Insanity

Ok, so it took long enough. I'm sorry. so very sorry for the madness and frustration that I caused my parents. Now I understand why my Dad (& Mom) got so frustrated when we did stupid things. I of course, don't remember a fraction of the stupid things but I do remember utter disgust a time or two and now I understand why. For example, I remember chasing Forrest into the house and him slamming the back door in my face. It was just a swinging door so I (being angry) just stuck my hand out really fast and hit the door with the palm of my hand. Unfortunately, my aim wasn't so good and I hit a glass window pane. I got some small scratch on me and I'm sure I bellowed like a cow who thought he was going to the laughter house, but in reality was going to the slaughter house (the "S" fell off the sign you see). But what I remember most was the lack of sympathy from my parents. Evil parents. I was hurt! Mom tried to explain it to me and I understood intellectually but it wasn't until recently that I feel the visceral frustration at all the things my kids do. Jumping up and down on a bed or couch? Not a big deal until the item that was a trampoline is now destroyed. And that's just it--destruction. Kids are so destructive. I cannot keep up. I resolved earlier this year to try to stay on top of things more in the house-upkeep department. One day I was told that the kids broke the drywall in a bedroom. So, I fix it. Before I even have time to think about a second coat of drywall mud and sanding, they break another hole in the wall of section I just repaired! So, Mom, Dad, I understand and I feel your pain now.

It was Titus...

...that had the idea first. He took his sandals off and used his bare feet.

So today I'm trying to "winterize" the house. I haven't gotten very far, but I did manage the clean the chimney. Normally this would just be a nuisance, but we had our roof replaced earlier this year with tin. Ok, "metal." I wasn't too concerned as I've been on metal roofs a lot in my life, but when I started up the incline to where the chimney was I just spun my "wheels." I think i'm going to use quotes a few more times. Now then, I was in a bit of a conundrum. I looked at the surface and I noticed that it wasn't normal metal roofing. At least, not the kind I was used to. It had (has?) some kind of coating and I could not get any purchase. Finally I got a running start and scrabbled (yes that's a word) up. As I neared the top I was running out of energy and time. Finally, just like you see in the movies, with my last bit strength I lunged towards the peak of the roof and grabbed  the edge. With my fingertips I was able to get a grip (literally) and hang on. I then drug myself up to the peak and hung over the edge a little. I was exhausted. I'm sure it probably would have been amusing to an onlooker, but I was desperate because I knew I wasn't going to have the energy again anytime soon to try that again. Thankfully, once I got up there Forrest was able to hand me the chimney sweep. Then he tried to climb up and he couldn't. So I held one end of the chimney sweep down so he could use that to pull himself up. Finally he got up and then we were tripping over each other trying to not slide down. I was able to brace myself against the chimney and forrest just held onto the peak of the roof. So then I proceeded to clean the chimney which involves breathing in a lot of soot. Before I was done, Titus climbed up. When he got to where the steeper roof incline started he ran into the same issue that Forrest and I had. But Titus, that wasn't going to stop him. So he took off his sandals and climbed up like a little monkey. Well, that's cool I thought, but I didn't think much of it. But then when it was time to climb down, Forrest said he was scared so I told him to take his shoes off and do what Titus did. But when I went to climb down I understood Forrest's fear. If I started sliding down, I wasn't going to stop. So, before we were done we all three were climbing down barefoot.

So, now you know what to do if you can't climb up a roof without sliding down.

I have wasted so much time

a song by cake. I think it's appropriate though, don't you?

i think part of the problem with a blog is that it's difficult to give any sort of high level view. It gives insight into what is going on at that moment, but doesn't really reflect the ongoing trials & tribulations. valleys and mountains. highs and lows. This has been an interesting year. Last year I began to dislike my job. Things changed and i never could get a handle on the changes. I don't handle change well. at least, not negative change. Things came to a head when I started having stomach problems at the end of december. The problems  progressively got worse which caused me to miss work. Although I was doing my best, I couldn't seem to get a handle on things which was just making me more miserable. So, finally I had an opportunity to make a change and after 11 years I switched jobs.

So far, it's been mostly sweet with a small helping of bitter. The drive doesn't really bother me. not yet. But I have winter to go through. Frustration with transport devices has been one of my highest stress items. Winter is coming and I have to get my wood situation straightened out. We are planning on renting a log splitter to try to split the mess of wood on the property.

