A Subtle Difference

In a conversation with a friend yesterday regarding home schooling, I described our thinking on the matter in a way I don't think I have previously.

You may recall from previous posts here that to us, home school is not school at home, but more a philosophy... a way of educating. It's learning from every moment of life, rather than a more structured "this is school time" approach. It works well for us, and we have no intention (as far as we can see now) of changing the way we train/educate our children.

Some folks we know take a more "year by year" approach. Sometimes it's based on the thought, "I'm not sure how long we (or I) can do this..." But others see participating in government schools as a "part of life" and see more benefit than detriment, especially when their kids are older.

What I realized yesterday - as the words came out of my mouth - was that for us, our kids' "education" is not as much about schooling as it is about parenting. We "home school" (differently than most people we know) because we feel we are in the best position to train our kids how to live. There are many factors, but overall, it's the way we parent, not just an "educational" choice.

So, for as far as we can see, we'll keep doing it this way. You certainly can't know what tomorrow will bring, but what we know now is that we love doing life together as a family, and learning and training as we go.

50

We got back late tonight from quite a party. It was a gathering of many old friends - and some new - to celebrate a milestone. Unfortunately, it's rather rare these days, and not just due to "natural" causes.

Jen's parents will be celebrating fifty years of marriage on June 25th of this year. Fifty. Not being alive fifty years, which is strange enough. Fifty years of being married.

In a recent conversation, it was brought up that Jen's mom has been driving a school bus for thirty years now. That's a real long time to do that. But, when I put to use my excellent math skills, I deduced that my mother-in-law had been NOT driving a school bus for TWENTY years prior to that 30-year feat.

My mortgage will take me 30 years to pay off. I am just slightly past 30 years on the planet. 30 years is a long time.

And then there's 50.

Congrats to my second mother and father. Fifty years of living life together, and loving people together. They are quite good at it. The room was filled with people who have been loved by Jim & Carolyn, and the air was filled with many stories from those previous 50 years. And from all appearances, there will be many more to come.

Jen & I have only eclipsed ten years of life as one. It feels like longer - in a very good way. I can't remember not being married to Jen. But we're only a fifth of the way to where her mom & dad are this month. Incredible.

Life passes quickly - Tim Russert was gone this week in a heartbeat - but sometimes we get to enjoy it for a good long time. It's good to stop and look back at all that has been and celebrate the good gifts God has given us.

Driving home tonight, I just felt like telling my family that I love them. I love who we the Campbells are, and I love being the dad of this family.

Fifty years seems far off now, but I bet these days now will seem like "just yesterday" when we get there.

On we go.

It's Transition Week

We go through this with most of our kids. Alex was the worst so far... he loved his Nuk. (Pacifier, binky, plug, whatever you call it...) But he only took a few days of screaming and he was free of it. It's definitely hard work, and takes perseverance by us, the parents... and lots of love, hugs, and reassuring... but in the end it's worth it.

Well, it's Julia's turn. She has gotten very whiny if her Nuk is not in sight, and we just felt like it was a good time to wean her of it... and actually, she's doing pretty well so far!! She wants to "be a big girl" and is excited to show her Grandma this weekend that she can sleep (and go all day, too) without a Nuk! We'll see if she can do it! So far two nights down, and she's getting the hang of it!

It will be better for her, and all of us when the Nuk is gone... but...

She is pretty cute with it, no? :-)

My Treasure

Today I was looking out the window at my kids playing with their cousins, and it was very clear where my treasure is.

I can’t explain it other than an overwhelming sense of love for my kiddos. As I looked at them, I just really loved them, and I knew that there was nothing more important, or that I loved more. I think it may have extended to my nieces as well, but there was a definitely defining in my heart of my “treasure”.

The boys and I recently read the story Jesus told us that says where our treasure is, that’s where our heart will be also. The cool part is that Alex has repeated the story and that line at least a couple times since then. He got it. He understands. His interpretation is to consider the eternal things his “treasure.”

Including all the people he loves and who love him.

Looking out the window today, I got a fun reminder that my treasure (and my heart) is in a good place. :-)

Update from Greg's Head

I must say this poor blog has been quite neglected for the past couple weeks. It seems that my writing certainly goes in cycles. Sometimes I have lots to say and just can't help myself, so this blog is full of things to read. Sometimes I am so full of things to do that even though I do have things to say, I am not able to sit down and write them out. Other times, it's simply time for intake rather than output. I'd say we're definitely in a cycle involving a little of both of the last two.

So, instead of writing lots of detailed blogs (which I could certainly do, but must tend to other things) I will try and cover a lot of the stuff I'd like to chronicle here in bullet-point fashion.

• Work
  I have been very busy with web and graphic design, so much so that I am considering expanding. It feels as though the work load has grown too much for one person to handle. (At least, and still have family/free time.) I'm not certain how to work that out just yet, but the influx of clients continues, as well as a regular stream of work orders from satisfied current customers. A week or so ago I felt as though I was cresting the seemingly insurmountable hill of open projects, but then the hill just got a bit taller. So, I press on... Have made a few cool additions to my site (linked above) in the middle of the various projects I have been working on. I seriously need to update my "samples" page though as several of those clients have closed up shop and are no longer on the internet! :-)
  
  
• Music
  Oh, I finally did take our "Christmas decorations" down at our basicmm.com website, too. :-) I forget what motivated me to do it, since it was already late April or May when I did, but ... anyway, it's done. Also on the music front, our trip to Virginia in June may be in jeopardy because our family is too large to house! :-) We'll see what happens there...
  
  
• Fun
  Jen & I both have been enjoying Facebook and the many fun things therein. They added a live chat feature recently which has been extra cool. Realtime re-connecting with people you haven't spoken with in many years, or perhaps barely even know. Fun! (At least, for me that's fun!) Also, definitely loving playing the various word games there. I do love word games...
  
  
• Brennan Manning
  Jen cleaned out the attic recently and found a bunch of old cassette tapes. In one of the boxes was a set of teaching tapes we had purchased. It was "Healing Our Image of God... and Ourselves" by Brennan Manning. Manning's background as a catholic priest (and a monk, I believe) gives him an interesting perspective on the Gospel. But the heart of what he says is so great. It's the simple truth of the incredible love that our Father - Abba - has for us. We heard Brennan at a retreat over 10 years ago, and got his tapes there. He's been saying the same thing for decades - and I believe God has been re-emphasizing this basic point to me and Jen in recent years again - because it's the core of the Gospel/Good News. God loves us more than we can ask or imagine, and invites us to live life side by side with him, as his kids. Great stuff... on tape 4 of 5 right now. More on this to be sure...
  
