Dear Becca & Grant,
                  Well, I went to my appointment this morning. They called it boot camp. I was given a Gastric Bypass patient handbook with tons of great information and I had to fill out a quiz for the surgeon to demonstrate how well I understood the procedure. I only missed one and I think I missed that one because I probably didn't read the question as closely as I should have. I was weighed with a scale that runs a current of electricity through you to measure not only your weight but your body fat percentage. I'm not even revealing what my body fat percentage was. Let's just say it was kinda high. I saw a well reviewed scale from Omron like it on Amazon.com and I am going to purchase it along with a quality Omron pedometer when I have the available funds. I met with the surgeon and he seemed pretty nice. I read some reviews on him on the internet and it seemed like his mom wrote all of them. The reviews were so wonderful it almost made me kind of suspicious but I'm sure if I have a great surgery with no complications that I will be singing his praises as well. I then got preregistered for the hospital in a little over two weeks. They then told me that the education portion of the day would be in two hours so I called up Mamaw and asked about how Grant & Becca were doing. They were doing fine. I chatted with her for a minute and then I called Auntie Lynn and chatted with her for the better part of an hour. By that time I still had an hour to go before the gastric bypass class. I went out to the car and I got a small dip, even though the hospital grounds are a tobacco free area and read my handbook. I came back in when it was almost time for the class, used the restroom, got a drink of water from a water fountain and went upstairs. The class seemed to last forever and was extremely boring. I did pick up some tidbits of important knowledge that I didn't know before so it was well worth it. I don't reckon I go back over there until the 30th for surgery. I have to go on a liquid diet or maybe a clear liquid diet two days or so before surgery. I'll have to look that up and let me tell y'all, I ain't looking forward to a liquid diet. I'll have to be on a liquid diet for about a week after my surgery but me stomach won't be nearly as demanding as it is now so I think I'll be able to handle it.
      After the doctor I had to go to the unemployment office to check in on my unemployment check for Christmas week and New Year's week. I got there a little after two and wasn't seen until four O'clock that evening. I was glad that I had my gastric bypass handbook with me to read and study. It was kind of difficult reading though because people around me kept on talking so much and all of these people are unemployed so the conversations were all kind of depressing. I may be missing a check but at least I have a decent paying job with insurance that will allow me to get my surgery. I was finally called back and was told that even though I had sent my filing letter in this past Thursday the lady handling my case couldn't do anything about it until tomorrow. I told the lady who I met with that I couldn't ask it to be done any sooner than tomorrow so I left out of there with cautious optimism. I really don't want to ever go back down there. I would have rather went and got my kids from Mamaw & Papaw's and played with them before I had to take them to their Mom.
      I was supposed to have them there by six but I called their Mom and explained my situation to her and she was very understanding. We have been working together very well in regards to the kids. I'm actually pretty proud of us both. I think we will be splitting a few weekends up to work around my surgery. My surgery weekend was supposed to be my weekend but I won't really feel up to having them then so Kristie will be keeping them that weekend. We'll split the weekend before and maybe the weekend after because Kristie doesn't want to trade weekends for good and to tell you the truth neither do I. I like getting them the weekend that I get paid. I will have the kids a few days leading up to my surgery and I suppose I'll take them back to Kristie the Thursday night before surgery or something, I don't know how that will work out. Mamaw or Papaw are going to run and get the kids so I can see them while I am in the hospital. Sherri's apartment where Kristie is staying is actually probably a mile or so from where I'm going to be getting my insides rearranged so that's handy.
      I watched a historically significant Kentucky Wildcat basketball game last night. I didn't watch it live because when I watch it live or even know the score during the game they will lose every time so in doing my part for the team I TiVo the games and watch them later. Jodie Meeks scored 54 points against the Tennessee Volunteers in Tennessee to break Dan Issel's scoring record that he set in 1970 when I was three years old. I haven't mentioned much about my beloved Wildcats the past few years because, frankly they've been rather mediocre and mediocre just isn't any fun when it comes to Kentucky basketball. Maybe this game will turn the tide and we'll get back to being the national powerhouse we rightfully should be. Meeks also set the three point record with ten. It was a fun game to watch.
      Well, I have two more days left to work this week and I am very tired so I will close this out and go to bed. I get the kids back Saturday morning. Usually it's Thursday night but I had them one extra night this week because Kristie couldn't find a way to get Becca to school so in the interest of fairness I agreed to let her have them for one and a half days of my weekend. See, we're both being very civil about this whole unfortunate mess. Anyway, I think I may be going out to either Golden Corral or Cracker Barrel for one last good carb loaded breakfast before surgery. I'm supposed to be eating only 30 carbs a day now and most days I stick to that but others I don't and I want one more big meal and I reckon it'll be breakfast. I have lost 15 pounds since my initial appointment a few days before Christmas so I am going in the right direction. I've had some stress over my unemployment and ate some stuff I shouldn't have so I now know that I am a stress triggered eater. I never paid much attention to it before but I guess that's what I am. My primary way of dealing with stress is retail therapy which means that spending money makes me feel good but if the stress is coming from the fact that I don't have any money I reckon I use food to deal with it. I have a whole bunch of stuff to work on this year. I might even see a therapist or something to help me learn new ways to deal with stress and new ways to deal with social situations which I loath. I am not a people person and I really wish that I were. Oh well, we'll see. I've been rambling and now I will close this post for real. Daddy loves Rebecca & Grant!

Dear Becca & Grant,
                  Big news! I have my surgery date. I go in to have my insides rearranged January 30th. That's a little over two weeks away. I can't wait for the pounds to start rolling off. This would be maybe the third or fourth best time of my life if it wasn't for the fact that I have no money because there's been problems with my unemployment for the time I was off during Christmas & New Years. I have an appointment to meet with my surgeon, Dr. Steiner tomorrow and I have to do lots of other stuff but I couldn't hear what was said on the phone so I won't know what all I have to do until tomorrow. After I get done there I have to go to the unemployment office and try to get all of this crap taken care of.
      I would love to go on and on about the surgery but with the problems with my unemployment I just don't feel like it. Daddy loves Rebecca & Grant!