But none of this stuff really matters because it's all temporal. Family is more important and more interesting to most people (women).  This year has improved a bit I think. School is definitely easier because we put Forrest into 3rd grade at the local school. He had a bit of an issue w/ a fifth grader for a while but that seems to calmed down now. He handled it pretty well. I am impressed at what he is growing to be. The constant source of frustration is his attitude towards his mother, but as much as I try to support Rebekah, that battle is mostly hers to fight. I'm simply not around enough when this "attitude" is taking place. It's not exactly like he's attitude free with me, but I think a lot of it is the frustration of selfishness. Titus is maturing as well. Both boys helped me at the church today do a bunch of hard work and I was pleased with them. They worked well until they got tired and even then they still worked, just slower. The girls Liberty and Serenity are starting to get put to work as well. I am hopeful that they can start making life a little cleaner around the house if not easier. Trinity is still Daddy's girl but I'm not a complete pushover. She gets in trouble with me and gets spanked. But sometimes she will listen to me when she won't Rebekah. It's hard to turn her away from a path she wants to go, but rather I must redirect her. Tricky at times. Especially to do it without letting her get her own way. Clell, well, we love Clell. He's still a holy terror, but a sweet and lovable terror if such a thing exists. Someday, he won't get into everything. we hope.

Rebekah and I think are doing the worst. But we're still kicking. With any luck or grace from God, we can get them all to 18 or greater before I have a heart attack.

p.s. this blog has been going for over 5 years

my better half

That phrase always annoyed me when I was younger. I mean, why was the chick better? Everybody with a brain in their head (that excluded girls) knew that boys were better than girls. Well, after a few years of marriage I finally figured out that it wasn't that girls were better (duh!) but that somehow, a good wife makes a man even better. Or something.

So, I've discovered I can't really write a blog post and be serious. What inspired me to write such drivel? Well, Rebekah got her wisdom teeth removed which was pretty ugly. The way one tooth had grown meant they actually had to put Rebekah out and cut the gum because of how it had grown around the nerve. So, needless to say (but I shall anyway) she was in a lot of pain. I don't know that I heard her complain once. It was obvious that she was miserable and not just for a couple of days either. Yesterday evening was the first time she had normal food. Some people might think that she basically babied herself and I had to do everything (or at least a lot more). But although I tried to help out more she still took care of almost everything herself. What a tough cookie. So, to make a long story even longer, since we are two halves of a whole I do acknowledge that she is the better half. Of course, this half is still in charge and don't you forget it!


On another note, the new job is going pretty well. I've been pretty stressed out a few times, but every time I think about my old job I am thankful that I have moved on.

The kids are doing well. We went to Middleton for the 4th of July parade and then lit fireworks at a friends house. I think I lit over 200 sparklers (definitely over 100) and inhaled a years worth of smoke. The previous weekend I took the boys to roaring springs which was fun for them and a little fun for me. I need to do something with the girls. The boys (due to their age) get to have way more fun. Well, have a happy whatever day.

Thai Iced Tea

You gotta try it! They start with some weird iced tea and then pour cream and sugar? In. It has this weird two tone thing going on. It looks orange and white at the top and then normal tea color down lower. Of course you want to mix it before drinking but it was tasty.

So, I've finished two weeks at my new job. Yesterday we met with a client to try and smooth some things out. I was able to offer some expertise on some of the technology they had. They seemed appreciative and the local boss man was pleased with my participation. My co-worker on the other hand accused me of ahem brown-nosing ahem. Dude, I'm a newbie, I'm gonna do my best to make a good first impression. But he's a good guy. I'm pretty sure he was joking. He's a lot of fun to work with and the other guys there are cool too. It's pretty cool because they pull funny pranks on each other all the time and decorate for Christmas and all sorts of stuff. A bunch of System Engineers! They like to have fun. So, I'm enjoying the challenge and the change. The commute isn't bothering me too much except it's hurting my wrists. So, I might need to get a different car sooner rather than later (my miata has too many sensations for my wrists). I am still a little concerned about the work-load because there is on-call and other times when you get called because nobody else knows what to  do. But at least I'm getting paid more which helps ease the frustration of working extra hours. I figure I lose a little more than 1 hour a day due to the commute. Not too bad. I go in @ 8:30 which means I leave 7:45 which means that I don't lose any sleep! Yay! I get home between 6:15 and 6:30.

