And don't hold the government responsible either!

more the engrish!

Sometimes my wife gets charley horses in the middle of the night. She'll quickly jump up and start to walk it off. This happened a few nights ago and from a dead sleep, I quipped after she jumped out of bed, "You get 10 for the dismount."

If only I could be so quick witted while awake.

Last night, I read to my oldest son as custom. We finished reading one of the Magic Treehouse books then moved on to a kid’s devotion. It was about Jesus telling the rich man to sell all that he has and follow him.

The devotion started, “Name someone you love." My son yelled, “You!" The devotion continued, “If that someone was lost, how much would you pay to get him back?" My son replied, “Nothing." I turned looked at him. “So, you mean to tell me that if someone kidnapped your dad, you wouldn’t pay anything to get him back?" My son replied, “I’d maybe give them a one cent." (Yes, he said ‘cent’.) I continued, “So, you would only pay one penny to get your dad back from kidnappers? That’s it?" My son replied quite matter of fact, “Well, I want to keep my dollars."

I don’t think he understood the devotion.

The wife and I went to go see a probate lawyer yesterday. After meeting with her for an hour, we decided to continue with her.

When I meet new 'vendors' for things in my life - financial advisors, house cleaners, lawyers, accountants, etc. - I always think that they have to pass two tests with me. They have to have to be trustworthy, and they have to be talented. The latter is more easily determined than the former, of course. But, when you speak to people, you can just tell if you can trust them. Some of clues I look for are - do they dress sensibly? What kind of car do they drive? If they have an office, is it sensible and well-worn? Odds are that if someone has a brand new office with brand new furniture and brand new clothes, this person will be 'slick' and you might want to think twice about trusting your money or your last will and testament with them.

Anyway, the wife and I have decided to create a trust for our material assets. If our kids are under 18, then the remaining spouse will be forced into probate court anyway. But, since the money is in a trust, odds are that the probate judge won't award his cousin with our kids if there's no money to accompany their upbringing. It sounds funny to say that, but I wonder how many people know that a will is just a recommendation to a probate judge to assign your after-tax and after-3%-15% probate lawyer fees to someone named in the will. He can do what he wants. Scarry, eh?

At lady at our church gave us a tricycle for our youngest. It's really cute seeing him ride it. Of course, all kids have to wear that silly helmet nowadays. Viva le Nanny State!

Anyway, it's really cute. I'll try to get some pics and put it in our family album.

We went to the lake yesterday and while the kids played, I took pictures before I jumped in too. But, the boys seemed to like climbing the rocks better than swimming. So, I got some good action shots of them on the rocks.

So, tonight, before bedtime, I'm showing my youngest kid each picture that I had kept (I took >100 pics and only kept 10 or so). As I show him each picture, he would yell: <brother's name>!, <his name>!, boat!, rock!...

But, when I got to him climbing up the rocks, he yelled, "Monkey!"

That cracked me up. I almost dropped him. Heh.

My "baby" (my 2 year-old) is headed to pre-school today. I know it's not like my oldest heading to Kindergarten, but it feels that way. My baby is heading to school! *sniff*

My oldest still likes school. It seems there are already a few mean kids coming out, but I'm confident he'll toughen up. It'll help that he's larger than a lot of them.

Anyway, if you have access to our photo album, check in there. I've lots of new pictures. I'll upload the pre-pre-school photo op too where we tried to get our youngest to stand still for more than 3 seconds for a picture. It wasn't meant to be an action shot....

Unusually, I got sick this month with a sinus infection. This stupid illness cost me 4 days of work last week. And, pardon the pun, but I'm getting sick of it. Heh. I usually get sick in April and November, so this one took me by surprise. Bleh.

In other news, my youngest son has learned to say, "no way!" It's cute, but I'm not sure he knows when to say it. But, he's smart. He'll learn.

My oldest started Kindergarten this week. He seems to be enjoying it, but he's tired and cranky when he gets home. I think he's still processing it all. I don't have the heart to tell him that Monday started a pattern of getting up early for either school or work that won't end for another 60 years. Poor thing. I think I just depressed myself! Heh.

My family arrived back in town last Tuesday. Boy...the house has changed. It went from "I can leave the remotes on the coffee table" to "hide everything, the animals are loose."

But, it's great that they're back. :)

The wife and kids are at the in-laws out of state and I'm left to my own devices until next Tuesday. So far, I've enjoyed it. I can leave the remotes out (the little ones scamper off with them). I can program (the little ones distract me too much normally.) And, I can listen to music at night on my computer (it would normally wake up said little ones.) So, so far, so good. By Monday, though, I'll definitely be looking forward to those distractions again. Heh.

I heard that an old childhood friend and high school buddy had met my aunt and uncle in New Orleans at some food convention. He asked lots of questions about me, so I sent him an email asking how things are. He married his high-school sweetheart and has four boys, the oldest of which is 17! Wow. He definitely got a jumpstart on kids before me. Heh.

What I found amazing is that we each summarized the last 20 years of our lives into one paragraph. That's sad when you think about it. But, that did get me thinking. I think I can summarize my whole life in just one sentence. "I live for the Lord." The rest seems to just flow from that.