Technological Hyperventilation

You don't realize how necessary . . . dependent . . . addicted you are to modern technology until it is ripped against your will from your clutching, clinging white knuckles. That happened to me today. I have two computers with Internet access. I got a new one last year for ME, and moved my other one downstairs for the boys to use for school and for me to use for school record keeping and such. Some time ago, I started having problems with it . . . long story . . . I let my anti-virus lapse for a very short time, and I thought something got on it. Now I think it was just spyware that slipped past my system. Anyway, when I upgraded to Internet Explorer 7 the whole Internet thing went kaplooie, and I lost Internet Explorer. Can't access it at all. Couldn't even get it back by doing a system restore and going back to IE6. But no worry, I still had my beloved America Online. Problems kept continuing to develop--nothing serious, just annoying little things that I'm too technologically impaired to figure out how to fix, and then after one of my ignoramous fix-it attempts, I deleted something important from the AOL file, and you guessed it! No AOL. Ugh.

So for months now, I've been meaning to backup files and take the stupid computer to my dear friends' computer genius father-in-law (are ya confused yet?), to get it cleaned up, fixed, whatever. But of course, it's the kids' computer, and I still have mine, so no rush. Right? Well very early in the wee hours of the morning I got on my precious, only to discover an error message about the system back-up battery. So this morning I spent ALL morning on the phone with Dell working on figuring out what is wrong. And guess what. It needs a new battery. Which I can't change. So I have to wait for a special technician to come out and change it. Which will take a few days. And we "drained the battery power" to discover this is the problem, so my precious won't even boot up and stay on. Do you see the problem here? I have NO INTERNET!!!

No, I'm not at the library blogging right now. No, I'm not at a friend's house either. I finally got some motivation to reinstall the AOL software on the downstairs computer so now it works!!! Hooray! But only after I had a major withdrawl panic attack, wondering how I would live without blogs for a few days, and whether I had put my Webkins to sleep and how the little virtual pet would fare without me to check on him each day, and what the hootie I would do without a computer to play with and talk to for as many as THREE days!!! Yes, I did near hyperventilate.

I'm embarrassed to say that I also said all of these goofball things to my bestest friend, who just laughed at me (not with me, 'cause I was having a breakdown, not laughing). Oddly enough this was the same best friend who I was discussing the excesses in material things that plagues America and how shameful we are in our greed and spending while so many people in the world are starving . . . .

Is there a computer patch . . . or gum or something ? 'Cause I think I need it.

Sometimes They're Just No Fun

Why why why do boys have to ALWAYS one-up each other? Why?

I ate my ice cream.
I ate my ice cream faster.
I ate my ice cream faster, got a brain freeze, and still ate it fast.
I ate my ice cream faster, got a brain freeze, but I ate it faster.

I was here first.
I was here before you even came downstairs.
I stood here all night, so I was here first.
I was born right on this very spot, and haven't moved since except to go to the bathroom, so I got here first!

Then there's the one-up that makes no sense to me whatever.

I have five guns.
I have twelve guns.
I have twenty guns, three bombs and a tank.
I have a nuclear weapon.

"MOM!!! Josh said he can use any eight powers he wants, but I only get to use two of mine, and they can't include super-strength or heat vision! Mom! Tell him to let me use my powers!"

Uuuugggghhhh! Quit it already! There are NO mountains in Florida, so ya can't be king of it!

OK, here's the twist in my house. I do sometimes like to play "one-up," but I'd really like it to be a little more fun. 'Cause here's how it goes at my house:

I'm hungry.
I'm hungry too.
I'm hungrier than you. I could eat a cow.

(Ok, at this point, I'm looking for an animal a little bigger, until we get to something like the Great Blue Whale and run out of big animals. What do I get?)

I'm hungry infinity times to heaven and back. (Game over.)

Guess there's no point even trying to cook for that appetite. Why can't we just have fun imagining what we could eat?????

Makes a Mother Proud . . . .

Tonight, AJ was inventing a new computer. Something about it was small enough to fit on your wrist . . . I don't know, I didn't get it all. (After all, I don't invent computers! I can hardly use them!) Meanwhile, his brother Stephen was programming another computer with a new language . . . or ability . . . or something like that (once again . . . me and the computer . . . enough said).

All at once, AJ decided he wanted to use FOUR of his powers (never was really sure exactly what they were, but I caught something about stretchy, strong, and fire), but the problem with this was that in whatever contract they signed, Josh got to use double the powers of AJ . . . or more of them . . . so that meant Josh got to go to EIGHT of his. Somehow Stephen got short-changed in the deal, 'cause no matter what, he only got to use one power at a time. But . . . he had his computer!

