It's Raining...It's Pouring

What's that saying? When it rains, it pours? (Did I at least get that saying right? I'm known for messing up all the old sayings....What's that, Nutcracker? Two stones, one bird? Thanks for the trip down memory lane recently, by the way...)

Anyway...sometimes lately it feels like it's pouring. Not that crushing can't-breathe-don't-even-want-to-go-outside pouring...just that...wow...that's a lot of rain pouring down right now.

An example of the pouring? Let's see.... (Alert! Alert! Here comes the whining!! If you've had too much whining today, please skip the next couple paragraphs! :)
Air conditioner making some crazy noise and dripping water all over our front porch. Can't wait to find out how much it's going to cost. Some electrical outlets no longer working. Can't wait to find out how much it will cost. Chris started yet a new job--which is great--except he has to work for a couple weeks and then he submits an invoice in which they will pay out 40 DAYS later! Love not getting paid for a couple months. The new job has no health insurance. So we are having to navigate some new territory and figure out which health plan of 4 billion would best fit our family (any tips by the way?) And the new job is as a 1099 employee as opposed to a W2 employee--yeah...all new territory and it's crazy trying to figure it all out (any tips here?) Finding out he now has to be bonded...say what? I thought you only had to do that to get out of jail. You learn something new every day! (Being bonded means you are insured in case the training you developed causes the world to end. Really, if someone is fired because of performance and they sue claiming they weren't properly trained, and the suit comes back to the one who created the training. If you're bonded, you're covered--to me...it just means one more cost every month. :) It's like malpractice insurance, but for educators. Well, and then Carson was sick...then Caleb was sick...then I was sick...now Carson is sick again. Did I mention no health insurance? My car has issues and hasn't been able to be driven for a couple months and we are playing the one car family. TOO hot to walk anywhere. And hence the grass in the yard is dead dead dead. Weeds? Growing fine. :) The extension to the driveway is all coming up because the previous owners apparently decided to add an extension to the driveway by just throwing cement down and doing nothing else. Lots of stuff breaking...bathroom fan, cd player....washing machine with issues. Have I mentioned the gross Texas-sized nasty water roaches? Pretty sure that is their official name. Listed under Species Disgusting. We've only had about one a year since we've lived here. Until the last couple months. They seem to especially like our drains lately. I think we've had 5 or 6 in the last couple months. Not sure if it is the especially hot summer or the fact that I haven't had an exterminator out recently. Or if I'm just plain lucky. Let's see...what else can I whine agout. I guess you get the idea. Each thing individually--NOT A BIG DEAL. All together, feels like it's pouring sometimes.

So after I talked to Chris today and he was feeling bad because he didn't check his calendar and forgot about a meeting (because he ran out for lunch to bring me that one car we are sharing because I somehow managed to forget to mail our car payment and so I needed the car to go overnight the payment so we didn't have to pay a big late fee) and he was also frustrated because then this afternoon he accidentally hit the power strip button with his foot which turned off his computer and made him lose all the stuff he had been working on all afternoon....I decided it was time for action. (Come on...admit it...I'm cool. That has got to be the longest run on sentence you've ever read in your life!!) (And secretly...that power strip thing was pretty funny) I decided it was time for some retail... er uh...restaurant therapy. We went straight to Chuck E Cheese. Land of the stop-the-pouring-rain-any-day-of-the-week!

It was exactly what we needed. We've been busy and crazy lately. We are usually the work hard play hard types. But we've been forgetting to play hard lately. Tonight just reminded me of that. Just the four of us having a good ol' time together. Who cares about all the stuff pouring down. Bring it on. It's kind of analogous to kids teething. When my kids are teething, I would rather have them get a bunch at once. Get it all over with in one crazy week instead of spreading it out by having a little bit of a crazy week by having one tooth a week several weeks or months in a row. Bring on all the rain! Let's just get it all over with at once! We just need to remember to play hard together and take one thing at a time with all that other stuff.

