An article worth reading

In keeping with the boys weekend posts...

"In this place, risk and manhood are to be glimpsed in an instant, with beauty and folly, and pride and love, hard to extricate the one from the other. It is a strange and bold witness of life. Like life, it is heartily unsafe. It brings no therapy, no anodyne; it is not the dose of nepenthe that Helen of Troy, the essential matriarch, slips her semivirile husband; it is not the lotus; it is not what we whimsically call Higher Education."

"To be a man as Christ was is to embrace the danger, not in bravado but in deep humility."

Link...

Day 3

They boys started the day with a healthy... two doughnuts each (specifically just the frosting part.) Then they went to church with Grandma and we all met up for lunch. After lunch and a nap, we headed to the bowling alley for some fun. Levi and Noah celebrated with gusto on each roll of the ball, whether they knocked pins down or not. Levi especially showed off some of his madd dance skilz every time he rolled. The pictures stink, because they are zoomed, cropped, and in low light.



Then home and tucked into bed. Paige and Ella come home tomorrow, so there is one more day of fun in store. I'm thinking a hike in the White Tanks, since it rained all day so the waterfall should be flowing strong. But we will have to see if it is raining tomorrow, and if I can figure out how to make the 1 hour drive out there workable.

Day 2

Morning bed head...





As soon as the living room got light this morning, the wrestling began. We had a big bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, and then headed outside to do the yardwork. Hauled all the bulk trash out to the burb, mowed the lawn, and picked the entire DuPont factory scattered across the yard.

Then we went inside for lunch, and brought with us some of this year's crop...



"Do you think Dad is really supposed to be giving us shots? I'm not sure Mom would approve of this..."


"But this stuff sure tastes good!"


"More please!"


"Man this stuff puckers you up. I'm not sure I can finish it."


After a lunch of pizza and a big nap, we headed off to the car show at Scottsdale Pavillions. During high school, I think we came here probably every other Saturday night to drool over the cars. Grandma Addink met us at the car show. We enjoyed some "chicken" nuggets at McDonalds, and then walked around and drooled. Grandma was especially fond of the Chevy Bel Airs.





Then Grandma took the boys to her house tonight for a sleepover. They were planning to watch The Littlest Polar Bear, which they watch every single time they go to Grandma's, and then go to sleep in a big pile of blankets on the floor.

I'm off to enjoy a movie as well, Cloverfield, all by my lonesome... :)

Day 1

10/22/08 - Lots of people have been finding this post lately, all through Google image searches, all of them finding the picture of the elk and the mountain lion. Someone PLEASE leave a comment and tell me what on earth you are searching for. The curiosity is killing me!


I had a great day yesterday with Levi and Noah. They both slept through the entire night with no crying or fussing (either that, or I slept through the crying.) Regardless, we all slept in until 8:30 and then rolled ourselves out of bed. We got dressed for the day and then headed off for breakfast at the Farmhouse. The boys did great, sat (mostly) quietly in their seats, built pyramids with the creamer packages, and ate breakfast like little gentlemen. The each had a tasty pancake the side of their head (literally) and two breakfast sausages that even Jonathan Bakker would be proud to serve at the Little America restaurant (no little sausage links at the Farmhouse. These things were a cross between a breakfast sausage and a bratwurst.) I was amazed they could pack that much food in, but they both declared their tummies were finally full.

Then we head off to Best Buy and picked out some new computer games. Ended up with Half Life and Call of Duty 4. All through Best Buy they kept asking when we were going to go to "Ella Cabelas" to see the animals. So we loaded up and made the long trek out to "Ella Cabelas." We got there and Jack Links beef jerky had a giant truck outside they wanted to see. Noah declared "That looks like Grandpa's truck!" Since Grandpa drives an F150, I'm not sure why they thought that. Grandpa's truck is apparently MUCH bigger in their imagination...



They were fascinated by the moose...



Levi said that this zebra was "sleeping." Ummmm, not quite buddy. They also declared that he had "poopy" on his bottom and on his feet. I'm not sure exactly why they thought that.



