We deiceded to tell the kids about the new arrival over the weekend.  They seem to be excited, and seeing picutres of their unborn sibling only adds to that excitement. Hannah was so excited to show me the picture that instead of saying something like “It’s what’s in Mommy’s tummy.” she said “It’s what’s in the baby’s tummy.”  I’m not sure if she doesn’t understand what the photo is or if her excitement just impaired her ability to convey what she was thinking.  Either way, it was pretty funny.

Tonight was the spring recital where all of the students get together to show off what they’ve been working on for the past few months.  Recitals aren’t usually a big deal for Emma.  She enjoys playing for people and she enjoys listening to the other students play their pieces but she hates introducing herself.  I don’t think that she enjoys the applause and praise from everyone either because she’s typically very eager to get away from the piano and back to her seat.  It’s all worth it for her though because after everyone has performed, the teacher gives all of the students giant Symphony bars.  (I think that’s her favorite part.)

I tried recording her last recital using my phone but it was over before I realized what had happened.  Tonight I was better prepared.  I took my new camera that also records video and sat in the front row next to the piano.  As a result, we have video footage to share with everyone who couldn’t be there.  Now press play and marvel at Emma’s awesomeness.

Click here to view the embedded video.

At my work we ship a lot of stuff.  So much stuff that we have a UPS guy make two stops at our office every day.  Note that I said UPS guy and not mailman.  Our mailman is a nice guy but we’re lucky to see him once a week because of Postal Service cutbacks.  This can be extremely irritating when we have to mail something.  The Postal Service isn’t reliable enough for us to depend on so we chose to go with a non-government entity for our shipping needs.

The President and members of Congress seem to think that the federal government can run things better than individuals who have a vested interest can.  I’m against government involvement in my life.  I don’t want them making decisions for me or my family.  I definitely don’t want them making my healthcare decisions.  It’s not their job and, last time I checked, it wasn’t in the Constitution.

I’m amazed at how many people seem to think that seeing a doctor when you have the sniffles is a right protected by the federal government.  It’s not.  We’re guaranteed three rights by the Constitution: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  You can argue that free healthcare would fall into one of these categories but if you read and understand the Constitution, you will see that the founding fathers set boundaries that the federal government must stay within as they ensure these rights.  If something is outside of these boundaries, then it falls to the states to deal with.  But I digress…

My point is this: the American people don’t trust the United States Postal Service, a government entity, with the delivery of their packages.  Why then would they trust the same government that runs the Postal Service with their healthcare decisions?  There are better options than having the government take everything over.  Companies like FedEx and UPS saw a void in the system and came up with a better way to do it and be profitable.  This is what makes our country so awesome.  It’s called capitalism and if the government would stay away from business, including the business of healthcare, somebody will eventually come up with a better way of doing things.

After work, I called Holly to see if she would be more willing to talk.  She wasn’t.  She said that we needed to speak in person and that it would have to wait until I got home.  By this point, I was totally confused.  I knew that I hadn’t done anything that would get her so upset with me that she wouldn’t speak on the phone so I figured that it must just be a misunderstanding that I’d be able to easily clear up.

Right after I spoke with Holly, Chelsea called to see if it would be OK for her to come over that night so I could help her with some computer issues she was having.  I told her that Holly was acting strange and that it would probably be a bad night for her to come over.  She then told me that Holly was probably pregnant.  This garnered a nice chuckle out of me since both Holly and I had pretty much decided against having any more children, at least for the foreseeable future but I told her that I’d let her know if she was right.

When I arrived at the house, I found Holly working in the kitchen.  I asked her what was up and she just smiled at me and said that we would talk in private after dinner.  Her smile confused me; was she smiling because she was going to feast upon my soul for some mistake I made or was she smiling because she was happy to see me?  I couldn’t tell.

After dinner, we went into the bedroom and closed the door behind us.  Holly told me to sit down because we needed to have a talk.  In my experience, it’s bad when a woman says “we need to talk.”  I was nervous.  She sat down beside me and looked terrified to speak.  I knew that I didn’t do anything wrong.  It was her all along and she was feeling guilty.  What a relief.  But then I realized, she screwed up.  Just how bad did she screw up and what would the ramifications be?

I don’t remember exactly how the conversation went but Holly basically told me that she thought she was pregnant and so she took a test.  The test was  positive.  I didn’t believe her so she went to the garbage can and pulled out the test so that I could see the results for myself.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  All of a sudden, I felt like I needed to throw up.  Holly said that she had felt that way all day long and it wasn’t because of the pregnancy.  This is something that neither of us had planned on so it was quite the shock to both of us.

Now that we’ve had a few weeks to come to terms with the reality of our situation, we’re starting to get excited.  We’ve told a few people, most of whom have said something along the lines of “I thought you were done having kids.”  My response to this is “Join the club.  I’m the founding member.”  We have decided to wait to tell the kids though.  I don’t know that I can stand seven months of “when is the baby coming” questions.

Right now it looks like the new bundle of joy will be arriving in mid-January.  I’m personally hoping that it comes in December but I have selfish reasons for wanting this so it probably won’t happen.

