The past couple of days have been very busy, and I am very tired. Let me see if I can remember everything that happened.
Saturday was the last day of the conference, and my supervisors were actually encouraging me not to attend, but to go out and have fun instead. :) Well, there were a couple of presentations that I wanted to see, so I went ahead and did the rest of the conference, which went through lunch time. I was glad I did! I really enjoyed three out of the four talks I attended, and that ain't bad! One of them in particular stood out in my mind. An academic is (finally) taking a look at Rosetta Stone to see whether it works. The jury is still out since the group that used only Rosetta Stone, the group that only went to class, and the group that both went to class and used Rosetta Stone had statistically similar pre- and post-test scores. However, anecdotally, she mentioned that when she did the final interviews, the two groups that had been in class could actually formulate sentences, while the group that had only used Rosetta Stone could not. Something to think about.
After the last talk I went to lunch with the five new friends I had made the previous night at dinner at the aquarium. We had a great time chatting and joking for over an hour. Then I got ready and finally went to the beach to swim! :D Man, it was great! The water was the perfect temperature, the beach wasn't too crowded (especially when it started to sprinkle a little) and the waves were a lot of fun! And what's more, I got to see a real-life, wild, sea-turtle! I was kind of out by myself and then suddenly, not more than ten feet away, I see a sea-turtle's head poke out for a quick breath! But that's not all, I stayed there and kept an eye out for the next half hour or so, and I saw it come up six more times! Each time it was between 10 and 30 feet away from me. Even without my glasses on I could clearly see the color patterns on its head! It was very beautiful! And I could even see its body underwater when it came up to breathe, it must have been at least two foot long from the tip of its tail to the tip of its nose! I've been informed that having a sea-turtle come up by you is good luck. So guess I've been blessed with seven-times good luck! :D
When I finished swimming, I went and got cleaned up and then went out to dinner with the rest of the COERLL people and their loved ones. Carl treated us all to a wonderful (and expensive) meal at a Japanese restaurant. The food was AWESOME! True, some of it was still moving, but it was soooo good! After dinner we walked around the main strip in Waikiki for a while, and then we split up to go and get some sleep.
Sunday was another fun day! As soon as I got ready I headed out to Diamond Head to hike the famous trail. I was a little burned from swimming without sunscreen the day before, but it was worth it! The view was amazing! The hike was exhilarating! And chortling to myself when I passed people on the way up and when I overheard people on their way up while I was on my way down encourage each other with things like "Don't worry, this is the hard part" ... priceless. :) A lot of people seemed to have been under the impression that the paved sidewalk leading up to the steep hiking trail carved into the side of the old volcano was the hike. Buddy, I wish I could have seen their faces when they hit the cave leading to the stairs leading to the cave leading to the stairs! :) I had heard some stories about how difficult the hike would be, but I must admit I didn't think it was that hard. Sure, I started panting a little after the long set of stairs, but on the way down I had to keep myself from running it felt so good to be alive! They suggest you allot at least two hours to go up and down the trail. I went back and forth from the main street (pretty far from the trail) in almost exactly an hour. Okay, I'll stop bragging now.
After the hike I went to Sams Club. Yes, I'm not a big fan of WalMart and Sams Club, but I had gotten the membership when Jenny and I got separated, and when I checked online I found that they had the best deal as far as chocolate covered macadamias, so went there and got a big ol' box of them! I carried around that big box of chocolates the rest of the day, and during the entire trip back to Austin. I got quite a few laughs and smiles... they were all so jealous! ;)
The trip back was better than the trip there because I didn't have any long layovers, but it was still a long trip. Usually on planes (buses, sidewalks, elephants, etc.) I pretty much keep to myself. Especially when I'm as tired as I was during this trip back (my internal clock didn't like the 5 hour time difference between Austin and Hawaii.) But when I got on the last plane and sat down I noticed that the young lady next to me was crying to her mother on the phone. I could feel that little voice inside me telling me to talk to her, but I really didn't want to. Well, the feeling persisted so when she hung up with her mom I asked how she was doing. As it turned out she had just had a pretty terrible day. So, naturally, I offered her some of my chocolate covered macadamias (which until this point hadn't even been opened.) We enjoyed chatting throughout the flight, and I even got her to laugh a few times. I hadn't gotten anyone to laugh besides family and friends in quite a while, and it felt really good. Anyway, we were both feeling much happier by the time the plane landed. I was glad that I listened to that little voice. I hope that everything works out for her!
And now I'm back! Well, that's about all I can think of to write right now. Here are the pictures I took in case anyone is interested. Hope you are all well!
Oh, and I just realized that my entries are a lot more boring when I'm talking about myself instead of about the kids. Sorry. :)
Monday, May 27, 2013
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Some more Hawai'i
Today was a pretty normal conference day. I spent most of the day either attending talks or helping man our booth. One of the talks was very interesting! It was about how to use Minecraft as a language teaching tool. I've never played Minecraft, but now I have an excuse to start. :)
I've had this perpetual headache since arriving here, probably due to a lack of sleep. So around lunch time today I took a stroll around the Koi Pond behind the building where the convention is being held. It is very beautiful and relaxing there.
After lunch I decided to take a nap. It almost felt like a crime. Here I am in Hawai'i at this conference that I've wanted to attend for several years, and I'm taking a nap? Well, when I woke up two hours later, I felt much better and my headache was finally gone. :) And it was time to go to dinner at the Aquarium.
I had a very nice time at dinner chatting with Doug Nelson, a game designer, and two European ESL instructors. One of them, Rose, was very disappointed that there was no alcohol at the dinner. And to be honest I was quite surprised myself! But it was a very nice dinner and we had a great time just chatting for over an hour. They had very good food, we got to watch the fireworks a little way off in Waikiki, and we got to watch a hula dancer perform to a live band playing Hawaiian music. But by far the best dancer was this adorable little girl that was trying to copy the hula dancer! She was so cute!
After dinner we looked at a few of the animals in the aquarium before they closed for the night, then everyone else headed off to a bar while I came back here. I am pretty tired. It's only 10:00 pm local time, but it in Austin its 3:00 am. So, off to bed!
Oh yes, one more thing, when I got off the bus I walked past a parking lot that was filled with feral cats. There were at least 20 and probably more like 30! They weren't aggressive at all, but it was quite a sight. I have never seen so many cats, let alone feral cats, in one place at the same time. I tried to take some pictures, but I don't think they came out really well. Many of the cats were in the shadows and my phone's camera doesn't have a flash. Oh well.
I've had this perpetual headache since arriving here, probably due to a lack of sleep. So around lunch time today I took a stroll around the Koi Pond behind the building where the convention is being held. It is very beautiful and relaxing there.
After lunch I decided to take a nap. It almost felt like a crime. Here I am in Hawai'i at this conference that I've wanted to attend for several years, and I'm taking a nap? Well, when I woke up two hours later, I felt much better and my headache was finally gone. :) And it was time to go to dinner at the Aquarium.
I had a very nice time at dinner chatting with Doug Nelson, a game designer, and two European ESL instructors. One of them, Rose, was very disappointed that there was no alcohol at the dinner. And to be honest I was quite surprised myself! But it was a very nice dinner and we had a great time just chatting for over an hour. They had very good food, we got to watch the fireworks a little way off in Waikiki, and we got to watch a hula dancer perform to a live band playing Hawaiian music. But by far the best dancer was this adorable little girl that was trying to copy the hula dancer! She was so cute!
After dinner we looked at a few of the animals in the aquarium before they closed for the night, then everyone else headed off to a bar while I came back here. I am pretty tired. It's only 10:00 pm local time, but it in Austin its 3:00 am. So, off to bed!
Oh yes, one more thing, when I got off the bus I walked past a parking lot that was filled with feral cats. There were at least 20 and probably more like 30! They weren't aggressive at all, but it was quite a sight. I have never seen so many cats, let alone feral cats, in one place at the same time. I tried to take some pictures, but I don't think they came out really well. Many of the cats were in the shadows and my phone's camera doesn't have a flash. Oh well.
Friday, May 24, 2013
Hawai'i
Yesterday morning I got up at 4:30 so that I could quickly get ready, then catch the bus, that took me to where I could catch another bus, that took me to the airport. As recommended I got to the airport about an hour before boarding for my flight was to begin. And thank goodness! The line to get through security wove through all their fancy little marked off paths, then went across the room and behind a row of seats. Fortunately it moved pretty fast.
My first flight took me to Salt Lake City. When I got on the flight they were completely out of room for carry-on items in the overhead compartments, so I had to store my under the seat in front of me. Now, you wouldn't think that would be a bad thing. However, it meant that I had even less room than is normally provided in coach. I was happy when the flight was over!
I was also happy when the flight was over because I had a four hour layover, which meant I got to spend some time with family! :D Mom and Anna where there to pick me up, and we went to Jessica's where I got to chat with her and watch Liriel and Derrick try to kill themselves by falling off of their bikes onto the pavement. It was a lot of fun! Then Mom and Anna took me to Marriott, where I got to talk with Emma and Cassidy for a good while. We had a lot of fun there as well! Then it was time to go back to the airport. It was sad, as goodbyes always are, but since this is already the third time a conference has taken me to see family in Utah, I'm fairly hopeful that this will become a not too infrequent occurrence. :)
After waiting in another long security line, I finally got to my gate and then started boarding the second plane. They informed us that it was a full flight, so they wanted volunteers to check their carry-on items. I decided that I would like all the leg room I could get this time, and they said that they would return the bags too us at the gate as soon as we got to Seattle. What they failed to mention was that in order to do so, we had to specifically request a pink tag for our bag. I didn't request a pink tag, so that meant they put a white tag on mine. It was a nice flight, but when we got to Seattle, the nice man told me that since I didn't have a pink tag, I would need to go pick up my bag in baggage claim. I did so, and then waited in the security line for the third time that day!
