Are You Ready For Some Football??

NFL football is back! The regular season starts this week with a game featuring the World Champ NY Giants and the Washington Redskins on NBC Thursday night, a full slate of games on Sunday (including the BILLS GAME!), and then a double-header on ESPN on Monday Night. I can't wait!!

The Bills are looking really good this year. From the coaches and the offensive and defensive schemes, to the players, established and new... it really could be a fun season to be a Bills fan. (I know I say that pretty often, but... seriously. Just watch...) :-)

The start of the season also means that it's time for Dad & the Boys to make their weekly NFL picks! :-) I almost feel like I am looking forward to that more than the football :-) It was lots of fun last year, and should be even more fun this year! We're doing the whole season this time!

There's a cool Facebook application where you can make picks and compare your results against your friends... it's called Pro Football Picks, if you're interested.

So, just a few days away... let the games begin!!

One-On-One, Full-Court... Football?

This weekend we did get some pretty decent weather, despite a good bit of rain, and we took advantage of it!

On Sunday afternoon, the boys and Kirstie and I headed up to the high school football field (just a few blocks from our house) and we found our way in through an open gate and played one on one football (Ian vs Alex, with Dad as the QB) ... using the FULL FIELD!!! Kirstie ran right along with us, too. They would get the ball at midfield to start (no kickoffs) and they even had me kick extra points and FGs! :-) (I went something like 4-5 on XPs and 0-2 on FGs... not too good!)

It was a blast, and they were quite exhausted at the end! :-)

Can't wait till next time, though!!

The night concluded with a walk for the whole family around a couple blocks, and a visit with some new friends who live close by. We met them on the way and walked with them back to their house and visited for a while. They have three little girls about the age of our little girls.

As the kids were all playing in their front yard, Alex lost a tooth... literally! It came out of his mouth, and he lost it in their yard!! :-) Ha! The Tooth Fairy still came and left him a dollar in his (empty) tooth pillow, though. :-)

A fun, full weekend of being a family of seven. Even got a visit from Jen's bro and his son. Very nice. Hopefully a good recharge for me. Busy week ahead!!

(So, may be kinda quiet here!)

Definitely enjoying this season of life though. We love being the Campbell family. :-)

Big Family Shortcuts

I have noticed that with so many children around here, I am needing shortcuts when referring to them every now and again.

We already had "the boys" and "the girls" before for easy pairings. We also call Kirsten & Alex, "The Twins" because they really look a lot alike, and are similar in other ways, and are the two in the middle. Well, they were.

Now are getting even more creative.

First there's Mom & Emma, who spend a lot of time together these days. We call them either "Momemma" or "Emmamom". Both are equally fun to say.

Then we have, "The Oldies". These are the three oldest kids, who are not our babies.

Then I came up with a clever way of referring to two kids at a time using former (or current) Buffalo Bills players' numbers. For instance, Ian and Julia are "Frank Reich". This is because Ian is the first born (#1) and Julia is fourth (#4), so together they are 14, which is Frank Reich's number.

The combinations are pretty fun.

Ian and Alex? Jim Kelly. Kirsten & Alex (if we're bored with "The Twins") are Beast Mode (nickname for Marshawn Lynch, #23). Ian and Emma? Todd Collins. (I know! Good one!) :-) Alex & Julia? Terrence McGee.

Pretty good system, I think. :-)

So, life as a big family continues to be very interesting, and tons of fun. More stories to come, I'm certain of it!

Shorties

Since computer (and especially blogging) time is limited... please allow me to share some fun stories/thoughts using another list-style post...

• Julia just turned two, but she is the smartest cookie in the bunch sometimes. This week she has been really helpful with the laundry. I don't always know whose clothes are whose, but she does! Seriously funny. And helpful! Also, she is a great talker (though sometimes hard to understand). Maybe one of the cutest things she says is when she's really excited about something, she says, "Yay-uh". (Pronounced like a souther gospel preacher, which I'm pretty sure she's never heard...) :-) Hilarious!
  
  
• The Sabres won tonight. They keep stringing me along. They sit 5 points out of the final playoff spot with only 12 possible points remaining. Thanks to some good scheduling, the team we are chasing (Boston) is our opponent for two of those games, so we can possibly make up 4 points in those two games. There's still a very outside chance they can make the playoffs, but I'm really not optimistic about any chance of advancing if they do. We shall see...
  
  
• Michigan State has worked their way into the sweet sixteen in the NCAA tournament. (Which is now only the terrific twelve or something after last night's games...) They really have a good team this year. Solid rebounding (as always) from our big guys, Namick & Suton, and a stellar freshman Kalin Lucas, as well as solid scoring threats in Morgan, Allen, & Gray. Ohh yeah... we also have that guy Drew Neitzel... he's pretty good. (If you don't know him, he's a senior, and he was fanastic as a sophomore at least, and has only kept getting better.) :-) They play Friday (and hopefully Sunday). Friday's game is against the #1 seed in the South region, Memphis. 9:57pm tip off on CBS. Well worth watching!
  
