Category: Family (Page 12 of 13)

This weeekend was Mother’s Day weekend. We went “home”. First to Tupelo to The Wife’s parents. We ended up calling my dad who came down to eat with us, and we all went to Vanelli’s. Of course I got a calzone, the MasterZoni. But it was good times. The only thing was that my throat was killing me.

I’d stayed home from work the day before because I was still feverish. Almost threw up, but didn’t. But by Friday there was no fever, no funny stomach, and no headache…but just an extrememly raw throat. It felt like someone crushed a Coke bottle and ground it into my throat.

The next morning we all went to run in the Gum Tree Race. The Wife ran the 10K while Addie and I ran the 2K. That’s 1.2 miles for you non-metric people. Longer story about that later. But after the race and lunch we headed to Amory to see my mom and grandmother. Nice supper, nice lunch on Sunday (raw, rare steak!) And then headed back to Clinton to jump back into the swing and go to church.

But on Sunday morning we did go to church at my old church. Saw lots of people that we’d not seen in a while. It was really nice. I miss those people. And I think I miss being around some, and though it’s bittersweet, I don’t regret moving to Clinton at all. Kinda funny like that.

Well, I know I’ve not been posting much at all the last few days. And they’ve been hectic.

Monday was my Seven Year Wedding Anniversary. I’d planned a night out w/ The Wife. She had to come home from work late, but we were going to head out as soon as she got back and cleaned off. The baby sitters were here. Supper was out of the oven. But all was not well. Addison was cold. She’d been cold since she’d gotten out of the bath tub. But drying off, putting on clothes, drying her hair, and switching to a long sleeve shirt didn’t help. Neither did wrapping up in her favorite snuggly blanket.

So I took her temp. Straight up 100. But a call to the sitter said and she said it was fine for her to keep a “feverish” kid. But Addie didn’t want us to leave. And just as everyone was set, and we were about to leave, (and Addie mewing in the background, “I don’t want you to leave…..”) it happened. She threw up all over herself and the couch.

So an emergency bath, new clothes, and a quick nap happened. We ate our 7th Anniversary dinner with the baby sitters and our 17month old. Fun times. But after we all watched David Blaine get hyped for two hours and then not hold his breath long enough, Addie threw up again. And then 2 more times in the night.

Today, Wednesday, two days after the fact, I think she’s mostly out of the woods. A sore throat. Not really energetic, but in a good mood most of the time. But she’s really only had two pieces of toast and a bowl of oatmeal in the last 55 hours.

But I think a lesson has been learned through all of this.  Late Monday night. I was wondering about the accuracy of the handy dandy digital thermometer. He temp was usually 100 or 101 point something. And I figured it could be wrong. So I took my temp. It was only 97.5 or something like that. I guess I really am a cool dude. But The Wife saw me do that and her jaw dropped.

I was putting the same thermometer that had been in my feverish, puking, achey, burning up, unsettled stomach daughter. It had been in her mouth multiple times. Yes, I put it in mine to take my temp.

So now, nearly 48 hours later. My throat is starting to not feel so well, and my temp is rising….. Smart move dad!

My first car was a 1979 Honda Accord (hatchback). It was a stick shift that had a forgiving clutch in it. I could shift fast and on the fly without much precision and I could get away with it. After I good rain I knew how to hit a curve just right, shift the gears and slam the accellerator and I could fishtail all over the place. My mom would have died. Now I know why the raised the driving age here in Mississippi. Not many 15 year old guys need to be driving like that!

It was a decent car, but one that never commanded many looks. Or at least not the good kinds. It had a loud stereo, but it was ALL treble. And don’t slam the door too hard or you’ll have to lean over and put the speaker back in the door. I used to daydream at the Crutchfield catalog thinking I wanted to put some bazookas in there to give that baby some BASS!
But my senior year in high school, mid November, I was pleasently surprised to get a new car. Or at least new to me. It was a 1988 Honda Accord. Gold. Nine years newer than my old (old old) car. It seemed to be just what the doctor ordered. And I lived lots of life behind the wheel of that car. Been lots of places. But as the years have moved on, so have it’s better days. And sadly, I’m giving her up. There’s a family down in Waveland that lost most of everything to Katrina. And The Wife and I decided to let Goldie take a trip down to the coast and belong to someone new. To be honest, Goldie was starting to get run down. No muffler, no AC or heater. Really hard to steer and some brakes issues (YES, we got those fixed before giving donating it). But after some power-steering juice, she’s almost back to her old self. And I’m going to miss her purrr coming out of her muffler-less back end.