Fortunately I made it to the gate on time again, and was soon on a flight to Honolulu! The flight took quite a while, and by now I was pretty tired. I tried to sleep, but I have always had difficulty sleeping on cars, trains, planes, etc. Anyway, by the time I got to Honolulu it was around 9:00 pm local time, which meant it was like 2:00 am the following day in Texas. So, needless to say, I was ready for bed! Since that was the case, I decided to forgo the hassle of trying to find a way to get exact change for the bus, and took a taxi instead. Um, it was expensive!
But at last I was going to be able to go to sleep! Well, not quite. I'm staying at students dorms at the University of Hawaii in order to conserve money, and the dorms are great. But the electronic key they gave me didn't work, so I had to go back down from the 9th floor to the 1st floor, and wait another 10 minutes or so as they tried to isolate the problem and fix it. Which they did. Then I was able to go to bed! :D Of course, these dorms don't have AC, so although I slept, it was a rather fitful sleep. And my internal clock would not let me sleep past around 4:00 in the morning, no matter how much I begged.
So, I got up, went and took a shower in the communal shower place (luckily it was so early that there were no other guys or girls in there, so I was able to enjoy some privacy. Ironically, this is my first time in a dorm, and definitely my first time with a public bathroom shared by males and females. Well, so far so good. After showering I decided to walk the two or so miles down to Waikiki beach. There they have a store where you can purchase a 4-day unlimited use bus-pass, so I wanted to pick one up. No more taxis, thank you very much. Well, I got a little lost on the way, so instead of walking for approximately an hour, I wound up walking approximately two hours. But I did find the store and get the bus pass, and I also stopped by a well-known local chain and picked up a couple masaladas (sp?), which are basically Portuguese doughnuts. They were very good!
Then I hopped the bus back to campus, changed, and went to help out with our booth. As usual, we had quite a bit of interest in our booth, which was great! Then we had a nice boxed lunch and then it was our turn to present. There weren't as many people in our presentation as I was expecting, but it went very well and everyone seemed very interested. Then I went to a few other talks, two of which I really liked (they were about using video games in the language classroom). When I was manning the booth and after one of the talks I even had a lot of people come up to me who wanted to hear about the work I'm doing with gaming, so I was able to have several nice chats on the subject. Then I changed and hopped the bus back to Waikiki beach. There I went to a little arts and crafts farmers market type place and browsed around for an hour or so. It was nice and relaxing and actually reminded me a lot of Germany for some reason. I found gifts for the kids and some Hawaiian candies for myself.
After that I grabbed the bus back to campus because by now it was dark outside and I didn't want to go swimming with the fishes in the dark. And now I'm here.
My first flight took me to Salt Lake City. When I got on the flight they were completely out of room for carry-on items in the overhead compartments, so I had to store my under the seat in front of me. Now, you wouldn't think that would be a bad thing. However, it meant that I had even less room than is normally provided in coach. I was happy when the flight was over!
I was also happy when the flight was over because I had a four hour layover, which meant I got to spend some time with family! :D Mom and Anna where there to pick me up, and we went to Jessica's where I got to chat with her and watch Liriel and Derrick try to kill themselves by falling off of their bikes onto the pavement. It was a lot of fun! Then Mom and Anna took me to Marriott, where I got to talk with Emma and Cassidy for a good while. We had a lot of fun there as well! Then it was time to go back to the airport. It was sad, as goodbyes always are, but since this is already the third time a conference has taken me to see family in Utah, I'm fairly hopeful that this will become a not too infrequent occurrence. :)
After waiting in another long security line, I finally got to my gate and then started boarding the second plane. They informed us that it was a full flight, so they wanted volunteers to check their carry-on items. I decided that I would like all the leg room I could get this time, and they said that they would return the bags too us at the gate as soon as we got to Seattle. What they failed to mention was that in order to do so, we had to specifically request a pink tag for our bag. I didn't request a pink tag, so that meant they put a white tag on mine. It was a nice flight, but when we got to Seattle, the nice man told me that since I didn't have a pink tag, I would need to go pick up my bag in baggage claim. I did so, and then waited in the security line for the third time that day!
Fortunately I made it to the gate on time again, and was soon on a flight to Honolulu! The flight took quite a while, and by now I was pretty tired. I tried to sleep, but I have always had difficulty sleeping on cars, trains, planes, etc. Anyway, by the time I got to Honolulu it was around 9:00 pm local time, which meant it was like 2:00 am the following day in Texas. So, needless to say, I was ready for bed! Since that was the case, I decided to forgo the hassle of trying to find a way to get exact change for the bus, and took a taxi instead. Um, it was expensive!
But at last I was going to be able to go to sleep! Well, not quite. I'm staying at students dorms at the University of Hawaii in order to conserve money, and the dorms are great. But the electronic key they gave me didn't work, so I had to go back down from the 9th floor to the 1st floor, and wait another 10 minutes or so as they tried to isolate the problem and fix it. Which they did. Then I was able to go to bed! :D Of course, these dorms don't have AC, so although I slept, it was a rather fitful sleep. And my internal clock would not let me sleep past around 4:00 in the morning, no matter how much I begged.
So, I got up, went and took a shower in the communal shower place (luckily it was so early that there were no other guys or girls in there, so I was able to enjoy some privacy. Ironically, this is my first time in a dorm, and definitely my first time with a public bathroom shared by males and females. Well, so far so good. After showering I decided to walk the two or so miles down to Waikiki beach. There they have a store where you can purchase a 4-day unlimited use bus-pass, so I wanted to pick one up. No more taxis, thank you very much. Well, I got a little lost on the way, so instead of walking for approximately an hour, I wound up walking approximately two hours. But I did find the store and get the bus pass, and I also stopped by a well-known local chain and picked up a couple masaladas (sp?), which are basically Portuguese doughnuts. They were very good!
Then I hopped the bus back to campus, changed, and went to help out with our booth. As usual, we had quite a bit of interest in our booth, which was great! Then we had a nice boxed lunch and then it was our turn to present. There weren't as many people in our presentation as I was expecting, but it went very well and everyone seemed very interested. Then I went to a few other talks, two of which I really liked (they were about using video games in the language classroom). When I was manning the booth and after one of the talks I even had a lot of people come up to me who wanted to hear about the work I'm doing with gaming, so I was able to have several nice chats on the subject. Then I changed and hopped the bus back to Waikiki beach. There I went to a little arts and crafts farmers market type place and browsed around for an hour or so. It was nice and relaxing and actually reminded me a lot of Germany for some reason. I found gifts for the kids and some Hawaiian candies for myself.
After that I grabbed the bus back to campus because by now it was dark outside and I didn't want to go swimming with the fishes in the dark. And now I'm here.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Doing what's right.
When Jenny dropped off the kids this weekend, Carly was very eager to tell me what had happened on the bus. Apparently the bus driver had given Carly and a little boy lollipops because they are always so good on the bus. We know the bus driver, she is a very sweet lady who adores Carly. Anyway, then Carly said, in a very serious tone, "She wasn't supposed to give us candy Daddy, because it can ruin our lunch." I asked her if she had told the bus driver thank you. "No, because she was bad and gave us something for being good." I tried to explain that as long as her Mommy said it was okay to accept the candy, she could eat it, and that she should tell the bus driver thank you. I asked what she would do differently next time to see if she had comprehended my message. Her response caught me a little off guard: "Next time I'll be bad, so that she isn't bad and gives me more candy." Well, I suppose that is one potential solution...
I tend to have a hard time motivating William and Carly (not Michael, he always does what he thinks is right) to do chores when they're here. Like putting away their dirty dishes and cleaning up their toys. So I've started giving them an allowance. Before this weekend it was kind of at random, but one of the first things we did this weekend was sit down and agree on a list of chores and how much money they should get if they do the chores without being asked or reminded. We came up with a list of around three chores for which they could receive one dollar each time. William immediately latched on to this idea. As soon as we finished he asked if I would help him look up prices for some Lego kits online so that he could see how much money he needed to save to buy them. Buddy, I haven't seen that boy so excited to do chores since he was a toddler throwing blocks into a bucket! He was practically shaking with excitement whenever it got close to meal time or clean up time! I'm not sure how long it will last, but so far this is working out great! With William, that is. Carly still doesn't really give a hoot and happily watches her brothers try to do their chores as best they can.
