Monday Mish Mash

I suppose I could take each one of the following items and make them into a separate blog, but I decided to put them all in one. Short blurbs, of course.

Daily Dad

One of the hardest jobs I have ever been handed is that of being “dad.” I cannot remember who suggested this book, but I had it in my Amazon cart for a few weeks before finally ordering it.

I have only had it a couple days and the introduction in this book would make a fantastic blog in itself. It is very powerful.

Like a daily devotional, it is organized to feature a thought every day. I am glad that I bought this and look forward to making it a part of my day. I want to be the best dad I can be and teach my children life lessons. I want to raise them right. I hope to use what I learn with my older children, too.

Daily Devotional

I have been a lot better as of late in reading my Bible every day, or at least watching a Bible lesson from pastors I know. I stumbled on this daily devotional quite by accident. A fellow believer had a small picture of it on her Facebook page and I was able to nab a copy of it.

This isn’t set up by date, however it does have 366 devotionals so you can read it in a year. Again, I’ve only had it a couple days and I have really enjoyed this. The pieces are not too long, but loaded with solid information.

Other Reading

My wife has been telling me about a book for some time. I kept putting it off because of the other books I had from the library. I have started it and am progressing slowly, as my time to read physical books isn’t what it had been.

My oldest son has Asperger’s Syndrome, and so does the main character of this book. It is described as a crime thriller, a lesson in motherly love, a primer on Asperger’s syndrome, and a heart stopping trip through the legal system. So far, it is very good.

In the car, I am listening to a very unique story. It has quite an interesting premise.

In a nutshell, Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m. There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit (yes, you become each witness). We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer.

The main character wakes up each day as a different person, reliving the same day and it is his job to find out who murders Evelyn Hardcastle. So far, it is really good. The audio book is like 17 hours long!! I am about 4-5 hours in. I’m hoping it doesn’t disappoint.

At home, I read a chapter about one of my favorite characters of all time and a different case.

Great book by a fellow Columbophile!

The Biggest News of the Weekend

I’m not sure who is responsible – my wife or my daughter – but come this weekend, we’ll have a new addition to the family.

I’m not sure if that puppy is spitting her tongue out at me or is looking at a bone. I am sure that she is coming to our house on Friday.

It started with a text from my wife. “I want a puppy.” That was followed by a video call from my daughter telling me why we needed a puppy. Then my son chimed in, too.

We housed a dog for a while, but she bit one of the kids, so she went to live with my sister-in-law. Because of this, I was apprehensive about even entertaining the thought of getting another dog, let alone a puppy.

Sam decided to send me pictures of the available pups. Then they picked a couple (of the 9 pups) that they liked. Then the owner allowed us to go look at them.

It became very obvious which one liked Ella and which one Ella liked. So, she will be ready for us to pick up this weekend. Many names were thrown out by Sam and me, and Ella shot most of them down. We did talk her out of naming the puppy after her pediatrician!! Anyway, it looks like “Daisy” will be very welcomed in out home.

Puppy Project

When we had the previous dog, it didn’t go far and stayed in the yard. However, I know puppies. I don’t want to be chasing it through the neighborhood. So my father-in-law (my project manager) and I worked this weekend setting posts for a temporary fence. Pardon my amateur art skills….

Our backyard is huge. So my father-in-law and I mapped out how we were going to give the pup it’s own area. There is an area up near the back of our house where we can run fencing from the back of the garage to the chain-link fence of our neighbor. Then we can run some fencing from the house to the garage and add a gate. This will give the pup a nice little area to play (and poop) in for the next couple months.

Once the snow melts in the spring, my father-in-law and I are going to buy chain link fence and run 100 feet at a time and finish fencing the entire yard. For now, this will work.

Be ready for plenty of puppy pictures (probably of stuff it chewed up!).

Thanks for reading!

Aaargh You Excited? Absolutely!

As the title of this blog suggests – I am excited. I have a couple things to be excited about and I wanted to share them with you. I guess I should explain the whole pirate flag first …

What Kind of Shoes Go With a Peg Leg?

My job often requires us to put in for time off months in advance. This is never an easy thing for me, because quite frankly I barely know what I am doing next week. At any rate, a day or two after the May schedule was posted, I found out about an event coming up that I had to go to!

There is a nature preserve and arboretum near us that is having a Daddy/Daughter event. It fell on a day that I work, so I hurried and put in a request to swap days if possible. Luckily, my boss was able to switch my schedule for the day so that I could go to this with Ella. I didn’t know much about the event, other than it has a pirate theme. Honesty, I thought it was a Daddy/Daughter dance with a pirate theme, but I don’t think that is the case now. Either way, I am excited to have a special night with my little girl.

