1 Month to Go!

Wow - it's already almost May. That means a couple of things. As of today, we're 1 month away from our Japan trip and school will be entering the last month before Summer. I don't know where the first 4 months of 2023 went, but anyway.

We're finishing up the last few bits of things we need to take care of before our trip. The biggest thing left, both logistically and expense-related, are the JR Pass tickets for each of us. We decided to go with the official JR Pass issuer who is literally the JR train group. This route is a little more expensive but it gives you the ability to reserve shinkansen tickets online, which is a little convenience. I did learn that if you buy from them directly, you don't get vouchers that you then need to take to Japan to exchange for the actual tickets. You can just take your e-mail or whatever and get it at the airport. I think that's good because it's one less thing to manage/lose. I'm still afraid that we're gonna lose a JR ticket or something sometime because I didn't know that they made the change from a little passport-like pass thing to just regular, tiny square pieces of paper that resemble a train ticket. Laura will be managing them at each station because the kids will just lose it and they don't re-issue tickets so we would end up having to pay for all the tickets, which defeats the purpose of the pass.

I think other than that and a couple little website travel registrations for customs and stuff, we're ready to go. We have all the hotels and stays booked and hopefully confirmed. The airline tickets are good still, though I saw that the flight is completely booked. Oh, about that. Alaska Airlines decided to increase points redemption totals for business class a month or so ago without notice. They increased the points required from 60k one-way to 80k, so basically, it would require I think like 80k more points total to even start to try at upgrading to business, which was like an additional $1600. We said no at this point. Plus, I don't think we could have anyway because the flight is full. Anyway, it'll be coach there and business back, which I think is fine. Being able to relax on the way back after we're all tired is better, I think. 

I'm still worried about my ability to talk Japanese there. I haven't used it in so long and I often have trouble trying to find the right words even when just talking to my Mom. 

Other than the fact that the kids have WAY too many things going on at the moment, like 3-5 things each, things are chugging along, though it's getting me a bit stressed. We're literally driving from thing to thing every day and missing some things because of overlap. After a week or two, things die down, but still busy until we get back from Japan. Then Connor has a week-long scout camp or something right after. He's gonna be so tired. 

That's it for now. At this rate, the next blog might be after our trip...

1st of 2023

Yowzers. I had thought that I wrote something much closer to 2023 than September. Guess I have a lot to unpack. To be honest, I'm really not going to be able to remember much.

October

Let's see. What happened in October. I think this was the month that academic bowl started. I had to check my previous post to see if I mentioned it and it looks like I didn't. So, this year, I decided that I would help coach the 5th/6th academic bowl team with some help from Kim. Connor did it last year and it was online, but this year would be the first time, any of them, actually, they would be doing tournaments in person with buzzers and stuff. I've never done anything like this before, so it would be new to me for sure. Anyway, the practices, which were once weekly, went alright overall and towards the end. In the beginning, though, things we rough as I got used to them, vice versa, and getting to know the rules for in-person tournaments. The biggest thing was them talking during our practice and in between questions and stuff. The first couple practices we didn't even get through the practice question packets, which were about 24-32 questions. We got maybe halfway because of all the talking and stopping. Finally, I decided to implement a reward, aka candy, system every time we could move on to the next question without delay. They slowly caught on and we were finally able to start finishing up packets. It was and is still hard to decide what to practice because, overall, they don't really practice on their own out of practice time because, well, they're in 5th/6th. Most of how well they do during the tournaments really is up to how much they studied beforehand. Anyway, we got into the groove after a while and they started to figure out the routine, how I expected it go, etc. The other big problem was getting them to get along with each other. We definitely had a few quarrels and incompatibilities, but that's to be expected, I guess, especially with a mix of grades. We had an 8-person team, which I thought was a bit too much as there was a lot of substituting going on at tournaments. It twas 6 5th graders and 2 6th graders. They were all good kids, though, for the most part, so that helped.

November

I don't think we went anywhere like Estes Park this year, so it was really just a month of school stuff, planning for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and getting things done. Oh, and trying to make the kids not get sick before the important days. Of course, that backfired. I'm pretty sure that someone got sick during Thanksgiving, or maybe that was Christmas. I think the McGuires came out for Thanksgiving and then Christmas, too. Wait, no they came out in October and then came out for Christmas. I can't remember things anymore. I actually think Thanksgiving was a calmer event this year. It was just the Yams + Ken or something and the Lemons came just for the day or something. 

December

Ah, Christmas time. Really just a month of trying to not get sick at the worst time and also doing presents and stuff. Emmeline also had her theater performance, which she started doing this fall. She did great in Rudolph. We also had our first academic bowl tournament right before Christmas break. We didn't get shut out but we only won 1 I think. It was a learning experience for us all, though. It was good to figure out who was good at answering and who liked what subjects and what not. The crappy part, though, was that one of the kids was definitely sick prior to/on the day of the tournament (and this was confirmed later on) and, of course, they're all in each other's face and area, so Connor did end up getting some kind of flu thing the week before we were to go to Tulsa. Everything was so tense, especially Laura as she didn't want to miss a Christmas again. We also had the Christmas dinner or something with the Lemons right before, which didn't help. 

Anyway, the timeline of events went sort of like this: Connor got sick the Sunday/Monday before Christmas. I'm actually not sure if he got sick from our academic bowl tournament, which was that Wednesday before or during the basketball practices he had, which was Friday, I believe. Strangely, he actually got over it quite quickly this time as he was better by the following Tue/Wed or so. The crappy thing this time was that he got ME sick. I started feeling like crap, probably the worst sick I've been in a while, starting around Mon/Tue. I was sleeping in the guest bedroom for the next few days trying to get better before the dinner with the Lemons. Of course, Laura didn't want to mention any kind of sickness to anyone, so it made it even worse. I usually don't get this sick and usually get over it after a few days, but this one lasted a little longer than normal. I had a fever, which I rarely get, and was just sore all over and cold. Things were looking grim around Fri when I wasn't better yet. I think our dinner with them was on Saturday and I FINALLY got better overnight literally the day before the dinner. I was still feeling bad and sniffling, but I could at least walk around without a headache and a sore body. I still don't know if Laura told the Lemons that I was sick or was recovering, but I went to the dinner and tried my best to "look" normal. Finally, we all went to Tulsa for Christmas where the McGuires were there. It was fun time and to see them. We didn't go to Christmas Eve mass because I think there was too much going on or something, but I did tell Laura that if she wanted to go, I would go. In the end, we all just stayed home. Then, however, Dave got sick with something for a few days, so he missed out on some stuff. I believe it was after Christmas day or something. There just was a lot of sickness going around.

New Year's came and went like normal and we had our New Year's feast as usual. Nothing much to report.

January

What went on in Jan? Well, to be honest, nothing much from what I can remember. There was a cold spell I think for a few days but nothing crazy. My birthday was of course in this month, but not a big deal. We had our 2nd academic bowl tournament this month as well. We actually did great and it was a bigger tournament with 6 teams. We went 4-0 for the first 4 games and I think we got cocky or something, lost the next 2. If we had one either of the last 2, we would have placed 2nd, but unfortunately, we placed 2nd in a tie with another school and when that happens, the amount of points you scored in the tournament becomes the tie breaker and we didn't have as many as the other team. So, we placed 3rd, which was okay and still pretty good. 2nd would have actually made us go into the harder of the last tournament, so. The winning team went 5-1 and the cool part is that we gave them the loss. The kids had fun, though. On to the last tournament in Feb!

February

We just had our last academic bowl tournament and it was a smaller one because 1 team dropped out at the last minute. Like mentioned above, this was the weaker of the 2 final tournaments. Weaker as in the lower teams of the first 2 tournaments ended up here. That was both good and bad. Good because I knew we could beat them all except 1 team we hadn't played yet and bad because, well, it's literally the losers bracket. Anyway, we went 3-1 and we could have won our loss, too. What was unfortunate was that Connor decided to get sick literally the day before our tournament. I'm not sure if he would have propelled us to victory on our loss game, maybe, but it would certainly have helped. I think the saddest part was that he just wasn't there to participate with his friends on the last tournament. We're gonna have to take another picture with the plaque as a team because he wasn't there. Oh well...maybe they'll learn to watch their hands more and not put it in their mouths as I tell them every day to stop doing that. Might say it's totally random, but, well...it's all fine and dandy until it affects things around you. There'll be next year, I guess.

Laura on Leave Part 2!

