Well, it's been a rough week. And I've talked to several people and learned a lot. Spent a lot of time with God. One thing I've learned is that I've got to start spending time for myeself. Not wait until I have time, but make time. I've ordered kayak mounts for my car so I can go kayaking occasionally. I'm also going to start walking more - likely with my kids at the local park. It'll be helpful to just get back out into nature. And on the days the weather isn't good? Well, I wanted to learn to wittle a while back and never really spent time on it. I have the stuff, so why not? Make the time.

The last couple of days has been like a mental reset. I got more sleep, read the Bible, etc. It's been good. Now to go back into life and take all I've learned and take care of myself. That way I can take care of others better. You can't really love others well if you don't love yourself. And that's been a struggle. So it's time to show myself I'm worthy of love. Worthy of time. So I can also give it to others.

In other news, I just turned 30 this past weekend! I feel the same, but it is odd thinking I'm in a whole new decade now. I had to go do the DMV and get my license renewed... but otherwise, there isn't anything special about it. Just another day, you know?

We're rehoming our puppy my wife really wanted today, unfortunately. The puppy wire haired pointed griffin was just too much for us in this time of life with the health stuff and kids. MY wife made the call, but it is for the best... She had way too much energy for us to keep her entertained and happy. So she'll go to a home with a poodle and a guy that travels a lot and be able to get that excess energy out. She'll be better out there than in this home with two old lazy dogs. It's saddening it had to go this way, though. She's a sweet dog... but yeah.

And as usually, if you're a praying person, please pray for my family and I. Lord knows we need it. Thanks.

So recently, my wife and I went to Little Rock to see another specialist. The wait was long and frustrating, but the doctor made up for it by being very kind and understanding. He does think she has POTS and a certain type. At the end of this month, we've got to go back to his office to do another tilt table test as he doesn't like how the place she got hers done performs theirs. My wife came out of the appointment hopeful.

My girls have been sick all last week with Strep, COVID, and RVS, so that's been fun. Their antibiotics definitely worked, though; they're both feeling better now. In turn, my wife is now sick. She's on antibiotics now, too. I've had a slight cough for like a month, but other than that, I've been fine.

My daughters have started calling small rocks and sprinkles 'little rocks' for some reason. Unsure why, but it's cute.

It's time to start mowing again, unfortunately. It is currently Wednesday and I have to mow everything before Saturday due to an easter egg hunt my wife is hosting at our house. And I can't tonight... So tomorrow or Friday, it is. Hooray. I'm not huge on hosting things... or going to events in general... but now I have a wife and kids, so it's a sacrifice I must make.

Work hase been fun! Sarcasm, by the way... but yeah. We're managing to keep up on preventative maintenance, but that's coming at the cost of corrective orders sitting on the sideline. We're getting a little burried. Good news is one of the jobs for this shop has been posted, finally.

Tuesday and Wednesday, my wife and I were in Oklahoma City. My girls stayed with my parents during this as it was a trip for health appointments. The girls got to run around and play with baby goats. They're always excited to visit grandma and grandpa!

Anyway, Tuesday, we left pretty early and went to the Goodwill Outlet in OKC. If you've never heard of it, it's the last stop donations after they leave the Goodwill Stores and before they go to a landfill. It's always pretty chaotic. An empty warehouse with huge roller bins full of stuff. When they swap out the bins, people are like vultures. I found a couple of things I may test and sell, but we mainly go for my wife to source for her eBay. You pay by the pound, so a large overfilled was only like $60.

My wife's appointments went well, I believe. The second one officially said she has MCAS, which is really fun when paired with POTS. It explains a lot of her issues. Now hopefully we'll get more guidance and things to help her health issues. The doctor told her she'd get her life back, and I pray that's true. It's been hard watching her suffer through this stuff.

Between my wife's appointments, we met up with my longest friend who lives in the area for some coffee. It was nice sitting and chatting. Something we don't get to do a whole lot of. Mostly, my friend and my conversations extent are just Snapchatting each other a couple times a day whatever we're doing. So catching up a little was good.

My brother has been streaming on Twitch for a while now, though he's backed off a bit due to having to work more overtime at his job... but a lot of the time, he streams Minecraft and has a small, but good community. At the end of this month, he's going to launch a server for the viewers and himself. I am able to play Minecraft on my SteamDeck, but I also recently found out it runs pretty well on the laptop I use when blogging, as well. It's a Dell 14 Rugged with only 8gb of RAM. I was going to upgrade the RAM, but as you may know, RAM prices have gone insane lately. But oh well, it still runs well enough! So after launch, I'll join the server the occasional lunch break and build me a desert city.

