"DAD!!! Why do I have to go to BED?!?!?! I want to watch the Olympics!"
Well son, because although the rest of the world stops spinning, like the news, politics, and Wall Street, you still have to go to school in the morning.
Then to help dull the Olympics pain:
Opening Ceremonies Commentary with pictures
http://www.tv.com/news/the-insane-fever-dream-that-was-the-2012-summer-olympics-opening-ceremony-photo-recap-29233/
Hannah Hart Drinking Game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uORgEwl8xG8
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
HEY! Let's CAMP!
When I say "we", that includes the children and me. The wifey is not a fan of camping. Especially when you have to take shovel to go to the bathroom.
Early on Saturday morning we took off.
The morning was quite... tense. Even though wifey didn't want to go camping, she certainly wasn't going to let us just leave- there were a thousand questions for the children, and whatever they were wearing, was wrong. Too new, too white, too small, to big, etc etc.
Which is to say, then we left. And when it comes down to it, it was probably a good thing we got wardrobe coaching.
Driving north, and having had to work the night before, the 3 of us collectively determined the menu- then stopped at the store and bought the food. The drawback was that no prep was done in advance. The advantage was, HOT DOGS. need very little prep ;)
The number of times I heard "Are we there yet" was inconceivable. Really. I have no idea why they were so anxious. Maggie and I were singing to the radio. Brady was listening to HIS music on his iPod. So- I now decided that my only reply to that question would be "Yes!" enthusiastically shouted! I mean, this is a 3 hour trip or less.
Since I really had no idea where I was going, we stopped at the visitor center.
You guys do this all the time, right? Plan on going camping, then decide where to go about half way there? We have a regular place we go camping, but it was closed because, um, Bears. Yes. Bears. 3 attacks at campsites this year. Also, that area was still under a burn ban so no campfires. There were other places I could have gone, but they didn't allow bow and arrows or bb-guns. So- I solicited ideas from friends and a general idea of where to go.
The drive through Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon was awesome- beautiful.
We got to the general area I wanted to go, so I opened a gate to what Arizona calls "State Trust Lands"and drove in, then we set up camp.
Setting up camp actually went beautifully. The kids each had jobs to do and enthusiastically helped each other. It was awesome.
Next we went on a hike and went target shooting with the bow and arrow and bb-gun
Then it started to rain.
Then it started to POUR!
Then the tent started leaking. Which was... unexpected. We have had this tent for a long time. It was cheap. It is HUGE! And, apparently, it leaks. I suppose it's a function of the cheap and the old.
The towels I brought to go swimming, were used to mop up the pools forming.
It continued raining. Two hours of downpour and the rest of the night raining and drizzling.
We played Mancala, "In a Pickle", cards, and read. I have never seen the boy read so much. The girl is pretty much in a book all the time when she's got nothing else to do. On this trip, the boy TORE through a book.
Then the fighting started. Well, the horseplay started. Then the boy got "hurt", and cried. Then got mad. Then got more mad. As is want to happen in our life.
Rain let up for 45 minutes around 7:30, and we hurried to make a fire and cook dinner. Success! Dinner and smores. Back in the tent around 9. The boy fell asleep immediately, Maggie and I read for another half hour then crashed.
I didn't bring a pillow. I don't know why. I made the conscious decision not to. Because I'm an idiot. So at about 4 AM, with Maggie and I sleeping like crap all night, she ssid "Dad, just share my pillow with me" I CRASHED after that, till about 7:00 when we all woke up.
Yes. It was still raining. We hung out a bit, then decided it was time to pack up and head to Flagstaff for breakfast. Delicious breakfast, nice trip home. Both the kids slept for the majority of the trip.
So- Go Camping, people. Throw caution to the wind.
Camping is a lot like brewing- you can put a ton of equipment in and put a lot of "barriers" up if you want. Or you can just go. So- Just go!
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Hello world
Some Days Rule.
Why this name for the blog?
Because the other 50 ideas I had were taken. "Sorry, this blog address is unavailable"
Thanks for that, Google.
