What's With All The Rock?

We were recently blessed to receive a bunch of free rock. Good sized rock. Something I have wanted for a long time but was unable to afford. Me and the Wife have always collected rocks going back to the days of our courting in high school and it seems both our boys have the bug too. The Youngest calls the pretty ones treasure. Over the past few weeks we've had the opportunity to collect a whole lot more. The wash area was the first project. Here is another. Our new little seating arrangement under the pine. The small flagstone peices up front we use as yard coasters. They work great for keeping a cup of milk from spilling. So what's up with all the rock? (there's even more. Much more. Bwah ha ha ha.) Thanks to a neighbor of ours, it was recycled from a construction site that will soon be paved for a new parking lot. In addition to all of the rock, we rescued lots of day lilies, several rose bushes, some kind of succulent and four o'clocks; saving a little bit of paradise from the new parking lot. So, I've got a lot more dirt and a lot more rock to move around. Better get busy.

Baby Jacob

Dear friends of ours have just heard bad news regarding their baby in the womb, Jacob. The two have been through so much to have a child, then to get pregnant by surprise... Their prayers were finally answered. Then, at their twenty week ultrasound, they found Baby Jacob has very grave problems and the prognosis is not good. It just doesn't seem fair in the least- why two such wonderful people must suffer so. Our hearts and thoughts go out to them. Please keep them in your prayers.

Garden of Cal: Wash Area

Check out my latest project over at Garden of Cal. While you are there check out the what's this bug link over on the left. Garden of Cal: Wash Area

Blog interests

So, hubby thought I should link to other blog posts I find interesting. Got me thinking... I hesitate to show my friends the blogs I frequent (other than my friend's)- they're an eclectic group: two gay men, one a post-military religious conservative who finds very intriguing items; the other is, well, gay. He recently moved to Costa Rica and is having some hilarious trials and tribulations with resident bugs. Then I connected with two stay-at-home moms who were, at first, rather funny, but have since turned bitter to my chagrin. And lastly, there is the male stay-at-home non-teaching teacher who spends his free time learning to learn..... In case you're curious, here they are: average gay joe Incognito eye que Grin and Bare It The Sarcastic Journalist While Charlie Sleeps Now, keep in mind that these are just blogs I stumbled upon. I don't necessarily agree with or even appreciate everything in them. But, they do come up with some good posts and so, I check them out occasionally. Usually, when I'm in the mood for some blogreading, I just hit "next blog". It amazes me the things you come across doing that!

The Owies Have Found US

As my friend, PlanetJules said, "the Sickies have found" her, so the Owies have found us. In the last two days, we've had as many owies as we've ever had. For having two little ones around, we've been extremely lucky. Actually, I think it has more to do with the fact that HL is incredibly cautious than luck- but I digress. Two days ago we went to gather some stones for our landscape. I thought enough about it to put socks and tennis shoes on myself, but never dreamed that my children would be lifting heavy rocks themselves. I soon learned that it's best to always err on the side of caution- HL lifted a heavy, jagged rock and proceeded to drop it on his big toe. OW. Capital O, capital W. He's fine now. Maybe even a little excited that his toenail might fall off and he'll get a "grown-up toenail" in its place. Then today, AW was excited to see his cousins and took off running down the sidewalk. All of a sudden he was on his face, on the concrete. Again, OW. But again, he is fine. Owie? What owie? He's forgetten all about it. Had a terrible time getting a shot of HL's toe. This is a self portrait by HL of not only his toe, but also his Spiderman boxers.

Happy Father's Day To Me

Arggggg! This picture was staged in no way. Only after we saw it did we notice the pirate bag, my swashbuckling facial expressions, earrings and bandana. Pretty funny, eh? The pirate bag was filled with gifts and a card decorated by our eldest, but there was supposed to be something else. A special gift that he had picked out all by himself while shopping my wife. Mom had looked down and he had had the special gift in hand. She asked him what it was and he said a special gift for his dad. She had no idea where he had found it, he had picked it up somewhere along the way to give to me. She agreed that it was appropriate so they brought it home with them. Well, it did not make it in the bag and he noticed right away. He dashed inside to get it and came back out exclaiming "We got a special gift for you dad!" He ran up to me and handed me my special gift, a trophy that says "World's Greatest Dad 2006". I couldn't help but give him a great big hug. He was absolutely sincere, to him I was the greatest dad in the World. I know every dad has one, my dad did, My grandfather even had a World's best grandpa statue proudly displayed near his microwave. Now I understand why that statue was around for years, when he ran up to me and gave me my Special Gift it was magical. I'll cherish that trophy more than any other trophy I have ever received. Look out 'cause, I'm gunnen for World's Greatest Dad 2007! Here are a few more pics.

