So, today I decided I would surprise Stacey and come home at lunch time and take the rest of the day off. Then I also decided, since I have 74 days of unused leave, I'd take tomorrow off as well. So, I got home around noon, after stopping at Lowe's to pick up some hardware to hang that heavy bag I told you about. Or maybe I didnt. Anyhow, the point is, I had to pick up an eye-bolt and some S hooks to hang this 80lb bag up in the garage so I could hit it. Well, so Stacey and I could both hit it. We found it, quite brand new, at the D.I. the other day when we were looking for sombreros for the Cinco de Mayo party. Anyway, so my dad meets me at home, and we hang the bag.
About that time, Stacey comes out with Samuel in the stroller, and Olivia all fresh-faced and cute, and starts looking over at the Stroup's house, where there's this giant pile of topsoil/mulch and starts weeding. Well, so she sorta hints around she could use some help putting this topsoil in. So, I figure it's a great day to work in the yard, so I go up and change and start helping. Well, about the time I get the second load of soil brought over, Stacey informs me she has to leave to take Samuel to a dr's appointment, because she thinks he has a sinus infection (which he did). So, I'm left with Olivia. About forty five minutes later, after I've been in the house six times to get her a treat, or a cookie or whatever, she says she's cold, and she want some, "pink milk" which really means Nestly Quick in a sippy cup. Plus she says she's tired, and wants to watch Shaun the Sheep. Which, I tried to switch out with, "Big Papa" with Adam Sandler, but she wasnt havin' it. So, about three episodes into it, I start to dose off. Well she starts coughing, and coughing. She has post-nasal drip from whatever Sam cought from Lexi who cought it from ???. Yeah, so, here we go. Well our kids, they cant just cough, no, they have to puke too. So, I try to settle her down, and pretty soon, three volleys of chunky pink curds comes up over me, her, the bean bag, her blankey, and my brand (new) Nike golf shirt I picked up at the D.I. the other day.
So, I strip her down, put her in our shower upstairs, and go outside to start collecting up rakes and shovels and all the other crap I had to drag out of the garage to hang the bag, and then start work in the flower beds. Pretty soon, well about three minutes into it, I am again startled to hear through the open front door, Olivia screaming bloody murder. So I bolt up the stairs, almost break an ankle in my ridiculous dork sandals that seemed like a good idea working in the sun, and find her up in the shower. She's screaming, because of the turds, which someone??? just left lying about in the shower immediately at her feet. So, she's screaming and screaming, coughing, and now poopy, and I grab a towel to get her out.
So, she's standing there, telling me all about the poop, while I pick it up with some toilet paper. So, I commence picking up the poop, and send her away onto the bed. When I return to the bed, she's shivering under the running fan. I turn it off, and go get some wipes and a diaper, and...wouldnt you know it? poop on the towel. So the towel goes in the dirty clothes, and I put a diaper on her, and start walking down the hall with her, to have her pick out some new clothes. Only, she's walking shuffle steps down the hall and I cant get her to speed up or find any reason to stop being cold. So, I try to move around her in the door, but the dirty clothes hamper, along with the nightlight (on) and the five giant princess paint your face laboratories are in the way. Along with, the five, yes 5, giant tubs of clothes, that my loving wife brought up to take up any available floor space that might be left in the kids room. So, my daughter, the impossed hoarder, now can't get to her dresser, in the room she shares with her sister, because we cant move or get around her. So, I start getting pissed at this point. I go over to her drawer, pull it out, and the mutha....puss...bucketin' drawer bottom falls out. This fiber-board dresser we have, has never worked correctly once, so I leave her in the room, NOT looking through her clothes, determined I'm going to fix this ONE thing before I find one more thing wrong. Oh, I neglected to tell you that in the bathroom, we have no water stop, because I haven't had a chance to replace the one that rusted through. So, who knows what's down in the P trap right now....