  
• Friends
  Our closest friends - who are more like family - are moving. Their last day in town is next Wednesday. We have lived in the same town as them since we met in our college years. I moved up here to Rochester area with them right after college. Our kids have grown up together, sharing most of the fun/special days together. We've known of the move for a couple months now. That's kinda nice. Been a nice long goodbye. But it's still a goodbye, and life will definitely change. Very exciting for them, and I'm sure God will blow us away with the way(s) he fills what we can only see now as a void. But it's pretty sad at the same time. We're sure there will be tears next week. In the mean time, been helping with packing and moving as much as we can, and also just visiting as much as we can, while they're still here. We'll certainly see them again, but 15 minutes is a lot closer than 6 hours driving time. :-)
  
  
• Family
  We've also been visiting family a lot this month. We got to see my sister's new house in the Buffalo area. Then went over the next weekend for a big garage sale, and I made a nice mother's day lunch for my mother-in-law. :-) We're going over again this weekend, and then the next for various family events, too! It's nice that they are close, but it's also certainly an expense with gas being near $4.00/gallon!! Yikes!
  
  
• New Friends
  Jen has been going to the community center on Thursday mornings to join (mostly) moms with their pre-schoolers for a couple hours of playtime/funtime. This has been a cool way to meet people we have seen around town (at other similar events) and get to know them better. We obviously have the common link of having tiny kids :-) Looking forward to getting to know all of these new friends - who mostly live right around the corner(s) from us - over the summer.
  
  
• Lilacs!
  Whether you pronounce it "lie-lock" or, the proper, phonetic way (li-lac)... :-) I am just loving these flowers again this year. Been a neat spring in general. The flowering trees have been beautiful. Our neighbor has several lilac bushes and has generously allowed me to snap of some blooms whenever I'd like. And so, I've had beautiful, fragrant lilacs on my desk for the past week or two! Love it!
  
  
• Entertainment
  Almost forgot... been watching the NHL playoffs mostly these days. TiVo has been very helpful as we are usually out for evenings, but then watch the game in fast-forward once we are home! As close as the season was, it was surprising to see Pittsburgh and Detroit each take 3-0 series leads. The other teams both won their game fours, but should be a fantastic Stanley Cup Final between Pittsburgh and Detroit! They're both amazing.
  
  And, we've rediscovered our fondness for the 80s TV show, The Knight Rider. Our friends, the Vs, enjoy it as well (we loaned them our iPod to watch Season One in its entirety) and Season Two is now coming to our mailbox via Netflix. :-) Pretty corny at times, but also pretty fun. Ah, the good ol' days...

There have been lots of other fun events the past several days/weeks. Really can't share them all here. As I said, it's been a time of doing and intake more than a time of output :-) Suffice it to say, all of these social events have reminded me again that I am (or have become) a people person. I am not sure why I am doing an office-related job, then... :-) But am still super thankful for the provision we see from God in that.

More to come on the stuff I have been thinking through from the Brennan Manning tapes, as well as some good conversations with the church (friends who are fellow followers of Jesus), and just the stuff God has been placing on my heart and mind. So fun to share every bit of life with someone who loves me so much. Hope you know that, and you're experiencing that, too.

One-On-One, Full-Court... Football?

This weekend we did get some pretty decent weather, despite a good bit of rain, and we took advantage of it!

On Sunday afternoon, the boys and Kirstie and I headed up to the high school football field (just a few blocks from our house) and we found our way in through an open gate and played one on one football (Ian vs Alex, with Dad as the QB) ... using the FULL FIELD!!! Kirstie ran right along with us, too. They would get the ball at midfield to start (no kickoffs) and they even had me kick extra points and FGs! :-) (I went something like 4-5 on XPs and 0-2 on FGs... not too good!)

It was a blast, and they were quite exhausted at the end! :-)

Can't wait till next time, though!!

The night concluded with a walk for the whole family around a couple blocks, and a visit with some new friends who live close by. We met them on the way and walked with them back to their house and visited for a while. They have three little girls about the age of our little girls.

As the kids were all playing in their front yard, Alex lost a tooth... literally! It came out of his mouth, and he lost it in their yard!! :-) Ha! The Tooth Fairy still came and left him a dollar in his (empty) tooth pillow, though. :-)

A fun, full weekend of being a family of seven. Even got a visit from Jen's bro and his son. Very nice. Hopefully a good recharge for me. Busy week ahead!!

(So, may be kinda quiet here!)

Definitely enjoying this season of life though. We love being the Campbell family. :-)

Just What I Needed

After a frustrating morning (perhaps nearly entirely self-inflicted - at least, maybe it didn't need to be as frustrating as it was) and a frustrating lunch, I reluctantly decided that I should take our two-year-old Julia on her OK Night. She's been waiting for quite a while (I've been busy) and there's an eager queue behind her, of course.

We gathered everything together for a walk. I had planned some fun things for her, but also was going to make efficient use of my time and make the post office our destination on the walk, so I could pick up my mail. Gotta multi-task, right?

Nope. And it took a beautiful little two year old to remind me of that.

As we embarked on our walk (under the windy, rainy, overcast skies) we were chatting. Julia is a wonderful talker. She has a lot to say, and mostly I know what she's talking about. :-) As she was talking, she would just throw in a happy, sing-songy refrain of "OK Night" every once in a while. :-)

She definitely began to melt my heart.

As we walked - not really all that far yet - I saw some flowers, and we crossed the road to go see them up close. She was very excited, and loved everything her Daddy suggested they do. At this point, she started helping me to enjoy the moment, and I cancelled all plans for multi-tasking on the trip and decided to just enjoy each moment of this short hour or so with my little Julia.

We ended up walking to a store to get some baseballs for the boys and to get a fun snack to eat at the park. Except, when we left the store, she said she wanted to see the water... so, we headed up to the Erie Canal marina not too far from that store. We sat on the bench eating iced animal crackers (she loved the pink ones!) and just had fun time looking at the water.

The rain brought us home, but we still enjoyed every moment along the way. Stopped to smell every flower. Listened to every word. Breathed every breath.

I am pretty sure that is all I need right now. For whatever reason, my work, and my life have become "pressure" to me. I have had a hard time recently just stopping to relax and enjoy. Julia knows how to do that well, and helped me to do that today. I thanked her for it when we got home as I laid her down for her nap. :-)

There's good reason for the pressure I think. The bills still need to be paid. The work still needs to be done. Raising kids is hard work. When will I ever get to enjoy a nice evening out with my wife again? (Without the attached baby?) :-)

This too shall pass. But hopefully not too quickly. I'd like to enjoy the moments along the way.

