Thanks to a little prodding early enough in the week, we’ve been granted a visit from Archie this week. I need to try to prod him more regularly. His posts are always a pleasure. This week he gives us a bit of a ‘state of the union’.

My wife likes me to write a guest blog occasionally, I lack the initiative to make it a regular thing. But I made it here today, so let’s see what obnoxious thoughts we can pour out of my head, without tainting you all further.

Sadie’s dad and I took Riley and Angel to the Father/Daughter Fall Ball this past weekend. I’m hoping that this will be the start of many, and that the girls will come to view it as special time with the old man. Right now, they were more interested in balloons and dancing to some teeny-bop music than slow dancing to “Butterfly Kisses” with their dad. But they had fun. I did too.

We then started the week with a meeting with the school psychologist for Riley. Nothing particularly revelatory, stuff we have known for a while and have been dealing with. But every time the diagnoses and the accompanying criteria are spelled out in front of us, it hurts just like the first time I heard my little gator was not okay. Monday was no exception. But the school has an IEP meeting scheduled for us next week to address Riley’s issues and how proceed in her best interest. I have more faith in our school system than Sadie, but that’s tentatively based on how Riley accepts the adjustments. What it really boils down to is that we are both concerned that Riley will fall in the cracks and get forgotten, and we are working to find the best option for her with the least amount of collateral damage.

The other kids are well. Sadie posts often that the boy is really growing up, and I couldn’t agree more. He is turning into a fine young man, and humility and decency are really starting to come out in him. He has always been smart, and he doesn’t seem to be afraid to use his intelligence. We couldn’t be prouder. Right now he has a broken arm and pneumonia, and although I am tired of hearing Nintendo DS and Mythbusters marathons, he still makes me very happy to have as a son. Unless he were to clean his room. Ever.

Angel is……..well, we love Angel. She has the widest range of emotion in all of us. She is the most charming child in our household, and represents our happiness at its core. We are lucky to have been given such a bright ray of sunshine, to light our faces and warm our souls. She alone represents the best in us, and sometimes the worst. I worry about her sometimes, but she usually makes me forget that by smiling in the most disarming way.

This week at Angel’s cf clinic, we discovered that her overall lung function has dropped alarmingly. She is now back on a whopping dose of medicines that she neither likes nor wants, and we as the parents have to make sure she toes the line. Thing is, we have not noticed any of the usual signs that she might be in distress including labored breathing, wheezing, tiredness, lethargy, etc.. She has less than a month to improve, and if she doesn’t, she will have to be admitted to the hospital. See why I worry about her? With her brother sick, I feel like hovering over her, even though that will likely irritate her. I love Riley Children’s Hospital, but I don’t want my baby there for Christmas. She needs to be home with her family. If she can’t be, then we will have Christmas at the hospital with her. Period.

A sometimes blessed, heartbreaking, chaotic, neurotic, emotional, and never quiet household. It helps to take my mind off the world at large, with all of the horrible things people do to each other in all forms. My heart bleeds when I read the news, but when I come home, I only need the three faces of my loved ones to smile at me and it all goes away. Even if just for awhile.

I am trying to write(fiction), but it is tough. I had a really good thread started, but it disappeared from my computer and I’ve been reluctant to start again. I envy my wife’s ability to create, but then women are made to create. I like working with old cars, although my skills are limited to finish work. I like to blow sh!t up sometimes too. Or shoot something with a gun. And drink a beer while doing any of the preceding. I belong to a good family, that always has room for more, if not in our house then certainly in our hearts. Come see us sometime.