What's Up

I wanted to update you on what has been going on in my life lately.

After my family vacation, I fully intended on posting more regularly and adding pictures to my blog. I planned to post pictures and blogs about my son playing football, as well as updates on my doctorate and anything else that I think might be interesting. Since that time, I haven't posted a blog and have felt like life is speeding by and at times I am watching from the sidelines. I have had ups and downs and have been working to get through everything and remain positive.

As a part of dealing with stuff going on, I would go to post a blog and would look at the page for a few minutes and decide my heart just wasn't in it. I applaud those of you who blog on a regular basis and are consistent with your posts. I wish I was as good at it.

What has been going on:

My son did start playing football in July. It was his second year and I was once again one of the assistant coaches. On the second day of practice, Nathan decided football was not his thing. His heart wasn't in the game and nothing I could say or do would change his mind. We decided to respect his decision and let him take the year off and decide next year if he wants to get back into the sport. At the same time I was facing some personal issues that I felt required me to step down from coaching. The first few weeks following the decision for Nathan to quit playing and for me to quit coaching, I was miserable. I missed it so much. Nathan didn't miss it, and showed no interest in even going to watch his former team play. People have told me that I shouldn't have let him quit. That I should have made him play. My response: have you ever tried to make a six year old do something physically when their mind is set against it? I guess we made the right decision because so many other things have taken place that would have been hard to work around if he was still playing football.

One of those things is my job. I got a promotion where I now manage a team of people who are trying to do something that has never been done before. It has been a crazy experience so far, because we have to come up with the plan on how to do it, and then prove that our plan works. When it is something that has never been done, a lot goes into developing that plan, and there is a lot of trial and error. Also, we are on a limited timeline. We have to have a workable plan completed by the end of the year and prove it works by the end of February. Needless to say, it has been taking a lot of my time. It has also required a little more travel than what my old job did, but if we are successful it will all be worth it.

To add more to my schedule, I will be defending my doctoral dissertation this Friday, October 26th. It is open to the public if anyone wants to come to Nashville to participate. This is the final hurdle in my degree before I sprint to the finish line towards graduation. The plan right now is for me to graduate on December 8th. It is exciting to think about, but hard to believe that it has already been almost five years since I started the program. What is harder to believe is that I am about to cap my college education and have a terminal degree. There will be nowhere else for me to go from hear, unless I decide to try for a second doctorate somewhere. That idea only has a .00000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 percent chance of happening, if that good.

I am thinking about planning a trip to Oklahoma next year. I am really missing someone really special to me and hope that we can work out a time to get together.

For now, my brain is telling me that's what's up.

Family Vacation Part 2

Yesterday I talked a little bit about shopping at Destin Commons. Below are a couple of pictures from one of the days we were there.

This is after going to Godiva
This was in one of the sunglasses stores. I know that is really obvious,
but you just never know. I would like to note here, that she did not get
that $250 pair of sunglasses. Although she really liked them and I think
she looks really cute in them!!
There are other things to do besides shop and look for dolphins (that I mentioned yesterday). This year we went back to one of the places that the kids enjoyed the most the last time we were in Destin. It is a miniature golf place that also has kiddie rides. Nathan and Reagan both love mini golf and Nathan is really getting good at it, for his age.

Before we started, the kids wanted to get their picture taken with this big gorilla.

Along the course, they found other statues to pose with. Nathan really loves elephants, and had to have a picture with this baby elephant. Reagan didn't want to be left out.

What would a golf course through the "Jungle" be without some fish?

Finally, what would mini golf be without someone getting upset? This actually made two people upset because she through a tantrum, but nobody takes pictures of Daddy when he is upset. She cleared her attitude up within a couple of holes, but those were some frustrating holes.


After mini golf, we decided to let the kids ride the kiddie rides. Both Nathan and Reagan remembered riding this train the last time and really wanted to ride it again. The enjoyed ringing the bell every time they circled by us.

The only other ride that they rode together was the carousel. It was hard getting them both to look at the camera at the same time, so this ended up being the best picture we could get.After the carousel, Nathan and I rode the bumper boats. Reagan really wanted to ride this also, but she was too short. I was in charge of driving while Nathan sprayed the water. It was a little difficult at times to steer since the button to shoot the water is on the steering column. Nathan would tell me to turn the other direction as he pulled the steering column towards him. It was a blast.

While we rode the bumper boats, Reagan went and rode one of her favorite things. The swings. I can't watch her ride these, because they make me sick, so it was great that Sharon was able to take her while Nathan and I were busy.

