A Year of Change

The weekend is over! It was a good 4 days off for everyone, (Mom worked 3 of the 4). Our eldest told us yesterday what a great time he had on this extended weekend. It was culminated with the boys getting these new sweatshirts they HAD to have. They used their own money so all I was responsible for was driving the brood to Boulder to the skateboard shop. These sweatshirts are hoodies meaning they have a hood attached and they actually zip all the way up over their face. Once zipped up over their heads, there are mesh eyes and nose holes they can see and breath through. They look like some kind of aliens out of a movie, hard to imagine but I’m sure you’ll see them everywhere soon. What fun to be a kid, oblivious to all the challenges in the World going on around you. I sure hope that by the time the boys are adults, the World has had some kind of great epiphany and everyone is living in peace and harmony. Oh well, one can hope.

I just received a text from close friends in Seattle telling us that the misses goes in for a biopsy today at 1pm. Having gone through this last year, we know the stress they’re under. These “close calls” can really be a wake up call to make one realize what’s important in life. First and foremost, what’s not important are “things” like fancy cars, jewelry, and other items we’re conditioned from youth to consider necessary and important to our very being. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to have the comforts of society but one needs to realize these things are not what should be the pursuit of ones life. How many times have you heard the story of the man who for his entire life strives to acquire as much money as possible and gather as many things of value as he can only to realize that his life has passed him by and he’s now old and all alone surrounded by all his money and “things”. You don’t want to end up in that situation as I imagine it’s not a good feeling, being in the twilight of your life and being all alone. What’s truly important is family, friends, health and somehow helping make this World a better place. Imagine if each and every persons goal was to be kind to their fellow man and in some way, no matter how small, make the World a better place. It wouldn’t take long to see dramatic changes all around us. This me me attitude needs to stop. It reminds me of the movie The Ten Commandments where all the people are worshiping the golden calf. If that story is true, look what happened to those people!

Here comes our youngest, Mom’s already showered as she volunteers in school before going to work. I’m off to San Francisco tomorrow just for the day (leave at 6am, back by 4pm) and have lots of work to get done today. We had a raccoon in the front yard for most of the afternoon yesterday. The boys of course were captivated by its presence. It looked a little lethargic as they aren’t usually out during the day. Hope he doesn’t wander into the backyard as he’d be no match for our 125 lb malamute. Aunt Blondie came over for dinner and brought cupcakes for the boys and treats for the dogs. She’s always very thoughtful. My brother gets back from AZ around noon as he’s been down there since he drove my Mom down last week. I joked with her yesterday asking if she’s ready to come home now. (she’s only been there a week!)  She said she’ll stick it out a while longer but’ll keep me posted. The misses and I are still trying to kick our colds and coughs but life goes on. We need to start planning out our garden for the year. I’m serious about getting some things to grow better this year! I’ve been reading all winter to figure out what’ll grow best with the least amount of work. You don’t want to spend countless man hours and hundreds of dollars of water growing $6 worth of tomato’s.

Well breakfast is ready and time to go, hope all’s and God Bless,

Today was designated a holiday to celebrate Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays. While Washington was really born on February 11th and Lincoln on the 12th, the 90th Congress in 1968 decided to make the holiday a single day. When I was a kid lots of us aspired to be President someday. Now it doesn’t look like such a good career choice. Anyhow, to the blog….

