Belly buttons, teeth and babies

"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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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®.
4. 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

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

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

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

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.

I Really Do Like Being Employed

This week our company is doing our annual employee reviews. We've been asked to think about a few questions in preparation for our time in the hot seat. Number One on the list is "Why are you here?" Now, once I'd moved past my inclination to always give the most smart-aleck answer possible ("it's my annual review, and I was told I had to be here"), the question really did get me thinking.

The problem with the annual review being this time of year is that, every year at about this time, I start to get kind of burned out on my job. Part of it, I think, may be that the workload does slow somewhat when summer starts, and part of it may be akin to spring fever. Whatever the reason, it oftentimes happens in May that I would gladly do any job in the world that doesn't require the use of a computer (hence the dramatic decrease in May blog posts, incidentally). I'd rather be outside, or at least in an office with a window, or at a job where I can leave at 5 and go play with my kids. I long for a real two-week vacation that doesn't result in a panic attack from not having earned enough this month.

The thing is, it's just the time of year. For pretty much the other 11 months I'm completely in love with my job. I get to work with some great guys who are actually my friends. I get to help solve problems for my clients so that they can do the important jobs that they do. I even get to drive around town during the day to visit clients on occasion. And, I'm paid very well (by my standards, anyway) to do it. It really is a great job, and most of the time, I love it.

Just not at review time, for some reason.

Greatness

My wife makes the world's best squash casserole. I'm fighting the urge to eat the entire pan right now. It's really good to have my family back!

Random Late-Night Thoughts

I had intended to share some thoughts on my week earlier tonight, but getting the house ready for my family's return took longer than I thought, so I have a feeling whatever I say now will be pretty random. Still, I feel it's important that I share the following:

• I'm so excited about seeing Angie, Daniel, and Maggie tomorrow that I'm about to burst!
• Our neighbors are awesome! They are very generous to us, and they always let us borrow their riding mower. Our push mower takes between 3.5 and 5 hours to mow the lawn. I got the front and back completely done in just over an hour and a half!
• Watching Lord of the Rings special features tonight:
  
• I like the stories, but I'm not crazy or anything. There's a guy being interviewed on the Two Towers DVD whose job title is something like Tolkien Language Translator. I mean, really, that's just too far, in my opinion. (Incidentally, if you were to judge by appearance alone, you'd still be able to guess that was his job.)
• I wonder what on earth Mrs. Tolkien thought of her husband's (and later, their son's) literary pursuits.
• This stuff must have taken a lifetime to come up with.
• These folks worked REALLY HARD on these movies.
  
• Never let it be said that my family is holding me back. With a week to myself, not only have I not written songs or stories, I haven't even read much.
• It seems like almost everything I do takes "longer than I thought"
• I've been over-using bullet points lately

That's all I've got. Goodnight!

Independence

This week, Angie and the kids are away visiting family, and, as usual, I'm at home not taking particularly good care of myself. I feel like Tony has talked about this phenomenon before, but I can't find the post to save my life, and it's getting late, so I'm not looking anymore. My goals for the week included mowing the lawn, reading a few books, getting the laundry done, returning the library videos, and posting to my blogs. My accomplishments so far include:

• beating Guitar Hero II on the Hard level (score!)
• reading a few pages of one of the books
  
• watching too much TV
• eating too much ice cream
  
• umm... oh, and tonight I returned the videos!

That's it. Oh, well, I guess this counts as a blog post, but it's not exactly what I had in mind. I guess all this is just to say that I love my family, I miss them, and I really don't function properly without them.

Sweet

The kids and I got the chance to go strawberry pickin' at Washington Farms the other day. There is really nothing like eating ripe strawberries right off the vine. Of course Daniel has never experienced this joy since he is allergic to them, but he was still happy to help pick them. He was especially interested in helping because once we filled our bucket he knew we were going to play at their little play area, so he did his best to speed the whole process up. Thankfully I lathered us up in sunscreen because I feel confident we would all be sunburnt since we went at 3:30 (still peak burning time). Such is the life of the pigmentally challenged. Anyway, a good time was had by all, and the results were pretty sweet.

Bath Time Education

There's been a lot of talk on a friend's blog recently about public school, private school, and home school. This post wouldn't have much to do with that at all, except that we are currently home schooling Daniel. I often realize that his education is happening right in front of me, at the most unusual times. Tonight, for instance, I overheard Angie broadening his cerebral horizons while giving him a bath. "Superman was born a super-hero," she said. "Batman trained to be a super-hero. Spider-Man was bitten by a radioactive spider, and that's how he got his super powers." I've got to say, I am a huge fan of this curriculum. All the basics are covered during the times that are most conducive to learning. I understand that during the regular school hours, they only work on things like reading, writing, and math.

