Well, it certainly has been awhile.

Been awhile again, but not nearly as long as last time.  Things are going very well, I'd say.  Lisa's doing great in school, she took a test tonight online and scored a hard 90% on it.  I'm so proud.  :)  She's really fantastic as a student, so no matter what gloom and doom you hear, she's amazing.

We went to Jack's end of the year, Kindergarten "Family Night" event.  Let me just say, the thing was crazy.  Lots of singing and dancing, little skits, artwork...their teacher said a goodbye that made both her and Lisa cry.  It was sweet.  Jack has come along so far this last year, I really am so proud of him.  We all are.

Tony is suffering through his last two weeks before summer vacation.  Soon he'll be a 7th grader and his interest in girls will explode in a mess to match his horrid man-stink.  He's growing, fast.  End of next school year, he'll probably be as big as me.  Scary.  Very, very scary.

Bill is our little wildman.  He's been talking so much lately, and singing songs each day.  His end of the year picnic is Thursday, so excitement should abound.  Having done the picnic with that group before, nothing will surprise me.

Me, I'm great.  Looking forward to another summer of hot, nasty weather, lawn and yard work, goofy lunches, kids wanting to stay up late and summer vacation.  I will end up with almost 8 weeks of my wife, so there are things to look forward to.

Celia is well, bitchy as always.

Oh, I did some bbq ribs, fries and corn on the cob today...summer eating is the best.  Num.

 JACK

 BILLY

 TONY

I'm not dead.

Forgive me Xanga, for I have sinned.  It has been five months since my last entry.

I figure, I'm probably due for a tuneup, checkup and update.  Of those three things, I'll do the update.  Things here have been going remarkably well lately.  I'll go from youngest up for the sake of keeping my mind focused on the task at hand, and keeping my post from flying random.

Billy has been doing an exceptional job with school.  He's communicating more and is now asking for things he wants, using the potty independantly (if not using too much TP in the process), and is beloved by the people he goes to school with.  His teachers have nothing but wonderful comments about how sweet and gentle he is at every turn.  This is an amazing change from the kid who would bash his head into things when he was frustrated and come out swinging when he wanted something.  There's no way to put an amount on the level of pride comes from watching such a little guy worth through such a hard situation.  Lisa and I couldn't be more pleased with the school district and the ECDD program.

Jack is now a six year old.  That thought blows my mind, because he's friggin huge.  He is now regarded as the best reader and writer in his class, per the last meeting I went to with his teachers.  He is obsessed now though with maps, calendars and number games.  I know he doesn't get that from me or my side of the family, because I am absolutely inept when it comes to math.  He's also the class nag when it comes to daily routine tasks that have been accidentally forgotten.  His teacher loves him and compliments how even tempered and sweet he is.  He is, unfortunately, the child who learns by imitation and whenever someone in class does something naughty, he thinks he needs to try it to.  So he has instances where he gets worked up into doing something he knows he shouldn't.  We're working on it.  Everyone is confident that he'll grow out of this stage.

Tony is now at the age where he still acts like boy, but smells like teen.  Yikes.  I have to harass him about deoderant and bodyspray whenver he does anything remotely active.  It's a never ending battle with him.  He recently brought home his 7th grade class list, you know, the list where he finally starts picking classes he wants to take rather than ones he has to take?  Sure, we had to talk him down from taking multiple gym classes for the year, I mean who wouldn't enjoy that?  But he's taking things like archaeology and advanced math.  In 7th grade.  Schools have gotten so much cooler.  It's too bad there's a 1/3 dropout rate.  Well, not here in Dexter.  Tony is slowly turning into a pretty cool young man, and we're proud.

So then there's my sweetie.  She has done the most amazing things since coming out of the hospital with her pneumonia.  She went to school this latest semester and busted her ass.  There were days she didn't want to go, didn't want anything to do with being around other people, but she did it for us, not just for her, but for the boys and for me.  She worked hard and came through it with straight A's.  And on top of that, she lost count of her credit hours and received her degree this semester too.  I am so, so proud of how far she's come over the last couple years.  Her mindset and resolve are becoming so very strong, she's really starting to see an end goal, and is shooting for it.  I just can't express in the right words how much I love her and how amazing I think she is.  But, all the same, I do and she is.  :P

Me, I'm still doing pretty well.  I actually had to go to the doctor a few weeks ago, for the first time in about 20 years.  Seems I developed strep throat and as my throat got better, my ankle started to hurt, which made no sense.  Over a couple days it got worse and worse, to where I couldn't walk on it, couldn't bend it.  It was some of the worst pain I'd ever felt, I just didn't understand what was going on.  I didn't twist it or break it, that I knew of.  If I had, it would have been in my sleep.  Got to the point where I couldn't move, without screaming.  So I went to the ER.  And there, I find, after having a very large needle worked into the joint (NOT PLEASANT) that my ankle went septic.  It seems the strep went through my bloodstream and attacked the fluid in my ankle.  I was in overnight on pain meds and antibiotics, then sent home with a hefty dose of them, and with crutches.  Let me tell you, I had no idea such a stupid thing could happen.  I'm all better now though, but I really don't want to do anything like that again.