  
• Kirstie just oozes nice. It's incredible. If there is ever any "not-niceness" between anyone in the family, Kirstie steps in to the edification of the one not-niced. Every time. She's so great! Such a gentle heart. She's my little lover. She often tells me, "I just love you, Dad!" And then gives me a big hug, and often a big kiss. Well, as you can guess... I just love her, too. :-)
  
  
• Sometimes I really can't believe how old Ian is. He is nine, and definitely becoming his own person. We can see the things he really likes to do. He even talks about it. He's starting to figure it out too. He's very creative. He too is a gentle spirit. (Sometimes too gentle. :-( Easily crushed.) He's an artist. He's such a people person. Loves people. Could be his weakness actually (people pleasing) but it will also be a great strength. I'm honestly a little nervous about this transitional stage. Will I(we) handle it well? Will we be able to encourage Ian as he really begins becoming a unique individual? It's a very interesting stage for all of us. I think we are merely on the cusp, but we're definitely there. All we can do is just love him, train him best we know how, and live out what we say. And overall, make sure he knows that he is completely safe with us any time and always. That may be harder than it sounds - or I may just think too much. :-)
  
  
• Alex is TOO picky! Argh. It's been quite a struggle with people bringing us food (a bunch of new stuff he hasn't really seen before) and getting him to eat. Not to mention the great Easter candy he knows we have... that's quite a distraction as well. :-) It was funny today when we were dealing with all that again for the 17,000th time that I actually thought of "the kids in India" when I was so mad at his pickiness. "You know, the kids in India don't have any food! They just eat rice, if they can find any!!!" (Not sure on the accuracy of that statement... but thought it was funny that I actually thought it, and sorta used it. I am truly a dad, and truly old.) :-)
  
  
• Emma Caroline couldn't be cuter. :-) Funny story from today... we got a new monitor so Jen can be down here and Emma can sleep upstairs. All of a sudden we heard a screaming baby in the monitor! Yikes! What happened?? That was not normal. (Although, she has had a tendency to "freak out" at times...) So, Jen went to help her - but she was sound asleep. Completely still. Weird. When Jen came back down, Emma started freaking out again! Worse than before! Very, very strange... Jen went back up... Emma was completely still!!!! Finally, we sent Ian up to check while we stayed down to listen... you guessed it.. we were picking up someone else's baby!!!! Ha! Very weird. Kinda funny... very weird.

Much more to tell, but no time, and no energy with which to tell it. Must sleep.

Progress Report

Well, it's been a little over a week now that we have been home from the hospital with our newest family member, and it's even been a couple days since any of us has been sick. (Not sure which one of those bits of news is more welcome at this point...) ;-)

Today was a fun day, actually. There were no scheduled visits, which although greatly appreciated and enjoyed, do not really allow for any sort of a schedule to the day. Not so this day. We got a lot of cleaning done (even finally vacuumed) and finished 4 or 5 loads of laundry (and a few loads of dishes). We read library books in the morning before taking a walk up to the library (all seven of us!) and getting some more books! (We read some of those upon our return home!) We even had time to run some errands (the four older kids and me) which included a stop at our favorite ice cream place - CHILL & GRILL - for an end of the day treat!

It was a really fun day. :-)

We also took a break in the middle of the day (after lots of serious house cleaning) to play a game, just Dad and the three oldest kids. That was fun. I am thoroughly enjoying spending so much time with my kids. I love this part of having a new baby :-)

There have been a few fun kid moments over the past couple days...

Last night, after a looong day of fun on Easter Sunday (which included your normal easter fun as well as a visit from our friends the Chis and two trips to Chill & Grill!) Alex snuck upstairs to get ready for bed and as I was coming up to put the boys in bed, Alex said, "Wait, Dad! I'm almost done!" He was very happy about it, so I let him finish what he was scheming. When I got up there, I saw Alex putting the finishing touches on cleaning the bathroom for Mom & Dad. :-) He said he knew we were tired, and he wanted to do that for us. He cleaned the sink, and even used "just a washcloth and some water" to clean our toilet. :-) :-) :-) Very cute... a little gross... but very cute.

Tonight as I was bathing the girls (which I remembered that I needed to do after I had already gotten the girls in the jammies for the night...) Kirstie was almost done and she said as I was washing her off, "Dad, when you need me to wash you off I'll just do it for you, OK?" :-) Again... very cute.

There have been many cute moments like that this last week or so, and I am so thankful that though it's been super hard work (lack of sleep, lots of extra sickness, lots of extra visits, and just being behind already from the 3 days at the hospital) it's so totally worth it, and there are many fun/amazing moments with my kids that I am definitely blessed to have.

