So far so good. Today has not been that bad. Most things have worked out OK, the day is not done yet, but so far no kidney stones :) or anything else that problematic, but the day is still young. Not too much else to report. The kids want me to tell you about how we went out for frozen yogurt on Saturday. They filled up their jar with independence points. These are things we award them when they do something independent, because they really need help being more independent some times. They filled up the jar so we went out for frozen yogurt. They really love it because they get to pick toppings, so they end up with a bit of a sugar coma when it is all done. But it is also a great time to just sit and talk with them while they are in a good mood.
Sunday, October 12, 2014
Friday, October 10, 2014
Buddy's Prayer
As we were getting the kids ready for school and preschool this morning, I reminded Buddy that he would get to take a field trip to the pumpkin patch next week with his class. He thought it was today, though, and started acting a little funny. He wanted to pick out extra-special socks. He prayed in family prayer, "Please bless me that I won't be scared with too many people at the pumpkin patch."
Too many people? I hear ya', Buddy. I'm impressed that he's in tune with his feelings enough to know that big groups make him uncomfortable. I'm relieved that he would think to pray for help. Most days, this kid is as loud and active as they come...at home. He teases his siblings and holds his own in a fight with them. I rarely see him with people he doesn't know so intimately. It's easy to forget that he can feel vulnerable.
He doesn't often pray for himself. In fact, he's more likely to pray for Peek-A-Boo than anyone else these days. So far, he's prayed for Peek-A-Boo to be healthy and strong and to grow up nice and to be a good dad.
I still wonder what the heck I'm going to write on his Kindergarten registration forms next summer...he's a bit more complicated than Alice was at this age.
Too many people? I hear ya', Buddy. I'm impressed that he's in tune with his feelings enough to know that big groups make him uncomfortable. I'm relieved that he would think to pray for help. Most days, this kid is as loud and active as they come...at home. He teases his siblings and holds his own in a fight with them. I rarely see him with people he doesn't know so intimately. It's easy to forget that he can feel vulnerable.
He doesn't often pray for himself. In fact, he's more likely to pray for Peek-A-Boo than anyone else these days. So far, he's prayed for Peek-A-Boo to be healthy and strong and to grow up nice and to be a good dad.
I still wonder what the heck I'm going to write on his Kindergarten registration forms next summer...he's a bit more complicated than Alice was at this age.
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Bobby's Sunday Summary
This was a very odd week, although things are finally back to "normal" or at least something close to it. Last Sunday, like I said in my previous post, I got a kidney stone. It is the worst pain I have ever felt, tied with appendicitis. I have it from an authority on the matter, someone who has experienced both, that natural child birth is much worse than a kidney stone without drugs. As such I can sympathize with Susan better now, but still lack a complete empathy for her. On a very very strange twist, Monday my parents called and we chatted about how I was feeling. I asked if we had a family history of kidney stones and apparently we don't, but the very next day my father develops one too, and is still in the process of passing it, poor guy.
This week was James birthday too. He is growing up a lot, James feels like a real person now. He doesn't have a lot of words, but he is getting more and more every day. He can express his desires very clearly, and has a real personality that is all his own.
I think one of the best parts about this week is that it is General Conference for our church. This means that I didn't have to wake up at 5:30 to get to my early morning meeting. So I could sleep in until 6 when James usually starts yelling for Susan to come get him. After a while he will give up on her and start yelling for Alice-Buddy to come get him. I'm not sure why he doesn't yell for me, but he doesn't. It was good though, I got to make breakfast for the kids while Susan slept in, and I don't have a giant list of things I need to do today. There are a few, but I got enough Bishop stuff done yesterday that I feel OK relaxing a bit today. I still have plenty to do, but it feels like I can handle it. Not that I have everything figured out because I don't my any means, just that it doesn't feel like my life is careening out of control and all I can do is hold on.
Work was not helping there either. What I work on is an open source project that lets people process enormous amounts of data very very quickly. It is taking off a lot a Yahoo, and we are having a very hard time keeping up with all of the demand. Some of it is new feature work that has to be done so that some groups can adopt it. Some of it is bug fixes and hardening of it to make it more reliable for groups already using it. But things are starting to calm down there a bit too. It is a bit odd for me with this project as it is a real success. My career has been rather odd. I started out at Motorola working on a new phone platform, that was a lot like Android, but there were many issues, and the project was canceled, then resurrected again, and canceled again after shipping one phone. So during about 5 years at Motorola one phone shipped with a significant amount of code on it that I wrote, and several phones with a very hidden feature that probably no body has ever really used that I helped out with. At Yahoo! it was not all that different at the beginning. I started off doing helping on the search engine, which eventually got sold off to Microsoft sort of. Then I was working on a machine learning project that even the people who asked us to build it didn't want to use, so it too was canceled. After that I was put on a successful project, first one ever for me, Hadoop, but it was already successful before I joined. This new project is the first time that I have really had a successful project from the start. But now I feel extra responsibility in making sure it grows and meets the needs of people who want to adopt it. Sorry about the long explanation.
This week was James birthday too. He is growing up a lot, James feels like a real person now. He doesn't have a lot of words, but he is getting more and more every day. He can express his desires very clearly, and has a real personality that is all his own.
I think one of the best parts about this week is that it is General Conference for our church. This means that I didn't have to wake up at 5:30 to get to my early morning meeting. So I could sleep in until 6 when James usually starts yelling for Susan to come get him. After a while he will give up on her and start yelling for Alice-Buddy to come get him. I'm not sure why he doesn't yell for me, but he doesn't. It was good though, I got to make breakfast for the kids while Susan slept in, and I don't have a giant list of things I need to do today. There are a few, but I got enough Bishop stuff done yesterday that I feel OK relaxing a bit today. I still have plenty to do, but it feels like I can handle it. Not that I have everything figured out because I don't my any means, just that it doesn't feel like my life is careening out of control and all I can do is hold on.