I may have to do some searching on the internet for a pirate costume! When I thought about it, I remembered that there was an episode of Ella’s favorite show, Bubble Guppies that featured Alice Cooper (Yes, THE Alice Cooper) as a pirate named Windy Pete. Maybe we could go dressed like they did in that episode?

Of course, Windy Pete has a penguin, who he thinks is a parrot in the show. I might look a little funny with a penguin on my shoulder.

… and ear muffs! I would look weird as a pirate with ear muffs.

I can’t even begin to tell you how very excited I am to have this Daddy/Daughter event to look forward to in a few months!

Celebrating 4 Years

My wedding anniversary is coming up on Saturday. I am excited to be able to share some time with my wife. Our schedules do not allow for us to spend time together often. The schedules work well for minimizing the need for child care, but husband/wife time is lacking.

Having two children under 2 has really taken a lot out of both of us. We were lacking good sleep before, but it has reached a whole new level of tiredness. Lack of sleep is not good for anyone, and as sleep technologists we are well aware of the issues go along with that. We both tend to be a bit shorter with each other. Little things tend to get under our skin a bit more. All of it is due to our lack of sleep.

That being said, I decided that I wanted to make sure to do something special for our anniversary. My wife deserves it. I don’t know how she does it. I wish I could afford to have someone come over and watch the kids so she could sleep. She hasn’t really ever had a break and we’re both feeling the stress – her more than me!

I have never been the best gift giver. 9 times out of 10, she knows what I get before I even give it to her. I guess I really suck at that. I also am not the best at coming up with interesting things to do. I’m not sure why, but I kinda suck at that too.

I began a search of all of the nearby theaters a few weeks ago. I was hoping that somewhere there would be a play, a concert, or event we could go see. We had been talking about seeing the Symphony, but that show falls on a Sunday and she works. The only thing that I found happening on Saturday near us was a hockey game. I’m sure she wouldn’t enjoy that as much as I would (and it is not about me, but about her, so hockey was out)!

Interrupting to tell a funny story

I had taken $100 out of our account and stuck it in my wallet to use for our anniversary. I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing yet, but I wanted to have it ready. I had taken Andrew to the doctor and Sam gave me her insurance card. I put it back in my coat pocket to give back to her and forgot to do so when we got back. When I was sleeping before work, Sam was making appointments and needed the numbers off her card. So she went looking for it. No big deal, she knows the places I usually put my wallet, so she looked for her card – and found the $100.

When I woke up, she said she was looking for her card and asked why I had $100 in my wallet. I was so surprised that she found it, I fumbled around trying to lie my way out of why I had it. “It must have been in there for a long time and I forgot about it!” LOL – who the hell am I trying to kid?! She is my wife and knows me better than anyone! She knew I was flubbing my way through! I finally told her I was saving it for our anniversary. I should have just come out and told her, but I didn’t want her knowing I was spending that much.

This Saturday

As far as Saturday night, I knew I was going to take her to dinner. We always go to Lucky’s Steakhouse, which we love, but I wanted to do something a bit different. Some co-workers and friends offered up some really neat places (which I plan on going to in the future), but I wanted to stay semi close to home so we weren’t out all night. We have a sitter, and I know she’s totally ok with us being out late, but I know Sam would feel better if we were close.

So I have two things planned – one is dinner and the other is a surprise. I really hope that she is going to like it. I can’t wait to go. She knows what towns we are going to and keeps questioning “What is there that we can do?” She’s pretty good at figuring stuff out, so I hope that she doesn’t before Saturday.

I also ordered her a couple gifts. One has already arrived (and needs to be wrapped). The other is something that probably won’t arrive before Saturday. Again, she probably has some sort of idea about what I may have gotten her, so I hope she doesn’t figure it out. I wish that I could give gifts like she does. She hears me mention something off the cuff and stuffs it away in her mental filing cabinet until she needs it and then always surprises me. But she can always figure mine out. Example: We were at Target the other day. She saw that her favorite author, Jodi Picoult, had a new book out. I immediately think “I need to buy this for her.” If I hand her a gift bag, she will know that it is that book. (For the record – I did NOT buy that book for her! Now, I may at a later date, but not for our anniversary.

I am truly excited to have a day/night with my wife. I know she would be happy just walking the mall (as a matter of fact, she told me that!), but I am really hoping to make the day special for her. I need to make sure that I find something that we can do together at least once a month. We need a date night. It is easy to lose “us” time with two kids, and “us” is SO important right now.

I can’t wait!

A good book, a great compliment, and bad dreams.

Intro

5-Days

It’s been 5 days since I have had a chance to sit and blog. I have been able to jot things in my notebook, but just never had the chance to write. This blog, like the last one, is a collection of thoughts from the past 5 days.