This week Laura is in Denver for a few days, so another week of getting things done solo! So far, it hasn't been as bad, but today is the worst day of all. After I get the kids from school, the schedule is packed! Emmeline has a piano lesson and that goes from 4:15 to 5, then we have to pretty much book it to her swimming which Kelly is going to monitor because I have to take Connor to his baseball practice. Emmeline has scouts pretty much right after swimming and then after Connor's baseball, he has scout from 7:30 to whenever. Gonna be a late night. I don't know why we have so many things going on all the time, but, I think we should cut down on the kids' activities...just my opinion!

Laura on Leave

 So, with Laura on leave for work for a few days this week on what has probably been the busiest week so far in the year, it's apparent that Laura helps so much in alleviating the amount of stuff that one has to do for the kids. It hasn't been as bad as I or Laura has thought, but it's still rough. Waking up earlier and making their lunches and making sure all their school stuff is in order has probably been the worst. The other stuff is basically being a taxi service for their activities. Using a lot of gas, that's for sure.

The good news is that Laura is back tonight. The bad news is that it's only for a few days and then she has to go to Colorado this time for a few days for work. To top it off, Wesley and Sammie are coming over this weekend for babysitting.

Next week might be a little busier than this week, so we'll see how that goes. We really need to just stop doing all these activities for them as they're starting to overlap and stuff and affecting our "usual" routine or having dinner around 5 and stuff. We're having stagger dinner or just have dinner late, which further affects bedtime. There's something going on literally every day. I don't remember doing so many things when I was a kid, but maybe I'm remembering wrong. My Mom worked a lot so that's probably the reason that I couldn't do much, but the only thing I really remember doing was piano during the evening and that was probably for only a year or two. I did play little league for a couple of years - maybe only 1. I don't remember going or how I got to any practices and games and stuff.

Anyway, I should get some stuff done.

And School Starts!

Not sure how time passed so fast, but here we are in August and the kids have officially started school yesterday. Woohoo. It seems like every Summer gets harder and harder as they get bored pretty fast. Anyway, it went fine for the first day. Connor didn't get the teacher that he wanted, but I'm sure it will be fine. The choice of classmates seem good as well. Emmeline did get the teacher she wanted, so we'll see how that goes. I've been at the school quite a bit over the Summer to work on the tech stuff and during the Summer, the church side was upgrading stuff and affecting the school side. It seems like a big mess at the moment with so many people working on stuff...hopefully, things just continue to work. 

Yesterday was also coincidentally me and Laura's 14th anniversary. We went to a coffee shop in the morning to relax. It was good to do without the kids. We talked about our trip to Japan. I didn't mention, but we did get tickets a few weeks ago finally. We saw some availability for the dates we are planning on and, while the flight to Japan isn't business, the return trip is, so we booked it hoping to upgrade it if seats open up closer to our departure, which is next May. Literally just under a year away, ha. So, we've been doing more detailed planning now that we have those dates hopefully set in stone and that Japan opens up by then. Things have been getting slightly worse the last few weeks for Japan, so good thing we didn't go this Thanksgiving because that would not have happened for sure. I think the most difficult part is getting the hotels we want at an affordable price. Since Japan does hotels weird, they charge per person per room, and usually they aren't ideal for travelling with kids, it's gonna get expensive if we have to get 2 rooms everywhere we go. We'll figure it out, though.

So, here's to another new school year. They are doing piano again despite my efforts, so, oh well. More stress there. Maybe they won't play any sports?!

Summer Update

 Quite a bit of time has passed, I see. Thinking back, I REALLY am not remembering much. The coronavirus stuff was still going on, but it seemed to be easing up a little bit. Now, we're trying to adjust to it, treating it like a flu-like thing rather than a bad illness. Of course, who knows, maybe it's still bad but we're just trying to move on from it or another mutation might occur. Let hope not. 

Near the end of March during Spring Break, Laura had found this airbnb that was literally a treehouse (well, not really, it wasn't in a tree, but, you know) built on this guy's huge property. We took a few day trip to Arkansas for Connor's birthday. It turned out to be a very costly trip, so we joke that it was his birthday trip for the next 5 birthdays. It was, literally, though. We had a fun time and we even ate out at a german restaurant. Since then, we have gone out to eat at a few places and have also started to go into stores and events without masks. The only time is if it's required like the doctor's office and such. It's weird that it feels weird now to not wear a mask.

The end of school went fine as well. Even attended the fine arts night for the first time (for me) since Connor was playing a piano piece. It's funny to see all the kids doing stuff. I know they're doing their best and some were good at what they were doing, but kudos to them since I dare not even think about doing anything like that even if the audience was only like 100 people. I do wish I was really good at one thing though, like the banjo, so I could play and show it off.

Near the end of last month, Emmeline got some kind of weird rash that covered the lower body and some on her upper. We didn't know what it was but the pediatrician thinks that it was a staph infection that spread from this arm injury that Emmeline had a couple of days before this all started. She was playing on the treadmill at a neighbors house and somehow burned her skin pretty bad. I don't even know how it was possibly, but anyway. I could see it being the cause. She did also swim at Dave and Karen's pool in Tulsa, so who knows. After a few days of antibiotics, it started to get better. I was nervous because this last weekend was Emmeline's dance recital and thought she might be self-conscious. I think it was just me, though. Still, I would be awkward with that kind of thing if I had to work with kids that had that, even if it wasn't necessarily contagious. 

The next couple of weeks are a bit busy. They has some various summer camps and I have to work on the new church website launch. Laura and the kids are camping right now for scouts for a couple of days. It's literally the hottest day of the year so far and there's like a heat warning for the entire state. I can't imagine camping and having to set up the tent and stuff in this heat, but...their choice. Not my idea of fun. Ticks, too. 

After they get back, Laura is heading out to Denver for a few days, so I'll have to do the kids alone during that. The schedule clears up a bit after that, so maybe we'll go pick up my Mom from Dallas for a week or so to visit. Can't remember the last time we went to visit. A few months ago?

Anyway, should get to bed. Libby's been sad most of the day. 

It's 2022...

...and nothing seems to have changed since last year around this time. Sure, we're all vaccinated and even boosted, but it seems like we're going back to the same things again and apparently worse. I dunno why people can't just get a shot, or even just pretend it's just like the flu and get the shot. We were hoping this would have been all over by this year, but it seems like this year is going to go the same way as last year.

We can probably say that our trip to Japan this late Fall/Winter is not going to happen because of it. We're now looking toward Summer of 2023. Laura doesn't like that because Japan gets so hot during it. I don't think I would mind it that much, but at the same time, I don't really remember how it was when I went. It was during the Summer, but I was also in...middle school, I think? So, maybe the heat didn't bother me as much. I distinctly remember just playing out in front of the house I was staying at and going up into the mountains behind their house/farm I think it was and exploring around. Anyway, for that reason, we haven't bought the award tickets yet and I don't think that I will since we'll probably end up exchanging it or whatever. It's refundable, so that's good.

So, Christmas. Eeeeeeverything seemed to be looking good up until the week leading up to Christmas. Every year, SOMETHING seems to go wrong, even though we try our best to stay healthy and not disrupt anything. I got sick probably the beginning of December with a cold/allergy thing. I had post-nasal drip and coughing and sinus congestion for about a week, was better for a few days, and it came back again. I didn't know what it was. Maybe it was Covid, but I was pretty sure it wasn't. I thought it was just a bad cold that became a sinus infection. 

Now, we were about a week out from Christmas and, subsequently, going to Tulsa. Of course, the DAY before our Christmas Eve, which actually this year ended up being actual Christmas, I had taken the kids bike riding around our neighborhood school. Connor says to me during it the dreaded phrase - "My stomach feels a little sick." At that moment, I knew he was coming down with something, but was hoping that it was nothing. That night, sure enough, he felt sicker and had a minor fever. The next day we kept him rested and got our Christmas Eve Japanese take-out. Right as we came home, he threw up in our entryway. Great. I figured he had the stomach flu or something. His fever never really got that high and was actually better a couple of days afterwards. We headed to Tulsa a day later than we were planning. I was still dealing with my sinus infection and had trouble not coughing sporadically, so I wanted to stay, but went in the end. It turned out all right. I had come home a day early because the Peloton was supposed to be delivered that week. When I got home, Emmeline was now the one who was sick and had a fever. It's weird because she never really gets a fever. So, they came home. For the next few days, we all took it easy and everyone seemed to get better, except me, of course. I did an e-visit with my doctor and he got me antibiotics, but I didn't think it really helped, to be honest. I figured it was just a viral sinus infection.

