Following the crowd

Ok, so I took this quiz because my wife did and apparently so did everyone else. I also took it with my wife as I read out loud the questions so that she could appropriately check any ego I might decide to attempt. Here is my score:

134 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Superior Take the test!

What does this all mean? For the 1930's I was a great husband.....I'm just 78 years out of date.

Evenings free

Hmmm....so I find myself for the first time in a long time with my evenings free. For the most part, since June I've been tackling homework every night of the week. It has paid off with now 6 total A's but I always knew what I had to do. It has been almost 6 months and now I find myself on a month long Christmas break. But I don't remember what I did before. I know I did something from 8-11pm every night. I must have! I don't think I just played video games the whole time. I guess now I need to rediscover what it's like to have evenings free.

I started losing my hair when I was 14. I didn't realize it until I was 16 but it has been in steady retreat the whole time. Each kid has increased the receding. Last night I gave myself a haircut* and cut it a bit shorter than I normally do because I wanted to put off another one as long as possible. This morning my kids hit me with some of that truth you never want to hear....

Adeena: "Dad, you got a haircut. You look weird."
Crickett: "They took all the hair on top of your head."

I love my kids. Luckily I decided a long time ago that I was going to take this all in stride and make the jokes first. They definitely beat me to the punchline this time.

*Michelle got me a haircutting kit 5-7 years ago and when your hair is as 'limited' as mine it's cheaper and easier to do it yourself. Plus, I haven't had to pay a dime for cutting Ethan's hair. :)

Growing up is hard to do

The great thing about binkies is you can take them away. Crickett never used a binky. She found her fingers instead. So the problem we have come across is that now as she approaches her 4th birthday we are trying to get her to stop sucking on them. Why? Well other than messing up the growth of her fingers it can also mess up her teeth so she requires braces....a very expensive issue indeed. I have been getting after her about it. I told her if I caught her doing it I would take away one piece of Halloween candy. This appears to only work when I'm around as was demonstrated yesterday when I called home.

Michelle was talking to me on the phone and I heard her telling Crickett not to suck on her fingers or Daddy would take away her candy, to which Crickett replied, "Do you see him around here anywhere?" Oh great, I can see I'm having some real impact there.

And then today, she got her bear which is a big indication that finger-sucking will shortly ensue and so I waited and watched for it. Just before she put them in I told her not to do it. So she looked at me and said she was going into the playroom. I looked back at her and told her she better not suck her fingers. She said she was going to go into the short part of the playroom where I couldn't see her. What great logic! Because I can't see her, even though I'm here, it's ok. Any help here would be great. I don't think Child Protective Services would be too keen on me sewing a glove permanently onto her hand. Maybe I can soak her fingers in vinegar or garlic. I don't know. Candy doesn't seem to be a big enough motivator. THAT I don't understand at all. I don't know who's kid she is. Candy has ALWAYS motivated me!

I never thought I would be pro-binky but after this struggle, they are way easier to cure.

Lost in Communication

"Hi"
"Hi there, how's it going?"
"Pretty good. How about you?"
"Not bad. You never call anymore. What's going on?"
"Well, I read your blog. I guess I feel that keeps me up to date on what you're doing. Do you read mine?"
"But reading my blog isn't like talking to me. I don't laugh with you, I don't share all of my thoughts and feelings on there!"
"You didn't answer my question, do you read mine?"
"Of course."
"You don't call either, you know."
"Oh....true. Sorry. Do you have time to talk?"
"No, I need to write a new post for my blog."
"Ok, I'll read it later."
"Sounds great. Bye."
"Bye."

The "Truth" about Santa

My wife and I were discussing Santa and when it was that we found out the "truth". She can share her stories later if she likes but I figure I'll send mine out into the world because I can. Just make sure you pay me royalties if you put it in your book.

The school year after I turned 12, my oldest brother left for college in Massachusetts. This meant a vacant room in the house. Up until this time I had shared a room with my 3 younger brothers. Being the middle of 7 kids, I'm not sure I had ever had a room all to myself before this time. But since my other two older sibling already had their own rooms, I got to move into the closet. You might think I'm exagerating. My standard twin bed fit wall-to-wall on one side of the room. It was originally built as my mom's sewing room which is what led to my final piece of innocence being ripped from my soul and flushed down the toilet like a dead goldfish. But after 7 kids she got the boot to the adjacent family room. Anyway, I moved in just before school started and was thrilled to finally have my own space. I'm sure my little brothers were glad I was gone too because I'm a bit weird and back then was a tad of a collector.

In this room was a window. Not a glass one but basically a large opening to the family room covered by wooden shutters. This was so my mom, when sewing, could look in on the kids playing in the family room. I think the shutters were installed so Paul(my oldest brother) could have some privacy. Now it gets a tad fuzzy from here. I'm not sure if it was that first Christmas or the next one but one of those two is when I found out. Christmas was ALWAYS in the family room.

The Christmas I learned the "truth" I had gone to bed in eager anticipation of what I might find the next morning. I believe I had asked for a dual-cassette deck player with a radio in it so I could copy tapes and record music off the radio. Yeah, do you remember doing that too? At some point during the night, Santa got really noisy with the tools trying to put together the ping pong table. I woke up and listened intently. At this point I'm pretty sure I had an idea that it was my parents but no solid proof. Then I heard my dad. He has a very distinct voice. And then I heard him say something that shocked me even more....he told Paul to bring him a screwdriver. Paul?? I got out of bed as quiety as I could and slunk over to the blinds. I slowly opened one a little bit and saw that the family room was ablaze in lights. Apparently a ping pong table is hard to put together with only one or two lights on. And sure enough, there was Paul helping my dad. The "truth" had been revealed. But not just the truth about Santa but the truth about my parents recruting the older kids for help!! I couldn't believe Paul was in on this and hadn't said anything!

And then my second oldest brother and my sister walked into the room with my mom. What?!?!? They all were in on this??? Why didn't anyone tell me!? I was flabbergasted and a little upset. I heard my dad say, "This table isn't for climbing on or playing games on or having a picnic on." I don't remember much after that so I think I went back to bed and fell asleep.

My naive belief was gone. No more could I push the burden of proof that he wasn't real on others. Santa had a belly that was round and shook like bowl full of jelly alright but he slept upstairs and never grew a beard. Part of me was crushed. However, I could have kept this a secret. I could have played dumb...except I did play dumb the next day.

