Bowling

So for Christmas we got a Wii and it is really funny watching the boys try to play. Samuel gets frustrated really fast and wants to stop but he wants to continue playing as well. I have helped him some but he does not want any help. Andy on the other hand gets gets tired of it really fast and just stops playing. For Andy it is because his arms are not long enough and the sensor does not detect the movement as actual movement. and his hands are too small to press the A and B buttons. But he is getting there.

Anyway back to bowling. Samuel has become very good at bowling with a high score of 148 and average of around 120. He typically bowls spares every frame but the one problem he has is that he does not realize how the points add up and he typically only knocks down 3 to 4 on his first roll and then the rest on the second half of the frame.

But he has learned how to curve the ball or roll it straight when he wants it to, which is something I have not fully figured out yet.

Now Tennis is a nother story in itself. :o)

Stupid News

One of my favorite things to do is to find the stupid news story of the day and share it with my loving wife. Most of the stories are government funded research studies researching common sense things. Like did you know older people are more likely to get alstimers (or whatever it is called). Or how about people who save money spend less. And my favorite "Cancer Patients sick with another disease are less likely to survive than someone with just cancer."

Anyway with that I just thought I would share the stupid news of the day, it is a little different but with a little research you can see how stupid it is. The article is Airlines are expected to lose $5.6 Billion in 2010

What is not said is there are around 10.5 million domestic commercial flights a year in the US and that is not including all the international or other flights world wide (which totals around 30,000,000). With this said on average they are losing $186 per flight. I know with a $3 raise the majority of the people would not even notice since flight prices fluctuate so much and it would fix this problem.

Shoot I should go to work for the air line companies as a financial consultant.

School Play

Today is Samuel's big school play. The play is only an hour long :o( but I plan on getting it all on tape. Actually I do not know how long it is but the teacher was a little bit upset because they were having to cut it a little short due to the fact that there was something else going on at 6 pm for another group of kids. Oh well it will be great and I hope I do not forget to take the zoom off every now and then and get the rest of the class too.

Whenever we pick Samuel up from school I used to ask him what all he did but now every time before we can even get out of the class room he asks me what all we did while he was at school. He wants to know every minute detail down to the second of every little thing and if there seems to be too big of a gap or just does not sound right he will even ask "so what did you do between that." The problem is there is not a whole lot you can really do in 3 hours when you have a starving baby on your hands.

I also remember when I was younger my parents asking what I learned about during school and my answer was always "Nothing." Well when I ask Samuel he always replies back with EVERYTHING! but again like myself, he will not go into details.

Anyway I guess that is enough for now.

Nevermind

I was going to write about my wife being pregnant but GeGe and Mommy did not like the idea of how I was going to present it so I guess I will not tell anyone.

Mommy's Costume

So I actually made one costume this year and it was for Mommy. I asked her what she wanted to be and she said a Serial Killer so I went to work and well here is a picture of the finished product as well as some of the decent pictures the boys took while my camera was missing.

Pictures

So Nov 1st the boys hid the camera from me while taking a shower and I did not find it for a few days. So here are the pictures from Halloween and if I get a chance later I will post the non-blurry pictures they took. (most are taken of a finger or an eye, well at least I think they is what they are)

Halloween

So tomorrow I will be putting some pictures up of the boys and their costumes but tonight I thought I would write a little about it. We went to a house and the lady answered the door was was very sweet giving candy to the boys then the husband came round the corner with a mask on. Samuel jumped back to me and Andy started screaming but eventually stopped and stood there shaking. The lady made her husband take the mask but he still stood there scared and would not move up to get candy.

Anyway as we were leaving Andy told me "The dog was scary Daddia, the dog scared me." To find out the husband was holding their dog so it would not run out of the house. The scary mask did not bother it it was the dog he was carrying.

Also our neighbor hood is typically sprawling with people and a ton of houses with lights on. We went down one of the longest streets to only see 2 houses with lights and hardly any children anywhere. It really made me realize how many houses were vacant waiting to be remodeled. So I will blame the housing department for my, I mean the boys, lack of chocolate that they received this year for me, uh them, to snack on til Christmas. I think I will only make it til the 13th of November. :o( On a side note we only had a few kids drop by but that is normal since we are on the outskirts and up a hill from the main body of houses, too bad I did not buy any chocolate this year.

Mommy's Bday

Well Mommy got home the night before her Bday (today) at close to midnight from her training. The time before then has been filled with Doctor's apartments and sick boys so I have not had time to write a lot.

With that said, Samuel was sick on Sunday (threw up in the morning) so we did not make it to church. Well Wednesday our preacher called to see how we were doing (to find out why we skipped :o) and when I informed him of Samuel throwing up and I did not want to take care of 3 boys and one throwing up during services by my self he said he would announce it so they could pay for him Wednesday night. I said he was doing fine now but he insisted. Well I do not know what he asked them to pray for but I guess it was for payback for skipping Sunday because at 3 this morning we woke up to Samuel yelling with an exaggerated choking sound (which is what he makes when he throws up) It ended up that he was throwing up again and threw up 4 times before 10 AM, and had diarrhea til 1 pm.

I had given him a bucket to throw up in after the 2nd time if he could not make it to the toilet. Well he had come up to me a few hours later and said "Look Daddio, I am all better and am not throwing up anymore, I can now go to school." But before he could get the ool on school out he threw up.

Poor guy, he was so determined to going to school today that he was trying everything to get
better and fast. Poor Mommy because she was excited about bringing him to school for the first time today since he started 2 days after she left for her training.

Well today was Mommy's Bday so I made some non alergies cupcakes with dr pepper instead of eggs and milk. These cakes never rise so I filled the cupcake cups to the top but I guess cherry dr pepper rises a little so they had huge but lat tops. making them look like mushrooms. The cool thing about cooking them like this is the cake still tastes really good (used to taste like bananas, applesauce or not so good because we used rice milk). We have also gotten good responses from others about it who did not realize we made it like that because of the boys allergies. Anyway with a cupcake it is hard to fit candles on one for people over 5, but I managed to fit an unnamed amount of candles, but enough to cover her age onto one cupcake. You can see the result below.

Also for the fun of it I have included a picture of Asher stealing and eating Andy's jumbo hotdog.

On this day a year ago, Samuel informed me I do not need to wear my jacket because it was not snowing outside.

A Little Bit Corny

Ok so for the past year I have been pointed by readers (I will not say who because YOU know WHO you ARE :o) about not writing enough about Asher in my blog. I hope you have enjoyed the past few posts on him.

So for this I have taken this time to write about the past year of Asher. He slept, he pooped, he ate, he cried, he pooped, and he slept again. Now that he is older and more mobile I am now able to tell stories. Like the following stories from today.

We jsut got finished eating lunch and Samuel had some corn in a cup left over, Asher still had a bunch of corn on his tray but he wanted down so I put him in the living room to play with big brother but instead he speed crawled back into the kitchen, got Samuel's cup of corn down, and ate all of his corn. Samuel does not know yet so I am just waiting to see his reaction when he goes back in to finish his corn. Know it is going to be fun changing that diaper tonight.

This morning Asher had gone into his bedroom and hopped in his chair so I buckled him up and made him a bottle. He was almost done with the thing while I was in there putting up some clothing when he decided he wanted to come over to me. Needless to say he kind of looks like a turtle. I went to get the camera and he followed me all the way to my room like this. So enjoy the pictures.

Lids

This last week I started watching Asher do some funny things, one of the things that caught my attention the most was how he would zoom into the living room pick up the grease lid then zoom through the house exactly to the spot where the empty grease jar was sitting. The funnies part is that i do not remember him going by it for a long time. I guess he just has good object recognition and remembers the 2 go together.

