Record Player

by Grant

    Ok, I'm desperate. I've been searching for a record player that can hold multiple records at a time, play one and then when it's done it drops the next one down. I have a whole bunch of records and Titus is a dancer. That white boy has some rhythm. Where he got it, I'm not sure but he's got some moves.

Anyway, if anybody has one, even an old big cabinet one, please let me know. The only requirements are that I need it to have the needle, handle multiple records, and work (or semi-work).


p.s.
Don't tell me to look on e-bay. A bunch of shysters. Charging more for the shipping than for the record player, what a joke.

technorati tags:record, player, turntable, phonograph

Weekend Away

by Grant

    Well, we just got back from an extended weekend at my Dad's. My Grandma is slowly going downhill health-wise and wanted to see the baby girls.

    I had to work later than I had intended on thursday and my wife (in whom I am well pleased) packed everything up by herself and was ready to go when I got home. What a woman! The trip home went pretty well, although we've done so little traveling that ours boys were having a little trouble adjusting. I don't mind stopping and letting them stretch their legs, but the girls sleep well as long as the vehicle is moving so we just kept on truckin'. Overall things went surprisingly well. Mom was a good help with the babies and the boys were pretty good. They just kept wanting to go outside, which is great in all, but their father is a lazy lounging lump (hmmm. I wonder if that website has been taken?). Anyway, I spose it was good timing because we haven't been home in seven months and Dad had a new computer that'd been awaiting someone to set it up so I was nominated. Other than the requisite family squabbles it was a good weekend. Traveling with the kids and hauling all the stuff that we need is really hard on Rebekah so it's usually very stressful.


Forrest & Titus playing with a cargo bag


Apparently the cars make
too much noise for Forrest


Pondering Life, Pondering Love, Pondering Chocolate



Regal and Royal


Serenity Hamming it up and Liberty bemused (LIberty's on the right)



One happy Serenity


Arrangment by Grantio



Once again, Liberty just watches

Videos

Serenity Swinging. Not easy to see, but look at those nice and wide eyes.

This is primarily of Liberty.If you listen carefully you canhear some "whacking" That'sme thumping on Serenity.

For those impatient ones out there...

by Grant

    ...Please know that I have been working tonight on getting the recent pictures offloaded from our camera, touched up, and uploaded onto our photobucket site. I also have taken two videos, recompressed them and rotated and uploaded those. Now, I'm a little tired of doing all that boring stuff so I'll do a baby/life update.

Baby/Life Update

    Today Rebekah attempted to do a yard sale with Keren and Kathie. In an attempt to be supportive, I will not make any comments on the success of said endeavor :)
I was very pleasantly surprised that I was able to sleep in with Forrest (he had a rough night so was in bed with me upstairs) while Rebekah took our early bird with her over to Kerens. After some much needed alone time (oh dang, I forgot to watch a movie in surround sound. I can't do that with kids in the house), I left in search of rocks. Man, I really don't want to bore myself writing this. Suffice it to say, that we were in need of rocks (roundish riverish rockish, woops, rocks). I took the long way home yesterday, which coincidentally runs by a river, and lo and behold I found voluminous piles of nice round river rocks (say that 300,000 times fast). Well, my normal personality is to ignore something like this because there's no sign that says, "Free rocks." So, do I just take the rocks on the edge of the field where they have been piled on the assumption that they are in the farmer's way? Or, do I try to get permission from somebody (who? it's not like every field has the owner's name). I ponder a couple things and then I decide to go to the nearest farm house. After greasing the skids with some jokes and leveraging my charm (stop laughing!) I feel confident that although they don't own the field, they have given me the green light to take the rocks.

So, anybody ever pick up rocks? They're kind of heavy. I mean, not each rock by itself, but put a few of them together and they weigh a bit. Well, Rebekah went on a girls night out (with the twin girls) and I took the boys and went on a high priority rock retrieval junket. After a few minutes a pickup pulled up to our little gang of merry men. Thankfully, no firearms were in sight. The driver was a migrant worker (most likely as his English was poor) but he was friendly and told me to take as many as I wanted. After my wife got home she was excited about the rocks. What a woman. I give her jewelry and thoughtful gifts and nary a smile and I brings some rocks home and she's ecstatic.

Where's all this leading? Don't know and don't much care. All I know is that I've probably moved a ton of rocks by myself. I'm tired and a little sore.

Oh, you want to know something about the girls. Well, I'm holding a squirmy Liberty and she's pulling the hair on my chest. Rebekah is trying to burp Serenity. The boys, I think, I are asleep upstairs and it's only 9:40 PM. How amazing is that?

hard to type with one hand on the keyboard and the other hand patting a baby.

(evil) Simpsons vocabulary word and short update

by Grant

Otto (the Bus driver that looks like a guitarist for the equally evil Gun's 'n Roses) is getting married. Reverend Lovejoy wants paid for his services, and asks politely for his honorarium. That word is easy. The next one learned me good. Emolument. (If you're slow, that's a synonym for honarium. If you're slower, that's a synonym for tip).