Michael is such a sweet boy! Usually at least once each weekend the kids and I will all take turns picking one thing to do together. The boys always want to play video games or watch Pokemon, and Carly always wants me to read her a book. Well, this weekend I asked the boys if they could possibly think of something that didn't involve the use of the TV. William looked at me like I had lost my mind, but Michael immediately got pensive. When it was his turn, he said that he wanted us to all draw a picture and then tell a story about it! I was really impressed! For those of you who don't know, Michael has become quite the little artist! He practices a lot, is very serious about it, and plans to become an artist when he grows up. William just moaned. But Carly was pretty excited because she knew that meant that she would be able to use the pencil sharpener. So we all sat down around the table to start drawing. Normally I just doodle, but this time I decided to actually try and draw some of the things I used to enjoy drawing when I was a teenager. So I drew a picture of a demon preparing to hurl a large boulder. All three kids were very impressed! They even immediately recognized what I had drawn. :D I don't think any of them had seen me draw anything more advanced than a stick figure before, so they were all excited and all started working hard on their drawings. Carly soon got frustrated though, so she asked me to draw a horse for her. Well, that's not exactly what I used to draw when I was a teenager, but I figured the anatomy couldn't be too different from that of a dragon, so I gave it a go. Well, my horse looked like it was suffering from Elaphantitis, but Carly was overjoyed! I was pretty pleased myself, so I decided to try something else new. I drew a ballerina! And they all recognized what it was! Well, I was pretty pleased with myself. By now William was really getting excited, and he was drawing a boulder-hurling demon and a horse as well. Michael, though, kept his cool and instead drew a furry short demon with long arms. It looked pretty nice! Then all three of us guys had fun drawing little stick figure stories. You know, the kind where you draw a man and say "This is a man", then you draw a tank and say "This tank is shooting the man", then you draw lines from the tank to the man and scribble all over the man, then you draw a dragon breathing fire on a castle with a princess screaming in it and say "This is Carly." Well, we had a great time. And Carly quite contentedly ignored us while she colored in her horse and ballerina.
One other anecdote from this weekend occurred when we were all watching Brave together. For anyone who doesn't know, the protagonist for this Pixar film is a skinny, fiery, red-headed teenage princess, with wild, curly hair. Well, after watching for just a few minutes someone (I forget who) said, "she has hair like mommy!" Then someone else mentioned "Her hair is the same color as Mommy's too!" Then the third said, "All of her looks just like Mommy!" Well buddy, if their mommy had overheard that conversation I'm sure she would have been very happy indeed! :)
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Quote of the day
This quote comes from Carly this morning. "Dad, you're almost taller than the roof! That means that you're not going to grow anymore. Not Mommy, she's only halfway there."
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Importance isn't funny.
Michael was sick again this Friday and Saturday. Luckily he was much better this morning. That poor little boy seems to have all the rough luck when it comes to health. And I just noticed today that Carly is almost as tall as he is! Scary. But he is such a good boy! When I asked the kids to clean up their toys and other miscellaneous messes this morning, Michael got right to work and did pretty much all of it by himself. William, meanwhile, pretended that he was trapped on a footstool and Carly went into the bedroom to take a 'nap'. Which conveniently ended as soon as Michael finished cleaning. I've been giving them a small allowance when they do chores though, so Michael was still happy because he got some and they didn't. (William was NOT happy. He said that he had picked up every toy in his reach and put them into the boxes when Michael brought the boxes to him.)
Unfortunately, because Michael was sick most of the weekend, that meant we had to spend pretty much the whole weekend cooped up in this small little apartment again. This made the boys extremely happy, because it meant they could play all the video games they wanted. Which also means that poor little Carly was bored out of her mind. So I spent a good deal of time reading her stories, and playing various incarnations of games such as Slamwhich and tickle Carly. At one point this morning she was curled up in my lap and said: "Daddy, you are silly." So I asked if she was silly, yes, is William silly, yes, is Michael silly, yes, is Mommy silly... And I quote: "No, Mommy is important." Well, there you have it!
Unfortunately, because Michael was sick most of the weekend, that meant we had to spend pretty much the whole weekend cooped up in this small little apartment again. This made the boys extremely happy, because it meant they could play all the video games they wanted. Which also means that poor little Carly was bored out of her mind. So I spent a good deal of time reading her stories, and playing various incarnations of games such as Slamwhich and tickle Carly. At one point this morning she was curled up in my lap and said: "Daddy, you are silly." So I asked if she was silly, yes, is William silly, yes, is Michael silly, yes, is Mommy silly... And I quote: "No, Mommy is important." Well, there you have it!
Friday, May 3, 2013
The beginning of the blog
While I was waiting for the bus to take me to the allergist this morning (I got to the bus stop 30 minutes early), I suddenly got the crazy idea of starting this blog. I know that most blogs die within a few weeks, but I figure, what the heck. And this way I won't have to bug my family by sending lengthy emails updating them on stuff. Now I can send them short emails referring them to this blog instead. :) Once I had made up my mind to do this blog a whole lot of ideas of what to do with it began flooding my mind. In the past, when I've had these Eureka! moments, I've always thought to myself: "This is so awesome! I'm never going to forget these thoughts/plans/resolutions." Of course now I don't remember any of them. :P So this time I tried something new. I wrote down my ideas as they came to me! :D What a novel thought! I've only heard that as a recommended strategy pretty much all my life. And what do you know! After I got home the only thing I could remember was some vague notion of a blog. So, the mere existence of this blog is a testament to the fact that this little strategy works. Now, we'll see if I can keep this blog alive. I tend to loose interest in projects after a few days, weeks, or months.
Originally written: 04/22/13
I just had a pretty good weekend with the kids and thought that I'd share some anecdotes. First off, you should know that Jenny and the kids had some kind of stomach bug they were passing around. So, naturally, the kids brought it with them when they came over. (Let's just say that I didn't get much sleep last night.) Poor Michael, our child that looks like a half-starved reanimated skeleton, was throwing up on Friday and having diarrhea yesterday morning, and had absolutely no appetite almost the whole time he was here. On the other hand, Carly was continuously hungry the entire weekend! It didn't matter how much I fed her, within an hour she would be asking for more food. I tried to deter her by offering only carrots between meals, but all that meant was that I had to get up at least once an hour to prepare a carrot for her. On another Carly-related note, I've been thinking that I've been loosing weight, but at one point I was walking around the apartment with my pj bottoms and undershirt on, and Carly giggled and said something to the effect of "Daddy, I can see your boobs. You're not supposed to let people see your boobs." Well, needless to say I put on a t-shirt over my undershirt, and then made a batch of chocolate-chocolate chip cookies.
This weekend I also inadvertently found a very effective way to get the kids to go to sleep with very little fuss, at least on the weekends when the timing of bedtime isn't as critical. Since Michael was feeling so bad on Friday night, I took him into the living room with me after putting the other two to bed, and he cuddled in my lap while we watched Mouse Hunt. I was amazed how quietWilliam and Carly were being, and then I realized that they were trying to listen to every bit of the show and every word that Michael and I exchanged. They were out cold by the time the movie was over and Michael fell asleep shortly after. The next day we started watching Matilda, but we only got a little ways in before Carly and Michael started protesting that it was too scary (they did NOT like the idea of parents or a principle being evil). William really wanted to finish watching it, so that night I asked William if he'd like to finish watching the movie with me. He did, of course, and we had a great time watching it together as he continuously narrated and provided commentary for the entire movie. Again, Michael and Carly were incredibly quiet and were out cold by the time the movie was done, and William went promptly to sleep when it was time for him to go to bed.
Originally written: 03/14/13
Here at UT we have Spring Break this week. Why? Because of South by South West (SXSW)! What is SXSW you may ask. I haven't a clue. But I do know that they have a lot of education talks, a lot of music, a lot of food, a lot of traffic, and a lot of video games! That's right! And I nerded out the other day and went to the Gaming Expo! Unfortunately most of the video games were shooters and arcade fighting games. Boring! But they had a few that looked interesting, and they had a booth for MtG where you could get free cards if you played! :D Other than that, Spring Break has been a lot like every other school week. I've gone to a couple meetings, and I've been keeping up with my work and dissertation. Sort of. I've also been spending a lot of time making lego kits for the kids to play with the next time they come over.
So, I have a Michael story that I've been meaning to tell, but I kept forgetting it, but I remember now! Okay, so a few weeks ago I took the kids to the park in my neighborhood (we usually go at least once a weekend.) I told the kids to bring jackets, but they all refused. Well, I brought my hoodie and book and went and sat on the bench next to the playground. No more than five minutes later Michael comes up to me and asks, in that sad little Michael voice of his, "Daddy, can we go back inside?" When I asked him why he said it was because he was cold. William and Carly were not cold because they were busy running around the entire playground like maniacs, screaming at the top of their lungs, chasing, and being chased by, some of the other neighborhood kids. Anyway, I didn't want to go all the way back to the apartment for Michael's jacket, so I gave him my hoodie. He looked like a little Sith Lord! :) That is, until he decided wearing daddy's hoodie was the coolest thing since sliced bread, which meant that he needed to throw himself on the ground and roll down the hill. Over and over and over. Laughing and giggling the whole time. Very un-Sith-Lord-ish! I'm still picking pieces of crud out of the pockets on my hoodie. <sigh>
Originally written: 01/06/13
I just had a very nice weekend with the kids, and I'm bored, so I thought that I'd write a long, boring email about it for those of you who are interested in such things. :) The highlight for me was a nice walk with the kids to the local public library. It was cold and drizzly, but we went anyway. It was about 1.7 miles there and another 1.7 miles back. I was amazed how well the kids did with the hike! There was hardly any complaining the entire time! Though, understandably, towards the end they did get a little whiny. Michael had a great time counting the number of fire hydrants, Carly enjoyed making me mad by jumping in puddles, and Williamjust had fun talking and asking lots of questions. We talked about everything from why people had painted arrows on the street, to why its bad to throw trash on the ground. I was amazed how many topics haven't come up in conversation before that we touched on. And its not that I haven't talked with them while walking to and from their school many times. I think it is because usually in those talks we talk about school. This time we talked about just about everything other than school. It was very nice. Other weekend highlights included William and Michael very excitedly telling me what to do in Harry Potter Legos Wii and their distress at my not doing exactly what they said right away (I was taking my time enjoying the game and their frustration), me reading a lot of library books to them, our watching some movies from the library together, and William insisting on being given a chance to learn to play Magic: The Gathering. (Carly and Michael built two decks for me while William built his own decks. He won two out of three games. Next time I'm making my own deck!) Carly also really enjoyed playing hide and seek (in spite of the fact that my apartment only has like 4 places to hide) and Uno and War and Dominoes. Which games the boys tolerated with promises of MtG and Wii to follow. We also had a great time making homemade pizza together. :) All in all we had a very nice time together! They did have a hard time going to sleep at night, but I found a way to remedy that. If they calmed down I would tell them a bedtime story from memory (we did Goldilocks, the Three Little Pigs, and Hanzel and Grettel) and then I would listen to a few General Conference talks while sitting in the room with them. Man, nothing puts kids to sleep like listening to prophets and apostles! ;)
Originally written: 10/09/12
The past few days
have been interesting so I thought that I'd update those of you who
are interested in whats going on.
