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| Friends = Family = Friends The holidays have come and gone. It's 2008! It seems just when I get used to a decade, it's gone already. Only these three (technically) years left and we're in the... oh, what will it be called? The first few years won't be teens. Eh. Whatever. I've been thinking a lot about Family this past week. God has blessed me with a wonderful family that I love dearly AND such amazing friends that I consider as my blood relatives. I don't get to see my parents and brothers (and their families) nearly enough, but I do love and adore them! I miss getting to sit in one of our bedrooms and play some game with my bros as we talk about everything and nothing. I miss standing in the kitchen talking about nothing that turns into the most profound thoughts with my father. My dad really amazes me! He's been my role model for so much of my life and I've only ever disappointed myself when I lose sight of that. And I miss the loving care of my mom. Don't get me wrong, Amy takes GREAT care of me! You know, there's just something about your mom that will never be replaced. I'm also INSANELY blessed to have ANOTHER set of amazing parents that I got when Amy and I were married. Amy and I talk very often about how much we want to keep from taking our parents for granted. When we hear others tell stories about the difficulties they have with one set of parents or the other, Amy and I thank our Lord that he gave us these amazing people in our lives! So with all that, God has blessed me with still more people that I think of with the same love and affection that I feel with my own blood relatives. How amazing it is to be blessed with brothers and sisters that I look forward to being with. That I try to carve time out to see. We all have young kids now, and that makes it exponentially more difficult, but we still do our best to get together and see each other. I praise the Lord for you, my Shmoopie family! I have so much more I want to say, but I have to get up early for work tomorrow. I will leave you all with the my thought of "I wonder if Brian Singer would have made the third XMen movie watchable?" Sorry, Brett, but you really watered down the movie by telling too many stories. :( | | |
| Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Back... Ah, today is my first day back at Chipotle... this time as CREW!  Yep, I'm officially part time with my home inspection company due to the slow real estate market. It's very cyclical, so it was to be expected. So in the meantime, I'll be back rolling the world's greatest burritos!!! Woo hoo! Let's hope I can get back into burrito rolling shape FAST. Haha! | | |
| Crappy Book It is my privilege to put my daughter to bed most nights. Our ritual is bath, pajamas, read a book, sleep. Ava often wants to read the same book several nights in a row. Her all-time favorite is Goodnight Moon and Amy and I can recite it by heart. However, Ava also throw in other books, usually a Sandra Boynton like The Belly Button Book or The Bedtime Book or Doggies. And we have this one board book that is way too old for her (in my opinion it shouldn't be a board book because it's obviously for an older kid) about puppets and green noses. As you can tell, I'm not a big fan of it. So on Sunday night the book is in Ava's bed when I launch her into bed, as is our custom. I lay down next to her and ask Ava what we're going to read tonight. I offer "Moon" or "Hippo," even "Dog" (Doggies is not my favorite bedtime book), but Ava keeps telling me know. I pick up the green nose book and say "you don't want this crappy book, do you?" Ava parrots "crappy" and excitedly opens the book. I thought it was humorous and noted that I shouldn't refer to anything she or others own as "crappy" anymore. Then last night, as we run through the options of bedtime story, she keeps saying "kraboo." Well, what on earth is "kraboo?" Suddenly I remembered. I asked "you want to read Green Nose?" Ava shook her head no and continued her request for "kraboo," so I went to the shelf and grabbed the green nose book to show to Ava. Her face lit up and her arms came out to grab the book. She was saying Crappy Book. I spent a few minutes teaching her we were going to call it Green Nose from now on. *sigh* | | |
| Thanks a lot, NBC's The Office I know this is very old by now, but I wanted to post about this... Thursday night's season premiere of The Office found Michael Scott running down Meredith with his car. That night, I dreamed that people I knew ran down three of my friends/relatives. The one I thought was most interesting was my older brother Paul running over my dad. Weird, I know. The upside is that it was all in sit-com format, so no one really got hurt. That's unusual for a markbutton(tm) dream because generally people are trying to kill me. Well... people and snakes.  | | |
| Name that gas Well, after not posting for almost two months (my son Carter, by the way, turned two months old yesterday), with what do I break my silence? The Houston Texans having the most points per game in the NFL pre-season (what a ridiculous stat!)? Notre Dame getting KILLED by Georgia Tech 33-3? Michigan getting SHOCKED by Appalachian State with a dramatic field goal block at end of the game? Nope. My story goes like this: Amy and I have been visiting Amy's parents this Labor Day weekend. Ava LOVES being here as a) she loves spending time with her Nana and Pap, and b) Amy's parents live in the farm country of Carroll County, Maryland where being outside in the summer is a way of life... and they have a pool! Haha! Anyway, this morning I was in the kitchen walking Carter, helping him back to sleep, when I felt the need to pass some gas (in Ava's world, that means I would say "toot" and point at my butt). A moment passed and the smell wafted up to my notsrils and I was MORTIFIED. How could anything that foul come out of my body?! Ugh! Finally, the grogginess of the morning (it was 6:30) wore off and I realized... oh, that's a skunk. Huh. | | |
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