This is the Zelda sword that Stephen and Derek made for Mardson. I’d like to draw your attention to the fact that it’s HUGE! So for now it’s at Stephen’s office being appreciated by fellow gamers. We’ll bring it home for Halloween so both Mardson and Stephen can be Link from Zelda. We still need a new sword for Mardson…
The Sword
October 8th, 2008Traveling with kids
September 13th, 2008Yesterday I took my cousin and her 7 month old daughter to a doctor check up in SLC (they had a bit of a scare when baby girl’s intestines turned in on themselves and surgery was needed. This check up was to make sure all was healing right a month after the surgery). We found that 3 carseats do, in fact, fit in the back seat of the Saturn with a bit of a nudge from each door. Mardson was in the middle and i was hoping he wouldn’t take too much advantage of being able to reach both babies. He liked to peak at them and occasionally swipe a toy, but was otherwise very well behaved.
We had a two crying little girls for the first little leg of the trip and an occasional “stop crying!” from Mardson, but eventually the two sad ones fell asleep and Mardson played happily on his own. We dropped Nichole and Madison off at the hospital (after a little detour and finding the wrong hospital) and then went to find some food. We were first planning on going in with them for the visit but my sister advised against that because kids in the hospital are sick (naturally) and she’s had friends take healthy kids in for a visit and come down with weird viruses shortly thereafter. So we stayed away.
We found a McDonalds and Mardson liked the fries best. He was super excited when stopped in a parking lot so I could feed Penelope and he could ‘drive’ the car. We soon had to pack up (Mardson was extremely reluctant) to go pick up the girls. On our way over, Penny decided she hadn’t finished eating, so we found a church parking lot and I tried again. Mardson was delighted to get out of the carseat again and this time he was able to run around outside with Nichole and Madison. Well, it turns out the church lawn had managed to get over-watered and Mardson magically tripped in the only mud puddle around. The poor kid was so sad about it. He didn’t cry, he just sort of whimpered as we tried to find a way into the church. Thank goodness for the mother’s lounge! We stripped him down and rinsed out his brand new clothes and then put him in his pj’s. It’s amazing what a clean set of clothes did for his attitude. He was instantly my happy boy once more.
Well, skip ahead to us stopping at Costco for gas and Penny deciding she’s wasting away and starving again. So we stop by my parents’ home (the closest known domicile to said Costco) and I get to feeding Penny. Somehow, in the act of eating, she mysteriously learns how to ignore the front of her diaper and send all her baby poop shooting up and out the back instead. Her face was so shocked as the stream went up her back, it was priceless. Though I’m sure my face was a mirror of hers because I was just as surprised. And this is exactly the kind of thing that prompts mothers the world over to always pack a spare outfit in the diaper bag for infants. I rinsed her other clothes out and put them to wash, got Penny cleaned up and changed and then took a moment to eat something.
We finally get packed up in the car again to take Nichole and Madison home and both girls are again working on their decibel levels. Mercifully they both fell asleep quickly and all was quiet. Well, except for the 1500 times Mardson tells me, “Momma, I need some milk. Need some milk. Need some MILK!!” Sigh, it’s the little things that make life worth living 
We got the girls dropped off and made it home safely. I might even consider a road trip now! 
jeauda sword
September 4th, 2008so mardson’s been crazy about his little buzz lightyear sword for almost a year now. i want to say that he got it for christmas, but it may have been his birthday. here’s an example of the sword:
well, we think he finally lost the little thing (it’s like 7-10 cm long; tiny). so i made him a new sword. check out some supercute pics.
update: oh, i forgot to mention that he is now absolutely crazy about zelda. absolutely. he pronounces it jeauda (like the french Je) and asks to play it right when he wakes up (before he wants food). that’s why i made a zelda sword for him
supermagical vampire powers
August 12th, 2008i’m sorry for ruining the plot of the last book in the twilight series, but, as it turns out, certain vampires have very special powers, like being able to look into the future, read minds, adjust emotions, etc.
while i was reading about these abilities, which tend to typically be super-refined/magnified abilities that the vampire had in their human life, i started thinking what sort of abilities my wife would have in her vampire life.
it was really hard to come up with one! and, the sad thing, is that i thought i knew my own wife well enough that i could come up with one in 20 seconds or less.
so, the point of this blargh entry is to get everyone posting what they think everyone else would have as a super-special vampire power. to start things off, i think that vanessa would have the ability to be unreasonably patient (since she’s already pretty good at it now). along that line, i think she’d be able to work with people to help them be better at stuff.
anyways, what do you think?
random thought of the day
July 25th, 2008so i’ve been under a considerable bit of stress lately trying to start/workon/finish my thesis, work on side projects, help raise kids, work on work, etc. (play mario kart), and have been thinking about priorities, education, and accomplishment a whole bunch lately. this is what i’ve noticed:
- i’m so sick of school (formal).
- i can’t learn enough to satisfy my desire to learn stuff (informal)
- you can apparently make enough money to feed a family and purchase real estate from the informal version of education
- some of the most ambitious and wealthy people i know have little formal education
so, what have i decided? i need to finish my master’s degree to be able to compete with the other people who have those degrees already, because most employers don’t appreciate the things you’re able to learn on your own (fortunately not true in my case ).
but, assuming that everyone thought perfectly (read: as i do), what impact would being able to succeed with an american-dream version of education have on society? would harvard and yale be able to charge as much as they do for what they purport to teach people? would a million little self-learning things be set up to help people learn the important stuff informally? would they try to make as much money on it as possible, and, as should be done, would opensource-y versions pop up online?
i’m glad i was formally educated. the social atmosphere was nice, and i really think i learned how to learn at school. i’m just really, really sick of it right now
smm