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Back from the AbyssI've been to the edge, but I like it much better here on stable ground. September 27 Where has the time gone? Wow, this is strange. I can't believe it has been so long since I have written anything on here. I would be shocked if there was still anyone out there who will ever see this who used to be on here, as it seems the whole world has become a Facebook world, where only what is currently on our minds gets printed in 140 words or less. I have recently moved the family out to North Carolina, to be closer to family and for better schools and community for my children. Cheyenne seems to be adjusting to kindergarten well, although she still cries a little every morning when we leave her at her classroom, but at the end of the day she always says she had a great time. She started out with a teacher she didn't like too much, but as fate would have it, that teacher got called up to teach 2nd grade, and her new teacher Mrs. Christian is wonderful. Skylar is one heck of a personality, and can be a real monster sometimes, but I wouldn't trade her for the world. Cheyenne can be the same, but even her pre-school teacher said she prefers her girls to have a little fire and spunk in them, as they are the girls who won't let people push them around, and won't just follow along with those who will " jump off a bridge just because all their friends did" as the old saying goes. Anyway, looking to start a job, which I think I have landed this week (will know for sure Tuesday at 3PM) so that we can find and move into our own place soon. Staying with my parents at the moment and helping them finish their monster house they have built here. Just finished sanding the ceiling of a 700 sq foot game room today, and can't lift my arms over my head at the moment. Gonna go take some Advil and read Cheyenne a book to put her to bed. Hope everyone is doing well out in blog land, though I fear no one comes by this way anymore. I still see some MSN'ers on Facebook these days, but blogging seems to be a fad that has passed most of us by. It is truly a shame to me, as I always admired people who kept journals of their lives in history, and for a while I was one of them. ~Keith December 23 Fallen to facebook...Ah, yes, that is the reality of it all. Facebook has claimed the lion's share of my online time as of late, a move I am happy with and yet saddened by at the same time. It lets me get on and briefly express myself, but does not allow for the long moments of introspection that a real blog allows. Even as I say the words I realize I miss it more than I thought, but two kids and a rough economy do not allow me much time, or perhaps make me not want to make the time, for exploring my feelings and thoughts in depth the way I used to.
It's a lousy excuse I make to myself, which is kind of pointless when I think about it, so I will simply try to make a personal commitment to spend more alone time writing on the computer next year on this blog. Not a New Years resolution, as those are sure to be broken before they are even made, just a commitment to try.
O.K., enough about that. The real reason I am posting today is to wish any and all of my friends out there....
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!! October 22 Finally...Well, I finally got some of the pictures from our trip to N.C. in August posted. Our camera broke on the last day we were there, and still isn't fixed, but I bought a card reader to be able to download our photos off the camera's card.
Not much to post right now, well, just no time to do it actually, but I have rented an RV for a camping trip I am taking the family on in November, and I am getting excited...
~
October 13 Bits and pieces...*Sigh*
These are trying times. If the reality wasn't bad enough, the situation just gets more trying by all the fear mongering going on in the presidential campaigns and political rallys. If you listen to the news enough, you could scare yourself into being a recluse holed up in the mountains waiting for the end of the world.
However, but the same token, I have found you can ease a lot of this stress by simply not watching the news at all for awhile. The old me would have scoffed at such an idea, criticizing the person who would willingly choose not to know what is going on in the world as 'out of touch', but the new me sees a definite benefit to turning off the idiot box now and then. (In fact, I see a definite benefit to doing away with TV altogether, but I am not so out of touch as to believe I could actually do that for very long, especially with kids in the house, but I digress....)
I have just spent the last week trying my best to avoid the news and the political campaigns as much as I could, and while I was definitely not perfect, I must say I notice a marked change in how good I feel today. Over the weekend I had many moments where I was able to reflect just how happy I am overall, especially with the two little jewels I have as my daughters, and the gem I have found that is my wife.
My point today is you can still get away from it all without leaving town or taking a costly vacation. Sometimes, the place you need to get away to is your own backyard, and the way to get there is to just turn off all the unnecessary noise in your life, and enjoy the good things that you do have.