Don't get me wrong...life is good. Every once in awhile, if you sit back and think about everything that is wrong with your life...you can come up with a lot of stuff. Or is that just me?

I have to say though...restaurant therapy really worked tonight. I watched the faces of my three boys as we were leaving. They all had these huge grins on their faces and were laughing and joking.



And after all...we are blessed that we were able to get Caleb's tonsils out and clear up issues about Carson's kidneys BEFORE our health insurance ran out. And our air conditioner IS still working. And it's awesome that Chris HAS a job--and one where he LOVES the people he works with. And at least we have ONE car that works great. And it HAS been fun to drive Chris to work in the mornings and home in the evenings and spend that time together as a family. And at least we HAVE a house and don't have to trudge up the three flights of stairs to our apartment or worry about who we are waking up at 3am. And after we are all done being sick, I sure appreciate our GOOD health that much more. Haven't come up with a good one for the roaches though. I just don't appreciate anything about them. Maybe at least there haven't been 7? No that doesn't make me feel any better. However, at least I REMEMBERED that I didn't pay our car payment in time that I COULD overnight the payment and NOT pay the late fee! And REALLY?!?! There are a whole lot worse things that could happen. I'll take the ones I got, thank you very much. If these are the worst things that happen...I'll take 'em!

Well, what do you know?!? That rain didn't last long at all. We're back in a dry spell. I am learning to enjoy the rain more. It really does have it's place in the world and can do good things. But here's to the droughts too. :)

Wow. All that to say we had fun at Chuck E Cheese tonight. That takes some serious talent.

Action and Conversation

Some of this action:

If you see footprints on our ceiling, you'll know why!


Lots of this action:

Have I mentioned this is one happy boy who loves to smile and laugh?!?


A first time for this action:

This is the first time ever that Caleb has been asleep at the table. Sundays are apparently tiring days, huh? Caleb fell asleep on the way home from church and we tried to wake him up to come eat dinner. He really wasn't interested.


Way too much of this action:

We are entering the days of Caleb wanting to pick out his own stuff to wear. Heaven help us.


And finally, some of this action:

Remember the video of Caleb impersonating Shamu? This is Shamu Part Two. Caleb is so excited to have someone else willing to splash like Shamu with him. On camera.


And then there are my favorite recent conversations with Caleb:

Caleb: Mom, please go get me some applesauce
Me: (still trying to wake up and being a little sarcastic --mostly a haha for me and Chris): You know where the fridge is....
Caleb: Yeah, it's downstairs. Now please go get me some applesauce.


Me: Caleb, please keep your head on your pillow so I don't have to shut your door, ok?
Caleb: But mom (getting out of bed with his pillow being held to the side of his head), my head IS on my pillow.


Caleb: Mom, is this a pan to mix ice cream or a hat for my head?

Road Trip!

The Dial Family just took an awesome road trip. I know what you're thinking...you didn't know the Dials could go on a road trip longer than 3 hours. I think 3 hours is about as far as we have ever driven with kids. I was nervous.

We've always flown. Even when we moved down here, we flew and shipped our cars. This time, we debated and debated and debated. Just ask my parents. We're coming. We're not. We're flying. We're driving. We're not able to make it. We're coming. We're flying. We're driving. You get the picture. Our life is ever changing right now and it made our decision harder. But we did it. And we drove. 24 straight hours, baby! But it was AWESOME! I can't believe how good the boys were. When Chris and I got to Utah, we just looked at each other incredulously and couldn't believe it went so fast with no crying or whining. And we even had FUN. What?!?

The drive there was filled with busting out in song together to our road trip cds that we made interspersed with Frisbee and soccer at rest stops and random parking lots. Caleb is quite the frisbee player now.




Books on cd were a parental favorite while everyone else was sleeping. Caleb got to open a present every couple hours (highly recommend this!) (Thank you dollar store!!) And the scenery was great.




