Now I Know What To Do

This morning, while I was checking email on the laptop and watching the kids play in my in-laws' driveway, Kirstie stopped by to ask me a question.

"Dad, how do I stop if I'm going down a fast hill on my bike?"

Puzzled by the question I asked, "Well, what do you mean? Why do you want to know?"

"I just want to know what to do if I'm going down a fast hill and I can't stop," came the matter-of-fact reply.

"Well," I began, "I guess if you try your brakes and they don't work, then you would just try and get to the edge of the road and sort of lean over so you could fall off the bike on the side of the road. Or, if you could... maybe just jump off the bike."

She was listening intently to all I was saying, and then when I stopped she just got back on her bike and began to ride away. About ten feet away she said a very cheerful and satisfied, "Thanks!"

I laughed and said, "For what?"

"Well," she said, "Now I know what to do when I'm going down a fast hill on my bike!"

Two Cuts, And A Pig-Man

As I was putting Julia, our two-year-old, to bed last night, she was looking at my awesome, old-school Sabres shirt, with the vintage logo pasted on the front of it. She was touching it, exploring it, and without looking up she said to me, "Dad, you have two cuts."

"Cuts? What do you mean?" I asked, looking down to see what she could mean.

"Like we have downstairs. Those are round. You have two cuts, right here."

She continued.

"And you have a pig... man. Two cuts, and a pig man."

Older sister Kirstie chimed in, "That's a Buffalo. Right?"

No. I do believe that is two cuts and a pig-man. :-)

The Crying Wall

Earlier this week, after a big storm blew through, I noticed my wall was peeling! The paint on the 6-inch wall under my office window had bubbled up and was coming off! There was water under the paint somehow, so I tried to dry it off, but noticed it was still coming. I checked for leaks, but really couldn't find any. It was just coming through the wall!

I peeled the paint off and tried to dry it up, and find the source. I figured it was the air conditioner, but there was nothing in on the unit itself, and nothing in the window track below it. The only "source" I could find was the bottom corner of the trim on the left side of the window. Somehow, the water was coming through the wood, and draining down into the drywall! It was beginning to erode away!

Later that day, I ventured out on the roof to see if I could find the source of the water. I could not. Nothing. Looked totally dry, and was covered by a roof above the window. It HAD to be coming from the a/c, but I couldn't find any water on it either?!!?

A friend I was chatting with about this online said, "Maybe it's one of those miracle walls." Perhaps it was an appearance of the Blessed Virgin... but I couldn't see her face in the wall... I considered perhaps demonic forces causing my wall to weep... but thought better of it.

But it was very confusing... :-)

I finally decided to check the other side of the unit, and sure enough, it was wet on that side. Somehow the condensation was draining into the window track, through the wood trim, all the way to the other side. Tricky! I had not leaned the unit back enough, so a quick tilt did the trick.

I will need to plaster and paint now a bit. But, nothing too major.

But at least we figured out the source of the mysterious Crying Wall. :-)

English Class

Riding home from the long weekend in Buffalo, Jen & I were talking in the front seat about anything and everything. (It is a 90 minute ride.) At some point we got talking about technology, and specifically the iPhone (I think wished we could look something up on the internet) and I said, "Maybe we can get one when (I forget what the first part was) ... and when there's ubiquitous wi-fi."

There was only a brief pause, and then I added, "Do you like it when I use big words like that?"

She replied, "Well, it makes me feel like I'm back in English class..."

[Things That Are Weird] Phone Walkers

I tend to walk around and do stuff while I'm on the phone. Sometimes it's even just aimless walking, but usually I am just multi-tasking. Do you? I was meeting with a new client yesterday, and he did the same thing. He just took off and started pacing his house as soon as he answered the phone. He was a pretty good phone walker!

The cutest though is Kirsten and Julia. Whenever they chat with their grandparents, they are usually hold the phone to their ear and walking around our entire first floor. Julia usually just starts walking in a very tight little circle! So cute!!

But... since this is a Things That Are Weird...

Why DO we feel the need to start walkin' when we're chattin' on the phone?

Apple Logo Birthmark

I found this today... a baby that was born with a birthmark that closely resembles the Apple logo! :-) Too funny. I'm surprised God hasn't plastered one of those on any of our kids... ;-)

My Brain Already Works

Just now I was downstairs with the kiddos saying good morning and getting my 6-gallon water container refilled for a busy week to come. In my hand was my yerba mate, which, when first filled is quite strong. I know my son, Ian, likes it, so I gave him a sip to show him just how strong it really was.

"It gets your brain working," I said with a smile.

I had read that a while back when our Argentine friend Laura introduced me to it. Apparently it stimulates your brain, and is overall quite good for you. So, since it seemed a bit strong for a nine-year-old, I thought that could make him appreciate it a bit more.

I looked around at the other children standing there, and my four-year-old daughter was looking at me, so I offered her the mate, extending it to her with a gesture.

Apparently she was listening intently to what I said to Ian. She quickly, and matter-of-factly replied, "My brain already works."

I love my kids :-)

Grateful For Washing Machines

It was not a good night in the Campbell house. Perhaps it even goes back most of a week now.