As you know, I moved into Graduate Student Housing on Saturday.
The move went well. I had ordered the stuff I didn't have available
to take with me (e.g. furniture) online from Sams Club, Walmart and
Amazon, and I got free shipping or $0.99 shipping on all of it! :D
So that was nice so that I don't have to worry about renting a truck,
borrowing a truck, or trying to cram things like mattresses into our
small little sedan. On the downside, it does mean that I don't have
all of my stuff yet. On the upside its like Christmas every day! :D
Things don't seem to have sunk in with the kids yet. Hopefully
they will adjust quickly and easily to this new arrangement. Jenny
had a good day with them yesterday until about 20 minutes before I
called her. Then the kids started accidentally spilling their dinner
and drinks all over the house. And William wiped his bloody nose on
the carpet. :)
Today it was my turn to have some fun. I've decided that I'll
bike to my office on campus on the days I'm not with Jenny and the
kids. It's only about 4 miles away. No problem! Well, that was the
thought anyway. (I made that decision because it would give me the
opportunity to concentrate better, get some regular exercise, and use
the internet (the free internet here at the apartment in painfully
slow.)) So this morning I hoped on my bike and started peddling. I
had looked up directions, but I got a little lost for a bit. And by a
little I mean really and by a bit I mean over an hour. Yeah, I
actually made it to the Barnes and Noble where Jenny likes to go to do
her homework before I realized that I was way off track. I had even
been going up and down streets with names like "Mountain Climb",
"Hillcrest", and "If you are biking on this road then you are a
moron." Okay, so I made that last one up, but the first two were
ligit. But, thanks to Jenny's help on the phone I was able to find a
bus stop and take that bus to another bus stop where I got on a
different bus that took me to campus. About an hour late for the
meeting that I was planning on being half an hour early to. :P Oh
well. Luckily, on the way home things went a lot better! In spite of
being very tired, I was able to make the trip back in about 30
minutes. So we'll see how it goes next time.
have been interesting so I thought that I'd update those of you who
are interested in whats going on.
As you know, I moved into Graduate Student Housing on Saturday.
The move went well. I had ordered the stuff I didn't have available
to take with me (e.g. furniture) online from Sams Club, Walmart and
Amazon, and I got free shipping or $0.99 shipping on all of it! :D
So that was nice so that I don't have to worry about renting a truck,
borrowing a truck, or trying to cram things like mattresses into our
small little sedan. On the downside, it does mean that I don't have
all of my stuff yet. On the upside its like Christmas every day! :D
Things don't seem to have sunk in with the kids yet. Hopefully
they will adjust quickly and easily to this new arrangement. Jenny
had a good day with them yesterday until about 20 minutes before I
called her. Then the kids started accidentally spilling their dinner
and drinks all over the house. And William wiped his bloody nose on
the carpet. :)
Today it was my turn to have some fun. I've decided that I'll
bike to my office on campus on the days I'm not with Jenny and the
kids. It's only about 4 miles away. No problem! Well, that was the
thought anyway. (I made that decision because it would give me the
opportunity to concentrate better, get some regular exercise, and use
the internet (the free internet here at the apartment in painfully
slow.)) So this morning I hoped on my bike and started peddling. I
had looked up directions, but I got a little lost for a bit. And by a
little I mean really and by a bit I mean over an hour. Yeah, I
actually made it to the Barnes and Noble where Jenny likes to go to do
her homework before I realized that I was way off track. I had even
been going up and down streets with names like "Mountain Climb",
"Hillcrest", and "If you are biking on this road then you are a
moron." Okay, so I made that last one up, but the first two were
ligit. But, thanks to Jenny's help on the phone I was able to find a
bus stop and take that bus to another bus stop where I got on a
different bus that took me to campus. About an hour late for the
meeting that I was planning on being half an hour early to. :P Oh
well. Luckily, on the way home things went a lot better! In spite of
being very tired, I was able to make the trip back in about 30
minutes. So we'll see how it goes next time.
Originally written: 07/10/12
So, Carly said something rather entertaining yesterday and I thought that that was a good sign that it was time to send out another of those random emails that I send out every so often. I was working on something and Carly came up and sat herself in my lap. This is a sign that she wants attention, but she is too polite to ask for it. Naturally it is rather difficult to work on a computer when a three-year-old (almost four-year-old) is sitting on your lap, especially when your computer is a laptop, so I asked her how she was doing. "Good. Daddy, when I poop out a monkey I will love that monkey and I bet he will love me too, and that monkey will not run away." Well, as you can imagine this was not exactly what I was expecting. I asked if her if she were planning on pooping out any monkeys anytime soon and she shook her head and explained that it would still be awhile. But she promised to let me know whenever the happy event takes place. Jenny explained to me later that Carly had been asking about where babies come from, and after a little conversation with Jenny about it she had come to understand that mommies grow babies in their tummies and then poop them out.
In other news, William and Michael are really enjoying Tae Kwon Do! This week their instructors are out of town at the national competition in Louisiana, so there are no classes, but they are very much looking forward to next week. They love going everyday. They are both learning a lot! They love to show us their moves and recite the stuff they have memorized. Williamhas also decided that he is going to make up a dance based on the moves he is learning in Tae Kwon Do. Rather reminds me of the idea behind Capoeira (forgive any spelling mistake.) And Michael is just plain cute! He looks so adorable in his little uniform! And he gets such a serious little face when he's doing his training. And he is always very proud to show off what he has learned and any new stripes he has gotten on his belt. :)
Meanwhile, Jenny and I are keeping busy with our schooling and jobs. So we're doing pretty good. We're both trying to lose weight, and its nice that we can support each other in that endeavor. Though I did get a bunch of really nice candy for a piñata the other day, and Jenny has been cooking some REALLY good food, and we had a LOT of yummy leftovers from the 4th of July, but other than that we've been controlling how much and what we eat pretty well. :)
In other news, William and Michael are really enjoying Tae Kwon Do! This week their instructors are out of town at the national competition in Louisiana, so there are no classes, but they are very much looking forward to next week. They love going everyday. They are both learning a lot! They love to show us their moves and recite the stuff they have memorized. Williamhas also decided that he is going to make up a dance based on the moves he is learning in Tae Kwon Do. Rather reminds me of the idea behind Capoeira (forgive any spelling mistake.) And Michael is just plain cute! He looks so adorable in his little uniform! And he gets such a serious little face when he's doing his training. And he is always very proud to show off what he has learned and any new stripes he has gotten on his belt. :)
Meanwhile, Jenny and I are keeping busy with our schooling and jobs. So we're doing pretty good. We're both trying to lose weight, and its nice that we can support each other in that endeavor. Though I did get a bunch of really nice candy for a piñata the other day, and Jenny has been cooking some REALLY good food, and we had a LOT of yummy leftovers from the 4th of July, but other than that we've been controlling how much and what we eat pretty well. :)
Originally written: 05/04/12
So, most of you are probably unaware of the fact that Carly had a pretty traumatic experience a few days ago. She had just finished having a bowel movement on the toilet, but when she flushed, the water didn't go down!! To her complete horror, the water "got bigger and bigger!" Jenny jumped to the rescue and fixed the toilet, explaining that it was just that there had been too much stuff in the toilet. Apparently Michael had had one of his legendary poos, (which can be bigger than mine) and hadn't flushed (he's scared of flushes.) In retrospect, it might have been better to tell Carly that she was hallucinating and the water never did back up. I say this because our once perfectly potty-trained little angel is now terrified of the toilet. Instead of just going peepee or poopoo in the toilet all by herself, like she used to, she how bursts into tears and tries to hold back as long as she can, running around the house with a hand clamped firmly on whichever end is currently trying to emit something. Needless to say she's been soiling her panties a LOT lately. The reason I bring this up, is that I just heard her whimpering in her bedroom, so I meandered in there... just in time to catch a big ol' log with my bare hand before it hit the floor. Ugh. I sure hope she gets over this new paranoia soon! :P
In other news, on Sunday William beat me fair and square at SmallWorld, Quirkle and Connect 4! What's up with that?! True, I beat him like 20 times at Connect 4 and once at SmallWorld, but I shouldn't be losing to him at all yet! My plan for this Sunday is to challenge him to a round of Risk and see how he likes them apples. >:o} If that doesn't work, we may have to take up paintball.
