Brig's Latest Adventure

Brig's latest Lego adventure. He learns more with each video and the next two he has already shot get more complex. The bottleneck is Dad and the actual production of the video. I need to teach him the steps and let him do it himself.

Misadventures of Krevan

It seems as though Krevan is the subject of many blog posts. Why is that? Perhaps it is his insatiable curiosity combined with a serious "do it myself" mentality. This last was a bit of a heart stopper. Picture the typical afternoon at the Parnell's house. The kids, crazy as usual running through the place, occasionally dipping down into what could be considered a dull roar (family rule and noise limit), Ricki and I are doing an intricate dance we call "making dinner", hot pans, food flying around the room, recipies on the recipes all the while trying to keep Keelyn from dragging chairs around the floor to get what she wants on her own.

Let me stop for a moment and add a bit of context. Krevan, unlike Brigen who was able to articulate sentences very clearly at a young age, still struggles at times to express some ideas. It isn't that he doesn't get it, just that finding the right words can at times be a struggle. Back to the story.

I find myself walking away from the kitchen for some reason when Krevan comes hustling into the house from the garage and mumbles something along these lines ... "Sorry dad, I thought it was the wiper but it went down."

(first thought) ... Ok.
(second thought) ... Um.
(third thought) ... Wiper... Down... Krevan were you playing in the car again? He admits yes, and says once again, "I thought it was the wiper, but it went down."
Ok, now i'm concerned and walking to the garage. Open the door, look into the garage and begin emergency assessment.

Fire ... non evident.
Smoke ... non evident.
Chemical spills (sniff) nope.
Look back at Kre - no blood evident.
Look back at garage. And at this point my life does one of those scenes from the awesome Sherlock movie. Time freezes and my acutely attune senses begin picking up things.

Access memory database ... Krevan said wiper, that would point to the car. Krevan loves playing in the car. Note to self - keys are not on the hook by the door. Note to self ... Garage door is up ... NOTE TO SELF ... CAR IS NOT IN GARAGE. NOTE TO SELF GARAGE AND DRIVEWAY IS ON A SLANT. OH S........ CAR IS ACROSS THE STREET.

Life speeds back up to real time.

Krevan is alive. There was no damage to the car. There was no damage to the house across the street which is thankfully uphill from the street and most likely prevented the car from running into it. Krevan is alive. No one was hit in his first, and only joy ride ... ever. Krevan is alive. I tried to make this humorous because Ricki and I didn't find this very funny. Ricky was sick the rest of the day. And given the history of a certain family friend, the harsh reality of the way this could have gone still scares me.

Brig's First Lego Movie

This year Brig became fascinated with Lego still animation. He would spend hours looking them up and watching on my computer if I let him. It didn't take long for him to begin asking how they make the movies. Well, with his persistence and a little bit of technical help from me, we managed to put together his very first animated movie. He is so creative and I'm proud of him for working so hard on it.

Kre's Accident

Kre took a spill the other day - running in flip flops. He decided taking a picture would help him to feel brave. Both he and Brig needed to look at the picture of "the blood" several times. 

Since Kre had bandaids, Mickey Mouse bandaids, Keelyn needed a sympathy bandaid too. She even walked around holding her arm out so we could all see it. 

Friendly Competition

Ricki and I are both avid physical fitness nuts. Not only do we work out but we like to work out. While I think we are both in arguably good shape neither of us are really where we want to be. So in the spirit of friendly competition we have decided to participate in a physical challenge. 
Once I read the training regimen of am athlete I thought of as very fit. He spent an average of two hours a day training. Ricki recently met someone who came to her kickboxing class who says she trains two hours a day. Magical coincidence? Possibly. Madness? Some would say so.  
So, for a month we will both be shooting for as many days possible (6 days a week) of two hours a day training. There are minimum requirements for the activity, rules and we are deciding on a prize - and potential tie-breaker. 
It is friendly competition that ends up bringing us together multiple times of day to talk about progress and remaining time for the day. 
This means early mornings - Ricki more often than I right now, and late nights - more often me. 
Officially 4 days in and we are tied. I think it will come down to endurance. 
I know what you are thinking... If we tightened up our diet we wouldn't need two hours a day - but I really like to eat.

