Category Archives: Daniel

Daily Life, Daniel, David, Project 365, Sarah

Weekend Silliness

February 8, 2015 KME 8 Comments

Daniel and Sarah both had friends spend the night on Friday – keeping our house full of life and energy. Tim, in a sneaky move, escaped all that life and energy and spent Saturday in the Duckabush visiting his parents and helping with the never-ending internet challenges. I love, love, love that our kids really enjoy having their friends over and that their friends feel welcome and at home here. That said, I near-as-a-whisker got rid of the whole bunch of them to enjoy an entire day alone.

“Mom!” Daniel wheedled. “We’ll spend the whole day cleaning.”
“Um,” a raised eyebrow.
“Okay, not ALL day. But we’ll definitely clean for you. You won’t even notice we’re here.”
“Fine, but I don’t want you and James and David playing computer games ALL DAY. Even if it’s raining.”
“Sure, sure, Mom.”
“And you’ll play some board games? You know, ones that require cards and pieces and sitting around a table, not just a keyboard and mouse?”
“Sure, sure, Mom, you got it.”
“And you’ll put together David’s bed for him?”
“Mom, we will do whatever you want.”
“Heh. Right.”

Easy-going and flexible? Or pushover and permissive? Hmmm. Well, Friday afternoon Sarah’s friend Tarah came home with us after co-op, and Friday evening I found myself driving to pick up Daniel’s friend James. And, once again, the living room was stacked with mattresses – the boys have discovered they don’t really like sleeping on the floor or lumpy couch. They cheerfully carry down the twin and full size mattresses despite the hassle – I think they like being close to the computers and the kitchen. Last weekend they made pancakes at 3 in the morning to send Joshua off to the airport with breakfast in hand.

Crazy, awesome, silly kids.

Daniel helps James and David play the piano.

True to their word, after I ~~forced~~ encouraged them to get off the computer, Daniel and James helped David assemble his bed. At least they got all the mattresses off of the triple stack on my bed. I think they hauled an extra twin mattress out to the garage where it will await Joshua’s return or another sleepover.

Happy to have his bed frame back in place.

Later that morning, as the rain and grey day was turning me into a thoroughly sad and pathetic creature, a beautiful friend came by and swept me off to Starbucks. There is nothing quite like laughing and laughing with a beloved friend, hot, fresh espresso in hand. Ah. When I walked back in the house, the kids were all sitting on the floor playing 7 Wonders.

The little fakers!

“Awwww, kids, you’re playing a game! I’m so happy.”
Loud, raucous laughter.

Turns out those rascals STAGED a board game to fool me. LOL! They heard me coming in and quickly sat down to FAKE their game time. I laughed and laughed with them and felt loved that they knew what I wanted and thought about me. The boys put away 7 Wonders and switched to a real game of DC Comics Deck Building.

I know these days are somewhat fleeting – of kids piled on mattresses, the counters and sinks filled with dirty dishes, the table covered with cards, and computer matches going late into the night.

Today David and Sarah joined us for a mini-road trip to pick up Tim’s new car. It was a long day. David and Sarah did school and worked on their play scripts in the back seat while I read to Tim from Francis Chan’s new marriage book, You and Me Forever. On the way home the boys were in the new car and the girls in the rental. Sweet time of conversation with my beautiful little girl, growing up before my eyes.

Daniel missed us while we were gone (right, Daniel? Daniel?). Okay, Daniel spent the day with the friends (thanks Pritchards for having him over), playing Ultimate frisbee in the rain, and then babysitting for a church small group. I don’t think he even noticed we were gone for 11 hours.

Icing his back after a hard day of frisbee.

Thankfully Tim still had some energy left for a good conversation with Daniel about school, sore backs, and some possible future plans.

This couch is good for napping, reading, and father-son talks.

It was a full weekend. And tomorrow the week starts again. Whew. Blessed, double and triple blessed to be the mama of this silly group.

Project 365 – Day 39
Kathy

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A Farewell to Wanda

February 3, 2015 Tim 3 Comments

Early in 2006, my ’92 Ford Escort was dying, so my brother very kindly sold me his low-mileage ’98 Honda Accord. He was concerned that something might go wrong with the car soon after he sold it to me, so he gave me a $500 guarantee — basically, I paid him $6000, but he promised to give me $500 back if something significant went wrong with the car in the next 6 months.

But nothing went wrong, and we were both happy. I drove that car for another 120,000 miles, with help from Joshua and Daniel, rather haphazardly replacing the tires, windshield wipers, and brakes. I figure I spent another $2000 on the car over the intervening nine years, before one of Daniel’s classmates rear-ended him about 10 days ago. When the dust settled, the other driver’s insurance company decided to total the car and promised to pay me $3800 as replacement value.

Sarah and Daniel saying their goodbyes to Wanda the Honda.

Not bad — 3.5 cents per mile, not counting fuel costs. I think I can live with that.

Tomorrow the salvage company comes to take the car away, and it is very sad. Daniel and I have become attached to that little car — our respective identities are (in some mystical way) bound up with that little car.

