Excellent/Weird Cold Dreams

Still have my cold, but it is getting better. I am having some excellent dreams.

This morning, I dreamt that President Bush made me the Secretary of Education. I was working from my comfortable leather chair in my mahagony clad office, when a panicked secret service man came in to the room and locked the door. He announced that their was a gorilla loose in the building. I said "I can solve that problem too" and asked for a sleep dart gun. I went gorilla hunting with a few elite members of *my* education department.

It reminds me, pheasant hunting will be here in a few months!!!

Have Cold, Well Rested, God's Plan, Barry White

I went to my newest niece's baptism on Sunday and caught a cold. This means I have a sinus head ache, soar throat and fatigue.

But that is only half the story. There is a good side to this cold. I am now *well* rested. I slept probably 16 hours today. I would have slept longer, but of course the kids have to jump on the bed periodically.

When I get a cold, I want to hibernate. Normally, this would make taking care of the kids quite a chore. But not this week. This week God likes me. Because this week my wife is home from work. Now she can care for the kids while I lay comatose. It's not fair to her of course, but it is God's plan. It's impossible to know all of God's plan, but making my wife appreciate work and me are definately important components. Go God!

The other positive thing is that I sound like Barry White. Oh Baby.

My wife, the creative memories consultant

Well, I returned from the twin cities last sunday. It was unremarkable except that it was excellent. I was a bit tipsy at Keirens Pub. I slept 8 straight hours and woke up hangover free. I went to the Minnesota Institute of Art. I Played video games with a friend at Mall of America. I discovered the IKEA store, I keep thinking about that place now that I'm back.

My wife is home next week on vacation. Her official reasons are to spend time with the kids and to go to a nearby county fair. My wife is cool. She is a doctor, we have more money then we will ever need. Yet she is going to spend part of her vacation working the 'Creative Memories' booth in a converted barn at the fair.

Minneapolis

Tomorrow, I am off to Minneapolis for a much needed break. Tomorrow I will be listening to some books on CD, staying at a nice hotel, maybe get a massage. Definitely going to Kierens Pub for some live music. Although I will meet a friend on Sunday, I will be by myself. Between the constant chatter/demands of the girls and my wife's scheduling, I crave quiet, freedom and the ability to sleep in past 8 AM.

The kids....

M. (5 years old) just finished her final week of YMCA day camp. She is so tired when she comes home. Yesterday she went to sleep on her bed at 6PM and didn't wake up till this morning. She is having a good time at camp though and is reciting the songs she has learned. Also, she one the award for the "Most Polite" camper.

I worry about M. more then the other two. She is very competitive and when she is not the best/center of attention, she takes it personally. For instance, I make the kids pick up their toys every night before bed. If after cleaning, I tell E. that she is a "good cleaner" then M. will get upset and say "I'm a good cleaner too". Even if M. did not do a good job cleaning that night, I tell her that she is a "good cleaner" otherwise she will sulk.

E. (3 years old) is excited about starting pre-school. Except that she calls it her "3 year old kindergarten". We drove by her pre-school three times this week. M. tells her what she will be doing at pre-school and she asks questions like "Will there be Oreo's there?". She doesn't get the chance to play with other kids her age very often, so this will be good for her. I am not worried about her social skills though. She is the type that just attracts the other kids.

C. (14 months old) is the happiest toddler you can expect to see. I credit myself for this, because she is our first daughter to never set foot in a daycare. Her favorite words are "Hi Daddy" and "Tickle Tickle Tickle". M. taught her how to give raspberries and this she does with excitement.

C. is doing better with her allergies and her eczema has cleared up quite a bit. One thing that helped is that I bought a "Roomba" which is a small round robot vacuum cleaner. It sweeps my kitchen floors twice a day and removes any crumbs that C. otherwise would find. My table / counters are a mess, but the floor is spotless. We saw a dietitian about her diet earlier this week. I will have to write a post just about that sometime soon.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Another break from the kids

Last week, my wife put a lot of time in at work. She delivered a few babies, was 'on call' Friday night, did 'urgent care' Saturday and spent some quality time with her younger sister who just had her second baby. Basically, I did not get a decent break away from the kids till Sunday afternoon. I didn't even get much for running time in.