Work was not helping there either. What I work on is an open source project that lets people process enormous amounts of data very very quickly. It is taking off a lot a Yahoo, and we are having a very hard time keeping up with all of the demand. Some of it is new feature work that has to be done so that some groups can adopt it. Some of it is bug fixes and hardening of it to make it more reliable for groups already using it. But things are starting to calm down there a bit too. It is a bit odd for me with this project as it is a real success. My career has been rather odd. I started out at Motorola working on a new phone platform, that was a lot like Android, but there were many issues, and the project was canceled, then resurrected again, and canceled again after shipping one phone. So during about 5 years at Motorola one phone shipped with a significant amount of code on it that I wrote, and several phones with a very hidden feature that probably no body has ever really used that I helped out with. At Yahoo! it was not all that different at the beginning. I started off doing helping on the search engine, which eventually got sold off to Microsoft sort of. Then I was working on a machine learning project that even the people who asked us to build it didn't want to use, so it too was canceled. After that I was put on a successful project, first one ever for me, Hadoop, but it was already successful before I joined. This new project is the first time that I have really had a successful project from the start. But now I feel extra responsibility in making sure it grows and meets the needs of people who want to adopt it. Sorry about the long explanation.
Friday, October 3, 2014
James is 2!
Happy Birthday, James!
He still has no concept of birthdays, but it's been fun to celebrate all day around him. He allowed Bobby and the kids to sing "Happy Birthday" to him this morning...I wasn't allowed to join in. And then he graciously accepted two generous gifts from neighbors (a wooden rocking horse) and home teachers (a no-sew fleece blanket).
We played with friends, we went to the doctor (for Peek-A-Boo), and this afternoon we toured my friend's egg farm with a bunch more friends. It was cold, windy, and miserably rainy. James loved it ALL. He followed chickens, explored the nests, pet baby chicks, stomped in puddles, squelched through the mud, and ran through the rain. At one point, a group of us was huddled in a barn to stay out of the wind and rain. James saw a chicken door to the outside run and just ran out himself. He wanted to see the water and mud a little more.
A friend took this photo of the four of us. You can see one of my friend's 800 chickens just behind us :)
We haven't celebrated with cake and candles yet. Today was a bit crazy. But we did enjoy one of James' favorite dinners: cheese tortellini, grapes, and hot apple cider. Singing and candles are soon to come.
He still has no concept of birthdays, but it's been fun to celebrate all day around him. He allowed Bobby and the kids to sing "Happy Birthday" to him this morning...I wasn't allowed to join in. And then he graciously accepted two generous gifts from neighbors (a wooden rocking horse) and home teachers (a no-sew fleece blanket).
We played with friends, we went to the doctor (for Peek-A-Boo), and this afternoon we toured my friend's egg farm with a bunch more friends. It was cold, windy, and miserably rainy. James loved it ALL. He followed chickens, explored the nests, pet baby chicks, stomped in puddles, squelched through the mud, and ran through the rain. At one point, a group of us was huddled in a barn to stay out of the wind and rain. James saw a chicken door to the outside run and just ran out himself. He wanted to see the water and mud a little more.
A friend took this photo of the four of us. You can see one of my friend's 800 chickens just behind us :)
We haven't celebrated with cake and candles yet. Today was a bit crazy. But we did enjoy one of James' favorite dinners: cheese tortellini, grapes, and hot apple cider. Singing and candles are soon to come.
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Starting to wallow in self-pity
I haven't been sleeping well. Therefore, I'm not feeling so happy and I'm starting to wallow in self-pity :( I'm tired. I wake up several times a night due to a variety of physical ailments all connected to and important for the growth of this particular baby. Oddly enough, I don't blame the baby. I find him a delightful companion. It's this big ol' body that I've got to deal with that's making me grumpy. And I don't remember loathing my body so much in earlier pregnancies. That can't be helping, right?
I'm looking at 6-7 more weeks of this pregnancy. In a sleep-deprived state, that sounds like a torturous eternity. I remember way back to March when we first learned that I was pregnant. I/We were only 6-7 weeks along. I looked ahead to this moment in disbelief. It seemed forever away. How could 28 weeks (6 months) just come and go like that?
It did.
And it will again.
One day at a time.
One interrupted night at a time.
This wallowing won't last much longer. I'm determined to pull myself out of it. I'll be going to bed early again and working on a couple "outside-of-me" projects...things that make me think of anything but my aching body :) As crappy as today feels, I still know that things can and will change. They always have. Even if it just shifts from one kind of crappy to another kind of crappy for a while, it's not hopeless...I usually find a new groove somewhere along the way.
I'm looking at 6-7 more weeks of this pregnancy. In a sleep-deprived state, that sounds like a torturous eternity. I remember way back to March when we first learned that I was pregnant. I/We were only 6-7 weeks along. I looked ahead to this moment in disbelief. It seemed forever away. How could 28 weeks (6 months) just come and go like that?
It did.
And it will again.
One day at a time.
One interrupted night at a time.
This wallowing won't last much longer. I'm determined to pull myself out of it. I'll be going to bed early again and working on a couple "outside-of-me" projects...things that make me think of anything but my aching body :) As crappy as today feels, I still know that things can and will change. They always have. Even if it just shifts from one kind of crappy to another kind of crappy for a while, it's not hopeless...I usually find a new groove somewhere along the way.
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