Stampede Party Pooper

I know this might get me kicked out of the city, but I just have to say it. I don't like the Calgary Stampede.

I don't drink. I don't like crowds. Cowboy boots, long sleeve shirts, and jeans in 30 degree weather don't make sense to me. I like to use my money wisely.

The average person in Calgary (native or tourist) spends hundreds of dollars during the 10 days of Stampede. I couldn't find the current quotes but I know that when we've gone to the grounds for one day, Amber and I will usually spend over a hundred bucks on parking, admission, a few rides, and some food. And that's not including the shows, bars, clothing, etc that people spend their money on.

I'm proud to say that we have spent exactly zero dollars on the Stampede this year (possibly less). We went to the free Stampede breakfast at church and had a nice time dressing up and eating pancakes outside in the beautiful sunshine, listening to some live country music. We even got a few Subway gift certificates out of the deal thanks to Daniel and Josh's cute galloping on their cardboard tube horses. And today, I got to partake of a free barbecue at work. The Delta Bow Valley hotel came by and brought corn, slow roasted beef, and succulent beef ribs. So good.

I really don't mind the music - and free food is always nice - but I think for the next few years (until the boys can appreciate it) we may be skipping out on Stampede, either figuratively or literally. We're taking the money we've saved and spending the weekend at a hotel in Lethbridge. We haven't had even a weekend vacation since we got back from Nakusp in early November, so I'm sure we will appreciate it.

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
Name one thing nice that you could do for someone else today.

I just spent 40 minutes helping an old guy set up his hotmail address on his phone when I shouldn't have. It's not something we support but he was so confused and I thought I could give him a hand.

Soup
When was the last time you were frightened by the weather?

I can't remember ever being scared of the weather. We get hail, blizzards, floods out here but I always am amazed at God's wonderful power. I haven't been in a hurricane or tornado - I think I might have a different answer then.

Salad
What would you say is the most useful website or blog that you visit?

I love Amber's website but the two most useful blogs to me are TVGasm.com and TechDirt.com

Main Course
Who was your favorite singer/group when you were a child?

Valdy

Dessert
Do you have any rituals? If so, what are they?

With my schedule being so weird, it's tough to have rituals.

Twins?

Last week Daniel was in swimming lessons with Amber, and this week it's Josh's turn. The pool is near the library and a couple parks so I have been taking the other two boys on various adventures during swimming.

Last week, Josh and I found a pretty cool park about a block away. There were slides and ladders and a climbing rock. Josh also met a 7-year old boy who was having fun playing tag (or Tickle Monster) with him. Josh chased him around the park for about 20 minutes until it was time for us to go get Daniel. This led to a very interesting situation when Daniel, Andrew and I showed up there yesterday.

The same boy was there and he recognized me and Andrew's carseat and therefore, recognized "Josh". Daniel ran up to the play structure to see what he could do and the little boy jumped out from behind the steps and yelled, "Raaaaarh!"

Daniel looked at him, and then looked at me and kept climbing. He was running over the bridge and the boy climbed up behind him and said, "Wanna play Tickle Monster?"

Daniel looked at this stranger and said, "No!" This went on for a while with the little guy chasing his former friend around trying to figure out why he wasn't as fun as last week.

Daniel came running to me and said, "That boy is trying to catch me"

Me: "I think he thinks you are Josh. He and Josh were playing here last week and he thinks you are him." Daniel looks confused but runs away.

Little boy: "I don't think that. I know he's Josh"

Me: "No, that's Josh's brother. It's a different boy."

Daniel (yelling from across the park): "I'm not Josh. I was in swimming lessons and now it's Josh's turn. He's not here"

Boy: "Oh, they look the same."

Me: "Yes, they do look very similar"

Boy: "I didn't know they were twins"

Me: "No, they aren't twins. They just look alike"

Confused Boy (chasing after Daniel): "Wanna play Tickle Monster?"

Where's Joshie?

The last couple nights have been rough for the boys. I've been working late so Amber's alone with them. It's hot so they have trouble sleeping and don't feel like eating supper so they're hungry at bed time.

When I got home at about 10 last night, they were still up and being loud. Daniel kept coming out and asking for food. We kept sending him back to bed. Josh was being quiet, so I assumed he was asleep. I went in to check on him and he wasn't on his bed. There was a glow under his bed and he was laying on the floor way under it by the wall. Fast asleep.



Theory Number One:

His flashlight is stuck between the wall and his bed, shining down under the bed. Josh crawled under the bed to get it and fell asleep before he got it out.

I asked Daniel why Josh was under his bed. He said, "I put his flashlight there so he could see." The flashlight was tucked into the cross boards of the bed and actually pointing at him.

Theory Number Two:

Josh crawled under his bed for some reason - to escape from Daniel's relentless crying and screaming? And he fell asleep. Then Daniel... brought his flashlight under so... Josh wouldn't be in the dark...? Theory Number Two needs work.

So, Amber managed to get Josh out from under his bed before she went to bed and got him back up on top.

When Josh woke up this morning, I asked him, "Josh, when I came home last night, you weren't sleeping on your bed. Do you know where you were?"

"Yeah, under my bed"

"Why were you under your bed?"

"Daniel and me went under my bed with the flashlight. We were having a venture. We readed our books under my bed"

Now that I look at my pictures again, I can see the flashlight tucked into the bars and a book under his head.



Theory Number Three:

Josh and Daniel crawled under his bed together for a "venture". They were reading books and camping. Daniel tucked the flashlight in so they could see. When Daniel left to come and cry and whine about having to pee and being hungry, Josh fell asleep waiting for him.

Makes sense... I guess

He said, he said, he said

My lovely wife wanted me to start this post off by telling you that she has dropped off the face of the earth. She was trying to post daily adventures and that lasted about a week. And now with swimming lessons, birthday parties, and scrapbooking, she seems to have vanished. When she's back, she'll post again.

Now, on with our story...

The boys have been talking so much, I wanted to post an update on their progress.

Andrew: He said, "Mama!" for the first time this week. He kept repeating it to see Amber smile and giggle. It won't be long before he's running around and yelling with his brothers.

Josh: His grammar is really improving. He tries so hard to get things just right. He recently came to me in the morning and said, "Daddy, I wake... I waked... I WOKE up." It's cute that not only does he know there are rules for speech, but he thinks they are important.

Daniel: He is starting to grasp the concept of time. Until recently, he would place random "time" phrases in his sentences like "Last year I had pizza. I watched that movie a week ago."

But yesterday was the best one. He turned 4 on Thursday and that was a big thing for him. He's been waiting for it for months now. Anyway, we were going out and instead of putting on his sandals, he got his hiking boots out. I figured it couldn't hurt anything, so I let him put them on. He told me, "Daddy, these aren't my sandals. They are my boots. My Bob the Builder hiking boots... from when I was three."

That's it for now. We'll see who posts next... ;)

Feast One Hundred

Appetizer
On average, approximately how many times per day do you yawn?

On days when I'm working till 11pm, it's a couple dozen. Sunday afternoons are good for a few. But usually maybe 1 or 2.

Soup
What was your most memorable school field trip?

I have been on lots but I think my most memorable was Hawaii in 93. I went with my high school band and it was my first big trip away from my family and the first of 5 international trips in the next 3 years.

Salad
Fill in the blank: I was extremely __________________ this week.

BUSY....and HOT

Main Course
Which color do you think of when you hear the word "soothing"?

Lavender. I'm not sure why.

Dessert
What is something that, if you had to, you could save up the money to buy within one month?

Pretty much anything. I've been amazed at how we can scrimp and find extra money. God is so good. Something that we found the money for this month was bunk beds.

Doctor Visit

I took Andrew and Daniel to the doctor last week (I know I'm late in posting but it's been a busy week so forgive me). Daniel was going for his 4-year-old checkup and Andrew had a suspected ear infection.

They were both in great shape. Andrew apparently has just discovered his ears and when he's yanking on them, it's normal 5 month old curiosity. Daniel is doing all the stuff a kid his age should be doing.

Daniel wouldn't leave until the doctor checked his mouth. Apparently last time we went to the doctor, he didn't get to say, "Aaaaah!" and it bugged him for a while. In his mind, that is one of the most important parts of a doctor visit. So, Dr. Thomas checked his tongue and teeth and D was happy.

