Pictures of Maggie Mae

Father's Day

Father's Day was good. It started out pretty normal for a Sunday.

We went to the 11:00 service. While Cara was submitting the young ones into the Hero's Gate (Woodland Hills' children service/daycare) I went to the audio/lighting booth to talk to the crew. It was there that a co-worker of mine approached me. Tom was the very last trainee I taught at Monarch before they stopped hiring new drivers. He and I had absolutley nothing in common (until now, that is- now I know we're brothers in Christ) as I'm a full through and through geek and he's a minor league hockey player. His buddy disappeared or something so Tom sat with Cara and I. He mentioned that he heard the usual sermons here at WHC are not the typical kind, they make you think. I confirmed that and added that if you want a sermon that makes you feel good this was not the place for that. As soon as worship was done and announcements were out of the way Boyd introed his message naming it PAIN. Tom and I laughed about that.

After church Cara, Jack, and I (Leesha went out with her dad after church) went out for my Father's Day lunch. I chose The Uptown Bar and Cafe for their gyro omelets and their bloody marys. That's exactly what I got, too. Didn't even need the menu.

We went home and I crashed - thats what you do after you eat an Uptown omelet and a bloody. There's no avoiding it. Cara cleaned the cars and I watched Jack- rather we watched Flash Gordon. At some point Leesha came home. Later, Eric and Keesha came over to help install our air unit in the window. When they left I called my dad and by the end of that conversation it was around 10PM.

It was a full and relatively active Father's Day.

Saturday

It was a good Saturday. Jack and Leesha playing in the yard with the neighbor kids today.

It was a good Saturday. Jack and Leesha playing in the yard with the neighbor kids today.

Cara's folks came over so Cara and I could go on a date for dinner. My folks gave us a gift card to a place called Sgt. Pepper's. Great place, OK food, HUGE servings. We don't do that often enough. After dinner we drove around a bit and took a walk in a park down by Battle Creek. It was really nice.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Leesha and I started watching Avatar: The Last Airbender.



This is a series I've been aware of for as long as it has existed, but never bothered to explore. It always appeared to be some ninja cartoon that happened to have pretty good art and some imaging that resembled Miyazaki slightly.

What is this show about?

 

Avatar: The Last Airbender takes place in a fantasy world that is home to humans, fantastic animals, and spirits. Human civilization is divided into four nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation. Each nation has its own natural element, on which it bases its society. Within each nation exists an order called "Benders" who have the ability to manipulate the eponymous element of their nation. The show’s creators assigned each Bending art its own style of martial arts, causing it to inherit the advantages and weaknesses of the martial arts it was assigned. The Bending types are Waterbending, Earthbending, Firebending, and Airbending.

link to more...

Leesha and I have developed a tradition of sitting and watching a show together when we can. I use this as incentive for getting chores done as well as spending time with her in an activity that truly interests both of us. We've watched Nadia: Secret of Blue Water, ROBOTECH, Haibane Renmei, Last Exile, Dungeons & Dragons, Oban Star-Racers, Sarah Jane Adventures, and now Avatar: The Last Airbender.

We're 4 episodes in and this show is good. It's aimed at an audience of her age almost directly, but has enough fantasy mixed with realism to keep geek adults interested. So far I'm quite impressed. Impressed enough to start this thread.

Very Good Saturday

The last week was coming close to overwhelming. At work there are people in training. That means the training department is putting in 9 or 10 hours a day all week as we cover or evaluate morning routes and afternoon routes with training for 3 hours in between. Sometimes that even includes afterschool routes like it did for me on Monday. Thursday I sat on a Minneapolis charter route which clears around the same time as a St. Paul after school route. Then I have small group bible study on Tuesday night. And we had a small group church meeting Wednesday night. Very busy week. One nice thing was every moment I worked on Friday was overtime. So I needed a fun-no-work weekend.

That's what I got.

Saturday was gaming. D&D at Rob's house. When I got home it was Jack and Leesha and Hazel in the back yard (Hazel is our friend's dog we're sitting for the weekend). Cara grilled brats for dinner. Pretty good day.

