From Andy

Andy decided to speak... here he goes:

Me and Alex have Block Bots. Mine is blue and Alex's is red.
Our cyborg things each have shooters. Alex's has a net shooter. Mine has a grappling hook. With our gift cards we bought a cyborg race track. I got "Casey Jones Meets Raphael" and "Turtle Titan" (that's Michaelangelo) books. And I got Cartoon Network's "Christmas." And Alex got a book called "Dive!" It came with a submarine. And it was a toy.

From Alex Again?

Couldn't shut him up so here he goes...

I had a good time with my daddy on Christmas break. I love my daddy so much. I hope he never dies. I helped my daddy on dominoes. And he helps me.
Andy didn't want to write a note. So, I got to do one more...
Charles and Acushla stayed over at our house for two days. It was very fun. We had a good time and I hope they did too. They are fun to play with. I hope you think that too.
For Christmas, I got a remote control car from California Grandma and Grandpa. I love it. Andy got one, too. I bet he loves it too ... as much as I do. We got another present from Santa. It was called Major Powers. Andy got a motorcycle and I got a dune buggy. Mine has lights. Andy's has a sidecar. And we got one guy to share. The guy to share came with a movie. We watched it and it was cool. There was two shows on it. One was where a train almost crashed into a boat. And one was a boat was about to explode. It was cool. If you get one, I hope you like it too.

From Alex

Alex and Andy visited me at my office today... they wanted to post their own messages... Here's Alex's:

I had a good time at Christmas break. I went to my grandma's house. I played dominoes with Darren. Then everyone wanted to play. And I liked it. It was the funnest vacation I have ever had. On Christmas Day, I got a Block Bot from my dad and mom. California Grandma gave us clues to find our big present. I liked our big present. It was an ESPN Game Station. It has baseball, football, basketball, hockey, golf and soccer. Andy and I play it all the time. We love it! We get really sweatty. That's right.
After Christmas, we went to Fort Collins and we saw Aunt Greta's laboratory (at CSU). I saw a bat skeleton on display. I saw pelicans, too. Aunt Greta hadn't seen most of the stuff on display (she's working too hard to look around!). We saw zebra fish in her lab. The zebra fish eat brine shrimp, just like we saw in Salt Lake! I hope you have a good Christmas break, too!

Happy b-day

Today is Andy's fifth birthday. Five years. FIVE!?!?
There are moments in our lives that we remember forever. The births of both of my sons definitely fall into that category. But while we never forget those moments, it's easy to forget the other times ... the times when we're just sitting around talking ... when we hold them close while they sleep ... when we quiet their cries.
We forget about those times which is probably why it always seems like time flies.
But in the five years since Andy was born, I have enjoyed all those moments... although I may have forgotten.
Andy has become an amazing little boy. He has a sarcastic sense of humor (probably from me) and an impressive vocabulary (probably from Tracy). Sure, he has his snotty moments (what little kid doesn't?), but for the most part I really just enjoy being around him as a person ... not just as my son. He has insights into the world that old parent-eyes just don't see and I love spending time with him so he can tell me what the world is like.
Happy Birthday, Panda!

Traditions

For the last 10-plus years, almost every Christmas has been the same...
Christmas Eve we drive to Fort Morgan and go to Tracy's grandparents' farm. The small house was always filled with well dressed family members (50-70 on my estimation). Someone would get conned into wearing the Santa suit and he'd deliver presents from Grandma for all the kids. Then we would sit around, eating German sausage and talking about all the stuff we had done since the last time we sat around, eating German sausage.
It was great.
But Tracy's grandma passed away this last year. The kids held an auction to sell off all the stuff inside and the farm itself is up for sale.
So, everyone seems a little lost this year...
And then, Ruth, Tracy's mom, decided to have an open house at her place in Greeley last night. The idea was to celebrate the wedding of Tracy's cousin Charles and his new bride, Acushla, (they were married this summer in Ireland.)
All the relatives were invited and most of them came... from Fort Morgan, from Yuma, from Denver, from North Carolina...
And the small house was filled with relatives, all eating German sausage and talking about the past year's events and activities. It didn't take long for someone to suggest we do this every year.
Guess that's how traditions start...

