The Whited News

2008-03-15T16:12:00.002-04:00

Cosmo Kramer 1996-2008

It is a sad day for us. Cosmo is no longer with us.
We will miss you, Cosmo....You were a good kitty.

We love you.

Jackson Hoopin' It Up

2008-03-06T21:18:00.003-05:00

Here is a few seconds of Jackson bringing the ball up the court during his final basketball game this season. He's a playa! He's a diaper dandy! A real PTP'er, baby! He really enjoyed playing this year and was fortunate to have some of his good friends on the team. I did my best to help the Couch's out with coaching. He played about 5 games, most of which we on Saturday mornings. Jackson turned out to be one of the better shooters on the team, but perhaps was not quite as aggressive with the ball as some of his teammates. I will say that he was probably the best defender on the team - he really took his defense pretty seriously and stuck to his offensive assignment real tight. Things went so well that we invested in a new basketball goal for the driveway, although we have had neither the time or good enough weather to actually get it put together yet. Baseball's next...no more teeball - we talking coach pitch! In the meantime enjoy this highlight that was on ESPN last night...

Unofficial Hiatus

2008-01-28T23:02:00.000-05:00

I bet alot of you all had given up. Basically two months have come and gone with no new entries for The Whited News. Have i ever mentioned that it's hard to find time to get on here anymore? Heck, if it's hard for me to get on my own blog, I'm sure all of you are not just putting a visit here on your to do list everyday. But - I haven't given up. Maybe I just needed a break after the first 100 posts.

There really quite a bit to cover, including:

~ All the Christmas stuff
~ Carson's 3rd birthday
~ Kim smashing into a deer in the Vibe
~ A trip to the ER with Carson

It would take too long to try to catch up with adequate words, and pictures are worth a thousand words, right? Here are the highlights with words, as needed.

Here are the boys, about three weeks before Christmas. I think many of you got this in a Christmas card. For some reason we did not get the preprinted photocards from Sam's this year.

Here is the tradition Christmas photo, this time in Louisville.

Check out Carse on Christmas morning with the guitar for Guitar Hero that Santa brought. I love the way the lighting of the tree is in the background. I'll tell you what, Carson LOVES guitars and music. If this kid doesn't turn out to be a musician, I'll be shocked.

Here is Carse at his 3rd birthday. Blowing out the candles on his Thomas birthday cake. Actually he extinguished them more with his saliva than he did with air. It was a great birthday for his this year. Some of you may know that in his other 2 previous birthdays, he was sick both times and was not his typical self. This year he felt good and really had a great time.

Kim hit a deer just after dropping Carson off at day care a couple of weeks ago. It did $3,900 worth of damage to the Vibe. You should have seen me doing me best impression of a NASCAR pit crew member on the fender in the parking lot at Kim's school afterwards. Duct tape is awesome, baby! Praise God that Kim didn't get hurt or have the deer come through the windshield. It's not uncommon for us to be going 50+ mph down that road! Notice the deer poop on the fender.

We took Carson the the ER several days ago after he had a bad reaction to the Albuterol medication that doctor had given him. He had been diagnosed with bronchitis, pink eye, a bad cold, and his ears were so stopped up the doctor couldn't even look in them. That night about 1am he was acting real funny and breathing really irregularly/fast after we gave him the Albuterol earlier in the night and we became every concerned very quickly. By the time we got him to the hospital, he had settled down quite a bit. They monitored him for a while and the doctor didn't seem too concerned....Our prayers were answered, because he went from messed up to good shape pretty quickly. Thanks to his Aunt Sheri for getting out of bed in the middle of the night and venturing to out house in the cold to be here with Jackson while we went to the hospital!

Get ready to cry.....awesome stuff right here.

2007-11-26T11:48:00.001-05:00

100th Post! : Chris Tomlin concert

2007-11-12T16:30:00.000-05:00

First of all, my 100th post! Kinda proud of myself that I have actually kept this up for as long as I have now. Sure I have my droughts, by I have kept with it. Not sure how many are reading???? But I have stayed with it. It's fun.