After dark and after Leesha was ready for bed we watched the 3rd episode of our new show - Avatar: The Last Airbender. This is an American anime. Three episodes in and its proving to be very well made. It's targeted to Leesha's age, I believe, and has enough fantasy elements to be interesting for adults with that geek gene. We're both really enjoying this show a lot.

Woodland Hills Church Usher

Leesha has been serving Woodland Hills Church as an usher for about a month now. She helped collect the offering today at the 11:00 service.They have her in a purple vest and everything and they've given her a name tag. She's doing a great job, too.

It Never Seems To End

I caught something the very night of my last post. I thought and was expecting to throw up, but never did. Instead my throat became extremely sore and I was very chilled. This lasted through Friday and Saturday and is still going strong today. Saturday we did go to a clinic to get swabbed for strep-throat. Turns out that is not what I have and that would've been the thing to have to get a remedy. Whatever I have has to run its painful painful course. They said probably just over a week. If it goes for longer, I'd need to go back and get tested for mono.

At least everyone else is feeling well. Jack did throw up again last night. Not sure why, but he's acting fine today. Cara is going crazy from just being in the house for so long and battling Leesha's devious ways of finding attention. She continues to antagonize Jack. Its getting rare that he allows her to hold him. Sometimes he gets mad if she even comes near him. It's all her own doing, though. From day 1 she was in his face too much. No amount of warning from Cara and I could give her a clue. Now its Jack's screams that seem to actually give her pause. Sometimes they don't even do that.

With all of this literal down time I've been reading and watching old shows. Finally finished Edgar Rice Burroughs' 2nd book in the John Carter of Mars series - Gods of Mars.

I've also been watching old '80s episodes of Doctor Who when the Doctor was played by Peter Davidson. Davidson is a very dorky awkward Doctor. Not at all doing the right thing at the right time. He seems more flawed than most of the other Doctors I've seen. I never understood why he wore a celery on his lapel. Perhaps that will be revealed. I must keep watching...

As I watched these episodes some big Doctor Who news broke...

The official 11th Doctor. Here is a link to the article and a discussion board about it.

So all the things we cancelled on this week...

• Holiday Celebration with Mom and Dad at Greg and Mandy's
• Small Group Social with Parents
• New Years Day with Trelevens
• Work on Friday
• Gaming on Saturday
• Church on Sunday

The Bad Cruise Ship Holiday

This is my blog, so I'm going to use it to vent.

I'm looking forward to this holiday break ending! From the perspective of possibilities it looked fantastic and fun. Having gone through most of it now, there were some nice times with family and some of it was actually fun. And the best part wasn't actually officially planned. Saturday we got everyone together. Sunday on Jack got very sick and it took several days for his recovery. And he's not completely back, actually. This morning we gave him milk for the first time and he rejected that pretty quick. So Jack getting sick was a big drain on everyone and completely derailed much of our holiday family plans. Also put a stop to small group and seeing the Trelevens today in Wisconsin. But the kick in the face happened last night.

Leesha got sick. She started throwing up around 1:30AM and she still is at it. Bless her heart, she's obviously much more capable of taking care of herself than Jack was, so we're leaving her to sleep where Jack got cuddled and cared for. But she's also kind of attempting to make it more miserable for us, which Jack didn't/unable to do. So yeah.

I've had enough of this crap.

And Cara is nausious in the mornings, too!

Oh, and Happy New Years...

Not Quite The Day I Was Hoping For

Today was going to be fun. Our plans were to go to Greg and Mandy's house and open our Secret Santa gifts and just hang out, maybe play some games and definitely eat. We went to church and picked up Leesha and then started driving to Willis West. About 1/4th off the way there Jack exploded. Something caused him to throw-up everything he ate for breakfast. ALL OVER himself, and the car seat. Quick thinking we diverted our course to Cara's parents house which is sort of on the way. They were there and we all got him and everything else cleaned up. However, Jack threw up again. And soon it was apparent that this wasn't going to stop anytime soon. We decided to call off going to Willis West and started on our way back home. Jack then upchucked something yellow so we decided to change course again to the Children's Hospital.