Idiosyncrasy

I have a little secret. When I'm lying in bed, tired, but I can't sleep, I have a strange little idiosyncratic behavior. I "tickle" my arms by lightly running my fingernails up and down them. Strange, huh? No idea where I came up with it, been doing it since I can remember. But here's the strangest part..... .....HL does it too! I'm fairly certain he's never seen me do it- I only do it when I'm falling asleep in my own bed. Apparently it's a congenital idiosyncrasy. I expect my children to learn from my actions, but I was shocked by this.

Succinct

Had a couple instances recently that made me stop and think. Twice in one day, I tried explaining my feelings to my family without much success. Both times, a family member was able to say "oh, you mean....?" and turn my clumsy attempt at explanation into a short and sweet statement. A statement that completely summed up what I was saying. One- I was trying, ineffectually, to describe why the BodyWorld exhibit was so disturbing to me. As I walked through it, I kept thinking "what if Hubby had donated his body? I could be looking at my true love in a museum." And I wanted to know how these otherwise healthy people died. And why a pregnant woman would donate her body and not allow the baby a chance to live. I rambled on and on 'til my sister-in-law said "You mean, you saw the people, not the bodies." Yep. That's just what I said. Later, I was talking about someone we had all seen that day and was asking if I was like her. "Like how?" They asked. "Well, she's just so mean, snappy, and critical, etc." "Oh, you mean the angry one?" Hubby asks. Yeah. That's what I said, only not so succinctly. The angry one. That's something I'd like to work on. I think I'll do that.

Communication

So, we told you a while ago how AW does not talk as well as his big brother could at his age, but we neglected to demonstrate just how well AW communicates even without the extensive vocabulary (which, by the way, grows by leaps and bounds every day). For instance, the other day, AW came in to my room and said "Manta.......coming......" or at least that's what I thought he said. I repeated it back to him. His little head shook, then stopped. He was thinking- hard. Pretty soon he said it again "Manta......coming.....wah, wah (he wrinkled his face as though crying)". Aha! He didn't say "coming", he said "crying"! He was telling me that the baby girl we watch was crying. She was in the other room with Hubby who had walked past her without lifting her. Tragedy. She was crying and AW wanted me to know. This is not an isoltaed incident at all. He is well versed in the world of hints and charades and gets his point across one way or another 90% of the time. He doesn't let a silly thing like not being able to talk get in his way. I'm darn proud.

So a couple more reasons that my little boy is two. We used to keep large water bottles around for the kids to get water to drink. You know, the kind with the straw you get from your local pizza joint. anyway, we would fill one up and let the kids get drinks all day. Not anymore, the little devil now finds any water and immediately dumps it on the floor. We used to allow him to play with boxes of mac n cheese too, they shake and make a great sound. Not anymore... Today he managed to open a box, you know, the kind you can never open yourself, and dump it into this electronic fishbowl toy. He then opened the cheese packet and dumped it in. Not quite finished he found the water bottle from last night and added to the whole mix. What a mess. Here we come terrible twos. Thanks Concetta for the kick in the pants! UPDATE: So, that mac n cheese stored in a pantry that our little one can't open... Not anymore. Latter in the day he opened up the pantry, got out another box of mac n cheese, opened it up and dumped it all out too. Looks like we're in for trouble, eh?

Superheroes

Yesterday HL was playing superheroes and made up names for all of us: AW was Orange Fruit Guy, me? Green Girl, Hubby was Purple Flower Guy and HL named himself Captain Lemon. He talked about all the goos things he was doing as Captain Lemon by using his special power. The name of that special power? "Sour Power"

Boy I sure hate IE. Just noticed a past post screwed up the formating in IE shifting the middle column down below the other two. Sorry to those of you still using IE. This is a great opportunity to ask what are you waiting for? By the way, if you are still using outlook express you might try Thunderbird:

I Guess He's Really Two

When I watch my kids grow up, I don't notice the daily changes, I wake up one day and they look older. He sure looks older to me. You take note of the milestones like recently when he came to me with his empty bowl and said "here. dad.", handed me the bowl and said "more fish". (That's big stuff for us, he put four words together!) Yesterday, he told me "yes". That's a word I've not heard yet, usually when you ask a question he nods his head, smiles and giggles. But the little things you don't catch like the fact that his words have become clearer and more intelligible or the fact it's no longer his "wee wee", now he asks for his "blankie". Well, anyway you wake up one day and he looks older. Usually the conversation goes something like this: "Boy, He sure looks older today." "Yes. Did you notice ...?" "Yeah... and the other day he..." My immediate reaction is pride and joy at the accomplishments of my boys, on the days they look older though, it's sad. It means they've moved onto another stage of life and the child I new a month ago is gone. Thank The Lord for pictures huh? It's not all bad, as they get older I get to see stuff like this. "They've both got Spider Man pj's on," he says with a grin.