That said... there's not much time to do the stuff I'm wanting to do (or needing to do!) as is evidenced by a blog post at 1:00am :-)

Tomorrow we have a visit from some friends in the morning, and then in the afternoon we'll hopefully be getting our new van seat, which will allow us all to (legally) go somewhere as a family of seven! (Right now, our van only seats six.) :-) Oh, and then another friend will be bringing us dinner. Probably a good day for that!

At least we're not still sick! :-)

Oh, and Jen and Emma are doing great. Jen was feeling pretty bad at the end of last week (which is why I am still not back in my office officially) but feeling lots better now. Things are definitely progressing.

I may have to post some more Emma photos here pretty soon... Still working on the video, too. :-)

Sickness Invades The Campbell Home

Jen (the pregnant one) has been sick (on top of the discomfort of pregnancy) over the past couple weeks with a few various ailments, but it didn't stay with her. Kirstie has been complaining of ear/head/neck pain off and on for almost a week now. This morning, Kirstie was still very lethargic, and her oldest brother Ian joined her in her illness-induced lethargy.

The sickness canceled our plans for today. Which were quite plentiful.

Well, the two other kids and myself were not feeling sick at all - in fact quite the opposite for the "evens" (kids #2 and #4...). They were quite loud, boisterous, and generally making life more miserable for their sick siblings.

I decided to take the healthies out to Wendy's where a group of friends generally gather every Sunday afternoon. Was even hoping to catch our nephew there who turned 20 today! (Yes... I am old...) :-) No luck there, but there were about 6 or 7 families represented, so it was definitely a nice visit for Dad who is a "people person." :-)

Untill...

Half way through our time there, Alex started showing signs of lethargy as well, and even ended up laying his head down on the table at one point. :-( He removed himself from the group (sat at a nearby table, not very like Alex with his friends) and just seemed to be getting exactly what everyone else had.

Scary thing? So did I.

As we were leaving, all of a sudden, my neck started aching, and I just felt very weird... maybe light-headed, but not that bad. Just tingly all over. Made it through that, enjoyed lunch, but felt a little strange all the way home. When we got home we put the new sickie in bed, and that's when it hit me.

COLD!!! I could not have been colder! I got under 6 or 7 blankets, all the way under, and turned the heat up! If you know me, you KNOW that something is wrong! :-) I really didn't feel lethargic, but still had an achy body all over, and had the chills som'n fierce!

So, I had some tea, put on my warmest sweatshirt, and took the rest of the day a bit easier.

Dinner was funny. I just reheated some leftovers for all the sickies (which is all but Julia!) and no one really wanted much of anything. :-) I still ate a decent amount, but definitely didn't taste right.

Right now, at a VERY early hour for me, I'm gonna down some NyQuil® and hit the sack! Might not wake up till 10 tomorrow! :-)

Here's hopin'!

Can't Sleep

Not sure what it was about last night, but it was not our night to sleep :-)

First, we got our Mac Mini back from the Apple store (replacing a defective hard drive) and hooked it up right away, even used it. But then, not-so-smart, plays-with-too-many-settings Dad tinkered with the display resolution one too many times and the TV just started flickering. A LOT. Could barely see anything... couldn't find the cursor well enough to get it back to the right resolution. I tried everything, but to no avail.

So, since it was essentially a brand new drive with brand new settings - I reinstalled the OS. :-) (That takes a long time...)

As I was installing it, I watched a TV show I had downloaded from iTunes, and then put in Star Trek Insurrection which I had been wanting to watch for a long time.

The update was going along just fine, even downloaded all of the software updates from the internet once the original OS was on the disk. And all the while, Jen must have woken up a good three or four times. I had to go upstairs one time to find out why Alex was kicking the bar that keeps him from falling out of bed. Jen told me then that both boys had been talking and/or moaning in their sleep. Pretty funny.

I finally went to bed at 4am. (Later than usual...) and Jen was up again. Not long after that, the girls were needing help. I'm not sure if Julia did, but Kirstie wasn't feeling that great, so she came in a few times. Jen got her a drink around 7:15? and then I did around 7:30. At that point, Julia was awake as well.

I finally just got up and took a shower at 8:30, and Alex wandered in the bathroom somewhere around 8:50 or so. Everyone is sorta/kinda awake right now (which is early for everyone else) and I can't wait to see what kind of day we have... :-)

So... perhaps naps are in order, and an early bed time!

OH! Funniest part? Around 8am I did go back to sleep, only to dream that all six of us were in a tiny two room place ... NOT SLEEPING! It was 6am or so in my dream, and everyone was awake!! I was thinking - we all need to be sleeping!!! And Jen (in the dream) was just fine with everyone being awake.

I was awoken by Kirstie needing more help (around 8:30) and just had to chuckle. Dream was imitating reality, or vice versa.

