Baby Driver

After watching this commercial I had a few thoughts that really stuck with me. The commercial didn’t resonate in a way that made me run out and buy a Subaru, but it nonetheless it had an impact. The first thing that grabbed my attention was a dad talking to a little girl. The girl looks a bit older then Lucy, but it wasn’t hard to picture Lucy and me in that situation. The commercial cemented something for me that I probably already subconsciously knew, and numerous parents have told their kids (mine included)…"No matter how old, educated, or mature the girls get, they will always be our little girls!”

It also made me daydream about the day when Lucy and Paige get their drivers license and reverse out of the driveway for the first time. I am relieved that “the drive away day” is roughly a decade and a half away. I also realized that the day will inevitably arrive, and when it does it will feel all too soon. Between now and then we will just have to play as much pretend car in the drive way with little sister riding shotgun in her pink snowsuit as possible.

Valuable perspective

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone is preparing for a day of relaxing and giving thanks with loved ones. I wanted to take a moment to share a video a cousin of mine posted to her Facebook page.

This video helped give me some valuable perspective to parenting and life. This Thanksgiving I am thankful for the gifts of each ordinary day. The blessings of day to day life can often be taken for granted. Often overlooked by a focus on a lengthy to do list, a diaper that needs changing, or a house that needs cleaning.

In addition to eating as much turkey, stuffing, and pie as possible and taking in some football, this holiday I am giving thanks for the numerous blessings of each day.

Question Meme

I was tagged by A Day In The Life blog to complete the below questionaire. It is fun to be a active member of a blog community.

Question Meme
RULE #1: People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.

RULE #2: Tag 4 people to do this quiz and they cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other people.

1. If you have pets, do you see them as merely animals, or are they members of your family?
We love our fish, Lippy, but he is merely an animal. He won’t be pictured in the Christmas card and we don’t take him on family trips. On my wife's blog she answered this question by saying we don’t have pets, so we know where Lippy ranks in her book.

2. If you can have a dream to come true, what would it be?
End world hunger

3. What is the one thing most hated by you?
Intolerance

4. What would you do with a billion dollars?
Payoff debt, take care of family, invest, donate

5. What helps to pull you out of a bad mood?
A couple moments of silence, possibly a run, some fresh air

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?
Both are priceless blessings

7. What is your bedtime routine?
Many nights after reading to Lucy and turning off the light, it is lights out for me too. If I do get back up I usually watch Sports Center, go on-line, brush my teeth, and fall asleep right before or shortly after my head hits the pillow.

8. If you are currently in a relationship, how did you meet your partner?
We had a class together toward the end of my freshman year of college. We were partners for a presentation.

9. If you could watch a creative person in the act of the creative process, who would it be?
Watching others create music is something I enjoy. I also believe that a lot of creativity is used when people find common ground. I think unifying people from different backgrounds or schools of thought is a creative process. This is a process that I would enjoy watching/observing more of.
10. What kinds of books do you buy?
Mainly kids books currently. Lucy has been really into coloring books and workbooks. I like to read non-fiction and when I use to be a traveling salesman I loved having an audio book with me. I am currently slowly working on Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman. The last book that I completed was Greg Mortenson’s Stones into Schools.

11. How would you see yourself in ten years time?
Happy, healthy, and hopefully with a couple non-grey hairs on my head.

12. What’s your fear?
Something (illness or accident) happening to family, especially the girls.

13. Would you give up all junk food for the rest of your life for the opportunity to visit outer space?
I would strongly consider it. Outer space would be cool to check out. I really do like Snickers though and “rest of your life” is a long time, unless of course something goes wrong in outer space.

14. Would you rather be single and rich or married, but poor?
Married.

15. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?
Make coffee and check my e-mail.

16. If you could change one thing about your spouse/partner what would it be?
Have her get off my back about how much time I spend on fantasy football. (Please reference her answer to this question.)

17. If you could pick a new name for yourself, what would it be? First name is fine, but if you’re feeling imaginative, you can do the whole thing.
With P-Diddy already taken I would have to go with Turd Ferguson or Brick Tamlen.


18. Would you forgive and forget no matter how horrible a thing that special someone has done?
I feel blessed to have not had horrible things done to me. With that said I would have to answer the question by saying I don’t know.

19. If you could only eat one thing for the next 6 months, what would it be?
So many great foods to chose from, but if I had to eat any one thing for 6 months, I would keep it simple and go with PB&J sandwiches.

