Tag / Fun

by Greg

Nacho Libre

So, I am not a fan of silly movies generally, but our friends talked enough about the movie Nacho Libre (and how much they loved it) that I eventually decided to watch it. Jen even did… mostly. 🙂 We watched it with them again this past weekend (at least, highlights of it) and it’s just hilarious. Silly. But hilarious. 🙂

Here’s a few good clips I found on YouTube 🙂

Encarnacion

Little Hug, Big Kiss

Fantastic

by Greg

Some Things Currently Distracting Me

  • Quite a Stanley Cup Final… with Detroit winning the first two by shutting out the explosive Penguins, and then the Pens winning game three on the back of two Sid the Kid goals! Great stuff. Should (hopefully) go seven.
  • Phoenix successfully landed on Mars on Sunday and I have been intrigued ever since. The link goes to NASA’s website… tons of stuff there (photos, videos, etc). Pretty amazing that we can shoot large metal objects 420 million miles away, and hit a target with pinpoint accuracy – and not damage the highly sophisticated scientific research equipment. Incredible. And then we get to see photos back from it just a few hours later. Nuts.
  • Facebook games and chat have also occupied some time recently. I love word games, and it’s fun to play against friends (and Jen, too!) in between projects I am working on. It’s kind of a funny “mental break” (since you’re working your brain on your break?) but it’s been a blast. I have found games similar to Scrabble, Boggle, and one called Word Twist that is similar to no other game I know of… And, I’ve been playing a good friend of mine in Chess. He’s quite good. Haven’t beaten him yet. 🙂 Oh, and Facebook added an instant message feature which has been a neat way to chat “live” with people I haven’t talked with in a long time. Pretty amazing.
  • On top of that, we’ve gotten to see a couple cool movies lately, as well as some awesome episodes of the Knight Rider from season two DVDs borrowed from the library! 🙂

More to come, but there’s more to do… so, more here later.

by Greg

Update from Greg’s Head

I must say this poor blog has been quite neglected for the past couple weeks. It seems that my writing certainly goes in cycles. Sometimes I have lots to say and just can’t help myself, so this blog is full of things to read. Sometimes I am so full of things to do that even though I do have things to say, I am not able to sit down and write them out. Other times, it’s simply time for intake rather than output. I’d say we’re definitely in a cycle involving a little of both of the last two.

So, instead of writing lots of detailed blogs (which I could certainly do, but must tend to other things) I will try and cover a lot of the stuff I’d like to chronicle here in bullet-point fashion.