After presents were opened and we were admiring our loot, my dad got everyone's attention and started on a speech about our new ping pong table that 'Santa' had brought. He said, "This table isn't for climbing all over or playing games on...." and as he paused to take a breath, I finished with, "or have a picnic on." My dad whirled and looked at me. Doh! I had forgotten that I wasn't supposed to have been privy to this information. All he said to me then and we never talked about it again was, "Someone stayed up later than they should have last night." My secret was out. I knew. And I knew that my dad knew I knew, ya know.

I have never told him that it was his banging around that woke me up. We never discussed that this was the first time I had real proof about the "truth". And I was never asked to help with Christmas until I was almost ready to leave the house some six plus years later. And that is the truth.

Just some Meanderings(you didn't think I really had them did you?)

Well, I just got done reading the blogs of some of the people in our ward and busted a gut. I wish I could write stuff like that. But then it also brings into sharp relief how much I don't seem to notice or give enough attention to in my own life. I'm sure my kids are as cute and funny....I just can't remember when. Has working and schooling full-time just blinded me to my family or have I always been this oblivious? Don't ask Michelle...I think she'd agree with the later.

Anyway, I've discovered that there are a great many movies from my childhood that I wanted my kids to see. Partly because I remember them being good and partly because I'm a big movie-quoter. So it was that I set out with zeal to acquire Mary Poppins. I think it's a movie everyone should see at least once in their life if not more. I finally won an ebay auction and my dvd arrived. Our family has now watched it at least 10 times in like 2 weeks. I know my kids have watched it twice in the same day at least once. After watching it the last time, I decided I needed to make the every popular "Things that we learn from" list. So with no further ado....

Things we learn from Mary Poppins

1. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down....but it doesn't make it taste any better.
2. Laughter is good for the soul but leaves footprints on the ceiling.
3. When destroying your children's good intentions, use a garbage can not a fireplace.
4. Spending less than 10 minutes a day with your children causes you to go through a lot of nannies.
5. Sometimes we have to get sacked to see beyond the end of our own noses.
6. Go fly a kite...just not in too dense of a neighborhood, around power lines, or in Eagle Mountain.
7. If you can afford a cook, a housekeeper and a nannie, I have little sympathy for your troubles.
8. Don't fall in love with a magic nanny or you'll spend your life working a dozen or more odd jobs waiting for her to settle down.
9. Women only want to settle down with men who have a direction in life.
10. Dick Van Dyke was a master and less crude than Jim Carrey.
11. Don't draw on the sidewalk in London...it rains too much there.
12. When you don't know what to say, muttering jibberish works and makes you feel better.
13. We still don't know the name of his other leg!
14. Witches fly on brooms, nannies use umbrellas.
15. They say it's luck that rubs off but it's really just soot.
and finally
16. There is a place near Suffock Bridge that's popular with jumpers.

I'm sure there a plenty more but it's late and I'm tired. Goodnight.

Tagged by association

I read Rheana's blog and she said if I read it I was tagged. Since I've never been tagged before and I'm kinda a sucker for surveys too, here goes my tag. If you read this, let me know because so far I only believe that one person actually looks at this besides me. :)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper because then I can wrap things in fun-shaped boxes to hide their real identities.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real smell nice and it's the only kind of tree I'm NOT allergic to. But they are also expensive and we got an artificial one from my parents for free some years ago. So until we're rich *cough* artificial it will be.
3. When do you put up the tree? It used to be the day after Thanksgiving or that weekend. Then we had kids who wouldn't stay away from it and we couldn't keep them away. This year I'm thinking the week of Christmas unless a miracle happens and the twins learn to leave things alone.
4. When do you take the tree down? When I get around to it. Usually the weekend after Christmas or so.
5. Do you like eggnog? Heavenly nectar it is!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Hard to say but the only one I still have is an electronic chess set. I wanted to be able to play chess even when no one wanted to play with me.
7. Hardest person to buy for? The siblings we draw names of. Michelle and my kids are easy to shop for.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Adeena. She loves books. All of them.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? *sigh* We had 3. But between the enablers(older 3 kids) and the criminals(the twins), I lost one of my favorites this year. *small tear runs down my cheek*
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? What are these Christmas cards you speak of?
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? It was on my mission. I got a bag of candy and my bathrobe that I left home.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Miracle on 34th Street the remake.
13 When do you start shopping for Christmas? Once we nail down what the kids want. Usually not until Black Friday.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Not intentionally.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? my mother-in-law's homemade chocolates
16. Lights on the tree? Absolutely, they make the ornaments all sparkly and we all know that my wife LOVES sparkly things. :)
17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night. It used to be Angels We Have Heard on High because I could sing each Gloria in one breath. But after singing O Holy Night for a sacrament meeting on my mission...it wins.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home. Why add stress to my holiday by packing it up and hauling it somewhere else?
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen and Rudolph. Already listed but if you don't know them.....I pity you.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Definitely a Star.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We do Christmas Eve at Michelle's parent's house so the kids all get to open something up there and Michelle usually makes PJ's for the kids to wear to bed. We did buy them one year but shhhhhhh!
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The "X"-mas concept. Although I find it interesting that the harder life is for people in general, the more "Christ" I see in Christmas. Otherwise, I love the excitment, the eggnog(sorry Honey), the baked goods....*drools*, the atmosphere of love and giving.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Pretty.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Whatever. Christmas dinner hasn't been a big deal for me for a long time.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I want Mario-Kart for my Wii. Really it's more for my kids but I think it will be fun. I'm pretty simple so I don't think much about what I 'want' so much as what I need. It drives Michelle crazy.

Merry Christmas!!

'Tis the season for relatives

Oh what a wonderful time of the year. This is the season of family togetherness. A time when we all look forward to trying to cram work parties, ward parties, friend's parties, birthdays, anniversaries and maybe a holiday or two onto calendars that for some reason don't get any bigger. Why is that? This is probably one of my most frustrating times of the year as we have out-of-state relatives who pop in for brief vacations and coordinating schedules to be able to see each other can be a logistical nightmare. Fortunately, this year we cuaght a break. Well, I guess it depends on your definition of "fortunately". My work decided to cut back on expenses and drew the mighty budget sword, slaying our poor Christmas party and taking it's head back to the board members to glory in their slaughter. I wasn't too thrilled about that because it's something we've looked forward to every year since I started at my current company. It's slightly odd for me to realize that this will be my 6th Christmas there as I don't feel like it's been that long.

