Hipps Family Blog

2010 Year in Review

2011-01-02T21:35:00.003-05:00

2010 was not exactly the best year for this blog. I'm not certain as to why that was, although I seem to remember an extended period in 2004 (through 2007) after Maggie was born when this blog went silent as well, so perhaps it shouldn't be too unexpected. Raising an 8-year-old, a 6-year-old, and a toddler can be pretty exhausting. At the end of the day, there's not much energy left for blogging, and at the beginning of the day, I usually don't have time enough to get anything thought-out and written before I have to get ready for work. Still, we did have a pretty good year overall, and I would have liked to convey that and to have captured some of those moments. Here, then, are roughly a dozen of the milestones / points of interest I would have liked to have blogged about throughout the year, which would have nearly doubled the bloggable output for 2010, by the way. (Click pictures to see larger versions in new window/tab.)

1) I grew a beard starting on Angie's birthday (Jan 6th). I still have it.

2) Our baby boy learned to walk and talk this year. Okay, so the talking is still a work-in-progress, but the walking is in full force. He also moves a mean vacuum.

3) Our niece, who was barely 2 years old when Angie and I met in 1993, graduated from high school in May and started college in Indiana this fall.

4) As in years past, in June we went to Ohio to visit Angie's extended family, took a lot of pictures and had a lot of fun.

5) Also as in years past, in late July / early August we went to the beach with my family, took a lot of pictures, and had a lot of fun.

6) In September, we went to fall festivals and to Elijay for apple-picking.

7) In early October, we went to Stone Mountain Park for the first time. Not just the first time as a family; this is the first time any of us had been to Stone Mountain, even though we've lived relatively close to it for years, and Angie and I both grew up in Georgia. A good time was had by all.

8) In mid-October, we went to some sort of fall festival put on by an upscale subdivision which featured hot-air balloon rides. This ended up being a near-fiasco that really, really deserved its own blog post. Angie, Daniel, and Maggie rode the balloon while Joshua and I watched from below. The festival took place on October 16th, and I don't think a single day has passed since then that Joshua hasn't mentioned the "big a-boon" (trans: big balloon) at least once. Really. 79 days.

9) For Halloween, Daniel, Maggie, and Joshua dressed up as Harry Potter, Barbie Genie, and the World's Cutest Dragon, respectively (pictured below with their friend, Damon, as Iron Man).

10) The Hipps family had a small, Georgia-based family reunion in November, which was a blast.

11(possibly 11.a)) We had a great pre-Christmas Christmas time with the extended families the week before the blessed day.
12(possibly 11.b)) We also had a great actual-Christmas Christmas time here at home, getting to spend a lot of time with each other, playing with our new Wii, eating and eating wonderful foods, and even enjoying some time in the snow the next day.

And, of course, we did actually blog about a few of the big milestones, like our 11th anniversary, and of course, our Debt-Freedom! In conclusion, I can't promise that we'll do any better this year, but I do promise that I'll think about it at least once a week or so. Happy New Year!

Karate

2010-09-02T08:23:00.002-04:00

Daniel had his very first Karate class yesterday. We decided to sign him up at the YMCA since it is an eight week class for just $40 (for members) which is much cheaper than the other dojos we looked into. Based on how much Daniel likes it we will decide if we will pay more for him to continue his martial arts training. It was so fun to see him get into formation and trying out the moves the sensei (teacher) had his class learn/practice. He said he had a great time and can't wait to go back next week. He will also get his gi (uniform) then because his sensei had to order one for him. One of the coolest things about him starting class is that it means we are debt free (except our house)! For two years we told the kids that when we were debt free we could let them take ballet and karate. Maggie got a jump start on that because an opportunity presented itself for her to take a dance class very close to our home with one of her good friends last year (and the price was very reasonable). She starts her second year of dance next week. This year she is doing ballet and tap. Although, she now says she wants to take karate too. In fact, after watching Daniel, I would like to take karate. There is a dojo that does a family plan, so maybe next year the entire Hipps family will be fighting together. Isn't there a saying that the "family that fights together stays together?" Oh, I think that it's "prays together." Well, we do that too, so we will pray before we beat each other up ;) At any rate, it is shaping up to be an interesting year. We start school next week and this is the year that I have to test Daniel. He is a smart boy so I am sure he will do well. I can't believe that we have a third and first grader. Our children are growing up so quickly. I am very proud of them.

The Full Story, Part Two - Clawing Our Way Out Again Really, Really Slowly

2010-06-27T22:39:00.005-04:00

When last we left our heroes, they were up to their eyeballs in debt with a lackluster job (financially) and a baby on the way. So, for the next 4 or 5 years, we tried our best to keep expenses WAY down (Angie cried actual tears when we cut out cable) and to increase my income when possible. This really only helped us to keep the pace the credit counselor had set, since other expenses went up during this time with having our first two babies and moving again. Also, we kept having “unexpected” expenses, like car repairs and whatnot, and we never really got the hang of a budget, although the credit counselor had recommended that we make one.

In late 2006, when we first heard about Dave Ramsey, we’d managed to whittle down maybe $17,000 of the $45,000+ peak (looked it up last night; it was closer to $47K) over the course of those 4-5 years. Not awful, but not great by any means. More importantly, though, is that we didn’t really feel like we were getting anywhere, and every time some emergency arose, we’d add something back on credit because we didn’t have any extra money. Baby Step #1 of Dave’s plan was a radical, life-changing concept. We saved up a $1000 fairly quickly, and then we had some breathing room when emergencies struck (as emergencies are wont to do). Did you hear that? That was me just now, breathing a sigh of relief just thinking about it. That one step changed our situation entirely from being one emergency away from more debt to being in control and moving consistently forward. It was awesome. After that, we were fully on board with the plan.

Shortly thereafter, a guy named Joe Sangl came to speak and teach his Financial Learning Experience at our church, which was very helpful as well. The main difference between what Joe and Dave teach in terms of debt-reduction, as far as I can tell, is that Joe doesn’t stress the “as fast as possible” aspect as much as Dave does. I think “as fast as possible” is probably best for most people, but it’s hard to get extremely “gazelle-intense” when you’ve been cutting expenses and working on debt-reduction with not much traction for several years already. Joe freed us up to set a date to be debt-free and work towards that.

We decided early on that, because of our young children and the fact that we were so worn down from working for so long at this, we weren’t going to take any second jobs or cut out Christmas and birthdays and that kind of thing. We scaled those back considerably, but we didn’t sacrifice them altogether to get done faster. I am convinced this was the best decision emotionally, if not financially. Even so, now that we had our Mini-Emergency Fund and thanks to Joe’s budgeting tools, we were finally able to put a workable budget together that let us send about $1000 per month towards debt on average, while continuing to pay for minor automotive emergencies, a third baby, and a sudden multi-day hospital stay.

On February 18th, 2010, we paid off our last credit card, the end of our original debt. On May 17th, we paid off our recent hospital bills and really felt like we were finally debt-free!! So, in the end, with one thing and another, it really did take us nine years to get out of debt, but thanks to Dave (and Joe), we were able to drop almost $17,000 worth of “good debt” in the form of student loans in that time as well. And when we got to talk to Dave Ramsey on the radio to announce our debt-freedom and tell our story, to share our struggle and celebrate its end, it was powerfully anti-climactic. BUT, when we got to gather our family together to scream “WE’RE DEBT FREE!!!” with the help of some other debt-free extended family members, and especially when we got to hear the call again later (thanks to our good friend, Robbie), to realize that this was the culmination and the end of NINE YEARS of feeling like we were constantly broke and that all of the money we earned already belonged to someone else, it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, just below witnessing the birth of my children. Plus the scream itself sounded TOTALLY AWESOME!!!

Just the Scream:

The Full Call:

The Full Story, Part One - Digging the Hole

2010-06-24T08:26:00.002-04:00

On Friday, June 11th of this year, Angie and I had the pleasure of speaking with Dave Ramsey on his radio program about how we became debt-free (except for the house; that’ll probably still be a good-ish while). In our brief, 2-minute conversation, we didn’t really get to dive into the meat of how this progressed and what it means to us to be out of debt. I thought I’d try to tackle that here.

On the radio, Angie mentioned that we started out with about $34,000 of debt. This is actually the amount we had when we first heard about Dave Ramsey. Our highest amount of debt was closer to about $45,000. We’d made a LOT of not-so-bright financial decisions, mostly because we weren’t thinking about the financial side of things at all.

We started right away with putting the honeymoon on credit. I had enough money in the bank for the honeymoon from savings and gifts, but when we went to pay for a weeks’ worth of hotel room rental, my bank wouldn’t let me put more than $500 on the debit card without approval, and it was Sunday night, so I couldn’t call them to get the approval. So we used a credit card. Now, the person who says you can use credit wisely would just say, “No big deal. You charge the room to the card, then pay the whole amount off with the money you had in the bank.” See, that’s what I thought, too, that night. But once the trip was over and we got back home, I thought, “you know, we’ve still got all this money in the bank, and we could really use some new furniture.” We already had furniture, but it was old and hodge-podgey, although in hindsight it wasn’t actually poking us with springs or anything; still, a set from Pier One would be much more our style. This may actually qualify as two bad ideas.

The next big bonehead financial non-decision was when we moved to a different state in the middle of our lease with no sub-lessor and no job lined up. We put the movers and several months’ worth of two rents onto credit cards. This is when we started to realize that there was a problem (ya think?). We had considered ourselves relatively generous in Athens; we now got to learn to accept generosity from family and friends who were shielding us from our own stupidity, to some extent. Throughout this time between the honeymoon and (eventually) getting a job in the new place, we’d occasionally put meals out or CDs or other little things on credit. That’s what it’s for, right?

When I finally got a job (which didn’t quite pay all the bills), we went almost immediately to the local credit union to try and get into some sort of credit counseling / debt-consolidation program. I’ve since heard that most debt-consolidation plans are actually scams. This program, though, was actually pretty good, for two reasons. Number one, instead of the debt consolidators taking the money and running or one of the other scams, the credit union’s folks would pay off all the debt on your behalf, and give you a single low-interest loan for the full amount that you’d then pay back, thereby honoring all your obligations but giving you a little breathing room. The second reason this particular one was so good is that we didn’t qualify for it and they told us why. That was the hard slap-in-the-face that put an end to our frivolous (but never actually extravagant) lifestyle. They told us that, at the rate we could afford, it would take us about 9 years to get out of all our “bad” debt (meaning not even including the student loans), and they didn’t let anyone in the program who couldn’t pay them back in 5 years. They suggested that we cut our already sparse expenses to the bone and get our income up (remember I’d just gotten my job; I think we already knew Angie was pregnant at this point, too). This was the winter of our discontent…

Our 11th Anniversary, Part 2

2010-06-08T00:13:00.001-04:00

On Saturday, we awoke at a leisurely hour, having had our first uninterrupted night of sleep in, well, about 16 months. We breakfasted in the hotel on the patio, and headed off for a day of fun starting at...

the World of Coca-Cola! We debated between the High Museum and this, and finally decided that the WoC-C encompassed what we'd want from the High (look at art, albeit somewhat more focused on one particular subject) while being more refreshing in terms of giving us a lot of free Coke products. Win-win! It actually turned out to be pretty fascinating, with a history of the company, a couple of extremely strange movies (one of which was in 4-D, which is like 3-D only more painful), a tour of how Coke is made and bottled (you get to keep a souvenir bottle), and, as I mentioned earlier, some incredible Coke-related art including an exhibit that had just been installed the night before. Pretty cool.

From there we drove over to IKEA, as Angie had never been and wanted to check it out. We had a lunch/snack of Swedish meatballs (excellent!) at their cafeteria, looked around for about 5 minutes, then proceeded to walk for like, 7 more hours, just desperately trying to find the exit. That place is enormous, and there's apparently only one way out. God forbid they ever have a fire; hundreds would perish in a blaze of solid-colored Euro-snob particle board.

After a much-needed rest following all that walking, we headed to Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen for dinner. They had a great little New Orleans-style jazz trio of older men playing on the patio while we waited to be seated. The place was packed, and we had a pretty long wait, but that was fine with me. The food was excellent, and our server was very attentive. We debated trying to make it to a movie after that, but honestly, we were pretty beat.

On Sunday, we went to church, and then finished off our weekend with lunch at Rico's World Kitchen in Buford, GA. This is a tiny little restaurant in a converted service station that we heard about from friends, and it was far and away the best food we had all weekend. I couldn't believe it; I was absolutely blown away by how good every bite was. The service was nice, and the atmosphere was very comfortable. It was a fantastic end to our anniversary weekend.

I would say that the best part of all this was just getting to hang out for the equivalent of two whole days alone with my wife. Having three kids, you sometimes end up just playing defense, as they say, and you don't always take time to enjoy each other's company. This was a wonderful little getaway that was still close to home, and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. That said, I am looking forward to going even bigger next year.

Our 11th Anniversary, Part 1

2010-06-05T11:29:00.001-04:00

Last weekend (not Memorial Day, but the one before that) was our 11th Anniversary. In the week leading up to it, we paid off our last debt: Daniel's hospital bill. We are now officially debt-free except for our house!!! We will be on the phone with Dave Ramsey live on the air this Friday, June 11th between 3 and 4 PM, at which time we will finally be able to shout this great news to the world via radio waves! As Angie mentioned in the previous post, that moves us on to Baby Step #3, building up an emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses. (Actually, this month, we'll be using our newfound leftover money to pay for some much-needed personal items that we've put off while getting out of debt, and for this year's trip to Ohio. Next month, though, begins the serious savings push.) But I digress...

This post was supposed to be about our 11th Anniversary weekend. Since we've become parents, Angie and I rarely get to have any extended time to ourselves. As Angie mentioned here, we've had only two weekends alone together since having children (yes, I realize the link is to a post from almost two years ago; the tally has not changed since then). So for this, the first weekend of our married lives as a debt-free couple, we budgeted for a hotel relatively nearby, free baby-sitting from my generous parents, and a weekend of finding stuff to do in Atlanta.

Our first stop for the weekend was dinner Friday night at Sushi Niko Niko, which we were told means Sushi "with a smile." Angie and I first tried sushi on our honeymoon in Savannah as an appetizer, and it was great. We've had it occasionally as appetizers since, but never as the full meal. The restaurant itself is just a little store-front among the outdoor shops across from the Mall of Georgia, and even though friends had recommended it, I have to admit the exterior made me a little skeptical. This place was awesome! We had some sort of sampler of several different types of sushi, and I liked every one of them. Angie enjoyed hers, but didn't care for some of the crunchier offerings. Overall, I loved it, but Angie thought she'd stick with sushi as an appetizer in the future.

In our next installment, we'll discuss Saturday, our actual anniversary day. Be sure to stay tuned.

Since our last post . . .

2010-04-06T17:20:00.010-04:00

I would hope that the people who follow this blog are people that we are in regular communication with and therefore know what has gone on since our last post, but for posterity's sake I will update the blog.

