My Weird and Awesome Family

The weather’s been great, the scale has been kind to me lately, and my garden has produced some awesome lettuce for salads, tons of green beans which I’ve been roasting rather than boiling (much tastier), and zucchini, which thankfully, the kids have learned to enjoy.  Other family news:

Big Daddy is on vacation from work next week.  He planned it specifically so that he would be off for the “most interesting” week of the Tour de France.  He’s been filling up the DVR with three hours of Tour de France every day all month!  Even sports nut, Youngest Son, has to agree with me that three hours of watching a bunch of skinny guys riding bikes over mountains every day is a bit much.  The scenery is beautiful, the athleticism is impressive, but after about 10 minutes, I’m done.  Big Daddy is mesmerized for the entire three hours.  Perhaps he envisions himself pedaling over the Pyrenees instead of maneuvering over the hills of Western Pa., running into chasing Rottweilers that get in his way.

Oldest Son got his new computer yesterday.  This is a double yay!  Not only won’t I have to listen to him bitching about the lag in his gaming, but he’s going to take apart the computer he was using and use the parts to speed up my computer, which is an antique in the computer world.  I knew there was an upside to raising a quirky genius.

Youngest Son, poor kid, just wants to relax.  He works so hard during the school year.  He worked three jobs last summer.  This year, he decided to take a break and not apply to work Steelers training camp.  He had fun doing it last year, but it’s a seven day work week while they’re there.  He already works four days a week in the biology lab.  He’s also been busy tutoring my nephew in math and doing yard work for someone on his day off.  And he still finds time to run, bike, and work out in the gym after work!   He makes me tired.

Middle Son J is scheduled to come home from Germany in a couple weeks!  We can’t wait!  However,  instead of spending his time and money on going to school this semester, he wants to buy a new used truck, a dirt bike, and a jet ski!  We don’t even live near a freaking lake!  He’s been away from Mama too long.  It’s affecting his mind.

Love ya, fam! <3

The Laptop Saga (The End I Hope)

Yes! My genius soldier son has, in fact, succeeded in fixing his laptop (See comment under post “The Laptop Saga Continues”). After a rogue ninja bottle (his words) of shower gel spilled its contents onto and within his month-old $1400 laptop that he bought especially to keep in contact with us while deployed to Iraq, we weren’t always sure whether the thing would pull through. But like I said, if anyone could fix it, he would be the one. After disassembling the entire computer with access to very few tools, carefully washing off each component, and then somehow putting it all back together again, while battling the Iraqi dust and having very little free time, all he’s having trouble with is the backlighting. Yay! He can read my blog again. Double yay! I can see and talk to him on Skype again. It’s a good day here and halfway around the world for this family.

The Laptop Saga Continues

As they say, where there’s life, there’s hope. And so, after receiving some e-mails about our soldier son’s struggle to open up his damaged laptop so he could get to the inner workings and attempt to fix it, I feel slightly better now that he has finally managed to get the thing open. Of course, it’s very possible the thing is toast. But, if anyone could fix the thing, it would be my oldest son. He is a genius. And, no, I’m not just speaking as the proud mama. He is a bona fide genius, and I’m speaking solely as an observer in the know. He could read words when he was two, storybooks when he was three, and just about anything by the time he started kindergarten. People used to look at us very strangely when this adorable little diaper-clad baby would run his pudgy index finger along a printed sign and correctly sound out the words. We had to teach him how to look things up in reference books before he got to kindergarten. Despite the fact that both Big Daddy and I are far from stupid, we couldn’t answer a lot of his questions anymore. And most of his knowledge is self-taught.  Like a lot of really brilliant people, he didn’t thrive in the conventional school environment.  He did ok, but that’s because he already knew most of what the class was being tested on.  Of course, we enrolled him in as many enrichment opportunities that we could, and his school did have a gifted program but a lot of that involved extra busy-work, and he wasn’t always thrilled with that.  Cyber school would have been a great option for him, but unfortunately, this was not available to us at that time.

So, anyway, back to the computer.  If the thing is fixable, he would be the one to fix it.  I was really bummed yesterday on many levels.  He had just bought the computer less than a month ago, and used his hard-earned cash.  He carefully selected one with all the features he’d need to keep in touch with us here at home and that would best withstand the harsh environment where he was headed.  And all this planning has been possibly thwarted by a leaking bottle of shower gel!  After all the excitement of talking to him through Skype the other day,  now we can only communicate through e-mail when he can use someone else’s computer.  But, yeah, maybe he can fix it.  Or maybe he’ll have to buy a new one.  I’ll keep you posted.