A Cotton Pickin' Minute

Saturday, the Hipps family headed to beautiful downtown Gay, GA for the annual Cotton Pickin' Fair.

My sister-in-law, Lynley, is a part of the Chattahoochee Valley Cloggers, who were performing at the end of the day.
We left the house at around 1 PM, imagining we'd arrive between 2:30 and 3, but not really having much of an idea of how long it would take. It took a LONG time. It was a significantly longer drive than we had realized, for one thing. And, once we got off the Interstate, traffic was particularly stop-and-go as at least 15 out of every 16 houses was having a yard sale, right on the side of the highway. I think we finally arrived about 3:45, but my brain was suffering a yard-sale induced overload by that time, so it could have been days later.

Upon arrival, we met up with my folks. Maggie went almost immediately to the pony rides, while Daniel opted for the more expensive Super-Tramp bungee trampoline. This was followed by a train ride for just the two of them, wherein someone with a clear financial interest in the event took the kids on a tour of all the various craft tents while, presumably, subtly suggesting to them that what they really want most in life is something from every one. All I know for sure is that, as soon as the ride was over, Maggie wanted to make a bracelet and Daniel wanted to buy a sword.

Finally, it was time for the clogging to begin. I'd never known what clogging is, really. My initial impression was that it's sort of a cross between tap dancing and country line dancing, with the tap aspects being much more prominent. It was actually a pretty cool performance (Maggie especially seemed to enjoy it; Daniel stood next to the seating area quietly putting his sword into the back of his shirt and quickly bringing it out again in a heroic manner), and it was great to see my relatively new sister-in-law in action. The clogging ended at 5, as did the rest of the fair, and man, when they called time that place cleared out. I guess sitting or standing around all the live-long day had taken its toll on folks, because the parking lot was almost empty by the time we realized everyone was leaving. Crazy.

One final note: on the way home, we got to stop at one of the Chick-fil-A Dwarf House restaurants. I don't think they've told the cows about these restaurants; I base this on the greatly expanded menu available, including burgers and outright steak. The kids loved the cool door, and I got to try the new Coffee Caramel milkshake (available only for a limited time! Act now!). The End.

Playground thoughts

Daniel (heretofore largely ignored by the younger kids): Hey guys, I have a plan to save the world!
Maggie (the undisputed leader of the group): Hey guys, let's listen to his world-saving plan!

And just like that, everyone is having fun. Pretty sweet.

Picture of hair

Here is a picture in response to Kristen's request for one. Debi dried my hair with a diffuser
and then used a curling iron to make some loose curls over my tight curls. Of course it has been 6 hours since she did my hair so it isn't as polished as it was when I walked out of the salon. My six year old son took the picture (he's a brilliant little guy). Enjoy!

Got the Hairs Cut Today

Thanks to my dear friend, Kim, I was able to go get my hair trimmed today. It has been since early January that I had my last trim so I was beginning to look a little ragged. Daniel and Maggie had a fabulous time playing over at the Borgs while I got pampered by my hairstylist, Debi. Debi goes to my church and she is one neat lady. It has been such a pleasure to hang out with her while getting my hair done. I have been blessed by both of these women so I just wanted to send my thanks out into blogdom. You ladies are awesome!

And Now He's Even Older

Our boy celebrated his 6th birthday this Friday. I am still reeling about having a six year old. He is one amazing boy. We sure are blessed to have him in our family.

So, Friday we started the birthday festivities by learning a little Spanish with Miss Amy Gonzales from church. Daniel did a fantastic job singing "Lo mas que nos reunimos" ("The More We Get Together"). He is one smart kid. Next we went to see "Horton Hears a Who." We enjoyed popcorn and M&M's, not to mention the trailer for this movie. After the movie we ran over to Game Stop for Daniel to use his gift card that he got from Grandpa Sperry and Meme. Then we headed over to the Mart de la Wal for Daniel to buy this with his saved commission money. We took a quick breather before we headed over to our friends' house to have pizza, cupcakes and presents. We took their son to spend the night at our house and left our daughter to spend the night at their house. This was our very first sleep over. I presume that it is the first of many in their lifetime.