These ARE trying times... ...but they are also good times as well.
This weekend I was able to see that one day I will look back at these as "The Good Old Days", and I realized that I am gaining a self-awareness that was lacking in my youth, and I am grateful for that today.
Life is good.
I wish for everybody the feeling I am having today.
~ September 17 Where does the time go...?We've been back for weeks now and I am just now getting a minute to update my blog, and I barely have time to do that! It is a good thing though, as I have been extremely busy at work, and my sales have been going thru the roof, so much so that I'm on track to have my best month ever, so the extra money will sure help. Who can't use a little extra these days?
Ugh! Don't even get me started on the economy...
In fact, I don't have time to really flesh out any thought to completion tonight, so maybe I'll just throw out some current partial thoughts and random incomplete sentences...
...yeah, that sounds like a good idea in my current mood actually...
...and in doing so I'm going to break a little rule I had made for myself to stay away from politics in my blog, so I'm just gonna say 'I'm sorry' to all those I may offend in advance, but I really don't care anymore. This is getting serious.
Obama, what are you doing? It's like getting nominated was enough, and the steam went out of you...
...you're letting them gain ground on you thru outright lies and manipulations of the facts...
Get out there and show everyone what you are made of!
Sarah Palin... ..who.. ...what? Can this really be serious...? Condoms?? Dinosaurs??? I'm scared, very scared...
A self proclaimed pit bull with lipstick to replace the current pit bull without lipstick?
Middle America, I can understand your views on the moment of conception, but what I can't understand is voting your religious self to the detriment of your economic self. I really can't get my head around that, because that is what you are doing if you vote Red again this year. At least know that.
It's almost like a politician could come out and say: "I'm a complete crook, and I'm gonna rob this country blind, but I'm against abortion." and you'll go ahead and vote for them just because of that one stance.
This party has taken a surplus of money and turned it into a record deficit, which is the LEAST they are guilty of, and the whole country is drowning because of it. Do you really need more than that??
And really, how much does one's belief in this conception subject one way or the other really have to do with running this country?? At ALL!?!!? Just look at the guy you put there now!
I would so hate to be a business school teacher today. Those poor people. Can you imagine what it must be like after all the (hopefully) moral things you've taught your students all these years, to have to go into a classroom and explain why if you're an honest small business person and your business fails, that's it, you're done, there is no bailout. BUT, if you happen to be lucky enough to get into a company that is big enough that the country can't let it fail, THEN you can be a complete moron and go screw up and rape and pilage the company all you want, and in the end the government will give you a golden parachute, because you have too much of the market cornered to let you fail. Didn't we used to have regulations on this?
On top of that, how hypocritical do we look teaching our kids not to overdo it with credit cards, and to live within your means, when they see our own government doing exactly the opposite with our country's finances, racking up incredible debt and lowering the value of our dollar and in essence their very own futures??!?
Oh, and don't even get me started on our Golden state leaders and our (lack of a) budget...
*Deep Breath*
AAAAHHHHHHhhhhhhh..... ...ok, rant over. For now anyway...
I feel a little better just getting that little bit off my chest.
Now, on a lighter note, we had a wonderful, yet too short time visiting my family in North Carolina. My parents are buidling a house that looks like a mansion. I'm not kidding. One side of the house is over 133 feet long! I'll have more pictures soon, and the house will be in those.
It is a monster of a project, but it is coming along nicely. They are under a bit of pressure to finish within the next 8 weeks, which is their deadline for the housing association, so that may postpone the trip they had planned to come out here in late October, but we will have to see.
When we were there, we saw some amazing deals on some beautiful houses on lots you just couldn't touch here for the price. We are hoping to be able to have enough saved to move out to North Carolina sometime next March as a tentative date, but we will have to weather these tough economic times as well, so we will just have to hope for the best and see what happens.
The girls had an amazing time, and I've uploaded a few new pics. Oh, and the bald dude? That's me.
I decided some time ago that if there was going to be a losing battle when it came to my hair, I was going to win that battle, so I shaved it all off! What do you think? (I know, I know, but there's not much I can do about the face!)
