One Step at a Time

Yes, we did change our blog again, as for the music, you can stop it by pressing the pause button on the little screen on the right that the dog is holding, but this particular song is our family's motto (according to Mesia, I still can't understand the lyrics even with the words on the little screen). As for the design, I changed it again because the past few looks just haven't looked like our family. I finally settled on this one. .Well another week is in the books. We had a relatively normal week, normal in the sense that there weren't any big activities or field trips, it was just us living our lives as the Ohioans do.I think one of the more interesting events was changing the oil in our barbecue. We've been using it so much I decided to switch to Castrol GTX because that brand is supposed to protect way past the normal oil change date.
This week marked the first week of Alex's summer vacation. She was home with Sam and I all day long for the first time and boy was she bored! I heard her thinking one time that she wished she was back in school. With Sam crawling around and getting into everything, it's been difficult to give Alex the attention she deserves and needs. On the positive side though, she has done an excellent job at finding ways to entertain herself. Naturally TV is a big one, but there comes a point when even an 11 year old starts feeling their cerebral cortex rot and decay, so she started getting into arts and crafts. Listen to how resourceful she is; yesterday, she came down and got on the computer and googled "arts and crafts to do at home"and she found some videos that teach you how to make flowers out of Kleenex and water color paint. After studying the videos and instructions like it was an application to fashion design school, she squeezed out her creative juice and concocted these new genera of flowers:



She got word that Nana is flying in to visit for a few days and that news has given her the motivation to live through each new day. I too, am excited for my mother-in-law to visit, she makes a certain vegetable tray that creates a sort of frat party in my mouth! However, I do think it's important to note that when we have guests come, it's not that fun in preparing for them. Mesia is a bit of a perfectionist, yes that's right, sweet little Mesia gets out a wooden paddle and starts threatening to smack that part of our bodies that we sit down on if we don't get the house in tip-top shape. Now I find this to be a bit of a domineering and egocentric demonstration of control motivated primarily by sexist and chauvinistic ideology. I'll explain; you see, all week long I am home during the day and I have the house straightened (most days) by the time she gets home, only not just straightened, I have this place cleaned to the point where Sam and I eat off the floor for dinner. I dust every other day at 10:30-11:42am, then I vacuum all hardwood floors from 12:00-1:26pm, after that we clean the bathroom with Listerine because it kills 99.9% of all germs and leaves a nice fresh smell on the porcelain. In the afternoon hours we power-spray the dishes and the stove with a gas powered water sprayer and then we clean up the water with our ShamWow! Look, I know you think that's a bit excessive, especially since we do it everyday, but I believe in a clean house dang it, and when Mesia says we have to go over it again today because her Mom is coming to town, well I feel like it negates all my hard work throughout the week. Sam and I are currently planning a labor strike against Mom....I'll let you know how the negotiations go.

This week, the girls and I went to visit Mesia for lunch and to let Alex see where Mom

works. Unfortunately, our visit was about as short as this write up because there was a high measure of security at the federal building and we didn't have the time to go through it, so Alex couldn't see her office. Maybe another day.

For those curious, we are still doing our family home evenings each week. I just haven't written about them. I feel that as our readership grows we will tone down the details of our religiosity each week. Every now and then I'll give a write up about an int

eresting lesson, but for now I think it's sufficient to say that it is truly an event we all look forward to each week, not just for the time spent together, but also for the spiritual growing and the establishing of God in our home.

Mesia had a mellow week relative to the last few weeks worth of blogs. She continues to work hard and serve our country's veterans to the best of her ability. I call her once a day just so I can hear her answer the phone, "Tiger Team this is Mesia." I then growl at her, but one day she answered

quicker than I thought and I had food in my mouth so it sounded more like a kitten's purr. I was slightly embarrassed.

As for Sam, the whole walking thing finally "clicked." Last week I mentioned that she was taking about 8-10 steps or so, basically a walk across our front room (couch to couch). Today, it happened. She just started walking around! Turning corners, stopping and standing and restarting, stopping and turning around, walking into different rooms, everything but the stairs. She is still cautious and slow, always seeking to steady her balance, but she is definitely walking! The catch is, that when she realizes she is walking she falls, also when she gets overly excited she tries to run and of course falls. But when she is on auto-pilot and just walking to get somewhere rather than "trying" to walk, she is all over the place. Here's some video:



In this video you'll hear her ask "What's that?" This little catch phrase is her new articulation for anything that she is curious about. Turn your speakers up and listen closely.



I decided one day to test her intelligence with a simple magic trick. I took a poker chip and made it disappear, then after her reaction I would take out from behind her ear. After showing it to her only twice, she has now caught on to feel behind her ear after she sees that it has vanished. Watch how cute:



Another update with Sam is that her favorite commercial on TV is for the "Ensure" health drink (go figure--only my kid is transfixed by high protein milk based products before she is one year old) Anyway here's the commercial for those that haven't seen it. Whenever the voice comes on the TV she stops WHATEVER she is doing and just stares at it. Once the commercial is over she goes back to what she's doing, it's hilarious.

As for me, not a whole lot has been going on. I've been doing some reading, almost done with Jesus the Christ, reading now about his final week of life--long book. I also had the next idea hit me for my next poem. I was so excited when this idea hit. For the past two weeks I've been thinking about what the next poem will be and nothing has felt right. I've been going through topic after topic, trying to think of anything and everything that all people can relate to in life and all the ideas I've had just haven't struck me. So today, driving home from the gym I started thinking about it again and at breakfast I finally had the feeling needed to settle on a topic. I am so excited to start the new project, I think everyone will find it both provocative and enjoyable. I will begin working on it shortly.


Hope everyone had a great first week of summer vacation!


Love you all