He impressed the doctor and the resident with his reading. She asked me if I thought he was ready for school and I responded by having Daniel read a poster on the wall that had words like "affect", "bacteria" and "antibiotics". He sounded out the words he didn't know and suprised even me. It's amazing how his mind is growing.

We are so blessed to have healthy kids. I thank God for them and also for the medical community we have available to us should anything happen. I'm not sure how all the proposed changes to health care will proceed, but I know that our family is well taken care of.

12 of 12

Well, here's another go at 12 of 12. Twelve pictures of June 12 in my life.



No, that's not a mistake. That's approximately what time our day started. Amber blogged about our rough night earlier today but here's my details. Josh couldn't fall asleep last night. After several hours of trying and coming out to see us, at 1:47 we finally brought him into our bed. After an hour of him flailing about I took him back to his bed just in time to hear Andrew wake up. Amber nursed him while I tried to get a little more sleep until about



I got up with Andrew and took him to the living room for a bottle. I laid him on his play mat while I went to go make a bottle. When I had finished, he was looking so happy, I let him lay there giggling while I did up some dishes.



He fell asleep shortly before Daniel woke up and came out to visit. I made Daniel and I breakfast and he said, "Daddy, that breakfast looks good. You know what else is good? Chess!"

I started teaching him chess this week and he loves it. He wants to play all the time now. It's ridiculous. The kid isn't even four yet - is there anything he can't do? So anyway, we eat our breakfast and start a game of chess.



As you can see, we have had to replace one of the white knights with Junior Asparagus from the VeggieTales Sumo of the Opera playset. We have a pretty messy basement (as you would remember from last month's 12 of 12) and it's gonna take us time to find that missing little plastic horse.

Anyway, Joshie woke up and was helping Daniel - by picking up the pieces off the floor and continually calling out "Corners Daniel, corners!" Andrew also woke up and he sat on my lap and helped out the white side.

Daniel's just starting to understand planning moves. He rarely sees beyond the move he's making but sometimes he surprises me. I help him out a bit and somehow he ended up with me in checkmate. He actually looks kind of upset that the game is over - even though he won.



So, I headed off to work. Here are a few pictures of my workspace.



This is my cube farm. My jacket is the second one you see there. All those windows let in quite a bit of natural light during the day, and the airvent you see over my desk lets in a few dead tiny fleas that I get to brush off my desktop every day before I start work. Maybe I could save them in a jar and sell them to a guy with a gecko.



Here's where I sit 5 times per week for 8 hours minus lunch and coffee breaks. It's nice to have my own set space, I really should put up some pictures or something, it's kind of depressing now that I look at it.

An interesting thing to note is my water bottle. I won it for having the highest mark in my training class. I go through about 3 of those full of ice water a day. Apparently talking all day and inhaling fleas makes one very thirsty.



Here's my first picture of me in 12 of 12. This is what I look like at work - if you are my water bottle. Hmmm, the glow from that fluorescent light fixture doesn't look too healthy.



This is the first day in over a month that I bought my lunch at work. That chess game took longer than I expected and I didn't get a chance to make a lunch. So, I drove to the nearby Wendy's and got a delicious Bacon Mushroom Melt. All that gooey cheese sauce with bacon and a greasy square burger - if the radiation from the lights don't get me the transfats will.



When I got home the boys celebrated my arrival by emptying their toybox all over the living room. Once I finish up here, I'm gonna go try to get all of that back in the box.

Amber left for the evening for some well-deserved girl time. The boys had been rowdy and rough all day. I put them to bed 2 hours ago and I just took this picture. They haven't moved a muscle. Apparently terrorizing one's mother and scattering toys makes one very sleepy.



I fell asleep on the couch waiting for Amber and Andrew. With TELUS TV, there's always a poker game to be found. Nothing is more surreal than watching Dave Foley from The Kids in the Hall doing colour commentary on a poker game including Dennis Rodman, Chandler Bing, and Doogie Howser M.D.



And that was my day in pictures. Why don't you try doing a 12 of 12 next month? You don't need a blog. It's simple to set up a flickr.com account to share photos. I'll try to post a reminder message a little early next month.

Brothers First, Brothers Always

I'm not sure where I heard it - I think it was some nanny show on TV - but it really stuck with me. Brothers first, brothers always. To me it means that no matter what happens, your brother is your brother. Friends come and go but family sticks together.

Daniel and Josh have really learned this lesson well. Amber blogged about it a while ago. They just love each other. They are best friends and I can see already that they include Andrew in their circle of brotherhood. It's so sweet.

That's why this weekend is so hard.

Daniel is out of town with Grandpa visiting his great-grandparents. It's his first big trip alone from mom and dad. The boys regularly have sleepovers at Grandma and Grandpa's but this is the first time we are more than a quick drive away and (as far as I can remember) the first time since Joshie was a little baby that they have been apart at night - surely for 2 or 3 nights at a time.

It's been tough on Amber and me too, having our first baby away but we are able to deal with it, but poor Josh. He's not sure what's going on. He said a few times today, "Daniel is lost." We had to remind him where his brother was and that he was OK.

I feel bad for him but I have no idea how Daniel is dealing with this. I'll write again with his side when he gets back.

Mobile Blogging

I'm trying something new here. I have a new Blackberry from work for the next few weeks and I'm gonna see if I can blog from it, wherever I am. Should be pretty cool.

Nice to meet you

Josh is our little social butterfly. We thought is was going to be this way but today proved it without a doubt.

We went to the doctor's office to have Josh checked out for his reflux (which is doing much better now). They have a little play area that had two little boys about 4 years old in it playing with the toys.

Josh immediately headed over there, with Daniel behind him and said, "Hi guys. I'm Josh. This is my friend Daniel. And that's my mommy and daddy and baby. And this is my friend Daniel and my mommy and daddy and baby. Who are you guys?"

The slightly older looking one was overwhelmed and a little confused, "Umm.. I'm four"

Josh said, "I'm Josh. Can we play with you guys?"

They played well until they boys left and a little girl and her mom came to play. By this time, Daniel was sitting with me reading a book and Josh started helping the little girl with a shape sorter. He was telling her the names of all the shapes and where they go. When it was time for us to go, he said to her, "Okay, thanks for playing with me. I gotta go. Love you. Bye!"

It's nice that he can make friends so easy. I hope this will be something he keeps as he grows up.

Feast Ninety-Five

Appetizer
How old were you when you got your first credit card?

I think I was 18. I wish I was much older

Soup
When was the last time you felt out of place?

When I went to pick up Daniel from school and was surrounded by all these young mothers with other little kids and no Dads in sight.

Salad
Did you have a curfew when you were a teenager? If so, what time did you have to be home?

Nope. I think it changed as need be - I was a pretty good kid and usually home at a reasonable time.

Main Course
Name a person from history with whom you feel you have something in common.

I sat here for the majority of my coffee break thinking of this one and I couldn't think. I feel very normal right now so I probably have a lot in common with billions of people that went before me.

Dessert
When you read a newspaper, which section do you go for first?

Comics

Wabbit Season

Daniel and Josh love to argue and fight. I've tried to explain to Amber that this is just how boys express their feelings. This might be getting out of hand.

I was in Daniel's room talking with him, trying to get him to calm down after a busy morning. Josh walked in and said, "Is too!" Daniel instinctively responded, "Is not!"

Me: "Is not what? What are you arguing about?"

Josh: "Is too!"

Daniel: "Is not!"

Josh: "Is too!"

Daniel: "Is not!"

Josh: "Is too!"

Daniel: "Is not!"

Me: "You guys don't even know what you are talking about."

Josh: "Is too!"

Daniel (in a flash of Bugs Bunny brilliance): "Is too!"

Josh (who isn't as familiar with Elmer Fudd cartoons) "Is not!"

Daniel: "Is too!"

Josh: "Is not!"

This went on for about 4 minutes with Daniel switching the sides a few times. Not that it mattered at all. Neither one knew what they were arguing about but it was fun.

Second Date

Last summer Amber and I took Daniel and Josh to see Madagascar and they loved it. It had been quite a while but thought we'd try it again.

