Keeping My Head Above Water

So far so good. Suzy has been gone on her yearly backpacking trip with her buddies since Friday morning. I have heard from her once when she reached the last town on their way to their base camp area, that was Friday evening. Unfortunately it was a brief call due to the fact that I had two boys vying for my attention when she called. I debated yelling at them to shut up, but I didn't want that to be the last thing she heard me say before heading off into the wilderness.

Grandma Walls stepped up to the plate and took them out somewhere (I should know where they went, but that detail wasn't critical to my well being, so it has slipped quickly from my brain) yesterday for most of the day.

I successfully got both of them to church today, and I am pretty sure they were both mostly clean and wearing decent clothes. I can't say the same for me, but that's just nitpicking. Tomorrow morning I am hoping to hit the matinee of 'Up', and if they are behaving well they can come too. Suzy gets back tomorrow night, and I/we will have survived another year.

The real reason for this blog post, however, is a self-reminder. Daniel lost a tooth this morning. Nope, no funny stories about sneezing or tickling, this one just came out while he was fooling around with it during breakfast. The critical aspect of this is that I have no one to remind me to perform my secret parental duties tonight. I am envisioning myself stumbling upstairs at the ungodly hour of 11 tonight, completely forgetting that I am supposed brave the legos and somehow climb up to the second deck of the boy's bunk bed, find where the tooth has been hidden, and replace it with a nice shiny new penny, all the while avoiding the traps that Sammy has, no doubt, laid for me.

Wish me luck, and please send some good mental reminders to me throughout the night. In fact, I am going to put out the penny right now.

[Just kidding about the penny, I think he gets a nickel, is that right, Suz? A nickel?]

[10:49 PM Update: Abort, abort, abort, someone's awake in there! Get out now! (can you tell I just finally watched the season finale of 24?) Guess I am going to be awake a little longer. Anybody got some coffee?]

[11:49 PM Update: Transfer made. What the heck do I do with this tooth?]

How Beautiful...

I will soon be here. Breathing in the clean fresh air and marveling at the beauty that surrounds me. It is just what I need.

"Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom."

-Isaiah 40:28

Work Chaos

Suzy has been a trouper recently, as she has had to deal with the end of the year busyness, the start of summer craziness (after yesterday at the pool, today she took the boys to the zoo), and also my work being particularly zany.

The company I work for (all seven of us) has, for most of its history, existed almost solely in the realm of aquatic life support systems. Occasional forays into cogeneration plants and golf course irrigation notwithstanding, by and large our money comes from parks like Sea World, zoos and aquariums. This is a very tight niche, so we have always been really cyclical in our income, when those things are building we do well, when they are not, not so well. We have always wanted to expand that niche, but the opportunities have been few and far between.

About six months ago a big opportunity fell into our laps, doing HVAC controls for a large community college here in Southern California. From a complexity standpoint, HVAC controls are very simple compared to aquatic life support, so technically we felt we would be more than qualified. That has proven to be true, as we are putting together a pretty neat package for this college, but the buildings are getting close to being ready, so things around here have been crazy. For the first time since Daniel has been on this side of the real/'figment of my imagination' line, I have had to go on regular business trips. Those trips are also very spur of the moment, and with no firm durations, so Suzy has had to be planning her life (and the boys lives) recently without knowledge of whether I will be around or not.

In the past twelve hours I was leaving for two days, not going, leaving for one day, and every combination and permutation thereof. My wife has been patient, but I think I am pushing my luck. This morning I was noticing a definite up tick in her exasperation meter. My mom is taking the boys tonight, so hopefully I can take the missus out to a nice dinner to thank her for her patience and supportiveness, at least I hope I will be able to unless I get called out of town again...


[Edit: Things have changed a few times since I posted this, right now my co-worker is scheduled to pick me up at 3:40 to go up there, 3:40 AM that is. Yikes, that is early, I hope Suzy doesn't want to stay out too late tonight!]

First Day of Summer

Well, it finally felt like summer today. The sun was out and it was bright and sunny. A perfect way to start our summer vacation. We had a nice mellow morning. A walk down to the store, a science experiment (making crystals) and playing in the garden. In the afternoon we went over to a friend's house and the kids all ran around and had fun together. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

School's Out!

The school year wrapped up today with an awards ceremony. Daniel received the Outstanding Scholarship award. Afterwards we all headed back to class to say our goodbyes. It was quite sad. Many parents hung around not wanting it to end. Daniel came close to tears as he hugged his wonderful teacher of two years goodbye. But hopefully Sammy will have Ms. Foust next year for Kindergarten.

So now we are free. Free to do whatever we want whenever we want. No rushing to get ready in the morning. No where to rush off to. We can stay in our pjs all day if we want to. Oh sweet summertime. How I do love you.

And so things end, and so things begin...

Today was the end of Daniel's first year of Cub Scouts. He has completed his Tiger Cub existence, and is now officially a Wolf Cub. The Pack had a advancement ceremony at Mission Trails Park today, where each of the dens advanced on to the higher level, tiger to wolf, wolf to bear, bear to Webelos, and Webelos to Boy Scout.