OK, what I wanted to write about......the Chris Tomlin concert. Kim and I drove down to Evansville last evening to "The Center" to see the band. We bought our tickets when they went on sale about 3 months ago and so we had awesome seats in the first row of the balcony, right near the center. Great seats, GREAT seats. We didn't realize that Evansville was on a different time than us, so we ended up having an extra hour to spend. (Big thanks here to Grandma Marie for watching the lads, by the way.)

It was an awesome time...awesome experience. That many people together just jamming to God was really something. Halfway through, Louis Giglio spoke a great message, as well. Then it was more Praise! I know that we will not forget it! Time for my disclaimer....I would like to say that I took the picture above - I did not. Matter of fact I forgot to take my camera! Man, I never forget the camera. But I did....so I had to go to flickr and pick out an awesome shot that represents what we experienced, and this is what I found.

Thanks for reading....hopefully I can do 100 more posts!

A long one...

2007-11-07T15:13:00.000-05:00

This might be my biggest blog entry ever by the time I get it finished. I have been meaning to put all this stuff on here and today I'll just do it all at once. I guess it is mostly pictures, but i wanted to tell you all about four different things that have happened lately.

A couple of weeks ago, on a quite foggy morning, we had noticed as we were all getting ready for the day that Roscoe was barking hysterically. Of course we were kinda rushing around in the morning like we normally do, and we had not taken the time to see what his issue was. After I got Jackson on the bus, and I could take a deep breath, I peered out into the back yard and saw a freaking racoon poised on the top of our fence taunting Roscoe. I figured as soon as I opened the sliding glass door that he would take off. Nope. I grabbed the camera and took a few pictures as I slowing approached it and tried to shoo it away. No luck. This dud was not budging. he didn't even budge when I picked up our umbrella base from the patio and hurled it at him. It kinda grazed him barely, and he did not move...just kept growling at us. Every time Roscoe approached him the coon tried to bite and scratch him. I thought, ""OK I'm going to get rid of this pest" and I went back in and got a large, heavy metal pole that we use for reaching stuff...It was actually a curtain rod of some kind, but it was made of thick, heavy metal. Well, I tried to poke him away. No budging....So I decided to give him a good healthy whack on the head, and it knocked him off the fence - I was amazed that he did not run off!! I gave him a few more pokes from over the fence and then i went in to finish getting ready. I get my shower and was absolutely stunned when I looked out and saw him back on the fence! I grabbed the pole and said enough of this. I bashed him on the head several times, and he really did not seem too bothered by it. So I went all out and beat the heck out of it. I had heard before about nasty coon actually killing dogs, and I was not going to let this happen to Roscoe. He was just laying on the ground on the other side of the fence when i left for work, I was completely expecting him to die there, and I would have to get him out of the yard after I got back from work. Well, he must be the Michael Myers of racoons, because when I got home after work - HE WAS GONE!!!!

Jackson finally lost a tooth! He had been wanting to lose a tooth for a long time, as his friends were losing their teeth and I think he felt like he was missing out on the experience. He got a little scared about 15 minutes before it actually came out. He was sitting on the couch, wiggling his tooth and tasting some of the blood and he was crying! "I am going to die!" He exclaimed. A little while later he got it out with Kim in the bathroom and he was very relieved.

The boys were Anakin Skywalker and Superman this year. I ordered the Anakin costume off eBay and it got here just a couple of days before Halloween.

Kim and I got to go to the Colts-Patriots game in the dome on Sunday. It was being dubbed as the Super Bowl in the middle of the season, as it was the first time in NFL history that two teams 7-0 or better had met. The Colts really outplayed them for the first 3.5 quarters, but in the final 6 minutes, the Patriots scored 2 TD's and won 24-20. We went with Todd and Shelly. Here we are in the endzone seats about 30 minutes before the game.

