Tag / Alex

by Greg

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. 🙂

by Greg

My Favorite

Last night we were leaving our friends’ house pretty late after another fun evening together, and as we were saying good bye I noticed our son Alex running in circles in their front yard. He’s usually one of the first out of the house when we’re leaving (and one of the first ones in as well) so I guess that’s how he was passing the time. Everyone else had made their way to the van and to where they needed to be, but Alex just needed to run around.

And somehow, in that moment, it just reminded me of how much I love him. In fact, my actual thoughts were, “He’s my favorite!”

At first I reacted to that thinking, “Of course, so are the rest…” That’s when I realized… they are. Alex is my favorite, and so are Ian, Kirsten, and Julia. Even the next baby that we haven’t met yet. I guaranteed he or she will be my favorite, too. 🙂

There’s a cool book I have mentioned here a time or two before called, The Shack. In this book, a guy has an in-person encounter with God and many times when God refers to any person this guy brings up, God says, “Oh, he’s my favorite.” (Or, one of my favorites, or something.)

Last night, I really understood that. It’s completely true of my and my kids. They really are my favorites. My favorite people. I love them more than they can know, or than I can probably express. But I’ll keep trying anyway. 🙂

[As a footnote to this whole story, I was re-telling the events to Jen as we were pulling in our driveway. When I said the part about thinking Alex is my favorite, it wasn’t long before Jen noticed him running circles around our yard, too. Guess he likes being “the favorite”…] 🙂

by Greg

Caught In A Snow Storm!

Last night I took our four kids up to the library to return some books, and to pick up a few new ones. The library is only half-way around the block, so we bundled up for a nice winter walk. It was even lightly snowing, so it was more fun than usual!

We even sang a song on the way there:

“Going for a walk in the snow to the library,
Going for a walk in the snow
Going for a walk in the snow to the library,
Going for a walk in the snow!”

It was perfect, and the kids did pretty well in the library. We got the books we wanted, and some stamps from the nice librarian. We bundled back up and headed out the door.

What we discovered was astonishing.

Swirling, blowing, blinding SNOW! Where did this come from?!? I just laughed! It was like a joke! What happened to our light flurries??? Well, we had no other way home, so I made sure faces were as covered as they could be and we set out into the storm.

And this was a storm! The wind was a constant 10-15 mph I’d guess, with stronger gusts. And the snow was collecting on the ground – and on us! – at an alarming rate. The worst part was, a third of our trip was heading west, directly into the wind! At one point during that stretch I turned around and pulled Julia in the stroller backwards (which helped a lot I think) and saw poor little Kirstie just closing her eyes and leaning into the wind as she pressed ahead into the blizzard!

It was crazy!!

Once we were able to turn south, and find a bit of shelter behind a giant brick church building, it got a little better. We laughed all the way home through the still rapidly falling snow.

Red cheeks, faces, and other exposed skin greeted Mom when we got home. Mom actually met us in the driveway, as she had seen the fierce winter storm and was coming to get us. But we managed to brave the elements and make it back home safely.

I told the kids as we were fighting the storm that we’d have hot cocoa and hot baths when we got home! And we’d also read a couple of the library books we just worked so hard to get.

And we did. 🙂

by Greg

Post-Thanksgiving Thoughts

We had a marvelous time with family in Ohio over the past several days. Besides my parents and my sister and her family of six, we also got to spend some time with my grandparents, two aunts, one uncle, three cousins (and one first cousin once removed). That was all topped with the news this morning that another cousin had delivered healthy TWINS the night before. (Funny part was, twin #1 was born at 11:52pm Nov 24th, while twin #2 entered breathable air at 12:03 Nov 25th! These twins have different birthdays!! Ha!!)

All in all, it was a wonderful trip, and a great time with family.

Tonight, reflecting on all of it (and troubled a bit by our current financial standings) I was truly thankful. Not some cheesy kind of Hallmarky thankful induced by an annual over-commercialized holiday. I mean really thankful. It was kind of a neat feeling. I was looking around me at all the stuff that we do have and enjoy. Much of which has been given to us by our generous family. And I was thinking about my four kids and my wife, along with the other tot on the way. All of these that God has given me.