The boys had been seeing previews and commercials for "Over the Hedge" in the past weeks and were very excited about it. After trying to keep it a surprise for about a week, I ended up telling them where we were going after church. It was a totally unsuccessful disciplinary experiment, but at least I tried something.

So anyways, after church we took Andrew to my parents' place for some Grandma & Grandpa cuddles and Daniel and Josh and Amber and I went to Chinook Centre to the theatre. Last time we went, the movie had been out for a few weeks and the theatre wasn't very busy. This being opening weekend for Over the Hedge and The Da Vinci Code it was a pretty packed lobby. We had some passes that I had gotten from work so we saved some money there - but unfortunately Daniel has gone from "Under 3" to "3-12" and therefore now costs $8.95 for a ticket. I can't imagine paying $40+ for our family to see a movie next year.

We got our tickets and Daniel announced that he had to go pee. I took the boys to the bathroom while Amber got snacks. We found some seats in the top row (Daniel was voting for the front but got vetoed by Power of Dad). Amber eventually came up the steps with a helper behind her carrying all the popcorn. It may suck having to pay $25 for 15c worth of popcorn and drinks but at least there was a lot. The boys settled in with their buckets and blue slurpees.

The movie was really quite good. We had a few moments of note.

1) Daniel made it until about an hour in before having to go to the bathroom. When we got there, there were about a dozen 9-year-olds having a pee race. We got into the stall and heard one of them at the urinals say, "Okay, marks! Get set! Go!" This kind of intimidated Daniel.

2) An exterminator on the screen said, "Dammit!" Nearly as loud, Daniel said, "Daddy! That guy said 'dammit!'"

3) At the emotional climax, Josh called out, "What is RJ doing? Mommy where is RJ going? What is RJ doing?"

4) The three boys needed to go pee one more time at the end.

We went and picked up Andrew and headed home. Daniel and Josh fell asleep in the van. Since it was so sunny and hot, I took them down to the cool basement and put them on the futon we have set up. This was about 6:00. At midnight, just as I was heading down to check on them, Josh woke up and caused Daniel to wake up too. They came upstairs and slept until 7:00am. Tired little guys.

Yet another good movie date with my boys. Maybe we'll take them to the cheap theatre again this summer. $2.50 a piece is much more reasonable. :)

A new Friday's Feast

Appetizer
What is the last thing you had to have repaired?

My tires on the van - and those crooks at the Wal-Mart garage didn't get it right so they still need to be done.

Soup
If someone gave you $2,000 with the stipulation that you had to spend half of it on yourself and give the rest to charity, where would you spend the $1,000 and which charity would receive your remaining $1,000?

I'd probably spend the money at FutureShop or Memory Express and give the other to church.

Salad
What is one of your favorite songs from the 1980s?

We Didn't Start the Fire

Main Course
You enter a pet store. Which section do you go to first?

Hamsters

Dessert
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how athletic are you?

Zero

Happy Mothers' Day

To all the mothers in my life:

Happy Mothers' Day


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      ,_\` |/| |Y_,
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          `""-----""`


There's no job more important than mother and I appreciate all you all do.

I'm going to get to spend the day with my boys' mom, my mom, my wife's mom, my nephews' mom, and my father's mom - along with countless others. I'll post some of the goings on.

12 on 12

A growing trend within the blogosphere is posting twelve pictures of your day on the twelfth of the month. I had a camera-phone for the first part of the day, so the pictures aren't quite as good quality, but it should be fun. Let's go

This is obviously my alarm clock. I actually woke up at about 6:14 this morning, after a few smacks on the snooze bar, but it was at 6:30 that I remembered I wanted to do 12 on 12 this month. This is actually a little earlier than I normally get up, but I was in bed earlier last night so I felt ready to get going.

---

First thing I did, and usually do, is go to the computer in the office/nursery. I check my Bloglines software for updates to the dozens of blogs I follow and dump all the new episodes of my subscribed podcasts that have come in over the night into my iPod.

---

All the clicking and typing caused Andrew to start stirring. I went over to his crib and changed him and just dwelt in his happiness, glee, and joy for a few minutes. He read a few of the blogs with me but when he started drooling on my hand and tried to eat the mouse, I took him in for his Breakfast in Bed.

---

I then went and did the dishes from last night and made myself some breakfast. Instant oatmeal, a leftover doughgod, and milk.

---

Daniel is always the next one up. He usually gets up around 7:00am when I am about ready to head out for work. If I leave early enough, I can get in a bit of a workout in the weight room, but more often than not, I end up hanging out with the boys for an extra half an hour and then just heading straight to work.

---

Josh usually gets up either just before or just after I leave. This morning I got to cuddle with him for a bit in his bed before he went and watched cartoons with Daniel.

---

These two are of my drive in to work. There was a semi that flipped over on Deerfoot this morning and blocked up traffic in both directions for miles. Good thing I got going a little early today because I just made it on time.

---

Tonight Amber had a Tupperware party and the older boys went over to Grandpa Bill's for the night, so I took it upon myself to listen to a few podcasts I had been meaning to get to and clean the cyclonic mess of puzzles, toys, and crayons in the basement.

Before

---

After

---

This was Amber's gift for hosting the Tupperware party. The world's smallest magnetic measuring cups and a salt/pepper shaker that holds more than 8 grains of each.

I know this is only 11 pictures. I was hoping to post one more by the end of the night, but I crashed on the couch watching poker. 11 will have to do. :)

Fives on 5/5

As the people at my work keep reminding me, today is not only Cinqo de Mayo but it is also International No-Pants Day. Anyway, to celebrate the first, I will do this list of fives. I will not be celebrating the second.

Five jobs you've had in your life:

Wardrobe consultant, telephone operator, forklift driver, music pastor, sports equipment salesman

Five movies you could watch over and over:

Catch Me If You Can, Ocean's Eleven, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek IV, Down With Love

Five places you've lived:

Nakusp, BC ; Calgary, AB ; Regina, SK ; Winnipeg, MB, Kindersley, SK

Five TV shows you love to watch:

Survivor, Mythbusters, Good Eats, The Simpsons, How It's Made

Five places you've been on vacation:

Hawaii, Bahamas, Paris, Rome, Brandon

Five websites you visit daily:

Google, Gmail, Bloglines, and work stuff.

Five of your favorite foods:

Gyro donairs, pizza, my special stuffed mushrooms, bbq cheeseburgers, slurpees

Five places you'd rather be:

Home, that's about it

Five albums you can't live without:

I could live without them but what I'm listening to now is Chris Tomlin - Arriving, and Brian Doerksen - Today

Diner de Vendredi

Appetizer
From which country(s) are some (or all) of your ancestors?

I am 4th or 5th generation Canadian in a lot of my lines. Originally lots from Scotland and Sweden - that explains the boys' blond hair and short fuses.

Soup
How would you describe your sneeze?

Let 'er rip!

Salad
What is the last thing you cleaned?

I did dishes yesterday morning.

Main Course
Who made the strongest first impression on you?

The one first impression that is sticking out in my mind shall remain nameless. I met this person several years ago and the conversation went something like this:

Him: "So you must be Amber's friend Jon. You've got a bit of a buddha there (rubbing my belly). And how about that male-pattern baldness?"

Me: Umm... okay.

We eventually got to be friends and once shared a bed - but there was definitely a sheet between us! No touchy!

Dessert
Name one thing you want to accomplish in your lifetime.

How sad. I can't think of any goals I have that I haven't accomplished. At least none that don't sound petty and materialistic. How about teach my boys all I know.

I'm not alone

This is a post I've been waiting to write. I've wanted to get this up for quite a while, but I've never got around to finishing it.

Some time ago I heard a story that made me realize that I'm not alone as a parent.

Many of our friends have girls. Perfect little princesses. Kids who you can trust in a home with nice things. Kids who would never dream of acting out the Lady and the Tramp spaghetti scene with their siblings.

Our boys are fairly polite and have pretty good manners but they are little fireballs of energy. They will touch and grab and climb and fight and lick and rip and pull almost anything they can get their hands on. And we've learned to live with that. They are boys. We've learned how to deal with them in public and keep them on a very short leash.*

So, when I heard that one of our friends took his daughters out in public by himself and they turned into little she-devils, it made me a little happy in a way. Kinda giddy. Now, I was sorry for him and felt really bad that he had to be alone with the girls when they started fighting and licking products and acting like, well like Daniel and Josh. But it made me feel like we are not alone. Even those kids that seem like perfect angels can lash out and act like kids.

