There I was...

...holding my jigsaw with pumpkin guts all over me and the saw. My memory was fuzzy. I looked down and in horror saw 4 dead pumpkins. The oldest was obviously a victim of my saw but what about the others? What happened? I started to think back...

It was a brisk autumn day and I decided that I was going to somewhat celebrate the pagan holiday of all pagan holidays-Halloween. But, knowing that i was far too lazy to wander around in the dark w/ my kids I decided to start small and just get some pumpkins. I rushed home from work and picked up my two boys who eagerly had been asking about halloween even though we've never done anything before. We made the quick trip over to the produce stand (on steroids) and proceeded to wander around in the cold not knowing what to do. I prefer my food to be dead, cooked and on my plate. This was a new experience. Finally I asked someone about pumpkins. After giving me a stare usually reserved for dudes and deadbeats, she gave me the low down. If we wanted to, we could take a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch and get sweet, juciy, ripe, and beautiful pumpkins there or we could look at a pile of mangy cast-offs. I chose the castoffs. I let the boys pick their pumpkins (of course I had veto power) and then I picked a couple baby ones for the girls. When we got home we started the messy business. I started Titus off first and while he was disemboweling his, I did the two girls baby 'kins. Typical girls. did not want to get their hands dirty. Finally, I got to Forrest's 'kin. I thought it odd that his had a different texture but didn't pay much attention until later. I tried using the same knives on his pumpkin only to bend them. Finally I had a hole in it but cutting was a nightmare. I alternated between a serrated knife and my gerber multi-tool saw blade. Talk about frustrating. Finally, I decided that the risk of slipping and cutting a nearby observer was too great and I went and got a bigger hammer. Figuratively that is. Literally, I got a saw. I came back to the table with a gleam in my eye and a fresh battery. I got the blade in and started cutting. It was beautiful. It was like a knife through butter. Not hot, but not cold. maybe about 60 degrees or so. room temperature if you like it cold or are trying to preserve a body and throw off the time of death for the medical examiner. But I digress. I was careful and finally got the top of the 'kin. And there I found the reason why it was so hard to cut... it was made of gold! Yes it was, wait, no. Well, it turns out it was just really thick-skinned. I'd say it was at least 1/8" thick. probably more but i'm not very good at the maths. less than 1/4 but more than an 1/8. 3/16? maybe? Anyway, everybody was happy. except the pumpkins

I'm not sure using a saw counts as carving

Sigh. somehow I wiped out my blog post. needless to say, using a saber saw on a pumpkin makes for great fun. if anyone cares to hear the whole story, comment and I'll write it up again. Otherwise, just content yourself with knowing that I have pumpkin guts on my saw.

It's so quiet

with only two kids around. I don't feel well (flu-ish) and stayed home and kept Trin and Titus. Trin is so mellow that for the first hour she just sat with me or wandered around. Now that Titus is inside he's playing with her, too roughly, it's a bit louder but still much quieter than all 6. 

Last week we received a generous gift from somebody anonymously. Well, the week before last week. So, last-er week I guess. Anywho, this gift was extremely timely as I had planned some very specific things for Rebekah's birthday But our bank account went dry which was going to seriously dampen my enthusiasm for spending money. Money isn't important to me until I don't have enough to pay my bills and meet my needs then it's very important. So, the money came in and we were able to get somebody to babysit all day. We were gone from 9ish until 7 that night! Pretty wild huh? So we left our 6 urchins with supergirl Hannah and went to the big city of Boise.  After a marvelous fast food breakfast, we then hit the mall in Nampa. I like that mall better. Smaller, less crowded. Even has some guy stores (translation: no clothes).  After rebekah came down from her shopping high we went to goodwill. She got some random stuff there but I found a cool home-made bookshelf for $13! It fit our house perfectly. Rustic, yet sophisticated. Ok, not really. It was a neat design but done by an amateur. Probably some kids shop project. But even with some rough edges, I "fell in love" with it. No. No, I didn't. But I did want it. So, I crammed it in the suburban. Next up on the day of fun was lunch at the Brazilian restaurant Tucanos. Now, I'm not big on ethnic food but the way they do it is very cool. First you pay them lots of money. Then you can eat what you want off the salad "festival" and then they bring meat and stuff around to your table.  It was in a rotation, so you feel a little frustrated at first since you want your food and you want it now, but be patient and they bring some pretty groovy things around. Rebekah was even brave enough to eat a marinated chicken heart! Sheesh. After eating leisurely we left before we were stuffed (imagine that!) and journeyed to the Outlet mall. It was a bit pruned down since we had been there last, but more stores for the little woman at least. I suggested we stop in the Levi's store and that was a mistake. The chick there started trying to "help" us and rebekah threw me to the wolves. I didn't want her help. I was 15 feet away facing away from her and she tries to talk to me. Doesn't she know how this works? Talk to the female companion of the male shopper. She is the intermediary. I don't talk to chicks about clothes unless I know them. Just another example of the moral decay of America I guess <sigh>.

