break for christmas

Haven't had time to play in the last couple days, and only a short time to play in the days before that. Christmas time is upon us and we have been busy cleaning and now my mother-in-law and brother-in-law are here. It will be interesting to see what I can remember come Wednesday. I talked to my Dad yesterday and he was talking about an acoustic guitar that was his Dads that he thought that he might have given it to Deb a long time ago. I think this might be the guitar that I gave to Mike a couple years ago as a joke gift when he was talking about getting a guitar but I can't remember if I did get it to him or if it just ended up getting trashed. I'll have to check with him.

The last few times I played I had a real hard time with my timing and when I went to play a song that didn't start with E it really messed me up. I really have to get into practicing more and for longer periods before I go back to work.

Merry Christmas to all

picking away

how fun and frustrating! it actually sounds like music! I played just 3 notes, E,F, and G, but it was nice to hear a real tune. playing chords is fine but it just sounds like random strumming now. it was interesting to play while looking at and reading sheet music, but it was tricky to keep your fingers in the correct spots even though it was all on the same string. i kept strumming the wrong string or putting my finger on the wrong fret or lose my timing. it was a fun challenge.

change in pace, again

Once again I switched my self-teaching guide. I started off with a book that only taught 3 main chords to start (G, D7, and C), then changed to reading and picking notes. I was only there for a little while when I went to the computer self guide that Mel had found. That one was all about the chords, wanting you to be proficient at all chords, major, minor, 7's, 6's, and everything before going on to notes. I just bought a guide from Walmart that had a CD, and a DVD. This one starts out with notes! Obviously there is no definite rule.
I haven't practiced all that much lately, although I did spend about an hour yesterday with Mel restringing and retuning the guitar and it does sound much better. I didn't get a chance today because I was busy all morning and never had a good block of time this evening.

moving on

Like I said last time, I skipped to the next lesson which is on the 12 fret blues. It was a nice change of pace but I don't sound anything like the guy on the computer. Shocker, eh? Still ended up doing the chords a few times and it wasn't bad. Ended up practicing for an hour or more, as compared to the usual 20 minutes when I just was doing the chords.
I actually took the last two days off because I was busy. I needed a reminder on the minor chords but the majors I have in my head. Just need to get my fingers to move faster and to go where they are supposed to go.

minor chords are a major pain in the...

fingers. I really thought my fingers were used to the strings, but I was wrong. I started the minor chords yesterday and they sure are tricky. C minor is near impossible, trying to get your pinkie finger up to the fifth string-third fret, while keeping your index and middle in the first fret, and while trying to keep your ring finger out of the way? Then you only strum strings 5-2. Seriously, who came up with that chord? Then you have F and G minor, I just can't get good pressure from my index finger across all six strings. I know, practice, practice, practice.
I might skip on to the next lesson tomorrow after practicing my chords some.

major chords

I know the major chords now and just printed out the minor chords to study. I am slow but can actually do A,C,D,E,F, and G without much trouble. My big problem is that I have to constantly look at my fingers to get them on the right strings and frets. My fingers are getting used to the strings so they don't hurt as much as they just feel weird. I recently started to plug the guitar into the amp and it sounds so much cooler even though I am not actually playing music. All in good time.

knee update

Saw the doctor today and I am finally able to get out of my knee immobilizer. Its nice to not have to have that thing on, but I do feel vulnerable with all these kids around. He tapped my knee to drain off some fluid and got out 30 mls.
I get to start physical therapy next week. I have mixed feelings about that. It is painful and costs $30 so where is the fun in that.
Still have about 3 to 4 weeks until I go back to work. I have to build up my stamina in standing. I can only stand for about 45 minutes to an hour now. At work I stand for 13-14 hours a day.

I practiced my chords today but my finger tips were getting sore so I had to stop after about only 20 minutes.

Guitar practice

I have been practicing the guitar and of course it is so slow going. I have been doing the guitar secrets website lessons for the past several days. I like it because it tells about how to hold the guitar and more of the fundamentals that I just would have taken for granted if I was just doing the book that I have. I know from karate that bad habits can be hard to break in terms of posture and positioning in the long run, so even if something seems uncomfortable now, just let yourself get used to it.
The lessons have you go through and play each and every chord, major, minor, power, barre, and 7th. It seemed like such a waste of time at first because, "like I was going to remember any of them". But my next lesson (which I put off until tomorrow) is Learn how to swap between chords quickly and easily. That basically means, now that you have the chords memorized, practice switching back and forth until you can do it in your sleep. I think I'll be on this lesson for awhile.
I also got a couple podcasts on guitar lessons so eventually I can check these out and compare.

Surprise!

