Day at the Playground

So this is the first video I have made on my new iPhone. I am still learning but it's pretty fun to do. Had a fun day at the park. Not without excitement though. Sarah did fall of the swing and bit her tongue. She's a trooper though. As soon as she stopped crying she wanted to get back on for "more wee".

Mean Old Mr. Gravity

He took my hard drive last night. My quite new 1TB hard drive. It had my music, our family videos, family folders, financial back ups, and to top it all off, Nicole's work projects. The Computer Dr. Verified it today. It was a total loss. Nicole and I are mourning our loss today. She is wrestling with the fact that she lost at least 20 hours of work which in mommy time is like one month of work. I have been watching her work hard lately on some of these projects. I am feeling bad that I did not have a better back up system for her. Starting tomorrow though things will be different. We will subscribe to an online back-up storage service and have a networked hard drive that she does not have to lug around the house. The online backup service is about $50 a year. Oh what a small price it would have been to pay it seems like. Also, iTunes Policy on hard drives crashing is, back up your data! Makes sense. Its true, but fairly unrealistic. I buy a song today and my hard drive crashes tomorrow? I am asking for a one time pass on this one. Hopefully it will be a lesson learned. Otherwise, we have about another $2-300 of music to replace on top of the $70 Computer Dr Fee and the $140 new hard drive and $1000 of Nicole's work time. What plague is this? Any thoughts?

'I am throwing up in my bed.'

Those were the words I was greeted with when I responded to Rachel's call shortly after 11PM last night. I told her it was ok and lifted her out of her bunk bed to take her to the bathroom. She warned me she was going to throw up again and fulfilled her promise down my neck and on my sweatshirt. Nicole tended to Rachel as I cleaned up the bit that hit her carpet and hosed down Rachels 'B' in the kitchen sink. I then announced that I was going to take a shower. As I looked at myself in the mirror, I started to chuckle and continued to as I proceded to smear my daughters vomit up my face over my ear and head as I removed my NEDU Tshirt and hooded sweatshirt. It took me about 5 seconds to assess the damage before placing my hope in soap. Something about that event was slightly fulfilling.

Random Pics

So we are bad at updating this blog frequently. I am also bad and putting pictures from our camera to our computer. So I did it tonight, and in doing so, realized there are some fun pictures. So I put a bunch of them together in one mess of a set.

Go ahead, maximize the slide show. You know you want to. Its worth it.

Box House

We bought furniture for the back deck last weekend. We saved the box and are starting a community for children who do not want to live by their parents rules. They are too young to kick out of the house...but they can get a taste of what its like to be emancipated before they are ready.

Lourdes, don't worry the girls are not being bad and we are not kicking them out of the house....yet.

Rachel can Hula

Rachel can do more than 100 of these. I am amazed!

Ten Plagues Video

Read the post below first.

Ten Plagues

This email chain is long...but I thought anyone who reads this might get a chuckle. I replaced customer and supplier names with things in quotes so that it still makes some sense.

Bruce to Engineers:

Guys,

I have an "OEM" that Jason and I specked in an "BAD PEOPLE" motor into a while back. As many of you know the lead times from them now are ridiculous and they require 10 piece minimum orders. As I was looking for a replacement for my "OEM" their purchaser went and found some places in North America that stock these motors and could get them to them in a reasonable time. It means that we have to buy these at list pretty much, but it is still cheaper than "alternatives".

The trick with these places is that if you want to order a motor with encoder and gear box you need to order each as a separate line item and mount them in the field. Its lame, but better than the alternative. Here is the company "my OEM" used: "deleted"

With all this said, replace "Bad People" whenever possible. I pretty much hate them now. The fact that I specked in a motor that I no longer have access to is annoying. The fact that my customer is now buying it from someone else at no price advantage to them is infuriating.

Best regards,
Bruce


Jason's Reply to all:

I like to see B-Dog get fired up. It usually takes a lot to fire him up, "Bad People" really knows how to do it!

Dave's reply to Bruce and Jason:

Yes!! I don't think I have ever seen the word infuriating in an e-mail before. It really brought home the rage!

Bruces reply to Dave and Jason:

I am living in a constant state of rage right now and "Bad People" is a suitable target. Nicole went to a retreat two weekends ago. This Sunday she woke up with a bug on her. We now have bed bugs as do 6 other women who went on the retreat. It is an unbelievable pain in the a$$ to deal with this issue. One piece of advice. As you guys are traveling, check under the mattresses for these these things. If you bring them home you will be very sorry.

Here are the 10 plagues of Egypt. I have shown the ones I have completed this year and the ones I have left.

