Huzzah! Another Boy in the Family!

Some brother-in-law I am, geesh. It's taken me almost a month to get this post up. I guess that's what happens when I get stuff at work and it gets lost in the onslaught of work email.

Still, better late than never! So, CONGRATULATIONS to my brother-in-law Daryl and his lovely wife Carla on the birth of their second boy, Cameron, and the second boy on my wife's side of the family! (Her older brother Kyle and his wife Kerri have 2 girls and of course, we have 4)! So, obviously everyone in the family is thrilled.

Enough chatting - now pictures! (PS, the other little boy is my wife's godchild, Colin).

The more things "change" the more they stay the same.

Politicians will be politicians...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0207/2908.html

Trust NONE of them!

The Earth is on FIRE!? Then Again, Maybe Not.

Awhile back I penned (ok, virtually penned) that the earth was heating up. Please forgive me - I made the mistake of only trusting the mainstream media feeds (and worse yet - data from the UN) I had been seeing. That is the problem I guess with trusting a group that I have found on the whole rather un-trustable.

So, here is another link for your consideration. I like this one, data - data - data.

http://www.oism.org/pproject/s33p36.htm

Don't get me wrong friends - I believe that we should take care of the earth. I think that the initiatives to get rid of a lot of the fossil fuel burning energy sources is good. Heck, if the tree huggers can create enough fear and social awareness that big corporations actually start doing something now - GOOD! Especially since they should have started doing something 30 years ago. BUT, at the end of the day, I really don't need the fear and the guilt trips to do what I should do. And neither should you, which means that the big companies shouldn't either. After all, aren't we the ones that the big companies are comprised of? If we do the right thing, then at some point other people that will do the right thing should percolate to the top as well, and they should do the right thing.

At the end of the day, it's not who's right, it's what's right. Let's all do what's right.

Me and Swiss Miss

I was just making a bit of "instant mocha coffee" at work. You know, coffee from the burning urn + Swiss Miss. So, I'm looking at the package as I'm making my cup and I see "with CALCIUM." And I'm thinking to myself, man do people have diets that are so deficient now that calcium in your hot cocoa is a selling point? Sad man. I mean, really, how pathetic is that?

To Be 6 Again - The Truth of the Matter

I received this email from my wife this morning...

TO BE 6 AGAIN
A man was sitting on the edge of the bed,
observing his wife turning back
and forth, looking at herself in the mirror.

Since her birthday was not far off, he asked
what she'd like to have for her Birthday.

I'd like to be six again, she replied, still
looking in the mirror.

On the morning of her Birthday, he arose early,
made her a nice big bowl of Lucky Charms,
and then took her to Six Flags
theme park. What a day ! He put her on every
ride in the park; the Death Slide, the Wall of Fear,
the Screaming Monster Roller Coaster... everything
there was. Five hours Later they staggered out
of the theme park. Her head was reeling and her
stomach felt upside down.

He then took her to a McDonald's where he
ordered her a Happy Meal with
extra fries and a chocolate shake.

Then it was off to a movie, popcorn, a soda pop,
and her favorite candy,
M&M's. What a fabulous adventure ! Finally she
wobbled home with her
husband and collapsed into bed exhausted.

He leaned over his wife with a big smile and
lovingly asked, Well Dear,
what was it like being six again ??

Her eyes slowly opened and her expression
suddenly changed.

I meant my Dress Size, you dumb ass !!

The moral of the story: Even when a man is
listening, he is going to get it wrong.

SEND THIS TO WOMEN WHO NEED A LAUGH..... AND TO
MEN YOU THINK CAN HANDLE IT.....

-----------------

To which I replied...

Harrumph! The only thing I have to say about that is that it was typical that the female didn't clearly state what she thought "I'd like to be A six again" and even though the husband did everything he could to try and respond to what he perceived his wife's wishes were, he still ends up getting vilified in the end.

Now, could somebody bring me a drink and the remote?

:-p

---------------------
To which my thoroughly enlightened wife replied...

Blah, Blah, Blah.

-------------------

HA!! Isn't it typical.

Attack of the Germs - The Joys of Parenting

Man. February has been one *itch of a month. It started with Chloe then Sophie coming down with the 24 hour puke your brains out bug - on back to back days. Which, if you have a child you know also equates to back to back nights - with little to no sleep. Then (even though this isn't a germ and it's not about parenting) Shanna got all four wisdom teeth out on the same day and was totally wiped out for a couple of days. Hmmm, come to think of it, there is some parenting in there and ANY of you that have a spouse know that when they are sick (yes, even you too women!) that they're like one of the kids. Of course, I'm happy to do stuff for my honey - including telling her to park her butt and rest. Damn that woman can be stubborn. Of course, she'd need to have some serious constitution to live with me in the first place.

