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Liberty


Serenity

Baby/Life Update

by Grant

    The girls are still doing well. Growing like weeds. Or grass if you water it. Which I don't. Because I don't want it to grow. The grass that is. I want the girls to grow. Today I was their sole caretaker for about six hours and they were on their best behavior. I actually got lonely for a bit. Haven't had that long without somebody to talk to. Yes, I talk to the babies but that's about like talking to a liberal. They make cute sounds back like they're trying to talk, but it's really just gibberish.

    We've finally gotten the girls into a semi good routine. They're not really on the same schedule during the day, but at night Rebekah gets them in sync pretty darn well. One amusing anecdote: Rebekah discovered that if both the girls are hungry and crying, it's best to always feed Serenity first. If she takes turns (which she has been doing for months) Liberty will stop eating because Serenity is crying. So, feed Serenity first and she'll be quiet at least. Then feed liberty. Seems to be working well.

Rebekah watched 6 kids (our 2 boys and 4 of her sister's) so her sister and her husband (her sister's husband... not me) could go on their anniversary date. Worked out pretty well Rebekah said. That's why I was watching the girls by my lonesome.

Ok, we haven't been taking as many pictures but we do have a few that haven't made it onto the blog.


Happy Serenity



The Fam


Serenity and Liberty (more pics @ the photobucket site)

Fun with Trials and Tribulations

by Grant

    I think when miserable and arduous events come into our lives we should learn to have fun with them. Heck, if you know where soul is going after you turn into worm food then you should have a pretty good perspective. Unfortunately, we (me) tend to be annoyed (at best) or traumatized into a nervous breakdown (close to worst but not the worst). I think one universal tendency of all homo-sapiens (no that's not a bad word) is to wonder, "Why oh, Why????"

Yeah, don't go there. God doesn't (typically) make it really obvious why you are suffering. I've known two youngish people from our church (about 20 members) that suffered and died in the past couple years. Both affected me pretty hard (harder than I expected). I have one good friend who is having horrible problems with her young adult son who I know is a good kid. I have another friend that is suffering from crippling depression. What does this tell you? Don't be friends with me. But seriously, I don't know why these things have happened to these people. But I can posit some reasons that may not show up now, but possibly years down the road.

1. God is trying to get your attention. Whether you believe in him or not, he believes in you.Trite phrase but true. God gives you opportunities to accept his son as your personal savior. Ignore him at your perile.

2. God is going to use this experience to increase other's faith in him by how he provides YOU grace through *_insert miserable thingy here_*

3. God is going to grow your faith in him by making you trust him versus your super powerful (Not!) self.

4. God wants you to be able to help others through their similar trials

Ok, say your're an abject heathen. Either atheist (silly wabbit) or agnostic (lazy wabbit). Well, you can trim some of the God stuff out of my points and still find a bit of value, but admittedly it's a lot weaker. So, just get with the program. If you can't look out the window at a beautiful sunset (or analyze the amazing intricacies of the human eye) and admit to yourself that evolution is a bunch of hooey then there is pretty much no hope for you. If you do admit that there is something behind this creation (AKA God) then I can lay out some. reasons why my God is the only real one (and no, Buddha He is not).


P.S. Yes my hands still hurt like the dickens (not sure what a dickens is or how it hurts but it seems bad).

Pain in the membrane

by Grant

    I've been having some very irritating pain so I've been trying to limit any extra-curricular computer usage. Typing especially is a bit hard on my hands. But I wanted to post a couple things.

One: Kids continuously amaze me. Or at least, my kids do. Your kids are probably pretty boring, right? Forrest is so incredibly sweet at times. Polite and apologetic. Very appreciative. I spose a lot of that is what mood he's in. He's been calling things beautiful and no matter how many times I hear him say something is "beautiful" I can't help but smile. Titus is a charmer just standing there. He's not quite the talker, but he makes up for it with his perpetual smile and platinum hair. And of course, all babies are cute. Well, not really, but we have to pretend right?

