So..What IS the meaning of life?
I am a full-time student, and I was born on Christmas Day, 1952 - in Wellington, New Zealand.
My wife is a Domestic Executive and was born on September 21, 1971 (go figure) - in IloIlo, Philippines.
We have been married ten years, and have five children - four of them boys, and the last one our little girl.
While we do love each other, we also have these incredible wars - there is that Philippines cultural desire to take revenge for every real or imagined slight - and it is our children who hold us together and relatively sane.
I have one year to go on my Bachelor of Computing Systems. We exist on a Student Allowance and some Family Assistance; we are barely getting by financially. However, we recently sold our first house at a fairly convincing profit and are into our second house, which we are slowly improving. Getting a mortgage while a full-time student was not an easy task; we ended up with a loan from a credit union, and even then we just squeaked in.
Life is pretty good for me. I have seen many students come out of study with a piece of paper in their hand (their degree) and no more family; and have decided that they have paid too great a price. So I try my best to balance family life with study life with medical life; our oldest boy was born handicapped and we are fairly constantly doing the specialist/appointments thing. Actually, I've noticed that I can kind of cycle my studies: when my wife is not speaking to me I can concentrate more fully on my studies; when things are sweet between us then I tend to spend more time at home. Having saifd that, however, deadlines are deadlines, and must be met regardless.
One of my greatest enjoyments is taking my kids out for "The Walk".
This tradition happened accidentally: I had promised my kids a walk around the local estuary, then got busy. As the sun was setting, my kids came and bugged me about this walk again. I looked outside: it was getting dark. I asked to put the walk off: but no, "I had promised them!!!"
So, fairly well trapped, I told them to put on warm clothes and their gumboots, and took them down to the estuary, thinking that a few metres in the dark would be enough for them...but no! The night was VERY dark, we had to navigate our way by existing moonight (very little), the walk took us 1.5 hours to complete...and these kids completed the whole thing without one whimper. At the time, they were five and four years old. I was so impressed, I made them both a Bravery Certificate on the computer, and that walk, at night, has become one of their favourites. Amazing!
I thinl I am enjoying my children so much because this is my first marriage...I married for the first time in my forties...and so these are my first children.
Accordingly, I really enjoy my four boys and just absolutely adore my little girl. (She feels tha same way about her daddy).
Being married to a Filipina is always exciting, there is always someting going on and generally it is my fault! The desire to seek revenge for every real or imagined slight or insult makes thins tense sometimes, but life is never dull! On Saturday, we had some really good friends over for dinner to celebrate her birthday. Apparently, the birthday card I got was not good enough for her; so first of all she started to use it as a grocery list, then she changed her mind and set fire to it in the fireplace. Ummm...there was a fairly clear message there, particularly when the card our friends gave was displayed prominently on the mantel piece. Other exciting times have seen my dear wife put a pile of her own clothes on the concrete, then set fire to them...and suddenly jump out of the car, walk ten miles home, then smash one of the windows to gain access to the house, then accuse me of having an affair when I came home with the kids (say WHAT???). Kind of reminds me of the old rhyme "When she was good she was very very good; and when she was bad she was horrid". I would guess that we are still married because of the kids that we both love and adore, and because of my temperament - I am The Rock. Everything may be going to hell all around me; my wife may be going beserk beating me on the head with the phone book while screaming at me - while I calmly pick up the phone and call the Police to report a domestic disturbance at our place. (Really happened...)
Life as a student is really interesting also. I am surrounded by these really young "kids" with really different body piercings, interesting hair colour combinations, bizarre study habits, while I am trying hard to keep my home life together, keep paying the mortgage, figuring out how to please my wife, keep my promises to my kids, obtain reasonable study grades and keep my head on straight!!! Whew!!! That's about all for this blog, more later. Take care...