I think we just need some sleep. :-)

My Favorite

Last night we were leaving our friends’ house pretty late after another fun evening together, and as we were saying good bye I noticed our son Alex running in circles in their front yard. He’s usually one of the first out of the house when we’re leaving (and one of the first ones in as well) so I guess that’s how he was passing the time. Everyone else had made their way to the van and to where they needed to be, but Alex just needed to run around.

And somehow, in that moment, it just reminded me of how much I love him. In fact, my actual thoughts were, “He’s my favorite!”

At first I reacted to that thinking, “Of course, so are the rest...” That’s when I realized... they are. Alex is my favorite, and so are Ian, Kirsten, and Julia. Even the next baby that we haven’t met yet. I guaranteed he or she will be my favorite, too. :-)

There’s a cool book I have mentioned here a time or two before called, The Shack. In this book, a guy has an in-person encounter with God and many times when God refers to any person this guy brings up, God says, “Oh, he’s my favorite.” (Or, one of my favorites, or something.)

Last night, I really understood that. It’s completely true of my and my kids. They really are my favorites. My favorite people. I love them more than they can know, or than I can probably express. But I’ll keep trying anyway. :-)

[As a footnote to this whole story, I was re-telling the events to Jen as we were pulling in our driveway. When I said the part about thinking Alex is my favorite, it wasn't long before Jen noticed him running circles around our yard, too. Guess he likes being "the favorite"...] :-)

Caught In A Snow Storm!

Last night I took our four kids up to the library to return some books, and to pick up a few new ones. The library is only half-way around the block, so we bundled up for a nice winter walk. It was even lightly snowing, so it was more fun than usual!

We even sang a song on the way there:

"Going for a walk in the snow to the library,
Going for a walk in the snow
Going for a walk in the snow to the library,
Going for a walk in the snow!"

It was perfect, and the kids did pretty well in the library. We got the books we wanted, and some stamps from the nice librarian. We bundled back up and headed out the door.

What we discovered was astonishing.

Swirling, blowing, blinding SNOW! Where did this come from?!? I just laughed! It was like a joke! What happened to our light flurries??? Well, we had no other way home, so I made sure faces were as covered as they could be and we set out into the storm.

And this was a storm! The wind was a constant 10-15 mph I'd guess, with stronger gusts. And the snow was collecting on the ground - and on us! - at an alarming rate. The worst part was, a third of our trip was heading west, directly into the wind! At one point during that stretch I turned around and pulled Julia in the stroller backwards (which helped a lot I think) and saw poor little Kirstie just closing her eyes and leaning into the wind as she pressed ahead into the blizzard!

It was crazy!!

Once we were able to turn south, and find a bit of shelter behind a giant brick church building, it got a little better. We laughed all the way home through the still rapidly falling snow.

Red cheeks, faces, and other exposed skin greeted Mom when we got home. Mom actually met us in the driveway, as she had seen the fierce winter storm and was coming to get us. But we managed to brave the elements and make it back home safely.

I told the kids as we were fighting the storm that we'd have hot cocoa and hot baths when we got home! And we'd also read a couple of the library books we just worked so hard to get.

And we did. :-)

Post-Thanksgiving Thoughts

We had a marvelous time with family in Ohio over the past several days. Besides my parents and my sister and her family of six, we also got to spend some time with my grandparents, two aunts, one uncle, three cousins (and one first cousin once removed). That was all topped with the news this morning that another cousin had delivered healthy TWINS the night before. (Funny part was, twin #1 was born at 11:52pm Nov 24th, while twin #2 entered breathable air at 12:03 Nov 25th! These twins have different birthdays!! Ha!!)

All in all, it was a wonderful trip, and a great time with family.

Tonight, reflecting on all of it (and troubled a bit by our current financial standings) I was truly thankful. Not some cheesy kind of Hallmarky thankful induced by an annual over-commercialized holiday. I mean really thankful. It was kind of a neat feeling. I was looking around me at all the stuff that we do have and enjoy. Much of which has been given to us by our generous family. And I was thinking about my four kids and my wife, along with the other tot on the way. All of these that God has given me.

Money may be an ever-present pressure, cause of stress, and the lack thereof a source of fear, but really... in the important things, I'm set. Life could not be better.

A few stories for tonight.

First, at one point on our trip a random file came up in our iPod song shuffling, and it was just precious. It was a little audio clip I had recorded of Ian and Alex for our now stagnant basicmm radio show. Man, I forgot how cute the three-year-old Alex was! The kids all wanted to hear that one several times.

But, speaking of cute three-year-olds, our current three-year-old, Kirstie, was dishing out her own cuteness throughout the weekend. She had plenty of classic lines all weekend, some of which I won't repeat here, but one particularly cute moment was when I offered to lay down with her when she was supposed to be taking a nap. Unfortunately, at the moment, I forget what it was! :-) (I'll add it tomorrow if I can remember it!)