Fast forward to last Monday and after he came back from school, he seemed more sniffly than normal, so Laura decided to give him a home Covid test. Low and behold, it immediately showed positive. He seemed to be upset by it. For the next week, he was basically in his room to keep it contained. The next day, however, we all got tested. Connor's test came back the next day positive as we figured, but everyone else was negative, which I thought was weird. Of course, Emmeline's test was lost, but we figured she was negative, too, since she had no symptoms really. Not sure if we all had it in the past or what, but that's that.

The kids went back to school today. We were all going a bit crazy staying cooped up in the house. The school is getting a huge wave of cases, so hopefully they don't catch it again.

I just want it to be over.

Feeling Like Winter

    We're into December. What a quick year. A week ago we came back from our Thanksgiving trip to Estes Park. Here's the breakdown:

    We left mid-morning on Sunday after we packed all the stuff in the car and dropped Libby off at the kennel. Things seemed to go smoothly. The drive was fine. It was like 10 hours or something and we made a few stops. Not too many, though, which was good. We got in at like 7pm, which was way faster than I was expecting. For some reason I was expecting for us to get in at like 10pm or something. We stayed at a hotel near Chris' house right at the I-25 exit. It was fine. The next day we hung out mostly at the house except for a bit where we went to the nearby park. The kids had fun. 

    The next morning, we left a bit earlier than I had wanted to head up to Estes Park to get checked in. We got to Estes park at like, I dunno, 10am maybe? I can't remember, but we had A LOT of time to kill. Didn't know at the time of check in, but we wouldn't end up getting into our room until like 5pm. We had gone into town to kill time and shortly after, everyone except the McGuires came up and we ate lunch, sort of, at Penelope's. After some strolling, we ended back up at the YMCA at like 1:30 or 2 and then hung out there playing in the gym for a couple of hours. The McGuires came up and then most headed to the check in building to wait for our rooms to get ready.

    After getting our rooms and picking them for who stays where, there was a little debacle with some folks playing in the gym without masks. The rest of the night went all right. The cabins were close, but not next to each other. They were separated by one other cabin, which wasn't bad. It was like a less than 1-minute walk to and from the cabins. I also set up the wifi monitor when I got there, but good thing I brought my laptop to share internet with or it wouldn't have worked too well. The internet wasn't the strongest so there were some connection issues in the beginning, but for the rest of the time, it worked well.

    Overall, it was a fun time, although, a bit too stressful for me, especially with all the kids there together the entire time. They got frustrated a few times, especially Emmeline since the boys did whatever. The kids always wanted to go to the gym, which I went like 3 times. It seemed as though there was a lot of prep and cooking for dinners and such. I think everything should be bought if it happens again. Too much stress with having enough ingredients at the right cabins and so forth. The biggest issue was time and the kids being bored a lot of the times. Thankfully, the cabins had an upstairs and downstairs, so they were downstairs most of the time. The evenings were nice and relaxing. The fireplace was gas, so there was no need to buy any wood and/or try and get the fire going every night.

    It didn't snow this time, at least, not like the last time we were there when there was a blizzard for a day, but there was a little dusting after the first night, then it was all gone. That's fine, though. We drove more than I thought and the area our cabins were at was high up on the hills of the YMCA, so snow would have made it super hard to get around. We saw some wildlife, although I don't think we saw any elk. Turkeys were around a lot this time and the trees that they roosted on every night was right off the back deck of one of our cabins, so that was cool, I guess. 

    Now that we're back and settled in and the weather is getting colder - this week is very cold, but the prior week was super hot, it's starting to feel "Christmas-y" in a way. I did put up the Christmas lights, but there's a couple sections along the fence that has the lights out and I spent some time trying to fix it, but I gave up. I don't care that much to try and fix it. Maybe when we take it down. Was just way too high to keep changing light bulbs. 

    I asked my Mom if she wanted to come here for  New Year's and she said she doesn't think she can travel anymore. Whatever. She still hasn't gotten her vaccine, either. The kids actually just got their 2nd shot this past weekend. That's a relief. Emmeline was scared each time, but she did it without any screaming, which is a big step forward. I also got my booster shot a couple of weeks ago as well. No symptoms really.

    Currently, I have/am getting over some kind of cold. Been coughing and my throat's been mucusy a bit. Laura thinks it's covid. Last week, I did A LOT of leaf baggin and leaf blowing, so I'm kind of blaming it on that. It was warm and I remember one particular day my allergies were really bad. I'm hoping that was just it. 

     Lastly, we spontaneously ordered a Peloton after a long time of Ellen trying to get Laura and Kelly one. It was expeeeeensive! They're coming Thursday to install it and I'm nervous about that because they need to come in and set it up themselves. I just don't like people coming into the house.

    That's it. Next update around Christmas time - just a few weeks away!

Fall Update

Considering that the kids are in school now, it seems that I should have more time to update this blog. Guess not. Here are the summaries for the months prior, if I can even remember them correctly:

April/May:

Honestly, I don't remember much from these months. I did get my 2nd vaccine shot in March like I mentioned. The kids were back in school for the 2nd half of the semester, if I remember right, and things were sort of wrapping up in terms of school. Nothing too out of the ordinary. We hadn't taken any big trips because of the pandemic, either. I think I was dreading Summer, I'm sure.

June/July:

I think it was close to the same Summer as when the pandemic started. Things were starting too look better and then the delta variant and the lack of vaccinations made the situation get worse. As such, we didn't go out much again. It's starting to get REALLY old. I think trips to Tulsa were the only things going on this Summer, unfortunately. 

August/September:

I guess I'm just clumping the months together now. School had started and both kids got the teachers that they wanted. I started helping more and more as the tech volunteer at school and helped with basically starting from scratch our wifi and network because the previous people forgot passwords, etc. It was around this time that I started stressing about Justine's wedding that was coming up in late October. It all had to do with the vaccination status of people because 1) Texas is horrible for that and 2) my family doesn't seem to want to get the vaccine, especially my Mom...don't ask why.

October:

We just returned from the wedding a couple of days ago and things went all right. We had a rehearsal dinner since Emmeline and Connor were in the wedding and I'm sure that was stressful for Laura since we were in a room in a brewery restaurant and there were a bunch of people there whom we didn't know the status of their shots. I was a bit nervous, but we're vaccinated at least and the kids were at the end of the table with their masks on, so. The fun part was that Ken and his family were able to come out for the wedding and that was the first time Laura and I and the kids saw Noah, who's the same age as Connor. They were fun to talk to and the kids played at the house/farm the entire time. 

After being there, I want to get land even more now. Maybe not 24 acres like them, but 5-10 would be a nice size, I think.

Anyway, that's really all that's happened because of this pandemic. Oh, I guess I haven't written anything at all about the Gamestop stock debacle. Well, it's still going on. Basically, the stock is shorted by hedge funds by magnitudes of which they cannot get out of. In a non-corrupt world, the stock should have squeezed to unimaginable prices and that's what I'm banking on to sell my shares at and hoping to retire Laura and stuff. This may sound like a dream, but from everything I've been reading since March, basically, it's a reality. The thing is, of course the hedge funds and government were all in it together, so they're dragging it out and colluding with each other to either make this not happen or find another way out. The corruption is crazy. I've probably learned more in the last several months about how the stock market REALLY works then any other time or via any other reading. This stems all the way from the 2008 crash and they're still just doing the same thing and the losers are the retail investors. I really hope that it squeezes and ends soon, but who knows the how far the corruption can extend.

Next month for Thanksgiving, we're heading to Estes Park again for a few days. We're going to see Chris and Alicia for a day or so before heading up there. I can't believe it's already November/Thanksgiving of 2021. Hopefully, it snows at least one day while we're up there. Last year it was pretty cool to be in a blizzard for about a day before it all melted away. A little bit of the best of both worlds, I guess.

Anyway, I'll be back whenever the next time, is.

Things Looking Better

 Seems like the gaps between blog posts just keep increasing. I really thought I had written something in December or something, not August of 2020!

Well, let's go through the months, shall we:

September/October:

The coronavirus was going as strong as ever during these months and the kids were doing blended learning. Nothing really happened as we stayed home most of the time. No one got sick as far as I can remember. I really can't remember that far back. I'm sure we had a couple of family gatherings wearing masks and staying outside, though. I think they did go out during Halloween, but for a short time. For the first time in a long time, we just left a bowl out for people coming by. I don't think anyone took more than their share. 