Yesterday was a fun day. We started out by going to the horse (cutting) competition. Cutting is where you’re on your horse and you “cut” or separate one cow from the herd and try to keep it from getting back to the rest of the cows. Cows are pretty quick and can turn on a dime but a good cutting horse is quicker. The rider literally lets the horse do most of the work and just sits atop his or her mount as the horse rapidly jerks back and forth shadowing the moves of the cow. I rode a cutting horse in Wyoming last year and a good horse will throw you off if you don’t “go with the flow” of the horse. The boys had a good time and at one point while watching the event, our youngest asked “Dad, why do the horses tails come out of their ass?” My first reaction was to answer “because that’s the way God designed them” but then I had to tell him not to say “ass”. I guess we’d better  clean up our language around the house. Riders were as young as 9 years old and as old as 70. We sat with our friends who are the VP and Secretary of the Western States Cutting Horse Association. The boys also got down into the arena and pet a nice little 6 year old mare named Sally Bob Freckles or Sally for short. Our eldest kept wanting to know if I brought my credit card to buy a horse! I reminded him that Grandma (or specifically Grandpa) had promised to buy the boys a horse, not Dad. Upon leaving, the eldest began sneezing uncontrollably. I turned around in the car to notice his eyes were getting red much like they do when he’s around cats. Earlier in the day he had picked up a bunch of dog hair and then rubbed his nose so it must have been that or else all the cows and horses in one spot. He’s not allergic to horses as he rode for days in Wyoming with no problems last year. I drove straight to the nearest grocery store and bought some Benedryl which stopped the sneezing right away. We headed home, had some lunch and then played some football outside. It was really cold and windy yesterday but we played outside anyhow, kids don’t seem to care how cold it is. The boys cleaned the mud room and then I fed them dinner while I waited for Mom. She finally made it home finishing her 40 hours of work for the week. Mom finished her second review and is of course on pace to be the finest employee anyone has ever seen. That’s just who she is! The dog barked at 5am and after several nudges from my wife, I rose for the day to feed the dogs and make some coffee. As early as I get up, I might as well be living on a ranch as I’m always up before the sun rises. What’s the difference in feeding 2 or 20 animals? The way things are going with our economy and the price of food, it might be  smart move to get some cows right about now. Gas is now about $3.25 a gallon (over $3.50 for diesel!) with no end in sight. Wheat is up 78% in a year and with the recent freeze in Mexico and our southern states, you can expect fruits and veggies to go up as well. Lucky for us we have a freezer full of elk and pheasant to cut down on having to buy meat as it also is way up. We’re in for a big correction people, get ready as it’s going to take a while to recover from this hole we’re in. In our house, we’ve resorted to being as thrifty as we can in all areas and have cut discretionary spending to almost nothing. The days of seeing something in a store and buying on impulse are long gone. I can’t remember the last time we were in a mall except to pay a bill. Oh well, this is all actually a good thing, I just hope this wake up call on endless spending from the government on down, will be a learning lesson for all and we can somehow get back to living within our means. I know we have! Oh well, enough of my views as I’m drifting into politics once again. Lots to do today and the kids are still off school until tomorrow. Thankfully Mom is also off today. Hope everyone is well and until tomorrow, God bless.

Yesterday with Mom not having to work until 2pm, we loaded up early for the gym. On the way we stopped to give Bunker or Bunkie (guess that’s his nickname) his shot but he hadn’t eaten yet so this had to be put off. After a solid workout at the gym, we headed home to change shoes (on the boys), stop in to give the Bunkster his shot and drove up to Red Rocks Park. The boys had so much fun the day before they wanted to go back. All four of us got a good leg workout running up and down the 120 rows out seats at the park. For those of you that don’t know, Red Rocks is one of the natural wonders of the World. An outdoor amphitheater built by the City of Denver in the 30’s, it’s hosted everyone from Benny Goodman (threw this one in for my Mom), to the Beatles, to Frank Sinatra and now the top musical acts around. It’s really one of the best places in all the World to see a concert. After an hour of exercise here, legs and lungs, we loaded up in the car and drove down to Morrison for a late breakfast. The TNT Cafe is a local place that’s been there for decades and is one of those places with just good homemade food. A good time was had by all. By now it’s 11:30 and we arrive home to get cleaned up. A few hours later Mom is off to work and the boys and I are left alone for another day. It’s been about 5 weekends in a row without Mom who we all miss but the boys and I have had some good bonding time usually reserved for Mom. The afternoon is filled with the youngest and I playing baseball and all three of us playing some football and basketball. They sure did sleep well last night, in fact, it’s 7am and they’re still sleeping. We had leftovers (from breakfast), and eggs for dinner (their choice) and watched a movie during which they fell asleep. Mom arrived home around 10, tired and ready for bed, she too is still asleep.