Two: The good old days. Who out there hasn't pined for the days of yore? When life was simpler and you didn't have to run around to Wal-Mart and pick up a USB cable for your printer so you could print the Church's bulletin out? When Childbirth was the number one killer of women and death by fires was number 2. When things like diabetes and polio took lives. When fear of nuclear immolation was a daily concern. When if needed vision correction you had to wear glasses and mar your natural beauty. When, When, well... Let's just all be grateful for the advances that have been made that improve our daily life and try to ignore the evils of the modern world such as minivans, cell phone talkers, extended minivans, mary kay cosmetics, and commercials.

Three: (officially more than a couple) The evils of any hospital visit are starting to come due. The bill for Rebekah was over 20k (she spent time in antepartum and the OR). Our insurance paid 80% of it, but that still leaves us with over $5000 that the hospital wants paid off in 15 months or less. That's way more than what we can afford. Two babies plus another kid still in diapers is really hurting our budget. But, it could be worse. If that's all we have to pay it'll be incredible.

Life 'n stuff

by Grant

    Well, Serenity is doing pretty well considering she does have an infection. I guess the official diagnosis is it's a urinary tract infection and they prescribed liquid antibiotics for two weeks. But she's been a good sport. A smiley little girl even when she doesn't feel very well. It was funny in a sad way to talk to her and she'd smile a bit and then cry. Talk some more and she'd smile and then cry. But, like I said, she's doing better.

I found out today that a couple people that I know at work have immediate family members that are in the hospital @ 29 weeks with babies that want to come out. That's roughly the same time as our little ones ex uteroed. So, if you think about it you might pray for them as well. One Mom to be is named Nicole and the other's last name is baker (she is a Mrs. w/ other munchkins).

Liberty is a little sweetheart and Rebekah said that a sure-fire way to figure out which baby is which is to cover up their heads with blankets. Serenity thinks it's funny but Liberty not so much. Last night I saw them both that way and it was pretty amusing how they reacted differently. I'm not sure if my wife was being deliberately mean, or if Liberty just happened to cover herself up at the same time Serenity was.

Got some other stuff to put on here. Some of it is probably only interesting to technical members of my family. Some of it's pics. Some of it's neither. But ya gotta spread this stuff out sometimes. Don't want to overwhelm anybody with too much vitriol in one day.

BTW, if there are typos in my blog feel free to point them out, but blogs are "stream of conciousness" writing. This is NOT english class and I'm not writing a thesis.

Serenity Update

by Grant

    I'm sure some of you out there have been praying for our little girl. Yesterday scared me a little because (long story short) they said that they saw something suspicious in her urine and we had to take her back right away to get a shot. Suspicious huh? Short on details, long on panicking us poor parents. The Dr. is concerned that Serenity has an infection. Bladder or Kidney most likely. Serenity is doing better since the shot thankfully, but we don't know yet what her diagnosis is. We should find that out tomorrow. Right now I am staying home with her and Forrest while Rebekah goes to Church w/ Titus and Liberty. Division of labor, equality and all that.

I thought I would post some more stuff, but the more typing I do, the more my wrists and arms hurt (carpal-tunnel problems) so I guess I'll leave it at that.

Sick Serenity

by Grant

    Much to our dismay, Serenity has come down with something. It has caused a high fever. She's had a fever all day and although Rebekah has been giving her baby Tylenol, it never went down but rather stayed steady at 101. This evening it was at 102.5 so we called the pediatrician and she recommended giving her 2 ml of ibuprofen as well. Right now she's doing well, but it's always scary when a young child is sick. It's even more scary when it's a baby. Scarier yet if they are/were preemies.

In other news, the developmental chick (yes, that's her official job title) said that the babies are on schedule but we need to put them on their tummies more and also give them some practice grabbing stuff (as if my chest hair wasn't enough).

So far Liberty is fine. In fact Rebekah was making silly faces at her and Liberty was laughing. Pretty amusing to hear a baby laugh. It sounds almost like croaking.