Daniel made it home from the hospital in time for Joshua's first birthday. We have yet to do a party for our children's first birthday so we weren't going to start with our third child. We just stayed home, and Joshua got to eat his first cupcake. He made a fabulous mess and really enjoyed it. His Grandmama Hipps (Grandaddy was sick so he couldn't come) came up the next day bearing gifts. Just one example of how sweet and generous their grandparents are is the "un"birthday gifts that they bring for the other grandchildren. One of Joshua's gifts was Fifteen Animals by Sandra Boynton. He loves this book. We have read it hundreds of times to date. We already had a CD with this book in song form so we will read it and then sing it, much to Joshua's delight. Two weeks after Joshua's first birthday we recorded his first steps on our flip camera. He is now walking all of the time. It is so neat to watch the transition of a child taking his first steps, to walking some of the time but crawling most of the time, to walking more than crawling, to walking all the time.

A few days after we captured Joshua's first steps, Daniel had an appointment with an allergist. We found out that he is asthmatic, allergic to peanuts (which we already knew), cats (we suspected) and dust mites. We also found out that he is not allergic to strawberries as I had once thought, so he has since tried one strawberry. He liked it alright. So now Daniel takes Advair for his asthma in addition to his daily Zyrtek for allergies. He was fine until Spring sprung (although he didn't test positive for seasonal allergies) so he has had to use his inhaler a couple of times since he had a slight wheeze and some coughing. I have done a good bit of dusting and vacuuming to get the dust mite population under control. We also just had our air conditioner serviced since it wasn't working great and the allergist had said that dust mites like humid conditions so climate control is important.

Shortly after this I pulled Maggie's front two teeth. It was a bit traumatic since the second tooth didn't come out with the first yank, but we successfully got it out and she hopefully won't need another extraction anytime soon. Whereas Daniel lost a tooth just the other night after we put them to bed. He had apparently been wiggling it with his tongue and it fell out. Thankfully he didn't swallow it.

On February 18, 2010, Davis and I paid off our last credit card. We sent a payment for $2893.63 to Chase to pay them off. The Chase card had been a Washington Mutual card that we had transferred the balance of our MBNA card to. That MBNA card was my very first credit card that I got as a freshman in college with a $1000 limit. Before we started to pay off our debt it had a limit of $18,000 and we had $16,000 charged on it. I can't tell you how thankful we are for Dave Ramsey and his book The Total Money Makeover. We haven't been as "gazelle intense" as we could have, but once we decided that we were done with debt we have moved in the right direction ever since. It's been quite the journey. On March 15th, we paid off Joshua's hospital bill (from his birth), and we will be paying off Daniel's hospital bill next month! Then we can move on to baby step #3, which is to fully fund an emergency fund of 3-6 months living expenses (we will do 6 months since I don't work outside the home).

That about brings us up to date. In less than two weeks, Daniel will turn 8 years old. It is already hard to remember when he was Joshua's age. We recently watched some old home videos, and it was so sweet to hear Daniel's little toddler voice. I am really proud of the young man that we are starting to see take shape in our eldest son. Next month, Maggie has her first dance recital, and after that we plan to have some summer vacations. Hopefully, we'll remember to post something before then.

Daniel Update 8

2010-01-22T09:05:00.003-05:00

Today is the DAY!!!! The doctor came in and checked on Daniel this morning and declared that we can go home! His breathing is greatly improved, and his blood oxygen has stayed in the mid-90s since yesterday. They're doing up the paperwork now, which I know can still take a while, and then we can clear out after that. ***breaking news*** As I was typing that last sentence, the nurse came in with the discharge papers, so we're all signed out! She also took off "the glove" and gave him the non-bloody part to take home. They are giving him one farewell breathing treatment while I'm packing things up.

Again, thank you all so much for all the prayers and well-wishes. We know several people who are much more regular visitors to pediatric wards than we are, and while I have always respected these folks, my admiration has increased dramatically over the past 3+ days. I would say I don't know where you find the strength, but honestly, I believe that Jesus answers our prayers, and the people I'm referring to all have friends praying for them. Thanks again, everyone! We're going home now.

Daniel Update 7

2010-01-22T00:16:00.001-05:00

This one will be brief. Daniel's breathing is greatly improved, according to all the nurses who listen to him. He's had a good appetite, been drinking lots of fluids, and been able to *ahem* clear gunk out of his lungs and nose. He even got to move around a good bit and play in the playroom they have. He even got to play Spiderman 3 on the Playstation 2 that they have here, and I let him stay up WAY too late watching movies tonight. I only hope I haven't prevented him from getting all the rest that he needs, but he was having a good time, and there's got to be some reward for having such a great attitude this whole time, right?

Daniel Update 6

2010-01-21T11:32:00.001-05:00

One more day, at least. That's the latest word. The doctor says Daniel is improved (not gasping for breath anymore, even hours after his treatments), but still has some wheezing and a lot of congestion that he wants to get cleared up before sending us out into the world. Also, the much-mentioned blood oxygen levels are hovering in the 93-94 range. Honestly, I've never heard so much talk of "O2 Sats" in all my life, and I hope I never do again. Still, he's well enough to be off the IV fluids, so he's a little more free to move around the room and hall, not to mention finally getting to play his DS! Right now he's still playing games on my iPhone, but he's excited about the possibilities. The doctor did mention that once we do go home, he's going to want Daniel to see an allergist so that we can maybe prevent whatever triggered this thing from happening again in the future, or at least keep it manageable from home.

Daniel's spirits remain high, although honestly I think he's a fairly contented child in general. Give him a video game, a fun movie, or some Legos and he's good. Plus no schoolwork; that seems to be a bonus in his view. He was upset when the doctor said we'd be here another day, but he moved past it pretty quickly with some breakfast and Curious George on the TV. So, to sum up: one more day, needs more blood oxygen and less congestion, needs less wheezing and more DS-playing. Thanks again for all the prayers, everyone. I have a sneaking suspicions they're largely responsible the improvement thus far, and for our continued sanity.

Daniel Update 5

2010-01-20T22:53:00.002-05:00

So, now we play the waiting game... I'm really bad at this particular game. Daniel is doing well, as far as I can tell. He's had a lot more food and water today than yesterday, and (*warning for the squeamish* - potentially gross parts coming up; skip ahead to the next sentence if you need to) he's been getting stuff out of his nose and coughing stuff up successfully all afternoon and evening. The nurses say this is good, that he's moving the problem out of his lungs. The only real issue (aside from still having a slight wheeze) seems to be that his blood oxygen levels have continued to hover around the low end of OK, which is a problem in that if he needs to be given oxygen again, then we'd have to stay yet another night, which would be pretty bad for team morale. So, please pray that Daniel's blood oxygen levels get back to normal on their own and stay consistent so that we can go home. Also, please pray that there would be no trace of a wheeze, and that he'd be able to breathe normally.

Thank you all so much. We have been amazed at the amount of heartfelt encouragement and support we've been getting. What a blessing, to have such friends and family. Thank you.

Daniel Update 4

2010-01-20T10:07:00.002-05:00

Daniel's doctor checked on him this morning and said he's doing much better. He also ordered Daniel's IV turned down since he didn't seem to be wanting to eat or drink much. He did have some pancakes this morning, and he seemed excited about the lunch and dinner possibilities. Everyone says he's sounding better, and his blood oxygen has stayed at 95 since they gave him the oxygen last night. He's not struggling for breath nearly as much as yesterday, although he's still not up to perfect. The doctor said that frequently when these attacks come on suddenly, it ends up being a couple of days before the child is back to normal. He also said that Daniel is doing better than he'd expected, so that's good.

Daniel's been in good spirits this whole time, although he's getting tired of wearing the "glove" (the IV is held in place with a mesh wrap around his wrist and hand), since it prevents him from playing video games and it itches. For now, though, he's entertaining himself with movies on my computer, and an iPhone game I have that doesn't require him to use his right hand. At this point, I expect we'll be able to leave tomorrow. Thanks to everyone for all the thoughts and prayers. Daniel was impressed that I kept being able to tell him new people who are hoping and praying for his quick recovery. His parents really appreciate it, too.

Daniel Update 3

2010-01-20T00:56:00.002-05:00

It's 12:45am. Daniel has been sound asleep for about an hour or so. His most recent xopenx treatment was at 11:30, and the Tech said his wheezing was much better, now just a slight wheeze on exhale, whereas it had been a heavy wheeze on inhale and exhale. So that's good news.

However, the nurse just now checked his blood oxygen and it was at 89 (100 is what it should be) so she had to give him some oxygen. Aside from the reasons mentioned by Ashley in the comments to the previous post, the nurse also said they'd been trying to avoid giving him oxygen because there's apparently a rule that the patient has to stay at least 24 hours after oxygen has been administered. So, now we're here for 2 nights. Oh well. At least he's doing better, and he slept through the nose plug session. *sigh*

Daniel Update 2

2010-01-19T20:35:00.003-05:00

So, the iPhone battery died before I could get the update published. It is now just past 8:30. Since 7pm, Daniel has had his chest X-ray, another xopenx mixture, and they've given him another fluid drip. His blood oxygen levels are on the borderline of where they give him oxygen or not, so they're trying not to. If he dips below the border again, they'll probably give him some. Not sure what the reasoning behind giving or not giving it might be. Angie, Maggie, and Joshua came by again just before 8 to bring me a change of clothes and my iPhone charger. Maggie was broken-hearted that the whole family wouldn't be together at night. Daniel consoled her with tales of his wheelchair ride to wear a lead apron for his X-ray. This helped a little. The worst part for Daniel is that they put the IV in his right hand, and they instructed him to do his best not to wiggle it, so he can't even play his Nintendo DS. This is really the worst part of the whole affair. However, as he says, "as long as we're not here for 4 or 5 or 6 days, it's not too bad. Also, I got to wear a mask! (a breathing treatment mask) Plus, they brought me my own food and I got to request a movie. Also, I got to ride in a wheelchair! And I also have my own hospital bed, my own room, and my own TV with my own remote!" So, all in all, it's not too bad.

Daniel Update 1

2010-01-19T20:08:00.001-05:00

It's about 7pm. So far, he's had one treatment of xopenx + something ,
they've drawn some blood, and he's gotten a steroid by IV, and he's
now on some sort of IV drip, which I assume is why he's not
particularly hungry. His doctor has been in to check on him once. He
told us they're going to give him the xopenx mixture every 3 hours,
and he'll check on us tomorrow. iPhone battery low, future updates
after charging.

Daniel

2010-01-19T17:15:00.001-05:00

We've checked Daniel into the hospital. They're going to give him breathing treatments, take some blood for testing, give him a chest X-ray, a steroid IV, possibly a fluid IV if he doesn't start drinking more water and juice, and keep him for at least one night, from what I understand. Apparently, the official orders for specific treatment aren't in the system yet, so we won't know for certain until they are, but the Tech and the Nurse both seemed to think that was the normal course. Please keep him in your prayers, as this will be his first overnight hospital stay (apart from his birth, I mean.) We'll update as we can.

This Christmas Season - Part 2

2009-12-23T08:34:00.001-05:00

How is it that Christmas seems to sneak up on us every year? I don't mean that generally, I mean, us, the Hipps family, and me most of all. It's like I'm the only person on the planet who didn't have twelve months to come up with a plan.

In fairness to myself (or, more likely, as a way of making excuses), it seems to me that we did have a lot going on. To start, the cruise which I mentioned in the previous post came with a great deal of stress and mental effort in the form of getting Angie a passport. For this, she would need her birth certificate, which we found easily in the filing cabinet where my highly-organized wife keeps all of our important papers, and which was promptly mislaid and feared to have been accidentally thrown away. I mean, this puppy was missing for weeks. Angie was born in Hawaii, so we had to apply to Hawaii for a new copy and pray that a recent copy of a Hawaiian birth certificate would mean more to the folks in the passport office than it does to some people. A day or two before the replacement arrived, we did finally manage to find the birth certificate in a place it totally shouldn't have been, and Angie was able to make her rescheduled passport appointment. Hooray!

Our next pre-holiday hurdle was... the dishwasher. I was going to go into a lengthy explanation of this debacle, but in the interest of time, suffice to say that our dishwasher went to that great appliance service center in the sky. Actually, it died on us and went to rest against the side of our house where it currently resides while we wait for the yard gnomes to drag it to their underground lair or something; I've forgotten why I haven't taken it to the city dump already. Anyway, it shuffled off its heating coil and we had to buy a replacement. I realize you may say that we didn't have to buy a replacement, in that it's a modern convenience and we could just wash the dishes by hand. We tried this for over a week, but with the number of dishes we generate, we were spending all of our free time at the sink, to the point where the kids were having to come in there to say their prayers at night and, in the daytime, asking if they were really careful, could they please just drive the van themselves to a park or someplace just to get out of the house. So a replacement became a mental health requirement, and one was found and purchased at BrandsMart.

This was all well and good, except that a) in the interest of saving money, we installed it ourselves, which was a lot of hard and, at times, painful work, and b) it took up a sizable chunk of our would-be Christmas budget. Oh well.

We followed this up with Thanksgiving, for which Angie and the kids went to Columbus for the week and I arrived Thanksgiving Eve. The purpose here was to give Joshua a good long time to hang out with his Grandmama, since she'd be coming less than two weeks later to stay with us while Angie went cruising. The week after that we prepped for the cruise with meal-planning and whatnot, and the week after that was the cruise, which I believe I've covered enough. After a day or so for Angie to readjust to family life, we were finally able to buy our first Christmas presents on Thursday, December 17th. Today is Wednesday, December 23rd, two days before the blessed event, and I believe we're almost done with our shopping. Well, Angie's done, and I'm nearly done. Fortunately for me, there's hardly anybody out shopping this late in the season, so I should be able to wrap things up today. Actually, I probably won't have time to wrap until tomorrow. Or Saturday.

This Christmas Season - Part 1

2009-12-18T08:21:00.001-05:00

So, the updates to the blog have been lacking. I'd like to say that's because life has been so busy and exciting that we just haven't had time to write about it. Some weeks that is true, but mostly we're just exhausted at the end of the day and don't get around to describing even the interesting events. I suspect this has a lot to do with a certain someone who tends to keep us on our toes.

Interesting events have happened, however, the most recent of which began last week. Last Wednesday, Angie and 5 of her friends went on a cruise to celebrate the 40th birthday of one of the friends. A great time was had by all until the last scheduled day of the cruise, when fog in the port kept them from being able to dock, and they had to spend another night at sea. I hear you saying, "oh, waa, an extra free night on a cruise ship; I feel so sorry for them," and I can see your point. However, these are (mostly) moms we're talking about here, and, to hear them tell it, once they'd switched into the mindset of "I'm going home to see my children," then the fun of being on the cruise ended and the anxiousness to get home began. Also, there was a loud and disturbingly violent fist-fight across the hall on the last actual night, which did nothing to soothe their anxiety. They did finally make it home safe and sound, however...

which is good, because while they were away, times at the Hipps household were a bit on the rough side. My wonderful mom came to stay with us while Angie was away, and I honestly don't think I'd have made it without her. Not that I couldn't handle the kids normally, you understand, for even days at a time; it's just that this was not normal. Maggie had a cold, which made her pitiful at first. Joshua seemed to be getting one when Angie left, and so for the first couple of days I treated it as such. He got a fever, I gave him Tylenol. He had trouble breathing, I put him on the nebulizer. Not the way I'd like to spend the Christmas season, but we were managing.