He was poked and prodded, and x-rayed. They seemed concerned that he was getting dehydrated and finally they I.V.ed him- which he was a real champion about. Having an I.V. put into your little guy is a scary ordeal. It did help to hear that the ladies doing it had done 8 already today. And they pointed out that that was just her count, there were other nurses doing them, too.

When it seemed he was finished he was fed some pedialight or whatever. But that came up pretty quick. But that was the last.

All said, Jack threw up at around 1:30pm and continued to around every half hour till around 5:30. The poor little guy never had a nap and was completely exhausted.

Cara's dad came and took Leesha to stay with them for the night. They are so great.

They moved us up to a real fancy room with the fanciest crib you've ever seen. TV, toys. Jack is definitely coming back. He started to get chatty again. What a wonderful sound that is. Looks like Cara's going to stay here to sleep and I'm going to go home to my CPAP.

A doctor says this may be the beginning of it and this may carry on for a few days.

Christmas

Yesterday was Christmas and we spent the afternoon at Cara's folks house. We had a nice quiet time there. Opened a few gifts, had a nice big dinner, installed a universal remote. It was also the usual- getting on Leesha's case to leave Jack alone, finish eating, eat with her mouth closed, not speak with her mouth full, enjoying Jack's ever-increasing vocabulary, etc. Leesha got a couple of gifts, but they were two things that she was very very excited about getting.

One was a Webkin dragon. She had been asking for this particular Webkin for a long time, long enough ago that she probably forgot about it. This was also kind of cool, because the dragon is no longer available anywhere other than places like Ebay (which is exactly where we got it).

Webkins are a fantastic marketing ploy, plush animals that include a code that you plug into a webpage and you can navigate your newly purchased animal through an online community featuring games and chats and all sorts of things like that.

Grandma and Grandpa gave her an MP3 player that she really wanted. An amazingly cheap little thing that didn't seem to work creating much drama this morning. Leesha is now with her dad and reports that she got it to work. That's good.

Tonight we finish the Doctor Who Christmas Special. We started it last night but put the 2nd half on hold because we were both fading.

First Day of Summer School

First day of Summer School and I feel like writing.

Got to work early. I like it like that. Early. Had little problem with either route when dry-running it last week, but still. There is that anxiety of not really knowing what it'll be like till your on the other side of the experience. Cara, Leesha and Jack all got up early with me. They dropped me off at work so we can save on fuel costs. Works for me. I have to get up early anyways. We'll see how long the rest of the fam can handle that kind of schedule.

First school, Highwood Hills Elementary, was going very well. Nearly 80% of the bus were Hmong students. This is very good. Hmong are the most well behaved kids I've ever seen. 2nd to last stop brought on a kid who seemed to have a lot of potential of being trouble. But he's 2nd to last before we head for the school. Can't do much better than that. On top of that almost half the stops were dead - no one got on or off at those stops.

Second school is one I'm quite familiar with- Wellstone. Not this route, however. Pretty evenly balanced between African American and Hispanic kids. I didn't recognize any of them. I asked a couple if they knew some of the names from my regular school season route (which is another Wellstone route, but in a different area of St. Paul).

I was able to steal some time at home between routes. As I pulled up in front of our house I waved at Carla, our neighbor who frowned. What?

Taking the kids home was just as smooth as picking them up. Except for one thing, on our way return from Wellstone, a small Somalian girl got sick. It wasn't too bad on the bus, she caught most of it in her dress fabrics or whatever they wear. I had a whole bunch of towels which I gave to her and she used up. It was a striking orange, whatever she ate. Hopefully that was it for the summer and got it out of the way.

Called Cara when I was finished with work and the family came and picked me up. When we got home I was able to lay down for a nap.

David and Darlene came over for a late Father's Day dinner. We grilled pork and steaks and had a good time.

