Why a daughter needs a dad - #2 and #3

What Now?

I forgot last Monday's edition of "why a daughter needs a dad" (excerpts from the book of the same title written by Gregory E. Lang - great book, go buy it!) so I have two for today.

A daughter needs a dad who will make sacrifices so she will not have to sacrifice.

A daughter needs a dad who will laugh at her at all the right times

Peace out dads!

Giving Thanks

What Now?

It's Thanksgiving week and that means it's time for my family to kick it into high gear. There is not slowing down from this point until a day or two after New Year's. Besides the normal hustle and bustle of the holiday season, we also mix in both my daughter's birthdays, my birthday, several cousins, aunts and uncles birthdays and a early December trip to Disneyland. Needless to say I'll be lucky to keep my head above water for the next several weeks. Before I shut down my blog for the week I wanted to give thanks to those who mean the most to me:

Thank you Gigi and Poppy. I can honestly say I hit the in-law jackpot when I married your daughter and being a part of your family has meant the world to me.

Thank you sisters and brothers. Some of you I am stuck with by blood, some by marriage, and all I know is I could not have hand picked better people to be stuck with.

Thank you Mom and Dad. For almost 39 years you have been great parents and great friends. I am so thankful that my girls get to have you in their lives as much as they do.

Thank you kids. It's impossible to imagine what my life would be like without you. You became my world the second you entered it, and I would do anything for you.

Thank you Mrs. Whatnowdad. It's you, it's always been you and it will always be you. Almost 2o years ago you brought this boy into your life and helped make him the man he is today. I don't know how many people get to marry their best friend, but I am thankful I am one of them. I love you more than you will ever know.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Oh Lord, how she tests me!

Hey, after you read my super awesome blog post make sure to head over to Dad Blogs for Fatherhood Friday. You might find some bloggers you like as much as me. Peace out!

What Now?

My wife is out of town for work so I am Mr. Mom with my two girls until tomorrow morning. As I have mentioned (in probably every third post) my youngest, sweet 5 year old "R", can be a bit stubborn. This morning her list of complaints and refusals almost sent me over the edge. Here is a quick recap of that list:

6:30am - "K" (her older sister) always gets the warm blanket in the morning.

6:33am - "K" always get to pick her show first to watch.

6:38am - No, I don't want to watch that show (the one she just about always picks).

6:45am - No, I don't want any of that for breakfast (when given five different choices, all of which she likes.

6:55am - I don't want to finish my applesauce, it tastes old (after giving in to that breakfast choice and opening a brand new jar).

6:58am - You gave me too much milk, I can't drink it all.

7:20am - I don't want to wear that shirt.

7:21am - I don't want to wear that shirt either.

7:22am - I don't want to find a shirt...I want you too.

7:32am - You put too much toothpaste on my brush.

7:33am - I don't want to brush my teeth with the sonic care.

7:34am - No, I don't want you to brush my teeth either.

7:45am - I want to wear these shoes to school (after picking out sandals to wear, it's 35 degrees out and raining mind you)

7:55am - I don't like that hat, I don't want to wear it (while trying to get them out the door and to school on time).

8:03am - "K", stop singing, I don't like it (while driving "R" and "K" to school).

8:10am - I don't want to go to the gym and play basketball after school (while I kiss her goodbye, not even remembering we had talked about going to the gym after school last night).

OK, to be fair she is a a little under the weather, and her mom is not home so I will give her a few points for that. But you can imagine my state of mind after I pulled out of the school's parking lot. You know how it's not recommended to go grocery shopping when you are hungry? Well, our local supermarket was having it's 13 hour wine and cheese sale today, and I can safely say it's not recommended to go shopping at a wine sale just after your 5 year old has frustrated you to the point of almost no return. I don't know what I dropped there today, but it's not a good sign when the store employees line up at the door and thank you for shopping there (I think some were even chest bumping and doing the Arsenio arm pump).

Peace out dads!

Tag, I'm it

What Now?

