Bryce Moore's Blog, page 250

12th Anniversary: An Even Dozen

Denisa and I have officially made it to the big 1-2. Twelve years ago right about now, we were driving down to Manti, Utah, where we were married in a ceremony that had no one else present. Planned elopement. I'd recommend it to anyone.



Of those 12 years, we've lived in Maine for 5.5 of them, which means that sometime in the next year, we'll have been in Maine for the majority of our marriage. That's pretty exciting. We've certainly already lived in this house longer than we've lived anywhere else.



Are we doing anything special today to celebrate? Um . . . we just had a baby a week or so ago, so . . . no. Not really. So far I cleaned out the garage with my mom, we've worked on digging ditches some more, Denisa's fed the baby a few times.



The glamorous life of the parents of a newborn.



But really, that pretty much sums up why we got married. We didn't get married to go do fabulous things in far off places (although we've been able to do that some of the time). We got married to start a family together. To enjoy each other's company over the years, because we found we liked each other more than we liked other people. (I have no idea what's wrong with Denisa.) So really. I can't think of many ways that would be better to celebrate our anniversary than by welcoming a new baby to the fam.



My parents divorced when I was seven. One of the things that was most important to me when I was thinking about getting married was that I wanted to be sure I'd give my children a good strong marriage to come in to. I was really doubtful that I'd ever be able to do that, to be honest. How would I know the girl I married would actually work out? Couldn't we change over the years? What if I made the wrong choice?



On the first date with Denisa, all those doubts evaporated. It was as easy as playing the old Sesame Street game: One of These Things is Not Like the Others.







I know it doesn't work like that for everyone, but it worked like that for me, and for that I'm extremely grateful.



Anyway--time for blogging is over. Gotta go help bathe the baby. Happy anniversary, Denisa!

My Son is Nine Years Old!--A Fishing Adventure

Yup. He's nine. Hard to believe, really. And let me just add my voices to the ones of parents before me who have said that having two birthdays in a week can be a tad stressful. Even more when one of those birthdays is literally a birth day.



So this year, it was pretty much up to me to make sure TRC had a special day. Good thing I'm still on parental leave. I made him a cake (yellow cake with blue frosting with the Fire symbol from Skylanders on it--in chocolate chips. Everything home made made the chips, naturally.) I decorated the house, blew up the balloons, got the presents (a Skylander, Goonies, and some Legos)--Denisa was kind enough to wrap them for me. Surprising how much work there is when you're not sharing the load between two people. (Denisa and baby continue to do great, BTW. Baby's a little snoozeball. She'll sleep five or more hours at a stretch at night, if you let her. I'm waiting to see how long that lasts . . . )



I also took TRC fishing.



In theory, this was supposed to be a fairly easy thing to do on a birthday. A friend of mine who knows fishing poles had gone and gotten us both a pole, bait, hooks--everything we needed. He dropped them off Monday, and I thought I'd have no problems getting everything set. I've been fishing loads of times. How hard could it be?



Well, quite hard. Me saying "I've been fishing loads of times"is the equivalent of my twelve-year-old self saying "I've been driving loads of times." Yes, I'd fished. Yes, I'd used poles. But someone else had always done practically everything for me. Tied the hooks on. Strung the poles. Basic things like that. It all seems so obvious and easy when someone else is doing them.



When it comes to me doing them . . .



I spent a lot of time yesterday poring over internet sites, trying to figure out why my reel was going backward (there's a switch on the reel that lets you do this, FYI), how to tie the right knots, how to attach bobbers . . . I felt like a complete idiot, but I'm glad I did it ahead of time so that when TRC came home from school, I could surprise him with the poles and head out behind our house where there's a wide stream.



The trip was unsuccessful, from a fish-catching perspective. No fish were caught. We lost two bobbers, one worm, and one spinner. But TRC had a great time and said it was "even better than archery," which is high praise indeed. I'll have to go get some more supplies so we can go again soon. I also need to talk to my friend and get some tips on how to have an idea where the fish are hiding. There are supposed to be lots of types of fish in that stream--everything from bass to trout. Now if we could just find them . . .



Anyway, Happy Birthday, TRC. Hope it was a great one!

Diet Update: Week 9

Well, things got a bit tricky now that baby's here. One of the things my diet depends on to work right is routine. I weigh all my food. I know exactly how many calories are in each gram, and I use that information to figure out how much I can eat.



A new baby means that routine just went out the window.



