It’s not easy seeing your children in pain, it makes you feel helpless. Adrian came down with Pneumonia last night and was reaching tempetures of 105. We got worried and Jessica took him to the ER while I stayed behind with Gabby. Turned out that he had the start of Pneumonia and they decided to admit him for IV’s and observation. Even though he feels horrible he still keeps a smile on his face and always seems happy. I guess little worries like that are all a part of being a parent, but that feeling is something that you never get use to.

I thought the snow storm we had last week was crazy but the one this week definatly has it beat! In one day we acumalated 17inches! That might not seem like a lot for people living up north but for us here in kansas in has been insane. I spent over an hour clearing off my driveway then I had to run to the store to grab some food for dinner, when I got back it looked like I never touched the driveway at all. So I started shoveling again but then I thought, “why”?

As much as I complain about the snow and cold weather you would think I would just move to some place warmer, but for some crazy reason I seem to stay.

Florida or California is looking pretty good to me right about now.

Charles

Looks like Santa found us this year

It was an amazing Christmas! I got to spend some quality time with my family on Christmas eve and then we had the traditional Christmas morning at home the following day. We haven’t opened presents together at home since Nic and Alex were little (probably about 5 or 6 years ago). Unfortunately the two of them scattered during family photo time so I was only able to get half of the family in the shot.

I ended up selling my Sony HDV Pro video camera this year because it just wasn’t feasable for shooting quick online videos like I’e been doing. So I used the extra money and bought a few nice Christmas presents for myself. I picked up a Canon Rebel SLR camera and a Zoom H4n audio recorder, and the two work amazingly well together. Now I’m able to shoot really nice high quality videos… and fast too.

So how was your Christmas?

Happy Thanksgiving, how did you spend yours? I ended up working so I missed out on dinner with the family. I got home pretty late and Jessica was putting Adrian to sleep. My two older sons, Nic and Alex, had already left to spend the rest of Thanksgiving with their mom, so the house was pretty quiet. Luckally Jessica had saved a giant plate of food for me, and since my baby girl Gabby was still awake I laid her in her cradle bouncer thing, sat it on the table, and we had Thanksgiving together.

It’s funny how your job has control over all the little things in your life, I mean, I’m a grown man and I could not go home and eat a Thanksgiving meal together with my family because my boss said no. You ever think about all of the things we miss out in life because of our job?

On an up note, I connected with a few family members and old friends on Facebook that I haven’t seen in years and WoW…time goes quick…but isn’t technology amazing. I caught a little bit of the Thanksgiving day parade on TV and I noticed that the Underdog balloon has been replaced by Spongebob? (When did this happen?)  And then finally I went to the theater and saw the new Harry Potter movie, (part 6 or 7 or something) but since I have only seen the first 3 I was completely lost. The movie was great but I had no clue why people were trying to kill Potter and why they were searching for those locket things and so on.

So thats how I spent my holiday, how did you spend yours?

Charles

Alright, I know the new Karate kid movie has been out for a few months and I actually seen it way back then, but several of my friends have recently been asking if I’ve seen it and how awesome it is.

…uhmmm… (awkward silence)

Maybe they weren’t watching the same version that I was? Maybe they saw a much cooler, better acting, deeper story line, more believable version that I must have missed?? I mean come on!! It was called the “Karate” Kid and they were using Kung Fu! (That should have been my first warning of the quality) In all fairness the movie wasn’t completely horrible, although I have no interest to see it again, but the story line seemed to lack so many elements. It would of been fine if it was a sequel or something because the lack of quality compared to the original is usually expected, but this was filmed as the old Karate Kid made new for this generation.

I guess my problem could also just be that I grew up in the 80′s so I have a hard time separating the original from the new, but it seems that remake movies now-a-days are missing something. It’s almost like back then you were able to form a personal connection with the characters on the screen and they seemed relatable. More time use to be spent on developing your friendship with the character and it felt like you actually knew them, almost like you could go over to their house and hang out with them if you wanted to. Today movies are more focused on the visual aspect and just how flashy and action packed they can be. (The WOW factor)

…or maybe I’m just getting old and I no longer know what cool is.

In any case, how do you feel about the new Karate Kid and all the new movies in general?

Charles

I have never won anything in my life… well unless you count the free “Candyland” board game I won when I was 7 years old from a box of cereal.

I’m horrible at spending money on myself, I always think it’s a waste of money and there’s more important things we need, but last Saturday Jessica convinced me to finally get a new pair of shoes. I really didn’t think I needed them, after all, the glue I applied held both soles on pretty tightly and the water getting in through the bottom of my feet wasn’t making my socks all that wet. But she convinced me to buy some.

We went to the mall with my goal being to search out the cheapest pair of shoes I could find, and as quickly as possible, but a radio station happened to be broadcasting from within the store. They were holding a drawling every hour for the winner to run through the store and grab all the shoes they could in 30 seconds. Jessica wanted to enter and I blew it off because I never win those things anyway, so we stuck around for the drawling and we lost.

She wanted to enter every drawling all day long and since we didn’t live far from the store, and had nothing else to do, I figured we could just pack the kids up every hour and go back for each drawling. (I went ahead and entered to help increase our chances.)

After 3 drawings of no luck, Jessica finally won the 4th drawing and let out a massive squeal throughout the store. It was pretty exciting, we’ve never won anything before, and she was so gracious to let me run it for her so I could make a fool of myself in front of everyone watching.

So prior to winning, we had already scoped out the store layout and I figured I had this thing beat and I could grab tons of shoes. Turns out that I was only allowed to grab one pair at a time, and 30 seconds goes by a lot quicker than you think.

So I ran the store and managed to grab 3 pair of shoes and squeezed in 1 last pair for son at 3 seconds to go. All in all it wasn’t to bad. We left the house that morning planning to spend about 50 bucks on shoes and went home with 4 free pairs of shoes.

I’ve been feeling this lucky streak all day. I told Jessica we need to get a pair of matching wind suits, water bottles, and headbands, then flaunt around like winners.

…that’s pushing it to far.

Charles

I posted this video on MyTrainingWheels.com (now charlesrivera.com)  awhile back, but after Gabby was born I just recently decided it was a good fit to add to this blog. While on FMLA from my job I spent a lot of time with the kids and taking care of Jessica while she recuperate, so I can totally relate to this video.

With 6 of us all cramed into a small 4 bedroom house things can get a little crazy sometimes…but I love my life.

I took a road trip out to Dodge City Kansas last week and I quickly found out what 3 hours of solitude and a video camera can lead to. Of course I edited out all of the really crazy stuff (I have to keep some dignity. lol). But if you like never ending fields and grain silos then you’ll love this video!