Pictures from Christmas Letter!

Grrr.....more cut pictures. This WAS a great picture of the 4 Grandparents and 1 Great-Grandpa. Great Grandpa Jim (Reagan's Grandpa) sadly passed away this fall. This was the guy we got the dog from. We miss you Grandpa Jim!

Quinn's baptism at our church. Good looking family!! :)

Jack's 5th birthday. He thought he was big stuff...and he was!
Another image cut...dang. I hate putting multiple pictures into a blog. Either way, Jack and Abby have funny hairdoos in the tub. I think every person in America has a funny tub hairdoo picture somewhere from their past.

Ahh, our little "Q". Quinn's first "smiley" pictures. Part of the green theme. We were just happy he was finally awake!
Apparently, my copy/paste work cut me off, but the real star was Reagan anyway. She was the Matron of Honor. New Year's Eve wedding, our first one like this. Cakes at every table. Cupcakes galore and Cheeseburger sliders at Midnight for New Years. Bottled beer of my favorite types. Champagne everywhere. Yes, this was the best. wedding. evah!

Jack's first day of Kindergarten and Abby's last "first day of school" without actually going to school. She goes to a great daycare in Easter Lake (Thanks Tracy!)
Daddy and his 2 kiddos at an I-Cubs game in Des Moines. Great times!

St. Lucia with just the adults, no kids. As if that wasn't enough, then you add St. Lucia, warm weather, and St. Patty's celebration to it! Way too much fun on this trip and warmer than the one below. We have 2 great families with great Grandparents/parents!

Christmas 2009 in Corpus Christi, Texas. Yes, that is a sweater I am wearing. Snow at the airports and never got above 48 degrees. Plus, constant 30-40 mph winds since our place was on the beach/gulf. Yikes! Great time though! (Iowa was having the Christmas blizzard)

Jack, Abby, and Quinn at first family pictures in August

Our growing family at family pictures in August

Abby at her 3rd birthday party....a princess cake!

Barry's 2010 Christmas Letter

Dear family and friends,

Greetings to all of you that I have yet to meet and of course greetings to those who I’ve already met. I have only been around for 5 months, but my parents have already put me to work. They said each child needs to work to keep this house going and the family somewhat sane (harder than you think), so here I sit, well lay, and type the letter. My name is Quinn King Barry and I am the newest Barry here. I was born July 9^th, early like my brother and sister, but large like my siblings as well. I was 8 pounds, 7 ounces…the smallest of the three! Despite being related to everyone in this house, I have been very unique. I slept 20 hours (seriously!) or more for the first six weeks. My parents, okay…my Dad, was really worried and wanted to run tests on me! I even had 4 days on the Bili Blanket to help my yellow skin turn white. Mommy and Daddy called me their little glow worm! But after my due date came and went, I started to wake up more. Guess what?! Now, I don’t sleep much at all besides my solid 10-hour interruption-free nighttime dreamy time. A 20-minute nap here and there is all I need to get through the day. People say I am like my Dad, and I look like him too! My favorite things to do right now, besides lay wide awake all day, is to growl and screech for joy, spit up everywhere (I’m on Soy milk right now and I have become the world’s happiest baby), and look at the indoor cats with much curiosity. I’m thinking their tails look like fun pull toys and I hope to try this out soon. What is the worst that could happen? Well, enough about me, I want to tell you what I have learned about my family….

Abby is my older sister and she is 3 and loves to dance and sing. Lately, she likes music even more and is hoping for a pink guitar or a keyboard for Christmas to continue practicing her budding music career. She is quite the helper and sometimes feeds and changes her 30+ dolls after she finishes with me. She is not in school yet, but loves going to Tracy’s daycare and not having to take naps this year. She is getting over her fear of dogs rapidly (more on that later!). I find Jack the funniest, but I think my parents find Abby’s looks and energy the funniest of all. She wears me out just watching her. But I am kind of excited to play with her as I get older.

