Christmas

This year for Christmas Mackenzie got a few new toys. Starting with a new outfit for her Mr. Potato Head. She now has the Doctor Mr. Potato Head and Spencer got the Snowman Mr. Potato Head.






Being that this seems to be a dress-up year we got Mackenzie a doctors kit and her Aunt Diana got her the shirt and hat. She loves being the doctor, but loves being the patient even more.

In addition to her doctor outfit Grandma and Grandpa Cornwall got her a ballerina outfit complete with tutu. She wears it non-stop at home but is gracious enough to change when we go out.








For me, I went out and used the money I was given to keep me working on my trains. Here is stage two of my train table. It now has foam. Stage three is laying track and cutting out my river and lake. I also got some really old trains from my mom's cousin. They need a little work, but I am very excited to have more projects that I want to work on.

All in all it was a great Christmas.

Winter in Washington

Wow! I didn't know western Washington could get so much snow. We stayed at my parents house in anticipation of the coming storm. Wings were predicted to be 30mph and freezing rain and all sorts of good stuff. It really seemed like it was going to be a doozy. I brought my nice camera and tripod to take pictures of the ice covered trees and snow covered ground. We were so prepared. So what did we get? A lot of snow and that's it. No ice, no wind, just snow. It was a lot of snow, but I wanted the storm. Well here are some pictures of how much snow dumped. There are some places the snow reaches my knees.

Let it snow!

I was excited on Wednesday to find out that school was canceled. Kelly and I took the kids out in the snow to a friends house to make a snowman and have fun. The kids had a great time.
Later that evening after even more snow I got a call that school was canceled for Thursday. Even better. That's two days I didn't go to school this week and had a great time in the snow with the kids.
Now, it's Thursday night and I have been called again that there will be no school tomorrow. I'm bummed because I had some things to do at school and I really don't want to make up that many days at the end of the year, but now I have added half a week to my vacation. So I say Let it Snow!

Wilbur and Music

Mackenzie has recently started naming some of her stuffed animals. The first one is a dog that has been christened Wilbur. I asked about the name and she replied "Wilbur dad, like the Pig." It is so cute when she starts talking to it and calling the dog on her toy phone.

In other news, my Christmas concert was on Wednesday. I have mixed feelings about the concert. The kids did exactly as I expected. They did their best, but at the same time I feel like I have given into mediocrity. I had a trombone player that missed most of his notes because he put chapstick on and couldn't buzz his lips, and I had a choir that is very quiet when they sing. My students are having problems realizing that they should work hard the whole time and not just two weeks before the concert. I show them how to practice their music, I give rehearsal CDs, I have a few students that come in for extra help, but it is effort too late to really bring us up a level as group. It gets very frustrating.

The part that makes it better is the compliments after the concert. Things like we haven't had crowds like this at concerts for a while. or the students sound better then they have for 10 years. I know I'm following teachers that had a very different style, I know that not everyone got along with them, but how hard is it to teach music if you have even a small understanding of what to do and take time to practice what you don't know. The kids are always shocked when I play different instruments with them. I am actually becoming an okay trombone player and I can play the trumpet even better. I played saxophone last year and really learned a lot. How can you not play the instruments, you have to demonstrate things all the time to the younger students.

Well, I now get to go to the dentist and take care of those appointments now that it's okay for me take time off without feeling like I'm abandoning my students while they prepare for a concert.

He WALKS!!!!!

Spencer walks now. That means everything is at least three feet off the ground in our home. I would take credit for teaching Spencer to walk, but it was really Andy, Stuart, and Noah that forced it on him. Just like Mackenzie, Spencer learned to walk in order to keep up with his cousins. Thank goodness we have them. Spencer endured his pain of learning to walk at Kami and Ian's house which included all of Spencer's bumps and bruises. He ended up with two lines on his forehead from smacking it into Ian's coffee table, but that's okay. He learned not to fall at the table now that he's back home. I love this stage. I don't have to carry that 24 pound ham (I would have said turkey, but he eats like a pig) as much.

