Elle the smunchkin; or my Ellie Pie

Elle-

This is my letter to you on your 7th birthday. I LOVE you so much. I can not imagine a green-eyed little girl who I love more. You are my favorite Elle in the whole world. There is so much to love about you I can barely write them all in one post.

We waited four years after Olivia to have you, so when you came into our lives we were ready and excited. A better baby there has never been on the Earth. You have been so sweet and kind since the day you were born. Your eyes were always deep pools, that your mom and I would look into for hours wondering what was going on in there, and the interesting thing is that nothing has changed. You have such a deep thoughtful spirit in that little body of yours, you understand so much more than we give you credit for. Your one dead give away is your tender heart and soul. Whenever you feel something, you feel it so deep that your green eyes let loose a waterfall of emotion. You can never hide it, and I'm glad. It gives me a glimpse into your soul.

I love how completely unique you are in our family. You don't seek after the spotlight, in fact you shun it and happily pass it on to your sisters. We love you for this. You watch everyone and everything and think about what is going on around you and then you will always talk about it later giving me your thoughts and feelings. It is worth the wait every time. I am always amazed at your thoughtful expressions and the way you word things. You have taken me by surprise so many times, as it has been said, "out of the mouths of babes!"

I love your laugh and contagious personality. You bring such joy into our family. Your laugh and sense of humor is so funny. I often can't stop laughing when you start. It is like an happy infection that you start. I can tell the kids at school like it also.

You have the most beautiful insides of anyone I know. You are kind, sweet, thoughtful, caring and you can clean your room. (please teach your sisters). You know just when to give me back scratches and you always do just the right thing for your sisters. You bring such peace into our home. I wonder what great things you will do with this talent. It is such a gift from God. How lucky we are to have it in our home.

You are also so beautiful on the outside. You often take my breath away with your green eyes and smile. You get your beauty from your mother.

Elle-I love you and I am so glad you are in my family. I can't wait to watch you grow up. Just promise that I will always be able to lay next to you every night and tell you Sugar Love stories!

Love Dad...

Back to School for Me!

I have decided tonight that I need a new blog look, so Gale the master blogger is going to help me with some changes in the next few days.

Tonight I taught class. It is on Contemporary Issues in Supervision. It is made up of mostly adults over the age of 25 who are returning to school. We started the class talking about the different levels of management, and the stress found within each level, the different pay structures, different types of compensation etc. One of my students asked me about suggested ways of reaching higher levels of management. We reviewed some of the basics of "how to get promoted" Having Emotional Intelligence, being great at your job (your skill sets, knowledge etc.) and the social aspect of any job (getting along with people, being a team player). But then I ventured off into reasons why individuals don't get promoted and even reasons why people are in the wrong jobs. We discussed it as a class and came up with some different ideas, but the main focus of the evening was about FEAR. How fear holds everyone back. I was amazed at what was discussed and how open the students were. I have never realized until last night the role that fear plays in people's lives. We ended up talking about it for close to an hour and a half. At the end I gave an assignment. Take one day and write down a fear when it comes to you. At that moment just write it down and move on and see how much fear you bring upon yourself in one day. Today I was receiving emails and text messages like crazy. FEAR was rampant! I can't wait until our next class that we can talk about it more. Here was one email I received:

"It's 11:18AM and I have recorded at least 6 instances of paranoid fear.
Write the book. Appreciate the class last night."

After class I spent the rest of the night thinking about all of the things I fear and how those fears keep me from becoming more of the person that I want to be. I decided I'm not going to fear anymore.

Tonight Chloe asked me to lay with her a minute while she fell asleep. I had to make one phone call and when I came back up she was asleep. So tomorrow I am going to take her up on her offer. It is not often that my 13 yr old asks me to lay down and talk with them as they go to sleep. Not letting that opportunity pass!

What?

Let's just say I'm completely and utterly dumfounded. It is amazing when something happens in your life that is so unexpected and so out of the blue that you can't even begin to fathom what is going on. Give me two weeks and I will post on it....by then I will hopefully have my head wrapped around the whole thing.

Back to School

I hate it when the girls have to go back to school. I miss having them around and the noise and complete chaos and mess that they bring. I miss hearing them laugh. I also love it when school starts because they get new clothes, new teachers, all the new school supplies and the feeling that is in the air the first week of school.
It is a big year this year because Olivia starts sixth grade which is Middle School. Watch out Sequoya here she comes! Ava is starting Pre-K for a full whopping 2 1/2 hrs a day. But she seems to be more excited than anyone else. She goes in the afternoon, but insists on wearing her backpack all day.

Soon enough all the homework and projects will hit and it won't be as exciting--so I will enjoy the great feeling that comes from the first two weeks. Check out pictures of the first day of school.

Back in the Saddle w/Kenny Loggins!!

Okay--so this summer has come and gone, between Colorado, moving, living in a friends basement, dissertation work, and the occasional pool trip I lost the summer of '08. Where did it go and what was I doing? I don't remember, but let's just say I will never move again. This wasn't the most "fun" summer I remember, just a summer of let's get things done and make it through the day.

So I am back in the saddle again. I am back keeping my journal (blog) and I am recommitting to myself that I will update it at least twice a week. We will see how it goes.

So I found myself working in Little Rock Arkansas yesterday. I was staying overnight and decided to go eat some dinner. It was sprinkling outside so I couldn't ride my bike. (The dilemma was to fly to Little Rock or not, and if I flew I couldn't take my bike to ride and since I never get a free night with nothing to do I decided to drive which is about 5 1/2 hours so when it was raining I was mad that I had hauled my bike drove 5 1/2 hours and then couldn't ride, because I never get a free evening to go for a 2 hour bike ride and Little Rock has the greatest bike path along a river that goes for at least 40-50 miles. ADD statement of the day). So I was walking to dinner and as I am walking I notice that Kenny Loggins is walking towards me. Yes, footloose Kenny Loggins so I say "hi" and he says "hi" back. Since Kenny is in town I realize that there must be a concert so I find out that he is preforming an outdoor concert at the local ampitheater. I get some "free" tickets and proceed to party with Kenny. What a great concert. He may be old as dirt, but the guy can still sing. Now three things hit me as I'm at the concert.

