New Phone

Today the boys and I went to the AT&T store. I was looking to get a new phone for work. I had been looking at getting an htc fuze, which is a windows mobile phone. My brother really got me to take another look at the iphone. Well after seeing it in action at the store and how easy It was for the boys use, I was sold. I purchased the 8 gig and now I the only reason to take it back would be for the 16 gig. By the way this entry was made from my new phone.

First Library Card

Yesterday when I picked up the boys from their new day care for the summer, we walked a block over to the public library. Both boys really liked the youth library part. I just pointed out where to look for books and they were off looking for books in no time. I did have to remind them to be quite a couple times but they were whispering in no time. Each of them got their very own library card and checked out their first book. I hope we can check out a new book every night and enjoy reading in the evening. The books were 'Hurry and the Monarch' & 'Oh! The Thinks You Can Think!'. Look for posts under the deanboys here for updates on books they're reading.

Memorial Weekend

We went to Fort Rapids in Columbus on Saturday, which is an indoor waterpark and hotel FortRapids.com. It was a lot of fun we went with Tim and Crystal, and stayed in a 6 person room Saturday night. We arrived around six o'clock and got checked in and headed to the water park right away. We played on the big water feature in the center which had two big slides the boys could ride, a couple smaller ones, and several features like buckets and water hoses to play with. Then Tim, Crystal, Christopher, and I headed up to the shoot out racers slide up 4 flights of stairs and raced. Christopher enjoyed that. He wasn't able to ride the tube slides but I think he rode down that one about 10 times. They had 3 tube slides, a lazy river which both boys liked, a 4ft deep play area, and a kiddie area for wee ones. Everyone had a great time. We tried the spaghetti warehouse for dinner and came back around 11pm and everyone crashed. We checked out Sunday by 11am and played at the water park till about 5pm the boys were sad to go. They wanted to live there. It was a very fun weekend.

New Job

Well its been nearly a week since I started my new job on 05/18/09 with Marshall University as an IT Associate Senior apart of the Computing Services Department. Everything has been going well, I have access to the latest technology and software. Great benefits, awesome hours, and a friendly atmosphere. Everyone asks me what I will be doing and for now I am learning their information system...... 

Puppy Videos

I have been searching for the perfect puppy for my sister, Rebecca. It has been narrowed down, and today was the testing with kids and unknown dogs. So here are a few videos demonstrating the personalities of the puppies.

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