Anyway, all of this is on top of the inevitable who's house are we going to on Thanksgiving issue. You can read Aaron Ball's rant on this topic on his blog and I share some of that. The problem is that her parent's do a traditional and very good dinner and my family....well, sometimes traditional and mostly ok dinner. Her dad watches football before and after dinner...booyeah!! Ummm...where would you want to be?? And considering that I'm as close to my family emotionally as I am to them physically, I'd rather follow the food. Food, glorious food.

So here's a glass of eggnog to dayplanners, Outlook Calendars and a million sticky notes that desparately try to get us every where we want to be on time so we can see all of the people we care about during this holiday season.

Crying myself to sleep

I just spent 30 minutes composing a post about my 10th anniversary and what we did and blogger freaking errored out on me and I lost it all. I can't bear to re-create it. I'm just going to cry myself to sleep now. Stupid blogger.

Update: The post I thought got nuked is now posted below!!! Happy reading! 12-07-08

It's 6 o'clock on a Saturday...AM that is

So yesterday was our 10th anniversary. As blogged yesterday but that was early in the day so I'll give a recap of stuff. We spent most of the day together, even if it was just sitting next to each other while she looked at her crafting websites and I coded in Java for my computer science class. Lots of cuddling and kissing which Crickett said was, "dee-sgusting" and covered her eyes when we were doing it. It was funny and cute. After the kids got home we packed them all up and hauled them off to Michelle's friends house. Yvonne had volunteered to watch our kids for our anniversary so we dropped them off at a quarter to 5. She had dinner and a whole evenings worth of activities planned. We were thrilled but Michelle really wanted to pick them up by 9 to avoid the cranky, tired whining on the way home. We still ended up getting some from Adeena but most everybody else was pretty good. Then we went to a craft shop called 3 Wishes so Michelle could get a shuttle for her loom and some Merino wool to blend with some of her other fiber. I was surprised where it was at because I'd driven by it quite a bit as I went to the DI off of Redwood and 70th south and to Harbor Freight.

*Tangent: Harbor Freight has some of the best deals on stuff!! I got a bunch of work gloves for(nice leather and canvas ones) for Hearts for the Holidays there for 99 cents on one of their sales. The cool thing is they have quite a bit that is regularly priced better than I've seen it at Home Depot or Lowes. I also just got me an 8 gallon, 2 hp air compressor for $99! I had to do a little dance when I got home even though I still haven't taken it out of the box. /Tangent

After 3 Wishes, we went to Fantastic Sam's because Michelle said she was going to get her hair cut. For any of you who had seen it, her hair was down to her backside. It was just plain long. It was pretty but long hair gets pulled a lot on accident because it's EVERYWHERE!! Not a burden I have to worry about. Now, I grew up with 5 brothers and 1 sister. I have never actually seen a girl get her hair cut. I haven't even been in a barber shop in 9 years. Michelle kept looking at her watch and was suddenly quite nervous about whacking it all off. And whack she did. She cut off more than she kept. Which amazingly means she still has hair about 14" long and took off 16". But to watch the stylist cut her hair was so fascinating for me. I never knew they cut girl's hair that way. But she did it! And she looks very beautiful with her new cut.

We had an epic journey trying to find a restaurant for our anniversary. We considered places like La Caille, The Roof and got some recommendations from friends for the Tiberon. Michelle wanted French food but the only other French restaurant in Salt Lake, outside of La Caille, wasn't any cheaper and not really the ambiance we wanted. After looking at a ton of menus, she decided she really kinda wanted seafood and none of those places had a good seafood selection. So instead of someplace fancy, we went to Red Lobster. Which is apparently a very popular anniversary dinner spot as 3 other tables right around us were also celebrating their anniversaries. The food was good and we got very stuffed.

Oh and Michelle wore her shawl. It took her 5 months to complete. You can see pictures of it on her blog which is in my blog list called My Wife's Design Studio. I'm very proud of her and it looked fabulous.

And for some inexplicable reason, I woke up at 6 am and couldn't go back to sleep. Almost as if there was some impending danger. I can't really explain it. Nothing is wrong but I couldn't sleep so here I am blogging. It's taken me a long time to write this and the twins are stirring now that it's 7 am. Keeping them up late doesn't buy us any time in the morning. I'm not sure why. It works with the other 3.

Anyway, I'm just sending this out into the void, good morning dear void.

10 years ago

10 years and 50 minutes ago I married the most amazing woman. She dazzled me with her cooking and sewing skills and her wacky spontaneity. Today not much has changed. Her crafting skills have expanded into card-making, scrapbooking, knitting, spinning, and soon weaving. She has helped me expand my cooking skills to help out in the kitchen. Her wacky spontaneity has been worn down by years of children and financial frugality. My love for her has only deepened over the years. We have been through a lot of hard time together: 3 layoffs, school the first time and now school the second, me working two jobs for 2 and half years, 4 pregnancies, 5 kids, twins, me being stupid over and over and over. But we've made it so far.

So here is to the next 10 years and no more children than we already have and hopefully better times down the road.

Saving the economy

I have done it!! I have figured out how to save the economy without getting us into another bad situation later from it. And it will help the auto industry. After 9/11, Bush told everyone to go out and buy a car. Well that got people into car payments and when you have some debt, why not have more?? Joe-Six-Pack can't afford to go out and buy a $15-20K car when he's only making $40K a year! BUT he can afford to go out and spend $30-$40 seeing a movie. So encourage average Americans to go out and see a movie one weekend a month. Then turn to all of those rich Hollywood stars and tell them to spend just 1 of their millions of dollars buying regular cars(no luxury models or trucks or SUVs) and giving them away to average Americans across the country. That will get people out of car payments because they get a free car, it will stimulate the economy because car payment money now can go for other spending. It won't put the average American into a financial bind and pump money into the auto industry. Plus, it will only cost the rich Hollywood actor/ress 1 of their many millions. If they start a charity first and run it through that it would even be a tax write-off.

Someone forward this to Obama please.

Knock and it shall be opened...or do it yourself.

*heavy sigh* This has been a long time coming and they have been at it for a while now but the twins are opening doors. Our last safe guard of all things we don't want them touching is gone. The one comfort that we could let them play without having to keep an eye or ear on them at all times has vanished in one big cloud of baby powder - one more thing I'm glad we don't use anymore. At first it was just the inside doors....so we lost bedroom and bathroom privacy if we don't lock the door. All of the little things in the older kids rooms are now fair game. I don't think Adeena and Crickett will have much make-up leftover if the twins ever grow out of this.

