Naked came I

by Grant


    Now that I have your attention. Let's begin.
(Just in case you're interested, that's from the Bible  (Job 1:21 to be precise). It's also (quite ironically) the name of the autobiography of Opus the Penguin from Bloom County. Unless you're my Mom or brother, I'm quite sure you don't know what or what that is. Although, if you strain your membrane a bit, you may remember a fat penguin in the funny pages (particularly Sunday) named Opus. Aaah, such fond memories. Moving right along...)

I promised myself I wouldn't apologize for not blogging since if there ain't nothing to blog ain't gonna blog (eloquent right). But I've had several things I've wanted to put down and haven't gotten to it. Mostly because I'm lazy, but having four wee ones plays a small part in monopolizing my time.


A few topics I've pondered include the "The refrigerator that could," "Two flew out of the Ballard's nest," "Memorial Madness," "Cheer up Buckeroo"

I guess I'll do "Cheer up Buckaroo" (BTW, I'm working on pictures too)

    This probably isn't too fascinating, but it's the shortest and most recent. I've worked at my current place of employ since 2001. During that time it's been tumultuous but most of my co-workers have been pretty static. The economy has been pretty hard on the good old WG so one of my buddies got laid off in January, another friend (not so much co-worker) got cut a couple months later, and now my cube-mate has moved on to greener pastures (or will in a couple weeks). Que Sera Sera (I hate French! Ooh, and if you're really observant you might notice that's a tautology. bonus points to whoever remembers what that is and who said it). So, who knows what else will happen. The frustrating things is a lunch buddy and commiserating buddy are gone and the work load has to increase. But, no time to feel sorry for myself as there's too much work to do. Oh, and if you're curious about the title (the buckeroo one), my buddy said that when he heard me sigh towards the end of the day. It's funny because he knew exactly the type of sigh and what I was sighing about. I guess you kind of get to know somebody after 5 years working next to each other.


Baby/Life update:
Girls are doing pretty good. A bit too fussy for me. I'm still bothered by the whole girl thing. Not that I don't love them or wish I didn't have them but rather I have been terrified in multiple fashions about how much impact the father has on his daughters. Not to mention guarding them from lecherous men w/out turning them into old maids. Yeah, I'm worrying a bit too soon maybe but it's never too early to start I always say. But they are cute little things and I have to be doubly sure they don't wrap me around their little finger (as the saying goes). Boys are doing great. Forrest is really growing. Sometimes I think he's more mature than the average guy. Not saying that means he's an angel (He's not) but there are many good traits that need nurtured. It's amazing how showing your child love is like giving a plant water and sunlight. They thrive with it. Yes, that's obvious I'm sure, but seeing it in action is much more powerful than words. And Titus, well, that kid has gotten out of more spankin's cause he's so darn cute. So many of the times when he's naughty it's because he is just curious. Anyway, I feel very blessed to have such a great family (and I'm not just saying that).

Mo's Day

by Grant

    Ah, Mother's day. It is always a fun day. I don't think that all mothers should be celebrated though. Don't shoot me yet! There are a lot of rotten ones out there. But with that said, there are a lot of great ones and even being a good one is fantastically hard. How do I know? Well, that's what everybody says for one. And for two, I had to play mother for several days this last week. Rebekah got horribly sick (strep) and was out of action for pretty much four days. That was a horrible experience for all involved. I had to stay home and take care of the kids which got on my last nerve after the second day. I didn't feel that great myself either, but I was a whole lot healthier than she was. I did my best and we all survived, but I am still recovering psychologically and Rebekah is still recovering physically. I have finally reconsidered having more children due to this experience, but Rebekah is still wanting a fifth. I think I'm getting too old for this though. Aah and Serenity has a double ear infection and a urinary tract infection. So, she's a wee bit crabby. Of course, everybody is still more sociable than me at my best.

