The Kelsey's

Whew, it’s been a pretty wild couple of months.

At the beginning of June, I took the three oldest kids to camp meeting for a week. Poor Caleb got sick as soon as we got there so he headed back home. So it was just Hannah, Joshua and me.

When I got back to work, I found out that there was an issue on my project that just couldn’t wait until I got back and another developer was assigned to fix it. My current manager is of the opinion that anybody can just jump into 50,000 lines of code and make changes without impacting anything. So through the middle of June I was working on a new project, all the time knowing that when my old project was sufficiently messed up I’d be responsible for making it right. This happened at the end of June – the very day before my first trip to Billings, MT.

I was in Billings for a Peacemaker panel where they brought 9 people from around the country to give them feedback on how they can better serve peacemaking teams in local churches. I had a blast. I was worried that I wouldn’t have enough input to make it worth their while to bring us all out there. But I feel like we gave them enough value.

When I got back I was thrown back into my old project and had to figure out what had changed. I was told I had that one week to get everything fixed and ready for final testing. That lead up to 4th of July weekend. We did our usual Independence Day activities (see last year’s blog post for more on that).

Then entering into July I had another trip to Billings, MT. This time for a “Train the Trainer” event with Peacemakers. So if I get a good review, I’ll only have to participate in two trainings and I’ll be licensed to teach ‘Conflict Coaching and Mediation’ training within my denomination. That will help save on costs and then we can encourage more people to go through the training and develop peacemaking teams in our churches. At least that’s the plan.

That brings us up to last week. Last week was VBS, ’nuff said.

This week is just starting, but it’s a little shell shocked. Nothing going on here for a few weeks until Hannah leaves us. There’s also a promised Six Flags visit coming up too.

Other than that, life’s just sliding along. How about you?

I just wanted to show you a few pics that we’ve taken over the last little while. These first few are from Nathan’s birthday. A real rarity – I’m actually in this one!

Here he is checking out a gift.

He’s happy – but it’s not really his birthday yet…

Once the candles were blown – then it was really his birthday.

A couple of weeks later it was time to go do the “egg thing” for Easter. This year we added reading from John 23 & 24 to get the real story…

We also have video of Hannah’s birthday, Nathan’s birthday, and even some Easter footage … but the time to transfer all that stuff around is just too long. So these will have to tide you over until then.

I’ve had weeks like this before.  Some of them in the hospital, some of them on a couch with crutches.  I’ve been put under and cut on 6 times now.  That’s probably a little above average.  And this time it wasn’t a medical emergency.  I could still walk, I didn’t have to limp.  I could still go to work and about my business, I wasn’t doubled over in pain.  But I had hernias.

I checked the Internet and studied up, were there exercises I could do, was there dietary changes I could make to reverse or affect this?  All sources indicated no.  They would either stay the same or get worse.

With our current health insurance we have an annual deductible, so doing something early in the year made sense.  The question was whether it would be this year or some future year.  No one knows what the future holds, and we had started to rebuild our savings, so we went forward.

The recovery has been coming along.  I found out that the only thing keeping me from being able to drive or go back to work was the use of the prescribed pain meds.  I stopped taking those on Thursday.  It hasn’t been unbearable (not like getting my wisdom teeth pulled – saying no to pain killers there was a big mistake), but little pulls here and there are always a surprise.

I’ve also read and heard a lot about people not being satisfied with mesh installation.  Recurrent pains, mesh that rolls up or balls up and creates pain or numbness.  So I was torn (no pun intended) about going ahead with it, but I opted to.  Now every time I feel a sharp pull or tug I wonder if it’s just healing happening or if the mesh is messing up.  It’s going to take time to know for sure.

The Kelsey homeschool has been on spring break to “celebrate” dad being “in the way.”  So I don’t think that things have been too disrupted.  I did have to request an early exit from church as I was feeling pretty worn down.  But I can’t think of anything else that’s been a challenge.  I’m sure I could interview everyone and get some more examples, but they aren’t up so – it’s just me!