Today Mom works from 10 till 7 and the boys and I are going down by Castle Rock to a cutting horse event. We know a guy who has a bunch of horses and is competing. I picked up a 5 lb bone in pork roast yesterday, ($8.80 with our discount!) that I’ll throw in the crock pot for dinner. (love that discount, I joke that we wouldn’t care if Mom didn’t get paid as long as we get the discount) We had a surprise rain shower around dinner yesterday that caught us all of guard. Also going to try to start making our own bread soon. Anyone notice a loaf of bread is about $5! Wow, wish my grandma was still around, she made the best homemade bread you’ve ever tasted.

Time to get another cup of coffee and start the day, hope everyone is happy, healthy and enjoying the blog, it’s been fun so far. Hopefully it gives you all some enjoyment when you read it. Maybe we should have some kind of family reunion with ALL of our families together this summer, anyone in????

If you have a wife, tell her you love her. Sometimes they need to know you know or they forget all together. Mine in particular is a really special one. As a wife, Mom, friend, co-worker, daughter (or daughter in-law), she’s hard to beat. Make sure she knows she’s loved and appreciated each and every day, not just her birthday, Mother’s Day or Valentines Day as those are of course expected.

Now to yesterday. The boys and I had lots of fun. After my morning meeting (where the boys did really well), we ran to the bank, Home Depot and stopped by Mom’s work as organic chickens were on sale for 1 day only, marked down from $2.99 per lb to $1.69. After our discount, it came out to about $1.35 per lb, we bought six! We then headed home, put five of our six chickens in the freezer (kept one out for dinner) and headed out for the day. By now it was lunch time and the boys were getting hungry (they hadn’t eaten in an hour), so we stopped into a small local mexican restaurant. I had a small combo plate and the boys had chimichanga’s and sopapilla’s. These are their favorites! Full of energy we drove up to Red Rocks Park to climb and explore. We hiked up to the Amphitheater and played and climbed on the rocks for a while. Both boys ran all the way up all and down the whole theater which is quite an accomplishment. Many people are there each day running the steps or flights of stairs for exercise and of course the boys effortlessly sprinted by even the best of them. We then decided to jump in the car and head over to the dinosaur tracks on the other side of the switchback. These are actual tracks from 92 million years ago the boys have visited many times on school trips or with us. For some reason the road was closed so we had to park at the bottom and hike up a mile or so on the road to the actual tracks. Both here and at Red Rocks, our eldest was always watching out for his younger brother, making sure he didn’t slip on a rock or was not doing something that wasn’t safe. It was nice to see this as usually they’re at each others throats. By now it’s after 3 in the afternoon and we hadn’t cleaned up the house so we drove home to pick up a bit so Mom had a semi clean house to come home to after her day of work. I threw a chicken and some potato’s in the oven and did a bit of laundry. At one moment I had to grab a phone call downstairs and made the mistake of leaving my laptop on the couch. When I came up, it was in a new position and later I come to find out the boys (not sure how or which one) were jumping around and it got knocked to the floor. Hence now it only works when plugged into the wall and wouldn’t you know it, the warranty expired Feb 12, 2011, Super! Oh well, it’s just a “thing”. When stuff like this happens, I try to look at the big picture. Lots of people have lost their homes, have life threatening illnesses, lost a loved one, lost their job, are all alone, etc. Now a broken laptop doesn’t seem like such a big deal. I resort to this tactic a lot or otherwise I’d never make it through the stress of things that break around the house or what seems to be endless money problems for the past few years. (remember some unexpected expense always comes up!)  Hard to believe we make about $150K per year and have money issues. It all started years ago as when we started our little company, we had to go a few years with little or no income from which we’ve never really recovered. Funny though, according to the IRS, we’re worth a lot, on paper! Oh well, once again, one needs to put things into proper perspective. Today Mom goes to work at 2pm and get home around 10 at night, so we’re all going to the gym and then I think exploring to some other area.

