Easter Stuff

So last month on the 24th--the day after Easter--we went to the White House for the Annual White House Easter Egg Roll...a tradition that dates back to Easter 1878 during the term of President Rutherford B. Hayes. For more information you can click here.

It's an amazingly stupid tradition that, in my (not even remotely) humble opinion is both a massive waste of time and monumental waste of taxpayer dollars. To be fair, the event was much less expensive this year compared to others because of the fact that the rapidly accelerating devaluation of our currency has resulted in $1 being roughly equal to 0.017 Meticais, the national currency of Mozambique.

But I digress.

The night before the day before Easter (aka Friday night) Melinda and a group of friends went to the White House to stand in line for tickets. While there they reenacted scenes from Star Wars I, The Phantom Menace:

She arrived home around 10 AM the next morning exhausted but happy and then promptly went to bed.

On Monday we arrived at the White House and took the pictures below. Aside from what you see here, the girls got to watch the Jonas Brothers (three stupid adolescent kids who make more money than me) perform and behaved much as you would expect pre-teen girls to behave in such a situation. It was very cute and they were fun to watch.

Joseph did the Roll…which involved standing in line for over an hour and then 8 seconds of hitting a hard-boiled egg with a spatula for like 15 feet. It was the most exciting thing I’ve ever done.

Aside from that I mostly wandered around in a haze of back pain praying for my misery to end. Fun was had by all!!!

I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures as much as I did taking them.

When we first arrived

Joseph's favorite part was the picture taking.

With Little Foot.

With Sarah.

With Grandma Carroll

I have no idea who this woman is and,

frankly, I'm a little uncomfortable with this picture.

Coloring Easter Eggs...

...and smiling.

You can see why my back was killing me. I'm

wearing a pregnancy suit under my shirt.

This picture was not nearly as spontaneous as it looks.

Maddie making her ears.

Kastlee making her ears.

Maddie's School Picture

Today Madalynn brought home her 2007-2008 school pictures and begged us to buy them. Now, I’m pretty much inclined to buy all of that crap for my kids—the pictures, the t-shirts, the yearbooks—because I’ve learned the value of fitting in with your peers. Something I was never very good at when I was young.

When I looked at the prices on the envelope I was shocked. I’m not going to tell you how much it was—largely because I can’t remember as I’ve blocked out those traumatic few moments—but you can believe me when I tell you it was a lot.

So being me I said, “Maddie, I’ll just scan them in and then we don’t have to pay for them.”

She immediately responded by emphatically stating that it wouldn’t work. We couldn’t copy them. I asked why and she showed me this:

...which I found terribly amusing because instead of reading, "Professional portraits. Do not copy.", Maddie read, "Professional portraits do not copy."

At any rate, we had a good laugh about it and then I scanned it in, adjusted it with Photoshop (which I downloaded for free) on my Windows XP operating system (which I downloaded for free) with my keyboard and mouse (that I got for free from work). Obviously there's a trend here. You might say that I'm not a big fan of the words "intellectual property".

Regardless, here, for your viewing pleasure, is my beautiful Maddie:

National Museum of the Marine Corps

In January when Mom and Dad came to visit we took a trip to the National Marine Corps Museum that opened up at MCB Quantico in November of 2006. As museums go it's a pretty neat place and we had a wonderful time.

The National Museum of the Marine Corps at Night

In the gallery when we first arrived

Landing near Ho Chi Minh City

After going through the majority of the museum we stopped in Tun Tavern. It's a replica of the original tavern in Philadelphia where, on November 10, 1775 after the Continental Congress commissioned Samuel Nicholas to raise two Battalions of Marines, Nicholas set up shop in Tun Tavern and began recruiting the nation's first Marines. Since that day, Tun Tavern has been known as the birthplace of the Marine Corps.

That being said, the food was mediocre, the service sub-par, and the serving wenches were disappointingly aged. But it was a really neat place to go and spend time together. The girls loved being with Grandma Vicki and monopolized most of her time. Grandma Vicki loved this, of course.

Though he was much more comfortable with Grandma and Grandpa on this visit, Joseph mostly just enjoyed being with his sisters and mom and dad.

Kästlee, Maddie, & Joseph

Dad and I spent most of the meal talking politics and history
and had a great time. He really learned something.

Towards the end of our visit I began lagging behind the rest of the group to take some pictures I wanted to take. The results of my efforts are below. I'm so proud.

Smells like roses.

I made a difference.

Duchess and I grew very close at Stalag 13.

Another special friend.

Tired at the end of the day.

Last Pictures of Jake and Josh

Earlier this year Melinda contacted the photo studios where we had taken the twins' pictures the last couple of times. She explained the situation and asked if we could have the digital versions of the photos and authorization to use them. The staff at both places were incredibly sympathetic and eager to help and promise that they would get us the orignials as soon as possible.

We just recently picked up one of the CDs from The Picture People. This is the group of pictures from which we took the funeral photo. The pictures were taken just a few days before the accident. Melinda tells me that Jacob was having a pretty difficult day and was very unpleasant. Joseph and Josh were wonderful. I love these picture and wanted to share. I hope you enjoy them.

Family Update

I'd like to start off by thanking Janae for reading and posting on my blog. I’d also like to tell her that while I appreciate her request for pictures, I write this blog from work and don't typically have access to our photo database. However, I will copy all of our pictures onto my USB hard drive and will add some in future posts. In the mean time, please enjoy the random pictures arbitrarily posted throughout today's blog.