Dear Becca & Grant,
                     My big surprise can now be revealed. I had a phone call this afternoon confirming that insurance has approved my gastric bypass surgery. That's right, I am actually going to have gastric bypass surgery. I weighed 276.7 lbs. when I had my first appointment, which is actually way down from my highest of 303 lbs. and Wednesday when I went for a nutritional meeting I weighed 269.6 pounds. The exercise physiologist quoted my goal weight at 185 pounds but I would love to get down to 175 because I was probably that size when I was in middle school, Jacob's age.
      Let me tell you all about my journey to get to this point in the process. Years ago I first mentioned in this blog something about a big surprise or secret that I had for all of us. It must have been two and a half years since I first mentioned it. I can't seem to find the original post in the blog but there's years worth of posts to search through so it's not too surprising. Anyway I went to the seminar years ago and was excited about the prospect of getting the surgery but I had to have six months of a regular diet administered by a physician before insurance would cover the surgery so I did that and by that time I was out of available time off at work. Your Mom signed up for the surgery and even had her initial appointment but she learned that she was pregnant. We lost that pregnancy but it seemed like she became pregnant with my favorite boy, Grant very soon after that. So her being pregnant knocked her out of having the surgery for a good long while.
      The end of 2007 came around and I attended the seminar again and submitted my insurance to St. Jospeh East Bariatric Center. They called a few days later and said that my insurance did not cover gastric bypass surgery under any circumstance. I called the insurance company myself and asked them about it and they told me the same thing. Kristie was afraid to tell me because she knew I would be upset because this is something I had really been wanting. I was incredibly disappointed but I simply resolved to wait and try again the next year. It appeared I handled it pretty well but I was torn up on the inside. If I had been the crying type I would have balled my eyes out. I had really wanted that surgery. What didn't make any sense was the fact that they did cover it when Kristie signed up for it. I believe both the bariatric center and I both got hold of someone who didn't know what they were talking about or maybe the policy did change.
      In 2008 General Electric changed insurance companies so I thought I'd give it one last shot. I was busy with a preschooler and an infant at the beginning of the year so I didn't have time to look into the possibilities early in 2008 so I waited until the end of the year. I called the insurance even before I scheduled the seminar. They informed me that gastric bypass was indeed covered. I was encouraged by that but I didn't get my hopes up too much because things seem to happen to me that kind of thwart my hopes and desires. I'm not being overly pessimistic I'm just stating the facts. Anyway, I scheduled the seminar late in November and once again submitted my insurance card. I got a call a few weeks later to schedule my initial appointment. I was now as close as Kristie had gotten.
      My appointment was scheduled for the 18th of December. I started filling out a psychological questionnaire with 430 questions. Some of the questions were laughable such as does my spirit ever leave my body and do I ever think that the entire world is plotting against me. A good portion of the questionnaire had to do with alcohol dependency though and seeing as how my spirit always seems to actually stay in my body and I am not a drinker to any degree that I would even bother mentioning I thought I would be okay. I met with the exercise physiologist who was filling in for the nutritionist who was on maternity leave and along with three others we learned all about the pre-op diet and a little about eating after surgery. I was weighed, my height was taken, they measured around my waist and chest and then they took a picture of me. I then went into an examination room to wait on one of the internists on staff there. My blood pressure was taken like they always do when you go to the doctor and I was asked a series of medical related questions. I was asked if I smoked and I told them I did not smoke but I did use smokeless tobacco and she recorded that on my chart. I had been worried about that because they will under no circumstances perform the surgery on someone who smokes. I asked one of the surgeons about my dipping habit and was told that they would do the surgery but wouldn't wanting me dipping for some time after surgery. I was so relieved but I did know that they would find massive amounts of nicotine in my blood because of the dip and I wanted them to know it wasn't from cigarettes. That's why I told them I used smokeless tobacco. I finished my questionnaire as I waited on the doctor. He finally came in and I rather liked him. I wish I could remember his name because I think I would like to go to him as my regular physician if he sees people as a primary care physician. He did the things that doctors do and I was done. I made another appointment for tests to be run for the twenty-second of December.
      The twenty-second rolled around and my appointment was for eleven O'clock in the morning and I had to have someone drive me there. Papaw took me and then he took off. I sat in the waiting room for a good hour and a half. I was afraid they had forgotten about me but I was eventually called back. It was time for my psychological evaluation. It really wasn't what I was expecting at all. Maybe I've seen too much television dealing with such things. He simply asked me a few questions; questions I had already answered on the questionnaire and then he said that from his end I was approved. I had to go elsewhere to get blood drawn and then I had to go to yet another part of the building for two more tests. I had to call Papaw because someone had to be there when I started the second test. The first one they did was an EEG or an EKG, I never can remember which one is which. They had me sign papers stating I would not drive an automobile or sign any legal documents the rest of the day. They really emphasized how I would be rather loopy after the next test. Papaw showed up and about a half an hour later they came to get me for my endoscopy. They were going to put me asleep and take a look inside my stomach with a camera. They had me gargle some of the most awful tasting stuff I had ever put in my mouth and then the sadistic monster made me do it again. Then he took a pair of long forceps with a saturated cotton swab and rubbed something on the very back of my mouth until I gagged. I remember the nurse then saying that the drug she was preparing to place in my IV would put me to sleep. The next thing I remember was sitting up talking to Papaw and thinking that they really over emphasized the effect of the drugs because I felt great. I was lucid and sober. Once again my memory left me. Next I remember walking to Papaw's car which was parked along the street and I was commenting on the lousy parking situation they have there and then I blacked out again. My memory finally came back for good when we were sitting in Taco Bell and I was eating tacos. I was famished because it was now four O'clock in the afternoon and I hadn't eaten anything since the night before. I guess they didn't want to find any half digested pancakes in my stomach when they did the endoscopy. Anyway, it appears that the drugs they gave me did actually pack the wallop they said it did. The doctor told Papaw that they only had to give me half of what they normally give patients. I was awful sleepy and tired that day. I was so excited about the tests that I didn't sleep all that well.
      I next had to schedule a stress test through my primary care physician. It was scheduled for this past Monday, the ninth. I was supposed to go back to work that day but my appointment was for 8:30 so I called in the first day back to work, again. I showed up and was directed to where I needed to be. I signed in and paid my co-pay and waited for about a half and hour and then was taken back. They put and IV in my hand and pumped me full of a dye. They then showed me to a waiting room with a television. They had to wait for the dye to circulate through my system. I got into some shows on the History Channel dealing with the apocalypse mentioned in Revelation and then I dozed off. I was tired that day as well because I was so excited the night before and didn't sleep well. They woke me up and took pictures of my chest. It looked like an x-ray machine but they didn't hide behind a wall and they didn't cover my privates with a lead blanket so it couldn't have been an x-ray machine. I don't know what that thing was called. I went back to the waiting room and shortly someone else came for me. They took me in a room with a treadmill and a big medical looking measuring machine. A nurse shaved my chest in a few places and placed electrodes all over me. I was hooked up to the big medical looking machine and the treadmill started up. I walked for nine minutes and my heart rate got up to 160 and while it was there something else was shot into me via the IV. I walked on the treadmill for a little while longer and then I sat down. The nurse took my blood pressure a few times while my heart rate decreased. Eventually they took me back to the waiting room and after a very few minutes the picture taking guy came and got me again. They took another round of pictures of my chest and then said I was free to leave.
      Tuesday the insurance coordinator at the St. Joseph East Center for Weight Loss Surgery called while I was at work. I returned her call immediately. She wanted to know if I had had a chance to get the stress test done. I told her that I had just had it done the day before. She said she would wait on the results to be faxed to her and then call me back or if it hadn't been faxed in a week she would call me back and I would go down to the cardiologist's office and remind them. I fully expected to have to go remind them to fax the results over. Maybe I am pessimistic, but if I am it's not without reason.
      Wednesday I had to rush across town after work to a nutrition class at St. Joseph East. I was ten minutes late and everyone looked at me when I walked in but I was one of the skinniest people in there so strangely enough it didn't bother me so much. She talked about what I would be eating directly after surgery, ice chips; 2 to 3 days while I am in the hospital, clear liquids; 1 to 3 weeks after surgery, pureed protein and protein shakes; 3 to 4 weeks after surgery, two to three ounces of solid protein and protein drinks and on from there. She also emphasized the water rules which are no drinking with meals or an hour after. No more gulping water which will be my biggest obstacle to cross because I love nothing better than to turn up a cool bottle of water and kill the thing. I absolutely have to drink 64 ounces of fluid a day, but slowly and I absolutely have to take my vitamins. These are rules for the rest of my life. She also emphasized the need for hot liquids to help fight the inevitable build up of mucous. Pleasant thought that is. I learned a lot but still I was apprehensive about the possibility that I might actually get the surgery.
      Today when I got home I noticed I had a voice mail on my cell phone. It was the director of the Center for Weight Loss Surgery, the head lady in charge. She wanted me to return her call and I couldn't get to a phone fast enough. I called and she informed me that the insurance had approved me and that the center had approved me and wanted to talk about surgery dates. I was floored. I was expecting a long drawn out wait with the insurance company and maybe even an appeal or two but it came in without me even getting a chance to worry about it too much. I like it when things work out like that. The earliest they could do it was the 30th of this month but I have no idea what I will have to do to get my short term disability in place so I told her I would check with work and call her back Monday. I wish now that I had scheduled for the 30th but maybe I'll wait until the middle of February. I want this done and I want it done now but I also don't want to use my own vacation time to do it. I am superdy duperdy excited.
      I decided to start my pre-op diet the day after Christmas. I did okay that day but I had brownies the next day, not okay. I didn't do real great until the first of the year and even then I had a few slip ups. SInce then I've done relatively okay. I could have done better and I really am not at the top of my diet game right now but when I weighed Wednesday night at the center with the scales they used when I first went in there it said I had lost seven pounds so I am going in the right direction. They will not do surgery if you haven't already been losing weight. They want you to keep your carbs at 30 grams a day so that your liver will be smaller and more easily manageable when they have to move it to do the surgery.
      I have never been more anxious for a Monday to come. I will find out all I need to know, take care of those issues and will call the director and set up my surgery date. This is like Christmas for me, only two weeks late. I have a whole lot of stress in my life right now. Even more than anyone knows but this has been a ray of sunshine that I am able to hold to and ride with all my being. I know that there's a lot of hard work ahead of me and that this will not solve all of my problems but if I feel good about who I am and just feel good physically I will be better able to tackle the hardships ahead with an unforgiving vengeance. I remember back about sixteen years ago or so I had gotten myself into pretty decent shape physically. I felt like I was invincible and that I just couldn't be stopped. I hope to have that feeling again because there was no greater rush.
      The kids are doing fine. Becca and I had a really nice long week together and we had a ball. I got Grant Wednesday night after the nutritional meeting and had to take him back Thursday night. I really hated that because by the time I got him home he was ready for bed and by the time I got home Thursday evening it was time to take him right back to his mom. I didn't get to spend any time with him at all but of course it must be even worse on Kristie because she didn't get to spend that much time this past week with Becca.
      I plan on giving the house a real good cleaning tomorrow and even though the Christmas stuff is down it now needs to be neatly packed away in our Christmas tubs and placed in the attic. The house needs it like you wouldn't believe. Actually using your kitchen for food preparation rather than snack storage really creates quite the mess. I'm just used to getting something fast, lately Taco Bell has been my favorite.
      Well, I am starving right now, something I won't have to worry much about after surgery, so I will close this out and go have myself a disgusting protein drink and maybe a piece of cheese. I may not be able to drink with food after the surgery and while I am trying to get into the fluidless meals I haven't had the surgery yet so I won't be doing any damage by having a protein drink and a piece of fat free cheese. Daddy loves Rebecca & Grant!

Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery

I am approved by insurance for the surgery. I will be scheduling it next week. WOOPEEE!!!!!!

Dear Becca & Grant,
                  Well, I suppose Christmas is finally officially over now. Becca & I took down the outside lights and decorations this evening. Well, I took the stuff down and Becca rode her electric scooter around and around the car, played with snappers left over from July 4th and a hundred other things to slow my progress. I wouldn't have had it any other way though. After I got the lights taken down I let Becca climb in the good climbing tree in our front yard. It finally got dark so I pulled the car into the garage. I did things a little differently with the outside lights this year. Last year I had such a tangled mess and the lights never worked right. I eventually gave up and didn't even leave them on. I decided to trash all of the lights and purchase all new lights. This year I decided to hang the lights in the garage and not coil them all up, at least not the icicle lights. I've had great luck just hanging the light nets so I decided to try that with the icicles. I might go with all new colored lights next year but we'll have to wait and see.
      I took the children to their Mom's last night for a few days. I got a call from Becca at around eleven last night and she wanted me to come and get her so I drove up to Palumbo Drive last night and picked her up. I had to get up early and go to the doctor so we both spent the night at Mamaw & Papaw's. That way I wouldn't have to drive her all the way down to the country. It really wasn't just for her benefit though. I really didn't want to get out of the bed any earlier than I absolutely had to. She decided she wanted to spend the night with me again tonight so here she is. I hate it when Becca isn't happy. I really want her to be happy wherever she is. It broke my heart last night to hear her crying for me. I fear there will come a time when she wants me and I just will not be able to go and get her. No, that won't happen because there's no way I could sleep if I knew she was unhappy.
      I was supposed to start back to work today but I had to do a stress test with a cardiologist today. I called in to work for the whole day. I really thought I'd be out relatively early because my appointment was for 8:30 this morning. I didn't get out of there until after noon. They pumped some dye or something into my blood and I had to wait for it to circulate through my blood stream. They put me in a small waiting room and I promptly went to sleep sitting in a chair. I was quite pooped out and then they had me run on treadmill for ten minutes. It nearly killed me.
      This was just a quick note to let y'all know what's going on in our lives. Daddy loves Rebecca & Grant!