Saturday was my 12th anniversary. My wife bought me 20 or so individually wrapped gifts and I get to open one a day until they are all gone. Yesterday I opened some coffee which is great, then this morning I opened up ... guitar picks and a note for 1 month of lessons! She was so excited when I picked up the guitar the other day to start again, and I was so excited to be supported by her. I hear so many wives at work complaining about there husbands hobbies. I practiced today for about an hour just playing around with the chords, switching back and forth between the G, D7, and C. Mel also mentioned about a website that she had about lessons so I plan to really look at that tomorrow while the kids are at school. I can't wait to check it out tomorrow.

been awhile

I have been away from blogging for a bit, but I have just started to play guitar so I thought I would blog about it. Starting guitar because I am once again out on disablity due to knee surgery. So for now karate, and any type of physical activity is out.

I had originally picked up a guitar in the summer (back when I was heathy) but I had so much going on with karate, camp, activities with the kids, work, so on and so forth, that I just stopped playing. I had actually asked for money for either a guitar or a bass for my birthday back in August, got none, but haven't played anyway. I would like to think that if I had bought one I would have been practicing. Who knows? I'll play with my wifes old axe for now or maybe try to steal the record nerd's guitar that just collects dust.

Didn't do much as far as practicing today, because it is Thanksgiving and all the kids were all over me and we were trying to come up with cute catch phrases to put on our christmas cards. I just practiced a couple chords, g and d7. Just to get my fingers used to the feel and to try to switch back and forth between the chords. I only lasted about 10-15 minutes, but it was cool because Jaren got Reese's guitar and strummed along also. We'll make a noisy guitar duo.

Tartan Day

The girls at work have been counting down to Tartan day for over 3 weeks. They actually have a calendar up so they can cross off the days until it got here. They just can't wait to see me in my kilt. For those who don't know what it is, Tartan day is a day to celebrate being Scottish. It commemorates something from back in the 1300's and the U.S. made it special back in 1990 by making every April 6th Tartan Day. Your tartan is your plaid or your Scottish colors.

Now since the count-down calendar has been up several people have asked about it and said that they would come in for a visit to see me also. Therefore the anticipation keeps building, and the promise of many cameras always makes it even more interesting.

I have to work 13 hour days, and wearing a kilt is not very comfortable. All that wool and the long wool socks get very itchy. Plus there are no pockets so my normal habits will be off. I refuse to wear my lab coat with the kilt on as it takes away too much by covering everything up, so I don't even have those pockets to use.

All and all the day went very well. Most of my regular customers came in and no one was freaked out by it. (I have had some people that had no clue as to what it was and said it was not right for a guy to wear a skirt at work) My supervisor was in to check it out and she liked it, as well as several of my technicians' husbands. Unfortunately one of my technicians partners is actually from Scotland but she couldn't come in today because they only have one car. My partner came in and took a picture and she said she was going to send it in for our companies monthly newsletter. That would be funny to finally get in to that in my kilt, maybe my colleagues from Rhode Island would remember me.

my clean little boy

I want my team to stop winning!

I am not a huge basketball fan, but every year my brother Mike, our friend Rob, and I make a road trip to Boston to see the Celtics play. This year I am actually routing for them to lose. We went to see them play last Wednesday and I am glad they won that game because we were there and it went to double overtime. But they keep winning and it has to stop now! I know it is bad but I really want the top draft pick. Not that there are any team changing players coming out this year, but it would be fun to get a good player to cheer for and watch.
As for the Red Sox, it was only the first game of the year but that was horrible! Inexcusable! Josh Beckett had better be able to pitch better than Schilling did on Monday.

Emergency at work

This is what happened from my point of view as the pharmacist at a usually busy store. I was just answering a phone from a school nurse who had a question when a elderly woman came up to the consultation window. I told her I would be with her in a minute and went back to the nurse with the question. The nurse had a Chinese family bring in a bubble packed medicine for their son at school. The nurse couldn't identify it and didn't feel comfortable giving the kid something that she had no idea what it was. She spelled out the medicine for me -alphachymotrypsin, and I had no clue as to what it was. I looked at the few computer references that I have available and came up empty. She then told me that she believed it to be herbal, and said that it was from a Chinese family and that the Aunt was a doctor and gave them the medicine for the boy. I looked in one more reference for homeopathic meds but it was kind of an old book and again couldn't find anything. I told the nurse that she should call poison control and maybe they could help her.
All this time I had seen the elderly woman standing at the counter waiting for me. Someone had also dropped of three narcotics for me to count and get ready. After I hung up, I started to go over to the counsel station and she was gone. No big surprise really, happens all the time, either people give up, don't want to wait, find what they were looking for, figure out what they need or just see that I am busy and don't want to bother me. I glanced down a few aisles that I could see from where I was to see if I could find her. I asked my techs who were trying to catch up with the mornings work. (Also someone called out sick so we were short handed.) One of my techs said she must have figured out that foot care was way up in aisle one; a common question back at the pharmacy, and we all thought nothing of it. It was a quiet morning as far as the the front store goes, no one was picking up their meds and I just had that one person who dropped off their narcotics who was waiting. As I was counting and verifying her scripts I heard a soft "somebody help me" it was faint and seemed childlike. I glanced behind me at the registers thinking maybe someone was at the counter waiting to pick up, or maybe it was one of the front store kids playing a trick on us. I didn't see anybody, so I started to look down the aisles when one of the front store girls came around the corner and saw her on the floor. I came out of the pharmacy and saw her and ran back in to call 911. Luckily there is a fire department in the same parking lot as the strip mall we are in. The 911 operator asked me some questions, she was in and out of consciousness with a shallow breath, he had us move her to her left side and then the fire department was there. They quickly got an i.v. in her and took pulse, blood pressure, and did the things they needed to do. Come to find out she was coming to ask me about constipation because she was just out of the hospital last week. She was in the hospital because she had a stroke. I really felt like a jerk for not being able to do anything. Her son came in the next day to thank us for all that we did in taking care of his mother. She was still in the hospital but I don't know anything else about what or why or how she is doing. Hope all is fine.