Other cuteness came from little Julia this weekend. She doesn't say much, but over the holiday at Grammy's house - which is well-stocked with chocolate - she learned to use the word "Choc-latt" well, and OFTEN. AND, the best part was the true, deep sadness that followed any time she uttered the new word, without the appropriate results! :-) If we ever said no to choc-latt, the tears flowed freely!

Pretty cute, and apparently she has a sweet tooth like her dad!!

There's a bunch more obviously, but as my sleeping time is quickly dwindling, I think I will head to my bed to get what I still can. (Yes, I really do sleep!)

Hope you are aware of and enjoying the blessings in your life, as God has reminded me of mine tonight.

Picks

This season I have been asked to join a panel of "experts" in predicting the outcome of each week's NFL games. So far I am in second place, behind my Buffalo Bills Review partner, Dave Drake, and another guy who are tied for first.

This week, after hearing the boys subtly add their voice to the discussion of my picks each week, I decided to let them in on it! So I made up little sheets for them to each make their picks and we'll see who ends up with the best record by the end of the season. :-) (Actually, you might be surprised... there's a good chance they will!)

It's fun to see how excited they are about it :-)

Even funnier was seeing how Alex changed a couple of his picks after announcing the games he was not going to get right - only to find out he could still change his picks up to kickoff time. :-) He's pretty cute. He now assures us that he will go 16-0 this week.

The big game of course is tonight, where our Bills face the New England Patriots. Ian and I have our Bills winning in the end (good boy, Ian!) and Alex changed that one... which will of course help him go 16-0.

We'll see!

Go Bills!

They Earned It

Yesterday the boys were just a bit rambunctious to start the day. They were not being bad necessarily... just sort of annoying, and out of control. I happened to be on the phone with my parents at the time (which was part of the reason they were annoying) and was relaying the story to them. Jen said we should send them out to stack firewood. But, since we don't have any firewood... my Dad said, send 'em out to rake the yard!

"Great idea," I said.

So, we bundled them up for the chilly morning, set down the ground rules and, truthfully, I expected to be refereeing, and end up doing the work myself.

However, much to my surprise... they did an amazing job. They both worked together. They worked hard. They even had fun, I think. They took an HOUR to do our front yard (Ian said, "How long has it been, cause the bell tower has rung twice since we've been out here...") and they never complained, even though their hands were getting tired.

Near the end of their assigned task I asked them, "Do you guys want to ask our neighbors if they would like you to do their yard? You could ask them to give you $5/each for doing it?" (I just picked a random number out of the air... wasn't sure what the neighbors would be willing to pay...) At first, they were too tired, but for some reason, Ian was able to convince Alex to try it, and they went and asked.

I checked on them and saw them raking the yard, and learned that they would be paid two dollars each for raking the front yard. They were pretty excited, and diligent in their work. I smiled and left them to it.

I continued to check on them pretty frequently. (The front yard is right near a very busy road, and well, I love my boys, so I wanted to make sure they were still there!!!) They were doing great! And they took almost another hour to do that yard!! They never stopped, just kept at it till it was done. I have to say, I have never "felt" more proud of them. It was a fun parental moment.

When the task was complete, I saw them go to our neighbor's front door and receive the payment. Alex got his first and ran away from the house cheering and saying, "Dad!!! Look what I got!!!!!!" while waving his two dollar bills firmly gripped in his right mitten. Ian was pretty excited too, but Alex couldn't stop talking about his TWO DOLLARS!!! :-) I told him, "That's great, Alex! And you earned it! You did a lot of hard work to earn that." Next thing I knew he was headed to the basement to find mom, saying, "Mom!! Look what I earned!!!!" :-)

Too cute. :-)

So last night, after telling them how proud I was of them for working together, and doing what we had asked, and then for doing twice what we asked, we went to Wal-Mart and they each got to pick out a treat that they earned with their hard work. Alex paid for his and the cashier gave him his receipt. He couldn't have been happier. He said, "I got a receipt!! This is my receipt!"

Pretty sure he's keeping that one for a while.

So Far

I forget if I have posted the plans for this extended holiday weekend here or not (yes, it's Columbus Day on Monday... technically a holiday weekend...) so in case I haven't I will post retroactively:

• Thursday:
  • My sister and family come to town late at night, we hung out in the kitchen enjoying some homemade skyline chili and various other treats.
  
  
• Friday (ALEX'S BIRTHDAY!):
  • A special "Buffalo Bills pancakes" breakfast with the cousins
    
  • A trip to the community center to play in the gym (which was ruined first by an aerobics class taking up the whole gym, to which we adjusted by playing foosball and other things, until we could no longer take the way the staffer on duty kept making us feel thoroughly unwelcome in our own COMMUNITY center!!)
    
  • A nice walk through our town, tossing footballs to each other, followed by playing in our yard with all the kids (since we couldn't use the community center!)
    
  • Homemade Skyline for lunch (and some other stuff), and making Alex's birthday cake
    
  • Various games while the youngest ones slept
    
  • Grammy & Grandpa arrived for cake, ice cream, and opening presents!
    