But what amazed me the most was that he could even screw the lid on nice and tight all by himself but his brothers do not like that and they want to be the ones screwing it on so they get upset with him. I guess when you have three they become territorial and Andy has finally won certain jobs from Samuel and now Asher is trying to take them away.

It is like while we were at the store after the meeting today and I asked if they could hand me Asher's shoe. Samuel was standing there but really was not looking for it. Well Andy had heard the question and saw the shoe so he ran over picked it up and said "Here you go Daddio." Well Samuel who is Daddio's big helper felt as if he just had his job taken away and first got angry and was going to rip it out of Andy's hands but I stopped him and said Andy could bring it too me. With those few short words his anger turned to sadness and he replied "But Daddio, it is my job to help you."

I am now just waiting for Samuel to start doing my job. I won't complain when he changes a diaper or fixes a bottle or prepares a turkey cracker bacon sandwich for them but I don't think that is going to happen anytime soon.

In the News

Ok I could not help myself to post this after some of the news I saw today. First off "teens that own their own car are more likely to have a crash." Shoot isn't it people in general that own a car are more likely to have a crash than people who do not since they drive a ton more. Good think both the research studies on this were not government funded.

Second "By constantly challenging yourself to resist a piece of chocolate cake, or to force yourself to study an extra half-hour each night, then you can actually increase your self-regulatory capacity, the researcher said." Moral of the story keep a piece of cake with you everywhere you go.

And Finally "We are not going to tax you for the health care bill instead we are going to tax the health insurance companies everyone will be forced to buy from so that they can then pass that tax onto you in higher rates." I see no problem with reforming our health care but that was just a stupid way to get around not taxing people.

On a side note Samuel and Andy bought books at the discount book tent today and Samuel was set on buying this one with a race car on it. It was 99 cents so I did not look at anything else on it well today he was sitting here pretending like he was reading it while I was checking out the news and he looked over to me and said "Daddio this is the best book ever." As I looked over I saw the title and read the subtitle it said "BURN Money Sex Murder...." Maybe I should start screening what he reads form now on. I just hope he will not want to bring it to Show and Tell at school next week.

FRG Meeting

Today we had an FRG meeting for our unit but the funny thing was in the email sent out about it it just said meeting on Friday (no time) and at so and so's New office, but no location. After replying back on Wednesday I got a message this morning with the time and managed to figure out the location after 2 phone calls. So the boys and I packed up and headed out.

They were so excited about going there because it was in the middle of the train hub in a warehouse. I could not have been in a better place. As we were leaving Samuel jetted out really fast and saw some Hooyas marching through the mud so he thought he would to, so as I came out of the building all I saw was Samuel stomping in some nice fresh recently stired up mud.

Of course he got in trouble but he replied with I am sorry I just wanted to be like the Hooyas. At first when I did not see him right off I thought that the passing by soldiers may have recruited him. I guess I was partly right.

First Steps

Through out our lives we live in patters. We do this than that then this again. For Asher it is eat bottle nap and repeat.

Well yesterday it was time for a bottle but I had not made it yet. All the sudden Asher goes running off into his bedroom and hops in his bouncy seat and sits there all excitedly. At first I thought he was just showing off but then started to get fussy like when he wants something. So I made a bottle and he was excited and drank it all.

At first I did not think a lot about it but last night he did the same thing, we went into his bedroom started making noises so I went and checked on him to see what was going on and again he was sitting in his bouncy seat and again it was bottle time. He has started to figure out patterns and signals to tell me when he wants something. Both Samuel and Andy did Baby sign language before 1 year but this little stubern baby (Blattner trait) has decided to come up with his own.

I notice when he wants something he will do the "No More" sign I had been trying to teach him and when he does not want something he reaches for it just to in turn quickly throw it down.

Another unique pattern he as started to work with is nap time, he will lay himself down in bed after I give him is nap time binky, of course this is after screaming a little and the second time I come in but he is now doing it on his own without me having to lay him back down.

I guess these are "First Steps" to becoming a self dependent big boy like the rest and no longer a baby. I guess that means it is time to have another right. ;o)

Over Dose

Two posts in one day you guys better be happy . ;o)

A few days ago I needed to write this but just did not have the time to. On Sunday my boys and I went to Wal-Mart in hopes of finding my wonderful wife and mother of my boys a birthday/welcome home present but instead we ended up only buying some Cars Children Vitamins and Popcorn Chicken. But the boys did find something to get Mommy but I would not let them get it quite yet because it would eat it all before she got home. :o)

Anyway after our little trip and lunch I gave Samuel and Andy both one vitamin and told them they get one a day. That evening during dinner I was in the living room playing with Asher since he finished before the other 2. And in a few minutes Andy comes running in the living room with his hands over his mouth and his jaws chomping down and a partly mute Ah oh coming through. So I get up and with our wooden floors any movement I make is loud so it gave me a way and alerted Samuel who jumped off the dryer.

I had put the vitamins up high so they would not get into them but they climb any and everything. If there were enough boxes I bet they would try to build another Tower of Babel. Anyway he was finishing his champing when I got into him. But before I could even ask what was going on Andy started to cry saying "Sorry Daddio, sorry Daddio, we did not mean to." with Samuel replying with "It was an accident." Still not knowing what exactly was going on I asked what they were eating to get the reply "Um ummm so good, Daddio, the vitamins are so good for me and tasty." It ended up they had cleaned out 51 more of those vitamins!

There was 60, I gave them 2, to 58, and there were only 7 left! I know most vitamins just flush out but I still kept a close eye on those boys to make sure nothing else happened. All other vitamins I have given them they like but not really, I guess they are just making them these days to taste tooo good.

Lately my phrase the boys are getting to know me as is "There is only one of me and three of you." So I guess they have decided to do things on their own, again.

Oops

So with Mommy gone to some training for a month, my time has gotten away and I have not updated my blog lately. And it was not Grandma, nor Nana, nor Gege who sent me the threatening email but Mommy (who typically neeeeeverrrrr reads my blog :o) who gets about 5 minutes of Internet access a day. So I guess I better get after it.

Over the weekend we had a slow but constant rain storm that leaked into our house in every bedroom. Maintenance came out to fix it but the ceilings were still discolored. Every night Samuel would say, "Daddio I can't co to sleep because my room is broken." Because of the discoloring he thought it was broken and today the guy came to repaint it and check to see if the drywall needs changing. But this house was built in 1954 so top quality drywall was used. :o)

Needless to day the kind man took care of us and replaced some tap and puddied up some spots and said it was all dry so did not need to worry about replacement but to keep an eye out. Samuel was so excited because his room was now fixed and he could not sleep in it without worrying.

Last night it took him 2 hours before he finally fell asleep because his room was broken. I almost went in there to have a sleep over but he had finally fell asleep. Ever since Mommy left he has asked me every other night if I could come and have a sleep over with him since Mommy is not there and I do not need to sleep in Mommy's room by myself. I have a few times but he tosses and turns and even kicks a lot in his sleep. One time I even woke from a nice kick right in my face that almost knocked me off of the bed.

A Journey

So last week while Mommy was gone ;.o( Samuel started his first day of Pre-School, which he loves. Anyway after his first day of school he came home all excited and stuff but then said he did not want to go back tomorrow. I think he was afraid he was missing out on all the fun at home especially since Gege and Pops were there. Anyway the next morning he was wanting to go back again. Well this is the second week and he now has Show and Tell every Tuesday and is in the Triangle group and gets to choose a letter each day to find where he sits. He is having a blast.

Well each day I ask him what he learned and what he did and he always mentioned a Journey each time. Well today while waiting I got to meet Journey's mother, and I introduced myself as Samuel's dad which she did not seem to care. Well Journey got out of class first and when she asked what she did today she started talking all about Samuel.