BTW, is it legal to kill a bird on your property? a pheasant just walked by. Imagine, pheasant under glass. Eh. I think I prefer Chinese food.
Anyway, I think it's got to be very hard to be a mom. Typically stuck in the house, doing the same old routine day after day. Listening to all the fighting and squabbling and stuff. Listening to the complaints about the food (they're lucky they have food). etc. etc. etc. And even if you are keeping your children alive and fairly healthy, there's always other mothers that seem to be so much more "with-it" Ptooey. I spit on them! Something has to be sacrificed because there is not enough time and energy in the day to do everything. Something has to go. Frequently it is attention to your husband or a meaningful relationship with your children. So, let it be known that although I'm a pretty ogreish (not really a word) husband and father, I do love and appreciate my wife for all she does for me and our family. And of course, I love and appreciate what my own poor mother for what she had to put up with from four boys (we had a sister too, but she was the oldest and gone to college when I was still young).

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.

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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.

The first thing to make me smile

all freakin' day.


"Why would I go to Utah? I love Booze, caffeine, and monogamy!"
Homer J. Simpson


I go under the knife tomorrow

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Torture

by Grant

My wife is watching some cheerleading movie. I'm not sure why, but I'm confident that she's doing it to torture me.

Interesting things have been happening.

The company where I work has been hit hard by the slowdown of housing starts combined with the sub-prime loan scandal. So, they decided to trim their monthly operating expenses to put them more in line w/ expenses. Translation: layoffs. This is a public blog, so I won't make editorial comments on how well it was executed. Suffice it to say that a fair number (10% roughly) of people were let go. Pretty scary times. It was a *little* less scary when I realized that there was a definite pattern to who got let go. I didn't think I fit, but who can ever say, ya know? But, the one person in IT that got let go did get some sort of severance which is pretty fair. We probably would have lost more, but we did some housecleaning prior. Also, we had one person quit (to go to another job) the week of the layoffs. All told we lost four out of Operations. If they cut anybody else, stuff is going to break and nobody will have the expertise to fix it. Thankfully, our boss fully understands this.

I'm going in for Carpal Tunnel Surgery this Wednesday. Hopefully that goes well. If not, my wife is already planning what to do with the insurance money.


Rebekah has some videos of the girls that I will heckle her to upload so all may view.

I know that there's other stuff, but danged if I can remember it now.

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Ugh: Part 2

by Grant

    It seems like I've already done an ugh, so thus the part 2. Rebekah and I are both sick with the flu. The girls (mostly Liberty) had it a few days  ago. It's been pretty rough. But, that's life w/ kids. Definitely one part I hadn't really expected too much. But, lots of other people are sick too so I guess I can't just blame it on my pathetic immune system. But Wow was Liberty unhappy. The girls have been so good, that when they are fussy it's really hard to deal with it. But Liberty is flirting with me right now as I write this, so I guess she's back to her normal self.

Exciting news in the Ballard household: We bought a new TV. And as is customary, we bought the coolest one out there--a flat panel. Well, before you are too critical about the allocation of funds, let me tell you a couple of things. First, I have never ever purchased a TV before. The 20" model we've been using was purchased over ten years ago by Rebekah. Second, I was expecting no bonus at work due to the economy and I got a pretty good one. Third, my friend that was laid-off recently had purchased a TV right after Turkey Day and had never taken it out of the box. So, the good Samaritan that I am, I offered to take it off his hands. So, all the stars aligned to make this purchase happen. I was even able to get it while my wife and fam (except for the girls) were gone. One small problem: It didn't fit in the entertainment center. Solution: Power Saw! At least with a flat panel I only had to cut 5" out, but I knew my wife would probably be resistant, so I had to move fast. When she got home the TV was mounted and she was impressed. Thankfully, the cabinet was home-made out of 3/4" plywood so it's structurally sound.


