What you think does matter

I've been working on teaching my four year old son how to ride his bike with out the training wheels. Ofcourse his Mom didn't help by putting the training wheels back on the bike - talk about a giant step backwards. This last week I had some time to spend with him and I went thru the process of teaching him from scratch - again..... After I built up his confidence - in that I wouldn't let him fall - I had one single thought in my mind... God I hope he doesn't crash or hit the ground hard ???? I couldn't help but picture him going down in a blaze of glory - blaming me for not stopping him from falling... Maybe it had to do with the fact that I made the same promise to my duaghter a few years back and I couldn't keep it.. She didn't trust me for a while when it came to the bike... Or maybe it was becuase I was holding a video camera - and hey, it would make a good you tube video... if he falls that is [ people love to see others suffer - sick world..] But all

Here are some stories I've been saving for when my kids grow up - actual events - funny.... It is very important to always know what to do in case of an emergency. It can save lives to be prepared. While walking down the street one day, my wife mistook the sound of a car back firing for the sound of a gun shot. She immediately went into action. She grabbed my arm and screamed “ everyone, STOP, DROP and Roll !” As a father, I try to teach my children the best way I know how. When my son turned two (2), he and my daughter found it an enjoyable exercise to run wildly around the house. Since my son does everything his sister does, I explained to my little girl that I wanted her to walk, not run in the house. It was a dangerous and unsafe thing to do, that is how people get hurt. If your running you can easily run into something and seriously get hurt. Feeling sure she understood what I was telling her, I turned around and walked straight into the closed glass porch door.... We decide

Way to long of a crazy week end.... Things sort of become a blur when your so busy to take a moments breath. Let’s just give you a glimpse of what I mean - starting Friday morning - woke up and got the kids ready, took them to school, drove back home and took care of some things. Then I set up the tent in the back yard for my daughters sleep over party - rushed over to pick up my son at school at eleven thirty. Then drive all the way home to prepare his lunch , change his cloth and prepare for work. Drive him over to my brother-in-law’s house and off to work. After getting out of work at 8:35 pm, I drove home to eat, play with the kids and help my daughter start building her school model project. I went to bed around eleven thirty and woke up early Saturday to get myself and my son ready for his school friend birthday party. I like these people - even though it was raining, they had the birthday party. So I help by holding an umbrella over the grill to help cook the food [ after all I

I was made to love you Ever wonder what you were made to do in life? I figured out a long time ago that I have one very important job, position, duty in life - to love my family. Yes there may be the occasional argument. Yes, they can be a chore and a pain - at times [ too many times ]. They can even cause you to wonder why you even bother - but at the end of the day when you put them to bed and all you can think about is how sweet they are and how you can’t help but smile as you watch them sleep peacefully in their bed... You realize - you were made to love them.

Is it me or is my four year old trying to get rid of me?? Here I was happy to have a day off where I could hang out, do as I pleased and in fact - was happy to go and pick up my four year old son from pre-k school. But boy was I in for a surprise. I go and pick him up a half hour earlier than his scheduled time - out of love [ or because I didn’t want to waste the gas driving back and forth - you judge ] and when I signed him out early - he only had one thing to ask of me... Why are you not working??? What, did I hear you right? So I asked him, what do you mean… and he said.. What are you doing home, aren’t you working today?? Hey, come on - can’t a dad get a break… It’s my day off and I want to spend it with you. Why would you want to bring up work and are you trying to get rid of me kid??? Come on, maybe the next time I have a day off I’ll just disappear and not come home - see if you like that one buddy. Life is so strange - and kids their even stranger. Imagine that - a four year o

Missing my children.?... It’s weird, maybe I’m not the typical dad or parent that rushes out the door screaming “yeah, I can get away from my kids now!”.. no offense… But I am close to my kids and I’ve been working 6 days a week at different hours of the day and between school and work - I haven’t been able to spend real quality time with my kids. I guess the real reason I’m upset is because today the first Saturday I have off to be with the kids [ and mow lawn and do home work… grrr...] my son is sick and my duaghter just wants to visit her friend…??? Hey, what about Dad? I was just taking a moment to look over some photos as I try to recover from my depression - take a look below.. Kids - can’t live without them and they can’t wait to abandon you....

