More Words

Tons of stuff has happened.

Got the front all raked up. Dad/Ben/Eddie/Bryan/Marie/Mom all came out to help put in sprinklers. The girlies just made food, talked about babies, and supervised, while the guys picked up rocks, raked, and sweated. Then afterword we had a BBQ of skewers with beef, sausage, shrimp, peppers, onions, pineapple, and mushrooms. They were sooooo yummy!

Which reminds me. I bought a new grill. It is nice and loooooong. So I can fit tons of stuff on it. I LOVE IT! Now if I can just get dad to buy a new grill. And a new rake for that matter. I know dad likes to get his moneys worth on his tools, but he has the same tools he has had since I was a kid. Sometimes, its ok to buy new stuff. Sometimes it is. Sometimes. DAD!

We are all setup to go on another cruise this coming November. OH MY HECK I CANT WAIT. It consumes my thoughts. When life gets out of hand and kids are rowdy and then house is a mess and I have no lawn, and my cars are breaking down, and the bills come, and my dryer wont dry, and my house leaks a little .............. I just think .......... HEY, in November, Im goin on a cruise!, and all my daily chaos can go jump in a lake!

Work work work. I work all the time I think. We get more and more and more customers. And less and less and less employees. This is becoming a problem for me. I feel like I cant accomplish any "real" project at work, because every 5-20 minutes I get interrupted by a 20-60 minute phone call from a customer with a problem. It makes it very hard to accomplish anything that requires any block of time. Plus, I volunteered to be on call every day for the rest of the month because it forces me to work with and understand our complex satellite network. On call means I carry my cell with me everywhere and after 5pm all calls to the support line come directly to my cell phone. This has made life much easier for Ian, who is the NOC manager, cause he was working WAY to many hours. I generally only get 2-6 hours of overtime per week, but being on call ruins most weekends cause the 2-6 hours is spread out randomly over the weekends and nights. So you cant set a schedule to do anything, so its very inconvenient. But those who dont have to do the oncall dont seem to care much and therefore dont hire any help. Yesterday, Ian took the day off (cause he worked all weekend) so I was the only one here. The only other person who could take phones was so swamped with his own stuff he couldnt take the phones so I could have a lunch. This is a regular occurence. Doesnt that sound just a tad bit understaffed?

You know, everyone has beef about their job, and I could probably continue, but when it boils down to it, I probably have THEE best job in the world. I work with family, I deal with cutting edge technology, I get paid well, my manager is excellent to work with, I get to sit in a nice soft desk chair, I get a nice laptop, and the list could go on forever. The positives outweight the negatives by a long shot. Its funny how long we will remember a negative situation and how quickly we forget the positive ones. How pathetic we mortals be!

My kids are getting big. Well, Crystal gets smarter and smarter, and Rooker gets bulkier and bulkier. Rooker isnt fat, he's just a brick. You pick him up and you feel like you just picked up a bag of hard cement. Crystal on the other hand isnt so bulky, but she is still as wild as ever. The temper tantrums have ceased somewhat, but that doesnt keep her from getting into trouble.

You should hear our bedtime stories at night. When her and Rooker get into bed, I lay down on their floor and say "Once upon a time" and Crystal chimes right in with "THERE WAS A BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG MONSTER DINOSAUR" OR "GIANT MEAN DOG WITH BIG TEETH" OR "MAN EATING LIGHT BULB NAMED CURTAIN". She is very imaginative. The stories can sometimes get quite long. I just put in a few words when she runs out of breath. Usually the monsters eat our houses or cars or clothes or grass or roads, and so we have to find some way to make them stop, by pulling out their teeth, or putting them in a cold fridge, or make them fall into a hole. Then we help them out or put their teeth back in when they say sorry and promise never to be mean again. We do 2-3 stories every night. Ever since she turned 4, she thinks she deserves 4 stories, but I start getting sleepy during the 3rd one. I have even fallen asleep and Crystal will yell at me "THERE ARE MORE WORDS DAD!".