Caleb's favorite was the 8-10 trains we saw each direction.



On the way back, Chris said Caleb was up from 2am-4am just chatting chatting away. Funny kid. And if you're up anyway, what better time for some random 2am picture takings?

All sorts of fun, really. It really was just a fun time.

What? You are hoping for a picture overload? I think I can oblige.

This was our favorite gas station:

If you are convinced that we have no supreme gas, well, then we're not sorry. We're just sorry to the unconvinced.

Once we arrived in Utah, we did all sorts of fun stuff.

We went to a couple parks:

I love that Caleb makes friends wherever he goes.

I'm not sure how this started, but for quite some time, Caleb has been asking to climb a tree. There really are not good climbing trees near us. Well, I'm happy to say his dream finally came true. Here is Caleb FINALLY climbing a tree:



And speaking of dreams come true:

Another of Caleb's dreams came true. Riding the bus again. Gotta love that free bus system and all the dreams that come true through it. What's with that caption on the bus? Not sure I ride the bus to meet my friends, but hey, that's cool. I'm sure you can meet all sorts that way.

Of course we had to hit the Logan Aquatic Center. Always a favorite of ours:

Carson's introduction to the Aquatic Center. I don't think he liked it. Oh wait. He loved it.

Here he is sporting his adorable swim outfit that the awesome Austin Dials gave him.


Caleb was straight up giddy about going on this slide again:



And what is a trip without lots of good food. Seriously. Between the yummy restaurants and my parents, other family and friends...let's just say we ate well. How is this the only picture of all that good food?

That is just about the yummiest dessert on the planet. Pizookie. Mouth watering as I look at the picture now. I miss you pizookie.

Is that song stuck in your head right now too? The one that goes "This is the post that doesn't end...it just goes on and on my friend..."

And then there was the overnight campout. What? Krista went camping!?! Not. Chris and Caleb and some of Chris's family went camping for a night. Krista and Carson enjoyed nice warm comfy beds at the five star resort called my parents house. Looking at the pictures however, it seems fun was had by all:


Thank you to whoever took so many cute pictures of my boys together!!

And an extra special thank you to whoever documented these extra special precious memories:






Sittin around the fire, chillin with his drink.

Can't you just picture him as an older guy sitting around a campfire, nursing his rootbeer?



Grammy sharing a smore with Caleb



Caleb is really into thumbs up lately. When I do something he finds cool, he says, "Mom!"--I look at him and he gives me a thumbs up and a big smile. Sometimes when I am REALLY cool, I get two thumbs up.

Apparently Caleb isn't the only one into thumbs up lately:



Caleb seemed to love the river. And of course it is required to throw rocks into it. It is water, after all.



And he even got to do some fishing:



Fortunately, we were able to see so many good friends and family. Unfortunately, we were unable to see so many good friends and family. Our time always goes by so fast and all we want to do is spend a week with everybody individually. It just never works out that way. We are so sorry to those that we missed this time and hope that we will see you soon. And unfortunately, we don't have many pictures of all the great people we did get to see. But we did get one picture:

Thanks Chattertons for always letting us play with your fun toys when we come visit!


One of the best parts for me about our visits to Utah is all the extra helping hands we have with the kids. Here is one example:

Cute Halee. Such a big help.

Again.

And again. And again.



Caleb loved playing with his cousins and all the kids of our friends. He was in heaven everywhere we went with all the little friends he had at each place. We miss you guys tons already!

This is where all the pictures of Kip and Bridget's cute new arrival, Elliott should be. If we took any. Which we didn't. How did this happen?!!?!?!

And this is where all the pictures would be from our fun visit and blessing of Ben and Sarah's baby Abigail. If we had any. Which we don't. Sigh.

And the pictures of Chris golfing. Same story.