Baby/Life update:
Girls are doing pretty good. I have never seen such projected spit-up though. Liberty actually sprayed copious (that's a good word) quantities out her nose. Oooh ooh ooh. Another word that was on the Simpsons tonight was "Usurper." Featured very prominently. Today's Simpsons was brought to you by the word, Usurper. Ooh, and I figured out how to spell "soiree" yesterday. I spent probably 20 minutes one day trying to get the spelling right and finally gave up (the Internet Gods failed me). BTW, those who have actually watched the simpsons enough to know that occasionally there is an inappropriate word should know that we have TV Guardian which faithfully mutes our TV to protect sensitive ears from learning naughty words until aforementioned ears attend their first day of pre-school. But I digress. This afternoon/evening I've been holding wee girls and Rebekah has been playing with the boys. A nice change for both of us. Hopefully Rebekah wore the buggers out so they'll sleep.

BTW, my Dad is doing better and wanted to let anybody know that is reading this that he appreciates your prayers and is very grateful to God. He is not back to 100% and is not sure if he will get totally better but is still thankful. It's amazing how certain events such as a near-death (or close enough) experience can shape your perspective up.

Closed Captions

by Grant

    A dirty little secret of lazy parents (I put myself and pretty much all normal parents in that camp) is the use of closed captions. This way you can watch TV while your kids are being noisy, which is always, without deafening yourself with Law & Order "Duh-Dums." Actually, my wife and I started watching TV this way pre-kid. I don't remember why we started, but I do know that it was really easy with her TV. She had a 20" TV which actually had a dedicated CC button. You didn't have to wade through menus to turn it on and off at will. A couple button pushes and it was on or off. Watching TV with closed captions, hereafter referred to as CC, has it's pluses and minuses. First, we'll cover some minuses. One (and the biggest), it tends to annoy people. Get over it, I always say. Second, depending on what you're trying to watch, the CCs may be slow, inaccurate, or downright garbage. Since I'm of the younger generation (although my body tends to disagree) I don't get my news from TV but from the Internet so that doesn't annoy me. I also am not a big sports fan so it doesn't annoy me there. Live events like awards shows I shun as well. Basically, live events are where closed captions don't work unless you truly are deaf. Even then I think it's insulting to those who are aurally challenged. But I digress. Getting back to the minuses... there's one other one. Sometimes CCs will give away the punchline to a joke. It'll pop up the answer before the comedian has finished setting things up.

Now on to the positives:
1. You learn a lot. I enjoy the Simpsons (yes, I know you think it's evil even though you've never watched more than 5 minutes of it 10 years ago). And one thing the Simpsons has in it is a lot of hidden humor. The songs that they'll play during some event won't just sound appropriate, they frequently will be written for something exactly like that situation.
2. It exercises your mind more. You are actively using your brain, unlike most TV watching experiences. You cannot help but read the text. So, I think that by using CCs it slows down brain rot.
3. It helps you to spell. 'nuff said
4. You catch other hidden humor that is very subtle. Example: on the Simpsons they did a French version and they had Moe the bartender. (See, told you Simpsons was evil). Well, Moe, since he was French, was actually spelled Meaux. There is no way that you would have known that unless you had CCs on.
5. I like it. You will be in my favor if you turn to the dark side.

Baby/Life update:

The girls are doing well. Still fussy (please God, when will this end???), but otherwise healthy. Whenever I hold them they're fussy. Rebekah says it's cause they sense I'm stressed. Well, maybe I'm stressed cause they keep fussing? huh? They ever think of that? Rebekah had a rough night last night so I'm going to work from home part of today to let her catch up on sleep.

I've been struggling with allergies that are knocking me out. At the same time, my back muscles started hurting a lot worse. Thankfully, I got some rest over the weekend, but am still trying to adapt.

The boys are good but taking advantage of any distractions we have. You have to stay on the constantly. I guess that's why they call it "training"

Still no jealousy. Sometimes Forrest misses his Mom she thinks, and he'll go sit by/on her when she's holding a baby. But I am much more involved with the boys now--for better or for worse.


There's a line from an evil heathen song that runs through my head frequently these days. "You'll be lucky if you get out of life alive."

I'm this close...

by Grant

    ...to putting a microphone by these girls and recording a couple hours of them fussing. Then, I think anyone that claims to really love kids should listen to it. Tell me that you don't have indigestion and feel like voting democrat (I'm not sure what that has to do with it, but I guess it would indicate some amount of distress). Aargh! I've been working on Rebekah's computer so she was putting the boys to bed which is about a two hour ordeal. The girls are in the swings and they'll cry for about 10 minutes, take 3 off. 15 on. 5 off. And so on, and so on. Rebekah has decided, I think rightly so, that if they stop crying when they get picked up that they are fine and can cry. We have to worry a little bit about them crying so hard it that they spit-up and we don't want them to burn up too many calories. But with two babies and two other kids, dedicated time is hard to give unless absolutely needed.

We are still sleep deprived, but I think that Rebekah is getting a handle on the girls (as much as is possible). We're trying to edge back into normal life. But it's a big adjustment. <sigh> there the girls go again. I think I'm gonna go take some pills and drink a bunch of nyquil.