5 Things I Hate

1. When my kids are trying to tell me a fun story from their day, and it's just the wrong time and I hurriedly dismiss them in order to accomplish the task of the moment.
   
2. Anytime I am mean to my wife (words, actions... however) whether real or perceived.
   
3. Deadlines/promises/goals not met or kept.
   
4. Seeing my kids hurt.
   
5. Staying up later than I wanted to. :-)

Good night! :-)

Expectations

That word - "expectations" - certainly has some baggage, doesn't it? I mean, even as I typed it for the title of this post, I thought, "That's not exactly what I'm trying to say..." But I think it is. I do believe there can be good expectations. (And I fully acknowledge that, relationally speaking, there are the bad sort of "expectations".)

But I was reminded again last night that sometimes it's good to "expect" more.

The four oldest kids joined me at a birthday party where we were to have dinner. I'll admit, it was a bit of a challenge to keep everyone in the same place when we first got there, amongst the many other strangers (we only knew the hosts, and had briefly met one or two others). But, the kids were great, and we eventually got some food and found a table to sit down and eat.

I got everyone set up eating their food, then went to go get drinks. They stayed there - they did awesome! - and just enjoyed their food, and I think Ian was chatting with the other people at the table.

After we had been eating for a while, the mom who was at the table said to our kids, "Why are you guys so good???" and then without pausing, said to me, "How do you get the baby to stay there???" Actually, when she said baby, I thought of Emma... but she wasn't there, so that confused me. Then I realized she meant Julia, our two year old. We've actually been working on moving past a few "baby" things with Julia (mostly of her own desire) so I responded (with Julia) saying, "Julia, are you a baby? Or a big girl?" She cheerfully replied, "Big girl!"

What the mom was noticing was that our four kids (with only one parent at that moment) were sitting, happily eating and chatting, while her husband was chasing their two year old boy all over the place. A little more conversation with this mother revealed exactly why there was such a difference between our kids.

She didn't expect anything from them.

Just to clarify, I completely understand that expectations can be laden with guilt and obligation and other unhealthy relational things. But also, I think a lot of parents are frustrated because their expectations of what their kids are capable of are far too low.

Kids are actually quite smart. :-)

Many people comment to me on the way that I speak to children. To ours, and to others. Apparently, I speak to them "like adults". I'm not exactly sure what they mean, but Jen has echoed those same sentiments (when spoken by others). Basically, I think most people talk "down" to kids. But I do not. I can see that they understand a lot more that we give them credit for, and I know they are quite able to choose (many things, at least) and so I give them the opportunity to choose "the right thing" and/or to exhibit some self control.

From that mindset, and with greater "expectations" from the start... our kids are (from my observation, and that of many others) a bit more "well behaved". Not all the time, certainly. They are still just kids, and though they are capable of self-control... do not have life experience enough to be great at exercising it. ;-)

That just comes with practice.

And, expectations of greatness accompanied by encouragement toward those higher expectations.

Failure will happen, and certainly "unmet expectations". But with encouragement along the way, and not only believing in the "best" from our kids, but helping them believe it as well, I think our kids will go far, with confidence gained by encouraging, supportive parents who root on their kids to the greatness they are capable of!

[Note: I had a discussion re: parenting ideas with a friend recently, and there was some misunderstanding as to the intention of the thoughts I shared. Parenting is near and dear to our hearts, and so, uninvited "advice" can come across as condescending. Such is never my intention, nor is it the intention of this post. Just sharing some observations. If you find them helpful, please incorporate them into your parenting philosophy. If not, please happily ignore.] :-)

I'm A People Person

There's no denying it now. I am officially and completely a people person.

This past weekend we kept our friends' three girls while they made a super-packed-full trip to their new home in the Washington, DC area. They dropped them off Thursday morning, and we had them until Sunday night. At first glance that seemed like a pretty long time, but I knew it would go really fast. And it did.

The best part was not the four days of two adults and eight kids though. The best part came on Sunday afternoon.

My sister and her husband and their four kids were on their way to their new home in the Buffalo, NY area, and were planning to stop by and visit. So, now we had twelve kids (ages 9 down to 1 month) and only four adults. But we didn't stop there! Later in the afternoon, our friend Laura and her son came to visit bringing the total up to 5 adults and 13 kids! All in our little yellow house!!!

And I could not have been happier. :-)

I looked around at one point at the four families represented in my living room and just smiled. I couldn't help it. That is what I want my house to be. The place where people hang out. Come, visit, hang, for no reason ... just to be together. It was wunderbar.

Later that night, our friends came back to retrieve their kids and ended up sticking around to sample the good food from the day (cinnamon rolls and chicken wings and skyline chili, etc) and taking in an episode of the Knight Rider. It was a great ending to a fun day and a great weekend.

But then...

On Monday, Jen's parents came over with our nephew to spend a couple fun days with our kids and Jen (while I was here working). They were gone most of yesterday, and are gone again today now doing some fun things around our area. I'm glad for the kids. They are having a blast. But it's really quiet here.

I have officially discovered that I am a "people person". Fellow people people seem to need "down times", but I can't get enough. I miss those little girls we had here for the long weekend. A lot. I certainly miss my family right now. And last night, the two boys spent the night with Grandma, Grandpa & their cousin... and it just wasn't right. The house felt empty, though we still had the three girls here with us.

I am definitely a people person.

[Tangent... Last night when we just had the three girls, I thought to myself, "This seems way too easy!" I felt like it was "parenting-lite". I guess the hardest part of parenting these days is not the feeding and cleaning that we mostly do for the three girls (ages four and down) but the relational and life-training that we are doing with the boys (and probably Kirstie, too). So without that "challenge"... I felt like we had the night off! :-) Tangent over...]

So, I am incredibly grateful to God for the big family he has placed me in, and look forward to it growing if that's what He's got in mind. I'm super blessed to be part of a great extended family, too (my mom & dad, sister & fam, my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and even all my in-laws).

Guess that's probably why I'm a people person. :-)

My Brain Already Works

Just now I was downstairs with the kiddos saying good morning and getting my 6-gallon water container refilled for a busy week to come. In my hand was my yerba mate, which, when first filled is quite strong. I know my son, Ian, likes it, so I gave him a sip to show him just how strong it really was.

"It gets your brain working," I said with a smile.

I had read that a while back when our Argentine friend Laura introduced me to it. Apparently it stimulates your brain, and is overall quite good for you. So, since it seemed a bit strong for a nine-year-old, I thought that could make him appreciate it a bit more.

I looked around at the other children standing there, and my four-year-old daughter was looking at me, so I offered her the mate, extending it to her with a gesture.

Apparently she was listening intently to what I said to Ian. She quickly, and matter-of-factly replied, "My brain already works."