I think I told the story here of coming home with Emma. The night before we came home, our six year old Alex threw up eight times! He was better (mostly) by the time we got home, but we were certainly leery. Ian was next. That night he threw up just once, but it was gross... and it was on the bed I had just put new sheets on for him! :-)

Well, thankfully, we have a washing machine.

This week has seen its share of laundry loads. Normal loads, sick loads, many loads. We do have seven people in this house now. We also did a load or two of clothes for Jen and the new baby to wear, brought out from their cold, dark storage containers.

Well, last night was a doozy.

First, I fell asleep on the couch watching the hockey highlights from the night (seriously... they were almost over...) and was awoken by an angry Jen's voice, "Greg... Greg!... GREG!!" That's not pleasant. Nor is the reason she was calling me. First, she was hurting for some unknown reason, and Emma was not wanting to sleep, which made it worse. But the reason I was summoned? Julia had thrown up. Time for Dad to clean up!

I cleaned her up and was going to deal with the rest in the morning. Went straight to bed and Jen was in and out with Emma, and I noticed that my stomach really did not feel very good. I don't usually throw up, so I wasn't worried about that, but it was sort of difficult to go to sleep.

Within half an hour, Julia was back. She had thrown up again. This all started at 12:30am or so, and continued until I think 3:33am. Probably four or five times I went in, cleaned up the baby, and got new sheets, towels, blankets, sleeping bags... whatever I could find! Meanwhile, at about 2:30, I felt awful and spent some time in the bathroom myself. (Strangely, I did not throw up, but I thought I was going to... and when I "tried"... nothing happened but I felt amazingly better!)

Well after all of this, we have discovered that our tummy troubles are not gone... Julia, Kirsten, and Dad all have... ya know. The other side. Yeah. Not pretty.

I also came to find out that Jen slept downstairs much of the night, trying to get comfortable... didn't really sleep much at all. Still very sore, but also had the chills. :-( What's going on??!?!

Jen just left for the doctor - for the regular one week check up for her and baby. Should be interesting... :-)

I just finished cleaning up all the throw up covered clothing (I am very thankful for washing machines...) and doing the dishes from the night before so we could do the dishes from breakfast after I gave Julia a bath because she had gotten throw up in her hair after I folded the laundry I already had done yesterday to make room for the laundry I needed to do today and now the kids are done with breakfast and waiting for the next event of the day...

Did I mention that I am grateful for washing machines?

(Trying to keep a positive outlook here...) ;-)

Current TV

I must say... it's weird, and slightly annoying to be watching a current TV show. I have said here before that I do not watch much current TV (really, barely any) but I got to watch the pilot of the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles show, and liked it. I can't really explain it, but somehow it was something I enjoyed and could watch.

So the weird part is, not only do I have to wait a whole week for the next show (and this one keeps a story line going from one week to the next) I also have to wait till who knows when for the resolution of the season finale's CLIFF HANGER! ARGH!

Totally forgot about that. I need to just stop watching till the whole show is done, and then watch it all in a couple weeks on DVD (without commercials!!) like TV was meant to be seen!

(Although I kinda feel hooked... so we'll see if I can stick to that...) :-)

Simple But Hard

Quick story before bed...

Tonight I was talking to Julia (our almost two-year-old) about an event at lunch today. The lady behind the cash register thought Julia was a very cute baby (turns out she has a two-year-old of her own) and just gave her a friendly greeting. Well, Julia who is normally very friendly decided to not reply to this person, and hid her head in Dad's shoulder. A few attempts to get a response from her were in vain.

Finally, as we were leaving, she mustered a smile. (Maybe it was the free toy [read:bribe] that the lady handed out...)

That was the end of that, and I apologized for Julia, but of course the cashier thought nothing of it. "I have a two year old, also!"

So fast forward to the dinner table. I told Mom the story, half re-telling it to Joodles. She was listening intently (people don't give two year olds enough credit!) and finally I repeated what had happened (acted it out) and Julia sort of laughed, but then I asked her if she would like it if someone did that to her? Surprisingly, she immediately said, "Nooooooo!" I think she really did understand (though I know there will be PLENTY more training to come...) :-)

It was pretty amazing to see how even at not-quite-two, Julia understood the concept of, "Treat other people the way you want to be treated." And right there I said, "It's so crazy how simple the idea is... every thing is better when we think of other people that way... but how hard it is to actually do it."

Even when you're one.

Old

I made a quick trip to our grocery story tonight (the local IGA is about 1 mile from our house) to get some baking cocoa for some chocolate icing I was making for the chocolate cup cakes I had already made for my pregnant wife. :-) I really didn't want to go - too much other stuff to do before the kids' bedtime - but Jen really needed those cupcakes, and she really needed them to be chocolate.

So I went.

It was actually kind of peaceful. It had been a (mostly) day off full of kids, and I think that little bit of peacefulness was kind of enjoyable. :-) I found what I needed, and since what I needed was strewn across the store, I found a couple other good deals as well. It was a relaxing - yet fairly short - stroll through the market.

I was standing in the check out line when I saw a young guy - late teens, early twenties - come running up to his friends, although it was more like "bounding" than running. He came to a stop with one final leap. I smiled at his youthful energy.