I think I'd rather have it our way. Because the boys are fairly consistent in their volatility, we can expect it and have come up with ways of controlling and redirecting the energy. If it was infrequent and sudden, I think I'd snap.

To the parents in question: I know you are reading this and I hope I've protected your identity well enough. You know we love you and your kids. I'm not really happy that they are bad, but I am happy to know that they have moments of reality. :)

====================

*Not literally. Well, not usually anyway.

Lumberjacks

Last spring we were living in a townhouse and we had a huge tree in our back yard. I don't know if I could have got my arms around it at the bottom. One day, a crew came by and cut that tree down. They stripped the branches off and cut it down to a short stump - that Daniel would later use as a stage. It left little pieces of wood and saw dust in our lawn for the rest of the season.

Today we are living in a different rented home and our landlord came by and cut down a huge tree from our yard. We're getting a little worried that as we move around this country, trees are getting cut down because of us.

He came by earlier this week and removed one of the big branches that was hanging over the roof. But he did this with an electric circular saw. He was standing on a 12 foot extension ladder - and sometimes sitting on the limb of the tree and cutting through these branches as big as my thigh with a carpenter's tool.

Today he came back with a different saw that looked like a hedge trimmer (again with about 50 ft of extension cord). I thought he was just going to clean up some of the mess he made - limbs half cut, half broken off. But he said he was going to trim it down to the fence line. This tree must be older than him and the fence was built around the trunk. His plan was to cut off the remaining branches, leaving the main trunk 6 or 7 ft tall. There was easily twice as much tree above his demarcation point than below but that didn't stop him.

Daniel and I went out to do some errands and when we came back he had found a gas chainsaw and was going to town on the trunk. He told me that he had underestimated how big this tree was and he couldn't get through the trunk with his saw. He said, "I got pissed at the tree and went home to get my chainsaw. When I got back I told the tree I wasn't bringing out my chainsaw just to cut through that one branch and leave it at the top of the fence so I cut the whole thing down."

Now we have a hole in the fence that's over three feet wide with a stump in the middle of it, branches, wood chips, saw dust, and twigs on the front lawn, in the yard, and a mess on the sidewalk and street. The landlord brought his pickup truck to carry away the wood, but like he said, he totally underestimated both the size and strength of this tree.

He actually attracted the attention of a neighbour who came by and wanted to take the bulk of the wood away. He loaded up a trailer - looked about the size of a horse trailer - with the larger branches and pieces of the trunk, but there was still probably 3 heaping loads of tree parts to cart away in the landlord's trunk.

We love this house and our landlord has been great about fixing things for us and taking care of issues, but it's things like this that make me wonder if he's related to a certain crazy neighbour my parents had that gave us endless hours of amusement watching him out the front window.

Get-togethers

Amber had a group of ladies over tonight for a "book study". I put that in quotes because only one of the six ladies actually found the time to read the book this month, so I doubt the discussion was really related to the story.

Anyway...

I got to put the boys to bed. We watched a movie in Daddy's bed and then I read some stories and tucked them in. I actually lay on the floor in their room for a while.* While I was resting with my sons, I could hear the laughter and joyful discussions down the hall very clearly.

It took me back to when I was about 8 years old. My parents would occasionally have people over to chat or play games or whatever. These "get-togethers" as I called them would often last way past my bedtime but I couldn't fall asleep. I was too nervous to go down the hall to say anything but I was uncomfortable enough that I wouldn't fall asleep until after everyone left.

I remember sitting in my bedroom doorway, or crawling down the hall a ways and sitting with my back to the wall, just listening to what was going on. The more I tried to ignore the sounds, the more my ears focused on them and wouldn't allow me to fall asleep.

It was weird though. As I was laying on the floor listening to the laughing coming down the hallway, I had that same weird feeling. Like I was trapped in my room and I couldn't come out, but I also would never be able to fall asleep. I felt like I was 8 years old again.

The boys did better than me. At least I think they did. Daniel was a little restless but he usually is at bed time. Josh was likely asleep before his head fully hit the pillow. That's my boy!


=====================


* Grammatical Note: (Because I'm just that weird. Feel free to skip this part if you aren't as bizzare as I am.) That sentence was difficult to write. Using the word "lay" instead of "laid" as the past tense of the intransitive verb "to lie" is correct but it feels awkward. Really awkward. Like, I mean I want to go up and change it to laid right now so people will know what I am talking about.

Growing Up

I just had a dream.

Some friends came over to visit and they were holding Andrew. After a while, one put him down on the floor - standing - and said, "Go. Walk to Daddy." And he did! He took the 8 or so steps to me.

I didn't even know he could stand up on his own. I said, "He can't walk. He's only 3 months old. Why would you even try that?"

Maybe my baby is growing up too fast. Maybe it feels like he's gonna be a year old before I know it. Maybe I want him to come to me.

Or maybe it was the chicken wings I had late last night.

Reading Books

I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but Daniel is reading.

Not just reciting books he's had read to him hundreds of times or recognizing his name. This kid can actually read. Real books. We got a new Robert Munsch book from the library the other day and he could read the whole thing with just a few little helps per page. And once he learns a word like "appliance" on page 2, he'll remember it on page 7.

I don't know what to do with him. I was apparently reading too before I got to school but we lived in a small town so there weren't the multitude of options that we have here in a city of a million people. I want to keep up his love of learning, but not push him into things he's not ready for.

We'll see what looks good in the fall. Maybe music or gymnastics or soccer or something else. Should be exciting.

Ringmaster v.2.0

Joshie brought our family back about 27 years last night at Easter supper. He was sitting at the corner of the table (not eating - as usual) and playing with his vegetables. He had a pickle and a baby carrot standing up and called out (louder than he was expecting I'm sure), "Ladies and gentlemans, welcome from Veggie Tales!"

My whole family started laughing out loud. When I was about his age, I thought I was a ringmaster and would go around the house welcome all the ladies and gentlemen to the circus. It is pretty cool to see the boys doing things we did as kids.

Happy Baby

Andrew is turning into a much happier baby now. We got him some medicine that helps control his reflux and we are getting smiles much more often now. It is so cute.

The other cute thing is that he is soothed by music. He can be in the worst, grumpiest mood, crying and screaming and if Amber or I sing him Faithful One by Brian Doerksen, he will either be cooing along or asleep by the end of the chorus. It's so nice to have a pleasant baby in the house. :)

Good Friday's Feast

Appetizer
What movie soundtracks do you own?

Mr. Holland's Opus, a John Williams collection, Lion King

Soup
How much cash do you usually carry with you?

I always try to have $2.12 in the van for slurpees but I barely ever carry money with me.

Salad
Are you more comfortable around men or women? Why?

Kids. Yeah, it surprises me too, but there have been numerous times at Bible study, where I end up playing with the little ones instead of talking with the parents.

Main Course
What is the most mischievous thing you remember doing as a child?

Burning stuff. I remember putting a candle on the picnic table and spraying various aerosol chemicals through the flame to see what made the biggest fireball. Endust works pretty good.

Dessert
Who is the funniest member of your family?

Daniel was having a playdate with a bunch of kids last week and drew a picture of a boy. You could tell it was a boy because he had a penis. That makes me laugh every time I think of it.

Itchy

I've been really busy lately but I feel bad that I haven't been updating as much. I'll try to post little things when I think of them.

-----

Last night, getting ready for bed, Daniel was hopping around his bedroom picking at his underwear. I got him into his bed and he was still flailing about like a goldfish on the counter. Amber went to kiss him good night and he said, with great distress, "My bum is itchy! Please scratch it!"

Amber said laughing, "No, you can scratch your own bum."

Daniel replied, "But I don't have any fingernails!"

Friday's Feast on Sunday

Appetizer
Name a trait you share with your parents or your children.

The amazing McInnis Melon. A head that will never find a hat that fits. At least 4 generations now.

Soup
List 3 qualities of a good leader, in your opinion.

