Speaking of Monday morning, it marked a big event within our humble little household…Katie’s first day at big girl school.  Now the term ‘big girl school’ is being used fairly loosely here because she is starting the same Montessori school that her brother goes to, which is a 3-6 year old Kindergarten style class.  It is only half days, but the key here is what half we are talking about.  By no stretch of the imagination, would Katie ever be considered a morning person, so you can imagine my horror when I thought of her actually making it to school at 8 a.m., 5 days a week.  I thought to myself…ain’t gonna happen.  She is too stubborn and too hard headed ever to get up and ready that early.  1st day came and went like clockwork but unfortunately we weren’t allowed to stop there.  She had to return for the 2nd which is where the real fun started.  You see, Katie MUST pick out her own clothes.  We are allowed to provide input and opinions, but in the end, it is her decision and we must respect it.  If she has her heart set on a tank top in the dead of winter, then that is what it shall be…..we have to just deal with it and pray she is accepting of a fairly heavy coat.  On this day, after it was all said and done, she had tried on 3 tops, 2 pair of pants, a cheerleader outfit and given heavy consideration to any one of her newly acquired princess dresses, all of which is closer to a Halloween costume that actual attire.  As you can imagine, we were running slightly late.  Then naturally, with all this fussing going on, Matthew has to get in on the act and he proceeds to take it to a new level.  It was almost as if he said “step aside, young sister, and let the big boy show you how it’s done.”  And step aside, she did….when he started in, she got real quiet, as if in amazement that her big brother could behave in such a way.  I don’t know if she was taking mental notes or just admiring his handiwork, because it was indeed a thing of beauty.  However, I was not to be deterred…I would have taken them both in their underwear, kicking and screaming the entire way if that is what it came down to…they were going to school and there was nothing that could stop it.  You can’t reward that type of behavior…if it doesn’t work for me, then it doesn’t work for anybody.  At the end of the day, all was fine and low and behold, a great half day of school had yet again miraculously occurred.  Shocking, I know.   I am happy to report that both are doing well and learning all kinds of nuggets of wisdom that will undoubtedly carry them through all walks of life….or at least 1st grade.

January has begun and yet again, another chapter in what is known as “Busy Season” (aka “Rush”, aka “The Sale”, aka “Pure Hell.”  I’ve personally knocked on wood every day within this new calender year because for some reason, things are running fairly smoothly and if this continues, I might not have as much to whine and complain about in the coming months, which would be a tragedy in it’s own regard.  I think it’s because I have gotten so darn good at whining about stuff that I figure it was be a such a shame to bottle me up with no outlet to vent frustrations with what 95% of the world’s population would probably describe as a utopian life.  I could literally blog an entire list of blessings that have been bestowed upon me, yet I continue to harp on the challenges that most people would love to encounter.  Nonetheless, I forge ahead with my gift of making things out to be much worse than they actually are.  I have found several antidotes to such feelings of despair and self pity and I have presented a small sampling of them below.  Great pictures can certainly turn that frown upside down, so without further ado, I give you a little smorgasbord of pictorial evidence of my AMAZING life!  God is great…no matter how ordinary I am.

Sorry babe..had to do it. This picture is THAT good.

The boy with one of his favorite gifts. Finally...I can get some blowing done without him ambushing MY machine!

Her favorite ride at SDC. She couldn't get enough of the ladybugs.

Clearly the most excited person to be on the train is the conductor himself....

Matthew and some of his school buddies had a little cookie making event......

...and here is his handiwork. No sugar high here or anything....

Katie was more interested in being seen at the putt putt place than actually playing putt putt. I think it's a chick thing.

They were actually waiting on Daddy to get on the swinging swings...a daredevil of a ride...one in which I regret.

It was toward the end of the trip...he was a little picture weary.

How could this angel ever misbehave? Oh let me count the ways......

Don't focus on the vampire eyes, just check out the one foot in front of the other pose. It comes natural. Princesses are born, not made.