Exactly how many powers do you need to fight off bad guys?

And if you have super powers, why on earth do you need computers?

Hard Lesson

The Lord and I have been going round and round about me slipping into a serious night-owl habit. I have just had a hard time sleeping, and it's become extreme. It is complicated by the fact that I don't have to be up early, so the boys and I are staying up very late, and getting up quite late in the morning. (Yes, alas. I'm passing on this wonderful character quality to my children.) I'm always prone to this, but with summer, it has been even harder to discipline myself to go to bed. The last few days my time in the Word has really convicted me of the need to work on this, so I've been asking God for help, knowing I just can't overcome this on my own. We all know we should be careful what we ask for, right?

This morning the Lord did indeed wake me up earlier . . . to the sound of the dog yacking amidst dueling alarm clocks. Oh goody! Won't describe it here for those of you who are weak-stomached (I used to be one of you. Then I had children.), but let's just say there was't much since she hadn't eaten all night. So I raced through the house, down the stairs and through the kitchen to let her out before she did it again (her favorite place to lose it is in the tracks of the sliding glass door--a fun clean-up, let me tell you). I made it in the nick of time.

So my eyes are sooo droopy right now, and I feel like going back to bed, but I'm not . . . cause I don't want another lesson.

The Million Dollar . . . DOG!!!

Yes, that is what I've adopted. Not only is he crazy. . . not only does he destroy everything he finds near the floor . . . but now? He has allergies! I had noticed him chewing on his feet a lot and saw that the hair was thinning and that they were a little red. Since I've found a more or less inexpensive vet, I figured I should get it checked out. So we took Nate yesterday and he has a yeast infection combined with a bacterial skin infection and yeast in his ears resulting from allergies!!! Fortunately Walmart now offers $4 perscriptions, even if the meds are for a dog! My poor pup has to be bathed twice a week, have drops in his ears two to three times a day, have his feet wiped with special medicated pads two to three times a day, and has a med given in the morning and two at night. Or maybe I should say poor mom has to wash the dog twice a week, wipe down doggie paws several times a day, put drops in the ears, and trick him into taking pills in the morning and night all for allergies. Sorry buddy, but I'm not spendin' much more on ya. You'll just have to scratch!

Maybe I should consider contributing to Social Security in his name. Then in a few years, we could afford his medical care. And if the government argues with me? I'll tell them that Walmart took a prescription for him!

So Many Libraries, So Little Time

Yes, we have joined yet another library. You know you have a bit of a problem with books when you have three different cards from three different library systems in your wallet, and there's books on all of them. (Ok, I'm not quite that bad; I only have books on two of them.) Actually the rationale goes like this: I have a card at the library system in the nearby college town. In this library there are no limits, no late fees, you get the books for a month and can renew them twice, and the library we go to is HUGE!!! The new card is from the next county, which is a large county with lots of branches and has a very efficient system for transferring books and placing holds. Plus the library we went to had a tremendous amout of books on tape and video recordings to pick from, AND they have downloads available online for check-out. Also the nearest libraray isn't over an hour away, a definite perk. Since we started our monthly trek to college town to visit the library there, the boys have become ravenous readers, and can barely keep up with what we check out.

So there you have it. We could literally borrow hundreds of books at a time. It's almost as good as getting new books to own!

Yes. We Adopted a Crazy Dog.

Nathan has taken lately to barking at himself. Why you ask? Late at night, he sees his reflection in the glass door and goes crazy. A couple nights ago, he barked at himself for over an hour.
Straight.
Until I put him in the crate.
I didn't want to but it had gotten late.
I told him, "Please stop. Don't bark, Nate!"
For a half hour I tried to wait!

OK, enough!!! No more Dr. Suess! Sorry.

Anyway, he's also still chewing up EVERYTHING!!! He ruined a brand new pair of sandals the other day. I've found countless pencils, marbles, legoes, plastic animals, other shoes and socks, and everything else in his mouth. And he just thinks he owns everything, including me I think. He has claimed my bed, my pillow, my lap, my couch, anything he can lay on or defend, he does it. Nevertheless, he does still love Princess, and he's so stinkin' cute, so we put up with a lot and love him anyway.

I have yet to find anything that makes me regret the decision to adopt him. He is just a bundle of boundless energy and curiosity . . . kinda like his owner.

Sorry. We're Currently Unavailable . . .