20. List 4 people to tag: I guess I am breaking rule #2.

Siblings

As Paige develops there are an increasing number of ways that Lucy and her can interact. When Lucy is pounding on a drum or blowing into her recorder, Paige bounces, smiles, and occasionally claps. This evening when Paige was jumping in her ExerSaucer, Lucy stood next to her and jumped. There is nothing more precious to me then hearing them laughing together.

When it is time for Paige to eat Lucy loves to eat the same thing. If Paige is having banana, pear, or apple baby food, Lucy insists on eating one of the same. Not coincidently, Lucy never seems interested in playing the "match the food" game when Paige is eating sweet potatoes or peas!?!?!

Libby and I are very excited to see their interaction continue to increase as Paige begins to walk and talk. We can already see how they will each teach each other many things. While we are optimistic that they will mainly teach each other positive things, we would be naive to thing they won't be partners in crime through the years.

In addition to all the fun times they will have, we are also anticipating the squabbles, etc. All part of being siblings. I recently read a quote that summarized this point. It said, "Siblings are great to lean on, count on, and tell on!"

As one of four I couldn't complete a siblings post without a picture of my siblings. (Truth be told, I couldn't resist showing a pic of the beard either!) As many siblings do, I feel a strong and unique connection with each of my siblings. Another quote I read described brothers and sisters as "nature's built in friends". I feel that accurately describes the crew below.

Libby and I feel luck to have the girls and we can already see how lucky they are to have each other.

"A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life." ~Isadora James

Stay-at-home dad to start on Sunday

As a stay-at-home dad blogger I feel obligated to blog about a stay-at-home dad who gets to play in the NFL.

The Associated Press in Charlotte, North Carolina reported yesterday that the Carolina Panthers have names Brian St. Pierre their starting quarterback for their game this Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens.

Panthers to start QB Brian St. Pierre
"Brian St. Pierre has thrown five passes in eight NFL seasons. He wasn't in a training camp this summer and as recent as last week was a stay-at-home dad."

"St. Pierre, who had last practiced in January as he finished a stint with Arizona, was spending his days taking care of his 18-month-old son in the Boston area and doing some television work when he was signed to the practice squad on Friday. He was promoted to the active roster Tuesday."

May the power of all the stay-at-home dads from around the country who like to toss the pigskin around in the backyard with their kids be with you. Although many of us have dreamed of playing in the NFL, I am not jealous that Brian will be getting tackled by Ray Lewis.

Brian St. Pierre being the starting QB for the Panthers does not help my prediction in the fantasy football post yesterday that Steve Smith would have a productive last seven weeks.

Best wishes to you Brian! When I am not following the Packers/Vikings game this weekend I will check in your health and play.

DUDE REPORT: Fantasy Football review and predictions

On September 5th I posted some fantasy football predictions for the upcoming season. Now that we are 10 weeks into the season, I wanted to analyze my preseason predictions and apologize to anyone who followed them. The predictions were pretty bad.

As an attempt to make up for my numerous incorrect predictions I have listed some players to watch for the stretch run of the season. My league has three weeks left in its regular season and then three weeks of playoffs. It is definitely crunch time, but if your league is like mine there is a lot left to be determined. I hope some of these players can help you out.

To breakdown my preseason predictions I will assign a win or loss to each prediction.

Booms: players who I predicted would exceed expectations.
QB: Tony Romo: Loss. This is a tough loss because he was playing as a top 5 QB before his injury. Rumors are floating around that he may try to return this season. Stay tune.

RB: DeAngelo Williams & Jonathan Stewart: 2 BIG losses. The Carolina offense has been terrible. In the preseason I thought Matt Moore, would be good enough to keep defenses honest and allow Williams and Stewart to run. It is embarrassing to type that last sentence!??!?!

RB: Michael Turner: Loss. He was predicted to be a top seven running back. He has been good this year, but not top seven. I am optimistic based on Turners schedule that he could finish the season as a boom. To date it must go down as a loss.

WR: Greg Jennings: Loss. Jennings has been a top 20 WR this season due to a strong last four weeks. This prediction is a loss to date because he needs to push toward top 5 to be considered a boom.

WR: Hakeem Nicks: Win. Finally on the board with a win! Nicks started the season with a 3 TD game and has hardly looked back.

TE: Jason Witten: Win. I am going to mark this a win, but it is questionable. Witten had a 1000 yards receiving last year, but only 2 TDs. I listed him as a boom because I thought he would get into the end zone more this year. He only has three 3 TDs after 10 weeks, but has outscored Tony Gonzalez, Brent Celek, and the injured Dallas Clark and Jermicheal Finley.

K: Matt Prater: Loss. He is a kicker. This prediction was like throwing darts.