Jack goes to school full days now as he is in Kindergarten, so I don’t see him much. But he makes up for it by sleeping in “my” room. He loves me and I love him and we make faces at each other a lot. I love how he decorates my room with Star Wars, Transformers, and Happy Meal toys. He also keeps EVERY piece of paper he draws on and hangs it up. Daddy says our room is just a large trash can, but I love it. Jack cracks me up by dressing up as various Super heroes, talking in strange voices, and rarely being Jack. I am not sure who Jack really is, but I know I like him. During the summer, he likes to help Dad mow our large lawn and Jack is completely over his fear of dogs. So, about the dog…

Since I have arrived, our family has experienced a loss and an addition. My Mommy lost her grandfather in October to cancer. Grandpa Jim was a great guy and even came to my baptism. With his loss, their family dog needed a new home. Luckily, my family was looking for a dog, preferably an adult dog that needed a home and lots of love. One problem: my siblings are deathly afraid of dogs!! But not now because they now realize that Avus loves kids and is fairly calm for a black lab. She wears a collar that keeps her inside our acreage, but loves the fact that she can run free all day long and no longer has a kennel. My parents changed her name to Avus because Avus is Latin for Grandfather. Sure she has chewed through $50 of leashes and collars, has eaten more plastic than a landfill, and drug a 40-pound bag of dog food across the yard to her house because she wanted a snack, but we still love her tons!

Then there is my Mommy and Daddy. They are awesome, but so busy! My mom took 12 weeks off of work when I was born and Daddy loved me so much since I was his first child born during his summer “off”. Even better, he didn’t coach or take grad school classes as he claims he is done with that for awhile. He still coaches 7^th grade girls basketball, so he has been gone a lot lately, but I hear his team is pretty good (A and B teams are combined 11-1). He has been at Carlisle for 10 years and worked as a counselor for the last 2. He meets with lots of kids and families who don’t have it as good as I do and I think he attempts to help them. Sometimes I giggle at the thought that my Dad who has so many issues himself is the guy helping 460 middle school kids each day! (He thinks I am giggling at the ceiling fan….nope, just my Dad and his mental issues!) Mommy is back to work at Mercy for her 8^th year. She continues to do amazing and scores very well in patient satisfaction. This year, she is learning to do everything on an IPad because her clinic is going “electronic”. To be honest, watching my family, I didn’t know anyone still did things without electronics or technology. She is a great Mommy and helped organize more fixes to our new home. In the past year, we have torn out and replaced our shower, basement bar, garage door, and water heater. Daddy said the next two items to get replaced are his sanity and his bank account. I don’t get why Mommy laughed and Daddy started to cry, but then again, these adults I live with are weird. They love me lots, but dang, they are nuts. As kids, we just laugh.

Well, I’m due for another 24-minute nap, so I better sign off. You may think a newborn writing a letter is weird and maybe even amazing, but I don’t. You see, I know that I am writing a CHRISTmas letter and Christmas is all about the birth of Christ….a newborn who gave the world hope and people the promise of eternal life. So don’t think of what I do as amazing, just use it as a reminder of the real amazing newborn this Christmas: Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas and God Bless this Holiday season!

Quinn and my family (Ben, Reagan, Jack, and Abby. Plus Bo, Jangles, Avus, and the fish and the deer)

10980 Cleveland Trail, Norwalk, IA 50211, 515-480-3939 or 515-306-1415)

12 Days of Christmas

Huh? Christmas already? Well, actually, yes if you are a Barry. We are having our first annual Labor Day Barry Christmas. Believe it or not, it is very tough to get all 55 of us together during the winter as most of us have our own 2-3 family Christmas days or weekends already and Iowa's new climate has caused blizzards to occur every 3 days during December, so last year we didn't even have a Christmas together! So this year we have decided to get together in Central Iowa for a weekend of golf, food, beer, poker, beer, food, presents, food, beer, church, food, a dinner, beer, and maybe more golf. If we get time, we will try to eat and have some drinks too! But this new tradition got me thinking how things have changed over time. I titled this blog 12 days of Christmas because we have had 10 days of school so far with a 2-day weekend in between before we got to this 3-day Christmas break. Much has changed in my life, my family's life, in education, and in our world. Long story short (well, okay, not really short!), I am reflecting this weekend.

Nine years ago I started teaching high school science at Carlisle and could have very well seen myself teaching science for 33 years and then retiring happily. Well, like I said, things change. On my 10th day of teaching that first year, I met with a textbook rep (speaking of change.....why do we still have textbooks? When ours got too old, I started teaching my students with the most current information from magazines and the internet. Basically no cost to the school and the students were learning more. Hmmm.....something to think about), and after about 30 minutes he said he would let me start preparing for the students as it will be a crazy day with the plane crash into the tower. Huh? What? What plane crash? Little did I know, the calendar said September 11th and I was about the experience the most surreal day of my short 10-day career. After seeing what was going on, I called my brother Doug who taught at-risk kids in Kansas City and asked "what do I do/say?". Just listen and be there for the students was his advice and remember that really no teacher or student had been through an event like this before, so just do your best. After an awkward day and a 2-mile long line for gas, life slowly returned to normal and I survived my first year. Now, in my 10th year, I spent my first 2 weeks meeting 35 new students, holding 4 after school groups, and talking students through domestic violence at home, a divorce, racial slurs, and finally ended my 2 weeks with helping a mom get her child some psychiatric help due to suicidal thoughts. Some things don't change though as I still sought the advice of many around me with these difficult issues. I also ended the longest day (Friday) by staring at my computer, completely drained, wondering what the hell just happened. The difference was now I was looking at my 3rd laptop, not my desktop Dell which took up a large corner of my science room, and even more room for all of its plugs and power sources!

What else has changed? Well, back then, I would end my week by correcting the many papers of my 85 9th grade students. Now, I am still correcting papers, but it is the papers of my 154 6th graders and 160 8th graders. Fortunately, I do not have the 167 7th graders or the 170 4th graders this year. Yeah, we've grown a little this decade! If I wasn't correcting papers, I would sometimes catch a drink with my co-workers, or 8 or 9 drinks. With my "wife-to-be" off performing surgery around Iowa, I was free as a bird to enjoy my youth. After my 5th day this year, I had to cut my drinks short to get back to help take care of our 3 kids, one a newborn. Sometimes I think kids haven't changed our lives too much, then I do a diaper change, some burping, and cry. That is what I do. Ironically, baby Quinn does the same thing! After a crazy game of "footballawrestling 0'bowling" where you play to 10 unless you get there before Jack, then you play until he wins, it is time for early bed for all, including me. If I manage to stay up longer than them, I am usually trying to catch up on my school work or trying to keep up with the 2 educational blogs that I operate. Speaking of blogs....were they around in 2001? Well, they were and even I was blogging, but my blogs were sent through email. Hence the title of this blogsite....a reference to how it all began.

So, in my 10th year of teaching how is my job/career going? I can't complain I guess. I have my own office, my own phone in my office and room (sadly...my old science room still doesn't have a phone in it!), I have way less papers to check, and only have to design 4 lesson plans a week (some years at the high school I had 15 lessons to plan a week). So I have it pretty good. But in my old job I would think science all day, even after school was out for the day. Now, I have to shut my mind off when I head for home. For my own mental health, I cannot take thinking work home with me. I may still correct papers and update my blogs and plan lessons, but the hardest part is still leaving the conversations and difficult discussions throughout the day at the school. I believe in another 10 years I will still be in that office and still teaching students about life (maybe 200 students per grade instead of 160 by then). I hope I am using a tablet and the students are using cell phones or similar devices instead of text books and other school materials. I am sure students will still be dealing with issues and problems, sadly that will likely never change. And the weirdest part of my life then? Jack will have already been through my middle school (originally I was going to blog about his first 2 weeks...then I got off track), Abby will be in middle school with her brother Quinn, and who knows....maybe another kid or two of ours still waiting to get to have their Daddy as their teacher. Yes, I am sure a lot will change in my next 10 years of teaching and those changes will be fun and exciting. The one thing I have to make sure that doesn't change is my ability to listen and help my students and family and understand with every troubling event in life, there is room for growth, learning, and a better day tomorrow.

Speaking of troubling events, family, and better days tomorrow....it is time for me to find what golf clubs I still own, head to the Barry Christmas, and try golfing for the first time in 5 years. Somehow, I believe I will be much better at the poker tournament tonight than the golf tournament today. Oh well, I hear beer will be served at both. I'm good at that. Happy Labor Day Weekend everyone, hug and kiss your family and be safe wherever you are.

Love&Prayers,

Ben

3 things to leave you with:

1. Jack did have his first day of school 2 weeks ago. He was one of the two kids out of 500 who got sent on the wrong bus on his first day and ended up in another town. Poor kid. Luckily, he knew some teachers from some "parties" we had and got a ride back with them. He loved every minute of it though!

2. Football is here. I am an Iowa State and UNI fan, but I will cheer for Iowa at times this year as they have an amazing team. How good are they? Just watch this graphic video of one of their players getting slammed into at an intersection. Don't worry, he is so tough, that he was almost going to be play today just days after this event happened. Amazing video and bonus points if you see his shoe come off the first time you watch it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQvsz4hsuB0

3. New TV season begins soon and I am without my favorites: 24 and LOST. Any suggestions? I am going to give "The Event" a chance and maybe Modern Family or Glee. Fringe now becomes easily my favorite show, and maybe even Reagan's too!

Ben's Bits

It has been awhile since I have posted a new blog here, but I have been blogging, I promise! I have 2 other blogs, both school and education-related and as the new school year approaches, I have been attempting to get them up to date and ready to "launch". Trust me, the lack of blogging is not due to nothing going on in my life or my family's life. Our life is just as crazy as always. Here are some details and updates:

Quinn: Now 5 weeks old and finally really growing. Does he still sleep most of the day? Yes. Definitely. He still has no nap schedule as he simply sleeps most of the day and night, but seeing his eyes open is less of a whole family event now as it once was. I estimate that he now opens his eyes about 6 hours a day, so this is good. And the best part?? SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT ALREADY!!! Wow! This is a good thing with my job starting back up and Reagan already almost halfway through her maternity leave. This is NOT a good thing for Jack as this means his crib will be set up in his room this week and Jack and Quinn will officially become Irish roommates. Jack claims he is "so excited" for this, but things might be different when Quinn cries, or later, steals or breaks or eats his toys. I am sure Quinn's first words will be "Ironman", "Wolverine", or "Skywalker" now.

Summer BBQ/Beer Tasting party: Why is it I can never remember the details to our annual wine tasting party or our beer tasting party?! Hmmmm, weird. Either way, I take good notes early in the night and am pleased (okay, not really because I didn't rate either of these a 10/10) to announce the top 2 beers of 2010 were Land Shark and Budweiser American Ale, one of their new flavors. Again, we had over 20-25 beers tasted or at least some (okay, me) attempted to taste these. Hub City, an Iowa beer, again finished dead last and has been banned from future events. That stuff is plain nasty. As for the party, no balloons this year due to rain and wind early in the day and forecasted, but my Dad did release some helium balloons that surprised many guests. The weather actually turned out to be some of the best weather of the summer. A good night was had by all. but getting 10 of us rounded up and the house cleaned up inside and outside the next morning and out the door to a wedding 3 hours away did not go very smoothly. We missed the wedding, but still got some good Western Iowa time with family.

Weather: I think it has rained every day since I last blogged. If you aren't in a hole somewhere, you likely know of the flooding Iowa, more specifically Ames, has received. Bad deal, but we keep thinking we are so glad to be in our new house this year and not our old house. Our old house was likely another 100 feet below Ames and very possibly built just above the drain to Easter Lake. We know it flooded once this year, maybe more. Sadly, most people I know also had flooded basements as well, so I guess we are lucky to be dry. Our yard, I mean, 1 acre pond, was not so lucky. With the recent dry days, we were finally able to mow most of it and as of today, you can almost walk across it without getting your feet wet. Almost.....

Prepping for School: More good news...I still have a job! I finally got into the school a lot last week and got my classroom almost ready for students, a mere 313 this year, plus 170 7th graders who I will likely see in passing most days. I also got a lot of paperwork done in my office and my office floor and desk are now visible. I doubt that will last, but it will at least be ready for day 1. And after a year of attempted suicides, hospitalizations, mean girl behavior, Facebook fights between mobs of students, and a few students swearing at me, I am sure this year will be even more interesting. This year I have help though: Jack. Since he is starting Kindergarten this year, he will go to and from school with me and catch a bus to and from the middle school to his school. He gets to hang out with me from7 a.m. to 7:45 a.m. every day and then returns to my office around 3:30 every afternoon and hangs out until we head home. It will take some getting used to as I typically get to school at 6:30 every morning and use all 90 minutes just to mentally and physically prepare for work, but I am sure my IPod Touch, Jack's favorite toy, er, educational tool, will keep him busy. Maybe by the end of the year, he will be leading some of my after school groups! Either way, we are both really excited for the school year. He has been busy buying supplies and I have been busy securing supplies for needy kids in my building. Now, tomorrow, is our last day of freedom before I go back full-time. We are spending the day at Adventureland, or as Jack and Abby know it: The only place we have wanted to go all summer because it looks so cool and so fun!!! We will see how that goes. Maybe it will lead to another blog....

Love&Prayers,

Ben

3 Things to Leave you With:

1. Good luck to all the educators and students out there as they head back to school. My thoughts and prayers are with you all. Much like anyone who has done research, I wish we had year-round school (same amount of days basically, just shorter and more frequent breaks), but sadly most of us don't, so good luck to the many who are headed "back to school" over the next 2 weeks.

2. If you read the first few lines of this blog and actually made it down here, here are the 2 blogs I have been working so hard to create and add content. One is for teachers who are looking to add technology to their teaching and classrooms or at least trying to use technology more in the classroom. The other is my counseling blog, mainly geared to students, parents, and families.

http://wildcatwebsites.blogspot.com/

http://carlislecounseling.blogspot.com/

3. We are also doing the State Fair this week and I always get the Pork Chop on a Stick and then try one new Fair Food. This year, I think I will have to try the "Crispy Creme Burger". Here is a link to story about it. Sounds interesting to say the least.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article1072285.ece

Home Ownership: Deer, Water, and Doors....and More!

Yeah, in the photos above, that doesn't tell half the story. If a picture tells a thousand words, don't worry, I'm not going to write two thousand words just because I have two pictures above. Well, maybe close. Anyway, let's begin the story of "Living in the Country: Year 1"

Deer: Yeah, they are pretty. Bucks are amazing to see stand tall and look out for the herd. Does are elegant and graceful. Fawns are the cutest baby animal in the Midwest. Now...I want to frickin' blast them all out of Warren county! I'm sorry....I love animals, but if I could host a deer hunting tournament on and near our property for two days and only 100 deer were "removed", I would still have a problem. The picture of the un-harvested cornfield above shows only 15 visible deer. I don't have issue with that. What I have issue with is two startling FACTS (note, not exaggerations...and we have lots of witnesses and proof). One evening, 151 deer dined on corn in that field. It took awhile to count, but I got to 85 and I gave up. Typically, you double your count as there is a valley that hides some deer and other deer simply blend in. But if you want a hard count and actual number, we came home from church one Saturday night in the winter, to darkness setting in for the night. But since some light was still available, we counted the herd that was in our yard. 22 deer were in our driveway and front yard blocking entrance to our garage. We had TO WAIT FOR THEM TO MOVE just to get to our house. In our backyard were 31 more deer eating and bedding down for the night. When I went to bed that night, we still had over 30 deer sleeping in piles in our yard (full moon...easy to see and count). So, next time you tell me deer are our friends and so cool to watch, come on out (bring a gun...you will eventually even want to try shooting one) and watch them eat, sleep, play, swim, hike, shop for souvenirs in our yard. And every visitor gets deer jerky when they leave...our treat!

Water: Okay, deer are basically harmless if you count the fact that we can't plant vegetation on our land. But water is not. We have a long history with water. It is the main reason we left our last house. But we soon realized our house wasn't the problem....we are the problem. Within 1 month of moving in, our shower in our master bath began leaking into our theater room. Okay, water....you do NOT mess with my theater room. It is on like Donkey Kong at this point. Magically, our 1-year home warranty did not cover this problem (much like every problem listed below), so we gutted our whole shower since it was built wrong and re-built it. Five grand later and one month of us showering in the basement, we are done. Previous owners paid four grand as this problem showed up first on the day we closed, so they felt bad for us (we didn't get anything in writing...but props to them as they gave their word they would fix it if it leaked again and stuck to it). But water kept haunting us. A leaky pipe in our bar leaked slowly all winter and rotted out 2 of our cupboards. Our home insurance (not home warranty) covered this one, but we still owed $1000. Since we agreed to do the painting, tiling, and cleaning...we only owed $12. :) But at the same time that leak sprung, our kitchen ceiling decided it could no longer hold the June monsoon and leaked all over our wood floors. Monster dehumidifier and floor dryer later, insurance owed us $96 because again we agreed to do most of the work. All that is no fun, but hearing our former house had its basement flooded again, made us hate water and enjoy our dry house/basement all at the same time.

Doors: Ummm, just after our one-year anniversary of our house, our garage door basically broke in half. The garage guy took 13 seconds to investigate and then told us we need to pay him $1500 for a new door. Sure, dude, whatever. Take if from one of the kid's college fund...they can't all go to college can they? Then yesterday, at the zoo, our van door broke and wouldn't shut...at the zoo. I finally pushed it shut with brute force so no one could break in. I then preceded to leave my keys on the dash and the vehicle unlocked for the next 2 hours. I might as well left the door open!

So....home ownership is an interesting venture. I may have vented some about our money pit, but then I remember this money pit is located over a half mile from the nearest light, 2 miles from traffic of any kind, and I have yet to even come close to counting all the stars in the sky at night (partly b/c I am counting deer every night!). And as August approaches, I know I will have a great view of the 10-day Hot Air Balloon festival and of the August meteor showers. I don't know if there is a price for all of this nature and beauty, but I have a feeling it is worth way more than some natural springs in our house walls and ceilings and some silly doors that break in half. I think so anyway. Enjoy nature everyone...it truly is beautiful. And when it gets too beautiful...shoot it. :)

Love&Prayers,

Ben

3 Things to leave you with:

1. I think this rap video describes me as a Dad during the summer.... I think I am the one with the hat backwards...especially when the kid has to go potty!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATSbUT5diAA

2. Or maybe this one, another favorite one of mine. Reagan says I am the guy with the visor hat!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOKuSQIJlog&feature=related

3. Finally, a little note that the "nation's 3rd best" Hot Air balloon festival is coming up on July 30th through Aug. 7th in Indianola Iowa. Tons of cool balloons this year and many visible from our house. Which is maybe why we are hosting our annual BBQ and Beer tasting. I think it is the "nation's 3rd best" beer tasting night, but that is just me. A future blog will let you know which beer won! Last year's winner was "Red Stripe".

http://www.nationalballoonclassic.com/

Quinn King Barry is here!

Well, Quinn King Barry has made it and in less than 1 week he has managed to heat Iowa up to 110 degree heat index, cause the Royals to lose 3 straight after winning 10 of 13, and our garage door to break. But the stock market is way up since he was born, so it all averages out! This is just one of many pictures and videos that Quinn has been the star of in his short life, but if you scroll to the bottom...I mean read word-for-word until you get to the bottom, you will find a link to see more great pictures of little Quinn. He's not so little I guess. For the rest of this blog, I will share with you some of the facts and figures of the "Mighty Quinn" (thanks Father Kirby for the nickname) and how his first week of life on the outside is going.

First of all, the basics: He was born at 4:46 p.m. on Friday, July 9th. He was a big baby, but our smallest so far, weighing in at 8 pounds 7 ounces. And yes, this was well over 2 weeks early. Had he gone to full term, he would have been near 10 pounds! Thankfully, Reagan seems to always go a couple weeks early which is good as all of our kids have been 8-9 pounds at that point! The ultrasound just a week prior had Quinn pegged for well under 7 pounds meaning he should be just over 7 at birth on the 9th. Love modern technology and its "margin of error". Our great doctor's own measure and estimate method was much closer as he predicted an 8 pound+ baby. As for Quinn's length, pretty typical: 20.5 inches. He was born after a typical Reagan labor: 4 days of constant contractions, 2 days of little sleep, and a morning heading to the hospital after countless hours of 5-minute apart contractions. Even then, we spent about 10 hours in active labor at the hospital before he arrived. Reagan, being a trooper and a pro at this, even found time to shower, do her hair, and do her makeup while contractions were less than 3 minutes apart and her water had long since broken. I don't even ask at this point...I just stay out of the way!

When Quinn finally arrived, so did his brother Jack and sister Abby. Abby has her 30-kiss per day quota that she has to get in. Even though he was born late in the afternoon, I think she still got it. Her hugs are more like head butts and her petting is more like patting, but Quinn seems to realize that she means well and usually sleeps right through her affectionate attempts. As for Jack, the guy who originally refused to share rooms, he even helped move Quinn's dresser to right beside his and gave Quinn a tour of our house, including his eventual shared-room with Jack (currently he is in pack n'play in our room until he sleeps through the night). Jack thinks Quinn is pretty special and uses Abby's downtime as time to get his hugs and kisses in as well.

So how is Quinn liking Earth, our house, the country-living, etc.? Well, we don't really know. He sleeps close to 20 hours a day and is jaundice right now which could be causing some of the drowsiness. We call him our glo-worm as he has the fluorescent green light strapped to his back basically all the time. The good news is that he only needs this for about 24 hours and then he should be back to normal. Well, normal for our family which means a pale shade of off-white, prone to sunburns if exposed to anything higher than a 60-watt bulb! He is unsure of the cats right now, but Jangles has taken to him like she has the other two kids....a little mother hen. Bo, having more diagnoses than most students I counsel, has taken to hiding, darting, and likely peeing where he shouldn't.

What about Quinn's parents? Well, Reagan is doing well and looks fantastic (as many of you saw from the Facebook photos). She is doing way too much around the house already, but enjoying time with her new son all the while balancing her free time between much needed naps and other kid time. She is liking having me home for a change. Quinn is our first summer baby, so I actually have another month before I am required back to school. This makes for lots of great family time, so we are just hanging out and waiting to see if Quinn ever wakes up. (side note...when his eyes do open, it is quite an event in our house and we all gather around. No wonder he doesn't open his eyes up much!)

Well, that is about it for now. I will leave you with some Quinn facts and then as always, 3 things to leave you with. This time, my things are videos that are all videos that show true enjoyment. The first is "video" (okay, pictures put to music) of Quinn, the 2nd two, well, I will let you be the judge of whether or not they are true enjoyment. All I have to say is watch them...they are well worth your time.

Quinn Facts:

1. He was born on a Friday..just like Jack and Abby were!

2. He is CURRENTLY youngest of 3...just like his Mom and Dad are.

3. A former Royal by the name of Mark Quinn is the "all-time homerun leader" for the major leagues by a player with the last name that starts with Q (it is the lowest total of any letter though!)

4. Quinn was almost Liam Timothy, but Ben's preference won out in the end.

5. Quinn is our only child whose name is not spelled using 4 letters and also the only child who does not have a longer version of his name (Jackson and Abigail)

6. Quinn is the only grandchild or great-grandchild on either side whose first name begins with Q.

7. King, Quinn's middle name, is Reagan's maiden name. Although I like poker, this is not why I have a child named Jack and one named Quinn (Queen) King. If we have a 4th and I nickname him Ace and he is always a joker....then you should worry!

Love&Prayers,

Ben

3 Things to Leave you With:

1. The first thing that causes true enjoyment is LIFE. Go to this website and enter the password to see great pictures of Quinn: http://www.bellababyphotography.com/login password: 0709quinnbarry

2. The second thing that causes true enjoyment is nature. Click on this link to see how one person truly enjoys one of nature's most beautiful moments. Umm....yeah, he really enjoys it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI

3. The third thing that causes enjoyment is laughter. When I watch this video I think about what my brothers did to me and what Jack and Abby may someday do to Quinn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXPQY_VRP6M

Time to Implement a New Defense: Zone

Well, here it is already July (late on July 4th for that matter!) and I am just writing my first blog of my summer series. Some of you are rejoicing I am sure because you usually just delete these, but I have actually had 3 people ask me when I would be starting up my blog again...can you believe that!? So, as I watched my Royals get blown out on their one national television appearance and fireworks are exploding in the rain around our house, I figured now is a good time to start my summer of blogging. You see, my life will get crazy very soon as we are adding child #3 any moment now (anywhere from seconds to 16 days...but no later than July 20th) and that means kids will outnumber adults in our house. This means we will now play Zone defense and see if having 2 kids has taught us anything in how to raise a 3rd child. So, what have I learned so far? Here. We. Go.

1. Sleep is for the kidless. I can't complain too much as Jack liked going to bed at 8 and getting up at 8. But then came Abby.....goes to bed at 8, talks until around 10:30, wakes up at 6:30 and tugs on our covers until we either put her in our bed to play with our ears for an hour or until we throw a poptart on the floor for her to eat the frosting off of. If I had really learned things from my kids, I would keep poptarts on the nightstand and have a picnic blanket for our bedroom rug. But I am still learning, just not sleeping.

2. Free activities are even better! This summer has me NOT coaching, NOT doing grad school anymore, and NOT moving. So what it does have me doing is watching for free activities. Some Fridays find me traveling around Indianola garage sales letting the kids pick one item $1 or less at each stop. Abby's Dora lawn chair/bag and Jack's Iron Man have been the best finds so far this year. Plus Abby picking 10 new babies for her bed has been fun. Libraries, backyard kiddie pool parties, and watching movies at school while I work are also fun options. While technically not free since we paid for the membership, the zoo and science center have been nice air-conditioned free entertainment as well. While you could argue gas, food, cheap crap at the garage sales are not free, they are much cheaper than daycare and day camps and hotel/vacation stays and I will take it!

3. Excitement from kids beats anything I know. I love starting my day saying: "Kids...guess what we are doing today?! Just hanging out and petting the cat!!!" Once they realize I am serious, they actually get excited and find it a fun activity! Outside of genuine excitement like that, Abby's face when she sees a mall playground, Jack when he sees a donut with sprinkles at night knowing he gets one in the morning, and both while making horrible cupcakes with Abby's new cupcake maker (reward as she has stayed dry at night for 9 straight nights!) despite their taste is worth every moment. They still drive me nuts and a 3rd will drive me even crazier, but knowing I can get them so excited they almost burst every day by something I find ordinary is worth it!

4. Independence rocks! Since today is still July 4th for a little while longer, I will end with independence. It took us awhile again to get pregnant with our 3rd, so by the time this baby decides to arrive, Abby will almost be 3 1/2 years old. Abby has always been very independent and that has rubbed off on Jack (as has preschool and the thought of starting kindergarten in a month) and that independence makes me comfortable having a 3rd at this time. They love to pick up their toys, Abby loves to clean her messes, and Jack is so OCD about rules that he makes sure everything runs smoothly and correctly at our house. He will likely get beat up multiple times in school because of his OCD and his tattling, but sadly I think he will stick to following the rules. I am hoping that Jack and Abby will soon mow our lawn, wash our dishes, remind our cat to pee in the litter and not wherever he feels like, and maybe, just maybe, fix all of our house problems (foreshadowing of future blog??). If they do that, maybe we will have that 4th child in the next year or two (did I just use foreshadowing again?!).

So, first blog of summer of 2010 out of the way. Feels good. Reagan could have had the baby as early as a week ago or as late of July 20th, but we both feel it will happen this Wednesday through Friday for reasons only we know. Heck, she could have had this baby while I wrote this blog for all I know. Maybe my next blog will be about the arrival of our 3rd child. Who knows?What I do know is that I am able to blog and say what I want, post it on the Internet for anyone in the world to read, and I will sleep tonight with booms in the sky above that I know are not mortar shells or gunfire because I live in a great country and a country that celebrates this every day of the year, but even more today. Happy 4th of July all!

Love&Prayers,

Ben

3 Things to leave you with:

1. To plug another blog of mine, here is a link to a blog that I hope will act as a one-stop shopping for teachers in our district to find and use technology, websites, or ideas in their classroom. If you teach or want to see some interesting educational websites, here you go: http://wildcatwebsites.blogspot.com/

2. If you like funny pictures (sometimes innappropriate or not safe for work), sad and strange facebook posts, or very demotivational posters (again, sometimes very innappropriate for work, but many times very funny), here are some other fun sites to try: www.failblog.org, www.failbook.org, and http://verydemotivational.com/ I use some of it to make my birthday/anniversary cards or look at the sites sometime just to finish my day with a laugh.

3. Oh, baby update: We have names picked out for both boys and girls as no one knows the sex of the baby....except me. Yeah, I know, sad that I know it again, but this time I allowed a chance for me not to know. But I happened to show up to the ultrasound just in time and the baby happened to cooperate. The rest of the world will just have to wait and see what happens this week. I am on record for predicting a 7 pound, 10 oz., 20 1/2 inch baby born on July 7th at 7:57 p.m. And it will be a.....