However, I will try to provide a brief summary to my November thought pattern…just so I can say that I have somewhat of a written record of the monthly proceedings.  We decided to make the yearly trip to Nebraska during the Thanksgiving season instead of jamming it in to the Christmas/New Year’s holiday schedule.  This made sense on many levels, most of which revolved around the weather.  It seems like a fairly trivial thing, but I can assure you that the month head start makes all the difference in the world.  Not only do you have the obvious benefits to warmer weather, but you have so many other branches off the ‘sane’ tree that spring out in growth….namely my mood.  This ‘mood’ also has a trickle down effect to basically everything and everybody that I come into contact with.  It is no secret that I have a love/hate relationship with the entire state.  It loves me and my vacation dollars, I hate it and it’s winter weather, it’s boring landscape and it’s propensity to wash away valuable roads with any rain that surpasses an inch or two due to the lack of things that we Arkansans like to refer to as ‘hills’.  Yes, I like to exaggerate, (hello…have you ever met me?) but we have had our issues inside this state’s borders during the month of December.  Not this year baby!

Anyway….the trip was actually very pleasant and the time spent with Sonya’s family was extremely enjoyable.  The family as a whole has had its share of additions which added to the dynamic and made things more ‘interesting.’  I guess we need a few years to really get to know each other before we are able to get underneath each other’s skin.  All good things come in time.  Nonetheless, it was a solid 4 days spent in our great country’s midwest…but it was even better to see that Arkansas sign in the windshield on the way back.

The Branson vacation was solid as always.  Now that the kids are a little older, we are actually able to do some things as a family.  We spent two days at Silver Dollar City and saw some things that we didn’t even know existed.  At the top of the list were 2 separate caves, one inside the City and one about 10 miles away.  While both tested my fears and my ridiculous thoughts of the kids tumbling over the rails, both were incredibly cool, unique and facinating….all at the same time.  There is something surreal about venturing hundreds of feet below ground level without much fear of becoming trapped down there for all of eternity.  While I loved everything about these things, I do have to say that Sonya had quite the advantage on me in this particular area.  Her Five foot frame came in major handy.  We hit some shows, saw the sites and spent a week away from work…which is always a good thing.  My ability to vacation has improved through the last few years and with any luck, I might eventually become the guy that not only plans the family getaway, but also the one who looks forward to it.

That brings us to the most recent of the holiday season…the granddaddy of them all – Christmas.  While the kid’s attitudes have been suspect, they have had a season to remember and we aren’t anywhere close to being done.  My sister and brother-in-law came down again (from another one of my least favorite states – Kansas) and are staying with us…which is always a blessing.  But easily our biggest blessing of the season was our ability to help a young family in need.  It’s a long story and one that would need its own post, but the short of it is that we had God drop a young man into our lives that was in desperate need of some material items.  We were able to help and when I got my church buddies involved in the process, the project went to an entirely different level.  The blessings and contributions keep on a coming from these guys and both the young man and myself couldn’t be happier about it.  Who knows where this saga will go, but it has allowed all of us involved to see the true spirit of Christmas blossom in all of our lives.  Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night.  Literally…it’s 1 a.m….go to bed.

The kids turned 5 and 3 in early September (it’s amazing how they always seem to get a year older at about the same time every year) and I really thought I was in the clear.  No more “2 and under’s” in the household.  I felt like a light would come down from the heavens and shine on this household because we now only contained mature and responsible kids (parents too of course) and any terrible two behavioral problems would be a thing of the past.  Clear sailing from this point forward…no looking back…it’s all downhill from here…the worst is behind us….and so on and so forth.  May I be the first to say “What was I thinking?????”

Now, I might be exaggerating a little, but some days it seems as though Katie is just getting warmed up.  The girl has attitude for days and she is really learning how to use her unlimited amount of charm and cuteness to her benefit.  She is unbelievably talented as playing the pity card when she falls down or bangs her head on the wall.  She is amazing though…the girl has a brain on her, that’s for sure.  Her memory seems to rival mine and she picks up on things so quickly.  Maybe there is some hope to land a bookworm in the family after all.

Matthew is deep into his fall T-Ball schedule, and when I say deep, I mean DEEP.  The boy loves every inch of it.  One of the more interesting aspects of it is when he is not involved in the action…he is deeply connected to the game and watches it intently.  He loves to root for his teammates and while he still has the attention span of a 5-year-old, he is certainly more focused during this time than other areas of his life.  He has been going to a new school for the last couple of months and while I don’t think he is too crazy about having to do quite a bit of work, it is certainly paying off.  His writing and reading skills have improved and he is showing more interest largely in part to him having more success…and he is having more success because of some better teaching methods employed by the school.  We have been so impressed that we are considering getting Katie in to the Montessori school as well, because the learning style at this particular type of school fits her to a T.  The main reason why she couldn’t have gone in September was because she was not potty trained…but fear not….she has made some great strides toward bathroom freedom in the past few weeks and we think she is just about ready.  Thank God, Thank God, Thank God!

