Dodger, Dodger.

On Monday, Ben went to Lowe's. He left the shed in the yard open (as we have done innumerable times in the 8 1/2 months we have lived here) and upon his return he discovered a mess. One of the dogs had torn up a bag of Ortho Maxx lawn pesticide (and likely ingested a portion of it). Not knowing which one(s) may be the culprit(s), I put it out of my mind for the time.

The following morning as Christopher and Jonathan were going to get on the bus, I realized that Jasmine and Crimson were with them, but not Dodger. I heard some noise from the utility room (with a doggy door where they spend the nights) so I opened the door to let him in. Boy, was he a sight for sore eyes. He was twitching and trembling and shaking so bad he could hardly stand, much less walk.

So I took him to work with me and gave him massive doses of subcutaneous fluids and methocarbamol. I looked up the toxicity signs associated with the active ingredient in the insecticide and he matched it perfectly. Even down to the seizures. He has had 2 total and both were stopped promptly with IV diazepam. He is better this evening than he has been yet, and hopefully will continue to a full recovery.

But were we surprised by what he did? Not really. Dodger has always been a "trash hound" and tears up and/or eats almost anything. It served as a good reminder, though, to either keep the shed closed or put all toxic things up high. Because we will not always be able to stop the kids or pets from doing potentially harmful things to themselves, we have to do our best to not put them in a situation where there is that possibility. Not if it can be prevented. Boys and animals: they keep us on our toes so life is never dull at the Dean house.

Birdcage Stand 101

We have been wanting to build a stand for our pigeon Grace, and today I decided to git-r-done... First I went to Lowes and spent 2-3 hours on deciding what materials to buy. Option 1 buy mostly precut wood and assemble it, cost came out to nearly $80. Option 2 buy a 2"x4"x8", 2'x2'x1/4" piece of oak, and a 2'x4'x1/2" piece of oak, cost about $14....... Deciding.... Still deciding..... got some pieces of wood in my cart.... put the pieces of wood back.... looked around.... put some different pieces of wood in my cart.... put those back.... walked around some more.... Looked at tools.... Decided to go with option 1 and buy a circular saw. Next I had to get screws, and wouldn't you know I started the process all over again in terms of finding screws. I really think next project I will not only make a design but also plan on the materials and assembly devices before hand.

So I get home about noon and decide I will get started right away, my first thought was to cut 4 1x1x36" strips for the legs. First time to use a circular saw I tried my first cut at the 36" mark. I got almost all the way through and it got stuck so being careful I stopped to check it out. Just about a 1/4" corner piece still attaching the 2 pieces so I tried again but this time the 2x4 shook violently and shot up large chunks of wood. I then turned the board over and cut from the other end and it fell to the ground... My heart was pounding with visions of me cutting my hand off or having my eye gouged by flying wood chips. I decided at this point to call it quits, I was having no more of this. If you have ever seen me play guitar hero on hard or expert than I exhibit this type of tirade quite often when things are new or difficult. 

I went back inside ate my lunch, about which time Naomi called and I spilled the beans about my horrific experience. Then I took a nap... zzzz....zzzz....zzzz. Then I decided I would try again. But no way was I cutting the 2x4 length wise they would just have to do as is. So I started up about 2:30pm and the boys came home about 4 and of course were interested for a while and then left to be more entertained watching noggin or playing wii. I finally finished up about 6pm after coming up with a last minute solution to adding a shelf.

Hear are the Pictures

Picture Server or Low Disk Space

So last night and today I have been moving files around from 2 laptops and the desktop trying to consolidate. I have been perplexed in my storage options with 3 usb drives (1 doesn't work exactly) and 3 internal drives on the desktop I have had to move files here and there and then back again to get files off the laptops and onto the desktop. blah, blah, blah... I have finally moved all the videos, pictures, and documents to the desktop which acts as a central repository.  Why might you ask is this necessary? Back in May of 08 I wrote a little webapp that will take all our pictures in our picture folder and shares them online, it uses a menu structure based off the folder structure in a basic webpage. The nice feature is that when I add a new folder with pictures, it automatically updates the menu so you can browse them instantly and I don't have to do any work on adding uploading etc. So where is this web address, http://comingsoon.... not running yet but I will try and get a beta up and running by next Friday. (that is a bogus address don't tryit) I will get a realone soon also.... Jeremy?hehe

Wii Timeout Revisited

Ok so some of you may be wandering what happened with the Wii timeout. Thankfully everyone cooperated very well the boys took it very hard but they managed to survive. We called the timeout off on Friday, Feb 27, partly due to the fact that Dave(brother-in-law) and I had a Wii date, hehe. We played Super Smash Bros. Brawl(SSBB), against each other online.