There are some upsides however. They can now go downstairs on their own and if an older sibling shuts the door, they can open it instead of crying and screaming about it. Because they travel together a lot, if I need the wipes when changing a diaper, the other one can retrieve them. Cameron does not like having a messy or really wet diaper. Many times he will come to us and pat his bum babbling. We ask if he needs a new diaper and he says, "Huh" - closest thing to yes he says. So we can tell him to go get a diaper and lay down. And he does! It's very cute and very helpful.

They can now also open the front and garage doors too. Which wouldn't be too bad if it weren't getting so cold outside! Consequently, both doors have to remain locked during all waking-twins hours. *sigh*

I know I shouldn't be so surprised since I have 3 other kids but Ethan and Adeena were this age in our West Valley house that had much less to get into. And Crickett was so dang short for so long, by the time she could open doors, she knew better than to get into a lot the stuff she shouldn't! So it's been almost 5 years since we had a kid who could get into things but didn't/pretends to not know better. And I'm sorry but raising kids is NOT like riding a bike. I've endured a whole lot more pain with each child then I ever did every time I started riding a bike again. Bike don't pull hair(hey, I still have a little), poke eyes, pinch, headbutt or try and jam pointy little fingers into your mouth.

Give me the cloth and stand back!!

Hmmm....my laptop screen is really dirty. There must be a ton of dust in the air at work because I don't notice it there but I'm sitting here staring through a nice layer thinking it was just the brightness of my screen that was down...alas it was that too but with it up the dust isn't as noticable. Can you spit shine a laptop screen? Would that look proper in the Computer Science lab?

Seeing the world through blog eyes

The online world is quickly blurring the line between virtual and reality. We share so much of our lives sometimes in blogs that are readily accessible to the entire world. I know they did a news report on the danger of having public blogs. I didn't see it. That would require watching TV and I didn't even watch the new Simpson's Treehouse of Horror on Sunday despite actually wanting to. I totally forgot to record it as well. Good grief.

Anyway, so I was contemplating this as I sat here in class listening to my instructor say "um" more times than I'm comfortable with and reading Aaron's blog. I even posted a comment. I'm usually a long-time reader never-time commentor because I'm too lazy. Then I jumped over to his wife's blog and read a little more. They are very open and expressive in sharing about their family and I began to think more about the warnings when I went to the blog of a friend of mine from high school. She is taking her blog private out of those privacy fears and wanted people to post their email addresses for access.

Do I share too much? Do I care? Is this another instance of giving into the terrorists if I take this thing private? At last common sense arrived and I realized that nobody probably reads this thing anyway. I'm not in "the group" and neither is my wife. Her blog was just recently visited by some of them and I sent her my blog address. My latest check still showed no link to my blog on her site. *sigh* Not even my wife wants to read my blog. DOH!!

Well I reckon I should probably pay attention again and let this post to the world of one...that would be me. Perhaps the only way I will ever see much of the world until I graduate is through the eyes of their blogs. Perhaps.

Lyrically inclined

I don't know about you but I find myself singing songs in the car. Not to the radio necessary. Maybe it's just a result of loving to sing and being a writer. I sang in the shower as a kid - great acoustics. I didn't know until I was older that almost everyone in the house could hear me. DOH! But I loved to sing about my life, my heart-aches and frustrations. And I didn't know any songs that said exactly how I was feeling, so I made the lyrics up as I went. Now it's in the car not the shower so I don't wake my beautiful wife up.

Some of the lyrics I've written have come from other places but these came to me after listening to a song on the radio. I don't even remember which song it was but this one came out and if I could write music, I'd share the tune but alas, no such luck. Maybe one day I'll record it and post it on YouTube then link it here but we'll see.

I Wasn't

Where was I
when he fell and scraped his knee?
Where was I
when he called out for me?

Where was I
on her first day of school?
Where was I
when he first used a tool?
Where was I?

Where was I
when my family fell apart?
Where was I
to mend your broken heart?
Where was I
instead of doing my part?
Where, where, where, oh where was I?

Where was I
when she lost her first tooth?
Where was I
when you sat down and told them the truth?

Where was I
when you started to cry?
Where was I
when the tears filled their eyes?
Where was I?

Where was I
when my family fell apart?
Where was I
to mend your broken heart?
Where was I instead of doing my part?
Where, oh where, where was I?

On the road in some small motel,
hundreds of miles from home
but minutes from hell.
I pick up the phone
and listen to the tone
but I still don't have an answer
for "Where was I".

Where was I
when I tore my family apart?
Where was I
when I was breaking your heart?
Where was I
instead of doing my part?
Where, where, where, oh where was I?
Where, oh where......
where was I?


I know part of this came from feeling like I was missing out on my kids' lives. I delivered pizzas at night for 2 and a half years to pay the bills. Now I'm in semester 2 of 3 and a half years for a degree. I often find myself asking, "Where was I?"

Spook-tacular!

Twas the day before Halloween and all through the house, there was no sign of the season, not even a decapitated mouse.
The costumes were made(mostly) in a pile downstairs as my wife worked to finish the last one for our son, he'll be Pooh Bear.
Our few decorations are still in a box even though our neighbors have lights, jack-o-lanterns and witches in socks.
Our kids are excited and who wouldn't be? They get to go house to house and get candy for free.
Out on our lawn the grass is slowly going yellow. There are no headstones or spiderwebs or arms in wheelbarrows.
With kids in costumes and us in our coats, we'll head out tomorrow among superheros and ghosts.
They'll say "Trick or treat!" as we go door-to-door and somehow I feel they'll wish they got more.
But when all is said and done and they are sound asleep in their beds, hopefully no nightmares filling their heads,
we'll be responsible parents as we know we should, sorting through their candy and taking out what is good.

Being worthy of your spouse

There is a great line in the movie, "An Ideal Husband" at the very end. As he is walking down the isle with his new bride, Lord Arthur Goring's father says, "You don't deserve her." To which Arthur replies, "If we men married the women we deserved, we would have a very hard time of it." And so it is that I come to blog again.

Last Friday night we went to see the musical "The Ark" by Michael McClean. It's a cute musical and very fun about Noah and his sons and their wives on the Ark. There is a lot of interplay about the relationships and how most of the husband's just don't get it one way or another. One is rebellious, one is a gadget freak and one is a momma's boy. Two of them are newly weds. It was so easy to see mistakes of these husbands and I came away laughing and glad I wasn't them. Unfortunately, I am.

This came into sharp relief on Saturday as I made rude and stupid remarks to my wife. I acted without thinking (an age old male custom) and the tension in our house was suffocating. Eventually we talked it through an I apologized for my jerkiness. It took until Sunday for the tension to fade but luckily, the lesson has not....yet. I'm hoping to learn it. I need to think before I speak. Speak before I decide. And decided before I act. A lot of men skip to the last part making a decision in haste with no thought. It makes you wonder why our wives let us have power tools.......

