Halo 3

I am back on my Halo kick. The same group is reforming and last night was the first night in many months we started playing this classic game.

New maps, game variations, and of course the same old banter. My brother arrives from HI tomorrow, so there is going to be a whole lot of time spent on the console.

Advisory: If you do not have the intercooler attachment, then you should fully expect to repair your 360 annually.

The next big downloadable contend comes next month and with it 600 or so achievement points. The maps look intense and the game play will be akin to a new release for sure.

October starting fresh again...

I hope to post more often... but here is the latest and greatest.

As you will see... this is our number one priority. Everything else really does not matter that much... Nova's future will be bright in whatever form that means!

Debra and I recently concluded that the whole "school outside of school" needs to stop. It is just too much for her. Our child's general happiness is more important. Building a strong sense of self worth and understanding the importance of family values is simply more important. The time is better spent letting her be happy with who she is, within limits, is the best course. Nova will work on school seven days a week, but for no more than 2 hours on any given day. We are eliminating school work beyond that level at home and will pick up 4 hours on weekends when she can devote more energy. The fight is not over, but if her grades fall off without the additional support at home (remember we were spending 3-4 hours daily...) so be it.

Debra and I are reading much more now in plain view. Nova asks me about it... I say. My response is this... "You must learn to read to know sweetie... there is a whole world of knowledge, but I can't tell you about it. You have to do it for yourself." Of course, I give her small captions from the stories and if we goes to sit down on her own... we are there to support. It is working - to some degree...!

The whole child psychology thing is not my strength... but it will become mine if it means Nova gets a fighting chance. Debra is still the pillar of strength... I will assume the role of teacher. Nova cannot play games with me... I tend to see right through my own mind. Nova gets time to do her homework. Nova has unlimited questions to ask me... I ask tons of questions of her... Nova must choose to embrace this. After the 3rd failed attempt to show any dedication to her work or focus on the task at hand... I write on the paper the amount of time spent and my acceptance of his effort. (Lately... she has been going back to school with HW grades that match her test grades.) My feeling on this... why cheat her of anything at home. If she fails with me... at home like she does in school... why force feed the right answers... she does not learn that way anyway... You cannot force knowledge on someone who is resisting it.

I need to put my humility aside and get comfortable with who my daughter is... not judge her or hope she is something she is not. I have ignored my focus on the negative. I embrace her success, albeit practically non-existent, and when she does get the right answer I try to underscore... just how great it he effort was.... and the results.

Again... Mike and Maddie are doing great. Nova is helping them with their work which is almost at the same level. Nova is really comfortable with pre-k work level. It is very hard to admit it, but that is the case. Try to show her below level material (forget on level material) and she simply cannot do it. There is something there... I will figure it out. I am seriously considering home schooling. If I had the time... I'd do it. I am investigating what that would mean... from a financial perspective. The scary thing is... if I could get the numbers to work.... I'd do it to be sure Nova has a bright future. Her education or lack thereof is my top priority. I cannot afford a Tudor. I cannot afford to do nothing. I will not accept that fact she can't or does not have the aptitude. The school has already tested her several times... we have paid for professional evaluations for Doctors. Nobody has a clear answer. The reports are all the same... bright, energetic, has trouble focusing on the task at hand... and no it is not ADD or any 3 letter condition. This is about a choice Nova is making in her mind.

Racquetball Update

I have taken a season off. A couple of nagging injuries and a crazy personal life have caused this stoppage in play.

I miss racquetball. Surprisingly, I miss weight lifting more. I did not expect that, but I do! Another casualty of my stoppage in play is my interaction with my friend Andy. We went from seeing each other virtually every other day to once a month at our poker game.

Last season, I had a disappointing result, but I played on level to where I could. I lost some tough tough matches, but I could not make up for in the league tourney. Andy did well and moved up. I hope to rejoin everyone in the Winter season.