The festivities continued Saturday when Grandmama and Grandaddy Hipps came bearing gifts for the birthday boy (and his sister). That's when Davis and I gave him this. Davis was able to get it at a good price from a co-worker that was selling it so that he could buy an XBox 360. One of the games that we got with the PS2 was Kingdom Hearts 2. He has been enjoying playing it, as evidenced by the way he is constantly telling us about the parts he's already played and speculating on the parts that are coming up.

We are so proud of Daniel and look forward to watching him grow into a young man.

A Quick Lesson in Patience

One might think that, as a woman who is around small children all the live-long day, my wife would have developed the patience of Job, if only as a sanity-preservation technique. And, for the most part, she does display great patience. Once in a while, however, (read: anytime she gets a strong enough urge for sweets) the effort of remembering to be patient gets to be too much. And thus, she is occasionally burned by her impatience. Like this afternoon, when she made some cookies for part of Daniel's church homework, and decided that the moment to try the first one was the same moment that they emerged from the oven. Apparently, the hissing noise emanating from her tongue first alerted her to the fact that something was wrong. And so, of course, she immediately proceeded to wolf down the rest of the cookie, presumably in hopes that the sense of accomplishment at having completed the task at hand would overcome the searing tongue pain and inability to taste the cookie itself. I think the lesson here is obvious, don't you? If you're going to eat a cookie hot out of the oven, do it FAST!

Cyberspace just got a little smaller

Try and follow me here, but I was going through my blog roll (which is alphabetized by blog name in my favorites tab) so I started with Adam DeWeber. He recommended this site. I had just recently heard of this site through Stephen Lowe's blog post on Friday. I found "Stuff Christians Like" to be interesting because my friend, Holly, sent me an email telling me about this other blog that she had found funny. Turns out that the author of "Stuff Christians Like" got his idea from "Stuff White People Like." So I decided to start at the beginning of the "Stuff Christians Like" blog. In the comments of post #24 the church Vintage 21 was mentioned. Our friend Matt Stevens is the Worship Pastor there. And in post #23 Carlos and his arm tattoo is brought up. In the comments section LeAnn asks if he is talking about Carlos W from Buckhead church. Turns out he is one and the same. I had heard about Carlos and his blog from a post on Adam's blog. From Carlos' blog I got to his wife's blog. Reading through some of her blog I came across this post. As you may (or may not know) Davis and I are from Columbus, GA. Pretty crazy is all I can say. I spent way too much time looking at blogs this morning so I thought I would compose a post about it to make my expended time "worth while."

Good Stuff

"Hey Mom, did you know every year over 5 million people from all around the world visit the Grand Canyon?" Daniel said this out of the blue just now. He said this because it was mentioned in the BOOK HE WAS JUST READING!! That's right. He just picks up a book, starts reading, goes until he's finished. It's pretty much one of the greatest things ever. Just thought you should know.

Murphy-Proofing

Dave Ramsey often talks about how, while you're in debt trying to get out, it seems like Murphy (of Murphy's Law fame) moves in. Vehicles will break, various family members will get sick, chandeliers and large sections of plaster will come crashing down from the ceiling onto the good china, etc. Fortunately, we've managed to confine our woes to the first couple of categories... so far.

The good news, reportedly, is that once you're out of debt and you've got an "emergency fund" well-established, Murphy tends to move out. I think that's one of the parts of being debt-free that I'm most looking forward to. I know it's not a guarantee, but even if he hangs around for a while, when we have a fully-funded emergency fund, I just don't think his petty little annoyances will push my buttons quite so much. All that to say,

"Pack your bags, Murph; we're kicking you to the curb!"

Definition of Accomplishment

I was reading through this post by my friend, Robby, regarding the experiences of his life vs. having a sense of accomplishment. I thought it might be interesting (to me) to highlight some of the more bizarre events of my life. I won't try to come up with twenty-one things (seriously, man, 21? How'm I supposed to compete with that?), but let's see what I can come up with off the top of my head. So, following his format...

I've sung onstage at Carnegie Hall,
I've kissed the Blarney Stone,
I've eaten Fried Chicken in 18 of our United States,
I've seen the Grand Canyon, Mt. Rushmore, and Old Faithful,
I've seen snow on the ground in July,
I've been a featured guest musician onstage with a singer who went on to win a grammy for singing with Bon Jovi,
I've met and done work for members and the office of my favorite band growing up,
I've played bass and sang backup on three CDs,
I've loved and lost,
I've also loved and won...

This isn't the exhaustive list I had planned, but it might be enough to spark a conversation. As to what I've accomplished, there are a few things I think worth mentioning, and I hope that they'll inspire my friend, if he reads this...