Servanthood
Vision
Compassion

Salad
Who is your favorite television chef?

Alton Brown

Main Course
Share a story about a gift you received from someone you love.

Amber has given me three beautiful boys and continues to give by staying home with them and raising them to become great, loving men.

Dessert
How do you react under pressure?

I twitch and either shut down or fly off in rage. I try more often to zip-push-bar and lock the emotions deep inside.

Another Feast

Appetizer
Name 3 things that you think are strange.

• The Segway Human Transporter


• The popularity of smut on TV


• The Third Way

Soup
What was the last ceremony you attended?

Church this week, or possibly Adam and Beckie's wedding in July?

Salad
What is one lesson you have learned in the past year?

God will make a way.

Main Course
Tell us about one of your childhood memories.

OK

Dessert
If you could extend any of the four seasons to be twice as long as normal, which season would you want to lengthen?

Since we're just coming off winter now, I'd have to say summer. I don't like cold very much.

Delurker update 2

For those of you who are interested, Amber and I ended up giving the $40 from my delurker experiment, along with some more of our Ralph money to a new church plant opening up in Calgary's deep south called Journey Church.

p.s. Thanks to Heather (the anonymous voyeur) for the link.

He's so happy

It's really sad actually. Andrew has been such an upset baby that it's a treat when he's quiet and staring off into space. He will often have a bit of a scowl, but if he's not crying, Josh will come over and give him a kiss saying, "Awwww! He's so happy!"

Andrew has actually started smiling a bit now. It's great to see him in a good mood and smiling with his huge dimple. He's getting ticklish too, so it won't be long before I can make him smile whenever I need that little pick-me-up. :D

Not Josh!

I am still doing it. Actually more than before. I was good for a while, but it's been terrible for the last week or so. I call my newest son Joshie ALL THE TIME!

In that last post, I actually typed Josh at least 4 times and had to go back and change it to Andrew. What's the matter with me?

Sick baby

Monday:

Took Amber and Andrew to the doctor for a checkup. We were a little concerned that Andrew had been throwing up and crying a lot more than the others. The doctor told Amber to lay off the milk products and leafy vegetables and come back in a few months.

Later that night Amber spoke to a friend who had a baby who had very similar problems. She ended up being diagnosed with reflux. Amber also knows lots of other babies with the same problem so we had considered it. She checked out a list of symptoms online and determined that it was very likely what Andrew had.

Tuesday:

Andrew woke up after a miserable night and was tugging at his ears. Amber called the doctor back and made an appointment for the morning. I took him in and the doctor was pretty sure he had reflux too. He refered us to a specialist and gave Andrew a prescription for his ear infection.

Wednesday:

The doctor's office called and said they got us an appointment with the specialist for June 5. The receptionist knew this was unacceptable and said she'd have our doctor call in and get that bumped up.

Mere hours later they called to report that they could get us in tomorrow. Dr. T. means business.

Thursday:

The specialist agreed that he has reflux and said that a milk allergy thing isn't the problem so Andrew got a prescription for Baby Zantac and Amber got a prescription for cheese and ice cream.

So, Andrew has reflux - just like his daddy and his uncles. My brothers and I have developed issues with pop and other things over the past few years. But now he has this medicine and hopefully he'll get over in a month or so.

He's already seeming better. Less crying, less clingy, less spitting up. Sounds good.

Feast 86

Pretty short one this week. I don't know if the questions are simple or tough, but they didn't draw much out of me.

Appetizer
How would you describe your personal comfort zone?

Amber and the boys

Soup
What is your favorite tree?

Apple tree

Salad
List 3 foods you'd like to include in your dinner plans for tonight.

I'd love to have roast, potatoes, yorkshire pudding
What did I have? Frozen meatpie, popcorn, apple

Main Course
What is the best advice you've ever been given, but didn't heed?

I was advised numerous times to follow my dreams and do a job I like, but it took me years to heed it.

Dessert
On a scale of 1-10 (10 being highest), how much attention do you feel comfortable receiving from others?

Maybe 2.

Feast 85

Appetizer
What job would you definitely not want to have?

Cedar shingle cutter. Aside from the deadly (to me) dust, it involves having your hands inches away from a 6 foot diameter blade spinning so fast you feel the wind pushing you away and you could cut off your arm way before you noticed it.

Soup
Oprah calls and wants you to appear on her show. What would that day's show be about?

Good questions this week. How about Families With Freakishly Long Streaks of Male Babies Being Born

Salad
Name 3 vegetables that you eat on a regular basis.

Carrots, cucumber, and broccolli, brocolli, broc... mushrooms

Main Course
If you were commissioned to rename your hometown, what would you call it?

Ralphiston

Dessert
If you had a personal assistant, what kind of tasks would you have them to do?

Cleaning. Dishes, laundry, bathrooms, definitely cleaning.

Feast Eighty-Four

Appetizer
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how intuitive do you think you are?

Intuitive, eh? I'll say 8 - but I have a feeling most people will disagree with me. ;)

Soup
What is your favorite kind of gum?

Grandpa gum. Wrigley's Doublemint.

Salad
Name a CD you own that you would never get rid of.

Now that I've dumped most of my CDs into iTunes, I could get rid of any of them. I guess I wouldn't want to lose the CD of my grad recital.

Main Course
When was the last time you said something you didn't mean?

I've thought about this for about 4 hours and can't get a good answer.

Dessert
What is the sum of the numbers in your birthdate? (Example: 3 + 2 + 1 + 9 + 7 + 9 = 31)

33

Podcasts

I've been listening to a lot of podcasts in the last month or so since I got my iPod. Podcasts are short audio broadcasts, designed for people on the go. They have shows about everything and by all kinds of people - professional and amateurs. I thought I'd share a few of my latest favorites.

Two Boobs and a Baby

This is a podcast by Dave and Heather. She's from Tenessee and he's from Toronto and they have a four month old baby boy named Sam. It's really cool to hear them talk about being first time parents and trying to figure out what to do with this new little addition. They were kind enough to mention me in their last episode, so I want to help them out and encourage my parenting friends to stop by and visit them too.

Daily Breakfast

This is a podcast by the enthusiastic Father Roderick, a Dutch Catholic priest who does a weekdaily show that is perfect for my morning bus ride. It's about half an hour and he talks about North American culture, movies, TV, books, food and health, has a little bit of music and a thought for the day. It is a very positive start to the day and never fails to be interesting and exciting.

For those of you who are new to podcasting, it's very simple to listen to these. You can go to their websites and download the latest episode - or any archives. You can listen to them on your computer, or copy them to a portable mp3 player. You can also use a variety of software programs to subscribe to the podcasts and have the new episodes downloaded automatically every day (and in my case dumped into the iPod).

What do I remember?

An old guy I know recently asked in his blog, "What do you remember? What is the earliest memory?" Apparently his kids have traumatized him and now he cannot remember anything from before he was in his early twenties. (Sorry Dad)

I posted some of this in the comments there, but I got to thinking and decided to not take up all the space on his blog, when I could be plagiarising myself and updating all my wonderful, loyal listeners here as well.

I remember a lot from when I was 5 to 8 or so. And these are what I believe are "real" memories. Not family legends that get told at every gathering and therefore become part of the collective memory, whether we actually remember them or not.*

• Yelling across the highway out my bedroom window at the grain elevators to hear an echo.
  
  
• Climbing the walls in the hallway by jamming myself in a narrow spot and climbing up like a star.
  
  
• Laying on the bottom bunk with my brother trying to make the top mattress pop off. Hmmm... that seems unlikely at 5 and 3, it must have been laying under the bottom bunk.
  
  
• Watching the first episode of The Cosby Show and calling Dad at work to tell him about it.
  
  
• Watching The Lone Ranger on some weird machine we rented from the movie rental place. The movie was in a big square plastic disk about the size of an LP case. The way I remember it, you put the edge of the case into the machine and it sucked out a laser disc of sorts, but you still had the case.
  
  
• Getting our first computer - a good old Commodore Vic20. My iPod Nano has 419,430 times the memory in 1/250th of the space. And yes, I did the math.
  