By Saturday, however, things had not improved. In fact, he'd been waking up every hour or so and just screaming every night. The post linked above mentions that Joshua had "yet to discover just how wonderful his grandmama is," but brother, I believe he knows it now! She would get up and rock him or hold him and he would sleep kind of upright in her arms for a couple of hours in the night. Much Diet Coke (and a little wine) was consumed during the daytime to keep us awake and ease the stress of screaming baby. He was never his usual bright, sunny self, and although he actually slept really well Saturday night (I even thought his breathing sounded better when I woke up Sunday), he pretty much slept for the entire day Sunday. He was incredibly clingy, and just really pitiful. On Monday, the doctor pronounced that he had RSV and an ear infection, which explained the fever and screaming. He perked up a little after the first round of antibiotics, but the biggest improvement came the next day with the return of Mommy! The change was just astounding! He went from listless and pitiful to energetic and happy in about 6 minutes. All of a sudden he was babbling and cooing, crawling around the whole house with a smile on his face as if all was right with the world! I felt like I could breathe a sigh of relief for him at last, and it started to feel like Christmas around here again.

In Part 2 of This Christmas Season, I'll be discussing why it is that we just bought our first Christmas presents yesterday, December 17th...

Fatherhood

2009-11-13T08:01:00.001-05:00

...a long, serious post after a seriously long break...

A few weeks ago our church had its first service in its new, permanent building, and it was, quite frankly, amazing in every way. Pastor Tony spoke about where we've been as a church, and pumped up the excitement about where we're going. And while there were several points that made me think, the one that stuck in my mind the most in the days that followed was actually just an aside. He mentioned that he occasionally ("every Monday morning," was the exact phrase, if I recall) felt overwhelmed and frustrated about being a pastor, and, as an aside, he invited those of us who are parents to "be honest" and admit that we've occasionally had similar feelings.

That got me thinking a great deal about my experience as a father. Actually, it was that and a few other events that took place around that time. For one, I found out that afternoon that my brother's college roommate had been killed in a car wreck the night before. This was a guy I'd known since elementary school, when he and Bennett had first become friends. I think we may have even been in a chorus together. Incidentally, I found out about the accident through Facebook, which was a surreal experience that I may have to write about some other time. As if this wasn't sobering enough, when I called my brother to give him the news, he informed me that he himself had been in a wreck earlier in the week - that his car had been hit by a bus, in fact! Just the idea that someone I love had been involved in a situation so closely linked with death in my mind at the moment was heart-wrenching, terrifying. As I say, it got me thinking a lot about my time with those closest to me, and especially about my experience as a father.

More often than I will admit to anyone in person (the expressionless face of a blog can provide a great ear for embarrassing secrets), I have put off doing things with my children because of what I call tiredness, which really boils down to a lazy selfishness. I don't want to exert the energy, I just want to read a book, I just want to veg out in front of the TV or Internet, me, me, me! Certainly, there are times when it's good to be alone, but these years when the children actually want me to do things with them, as opposed to being mortified that I am related to them, are not going to last that long. I know this from the older parents who've told me, and I've seen it first-hand in my own life, as Daniel and Maggie develop dad-less interests by which I've never been enticed. Maggie is a great artist, and while I can be creative, and I enjoy writing and music, I've never been much for drawing or painting. She can't get enough of it. Daniel has developed a love of all things Pokemon, which may be simultaneously the most unusual and least interesting series of games / cards I've ever come across. I'd rather watch golf, for crying out loud!

All that to say, I intend to start doing my best to focus on enjoying my children while they're young. I think I do an OK job at this now, but, as I alluded above, there are times when being a father can be overwhelming and frustrating, usually when I'm already tired or feeling self-focused. So I will be making a more concerted effort in hopes that later in life I won't regret not having done so. Who knows? Maybe it will even head off the whole mortification thing. For the record, I don't believe I have ever been mortified to be related to my own father, and I hope to live up to the example he set.

Graduation

2009-08-26T16:02:00.000-04:00

Now that Joshua is 7 months old and sitting up unassisted he has graduated to bathtime in the bathtub instead of the kitchen sink. It's not as easy on the knees and back for mommy, but at least I don't end up soaked.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

2009-08-24T10:36:00.001-04:00

Today is my mother-in-law's birthday. Considering that I met my husband when I was 15 and my mom died when I was 17 she is much more like an actual mother to me than a mother-in-law. She is a remarkable woman. She is gracious, caring, gentle, loving, wise, humble, generous, hospitable and a wonderful cook! On top of being a fantastic mother-in-law, she is the best grandmother! Our kids love her. She always stocks the pantry with our kids' favorite foods before we visit, she has toys, books, and movies for the kids at the grandparents' house. She lets them play the piano in their living room. She will light saber fight with Daniel and play tea with Maggie in the same hour. She reads, plays, bathes, feeds, rocks and spoils her grandbabies (in a good way). Joshua has yet to discover just how wonderful his grandmama (that's what we call her) is, but I know that it won't take long. Just one of the fond memories I have of my mother-in-law is when she came to stay with us right after Daniel was born (she arrived at the hospital a few minutes after Daniel was born). Not only did she tidy up the house while we were at the hospital, she went grocery shopping and prepared a meal for us. Then one night when I was up in the middle of the night with a screaming new born she came to my rescue. I couldn't get him to breastfeed or calm down. I was on the verge of a melt down when she came and took him to the nursery/guest bedroom and sang and rocked him until he went to sleep. I was able to get a couple hours of sleep and it made all the difference in the world. She was also there to encourage me (along with Davis) when breastfeeding was a struggle and we had to go to a lactation consultant. I honestly don't know if I can say enough about my mother-in-law. She is truly a blessing and I am so very thankful for her. She raised a great son (two actually) that has become a wonderful husband and father. I love her more than I can say so that is why I wanted to wish her a Happy Birthday on our blog today! I'm extremely grateful that she was born. I love you, Mom, and I hope you have a great day!

Never leave your camera

2009-08-24T09:54:00.002-04:00

This weekend I went to a lovely baby shower for a church friend. I took my digital camera with every intention of taking some pictures of the event and of our friends. However, I was asked to take some pictures of the shower for the mother-to-be with her digital camera so I left my camera sitting on a table. It wasn't until after I was home from the shower and leaving to go out with my family that I discovered that my digital camera wasn't in my purse. I then called the hostess of the shower and asked her if I had left it at her home. She said that I had, and sent it home with another friend that would give it back to me at church the next day. I retrieved said camera at church the next day without incident. Then lo and behold when I uploaded the pictures from my camera onto the computer I found this gem.

So let this be a lesson to never leave your camera unattended; you never know what you might find.

And he just keeps growing

2009-07-29T17:36:00.002-04:00

It's official, Joshua is now half a year old. That's right, six whole months. People aren't kidding when they say the time flies. It's hard to believe when you are sleep deprived and the house is a wreck that babies grow quickly and it won't be this way forever, but Joshua turning six months old is greater confirmation of this adage. Some of his recent developments are that he has sprouted his two bottom teeth, is rolling both ways, and is doing the pre-crawling sky diver position. He also has tried baby cereal, apple sauce, green beans and sweet potatoes. Oddly enough he doesn't seem to care for applesauce. As you can see from the picture he can sit up unassisted for a short amount of time. Today I took him in for his check-up and he now weighs 19 pounds and is approximately 26" tall (squirmy babies don't make for easy measuring). He weighs less than Daniel but more than Maggie did at that age. He is a very sweet boy who is just taking it all in and starting to develop a sense of humor. While I was at book club last night, Daniel was able to crack his baby brother up by making raspberries with his mouth, which was repeated ad nauseum until Joshua was tired of laughing. At times like these it is easy to see why children are a gift from the Lord. I look forward to what the next 6 months hold for our baby boy as well as for our family.

Vacation Leaves Us Tired

2009-07-28T22:53:00.001-04:00

Just a quick post-vacation update: As I mentioned, everyone except me was sick with coughing, sniffling, and nose-running on Sunday after we got back from the glorious beach vacation. Angie, Daniel, and Maggie now seem to be completely well, and Joshua is much, much better. Saturday and Sunday night he was so stopped up that we had to wake up several times in the night to aspirate him (for the uninitiated: babies can't blow their noses, so you have to stick a bulb syringe up their noses and suck out the grossness). Monday night was better, only requiring this procedure once or twice, and so far tonight he's slept peacefully as well. Unfortunately for him, Joshua has to go to the doctor tomorrow for his 6-month tune-up, which means shots, which means more trouble sleeping. *sigh*

Beach Vacation 2009, Day Seven and Epilogue

2009-07-26T22:44:00.001-04:00

Day Seven began with our customary Saturday morning pancakes and bacon, then our very sad and not at all customary packing to leave the beach. Once the packing of the bags was accomplished, I began loading them into and onto the van while Angie and the older kids went down to the beach one last time to get their feet wet and play with the souvenirs they bought at the Naval Aviation Museum and the Octopus souvenir store. While there, they had a friendly chat with a local bird.

And, of course, after that, the inevitable moment had come. We loaded our few remaining possessions into the van (minus 1 teether and Maggie's sunglasses, as it turned out) and struck out on the open road again for home. Or at least lunch. It turns out that A LOT of people go out to eat in the Gulf Shores area of a Saturday, and so we had something of a wait in the Chick-Fil-A drive-thru line. After that, we struck out on the open road again for home... again. The trip home added further proof (if any was still needed) for my theory that travel with a baby takes one and a half times as long as travel without a baby, or TWaB = 1.5 x TWOaB. The supposedly 6-hour trip took us right at 9 hours with our various stops for feedings and whatnot. We stopped once at the Russell Stover Candy Store in Greenville, AL, and later we had dinner at Wendy's in Hogansville, GA.

When we finally got home, we unloaded the van as quickly as possible and everyone collapsed into bed. The kids woke up the next morning sniffling and coughing, even Joshua, so we stayed home from church for the sake of our friends and spent a relaxing, yes, lazy last day of vacation in our house. I ventured out for food once or twice, but otherwise, we stayed indoors. I wouldn't have wanted my vacation to end any other way than at home for a full day with my family. Overall, it was a fantastic week, and we can't wait to do it again next year! Assuming they'll have us back...

Beach Vacation 2009, Day Six

2009-07-26T18:05:00.002-04:00

On Day Six, after breakfast, after blogging, after lunch, and after Joshua's nap, we finally made it out to Pirate's Island Adventure Golf in Gulf Shores, which we'd been talking about all week.

This time we went on the Blackbeard course, which was reported to be more "stroller-friendly."

It was a great time, though towards the end the kids started to get hot and tired.

After the vigorous exercise of the golf game, the grandparents went to pick up some shrimp and other goodies for the evening meal, and we took the kids to one of the many, many souvenir shops in town, which I believe was called the Purple Octopus, presumably because of the many-tentacled ways they have of extracting your money from you.

Daniel bought himself some pirate-y things, while Maggie got a professional hair braiding with beads.

After the kids had been relieved of most of their money, we went to a nearby ice cream place for a snack.

The evening was capped off with a truly fantastic meal of the aforementioned shrimp (boiled), salad, and the best hush puppies I've ever had, followed by a walk on the beach for Angie and me after the kids were in bed under grandparental supervision. It was beautiful out there alone on the beach under the stars, and very nice to have some brief time to ourselves for the second time in a week!

Beach Vacation 2009, Day Five

2009-07-24T12:54:00.002-04:00

Angie mentioned in the comments for Day 3 that I forgot to thank Bennett for the wonderful cheesesteaks he made for us, and she's right, they were excellent. I also failed to mention that in between LuLu's and "You've Been Sentenced" there was a birthday celebration for your truly! My birthday isn't technically until next Friday, but as it was the last night with everyone together, we went ahead and celebrated then with caramel cake, vanilla ice cream, and presents - the customary dollar-for-every-year-of-life from my parents, and a really cool Xbox game from Bennett and Lynley!

Day 5 began with Angie and the kids heading down to the beach again while I worked on the Day Two blog post, followed by lunch (I got up pretty late). After lunch, Angie needed a nap, so I sat on the balcony reading my book, which I was able to finish! In the evening we headed to the top-secret Perdido Kids Park, which has an extremely unassuming entrance with a small wooden sign and a dirt road into the park. The park itself, however, is awesome! Here are some pictures that we were able to smuggle past security:

We went from the park to dinner at the Shrimp Basket in Perdido Key, near our condo, where we tried the Fried Pickles and had a surprisingly good meal of fried seafood. We polished off the evening by letting the kids stay up to watch Kung Fu Panda while I worked on the Day Three blogpost.

Beach Vacation 2009, Day Four

2009-07-23T23:55:00.000-04:00

On Day Four, Bennett and Lynley had to head home. We hung out with them in the morning and said our good-byes, then we headed down to the beach, this time with Joshua. He got to play on his crab float in the gulf with us while Maggie made sand castles. After that we went back to the condo and played in the pool.

In the evening, my dad picked up dinner from Lillian's, an incredible pizza place in Perdido Key. After dinner, Angie and I let my folks put the kids to bed, and we headed into Gulf Shores to see the latest Harry Potter movie, which we thoroughly enjoyed. If you have never been to a movie with Angie, you are missing a major treat. She is exactly who the film makers have in mind for their audience. She jumps and screams in startling or scary parts, she laughs louder than anyone in funny parts, and she just makes the whole movie-going experience more enjoyable for everyone. I mean, the movie was good, but really, it was just nice to enjoy it with Angie, and to have my wife to myself for at least a few hours.

Beach Vacation 2009, Day Three

2009-07-23T23:31:00.000-04:00

One thing I forgot to mention on days 1 and 2 was that my brother, Bennett, has become an excellent cook! When we arrived on Sunday night, he made tacos with his own homemade salsa, and Monday morning he made Alton Brown's French Toast recipe. Both were awesome, and I wanted to make sure he got credit. Thanks, Bennett!
Okay, now on to Day Three: Breakfast on day 3 was just cereal, so we were able to get right out and go swimming in the morning. We took the Spring Float out to the sandbar as a family minus Joshua. The older kids, as I mentioned, are really becoming excellent swimmers, so heading out to the sandbar was no problem for them. It is amazing to see how far they've come. After our swim, we had talked about going to play Pirate Golf again, but since Angie's back had been hurting, and Bennett's dear wife, Lynley, has a hurt foot, we decided to do something more wheelchair-accessible that wouldn't require bending. So we headed to the National Naval Aviation Museum near Pensacola. Joshua seemed to have a good time, there were several interesting and fun things for Daniel and Maggie to do, and there was even information about the U.S.S. Hornet, where my grandfather (mom's dad) was stationed as a fighter pilot in World War II.

