The Same Poster My Daughter Used When She Lost Last Year, But Won This Year, Hung in Her Room I'm as proud as can be. When I got home from work last night I was told by our exuberant 10-year old that she had won her election race to be Vice President at her elementary school. But that's not what makes me proud of her. What makes me proud is that the photo insert you see pictured here to the left "Taylor C. for VP" hung in her room for the past several months when she LOST the very … [Read more...]

  My mom in her 20s Last night I saw that one of my sisters had a collection of our mother's photos posted up on a Facebook page. The photo insert to the left, was always one of my favorites of my mom when I was growing up. Our parents raised five children and would have celebrated their 45th anniversary last month had they both been alive. My father died of a heart attack in August 2006 and my mother died in a single-car crash in January 2004. Even though I'm a … [Read more...]

Earlier this week I blogged about a remodeling project that we were undertaking at our home. To clarify, when I say "we were undertaking" I mean to say we were paying professionals to do on our behalf since I can't tell the difference between the business end of a hammer and a crescent-monkey-socket wrench (I think that's what they call it.) Anyway I shot some "Before" remodeling video with my nifty Kodak Zi8 HD pocket video camera and posted that on Monday, yesterday the work crews wrapped … [Read more...]

I'm the first to admit it, that if we lived in the frontier days my family would have died of starvation. The only plants that I can effectively grow are weeds in my yard, and I've never hunted an animal for food. It's safe to say we would have died just outside the city limits heading to a better life on the open prairie. However, I am able to purchase hoagie sandwiches when necessary which is what I do every Sunday after church.  Before we head home from services, my family and I swing by … [Read more...]

I became aware of this family through a colleague at work. Below is a video montage with snippets of their incredible home video of a preemie who was born at a gestational age of 25 weeks - that's more than 15 weeks early compared to a full-term child. This baby weighed 12 ozs. when she was born and she is thriving today. This should help refocus our attention on the value of life and cause us to hug our own children a little tighter tonight before bed. I promise it'll be the best six … [Read more...]

As a parent of two kids with active imaginations, ages 8 and 6 respectively, I was stunned by a story in a recent issue of Newsweek magazine that heralded a steady decline of creativity amongst American children since 1990. Here's the link: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html The article defines creativity as the production of something useful and original that intially requires divergent thinking that's subsequently combined with thought patterns that then … [Read more...]

I’m not sure about you, but fall is my favorite time of year. The air seems cleaner and crisper; leaves start to turn brilliant shades; skies appear a clearer blue while every cloud-enhanced sunset is breathtaking. It’s also the time of year that animals take such cues from nature and begin migrations to warmer climes, including geese flying in their distinctive “V” formation (see photo inser}. Aside from its visual splendor and role as harbinger of autumn, the unique flying “V” … [Read more...]