eternally chaotic

Christmas this year introduced a new member to our family named Red.  And NO to those of you thinking the unthinkable – the family head count remains at a solid seven, including the dog.  This little persons name, after much enthusiastically and somewhat fanatical debate among existing family members was determined to be “Red”.  Red the Christmas Elf.  He would only be around for a few weeks out of the year, didn’t eat much and pretty much remained stationary throughout the day – at some point during the day, when our eyes were cast elsewhere, he would just vanish until the next morning.  Red had some specific rules about being touched or bothered as well – certainly the kids were to strictly forbidden to touch him and to leave him alone lest he lose his observational and somewhat magical powers granted by the spirit that is Christmas.  Red’s job was to cast a watchful eye upon his family, take score of the good versus bad and report back to some higher power a recommendation as to which list each household member might befit.  Somehow during his strictly “observational” process he would always find a way to cause mischief and leave a mess.

Two nights before Christmas however, Red left something additional in each of the stockings of the Children of the Corn.  A gold dipped envelope containing a silver inked letter from The Man himself.  Now was the time of reckoning.  The time of knowing.  Was it the good list or the bad.  What did Santa think?  What did he know?  When we opened our weary eyes the next morning would they sparkle and shine from majestic reflection of silver and gold or be dim from broken hope and disappointment.

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A recent foray into the kids school yesterday to return a book bag overlooked by its rightful owner upon exiting the van while hastily headed to stand in a magical line.  Said book bag in hand I signed into school and applied my sticky name badge identifying myself as non-hostile.  It was then that I noticed an unusually large number of kids standing in line around a corner, a destination somewhere unseen, and sound decibel levels near rock concert pandemonium.  Earlier the kids were excited about purchasing a special pencil at the book store before class so I figured Piper, the rightful owner of the abandoned book bag, would be in line somewhere.  Searching, I was passed by kid after kid, each with a pencil in hand, or tucked up under their nose, all sniffing heftily.  The line continued down a hall and around a corner and at the end I saw the destination of each of the queued – an ordinary looking table, attended by ordinary looking teachers, selling ordinary looking pencils.  But wait.  The kids near the front of the line were vibrating with joy and excitement.  Looking past each ahead with both envy and hatred that they might reach their destination first and by chance deplete the stockpile of tabled treasure.  I heard then from the peddlers up ahead, a dreadful announcement, “Only three left”, followed by a roar of elementary curses and a crushing push from those in line trying to rush the table in a last ditch effort to get their clammy hands on the last of the vehicles of their writing desire, the type of rush you would expect when Great White uses pyrotechnics on stage.  It was at this moment that I learned of the connection between this now hysterical line and what our kids had been robbing piggy banks and having lucid dreams for.  Smencils.  These crafty little gems things are drugs but for entry level fiends.  These magical little rolls of graphite surrounded by wood and topped with a squishy colored eraser might as well be laced with Florida Snow or Fatty perfectly disguised for private consumption for the level of obsession they insight.  The line alone to purchase one of these was on par with how the Mac-ites enthusiastically lines up days ahead to offer paper donations to their fruity deity.  I finally caught up to my bag-less princess and her brother skipping their way to class from the now broken line of envious onlookers.  They were not in the lucky bunch to get a hit but both were optimistic that the next time the peddler came to bear gifts that they too might be able to fly.

Today Violet performed in her school nativity play as the “Sheep with the Curly Horns”.  They have been practicing on and off since the end of October and it certainly showed.  She was very serious about her performance and we even saw her lip-syncing other classmates parts while they were singing or talking.  Violet thought the Sheep with the Curly Horns was very cool and was excited to play this part even though it meant she would have to do a solo part.  We are very proud of her.

We found a story in Isaac’s school work about our family dog, Uno.  He loves to watch and play with Uno and we guess he has recently noted one of Uno’s special fall time activities.  Our precious family k-9 has taken to befriending his pillow bed in a somewhat feeble attempt to sate his masculine urges.  I have to wonder what goes though his head when this happens.  Whenever we see Uno partaking in his enjoyment we stop him quickly but I am curious what the kids think he is doing…..Hiyo Silver….Away.

Jacob wrote a story recently for school about some time we spent playing in the yard.  I thought instead of writing something up along with the pictures and video I would just use his story.  Let him know what you think.

2010 was the year that I got my dad two katana swords for his birthday.  Which I thought was really cool.  The sad thing is that I didn’t get to play with them until last Saturday.  Also because it was one year since I had got those swords. They’re really cool and it was worth the waiting!  They are made of white oak which is a very strong type of wood. One of the swords is over half the weight of the other!  I could barely lift it.  Well, anyway I asked my dad, “Can I get the ninja swords out and play with them?”.  “Gosh, I totally forgot about them!”, dad replied. “Well, all right.”

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The kids are back in school, summer is at its height and the daily scheduled grind has taken hold.  Thank goodness for the break brought by Labor Day.  We had not ambitious plans and wanted nothing other than to spend some time with the kids and enjoy our time off.  There was plenty to do however that we talked about through the summer but just couldn’t fit in so we planned to take full advantage of our few days of free time and get in some activities with the CoTC.  Specifically we wanted to see the DragonCon Parade, Atlanta Aquarium and Stone Mountain Laser Show.

