My Father's Day.....

Well, yesterday was Father's Day and I have to say, it was one of those that will forever be engraved in my mind and heart.

Started at 8 AM (yes, I got to sleep until 8 AM!!!)... Jordan has been clamouring about making me breakfast in bed so here it comes... Fruity Pebbles and two muffins.  The Pebbles are always good, but the muffins were shared amongst Jordan and Kendall, leaving me crumbs in my bed to save for later.  Alas, I didn't need them anyway.  2 out of 5 baths completed, only 3 of the seven of us are up (Patty went back to bed as she has not been feeling too hot lately).  I decide that we WILL make the 11AM service.  I have the older two dressed and ready as well as myself.  Well, the other three rugrats decide that they need to wish me a Happy Father's Day.  I try to wake Patty (no use) and then decide that if we can get the other three baths done, we will be in business to make service.  Well, don't know how many of you have tried to bathe two 16 month olds and a three year old in 30 minutes, but there are some other things that can be done before this feat.  Like drinking a whole gallon of milk at once, whistling while eating 20 crackers, and folding paper more than 7 times.   It was no use....  I tried and failed.

So, we cleaned up muffin messes until lunch.  Jordan, who has had this day planned for me for weeks, informs me that she wants homemade nachos or Taco Bueno, because that is what Daddy would want, she thinks.  We settle for homemade nachos and gifts!  I got a really cool "hand"made card with everyone's artistic impression on it, followed by... my coupon for one new iPhone 3g! (they don't come out for another month).  I also got my staple, a shirt with handprints on it. It has become one of my favorite things in life, seeing how much they each have grown.  I have one from two years ago with one spot for the baby #4 before we knew it was babies #4 and #5.  Very nice touch by Mrs. Brown.

Jordan then planned all the fun things "I" would want to do.  This included the following:  swimming at the pool, coloring, bike riding, making cookies (which we didn't get to do), getting an ice cream (we settled for 99 cent shakes at Sonic), calling Grumpy and Grandpa to wish them"Happy Father's Day",going to Chuck E. Cheese to claim our tickets, dinner, reading stories, and watching the girls "perform".  Needless to say, I did a lot of stuff, some things I didn't even know I liked to do.  My wife told me later that night that she thought Jordan was more excited about this day than I was.  Maybe I was in shock- after all, she is the only one of my children to tell me that they don't like me anymore.  I am glad she came around.

I also got some other "unexpected" presents.... Rylee decided to give me the gift of poop as she got it all over the bed during nap, Mackie decided that the best time to go find me at the pool was after she went to the bathroom and with her swimsuit at her ankles, Reagan gave me a tiny nail massage on my sunburned shoulders, and Kendall gave me a great kick in the crotch at the pool, while swimming away from me.  I am glad it is Jordan that is the only one that doesn't like me.

Let me tell you about the president of my fan club...

Last night, my wife and I were laying bed, deliriously tired from night 2 of VBS at church.  It was a little after 1 AM and we were just talking about things in our life, funny things that happened that day, the kids, etc...

It then hit me.  I am one lucky SOB.  I get frustrated with Patty.  I get upset that I am constantly not meeting expectations.  I know if she had the energy and time, she would spend the time that I want with her to myself, but who are we kidding.... 1 AM is the only time we got together.  I love the time we have together - talking, laughing, sharing our thoughts.  I know I don't meet her "perfect" image of a husband, but as she has told me many times before, I have "potential".

I love my wife.  I love that she only "acts" embarrassed when I make an ass of myself in front of people and large groups.  I love that if someone (even a large woman that could break her in half) says something ugly about me or to me, she will go to the mat, ready to fight - even in the middle of IKEA.  I think I don't give my wife credit for all that she does.  I mean the woman spends the majority of her day speaking to 5 little girls.  There are days that she will call and all I hear in the background is crying and screaming.  She left me a message the other day that was littered with screaming.  The message said, "please come home".  I know it is rough for her.  

Anyway, my reason for this post is to let you know how much I truly love my wife and what she is for me and my girls.  We were reading marriage quotes last night and ran across a quote that sums up my relationship with Patty.

As much as I would miss my wife if she were to die, I would miss what we are together even more. Our "we-ness" our "us-ness." - Carl Whitaker, family therapy pioneer

That is the greatness of our relationship, that we are in it together.  We have gone through some really great times and some of the lowest times I think we will ever hit and the one thing that remains constant is that we are together - a "we-ness".  A couple of weeks ago, our lead pastor encouraged us to really love people, not just those that return the favor.  He spoke of Divine Love and loving someone who does not or cannot reciprocate.  As Jeff said, there are times that families must divine love each other, as one is not able or willing to go the distance.  For the past two weeks, my wife and I have practiced this.  We tell each other that we divine love each other, letting the other one know that no matter what this world throws at us, we love each other.  No matter how many times I argue with her (and I don't know why I do, she is 98% right every time), no matter how stressed she is, no matter how late I work, no matter how frustrated I make her - DIVINE LOVE.  I have seen an improvement in my relationship with her. I see that although she gets frustrated with me for leaving piles of clothes on her clean floor, that she will give me a kiss when I need it. She has even been spotted, cleaning dried cereal out of bowls (which drives me ape-ishly insane).  It is magical the effect it has had on how I view her.  

