300

by Grant


So, anybody out there see the movie 300? Yeah, I thought not. Bet you didn't know it's based on an actual event in history. Yeah, I know you don't like history. History is "boring." Well, human strife has been described in a lot of ways, but boring is not one of them. Why am I blogging about this? Well, the girls names have patriotic background and the movie got me thinking of a name for our fifth child (which had better be a boy -- shaking fist). Well, first a bitty bit of history. The persians, AKA bad guys, were gonna attack the Greeks, AKA the good guys. The Persians were an oppressed people ruled by a King named Xerxes. No, I don't want to name our kid Xerxes! sheesh. What do you think I am, a muslim? (The Persians were largely muslims). Ok, now the Greeks (the good guys remember) were a free people, and a democracy. They were also itty bitty. Anyway, I won't "bore" you with too much history but suffice it to say 300 Spartans and about less than 1000 free Greeks held off a force of several hundred thousand bad dudes for several days. This bought Greece much needed time to do evacuate Athens saving thousands. Or something like that. Feel free to research it yourself. Anyway, the leader of the Spartans was named Leonidas. I think a boy could handle that name, don't you? Call him "Leon" for short. BTW, I'm not sure if I'm joking or not.



Baby update:

The girls didn't go to their appt because Rebekah was sleep deprived. So, we're not sure their weight. Their diet will be exclusively formula now because they are tolerating it better. Kind of disappointing to me, but I'm not second guessing Rebekah. I tend to agree with her I guess.



Boys update:

Rebekah has shorn the kids. After seeing their virtually barren scalps, I insisted that she shave my head in a similar fashion. She has refused. The battle, my friends, is joined.

BTW, the boys aren't jealous of the girls at all. At least not yet. I think they're generally happy to be getting more attention from me.

Have Blog, Will Travel

by Grant

I've probably used that headline before, but I like it. It's a reference to an old time radio program starring John Daner (sp?) as Paladin! He was a hired gun with morals and ethics. But getting back to blogging. Argh. It's been a rough few days. I flew back to Boise on Friday. Did I mention I hate Southwest??? Grr. I tried to get on the wrong plane once, so I stood in line for nothing. Of course, it was 20 minutes for my plane's departure and I was at the right gate but it's really confusing with all the cattle, sorry people, milling around. I finally got to Boise and Rebekah and Mom and assorted children picked me up. Then we cruised over to Denny's to meet my brother who was shuttling my Mom back to Twin to see my Dad. BTW, I absolutely hate writing like this. First we did this, then we did that, then we did this, then I put a gun in my mouth a pulled the trigger cause it bored me so bad. My life isn't that interesting, but but writing about it sucks anything interesting completely out of it. Well, I guess what's had me preoccupied for the past several days was plumbing problems. Although my Dad is very skilled and loves to work outside, that's been a part of my character that I've had to work on. I don't tan, I burn, so that is God telling me to stay inside where there's electricity. Well, I fight that and try to handle most issues around house and home by myself. Why? Pride and because I'm cheap. Where is this all leading you ask, I'm thinking Toledo (Isn't that where Klinger is from?). Well, to make an ugly and long story uglier and longer, I tried with all my might to snake the clog out of the drain. Finally, I told Rebekah (this is Saturday keep in mind) to try and get a plumber out here. Neither of us relished a whole weekend without bathroom facilities or showers. Well, we called Roto-Rooter....
Ok, Roto Rooter came out with a drain auger and it started draining. But it was still backing up after a couple toilet-flushes. So, they pulled the lid off my septic tank. They declared that it was full and I needed a new drain field. They could start tomorrow and it would cost $10,000. Well, in order to get prepared for that we had to pump the septic tank anyway so they sent somebody out. After pumping it out he checked some things out and we noticed that although I had the bathtub running, hardly any water was coming out. So I check the cleanout again and it was still backing up! This should not happen after a pumping if my drain field was bad. So, although we still had a problem I was happy because that meant my drain field wasn't the problem. I came home yesterday and dug down to the pipe and found that it had been flattened and crimped. Plus, there was a lot of water so I keep looking and found a huge hole in the pipe. Needless to say, these were all serious problems. But, all is well that ends well (Please, Dear Lord let this be the end of it) and we have facilities again with the help of the local home depot and God. I say God because I had never done anything like this before.