The debate is continuing on whether I will start back to work early (i.e. on Monday) or if I’ll wait all the way until Wednesday when I told my employer that I would return.  I guess it just depends on how the healing process goes.

We have more birthday’s in March than in any other month of the year.  We are also entering into the summer months, this is the only time of the year when I can actually remember all my children’s ages

This week will also be spring break around the Kelsey homeschool.  The weather has cooperated, and it didn’t snow like the weather intelligentsia were prognosticating.  The week can only be more spring-like ahead.  So the kids will be taking some time off as I take the week off to recuperate from surgery.  There will probably be much more to say in our next installment.

I would say that not much happened this week around the Kelsey’s. But things did happen. The kids got out their bikes and rode around a bit – a sure sign that summer’s coming. Hannah got to ride Laura’s bike. We need to look into bike upgrades.

Hannah’s been asked to play something for church in about 2 weeks. She hasn’t been on the piano in any serious way for months. This is going to be a challenge – we’ll see how it goes.

There’s been talk about travel and vacations… We will be headed to camp meeting without Laura and Nathan for a second year in a row. Laura had committed to a friend to help with her daughter’s wedding at the same time. I’ve been invited to take a trip to Billings MT at the end of June – this will be the furthest west I’ve ever traveled. Then there may be a trip to CO for a weekend in August and the Annual Peacemaker Conference is in Washington D.C. this September. For our family this is considered some serious jet-setting! Oh and this doesn’t include Laura’s new dream to follow Michael Buble’s concert tour as a crazed groupie. Check and see if she’ll be hanging out at a town near you soon.  Just kidding, OK, not really.

The time still needs to be firmed up, but we will be having a visit from one of the administrators of the academy (no, not that – the Oscars are over) from a boarding school we’ll be sending Hannah to.  In case you’re wondering, she didn’t do anything bad or illegal – she is actually excited about going off to school.

I guess one last tidbit – I’ve talked to the kids and we are planning to take up our summer walking again.  We’ll start this Tuesday.  I’ll report back on the number of side aches we manage and how many oz. of sweat we produce.

Hannah had her friend come over to spend the night tonight. It’s been a while since we’ve had an overnight guest. The boys have been more cooperative and less pestering. All kids grow up. I’ve spent the evening scouring my desk and office area for a missing check. I guess it’s worth any price to get some order out of the chaos.

I wonder if anyone has figure out a way to make weekends last longer? If you figure it out, I’d gladly subscribe to the service. There isn’t any big news happening at this point – or maybe I’m not looking close enough. Nathan has started expanding his vocabulary and you never know what’s going to come out of his mouth. No, nothing shocking – just so grown up. For instance “mom, mom, mom, mom” isn’t good enough any more. Now it’s “mom, I’m talking to you!” Laura and I realized today that Nathan has missed out on some of the story book reading that Hannah and Joshua got. So I got him to sit down and listen to a few stories before daddy zonked out and he said, “Dad, if you don’t mind, I’m going downstairs.” Talk about left hanging… what could I say other than, “OK, son, have fun.”

I’ll try to pay more attention this week and report back next time. Until then – leave a comment so we know that there’s still people paying attention.

Where have we been?  Well, frankly, we’ve been down.  My dad (our most loyal reader) called late at night a few weeks back and told Laura (I don’t wake up for phone calls – or much else) that when he visited our site, it showed up for about 5 seconds and then redirected to some Russian site that wasn’t suitable for family viewing.

I tried to fix it real quick and when I saw that I couldn’t.  I just took the site down.  Reinstalled our blogging software and fixed the database and now we are back in business – I think.  So if you see a criminal element around here, be sure to alert the neighborhood watch!

If you were scared off by visiting and being shocked that theKelsey’s were promoting such garbage – we hope you’ll come back!

Grandmother came to our house for Thanksgiving this year.  I took Friday off to be home as much as possible.  I was the only one in my department to do so – is the world just becoming less thankful these days?

As is traditional, Laura made more food than we could possibly eat.  The new twist this year was to augment our failing fridge … Laura will tell you that it is literally being held together by duct tape, but it’s actually a combination of duct tape and electrical tape … we used a box out in the sun room as an ad hoc fridge.  We just set extra dishes out there and let the 40 or so degree weather act as a chiller.