Was was interesting watching Samuel today while dropping him off since it was only his forth day. There are a lot of little things they did to get into class that I never noticed but Samuel knew to do. Like take pick up his name on the clothing pin and stick it on the bucket then go in and draw out a coin with a letter on it and stick it on his name, then hang up his backpack and take out his folder and then put it in the folder box. Once he was all done though he ran out of the class (which every day the teacher jumps up to catch him before she realizes what he is doing) to give Andy and Asher a goodbye hug and kiss and tell them he will miss them.

It is the sweetest thing ever. Well I best stop writing so that I can go help Samuel with is general geometry and help him study for his adverb recognition test, missing 2 days has really put him behind in the class but I think he will be ok.

Ahser - Two Hot Dogs, a peice of Pizza and a Beer

So the other day Asher was eating everything in the world that he could get hold of. In fact we had a late lunch and he had eaten a lot of crackers before hand so I fed him a hot dog and he had it down in just a few minutes. I then gave him another and he did the same thing. A few hours later during dinner time he ate a huge piece of pizza. Of course though it was a no allergy pizza (a hamburger pizza with no cheese or sauce). And he was still hungry it was crazy. This boy does not have a hallow leg he just has a big hole at the bottom where every must fall out.

Oh and the Beer, well it jsut made for a cool title. :o)

Calm Trouble

Tonight Mommy went to bed early since she has to get up at 1 AM. So for dinner the boys did their typical throwing a fit because they did not want fish sticks. After doing what I could to get Andy to stop crying I told him if he did not stop I would set him outside to eat.

So of course he did not stop so I set him on the side steps by the kitchen to eat. After a very short time of crying all I hear is this calm but upset Daddio, Daddio, Daddio, Daddio from him. I continued to stand by the door looking at him but he would never look at me instead he just continued to look up. I did not think anything of it and went off. For about 4 more minutes it continued and Samuel went to open the door so I went in the kitchen to shut the door and see how Andy was doing when I noticed he was now standing in the corner of the stair case slightly shaking still looking up saying Daddio. I went outside to sit with him while he ate thinking that is what he was wanting but it was not.

As I asked him if he would be good and stop crying so Mommy could sleep or if he wanted me to stay out there with him while he ate, all he could reply back with was Daddio and a finger pointing upward. As I turned my head to look upward I almost fell down the stairs when I saw this huge red spider with the body at least an inch long. Nothing like I have ever seen before. After catching my self I took off my sandals and killed the thing and became Andy's hero, even after being the guy who made him sit outside to eat.

The crazy part about it all was that Andy even though scared crazy was super calm just yelling Daddio.

Spaghetti Night

Last night we had spaghetti night. But I think we are the only family who can have spaghetti night and not worry about a mess. Because of tomato allergy the boys just have plain meat sometimes with a little seasoning but I have learned they like it best with none.

Samuel is the funniest because he loves the noodles and just gobbles them up while Andy and Asher try to slurp them up. Andy would hold the noodles as far up as he could while he tried to get his mouth under it. Asher just loves playing with the noodles getting them tangled in his fingers.

Now Mommy she eats really funny and I thought I would attach a picture for you all to see.

Ashers Birthday Party

So on Saturday we held Asher's birthday party so that Mommy could be there for it. I invited over just a few people who had children my boy's age but it ended up that only people who had girls showed up and I got hounded for that.

Anyway I thought I would post some pictures of the party for you all to see. For my facebook readers if the pictures do not show up you can visit my actual blog at http://mrhousespouse.blogspot.com.

We have learned that Asher is different than his 2 brothers. Neither one of them liked cake nor liked making a mess but as you can see from below Asher did not mind as he was the only one to eat the majority of the cup cake. I guess most kids do not like Devils Food Cake Cup Cakes. :o) I guess I am going to have to learn how to make a cake mix by hand that does not contain milk or eggs because they do not like this nor the Strawberry very much.

Bacon

While running a few errands the other day Andy came up to me the other day and said Daddio I have 2 best friends. Which I replied with an astonished "Really who?" since before then he was always talked as if he could only have one. With an excited face he replied "My my two best friends are you Daddio and Bacon because he found my hat."

My Avon Boys

My boys think it is so much fun selling Avon. They love getting the boxes in the mail as well as going through everything with me and sorting it into bags.

Well this last campaign since Mommy was in the field all week everything was a little hectic and I was not paying attention to what the boys were doing to find out after the fact that they stuck a few items into bags that were not suppose to go into bags. When I went to fill the last few bags I could not find items. To find out they had stuck them into a lady's bag who is out of town until the 4th.

I guess I need to teach them how to read and go through the invoices to see who gets what. Once Samuel gets the hang of his bike I think I might just have him ride across post to deliver them too. Isn't it great having free labor, I mean kids. :o)

Asher and Allergies

So far Asher has not shown any signs of allergies like his brothers, especially to the things they are allergic to. But the last few days Asher has been eating Watermelon. At first he was eating it all non stop then a few days ago he would eat a little and throw the rest on the ground. Well last night he ate just a little and kept throwing the rest down. We did not think anything of it until last night when he decided to keep me up most of the night and then again for most of the morning. Early in the morning he had 2 really watery poopies while holding him and then while he was eating his breakfast he started crying really bad and I just thought he was being fussy from little sleep last night but when I got him out of the chair when he was finished I noticed his PJs were wet and when I went to change his diaper there was undigested watermelon in it along with a very very red bottom.

All in all Asher may be allergic to watermelon, which is not something the others were allergic to. But it is in the melon family just like tomatoes which Samuel is allergic to. I guess I will need to keep a closer eye on him.

Funny Short Story

So this week Mommy has been in the field doing training and when she got home at the end of the week, she got up with the boys on Saturday and made them breakfast. She was enjoying the time with the boys when Andy started crying and yelling No I want Thomas! So Mommy replied "Andy the Thomas cups are for Samuel." Which he replied "Mommy go back into the field." Then Samuel jumped in and said "Well Daddio gives Andy Thomas cups." And Mommy said but the Cars Cups are Andy's" to get bashed back with from Samuel "Mommy you need to go back into the field for 100 weeks."

To make a short story long, I had ran out of Cars cups so I gave Andy a Thomas cup the day before and they thought it was the coolest thing in the world, but now Mommy gets home and puts everything back into the normal routine.

Sad News

Today I had the boys in day care so that I could go get my eyes examined. Well to find out my eyes have gotten worse but not bad enough for glasses the doc said. My right is 20/50 and my left is 20/30 (used to be 20/40 and 20/10). Oh well, I guess I will save myself some money on glasses.

Anyway I got home about 20 minutes before I needed to pick up my boys so I was going to relax without my boys around for 10 minutes when all the sudden I hear a knock at my door. As I go to answer it there is a soldier standing there to inform me that my wife died by a mortar round during their training today. Then she proceeded in to take a shower since she was all stinky from the field. As I talked with her I learned that they first thought it was from a sniper but realized that was not realistic for a S1 to die from so they changed it to a paper cut then to a mortar round. Yes the soldier at my door and now taking a shower at my house was my wife. She was sent away from their current training for a few hours to see how the unit works without its top people.

Anyway to the sad news. right after she arrived I received a phone call from the day care center informing me that Andy has had a reaction on his arm and is having big blisters forming on it. I informed them that I would be right there which turned out to be a good thing. Backing up a few months, we had to spend 3 months getting all this stinking paper work done so that the boys could get back in the day care center and we had to get Epi Pens and doctor prescribed benadryl and now have to do monthly paper work just so they can stay a few hours here and there when I have a doctors appointment or teaching for AFTB.