The pics aren't many, and these in fact aren't even from our camera, as I dropped ours on the last day of the trip and it broke, so I will have more to upload once we get our camera fixed.
Anyway, I've probably said enough for now, and I'm sure some would say too much after the first paragraph, but I had to get it off my chest somewhere, so what better place than here?
Hmmm, I actually do feel better. That was kind of cathartic... ...I'd forgotten that pleasant by-product of blogging.
I think I may have to start doing this more often again...
To any readers I may have left, Thanks for stopping by, and Take Care!
~
August 15 "Leavin' on a jet plane...."OK, well maybe everyday was a bit ambitious, so I'll try maybe once a week. Uh, except for next week.
See, it's late, we're finally all packed up, the Olympics are on, and I should be getting to bed, but in reality the kids are so wired with excitement it's not lookin like that's gonna happen.
We have to get this circus up GAWDAWFULLY early, and circus is probably an understatement.
I have done something clever this time however; I have wrapped all my extremely common suitcases with a neon green duct tape, and I must say the '80's rocker in me actually likes the black and neon green combo, and it will be most easy to locate our luggage on the conveyor belt... ...can you tell this has been a problem in the past?
Anyway, it's late, I'm out, and North Carolina?
HERE WE COME!!!!!!!!!!!!!
~
P.S. Note to self: Need to update pictures upon return!! No, seriously...
August 12 Summertime...Well, it's getting to the point where I'm just going to have to start making myself post something, even just a few lines, everyday, or at least everyday that I can remember to do so.
Skylar is getting such a personality on her, but still refuses to talk. We think she is saving it all up for a sudden barrage of words one day, but everything is still 'Da!', or 'Duh!', or sometimes simply just 'Uh!' with a pointed finger for emphasis.
Cheyenne is getting to be quite the little artist of late, and my little girl is already spelling her own name!!
I thought with so many letters it would be sometime before she got that, but she far surpasses me in intelligence at the same age, and is constantly asking how to spell other words now. My mom is going to be so amazed at how much she's changed just since February when they left, I just know it.
Speaking of that... ...we are getting very exicted, as on Saturday we leave for 10 days to North Carolina to visit Grandma and Grandpa, my Sister and her husband, and my girls' favorite part... ..the COUSINS!!!
In January we had a new addition to the cousins, Baby Sierra, who I'm sure is going to provide many hours of fun for both of my girls next week, and I can't wait to meet my new little niece!!
Anyway, I am already in vacation mode, and it's all I can do to prepare everything at work for me to be gone next week... ...I will have much to report and many pictures upon our return, for SURE!!
Take care all, and have a great summer!
~ June 10 MilestonesWell, the neglect of this blog has now reached epic proportions, and I am trying hard to remedy that fact, as this is a blog more for me to be able to reflect on my life more than anything else, and yet with all that is happening it can sometimes be hard to take even a minute to write things down.
Well, this may be late, but for the historical record, May 28th, 2008 is the first day I walked thru the door after getting home from work that my littel angel Skylar stood up and WALKED up to greet me!! That's right, there's no stopping her now! She is on a mission to go every where on two legs now, and the very next day I took this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjSKVi7fuF4
Again I am in a real hurry, (at work) but I just couldn't let this moment go unannounced, and to all of you who commented and still read, Thanks, and enjoy!
PS.
I will try to come by and visit your blogs more often as well, it's just these kids keep me so darn busy!
~ March 25 Long overdue...Wow, where to start. This is going to be a lot of brief updates which should have been many separate blogs, but... ...stuff happens, what can I say?
Let's see, Christmas was wonderful, and then the New Year started out with bad news from the Licensing division at DMV, so that then in turn caused me to be laid off from work. I know. Just great. The only up side to that was that I was able to be available to help my folks with some very long days during their move out to North Carolina, and now it's been so long since I've posted I am once again employed, though not in the field of my choice, but hey, it's a job, and it's paying the bills. I do hope that good things really do come to those who wait, because it's starting to feel like it's been a long time for me.