Blood - Sarah gets her finger partially amputated
Frogs - TBD
Gnats - Bedbugs
Flies - TBD
Livestock - This is more of a utility issue (The main waterline to my house broke and I have dirt in my pipes, my freezers drain pipe is frozen and water is leaking into my fridge. Been trying to figure this out for 3 months)
Boils - Chicken Pox
Hail - Not sure how I can twist this to fit
Locusts - TBD
Darkness - My CFL lightbulbs are supposed to last for years and years. I have had at least 10 die in the last year since I started replacing them. I have one out now in my kitchen.
Firstborn - I am a firstborn and I feel my life may be in jeopardy if this continues.

Daves reply to Bruce:

Wow! I need to call and get an update on some of these…. BTW I got your hail. It hailed like 3 inches here yesterday…

*Dave sent video of it hailing that he took while he was driving.

Bruce to Dave:

I was going to throw in there the weather has been pretty s@#$ty for spring, but I thought that complaining about the weather might be a bit to $itchy.

BH

Jason forwards my email to the entire company (not that many people):

I just had to share Bruce’s email below with everyone. The normally calm and collected Brucey is enraged right now, so stay on his good side!

He will hopefully be in TX in a couple of weeks to hook up with "His other customer" at a trade show, so I will make sure to show him around and make sure he gets the rest of his plagues checked off. Hail should be an easy one.

(See Plagues of Egypt email)

Laurie responds:

You are too funny!!!! I feel your pain.

Molly responds:
You have officially been banned from the office until there are no signs of bed bugs : )

We need new tires not extermination...

And if you cussed twice in one conversation, could you imagine how vulgar I would become???

Penny Responds
Brucey -
As much as we love you - your not welcome at the office until you resolve some of these issues - such as bed bugs. I had to deal with head lice one time & it put me over the edge for weeks.....I feel your pain.....good luck your gonna need it. If you haven't started drinking you might want to start.....you can flex the rehab treatment.

Trip to Florida

We were able to spend a great week with Nicole's Grandman at her house in Floriday. Right smack in the middle of the trip we were able to drive up to Orlando and spend a day at Disney World's Magic kingdom. It really was a magical place for Rachel. She had a great time and did not want to leave. It was a great decision to go. I am so glad we went. We have lots of pictures with Rachel ane princesses. I think one of the surprises for Rachel was that she got to see Mary Poppins too who blew Rachel a kiss during the spetramagic parade.

We also took a trip with Luli to a nearby safari. We got to drive through and see Rhinos and Giraffes and Zebras and Such... Enjoy the pictures.

Father Daughter Dance

So there was a father daughter dance at church. Rachel and I got all dressed up and went out to dinner at Burgerville (her request). Then we went for ice cream, followed by the dance. It was pretty impressive. They had it all decked out for Valentine's Day. They even had a photographer. Take a look at the pics of the dads and their girls.

Day At The ER

Today was pretty wild. I was in my office when I heard Nicole whistling for me from the deck at a faster pace than usual. I looked up to see her holding Sarah. She had a panicked look on her face and there was blood. I hopped off the phone and went in. Checked out Sarah's wound. Her finger had gotten closed in the hinge side of her bedroom door. Apparently Rachel did no realize she was there. A quick look at the wound showed that the tipof her finger, starting behind the fingernail was loose. It seemt to be holding on by a small chunk of skin on the palm side of the finger.

I did think that I could probably take care of the first aid before we went to the hostpital but it was clear that the mood in the house needed some professionals. Called 911. The paramedics came and bandaged her up. Everyone agreed that it would make sense for us to drive her to the hospital.

Got her there and there was talk of putting her under. The initial set of X Rays were not clear, so they decided to stitch her up first. They put her out before stitching her up. There is hope that she will not lose her finger nail on her right ring finger. No guarantees though. She cried a lot but handled it like a champ. After the stitches were another set of X Rays that showed that the finger was not broken! Unbelievable! That is the second time and second daughter to get her finger shut in a door. Both times I could have sworn that the finger was broken. Heck, I though Sarahs was falling off today. I told Nicole I am a pretty bad judge in this area.

Everyone is home. All the girls are in bed taking much needed naps to let that adrenaline soak back into their bodies. Man life gets crazy pretty quickly sometimes!

Post op popsicle

Stitches in her sleep

Hospital walk

Sarah's emergency room visit

2009 Highlights Video

Early Christmas Tea Party

We did Christmas early this year and the girls are very excited about all the presents from their aunts. We had a hard time getting Sarah out of the tunnel Razzi sent her and Rachel immediately started this tea party. Tomorrow we are slated to watch one of the Shirley Temple movies the got from the Richers. Thanks family for thoughtfully loving our kids. Merry Christmas!!

More

Sarah is just learning how to to sign more. Its not quite the real sign but familes learn how to interperet their small children. The video is long and she only really signs at the beginning. The rest of the time I just think her and Rachel are cute.

Pumpkin Patch

Pre-Walking

This is a video we took a few days ago of Sarah. We will see if she will be walking by the time Grandma and Grampa come for Thanksgiving.