I love my wife.  And, to let you know - this isn't for her to read.  You see, my wife has no interest in reading my blog.  She will go about her crazy life not knowing this is here, so all you haters can know that I am not doing this to get out of the doghouse.  I wanted to blog this to let you know that my wife is the President of my fan club and I couldn't be happier about it.  I am through taking her for granted and wanted to publicly let anyone that reads this to know that she is my number one blessing from God....

I promise the next ones will be about my greatest accomplishments - those 5 angels.

Feel good story...

In 1986, Peter Davies was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University .
On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Peter approached it very carefully.
He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away. Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

Twenty years later, Peter was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenage son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Peter and his son Cameron were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Peter, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.
Remembering the encounter in 1986, Peter couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant. Peter summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Peter legs and slammed his stupid ass against the railing, killing him instantly.


Probably wasn't the same elephant.

This kind of immature stuff makes me giggle like a school girl.

My race for the cure...

As I mentioned before, a colleague and good friend of mine, Denise Vadala, is battling breast cancer right now.  As I type this, Denise the super trooper, is working a couple of doors down from me - tired, hurting, and still so full of spirit.  Our company, Sentari Technologies, has decided to run for Denise, who is our inspiration right now.  I am (hopefully) including a link where, if you want, you can donate to the cause.  I know money is tight and there is always a reason to find why we can't give.  It all gets trumped when a worn out Denise comes into my office to ask me how MY day was and how I am doing.  If you can spare a dime, I will take it.

Thanks for the support.

Click here to visit my personal page and pledge your support.

http://race.komennorthtexas.org/site/TR/Race/General?px=1241457&pg=personal&fr_id=1020

If this page does not send you to my page, then you can easily look me up. respond and I will tell you how.

Thanks!

Mack Attack

I wanted to start this blog as a way to show the 6 of you that read this what life with my 5 girls is like.  I noticed it slowly went into what Browner does not care for and not so much about life with the girlies.  Well, #3 (Mack) is at such a great age right now.  I just love that age.... so excited about everything, so opinionated as well.  At three, she is so creative, coniving, and hilarious.  I wanted to share a couple of exerpts from the incredible wit of my three year old.

- The last couple of days, Mack has been on a Bible kick.  She takes #1's Bible and opens it up and tells us, "the Bible says..." and then proceeds to get on to us.  "Daddy, the Bible says don't run in the house".  "Mommy, the Bible says I need to eat some grapes now." Fun times.
- We have High School Musical Sing It on Wii.  Mack knows every word to every song from HSM2 and I tell you that the angels in Heaven could not make you smile more when she sings into that microphone.  You can't understand a dang word she says, but she is singing the words.  The best part is that at the beginning you have a microphone check and Mack gets that belly laugh that only babies and toddlers can have.  Greatness.
- The other day, my wife was getting on to Mack for going outside and getting muddy.  Mack looked at her and told her that she was just rude and annoying.  It wasn't ugly, she just wanted her to know that her comments were rude... and annoying.  Out of the mouths of babes...
- My wife and Mack were looking for her shoes (a tradition our whole family goes through).  Mack had an idea of where they were and looked up at my wife and said, "Am I sinkin' what you are sinkin'?"  I guess my wife was sinkin' that the shoes were outside.

On another note, I was told today for the first time that one of my precious angels doesn't like me anymore. #2 (my 5  year old) was really mad at me because I don't wake her up like mommy does.  She looked me right in the eyes and told me she would do what I asked, but she did not want to do it because she just doesn't like me anymore.  I played it off, but on our ride to school, I tried to broach the subject with her again.  We worked on a way to wake her up that won't lead to grumpiness, but before she got out, I heard her mumble, I still don't like you.  I let it go, but it has been eating at me all morning.  I don't know what I am going to do when hormones get involved.

Tales from the cemetery in May, TX

Well, wanted to share a fun, but yet stressful experience with my kiddos this weekend. My wife works in adoption... she goes and sees families that are wanting to adopt and does the social work study on the families. One of her duties is to see the families once a year to make sure there are no issues, etc...

Well, the family goes with her on these trips. Sometimes they are across town and others are as far as Houston, Waco, Brownwood, TX. If she drives, we usually go with her, as the kids love the road trip (and DVDs in the car), not to mention eating fast food and BLIZZARDS on the way home! Most of the time we find a really cool place to go (i.e.-Fiesta Texas, Houston Aquarium) and make a day of it. It may sound like a beating, but we all seem to like it (except the twins, who don't like not walking around all the time).