I did my best to supplement all my meals for days with the pies, dishes, and sides from the outdoor chiller and the fridge.  I think I’ve been binge eating for 5 days now.

Nathan has made a big change in that he now can face Grandma Gee Gee and not roll his eyes or try to get away.  She’s now an accepted part of his world.

With our thankfulness complete, it’s now time for Christmas plans – decorations and “stuffs.”

Another rarity was that we took advantage of an in-home Grandma babysitter to head out and watch “The Little House on The Prairie” play at the Fox.  I was drowsy in the dim lights before the curtain went up – but I didn’t snooze a wink.  That was Laura’s criteria for my success, so woo hoo!

We’ll have some end of the year thoughts in the next few weeks!

It was a long time coming…

There were threats, counter threats, and promises made.  But it came down to this…

There would be a water gun showdown.  Dr. Eddie not only took all comers, but he also mixed it up personally.  It was a cloudy and rainy afternoon on July 12th when all sides gathered together.  After a “last meal,” everyone headed outside and commenced to fightin’.  Usually things were pretty spread out.  There was one instance where the wrestling got knotted up when Joshua challenged Eddie.

As you can see – there was only one slide at the beginning.  Here is some video from my phone – the quality is not too bad, but it’s not going to be shown at any film festivals this fall… (Umm, note – your sound is not broken – there was nothing to hear until the very end where Nathan comes inside. Although a few shouts and shrieks can be heard through the glass.)

If you watched the video to the end, you know that Nathan came in freezing (did you see how my camera made his little penguin walk just that much funnier? The camera got weirded out there at the end.). But I dried him off and we watched from inside for a while. I took more video, but I am only posting the best of the best so as not to bore y’all.

These shenanigans went on for quite some time. I was tired of standing and went off to sit down. During that time, Nathan could no longer stand it and headed back out in his dry clothes. He had been quietly watching, so I didn’t hear him slip out. In the mean time the fight had been reduced to trying out a “bigger, better” slip-N-slide.

And here is some final video of sliding folks. You can also see Nathan rolling his “bowling ball” all along the way. He does get a little peeved when “Kay Kay” jams up the traffic.

Thus ends our tale of Hydrogen Hydroxide induced destruction, for now.

There were many more fun and exciting happenings this summer, including VBS, the kids going to Tim Hawkins, and stuff like that. I’ll get to them soon (maybe post one more tonight when I get home from work ).

I know you’re starving for more scoop on the happenings around here – blame it on the chronicler. (Oh, and happy birthday, Mom! Hope to catch you some time today!)

Say it ain’t so!

After dad being adamant about not wanting the mess or the expense (for upkeep and additional home repairs…) of having a pet, mommy caved when she say the dwarf hamster owned by her work out buddy. So about a week ago (I guess I should be more accurate since we have a 14 day return policy that is running out fast!!), Laura took the kids to PetSmart and purchased a vermin with a cage to put it in.

I would show you a picture, but I don’t think anyone has thought to take one yet, and at this time of the morning “Helio” is still buried in the shavings at the bottom of the cage. I do have a picture of a rodent that looks very similar – only this one was in a trap… remember?
(I have pictures of that one, but as we said before – they probably aren’t for public viewing)

As you have probably guessed, I’m not enthusiastic about this turn of events.  My view of pets is that they are a great oportunity to teach children the life object lesson of what death means.  Pets die, and we get to tell our children about that reality.  And that’s a valuable lesson to learn, especially as they become teen-agers and think they are imortal. ( Bible quote )

Caleb comes down first thing in the morning and checks on Helio.  Joshua likes to let him run up and down his arms.  He and Laura enjoy sticking it under my nose while I’m working at the computer – there must be some enjoyment out of that.  I get none.

Wouldn’t have just been easier to just adopt the squirrels already in our attic?   Everybody else is happy with the decision, so there it stands.  Even Hannah has purchased some garden gloves so she can hold Helio and not be concerned about rodent defecation touching her delicate skin.  You can never be too careful.