. . . we're out of this world. Instead we are visiting the Webkins world. My deepest appreciation for the very thoughtful woman at church who thought she was giving us something nice when she gave each of my boys a Webkins animal. While it was a very thoughtful gift (because I could see how hard it was for her to part with the Webkins she let me choose from for the boys), she inadvertantly spread her addiction. We now spend an inordinate amount of hours on the computer each day feeding, dressing, bathing, and earning money to buy stuff for our virtual pets!!! OK, yeah. The real ones (dogs) haven't been played with for days (weeks?). And chores here? To care for the REAL people who live in THIS house? Ummm . . . no.

Never fear. Mom didn't get a Webkins, so she's safe. Right? Wrong. I Webkins-sit. For my children. Whether they want me to or not.

"Hey! Get off the computer so I can earn fake money to buy fake stuff and fake food for a fake pet that isn't even mine!!!"

Why can't I come up with some kind of goofball idea that people will pursue with a frenzy so I can make millions? Of course, in order to do that, I have to log off the Webkins world. Isn't happening anytime soon.

A Hidden Mission Field

Right now I am at a homeschool convention (blogging on my phone--how cool is that?), and I just had a very overwhelmed-looking mom ask me how to start [homeschooling]. I tried in about two seconds to recall all the things I wished I had kown when I got started, asked her some "diagnostic" questions, and quickly rattled off some suggestions. We were interrupted for a moment, and the Lord used it to prompt my heart. When she came back, I asked her if she was coming from a faith base, an she hastily told me not at all. Suddenly I realized I needed to counsel her differently. I also began praying. I prayed to know what to share. I prayed God would give them he opportunity to homeschool (there are some difficulties that might be obstacles). Most of all, I prayed God would use homeschooling andthis convention to confront them with what Jesus did for them. The interesting thing is that God has really laid on my heart to concentrate on world geography and misions with the boys this year. Here was a mission field where I least expected it--at a homeschool convention where I take for granted that everyone has similar beliefs to mine. Makes me wonder what else I have missed because of wrong assumptions.

Note: Blogging from my phone was actually a complete disaster. I couldn't figure out how to send it, and even when I did, the message had to be so brief that I hardly got my first thought out. I probably won't use it again.

Movie Review: The Last Sin Eater

Just as the boys have eagerly awaited the release of Spiderman 3, I have been counting the months and days until The Last Sin Eater finally came out on DVD. I tried to see this movie in the theater, but it only ran a week, and I didn’t get the chance to go until the second week after it was released. I was DYING to see it, since I had read the book and really loved it.

The story is a wonderful account of a young girls battle with guilt. Living in the Appalachian Mountains, isolated from much of the rest of the world, the Welsh immigrants in her community have carried on a tradition brought with them from Wales when they emigrated. Having a strong understanding of sin and guilt, they follow a twisted tradition based on Holy Communion and the use of a scapegoat who takes the guilt of their sins after they die. Chosen from among them, the Sin Eater is an outcast, yet he plays an important role in the community, absolving those deceased of their sins by taking them on himself. But when young Cadi Forbes struggles with guilt over her sisters death, she longs for the Sin Eater to take her sins immediately so she won’t have to live her life with them. What will happen if the Sin Eater is unsuccessful? How can she ever be free of her burdens?

The movie did not disappoint me. In fact, it was one of the best adaptations of a book I’ve seen in a long time. I couldn’t even tell you off the top of my head what they changed. The acting was superb. No big names, but I thought that kept the characters from being overshadowed by the actors playing them. The message of faith and redemption is strong in this movie, which I loved. There is nothing inappropriate, perhaps a few intense moments and some implied violence, but I let the boys watch it with me. There is also a great scene that reinforces the idea of boys being the protectors of girls, and all the children are respectful of their elders, even when it is undeserved. I applaud director Michael Landon, Jr. and Fox Faith Films for producing such a wholesome movie. Next time, keep it in the theaters a little longer.

Worst Mother of the Year Award?

Anyone else in the running? You have stiff competition here.

Josh asked me a question today. Seemed simple enough. Can't imagine how I forgot the answer. He asked,

"Isn't tomorrow Stephen's birthday?"

Ummmmm ... yeah. According to the calendar anyway. I have nothing . . . or at least . . . I had nothing. Until I went running to Walmart about an hour and a half ago. There I was, standing in line . . . at midnight . . . with my son's birthday presents.

Now I just have to clean house (sort of) for friends coming tomorrow for lunch, wrap presents, decorate a little so Stephen can tell it's a birthday. And tomorrow morning I get to get up and make breakfast.

It's really not my fault. Darn kid had to be born at the end of May, you know? When school gets out and everything is helter skelter. Guess Christmas was booked. I can't wait until this weekend. I get to sleep.

Help! I'm Raising Milli Vanilli!