So, Sunday I felt the need to do something solitary, sweaty, and probably foolish. With the thermometer in the car at 104 degrees I took 2 bottles of water, 3 cans of diet mountain dew, a stick of sun screen and kayaked down the middle of a shallow local lake. It was very quiet. There was no wind (which is unusual where I live). Every once in a while a turtle head or a carp fin would break the through the surface of the water. The kayak kept wanting to drift to the right as I paddled. It was paradise. After I drank the last diet dew, I knew I had to come back to shore. I did not realize how much I had sweat until after I took my life jacket off. It felt good though, like just getting out of a sauna. When I got home, even the sight of the in-laws sweaty/hairy bare feet on my furniture, was not enough to upset me.

I signed up to run the Walt Disney Marathon in Florida this January. This will be my first marathon and it will be on my birthday (January 7). Currently, I run 10 miles every other day, but in the next few months will be working on increasing my millage even further. I am not a natural / fast runner though, my pace is a consistent 10 mins/mile.

Adventures in Lawncare

I had an eventful day mowing the lawn. There was danger, intrigue, and a little bit of 'ahh, baby bunnies'.

Before reading this, I have to tell you. I am not drunk. I have just had a very long day with the kids and am only half here mentally.

The Danger: Next to our garden, which has become a 5x5 foot rainforest of tomato plants, there are *two* wasps nest. My wife has been on me for a few weeks to spray them. Why me? Because as a male, I am foolish and disposable. I have great respect for wasps. One time while riding a dirt bike faster then I should have, a wasp flew up my sleeve and into my shirt. I had to endure him biting me again and again until I slowed down enough to safely smash him.

The Intrigue: While mowing the lawn, I was visited by a neighbor. A neighbor who broke the covenants by parking his old camper permanently next to his house. My neighbor starts talking to me for the first time since he moved in two years ago. I know immediately that something is up. We small talk for five mins about camping. This is the only thing I know about him, and only because I know he has a camper. Predictably the other shoe drops. He wants me to put rock edging around the outside of my fence so that he doesn't have to trim it. I didn't tell him, that technically I should probably be the one trimming it since it is my fence. But then you don't tell the IRS that they missed several flaws on your tax return. It is rude. I took the polite route and told him that I would be happy to put rock trim to save him such trouble if he would be willing to pay for it. He decided that trimming is not so bad.

Ahh Baby Bunnies: Also next to our garden, well within 10 feet, I discovered a nest of adolescent bunnies. I know I should be "getting rid" of these. Especially with the garden next door. But I can't bring myself to do it. I won't even mow or trim in that area right now, lest I disturb them. My backyard, i.e. my sanctuary, is not a place where something as cute as a bunny meets with an unhappy fate. Therefore my backyard is now a bunny refuge. Tomorrow I will have to bring the girls out to see them.

Why Men Like Fireworks #2 (for Black Belt Moma)

In a previous post entitled "Why Men Like Fireworks" (which had nothing to do with men liking fireworks) I said that if my wife did not catch on, I would tell you the illicit dark side of being a stay at home dad.

To all our disappointment, she caught on :(

If I did tell you about the dark side, you would all be astonished. You would never let your husbands near the other moms, victoria secret stores, the fitness channel or goats. I wish I could elaborate, but I can't. Sorry.

Okay, I will tell you one illicit detail. In the back of every Victoria Secret store is a *secret* room filled with video monitors. Stay at home dad's are allowed into these *secret* rooms to watch the monitors. On each monitor is a different football game. The people who work at the store bring us popcorn and rub our scalps. That is why we gaze at Victoria Secret stores so longingly.

M at the Air Show

M and I went to an Air Show today. It was hot and sunny. My wife says it was only 91 degrees, but I know it was hotter then that.

M. did very well with the heat, as long as she had cold treats. She drank two bottles of water, one ice cream sundae, and a small bowl of flavored ice.

Now that I think about it, she didn't eat *all* the flavored ice. While we were watching the Blue Angels, she shoveled dirt into her ice bowl and stirred it with her plastic spoon. She said she was making ice soup for the ants


M. upside down in one of the rides they had for the kids.


M. sitting in a cockpit. The pilot was in the other seat and showed M. how to steer the plane. When he asked her if she wanted to be a pilot, she said "No, I want to be a storm chaser". She got a big kick out of being in the airplane.


Blue Angels.