Dear Becca & Grant,
                  We're all going to Uncle Rodney's surprise birthday party this evening. I don't suppose there's much danger in commenting on Uncle Rodney's surprise party because I don't see Uncle Rodney randomly checking this blog for updates especially since I've only been posting once or twice a month lately. Becca is in the kitchen with her safety scissors, glue, crayons and construction paper making birthday ornaments for Uncle Rodney. I think she's still in Christmas mode. I have the tree down and all of the stuff sitting against the wall in the living room and Grant is trying to destroy our star tree topper.
      I got the kids around noon yesterday because their mom called and told me that her sugar was real high and she had to go to the hospital. I hated to hear that she wasn't feeling good and I had planned on doing some work around the house yesterday but I was thrilled to get my little ones early. I did get the living room moderately cleaned up though.
      I am supposed to go back to work Monday but I have to go have a stress test at a doctor's office. I hear that a stress test is quite draining so I am not planning on going in at all. I have a meeting associated with the possible surprise I've been talking about. I suppose I could mention what it is about but I don't want to jinx it by speaking of it before I know it's going to happen, so I will not mention it.
      I'm trying to eat better this year but I didn't do so well yesterday. Day two of my new healthier eating routine and I have already fell off of the wagon. I'm back on today. I will adjust to this new lifestyle and won't do that as much in the future. This morning I had two eggs with salsa and three strips of turkey bacon while the kids had a pork sausage patty a piece, an egg and a few pieces of dry cocoa puffs. Neither one of them finished their breakfast but I finished mine. I need to exercise a whole lot more. I'd love to get a stationary bike or a treadmill for the living room so I could exercise here in the house while I keep an eye on the children. I am going to join a gym when finances allow. I have three choices. There's a new 24 hour gym opening up here in Versailles called Snap Fitness that I will be looking into if it's open when I am ready to join. There's also Falling Spring Community Center which I have already had a membership to that I did not use. Falling Spring would be nice because it's close to home and I would get a family membership and the kids would be able to use the pool this summer on the membership but the weight room is only okay and finally there's Urban Active Gym in Lexington which used to be Golds Gym. The place is a state of the art facility but probably much more expensive than the other places. I'll worry about which one to join when I am ready to join.
      Well, this was just a short note to let y'all know what's going on. Daddy loves Rebecca & Grant!

Dear Becca & Grant,
                     Happy New Year! It seemed like forever I was without my kids right after Christmas. I had to them back to their mom by 4:30 Thursday, Christmas Day and didn't get them back until Monday. Becca finally got her Easy Bake Oven from Mom, she visited Auntie Mary's and spent the night with Mom's friend, Sherrie's family. I just hung around the house playing on the computer and watching mindless television. I was so incredibly bored the whole time.
      I was supposed to have the kids back New Years Eve by six but their mom called and asked if I wouldn't mind keeping them for one more day because she was ill. I of course didn't have any problem whatsoever keeping my kids an extra night especially a night as special as New Years Eve. I don't expect to have that many New Years Eves with them through the years because their Mom & I have agreed that I would have them every Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning and she would have them for all other holidays with the exception of Thanksgiving which we will rotate. The kids are important enough in our family that Thanksgiving can be postponed for a day on account of my kids.
      I had planned on going to Wal-Mart and letting Becca pick out a new pair of earrings to replace the ones I lost. She picked out a pair of Cinderella earrings that turned out to be too big. They're cute on her but I prefer tiny earrings in her ear. I'll get her a real nice set when they go on sale closer to Valentine's Day; I've already mentioned that I believe. She picked her out a cute New Year's hat to match her Big Bird pull-over and I purchased a a few items and then I went to McDonalds to use the Red Box DVD rental thing they have at all of the McDonalds these days. There was a huge line and I wasn't willing to wait in line while a half dozen people browsed, chose and rented their films so we went to Movie Gallery. It's a bit more expensive but instead of one day you can keep Movie gallery films for five days. They had an excellent selection. They had a copy of every single movie I looked at except the one I really wanted, Eagle Eye with Shia LaBeouf. I ended up renting Tropic Thunder with Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. and the Veggie Tales movie, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything for Becca.
      We then went down to Mamaw & Papaw's for our New Years Eve celebration with plans to come home after it was over and take down the Christmas Tree. We had brown beans, cabbage, a veggie tray, baked apples, cheese dip, Frito's, corn bread and peppermint brownies. After we ate it was way past time for Grant to be down for the evening so Mamaw laid him down for the evening. I then set Becca up with her movie on her new Kid Tough DVD player and her head phones in the living room and the adults started Tropic Thunder. I was so glad that Becca was so into her movie because while Tropic Thunder was a very funny movie it was also littered with foul language. Becca had me take her earrings out because the head phones were bothering her ears with the earrings in. She finished her Veggie Tales movie and I put in the Tinkerbell movie I had downloaded and burned for her.
      About fifteen minutes before midnight we paused the film and turned on Dick Clark's Rocking New Years Eve Show. Dick Clark has been a New Years Eve staple for 36 years, almost as long as I have been alive. I don't think he has too many years left. He's had a few strokes and now he more or less just makes cameo appearances. Auntie Linda brought a bottle of flavored champagne so we poured all of us a glass with the exception of Becca who had orange juice and sprite. We waited for the ball to drop and we all yelled Happy New Year and I got my New Years kiss from my best girl, Becca and then she handed out kisses for all of us. She had a pretty nice time. There wasn't but about fifteen more minutes left in our movie so we finished that and then we hung around for another hour or so and then Becca and I headed to the house. Grant had already been asleep for quite awhile so we let him sleep. We didn't get back until after two in the morning. Too late to take down the tree.
      Becca wanted to watch a show before bed so I set one up and we started the show. Becca jumped up and said that while the show was playing she was going to take as many ornaments off as she could. I said okay and I went to get the ornament boxes. I helped Becca with the ornaments. We got all of them off and I thought that it wouldn't be too much trouble to take off the garland beads so I did. The tree sat there with just the lights. I then figured that the lights really wouldn't be that much trouble. I really ought to have known better. I finally got all the lights off and coiled up and there set the bare tree. Well, I didn't see any sense in getting so close and not finishing it so we went ahead and took the tree apart. I thought about just trashing the tree and buying a better one next year but I decided to keep it in case I decided against buying a new one. I also kept all of the inside lights even though I plan on going with multi-colored lights next year. Becca said she likes multi-colored better, as do most children and because I want each Christmas for the kids to be more magical than the one before I want to go with what they want even though I prefer clear lights. Warm clear; I made the mistake of buying a few strings of cool clear this year. Cool clear is actually blue. The clear lights with the blue lights actually looked okay and I think I have already mentioned that.
      Anyway, we took down the entire tree and I took down our Santa portrait and the decorative Santa plates. As I was going through the empty boxes I found a great big old bag of stocking stuffers I had purchased and forgotten about. I told Becca I had intended to wrap everything up. She told me that it was okay because she was tired of opening presents even though a few days before she got all whiny about Christmas being over and not having any more Christmas presents to open. I usually hide one last Christmas present in the tree so she and eventually the boy will have one last present to open as we take down the tree but this year I gave it to her when she was whining about not having any more presents. She was tickled pink with her new stuff though. She had a bag of silly straws, silly putty, a new flash light, bubbles, candy and bubble gum. I was glad that Becca got her last goodies of the year as we took down the tree. We got in bed at 4:30 in the morning. I know that was entirely too late for a four year old to stay up but it's only once a year and we were having so much fun.
      I woke up around noon and Becca woke up about an hour later. I got her dressed and we started to head out the door. Becca went to the bathroom and had a loose bowel movement. She told me that that meant she was sick. She looked nervous so I asked her if she wanted to stay in her panties or if she wanted a pull-up. I told her that there was no shame in wearing a pull-up when you needed one. She decided that she wanted the pull-up. I was actually proud of her that she had the foresight to make such an informed decision. I put her in her pull-up and then we had a little talk about good touching and bad touching. I think she got it or she got it as well as a four and a half year old can.
      We then went down to Mamaw & Papaw's where we found Grant dancing to Dancing Queen by Abba. I don't know if I approve of him dancing to a song called Dancing Queen but the little boy is a dancing fool. He dances more than any child I have ever seen, of course I haven't had all that much exposure to children his age. We bundled him up and headed towards where Mom is staying.
      I dropped them off, got some gas, came home had a very late lunch, picked up some and took a nap. I woke up awhile ago and had an extremely late supper. Started writing this post and here we are.
      Jacob bought himself an electric guitar the other day. Uncle Mike is going to teach him how to play. As you know both of his great uncles on his Mom's side are excellent musicians as are one of his aunts, Auntie Louise and Uncle Rodney has a cousin who plays with the country music super star, Brad Paisley's band so there's talent in the blood there as well. I know Becca really wants to learn the guitar and if she still does in a year or so I will get her a real guitar and see that she has lessons as well.
      Well, it's crazy late and I am tired. The past year has been hard on all of us and I am excited about the new year; really excited. Daddy loves Rebecca & Grant!

What I Always Wanted!

