As it turns out, I was able to throw Gallery online without too much trouble. I’ll try to get some pix of Brian’s birthday party up tonight.
You can get to the (currently empty) gallery here.
Did I say soon for Gallery?
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Category Archives: Family
Happy Birthday, Brian
My son turns a big six today. We had a fun party this past Saturday for at a place near by called Alakazoom. You can check out the website, but think of it as a McDonald’s play place but bigger and without the french frys.
It wasn’t the cheapest way to do a party but it certainly was convenient. We didn’t have to clean the house, board the dogs, decorate, come up with games, or anything that is normally needed when you host a party. We show up, they run the show and the kids have fun. I took some pictures and will hopefully be working to get Gallery set up soon to show you all.
Tonight, we’re going to Souplantation to celebrate and then we’ll have the ceremonial disposal of his car seat which he has been despising for some time now.
Thanks, Kristin!
My friend at work, Kristin, tipped me on to an album she thought the kids would enjoy. It’s by a group called They Might Be Giants and the album is No! The group has been around since the 80’s but No! is a kids album they made in 2002 and dang it, the thing is horribly addicting. Every song is fun, creative, and agrivatingly memorable. In the month or so we have had the album, we’ve listened to it about 20 times.
Think of it as musical versions of Shel Silverstein poems. You can listen to samples of the songs at the iTunes Music Store if you’re so inclined.
BTW, if you become addicted, I apologize.
Hippo, hippo. Mop!
Thanks, Kristin.
I am annoyed with city planners
Well, maybe it’s not a city planner’s fault, but yesterday we again affected by a problem with our address. You see, the street we live on is about a half-mile long and has another road that crosses it in the middle. Unfortunately, due to poor planning or some form of administrative error, the numbering on out street decrease in both directions from that intersection (i.e. 10 14 18 intersection 20 16 12).
The problem is, our house is at one end of the street, but if you turn the wrong direction, the house numbers end before it get to ours. You need to turn around and go to the other end to find us. What end up happening is that delivery drivers usually claim our address doesn’t exist. That’s what happened again yesterday. I was waiting for a package to be delivered by DHL which didn’t happen as they claimed the address was invalid. I called them and verified it as well as explaining the problem. They’ll try again today. Hopefully, it works out.
Happy Easter
Today is good Friday and mighty good Friday it is. I just wanted to wish anybody reading this a Happy Easter and that you are able to enjoy it with any and all that are close to you.
Perhaps you will get the opportunity to enjoy a tasty treat! Oh, and as I was told by a very insightful pastor once, God can indeed make something like this good for you. His will permitting, of course.
Vacation wrap-up
I took this past week off from work to spend some time with Becky and the kids while they were out on Spring break. One of the other primary goals was to finish the garage (a build-out that started about two years ago) as well as some other smaller projects indoors:
- Adding shelves in my son’s closet
- Set up track lighting in the loft (the standard lights are totally inadequate)
- Install a new doorknob on the front door
- Clean the den
I spent most of the time in the garage. I was able to finish installing the drywall and did the initial mud but still need to sand and paint it. I also installed the countertops on the workbench. The only thing remaining (other than the walls) is to find a home for all the things currently in my parking space in the drawers and cabinets. I’m also going to clean off and find a home for the workbench my father made. I’d hate to bust it up and dispose of it since it is in fine shape. I learned about Freecycle which people use to give away items. I’ll probably post a notice there and see if there are any takers.
As far as the other items, the door is done, the den is much improved but I did have to throw a few handfuls of things into a box as my nieces were coming over and and to get rid of the "working piles" out in the family room. The shelves and track lighting haven’t been started but I did get the materials and can do those in future weekends. His shelf really shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes to an hour so I’ll see if I can that done by tomorrow. The track lighting will take an hour or more so will probably save that.
Now I find out about it…
Man, if we just had waited a few months before getting Becky’s surgery, it would have cost SO much less. The question is, can you return it if it doesn’t work correctly? Make sure you don’t blink. ;-)
A wonderful investment
Becky sent me this yesterday and I just had to share:
The Cost of Kids
I have repeatedly seen the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time I have seen the rewards listed this way. It’s nice, really nice!
The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140.00 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn’t eve! n touch college tuition.
But $160,140 isn’t so bad if you break it down. It translates into $8,896 a year, $741.38 a month, or $171.08 a week. That’s a mere $24.24 a day! Just over a dollar an hour.
Still, you might think the best financial advice says don’t have children if you want to be “rich.” It is just the opposite.
What do your get for your $160,140?
Naming rights—First, middle, and last!
Glimpses of God everyday.
Giggles under the covers every night.
More love than your heart can hold.
Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
A hand to hold, usually covered with jam.
A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites, building sand castles, and skipping down the sidewalk in the pouring rain.
Someone to laugh yourself silly with no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.
For $160,140, you never have to grow up.
You get to finger-paint, carve pumpkins, play hide-and-seek, catch lightning bugs, and never stop believing in Santa Claus.
You have an excuse to keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh, watching Saturday morning cartoons, going to Disneyland, and wishing on stars.
You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother’s Day, and cards with backward letters for Father’s Day.
For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck.
You get to be a hero just for retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof, taking the training wheels off the bike, removing a splinter, filling a wading pool, coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.
You get a front row seat to witness history the first step, first word, first bra, first date, and first time behind the wheel. You get to be immortal.
You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you’re lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren.
You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.
In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there with God.
You have all the power to heal a booboo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost.
ENJOY YOUR KIDS AND GRANDKIDS
A fun alternative to e-cards
I like e-cards and my daughter and mother-in-law have really enjoyed sending each other cards. They’re easy, fun, and a sweet, but they’ve always been lacking something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. That is until yesterday. It turns out, they were missing the monkey factor.
Feel free to send me one at mike at peay.us.
Rain isn’t a bad thing at Disneyland
Friday was the first of three days for the family at Disneyland. As far things could have gone, it wasn’t too bad. We knew that rain was likely, but weren’t too worried about it. We weren’t quite anticipating the amount of rain that met us when we made it to the park around 10:00 AM. We quickly picked up some ponchos (with Mickey on them, of course) and continued on our way. The kids were not overly thrilled, but weren’t complaining (except after Brian got doused on Splash Mountain).
Day two and three should be quite dry and allow us to hit the other rides we weren’t able to fit in today.
I’m off to bed. We’re heading to Fantasyland at 7:00 AM (hotel guests get to go in an hour early). Oh joy! Nah, it should be a fun day.