One ride that Nathan rode that Reagan would not get on is the Ferris Wheel. She was going to ride, however when the operator told her she couldn't ride in the same car as Nathan she lost all interest. After the kids had their fun, it was time for Daddy to have some fun. This fun still included the kids, but I was the driving force behind it. After all what would a trip to The Track be without a trip around the track. My parents went to Florida with us, so my dad got the privilege of driving the car that Reagan rode in.

While Nathan had the privilege of riding in my car. He also had the privilege of winning since he was in my car. We passed so many people and never let anyone pass us. It was so much fun!!!
After a long day of fun, there is only one thing left to do. That is eat. In Destin there are so many unique places to eat. We ate at most of them. One of the places we ate at is a restaurant named FudPuckers. The kids loved eating here, although Nathan's face may not show it. This picture is from the second time we at there. The first time it was pouring down rain and so pictures were not happening that day.

There were a couple of things Reagan liked about this restaurant, but the one thing we couldn't get her away from without a picture was this Indian. She was completely fascinated by it.

The main attraction for FudPuckers though is their "collection" of live alligators that you can feed. They claim to have over 50, although we never counted more than 30. Here is a picture of some.

Yes they are small. What did you expect? They are in a restaurant!! Along with feeding them, you can actually hold one and get you picture taken with them. We did not do this. They tape the mouth shut so you won't get bit, but Sharon doesn't care to get any closer to them than we were at the point in the picture above.

On the last full day we were in Destin, I woke Nathan for a special treat. He wasn't too excited to be woken up at 6:00 in the morning, but he came around. The treat was a guys only trip to a secluded beach to search for sea shells. He loved it!!! For the record, we brought back enough shells for Reagan, but since Reagan enjoyed the shopping more than Nathan, I wanted to do something special for him.

When we got to the beach, we were a little disappointed with the number of shells we were seeing. The picture below shows the number of shells we saw in one small area close to the entry point of the beach.

We didn't let this get us down. We walked and walked and walked for a long time down this empty beach. Finally, we found this:
These shells were all in a smaller space than the first picture and look at the number. We called this area the shell grave yard. It was a very large area that was a ways down the beach, but well worth the walk. We found all sorts of different shells of various shapes and colors. I haven't taken pictures of them, but if I remember I will try to do that and blog about them. The picture below is of Nathan picking up some shells here.
After almost an hour of looking in this one area, we decided it was about time to head back and get some breakfast. We had plenty of shells. The trip back was more fun for Nathan because he wasn't focused on finding shells so he just played in the water.

By the time we got back to the car, his feet were hurting because of being in the sand for over two hours, but he said he wouldn't change it for anything. The memories of that morning are priceless.

The last two evenings we were there, we decided to take pictures on the beach. When you leave the beach you have to wash the sand and salt off, so here is a picture of Reagan washing the sand off her feet.

This is a picture of the woman I love with me. I mentioned yesterday that she got some sun on her face and you can kind of see where her sunglasses were.

What would a family vacation be without a family picture. The lens was fogged up a little because of the humidity. We should have let the camera get acclimated before taking the pictures, but what fun would that have been?

The last picture is how I like to remember the vacation as a whole. I can't say it any better.

Family Vacation

I have talked a lot in past blogs about how I was going to try to do better and blog more frequently. I think I am done making that "promise" because I am the worst person in the world when it comes down to blogging. I have great intentions but do a really bad job of following through. Today's blog is not to talk about that though, it is to talk about something that I view as a great success. I am blogging about my family vacation that occurred less than two months ago.

Our vacation took us to a favorite spot of ours. For the third time in the last four years we went to Destin, Florida. Specifically we stayed at the Surfside Resort in the Marimar Beach area, right outside the Destin city limits. The picture below shows the condo building we always stay in.


The day we arrived, a tropical storm was churning in the gulf and the forecast was for rain almost the entire time we were there. As you can see in the picture below, the clouds were already moving in.

Fortunately, the first full day we were there was the only day that it rained. That left us with views like the one below for the rest of our stay.

With weather that nice, there are several things that you can do, and as you will read later we did other things, BUT the most fun thing to do at the beach is to get in the water. Both of the kids loved the water, but even more than that they loved to get out into the deeper water and have the waves hit them. I would not let them get out into the water without me, so I had one in each hand.