Let's see, in February, my parents put their house up for sale, and I must say I knew the house I grew up in was a wonderful one, but who would have imagined it so wonderful that even in this housing market mess it would only take 15 DAYS for it to sell?? Ah, the benefits of buying in a good neighborhood. So, as I said, then being jobless, I was able to help my parents attack the gargantuan task of emptying a house after 35 years of filling it with memories and memorabilia.
In short, we had many an "Aha! So THAT'S where..." moments, and many, many wonderful trips down memory lane. It was really nice in some ways, sad in others, but overall I think it actually brought us even closer as a family, even though they were about to move so far away.
The day they left was heavy, for lack of a better word, and I still have a hard time believing I will never be able to go 'home' again. As I walked into the house for one of the last times, and called out to my mother whom I thought was still inside, the extra echo of the word "Mom" from the now completely empty walls caused such a wave of emotion over me it really hit me like... ...well, like a wave. It just really drove the reality and finality of the situation home for me, that this was where I grew up and became who I am, and for some reason the saying "You can't go home again" popped into my head and I found the signifigance and meaning of it as if hearing it for the first time.
Wow. Well, they say change is good, and many times for the better, so we move on in life. It is hard not to be able to drive 30 minutes to go see Mom, as I have always been able to do, but hey, it's going to be good for them, and we had been planning to move out to North Carolina in the next couple of years anyway due to housing costs here, so it will be nice when we finally get out there to be able to be closer to Mom as well.
Yeah, I've kinda turned into a 'mama's boy' at this late stage of my life, and it took this stage of maturity to allow me to be proud of it, but heck, who wouldn't with the wonderful woman I was blessed to have as my Mother? Besides, I'd gladly trade it anyday for the kind of person I was as an early adult, and I have a lot of years to make up for when I was 'out there' and spent many years without calling her or seeing her at all, save for holidays and special occasions.
It occured to me the other day the irony of just how little I thought about the future when I was younger and had so much of it still in front of me, and now here I am at 40 with two young daughters and ALL I can think about is the future, and how much better I could have prepared for it had I this insight and self-awareness 20 year ago.
Ah, well, I've taken my mistakes as lessons I can now teach my children.
Youth really is wasted on the young, and yet at the same time while that is true, there is something oddly wrong about that statement. Part of the beauty of being young is having so much time to waste, to be able to learn things at your own pace, and to have the energy to do so much more, but also the luxury of not having to. It's a paradox, but I digress.
My two girls are doing well, although Cheyenne seems to be going thru a phase of not eating much, and I hope it doesn't have anything to do with her favorite Grandma moving away. She hasn't said much at all about them moving, but seems to understand that they did, and yet we'll still get the occasional request to bring her doll over to Grandma's to swim in her pool. We remind her that she has moved, and she responds "But I only want to use her pool for a little bit" or something like that, and it's all I can do to keep my own emotions in check. It must be me getting old, as I didn't used to be so easily and so strongly affected by these kinds of things, but lately it seems I am. I sometimes wonder if I'm not suffering from a mild depression or something, but I just have to suck it up and go on.
I have quite a bit more to add, but this had been a draft long enough, and maybe having an unfinished posting will inspire me to begin blogging more frequently. I hope so, as now that I have begun blogging I will regret not recording more of what is going on at this time in my life and the lives of my children. These long periods in between posts leaves a lot of things getting left out and ultimately possibly forgotten with the passage of time, and that would be a real shame, as my children are such a source of joy to me, and I want to remember every minute of it.
It is late, and I am tired, and since I am sure I have no one who reads or checks this blog anymore due to my long absence, I am ok with ending with to be continued....
~
January 26 Dem bones, dem bones...Well, after 40 years I finally suffer my first broken bone. Yes, I broke my left arm in a rather unglamorous fall in the garage about two weeks ago.
Therefore, typing is no longer so easy, nor are myriad other things which have made me realize just how much I take for granted the use of all of my limbs.
It had already been too long since my last post before the break, and this only made it longer. When I heal a bit more I am going to post all the pics from the holidays and some new ones as well, plus update on all the happenings.
I hope everyone out in blogland is doing better than I, and I will be back as soon as this heals. (Approximately 4 more weeks they tell me.)
Ouch! This hurts!! ~ |
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