Personalities

by Grant

    As the girls get older, they seem to definitely be exhibiting different personality types. (what a bold statement. "seem" and "definitely" both). Of course, I reserve the right to be completely wrong. Serenity, against all odds, actually seems to be living up to her name. I would characterize her as a type B personality. She sleeps better, needs less comforting and generally eats better too. Liberty on the other hand is much less easily consoled. When she gets upset she generally needs her mother--no other woman will do. She wakes up in the middle of the night more frequently. Definitely working on type A. Now, while this is "cute" it begs the question: Why are they different? Those of you who have seen the heathen film "Trading Places" (no, not trading spaces you women out there. It's not that silly show on HGTV) should know that there is a difference of opinions regarding what truly forms who you are. Nature (your genes) or Nurture (how you are raised). Now, obviously they both play a significant factor, but what if the nature (genes) are identical and nurture (how they are being raised/reared) is basically identical? What is that wild-card that makes them different? What is that X-Factor? What is that, uhm, unknown thingy? I submit to you that it is their souls. Why should nature and nurture be the only things that help define who you are? Why should your immortal soul just be this thingy you have that doesn't die but serves no other real purpose? Why I ask you? hmm? hmm? I thought so. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it. Unless you have asthma or emphysema. In which case, just pretend you're smoking but don't light anything.

Priorities

by Grant

    I think that it's a no-brainer to realize that different people have different priorities. Another brilliant statement is "people are different." Well, I mention these because I (as well as others) tend to get tunnel vision in our lives. We think that people share our thoughts and attitudes about things and we are incredulous when they don't. I've noticed that as more and more happens in my life, two things happen. First, I am more aware and empathetic of other people and their problems and Secondly I have less and less time to do anything about it. I struggle with priorities on a daily basis. I marvel at those people that "have their act together." Because I know how hard life is with children (primarily young ones) both Rebekah and myself have a hard time imposing on others to help with child care. Generally this is done when there are Dr. appointments, but we've canceled several just because it's too hard. The girls haven't been to the Dr. in quite awhile so we can't tell you how much they weigh. But Rebekah did figure out (don't ask how) that they're about 10 lbs. Life is progressing.

This post is a bit maudlin probably because I'm really tired. I've thought several times that I need to make one thing very clear. We are very grateful for our children, family and friends. Although life is very challenging we are happier than we've ever been. This kind of leads me back to the realization that children fill a void in life (for most people).

For memorial day, our two families (mine and Tim 'n Keren's) went to a couple different parks. The weather was nice and it was fun to see the kids focus their energy in such a healthy manner. I'm convinced that the children of today don't expend their energy in positive ways. I think we ought to bring recess into high school. Tired kids (up to a point) are better behaved kids. I think channeling the energy of children is critical. Turning on the TV is too easy.


Thank you and good night.

For those about to rear (children), we salute you.

by Grant

I was thinking the other day about some of the things that make a good wife and mother. One is being tough. I once dated a girl that looked really good on paper (stop laughing). I had just come out of a relationship that was a frickin' roller coaster ride. She (roller-coaster ride) was something truly special... and not in all a good way. Looks and personality in spades. But lacking a bit in the emotional stability department (did I say a little, I meant huge amounts). Anyway, back to paper lady. Paper lady wasn't the most beautiful chick in the henhouse but she had emotional stability (or so I thought) and important things like a correct religious persuasion, a good family, and frugality. Important things when dating someone that might end up walking off with half your stuff someday. But one thing she was not--she was not tough. She had very little stamina. I am thankful that my wife is a tough cookie. The other day we went to Wal-Mart and she insisted on picking up the dog-food to show me she could do it. I had to laugh as she hefted the fifty lb. bag up like it was one of our babies. One tough hombre my dad would say. I think that being tough enables a mother to sacrifice so many things in life. She (and most mothers) sacrifice their figure, time, sleep, sanity (occasionally), their immaculate (once again some mothers) house, hobbies, and many other things too numerous to mention. I think that being a parent, but especially being a mother, can be epitomized by the word "sacrifice." You have to be tough to make the sacrifices. Sacrifice doesn't mean you do everything for your children, but rather you make decisions that are hard in order to rear your children properly. You spank them when your heart aches because you know that its necessary. You make them work because they need to learn the skill. You curb their whining, you make them eat their vegetables, you take away their car keys (or phone), you ground them or pull the distributor cap off their car. You do all these seemingly fruitless things because you're trying by the sweat of your brow to instill in your kids what is good and proper. And it's a mostly thankless job. But I appreciate my tough Mom for all her sacrifices. And I know that my wife appreciates her tough Mom as well.