In the end I have been humbled. My ego has been shown it's rightful place and I appreciate my beautiful wife more. I fear that 10 years of me and 5 kids along the way has worn her patience down to almost nothing. So I had better learn this lesson or it will be a long 10 more years sleeping on the couch.

Sick day

Today has been a sick day. Not that I stayed home but I didn't realize I was sick until I was on my way to work and my throat started hurting. I have that flu ache that hurts at your joints and makes moving a real effort. My head is fuzzy. I seem to be fixiated on hippos and umbrellas and tapioca pudding. I'm sure there is good reason. I've had to retype about 15 words since I started...make that 16. Wish I could sleep but here I sit in my computer science class not really paying attention because she is rehashing everything about 10 times. Not only is the horse dead but we buried it 20 minutes ago and she is pounding on the dirt. I have a conference call for my communications class after I get home. Tomorrow, I'm gonna be buried next to the horse. Don't let her beat my dirt.

Over the river and through the traffic

So it's been a while since I bothered to post anything. I should be more diligent but I'm taking 4 classes this semester and I'm swamped, feeling overwhelmed and generally losing more hair. I know it's hard to tell. I'm taking 3 classes online and one at night after work. The hardest part about that for our family has been that Ethan has been doing soccer. He wanted to play so badly there was no way we could say no and we had no idea when we did sign-ups in June what September would be like for us.

I have been able to see the last few minutes of a couple of his games but not much when he has been playing. I have spent virtually no time with him working on his game because I always seem to find other things I need to do. I never was very good about managing my time. But due to "Fall Break" I didn't have class on Thursday and got to watch the entirety of his final game. He played goalie in the second quarter and did really well. I was proud of him. Then he played defender for the 4th quarter. He has really improved and likes playing defense.

The twins are getting more able....and that is some good but mostly bad. They can open the fridge and throw eggs on the floor or dump peach gravy out. They can find pens and crayons that seem to appear out of nowhere and draw all over our walls. They can take toys from each other and scream very loudly when their brother takes a toy away. They can climb up on chairs and table and break ceramic nativities. Good thing they are cute or I'd be in the market for some gypsies.

For my birthday this year I got WII. Yeah, the video games in this house are Dad's. But Ethan wanted to play it so much that I finally decided he needed to read a book before he could play. The best thing I ever did. His reading ability jumped leaps and bounds. Now he is more confident and does so great at reading. Whoever thought getting a video game system would improve my son's reading??

We are having scones for dinner. I found this great recipe here: http://workingwomanfood.blogspot.com/2007/12/christmas-traditions.html. And after too many interuptions for snack and diaper-changes and more hair-losing, I'm out like a 'no down payment, adjustable-rate interest-only mortgage'.

Guess what, Honey? It's an 'A'!

The summer semester is over. It was brutal and long and I didn't feel like I really had a summer. But it's over and to my disbelief, I got A's. No '-''s just A's. For the first time in my life I got a 4.0 GPA. *listens to the stunned silence of his siblings and parents* Yeah, that's what I thought your reaction might be. I am just as surprised. I owe it all to a whip-cracking(supportive and encouraging) wife. Seriously. Without her, I might have some B's and C's but she wouldn't let me be content with that. She knows I can do better and I'd better do it. :) I also have to give some thanks to lenient managers who let me take a class during the day and didn't mind me doing homework when I had some waiting time.

I can't fully express what it means to me to get a 4.0. I did horribly in middle school and only sort of pulled my act together in high school. Sure I graduated with a 3.6 but there are a lot of chior, theatre and creative writing credits padding that. It's not that I wasn't smart enough...I was just lazy. I procrastinated. I didn't have the drive for perfection. And I'm pretty sure I didn't believe I could do it. I had 4.0 older and younger siblings. I'm almost positive my 3.6 is the lowest overall GPA of any of my siblings. But I wasn't as smart. I wasn't as good. Granted my drive for this 4.0 was me being thrown in the trunk and my wife steering and holding the gas pedal down but I did it. I took the tests, did the assignments. I DID it. I stared at the computer screen for hours studying. I DID IT!!! Of course now...the only problem is I know I can, I know I should and now...I can't settle for anything less. Crap.

Being exhausted...and other parental myths

What a summer this has been. On July 3rd and I had 5 tons of 3/4" rock dumped on the street in front of my house. It was so heavy it shook the houses and my neighbors wondered if we were having an earthquake. I don't want to count the amount of wheelbarrow loads that I hauled as I laid rock over weed blocking material down both sides of my house and a 10'ish by 10'ish pad in by the back 'fence'. That doesn't include the loads of pea gravel I moved to make space for that pad. But it's done. It was long hard, heavy work and I lost inches even if I didn't lose weight. Which is at least some consolation for the back-breaking arm dislocating labor. Oh and I had to dig up a bunch of weeds to make space for the rock. In the end I was able to look proudly at my work and it looks so much nicer than the weeds that used to live there.

Well, while that was going on my garden was growing. Not anything I wanted to harvest but a couple of weeds were as tall as the 6' fence. Last week I took some 'weed-death-juice' to them and watched them go from green to tall yellow-brown sentinals of pokey evil. I was hoping to be able to pawn the job off on some local boys for cheap. Think Young Men's service project. But I never got around to organizing it and the boys who's mom said they might be interested never called. I wouldn't have either. You would have needed to pay me quite a bit if it wasn't my own yard. We're cheap. We don't pay quite a bit.

So this morning I went out to play paintball at the unholy hour of 6am. It was a nice temp out at least. I got to use my flatline barrell that I got for Father's Day finally. I also learned why paintballs break in barrells. It was a couple of really good games though and I enjoyed it. But what the heck does that have to do with the price of SlimJims at 7-11? Well, then I came home and took a nap. THEN, I told my wife that I needed to mow the lawn and I was considering pulling weeds. She said she would rather I pull weeds than mow the lawn...and if I was only going to do one, it should be weeds. But I didn't mow the lawn last week. So it's two weeks of "growth" that needs to be cut. I went outside and decided it was only going to be one. Weeds, here I come.

Now I sit here with legs so tired that I can barely stand. You can see the garden again. That's good, right? With school this summer I just haven't taken care of my yard like I want to....ok to be honest I never take care of my yard like I want to. But I took care of it even less than that. It's just lucky we have autmatic sprinklers or it wouldn't be watered either!

