Okay, so the other day I noticed on Facebook that Tyler had finally gotten internet over in Afghanistan and that he had used Skype to call mom and dad. Well, that clued me in that maybe I should finally get around to downloading the software and getting in touch with my soldier brother. I was in the middle of trying to figure out how to use the thing and setting up my headphones and mics when Tyler popped up on my screen and was ready to chat. Now, in my job I'm really used to video conferencing (I design systems for that after all) but I had not really ever used it for a purpose outside of testing and training. It was a pretty cool deal to be talking to my brother, who is half way across the world....for FREE.
So, last night I was telling my kids that I spoke with their uncle on the computer and that I'd try and set up a time for them to do it too. I told them that we'd half to get up a little early one morning and catch him before he went to bed. The kids were pretty excited about that idea but I didn't realize how excited until this morning. I rolled out of bed and took my shower and when I got out I noticed Jon was already up. It was a little early for him ~6 am and he came walking down the hallway rubbing his eyes and he said, "dad...can we call uncle Tyler now? I got up early." I chuckled and paniced, i didn't know if Ty would be available and if I had time (I was running a little late). But I couldn't help but try, so we went downstairs and turned on Skype and found out that he wasn't available to chat. I know...a little anti-climatic...but I thought it was a good story.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Mini-Vacation
Well, Jenni and the kids got out of school and we had a week to kill before Jon went to summer school, as a kindergartner, so Jenni and I decided to take a short vacation back to Mahoney State Park. This time we drug Jenni's parents with us for our four day trip. We had a good time, for the most part, the only exception would be that Lily was a complete pain in the rear. She didn't want to eat, sleep, or be happy. That was completely weird because usually she's a good traveler.
We spent a rainy day at the Omaha zoo. the rain really didn't kill any of the fun because most of the stuff at Omaha is indoors. We really only got wet when we decided to ride the chair lift over the Africa section of the zoo, it was drizzling when we boarded and almost immediately after leaving the platform it really started raining.
One of the funniest moments came at the ape house. Jon was standing in the window looking at this gorilla face to face when all of a sudden the animal leaped straight at the window and pounded on the glass. It scared the living crap out of Jon. It turns out this particular gorilla is a performer and one of the trainers was sitting in the window next to Jon and gave the sign for the gorilla to hit the window. She thought is was funny and...you know...it was.
We also spent a rainy morning at the Strategic Air Command Museum, I really enjoyed it but that's probably because it was a bunch of war airplanes and I'm a boy so the two kind of fit.
The rest of the time we just spent playing in the park, some of Jenni's family came down from Schuyler to visit, and trying to keep Lily happy.
We spent a rainy day at the Omaha zoo. the rain really didn't kill any of the fun because most of the stuff at Omaha is indoors. We really only got wet when we decided to ride the chair lift over the Africa section of the zoo, it was drizzling when we boarded and almost immediately after leaving the platform it really started raining.
One of the funniest moments came at the ape house. Jon was standing in the window looking at this gorilla face to face when all of a sudden the animal leaped straight at the window and pounded on the glass. It scared the living crap out of Jon. It turns out this particular gorilla is a performer and one of the trainers was sitting in the window next to Jon and gave the sign for the gorilla to hit the window. She thought is was funny and...you know...it was.
We also spent a rainy morning at the Strategic Air Command Museum, I really enjoyed it but that's probably because it was a bunch of war airplanes and I'm a boy so the two kind of fit.
The rest of the time we just spent playing in the park, some of Jenni's family came down from Schuyler to visit, and trying to keep Lily happy.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Springtime fun
Finally, the rain broke a little and we're able to get some outdoor work and playtime in. During all that fun we did manage to sneak in a couple of pictures.
Jenni and I also made the decision earlier this spring that we'd like to get the kids a new outdoor activity for the summer. We settled on giving them a choice of building a play tower on their swingset or a trampoline. Well I guess you can see the decision for yourself.
Jenni and I also made the decision earlier this spring that we'd like to get the kids a new outdoor activity for the summer. We settled on giving them a choice of building a play tower on their swingset or a trampoline. Well I guess you can see the decision for yourself.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Kayla's First Dance Recital
Kayla had her first dance recital not to long ago and it was one of the cutest things she's done. You'll see if you just watch this short video. Jenni had to shoot the video of the dress rehearsal because they hired a production company (not mine) for the exclusive video rights to the real show. Doesn't matter you can see the cuteness.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
The return of the living dead
Okay, so let me catch you all up to date on this dog dilemma of mine. In the last post you heard that the dog was sick and had to go to the vet and had supposedly been put to sleep. Some mis-communication happened and the vet didn't give her the shot and she lived. So, since then he ran a series of test to find out what was wrong with her. In the x-rays he found to masses in her guts, one in the stomach and one in the large intestine. He scoped her stomach and found the mass in there was just the barium caught up in a big blob of gunk, so he sucked that out and still had the mass in the intestine. When I saw the x-ray I asked him if it was possible that it was a rock, because we have some rocks under our deck that I was afraid that she might have accidentally gotten one down. He said, "I've seen a lot of rocks swallowed and that doesn't look like one. It doesn't show the normal characteristics of a rock, it's blocking too much of the GI track, and it looks too big."
