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!