I love my kids :-)

You Might Be A Large Family If...

Jen reads lots of blogs by other home schooling moms, and various other family-oriented blogs. She read a list to me from this blog the other night, and I thought it was funny in relation to one of my recent posts below, On Being Seven.

I have not checked with the author about publishing her work here (not even sure it's originally hers) but I figure one or two ... or more... is just publicity for her blog anyway... :-) Enjoy... (and click the link above for the rest!)

• Cheaper by the Dozen is one of your favorite movies.
  
• You buy milk 5 gallons at a time.
  
• You need a minimum of 2 carts in the grocery store.
  
• The children are lonely when there are only 4 of them home.
  
• Your grocery budget resembles your house payment.
  
• You just really wish people would not think they were clever for saying, "Don't you know what causes that?"

:-)

Back To (The New) Reality

My two week hiatus from my desk job is over. As is my two week adventure of being the primary caregiver for four young kids, as well as taking care of daily household duties and helping Jen & Emma here and there when needed. It was wonderful, and I already miss it, but I am looking forward to moving back into a more normal routine.

I am in the office preparing for the craziness that will be my first Monday back. (Mixed feelings about that, to be sure.)

As I put all the kids in bed tonight, told each one of them how much I love them, and how much I loved spending every day all day with them for the past two weeks. I also told them I plan to take several 5 minute breaks tomorrow to come and give them big hugs! :-)

Some might think that spending all day every day taking care of four very young kids would be exhausting, tiring, and draining. And, they would be right. But the part that might be missed is that those four very young kids are four of my most favorite people, and even though I was exhausted at the end of every day... it was so worth it!

Tonight (at the last minute) I thought it might be a good idea to get a babysitter for the oldest four and go out for the evening with Jen. I am going back to normal office hours tomorrow, and she's going back to normal Mom hours tomorrow. Seemed a good way to bring in that next season. It was very nice for neither of us to have the kids responsibilities for this one evening. We just got a sub from Subway, and some ice cream from Chill & Grill, and went up to the community center and played a card game while watching the Sabres (WIN!). So very nice.

And tomorrow, I am hoping that all of this niceness did not exhaust me to where I need a vacation. I don't think it did. I believe that tomorrow I will be ready to get "back to reality" and move forward as a family of seven!

I'm lovin' it! :-)

Our Own Dr. Seuss

A couple weeks ago, our son Alex rediscovered a book that his Grammy had bought him a while back. "A Hatful of Seuss" is a compilation of five Dr. Seuss books. He was reading it on his own and would ask me every night, "Dad, can I read this story to you?" I let him do that one night, until I was reminded of just how long Dr. Seuss stories are!

But it was really cute, and the story was pretty funny - and brought back a lot of memories - so the next night I said I would read a whole story to both the boys. They were excited, and I was looking forward to it, and it turned out to be so great that not only did we do that night, we started getting LOTS more from the library!

From all of this Seuss-ing, a side effect has cropped up. We may have discovered more than just a Seuss book when Alex first dug up that Seuss collection. :-)

Turns out, Ian was pretty hooked by the writing of Theodore Geisel, and even found a book at our library all about his life. He read it rather quickly, and I believe has pretty much recounted in stories told to mom & dad everything in that book, word for word! He really liked it!

The interesting part is that not only did he like the book, and like telling us the stories... he also has been telling us little snippets from his "inside world" about how he feels like Dr. Seuss. He's creative, and really identifies with Suess' style and I think his life. It's been pretty interesting to see that connection, and hear Ian talk about who he is and what he wants to do in a grander scheme of life.

Guess he is growing up.

So, to encourage that a bit (and just have some fun) we wrote a Buffalo Bills poem yesterday. We made sure to keep to an ABAB rhyme scheme, and even kept the meter at 7 syllables, then 8, then 7, then 8. It's not quite finished (and maybe not quite Suess-ish, but it was pretty fun! Perhaps we'll share it here someday. :-)

Also watched a video recommended by Joe about education and creativity... very interesting. I very much agreed with a lot of what this guy was saying. Mainly, how the way our educational system is set up now, creativity is not only not encouraged, it can be squashed. The more creative types are then pushed aside - or worse, medicated - in order that they might "get in line".

Watching the video, and seeing Ian recently "discover" some things about himself, reminded me how glad I am that we home school.

So I'll keep you updated on the progress of our young Dr. Seuss. Should be pretty fun to watch. :-)

Big Family Shortcuts

I have noticed that with so many children around here, I am needing shortcuts when referring to them every now and again.

We already had "the boys" and "the girls" before for easy pairings. We also call Kirsten & Alex, "The Twins" because they really look a lot alike, and are similar in other ways, and are the two in the middle. Well, they were.

Now are getting even more creative.

First there's Mom & Emma, who spend a lot of time together these days. We call them either "Momemma" or "Emmamom". Both are equally fun to say.

Then we have, "The Oldies". These are the three oldest kids, who are not our babies.

Then I came up with a clever way of referring to two kids at a time using former (or current) Buffalo Bills players' numbers. For instance, Ian and Julia are "Frank Reich". This is because Ian is the first born (#1) and Julia is fourth (#4), so together they are 14, which is Frank Reich's number.

The combinations are pretty fun.

Ian and Alex? Jim Kelly. Kirsten & Alex (if we're bored with "The Twins") are Beast Mode (nickname for Marshawn Lynch, #23). Ian and Emma? Todd Collins. (I know! Good one!) :-) Alex & Julia? Terrence McGee.

Pretty good system, I think. :-)

So, life as a big family continues to be very interesting, and tons of fun. More stories to come, I'm certain of it!

Shorties

Since computer (and especially blogging) time is limited... please allow me to share some fun stories/thoughts using another list-style post...

• Julia just turned two, but she is the smartest cookie in the bunch sometimes. This week she has been really helpful with the laundry. I don't always know whose clothes are whose, but she does! Seriously funny. And helpful! Also, she is a great talker (though sometimes hard to understand). Maybe one of the cutest things she says is when she's really excited about something, she says, "Yay-uh". (Pronounced like a souther gospel preacher, which I'm pretty sure she's never heard...) :-) Hilarious!
  
  
• The Sabres won tonight. They keep stringing me along. They sit 5 points out of the final playoff spot with only 12 possible points remaining. Thanks to some good scheduling, the team we are chasing (Boston) is our opponent for two of those games, so we can possibly make up 4 points in those two games. There's still a very outside chance they can make the playoffs, but I'm really not optimistic about any chance of advancing if they do. We shall see...
  