I love toy trains!

For Veterans day today I had a chance to work on my train layout. It's been kind of slow going because of money and time. So I've been spending 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there. It has also been very nice to have dad close by to bounce ideas off and use his tools. We'll I have two things left to buy before I can start laying track, but this is what I have so far.



It's 4'x8' and comes apart into 2'x4' sections. I'm excited to get going a little more on this project and get some legs on it. Mackenzie is really starting to like running the trains as well as taking them off the track. So after the legs I need to put 2" of extruded foam on the top to create mountains, rivers, and lakes. The foam is the same stuff used for insulation. This is so cool. I will send pics when the next stage is done.

Truely a Cornwall

Mackenzie had discovered the joy of painting and she is actually pretty good (or is that the parent in me speaking).

Dating

Mackenzie and I went on a date tonight to see the Student Orchestra of Greater Olympia (SOGO). I had two comp tickets because two of my 6th grade band students are in the debut wind ensemble. It was fun to take Mackenzie to her first concert and see how she reacts to that environment. Her attention span lasted till just after the second piece was played. It was fun to hear my students play as well, but we needed to leave at intermission so Mackenzie wouldn't go to crazy. I'll have to get our pictures in order and post one we took because Mackenzie and I went dressed up to the concert and she was really cute. So for now just take my word.

The Lone-Runner

One of the benefits of being 29 is no one in your age group runs in fun-runs. Last Saturday I participated in a 5k fun-run in Tenino and found out on Tuesday that I won my age division. I even made it into the Olympian where they posted the winners for each age division. The only thing I can think of that would have allowed me to win my age division is that no one else ran. I guess though that is not a fact to point out when I say I won my age division in a 5k race.

Maybe I'll race next year in the same run.

Crazy Week

This has been a crazy week. We found out that Spencer has a really big head now, but he didn't use to which means that he needs to go back in a month to see if his head has grown anymore. If it has grown and off the nice curve that the doctor likes then he has to have a CAT scan and other tests. It's nothing to worry about, but you never want bad stuff to happen to your kids.

Spencer has been sick all week with a bad case of the runs and vomiting. We took him to the doctor to see what we need to do and were told to basically keep him hydrated (well duh! I was hoping for some other answer like give him some tea and he'll be fine in the morning). Here we are on day 6 or 7 of diarrhea and having to start a new box of diapers way earlier than we had planned. We are tired because he sleeps about two hours at a time and wants to be held most of the other time that he is awake. Got to love our children.

On another note football season is coming to an end which means I will be home till basketball starts up. I look forward for basketball to be over so I can be home and help take care of the kids.

Family pictures

We went to Priest Point Park with some friends of ours and took each others pictures in order to save a little money. So here they are!!!

Run for Fun

A couple of teachers from school and myself decided we wanted to race. So what did we do? We entered the Tenino GhostMuster Fun Run. We ran the 5k and all set goals. The race was more of a lets see if we can all make our goals rather than who's going to be the fastest (at least that's how I looked at it). I finished 54th overall and had a time of about 30 minutes. My goal was to complete 3 miles in under 30 minutes and I did that since 5k is 3.1 miles. My first two mile were each 9 minute miles and then the cold I've been getting over told me I was to be on WOO (WithOut Oxygen). I had to stop and clear the system before continuing the race. I felt good about the race and it was a lot of fun to hang out with other faculty members outside of school.

We didn't get a picture of me crossing the finish line so just believe me that it did happen.

State In-Service

Yesterday I went to a workshop on technology in the classroom and was bored out of my mind because the people giving the workshop were so disorganized and anti-pc that it was hard to find something that I could take back to my own classroom.