  • Head out for dinner at Red Robin, only to find the wait at least one hour... so we went to Wendy's instead!
    
  • Chuck E. Cheese, where the Velasquezes joined us! Tons of games, and lots of tickets won! Alex got a little tiny football for his efforts. :-)
    
  • Kids in bed, adults play Apples to Apples and enjoy some nice adult conversation, as well as a few caramel pecans from Esther Price!!! (Thanks, Mom!) :-)
  
  
• Saturday:
  • Grammy & Grandpa are still in town, so we'll be spending the day with them at their camp site. Swimming, mini golf, and other fun stuff!
  
  
• Sunday:
  • Breakfast with Grammy & Grandpa before they leave
    
  • Apple picking with friends, an annual tradition!
    
  • FOOTBALL!! (But not the Bills...)
  
  
• Monday:
  • Free lunch in the late morning from the new Lowes (grand opening special invite to local businesses)
    
  • Drive to Clarence for a fun Columbus Day Kids Festival event at Grandma & Grandpa's church
    
  • Naps, and/or hanging out with family/friends in the afternoon
    
  • MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL: COWBOYS @ BILLS ... watching with friends in HD, eating CHICKEN WINGS! Then, driving home after the game.

Yeah, that about does it. :-)

Happy Birthday, Alex!

It's going to be a big day, for a big guy. Our little Alex is turning six today! He is a super fun guy who lives life with passion. (Of course, that means he can get pretty fiery mad, too, but mostly it's super happy, bring-everyone-along-with-him passion!)

My sister and family are in town, and later today my parents will visit ... should be a nice day of celebrating Alex!

Love you, Alex! Happy Birthday! :-)

Not A Creature Was Stirring...

There is still a whole 24 hours of quiet to come. I really can't believe it. The onslaught of this silence was so quick, so unexpected. It's eerie... unwanted. Disturbing. And yet... glorious. ;-)

The kids are at Grandma & Grandpa's! They have been since Tuesday evening. The will be until tomorrow, probably around lunch time!!! Holy cow! Do you know how crazy that is??? My mother-in-law is a fantastic lover of children - and subsequently, of us!

In the interrim, we have gone out to dinner twice on a couple cash gifts given to us by each of our fathers. Nothing too fancy, but just a nice bonus to this strange yet wonderful quietness. We're going out one more time tonight, at our friends' request and treat. (That one has been planned for a while now.)

It has been wonderful for Jen, for sure, and I've enjoyed it as well. Some for me, but mostly I have enjoyed having a happier, less burdened wife. That's been nice. :-)

So, I miss my kids a lot. Can't wait to see them tomorrow. But, thankful that we have parents who are so willing to take them - not just so we get a break, but because they love having them around, and to themselves. I don't think a lot of people have that. It's a very nice gift, to be sure. :-)

Right now I must run a few errands... and JEN is coming with me! Sweet!

Alex is Broken & Other Weekend Tales

I spent about 3 hours at the hospital last night. It was not where I intended to spend that time, but then, I suppose hospital visits aren't usually planned. Somewhere around 7pm last night, Alex and Ian - in their typical physical wrestling/play fashion, got a little too rough, and Ian fell on top of Alex. Alex cried, a lot. But that wasn't unusual, as he is often frustrated and angered by his bigger, stronger, faster older brother. But it persisted, so I checked on him... and all seemed normal... so I went back to what I was doing. A minute or two later, Ian came back in and said, "I don't think Alex was just mad... I heard something snap."

Oh boy.

So we probably took an hour or so testing it out. Nothing was visibly broken, but the little guy was definitely tender. It became evident that something was probably broken, so Alex and Dad headed off to the hospital. It's about 25 minutes away, so, the journey is not embarked upon lightly... :-)

We stopped at Uncle Paul & Aunt Laura's along the way (it's right on the way there) to drop something off, and they gave Alex some ice cream, a few hugs, and an empathetic story or two. That was nice. :-)

I've done this before, so I wisely loaded up the laptop with a few movies before we left, and boy did I need them! We actually sped through all the preliminary stuff. Even got a visit from the doctor within maybe 30 minutes of being there! BUT... for whatever reason... it was the night to break stuff. So the X-ray folks were WAAAAAY behind schedule. Oh my goodness. We watched an HOUR AND A HALF of the movie Cars before we got to go get the x-rays taken! Then it was probably another 30 minutes after that before we left.

Alex has a slight - very slight - fracture in his clavicle. They gave him a cute little sling. And he can't do any sports until he's "cleared" by the doctor, or something. Do you know Alex? What in the world is this boy going to do???? That's ALL he does! :-) I guess he'll be doing a lot of reading, playing chess with Ian, and maybe a video game or two. (But he just can't replace all that sports time with video games. That would be ugly!) :-)

We stopped at Wendy's on the way home (at 11:30!!) for a frosty with Oreos, at Alex's request. Dad got a burger and fries! Ha! (That's odd... I'm usually the sweets guy!) :-)

So, the rest of the weekend included some of this:

• Cleaning out the remaining weeds from our flower beds. And, planting some flowers! That took a majority of Saturday. Was a beautiful day. I mean, fantastic! So it was lots of fun. The whole family was in on the project!
  