Cranium lessons

Well, we didn't get to play racquetball at Copper because Charles claimed an injury. We'll try to settle this tonight on the court with my friends Andy and Dan.
Copper was a blast even without the court-bashing.
We stayed up late, drank a little and snow-tubed during the day. But the highlight for me is always when the family gets together to play games. We usually break out Taboo. I was teamed with Charles and his dad, George and Tracy's cousin, Keeley. We smoked the competition in the final round with six answers in a minute!
Then we played Cranium which was a lot of fun and I learned a lot, such as:
* The Human body has about 1.5 gallons of blood ... and nurses don't necessarily know this!
* Very few people in Tracy's family know who Aerosmith is.
* When you hum "Stairway to Heaven," it really sounds like "Hark, the Heralds Angels Sing."
* Humming "Margaritaville" does not sound like "Margaritaville."
* Granite is metamorphic rock.
* Keeley's daughter, Breanne, who is in sixth grade, will probably have a future as a sculptor. She was actually able to mold her play-dough so that her team could guess "Buddah" by making the sculpture and then making little people bowing to him. Pretty amazing!
* Don't EVER get sick in Holyoke!
* I frequently get WAY too competitive about these things.
* Whistling while laughing is very difficult.
* Rum and apple cider taste really good together.

Snow blind

So we're headed to the mountains.
I'm now too out of shape to ski. Snow-tubing is about my last refuge. My goal for the weekend is not to kill myself on the slope.
When I first moved back to Colorado, I was amazed at how many Coloradans don't ski. And now I'm one of them! Strange.
The boys took lessons last year, but they weren't really thrilled with it, so they don't really have plans to try it again this year. My resolution for next year is to get in good enough shape (and to save enough $$) to ski with them.
The one area I'm looking forward to is playing racquetball with Tracy's cousin, Charles. We play every year and have a great time beating the snot out of each other. Two years ago, we split a racquetball because we were hitting so hard. We kept the ball and that is our travelling trophy for the winner of the annual bout. I've won the last two years, but I don't have high hopes for this year because I am a complete slug and can't hit the ball worth a darn these days.
We'll see...

Let it snow, man

I had a late meeting last night, so I took some time this morning to take Alex to school. He was really excited because today was also his Christmas (Holiday?) party at school. As soon as he finished breakfast, he went to work with white plastic bags that he stuffed with newspaper. He eneded up with a three-foot tall snowman that he wanted to bring to school for decoration for the party.
When we got to school, all the kids on the playground thought his creation was the most incredible thing they had ever seen. They were in complete awe.
My adult brain kept thinking, "They're getting excited about trash bags and newspapers."
My kid brain was saying, "That is so cool."
Sometimes I hate my adult brain.

Shallow Me?

Last week, Tracy and I watched (OK, she forced me to watch) "Finding Debra Winger" which is a documentary by Rosanna Arquette about women in Hollywood who struggle with getting older and finding good parts.
She liked it.
When she asked me, I said, "Well, they make a good point."
That wasn't enough.
She wanted to know about any deeper thoughts or feelings the movie stirred in me.
It didn't.
I have come to the conclusion that I am just shallow. I don't seek insight or deeper messages in the movies I watch or the books I read (and especially on the TV I veg-out to!)
I prefer not to think that I'm a moron -- but that is definitely a possibility.
Instead I think I just like to be entertained.
Remember "Lost in Translation"? I had friends tell me how great this movie was and how it was just amazing and had a great message about life. To me it was the story of a guy who goes to a foreign country, meets a nice, young girl. Finds a friend. Cheats on his wife with a bar slut and then goes back home.
I don't really get it. And, furthermore, I don't really care to.
Am I lazy, stupid or just shallow? Guess I'd prefer shallow.

Should I be worried?

Tracy and I actually taped "The Real Gilligan's Island." I'm a little worried about us (OK, I'll admit it's me, but Tracy's playing along!).

Last night, we were watching the tape and Alex couldn't sleep so he came down. He saw what we were watching and said, "Why are you watching that?"

I honestly didn't have an answer.

illin'

For some reason I always get sick around this time of year.

Is it the cold weather (and the fact I usually still wear shorts!)?

or

Is it the fact I'm not getting any sleep because of National Novel Writing Month followed by our own Greeley Novelists Finishing Month?

or

Is it God hates me?

Not sure. Any thoughts?

