Long awaited pictures

Okay, so here are the long awaited pictures that I've been talking about for way too long now. I finally have DSL (mind you it disconnects more often than a dial-up so I'm probably going to switch soon.

These pictures where from November (no snow), but they're still cute. I like Sheryl's idea having a day where you put older pictures (ahh, memories). However, I don't post everyday so they'll be a little more sporadic.

Announcing Baby Number 3

Just so y'all know. We are expecting... again. Lindy in the beginning of June (or the end of May) next year. We won't know if its a boy or a girl for another month or so.

Happy Holidays

So, my aunt Jodi let me know that I really need to get on the ball about posting pictures. Good news is that we're getting DSL at home soon so it will be a lot easier to do that (I wouldn't recommend uploading pictures with a dial up!) Bad news is that I don't have the pictures right now.

 

So, we were at a family party yesterday when Sydney finds what she thought was lip gloss. I heard her saying "Lips, lips lips!" as I watched her put a glue stick to her mouth. She was a little upset when I took it away from her, but I do believe it was in her best interest. Anyway, I promise (again, lol) to post pictures in the near future (preferably when we have our DSL Internet).

Dire need of a good editing

Wow, the message below this is in a dire need of a good editor. I wrote it real quick with my gmail account. The blogger dashboard is blocked from my school computer so that is the only way I can send messages in. So, that means I have no means of editing them (after I send them that is). Anyway, I do believe in proofreading, but I have my weak moments. I'm not a writing teacher for goodness sake.

key words: Bob Bateman

So, a friendy of mine from high school stubbled on to my blog. I thought, "Wow, how easy is my blog to find?" So, I tried to do a google search on myself to find my own blog. And it wasn't as easy as that. There are sooo many Bob Batemans and Robert Batemans out there. I'm not unique :( so sad. So, I decided to add "key words" in my blog entries to add in the search for Bob Bateman. So, I went to West Jordan High school (WJHS), lol, and then Utah State University (USU). I'm an SLP (Speech Language Pathologist) for Davis School District. I should probably stop before I give too much info out there. I don't really think there is anybody who reads this blog who doesn't know the basic info anyways, oh oh I went on an LDS mission to the Kentucky Louisville Mission (1998-2000). So, lol, if you thought this was a different Bob Bateman or Robert Bateman (like the Canadian Painter) then you were wrong! Even if I do post his art on my blog, it really isn't mine.

 

Okay I'll stop before I hurt myself. lol.

House shopping blues

So, we decided that we are sick of throwing money away in rent. We want to live the American Dream and become homeowners. We've met with a realtor, we've driven around different neighborhoods, we are starting to get things figured out with some lenders. Well, it's not going so well at the moment. All we can afford is houses in scarey parts of Ogden. Our lender told us that we could afford what we wanted if Lindy was working, but we decided a while ago that Lindy wouldn't work while our kids are still home. We don't want someone else raising our children. Anyway, that means I'm living off of a first year teacher wage (and we don't get a whole lot) at least I have a master's degree so that I start a little higher.

 

Anyway, after looking in some of the neighborhoods that have houses we can afford we decided to save up money for a downpayment and keep an eye on the "Good Neighbor Next Door" program (a program that helps teachers and police officers get into a HUD house with 50% off). I guess it was good for us to see what we were up against so that we can be a little more serious about our budget and savings and get our debt paid down. Still a little frustrating, after being in school for all those years, I guess I thought it would be easier now that I have a real income.  Anyway, we are still holding on to our "American Dream", but we are going to be a little more patient about it.

Dumbdore gay???

I got this email from one of my friends.

 

Hi Bob,
 
Hows it going?
 
I have spoken to a couple of people that are reacting to the Harry Potter book gay announcement. You read those books did u get the impression that Dumbldor (?) was gay? and if u did, did it make reading the book/s any less enjoyable? Was just curious as to ur take.

 

What is up with that? Why do we have to try to corrupt everything, how annoying is that? Any idea where this is coming from? Please, let me know, I'm curious how they made that assumtion. Anyway, I guess it doesn't really matter. He's still a great guy (even if he's fictitious).

The kid escaped

So, now that my daughter knows how to get out of her room nap time is going to be difficult. Today Sydney broke out of her room during her nap and went downstairs and woke up Savannah (she's been taking her naps downstairs). And this morning she found one of our cokes (at least it was caffiene free) and gulped it down fast. We were determined not to let her get a taste for pop. She already does now and she's two.

 

I'm excited. I think I'll be able to get out of work before 5pm today. This is a first. In a long while.

Busy Busy

Well, I've relapsed when it comes to posting blog entries. In my defense, I've been working at least 10 hours a day at work. In fact I should be working right now, so I'm going to get back to it. We have some cute pictures of the kids from a photo studio, we're still waiting to get the pictures back. I need to post those. Our kids are getting so big so quick. It's kind of sad. Anyway, I need to get back to work.