Still, I'm trying my best. I guesstimate where I can't know something for certain. I'd like to say that when I'm really unsure, I go on the low side, but if I'm being honest, I've been eating a bit more this week than I should have. Stress levels are a bit high--I'm not sleeping well at all--and when I get stressed, I eat. So I could have done better from a food standpoint. (It didn't help that homemade chocolate chip cookies appeared on the menu this week . . . )



Exercise-wise, I'm actually doing quite well, and it's probably what's keeping me in this game at this point. Instead of rowing or stair stepping, I've decided to help Denisa by doing yard work. It just didn't make sense to have me doing pretend work for a half-hour each day, when I could actually be doing something constructive. Right now, Denisa needs a ditch dug around her garden, some of the trees in the yard, and other places around the property. Weed control. So I dig ditches for a half hour each day. It certainly gets the heart rate up.



Now, after all those disclaimers, you probably think I put on weight this week. Nope. I even lost weight. I just feel like I could have done better. I clocked in at 198.2 this morning, meaning I lost 1.2 pounds last week and have lost a total of 15.8 pounds total.



Still, a lot of this weight loss game feels like it comes down to momentum, and I'm not feeling like I have it at this point. So I'm going to bear down and try and keep going. Get better at not eating too much junk food. However, my mom's coming to visit for a week this week to help with the baby, and that might mean more non-routine meals. Stay tuned to see how I do!

Sorting Your Netflix Queue

Just yesterday, I was bemoaning the state of my Netflix Instant Queue. For a librarian, having one organization option is just unacceptable--especially when that one option is "The Date You Added It to the Queue." Yes, you can go in and manually change things around, but when your queue is 148 items long, that's kind of a pain.



Enter The Netflix Queue Sorter.



This handy tool lets you go to your Netflix queue in Firefox, Safari, or Chrome, and then organize your movies automagically. By star rating? By release date? By genre? By Length? The sky's the limit, friends.



My queue is now neatly divided into genres. I am a much happier Bryce.



And a very tired one. That's all the time I've got for you today. Later!

On Having a Third

I know. Three baby posts in a row from me? When am I going to drop it? Well sorry folks. It's kind of on my mind at the moment, ya know? And I had some more thoughts I wanted to get down, so you're just going to have to bear with me--or go looking for non-baby posts on some other blog today.



I wasn't sure I wanted a third child.



Let's get that out in the open. Maybe one day MC (baby girl) will read this post, and if that's the case, MC--please don't take it personally. After all, I didn't know you at all at the time, and I had no idea how awesome you turned out to be. Had I known then when I no doubt will know in the future, I never would have hesitated for a moment.



But I didn't know that, and there seemed to be an awful lot of reasons to not have another baby. Allow me to enumerate:




Trips to Slovakia--I know that might seem like a luxury to a lot of people, but one of the things I really wanted to be sure of when I married Denisa was that our children would have a good understanding of the Slovak side of their heritage. We've raised them bilingual (which is sometimes quite the struggle, and takes a lot of effort), but I wanted them to know what life is like over in Slovakia--to see it first hand. Denisa and I have tried to go over there once every three years, and we've been successful thus far. But one thing it's not is cheap. Tickets get more expensive each year. They're up to around $1000 per person. If we had another baby, would we still be able to afford it?
For that matter, traveling in general becomes a fair bit more complex. Driving with five is more uncomfortable, hotels are more of a pain. We like to travel. (I know all of you with bigger families are already saying "Big whoop." Well back off. I don't criticize you for your bigger family size.)
More importantly, we were happy as a family of four. It's a good balance. TRC and DC are well adjusted. Denisa and I have time to do the things we want to get done. Having another family member join up would undoubtedly upset that balance. Would we be able to find it again?
Was I up for being a father to three children? As well behaved as TRC and DC are, there are times when they can be a bit much for me. If I couldn't handle two sometimes, could I honestly expect to be able to handle three?


In the end, the reasons all boiled down to money and happiness. Children are expensive, and why should we have another if things were already good? I'm a creature of habit. I don't like risking current happiness for a gamble on future happiness. Not normally, at least.




So why did we choose to have a third child?




We felt like we should. Denisa and I prayed about it, and the answer was "Yes, have a third child." I don't make a habit of ignoring answers like that. Even if they scare me somewhat.




And I was fairly scared in the days leading up to this delivery. Not wake-up-sweating-in-the-middle-of-the-night scared, but full of doubt. Would this all work out okay? Would TRC and DC be happy in their new roles (particularly DC, who would be bumped out of the coveted "Youngest Child" category)?




Once that baby is in your arms, though . . . all doubts cease. It was the right thing to do, and I'm very glad we did it. That isn't to say it's the right thing for everyone. I respect anyone's decision to have fewer children. In fact, I try to butt out when it comes to the number of children people have in general.