The results are in

The karate tournament was yesterday, and an interesting day it was. Reese woke up in a major funk, dragging himself around and doing everything halfway. Jaren seemed to be feeding off of his energy, bringing himself down to that level. We practiced downstairs and I had definitely seen both of them do better. Jaren was really starting to get all the parts of one kata in but at the expense of accuracy and grace. I figure it is no big deal because he is after all only 7. At the last minute I have each of the boys do one pinion just in case their was a tie. Jaren couldn't remember it at all and Reese and I quickly had to show him how.
When we arrive at the dojo the place was packed as expected and Reese was still in his mood. I am hoping that he will get into the grove when he watches Jaren do his events. Jaren starts off in sparring as we all did. He did a great job, and it was a close match but he lost. He did a very good job in his form but he came up with a tie and had to perform one pinion. It started off okay, but ended up doing most of it backwards. He ended up getting third place, and I was very proud of him.

We had around an hour to kill until Reese's turn. I tried to get him to warm up in the private dojo but there was a bunch of kids fooling around in there from other schools and he was still not himself. No matted what I did he wouldn't go in and was just ignoring any attempts that I made. Melissa was able to finally get him to go in and do four pinion twice which was good. I went in with him again and was able to get two more practices out of him. There was a nice brown belt kid there from Massachusetts who gave Reese a few pointers that surprisingly Reese tried to work in. The results were the exact same as Jaren. Reese sparred against a kid who was a full head taller than he was and lost first round. He did a good job in his forms and got third place.

We had around two hours until it was my turn so we went to Standish House of Pizza. Strider was so thirsty that he drank almost the entire bottle of cranberry grape juice. We were almost done and everyone was laughing at Stri because it looked like he was falling asleep. I picked him up and he threw up over my shoulder on the seat, all over his coat, my pants, Jaren and the table. So we decided to go home to quickly change before heading back to the studio.

Mel wanted to hurry because all of her friends and classmates were on before I was and I wanted to hurry just to be there and settle my mind and warm up. It was nerve racking figuring out all the people who were in my ring with me. Sizing them up and watching them practice and do their forms. It was intimidating. One lady was very tall and one was very quick. An older lady was practicing sparring with her son and looked pretty good. Collette, Christine and I did our forms a few times to "get the bad ones out of the way" then we headed to the dojo to watch our friends. I tried to get into the zone while I was there, doing my breathing and relaxing techniques. Collette kept kicking me saying "no Zen for you". It was pretty funny.

My name gets called and I have to spar against the tall lady. I won, and all I could think of was that at least I would place. Last year I lost in the first round to Julie from our school, so it was good to get a win under my belt. The next person I went up against was the quick girl who beat Collette. At one point I was down 2-3 but came back to win 5-3. In the final round I fought Christine and won 4-1. I couldn't believe I got first place, even though there were only women and me in the ring, you can't underestimate them. I was feeling good going into my form. It seemed to go as well as I could do. Then I get called up again at the end to do a tie-breaker with one pinion. I didn't practice it in the morning but I seemed to do good in that as well. Sitting on the floor as they start calling off the names of people last to first, so you do not want to hear your name. When they called the name of the person I had tied with for third place I knew I had second and I congratulated Laura (the quick girl) next to me because I knew she had first. I was glad it was over but love the build up to it, it is such a rush to hear your name get called to go up there even if it is for only twenty or thirty people to watch you perform.

Karate Tournament

Anxious? Nervous?