Dear Becca & Grant,
                     Merry Christmas! The day is almost over and that's always kind of depressing for me and it always has been even when I was a child. I remember the big family soirées at Granny & Bambi Dee's back when I was a mere lad; I was always the very last person to leave because I just never wanted it to end. The ending of Christmas is especially sad this year because I had to take the kids back to their mom's late this afternoon. It was a great Christmas, but ain't they all?
      We never did get our Holiday pictures done. I really wish I could have figured out a way to have gotten them done. This will go down in the history of our little family as the strangest Christmas season of all, or at least I hope it does. I don't want things to get any stranger. We are all adjusting to new ways of doing things and while there have been some bumps in the road we are doing okay.
      The children's mother ended up taking them to Southern Lights this year with her friend Sherri so I didn't get to go this year. I always enjoyed watching Becca feed the animals at the petting zoo. Maybe next year I will take them there too.
      I had a big surprise for the kids one day last week. I told Becca & Grant that we were going to the bank and they didn't think a thing about it. What I didn't tell them that Santa, Frosty and Rudolph were at the bank. We walked in and there was Santa all by himself. No waiting in a long line. He came up to Becca all on his own and talked about how much taller she had gotten since the last time he had seen her. Becca had a nice long talk with Santa. They had snacks there as well. It was a really nice event and to top it all off it wasn't even our bank but they said they wanted as many children as possible to come because they were making a donation to some charity for every child who came through the door.
      I kind of screwed up after we left the bank though. I was talking to Mamaw on the phone and was telling her how nice it was when I mentioned that the Santa Claus was the Lexington Radio personality Jack Pattie. Becca noticed right away but it didn't seem to matter to her. Since then whenever we saw a Santa she would ask me if that was the real Santa or Jack Pattie.
      Becca and I had what we eventually called our Nutcracker Barrel day this past weekend. We had a grand time. I eventually got a red Christmas dress for Becca that suited my taste. I wanted one that just screamed Christmas. The next day we went out and I got her some thick white stockings and a very pretty pair of shoes that ended up not fitting that well. She kept losing them on stairs. Anyway, I took Becca down to Mamaw & Papaw's so Auntie Lynn and Mamaw could fix Becca's hair and that child was as lovely as I have ever seen her and let me tell you, Becca is one lovely little girl. I then took Grant over to where their Mom is staying with her friend, Sherri because this was a special father/daughter day.
      We were running a little late. I hate to be late to these type of things but we weren't late. As a matter of fact we were right on time. We were seated and about two minutes later the show started. Our box seats were okay but I don't think I'd like to sit there again. We were very close to the stage and could see the dancers close up but about twenty-five percent of the stage was blocked off from view because we were so close. I'd like to sit in the middle next time. Becca absolutely loved it. I was afraid she would be bored to tears because it's a ballet and the story is told through dance instead of dialogue. I thought I would be bored to tears but surprisingly enough neither one of us were. Becca raved about it at intermission and when I asked her if she's like to go see the show every year she excitedly said that she would like that. Becca was a huge hit at the show in her own right because at intermission we went to get us a drink of water and she was dancing like a ballerina in her beautiful Christmas dress all the way back to our seats. She got kind of bored halfway through the second act but she made it much further than I really expected her to get. After the show we headed over to Cracker Barrel, hence us calling it our Nutcracker Barrel day. Becca had a big plate of shrimp, her latest favorite food, mac & cheese and a root beer. I had a chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots and a cola. We went to look at the toys when we had finished eating, as we always do. We then went to get our boy, Grant. Becca and I had a lovely Chritmassy time and I am looking forward to doing it again next year.
      Last night we went over to Mamaw & Papaw's to celebrate Christmas Eve with them and Auntie Lynn's family. We had a huge meal. We had turkey of which Becca ate a leg, country ham, corn pudding, green beans, sweet potato casserole, dressing, salad, strawberry pretzel salad, cranberry chutney, mashed potatoes, sliced cucumbers, rolls, soda and tea with a full compliment of desserts. Then I had to run back to the house for a second. Things needed moving from there to here. When I got back we all sat in the living room for a little while and then it was down to the basement for present opening time. Grant got a big Tonka truck, a bubble making dog, a stuffed dog with labeled body parts that Becca picked out for him, some nice new clothes, a V-tech helicopter and a toy cell phone from me. Becca got a LeapFrog Tag Reader, a pen looking thing with a camera in it that reads special books that are downloaded into the pen, from me. She also got two extra books for the Tag reader, a collection of Winnie the Pooh stories by A.A. Milne, and some nice new clothes. I got a new shirt, some nice new pillows and a super nice mattress pad. All of the children played in the basement for awhile and for the most part had a fun time except when Becca and Jon got into it. Becca and Jon are always getting into it because they are so much alike.
      Eventually Auntie Lynn and her brood headed for the house. Mamaw told Becca that the boys were going straight to bed because Santa was on his way and he wouldn't stop if you weren't asleep. That lit a fire under Becca right away. At that point we had to leave and we had to leave now. We got home and I told Becca I had to get Grant ready for bed, we had to pick up the living room, lay out milk and cookies for Santa, put the mattress pad on the bed, get her in her new Christmas pajamas and then we could go to sleep. She rushed me like you wouldn't believe. She was afraid Santa would come while she was awake. I explained to her that I had checked the NORAD Santa tracker website just before we left and he was just then starting in South America and it would be awhile before he got to us. South America was too close for her comfort. I got most of what needed to be done done but she wouldn't let me put the mattress pad on. She jumped up into bed and closed her eyes and went straight to sleep. I was dead tired myself and was afraid that I would fall asleep as well if I wasn't careful but I managed to stay awake until I thought she was fast asleep. I got up and helped Santa put out their gifts and right as Santa disappeared up the chimney I heard her calling for me. She was upset that I had left her in the night. I told her that I had merely went to the bathroom and that she needed to go back to sleep. She tried but sleep didn't come this time as easily as it did when she first laid down. She said she wanted a drink. I told her I would go get her a drink and she said she was afraid all alone and she was coming with me. I couldn't have that because Santa had already been here and I certainly didn't want her to see her stash yet. I told her what a disaster it would be if she was in the living room when Santa popped out of the magic chimney. The magic chimney is what Santa uses to access homes without a chimney. He sets the chimney up on the roof and he slides down and out a hearth made in the wall by the magic chimney. Anyway, she didn't have any problem staying by herself as I went to get her a sippy cup of cherry juicy juice. Soon after the juice she went to sleep. I got back up for awhile and installed the Tag reader software onto the laptop, loaded Becca's new Tag books onto her Tag reader, checked my E-mail and went back to bed.
      Becca woke up at around 9:00 this morning. I was surprised she slept as late as she did. She woke me up and told me to look outside. I thought maybe we were going to have a white Christmas but she just wanted me to notice that it was daylight outside. I told Becca to stay in the bedroom for a few seconds because I wanted to get the video camera ready. She did as I requested but she didn't give me a second too long. She came into the living room and the look of Christmas wonder filled her eyes. I asked her if she wanted to open her presents and let Grant sleep or if she wanted Grant to be awake with her. She looked at me like I had grown a second head. She informed me that we were going to get Grant up and away to his room she flew with the joyous news of Santa's arrival. I got him up and into the living room we went. Becca had colored a picture from her giant Christmas coloring book and we have had it hanging in the living room for a few weeks. She had me write a note on it that it was a gift to Santa and he was to show it to his elves. The picture was gone. Santa had taken his gift and this tickled Becca to no end. Then it came time for the opening of the gifts. Becca got a Kid Tough DVD player and a travel accessory kit for it, two additional Tag books, a Moon Sand playset, Baby Alive go bye-bye, a Jack in the Box, an art kit, a kaleidoscope, a spinning top, Wedding Day Barbi, a Tinker Bell doll, Tinker Bell make-up, an Etch-a-Sketch, a slinky, a big box of crayons, a Candy Land Castle game, Disco Dancing Wow Wow Wubbzy and her favorite gift of all, a Hannah Montana Jammin' guitar with a Hannah Montana doll to go with it. Grant got a Bounce and Spin Zebra with mats to go under it, a Ball Popper thing, a musical activity table, one of those ball popper things that you push, a Learning Piggy Bank, Laugh & Learn tool set, a football, stacking rings, shaped blocks with a bucket, a drum, little Tonka four wheelers, and Barnyard Bowling. Grant's favorite was between the Bounce & Spin Zebra and the stacking rings. I'm sure I am foregtting something but if I am it couldn't be too big. The kids also got odds & end in their stockings. Becca got a Spiderman spinning tooth brush, conditioner, flash card and a huge Honey Crisp apple while Grant got little sports balls, a bar of baby soap and a tiny Gala apple. They both got animal crackers, a toy flute, chocolate money, chocolate Santas', chocolate bells and balls, a sucker, a lifesaver book and a clementine. There's more but like I said a little earlier they couldn't be too important or I wouldn't have forgotten about them.
      There was one instance where I had to take a mental note to be careful about the paper I wrapped gifts in. As a child I remember questioning why Santa always wrapped his gifts in the same paper we did. I was given an unlikely answer but since I really wanted to believe I bought it. I was much older than Becca when this event occurred but something along the same line happened this morning. As she was unwrapping a present she got a confused look on her face and told me that the paper that her present was wrapped in was the same paper that Jacob's present from last night was wrapped in. I didn't try to give any kind of explanation at all. I just acted as puzzled as she was. I could almost see the cogs of her mind turning and dread filled my soul. She can not stop believing so soon. I'm sure it will come to nothing but from here on out Santa wraps presents in paper exclusive to Santa. I always had it in my mind that I would use different paper than Santa used to avoid such misunderstandings but I suppose I just assumed that she was still too young to put two and two together. I have to remember that my oldest child is no longer a baby but a full fledged child with a very well developed ability to reason. There was also a moment when my heart kind of broke because as she was opening up her Baby Alive Go Bye-Bye she thought it was the swimming doll she had been wanting since the summer. She was so excited but when she saw it was Baby Alive Go Bye-Bye she got the most crushed look on her face. It only lasted a moment but to me it seemed like eternity. She immediately got happy over the Baby Alive Go Bye-Bye but I do believe that that doll would have been a bigger hit with her if she hadn't been expecting her swimming doll. I didn't think Santa should even look for the swimming doll because it's December and there's not a whole lot of swimming going on this time of year.
      After presents I set up some of the toys and cussed at myself for not buying D batteries when I bought all those double and triple A batteries. I needed four of them for Grant's ball popper thing and I only had two. Becca really wanted to see some balls pop. She had as much fun with Grant's stuff as she did her own. I put the kids in their jackets and we headed on down to Mamaw & Papaw's for the afternoon. None of us had had any breakfast unless you count chocolate money and a few bites of an apple. We ate leftovers from Christmas Eve for lunch. For some reason I always enjoy a big holiday meal best when I'm eating the leftovers the day after. I don't know why that is. After lunch Grant went down for a nap and Mamaw, Papaw, Becca and I watched A Christmas Story, you know, the one about Ralphie and his Red Ryder BB gun. We didn't get it finished before we had to get Grant up and leave. I had to have the kids to their Mom by four. I was running a little late. I had to stop at the house for gifts that Becca had for her Mom, Grant's shoes and my cell phone. I would have loved to have had them all day on Christmas day but that wouldn't have been fair to their Mom. I took them up there and walked them in and gave them both big Christmas hugs and kisses, wished them a Merry Christmas and I left my babies.
      I got home and picked up the Christmas Morning disaster and then I downloaded the Christmas videos and pictures to my computers; pics to the laptop and video to the desktop. I spent four hours editing video and uploading to YouTube and a little while updating my online photo album. I sat down to post a blog and here I am. I think Grant had a nice Christmas. He's just a little young to really get into it but Becca on the other hand was whole heartedly into the Christmas thing, even though I still can't understand shy she would ever want to watch a show that didn't have anything to do with Christmas when I have hours and hours of Christmas oriented children's programming either on DVD or recorded on the DVR. She was heavily into the Christmas music though. Anyway, I know that Becca had a great Christmas because two or three times this morning as she was opening her Christmas presents she declared that this is her best Christmas ever. Of course she doesn't have that many to compare them to. It was a great Christmas for me as well. Traditions are in transition with the situation with their Mom and I so things were a bit chaotic and disorganized. Everything will eventually stabilize and Christmas will be the same year in and year out just as it should be.
      Now, a couple of non-Christmas notes. Grant is trying to say some words and unfortunately the one he is most fond of is NO. I suppose he's so good at that word because he hears it more than any other word. He's a small hellion and he does have a temper and no patience which is always a bad combination. Also, the other day Grant pulled the letter M off of the keyboard I am using now so when I have to really press hard on the place where my M key used to be so if there seems to be a letter missing anywhere in this post it's probably an M.
      I am now able to switch Becca's earrings. She lost one the other day and I convinced her to let me try to put it back in and after much cajoling and a few tears of dread she let me try and the thing slid right in. Becca couldn't believe it went in that easily. I asked her is she wanted me to get her some Christmas earrings and she said she did. We went to Wal-Mart and got her an incredibly ugly pair of Santa earrings for a dollar. I would have thought that you could get prettier Christmas earring but what do I know, I've never shopped for Christmas earring before. Becca was so proud of her earrings. I had a little trouble getting her earrings in the next time I tried putting them in because she had went awhile with no earrings in and I think that Becca's pain tolerance is that of her mother's and that is absolutely no tolerance at all. I eventually got them back in. I ended up losing her regular earring which got me in a little bit of trouble from her Mom. I'm going to get Becca a really nice pair of earrings when I can. I'll probably let her pick out whatever she wants to wear until valentines Day and then I will get her a real nice pair because there will be pretty good sales on them then.
      The special surprise is even closer than it was the last time I posted. I am working to get it done. I have already taken numerous steps toward the surprise and I am super excited. I start another step tomorrow. I can't wait until I know for sure this thing will happen and I can actually mention what it is. Even if the surprise falls through I will attempt to achieve the goal of the surprise through alternative means.
      A whole lot of bad stuff happened this past year. It started out great. Our finances were in the best shape they had ever been in and well, I thought things were okay but then the bottom dropped out and it sunk this whole year for me. The kids were the only bright spot I had throughout this year. But I am super excited about 2009. I have plans to get my finances back under control and then there's the possible surprise and then the sky is the limit. I think this coming year is going to be a fabulous year and I haven't been this excited about a new year in forever.
      Well, I have the Christmas Eve video that still needs uploading to YouTube and I have to put sheets and my blanket in the dryer plus my finger is hurting because I have to mash in on the letter M so dad-gum hard, so I will close out this post. Daddy loves Rebecca & Grant and wishes his kids the Merriest of Christmases!