Baby update:
-Liberty is eating well now (she wasn't a few days ago I guess). We'll have a weight update tomorrow (well, appt. is tomorrow). Serenity has slacked off a little as she seems to be tired. Babies still are not sleeping well and still having some gas problems. We may end up having to migrate completely to formula as they seem to be tolerating what they are on (regular enfamil). Of course, we want breast milk for obvious reasons, but it's very hard for Rebekah to pump enough.

Dad update:
Dad is pretty miserable and still having some problems. He has a severe cold and is on a ton of medications post operation. He's trying to stay upbeat, but my Dad is very active and I'm sure if he doesn't get better rapidly he'll have trouble adjusting.

Thanks for all your prayers, well-wishes, etc. We could still use an au pair though.

Information Dissemination

By Grant

    Just a few minutes after I posted the blog entry about Dad, Forrest called me because he had just read it and found out. I guess that when something bad like this happens, notification of friends and family is probably far from your mind. Hopefully everybody has been notified now, but who knows. I don't have any more info about Dad. I can just hope he didn't suffer any damage to his heart.

I am currently @ the dreaded airport. I hate SouthWest. I don't like picking my own seat. In order to do that and get a decent seat you have to stand in line for an hour. So, i'll just wing it since it's just me. The flights only a little over an hour so hopefully I won't be too miserable. The other bad thing about Southwest (@ SLC at least) is that all the terminals are at the end of a concourse. So everybody is crammed in here like sardines. Or maybe kipper fish. I'm not sure which. It annoys me that they want you to pay for wi-fi internet access @ the airport. I can get it at most coffee shops and even a mexican food place. It's just silly. Boise actually provides it for free.

Anyway, I'd better go hunt my gate down.

Hmmmm.

by Grant

    I guess my Dad had a heart-attack this week. He drove himself to the hospital yesterday and they checked him out. I guess that on Sunday night he had a heart attack but didn't do anything about it because he's had a several instances in the past when he's felt really bad, but nothing odd shows up. They put three stents in last night and are going to keep him a couple of days. I think he's in Twin Falls. I'm not really sure about all the details, but it's definitely scary. Facing your own mortality (or even the mortality of a close family member) is very scary. But I think that a couple things are important to note here.

1. If you are sure of your eternal destination. If you are sure you are going to Heaven. If you are sure, not "I think so" then death doesn't hold quite as much power over you.

2. You can be confident that God will provide for your family even without you.

3. Life is a vapor. Whether you're 15 or 50, God makes no guarantees on length of life. I think if you live your life every day aware that life is a gift from God, and your family is a gift from God, then you will be much less angry and bitter when those gifts are retracted.


I was asked when I was in sixth grade how long I wanted to live. I said 50. People thought that was nuts. But I stand by it. If I live until I'm 50 then my kids will be grown (or mostly grown) and I will have lived an enjoyable life. If God gives me more years, then I will accept each day with gratitude.

My ears hurt

by Grant

    Oh, it's because they're bleeding. Great. Just great. Yet another part of my body that hurts. My knee was the first traitor. If I do too much walking around (especially up and down hills) then it produces crippling pain. Then my right eye stabbed me in the back with severe dry eye (which feels like sand in your eye). Next (about a year ago) I started having pain in my wrists and arms from computer usage. Then about 5 months ago my back started having pretty severe muscle pains. Then, my lips got chapped @ the airport because I didn't have my faithful mentholatum lip balm. Life is one sad, sorry mess, let me tell you. Actually, I'm mostly joking. The facts are basically true, but I'm not miserable. God has been good to me. I've learned to live with my deteriorating physical proficiency. But tonight, my ears hurt due to self inflicted noise. There's an event every Wednesday night @ brainshare. The headliner is a rock(ish) band, but you generally need to go for the food and want to go for the comedian. So, you might as well stay for the concert. This year it was the Goo-Goo Dolls. If you're a backslidden Christian or a Heathen, then you probably would've liked them. The main singer was actually a very talented individual who played acoustic guitar frequently. It was very loud and my internal organs had fun because they sure were moving around with the music. Although, I'm kind of sure that my heart and kidneys switched places. Hopefully, they shift back before I die a horrible agonizing death. And although I really dislike the ridiculous younger generation with their gyrating whenever music is in their midst (think Grant=Grumpy old man) I had to notice (although I really didn't want to) that the most ridiculous individual was an older man with white hair doing some silly dance out of time to the music.