I'm still keeping an eye out for fully remote jobs within the company I work for, but there's no rush. I did speak to someone about a position, but they needed someone to backfill a position and knew more product lifecycle things and advanced Excel usage than I do. He did say if they expand the team later on, I may be a good fit, though. I think I do want to break out of the biomed technician side and get into the administrative side at some point, still. Not because of losing the couple of co-workers and stress building, but because I feel like I enjoy the administrative work I do already more than the technician stuff. So hopefully someday, I'll get there. But who knows. If I remain a technician forever, it wouldn't be a terrible fate, either.

Well these last few weeks have been rough. My wife's health is not great... my kids were sick (better now)... and our bathroom flooded due to a cracked connector in the wall. For that last issue, I had to rip up flooring, treat mold, and paint the floor while my wife and daughters stayed with my parents. The floor is still bare, painted wood for now.
On top of all that, the helper my wife has put in her notice due to accepting a new position where she was already volunteering. This is her last week.
And to add on, one of the guys in the northern hospital we help with is leaving, too. Meaning three people from my team are leaving. Work's a bit of a struggle right now.

Please pray for my family. It's been an extremely stressful time and we aren't gret at dealing with stress together yet. Trying, though.

Here in Akransas this last week, we had a lot of snow (for us). It was too powdery to make snowmen and then turned to solid ice (my driveway is still half ice), but the girls loved it. We bundled them up and they loved running around in it. They mostly liked eating it, though... but we were able to show our 3 year old how to make snow angels and she made several! That was fun.

We had the girls' birthday party at Chuck E Cheese this past weekend. I thought it would be more like them I was young and they had maybe 4 parties max and more room, but no... they had seven parties crammed in the back. Hardly enough room to walk between the tables. It was chaos. I don't see us ever doing that again... but the kids had fun, at least. We had pizza and cupcakes. My youngest daughter mainly stayed in their little play area where they have a ramp to climb up and a slide, whilst my oldest daughter went from game to game, usually dragging my dad or mom with her. All in all, it was okay. But they really shouldn't cram that many parties in the area. Would have been much more enjoyable if they cut it down to four.

One of the girls' gifts was a large mat that you use water on to color. We had it set up at the table for a while Sunday and they were loving it. They had me draw things on it, too... but I'm no artist.

Also since the last blog, I put up a 'sensory swing' in the living room. Both girls love it, but they also tend to fight over it. I've since purchased another one that arrived yesterday. I'll have to install it really soon. At first they mostly liked sitting in it and swinging, but quickly learned they can put the cloth under their armpits and swing like it's a harness, using their feet to move and lift up for air. Both of them have a blast doing that.

My wife's health isn't great - she's actually started getting infusions on Fridays for the next few weeks due to having very low iron saturation in her blood. So that's fun. We're also going to Oklahoma City at the end of the month for one of her specialists. But, at least we're getting somewhere. The more answers we can get, the better. It's just stressful and I cannot help her with her pain and fatigue. I wish I could. Not being able to is so frustrating, which comes out as anger. It's something I'm working on.

As for my job, yeah... two people are confirmed leaving. One in two weeks, the other in about four. It'll be nice having the extra on-call pay, but not fun if I get called in too often. It'll also make it harder to meet our required metrics, but we'll do our best. That's all we can do, after all. I'm hoping that this will allow me to slide into the Biomedical Technician 3 position. I've been a BMET 2 for the last 5 years, which is around the timeframe they want before the 3. So we'll see. I've just got to try and remain positive and not lete the added stressors get to me. Pray for me!

I've decided to sell my motorycle. Financially, we need the money, but realistically, I don't really need it anymore. It's been like two years since I've even ridden it. I put a new battery in it over the last summer and still did not take it out for a ride. A few years back, I was riding on a backroad whilst not feeling very good and hitt some gravel around a turn. This led me to being stuck under the motorcycle at a weird angle where I'm pretty sure if I didn't get out as fast as I did, I would have had permanent ankle injuries. The only way I got out from under is an older gentleman lived down the road and happened to be going home at that time. He stopped and was able to help get it off of me. I rode the motorcycle home with the handlebars at 30 degree angle to go straight. The motorcycle was fine.
Ever since then, I've been leery about corners. Having a family now just amplifies the nervousness. I love the thing, but it's just not my time to ride. It's a 2007 KLR650. The very motorcycle I always wanted. Could take me anywhere, but I never rode it to justice. So it's going to my co-worker. The same one that bought a computer gaming setup a few years back, funnily enough. I'm probably going to ride it to her house this weekend and have her take me back home. It'll be such a bittersweet time.