Today

I've been growing my coaching business and working with several career individuals as well as people who are simply struggling a bit. One of the key focuses I have in my approach is not to dwell on the past. Yes we all have issues. Yes we have all struggled and made mistakes. We can discuss yesterday until the cows come home without really moving forward. Similarly, spending all our time wishing or thinking about tomorrow will result in many wasted today's. I've been dragging my feet signing up for a fall race. I really wanted to do a 100 miler but I'm just not sure i'm in a spot to commit to the training. So instead I was going to do a 50. But my indecision was causing me to hold out. Now the 50 I wanted to do is full. I signed up for the waiting list, but that just doesn't drive me as much. So just do it today. Don't wait until tomorrow to make that jump, take that risk or step up and make the change you know you need to make.  

I keep saying I'm going to post more often - usually "later". So here I am, posting now.

Slightly Distracting

Keelyn thinks this is a fun hat. She tends to wanders aimlessly yet always near my desk while I try to work. Like a dedicated monk she chants as she wanders. "A puppy a puppy a puppy a puppy a puppy a puppy a puppy a puppy...." you get the point. Much like the youngest sister on Despicable Me and her thing with unicorns I fear Keelyn will soon be composing her very own puppy songs soon.

Been running places

My goal was to run my first 100 mile endurance race this year. I'm still semi planning in it but I haven't signed up and we all know you don't fully accept the challenge until the entry check is in the mail. But that is not the point. I've been running in some great places. I was in Seattle a few weeks ago, all beautiful and green. Last week we were running in snow and very cold winds. In a few weeks I'll be in North Carolina and Virginia for work. A local company has hired me to go do some work on the East Coast. Hopefully I'll get to sneak in some local runs. The point is, it is great to get out and run.

Just too funny to be mad

Have you ever had one of those moments where you really want to be mad at your kids because in all reality they just made your life more complicated? But then you realize that the situation and what has actually transpired makes you laugh, and not just a chuckle but that deep down laugh that makes your really sore abs from yesterday's enthusiastic workout really start to hurt again? Yeah. I had one of those moments tonight.
I was sitting with Ricki helping her with her volunteer grading work for Brigen's teacher (not sure how that works) when I heard the scamper of small feet dash across our bedroom directly overhead. Weird because I know all the kids were asleep. Deciding it would be wise to investigate I took a stroll up the stairs just in time to see Krevan dash across the landing and into his bedroom. Now you should know that Krevan has sleeping issues like me and sometimes he simply wakes up. I followed him into his room and noticed that he had what looked to be a death grip on his ... Ahem ... nether-regions. Now it isn't altogether unusual fir him to wake up late and need to use the bathroom. But something strange was afoot and I still wasn't sure what he was doing running around the upstairs. Sometimes Krevan just does things ... And I'm not always entertained by them. So I ask him "Kre, buddy, do you need to go potty?" he turns, looks at me and I realize something. His eyes are wide and he has this really cute not quite there look in his eyes tinged with a mild panic. "Yes" he says so I get into motion. Two quick steps and I'm in the bathroom, the nightlight is on and the toilet seat is up. But no Krevan. Confused I step back out of the bathroom and Krevan is not in the hallway nor is he in his room. I immediately head back to my bedroom since that is where I Belfast him in the first place but I notice him standing in the guest bedroom. Huh? Now he is using what looks to be a sort of tourniquet technique. Well beyond the pee-dance stage instinct has kicked in and Kre is doing everything he can to stop the flow. Unfortunately is just isn't enough. I ask him again "Kre, you need to use the bathroom?" and that is when I hear the sound. A kind of saturated fabric dripping. I grab Kre run him to the bathroom and set him in front of the toilet because clearly his navigational systems were not booting up correctly. I figured his pants were a lost cause so I head to his room for clean undies and pants. When I get back to the bathroom my overly keen senses detect something amiss. Kre is still in the bathroom, the toilet seat is up and Kre looks to be still. He turns his head and I realize that the engine has not been started. Cute kid, he's just still in la-la land. Which would explain why he hadn't bothered to drop his pants. He had to pee, I told him to pee - he was just being a good soldier, albeit a bit comatose. Now standing in the results of too few processors running and a direct order from Dad to pee Krevan gave me that look. Just step back and take it all in. Krevan, pants fully drawn, toilet seat up and the makings of our own water park. Sigh. All I could do was laugh. Poor kid. Now he is safe back in a warm bed with dry clothes and probably won't even remember it in the morning. And all I can think about his big blue eyes, vacant of expression staring back at me with that "what?" look.

Griswolds we are not ...

We didn't go crazy, but plan to add on a bit next year. The kids love the lights and our neighborhood does quite a bit of decorating so the boys are glad that theirs isn't the only house without lights. I'm thinking about building a star for our outside tree. It sadly looks as if someone decapitated the top foot of it and I think a star would help. When we get it done I'll post a new picture.