  
• Michigan State has worked their way into the sweet sixteen in the NCAA tournament. (Which is now only the terrific twelve or something after last night's games...) They really have a good team this year. Solid rebounding (as always) from our big guys, Namick & Suton, and a stellar freshman Kalin Lucas, as well as solid scoring threats in Morgan, Allen, & Gray. Ohh yeah... we also have that guy Drew Neitzel... he's pretty good. (If you don't know him, he's a senior, and he was fanastic as a sophomore at least, and has only kept getting better.) :-) They play Friday (and hopefully Sunday). Friday's game is against the #1 seed in the South region, Memphis. 9:57pm tip off on CBS. Well worth watching!
  
  
• Kirstie just oozes nice. It's incredible. If there is ever any "not-niceness" between anyone in the family, Kirstie steps in to the edification of the one not-niced. Every time. She's so great! Such a gentle heart. She's my little lover. She often tells me, "I just love you, Dad!" And then gives me a big hug, and often a big kiss. Well, as you can guess... I just love her, too. :-)
  
  
• Sometimes I really can't believe how old Ian is. He is nine, and definitely becoming his own person. We can see the things he really likes to do. He even talks about it. He's starting to figure it out too. He's very creative. He too is a gentle spirit. (Sometimes too gentle. :-( Easily crushed.) He's an artist. He's such a people person. Loves people. Could be his weakness actually (people pleasing) but it will also be a great strength. I'm honestly a little nervous about this transitional stage. Will I(we) handle it well? Will we be able to encourage Ian as he really begins becoming a unique individual? It's a very interesting stage for all of us. I think we are merely on the cusp, but we're definitely there. All we can do is just love him, train him best we know how, and live out what we say. And overall, make sure he knows that he is completely safe with us any time and always. That may be harder than it sounds - or I may just think too much. :-)
  
  
• Alex is TOO picky! Argh. It's been quite a struggle with people bringing us food (a bunch of new stuff he hasn't really seen before) and getting him to eat. Not to mention the great Easter candy he knows we have... that's quite a distraction as well. :-) It was funny today when we were dealing with all that again for the 17,000th time that I actually thought of "the kids in India" when I was so mad at his pickiness. "You know, the kids in India don't have any food! They just eat rice, if they can find any!!!" (Not sure on the accuracy of that statement... but thought it was funny that I actually thought it, and sorta used it. I am truly a dad, and truly old.) :-)
  
  
• Emma Caroline couldn't be cuter. :-) Funny story from today... we got a new monitor so Jen can be down here and Emma can sleep upstairs. All of a sudden we heard a screaming baby in the monitor! Yikes! What happened?? That was not normal. (Although, she has had a tendency to "freak out" at times...) So, Jen went to help her - but she was sound asleep. Completely still. Weird. When Jen came back down, Emma started freaking out again! Worse than before! Very, very strange... Jen went back up... Emma was completely still!!!! Finally, we sent Ian up to check while we stayed down to listen... you guessed it.. we were picking up someone else's baby!!!! Ha! Very weird. Kinda funny... very weird.

Much more to tell, but no time, and no energy with which to tell it. Must sleep.

On Being Seven

It's late, and its snowing (which is awesome!) but I wanted to post a few thoughts on expanding to a family of size seven...

• Yesterday we all went out for the first time in our newly expanded van (see the next bullet point) and after taking nearly and hour and a half to get ready to go, it was lunch time. So, we stopped at Wendy's. Thanks to some coupons, we ate lunch (six of us) for $7.82! Ha! That was great. But the best part was when Jen was collecting the food, I went to find a table. I had to move two tables of four together... JUST FOR OUR FAMILY! HA HA!! That was classic.
  
  
• The day prior, the long search for the bench seat for our van finally came to an end. We found a perfect match only one hour from our house. (One hour and one minute, to be precise.) The three older kids and I took the trip and had a great time... and once the bench was in, all three wanted to "try it out" on the way home! It was a bit more money than I was hoping to pay, but glad that it's the perfect match, and glad we can now go out as a family of seven.
  
  
• Everywhere we go, people seem to notice us... sorta stare at us... even point and laugh. (OK, made that up... but you can tell we're quite the spectacle) :-) At a rummage sale today, as we continued to pour in, one of the ladies tending the sale audibly said, "Oh my!" :-) (Not to us, she just couldn't help herself!)
  
  
• You can not imagine how much laundry and dishes we do. And just imagine when Emma and Julia are a bit older.
  
  
• We have now outgrown most of our board games. They all say 2 to 6 players. Nice.
  
  
• We have three bedrooms. (Some find that to be surprising... but that's not really an issue so far.)
  
  
• We have one bathroom. I think that one might eventually be an issue. :-)
  
  
• Do you know how much food we have to buy? :-)
  
  
• It will be interesting the first time we need to stay at a hotel.
  
  
• I continue to tell people, it's a party at our house every day. And it just keeps getting bigger. :-)
  
  
• We're starting to really scare our friends. When we come to visit... SEVEN people are coming to visit. :-) (And we're also starting to scare our regular babysitter. She signed on when we only had three...) :-)
  
  
• Have I mentioned how much we're loving this? :-)

It may be hard to believe if you have or come from a small family, but this is just fantastic. We have great kids, who all love each other completely, and we do really have a party every day. It's certainly not easy, but a lot easier than most think. Everyone chips in (mostly) :-) And as our family site says, "Together is a wonderful place to be!"

We wouldn't want it any other way. :-)

Progress Report

Well, it's been a little over a week now that we have been home from the hospital with our newest family member, and it's even been a couple days since any of us has been sick. (Not sure which one of those bits of news is more welcome at this point...) ;-)

Today was a fun day, actually. There were no scheduled visits, which although greatly appreciated and enjoyed, do not really allow for any sort of a schedule to the day. Not so this day. We got a lot of cleaning done (even finally vacuumed) and finished 4 or 5 loads of laundry (and a few loads of dishes). We read library books in the morning before taking a walk up to the library (all seven of us!) and getting some more books! (We read some of those upon our return home!) We even had time to run some errands (the four older kids and me) which included a stop at our favorite ice cream place - CHILL & GRILL - for an end of the day treat!

It was a really fun day. :-)

We also took a break in the middle of the day (after lots of serious house cleaning) to play a game, just Dad and the three oldest kids. That was fun. I am thoroughly enjoying spending so much time with my kids. I love this part of having a new baby :-)

There have been a few fun kid moments over the past couple days...

Last night, after a looong day of fun on Easter Sunday (which included your normal easter fun as well as a visit from our friends the Chis and two trips to Chill & Grill!) Alex snuck upstairs to get ready for bed and as I was coming up to put the boys in bed, Alex said, "Wait, Dad! I'm almost done!" He was very happy about it, so I let him finish what he was scheming. When I got up there, I saw Alex putting the finishing touches on cleaning the bathroom for Mom & Dad. :-) He said he knew we were tired, and he wanted to do that for us. He cleaned the sink, and even used "just a washcloth and some water" to clean our toilet. :-) :-) :-) Very cute... a little gross... but very cute.