I have officially been tagged in the new to me game of blogger photo tag. My tagger was FeliciaE from the blog "Living Just Like Grandma". I have only checked out a little of her blog so far, but I plan to become a follower and read more, I suggest you do too.

Here is how this game works, and I take this text straight from FeliciaE's blog post:

The person who is tagged goes to the first photo file on their computer and to the tenth photo in that file. The tagged person post the photo on their blog and tells the story behind it. Then the person tags a few people from the blogs that they read.

So the picture I get to post is from our first family trip to Hawaii back in March of 2008. What a great trip that was. We went to Kona on the big island, and that was a first for me. What made that trip so special was we met my wife's parents, her two sisters and their families to celebrate my father-in-law's 60th birthday, the anniversary of my in-laws and the marriage of my sister-in-law (my wife's youngest sister). It was two weeks of eating great food, drinking great beer and wine, exploring all the big island had to offer and most of all relaxing in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We were lucky enough to go back this past spring as well. I could really get used to spending two weeks in Hawaii and getting out of our dreadful spring weather!

OK, who to tag next. I think I'll pick on a good friend and great parent blogger Weasel Momma and her blog World Of Weasels. She is hilarious and she knows it. Go check her out now, now I say!

Peace out dads!

Let mamma see those pearly whites

Now What?

Many of you know that in the Spring I made the bold decision to get braces at the tender age of 38. This is my second go around with this oral torture device because as a pre-teen I did not heed the words of my orthodontist when he said "keep using your retainer" and threw it in the trash instead (which I have come to learn was a mistake made by many of my peers). Needless to say my teeth started moving again and unless I took action soon I stood a great chance of loosing one of my bottom front teeth to the back of my mouth due to over crowding. So, I sucked it up and got the full tooth bling treatment.

One of the side effects I was lucky to get was some serious staining around each bracket. I'm not talking about a little extra yellowish color, I am talking dirt brown. My dentist said it looked like I had been smoking for the past ten years, which is better than saying it looked like I just ate a shit sandwich before coming in for my cleaning, but the meaning was still there. I was told it was just a hard spot for the toothbrush to reach and some people just react that way. Thankfully it was just superficial and could be cleaned off.....but at what price?

What they ended up using was the equivalent to a power washer shooing out a mixture of salt and water to blast off the shit, I mean plaque. After two hours my lips and gums felts like they had been worked over like a Mike Tyson punching bag. Oh, did I mention I needed to get a cavity filled in too...so half of my face was numb as well. I love my dentist!

I will say the results almost make up for the payment. My teeth have never been whiter. My wife stops me dead in my tracks about 10 times a day to check on them. I feel like one of the kids now "let me smell your breath to make sure you brushed your teeth well" I can almost hear her say. I will turn 39 in a couple of weeks and I am hoping to have the braces off by my next birthday, the big FOUR O. Only time and about 10 more dentist cleaning visits between now and then.

Peace out Dads!

Why A Daughter Needs A Dad Monday #1

What Now?

My wife gave me a book a few weeks back titled "Why A Daughter Needs A Dad, 100 Reasons" written by Gregory E. Lang and photographs by Janet Lankford-Moran. It is a fantastic book with 100 short reasons why Dads are so important to their daughters. I thought it would be a great way to start each week on my blog with one of these reasons. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Why A Daughter Needs A Dad #1:

To learn that when he says it will be okay soon, it will.

Peace out dads.

Where's the beef? Part 2

What Now?