Where was I??? Oh, so, anyhow, I go down stairs, three stairs at a time, and out to the garage determined to fix this drawer and the one thing in my life which I might even be able to take control and actually fix. So, in rummaging through my tool chest, I have now determined, that in addition to a tape measure, a good set of standard screw drivers, and a 1/4 socket driver and adapter, I am NOW short a hammer. So, I start rummaging through the tool box on my truck and find a hammer. BACK to the drawer, and pull the 1/4 flimsy bottom out and go looking for my wood glue. WHICH, miraculously, I find! So I twist the top on the glue, and try to get it out, only it's sealed shut. So I take the top off, start jabbing the inside of it out with a phillips screw driver (the ONE I COULD find) and to no avail. So I take the screw driver, slop on as carefully as I can this wood glue into the groove of the sides, back and bottom of the drawer (and my pants, my left hand, my shirt (which has pink puke on it) and go looking for the three little baby girl nails that obviously tore through the last time. I reposition the nails, slop it all back togther, somehow avoid crushing the drawer out of sheer frustration, and now it sits in the garage drying, because the whole inside back of the drawer is covered in wood glue, which should be dry around eight pm tonight.
Oh, I neglected to tell you, that the five boxes of clothes that came out of the basement three weeks ago, yeah, I hurled those sunsabeaches over the railing onto the floor and into the middle of the front room. Yeah, those eithe go to the D.I., or they go back into the basement, but I'll be damned if I'm going to hear someone frustrated at the kids the next six weeks because they wont pick up their cluttered rooms.
Anyhow, Stacey just showed up with my medication. A nice 44 oz soda full of Diet Luv. Anyhow, I gotta go be nice now and help pick up the three foot tall pile of clothes I made before I can rant and complain again. You know, part of the solution, and not part of the problem and all.
Anyhow, there you have it. I'm home for three hours, and I'm already the worst dad that my kids ever had. Sam's back from the dr., he has a sinus infection and it's moving down into his lungs. So, it seems that my entire full day off tomorrow, may just be equally stellar. Right now, I'm planning on getting the ATV running, put two new tires on the adult bikes we were given, put the winter stuff in the shed, and if all works out, maybe even exercise. I'll give you ten to one I get one tire on, and make three trips to Napa to get the four wheeler not working before I have more to tell you.
Anyhow, I gotta go. Love and hugs and all that.
Worst dad (and husband) ever,
J
Monday, May 7, 2012
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Hey there.
Hey kid. Long time no see huh? I'm home today for a couple of hours. It's a Sunday and Lexi's not feeling well and we left her home from church. During Sacrament meeting Isabelle starting it too and so I offered to jump on that grenade and bring them home. What a beautiful Sunday too. The sun is shining out there and it's just the perfect temperature with a slight breeze. I enjoyed Sacrament today. The topic was on recognizing our blessings and enjoying them. It's been a real theme throughout our lives the past couple of weeks. Seems that someone upstairs is intent on hammering the idea home to us.
So here I am, listening to Miranda Lambert on one tab and typing on this here other-en. You think I'd learn wouldnt you? Miranda's sad songs are just that, sad. But they evoke such feeling you know? Right now she's on about a house that she used to live in. She already almost made me cry at the corners with someone that died and prancin' around in the forest with a mystical horse figure. Yeah, it's all very metaphorical, but even a dumby like me could pick out what she was after. Anyhow, so I've been thinking a lot this past week about my own personal blessings. Sometimes blessings that are understated and unappreciated. I guess I'm a bit like a spoiled child at times. I can't see that things that I've really wanted, and figured I'd worked so hard for, and that would really be a blessing, well when they dont come true it can be a real setback at times. But I'm learning. As I told you, I'm pretty dense at times. Oh, I can pick right up on a comedic que, I can run that baby right into the ground at times. But where I need a little help is in the faith department at times.