And lastly, I've recently been accused of being addicted to General Hospital.  I'll admit it, I love that show.  I now look forward to watching it.  Like I will watch the clock to make sure I catch it either on first run or on Soap Net.  If ever there was a soap geared for guys watching it, this one is it.  Lots of gunfights, the mob, hitmen...it's great.  Hard not to get hooked up on that kind of thing.  It's like the WWF without the oily half-naked men rolling around on each other.  Oh and without the chair beatings.  That's usually reserved to barware.  I started watching it long ago with my big sister, whom I love, cherish and adore, and gave up for awhile.  Now it's back, like some sort of itchy social disease.  I just love watching it.  Yikes.

So there you have it, an update.  The long and short:  Kids are good, -madly- in love with my wife, addicted to General Hospital.  Whoot!

Now if I can get myself motivated to work more on Southlands...then we'll be happening.

So, I guess it has been an amazingly long time since I've posted anything on here.  Several months in fact.  The truth of the matter isn't that I don't have much to say or that nothing eventful has happened, I've just been too lazy to sit down and type out everything that has been going on.  There's no possible way to try to catch up everything that I haven't posted about, and the idea is exceptionally silly.  I will however give an update as to what is going on now and how things are.

Firstly, even though we're not conventional newlyweds, I can honestly say that my relationship with Lisa is stronger than ever, and that's saying something after all these years.  We have shared moments of emotional intimacy that really prove that time and effort can take a relationship to whole new levels.  We have decided that while we do live primarily for our children, we also need to dedicate some selfish time to each other, and it has been greatly rewarding, exciting and special.  I can only say that we're doing so well together that the usual holiday issues of money and time go by the wayside.  We're both confident that together we can tackle anything.  I love her so much, and seem to more each day.  *pushes away cheese*

The boys are all doing very well, some better than others in school.  Tony has taken a huge affront to it being suggested that he's addicted to video games.  I think this is amusing as he actually -is- quite addicted to them.  When he's told to do something else or it is suggested he temper his game time, he gets hostile and begins shaking.  We're working on this...it isn't easy but we're doing it.  Go go Modern Parenting!  Jack has now lost two teeth in two days.  His "bigboy" teeth are growing in on the lower front and pushing the little suckers straight out.  He's very proud and the Tooth Fairy made him a nice visit last night and will likely do so again tonight.  He's getting so big and is just the life of his Kindergarten class.  Anytime we speak with his teacher she fawns over how fantastic he is.  And that is just priceless.  And then there's Billy.  He's now jabbering almost constantly, and full, very clear words and some sentences.  He's also incredibly polite with everything being some form of please/thank you.  He's doing so well, we're incredibly proud. 

All we're hearing about now is that it is December, there's snow, Christmas is coming and there should supposedly be large amounts of gifts deposited in each of the children's names.  Amazing, absolutely.  I only sort of recall being a kid, and I only somewhat remember being this geeked up for Christmas.  These boys are consumed by it.  It should be our most fun ever, simply because they are all three very aware.

Anyhow, I'll try to be regular about posting again...no assurance, but I'll try.

Later

Brian

Today is father's day.  My boys bombarded me with their goodness.  Couple days ago I got my presents, because they simply couldn't wait any longer.  I got a new tv to replace the one that is dead and new running shoes to replace the ones that are equally dead.  Some very nice cards, one very romantic one from Lisa, all of it was very nice.  The best father's day I've ever had, and that's not just a fluff statement.  We went out to breakfast this morning at the Mason's Lodge with the whole family, Grandparents, aunts, uncles, Lisa's parents...and man, I'm still stuffed.  I made an absolute pig of myself on everything, but that's all good, I really rather enjoy breakfast. 

So, last night, for the first time in way too long, Lisa and I finally managed to go out on a date.  Not just a drive through and hit a movie kind of date but we went to a sit down restaurant where we...sat down and ate.  No children, not cutting of anyone else's food, Lisa had a martini, I had steak.  It was so relaxing and nice.  Eric, Lisa's youngest brother, came over to watch the kids and they were up until just after 1:00 am playing gamecube.  We came home to discover children sprawled all over the house with the place totally wrecked, not beyond repair but it will require some serious efforting tomorrow, not today.  None of us are really doing squat today.  There's really just no need.  Anyhow, Eric was a couple hours late getting off work, so we were a couple hours late getting out of the house.  We ended up not getting back until after 2.  Dinner, Episode III, relaxing drive.  It's too bad we're so damned old or we would have likely stayed up later *cough* but we're old.  We're really not having any problems in that department lately either, we usually have a small cooling off period then a grand warming up period, lately it's been beyond warming to tropical.  Enough of that, you people don't need to hear anything more about that.

Lisa's going back to her school grind, sometimes it starts to wear her out fast, but other times she is able to gut through it a day at a time.  I try to tell her each day how proud of her I am for going back to school and trying to make things right.  She's doing such a fantastic job there too, being a student comes easily to her. 

Oh and as a side note, this will be Jack and Tony's first full week of vacation.  Billy gets a week off before being thrust back into his classes.  And we're now only watching Thomas on wednesday nights.  Be still my heart.

Anyhow, that's my update for now.  I'll try to do one next time inside a month.

See ya.

B