Well, he performed a few more tests for other dog diseases because he didn't want to do surgery unless it was a last resort, he felt as if the dog was too sick to get through such an invasive procedure. Remember, he's doing this on his own time for the sake of solving this puzzling sickness. Finally, we reach the breaking point again and he asks me if he can do the surgery and then if that doesn't work then we'll put her down because this has gone on for too long. Low and behold he opened her up and found a stone in her large intestine. It was fairly large, about the size of a half dollar, round and smooth. Nobody can believe that the stone actually got in her mouth let alone all the way through the system. She should have choked to death on the stupid thing. It was so extreme that he asked to keep it for his wall of weird crap exhibit, I obliged. Anyway, he kept her for a few more days for observation and I called him on Monday and he said, "She's fine come and get her."
Problem was this is a extremely busy week and I was already scheduled to do something after work. I had to have Jenni pick up the dog, keep in mind she has the kids in the car who think that this dog is dead. She explained it to them that we thought that she was going to die and she didn't, and we didn't tell them different until we knew for sure that she was okay. So more or less we told them the truth. Then when I got home from work I had to show the kids the incision on her shaved belly and explain how the doctor took out the rock. They took it well and now I'm stuck with an inside dog for awhile because she can't play with the other dog until the stitches are out. And I DON'T want to explain to the kids what happens if that incision opens up. Long story short, the dog will be fine, the kids will be fine, the daddy and mommy will be fine, and after a long stressful, and a little expensive ordeal we have a story to tell forever.
Well, he performed a few more tests for other dog diseases because he didn't want to do surgery unless it was a last resort, he felt as if the dog was too sick to get through such an invasive procedure. Remember, he's doing this on his own time for the sake of solving this puzzling sickness. Finally, we reach the breaking point again and he asks me if he can do the surgery and then if that doesn't work then we'll put her down because this has gone on for too long. Low and behold he opened her up and found a stone in her large intestine. It was fairly large, about the size of a half dollar, round and smooth. Nobody can believe that the stone actually got in her mouth let alone all the way through the system. She should have choked to death on the stupid thing. It was so extreme that he asked to keep it for his wall of weird crap exhibit, I obliged. Anyway, he kept her for a few more days for observation and I called him on Monday and he said, "She's fine come and get her."
Problem was this is a extremely busy week and I was already scheduled to do something after work. I had to have Jenni pick up the dog, keep in mind she has the kids in the car who think that this dog is dead. She explained it to them that we thought that she was going to die and she didn't, and we didn't tell them different until we knew for sure that she was okay. So more or less we told them the truth. Then when I got home from work I had to show the kids the incision on her shaved belly and explain how the doctor took out the rock. They took it well and now I'm stuck with an inside dog for awhile because she can't play with the other dog until the stitches are out. And I DON'T want to explain to the kids what happens if that incision opens up. Long story short, the dog will be fine, the kids will be fine, the daddy and mommy will be fine, and after a long stressful, and a little expensive ordeal we have a story to tell forever.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Parental Lessons
Children have been in my life forever, from my seven brothers and sisters to my three little kids of my own and I've discovered that I'm still very ignorant in the fine art of parenting. Here's two little stories to prove it.
BUCKWHEAT HONEY
Kayla had her 4-year-old check up and while we were there I had a quick question about Lily and a perpetual deep chest cough when she slept. He asked some questions and determined that it was probably just residual stuff from another illness. Then he suggested that we give her a teaspoon of buckwheat honey before bed. I gave him that look that said, "are you sure? I thought honey was bad for kids?" He must have read my mind because he followed up saying, "we're finding new, really cool uses for honey." He told me to get it at Target or in the health food sections of some big grocery stores. So, I picked some up, went home, and that very night gave Lily a spoonful of honey. Her little sweet tooth sucked down every last sticky drop of honey so fast that Winnie the Pooh would be jealous and that night she slept. We didn't hear anything out of her at all, whereas the past few nights she spent most of hit coughing herself awake so that she could cry back to sleep. I thought it had to be an odd coincidence that it worked, so we tried it again and we had two nights of peace, then three, and now without the honey the cough seems to be gone. So all of you parents afraid to keep pushing cough syrup down your babies throat...try Buckwheat Honey.
