Still Fighting

Sunday I was driving home from church and I was listening to Ben Folds Five and this song came on and it seemed to perfectly tell the story of my life and where I am right now, and my sentiments.

Good morning, son.
I am a bird
Wearing a brown polyester shirt
You want a coke?
Maybe some fries?
The roast beef combo's only $9.95
It's okay, you don't have to pay
I've got all the change
Everybody knows
It hurts to grow up
And everybody does
It's so weird to be back here
Let me tell you what
The years go on and
We're still fighting it, we're still fighting it
And you're so much like me
I'm sorry
Good morning, son
In twenty years from now
Maybe we'll both sit down and have a few beers COKES
And I can tell you 'bout today
And how I picked you up and everything changed
It was pain
Sunny days and rain
I knew you'd feel the same things
Everybody knows
It sucks to grow up
And everybody does

You'll try and try and one day you'll fly
Away from me
Good morning, son
I am a bird

And you're so much like me
I'm sorry

I edited it a bit, but included the song below for your listening pleasures.

As the years go along in my life I learn more and more about my faults, and how life is such a beautiful struggle and a constant battle between myself. Then I look into my children's eyes and their innocence, purity, and love radiates from within their young souls. I begin to think about the conversations we will have in the future when the innocence slowly wears thin, and the world begins to bring it's awful woes. When the storm clouds of reality begin to flood their life, and the bitterness that accountability will bring. The greatest advice ANYONE can give is that, "Everybody knows it hurts to grow up, but everybody does. The years go on and we're still fighting it."

Then I think about the conversations I wish I could have with my father at this episode of life. What advice and wisdom would he be able to give me over a coke and some fries? How much did his life change when he picked me up? Perhaps he would give the same advice as Ben Folds...

Keep the fight alive, and never give up... Endure to the end.

Enjoy™

11 Random Facts About Michael Guymon

Eleven years ago today my Mom, my brother Ethan, and I gathered around my Mom's bed to say a prayer before we left for school. When the prayer was over the phone rang, and my Mom answered to hear that my father had rejected the machine that was helping him breath and had suffered a heart attack but they were able to revive him and asked that she come to the hospital. My mom hung up the phone and gave us the news, and asked if we wanted to go with her or go ahead and go to school. I had made up my mind a few weeks earlier that I wanted to have only memories of my father awake and alive. So I chose to go to school and Ethan chose to go with my mom.

My last memory of my father was right after I got back from a trip to Utah to visit my brother. While I was gone, my dad began having more trouble breathing on his own and had to return to the hospital. When I arrived he was awake and in good spirits, I stood beside his bed staring at him laying in an uncomfortable bed in a crowded room with nothing but a small white curtain to provide him with some privacy. His face was covered with a plastic oxygen mask, to which I said something to the sound of, "I'm surprised they were able to get one of those masks custom made to fit over your BIG nose."

And we all stood around and laughed. Shortly after that we had to leave, and my father told me not to worry about him, and that he would be fine. He said he was feeling better, and doing better. He gave me a hug to which if I concentrate I can still feel to this day, and told me that he loved me and took hold of my hand and stared me in my eye and told me how happy he was to see me, and how happy he was that I came to visit him. The very next day he took a turn for the worse and had to be forced into a coma and placed on a machine which breathed for him.

By the time I got to my second class of the day, which was Art class, I walked through the door and placed my back pack down on my desk and pulled my chair out and was about to sit down when a lady came over to me and said I needed to go with her. We walked back through the door to the bright sunlight and when the door shut on the other side stood John Durnford (who was my bishop at the time) who started out by saying, "Shane, I'm sorry but..." and I knew exactly what had happened. Before I left for school my mother told me she would call and let me know if anything else happened....