I tell you what though. I'm really thankful for the things I've learned over the past few years. I feel like my own personal challenges, as well as our family challenges, have really given me a lot of insight. I now understand things about how our Heavenly Father sometimes blesses us. Too often he's taught me personally through a witholding of what I want most. I've also seen in others some of my own challenges. I've tried to help at times, tried to convey the things I've learned, and had them fall on deaf ears. I've outlines a map, charted a course and tried to share my own challenges in hopes that it would convince them. You know what? I see from the Lord's side now how that must be to want so badly to spare someone that heartache, that grief. I know that too often He must have personally wondered and ached for me to listen, and I just wouldnt. Mostly because I'm one that has to drink from the bitter cup to really know for myself.
You know, I've figured out a lot about myself too. Turns out, I'm a little crazy. No, I knew you knew that as well. But I've felt at times like I was the only one in the world that got it, and therefore the world had gone crazy. Then I'd seen crazy in others and figured they'd get it too, and now I'm thinking, that I just have some unique personal issues or insight that help me to inherently understand things I can do nothing about. I'm probably making no sense at all here, that's part of the crazy part. See, I get things that others dont see. It's kind of like that movie with Mel Gibson where he's got stickies and newspapers all over his apartment and lines and highlighters and yeller stickies and stuff all over tying it all together. Then that chick with the giant forehead and the huge teeth with the red hair? What's her name? Pretty woman? Yeah, anyhow she visits his apartment and realizes he's a tad crazy but one of his political theories is actually true. Anyhow, horrible allusion there, but if you were a little crazy you'd get it. So anyhow, what I'm saying is, I get it. I get how my Heavenly Father shows his love for me at times. I see the inherent beauty in a tragic and horrible country song, just the same as I see it in the first Crocus flower in the Spring. I see in this world the raging runoff and the brisk cool mountain streams. I see the broken and disheveled. I see the penitent heart and feel their pain. I also see the proud and the wicked, and identify with their plight, in fact, probably too often. Hold on, Sarah Evans is getting a little bit stronger, I have to pause this so I can focus.
Where was I? Oh yeah, so, I guess I sometimes wonder why I have been given this insight. You know as I sit in Sacrament, watching Josh hold and feed Samuel, holding Isabelle and having her hug me, realizing all I've been blessed with...my wonderful and beautiful wife. It's a lot to take in you know? I wonder why the Lord has given me this insight. I wonder if I'm unique, or if everyone gets it, and is just quiet about it. I sometimes think that everyone's crazy, and simultaneously maybe I'm the only one. Well whatever, I don think I really captured what I meant to say. I think all I'm trying to get across is how thankful I am for God's plan for me. I'm thankful he's given me these challenges. I'm amazed at what he's required of me. I'm amazed at the things I've come to know but can do nothing about. I've come to realize that maybe how some of our church leaders must feel. I'm guessing that might be part of what the Savior feels. It's just the smallest bit of empathy I've learned from Him. I feel the hurt, I know the pain. I feel the extremes of happiness and joy and exasperation and pleadings of a parent taken to the extreme.
What an amazing world and life we have before us. To cram all of this opportunity and expense into one short life of 80 years. Incredible. Sometimes I feel like I've learned so much and other times I feel like I'll never learn what I'm supposed to with only 40 years left. Sometimes I think I've crested over, and I feel some of the undertanding I saw in my father and grandfather. I feel like I know some of that personal pain and understanding I saw in their eyes when they wanted more for me and I wouldnt listen. I also imagine I'm gaining that same twinkle and misting at the corners I saw when they knew I was going the right way and would figure it out soon enough.
Wow this is perfect, Youtube, just selected, "What hurts the Most" by Rascal Flatts. I guess that's what I'm getting at, that bitter-sweet knowledge you get when it's too late to affect it. That's what I'm getting at. So, now that begs the question, if you have a poet's soul, what do you now do with it? How do you use it for good? Will anyone listen? What's God's plan for your individual talents, for the things you've learned and that pain you've swam through, that relief that you've felt at forgiveness and the memory that remains? I guess that's part of what grandpa's know huh? Why they look at you the way they do. That, "I'd tell you, but you wouldnt listen anyway." that you recall in their countenance.