After the museum the party moved to LuLu's Restaurant for an hour-and-a-half wait, some off-key musicians, and some excellent food. If you don't recall from last year, LuLu is the self-proclaimed "crazy sista" of beach musician Jimmy Buffett, and her restaurant is extremely popular. We capped off the evening with a game of "You've Been Sentenced," and everyone collapsed into bed exhausted.

Beach Vacation 2009, Day Two

2009-07-23T13:00:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I can see this daily blogging of the beach trip is not off to the stellar start for which I'd hoped. A major hindrance has been Mr. Baby, who tends to keep odd hours, making for a tired Daddy at the end of the day (prime blogging time). Still, I semi-half-sort-of promised the Twitterverse and Facebookia that I'd cover a few days tonight. In the spirit of that semi-half-whatever, I'm only going to cover one day. So, without further ado, I present:
Day 2:
Also known as Monday, Day Two began with, my brother, Bennett, introducing me to this wonderful Texas Turtle coffee that he got at the World Market in Pensacola. Here's a recent photo of said coffee:

Of course, we went to play at the beach and pool immediately after breakfast. Maggie and Daniel are now completely fearless in their swimming, which makes me even more fearful, of course. Angie is fearless with them, however, so it works out well for them. The pool, which was under construction last year, forcing us to use the pool at the adjacent condo, is now open for our enjoyment. It is a walk-in pool that has a gradual slope, which I believe I called a zero-entry pool. Very cool. Here is the before and after of the pool:

After that, we went to eat lunch at Lambert's Cafe in Foley, Alabama, whose website invites you to "Come on in and eat, or we'll both starve." This is the wonderful home-cooking restaurant where they throw rolls at you with amazing accuracy, and where they pass around fried okra, "fried taters 'n' onions," and molasses in large bowls and buckets. It really is a fun experience, so much so that we failed to take any pictures. Sorry. Last year's pictures of it start here.

Upon return to the condo, pretty much everyone took a nap for longer than we intended, after which we headed down to the beach for a family photo shoot. I think it turned out really well, but you won't be able to judge because in my tiredness I forgot to ask for copies from my brother, who owns the camera we used. Oh well.
P.S. Again in my tiredness, I had to go to bed last night and finish this up while the kids went down to the beach this morning.

Beach Vacation 2009, Day One

2009-07-19T23:59:00.001-04:00

As was the case last year, most of day one was spent on the road. We packed up yesterday and hit the road directly from church today. This was beneficial to us and the church, as we got to loan our hair dryer to some of the baptizees today. Pretty crazy. The only really noteworthy parts of the drive were the truly horrible gas station restrooms around exit 107 or so on I-65, and the way Maggie and Daniel became more and more excited and talkative, starting about half an hour from the condo and not really ending until, well, not really ending yet. I'm pretty sure I still hear Maggie talking in their room now, at almost midnight our time (11PM here). At least they're not still dancing and slinging things around. We have yet to go down to the beach or pool, but the view is still every bit as gorgeous as last year, and I'm already feeling calmer now that the crazy kids are in bed. I can't wait to sink my teeth into the meat of this vacation tomorrow. Sorry, food channel's on. G'night!

Beach Trip 2009 (Preface)

2009-07-18T11:30:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow we head to the beach! Last year I blogged every day of our trip, and I had a great time doing it. I'm not sure I'll be able to keep up that pace again this year, but I hope to chronicle at least some of it. While we're there, our new little guy will turn 6 months old. This, to me, is almost impossible to believe. I feel like we just got him, although there have been some subtle signs that he's getting older. He's already doing the pre-crawling skydiver thing where he lays on his stomach on the floor, raises his arms, and kicks his feet. Also, his first official tooth is breaking through the gum. We'll try and keep you posted on these and other developments as they, um, develop.

Why Angie's Not on Facebook (and Very Likely Won't Be in the Future)

2009-07-15T22:45:00.001-04:00

I'm on Facebook. Angie is not. We've discussed the pros (exactly 2: seeing friends' photos, and the interaction with folks you might not get to interact with regularly otherwise) and cons (numerous, but the most important of these is that it is a COMPLETE TIME HOLE from which the day often does not recover), and she's decided that the the cons far outweigh the pros. I agree. I think it would be incredibly easy for me to get on in the morning and spend the entire day poring over photos, status updates, and notes from friends, acquaintances, and some people I haven't seen in decades. This wouldn't be a bad thing if I didn't have a job and a family and various things I want to accomplish in my day that don't involve being poked or sending pieces of flair. I enjoy those things, too, but it's too easy to let the time get away from me. This is not to say that I'm going to cancel my account or anything. I just need to find a way to pace myself. Angie, though, will not be signing up. If she wants to see pictures, she logs in under my account. If she wants to interact with folks, she calls or emails. That somehow seems more meaningful anyway.

Monday Mornings

2009-07-14T08:06:00.001-04:00

If I were to be generous with myself, I would say that I devote Monday mornings to updating myself on the latest trends and news in technology. It's important, as one who works in technology for a living, to keep current on emerging gadgets and gizmos, as well as to get a feel for where things are headed within the industry. But really, that's not why I do it.

In truth, it's just hard for me to get going on Mondays, and it's much easier to read a bunch of articles than it is to jump into my work assignments for the day. I usually don't really get started until either 1) after lunch, or 2) a client calls needing my help. I always think that I'll get a good start; in the car on the way to work, I sometimes think through all the stuff I need to get done that day or week and try to map out a plan for the day. When I arrive at work, however, emails and news articles await, and my grand plan gets shifted until after lunch, unless a client calls, at which point the plan is usually thrown into the garbage altogether. (I would say "thrown out the window," but, you know, us techies tend to be confined to windowless basements, so garbage it is.) Oh well. I don't really know if I want to give up catching up on the latest news, but I probably do need to get more organized about my day.

Or rather, my days, since now that I've thought all this out and typed it up, my Tuesday is running behind. Later!

Ohio Trip (Brief Review)

2009-07-08T22:01:00.004-04:00

We haven't really said much about our trip to visit Angie's family in Ohio, other than to say that we had a good time and that it was a long drive. Here, then, is a brief review: We drove up Sunday night and arrived Monday morning. This was good, in that the kids slept a lot of the way, but not good in that there are many crazy, creepy people at the last gas station in Tennessee before the Kentucky border at 3:15 AM, whereas at that same gas station on the way back at 7:30 PM or so, everyone was easy-going and friendly. Upon arrival, we slept a while.

That evening we played outside:

The next two days we went swimming and played with Angie's cousins' children:

On Thursday, we went to the Air Force museum, which wore Maggie out and made Joshua hot and thirsty. Angie's uncle was there to help:

Friday, we went to visit Angie's mom's grave with Angie's grandmother:

That evening we went to a carnival where we apparently took no pictures, although we had a great time. Saturday, it took us almost all day to pack, after which we drove from about 3:30 PM to roughly 3:30 AM and collapsed into bed. Final review: a great trip - no hustle and bustle of a cram-packed itinerary, just a good week with our extended family.

What are YOU crying about?

2009-07-07T22:02:00.001-04:00

Over the past 5 months, I've re-discovered something that I really thought I'd learned before: babies cry a lot... about anything and everything. In fact, there are times when our particular baby cries for seemingly no reason whatsoever. He'll be well-fed, burped, clean of diaper, and laying in his crib, and he'll just be crying his heart out. Seriously, kid, what have you got to cry about? Huh? I mean, you never have to worry about what clothes to wear, you have no bills to pay, loved ones are always cooing over you, always eager to give you hugs or entertain you, and on top of all that, your favorite meal is available whenever and wherever you ask for it! Who could want a better life?

Still, he cries. However, tonight, I re-discovered something else. If all their needs are met - they've eaten recently, been through their bedtime routine (as much as possible), been placed lovingly into their crib - if all is right with the world... they will still cry. A lot. But eventually, if you leave them alone and don't bother them, they will go to sleep. Sometimes it's a matter of minutes, sometimes more, but they will drift off at last, and when they do, they are powerfully, powerfully cute. At least mine is. And that's all I really wanted to say.

Gimme that giggle

2009-05-14T16:04:00.005-04:00

I got Joshua to giggle a couple of weeks ago. He was sitting in an infant seat and I decided to see what he would do when I played peek-a-boo with him. Lo and behold he gave me his first giggle. Daniel and Maggie were in the backyard so I called them in so they could hear it. Joshua gladly performed again. But, I couldn't get him to do it again after that, and of course that meant Davis didn't get to partake in the fun of hearing that precious little chuckle. I would make an occasional effort to get him to giggle again but he was not giving it up. Finally, yesterday, during a diaper change I didn't some hand movements and noise and I got him to giggle again. This time I had the digital camera (with the new battery charged and ready) so I had Daniel film me getting Joshua to give us a giggle. This way Davis got to hear it too. There's not much sweeter than the laughter of a baby; so enjoy.

Update: Thanks to Alert Reader MommyOctopus for letting us know that the video wasn't viewable. This has been corrected. Now, as we said before, enjoy.

A Great Deal of Thought

2009-05-05T23:56:00.001-04:00

I want to say that the reason that I've been absent from this blog is because I've been giving this particular post a great deal of thought. The problem, of course, is that it's not true. In reality, we've been busy with the new baby, and I'm pretty sure the lack of sleep has hindered my creativity, so I'm having trouble coming up with interesting posts. So, just to catch you up, I've been reading some interesting books, taking a more active interest in Lost through blog reading and podcast listening, and working on improving my Brain Age. This last activity is made possible by the fact that Daniel bought a Nintendo DS with his own money for his birthday. He's been doing chores, earning his commission, and saving up for months. He'd managed to save over $80, and on his birthday friends and relatives gave him enough to cover the rest of the DS! He was ecstatic, and we were, of course, very proud of him. My dad then paid for us to get a game for the DS, and we got Brain Age 2, which is a great game, and a lot of fun, except that it is based on the bizarre idea that the perfect brain age is 20-years-old. This is a problem for Daniel, since a lot of the tests are over his head, but it's also a problem for those of us who are sleep-deprived and over 30. Still, it's got a lot of fun Sudoku puzzles, of which I'm a big fan. Anyway, I'm sorry this is so rambling, but those are my thoughts at the moment. Now I'm going to bed. I hope to be more coherent for my next post. G'night!

On its way

2009-05-02T14:50:00.003-04:00

I'm pleased to announce that I ordered a new battery for our digital camera. As I mentioned here, we are sans digital camera because the battery wouldn't charge, but that won't be the case much longer. I will be sure to get up some pictures as soon as it arrives.

Summer Vacations

2009-04-16T12:54:00.002-04:00

We are planning to go to Ohio to visit my mom's family in June. We haven't been since I was pregnant with Maggie (she's 5 now) so our visit is long overdue. It is sad that I haven't done a better job of keeping in touch with my relations. My mother made sure we visited them once a year while I was growing up, but once she passed away and I moved out of my parents home, there was nothing to ensure that I stayed in contact. I'm looking forward to reconnecting and introducing our children to their only great-grandmother (Daniel was one when he last met her so it will be just like meeting her for the first time again). It's thanks to my gracious Aunt Shirley and Uncle Kenny that this visit is possible. They are letting us stay at their house so we don't have to use a hotel (which we can't afford while we are still doing our debt snowball). It should be a lot of fun if we can get Joshua to enjoy riding in the van.

We also hope to go back to the condo in Perdido Key with the Hipps family in August. It all depends on whether Davis can get off from work (although if he can't I may just have to brave taking the three kids by myself since it was so great last year). Hopefully that works out and we will have two inexpensive family vacations this year. Can't wait!

Gotta love the iPhone

2009-04-16T12:46:00.002-04:00

Here is a picture I took with Davis' iPhone. As I mentioned in my previous post, our digital camera is broken, so it was great to be able to capture this moment with the iPhone. We had gotten all the kids ready for bed but we still needed to give Daniel a breathing treatment for his wheezing. We thought we would just keep Joshua up until the treatment was done (10 minutes), but the hum of the machine put him to sleep. It was too precious and I was so glad that we were able to get a picture of it.

Blogging without pictures

2009-04-16T12:31:00.002-04:00

As a novice blogger I rely heavily on pictures (mainly of my children)to make my posts interesting. Frankly, I'm not that great of a writer (it was always very difficult for me to reach minimum page requirements in English class) so it helps to have a visual. Unfortunately, I have discovered that my digital camera isn't working because the battery is broken (i.e. it won't charge anymore). I hope that we will have the money to replace it next month, only our budgeting meeting will tell. Thus, the lack of blogging lately (for me, I don't know what Davis' excuse is).

Larger than Life

2009-03-30T15:08:00.009-04:00

	Recently, Daniel has really gotten interested in Legos (thanks to the influence of his best friend, Drake). Due to his intrest, he got some Lego sets for Christmas, has bought some with his own money, and got some as gifts from family and friends. We have really enjoyed putting these creations together. Daniel and Maggie have also just started making their own creations and playing with them.
	At Christmas, Daniel wanted to buy Drake some Legos for Christmas (since he knew that he liked them), so we went to an outlet mall that had a Legos store. We have since been back several times. The store has a Darth Vader made out of Legos so we were excited when we saw that they were going to be building an 8' R2-D2.
	It was a three day event and the kids were able to help out by making Lego "bricks" for the R2 made up of numerous little legos put together. Daniel and Maggie made several bricks.
	Once they made some bricks they turned them in to get a coupon to take to the Legos store for a certificate of participation. While we were there we learned that the R2-D2 would be completed the next day, left on display for an hour before being taken down to travel to the next city.
	So we decided to go back the next day to see the finished product and get our picture taken with the larger than life Legos R2-D2.

Two Months

2009-03-25T13:58:00.001-04:00

On Monday Joshua turned two months old. Yesterday I took him to his two month check-up. He now weighs 13 pounds and 7 ounces and is 22 and 3/4 inches long (short and stocky and very cute). He also got his first round of immunizations. It was great that they had this combo shot that had DTaP, polio, and Hib all in one, so he only got two shots rather than the four our other kids got. He was a bit fussy and uncomfortable during the day, but he gave us our first 5 and a half hours of sleep in a row last night. He is sleeping in his crib a good portion of the night and napping in there during the day (unless I feel like snuggling at my nap time). It's amazing the difference a month makes. Now if only I would go to bed at a decent hour and get up and ready before the kids I might feel more like a productive human being (I'm taking baby steps).

All he wants for Christmas . . .

2009-03-23T10:39:00.005-04:00

I took Daniel and Maggie to the dentist in January. It was there that I discovered that Daniel's two front teeth were getting loose. I had no idea before the hygenist pointed it out because we don't go over his teeth everytime he brushes now, and they just barely wiggled. Fast forward to March and the loose teeth are looking kind of rough. They are getting discolored and cadywonked. My friends Kim and Rachael offered to help pull them out but Daniel said no thanks and I got the heeby jeebys thinking about it. Well, finally I couldn't take it anymore so I asked him if I could use the floss on it and after several attempts I managed to get one out, but then he didn't want me to do the other one because it hurt a little.

So this morning with my new found tooth pulling confidence I asked Daniel if I could give it a try on his other tooth. He reluctantly agreed. After just two tries I managed to pull out his other tooth.

