Warranty Claim

The moment you realize that you made the right choice paying the $100 claim fee and NOT trying to fix the dryer yourself.

Landfill

To think that, at some point, each and every one of these was probably somebody's prized possession. And I'm also willing to bet that a pretty high percentage of them still work. But they just don't represent the dream anymore. And at the rate that technology is moving, it also makes me wonder... what will be here tomorrow... and where in the world are we going to keep putting this stuff?

Dang. We need a new planet.

Simple Pleasures

"Daddy, can I sleep on the floor?"

For weeks I'd get that question every night, and every night I'd give the same answer of no. When I look back, I'm not exactly sure why the answer was always no. It could've been as simple as how absurd the notion seemed to me. I mean, we have more beds than people in our house (by a nice margin at that)... and so I just couldn't understand the need or fascination with sleeping on the floor. Or perhaps I said no because I knew they'd likely stay up longer rolling around on the floor than they would in the bed... and by 8pm every night I only had one final mandate for the day: get the kids to sleep.

And so, my answer was, "No... not tonight, love."... and they'd respectfully say okay. And the next night, we'd rehearse the same script again. And again. And again. Relentless little buggers. Well, I guess their resilience paid off because eventually... even though they never questioned my answer  (such good kids... sometimes I lose scope)... I finally took the extra half a second to ask myself... well, why not?

And when no good reason came to mind, I finally said it: Sure! Why not! Sleep on the floor! And Naomi's face lit up like we were going to Disney World. And Jasmine joined her. And they both just laid there grinning. And I grinned back at them; somewhat feeling bad that I didn't say yes earlier... but also glad that I didn't miss the opportunity to let them indulge in such a simple pleasure. It won't be long before I am wishing they were kids again and still able to joy those little gems of happiness that money can't buy. I've gotta keep these priceless moments at the forefront of my mind as a reminder to let 'em have it. Because life is short. And our time with them is even shorter. Hooray for simple pleasures. May they hold on to them forever.

Black Tape Christmas

Christmas shopping simply looks a lot different these days.   It seems that long lines, chaotic traffic, rude shoppers and messy crowded stores can officially be left for the birds. If my tally is correct, every single gift under our tree this year arrived by waving the magic wand called amazon.com.

From a feeble online bookseller, to over 60 billion dollars in annual sales... And to think that (besides their various kindle eReaders) they don't actually manufacture anything.

What I would have given to come up with that website myself.

Avoiding the Inevitable

It's been at least 3 months (and probably closer to 5 or 6) since I've been able to remain consistently current on blog entries.  During that stretch, it has occurred to me on more than one occasion that maybe it's time to bid my beloved online journal goodbye.  After all, it's a blog. With the advent of Facebook, Twitter, and things of the like; the family blog has swiftly become the 8-track of social media (and everyone under 30 is going, what's an 8-track?).  I mean, it has been over 6 years, 500 entries, 3 child births, 4 funerals, 3 cities, 2 states, a foster child, and countless number of gray hairs since our first blog entry.  Granted, I'm usually one to bet on my own perseverance, but I think I've shocked my own self with the longevity of this endeavor.

But here we are, over six weeks between entries and I've since had countless conversations in my head about the purpose of the blog, and how long to avoid the inevitable.  We went from the inaugural two entries per week (wow... 2007) to a "one or two entries per week" format... to  consecutive weeks of silence, to finally missing a full month altogether (February 2013).   What happened? Well, over that time,  our family has evolved and our lives have simply morphed from one stage to the next; and suddenly I find myself thinking, "how in the world did I ever have time to write so much back then?" ...  It seems that I used to have an absurd amount of quiet time to write and casually flip through and edit photos. The good ol' days (sigh).  Now the only quiet time that I get is during the drive from home to work, and back again... and even that little window of solitude has been invaded by a certain 4 year old who has been going to work with daddy every day for the past two weeks due to behavior problems at home... but, that's a whole different blog entry that will never see the light of day... which brings us full circle to my initial question.  Is it time to say goodbye?