Well, hey listen, I gotta go check on Lexi and Isabelle. So you have a wonderful day, and week if I dont get around to it again. Keep doin' what you're doin, keep working towards being all you can be and accepting the, "No's" and looking for the deeper meaning and what you're supposed to learn from them. Dont be afraid to notice the budding trees, and feel His work in the sunshine that accompanies your labors. Stop every once in a while and take a bearing and see what He's done for you. Those things you can't quantify, but you feel in your heart were individual and important to you. Then, instead of moving on, make sure you acknowledge them and tell him how much you appreciate not only the happiness, but the heartache that helped you become what you are today.
Anyhow, I gotta go.
All the best to you and yours.
J
So here I am, listening to Miranda Lambert on one tab and typing on this here other-en. You think I'd learn wouldnt you? Miranda's sad songs are just that, sad. But they evoke such feeling you know? Right now she's on about a house that she used to live in. She already almost made me cry at the corners with someone that died and prancin' around in the forest with a mystical horse figure. Yeah, it's all very metaphorical, but even a dumby like me could pick out what she was after. Anyhow, so I've been thinking a lot this past week about my own personal blessings. Sometimes blessings that are understated and unappreciated. I guess I'm a bit like a spoiled child at times. I can't see that things that I've really wanted, and figured I'd worked so hard for, and that would really be a blessing, well when they dont come true it can be a real setback at times. But I'm learning. As I told you, I'm pretty dense at times. Oh, I can pick right up on a comedic que, I can run that baby right into the ground at times. But where I need a little help is in the faith department at times.
I tell you what though. I'm really thankful for the things I've learned over the past few years. I feel like my own personal challenges, as well as our family challenges, have really given me a lot of insight. I now understand things about how our Heavenly Father sometimes blesses us. Too often he's taught me personally through a witholding of what I want most. I've also seen in others some of my own challenges. I've tried to help at times, tried to convey the things I've learned, and had them fall on deaf ears. I've outlines a map, charted a course and tried to share my own challenges in hopes that it would convince them. You know what? I see from the Lord's side now how that must be to want so badly to spare someone that heartache, that grief. I know that too often He must have personally wondered and ached for me to listen, and I just wouldnt. Mostly because I'm one that has to drink from the bitter cup to really know for myself.
You know, I've figured out a lot about myself too. Turns out, I'm a little crazy. No, I knew you knew that as well. But I've felt at times like I was the only one in the world that got it, and therefore the world had gone crazy. Then I'd seen crazy in others and figured they'd get it too, and now I'm thinking, that I just have some unique personal issues or insight that help me to inherently understand things I can do nothing about. I'm probably making no sense at all here, that's part of the crazy part. See, I get things that others dont see. It's kind of like that movie with Mel Gibson where he's got stickies and newspapers all over his apartment and lines and highlighters and yeller stickies and stuff all over tying it all together. Then that chick with the giant forehead and the huge teeth with the red hair? What's her name? Pretty woman? Yeah, anyhow she visits his apartment and realizes he's a tad crazy but one of his political theories is actually true. Anyhow, horrible allusion there, but if you were a little crazy you'd get it. So anyhow, what I'm saying is, I get it. I get how my Heavenly Father shows his love for me at times. I see the inherent beauty in a tragic and horrible country song, just the same as I see it in the first Crocus flower in the Spring. I see in this world the raging runoff and the brisk cool mountain streams. I see the broken and disheveled. I see the penitent heart and feel their pain. I also see the proud and the wicked, and identify with their plight, in fact, probably too often. Hold on, Sarah Evans is getting a little bit stronger, I have to pause this so I can focus.
