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Babies R Us

2007-01-25T14:23:00.000-08:00

Well I have officially been outposted by the family blog-nazis. It is hard to compete when you are STILL STAYING AT THE HOSPITAL with a recuperating wife. Anyway, well done blog-nazis, well done. I think you both got some quality material.

The birth of baby number three has really got me thinking. A nurse at the hospital called our kids Irish triplets, but all I could come up with in response was, "We're not Irish, we're Scottish" which illustrated that I missed her point completely. All of Ryley's primary friends call me "Ryley's dad" and I guess that is kind of the price of having kids...you lose your identity and become..... what? I am not sure.

Ryley's quote of the week, through tearstained lips: "Maybe you're not such a nice papa after all." Since I have been home all week, I have had to step up my disciplinarian game (I am used to coming home from work and being the "fun" parent) because Kate is busy nursing and sleeping and all that new mom stuff. I think Ryley likes me better as the fun guy too.

PS I have a newfound respect for what my sweetheart does every day. Our kids can be CRAZY!!

But I like the job I have now....

2006-11-28T20:23:00.000-08:00

It has come to my attention (thanks to my dear wife) that it is time to grow up. Not the "stop pulling your sister's hair" type of grow up, but more along the lines of "get a job... no, a career, you dirty bum!' type of grow up. I am not getting any younger, you know, so it is time to bite the bullet and make some decisions that will determine where we will be in the next fifty- that's five zero, baby- years. Crap!

The three irons in the fire are: 1) Army PA school, the path of least resistance, which would let me shoot things (always a plus); 2) keep applying to dental school (third time is a charm??); 3) roll the dice and apply to medical school. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I am the man in the minivan

2006-11-02T19:31:00.000-08:00

Well, I thought it would never happen, but the day has come. I am the owner of an overpriced, seven passenger, Japanese piece of poo. There were times in my life when I would have rather burned my eyes out with hot coals than to own a minivan, yet here we are.

The nice thing is that there is a convenient place in the glove box for my testicles. Don't worry, my wife has the keys to the glove box and she has promised to keep them safe.

Tucson stinks

2006-09-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

Driving home from work last night in my 1971 VW bus, I hit the stench trifecta: I (1) farted after eating Jack's spicy tacos from Jack-in-the-box; (2) was passed on the freeway by a semi full of cattle; and (3) drove passed the sewage treatment plant off of Prince. This was all at the same time, mind you, like the stars aligned against me. The combined funk almost made me puke up my chicken fajita pita.

-The End

I have grass

2006-09-07T18:29:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had a family sod party and man was it fun!! Mom, Dad, Steve, Dave, Lacy, and even Matthew made the trip up from SV and threw down. It went surprisingly well (except for the part where we were 100 sq. ft. short due to inaccurate measuring...damn my ASU education!). Dad saved the day again by offering up his truck for a Home Depot run to get 16 more rolls of sod. Matt was a trooper (or maybe it was Maren for giving up her hubby). Either way it was nice to have everyone over.

My Blog officially stinks...

2006-09-04T21:19:00.000-07:00

Well, as if it were ever in question, my blog ES-YOU-SEE-KAY-ES. I just wanted to come clean so nobody thought that I was living in a dream world, thinking that I would ever compete for the family prize of best blog ever.

On a different note, after six months in Tucson, we finally found something that didn't make us long for our life in Tempe. It was.... wait for it.... the ZOO! Reid Park Zoo was way better than I remembered, and, unlike the Phoenix Zoo, the animals could actually hang out without melting into a disgusting pile of animal goo. If you go to the Phoenix Zoo anytime after 9:00 a.m. all you will see are pigeons and a bunch of empty animal habitats (except for them mountain goats, they just parade around on those fenced in peaks, waving their middle hooves at the blazing sun). But really, the Phoenix Zoo is often such a let down, but it is always funny to see the people that rent the peddle carts have to push those poopers up the hills.

PS We bought a season pass to the Reid Park Zoo and hope to go back before the millennium when we can just ride the polar bears around anyway (there really are polar bears in Tucson!!).

Pat's Run

2006-01-28T21:28:00.000-08:00

Last year our family participated in the inaugural Pat Tillman Memorial Run in downtown Tempe. It was one of the many events that we have done as a family that served to solidify our family ties. Even Mom and Dad participated (Amanda, too, and she wasn't even a Mayberry yet!). It was truly a memorable event.

This year the run is the 15th of April. That gives all you fatbodies plenty of time to get training (that means you, Dave). All the proceeds from the race go to honor Pat Tillman's memory and the Leadership Through Action scholarship program of the Pat Tillman Foundation. For more first hand accounts of last year's run, contact your favorite Mayberry.