Our littlest one slept in his own bed last night but now wants some cereal, a pop tart and butter toast so I have to run. Still sick even though I’m taking antibiotics but life goes on, the kids don’t seem to care how I feel, they just want to go go go! Enjoy your day and take care, as it’s time to get up and go go go.

Well today I’m actually sick, sore throat, stuffed up nose, etc, and tired (it’s 4am). Our 7 year old (with his Mom’s blessing) usually starts the night out by “snuggling” with us and then 9 times out of 10, ends up sleeping the entire night with us. With him now wearing 12 year old jeans, he’s getting pretty tall and those legs and arms tend to uncontrollably swing around all night long, this is why I’m tired. Other than that, I feel pretty good.

Mom works again today (day 3 of 5 in a row) and I have a meeting/presentation from 8:30 until 9am. With Mom having to be at work at 9am (she leaves at 8:45), we didn’t realize until last night that we had no plan for the kids! We needed someone to watch them from 8:45 till 9:30 but can’t find anyone. So I’m going to need to wake them up at 6:30 and load us all into the car at 7:30 to make my 8:30 meeting. We forgot today is the first of another 4 day weekend for the boys. I don’t remember having so many days off when I was a kid. Anyhow, it looks like the kids will have to go with me and sit quietly (like that’ll happen) outside a conference room for 30 minutes while I am giving my speech. Wish me luck.

The morning paper isn’t here yet and it’s once again chilly outside. There is a full moon! There’s now 10 days left in the month of February, hard to believe but Spring is fast approaching. Next week I have a day trip to San Francisco and the following week I’m in D.C. for a night and Phoenix for another later in the week. We’re holding our breath waiting for Mom’s schedule knowing we’re going to have to somehow get some help with the boys.

On another note, has anyone noticed how the price of food keeps going up! Thank God we get our discount at Whole Foods. It almost makes prices the same as they were a year and a half ago. Did you see all the Democratic Senators in Wisconsin leave the state so they couldn’t be found by the Police and have to show up to work and do their job by voting on proposed legislation. I’m not taking sides here but do know that acting like little children and running away and refusing to sit down and talk things through is not going to help. It doesn’t matter if your a Democratic or Republican, you can’t just refuse to go to work and do your job because you don’t like your job, can you? (If so, I could use some time off!) Imagine if one of us did this, we probably wouldn’t be employed very long. It seems everyone in the Country knows we’re broke and wants changes until those changes actually affect them. Everyone is going to need to sacrifice to get things turned around. Trust me, you cannot spend more than you make and hope to have your house in order, it’s just not sustainable. If you do (as our government and society in general has) you’re going to need to cut back drastically and spend a whole lot less then you make for a long time. With 20-30% interest rates, (which should be illegal!), it takes forever just to try to get back to even. How can credit card companies get away with charging 20-30% interest rates when all you can earn in a bank is about 3% on your savings account?????

Oh well, sorry for the drift into politics and public policy, that’s what happens when you’re sick and tired. Hope everyone has a great weekend and stays healthy.

God bless,

I cannot believe I (or we) forgot to post this morning. My father in law just called to pass on a business lead in California and kindly reminded me that “there was no blog this morning”. Thankfully he called or we might have broken the consecutive string since January 1. Where were the rest of you????

Obviously we’re very busy, Mom’s at work (2 of 5 days in a row) and the kids are enjoying their final day of school until next Tuesday. I started my day with a 6am conference call and have been on the go ever since. We’re also trying to sell a 2001 Audi TT Quattro (email for more info if interested) and I’ve spent the past few days getting a new battery and windshield so it’s in tip top shape. It’s a great car but we just don’t drive it (hence the dead battery) and really need the cash. We’re so close to turning the corner and getting back on our feet (from our 25K worth of unexpected expenses over the last 3 months), but “so close” just doesn’t cut it. I’m kind of getting immune to worrying about money so much (don’t know if that’s good or bad), as I just can’t do it anymore. What I do know is that we’re sure tired of not having enough money. I’m sure (I hope) that in 6 months this’ll be long forgotten but right now it’s a bitch.  Thankfully these things come and go in cycles, it’s just a bad time for this cycle!