DEF: San Francisco: Loss. Like kickers this is kind of like throwing darts. With that said I threw a couple of duds at kicker and defense. 49ers have only one defensive TD and single digit interceptions.

BUSTS: players I predicted would underperform expectations.
QB: Eli Manning: Loss. Giants offense has been clicking all season. Eli has thrown 3 TDs in three games and 4 TDs once.

RB: Rashard Mendenhall: Loss. Mendenhall has been a top ten RB all season. Over the last month his carries have started to be limited. If he gets less than 20 carries in future games and fall out of the top 15 I could mark this bust a win.

RB: Ryan Grant: Win. Hurt in the season opener.

WR: Larry Fitzgerald: Win. Predicted to be a top five WR, but QB issues have him performing closer to the 20th best WR.

WR: Mike Sims-Walker: Win. Over 800 yards and 7 TDs last year had many people optimistic about him coming into this season. Mike has had two good games this year, but otherwise he has been a dud.

TE: Owen Daniels: Win. Daniels has been even slower than expected in his return from last season ACL injury. Predicted to be top 15, but has hardly been on the field.

K: Jay Feely: Win. Throwing darts, but Feely has been bad. ESPN preseason predicted Feely would be top ten.

DEF: Denver Broncos: Win. ESPN predicted they would be the 11th best defense, but with only one defensive TD and 5 interceptions they have underachieved.

Sleepers: late rounds picks no one was talking about
QB: Kevin Kolb, PHI: Loss. Lost starting job after a week one injury. He ranks as one of the highest scoring back up QBs if that counts for anything.

RB: Arian Foster, HOU: Win. Big win with Foster. He has been the top RB in fantasy football this season.

RB: Cadillac Williams, TB: Loss. Not sure what I was thinking here. Williams has lost his starting job to LeGarrette Blount.

WR: Jeremy Maclin, PHI: Win. Vick looks poised to have a historic finish to the fantasy season.

WR: Jacoby Jones, HOU: Loss. Potential does not earn any fantasy points.

TE: Jermaine Gresham, CIN: Loss. I remain optimist this will be a win before the season is over.

K: Neil Rackers, HOU: Win. Again, throwing darts, but Rackers has been a top ten kicker behind the high powered Texans offense.

DEF: Cincinnati Bengals: Loss. Below average defense.

Summary
Booms: 2-7: That is embarrassing!
Busts: 6-2: I guess I know a bad player when I see one!?!?
Sleepers: 3-5
Total: 11-14

Stretch run predictions
• Donavan McNabb has looked pretty bad lately, but he will be a top twelve QB the remainder of the season.
• Josh Freeman will also be a top 12 QB going forward.
• Aaron Rodgers and Michael Vick will be the two most common QBs to play in fantasy football super bowls.
• Felix Jones will finally reach his potential and be a top 20 RB.
• Knowshon Moreno is now health and will prove it by being a top 15 RB in the stretch run.
• Frank Gore will finish the season as the second highest scoring RB behind Arian Foster.
• Peyton Hillis will remain in the top 5 RBs the rest of the season.
• Mike Tolbert will finish the season with 12 TDs.
• Jamaal Charles will help many fantasy owners make the playoffs over the next three weeks.
• If Carolina plays an NFL QB at all this season Steve Smith has a good chance of having a fantasy impact before seasons end.
• Tampa Bay Mike Williams will have a strong finish to the season and end as a top 15 WR for the year.
• Marques Colston will play the rest of the season like the top 12 WR we predicted he would be before the season.
• If Todd Heap stays health (which is a big if) he will finish the season as a top 5 TE.

Power Down

At 9AM this past Saturday morning our power went out. The loss of power was due to the heavy wet snow that had been falling since the night before. This heavy snow led to tree damage and down power lines our neighborhood and throughout the Southwest Metro.

In total we received about a foot of snow on Saturday. It was eerie and a bit scary to hear trees close by popping, cracking, and eventually falling down.

Power in our neighborhood was restored sometime Sunday night. Lib's Aunt and Uncle let us stay with them during the outage. They not only hosted our immediate family, but my dad and brother who were in town for believe it or not, a fall clean up weekend!?!?! Thank you, thank you LouAnn and John.

Our neighbors across the street maintained power throughout the storm. We were able to run enough extension cords from their house to save our freezer food. With no heat for 36 hours our house got as cold at 50 degrees without power.

I hope the powers that be within the National Blog Month hierarchy have some leniency on my four missed days. I plan to take National Blog Month to December 4th to complete my month of posts. I also plan to post some pictures of our tree damage soon.

Glad to be back in a lighted and heated house, as well as posting and reading blogs again!