I don't think that people realize that you can do anything for music you need to on a pc and do it just as well as a mac. Everything I have used for the pc has been pretty much plug and play and very simple. They kept saying things like use Itunes to convert it to an mp3, it's really easy on a mac, but a pc is really different and more complicated to do this process on. THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE!!!!! My favorite Mac plug of the day was when the main lecturer said his laptop came with a free remote if he spent over $1700 on his new mac laptop. If that is your main reason for getting a mac is you get a free remote your wasting your money. you could spend have the amount on a dell and add a remote for as little at $30. That seems way more worth it than having to spend close to $2000 on a laptop.

By the end of the workshop I had corrected a few things about sibelius and finale for some people and put a huge plug in for google apps and using google calender. Their comment before I talked about google was "I've never used it, and I don't see how it is going to help me so I'm not going to use it." I showed them the schools calender in google as well as google docs, sites, picassa, and igoogle. Many of them were pretty impressed that google does so much.

One piece of equipment I might but for my classroom was the tuneview for the ipod. It's a pretty sweet docking station and remote for the ipod that runs on radio frequency instead of IR. I also made some good contact with two other choir teachers from Tenino and Rochester.

After the workshop I went home ate some dinner, took some exederin for a tension headache I had and went to a really cold football game to play sax with the pep band. I didn't see my family at all that day and it was really depressing.

Only two more home football games.

Well, I think that is enough venting.

Clarification

So our councilor was the administrator for our grade book system that houses all of our WASL scores, contact information, grades, and basically keeps track of the districts population. He is the only person in the district trained on that program. He is the only one who knows how to add users and fix things that go wrong in the program.

Since they stopped paying him he hasn't been helping with the program at all. If we asked him a question, even an easy one, his response was I am no longer in charge of that. I think that's what got me the most was I'm not asking you to do it I am asking for a nudge in the right direction and if you know it please share it. That's at least what the rest of the faculty does.

First Week of School

Wow this week of school has been full of ups and downs. On the upside I have some enthusiastic groups that are ready to work. I hope they can handle how much I want to push them. I have a clean room as well as organized and it is all mine. On the downside the faculty is pretty upset at our school councilor because he has made some choices that we don't like, but understand why he is making those choices (the district stopped paying him for something he was doing and expect someone else to do it.)

Last night we had our high school open house and I was able to meet several parents and have some really good discussions. When I got home Mackenzie was in bed but wanted to tell me about her day. I went into her room and she started to giggle and she could hardly tell me what happened that day. I got snippets here and there and I guess she bonked her head and went down the slide. The rest was just giggles.

Today I was able to stay home in the evening and spend time with my family. It was a very nice end to the week, almost. One more day to go!

Happy Birthday

If you hadn't noticed I had a birthday last week. I am now 29 years old. This year we kept my birthday really small partly because students loans are now in full swing. I'm sure those that are paying student loans know exactly what I mean. We had a party for me on the 1st while Jacob and Carolyn were visiting. Mom and dad got me a freight car for my trains that is a cleaner car. Basically the car has a pumice stone on it to make sure there is a clean contact to the track. It's way cool. I haven't been able to hook it up yet, but I also now have enough money to finish the 4'x8' track layout I've been working on.

I have also finished painting my room and I have been setting it up so class can start on the 15th.

I will post pictures later this week of my new train and room.

First Day of School?

Yesterday I was at school setting up the room and everything when all the teachers that were there were called to the office. What they had to tell us is good and bad. First the middle school that is under construction is not done. This means that we can't start school when we are supposed to (Sept. 8) we are now starting a week later on the 15th.

This is good because I have another week to get my room set up. The bad part is the whole calender is being redone so we can get out of school on the original last day. They are making winter break shorter and taking out some of our longer weekends.

Well, I hope school starts on the 15th.

Projects

Take a look at these photos, does it remind you of anyone?