So now he just needs his two new front teeth.

Snowy, snowballs and stats

2009-03-03T18:40:00.000-05:00

I thought I had put a picture of the aforementioned snowman named Snowy in the last post, but aparently I'm not as techno savvy as I previously thought. So here is a picture of the snow configuration that Davis, Daniel and Maggie made on our snowday.

Here's a picture of Maggie and Daniel with some freshly made snowballs. Daniel looks like he is about to let his fly. Daniel managed to get one into his daddy's coat pocket.

Joshua is snug inside the house during the snow storm of 2009. At his one month check up he weighed 11 lbs and 8 oz. He's also grown an inch since birth. He's a solid little guy complete with double chin.

Let it Snow

2009-03-02T12:21:00.004-05:00

It snowed here yesterday and the kids absolutely loved it. You would have thought it was Christmas day with how excited they were. Once we made it safely home from church we bundled them up and sent them out to play in it. They decided to build a snowman which Daniel named Snowy. Joshua and I only went out long enough to get a picture. The rest of the time we stayed inside making brownies and hot chocolate. Daniel and Maggie were soaked and frozen after playing outside for over an hour so we ran a hot bath, put on dry warm clothes, and drank hot chocolate while watching a movie. It was a really lovely and wonderful day.

Bears and Babies

2009-03-02T12:08:00.000-05:00

Uncle Bennett holding his newest nephew next to his oldest nephew. It's always great to have a bunch of Hipps men together.

Maggie adores her Aunt Lynley as evidenced here by wanting to sit on her lap at the same time as her holding Joshua.

Joshua with his Vermont Teddy Bear.

The teddy collection. Uncle Bennett continues the tradition by giving Joshua a teddy bear just like he gave to Daniel and Maggie after they were born. It is one of the sweetest gifts and we just love that the kids will have them their entire lives.

One Month and Counting

2009-03-02T11:57:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of Joshua when he turned one month old (Friday February 23rd). The time has really flown by. It seems that the more children you have the faster it goes. So I guess if we have any more children we will have officially hit warp speed (we are currently in fast play). I will say that as much as we adore Joshua and love having a sweet baby in our home, it has been a more difficult transition than I expected. I just thought I would be out and about all the time since his food source is with me all the time, I am ready with the baby sling, and the older kids are great helpers (plus they can strap themselves in). But, alas, we have been house bound for over a month (except for a few outings and doctor appointments). I am so very thankful for our awesome church family that has been providing us with delicious meals for the last month. It has been an incredible blessing to not have to worry about meal preparations during this time. I was shocked when I saw that they would be feeding us for the entire month of February, but now I am just so very thankful (although we could stand about six more months of it). I really do think that we are starting to get the hang of things and I hope to start visiting friends and making it to outings with the kids. Overall, life is good. I thank God for our three amazing children!

Full Joshua Birth Twitter Timeline

2009-01-25T14:45:00.002-05:00

my wife has a whole lotta contractin' goin' on. I'll keep you posted if this turns into something. 11:06 PM Jan 22nd from twitterrific

Looking like it's turning into something. I'll update when there are updates to give. 5:15 AM Jan 23rd from twitterrific

At the midwifery for a labor check. 9:23 AM Jan 23rd from twitterrific

is headed from the labor check to Hospital check-in. 9:30 AM Jan 23rd from twitterrific

In the delivery room, awaiting our delivery. 10:08 AM Jan 23rd from twitterrific

In the bigger, better delivery room, still awaiting. 10:19 AM Jan 23rd from twitterrific

Update: contractions 2-4 min apart, dilated 5+ cm as of 9:30. They won't chk again till antibiotics kick in for baby, or pushing starts. 11:36 AM Jan 23rd from twitterrific

Also, 80+% effaced. And she's trying to nap now. http://twitpic.com/1683f 11:45 AM Jan 23rd from twitterrific

contractions closer together and more intense. That's all we know so far. 1:01 PM Jan 23rd from twitterrific

we've been told antibiotic has been in long enough, so no more need to try to delay things. 1:43 PM Jan 23rd from twitterrific

frequent. intense. Surely it won't be long now. I think. 2:09 PM Jan 23rd from twitterrific

Angie is tidying up the delivery room btw contractions. :-) 2:18 PM Jan 23rd from twitterrific

just checked again, not progressing as hoped. Frequent, intense contractions but still 5cm & 90% effaced. Please pray. Thanks. 3:14 PM Jan 23rd from twitterrific

Born. 7:08 7:10 PM Jan 23rd from twitterrific

thanks everyone for your prayers and well-wishes. I'll post measurements when we get them. 7:52 PM Jan 23rd from twitterrific

Official Stats - Joshua Michael Hipps, born 1/23/08 7:11pm, 7lbs. 14oz., 21" long. Pics to follow 10:15 PM Jan 23rd from twitterrific

Pics http://twitpic.com/16git, http://twitpic.com/16gj2, http://twitpic.com/16gj7 10:16 PM Jan 23rd from twitterrific

Meeting Daniel and Maggie http://twitpic.com/16pyg about 23 hours ago from twitterrific

Hospital wireless is "down for the weekend." dang! We were gonna watch the Lost premiere that we missed the other day. about 18 hours ago from twitterrific

Woohoo! ABC is re-running the Lost premiere! We don't need no stinkin' hospital wireless! about 16 hours ago from twitterrific

will hopefully be leaving the hospital in about an hour. Hooray! about 4 hours ago from twitterrific

is headed home with our newborn about 1 hour ago from twitterrific

is home with the baby, and is taking the tweets off of public. Thank you all for tuning in and being so encouraging! Now for a nap! 6 minutes ago from web

Baby Updates

2009-01-23T10:26:00.000-05:00

We're currently in the NICE delivery room. Progress reports are
available at http://twitter.com/davishipps. We'll post pictures when
they're available.

Getting Ready

2009-01-14T11:04:00.000-05:00

Now that the holidays are over and all the decorations are put away we are getting ready for baby #3's arrival. I have done so many loads of laundry that I have lost count, but all of those itty bitty adorable baby clothes are clean and put away. We have had to shift some things around in the house to make room for the newest addition. Daniel and Maggie now have a hanging closet organizer so that we could empty Davis' childhood dresser for the baby's clothes and accessories. We had to rearrange our bedroom a little to make room for the crib. All I have left to do is a cleaning of the house and pack my hospital bag (I have actually washed and laid out the clothes in the crib, I just need to put them in a bag). We have our neighbors on alert and my wonderful mother-in-law is waiting anxiously for our call. Tomorrow, Maggie will turn 5 years old! I can't fathom that I am on the verge of having another baby when my "baby" is turning 5. I will be delivering this child in the same hospital as I delivered Maggie. The kids are getting excited and they have taken to giving my large abdomen hugs and kisses at night and telling their baby brother good night before going to bed. I think that they are going to be such loving siblings and good helpers. In the picture above they are wearing some t-shirts that my friend, Erin, gave me. Not only is she quite crafty, she knows lots of crafty people so she always finds such neat things to give as gifts. It was such a sweet and thoughtful gift from her that I thought it would be great to put a picture up on the blog of the kids wearing their big brother and big sister shirts. Thanks, Erin!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T18:19:00.000-05:00

Here are Daniel and Maggie in their Christmas outfits. Every year the grandparents buy them a wonderful Christmas outfit to wear. These are some mighty fine looking children. Behind them is our sweet little Christmas tree. We have yet to convert over to a pre-lit artifical tree. I grew up with an artificial tree, but after I married Davis I got to experience Christmas with a real tree. Not sure what we will have next year since we will have a crawling child in the house again, but I am sure our home will be filled with joy. As I hope yours is this Christmas. Merry Christmas!

Best of the Home Movies

2008-12-24T23:06:00.001-05:00

In my last post, I mentioned watching some home movies this past weekend. The best of these, by far, is the video that my super-talented brother, Bennett, made for Christmas of 2003, when Daniel was about 1 and a half years old. Daniel's big present that year was a First Act acoustic guitar, so Bennett set the video to "The Guitar" by They Might Be Giants. Enjoy!

Daniel Christmas 2003

Ghost of Christmas Past

2008-12-22T23:53:00.000-05:00

This weekend we pulled out some home movies from the past few years and watched the excitement unfolding on a few different Christmas days for Daniel and Maggie in their slightly younger years. I tend to be hesitant to watch home movies, largely because it can make me feel nostalgic for the days when we were all a little younger. My main problem with nostalgia is that I can become depressed, feeling like my best days are behind me. This is why I never look at any old yearbooks, and why I tend to shy away from investing in many rediscovered old friendships on Facebook. I don't want to reminisce about the good ol' days because, in my mind, that implies that the new days won't be as good.

Having said that, I actually thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas home movies that we watched this weekend. Seeing the joy and wonder on the faces of the kids as they took in all that was happening on Christmas morning was an absolute joy. I think part of the reason I was able to enjoy it this time was because I know it gets better from here. Daniel and Maggie are old enough now to get excited about Christmas well before it arrives, so their enthusiasm and appreciation continues to reach new levels. And, if I long for the cute sweetness of a new baby just discovering Christmas, we've got one due to arrive in late January that will get to experience all of this next year for the first time. And so, for the first time, these shadows of things that have been brought me only happiness, relishing memories of good times past, and eagerly anticipating those to come.

Favorite Christmas Movies

2008-12-15T21:11:00.002-05:00

Today, in keeping with my "Christmas Favorites" series that I started yesterday, I was going to discuss my favorite Christmas movies. But then, as I was checking the blogs today, I noticed that our friend, Angela, beat me to it. So, I just commented on her post instead. You should, too!

Favorite Christmas Books

2008-12-14T11:55:00.000-05:00

Every year when we bring the Christmas decorations down from the attic, there is a box of Christmas books that comes down as well. My favorite, without a doubt, is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I always read it first to make sure I've got enough time to finish before Christmas. It may be a little unadventurous of me, I suppose, to pick a universally acknowledged classic as my favorite, but I can't help that. It's a great story, and I love recognizing the parts that don't make it into the movies. Of these, my favorite is the line at the end that "he had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards;" that one always gives me a chuckle. There are some other great Christmas books that I enjoy as well. Next on the "gotta-read-it" list is a relatively recent addition by Dave Barry entitled The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog. This is a short but excellent story that may really have happened to Dave as a boy. I base this on the fact that it's extremely similar to a humor article he wrote back in the '80s about his own boyhood. The only other book that I absolutely try to get in is The Autobiography of Santa Claus as told to Jeff Guinn, mostly because of the clever way in which it's written, and all of the fascinating little-known facts about the history / mythology of Santa Claus. Very well done. So that's it. I just thought I'd share that, and also pose the question: "Do you have a favorite Christmas story?"

Postage-Free Christmas Letter

2008-12-13T13:31:00.002-05:00

We got our annual copy of the Fatzinger Christmas Letter yesterday, written by our dear friend, Amy. It may sound a bit corny, especially since I talk to them almost every week at church, and thus have at least a general sense of how life's going for them, but I absolutely love reading that thing. Every year, Amy is able to recap the big events of their year and their current state of affairs with that same infectious joy and hope that she exudes when you talk to her in person. I get to the end of it and find myself wishing, once again, that I'd sent a Christmas letter to our friends and family this year. Of course, it's probably getting to be a bit late in the season for that, so I thought I might take a crack at it here on ye olde bloge.

Dear Friends and Family (and anyone who may have stumbled onto our blog),

This has been quite a year for the Hipps family. In some ways, it seemed longer than last year, but in other ways, it just flew right by. This year we went on our first real family vacation to the beach, Daniel lost his first tooth, and we found out that we're expecting our third child, another boy! And, while at times the wallet looks a little thin, we have managed to move our net worth about $10,000 closer to becoming positive this year.

I'm sure I've left out a lot of great things, but this year we started blogging again after a four year hiatus, so a lot of the high points have been covered right here! What else can I say? Our family is healthy, our children are smart and beautiful, we're about to be blessed with yet another little miracle, the election and related advertisements are finally over, and I got good music on my radio!

Merry Christmas to one and all,
The Hipps Family

Sunday School Lesson

2008-12-07T18:00:00.002-05:00

In Maggie's Sunday School class, the lesson today was about John the Baptist, and how he prepared the way for Jesus by telling people that the Savior was coming, and that they should repent of their sins. While I do believe it's important that children know about that, I was a little surprised that this was today's lesson, since the overall theme of these weeks leading up to Christmas is "Preparing for Christmas." John preparing the way for Jesus struck me as only loosely related to Christmas, since at the time of the first Christmas, John was maybe 6 months old, according to the Gospel of Luke.

Anyway, later in the day, Maggie was playing with the craft she'd made in class. It's a paper plate with a drawing of water on it and 2 Popsicle stick puppets, 1 man and 1 woman. The plate is cut so that you can stand the puppets up in the water. Not having been one of the teachers today, I asked her what her craft was. She said, "This is John the Dunkinsman, and this is the lady he's dunking. And then they get married." Okay, so that probably wasn't exactly the lesson from class, but hey, at least she got that he dunked people and not doughnuts. Lesson learned, as far as I'm concerned.

Continuing Education

2008-11-22T23:10:00.001-05:00

Today, Daniel and I were checking the weather on my iPhone (yeah, I totally just said that to sound cool), and the temperature was 45 degrees. So, I sang to him that it was "fowerty-fahve degwhees," which is my crude rendition of a line from the song "Beds Are Burning" by Midnight Oil. I'd never realized it before, but as I thought about the words to the song, it occurred to me that a) Midnight Oil is from Australia, and b) Australia probably measures temperature on the Celsius scale. From that, plus the fact that the full line from the song is "the western desert lives and breathes in fowerty-fahve degwhees," I concluded that 45 degrees is probably pretty warm to them. So I Googled it (you can view the process here), and sure enough, 45 degrees Celsius turns out to be 113 degrees Fahrenheit. Definitely not the chilly western Australian desert I'd previously subconsciously imagined. I also learned for the first time in my life exactly what the conversion process between the two systems is. It's just C = (F - 32) x 5/9, or F = (C x 9/5) + 32. I'm not sure how I failed to learn this in school, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was taught but not extensively tested because the teachers knew we'd never need it. It definitely didn't feel like, "Oh, yeah, I remember this." It felt like completely new information. Which is fine. Now that I'm an adult, I am a lot more interested in the type of information that I'll never have a legitimate use for than I ever was as a student. Like all that Base 6 stuff in math class. Raise your hand if your using that in your current job. Exactly. I can see no hands. There you go.

Tea Readings

2008-11-19T23:10:00.001-05:00

Angie's been sick this past week with a horrible cold, and as such, she's been drinking a lot of tea. While I wait for the tea to steep, I like to read the box. Most of the tea boxes have some little piece of prose on the sides. It tends to be this very flowery, exotic-sounding language describing the blissful surroundings from whence the tea has been plucked and basically making tea sound much more like a relaxing weekend vacation in an English garden than a cup of hot water turned brown by a bag of leaves. Celestial Seasonings is probably the most entertaining, including quotes from philosophers in addition to the more standard pastoral scenes. The Bigelow folks have their own blog, and a catalog that reads like a poetry recital at a flower show. Even the generic "Publix" brand boxes have something to say, giving an extremely brief history of tea, worded as follows: "Tea originated in ancient China more than 5,000 years ago, and ever since has provided the world with a relaxing pause of refreshment." And, with that, I think I'll take a relaxing pause myself.