Tonight as I was bathing the girls (which I remembered that I needed to do after I had already gotten the girls in the jammies for the night...) Kirstie was almost done and she said as I was washing her off, "Dad, when you need me to wash you off I'll just do it for you, OK?" :-) Again... very cute.

There have been many cute moments like that this last week or so, and I am so thankful that though it's been super hard work (lack of sleep, lots of extra sickness, lots of extra visits, and just being behind already from the 3 days at the hospital) it's so totally worth it, and there are many fun/amazing moments with my kids that I am definitely blessed to have.

That said... there's not much time to do the stuff I'm wanting to do (or needing to do!) as is evidenced by a blog post at 1:00am :-)

Tomorrow we have a visit from some friends in the morning, and then in the afternoon we'll hopefully be getting our new van seat, which will allow us all to (legally) go somewhere as a family of seven! (Right now, our van only seats six.) :-) Oh, and then another friend will be bringing us dinner. Probably a good day for that!

At least we're not still sick! :-)

Oh, and Jen and Emma are doing great. Jen was feeling pretty bad at the end of last week (which is why I am still not back in my office officially) but feeling lots better now. Things are definitely progressing.

I may have to post some more Emma photos here pretty soon... Still working on the video, too. :-)

No... ME!

Today Julia was not being very nice to her brothers, so Jen said, "Julia, that's not how you'd want them to treat you. You need to treat them how you want them to treat you." Then Jen added, "Because you love them!"

Without hesitation, in a very whiny voice, Julia insisted, "No... ME!"

If that's not a perfect picture that we are born selfish, not sure what is. :-)

Die Hard Fans

Neither snow, nor sickness, nor brand new baby, nor rain and 30 degree temps could keep us from being at our favorite ice cream spot on Wednesday! Chill & Grill opened on March 19th, and though we didn't get to take Emma there (nor did I have my traditional one-pound Monster Burger!) we did manage two visits on opening day. :-)

My favorite part is eating ice cream in the snow. :-)

We'll probably go another time or two this weekend. Today it's 30 degrees... might be up to about 36 by Sunday... we'll see...

Time for some ice cream!!

Grateful For Washing Machines

It was not a good night in the Campbell house. Perhaps it even goes back most of a week now.

I think I told the story here of coming home with Emma. The night before we came home, our six year old Alex threw up eight times! He was better (mostly) by the time we got home, but we were certainly leery. Ian was next. That night he threw up just once, but it was gross... and it was on the bed I had just put new sheets on for him! :-)

Well, thankfully, we have a washing machine.

This week has seen its share of laundry loads. Normal loads, sick loads, many loads. We do have seven people in this house now. We also did a load or two of clothes for Jen and the new baby to wear, brought out from their cold, dark storage containers.

Well, last night was a doozy.

First, I fell asleep on the couch watching the hockey highlights from the night (seriously... they were almost over...) and was awoken by an angry Jen's voice, "Greg... Greg!... GREG!!" That's not pleasant. Nor is the reason she was calling me. First, she was hurting for some unknown reason, and Emma was not wanting to sleep, which made it worse. But the reason I was summoned? Julia had thrown up. Time for Dad to clean up!

I cleaned her up and was going to deal with the rest in the morning. Went straight to bed and Jen was in and out with Emma, and I noticed that my stomach really did not feel very good. I don't usually throw up, so I wasn't worried about that, but it was sort of difficult to go to sleep.

Within half an hour, Julia was back. She had thrown up again. This all started at 12:30am or so, and continued until I think 3:33am. Probably four or five times I went in, cleaned up the baby, and got new sheets, towels, blankets, sleeping bags... whatever I could find! Meanwhile, at about 2:30, I felt awful and spent some time in the bathroom myself. (Strangely, I did not throw up, but I thought I was going to... and when I "tried"... nothing happened but I felt amazingly better!)

Well after all of this, we have discovered that our tummy troubles are not gone... Julia, Kirsten, and Dad all have... ya know. The other side. Yeah. Not pretty.

I also came to find out that Jen slept downstairs much of the night, trying to get comfortable... didn't really sleep much at all. Still very sore, but also had the chills. :-( What's going on??!?!

Jen just left for the doctor - for the regular one week check up for her and baby. Should be interesting... :-)

I just finished cleaning up all the throw up covered clothing (I am very thankful for washing machines...) and doing the dishes from the night before so we could do the dishes from breakfast after I gave Julia a bath because she had gotten throw up in her hair after I folded the laundry I already had done yesterday to make room for the laundry I needed to do today and now the kids are done with breakfast and waiting for the next event of the day...

Did I mention that I am grateful for washing machines?

(Trying to keep a positive outlook here...) ;-)

Lucky Seven

Being that it's the last few moments of this year's St. Patrick's Day, I figured that was a fitting title. And really, it's very appropriate.

We are now a family of seven, and learning what that means day by day. Of course, our seventh member is not really contributing all that much these days. She has managed to bring quite an influx of visitors through our humble abode - something her dad very much appreciates - but other than that she's almost hard to notice! She's doing everything a 4-day-old person should be doing, and doing it quite well, thank you very much!

Mom is doing fantastically. Never been better following the birth of our babies. Seriously. On Sunday, we went out for a birthday lunch for my dad (since she was feeling up to it) and on the way there, we stopped at the Walmart Super Center for diapers and other things babies need. Well, if you've been to one of these gigantic establishments you know that there is a LOT of walking involved! And Jen walked it all! Pretty quickly!! Amazing! She could have never(in a million years!) done that following any of our other babies.

Superb.

So this morning, in addition to our lucky green shamrock-shaped pancakes, I was feeling quite lucky to be part of this great family that God continues to build and grow together. From my favorite person on the planet (Jen) to my next five favorites (Ian, Alex, Kirsten, Julia, and now Emma) I couldn't be luckier.

And I'm not even Irish. I'm Scottish. And a bit Welsh. Maybe some German. But I digress...

On top of that we have some great friends who helped when the baby was coming, and more who are dropping by to meet the baby and calling to check on us and share in our joy, and more still who will be bringing some meals this week and next.

Ya can't get any luckier. :-)

So on this day associated with luck, I just wanted to count - and publicly proclaim - my many blessings.

I'm one lucky dude.