about the title:It comes from For Those About To Die, We Salute You (a saying to Roman Gladiators before combat)

Baby/Life Update: The girls are a blast when they're not fussing. They track (follow things with their eyes) well and respond to sounds differently. They also have different personalities. They're sleeping better. Life is slowly getting more sane. Forrest is pretty good pretty much all the time. He has really matured and I am proud of him. He helped me get Serenity dressed this morning and acts nothing but loving towards his sisters. Titus is becoming quite the character. He's been such a wallflower for so long and in Forrest's shadow that I marvel when his little personality asserts itself. He's a little more athletic and more of a daredevil. Unfortunately, he's also getting more rebellious which is really frustrating Rebekah. But I think he'll be a great kid once we get through his desire to assert his will. There can be only one (winner--to quote Highlander) and that's gonna be me.

Ugh Ugh

by Grant

    Caveman speak for "Hit me over head with big rock and put out of misery." My back is hurting really bad even though I've been trying to keep stretching the muscles (that's prounounced musKels, not muss-els). Today at work I was having a really hard time with the pain and extreme fatigue. I finally decided it was allergies or illness that was making me miserable and pled sick @ noon. I came home and slept for most of the afternoon, but as any mom knows you can never get enough rest when you're sick. But, on a lighter note I found some music stations on our Satellite which we didn't use to have. I found a channel called rawhide which is the kind of music my Dad always preferred. Less whine and twang than typical "country". I'm not sure if falls under my Dad's definition of "Western" (before it became Country Western) but it seems pretty similar. Titus is having a good time listening. He was dancing (hopping) around for a while, but now he's chilling out on the couch with his feet up in the air doing some kind of couch-dancing. Talk about lazy :)

Aah bummer, I think it's just a free preview. Guess I still need a record player.

Oh, the girls are sleeping pretty good at night, but Rebekah isn't. Not sure why.

Pics for the fam

by Grant

   

Great-Grandma Jones, et. al.


Grandma Ballard


Deuce (Mommy left out to protect the photographer)



Not jealous, just regressing to baby states


Forrest proudly holding Liberty

Baby/Life Update:
Haven't heard anything more about my Dad. I guess no news is good news.

I was wracking my pea-sized brain the other day trying to figure out something for Rebekah and I happened into Rite-Aid. Hadn't been in there since it had been built about a year ago. Wandered around with my co-workers killing time and happened upon some dark chocolate. My wife loves chocolate, but I'm always concerned about buying foodstuffs for women that are concerned about their weight. My Mom, who looks great I think, never wants chocolate, cause then she'll eat it. (This confuses me, as I thought that's what you were supposed to do, but I don't question it). I say, women should be allowed to eat chocolate on special occasions like Mother's Day, Birthdays, Christmas, Columbus day, sunrise, sunset, children nap times, etc. etc. etc.  Well, I pondered over what dark chocolate to get as they actually had a decent selection (I think Wal-Mart has two types). I had selected a couple bars and then thought, why don't I just get one of each. So I got Cadbury royal Dark, Hershey Cacao 60%, Giardelli 70% Cacao, Heart of Africa Dark Chocolate, Sinfully Dark, black-hole dark, and absence of light Dark. Ok, those last few I made up cause I couldn't remember the names, but the most highly concentrated one contained 85% Cacao. That's pretty pure baby. You just lick a square of chocolate and you're high for a day. Don't actually take a bite or you'll overdose and give your husband a passionate kiss.