And that brings us to little Mr. Michael. Our angel middle child. Michael has started this thing recently where he really wants to watch Daddy play New Super Mario Brothers Wii, but he knows that Daddy won't play alone, so he asks to play with Daddy. Then he joyfully kills himself off as fast as he can so that he can watch Daddy play. But Daddy is starting to pick up on this, and Daddy has a plan. It mostly involves Daddy's little mario guy picking up Michael's little mario guy and carrying him through the level. :) Michael gets quite a kick out of that! And he especially loves jumping out of my guy's arms right when I'm above something deadly, like a bottomless pit or spikes or lava, which causes both of us to plummet to our death, which he gleefully points out as he's jumping up and down with a huge smile on his face all over the living room. Yes, Michael loooooooooves playing games with Daddy! :)
In other news, on Sunday William beat me fair and square at SmallWorld, Quirkle and Connect 4! What's up with that?! True, I beat him like 20 times at Connect 4 and once at SmallWorld, but I shouldn't be losing to him at all yet! My plan for this Sunday is to challenge him to a round of Risk and see how he likes them apples. >:o} If that doesn't work, we may have to take up paintball.
And that brings us to little Mr. Michael. Our angel middle child. Michael has started this thing recently where he really wants to watch Daddy play New Super Mario Brothers Wii, but he knows that Daddy won't play alone, so he asks to play with Daddy. Then he joyfully kills himself off as fast as he can so that he can watch Daddy play. But Daddy is starting to pick up on this, and Daddy has a plan. It mostly involves Daddy's little mario guy picking up Michael's little mario guy and carrying him through the level. :) Michael gets quite a kick out of that! And he especially loves jumping out of my guy's arms right when I'm above something deadly, like a bottomless pit or spikes or lava, which causes both of us to plummet to our death, which he gleefully points out as he's jumping up and down with a huge smile on his face all over the living room. Yes, Michael loooooooooves playing games with Daddy! :)
Originally written: 04/03/12
I mowed the lawn this morning so I'm presently enjoying an itchy nose and the hopes that I won't have to repeat the process for at least a month or so. Anyway, I also had an interesting conversation with William this morning. Over breakfast he asked "Dad, how much more school do I have?" I chocked on my bagel as I wondered whether I should try to explain that I'm still in school and will be for at least another two years, or whether I should leave him with some hope. I decided on hope. I told him that he only has to go to school through 12th grade. He did the math and realized that he still had 11 years to go. But he seemed pretty happy. Then he asked what he would do after school. I, naturally, thought that he meant as far as a job, so I told him that he could do whatever he wanted to do. He excitedly replied: "I want to stay home and play video games!" He was disappointed when I explained that he would have to get a job so that he could live in his own house. But he did like the idea of getting his own car. I'm not sure when he became a teenager, but it seems to have come early.
At school today Jenny brought the kids in William's class some boiled eggs to dye. I asked her whether the kids were excited to see her as each time she comes she brings activities and/or treats. She giggled and said that yes they do, and that several of them have told her that they wish that she were their mommy so that they could have fun all the time! Apparently there is one little boy who laments the lack of a biological connection between them each time she comes. :)
Meanwhile, back at home Michael was taking a nap. When William came home he was going to dye the leftover eggs, so I woke Michael and asked if he would like to help William. He didn't. He went back to sleep. I came back a few minutes later and called his name, no response, didn't even bat his eye. I turned on the TV, turned down the volume reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally low, so I could barely hear it, and turned on New Super Mario Brothers Wii. Michael was out of his bed like a shot and ran into the living room asking "Can I play too, Dad?!" very excitedly. Yes, Michael also has his priorities worked out to his satisfaction. :)
Oddly enough, nothing to report on Carly right now. Very odd. Hang on, I'd better go check and see if she's up to something. Okay, we're good. For now.
At school today Jenny brought the kids in William's class some boiled eggs to dye. I asked her whether the kids were excited to see her as each time she comes she brings activities and/or treats. She giggled and said that yes they do, and that several of them have told her that they wish that she were their mommy so that they could have fun all the time! Apparently there is one little boy who laments the lack of a biological connection between them each time she comes. :)
Meanwhile, back at home Michael was taking a nap. When William came home he was going to dye the leftover eggs, so I woke Michael and asked if he would like to help William. He didn't. He went back to sleep. I came back a few minutes later and called his name, no response, didn't even bat his eye. I turned on the TV, turned down the volume reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally low, so I could barely hear it, and turned on New Super Mario Brothers Wii. Michael was out of his bed like a shot and ran into the living room asking "Can I play too, Dad?!" very excitedly. Yes, Michael also has his priorities worked out to his satisfaction. :)
Oddly enough, nothing to report on Carly right now. Very odd. Hang on, I'd better go check and see if she's up to something. Okay, we're good. For now.
Originally written: 03/08/12
The kids have been a little extra cute lately, so I thought that I'd send out another update on them to the family. :) Let's start with the oldest. Williamhas recently decided that he would like a place to keep his stuff where no one else can get at it. (Specifically Carly, who laughs maniacally whenever she finds something that belongs to him and runs off with it and does unspeakable things to it, such as throw it across the room.) He told me several times that he really wants something that he can lock, with a key, to keep his stuff safe from Carly. So, for his birthday I made him a wooden treasure chest that has a big, fat lock on the front. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out actually. Anyway, I showed it to William, because Jenny couldn't keep a secret and told him about it, and he was very excited! He was like "Wow dad, this is awesome! And it comes with a key!" I explained to him that it came with two keys, he could keep one, and we would keep the other. If (i.e. when) he ever lost his key, he would have to save up his money in order to pay for a copy of our key to be made at the store. He nonchalantly informed me that he would never have to worry about that. I tried to explain that it is very easy to lose keys, and that he should think of a safe place to keep it. He smiled at me condescendingly and said "Dad, I'm going to keep it in the lock, of course, so I'm not going to lose it." Well, that put me in my place. :)
Moving on to Michael, this morning he was really excited that I was going to play Just Dance 3 again, and he got his remote and got next to me, and we started dancing, and then Jenny let out the tiniest giggle. Poor little Michael immediately put down the remote and curled into a little ball on the couch trying not to cry because his mommy had laughed at him. She hadn't even been giggling at him, but poor little Michael just couldn't get back on the dance floor. We reminded him how excited he had been to play, how good he was at it, how much fun it was... finally we bribed him with candy. He reluctantly joined me for the next song. :)
Carly. Oh Carly, Carly, Carly... So, yesterday Jenny was reading something while sitting on the floor, and Carly came over, as is her want, and sat next to Jenny with her own book and starting thumbing through it. Jenny noticed that Carly was making a little more noise than usual while thumbing and finally looked over to ask Carly to be a little more gentle with the book, and then she noticed what Carly was doing. She would turn a page, hock a loogie onto the page, turn the page, hock a loogie onto that page, etc. She was quite relaxed and reposed and serious while doing this mind you. Just as if she were a little adult working on a computer. Only she was a little girl hocking loogies into a book! :)
Moving on to Michael, this morning he was really excited that I was going to play Just Dance 3 again, and he got his remote and got next to me, and we started dancing, and then Jenny let out the tiniest giggle. Poor little Michael immediately put down the remote and curled into a little ball on the couch trying not to cry because his mommy had laughed at him. She hadn't even been giggling at him, but poor little Michael just couldn't get back on the dance floor. We reminded him how excited he had been to play, how good he was at it, how much fun it was... finally we bribed him with candy. He reluctantly joined me for the next song. :)
Carly. Oh Carly, Carly, Carly... So, yesterday Jenny was reading something while sitting on the floor, and Carly came over, as is her want, and sat next to Jenny with her own book and starting thumbing through it. Jenny noticed that Carly was making a little more noise than usual while thumbing and finally looked over to ask Carly to be a little more gentle with the book, and then she noticed what Carly was doing. She would turn a page, hock a loogie onto the page, turn the page, hock a loogie onto that page, etc. She was quite relaxed and reposed and serious while doing this mind you. Just as if she were a little adult working on a computer. Only she was a little girl hocking loogies into a book! :)
Originally written: 02/19/12
I hope that this message finds you all well this fine day. :) We're all doing well here in Texas. The boys are especially grateful that I was finally able to fix our Wii yesterday (the DVD drive had gone bad and they were going through Wii-thdrawal). All three of the kids are getting so big so fast! William's feet are almost as big as Jenny's now, and he has way outgrown his Sunday clothes, most of his school clothes, and, much to our chagrin when he first gets up in the morning, he has just about outgrown his underwear. (We're planning on doing some shopping for him this week.) I can't believe he's turning 7 in a month! Michael is just as happy and bouncy as ever. In fact, the poor guy has been catching a lot of flack lately for jumping. Jumping on the couch, jumping on the recliner, jumping on the bed, jumping on the chairs, jumping on the table, jumping during meals, jumping during movies, jumping on books, jumping on the backpack with the laptop inside it, jumping, jumping, jumping! :) He's just so happy and full of energy all of the time that its amazing. He's really excited to be going with Jenny on a trip to see Nana, Grandad and Aunt Mandy this weekend without the rest of us tagging along. He does tend to get overlooked a bit since he is a perfect angel (except the jubilant jumping) and the middle child, so we are trying to go out of our way to do special stuff with him whenever we can. And then there's Carly.