My brother Tyler and his wife Amy are having a house warming this next weekend. It's a sight to behold that's for sure. My Dad took a house and drug it into town probably 20 years ago and converted it into a garage (he built it into such a large building that my Mom dubbed it, the "Monster"). Then 15 years later, he converted part of it into a small temporary "apartment" for Tyler and his wife. Then a couple years ago, they started expanding it into a decent size "house." I put house in " because it's still part of a larger structure, but hopefully it's large enough for a family now. It is a beautiful work of art, let me tell you. Tyler has spent countless hours on sanding and varnishing wood for the walls and Amy has used her interior designer intelligence to make it look like something you'd see on the H&G channel.

Last, but not least, it's my birthday! yes!

Nicknames

by Grant

    I've called my kids lots of things over the years and most of them are printable. I was thinking that it might be amusing to jot some of these down for posterity (in Internet years, that would be about 2 minutes).


Forrest:

• Velociraptor: Yes, it's a mouthful. But when he was first walking, he moved quickly on his tiptoes with this hands out in front of him just like those little nasty dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.
• il Duche: When Forrest was younger I called him that because he was so bossy. For those of you weak on History, il Duche was Mussolini's title and it means the leader.

Titus:

• Ti-Ti (prounounced Tie-Tie): I think this one needs no explanation
• Tow (Tube Launched Optically-tracked Wire-guided Missile) Head: Ok, towhead means a really blond headed kid. and TOW is a missile used by the military so I just blended the two.
• Scarface: Very recent because he got a nasty scratch that curved around his cheek.

Liberty:

• L-dawg: Short for Liberty Dawg ala Snoop Dawg
• Libs: Occasionally I do shorten her name in the conventional method, but I try to avoid Libby.

Serenity:

• Any Guesses? Yep, S-dawg.
  
• Rebekah calls her "Renny"
• Bill the Cat. This is from a comic strip (now deceased) called Bloom County. The cat would go "Ack!" and stick out it's tongue. Serenity does the same :)

I'm sure there are others and maybe I can get Rebekah to add to the list.

The nice thing about an old House

by Grant

    I came down with a cold this last week. No biggie. I got up thursday morning feeling really rotten and trying to stop myself from wimping out of work. So, I took a shower. Well, most of a shower. Two Thirds of the way through the water quit. Yeah, just quit. So, I hopped out of the shower, grabbed a towel and proceeded to confirm my worst fears... aliens had landed. No! Uhm, yeah, there was no water.

<sigh>


So, I go and wake up my wife and then climb down into my pump house with a heat gun. Three hours later, after calling my Dad and a friend at work I finally concede defeat. Of course, I'm not the only one with this problem. My contact for this has five calls already (dang, I should've called earlier). I call my friend Mark and he pulls some strings and gets his brother out there (who owns Leon's Pumps in Payette) in 15 minutes. A few minutes later he thaws out the area on the pump that tells it when to kick on (pressure sensor). Argh! One of those things that you know what the problem is but not quite sure how to fix it. So, we're pretty good to go. Of course, when the pressure tank goes dry then there turns out to be a lot of sediment. Dirt. black stuff. Forrest got really freaked out when the kitchen faucet came on spurting and spitting and ran into the bathroom where the tub was on full blast. Yeah, he didn't handle it well as the tub was even scarier.I came back into the house to be greeted by a screaming kiddo. The pressure was low but that evened out. The only problem was my bathroom faucet. It still seemed frozen as we could get nothing but a drip drip out of it. I eventually figured out that it wasn't frozen at all but plugged full of sediment. So, about a hundred bucks and several frozen appendages later (did I mention it was cold outside?) we're back to normal. So, one more task that I have in front of me is insulating the pump house and putting some sort of heating light down there.

Life... in the fast lane.

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Friday - By Rebekah

 
Just some minor news for the day. :-)

This morning when I went up to give the girls their bottle, I found
Serenity sitting up facing Liberty, with Liberty laying down. But they
were holding hands and talking. It was very cute! Unfortunately, I
didn't have the camera with me (cause I had the bottles) and they
wouldn't have held still while I went downstairs anyway...as soon as
they see their bottles, they go nuts!