Oh well, enough of our problems as I know everyone has their own. Must run now as lots to do before I pick up the kids at 2:45 and then it’s difficult to get a lot more done. I kind of need to just get them a snack, set up their homework and head back down to my office hoping they don’t get into a tussle.

Hope all’s well, God Bless

Ocean Prime, What a fun new restaurant! Only open about a month, the place was packed. We arrived a few minutes late due to road construction but were greeted to a scene right of of L.A. The building was newly renovated right across the street from Capital Grill. We met our friends and were escorted upstairs for dinner. I didn’t pick up on the name, Ocean being for fish and Prime being for beef. I was just thinking of “prime” or grade A fish. Anyhow we both had fish and the food was great. Even more so was the company. Our friends are really nice people.

During the evening they were telling us about their trip to Dubai which was over the top and fantastic. Apparently you could leave your wallet on a bench for days and no one would touch it. The reason for this is that if someone does steal something, they simply cut your hand off. Wow, one or two of those stories on the news here sure would cut the crime rate wouldn’t it? Next they headed to India which they couldn’t wait to leave as soon as they arrived. Coming from Dubai I guess this is a total 180. Poverty and dirt and crowds everywhere. One morning while her husband was in meetings, our female friend arranged for a driver from the hotel to see the sights. To make a long story short, she said the driver deviated from the scheduled route and proceeded to tell her, “I take you somewhere special”. At first she didn’t pay much attention but continued to say, “no I want to go to so and so” The driver ignored her and kept insisting that he was taking her somewhere special. Next they turn a corner and arrive under a bridge where there’s a group of men standing waiting for the car and he then tells her “get out of the car”. By now our friend is quite upset and refusing to get out continues to demand that the driver take her back to the hotel right away! After a few minutes of back and forth and her beating on the back of the drivers seat, thankfully the car moves. She’s now pretending to call her husband on her cell phone (there was actually no service) while the driver is telling her not to tell the hotel and saying “you mad at me” , “don’t you tell anyone where I take you”. She safely makes it back to the hotel and rushes in through the armed guards and metal detectors to the comfort of her room. She told us she realized the moment when she knew she was in real trouble. If she got out of that car (or was a bit more naive and just did what the driver told her) she’s convinced her life would have changed or been over as she knew it. Who knows what would have happened to her but her friends who live in India said no one probably would have heard from her again. Now the lesson here is even though this happened in India, it could have been anywhere. When your gut tells you somethings wrong, it usually is. This sixth sense inside of us shouldn’t be ignored. Also understand that just because someone tells you to do something, that doesn’t mean you do it. We live in a great World but there are some bad people and bad things all around us. I like to think that there’s much more good out there, but you need to watch out or “be aware” that the other is always lurking close by. Thank God our friend made it back to her hotel but something like this could happen in your neighborhood grocery store parking lot as well. Ladies, especially you, need to be aware of your surroundings. If you have a funny feeling when an elevator door opens and there’s one man inside, wait for the next one. If there’s a van with blackened windows parked too close to your car in the parking lot, get in from the passenger side or come back to your car later. You need to be diligent about keeping an eye on your surroundings. Victims are usually the ones that appear to be the easiest targets. Don’t be one of them!

Now on to the day, the boys are getting up for breakfast and Mom heads off the the first of 5 days of work in a row. It looks like it’s still going to be warm and we’re all running late already. Hope it’s a great day for everyone and be safe.

Last night was our Valentines Day celebration which turned out to be a quiet night at home with the boys. My Mom made it safely to AZ arriving right around dinner time. We made a nice dinner (the boys of course chose pizza) and then watched a little TV and went to bed. This morning we both overslept and awoke about 6:45. I had to be at Sears by 8 to have a battery replaced on one of the cars. The windshield is being replaced in about an hour. Every day it seems something pops up that’s going to somehow cost you some money. My wife is off again today (2 days in a row, wow) but goes back tomorrow for the next 5 days. We’re going to dinner tonight with our friends but need to make it an early night as the boys have their CSAP tests beginning tomorrow. I’m not sure what they are or what they’re for (some useless government way of redistributing much needed dollars to schools I imagine) but Mom says it’s important so the boys need a good nights sleep.