So, several days ago Carly decided that she needed bangs. I'm experiencing physical pain just telling you about this. :( Yes, she gave herself a rather... interesting hair cut. Jenny did her best to fix it, but... <sob> Anyway, she has done some other very cute things recently to make up for this. For example, the other night I asked her to say the bedtime prayer and she cheerfully agreed. She then proceeded to say the prayer while rolling (with her arms folded and her eyes closed) all the way across the living room, and then all the way back again! :) At one point her tummy must have been pressed just the right way because there was an audible release of bodily gases. And all the while she was very cheerfully saying her bedtime prayer. Needless to say Jenny and I burst out laughing when she finally finished praying. But she was adamant that she had been reverent because she kept her arms folded and her eyes closed the entire time. At church today her primary teacher (who lives right across the street from us and is a good friend of ours) was chuckling when she told me that during class Carly had said: "Teacher, my Mommy loves me Thiiiiiiisss much (stretching on her toes to reach as high in the air as she could with her little hands) and my Daddy loves me this much (holding her hands in front of her about three inches apart.)" We had a good laugh about that one too. :) (Right before church she had given a similar description of her perception of her parental adoration, but with the measurements reversed.) Also, a few days ago I poked my head in her bedroom where she and Michael were quietly playing to praise them for doing so, and her head shot up from behind her bed with that expression on her face that you instantly recognize. You know the look. Its the look that immediately communicates the message "Have I been caught?" Well, I walked over to where she was sequestered and looked down, and at first I didn't see anything, so I started feel a bit relieved, then I noticed some white stuff on her dark shirt, so I asked her to go change her shirt, then, when she stood up, I noticed that she was holding a toothpaste bottle. Uh oh. Yep, she had toothpaste on her shirt alright, but it didn't look too bad, oh wait, there was a little on the floor too. I went and got some wipes, then came back, then I noticed... IT. Yes, she had slathered a quarter-inch layer of toothpaste over three-quarters of one of her plastic baby dolls! I scolded her and bent down to pick it up and in the process put my hand on the lever of the recliner in order to support my aging frame on the way down, and immediately my brain registered something out of the ordinary. Normally recliner levers are not that slimy. I mean, you expect small flecks of slime on just about anything when you have little kids, but this was a full-grip slime. Needless to say I had a minty-fresh handshake for the rest of the day. :) I couldn't help myself, I started laughing. This immediately cheered Carly, who came over and gave me one of her patented Carly-hugs. If you haven't had one, they are amazing! She wraps her small arms all the way around your neck, hugs you close, kisses you lightly on the cheek, whispers "I love you!" and gets out of any punishment she should have gotten. Yes, being Carly certainly has its advantages!
So, several days ago Carly decided that she needed bangs. I'm experiencing physical pain just telling you about this. :( Yes, she gave herself a rather... interesting hair cut. Jenny did her best to fix it, but... <sob> Anyway, she has done some other very cute things recently to make up for this. For example, the other night I asked her to say the bedtime prayer and she cheerfully agreed. She then proceeded to say the prayer while rolling (with her arms folded and her eyes closed) all the way across the living room, and then all the way back again! :) At one point her tummy must have been pressed just the right way because there was an audible release of bodily gases. And all the while she was very cheerfully saying her bedtime prayer. Needless to say Jenny and I burst out laughing when she finally finished praying. But she was adamant that she had been reverent because she kept her arms folded and her eyes closed the entire time. At church today her primary teacher (who lives right across the street from us and is a good friend of ours) was chuckling when she told me that during class Carly had said: "Teacher, my Mommy loves me Thiiiiiiisss much (stretching on her toes to reach as high in the air as she could with her little hands) and my Daddy loves me this much (holding her hands in front of her about three inches apart.)" We had a good laugh about that one too. :) (Right before church she had given a similar description of her perception of her parental adoration, but with the measurements reversed.) Also, a few days ago I poked my head in her bedroom where she and Michael were quietly playing to praise them for doing so, and her head shot up from behind her bed with that expression on her face that you instantly recognize. You know the look. Its the look that immediately communicates the message "Have I been caught?" Well, I walked over to where she was sequestered and looked down, and at first I didn't see anything, so I started feel a bit relieved, then I noticed some white stuff on her dark shirt, so I asked her to go change her shirt, then, when she stood up, I noticed that she was holding a toothpaste bottle. Uh oh. Yep, she had toothpaste on her shirt alright, but it didn't look too bad, oh wait, there was a little on the floor too. I went and got some wipes, then came back, then I noticed... IT. Yes, she had slathered a quarter-inch layer of toothpaste over three-quarters of one of her plastic baby dolls! I scolded her and bent down to pick it up and in the process put my hand on the lever of the recliner in order to support my aging frame on the way down, and immediately my brain registered something out of the ordinary. Normally recliner levers are not that slimy. I mean, you expect small flecks of slime on just about anything when you have little kids, but this was a full-grip slime. Needless to say I had a minty-fresh handshake for the rest of the day. :) I couldn't help myself, I started laughing. This immediately cheered Carly, who came over and gave me one of her patented Carly-hugs. If you haven't had one, they are amazing! She wraps her small arms all the way around your neck, hugs you close, kisses you lightly on the cheek, whispers "I love you!" and gets out of any punishment she should have gotten. Yes, being Carly certainly has its advantages!
Originally written: 09/11/11
So, this week we had a few good one-liners from some of the kids.
When I was walking William home from school (which he is immensely
enjoying) on Friday, he was telling me about the game he and his
buddies are playing during recess. Apparently they have gotten up to
level 4! I don't even remember having levels in the games I played in
first grade, but there you have it. :) Anyway, he was telling me
about how level 1 was easy, level 2 was pretty easy, and level 3 was
hard. "And level four is really, really hard! It's as hard as eating
pickles!" There you have it, the epitome of difficulty in life. :)
(We use pickles as punishment for waking us up early on Saturday and
Sunday mornings, if you get us up before we want to, then you have to
eat pickles before you can eat what you want for breakfast.)
On a more religious note, today in Sacrament Meeting, while the
congregation was singing a hymn, Carly decided that she'd like to sing
along! Normally we encourage this behavior, and people have
complemented us on the verses that our kids have made up to go along
with the hymns (since they don't have the memorized yet and can't read
them). Usually their hymns are something like "I'm happy, I love
Jesus, I love Mommy" etc. Anyway today for some reason Carly decided
to sing about a boat. So she sang "Ship! Ship! Ship! Ship!..." in
a very happy loud voice. One tiny problem was that her vocalization
of the final consonant was a little ambiguous, so needless to say
Jenny and I were quick to try and get her to shush. But she was quite
determined, and sang out quite loudly several times. Usually while
there was a lull in the hymn, or at least that's how it seemed. :)
So, as you might guess, Jenny and I had a hard time singing the rest
of the hymn since we were busy trying hard not to bust out in
laughter. :)
Michael is getting excited about Halloween. Who wouldn't?
Candy! So, today he was trying out costumes. He was quite pleased
with the scrubs that he tried on, until he found out that we didn't
have the cap or mask. So then he tried on the Batman jumpsuit, and
has enjoyed running around the house in that for quite a while now.
He's even willing to wear it in spite of the lack of a mask. :)
Okay, there wasn't really a quote of the week for Michael. Sorry.
But he has also been getting really good at his lego skills!
Yesterday he built, by himself, a very cool looking space ship which
comfortably housed a pilot, two passengers, R2-D2, and a handful of
prisoners in an enclosed prison! The sucker was very recognizable as
a space ship with very nice wings, and packed quite an arsenal of
weaponry as well! I was very impressed!
Oh yes, William has lost another tooth, which has won him a lot
of attention from Mom, Dad, and the Tooth Fairy. Seeing this, Carly
has decided that one of her teeth is loose and insists that it will
fall out at any moment. :) We're keeping her away from hammers and
pliers just to be sure her prediction doesn't pan out.
Finally, we just wanted to let everyone know that we're doing
well in spite of all of the wildfires in the area. In the past four
weeks we've had at least four fires in Leander. One of them was right
across the street (we had to maneuver around fire trucks in order to
get into our driveway.) Three families in the Ward have had their
homes burned to the ground, and our neighbor across the street had
part of their fence burned down. So, needless to say we're still
praying for rain and hope that we can get some relief soon.
Specifically, we'd like a hurricane to smash into Houston, destroying
the entire city, and dropping several feet of water on us. :)
Luckily our yard is so dry that it's mostly just gray dust at this
point, so I think the only thing that could bring fire to our home
itself is the fence.
When I was walking William home from school (which he is immensely
enjoying) on Friday, he was telling me about the game he and his
buddies are playing during recess. Apparently they have gotten up to
level 4! I don't even remember having levels in the games I played in
first grade, but there you have it. :) Anyway, he was telling me
about how level 1 was easy, level 2 was pretty easy, and level 3 was
hard. "And level four is really, really hard! It's as hard as eating
pickles!" There you have it, the epitome of difficulty in life. :)
(We use pickles as punishment for waking us up early on Saturday and
Sunday mornings, if you get us up before we want to, then you have to
eat pickles before you can eat what you want for breakfast.)
On a more religious note, today in Sacrament Meeting, while the
congregation was singing a hymn, Carly decided that she'd like to sing
along! Normally we encourage this behavior, and people have
complemented us on the verses that our kids have made up to go along
with the hymns (since they don't have the memorized yet and can't read
them). Usually their hymns are something like "I'm happy, I love
Jesus, I love Mommy" etc. Anyway today for some reason Carly decided
to sing about a boat. So she sang "Ship! Ship! Ship! Ship!..." in
a very happy loud voice. One tiny problem was that her vocalization
of the final consonant was a little ambiguous, so needless to say
Jenny and I were quick to try and get her to shush. But she was quite
determined, and sang out quite loudly several times. Usually while
there was a lull in the hymn, or at least that's how it seemed. :)
So, as you might guess, Jenny and I had a hard time singing the rest
of the hymn since we were busy trying hard not to bust out in
laughter. :)
Michael is getting excited about Halloween. Who wouldn't?