Money may be an ever-present pressure, cause of stress, and the lack thereof a source of fear, but really… in the important things, I’m set. Life could not be better.

A few stories for tonight.

First, at one point on our trip a random file came up in our iPod song shuffling, and it was just precious. It was a little audio clip I had recorded of Ian and Alex for our now stagnant basicmm radio show. Man, I forgot how cute the three-year-old Alex was! The kids all wanted to hear that one several times.

But, speaking of cute three-year-olds, our current three-year-old, Kirstie, was dishing out her own cuteness throughout the weekend. She had plenty of classic lines all weekend, some of which I won’t repeat here, but one particularly cute moment was when I offered to lay down with her when she was supposed to be taking a nap. Unfortunately, at the moment, I forget what it was! 🙂 (I’ll add it tomorrow if I can remember it!)

Other cuteness came from little Julia this weekend. She doesn’t say much, but over the holiday at Grammy’s house – which is well-stocked with chocolate – she learned to use the word “Choc-latt” well, and OFTEN. AND, the best part was the true, deep sadness that followed any time she uttered the new word, without the appropriate results! 🙂 If we ever said no to choc-latt, the tears flowed freely!

Pretty cute, and apparently she has a sweet tooth like her dad!!

There’s a bunch more obviously, but as my sleeping time is quickly dwindling, I think I will head to my bed to get what I still can. (Yes, I really do sleep!)

Hope you are aware of and enjoying the blessings in your life, as God has reminded me of mine tonight.

by Greg

Picks

NFL FootballThis season I have been asked to join a panel of “experts” in predicting the outcome of each week’s NFL games. So far I am in second place, behind my Buffalo Bills Review partner, Dave Drake, and another guy who are tied for first.

This week, after hearing the boys subtly add their voice to the discussion of my picks each week, I decided to let them in on it! So I made up little sheets for them to each make their picks and we’ll see who ends up with the best record by the end of the season. 🙂 (Actually, you might be surprised… there’s a good chance they will!)

It’s fun to see how excited they are about it 🙂

Even funnier was seeing how Alex changed a couple of his picks after announcing the games he was not going to get right – only to find out he could still change his picks up to kickoff time. 🙂 He’s pretty cute. He now assures us that he will go 16-0 this week.

The big game of course is tonight, where our Bills face the New England Patriots. Ian and I have our Bills winning in the end (good boy, Ian!) and Alex changed that one… which will of course help him go 16-0.

We’ll see!

Go Bills!

by Greg

They Earned It

Yesterday the boys were just a bit rambunctious to start the day. They were not being bad necessarily… just sort of annoying, and out of control. I happened to be on the phone with my parents at the time (which was part of the reason they were annoying) and was relaying the story to them. Jen said we should send them out to stack firewood. But, since we don’t have any firewood… my Dad said, send ’em out to rake the yard!

“Great idea,” I said.

So, we bundled them up for the chilly morning, set down the ground rules and, truthfully, I expected to be refereeing, and end up doing the work myself.

However, much to my surprise… they did an amazing job. They both worked together. They worked hard. They even had fun, I think. They took an HOUR to do our front yard (Ian said, “How long has it been, cause the bell tower has rung twice since we’ve been out here…”) and they never complained, even though their hands were getting tired.

Near the end of their assigned task I asked them, “Do you guys want to ask our neighbors if they would like you to do their yard? You could ask them to give you $5/each for doing it?” (I just picked a random number out of the air… wasn’t sure what the neighbors would be willing to pay…) At first, they were too tired, but for some reason, Ian was able to convince Alex to try it, and they went and asked.

I checked on them and saw them raking the yard, and learned that they would be paid two dollars each for raking the front yard. They were pretty excited, and diligent in their work. I smiled and left them to it.

I continued to check on them pretty frequently. (The front yard is right near a very busy road, and well, I love my boys, so I wanted to make sure they were still there!!!) They were doing great! And they took almost another hour to do that yard!! They never stopped, just kept at it till it was done. I have to say, I have never “felt” more proud of them. It was a fun parental moment.