Work is Crazy

Well, I really had turned over a new leaf on writing in my blog. Then work got crazy busy. Hopefully this week will calm down a little (probably not). Anyway, remember to register to vote, vote against vouchers! Have a good day.

Milestones

Savannah is beginning to crawl!! kind of... rather she is scooting forward a little with her knees up... a little.

 

In other news, Sydney has increased her firm grap of the dreaded word "no". She uses this all the time. She hasn't figured out the word "yes" yet, which gets her in trouble when we ask her if she wants candy or ice cream. Instead of saying "yes", she just repeats the item that she wants. She has also figured out how to say later, such as, "Sydney, lets go to bed." -- "no, later bed, no." We really enjoy this one. We love our girls.

 

Please bother me, remind me, and pester me about putting pictures on here. I just need to put them on my flash drive before I go to work. I just keep forgetting to do it.

Completely behind on the summer movies

Okay, so I had a long list of movies that I wanted to see this summer, but as you people with young children know, theaters and toddlers/infants don't always work so well. So, the only movies I did see this summer were Spiderman 3 and Harry Potter 5. What am I missing? What should I put on my list to at least rent (to watch when the kids are asleep)? I know there were a bunch of good ones out there, but at this point with all the time I have (which isn't much) I have to prioritize. Which ones are a must see?

Interactive Disney

Well,

For some reason, in my mind its so much easier to send an email than to make a blog post. Anyway, I have to share what Sydney has been doing lately with her disney movies.

 

Sydney has only recently discovered the disney shows. She is obcessed with Cinderella and Snow White, but she loves to watch all of them. She talks to the main characters throughout the show. When the movie starts she greets the main character "Hi cinderella", "Hi tarzan", etc. She will also do this periodically through out the movie. When she's done she'll tell them good bye. She was watching Lion King, the part where Simba's dad dies. Sydney kept telling him to wake up and get up. We didn't know exactly how to tell her that he's not getting up. She does the same when Snow White eats the poisoned apple.

 

I'm amazed at how much she understands, and reminded at how much she doesn't. But hey, she's two. She's growing up so quickly. It amazes me. We love her so much. She is so sweet with us and her sister. I wish I had a picture to put on here. I bring some pictures with me to work so I can do that. Y'all will have to remind me.

New commitment to cleanliness

This email a message thing works great. Now I'll both my readers so much more (both of them even)! Ha! So, we're turning over a new leaf and we're going to keep our home clean! With two little kids under 2 year of age, we haven't always been the best at this. Sydney use to follow us around and just recreate the mess that we cleaned up, true story. Savannah is now a little more content watching us from a bouncing chair instead of having to be held 24/7. We got a toy chest (a real nice one from RC Willy) to help with the toys. Sydney doesn't put the toys away yet, but she only pulls one out at a time. Its been wonderful. Before Sydney would have her toys scattered all over our home. This makes it difficult to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. You never know what you're going to step on.

 

Anyhow, I need to get to work, have a good day.

testing

I'm just curious what would happened if I attached a file to the email.

Confusion at the school district

I just got back from a training from the school district. I do think they are great and so far I love my job, but oh my gosh! How much paper work is there involved? There are so many things to remember. I can't keep everything straight. I have forms for this and that. I have lots of trainings to keep track of. I have evaluations where I need to make goals for myself and then show data for my improvement. I have so many things to juggle. Oh, and yes, I have students to see, students paperwork to organize, all my files are in disarray. Okay, I may be exarragting, a little, but not much. I'm feeling a bit overwhellmed right now. I'm suppose to do this in a 40 hour work week?? I wonder if the general public understand how much people in education do for the little pay. I'm always hearing people tell me how crappy our schools are, well, we're doing the best with what you give us. Well, not all teachers I guess. I've met a few I rather don't like myself, but some of us are really trying.

So, what's going on?

Okay, I've been so bad about writing on here. I'm sorry Lacey. I'm going to repent and be better. In my defense I just started a new job. I've already mentioned this previously, that I've been recently hired by Davis School District as a Speech-Language Pathologist. I'm working at West Point Elementary and Syracuse Jr High. Its been a lot of work. It seems that as an educator you donate a lot of time that you don't get paid for. I've put in a lot of time, which Lindy hasn't cared for too much (which is also my excuse for being a bad blogger).

 

Well, who cares about me, you guys aren't here for me anyway, its my cute kids you want to know about.

