First Father's Day

So here it is, my 1st official Father's Day over and done with and I have to say, it was pretty good. I have the cutest little girl, the reason I qualify to celebrate Father's Day in the first place, and the best wife!

I was blessed with the opportunity to sleep in Sunday morning. Now, when I say "sleep in," I mean REALLY sleep in, like until 12:00 pm, also known as NOON! My wife is amazing. (Don't judge me because I have been blessed with the amazing ability to sleep as long as permitted, it's a blessing!)I was officially woken up by my wife telling me it was noon and then she brought in my daughter who had been scratching at the door to either, a) come in and see her Dad, b) play with the toys we keep in our room for when we are getting ready and our daughter needs to be in the room with us, or c) she wanted to make a mess of Dad's CDs and books. I would like to think "A" was the answer, but I know better, "C" was probably the better answer.

After waking up, it was time to get ready for church with the normal showering, shaving, brushing, dressing, etc. We then went to a great church meeting and upon returning home, it was presents time. (I need to add that I told my wife I needed nothing for Father's Day and that she shouldn't waste her precious time on gifts, but she didn't listen and I have to admit, I'm a little glad!) I was given 2 gifts, one from my daughter and one from my wife. My daughter gave me a sweet picture, with Mom's help of course (she's only 10 months), of the two of us sleeping in her recliner in her room in a nice frame.

Sweetest little girl in the world!

My wife gave me a gift I had mentioned a while ago and to be honest, had almost forgot about, a panoramic picture of my hometown of St. George, Utah. I have always wanted one of these, but it's not always at the front of my mind. It's like I only ever think of it when I see one and then I kind of forget about it.

My wife is really good about picking up on little things I say and is quick to jot down notes about gift ideas. I think it has to do with her father. He is a little difficult to shop for and if he ever mentions something that he is remotely interested in, his entire family, or at least those who are around, immediately start to argue over who gets to claim it as "their" gift for the next gift-giving occasion.

To go with both images, I received frames to display my gifts and I am extremely excited to start enjoying both gifts.

I don't want this entire post to be about me, even though it is titled "First Father's Day," I have a wonderful father who is amazing and has taken huge amounts of time and energy to helping me become the person I am today, for better or worse. I am in large part me because of the example of my father and I know he has worked hard to show me the wonderful example he has set. I love him very much and am extremely grateful I was blessed enough to end up in his care and loving arms even though it was through an alternate means, I was adopted. I don't know where I would be if it weren't for he and my mother's loving arms and guidance.

Thanks for everything Dad, you're the best!  Happy Father's Day!!!

Eating gellato in Mexico

A 4-generation photo

Am I still alive?

Wow, I think I forgot about having a blog for a couple of months. I really thought I was going to start a blog and write every day and post about all of the happenings of my life and be amazingly funny and hip and cool. I guess I just woke up and realized I am not living up to that idea.

So here I am, starting anew and deciding I will be better and attempt to post actual things, not just realizations that I am a horrible blogger and apologies, on a more regular basis.

What exactly does "more regular basis" mean, I don't really know but I think it is a safe way to say I want to post more often without actually confining myself to a regular schedule.

I realize I have missed a lot of great topics that would have made great posts, but the past is in the past and I must move on.

Even though I haven't been posting anything to this blog, I will tell you I have been thoroughly enjoying the ability to "Follow" other bloggers and have an endless supply of information sent directly to my Blogger Dashboard on a daily basis. I have used information learned through my following of great bloggers to help not only myself, but also a number of my colleagues with educational and technological ideas and topics. I hope to be able to contribute to the great information found on the web and maybe one day, some newbie blogger will say the same thing about my little blog.

iPad Thoughts

So I realize I'm not the most tech-savvy person out there, but I do enjoy technology. In fact, I am the tech guy at the school I teach at, so I have to keep up a little on the new and cool stuff schools don't usually get. Budget cuts suck!

Anyways ... back to the post.