I've been a member of a band that helped reunite at least one person with her Savior,
I've helped to invite God into a room full of people who might not know him,
I've taught children that Jesus loves them while Tony taught their parents the same thing.

I think that will do for now.

May I Have the Peep Toe Special?

So Davis and I attended a wedding this weekend. In honor of the occassion I went and got a manicure and pedicure (always nice to have a excuse for extra pampering). At the reception we sat with some church friends, Tony McCollum, and his lovely wife and daughter. As comes with ladies, there was some discussion about clothes and shoes when peep toe shoes was brought up. Now for those of you who may not know (that would be the men-folk) only a couple of toes "peep" through the toe opening of the shoe. Thusly, Tony came up with the hilarious idea of getting a pedicure just for peep toe shoes in which you only get the toes that peep out painted. I got a very hearty chuckle out of the idea of walking around with just my big and pointer toe painted, then I slip my foot out of my peep toe shoe and the rest of my toe nails are untrimmed, unfiled, and unpolished. Considering how popular peep toe shoes seem to be, you never know: the next time I go into Creative Nails I might see the peep toe special on their menu.

Exploding Gas Pump (Prices)

As I may have mentioned here before, we're attending Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University classes every Monday night. This past Monday, we got to talking about how to save money on gas prices. One of my friends, who works for Ryder, mentioned 4 potentially money-saving tips:

1) Wednesday early AM best to buy gas (prices go up on weekends, cooler air gets more gasoline into the tank)
2) Fill up when at 1/2 tank (less air in tank = less evaporation)
3) use slowest pump setting (faster pumping causes more gas to escape through vapors)
4) don't fill up when the trucks are there delivering the gas (when the trucks are filling the tanks, sediment can get stirred up and sent into your tank)

Nerd that I am, I decided to research this some more. I trust my friend's advice, but I wanted to find some more sources before mentioning the tips on my blog. From a quick Google search on "gas tank filling tips," I found this Snopes article. Basically (if you don't want to click away from this post), the article says that the tips may be true, but they aren't likely to save you a significant amount of money, even in the long-term. (note: The article doesn't mention Wednesday specifically, just the cool of the morning part. Other searches suggest that Wednesday may generally be the day of the week gas is cheapest.)

So, how can you save significant money on gas? There actually seems to be a lot of advice out there:
1) SolveYour Problem.com has an article on 62 gas pump tips - "Gas Prices Are Outrageous,Save Me Some Money!"
2) BankRate.com has 11 car-care tips that save gas and 10 ways being a smart driver saves you gas
3) AAA has a Fuel Cost Calculator to help determine how much gas costs and how much a given trip will cost you (I notice my friend, Ren, has a similar widget on his blog).

Anyway, I hope this helps someone. I think the "being a smart driver" article might benefit me the most, but that may not have anything to do with saving money.

Refrigerator Verse of the Day

Hebrews 5:11 (New Living Translation) - "There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen."

A Child of the 70's

Well not really. She was born in 2004. But if she had been born in the 70's she might dress like this. Friday we went to a party for a friend who turned 30. She was born in 1978 so her husband decided to have a 1970's themed party. We had a great time dressing up and dancing to disco. There was also a trivia game in which Tony McCollum dominated. He apparently spent a LOT of time watching television in the 70's. A groovin' time was had by all.

Hello, Goodbye

Our friend, Holly, has decided to drop off the face of blogdom. I just found out about this when I visited another friend's new blog, and she mentioned it in the comments. I haven't heard, therefore, if it was just too time-consuming, or if she felt she was running out of ideas, or what, but I thought I would take the opportunity to share some of my own thoughts on blogging. This is actually a re-post of something I wrote on one of our many top-secret, hidden blogs, which I'm not going to link to, as that would force a downgrade of its top-secret clearance. Anyway, I wrote this one night (1/27/08) after going to see the band, Scarlet Snow, perform at a local coffee shop in Winder (it's kind of long, sorry; I was new to blogging at the time):
-------------------------------------
Why Not Blog?

So, honestly, what does one talk about on a blog? Is this to be a political blog? a stream-of-consciousness collection of random daily thoughts? tech help? music reviews? family pictures? or what?

I have no idea. All I know is that, at times, I feel a desperate longing to express myself, to voice my opinions to the world whether it wants to hear them or not. Not a need to be accepted, necessarily, but a need to say something.