Where was I? Oh yeah, so, I guess I sometimes wonder why I have been given this insight. You know as I sit in Sacrament, watching Josh hold and feed Samuel, holding Isabelle and having her hug me, realizing all I've been blessed with...my wonderful and beautiful wife. It's a lot to take in you know? I wonder why the Lord has given me this insight. I wonder if I'm unique, or if everyone gets it, and is just quiet about it. I sometimes think that everyone's crazy, and simultaneously maybe I'm the only one. Well whatever, I don think I really captured what I meant to say. I think all I'm trying to get across is how thankful I am for God's plan for me. I'm thankful he's given me these challenges. I'm amazed at what he's required of me. I'm amazed at the things I've come to know but can do nothing about. I've come to realize that maybe how some of our church leaders must feel. I'm guessing that might be part of what the Savior feels. It's just the smallest bit of empathy I've learned from Him. I feel the hurt, I know the pain. I feel the extremes of happiness and joy and exasperation and pleadings of a parent taken to the extreme.
What an amazing world and life we have before us. To cram all of this opportunity and expense into one short life of 80 years. Incredible. Sometimes I feel like I've learned so much and other times I feel like I'll never learn what I'm supposed to with only 40 years left. Sometimes I think I've crested over, and I feel some of the undertanding I saw in my father and grandfather. I feel like I know some of that personal pain and understanding I saw in their eyes when they wanted more for me and I wouldnt listen. I also imagine I'm gaining that same twinkle and misting at the corners I saw when they knew I was going the right way and would figure it out soon enough.
Wow this is perfect, Youtube, just selected, "What hurts the Most" by Rascal Flatts. I guess that's what I'm getting at, that bitter-sweet knowledge you get when it's too late to affect it. That's what I'm getting at. So, now that begs the question, if you have a poet's soul, what do you now do with it? How do you use it for good? Will anyone listen? What's God's plan for your individual talents, for the things you've learned and that pain you've swam through, that relief that you've felt at forgiveness and the memory that remains? I guess that's part of what grandpa's know huh? Why they look at you the way they do. That, "I'd tell you, but you wouldnt listen anyway." that you recall in their countenance.
Well, hey listen, I gotta go check on Lexi and Isabelle. So you have a wonderful day, and week if I dont get around to it again. Keep doin' what you're doin, keep working towards being all you can be and accepting the, "No's" and looking for the deeper meaning and what you're supposed to learn from them. Dont be afraid to notice the budding trees, and feel His work in the sunshine that accompanies your labors. Stop every once in a while and take a bearing and see what He's done for you. Those things you can't quantify, but you feel in your heart were individual and important to you. Then, instead of moving on, make sure you acknowledge them and tell him how much you appreciate not only the happiness, but the heartache that helped you become what you are today.
Anyhow, I gotta go.
All the best to you and yours.
J
Friday, April 27, 2012
M&M's and Timmy Time
Alright. Here's my report thus far on my day off. So I got up and made the traditional Friday morning breakfast, complete with papas and juevos and ham. You know, I just love over-easy eggs. Is there anything better than a couple of peices of home-made bread toast with real butter and an over-easy sobre el? Nah, not much. Nothing without a pulse anyhow. So, today of course I made breakfast for Stacey and the kids. Stacey as I told you went and sub-ed at the preschool for a half day today. Dont ask me why, we're just gonna get 1099ed at the end of the year and pay it all back anyhow. But, Stacey agreed to do it, and it makes her feel like she's helping out. Plus I think she gets tired of dealing with her own five kids, so why not try and wrangle 20 of someone elses' right? Yeah, chick logic.
So, anyhow, then from there it took me 45 minutes to get everyone out the door, (Sam, Olivia and me) complete with sweaters, three diaper changes (I'm not wearing Depends quite yet so do the math there) and then find some socks and blah blah blah yada yada yada. Anyhow, we walked from the house down to the little park and on over to the Mecca to get some Diet Luv for the day. I figured by the time I carried Olivia halfway there and back on my shoulders pushing a stroller and lugging a 44 oz anchor, I'd earned it. Anyhow, it's Timmy Time now at the house, and Livy is suckin' down M&M's on the bean bag and I'm sure I'll be explaining the chocolate stains to my better half within the hour. So, all in all, a great start to the weekend.
I'm about out of news from here, so you just keep your head down and your powder dry.
All the best to you and yours,
J
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)