When the task was complete, I saw them go to our neighbor’s front door and receive the payment. Alex got his first and ran away from the house cheering and saying, “Dad!!! Look what I got!!!!!!” while waving his two dollar bills firmly gripped in his right mitten. Ian was pretty excited too, but Alex couldn’t stop talking about his TWO DOLLARS!!! 🙂 I told him, “That’s great, Alex! And you earned it! You did a lot of hard work to earn that.” Next thing I knew he was headed to the basement to find mom, saying, “Mom!! Look what I earned!!!!” 🙂

Too cute. 🙂

So last night, after telling them how proud I was of them for working together, and doing what we had asked, and then for doing twice what we asked, we went to Wal-Mart and they each got to pick out a treat that they earned with their hard work. Alex paid for his and the cashier gave him his receipt. He couldn’t have been happier. He said, “I got a receipt!! This is my receipt!”

Pretty sure he’s keeping that one for a while.

by Greg

So Far

I forget if I have posted the plans for this extended holiday weekend here or not (yes, it’s Columbus Day on Monday… technically a holiday weekend…) so in case I haven’t I will post retroactively:

  • Thursday:
    • My sister and family come to town late at night, we hung out in the kitchen enjoying some homemade skyline chili and various other treats.

  • Friday (ALEX’S BIRTHDAY!):
    • A special “Buffalo Bills pancakes” breakfast with the cousins
    • A trip to the community center to play in the gym (which was ruined first by an aerobics class taking up the whole gym, to which we adjusted by playing foosball and other things, until we could no longer take the way the staffer on duty kept making us feel thoroughly unwelcome in our own COMMUNITY center!!)
    • A nice walk through our town, tossing footballs to each other, followed by playing in our yard with all the kids (since we couldn’t use the community center!)
    • Homemade Skyline for lunch (and some other stuff), and making Alex’s birthday cake
    • Various games while the youngest ones slept
    • Grammy & Grandpa arrived for cake, ice cream, and opening presents!
    • Head out for dinner at Red Robin, only to find the wait at least one hour… so we went to Wendy’s instead!
    • Chuck E. Cheese, where the Velasquezes joined us! Tons of games, and lots of tickets won! Alex got a little tiny football for his efforts. 🙂
    • Kids in bed, adults play Apples to Apples and enjoy some nice adult conversation, as well as a few caramel pecans from Esther Price!!! (Thanks, Mom!) 🙂

  • Saturday:
    • Grammy & Grandpa are still in town, so we’ll be spending the day with them at their camp site. Swimming, mini golf, and other fun stuff!

  • Sunday:
    • Breakfast with Grammy & Grandpa before they leave
    • Apple picking with friends, an annual tradition!
    • FOOTBALL!! (But not the Bills…)

  • Monday:
    • Free lunch in the late morning from the new Lowes (grand opening special invite to local businesses)
    • Drive to Clarence for a fun Columbus Day Kids Festival event at Grandma & Grandpa’s church
    • Naps, and/or hanging out with family/friends in the afternoon
    • MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL: COWBOYS @ BILLS … watching with friends in HD, eating CHICKEN WINGS! Then, driving home after the game.

Yeah, that about does it. 🙂

by Greg

Happy Birthday, Alex!

Alexander Caedon Campbell

It’s going to be a big day, for a big guy. Our little Alex is turning six today! He is a super fun guy who lives life with passion. (Of course, that means he can get pretty fiery mad, too, but mostly it’s super happy, bring-everyone-along-with-him passion!)

My sister and family are in town, and later today my parents will visit … should be a nice day of celebrating Alex!

Love you, Alex! Happy Birthday! 🙂

by Greg

Not A Creature Was Stirring…

Four Campbell Kids
There is still a whole 24 hours of quiet to come. I really can’t believe it. The onslaught of this silence was so quick, so unexpected. It’s eerie… unwanted. Disturbing. And yet… glorious. 😉

The kids are at Grandma & Grandpa’s! They have been since Tuesday evening. The will be until tomorrow, probably around lunch time!!! Holy cow! Do you know how crazy that is??? My mother-in-law is a fantastic lover of children – and subsequently, of us!