Ok back to present day, because of all this ridiculous paper work the people there started to go crazy and had given him the benadryl and it was not immediately working. Luckily I was just a mile away so I came up there. When I got up there one of the people said that they were thinking about using the Epi Pen if I was not going to make it soon!!!!!!!!!!! First with that you got to bring them to the hospital not to fix the problem but to counter the Epi Pen side effects. When I got up there and looked at it I just smiled and asked if they tried washing his arm with soap and water, which they had not. So I brought him in there and explained a basic skin rash and how washing the area effected with soap and water fixes the problem. Once done a minute later the "big white blisters" as they put it were gone and he just had a red area were they were at. With an allergy skin rash you just wash the skin with soap and water to remove the irritation.

Andy was just fine with it but the people were then going crazy trying to figure out what caused it. Most likely a child did not wash their hands when they got there and had drank some milk or eaten peanut butter and then touch a toy before Andy did.

After all this the sad news is that in the midst of this and now my blog writing I missed lunch!

Mission Update

Mission Update:
Date: Saturday Aug 15th 2009
Time: 5:10 PM
Place: My front Porch

We just got all the boys down for bed except for Asher, mommy went to take a nap and left me with him. Finally he got tired and went to sleep. Excited I set to rest just to be interrupted by a tap tap taping on my door. When I got up and looked out I saw no one... at first. But as I opened the door I saw a short MP (sorry Bacon it just put some spice to the story) standing on my front porch.

As I stepped out he said, "I am glad I found your house." You see Bacon used to work with my wife but now he drives one of hte undercover cars on post. We played Baseball together which he as good at catching and I right field but about 1/4 the way through the season the coach started having me catch and he play right field. Drove us both crazy. Anyway back to the story.

He then reach behind his back and pulled out..... a hat and said "I heard you are looking for this." To find out his wife works up at the PX and heard that the boys had lost a train conductor hat and she had just kept an eye out for it for 3 days and then she found it! The funny thing was Anndea had gon back up there Saturday morning asking around again and she said people were getting a little rude to her about it saying stuff like "A guy already came here asking about it 2 weeks ago" but with the rude girly voice and head move. Well maybe not the head move but rude voice.

It was so exciting, but when Andy woke up from his nap the first thing he said to me in a pittyful crying voice was "I want my train haaaaattttttt." With tears rolling down his eyes I said "Don't worry Andy come here I got something for you" and proceeded to give him his at. A big smile appeared on his face and the joy and excitement that has been missiong for 3 days started to return, well at least for 3 seconds before Samuel came in and yelled "HEY THATS MY HAT!" and started to charge over to Andy and rip it out of his hands.

It took a few seconds to convince Samuel to give Andy his hat back so we could go looking around the house to find were he last placed his.

Mission Satus: Complete

The Mission:

Yesterday Mommy had the morning off so she took the boys to Walmart, the Donut shot, the Clothing and Sales, and the PX mall and somewhere in there Andy lost his Train condutor hat. He was super upset about it so at noon the boys and I packed up in the car ands tarted to back track. We went to the PX (which hte boys said they went to the toy section but once there I realized they did not and jsut tricked me. We checked the 3 lost and founds there and then started to walk the mall area of the PX going from store to store asking if they have seen the hat. One lady recognized the boys and remebered exactly what Andy was doing so she looked all throughout the coats hanging on the wall but no hat. From there we went to the clothing and sales and looked throug hit and under the shelves, asked 2 different lady's who both had different locations for hte lost and found (for such a small story). But no luck there.

So we head to Wal Mart were we combed the store visited the Customer Service twice, the dressing room and even some guy in toys went to look in the area were they put items with no tags. After $66 later and some lunch we headed home. We ended up searching for 3 hours and the majority of it the boys were good. Needless to say they all took a good nap.

Love's a One Way Street

So yesterday I learned from my oldest son that Love is a One Way Street with only one destination and not multi destinations. I guess this means that any postal worker cannot have love. :o)

Mommy did something for Samuel so he ran over to me and said "Daddio, I do not love you any more, I love Mommy instead." So I asked if if he could love us both to get pounded with a sharp "Nope."

On a side note children are mirrors, lately if I start noticing an attitude in Samuel I just look at the people around to see where he got it from. Recently he was constantly giving me this frowning look with his eye brows pointing downward when he wanted to do something or get his way. I kept telling to stop doing that because it does not look nice but then the next day I learned were he was getting it from. When I would get onto him I would get this mean face and typically they would do what I wanted so Samuel decided that it was the face so if he made the face I would do what he wanted. But I guess it does not work the other way around.

So to stop it I lightened my look and started smiling at him when he did it to me.

Correction of last post

In the last post I wrote work alcoholic which I meant work-a-holic. Non of the people who stayed with my wife are alcoholics.

Slumber Party

Ok so this week has been a crazy week. Wednesday I took My boys and the 2 girls to VBS and when it was over we headed home while Mommy x 2 tried to get some work done before their wonderful (no non existent) 4 day weekend. On our way home I called to see if I should just drop the girls off at their house but found out they were still all at work. So I told Mommy to order some pizza and we would pick it up and bring it to them at work (since work-a-holics forget they are hungry :o)

To my surprise they ordered 4 boxes and a drink, which the pizza place was so kind to carry out to my car, while driving I was trying to figure out how to get it all into their work when I realized that I had been blessed with 12 hands! So each child carried a box of pizza into work and an MP gave me a ticket for child labor since they were all 5 and younger (not really but it sounded fun). So even though the kids had already eaten they wanted some of the good stuff so we ended up taking one box back to the house with 2 extra girls again.

At 10 I called to see if it was ok if I laid the girls down to sleep since one was already out on Samuel's bed and the other wanted to have a Slumber Party with Samuel and Andy on the living room floor. Given the ok we pulled out the mat and started to make the bed with 3 kids trying to help pulling the covers every direction except for the way they needed to go.

The night ended with Samuel and one girl on the floor and Andy in bed with me. He was toooooooo tired to go to sleep since it takes just a little effort to keep your eyes closed for 10 seconds.

When Mommy x2 came over I just told the extra to go and enjoy a nice long sleep which she replied back with "I will be back at 8 for them." which I replied back with "No Rush" since I did not want to have to wake up at 8, I needed to sleep in too. Needless to say they did not wake up until around 9 and Mother x2 did not show up until 9:30.

Anyway it ended up that both got called back in on Thursday because someone (not them) did not do the paper work write so they had to go and check the corrections and then wait until every signature was back on it again (which means that they had to call a lot of people back in from their day offs). When Mommy got home Samuel wanted to have a Slumber Party with her and not me :o( So Mommy and Samuel had a wonderful night but since Mommy turns a lot I kept on being woken up to the squeaky guest bed, now I know why Gege and Nana want to get hotels when they come to visit. :o)

Well that is a quick update of the past 2 days since I was not able to update it sooner.

The Morning After

The morning after the sleep was a moment to remember. The night however was different. Samuel tosses and turns a lot more than I remember. Anyway he woke up some time around 7 AM and looked straight at me and his yawn became a big smile. In a soft tired whisper he said "Daddio did you sneak Mommy last night?" With a smile I answered back " Yes I did and I got in trouble when she woke up this morning." He let out a soft laugh and then plopped an arm on me, closed his eyes and fell back to sleep.

A little later Mommy came home from work and was amazed that he was still asleep but it was because he was enjoying his sleep over with me. Andy had gotten up and was excited because he got to choose what bowl he got to eat from instead of getting whatever one Samuel had left.