Oh, almost forgot. There was a huge ice storm (record breaking, I think) that came through over a few days and man, was it something. It wasn't like the ones in the past where it iced up the trees for a day or two and have it melt the next day. This was longer than normal, so the amount of ice was crazy. I would say that 25% of all of our tree branches broke and was on the ground. Well, at lease the back yard trees. The front did better. It was like a tornado went through the back yard. We cut and cleaned up the back yard for days afterwards and piled it up on the side. I kept a lot of the usable branches to make firewood as well as collapsible castles with. It was super cold during it as well and as with most ice storms that pass through here, the power goes out when it does. And we lost power for 2-3 days, I can't remember exactly. The house hovered around 50 degrees for those days and it was cold. We did have the fireplace on a lot, but it really doesn't heat the house, just the immediate area. I set up a "hot house" with some pvc pipes and blankets which helped a little, but not much. Everything in the fridge was ruined of course. I think it was right after a grocery run, too. It really shows how much we are reliant on electricity day to day and we don't realize it until it's gone. We survived it, though. The power finally came back on and when it did, it was like, whoa, wait, the lights are on! Thankfully, though, while the power was out, the gas wasn't, so that meant our hot water heater worked fine throughout it all. I still can't figure out why, because I always thought that while the gas doesn't go out, the water heater needed electricity in some way to start and stop the warming of the water. I guess ours doesn't. 

The Lemons lost power for longer, I believe almost a week longer, so they came over for a couple of days to "be normal," somewhat. I think the kids did go back to school the following Monday, too...or maybe they didn't until later that week. I can't remember. Anyway, it was during this time that the idea of having a generator came back to the front of my to-do list. I've always wanted one, but the storage, maintenance, cost, etc. wasn't worth it. Like, how many times a year do we lose power? And for how long? I think I can remember a couple of times we've lost power over the last few years and it was only for a few hours at most, except this ice storm. Anyway, the Lemons were using a neighbors generator a bit during it and I thought, well, I think this might be the next big thing to purchase. Ones that produce big power is big and expensive, but a small one isn't too bad, at around $400. It would at least power one of our fridges, if not both if we do it right and some lights + electronics. And even the electric heater so we have some kind of heat if it happens in the winter. The bigger one is about $750, I believe. There are more powerful models, but those don't provide clean power, which I would want, although in an emergency, it might not matter as much. They are much louder, relatively, as well. There's a lot of pros and cons. I would hate to lose power during the hot summer months and a small generator wouldn't power the A/C, which would sort of defeat the purpose. I need to research a bit more. Anyway, perhaps this was a foreshadowing of more cold days ahead in 2021...

November:

This month was all about the election, for sure. It was a super tight race. It was probably the first time I actually paid attention to all that was happening, mostly through CNN. Connor was super into it, too, as I pretty much had the votes tally on my other monitor the entire time. After the election was "over," it dragged on for a couple of weeks afterwards due to all the recounts they (Trump) requested, to no avail. I kept up on the news probably until early January, before I dialed it back on keeping tabs on it. I was doing it mostly to see what would happen to Trump, but of course, nothing has happened so far. I think we had Thanksgiving at Laura's parents' house...yeah, I think we did. I really can't remember far back anymore! Ah, yes, I remember now. We quarantined for 2 weeks prior to it. Ellen and Matt came as well. They were all nervous, but everything turned out fine. 

December:

Probably the strangest year to have Christmas. I put up the Christmas lights on the house probably the week after Thanksgiving when the weather was just right. Everything went up easily. We put more lights up this year along the north fence. Connor likes to help, but really just to climb up onto the roof. Nothing out of the ordinary as far as December. We quarantined for 2 weeks again for Christmas and then we had our usual New Years party. I think we had it before the new year this year due to timing, but I can't remember, again.

January:

Hm, 2 months ago and I'm having trouble remembering if anything exciting happened. Well, I had a lot of appointments lined up for this month. Oh, I had a doctor's appointment in December because I wasn't feeling normal and my back was hurting me since the ice storm in October. I thought something was really wrong, so I decided to head in. He started me on physical therapy in mid-January and also had a physiatrist appointment scheduled, which got moved to Feb. I had a dermatologist appointment on the 27th I think at which I removed the mole that I was concerned about near my eye. It turned out to be a regular mole via a biopsy, but glad that it's gone now. Nothing else, really. Laid back birthday and all.

Februrary:

Another month of not much going on. Laura's birthday went good. Some cold spells here and there. This is around the time I was getting into the stock market with the big Gamestop fiasco going on. I tried to buy some Gamestop, chickened out. Bought some AMC thinking it was going to do the same thing. It didn't and lost $160 or so (out of the $250 I was using). Sold it surprisingly when it randomly came back up at a price I had set at but forgot about. Still at a loss, but was down $80. Then I bought 1 share of Gamestop when it was re-doing what it did back in January. I'm actually break even now from where I was. $10 profit, even. I bought at $100, sold at $188. Then in the next 2 days, it went even higher to like $350, but I had already sold it. Darn. I couldn't resist and bought back 1 share at $264 again and that's where I am today. They're saying in the next week or so, it's going to sky rocket. We'll see about that. All I really want to do is to make my $250 back and then have some play money leftover to play with the market slowly and who knows, maybe make that into a lot of money, ha.

March:

This weekend, we are set to head to Beaver's Bend State Park for Connor's birthday gift early, since it's going to be spring break. They have gone back to school full time since this week after I kept thinking it's probably okay now and they should be able to experience finishing off the year semi-normal. 

Oh, and another big news. Laura had signed me up for Covid shots in February and I did get an e-mail saying I was eligible for phase 2, even though I personally think I wasn't. Anyway, I got my first shot a few weeks ago and my 2nd shot is next Friday. So, that's great news.

I think that's it for now. Let's hope things keep staying positive into the summer. More stimulus checks coming as well!

School Underway

 Well, this was a Summer to remember. The coronavirus pandemic was as high as ever this Summer, leaving us at home for most of it. Towards the ends, however, we did start to at least head to a park during the morning to get out of the house. Still, if we ever got to the park and we saw even one other person playing, we would go find another. I'm sure the kids were super bored.

School started last week. There are lots of precautions and stuff being done, but we still chose the route of blended learning, which is 2 days at school physically and 3 days at-home learning. The at-home learning I think will be basically what we did in the Spring, but we'll see. They're wearing masks all the time except for outside play and eating, but you never know when someone's going to get the virus.

Now that I will have at least a couple of days at home while they're in school, I need to be productive. I literally don't know what I should do or be doing aside from cleaning the house a little and stuff. 

I do want to start my cryptid podcast for kids, but I don't know where to begin. Or, rather, am procrastinating on beginning. I imagine I will start with the most popular cryptids like bigfoot and nessie, but then there's the issue of what kind of information to include, how long to make each episode, how "tone" or energy the show will have (energetic and upbeat or more mellow and "scary"), and stuff like that. I know that podcasts are a lot of work, but I am hopeful that if I ever get this going, I think it will be popular because there's really nothing about cryptids for kids. Sure, there are a couple, but they seem quickly made and often talk about other paranormal stuff. There are thousands of cryptids out there and I want to cover them all, eventually. No one's probably going to buy podcasts, but there's a thing called Patreon where users can support content creators with a monthly donation and stuff. I think with enough quality content, people wouldn't mind paying a couple of bucks a month for their kids to listen to a couple of podcasts per week. Oh, that's the other thing. Frequency. Once a week seems too low for me, especially if it was a short segment, but any more than that and that might get overwhelming on research and stuff. I don't know. Lots of stuff to work out. 

Right now, we're kind of taking school as it happens. After the initial 9-week commitment, depending on how the pandemic is progressing, we may continue it or put them back in school full-time...

Biggest Update Post

...at least, for 2020, anyway.

So, literally right after my last post, something crazy happened to the entire world that we couldn't have even made up if we wanted to. This new virus, hence forth now known as the coronavirus, started in China and spread rapidly around the world. To this day, there's no vaccine yet and the effects are pretty severe with a pretty high death rate, relatively speaking. To combat the spread, there's been a lockdown of everywhere in the world that gives a hoot. Basically, we're staying home unless you're working in an essential service area, buying groceries, etc. Laura has unfortunately been having to work still, but we are thankful that she still has a job. Many people in the US are out of work because of this. Staying home and not being allowed to congregate means a lot of things. Some of which include school being closed (since spring break), no church, etc.