We would let them play in the water by themselves a little, but they were not allowed to go out very far. As you can see in the picture below knee high to Reagan was about the limit without me being with them, but they still had a blast. Nathan was trying to sit down in the waves and a couple of them surprised him and knocked him backwards.

When I was ready for a rest, Sharon and I would sit under the umbrella provided for us and watch the kids play in the sand. We didn't get pictures of the best day where we buried Nathan and Reagan in the sand, but there were other fun pictures. In the picture below, the kids are trying to get water in Frisbees that they had gotten from a restaurant the day before. We forgot to take any of the dozen sand buckets we had at home and kept forgetting to buy new ones.

There is only one downside to all of the fun in the sun. That down side is seen in the picture below. That is my lower back that was burned, and despite what I told my wife, it hurt pretty bad. It was well worth it to make those memories with my kids though. As you will see in some of the pictures later on, Sharon got some sun on her face. It is most noticeable because she had her sunglasses on.

I mentioned earlier that there were other things to do on nice sunny days. One of those things is shop. We did our share of that on this trip, but specifically we like a mall called The Destin Commons. This mall has most places that the kids like to shop such as Build-A-Bear Workshop, The Croc Store, Godiva Chocolate and a really neat toy store, but I don't remember its name. It also has a movie theater. That is where we took the kids to see Brave. Nathan loved the movie, but Reagan was asleep half an hour into it. The other part of the mall that we really like are the fountains. It is so much fun for the kids to be able to get out an play in them, especially on a hot day after a couple of hours of shopping. At first Reagan didn't want to play. There were several kids there, but I didn't want pictures of them. So, Nathan was out playing in the fountains by himself. Then he made friends with a couple of boys who were there and they started playing together. He is so outgoing it is crazy. I don't know where he gets that!!!

Finally, Reagan decided that she wanted to get in on the fun and play in the fountains. While she was there playing, there was another girl about her age who might as well have not had anything on because of the size of her "swimsuit" if you want to call it that. It wasn't decent enough to take a picture. I'm not going to get on my soapbox about that right now though. Most importantly, we all had fun there.

One of the other days we decided to take a Dolphin cruise. The last time we were in Destin we took a Dolphin cruise, but Reagan wasn't old enough to remember it, so we thought it would be nice for here to see the dolphins. This trip wasn't as much fun for me. I spent most of my time standing in lines like in the picture below.

First, the kids got to feed Sea Gulls off the back of the boat, then the kids wanted to get something to eat and drink. What was a dad to do, but wait in line? We were on a boat with about 50 other people. Ultimately, we stood in line for the best part of the trip. Nathan got to drive the boat. The picture below might look like a prop, but the captain just to the left of the window had to keep telling Nathan not to turn the wheel. He was so excited about driving the boat!!!
On the trip we did see Dolphins. Well, let me clarify, they all saw Dolphins. I got to see the pictures. After buying food and drinks, someone had to sit down and hold them all. It was okay though, because the family had a great time. Ultimately that is all that matters.

I was going to write about some of the other things we did on our vacation, but they will have to wait for now. Hopefully, I will be able to blog about those tomorrow. For now, that is the first part of our Family Vacation.

Reading Update

I blogged a few weeks ago about some books that I was reading.  I wanted to give an update on my status with those books.

I have finished the Fifty Shades series.  I will say in advance, some of the language is extreme.  One word that begins with an "F" was used quite extensively.  There were also many sections in the trilogy that contained adult content.  I would not recommend allowing children to read the novels.  Throughout the novels there were sections that seemed to drone on too long.  Some of these sections almost caused me to put the series down, but my desire to learn how the series ended pushed me through the slow sections.  Looking past the language and some of the content, the trilogy as a whole was pretty good.  The overarching storyline is a good story and there are surprises along the way that will keep you wanting to find out more.  At the end, I was left wanting one final chapter to tie up a couple of ends, but others I talked to didn't feel the same way.  I guess we can chalk that up to me always wanting to know more. 

My conquest of War and Peace continues.  Having completed the Fifty Shades series I now have more time to focus on War and Peace.  At times I have found myself looking back to refresh my memory on who some of the characters are.  I am still thoroughly enjoying the novel and am hopeful to be able to finish the novel over the next few weeks, but that will depend on how much time I spend reading it, as I am not quite half way through yet.  I will keep you posted on my progress.

For now, that is my reading update.

Still waiting...

I have been reading two books, sets of books, over the past two months. I have been waiting on a response to my application to the Institutional Review Board, that has to be approved before I can continue on with my research for my dissertation. It feels like this step in the process is taking far too long, but I guess I must be patient. While I wait, I will continue to read.