It’s warm here today, mid 60’s I think. Most of the snow will be gone in a few more days if this keeps up. Lots of work going on and I need to get some exercise in before dinner so I’d better run for now. Mom’s upstairs cleaning (or sleeping) and needs to get some rest for her aching back. I just found out the boys are out of school from Thursday until Tuesday, a 4 day weekend, oh brother it’ll be a challenge to keep them busy for so many days in a row. I’d better plan something now.

Hope you all have a good day, sorry we’re late in posting today.

It really warmed up yesterday which melted about half the snow. This morning it’s all frozen into a hard crust as the overnight temps dipped below freezing. It was along day yesterday capped off by the boys wanting to stay up to watch Mick Jagger on the Grammy’s. At least they’re more interested in Mick than Lady Gaga. We had fun doing the usual and going out to lunch. For years my wife has been telling me not to stack papers on the basement steps, well yesterday I found out why. As I was carrying some stuff to the basement, my left foot (or right, not sure) slipped out from under me and I fell down the basement steps. I only slipped down 3 or 4 steps (lucky I had tennis shoes on to stop my slide) and bruised up my left side. I really didn’t notice much when I fell except a bruised ankle and forearm but as the day went on, my left side (hip in particular) became sore. I was pretty lucky I guess that I didn’t go all the way down and that I’m in pretty good shape and didn’t break anything. No more stacking papers on the steps for sure!

Mom had a long day and arrived home about 8pm. Today she has a full day of Valentine Day parties at school (she’s a room Mom for the boys), after she goes in to help grade some papers. With it also being the first non snowy sunny day in weeks, we need to get our 2001 Audi TT out of the garage and jump the battery. We’re selling this as we need the cash and don’t need 3 cars. I think we have about 50 miles on this pretty little speedster in 6 months. (if anyone needs a great car, email) Tomorrow night we go to dinner with our friends who have been out of town since before the holiday’s. We were going to go to their house but the Misses called and said she hadn’t cooked in 4 months and we probably wouldn’t want to eat her cooking so we decided on a fun new restaurant downtown. They travel quite a bit and have a few homes around the country. I think they were just in Dubai for vacation and had spent Christmas in Hawaii. Anyhow, really fun good people. Tonight we’ll be staying home with the boys having a quiet V Day dinner. My mother and younger brother are on the road to Phoenix and should arrive around dinner time, hope they have a safe drive.

Lots to do at work this week with only 2 weeks left in the month. We have a long conference call scheduled this morning to review some new initiatives and programs were implementing for 2011. In today’s world, it seems you have to adapt and change tactics more often than in previous years due to the ever changing economy. Personally I think the media and the perception it creates is a lot of the problem. When pundits get on TV each morning and tell us all that today this is going to happen, everyone reacts as if it’s the word of God. People need to realize that these folks are just “people” too. You need to think for yourself and stop taking the word of someone you don’t know just because they’re on the idiot box. The majority of folks out there are kind of like lemmings, they question little and just seem to follow whatever someone tells them. I’m beginning to go into a political rant (can you tell?) so I’d better sign off now so you’ll all be spared. In closing though, think for yourselves and do what you think is right as it usually is.

God Bless,

Side note: The lovely, little old lady and her dog gave me a yummy box of Godivas and a thoughtful card when I stopped last night to administer the insulin shot.  Very sweet!!

Also, once again my husband had the house clean, laundry done, and dinner ready when I arrived home from work. Yea!!

LLF

LLF

With Mom working 11 to 7:30 both Saturday and Sunday, it’s once again Boys Weekend. This is (I think) the 4th weekend in a row where it’s all men. This will be true again next week as Mom works Wednesday through Sunday next week, more on that in a few days.