They also like the mountain lion attacking the elk. At least with this one, they knew the mountain lion was going to eat the elk.

10/22/08 - Lots of people have been finding this post lately, all through Google image searches, all of them finding the picture of the elk and the mountain lion. Someone PLEASE leave a comment and tell me what on earth you are searching for. The curiosity is killing me!


After a healthy lunch of pudding at Cabelas (hey, at least I didn't give them a cookie, which was the ONLY thing they said they wanted to eat) we packed up and headed home. I managed to throughly screw up Noah's nap time, and he did not want to go to sleep when we got home. He kept saying that his "tummy wasn't sleepy." He finally did fall asleep though.

After nap time and dinner, we set up the highlight of the day... the tent. They were so excited about it, they could barely stand still. We put up the tent, rolled out the sleeping bags, and played with our new flashlights from Cabelas (hopefully they will stop playing with MY flashlights now.)









After some puzzles in the dark, a nice hot bath, and some fuzzy warm pajamas, we settled down for a night of "roughing it" it our tent...



OK, so setting the tent up in the playroom isn't exactly roughing it...



I realized that if we set it up outside, I would have to stay out there when they went to sleep around 8:30. That would mean I wouldn't get anything done around the house after bedtime. So I thought if we set it up inside, I could sneak out after they went to sleep and clean up (and play my new games.) Of course, it didn't work out exactly that way (you knew this was coming, right?) I was the first one to fall asleep. So much for that plan. But we all had a mostly restful night in the tent, and the boys are still in there talking in their sleep.

Hopefully today is just as much fun!

Yikes...

Of course, then I read this two minutes later. This weekend could go south in a big hurry...

Boy's weekend

Paige and Ella headed off to Michigan this weekend to visit Justin and Lindsey and Isaac. So I took off work Friday and Monday, and the boys and I are looking forward to a fun weekend of manly activities. Tomorrow we are headed for a hearty breakfast at The Farmhouse and then to Best Buy to pick out a new computer game (thanks Tim!) We might head over to Cabelas in the afternoon to check out all the stuffed animals, and to pick out some fancy new flashlights. We will need them, because then we are going to go camping (in the backyard) and sleep in a tent! Saturday morning, who knows... maybe a trip to Von Hanson's (mmmmmmmm meat!) Saturday night is the big car show at Scottsdale Pavillions, so we may head over there, enjoy some McDonalds, and drool over all the fancy cars. Sunday we will head to church, cause real men love Jesus. Then maybe to Grandma's in the afternoon. And Monday the plan is to get on some grubby clothes and start taking apart dad's truck to see if we can fix it.

Who knows what else we may find to do... hiking, a trip to the shooting range, drinking, smoking (kidding!).

We shall see who wears out first with all this excitement... me or the 2 year olds. I'm not even sure which way to bet.

Hand picked by Juan Valdez

 So Paige went to the grocery store and bought a coffee maker tonight. We don't drink coffee. But she "saved" sixteen dollars! Grandpa and Grandma Addink are coming over for lunch tomorrow (or Sunday dinner, as they would call it in Iowa.) They are coffee drinkers, so Paige thought it would be good for us to make coffee for them. We have also noticed that on occasion when my mom comes over, she takes along a thermos full of coffee. I think she needs the coffee just to keep up with our kids, and it's a subtle hint that we are not providing an adequate caffeine supply.

I love the smell of coffee, but never have acquired the taste for it. Apparently coffee is one of these foods that tastes awful, but you are supposed to like. So the nice way of saying that it doesn't taste good is to say it's an "acquired" taste. So I decided tonight to become and adult and to acquire the taste. Paige picked up some fancy chocolaty coffee (I figured this might make it more palatable.) I brewed up four cups. It smelled wonderful. I poured all four cups into the giant Dordt college mug (previously used only for childish hot chocolate.) I added a copious amount of creamer, again hoping this would improve the taste, and took a sip. Ughhhhh. Still tastes like coffee. I added some sugar, starting with a small amount and working my way up to an entire plantation. Hmmmmmm, starting to taste better, but still not what I would describe as "good." Figuring that "acquiring" a taste takes some effort, I kept drinking until it was all gone. By the end of the cup, the taste actually was acceptable, probably because coffee has some numbing effect on your tastebuds.