Later today we set off to VBS and the boys helped me song lead a few songs like the Hippo song and The Lord's Army "Texas Style." It was Samuel, Andy, Asher and I on this since Mommy had to work late because of our recent trip. The ladies in the church stepped up and helped me out with it all. One held Asher and then after class during dinner one even started making plates for my boys. The lady did her best to not get him allergies but with the items in bowls it was hard. When she left I had to clear off half the things in Andy's plate but it was ok since Asher eats anything now. Don't tell Mommy but he is eating things that the other 2 are allergic to. She would kill me if she found out but I have noticed that he has not had reactions like the other 2 did at his age to simple things as touching.

The Moments that Touch Us Most

Just a heads up we are back from our trip and I look forward to writing about it in the upcoming week.

Throughout our lives there are moments that touch us, moments that effect they way we live, they things we do, or the future of how we act. For some it is a big event like 9/11 or the Oklahoma City Bombing; for others it is the giving birth to a new life or finding that right person who changes their life forever. These can be big and small, they can be events that most everyone else sees or little things that you may not even realize at first.

The past few days before our little trip Samuel has asked me and then Mommy if "Daddio can have a sleepover" with him. Tonight Samuel asked again but this time added "my best friend Daddio" and Mommy said no because I was going to stay up and work some. I did not hear this but tonight 2 hours later this conversation hit me like a wall of bricks.

For the past 3 years I have partly dedicated my life to raising my boys, as many of you may think that I do a great job at it, it is actually a very hard and exhausting job. In fact there are times when I feel like I am not doing anything right. I have tried to teach Samuel and Andy and build their imagination but all it has turned out to be is me sitting them in front of the TV in the morning while I constantly clean, take care of Asher, check email and Avon stuff and try to wake up until lunch time where I prepare and force my boys to eat while I set my internal clock to count down til nap time.

So many times they have asked me to help them build a Super train track but I answer with "Later" or "Not Right Now." So many times they ask to go play at the park but I give them an excuse that begins with "Asher..." I have lost it and yelled at them for no reason and then tried to cover it up with a no good reason that just leaves them confused. But through all these mistakes I have made they still see me as an amazing person, a great father, someone they want to have a "belly like when they grow up," a miracle worker who can heal boo boos with a kiss, and a best friend.

I have let the world control my thoughts of "being successful" and have forgotten what I have always preached of what "being successful" is. It is not money, it is not a 5 to 9 job that pays well, it is not the car or nice house, it is not a tower of Christmas gifts but instead the job or your family and the happiness from a simple life.

In my eyes I sometimes see a failure because I have not taught Samuel Calculus yet, pushed Andy on his colors, built a super successful business (web hosting, Avon, travel, etc...). But in my boys eyes, the eyes that really count, I am their best friend. Looking back to some lessons I used to teach as a youth minister I remember speaking of being like children is what God wants. What he wants is for us not to think of all the worldly things but to be like children and find joy and happiness in the smallest with no worries over this or that which we have no control. The mirage that hit my life and actions will be no more.

Tonight at 11:50 while sitting on the couch watching "Bed Time Story." Samuel's comment hit me 2 hours after it was said and this little so called insignificant moment which I was not even there for has touched my life. Tonight my life has changed, my focus is changing and Samuel will wake up in the morning to a Daddio having a sleep over with him.

The Girls and a Secret

Ok for the past few days we have been watching 2 girls (4 and 5) and my boys have been loving it, except for the part about not wanting to play Sleeping Beauty. Anyway yesterday while they were all playing Asher was crying because he was hungry so I went inside to fill his hollow leg while the rest were playing out side.

A few minutes later the oldest girl came in saying "Samuel's Father, Samuel's Father, your brothers are not listening to me. They are not sharing the bikes and I told them that if they do not get off they would have to do 3 pushups." Of course they are military children as well as you may have noticed form that statement. So I went out to see what was going on and Samuel and the 4 year old girl had decided to run away together and was zooming off on the tricycles down the hill together. Samuel said he did not like the older girl telling him what to do. He likes to be the boss with Andy and Asher.

Anyway Samuel loves it when they come over to play so when their mother came to pick them up he asked if they could come over tomorrow and Saturday with the following comment "Can they come over and play tomorrow and and and come over Saturday for a sleep over?"

Anyway they were not able to because we are heading out of town today for Mommy's family reunion and a super secret co-op 3 hour visit to Borger TX for my class reunion. Don't tell anyone because I did not tell any of my family there since Mommy has been so nice to give me a 10 hour bubble during her family time to drive to Borger, go to the reunion, and drive back.

Well last night Samuel asked me if I could have a sleep over with him but unfortunately Mommy said I could not because I had too much to do before we left on our trip. But it would have been a blast!

Sticky Hands

The other day during nap time I had the hardest time getting Andy to go to sleep. I would hear noise in his bedroom so I would go in there just to catch him jumping back in bed. After a little while of this he finally came out of his room and I told him to go back and take his nap but he replied "I sticky Daddio, I sticky. I need to wash my hands."

Not knowing why he was sticky I checked his hands and sure enough they were so I asked how that got that way and all excitedly he said "Come and see Daddio, I show you." So with his sticky hand he grabs mine and brings me into his room and proudly shows me 5 sucker sticks sitting on a box in his closet. Some were a while back we got 5 suckers and put them in one of the temporary diaper bags. He must have remembered and had climbed upon the "big screen" to get into the bag and ate all 5 suckers. I guess he gets this from the Blattner side.

Asher Eats and Eats and Eats

So yesterday Asher was throwing a fit everytime I set him down to eat and did not figure it out at first but then at breakfast he threw down his bottle and crawled over to the boys table and ate about a quarter of Samuel's granola bar.

Then for lunch he was not a happy camper either! He kept looking over at what the boys were eating (which was pizza, actually pizza crust with hamburger toppings no cheese or sauce). So I heated him up a piece and broke about a third of it up in small pieces for him. I set the rest on the table and went to the bathroom. When I came back he had the rest in his hands and was chewing on it with the small pieces I made still on his plate. He ended up eating the whole thing, the small pieces, AND 2 jars of baby food (which is what he typically has).

For dinner I was eating a sandwich and chips while feeding him his food, which he took hesitantly. After eating it he started getting fussy and reaching for my food so I gave him a corn chip and he ate it! In fact he ate 3 of my chips before I ran out.

THEN at my softball game Mommy brought him a granola bar since he was eating everything in the world and he ate the whole thing! This little monkey things that since he has 6 teeth now it entitles him to eat me out of a house. The next thing you know he will be drinking my Mtn Dew and eating Mommy's Ice Cream!

Sleeping Beauty

Today, we had 2 girls come over, one 5 and the other just turned 4 I think. Anyway the first thing Samuel wanted to do was play "Sleeping Beauty," in fact he was getting so upset because neither one of them wanted to play it. So after he came to me the third time upset because the girls wanted to play trains instead I ask him how do you play Sleeping Beauty.

He then informed me that you play it like Kalie did which I had no clue how she did it. So I continued with "How is that?" Which he replied with "One person pretends to be sleeping and the other sneaks up and gives them a slimy kiss to wake the other up." A girl taught my son this! I am never letting him hang around girls unattended again.

Last time I did was when Grace and Saidee lived by us. The 3 were inside of Grace's house while her mother and I talked and I fed Andy (he was Asher's age then). Well Samuel came out upset so we asked why and he said he did not want to be the doctor. So we go inside and Grace and Saidee were playing "Pregnancy." One was laying on the bed with her legs spread and the other was at the bottom and would say push then reach up and push on the others stomach to as Saidee said "poop out a baby.

At least he does not want Polly Pocket and My Little Ponies anymore.