Gosh, it would be sad to end the blog, but suddenly life is simply happening at a pace that doesn't afford me the luxury of written reflection (and no, neither a Facebook status update nor a 140 character tweet about what you had for breakfast qualify as a written reflection).  The irony is, the busier life gets, the more important a journal becomes... because it's that very busyness that we get lost in.  Memories get lost, and appreciation for the moment (every moment) falls by the wayside as we lose scope of the forest amidst the trees.  The finer details of life that you swear you won't forget... those little things each day that seemingly make it all worthwhile... I've already learned that almost all of them become little more than vague notions and forgotten footnotes as we flip from one day to the next on the calendar.  So there's your catch 22:  When we have "plenty of time to write", we probably have less to write about than we care to admit... and on the other hand, when our lives are bursting at the seams to where time for reflection feels like an impossibility, it's that very fullness of life that cries for a blog and demands (begs) to be documented so that every morsel can be savored at the next intermission.

And so, if you haven't figured it out already, I've made my decision: We're going to keep trucking along... or biking along... or crawling at a snail's pace from one entry to the next...  Because no matter the frequency, the truth is that every time I open it, the blog brings me back to basics.  It brings me back to the whys, the whats, and the whens that make every second of the journey worthwhile.   In the back of my mind, the goal is to (someday) find a way to print, bind, and pass on these memories to those evil little children precious tiny humans for which this will all be vague memories, at best... and I'm probably delusional in the extent to which I think they'd actually be interested in reading these accounts... but hey, I've never heard anyone say that they wish they spent LESS time documenting their lives or the lives of their children... as long as that documentation doesn't get in the way of the experience itself.  So break out the compressed air, blow the dust off the keyboard, and let's get cracking on this blog backlog.

Depletion

I'm taking a few minutes to transfer a few photos from my phone to the computer (397 to be exact) and came across a photo worth posting.

Pop Quiz...
Question: who could possible fall absolutely sound asleep in a doctor's office at 11 in the morning with her sister sitting on the same bed and the door to the hospital room wide open?

Answer: two little girls with pneumonia, that's who.

Wow.  In the midst of our struggles, hard times often seem like an eternity and it feels like the end is nowhere in sight.  With three months of illness, and a miserably sick household, I remember thinking for days (weeks?) how miserable of a year this had shaped up to be.   But here we are, four months later, and just that quickly it's all a blur.  I totally forgot about our (evidently not-so-endless) bout with pneumonia, bronchitis, flu and (oh yeah) pink eye from January to March.  It's all just another reminder of our fine ability to take things for granted once the going gets good again.

Thank God for healthy children.  And thank God for the ups and downs, because without one we'd probably have zero appreciation for the other.

Chaos Theory

Mommy Sez...
Where have we been? Well, we continue to have chaotic days around here . . . today it started with a dead battery in the van (thanks to yours truly who left the inside lights on) and it ended with Jasmine vomiting all over the dining room table at dinner. Yes, we had a stellar day. And to add insult to injury - Justin is now sick. That makes every single person and animal in this house sick in some way, shape or form. Yes... even the dog is on antibiotics. LOL! This couldn't be scripted! Welcome to our world.



Daddy's Addendum...
Actually the day started with my realization that we paid $500 to get all of our teeth cleaned and x-rayed because daddy chose the wrong family dental plan during open enrollment. Nice. Oh, then there's the part where I left my car windows cracked like 2 inches while I went to teach class because it was 80 degrees this afternoon and the car was blazing hot. It seemed like a great idea.. until (out of the blue) it began to pour down rain and hail like the sky had exploded. Oooh yeah... nothing like driving home with soggy seats in the civic. Awesome.

Everything else is pretty much accurate. Tasha was the first in line to get her prescription meds last Friday (and mind you, they were like 10 times more expensive than everyone else's drugs). And while I juggled Justin, Naomi and the dog at the vet, mommy was about 4 miles away with Jasmine at an appointment with an allergist. So 30 minutes after Tasha got her prescription to cure her digestion issues, Jasmine landed her own meds for a sinus infection (man, those two do everything together). Two days later, Naomi decided that she would not be outdone. She spiked a fever of 103 degrees, got shipped to the doctor's office, and bingo.. ear infection. Yep, we're rolling now. Mind you, Venesa and I had already been popping pills for head colds and flu symptoms for about a week. I think we're about ready to open our own pharmacy. Oh wait... Did we mention that today was Jasmine's birthday? Happy birthday sweetheart... here's a sedative to go with your cake and ice cream.

And here's the grand finale that makes it all stupendously unbelievable: Somehow... Despite the madness... Venesa and I put the kids down for bed tonight and came to the (twisted?) conclusion that we had a good day today. In the end, Jasmine enjoyed her birthday immensely, we got an impressive amount of family time in for a workday, and everyone went to bed with a smile on their face. Yep. We're crazy.