  
• Jen had a baby shower to attend with some friends - which ended up being just a dinner, as the guest of honor decided to have her baby that day! - so she spent Saturday night there, while the kids and I enjoyed a Skyline meal (the real stuff, from the can!) and then walked up to Chill & Grill for some ice cream! We had a blast! I think Mom did too, but we probably had more fun! ;-)
  
  
• Sunday morning we all went to the mall for a little "cooking" class from Williams-Sonoma. They were demonstrating home made ice cream. It was great! Tasted great and was a blast! Learned a few pointers.
  
  
• Sunday afternoon/evening we just played outside - even had a picnic lunch and dinner! It was a warmer day, but fine in the shade. Our neighbors returned home as well, so the kids played a bit together. Annnnd... then we went to the hospital. :-)
  
  
• Before we left for the hospital, I moved our trailer off of the parking spot it has been in for a few years... a friend of ours is coming today (here now!) to make it a parking spot again! We're going to spend the morning making it a gravel driveway instead of a dirt spot with a recurring (giant) puddle! Cool!!!

So... now that Al is here... :-)
More later...

Distractions

The boys and I are reading through Luke (I believe I have already said that...) and today Jesus was addressing another crowd (SIDENOTE: I posted an entry here before about how it seemed that Jesus was not usually speaking to crowds but more to small groups and even individuals. It seems however that in Luke, almost everytime something comes out of Jesus' mouth it's to a CROWD, so... I stand corrected. :-) End sidenote...) We read a story, and some more teaching from Jesus.

The story was about a rich man who had an abundant crop. He decided he would store it all up in bigger barns, so he'd be set for the future. God said, "You dummy... you're going to die tonight... what good does all your stuff do you now?" Then Jesus reminded us that birds don't have to worry about what they will eat, and flowers look great, even though they're here today, burned tomorrow. We're more important to God than both of those, so... don't worry.

And we finished today with Jesus saying don't treasure things that can be taken, or eaten. (Moths destroy...) Make your treasure eternal stuff... sorta, intangible stuff. Things that can't be taken. Because, where your treasure is, that's where your heart is.

(Somewhere else it says that your heart is the "wellspring of life"... I think that means it's important...)

So I asked the boys what this meant. First they shook their heads in bewilderment. But with some more directed questions, we figured out that Jesus was trying to tell us not to worry about stuff. Don't "treasure" stuff that will break, could be taken, or will just eventually be gone.

Alex didn't like that so much.

I said, "What if our house burned down? To the ground. Everything was gone. Then what would happen? Would that be bad?"

Ian quickly said no, but Alex had a very concerned look on his face. Finally he said, "That would be bad!"

I said, "Why would that be bad?"

"Well, it would burn down, but we'd have Sega, Nintendo, and Backyard Football?" (He really, really likes video games...)

"No, they'd all be gone. But we're all fine. Would we be OK?" I asked.

He thought for a moment and stuck to his guns, "No..." his eyes were filled with near horror, "That would be bad!"

You gotta love Alex's honesty. He really means it. To him, that would mean the end of his world. For whatever reason, Ian has learned the lesson that stuff does not matter. It's fun. He can enjoy it just as much as Alex, but Alex has wrapped his heart up in stuff. He can not imagine a world without his stuff.

I told him that this was a great example of what Jesus was talking about. Stuff doesn't matter, and Jesus knew that. It's fun, but it doesn't matter. If we "treasure" stuff that will eventually break, be taken, or just die... then our hearts will be crushed with our treasure. Where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also.

And later this morning I got to thinking. I know I would be OK if all my stuff was gone. I would be a bit panicked about all my clients' files and such. Hard to recover all that stuff. I would be bummed to lose the stuff of nostalgic and emotional value. But in the end I'd be OK.

That said, I sure do have a lot to distract me from important stuff! I love video games too. That takes a good amount of my time if I let it. I sure do love my computers, and the internet. That takes time too. I love to watch Star Treks. I love watching Hockey, and Football. I enjoy a good movie now and again. I even enjoy sitting down with a nice book and a cup o' something.

There sure is a lot to "treasure", eh?

So, I think at some point in the not-too-distant future... I may take a serious break from all my stuff. I want to cut away the distractions and spend some good time with Jesus. Every once in a while I long for that (I guess, when I haven't had it in a while?) and now is one of those times. I think he was reminding me of that again today.