This past Sunday, for Mother's Day, our children's choir performed two songs. Our children's choir has been done a bit differently this year. The instruction has been superb, but the performances have been added one at a time. So just after Easter, we got a postcard letting us know that choir would continue meeting to prepare for the Mother's Day performance. Now the boys and I have had Spring Fever since . . . oh . . . about January! So we were ready to call choir quits. I told the kids we were done, they didn't have to do choir anymore.

Imagine my surprise when Josh informed me that when he went to get AJ from class, AJ was with the choir, ready to perform!!! When I got to the sanctuary, I just sat down to enjoy the show. He was so funny. He kind of knew the first song, so he tried to sing along. But I could tell he was lip sync-ing. The second song? Didn't know it at all. He tried to figure out where the other kids were, but hey. That song doesn't even sound familiar! I laughed. Not just at him, but at all the people around me giving me adoring looks and admiring how well my son was performing. Little did they know!!!

After church, the choir director came up to me and told me how glad she was that AJ had decided to sing. She said she asked him when he wanted to go with them, "Do you know the songs?"

AJ said, "Oh yeah. I know the songs . . . . What songs?"

Hmmm . . . we call that a clue.

Are You Related to Toy Story's Sid?

We're convinced our new dog Nathan is. I take stuff out of his mouth all the time: marbles, wood, shredded papers, a bath scrunchie, a straw, legoes, shoes!, etc. But toys? They are a favorite!

See?

Princess isn't taking any chances.

Use Caution When Choosing a Movie at My House

I started watching Rocky Balboa yesterday, and decided it was a great movie for the boys. (And I wasn't wrong.) But here's what happened at my house tonight:

TV viewing for us is not passive. It is definitely interactive. Anyone who doesn't believe that all the problems we are seeing in society are much the result of the media kids are exposed to . . . needs to come spend some time at my house.

And yes, AJ has already come to me crying because he lost a fight. He did get hurt a little, but he was mostly upset that he didn't win the $6 in prize money offered to the champion. 'Course that's what you get when you let your opponent be the ring judge.

The Dangers of My Love for Technology

OK. So I'm noticing this trend in my passion for technology. I noticed it today as I irritatedly tried to get video feed transferred from my camera to something!!! See, my dad gave me this really great video camera about four years ago. Stephen and I were going to Mexico, and so of course we needed it. It was an early generation DVR camera--really cool at the time. When I got my computer I thought it would be a piece of cake to transfer video footage to make DVD's. Transferring was easy, but there was no way to burn DVD's with the software I had pre-installed.

So I finally purchased Adobe Photoshop and Premiere. I LOVED Photoshop, but to my irritation, Premiere would not work with my CPU processor. About a year ago, I got a new computer, which I made SURE I could use Premiere on. Premiere loaded and worked fine, but my stupid camera--only accepts a USB 1 cord or Firewire, and of course my new computer has only USB jacks and Premiere only accepts USB 2 feed. I could use Premiere to make really great photo slide shows, but no video footage. Aaaarrrrgggghhh! Do you see where this is going?

Now about Christmas time, we were given money for the family. Our DVD player had been acting up, so finally! I had the solution! I would buy a DVD-R, so I could transfer video to a disk, then load the disk to my computer and Premiere. With Josh having been in this play, I finally had a real motivation to get it working, so we rushed home Friday night to play the video on our TV. But the cord that is supposed to transfer video from the camera to the other thingy you want to play it on? USB of course . . . which my TV and DVD-R have no receptor for, and my computer won't accept because it's USB 1!!!! (I'm feeling like and Abbot and Costello routine right now.)

There was one hope. My camera had Four output holes--USB, S-video, Firewire, and a little round yellow hole. The little round hole was my last hope, so I stopped at Radio Shack today to see if I could get a cord that worked. Mr. Knows-Everything-About-Electronics at Radio Shack looked at me like I was mentally challenged and handed me the correct TWENTY-FIVE DOLLAR cord. But hey! At this point I have about a fortune invested in being able to make these videos, so what's another 25 bucks? I drove home with images in my head of what I would do with that cord if I got home and it didn't work either (they did involve Mr. Knows-Everything). Got home . . . plugged in the cord to my camera . . . plugged the cord into my TV set . . . and . . . we have video! And sound!

I spent Mother's Day copying an hour and a half of video to a DVD, transferring it to my computer, importing it to Premiere, and editing video to my heart's content.

I think it would have been cheaper and easier to just buy a new camera. And oh yeah, Photoshop and Premiere now have a newer version out . . . and they do more stuff. Bet they don't take video footage from my cool little Radio Shack cord.