 

So, Sydney is 2 years old now, she is our loving, emotional child. She loves to give mom and dad lots of hugs and kisses. She gets very upset when one of us leaves. She likes to talk to her little sister (as long as Savannah doesn't touch her). Savannah likes to grab things, including her older sisters hair. So, Sydney is in the stage where everything is hers, and if she doesn't get it then she gets very upset ( I mean throw herself down and kick and scream upset). We've been told that the emotional child has a tendency to be the tantrum child as well (feel free to correct me if you feel that I am wrong). Sydney loves Mickey Mouse (and the gang), Little Einstein, Strawberry Shortcake, and Carebears. She knows all the theme songs to these cartoons (at least she tries really hard).

 

Savannah is 7 months old, she is our big eyed smiley girl. Everyone who sees her mentions her big eyes. She loves to smile and laugh at people. People keep mentioning to us what a happy baby she is. If only they really knew... lol... She has her moments. Anyway, she especially loves to watching Sydney do just about anything. She thinks its all funny. Savannah is starting to get interested in toys; however, she still prefers to have people make silly faces at her. She's in the process of learning how to sit up on her own. She still tends to fall over, but she's getting there. She can roll over on to her belly (which she does everytime we put her to bed). The funny thing is that her tummy isn't her favorite place in the world, but she won't roll back over. We know she can because we've seen her do it before, but she won't do it on a regular basis. We think she be quicker at the walking thing than her older sister. Sydney took forever to roll over and sit up. She didn't start crawling until like 11 months or so. Oh and we've started Savannah on solid foods, she's slowly getting better at eating.

 

Anyway, that's what's going on with our kids. Pretty boring unless you have kids of your own I suppose. Well, have a good day.

--
--Bob Bateman--
http://bobbateman.blogspot.com

Testing

This is a test to see if I can use the email a post feature. If this works It'll be a lot easier to make posts. I'll be able to do it at work even (when I can find the time). Well, here goes nothing.

California Trip

Sorry, I haven't written. We went to California for a week. We just got back yesterday. We went to Disneyland for 3 days, Seaworld, Universal Studios, and the San Diego Zoo. It has been a long week. We had a lot of fun, but truthfully, I'm glad we're back home. I didn't realize that a Bangerter trip (we went with Lindy's family) consisted of getting up early and going to bed really late, with little to no dead time. You see, I'm a lazy person so this was a difficult thing for me. But we had a good old time. Sydney loved it (when she wasn't throwing a fit about something) and Savannah, well, she liked looking at people.

I'll have to write more about it in the future, because I gotta go. And I'll post some pictures too. We took a gb worth (and my mother-in-law too more!).

Harry Potter Theories

---Warning--- If you haven't read through Harry Potter book 6 and you want to, then you might not want to read this for as it contains plot spoilers.

My brother, Nate (aka Chuck) told me yesterday that instead of playing WoW (World of Warcraft, an online game that a few of us are obsessed with) he was obsessed with Harry Potter. He spent a good part of the day looking up conspiracy theories on the Internet about what might happen in book 7. Well, Nate, you inspired me to do the same (I better be quick cause I gotta get ready for church).



Harry Potter book 7 is coming out soon. And we're very very excited. Any there are thousands of theories out there guessing at this or that. There are several going theories. Apparently there are several people (including Lindy's grandmother) who can't bare the thought that Dumbledore isn't actually dead (See Dumbledoreisnotdead.com). I personally think he is. At another website, the writer says:

Often in heroic stories the mentor of the lead character dies before the hero has the final confrontation with the ultimate evil. This is seen time and time again, famously in films like Star Wars (Obi Won killed by Vader - “Strike me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine”), and the Lord of the Rings (Gandalf dies - resurrected, but the hero doesn’t realise this after the quest is complete). There are reasons for this as well. If Dumbledore isn’t dead then he will feel compelled to help Harry in the final battle, likewise Harry will feel he has to protect Dumbledore. The death of the mentor is generally the turning point, the catalyst, it turns the reluctant hero into the ‘enthusiastic’ hero. The death of the mentor is also the signal that the hero has learned everything he needs to, Harry now knows how to defeat Voldemort - he just doesn’t realise it.

This makes sense to me. Harry has to defeat Voldemort alone, he can't have help from his mentor. The question that has been by many conspiracy theorists is the following: Did Dumbledore plead for Snape to save or kill him??

This of course raises the question, is Snape really evil? Well he killed Dumbledore didn't he? Dave Kopel gets a pretty good argument in an article entitled Severus Snape: The Unlikely Hero of Harry Potter book 7. You just have to read the article. They also mention in this article why he thinks Harry has to die at the end of the 7th book. My sister-in-law, Lindy, and I really hope this isn't the case. The whole messianic ending of the 3rd Matrix movie was kind of annoying. I can see how it could happen. I just hate to see the hero die in the end. Errr.



Oh, and here is some commentary on the book cover art for the new book: Judging a book by its cover by David Haber. Interesting.

Anyway, what do you guys think?