Anticipation

Confidant, Yet not so

---

Two Kata

Energetic, trying to stay centered

Focus, trying to stay balanced

Balanced, but without the enthusiasm

-

Bend the standing leg

More circular motion

Make it feel like a rear kick

-

Too much thinking

Does not feel automatic

Nothing works out

-

That felt like a good form

Good control, good speed

Memorize how that felt and repeat it

--

Sparring

Energy overflowing

Extending too far

Everything wide open and exposed

-

Block and counter

Kick and hammer

Maintain composure

-

Difficult to breathe

Sweat in my eyes

That point was mine!

-

Getting drawn in

Don't be so aggressive

wait for their error

---

Been waiting so long

Preparing for months

Finished with pride

Snow Tubing!!

Today was a beautiful day to be outside in Maine, and luckily we were actually able to get outside to enjoy it. My Mom called this morning and asked us to go to Seacoast Snowpark in the afternoon with her and Steve. He had some passes and we were all able to get in free.

At first Dean said he didn't want to go, then changed his mind. We tried to get someone to come over to watch Strider, but no one was available. We decided to just bring him and Mel and I would take turns sitting with him. Mel took first watch and off we all went. At the bottom of the hill, just after we got our tubes, Dean said he didn't want to go. Being the mean, forceful Dad that I am, I encouraged him and told him how much fun it would be. We got hooked on the towrope and pulled up the hill. Then we get to the top and he starts to panic bigtime. We all pick the easy trail and Steve, Reese, and Jaren all link together and off they go. Dean is in a state now but I put him on the tube and hopped on and down we went. He cried at the bottom because he was mad, but there was no way I was going to walk down the hill. The two of us went to relieve Mel of Strider duty.

Almost as soon as Mel left, Dean started in. "How long are we going to be here?, Can I get a drink?, I'm hungry, can I get a candy bar out of the vending machine?" We settled on fries and a soda. I placed the order and got the drink. Strider woke up at this point, and wanted some of the drink. Just as the fries came, Mel came back. We munched on the fries and Stri really liked the honey mustard sauce. I went back to the hill to catch up with the others.

We went for a couple more runs before Steve went to go watch the kids so Mel could come out with us. When Mel came out we took some pictures at the top, and did a few more runs. Mom and Mel went back inside and I got to stay with Reese and Jaren. The lines were starting to thin out so we did a bunch more runs before going in. Jaren really wanted some fries and that is probably what got him and Reese to go in. I wanted to go back in because I'm sure Mel was really getting bored hanging out with Dean and Stri.

Overall, it was a good day, but I wish Dean would have stayed out with us.

Good pet in training

We are determined to have Oscar, our new ferret, behave better than all the other pets we've had. Melissa has been constantly on him to make sure he goes the bathroom in the litter box and we both have been taking him out to make sure he stays friendly and doesn't bite anyone. He is mostly using the litter box, having only a few mistakes and he only bites if he has been out for a long time.
Mel and Dean built a scratch box for him yesterday while Reese, Jaren and I were out shoveling the snow. She just glued some sandpaper into a cardboard box, when we put him in it, he scratches around with his front feet and then tries to jump out and kicks and scratches with his back feet. For now the box is a perfect size, but I'm sure he will grow out of it soon.
This morning when we took him out to play I put him in the hood of my sweatshirt. He actually liked it and stayed there for quite a while. We went upstairs and woke up the boys with him in my hood and then played around for a bit. He stayed in my hood the whole time. He probably would have fallen asleep but we took him out to let him try to go to the bathroom.

Wacky Crazy Day

Our day started with the excitement and anticipation of the septic pumper coming. We talked to Dean about how all the waste from the toilets and the sinks and showers go into a holding tank in the front yard, and how the truck has to come and pump it out so we can continue to flush the toilet without it getting backed up into the house. It finally came around noon, just after Mel and the boys got back from Walmart. Mel and Dean went out front to look into the hole that the pump hose went into, I opted to stay inside because I was still finishing my lunch. As the guy was getting to the bottom of the tank he was telling us about the nail polish and other cosmetic supplies that Strider must have flushed down the toilet. Luckily all this stuff made it down and I didn't have to pull up the toilet to get it out.
On another note, after our private karate class we brought the boys to the pet store. We ended up leaving with a ferret that we named Oscar. I thought we would end up with one eventually but not this soon. Everyone seems to love him and even the dogs don't mind yet. Strider is excited and loves to watch him.

Pet Store!!

In running our errands today, we had to go to the pet store to get dog food. Dean didn't want to go in but we made him anyway. We checked out the mice and hamsters and rabbits and ferrets and birds and lizards and rats in our first pass through. Mel started talking about the ferrets and we were checking out the cages and the ferrets. They had ferrets that looked just like Sammy, Maddy, Pepper, and Taylor(bones). It was kind of sad. We talked to the employees and they let us take one out. Dean refused to look at it or touch it and kept asking if we could leave.