Almost simultaneously, I chuckled at how old I must be. I had none of that vigor this night. I just felt very tired and worn out from the day. I was happy to just be standing there. "Am I that old??" I thought. Then just smiled, realizing that I probably am. :-)

I took solace in the fact that I do at times still have almost that much energy. I would say it has dwindled a tad (not to mention that I am definitely out of shape as well) but there are still many moments that I feel that level of energy.

But not tonight. And for some reason, it was just a humorous glimpse at how I am definitely no longer in my early twenties.

And you know... that's actually a really good thing. It's kinda nice being old. What will be really funny is when Jen & I have watched our kids grow up, and maybe even our grandkids, and as we're standing in line at the grocery store... maybe only able to walk very slowly... we'll see some youthful character bounding down the aisles, and we'll just laugh.

Maybe you are only as old as you feel. (Or is it, you feel as old as you are?) :-)

"I Need Helllp"

This morning as I was sitting here doing a few things on Facebook, I heard a little voice from the other room say, "Moooooommmm...." So, since Mom was not quite awake, I said, "Yes??" The voice responded, "I need helllllp."

I didn't really want to get up right then, and Alex was standing in our doorway, so I said, "Can Alex help you?"

The voice calmly and matter-of-factly responded, "Well, if he can get the poo poo off."

Which for some reason just cracked me up. (Enough that I had to type this story before I went to help her!) :-)

Free Hockey Tickets, Anyone?

Two nights ago we decided at the last moment to spend our evening celebrating Ian's birthday (yes, he's the Christmas boy...) at Chuck. E. Cheese. We have made a tradition of celebrating birthdays there (even mine!) and so though not actually on his birthday, we wanted to do the same for Ian. (As did he!) We planned a day in January, and invited our friends, the Vs. Problem was the day we picked was a super windy day... that knocked power out in some places, including the block where you find Chuck E. Cheese.

SO, about a month later, we packed up the van and headed out! Had a nice little dinner at Wendy's first. Always a good time. (My favorite fast food place, I'd say...) and then we were ready for the real fun! We got to CEC and were grateful that they had power this time. A bit less grateful that there was a vacation week crowd (forgot about that...) but we figured out a good game plan (Dad took the girls, Mom went with the boys) and we headed out to have some fun!

After a little while of singing with Chuck E. in the other room, I decided to reunite with Mom and the boys. We made our way back and when we did, Jen had a surprise! An employee had approached her earlier and offered her FREE tickets to the Amerks game the next night! FREE??? Free. And not only that, they had a TON of them. So we could have as many as we wanted, and give them out to friends! We're in!

We'd never actually gotten to go to an Amerks game. They are the local AHL team, affiliated with the Buffalo Sabres (at least for now they are) and for many years have been quite good. Most of the current Buffalo Sabres have come through Rochester. For whatever reason, we've tried, but never been successful at getting to a game. But now it looked like we were going to finally make it!

We left CEC with 18 tickets. There are only 6 of us that fill seats. And one of those doesn't need a ticket. That means there were 13 available tickets!! We phoned a couple families we thought of first thing when we got home. (Yes... it was late.) The first were our friends, the Vs. It was Scott's birthday that next day, so it seemed like a fun birthday thing to do! BUT, he was sick. As were a couple more in the V house. So, no go there. And in fact, no go with the other family I called that night. More sickness.

So the next morning we tried to think of some more people who might like to go. One friend was able to go. Steph was going to come with her three girls - not big time hockey fans, but Steph remembered going to games at her college. Next, we invited some friends from the other side of town who weren't available, but they knew some people who were big Rochester sports fans... and perhaps we could give the tickets to them? Why not?! :-)

Surprisingly, we have another friend whose birthday is February 20th, so I called him to see if he and his family would like to go. But, alas... they already had some family plans for the night... so no go there. Still had a few tickets to hand out... but running out of ideas for who could go.

Finally, I thought of my friend with whom I play basketball once a week. We haven't gotten to spend a lot of time with their family, but I knew they sorta were into sports, and just might be able to go. They were! With our friend Steph bringing their 8-year-old neighbor, the tickets were now fully accounted for! :-)

The adventure had only just begun however.

Just before we were to leave, Steph calls and says, "My van won't start!" She said she'd keep trying and call us back. Well, she called back, but to tell us it just wouldn't work. I said, "OK... no problem. But, just in case, I'll bring the tickets with us, if you can get it started, and you'd still like to come!" She agreed, but it didn't sound promising. So, that was too bad.

Add that to our lateness, and the night was not starting as I had hoped.

We got to my basketball friend's house to begin our van caravan with them. They were just sitting in their driveway waiting for us... who were now at least 15 minutes late! Oh boy. They have been to the Blue Cross Arena before, so they led the way.

On our way, Steph calls and says, "I'm on my way! We got it started!" Ha! Perfect! Things were shaping up!

Just as we were getting to downtown Rochester, I remember that we were meeting our friends' friends at the arena at 6:45 to get them their tickets. It's well past seven at this point, so I checked our phone and sure enough there were two missed calls!

I called them back to reassure them that we were almost there. Left a message. I hoped they had stuck around.