In the interrim, we have gone out to dinner twice on a couple cash gifts given to us by each of our fathers. Nothing too fancy, but just a nice bonus to this strange yet wonderful quietness. We’re going out one more time tonight, at our friends’ request and treat. (That one has been planned for a while now.)

It has been wonderful for Jen, for sure, and I’ve enjoyed it as well. Some for me, but mostly I have enjoyed having a happier, less burdened wife. That’s been nice. 🙂

So, I miss my kids a lot. Can’t wait to see them tomorrow. But, thankful that we have parents who are so willing to take them – not just so we get a break, but because they love having them around, and to themselves. I don’t think a lot of people have that. It’s a very nice gift, to be sure. 🙂

Right now I must run a few errands… and JEN is coming with me! Sweet!

by Greg

Alex is Broken & Other Weekend Tales

I spent about 3 hours at the hospital last night. It was not where I intended to spend that time, but then, I suppose hospital visits aren’t usually planned. Somewhere around 7pm last night, Alex and Ian – in their typical physical wrestling/play fashion, got a little too rough, and Ian fell on top of Alex. Alex cried, a lot. But that wasn’t unusual, as he is often frustrated and angered by his bigger, stronger, faster older brother. But it persisted, so I checked on him… and all seemed normal… so I went back to what I was doing. A minute or two later, Ian came back in and said, “I don’t think Alex was just mad… I heard something snap.”

Oh boy.

So we probably took an hour or so testing it out. Nothing was visibly broken, but the little guy was definitely tender. It became evident that something was probably broken, so Alex and Dad headed off to the hospital. It’s about 25 minutes away, so, the journey is not embarked upon lightly… 🙂

We stopped at Uncle Paul & Aunt Laura’s along the way (it’s right on the way there) to drop something off, and they gave Alex some ice cream, a few hugs, and an empathetic story or two. That was nice. 🙂

I’ve done this before, so I wisely loaded up the laptop with a few movies before we left, and boy did I need them! We actually sped through all the preliminary stuff. Even got a visit from the doctor within maybe 30 minutes of being there! BUT… for whatever reason… it was the night to break stuff. So the X-ray folks were WAAAAAY behind schedule. Oh my goodness. We watched an HOUR AND A HALF of the movie Cars before we got to go get the x-rays taken! Then it was probably another 30 minutes after that before we left.

Alex has a slight – very slight – fracture in his clavicle. They gave him a cute little sling. And he can’t do any sports until he’s “cleared” by the doctor, or something. Do you know Alex? What in the world is this boy going to do???? That’s ALL he does! 🙂 I guess he’ll be doing a lot of reading, playing chess with Ian, and maybe a video game or two. (But he just can’t replace all that sports time with video games. That would be ugly!) 🙂

We stopped at Wendy’s on the way home (at 11:30!!) for a frosty with Oreos, at Alex’s request. Dad got a burger and fries! Ha! (That’s odd… I’m usually the sweets guy!) 🙂

So, the rest of the weekend included some of this:

  • Cleaning out the remaining weeds from our flower beds. And, planting some flowers! That took a majority of Saturday. Was a beautiful day. I mean, fantastic! So it was lots of fun. The whole family was in on the project!
  • Jen had a baby shower to attend with some friends – which ended up being just a dinner, as the guest of honor decided to have her baby that day! – so she spent Saturday night there, while the kids and I enjoyed a Skyline meal (the real stuff, from the can!) and then walked up to Chill & Grill for some ice cream! We had a blast! I think Mom did too, but we probably had more fun! 😉
  • Sunday morning we all went to the mall for a little “cooking” class from Williams-Sonoma. They were demonstrating home made ice cream. It was great! Tasted great and was a blast! Learned a few pointers.
  • Sunday afternoon/evening we just played outside – even had a picnic lunch and dinner! It was a warmer day, but fine in the shade. Our neighbors returned home as well, so the kids played a bit together. Annnnd… then we went to the hospital. 🙂
  • Before we left for the hospital, I moved our trailer off of the parking spot it has been in for a few years… a friend of ours is coming today (here now!) to make it a parking spot again! We’re going to spend the morning making it a gravel driveway instead of a dirt spot with a recurring (giant) puddle! Cool!!!

So… now that Al is here… 🙂
More later…