I couldn't help but be reflective at a time like this. Think back on what life was like when TRC was born, and DC. I was at very different stages for each of those birth, just as I am for this one. With TRC, I was in the middle of my Masters program at BYU. I was going to be an English professor. No doubt. With DC, I was a new librarian in a new state. New friends, new surroundings, new everything.




Anyway.




I don't have any more time. I have to clean the house some and get ready for Denisa to come home in a few hours. The kids are very excited to have them come back, as am I. Many many thanks to all of you for the numerous well-wishes. They're all appreciated.




See you on Monday.

Natural Childbirth: A Father's Report on Hypnobabies

I am not a believer in mumbo jumbo. Let's get that out in the open right now. Neither is Denisa. But she'd heard a lot of good things about this thing called Hypnobabies, and she wanted to give it a shot. Hypnobabies. It sounds like the villain from a bad sci-fi plot, but what it is in reality is a hypnotic technique that promises the potential of a pain-free childbirth.



Pretty heavy promise.



However, the birth of our last child was a pretty darn traumatic experience. Denisa had been planning on having anesthesia, and that plan went nowhere. So she ended up having a natural childbirth last time, and it was . . . less than pleasant. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say she had real cause to be leery of another experience like that. She was really stressing out about the whole thing, and here was Hypnobabies with promises of painfree.



It's no wonder she decided to go for it.



I was quite skeptical, but I kept my skepticism to myself, for the most part. I figured if this thing was going to work, Denisa would need to believe it as much as possible. She was having a doula friend come who had more experience with this sort of thing, so that would help, too. I told Denisa that I'd try to help in any way I could, but I did admit I was worried my natural skepticism toward this kind of thing would get in the way.



Prepping for Hypnobabies ain't easy. Denisa had to listen to these different audio tracks for about 1 to 1.5 hours a day. Add this to everything else she was doing, and it was quite a bit to add to each day. But she did a really good job of it. She stuck with it quite faithfully, doing it day after day, and reading up about all sorts of parts of the birthing process. I'll say this much--she was a much better informed momma in advance of this labor. (Sorry--"Birthing time" is the Hypnobaby-approved term.)



Anyway. She was worried she wasn't doing the techniques exactly right. How would she know? *Know* She couldn't. Not really.



Yesterday morning, she went into labor at about 3:30am. She started doing the hypnobabies thing right away, but it went from some contractions to steady contractions in about 30 minutes. She woke me up. A friend came and got the kids, and Denisa and I got to the hospital at 5:00am. She was still listening to the hypnobabies tracks, and doing pretty good. Some obvious discomfort, but handling it well.



Her doula came at 5:30am or so. The contractions were really amping up.



Baby came at 6:35am. That's pretty darn fast.



Was it pain-free? Not really, no. She certainly didn't seem to be pain-free. But she *was* handling things much better than last time. I talked to her after it was all over, and we discussed the effect of Hypnobabies on the labor. We think it helped a ton in the "don't be afraid of labor" department. Like I said, Denisa was very apprehensive about the delivery, but then Hypnobabies made her feel like she had a plan. She was better informed, and she knew what to expect. She stopped dreading the delivery, and started looking forward to it.



That was huge.



She wasn't really able to listen to the tracks during delivery. They were playing, true--but let's just say she had other things on her mind at the time. Still, she did tell me afterward that every now and then, she'd actually hear the tracks, and listening to that bit of familiarity helped her re-center herself and get a bit more focus. So that helped. Denisa went completely natural again. I was very surprised at how calm the baby was when she arrived. Hardly any screaming. Just looking around, like "Where the heck did I end up, and how did I get here?"



All told, I'd say it was worth the time and effort she put in ahead of time. No doubt. I wonder if I'd been able to embrace the idea more, if things would have gone even better. I'm not sure. I do know that we're both very glad the delivery's done. I'll give the Hypnobabies approach a thumbs up. It helped my wife deal with something very daunting. Yes, it maybe over-promised and under-delivered (no pun intended), but it was much, much, much better than nothing. (Something tells me that's a bad ad slogan. "Hypnobabies: much, much, much better than nothing.")



And there you have it.

Baby's Here--More Updates When I'm More Coherent

Baby MC came right on time on her due date. Well, she started coming in the middle of the night, which means that her dad is more than a little tired at the moment. I'll write a full blog post, but it'll have to wait until tomorrow, folks. For now, I'm just glad everyone's well and all is over. Here's a pic to tide you over for now. Forgive the tired eyes. They were hard-earned.



Thanks for all the well wishes!