We got to the parking garage and parked for four dollars! Great deal! Wasn't expecting that cheap! Bonus! We quickly got out of our vehicles (the game had already started!) and briskly walked through the cold streets (around probably one big city block) to the place we were to meet our friends' friends.

(Are you with me still?) :-)

Finally got there and I recognized Shane from a previous meeting at Cross Creek a few months back. (That was a funny encounter. Not sure we had met before that. He saw our oldest son Ian wearing an Apple shirt, and some other distinguishing clothing that made him realize that Ian must be the son of Greg Campbell, whose blog he regularly reads.)

Yes, I'm famous. :-)

So we all meet up there, and have a good laugh (at least I did!) at how little we all know each other. In fact, none of the others we invited had even heard the name of each other. They all had a connection with us, but to varying degrees. Pretty funny!

After hearing of this assortment of people who were joining us at the game, my basketball friend's wife (who is not the most socially outgoing person you'll ever meet) said of me, "They don't come much friendlier than you, do they?" Guess she thought it was odd that I was giving tickets to a hockey game to people that I really didn't know (Shane and his fam...) But I thought... why not? :-) Seemed like a fun plan to me!

And it was. We all finally got there, and watched a decent hockey game. There were plenty of snacks. Plenty of children! A little bit of hanging out with friends, meeting new friends, and watching some live hockey! Nothing like it! Love watching hockey in person. My boys were instant Amerks fans. Cheering and - as much as possible with many friends there - watching the game intently.

Sure hope we can go again!

The night ended with a pretty cool view of the lunar eclipse while we crossed over the rushing Genessee river which flows right by the side of the arena! Beautiful. Fun! Superb evening.

And all cause we went to Chuck E. Cheese at the last minute, on a whim!

Next whim that comes along will be taken more seriously... :-)

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. :-)

It Has a Dragon, Too!

Last night Kirstie came over to Jen and me with a couple toys in her hands. They were little plastic vehicles. A puller, and a trailer. She excitedly announced to us, "And it has a draggin', too!"

It took us a moment... but we got it. Very cute use of the English language. :-)

The Donkeys

We went to visit some friends tonight whom we don't get to spend very much time with. They live pretty far away, so we're lucky to see each other even 3 or 4 times a year. They have a little three year old boy who I am pretty sure knows who we are, and was looking forward to seeing us.

I believe the conversation went something like this.

"Daddy, when are the Donkeys gonna be here?"

"The... Donkeys?" Dad was quite perplexed. He knew that we were coming, and was pretty sure that is who his son was talking about, but couldn't make the donkey connection.

"You know... the Donkeys... when are they coming?" he persisted.

"Do you mean the Campbells?" asked a still confused Dad.

"Yeah! The Camels! When are they coming?"

Classic.

Can't remember being called "The Donkeys" ever before. That one won't soon be forgotten. :-)

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"...] :-)

Woo Moode Oop Oo Noo Loongooge

The other night when we were having dinner, we decided to invent a new language. I can't remember exactly how it started, but somehow I posed the question, "What if every vowel was a 'oo' sound?" And then I proceeded to try it out.

"Hooloo, Ooloox. Hoo oor yoo? Hoo woos yoor doonoor?"

There was much laughter and everyone kept trying it for a while that night. It was quite fun. You should give it a go right now. Go ahead and talk to the person next to you in Oovoon. See? Fun isn't it?

Well, our one-year-old is learning to talk - and doing quite well - so she may have been laughing with the rest of us, but when I was talking to her, she felt the need to correct me.

"Oos thoot yoor booboo?" I asked.

"No. ba-by," she said distinctly. "Booboo?" I replied. "No. No. BA-BY," she insisted. This went back and forth for a while till I dropped it. She was certainly not going to. :-)

We tried doing everything with a rolled 'r' last night, but that didn't work as well. For now, we'll stick with Oovoon as our family's second language. :-)

Lesson Learned?

I was observing my three-year-old daughter and her one-year-old sister today as they tried to play together. They were just a few feet in front of me, and truthfully, it was not going well.

Julia, the younger, was taking things from Kirstie, the older, and this was not a welcome action. Kirstie was just whining about it, and then taking matters into her own hand, retrieving what had been taken. Of course, this only exacerbated the situation, so I decided to step in.

"Kirstie," I said in my most parental, instructional tone of voice, "That is just not going to work. You can't whine, and you can't just take the blocks back from her. How would you like it if she did that to you? This is a good chance for you to practice 'Treat others the way you want to be treated.' Why don't you ask her for what you want, instead of just take it?"

She followed my instructions and her younger sister gladly gave up her blocks (which were stolen in the first place...) and everyone was smiling. For about two seconds. That's when older sister decided to just take some more of what younger sister had. This resulted in very loud, shrill screaming.

Again... not going to fly with Dad.

Since this didn't seem to be getting through, so I said to the perpetrator Julia, "Julia, why don't you show Kirstie what it feels like. Take that yellow block on the top of her tower." Julia was happy to oblige. She reached over and grabbed three blocks from the top of Kirsten's tower. (She was probably pretty amazed I was letting her do this!)

Once the blocks were safely in Julia's possession, I asked Kirstie, "Now how do you feel?"

To my surprise, the first response came from Julia who said, "Good!"

