I once read a quote...

...something to the effect of each new generation of children being similar to the hordes of barbarians invading across the steppes, and it being the job of the parents to civilize them. I wish I could recall where I read that.

Because it too frequently is an accurate description of our house...

Because just one pair of drawers is never enough

They all cooked for a full term in the uterus. None of them came out grey, blue, or a shade of purple. We don't live anywhere near power lines. I've never caught them eating paint chips. Never fallen out of a shopping cart onto their head.

And yet...



Levi's got four pairs on his head. Noah three. And Ella, apparently the most normal of the bunch, at only one.

And yes, I do realize that normal in our house is now defined as "wears only one pair of underpants... on your head."

He's a little tea pot...

...short and stout!

Luke had his two year well visit today. Compared to his brothers at this age, he is an inch and a half shorter,

but he's also got them by about two and half pounds!

That's a weight/height ratio of 0.90 for Luke, compared to 0.78 for his brothers. But outnumbered 2:1 by his older brothers, it's probably good that his is bulking up.

Of course, compared to Luke, his dear ol' dad at that age had the same ratio, but was two inches shorter and two pounds lighter. If the trend holds, that means Luke will be a defensive lineman in about 3rd grade.

But at least he doesn't look like a hippie anymore!

Most unusual nativity set on the planet

"I'm making baby Jesus!"

That was what Ella announced to me as I got home and walked into the backyard.

Huh?

Apparently this is Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus in the middle. With the wisemen bringing gifts in front.

And that's a camel off to the left.

Quite the imagination tonight!

I don't where they get this from

Certainly not from here. Or here.

(Levi, on the left, really starts to get down at around 1:09)

Our baby is two

Hard to believe, little Luke is all grow'd up. Well, ok, not all grow'd up, but he did make it to the ripe old age of two. He started off his birthday with a muffin, since next week is the big celebration with the relatives and cake.



Paige claims he looks like me when he furrows his brow. I just don't see the resemblance... ;)



He did get to open a few presents today from us and Grandpa and Sewing Grandma (that would be Paige's mom.) He got a movie on excavators, a book on excavators, and a small yellow excavator. Any guess as to what his favorite thing in the world is? Oh, and a T-shirt with an excavator...





And then tomorrow, after two years of growing (and me saying "That kid looks like a hippie! When are we cutting his hair!), little Sampson gets his first haircut. So stay tuned for the buzz cut look! (I just got slapped and told "It's NOT going to be buzz cut!!!) So, stay tuned for a "trim around the ears."

And behold, it is a stiff-necked people!

No, not that kind of stiff neck. Although they both demonstrate that frequently as well.

No, this is an actual stiff neck...


Poor Levi and Noah woke up the other morning both complaining that they had stiff necks. Noah had this once before, and we actually took him to the doc to see if there was something wrong. Apparently kids get some kind of weird virus that makes their neck get stiff. They've both been limping around, milking it for every minute of video games they can get. But you feel kind of sorry for them, both hobbling around the house with their heads hanging to the side like Wybie from Coraline...


After Advil, Tylenol, and heating pads, they both recovered enough today to be walking around somewhat normally.

In other news, I finally got back the results of my lung issue bloodwork. Apparently I have... nothing. Bloodwork didn't show anything.

Guess I am just a big wuss...

Let's hope not...

Livin' the high life!

We had a wonderful day with our friends (and neighbors, and home group leaders) Jason and Krystal on Sunday. We told them we wanted to take them out for a long lunch. We didn't tell them where, or exactly how we were getting there.

So I hope they were a little surprised when we arrived in North Scottsdale to find our ride waiting...

This was originally supposed to be a surprise trip for our anniversary. My mom bought the trip at the PCS fundraising auction, and gave it to use for our anniversary (thanks Mom!!!) However, after I had the surprise all planned, the morning we were supposed to go, there was several inches of snow and a severe crosswind and the Sedona airport. We delayed and delayed the trip, until Tom (our pilot) finally called us and said he wanted to go before it got too hot.

As Jason and Krystal said... "We're glad it was snowing and windy on your anniversary!" :)

Packed into the plane like sardines. Actually it was very comfortable. More room in the plane than in my boss's Infinity that we took to lunch.

Jason, sitting up front on the way to Sedona, getting the lowdown on watching for other planes in the sky.

Rolling down the runway for takeoff.

Scottsdale from the air.

Approaching Sedona.

Then we made a loop around Sedona. Absolutely unbelievable scenery, from not very high above the cliffs (and sometimes below them.) Jason said he got a little nervous when he kept hearing the "Terrain! Terrain!" alarm in his headset. :)

Humphreys Peak in Flagstaff on the horizon.

Approaching the runway in Sedona. It doesn't really seem like you are going that fast in this little jet... until you come hauling into a runway perched on the edge of a cliff. Our pilot did an excellent job though.

Then we jumped in a rental car and headed for our lunch at L'Auberge de Sedona (part of the whole package trip.) Good music, good company, good conversation. And the food? We were so busy enjoying it, I didn't even manage to take a picture. It was a buffet, but let's just say not even in the same class as the Golden Corral and a step (or whole flight of stairs) above Hometown Buffet. There was lamb, salmon, sushi, fruit salad, made to order omelets, artisan cheeses, lemon tarts, chocolate mousse, and about a dozen other selections. All of it delicious.

Oh, and did I mention that you literally could have jumped from our table right into Oak Creek? This was the view from my seat at the table...

And our waiter (who was also excellent)? Totally reminded me of Emilio...