Baby update:
-Liberty hasn't been eating much, but we think that's past. Rebekah thinks that she's lost weight but hopefully not. "Failure to Thrive" they call it. We'll get the girls weighed next week.

Children update:
When Dad's away the urchins will play. I will have my work cut out for me when I get home. Think Grant=Benito Musollini

glug

by Grant

    I'm here in Salt Lake City getting my brain strained by fast paced knowledge downloads via verbal and visual methods. Lots of stuff going on, but it's like going to college in that 1). you have classes and 2) you have to walk A LOT. It's not like college in that 1) there's food and 2) I like the classes. There's all sorts of other neat things to do to recharge your batteries. They have massage if you want to wait in line, pool, video games, TV. Guess how many of those things I do? Maybe one--TV. The others require far too much human interaction. Not too mention, I'm here to learn not to rest. Of course, I'm working far more this week than in a normal week because I'm trying to get as much good stuff stored in my brain as possible. It's actually pretty amazing. I get to meet the people that have direct control over the software that I use on a daily basis in my job. It's pretty cool to get your questions answered and to point out issues that you've had. Pretty exhausted, but pretty cool. And there's not time to be bored or lonely. I absolutely HATE traveling and HATE IT EVEN more when I have to go by myself. But once I'm here, I'm typically too busy to focus on anything but all the stuff that's going on. And the brain downloads combined with the frenetic pace intermingled with the lack of sleep blend together perfectly until you have an uber-geek. Basically, that's a zombie that can tell you how to recompile your linux kernel but do not expect him (me in this case) to "talk" like most females want. (BTW, I haven't recompiled a linux kernel either).

Tomorrow will be interesting.

Life @ home: Good thing Mom's there is all I can say. Serenity is still vomiting rather profusely but the docs think it's because of nasal drainage. Hope so. I told Rebekah to stop eating cashews (a big big request) in an attempt to reign in the gas the girls are having.

Life goes on.

At the Airport

by Grant

    I love modern day air travel. It used to be you had to get there an hour early. Now it's get there super early. You'll probably spend a lot of time waiting outside your gate, but just in case, come the night before and sleep on the floor. This morning I got up and spent a couple hours going through my overnight back. Finding liquids and gels and sequestering them in a quart bag away from other items. Then I decided that i wasn't sure if I could get everything through security (I could've) so I just canned the whole idea and had my wife put my overnight kit in a bag that I would check. Since any gels count I also packed away my eye drops and chapstick. One guess what's bothering me right now?? Yeah, you guessed it, my teeth hurt. Oh and my lips are chapped and my eye is bothering me. I went and bought some blistex and I wonder how these guys stay in business. Metholatum lip balm kicks their heinie! That's what my Dad uses and all other competitors are vastly inferior. There's menthol in my "chapstick" and so I get a soothing cool feeling when I use it. Heck, I could slather bacon fat on my lips for all the good blistex is doing me.

Mom (Grandma) is doing well with the boys. Although I have yet to see her make them cry. (Translation: She's probably not being mean enough). Rebekah is showing symptoms of the stomach flu (again). The girls are still sick but that's not their main problem. They mainly just have gas problems which makes it really hard on Rebekah. She woke me up last night and asked me to watch one while she calmed the other baby down and when I took the child in question, she started crying (said child, not Rebekah). Then Rebekah swapped me. This swap faired no better. I was so out of it that I couldn't deal with the screaming and crying (from the children, not Rebekah) I'm afraid. Next time I think I'll wake up, throw some hot coffee on my face and THEN try to help. I was worthless and I. freely admit it. I felt bad. Rebekah just took them both back, which further cemented her feeling that she was the sole caretaker of these wee ones while the dark was ruling the night.

But the good news is if the plane that I'm on crashes, Rebekah will get a million $$ from a couple insurance policies I have. Then she can hire somebody to watch the girls at night :)

See, there's always a silver lining....