September Recap

Novatana is in the greatest struggle of her short school career. Last year, we needed to get Nova to behave correctly. Not surprisingly, Nova has done an incredible job putting that behind her. We are so very proud of the changes she has decided to make in her outlook of school and verbalization of problems she is facing there. So far this year... that is holding up well.

Now, Nova is seemingly unable to grasp the elementary concepts of 1st grade just a few weeks into the 2nd grade. The school format is designed to starts up slowly and will transition quickly to 2nd grade work. Public schools here in FL take time to recap assuming the kids already forgot everything. This is good for Nova... because she actually did forget everything. You would never now we spent hours and hours all summer to prepare her for this next challenge. We know Nova is as smart as they come with interpersonal and communication skills. That does not translate into anything in school since school is about memorization and repetition... and unless someone tells Nova what she needs to learn and remember... there seems to be no progress. In September we spent huge time and effort reteaching the days efforts so Nova could tread water.... 8-2 at school. 3-7 at the Wheeler school.

Result - burnt out kid. Pissed off parents (quietly) and "touch and go" in public about school or Nova's apparent problems with information assimilation. In September, Nova's test scores did not improve. This was the hardest to bare... less than 50% grades in virtually all subjects. As I mentioned before... the public schools in FL take time to account for these things. Without our consent or notification... Nova was put in a half dozen remedial classes... Again, the school is doing what it feels is best and we need to trust their judgement to a degree. I suppose the biggest problem was the post-move notification. I read up on the curriculum for these special classes... they are very very remedial. Nova is currently above this level. Of course, Nova is doing great now with almost minimal effort. Debra and I decide it is time to go to the school and put a stop to that.... teach the child... do not put then in the corner and hope their brain goes dead from the lack of attention. I am sure you can start to understand just how angry we were... the school policy is almost officially put the child into a place of success and from there build. Now, if you asked me - don't worry I'm a gonna tell you what I think anyway - this is a losers mentality. Instead of taking the time like we are to help Nova... the school seems to take the easy road. Talk about 2 pisses off parents...

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Debra and I really did decide to move. We interviewed several real estate agents and were presented with some grim news. At this point, we may move to a new state without a job. Big surprise... all that equity we saw develop over the past four years is completely gone. Our house was previously appraised for 305k. It is worth 210-215 if we are lucky. I bought the darn thing for 188k in 2004. Why exactly have I put all this time and effort in when renting some place would have paid off in spades under the same timeline???? I know I am being overly negative, but it sucks to see 95k in equity evaporate. I do not have experience with that. The plan to move is officially on hold. It is suicide to move at this point. We will not tolerate 2 financial disasters in 5 years. The smart play is to wait it out and see what the spring or next spring brings...

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Mike and Maddie are doing wonderful... truly loving school and our work with them is showing tangible results. Those two darlings actually sing on the way to school about how much the love school.

August recap

We finish Aug very well. SAC had a b-day. My son had his b-day and already destroyed most of his gifts.

• My youngest daughter had her first day of school. Very exciting.
• My son repeated his last year of preschool... so he can be the strongest K student he can be. Don't get me wrong... he could have gone onto K, but was he 100% ready... no was our response. There is no other time to "leave a kid back" without consequence. It is also fool proof with his b-day. It is totally plausible for him to have "missed the cut off" so we were OK with it even it an overbearing person were to ask me questions about it.
• My oldest child is in 2ND grade. She really could have benefited from repeating 1st grade over. Oh well, she is smart as they come... but getting her to apply herself is a huge problem. We will figure it out... together!! (I'll post in September about the next step... it is a SAGA!)
• Debra and I decided we are going to move out west.

That is pretty much August in a nutshell.

The New Arrival

I was in the shower finishing off on my morning routine, when Debra comes in and says. "Mike, OMGosh, we have a little brown rodent in the guinea pigs cage."

I can tell you this... one way to have an interesting morning is to hear that statement. I dry off get my robe and walk over to the other side of the house.

Sure enough, there is a small little brown rodent in the cage. No tail... no mouse looking ears... I know how gross to see a mouse... but here is my thought process.

