Not Just for Goats

Top Ten Reason It's Good to Have Kids

10. You can get the BIG dog, because you don't have to be the one to pick up the poop,.... unless you end up stepping in it and then I suppose you technically ARE picking it up yourself.

9. There's always someone there to tell you that what you're wearing looks dorkie - which is another sign of maturity. Don't believe me,.... look at how the elderly dress and tell me that they aren't mature.

8. You reach a whole new level about what pain really is.

7. You always know where the remote is,... down in between a couch cushion, under the couch / chair, or in a whole other room not referred to as the 'TV Room'.

6. If you happen to forget your sweethearts special day,.. there's always a child to blame, "I'm sorry. I had no money because Sam needed my last $20 for something school related."

5. They cheer you on when your trying to fix something and end up destroying it into a million little pieces.

4. Free movies at Family Video if your kid can pull off an A (that's a free video for EACH A! Brings a whole new purpose for pushing them to do well).

3. Can't figure out my taxes, but I'm a genius at second grade math,.. most days, when I'm not forced to figure out that crazy NEW Math!

2. When I talk about My Space, the kids think I'm really cool, but what I really want is just my space.

1. Retirement! At the rate they are turning me gray, my retirement must be just around the corner!!

Being the Bad Blogger

There's something to being a bad blogger. It's ranks up there with being a bloggert. What? You don't remember the term 'bloggert'?
Bloggert: to view blogs and leave no sign of viewing behind (ie: a note).

So we've established the bad blogger status and boy do I have a great deal to catch you up on,.....

First of all,.. I've tried the facebook thing. What's facebook? Seriously, you need to spend a bit more time around technology. Facebook is the posting and walling posts to those people you deam to be friend worthy.

Okay, cutting to the short of it. Facebook is way to transparent. For instance,.. my friend leaves a message about having an adult beverage for his birthday. Nothing wrong with that - right? Wrong! Because on my facebook I've not been picky and have accepted former students (who are still in school) and now have the 911 on my time spent with friends. "So, like Mr. K. You're going out with your bud for a drink on his birthday huh."

Does anyone remember growing up with the party line phone? This Facebook thing is a huge party line waiting to happen. The other issue I've run across is that my friends know when I'm on line because it hooks into some sort of IM (instant message) system. So when I'm looking to see if anyone has posted on my 'wall', I get the "Hey,... what are you doing?" Most of the time it's a nice opportunity to chat, but there are those moments when you feel you've just been caught running out to get the news paper on the front steps and the only thing you have on is your underwear. Sorry, just wanted the paper! - weren't suppose to see that!

The last thing I'll say about the facebook craze is - addicting. It's relatively easy to get on, post pictures, and find numerous friends that you've lost contact with. That's what makes it difficult to not check into on a daily basis. I wonder who left me a note? I wonder if there's an old friend trying to reach me? I wonder what's the latest in the world of...?

Well, that's it for tonight. We have politics, cancer topics, school, and many other things to catch up on,... but there's time. The one thing we have is time. Sitting in church this morning I was remind of the miracles we witnessed, the plans God has, and the notion accures to me,... we need to get back to cherishing time and less about getting caught up in the worldly stuff that makes us say, "Where did the time go?"

Peace and Prayers

Learning Lingo

Febscans. That's the easiest way to talk about our next trip to Mayo. This whole Mayo experience has given us a great deal of new terms. HD use to mean Harley Davidson around the house,.. now it stands for Hearts and Diamonds - the Ronald McDonald gala that Hannah will be attending again this year with Danielle. Then there's therapy,...actually that still means the same as before, only it's not me heading to therapy for my knee,...or my shoulder,...or my elbows,...or basically anything that happens to when I try to exercise and get healthy and end up in therapy,.... it's now Hannah and her hand, wrist, pinkie, and arm. Of course you can't go too long without hearing the words 'splinting.' "Hey pick up your splint ting off the living room floor, I almost killed myself on it!"

Our trip to Mayo begins with a bit of fun as we make our way back for the HD festivities. I'm probably more excited to go out with the adults. Hannah and Danielle go off to the formal for an evening of meet and greet,... I get steak! It's a fair trade off. Then we begin early Monday with a series of test on her arm, where the doctors hope to gain even more insight before moving forward with any reconstruction. She won't have her chest CT scan this trip, but we're still on the three month MRI scan of the arm. As we wrap of our last appointments on Wednesday, it will be right to the car and back to Michigan. Last year when we headed back, Wisconsin had the 25 inch snow fall (right in our path). A special treat that I could do without,.. just give me the cheese.

As for the book,... well it's been smooth sailing so far. A team of copy editors are working on it (probably at this very moment). The awesome thing about having editors look over your writing - they don't call me and point out all my mistakes,... they just fix them. After they finish, then the conceptual editing team takes over. The conceptual team will be the ones calling me up in the wee hours of the night, "Are you sure you wanted a period at the end of that sentence and not an exclamation point? You can never have enough exclamation points ya know!" They also have a few things to say about the character development. That could be good or bad news for some of the characters in the book (I'm thinking Steve might be calling me soon wanting a little input on his character development).

That's a wrap people. Keep reading, keep praying, and let's find a cure for cancer. Someone out there has to have a chemistry set that's working overtime.

Make A Wish

Nothing says cool more than having your family photo session with "Frank" from Men in Black!

Okay,... there may be a few more things that are just as cool,... but for me, it will BE the top highlight of Hannah's Make A Wish trip.

"It seems like it went soooo fast," Kim seemed to be on her downward slide which tends to happen after a long anticipated trip to Give Kids the World, Disney, Universal, Busch Gardens, Sea World, and Orange Manor. Did I mention a drive-by at a local Harley dealer? Probably should since we went there on the only day of the entire year that they are closed.

We had heard about level of care you receive when you're on a Make A Wish, but come on! These people are insane in the best way! "Welcome. We're here to serve you," said the greeter who met us at the House of Hearts at Give Kids the World. "If you need something,... anything,...all you need to do is ask," she finished her greeting with a big smile. We arrived just before midnight.

While chatting with Mrs. Clause (that's right, we had the Mr. and the Mrs. meet and greet) she insisted on two things,... the first was that Sam sit on her lap, "You're not too big for me," she said in such a quiet, confident, caring manner. Her second request was that the children have ice cream for breakfast at least once while we were there. I didn't think that would be a problem since after our first morning trek to the Ginger Bread House for breakfast, we made a second stop at the ice cream shop for breakfast dessert!








We had such a wonderful time and so many people to thank for taking their time to make this a wonderful experience for our family. I'm currently working through about a trillion photos and epic hours of video film in order to turn this journey into a DVD extravaganza. Thank goodness I gave up scrap-booking to a more technological approach.

Thanks Make A Wish!