Haha! That was too funny. Kind of ruined the moment, and taught the wrong lesson, but... at least we know that when you're allowed to do whatever you want... it feels good. :-)

Just Lucky, I Guess

Last night we celebrated Ian's birthday. His birthday falls on Christmas day, so it has been our practice to set up a day in January to celebrate Ian, and nothing else. Well, he wanted to invite our friends the Velasquezes to join us for a night at Chuck E Cheese's in a town about 35 min to the west of us. Would work out perfect as that is where Mr. V (we call him Uncle Scott) works. I was to bring a cake that I made, and we would play games, eat cake, and celebrate Ian.

Well, the funny thing is...

As we were on our way there, we went through an intersection where the traffic light was out. "Oh my goodness..." All of a sudden, the days events all came together in my head... We had some serious wind (remember? we might get blown up?) and power was out all over the nearby areas - just not ours. The thought hadn't crossed my mind until just then that...

You guessed it. The only block without power in the entire area we were going to was the block where Chuck E. Cheese's resides. Nice.

Well, we decided to head back to our friends' house and eat cake and play games there. Ended up being a fun night, just a huge waste of gas and time I guess. Again... nice.

Next time... call ahead. :-)

"I'm Gonna Blow Up!"

It's a very blustery day here in Western New York state. Many limbs are down, power is out, all sorts of crazy things. My niece has power back now where she is at in Buffalo area, but she told me a few trees are down at her house - including one on their house! Yikes!

Well, as I was battening down the hatches this morning, I remembered another time we were in some seriously powerful winds. It was the spring of 2002, and we were out in Colorado, north of Denver. We were introduced to a chinook. These very strong, constant winds blow over the Rockies in the late winter/early spring and we weren't prepared for the intensity of them!

As we left the hotel where we were staying that morning, little Ian (who had just turned three) was doing his best to keep his feet on the ground! He was very concerned, and just blurted out, "I'm gonna blow up!!!"

Well, as you can imagine, first we laughed ... then we helped the lad stay connected to the Earth. He was very glad for big, heavy parents that day. :-)

It's similar today, just not as sustained.

Let's hope we don't blow up today! :-)

My Day (or two) As A Mom

I think I have written here before that when Jen has babies, I take a week or, last time, two off to take care of the other kids while she can focus completely on the baby. And of course, I take care of her too. :-) So, I am no stranger to being the "Mom" of the family. (Plus, I am the main chef of the household - by my own choice and desire - and often am accused of being the "girl" in our marriage ... so... I am kind of used to it. Kind of.)

Well today, due to extenuating circumstances, I offered to help out our good friends, the Velasquezes, by watching their three girls at their house while they went to a wedding. Their oldest had been really pretty sick yesterday... lots of throwing up... but mostly that kind of sickness has not affected me in life, so I figured I would be pretty OK, and it would help them out.

The day was to start at 9:45, but I did get there a little late. Just before ten I got there and got the scoop. They hadn't had breakfast so we did a little of that. Then once Mom & Dad left, we got into the fun. We watched an episode of the Knight Rider! (Yes, that instantly makes me the best babysitter ever. I carry episodes of the Knight Rider in my POCKET!)

No one was sick, thankfully, but it was a day full of being a Mom. :-) We had hurt feelings, we had sibling spats, we had ouchies - even needed ice for one! - and all of that fun. Of course I needed to make lunch, which was awesome! :-) We had diaper changes, bathroom reminders, and kitchen clean up. We also played games, and even had a nap time routine. I was quite the mom.

The real Mom & Dad returned around 4pm, and after a brief report, I headed out to do some returns and other shopping near the mall (more Mom stuff?) and then stopped by Wal-Mart for another quick surprise for the family. Finally got home - fairly exhausted - just after 6pm. Of course, Jen had our FOUR kids all this time, so she certainly had no picnic of a day! But after a few brief moments catching up with Jen... I realized that I had to make dinner for my family! Sheesh!

So, I did. I just reheated the big turkey dinner we had the night before, and it was great. But I was still tired. And I really just wanted to sit and watch football. But the kids were not really cooperating. And Jen was really worn out too. After giving it a go for most of the first half of the game mentioned just below... I finally gave up and just got the girls and got them ready for bed, and in bed.

The boys followed not long after, but Jen was able to help with them. I spent the rest of the evening cleaning up the kitchen from the last day or two and baking corn bread and cupcakes for tomorrow's gathering. Then I called some good friends who live in California around midnight (9pm their time...) :-) just to catch up. Had a nice chat there.

Why am I telling you all of this?

Well... I'd like to salute Moms out there. My wife first. Maybe my own Mom second. (Sorry, Mom.. Jen has four... and another coming!) I really am able to do the "mom thing" ... but my experience today (and some of yesterday) left me exhausted and feeling unappreciated. :-) (Not really... just bear with me...)

I really noticed that all of the "mom" stuff I did or was doing was sort of just expected. There's never an end to the needs of your kids. They don't take vacations, or weekends off. And, even when I was off taking care of other kids for a day... I came home to more. (Ours are way cuter, of course...) ;-) And they just assumed I would be making dinner as I usually do. (Plus, Mom is super tired from making a baby!)

