Meanie big sister

Penny loves making movies with our little digital camera. Here's one she made a few weeks ago. It's hilarious! We're not exactly sure what happened but obviously Penny made Ginger mad and then ran away because she knew she was busted. Whenever she gets in trouble, she runs to this corner next to the back door. The other day she said to me, "I don't wanna be busted, Mommy." Apparently I've told her she was busted one too many times. Funny, uh?

Ginger's face

Ginger makes the cutest faces. Here's just a sampling.

The Prophecy

"Neither can survive while the other lives" was the prophecy for Harry Potter and his nemesis Voldemort. A similar thing happens with my two children. Neither can sleep while the other is awake. Ginger is a wonderful baby and she sleeps through the night, and has for some time. Penny was the same way. Both girls sleep through the night and have approximately the same 8 pm bed time. If you consider each of them seperately it makes for a pretty easy bed time. Sounds like a parent's dream come true, right? Well here's what happens.

When we put "the chosen one" into her crib she can't be made aware of the presence of anyone else in the room or she won't go to sleep, but "she who must not be named" usually doesn't go all that quietly and calls out to us telling us that she isn't tired or needs a drink of water. This alerts Ginger to the fact that she is not alone in the bedroom so she struggles to free herself from her night-time wrap and to peek over the crib and look at Penny in her bed. Eventually she gets frustrated either because Daddy's wrap was too good and has immobilized her (rare these days) or because she was successful and is now looking at her sister begging her to play with her. She starts whining and moving around in her crib, peering over the edge at Penny. Then Penny who has been claiming she wasn't tired for some time sees a golden opportunity for escape and starts yelling, "Ginger's crying in mine ear!" over and over. This encourages Ginger's struggles and her whining escalates to crying. Then it just snowballs and an intervention has to take place because Penny's still yelling at Ginger to stop crying and Ginger's just crying for someone to come play with her. Neither is in any condition to fall asleep at this point so we have to get them both up and calmed down before we can start over staggering the bedtimes enough that they fall asleep individually undisturbed by the other.

I too have seen the future. An epic battle will unfold between my children as they find other ways in which it is difficult to coexist peacefully. Perhaps for many years. Maybe someday we'll get a third bedroom and that will help.

Family picture

Here's an attempt at an updated family photo. These are from Easter. We're not a super photogenic family.

Dirt-biking in the desert, a while back

We went camping in the desert with some friends the weekend after Easter. It was, of course, a dirt-biking trip. No one really camps in the desert because it's a beautiful place. Although it does have some charming characteristics, like the sunsets are great. It also reminds me a lot of where I grew up, Midland, Texas. Every time we arrive in the desert, I have flashbacks to my childhood.

Penny loved "driving" the buggie.

We camped in a tent but used the back of the van for our cooking and such. Ginger looks confused.

Penny with her little friend, Wyatt. They have the exact same birthday, except he's one year older. She loves him.

Twinkle, twinkle

Here's a cute video of Penny singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." We missed the first line of the song but you still get the idea. I love her little voice. Apparently she's already discovered that the ABC song and Twinkle Twinkle have the same tune.




Here's another video of parts of other songs and "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home." Some of it's boring but I'm not a pro at editing video clips.

Don't Call it a Come Back

33 years of faithful service is going to be 34. The van passed it's free smog re-inspection!

I'm still sort of reeling from the emotional roller coaster I've been on the last few days. Here's how it went down. Last time it failed the guy recommended I get the carburetor rebuilt. I bought a kit to do that like 8 years ago and when I saw how complicated the instructions were I put it aside and forgot about it. So I dug it out of the van's medical kit and figured I had very little to lose at this point so I just went for it.

Monday- Pulled old carb out and started taking it apart to clean and rebuild it. Half way through I realized that the kit I had was the wrong one so I aborted mission and put it back together with the old parts and put it back on the van. Went to bed at 2 am.

Tuesday-Van wouldn't start in the morning. I figured I did something wrong when I put it back together so I took it back off that night and tried to rebuild it again. This time I just went all the way. Took everything apart and cleaned thoroughly (it was totally filthy in there) and ruined the original gaskets so with a razor blade and a few gaskets of the wrong shape from the kit I made one gasket that seemed promising. I put it all back together and when I picked it up to go put it back in the van a spring was laying on the table where I was working. That spring should have been one of the first things to go back in. So I rebuilt it completely again. Went to bed at 3:30 am.

Wednesday (today)- van started right up this morning! I guess it worked. Took it for a test drive and it was running great. Got home and there was a puddle of antifreeze under the van. Apparently it sprung a leak. Found that and fixed it, then started it back up and went for a drive. It was running poorly this time. Don't know why, but I spent a few hours trying to figure it out and couldn't. Then since today was the last day for my free smog retest (hence the late nights) I just drove it to the smog place still running kind of badly. I had no expectation of passing, but I figured I could at least use it as a diagnostic to see what was wrong after all my tinkering and make a new plan.

I said a little prayer in the waiting room while the van went under the sniffer. And when it was over, Jesus came and told me that it passed. That is, Jesus Portillo, the technician. I don't know if he waved the tester in the general vicinity of the tailpipe, but not directly in it or did some other trickery, and I don't really care. I was kind of in an incredulous shock. I thanked him, paid my $8 certificate fee and drove home to my faithful wife who had told me it would be alright. She was right.

So, I need some food and a lot of sleep, filled with dreams of me and the van and the new adventures we'll have in the 2009-2010 season. Those dreams may be something like the video below- special thanks to Dave and Kelsey for finding it.

Van Video