Turns out that our neighbor may be upset seeing the bus return to the neighborhood. Geez, some people need to relax. Cara said she told her school would be out in five weeks about six weeks ago. Cara failed to mention that summer school would follow shortly there after.

Father's Day

My Father's Day was simple. I did lights for the church services last night and today. Got to hang out with Greg Wollan more than usual as he lead worship. He/they performed one of his own songs - Glorybound. That's one of the songs that inspired me to approach him which has lead to a nice friendship. The song reminded me SO MUCH of Paul McCartney way beck in 2003 at the Small Group Leadership Retreat. There was someone shooting a documentary at Woodland Hills today while we were doing the service. That stuff adds a fun energy to church service.

Cara and I came home and put Jack down for his nap. We had a small lunch and watched a fresh episode of Doctor Who! It was a creepy one. One of those good ones. Then Cara took a nap as Jack continued his. Quiet time. About the time everyone was getting up, Leesha came home.

We had our regular routine. Getting stuff done and ready for the week. Jack started to figure out his toy- the toy with four balls that get smacked into their holes by a hammer and proceed down through an obstacle course and exit again. Until today I don't think Jack recognized any purpose to the main piece, the balls, and the hammer. Now he realized the application. It was wonderful to see him working it all out.

After Leesha went to bed I took Jack to the couch and we sat and watched over the neighborhood and he fell asleep on my lap. That was the perfect way to end my father's day.

Catching Up

Yesterday I had a day off and got some catching up done. There are now a couple more Jack videos online.



I read another Edgar Rice Burroughs book, At the Earth's Core. Burroughs is fantastic. These books I've been reading have all been fantastically pulpy. Having finished that one, I was on the search for a different author from the pulp era. Kirby O'Donnell or El Borak are some pulp characters by Robert E. Howard that I'm trying to find, but the books are either unavailable or expensive. But it turns out that my friend, Rob, has ALL of Howard's books and he's going to lend them to me. In the meantime I'm reading Burroughs' 2nd Mars book, Gods of Mars.

Leesha and I finished the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon. It was fun, and I'm glad we watched it. I saw maybe two episodes back when I was on the air. We took a break for a while because she got into a website based on a toy. She bought a stuffed animal dog or something and in the packaging was a code for their website. She takes this code and logs on and there is the virtual version of her stuffed dog. She can name it, play with it, send it on jobs, and do all sorts of games and things with this online character. We discovered that if she doesn't put it in his bed before she logs off the site, the dog gets sick! And the next time she logs on she has to nurse him back to health. Its pretty cool. We recently started a new series called L/R or Licensed by Royal which is a light hearted espionage anime. I've seen it before a few years ago, but watching it now, I had forgotten how good it was.

Seems like its been a three day full moon.

Monday
Train parked across Como Ave.- The train was dead and there was no going around. An engineer helped me back the bus up. I was 10 minutes late for all the stops after that.
Puker on the bus from Wellstone- There was a bad smell right after picking up students at one of the stops. We dismissed it as another funky odor from the Somalian kids. After we got to the school a boy was complaining about someone puking on his backpack. Apparently a Somalian girl puked, but no one said anything to me (which was fine, because we were already late). Not much we could've done anyways. I drove the bus home and hosed it out and sprinkled baking soda all over. Smell lingered for another day, but not nearly as bad.
Released with not all the kids in PM- Loaded at Wellstone after school and all was fine, routine. The kids were a little crazy so as soon as I cleared downtown St. Paul I pulled over (into the parking lot of Sears right by the state capitol). I called into the base to let them know I was stopping. Got the kid moved to the front (I bet it was the same Somalian girl who puked) and called into base that we were moving again. They said OK, but that I had to go back to the school to pick up more students that were left behind. WHAT!? Its the teachers that clear us to depart. So we went back. It was only Dah and another girl, Wendy, that heard dispatch tell us to go back. So we decided to not tell anyone else and see how long it would take for them to figure out we were going back to the school. We were by 6th street before someone piped up!