Breaking the Chains (and the Rules)

2008-11-10T23:17:00.001-05:00

Ask anyone that I work with to describe me in 3 words or less, and the odds are good that, to a man, the answer you'll get is: "compulsive rule-breaker," particularly if I've had a chance to coach them on what their response ought to be. This post is only one example of how well-deserved that reputation really is. We've now been tagged twice, once by our friend, Angela, and once by our friend, Wes, to post seven (7) random / weird facts about ourselves. The actual wording of the rules for this are as follows:

*Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

*Share seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.

*Tag seven other people at the end of your post and link to their blogs.

*Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So far, you've read through my complicity in the first rule. What follows will be my adherence to rule #2. After that, though, I'm goin' rogue, baby. Look out! There will be no further tagging or linking. I don't know what may happen to me if I break this chain, but I'm willing to take the chance.

Okay, really, I just don't know 7 bloggers who haven't already done this. I'm getting into the game late, and all the good taggees have already been taken. So, without further ado, 7 random facts about Davis (Angie may do one on herself later, but she's tired now. Pregnancy will do that to you.)

1) Okay, I suppose one odd thing about yours truly is that I don't mind the chick flicks so much. I truly enjoy the Jane Austen movies that we own, and have even been known to request You've Got Mail without prompting or provocation (we're watching it right now, in fact, at my request). I like the way it moves through the seasons, and since it starts out in the Fall, it puts me in an Autumn mood, with an eye towards Christmas. This oddness does not extend to Sleepless in Seattle, however; I am still male, after all.

2) Immediately after my 7th grade year, I toured Ireland for two weeks (I think, maybe just one; time was different then) with a boys' choir, culminating in a performance in Dublin for the Millennial Celebration of the founding of the city (of Dublin). As I recall, there were maybe 10 people in the audience who weren't with our group. Apparently, the Dubliners did not get the word that they were supposed to celebrate 1000 years of city-hood by watching a bunch of prepubescent boys sing. Still, we sang well, and the small audience of our chaperones and the event organizers was duly appreciative. Also, the rest of the trip was awesome.

3) I always thought I'd make a pretty good father: my dad is and always has been a great dad, and he always seemed to enjoy the role, so I felt confident I would enjoy it, too. Having said that, the day after Daniel was born, I completely freaked out. We got moved from the spacious delivery room to this post-partem shoebox, and I started to go a little stir-crazy. At some point, Angie evicted me from the room, and I went out to our car and cried and prayed for about 30 minutes or so, after which I was completely fine. Okay, not completely fine; still pretty shaken up, actually, but confident enough that I could handle suddenly losing the luxury of being completely selfish, of having *gasp* responsibility for someone who couldn't otherwise take care of himself. I went to the hospital gift shop, bought a teddy bear or a "Proud Dad" pin or something, and re-entered the shoebox content in my fatherhood and ready to help out. I think I may have fallen asleep in a chair immediately thereafter.

4) I have several relatively-recently-discovered food allergies, including: raw carrots, cabbage / sauerkraut, raw apples, certain raw peaches, and certain brands of refried beans (but not Taco Bell's, thank goodness).

5) Another fascinating tidbit about me is that I have recently acquired high blood pressure. At 33. Thirty-three. I'm not sure how this happened. I didn't ask for it, and I'm not sure who I would have caught it from. My cholesterol and all the other little things they check are well within normal parameters. Okay, I'm also a little overweight, but I don't see how that counts, as I have been a little overweight for a large (Ha!) portion of my life without HBP to accompany it. Weird.

6) I am an extremely efficient eater, and I inspire similar efficiency in others! Some folks just touch their chip into dip or salsa; I use the chip as a shovel, a bulldozer, to make sure I deliver as much of the salsa or cheese dip or hummus or whatever into my mouth as I possibly can. Just talent, I guess.

7) I am not terse. In conversation, I take the approach that if a picture is worth a thousand words, I'm looking to fill the Louvre. "Never say in a minute what you could say over the course of an afternoon," that is my motto. This really only tends to affect my friends, as I'm pretty quiet around people I don't know very well. Once I get to know you, though, you get to know me, through stories and anecdotes that tend to take a LOT longer than they would for anyone else to tell. Still, I'm sure it's part of my charm.

Okay, evidently I need to spend a little more time in self-reflection, as it took me almost a month to think of seven things that I even KNOW about myself, much less that might be interesting to others. Still, there you have me. Oh, and for the bonus round: I'm an expert on The Simpsons, seasons 1 through 8. Go ahead, quiz me.

Boo-yah

2008-11-01T22:23:00.004-04:00

Living Vicariously Through My Kids

2008-10-29T21:37:00.014-04:00

The kids and I are part of a playgroup through our church. Every Friday we have gotten together with other moms and children to play and hang out and even go on some cool outings. In the last three weeks we have been to Fish Scales (an exotic pet store), Gwinnett Environment and Heritage Center(GEHC), and Gilliland's Alpaca Heritage Farm. These have been some really cool trips.
At Fish Scales, Miss Julie opened up the store just for our group. She let our crazy kids run around and look at all the cool exotic animals in the store. She fed most (if not all) of them while we were there. My favorite was watching the chameleon eating crickets. My fearless daughter touched a bearded dragon, an iguana, and a turtle. She fed lettuce to all three of them and hugged the turtle. Daniel, who is more squeamish like his mother, only touched the turtle towards the end of our visit. He loved watching a small nurse shark swim around in an open tank. I just had a blast, and I think the kids liked it too.

At the GEHC we got to go on a nature walk and find things that were listed on our picture sheet. We found grass, a dead tree, an acorn, leaves, a snake and other things that escape my mind at this point. Then we got to tour the center. They had this cool interactive room for the kids that taught them about the water cycle, ways that we use water, and how water is cleaned. The kids loved to put these balls which were 'water vapor' into a tube that went up into the clouds (evaporation) and once enough water vapor went into the clouds it would rain down the blue balls and the cycle started all over again. They also had a cool theater in which they projected the film onto a wall of water. I hope the kids walked away with the knowledge that water is important/necessary for life.

Miss Angie at the alpaca farm taught us about the difference between a llama and an alpaca (it's all in the ear shape and size). Alpacas have spear shaped ears (llamas have banana shaped ones) and they weigh between 100 and 300 lbs (llamas can get up to 700 lbs). She also told us about how alpaca fleece can be used to make lots of things (we saw gloves, sweaters, scarves, purses, and stuffed animals). Their fleece is hypo-allergenic so those that are allergic to wool could use alpaca as an alternative. Then we got to feed the female alpacas some carrots. Maggie loved them, but Daniel hung back a little until one alpaca, Samantha, laid down ("kushed" in alpaca terminology). Then he felt comfortable enough to pet her back. Despite the cold and rainy weather we enjoyed ourselves. We may have to go back in the spring to see them shear the alpacas.

In my defense

2008-10-07T22:13:00.008-04:00

My dear husband attributes my lack of blogging to the time hole of Webkinz World. I will say that I have lost many hours to earning Kinzcash to feed, clothe and furnish the house of Lily. Lily is the black-faced sheep that my eldest brother gave my daughter. I had no idea what we were getting into when I asked Davis to go register the Webkinz pet. But, in my defense I have had many other distractions that have prevented me from blogging. We have had field trips to a Fire station in Athens, Mayfield Dairy in Braselton, playdates at parks, story time at the library, and a stomach virus. This is on top of trying to maintain a household (i.e. cook, clean, grocery shop, etc.). But, even without all of those things I procrastinate on blogging because I am just not that great of a writer. Davis is just plain funny and can write some great posts that are very entertaining. My posts are just slightly informative if you are remotely interested in following what me and the kids do during the day. At any rate here are a few pictures to enjoy.

Communication Breakdown

2008-10-06T22:46:00.001-04:00

I'd like to pretend that we've been away for the past couple of weeks just as a ploy to generate interest through our absence, but I can't. For one thing, that doesn't really make any sense, and for another, that's not at all why we haven't written. We each have our different reasons for our prolonged silence: Angie has (on behalf of our daughter) been sucked into the time vacuum that is Webkinz World, and I... well, I've been kind of wary of writing what's on my mind. Because what's been on my mind is... politics.

Due to my personal strong belief in and support of the FairTax, I started the primary season off as a supporter of Mike Huckabee, who is also a supporter of said FairTax. After he dropped out of the race, I really didn't care much for any of the remaining candidates. I mean, they were all likable enough as people, and I was actually interested in the early promise of a civil, informative general campaign season in which a couple of guys who weren't your average politician had debates and possibly "town hall meetings" wherein they expounded upon their differing policies for making America a better place in a rational and respectful manner. I think the Saddleback forum came closest to this (by the way, I take issue with the idea that either side "won" that forum; both candidates answered the questions and presented their ideas in a way that made sense, and you the viewer/listener were left to decide with whom you agreed). Unfortunately, since then the campaigns of both candidates have proven that they are, in fact, your average politician, and my hopes for a civil October have been dashed. Having said that, as much as I tell myself not to, I still can't seem to stop myself from reading the news stories about the name-calling and mud-slinging that is going on.

And so, I haven't felt like writing. It all just makes me mad. I thought these guys were better than that. I hoped at least one of them would be better than that, to give the American people a leader who takes the high road every time. Instead, I find myself wishing that Google Labs or someone would come up with a way of re-inserting Huckabee into the race. He may not be above that stuff, either (I think he'd be better, though he definitely showed one or two signs of low-road willingness late in his campaign, if I recall), but at least we'd have a candidate who would be pushing for the FairTax, and I could find solace in that.

In The Event of a Tie...

2008-09-23T20:24:00.001-04:00

I saw this article today and thought the scenarios it describes would make things REALLY interesting this November. I especially enjoyed the paragraph at the end about the Election of 1800. Just thought I'd share it with you.

A Man's Man...

2008-09-18T23:37:00.002-04:00

I am not. I've never been a grill-master. I don't know a thing about cars: can't fix 'em, don't know makes and models. I enjoy football when it's on, but I can take it or leave it. I don't get much into most other sports. Even within my interests, such as music, it seems the man's man knows things like all the various types of guitars and amps; I never have been interested, as long as mine came close to how I wanted them to sound.

I'm okay with this. In recent years especially, I've become more comfortable with the idea that I'm much more partial to Jeeves and Wooster than I am to Crockett and Tubbs, more a fan of Morrissey than Megadeth. Not sure where I'm going with this. I guess I was just reminded of it tonight when my wife grilled some awesome pork tenderloin while I looked on, and I spent a contented evening alone thereafter watching Holmes and Watson on PBS. Overall, very satisfying indeed.

A Solid Track Record

2008-09-08T22:26:00.001-04:00

I believe it was around this time 7 years ago (good gosh! it can't really have been that long!) that we were just finding out that we were going to have our first child. When we made the discovery, Angie was pretty well convinced that we were going to have a girl, and she was already excited about the name Marguerite Rose. Then, a short while later, we found out we were having a boy, and we embarked on the arduous mental task of coming up with a boy's name. Honestly, it is only by the grace of God and his divine inspiration that we were able to come up with the name Daniel Caleb after a couple of months.

Then, about two years later, when we found out that we were expecting gain, Angie was convinced that, since we'd had a boy the first time, and I came from a family with 2 boys, that we would only ever have boys, and this one was going to be a boy as well. Fortunately, we still hadn't come up with a boy name by the time that we found out it was going to be a girl, so we were relieved to be able to use the Marguerite Rose appellation.

All this is, of course, leading to something, and here it is: today we found out the gender of our current infanticipation. In late January, we expect to give birth to a baby...

Yes, it's definitely a baby boy! Angie was convinced that it was going to be a girl, and, in fact, we already have an awesome girl name picked out that I won't be posting here so that we might use it in the future should the need arise. In the meantime, we must now set about the awesome task of coming up with a name for newest addition. So far, Maggie has suggested "Andy," and my brother suggested "Colloquium," or something like that. It was the name of a football player who was on television this evening, but I don't remember exactly what he said. I think it's fairly safe to say that we won't be using his suggestion. Maggie had also previously suggested "Chrysanthemum" for a girl, and so I believe my brother was also suggesting "Chris Anthony" in tribute to Maggie's desire, but I doubt we'll use that, either. Still, we're open to suggestions, by which I mean that we will give any suggestions their due consideration without giving anyone else credit if we do decide to use one.

So, what do you think? Feel free to contribute a name in the comments section. For inspiration, here's a recent 3-D photo of the little guy's profile:

Moving

2008-08-28T20:11:00.003-04:00

No, we aren't planning to move to another house any time soon, the title refers to our baby. I am now over 18 weeks pregnant (it's hard to keep up with) and I have experienced the "quickening." It is a really neat feeling to experience a little life moving around in my body. I am looking forward to finding out if we will be having another girl or boy on September 8th. Hopefully seeing the ultrasound will be memorable event for Daniel and Maggie to. They have been so sweet around Ren and Angela's newest addition. Hopefully they will enjoy holding their sibling as much as Abigail. Time will certainly tell.

Action

2008-08-23T23:15:00.000-04:00

I was reading through Acts 3 the other morning, and something struck me in a way that I've never noticed before. In the beginning of that chapter, Peter and John are going to the temple for a prayer meeting, and at the temple gate, there's a crippled beggar who, as beggars will, asks them for money. Rather than giving money, in verses 6 and 7, Peter tells the guy, "In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!” Then, Peter reaches out a hand to him, and as he helps him up, the man is healed. Now that's cool, and since we've been talking lately about faith in action being the way God works, I thought it was a great confirmation of that... but that's not what struck me.

What struck me was the end of verse 12, where Peter says, "why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness?" This floored me, even though I'm sure I've read it before, and I think if someone asked me, "Do you have to be perfect for God to use you?" I'd have said, "No, of course not. It's not about me; it's about Jesus." But that day, it really struck me.

Several years ago, when we were living in Athens, I was in church, and there was a man up front in a wheelchair. I had the overwhelming sense that God wanted to heal this man, and that I should go to him and pray with him. I was nervous, as I'd never had anything like that kind of feeling before, but I decided to just embarrass myself if it came to that and go offer to pray with him. We prayed together for a long time, and it seems like I may have even had the idea to offer to help him up, but I know I didn't act on that, or if I did, I didn't make it clear enough that I was trying to do that. The man didn't get up, and after a while, we stopped praying and went back to our seats. In short, we gave up. I have occasionally wondered since then if I just didn't have the spiritual gift of healing, or if I had some hidden, unconfessed sin in my life at the time that prevented God from healing this man through me. After I read Acts 3, it struck me that;

a) God does the work of healing; I'm not healing, I'm praying, I'm lifting, I'm just the assistant,
b) perhaps, the spiritual gift of healing isn't a power that I can feel in my life; maybe it is simply the confidence that God will do the healing if I obey what he's telling me, and
c) also, maybe I don't have to be perfect, I just have to obey God. If he hasn't already revealed and convicted me of "hidden" sin, he's probably not going to let that get in the way of someone being healed. My feeling is that he'd teach me that lesson another time.