I am an Apple fan, even though I can't afford all of my Apple-inspired desires. I, like many other crazy fans, had been looking forward to the Keynote Address last week in hopes of catching a glimpse the new Apple Tablet, which we have now found out to be called the iPad.

I have to say, the first thing I thought of when I heard the name was something like this, it's a clip from a Mad TV parody in 2006.



I really have to wonder what Apple was thinking when they named their "most advanced technology." It makes you think that the entire naming committee must have been all men because no woman would allow such an awesome product to have such an "interesting" name.

Jump ahead 6 days and I think I'm starting to get over the name and just getting excited about the product. One of the coolest features of the iPad is the pricing.

I think that even with my minimal monetary freedom, i.e., to be read "I'm a married man with a baby," I think this is an Apple product I may be able to justify and even afford.

I'm also excited for the fact that it can be used as an eReader on steroids. You can do so much more than just read books, although the new iBookstore looks pretty cool. I think this could be a great "on-vacation-and-needing-to-check-email-facebook-twitter-play-around-on-the-internet-and-not-get-lost-because-of-the-Google-Maps-app-etc." I think it could be great, especially if you don't want to pack your laptop around with you as well.

Oh well, I guess I had better stop there and not go much farther into this topic, because if you're like me you are almost sick of all the stories and blogs about it. However, I felt like I needed to at least put in my two-cents worth.

If you are curious about it, just do a quick Google search for iPad and see what comes up. Or you can follow The Unofficial Apple Weblog (also known as TUAW) for EXCESSIVE amounts of iPad hysteria.

Free @ Last!!!

So as the title states, we are out of the hospital and free to go home and see our little angel!

Lisa's procedure went well and after the mandatory over-night stay, we are out of there! It wasn't totally bad, just who really likes to be in a hospital? I know we don't, especially since we have been away from our daughter for 5 solid days at this point and are anxious to get back to her.

Lisa is doing fine and it looks like she will heal up nicely. Due to the meds she'll be on, she will bruise really easy; don't be giving me any crazy looks when she is all bruised up, I didn't do it!

She will have to have a check-up in one month, which can be done in STG @ the wonderful DRMC, and then a three month check back in SLC. So it looks like we'll be coming back up north again in a few months.

Thanks again for all the comments, calls, texts, emails, thoughts, and prayers; we really appreciate all the love and support.

Another Update

LARS here again, just thought I had better update the status of the wifey for those of you following along.

(I almost feel like I'm reporting "news" of the alleged upcoming Apple Tablet device - which I hope is not called the iPad.)

We are now in the over-night room and Lisa is resting to her heart's desire. I know, I probably shouldn't joke about her heart, but I'm supposed to make her laugh. It's sad when you can amuse yourself so very easily with so very little.

Everything is looking good and according to the RNs, we should be able to leave by midday tomorrow, or possibly earlier.

Thanks for your concern and loving thoughts and prayers.

p.s. Lisa has a request of "No more IVs until the next baby!" And no, that is not an announcement!

Lisa Update

I have a much anticipated update of my sweet wife Lisa.

She is now out of the "procedure" (Every time we used the word "operation" we were quickly corrected and told it was a "procedure.") and in the resting stage. She will be resting for at least 3 hours and then she should be able to walk around and stretch a little. After the "exercise," as long as everything is looking good, she will be assigned a room and we'll stay overnight.

According to the Docs and RNs, we should be checking out Tuesday midday or earlier, then on the road to pick up our sweet daughter (thanks Lionel and Artis for watching her) and homeward bound we are.

I'll continue to post updates as we go, so keep checking back.

Thanks for all the love and support, you have no idea how much we have felt it. We are lucky have such wonderful friends and families. You are the BEST!!!