Well in my efforts to save money as a music teacher, I have been fixing instruments on my own. It costs me an average of $100 to send an instrument into the shop to have new pads put on so I have become quite good at fixing pads. This project is dealing with a bent post. I've learned a lot doing things the hands-on way.

Reading, reading, and more reading

We have really been trying to go to the library this summer. We have made every 3 weeks about because that is when our books are due. We usually leave with 10-15 books most of which are for Mackenzie, but today we left with 25. Mackenzie really likes to read so we try and spend a lot of time reading with her. She gets about 30 minutes of reading for bedtime and she reads on her own throughout the day.

One story she is getting pretty good at is the Three Little Pigs. Can you spot her favorite part?

The Messangers

If you're looking for a scary movie that is pretty clean see "The Messangers." That movie scared the bejezzers out of me to the point it was hard to sleep at night. Every little sound make me flinch.

A late anniversary trip

Kelly and I have been married for 6 years as of July 26, but because Kelly was involved in a summer theater workshop we really couldn't do anything for our anniversary. Last week (August 7) we went to Long Beach, WA and spent the night in a really nice hotel right on the beach. We took the TR and dad's stunt kite and just had a really nice time (especially since we left Mackenzie and Spencer with Mom). The sky was overcast the whole time but we still got a little burned.

On a Sunday Afternoon

Today was stake conference so we had a great day. It started at 10 and was done by 12 so our kids didn't miss any naps and were able to wake up at their normal time with out us having to rush to church. The big news for stake conference was a new stake presidency. I don't know our new stake presidents name it starts with a "C", but one of his councilors is Brother Moss (I think he was my dentist or orthodontist, I can't quite remember.) Any way it has been a nice relaxing Sunday. The temperature is finally down to the 80's so we aren't dying in our house that holds the heat so well.

The Last Few Days

The end of summer is coming up for me. There are 2 and half weeks till I need to be back at school and now the funnier stuff is starting to happen. The first thing involves school. We have a new middle school principal who called me to talk about the band schedule. He was a little confused because he couldn't find any registration information anywhere for the 6th grade. I had the pleasure of telling him there wasn't any because the group that designed the schedule decided that it wasn't necessary. I gave him a list of the students I knew where planning on coming back and those will be the ones I get for now. He has since changed the schedule and it looks better now.

Second funny thing was letting a two year old play with markers. I'm not sure whether to call Mackenzie she-hulk, the grinch, or the painted lady. She decided to color her legs green. If we had been paying closer attention to her would probably would have noticed, but we didn't and she had very green legs. On the plus side her legs smelled really good because it was those smelly markers.

Now if you can remember or need to look back a few posts, the band room was not in great shape. It had ugly pictures on the wall and had a really nasty set of carpeted risers. Here is an updated picture. The rooms almost done. I just need to paint the top part.

Okay, after writing all my funny things down they don't seem so funny. Oh well.

The Insane

Today I did the most insane thing I have done in a while. In order to save gas Kelly and I have been riding our bikes more. I decided to ride out to school today. I was thinking 15 miles, I can do it. Then I started riding and realized what I got myself into. It started off great, I knew that I should be seeing two bike trails cross paths and I would take the one that crossed. After 50 minutes of riding I still hadn't seen it and started to think I had passed it since this was my first time using this trail. I stopped at an art gallery along the trail (go figure a gallery in the middle of no where. I was still in Olympia so I was doing it right. After 15 more minutes of riding I found the trail and had 2 miles to go. I made it to school in 1 hour 15 min. It turns out I forgot to factor in the fact that the trail goes south instead of straight east and I ended up adding about 3 miles to my trip. I made in home in about 1 hour 10 minutes pretty worn out. But I feel great for accomplishing something this challenging.