Anyway, things were good and the money was great and now I feel kind of rotten and I have been having headaches. I'm going to go read a book if I can. Thanks for reading, and remember Keep Smiling!

 

Clubbing

I always want to start my blogs with something about clubbing. I'm not sure why, but it's probably because my parents didn't love me enough or they didn't get me the GI Joe w/ the Kung Fu grip or something. Either way, whatever sanity I have sometimes doesn't seem quite enough. God seems to provide (if you're a heathen then I guess insert an empty space where I wrote God) what I need but it's pretty darn close sometimes. The boys have been doing better because we've been keeping a daily accounting of their behavior. If they've been bad they end up w/ a "frowny face" and their reward/punishment is bare bottom spanking. Thankfully, that's been pretty rare because we give them a reality check when I get home. Then they get the opportunity to turn it around but the best they can do for the whole day is and OK. Basically, I define that as "Kids are not small adults, and therefore they will make mistakes and I will not crush their spirits too much." A "smiley-face" is "I about passed out because when I came home my wife wasn't in hysterics and screaming "Why did you do this to me!?!" and I am able to enter the home and go to bed at night w/out almost having a heart attack. Also, you probably did something without being asked and did a good job. Oh, and you ran and got me water whenever I asked for it." 

A frowny face on the other hand is much much grimmer. It consists of the aforementioned hysterical wife with details such as "he said i hate you." or lying and bullying the girls or wanton destruction or some such evil that is wicked (as were we all once) children. I worked with Forrest on proper nouns. Ok, forget all the complicated stuff. Proper nouns are nouns that are always capitalized. Get that, then work on what makes them special. I don't do much w/ helping schoooling (yes an extra o for the extra work) but Forrest was working on greater than/less than. Ya know < & >? I remember being confused on those. I swear I was in sixth grade. What the heck? why was I doing that in sixth grade. I gotta be wrong on that one. Anyway, I finally figured it out so I told forrest to picture the symbol < as pacman eating the bigger number. I drew a partial circle (come on, you can picture it) and threw on some eyeballs. I even added teeth. That seemed to help him a lot and it made it more fun to boot.

Anyway, something is always going on here. Rebekah and I are currently in tense negotiations over Turkey Day. Plans changed since her lazy sister moved away. Right now i'm looking at a multiple-hundred $ expense to drive to Colorado. I will stop now before I get in too much trouble. Rebekah gets these blogs. She's shopping right now while I sit here like a zombie. Granted, a zombie with higher brain function, but still a zombie.

We are also looking at refinancing our house. I'm a little frustrated over homeowners insurance of all things because our house is old. Hopefully we can put that to bed soon. I've committed to an appraisal though so if things go belly up now, i'm on the hook for $500. If not, it'll get rolled into the loan (i think). <groan!> See why driving to Colorado stresses me out? Not to mention the 6 small children and an over ten hour drive. Sanity, I'll see you on the flipside :)

Threats, lies and deceit

another day parenting. I think we do most of the threats with the kids doing the latter two. Some days I worry that we're going to be on nationwide news and not for good sweetness and light reasons. But, I have learned that most parents feel exasperated (that's an understatement) at one time or another. I deal with most of the stress by plugging my ears and yelling "nuh nuh nuh nuh" at the top of my lungs. That's is a small exaggeration. Like lilliputin small. or maybe even only dust mite small. sigh. My poor wife. Can you imagine what she has to go through every day? If we had really docile well behaved children (don't laugh, I think I've seen some demo units before) then it would still be just this side of insane. But no, our kids are typical hellions that hit each other with sticks and get stuff out of the trash and basically behave like drunken frat boys. The girls wouldn't be so bad, but there's two of them and the boys corrupt their sugar and spice into snips and snails. When I was a boy I was offended by that little poem, now I get it and agree with it. I love my boys and they are good kids but the combination of a small house with so many young kids and my wife trying to home school is, to put it bluntly, a nervous breakdown cocktail. I told Rebekah we need to form little bubbles of order amidst the chaos. partition the house. maybe make a DMZ with land mines so she can teach without being pestered. I'm considering all options. Your prayers would be much much coveted. BTW, coveted can be good as well as bad. I mean, you don't have to covet your neighbors wife. Instead, try coveting a nice bell pepper. It's better for you and there's no guilt!

your slightly insane friend,

Grant.