THE NOT SO DEAD DOG
This little tale is pretty sad, but an example of parenting at its finest. My husky Rorie started to get sick late last week and I originally thought that I had given her something from the table that didn't agree with her, but her health went downhill and I got up in the morning and found her in a seizure. I got her to the vet as soon as I could and he took some tests and determined that she was having severe renal failure and that her liver, kidneys, and pancreas were shutting down. He decided to give her some fluids and see how she was the next day. Well, that night he called and said that she wasn't doing any better and that he didn't expect her to make it through the night. I made the decision to go ahead and put her down first thing in the morning. Well, he didn't call me before church started and Jenni and I prepared the kids by telling them that Rorie had died. They reacted like children do when they loose their pet and we tried to move on. Then we got to church, my phone chirped that I had a voice mail, and it was the vet. He was calling to tell me that the dog was up and moving around and he wanted to give her a little bit longer to get better. I can't hardly believe my luck I have told my kids that the dog has died, the vet is telling me she isn't dead, and there is a very slim chance she might come home for me to explain to my kids that the doctor didn't lie about the death and that dogs don't get resurrected like Jesus. Now, Rorie is still very sick and will most likely not pull through this, she had one more test to undergo before I'll have to make another hard decision about her future. The moral of this story is to make absolutely certain that life cooperates when you are trying to teach your kids a difficult life lesson, because some things just shouldn't be retracted.
BUCKWHEAT HONEY
Kayla had her 4-year-old check up and while we were there I had a quick question about Lily and a perpetual deep chest cough when she slept. He asked some questions and determined that it was probably just residual stuff from another illness. Then he suggested that we give her a teaspoon of buckwheat honey before bed. I gave him that look that said, "are you sure? I thought honey was bad for kids?" He must have read my mind because he followed up saying, "we're finding new, really cool uses for honey." He told me to get it at Target or in the health food sections of some big grocery stores. So, I picked some up, went home, and that very night gave Lily a spoonful of honey. Her little sweet tooth sucked down every last sticky drop of honey so fast that Winnie the Pooh would be jealous and that night she slept. We didn't hear anything out of her at all, whereas the past few nights she spent most of hit coughing herself awake so that she could cry back to sleep. I thought it had to be an odd coincidence that it worked, so we tried it again and we had two nights of peace, then three, and now without the honey the cough seems to be gone. So all of you parents afraid to keep pushing cough syrup down your babies throat...try Buckwheat Honey.
THE NOT SO DEAD DOG
This little tale is pretty sad, but an example of parenting at its finest. My husky Rorie started to get sick late last week and I originally thought that I had given her something from the table that didn't agree with her, but her health went downhill and I got up in the morning and found her in a seizure. I got her to the vet as soon as I could and he took some tests and determined that she was having severe renal failure and that her liver, kidneys, and pancreas were shutting down. He decided to give her some fluids and see how she was the next day. Well, that night he called and said that she wasn't doing any better and that he didn't expect her to make it through the night. I made the decision to go ahead and put her down first thing in the morning. Well, he didn't call me before church started and Jenni and I prepared the kids by telling them that Rorie had died. They reacted like children do when they loose their pet and we tried to move on. Then we got to church, my phone chirped that I had a voice mail, and it was the vet. He was calling to tell me that the dog was up and moving around and he wanted to give her a little bit longer to get better. I can't hardly believe my luck I have told my kids that the dog has died, the vet is telling me she isn't dead, and there is a very slim chance she might come home for me to explain to my kids that the doctor didn't lie about the death and that dogs don't get resurrected like Jesus. Now, Rorie is still very sick and will most likely not pull through this, she had one more test to undergo before I'll have to make another hard decision about her future. The moral of this story is to make absolutely certain that life cooperates when you are trying to teach your kids a difficult life lesson, because some things just shouldn't be retracted.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Tyler's visit
Some of you may know that my brother Tyler is getting ready to ship out to Afghanistan in April, so one night Tyler brought his dog up to the house to run around the yard with my dogs for a bit. He also hung out, ate dinner, and read a book to the kids. The funny thing was that he was reading a Star Wars book and the kids kept correcting him on the character's names. Now, for those of you that know Tyler he's always been our Star Wars guru (to be fair, Jo and I are also pretty savvy to the going ons of the far away galaxy) and he was forever correcting us on our mutual hobby. So to see a 4 and 5-year-old giving him garbage because he didn't know one of the names was more than a little humorous. And like usual we had to document this visit.
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