So, other than money being really tight while we wait for our first paycheck, things are going well.

Oh, and other than almost driving us insane on a regular basis, the kids are doing well. Serenity got a huge sliver in her foot the other day. Rebekah had to call Kathie to come pull it out cause she's a girly (wo)man.

Well, I gotta go pray. Take care.

Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage

In case you haven't figured out yet, I don't like coming up with titles. What should I put, blog post 148? blech. something descriptive but doesn't sound too stupid will take me longer than writing the whole  post. So, it's almost 5AM and I can't sleep. I think it has something to do with the monster drink I had last evening. Don't gett me wrong, I did sleep some. I just woke up about an hour ago and decided to get up for a bit until I felt sleepier.

This week has been crazy. I accepted a new job. I'm finally leaving the WG. I've been there longer than I've been married. pretty wild huh? Roughly a 35% pay increase which more than offsets the gas for the commute. I was just ground down to a nubbin at the WG. What's a nubbin you ask? Oh, it's a little bump about the size of a baby's nipple. Since I have a commute now, I decided I should get my miata out. It's been garaged for years because I didn't want to wear it out any more. This commute won't preserve it, but it's not doing me much good sitting in the garage either. It's was a (mildly) emotional moment getting it out. Of course, all the screaming and fighting by the kids pretty much shot the mood. But that car was a huge shot  in the arm at a rough time in my life. I bought it right after I broke up with my first girlfriend. Ok, it was a little less than mutual. But that car was a dream. I used to say goodnight to it before I went inside the house (in Indiana) from the garage. Oh yeah? you think that's stupid, well you're stupid! Now that I've put you in your place, be quiet and let me talk/type. Anyway, after I installed the special $125 about the size of a lawn mower battery, I got it to start on the first crank. Pretty amazing huh?

We also got a new roof put on this week. And guess, what? It's metal!!!! yay! out of pocket cost should be around $300 because most of it was covered by insurance. Liberty Mutual. Seems like a good company from our experience. I grew to hate shingles because the previous homeowner had the roof replaced (just new shingles over old) right before we moved in and I was always up on the roof trying to keep them from blowing away or fixing them afterwards. I finally realized that this was stupid, dangerous, and I had insurance. The last windstorm did a ton of damage around the area and it broke loose huge patches of shingles. Thankfully, even though I was busy Rebekah did pretty much all the work. She was up there putting tin on and everything! Ok, maybe not that much work, but she called the Insurance Company, the insurance adjuster, the roofing guy, etc. The only fly in the ointment was that they quoted us a shingle roof and put a tin roof on. So, we don't have anything documenting the agreement. But the bill is the same, so it shouldn't be a big deal. I talked to the guy who owns the company and he seemed to be a "my word is my bond" person. That's awesome, but when he has a heart attack and dies and his son-in-law takes over and starts ripping off all the old people in the area it's not going to help me. Whatever. God is in control. I've got a new roof for minimal money.

BTW, typing this blog has been painful. I spilled hot glue on my finger last night trying to rebuild an 18v battery pack for my Ryobi tools. I hope after all the pain and cost it's worth it. Man, do I hope it works.

Complete lack of competence

Or possibly incompetence. Sometimes I am amazed at how bad a father I am. I mean, there is normal mediocrity due to incompetence and then there's the stunned silence due to shock and horror caused by raging incompetence mediocrity. Yep, that's the one that gets you down. Doesn't get me down. So, on this April Fools day in 2012 i acknowledge my incompetence. Sadly, I'm still vastly superior to most other fathers out there. With the possible exception of Bruce Willis. He's probably a bad father too, but he's cool. And that makes up for a lot. Plus he shaves his head. I shaved mine last week. Rebekah was mad at me. Probably still is. I'm not really sure since I haven't talked to her in awhile.

So, just saw a commercial telling kids to play. Pretty wild huh? Never saw that commercial coming. I heard a commercial on an old radio program telling people how bad things were and encouraging the listeners to get involved in their local church or synagogue. Sounded suspiciously like the government advocating religion.