The main point that I got out of this passage was that it's Jesus doing the work; it's not just that something cool happens, it's that Jesus is at work. That just completely rocked my world, and I hope it means something to anyone else who reads this. Still, if it's just for me, that's pretty cool too.

Belly buttons, teeth and babies

2008-08-20T22:04:00.001-04:00

"Belly Button (Round)"
by Sandra Boynton

So round. So profound. So great to contemplate ...
Belly Belly Button,
you're oh so fine.
I'm so happy you're mine.
A tummy without you
just wouldn't be right.
Little Belly Button,
you're a beautiful sight.
Belly! Belly button!

Since our sweet girl was a wee lass she has had a fondness for her belly button. Instead of owning a lovey or sucking her thumb, she rubs her belly button. I had never seen such a thing, but our pediatrician has a daughter who did it (she has probably since grown out of it) but it has never bothered me so I have never discouraged it. In fact, it's kind of nice because she can't lose her belly button, and she never complains when we wash it so why not have an attachment with your belly button. Now, as she has gotten older we have had to lay down some rules about the belly button rubbing. She is not to rub it when she has a dress on (i.e. no lifting up your dress to get to it). When we are in public she must "discreetly" rub it, which means that she must leave her shirt down, but she may rub it underneath her shirt. Nonetheless, her love for her belly button has persisted. Either she will grow out of it at some point or she will find a husband that loves her belly button as much as she does.

Our boy, Daniel, has lost his second tooth. It's right next to where he lost his very first tooth. He pushed it out himself during rest time and I can't tell you how excited he was when I went in to the room to let him get up a few minutes early. He held the tiny white tooth up to me and said, "See!" I said, "What is it?" and then he pulled his bottom lip down so that I could see the empty space. Two down eighteen more to go!

In baby news, I had a doctor's appointment this morning. It was just a routine check-up and everything looks and sounds good. We have our next ultrasound scheduled on September 8th. We plan to find out the sex of the baby. We already know what we will name the baby if it is a girl, but we have no boy names picked out at this point. We are also planning to take along Daniel and Maggie to the ultrasound. I'm looking forward to it.

Beach Vacation, Day Nouement

2008-08-10T22:28:00.002-04:00

As promised, here's that sunrise. We did get up in time to see it, but there turned out to be an extremely large condo building directly between our east-facing balcony and the sun. Still, the sky was pretty, and it was a fitting way to end the week. The beach vacation was awesome. I think I can say without hyperbole that I loved every minute of it. The living room was by far my favorite room in the house because it had such an awesome view, a cool, mirrored wall to make it seem more open, and some really soft, deep, comfortable couches. It was the perfect place for relaxing with a book or taking an afternoon siesta.

I'm definitely going to miss that place for a good little while. Still, the vacation has to end sometime, and that time, unfortunately, has come. All the pictures that we took and posted on the web are available here, including shots of the other rooms and, obviously, some extremely cute pictures of the kids. Thanks for reading!

Beach Vacation, Day Six

2008-08-08T01:18:00.002-04:00

Our last full day at the beach began with the sighting from our living room window of just absolute schools of dolphins swimming fairly close into shore. Efforts to photograph them were met with mixed results, but I did manage to get a few successful shots out of about 117 tries. Here's one now:

We were able to go back into the ocean again today, and the water has calmed so much that it is really clear near the shore, so we could see all kinds of fish and seaweed as we waded in. Also, it turns out that there's a sandbar really close to shore to which even Daniel could wade without the water going past his shoulders. I did have to carry Maggie out there, but it was really cool to stand up in the middle of the water on what felt like a second beach! Here's a shot of the kids and me out there.

We had all gone out originally, but then we saw a jellyfish, the kids got scared, and we went back to the first / main beach. It turned out, as we headed back to the beach, that there were a lot of jellyfish in the water, and there were even some public-service-oriented folks who were catching them and taking them to a well-marked place on the beach to die. Once the good people had cleared out three or four of them, the kids felt safe enough to wade back out with me to take the above picture. Here's a progression of the passing of one jellyfish:

After the picture on the sandbar was taken, the kids had enjoyed their fill of the ocean, and it was back to the condo pool, where Maggie and Daniel continued to improve their swimming to the point that I'm pretty sure they're taking part in the opening ceremonies in Beijing sometime tomorrow. Check your local listings for exact times.

The plan for the evening was to take a walk along the beach (a quick one, for the kids' sake), followed by one last round in the pool, where we could hopefully shoot some video of these two young gold medal hopefuls.

Sadly (read: devastatingly) for our dear kiddos, a storm began to roll in as we were making our way back from the walk and towards the pool, and lightning was spotted in the relative vicinity. They were forced to console themselves over ice cream, cake, cookies, baths, and books. After they'd been put to bed (but hours before they actually went to sleep), we played through another round of Phase Ten, which of course Angie won again, this time on points and phase completions.

If we can manage it, we're going to try to get up to see the sunrise, and if so, I'll try to post a picture. If that doesn't work out, here's what it might look like, based on this evening's sunset:

Finally, I'd like to close this week of vacation by saying, "Thank you" to Bennett and Lynley for inviting us to their family's condo on the beach, to Mom and Dad for helping to make this vacation possible, and, of course, to the sweet, considerate neighbors who left their wireless settings on the defaults so that we could enjoy free Internet service for the week. Without your help, this might never have been possible.

Beach Vacation, Day Five

2008-08-07T11:44:00.004-04:00

It's safe to go back in the water! Everyone slept in really late for day 5, except the kids, of course. Since the red flags had been replaced with American flags, Angie took the kids down to the beach for the customary 3 and a half minutes of time in the surf before Daniel completely freaks out over the possibility of being stung by a jellyfish and requests to go home, or at least the pool, while everyone else stayed in the condo. I actually went down and joined them after they'd been in the pool for a while. Maggie's swimming is really improving, and Daniel never fails to have a creative new way to jump in and splash everyone. He's invented several new splashing techniques, with varying degrees of success.

In other news, Bennett and Lynley (my heretofore unnamed brother and sister-in-law, respectively) had to head back today in order to go to work on Thursday, so our afternoon was tainted with a slight sadness at the diminution of our party. Fortunately, we were able to forget our sorrows with a brief rest, followed by a trip about half a mile down the road to The Crab Trap for dinner,

and a sojourn into town to visit Souvenir City,

where Daniel and Maggie were able to buy some souvenirs of their beach trip with their own money thanks to Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace, Jr.

After that, all that was left was to put the kids down, get ready for bed, and stay up until midnight watching Becoming Jane. Not exactly beach-y, but hey, it's what the ladies wanted to see.

Beach Vacation, Day Four

2008-08-06T03:29:00.004-04:00

Today was, again, a red-flag day, but we did manage to get some sand castle-building done at the beach. The day was mostly spent lounging, reading, and swimming with the children in the condo pool. We had all our meals at the condo, and after the kids went to bed, we played a vigorous game of Phase Ten (25th Anniversary Edition), a kind of very complex Uno. Angie won on points, although my sister-in-law was first to complete all phases. We stayed up WAY too late playing, eating cookies, and making jokes which were funnier than they might have been due to the delirium which comes from sleep deprivation. I personally felt it was one of the better days, but then my favorite way to spend time on vacation is to waste it. All in all, it was a very relaxing day. Highlights included Maggie's first sand castle, Uncle Bennett teaching Daniel new and better ways to splash the people sitting around the pool, and Maggie and Daniel making great strides in improving their swimming. There are, as always, even a few pictures here taken throughout the day.

Beach Vacation, Day Three

2008-08-05T02:49:00.003-04:00

This morning when we looked outside, there were red flags all along the beach, meaning that it was too dangerous to go for a swim. So, after a leisurely breakfast / get-the-muscles-working-again time, we loaded up and headed to the Pirate's Island Adventure Golf putt-putt place near Lulu's, where we'd eaten the night before. This was a great mini-golf place with historical information about either of two pirates, Jean Lafitte or Blackbeard, depending on which course you took. We went on the Lafitte course, and I'm sure we were the better for it, both in terms of play and education. Everyone had a blast, and Maggie got a hole in one!

After putt-putt, we were getting hungry again. Breakfast may have been leisurely, but it was not particularly large. Also, with eight of us playing miniature golf, two of whom tended to drag things out a bit, 18 holes took over two and a half hours in the full mid-day sun. So, we loaded up again and headed this time to Lambert's Cafe, "Home of the Throwed Rolls." There are only 3 of them in existence: two in Missouri and the one in Foley, Alabama. Lambert's has special significance for Angie and me because we went to the one near Branson, Missouri on our first anniversary, when we were up that way visiting friends, and we remember the experience fondly. So it was great to get to share that with the kids. They loved it, especially when the waiters would bring around the bucket of fried okra and scoop as much as you wanted right onto whatever surface you presented to them (plate, paper towel, upside-down hat, etc.). The picture below is of a waiter throwing a roll to me. The roll is just above the lamp and kind of blends in with the red-and-white flag. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I actually snapped the photo with my right hand and caught the roll with my left, although by that point I was so stuffed I didn't want to eat the roll; I just wanted the shot.

The rest of the day consisted of almost everyone napping, followed by the four of us going swimming in the pool while my parents hung out in the condo and my brother and his wife played tennis at the condo across the street. We had a VERY late dinner (mostly leftovers from our enormous lunch) followed by a wonderful little post-birthday birthday party for me, complete with caramel cake, vanilla ice cream, and Simpsons-themed birthday cards with Homer re-capping some of his most witty remarks. If I'd thought about it, I'd have asked someone to take pictures of that, but we were having too much fun and I forgot to mention it. More pictures from the Pirate Golf and from Lambert's are available here, however.

Beach Vacation, Day Two

2008-08-03T23:49:00.002-04:00

This is where the fun starts. We woke up at precisely whenever we felt like it and had a leisurely pancake breakfast in our living and dining room area overlooking the ocean.

After breakfast, we got our first real shot at the beach. It went pretty well, considering that it was the first time the children had seen the ocean in the light of day. I think Maggie enjoyed playing in it more than Daniel; he got some salt water in his nose a couple of times and announced that he was ready to head back to our real house. He settled down a bit and played a little more, but didn't seem really happy until he got to go to the pool. I suspect he'll warm up to the ocean as the week goes on. Maggie liked me to hold her arms as the waves were crashing in and letting them lift her up and try to carry her to the shore. We played in the pool for a bit after that, followed by a light lunch, and then EVERYONE took a nap.

Nap time was somewhat interrupted by the arrival of the firetruck, ambulance, and, on the beach right outside our windows, the Life Flight helicopter. We didn't get the full story, but it appeared that someone probably had gotten severely dehydrated and needed to have fluids pumped into them.

Anyway, after that excitement, the naps began in earnest, followed by the arrival of the grandparents at last! (Did I mention we're down here with my brother, his wife, and my folks? We are. Day 1 included my brother and his wife.) Once they'd gotten settled in, we packed up the vehicles and headed to Lulu's Sunset Grill (about 20-30 minutes away), which is a really great open-air beach-style restaurant owned by Jimmy Buffett's sister, Lucy. They have a volleyball net, a souvenir hut, 2 refreshment huts, and a massive sandy play area with beach toys for the kids. This was a good thing, as our wait time was an hour and a half. Yes, really. Fortunately, the food was excellent, and a good time was had by all, although after playing volleyball with a bunch of kids half my age and younger, I thought I might need that helicopter, too.

So, overall, we're off to a great start! I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring. More pictures than you probably care to see are and will be available here.

Beach Vacation, Day One

2008-08-02T23:27:00.001-04:00

Okay, we'll see how this goes, but I thought I'd try to keep a record of our vacation. There's not a lot to tell about Day One, as we spent most of it driving here. We're in a town that is as far west on the coast of Florida as you can go; the Flora-Bama bar (they apparently opted for a state bar instead of a state line) is not quite 2 miles down the road. We did get to let the kids put their feet in the ocean before their bath, but it was already pretty dark out, and they won't really get the experience of it until tomorrow, although they're already VERY excited, as evidenced by the picture below:

Self cleaning house

2008-07-28T17:09:00.002-04:00

As part of getting ready for going out of town at the end of the week, I need to clean our house. We keep our house picked up/mostly clutter free, but it still becomes necessary to dust and mop and scrub down surfaces that develop pink rings around them. Although I have now entered my second semester of pregnancy, I have not experienced a resurgence of energy. I still desire a daily nap and get tired with what feels like menial amounts of work. The problem is my son and husband have allergies and it begins to be a sneeze fest around here if I wait two or three months between dusting sessions. I am finding that I could really use a self cleaning house. Since we don't have one of those, I guess I am just going to have to break my tasks down into smaller more manageable parts and take a few days to get the house sparkling and fresh.

Returnin' From a Jet Plane

2008-07-26T16:41:00.003-04:00

A quick post-trip update: I've been back for a few days now, but I wanted to make sure I said to everyone, "thanks for the support." To answer Mr. Rex10's question in the comments to the original post, I went to Memphis, which was a very short little jaunt. In fact, the trip over was more like riding in a flying bus than a bike - I'm pretty sure there were a total of 53 seats on the plane, including the pilot and co-pilot's seats and the bathroom. I did mention to the flight staff on the first one that I hadn't flown since 1988, and they tried their best to be accommodating. I also had some "less-drowsy" formula Dramamine, which I took about an hour before each flight, and I guess it worked like a charm. I sat by the window on both flights. What an amazing experience! I loved watching the clouds and landscape from above, and coming back over the big city at night was just beautiful! I will definitely not be anxious about flying in the future, should the situation arise again. It was a very good experience, except for when I forgot to take my laptop out of my bag before running it through the scanner on the way back, and the shocked security lady yelled out, "Who has a laptop in a BAG?" as if this was the most ridiculous place to keep a laptop she'd ever heard of, and only a colossal moron would leave one there at a security checkpoint. Oh, and while that was going on, security on the other end was running the cable tester through a full-scale bomb detection process (according to the inspector: "the machine can be setup to check for drugs as well, but we don't care about drugs; you can keep your drugs"). Those were embarrassing, but the rest of the trip I wouldn't mind going through again.

P.S. to Mr. Rex10: You need to know about this.

Beach preview

2008-07-25T20:32:00.007-04:00

In preparation for our upcoming beach trip we decided to take the kids to our local man-made lake beach. Despite the greenish-brown water and little fish that swim in the water we had a great time. Maggie loves that she can touch the bottom and practiced swimming a lot. Daniel likes to dive under the water with his mask on and try to catch the fish or pick up rocks. One unfortunate thing that happened while we were at the beach was that I stepped on a bee. Boy was that uncomfortable. The last time I got stung by a bee I was in kindergarten living in Ft. Campbell, KY. I was playing bare foot at the park and stepped on a bee that was on a flower. Thankfully I am not allergic to bees, but I forgot just how uncomfortable a bee sting can be. I am just glad that it was me instead of one of the kids that got stung. Let's hope the bee sting is not a preview of our time at the real beach. We are getting really excited. Less than a week before we leave!