In memory of that day here are 11 Random Facts & Memories About My Father, Michael Guymon

1.) My father tried hard to stop drinking caffeine, but he had difficulty giving up Cherry Coke, which he drank in the form of a fountain drink in a black Texaco cup on a daily basis. He began referring to Cherry Coke as "Cherry Water", because throughout his campaign to stop drinking caffeine he also tried his hardest to rally the rest of us to join him. So when he saw me drinking a coke, or worse yet a Mountain Dew, he would give me a hard time. I would then ask, "What are you drinking?" and he would say, "Oh this... This is just cherry water."

2.) My dad was obsessed about us leaving lights on in the house. He was constantly circling the house turning off lights we left on and he would say, "If I had a nickel for every light you guys left on..."

3.) Almost every night you could find my dad roaming the house in his underwear and a flash light making his way to the air conditioner to make sure it was set to 80 degrees. Anytime it wasn't we would ALL have to hear about it the following morning. If you happened to be sleeping on the couch while he was on his way he would lean over and shine the flash light directly in your face asking, "Who is that... Oh it's you Shane!"

4.) My dad was VERY cold natured one of the reasons he chose to hang his hat in south Texas. So year round he would wear a jacket, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat.

5.) He refused to turn on the air conditioner in the car because he firmly believed that the air conditioner didn't function until the car was moving at a speed of 60 mph or higher. Boy was that fun when the entire family (8) piled into our Ford van for a trip in the middle of the Texas summer.

6.) Similar to Batman my dad wore what we all referred to as his "Utility Belt" which held just about anything and everything a normal person would NEVER need. Some of the items were a pocket knife, glasses, pens, keys, and who knows what else.

7.) Despite Michael Jordan's greatness next to his brother Jimmy, Jerry West remained the greatest player to ever throw a leather ball through a round metal rim.

8.) My first job was my dad paying me 2 cents a minute to tickle his head. It is looking like I might have to do that to finally get someone other than my Mom to tickle my back or head (thanks to Heather deceiving).

9.) Often times I had to make my dad a bowl of ice cream. The problem was my dad was very picky about his ice cream, and sometimes it would take me 3 or four times to get it right. He loved Bluebell chocolate ice cream covered in a lake of Hershey's chocolate syrup. However the ice cream had to be somewhat melted as well. So I would scoop the ice cream out, then pour chocolate syrup over it and carry it over to him to find out if I had enough chocolate syrup or not, and to see if the ice cream was melted enough.

10.) He had a recurring nightmare that he once shared with us, that he would be playing basketball and standing at the free throw line in the middle of a game with tons of fans in the crowd. He would throw the ball as hard as he could towards the basket and it would barely reach the dotted line in the middle of the paint.

11.) My dad was a very quiet guy. He mostly kept to himself. For example, when we would eat out as a family as soon as he was finished with his food he would head straight to the car to wait for us. Even at home, whenever we ate together as a family as soon as he was finished with his food, he would head straight back to his room, regardless if it was just the family, or if company was over eating with us. If we went to a wedding reception or other get together you could always find my dad sitting all alone in the corner out of site.

Hannah Can Swim

Hannah finally got brave enough to swim around in the pool with a flotation device, which was REALLY exciting for us, because I really want her to learn how to swim with as much time as we spend in the pool during the summer.

Connor Michael Guymon

Connor Michael Guymon was born at 12:09pm weighing in at 8 pounds and 1 ounce and measuring 20 inches. He has a full head of hair no chin and what seems to be the first appearances of the Guymon nose.

Click here to view ALL of the photos

Here's the story:

Heather emailed me at work around 4:45pm on Tuesday July 28th letting me know that she talked to her doctor who set her up to be induced at 6:00am on Wed July 29th. Just as I was finishing up my projects for the day and sending out an email informing everyone that I wouldn't be there tomorrow. I got a phone call from Heather telling me she would really like to go eat at Chili's one last time as a family of a one child household. Ten to fifteen minutes later at 6:00pm I get a phone call where Heather said, "Change of plans, my water just broke I need you home NOW!"

So off I went, I got there and Lyndsee Bates was nice enough to take Hannah for the night, and the majority of the next day. So I had enough time to grab a few things and throw them in a bag and give Hannah a few hugs goodbye.