1. Everyone there is over 35 and old. I then realize I am old too.

2. About 10:00 I start yawning and hope that he sings "footloose" so I can go to bed. I then realize #1 again....I am old.

3. I learn that once you pass the age of 35 don't dance at concerts.

I wished Gale could have been with me. We would have rocked out!

How great it is to love something!

I love my job at UCO. I love to get up the morning that I have class. I love that I have learned that preparing lectures, powerpoints and discussion questions is useless for me. Instead, the class always seems to take on a life of its own and we get discussing and talking about the subject matter and the time flies by. I guess I'm lucky because most of my students are adults, graduate students or at least seniors so they are a bit more mature. I love that the students love my class. There is something great about other people liking something that I do. Sometimes we all end up staying after class and discussing what we discussed in class. This week we had case studies that were researched over the last week and we discussed them. It was fascinating. Here were our topics:

Martha Stewart (stocks, leadership style, phoenix who always rises)
Elliot Spitzer
The spaceshuttle columbia disaster (where did it go wrong? Did you know that they knew there was a problem days before they started reentry...)
Darfur
Immigration and the notorious fence

Boy did we ever raise the roof as emotions and viewpoints came out. Yet everyone stayed so respectful of everyone's opinions.

I love that I love my job. (P.S. I love that I am done for the summer and can spend it with my kids at Pelican Bay. I love it when I'm the only dad there during the day and I run to my kids and whisper, "do you see any other dads? nope, neither do I, see how much I love you" Priceless! I am going to have to remind them of this when they are older and bring up some of my not so great parenting moments.)

Tonight in class one of the students asked me why I was so happy and said she needed to call me up everday so she could be happy too. We started talking about things that make us happy and I couldn't stop so here is some of my list.

I love that I can be out in the sun and warm my cold bones from the winter. I love that I get to spend more time with Gale. More things that I love ; running when it is really hot and listening to a great church talk, italian ice, eating ice cream or anything sweet around 10 pm at night, waking up to a nice sunny day, laughing, watching my kids, giving my kids too much love, reading books (I love books and could spend my days sitting in Barnes and Noble drinking a starbucks venti double chocolate chip shake). I love convertibles, I love laughing with Gale, my walks with Gale, that first moment when you climb into bed and lay down and your body relaxes and you don't want to fall asleep you are so happy, I love cold drinks, I love to see my girls get along and share, I love a clean car, I love to have a light burden and forgive people who bug the living crud out of me, I love to watch people, I love to laugh when my kids do funny things, I love boba tea, I love really funny people, I love it when hardships pass, I love to see some people come into my life and others to go, I love naps, I love it when we have treats third hour of church, I love it when we have snacks during sacrament meeting, I love to watch people change and be better than they were yesterday, I love to get a massage, I love to get together with my brother and laugh my head off, I love that I finally feel like I fit in my skin, I love Pelican Bay, I love the beach, I love to surf (as bad at it as I am) I love to try new things, I love to smell Gale and my girls, I love to think of the future and all the great things that are going to happen. I love to be around good friends who you can be yourself with, I love ping pong, I love chocolate covered almonds, I love to have cash in my wallet, I love how quiet the house is at night, I love to play tennis, I love to dream big about great things, I love to talk with my kids about their big dreams, I love it when my kids don't drive me crazy. I love girls camp and the peace it brings for a couple of days until I miss them. I love surprising people, I love to bike, I love to get slurpees (orange-pineapple is my current favorite) Okay, that's enough could keep going forever.

Can I work out with you?

Life can be so great. When you are at the right place at just the right moment and you see something happen or experience something, and you say to yourself. I am so glad that I'm alive and can experience a moment like this.

Gale and I had one of those the other day on our walk. As we were walking we could hear someone screaming in front of us, not a scared scream, but one that you get when you realize that your child just spilled paint on the carpet, or left the light in the car on and now the battery is dead and you have to be some where in 2 minutes--that type of scream.

We were so excited to see what was going on we picked up our pace and stopped talking so we could hear what was occuring. (Gale can be a bit nosey) As we got closer we could see a man screaming at two women to pick up the pace and quit being lazy and to move faster. Now the women were quite large and I could tell their bodies wanted to move faster, but just wouldn't let them. The excitement of the moment and the intensity of this guy screaming at them to move increased as we got closer. We didn't want to pass them as it would be a bit awkward for us to pass the screaming man and the can't breathe and still trying to move women. We kept on closing in on them and as we were just coming upon them the man screamed out, "Get moving...you haven't seen skinny since 1991!!!" I couldn't help it, but I burst out laughing. Not the kind of laugh that you can hide, but the kind of laugh that I bend over because I can't move and I'm waking the neighbors and their dead relatives kind of laugh. I couldn't help it, so to try and cover it up and I smiled real big and said...You look like you are having so much fun and listening to you is so motivating....can I work out with you? As soon as I said that Gale looked at me with the "What are you saying" type of look and the women looked at me with a "Are you crazy...because this guy is crazy!! Run for your life...." and at that we got out of there.

To watch our escape was in itself quite funny. You can't really walk away to fast unless you move your arms really big like those walking ladies who wear a visor or a braided sweat band around their head and a fanny pack with necessary walking supplies. Including the hand weights that are necessary for a great workout/walk. Yea--that would be us.