January 2007 - Posts
This case makes me ornery. (Just to be clear -- it makes me ornery because I don't think that young man deserves prison time for the situation at hand. Bad judgement? Yes. Criminal act and sexual offender needing rehabilitation in a state penitentiary? No.)
Yesterday we went to Ikea in Canton and got a large bookshelf that can hold the bins that Jodi keeps the kid's toys in. Today, I assembled it and got it upstairs and secured it to the wall. It's already all filled with the bins, and it looks much nicer than the stacks of bins we had before. I dig it.
I also ran to Lowe's and picked up some roman blinds for the remaining windows that had no treatments. They aren't fancy, but they do the job, and they look nicer than the crappy aluminum blinds that were there before.
I also picked up a couple of fire/smoke alarms -- a nice one with CO detection for upstairs, and a simpler kitchen one for downstairs. Not perfect, as there is no way for me to wire them together, but it is something. I have some wired ones I've wired up for the remodel and the basement, but it would be pretty tough to get wires over to the kitchen area or to upstairs. This will do.
I also grabbed some containers for my birdseed and corn for the squirrels, and got all of that squared away. Finally, I did a little rearranging on the cover for the sandbox to prevent water/ice/snow from collecting on it and defeating the purpose.
Just another relaxing holiday... 
While taking out the garbage just before dinner, I noticed our daffodils are sprouting -- gee, I wonder if the weather has been too warm...
Well, since we made it through the rest of the week without anyone going to the hospital and I promised Jodi some home improvements to make up for my expenditure on my new firearm, yesterday we went to Lowe's and looked at area rugs. The run in our living room was actually in the house when we bought it, so it was a little old and ratty, and it was dark green -- not exactly the most stylish.
We picked out this. Simple, but it looks a LOT nicer than the old one, and it makes the room feel a little roomier. Today we're heading to Ikea in Canton to look at organizers/shelves so we can get the toy avalanche under control...
This is pretty interesting. Some of these mashups are actually pretty good. Certainly, some of the producers of this content are incredibly creative -- Gnarls Barkley meets Supertramp meets Rockwell? Seriously, who'd combine those (1970s, 1980s and 2006 together at last -- impressive).
I had planned to write a long post Monday about my fun hunting over the weekend, but my plans were changed for me. Sunday, Jodi called while I was at my parents' house to ask my Mom what she should do -- Caleb was vomiting and no matter what Jodi gave him, he couldn't keep it down. Mom advised her to try very small amounts of defizzed soda pop or pedialyte. I went on my afternoon hunt and called Jodi as I left to head back to our house, and unfortunately nothing was working, but Caleb had finally fallen asleep.
Monday, he was still sick, so Jodi called the pediatrician, and made an appointment. I tried to warn folks at work that I wasn't sure what was going to happen, and then we packed up the kids and went to the doctor. Caleb seemed okay to the pediatrician, but his weight was down more than 3 pounds since the last visit (he's not yet 3 years old), so we were going to the pediatric urgent care center to get some fluids in him pronto. At the hospital, they got the IV in him (with me helping to hold him down and nearly losing it since it took several tries and the little guy was hollerin' something fierce!) and gave him some medicine to cut the nausea. Once that kicked in, he devoured 3 popsicles and wanted more -- a lot more.
Unfortunately, his electrolytes were really whacked, so they admitted him. Monday night, Jodi agreed to take Joshua and Emma home and I stayed with Caleb, and we stuck it out in the little room on the pediatric ward. He was starting to feel quite a bit better and was eating Jello and 'sauce' (chicken broth) and drinking apple juice and cranberry cocktail like it was going out of style. Here is the little trooper watching Thomas and the Magic Railroad, and doing his best stoic face.
Tuesday afternoon, they finally sent him home after he ate some crackers and chicken soup. He's now home, and although he's being pretty cranky (I think his hand hurts where the IV was) he is definitely back to being our little Caleb.
He gave us a little scare, but everything seems to be on the mend now, and maybe by the weekend, I'll be back to normal (sleeping in those foldout chairs in the hospital is not unfamiliar to me -- I did it for the birth of each of the kids -- but they're still no substitute for a real bed).
Last night, Joshua and I headed to Cabela's so I could pick up some licenses, and when I got there, I discovered they had a firearms sale going on. I have been toying with the idea of procuring a shotgun for myself for years, but had never acted on it. After shooting Dad's old Remington 1100 Ducks Unlimited gun a few weeks back, I realized how much I'd like to have one. To put the nail in the coffin, Dave and Chuck were talking about doing more bird hunting, and I've wanted to try it again for a while now.
So, I got a number and we waited, and waited, and waited. We looked at the guns being sold on consignment (one really nice looking over-under caught my eye), wandered through the gun library (wow) and watched a bunch of people buy frighteningly large-caliber handguns (how much kick do you suppose a .500 magnum throws -- cripes, that's a hand cannon!). Finally a firearms associate called my number and we chatted about what I was interested in, and he showed me several guns, and I drooled over a couple of shotguns I couldn't bring myself to even ponder spending the money for ($4000+). We settled in on the Mossbergs, Brownings and Remingtons. I want a versatile gun, and I want something that is going to last and serve me well. We finally narrowed it down to the Remington 11-87 SP Super Magnum.
It doesn't have the rich glossy finish of Dave's 11-48 or Dad's 1100, but it is still a nice looking gun, and it will shoot just about any load I could want, and it has the familiar feel and balance of the guns I've shot. I splurged.
We returned today from our holiday tour of the state of Michigan. It is always nice to see family and enjoy the holidays, but it is tiring and the kids get all out of whack. Now we need a vacation 
.
We spent a couple of days at Jodi's parents' house and my only complaint is that we never did get enough snow to speak of. The last night, it started to snow, but it just left a groundcover. It isn't normal to have grass showing over the holidays in northern Michigan -- it happens, but it doesn't seem right. Jodi's parents treated us to a night out a local restaurant while they watched the kids, and the kids got tons of presents and had a great time. I was also able to do some reading, which was very nice.
We then spent several days at my parents' house and were able to see my Mom's extended family -- she comes from a large family, so gatherings are quite a spectacle (including my children's generation, I count 53 people at 4 generations). The best part of the weekend though, was spending more time with Dad, and him announcing to us that he has made such great progress that he will be doing intensive outpatient rehabilitation at Mary Free Bed (finally!). He was so excited and proud to tell us all that he made Mom wait until we could all be together so he could tell us himself. It was a little bit emotional, since the progress since early October is simply amazing. A few months ago, there were moments when we weren't sure whether he would be with us by the holidays, now we're hoping we might be able to get him out fishing for real by the spring. The kids even help with his exercises -- by playing catch with him. It is pretty cute to see Joshua playing catch and commending Dad on his "Nice Throw"s and "Good Catch"es. He has to keep working hard, and there are some aspects of his life I don't think will ever be the same, but with how far he's come, I hesitate to assume much of anything.