But last night I tried to think of a few things that I first expereienced w/ Goldie:

• My first cd player
• My summers away working at CLS and Ozark.
• My first listen to the Crash cd of Dave Matthews.
• My first date with The Wife
• I think we had our first kiss sitting on the trunk of the car (or was that her car?)
• A car my mom was finally confident in my driving out of town.
• We experienced Notheast, Southern Miss, and Miss State together.
• And The Wife and I left the wedding reception in Goldie.
• More tickets than I want to admit.
• Late night pranks in college.
• I could go on and on…

So as I say goodbye to Goldie, know that she was a good car. She’s older than most of the kids in my youth group now….but she’s still got HEART!

Well Saturday was a busy day. Started with going to Home Depot for some trees. My dad bought us two red oaks and one red maple. So we dug a hole and planted the first one and then ate a quick lunch before the easter egg hunt at. But then it was off to Jackson for the Run From The Sun.

The plan was for The Wife to run the race while I waited w/ my dad and the girls. Then Addison would run the 1 mile fun run, I’d run with her, and The Wife would wait w/ my dad and youngest daughter.

But on the way to the run, The Wife calls and asks if I want to run it with her. She says that there are some friends from church there running it too. Now I still had my sights set on the April 28th run. Yes, I’d run a few times recently, but wasn’t sure if I wanted to run a 5K that day. I’d just drank a lot of Mt. Dew and it was HOT!

But as it turns out, before it all started, I decided to register and run. So as The Wife blazed on ahead, I started my slow plod to the end. For some reason, the race is called Run From the Sun, but it felt like we were in the blazing sun for about 95% of the race. But I finished the run in about 32 or so minutes. I was shooting for 31 because that would have meant a 10 minute pace per mile. But the killer hill up High Street in Jackson put a few minutes on my time.

After the finish, Addie ran the 1 mile. She ran it in 11:22 I think. She was the 2nd fastest 4 year old to run it. And she was really zooming the last little bit of it. She was quite proud.

Here are the race results in PDF format.

My wife is the runner. I am the poser when it comes to running. I’ll do it now and then. But I seem to concentrate less on the “now” and more on the “then”. There was a time when I ran more regularly, but it hasn’t been lately. But even on our wedding date, the two of us ran in the Gum Tree 10K run in Tupelo, MS before our wedding. Heck, even one of her bridesmaids and four of my groomsmen ran it with us.

Leading up to that day, my wife (fiance) and I would run a 10K race on the weekend, then I’d spend all week recovering from the soreness and stiffness, then run another one. We did that for 4 weekends straight until our wedding “race”.

But yesterday my wife brings up a race that’s going to be here in Clinton. It’s the Brickstreet Firefly 5K. At first, I thought, “Cool, I can do this.” But then she goes and starts telling some friends about it too, wanting us all to run it together.  So now I have more people to worry about. With just Beverly, I know I’ll finish behind her, but with a slew of other people, I’ll have to actually train a little so I won’t come in last in our group of friends. Who likes coming in last?

So. Now I MUST run to prepare. Three weeks. That’s enough, right? Enough time to build up some endurance. To build up a little burst of speed for the end. And maybe a little confidence as well so I really don’t come in last of all the people I know running.

Oh, and on my wedding day….Beverly came in first from our wedding party, and I came in …. last! But I was saving my energy!

I get a call today at the office. It’s my wife. She tells me that she’s at Walgreens, but that she ran out of gas. So I’m wondering where the car is. Turns out, it is in front of Walgreens. In the left turn lane with the hazzard lights on and a line of cars behind it.

Now if you know much about Clinton, you know that Walgreens in on a corner. The corner of Hwy 80 and Springridge Road (or is it the Parkway?  same road, but it changes names a lot). And if you know much about Clinton, you know that this is the busiest intersection in all of Clinton. Honestly. So she asks, as she stands in a drug store w/ my 15 month old daugher, “What should I do?”

Yeah, she asks that question. But she isn’t really asking a question. She’s just telling me that she needs me to come help her out. So like the good husband I try to be most of the time, I tell her, “Wait right there, honey. I’m on my way.” Now really, where is she going to go?