Music and Creativity

I'm here in SLC with my wife waiting to have a heart procedure and we decided to rent a movie from a RedBox while at Dan's Foods buying a few necessities for Sunday. While there, we ended up with Up! which we plan on watching Sunday PM, I noticed the documentary It Might Get Loud and I realized I had never seen it and suddenly NEEDED to see it immediately! You can imagine my frustration when it wasn't available in that particular RedBox machine. So we leave and head back to our friend Lynette's house, where we are staying this weekend, and immediately start devising a plan to find the documentary which had evaded my viewing eyes for too long!

After digging through drawers and cupboards looking for a phone book, I called the local Blockbuster and find they have at least one copy and ask if they'll put it on hold. Sure enough, the young woman on the other side of the call agrees to my plea for Rock and puts a copy aside while I try and figure out how I'm going to convince them to let me take it without a membership. I haven't had a membership to Blockbuster for years, especially since it is no longer in St. George. Apparently Lisa is still in their system and all I had to do was "borrow" her driver's license and I was in business.

After convincing Lisa this little scheme was in fact a good one, I was off! After fighting with our out-of-date GPS, thanks for letting us borrow it Mom and Dad - I'll help you update it when I get home, I was in business.

What a GREAT documentary on the history of the Electric Guitar with 3 of its most innovative users - Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White. I haven't been so entertained by a documentary EVER! It was well done and had an amazing soundtrack. I highly recommend it. Check it out and learn a little about the history of how the Electric Guitar has changed the way music has shaped our lives.

On A Serious Note ...

My little family has had a tumultuous past few weeks. I won't go into a lot of details here, because my wife is a writer and has already written what I would have said in a much more eloquent manner than possible for me.

I will however share a few thoughts about the fact that I was nervous as all get-out that I would become a young widower and single father. I know that sounds a little selfish, but I don't want to raise my daughter alone and I feel kids need 2 parents to help them have the best chance of success in life. That's not to say kids can't survive and be successful being raised by a single-parent, but my daughter will need all the help she can get (translated to: she needs her mom to help her be normal, I'm a nutcase!)

I just know that I Love my wife more than I even realize sometimes. I seriously do stupid things and don't always treat her the way I know she deserves to be treated, but what man does? I just hope that through all of this I can somehow find a way to be the type of man I convinced Lisa I could one day become.

Check out Lisa's incident in her own words and find out more of what the heck I'm talking about.

My Amazing Wife! Take 2

As most of you know, Lisa is a reporter and assistant editor of the Features section of The Spectrum. She has recently started a weekly blog, entitled "Memoirs of a First Time Mother" that posts every Thursday. Her first post started last week (January 7, 2010) and she did an amazing job. If you haven't yet read it, you should!


She just finished a story about Adoption and some for the creative ways people are trying to find birth-mothers. She spotlighted our good friends Nick & Paige (their button is on the top right side of this blog) and some of the cool things they are doing or have done. Click here for the story. To go along with the adoption story, Lisa also wrote an additional blog about adoption and some of the ways it has impacted her life. Click here for the blog.


I just wanted to take a minute and let you all know how amazing my wife is and help you to know about some of the very cool stories/blogs she has recently written. If you would like to keep track of Lisa's blogs, click here for her work blog page.


I Love You babe! You're the best wife a man could ever ask for! I am so proud of you for all you do/have done/will do for me and our little family.

My amazing wife!

My wife is a reporter/assistant editor at The Spectrum in St. George, Utah and she has recently started writing a blog, Memoirs of a New Mother. I felt like she did a great job with her story and if you want to check it out, here it is.

I have also been thinking about the fact that I started this blog almost a week ago and this is only my 2nd post. I promise I will be better and more frequent with my posting.

Welcome

I have been debating starting a blog for a while, but wasn't sure if I really wanted to do so. The more I have thought about it the more I feel like I should just go for it. I say that I like technology and have done lots of different things with technology, but I have never blogged. My wife even blogs, so I feel like I have to start.

I will try to use this blog to share my thoughts on everything from music to education to technology and then some.

If you choose to follow along, I hope you enjoy the ride down the rabbit hole.