I'm Back, for now.

I know, it's been far to long and if anyone is still interested in what I might have to say, thanks for hanging in there. Life is an interesting if not tough journey. There are days when I feel like I'm going to fly apart from all the chaos that stomps through, and then there are times of peace and tranquility. It isn't exactly tranquil right at this moment, but it is quite. The twins are at school, after a two hour delay, and Nate, after fighting it for an hour and a half, is finally sleeping. It figures that on a day I'm really committed to writing, he picks that day to fight a nap, and if anybody knows, that is rare. He usually goes right down. But, none-the-less I got a page written for a story that the Writer's Club is working on. After that, I opened up Chapter 22 to write on it and all the wind went out of my sail. I do have written "Chapter 22: A Time To..." At least that's a start.
Christmas was good to us this year. Rick was able to take a week off from work and we spent most of that week with his family. Yes, I'm truly into studying the Chaos Theory. What better way than to spend time with ones family. We had an early Christmas with my side of the family, so Christmas day seemed strange. I'm use to spending Christmas Eve with my family and that's more chaos than anyone should study, so in actuality, Rick's family isn't that chaotic.
Our New Year's Eve was rather quite and uneventful. Nate went to bed at his usual time and the Twins were allowed to stay up to watch the ball drop. Lisa had an added bonus because the Jonas Bothers played three songs and she got to watch a mini concert and tell me how she'd like to go to see them for real. I guess, someday, I'll totally loose my sanity, and then I'll take her.
I am only a few days away from mid-life, if you assume that old age starts when you're 70. My birthday is coming up. Let me know you're thinking of me and wish me happy birthday next time you see me. FYI: it's this Sunday.

Walking

Hey All,
I guess you might have been wondering what happened to me. Well, in the past month, we've had one child learning how to walk. He's getting pretty good at it. Now everything must be placed higher. "Search and Destroy" is his motto. Well, it might be "Search and explore", but they sound an awful lot alike. Of course, I'm talking about Nate. ON the day he took his first steps, he took two an then fell down. I was so excited; I got the camera and called Rick in to see. This is what we got for the next 15 minutes.



Yep, you guessed it. He stood up and fell down. He thought we'd been praising him for his gracious fall. For the next several days I followed him around with the camera trying to get a shot of some steps. Whenever I got the camera out he'd start the falling routine again. Finally, on a day when a friend of ours, Stacy, was over, I got the coveted steps on film.

Speaking of walking. While we were trying to get one son to walk, we were doing our best to keep the other one seated. That is very hard to do since they made it against the law to tie your kids up. Ben thought that when the doctor said he was allowed to put pressure on his leg, that meant he was allowed to run. Just trying to get him to use his walker was a chore, let alone keep him from wrestling around and playing on it. We have Wii fit and he thinks he should be allowed to use it now. (Groan)

He got the bar and pins off on Sept. 19. He was out of school that day. I thought that it would be a whole day affair. Rick took him to the hospital at 6:30AM. (Note the time. That's why Rick took him.) They were back by 9:15AM. Ben was alert for the rest of the day with barely any complaint of pain.

Now, he can walk on it without his walker, but we make him use it in attempts to slow him down. He's allowed to walk on it. (No running, NO jumping, NO climbing, and NO wrestling) I can only image what he tries to do at school. I had a personal word with his teacher, but like us, she can only do so much. The rest we must leave in God's capable hands and pray that there is no re-breakage.

The doctor didn't say anything about Dancing.

To Be or not To Be...

I was thinking just now that some of my random thoughts probably are best left alone and not for public viewing. That may be why I have no consistent time when I actually blog. But here is a thought that I would like to share. I attended my writer's club last night and we had had an exercise where we wrote a page anonymously. We all tried to figure out who wrote what. It was a lot of fun and we had a great laugh. We tease each other because, the truth be told, we all have our own unique style of writing. I'm always teased because people don't usually end up mutilated or dead when I write. (Once I actually pricked someones neck with a knife and they bled a little.) Whereas, another writer is teased because they do. Go figure. I'm the Care Bear hugging, "let's have a happy ending" writer. I am capable of writing something totally against my style. (At least, I think I am.) Someone told me that I'll never win an award if I always have a happy ending. But, would I want an award for something that isn't me? Should I go against my grain and totally try and see if I can produce a product of work that completely and utterly screams, "This is not me!"??? What a mess that could make. Should I continue to write predictability or shake things up a bit?

PS: Fellow Writer's Clubbers - I don't mind being teased.

Hijacked

Yep... I have taken over a post on my wife's blog because I have finished a minor miracle - my workbench in my garage. I'm quite happy with it and wanted to share it with the good people of Becky's blogosphere. I started it in late May or early June and was making steady progress until Ben's accident... then it slowed down quite a bit. I built it all completely by myself (not necessarily by choice but I kinda liked it), took my sweet time because there was no deadline, and thoroughly enjoyed the process. Honestly, if I could get paid what I make at work to do this stuff... I probably would do it. Here's the mostly finished product (still needs stain and clear coat, but construction is done except for some pegboard on the wall - drawers will come later):

It turned out quite well with everything level and lined up... not bad for a greenhorn's first major project. I'm hoping that several more projects will happen now that it is finished, but I need to start stockpiling tools so I have what I need when I need it, with the first major tool being a table saw (probably a portable due to space limitations) because they are extremely handy.

Well, that's all for now, just thought I'd share my satisfacation and excitement. We now return this broadcast to it's regularly scheduled thoughts from Becky.

Foolishness

"It is better to let people think you are a fool, than to open your mouth and prove it."

I'm not sure who said this first, but it was running through my mind today. I have found that I'm far better at expressing myself when I write than in a conversation. When writing, if I make a mistake, I can always backspace. If I really mess up, I can highlight the whole sentence or paragraph and hit delete (or backspace.) And then, if I've finished the document and decide, "That's not what I wanted to say!" I don't even have to save it. I can just close it and it's gone for good with no one the wiser.


You will not believe how many times I backspaced and deleted while writing this.

Motto

One of my favorite quotes used to be "Just because you are paranoid, doesn't mean they're not really out to get you."

Well, now I think I've found a new one: "When everybody actually is out to get you, paranoia is just good thinking." by Woody Allen.

Yeah, it sounds like a good motto.

A little bit about me

Let me tell you a little bit about myself, if you don't already know. I'm a mom and my favorite color is green. Green calms me. I love green. I say this because though I love being a mom, it does not calm me. Just ask the most patient husband in the world (that would be mine if you were wondering).

I have twins who will be eight in two days and a one year old. Yes, there is quite the difference in age, but, No, he was not an accident. He was a gift and a very precious gift, thus the name Nathaniel (meaning: Gift from God).

I have two cats (I like dogs, but I'm definitely a cat person): Sam and Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown is an ornery kitten and makes Sam grumpy. Sam is not a kitten and at times barely tolerates the young one. They are quite amusing. Their stories may be told on another day as well.