Moving on up

Or something. I just completed the last step to adding a toilet upstairs. Granted there's a lot of finish work left, but a major step has been completed. Of course, tomorrow I'll get a phone call with more screaming than normal and come home to a house reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina. Yes, it's a proud day in this ballard household. Now, if you'll excuse me I must finish watching a show about a serial killer trained to use his craft to right wrongs (not wongs.)

SOS

Save our Sanity... Please. I don't know what else to say.

The San Francisco Chronicles

I'm trying to write this blog while watching a movie with copious senseless violence. It's appropriate because my brain is pudding, or maybe oatmeal. I've been working upstairs all day, but I'll get to that in a bit.

So, I left a week ago to go to San Fran for a convention for VMware. Packed. 17,000 people. Too many people. The classes were packed out unless you go to them an hour early. Getting in line for an hour before for an hour class is not my idea of fun. But I finally figured out a good way to navigate the wilderness successfully to make the most of my time. Unfortunately, I got some bad blisters and by Wednesday they were seriously painful. I thought at college I had done a lot of walking, but this took the cake. I made it up to the warf w/ my boss and we ate at a couple places up there. I bought some souvenirs and promptly left one of them when I sat down waiting for my boss to wander back. Stupid blisters. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have put my stuff down. Grrr. Anyway, I never made it to the Castro district (hehe) or anything interesting. But that's cool, because I'm not really impressed by people, or culture, or anything much. I did read a couple local publications while I was there and I surprised that they were well written and not crazy liberal. It really confused me. I guess since everybody is so liberal there anyway, they don't have to use propaganda as much? Who knows. Anyway, it was fun seeing the kids when I came back. When Trinity first saw me she got this really weird look on her face. Almost like she was going to cry. It was quite touching.

So, I've been working on the bathroom project. Estimated time of completion is 2013. But I'm making good progress. I've figured out PEX and run supply lines (mostly). But before I can actually put a toilet in I have to fix the slope on the floor. So, I'm taking up the flooring and putting in sister Joists so I can put the flooring back down and make it level. Well, when I took up the carpet and 70 year old linoleum I found tongue and groove wood and I hated to just destroy it. Thus, I am trying to remove it and reuse it which makes the job much much harder. But, i'm semi-optimistic that it won't be a complete disaster and I hope to have a big chunk done before work tuesday.

well, i'd better go. Baby Clell is up and coming for me.

bend, dont' break

Or break for all I freakin' care. It's odd how some things stress me out. Although I hate traveling, it doesn't stress me out too much. Thankfully this trip to San Fran was a direct flight and I had a friend going with me. We got in mid afternoon on Sunday and I took my first mass transit train ride. It was freakin' LOUD. I am definitely going to write Ms. Pelosi when I get back. Nobody's tried to mug me yet, but there's still time. A fair number of homeless guys out there panhandling. I wonder if they take credit cards? The conference so far has been less than I'd hoped for but meeting good people and making good connections so it's cool. One of our classes had an ethnic individual that I had no idea what he was saying. The Indian dude before him sounded like a native English speaker comparatively (and yes, I know the official language of India is English. so What!). I brought a webcam so I could say hi to the kids, but I've been so busy by the time I get ready everybody is in bed.

Rebekah told me some news from home today. Makese me want to stay here. Liberty got pushed off of a ledge by our stairway and hit her face. Blood but apparently she's still alive since Rebekah didn't say anything about coming home immediately. Also, Titus put his body through a window of our storm door. Cuts but nothing major. Good, because I need to kill him. (note to Department of Health and Welfare. This is a joke and nothing bad will happen to the boy because of this. His Dad might snap and curl up in a fetal position and cry for a few hours, but that's cool because he's over 18).

Well, I better get back on twitter and see what's happening. I'm starting to figure out why it's so cool. Real time info better than cable news.