I did my part to cheer them on, although Patriots fans are claiming that the noise is artificial. There was some kind of technical/audio malfunction during the fourth quarter that people apparent assume was coming from inside the dome. I cannot stand the Patriots....I posted this on the Boston Globe after hearing the ridiculous reports that the crowd noise was fake and simulated:

OK....I just had to address this. I am a Colts fan, and live in Indiana. The Patriots players, head coach, front office, and fans are absolutely unbelievable. It almost leaves me speechless, but not quite. I realize that the RCA dome is the smallest in the league. Nonetheless, there are 56,00 seats in there, and the place was packed - of course. This means that at least 56,000 were witnesses to what you all are claiming happened. I happened to be one of those people at the game. I was there, were you? I have not heard of ONE SINGLE PERSON, out of the 56000 who were there, who claim to have heard it in the dome. Nobody. No Patriots people, no NFL people, no CBS people....Nobody.....guess why? It wasn't audio coming through the soundsystem, that's why. I was there......I love the Colts and of course I wish they would have won. It was a good game. But if I heard the same noise as what was heard on TV, I know that I, along with 56,000 other people who have been immediately confused. It would have been noticeable. Think about this with your brain for a moment, not your Patriot loving hearts....If that strange sound, lasting several seconds, was actually piped in, and loud enough to come through CBS mics, don't you think maybe somebody in the dome would have noticed? just one person, maybe? Or a few thousand (more likely)? This is why the Pats, their coach, and their organization is so disliked by the entire league. Coach Bill has not one ounce of class. Up 42-0 on Washington and going for it on 4th down???? Are you kidding me?? He thought he was above the rules and got busted for it with the whole videocamera thing. I vividly remember last year after the AFC championship when he refused to show the same kind of sportmanship that little league boys show after a loss - and brushed off Dungy and Manning. The evidence for my opinion goes on and on...plain and simple he is a great football coach but a miserable human being. Now listen, maybe you all out their do not value sportsmanship, and that's your choice. I just think if you are going to support this kind of behavior, and then claim the Colts pumped that noise into the dome......It leaves me speechless. There is no doubt that you have a great team to root for. They may end up arguably the best ever. But what you have in talent, skill, and the know-how to play the game successfully may bode well for you in the win column, you pick up losses in the eyes of the country as a result of the manner your players and coach conduct themselves. The Patriots may go 19-0....they might....but even if they do, the vast majority of the country will not honor it because you have absolutely no class whatsoever. I would much rather root for the Miami Dolphins or another pathetic team if they had some class, as opposed to rooting for a great team with a jerkball coach and no class or respect for other people. But that's just me.

St. Louis Zoo!

2007-10-25T14:39:00.000-04:00

On 10/19/07, we took the lads to the St. Louis Zoo. It was Fall Break and getting out of town for a couple of days was a very nice idea. For those of you that have never been, it is the nicest zoo I have ever been to. We took Jackson a few years ago, probably when he was around Carson's age, so he was too young to remember any of that, plus there are some things about the zoo that have changed over the last 2 or 3 years.

Here they are poised at the outdoor penguin area, hanging out with a fake puffin. They seemed to have wonderful time and particularly enjoyed the snakes, monkeys, and penguins. Jackson would tell you thast the highlight of his trip to the zoo was going to the Build-a-Bear store and making "Jacob", his new little Black Bear. Lil' Carse got to pick out a penguin stuffed animal....He grabbed ahold of it as we strolled through the gift shop/exit of the penguin area and proclaimed "My penguin!" - they're not spoiled or anything! You know, Jackson can be predictable on some things, but this was a little bit of a surprise for us that he took so much interest in the Build-a-Bear. We stayed at the Holidome in St. Louis, so we were able to enjoy some swimming after a long day at the zoo.

Newest Bengals Fan!

2007-10-09T16:18:00.000-04:00

Boy, I've been in the midst of another Whited News slump. It's tough to make time for the blog now. Here is a photo sent to TWN headquarters by a proud grandmother of the newest Bengals fan. Apparently lil' Brennan gets so excited about the Bengals that the mere act of watching them play causes him to salivate!

my new windshield tattoo

2007-09-20T11:55:00.000-04:00

This is what my windhshield looks like on the passenger side of the Jeep. I was driving to work earlier this week, and a rock(?) seemed to fly out of nowhere and strike the windshield. I was not behind a dump truck and there was no apparent reason why this happened. On my way home, I took a closer look and it gave me chills. You know, even when something crappy happens, we have to remember that no matter what it is, God is bigger. My new windshield tattoo reminds me of this. I actually don't mind it too much. It's kinda cool.