  
• Mom used to do something with Lysol to clean the house and determined that it must be toxic to kids and made us go outside while the smell was in the air. Now that I'm a parent, I think it may have just been to get us out of her hair so she could clean (and/or watch Another World).
  
  
• I apparently was bitten by the neighbours' German shepherd when I was about 6. I don't remember the event, but I do remember being at a friend's house that same afternoon, looking out the front window for the dog and Mom told me not to worry and that he was going to be "destroyed". Parenting Tip - Don't tell a 6 year-old that he has caused a dog to be destroyed. I was imagining something involving dynamite.
  
  
• Going to the principal's office in grade 1. Not because I was bad, but I think my teacher had the same idea as my mom - get me out of her hair for a while.
  
  She had given me a crossword puzzle to do and I was stuck on a few words, so she said, "Go see Dr. Garvie". He was actually teaching a grade 6 or 7 class and his secretary sent me in to see him. He took my half-done crossword puzzle, made an overhead and put it up on the screen and had his class help me finish it.
  
  
• I vividly remember sitting in a band class when I was 6, surrounded by 11 year-olds. I had a trumpet and the girl beside me was trying to get me to play the right notes.
  
  
• I remember my first Beavers "camp out". I must have been 5 or 6. We were in the "Combatives Room" at the local high school in our sleeping bags watching "The Littles" and eating raw hot dogs.
  
  
• I also remember the goal I scored in hockey. It was my third year and we were playing against Marengo. I happened to be out in front of the net and Quinn Uzelman passed the puck to me. Somehow I caught the pass and fired it into the net. We won the game, due in part to me, 13 - 0.
  

*Examples that only my family will get: The Mud Puddle Story, The Recess/Lunch Argument, The Baby Lion, etc.

He's like me

Josh loves his baby brother soooo much. He comes over and gives him kisses and hugs all the time and never wants to be separated. Whenever Andrew gives any sort of reaction that is not screaming or crying, Josh says, "He's like me!"

We're pretty sure he means, "He likes me!" but as Amber mentioned last night, that is one of the world's greatest understatements. Andrew, Josh, and Daniel are very much alike, and they are also a lot like me. We have the same big round heads, the same thin short hair, the same eyes, same round bellies, etc. It's going to be tough telling apart the baby pictures in few years. Good thing Amber has done a pretty good job of labeling them.

School Starting

Amber and I were talking about how Daniel is doing at preschool and how much he loves it. I think it's really great for him. It helps him learn social skills and how to listen to other adults. And it gives Mommy almost 5 hours a week with Josh and Andrew alone. ;)

Anyway, I was browsing through the web the other day and realized that Daniel will be starting Kindergarten in just over a year. And grade one in 2008. We need to start looking I guess. I've got a few schools in mind - Calgary has so many options with two "public" school boards and publicly funded charter schools in addition to private schools.

It all happens so fast. I remember so clearly when Daniel was Andrew's age. Pretty soon they'll all be grown and out of the house. And then back, and then gone again. ;)

A very special Friday's Feast

Appetizer
How many pillows and blankets do you sleep with?

I have one pillow and whatever blankets I can steal from Amber and Andrew.

Soup
What are you currently "addicted" to?

Reality TV. New seasons of Apprentice, American Idol, Survivor, Amazing Race all at once - it's too much.

Salad
If you could make a small change to your current routine or schedule that would make you just a little bit happier, what would it be?

Since I've been working late nights, I'd love to switch to sleeping in until 9:00 - but the boys don't seem to want to go for it.

Main Course
Which adjective do you find yourself using often?

Is "annoying" an adjective?

Dessert
Have you ever picked up a hitchhiker?

I was with a group from Bible College doing a week of service in the Kootenays. We saw someone on the side of the road and one of the other students said we should stop. He had a "plan". Let me quote this as well as I remember, though it was probably 8 years ago.

"We'll stop and let him in. He will sit here in the front. You always want the hitch hiker riding shotgun. Then I'll sit right behind him. You always have to have the guy with the knife sitting right behind the hitch hiker in case he tries something."

This is the same guy who earlier that year almost had me arrested. Same guy, different group, different road trip. Inappropriate comments were made to the border guard and we came "this close" to having a cavity search. The hitch-hiking trip also included our friend wearing a miniskirt (belonging to another student in our group) and going commando under it. You just never run out of stories with him around.

The thing is, he's a pastor now - and a good one at that. We love you man.

Sorry, what was the question?

Watch where you are going

So, I've been reading a new online devotional this past week:

Experiencing God Daily Devotional
Daily Devotional feed provided by Broadman & Holman Publishers

Anyways, today's thought was on the story in Numbers chapter 21 where Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. When anyone was bitten by a serpent, God told them to look to this gift from Him and not think about their situation and they would live.

This spoke so clearly to my life. My job situation has been a real mess for the past year. I've switched careers a few times, moved across the country and back and now I'm in the midst of a corporate restructuring and I'm unsure how I'll come out of it. If I focused on my snake bites, I know I would curl up in my tent and moan and cry and die.

But if I look to God and the gifts He showers me with, I will live. If I follow His plan, the bites won't go away - but neither will they poison the rest of my body. I see that so clearly but it is still hard. It is easier to suffer and try to go my own direction, but the harder choice is the better one. I know He will bless me and my family - He never stops.

In closing, I wanted to share the prayer for the day from this devotional:

King of My Life, no longer will I look where my wants direct me. I will look to see what You want and will adjust my life to be what You want. Amen.

Tough prayer. Tough to mean that. But I will do it.

Friday's Feast - again!

Appetizer
Choose one: moving to another state, having triplets, or never being able to eat chocolate again.

Holy cow! Those are all so perfect for me. I have no idea. I'll have to say the chocolate. I really don't want to move and if I had 3 more kids, we'd have to move.

Soup
Name a news story that truly shocked you.

Canada doesn't make the medal round in men's hockey.

Salad
What was your very first job?

Painting parking blocks at my dad's car dealership when I was 12.

Main Course
If you had the chance to read the diary of someone you're really close to, would you? Why or why not?

I read blogs as often as I can. I love to know what people are thinking.

Dessert
What's something you're looking forward to?

Finding out what's going on with my job. :|

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
If you were a color, which color would you be, and why?

Red. But like those dresses that were popular about 5 years ago where you could only see the colours at certain angles. I am full of passion, rage, love, emotion, etc. but it can only be seen at certain times.

Soup
When was the last time you went to the doctor, and what was your reason for going?

I went to the doctor with Andrew last week to get his boy-operation. For myself, I last saw the doctor just before we left Nakusp to confirm that my breathing problems were all better once I avoided cedar dust.

Salad
What do you collect?

Movies, I guess. But not just any movies - I like sets. Like all of the Lord of the Rings movies, I also just bought the complete Star Trek movie series on DVD. I like having all of something.

Main Course
What were you like in high school? Name one thing you miss and one thing you don't miss about those days.

I was cocky, arrogant, and pretty much a jerk in high school - standard lead trumpet syndrome. I miss band. I wish I could play more often - maybe now that things seem to be slowing down, I can look into a community band. I don't miss exams.

Dessert
Pretend you're standing in front of your home, with your back towards your home. Describe the view - what can you see? Trees? Cars? A zoo? Wal-Mart?

I see a large green hill leading up to a couple of baseball diamonds and a community centre. And a bus stop.

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
What was a class or course you took while in school that you realize now was a total waste of time?

Just one? I don't think any of them were a TOTAL waste of time. They helped me get where I am today, but I use close to zero percent of the school knowledge I gained from grade 9 through university in my daily life.

Soup
Who is the tallest person you know?

Hmmm. Uncle Dukie? My family is pretty short.

Salad
What's your favorite midnight snack?

Nachos and cheese.

Main Course
Have you ever found money somewhere? If so, where did you find it, and how much was it?

I just found a five dollar bill in my pants when I was doing laundry last week.

Andrew's story

Amber has done up a Birth Story for Andrew in her pregnancy journal. If you want to know all the medical details of what went on, click here. The pictures from that first week can be found here.

Andrew speaks

It is so cute. Andrew can talk. People talk about recognizing their baby's specific cries as hungry or wet or cuddly. Andrew has made it easy for us by telling us what he wants since the first day.