And finally, this is where the picture of the fun time at the 4th of July fireworks in Logan should be. Aggie Ice Cream. Sparklers. Card games. Frisbee. Soccer. All those great pictures captured on film. If we took any. Which we didn't.

Oh, sweet Carson. Sweet, sleep deprived Carson. He caught some cat naps--usually like this.

Driving to and from the next place. He continues to amaze me. Even when he is totally sleep deprived, he just grins and giggles and is so snugly. I love that kid.

We made it back home safe and sound. We were a bit tired. Had to take a picture of this:

Caleb asleep on the couch?!? I thought that only happened when tonsils are removed. Apparently after long road trips too.

I do want to say thank you to all the friends and family that fit us into their busy schedules and helped us build so many fun memories on this trip. A HUGE thank you to my parents for putting up with us and our craziness, feeding us too good, and always making us feel so welcome in your five star hotel. Can't wait til next time!

This and That

A little of this:

(Missions Baseball game)


A little of that:

(Caleb and Chris working hard. Caleb especially loves to help mow the lawn, trim, and then blow the cut grass off the sidewalks. And they don't just stop at ours. Caleb insists on doing all kinds of people's. They are now known in the neighborhood as "those guys that cut everybody's grass." At what age will helping no longer be fun? At what age will I not be able to use not being allowed to help as a punishment? I hope age 30.)


A lot of this:

(Carson smiles)


A lot of that:

(Snuggles from my boys)


A bit of this:

(Caleb making himself at home in the stroller doing puzzles)


A bit of that:


(That right there? Those are the best kabobs ever. Miss you, Deonne. Bacon wrapped steak and jalapeños smothered in spicy barbecue sauce. Oh, and no, I do not think nursing babies appreciate them. Sorry, Carson! I couldn't resist.)


Some crazy this:

(We hosted 6 youth at our house for a youth conference for church. SO FUN! And of course they had to raise a bit of mischief. And since Chris already spilled the beans and admitted what was done, I guess I can post the picture to show all the guilty to the Charles. Notice I was not in the picture. Must mean I had zero participation, right? I am innocent. :) Thanks for being good sports Charles family!)


Some crazy that:



(What is that you ask? Poor Caleb was desperate for any change in taste after having his tonsils out. Yes, that is him eating sour cream, cool whip, and miracle whip by the spoon. Sick.)


But there was also some of this:

(Proof that I did give him good stuff to eat and that he did not need to resort to the nasty stuff, here is Caleb eating soft serve ice cream.)


And finally...my favorite that.
Chris started a new job on June 8th. And he absolutely LOVES it! He loves the people, and loves the work! Thanks again, NCI!

Funny Kids

I'm not sure when/where it started. My brother (the famous Kip D a.k.a. Uncle Dip) and I like to make up songs. Sometimes it is just a normal every day conversation except we both sing what we would like to say to each other. Or then there was the time that we took a 12 hour car ride and made up the coolest song ever. Just ask Chris. I think he really enjoyed it. Something about 12 hours of a really repetitive, yet lively rendition of an awesome song about how many more miles to go set to the tune of 100 bottles of "milk" on the wall. Yeah. Good times. You know you enjoyed each and every repetitive verse of that 12 hour song, Chris. Both directions of our road trip. :)

So imagine my pride when lately my sweet three year old makes up a song about everything. My favorites? "I love milk." "I just like to beat dad." My all time favorite? "I want to go outside but my mom won't let me." I've been meaning to get some of them on video because I think they're so funny, but I'm usually too lazy to go find the camera. Well, not lazy necessarily, but, well, ok...yeah...lazy. So today the camera happened to be right by me, so the version you get to hear is entitled, "Good job."

"I'm singing 'good job' because mom got me root beer." Not sure if the good job was for me for letting him have the root beer or to himself for convincing me he could have it. Either way, I enjoyed the song. Does it make you proud, Dip? Passing on our legacy to my posterity.