The horn blows at midnight

Well, Rebekah's Grandma sent us some money for Forrest's birthday to use for the whole family so my excuse for not going to the zoo is shot. Going anywhere with 6 kids is difficult at best and my enthusiasm is always very low and I'm kind of lazy so hence my reluctance to go. Oh, and I'm cheap. don't forget that. But my plumbing project is in a mild lull as the parts and pieces i ordered won't be here until next week. I'm spending too much money. Nothing really expensive but it all adds up. I've got the drain lines to the upstairs and I've started putting supply lines in using Pex. Basically, Pex is some sort of plastic-ish tubing that is somewhat flexibile and it's pretty cheap. Copper costs 4 to 6x as much. But, nothing is ever simple and there are different types of ways to do pex and so it can get confusing. I think I picked a good balance between cheap and easy. Anyway, I'm learning stuff. Today at work I plumbed an ice-maker for a refrigerator with a little help with some friends. One of those things that amazes me. I've never been very good at stuff like this, but necessity is a great motivator. Oddly enough though, pride is the biggest reason I'm trying to do so much myself. Of course, I don't have the money to pay somebody either so it works well. Since my Dad did most everything himself (and still does) I try to tackle as much as I can too. I understand better why my Dad got so frustrated at some household issues though. Some things get old. Since my main drain vent is plugged that explains (probably) why our bathroom sink has such trouble. But it's an old farm house. It has character. Much like a third-world country.

Sooo much stress

Well, I wrote a post about what was on my mind but with my luck even though heavily sanitized I would've ended up saying something wrong so I deleted it. Them;s the breaks I guess. 

Life is stressful as always although a bit more than normal. Won't bore you with why, but if you're of the praying mind then see if you can get something to not bounce off the ceiling for me, mmmh-kay?

We had our big maple tree trimmed a little over a week ago. Between those huge branches and some Poplars that were dead we have a bunch more wood for winter. Of course, I have no more room on my property to store branches. I can't burn the ones I have or I'll lose my carport, my woodpile and my shop. Yesterday I raked branches (yes, there were that many) into a pile in the driveway and burned them. Fire is cool. I like fire. But it's scary too. The local Wendy's burned down due to a careless attempt to thaw some AC pipes. Yep, no more square hamburgers for me.

In other news, my plumbing project is creeping along. I made the mistake of buying some professional plumbing books that were highly rated on Amazon. Now I know all the things I was doing wrong, or rather, not as right as I could be. Gentle Bends, my friend, Gentle Bends. No, that's not a bear! That's Ben, not Bends. Sheesh. I also think I'm going to invest in plumbing supply companies cause their margins have to huuuge! A two foot piece of ABS (4") cost $10!! But, I have the pipe in my closet where I need to drill a hole to run it to the second floor where it shall be its home. I figure I need about another $150 in pipe and fittings just for the drain line. But in different yet related news, while I was reading my expert/pro plumbing I got to thinking that maybe my main drain vent was plugged up. So, yesterday I climbed on the roof with my snake and found that it only went down 15 feet and no amount of pushing or prodding would make it go farther. Well, I think that explains at least part of the problem with our drain that we've had for years. Now, how do I fix it? I guess I'll just try some things. This is technically known as "winging it" and I practice it with great aplomb.

I've figured it out

For those of you who didn't know, the reason remodels are so costly is because you have the time and expense of the whatever, plus you have the time to move stuff that's in the way. Then you have to move it somewhere else which requires more time and expense. Then you have to destroy somewhat serviceable walls and floors to run pieces through. Then you run stuff through them. Then you spend more time and money fixing them. etc. etc. etc. Yep, good times.

The day after

Before I forget, I face dialed someone the other day. In case you're confused, face-dialing is an arcane art praticed by budhist monks in outer mongolia and jedi knights (pre-clone wars only). It is similar to pocket dialing but has the added twist of using the face/cheek while on the phone with one's father. It is extremely dangerous and I admonish you to not try it at home lest you invoke a golbal thermonuculear detonation. You have been warned.

Moving on... So, been doing more digging and I'm hoping my communion with the backyard soil is near an end. I have run pipe as of this weekend from the drain line into the basement. Just a trial run mind you. I'm not brave enough to glue it yet. But I've now had a couple nights to think and regret and nothing has come to mind so I think I'll try it. It'll all end in tears I know, but I have to try.

The fourth was interesting. We spent most of the day @ church because we had a monring service, lunch, then afternoon service. Looong day. Of course, then we had to do some fireworks ourselves but it doesn't get dark until 10 or so. Man was it hard keeping the kids behaving until then. And the boys were so excited it was really hard to keep them in line. That combined with the fact that where we had decided to set them off (i wasn't consulted and was too lazy to make people move) was below a tree that is dying. Man, was I scared that something would land in it and we'd have a 4th that we'd never forget.

well, I'm going to reboot my ubuntu now. first linux OS that I've ever used that is easier in most ways than windows. but they have mac envy.