  • Work
    I have been very busy with web and graphic design, so much so that I am considering expanding. It feels as though the work load has grown too much for one person to handle. (At least, and still have family/free time.) I’m not certain how to work that out just yet, but the influx of clients continues, as well as a regular stream of work orders from satisfied current customers. A week or so ago I felt as though I was cresting the seemingly insurmountable hill of open projects, but then the hill just got a bit taller. So, I press on… Have made a few cool additions to my site (linked above) in the middle of the various projects I have been working on. I seriously need to update my “samples” page though as several of those clients have closed up shop and are no longer on the internet! 🙂
  • Music
    Oh, I finally did take our “Christmas decorations” down at our basicmm.com website, too. 🙂 I forget what motivated me to do it, since it was already late April or May when I did, but … anyway, it’s done. Also on the music front, our trip to Virginia in June may be in jeopardy because our family is too large to house! 🙂 We’ll see what happens there…
  • Fun
    Jen & I both have been enjoying Facebook and the many fun things therein. They added a live chat feature recently which has been extra cool. Realtime re-connecting with people you haven’t spoken with in many years, or perhaps barely even know. Fun! (At least, for me that’s fun!) Also, definitely loving playing the various word games there. I do love word games…
  • Brennan Manning
    Jen cleaned out the attic recently and found a bunch of old cassette tapes. In one of the boxes was a set of teaching tapes we had purchased. It was “Healing Our Image of God… and Ourselves” by Brennan Manning. Manning’s background as a catholic priest (and a monk, I believe) gives him an interesting perspective on the Gospel. But the heart of what he says is so great. It’s the simple truth of the incredible love that our Father – Abba – has for us. We heard Brennan at a retreat over 10 years ago, and got his tapes there. He’s been saying the same thing for decades – and I believe God has been re-emphasizing this basic point to me and Jen in recent years again – because it’s the core of the Gospel/Good News. God loves us more than we can ask or imagine, and invites us to live life side by side with him, as his kids. Great stuff… on tape 4 of 5 right now. More on this to be sure…
  • Friends
    Our closest friends – who are more like family – are moving. Their last day in town is next Wednesday. We have lived in the same town as them since we met in our college years. I moved up here to Rochester area with them right after college. Our kids have grown up together, sharing most of the fun/special days together. We’ve known of the move for a couple months now. That’s kinda nice. Been a nice long goodbye. But it’s still a goodbye, and life will definitely change. Very exciting for them, and I’m sure God will blow us away with the way(s) he fills what we can only see now as a void. But it’s pretty sad at the same time. We’re sure there will be tears next week. In the mean time, been helping with packing and moving as much as we can, and also just visiting as much as we can, while they’re still here. We’ll certainly see them again, but 15 minutes is a lot closer than 6 hours driving time. 🙂
  • Family
    We’ve also been visiting family a lot this month. We got to see my sister’s new house in the Buffalo area. Then went over the next weekend for a big garage sale, and I made a nice mother’s day lunch for my mother-in-law. 🙂 We’re going over again this weekend, and then the next for various family events, too! It’s nice that they are close, but it’s also certainly an expense with gas being near $4.00/gallon!! Yikes!
  • New Friends
    Jen has been going to the community center on Thursday mornings to join (mostly) moms with their pre-schoolers for a couple hours of playtime/funtime. This has been a cool way to meet people we have seen around town (at other similar events) and get to know them better. We obviously have the common link of having tiny kids 🙂 Looking forward to getting to know all of these new friends – who mostly live right around the corner(s) from us – over the summer.
  • Lilacs!
    Whether you pronounce it “lie-lock” or, the proper, phonetic way (li-lac)… 🙂 I am just loving these flowers again this year. Been a neat spring in general. The flowering trees have been beautiful. Our neighbor has several lilac bushes and has generously allowed me to snap of some blooms whenever I’d like. And so, I’ve had beautiful, fragrant lilacs on my desk for the past week or two! Love it!
  • Entertainment
    Almost forgot… been watching the NHL playoffs mostly these days. TiVo has been very helpful as we are usually out for evenings, but then watch the game in fast-forward once we are home! As close as the season was, it was surprising to see Pittsburgh and Detroit each take 3-0 series leads. The other teams both won their game fours, but should be a fantastic Stanley Cup Final between Pittsburgh and Detroit! They’re both amazing.

    And, we’ve rediscovered our fondness for the 80s TV show, The Knight Rider. Our friends, the Vs, enjoy it as well (we loaned them our iPod to watch Season One in its entirety) and Season Two is now coming to our mailbox via Netflix. 🙂 Pretty corny at times, but also pretty fun. Ah, the good ol’ days…

There have been lots of other fun events the past several days/weeks. Really can’t share them all here. As I said, it’s been a time of doing and intake more than a time of output 🙂 Suffice it to say, all of these social events have reminded me again that I am (or have become) a people person. I am not sure why I am doing an office-related job, then… 🙂 But am still super thankful for the provision we see from God in that.

More to come on the stuff I have been thinking through from the Brennan Manning tapes, as well as some good conversations with the church (friends who are fellow followers of Jesus), and just the stuff God has been placing on my heart and mind. So fun to share every bit of life with someone who loves me so much. Hope you know that, and you’re experiencing that, too.

by Greg

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. 🙂

by Greg

You Might Be A Large Family If…

Jen reads lots of blogs by other home schooling moms, and various other family-oriented blogs. She read a list to me from this blog the other night, and I thought it was funny in relation to one of my recent posts below, On Being Seven.

I have not checked with the author about publishing her work here (not even sure it’s originally hers) but I figure one or two … or more… is just publicity for her blog anyway… 🙂 Enjoy… (and click the link above for the rest!)