Sense of humor

by Grant

    It's amazing how we lack it when we are tired. I've still been doing really well considering I'm getting probably 5-6 hours of sleep per night on average. Good nights are about 7. Bad nights are 4. Oh, and I'm not sleeping upstairs because it's quiet. I'm sleeping upstairs because my wife wants me to. That way she doesn't have to try to be quiet when she takes care of the wee ones. Or so she says. I don't quite get it because I wore earplugs and took them out when she needed help. But hey, whatever she wants I'll do my best to oblige. I have been taking care of the boys by myself much more than I ever did before. And I don't really mind. I'm also picking up around the house a lot more. Somehow, having more kids has helped slough off a lot of normal selfishness with time. I have virtually zero to do what I want. I used to have a little. But that's ok. I'm doing more than I used to but I am enjoying life more too. I think that as a parent you need to have a bunch of kids to help refine your character to a new level. Maybe all the changes are temporary, me know not. But time will tell.

Baby news:
girls are doing pretty well. still snuffly with "ucky" noses. And we might have a line on a good baby sitter candidate. I'm really excited about that!

Grant news:
I'm abandoning my wife for a week because I don't love her. I'm going to a technical conference in Salt Lake City. It's long and exhausting and very important for my job. But I'm pretty sure that if I loved my wife I wouldn't go. Of course, my mom is here to help her and I wouldn't have scheduled this if my mother wasn't available, but somehow lack of love must figure into this somehow.               

Once again...

by Grant

    ...I lose track of the days. But I guess I never really regained my cognizance of the days. I woke about around three to an upset wife and a one very upset baby. I guess nothing would calm liberty down. I think Serenity was upset too, but Rebekah couldn't figure out a way to hold both of them safely and still get some sleep. So I took Liberty and went and sat in our Lazy Boy recliner. Within a few minutes we were both asleep. I woke up at 5 to her fussing. I think she was hungry. Come to think of it, so was I. But I was sleepy more. I then got up around 7 to take care of Titus who doesn't understand that when the time changes, he's not supposed to change with it. Since Rebekah was so tired, I worked from home. Unfortunately, when I work remotely I genuinely have to work and so it was a busy stressful morning. But, God is doling out grace as my techniques with the boys have greatly improved their obedience. We still have troubles at bedtime, but that's because we haven't been camping outside their door so that we can immediately correct them. One thing at a time. The good news is that they know that I mean what I say. Back to my rambling story--Rebekah was able to get some much needed rest so that when I came home from work I took Serenity and slept in the same recliner for an hour or so. You know you're tired when screaming kids barely penetrate your consciousness.

So, did the DST change mess you up? Man, that made a lot of work for me. A very good example of the government doing things that have super widespread consequences and pain. And I like the extra daylight. But getting every computer in our enterprise updated has been troublesome. Even with automation tools, you never get 100%. But it's a challenge, and I like challenges. Problems I don't like. You know who I'm talking about... Keren.
      

Must Sleep

by Grant


    The girls have come down with some form of sickness. They're tolerating it pretty well except that they're very snuffly (yes, that is a word. I have used it in scrabble and after the dust settled I was the only one still @ the table). It's probably the stomach flu thingy. Liberty vomited several times but seems to be doing better now. The Dr. said to watch out for dehydration and if they weren't doing better in 4 days to bring them in. Anyway, very tired. I had to come home from work very early to help Rebekah as she was stressed to the max (as opposed to the min). I haven't been getting much sleep either and I'm still trying to juggle a very busy work schedule with Rebekah's needs. Keren is willing to help but frequently doesn't have easy access to a vehicle. Well, a couple of videos for your viewing enjoyment. The one with the boys is pretty big and probably only interesting to Grandmas. We're working hard to train the boys to be helpers and it's going well. Granted, vacuuming (as in the video) isn't simple as they are small and don't have good leverage, but it's more satisfying for myself to train and help them than to fight them off from helping as I try to do it myself.

Girls. Always talking



Boys being domesticated by their authoritarian father


We've got some pics too but this is all for now.

First Family Outing

by Grant

    Today was our first family outing with the newest additions. We had a dire need to go to Costco. Not sure why, but domestic type things aren't my gig. So, we got ready in a record three hours and took off. Nice sunshiny day and fairly obedient children. The girls did well, mostly sleeping. They didn't even wake up to eat @ the normal time. The boys were pretty good with Forrest being his normal ornery self. But we hit Costco, Target, and McDonalds. Oh, and we almost hit a car too when I was changing lanes. I did check my mirrors but the car was in my blind spot. Thankfully my car was bigger than theirs so they just honked at me. But it sure was a warm and fuzzy feeling to have all my family together and go out and do something. That's something that you take for granted until you have a forced separation.