I have been potty training Titus for 2 weeks now, but most of the time
he does nothing. He has had occasional accidents but today he actually
told me BEFORE he had to go and he MOSTLY made it. :-)

As most of you probably know, Forrest has been unofficially in preschool
this year, with me as his teacher. Unofficially because we don't do it
every day...we do it whenever we have time. So far he knows all his
letters, upper and lower case, and can write his numbers 1-10. We also
work on drawing shapes and this morning after he drew I heart, I told
him that the heart shape also stands for love. So then I wrote "Mom -
heart - Forrest & Titus" and told him that meant that I love him and
Titus. He then wrote "Dad" and said that I loved Daddy too. :-)

Oh, the other thing the girls have been doing is pulling themselves up
to everything. (they just started crawling after Christmas) Their legs
aren't strong enough to be standing much yet so they get up to something
and then start wobbling like crazy, and cry because they know they're
going to fall. They're so stubborn...just like their dad! haha!!!

That's all for now...have a great day!

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Pictures (late 2007)

More pictures (some boring, some not) can be found @
http://s128.photobucket.com/albums/p168/gcballard/December%202007/
Choose "view all" to see them all.

Serenity, showing her flexibility


Liberty, having a grand old time


Christmas (at my parents)!




Forrest "helping" titus

The Fam.
L to R
Amy, Axel, Reagan, Tyler
Beka, Serenity, Grant, Liberty, Titus
(I have no idea where Forrest is)


The "Gallery of Forrest"


Doing a pretty hard puzzle. If you look closely, you can see it's of my truck. Forrest did 2/3rds of it easily.

The Last  Piece

Admiring his work


The inspring picture (My dad takes pictures and turns them in to puzzles)

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vocab 101

by Grant


    Learned from the Simpsons this week: Eponymous and Masthead. Eponymous has to do with something being named after a person. So, Rome is an eponym for Romulus the founder. JimBob Payette was the eponymous explorer of Payette county (I made up his first name.I think it's actually something frenchy french).

Masthead is the portion in a newspaper or magazine that nobody reads because it has the names of the important people that own or run said media item.


Oh, and instead of just randomly memorizing words. I credit a large part of my vocabulary to my high school English teacher, Mrs. Brackenbury (or Mrs. B. for short). She had us memorize latin roots (greek too? not sure, it's been a long time). I should have known epi (upon) but I did  know nym which is name. So, literally  -> Name  Upon. See the logic? If that doesn't make much sense I'll try to figure out some more obvious examples.... Circumspect means look (or see) and around (like a circle). So, if you are being circumspect you are being cautious which means you're looking around.

Any Questions?

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One long short week

by Grant

    This week was supposed to be easy. I worked Monday, had Tuesday off, and so it should've felt like a pretty short and easy week.


Yeah. Right. (ooozing oodles and oodles of sarcasm).


Lots of stress. Lots of problems at work. I can't even recall most of them. The stuff that sticks in my mind is two layoffs. One of my best friends that had been at the company for 7 years got taken out. Really hard to see that.

But I tell you one thing, the fear of losing your job sure makes you thankful. For me I mean. I'm very grateful that I wasn't the one getting a last cigarette before the firing squad takes aim.


Baby/Life Update
 Serenity got really sick. Another $60 out of our pocket. She had a double ear infection. Liberty still looks a bit peaked, but doesn't have any major symptoms. Forrest and Titus seem to be doing pretty well. Still a bit of coughing. Rebekah is probably the sickest with Serenity. For myself, while I'm not 100% I'm not complaining (much). This is probably the best I've felt in months. I just hope I continue to improve or at least maintain status quo ya know? (hehehe, that rhymes).

But, Serenity is getting the crawling thingy down good. (or is it well?)
Liberty is a closet crawler--meaning she doesn't like to crawl when we are watching. But Rebekah couldn't find her one time and found she had used some method of forward locomotion to change her geographic location.

I still wrestle with spending time with the girls. It's hard to know who to pick up when you've got two excited smiling sweeties so happy to see me. I usually pick them both up, or don't do either. I figure, I don't want to be blamed for playing favorites when I'm older, so I'll just neglect them both equally. Pretty strategic thinking huh?