Dirt was never so much fun

Some parents take their kids to disneyland or on a cruise. zor <gasp> a world cup game! (man, that would be child abuse in my mind). But few let their offspring dig ditches for a family event. Yes, well, I like to have my kids earn their keep. It has the added bonus of tiring them out so much that they fall fast asleep quickly. Unfortunately, sometimes they fall asleep on their shovels whilst still still on the job. Then I have to cut their food rations as punishment. Sad, but necessary.

Ok, give me a break. Have you ever tried to dig a ditch with two 3 year old girls, one five year old boy, and one six year old boy?? it's chaos! First you have to try to find shovels for everybody and then you have to keep the oldest boy from splitting the girls'' skulls open as he shovels. Then you have to show one girl how to use a garden spade while the other girl fills in the hole that you're digging. And while all this is while your other boy is digging up the grass where you don't need it dug up. Let's just say I was relieved when they had to go inside for dinner.

tomorrow we have a father/son firearm extravaganza @ the Sherrif's dept. shooting range here in Payette. Pretty cool. Bring your guns, bring your ammo, and prepare to expend some rounds. I swear I can see a quarter instead of a round fire out of my .357 every time I shoot it. Maybe that's because the last time I bought ammo for it that's how much it cost. Well, hopefully nobody shoots anybody else. But if it happens, I'm sure it'll just be a flesh wound ;)

Odds and ends

I put up a tire swing the other day. I had been promising the kids I'd do it for about a year but kept forgetting (just kidding, I just didn't want to do it). So, I had the tire (a white-wall no less) but no rope. Something kept tickling the back of my brain. After I killed the spider I remembered that I saw a tow cable in my truck. Since I haven't had to tow anybody (in the past ten years) I decided that my kids (and my sanity) would appreciate using it for a greater cause. I climbed up in a tree right when we as a family had to go somewhere and while my kids were screaming at me, I looped it around a branch. Rebekah came out to hear the screaming, saw me in the tree, and proceded to continue getting ready to leave. It has worked out pretty well, although the nylon has stretched a couple times so I've had to adjust it. The sun will destroy it soon I'm sure as it does with all things plastic, but I figure a couple foot drop isn't too big a deal.

My Dad was here this weekend and we spent most of friday figuring out plumbing issues. He gave me a lot of good ideas and it was gratifying to talk to him and actually have some good ideas already. I think now I am ready to start working. I'm hoping to get the plumbing and a toilet in before the year is out. Seems pretty low expectations to some, but with a full time job and various obligations plus 6 kids I think that's a realistic goal.

In other news, I'm hungry and I am going to eat a sandwich.

Anniversary fun

three interesting things today.

1. Trinity was so excited when she saw me today that she waved at me. The first wave she's ever done. very cute.

2. The whole family went off-roading (I actually used 4-lo) and enjoyed it. Although, the last hill we went up had Rebekah freaked out a bit. I was a little afraid we might get stuck but Titus really enjoyed it and was kind of making fun of Mom for shutting her eyes.

3. baby Clell was trying to stand on his head for us and just waved goodnight to me as well. He always is at his most goofy when we get him up after his normal bedtime for some reason.

That is all.

Go fly a kite will ya?

I did some minor repairs on our little picket fence. when i was done i took the boys and we went and flew the dragon kite we bought when the girls were babies. That seems pretty simple, right? Well, it wasn't too hard. I had to fight off the boys cause they were so excited. I was going to fly it over my neighbors field, but since he had just planted some crops I figured he wouldn't appreciate us tromping around. So, we meandered over to the middle school which is close to our house, Titus got pretty tired when I couldn't get the kite to achieve the flight to my satisfaction, so he wandered around playing in a dry irrigation ditch. I made Forrest help me most of the time. After a bit I finally got the kite up pretty far and Titus got to hang onto it. He was able to fly it for a bit before the wind failed us and it returned to earth. Forrest didn't get quite as long of flights but he was able to fly it more on his own. He even managed to keep it from crashing once. All told I was pretty impressed and the boys had fun. I hate to say it but I even enjoyed it a bit. Now if I could figure out some way to put a wireless webcam on there, that would be cool.

My wrists are suffering from overwork. We've had too many outages at work that required long hours, so they are hurting me pretty bad. I can't complain too much since it's been over a year since my last major flare-up. I just have to be really careful with them for about a month.