Dear Becca & Grant,
                  We are full swing into the Christmas Season. I love Christmas. I am laid off from work until the new year. Santa Claus has 99.5% of the children's Christmas gifts ready to go to the wrapping department at the North Pole. We have a whole lot to take care of once I get paid again on the 18th. I have to get clothes for our Holiday pictures for Grant and myself. I suppose Becca will wear a dress that Mamaw purchased for her. We have to actually get the pictures done, Becca and I have a date to go see The Nutcracker on the 20th and we may go to Southern Lights. Mom really wants to take the kids because that particular tradition was begun on her wishes. I have come to love Southern Lights and would love to take the kids but I know how much this means to Mom so I will wait until I know what her plans are until I take the kids. Then of course I have to get my own presents for the kids, buy wrapping paper and wrap the the presents. We have a busy next few weeks but it really can't start until I get some more money. I wasn't really financially prepared for the season this year what with this whole mess that Mom and I went through this year. I hope to really get back in the swing of taking care of my money in the beginning of the year and really being ready for next Christmas. I still have had great fun so far this year.
      Becca is so excited about Santa coming. Every night she tells me that she is going to dream about Christmas morning. I don't think she will be disappointed at all. I don't think she has as much as she had last year but she will be getting quite a nice haul from Santa. Grant really didn't get that much from Santa last year because he was so little that he really didn't care that much. He has a nice haul this year as well. Maybe not as nice as Becca's haul but he still won't car all that much.
      Last year I downloaded tons of Christmas shows off of the internet and TiVoed a bunch more and transferred them to the computer. My plan was to spend the summer months burning those shows to DVD so we could all have an awesome collection of Christmas programming. The thing with Mom kind of changed all my summer plans so I was going to do it closer to Christmas. I had all of the files on my 500 gig external hard drive, 500 gigs was a pretty big hard drive in 2008. One fateful day Grant who has a habit of pulling things off of tables one day pulled my hard drive of of the table it was sitting on and broke it. All of my Christmas files were gone. I was so incredibly bummed out. I purchased a few DVDs, Rudolph, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Frosty and the Little Drummer Boy when they were on sale for Black Friday this year but the lions share of programming I had to download again. I think my collection is nearly complete. I am still in the process of downloading a huge file with some rare and incredibly old versions of a Christmas Carol. What do I have in my collection? I have Miracle on 34th Street, The Grinch with Jim Carrey, Elf with Will Farrel, Rudolph (1964), Frosty, Frosty Returns, The Little Drummer Boy, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Celebrate Christmas with Mickey, Donald and Friends which includes old the very old cartoons Santa's Workshop, The Night Before Christmas, Cookie Carnival and the more recent Pluto's Christmas Tree; I also have Mickey's Orphans from 1931 and Mickey's Good Deed from 1932, Nestor the Long Eared Christmas Donkey, The Mystery Science Theatre 3000 versions of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and a really terrible Mexican movie called Santa Claus, Christmas in Connecticut with Barbara Stanwyck, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, The animated Grinch, Shrek the Halls, Ernest Saves Christmas, The Polar Express, It's a Wonderful Life, the old and the newer versions of the Twilight Zone episode, Night of the Meek and White Christmas with Bing Crosby. I also have a few versions of a Christmas Carol such as Mickey's Christmas Carol, Blackadder's Christmas Carol, Christmas Carol with Patrick Stewart from 1999, the 1984 Christmas Carol with George C. Scott, the Muppets Christmas Carol, Scrooge from 1970 with Albert Finney, the 1951 Christmas Carol, the 1935 Christmas Carol, the 1938 Christmas Carol, the 1910 Christmas Carol, Barbi's Christmas Carol, Scrooged with Bill Murray from 1988, An American Christmas Carol from 1979 with Henry Winkler, a Rankin/Bass version called The Stingiest Man in Town, an animated 1971 version and I have the very first surviving Christmas Carol film from 1901. I don't have the whole story of the 1901 version because it's been lost to time but I think it's a cool addition to my collection. I am also trying to download the 1913 and 1923 versions. That is my Christmas movie collection. I love Christmas shows.
      Grant was a holy handful the past few days. Just the other day he bit Becca so hard that he actually drew blood. She cried and screamed and ran around like she had been stabbed but even through her tears she told Grant that she still loved him. What a sweet little girl I have. Later that same evening while I was preparing Becca's new favorite food, shrimp for supper Grant got a hold of the laptop I am typing on right now. He tore off three keys and I could only replace two of them so if you happen to notice a missing letter M every now and then you will know what happened. He's all boy and so much more mischievous than Becca ever was.
      Becca's parent teacher conference was yesterday. She is doing great. She's right where she is supposed to be for her age. Ms. Dykes told me that last year Becca kind of hung back and let the stronger personalities lead but that this year since she is one of the older ones in the class she herself has developed into a strong personality in the class and she is the one to take the lead. I am proud of her in that regard. I myself have never been much of a leader and I would love it if Becca did develop into a leader type person. She also said that Becca is one of the few kids in her class that will interact with a mentally and physically handicapped child in her named Cesar. She said the other children consider Cesar a baby but Becca will talk yo him and doesn't get all out of sorts when he pulls on her clothes or even when he pulls her hair. I suppose it's because Becca has her little brother that makes her able to interact with Cesar. Ms. Dykes said that she scores high on the empathy scale as well. When someone is hurt or not feeling very good she shows true concern for them. Becca has always been a very empathetic child and I have always been so proud of her for that.
      I remember years ago in this blog I spoke of a special surprise that was coming. Things happened to throw that particular surprise out the window for a time, notably Grant being born which was a much better surprise than the one I had planned but now the original surprise is back in play and I am closer than ever. I am so excited about it. I don't want to talk about it until I am 100% sure it's going to happen but I am crossing my fingers.
      Well, Mom has the children today and I am off from work so I think I will relax and watch some television and have a lazy day. Daddy loves Rebecca & Grant!