My busy season at work is over (another one of the many reasons why I haven’t contributed to the written word in so long) and every time I go through one of those things, I wonder how many more I can take.  They are a mental and physical grind and the toll is starting to outweigh the benefits.  One of many things I will be reflecting on as I go on my second men’s retreat soon.   As much as I hate to leave the family, I really could use another spiritual recharging of the ol’ batteries.   They seem to go dead a little faster as I get older for some crazy reason.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the kids birthday party.  The bright side of the days being close together is that you can do a combined party….which coincidentally is also the downside as well.  Twice the kids, yet only the same amount of parents.  Not exactly a winning equation, if you know what I mean.  I bet there were at least 25 little ones that attended the festivities at the Funland at Burns Park.  It was a perfect weekend and perfect weather so they came out in droves but I have to say that Sonya picked the perfect location as well.  Lots of room to roam and no shortage of rides to jump on.  It’s never too crowded and while exhausting, it went off without too many hitches…which is all you can ever hope for, really.

Hate to disappoint but to be honest, I don’t have the creative juices flowing.  This has been more of a report than a blog, but I promise to do better next time….and I certainly promise to return a little earlier.  If I don’t, I may get shutdown for inactivity…which most certainly would be a devastating blow to the entire blogging community.  Don’t worry…I won’t let you down.

So, with all that said, I thought I would skate through child number 2 without having to field the countless questions that are common for this age, but Katie has very clearly informed me that “that ain’t the case.”  If the comedic value wasn’t so high, all these questions would not just be annoying, they might even border on the level of driving one (to use a technical term) batty.  I see something and say “How about that”, and naturally she spouts off with “Daddy, why do you say ‘How about that’ ?”  “Because I was interested in what just happened”.  “What just happened?”  “Well…your brother did a good job putting those Lincoln logs together.”  “Daddy – what are Lincoln logs?” “Those are those wooden toys that we use to build pretend houses and other things with.”   “Daddy – who is pretending to be a house?”  “Katie – I gotta go”.  “Daddy – why do you say you gotta go?”

Now this conversation didn’t exactly happen like this, but if I had a tape recorder in my pocket, I am certain that each and every day I could come up with a talk very similar to these particular circumstances.  The girl is relentless in her pursuit of knowledge.  Every day I look at her and I think “Is this little girl going to be upset if I just break out and start laughing every time she hits me with a series of these most curious (and ridiculous) questions?”  I wouldn’t trade any of them for the world…if I am in a good mood, they make my day.  If I am in a bad mood…well…at least I have yet to get into an argument with her about whatever she is asking about, so these questions must have some sort of therapeutical value to them.  I will leave you with one of her favorite sayings lately.  I told her “Katie, we need to change your pants”.  She comes back with a very calm, Ahhhh….Foooeeeees.  (Pronounced Fu-ease).  Priceless.

Couple of other quick things – Sonya walked through the living room where Katie was doing some sort of twirl to one of her favorite songs and she gave her some sort of compliment, so naturally Katie announced “Well, I’m a dancer…you know.”  Yes…a very confident one, at that.

Matthew has gotten really into the monetary world.  He likes to count his piggy bank and is more interested in what things cost.  Well, he has added one more move to his repertoire:  sneaking money out of my wallet.  Now, this is not like a teenager, sneaking cash for booze and smokes….it’s a little more innocent than that…especially since he is so bad at hiding anything.  My wallet will be laying out on the kitchen table with the bills half way hanging out of it.  Then, you walk into his room and you see a 20 spot sitting on his night stand.  Not exactly a master criminal we are dealing with here.  So I give him the ‘taking what doesn’t belong to you’ speech, and the ‘you have to earn it’ lecture…so what does he do?  He dashes into his room and quickly does something that is close to making his bed, but not quite it.  He comes out with this proud look on his face expecting to get some sort of reward.  Boy…you are going to have to do a little better than that…but I love your attitude!

A prime example of Matthew's 'action', this is his bug trap invention - 2 pieces of paper taped together that traps the bugs at night. He thought of it, he built it, but I had to help him install it.

A quick trip to the game room after watching the new Cars movie.