The two pieces of literature that I am reading could not be any different if I wanted them to be. One is a classic novel of Russian literature the other is the latest in fan fiction.

The first is War and Peace. I once read that a person only had to get past the first 100 pages and then the novel picks up and gets better. I have found this to be very true. The first 100 pages took me a long time to read. I had a hard time getting into it, and a very hard time focusing on it. There is something about a six year old and three year old that makes it hard to read Russian literature. I am very glad that I stuck with it though. I am around page 500 and am thoroughly enjoying the novel. I find myself wondering what is going to happen to each of the characters. As one "Book" or "Chapter" ends and you find yourself in a completely different setting for the next, I have found myself trying to guess what happened with the characters and wondering when I will find out their fate. It is very rewarding to read. I am having a tough time reading some of the sections written in languages that I don't speak, but I think I have the point of what is said as I move on.

The second piece of literature I am reading is something I never really thought I would read. I loved the Harry Potter books and it took me no time to read. Then, I picked up the Twilight series and read through them in a couple of weeks, but did not enjoy them as much as I had Harry Potter. In fact, I thought some parts of the series were poorly written, while I was still captured by the storyline.

The latest in fan fiction that was actually somewhat inspired by the Twilight series is the Fifty Shades series. There are currently three books in the series, and the author is discussing adding a fourth. Before picking up the novels, I had read an article talking about how current literature is setting women's rights back several decades. The article referenced the first book in the series (Fifty Shades of Grey) and mentioned how the leading female character in the book is a slave to the leading male character. It further talked about the negative message that this was sending to our daughters and condemned the series as bad for women's rights. It was only when I was speaking to a friend about the article that I was encouraged to read the books to decide for myself if that was the message portrayed. So, I decided to pick up the first novel and begin the journey through the series. Speaking with friends and acquaintances about the series, I heard many references to the series as "typical romance novels", "mommy porn", "trash" and other terms that would lead one to believe that the entire series was nothing but a continuous sex scene.

As I began reading, I again found it difficult to really get into the first book. I decided I would push on, despite really not having any interest in the series. I will admit that there is a lot of course language, but not any more than what one would hear watching daytime talk shows. The sexual content that people talk about in regards to these books isn't as pervasive as some would like you to believe. The main point of the series is a true love story, with a deep story line. I have to give the disclosure that I have not finished the entire series, but I currently want to finish the series to see how the story ends. It isn't about the "sexual content" and the female character is not a slave. I do not agree with the premise of the relationship, but the storyline of change is intriguing.

I have had a lot on my mind lately. I am having a hard time with some news that I have gotten recently. I have a "niece" who is expecting her second child. My brother and his wife have custody of her first and are taking care of him. She is not married and doesn't really have the mental faculties needed to care for children and really doesn't have any business having sex. At the same time, I know of a couple of families who have recently lost children at different points gestation, and even some who were young children. I am having a hard time understanding why some people who would be great parents have not been able to carry a child to term, and some people who have no business having children continue to have them without even wanting them. I have had to spend a lot of time in prayer about this because it really does bother me. Still, I don't have an answer.

I will keep you all posted on my adventures in War and Peace as well as my doctoral dissertation. Until then, you will find me still waiting....

Love you,

Hello blog world. The worlds worst blogger is back on again to provide a couple of updates. I am probably only on here today because I am really missing a very dear friend. I feel like blogging draws me closer to her a little, but it has been almost a year since the last time I actually got to sit down with her. Today I am really wishing that we lived closer so that we could talk more and our kids could play together.

I was looking at pictures a couple of weeks ago with my 3 1/2 year old daughter. We came to some pictures of her playing with my friends daughter and her eyes lit up. She asked me, "Daddy can we go visit them so I can play with Brianna again?" I told her, "We will see." Then she asked, "Can we go tomorrow when I wake up?" I said, " I wish we could, but we can't go tomorrow." The conversation continued a little longer until she jumped down to go tell my son about seeing pictures of a girl she loved to play with. My heart was aching, because I wanted to visit as much as she did, but we just couldn't.

Two weeks ago, I successfully defended my research proposal for my dissertation. That was a big step, because that means that the 75 pages I wrote for the proposal did their job, and also because it gets me one step closer to doing the actual research. It also gets me one more step closer to my doctorate.

I am exhausted, so I am going to end this blog. To my friend, you know who you are, I love you so much and you have been on my heart and mind a lot lately!!!

Love you,