Emma in Moving Pictures

There's a short movie to come once I load it onto the computer here and edit it (maybe tonight after the kiddos are in bed...) but for now I finally got to upload the slideshow I did yesterday. Enjoy! (Just click on Emma above!) :-)

Emma Caroline Campbell Is Here!

Meet our newest family member, Emma Caroline Campbell! She was born at 8:29pm on Thursday, March 13th. She weighed in at 7lbs 14 oz, and is an uncertain length. (We still don’t know! The little card on her baby cart has a field for the length... but it’s BLANK!)

Mom and baby are doing great! Jen seems the healthiest, the strongest she’s ever been right after delivering a baby! Everything went perfectly!

Mostly. :-)

It was definitely a very different experience this time. It all began when Jen started feeling pretty normal beginning stage contractions around 5am on Thursday morning. She let me know that there were some regular contractions - about 15 minutes apart, so not that close - around 7 or 8 in the morning. Because of the regularity, and because Jen has never had “false labor”, I got up around 8 and started getting ready to head to the hospital!

But not only were they far apart, they were not very intense. Jen was perplexed, but for some reason, I had a hunch we needed to get to the hospital anyway.

I started calling around to the various folks who had offered to help with our four kids already on the outside once the birthing process began. The funny thing about when these contractions started was that two out of our top three options could not do Thursday morning. :-) But thankfully the third was available.


Meanwhile, Jen’s contractions had really slowed in frequency and intensity. So she was starting to doubt if this was really going to happen, and didn’t want to inconvenience our friends if this was just a fire drill instead of the real thing. I was convinced it was time, though, so I was still preparing to head to the hospital.

We went for a walk to see if we could get things moving along a little faster. It did help a bit, but still, Jen’s contractions were lessening, so she still had big reservations about heading to the hospital. (It didn’t help that I had spoken with a friend earlier today who reminded me the story of their third baby that started out just about as this labor day was for us. Far apart, low intensity contractions, and then BLAMMO! They barely got her into the hospital room to deliver the baby!!)

I thought it would be good to get the doctor in on the conversation - and Jen agreed - so I called up our doctor and she agreed that it would be good to come in and check her out. That was a good in between option for Jen, so I called up our neighbor and she came to watch the kids for either a quick trip to the doctors and back home... OR... on to the hospital!! (I made sure we packed for a hospital stay!) :-)

The doctor confirmed what I was thinking, with the 5th baby, and with some definite movement since the day before, she advised us to get to the hospital within the hour. So we made the appropriate calls and set the final stage of the plan in motion. Grandma & Grandpa were on their way from Buffalo, the second shift of kid watching was in place, and we were going to get some lunch before getting to the hospital!

I was still thinking that we would have a very fast overall process as we were on our fifth baby, and the rumor is the more babies you have had, the faster the delivery goes... BUT... not so!


Jen was still having very slight contractions. In fact, after they hooked her up to the monitor that showed contractions, the machine showed that she had had two contractions, but she didn’t feel any! Pretty funny. The odd part was that Jen had been reading some books about how God designed labor to work and to even be potentially pain free. Lots of testimonies from ladies who had experienced it, and Jen knew anything is possible with God... but... well, it still seemed too good to be true!

And, indeed it probably was. There was not much progress with these “phantom” contractions. But, still, there was. Jen was moving along, and baby was definitely coming. So the doctor helped it along by breaking the water and things progressed from there. Contractions definitely got more intense after that and Jen definitely got more tired! Very long day!

There are many more stories, but suffice it to say, Emma Caroline is here, and she was a surprise! It was the first time Jen guessed wrong on the gender of our babies :-) Our nurse friend Sarah was working that night and so she was in the room helping and she correctly predicted a girl, as did the doctor and her assistant. Surprising!

We’re so glad she’s here!!!


A little about the name. The first name is just a nice name. We just liked the sound of it. Emma. Nice. :-) The middle name is Jen’s Dad’s nickname for her Mom. Her given name is Carolyn, but he often calls her Caroline. We toyed with the idea of working in Mom & Grandma’s spelling in there (Carolyn and Lyn) to be “Carolyne”, but decided on the more common spelling. (Which is what Jen’s Dad uses if he is writing out the nickname.)

Interestingly, we found out later that the name “Emma” means “Complete.” Hmmm... is God telling us something about our family? :-)

Ya never know! Only He does. :-)

So we are all happy, healthy, and doing quite well! We’ll be home tomorrow and look forward to introducing more friends and family to our newest family member, Emma Caroline Campbell!

Quick Update

Looks like Sidney was probably right!

:-)

(more soon...)

OK Night

I can't remember now if I have posted this here or not, but it's worth of a post (or two) for sure.

A while back (I think it was for Kirsten the first time) we thought it would be a good idea for one on one outings with the kids. Usually it would be Dad (since they all get more time with Mom usually) but it could be with Mom sometimes, too. We had heard the idea a time or two from other families, and liked it, and it seemed like little Kirstie was getting lost in the shuffle a bit. So, we did it.

Well, after a long break, we started it up again... but this time we thought Ian needed a little alone time with Dad. So we decided to go in descending age order. Well, after the first time, all the other kids were very much looking forward to their turn with Dad. :-) Somehow along those various conversations, we started calling it the One Kid Night... which I shortened to "OK Night." And it stuck. :-)

Last night was Julia's turn (our 4th, and almost 2 year old) and we had a blast. It's pretty funny when a 33 year old and an almost 2-year-old are out for an evening together. The conversation can be ... intriguing, as well as... difficult to understand at times. :-) She's a cutie! Was so fun to hear her starting conversations with Dad! We sang songs, we rode the carousel at the mall, we shared some ice cream, we visited our favorite stores... it was a blast! Can't wait for the next one!

It's pretty cool to see what comes out of one-on-one time with the kids. We love being a big family, and we love being together, but sometimes some pretty cool stuff happens when you just get one kid with one parent.

Like I said... can't wait for the next one!

Kirstie's Day

What a great fourth birthday for our little Kirstie! I figured it would be fun (at least for us!) to write out all the details of the big day, so here we go!

Kirstie was the last of the kids to wake up yesterday, so I gathered the other three and my guitar and we snuck into her room and quietly sang Happy Birthday to wake her up. :-) After a little disorientation... she stumbled out her door to see her new birthday poster (see below) and open a present (a new pink booster seat for a BIG GIRL in the van!) and then went downstairs for breakfast.

Mom did some fun-for-Kirstie things till lunch time, and then at lunch Dad came down from the office and Kirstie went on a birthday present scavenger hunt! Mom gave her an initial clue, and then each present she found had a clue for where to find the next one! Great idea by Jen, lots of fun for Kirsten (and the rest of us, too!) After that I made an awesome pink cake - later to be frosted with pink icing - for my pink-lovin' girl!