As we were playing with the ferret a dog came in to the store all by itself. The employees got it and tried to put it back into the car it came from but all the doors were locked, one window was down enough for him to get out but not back in easily. They called Shaw's and had them page over the loudspeaker but no one came for awhile.

We put the ferrets away and move over to the rats. They were soft and warm but were a lot squirmier and faster. Let alone the one we had out kept pooping on me. We put the rats away and went and got the dog food that we came in for. As we were checking out the owner of the dog came over asking if the employee who found her was a special needs patient because of how rude she was even though they had just caught her dog and watched it for the past 20 minutes. We just laughed and shook our heads glad we got to see the exciting conclusion of the wandering dog.

Who knows what will come of this trip in the future.

Just when you thought you were doing okay...

Last night a karate, Master Cheryl was talking about how bad every one's posture was. It is, and I know it has been since I started a year and a half ago. Last night it was my push-ups that were the main focus. I need to tuck my hips in more as well as arch my back upwards slightly. She says I am tightening up my lower back muscles and essentially making them shorter, sooner or later she says I will throw out my back. Not good.
I need to find a way to remind myself throughout the day to keep my hips up and focus on my core muscles. If my core is always engaged it will help. She says we need to always walk around like we are on the beach trying to look good. Don't throw the shoulders back because that causes other problems. For the past 34 years I have stuck my gut and but out, now I have to train myself to do the opposite. Not going to be easy.

Just not myself

I have been in a bad mood all week. I think it started on Tuesday, but I don't know why. Everything just set me off for no reason, and I hate that. At work I usually have to be the one in a good mood because no body else is, so when one of my technicians asked me if I was feeling poopy, I knew they noticed it too. Most of the time once I recognize that I'm in a bad mood I'll just put in a CD or just mentally slap myself out of it, but nothing worked this week.
What made it worse was that it carried over to my days off. Both Wednesday and Thursday I was short with the kids and probably even with Mel. She even asked me if I had been taking my meds. Yesterday morning I was talking to the assistant manager and he was saying how he had been in a bad mood all week and he bought a case of beer the day before but promised himself that he wouldn't start drinking until after his room mate got home from work. I told him that I was feeling pretty much the same way and for some stupid reason it made me feel better. I had talked about it with my technicians, with my wife, and even with someone from karate, but saying it yesterday somehow worked and I mostly snapped out of it. I was real tired last night, mostly from my small cold that I have, but I think I am mostly over my bad mood phase. I hate the human mind, life shouldn't be so complicated.

Commission for chores

We started paying the kids for doing chores yesterday. This is not the first time we have done this but it has been awhile since we tried. The kids actually understand the concept of money now and how much things cost. We assigned Reese, Jaren, and Dean certain chores to do each day and each week with each chore being worth ten cents. When they do the chore they put a sticker on the corresponding spot on their chart. If they don't do certain chores then they lose a dime. Reese can earn up to $4.50, Jaren up to $3.50, and Dean can get $2.50. It's not much but they seem motivated and excited.

We are calling it commission because they need to earn it, where an allowance is something you get no matter what.

Mel and I are also trying to come up with chores for us as well. Practice karate, walk the dogs, things of that sort that need to get done but tend to get skipped.

We will pay the boys by check to deposit in their savings accounts, but Mel and I will get actual money to spend on things. I better get working, since I have the Celtics game at the end of March I am going to.

Weekend updates

What a crazy weekend. Started on Friday, with another clogged toilet. I don't what this one got clogged with, it might have just been stuffed with toilet paper. Strider was upstairs for awhile unguarded. This was in our bathroom, and once again I had to remove the toilet to break up the clog. Friday night we failed at making s'mores because we were out of Sterno for our s'more making kit, we were able to use the toaster oven but its not quite the same. Instead we had a big marshmallow fight in the kitchen, with Strider walking around picking up the marshmallows and eating them.
On Saturday I went to pick up Jaren, who had slept over a friends house, at about 10am. Jarens friend, Chance, asked if he could come over to our house to play. He had a birthday party to go to at 1pm so I said he could and his mom would pick him up on the way to the party. We got a call from Chances Mom a little after 12 saying that they had made a mistake and the party wasn't until next weekend. No big deal, he can stay for a few more hours.
Later Sam called and wanted Dean to come over, he said he would. Then Dean changed his mind and we called Sam and told him to come over. Then we told Julia she could come over and sleep over also. Somewhere in the middle of all this Chances Mom came over and Chance and Jaren convinced her that he could sleep over. Therefore Saturday night we ended up with seven kids under 9 years old. It was noisy and wild but went fairly well.
Today we had my Mom and Deb over for dinner. I made meatloaf, green bean casserole, biscuits, and a cherry pie. It was fun and we stuffed ourselves silly.
Reese's progress was as expected. We told him a couple times each day that it would be a good time to work on his projects, but to no avail until Sunday afternoon when he started to work on his comic book for his counselor. He mostly finished it with several distractions and delays and it came out pretty good for his first comic.