Then off Heather and I went to the hospital, we got there at like 7:00pm. They ran a check to make sure that her water did REALLY break, after the test came back positive, they began hooking Heather up to everything and getting her prepped and ready to have a baby. She was already having small contractions regularly and was already dilated to 3 and a half centimeters. So the doctor chose to just let her go and see how everything developed.

The first plan of action was to make a decision about putting Heather on petocin to speed up the contraction & labor process or not. That was supposed to be done at 11:00, but actually didn't happen until an hour or so later. They didn't end up putting her on petocin until 4:00am when although her contractions were getting worse she wasn't really progressing as far as being dilated or any closer to being able to actually push.

So we sat and waited and waited and waited... Lucky for us Heather's BFF Heidi Fling made the courageous voyage from San Antonio to help entertain Heather.

They started the petocin at a very slow drip, and so nothing really progressed although her contractions got closer and closer together and more intense. Heather said they were at a 5 on the pain scale, but she never appeared to be in pain, only said it was uncomfortable. So she asked for an epidural, but that wasn't until almost 10:30am on July 29th. Which was over 16 hours of labor. Heather was super happy and content with her epidural, and everything was much more calm and relaxing then. About an hour later Heather started saying she was feeling some pressure during each contraction, and thought maybe Connor was finally starting to move down. So she told the nurse, who didn't ever actually check her in anyway, but rather said, "Well let me know when it is a lot of pressure."

Thirty minutes later the nurse and the doctor came into the room to check to see if Heather was any farther dialated, and when the doctor lifted up the blanket Connor's head was sticking out already. The doctor said, "Whoa you are having a baby, DON'T MOVE, BREATH, LAUGH, TALK, or ANYTHING!" He ran out of the room pulled in his tools and everything sat down, and Connor immediately fell out, and Heidi was nice enough to cut the chord for us, and off he went to the sidelines to get measured, and cleaned. I began snapping photos and enjoying the moment, and thanking heavenly Father for blessing us with a beautiful healthy baby boy!

4th of July

We made the hop, skip, & jump on down to San Antonio to meet up with Mom (Grandma), Mark, Maile, Marissa, Michaela, Matt, & Ethan for some good ol' family FUN time! I made sure to remember our camera and even better I actually captured some great memories.

Other than Ethan grilling up some killer steaks, making a trip to Walmart, and a bargain hunting trip to Big Lots with Mark it was just good ol family time spent indoors. We did try to make a trip to the park but the girls only lasted about 20 minutes. After 5 minutes they were asking to leave saying, "It's hot & we've been here for FOREVER!"

Enjoy™

Celebrating Four Years of Life!

Back on Saturday May 23rd we had a swim party for Hannah. I made a website to send out as our invite, which I thought was a good idea. It was a way I could flex my design muscles at the world, and also what I felt was a conveniently simple way to both spread the word and allow people to have a constant reference to go refer to. We placed a "wish list" on their with links to the actual product or examples for the many times we get asked, "What does Hannah want for her birthday?" We also placed a very simple contact form to allow us to get a head count so we knew how much cake and drinks to supply.

The website didn't seem to help with ANY of these things. Perhaps we sent it out too early, and maybe we should of shot out a second email blast as the date got closer, but then we didn't want to seem like we were BEGGING people to come. Some people showed up that didn't email (which we were still VERY happy you came!). Others emailed and didn't show up. Everyone still asked the inevitable question, "What does Hannah want?" Oh well it was alot of fun to design, and I mainly did it for myself anyways.

The party was a HUGE success, not everyone showed up that we had hoped would be there (Grand Dad, Nana, Jacob, Caleb, Matt (Heather's brother), Kari, Mark, Maile, Marrissa, & Michaela, Emily, Seth, & Asher) but everyone that did show up seemed to have a good time, and Hannah had a blast. We appreciated ALL of the presents, and the wonderful conversations and company. Hannah is still talking about her party!

So I know it's late, but I finally got around to uploading ALL of the photos from the party so click on over to check them all out!