I worked a bit more in the office, until the evening fun, which began around 7pm when we headed out for dinner.

First up was a birthday meal at Red Robin. Kirstie got a pink balloon (which ended up in the ceiling rafters...) and ordered a full kids meal - since she was a big girl - and of course had the free sundae which is brought out by singing red robin employees. Ian sang along and said, "I know all the words by heart!" :-) Fun times! We love birthdays at Red Robin!

After that we headed around the corner to Chuck E. Cheese! We love birthdays at Chuck E. Cheese! Thanks to some coupons, we got 120 tokens for $10! That's a great deal, and a LOT of games! We fanned out and had a blast. Kirstie got to play games with all her family members, and just had a great time. One of her favorite things to do!

We stayed until close (they were very gracious) and then headed home, but with a stop at Uncle Scott & Aunt Leah's first to eat her pink cake! It was a bit late for all, but they were great. Leah had the plates and ice cream (and birthday candles!) ready, and we got right to singing happy birthday, blowing out candles and eating cake & ice cream! The whole visit was only 45 minutes but nice that we could share another birthday with them before they move to Washington DC. We'll miss them.

At the end of all that, Kirstie was BEAT! Exhausted. Wasted. But... in still able to bring up a few fun things from the day. When we got home she was crying about something (again, just exhausted) but managed to stop, and give Dad a big smile as I was saying good night. For her fourth birthday she felt like the little princess that she is. :-)

Kirstie is four... next is Julia in just under two weeks... unless....

Baby is due pretty soon, too!

Lots of BIRTHdays! :-)

Happy 4th Birthday, Kirsten!

Today is our little girl's 4th birthday. Kirstie Rae is FOUR today! The other kids and I sang her happy birthday this morning to wake her up, and then she opened a few presents (and got her birthday poster...) before heading down for breakfast. Mom has a fun scavenger hunt planned for her other presents, and then tonight we'll celebrate at Red Robin and Chuck E. Cheese (two of her favorite things!) :-)

So happy birthday little girl! Love you! :-)

Sickness Invades The Campbell Home

Jen (the pregnant one) has been sick (on top of the discomfort of pregnancy) over the past couple weeks with a few various ailments, but it didn't stay with her. Kirstie has been complaining of ear/head/neck pain off and on for almost a week now. This morning, Kirstie was still very lethargic, and her oldest brother Ian joined her in her illness-induced lethargy.

The sickness canceled our plans for today. Which were quite plentiful.

Well, the two other kids and myself were not feeling sick at all - in fact quite the opposite for the "evens" (kids #2 and #4...). They were quite loud, boisterous, and generally making life more miserable for their sick siblings.

I decided to take the healthies out to Wendy's where a group of friends generally gather every Sunday afternoon. Was even hoping to catch our nephew there who turned 20 today! (Yes... I am old...) :-) No luck there, but there were about 6 or 7 families represented, so it was definitely a nice visit for Dad who is a "people person." :-)

Untill...

Half way through our time there, Alex started showing signs of lethargy as well, and even ended up laying his head down on the table at one point. :-( He removed himself from the group (sat at a nearby table, not very like Alex with his friends) and just seemed to be getting exactly what everyone else had.

Scary thing? So did I.

As we were leaving, all of a sudden, my neck started aching, and I just felt very weird... maybe light-headed, but not that bad. Just tingly all over. Made it through that, enjoyed lunch, but felt a little strange all the way home. When we got home we put the new sickie in bed, and that's when it hit me.

COLD!!! I could not have been colder! I got under 6 or 7 blankets, all the way under, and turned the heat up! If you know me, you KNOW that something is wrong! :-) I really didn't feel lethargic, but still had an achy body all over, and had the chills som'n fierce!

So, I had some tea, put on my warmest sweatshirt, and took the rest of the day a bit easier.

Dinner was funny. I just reheated some leftovers for all the sickies (which is all but Julia!) and no one really wanted much of anything. :-) I still ate a decent amount, but definitely didn't taste right.

Right now, at a VERY early hour for me, I'm gonna down some NyQuil® and hit the sack! Might not wake up till 10 tomorrow! :-)

Here's hopin'!

"I Need Helllp"

This morning as I was sitting here doing a few things on Facebook, I heard a little voice from the other room say, "Moooooommmm...." So, since Mom was not quite awake, I said, "Yes??" The voice responded, "I need helllllp."

I didn't really want to get up right then, and Alex was standing in our doorway, so I said, "Can Alex help you?"

The voice calmly and matter-of-factly responded, "Well, if he can get the poo poo off."

Which for some reason just cracked me up. (Enough that I had to type this story before I went to help her!) :-)

Can't Sleep

Not sure what it was about last night, but it was not our night to sleep :-)

First, we got our Mac Mini back from the Apple store (replacing a defective hard drive) and hooked it up right away, even used it. But then, not-so-smart, plays-with-too-many-settings Dad tinkered with the display resolution one too many times and the TV just started flickering. A LOT. Could barely see anything... couldn't find the cursor well enough to get it back to the right resolution. I tried everything, but to no avail.

So, since it was essentially a brand new drive with brand new settings - I reinstalled the OS. :-) (That takes a long time...)

As I was installing it, I watched a TV show I had downloaded from iTunes, and then put in Star Trek Insurrection which I had been wanting to watch for a long time.

The update was going along just fine, even downloaded all of the software updates from the internet once the original OS was on the disk. And all the while, Jen must have woken up a good three or four times. I had to go upstairs one time to find out why Alex was kicking the bar that keeps him from falling out of bed. Jen told me then that both boys had been talking and/or moaning in their sleep. Pretty funny.

I finally went to bed at 4am. (Later than usual...) and Jen was up again. Not long after that, the girls were needing help. I'm not sure if Julia did, but Kirstie wasn't feeling that great, so she came in a few times. Jen got her a drink around 7:15? and then I did around 7:30. At that point, Julia was awake as well.

I finally just got up and took a shower at 8:30, and Alex wandered in the bathroom somewhere around 8:50 or so. Everyone is sorta/kinda awake right now (which is early for everyone else) and I can't wait to see what kind of day we have... :-)

So... perhaps naps are in order, and an early bed time!

OH! Funniest part? Around 8am I did go back to sleep, only to dream that all six of us were in a tiny two room place ... NOT SLEEPING! It was 6am or so in my dream, and everyone was awake!! I was thinking - we all need to be sleeping!!! And Jen (in the dream) was just fine with everyone being awake.

I was awoken by Kirstie needing more help (around 8:30) and just had to chuckle. Dream was imitating reality, or vice versa.

I think we just need some sleep. :-)