Life can be fun

Last weekend was pretty normal.  Not much to report.  One point of interest with Carly is on Friday night at around 2:00 in the morning she crawled into my bed.  This was somewhat unusual (it had not happened for over a year), so I was a little surprised, but I also wanted to go back to sleep, so I just went with it.  A few minutes later I woken up again by Carly who said that her tummy didn't feel good.  Okay, I was tired, asleep actually, so I just reassured her and went back to sleep.  Bad move.  The next time Carly woke me up a few minutes later she was throwing up all over my bed.  :P  Luckily she felt a lot better after that and no one has had any other problems since then.
The boys have started creating even more intricate Lego RPG games.  And they're actually starting to come up with rules for them!  Okay, so they were always coming up with rules... I mean always as in several times each turn during play.  But now they are starting to write down their rules ahead of time, and then work on refining them between sessions!  :O  So the next time I take them shopping with their allowance money I think I'm going to buy Munchkin and see if they that too.  :)
Speaking of fantasy stuff, I've been doing a lot of reading for pleasure for the past few weeks, which, of course, means fantasy books.  :)  In addition to reading even more of the Myth books by Robert Asprin, I've been reading more of the DiscWorld books by Terry Pratchett.  Both series are a lot of fun!  One of my favorite moments from the Myth books was when the team was trying to slow down the progress of an invading army, so Massha started distracting the lead general with her womanly charms, and Guido and Nunzio enlisted in the army to try to stir up dissent from within.  Well, as it turned out, having the general out of the picture was actually improving efficiency at head quarters, and everything that Guido and Nunzio tried to do actually improved morale and got them fast promotions!  For example, they tried to mess things up while assigned to a supply depot, but so that they wouldn't get caught, they decided to only mess up 1 in every 10 orders, and they worked to make the mistakes plausible (e.g. the wrong item had a very similar item number to the wrong item, they sent spring uniforms instead of winter uniforms, they broke their drill-instructor's arm, and they sent propaganda instead of toilet paper.)  Well, they got pulled into the office and were told that they were getting another promotion for their outstanding work!  Not only was their 90% efficiency a lot better than the army's average of 67%, but they were complimented on sending better things than were needed (e.g. the uniform order had been delayed, so the summer uniforms were actually what that group needed, breaking the drill-instructor's arm was recognized as an accident and demonstrated their impressive leadership potential, and the unit that received the propaganda leaflets had actually been suffering from terrible moral, which was happily reversed by said leaflets.)  Ah, I laughed!  As for the DiscWorld books.  Two of the many times I burst out laughing were: 1. when a guitar maker asked his apprentice: "where are those guitars you made when you were first learning the trade?" and his apprentice answered: "you mean the ones that you said sounded like street cats trying to take a crap when their butt is sewed shut?"  and 2. when death is riding his skeletal motorcycle and accidentally drives off a cliff and smack into the side of the adjoining cliff face in a fiery explosion, and the guy that he was after hears him, right before he dies, say: "Oh, shi..."  Oh yeah, I laughed at that one too!
Anyway, this weekend has been a little more notable in that we celebrated Carly's birthday!  To celebrate Jenny made an excellent cake and treated us all to a wonderful little kiddie amusement park (Carly was so excited she could hardly stay in her seat the whole way there, and was running around with a huge smile on her face giggling like a maniac the whole time we were there) on the outskirts of town which the kids immensely enjoyed (see pics).  Carly was also incredibly excited (jumping up and down like all over the place) to be getting presents!  The boys were excited as well, until they found out that the only thing she had received was books.  She got a couple Seuss books, Where's Waldo, a Disney story book with 55 stories, and Where the Sidewalk Ends.  We've already skimmed through the Where's Waldo, read one of the disney stories, read a few of the poems in Where the Sidewalk Ends, and read all of the Seuss books, and she just opened them up three hours ago!  Oh, and then I did cave in a little and get Mario Party 2 on the Wii Virtual Console.  Amazingly, Carly has won both games that we've played so far and that is without any help (and believe me, without any mercy from her brothers!)  Since this is the first game where she's been doing really well, she's been really excited about it!  (Again, jumping up and down all over the place.)  Yep, a lot of Carly smiles, hugs and kisses this week!  A special thanks to those of you who birthday cards with and without money!

The Summer has Begun

     Today is a relatively nice day, with moderate temperatures, rain, and cloud cover.  But in general the past few weeks have had nothing but blazing heat and clear skies.  Pretty much all the grass was brown until it started raining today.  It's just another reminder that eventually I would like to move somewhere with a more temperate climate.  Like maybe the inside of an active volcano.
      William Michael and Carolyn reported having a very good time visiting with their Nana and Granddad a couple weeks ago.  Apparently during this trip Jenny also discovered a new way to control William.  It's called MineCraft.  That's right buddy, William is now an official MineCraft aficionado.  He introduced me to the game when they got back, and now I confess that I enjoy playing it as well.  Right now I have a floating castle with a moat of lava.  It's not complete yet, but it already looks pretty darn cool if you ask me.
     In other news, last week I submitted my application for an instructorship with Angelo State University for this coming Fall and Spring.  I would be making a lot more money than I would teaching here at UT as an Assistant Instructor, which is nice.  It's also not too far away so I would still be able to commute back and forth when need be.  We'll see if I get the position.  I'm not wild about moving again.  Especially as it would more than likely only be for one year, but there are definite advantages to moving out there.
     This past weekend I was going to take the kids swimming, and they were really excited about that idea!  They burst through my apartment door carrying a huge bag of pool stuff, smiling at me with their bright red faces.  That's right, they were very sunburned.  (See picture of William's back).

Needless to say I decided not to take them to the pool this weekend.  Needless to say they were not pleased with this decision!
     We did have a good time though playing MineCraft, Legos, Blokus, and Wii together... inside... with the air conditioning.  Carly's favorite activity is still sitting in my lap and having me read her books, which we usually do several times a day, but she is also getting into Blokus and Legos.  Especially if she can make her brothers mad while participating in said activities.  She has also gotten into the habit of sneaking up on me when I'm not paying attention, usually because I'm reading a book for my own enjoyment, and then cackling maniacally as she tickles my feet.  She also enjoys hitting me with pillows, but this is somewhat more difficult since the pillows are not allowed to leave the bedroom.  The kids have also been enjoying the Ward we're attending now.  Here's a picture of them ready for church.

     Well, I think that's about it for now.  I've had a few requests to have the rss feed from this blog feed into my facebook account, but I can't seem to figure out how to do it.  If anyone knows how to do it please let me know!