25 Random Things About Me!

I've been tagged multiple times and kept putting it off but I'm finally falling victom of peer preasure...

1.) I prefer drinking flat sodas, & when I go to a restaurant I order my drinks without ice, & I LOVE Fountain drinks (without ice).

2.) I LOVE my job and NEVER dread going to work. (and I'm proud to say I designed the website for the company I work for).

3.) I HATE Internet Explorer (especially IE6) & hope that everyone reading this using internet explorer will download Firefox today!

4.) I love Pizza but take all the toppings (sometimes I eat them separate) and eat just the bread and sauce.

5.) I HATE mayo and am not a huge fan of ketchup, mustard, or any special sauces. I order all of my burgers DRY. It was always funny in high school when we would have far away games and the basketball team would go get food, they would always have to make one special order for me, and I was always made fun of for it, but my burger seemed to always be hot while everyone else's was cold...

6.) Growing up all I cared about was succeeding in basketball and I sat the bench my entire senior year and only played garbage minutes on varsity.

7.) I was awarded a letterman jacket but I have NEVER worn it, not once. (They didn't give it to me until the summer after I had already graduated. It's still hanging up in my closet).

8.) I can't eat food without lights being on.

9.) I love to watch basketball and rarely miss any televised game (college, high school, or NBA), and thankfully my wonderful wife puts up with it all, and has our entire marriage.

10.) I met my wife in a chatroom. (Yes it's because I'm a shy little nerd who is too scared to talk to girls).

11.) For the past two years I have worn a pair of red socks EVERY Friday and have officially renamed "Friday" to "FUN-day" at work.

12.) I am a self proclaimed "Amateur Musicologist"

13.) I wear a pair of basketball shorts under ALL of my clothes at ALL times (because you never know when there will be an opportunity to play).

14.) I LOVE FONTS & Typography in general!

15.) A majority of my emails end with "Enjoy™" (which I un-officially trademarked).

16.) My favorite food is Potatoe (I love it, fried, baked, scalloped, boiled, mashed, diced, sliced, in a soup, salad, and pretty much anyway and any how).

17.) My name is Shane Michael Guymon at least thats what it says on my birth certificate, and Drivers License. My mom has been heard calling me Shaney. When I was younger I used to ask her to call me her little Darling. My sister refered to me as "It" and "squeeky bones." My brother Mark called me splean, until the next time I saw him and everyone he knew including himself were calling me Skillz (I couldn't help but suppose there was some sort of "sarcasm" behind it all)! Next thing I knew my brother Matt flipped that into Spillz, which caught on well enough that this kid named Chris Capps called me that on the way home from Basketball practice, but he wasn't to happy when I called him "Pissin Craps" after that. In Brazil I became a "Greengo" either that or some other mis-pronunciation of my last name. I grew up a loser striving to become a winner. In Jr. High BJ Pratt called me the "White Somalian." In High School he started sayin Shane "The Main Man" Guymon. Mexicans (hispanics) call me Chain. Then that reminds me of all the times Matt called me Stain. A few people through my life have called me a Nerd. A few other people have refered to me as a Friend. Through my life I have grown accustomed to responding to the name Shawn. I even turn my head when people call out the name Matt (since all my life people have thought we were twins). So I guess if I was to introduce myself I would say you can go ahead and start off by calling me Shane, then you can move on from there...

18.) My life has become a constant battle of trying to gain full control over myself, appetites, passions, and emotions. To which I have started referring to life as "The Beautiful Struggle."

19.) I NEVER cuss not even when I'm angry. The worst words I say are "hell" and "damn" and those are very few and far in between.

20.) Movies are my biggest weakness. I LOVE them all!

21.) The two things that have impacted my life the most are, my dad's death when I was 17 (my senior year) and the birth of my daughter Hannah.

22.) I still sit in my moms lap when i go home to see her.

23.) I've always wanted to write a book, direct a movie, and be a photographer.