I have had the honor of being the Den leader for Daniel's Tiger Den this year and it has been surprisingly fun. Tiring, but fun. It is a good bunch of families, and a good bunch of kids, so that makes things much easier.

To spice things up for the boys today I decided to give them wolf names (thank you Google!). I found a bunch, but not all so appropriate for youthful consumption. Daniel's wolf name is Sandalius, which is Latin for True Wolf. Suzy made some very nice picture frames for each boy with their new wolf names, and I said a few words about the boys and why I gave them the names I did.

This summer we are making things much more relaxing, maybe a trip to a fire station, a hike or two, a movie night. Stuff to lull those boys into thinking that Cub Scouts is all about fun. At least until next year, when we get down to all of our wolf business. Watch out world. The Wolves are coming!


The intrepid leader saying a few words, and the boys waiting impatiently.

Daniel during his metamorphosis from Tiger to Wolf.


A proud Mama and Sammy welcome their new wolf cub to the family.


Don't be too proud of the new outfit, Sandalius, you have a lot of hard work ahead of you...


Radulf, Ulric, Sandalius, White Fang and Bertulf, The Wolves!

Zoo Day

Daniel's class took a field trip to the World Famous San Diego Zoo today. I got to tag along. Taking a bunch of 1st graders and kindergartners on an outing (and especially somewhere crowded) is always a little bit exhausting and stressful. But the kids always have a blast so I guess it is all worth it. We walked for about 2 hours straight and I am tired. We did get to see the new Elephant Odyssey Exhibit (although not all of it and pretty rushed), but it was very cool. I will have to go back when we have more time to spend exploring and have about 3 kids less. Elephants and jaguars and peacocks, oh my!

Tired

I think Dan fell asleep before the boys tonight and that is pretty early since we put them to bed around 7:30 pm. Poor guy. Work has been busy, the boys have been up early, school has been busy and life in general has been busy. Come to think of it I've been pretty exhausted myself. If I lay down, doesn't really matter the time of day, I can be out in less than 10 minutes. Maybe I should hit the sack too. He does look most snugly. Good night.

Payback

I love music. I love to listen to it. I love to sing it. And when I really like a particular song I like to play it over and over and over again. Growing up I used to torture my parents and sister listening to songs like 'Particle Man', 'Cats in the Cradle' and 'Volcano' repeatedly. I guess I haven't really grown out of it since Dan refuses to listen to the soundtrack of 'Evita' anymore because I played it so much a while back.

So this morning on the way to church I was picking out some music to listen to and Daniel and Sammy piped up wanting to listen to 'The Mysterious Fox of Foxhollow' (Sammy) and 'Sneaky Snake' (Daniel). These are two songs from an album my sister and I loved growing up. Actually I still love it. But the past week the boys have been wanting the hear these two particular songs again and again and again.

'I want to listen to something else because we have been listening to those songs over and over again and I'm getting tired of it," I said a little peevishly.

And then Dan chuckled and mumbled 'payback'.

Up

A group of my mom friends and I took our kids (11 of them, they practically took up an entire row) to see the new Pixar movie 'Up'. I had heard it was good and it was. The boys also seemed to really enjoy it. Daniel especially since he was recounting all the funny scenes afterwards. There are many, just ask Daniel. But beware, there were also some quite sad scenes too. I was crying pretty good at one point, but then again I am a crier. So go see 'Up' and bring a kid or two.

Endings

Today was my last day working in Daniel's classroom this school year. This morning at breakfast Daniel said, "I'm so excited it is almost summer! But I am also sad that school will be over. I really like school." I have to agree with Daniel. I am so anxious for summer to come already and yet I will miss school. Daniel has had such a great year. A great teacher and an amazing group of classmates. How can next year even come close to topping this one? And yet you have to let go and move on. You cannot stop change. Oh well, I can't say I didn't have fun. It was quite a ride. So I will savor these last two busy and fun weeks of school.

Boys will be boys

Sammy had a meltdown today and I have to say I got a strange pleasure out of it. Let me explain...

I love having boys. I really do. BUT... I could do without the whole bathroom peeing on the toilet, floors or anything within a 3 foot radius. I mean GROSS! That is just so, so wrong. But that is boys. And I've kinda come to accept it.

Well, tonight I noticed clumps of toilet paper that had been thrown behind the boy's toilet. I was pretty sure I knew the culprit, so I asked Daniel first. I was right, it was little rascal boy #2.

"Okay Sammy, since you threw it back there you get to clean it up."

Oh, Sammy did not like that one bit. And I don't blame him. I would probably throw a fit too if someone made me pick up pee encrusted toilet paper. He was writhing on the floor in tears.

"I can't do it! I can't do it!" he wailed. It was so hard not to laugh, but I kept it together.

"You can and you will."

And he did. And then rushed to the sink and scrubbed his hands with soap and water. I don't think he will be throwing anything behind the toilet anymore. Do you think?