The man with many words

A little explanation of the title of this blog. One of my favorite musicians/artists is John Cage. He was the start of a style of music and art based on chance. In a poem he wrote he stated "I have nothing to say and I am saying it, and that is poetry." Cage was a loony to most people. His art and music was very much out there. What I enjoy about Cage is his philosophy that anyone can make music because music is defined as a combination of sounds and silence. When Cage refered to the phrase I have nothing to say and I am saying he would often ask questions such as "What is more musical, a truck passing a construction site or a truck passing a music school?" (I know huh?) I felt that Cage really had nothing to say. He simply loved the work he did. I see myself that way as well. I really don't have much to say when it comes to my job, I just love what I do.


In the spirit of having nothing to say here is a little video.



Well, Spencer's conversations need a little work he just goes on and on and doesn't even clue you in to what he is talking about.

Darth Spencer

Last night while I was putting kids to bed Spencer started breathing really weird. It sounded like Darth Vader. So being the observant father I naturally looked to see what was going on. There was Spencer happy as good be sucking on his entire pacifier. He had the entire thing in his mouth and was still sucking on it. I laughed and pulled it out and everything was fine.

Summer Activities

This past week (on my anniversery) we went to a birthday party for Kelly's sister's kids. They live at the end of Steamboat Island Rd and so we spent our time at the beach. This is the turtle that Mackenzie and I made. Notice the "eggs" she is burying. Just a little touch of realism. The party was pretty fun this year because we didn't just lay around eating sweets. We played volleyball, built sand sculptures, and tried swimming, but since this is Washington and swimming doesn't work we just got wet up to the waist.

Related to water, I was giving Spencer his first bath alone where we just let him play in the water. He is definitely a splasher. I should have been playing the song "Splish Splash" just to top off his bath. The main reason I let him play by himself is he is scooting along pretty well. I will post a video of him scooting later.

In other news Kelly is on her final week of Once Upon a Mattress (the story of the Princess and the Pea). It has been a long 6 weeks of being by myself. People would think that I am just getting a taste of what it is like to be a stay at home parent, but Kelly leaves for work just just before afternoon naps and comes back just before dinner. The time to get outside passes because the kids nap for about 2 hours and wake up in time to help me make dinner. It would be easier if Kelly was gone a little earlier so we could all go out and play without worrying about what time it is so Kelly can leave on time. It will be nice when we have a little more stable schedule in the Fall. I will miss the time with the kids, but I will enjoy the time I do have with them.

Here are some new pics of our kids. Enjoy.

Personal goals

Kelly and I decided that we need a goal other than losing weight and feeling better while we work on changing our habits. We are entering a mini-triathlon next August that has a 400 meter swim, 14 mile bike ride and a 5k run. I think it will be fun. If you want to see more about the triathlon goto http://www.buduracing.com/

Spencer Stages

Spencer is currently trying to crawl. I love this stage cause he looks like he is revving an engine just before he takes off. He will get on all fours and rock back and forth for a little while, fall over and roll around a while till he gets enough strength to try again. It's rather funny to watch.

Bedtime routines

Lately Mackenzie has been having a hard time going to sleep. She has been going to bed kicking and screaming. This started a day or two after she got rid of her pacifier. After talking with Megan, Kelly and I changed the routine so Mackenzie would find some other way of relaxing and going to sleep. We read and sing to her still, but we gave her time to read on her own. We prop a pillow up and give her two books, then leave. She gets 5-10 minutes of reading time (depending on whether or not we remember to check on her) then we come back in turn off her light and kiss her goodnight. It's worked the last two nights. Let's see what happens tonight.

Exercising Blues

Last night Kelly and I decided we needed some new motivation to exercise. I have been working hard at it. I exercise 6 days a week and have done really well for the last two weeks. By the end of the day yesterday we were both exhausted and needed something new. We decided to by new workout clothes. So now I have new workout clothes and I got up this morning and am way too tired. That just kills the motivation. I feel like I haven't slept more than an hour. I don't think I had a bad night sleep but I guess I don't know I did sleep through the experience.

