Both Sides of the Fence

Maria's View-

Griffin has been on both sides of the fence today with his emotions.  Breakfast unleashed a beast this morning to the point of having to take him out of his highchair and rocking him.  Normally, redirection will immediately work but not today.  He must have been super hungry.  Do you know what snapped him out of his food frustration?  Singing his orphanage song to him.  <sigh> The orphanage... the very place that still brings him so much pain, comforts him.

Snack and lunch was much better... and then after lunch, he kept bringing my hands to his neck and was wanting me to tickle him!  He laughed so hard and every time I would take my hands away, he would pull my hands back to his neck.  Adorable.  We did this for probably about 20 minutes and he kept giving me the craziest belly laughs.  Loved it.

Little G has learned that she can get a great rise out of Big G by sticking her crayons up her nose.  So I've been having to deal with that without laughing in her face.  It really is funny and I really needed the laughs.

Griffin took his best steps today!  I prop him against the couch and then move out about 5 feet from him and hold my hands out.  He gets a huge grin on his face, uses his bottom to push himself away from the couch, gains his balance, and away he goes!  He usually gets about halfway to me and then dives, but not today!  He walked right up to me with a good 4-5 steps.  He will be walking in no time!  It seems that he wants to walk but every time he gives it a shot on his own without one of us waiting with our arms out to catch him, he always falls and hurts himself, so I think he simply doesn't want to get hurt!

Before bed, we always sing our night-night song for all the members of the family and we wave to each other as we sing it.  Tonight, Griffin started waving to everyone.  Every day is something new!

Today has been an emotionally blah day for me.  I miss my family and friends, everyone I love...I miss certain places, I miss certain times in my life...but I LOVE where I am and who I am today.  I love my children more than words can say and I'm blessed with an amazing husband who 'gets' me.   To all of my stateside friends and family, I MISS YOU!  And to my Germany friends who have become so much like family to me, I'm so grateful for you!

For dinner, we had BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, corn of the cob, and sweet tea!  OH YEAH!  All of the kids loved it.

Love and Hugs!!!


Chris's View-

I have been listening to a lot of Earl Pitts lately.

If you've never had the pleasure of listening to Earl, he's conservative comedian character, played by Gary Burbank, a radio DJ who is now retired.  There are only a couple episodes online, but they instantly transport me back to my childhood, riding around South Mississippi with my buddy Jeremy.  Anyway, Earl starts every episode with his standard line, "You know what makes me so sick?  You know what makes me so angry..." and he goes on to lay the topic of the 30 second to 1 minute episode.  Well, I got my own for Earl yesterday...

You know what makes me so sick?  You know what makes me so angry?  I could go to an electronic's assembly line with my wool socks on after walking on a carpet.

It's these electronics companies.  They have figured out the exact formula to milk you for every penny you make.  They have figured out exactly how long components last in their consumer products, so shortly after the 1 year warranty wears out, the item dies.  It's almost as if the software inside the items tell it to stop working as soon as the warranty wears out.

Yesterday was the revolt of the electronic devices in our house.  Maria's just barely 1 year old laptop completely died yesterday.  Literally, this Dell gave up the ghost.  I turned it on after one of the kids pulled the plug and the battery died, and it was a black screen, then after a few minutes, it beeped, very loudly I might add, 7 times.  I looked it up online & 7 beeps on a Dell indicates that it's a motherboard & processor fault.  So, I called the computer repair guys on base and the guy was very honest... surprisingly.  He told me that if it is a motherboard & processor error, it's would be cheaper to go to the BX & buy a new one.  Then we heard that there was a laptop on sale, so I went & looked at it and ta-da... Maria's got a new, plain Jane laptop from HP.  At least I know their laptops quality.

Then, while a friend was over visiting, Maria looked at her phone, and the screen was looking nearly like a multi-colored Matrix screensaver... very weird.  I performed a hard reset and after 10 minutes, it booted back up... crisis averted.... for now.  Hopefully that doesn't die.  We rely a ton on our iPhones to live in this country... it's nice having a translator at your fingertips when you are out on the economy, plus her phone has our free calling to the US plan.

While it didn't start yesterday, my laptop is on it's last leg too... it has a pretty crazy screen flicker issue that I can't solve.  It may need to go in for a check up.  :(

Hopefully all of our electronics will last...

See ya'll later!