Just Before Bed

I'm sitting here at the counter in our kitchen with Molly having her little snack before we go upstairs to get ready for bed.  Sophie's been a bit of pill tonight for whatever reason.  Earlier this evening, she fell out of the chair that she was squeezed into next to Caleb and somehow busted her lip.  At least it didn't really swell up and it's only on the inside.  She got over it pretty quick but, not before crying on my shoulder and staining my shirt with blood and chocolate (she'd just finished eating a brownie).

Anyway, we're almost done down here so I'm going to close my laptop and head upstairs so I can get Caleb into the shower.  If I can, I plan on reading a little more tonight.  I'm a little over 3/4 of the the way through The Sword of Shannara on my Kindle.  I read this book back when I was about 14 or 15 years old and I still think it's a pretty good book.  Even though it does borrow heavily from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Oh well, if it's good storytelling, it's good storytelling, right?

Molly just finished slurping the last bit of juice from her Caprisun which tells me it's time to go.

Until next time....

Laziness, Just Laziness

I keep trying to remind myself to keep up with my "journal" online here and it hasn't really been working out too well.  I guess we're just creatures of habit and I simply haven't gotten in the habit of keeping a journal.  Well, I'm going to go for it again.

On the way home from church today, Sophie was riding in her carseat holding her nose and saying, "Mommy, Memaw, Pawpaw".  Basically, she was just having fun with the way her voice sounded while holding her nose.  Cute stuff.

This morning, before Molly and Caleb got up, Joy and I were hanging out in the den.  Sophie was running from the den all the way to the front door.  She would pause there for a moment or two, then come running back down the hallway breathing heavy as if she was running a marathon.  I said all we needed was some tape at the end of the hallway so she could break through like she was winning the race.

Anyway, this is the first in a short line of new journal attempts.  I was looking to see if there was some sort of template I could use in Open Office in order to keep some sort of journal for family/kid related memories but then I realized I could just use this blog again.

Or I could use pen and paper.

(Nah.)

Another Saturday

Yes, here is it: another Saturday.  I really can't wait to be back on day shift.  Even after getting about eight hours of sleep last night (something I never get all week long) I'm still tired.  It's as if my body simply does not like getting up before 1130AM and I can't stand it.  I'm actually more of a morning person.  I like getting up before sunrise and enjoying the peaceful quiet that's associated with it.

Instead, I wake to the sounds of Sophie yelling, "Mom. Mom-eee."  But, at least it's still Saturday.

Last night, I played Blur on Xbox Live with Michelle.  It was pretty fun but after a couple of races of having the public chat on, we decided it was time to go back to "party chat".  "Party chat" means that we could only hear each other talking instead of the eighteen or so other morons that can't seem to form sentences without the f-word or other graphic, typical Xbox Live language.

In spite of all that crap, it was still a lot of fun hanging out and playing a game with my sister.

Well, the coffee's done so I'm going to go have some and a bowl of cereal.

See you later.

Saturday Morning

Well, I'm just sitting here at the kitchen counter with Joy sitting just in front of me on the couch in the den/family room.  I haven't totally decided if I want to call it a "family room" or a "den".  In my opinion, the term "family room" seems too new.  I still like the term "den" because it denotes a dark place where hibernation or eating, or both, takes place. 

Anyway, I hear footsteps upstairs so one of the kids must be awake.  We're going to hang out on the patio for a little while before the quietness of morning disappears.

In The New Place

This is my first post from our new place. So far so good. I haven't seen any large crowds of obviously unsupervised children (or orphans, if you will) yet so that's definitely a good sign. The only downside is we're still unpacking. That's normal of course and we're really almost done but, a quick look around will let you know that we just moved in.

The kids are taking the move really well. Molly complains of being bored but that's normal when you don't have a steady stream of kids dressed like they're in the movie "Newsies" performing choreographed dances outside your window while you try to eat dinner. Well, that's not entirely true. I wouldn't actually call the dances "choreographed". Anyway, the bottom line is: the kids will have to get used to not living around so many orphans. I mean kids. Wow! The "O" word just keeps slipping out whenever I talk about our old place.

Before I forget, I should mention a couple of cute things the kids have done before I totally forget.

Last week during our move, Molly and Caleb were with me in the cab of the U-Haul truck as we headed back to the old place. As we were driving, we saw a car with an obviously European license plate. Molly commented that it must be very expensive to have your car shipped to the United States and I agreed. Then she said she didn't even think a ferry would travel that far. Caleb chimed in and said, "Yeah, and fairies aren't even real!" Then immediately, he said, "Oh, wait..." I couldn't help but laugh because it was so cute.

Okay, now on to Sophie's cute thing. Last week, we're sitting in the living room watching a show the kids like called Zeke and Luther, which is actually a pretty funny show. Anyway, they did a quick little parody of the "Leroy Jenkins" World of Warcraft video that was going around the internet about three or four years ago. I caught onto the joke but Joy, and of course the kids, had never seen the video. So I pulled it up on youtube and for a day or so, we were going around shouting, "Leroy Jenkins!!" just for fun. It didn't take long for Sophie to start saying it and, amazingly, she enunciates quite well for a one year old. I think Joy may have captured it on video, hopefully, before Sophie gets bored with it.