That's the quick summary of it. How it started for us was during spring break, we had decided to go to Robber's Cave State Park for Connor's birthday present. While we were there, the news started breaking out and saying that this is something we need to take seriously. Of course, our stupid president didn't heed the warning as early as he could nor take any action even after. Anyway, in the middle of vacationing, it sort of hit us that we needed to prepare for this upcoming pandemic. I panic ordered some things from Amazon and we went to the grocery store near the state park to get some things before things got out of hand and everything was out of stock. We got a lot of stuff at the grocery store, but slowly, in the coming weeks, everything was going out of stock like crazy. People were starting to hoard paper products, with toilet paper being the notorious victim. Anyway, everyone's been stocking up and stuff. Things seemed to have plateaued for now, but because of it, it seems like states are beginning to "open up" again and I'm just waiting for the 2nd wave to come. We've pretty much been at home since spring break, going out for things like dropping off mail at the post office and dropping off things at friends and family/church. Laura has been picking up groceries for us on her way home from work and we've been using Walmart grocery and Instacart and stuff a lot. I don't know how long this is going to continue, but that's the life at the moment. My Mom seems to be doing fine given the circumstances, but I'm sure she's getting bored as well.

This week is the last week of school for the kids and they haven't gotten to go back at all. They've been using video software to do class at home. It's not the same, but it's something. Things are fore sure different right now. I don't know how summer is going to turn out, but we'll see. Graphs and predictions say that the low point of the curve should be around July, so let's hope that's correct.

Other than that, things have been harder around here since we just have to stay in. The kids seem to be doing good despite the rules. We've been playing a lot of the Switch lately as well. We got Animal Crossing and they've enjoyed that. The past 3 days, Laura's parent's have taken the kids to Tulsa to give us a break, so that's great. They're coming back home tomorrow.

Well, that's really all there is to say. It just sucks now and there's nothing we can do except to stay at home and hope the situation gets better.

Holy Moly - 4 months?!

Talk about a break!

I honestly thought that I had written something sometime in December, but I guess I was off on that mark. Time has certainly flown by and a lot has happened since October, so let's get to it, shall we.

First off, the situation with my Mom. Her memory is still failing and she is starting to forget more and more things that are recent. I can't tell if it's the same rate or faster, but it seems like it's getting noticeably worse. The apartments that she was on the wait list for in Oklahoma I guess called her a couple of months back saying a 2nd floor unit had opened up. She messaged me asking to call them. I panicked because I did not want her moving here so quickly and we certainly weren't ready for it yet. This was in December, I believe, right before the Christmas hoopla...or, was it before Thanksgiving? I can't remember. Anyway, Laura literally saved the day because she called, talked to them, and then convinced my Mom that she should wait for a ground level unit to open up because the risk of her falling down the stairs or something was high due to the weather and icy conditions here sometimes. For now, we're in the clear...although I'm sure the wait time is decreasing rapidly. A couple of months ago, she also crashed into the gate opening machine at the apartments. I'm really not sure how she managed to do that because you pull up to it pretty straight forward. I could maybe understand if it was during a turn, but no. Anyway, the apartments said she didn't have to worry about fixing the machine or paying for it. The car repair, however, even though it was the front left fender area, was like $2000. Insurance apparently paid for roughly half and she paid the other. She thought about selling the car for a while but I said she should keep it in case of an emergency but that she should limit the use of the car when she could. She really shouldn't be driving. So, apart from the memory situation and her always saying she doesn't feel good and doesn't have strength, that's where we are. We just visited her this past weekend on a surprise Dallas trip for the kids.

Back to the Fall. I think the next big trip we had was in November for Thanksgiving. During the break, we drove out to Colorado/Estes Park to spend a few days there at the YMCA cabins over the holiday. Actually, I think it was Lucy's baptism, so we sort of tacked on the Estes Park part to make it a vacation. Everyone was there, including Uncle Kenny. So, we got there on Saturday or something and spend a couple of days with the McGuires. Then we left for Estes Park after the weekend. The cool part was that starting the night we got there, it literally blizzarded for a day straight and there was about 18" of snow or something like that. The highlight of day one was that we all went out to eat I think that night and the snow started while we ate. The problem was that there is a huge hill you needed to climb to get into the YMCA grounds. People were already having issues going up the hill, so getting back to the cabin as soon as possible was priority. We had split up into 3 cars, me and my kids, Ryan and his kids, and then the rest of the adults in another car. Ryan got to the entrance first as I had to pick up some things at the market before we went home. He apparently had trouble going up the hill, so I saw him at the base of the hill. I pull up and talk to him. The snow plow truck was going up at this moment, so he asked if I wanted to try and I said sure. By luck or skill, I was able to get up without any issues, but my troubles weren't over. By this time, the snow was really picking up and literally minute by minute, the chances of cars being able to go up the hill were getting lower and lower. I kept going back to our cabin, but then I got lost trying to find the right route to the cabin. I couldn't remember which turns were what. It was worse because by this time, the roads were covered and I couldn't really see the road. I didn't want to get stuck in the ditch, either. At the first fork, I had stupidly turned left, which in hindsight was the wrong turn, obviously. After nearly getting stuck in the bend after the left turn, I managed to find my way way behind our cabin. It sucked that we could see our cabin, but I couldn't get to it. After looking at the map afterwards, it turns out I wouldn't have been able to anyway. So, I turn around and slowly make my way, guessing on some turns. The satellite map did not prove to be helpful. Eventually, though, we finally found our way back to the main roads of the YMCA and then I tried again, this time turning right at the fork. I was then able to get home. Now, this was about 15-20 minutes of being lost in such a small space. During this time, Ryan was able to get up the hill and get home before us. Oh well. It was funny because during the time I was trying to figure out the road, I had told the kids jokingly to "pray for us," after which they started muttering the our father line from church. Then I overheard Connor asking God to forgive his sins or something ridiculous and I started laughing. So, that's 2 of the 3 cars.

The last group of adults which was everyone else, got to the hill quite a bit later after doing some shopping. By now, the snow was still coming down harder than before and the road probably got more packed and icy than when Ryan and I went up. They tried a few times, even after a snow plow, and they were unable to get up the hill. They ended up parking the car at the entrance and getting a ride from the ranger. Ryan and I celebrated our successful climb after hearing from them. The rest of the trip was good. The snow let up the next afternoon, the kids got to play in the snow, and we did some activities at the YMCA, even though the workers there were pretty incompetent. However, Laura's Mom and Uncle actually fell and ended up getting hurt halfway into the trip, so they were resting after that. The cabin situation was okay. We and the Lemons were in a bigger cabin and the rest were down the street, actually in the same cabin that Laura and I stayed at with the kids a couple of years back. That did mean they had to walk to our cabin each night to hang out with us, however.

The day we left, we met up with Chris and Alicia in Boulder for breakfast and we were then headed to Wichita, Kansas to stay the night before going home the next day. All and all, it was a fun trip, minus some of the hiccups.

Oh, for Thanksgiving dinner, we did eat at the Stanley Hotel, which was cool. That was my first time there. Because of the storm, Ellen and Matt, who were supposed to fly out for a trip, couldn't get out of the airport, so they ended up staying and actually coming up to meet us and eat with us at the Stanley. That was a good surprise extra visit for the everyone.

Fast forward to Christmastime. All the presents were bought and ready and we had already has our Christmas with the Lemons and all that. We did our yearly carriage ride thing in the neighborhood, which was a little crazy this year. The horse this year was really nervous or something, so at one point, some cars I think scared it and it went out of control, moving the carriage crazily. At one point, we were waiting to get on, pretty close to the carriage, when that happened and I had to basically grab Emmeline's coated to tug her back because the carriage wheels literally would have run her over. Laura was actually the only person to have gotten on the carriage when that happened, so it was just her sitting when the horse was going crazy. It was sort of funny after the fact. We did end up riding it shortly after, but now I'm wary of doing that again.

The next Debbie Downer moment was that right before we were to go to Tulsa, everyone, and I mean everyone, got some degree of the flu that was going around school at the time. First, it was Emmeline, then Laura, then me, and of course, lastly, Connor. This made it so we were unable to head down the Tulsa this year for Christmas because the McGuires were there with Lucy, so we didn't want to risk them her and them getting sick. Laura and Emmeline ended up going down for the day I think on Christmas day, but Connor and I stayed home. Sort of sucked because we didn't get to see the McGuires and all that, but, oh well. Everyone had recovered by that weekend for our New Year's celebration. Laura was really bummed about not being able to go, but what could we do? At least she got to see them a little bit.

