• The Federal Office of Business Activity and Productivity estimates that $502 million dollars are lost each year due to reduced productivity due to April Fool's Day pranks. When asked, the bureau declined to estimate how much it had cost to arrive at that estimate.• As of 2008, no fewer than 84 different publicly funded institutes of higher learning had federally-funded programs to monitor so-called "pork barrel" spending.• In the United States, approximately 3.431 percent of federal employees work on any given federal holiday.• In an average year, 169 lawsuits are filed in Federal court … [Read more...]
Easter Morning
May 1, 2009 by 3 Comments
The girls in their Easter dresses just before church on Easter morning. From left to right, Kaylee, Savannah, Ava, Anna, and Katie.We've had a long standing tradition with the Easter Bunny. When he comes to our house, not only does he hide the kids' Easter Baskets, but he also leaves riddles that they have to solve to find their baskets. In previous years, each of the kids would have to solve a riddle that takes them to the next clue, solve that riddle which in turn takes them to the next clue, and so on until the find their baskets.This year, the Easter Bunny changed things up. He didn't … [Read more...]
Happy Birthday, Anna!
April 30, 2009 by Leave a Comment
It's Not Cindy-Loo-Who, It's Anna Lynn!My beautiful little Anna was born 10 years ago today. Even at a remarkably young age, less than a year old, we knew that she was an especially gentle and loving child with a warm heart and overflowing joy. She has always loved snuggling and tickling, hugs and kisses, raspberries on tummies, chewies on the neck, cuddles on the couch and naps on the bed. She's always been effusive with her love and affection. She was her brother's most enthusiastic cheerleader at his football games. And when his team lost the state championships, tiny Anna was so upset … [Read more...]
Springtime Soccer
April 17, 2009 by Leave a Comment
We spent a few hundred bucks to get all five of the girls signed up for Upwards Soccer. Upwards Soccer is a church-run league that emphasizes playing and fun over winning. For example, there's no official score keeping at the games. Although the registration was expensive, the gear (such as the jerseys) was really high quality.The only downside we experienced was that the league was only open to kindergarten through fourth grade. So that meant that Savannah couldn't play this year. Otoh, she helped the girls practice a lot and kick the ball with them in backyard.Anna has always enjoyed … [Read more...]
Senior Night and the All-State Choir Concert
April 11, 2009 by 1 Comment
Dylan and Connor were the MC's for this year's Senior Night at Mt Juliet High School. They chose an SNL theme and, so, did a lot of skits from Saturday Night Live. Dylan and Connor did great, as did the other actors and actresses that were in all the skits. Some were truly hilarious.At left (rt to lft), Dylan, Alec Odem, and Connor.Despite the great skits, there were some difficulties that night. First, the other MCs weren't so great. In fact, they were pretty bad and took up a huge amount of time. Second, there was a ridiculously long and self-indulgent slide show half-way through the … [Read more...]
Beware – Emily is Driving
March 24, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Emily has been fifteen for a while now and has wanted to get in some practice driving. Knowing that I was woefully behind on getting her some driving practice, I knew I had to get it in gear. I'd allowed her to drive home once or twice, but we hadn't really worked on it a lot. So, I decided it was time for us to get out on the road a bit more.I was hoping for ideal weather. But let's face it, spring in Tennessee is rainy. So rather than delay things any longer, we buckled in on an overcast day for a bit of driving practice. The good news is that I didn't once fear for my life, though I did … [Read more...]
Pussywillow Buds
March 15, 2009 by Leave a Comment
So there I was, in the spring of 1971, happily coloring in the living room, minding my own business. My mom whisks into the room with an armload of flowers and pussywillow buds to create a flower-arranging masterpiece. Here's what a pussywillow bud looks like:It's about the size of a lima bean but, as you can see, it's covered with a soft, downy fuzz.Now, for some reason which only God knows why, my mother turns from her flower arrangement and says to me "Kevin, don't stick any of these pussywillow buds in your nose!" And with that she whirls away, into another rooms to do, again, only God … [Read more...]
Scawee Vampiwe
January 30, 2009 by 1 Comment
Boo!We bought this school cape for Anna more than a year earlier when we'd taken the then 10-month old Anna with us to London. Anna Lynn loved this little English cape so much. She played Harry Potter in it quite a lot. But most of all, she just had to be a vampire for her third Halloween. Katie was just born that summer (July 0f 2001) and wasn't yet into the Halloween thing. So Anna was trick-or-treating with her older brother and sister. She loved everything about the costume - the white face, the slicked back hair, the cool costume - except for one thing: the vampire teeth. The teeth … [Read more...]
Christmas Plays are Everywhere
January 5, 2009 by Leave a Comment
With as many kids in school programs as we have, it seemed like there was at least two or three plays, choir concerts, or activites to do every week of the Christmas season. The picture above shows Emily in her role in the Christmas play as the narrator of the scene from "The Christmas Story" where the kids do their double-dog dare and tongue on the light pole scene. I'm sorry for the blurry picture, but I forgot how huge the new auditorium is and that I'd have to zoom half a mile to get fairly close up on Emily. She did great!Here's a picture of Dylan and Connor goofin' at the Candlelight … [Read more...]
Now you see it. Now you don’t.
December 15, 2008 by Leave a Comment
So...I grew a beard during the month of November. It all started when I got sick in Germany. Since I was feeling so low for so long, I didn't have any inclination to shave at all for the first couple weeks of November. And once I had the Don Johnson/Miami Vice vibe going full force, it was hard to stop. Of course, Emily and Dylan's constant urging always factors in to these sorts of decisions. So, without a protest from Rachel, I decided to go for the full month without a shave.REDUX 1994Of course, once I did shave, I went back to the goatee that I've worn since the Christmas holidays of 1994. … [Read more...]