Song for Mommy

Mommy Loves Me This I know

For Daddy tells me so

Hooligans to Her belong

We are weak but she is Army Strong

Yes Mommy Loves me

Yes Mommy Loves Me

Yes Mommy Loves Me

Because Daddio tells me so

Double Trouble

During our lives there are moments that we wish we could take the pain away from our children so they do not have to suffer. Yesterday was one of those days for me. The weather was nice and warm so we packed up in the mini van and zoomed over to the local park, which has a water works area. Samuel and Andy enjoyed the water works for about 5 to 10 minutes then Andy ran over to the actual playground.

In today's society everything has to be safety oriented no matter how unsafe it is. Well at the playground instead of having dirt, or even rocks (like when I was a kid :o) they have the blue rubber squares with holes in them that is a little bouncy. This is so when the kids fall off of the playground equipment that has huge walls on it so they cannot fall off. Well because of how the soft squares are designed it also traps in hot air and the squares become extremely hot.

Andy zoomed over to the playground and as soon as he got on these squares he took just a few steps and s tarted screaming and running back crying. I just assumed that it was hot and it scared him so I went over there with him just to find out it was way too hot. The rubber itself was not so much hot but when it depressed down with the steps the holes in it became extremely painful.

I kept kissing his feet better and even put his crocks on so he could continue to play but he just stayed at the bench with me and cried. Finally after about 20 minutes of not being able to settle him down I looked at his feet again because they were still red and he had 7 blisters on them. He cried so much that he ended up crying himself to sleep in the car home.

Well that afternoon while GeGe called to talk with Andy to see how he was doing and Samuel was pretty upset because she did not want to talk to him right off. Well when we got of the phone with her Samuel was in the kitchen and I yelled from the living room "Samuel, what are you doing." Which then all you could hear was some quick rustling of stuff and then a long pause with a big breath. To find out he was playing with the coffee maker, who knows why because he would not give me a reason, and he had turned on the heat pad and just grabbed the bottom to push it back when I yelled. He managed to burn 2 fingers and put huge blisters on them. He cried and cried and no matter what I did it would hot help. After 20 minutes of crying he finally took my advise and went to lay down.

So I went and joined him to hold him and sing to him when Asher started to cry in the kitchen which Samuel said in a broken voice, "Daddy, go take care of Asher ok." Even in his pain he is a caring brother always watching out for the other two. After feeding him I went back and held Samuel again while crying and started blowing on his fingers which took away the pain just enough that Samuel fell asleep.

I personally think he burned his hand on purpose so he could talk with GeGe more. :o) I remember how much it hurts to burn your hands and get blisters and in moments like these wish the pain could belong to me. They rely on me for kissed to take away the pain for everything else but these kisses just make them hurt more.

Softball

Well it looks like we have made our rounds. I started this blog talking about softball and here I am again talking about softball almost a year later.

Anyway, Mommy lets me play softball and she typically brings the boys to watch. They love watching me run out in the outfield, and they go crazy when I get up to bat or am running the bases. Well in today's game, they got there late and did not get to see me bat or run but, and because I was the Designated Hitter, I stayed in the dug out and kept score, which I am no good at, but someone has to do it. :o)

Well every time we switched field with the other team the boys would always run up to me and tell me "Good Job Daddio" or "I am so very very proud of you." I tell ya, even if I struck out, missed every hit to me, and threw the ball to the wrong base these boys would be there to cheer me on and lift me up. They think I am the greatest at Softball. Which I did get a comment this game that I am one of the only people they know who can hit a infield ball and still make it to first or something like that. I personally think it is because I am left handed and have a shorter distance to run than most batters plus with the way I swing I already have the momentom going for the run. :o) Either way the boys don't care, they just want to see Daddio play ball!

John Denver

So yesterday the boys were being loud and playing in the living room. I was out at the store at the time but Mommy said that it all the sudden got quite so she got worried thinking that the boys were getting into something they were not suppose to since when they do things they know they are not suppose to they become "Super Spies" and are quite. :o) Infact some times when I catch them doing something they are not suppose to and ask them what they are doing they say "Daddio, shhhh, we are playing supper spies and don't want Mommy to find out." :o)

Anyway back to the story. So Mommy came into the living room to see what was going on and the boys had turned on the TV to channel 5 (PBS/OPT) and there was a John Denver concert on. Both Samuel and Andy were mesmerized by it. When she asked what was going on Samuel replied, "Look Mommy it is my most favorite TV show" and pointed to John Denver.

So to all you John Denver fans, my boys are ones too. Now the funny part was when I came home Mommy was telling me the story and I had to ask her who John Denver was. :o) And she replied "He is one of my mom's favorite singers."

Knocked Up

Today while walking down the stairs at the hospital with the three boys, Samuel and Andy counting every step on their way down and me carrying Asher in his car seat over one arm, a younger female came up to me while I was holding open a door for the boys and said "So some one knocked you up too?" She then pointed to my hand on my "fatherly" belly which was sticking farther out since I was leaning back trying to counter Asher and the car seats' weight.

A few weeks earlier, I was getting onto Samuel for eating a lot of Easter candy and giving Andy a lot too. I cannot take a shower when there is candy hidden in the house, because they will find it. Anyway Samuel looked at me with a sad face and siad "But Daddio, I just want to have a big belly just like you."

A few days earlier I was at an AFTB function and saw a lady I had not seen in almost 2 years. Last time she saw me I had long hair, a bushy beard and a grizzly bear. Well maybe not the bear but you get the point. I had to stand up for something and while I was going to sit back down she said "who Rusty you are really starting to look like a dad now especially with that 'fatherly' belly you are getting." I informed her that I had to grow it to hold the babies on since I do not have hips.

I guess my time has finally come, not running anymore and staying at home has finally taken a toll on me. But at least I have my sexy legs, which is an actual comment I have received from a few women lately. My favorite was at a volunteer training where they had a 45 minute meditation class to help us learn a few things to clear our minds before teaching and one was walking around a room slowly looking at the floor with soft music playing. The lady walking behind me could not stay focused and had to ask me to move over because as she said: she thought my legs were sexy and kept on starring at them ultimately distracting her. :o)

New New New Grandpa

Yesterday Samuel randomly asked me what was the name of his new new new grandpa that was at Aunt B's house a few weeks ago. A little confused I started to go through some pictures and when I pulled up one that had Uncle Charles (Jack's brother in law) Samuel said that's him whats is my new new new grandpa's name all excitedly.

Super Spiiiiiiiieeeees

So today I was studying for a class that I was preparing to teach when I heard the kitchen door open and a few little foot steps trying to sneak out the door. So naturally I got up and said "Sammmmuuuuelll, where are you?" Which I got a swift but soft "Ssshhhhhh Daddio, we are Super Spies." I walked over to the door and replied "Ok then where are you going?" Just to get again "Ssshhhhh Daddio, we are Super Spies." This time I replied a little firmer, "That I know but were are you guys going?" Which Andy answered with a "Ssshhh Daddio, Super Spy."

A little frustrated I replied "Ok super spies but Daddio still needs to know where you are going." Which Samuel finally gave a different answer to with "Its a secret."

Letting them tip toe outside I had an idea and gave them some walkie talkies and they thought it was the coolest thing because they were now official super spies with super spy tools. But the best part was they wanted me to clip them onto the top of their shirts like Mommy does with her cell phone when she has it on speaker. :o)

In Trouble

So Asher got into trouble today so Mommy told him to drop and give her 10, and being the obedient son that he is, well the picture says it all....

Flowers

So today after church services and then going to eat at Chopstix for lunch Mommy took the boys out to the park to give me a little time off, which I enjoyed :o). Well we have a new neighbor boy who is 3 so they invited him to come along as well. He and Samuel had a blast and Andy felt a little left out because he could not run as fast as they could, but all in all they all had fun. In fact as soon as they got home they fell asleep as if we were turning out a light.