A Mom's job is never done, and almost always taken for granted. So to Jen, Mom, and all other Moms reading this... you rock. Keep up the hard work. You can't see it paying off now, but those kids you are loving - thanklessly - will remember it later.

And to my Mom ... thanks for all the hard work. :-)

See? :-)

So... I'll continue to keep up my end of the parenting duties, and maybe remember to remind Jen how awesome she is even just a bit more often. :-)

And, since it's Steven Curtis Chapman week here at GregsHead.net ... when you get a chance (no time to find a link tonight...) check out the song from his latest album, This Moment - "One Heartbeat at a Time". Perfect song for Moms.

And now... at 1:29... I can finally go to bed.

Good night!

A Wet Christmas?

I thought the song said White Christmas....

We did get a lot of the white stuff for the whole month of December. Probably the first three weeks straight. OVer a foot of the good stuff. I think I heard that we've gotten around 38 inches so far! BUT... for one week before Christmas we had temps in the 40s, and RAIN. Yuck!

But the best part had to be Sunday, December 23rd. That day we not only had more melting of the existing snow, we had torrential downpours!! I didn't think about it while it was happening, but a couple hours of some seriously hard rain on top of all the melting... was too much for our basement. :-(

So, this Christmas, not only did we have rain, but we had a flooded basement. We're still trying to clean up from it, but haven't had any time with all of the Christmas celebrations with family and friends. We came home tonight to a VERY stinky house. (The furnace blows up the nasty smell from the basement to the rest of the house!) :-( I went down and dumped some clorox on the floor and sprayed LOTS of lysol. That helped for now.

Hope your Christmas was dryer. :-)

I'm NOT dreaming of a WET Christmas!

Hey, You Never Know

This morning I awoke from a series of dreams that seemed mostly disconnected, except for the last two. The last two were definitely connected. Really, it was a dream where I awoke from a dream. That happened once before (even more crazy, though!) but in this dream, the two dreams were the same.

In the dream I awoke to find two people in business attire coming into my bedroom. They stood at the foot of my bed and began to introduce themselves. (Note: This was the room in my old house, where I had two twin beds. Jen was there, she was just in the other bed. For some reason, that part was not weird to me in the dream...)

They were from a local paper, the Courier Journal (which, is local to Palmyra, where we live now) and they just wanted to let me know that I had won their drawing. "You wanted to tell us that in person?" I asked. "Well, it was the grand prize."

"How much?" I was thinking $1000 or something. "$120,000," the business lady calmly replied.

I was just stunned. Silent. Until (still in the dream) I said, "Wait... I had a dream about this. Somebody from a small, local paper came and told me that I had won their drawing... and I think it was for $120,000!!" Everyone laughed, and at the same time thought it was very strange.

Not long after that - while thinking of all the joys of being debt free - I awoke from my dream. For real this time.

I can't remember a dream recently that I have been more sad to wake up from, and to realize it was only a dream.

But hey, you never know...

Tape Delay

So, you just gotta love TiVo. It's so easy. You watch what you want, when you want to (or can) and you can even fast-forward the commercials!

I love hockey! Versus carries at least one NHL game on Monday and Tuesday nights. I'm busy every Monday night, and somehow we are usually busy on Tuesday nights, so I have gotten in the habit of TiVo-ing them.

Well, tonight after recording the show, I picked up where I had left off when I went up to the office to record. Thing is, Jen was there, too. And, while I like hockey... I like talking with my wife more. So, we did.

At one point I finally noticed that the hockey game I had recorded was playing in the background while we chatted and snacked.

Do you find that odd too? Who records something in order to not pay attention to it? :-)

Chickens

We had dinner with some friends tonight who are back from Mozambique where they have been missionaries for quite a long while. It was a great night of good food and just enjoying time together.

Speaking of food, the conversation turned to food at one point. We began talking about how you make a nice grilled chicken salad in Mozambique. It's not as easy as just going to the grocery store.

"First you have to kill the chicken!" said our African friend, to which we all laughed. She continued, "Oh, but first, you have to catch the chicken!!!" We laughed even harder.

Without missing a beat, her husband - the more seasoned veteran of life in Africa chimed in, "First... you have to find the chicken."

At that point I just lost it and said, "THAT is going on my blog tonight!"

So far in life, I have not had to FIND my food. :-)

33

Well, yes, today is my birthday, but it has already begun to be celebrated. My sister made me a cake while we were down there with them at my Mom & Dad's... they sang and everything. I got presents from the extended family. Many have been wishing me a happy birthday, including calls/IMs from Dad & Sister who have started this interesting tradition of wishing me a happy birthday on November 29th, so they can be the first one or something... :-)

Last night we all went out as a family to celebrate. Red Robin gives you a free burger on your birthday, so we like to take advantage of that! We went there for dinner, they sang me a song. It was tons of fun!

During dinner, Kirstie (our awesome 3-year-old) says something about how we need to go to Chuck-E-Cheese for my birthday! I just smiled (as I am now!) and realized that to her, THAT is a birthday! We have done the Red-Robin-Chuck-E-Cheese birthday circuit for several birthdays running now! :-)

So after dinner, we piled in the van and headed over to Chuck-E-Cheese!!