The last thing I wanted to write about is this enrichment cluster program that St. Eugene is having this semester. It's a student-led course about different topics sort of like an elective. They were asking volunteers to facilitate these clusters, so I volunteered to teach computer building. Turns out I'm the only non-teacher to be doing this, so I'm getting pretty nervous about it. It starts next week and I'm anxious to know how many, if any, students chose my cluster. Since the news, I've been slowly amassing a crapload of computers and spare parts, some from the tech lab at school that they didn't need to parts I've had since I'd been building computers. I have a big pile right now behind Laura's desk. I think I went overboard with it. Anyway, I'm nervous about it and I know the days leading up to next Friday are going to feel like an eternity. I chose to limit it to 4th-8th graders, leaving the 2nd and 3rd graders out. I felt they were too young to building computers. I'm most nervous about the students behaviors and attitudes. However, at least since they had to choose their top 4 cluster topics, they are attending clusters they are somewhat interested in. I hope that it enough to keep them behaved. I'm still fleshing out how I'm going to run this cluster, but hopefully things with fall into place after the first day.

Well, that's the catch-up for the last 4 months. I actually wrote a lot. My fingers hurt now. Time to get ready to pick up the kids.

Fall

Finally, the weather is starting to get cool...cold even. I've had to wear my fleece jacket a few times now. I don't know why but I think this every year - the transition into fall and through to winter is my favorite part of the year. I don't know if it's because the heat is finally over or that Laura and pretty much the entire retail market starts to get ready for the holiday season, but it gives me a good feeling. A couple of months have passed since my last blog, so let's see what we missed.

Connor has NOT been practicing his 10 minutes/day at all. Not even close. He has been practicing more than last year, but that's not saying much. It seems like his stuff is starting to get tougher, as in playing with both hands. He says he's doing fine, but we'll see when recitals and tests start to come. He did get his medal from the last test he took in the spring. He was proud of it.

Emmeline has been doing well at school. She's gotten a lot of trays for lunch and seems to enjoy it. She's the only one that goes half-days all week and she was missing music because of that. For now, she's going to try going full days Tue/Fri to be able to participate in music, but we're thinking that after winter break, she might go full days all day. We'll see about that. I worry about her doing the school's "quiet time." She will not be quiet. The other thing she's been struggling with is coming out of her room every single day before the clock is green. It's been something like 10 days in a row now she just comes into our room and wakes us up for stupid reasons. I don't understand why she keeps coming out. It's getting old. I wish we could close our door, but Laura doesn't want to.

Aside from that, nothing's really changed from the normal routine.

The big thing that's been happening the last month is drama with my Mom. In the short time she's been there, she's just been increasingly difficult to deal with, according to Justine and company. So, the stress and clashing just got higher and higher until it reached a point a few weeks ago where they were all fighting. Each had their own points, but the main cause I'm assuming is something with my Mom's health being the catalyst. Anyway, after all was said and done and after many texts from my Mom to me, we decided to send an e-mail to my side of the family inquiring about how my Mom was doing and all that. Steve wrote back a lengthy e-mail outlining the issues they were having. After the conversation, one that Ken was in on as well, we decided that the best course of action would be for my Mom to live in a senior apartment. We had already put her on a waiting list here, but Steve and Reiko looked around a few places near where they live and found a place, albeit a bit expensive. They found it within a week and moved in after submitting an application after looking at the place. So, a couple of weeks ago, my Mom moved into that apartment. She seems to be doing ok for now. I'm slated to pick her up in 10 days for her to spend some time here. I already know that it's not going to go well. Her memory is failing more and more each time she's here and it's pretty noticeable. She's not eating well in Texas and although it's better here, she just doesn't keep it up.

When we go to drop her off, we are going to surprise the kids with a medieval times experience. I still remember when Laura and I took TJ to medieval times as a surprise for his birthday. I had more fun than I expected. It was my first time, too. I don't think we're going to do the birthday package, although, I just realized that it would be pretty close to Emmeline's birthday. Now that I think about it, maybe we should for the photo. At any rate, I think it'll be fun, though expensive. It would be about the same price as the Disney On Ice that we went to.

Laura took the kids to Tulsa for a couple of days. I should just rest up. Like, sleep until they get back. But, I know I'll end up staying up late and be even more tired. I really need to stop doing that. Lately, I've been playing too much Destiny 2, a video game on the computer. A new expansion came out and a lot of the new stuff is free is why. I can't justify buying the expansion part of the game. Dunno. I really need to find a better use of my time when the kids are in school. I've thought about doing a flipping thing with ebay and stuff, but I just don't have the motivation for some reason.

Anyway, it's late, and I should go to sleep.

Thanks, Laura, for taking them. I promise I will take them both somewhere for some overnight trip closeby so you can have some time at home! Love you!

I'm Still Here

I didn't realize that it's been so long since my last update. I know a few times I've told myself I need to the the 2018 yearly summary, but I never even got to do that. So, where do we begin.

The end of last year was/is a blur. We did go out to Silver Dollar City for...I don't remember what occasion - maybe it was Thanksgiving? Anyway, we went there and it was SUPER cold. There were Christmas lights up in the amusement park so that was pretty cool, but man, it was cold and raining for much of the time we were there. The kids did great, though, all things considered. I used a lot of hand warmers, too. I think we also lumped the Polar Express event in together with that because it was at the station near Silver Dollar City. Wasn't as good as the Stillwater one, but it was fun for them.

Christmas, I really don't remember at all. Opened some presents as usual and the kids were restless the entire time. We had our New Years party here and that was about it.

Ohhh, so, a couple of days before Christmas and just before we headed out to Tulsa for the holidays, I got in a car crash. Yup. I wasn't paying attention and hit the car in front of me. To my defense, the car was parked in an awkward place that I wasn't expecting because they were letting another car turn left across traffic where they aren't allowed to turn anyway...but, whatever. Bottom line, I wasn't looking, hit the car in front and that car hit a little of the car it was letting turn. I was in the Santa Fe with Emmeline on my way to pick up Connor. I quickly called Kelly to pick up Connor and I started talking with the guy I hit. Luckily, they were super nice old folks. Couldn't have lucked out more. I called 911 to report the crash and a AAA guy randomly stopped to ask if we needed help. Since we really didn't, we moved the car to the parking lot we were next to and waited for the cops. I called again since they were taking a while and they said they didn't need to come if we all agreed that we didn't need them. Since we did, we all exchanged our information and went on about the day. The car I hit, the trunk was the only thing damaged. The car in front of them, I think they just had a little ding or something. I didn't see, really. However, our car was another story. I didn't even hit the car at high speed, probably under 30 or 25. The airbag didn't even deploy, which I thought was strange. Anyway, I called our insurance and a tow truck came to get the car to drop off at the service center after the weekend. This was literally 2-3 days before Christmas, I can't remember exactly. Anyway, later that day or the next day, I called to make sure it got to the right repair center for the estimate. I chose one right near our house. After the holidays, I called to check in and they said they're looking at it. We got a rental for the time being. After about a week, they had an estimate that was pretty much the price of the car, maybe a bit under. We were pretty sure insurance would total it. After another week or so, they did just that and we got a check for about $6800.

About a week later, we decided to get a van and put that towards it. It sucks because our initial plan was to trade in Laura's car for a van and Laura would start driving the Santa Fe. I still feel bad about that. So, now we have a van that is coming in handy for a bunch of stuff.

The rest of the school year went fine. During Spring Break, we took a trip out to Moab with Chris and Alicia. That was fun. We went to Canyonlands and Arches National Park. Our Airbnb was right near it, and it all worked out. The weather was nice and had a good time. We drove, of course, and on the way to Moab, we, just the Yams, stopped at the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado. It was super cold when we went the night we got there, but we went again the next day and it was much better. We stayed at the lodge right on the park. It's definitely a place to spend more time, however. On the way out, I wanted to stop by at this weird, UFO place right near the park. It was interesting, to say the least. Another 6-hour drive later, we were in Moab. We stayed there for a few days and then drove back a different way, more south, stopping at Santa Fe for one night to rest and check out that area. We also went to this place called Meow Wolf which was a pretty cool, and weird, museum of art and stuff. The kids had fun but was overwhelmed after a couple of hours. It was expensive, too, so I don't think we got our money's worth, but whatever. The adults could have spent way more time in there. Cool place, though.

Summer then began after school and, like the previous Summers, I was getting overwhelmed with them being bored and stuff. We didn't really plan any vacations this Summer because of the Spring Break trip as well as a Colorado Thanksgiving trip that's coming up in November later this year. Well, school started this past Monday and both are getting into the swing of things. They both like their teacher, so that's good.

It's been super hot the last month or so, so that put a damper on playing outside, too. They took swimming for most of the Summer and both did pretty good. They were super small classes, especially near the end, so that was good.