More Camping Pictures

Got a few more camping pictures over the weekend from my bro. I've added them to the flickr set, but I'd like to share with you here too, 'cause I think you need to understand just how big our fire pit is. Now that's a fire pit! Those are cow bones in the foreground. Here is a great big dead tree. When the wild fires come it's going to go up like a roman candle. I hope I have a chainsaw before then, I'd sure hate to miss it burn. One last photo for you. Years ago we named this mountain Teata Peak. Hmmm I wonder why?

Turning Two

Talk about being upset about getting older! As soon as we started singing he burst into tears. Poor guy. The cake was made by his cousin who has a knack for making and decorating them. It was delicious. Dressed up like a knight! Charge! When we went shopping for presents his older brother pointed out that he would not have anyone to battle with, so he suggested he could get a knight set so they could play "kingdom" together. We acquiesced and wrapped up an early present for "Bobo" too. Fillin' the pool. It was a hot day, just right for a dip in the pool. The Cousins. It sure was a lot of fun! There are a bunch more photos posted over at our Flickr Site. Check 'em out here.

Down

I'm feeling the need to spill my guts a bit. I've been having a rough time for the last six weeks or so. You see, I was on an antidepressant called Effexor for about a year and decided that I didn't need something so strong anymore. The Dr gave me directions on how to wean off the drug: halve the dose for four weeks, halve it again for four weeks, then take it every other day for a final four weeks. He warned me that getting off Effexor is tough and that I might experience actual physical withdrawal symptoms. Yeah, that was an understatement. For the first two or three days after lowering the dose each time, I am physically tormented and feel like complete and utter hell. Then my body slowly adjusts and I begin to feel better. I figured the worst of the issue was over. But then I started having problems with my memory, energy, tolerance, stress and a number of other things. It was even affecting my job. What was going on? Hubby did a little research for me and discovered that there is a class action suit pending against the makers of Effexor due to the problems people have when weaning from it's use. There are countless boards discussing the symptoms and issues. Many people have ended up in psych wards, some are addicted for life and can never stop. This is big stuff. The makers definitely need to warn the public. To add to the problem, we that need to be on antidepressants not only have to deal with the effects of weaning, but we have to go without a mood-sustaining dose/drug for at least three months. Then we have to wait for the new drug to take effect- usually three to six weeks. For people like me, life is rough enough without meds, let alone additional negative side effects! So here I am, feeling very short-tempered, irritable to the max, too little energy to laugh, paranoid, fatigued, angry, insecure and sad. I can't stop thinking about how my actions are affecting those around me. And feeling terrible about it. I know that I'm continually saying things I don't mean, or I say them in the wrong way, leaving people offended and irritated with me. I worry that I'm damaging relationships. It sucks. Why can't I just be normal and not need happy pills?!?

huh

Here I am writing a post and I really have no idea what I should or could write about. I'm just sitting here getting frustrated with my printer which is not cooperating, preventing me from getting my project finished. I'm ready to just call it quits and go to bed. But then I look around me and see a mass of toys strewn about my house. Problem is, with AW's second birthday two days ago, we don't have any room for all his new toys yet. And the fact that I need to do laundry pops in my head. Huh. I don't even have the energy to think about it, much less do anything. Perhaps I should forget about laundry and just put the new toys in the empty clothes drawers.... There, problem solved.

??????

Anyone hearing about the protests in Iran? Following it? Here is some info, check out the other links at the end of the post. What I would really like to know is why not?

Whew!

I had noticed a bite the other day on my youngest son's leg, by that night it had swelled quite a bit and had a hard lump underneath so we watched it closely... The next morning we woke to this: The skin had ruptured and the wound had begun to weep. The area was quite red and his leg was very tender, though he handled it like the trooper he is. Pretty nasty looking bite eh? After looking at it and doing some research on the internet, I decided it had the potential to be a brown recluse bite. Other insects and spiders can cause similar bites, but being that he was two and I am a paranoid father we called the Doc. After our description of the bite he recommended that we come in and see him. The diagnosis was a bite of some kind, though most likely not a brown recluse as it did not have any blackness around the open wound. Boy was I relieved. We were given some topical anti-bacterial cream to apply daily and it looks better already.