Old Man River

2006-01-25T03:57:00.000-08:00

Today, I am one step closer to middle age, and it is not very complementary. This is the first year that I considered myself "not young." As a student at ASU, every so often I would find myself muttering something under my breath about "dem damn wippersnappers" walking around with their weird fashion sense incessantly yapping into their cell phones, but that didn't make me old..... did it? Now, watching ASU play UA, I thought that all the players looked too young to be in college. Yup, it is official, I am an old poo head.

SUPER FUN WEEKEND

2006-01-22T20:25:00.000-08:00

Lacy and Dave were here this weekend and we had a BLAST! Dave spent most of the time playing army, but the time he had off, we used wisely. Saturday, we went to the zoo with some friends (it was Lacy's first time...I hope she had fun) and it was crazy trying to keep track of four kids under two years old. Lacy was a big help.

Saturday night, Dave, Ryan, Aaron and I went to the Coyotes game (Aaron scored some good tickets) and after overtime and a shootout, the Coyotes won the best hockey game ever!

It was nice having Dave and Lacy around, but all it did was make me sad that we didn't live closer to family so we could get together more often.

P.S. Ben can now walk.

Best Parents Ever

2006-01-19T20:01:00.000-08:00

Man, I have the best parents ever!! The past month or so, my dad has been prodding me about grown-up type stuff that I thought was sort of silly. It turns out that a lot of the stuff that we talked about as sort of "food for thought" turned out to be totally relevant to some of the decisions that Kate and I were thinking about. Although it was weird talking about it a month ago, I can now see where my dad was going with all that talky talk.

Is it creepy that my dad would know what I needed to hear even before I knew that there was a point of concern??

National ID card

2006-01-18T16:36:00.000-08:00

There is a proposal to create a national identification card to facilitate the commerce along the US borders with Mexico and Canada. The card will be the size of a credit card and, therefore, will be easier to use than the currently required passport.

In light of the new DHS program that (perhaps unwittingly?) makes your driver's license information visible in an on-line database, perhaps a national id card is not the best idea for those that are interested in personal privacy and civil liberties. Thankfully, one can go to this database and request that your driver's license information only be visible to law enforcement agencies. It was easy to do and well worth the time. Just go to http://www.license.shorturl.com/ and follow the directions. Enter your name, city and state to see if your info is on file. After your license comes on the screen, click the marked "Please Remove". This will should remove it from public viewing.

Best Christmas of the Year

2006-01-14T13:09:00.000-08:00

Winter is a busy time of year for us. Between Kate's birthday, Thanksgiving, Bowl Week, Christmas, Kate's dad's birthday, New Year's, our anniversary, and my birthday, life can really wear you out.

Christmas was great this year. We spent three days at Kate's parent's and enjoyed the break from the daily grind. It was nice having Christmas on a Sunday; we went to church that morning and that kind of set the tone for the rest of the day. It made it more about Christ and less about gifts. Of course, Ryley and Ben made out like bandits. I am still tripping over new Dora the Explorer stuff that I don't recognize. Brent and Amanda made the day with Ben's puppets (bravo, Brent, bravo... Ryley loves the puppets, too). It was nice to say the least.

We still regret that we missed the New Year's shenanigans in SV, especially since so many people were in town for Sam's wedding. I guess we will have to make up for it next year!

New Year's Resolution

2006-01-06T16:45:00.000-08:00

At Sam's wedding, I made the mistake of promising Cousin Willy that I would be better about updating the blog.... I think I am in trouble!

The Big Sleazy

2006-01-06T16:19:00.000-08:00

We are FINALLY recovering from our recient deployment to the Gulf Coast region for post Katrina clean-up. Man was Louisiana fun. The people there were incredibly hospitable and happy to see us there, and the work we did was rewarding.

We arrived in Alexandria, LA, where we reconfigured all of our gear (which is armyspeak for "unload, rearrainge, load, unload, change load plans, reload....repeat as necessary") at the ISB for JRTC . We then drove 5 hours to the Lake Charles area where we augmented the local EMS system that was pretty well stressed. It was cool to see our big ol' hummer ambulances with little police light bars in the windows as we sped down the road. After two weeks the parrishes were able to get things back to normal as evaccuees returned to their homes.

We then went to New Orleans, LA and occupied an abandoned hospital (Perberton Methedist Memorial on the northeast side) and ran an aid station. The area was pretty well wiped out, so we would get the occasional patient with a cut or scrape from cleaning glass or metal. We saw TONS of rashes from all the poo and polution that was in the flood water. It will be years before people will be able to return to sections of that city.

Maiden voyage

2005-11-05T21:21:00.000-08:00

Due to the incessant nagging of my darling wife, I too have decided to take the leap and contribute some poo to cyberspace. I think this is a shameful attempt to "keep up with the Joneses" where the "Joneses" here are actually the "Mayberries". The pressure is on; while my prose may not be as lovely as Lacy E. (as in Eloise, formerly Lee) Mayberry's or the subject matter may not be as entertaining as Brentito's, I solemly swear to do my very best, so there.