all got meant the world to me.

And as a parent, I sit here with tears in my eyes thinking about how thankful I really am this Thanksgiving.  I could have lost my light.  A beautiful soul.  But instead, I am spending this Thanksgiving binge-watching Star Wars and now The Lord of The Rings with her at home.

For the deepest part of my heart, THANK YOU.

 

Another autistic youth killed by a parent. And, No, Channel 11 Atlanta, it’s not a “mercy killing”

Source: Another autistic youth killed by a parent. And, No, Channel 11 Atlanta, it’s not a “mercy killing”

I have been a slacker!

I have not posted much lately.  I am in the rush of holiday knitting.  I have a shawl for a friend, a shawl for my mom, and a sweater for Geekdad to finish before Christmas.  The first shawl is almost done and I am working on the arms for the sweater.  However, my younger daughter’s favorite sweater is getting too small and she has requested another to replace it.  I have not told her that I already received the yarn because she would be standing over me waiting for me to finish and that would impact my schedule.  Gamer child has now requested a hat

Gamer child has been plugging along on her own lately.  She has a new character, a level 3 cleric.  She loves the cleric so far.  She stayed home sick Friday from school so after her appt at the dr, I told her we would play DDO.  So started cooking the chicken soup and sat down to run a quest for her.  I introduced her to the Lordsmarch Series and we ran the first quest, Diplomatic Immunity on normal with no issues.  She is a machine!  Sent her back to the couch to rest.

Saturday after lunch, we ran Diplomatic Immunity on Hard with Dad to get him on the quest chain with us.  He made sure that we parlayed with the Chieftain, a part I had neglected to do on Normal.  Ooops.  No issues but loads of fun.

Sunday night, we ran the second part Frame Work on Hard.  Loads of fun there.  We kept the Medusa at the end a secret.  The wonder in Gamer Child’s voice when she heard the Medusa was AWESOME!!!  She rode the ballista back to the beginning of the quest and there was level 13!!!!

We hook up with Geoff Hanna and his Gamer Girl and head off to the Restless Isles to run the quest with the best name EVER, Bring Me the Head of Ghola-fan!!!!  We leave the difficulty level up to Gamer Child who insists on Elite.  She is hardcore.  We slam through the quest leaving piles of bodies everywhere.  At one point, I realize that Geoff is doing is usual zerging ahead only to notice that there is a blue dot ahead of him.  My daughter.  Great.  My daughter zergs ahead of Geoff Hanna.  Pity me.

Proud mama moment…..she gets cursed.  Drops back and drinks a pot.  Dies from a magic user hit and I went to rez her only to find her alive.  She took care of it herself.  I told her not to waste rez cakes and she replies that she had run herself back to the shrine and taken care of it.  I had to wipe tears from my eyes.  Seriously folks, she is that good.

End fight is a breeze.  But alas, no one pulls the Royal Guardsmen mask.  Sigh.  Sent the kidlet off to bed and ran through an Orchard quest on Epic.  Geekdad is hunting for Epic Minos Legions.

We are hoping to get more XP this week for Gamer Child.  It is hard with school right now as she has to be up at 6:30am and she is not the most pleasant of risers.  I am also trying to get her to write a blog post about her view of gaming so looking forward to that!!!

Cheers and Happy Gaming

The Desert and other fun

Gamer child is now level 12!!!!

And gaming is coming full circle as we introduced her to the Sands of Menechtarun.  It was a few years ago that she really wanted to start playing and ran my character through the open area with the rest of the guild while I cooked dinner.

Here is Gamer Child in 2011 running my rogue.

Like any responsible parent, I told her to stock up on Remove Curse and Remove Disease pots to cure her own Mummy Rot.  Girl Scouts are always prepared.

I was quite proud to see her removing her own Mummy Rot during two of the Desert Walk up quests, Tomb of the Physician and Tomb of the Astrologer on Elite.  Unlike others who forgot pots….cough cough Geoff Hanna.

She has been exploring the Desert with the help of the wiki maps but I think the topography is throwing her off with the mountains.  But we had her drink a minor slayer pot and sent her on her way.

I hate the Demon Queen raid.  There I said it.  It is out.  I hate the pre-raid for it.  I think it totally takes away from the idea of a raid group.  Spend the time running the pre-raid as six people and then join forces for the full raid which ends in the blink of an eye.

With that in mind, we are also running Restless Isles with her.  We ran Hiding in Plain Sight last week.  Great quest.  So much fun as it is connected to Information is the Key.  I know that the guild ships will bring you to Restless Isles without running HIPS, but why avoid such a great quest?  Last night, we started running through the Restless Isles to pick up the quests.  It has been a long time since we were in Restless Isles, so there were a few wrong turns but still lots of fun.  Geekdad got us a red dungeon alert right off the bat splitting the oozes in the beginning of the tunnels.  He got scolded by Gamer child.

Got a few chests in the outer areas.  One of those happened to be right at the edge of the cliff.  Gamer child made a wrong step and fell to her doom from the Rsstless Isles.  All we could hear was, “Mommy…….” in a plaintive voice.  We recalled out to meet her back at the front and ran back.  Found Opu to get the Slavers of the Shrieking Minds quest.  Perhaps tonight, we will run her out to pick up the quest with the best title ever, Bring Me the Head of Ghola-fan.

She is now two bubbles into level 12.  We used her DDO from VIP and her birthday present from DDOcast to purchase the 32pt Build.  No reason for her to grind for it.  I helped her build a new character.  A cleric.  She insisted on customizing her look and completely reworked her new character.   So her level 1 cleric is starting out on Korthos.  It will give her something easier to run when we are running epics with the guild.