Breaking Manufacturing rules for My kids Safety ? Well, I haven’t been able to write much about the crazy things that happen with my family, I’ve been busy working and my hours are speratic. One day I work mornings the next night - it’s crazy. But I just had to take the time to write this down. You know that everything you buy has a manufacturer guidelines, rules and all that. It’s there to keep you from doing something that would end up hurting you. Well, I broke the rules in order to help my little boy from getting hurt. Really - I broke the rules to protect my child? Well, the thing is my son wants to ride his bike without training wheels - unlike his sister who took several years up to the age of seven or eight to learn how to ride with out training wheels - he wants to be like her, compete with her and wants to learn how to ride his bike without training wheels. Ofcourse he is only four years old and learning will be tough - but my real problem is, I don’t want him to fall down an

How do you make politics simple enough for an eleven year old to understand - turn the TV off! Really, it’s hard enough explaining life and the every day things to your kids - why would a teacher give my child an extra credit assignment that requires her to stay up late past her bed time to watch something she has no knowledge or concept of? I was going to watch the Vice Presidential debate anyway - but it’s hard to really listen to the debate when your eleven year old child who wants to do good in school is asking you “what does that mean?” “why did they say that?”. How can I hear the issues when I’m busy explaining to my child why Biden said he opposes fraud from the mortgage companies, the big oil companies and how Obama will stop that [ despite that fact that Obama was taking kick backs from Freddie Mac and Fannie May when they were committing the fraud???] But hey - thank you teacher for making my day a bit more interesting! One good thing came out of last nights debate as I watch

Here I am trying to spend some quality time with my son before I have to go to work and all he wants to do is play halo. It's sad really - because I'm the one who got him hooked on playing halo. But I guess spending some time with him killing aliens and defending the universe from a horde of evil Aliens is better than not spending time with him at all. The odd thing is he takes his command so seriously - I mean he is only four years old and he is concerned about the men that follow him in the game. He has figured out that they can die and that he can do something to save and protect them. He just insist on making sure his fellow soldiers are doing good. He doesn't want to go to the next level unless he can protect his fellow men [ and women - they have female characters in the game]. The odd thing is, when he plays as the alien, he doesn't care who dies - his fellow alien horde could drop by the thousands and he lets them - but let one of his fellow human being soldiers

A friend and a blog fan made a request for new material.... read more below, below A Friend and a blog fan asked me to try and do [ use ] new material for the blog. She told me just last Wednesday that she checks her email for my "email updates' with a giddy expectation to see whats new on the blog. She says she loves all the jokes, the pictures of the kids and the dog - but she was wondering if I had anything new, defferent. Well, this put a lot of pressure on me to create something new. after all - the blog is about the insanity that is my world - meaning my kids and the spouse. And if I don't want to sleep with the dog, the spouse is off limits.... So after several hours of thinking and thinking - I cracked, I could not perform under this pressure. So I created the above photo gallery slide show for you, yes you Betsy - hope you like it..... it's something new! See you sunday ...

What do you do when your facing down possible hurricane It’s been about three or four years since several Hurricanes came thru our town and brought a stop to the belief that people were safe inland. So when the reports came in that tropical storm “fay” was projected to become a level 1 hurricane - lets just say some people went bonkers. I’m glad it didn’t turn out as bad as it was predicted - but there has been a lot of damage, especially flood damage around all parts of Florida. We did our part to get ready for the storm after that we just had to sit and wait. So what do you do while you wait for the worst and try to keep your family calm? Here is what I did: Watched chicken little movie with family Played black jack with kiki Played uno w/ kiki Played with my son Ate dinner together - early just in case Relaxed as son played in shower and daughter played her DS Played battleship w/ kiki Talk with wife and helped clean up [ she always clean when nervous] Relax as waiting for next “fay

It’s a dark day at my house, the first day of Pre-K school is this Monday and today we had to take my four year old son to his school orientation. Getting the family ready today was hectic and probably an indication that everyday from here on forward will be the same. Personally I’m torn - I want my boy to grow up and all that - yet I want him to stay my little man. My buddy I spend my days with. My partner in fighting crime [ or more like committing crimes against my wife wishes.... ] First it was the shock of having my baby girl turn eleven and starting jr high [ here it’s called ‘middle school’ ]. Now I’m faced with my little guy starting school and it’s a bit too much to handle. I know - your thinking I should be celebrating - wee their off to school - I get a break.... But maybe I’m just weird that way. Tell me, who really wants their kids to grow up and face the inevitable that they will leave you and worst - that your growing old. First it’s the first day of school, then they wa

I used to have a boss who apparently only felt comfortable when she made everyone else feel inferior [ dumb ]. It didn't matter what was happening or if she was wrong - as long as she made you look dumb - she was happy. I am so glad I don't work for her any more. That's why I work hard to teach my kids [ especially my daughter ] to value themselves, to feel confident in themselves. Theres nothing wrong with being shy or wrong - but never think less of yourself. Also, it doesn't matter if it's your boss, friend or family, your important and have value... don't let anyone tell you different.