Leavin' On a Jet Plane

2008-07-21T20:27:00.004-04:00

Tomorrow morning, I head out on a big ol' jet airliner for the first time in over 20 years. I believe this is the only experience in my life about which I can say, "I've done that before, but not in over 20 years." This is a big deal for me, although I have friends who seem to be on planes as much as they are in cars. The last time I was on a plane was, I think, June of '88. I was coming back from a trip to Ireland, the last leg of which was from New York to Atlanta. For the trip overseas, I had some sort of Dramamine patch to install behind my ear, and I used the last one on the trip back from Dublin to New York. On the NY to ATL leg, I was sick almost from the moment of takeoff to landing and even in the car on the ride back to Columbus. I was also exhausted, so I'd fall asleep on the plane being sick, and I'd wake up to be sick again. Not pleasant.
All this to say, if you're a Christian, and you're awake between 7:30 AM and 8:45 AM EDT this Tuesday, please say a little prayer for me, and for the passengers seated near me. I know we'd appreciate it. Thank you.

We're going to the beach!

2008-07-19T15:24:00.009-04:00

In less than two weeks we will be taking off for our first family vacation (with all four of us - five counting the one in utero). We have been on approximately three vacations, our first being our honeymoon to Savannah when we got married. A year later on our first anniversary we went to Missouri to visit a friend of mine in which we stayed at their home. We did stay in a hotel in Branson , MO for one night and spent the day taking in the tourist attractions. Then when Daniel was a year old, and I was pregnant with Maggie, we went to Ohio to visit my mom's side of the family. That is the last "vacation" we have had. Davis and I have had two weekend get aways since having our precious children. One of the main reasons that we have not had more vacations is that we have been trying to get out of debt most of our married years together, albeit not in any way that was focused (until we came across Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover and went through Financial Peace University), but we knew we couldn't afford vacations. The only reason we get to enjoy this upcoming family vacation is because we have a wonderful connection (our sister-in-law) to a condo in Florida. Because it is a condo, we have the ability to cook food and store and reheat leftovers therefore keeping the cost of food down. And because we are on a budget we know exactly how much money we may take with us to spend. I know that we are going to have a ball. Maggie absolutely loves playing in the sand so she will be in heaven. Daniel and Maggie love to swim so we plan to wear them out. Maybe we will even come back with a little color in our normally transparent skin.

The Hunter

2008-07-07T18:39:00.001-04:00

How greedily the predator eyes his prey, anxiously awaiting his chance to strike. Cautiously, he raises his head and, without warning, he pounces, easily devouring his unsuspecting quarry in mere seconds. The biscuit never even saw him coming.

Flight of the Narrator

2008-07-06T22:49:00.001-04:00

Angie: "Maggie, please get your stuffed animals out of Mommy and Daddy's room."
Maggie (standing up and moving towards our bedroom): "And she got up and ran from the room, through the kitchen, and into the bedroom."

Our Maggie has taken to providing narration for her own life, and man, it is by far the best entertainment I get in my week. We still have the baby monitor in the children's room, and in the mornings we'll hear something like, "she dressed herself all by herself and headed to the kitchen for some breakfast." She doesn't do it all the time, and she often talks to herself while she's playing, so I'm worried that I might be missing some of the best lines. I think I might get a bunch of micro-cassette recorders and sew them into Maggie's clothes. Or maybe I should just head over to the local FBI office and ask for copies of the tapes from our house. At any rate, I hope this phase doesn't end anytime soon. As I alluded to earlier on Twitter, with as much attitude as she's been giving lately, sometime it feels like this powerful degree of cuteness is all that's keeping her with us.

A Blast!

2008-07-05T17:20:00.001-04:00

For the past few years now our family has been privileged to spend the 4th of July with several of our dear friends. For reasons which will soon become apparent, I can only say that the event takes place at a private, undisclosed location that is probably not even IN Georgia on the multi-acre, privately-owned, family land of someone I'll refer to as Mickle Cowfman. The buffet is always abundant and incredibly delicious; there are always lots of things for the kids to do; and the finale of the event is an increasingly impressive fireworks display which would be of increasingly questionable legality, were it to take place in Georgia, but, as I mentioned before, it most likely does not. ;-) This year's event featured some of the world's most AWESOME barbecued pork cooked and served in the eastern North Carolina style provided by Mickle's father-in-law. There was a bouncy castle with slide, a toddler bouncy area, a trampoline, a swimming pool, and an industrial-strength snow cone machine. There was also some excellent live music, and Maggie made it through the whole fireworks display, which was a first for us! All in all, it was an outstanding celebration of our great nation's birthday!

Speaking of Exciting Developments

2008-07-01T21:00:00.002-04:00

For those who may not know, the Hipps family is expecting a new addition on or around January 30, 2009! We've known for a couple of weeks now, but we wanted to make sure that all of our various pregnant friends that were due got their bundles unpacked before we made any official announcements. Angie is about 9 weeks along, and has already been through more nausea and exhaustion than she had with the first two combined! Here's a picture of the little peanut, as he or she looked in the photographer's studio this past Monday, June 23rd. It may go without saying, but just in case it doesn't, we're very excited about this! Woohoo! Ok, here' the picture. Sorry to keep you waiting. Here it is.

A Couple of Firsts

2008-06-30T23:37:00.002-04:00

As we first mentioned here, Daniel has had a loose tooth for a couple of weeks now. On Saturday, in the middle of the afternoon with no prompting, he decided that he'd just bite down really hard on it to see what would happen, and sure enough, out it came. He didn't get the least bit upset by this - he was uncharacteristically calm, in fact - but he was clearly thrilled and very proud of himself.

Exhilarating stuff, to be sure, but there was also some excitement involved with the first that we had on Sunday when we went to a playground near our house. Towards the end of our time there, Maggie made the announcement, "Look, there's a Black Widow Spider just like in my Bug's Life game!" And, sure enough, there was the thing in the flesh, crawling along the sand, looking for children to poison, no doubt. Unfortunately, we didn't have the good camera with us, and the pictures that I took from my phone didn't do the thing justice, so I'll just have to do my best to describe it for you here.

It was really black. Also, it had a huge abdomen with a bright red hourglass on it. I've read that the red hourglass should be on the underside for the Black Widow, and that the hourglass on the top may actually be indicative of a False Widow, but as it didn't live long enough to bother correcting us for what was, perhaps, a case of mistaken identity, the truth must be forever buried with it. Whether true or false, the kids were sufficiently convinced of its black widow-ness that they ran screaming from the playground equipment, although I will say they didn't seem particularly scared. I think they may have just wanted to run around screaming. Which, come to think of it, is why we took them to the park in the first place.

Adequate Sleep

2008-06-27T23:01:00.001-04:00

I think getting enough sleep is essential to having the brainpower and creative energy to blog on a regular basis. Just sayin'. G'night.

First Dentist Visit

2008-06-23T18:43:00.005-04:00

This morning Daniel and Maggie had their very first visit to the dentist. Daniel is six and about to lose his first tooth so he was bit overdue, but without dental insurance you have to have the cash to pay for the services. Thanks to our economic stimulus check I decided that the entire Hipps clan should go to the dentist. Both Daniel and Maggie have 20 teeth (although Daniel may only have 19 in a few days) and no cavities. Maggie got her teeth cleaned first. She is our adventurous child. She did a fantastic job. The hygienist, Miss Dannie, said that her teeth don't have many gaps, which is desirable in young children, so she will probably need braces when she is older. It is also more important for us to floss her teeth on a regular basis. Daniel very hesitantly climbed into the chair even after watching his sister bravely undergo her painless cleaning. He did fine, but he still wanted me close by. Then Dannie was going to take two x-rays so that we might be able to see where his 6 year molars are in terms of breaking through, but Daniel gagged and that was the end of it. He started to tear up and get scared. Dannie was very encouraging and didn't force it since she wanted his first visit to be a positive one. Daniel and Maggie both got prizes from the treasure cabinet. Maggie chose two balloons, and Daniel chose a rubber ball and a plastic snake. Both left happy with cleaner teeth and fresher breath. Let's hope Daniel's X-rays go better in January.

The Element of Surprise

2008-06-22T22:25:00.001-04:00

I have never been big on surprises. I can enjoy an occasional surprise, like my favorite meal for dinner, or an unexpected on-the-money birthday present, but in general, I prefer to know what I'm getting into. My son, however, takes this character trait to new and heretofore undiscovered heights of craziness. We thought we'd surprise the kids yesterday with an outing to a movie that Daniel, especially, has expressed interest in. The movie was Kung Fu Panda, and it was nearly a kung-tastrophe. The moment we arrived at the theater, he burst into tears, and twice during the movie he broke down and announced he wanted to go home. He was pretty tired, but I think a lot of it had to do with being surprised. I've noticed other unfortunate traits that I've passed on (video-game-related stubbornness, allergies, wheezing), but this one is clearly the most heinous. Or not. He may just be the kind of guy who likes to know what's going on. And, in the end, he said he liked the movie, so it's not like the surprise completely ruined the experience for him. Still, it's pretty rough knowing that, whether I like it or not, I've passed on some of my lameness to my son. Best to keep some parts of the chip firmly on the block.

With a Little Help From My, Um, Neighbors

2008-06-19T21:00:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to give a quick shout-out to my peeps here in the 'hood. Specifically, I wanted to shout out, "THANK YOU FOR YOUR LAWN SERVICES!!!" Our across-the-street neighbor has, for over a year now, graciously allowed us the use of his riding lawn mower to plow the front 40. This has been a great blessing to us, as we only have a push-mower of our own. The rider takes about an hour and a half to get the job done, whereas the push-mower has taken over 5 hours on its worst day (averages about 3). So, it bears repeating, this has been a great blessing to us. Recent events have prevented us from mowing as frequently as we might like, however, and yesterday our next-door neighbor generously offered his mowing services for an extremely reasonable fee, in my opinion. When I came home and found that the lawn - whose impending maintenance had filled my work-weary heart with a nameless dread - had, in fact, already been maintained, I was overjoyed to say the least. So to my neighbors, once again, a heart-felt "thank you." Your generosity is greatly appreciated.

Shocking discovery made at bedtime

2008-06-18T22:24:00.003-04:00

I can't believe it, but our boy has a loose tooth! I feel like I should have been a little more prepared for it considering that our good friends' son, who is just a few months younger than Daniel, lost his first tooth a couple months ago. But it is just not the same when it is your own flesh and blood. I was going over his teeth when he was getting ready for bed and I thought his tooth looked a bit crooked, then it moved! I was shocked and excited. Our sweet little boy is getting so big. He, of course, thought is was awesome since his best friend has already lost a tooth. Life sure is an adventure with growing children.

Question for the Board of Health OR Random Foreign Language Thought for the Day

2008-06-17T09:15:00.000-04:00

In Spanish, a "perro" is a dog, and a "perrito" is a little dog. If a "burro" is a donkey, then shouldn't someone in authority be looking a little deeper into these so-called "burritos?"

How to Enjoy Sonic - America's Drive-In

2008-06-16T22:32:00.001-04:00

I really enjoy going to Sonic. I think they have the best fast-food burgers, excellent onion rings, and a great variety of drinks (good shakes, too)! However, at times a family outing to Sonic can be a bit of a chore, so I thought I might offer up some tips to getting the most out of your dining experience.

If possible, don't go with children. Children are a gift from the Lord, but the best way to enjoy Sonic is to go with your spouse, order your food, and just sit in the car and talk to each other while the '50s music plays over the speakers.
If it's baking hot outside, eat in the car, especially if you've ignored number 1. There's no way you'll enjoy the experience if you've had to unload cranky children out into the heat.
Go with what you know. I am one who is more than willing to try new things when I'm at a restaurant, but at Sonic, I stick with the burgers. I don't see any need to try the chicken, and I'm certainly not interested in a Sonic burrito. I have to be in the mood for a chili dog, but I will occasionally go with that. If I want to be sure I'm satisfied, though, it's a cheeseburger, onion rings, and a Diet Coke®.
Don't stress about tipping. My rule for tipping at Sonic is that the waiters or waitresses on roller skates get a tip. They're putting in extra effort, and they're providing entertainment as part of the experience. Walking out with the food is part of the job, as I see it. Rolling out with the food is cah-ray-zy!

So, that's it. If you stick with these simple rules, you should have no problem enjoying your meal. If you follow these rules and still don't have a good time, you can comment here and I'll give you a full refund of the price of this advice.

Reminds Me of a Song

2008-06-10T22:11:00.002-04:00

I don't particularly want to get too political on this our family blog, but I have noticed something in the course of the presidential campaigning season. I don't think anyone anywhere on the political spectrum would argue with the assertion that Senator McCain is not the best public speaker, whereas Senator Obama is eloquent and charismatic. Having observed a few of their speeches recently, however, I'm reminded of the song "XTC vs. Adam Ant" by They Might Be Giants, the lyrics to which speak to the battle between substance vs. style, "content vs. form." If I can get this music player to show up, enjoy! If not, the title of the song is linked to the lyrics for the song, and you can hear a snippet on the Amazon.com page for the Factory Showroom album.

(p.s. if you're deweb, I totally stole this music player from you. literally. if you look at the source code of this page, the player is running off of your website. if you're not cool with that, let me know how i can get the player on my own site and i'll fix it. sorry i didn't ask first. thanks.)

Joie de Vivre

2008-06-09T22:26:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we got to visit our friends, Ren and Angela Buckland, and to see their new baby, Abigail! What a cutie! We are blessed to be friends with two other infanticipating couples whose due dates are upon us, and another who is due in October! All the expectancy and newness of life in the air just makes me happy. I can't wait to meet all the new little people who are blessed to have parents cool enough and smart enough to have friends like us!

Everything Except What I Should be Praying About

2008-06-06T07:38:00.002-04:00

I have, for a LONG time now, struggled to get up in the morning and spend time praying and reading the Bible. I've gotten to the point where I can get up successfully and have at least a little time to do this more days than I don't. Now, though, my problem is with distractions. I get to thinking about tasks that I'm puzzling over at work, things I need to do around the house, things I want to do with my family, stuff like that. And that's when I go the "paper-Bible and prayer journal" route. Firing up the laptop for a Bible Gateway and YouVersion journaling day magnifies this, as I now have email and the web to add to my distractions. Surely I'm not the only Christian for whom this is an issue, right? How does one learn to focus? Suggestions welcome.

Laptops are for Lovers

2008-06-03T21:56:00.002-04:00

Before we got laptops, my wife and I would have to check blogs and email from the PC in the other room, separated sometimes for hours as we siphoned through the reams of correspondence, personal and public, that had come in throughout the day. Now, we get to sit together on the couch, sift through the day's information and point out interesting stuff to each other. I know it's kind of lame, but it's a way to catch up without having to be separated, and I like that a lot.