If you have not noticed, I am trying to label each blog entry I have musically (I am Muzzikmann after all LOL)

In this one, it's What's Going On? Just a simple Blog entry to let everyone know a few things happening with the site.

Some great news is we have 3 new members since my last blog entry, and it seems more to come just from these three, Thanks to RC for inviting two of them!
The other is an American Samoa teacher from CA. I met this person on BluBets, which is a site that sometimes puts out controversial topics in bet form, you bet on what you think will win and win Blu Dollars to keep betting with. It is kind of interesting and sometimes I find heated debates on there.

But what about here and ParentsRPeople2?

Well, I have just read that the owners of grou.ps have been bombarded with questions, suggestions and help for the sites. This is both good and bad. Good because it shows that they are working and trying to answer all questions and that they are getting some help to accomplish that. bad because they are so overwhelmed with things to do that it has slowed them down some.

They have talked about hiring more people to help.

The subgroups section is a huge undertaking that will eventually, in my opinion, blow away most other sites because, although you can still belong to the mass majority of the group, you will eventually be able to create sub groups. Like Bakers for cooking, Genealogy, Single Parenting, Twins, Or even a group for each state or country, all the way down to a group for YOUR area!

When I asked Emre (one of the owners of the Grou.ps site about it this is what he said;

It's our latest module and we're constantly adding new features to it. For now, the point is it allows you to cluster your group members according to their interests - or they can do that by themselves too. This creates more engagement. In the future, each group will have its own wall and other modules will get more integrated with subgroups - so for example, you'll be able to send a message from the Talks module to only the members of a specific subgroup.

That said, a sub-group will eventually have all the features of the main group! That will be awesome, to have ONE place to go to talk about any topic.

Therefore, it should be known that this site is no longer JUST about parenting. Although there is a focus on that, we also will be adding a household tips section. Kind of like a Heloise's hints type thing. Hints and tips on everything from cooking and cleaning, to gaining more storage space in your home.

Just like Emre, I have a lot on my plate. so please be patient with all of it. The best way you can help is to join and get others to join in, even without all the cool features they are working on. This way you get to learn and see the site grow and you will never be considered a Noobie.

So come on in, check us out!

So I have not been updating this for a few days and there are multiple reasons why. First, I'm not sure exactly how many people are reading this anyway. Not many are posting replies, so maybe I am doing this just for me, which is ok too, but I really am more interested in getting more parents gabbing on my forum to talk about issues like the ones in my blog.

I have also been busy with doctor appointments for the family this week. It's just been a bad week for that. Next week's not looking much better. It just amazes me how many times I have stepped foot into a doctors office in the past 5 years and then I count how many times were for me, and I can count that one one hand.

Let's see, any child adventures in parenting this week? Oh, yes..... The newest words from Tristan, one of the 5 yr old twins.
I was at work at the time, but believe me, with the crazy technology of the newer cell phones, I get full fledged reports of the terrible things that the kids are doing within seconds, no matter where I am.

Tristan was being kinda bad, so Rachel sent him up to his room to calm down and for a punishment of course. On his way up the stairs he yelled at her to..... "Shut the fuck up!"..... Yeah, I know, where did he learn that from. Well there is the admission that we do use the f-word more than we should, but not really in that context. While Logan (the 13 yr old) DOES know how to swear fluently, you got to love middle school friends, We have found that when Logan is mad, and in one of his Autistic fits of anger, he will swear. So we think the twins picked it up there too.
However, there is also the fact that when Logan is mad, he goes up and will "talk" to the twins about how mean and evil I am. I am sure he has said some pretty nasty things to them.

All of this leads to the one thing that is bothering us the most. Tristan is now in such a mode of hatred for everyone at this time, he is NOT learning the lesson that what he is doing is bad. He has said that he hates us, that he don't love us and his rudeness towards his twin brother right now is terrible.

So yes, this is an entry that I have put off. Then I realized, why am I putting it off? It is the very reason I started a forum and a blog. I need help. And if I need help there are other parents out there that need help too, and that have gone through very similar circumstances that may be able to give advice. That is exactly why the forum was made, and it is exactly why I need you all to come and join and help me, as well as others, while we help you.

Come on in and join us. Do not be intimidated by the fact that there are not that many members. A site/forum has to start somewhere, why not with you?