Candy! So, today he was trying out costumes. He was quite pleased
with the scrubs that he tried on, until he found out that we didn't
have the cap or mask. So then he tried on the Batman jumpsuit, and
has enjoyed running around the house in that for quite a while now.
He's even willing to wear it in spite of the lack of a mask. :)
Okay, there wasn't really a quote of the week for Michael. Sorry.
But he has also been getting really good at his lego skills!
Yesterday he built, by himself, a very cool looking space ship which
comfortably housed a pilot, two passengers, R2-D2, and a handful of
prisoners in an enclosed prison! The sucker was very recognizable as
a space ship with very nice wings, and packed quite an arsenal of
weaponry as well! I was very impressed!
Oh yes, William has lost another tooth, which has won him a lot
of attention from Mom, Dad, and the Tooth Fairy. Seeing this, Carly
has decided that one of her teeth is loose and insists that it will
fall out at any moment. :) We're keeping her away from hammers and
pliers just to be sure her prediction doesn't pan out.
Finally, we just wanted to let everyone know that we're doing
well in spite of all of the wildfires in the area. In the past four
weeks we've had at least four fires in Leander. One of them was right
across the street (we had to maneuver around fire trucks in order to
get into our driveway.) Three families in the Ward have had their
homes burned to the ground, and our neighbor across the street had
part of their fence burned down. So, needless to say we're still
praying for rain and hope that we can get some relief soon.
Specifically, we'd like a hurricane to smash into Houston, destroying
the entire city, and dropping several feet of water on us. :)
Luckily our yard is so dry that it's mostly just gray dust at this
point, so I think the only thing that could bring fire to our home
itself is the fence.
Originally written: 07/12/11
So, we went and
got Carly's free portrait session done about a week ago. And thanks
to the incredible speed of modern technology, it only took me three
emails to customer service and a week of waiting to be able to access
them instantaneously online! :D Unfortunately,
even though Carly is incredibly cute in these pictures, the
photographer was kind of green and had a hard time getting Carly to
smile. :( So we're thinking of doing another free session with Carly
in a few more weeks. And then maybe a family session or an
all-the-kids-together session.
On another note, here is an update on some recent quotes from the kids:
Carly (running up to me with a sense of urgency, and with a tone of
excitement): "Look Daddy, I'm growing!" (This happened several times
a day for three or four days in a row.)
Michael (its early in the morning and Jenny is still asleep, the kids
were just reproached for being too loud, and Michael is speaking to
me, nay, almost yelling at me): "Hey Dad, Carly and William are being
too loud again!" (Yes son, now I'm going to have to kill you.)
William (does it really matter what the context is): "Wow Dad! You
have a big butt!" (Yes, thank you, I'm working on it... I think I'll
go finish off that chocolate ice cream now.)
Carly (yesterday in the van, singing happily to herself): "Me, me, me,
me, me, me, me, me..." (You get the idea, this went on for about a
good five minutes. Ironically anytime Jenny would look back at her,
she would say: "Don't look at me!")
Michael (I'm trying to get dressed very quietly early in the morning
when Jenny is still asleep and Michael walks into the room and in a
loud voice asks): "Daddy, is Mommy still asleep?" (Nope, not
anymore.)
William (he is chasing Michael and Carly around the house pretending
he's a jaguar, Carly and Michael are screaming at the top of their
lungs in outright panic, I kindly ;) ask him to "stop pretending you
are a jaguar chasing your brother and sister, they don't like it and
its making them be too loud!" William agrees and then, speaking to
Michael and Carly says): "Okay guys, now I'm a T-Rex! ROAR!!!"
(Michael and Carly of course start screaming in even more horror... I
think we have a communication issue.)
got Carly's free portrait session done about a week ago. And thanks
to the incredible speed of modern technology, it only took me three
emails to customer service and a week of waiting to be able to access
them instantaneously online! :D Unfortunately,
even though Carly is incredibly cute in these pictures, the
photographer was kind of green and had a hard time getting Carly to
smile. :( So we're thinking of doing another free session with Carly
in a few more weeks. And then maybe a family session or an
all-the-kids-together session.
On another note, here is an update on some recent quotes from the kids:
Carly (running up to me with a sense of urgency, and with a tone of
excitement): "Look Daddy, I'm growing!" (This happened several times
a day for three or four days in a row.)
Michael (its early in the morning and Jenny is still asleep, the kids
were just reproached for being too loud, and Michael is speaking to
me, nay, almost yelling at me): "Hey Dad, Carly and William are being
too loud again!" (Yes son, now I'm going to have to kill you.)
William (does it really matter what the context is): "Wow Dad! You
have a big butt!" (Yes, thank you, I'm working on it... I think I'll
go finish off that chocolate ice cream now.)
Carly (yesterday in the van, singing happily to herself): "Me, me, me,
me, me, me, me, me..." (You get the idea, this went on for about a
good five minutes. Ironically anytime Jenny would look back at her,
she would say: "Don't look at me!")
Michael (I'm trying to get dressed very quietly early in the morning
when Jenny is still asleep and Michael walks into the room and in a
loud voice asks): "Daddy, is Mommy still asleep?" (Nope, not
anymore.)
William (he is chasing Michael and Carly around the house pretending
he's a jaguar, Carly and Michael are screaming at the top of their
lungs in outright panic, I kindly ;) ask him to "stop pretending you
are a jaguar chasing your brother and sister, they don't like it and
its making them be too loud!" William agrees and then, speaking to
Michael and Carly says): "Okay guys, now I'm a T-Rex! ROAR!!!"
(Michael and Carly of course start screaming in even more horror... I
think we have a communication issue.)
Originally written: 05/14/11
Update time already? Gees, where does the time go? I think that
most of you are probably pretty up-to-date on us Texan Wendorfs, but
I'll go ahead and give everyone a quick rundown.
Me - I'm tired. I gave my students an exam from 7 - 9 pm last night,
then waited for the 9:50 bus to take me home and drop me off at the
bus stop at 10:50. Then it was a 15 minute car ride home and then
dinner and bed. We had an early start this morning because we got to
go to the Temple together and do an endowment for the first time
in...well...years! Getting up the courage to ask for babysitters is
always challenging. In this case the Relief Society president
actually called us and offered to do it for free! Anyway, Jenny and I
had a really nice trip and session. It was nice to get to chat during
the drive and to be together in the Temple again. It was a very nice
way to end yet another semester at school! Yes, one more is down!
That means that I'm down to two more semesters of taking classes, then
four semesters of working on my dissertation, and then maybe I'll get
a real job! :D Hey, all of a sudden I feel even more tired! ;)
Jenny - As you all know, Jenny is kept plenty busy with Michael and
Carly at home all of the time, and with William at home when he's not
at school. Nevertheless, Jenny has been incredibly blessed to find
the time to do some writing, and has recently had two of her short
stories accepted for publication! Anna has drawn an amazing piece of
artwork for one of them already! Jenny is also really close to
finishing the last pre-editor draft of her first novel! Soon she'll
be looking for an agent to help her do another revision of the novel
and help her try to get it published with a good, well-known
publisher. Jenny is quite pleased with the facts that she both: 1.
got published before she turns 30 next year, and 2. got published
before I did. Jenny has also recently started an online bachelors
degree with a nice, accredited school, so she's even busier than
normal, but somehow she still manages to keep smiling all of the time.
That's when I like to tickle her!
William - William, 6, is quite enjoying himself at Kindergarten!
He's learned a lot and is definitely at the head of his class when it
comes to reading and math! He's also become quite an expert on Star
Wars thanks to his little hooligan friends at school. :) He loves
telling us all about Star Wars and the characters and the main plot
points. His favorite character is Darth Thader, and his weapon of
choice is a red light saber, and apparently in episode 100 Darth
Thader kills Yoda and then they all go hang out with Obi-One at
Ci-Ci's pizza...hey Daddy, can we go to Ci-Ci's pizza? Of course, we
have helped fuel his passion a bit by getting him a Star Wars Lego Wii
game for his past birthday and allowing him to see three of the PG
Star Wars movies. On another note, William will be getting
prescription glasses next week that he has to wear all of the time
except when sleeping or bathing. So I think that I will start wearing
my glasses too...I've noticed that recently street signs have been
getting blurrier and blurrier. (It must be because of the bad
economy, they just can't afford good print jobs anymore.)
Michael - Michael is still just as cute and sweet as ever. He's
probably 4 or something like that and is really good at reading his
letters and numbers. Carly has proclaimed that Michael is her best
friend! When William is at school Carly and Michael do everything
together! And they have a BLAST! Michael comes up with a plan, and
they run around the entire house screaming with delight in each others
company! And indeed it's hard to not like Michael! He's always
smiling and hopping (literally) around everywhere! Michael loves to
make sure that each day has a plan, that each shopping trip has a
list, and that everyone gets their turn! Whenever I take him
shopping, he always makes sure that anything I put in the cart was
already on the list (I admit that I have lied to him a few times so
that I could get something that caught my eye, such as chocolate syrup
for the ice cream (which was on the list!)) He does have a tendency
to break into tears when something doesn't go his way. Such as when I
turn off the Wii or his little Darth Maul can't quite make that last
jump. (Jump Darth Maul, Jump! No, no, no!!!...<tears>) Because his
birthdate is just a few days too late, Michael will not be starting
Kindergarten for another year.