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They're Crawling

by Grant


    Well, sort of. Serenity has some forward mobility and Liberty is very quick to mimic.


Health update:
Titus appears better. I'm holding my breath that he will stay better. Forrest relapsed around Christmas, but he seems stronger. All he has is a cough. That's the persistent issue that we have. The girls are doing better. Serenity got sick quickly followed by Liberty but Serenity pulled out of it quickly. Liberty is still under the weather, but she's cutting teeth (or at least was) so that could have been part of it. Rebekah is fairly miserable with lots of congestion that she can't get rid of. I'm not quite sure how I am to be quite honest. Some stays I feel pretty good and then next day I feel pretty sick. Is that everybody? I'm trying to get an appoint with an ENT doc, but the only one in Ontario is booked solid for two weeks. Maybe by some miracle neither I, nor any of my immediate family will need one in two weeks.

In other news, it's cold! Not compared to Fairfield, but it sure feels that way in my old house.

In other other news, Christmas went well.

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Twas the Saturday...

by Grant

    ...Before Christmas. The girls got sick just the other day but they both look much better now. Titus and Forrest still have some lingering issues. Rebekah is still coughing. I am on the strongest antibiotics but am feeling better. I guess this is just one of those trials families go through. It seems like a universal issue is 1. money and 2. health. But, since I have zero, zip, zilch, nada, naught ability to heal my family I guess I can rest in putting these burdens on the great Physician. I always used to say, "That which does not kill me makes me stronger... unless, that is, it results in a weakened immune system which then allows a common cold to turn into double pneumonia and cause a slow linger death." Ok, that's the long version, but it's basically in spirit of my attitude in times past. Nowadays, I try to be a little more positive about things although I freely acknowledge failing quite often.

Thick skin: My Dad has one. I remember people saying some horrible things to my father when I was growing up and it never phased him. He always used to say that it was like water off a duck's back. I seem to recall that duck feathers have some oil or some such in them so that they don't get saturated with H2O. I personally prefer the concept of developing a "thick skin" as I personally have no feathers and wouldn't know how to infuse them with oil even if I did. I've found that by realizing that I have a "thin skin" I can take various offenses in stride and chalk it up to toughening me up--callous if you will. My Dad has such thick callous from all the work he's done that he can pick up really hot pieces of metal that would burn a mortal man. So, I'm trying to get some callous on my feelings. Both work and personal life have given me great opportunities to do so recently. Focus is really important in issues such as this. If I focus on the fact that I was wronged, I am hurt and possibly embittered. However, if I focus on the fact that God (or Life/Karma etc. if you're a heathen) is trying to teach me something, it tends to be a much easier (or less jagged if you like Alanis Morisette) little pill to swallow.

The Simpsons!

I finally saw the movie. It was very entertaining. "Spider Pig, Spider Pig"

Tis the Season

by Grant

    Well, this time of the year is frustrating for me. I'm such an oblivious person (I've cultivated that quality) that I have a hard time really enjoying the time of year like I want to. Christmas sneaks up on me. Last year it was especially difficult because Rebekah had to go into the hospital and we had guests living with us. Ever celebrate Christmas in the hospital? Yeah, it was as rotten as it sounds. Poor Forrest was so upset about not being with us that it was breaking my heart. Last year sickness had visited me pretty hard and I was even so bad that my Dad (or was it my Mom) insisted that I go to the ER. After an hour or so there waiting, I finally decided that if they didn't consider it a true emergency then it probably wasn't so I went home. So, with all that in mind I could either enjoy the simple fact that all had turned out well and this year we were all home, or I could be frustrated that I couldn't celebrate Christmas like I wanted due to financial reasons. I chose the latter. Yeah, yeah, I'm working on it. There is so much to truly be thankful for and as I've learned from both the Grinch and Charlie Brown, Christmas isn't about the gifts. Oh, I'm not overly frustrated about me getting gifts. I've gotten little for the past ten years. I'm frustrated that I can't get my wife some nice things. The kids will get stuff regardless. But I can't afford to buy gifts for the family members that I will be around this year. It makes me feel pretty cheap to say to family "Don't buy us anything, cause we're not buying you anything." But, I guess that's something I just have to get over. I am very thankful for my family--even my extended family. No, our health isn't what we'd like it to be but that's life. Our girls are pretty healthy and happy and even if the rest of us are still afflicted in some way, we are pretty happy too. I have been praying fervently for health for my family and I would appreciate your prayers as well. A large part of our current financial struggle has been with medical expenses for this health trial our family is going through. Both Rebekah and Titus definitely need antibiotics again, but we have already spent about $200 just this month on Dr. visits and meds. Pray for wisdom and grace for the physicians that we will need to see. We need correct diagnosis (what's the plural of that?) and kindness in giving us new prescriptions over the phone instead of requiring a visit with a copay.