Well on their way home from the park Theodor, the neighbor boy, stopped and picked a little yellow flower and said this is for my mommy. Andy quickly and excitedly ran to the first one he could find and picked it yelling "This is for my Daddio!"

Later during the day Andy had found Mommy's church shoes sitting on the ground so decided to slide his feet in them and instantly he transformed into a scary monster! Running around making clickity clackaty noises with them and then running up beside us and yelling "Rarrrrrrrr!" I tell ya it was the scarriest 2 1/2 ft tall monster I had ever seen especially once it started to grow a laundry basket on its head.

Following Mommy and Cold Water

Today has been a day filled with all sorts of excitement and with Samuel's recent comment I had to write about it all before I forgot.

To start with Mommy and I have been preparing for a neighborhood cookout with all our neighbors. This has been a fun event, got to meet our 2 new neighbor families and their children and even set up some play dates with everyone. Anyway I was in the dreboom doing laundry when Mommy came in and said she forgot something at the store and will be right back. Next thing I hear is the door shutting and a minute later Asher crying.

Asher was in the living room playing when he saw Mommy walk by so he went chasing after her. He crawled on the carpet then dragged himself with his hands into the kitchen and was pulling himself to the door Mommy went out of all upset and crying because she had left him. Needless to say he was over joyed as soon as saw me with a big smile and a hand slap right on my nose as usual.

Now tonight after the block party I stayed later talking to our neighbors getting ready to move while Mommy went in with the boys to give them baths. A little while later I came in and Samuel looked up at me from the tub and said, "Daddio I am very very upset at you because you did not save any cold water for me." Not fulling understanding what he was saying I asked him to repeat when he went to explain again, "Daddio, I am so very very sad because you used all the cold water and did not leave me any and now my bath is hot because you used up all the cold water when you took your shower. Next time Daddio you need to use some warm water so that there will be enough cold water left for me." During this whole time Mommy was laughing because she understood what he said and I was still confused. So Samuel asked what she was laughing at and she smiled sand said "Nothing Samuel, your precious." So he turned his look at me where I still fully did not get what he said so he repeated it again but this time started to show me by pointing at the hot and cold water nobs and pretending to turn each one when mentioning that one.

Venting

These past few days have been very hectic again running into problems with the day care center on post where I have to put my kids so that I can teach AFTB classes so that AFTB can cover the cost. At first because of Samuel's allergies we had to jump hoops to bring his own food. Well it was time for the doctor's note to be renewed and for Andy get get one so that we can bring food. So the place needed proof of the allergies and his allergy chart was given which they decided..... well let me just say it took over 3 months to get everything fixed, doctors appointments, and meetings, and more paper work.

Well Tuesday I brought them in so I could go teach a class, ironically "Advanced Problem Solving Techniques." They would take Asher and Samuel but not Andy because they did not have this 12 month shot records. HE IS 27 MONTHS OLD!!!! I dealt with this before after his 12 months sots for about 3 to 4 months constantly bringing them in and finally getting a not written from a doctor saying the shot they say he does not have is a 4 year shot or something. So I asked them before I left with Andy if there was anything else they needed and again if they were sure.

Well Andy and I went to teach just to find out I was given the wrong date and was suppose to teach on the 13th not the 12th. So we used this time to go get a copy from the hospital of every single shot that Andy has ever gotten. While there I called to verify again if there was anything else, and when we returned with the records if there was anything else. Every time the Answer was No that is it for all your boys.

Well the next day (when I was suppose to teach), I get a phone call saying that I need to bring the rest of my boys medication before they can take them and that they need Andy's Asthma Action Plan too (which does not exist because he does not have Asthma). After getting the Action plan thing fixed I found out that they will not take over the counter Benadryl because they need the bottle to have a prescription note from the doctor on it that says "Use as Directed."

At this point I call Mommy and get her involved in helping get this medication because she is a Soldier and gets priority in the hospital. With the few hours she had she went and explained it all to the desk nurse who informed her that it takes 72 hours (not the 2 we have). So she told them why and she said she would try to get it expedited. But since the doctor was at lunch until 1 (needed to get the boys in at 1:30) we were unable to get this medication.

When I got to the daycare center it was such a big mess, and was told that they cannot take medication for hourly care, once straightened out I started handling Epi Pens and Inhaler (which they would never use) and then filled out a ton more paper work just to find out everything was wrong because they prescription notes said "Use as Directed as Needed." Because of the "as Needed" they could not take it but finally took them at 2 (when I was suppose to be teaching) so that I could go and they would talk to the head nurse.

Mommy managed to get the medication while I was teaching and met me at the Day Car Center, but again the medication said Use as Directed as needed. First off the as needed is on there so that they don't just give him the medication when it is not needed, but since their instructions says it cannot say as needed they have taken it to mean it cannot say it anywhere at all.

After all said and done, we now got to fill out 5 new forms every month and need to get the wording changed just on the inhaler thanks to the head nurse saying the others "Use As Directed As Needed" was fine.

The funny thing was before they would not let me bring Benadryl for the boys and actually got in trouble for forgetting about it and leaving it in the diaper bag once. For some reason during the renewing process so that we could provide their own food so that non of the above will ever be needed, someone in the hierarchy of it all decided the 3 months of jumping through hoops was not enough. The real reason why all this had to be done in the first place is because the state gives the center money for food for every child that eats so for us to bring our own food means less money for them therefore we had to get a special needs request to bring our own food. Now all the extra for Benadryl is just ridiculous. I can see maybe a note from the doctor about allergies and medication but not the massive jumping through hoops, wrong wording, form not filled out exactly like they want, and my favorite the hand writing does not match (I field out part of a form while someone else helped me fill in the gaps). Literally I am not lying that is how ridiculous it was

I can see where they are coming from with all this but denying my children child care for 5 months so we can play corrupted game of Simon says is just wrong, let me bring their food and a bottle of Benadryl with a doctors note, just in case! Now how hard is that!

Vent over.

A Tomato is Coming!

Ok I thought I would write this now just in case I do not get a chance to later on.

This morning the dark grey storm clouds has rolled in like a crackety freight car, loud and thunderous, dropping rain as if it was the great flood. Lucky for us we live on a side of a hill so it all just runs down the road or in the river that forms in our back yard. Anyway, mommy called to inform us that there was a Tornado on the ground 20 minutes away (about 10 minutes now), so I opened the front door to listen for the sirigns over all the trains and the boys playing. Samuel the courious George he is asked why I was opening the front door with all the rain out side so I informed him that a Tornado was heading our way. He replied "A Tomato!" which I corrected "No a TorrrNado." He was a little upset since it was going to mess up his play time so he told me he was goin gto stop it and proceeded to run to the door. While swinging the door Open he yelled to the storm in a firm commanding voice "Stop it Storm, no Tomatoes!" With this he turned back to me and said, there will be no more Tomatoes Daddio.

If I stop posting you will know why but if I get to post again you will know that even the Tomatoes listen to my son!

In Charge

So this morning Samuel woke up at 6:45 so before mommy left for work she told him that he was in charge. She thought it would be nice if I could get some extra sleep since I had not been sleeping well lately. A little later Samuel comes in and woke me up to tell me I need to sleep on the couch, I just replied in a little bit and laid back down. A little bit later Andy is screaming so I get up to see what was going on and Samuel is taking Andy's bean bag because he wants to make a boat but Andy did not want to. Samuel was being very forceful, more than he typically is and I was shocked. I made him stop and told him that Andy was laying on it first. With this I stayed up and noticed that their bowls were filled to the top with Cheerios. To find out since Samuel was in charge he decided to feel their bowls with "Tiger Cereal" and ate it on top of their typical breakfast and then added the Cheerios.