DragonCon was back in town and while I would have preferred to have purchased tickets and gone sightseeing at the actual show, it was cost prohibitive to take all the kids – even if the cost was right there was no way I was taking them to wait for tickets in the six hour line that literally wrapped around the block.  The parade was a good second and something I had never seen as well.  The kids loved it.  We found a nice spot to watch above the road and behind some glass that we were able to squeeze in to – certainly better than being at ground level with four munchkins that couldn’t see over a shrubbery.  The costumes were pretty awesome and all of us had our favorites.  Jacob took the only pictures with his camera and the rest of us just soaked it in.

Next up was a walk to the Atlanta Aquarium.  We had been planning to take the kids here all summer but just couldn’t find the time to do it.  Labor Day probably wasn’t the wisest choice in timing though as it was packed wall to wall with people.  Crazy.  Oh well, tickets had been purchased already online so at the very least we were able to bypass the ridiculously long entry line and head straight in.  Having been many times in the past we were hoping to see some of the new exhibits that had been added such as the dolphins but they were not open unless you purchased another ticket specifically to view them.  We instead took our time strolling from room to room and soaking up the sites.  Many times just sitting in front of a particular wall and watching everything swim around.  We managed to time our trip to the main viewing room of the large tank in time for the feeding of the massive whale sharks.  The biologist would drop buckets of krill onto the surface and the whales would basically inhale massive amounts of water and filter it through their gills each eating twenty pounds or so of these obviously delicious morsels per bite.

We did not end up going to Stone Mountain as it started raining early in the evening.  With the laser light show changing this year to something new and supposedly now in a type of 3-D where it looks like they are inside of the mountain we were bummed and will hopefully get to check it out before the season ends.

All in all a great weekend with the family.  Lots of time away from the house but also plenty of time at home to just take it easy and chill.

After about two months of talking about it, we finally got our day at the gun range.  Jacob has been very patient over the past few weeks as trips have been planned and rescheduled or rescheduled and cancelled.  Today though was the perfect day and instead of just Jacob and I going, we were all able to go and take our shots.  We headed to Bulls Eye Marksman Gun Club and Indoor Range.

Jacob was interested in shooting his first rifle and after a few months of talking about it and learning the various safety aspects of doing so, it was time.  They both hear me talking about going to the range and have been interested in joining me.  I thought that would be excellent as well and have been working to that end.  I certainly want them to understand and respect weapons as they grow, in particular if they have an interest – one of those instances where if they have an itch it sometimes helps to let them scratch it with you versus with someone else.  Regardless I want them to understand what is acceptable and what is not.  What rifles, shotguns and pistols are for, how to be safe around them and what to know and do when they might handle one.  This was our first hands on lesson.

The day had finally come.  We don’t have a small caliber rifle and I was wanting to start him out light with a 22 so both the noise and recoil didn’t give him a bad taste from the beginning.  The range had a nice bolt action Ruger 22/77 with a low power scope that we took out for a spin.  I was hoping for something with iron sites as a start but this was what they had and we made the best of it.  It was a bit heavy though and there was some awkwardness in holding it because of the weight but the boys made the best of it and shot quite well.

Jacob won the coin toss and got first shot.  He did remarkably well considering he had never shot before and we were in a very crowded and loud range with lots of noise offering easy distraction.  His first two shots found their mark near the center and he was excited to continue.  We let each of they boys run a clip through and took turns at the reload.  Isaac had some initial trouble with sighting through the scope and adjusting to the weight.  We propped it up on a towel that the range had for just this scenario and let him hold it a bit short and he was able to find his mark.  After a few errant shots he slowly worked his way into the black and orange and as the shooting continued he was able to keep his mark most of the time.

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Getting an answer as to what Violet wanted for her birthday dinner was a challenge.  She has been staying with Grandma and Grandpa the past few weeks prior to her birthday and upon asking her she offered as many different options as there were nights that she was away.  In the end it landed on Corn Dogs and French Fries, one of her favorites.  It is amazing how many corn dogs and batches of yummy fried potatoes a crowd can devour.  It is also great that Costco sells them in bulk.  It was weird for us this time around.  All of the past meals the kids have chosen have required some amount of time laboring either at the grill or on the stoves.  This time the oven and deep fryer did all the work and we got to relax and hang out with the family.

With full bellies we moved onto let Violet open her Gifts.  I think the only way Violet could have been more focused on opening gifts or on the attention she was getting was if an actual horse happened to pop out while she was tearing away layers of wrapping paper.  It would not have matter if it didn’t weigh in at a certain number of stones or wasn’t so many hands tall.  She wouldn’t have cared.  It would have received a huge hug and she would have declared: “It is exactly what I was asking for”.  Now there was no real horse of course unless you count the adhesive in the tape but that did not discourage her.  Violet was quietly excited sitting behind the little table as she received and opened her birthday cards and gifts.

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Today the boys and I adventured out to Zoo Atlanta. It was an exhausting 100 degrees, and the boys were in go-go hyper mode. They were so excited, like children in a candy shop. Mommy mentally and physically could barely keep up…. Lol.

Boys cooling off in the misting fans, lol.

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Today I took the boys to Skate Country. As a child “Skate Country” was the place to be, but as I have grown I tend to forget about these cool places. The boys and I have been searching for “BIG” kid things to do and came up with a list. Today Roller Skating was chosen and with much excitement. The boys were going on and on  - how cool they were gonna be skating and how they new exactly what to do. Surprise…Surprise!

Within minutes after we arrived the boys had their skates laced up and were ready to go. The moment they stepped on the rink, everything that they had boasted about was washed away. I was able to get them around the rink one time. After that they were done…”I want to go home” – “can we play games – “I don’t want to skate”. Poor babies, they were so disappointed on how “not easy” it was.

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