  • Cheaper by the Dozen is one of your favorite movies.
  • You buy milk 5 gallons at a time.
  • You need a minimum of 2 carts in the grocery store.
  • The children are lonely when there are only 4 of them home.
  • Your grocery budget resembles your house payment.
  • You just really wish people would not think they were clever for saying, “Don’t you know what causes that?”

🙂

by Greg

Only In Upstate New York…

We have three or four inches of wet snow on the ground (but of course life continues as normal… that’s nothin’!) and many seasonal ice cream places have been open for more than a week. 🙂

Oh, and just a day or two ago, when all the other snow had melted and we were reveling in our 40-degree temperatures, our neighbors were talking about opening their pool! (OK, it was a joke, but we were enjoying the nice “warm” weather.)

Maybe we’ll head out and eat some ice cream in the fresh fallen snow today…

(I’ll post a photo on the snow here when I get a chance to take one.) 🙂

by Greg

On Being Seven

It’s late, and its snowing (which is awesome!) but I wanted to post a few thoughts on expanding to a family of size seven…

  • Yesterday we all went out for the first time in our newly expanded van (see the next bullet point) and after taking nearly and hour and a half to get ready to go, it was lunch time. So, we stopped at Wendy’s. Thanks to some coupons, we ate lunch (six of us) for $7.82! Ha! That was great. But the best part was when Jen was collecting the food, I went to find a table. I had to move two tables of four together… JUST FOR OUR FAMILY! HA HA!! That was classic.
  • The day prior, the long search for the bench seat for our van finally came to an end. We found a perfect match only one hour from our house. (One hour and one minute, to be precise.) The three older kids and I took the trip and had a great time… and once the bench was in, all three wanted to “try it out” on the way home! It was a bit more money than I was hoping to pay, but glad that it’s the perfect match, and glad we can now go out as a family of seven.
  • Everywhere we go, people seem to notice us… sorta stare at us… even point and laugh. (OK, made that up… but you can tell we’re quite the spectacle) 🙂 At a rummage sale today, as we continued to pour in, one of the ladies tending the sale audibly said, “Oh my!” 🙂 (Not to us, she just couldn’t help herself!)
  • You can not imagine how much laundry and dishes we do. And just imagine when Emma and Julia are a bit older.
  • We have now outgrown most of our board games. They all say 2 to 6 players. Nice.
  • We have three bedrooms. (Some find that to be surprising… but that’s not really an issue so far.)
  • We have one bathroom. I think that one might eventually be an issue. 🙂
  • Do you know how much food we have to buy? 🙂
  • It will be interesting the first time we need to stay at a hotel.
  • I continue to tell people, it’s a party at our house every day. And it just keeps getting bigger. 🙂
  • We’re starting to really scare our friends. When we come to visit… SEVEN people are coming to visit. 🙂 (And we’re also starting to scare our regular babysitter. She signed on when we only had three…) 🙂
  • Have I mentioned how much we’re loving this? 🙂

It may be hard to believe if you have or come from a small family, but this is just fantastic. We have great kids, who all love each other completely, and we do really have a party every day. It’s certainly not easy, but a lot easier than most think. Everyone chips in (mostly) 🙂 And as our family site says, “Together is a wonderful place to be!”

We wouldn’t want it any other way. 🙂

by Greg

Big Fun Food Day

For a little while now our friend Leah and I have been trying to plan a time for she and Scott and Jen & I to have a fun food extravaganza as a sort of “last hurrah” before they move to Maryland. Many obstacles have delayed the outing, and even made it seem impossible. But yesterday… we finally made it happen!! It was tons of fun! And tons of FOOD!

I shall henceforth refer it to as the Big Fun Food Day. 🙂

See, it all started with an idea in my head. We thought it would be fun to get babysitters for all our kids and go out on a “double date” with Scott & Leah before they leave, and I was trying to think of a fun place that they like to make it extra special. Well, the first one that came to mind is one that Leah likes, but Scott… hates. 🙂 (Funnier still, I also am a fan, but Jen is really not.) So, that wouldn’t work… unless…

I thought we could try a “progressive dinner” style outing. Leah and I could eat our fill at the Indian buffet, and then we’d go straight to a place that Scott (& Jen) like to eat. I ran the idea by Jen, and she thought it was fun, and then by Leah, and she too thought it a fun plan… She ran it by Scott, who added his consent and then Leah added Coldstone to the mix for dessert! Ha! Three places in one outing! Fun stuff!