See chameleon
Lying there in the sun
All things to everyone
Run runaway

If you're in the swing
Mud in everything
If you're in the swing
Run runaway



So why are these lyrics in my head? Because of my wonderful morning.
We decided to sleep in today. I have one of those clocks that is already set to change on daylight savings time. Problem is it still thinks the OLD days are DST  days. Guess what? Today is the old day for DST. So it set itself an hour ahead, We only THOUGHT we were sleeping in.

The kids were really quiet and everything so we just stayed in bed. The only thing I did hear once was Logan calling out "Babies?!?" Then nothing, so I thought nothing of it.

UNTIL.......

A loud banging on the door. I jump out of bed, put pants on, Rachel peaks out window and says "there is a cop car out front."

I answer the door and the cop says "you got two small boys?"
I said "oh no, they got outside?"
"Yeah" he says , giving me a 'what a loser' look.
The two cop cars both had their trunks partially open and he walked me towards the cars for one second I thought OMG I got to identify bodies!

Then the officers each pulled a plastic tricycle out of the trunks and the kids out of the cars. Not even phased by what they did.

What they did is actually amazing, I don't know whether to be proud I have intelligent kids or mad that they ran away.

Here's what they did.......

They quietly got up (I always hear them otherwise)
They went through 2 doors through the laundry room to get to the basement.
I forgot last night to put the latch on the basement door.
They went into the basement, each got their tricycles, and somehow managed to get them up the stairs WITHOUT US HEARING THEM!
Then they unlocked the back door and went outside.
They rode their bikes 3 blocks away, passed a church, where an older couple noticed them and called the police.
They were found on the corner of two major streets , had they made it 2 more blocks they would have went over a drawbridge and been downtown where Johnny Depp will be filming part of his new movie.
The police found them and asked them their names. They told their FULL names! (Hunter got his middle name mixed up with Tristan's though)
They told their mother's real name!
Then they SHOWED the police how to get home!

The police man was visibly impressed when he comfirmed that all of the answers, except Hunter's middle name were correct. Then even more impressed when I showed the officer what they had to do to accomplish this feat.

Now, to add one more amazing fact to this.....

The dog. They were able to do all of this either without waking the dog that protects them to the end, OR they were able to quietly control the 103 pound German Shepard and get him to stay in the house while they left!

So should I be mad or impressed?
Tell me what you think on the forum

Finally, the weekend is here, so I can finally spend some quality time at home and get some stuff done on the new forum..... yeah, right.
So far today, I have woke up way too fricking early again, took Logan to the doctor up in Appleton, had to cancel the appointment in Milwaukee because we accidently double booked appointments today, then I had to go get gas for the van..... I could write an entire post on my complaints about how I get more and more fuming as the price climbs 3.5 times faster than the gallons....
Anyway, We have yet another appointment today with school teacher for the twins, she'll be here in 40 minutes...yeah.
Then I have to pay a few bills...yeah
Then I have to go grocery shopping....yeah
By then I will be so tired I will probably take a nap and waste part of the lovely day.....yeah
The family wants to go for a walk (but niot sure how that will go with Rachel's toe)
THEN, I can FINALLY get to the new forum stuff...... I am sneaking this in while I can.

Speaking of the forum, I dove into the forum thing kinda blind, most of the times we find that diving in blind is a bad thing, this time I think I actually did a good thing, today I found out something that means it may have been a tremendously good thing!

Wording this for a dramatic, effect.....

Ok, my administrative "partner" is good at computer related stuff, like programming the new Trillian (which is currently in Alpha stage) So she is obviously good at that sort of thing.
Why is that important? Well, it means that she may be able to write code for the new forum.
Now most forums don't allow you to write code unless you jump through hoops of fire and do a complete somersault, naked, before they will consider your code.

THIS new forum, I have discovered is OPEN SOURCE!!!!!! The only downfall right now is that the forum is in a Alpha/Beta stage and the codes have not yet been released, How I got involved in this was shear luck. This board is one of the first being made on here from what I understand.

But eventually, when codes are made public, this forum/site can get nothing but better!

And to me it's already pretty damn good!

So good that I think if you are reading this you should CHECK IT OUT!

That's right, Thank God It's Thursday. For now I only work 4 days a week so this is great. It was a long week. 

But on the good side, I was told by a member of Craiglist about this site and We moved the entire site to here instead of the old one. What a great move! This site has it all built right in and I love it so far. We'll see if that changes once it all gets going. 

The only way for it to get going is for all of you to join and tell your friends to join too!

So join in!