What can I say? The kid loves his root beer. Especially after two weeks of eating nothing but yogurt and applesauce after having his tonsils out.

I'm thinking of recording them and making an album. Kind of like that SNL where Eddie Murphy plays Buckwheat and has a random album with random songs...you know the one. Anyway.


Then there is my cute Carson. Poor boy has been running a fever and is congested. Doesn't stop him from being a happy little guy though.

Chris was throwing the ball to land on the high chair and Carson just thought it was hilarious. The kid seriously loves to laugh.


And finally, my favorite quote of the week:
What? No, the first was my favorite random made-up SONG of the week, and the second was my favorite GIGGLING of the week. This is my favorite QUOTE of the week:

Chris told Caleb he needed to clean up the toys in his room. Caleb said, "Dad, I have a plan." (Good quote, but still not my favorite.) Chris asked him what his plan was and Caleb said, "I'll play with this toy while you clean up my mess. That's the plan...ok, dad?" Kudos to Caleb for coming up with such a good plan.

I just love my boys. All three of them. They make my life so fun.

Dear NCI

Dear NCI,

On May 18th, 2009, one of your vice presidents walked into my husband's office and told him that his five year career with your company was over as of that day. I just wanted to say thank you.

I understand that there just wasn't any work to be done anymore. For an established company to be unable to win bids is a sure sign that it's time for a change. But still, to tell an awesome and very skilled employee that they are done that same day with absolutely no notice and minimal severance pay?!? It may make business sense for a company against the ropes, but it certainly isn't very compassionate. Either some notice or a real severance package would seem more appropriate.

You would think I would be angry, after all, we had a 3 month old baby whom we thought at the time may have some serious kidney problems. We have bills to pay just like everyone else. I was shocked, but it only lasted about an hour. To quote Chris, "I should probably feel bad, but I'm actually really excited to see where this takes us and what our next adventure will be." So, in fact, I'm not angry at all. I just wanted to say thank you.

You see, because he no longer works for you, many wonderful opportunities have presented themselves and we are very excited about the prospects. He probably would not have chased down any of these leads if he was still working for you. Again, thank you.

I'd also like to thank you for the three week paid vacation. We thoroughly enjoyed having dad home for three weeks and the timing, for our family, could not have been better.

And thank you for paying for a lot of Chris's MBA. It looks like he can now put it to work for someone else.

We grew closer as a family and to our Father in Heaven. And because we were taking inventory of everything, we decided that less is definitely more. We can do much better with the money and things we have been blessed with. And we are. And for that I say thank you again.

In some ways, I actually feel responsible myself for this job loss. When Chris first started working for you, he absolutely loved it. He loved the people--he loved the work. Monkey stickers on his badge, hilarious experiences on the plane ride home from Dallas, regular team lunches, daily challenges: he was actually excited to go to work each day. I told him that it isn't work if you enjoy it that much, but he continued on. But over the last little while, I have noticed a change. I felt horrible watching him day in and day out go to a job where I felt that he was not enjoying it anymore and where I felt he was being unappreciated. Thus, I had been praying for quite awhile that things would change at NCI or that he would find a different job where he felt valued and appreciated and excited to go to work again. You helped answer that prayer.

I'm sorry to say that you definitely got the worse end of the deal. You see, you lost a great employee. (Actually lots of them, I hear. But I only knew one really well.) The one I know worked hard for you and made you a lot of money. He always made his deadlines, even if it meant working all night a couple different times. While others would lose money on their projects and simply say they couldn't make the deadline, Chris made it happen. He and a couple others did such good work that it led to a huge project with a company that brought in a ton of money and work to your company. He did such a good job that you even promoted him three times in the five years he worked for you. I could go on and on. Really, I am just sorry for you. Some other great company just recently gained a very hard working, valuable asset and all around good guy-- thanks to you.

I sincerely hope you will take better care of our dear friends that are still working for you.

Thanks again!

Krista Dial