Our Family Chronicle

Look out!!!!

That got me in the face -almost my eye. Faster than a speeding bullet. What was it? What the?  That was close. Wait! I Know what that was! 

Grandma dropped off baskets for the kids earlier in the week. The baskets included some candy and a toy or two. One of the toys was a fun twirly thing that spins and lights up as you pull the handles. The idea is to alternate directions by pulling the handles and releasing them and pulling again until it starts spinning fast enough to get the lights to come on. After showing both the kids how to do this they both were excited about being able to spin the toy and had fun doing so for extended periods of time. Of course it became Alex’s goal to see how fast he could get it to spin. Yesterday Alex told me that a piece of the toy fell off because he was spinning it so fast. I looked at it and it was a little plastic cap (one of two) that was used to off weight the lights – making for a smooth spin. He thought that that was cool that he was able to spin it so fast that parts of the toy came off. I did not think about it much and told him we could glue it when we found the part. Than last night (forgetting about Alex’s toy) – I was showing Melinda how fast I could get hers to go. Yes Alex and I have to push things as fast and as hard as possible – that’s what we do. As I was getting it to spin faster and faster and faster. I got shot in the face with the same part that had fallen off of Alex’s toy. It of course did not occur to me that the same thing could happen to Melinda’s toy or that it would shoot off at the speed of light or that it would hit someone (especially me). It would make a great weapon if you could predict when it would come off or where it would go. I still haven’t learned as I want to buy a couple more and glue the parts on better -

Hey their fun cheap entertainment.

 Maybe the kids will have to wear goggles.

Tags: Kid's and animals, parenting, smart ass by Randall
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As Melinda and I travel at (what I thought was) a  reasonable rate of speed we still needed to take evasive action to avoid a collision – not once but several times. I had to steer from one side to the other and as we came around the corner I had to zigzag to avoid a woman that was on her cell phone and did not even notice us. I pull over and stop to regroup and some impatient man gave me the evil eye as he passes me (while reading a paper) - I must have been in his way. They need some traffic signals of some sort. Melinda took this opportunity to jumped ship, she ran through traffic with out any thought at all about getting hit. I watched in horror as she weaved back and forth barely avoiding being run over several times on her way to the Free cookie. Once in hand she made her way back to me with a grin, jumped on the front of my shopping cart and off we went to get the rest of our groceries. Every day is a another adventure in the grocery store.

Tags: smart ass by Randall
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My legs hurt my lips are chapped and my face is a little red.  It must be ski season!!!

Yes, we went up yesterday to get checked out for teaching this season. The kids stayed at Grandpa Pat’s and Grandma Judy’s. (Both of them are having some allergy problems but I’m sure they will be better after the first good freeze.) We think we will be teaching on Wednesdays because that seems to be less busy than other days of the week.  Yesterday, the snow was a bit icy – early season but it was fun to be on our skis again.  It was also fun to see some of the instructors we knew from last year.  I got a little sun on my face and my legs are a little sore.  I also noticed that my ski pants are a little tight.  We also got to watch a video on safety for our knees as that is evidently one of the more common injuries when skiing.  We hope to get the family up at least one day a week.  At any rate it should be a great season. Hope to see every one up on the hill.

I will have to start a section for pictures of the hill on the days we are up there for those of you that can’t make it. 

Ps:  No, I was not able to get my other computer up and running today.  It looks like the mother board is gone.  Bummer:(

Tags: health or lack of, new experiences by Randall
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That will teach me to not wait to post what I write - Maybe? I wrote a post last night but it got late and Pattie was sleeping and could not proof my work so I saved it and turned off the computer. This morning I went to turn on the computer and nothing not even a little gurgling sound of effort. The computer was dead.  I am hopeful that all it is is the power supply.  Brian gave me a couple of power supplies to try, so Monday I will try it out.  I can not try it tomorrow as Pattie and I are going up to Loveland ski area to get part-time jobs as ski instructors.  There is no real money in it but we get season lift tickets for the family and as many ski clinics as we can take time for.  I will fix the other computer and put that post up some how in the next couple of days. No more procrastinating when I’ve done most the work – or so, Panayota says:)

Tags: Uncategorized by Randall
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So, Alex went off to outdoor lab or whatever they call it.  He gets to spend three days and two nights of living in cabins with his class and hopefully learning something.  Pattie took him to school with all of his junk and the nurse approached Pattie about his epi pen.  This is a subject we thought was in the past as Pattie had taken him to an allergist.    The doctor did the tests and then filled out a plan for the school as to how to handle Alex if he were to have peanuts.   Basically, to not do much but notify us and give him Benadryl if he could keep it down.  The nurse at the time would not take the epi pen which was fine with us as he has never needed it.   Now as he is getting ready to go on this school three day trip the nurse wants to know where his epi pen is, and now the letter from the doctor is not good enough.   Evidently, there is some formal county form the Doctor has to fill out.   This would have been nice to know weeks ago.   At least they did not keep Alex from going.  We had to make sure he had pajamas that were not camouflage.  

Melinda was excited that he was going to be gone for a few days.  The first thing she did when she got home from school was to play one of Alex’s games with her friend.  Nothing is more fun than to play with his stuff while he’s not able to stop her.  Then to enjoy being an only child she went to someone else’s house to play with and boss around their boys.  Having no competition for attention from their friend’s was more important than hanging around with us.  Though last night she did say she would miss him a tiny bit.

Tags: Public education RANT, parenting by Randall
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