Our little secret!

It’s Christmas Eve, and I’m listening to my new, BIG and RICH CD. Earlier tonight, before the girls went to bed we all watched THE SANTA CLAUSE 2. Afterwards, one of my daughters said "Dad I wish you were Santa Claus."

Well, it’s a little past midnight and I’ve got children’s table, two chairs, the Barbie Musical Castle, and a little tike’s kitchen left to put together tonight. All I can say is, "be careful what you wish for baby girl, be very careful."

Merry Christmas to all the Mr. and Mrs. Claus’ out there up tonight keeping the magic alive for at least one more year.

You know It’s worth it.

The pocketknife

When I was thirteen, I got a pocketknife for my birthday.

It was slim and small, but it had a really pretty rosewood handle with a locking back so it wouldn’t accidentally close.

Now, you’ve got to remember this was before the days of zero tolerance in schools. A pocketknife wasn’t considered a "weapon,"it was a valuable tool. On a really good day you could use it to cut fishing line, clean a fish, and eat an apple. Sometimes all within a twenty-minute period, which was OK, as long as you remembered to wipe the blade off on your pants leg in between uses. I learned never to underestimate the value of a good pocketknife.

The aforementioned birthday present came from my "uncle" Dale.

He wasn’t actually a blood relative but he had been my Mother’s boss, and one of my family’s closest friends since before I was born. When I was old enough to play Boy’s Club football, somehow he always ended up being the couch of whatever team I played on. Now, I was never a big kid but he always played me at center making sure I faced the biggest kid the other team had to offer. He taught me how to take a hit, and how to hold my own. I still got stomped on, but I learned never to be intimidated.
Dale, himself was barely over 5’6, but he was immensely strong, I remember his forearms being as big as a man’s calve. His hands were as strong as a wood shop vice. But his eyes always had a benevolent mischievous spark to them that instantly brought you in, and made you his friend.

When my dad was in the hospital, Dale was up there with him to watch sports. And after my Dad passed away, Dale and his wife were there for my Mother, and looked in on her when I couldn’t. For forty-one years he was the closest thing to a brother my mother had.

Last week cancer took his life. He left behind a wife, daughters , grandkids, and more friends than he will ever know. For me his passing leaves a huge void that I can only try to fill with a bunch of great memories and one really good pocketknife.

Something strange is going on!

My two-year old is developing strange powers.

First, she no longer requires sleep at night. Instead she has been spending the deepest darkest part of the night removing all contents from her sisters bookshelf, or emptying her entire dresser on the floor of her room.

She also has achieved the power of invisibility. I can search the entire house for her, only to see her walk out of a room I KNOW I LOOKED THROUGH TWICE!

In addition she has developed a high-pitched sonic defense. And, when angered she can use it to send her sisters scrambling out of the room, and injuring the hearing of all dogs within a block.

Finally, I found her watching a biography of Alexander the Great on the History Channel, when I just know I had tuned the channel to "Blues Clues" a few minutes before.

Is your toddler showing similar signs?

What could they be planning, and doing late in the night?

The same thing they do every night "Pinky", try to take over the world!

Hit and miss

It has really been tough to blog here lately. As you may or may not know I was laid off from work several months ago. Actually that’s how this site started. It has given me a way to vent. Now don’t get me wrong I love spending time with my kid, but our financial situation hasn’t been the greatest with just the single income of my wife’s job.

Anyway, after several months of sending in hundreds of resumes, and a number of interviews, I have finally received an offer letter. In fact, I was supposed to have started this past Monday, December 6. But, due to training schedule issues, my start day has been move to January 3. That is another month of unemployment. And, four months before health benefits kick in. I guess you could say the stress level around here has been really high. The frustration is also kicking in.

As a dad and husband I have always viewed my role as provider. But I haven’t been doing a real good job of that here lately. I have taken a part-time job. It may sound silly, but that really helps my morale. I just need to be doing something to make me feel like I can see light at the end of the tunnel. I have my family looking to me, relying on me. They need to know everything will be all right, even if I’m not sure it will be all right. The kids seem to be doing ok, but I worry about my wife. Like most people, K needs stability. That hasn’t existied in the past few months. You add the holidays, well lets just say it’s been real fun. These are the times when you’re just have to have faith that things will turn out ok. Life has very few guarantees. One of the few constants is that there will always be trials in life. Whether they are big or little, how you deal with them shapes your family’s perception of you. I just hope that some day, regardless of my faults, my family will see me a man who did his best to take care of them.