Deep thoughts

by Jack Handy.

Ok, not so much. I've had a few thoughts that were deep that I seriously considered blogging about but I like to keep things superficial. That way, when the time comes for Operation "Yo Momma" everybody will be surprised.

The Ballard Clan of New Plymouth has sojourned south and east for the Christmas season. We have joined with the Ballard Clan of Fairfield and the Ballard Clan of "Lives right behind Clan of Fairfield" for a family filled Christmas. Notice I omitted "fun." Traveling with six wee ones and the various accoutrements  is fatiguing. The packing begins the prior day which is preceded by lots of organization by the Clan Mother. We decided that for safety and other reasons we really needed to take two vehicles. So, just to come visit is costing almost $100 in gasoline alone. Oh well, Christmas comes but once a year. right? Please tell me it's only once a year. So, we made it here safe and sound even though those stupid 1A/5B drivers try to run us off the road. I'm only going the speed limit on a snow covered road through the mountains, silly me. The natural man part of me wishes to see their stupid rig go plummeting off the edge of the mountain and burst into a a fiery explosion. But the redeemed part of me prays for their safety and that of others that may encounter them.  One kind of odd sight that we witnessed was a bunch of snowboarders using parachute type sails to pull them over the prairie. Kind of cool. But once again a part of me wished coyotes on them. I'm just very grinchy, what can I say?

Smile, you're on candid camera.

Ouch

I've been working on the upstairs "play room" for the boys and I put some wood paneling up. Unfortunately the two pieces only gave me 8 feet. I needed 8 feet 2 inches. So, they're barely attached to studs on both sides. Since I need to do the drywall on the other side I was trying to figure out how to cover up the gap that would be left between the drywall and the paneling. So, since we pretty much have exhausted all our funds on wood and Christmas I found a piece of trim outside that I think I can use. I brought it inside and Serenity greeted me and promptly wanted to help. Since I never let the girls help and it was really light I let her carry it. Liberty wanted to help too so I let the girls carry it upstairs. It was cute because they were so excited to be helping. Other than it catching on things due to the length they were doing well. Unfortunately things went horribly wrong when we got to the tops of the stairs and I told them I would open the door. As I was trying to step over the trim, they turned and it caught my leg. Remember in "The Empire Strikes Back" when Luke wrapped the cable around that AT walkers and they came crashing down and exploded? yeah, that's a pretty accurate description of what happened to me. Not exploded as in got angry but more like the crashed and burned. My full weight came down on my knees in a rather violent fashion. Surprisingly, other than saying fudge! as I crashed I kept my expletives and anger to a minimum. My whole body aches (especially my knees and wrist). But after my wife and Forrest picked me up I had the girls come back up and finish. They were so happy that oddly enough I don't regret shattering my kneecaps yet. We'll see about tomorrow.

btw, i hate drywall

forced convalescence

I guess God decided I needed a break or something because I got sick Sunday-ish. So, for monday and tuesday I missed work. But I couldn't stand the thought of missing another day of work so I compromised and worked from home today. Less strenuous in some ways. Mostly a psychological thing since with the chaos around this house it's usually more restful to go to work. My Dad always encouraged me to get up and I'd feel better. To be honest, I think that may be true for some people but I usually feel worse. After I take a shower my body temp usually is higher and so I'm completely miserable until around 10:30 in the morning. But, whether it's true or not it's important to not "give in" to being sick. At least, not for more than our social mores deem acceptable. I think it's funny that in four years of college at Bob Jones, I never got sick. Ha! Yeah, I did. But when you got sick there you had to check into the campus Hospital "Barge." And to add insult to injury, they charged you room and board! We were already paying room and board once! So, for four years I just suffered and endured. One semester I was sick with some sinus problem almost the whole time. Seems pretty savage talking about it now. We always knew that if we saw a Dr. it was going to be expensive because it was an out of network. So, for the most part we just saw the Doctor on Christmas break or summer vacation. Now the co-pays keep me away unless I've suffered for a month. Well, I'd better get back to resting. I'm planning on going to work tomorrow and leaving Rebekah alone with all the sick kids. Nice of me huh? :)