Becca and Grant Playing with Rocking Eyore

The day after Thanksgiving 2008

Dear Becca & Grant,
                  This is the longest I have ever gone without putting up a post. I know I should have at least touched on different important topics throughout the moth but I have been so preoccupied with life that I have neglected the blog. A whole lot of stuff has happened since my last post.
      Becca & Grant were involved in a traffic collision. Mom was turning right onto Man O' War from Alumni when she probably shouldn't have. I was told that Becca was so very brave and even though she took a good bump in the accident her very first priority was the safety of her little brother, Grant. When I heard that I was so proud of her. Becca had some x-rays taken at the hospital after the accident. She wasn't too sure that was something she wanted to do. By the time they took Becca back for her x-ray I was at the hospital, St. Joe's East and I went back with Becca. I convinced her that x-rays are no big deal and she actually ended up having a pretty fun time getting pictures of her bones. The x-ray technician was nice enough to show Becca the pictures of her bones. Becca thought that was a trick. The Explorer took a pretty good pounding from the collision but Papaw was able to make it nominally road worthy. It's not safe enough for the kids to be riding around in but at least mom has some wheels so she can look for a job.
      Halloween has come and gone. Grant was a jack O' lantern and Becca was supposed to be sleeping beauty but by the time she ruined the make-up Mom put on her and her costume got all ragged looking she ended up looking more like a horror movie prom queen. Later on Halloween night we all, including Mom went to Arby's for a late supper. I'm not big on Halloween and it was over a month ago and I have no memory so that's all I have to say about Halloween.
      Becca has been kind of ill the past month. She's had a very bad rash that itched her to no end accompanied by vomiting and diarrhea. The medicine she took for the rash caused even more diarrhea after she got over the thing that caused the first wave of squirts. Then she picked up a second bug that made her feel kind of sick at her stomach and nauseas. I had many nights this past month where I had to wash bed sheets in the middle of the night. Becca ended up missing an entire week of school this past month.
      I have been off from work the past two weeks so the kids and I have been spending tons of time together. I had a great two weeks. You think I could have posted to the blog in those two weeks but it just didn't work out that way. We really didn't do much just hung out a lot.
      This past Thursday was Thanksgiving Day. We had a late Thanksgiving because big Sissy, Allison didn't get off work until six o'clock. We had turkey, dressing, cranberry chutney, sweet potato casserole, broccoli casserole, green beans, mashed potatoes, a corn pudding that Becca and I made, rolls, tea, lemonade, peanut butter pie, chess pie and pumpkin pie. Oh, it was so good. Before we went down to Mamaw & Papaw's Becca and I put up the Christmas tree while Grant slept. We didn't decorate it we just put it up. When we returned from our bountiful feast and after Grant was asleep for the night Becca and I got busy decorating the tree. We had tons of fun. Becca put all of the ornaments she handled right on the bottom of the tree. I had half a string of lights go out on me after I got them placed on the tree. Other than that we didn't have any problems at all. Grant can not be left alone in the living room with the Christmas tree for even a moment because he just loves to take the ornaments off. He's going to be a challenge with that tree. He's worse than Becca ever was.
      Friday night when I took the kids to where their Mom is staying on Palumbo Drive I went on down the road a bit to Garden Ridge and purchased some extra lights for the tree and of course outside lights. I buy new outside lights every year because I have such terrible luck storing those lights. I purchased some fancy new fangled LED lights but when I got them home I realized I had purchased cool white lights instead of the warm white lights that I really needed. I went ahead and put them on the tree anyway. They are really twinkly so it looks pretty good, I reckon. I got the outside lights put up Saturday evening. I suppose it looks okay but I don't think I've ever been really truly happy with my outside lights and I don't suppose I ever will be.
      Becca and I have a date on the twentieth of December to see the Lexington Ballet's production of The Nutcracker. I am going to get a her a fancy Christmas dress and I hope she will enjoy the show. We looked at some bits and pieces of it on YouTube, a video sharing website and she really didn't seem all that interested. The three of us, Grant Becca and myself are going to have family Christmas photos done in late December. It will be weird not having Mom in the pictures though.
      Well, That's all I can recall. There would have been much more if I had maybe posted every week but I didn't so this is just going to have to do. Daddy loves Rebecca & Grant!

Dear Becca & Grant,
                     Becca's been on fall break last week. She goes back to school this afternoon. She's looking forward to going back to school; of course she is in preschool and you learn in preschool by playing so she hasn't come to dislike school yet. I hope she doesn't start to dislike school at all. I here there are actually kids out there who actually enjoy school. I've never known any of them and I certainly wasn't one of them but I hope she has her love of learning throughout her entire life. I love learning but I didn't develop that until I was well out of school.
      Becca and I have come up with a game that we play right before we go to sleep every night. It's called Bugga Bugga. The name is based on an episode of Dora the Explorer where she has interactions with a bug. Becca pretends to be a bug asleep and I am the daddy bug and I wake her up for breakfast and tell her what we are going to eat for breakfast but I have to interject the phrase "Bugga Bugga" every few words. There's also a variation where I go to wake her up and she's not asleep at all but instead she is playing with her Bugga Bugga toys. We repeat this sometimes over twenty times. There's also the Bugga Bugga Lion versions of our game where she is a Bugga Bugga and I am a Bugga Bugga lion out to eat up a Bugga Bugga and then there the one where I am a Bugga Bugga lion waiting for my Bugga Bugga to be born out from under the blankets that are standing in as the mommy Bugga Bugga lion and when she is born I am so happy to see my baby Bugga Bugga lion cub. Then we also have developed the Ice Cream Shop game where we are at an ice cream shop where the only two flavors are sunshine and poo-poo. Last night the game was particularly fun because poo-poo was not on the menu; last night we could choose from sunshine ice cream and splatter strawberry. Last nights Ice Cream shop game was the most elaborate yet as Becca pretended to drive me to the shop as I rode in the back seat. I took on the role of the child and Becca took the role of the mommy. After the ice cream shop we pretended to go to the zoo where we stood in line forever to get a ticket because Becca told me that if we snuck on in without paying our money we would get thrown out. We paid our money and got a ticket. We gave the ticket taker our tickets and they gave us chocolate money. We then went to ride the pig merry-go-round where we also ate some pig angel food cake. Then we went to see the gorillas who had been let out of the glass enclosure and you could hug the gorillas. I next went swimming with the monkeys and slid down the neck of a giraffe like a slide. It seems that the game got kind of bizarre after that because we had to leave the zoo and go to the hospital because Becca had to have a baby cut out of her tummy. These games take forever to play and sometimes I am just too tired but Becca has come to look forward to them every night so I play them with her.
      I tried to leave her down at Mamaw & Papaw's a night or two last week but she fussed so heartily for me that one night she came home with me and another night I ended up sleeping down there with her. She did manage to stay the night once last week but she had to have a picture of me with her when she went to bed, a picture of me when I was in high school. Papaw told me that she woke up at 2:30 one morning and stumbled into his bedroom and she was carrying my picture with her when she came. The night I spent with her down at Mamaw & Papaw's she commented on the fact that she wouldn't need the picture of me because I was there. She eventually decided to take the picture to bed with her anyway because she knew that I would be gone to work when she woke up and she wanted my picture with her after I left for work. She is such a sweet child. I know this is a faze she's going through and Mamaw & Papaw say they can't wait for it to be over because they have such a hard time getting her to sleep because she cries for me so much. I love the sentiment but I also hope she gets out of this faze because there's so many nights where she has to stay with either Mamaw & Papaw or with her Mother and she's not with me and I hate to think that she is unhappy anywhere she is.
      I would love to have the children with me every night but I feel that it's better for them to stay with Mamaw & Papaw when I have them during the week. I don't see the point in getting the kids up so early and loading them in the car and taking them down to Mamaw & Papaw's at 5:30 in the morning. I know kids all over the world get up that early everyday but if they don't absolutely have to I don't think they should be be made to; plus cold weather is almost upon us and there's no more miserable time to go out in the cold than first thing in the morning.
      I actually think that Becca has learned more this past week hanging out with Mamaw & Papaw than she would have in two months of preschool. Mamaw and especially Papaw have been working with her this past week. She has finally learned that the number five exists and that it actually comes between four and six. She's been driving me crazy withe the number five. She has been able to count to nine for some time but she always has forgotten number five. Now she can count to ten with the number five in its proper place. I was so proud when I heard her do it for the first time. For some weird reason I absolutely love hearing her count to ten. I never thought such a simple act could thrill me so much. She also has learned to not only spell her first name but also write it. I told her she would be ready for Centre College soon. She liked the idea of going to Centre College until she thought she would have to move away. She told me in a very serious manner that she didn't want to go to Centre. I told her that she could live with me and she could drive to college. She then brought up the fact that she couldn't drive. I told her that I would teach her how to drive and she told me that she didn't want me to teach her how to drive she wanted Sissy to teach her how to drive. I told Sissy that and she got a big kick out of that. She also informed me that she would be glad to teach her how to drive.
      Grant has had a pretty monumental week as well. I can now say that Grant can officially walk. His chosen mode of locomotion is still to crawl but he can and will sometimes stand up on his own without pulling up on something and toddle five or six feet. He looks like a baby Frankenstein monster with his arms stretched out in front of him and of course sometimes he looks like a little drunk stumbling around trying so desperately to maintain his balance. I love watching my boy walk. There's nothing like watching my son walk while I'm listening to my daughter count. This is truly a special time in all of our lives.
      Last Saturday Grant got his very first haircut. He was getting those wings over his ears that I would always get before I started shaving my head and it was getting a little long in the back. Becca, Grant and I loaded up and took us a trip to Cookie Cutters which is now known as Kiddie Kutters. I had him dresses in a plaid shirt and a pair of Levi's overalls. I chose a John Deere tractor barber chair for him because he was dressed for the part. I also chose a Teletubbies DVD for him to watch as he got his haircut. Teletubbies are about the only television show that he really likes. He did so great. He was pretty tired when we got there. He was actually asleep in his car seat as we pulled into the parking lot. He laid his head down on the steering wheel of the tractor and just calmly laid there as the woman cut his hair. She was amazed that he took it as well as he did. She commented to me that cutting his hair was almost too easy. I thought he might have a bit of trouble when she used the buzzer on him but he sat up for her and let her buzz his neck and over his ears like he'd had a hundred haircuts. I was so proud of my boy. He did lose his curls with the haircut but they'll be back. Becca got herself a haircut as well. We had to even up her last haircut that we had to get when she decided to take scissors to her own hair. Her cut looked great for a short haircut. Now that we have it even we can get on with the growing it back out business. After haircuts we went to get some lunch.
      A couple of weeks ago I stopped by a shop called Re-Kids which used to be known as Children's Orchard. This place buys and sells used children's clothes. I had visited Children's Orchard and Once Upon a Child, another used children's clothes seller, before and I wasn't too impressed with the prices but now that it's known as Re-Kids the prices are fabulous. I bought Grant a pair of Levi's jeans for five dollars and a Children's Palace shirt for two dollars. I got tons of really high end clothes for twenty dollars. Anyway, after lunch last Saturday we went to Once Upon a Child because Dora the Explorer was going to be there. We had to wait an hour for Becca to sit on Dora's knee for seven seconds or so and get a picture taken. Becca got a thrill out of seeing Dora though. Then we went over to Re-Kids and I got two and a half tons of clothes for fifty dollars. I got Grant a really nice pair of Nike shoes, a Ralph Lauren outfit, a pair of Tommy Hilfiger jeans and tons of other high end stuff. Becca also got a bunch of jeans. I really like shopping there. Becca found a toy there that she really liked. It was a baseball on pole and when you swatted it with the plastic bat it would cheer for you and tell you that you had hit a single, a double or whatever it decided that you had hit. Becca told me she was going to put it on her Christmas list.
      We then went to Toys R Us so Becca could browse around. She saw Biscuit, the Fur Real Friend there that she had originally seen on a commercial. She's decided that that is what she really wants this year for Christmas. I am distressed over that because the thing costs $180 dollars. If I get her that there will be precious few additional gifts. I hope I can swing it and still get her a nice pile of decent stuff. We then went to Culver's for supper where we met up with Mamaw, Papaw, Auntie Lynn, Uncle Rodney and the boys. After Culver's we went to Wal-Mart and then finally and thankfully home.
      Friday after work I dropped by Re-Kids real quick and bought Becca a winter coat and I picked up the toy she had been so taken with. This was to be my first Christmas present purchase of the year. I put the toy in the trunk and headed on down to Mamaw & Papaw's. We went to church yesterday and as I was getting Grant's bag out of the trunk of the car Becca's eyes lit up and she asked me what that was in the trunk. She looked up at me with such adoration and told me what a great Dad I was. Well, so much for the first Christmas gift of the season.
      Grant's eyes have been all matted, mucousy and crusty. We think he might have pink eye. He won't be going to daycare today. I'm off today anyway so I will enjoy hanging out with him while Becca is in school. He's got some eye drops that should take care of the problem. I hope Becca doesn't get it.
      Well, that's all I can think to mention in this post. I need to go lay back down so I can enjoy my kids tomorrow. Daddy loves Rebecca & Grant!