OK, so maybe my wife was dropping subtle hints about less meaty eating plan at our house before the infamous "tofu taco" night. I remember her remarks about how cute the pigs were after going to the county fair, and what a shame it was that we ate them. Heck, we've been on turkey bacon for over a year now and I've kinda gotten to like it, that was until I had a sample taste of real bacon on a recent Costco trip...hmmmmm, real bacon. They needed the janitor to come and mop up my drool puddle. My wife is also a bit of a Internet news junkie, and focuses on stories related to how meat is processed and all the additives and preservatives they use in it. She already feels that our kids are exposed to way too many unnatural things and that feeding them standard (and by standard I mean not "organic) meat will just mess them up more then I already do. So the grassroots campaigning for a less meaty house diet was in the works for months, the action plan came with tofu tacos. The insurgence came a few days later at breakfast. We had my wife's sister and her two sons overnight and the next morning I came downstairs to the smell of a big home cooked breakfast. All the kids had already cleaned off their plates and my wife and sister-in-law were digging into theirs. I grab a plate and start to load up. Pancakes, eggs and sausage. Yummy, yum...hey, what a sec. What's up with the sausage? It looks a little like the sausage that comes in the fake food set we got the girls for Christmas to go with their Dora kitchen set. Oh well, I am still trying to wake up and I'm starving so what the heck, I load it up. A few bites in I must have a look on my face that triggers my wife to ask "how do you like your breakfast honey?" I turn to answer her, with a mouth half full of food "um....is there something different about the sausage this morning?" "Well, yes...it's not real sausage...can you tell the difference?" I swallow it down, take a big gulp of water and reply "yes, because I do know what real sausage tastes like, so yes...I can tell a difference." Now any married man who likes to avoid conflict will tell you the worst possible time and place to question your wife's cooking choices are anywhere that one of her family members is present, especially her sister. I calmly took my plate over to the table and dreamt about real meat while eating my breakfast.

Now please don't take my comments to be a negative attitude towards my wife or her family diet choices. I understand her need to feed our family healthy alternatives and try to keep as our bodies as chemical free as possible. I also know that I will get used to the new diet plan and probably be better for it. I'll just need to come up with creative reasons to make more trips to Costco so I can visit Marge, the real bacon sample lady, to remind myself of what meat really tastes like. Oh Marge, I love ya baby!

Peace out Dads, and have a great weekend!

Where's the beef? Part 1

What Now?

There is a conspiracy going on in my house. I don't know exactly when it started, and I'm not sure how long it is going to last, but it is something that will affect me in a deep and possibly disturbing way. My wife, the family chef and buyer of food products, is slowly but surely working meat out of our family diet. MEAT MAN...MEAT I SAY! A few days ago it was taco night at our household...a weekly tradition loved by myself and our kids. My wife worked in the kitchen preparing the meal while my girls and I set the table. We all sat down as my wife brought out all the fixings....taco shells, black beans, lettuce, diced tomatoes, avocados, cheese, sour cream and the taco meat..."um, what is wrong with the taco meat?" I asked. "Nothing, why?" she replied. "Well, it seems to be a different color than I remember." I say, trying real hard to to have any critical tone in my voice whatsoever...remember, she is the sole provider of eatable meals in our house so I don't want to rock that boat. "It's a little different, that's all" came her response. OK, no biggie I guess...and I join the rest of the crew and load up a couple of nice, nice tacos. After a couple of bites I glance at my wife and she is looking around at us with a very sheepish look, almost like she knew something and was trying to see if anybody else would figure it out. Our eyes meet and she asks "so, how do you like your tacos?" Now I am growing suspicious....I mean, she knows I love tacos so why ask. And that look...something is up. "So what makes this taco meat different from before?" I ask in a very probing way. "Just a different brand I guess." she says. Hmmm, what is my next move. Ah ha..."oh, looks like I need a little more water.....I'll be right back." As I head to the kitchen to refill my glass, I can feel her stare on the back of my neck like a hot poker. I stroll by her dinner prep area and see it, stop in my tracks, pick it up and turn around to look back at my wife. In my hand is a box for "tofu taco filling", on my face is a look that can only be described as a giant WTF. I am about to blow the lid off my wife's little trickery when she says, a little louder than normal "so girls, how do YOU like your tacos?" "Great!", "Love them!" Then I get the look from her that can best be described as "DON'T OPEN YOUR DUMB PIE HOLE!" I drop the box back on the counter top, get my water, return to my seat and continue to eat my tacos. To be honest, they are pretty damn good. I don't know what her game is...but after we put the kids to bed I am sure as hell going to find out....

Peace Out Dads!

Lame Blogger

What Now?