By now most of you should already know that my 4 year old son is a wee bit adicted to playing video games. he seems to favor Halo 2 and Tour of Duty. Half the time he doesn't really know what he is doing - but he is getting good at controling the figures, especially in halo 2. My own duaghter tells me that it's not good for him - that "this is why he is always talking about killing Dad". I wouldn't say he talks about killing becuase of the game - more like becuase of sponge bob, tom and jerry, bugs bunny - and maybe a bit of the game. But really have you seen how Daffy Duck gets shot in the face..... The bad thing is how he wants to eat, sleep and live the game. Every waking moment of the day he wants to know when he can play the game - I think he has made an IDOl of the X-box!

Embarrassing or Just Having Fun in the pool! Now my wife may think this is embarrassing and may be angry with me for showing this video - but I couldn’t help it. Is it wrong to share - is it wrong to video record your family having fun, enjoying themselves? I can’t help but think about how one day, all we will have is our memories of our kids growing up. What better way to preserve those memories than having actual video records of the funny event. My wife might think it’s embarrassing and yes it makes me laugh - but lets be real people... this is what you remember when you grow old. Having fun with your kids and all those funny embarrassing moments. It’s like some of the fun memories we have of our youth - ask my wife what she remembers most about some of her camping trips with her Mom and Dad and she’ll bring up the time her mother fell off the hammock… she said she wish she had captured the moment on film.. So that’s what I’ve done. Having fun in the pool !

If it were your job to create a title for this picture - what would you write????

Christian Warriors “Back to school Bash” Living Waters COG children’s Ministry Had their Annual “ Back to School Bash”. These children have truly lived up to their name this year - “Christian warriors”. They have shown their true colors, their heart and desire this year. The Christian Warrior ministry prepared for this years annual “Back to School” bash by thinking of others rather than only of themselves. The Children’s Pastor Mrs. June Cooke worked with the children many months to prepare for this event. They planned not only to make their usual Back to School bash - but to do something to help other children in the community. Normally the children’s ministry works hard to reach out to the children of the community by providing a free end of summer bash before school starts. But with the “free Tax” week removed in Florida and high prizes even effecting the prices of school supplies - Pastor June and the children wanted to help other children by not just providing a fun day, but provi

The Children "Back To School Bash" was a great opportunity for the childrens ministry to help other children and provide the community with much needed school supplies. The children Ministry [ all the children working together - and raising all the funds needed ] prepared 108 fully packed with school supplies bookbags. More than 77 children registered to recieve a book bag full of supplies - even arounf 2 pm when the event was ending, people were still ariving to recieve a Free book bag of supplies. There were 108 bag ready paid for and prepared by Children Ministry Sgt Monica Sauls from the Sheriffs department was there to meet the children and give away coloring books on safety and badges. The Kids loved the Real Sherif's patrol car! Childrens Pastor Mrs June tried to rap - if you call it that...LOL Some of the children being handed thier FREE book bag with Supplies Thats a lot of KIDS !!! H Here's a clip of the Children friendly Christian Rap show

The childrens ministry at Living waters Church of God , had a "FUN" MOster water slide for thier back to school bash. they gave out a lot of food and several bookbags full of school supplies - and everyone much appriciated it- but the thrill of the day was watching Senior Pastor John N. Schnieder face the "FUN" but large Monster water slide. Some fear - but Pastor loves a challenge This Moster water slide was hard to climb but fun sliding down Pastor Schnieder - He knows this slide can take alot out of you! One point Monster Water slide - Zero points to the Pastor - The winner all of us who enjoyed the day

I have my own reasons for upgrading my Ticket to an "end of year" pass. But if my family wants to believe that I did it becuase I love them, and I plan to return to all the special events they have here at Cypress garden - they are right. But the real reason why I paid to upgrade my "Cypress Garden" admission tickets to the Cypress Garden end of year pass [ where you pay an extra $10 for each ticket today and you can enter Cypress Garden free for the rest of the year until the end of the year ]. My personal reason - well you might think I'm cheap - but consider this. We've been to cypress garden twice already this year and if you calculate the cost - that adds up to $320 dollars [ just in tickets ] and we will probably go again [ after all it's close and cheaper than Walt-disney world ]. So I figure I might look good with the family and save myself a couple hundred bucks..... And look at the events comming up at Cypress Gardens: August 16th, 2008 Florid