So... here is our normal plan. Patty goes to the family's house, while the 5 rugrats and I go and find something fun to do. She is usually gone for an hour, so we go to the park, McDonalds, Wal-mart - even once to a cool little town fair. It is all good. Well, don't know if you readers have ever been to May, Texas, but there isn't crap from Highway 20 and Brownwood. As we drove down our fourth dirt road, it became clear that there would be no joy in the Brown Suburban today, for there is nothing but freaking farms, hay bales, and cows for miles and miles. We dropped off the Mrs., and went on a trek to find something for 5 kids (ages 7-15 mos) to do.

I decided to go west on FM 2273 only to find a little community about 3 miles west. I believe the community was Lakeside Estates or something like that. Nice name, if there were a freaking lake anywhere in the freaking vicinity. I found out where the derilecs in Deliverance live when they aren't taking Ned Beaty to town. Shantyville, I mean NO Lakeside Estates had two parts... double wide, and make shift double wide. We drove by a community playground that had a bunch of rusty, metal playground equipment on it. There was even a teenager in a wife beater making out with some tweener on the merry-go-round. My kids were begging for me to stop and play and got upset when I said no... "why not?"

"Cuz, we aren't all up to date on our tetnus honey"
"What's that?"
"Hey look guys, more four wheelers!"

So, once I hightailed it out of One Tooth Hill, we went back east on FM 2273. Again nothing....

But alas, there was something ahead. It was the great cemetery of May, Texas. I did what any good father did and let the kids walk around the cemetery looking at tombstones. All was fine, until I smelled that one of the twins had pooped. Went to the Suburban to change her when my oldest three tell me they have to pee and right now. Luckily, I am married to a very organized woman. She had a portable potty (for #3 and her potty training) in the back. So, we open up the back and what once held strollers, dry cleaning, and lawn chairs, is now a bathroom. #5 goes, #4 goes, and #3 goes, while I am changing the stinky baby. I decide to be a good parent and change the other twin, when #3 comes back to the truck to let me know she has pooped on a grave. Thank the Lord, she only meant that she pooped while looking at a grave. She did however crap her pants..... something organized mommy was not ready for.... nor was unorganized daddy. SO, #3 has on one the twin's diapers and I am trying to clean a potty for the third time while trying to find somewhere for poopy Dora panties to go. My wife then decides it is a good time to call me and let me know she is done and needs me to come get her...NOW! All seemed lost until Bubba and his fourwheeler showed up and asked, "Is y'all lost?" (cue Banjo music)

Needless to say, we made it to my wife and we made it home. Thought the day was going to be ok until I got home. All the kids were asleep and as I picked up #1 (who is a hefty seven year old), she whispers in my ear, "cemeteries aren't very fun, daddy".

Yeah KB, but they make for a good story for your old man to remember.

Forget it Friday

Well.... here we go...

1) Forget doing this list EVERY Friday. I missed a week and now I am behind. Just another thing to start whipping me into complete dispair.

2) Forget underhanded sub-contracting recruiters that pull their good people at the last minute and try to replace them with crap. If I wanted crap I would subcontract through my twins - they give me crap all the time. And sometimes more than what I ask for.

3) Forget cleaning... I mean seriously... I had the fortune of staying home yesterday and just picked up my house. I mowed, I baked a freaking cake, I not only washed clothes, but I folded them and put them up (ok 95% of them). I wake up this morning and see that a tornado has hit my home... just crap everywhere.... are you freaking kidding me?

4) Forget depression.... I think I have been battling a bad case of it for the last two weeks. It just wears me down. I am too tired to do anything but breathe and my sweet girls just want to play with their dad. Some of you would probably say, you should just do that Ten Things Tuesday to put your mind in perspective.... to that I say.... um, no.

5)Forget finishing this 5. I lost steam thanks to that phone call, Michelle. Now I am not only behind a week, but also a number. Man... what a beat down.

Seriously.... I would like to also take this time to ask anyone that reads this to say a quick prayer for a good friend and co-worker of mine, Denise. Two weeks ago, Denise found out she has a tumor in her breast that covers over 3/4 of the breast. She immediately went into chemo and has having all kinds of work done to get rid of it. She has been so incredibly strong and in good spirits. While I haven't had the closest of relationships, this situation has made us stronger friends and I really don't want this thing to get her. The world is not ready to be without her. SO... could you guys, gals, kids, and alpacas please pray for her. She is a good and decent person and she is being so super strong right now. Thanks!

Also... having felt like my privates were the soccer ball in a World Cup tourney, I took the advice of a friend and read the book of Job again. I charge any of you to read it... especially when you are down. It really puts perspectives on things. Have a great weekend.