Carse at Breakfast

2007-09-17T09:30:00.000-04:00

I got a new toy

2007-09-04T22:25:00.000-04:00

I took a little of my annual longevity and got me a new toy. After 4 years with the sony cybershot, I decided it was time for a little upgrade on a digicam, so I went with a canon powershot a550. I took 10 shots with it when I got home this evening and here are two of the better ones.

Famous Family Member

2007-08-28T12:23:00.000-04:00

Peter Parker snapped this photo as he was strolling through Times Square this week. J. Jonah Jameson was not interested in purchasing it for The Daily Bugle, but after Parker offered it to The Whited News, The Publisher immediately paid top dollar for it.

Now we know that we have at least one famous member of the family, Laura Whited.

You go, girl!

Family Picture - July 2007

2007-08-18T16:31:00.000-04:00

We got this taken the day after we got back from vacation in July.

1st day of 1st grade

2007-08-14T21:53:00.000-04:00

Here is Jackson today heading out the door for the 1st day of 1st grade.

Now, for comparative purposes, below is the picture I took of him heading out the door for the first day of kindergarten last year.

Take a look at the door behind him and check out how much taller he is. My goodness, it's like he never eats anything but it almost looks like he's grown 5 inches!

He gave very conflicting reports about his first day of first grade today, one minute raving about how wonderful it was, the next minute he complained about it. By the time he went to bed tonight, he was looking forward to going back and said he couldn't wait because "first grade is awesome". At one point this evening, he was whining about school and said: "I'm too little for first grade....(drastic change of voice tone).....well....actually.....I'm the second tallest kid in class." There's classic Jackson for ya.

whew!

2007-08-11T15:24:00.000-04:00

It's been awhile...again. And last time I put something on here, it wasn't even a real post, but instead a photo display. I guess that means that I have some catching up to do. Only I really don't feel like spending much time documenting what we have been doing over the last 3-4 weeks. Instead I have the urge to comment about other stuff.

Before I do that, though, I do want to post a picture I took at Colts camp a week ago. You know, it is just a weird but cool feeling to be like ten feet away from a group of people including Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, Adam Vinatieri, and Tony Dungy. So close that you can actually heat just the normal football conversation between them. But that is what it was like at camp, where we were seated on the ground right along the sideline of their practice field at Rose Hulman. Here is a picture of what I am talking about. Oh, and I just have to put on here the picture of Coach Dungy looking at me like he is about to come over a kick my butt!

OK, here is mostly what I had the urge to post about. Does anyone else out there with FT jobs and small children feel like it is a real challenge to make time for nurturing your relationship with your spouse? Kim and I are doing a horrible job of this. We, us, our relationship and marriage are always on the back burner - and we are very aware that this is simply not good at all. I mean, we are doing OK and all. I don't want people ready this and thinking that were are in trouble or anything, because that is not the case. But my goodness, we have grown accustomed to this being the norm and we don't like it. We try to make time after the boys are in bed...but with daylight savings and all by the time they are finally down for the count we are absolutely wiped out and just want to veg out or sleep...usually sleep...or just not be bothered by another human being, no matter who it is. We have planned out what we want out morning routine to look like this school year and we are going to set aside 20 minutes between 6:20 - 6:40am to sit and have coffee/breakfast together. Maybe that is a start. We also are looking to hire some trustworthy teenage girl that he can utilize as a somewhat regular sitter, so that we can actually go out on a date. It is a sad fact that I have to sit here and think real hard about when the last time the two of us went out to eat just the two of us.....we did not even do this for our anniversary....our 10 year anniversary and that was more than three months ago....I'm still thinking......I honestly do not know when it was or where we went... So that is pathetic and I am embarrassed about it. We might start doing some "babysit swapping" with our friends the Hubers, where one weekend we watch their kids and the next weekend they watch ours, giving us the chance for both couple to have some non-kid, husband and wife time. I am all for this idea. Does anyone else out there have any great suggestions for what has worked for them? I am all ears.