Yesterday we had a full day that went pretty quick. I had a work session (a fancy saying for a 3 hour call) that lasted until about noon. This was interrupted a few times but the only notable instance was when our oldest ran downstairs to tell me the upstairs toilet was overflowing. By the time I made it up two floors we had a nice 1 inch layer of water on the bathroom floor. After getting this cleaned up, (toilet unplugged, floor washed and disinfected, towels and bathroom rugs washed) and finishing my call, we headed out for a few groceries. It seems we need something from the store almost everyday! I think we’ll try to see how long we can go without having to shop. This skill might come in handy sometime in the future.

Mom called from work an hour or so after she started her day to see how we were doing. Apparently right after she started, she lifted a bundle of grocery bags and threw her back out. Of course being the diligent worker she is, she told no one and suffered through the remainder of her day. After the grocery store the boys and I (mostly I), set out to clean the house. We started upstairs as they say dirt flows downhill. (if I’m cleaning I tend to go all out) I started with the master bath, disinfected and cleaned everything and then began to tackle the bedroom. After dusting, I move all the beds and vacuumed underneath as this is where the dreaded dust bunnies accumulate. I don’t know where they come from or how they grow but am convinced they’re part of some evil plot to take over the world. After finishing our room, I seal it off so no dirt or dust can get back in. Of course the dogs hate cleaning day as they’re relegated to the outside or the crate as they are the carriers of dirt, dog hair and dust from room to room. Next is the kids room, talk about a mess. The boys did help by default as whenever I need them I tell them to come in any “only pick up what they want to keep as I’ll be throwing the rest away”. The fear of some useless forgotten ten cent toy being thrown out gets them moving every time. Of course some complaining comes with this usually in the form of “Dadddddd” or “oh man” or “come on” or the dreaded “Mom wouldn’t make us do this”. In the end, it does get picked up after some combination of threats, negotiations, and compromise. Of course it would be easier to just do it myself but they need to take some responsibility for their mess. The boys did manage to get the “play room” pretty much picked up on their own which is good because my wife and I are actually scared to go in there! Don’t tell them.

By now it’s almost 4pm and were cooking dinner and taking it up to Grandma’s to visit with her as she leaves Monday. We made hamburgers and french fries (the boys choice) and headed up there around 5:30. Dinner was nice as the kids tend to open up and talk more (with Grandma) in a casual setting with not a lot of other people around. We finished around 6:45 and headed home to put the finishing touches on the downstairs before Mom gets home at 7:45. The boys get in their pj’s, brush their teeth and then get to watch a little TV while waiting for Mom to save them from the evil overlord that made them clean all day (that’s me). Mom arrives only to have to momentarily depart again to give Bunker (the diabetic poodle) his evening shot. She’s back in a few minutes and before you know it, fast asleep. (must have been a matter of 10 minutes from the door to bed)

Today is fun day as I told the boys if we get all cleaned yesterday, we could do some fun stuff on Sunday. One of the kids has a stomach ache and with Mom’s back still sore we’re going to unfortunately miss church. The boys were supposed to get a bible presented to them (all the kids we think) by the Pastor but we must have misunderstood the program as we received an email last night telling us to have them in the choir room to pick up their corsage before they go into the chapel to sing????? We know nothing about this (first time we heard of this), and both boys are flatly refusing to be part of any performance involving singing which is understandable since no one had any advance notice of this. This is too bad but we don’t want to get them “soured” on church. I suppose it’s our fault for not better preparing, bad parents. (they don’t even know what the song is, I think this is last years group) We’ll call the Pastor and arrange to go up one day this week to get their bibles in a less threatening environment. Oh well, there’s always next week and we do talk about God daily and how he fits into our life, which to me is more important than going to a church anyhow. Don’t get me wrong, I think church provides some additional structure and has other like minded people, which is good, but I’m also sure there’s lots of people that go to church and then leave and don’t live their lives as God would want them to. You get the point. Mom’s down the street giving Bunker his shot and the boys are wanting some breakfast so I’d better run.

Tomorrow’s Valentines Day so don’t forget to go out and get a card for your loved ones.

Until then,