Defunct Battery

Apparently lithium batteries don't hold their charge forever even when you diligently drain and recharge them, a lesson I've learned the hard way in regards to my now ancient Canon Powershot S410 (it used to seem so cutting edge-- and that was only four years ago!). My archaic batteries now take, at most, one picture even at full strength.

Do you know how easy it is to get a new lithium battery? Of course you do. Probably everyone does but me who seems to prefer complaining about the problem rather than proactively seeking a solution. Yeah, it's easy. Really easy.

So, hopefully, in a matter of days with a little help from the UPS delivery man and Amazon, I will be able to chronicle our lives digitally, once again.

Ice Skating Video

I need to learn how to sell myself. If I come right out and say the following video isn't the most exciting video no one, even the most devoted grandparent, will want to watch it. But if I tell you it is the most exciting video I have come across in a long time I would just be lying.

So the following video of my kids ice skating is interesting. You can see where they skate, you can hear their teachers in the background and you can see Madeleine and Hank in their skates on the ice.

If though, you're not interested in sitting through the whole four minute and sixteen second video, at least watch 2:50-3:00. If you ever wanted Hank's entire goofy personality condensed into a ten second video... well, this is it.

Tidbits

Five unrelated updates:

1. Still working out camcorder issues. Hopefully today's Amazon order will resolve those problems and you will be viewing as many Super Family videos as I care to share, which will directly correlate, I am sure, to my varying whims and fancies in regards to blogging.

2. Spent this past weekend with Superdad's parents celebrating our niece's birthday. Fun weekend, and lots of cute mental pictures, like Cedar, our niece, clutching her very first American Girl Doll (Kirsten, if anyone is interested in specifics). Alas, I was using the camcorder, not my Powershot and I can't share those images.

3. It's warm here today. Like, above freezing warm. It might even be in the forties. Woo hoo! The big kids filled the freezer up with snowballs anticipating a quick meltdown and, it appears, hot summer days in months to come.

4. We spent another day yesterday with a Lutheran home school group we were invited to join. They only gather once every month or so, but we have loved being a part of the group. As of right now, they're the only home school group we take part in activities with and, I have to say, one of the most interesting and fun aspects of home schooling is the socialization aspect. At every function we have been to the boys and girls play together and it is more common than not to see the older kids mixing in and playing with the younger kids.

5. We just had a contractor here to give us an estimate on drywalling, carpeting and blowing out a wall and expanding our basement. Another new project to think about!

Camcorder

I am in heaven here, people. Pure nirvana, I tell ya.

About a year or two ago our camcorder inexplicably stopped working. It was four or five years old (maybe six?) and it just petered out. I went as far as asking Quantum Void to see if he could fix it, and when he recommended just getting a new one, I stuck it in our coat closet and willfully forgot about it. A new one? That camcorder had set us back well over a thousand dollars. No, we were not going to replace it; who needed one?

Well, I do, it turns out. Our old camcorder broke down before Elisabeth was born and lately I have been feeling remorseful that this incredibly precocious stage she is in right now hasn't been captured on moving film. Not only that, but our piles of old home video footage has been unplayable since our old camcorder served to both record and play the mini DV tapes the camcorder used.

So, I bit the bullet and took it in to a local camera shop to ask about repairs. The clerk said it would be at least $210 to repair it. Minimum. I gulped. Um, OK. Well, how much is a new one?

$250, said the clerk.

Sold! Seriously, $250? A fraction of what we paid for our old, clunky camcorder however long ago it was. Our new Canon ZR 800, the bottom of the barrel, as far as camcorders go, is compact and lightweight and, best of all, it works.

I need one more cord before I can download video to my Dell, but as soon as I have it I am sure I'll be sharing some of the treasurers I unearthed this morning while sorting laundry. Like Madeleine opening Christmas presents at sixteen months old. Or Hank's arrival home from the hospital. And, taken just last night, the big kids showing off their ice skating skills. I can't wait!

Hank's Hidden Talents

"Mom! Mom!!!" Hank yells as he races into the kitchen. "Mom, come quickly, I think I've discovered some hidden talents! Mom, you have to come and see them!"

Something tells me this might be camera worthy...

Hank's Groove

This is just pure comedy. Pure comedy, I'm tellin' ya.

My kids, like most children across America, are obsessed with High School Musical. They've been beside themselves that their friends have all seen it five million times while they've only seen it once and that it's been almost a year since their first, and only, viewing.

The other night I rented it for them and all the block punks who then invaded my basement for an evening. As you might imagine, there was singing, dancing and a lot of laughing. Laughing? Why laughing, you ask?

Because of my dear Hank. Hank has mastered Roy's dance moves. (Yes, it's Roy, not Troy. Don't try arguing with Hank about it. You'll lose.) He's really got 'em down, I tell ya.

Check it out:

Digital World

When I was growing up my mom had a large, black, rotary dial phone next to her bed in addition to the main phone the rest of us shared in our downstairs hallway. I thought that clunky old rotary phone was the cat's meow because you could use it while lying on a bed. I mean, really, how great was technology, right?

My children don't know what a rotary dial phone is. The only place they've seen one is at a museum. They know a world where cell phones and cordless phones rule. They know they can email me from Daddy's phone. Elisabeth has four discarded cell phones among her collection of very favorite toys.

When I was growing up pictures where taken on rolls of film that you had to wait days or weeks to have developed before you could actually see them. Unless, of course, you were lucky enough to have have a Polaroid camera (I wasn't) and then you could see your pictures instantly (or, after five minutes, which seemed instant at that time).

Anytime someone takes my children's picture they immediately run behind the photographer so they can see the photo on the camera's display screen. And the picture is always on ready display because nearly everyone has a digital camera. Including, now, my seven-year-old daughter-- and she knows how to use it ("Let's review the pictures now, Hank, OK? ")!

We've gained a lot as a society but, sometimes, I feel as if we've lost a lot also. Remember the days when if you weren't available at work whomever was trying to reach you would just leave a message with a co-worker? On paper? They wouldn't have a five alternate numbers to try before giving up or, as a last resort, be able to email you anytime, anywhere.

Even more incomprehensible these days, if you tried to reach someone at home and they weren't there you had to simply try back later and hope you reached them. Frustrating, sure, but wasn't life a bit calmer and simpler before having three different voice mails to check and analyzing a caller ID log? Wasn't it more relaxing when you weren't expected to be reached, and respond, instantly?

I can't talk, really. My family and I have bought into all the digital devices that are supposed to make our lives simpler. It's just that, at times, I wonder if they really do.

If You Give a Six-Year-Old a Camera...

I suppose there's a reason that Hank doesn't like going to bed an hour before Madeleine. No matter how much we assure him there's not, a small part of him must know there's fun to be had downstairs long after he and Elisabeth are asleep.

The other night was no exception.

As usual, Madeleine and I (or sometimes Superdad and Madeleine) read books together.


Out comes Superdad with the camera. Which then prompts this:

"Mom, can I have a turn taking some pictures?"

My book is nearing the end of its climax. Yes, anything you want! Just, please, let me finish my book!

Her finished product is... uh... interesting.


And maybe even a touch embarrassing.


And now my book is over and my memory card is almost full. Time for bed. Good-night, Madeleine.

Cute Video

I know, I know, every mother thinks their kids are the absolute cutest kids to ever grace humankind with their presence. I get that. I'm biased.

Still though, I have to share this video of Elisabeth. The picture quality is grainy and horrible; the camera operator (me!) is horrible; yet through all this horrible-ness there's sweet little Elisabeth Jane trying her darndest to play Pat a Cake just a few hours ago.