So far, Holly has been doing well with the pregnancy.  Other than being tired all of the time, she’s handling things nicely.  She hasn’t really been sick so that leads me to think we’ll be having another boy.  (She wasn’t sick with Alex but was with both of the girls.)  I guess we’ll find out in another couple of months. Either way though, as long as the baby is healthy, we’ll be happy.

Hannah received some pretty cool birthday presents.  Chelsea gave her some clothes and shoes but the clothes were too big and the shoes were too small so Holly had to exchange them.  Yesterday she had some time so she took Hannah to the store and let her choose the clothes and shoes that she wanted.  Hannah found some pink glitter covered  shoes with Disney princesses on the inside so she had to have them.  My response to Holly when Hannah showed them to me was “Really?  You really let her get these?  Really?”

Don’t get me wrong.  The shoes are cute, they’re just not very practical unless you’re trying to get back home to Kansas or you need a trail of something for finding your way out of the woods.  Of course, I’m not a four-year-old little girl so I naturally wouldn’t see the benefit of having shoes that look like they were attacked by a bottle of glitter.  Hannah loves them though and, since they were for her birthday, I will have to be tolerant of them.

There is a problem though in having anything covered in glitter; it will eventually work its way loose of the bonds that keep it affixed to the paper, Styrofoam, or in this case, shoes.   Eventually, everything in the house, including the dog, will be covered in glitter.  Visitors will think that we spend all of our free time doing arts and crafts and I’m not sure that I want people to have that perception of me.

I like to do crafts. I work quite a bit with glitter, but don’t worry, I make tough stuff like daggers and skulls. The thing about glitter is if you get it on you, prepare to have it on you forever because glitter doesn’t go away. Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies. It’s like, oh great here comes the sun; flare up!

~Demitri Martin

Unlike last year, I was able to escape the office early enough to get everything ready to go at a decent time.  Unfortunately, Holly didn’t get off work until 5:30 so Alex and I had to work with Holly’s schedule to ensure that the girls weren’t left alone until she got home.  In an effort to save some time, we met with Holly on our way to Morgan where we said our goodbyes and dropped of Hannah and Emma.  Holly was on her way back from Ogden so it worked out really well and saved us quite a bit of time.

Once Alex and I arrived in Morgan, we stopped at Subway for dinner.  It was almost 7:00 and the weather was looking menacing so we quickly ate and continued on our way.  As we were driving, I realized that I forgot to bring a tarp to put under the tent.  With the skies looking like rain, I was regretting this oversight so we stopped at the local Ace to pick  one up.  We got there just as they were closing up but the employees were kind enough to let us in to get what we needed.  As we were paying for the tarp, Alex noticed a popcorn maker with a bit of popcorn left in it and pointed it out to me.  The employee asked Alex if he’d like some, which he did, so the guy kindly scooped some into a bag and handed it to Alex.  I think that Ace has created a customer for life in Alex just by giving him a free bag of popcorn.  That’s good marketing.

Once we arrived at our destination, we were able to get our camp set up rather quickly.  Since the location we go to for this event is basically a large park, we didn’t bring much with us; just a tent, sleeping bags, a few snacks, and some clothing.  We call this camping because we sleep in sleeping bags inside of a tent but it’s more of camping-lite.  We may as well be in the back yard but it’s still fun and Alex loves going camping with no girls.

Once our “camp” was set up, we sat by the fire and roasted some marshmallows but this didn’t last long due to the large number of small boys playing in the fire.  (I’m paranoid enough as it is without a bunch of nine-year-old boys running around with flaming sticks.)  We spent the rest of the evening visiting with some neighbors outside of our tent which happened to be a safe distance from the flames.

The trip was pretty uneventful other than it rained almost all night.  Fortunately the clouds decided to hold the rain until after we had gone to bed so we stayed dry.  The sound of rain hitting the tent did keep me awake for most of the night but at least it was dry.  I was really glad that we stopped to buy a tarp because there was a lot of moisture on the ground that would have seeped up making our night miserable.

With the first camping trip of the year completed, we are now warmed up for the rest of the trips that are planned for the summer.  We’ll be going out one or two more times in June and then we have two more trips planned for July.  We may squeeze one final camping trip in during August but that month is looking pretty full so we’ll have to see what time will allow.

In 1993 my dad gave me three copies of Superman #75.  Two of these were the “black bag” variant that contained assorted goodies and a variant cover all encased in a black poly bag with a bleeding Superman logo on the front.  The third copy was the widely available basic newsstand version.  In addition to the individual issues, he also gave me The Death of Superman trade paperback which contained the 11 comics detailing the entire Death of Superman storyline.  Growing up, I was always been a fan of comic books but I hadn’t read them with any sort of regularity since I was in grade school so I was a bit surprised by this present but I was still grateful and excited nonetheless.  Little did my dad know that his seemingly simple gift would send me down the long path to becoming a comic book geek.

After reading The Death of Superman, I couldn’t seem to get enough.  Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding had me hooked on Superman.  I kept reading the storyline knowing that nobody in comics stays dead (except for Bucky but he’s back now too) and I wanted to see what was going to happen next.  I started a weekly hold at my local comic book store and was soon deeply immersed in the world of Superman.