Moving on. So, Shanna just starts to recover on Friday when we notice that Bayley (the almost 9 year old) has crashed out on the sofa in the middle of the day. Oh yah, we noticed that because she only had the energy to freak out a little when Shanna had to call 911 because the baby started choking up blood in the middle of the day. Yah, 911. That was interesting. I was at work, but it was quite the scene from what I heard. No worries, baby is as right as rain. But man that scared the *hit out of us I'll tell you.

Anyway, Bayley crashing mid-day is something that doesn't happen. Saturday, she starts with the puking. And she's nothing like Chloe and Sophie. Poor kid just pukes every hour for 24 hours straight. I was exhausted just taking care of the poor thing. Sunday she finally stopped throwing up, but she was still really hot. We were ready to bring her in - but being that she stopped throwing up and some IB cooled her down, we figured we were out of the woods. Thing was, she was still off her feed - the kid wouldn't eat. This persists through Monday and into Tuesday. Shanna was starting to get upset because she hadn't had the equivalent of a piece of toast since Sunday. Then, Bayley starts spewing again and Shanna takes her into the pediatrician. Hey! We think she's got appendicitis! No fracking way. It was odd, but it wasn't presenting the way the doc thought it should, so he gave her a shot to stop the puking. She came home, slept a little and began to feel fine. Wednesday morning - she actually eats. Yea! Wednesday evening - sorry, my tummy feels weird, has 2 bites of dinner - doesn't even ask for desert. Rut ro.

So now, Wednesday night, we're wondering - do we take her in for the cat-scan? Ah the joys of parenting. Up all night, cleaning up puked on floors, bleaching out buckets that have been puked in at night, dragging kids to doctors, calling 911 and having fire trucks and police cars turn up. Man, what a gig. Of course, the flip side is great. I got hugs all day long on Valentine's Day from my posse of chiquitas!

And there was MUCH Rejoicing!

Our good friends Steve and Rece just finished the adoption process for these two beautiful little girls. The process was long (5-6 years) because of all the corruption in the system they had been in. But boy, was it worth it. My wife Shanna and I are completely thrilled for all of them. We know those girls are getting great parents (heck, we'd let Steve and Rece take care of our kids if anything happened in a New York minute), we know they'll love their new home. We also know those two girls are going to be totally loved AND they won't be spoiled. The Bible says to rejoice with them that rejoice. Well, we're rejoicing and we're glad the two girls are here to stay. Congrats Steve & Rece!

Heard as the Kids were Singing

For whatever reason the girls were singing
Christmas songs today while they were
Moving some books onto a bookshelf
That had been moved.

During their Christmas medley they
Started singing Rudolph the Red Nosed
Reindeer. Of course, kids have a
Particular way of singing everything and
In this case it's by adding little comments
In during the breaks of the song.

Ex: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Had a very shiny nose (like Pinocchio)
And if you ever saw it, you would even
Say it glows (like a light bulb!)

So, eight year old Bayley is singing
the lead with 3 year old Chloe providing
The comments. All I have to say is please
Refer to a previous post on Chloe singing.
Anyway, here's how one spot came out.

Verse: All of the other reindeer, used to
Laugh and call him names (Yippee!)

Sigh. Is this in any way an indication that
I'm just not doing a good job raising my
Child? Have I somehow gone wrong?
Nah, she's just a bossy and cheeky little
Blighter she is!

The Inadvertant Creation of a Porn Star?

Shanna, Halle, Chloe and I were sitting in the kitchen. Me on my work laptop, Halle was on her BlueBerry iBook (thanks again Mark!), Chloe was being Chloe, doing different stuff and Shanna was doing some cleanup.

While Shanna was pouring some cleansing agent from the big bottle to a smaller spray bottle she accidentally tipped the bottle to much and spilled some on her shirt - thus had to take it off. Stay calm here people - besides, this isn't the funny part yet.

Moving on. Shan was lamenting that she didn't have a shirt downstairs and the baby was sleeping upstairs in our room. So, she was in fact walking around half naked (again, calm down, she was in a bra). Anyway, as she was going to put her shirt in the laundry, she made the off handed comment that she was nakdid! (a Chloe-ism for naked) But, not like she had a hot body or anything ;-) To which (here's the punchline...) Chloe replies - "I've got a hot body I need to get nakdid!"

And thus ladies and gentlemen, in 10 seconds Shanna completely ruined 11 years (starting with Halle) of character building, teaching the girls purity and it's benefits. Yikes. Scary how fast kids will catch on to the things you DON'T want them too.

And NO - Chloe is not going to follow that career path! But we're certainly going to be more careful with our word selection now - aren't we.