24.) My dad wanted all of his kids to have dark hair and brown eyes, and I am the only one who listened.

25.) I'm afraid of heights, roaches (and many other bugs), spiders, snakes, rats, & swimming in any body of water that isn't filled with chlorine and other chemicals (rivers, lakes, ponds, or the ocean).


**BONUS**
26.) I drove around for a week with a dead rat in my car and didn't figure it out until I finally took it into the shop thinking there was something wrong with my air conditioner (the only time I could smell it was when the air conditioner was turned on). I picked the rat up visiting my wife in Buna before we got married. Meaning I drove 5 hours home with it up in my car. On the way home was when I first started smelling it.

27.) My dad used to pay me 2 cents an hour to tickle his head.

28.) Almost every night my mom would be tickling my dad's back, arm or head. When I would try to come lay-down and get in on the back tickling action, my dad would tell me to go find my own girl to tickle my back and then marry here. So I spent the rest of my life looking for that girl, and Heather tricked me into believing it was her, but as soon as we got married all the tickling has ceased. Now my only hope is to con my daughter Hannah into tickling my back for 2 cents a minute.

Six Years

Last Sunday marked the sixth year that Heather and I have been married. I know it's not a HUGE landmark, however it has gotten me looking back to where those six years have gone. So I decided to go digging through memories that have been stuffed away into boxes and other plastic containers and tucked away in both high and low places.

For those of you who don't know I returned home from my mission December 21st 2001. I had no job, no car, and really no plans. When I got home my older brother Matt used to get onto LDS chat every day and flirt with girls. So since everyone was gone to work each day I decided to check out the chat room scene. Around January 6th I met a girl with the screen name of "TempleBound." After an hour or so of chatting with me she was overly annoyed but at the same time addicted to the dopeness that is Shane. Almost daily we would talk and soon the instant messaging and chatting wasn't sufficient and she had to hear my voice. The smooth sound of my voice vibrated the muscles in her heart a sufficient amount that the phone calls began happening on almost a daily basis. Soon after pictures and letters began being exchanged. Above is one of the first pictures Heather mailed to me.

My brother and I had both had the desire to make a trip to the Houston temple together. So we made tentative plans without any expectations other than a nice little visit to the temple. However all the phone calls and instant messaging created this uncontrollable desire in Heather to need to meet me in person. She became almost obsessed with the idea. So before I knew it she was coming up with plans on how to meet me at the temple. So above is the photo taken the first time we ever met in person. I think it was that moment when we first met in person at the temple when I knew I wanted to marry Heather...

So on went our relationship of nightly phone calls until odd hours of the night and Heather at this point basically addicted to Shane developed a master plan to have her dad bring her out to San Antonio to spend a weekend with me. So I told her when the next single adult church dance was going to happen. So Heather used that as an excuse to convince her father to drive 5 in a half hours to San Antonio. So above is a picture taken on what was essentially our first date. Which consisted of walking around the River Walk as I got us lost looking for the Alamo, and stopping to eat at Fudruckers before her Dad met back up with us to go back to the flat lands of Buna.

Now we fast forward ahead a couple months to the picture above which was taken in Buna, Texas after we were enganged to be married, but prior to her moving to San Antonio. There were a couple months where we took turns driving 5 hours to spend the weekend with one another.

Soon after Heather moved to San Antonio and we spent about 6 months together before the big wedding day came. Above is a picture from our wedding day.

Seriously this is one of the first "family" pictures we took, and it was soon after we moved to Cedar Park which was November 2006.

Above is the first professional family photo we took, and that was done last year before Christmas.

And now skip forward to our Christmas 2008 photo we took this year, and I think we have finally decided on making this annual picture a family tradition. So now with baby number 2 on the way and a new year approaching us in one minute. I look forward to many more wonderful years with my beautiful wife Heather, my adorable daughter Hannah, and whatever God decides to bring us in 2009!

Another Guymon Is Coming...

While in Buna Heather was feeling the baby vibes coming her way so she decided to buy some tests, and she peed on them and this is what popped up...

