Tag / Ian

by Greg

A Lesson From Monopoly

It’s probably not even accurate, but tonight while I was playing a game of Monopoly with my nine-year-old son, Ian, I couldn’t help but notice how the game paralleled life – and how I did not like that.

First off, it was just a really fun night. We call them OK Nights. (One Kid Nights.) It’s been Ian’s turn for a while, but as my prolonged silences here at GregsHead.net demonstrate, there is not much time for, well, anything these days. Not much time, and not much money. Which factored into the decision to do Ian’s OK Night in our basement. (That, and the huge thunderstorms that were wreaking havoc on our entire area tonight…) It all worked out, as Ian loves the game Monopoly (and so do I!) and we shared a nice pot of tea while we played together.

Ian even learned how to find 10% of something tonight. Bonus home school lesson!

But my lesson was in the crazy notion that to make money you have to have money. It’s true in life, and in Monopoly, and vice versa.

Poor Ian had me on the ropes. He had Boardwalk and Park Place with 3 houses on each. I managed to find my piece on Boardwalk shortly following his new construction project, and owed him $1400! That’s a lot for Monopoly! I had to mortgage several properties, and spend all my cash, but I managed to stay in the game. A few lucky rolls, and I had enough cash to stick around long enough for Ian to land on one of my expensive properties. But somehow, that was his undoing.

He also stuck around for a while, but no matter what we tried to do, he just couldn’t dig out of the hole that the first big hotel stay got him into. The problem started to become that in order to pay his debts, he had to get rid of all the stuff that could make him money. So in essence, he was getting rid of any chance he had to win, even though he was still in the game.

I, on the other hand, kept collecting Ian’s money… and then, since my cash stash was growing larger, I invested in more houses. I even bought a mortgaged monopoly from Ian… paid the bank, built houses, and cashed in again on Ian. It was too easy. As I cruised effortlessly around the board (because of my cushy abundance of wealth) Ian fretted every roll of the dice.

It was so crazy to see how it really does “take money to make money.” I really couldn’t believe it. But it was true. Somehow, but a bit of strategy, and admittedly, a bit of luck, I managed to make the first amount of money, and then from there wise investing made the money earn money for me.

Right now my problem seems to be what Ian’s problem was. Debt and other ongoing expenses keep me in a position of not having any vehicles to earn income. If I do, it seems to be just a little, and then it goes right back out to someone else. That’s a frustrating place to be.

So, I have not figured out in the real world how to take the next step to get just enough money to start making money from having money… but maybe some day.

Perhaps I should just play a few more games of Monopoly with Ian? 🙂

by Greg

Time

GrandpaMy grandpa turned 85 years old on Sunday. I called and got to chat with him just a little. Had a fun birthday planned with his family (my mom & dad, aunt & uncle, and a couple others) and told me he doesn’t think 85 is that old.

But it is.

It’s odd, but all I’ve been thinking when I think about him, or see the photos my dad sent along from the party is that his time here with us is probably pretty short. I know, it could be 10 or 15 years, which really is a good long time to enjoy, but it’s a pretty short time, too.

Life passes too quickly.

Today is the 11th anniversary of the day that Jen and I chose to marry. Eleven years. That’s a pretty long time. Today is also the 14th wedding anniversary of some friends of ours. That’s a long time. My dad is celebrating his 40th high school reunion this year. A friend celebrated his 50th not long ago. Jen’s parents celebrated 50 years of marriage a couple weeks ago.

Time passes. It just keeps moving on. And for some reason I am noticing that right now.

I am noticing that Grandpa may not be around much longer, and that makes me want to spend more time with him. I am noticing that Ian is not a little boy anymore. He’s going to turn 10 in a few months. He’s getting older, and experiencing life as Ian Campbell, not just our child. And that makes me want to spend more time with him.

What I am noticing – and have learned in my 33 years of life – is that spending time with people is the most important thing. I have learned also that all things in life must be balanced, but when all is finished, the most important thing is to just love and be loved. (As is evidenced by my just wanting to spend time with the people who are getting older faster than I want them to.)

The hope of those of us who live with Jesus is that the “end” that we are all rushing toward is not really an end at all, but a beginning. That life only changes – and for the better – when we reach the threshold between this life and the next. Grandpa has been a rough character at many times in my life, but he’s my grandpa, and I love him, and sometimes I imagine what it will be like when we both – in our new bodies and complete selves – can, along with the other Redeemed, enjoy the eternal “now” of full life with Jesus. (Now we see darkly…)

I can’t know what happens after we die. The Bible is full of hopeful language of resurrection and paradise and life with no more badness. And life with people we love here. No more curse, no more sin, no more death. Seems a good place to be.

We’re not there yet, but the older I get, the faster it seems we’re headed there.

Who knows, maybe we’ll be there sooner than I think? 🙂

Enjoy the time you have with those who are around you. Call up your grandpa and tell him you love him. Spend time with your son, or dad, or mom, or daughter, or spouse…

Today’s as good a time to do that.

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

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 🙂

by Greg

Our Own Dr. Seuss

A couple weeks ago, our son Alex rediscovered a book that his Grammy had bought him a while back. “A Hatful of Seuss” is a compilation of five Dr. Seuss books. He was reading it on his own and would ask me every night, “Dad, can I read this story to you?” I let him do that one night, until I was reminded of just how long Dr. Seuss stories are!

But it was really cute, and the story was pretty funny – and brought back a lot of memories – so the next night I said I would read a whole story to both the boys. They were excited, and I was looking forward to it, and it turned out to be so great that not only did we do that night, we started getting LOTS more from the library!

From all of this Seuss-ing, a side effect has cropped up. We may have discovered more than just a Seuss book when Alex first dug up that Seuss collection. 🙂

Turns out, Ian was pretty hooked by the writing of Theodore Geisel, and even found a book at our library all about his life. He read it rather quickly, and I believe has pretty much recounted in stories told to mom & dad everything in that book, word for word! He really liked it!

The interesting part is that not only did he like the book, and like telling us the stories… he also has been telling us little snippets from his “inside world” about how he feels like Dr. Seuss. He’s creative, and really identifies with Suess’ style and I think his life. It’s been pretty interesting to see that connection, and hear Ian talk about who he is and what he wants to do in a grander scheme of life.

Guess he is growing up.

So, to encourage that a bit (and just have some fun) we wrote a Buffalo Bills poem yesterday. We made sure to keep to an ABAB rhyme scheme, and even kept the meter at 7 syllables, then 8, then 7, then 8. It’s not quite finished (and maybe not quite Suess-ish, but it was pretty fun! Perhaps we’ll share it here someday. 🙂

Also watched a video recommended by Joe about education and creativity… very interesting. I very much agreed with a lot of what this guy was saying. Mainly, how the way our educational system is set up now, creativity is not only not encouraged, it can be squashed. The more creative types are then pushed aside – or worse, medicated – in order that they might “get in line”.

Watching the video, and seeing Ian recently “discover” some things about himself, reminded me how glad I am that we home school.

So I’ll keep you updated on the progress of our young Dr. Seuss. Should be pretty fun to watch. 🙂

by Greg

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!

by Greg

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.

by Greg

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’!

by Greg

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… 🙂

by Greg

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. 🙂