Weight Loss update

Well, losing weight is going okay. I stepped up my work-outs this week and they are definitely more intense. I'm really tired tonight and the only reason I'm still up at 10:40 tonight is because of Spencer.

In this time of trying to lose weight I started to use sparkpeople.com (That was in April) but I was so busy with concerts and packing up my room that I just couldn't keep up with it. I started it up again and have found it to be helpful with exercising because they have strength training exercises that don't need a gym or any equipment really.

While exploring sparkpeople I found some recipes that I really like. Here's one that we had tonight for Dinner:

Slow-Cooker Salsa Chicken
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup salsa
1 package reduced sodium taco seasoning (Half packet was more than enough)
1 can reduced fat cream of mushroom soup (condensed) (I used cream of chicken)
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream (This is more to taste than anything)
(Next time I am going to shred the chicken and add black beans)

Directions

Add chicken to slow cooker.
Sprinkle taco seasoning over chicken.
Pour salsa and soup over chicken.
Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.
Remove from heat and stir in sour cream.
Serve with rice or in a tortilla


Number of Servings: 6

The Cornwall Melting Pot

Yesterday was an interesting day. Kelly and I have discovered that we are expert melters. We melted a latex bottle nipple in the dish washer (That smells really bad, by the way). In the evening we were making cookies and left a plastic tupperware lid on the stove and apparently our oven heats up the stove top really well and now we have some goo for a lid. I do have to say that these meltings are comparable to the time we lived in Pullman and melt a bag of oreos to the top of our toaster oven.

The other part of our melting experience yesterday was a good part, we went over to mom's house and made strawberry jam. I like cooking and jam is so easy. The last time we made jam was last year and we still have a little bit left. So now it's time to stock up again. I can't wait till raspberry's and blackberry's are ready. Yummy!

No Pain No Gain

I don't know who came up with the phrase no pain no gain, but I am sore and I weigh more. I tend to lose weight when I don't exercise and don't spend my days being so sore. (*This is simply a fluke, I just happened to weigh myself this morning and was up a pound from the last time. My muscles are really fatigued because I have been working out all week at a fairly high intensity.) It can be depressing when you know you need to exercise, but not much comes off when you do.

If you don't know my goal is to be about 210lbs. by the end of the year. Most of the work needs to be done during the summer and the school year will be about maintaining. Ideally I would like to be 190. Currently I stand at 248.

In other news, Mackenzie has started trying to distract us to delay things like nap and bedtime. We will mention that it's time to go to bed and she will say she has to go potty even though she just did 2 minutes before that, or she'll point to an old scrape and say that it hurts and needs to be kissed. Then, after this has all failed to delay the inevitable, she wants the other parent to put her to bed.

Spencer is rolling over like mad now. I have learned very quickly that a clean house keeps the parents happy because they aren't constantly pulling paper or magazines out of the mouth of small children. Maybe that's why I still lose weight with out formal exercise.

A Very Simple Dance

I think Mackenzie is the cutest kid in the world, and just to prove it I have video taped her doing "A Very Simple Dance" from Bert and Ernie Sing-A-Long.

There is a reason for everything

Mackenzie has been a little on the cranky side recently and we have been blaming it on the fact that she is two. Well we forgot how much it hurts when you have new teeth and sure enough that is what Mackenzie has. She is getting her last set of teeth in and it is a tad uncomfortable.

To make matters worse she is being weaned off the pacifier (Hallelujah). We got her down to just at night then we lied to her this weekend when we went up to Duval and told her we forgot it. She whines at first when we put her down but she is sleeping fine.

Now onto this weekend. We went up to Duval because a nephew on Kelly's side was getting baptized. It was a great baptism. Very spiritual and to top it off there was a complete stranger that came. One of the family members flew in from Salt Lake and on the flight sat next to a large Native American man. They had a good discussion and the man was so impressed he gave Lisa (Dale's wife; Dale is the one that died a couple Christmases ago) his phone number. Well she called him and invited him to the baptism and he came and after had a long good discussion about what we believe. This goes to show that there is a reason for everything.