Some stuff in life is expendable. Well, OK... probably most stuff. Some stuff is not. Time with my Father who loves me is fantastic. I mean just hanging out time. We're always together. He's with me in everything I do. But sometimes it's good to just be together, not really doing anything else, eh? I think I'm wanting some of that today.

So, I hope your treasures are in the right place today. I don't mean black/white, right/wrong. I just mean, in a place where your heart won't be crushed if your treasure is. We're going to coax Alex toward that better place. Hope he follows.

God Can Throw You Into Hill

Following our morning Bible reading time the other day, Jen was eating breakfast with the kids - may have been also reading a book to them - when Alex interrupts to inform her that, "God can throw people into Hill." She was probably a bit curious as to where that originated... :-) Earlier that morning, the little story we read had Jesus reminding us that we don't need to fear anybody because "once they kill you, they can't do anything else to you." (That was a loose quote...) "But," he continues, "God is the one you should fear. Not only can he kill you, he can throw you into hell."

As I finished saying that, both the boys looked at me wondering, and finally said outloud, "What's 'hell', Dad?" Let me tell you... that's not an easy thing to explain to an 8 year old and a 5 year old. :-) So, I think I kinda did... and they went on their way. But apparently, that little statement from Jesus made an impact on little Alex... who now knows that God can throw people into "Hill".

There is never a shortage of entertaining moments around here... :-)

Baseball Means Summer

I was looking out my window this morning, and the grass looked a little greener. I don't mean figuratively. I mean, literally... it looked greener. The shadows were a bit different. The sun is moving into it's summer position. The world outside just seemed a bit more "summery".

But the one indicator that summer is approaching... BASEBALL. The boys start baseball tonight. They'll play every Friday night for about 2 months. Alex gets to play his first year of tee ball this year, and Ian will be moving up to "coach pitch" ball. I think that means the coach pitches to the players. I think. :-)

It will all be great, except that the boys will be on very different fields... AT THE SAME TIME :-( I'm really disappointed about that. But we'll work something out. Or, I'll just be mad for the next 8 Fridays. :-(

We're excited that baseball is here! I'm not looking forward to the hot summer temps, but I am looking forward to watching my boys play baseball again, and practicing with them the rest of the week. :-)

Come on out and root 'em on!

One More Alex Story

Alex reminded me before lunch today that I am the "Kingdom of the family. Because you're the tallest." He's pretty sure I'm in charge. I told him that I am not... Jesus is the King of our family, and we listen to him. Then he told me, "Well, you're the king of us, the kids." And I said, "For a little while. I get to try and show you the best way to live, as best I know how."

Then I continued, "But, later on, when you're old like me, then you get to make your own decisions..."

"Yeah! I can do anything I want!" he interrupted.

"Yes, based on hopefully the good foundation that I have given you, so you can make wise choices." I continued, "Then when you're old, I won't be your "king" anymore. But hopefully, you can be my friend."

That made him smile. A few moments later he started dreaming about this adult relationship with Dad. He said, "Maybe I'll get married... and we'll live in the house next to the Toneses (our next door neighbors). And of course you'll be my friend... cause I used to be your son!!!"

At that point, I assured him that he'll still be my son, I just won't be his "king". :-)

Then he concluded with, "And I'll come visit you every day!"

Alex is too cute. :-)

Chips & Salsa

Yesterday I strolled through the living room and saw the boys eating chips and salsa again, which has become one of their favorite snacks. That's cool, and all, except, it's one of mine also! So I said to the boys, "No more chips and salsa for the boys... FOREVER!!!" :-) (I used my teasing voice, I think, so... I thought nothing of it.)

Today, Alex asks Mom, "Can I have some pretzels, Mom?" And Jen tells me that he asks for pretzels now, because I told them to not eat chips and salsa anymore!!!!

Well, I felt pretty bad (but chuckled at the same time...) :-) So, I called out to Alex, "Alex... you can have chips and salsa..."

At which point Alex closes the door to my office, but I can hear him run to tell Ian, "Ian! Ian!!! We can have CHIPS & SALSA!!!!!"

Pretty cute. :-)

... and Alex

I told the story a day or two ago about Alex saying that Ian was not his brother anymore, so I would like to balance it with this little anecdote...

Ian was practicing his piano after lunch as I headed back up to the office. I stopped at the top of the stairs to leave a little note for Ian on his computer. I opened up a new page and in big font typed:

Hey Ian!
You're a
great piano player!
And I love you! :-)
Love, Dad

I haven't heard yet if Ian has seen that, but when I went down for a little bathroom break just now, I noticed that the text had been slightly altered. It now reads:

Hey Ian!
You're a
great piano player!
And I love you! :-)
Love, Dadand alex

It's subtle, so check again if you didn't catch it the first time...

Alex apparently saw and read my note to Ian, and wanted to chime in that he agrees! :-) How awesome is that. First that Alex is such a good reader, but more importantly, that he loves Ian enough to add his name to a verbal pat on the back.

I love our kids! They are awesome. :-)