The experience has turned out good and we have all limited our time on the Wii and other game systems. The boys are hitting their bedtime regularly now and we have even been reading a chapter a night in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Christopher said his books he reads are to easy and wanted something more so I started to read this and they oddly enough have been interested.

Also Wii time is only allowed if the boys had good behavior at school and home and are consistent in getting up and going to bed, so far so good. 

As for me well I hope we don't need another Wii timeout anytime soon as my time would be spent fixing things around the house instead, ugh... :P 

Dancing Duo

So we took a some time a couple nights ago and had a dance contest here is each of the boys videos while they were playing Pump It Up on the Xbox, hence the dance pad.

Christopher on a Classic Jive

Jonathan with a latin beat

A Wii timeout

OK back on Valentines day Naomi got a Wii for the whole family, yes we have been wanting one for a long time, but they always seem to be sold out. The system came with Wii sports and this game is very  fun and easy for the whole family. I must say that Christopher must have inherited the Swisher bowling gene as he averages above 160 and his best game is a 204. Even Naomi enjoys playing and since we purchased it we have acquired a total of 4 controllers and 4 games. I got the Wii Play game after getting 2 more additional controllers and almost took it back but Naomi is very good at the games on this one I think it comes from having steady hands ... Dr.... 

Since we purchased it we have all had a lot of fun.... but then something extraordinary happened, bedtime started getting later and later for the boys and for us. Sunday night the boys got to bed after 10pm and we didn't make it to bed till nearly 3am. The next morning the boys missed the bus and were late to school. So the Wii and all other video games and a few other select luxuries (TV for 1) have all been sent to time out so we can all get back on track. 

About every other word out of the boys mouth is I want to play Wii. Example I would say boys its time to get ready for bed and they would reply, but we want to play wii. They wake up and the first thing out of their mouth is can we play Wii, even though the bus will be here in about 30 min. I to have seemed to find extra time to play Wii and as a result let things lax around the house here and there.

So far we are on day two of our Wii timeout and it seems to be working well. Usually its a battle to get the boys to sleep at night but last night they both got ready and went to bed at the right time and Christopher was asleep 10min later. Jon was quite when he is usually up talking till after 10pm. Christopher was up bright and early this morning at 6am so progress is being made.

Been a while

So it's been some time but I will try to post more often.

So a quick update:
Naomi is getting along quite well at the clinic, and now even has a few conferences under her belt. (One of which was in Orlando :P) We recently purchased a silver 4 door Honda from Tim Wells sister and brother-in-law. Now she doesn't have a rustbucket to drive to work... She has got to do quite a bit of birds as of late and the clinic actually has a resident bird named margo which knows a few phrases and words.

Christopher is doing well in school, this quarter his teacher said a conference was not required. So his behavior has greatly improved. He is playing basketball in an instructional league at the church and likes it a lot. He likes the pg position, has some tricky passes, and prefers not to shoot. 

Jonathan is also doing well in school and seems to be very outgoing in public, more so than he used to be. We went to the hair salon last week and he went with the stylist all by himself and told her he wanted a kings crown stlye hair cut and that he was a wild guy. Later while we were waiting in the lobby for Naomi to finish her hair cut a couple of ladies walked in and sat down. Jonathan went over and introduced himself and let them know that he was king Jonathan and his hair cut was a crown.

I to am doing well, no work but I keep busy round the house. I haven't heard back yet from Marshall but I will start looking again at some other options and knocking on doors and sending out resumes etc. I have become more practiced at guitar hero and can play many songs on hard or expert. I have also found a nack for playing songs on my cell phone which I started a word doc with the keypad translated as notes. 

FYI list of songs I can play on my cell phone

Jesus Loves Me, Mary had a little lamb, Row Row Row your Boat, London Bridges, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Silent Night, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Star Spangled Banner, Up on the House Top.

And some say I have to much time on my hands. 

Well that's it for now and more to come soon.