The other big project that we started I don't even know when, was converting our laundry into a mudroom/laundry room combo. We had a huge cabinet countertop that took up a lot of the space and it was something that we weren't utilizing very well anyway. We went ahead and removed that countertop and moved it to the garage. I still can't believe that we got it out of the laundry room, through the door to the garage, and fit it where we wanted it to fit. We then brainstormed how we wanted the bench in the mudroom to look and fit and, over the next few months, slowly built it up. We finally JUST finished pretty much the day before school started. We moved our old shoe rack location into the mudroom and it looks so much better in the house. No more shoe clutter and they kids can now just come in the house and take off their shoes right there. It was big project and while it didn't come out perfectly as I wanted in terms of everything fitting nice and flush, at right angles, etc., it came out better than I thought. There's a few more touch ups to do and the baseboard trim and crown moulding, but at least it's 95% done and usable.

Connor started piano again this year next week and this time he's promised to practice at least 10 minutes every day...we'll see how that goes. I know he won't. I just know it. Emmeline is doing ballet again but also tap, back to back, so Tuesdays are going to be a busy day. Other than that, I have some time to do stuff in the morning after Emmeline goes to school. I need to figure out what I want to fill the time with. I really want to get a side project going for some money to save up for our proposed trip to Japan in a few years. We really want to go business class as well, so we have been thinking of ways to use points and stuff from credit card promos. We're confident we can do it.

Well, it's almost time to get Connor.

What Am I Doing?

Here we are again. Laura took the kids to Tulsa, Woolaroc, and Kiddy Park this weekend to give me a break for all the upcoming breaks the kids are going to have.

So, this always happens. I plan on doing some productive things when Laura and the kids are gone and this weekend I was going to start researching/setting up an online shop or something to make some money on the side, perhaps FINALLY order the cranes for making crane trees, but here I am, getting absolutely nothing done. Yesterday, I had to do a media meeting for the church and it turned out awful, in my eyes. Everyone else thought it was helpful and stuff, but I barely got through, maybe, like 10% of what I was originally was going to cover. Then time  ran out and everyone started to leave. I know there are going to be all these questions later on that I WOULD have covered, but I guess it's partly my fault for underestimating how much hand-holding these people needed. I thought it would be a good idea for them to bring their laptops and follow along, but man, some, actually, most of them couldn't even log on to the editing page. Severely underestimated. I began to think that much smaller groups or even one-on-one training will probably be the way to go and, ironically, the least effort. Then I was thinking to myself, man, this is like a job for a full-time staff at the church, not a handful of people do this on their spare time.

Anyway, because of that, I didn't do anything else last night. I woke up this morning and just watched YouTube videos most of the day. I cut the bottom section of the fence gate a little more because it keeps leaning down for some reason and scraping the path, but I sort of free-handed it, so it's sort of jagged. Then Kip pooped again while I was out getting lunch, then I gave him a peanut butter jar and he threw that up a little while after. Then the kitchen faucet started pouring water out really slowly, so I cleaned out the nozzle, but now I'm wondering why it was covered in small rubber pieces like last time. Sigh.

The best thing we did in the last month was our trip to Nova Scotia. Lauren planned out a great trip for us and it turned out really well. We were expecting rainy weather, but aside from one day that was really windy and rainy, the rest were actually pretty good that it was overcast so we weren't too hot from all the hikes we did. The first couple of days it was really sunny, then it started to cloud up. Of course, I didn't like the fact that 2 entire days were devoted to travelling in the airports and customs and all that stupid stuff, but what can you do. It was literally leaving OKC 5am in the morning to getting in to our destination airport at 6pm at night. It was crazy. And the weird thing is that we didn't have much layover time at each of the 2 other airports either. Our checked in luggage didn't make to Nova Scotia, but it was delivered the next morning. It wasn't a big deal, but it was a small hassle for sure. But, like I said, it was a great trip and I was thinking today, actually, that it was a great time with just Laura without the kids, hiking along the coast and the forests, etc. We don't do that often enough, I think. It really puts everything in perspective that the kids are ALWAYS with us usually whenever we try to do anything, so it's hard to imagine life without them. At one point, we stopped in the middle of the forest hike and just listened to COMPLETE silence, minus the rustle of the leaves every once and a while. It was also great that we didn't really see any other people on most of our hikes and stuff. I dunno if we hit it at the right time or there were other things going on in the big city, Halifax, but, I guess it could have just been that there aren't that many people living there, either. I dunno. It was a good break for us and we had a lot of laughs. The stressful thing, coincidentally, was that during the entire week we were going, literally a couple of days after we left, Connor got a fever and a weird rash/hives all over him the entire week. We think that because of us leaving, I think he was bringing it up on himself, somehow. I mean, nothing like this has happened ever before. And then, magically, the day or two after we came back, he's all better...come on! Whatever.

So, we're now back in our grind. Laura is super busy at work because of some certification coming up in a couple of weeks. We sort of also talked with Chris and Alicia about a trip we're going to do next spring break to Moab. We'll see how that goes. I really think before that trip at least, we will finally need to get a van. We just need more room and some more features in the car. That'll be a pretty big purchase. The price range for what we're sort of looking at is like $25,000, and that's for a used, 50k-ish mile, 2015-2016 Honda Odyssey. We actually drove a Toyota Highlander during our Nova Scotia trip and they were way too small. The 3rd row was like, basically not a row and unless you folded that down, the cargo area was like 1/2 the space we have now in our Santa Fe. That was one of the cars that Laura originally like when we got the Santa Fe, but I don't think that would have worked for us. I still think the Honda Pilot is in the running, but it's probably going to be an Odyssey. It's roomy, has the stuff we need and doesn't look *totally* like a van...sort of. It's kind of a cross between a van and an SUV.

Well, I'm tired for some reason even though I did nothing. It feels like a Saturday, so I'm a little thrown off that it's Friday because the kids had fall break this week, sort of. Emmeline did anyway. Connor just had 1 day off. So, tomorrow I will try and do something productive. Maybe...

September

Wow, really. It's already September. Time seems to go faster and faster. Much has happened since the last blog post. Or has it? I'm sitting here in the library parking lot awkwardly using my new bluetooth keyboard with my tablet in my lap. I should just go inside, but, whatever.

The summer went by both fast and slow. It was a struggle to find something to do with the kids everyday and I'm glad that the school routine is back again but bummed out that I didn't really get anything accomplished during the summer. I've just been so unmotivated and tired.

Connor is starting 1st grade and has new teachers, new classrooms, new routines, and new friends. He seems to be enjoying it. Pick up is better and worse than last year. Worse because Emmeline has to sit in the car and wait with me in the pick-up line which, if I don't leave within certain time margins, could get quite long. It's better because I just get to stay in the car. He is still not getting lunch trays at school, but he seems like he might this year without too much coaxing.

Emmeline started preschool a week after Connor. She also has a new teacher, finally someone that's not Ms. Mandy. She's in a new classroom, but has the exact same classmates as last year, save one person that she kinda knows. She likes it, but on the way to school she said she didn't want to go. Same thing Connor used to do and still does sometimes.

So, sadly, that's really it. I'm once again trying to figure out the best use of my time, which is just short enough that I really can't do anything meaningful. I opted to not volunteer at the library this year, partly because the schedule this year seems not compatible with Emmeline's school but mostly because I didn't really enjoy it last year. Maybe next year. We did get the inflatable raft that I've been wanting to get and have taken it out a couple of times, once with the kids and they loved it. Emmeline keeps saying that she wants to go again. I want to take it to Greenleaf when we went a couple of years ago. The lake there would be perfect for this. The electric motor works great and it sure beats paddling.

I better get to the school and wait for Emmeline. I forgot that they walk them from the classroom to the door now, so I don't need to walk in anymore, which is a plus. More posts coming soon...like I always say...

Halfway Through the Year

Oh boy, where do I begin. I'm pretty sure that I had high hopes of doing more blogs this year, but somehow 5+ months went by in the blink of an eye and nothing has happened that I sort of outlined in my one and only blog post of 2018.

Summer break is officially here and I'm already at my limit, so to speak, with the kids on the very first day. I dunno what I need to do, but I need to change my outlook on how to handle this. Every day, I'm just super tired to begin the day and I have no motivation to do anything. The kids are always wanting attention and it's hard to give it to both of them at the same time, when I just want a break, even though I haven't even dealt with them really to be tired of them, if that makes sense.

Laura took the kids to Tulsa this weekend and although I feel very grateful, I feel like I accomplished nothing while I was here. Maybe that's not a bad thing, but I still feel tired. Last night I did go to bed at like 12:30am, then woke up a few times in the morning to let Kip out and stuff, but I finally woke up around 11:30am. They are coming home tomorrow and I'm afraid I'm just going to be my tired self. I dunno.