Well, that's it for this edition. In case your interested, here's that Leroy Jenkins video. Don't bother watching it after the infamous name is uttered. The language gets pretty bad after that. See ya!

I'm Whining

Yes, I feel like whining. I totally screwed a job up last night at work. The worst part is, I should have known better. But, due to negligence, I guess, I messed it up. So tonight I have to go in and fix it and hopefully finish the rest of it. So basically, I look like an idiot but all I've really done is slow a process down. At least nothing was actually produced with what I did last night, so there's that I guess.

Oh well. Unfortunately, this casts a bit of a shadow over the joyous occasion of moving out of The Orphanage. Maybe all will be better by tomorrow around this time.

Here's to hoping tonight will be better.

Only Five More Days

As the title of this post indicates, there are only five more days left until we move. I guess we're pretty much ready. There are still some last minute clean-up jobs we'll need to tackle later this week like cleaning the fridge and carpet. At least it will all be over soon. The only downside is the actual moving part. I hate moving but it's a necessary evil I suppose.

The countdown continues...

Two Weeks Left Until We Leave The Orphanage

No, of course we don't live in an actual orphanage.  It's just a silly nickname I've given our apartments based on the level of parent-child interaction that goes on around here.  I think most parents here just send their kids outside and say, "Don't come back inside until it's dark."  Maybe that's extreme but, who cares.

The real point is that we're getting pretty excited about moving.  So excited, in fact that we went and bought a couch, two chairs, and a coffee table today.  Of course, we got them through Craigslist and so got an excellent deal.  The only downside is that the the above mentioned furniture is now sitting in our apartment, taking up space until we move out.  In addition to the couch, etc., we also have a smaller TV stand that I just finished putting togehter.  That stand, along with the couch, two seats, coffee table, and a matching TV, will be going into our future family room.  For a while there, we were wondering what we were going to do about the family room since, up until today, we didn't have anything with which to furnish it.  At least that's one thing we no longer have to worry about.

Now, to continue on in our hard knock life for the next two weeks.  Speaking of a hard knock life, here's some video I shot recently of our apartment complex.  Maybe now you'll understand why I call it an orphanage.

Sophie And The "Way-La" Video

We went to Disney World back in May and had a great time. Sophie did wonderful considering how uncomfortable, and possibly bored, she must have been during certain parts of our visit. She did, however, love meeting Mickey Mouse, Buzz Lightyear, etc.

Leading up to our visit (and really even now) we were listening to streaming Disney music from disradio and subsonic radio and Sophie is now in love with a tune that was used in an old parade at Epcot called the tapestry of dreams.  I'm pretty sure they still use some variation of the music in the parks still, just not in the parade  Anyway, we found a video of the parade on youtube and now watching the video is all that Sophie ever wants to do.  She calls it "Way-La" and will go over to the computer and point at it until we start playing it.  I think if she had her way, she'd listen to it all day long and, sometimes, it seems like she does.

Here's the video that she's currently loving on YouTube:

Ubuntu 10.4

I'm not the geek I sometimes pretend to be but, yesterday I installed the newest version of Ubuntu on our old Dell laptop. I did this mainly for two reasons: first, for security. Getting a virus is really of no concern when using a linux machine. Second, I want access to all of the great open source software that is available for linux machines. Specifically, I want a program for editing videos and I know that Ubuntu is much more light weight than Windows so I might actually have some success.

Anyway, today is Saturday, June 26th, 2010. In just under three weeks, we will be moving and I couldn't be happier. I'm not looking forward to the actual moving process but, I am looking forward actually being in our new place.

Well, that's all I feel like writing right now. I'm mainly just killing time waiting for Flickr to finish changing the privacy settings on thousands of my photos.

See ya.

Screaming For Molly

Check out this video highlight from our trip to Disney World. It's Joy trying to get Molly's attention when she was riding the Tomorrowland Speedway in the Magic Kingdom.

Later!

Now With 100% Less Facebook

Okay, so I haven't posted anything here in a really long time but, who cares right?  Well, as the title suggests, I have deleted my facebook account.  I guess I should actually say that my account will finally be deleted in about ten or so days since you have to wait 14 days for your account to delete once you request it.  No, I wasn't upset with facebook or anything like that.  I mean they have some major privacy issues that should upset most people but, for the most part, I just felt like it really wasn't necessary for me.  I mean, I never used it.  All I ever did was sign in once in a while and look at posts mostly from people that were only ever acquaintances at best.

Anyway, it's just a matter of time now...

See you later!

Snow.

As of 1:45am this morning, it was not snowing.  However, as of right now, 7:37am, it is.  I'd say there's at least 3 inches or so on the ground.  How did I come up with that figure?  Just a wild guess.  I definitely haven't gone outside with a measuring stick.  Yet.

Mom, Dad, and Michelle stayed the night last night, much to the elation of Caleb and Molly.  I think to them, especially Caleb, it's like Christmas all over again having them all stay over.  Also, Caleb was so excited about the snow that he kept looking out the window last night expecting it to snow at precisely the time weather.com said it would start snowing.  Then when he went to sleep, he asked me and Joy to wake him up when we see that it has snowed.  We haven't told him yet since he could probably use the sleep.