Carolyn - Carly is just about the cutest darn 2 year old you ever saw!
She loves to smile and run around and color and grab anything that
her brothers happen to be holding and then run away screaming with
delight. She's also got quite a vocabulary! That little girl can
talk for HOURS without so much as blinking, breathing, or anything
else that most people consider vital to survival. As far as I can
tell her favorite way to end any given sentence is "right, Dad?"
She's 2, right, and she says stuff like: "I don't know if I want this
one or the other one Daddy." What 2 year old says crap like that?!
Seriously! But you know what, she doesn't speak in public...AT ALL!
The nursery people were astounded when, after Carly had already been
attending for several months, Jenny became the nursery music person
and when she showed up Carly said "hi mommy" and they were like "hey,
she can talk!" It's like that cartoon with the singing frog that
refuses to sing in front of anyone except that pig-man cartoon. And
can she make a pouty face! It's enough to break your heart! She gets
the lower lip quivering and the sad, sad droopy eyes, and the
whimpering and the head bowing low into her folded arms, and then she
peeks to see if you are still watching, and if you bust out the camera
to get a picture of her act she breaks into a big smile! She LOVES
getting her picture taken! She is cute and beautiful and a princess
and she knows it and will tell you so! ("I'm a pretty princess, right
Daddy?") She's also in the middle of potty training, which is going
remarkably better with her than it did for the boys. Though we
haven't started on the night-time phase yet, so we'll see.
The whole family - Well, we've been incredibly blessed! Yes, we're
going into debt at a rate of about $10,000 a year for my schooling,
but the Lord has truly been blessing us! Our van almost never has any
problems, and when it does we can get pretty much anywhere with just
our bikes. A few weeks ago it started making a weird knocking noise,
and I strongly felt that we shouldn't drive it very fast and that we
should drive it as little as possible. So we went about a week
without using it hardly at all until I could take it in that Saturday.
I drove it about 30 miles at about 25 mph and dropped it off on
Friday night and then a neighbor drove me home. They called me the
next day and said that their technician got it about half a block and
then one of the front axles literally fell out onto the street! So,
we were incredibly blessed to have enough money to pay for the repair
and to not have the axle fall out on us while we were driving it
around! We have food stamps for food so we eat really well. We have
Wendorfs and Steens close by (albeit in opposite directions.) We have
a wonderful house in a very nice neighborhood. We're all healthy. My
school is going very well! (I had three different professors come up
to me towards the end of this semester asking if I'd work for them
over the summer! (Since most people have a hard time getting
professors to remember their names, let alone seek them out, this is
high praise!)) Jenny's writing is going incredibly well. Our kids
are almost always little angels, especially in public! I hope that
I'm not coming off as bragging. I'm just very, very grateful for all
that the Lord has blessed us with!!
most of you are probably pretty up-to-date on us Texan Wendorfs, but
I'll go ahead and give everyone a quick rundown.
Me - I'm tired. I gave my students an exam from 7 - 9 pm last night,
then waited for the 9:50 bus to take me home and drop me off at the
bus stop at 10:50. Then it was a 15 minute car ride home and then
dinner and bed. We had an early start this morning because we got to
go to the Temple together and do an endowment for the first time
in...well...years! Getting up the courage to ask for babysitters is
always challenging. In this case the Relief Society president
actually called us and offered to do it for free! Anyway, Jenny and I
had a really nice trip and session. It was nice to get to chat during
the drive and to be together in the Temple again. It was a very nice
way to end yet another semester at school! Yes, one more is down!
That means that I'm down to two more semesters of taking classes, then
four semesters of working on my dissertation, and then maybe I'll get
a real job! :D Hey, all of a sudden I feel even more tired! ;)
Jenny - As you all know, Jenny is kept plenty busy with Michael and
Carly at home all of the time, and with William at home when he's not
at school. Nevertheless, Jenny has been incredibly blessed to find
the time to do some writing, and has recently had two of her short
stories accepted for publication! Anna has drawn an amazing piece of
artwork for one of them already! Jenny is also really close to
finishing the last pre-editor draft of her first novel! Soon she'll
be looking for an agent to help her do another revision of the novel
and help her try to get it published with a good, well-known
publisher. Jenny is quite pleased with the facts that she both: 1.
got published before she turns 30 next year, and 2. got published
before I did. Jenny has also recently started an online bachelors
degree with a nice, accredited school, so she's even busier than
normal, but somehow she still manages to keep smiling all of the time.
That's when I like to tickle her!
William - William, 6, is quite enjoying himself at Kindergarten!
He's learned a lot and is definitely at the head of his class when it
comes to reading and math! He's also become quite an expert on Star
Wars thanks to his little hooligan friends at school. :) He loves
telling us all about Star Wars and the characters and the main plot
points. His favorite character is Darth Thader, and his weapon of
choice is a red light saber, and apparently in episode 100 Darth
Thader kills Yoda and then they all go hang out with Obi-One at
Ci-Ci's pizza...hey Daddy, can we go to Ci-Ci's pizza? Of course, we
have helped fuel his passion a bit by getting him a Star Wars Lego Wii
game for his past birthday and allowing him to see three of the PG
Star Wars movies. On another note, William will be getting
prescription glasses next week that he has to wear all of the time
except when sleeping or bathing. So I think that I will start wearing
my glasses too...I've noticed that recently street signs have been
getting blurrier and blurrier. (It must be because of the bad
economy, they just can't afford good print jobs anymore.)
Michael - Michael is still just as cute and sweet as ever. He's
probably 4 or something like that and is really good at reading his
letters and numbers. Carly has proclaimed that Michael is her best
friend! When William is at school Carly and Michael do everything
together! And they have a BLAST! Michael comes up with a plan, and
they run around the entire house screaming with delight in each others
company! And indeed it's hard to not like Michael! He's always
smiling and hopping (literally) around everywhere! Michael loves to
make sure that each day has a plan, that each shopping trip has a
list, and that everyone gets their turn! Whenever I take him
shopping, he always makes sure that anything I put in the cart was
already on the list (I admit that I have lied to him a few times so
that I could get something that caught my eye, such as chocolate syrup
for the ice cream (which was on the list!)) He does have a tendency
to break into tears when something doesn't go his way. Such as when I
turn off the Wii or his little Darth Maul can't quite make that last
jump. (Jump Darth Maul, Jump! No, no, no!!!...<tears>) Because his
birthdate is just a few days too late, Michael will not be starting
Kindergarten for another year.
Carolyn - Carly is just about the cutest darn 2 year old you ever saw!
She loves to smile and run around and color and grab anything that
her brothers happen to be holding and then run away screaming with
delight. She's also got quite a vocabulary! That little girl can
talk for HOURS without so much as blinking, breathing, or anything
else that most people consider vital to survival. As far as I can
tell her favorite way to end any given sentence is "right, Dad?"
She's 2, right, and she says stuff like: "I don't know if I want this
one or the other one Daddy." What 2 year old says crap like that?!
Seriously! But you know what, she doesn't speak in public...AT ALL!
The nursery people were astounded when, after Carly had already been
attending for several months, Jenny became the nursery music person
and when she showed up Carly said "hi mommy" and they were like "hey,
she can talk!" It's like that cartoon with the singing frog that
refuses to sing in front of anyone except that pig-man cartoon. And
can she make a pouty face! It's enough to break your heart! She gets
the lower lip quivering and the sad, sad droopy eyes, and the
whimpering and the head bowing low into her folded arms, and then she
peeks to see if you are still watching, and if you bust out the camera
to get a picture of her act she breaks into a big smile! She LOVES
getting her picture taken! She is cute and beautiful and a princess
and she knows it and will tell you so! ("I'm a pretty princess, right
Daddy?") She's also in the middle of potty training, which is going
remarkably better with her than it did for the boys. Though we
haven't started on the night-time phase yet, so we'll see.
The whole family - Well, we've been incredibly blessed! Yes, we're
going into debt at a rate of about $10,000 a year for my schooling,
but the Lord has truly been blessing us! Our van almost never has any
problems, and when it does we can get pretty much anywhere with just
our bikes. A few weeks ago it started making a weird knocking noise,
and I strongly felt that we shouldn't drive it very fast and that we
should drive it as little as possible. So we went about a week
without using it hardly at all until I could take it in that Saturday.
I drove it about 30 miles at about 25 mph and dropped it off on
Friday night and then a neighbor drove me home. They called me the
next day and said that their technician got it about half a block and
then one of the front axles literally fell out onto the street! So,
we were incredibly blessed to have enough money to pay for the repair
and to not have the axle fall out on us while we were driving it
around! We have food stamps for food so we eat really well. We have
Wendorfs and Steens close by (albeit in opposite directions.) We have
a wonderful house in a very nice neighborhood. We're all healthy. My
school is going very well! (I had three different professors come up
to me towards the end of this semester asking if I'd work for them
over the summer! (Since most people have a hard time getting
professors to remember their names, let alone seek them out, this is
high praise!)) Jenny's writing is going incredibly well. Our kids
are almost always little angels, especially in public! I hope that
I'm not coming off as bragging. I'm just very, very grateful for all
that the Lord has blessed us with!!
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