These few days have been a good opportunity to catch up on some things and do some others that I just wouldn’t have the time to do otherwise.    This past Sunday was a day that God would have been proud of, as I was able to get up early and do some things around the house BEFORE church, which on a normal Sunday morning would have been unheard of…unless I wanted to get up with the crows and roosters of course…..and that ain’t happening.  Church was great as always as I was able to talk to a few more people who I normally wouldn’t and was able to connect with them a little deeper than normal.  I think one of the best exercises for the soul is to just listen to people and ask them questions about themselves…instead of just waiting for the opportunity in the conversation to talk about yourself.  I have no statistics to back me up but I would guess that about 80% of all words spoken are directed inward instead of outward…people LOVE to talk about themselves.  It’s quite amazing really…if you don’t believe me, just try to strike up a conversation with someone you barely know, ask him a few questions and watch him go.

Anyway……I left our Church and headed out fast to go to another.  A few weeks previous, I had found out that an old Jr. High buddy of mine was preaching at his hometown Church in McAlmont and I was more than a little surprised.  I couldn’t wait for an opportunity to track him down and say hello.  We had spent our Jr. High years together playing for the basketball team and I always had thought pretty highly of him.  So, as I got to his church, it was pretty clear that I was going to be the only white fella on the premises, which really wasn’t all that surprising.  I didn’t have a problem with it…you grow up playing Basketball in Jacksonville, you get pretty comfortable around the brothers.  As I walked in, you would have thought I was Jesus himself as all eyes were on this tall, pale, goofy looking white dude coming in the door.  “May I help you” was uttered pretty quickly and I asked where I could find the good Reverend.  They pointed me to the Sanctuary and as I strolled down the aisle, things got amazingly still.  About 10 people were hanging around the front of the church after the service and all eyes were directed right at me and it was so quiet, you could have heard the proverbial pin drop.  “I’m looking for little Stevie R”…even though I knew which one he was because I had checked out his website and I already knew that he had put on a few pounds.   He said “That’s me”…and I came back with “I owe you a thank you….if I weren’t able to dominate you so much on the basketball court in Jr. High, I wouldn’t have developed the confidence that I have today!”  Then, the jig was up and he quickly jumped up to give me a big ‘ol bear hug.  We talked for quite a while about the good old times, and his service for the Lord.  I got to meet his friends and family and I told him that I was proud of him…and I am pretty sure he was proud of me as well for seeking him out and being willing to be the only white guy in the room.   Of course, he already knew that it wasn’t any big deal for me, because it was the exact same way back in the day.  Just playin’ ball…that was all we needed.

Then as if that wasn’t enough, I have felt a calling from God recently to get involved somehow with the children’s homes in the local area.  I did a little research and found the one that was here in Little Rock so I just decided to take a drive down to check it out.  Our family’s history has a little experience with foster kids and adoptions and while I don’t believe God is calling me to do that, I do feel that I need to be supporting these kids in some fashion, whether it be with my time, my efforts or my money.  I drove down there but unfortunately I wasn’t able to really talk to anybody about their mission and their ministry.  The weekend workers told me I would have to come back on a weekday and talk to someone in the administration office and I haven’t had a chance to do that quite yet, but I am certain that it will happen.  It breaks my heart to think that these kids don’t have anywhere to go and I am SO grateful and thankful for those employees, foster parents and case workers that have dedicated their lives to these kids.  I can’t think of a much more noble profession that giving your life to a child.  It is truly God’s work.

I’m not even sure how I spent the rest of the day because these two things just stick in my mind like a beacon of light.  It is no coincidence that both situations revolve around thinking of others.  Don’t get me wrong, I am an incredibly selfish guy, but there is a reason why I can’t seem to recall what all I did for myself that day.  I want more days like that.

I’ve had two sets of lyrics stuck in my head all week.  One more elegant, and one a little more grammatically incorrect.  The latter is more my style.