Things are going pretty well for the East Coast branch of the Ashton clan. Kästlee starts swimming next month and can’t wait for Memorial Day when the pools open. She is an absolute joy to Melinda and me and is growing into a lovely young woman; most of the time, anyway. Over the last year she’s begun adolescence and it’s come on with a vengeance. She turns 12 next week and I admit that I feel great anxiety over a number of issues related to the changes she’s experiencing. I’ve decided that it’s impossible to effectively prepare for your first bout with puberty. Fortunately, aside from the annoying habits of talking under her breath, questioning everything, and trying to parent Maddie and Joseph she is handling things admirably. She is a wonderful girl with a wonderful personality and we’re constantly surprised at how much more we love her (and Maddie and Joseph as well) each day.

Madalynn started soccer 3 weeks ago and loves playing. Her team is currently an impressive 0-2 and seems to have what it takes to keep the streak alive. Last week she played goalie and, after allowing two goals, began to show dramatic improvement. I’m always a little surprised by how quickly kids that age (10 yrs-old) seem to develop their skills and Maddie is no exception. She’s learning to dribble, pass, anticipate where the play is going, and to increase her level of effort. She’s having a wonderful time and is quickly become one of the best players on her team. We’re incredibly proud of her. Like her sister, she too is both a joy and a challenge, particularly as she has recently begun to blossom herself.



Joseph is at the same time a holy terror and an adorable, kindhearted, wonderful little boy. I’m endlessly fascinated by the dichotomy. For example, yesterday when I came home from work he sprinted toward me and the jumped into my arms, ecstatic to see me. Then, as he sat on my bed while I changed my clothes, we spent several minutes talking about his day. He was wonderful. He was happy. The smiles on his face and his excited description of his day warmed my heart. Conversely, last Sunday while I was napping and Melinda was working in the basement Joseph took it upon himself to open the rice container (we buy rice in 20lb bags), fill a 1-cup measuring cup to the top and then proceeded to spread rice on the floor across the entire main floor. And when I say house I mean the kitchen, the family room, the living room, the entry foyer, and even the front and back stairs. Or there was the day, two weeks ago, when he took a permanent marker from the cupboard and drew all over the hardwood floors.

Melinda is keeping herself busy with, among other things, the fundraising for her Mothers of Multiples group. It’s been a neat experience to see her discover a talent that she didn’t know she had. She’s been incredibly successful getting businesses to contribute to the group. On top of the fundraising, this week Melinda implemented a new, extremely aggressive house cleaning regimen. While the girls aren’t particularly pleased with the changes that have been made, I’ve been amazed at what a wonderful job Melinda’s doing and I deeply appreciate here efforts. She’s an amazing wife and I love her completely.

As for me, work keeps me busy most of the time and when I have some time to myself it’s generally spent building my company. I’m amazed at how much red tape you have to wade through to create a company but I’m slowly plodding forward and making progress. What’s more, I’ve recently identified some potential sources of revenue outside of my traditional line of business and this will occupy my focus for the next few days while I work things out.

We still desperately miss Jacob and Joshua and their absence is a constant source of sorrow for each of us. While they were only here for a short 15 months, their impact on our family was enormous and we long to have them back. Our family is incomplete without them. But we’re moving forward and consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have each other.

And So it Goes

Okay folks, here we go. I received an email today from my sister-in-law stating that she had started a blog for her family. That means that of my parents 9 children three of them have their own family blog (not counting mine).

Now, normally this wouldn't bother me. I mean, most of time I'm really not that concerned with what others are doing and, in the case of my family, I usually don't have any idea. I'm not going to say whether this is my fault or theirs (it's theirs) but facts is facts. However, my meager role in my family, one which I jealously guard, is as the IT guy. I'm the one that family members annoy when they have computer problems; or when they can't figure out how to paste text into a table; or when the power is out and they can't get their computer to work. Consequently, I feel compelled to exert my dominance as family IT guru and place my thoughts online for everyone to read.

Now, if you're a frequent reader of this blog (and I know you're not because I even forgot it existed--just read my first (and only) post from 2006) or if you spend time with me in person--or if you know someone who has--you no doubt are aware of both my proclivity for expressing my opinions to others and my unbearable narcissism. So you'd think that blogging would be a natural outlet for me. However, what you may not know is that I am, above all else, profoundly lazy and commitment-averse--and blogging requires a level of both commitment and effort that I find distasteful. In fact, it's only the stimulation of that most fundamental and absolute of all my traits--the need to one-up my siblings--that ever has any hope of overcoming my addiction to sloth. Well, that and money, of course.

But that's neither here nor there. The whole point is that, once again more than two years later I am starting my blog. I hope you enjoy it. I know that I will.

The Maiden Voyage

Like so many before me...and so many more to come...I have fought the good fight against the herd mentality and then, as all men are wont to do, caved in to peer pressure. The result of my capitulation is what you see before you: a pathetic attempt to make a meaningful contribution to the online community. For those of you who are familiar with my online persona (none of you will be...and praise be to Allah for it) I have historically restricted my online contributions to inflammatory comments about race, religion, and politics...the things you typically avoid in polite conversation. Ironically, these are the topics I enjoy the most. Especially when they're inflammatory.

However, here I hope to do something different. My intent is to give you a web portal into my life and the lives of those I love without reference to the incendiary topics mentioned above. Please understand that I will fail...and that miserably. In my defense, it is difficult to repress one's opinions when one (read: I) knows that one is right. Interestingly, this is the basis for every conflict in the history of humankind. Thank goodness I'm actually right...you'll learn something. But I digress. This post is supposed to be what I'm GOING to present you...not what I'm going to avoid. And so, on this blog in the weeks and months and years to come you will be blessed with view into my own personal attempt to perpetuate the species that his human kind. (Who am I kidding, I'm never going to log on to this site, I'll forget my password, and blogspot will shut me down for lack use. But in the meantime, let me have my illusion.) So everybody grab your broom and join in the shenanigans. We're glad to have you here. Welcome to the Ashton family blog.