I was at work Tuesday, and went to lunch, my cell rang and Rachel was damn near crying "Can you come home?" I asked why.
Logan had another meltdown, Rachel never physically punishes Logan, but this must have been a hell of a meltdown, she tried to go after him to punish him. He's almost as tall as she is, and his ADHD/Asperger's seem to give him an adrenaline rush that could take out whoever it is that is leading in the WWF. But Rachel was PO'd enough to get him by the front of his shirt, he pulled back and Rachel ended up stubbing her pinky toe on a seat that I removed from the van and had sitting on the floor (So yeah, now I feel guilty too)

I came home to wrap her toe which was obviously broken. We knew the doc would do the same thing so I just wrapped it myself. Her screams of me pulling and wrapping her toe scared Logan enough to actually get him to a calmer state.

When I was done I had a long talk with Logan and it seemed that  it got through, however, these things happen all the time. Meltdown, calm down, I'm sorry I will never do it again, and then it happens a few days later again. (Minus the physical stuff anyway)

So, for those that are reading this and have had similiar things happen, or if you have any suggestions for us, Join up with my forum and let me know what you would do.

I love the Carpenters song Rainy days and Mondays but in my life, I get both.
It's Monday, almost time to go to work AND we are expecting a lot of rain, which might even turn into snow later on tonight.... wonderful.

On the bright side all the kids returned to school today after their Spring Break, and the rain will probably get rid of all the damn black snow on the ground. Snow gets ugly after a few weeks of sitting there and roads and cars getting the whiteness all black, it's ugly.

Well I have to get ready for another funfilled day at work. So join in on my forum and post all of your day to days and give suggestions to the forum. When I get back tonight I would love to see at least 10 new members and 50 new posts!

Join in!

It was a good day again. However, we were all tired. Jen wanted to leave at around 3 but she was so tired she rested on the couch, me and Rachel sat on the couch too, pretty soon we all fell asleep on the couch. Now I have bragging rights to be sleeping in between to beautiful women at the same time! LOL

Anyway, She got up, which woke me up, (Since she became my pillow, and I Rachel's pillow) and got ready, gave her good-bye hugs and left.

3.2 seconds later everything was back to normal. Twins running around yelling and getting into things and Logan yelling at them.

Don't forget to join me on my forum!

Just Click Here and Join In!

Today was such an up down day. We slept in late today after staying up late last night just watching TV and cuddling. Well that may have been a mistake as our 100 pound German Shepard, Malakai, is basically programmed to go outside in the morning and couldn't hold it any longer and crapped upstairs.

Logan, our 13 yr old somewhat autistic child with ADHD woke up and "cleaned up the mess". Unfortunately that meant that he took a good towel, and picked up the crap and since it wouldn't easily fall off the towel he scraped it across the toilet seat, and dropped some along the way. Which he did not clean up afterward. Well he had smeared the crap into the carpet and left it there.

After we woke up, Logan claimed to be sick but he did not look sick or nothing. Then about a half hour after we woke up, he decides to tell us about the dog crap.Punishment was that he had to clean it all up AND clean the towel in the tub.

Well then we got a call that Logan's step-mother and best friend to Rachel (his mother) would be coming up to visit. Yes i know that sounds weird, but to explain a little rachel's ex (and Logan's bio-Dad) married Jen, who became Logan's step-Mom. She is great,  I even love Jen.

So the day was gonna get better. We decided to go to a thrift store before Jen got here, took the 5 year old twins and Logan got to stay home and watch TV. Tristan, the more crabby of the two, decided that he was going to throw a huge temper tantrum in the store. I had to carry him out of there.

Well then Jen came up and we were going to have this huge cook-out on the grill (I like doing cooking) I started doing all the cooking, made a cheesecake, prepared the homemade stuffed mushrooms for deepfrying later, and then the chicken marinated and pork steak on the grill...... until it went out, we ran out of LP gas for the grill.

We all kinda chipped in for another tank and got it all done. Things are going better...until.....

Logan got sick, really sick. He is now finally calmed down and in bed with his half-brother that he hardly sees anymore.
Rachel and Jen are sitting watching our DVR of Rock of Love II so all is right with the World again.

Welcome to my life, everyday is like this.

I am attempting to start a blog to go along with both my facebook page and my new forum for parents. You can get to my new page and forum here.

Hopefully this will add a comfort to others by seeing my day to day. You can comment on here but I would really appreciate people joining the forum and commenting there too.

So come on in and enjoy!