About the same time as Superman was being killed off, Gotham City was facing a new villain named Bane who would eventually break Batman’s back in the Knightfall storyline.  The guy at the comic book store gave me a synopsis of what had been happening  and I immediately fell in love with the idea of yet another hero facing a force greater than he.  I was also fascinated by the idea of a normal person with no superpowers whatsoever fighting crime.  Batman was a character that I could relate with – he was smart and had cool toys.  While nobody could be Superman, anybody could be Batman given the proper training and resources.  I decided that I needed to follow the adventures of Superman and Batman so I added the various Batman titles to my weekly hold.

I believe that there were four Superman titles and four Batman titles being published at the time.  My comic shop would get their shipment on Fridays so every Friday night after work, I’d stop by and pick up my comics for the week and then spend the evening in my room reading them.  Since I was only reading eight titles regularly, my haul would usually be limited to two issues but, on occasion, there would be a special one-shot that I would pick up.  It wasn’t long before I realized that there was a enormous universe of superheroes that I was missing out on.  Apparently Superman was my gateway comic.  I was soon picking up more than 10 titles per week.  The artwork was so amazing and the storylines were so compelling that I couldn’t get enough.  Add the fact that the comic book guy would tell me about titles that I might like and I was never short on reading material.

In February of 1995 I left on a two year mission to South Africa for the LDS Church.  Before I left, the guy at the comic shop offered to keep my hold going so that I would be able to catch up on things when I got home but I knew that two years worth of comic books was a lot so I declined his offer.  While I was in Africa, I would occasionally see a rack of comics in a bookstore but, knowing that I was out of the loop, I would resist the urge to pick up a few issues.  I figured that when I got home, I’d be able to start collecting again and that I could pick up the back issues over time.  I was wrong.

Shortly after arriving back in the States, I met Holly and realized that there was no way that I could support my comic book habit and have a happy wife so something had to go.  It obviously wasn’t Holly.  Over the past few years, I’ve started getting back into collecting comics but nothing like before.  Holly has decided that it’s OK for me to start a hold again but only if I limit myself to one title per month.  I’ve chosen Star Wars Legacy as my monthly fix but I’ve also started getting digital copies of older issues that I can read on my computer.

I decided last week that I needed to get caught up on all of my comic reading for the last 14 years so I’ve been acquiring trade paperbacks of the main storylines in the DC Universe so that I know what’s been happening to my favorite heroes.  The fact that my sister, Chelsea, is a comic geek as well has helped me too because she also gets the trade paperbacks and lets me borrow them as needed.  Right now I’m reading a series from 1985 but will soon start reading titles from the mid-90’s until I’m current.  It’s daunting but I’m looking forward to the task.

Given the various licenses that Lego has acquired for their toy line, I knew that it was only a matter of time before we started seeing more video games.  I was right.  Next year we’ll be treated to Harry Potter Years 1-4.  I’m excited so I can imagine how excited Alex and Emma will be when they hear the news.

Emma is wonderful about going to bed.  We’ll tuck her in and then she’ll read until she’s ready to sleep.  Her body seems to know how much sleep it needs because we never have problems waking her up in the morning.  In fact, most of the time she will wake herself up.

On the other hand, Alex and Hannah can either be very good about going to bed or very bad.  Most nights, we have to get after them a bit to stay in their rooms but it’s generally not too trying of an ordeal.  I will say though that Hannah does not like to go to sleep.  Even when she was a baby, she wouldn’t nap.  She just doesn’t need sleep like her brother and sister do.  About a year ago, I figured out if we leave the hall light on and give her a large stack of books that we have a better chance of her staying in bed than if we just tell her to go to sleep.  It’s pretty effective and it means no yelling or crying so, like Emma, Hannah will read until she’s ready to sleep.

On a good night, Alex will just go to sleep.  Of the three kids, he seems to need his rest the most.  Once he is settled down and tucked in, he’ll usually be asleep within a few minutes.  Unfortunately, because he goes to bed early, he also wakes up early which creates a whole new set of adventures.

I told you all of that so that I can tell you this…

Last night I was busy watching something on TV with Holly.  We told the kids to get into their beds and that we’d be in on the commercial to tuck them in.  Alex prefers Holly to tuck him in so that means that I get to tuck in Hannah.  As I went into her room, I saw that she had a stack of about 20 books next to her pillow, each of which had a picture of the Cat in the Hat on its spine, and was already immersed in Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman.  For those who have not read this literary classic, it follows a confused baby bird who’s been denied the experience of imprinting as he asks cows, planes, and steam shovels the Big Question. (Spoiler alert!) In the end he is happily reunited with his maternal parent in a glorious moment of recognition.

Hannah was only a few pages into the book when I tucked her in but she thought that it would be a good time to take a break and tell me about what she was reading.  I thought that she summed it up quite nicely when she said “Hims looking for hims mother, huh Dad.”  While this is a simple thing, it pleased me to know that my daughter enjoys fine literature.  Now I just need to get her hooked on Green Eggs and Ham and The Poky Little Puppy.

See what I mean?