I think with everything in life sometimes you just don't got it. I really started to find my groove with this blogging thing and then BOOM, nothing last week. I don't know if it was a lack of material, a lack of interest, or just staying busy with other things. Last week I had actual work related stuff I needed to take care of, which was nice for a change. Plus, the local university posted a job that I am really interested in getting so I spent a lot of time working and reworking my resume and cover letter (with the help of my loving wife and many, many others!). We also had a crazy weekend with two, yes two, kids sleepovers. Friday night my wife's sister was in town with her boys and the next night we had some of our girls friends over while their mom went out on the town. Plus there is all the normal day-to-day stuff that will swallow you whole if you let it. My wife and I have determined that a lot of our time is taken up with laundry, cooking and dishes. Just when we get clothes put away we have a basket full again. Between breakfast and dinner we eat off of and clean more dishes than I thought we even owned (thank goodness the school feeds the kids lunch on weekdays, bless you popcorn chicken and yummy cheese sandwiches!).

I know, all very lame excuses but it's the best I got. I think there was also a lack of inspiration and interest on my part. Sometimes I just don't want to write about things. I know this makes my number one fan, my wife, sad. She loves reading my posts just to remember something funny that happened in our family or to get my take on a certain situation. My wife just emailed me with thought on topics I could touch on. She suggested talking about living with a wife trying to go vegetarian...not bad, but I should save that for another time...too good to put in this post!

I think I'm just in a blogger slump. I think all bloggers must go through this, just like areas of life. But I'll pull out, and already I can picture my next post "WIFE TRIES TO FORCE FEED GREEN VEGGIES TO FAMILY AND CUT OUT MEAT....OH THE HUMANITY.

Peace Out Dads!

No tricks, no treats, no way, no how!

What Now?

Kids are funny. Just when you think you have them figured out they hit you with something straight out of left field and send you back to the parenting drawing board. Case in point, my 5 year old and Halloween. For most kids, normal kids, Halloween night is second only to Christmas morning on the kids holiday scale of awesomeness. You get to dress up as whatever you want, you get to stay up way past your normal bedtime and you get more candy than you can possibly eat in one sitting. Does it really get any better than that?

Well, for my youngest child it can. Leading up to the big night she acts like any other normal year old child. She decides to be Strawberry Shortcake, and can it get more adorable than that? Funny side story here, when my wife googled Strawberry Shortcake costumes for our little girl she found this. Not exactly what she had in mind for our child, but I thought it might work for her...she was not amused. Anyway, back to my story. After deciding on a costume our youngest helped decorate, carve pumpkins and participate in just about all other pre-Halloween activities.

The one thing we knew going in was that she is scared of most of the spookier Halloween decorations. Hell, she won't step one foot in the door at Micheal's because of the stuff they have on display there. Even knowing that, we didn't expect the full on boycott of all things trick or treat when the big night came. Our usual plan is to pack the kids in the car and drive to certain houses/neighborhoods so we hit all the really good houses and see friends in the process. The first couple homes we hit were of the scary variety. Our oldest loves going to these homes because they also give out the best candy. It's these trips that I stay in the car with the youngest while my wife takes our oldest door to door. After the first couple we see some friends and some standard, jack-o-lantern only types houses. Nope, not getting out even for those. "What, come on "R", these houses aren't scary." Nope, not getting out of the car, not going to the door and not interested in the candy. Really? This kid is not candy motivated? Shit, what else do we have then? I mean, if we can't even get her out of the car to walk a few feet and say three little words for candy what chance do we have to get her to do anything? Candy is the one motivation most parents keep as plan Z when nothing else works. I could offer my oldest candy as a reward and get the house cleaned, the dog walked and lawn mowed all before 10am if I needed too.

So, there I sat in the car trying to talk our youngest to at least give it a try...nope, not a chance. We got home and my oldest started organizing her candy and getting set up for some late night movie watching. My youngest took off her costume, put on her pj's, and wanted my wife to take her to bed. When my wife came back down I just looked at her with amazement over the nights activities. She smiles and said in a calming voice "at least we won't have to worry about peer pressure with her." Good point!

Peace Out Dads!