A little later Samuel tells me to do something, and I replied that it was not time for that, which he quickly snapped back that mommy said he was in charge today. Well this went on for a while and I thought I would observe how he managed to run the day, knowing that he would most likely imitate how I act and it was a bit disturbing. Instead of asking first he just went straight to telling for his lips frowning and his eyes in a mean face look. (typically I bark after 3 or 4 times of them not doing what I asked). He tried to send Andy to the Naughty spot because he would not give him a toy Andy was playing with. But he also was very helpful and took care of Andy pretty well during the day as well as me. :o)

But at nap time Samuel said they did not have to take a nap because he was in charge so we had a little talk and he decided that a little nap time would be good so he told Andy to go take a nap. :o) And a few minutes later Samuel went and joined him. When he got up he then told me politely to make them some diner and told me what he wanted. So they had chicken and home made baked chips that Samuel helped make. After it was done he went into the kitchen and got the cookies without asking me and just started dumping them into his bowl. I made him stop and he got mad at me because he was in charge and he got to choose the surprise for the day.

Well when mommy finally got home she asked how everything went and I told her she needs to ask Samuel since she left him in charge. To find out she just told Samuel he was in charge of taking care of Andy while Daddio rested. So she told him that Daddio was now in charge and that he needed to listen to me. A little upset Samuel came and set in the blue chare in the living room all upset like. I asked him what was amatter and he informed me that I was now in charge and he was not anymore because he abused it and got cookies and cheerios without asking Daddio first.

Poor guy, I think he will be a natural leader once we get a few of the kinks out but he enjoyed his day of being incharge. Hopefully I can start instealing better leadership and compassion skills and learn from this event myself.

Stuff

So today Samuel called for me while he was sitting on his throne because the toilet paper had fell and rolled out of the doorway. While rolling it up he said something to me, which I cannot remember now, but it was remarkable for his age. So I replied "Samuel I am so proud of you." Which he returned with a "Why." Continuing I said, "Because you are very smart and know a lot of different stuff for your age." When I finished rolling up the toilet paper he yelled, "Mommy, Daddio is very very very proud of me." Replying she asked, "Really, why is that Samuel?" Answering he said "Because I know stuuuffff."

Tonight we were having a little bit of trouble trying to get Asher to go to sleep, so we brought him in the living room after a little while of yelling in bed. Mommy tried to get him to go to sleep, fed him a little more, which he did not want, burped him, which he did not want either, and gently held him which he did not like. She gave up and with him still fussing handed him to me. I tried holding him but he just kept playing with my beard and laughing. I tried holding him on my shoulder in the rocking chair but he kept turning around to look at my face. I tried holding him in my arms like a baby but he really did not like that. So I finally gave up and said he can cry in his bed. As I laid him down, I told him Good night like I always do and pulled up the covers. At that moment he turned his head and closed his eyes and fell asleep. Sometimes I just wonder.

Pizza

First off I would like to let you know that Mommy will be starting to write in the blog too. She keeps telling me I need to write about this or that little quote the boys said, but 98% of the time I was not there so she will be adding them as they come. Off course she is not as talkative as I am :o) so they will most likely be a lot shorter. :o)

Over the past week we were on vacation so you will be excited to know that over this week, when I have time I will be catching you all up on everything that went on while in Nashville. So on to the show....

Tonight, we decided that we would just relax at home after church while it rained all day here. I believe it rained all week because in our vine bed we had on weeds when we left but when we came back it looked like a jungle. I guess this just means it will be easier for the boys and I too pull out all the wild onions and pick all the jumbo dandelions. Well for diner we decided to eat pizza so we went online at pizzahut.com and did a special order with a secret coupon code I got a long time ago. The code is 267, basically you get 1 specialty medium pizza, 1 one topping medium pizza, a thing of bread sticks (or cheese sticks for a $1 more), a thing of cinnamon sticks, and a 2 litter for only $19.99. What a great deal for pizzahut.

Anyway we order the boys their own pizza (hamburger toppings, hand tossed with no cheese or sauce) and they love it! They call it pizza with toppings because it is just crust with toppings. :o) Anyway most of the time they just eat a piece each with some toppings but today they each ate 3 pieces of pizza for a total of 6 of the 8 pieces, a cup of jello, and when we were not looking they got into the refrigerator and each grabbed 1 breadstick and some popcorn chicken and was snacking on that. At 9 when Mommy went to check on them because they were so quite I got in trouble for giving them the popcorn chicken and breadsticks, which I profusely denied. Thankfully for me Samuel is a man of truth and he told Mommy that Daddio did not get the breadsticks and popcorn chicken for them. He informed her very much so proudly that his tummy was still very very hungry so he did not want to bother us while we watched Star Trek so he got it out for he and Andy.

I do not know if Samuel just likes telling the truth all the time, or has figured out that if he tells the truth with a proud face of what he has acomplished he does not get in trouble. :o) Actually I think it is both. He tells the truth because it is wrong to lie and because he is proud of his acomplishment. When he does something that he knows is wrong at first he will say no but less than a second later he will then tell the truth with a very sad sad face or automaticly put himself in the naughty spot and will not let us talk to him for 4 minutes because he is 4 years old.

Anyway, if they both keep eating like this I think I will have to start selling Avon of something to keep these boys fed. :o)

On our Trip

So I am currently on our family trip and will write all about it when we get back. I just thought I would give you a little update of what has gone on. First off, while checking the blog stats I noticed that someone visited my blog through google searching for the keyword "sonic fart" So I did a search and after the videos listed up top my blog is #1 on the list. :o)

yesterday we went to the zoo and today to the kid's science center. On the bottom section of the Science Center they had a old wooden train set and Samuel saw it right off and we had the hardest time getting him away from it. For the next 30 minutes he was Mr. Grump Bucket, he would just stand there about 5 to 10 feet away from the rest with his arms crossed and his head partly down with a frown on his face. Finally there was this spinning table that had a map on it and he slowly came up and when he finally wanted to play Mommy and Andy moved on. I had to stop the people behind us so that Samuel could have a minute to play with it. As he approached I noticed his cheeks were red and covered with tears. It really upset him that he had to leave the Train set, but he had so much fun with the rest of the place that for the next 5 hours he totally forgot about the train set until we were leaving the building. With that said, we will be returning back on Friday before we leave town so they can play with the train set and the 7 story science filled indoor playground! With our family membership to the Discovery Center in Springfield we were able to get into this place for free so the $44 cost for the yearly membership was well worth it (since this place alone cost $46 :o).

Earth Day

So the community here decided to have Earth day on the 25th instead of the 22nd here. It was really funny because they had all sorts of things about recycling and reducing our waste but they were giving out water bottles everywhere and had only a very small place behind a display to recycle the plastic bottles but nothing for the coke cans.

Anyway the boys really liked going to all the places and playing on the play ground. They had a bounce house there but Samuel was refusing to go on it screaming and everything else. A few days earlier he met a boy named Eric, who is 5, and they have become friends, Eric even offered to hold his hand in the bounce house but Samuel still did not want to. After a while of being in the heat we decided to go home and even though most had sunscreen on the boys still got a little red.

So now to the good part. After being home for a little while and replenished with water and rest that the sun had managed to drain earlier, Samuel came up to me and said "Daddio, I am very very sad." With curiosity I replied "Why is that Samuel?" and he began on this little story explaining why he was sad. Basically he was said because he now wished he would have jumped in the bounce house with his friend Eric and that he is said because Eric offered to hold his hand but he said no.

A little later Samuel came up to me and said again, "Daddio, I am very very very proud of you." Wondering why because I had not done anything but dry a few dishes, I asked why is that. With a big smile on his face and in a fast voice he blurted out, "Because you brought me to learn about Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! I am so very very proud of you Daddio, thank you very much!"