We got inside and the guy at the entrance said, "Is there a special occasion today?" I answered, "Yes......" He probed further, "Is it a birthday?" We all said, "Yes......." He said, "Whose birthday is it???"

Everyone pointed to me and said, "Dad's birthday!" He looked a little surprised, but handed me the birthday balloon!

We got a few dollars worth of tokens and headed out to have some fun. Strangely, most of the stuff we tried to do was broken, but the one thing I wanted to do - that cool little sketch/photo machine - did work and we got a funny photo memory from the night. I did get to play one game of skee ball with the boys, too. :-)

So, for my 33rd birthday, I went to Red Robin & Chuck E Cheese! :-)

But, there's more. So far today I have received some awesome steak "plates" (they are boards!) hand-crafted by my almost-9 year old son and his crafty Grandpa Tom, and a BUNCH of e-mails, IMs, and other electronic birthday greetings. Jen has some plans for tonight too, but won't divulge them just yet. :-)

More later... unfortunately today is still a busy work day! Just wanted to tell the stories of how everyone has been celebrating my birthday. It's been really fun so far, and much appreciated.

Thanks! :-)

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.

Steve Jobs Sighting!

Holy cow! What amazing timing!!!

We took the short trip over to Cupertino while waiting for the Apple Store in San Jose to open tonight for the big Leopard party (where we plan to get two free t-shirts!) We weren't sure what we would find, but we had no idea we'd get so lucky :-)

As we finally pulled into Infinite Loop, I noticed a guy in jeans and a long-sleeved black shirt. I said to Jen, "Who's that Steve Jobs guy??" I was just joking, until as we got closer I noticed - IT WAS STEVE JOBS!!! :-)

As we got to the main cross walk, Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ives were crossing, heading to their cars to go home! HA! Right in front of our car!! Hilarious.

Jen did not have the camera ready, so we didn't get a good close up, but we turned around and managed to get a quick shot of him getting into his car. I'll post here later. :-)

For now, battery is almost dead... we're gonna wait in line and get some t-shirts!! Whooohoooo!! :-)

Southwest Alphabet

Well, we made the next leg of the trip, but it feels like barely! We got to Chicago just after 9:15 maybe, local time, and had to get the flight to San Jose, CA at 9:55 local time. Seems like plenty of time right? Jen took a needed pregnancy bathroomo trip, and we headed through the airport to Gate B1 (all the way to the other end of the concourse!) only to find tthat the lines were already completely full!

This is my first time flying Southwest, and overall I would just give it an “average” rating.

Here’s why the lines matter. When you buy a ticket, you are not buying a seat. You get put into one of three groups. A, B, and C. Theoretically, the first people to arrive, get boarding passes in group A, then B, then C. That is also how they board the plane. Since it’s every man (or woman) for himself, you take what you get as far as seating.

We lucked out on the first flight, finding the last pair of seats together. Not so on this flight. Only middle seats left. Not to worry, I told Jen. I trusted in the goodness of humanity. Someone will move to the middle so that the pregnant lady can sit with her husband....

Not so. :-)

So, Jen is in the row behind me. I am squeezed between two guys... and it’s a four hour flight.

I don’t think we’re going to fly Southwest again. I want to buy seats, not try to “get lucky”.

So, we’ll see what the flight holds. I’m sad for Jen. She’ll have to try to get out to go to the bathroom a time or two! :-) We’ll see if we can work the system on the way back so we don’t have to do this on the return flight!

More to come....

The Less-Safe Plane

We got to the airport around 6:30am, checked our baggage and got our boarding passes. Everything went pretty smoothly there, until we got to the line for boarding passengers. It was so long! After just a few moments, we were approached by a guy from TSA who handed us a yellow card. He asked us to give it to the security person when we got to the front of the line. (They were using it to time themselves.)

Not even a minute after we were handed that card, another airport security person approached us and said, “There’s an alternat check point, why don’t you go there.” So, we did. But I remembered that card we had just gotten so I asked, “Do you want me to give this to someone else in the line?” To which he replied, “No... you can bring it with you.”

At this point, it smelled a little fishy. :-) We ended up in a shorter line, which was just fine with me. And they ended up with a shorter time. Good for them.

Everything was going just fine until the weather changed in Florida.

See, the Southwest plane next to us was heading to Orlando, leaving at 7:30. BUT, just as we were about to board (at 7:30) they decided to switch planes. They announced later that the plane we were supposed to take was better equipped to handle bad weather. (That got a laugh from all of us who were switching to the “less safe” plane!) :-)

They swapped all the already loaded passengers from the original Orlando plane, as well as their luggage, and our luggage, and both flight crews... and the Orlando plane is finally leaving now at 8:25am. Too bad for them. :-)

So, we’re about 30 minutes late so far, but all is probably just fine. Our next flight leaves at 9:55 central time. (Or, 2.5 hours from now.)

One other interesting thing about Southwest is that there is no assigned seating. You don’t purchase a seat, just a ticket. So, you may or may not get to sit with whomever you are flying with. The way to assure that is to just get in line even before they start boarding, which we did. The problem was, we were at the front of the line for the first plane! So, when we switched, we were at the back!!

The first shall be last.

Thankfully, Jen & I did get to sit together. Found two seats at the back of the plane. That’s nice.