His "I want food" cry sounds almost exactly like he's saying, "Hung-Gee". It is so cute. It's almost without fail that he does this. The first time he did it in the hospital, I turned to Amber and she said, "Did he just say, 'Hungry' ?"

The other thing he says is yawnk. Well, he doesn't say it but I still think it's cute and hilarious. Daniel and Josh did it too. After a big yawn, he will close with a KKKKH sound. A yawn with a K is a yawnk and it makes me smile.

Maybe I'm just sleep deprived, but it seems cute to me. ;)

Gentle Josh

We were worried that Josh was going to be jealous and rough with the new baby. He started getting clingy and a little bit regressive in the last months of Amber's pregnancy. We had this feeling that he would be so difficult. He had always been far more emotional, verbal, and needy than Daniel.

But once Baby Andrew came home, Josh was great. He has been so gentle and good. He goes to bed well on his own. He gives Andrew gentle kisses and brings him toys. He colored pictures for him.

It has been great.

Daniel, on the other hand is in a stage of rebellion and independence. He doesn't listen or obey anymore and makes things more difficult. He is still very much in love with his little brothers and gentle with Andrew, but he's pushing against us pretty hard. Hopefully he'll get through this stage quickly and turn back into the sweet little angel we've always had.

Not alone

It's good to remember that we are not alone. People are always watching us - kids especially, but others as well. I had two interesting incidents yesterday that reminded me of that.

1) When I was riding the bus to work, I noticed a young woman sitting in her seat reading a book. Not unusual at all, but her book was a Bible. It made me remember that I'm not the only Christian working in this downtown corporate jungle.

2) While I was having lunch, a group of new hires came and sat down at the table by me. They were talking about their day and about how their first week was going. I encouraged them and told them that I was pretty new myself and it gets easier. One person looked at me and said, "Do you go to Bow Valley?" When I said I did, she replied, "I thought I recognized you," and went on talking with her new friends.

I don't remember seeing her at church before but she saw me and remembered. After observing two weeks of political bashing and piracy discussions, it was nice to know I am not the only person in my building who is trying to live life as a Christ-follower.

Things I've called Andrew this week

I just can't get his name straight. It's been almost a week and I have called him Austin, Alexander, Peanut, Pumpkin, and sometimes Andrew.

Still about a quarter to a third of the time I call him, or refer to him as, Joshie.

Nights Two and Three

Andrew is still only waking up once between midnight and 9am. He gets a clean diaper and has a snack from mom and goes right back to sleep. How am I supposed to watch my middle-of-the-night movies with him if he's such a good sleeper?

Daniel the Bear

I just heard Daniel go into the bathroom and turn on the water. This is never a good sign. I went in and asked, "Daniel, what are you doing?"

"Washing my hands. Washing my hands cause they were all messy from the applesauce."

I got him a bowl of applesauce a few hours ago for breakfast but he ate it all.

"Did you get some more applesauce?"

"Yup"

"By yourself?"

"Yup, with my hands. They got messy."

"You got applesauce by yourself with your hands."

"Yes, I ate it out of the jar with my hands. And now I am washing them."

"Umm..."

I love my boys.

February's First Friday Feast

Appetizer
On a scale of 1 to 10 (10=highest), how sociable are you?

Ouch! Maybe like a 3. I like my wife and kids and those friends that are closest to me, but I'm not much of a "party guy". I have to force myself to go to social events - but I usually end up really enjoying myself once I get there.

Soup
Name 3 DVDs you currently own.
I just got the Survivor All-Stars set for my birthday. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the Lord of the Beans.

Salad
If you were to win a superlative award now (such as most talented, class clown, most likely to succeed), what would it be?
Most likely to keep the McInnis "boys-only" streak alive.

Main Course
What is your favorite radio station?

Depends. If I'm in the mood for music, 88.9 ShineFM - Contemporary Christian, otherwise usually in the car, QR77 - News, Talk, Traffic.

Dessert
Complete this sentence: I believe __________ because __________.

I believe that Jesus is coming soon because I see the labour pains of the earth, and because He tells me so.

Do the right thing

I want to teach my boys to do the right thing.

The world is getting bad. In the last week at my work I have heard coworkers and managers talking publicly about:

* Downloading movies and TV shows
* Burning CDs and DVDs
* Burning video games
* Hacking/cracking software
* Sharing paid software
* Cracking user names and passwords
* Buying drugs
* Doing drugs
* Adjusting scheduling program to give free time off
* Coming back and "blowing this place up"

Now, the last two might have been jokes, but still, it's so sad when I hear people talking about things like this with absolutely no sign of guilt or wrongdoing. I'm going to have to fill the boys up with morals and ethics because by the time they get older it's only gonna be way harder to resist the relativism and situational ethics.

What a job.

Delurker Update

It looks like we had 8 unique delurkers before Baby Andrew arrived. That's a fairly good rate of return. Once my Ralph cheque arrives, I'll pick a worthy cause and send the $40 off and I'll let you know what I did with it.

Thanks for making this Delurking Day a success.

First Night

Yesterday Amber and Andrew came home and spent their first night in our bedroom. Grandma and Grandpa had taken the older boys for the night, so this was to be an easier test.

Andrew had a rough time sleeping at the hospital. He's a cuddler and loves to be touched. The hospital has a big problem with babies and mommies sleeping in the same bed. We do not have the same problem. Both Daniel and Josh slept between us for several months. It makes it so much easier to feed at night.

Anyway, we went to bed around 10:00 and Andrew didn't settle until about 11:30. Amber finally convinced him that eating would be a good thing. He had a big meal and then slept. The next time I heard him was at 4:15 when he woke up for another feast. Then I slept through my 6:00am alarm and when I raced out of the house at 7:40, he was still sleeping soundly - back in his bassinette.

I'm not crazy enough to think that this will last, but waking up once our first night was a very nice treat.

Welcome Andrew Elijah

At 7:55 am this morning, our beautiful new baby was born.

Andrew Elijah McInnis was 8lbs 6 oz and 22 inches. He and Amber are getting some well-deserved rest and will be staying at the hospital for another 2-3 days.

I'm sure we'll have a better update later, but I wanted to get something up tonight.

Jon (and Amber and Daniel and Josh and Andrew)

Trying to be patient

It's so hard to wait.

I want this baby to come now. We are totally not ready for it and I
know it will shake up our household, but Amber is so uncomfortable and
I want to make her feel better.

She had another doctor appointment today and her blood pressure is
starting to go up. She's lying in bed now trying to get some rest. And
I'm trying to not smack the other kids. They seem to know when we need
quiet time, because that's when they are at their rowdiest.

We've received 3 calls from my parents, a visit from Amber's mom, and
a call from my brother today (that I know of). Everyone is as anxious
as we are. With Daniel and Josh, we were 1400 km away, so calling
every 2 hours wasn't an option.

If the baby comes tonight or this weekend, I probably won't even miss
any work. I was kind of looking forward to running out of the office
to go pick her up at home - or meet her at the hospital.

These are my thoughts today. Hopefully the next post will be our birth
announcement.

Update on Compulsively Clean

I saw a guy today wash his hands with soap before he did his business. What's up with this place???

Hello lurkers!

I learned recently that a friend of mine has been reading this blog regularly and it gave me an idea.

I don't know how many people are lurking here and reading without telling me. I have a plan to root you out. This is our official De-lurking Message. I want everyone who reads this to leave a comment. For every unique reader that leaves a comment on this message before Sunday morning (Jan 29), I will donate $5 of my Alberta Prosperity cheque to a worthy cause. That counts for Amber and Heather too (the only ones I know who are actually reading) - but you still need to leave a comment.

Let the comments begin!

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
Choose one: Popcorn, Pizza, Pretzels, Peanuts, or Pasta.

Definitely pizza. Pizza is fantastic and even when it's not that great, it's still good because it's pizza.

Soup
Describe your personality in terms of a particular vehicle.

Something small but has power when it needs it. Like a Suzuki Swift with a ferrari engine. I miss Bronwyn.

Salad
If you won a shopping spree, from which store would you want it to be?

If I'm thinking practically - I can get my free stuff and then sell it for the cash, I'd go for a jewelry store - expensive small stuff. But if I keep the spreed stuff, maybe Future Shop - no something like Sears where I can get my big TV but also couches and power tools and clothes and stuff.