Looks like another Guymon is headed this way! Looks like Hannah gets to become a Big Sister!

Family Portrait 2008

Saturday we took our family portrait for the year. We are trying to make this a tradition in the Guymon household. Portrait Innovation has a good package for $9.99. We always end up spending more cause they take such good pictures it's hard to chose only one pose. So anyways here's the picture we chose for the 9.99 package. Although Hannah looks happy in the photo, it was not so much the case, she was not too into taking photos, well really she was all the way up until the point that they actually called our name and pulled out the camera. Some how we still managed to get several good pictures to chose from. The best part is you leave with your pictures. They print them off right after you pay.

We walked out of Picture Innovations at 11:00, and Spicy Pickle was calling out names, it's hard to say no to Mesquite Turkey on Ciabatta bread with tomatoes, lettuce, avocados, and swiss cheese. So being that it is right next door, we walked right in the door and partook in the goodness. However we got home and the bread that was holding together the sweet goodness was not ciabatta, and it kind of ruined the experience, and didn't kill the craving...

After the not so fulfilling sandwich Heather was dividing up the pictures and gathered the pictures going to my mom, and my family, and she came into the bedroom and said, "Why don't we go see your mom today."

Of course I was down, so we asked Hannah, and she was excited about the idea, so we threw a few things together jumped in our Kia Sedona, and made the 1.5 hour venture down to good ol' San Antone to sneak attack my mom (I never told her we were coming).

Cinderella & The Prince

I got home yesterday to Hannah telling me this sad story about how she wants to wear her Cinderella dress but that mom won't let her. So Heather over hearing corrected the story, so we told her to go ahead and put her Cinderella dress on. So she put it on, and she came out and I said, "Oh you look so pretty Hannah!"

Then she quickly corrected me and said, "Don't call me Hannah, call me Cinderella."

So then I corrected myself.

I then started to make myself a little something to eat and I sat down, and Hannah walked over to me and said, "Hi Prince, do you want to come to my room with me, and watch my movie, theirs lots of toys, you can bring your food, come on, it'll be lots of fun!"

(Also at some point after she called me Prince, and before we made it to her room, we danced together in the living room, and that was the original reason of going to her room, because she wanted to continue dancing in her room).

How can you say no to that? We were watching Big Bang Theory (I do have a DVR though), so it was kind of difficult, but she kept giving more and more features, letting me know I could sit on her bed and eat, and she even picked up my food and offered to carry it into her room for me. So I went along. So the rest of the night she continued calling me Prince, and I continued calling her Cinderella up until she said good night the The Prince, and I said good night to Cinderella.

The funnier part of the story, is she slept in the Cinderella dress, woke up and continued to call me Prince, when I left to work she gave me a hug and said, "Good bye Prince!"

The Man

I meant to post something yesterday but got caught up in the day to day activities. Yesterday marked the 10th year that my dad Michael Guymon passed away. It's funny how the memory of that day sits on my mind as if it was yesterday. I can remember how the sky was partly cloudy, but the sun was shining bright in an almost insulting manner. The day, since then hasn't really been a memorable day. In the sense that I treat it as any other day. I suppose I feel like that's what he would want me to do. He stays fresh on my mind on a daily basis anyways. I frequently have vivid dreams about him. Some where I know he is dead and everything remains the same, and I even ask him in the dream about where he has been, and catching him up on things in my life. I have others where it is as if he never did die. I can still remember small details like exactly how it feels to hug my father...

I can't believe it has been 10 years.