Hopefully this man will take the discussions soon, he showed interest in the discussions and Kelly and I said we would go with him to the first couple (He lives in Tacoma by Union Station).

Anyway it's not that often that I am part of missionary moments, but it is a great experience to be a part of one. Remember to always look for those moments.

Doctors Visits

Mackenzie is always full of surprises. Today she had two appointments that we were pretty nervous about. First she went to the dentist for a check-up. I have to say her dentist is incredible. She stayed absolutely still the whole time and did everything he asked her to do.

Our next visit was to get shots. Again she didn't cry or fight us. She flinched a little when the shot was given, but she was very good.

Well, I was merely gloating in how wonderful my kids are. It's not every day that you have two scary appointments that go well beyond any expectations.

The Perfect Show

In life we have many challenges to deal with. Yesterday Mackenzie happened to be my challenge. She has figured out how to put on the perfect show. Kelly is playing the organ for the local Lutheran church and was not going to make it sacrament meeting yesterday. This left dad with 2 kids. This wouldn't be so bad, but being that Mackenzie is 2 she put on a show when Kelly left for work. She cried and pouted and kicked her feet. There was no way she was going to go to church. When it was time to go to church finally she smiled and got in the car. For a second, I thought this day was going to be a good day after all (a little advise to new parents: don't be fooled, your kids are evil genius' always luring you into a false sense of security.) Well Mackenzie was an angel at church. Other parents were coming up and telling me how great our children are and what a fine father I am to Mackenzie and Spencer. As we reached home the true Mackenzie showed up and began the crying and pouting all over again. It also doesn't help that church is 11-2 so Mackenzie misses her nap or takes a really late nap. We chose to skip her nap yesterday. BAD IDEA!!! Never skip a two year olds nap it only makes things worse. She went to bed at 8:30 yesterday and fell asleep right away. Kelly and I recouped our losses and went to bed late (We needed to clean-up the hurricane Mackenzie mess downstairs).

In other news, I am getting a sweet computer at school. It is being ordered July 1 when we can start using our budgets for next year. I should be able to record some cool stuff on it for band.

Me and Cheshire

Lately We have been working with Mackenzie on saying her name when people ask her name. Typically her response has been me, as if there has ever been a question to her identity. When we ask what her brother's name is we get one of two responses; Brother or Cheshire. Sometimes I feel that we are in Alice in Wonderland and Mackenzie is Alice, the inquisitive one, Spencer is really the Cheshire Cat since he tends to babble a lot of nonsense that is only understood if you are listening correctly. Kelly and I are hopefully not the King and Queen, but sometimes it feels like it. I think we are more like the Mad Hatter and March Hare, just a little bit off our rockers.

Well, summer is going great. We are starting to find more things to do so we are not so bored. Kelly is starting her summer job next week and I am hanging out with the kids.

I have finally found time to exercise. I get the mornings at 7 so I can play with kids the rest of the day. I have lost 6.5 pounds during June.

Father's Day

Father's day was so cool. I got a new BBQ and so we got to have mom and dad over for dinner today. It was really nice to have them over to our house for a change and to be cooking on a new grill. I love being a daddy.

In other news school is now over and I have all summer to play and work around the house and yard. Yea!!!!

A New Room

Well, I have finished the bottom half of my room. I will finish it this summer after the tile and carpet are torn out and replaced. It shouldn't take too long and it will be a huge improvement. Here are some pictures of the room.

Before















After

End of School

I've decided to try out this blog thing. I'm not sure exactly how this is going to work in the long run, but we'll see.

Any way, this is the last week of school and I am doing so much. I have been throwing out uniforms and painting my room. The pictures are going to be available soon. I am excited to finally have a room that is going to be my own. No hideously drawn pictures on the walls anymore (almost) and no plum colored office.