What's with all the ability?

by Grant

    I am astounded by my children on a pretty routine basis. I'm not sure why, but I am. And I smile and nod knowingly when others exclaim their surprise at what their young'uns are doing. Forrest seems to have many of my abilities but Titus and Serenity seem to have music in their soul. Dancing and singing makes them so happy. They're both hams too. They pander to their audience. If they see something is funny they keep it up and if you start getting tired of it, they throw in a little variation so you can hardly tear your eyes away. I need to take some pictures, but alas I have not.

I am currently struggling with some sort of sinus/fluish thing. I guess all the kids had it and it body-slammed me yesterday. I am very grateful for aspirin/tylenol for the simple fact of fever suppression. I can take my fever down from "shivering under the covers" to "able to function with a grump level of 9." What's the top grump value, you ask? Not telling! But I normally run at grump level 6-7.

As far as my wrists/recovery, I am doing ok. I didn't realize it would take so long to heal and the pain is different than what expected. What did I expect? Not sure, but something different. My wrist is healing but after talking to others, I guess it can take a long time (didn't I blog that before?).

On a random political note, is anybody as annoyed about the upcoming presidential election as I am? I don't think anybody is happy no matter what your political persuasion. If you're a right-winger then you'd have to swallow hard to take McCain (especially if you're "religious right". He told us off good in 2000). If you're a liberal you might like Obama, but give me a break. He's been in a church that hates America (or at least the pastor does) for over 20 years. I heard him today and he said that he didn't take any spiritual (or otherwise) guidance from his Pastor. Well what the heck are you going to his church for?? Oh, and Hillary? Don't get me started, but suffice it to say that she lied about an obvious incident about being under sniper fire (like 10 years ago). Come on, at least lie about the stuff nobody can prove differently. I am reminded of a political cartoon from the late 70s (they didn't like Reagan... putzes). It stated, something along the lines of having to choose from the "evil of two lessers" (for those of you that are slow, that's a play on "lesser of two evils")

Funny Story

by Grant

    There I was, minding my own business. It was a warm sunshiney (not a word) day and I had just gotten off work and was headed to my Brother-in-law's house for dinner (I used to call it supper before my wife corrupted me). Since it was so warm, I rolled down my window just a bit (maybe a quarter of the way) and embarked on my 15 minute jaunt. There I was, minding my own business--woops, I already said that. Well, I was cruising down the highway between 55 and 60 (the price of gas has made me be very legal minded on speeding) and BAM! Unbelievable pain shot through my body. Wham! it just wouldn't stop. I weaved around on the road (mostly staying in my lane though) while I tried to figure out what was afflicting me. It didn't take me too long to realize that I had been stung, but the dang thing hadn't hit and run. He was a frickin' kamikaze. Ya know bees die when they sting, so I guess he decided that stinging me wasn't enough and he had to throw his whole not-dead-yet corpse at me and hang out on my mustache. I swear I heard him yell Banzai!

<sigh>

I finally grabbed his fluttering body w/ my right hand and threw him onto my passenger seat (good thing Rebekah wasn't there). I then pulled off the road and spent the next couple minutes yelling in pain every few seconds. The darn thing had stung me right below my right nostril. When I looked in the mirror, I saw a black speck on my mustache. It was the dastardly stinger! I saved it and took it and the still not-dead-yet bee to show Rebekah.

Well, after a few minutes most of the pain was gone. Just like any bee sting I guess. But the nice little post script is that for the next few days my upper lip became numb and swollen. I didn't think I was vain, but when you look like somebody punched you in the mouth, well... I guess I am.

Thankfully all is back to normal. But I have decided that all bees must die! I have become the Anti-Bee Avenger and have made it my mission to destroy bees everywhere. Armed with a blowtorch and a set of asbestos undies I will purge the scourge (ooh, that rhymes) of the bee hives throughout all of Christendom. Oh wait, I'm married and I have four kids. Never mind.

Blogged with Flock

Time races by

by Grant

    The girls are tottering around. Hair abounds on their heads. Forrest is turning into a little man and Titus is a real charmer. Seems like just yesterday that we were kidless, but those memories are getting more and more distant. A couple in our church has initiated divorce. They are a few years older than Rebekah and myself with three young girls. I think they were married 13 years. I always wondered how you could get divorced after being married that long. I think a big part of it is neglect. I'm sure years of ignoring each other and barely tolerating each other as well as fighting finally brought things to a head. And of course, there's always "happiness." If you're not "happy" then that is a reason to leave. I'm not condemning someone that gets a divorce. I'm just trying to understand it. I think that when you have kids one of the things that you risk is the closeness that you have with your spouse. Once you have children, your time and money is gone (Not that I remember having money before kids either). Without time or money, it's pretty hard to maintain a relationship with your significant other. I think it behooves us to keep in mind that any relationship takes work. Whether it's a good friend, a spouse (significant other), or with God (Buddha, Zeus, insert deity here). I tell ya though, it's pretty darn hard when you're tired out of your mind to find energy to work on a relationship. But all I know is that it's necessary.

Snapshot

by Grant

    Have you ever wanted to take a mental picture and burn it into your mind so you can remember it forever. Yeah, doesn't work too well. It seems like the things you remember are almost random or maybe totally traumatic. Watching our girls totter along is a "precious memory." I'm not sure why it seems more special--maybe all that neato uncertainty and stress we had before and after their birth. Anyway, we have some pictures but Rebekah is kind of a snob and won't make the effort to blog 'em. I'll see about doing them shortly.

Baby/Life Update:
    Girls are fairly healthy. Serenity is teething and very unhappy but generally we finally feel like we're through the winter woes. The boys are great and Titus I swear gets cuter every day. Forrest is turning into a little man and I can really have him help out and do things. One day I made him get wood for the stove all by himself. My left arm has been mostly worthless since the surgery and whenever I use it a little bit (to work) I seem to set my recovery back a couple of weeks.

So, not a lot of fascinating news but hopefully a little bit informative at least.