Here we go!

More to come...

Thwarted!

Last night we recorded our Buffalo Bills show after a few technical difficulties to start. First, when we initially connected, there was a very bad echo on my Dave's side, but not on mine. He reconnected, then I did, then we started a whole new call... no luck. Was not going to work. I had told John to join us in a specific way using that service that was now too echo-y... so we scrapped that, and I called up John using Skype. All seemed well until the airport annoucements behind John nearly took over the conversation! It was frustrating, but kind of funny. Eventually, John was disconnected entirely, and we finished the show... glad to have gotten that over with.

When I came back to the office to do the final edit... I began listening and could not believe my ears. The echo was there—even though neither of us had heard it during recording—and it was unbearable. I could not go with what we had recorded. It was almost midnight, so we could not record again till the next day at least... I was not sure what to do.

I decided to post a note to the website saying we were having technical difficulties, and go get in bed with Jen and watch a movie on my laptop. I had one sitting around all week that I had gotten from the library, but never had time to watch. As I started watching it, though, the intro seemed familiar. It was a part three of a series, so I thought it was a recap. But the recap was taking a very long time. And it was all exactly what I remembered seeing before.... because.... I HAD seen it before! :-)

So again, my plans were thwarted. I ended up watching a TV show online that a friend had recommended on his blog. It was pretty interesting, but then... I just ended up going to sleep. :-)

The best laid plans...

They Killed God

Kirstie joined us for the morning Bible read today. She's three, and says some really cute things. Perhaps the following is both cute, and insightful? :-)

After reading the story of the first part of the night Jesus was arrested and taken before the Jewish leaders, then Pilate, and then Herod, we were talking about how crazy it was that they just blatantly lied about such well-known things. Jesus was a very public figure, but his accusers were at best twisting the truth, or just flat out lying about what he said and did. And it eventually got him killed.

And I guess Kirstie knows that, because without reading that today, she said, "They killed God."

I smiled at her simplicity and replied, "Yep. Well, he let them kill him." I continued, "Because somehow, when they did, he was able to beat the things that kills us, that destroy us." (I meant sin and death, but didn't figure a three year old would grasp such a thing.)

She responded without hesitation, "Yeah, then they don't destroy us!" She even said it with a finality and even joy at the resolution of it. Then they don't destroy us. What some people take 1000 pages to say in some theological treatise, my three year old understood, and summed up in two simple phrases.

They killed God. Then they don't destroy us.

Perfect. :-)

Very Strange Timing

I was sitting at my desk this morning, typing a quick story to a friend over instant message. As I was most of the way through my story, the phone rang. I saw who it was via caller ID, and figured I would call them back in a minute, since my IM friend needed to leave in about that same amount of time.

Well, I finished the story, and figured that the caller might still be on the line, leaving a message. So I picked up the phone. I was correct. The caller was still leaving a message. I quickly said, "Hello! I'm here! One moment..." and then clicked on the hang up thingie (what is that called?) to stop the answering machine from recording, without hanging up on the caller.

What happened next was extraordinary.

When I lifted my finger off the hang up thingie (mind you, this is all within about 1.2 seconds) I said, "Hello?" just to make sure the caller was still there. Imagine my surprise when the voice responding was ANOTHER, totally unrelated caller!!! (Of a different gender, to boot!) Somehow caller #2 had squeezed in a call in those few moments where the answering machine had picked up, and when I tried to switch it off remotely, my phone picked up the call on call waiting - though I had no idea it was there!!

So then, caller #1 thought I had hung up, and calls back! I put caller #2 on hold, explained briefly to caller #1 (and #3?) what happened, and finally got back to #2.

That was crazy. Crazy enough to make the blog. :-)

Running Out

Lately I have been running several things dry. First it was my own body, falling asleep during a BILLS GAME almost instantly, with no recollection of the "nodding off" part. Just complete, immediate shut down. Then today I had a couple more incidents...

First, on returning from our friends house, the van started acting like it was running out of gas. I checked our gauge, and we should have been fine, according to that. However, our gauge is broken, so we use the computer in the van that helps you figure out gas used, and since I had only filled up with about 15 gallons the previous time, we were in fact empty, without me knowing it.

We ran out of gas right in the middle of an intersection, but made it through OK. We stopped right in front of a house, so I went to see if they could just give us enough gas to get to a pretty nearby gas station. They could, and they did... and we were on our way. Putting 25 gallons of gas in our van when we did reach the fueling station. :-)

Then just now, I was typing a quick post for the Buffalo Bills Review site, and my laptop just instantly shut down. Turns out the battery was low, but the warning did not kick in. So, I forgot to keep checking the remaining batter, and it just shut everything down. (Thankfully, blogger does a good job of auto-saving everything, and I didn't have much more to type ;-)

Well, now that I have told the story, I better shut this computer down, and lay down before I just fall asleep right here and now! Fewer sudden shut downs, or drying up of the fuel would be better....

Quick Kirstie Story

This morning, 3-year-old Kirsten joined Dad and the boys for our morning Bible reading. We are near the end of the book of Luke, and Jesus is getting people riled up - almost the time that they killed him. Which also happened to be Passover, when they kill l