Mel's thinking about getting pregnant again

Yesterday in the newspaper I saw an ad in the classifieds that caught my attention. In bold print at the top of the ad it said -Love Pregnancy? I immediately thought of Mel because except for a few minor problems (I say this carefully because I do have a penis and have not had the experience) she seemed to enjoy being pregnant. I wasn't sure how she would feel about being a surrogate, but I believe she mentioned it a long time ago. She was sleeping on the couch at the time so it wasn't until later when she was playing Kingdom Hearts II, and I was bored that I decided to bring up the ad. She made what I thought was a dismissive comment and I regretfully tried to forget about it. (I love the way she looks and absolutely glows while pregnant)

Later on she mentioned it, so I ran and found the ad. There actually were two ads with websites so we checked them both out online. It was actually very interesting with one based out of New Jersey that does stuff here locally in Maine, the other was in Los Angeles and said that they would pay for all travel expenses for the surrogate and partner for the appointments. The one in L.A. also had increasing payment for the second and third time you were a surrogate.

Who knows? My wife may get pregnant almost a year after I had my vasectomy.

Let's see if this works

We are trying something new with Reese. He has always had a difficult time starting homework or anything that he really doesn't want to do. He has been known to whine and cry for two hours before getting started with some homework that takes him less than ten minutes to do.

After talking with his teacher on Wednesday morning, we came to a difficult decision of just let him fail! Now this isn't going to be easy for Mel or I to do. Sure it gets frustrating when fusses a lot, but we don't want him to get lazy(lazier).

The theory is, if we don't push him, he will see what it is like to not get things done and to have to feel embarrassed or ashamed at school when he can't turn in the completed assignment. We will ask him what work he needs to do once and tell him to do it, after that he will not get another reminder. This wouldn't be something I would normally do, but Reese is extremely smart and he knows it. He knows that he can get by, with only doing the minimal amount of work, and be perfectly happy. So hopefully he will see what it is like to have to rush to get things done and to understand that it is a good idea to do the work when we ask him to do it and have it done and over with.

Hopefully this will work but I'm not too sure, he really doesn't care much about what adults think of him. To him everyone is either his equal or less than he is.

What a wonderful ending

I got home from work, another 13 hours on my feet answering demands of my customers. I just get inside and Strider is in Mel's arms calling for me, whimpering really. I take the exhausted boy out of her arms as soon as I get my jacket off and he smiles at me and puts his head down on my shoulder. Mel turns off the TV as I sit on the couch, she lays down puts her legs on my lap and pulls a blanket over herself. I gently stroke her warm calf and shin as I start to nod off. Strider snores and nuzzles in closer. I think how lucky I am and try to stay awake to cherish the moment. Strider coughs a couple times and wakes me up from a doze. Mel is sleeping and as warm and as comfy as I am, I know I have to get up to put Strider to bed. Carefully I raise Mel's leg so I can get up. I bring Strider upstairs and lay him down on his Spongebob Squarepants pillow cover. He hardly moves as I kiss him goodnight.

More to do every day

I have just started to make my give-aways for camp this year. I have several good size bead projects that I am going to make. I just have so much to do every day between karate, give-aways, work, cleaning the house, and most importantly spending quality time with wife and kids.
I do love to do the bead work though. It is nice to just do some handwork instead of mind work. Still it is hard because I have to keep it away from Strider. He has a tendency to be able to spill the messiest of projects.
The bead projects are also good because each piece is for someone personally, and I think about them almost constantly while doing it. It is good to be able to put those positive memories in each piece, knowing that they come from my heart as well as my time.
I will post pictures when I finish each one.

Mel's birthday

Today is Mel's birthday, I let her sleep-in a little. Although it wasn't until I all my winter gear on and the dogs ready for their morning walk (it was -2 degrees!) that I remembered. I had planned on going back upstairs to make sure she was up before I left, but I thought a "Happy birthday, now get up and clean the closet and the craft room" might just not be a good way to start the day.

I was ice cold when I came back in so after I fed the dogs and took off my gear I went back upstairs and climbed into bed trying to warm up. In about 10 minutes the boys alarm went off and we listened to them get up and start getting ready.

I pulled out a bag from under the bed that contained her other presents. The first one I gave her at her party a week and a half ago. As she unwrapped the undies and bra from Victoria's Secret, I explained how embarrassed the boys were in the store when we were buying them. She said she may want to exchange the bra to get it in black instead of tan because she already has a tan, but she said she may just keep it and buy another. I guarantee that she won't exchange it and she would never go buy a new one. I have never known anyone who hates to spend money on herself as much as she does. I am so lucky, because she keeps my spending in check and spends close to zero on herself.