So I go to Advance Auto Parts and get a funnel and a big blue gas can. Then get some gas at Shell. And then pull in to Walgreens and get a view of the situation. There it is. Our white, late 90’s Tahoe sitting there with it’s pretty hazzard lights flashing and a group of angry drivers behind it. So I begin the walk across the drugstore lawn and through traffic to begin to pour gas into the Tahoe. Silly people are honking at the thing. I mean, c’mon. It’s driverless. The emergency lights are blinking. But you think it’s going to all of a sudden take off? Or did you think the driver needed a nap and decided to do it mid morning at the most congested crossroads in the whole city? C’mon, silly people.

But I perform my husbandly duty of the day and all is well again after the engine finally turns over. And we did get a new blue gas can out of the whole experience!

Last week I had a busy morning. I was supposed to be going out of town before lunch. But before that I had a meeting at church. And before that I had to get my 2 daughters to the child care room where my wife works. But before that I had to get them fed, cleaned up, dressed, and ready. I had to do all that for myself…and pack!

So it was a hectic morning. Lots of rushing around and all. And my 4 year old, trying to be as helpful as possible, was being a big Mother Hen for my 14 month old. She was trying to help with shoes or her jacket, or tie her shoe laces. A number of things that showed she was being a loving big sister. But little sister wasn’t feeling the love. At all.

She’d respond with a pretty sharp “Aaaaahhhhnnghhh!” over and over. I kept telling Addie, “Sweetie, just leave her alone. She doesn’t want you to do that.” A few seconds later…., “Aaaaahhhhnnghhh!!!” “Honey, just leave her shoe there, I’ll get it in a minute. Just back away from the baby…please.” All this while I’m trying to decide which clothes looked the cleanest to take with me.

Finally, I’d had one Aaaaahhhhnnghhh to many. And I lost my patience and yelled at Addie. I told her that I’d asked her, I’d told her, and instructed her to leave her sister alone. So just sit still and don’t move until I said it was time to get in the car! There. That felt better didn’t it? But no it didn’t. And as I walked back inside form putting some thing in the car, there she sat in the garage on a paint can. Head dipped. Shoulders slumpped. So I picked her up. Took her inside and stood her on my bed so we could see eye to eye.

“Honey, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled. I was wrong to have yelled at here. Will you forgive me?” She told me yes and was not really in a bad mood from all the drama. Everyone was now fed, dressed, and ready to go. So as we drive down the road, I hear her say, “Daddy.” Yeah? “Don’t you think you need to ask God, too? ” Ask him what? “You know. Ask God to forgive you too since you yelled at me?”

Holy cow! Here this 4 year old is calling me out on my need to ask God for forgiveness. Who does she think she is? Heh heh. She was right. Yes, you’re right. I should. And I will. Thanks for reminding me. I was proud of her. Makes me think we’ve taught her a few things that are good. Plus it humbled me. But then she says, “Well?” Well what? “Well, aren’t you going to ask Him?” She was ready for some praying action right then and there!

When we realized we were moving to Clinton, one of the things we hoped for was a group of people close to our age and close to our “time in life” that we could identify with and bond with. In Amory it seemed that we just didn’t have that. All our friends that lived in town were either teenagers or parents of teenagers. Now that’s a good thing, on some accounts, but we longed for more.

It happened here. Started as an idea a friend and I tossed around. We invited two other couples, then a 5th joined us. So now we’ve got a regular Bible study of 5 couples that meets weekly. Our first regular study was one on Communication in Marriage. It was something I know The Wife and I need to improve upon in our marriage, but hey, who doesn’t? Right?

But I must admit that while going through the study, it seems our communication was tested pretty firmly. Little things would cause conflict and we’d both blow things out of proportion. It seems that Satan was testing us in the very area we were seeking to improve upon. But one thing we did take away from it all is that conflict and miscommunication is normal. It’s pretty common. But that God’s grace and mercy are so much more powerful. But we, as husbands and wives, need to embrace that mercy/grace instead of reveling in our pride and desire to “be right.” That’s a biggie. One that I struggle with. Especially even after everythings been smoothed over and I still think I’m “right” most of the time.

I truly don’t see how a marriage can really work out w/o God being involved in it.