Anyway, according to the "Winter Storm Warning" that's in effect right now until 1am Sunday, we may get anywhere from 8 to 15 inches total accumulation.  I guess we'll see about that.

Well, I'm going to go start some coffee and, possibly, play Mass Effect 2 for a little while.  Probably not, though.  Sophie is awake and ever-busy.

More to come later...

Snow?

We are currently under a "Winter Storm Warning".  Last night, before I went to work, it was a "watch" and at that time, the forecasted accumulations were between 5-10 inches.  Now, the projection is 8-12 inches.  Hmmm.  We will see what we will see. 

It seems like when we get a forecast for some real snow, we somehow get missed or it all turns to rain.  I don't know if that's how it's going to go this time since I think it's supposed to be pretty cold all weekend.  Anyway, if we do get that much snow, it will be the most we've had in a long time.  Also, this whole area will be closed down, which wouldn't be all bad.  At least then I can get some time in with Mass Effect 2, as long as the power doesn't go out.  I can almost see the local weathermen breaking in on your favorite TV show to give updates about "Winter Storm 2010" (spoken with a deep, gravelly voice).

Well, I'm off to bed.  A long night that wasn't that long might be leading into a very memorable weekend.

Awake

I am awake. 

Sitting here waiting for the coffee to finish brewing.  Joy and Sophie are at Target.  Molly and Caleb have a half day.  They will be home around 1:00. 

I am awake.

Tuesday, January 26th 2010 - Mass Effect 2

Before I started writing this, I really had to stop for a second and ask myself, "Is it Tuesday or Wednesday?"  Sometimes I still get a bit confused on the day of the week due to my work schedule but, thanks to the little time and date thingy in the bottom right corner of my computer screen, I can confirm that today is, in fact, Tuesday.

So, Mass Effect 2 comes out today.  I have a Gamestop gift card I got for Christmas that I've been holding onto for this game, so I'm looking forward to it.  The first Mass Efffect game definitely had it's share of technical problems.  One in particular is the now infamous elevator sequences which were really just long loading screens.  And I do mean long loading screens.  I also encountered a little bug (or is it a glitch?) while I was playing Mass Effect 1.  I agreed to get some information for a news reporter and I went to the location where I was supposed to meet her but, for some reason, she was nowhere to be found ever again.  That really irritated me.

Aside from the reasons I've given, I'm sure there are more people that had worse issues.  But these issues did not hurt the quality of the game, in my opinion, for one reason: the story.  The story in Mass Effect was very good and the voice acting was top notch.

I liked the story so much that I have to make a real nerd admission: I read the first Mass Effect novel and I'm currently reading the second one on my Kindle (which probaby makes me even more of a nerd!).

So, yes, I am looking forward to playing Mass Effect 2.  I've seen a couple of reviews that I refused to read to avoid spoilers.  But the reviews I've glanced at are very positive.

Well, maybe I'll do some sort of mini-review for posterity.  Eventually.

Monday, January 25th 2010

Here I am again messing around with this silly blog.  I've probably gone back and forth over whether or not I'm going to use it as a private or a public blog several times in the last few months.  Well, now it's "public" again and I realize that doesn't matter.  I don't break news or gossip headlines.  I simply write what's on my mind or what's going on in my or my family's life.

The bottom line is this: I like the format of this blog and I really like the layout.  It has worked really well for me as journal of sorts but I am just not consistent enough to really keep it constantly updated.  I think the inconsistency has less to do with the fact that this is a blog than the fact that I am traditionally very bad about keeping a journal.  I've tried to keep one for the sake of those small, beautiful moments (like Sophie's moon fear) but a lot of times I ended up saying, "I've got to write that down," but never do.

Here's to hoping that, in the future, I will keep up with this thing.  At the very least, I will most likely post occasionally about how I want to "really make this a journal". 

More post to come?

Getting ready to drop a couple of books off at the library. Also I'm experimenting with posting this from my phone via text message.

Posting From My Kindle

So, like the title says, I'm posting this using my Kindle. Pretty cool but not very practical. Later.

Afraid of the Moon?

Last night as I was carrying Sophie from the car to our front door, I noticed the moon was very bright overhead so I pointed up at it and said, "Look, Sophie!  It's the moon."  She looked up at what I was pointing at for about a second or so, then let out a slight whimper and quickly put her head down on my shoulder.  I felt bad for her, but it was so cute.

I thought maybe that was a unique reaction, but tonight we were coming out from the Texas Roadhouse restaurant and again the moon was bright overhead.  I pointed up at it again and said, "It's the moon, Sophie."  Once again she looked up at it then immediately put her head down on my shoulder and squeezed me tight.  Right as we were getting to the van she looked back up at the moon on her own for a second and, again, grabbed me tight and held her head down on her shoulder.

I wish I could know what was going through her mind.  Maybe it seems like the moon was following us while the streetlights just moved by as we walked.  I have no idea. 

What I do know is that these moments were beautiful and I love my kids with all my heart.