Hi all,
I decided to move my blog to my own server. I am in the process of moving images and stuff over to the “new” blog, but it is really the same blog. Just located on a different server.
It is http://www.themagicoffatherhood.com
Come on over!
It’s been a while since I last posted. Too long. I need to get back to it!
I threw together a collage of our sweet little girl, Susannah.
The day when Susannah goes to college is far off, but once that day for her to consider college is here, it will seem like it had flown by. I want to be ready for that moment. Susan and I will train her as best we can before she leaves our nest. We know that in order to move forward, college is an important step.
Here are five reasons why college is important:
There are many reasons, but these are just a few.
I have to travel this week for a couple days, and, unfortunately, Susan has to take Susannah in to her two month check-up and immunization shots on Wednesday without me. I’m kind of bummed I will not be able to be there.
Well, the beauty of modern technology is that I can still “be there” through web conferencing. It is not just for business. It can be used to be there right in the doctor’s office.
We may not use that option, but I will certainly call Susan on Wednesday to see how Susannah is doing. She is going to be sore from the shots she has to take this time. There are a lot of shots: Hepatitis B, DTaP, Hib, Polio (IPV), Pneumococcal (PCV), Rotavirus. That is just the first time. She will go through a series of these same immunization shots.
I do not want Susannah to hurt, but this is for her good. I just have to trust the medical community knows what they are doing.
About two and a half years ago, a couple months after Susan and I married, we met with a friend who had recently got into insurance sales with New York Life. We had death insurance on me through my company, Reynolds Web Solutions, but we didn’t have any insurance on Susan, so we decided on a term life option for her, similar to what I had.
Our friend has since gone on to bigger and better things, so our policy went into the hands of another insurance representative.
She came over a couple months ago to meet us and see if we wanted to switch to whole life insurance. We thought about it. Contrary to what some will say, it is not a bad way to go. It is somewhat of a forced savings plan if no savings are going into the bank, but since we plan on saving ourselves, hopefully making more in interest and through our investments, we decided to forgo the whole life option for now. We will keep our term life policies for now. That is not a bad plan either.
Now to our daughter. We are planning for her future, so we have to get a small policy for her. When she gets to be an adult, we can then transfer that over to her if she wants to continue the policy. And if, God forbid, something happens to Susannah, we will have the money for burial expenses. It is never fun to think about it, but life happens.
We know all things are in God’s hands, and we trust Him completely, but through scripture, it is clear that we should prepare for a rainy day. We just pray that the rain comes only in the form of mist rather than in torrents.
Three years ago when Susan and I got married, it was quite the bash. Much of her family and their kids came out to the wedding here in Virginia Beach, VA. They decided to make a vacation of it and what a time they had. Susan’s mom and dad, many of her sisters and their families all had a grand time. And much of my side of the family came out for the wedding as well. It was a great time for all.
Well, we are trying to convince at least a few of them to make the journey out here again. There are so many things to do around the area, and we have our house with a pretty good sized yard. The only thing that is missing is some decent outdoor furniture. The stuff we have have the cushions wrapped in plastic bags. Not good.
I have been thinking of teak outdoor furniture. Teak is indigenous to the dry, hilly terrains of Indonesia and Southeast Asia. It is very dense and resistant to rot, warping, shrinkage and swelling, so it will last a long time for more and more family gatherings in the future. Well, I hope they will get out here again sometime, but I know that family vacations like that cost a whole lot of moolah. We shall see what the future holds.
I love blogging. It has replaced the journals I used to write in, but I don’t mind. I would rather type than write anyway.
Back in March of 1991, I enlisted in the Army for two years. I went to Fort Jackson, South Carolina for eight weeks of basic training, and then to Fort Sam Houston for ten weeks of advanced training as a Medical Specialist, otherwise known as a 91B in MOS parlance.
My first tour of duty was a year with the Second Infantry Division in South Korea. I was stationed at Camp Stanton, which was an Air Defense Artillery unit about five miles from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a neutral zone between North and South Korea.
I had to do something to pass the time, so I bought myself a Brother Electronic Typewriter/Computer, I signed up for a correspondence course through the Writer’s Digest magazine and I started reading and writing. I wanted to become a writer, so with time on my hands, I started writing.
I wrote all kinds of things: short stories, articles and my diary. This was the first time I began writing about my life via keyboard and computer. I put away the ballpoint pens and pencils and notebooks with which I filled a box or two, and I dedicated myself to becoming a better writer via my faithful Brother.
My Brother typewriter is gone now and sadly I can’t read those old floppies anymore. And that is one reason why the “old-fashioned” writing instruments like the pen and paper will never go away. If kept in a cool dry location, notebooks will last for a very long time and they will most likely always be readable. Well, maybe.
Most Men and woman look at furniture differently. For the man, as long as it is comfortable, we would like to keep the furniture forever. If a couch or a recliner is comfortable, so what if you have to make sure to sit somewhere other than where the spring pops out. So what if the fabric has been scratched away by a long-gone cat from a family who owned it before he got it from the Salvation Army store. If it comfortable, it’s good.
Women like furniture to be comfortable, yes, but not too comfortable. It has to look good within the scheme of the house. A couch has be aesthetically pleasing or it is not setting foot in the house.
Okay, I may be simplifying the scenario a bit, but in general terms, this is true. Paul and Sarah got married a few years back, and not before he had to decide between his future wife and his seven couches he shared with his other guy roommates. Seven couches! They must’ve been very comfy.
When buying home furniture as a couple, compromises must take place or they are going to be eating tv dinners sitting on the floor for a long time.
I went fishing with my brothers a number of times growing up and I went fishing with friends a couple of times, but I only went fishing with my dad one time, and that was ice fishing. Ugh. But I kind of wish we did go more often when I was young. He got me into golf and for that I will thank him forever.
Honestly, fishing was never my recreation of choice, but I think fishing together just for the together time would have been good bonding time for us. We’d Get up in the wee hours of the morning, grab the fishing rods and reels, throw the fishing tackle in the tackle box and hit the road before the sunrise.
And once we are out there on the shore of the river or lake or in the boat, we could sit and enjoy the father and son company. I am certainly going to recommend it to my dad when I get to heaven. We’ll fish in the lake in the center of heaven together and enjoy each other’s company then.
Susan and I are already teaching Susannah words and language and music and reading. We talk to her in non-baby language, we read to her and we sing often to her. She is getting used to it. I want to give Susannah the opportunity to be a reader and a future leader right from the start. That is the legacy my mother gave me from a very young age.
My mom read the bible to me from the time I was in her womb until she went to be with the Lord eleven years later, and I am doing the same for my daughter. We are reading the bible to her most every night. And the number of different bibles that are out there is wonderful. She read to me from the Living Bible, but I know some families have Catholic bibles and some families have King James Bibles and still others are reading the latest versions of the bible. We are reading from the New International Version of the bible to Susannah.
And while we read from the bible to her, we are instilling in her the very words of life. Two birds with one stone.