So, four cups of coffee and a pile of sugar later... I am still wide awake. And jittery.

Next week maybe I will try to acquire the taste of beer. I think the stuff tastes like dirty sweat socks...

Happy Birthday!

Paige's sister Lindsey and brother-in-law Justin had their first baby today, Isaac Berend Davies. He is our first nephew, and the kid's first cousin. Lindsey was induced last night, labored all day, and finally had an emergency c-section tonight. Everyone is doing well, although I am sure Lindsey is tired and sore.

Hopefully I don't steal their thunder by posting these before they have a chance.





The happy dad...


Last one (I cropped Lindsey out, cause, well... she needed a moment to recover. You're welcome Linz.)


Congratulations Justin and Lindsey!

Funky chicken

We had chicken for lunch today. Now, I'm not one to worry too much about genetically modified foods, or hormones in my milk... but these chicken breasts freaked even me out.

 

It was a 2 lb package of chicken, and these two were easily more than half of the package, so 1/2 pound each (at least!) These things were HUGE! The pictures don't do them justice. Apparently Foster Farms is now crossing their chickens with ostriches.

 

Still, they grilled up just fine, and tasted great (freaky growth hormones and all.)

2007 Review

Time seems to go faster each passing year. It seems like a year only takes a couple of months to fly by anymore. But at the same time, looking at pictures from a couple of years ago, it feels like decades in the past.

Since our lives are increasingly documented digitally, I went though all the pictures on our computer, and pulled out one or two from each folder. Actually not a bad summary of the year...

Christmas in Michigan

We are back from our trip to Michigan for Christmas. We had a great time, and are a little sad to come back to regular life.

The trip out went better than anyone expected. Benadryl worked wonders, especially on Ella.



The boys spent most of the flight glued to the DVD player, and finally conked out towards the end of the flight to Detroit.



Once in Detroit, Ella was scared to death by the automatic flushing toilet (she hates those things) and Levi went into meltdown mode. We finally got them calmed down before we got on the next plane to Grand Rapids.



Once there, we had a great time. The kids got to play in the snow, which they loved. There was snow when we got there, so the first day we got all bundled up and made a snowman and a snow fort. Uncle Justin lent us his snow expertise and helped out.









The kids got to hang out with Great Grandpa and Grandma Meyer. They loved playing with them, and great-grandpa even read the boys right to sleep one night (I think they had skipped their nap.)



Of course, on some nights bedtime was a little more difficult to pull off. Such as this night... at 11 PM (That's Ella reading stories to the boys by flashlight.)



We went on a sleigh ride one night, in the snow, pulled by two huge Fresian horses with jingle bells and all...





Grandpa and Grandma had lots of fun playing with the grandkids.



Highlights of the trip:
- Ella saying the sun never shines in Michigan. Hilarious!
- Ella reading on the plane right home. She can't really read, but she has the books memorized. She was reading loud enough that the whole back half of the plane could hear her. And she reads with such expression, that both I and the nice lady next to her were cracking up. Of course, as soon as she realized we were listening, she got embarrassed and stopped reading.
- Noah yelling at me to "Go to work!" when I sat outside the bedroom at night so they would stay in their beds. (ok, so more of a "low"light)
- Giving Ben (father-in-law) the muzzleloader. I've been planning and working on it for almost three years. What on earth am I going to do with all my free time now?

- Going shooting / gun shopping with Justin (brother-in-law). It's always a happy day when someone is about to become a first time gun-owner (and just in time for the new nephew to show up.)
- Tour of West Michigan Taxidermy (where brother-in-law Julio works). They (Julio) do some cool stuff there... with a whole ton of animal skins.



Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year...

Levi:


Noah:


Ella: