Tag: Miller

Categories
life

The Game of Life

Last night I had a very interesting dream about a computer program called “Life” or “The Game of Life.” This was not the one that some people have heard of where cells live or die based on some mathematical rules although it was similar in some ways. To “play” the game I was given a controller which I could configure for 30 to 60 seconds. After that point the game started and ran according to the internal rules without further regard to the status of the controller. In my dream version the game was played out in a virtual house with a lot of very interesting people – they reminded me of the family from You Can’t Take It With You. After wandering the house and observing the characters for half an hour I decided to leave the game.

I went home and learned from my wife that at the time I started the game strange things began happening at home. I soon discovered that this was true as very odd things began happening around our home – for example, we were visted by a virtual character who looked like my best friend. I realized that this game was not as innocent as it had appeared. I was forced to take comfort in the thought, when I attained a state of minimal consciousness in my sleep, that this was all a dream and that when I woke up there would be no intrusions from this so-called game of life.

Finally at 5:45 my wife woke me up so that I could go feed our son, Isaac, for his early feeding. As I got out of bed I noticed that the lights were on downstairs. I assumed that our oldest daughter, Savannah, was having one of her early mornings and was awake downstairs. That’s when things started to get weird on me again. While I was standing on the landing I heard Isaac cry and realized that he was not in his room. He was in the workroom next to his bedroom. I feared that Savannah had taken it upon herself to lift him out of bed and carry him to the next room.

I went downstairs to fix a bottle for Isaac and that is when I discovered that Savannah was not awake – although all the lights were on downstairs. I began to wonder if someone had come into our house. That didn’t make sense considering that nothing was missing, not even any of the computers in the office (where the lights were also on). I finally went back to my bedroom and shook Laura awake to ask if she knew anything about Isaac or the lights. It turns out that she had been awake with Isaac and Savannah during the two or three hours before she woke me up. She had moved Isaac and Savannah had turned on the lights downstairs.

The mystery was solved, but I had been wrong in my dream – the weird occurances had not stopped when I woke up. This really was “the game of life.”

Categories
life

My Life is So Good

I have been thinking a lot lately about how good my life is right now. I have a job I love, a family that keeps me both happy and busy (often happy and busy are the same thing), and the opportunity to do things that I enjoy – such as study politics, blog, train for a marathon, etc. Today was a holiday for some people, but I was not begrudging the fact that it was not a holiday for me because I enjoy my work. Other jobs that I have liked still left me wanting every holiday I could get.

In the last few days, Isaac has started sleeping through the night, so I get to sleep through the night as well. And today we took the family to the community center for breakfast to support the literacy center. That is the first thing we have done for the purpose of spending money to support something we believe in. It’s nice to finally be in a position financially where we feel that we can give more than time or verbal assent to an idea.

As I was talking to Laura recently about this, I realized that life really could not be any better. I even like the challenges that we face, and that we undoubtedly will face as we grow and as the kids advance to new stages – like becoming teenagers. My assessment was – our life could be different in various ways, but none of those differences would make it better than it is.

Categories
life

Annual Family News

It’s that time of year. Many people have probably already had at least one newsletter arrive in their mailbox from friends or family. Laura and I have talked about doing a newsletter many times over the years and every year we are moving/graduating/having a baby (pick one) and so it doesn’t happen. This year we are again planning to start that tradition. For one thing, it would be a new kind of writing challenge for me in addition to all the other writing that I do (this blog is not half my writing every day).

Enter my brother’s wife. Their son just had his first birthday – the day before Isaac passed the one month mark – and she used that as an excuse to give a family update in her blog – twice. She posted a nice little visual update and then she posted a written year in review.

While many of the newsletters I have seen over the years include pictures, I liked one thing she did differently. Her pictures spanned the year rather than just being recent photos. Unlike other newsletters, her written review was a snapshot of their family at the end of the year, not a summary of the year.

Categories
life

Starting a New Day

The reality of tomorrow is starting to sink in for me. I will be starting to work after two months and for the first time ever I will be working a regular, full-time job outside the house. All my previous outside jobs were part-time or irregular hours for student positions and the like. While I expect to feel the transition myself, it is my family that is likely to feel this change the most.

Laura has never had a time when I did not set my own schedule based on our family situation. On top of that she is still getting used to having four kids, so this is a double burden for her.

Savannah and Alyssa will notice the difference, but I expect they will just roll with the change.

Isaac will not know the difference.

Mariah will probably take it the hardest. She was not around for my schooling so she has never known me to go away to any form of work. She was as old as Isaac is now the last time I returned from work-related travel. She is the ultimate daddy’s girl and she has become very clingy in the last day or so. I have no doubt that she will adjust to this new reality as well, but she is going to notice the change and probably hate it for the first few days or weeks.

It will be interesting to see how this change affects Mariah and the family as a whole. At least with the office just over a mile from home I will not have to deal with lengthy commutes and we will have the option to visit for lunch and have the girls come see the office some time.

Categories
life

Big Day Today

Today was a big day for me.

Laura and Isaac came home from the hospital. Both are doing very well. The girls are excited to have their brother home – especially Mariah. I got to take the candidate yard sign I had and flip it around. Now it reads “It’s a boy.”

Today was the day that potential employer #2 had promised to give me an answer. There was a little bit of a glitch this morning as they were trying to come to a final decision. That made a bit more work for me. They did make their decision finally and now I was able to make mine. I am going with employer #1 who has made a very generous offer and has been very patient in allowing me to field another offer. Here we are, 12 days after their initial offer, and they are being gracious enough to allow me to start next Monday so I can help with my new baby.

On top of that it was election day. I voted.

Categories
life pictures

Pictures as Promised

Here is the first picture I took of Isaac.

This picture was two experiments combined – first, use the self timer on the camera (I had never done that with this camera before); and second, get four children to look at the camera at the right time. I cropped the image, but this is us, today, after I brought the girls to the hospital from church.

One more of Isaac – lest we forget who’s day it is.

Categories
life

Welcome Isaac

The surprise today was that Isaac decided to have a birthday. Stats and story follow.

Name: Isaac David Miller
Arrived: 7:13 am 11/5/2006
Weight: 7 lbs. 3 oz.
Length: 18 1/2 inches

At 4:45 Laura woke me up saying “I think we’re going to have a baby today.” She had been timing contractions since 3:30 after they had been waking her up since 12:00. Laura had been wanting to wait until her mom got home this afternoon, but Isaac had other plans. We called our friend, Kandice, to come watch our two sleeping children and Savannah (who was awake for all of this). I had to pack the bags and call the midwife on duty. Laura and I got dressed and rushed to the hospital.

Laura was 8 cm dilated by the time we arrived around 5:45 – it’s a good thing we had pre-registered after Laura’s last checkup – and she was at a 10 within an hour. They barely had time to get an epidural in her. Isaac’s head was nearly out by the time Laura realized that he was crowning. He came after about 10 minutes of pushing. Aside from the extra pain – the epidural was just kicking in – it was the easiest birth we’ve had.

Isaac was almost 3 weeks early so we were not expecting this, but he and Laura are doing great. In our rush to get to the hospital we forgot the camera. We will have pictures up in the next few days.

P.S. Thanks to Kandice for her supporting role.

Categories
life

Outing to the Park

We took the kids to This is the Place Heritage Park back in early June and they liked it so much then that we promised them a return visit. That return visit finally came today.

I was busy all morning so I was tired before we left and I didn’t really want to go. Technically the park is closed after Labor Day. What this means is that there is no charge and you can’t go into any of the buildings. Not only that, but there are no people wearing period clothing and telling visitors what life was like 150 years ago.

When we arrived at the park all of my worst fears were realized. It looked like a cross between a ghost town and a desolate wasteland. There were virtually no cars in the parking lot and we had not even come with cousins for the girls to play with – if we had I would have been optimistic (even in a wilderness) that the girls would have a good time.

I was worried that the girls would be bored and that they would be cranky since this cut across nap times. Two hours later, as we left, I had to admit that I was pleasantly surprised. The girls had behaved themselves perfectly while we walked in the nice weather. All they really wanted was to be together as a family. It didn’t hurt that there were still oxen standing around staring back at us, but even without the oxen they acted as if walking across Nebraska would have been fun so long as we did it together.

I doubt they know how long Nebraska is.

Categories
life

Teacher

On the way home tonight Savannah told me she wanted to play baseball. When we got home it turned out that she meant golf. I got the clubs out for her and some wiffle balls and she started playing. Within 5 minutes Alyssa wants to play too. Savannah took it upon herself to instruct Alyssa in all the fine points of the game.

“Put the ball down there. Now hit it. . . Like that.”

Categories
life

Jail Break

I just love having two kids who are such good friends. Laura told me a great story that took place yesterday with Savannah and Alyssa. I just have to share how Savannah chose to play the protective big sister for Alyssa.

Alyssa was doing something that she was not supposed to do. Laura warned her that if she did it again she would have to go sit in her crib – she did it again. When Laura was taking Alyssa to her crib Savannah followed her down the stairs. Savannah was talking to herself saying things like “I’m going to go help my sister.” After Laura put Alyssa in the crib she went to do whatever random things she needed to do. Savannah went into the bedroom where Alyssa was while Laura was busy and pulled the reading chair in their room over to Alyssa’s crib and helped Alyssa out of her “prison cell.”

A few minutes later Laura peeked into the girls room to find Alyssa out of the crib playing with Savannah in the room. The chair was left right at the scene of the jail break.