Tuesday
worked on cars- fixed nothing! Jeremy is Leesha's bio-father and he is a bit car-savy. It could be a lot more awkward hanging around with my wife's ex-boyfriend/step-daughter's father, but its not too bad. He has changed his attitude about Cara and Leesha and we've found common ground to actually be friends. Jeremy had some nice things to say to me about who I am and who Cara ended up with. As for the car work. I think he messed up the spark-plug wires and tried to hide it from me and to make up for it he put 110% effort into the work that morning. We also topped off the transmission fluid, which he purchased for me. It wasn't bad hanging with him. The only bad part was it took up the time I usually spend chilling. So I lost some 'me' time.

Wednesday
actual full moon.

Today was all about the Zoo. We were a large clan: David, Darlene, Craig, Tracy, Nathan, Aaron, Cara, Leesha, Jack and me. We met our cousin, Melanie who works at the zoo. She let us in for free!
We saw all the standard stuff plus a 3D movie about dinosaurs which was really good. The gibbons were disappointingly mellow. Watched the dolphin show from the underwater window. I think that may be the best way to see it, actually. Also saw the bird show. Jack stayed awake the whole time. Thank you, Melanie.

Last night, just as I turned out the light in our room I heard the chain-link fence between our yard and the neighbor's. So I went to the window. Our room was completely dark. I watched three guys moving through our yard right by the window that I was looking out. I waited for the first guy to get right next to me and then I yelled "Hey! Get out of our yard!" Ho ho, how that guy jumped! He kind of said something like "Eh!, Sorry, sorry." and they RAN. I couldn't stop laughing.

Since Leesha and I finished ROBOTECH, we started a new series called LAST EXILE. I've seen this show in its entirety and its pretty good. This may be pushing her to try to understand some more mature sci-fi concepts for this show is a bit intellectual. I think she's up to it. Of the shows I've shared with here I think she'll identify with similarities I saw in NADIA
- Secret of Blue Water, which was the very first show we shared.

Leesha and I finished ROBOTECH. This is interesting timing since there has been notable ROBOTECH news lately.

Could the following news mean the end of Tobey Maguire in the role of Peter Parker? The Hollywood Reporter is (fittingly) reporting that Maguire has acquired the rights to ROBOTECH, a classic anime series from the eighties. Toby will be producing and is looking to star in the film that takes place in an alternate universe where "Earth has developed giant robots from the technology on an alien spacecraft that crashed on a South Pacific isle." They then use this technology to fend of a bunch of alien invasions. Basically Toby will be strapping into giant robots and blowing up a smorgasboard of shit.

After the success of TRANSFORMERS, I'm sure most studios are looking to get into the giant robot business (in this film they're called mechas) and Warner Bros. is thinking franchise with this one, which like I said, could spell the end of Tobey as Spidey. Too bad Topher Grace was wasted on Venom, because he easily could have been the next to suit up.

Extra Tidbit: Tobey's production company is called Maguire Entertainment. How modest/creative of him.

Link

Lastnight Jon and I played HALO till the wee hours of the morning. What a fantastic game.

Tonight I watched Leesha and Jack all by myself. Let Leesha watch a movie (Spirited Away) and gave all my efforts to Jack to keep him satisfied.

Bopper has become Jack Elliot Willis

He was born at 3:00 AM this morning with a very quick delivery. 22.5 inches and 8lbs 15 oz. Big boy. Momma and baby are doing great.

Cara had some contractions last night at about 11:15 or so. She went for a walk and took a shower. Around 1:45 AM her contractions were strong enough for her to say "Lets go!". Woke up Leesha and went to the hospital. We arrived and got set up in a room for the delivery. Leesha called both sets of grandparents to let everyone know. At about 2:45 the contractions were regular and strong and Cara said she felt the need to push. Everything seemed accelerated from here until the end. Leesha was sent out to the hallway to wait. 15 minutes later a boy came out. Cara needed very little assistance- no painkillers (not that there was time for them).

See the Jack Elliot show here.

Goodbye Goldie

Leesha's goldfish died today.

Mom and Dad are in town to see Simon