A Good Book

I have a habit of going to that store and snapping pictures of books that I want to read in the future. Every now and then I have to scroll through the many pictures on my phone to remember them. I need to add them to my “Good Reads” app, so they are all in one place, but I never seem to find the time to do that.

My wife and I tend to read very different books. I read a lot of history themed books, as well as mysteries, thrillers, and biographies. She reads more Jodi Picoult type stories. I had received a Barnes and Noble gift card some time ago, and my wife and I took a walk through the store to see what I might want to spend it on. While walking through the “New in Paperback” section, I saw one that caught my eye.

I have read a few books that used World War II and German Concentration Camps as a setting. Some were true stories, some were fiction. When I saw the book, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, I picked it up to read what it was about.

tattoo

While the book is a novel, it is based on the true story of a man and woman who met and fall in love while imprisoned at the camp Auschwitz-Berkenau. The author, Heather Morris, wrote the story after many interviews with Lale Sokolov. The novel is based on his story. After his wife, Gita passed away, he wanted to share his story. The result was this book.

I read it knowing that it was a “fictionalized” version of their story. The author stated that she wrote the story that Lale intended her to write. Late last year, there was some controversy saying that there were things that were incorrect in the story. The author again said that she wrote what he told her to write. None of that takes away from a very powerful story of love and survival. While I wished for more of an after story, I am excited to hear that there is a sequel due out next month based on one of the other characters in the book – Cilka’s Journey. I will definitely be reading that one, too.

A Great Compliment

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It’s always great to catch up with an old friend. It’s even better when you catch up and can talk about the good things going on in your life, instead of the bad. My friend and I last chatted shortly after I got remarried, so it had been a little while since we chatted. I was able to talk about my newfound happiness, the positives and positive changes in my life, and, of course, the news that we are expecting a baby in February. After chatting for some time, my friend said, “Please don’t take this the wrong way. I don’t mean to sound mean or rude, but it is like I don’t even know you anymore!”

How could I take this as mean or rude? I knew exactly what my friend meant. I was a different person, a couple years ago. It always seemed like I was complaining when we talked. I was forever venting about the misery and worry in my life. I was in a very deep depression. I was SO unhappy. I was struggling with everything and anything. I was blaming myself for so many things! I took the blame for almost everything. I had given up.

“It’s like I don’t even know you anymore!” No – you don’t! I am NOT that person anymore. I don’t focus on negatives. There is a smile in my voice when I talk about my life. I have been blessed with an amazing soul mate who has changed my life in so many ways. I don’t think you are mean or rude – instead, I thank you for the amazing compliment. A compliment which proves that it’s not just me who sees the positive changes in my life – it’s others, too!

“When someone pays you a compliment – don’t disagree. Accept it with grace, and most importantly, BELIEVE what they say!”

Bad Dreams

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It has been some time since I have had a nightmare. Last night, I had a few! I probably should have wrote them all down, because I have forgotten some of them. I know I woke up at least 6 times in a 7 hour period. With every wake up, I got more and more annoyed.

I often try to think about why I dreamt about something. Sometimes, I can make a connection to something from the previous day. For the life of me, I have no idea why I dreamt about what I did. In the first dream, I was standing in a house looking out a window. I was staring outside at an older car, possibly a Chevy Caprice. Someone is standing next to it about to break into it or something and I am trying to yell out the window – I was doing everything I could to try to scream something at the person – but I could not make a sound. I woke up in the middle of those non-existent screams. I had only been asleep for about an hour.

In one dream, I am watching TV and I hear gunfire outside. The windows around me begin to shatter as bullets break through them. On the TV, I see the house I am in (it’s not my current one) on the news with “Breaking News” about a standoff in a local neighborhood. I can see police outside the one side of the house and when two men jump through the window into the house I woke up. (This dream may have stemmed from a radio show I heard on my way home.)

The final dream I remember involved me being chased by someone. I don’t even know why I was being chased. It was weird because the scenery around me changed often. I started running through a neighborhood. I then was running on a dirt road, through a shopping mall, and eventually I was running on the beach. As I was running through the sand, I could feel myself sinking deeper into the sand until I couldn’t move my legs. I was struggling to get my legs and feet out of the sand and they wouldn’t budge. I woke up with Sam’s leg on top of mine.

On days where I have to work, I hate when I keep waking up. I only had two cups of coffee last night and I was done with them by 3am. I hadn’t eaten anything out of the ordinary (which has led to weird dreams in the past) and was tired enough that I should have been able to sleep right through. I didn’t. I know better than to let it bug me, because the more you focus on how you need to sleep, the more it keeps you awake (at least that is the way it works for me). Hoping that tomorrow’s sleep is a whole lot better.

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