My biggest problem with this need is time. I spend at least 9 hours a day at work, with a 20+ minute commute each way, for a total of, usually, 10 or more hours away from home. After that, I ache to spend time with my family, and so I try to get in time to play with my young children before their bedtime, after which is finally some time alone with my wife. This time together typically concludes because we're both just physically exhausted and ready to stumble off to sleep. So, the songs in my heart, the novel ideas stirring around in my brain, the random thoughts that I might post on a blog, even the pictures of my children that I might post on a website for extended family and friends to enjoy, never come to fruition. And thus, we get a blog started in mid-November that isn't updated until late January. At nearly 1AM.

And so, I would like to give the full credit for this, my first real post on this blog, to the provider of tonight's Mochaccino, without whom I would not be awake right now. Thank you, Latté Da. (I was going to link to their website, but I can't find one, and I'm not staying up any later to try. Instead, I'm linking to a Mochaccino recipe. Enjoy.)
------------------
So, there you have it. To Holly, I don't know why you say goodbye; to Ren, I say hello.

Ft. Yargo Photo #1

Even at the park with the family for a little evening R&R, things can manage to get a little hairy.

Happy Easter!

 

So Many Blogs, So Little Time

Well, I just spent the last two hours (or so) catching up on my blog reading. Last week our church did a Daniel fast. Since I was serving in our children's ministry the Sunday that this announcement was made I didn't find out about it until I got the chance to listen to the sermon CD, just two days before we were suppose to start. Therefore I didn't feel adequately prepared to fast (I know, excuses, excuses). So, instead of being a vegan for a week, I fasted from watching TV and reading blogs. Ouch. Although is was a nice change of pace to read The Bible and pray instead of seeing what I shouldn't wear or how couples adjust to being new parents, it was a sacrifice. Davis and I did not watch Lost on Thursday (but we recorded it and were able to watch it yesterday after church). At any rate, a whole lot of blogging went on while I wasn't keeping up. Two big announcements were that Adam is moving and The Lowes are having a baby! It sure is nice to be up to date again.

Commitment Updates

UPDATE #1: Unleash has a new website where it looks like you can pretty much watch the entire conference. Pretty cool.

UPDATE #2: Stayed up too late last night finishing a book I was reading. It was good, but I was 18.5 minutes late for work today. That's not good. I was solidly on time Monday, and within 5 minutes Tuesday and Wednesday. But today, not so good. Still, this is a process, and all I can do is take things one day at a time.

To Kids, At Least, They Are

I just wanted to take a quick minute here at the end of my lunch break to sing the praises of a little group I like to call They Might Be Giants. They've been one of my favorite bands since early high school, and now, they're becoming one of my children's favorites as well. They just came out with their third children's album, and it is yet another quality product. This album and the last one both included a DVD of videos for most if not all of the songs on the CDs, and even their first children's CD was enhanced so that you could put it in your computer and play interactive videos (popping balloons, making scary-looking robots dance, etc.). Anyway, just wanted to get the word out. If you're a parent of a child between the ages of 0 and say, 10, I would HIGHLY recommend giving these a listen. We received one as a gift this weekend, and the kids already have pretty much all the songs memorized (in Daniel's case, this includes guitar parts). Anyway, speaking of kids, they like to eat, so I guess I'd better get back to work.

Two Places at Once

Right now I'm wishing we were at our church's big Egg Drop. I hope everyone has a great time!

Honoring Your Commitments

My church sent a group of as many of our volunteers as could get off work to the Unleash conference Thursday. One of the main things that struck me at the conference was in the Worship Leader's breakout session, where he talked about what he's looking for in band members: character, competency, and commitment. About commitment, he mentioned that if you're late to practice more than twice, you're out of the band, as you're probably not really committed to being there. This was crazy to me because I am chronically late to everything, but I've never felt like it was because I wasn't committed; I'm just not very good at managing my time. But I suppose it is about priorities; am I prioritizing my sleep over getting to work on time, my work over getting home to my family? Hard questions, to be sure. All that to say, this week I'm committing to make it to work on time, every day. (Please don't mock me, prompt people; this may be a break-through.) Okay, gotta hurry up and get ready, or we'll be late for our family's Easter Egg Hunt. *sigh* Pray for me (and my wife, she's a promptie).