And now I'm being begged for some ring-around-the-rosey with my twins so I'll be signing off.

Taking a left turn

I'm halfway through the first real week of a new job. It's not a company change or a career "change" per sey. It's more of a left turn. Just like real left turns I had to wait to for a while for traffic to clear so I had an opening to go into but I've known that this is where I wanted to be for some time.

So the saga began in early May when one of the Software testers in engineering came and told me they had an opening on their team. I had applied for a couple of testing jobs already and talked to lots of people in engineering about being a tester and eventually becoming a developer. Well I sent my resume to the hiring manager only to find out that authorization for the position hadn't been approved yet but he'd let me know.

A week later I had a meeting with my boss and he asked if I was going to apply for anymore testing jobs. I said no because with school starting soon I was worried about trying to get back into school after a decade and learning a new job. School started and was just as I feared but my good wife keeps me focused. Then at the end of May, the hiring manager contacts me and says the position is open am I interested? I just don't know. I ask him if I can have the weekend and over the next few days I pray and stress about it. By Sunday night I know. So Monday I contact him and tell him I'm interested.

My boss wasn't happy but he shares some of the blame for me looking elsewhere. But I knew that this was a great opportunity and my schooling is to go into development so this gets me a foot in the door. I finally took the left turn.

With the help of my great wife, I've made the transition and found something wonderful!! This job is so much less stress that I can't even believe it! I don't dread coming into work knowing I have more work to do than I can accomplish. I don't prepare myself for dealing with whatever attitude my coworker decides to show up with or adopt during the day. It has not been so hard learning the new things as I have already been in school for a month and that part of my brain has been jump-started again.

And to cap it all off, I get to have a root canal on Friday. Joy just can't put into words how I feel about that.

Alive and well in America

There are a few things I have learned from this presidential election so far. The biggest has been that bigotry is alive and well. Oh we have come a great distance in race and gender as displayed with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama duking it out for the Democratic nomination. Yes, our ablity to tolerate things we can't change(no matter how hard Michael Jackson has tried) has greatly increased in the country. That is great progress but what about the things we can change?

What religion is Barack? Christian of some sort, I gather because his former pastor's keep mouthing off and I'm not even sure Clinton is religious. McCain has to belong to some religion or he wouldn't have won the Republican party. But are their religions splashed all over the news? Do we refer to them as Baptist McCain or Catholic Clinton? Yet while Mitt Romney was in the running for the Republicans, it was always Mormon Mitt. Will the country let a Mormon be President?? Why should it matter? Should we let an athiest or a Muslim or a Scientologist? It was never about the issues, it was about his religion. This is where we as a country show how back-woods we really are.

Does Obama's church sacrefice chickens and pray to large idol of Elizabeth Taylor? Does anyone even know ...or care? What is so wrong with being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints? Although I do go for some KFC now and again and during the polygamy days there were a few men that had more wives than Taylor has had husbands, there is nothing weird or scary or demonic about this religion. I know. I belong to it. I read the same Bible you do...King James Version even. I believe everything in there just like other Christians, yet they say I'm not one. I don't know what Christ you believe in but mine says to be tolerant of others.

And we have another book. The Book of Mormon. I carry it along side my Bible. It's stated purpose is to help us believe in the Bible. To prove that the Bible is true. But maybe you read a different version of the Bible? Perhaps one that has been "translated" into modern language? Who did that translation? Was he a prophet like the men who wrote it? Did he live over 4000 years ago so he knows what they were trying to say? Has God approved his interpretation of the original text?

Is old English hard to understand sometime? Oh yeah. Isaiah. Man he wrote some confusing stuff. Wouldn't it be nice if God called another prophet so we could understand everything he wants us to know? He did and has. And to make sure there was no doubting that God had his hand in it, he called a poorly educated farm boy. His aspirations were to be a farmer like his dad. He was no religious scholar. For his vision and his calling he was jailed. He did nothing illegal and yet until the 1990's it was still legal to kill a "Mormon" in Missouri. He was tarred and feathered, starved and they even attempted to poison him on several occassions. Why put up with that? Why not fight back? Because that's not what Jesus did. They were ran out of homes and off land they rightfully owned. Now someone else does without a dime going to the person who paid for it. They moved from place to place to avoid confrontation instead of encourage it. And finally, they were driven beyond the bounds of civilization. That prophet, Joseph Smith, sitting in a jail cell on fake charges and submitting willingly to the punishment and torture as an innocent man should, was shot by a mob and died. His brother was killed almost immediately afterward. Never once did he renounce his teachings or testimony. He sealed it with his innocent blood. Just like his Savior did before him.

Ignorance and false information are the instigators of this bigotry. Fear, hate, all unfounded. You can think me odd for paying a full 10% of my income in tithing, for not drinking coffee or alcohol or smoking. But I still believe Mitt would have been a better candidate than John McCain. I feel sorry that his religion got singled out and dished in the headlines instead of his character or platform. Yep, we call ourselves enlightened as we look at Barack running for President but before it was black man and a woman battling it out, once again the prejudice reigned supreme and Mitt was forced out. He didn't go out fighting, he didn't hang in there "just in case" and he didn't make as big of a deal out of his religion as the press did. Nope, he bowed out, gracefully. Moved on, as his ancestors had so long ago.

That's what I've learned so far. It's an education I wish I hadn't gotten.

Chapter 1

It was a dark and stormy night as she hurried to lock all of the doors and windows as the wind screamed against them. Too dark and stormy if you asked her. Sure it was a quiet street most of the time, a few teenagers drove by blasting their car stereos now and again but nothing really bad. But tonight, with Gerald two states away on business, something made her blood run cold and once she had them all locked, she retreated to her bedroom where she pulled the blinds and curtains. She sat on her bed and grabbed the remote off the nightstand. "Maybe TV will drown out this storm," she said out loud and to no one but herself. She clicked it on and started to surf through channels when the screen went black. The room went black. The power was out. As she sat there consumed by the darkness of the night that had engulfed her home, she heard the faint crash and tinkle of breaking glass from downstairs. The darkness was coming in and in panic she froze.

Snoopy has started a story with a dark and stormy night many times in Peanut's comic's strips and sadly I don't get all of them. Charles Schultz was a great cartoonist but sometimes a little over my head bless his soul. I just had this crazy thought of starting a story the way Snoopy does and see where it goes. That was fun and rather interesting. On to something else....