Starting a resolution a little late

Mel and I have come to the conclusion that we are lazy and unmotivated, that there are small things in our lives that can easily be controlled and are not. Therefore as of yesterday, we are going to be more organized!!

Starting off by getting up at 5am and not hitting the snooze button at all. This is a big step for me, I always have ambitious goals for the morning and am likely to hit the snooze button so many times that there is not enough time to do anything.

Going small at first I am going to run through my karate moves doing my combinations and forms one day and my kempos and grabs the next. After this, I will take two of our dogs for a walk, trying to get them under submission, and get some exercise. This is also tricky, yesterday was 10 degrees and snowing, and today was 15 degrees and a small but bitting wind. The dogs enjoy it none the less.

I am also trying to put a lot more in my PDA, just as reminders for what needs to be done. I work well when I have a list because I can see progress. I have put little things like pick out my clothes, and which exercises I am going to do.

I have to go so Reese can do his math practice, and so I can get stuff done instead of just writing about it. Hopefully we can keep this up and can get organized.

Lessons at karate

Wednesday is karate day for us, I have every Wednesday off and there is an afternoon class that Mel and I go to. The older two boys are in school and the younger two boys entertain themselves by watching a movie or playing in the small kids area.

I love being able to do this together with my wife even though I know she doesn't care for it all that much. I started in order to help out Jaren because he was struggling at it and Reese was advancing really fast. I also didn't want the kids to be able to kick my butt when they got older.

Mel started because they were offering a three month free trial and several of the kids mom's that she hung around with while the kids were in class were going to join.

It is nice to have this in common, and to be able to practice together and go over moves together and dread getting beat up at class together. It is hectic for sure, with having to get the two little ones ready and settled.

Today made me a sad though. One of our better friends was in class with us and mentioned not wanting to go home after class because her husband was home. I just can't image living like that. Why live a lie? Why just hope things will get better? Do something about it! I hate to and won't but into friends lives, but if you are not happy, make a change.

Every day I can't believe how lucky I am to be where I am. I know my house is crazy, messy and loud, but how insignificant is that when you think about not even wanting to go home to the person you married and loved, the person you are raising your children with, and at least for me, the person who you want your children to grow up to be like. I love and respect my wife more than any person in the world and I don't know how she does all that she does. I can't imagine where I would be if I lost her. All that I do, I do just to try to be worthy of her.

Of course, as I am writing this I am in charge of not just three of my boys that are running around (Strider is upstairs sleeping) screaming, but also Jarens friend Mykenzy is over also.

I guess I had better go since I have rambled quite a bit from my original topic and Dean is now crying. (he bumped his knee)

Mistaken birthday party!!

For Christmas my mother's boyfriend, Steve, gave my wife, Mel, a 2007 calender that he had made up with pictures of us in it and special dates written in. Unfortunately, the one date that was wrong was her birthday. Not a big deal, her birthday is January 30th and it was put in as January 20th.

So today we are celebrating Mel's party! It actually works out well, because next weekend I would have to work and the following weekend would be after her real birthday and it would be the day of the Superbowl!!! Which depending on the outcome of today's game against the Indianapolis Colts, my beloved New England Patriots will be playing in and trying for their fourth Superbowl title in six years. Go Pats!!!!

Anyway, back to the party, I came up with three new recipes that I made yesterday and today that will hopefully turn out well. I made a chocolate cookie bark which was simply melting white and regular chocolate, mixing in crushed Oreos and swirling them together. I also made some layered squares. The first layer is crushed Oreos and melted butter, followed by a layer of cream cheese mixed with sugar and Cool Whip, that is topped with a layer of chocolate pudding, and finally a layer of Cool Whip. For a birthday cake I mixed up a recipe that I found in a magazine. They used vanilla cake and I used chocolate since that is Mel's favorite. But basically it is a "poke" cake, where you make the cake, let it cool, poke holes in it with a fork and then I poured black cherry Jell-0 (before it solidifies obviously) over it. You let it set up, frosted it with chocolate frosting then topped the whole thing with a Cool Whip frosting. I'll let you know how all the recipes worked out and if I'll ever bother with them again.

Luckily I was able to get her 2 gifts from different places before we put on our "spending freeze". Of course she knows where I bought them from because she has been right on top of the bills and has seen the credit card statements and was here when one of the packages came from UPS. One I'm sure she knows what it is but hopefully one will be a surprise.

mood music

I love music, all kinds of music. I use music to influence my mood, attitude, and surroundings. Nothing profound here, I know most everyone does it. I listen to punk, hardcore, alternative, country, classic rock, showtunes, comedy, or whatever turns me on at the time.

