Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Time for a geeky post..

So, I bit the bullet a few weeks ago and got myself the iPhone. I must say, it's pretty impressive. There are a lot of really cool things that have already made my life a little easier. Perhaps the best part is just having internet access wherever I go. If I'm away from the house and need to look something up - bam! There it is. But, there are definitely a few bugs that still need to be worked out.

One of the most annoying ones is the add on installed apps. I run into this problem almost daily. I'll go to launch one of the apps and it just flashes and returns to the home screen. The only solution I've found is to delete the app and reinstall it by going back to the App Store or synching the phone. This is particularly annoying when I'm trying to scramble out of the house to go running and I try to launch my app to track my run and it crashes. Arrgh! Does it not realize I only have a few minutes before I need to get back and cook dinner?! Apparently this is a widely known issue. Most blog posts I read reported it would be taken care of with the new OS release. But, that came out a couple days ago and the problem almost seems worse now.

The next one isn't a bug as something I'm stumped over. I'm struggling to find a good way to stream live radio from local stations. You'd think I could just go to the stations site and listen, but Safari doesn't support the formats. There are various apps you can install for some of the most popular stations on the country. But, some of the stations I want to listen to don't end up on those apps. In particular, I want to listen to the Dave Ramsey show live (I normally do this on AM 1530 if I'm home) and Air1 (a national station that brodcasts locally on FM 89.5). If anyone has a solution to this - PLEASE let me know.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Yuck!

With kids, some days are better than others. Today has been one of those not so good days. I've literally been cleaning up bodily fluids since this morning. It started with Amy Jo. She has had poop go up her entire back and all over clothes twice today. And the day isn't over yet! But, I'm used to that.. so no big deal.

But, then Micah started throwing up. And throwing up. And throwing up some more. It started this morning when we went to get in the van. Just as he got in, he spewed all over the seat and the floor. He quickly jumped out (smart boy!) and continued to throw up all over the concrete. Bleh! When he finished he was so exhausted he could hardly keep his eyes open. So, I put him in the bed and went outside to wash out the van. Just as I was finishing up, he came running outside crying saying he had thrown up all over his bed. Ahhh! So, I cleaned up him up, sat him on the couch and went to clean up the bedroom. Not two minutes after I finished that, he threw up on the couch. We cleaned that up and now we've been laying on the couch for a few hours. We've got our system down. He will motion to me to pick up the garbage can, he'll spew, and we'll keep watching movies. It seems to have slowed down, so I'm hoping the worst might be over. But, I feel totally gross. Hopefully Chris will be home soon and I can shower up. I'm hoping it's just some sort of food poisoning since he doesn't have a fever.

Katie seems to thrive off of the opportunities to show compassion. She keeps checking on Micah and rubbing his head and says "Are you okay, buddy?" Cute stuff.

Okay, back to watching Cars with Micah...

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Hi-yah!

So, it's a new day with a new president. Not quite the outcome I had hoped for, but it is what it is. I'm thankful I have a God who is ultimately in control. He knew long before today that Barak Obama would be president and I'm glad He knows better than me what is best for His people. I was encouraged this morning as I got together with a group of friends and we studied some of the Psalms. Particularly, Psalm 8 helps put some perspective on all of this..


When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

If God cares for us individually that much, this little thing called the election just doesn't seem like that big of a deal.

Annywhooo... Enough about politics. Moving on.

Micah started taking Karate last week. Let's just say.. that didn't last long. He told me last night he didn't want to do it anymore. In his words "All that running makes me tired". (The instructor makes the kids run about 1/4 of a mile each class). Hmm. Normally I don't think I'd let my kid quit that easily. But, considering it was going to cost about $700 for 6 months worth of classes (that was the cheapest I could find), I think I'm gonna let my kid be a quitter. :)

And I promised some pics... Here we go!



Sunday, November 2, 2008

No, the sky is not falling...

I went up to the Town Center this afternoon and saw something very interesting. Lots and LOTS of people. People everywhere, walking around with their shopping bags and their lattes from Starbucks. If it weren't for the news telling me otherwise, I would never have known we were in the midst of "the worst time since the Great Depression". Seeing that today leaves me with two possible explanations - either people are in denial OR maybe things really aren't that bad. Hmm.

Lest I sound insenstive, I know there are a lot of people out there struggling right now. Just last week, several people we know lost their jobs and I'm sure we'll see more in the weeks to come. I'm not suggesting that things are peachy keen. It's just that I think a lot of what we're hearing is a little blown out of proportion. Yes, the stock market it had it's worst one month decline in it's history (14% loss). But, it's ONE MONTH people! It's not the end of the world! The news has a difficult time reporting anything but the hear and now. They fail to put things into perspective most of the time. So, here's one nuggest for some perspective - Did you know that since 1994, the stock market is up nearly 57%? And that's as of the close of our "worst month ever".

All this to say... Based on what I saw today at the mall and the basic numbers I mentioned above, I don't think we're anywhere close to being able to compare this to the Great Depression. But, hey, it makes for some great political soap box's for our Presidential candidates.

Anywhoooo... I doubt anyone cares about my rants on the economy. So, I promise -next post will be back to "A Day in the Life of a Mom" and some new family pics!