I had planned on doing one of three things in memory of The Man:
1.) Drink a cherry coke fountain drink
2.) Drink a chocolate malt
3.) Eat a banana split

Sadly none of the three happened. It was a refreshing day though. When I say that I don't mean to sound as if something extraordinary occurred, but rather I just got caught up in the daily grind of life. I went to work came home (realized I left my cell phone at work) filled a cup full of Mountain Dew went out to the pool with Hannah, & Heather. I read an interesting article in a HOW magazine as Hannah swam. She kept filling this small little toy milk jug with water and bringing it to me to pretend to drink it, and she would giggle. Heather and I enjoyed one anothers company and just had small talk as Hannah played in the pool. We then went inside gave Hannah a bath and Heather left to attend a meeting for church, and I stayed home and kicked it with Hannah solo. I was watching the olympics as Hannah informed me that she needed to get ready for her ballet class. So she brought me her ballerina skirt, and then her "matching" shirt, and then she found her sparkly pink shoes and fluffy white socks. I helped her get ready and she kissed me good bye and off she went on her scooter to her room where she shut her bedroom door. A few minutes later she returned announcing, "I'M BACK!" She continued to run back and forth from her bedroom to me to announce different things until 9:30 rolled around and I decided she needed to go to bed. So we said a prayer (she said it) and off she went to bed where she played until Heather got home after 10:00. I don't think she went to bed until after 10:30 and I stayed up playing on the computer doing some design stuff. I went to bed around 11:30 or 12:00.

In some ways I feel like that is some what insulting to my father, in others I feel like that is how he would want it to be. I think I should of at least crossed one of those three items off my list though.

That's Not Funny

We had just come inside from a "National Night Out" party our Apartment Complex put on with some free Bar-B-Que out by the swimming pool. We gave Hannah a bath, and we were all sitting down watching TV, and Hannah is munching on a brownie and saying, "I wanna watch 101 Dalmatians (only I can't spell how she really tries to pronounce it which is MUCH cuter)."

Heather says, "No! you are about to have to go to bed."

So lately Hannah is on this HUGE why kick, where she has to ask "WHY?" after everything you say. So of course casually as she is picking pieces of chocolate off of her brownie, she asks, "Why do I have to go to bed?"

So I jump in to play her little game and I say something like, "Cause it's time to go to bed."

Hannah: "Why?"
Me: "Because after the sun goes down and it get's dark outside you have to go to bed."
Hannah: (without looking up, but instead she remains focused on picking at her brownie she says in the most casual nonchalant tone) "That's not funny..."

I'm not really sure if that did it any justice, because when it actually happened, it was the funniest thing of the day. I just busted up laughing, and I think at first Heather was in some sort of shock, or perhaps it took a little bit to register and she just looked down at Hannah who just maintained focus, and Heather also started busting up with laughter. Finally after I laughed for a good minute straight Hannah seemed to realize that we thought what SHE did was funny, so then she kept saying, "That's NOT funny!" It's times like those that I wish my memory functioned more like a digital camera recording reality so I could just hook myself up to a computer and replay it over and over again.

Brown Eyes

As I am leaving home to go to work this morning, I am making my way from the bedroom where I gave Hannah a hug told her I loved her, and that I was going to work. I then made my way around the bed and extended a hug and kiss to Heather as well. I walk out of the bedroom and make my way to the kitchen with Hannah trotting almost fluttering behind me dressed in her baby blue Cinderella princess gown. I grab a plastic bag full of leftovers from the fridge and I give Hannah one last hug and kiss, and she tells me she is going to wait there for me to leave. I tell her I will see her later and open the door and walk out and right before the door closes I hear her shout, "I love your brown eyes!"

So I chuckle and open the door quickly to see no one standing in the doorway anymore, but I yell back, "I love your beautiful blue eyes."

Then I hear her say, "Thank you!"

Then with a smile on my face I make my way to my car and venture to work. I think it's going to be a great Monday today!

4th of July 2008

Click on the photo above to check out our fun day at the park on the 4th of July!

Bring Me My Moneys!

As soon as I stepped through the door I heard a loud squeal and I saw Hannah circling around the table on her little scooter and she yelled with glee, "Daddy did you bring me my moneys?"

and I just started cracking up as I leaned over to give her a hug.