Main Course
Which television show re-runs do you enjoy watching?

I always thought I couldn't get sick of watching The Simpsons

Dessert
If you could look into the future, how far down the road would you like to see? 10 years? 100 years? A million?

Oooh, this is the toughest one. Dessert is supposed to be easy.

As much as I'd like to see how the boys turn out, I've seen enough Back to the Future and Star Trek to know that knowledge of yourself in the future is dangerous. I'd like to pick something like 100 years, but if I found out that Christ hasn't come back yet, I'd be so depressed. I don't want to know the future.

Compulsively Clean

The place I work must have had a seminar on Hand Washing and the Flu shortly before I started. It's really weird. I've never seen guys wash their hands so consistently and conscientiously in the bathroom.

In public bathrooms I've noticed that most guys will barely wipe the urinal splashes off their hands onto their pant legs before leaving the facilities. But here, these guys use soap and lather up for at least a "Happy Birthday to You".

Just an observation.

Jekyll and Hyde

I don't know what to do with these kids. One night they'll go to bed nicely, have some cuddles and fall asleep until morning. The next day they'll scream and fight and throw things around their room for hours like chimpanzees on mochaccinos.

It doesn't seem to matter how much they napped during the day, or how well we wind them down at the end of the night, I never know how it's gonna go until I step out of their room.

Last night started out very Mr. Hyde. Daniel was unreasonable and the more angry I got, the more he fought back. I finally went in at 8:30 and laid down with Josh (because he was being pretty good) to try to get them to stop talking to each other. Daniel brought his pillow and blanket over to the floor beside Josh's bed (a twin mattress on the floor) and cuddled up to us. The three of us fell asleep.

I woke up at almost 10:00pm and had wasted the whole evening. We had plans to do stuff and get ready for the new baby last night. :( But I was out for the night. I found Amber and gave her a kiss and crashed in our bed. So, needless to say, I was up at 4:30 this morning, ready for work - looks like it'll be another Large Coffee Day at work today.

Tech boy

Daniel is such a bright kid. Reminds me of the stories I heard about me when I was 3 or 4 that I never really believed. He reads pretty much anything that doesn't have any weird silent letters (and if he knows the word he'll sometimes work it out anyway).

I was in the living room the other day and I hear Daniel call from down the hall, "What comes after Grandpa?"

I go down the hall and see that one of Amber's friends had sent her an instant message and the window was open. Daniel remembered that Grandpa Bob always used to send him messages when we were in Nakusp and assumed this was Grandpa writing to him.

I look on the screen and he had typed, "daniel, grampa".

He knew what he wanted to say and sounded it out and typed it.

He did the same thing to me a couple days later. I was on break at work and fired up msn on the break room computer to see how things were going at home. I wrote Hi or something and after a few minutes I get back the reply, "daniel, daddy." He saw my name in the address and knew it was me.

Now that I'm writing it, I'm realizing that he used commas to separate the names. What's up with that? Who taught him about commas??!!

We're gonna need a better lock on our computer. He'll have that screensaver password cracked before he's 4.

Twins?

For the last 2 years people have looked at our boys and asked, "Are they twins?" Even when Josh was 3 months old and Daniel was over double his size. Now that they are much closer in height - and look more similar - we get fewer questions. Maybe people feel they don't need to ask because it's so obvious.

Christmas morning we had got them matching pajamas. Bad idea. Now that they both need a haircut it's nearly impossible for me to yell the right name based on the back of the head I see playing with something he shouldn't be.

Last week at church I think the boys (possibly subconsciously) played into this. A little background: For some reason, whenever you ask Josh his name, he always says something other than, "Joshie". For a while, he would have to point at and identify everyone else in the room in turn before giving his own name. Very unselfish. Now, he will often just point and say, "Daniel". When you say, "No, who are YOU?" he'll say, "Joshie Jon McInnis".

Anyway, I dropped them off at their 2-3 year old Sunday school class and signed them in. Josh ran to the sand table and I took Daniel to the bathroom before he got too excited and forgot. When we came back, the teacher of the week - who knows the boys fairly well - had assembled the kids at a table to work on crafts. The last thing I heard as I was slipping out and Daniel was sitting down was the teacher saying, "Here Josh, I have your nametag for you." And Daniel didn't say anything when she pinned it on him."

I can only assume that she knew they were both the crazy McInnis boys and while Daniel was in the bathroom she had the two nametags in her hand and asked Josh his name. When he gestured in the general area of the bathroom and said, "Daniel," she clipped the matching tag to him.

When I got back to pick them up at the end of the class, they had their right names again. I didn't say anything to the teacher, but I wonder how long my little imps let this go.

First Friday's Feast

Appetizer
Have you ever seen a ghost or an angel?
Nope, not that I know of, but the Bible says we may entertain angels unaware.


Soup
What is your favorite board game?
Amber and I have started playing games in the evenings again. I think my favorite so far is Cranium - but it's not really a 2 person game.

Salad
What was the last movie you saw that made you cry?
I don't usually cry at movies. The only one I remember crying at was The Passion of the Christ last year.

Main Course
What would you do if you had 3 months off from your job?
What DID I do? Spent a lot of time with Amber and the kids. Watched a lot of Game Show Network. Applied for jobs. If I did it again, I don't think I could find a more relaxing, pretty place than Nakusp.


Dessert
What kind of shoes are you wearing today?
I'm not going in to work until 4 today, so I just woke up. No shoes.

Supersized Wednesday's Feast

Amber posted her answers to this recently, so I'll do mine too. :)


1. What did you do in 2005 that you'd never done before?
Moved 4 times, quit 2 jobs, applied for EI, took a job with a major corporation, discovered an allergy to cedar

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for this year?
Not even close. With all the changes, my willpower was shot

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Not this year

4. Did anyone close to you die?
My Grandma lost 3 sisters

5. What countries did you visit?
Stayed in Canada, but managed to visit 4 provinces.

6. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005?
Stability

7. What date from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Nov. 28 - The day I started my new career

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I'm proud of making it through the year. I've grown so much. Like the milk commercials. Grow. All. Ways.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I don't see any of this as failures. Everything I could call a failure has led me to where I am, and that's closer to God's Will than before.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Oh my! I was in the hopsital more in September than any other time in my life. Tests and drugs all confirmed for me that I was allergic to my job.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Our piano and our van.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Amber for taking care of 2 toddlers and a sick hobo husband for 2 months.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Some former employers

14. Where did most of your money go?
U-Haul and damage deposits

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
baby mcbean

16. What song will always remind you of 2005?
Lead Us Lord - Brian Doerksen

17. Compared to this time last year, are you

i. happier or sadder? happier
ii. thinner or fatter? fatter:(
iii. richer or poorer? richer

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Listening to those I love when they told me to do what I love

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Packing

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Very busy

21. Did you fall in love in 2005?
All over again

22. What was your favorite TV program?
Survivor, Mythbusters

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Nope

24. What was the best book you read?
Half-Blood Prince

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I can play the piano

26. What did you want and get?
New shoes, a house in NW Calgary, a job that might last

27. What did you want and not get?
A church job, Star Wars 6 movie box set

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Revenge of the Sith

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old?
I think I was getting ready to move. We had some family over at my parents' place. 28

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I am so happy with how my year turned out. I wouldn't trade the trials for anything.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005?
Business casual with a 2 month period of jeans and workboots

32. What kept you sane?
Amber

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Amber made fun of me for liking Erin on Apprentice 3. I don't know if I "fancied" her.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
I'm starting to get into the new election - just for the chance of change

35. Who did you miss?
I missed my family and bible study when we moved. Now, not really anyone.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
Ron, and yeah I kind of miss him now. He was a good guy.

God's Plans

My devotional today from Promise Keepers is very suitable for me these days.

"We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps" (Proverbs 16:9)

God has taken us on such a journey this last year. And though it seems tempting to see this as a final destination, I know it's just another port in the voyage. No matter how much we try to plan our lives out, God determines our steps.

The "Prayer for the Week" is something we can all try to keep in mind:

"Lord, decrease my preoccupation with my destination and increase my concern for the process You are using to shape my character."