Evolutionary Wow

by Grant


    I am sitting here working on getting pictures ready for the blog and trying to let Rebekah sleep. So, I'm watching the history channel as it is or, as I like to call it, TV that doesn't rot your brain, and they're talking about the "Mysteries of the Smithsonian"

    Sooo, they're talking about the Tri-ceratops. Ya know that dinosaur? It was my favorite when I was a kid. I liked to root for the underdog. There the dino is, just minding his own business, eating some ruffage (or is it roughage?) and along comes the mean bully--Tyrannosaurus Rex. Talk about a jerk. Not only does he have bad breath and thinks he's some super stud (just cause he's so tall and stuff). But to add insult to injury, he wants to eat the poor little Triceratops. Man, the indignity of it all. But it's hard to eat somebody that has three big spikes that can stab up into your soft underbelly, trust me I know (stupid porcupine).

    Well, come to find out, they (el Scientistas) faked a healthy percentage of the skeleton @ the Smithsonian. They didn't have the entire rear end of the dinosaur (The T-Rex probably made off with that part). Since that didn't have that part, they grabbed pieces from another, unrelated skeleton that was unfortunately in the area when the ugly confronation took place. I'm guess the two dinos were having a little rendezvous. Anyway, the "experts" merged that other skeleton with the pieces that they had and the end result is what we see in toys, etc. today. So, 100 years later (almost) they decided to "fix" it. So they used some computer software to figure out what the dinosaur really looked like (called extrapolating and while science is used, there is no guarantee of accuracy. It is a scientific "guess"). Once they had a design (like building a frickin' house) they made "bones." Do you notice I'm using "" a lot here? That's because there's no fact and no truth to this stuff. How can you trust a community that just makes stuff fit to look good? I thought that's what women's fashion was for?

And they wonder why we don't swallow stuff like global warming without question.

Stuff for Grandmas

At a park in Boise. Trying to fly a kite

Forrest with my head-lamp.

Thankfully, with LEDs, it takes a long time to run down

Forrest, looking slightly insane

Titus during one of the days I had to work from home.

He's being very good :)

More stoner pics

Here I sit.

by Grant

   With two little girls (one very fragrant) on my chest. Quite cute, really. A wee bit difficult to work on my laptop, but I manage. The past couple of nights I've stayed up late with Rebekah to help her. The morning comes far too soon on days like that. I'm convinced that Coffee is a "God-sanctioned" drink. I can't imagine trying to get through the day without it. I also take Ginseng which helps relieve some of the more extreme fatigue. Oh, and Meth. Yeah, that really helps. Can't believe I forgot that. (Of course, I don't take meth. I've never even smoked Mary Jane as the hippies call it). I have to work on Sunday morning, and so I got this afternoon off. I managed to get a nap in and it was weird because I could actually feel the sleep overwhelming me. It took about a minute. Usually, when I notice sleep, I am too alert to actually "fall" asleep. Not this time. I slept until Titus came and woke me up. I made him get in bed and he played with my headphones that were laying there for awhile. Then Rebekah came in and traded me for Liberty. Not sure what extra sleep I got during that whole process but at least I was able to stall for a bit.

Oh, as far as working on Easter. I'm supposed to work on more sundays to help another guy out that works every Sunday (if I don't). The nice thing is that we can typically do it from home and it's generally punch a few buttons and check the output on some stuff. So, it doesn't have to be high stress or anything but it's hard to juggle kids and do that stuff too. But since he has been doing it exclusively for four months I figured it was time to give him a break.

Hopefully within a month or so the girls will sleep better. Maybe we can even get them to sleep at night! :)

Splat

by Grant



That's the sound that Titus almost made on Saturday. The boys and I were outside and they were playing in the truck in the carport. I was working in the basement trying to get a phone line wired up for Rebekah. The boys were doing really good, but I guess they got bored. Alarm bells started going off in my head when Forrest came and asked me where Titus was. At the same time Rebekah (who was in the house) started coming outside with the same quest: Find Titus. Rebekah rounded the corner and screamed at him. I took off running at full speed rounding the corner (a little behind and on the outside--of the corner that is) and almost killed myself as the dog did a "deer in the headlights" response and just stood there. Little Titus was at the extreme end of the driveway by the mailbox. On a US Highway no less. Thankfully, when he heard us yelling, he turned around and started trotting back. One small thing to be grateful for, that he is fairly obedient now. Another small blessing is that there was light traffic. But obviously, this was far too close to a tragically horrible end. I don't think Titus understood, but I spent the next few minutes reinforcing it to Forrest how death is final. I blame myself for not supervising him closely enough. We went outside again tonight, but I took a timer with me so I wouldn't forget to check on them. Rebekah was also keeping a sharp eye open. After awhile though, we just gave up and sent him inside. He was very upset. It's really hard to take the boys outside because of the danger, but they love it. I'm not sure how to manage doing the work that I need to do and keep a lookout on the boys at the same time. Somehow we'll manage though.



Baby update:

The girls are just as fussy as ever. I was hoping for a nanny or an au pair for the baby shower on Saturday but no such luck. Just diapers and some clothes. Oh, and cake. But my dad wasn't around to eat any.

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.