Diet Update: Week 8

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A bit of a strange week this week. The day after I posted last week, I lost 2 pounds. In a day. That wasn't expected, and it's not like I starved myself that day, either. Just a random drop. Then, later on in the week, we took the kids to the university cafeteria, which was about as close of a trip to heaven as I think TRC and DC have had. Unlimited Lucky Charms? All the chocolate milk you can drink? Ice cream? Cookies? Pizza? Fries? Jello? Pudding?



They ate, and ate, and ate, and ate. Then they complained about how full they were. And then, after reconsidering, they ate some more.



Me? I had a huge salad and then a plate of food and a single dessert.



I still put on the two pounds I'd lost. This just reminds me why it's important that I diet to below my target end weight, so that when the inevitable bounce happens, it bounces me to my target, as opposed to above it.



In any case, it was a week filled with some weight fluctuation, and that's not a good thing. Still, it's ended on a pretty consistent number: 199.4.



That's right, folks! I'm below 200 again! I know that's not really a big thing. It's another 2 pounds lost this week, just like weight loss any week. But it's a big mental step. The last time I went under 200 pounds was June 17, 2009 (ah, the advantages of having a detailed blog . . .) I didn't write when I went over 200, of course. No one likes to keep track of those milestones. Either way, it's been about 4 years. But as I was looking over my diet blogs from yesteryear, I saw some very comforting numbers--the struggle to get below 218, for example.



This time, I never let myself get that high to begin with.



It's nice to think I might be making some progress on the whole, even if the progress is slow.



Either which way, I'm back under 200, and hopeful it keeps up. I've now lost 14.6 pounds total--1.825 pounds per week. Still above my goal of 1.4 pounds.



Onward and downward!

Duckie vs. Blane: A Personal Review of Pretty in Pink

There are some movies that I really ought to have watched years and years ago, but for some reason or another never got around to. I'm a huge John Hughes fan, for example. Breakfast Club, Ferris, Sixteen Candles--I love each one of those, and Pretty in Pink is right in line with those, right? As a child of the 80s, why hadn't I watched it already? Maybe it's because it had the word "pink" in the title. I have no clue. In any case, Denisa and I finally sat down to watch it last night, and naturally I thought it was fantastic.



As a writer, Hughes managed to capture so much of what I felt like high school was like. The agony and the ecstasy, so to speak. Pretty in Pink is no different. You've got Andie (Molly Ringwald, of course), a girl who's in deep with the outsiders of her school, although she harbors a secret crush on Blane, one of the rich kids. Meanwhile, her best friend Duckie (Jon Cryer) is madly in love with her, but she just views him as a friend. Drama ensues.



I'm not going to spoil the ending here, even if the movie is almost 30 years old. But it's clear throughout the film that it's either going to come down to her realizing Duckie's the boy for her, or her love with Blane triumphs over the school's caste system. As the movie went on, I found myself rooting more and more strongly for Duckie, and for obvious reasons.



In high school, I felt like Duckie. Well, maybe my Duckiest moment was more Junior High. I was crazy for a girl. Asked her to the dance, she turned me down. I was heartbroken, but got over it and ended up being best friends with her, even though I was still crazy about her. Better to be friends and close to her than not be anything, right? And I watched as she had other boyfriends who I thought weren't worthy of her at all. This was a pattern that continued with a number of other girls, even through college. I could be best friends with a girl, and even though there was definite romantic interest on my part, that interest just wasn't returned.



So how could I not sympathize with Duckie in the movie? But as I was watching it, I wondered something else. How many other people sympathize with Duckie more than Blane? My gut tells me that the number is much higher than I'd initially suspect, and I'll tell you why. Duckie is an outcast. He's trying to find himself in high school--figure out who he is and what he wants. Blane's trying to do that too--but in a trendier, Richie Richier way. And when you get down to it, aren't most people trying to find themselves in high school? Figure out who they are? Blane never really seems vulnerable in the movie, but Duckie is all emotion. Blane always has his popularity and money to fall back on. Duckie's got nothing.



Even if you've got a safety net of one kind or another, don't most people associate more with the guy who's got nothing? Don't relationships in high school feel very much like you're in danger the whole time? Or maybe this was just me. Maybe I also really liked Duckie because he reminded me of myself in other ways. If a guy dressed and acted like that today, everyone would just sort of assume he was a closeted homosexual. Molly Ringwald said as much in later interviews. But while I didn't dress as flamboyantly as Duckie--I wasn't that daring--I was Duckie at heart, if that makes sense. And I definitely wasn't gay. It was refreshing to see someone just be different and not have to be gay to be different.