Now both Daniel and I are in the market for a new (or, more likely used) car, and maybe new identities as well. I have my eye on a sleek, almost-new red Camry, that I think I will purchase later this week. But what will Daniel buy?

The kids cleaned out everything — but we couldn’t get the gas siphon to work, so we lost seven or eight gallons of gas.

Since the insurance company is being so generous to me, I’m sharing some of the ‘profit’ with Daniel, to get him started on his first car. But this is contingent on getting a new job, so he’s beating the bushes for work, again.

In my opinion, a young man needs to have a beat-out, old car, to properly reflect his financial and social position, and to motivate him to remedy that condition. I think a young man with a fancy car could be prone to having a rather inflated view of his own importance — not a good long-term strategy.

My first car was a 1974 Datsun B210 — I paid $380 for it in 1988. It was very dilapidated, and the floorboards had rusted through so that you could watch the lane stripes as you changed lanes. The previous owner had put down pieces of wood to take the place of the floorboards, but the fit was imperfect. If you hit a large puddle, the passenger’s legs would be drenched to the knees — for some reason, people rarely asked me for a ride more than once.

Not my actual Datsun.

The brakes on the Datsun required two or three pumps in order to work, and the exhaust system was held together with chewing gum and a prayer. One of the pins was broken on the passenger door, so if you opened it all the way, it would rest on the ground. It was a great little car, and it reflected my financial and social status very accurately.

Sadly, I wrecked the Datsun on a bridge abutment in the middle of an ice storm, on my way to Phil and Deb Dickerson’s wedding. What kind of a car will Daniel buy, I wonder?

Project 365, Day 34
Tim

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Daniel, Project 365

Wanda’s Honda

January 23, 2015 Tim 5 Comments

Ever since Daniel got his driver’s license, he’s been driving my honda civic much more than his ‘fair share’ making me consider My Car Insurance Quote sercvices. He refers to it as his own car in poetic justice for how I treated (and spoke of) my parents’ little gold Chevette as if it was mine.Car insurance is important for a number of reasons. Without car insurance you could get a ticket which is not cheap. If you do not have insurance on your car you could also end up paying a lot of money to fix your car if you are in an auto accident. If you hit someone else’s car and you do not have car insurance it will be up to you to pay to fix their car. If you do not pay to fix the other person’s car you could end up getting sued.
Car insurance is just as important as home insurance. You would insure your home so why not insure your car? Your home and your car are both very expensive to repair if you do not have insurance on them. You can get insurance for an affordable rate on your home and your car. The best way to get affordable insurance is to do research on the internet. There are several websites that you can go to that will give you multiple quotes so that you can find the cheapest plan available. These days everyone is looking for a way to save money whenever they can. There is no reason to pay a fortune on insurance when you can do research and get a great rate. The cheapest way to get insurance on your car is to just get liability. Liability may save you money but it only covers the other drivers car if you have an accident. You will still be left to pay to fix your own car. Full coverage is a little more expensive but it is worth it in the long run. To get more details about car or motorcycle insurance, pop over to this website . You can get several discounts on car insurance but the best way to do that is to call an insurance company and speak with an agent. The insurance agent should be able to help you find all the discounts that you qualify for. If you have a clean driving record with out any tickets or car wrecks then you should be able to get a discount for that. If you have taken a driving class you can also get a discount for that too. The type of car you drive will also make a difference in the price of your insurance premium. A sports car will cost you more to insure than a family car. You can also get discounts for insuring several cars with the same company.

Some companies will even give you a discount if you buy your car insurance, house insurance, and life insurance from the same insurance company. Saving money is important especially these days when everyone is struggling to make money. Just make sure that you ask your insurance agent about any discounts that their company offers. Your agent should be able to help you out with saving money on discounts. Without auto insurance you could end up having to pay a hefty fine if you get caught. Insurance is important to have on your car, home, life, and even health.

The silver car has been through some pretty rough treatment, over the years. My brother brought it to Kuwait with him when he was stationed there, and the heat of that country caused the rubber door and trunk seals to shrink somewhat. But it was otherwise in very good condition when he sold it to me, with less than 70,000 miles on it, back in 2006 or early 2007. My brother maintains his cars carefully, and I was glad to buy it from him at the very low price he offered.

Daniel and Sarah amuse themselves by making shadow puppets on our movie-watching screen.

After some eight years of my less-than-tender stewardship, the car has 184,625 miles on it, the engine leaks oil, the exhaust smells and is rather loud, and recently one of the kid’s friends put a worrisome dent near the gas tank — Make sure to check out Vintage VW spare parts importers and wholesale distributors of spare parts. Still, I had planned to sell the car to Daniel this Spring, so it could be his in reality, rather than fantasy.

Today, he told me, “I don’t think I want to buy your silver car anymore.” We were driving home from the doctor’s office, where we had him checked out for whiplash. (The doctor says he will be sore, but is otherwise probably OK).