We did take our trip to Disneyworld last month. It was fun, but it was very tiring and I think a couple of days too long, in my opinion. There was a lot of walking, which I knew would happen, but I think the kids were tired of walking around so much as well. Still, everything went pretty good, all things considered. The kids slept decently in the hotel room and they had fun.

There's a lot of things planned for the Summer for the kids, I feel like. A week at the farm for Connor in the next couple of weeks. Emmeline still doing ballet. I think Connor still has a few t-ball games as well. Then he has piano once a week. Then Emmeline has Camp Haverim at the end of the Summer.

Sometime this Summer I do want to take both kids somewhere, not sure where, but somewhere to give Laura a little break for the weekend. I'm thinking I'm going to try and take them to the crystal digging place up north, but that's a 2-hour drive there and another 2 back, so I dunno if I can do that in 1 day or spend the night somewhere. I have to decide that soon. I need to do it when the weather's not going to be super hot, either, because it's just a big field of salt. I'll probably need to take an umbrella or something.

Anyway, I need to get some rest, I guess.

2018 - A Fresh Start...Sort of

Well, Christmas has come and gone. It was fun with Ellen and Matt here this year, but also hard because of the kids, as predicted. I can't say if it was harder than last year, probably, but there were other problems going on such as the gastro stuff with Connor and other factors that probably made it seem harder. The 3 boys just really cause issues with each other for some reason and then you add in Emmeline who tends to just play by herself because she doesn't want to be involved with all the fighting and teasing the boys do, so she needs an extra person to watch her most of the time. Laura did a lot and I thank her for that. It's just that I feel like I can't help because all Connor and Emmeline want is for "Mommy to help." Oh well.

We watched The Last Jedi, which I enjoyed. 2 more years until the next. 2018 will be a great year for movies, though, after watching the previews. Lots of Marvel movies coming out and stuff. Not that we will be able to watch it in the theaters, but we will probably watch 1 or 2 at least.

To add to all the hubbub, my Mom came the day after we got back to Oklahoma City. We scrambled to clean up the house as much as we could and then after she arrived, Laura had to make all the New Year's celebration stuff. It didn't seem as much work, or stress rather, as the previous years, but everything came out great and the party went well, aside from a few fits that Connor had with the boys. Always the boys.

We have a lot of projects to do this year. Unfortunately, they're projects that require a lot of money. The first big thing is the backyard fencing. They neighbors are redoing their fence, so it's a good time to do it and will allow us to at least split the cost of it. not sure if we want to do an 8-foot fence on the street side but we need to decide that soon. After that is done, I think we want to clear out the back area of the yard and put a big shed in to put all the patio stuff, toys, and perhaps a workshop into. The original plan for a 7x7 might be too small, so I found a 10x7, if it fits, that is only like $100 more than the 7x7. Then, after THAT, I want to make a small, standing fort for the kids right next to the shed. I think there will be enough room for all that. We also want to do the rest of the yard, too, including paving with stones the narrow side yard, mulching all around the big tree where the swing is, and other stuff I'm sure.

Other things I want to accomplish this year include making some money with the storybook idea I have, playing less games that I'm wasting my time with, working on my patience with the kids, helping out in the house more, and waking up with Laura to help her out more.

It's a big task, but I have to start somewhere...I just can't seem to start...

Oh, and don't get me started about the "possible frozen pipe" issue we had a few days ago...ugh. Long story short, I don't think it was a frozen pipe, but I do have to empty the hot water heater and then replace a shut off valve in the kitchen this weekend. Oh, the dishwasher I think is clogged, too...

Christmastime

I'm not sure if that's one word, but I'll leave it like that.

We're back and it's December 1st. We went to Colorado for our Thanksgiving break and we did have fun, but it was very tiring as we drove. We drove to Salina once again on the way the first day and then finished up the rest the next day. It still felt long. We spent a couple days in Denver with Ellen and Matt before they left for Iceland. On Monday, we left for Estes Park. Laura had gotten us a cabin at the YMCA and it turned out to be one of the newer, if not the newest, cabin there. Well, that might now be true, but everything looked new and clean, so it must have been. Anyway, it was a really good cabin with 2 rooms. One had a bed + bunk bed where the kids stayed and we stayed in the other. It was a good setup minus the couple of time Emmeline kept Connor up at bedtime. There was a lot to do there, but we certainly didn't do all of it. The first day we went to a painting station thing and that ended up in Emmeline screaming for some reason. Before we got there, Connor had a huge fit as well because both were just not listening to me at all that first day/night. Plus it was FREEZING because it was the windiest of the 3 days we were there. Well, 2 days. The next day was better and we hiked up into the mountains. It snowed just before and during the hike which was actually nice because the kids loved it. After the short hike because Connor's boot was drenched inside and it was freezing his feet, we went back to the cabin to rest and then to another short hiking area in the afternoon, which was much warmer and no snow. Afterwards, we ate at a mexican restaurant and then had dessert at "Laura's Desserts" in downtown. We saw a herd of elk in the park area downtown and almost got hit by deer running around in the YMCA grounds which made the kids laugh and stuff. That night was probably the best night of the trip as we all had fun. It felt like the holidays because all the lights were up in the town and it was snowy and stuff. After Estes, we went to Chris' house to hang out. We went to Top Golf, which was fun, but very expensive and probably not worth it if you don't have a large group.

For actual Thanksgiving day, we went to my sister's house in Niwot. The kids actually had fun and they played with Justine, who was a trooper hanging out with them the entire time, mostly with Connor. Her boyfriend, who makes dice and lightsabers, was there with them in hand and they played with that a lot. They both had fun I think. The food was good and after hanging out after a bit, we left to head back to Ellen's. The next day we went to Boulder to play at the park with Chris. That night, Laura had gotten us Polar Express tickets in Golden. The kids liked it, but there was a hiccup with seating during the moving train part and Laura got mad about it, but I just said forget about it since they're not going to do anything. The entire experience, I think, was better at the Oklahoma one, because in this one, we started out in a non-moving train to eat cookies and stuff and then we all moved onto the moving train to see the "North Pole" which was actually just a few hundred feet away. The train just kept going in circles until it was time to "make the stop." Anyway, it was fine, we were all tired out, and went home.

The drive back was actually probably better considering the fact we made it in 1 day. We stopped in Colby and then a little past Salina. The kids did great, really, with little fussing. Again, it was a fun but tiring trip.

Now, it's onto Christmas. That's a whole other set of events. Ellen and Matt will be here this year and a couple less folks, but it will be stressful I'm sure. We need to figure something out about leaving the house every day. The problem is that we're just cooped up in there all day every day for a few days and that just makes everyone in a bad mood. The kids aren't ready to just sit and watch TV and listen to stories. We also need to make time to see the new Star Wars movie. I wanted to try it in the Warren theater so we can experience the eating and stuff while watching the movie. We'll see if we can do that. I'm sure it'll be sold out, possibly.

There are a couple of new projects that I want to tackle in the coming year. One is to get on my damn book. I just need to finish the first book draft and I'll be ready to put it on Amazon or something. Once there's interest, I'll start book 2. The second thing is that I want to kind of make kids bedtime story audio books, similar to the Jim Weiss ones Laura and Connor listen to. However, I want to make it about actual places on Earth, so they could "travel" to these places. I won't have gone to any of them, but I'm thinking with some research, I can write in a way that describes the places and the history and explanation of the place. I dunno...I searched for kids bedtime stories and nothing came up, so I figured it might be a good niche to take on. I put a microphone on my Christmas list for that reason. Although, I don't want to be the one narrating. I thought about using a voiceover on Fiverr but perhaps Laura could do it, too. Listening to myself is the weirdest thing for me. I can't stand it. I think there's some research into why that is, but I'm not sure.

Lately, I've just been super tired as well, mostly due to the kids' fits and general attitude about not listening well at all. Maybe it's just me and how I act with them, but it's tiring me out. I know that I should just drop some stuff and let certain little things slide, but when the moment comes, I just can't for some reason. I just have to say something and then at some point, I can't really back out of what I said, which usually leads to escalation and fits. The thing is, I see everything the kids do as something that shouldn't be happening, like using their fingers when eating, not sitting done when eating, fingers in their mouths, etc. I dunno, but I need to change something up for next year, i guess.

Disneyworld is the next big thing, I think, and that's in May. I guess we'll have Connor's birthday, too.

And, oh, look. It's already time to get Emmeline and I literally got nothing done. Sigh.