Temptations: The sneaky fleshy kind that jump you in alleys

As most, if not all of you know, Katie and I recently decided that sleep was over rated and that we should become insomniacs. In order to further this goal in our lives and make sure there was no going back we had Thomas, and no, he is not sleeping through the night yet. Anyway, this is where the real story begins. One of the things I discovered about being a new parent is that you suddenly acquire a lot of things that you didn’t even know babies needed. I have a feeling that this lack of knowledge may in some way be tied to my Y-chromosome, but real scientific research has yet to support my theories. Regardless, you will accumulate many things that you (and by you I mean men) never even knew existed. Aside from the many gifts of various clothes, diapers, toys, etc. Katie and I also received many gift cards. Gift cards are great because parents with three baby swings and no diaper bag can put the gift to the best possible use and not have to go through the feelings of guilt that come about when you have to return two out of the three swings to the store because you failed to have triplets. This is where temptation enters the scene. A gift card to a baby stores scarcely a temptation for me as I don’t really like baby shopping. However a gift card to say, Target or Wal-Mart is a completely different story. Suddenly a whole electronics section has been opened up before my very eyes and a shiny new gift card is in my hand. The fact that the gift card is for buying baby things means very little to me. After all, I will be supporting Thomas for the next 18 years of his life, if I am lucky. Longer if I am not. And I have yet to see a gift card that covers a college education. So when a friend puts a baby card in my hand, and it contains a substantial gift card to a store that sells video games, and Katie is not around to even know that a gift card has been given or received, or if I find a gift card that may have been forgotten about... Yeah, temptation. Rest assured, however, that I rose to the occasion and told my wife about the gift card and did not run off and spend it frivolously behind her back. In the end I decided that she would notice if Smash Bros. Brawl showed up and no money disappeared from the bank account. And I am just to honest. This is why I generally have my wife manage the finances. It keeps us from eating a diet of Ramen noodles.

On an only slightly related note, Katie and I want to thank everyone at St. Joseph’s for their support of Thomas through prayers and gifts. Especially the youth group. You are all amazing.