A Break in My Day

Today I got to enjoy some time with my kids at a park here in Athens. I had envisioned a peaceful walk by the lake, maybe, or at least a bit of tranquility and rest while the kids ran around and had a good time. And, for the most part, it was a serene little break in my day. There was one bit of fun that got to be a bit grating on the ol' ears, however. At least Maggie liked it…

Laser Fitness

I've been meaning to write this since Friday: I got to go to one of the most awesome birthday parties of my adult life this past Thursday. It was at Lazer City in Buford, GA, and the party was for my friend, Andy Eaton, proprietor of the famous Tales of Wonder online comic book store. (Aside: Actually, they do more than just comic books. The description on the website says, TalesOfWonder.com is one of the largest direct market retailers of trade paperbacks, hardcover books and merchandise related to the comic book industry. Tony was once given one of these by Andy. Very cool.) Anyway, the party was a blast! I didn't see anyone who wasn't having a great time shooting each other, guarding our base or attacking the other, plus eating pizza and some very good cookies. We had about 25 folks there, but the play area was multi-level and pretty large, so it got to be quite a workout. I am personally not in the best of shape (see recent photo) and I though I was going to pass out at times from all the physical exertion. It's a lot of work to move stealthily around, crouching suddenly or jerking back to try and avoid getting shot. I definitely felt fairly lame for being so exhausted, but I was comforted to overhear a couple of friends who are in much better shape (see recent photo) talking today about how they were still sore as well. This is one of my most late-night blog posts, and I honestly have no idea what my original intention for saying all this was. Probably, I wanted to tell Andy "Thank you" and "Happy Birthday" and "I saw the card but didn't get a chance to sign it because we were being led in to start the shooting, but I do think you're a great guy and I am glad you were born. Sorry I missed signing the card." Goodnight.

Doing the Math

Before we started our Financial Peace University class, I decided to look around on the Internet and see if anyone had anything bad to say about Dave Ramsey, as I’d heard praise but no real criticism. One of the first things I found was an article entitled, “Dave Ramsey is Bad at Math.” This article talks about how it’s better mathematically (meaning you end up spending less money) to pay off your debts starting with the highest interest rate, then the next highest, and so on, as opposed to Dave’s plan of paying off the smallest debt first, then the next smallest, etc. The article also mentions a plan by a guy named David Bach, from his book, The Automatic Millionaire. I had actually read this book a couple of years ago, but I couldn’t remember what the debt-reduction plan was that he mentioned. That whole book was about putting all of your bills including house payments on automatic online bill-pay, establishing a retirement account that is taken directly out of your paycheck, and basically having your entire financial life go on “behind-the-scenes.” I’m pretty sure that the idea behind that is that if you have access to the money, you’ll waste it, but if you’ve set yourself up where all the aspects of your life that will lead you to get rich, what does it matter if you waste what’s left? Not too bad, I guess, and Dave’s overall plan also encourages and implements some of these ideas, but the debt-reduction scheme he recommends just seems odd (account balance divided by minimum payment, lowest ratio first), and the book seems to be aimed at people who are doing all right but just aren’t sure how to get rich by retirement. It doesn’t address the bad spending habits and poor choices that probably got us into debt in the first place. Anyway, the point I was going to make is that the “bad at math” article compares the 3 methods (percentage-based, Ramsey, and Bach) and concludes what is, perhaps, obvious: paying off based on interest rate gets you out of debt fastest and cheapest. The problem is, depending on what your debts look like, it may be quite a while before you ever start to feel like you’re making any progress. Whereas, on Dave’s plan, you can usually pay off the smallest debt relatively quickly, and the psychological boost of knowing that you can knock these things out and feeling like you’ve done something early in the process is huge. So, yes, Dave’s plan may not be the fastest, but it gives encouragement quickly, and potentially more often, than going based on percentages alone. Incidentally, nearly two years after the “bad at math” article, the author wrote another one, largely consisting of responses he received. It’s title is: “Dave Ramsey is Good at Psychology.”

New Adventures in Hi-Fi(nance)

Today was the big day! We have given our children jobs to do for which we are paying commissions (thank you, Angela, for being the only respondent to our request for job ideas). We have also given them a very short list of thngs that they are not to do, for which they will be fined. And we got to experience the joy and pain of both right on the first day. It was amazing and heart-warming to see them eagerly do their jobs with a happy heart. It was crushing and heart-breaking to have to watch as one child had to open their commission jar, extract some of the money they'd worked for, and pay a fine for doing something they aren't supposed to do. I'm excited about teaching them smart money management so that it gets into their hearts at a young age, but it was really rough to have to impose the fine. Still, this is an adventure, and every adventure that I know of involves making some bad decisions and learning from the ensuing pain, so that the adventure will end with joy and, ideally, prosperity. And so it begins...