"I fear you're underestimating the sneakiness sir..."

After eating enough for two meals (seriously, neither Paige or I even were hungry for dinner) we had to head back to real life.

But not before the requisite touristy photo op.

I stopped to take a picture of the cool engines on the plane. Cause I'm an engineer, and think things like this are pretty. Even though my wife called me a nerd...

Back onto the plane for the return trip.

Coming in for the landing in Scottsdale.

It was a great trip. I'm thinking I might have to swing by the PCS auction this year, and see if Tom has donated another trip like this one. And we won't wait so long to take it next time...

Happiness is 1200 rounds per minute

I just finished my latest project. I've had it in my head for a while to make some... upgrades... to my Nerf gun. Tonight I made them.

Here is the starting gun. Semi-automatic. Magazine capacity is a measly three. You have to yank that handle in the back several times to get the wheel up to speed, and then the trigger drops the balls onto the wheel which fires them out the front.

First order of business was some trigger work. I cut off the portion of the trigger that holds the second round back while the first is fired. So now you pull the trigger, and the rounds just keep firing off.

Next was to eliminate that pesky crank handle. Luckily, we just cleaned out some old project hardware at work, and I was able to snag an old Maxon motor. It's a brushed DC motor, exactly what I need. And due to the crank handle, the gun already has a little gearbox that engages and disengages the power source from the main wheel.

By an amazing coincidence, one of the gears was exactly the right size to press onto the motor shaft, with no machining required!

Mounting the motor to the side of the gear box was a piece of cake.

I also rigged up a switch built into the trigger. Depress the trigger slightly, and the motor comes on, but no ball is released, giving the wheel time to spool up. Additional pull on the trigger then releases the balls. Somehow I didn't take a picture of this.

Next up was addressing magazine capacity. Three rounds is just not sufficient. Luckily, and old caulk tube was the perfect size to hold additional rounds.

What modification would be complete without using duct tape? New magazine, now with a capacity of 7.

And finally, because an assault rifle really should be a scarier color than blue and orange, it got a fresh coat of paint.

Put it all back together...

And then test it out...

Run the math on that burst, and it is firing roughly 1200 rounds per minute. That's twice as fast as an M60 machine gun. Of course, with only 7 rounds, that 1200 rounds per minute only lasts .35 seconds.

My only remaining task is to figure out a way to strap on the two 6 V dry cells needed to power it.

Our next nerf gun war, my kids won't know what hit them... :)

Give zeeze people eyhr!

The last few weeks (months?) my allergies have been horrible. I've also occasionally been having a hard time breathing. I chalked it up to allergies, and figured I must be getting asthma or something. But then I spent most of the beginning of this week feeling like air was only getting into the top 1/4 of my lungs. Wednesday was particularly bad, enough that I broke down and made myself a doctor's appointment for the next day.

The next day I went in, figuring they would say I had asthma. The doc's first comment to me was "Don't plan on being out of here very quickly." Uh oh. She ordered a breathing treatment, an x-ray, an EKG, and bloodwork.

Breathing treatment = Not breathing any better, but holy cow does that stuff make me super jumpy!

EKG = Nothing apparently wrong.

Bloodwork = Still don't know the results of this one.

Chest X-ray = I met the doc in the hall as she was reviewing my x-ray....

Her: "See that bubble right there?"

(I asked the x-ray tech for my pictures, and she gave me a CD. Sweet! So yeah, those are my actual lungs!)

Me: "Ummmmm, no."

Her: "Well, you get to go for a stat CT scan to check it out!"

Ummm, great. I don't think that you typically get a CT scan for asthma. What on earth do I have?

So I left the doctor's office and headed across the street to the CT scan place. On the way out of the parking lot, I saw a sign for the Gilbert Tea Party, this way! Well, heck, I've got 30 minutes until my CT. If I'm going to find out I have some terminal lung disease, I might as well hit the Tea Party for a few minutes.

I arrived (wheezing) just in time to hear the tail end of Sheriff Joe's speech.


On my way out, someone handed me a flyer for some guy running for Arizona governor and screeched "The income tax is illegal!!!"

Really? I consider myself fairly right wing, but I'm not quite sure how you argue with this...

Amendment XVI to the US Constitution: "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration."

Pretty sure I am not voting for that guy...

Back to the CT scan place to get bombarded with more space particles. First they jab an 18 gauge needle into my arm, and tell me when the contrast goes in "you might feel the sensation of urinating." Let me tell you... they aren't kidding around with that one!

But I asked them for pictures too, and they gave me a CD. Not just of the pictures, but a whole program that lets you manipulate them, shade different types of tissue, make movies, etc. Very cool!

(Again... pictures of my actual insides. How cool is that!)

I wonder how much they are going to charge me for that CD? Eeek!

Back to the docs. Apparently, whatever she saw on my lungs didn't show up in the CT scan.

So I still don't know if I have the consumption, or dust pneumony, or what. I'm waiting for the results of the bloodwork, which are supposed to be ready on Friday Saturday Monday. Until then, I've got a prescription for prednisone (medicine of the gods, love that stuff! says Paige) which seems to be helping, but hasn't entirely solved the problem.

Grrrrr....

You should see the other guy!

I found Luke in his bed on Friday morning, looking a little worse for wear. Poor kid...



(Yes, I went to grab the camera before lifting him out of bed and handing him to his mother in the shower.)

One ring bearer, ready to go!

Ron and Mandi, does this getup meet your requirements for a ring bearer? We might not get him down the aisle without his "fluffy" though...