Well, I'm 3 years into my bathrooms/shower project and I only (mostly) have one bathroom done. This lack of progress has inspired me to start working on the other bathroom. So, last week Rebekah and I built a wall and then I closed off the wall to keep the kids out. Then I got a sledge hammer out and broke down the dividing wall between the two bedrooms. The kids loved that. The floor is tongue and groove and over the years the foundation (or something) settled so that part of the floor was/is sloping really bad. So, I had to remove the floor and put sister-joists in. I am still in the process of doing that. Thankfully, I kind of know what I'm doing since I did it once before already. So, instead of prying up and splitting the boards, I used my oscillating tool and my sawz-all to cut the nails. Hopefully, over the next week I can get the floor  put back in. I am going to flip the boards over because the normal side has gooey gunk from the linoleum. We'll see how it goes. Any day now I am going to have to shift modes and start working on stuff outside so I'm trying to get as much done as quickly as possible.

Well, that's all folks.

Sweet Vishnu the Destroyer

or "Fur is Murder?"

which do you prefer for a title? Remember to put the question mark after murder.

I guess you can tell that I'm watching the Simpson's. And because I want to want to watch the Simpsons I am letting the commercials play while I type this. The kids are fascinated with the commercials. We don't watch much regular TV (mostly Netflix) so they're intrigued. Uh oh, now they're watching a monster truck commercial. I'm in trouble now. Anywho, things have been going a bit better. My stomach is mostly back to normal and work is a bit less stressful. Still some major changes and I have to work a couple long Sundays this month, but hey, at least I didn't get nailed by a tornado or anything.

Oooh, and now I'm watching a commercial about Red Lobster and they're talking about Maine. I think I know somebody from there.

Well, the family is mostly finally recovered from their sicknesses. Yes, I know that's not a word. But it's my blog. So, there. Back to the family, we've mostly decided to send Forrest to the New Plymouth school next year. Supposedly, we have the best schools in the area and I think it'll be good for him. Titus will also have to step up and do more while Forrest is at school. After we see how Forrest is doing, we'll probably send Titus. Forrest is our guinea pig I guess. I"m sure he'd love to hear that.

I've started working on enclosing the upstairs bedroom. Then Clelly Belly will sleep in there. Titus can have his room back. Did I mention he lost his room because of setting the girls' hair on fire? Rebekah did a great job helping me this weekend and between that, my awesome skills and my new Dremel  multi max oscillating tool, we got most of it done this weekend. Now I need to buy a door (custom midget height) and move the light switch. Fun with electricity kids. I figure if I  electrocute myself doing that my kids will learn a valuable lesson. Mainly, don't electrocute yourself.

The weather has been nice. But that makes weeds grow. See, I can find the downside in anything :)

bloggidy blog blog

man, i can't tell you how many times I've thought about blogging. But, and you should thank me for this, I abstained. The self pity and drivel that would have emanated would have driven you to despair, spat you out, sucked you back in, digested most of you in its first stomach, and then polished you off in the second stomach. I bet you didn't know that despair had two stomachs did you? Well, consider yourself duly informed.

Yeah, so it's been pretty rough. I've had some frustrating health problems that have caused me a lot of pain. I even hit the ER once just to make sure it wasn't a heart attack. On the postive side, I think that I am getting better. I've lost 20 pounds since the New Year simply because I couldn't eat without pain. I'm slowly eating again and desperately hoping and praying that the pain doesn't come back. So, that's been a big bummer.

Kids are doing well. Rebekah is hanging in there. Sometimes it's more than we think we can take. But, we hang onto the promise that God won't give us more than we can take, although he will push us to the edge sometimes. I know that Bodybuilders that want to gain muscle mass do what is called "lifting to failure." Just so you know, this technique is one of the quickest ways to quit weight training in record time. It hurts! It is so miserable to lift until you can't lift anymore, but that forces the muscle to break down and then build back up stronger than ever before. This past month has been one of the darkest times in my life, but I managed to hang onto my faith. Somehow, when trials come we (me) have this expectation that X duration is ok, but after that we lose hope. God doesn't work that way, and trials like this (where you don't understand what is wrong, how to fix it, or what to do about it) really teach patience. Tribulation worketh patience you know. Lots and lots of patience. Hopefully, if I learn patience the tribulation will take a chill pill and go drink a beer on the beach somewhere. Don't know if it works that way, but one can always hope right?

'nuff said.