Comcastic

I have to tell you this story, and I'm sure many of you have your own Comcast stories, so pass them along. Last week we called Comcast because four of our channels just suddenly disappeared. Yes, that's right, poof gone. Now, Joy and I are on the we barely watch anything and don't have the money to pay your prices plan, which is such a "basic" plan that they don't even advertise it:) So, we should be getting about fourteen channels, and when one just up and disappeared we got a little testy. Anyway, I called about the channels and they said we actually should have those channels because we're paying for them and they would need to send someone out. They sent someone out when Joy was at home and the guy couldn't figure out what was going on, so he called a supervisor who also had no clue. I don't know, it seems simple to me. Should we have had those channels in the first place? OR were we just getting them because of a fluke? After the technician got off the phone, he went and removed the filter in our back yard basically opening up the floodgates of channels into our TV. He was pretty irritated with Joy and basically said, "I don't know what the problem is, so I just took off the filter, so you should get like fifty channels now!" AND on his way out he said, "Oh by the way, don't call Comcast again because they may come back and put the filter back on." (translation: I'm not supposed to be doing what I'm doing, but I'm doing it anyway; you and your brood of children stop bothering me!) Now, you might be wondering what my problem is. Like hey Steve, what's wrong, now you've got lots of TV channels, why not just let it go, but I didn't. I called today, I mean it is unethical and all and talked to someone again. I spoke with a representative who was less than enthusiastic about our conversation (what is it about Comcast, noone seems to enjoy their job?) and she said, "Well sir, you're paying the basic price, so what's the problem?" To which I said, "I'm just letting you know that we're paying the basic price, but we're getting TONS of stations!" There was silence; I'm not sure she didn't knew what to say, so I repeated myself, "I just don't want to be unethical, I mean we're only paying for basic, so... we shouldn't be getting so many channels." Well she was irritated of course and basically couldn't understand what my problem was, but promised to send another technician out to look into things. I sure hope it wasn't the first guy:) All of this to say, I did what I should have done a long time ago, and checked the internet to see what stations we should actually be getting and guess what. The four we lost, we shouldn't have ever gotten in the first place:) Oops, I guess we could have avoided all this with a simple google search!

He's Really A Boy

In case everyone out there was looking for proof, here it is. Although, I had to conceal a part of the picture; I'm sure our son wouldn't appreciate being exposed at such a young age. But, for some reason, the ultrasound tech handed this picture directly to me. Maybe it's that we have four girls already and she thought I needed confirmation? Whatever the case, I must admit there's a tinge of excitement as I look at the picture knowing I'm having a boy. My only male companion in the house now is a cat, and he's neutered.

Speaking of the boy, we'd appreciate your prayers on his behalf. At an ultrasound in December, we were told that he definitely has club feet. There was also some concern about his hand grasp and two areas of the heart as well. We were told by the specialist that he's suspsious there are chromosomal abnormalities. Club feet are apparently very treatable, although the process usually takes three to four years to correct:( We go in for another ultrasound in February, so if you could join with us in praying that our little guy is ok. We've gone through a huge range of emotions since the last ultrasound, but now it's the waiting, which I think is worse than anything. We're doing fine, but February can't come soon enough. As you know, sometimes our minds can imagine scenerios far worse than reality. I was quite inspired by a verse from Nehemiah that I found, believe it or not, on Christmas wrapping paper from Walmart. Since then, I've been going through Nehemiah and have been struck by his patience and trust in God in spite of so much trial. We'll keep you updated as we learn more in February.

The whole family went sledding last week. We've had tons of snow and tons of cold temps. I've even had two days off from teaching, and that's for cold weather? Not Snow.

Naps

Whoever came up with the idea that naps are great for kids must have never had kids themselves. Let me back up, I'm not advocating no naps period, we all know that leads down a path of destruction few parents want to talk about. Let me give you an idea of a typical nap period in our house (I'm in the middle of one right now) though, because sometimes in a moment of insanity I question their worthwhileness (is that a word). So, it's Sunday right and we've just come home from church. Two were home sick today, so that already has thrown a loop into the whole nap routine in general. Lunch is not very pleasant because of sickness of course and also tiredness. Lots of whining about cookies before lunch is even eaten. You get the drift. Anyway, I take our third, Mikaya, upstairs to bed, because of course she need to share a room with one of her older twin sisters (we live in a three bedroom townhome). The key is to get her to sleep before her older sister comes in. Otherwise, it's like a midday party. After I'm done putting her down, I attempt to put one of our twins down, Eliana, which is always challenging given that she and her sister are 4 1/2, which means their growing out of naps, but without naps their like totally different girls in a not so good way:) So, she goes into our room (the master bedroom that is). After about ten minutes, I go to check on our third born and she's fast asleep, so I think I'm smart and transfer Eliana to the same room, because for some reason there's a fighting chance she'll sleep when she's in a room with an already sleeping person, but not in ours where it's just too boring and quiet? At this point, I think sweet, two down, two to go. Well, my wife informs me that our fourth born, Karina isn't quite tired yet, so I can stick the remaining twin, Nadia in the last available room, because the baby is not going down yet, which I do. All is quite for a short amount of time, but alas there is coughing from Mikaya's room and she wakes up and of course she and Eliana start chatting about lots of things (dollies, potty, etc.). I'm back up the stairs. Eliana goes back into our room, and Mikaya has thrown up a little so I'm cleaning her up with wipes, refusing to believe I may have to bathe her, because then the whole napping schedule would be off. I hope you're following me here. I now have three kids in three different rooms and Karina is still downstairs. Finally it's time to put her down, so with a full bottle being given, I think she's ready of course. I take her up to the room Nadia's in and although it's been deathly silent, Nadia is of course not sleeping (she's quite stealth at playing quietly) and so I put Karina in her crib and take Nadia out. I go back to Mikaya's room. It's been about ten minutes, and I'm hopeful that she's finally fallen asleep so I can put Nadia in that room. Well as it would, Mikaya is not sleeping and is quite disturbed by our presence and starts to cry. So... Nadia is off back downstairs to lay on the couch while I soothe Mikaya. Karina begins to cry and I find out she's pooped, so I change her and lay her down, which she is not too happy about, but that's life in a big household, and after checking in on Mikaya again who's shouting, "I want to go downstairs," I find out her diaper needs changing too. It goes on and on like this of course. Back to my original statement: I obviously see the need for naps; I mean tons of research supports their use, but after all this work, sometimes I wonder. Where's the easy button for naps really! And my wife deals with this every day. She's a saint. Truly! Well, I've gotten my thoughts out, and I'm listening in on the three rooms to hear that at least two of the four are still awake. Oh Joy:)