Times to Remember...

On July 4th, my children returned from their 5 day Mammoth trip with EM and his "friends". During the weekend, I couldn't help but think that this should have been MY family trip. But instead, we are a family no more. Although I have been able to accept my fate, these are the kinda things that hurt the most.

EM had promised to have my girls home by early afternoon, so that I could celebrate the holiday with them. My plan had been to take them to the Queen Mary for an enjoyable afternoon. But when they arrived home, it was soon apparent that they were not up for this plan. My oldest daughter was acting out and expressing frustration with the family. Something was terribly wrong. She is high strung and a challenge at times, but this was different. So I took her in a room to talk. She shared that her daddy was making new "friends" and she didn't like it. My heart was breaking for her. As much as I tried, I could not stop the tears from falling. Yet another of many roads to travel in the journey of dissolution. This one would be the hardest by far. I know I can get over my own suffering, but to see my girls suffer is sooo much worse.

After a bit of consoling, I finally got the kids to agree to go to my sister's house for a BBQ. Intially, my daughter wanted to isolate herself in a room. But I could not let that happen. I got her outside and then asked if she would like to play some poker. Immediately a smile came to her face. Usually just the adults get to play. So this was a treat. She started talking to one of the adults at the party explaining her knowledge of the game. He was impressed. She actually knew about Poker! Receiving praise for this knowledge was just the thing to break her out of her mood. So we started a game of poker with 3 adults and 5 children (including my girls). I couldn't help but be proud when the final 3 left in the game were me and my girls...lol...And mom does not take it easy on these girls, so of course I took them out next.

By the end of the evening, neither of my girls wanted to leave. They had a great time and so did I. I was surrounded by my family and people that cared about me. My sister told me that she was so proud of me. That I was a strong woman. I didn't feel strong, but I knew I was making my way.

After this event, there was no way I could think of leaving my girls for a 4 day trip to Vegas. And I so did not want to miss the blogger event. So I came up with the perfect compromise. I would bring them with me and invite the grandparents to help watch.

Friday morning my day started with a trip to the court house for a mediation session covering the terms for child custody. For once, things went smoothly. If nothing else EM loves his girls more than anything else. For them, he would do the right thing. We both want the best for them. So we had easily come to aggreement on a schedule and terms for join custody of the children.

My trip started on Friday at noon. We were off to Las Vegas!

I have lots to write about already, but let me just give you a few highlights to start..I will fill in the details later.

* Getting hammered by Iggy
* Lost a $20 Roshambo(rock/paper/scissors) game with Iggy
* Getting SoCo'd by Al (yes AlCantHang made it to Vegas!)
* Dealer screwed up my suckout and allowed Penner42 to beat me in a nice pot on the HORSE game
* Joined Katitude and Jules in touching Waffles head (and I did forget to wash my hands..oops)
* Hit a Royal Flush on first hand of three card poker (pays 40 to 1 = $400)
* Suckout on Weakplayer
* Grabbed Derek's and Garths xxxxxxx (blaming Al cause I fell in love with SoCo)
* 2nd person to bust in the blogger tournament when Ryan (I think his link is absinthesparks) hit his Royal Flush. I had KTs and raised to 200 in EP. He called preflop with Kh Jh. The flop came K Qh Th giving me 2 pair and him top pair with a royal flush draw. I bet 500..he raised to 1500..and I pushed. He thought for a while and finally called. The turn was Ah..I was DONE! He also won the box of See's candies I brought as a bounty.
* Hearing the incredible welcoming speeches by Howard Lederer, Phil Gordan, Jay Greenspan and Michael Craig.

NOW for the best highlight of my trip....***corrections made to this section***

Before the blogger tournament started, there was a Charity Roshambo Tourney. The prize being a one-hour private lesson with Phil Gordan. April stated, "I do believe he intended that to be a poker lesson, but perhaps one of you girls could convince him otherwise". I was matched up first the a blogger named Amy, then with Weakplayer's wife Amy, another person who I can't remember, a guy from FT, Doubleas (**for the semi-final)and then finally it was down to the final two. Veneno vs the "Mark". I WON!!!! Now the only thing to decide...what kinda lesson..hmmmm...I seriously doubt I can learn anything about poker while staring at Phil ...He is just sizzzlinnnngggg!!!! He also offerred to send me an autographed copy of his two books, "The Little Green Book" and his newest, "The Little Blue Book".

So, for those not in Vegas let me just say, YOU ARE MISSING OUT BIG TIME! I will never forget this experience.

Laters...