Quick Update

by Grant

    I have to take Titus to the Dr. this morning (we think he has a sinus infection) today so not much time. We took the girls in yesterday and I was looking at Liberty before they came in and I was thinking "huh, she looks a little rounder." Suspicion confirmed. She gained about 9 ounces in the past week. That's great news. Serenity also gained but now the gap between them is only four ounces. We were very happy.

They also got their RSV shots (they weren't as expensive as I thought). Closer to $1200 apiece.

Anyway, thought that this was worth posting.

Moulding (or is it molding) Minds full of Mush

by Grant

   Molding (moulding) mushy minds. Say that five times fast. And then try to explain to any passersby that you really aren't crazy you're just acting that way. I think I get the "mushy minds" phrase from Rush Limbaugh who has used the term "skulls full of mush." But if you like alliteration, then my way is better. 

    Since we don't have time to cater to our children's every whim, as is the fashion today, we have begun training our children to self-serve a bit more. Typically, I think that the modern reluctance to have children work is laziness on our part. It's too darn frustrating to have the kid carry his plate into the kitchen only for him to not pay attention and dump the food on the floor. Of course, then you (me) gets mad at said kid for not paying attention. Thus, it truly becomes a chore and an ordeal for the both of you. In fact, you sigh with relief when you just do it yourself (meself). Well, suck it up! The kid spills on the floor? Big Deal. The carpet ain't gonna live forever (ripped off from Starship Troopers, "Come on you apes, you want to live forever?" Use the spillage incident, or as I like to call it--The great spill of 07, to train him/it/her in how to use a vacuum cleaner or how to soak up the spill. Sure, the child entity isn't going to do a great job at first, but with persistence and beatings they'll figure it out. I jest of course. Regarding the persistence. Tonight my eldest helped me chop wood (by handing me little sledge, big sledge, maul) and hauling wood inside. He did a really good job. He was a good help for a 3.5 year old. I've seen teenagers (many many teenagers) that are less help. Later, while Forrest was resting, Titus and Mom (AKA Rebekah) unloaded the dishwasher. Pretty darn good for a deux-year old.

Baby Update:
We still have two babies and they're both girls with brunette hair. I've thought about sneaking some bleach and fixing the second issue but rebekah sleeps like a cat. I'm not too sure how cats sleep, but it seems to be in a manner that would discourage the aforementioned actions.

Weight: No idea. Hopefully more than before.
Height: I don't think they're shrinking
Digestion: very troublesome when Rebekah runs out of milk. I'm trying to figure out some way that she can carve out time during the day to pump.

Dr. appointment tomorrow and RSV shots (each one costs more than most of you reading this make in a month--including me).

An annoying development: apparently the girls don't qualify for social security because we have too many assets. I have a bunch of old cars. These cars aren't worth much and I don't drive them. I'm honestly not even sure if they're in my name. At least two of them are immobile. But, that's bureaucracy for you. That's why socialized medicine scares me. Red tape is frickin' evil man. Government red tape suffocates and kills. Watch out for that red tape man!

Who knows about Medicaid. They denied us because we didn't give them some information so now we have to reapply. I don't even know what Medicaid will do for us?? Anyway, the application form is 19 pages long but its highly advised that we apply.

Anyway, I hate government. Well, I hate oppressive government, which most become. I also hate onions. Evil, oppressive onions. Did I tell you that I live in an area that grows onions in copious quantities? At times (frequently) I can smell rotting onions wafting through the air. God loves a good joke.

Saturday Soliloquy

by Grant

    I wrote a blog yesterday but never got it posted to the myspace page due to some minor technological issues. But yesterday was good. I got a short nap and then got up and went and loaded up our little yellow pickup with lots of garbage. We used to burn most of our trash and then go to the dump (saves a few bucks by not having garbage service). Since we've had live-ins we got garbage service. But every once in awhile we forget to get the trash out to the curb in time and so we had a large accumulation. I loaded the truck up and then stuck the boys in as well. They were lucky though because there wasn't room in back, so I had to put them inside. We went up to the dump and then since it was cold outside we went to home depot. We walked around and then I let the kids play on the lawn mowers. They have a blast. Then we went over to DQ. For once we actually went inside. That was interesting. I don't think I've ever tried to feed my kids at a restaurant (albeit fast food) by myself before. Very interesting. And then to top it off I got them ice cream because they'd been pretty darn good. I had lots of people watching with amusement and had one older lady compliment me on how well I was doing. It has been very enjoyable this weekend. Our kids are obedient as long as they know that you mean what you say. Rebekah, Forrest, and myself are still sick but hopefully we'll all get better very soon.