After a few failed attempts at finding a day that worked for all (schedule conflicts) and then finding willing babysitters for our four and their three kids, we finally made it work yesterday!

It all started at about 12:45pm or so. We met up at Willowbrook where we dropped our van and carpooled with them in their (very tiny!) car to the India House buffet. (Photo below… Jen took it, so … she’s not in it.) 🙂

India House Buffet in Victor, NY

We had a crazy waiter here named Dave. He hit it off with Scott as they are both UFC (Ultimate Fight Challenge?) fans. He also introduced himself as Ravi and said he hates Indian food, music, and Indian people. That was awesome. 🙂 (We learned that the first thing he said was always false.) 🙂

The food was awesome, and as I didn’t plan on eating Indian food again for quite some time… I ate… three plates full. 🙂

I was full.

Carrabba's in Henrietta, NY

Next we decided to head to a town about 20 minutes west where Scott’s favorite restaurant resides. We had never been, so I made sure to sample some stuff, but MAN there was VERY little room for the samples! Scott & Jen feasted here. Leah did “sample” as well, of course… 🙂

Funny story was… we got out there about 2:40 or so… and they didn’t open till three!! So we went to Land’s End next door for a bathroom for the pregnant lady and some clothes shopping for Leah (and Jen enjoyed looking at the kids stuff as well) 🙂

Our waiter at Carrabba’s was very good as well. And strangely reminded us of a friend of ours (all of us). They have different names though, so we think they are different people… 🙂

Coldstone Creamery in Pittsford, NY

It was super late when we left Carrabba’s (we were having a great time!) so we didn’t get to stay and eat at Coldstone, but we did swing by there on the way home, and three of us got SMALL ice creams. 🙂 (Actually, Leah got a medium sized one…) 🙂

It was fantastic, but at that point, there was very little room for any more food, no matter how good it was! 🙂

We finally got back to our kids at 6pm, and once we collected them and all their stuff, we went over to the Vs house for a little extra hang out (and our kids all got to see each other and play then, too). That actually ended with Jen making a quick run to McDonald’s to round out the Big Fun Food Day (at least for the kids) with some burgers, fries, chicken nuggets and a snack wrap or two. 🙂

It was certainly a memory, and a great, big, fun, day of food! 🙂

More photos here.

by Greg

OK Night

I can’t remember now if I have posted this here or not, but it’s worth of a post (or two) for sure.

A while back (I think it was for Kirsten the first time) we thought it would be a good idea for one on one outings with the kids. Usually it would be Dad (since they all get more time with Mom usually) but it could be with Mom sometimes, too. We had heard the idea a time or two from other families, and liked it, and it seemed like little Kirstie was getting lost in the shuffle a bit. So, we did it.

Well, after a long break, we started it up again… but this time we thought Ian needed a little alone time with Dad. So we decided to go in descending age order. Well, after the first time, all the other kids were very much looking forward to their turn with Dad. 🙂 Somehow along those various conversations, we started calling it the One Kid Night… which I shortened to “OK Night.” And it stuck. 🙂

Last night was Julia’s turn (our 4th, and almost 2 year old) and we had a blast. It’s pretty funny when a 33 year old and an almost 2-year-old are out for an evening together. The conversation can be … intriguing, as well as… difficult to understand at times. 🙂 She’s a cutie! Was so fun to hear her starting conversations with Dad! We sang songs, we rode the carousel at the mall, we shared some ice cream, we visited our favorite stores… it was a blast! Can’t wait for the next one!

It’s pretty cool to see what comes out of one-on-one time with the kids. We love being a big family, and we love being together, but sometimes some pretty cool stuff happens when you just get one kid with one parent.

Like I said… can’t wait for the next one!