1. So come home running
His arms are open wide
His name is Jesus
He understands
He is the answer
You are looking for
So come home running
Just as you are

2. I don’t need no one to tell me about heaven
I look at my daughter, and I believe.
I don’t need no proof when it comes to God and truth
I can see the sunset and I perceive

One of the many things that has gone on was our Church’s mens retreat last weekend in which 15 fellas embarked on adventure and….other manly stuff up in the Ozarks where we roughed it inside air-conditioned cabins for 4 days.  The conditions were quite primitive but somehow we managed to get through this ultimate survival test.  One of the highlights of the trip was all of us ‘first timers’ overcoming our fears and repelling down a 150 foot cliff.  It was an excellent choice for our fearless leader to not mention this was going to take place beforehand because I am fairly certain that a few might have backed out or come up with some sort of last minute illness because I have to say this was about as terrifying as it gets.  To face your back to the ground and rely on nothing but a rope, a harness and the experience of a few good men, is an experience that I won’t soon forget.  All I could picture in my head was me tumbling down the hill like a bowling ball headed for the pins….except in this case, the pins are some very large rocks and very hard Earth.  Of all the great things that happened on this trip, that last step known as ‘touchdown’ was probably the most exciting of them all.

A few weekends before that, the family embarked on a getaway to the Smoky Mountains to a place we refer to as Branson East…aka Pigeon Forge, TN.  As taxing as it is driving 8 hours with 2 small children, this trip still gave us plenty of memories and lots of new real estate that we had never seen before.   There were countless attractions that were perfect for the little kids and while the logistics of getting Katie’s nap in are still extremely difficult, we managed to have a great vacation and have a ton of quality family time in the process.  Dollywood was a big hit for all of us as we really enjoyed the rides, the food and the entertainment that Ms. Parton so graciously provided for us…for a nominal fee of course.  I do have something to confess though…we told them that Matthew was under 4 to get him in free.  I have no problem admitting it.  Any place that charges full boat for a 4 year old ought to be taken out behind the woodshed and received a good ‘ol fashioned beat down.  He wasn’t even tall enough to ride a lot of the rides and you are going to gig him for $52.50?  I think not.  I preferred the discounted prices of zero.  The real trick to the whole thing was to keep Matthew away from the ticket booth because if he got wind of someone claiming that he was only 3, the jig would have been up so fast that it would make your head spin.  I’m sure we would have been whisked away to Dollywood jail for trying to impersonate a 3-year-old in a 4-year-olds body.

Quick hitter #1:  Katie has been walking around with objects up to her ear pretending to be on the phone.  She picks it up and says:  “Hello, It’s me, and I am here to help you.”  As I typed it, I just realized that it’s sort of a ‘had to be there’ kinda joke, but if you were lucky enough to be there, it was worth the price of admission, I promise you.

Quick hitter #2: After our latest beating in the church softball league, Matthew and I were driving away fairly dejected.  There were storms in the air but we were lucky enough to be spared as it seemed to go around the park and the area in general.  Matthew said  something about lightning and I asked him if he had just seen some.  He said “No, I mean we were just struck by lighting….you know…because the score of the game!”  I was shocked that he even knew that we lost.  That boy is on top of anything and everything that happens on the diamond.  It’s in him…I can tell.  Soccer is a distant memory, which is another thing to be thankful for.

Matthew is deep into his 1st T-Ball season and he has maintained his perfect batting average (along with 95% of the rest of the league.)  Not much stellar defense being played out there, but man, is it entertaining.  His ability is not really my focus (although it is significant)…I am much more interested and proud of his attention to the game and knowledge of the rules.  He is completely into the game mentally which is unbelievably rare for this age (and a few years older as well) so I am convinced he will be an overachiever and will out work some of his compadres.  If only that type of attitude can translate to his future school work, we will be golden.

The baby girl is getting a little closer to the golden age of 3 (Sept) and I couldn’t be happier.  She is such a doll, but will never be considered weak or lacking of attitude and fire.  Yes, it may be hard to say these things for sure considering she has only been on the earth for a whopping 32 months but I would at least put it in the category of an educated guess.  She continuously tests her boundaries and refuses to back down from her slightly older brother and her much older mother and father.  The bad news regarding this type of personality is that she will probably remain un-potty trained for quite a while, strictly out of spite…because she knows just how much we want her to go the other way.  I certainly hope to be rewarded in her teenage years in which I completely expect her to not take any crap off any and all boys that might stumble across our doorstep.  Good luck fellas.

A week or two before that day, we had their yearly carnival/program at their daycare and while Matthew refused to perform, Katie brought the house down with her rendition of a dance that would make any ballerina stop in amazement and awe.  I might be overstating it a tad, but it was as solid of a performance that a 2 1/2-year-old can put on (I think…but who really knows actually).  Matthew certainly enjoyed it from the back row next to us….which was NOT where he was supposed to be, but there was no talking him out of his protest, so you gotta just roll with it and try to learn from experience.  Honestly, I did the same thing when I was that age.  There could be a thousand people watching me during some sort of sporting event and it wouldn’t matter, but put 3 or 4 butts in the seats for any type of stage performance and I clam up like Jean VandeVelde on the 18th tee (and if you know that reference, then you will know what I’m talking about).