The lyrics and singer are what control how much I like or dislike the song. If it is profound, I will like it no matter the genre. The singer has to be able to express his feelings and emotions and to convey the lyrics on a level that is true. Someone can cover a great song and absolutely kill it because they can't put the feelings into the vocals. Whether the song is antigovernment, love, death, friendship, or lack there of; whether the music is grinding old school hardcore, melodic and dreamy, or good ol' country; if it is able to move me, I'll listen to it.

Sometimes you need to get the engery moving, drop in a hardcore disc, get the bass up, guitars blasting, vocallist screaming, and you have no option but to start crusing and getting done what needs to get done. Sometimes you just need to pick up the attitude or have some fun, pop in some country or folk (I love John Denver-brings back my childhood) it just lifts your spirits and makes you sing along.

Right now I am on a big Pink Floyd kick, somehow even the instramentals convey so much emotion. Floyd can make you angry, want to cry, sing-a-long, and laugh all on the same record.

I once told an older woman friend who was whining about some heavier hardcore music that I had on that music isn't supposed to make you feel good all the time. Sometimes you need to be angry, to hate, to just want to yell and want to hit something. I really feel that you can't try to run through life "even keel", you have to let your emotions ride the rollercoaster. By doing it in a controlled way, by choice, through music, you gain the upper hand and hopefully you can control yourself when you need to in other settings.

Crappy post

With having four boys you think I would have seen this before, but up until my youngest started to walk it hadn't happened. Today was the third time in the past three months that I have had to actually remove the toilet to remove a foreign object that had been flushed.

Unfortunately, and there always seems to be an unfortunately around here, each time that this has happened, someone has decided to poop in the clogged toilet. Now this is a house that has four toilets. Two of the toilets have been clogged, the first time it was a section of a bug vacuum toy, the second time was an Eeyore block, and today it was an apple core that if someone had eaten more of it, it might have made it all the way down. None the less, each offensive item was quite offensive and covered in crap.

I am not a plumber and not really even that handy. Luckily removing a toilet is pretty easy. The only thing that is holding it down is two bolts, and a nut connecting where the water pipe flows into the back tank. You do need a wax ring to put the seat back on to make a water tight seal.

After this happened the second time my wife told me to buy 2 wax rings "just in case we need to do this again". Of course I just laughed it off and only bought one even though they cost less than $1.50. Today, however, I did buy two. So I can guarantee that this will never happen to us again. (Unless I just cursed us.)

Hard to be happy at a job where everyone is miserable

I work in a pharmacy, and the majority of people I see are either in pain or are sick. Therefore the majority of the people I see are in a bad mood and don't care how many people where here before them, they just want there meds and to get home. Most people are also worried about the cost of their meds and why the insurance isn't paying for more of it.
Because of all this it is very hard to stay in a positive mood and keep everyone I work with happy. Always busy and surrounded by grumpy folks; not a great atmosphere. We have tried several moral boosting ideas over the past year and all of them have lasted about one week, if that.
I try to be polite as I can to people who ask me questions about laxatives, cold medicines, vitamins, foot care, and then not listen to my answer or choose something different because they already had something else in mind.
My daily goal at work is to make as many people as I can happy, and let the rest just roll of my shoulders and leave me unaffected. My karate master taught me, as things occur throughout the day ask yourself "how am I going to let that effect me today?" Keep the positive happy thoughts and just let the rest go. Don't let them win by dragging you down.

Eye Toy

Looking for fun with family or friends? Well if you don't mind being embarassed while playing games/getting exercise then the Eye Toy for playstation 2 is for you. We have had so much fun laughing at each other while laughing at ourselves.
One of the kids got Eye Toy games 2 for Christmas and we had so much fun (there has to be about 15 or more games on it) my wife got the Kinetic games for her birthday. It is similar to the Wii that Nintendo just put out but you don't use a controller. You are constantly moving and punching and ducking and sweating and laughing and it can really wear you out, leaving you wanting to jump back in for another game.
I'm telling you, this is what all video games should be like.

Introduction-first report

Writing to you for all the world to read! It is hard to be a guy in this day and age. I think of myself as a fairly normal man, married, four boys (I guess that isn't too normal), two jobs to make some extra spending money, and a house in the country. What I just don't understand is why people are so miserable.
We all have our moments of anger/depression/irritation and usually for no good reason at all. I am extremely guilty of this, so I intend to write some examples as they come up with some personal insight mixed in.
For instance, why are we so nice to strangers, at work or at the store- we'll say "excuse me", hold the door for people, offer a seat on the subway, smile; then we get home, or are with the people we love and we snap at them for nothing, yell at the kids to be quiet, or try to do something to be away from them.
It doesn't make any sense but once it was mentioned to me I noticed how true it was. Since I have been aware I try to be nicer and not let the little things bother me. Take a look around your world and see if it is true for you, if it is I encourage you to try to change.

This is just one observation I have made, others will follow as they come up.