In other more boring news, i'm close to deleting my facebook account. I guess my anti-social tendancies are flaring up too.

good news and bad news

What are hills without valleys huh? We managed to pay off some significant debts with our tax return as well as put some into savings for wood purchases, furnace oil, etc. Unfortunately, we had some expenses unplanned for and so my funds for working on a new bathroom are non-existent. But due to my willful ignorance of our financial state combined with Rebekah's difficulty in keeping me in the loop I have taken over the management. So, at least now if we don't have money I know about it. Of course, Rebekah was kind enough to do the finances before because they stressed me out so much. Hopefully, I've matured a little bit and I can manage to be a little more mature about it.

Titus was working on something tonight and I guess he was using my tools to put some "signs" up. Normally, I wouldn't approve of a child hammering nails into my trim but the piece he was "working" on was so beat up that I decided it couldn't look any worse. After that he took a hammer and and pencil and paper and sat at the table deep in thought. Sometime later he went and got a plastic sack and went around the house picking up toys. Without being asked. Very sweet. He frequently asks when we're going to go visit Grandpa too. We need to make a trip that way, but just for gasoline we're talking $70. Tack on some meals and stuff and it's at least $100. <sigh>

Sigh...

Ever have one of those days when it seems like the only thing that will quench your anger is the spilling of blood? Sometimes I don't understand myself. I just had to apologize to my oldest because he moved a cup full of juice to the wrong table and baby Clell spilled it all over. I think on days like this I need to just withdraw from human interaction to minimize the collateral damage. Speaking of which, Forrest knows what collateral damage is. I bet not too many kids his age do.

Forrest is being home schooled with public school curiculum via k-12. It has been working well because there is a plan and accountability. It works well, because we can ignore some of the secular humanist teachings while still educating the child. Forrest graduated Kingergarten early and was promoted to first grade. The nice thing is that if he's doing well in one area he can go as fast as he wants. But so far he hasn't had any issues so he's working on first grade math and phonics. Rebekah is planning on going over things with him all summer. So, I am pleased. Titus has different strengths and weakness so he'll probably be a bit tougher, but I'm sure he'll do fine too. He'll start up in September. Rebekah is working with Titus and the girls, but oddly enough Serenity knows almost the whole alphabet which is more than either Titus or Liberty. Shows like Word World on PBS help as well.

I think it's interesting how many experiences in my life were invaluable, and others were detrimental. My public school experience had such hugely negative impressions on me due to my classmates that in this day and age it's difficult to seriously consider putting my kids into a school system where teenagers decide they're lesbians and environmental propogranda is the rule of the day. That being said, I don't look down on parents that do use the public school system. Anyway, I am right and you are wrong. And if you don't agree with that statement then you just proved my point.

You are getting very sleepy

Oh wait, I am getting sleepy. I have no idea if you're sleepy or not. But, I'd guess if you have kids then you are. Today I spent some time working on building a Windows Home Server for my brother. It seems like whenever I try to help someone it gets more complicated and takes more time. Oh well, I usually learn something in the process.I did other miscellaneous things. We have a bad goathead infestation so we've been working hard on that. I've sprayed all the weeds twice and today rebekah and I pulled a whole bunch out of the lawn.

Today was an eventful day for Titus. Rebekah took his training wheels off and the timing was good because he's grown enough that in a few short hours he's gotten the hang of it. Not quite as good as Forrest, but he did really well considering how many times he crashed. We had a little girls bike that I fixed up for him because he was getting frustrated with his But after he rode it for a little bit, I think he decided his wasn't so bad. Now Forrest is riding the little bike and Titus is back on his bigger bike. The boys enjoy playing outside a lot more now that we've greatly restricted their other entertainment outlets. A few minutes ago, Rebekah said that they were trying to put my big aluminum ladder up against the tree so they could climb it. And they have hassled me all week to take a walk. So we finally went for one today. We can walk about behind our house down a field to the middle school. Not much there but lots of room to run. I think the boys will sleep well tonight :)

i need to get back to work on my bathroom renovation project but there's so many outside things dragging my attention away now. I've got 3 trees that I need to cut down. Hopefully, when my dad visits he can help me. I also probably need to try to climb up and limb some branches. But, that's a big and dangerous job. I'm lacking motivation to do much because they're all just "work" and not projects. Well, I'm too groggy to be clever and just want to watch some streaming TV about a vampire with a soul named Angel. In case you're curious, that show was created by the same person that created the show Firefly and Serenity.

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