Dear Becca & Grant,
                     Well, how about this; two posts in one day. The earth must have stopped spinning. I just thought that since I had a few free minutes I would update y'all on today. We went to church and Becca learned about Moses and the burning bush and they had a safari theme today whereas last week they had a pirate theme. The lady in the church nursery was concerned that Grant might start walking any day and then they would lose him to the walking class. They separate the older babies by walkers and crawlers. The message in the main sanctuary was Unleashing Confidence and last week it was Unleashing Forgiveness. It's a nice church and Becca really seems to like it. She said she liked our new church better than her old church, Woodford Community Christian as we drove by on our way to Quest.
      We went to Jacobson Park after church. Becca wanted to fish right away. Papaw and I went down by the lake with her and Papaw threw in her line and we waited. Becca had a little nibble and then we actually saw the super tiny fish swimming around her bobber. He never hit the bait again. It wasn't too long before Becca got bored and wanted to play in the sand box. I wish I had known there was a sand box there; I would have brought a shovel for her. She climbed around the playground structures and swung on the swings and generally had a pretty good time. Grant got to swing as well and he laughed big. He was really tired all day though. Becca had an okay time but I don't think that she had as good a time as she did last weekend but that's okay. Becca's not feeling too well right now so it's understandable. I don't have any big plans for next weekend so we'll all just hang around either here or down at Mamaw & Papaw's.
      I forgot to mention one day last week when Becca and I took a walk along the dirt bike trails at Mamaw & Papaw's. It started out as a bird watching adventure and when we got to the mound of dirt that the boys like to ride their dirt bikes over we had to play Dora and Boots on the snowy mountain. We eventually decided that since Becca was Dora and I was Boots we should go exploring. We went down a trail that had been made since the last time I rode dirt bikes down there. I bet I haven't ridden three times this past whole summer. Last year I rode the dirt bike tons. I suppose it's because I don't get to be close to my kids as much as I did before their mother and I separated. I had a great summer with Becca in the pool and Grant sometimes got in as well but not nearly as much as Becca.
      Anyway, Becca and I found a long vine and Becca swung on it for a little but when I tried to swing on it it was apparent that it wasn't made for a man of my girth. I ended up pulling the vine down and we decided we would use it for a rope if we needed to do any mountain climbing. Eventually the game morphed into Scooby Doo and zombies. When we eventually emerged from the woods into the field I laid down in the grass and Becca, being a zombie tried to eat me. I kept rolling out of her way until she finally got me. We checked out Papaw's barn and she had to show me the bulldozer, the bobcat, Papaw's two vintage Ford tractors and his truck. We headed back up the hill but she wanted to walk up the heavy truck access road on Papaw's land and even though I was hungry and tired I relented. She said she wanted to show me something. Eventually she decided she wanted to show me a magical rock that she just happened to pick up. When the rock was on the ground it smelled nice but when you picked it up it magically smelled stinky. We had big time picking the rock up and putting it down. Eventually we started to head back to the house. We saw Mamaw's concrete goose and Becca wanted to shoot it so she made her fingers into a gun and shot that goose. We pretended to pick that goose up and take it back to the house. There was a big pot of stew on the stove so we pretended to throw the goose into the pot and we had goose stew for supper.
      I was about to head for the house but I had to write Mamaw & Papaw a check so I reached into my back pocket for my checkbook but it wasn't there. I know I had it before Becca and I left on our adventure. I deduced that it had fallen out of my pocket as I was rolling and diving away from the Becca zombie earlier in the evening. So I grabbed a flashlight that really needs new batteries and Papaw and Becca rode the mower back to the field. I guessed at about where we had been and I looked around on the ground as Papaw made swipes over the area checking it with the headlights of the mower. Papaw and Becca eventually found my checkbook and while I didn't find the checkbook I did notice the prodigious amount of wild animal droppings, mainly deer. It made me vow never to go rolling around in the field again.
      Well, that's that for this second post in one day. I bet I won't get around to posting again until Thanksgiving but I hope it's much sooner than that. Oh, I have begun work again on the project I started about this time last year. I started downloading Christmas movies and shows off of the internet last year and I TiVoed a bunch more. I have begun editing them and maybe looking for a few more on the internet. Soon I will be burning them to DVD. I'm going to burn four or five copies of each DVD I make so that as one wears out or becomes nonoperational I will still have backups and maybe the kids will be able to enjoy the DVDs their entire childhood. That's my hope anyway. Now, really that's it for this post. Daddy loves Rebecca & Grant!