School at 30

So I started school....again....for the 3rd time now. While the 1st two times were only 2 years apart...it has now been almost a decade. Does that make me feel old? Oh yeah. I'm only actually going to campus for 1 of my 3 classes this semester and while I know I look older than most of the people in my class, oddly, I don't feel older. I do feel a little wiser because let's face it: I have 5 kids and some of my classmates still live at home. But another part of that is that when I address my professors, I do so by first name because I feel on the same level with them as opposed to when I was still a kid and looked up to them. That seems weird to me but maybe it's not. I have re-learned one fact that I am surprised I forgot. I hate math. I think it stems from me being right-brained and math being a left-brained thing. We have never gotten along. Much like Homer Simpson when he takes the science class to get his diploma, "'Ok brain, I don't like you and you don't like me. But let's get through this and I'll go back to killing you with beer.' 'It's a deal.'" This would not really be a problem except that for some stupid reason they believe that math and computer science are tied together. If I was going to be an electrical engineer or maybe a hardware guy or something then I suppose that makes sense but I'm going to be a programmer. The most math I need to be able to do is line 1 plus 2 =line 3 unless line 2 is an invalid entry in which case print error 15 and return to line 2. I mean seriously....does anyone actually use quadratic formula in real life? Are you really ever faced with an Au^2+Bu+C=0 that doesn't factor? The only sine I really need to worry about is the Stop one. And I only cosine with my wife when we feel it absolutely necessary. Although I admit I do go off on tangents rather frequently. Co-tangents just get confusing though and people start to wonder if you have multiple personalities. Evil it is. Required as well so if I want to get a real degree I guess I'll suffer through and hope I don't end up in a dark alley with Pythagorean.

Mid-life ponderings....or things that make you go hmmm

So I only turn 31 this year which is hardly mid-life...and if it is my wife is going to be very pissed off. But anyway, as I was looking over my blog, I realized that it tends to the deep and philosophical side as opposed to the light whimsical side that I love to read. I love Dave Barry. So why the crap am I being so thoughty? Is it because I feel at a crossroads in my life? I have a great job, I love it but another department is trying to get me to join them where I would get paid more and I got a call the other day from a company that wants to interview me if I'm interested. I have never had this kind of employement opportunities...ever. I'm going back to school after almost 10 years of abscense. I'm very nervous because while I did well in high school, college was a little too relaxed for me. I need structure apparently. Granted now I have a wife to kick my butt and tuition re-imbursement to shoot for but it doesn't make it any less scary.
So not a crisis and I don't see a sports car in my future(can't carry lots of people and poor gas mileage) but it has definitely brought out the ponderous me. Perhaps my better writing side. I don't know. Hopefully as this path unfolds I will be able to get outside my life and see what is going on in the world again...laugh and mock and cry with the issues that concern so many more of you. But for now, I'm lowering my horns, pushing through to see where I go and hoping when I raise my eyes again I will find myself where I want to be. Wherever that is.

The Puke of Earl

Life is full of so many wonderful things: chocolate, flowers, video games, old people NOT driving, chocolate....and then there are those experiences you just don't want to have but inevitably(especially if you have kids) you will get. Oh yes, a bug has come home to my house. It's a 24 hour thing thankfully but not the nice you just feel icky and then your find variety but the you know your sick because LOOK! It's your dinner! Round 2 is never, ever, EVER as pleasant as Round 1. So it started with one of my twins, Lance. He spent Saturday night puking his guts out...seriously, his apendix and everything. Then my wife got sick on Sunday night/Monday morning, Cameron(the other twin) started on Monday night and last night...well let me start a little story.
My wife has been invited to play Bunco with a bunch of women in the neighborhood. Apparently it's a fun dice game and they have prizes and socialize and eat dinner. Last night was that night. I had made BBQ Beef ribs in the crockpot so my wife ate with us because, HELLO it's ribs. Then she left and everyone was fine. Crickett actually finished her dinner first which almost never happens. That was the first sign. The older kids went out to play and I stayed inside trying to appease the twins until bedtime. Long story short, I got all of the kids in bed and finished watching "Spies like us" and decided I hadn't played football in a long time. I have been playing Madden 2003 for the Xbox for a long time now. I'm in my 10th or 11th season on franchise mode. It's the one game that I play by myself. So I went downstairs and turned it on not expecting my wife until 10 or 11. She got home halfway through the first quarter which is only 6 minutes long. *sigh* Still she is my wife and I do love her so I paused it and went to talk to her and welcome her home. Then she reminded me in that gentle wifely way that I still had not finished putting away the Christmas town. Yeah the one I put in November...hehehe. I was almost done so I did that and went back to playing my game. Then as I'm working through the 3rd quarter my wife calls me into her craft room to say she can hear Crickett crying. Really? My game room is right below her room and I didn't hear anything. Must have the volume up too much. So I went upstairs to check thinking that she probably wet her bed again. But to my joyous(sarcasm implied) surprise, she too had gotten the bug. It was all over her shirt, sheets, blankets and in her hair. *sigh*
I cleaned her up, put her in the bath stripped her bedding and washed her up, got her out of the bath and situated in the living room with a towel. I went back downstairs at a little after 11. It had now been 2 hours since I started my game that usually only takes an hour at most with a few interuptions. I went to bed at midnight. So now four members of my family have been bitten and there are only 3 left. I'm hoping it stops here because it is a very smelly messy bug. And I'm tired of cleaning up after it.

Year of a million dreams

So it is billed by Disney this year. You know, the theme they come up with to aid in marketing the park to people. Well, this year, it lived up to it's hype. Oh yes, it was everything I could have hoped for. So the funny part came a day or two before we left when I was putting my son to bed. He said he wanted me to see something and he pulled out a brochure from school. Apparently the same travel company we had booked our trip through had teamed up with their school district to promote trips to Disneyland. In the brochure it showed a father and son posing with Buzz Lightyear. He pointed to that picture and said, "Look, you were right." I was right, Buzz was real. He had a picture proving it and he hadn't even met him or thought he was going to meet him. Somewhere a bunny is hiding colored eggs, healthy and alive. My kids are funny when they meet the one person they want to meet, their first reaction is stunned silence. Not screaming and running to them, just stunned awe. So it was when we were in the Inovation center or whatever it is waiting for my wife's sister to meet us there and Buzz comes in and goes over to play Guitar Hero on one of 3 XBOX 360's they have set up right next to the "Healthy You" center. The irony was not lost on me. He watched Buzz play XBOX and we talked to the "handler" and told him how much Ethan loved Buzz. When the song was done and Buzz turned around, Ethan just stood there. Like he couldn't believe it was really happening. We got some great pictures of them together. He loved going on the Buzz Lightyear Orbital Blaster and for his souvenier he got one of the guns you shoot on the ride. I know it will be something he will talk about and cherish for a long time....and it was worth every headache, the 13 hours of driving and all of the money spent.
Now don't get me wrong, I love my girls and I'll post about them and the whole trip and my cute twins(Cameron gave us some the cutest pictures with Winnie the Pooh and Eyeore ever!) but my Ethan and I have a special bond. I wasn't around much for the first two years of his life as I was working a second job nights to pay the bills so I tried to spend as much time with him as I could and he has always adored Dad and wants to do stuff with me. After we moved out here to Eagle Mountain, he kinda made friend with the boy across the street who was his age. But then that boy thought it would be cooler to be friends with the older boy who lives next door to us and they said they were "Dudes". Ethan wasn't included in that and he came home in tears. I heard the story when I got home from work and I took him on my knee and told him that he and I could be "Dudes". And we have been ever since. And there are times when he calls me Dude, that I know he is expressing more than our relationship as parent and child but as friends, as that special someone who cares about you no matter what. It is a bond I hope I never lose.