After that, I'll order the starter to get my truck up and running and try to sell that, too. I have no need for the truck as I can borrow one or use a small trailer if I need to haul. Most things will fit in my Outback or the minivan if we need larger things, anyway. That'll also be a bittersweet time because the truck is my first vehicle. It's a 2000 Chevy Silverado v8 longbed and I absolutely love the feel of it. But, since I bought the Outback, it mainly just sits. Last time I drove it is when the starter gave up. So it needs to go, too.

I emailed the hiring manager about another remote position within my company. I don't think they'd even consider me given I'm lacking a few of the requirements, but I figure it doesn't hurt to ask. And wastes less time for everyone than just applying. Who knows, though?

We're also looking at moving out to the property my parents own closer to the middle of the year rather than the end. It depends on when city water is out there and when my uncle vacates the area. There's no chance of us getting out there before the city water and there will need to be a few things done to the house first, but sooner would be nice. My mother retired and it would be just up the hill from her, so if my wife is having a hard day with her health, it'll be easier to manage. Plus, she's already talked to our current helper and she is willing to go that far to help. Probably only 2 days a week instead of 3-4 for the same pay, but it would be worth it for sure.

I'm on call this week for work and have been called in to work the last three days at varying times. This is good for the wallet, but abnormal for me. Typically, I get maybe one call the entire week and I'm up to three already. I'm not complaining, it's just odd.

I can't believe we're having my daughters' second and third birthday party in two weeks. We're having it at Chuck-E-Cheese this time as there will be several kids and it is just the easiest thing this year. Crazy how time flies.

Also, speaking of finances, I think I've got a plan that'll get us through. Perhaps completely out of the water, but we'll make it out to the property for sure first. Things aren't ideal, but I feel more hope than I have in a long time about it.

I'm not sure when I'll blog again... probably after the birthday party, unless something big happens. But until then, I wish you well!

Well, it's officially 2026. My kids have been having a rough time going to sleep for some reason and then my wife was sick for the days around New Year's. So I was just up alone until a bit after midnight, not really doing anything. Our youngest puppy started having seizures, but the vet said she had high levels of onion or garlic in the tests, so we think she's been eating the wild onion that grows in the back yard... I'll have to start pulling that when cleaning up dog poop back there. My wife and I had a rough day a few days ago as we still are tryin to learn each other's triggers and ho to de-escalate, but such is life. I love her. Financially, I'm not sure how we're ging to make it until we can move out to the other property... I worry. Trying to trust God is hard.
And now, to top off the start, one of my aunts is in critical condition after being in a bad accident yesterday. Several broken bones, internal bleeding, etc. So please pray for her.

So yeah, not a great start to the year...

But, I'm trying not to lose hope. My girls are happy, they love playing outside. Yesterday, my youngest was pushing my oldest in one of those walking cars around the yard. They were both smiling and laughing so hard. It was wonderful to see.
My wife and I were laughing together some recently, too, despite the sickness and chaos.
And I've started to read again. Currently I'm reading Hold Me Tight by Dr. Sue Johnson. I'm about halfway through and and it is helping me understand things better. So far it's a great read. Now I just need to learn to implement the stuff talked about.

This year will be a big year in any case. People may be moving around/leaving the job, which will be stressful, but could be interesting. My mom is retiring from her job and is going to focus on their little homestead. My girls are turning 2 and 3. And we should be moving out to the propertly near my parents in the later part of the year.
I'm really looking forward to the move, despite the 15+ minute longer commute.

Anwway, yeah... rough start to the year. It's Saturday and I'm working due to the recent sicknesses not letting me come in on Friday.

In other news, we recently got Disney's Dreamlight Valley and my wife is enjoying it. She's been playing it quite a bit lately and my girls enjoy watching and seeing the familiar characters. It'll be really fun when they're able to actually play things with us. Currently, they just hold controllers that don't have batteries and pretend. But once they understand the concept of games, we'll let them in on the Mario Party sessions and teach them simple board games. I'm more excited about the board games, really. I hope our girls grow into loving board games.

My parents got the girls this blue Jeep car they can both ride in. They can control it, but it also have a remote controller so we can drive it for them. They were loving driving around in my parents' yard and up their driveway. The laughter and smiles are always the best. It'll stay out there since we don't really have the space to store such a thing, but they're out there most weekends, so it'll be good still.

Well that's the update starting the New Year. I hope you all had a good 2025 and kicked off 2026 strong. Until next time!