 |
| Inspiration |
I put together a pretty nifty newsletter this past holiday season with a lot of bells and whistles in MS Word and I tried publishing it directly to the blog, but alas there seems to be a problem with registering Word 2010 to the Blogger blog site. I guess MS and Google are not playing nice regrading that particular integration. I had some hits where other people ran into the same issue with no posted resolutions. I stopped at 3 and then tried One Note, but it looks like copy and paste or using the blog's limited editor are my only options.
I liked what I was able to do with the Newsletter and the pictures with Word, but I'm not going to be able to import it into my blog. If you did not get to see it when I posted it the first time and you are interested, you'll need to find the link to it on my Facebook page. However, since I absolutely loved some of the pictures I used in it (taken by Lorie Payne, not me), I'm going to use them on this blog post too.
This blog is just a shout out to the little hooligans that I interact with on a daily basis and of whom stories will be shared from time to time. My perspective of the little critters and the stories about them, anyway. I'm sure their telling of events will usually differ from mine, but they can get their own blogs when and if they decide they need to be heard! I'm not saying my perspective of the stories will be made up or anything like that, I'm just saying you can hear the same events from two different people and it is amazing how different the story is. I've sat in on "reminiscing" circles a time or two with old friends retelling stories from the "glory" days, smiling the whole while, chuckling audibly when appropriate, and maybe even nodding in agreement to progress the speakers story, and the whole time thinking to myself....."Damn, dude, you must have done some wicked-ass drugs at some point, because that is not how I recall things AT ALL!"
Now I'm sure there are at least a certain percentage of you out there that are thinking right now, "I'd just correct their story so it's more accurate to how things happened and put the record straight!" Well, while I know there is validity and honor in keeping a story honest and true, mostly what is usually running through my head in those situations, greatly dependent on the person telling the story, of course, is that maybe their story is a better version of what really happened and other versions of the story could have implications that I was more involved in what transpired than I would like everyone to recall. To draw a clearer picture of what I'm trying to say is more often than not there are usually people included in the "reminiscing" sessions that KNOW stories about my younger version that may include a bad decision or two on my part and at the time I find no need to steer the telling in THAT direction, if you know what I mean. My kids are also getting old enough now that there are certain stories I would prefer not cross their ears until they're past certain stages in life and don't get any ideas from hearing stories of MY past mistakes.
Back to the blog at hand....
My wife and I have 4 kids that go boy, boy, girl, girl. I have decided that since this blog is public I will only refer to them by the first letter of their first name, B1 and B2 for the girls. I use their names on Facebook, but I am more careful with whom I share that information. I am not a naive person and I know enough about software and the internet to know that the information on my kids could be gathered from various spots to come up with their names by somebody who wanted to know badly enough, but I have put other precautions in place to protect them the best I can in this day and age of information consumption.
T is the oldest at 9 years old and B2 is 5. C and B1 fall in the middle representing ages 7 and 8. Come May, B2 will turn 6 and we will once again have their ages officially by number 1 year apart until August when T hits double digits. I know what you're thinking. How did you manage to put up with a woman who was pregnant for damn near 4 solid years? Sheer fortitude and the patience of an angel, I tell you... Oh, that wasn't what you were thinking? Yeah, yeah, she handled pregnancies well. If you ask me, she liked it because it was pregnancy-brain this and pregnancy-brain that. You mark my word, if that woman is ever featured on the show, SNAPPED she'll try to work pregnancy-brain into the defense!
When I wrote the part of T being in double digits, I stopped and at first thought, "Holy crap! 10 years of being a responsible, mature adult!" Then I was like, "Ok, probably more like 5 years! Well, at least responsible." And then I considered the perception thing again and there are probably those out there that would think, "Well, responsible enough to not be incarcerated...." and finally my wife's perception would probably be closer to, "Well, he appropriately uses silverware in most public settings.." but I'm not sure we'd be able to get her to commit to putting me and maturity in the same group of words if she thought we were going to try to make a sentence out of them. Perception, right? Good thing mine is the one that matters.
Anyway, 4 closely knitted, bright, loving, creative, funny, compassionate, trusting, goofy kids who get along well with each other and who are more than enough to bless any parent more than he deserves. We have our good moments and bad. There are fights and tantrums, arguing and frustrations, but overall a functioning and loving family. If you are more observant than the average Joe, you'll notice that normal did not make the description list. They never really stood a chance of being "normal". Entertaining, though. They are definitely entertaining!
Well, if you're still reading, I imagine I've taken enough of your time for one day. If you haven't read my past blogs, please do. Comment if you'd like to. I am open to feed back and promise to only cry on the inside at the criticisms..;) Hug one or all of YOUR little hooligans tonight and then think of a prank to pull on them tomorrow! God Bless.
No comments:
Post a Comment