HOWEVER, this name is better than every other one I tried. So I suppose I should be grateful. It is true- Some days rule. In fact, most days rule. Very few days suck. No, I didn't try the blog address "Very Few Days Suck", but... maybe next time.
My purpose for this blog is to get my thoughts out in a more archived manner than Facebook. And what more stable platform then Google, who will own the world in a short time?
So I am married to a wonderful woman, I have 1 wonderful daughter, and one son. (see what I did there?) It's not true- he's wonderful too, in his own way. Which is far more challenging to the rest of the planet than most people.
The Boy child (9 YO) is non-diagnosed. He has been through tests which determined that he is NOT autistic or ADHD. He has his own special version of "special" . He is intelligent, he is kind, he is gentle. He gets his mind stuck in this rut, and he is unABLE to get out of it.
Last night, he had to write a "reflection" paper because he was shouting in class rather than raising his hand. Also because he was getting in people's personal space. So after sitting for 90 minutes and writing one sentence, I decided he could type his reflection paper. He does better on his assignments typing rather than writing down on paper. One more sentence emerged.
We got up an hour early this morning to work on it, 6 AM rather than 7. The computer performed an update and re-started. In the middle of the update, Boy child did a force reset. Why? Who knows. He felt like it was taking too long. So screw it, he does what he wants to do. Of course, the computer was effed.
While I attempted to fix it, it was lunch making time. We are trying to eat healthier, less carbs, etc- and it's a lot of work for me. Last night we had stir fry for dinner an the kids LOVED it. This morning, they didn't want it at all. Even though I actually prepped and cooked the "leftovers" separately last night after they went to bed. So there was argung around that.
The boy declared "I'm Done!" and read me the 3 paragraphs he wrote. 2 sentences each. Which is supposed to be equal to a full page of cursive? Yes, he had the font set to 28 point. This is how he works- does as little as possible.
So we wrote more, and he's off to school. Try it again.
Why this name for the blog?
Because the other 50 ideas I had were taken. "Sorry, this blog address is unavailable"
Thanks for that, Google.
HOWEVER, this name is better than every other one I tried. So I suppose I should be grateful. It is true- Some days rule. In fact, most days rule. Very few days suck. No, I didn't try the blog address "Very Few Days Suck", but... maybe next time.
My purpose for this blog is to get my thoughts out in a more archived manner than Facebook. And what more stable platform then Google, who will own the world in a short time?
So I am married to a wonderful woman, I have 1 wonderful daughter, and one son. (see what I did there?) It's not true- he's wonderful too, in his own way. Which is far more challenging to the rest of the planet than most people.
The Boy child (9 YO) is non-diagnosed. He has been through tests which determined that he is NOT autistic or ADHD. He has his own special version of "special" . He is intelligent, he is kind, he is gentle. He gets his mind stuck in this rut, and he is unABLE to get out of it.
Last night, he had to write a "reflection" paper because he was shouting in class rather than raising his hand. Also because he was getting in people's personal space. So after sitting for 90 minutes and writing one sentence, I decided he could type his reflection paper. He does better on his assignments typing rather than writing down on paper. One more sentence emerged.
We got up an hour early this morning to work on it, 6 AM rather than 7. The computer performed an update and re-started. In the middle of the update, Boy child did a force reset. Why? Who knows. He felt like it was taking too long. So screw it, he does what he wants to do. Of course, the computer was effed.
While I attempted to fix it, it was lunch making time. We are trying to eat healthier, less carbs, etc- and it's a lot of work for me. Last night we had stir fry for dinner an the kids LOVED it. This morning, they didn't want it at all. Even though I actually prepped and cooked the "leftovers" separately last night after they went to bed. So there was argung around that.
The boy declared "I'm Done!" and read me the 3 paragraphs he wrote. 2 sentences each. Which is supposed to be equal to a full page of cursive? Yes, he had the font set to 28 point. This is how he works- does as little as possible.
So we wrote more, and he's off to school. Try it again.
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