Dear Becca & Grant,
                     Well, we did go to Bi-Water Farm in Georgetown and Becca had a great time. The day before we went Grant was not feeling very good at all so I decided to reschedule the flu shots for both of the kids. Becca was so relieved that she wouldn't be getting a shot. We dropped Grant off at Mamaw's and Papaw loaned me his new GPS navigation system thingy so we could find our way and I loved it. I had never been to Bi-Water Farm and had no idea where it was at and his tool, it's called a Magellan, worked like a dream. It was a lazy slow day that both Becca & I enjoyed immensely. We first went to Cracker Barrel for brunch. I ordered off of the breakfast menu and Becca had chicken fingers and mac & cheese. I at all of mine but she didn't eat any of hers. We then browsed in the gift shop for awhile. They already have Christmas stuff out. After we left we went outside on the porch and played a game Becca invented using the giant checkers they have there while she chewed her bubble gum I bought for her there and I drank an orange cream soda. We sat there for a good long while. The day was beautiful and it was so relaxing. After we were done there we went to Bi-Water Farm. I knew she was going to enjoy it when we pulled into the drive and she got so excited to see a roll bale of hay they had made up to look like a giant spider. We paid our way in and the first thing we did was check out the baby animals. They had baby ducks, baby chicks and baby bunnies. Becca loved it. Then they had a petting zoo right next to it. There they had tons of goats with two baby kids and a couple of llamas that you could pet. They also had pigs, sheep, chickens, turkeys, and a calf; you couldn't pet any of those though. Then we went over to the Trike Track. They had a ton of big tricycles and a nice little track set up. Becca had fun riding through that. Next we went right next door to the Pirate's Cove which was really only a bunch of sand boxes and a big wooden thing built to look like a ship with wooden pirate cutouts everywhere. Becca really enjoyed playing in the sand boxes. She was there playing for 45 minutes. That's where we first saw the stray chicken. Apparently one had gotten away from the petting zoo area and she was just hanging out with all of the people. The poor chicken was probably traumatized because all of the children were chasing it around all over the place. Becca took another ride around the Trike Track and then we took a hay ride up to the pumpkin patch and Corn Maze. We went through the corn maze and went only a little way in, I hadn't even lost my bearings yet and Becca started talking about us never getting out of there. I assured her that we would. She was just a bit nervous but I knew where we where at and I assured her that I knew how to get us out and sure enough we marched right out of there. Then we browsed the pumpkin patch and we found a very nice little pumpkin for Becca and a super tiny one for Grant. Becca was concerned that we would have to walk all the way back but I assured her that the hay wagon would soon return and sure enough it did. We rode it as far as the playground. There was a soda machine there and Becca was just a bit fussy so we bought an orange soda and that seemed to cheer her right up. She was probably just thirsty. The had a nice playground with some big tubes on ropes that the kids were using as swings, tractor tires halfway in the ground that you could climb on, a wooden tractor, a wooden train and a wooden truck. Then we went across the tractor path to what they called The Little Cowboy Corral which was a bunch of giant rocking horses and a slide. Next we checked out Bunny Town which was an area where they had about twenty rabbits with miniature building made to look like a town. I then convinced Becca to go through the Lost Pumpkin Mine with me. It was in a barn but the entrance was very dark. Becca didn't want to go but I asked her if she would go if I carried her; she said she would. It wasn't scary at all. The story was that Bi-Water Farm got their pumpkins from a pumpkin mine that was worked by dwarves but there is a dragon in the mine. Becca loved the dwarves that she called little Santas, especially when they were having lunch. They were really low quality animatronic type dwarves but cute and funny for a four year old all the same. She said the dragon scared her just a little but I think she was fibbing a little because you don't smile when you are scared. She wanted to go through again and this time I didn't have to carry her. We then stopped at the Ducky Derby which was rubber duckies that you raced using a hand water pump and a length of pipe. She had loads of fun there. We then revisited the baby animals and she got to pet a baby bunny this time. Becca just didn't want to leave. We hung out for a long time in the petting zoo area and then Becca decided she wanted to try the Spooky Old Farm House. She didn't want to try it earlier because the entrance there was dark as well. She took a few tentative steps in and when she saw the skeleton band playing rock music she grinned big because she knew at this point that there would be no spooks in this spook house. There was a monster school room, a bunch of witches relaxing at home, a skeleton taking a shower and a ghost restaurant. All of the exhibits were accompanied with funny little songs appropriate for the setting. There was more but I don't remember all of the spook house things. Becca ran out of the exit and right back around to the house and in we went again. We finished up by paying for our pumpkins and purchasing some apple cider. We then bought us a caramel apple to eat as we waited for the train, actually a tractor made up to look like a train. We rode the train down by a creek and saw an Indian Teepee and a few other sites. She grinned huge the whole train trip.
      We left Bi-Water Farm and I used the Magellan to tell us where the Wal-Mart was located in Georgetown. We needed paints so we could paint her pumpkin. We bought some face paints so we could paint each others face as well as the pumpkin. We got back to Mamaw & Papaw's and broke open the paints and we had a grand old time painting each others faces and then when it was really too dark to see we painted the pumpkin. Papaw made us some popcorn and Becca and I had a ball trying to throw popcorn into each others mouths. We made an absolute mess of the deck. After the popcorn we spent nearly an hour playing a game Becca invented. She gave me the instructions everytime we started. I was supposed to be visiting the penguins at the aquarium with some fish but I didn't see any when lo and behold Becca would come waddling out as Becca Penguin and I would be so excited to see a penguin and then Becca Penguin would eat my fish and Becca Penguin would give me a big hug and the game would begin again after I was instructed on how to play the game. Grant fell asleep long before we decided to head to the house so Becca and I just let him stay at Mamaw & Papaw's and we went home. I was out of dip and I absolutely had to have some dip so even though my face was painted all kinds of different colors as was Becca's we stopped at Dairy Mart. Becca actually thought I had lost my mind wanting to stop at a store when we both looked so foolish. She thought it was funny too though.
      Next morning Becca woke up way earlier than I would have liked. We eventually got dressed and went down to Mamaw & Papaw's so we could all go to church. We were running a little late. We eventually pulled into the parking lot of Quest Community Church right as the service was supposed to start. I got Grant and Becca both settled and I went to the service. The message was on forgiveness. After church I went and got Becca and it seems like they had a pirate themed message. She had fun though and I am going to start taking them there whenever I have the opportunity. We all need to be in church somewhere.
      After church we went to Culvers for lunch. It seems that every time we go to Culvers Becca has to potty. After we had lunch we went to the Lexington Green and fed the ducks and fish. I got change from a lady at the outside bar at Regatta and she gave me a bowl for the feed. That was real nice of her. I really wanted to get a drink at the bar but I thought that would look tacky; me sucking on a mixed drink as I played with my children. I passed on the drink. Becca enjoyed feeding the fish and the ducks but when the food and the money had run out she said she wanted to do something else fun. We went inside Joseph-Beth Booksellers and she played with a train set they had there and a marble game. Both kids had fun.
      We then went to the Carnival Shoe Store to get Grant some shoes but all they had there was Nike and New Balance in his sizes and I am not paying thirty dollars for shoes for a thirteen month old so we decided to go home because we were all so very tired. I changed my mind when I decided that Grant really needed a pair of shoes in the worst way. I stopped and got Becca out and when I went to get Grant out the poor boy was sound asleep. I picked him up and strapped him in a buggy thinking that he would wake right up but he didn't. He would flop over in one direction and I would set him up and he would flop over in the other direction. We got inside and I got one of those carts with a baby carrier type thing attached and put him in that and he slept like exactly what he is, a baby. I tried a couple of pair of shoes on him and eventually found some to fit him and he never woke up during the whole process. We did a little more shopping. Grant finally woke up and he was hungry so I went to the dairy case and got some milk and fixed him a bottle right there in the store. Becca and I were hungry so we got us something to eat as well. We bought us a chicken salad sandwich to split, some Funyuns, some raw broccoli and a banana. We ate on the way home and I have never heard a child go on about how delicious broccoli was like Becca did as she ate her raw broccoli on the way home. You would have thought she was eating ice cream and cake. When we got home Becca and I played our penguin game some more after Becca painted her nose black and her tummy white like a penguin and then that was the end of our fun weekend.
      This past week Grant wasn't feeling too well. Papaw picked him up from daycare one day this past week while I worked over and he looked so puny and was coughing until he was red in the face. Papaw was concerned so he called the pediatrician and they got him in right away. He had an ear infection. While they were there I talked to Papaw on the phone and I asked him to ask the pediatrician about the flu mist for Becca. She really didn't want the shot and if she didn't have to have it I didn't want her to have a shot either. They asked about the mist and the doctor said that she would do just fine with the mist and then Mamaw asked if they could just go ahead and do it that day. They said they most certainly could. Grant got the shot and did not like it one little bit and he has to go back in a month to get another one. Becca on the other hand got the mist and it didn't hurt her at all she told me; as a matter of fact she said it was fun. So now we have the kids inoculated against the flu. Grant's antibiotics made him feel better with his ear infection. After the doctor Papaw, Mamaw, the kids and I all went to Fazolis for Italian food. I love spaghetti.
      Becca had an ear ache incident as well. I left the kids at Mamaw & Papaw's Thursday night and when I was about ready to go to bed I got a call from Mamaw and in the background I heard Becca screaming like a banshee. I grabbed my clothes and all the stuff I would need for work and headed on down to be with her right away. I was almost there when I realized I had forgotten the children's Motrin so I had to rush back and get that. Becca was very upset and complaining of her ear and her tummy. Mamaw thought about taking her to the emergency room until calmer heads prevailed. I gave her some medicine and laid down beside her and she went right to sleep as did I. I went to work the next morning from Mamaw & Papaw's.
      Today we plan on going to Jacobson Park for a small family gathering and they have a lake there so Becca has some plans to fish. We needed a fishing rod so Friday night the kids and I went to Wal-Mart in Lawrenceburg. We got her a Dora the Explorer fishing rod with a Dora bobber, we got her a lantern and a cheap Halloween jack O'lantern mask so she could scare people. She wore her mask inside McDonalds Saturday morning and everyone was scared to death. We came home and everyone was so tired we went right to bed.
      Like I said we are going to Jacobson park this afternoon. First though we are going to go to church though. I was supposed to get the kids this morning about now but it seems Becca had a bad night last night. It looks like we are going to have to take her to the pediatrician Monday and find out what is going on. Kids under sixteen can fish for free at Jacobson Park. This will be Becca's first fishing trip. I am excited about it, maybe more than she is. Papaw & Uncle Rodney have plans on cutting a road in the back of Papaw's house all of the way down the hill to the river. They have to work it out with the owner of the land behind Papaw's land but Uncle Rodney doesn't think that will be a problem. Becca and I along with Jake & Jon went down to the river almost a year ago and it was such a job to get back up the hill that we decided, or rather I decided we would never try that again. It'll be nice if we could just ride down the hill and fish a little bit or just enjoy the river view and then ride back up the hill.
      Grant has taken as many as seven steps. His problem is that he will take off when we start our walking lesson and he will do great starting out but when he does so well to begin with he gets so excited that he really can't repeat his first walk. It's only a matter of weeks until he is toddling around everywhere. I will love to see him walking like that but at the same time I will be sad to see the end of his little commando crawl. I took him to church last week in a cammo shirt, cammo socks and an army green pair of pants and the lady at the church nursery commented on how appropriate his outfit was.
      Grant also seems to be very popular with the staff at Kid's Kingdom Daycare where the kids have been going as of late. When I go to get him it's like he's a rock star on the way out because everyone has to stop and talk to him or hold him. That little boy has some charisma, unlike his Dad who has absolutely zero charisma.
      Well, I need a shower and a shave. I'm supposed to get the kids here in about a half an hour so I had better get on the ball. Daddy loves Rebecca & Grant!