And very highly medicated.

Summertime III

Um... Ok... I just saw a fox in the backyard. Ignore the previous two entries. We're giving everything back and moving back to Norfolk. It's been fun, but the wife says it's time to go.

That was crazy... and cool at the same time. I think I'm still dumbfounded. Check back with me in an hour.

Detention

V is back in SC this week taking care of a few items for her dad. A day or two ago, she had the pleasure of joining her nephew at his school for "bring your family to school" day. Here's the text she sent me...

"Vince paid Jasmine & Justin to do his homework"

My reply:
OMG... they look so cute in the classroom!!!

too bad it'll never happen.

lol. priceless.

By the way, I love the look on Jasmine's face. So serious. That's that look of, "We had homework?! Okay... no panic... I'v got 3 minutes. Let me see if I can get this done before class starts." Been there, done that. [flashing back through the memories...] Man, for being a nerd, I was always such a delinquent student! But that's another story for another day.

I'm thankful 4...

family. second chances. computers. epidurals. having a job. my education. the internet. electricity. cold medicine. freedom. and national parks.

Run Forrest

As of this year, I am officially closer to 40 than 30. Granted, I don't feel "old" yet, but one thing is for sure: maintaining my ability to keep up with Justin & Jasmine isn't going to happen by accident. To make a long story short, I ran my own personal 5K (about 3 miles) this past weekend and wanted to document my sense of accomplishment. So for the record: woo hoo!

Granted, 3 miles is not exactly a marathon (that would be 3 miles down, 23 to go) but it has easily been a dozen years since I've run that much distance, so I was pretty psyched about it. Kudos to V for pushing me to do it (when she came home talking about her new personal best, she should've know I was gonna stretch my distance or die trying). She mentioned the idea of both us training to run a 5K in the fall and has also been diligent with her own exercise as well. So look out world, these two rugrats may not run us into the ground after all!

Faithful

2000 Honda Civic. Tried. True. Ten Years Old.
Two Hundred Thousand Miles.



I bought this car new off the lot ten years ago... and had to have the salesman drive it home for me because it was manual transmission and I had never driven one before... but the psychology behind that is a different blog entry all by itself. For now, the point of the story is that I've had this car longer than I've been a doctor, father, or a husband. My only point is that a lot has changed in ten years. But yet, here it is, still rolling. Lots of miles. Lots of memories. From Atlanta to Seattle, and a boatload of places in between. Here's to 200,000. And perhaps 200,000 more. See you on the road.

Here's one of my favorite pictures of the car. It doesn't show much of the vehicle, but it does remind me of the many roads we've traveled. This one happens to be in Mount Rainier National Park (Washington state) on the way to Carbon River, circa October 2003. Cross country hiking and camping... Let the good times roll.

FSBO

As of a couple of weeks ago, the installation of our new fence was finally complete. While we absolutely love the end result, there are some obvious things that our local fencing company (Hamilton Fencing and Decks) still needs to learn about professionalism and business acumen. Click here for the full story.

We didn't know that the new fencing came with complimentary dirt,

muck, and a grand opportunity to clean up someone else's mess.

Aside from that, we are both anxious and excited at the prospect of selling our home. Granted, if the house was sold today, we'd have no clue where we'd end up and how (in-state? out-of-state? owning? renting? house? apartment? long-term, short-term?...) but those things will have to take care of themselves once we get there. For now, we simply recognize this as a chance to take advantage of our home equity, eliminate debt, build wealth, increase our mobility, and establish a new situation in which we stay well beneath our means with respect to living expenses.

So with that, we are certainly eager to see where this FSBO thing leaves us in the larger scheme of our financial, family, and career goals. Wish us luck!

Rain Dance

Today we finally got gutters installed at the house.



And just like anything else one would buy, I'm ready to test these babies out. Now that the money is spent and we're well-prepared, I don't think I've ever wanted so badly for it to downpour. I'm looking at the Weather Channel with pumped fist like, "Bring it On!"

...which of course means that Hampton Roads will proceed to have a record breaking drought and it will not rain again for 2 years. Unless we relocate. In which case it will rain immediately after we move out of the house.

That's just how these things seem to work.

Random Thought #1

If you have a friend or loved one that cannot read or write, do not panic! They may very well have a bright future in the field of mail delivery services.

"... but no one will ever see this huge Toys-R-Us box behind this bag of mulch!"...

Morons.