Now let me back this thang up a bit so my infinite abyss of devoted readers can understand the real humor in this statement. You see, Friday when I got home from work Hannah had this little insert from a Barbie DVD she has that had additional toys to coincide with this Barbie DVD. Well Hannah found one of the toys in particular to be a must have addition to her infinite abyss of toys that are accumulating in her bedroom and in various places throughout our home. She carried this piece of paper staring at this particular picture of this toy (as if she was Smeagal and it was The Ring) and showing it to us over and over and telling us we needed to go to the store and get it. So I told her that we had to have money to do that. So her reply was for us to go buy some money. When I told her it didn't work like that, then she said that I still needed to go get some money. So I told her that I had to go to work to get money. She seemed to understand that, but then all she kept talking about is how she wanted to go to work with me to get the money for the toy right then and their. So I told her I didn't have to go back to work until Monday. So now jump back to when I got home from work, and the first thing she asks me when she sees me come through the door is, Do I have her money?

That right their is FUNNNY!

Hannah's Song

We are sitting on the couch watching the 2008 MTV Movie Awards and I notice Hannah is singing a song. This isn't abnormal or strange in any way because Hannah spends most of her day pransing around and singing songs she hears from cartoons or sometimes she makes them up. Well this song I looked down at her as she was sitting cuddling up beside me on the couch and she asked me if I wanted to sing it with her. So I asked her what the words were and she taught me the song. So if you'd like to hear it, her it goes...

Let's goooooo!
Rocket soup with the Big Jet
Sail away, sail away, saaaaaaail awaaaaaaaaaaay!

**UPDATE**

First Day of My Life

For Moms Day I made a mix CD for Heather with a custom designed CD case. So anyways one of the songs I selected was a Bright Eyes song called "First Day of My Life" and it turns out this song has like the perfect words to describe a relationship it says:

"So if you want to be with me
With these things there’s no telling
We just have to wait and see
But I’d rather be working for a paycheck
Than waiting to win the lottery"

I suppose because a relationship is work, it's compromise, and it's sacrifices. I swear their are far too many people in the world that seem to have the "Waiting to win the lottery" mindset, and it's funny, so when it's worded the way he says it, it's so perfect and simple, "I'd rather be working for a paycheck." I've always been confused with people who seem to date for a year or more, it seems to me you should be engaged and if you aren't ready for that, then you probably NEVER will. So it's past time to move on to the next person, and keep waiting for that "lottery" of a person to drop into your life. (of course this is speaking about people who are out of highschool already...)

Anyways the whole song is good, and beautiful, just those lines REALLY stood out to me this week.

New Photos

I just recently uploaded new photos to my flickr account. Please feel free to click your way over their by clicking on the photo above to see all the new fun and exciting things we have been up to the last couple weeks.

Join Us For A Splash!

Tuesday night I decided to stay up till 2:00 am designing a small website to help get the word out that their is this cute little girl living in our house that is turning 3 next month. So for the past month or so she is endlessly talking about her birthday party and how all of her friends are gonna come over, and they are gonna go swimming, and they are gonna eat cake! Last night when I got home from work she asked me if I wanted to come play birthday party with her in her room. So sure enough I squeezed myself into this small little princess tent we have set up in her room, and we pretended to eat cake and play, until my legs began to cramp and I got too claustrophobic and I had to break out.

Anyways so I actually designed a little invite, and the original plan (like always) was to actually mail those bad boys out to friends and family. However we are terrible at this, infact it's quite embarrassing and Heather may kill me for saying this but we didn't send out one single thank you card from our wedding. Also in the past I have designed a Christmas card every year since we have had Hannah, and also I believe I have made a birthday invite every year as well. It should be no surprise to any friends reading who didn't recieve them because we never actually mailed them, instead we hand a few out and everyone else just receives an email or a phone call. So to change things up a bit, and the fact that we really want to know how many people are planning on showing up, so we REALLY need people to RSVP us, I designed this website with 40 something photos all taken through out this last year.

So click on the photo above or here, and check out the mini site, and if you are interested in celebrating another year of life while swimming and eating a little cake, then go ahead and RSVP via the contact form on the website.