Killing the Easter Bunny

My son loves Buzz Lightyear and has since he was 2. He has told us on more than one occasion that he wanted to grow up to be Buzz Lightyear. He has been Buzz for 3 of the last 4 Halloweens. My mother-in-law made him the most gorgeous and awsome Buzz outfit I have ever seen(when he bends his knees you see the knee joints). He still dresses up in it on a regular basis. He just turned 6 and for the first time in our kids lives, we are going to Disneyland. We have talked about it for 2 years and finally had the financial ability to do so. Our biggest motivation is so Ethan could meet Buzz. Sure my two daughters love the Disney Princess' but not to the extent that Ethan loves Buzz. So it was today as I was pouring his cereal and he was sitting there coloring yet another picture of Buzz(he is becoming quite good at it), and I said it looked really good and then I said, "Who knows, maybe someday you'll get to meet him." He looked me straight in the face and said, "Dad, Buzz isn't real."
The Easter bunny was dead. The cute 2 and 3 year old that wanted to be Buzz had accepted the truth that Buzz wasn't real. Have we waited too long to see his joyous face when he meets Buzz at Disneyland?? Did I blow that Kodak moment because I felt the kids were too little? Only time will tell, 2 weeks to be exact. I can tell he still loves him, just because he still draws him and still plays as if he is him but has the childish innocence of dreams been snuffed out? I'm hoping not. He still believes in Santa and the tooth fairy(he checks his teeth every day for a loose one) and the Easter Bunny. When he meets the under-paid sweating teenager stuck in an oversized suit will he laugh and smile and hug him and believe in Buzz again?
After he told me Buzz wasn't real I just gave him this look that said, "Don't be so sure." I know we are going to Disneyland, my wife knows but we haven't told the kids at all. We want it to be a surprise so I couldn't say anything. I guess I'm just crossing my fingers that somehow a part of his hope and innocence will be restored and I suppose in some ways...I'm hoping that some of mine will be too. It's too soon to kill the Easter bunny.

Nights and days like these....

So sleeping soundly in my bed yesterday at 3:30 when the phone rings. I look at the clock. "Who the freak is calling at this hour?" The only thing I could think of though was this was important. So I got out of bed and went to get the phone just as it stopped ringing. Now I had to know. I was up anyway. So I checked caller-id and it was my wife's sister. That meant it was important. I called her back and she asked to talk to Michelle(my wife). She was out the door in 10 minutes. I went back to bed. My wife's nephew had been complaining of stomach pain for over 12 hours and he had been throwing up. He is 13 now. So m sister-in-law took him to the ER and they took him by ambulance to Primary Children's Hospital for emergency surgery. He had a bowel obstruction caused by scar tissue from when he had his appendix out. And to top it off, it turns out that his intestine got wrapped around the blocked section and killed it so they had to remove a foot of intestine. Why did she call my wife? Well her husband was in California on business. He got an earlier flight home and went straight to the hospital. Then he finally came home to relieve my wife who basically got her sister's other 5 (all younger) kids up, dressed and ready for school and dropped the older 3 off. Then she did lunch and picked them up and luckily some neighbors brought dinner over so she didn't have to worry about that. But she didn't get home until 8:30 last night. I luckily have an awesome boss and was able to work from home for the day. Oh and take care of my 5 kids all day in the process. Long day doesn't adequately describe it.
And someday I promise to make this blog more uplifting or at least funny.

Moments of DOH!

Love the Simpsons. Could go on for hours with great lines from their many years and believe me, there have been dinner conversations when we are at my parent's house that have been almost exclusively that. My little brothers have watched almost every single episode.
Anyway, had a moment on Monday where apparently my good judgement turned off. I put on X-Men 2 for my son and the neighbors boy while we were upstairs playing cards. Their son said he had seen it before. Sure it's PG-13 and my boy is almost 6 and theirs is 7...but in my rush to get the card games from the game closet down here and get the video on, I stopped thinking like a parent. So consequently, I got in trouble. See there were also 4 girls down there that decided to watch it as well and they all got scared and claimed they were going to have nightmares. I managed to handle my kids but I just sent the 3 neighbor kids home with their parents. Brilliant. Sometimes I can be such a moron. My wife gave me the what-for later about all of it. I feel bad because normally I'm much better. I'm a little more lenient with my kids but I know better than to do that with other people's kids. Why did I do it? I have no good answer. Nothing that soothes the guilt at any rate. So tonight I am pleding to do better. To think more...yes, that's right, a guy pledging to use his brain more often, don't die from shock. To be more parent-friendly and child-centric. You'd think after 5 of my own that I would be doing better. It will be 8 years from when Adeena was born on April 4th. 8 years of learning this whole parenting thing. I guess it only goes to show that I need more practice to become perfect.

Jump start my fingers

So as I'm sitting here on a Saturday night with SNL dropping edgy crude from the tv, I thought what the heck...let's see who's been hitting my HP. I'm bored. My wife's sister came into town tonight from Cali and is staying at her other sister's house. We had our neighbors across the street over for games, great couple. After that she took off to go say hi. I stayed behind because the twins were already in bed and it was past the kids bedtime. Which is fine by me honestly. I had laundry to fold, dishes to finish and if I were them, I wouldn't want to do anything but crash. But women are not that way...they don't do most of the driving.
Anywho, so this is my blog. Welcome to my world. Hold on, it's a ride and three-quarters.