Bah. Maybe I'm reading into the movie too much. Maybe it just struck a stronger chord in me than it would in most people. But now I'm curious. Have you seen the movie? Who did you root for? Duckie or Blane? For me, Blane was just a weak character. He never really stood up for Andie in any real way the same way Duckie did for her. And isn't that what you want in a relationship?



But then again, what you really need in a relationship is something that goes both ways, and that's not a thing that can be forced. Speaking from experience, here--you can be over the moon crazy about someone, but if they're not crazy about you back . . . do you really want that? Do you want the girl (or guy) you had to persuade heavily to be interested in you, or the girl (or guy) who was as instantly crazy about you as you were about her (or him)?



Again, from my experience (and that's all I've got to go on, folks), high school relationships can be rough because you know what you want, but you just can't find it. I dated a lot of different girls before I found Denisa. I was happy to one extent or another with many of them, but none of them were as happy with me, if that makes sense. I know it sounds cliched, but when you find the one, it all just clicks in ways it doesn't click with the others.



So Duckie, either way, I'm here to tell you that Andie's a lost cause. Keep being friends with her, but keep it at that. Find somebody to absolutely adore who absolutely adores you back, romantically speaking.



And those are the thoughts I have for you all this fine Monday morning. Seen the movie? Please share some thoughts back. Haven't seen it? Check it out. 3.5 stars for me, and it's on Instant Watch this instant.

35% Off Vodnik + FREE SHIPPING! -- Spread the Word!

Okay, folks. Let's get real here. I'm all about saving money, and I'm also all about sharing the Vodnik love. You know Vodnik, right?



The multi-award winning, Slovak sensation? The one Kirkus Reviews called "a compelling fantasy adventure." That Brandon Sanderson said was "compelling, interesting, and darkly humorous." (Compelling is the word of the day, it seems.) That Dan Wells said was "a breath of fresh air in a very popular genre." That VOYA said was "crammed with action and humor."



Of course you know that book. I won't shut up about it.



Today, I'm all about letting you know that for one week only, my publisher has decided to do a friends and family sale. 35% off their entire stock, and free shipping. No minimum purchase required.



My book? Normally $18.95 plus shipping? $12.32. Total. I've been watching the price, people. This is the all-time best price on this book ever. The lowest Amazon ever had it was 23% off, and you had to still pay shipping on top of that. Heck--even the crazy "Buy from Others on Amazon" people are charging more than this deal. And you'll be getting a book that still has that "Fresh from the Publisher" smell. You know what I'm talking about.



And yeah, I'm sure you're thinking, "But Bryce! I barely even know you! Shouldn't a deal this awesome just be reserved for . . . you know. Your actual friends and family?" I thought the same thing. But I love you people. I love you people like a 90's commercial. You know the one I'm talking about.







So if you're reading this post, you're officially one of my friends. It's legit. I asked specifically to make sure--anybody who's got the code is in. It's like The Legend of Zelda, peeps. A secret to everybody.







Except I ain't talkin' 'bout no lousy 30 rupees. I'm talking about 35% off and free shipping.



So how do you get this awesomeness? You get it by going here, to the Tu Books and Lee & Low site. Add Vodnik (or any of Tu's other awesome, award winning books) to your cart, check out (you'll have to create an account for yourself--just put in a username, password, and email), and after you've entered your credit card info (but before you actually purchase the book), you'll get a chance to put in a coupon code. The code? FAMILY. That's right. You're all not just friends, you're family. (Unless you live outside the US. In that case, you're FRIENDS. You don't get the free international shipping. Sorry. But you do get the 35% off by for using FRIENDS as your code.)



Got that? FAMILY for free shipping and 35% in the US. FRIENDS for everyone else--just 35% off.



But WAIT! KEEP READING!



Beyond just buying the book, which I'm sure most of you have already done, and buying the book for every single person you know (which maybe some of you haven't done yet), you can really help me out by sharing this sale with everybody and their brother. People on Facebook. Folks at church. Strangers on the street.



Remember: It's a secret to everybody.



Might I make a suggestion? Tell your local librarian about the sale. Lee & Low is a well-respected publisher of multicultural books. They don't do sales like this often. Heck--they've never done a sale like this since I've been following them. Libraries are all about pinching the pennies these days, and this is a perfect penny-pinching opportunity.



Public library, school library--tell 'em all.



Blog it, tweet it, tap it out in morse code--however you need or want to do it, share it on. The deal ends April 19th, so time is limited. People keep asking me if Vodnik will ever have a sequel. It all comes down to sales, folks. The book's done alright for itself, but for sequels, we need to hit it out of the park. Sharing this sale with others . . . that's how out-of-the-park hitting is done. Please help! And THANK YOU!