Earlier today, Daniel was rear-ended by another student at his school, while he sat at a stoplight. The damage to the car was significant, although you can’t really tell from this photo. They say it will cost $4100 to repair luckily he found a place where their repair it at affordable prices in Auto Detailing jacksonville FL, which is more than twice the value of the car, so I’m guessing the insurance company will just cut their losses and total the car.

The rear bumper was pushed up and forward about two inches, with considerable damage to the side and frame.

A few months back, I was feeling rather unhappy about Daniel’s relentless use of my car, so I want it to take my car to get some cash for cars in Melbourne but a the end I told him I didn’t feel well-thanked. After some consideration, I decided that if he was going to use my car, he needed to thank me each day in writing, in order to be eligible to use it the next day. If he doesn’t thank me, he doesn’t use my carthis transmission jack review from autonews center.

Some of this damage was actually done a few weeks ago by a friend.

So, every day I get an email or a drawing or some other form of written thanks. Sometimes it is a poem or a limerick, other times just a simple sentence thanking me for some aspect of the car. He has really gotten creative on several days — it is fun to see him enter into the spirit of the thing and to put some effort into giving thanks.

Here was his first offering:

There once was a girl named Wanda,
who had a nice little Honda.
She drove through the town,
and married a clown,
and moved away to Uganda.

I was very moved by Wanda’s loyalty to her Ugandan clown, but I worry about shipping costs — Did her parents approve of her choice of the young clown? Or was there bad feeling, which precipitated the move? You can see that in some ways, this limerick raised more questions than it answered — but I was definitely gripped by the story line. Sadly, Wanda failed to appear in subsequent editions, so we’ll never know if Wanda was happy as a young bride in Uganda.

Now I am trying to persuade Kathy to lend her support to buying a new Corolla, a car I’ve always wanted to own.

When I was 17, a friend loaned me his stick-shift Corolla for two weeks, hoping that I would buy it from him. I could never raise the money, but ever since I’ve wanted to have (and drive) a sporty little car like that Corolla. Kathy says that a new car loses too much of its value, when you drive it off the lot, she mentioned how she even had to get a windshield replacement in cincinnati oh a few months after buying her brand new car. But I’m thinking that I really would like to have a car that I don’t need to worry about repairing, at least for a few years, I guess she wasn’t lucky enough.

I’ll keep you posted on my sales campaign against Kathy’s frugality. Feel free to comment on the relative merits of a new car over a used one, as long as you’re on my side. Comments arguing in favor of used cars can expect to be mysteriously deleted or unapproved.

Project 365, Day 23
Tim

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Daniel, Project 365

Coming Home

January 21, 2015 Tim 4 Comments

Kathy and I had the opportunity to attend a prayer conference for a few days in Oregon. Today, the conference ended and we headed home, somewhat dreading AWANA. It is always hard to muster the energy needed for AWANA, and even more-so when we’ve been traveling home from a conference.

Fortunately for me, my awesome assistant Beckie had everything in hand — she had printed all the scripts, and gathered the props, and generally took charge. Jared and I (Jared is my other assistant, who had also attended the prayer conference) were able to let her mostly just run things, which was lovely.

Sometimes, when we are away, Kathy dreads coming home, especially if the house wasn’t very tidy when we left. When we were about an hour from home, she got a text from Daniel.

Daniel made himself a milkshake, and then thoroughly enjoyed it.

Daniel really knows how to enjoy a milkshake.

“How long until you’re home,” he asked.

We spent several miles speculating about why he would ask this question.

“He’s probably thinking about hiding the evidence of the naughty things he did while we were gone,” I said, rather snidely.

“Or maybe there are some bodies that need to be disposed of,” Kathy rejoined. We laughed nervously.

As it turns out, he was cleaning the house, and wanted to know if he had time for a few last-minute touches. We walked into a house that was all tidied-up. He didn’t answer the door, when we first got home, because he was upstairs, vacuuming Sarah’s room.

Daniel has always been the best at cleaning the kitchen until it gleams.

I was very impressed, and Kathy was very thankful. It was so nice to be able to relax for an hour before heading off to AWANA. Thank you, Daniel!

Even the blankets and cushions on the couch were all put away carefully.

Project 365, Day 21
Tim

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Brothers

January 8, 2015 KME 4 Comments

Nothing warms my heart, filling it to the brim of contented happiness, like having my children come home and spend time with us. This year has been a big shift for us with Joshua and Rachel both off at college, and Daniel attending the technical school full time. We savored the time we had together over Christmas and were especially spoiled to have my mom here.

Now Rachel has returned to Tennessee, and the rest of us have started back to school.

“Joshua, have you ever seen this? It’s called science.”

Thankfully Joshua is still at home. He decided not to attend Union’s January term this year and instead enjoy an extended winter break.

“Hmmm, it doesn’t look too hard.”

Joshua, Tim and Daniel have played hours of board games. Joshua, Sarah and my mom worked on several puzzles. We’ve all watched lots of movies. Joshua has been very helpful around the house AND with school projects.