The first guinea pig passes away shortly after Christmas. Saint Nic brought him so I searched high and low for a jet black replacement. Located him... but him was a her. We had a him, but the vet said the kids will never know. We converted in name only Timathena to Timothy. No big deal. Several weeks later, we decided to get a second GP. The first pet store I go into had a jet black GP. Smaller - just out of babyhood, but would work. I bought a girl. I asked the pet shop to double check. I purchased went home... got on the Internet... doubled checked how to check. I checked the pig "named Austin" even though we knew it was really Austina. Two boys... makes it consistent for the kids. All we needed was a new baby or even that conversation to surface. We thought we were so smart! For those not following... we have 2 girls before yesterday.

Ok. Two girls yesterday... and now a baby. Hmmmmm... Unless the Wonder pets GP arrived and jumped our pigs.... WTF is going on.

Ok. At this point, I guessed the pet shop and I were wrong in our sex assessment. I bought a dude and he jumped Timothena. I can handle that. Mistake. It can be fixed.

Problem.

#2 GP - Austin (remember really Austina) is nursing the new arrival. #1 GP - Timothy (remember Timothena) is brushing off the new arrival. Internet says... mom will nurse all other pigs will naturally push off so mom and baby hook up. In some cases, the large GP will consume babies... please do not go there. But that is what the Internet said.

I have one Vet sexed pet. GP #1. We have an obvious scientific fact GP #2 is a girl. How the heck did we have a baby.

Internet.... gestation takes just about as long as we have had GP #2. We bought a knocked up pig. I did not purchase a little slut. I did not ask her to be heavy one kid. But, we have one now... and there is no turning back.

We have a trip to the vet scheduled for Friday. The new arrival is doing well. Our big problem will be the sex of the new arrival. If it is male... Internet says some sick stuff about a full grown male GP's. There is one for sure... but even if it is Mom... - no matter. Well lets just say.... that will be avoided but at a cost to me. Not happy, I will be, knowing I could buy a third chick for 39 instead of a surgery will be much more than that!

The 4th!

I had a pleasant conversation with my four year old yesterday. He asked me what this holiday is about!

I could not have been more proud.

I told him the story of our country is still being written. After a good amount of definitions which he had never heard before... we settled on July 4th standing for our country's birthday.

His next two questions were as predictable as the sun setting and the fireworks to follow...

Will there be a cake?
Who will open the presents?

The best part of the conversation was playing the email I sent most of my readers. Even better, Michael recognized six or so pictures from the presentation. We talked about our country and my desire to see every single landmark noted in the slide show. (I'm about 60 percent there already.) Mike immediately said... Dad I want to see them with you.

Although I wanted so badly to make that promise, I simply said we will try and if we do not complete it together, let's decide now that we complete that journey for each other regardless of how. Again, having no idea what he just agreed to... we hugged and he went about his way.

Yesterday was such a spectacular day. The day became much more than it was intended to become. I was scheduled to work 8-5. Thankfully, we were overstaffed and I bolted without even double checking. I love it when I get to act on readily available information before the minion's. I heard there were at least three people stuck due to poor information exchange. (Sucks for them) I returned home by 8:40 am. I went right back to bed... already apart of a spectacular day recipe.

After I woke up I played some xbox. We went to the store(s) to get our activities completed for the day. After we got back home, I finished crown molding in my new office, finished all the wiring in there as well, the kids swam, and Debra prepared for our feast.

Shortly after that I had my conversation with Mike.

The kids all took naps in preparation for the long night ahead of us. Debra and I had dinner and my mom came over for the fireworks. I started our outdoor fire and set up the smores for dessert. Now that was a real treat... we were fairly unique yesterday as we got to see every one's fireworks on the block as we roasted marsh mellows and made smores. After we were done watching and enjoying the fire, I started the fireworks. It was fun fun fun! Especially since the kids were really into it. Nobody got hurt. Everyone enjoyed sparklers individually and we all sat back and took in the color and sounds of celebrating independence day.

July 4th 2008 will not be soon forgotten.