Baby Update:
Liberty has been eating really well via the bottle. This is a good thing because Liberty took her feeding tube out today. So, instead of making some guy work on the weekend (they have an on-call person @ the clinic) we're trying to just bottle feed her again. Unfortunately, Rebekah's milk production has suffered greatly due to the stress, her sickness and having a hard time finding privacy to pump. Hopefully, she'll get that back to normal so the kids won't have to be on Formula.

Kind of a stilted blog post as it's hard to do anything with kids running around.

Children are insurgents

by Grant

    Well, God is handing out grace that's for sure. I'm sick but not completely miserable. I'm tired but functional. Now Rebekah is sick. But somehow God has given me enough grace to operate even though I normally would be struggling greatly. I've been working with the boys a lot more about obeying me. They're not stupid. They wait until you're seriously preoccupied (watching TV, watching a baby, or watching Keren and Tim eviscerate each other) and then they rebel. My theory is that they're like little guerilla fighters. Like the Viet Cong in Vietnam or the blasted murderous islamo-fascists in Iraq, they repeatedly get stomped (and stomped hard) but one out of every 100 times they get a small victory. So, I'm going to make sure that they never get a victory. If they do, i'm going to have to work even harder to undo the damage. People say that you can't win a guerilla war. That's nonsense. It just takes an iron will. Guerillas/insurgents change their tactics based on what works and what doesn't. Children are no different. I saw a quote recently that said, and I paraphrase, "He who endures, wins"

Baby update:

Well, Liberty got a feeding tube yesterday. Pretty painless. Ironically, the last three feeds Rebekah said that she drank all of her bottle. Serenity has picked up the pace as well. We theorize that her eating problem previously was due to insufficient nasal passage clearance (she was clogged). The girls also each got 3 shots and 1 oral immunization. They do pretty good cause they just cry for a little bit while they're hurting. Taking the boys in to get shots is an ugly nasty business because they feel betrayed and that hurts them far more than the shots do. But, I digress. The oral immunization was for the rhodevirus (sp) aka the Stomach flu. They're supposed to be pretty resistant to it anyway, but hopefully this will help ensure their health.

It's pretty quiet in the house with just the six of us :) (the other fam is out and about today)

What is today?

by Grant

   I know it's 2007, but I'm not even sure about the month let alone the day. It took me about 15 seconds to realize it's Thursday. Each day is a grind as Rebekah and I battle sleep deprivation, insecurities regarding the girls, other non-kid related stressors, and discipline issues with our other young'uns. We haven't been going to church for a variety of reasons and won't resume our regular 3 time a week attendance for some time. It's amazing how when you don't have Sunday to make the day different how everything blurs and blends together. Sort of like one of those stupid paintings that idiots that can't paint call "art."


Baby update. The girls aren't eating very well. This is very discouraging. Liberty will almost definitely have to go on a feeding tube and Serenity is falling down on the job. If she doesn't get her act together, she's going to have to get a feeding tube as well. I think being home has been stressful on them and Rebekah enough so that they're regressing a bit.

Tim and Keren are a great help but they have a family and Church obligations (Tim is the pastor you know. yeah, kind of hard to believe isn't it?) I am super busy at work and so even though I could take time off it is not something that I can do at a moment's notice. It's hard for Keren as she is working diligently trying to find living accommodations for her family. But if she leaves then Rebekah is alone with two babies and our two little ones. Right now this is close to impossible for Rebekah to handle. As the girls get older and their feeds are a little less critical I hope that Keren and Tim will have more freedom.

If any of you are counting, now that the girls are home we have 12 people under one roof  (approximately 1500 square feet).  We also have a sick Grant (in more ways than one), a sick Forrest, and a sick Jon. Thankfully, although we're all walking germ factories spewing forth pollution, we're pretty functional. Now if we can just keep the girls from getting anything.