My Dad

by Grant

    My Dad is still struggling. He had to go to the emergency room last night because he was feeling so poorly, but they didn't find anything specific. Frustrating because they can't pinpoint the problem until he has something major (like a heart attack). I will know more later.

Simpsons word of this day

by Grant

    Protagonist. You've all heard of antagonist, but how often do you use its polar opposite? I actually use it fairly frequently when I wish to appear smarter than the average polar bear. Protagonist roughly translates to hero, but that's not exact. The main character in a movie that's the "good" guy is the protagonist. The bad guy is the antagonist. Man, my fingers don't want to type those words. I was telling a friend about a movie which features a woman in a very aggressive role and I pondered whether women were protagonists (wondering if the word was gender neutral or if there was a specific female version. Like heroine is the female version of hero -- although nobody uses it anymore). My friend, who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty, was of the opinion that women could never be protagonists, but rather that they were always and forever the antagonist. Thankfully, nobody of the female persuasion was within strangling range.


BTW, did you know that vendetta is an Italian word?

Baby/Life Update:
I'm alone with the boys trying to tap out this blog before they beat me about the head and shoulders in their insistence to go outside. The girls had a "check-up" with a Child Development person. I guess that they're right on track and probably a little bit ahead in some cases. That's good news. It's very common for preemies to always be behind, but although the girls are small they're doing well. We've had some interesting instances of favoritism amongst the sub teen girls in our social circle. Basically, one baby is preferred over the other. I find this incredibly odd since, well, THEY'RE IDENTICAL TWINS! I won't go into any more details other than to mention that I have banned baby holding by non-adults during social events containing multiple families. This is the last thing I need.

Tiny (Titus) Dancer

He does good until he sees the camera. And no, he's not imitating me.

Tiny Dancer comes from an Elton John song. I got it from the animated movie "Open Season" which although somewhat anti-hunting is a delightful romp. Let's face it, any movie I can watch 100 times and not vomit is pretty good. I finally got to vomit stage on Disney's "Cars" after about 150 times. Maybe 125. I think I only got to 30 on Ice Age 2.

Too Funny

by Grant

    Ok, maybe not, but I think it's good. I'm sitting here w/ my laptop doing some work and reading some news articles. I pulled up an article on Paris Hilton and her jailbound fun. Titus is sitting on my lap (biting my coffee cup w/ his teeth for fun) and he saw a picture of Paris Hilton and he said "cock-a-doodle-doo"

I guess she looks like a chicken or a rooster or something.

Follow-up on Record Player

by Grant

   Thanks to my brother, my Aunt, and the Sanfords for responding. I found a really nice one that's very nostalgic that does what I want for $150 (regular $250). This would be nice because it is new and I could buy needles (very difficult for older ones). However, I'm not sure if I can justify that or not. One of my fondest memories growing up was listening to the record player, which is odd because it wasn't that frequent. Dad always played Christmas records so that's a big part of the season for me. Or at least it was. This last Christmas probably went down as one of the worst ever because Rebekah was in the hospital. But the record that I remember the most was "How the West was Won."  Methinks this is because there was a cool painting on the album cover of a train falling off a railroad trestle. You could see logs breaking loose from train cars and people scrambling to save themselves, in vain I might add.

Baby/Life Update:
Keren and Tim watched the girls one night so Rebekah got probably her first full nights sleep in a couple months. I guess it went pretty well and they enjoyed it. The boys have colds so they're a bit crabbier than normal. Rebekah and the boys went with me to get more rocks. That was arduous. But the migrant worker drove by and stopped to look at an irrigation ditch and the boys said "Dad, there's Leo!" Pretty funny that they remembered his name. Even funnier that a south of the border dude is named Leo.

Right now we're moderating fights over a new toy tractor. Why do we bother?

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.