Now, on to the moment we all have been waiting for.  Shortly after the 40th birthday and ON our 6th year anniversary, Matthew made his long-awaited debut on the field of dreams.  The holiest of grounds.  The diamond.  The friendly confines.  America’s pastime.  Yes, it was finally time to ‘play ball!’  He was so geeked up for this event that he just couldn’t stand the anticipation.  The thought of playing a real T-ball game was almost too much for him to take, but he found a way to fight through all the butterflies and have an extremely solid performance.  In a league where some kids run to third instead of first, and dogpiles on the ball are commonplace, he strutted his stuff to a 2 for 2 performance (ok…that’s not saying much because only 2 outs were recorded in the normal fashion all game) in which he almost took the cover off the ball each time.  He also played one of the two whole innings at first base which is reserved for the most dependable of craftsmen….which basically is a fancy way of saying that he is one of only a couple of kids who can stop the ball when it comes their way.  He recorded the only out for the team and Papa couldn’t have been prouder.  The best thing about all of this is that I can almost feel Soccer becoming a distant memory.  Sure, he might continue playing, but it’s only a matter of time.  The smell of the infield dirt is clearly too intoxicating for the little guy to take.  Even the ‘off the field’ amenities are far superior.  Who in their right might would want to sit on a cold bench out in the open, when you can bask in the dugout glory with your teammates?  No contest…but we knew that already.

Both kids doing exactly what they love.

Katie – her use of the arms folded technique is not only masterful, but innovative.  She uses it in all the regular scenarios….not receiving another cookie, the refusal to turn on the TV, or the resistance to play ‘babies’ for the 742nd time in a row.  But her real genius is when she flaps her arms around the opposite shoulder during times of just minor frustration that doesn’t have anything to do with anybody else.  We were on the playground and she was trying to balance on the railroad ties that border the area.  She would walk on them…like we all have done..and try not to fall off one way or the other (don’t worry..it was about a 4 inch fall).  She would take a few steps, fall off to her left, and fling her arms around each other like she was just kicked out of some sort of secret sorority meeting.  Of course she would get back on, only to take 3 more steps and repeat the whole process again.  It went on a few more times and I begin to imagine to myself: how much money would I pay to have that 2 minutes on video?  I might just mortgage the farm.

Matthew – we have a guy that comes out and occasionally works on our yard….as we have too many projects for us to ever get to.   Literally.  Anyway…Matthew decided to work alongside him today and at one point, he asked if he needed a ‘smoothie’?  The answer of course came back “No, but thank you anyway.”  But the boy did not give up.  He made a point to walk all the way back up to the house (about 250 feet) and get the man a cup of water and bring it back to him without any coaxing or encouraging whatsoever.   He continues to amaze us.  Of course, if you think he is nothing but a little ball of generosity, try getting that last spoonful of ice cream away from him.  Good luck with that.

Later that day, he took to the T-Ball practice field for the first time.  He is too young to play all out T-ball, so they have an introductory league for those that are just a wee bit little for the battles of the diamond.  A few of his compadres got up there and showed why an introductory league is needed.  Lots of dribbles and whiffs to say the least…which could make for a long season, but that is completely ok…the boy is pumped up to get his uniform and all the perks that go along with being a team member.  Anyway…he strolled to the plate and the coach directed him where to go and what to do…just like he had to do with all the other newbies, but when he gave the boy the go-ahead, Matthew coiled that baby back in John Daly fashion and let loose.  I believe the technical term for such production is to ’mash.’   Who knows where this will lead this season, but I can’t wait to find out.  I can only hope to see a ‘all out-drag out’ from the parents in the stands.  That’s where the real fun begins. 

Katie – your time is coming…hang in there.

Quick ode to lent – Wow…what got into us.  Sonya is giving up sodas of all kinds and I am going with burgers, fries and cussing (in no particular order), and we are both going for the icing on the cake…the dreaded Tele.  Yes, we are both giving up television for the season, although we have exempted an occasional kids video if things get ‘out of hand’ around here.  So far, so good as we have all done without it quite nicely….give or take an hour or two.