But hey, at least i know without a shadow of a doubt that I am going to heaven. And I am definitely grateful for that.

Wring that Sponge out!

by Grant

    I recently was informed that Children are like sponges and that they absorb what they see and hear. This was counter to my argument that cartoons have negligible affect on the wee munchkins. Alas, in the heat of the exchange, my point was ill phrased and further stoked the fires of discontent (hey, you can have a winter of discontent, why not a fire?). Personal quarrels aside, I was forced to examine what my children see and hear to make sure that I am not warping them beyond a reasonable amount (basically I stop before it legally constitutes abuse). NO! My goal is not to warp my children, please! I am not that weird... or am I? No! I'm really not. Ok, well, the point is that I don't want to subject my children to the various and sundry evils of the world. So, let's say that I watch the Simpsons. My children are there and watch it with me. I am aware of this. I have a TV Guardian that effectively blocks over 90% of the naughty words (or at least, that I find objectionable to children and short relatives). As they watch the show, I tell them when something is "naughty" or they will ask me. If I find the subject matter unreasonable I will skip whole chunks or shut off the show entirely. Hmm... well, it's that or watch something "adult" such as CSI:Miami where they delve into shattered bodies in graphic detail (BTW, I like CSI:any city).

But I've decided that I'm keep doing what I'm doing. And when my kid picks up a word (whether from TV or his Uncle) I will squeeze him like a sponge until it's all out. Then, I'll stick him under a heat lamp until all traces are gone. Hmm... I'm not sure if I have a heat lamp big enough. Anybody know of a tanning bed for sale cheap?

Blog Editorial

by Grant

    One day I hope to look back at this blog and find it to be something that I was glad I did. I originally started it to disseminate the information about the girls, but thankfully there hasn't been a lot of exciting news to post recently. At this point, Serenity makes the wackiest faces and Liberty says "Da-Da-Da." We've had some sickness that has been pretty discouraging as it seems to just come around and around (I have been sick for the better part of three months), but thankfully nothing too serious. I'm not sure if the blog is very useful for disseminating information anymore, especially since there's not a lot to talk about. After getting some feedback from a hoser friend, I've tried to focus more on just family stuff. No offense people, but writing about that is about as much fun as going to a Dentist with dull drill bits. If I can't inject comments about the Simpsons and my various opinions (useless, I agree) then blogging becomes a chore. I think that I'm probably talking to myself here as I know not many people read these blogs and those who do are primarily interested in pictures etc. That's cool. However, I must think that either the this blog will die a slow lingering death or I've got to do something more interesting. Positive feedback is always welcome and I'm always excited to see that there are blog comments (even if it's limited to two people usually). In fact, the blog comments are what keeps me doing the effort of double posting. Don't underestimate the amount of good you can do with positive comments. There is far too much criticism in the world and I think we should strive every day to put off the unhelpful comments that are burning to burst out and instead turn it into something positive. You never know when that one seemingly minor comment that you made will be the turning point in someone's day or possibly even their life.

"Rock on Wayne" - Garth
"Rock on Garth" - Wayne