Cool tunes and deeper thoughts

Last night we attended the Air Force Band Holiday Concert in Greeley. Tracy's cousin's husband, mark Burditt, plays trombone.

Two observations: One personal and the second broader...

First, the personal, my boys stayed up throughout the concert (ending around 10 p.m.) and we stuck around to say howdy to Mark. The boys were giddy and were getting autographs from Mark (who we see every year at Christmas, but apparently, he was never autograph-worthy until they saw him in concert) and some of the others in the band. I took the kids to school today because Tracy had a doc appointment this morning. I thought it was going to be hell because of the late hour, but they were great. It was a wonderful lazy morning without having to rush to work. I think I know why Tracy likes that so much.

Second, the Air Force concert has been an annual event for our family since we moved to Greeley and I always truly enjoy it. I'm amazed at the talent of this crew (Eric Anderson would have appreciated the hauntingly beautiful Celtic flute and drum song!). Tracy's sister refused to go last night and I had a feeling it had something to do with her blue-state leanings. I think she was worried about the God and country references. And, yes, there were plenty of those, but it was also a fun evening with family listening to some amazingly impressive music. That's not red or blue or anything else. It's just life. I am not a religious person, but that doesn't mean I couldn't enjoy the music. I understand some people are more into politics than I am, but shouldn't we be able to enjoy each other and forget about this other crap some times?

Recovering from the weekend

Remember those great weekends when you were young? You'd party all weekend with friends, wake up hungover and do it all over again... And then we'd go to work on Monday, tired and sore and happy...

I don't remember them either... isn't that great?

But now I'm married with two kids. This last weekend included two parties (both of the child birthday variety and were non-keg events) and a full day of shampooing the carpets in the house.

And now on Monday I'm still tired and sore. Getting old stinks.

And I have a column due this week plus another due at the end of next week for Rocky Mountain Parents magazine. What the heck am I going to write?

What about when he's a teen?

Andy has been a fussy bugger lately.

This morning he got mad at me because he needed to eat breakfast and he wanted to draw. He threw a hissy fit and when he finally got to the table, he insisted I don't look at him.

If he's this stubborn at 4, I have to admit I'm freaked out about when he becomes a teenager.

GreNoFiMo

Met last night with my buddy Eric Anderson as well as Amy Nickelson and Chris Casey from the Trib. We decided we wanted to come up with a way to keep up the enthusiasm from National Novel Writing Month so we created Greeley Novelists Finishing Month (GreNoFiMo).

We decided to each hit our own goals by Jan. 5.

My goal? Complete my novel (meaning fix the damn weak ending, find the magically appearing dog and make him less magical, add the ever-rumored St. Louis arch scene, give the Main Character a cool disease and other fixes that will be needed by adding all this other crap!)

Wish me luck.

Mr. Anderson

Want to give a shout out (yes, I'm an old person attempting to use slang that was probably popular several years ago!) to my buddy Eric Anderson. Check out his blog in the links.

Eric is the one responsible for getting me to put this stuff out on the ether (please direct all complaints to him).

Seriously, Eric is a very cool person who recently completed his THIRD National Novel Writing Month with a marathon session. Tonight we will celebrate with other NaNoNerds in Greeley. Eric is also responsible for getting me into NaNo as well and I don't think I could ever repay him enough for that.

Thanks, EA!

Early reader

I got out to the living room this morning and Alex was reading the newspaper!
OK, sure, it was the comics, but still, you gotta admit that's pretty cool, right?

Everybody else is doing it, right?

So, I'm feeling a little like 70's-era Steve Martin...

He had a bit about hostages:
"You see so many people with hostages these days and you think, 'Hey, I'd like some, too.'"

This is my hostage. My blog.

The main reason I wanted to do this was because sometimes I have small thoughts (OK, usually they are small) that I want to get out. They don't fit my regular column and my website doesn't seem right for them either...

So, now I'm a blogger...

The more I have thought about this, the more I hope this can be an archive for some of the really fun things I love to do with my two boys, Alex and Andy.

This morning, I was getting dressed for work and Andy told me he wanted me to play soccer with him. Of course, it's 7 a.m., it's about 450 below zero outside and I NEED to get to work. But we played soccer. He had a red balloon and we kicked it back and forth as I struggled to do that and get my clothes on (not an easy task).

I hope I always have time for balloon soccer -- even if I have to be a little late to work.