Well, I better go...Carson is yanking on my shirt sleeve hollering "bite, bite, bite!" Apparently he is interested in some sort of snack.

vacation photos

2007-07-19T14:11:00.001-04:00

PreVacation

2007-07-12T15:56:00.000-04:00

We are going on vacation next week. It took us forever to make a decision where we were going to go and what we were going to do. This is something that takes some careful analysis when you are going on vacation with kids aged 6 and 2. You know, the trip to Vegas will have to wait. DC? They are too young to appreciate….Disneyworld?…not yet! So we decided to keep it simple and just head up north of Chicago so we could go to the Lake Michigan Beach and hit Six Flags Great America. We also are planning to make a stop downtown to see the Shed Aquarium and maybe Navy Pier. We are also taking advantage of the opportunity being “up north” to see our friends the Hochstetlers up in Nappanee. We have not gotten our families together for 3 years this summer! We will visit with them and then head to Chicago.

So we are ready. Not so much physically ready, but mentally ready. I still feel like we have a lot to do to ready ourselves for the trip. We are heading to Wal-Mart tonight with our list.

Before we go…some thoughts.

Jackson got stung by at least one wasp a couple of night ago and his left hand swoll up like an inflated oven mitt. At first we were worried that he might be having an allergic reaction, but the swelling stayed localized.

You know, I absolutely hate dealing with doctors and insurance. It is easily one of my least favorite things to do or even think about. I did this reasearch and discovered this fact: Three of five (62%) of all adults with medical bills or debt problems said they or their family member were insured at the time the debt was incurred. Our lousy insurance, Humana, refuses to pay any money whatsoever for “diagnostic tests”. Doesn’t matter if your doctor (within the network, mind you) declares the tests medically necessary. Humana just says, “we ain’t paying nothing”….because it is “diagnostic”. I am sorry but that is totally asinine and there is no way that insurance companies should be permitted to get away with crap like that. THE DOCTOR DECLARES THAT IT IS MEDICALLY NECESSARY AND EVERYONE INVOLVED IS “IN THE NETWORK”. Doesn’t matter….insurance companies can do what they want and they do. We also will have to switch Kim’s allergy doctor because the doctor refuses to fill out a simple form so that they will join the Humana network. All they have to do is complete some simple paperwork but they are too lazy and now Kim has to find a new allergy doctor even though they have treated her for 10 years. I emphasized how unfortunate that this is to the doctor’s office but they couldn’t care less.

I like how our president can just overrule the legal system and allow convicted criminals who are buddies of his and Dick (Mr. Excitement) Chaney to just skip their prison time and go home without serving a single day in the joint. Yeah, that’s great.

Colts training camp starts in 17 days.

My next digital camera will probably be this one.

I heard on the radio today that you should not buy gas when it is real hot outside because the gas expands when it is hot, so you actually do not get as much for your money as you do when it is more mild.

One more thing...Carse has not demonstrated his ability to take a leak in the potty chair since his one successful event 5 days ago.

TINKLE

2007-07-08T15:49:00.000-04:00

Guess who pottied in the potty chair for the first time ever last night after bath? I guess that is a dumb thing to say given the picture above...It might be awhile before he does it again, as so far today he has shown no interest in it whatsoever and proclaims "NO!" every time we ask him if he wants to sit on it. But we just want to celebrate the small victories since it seems we see very few victories at all!

4 Sport Weekend 2007

2007-07-01T23:10:00.000-04:00

The week in review

2007-06-24T15:44:00.000-04:00

I've had several items that I have wanted to mention in TWN this week and rather than having multiple small posts, I think I'll just out them all together.

Tuesday was an ordinary day, but turned out to be a meaningful day in terms of perspective. I had been at work for about 10 minutes before I discovered that Terry Hoeppner had passed away at the hospital that morning less than a mile from my office. Just the week prior IU had announced that there would be an interm head coach for the 2007 season, due to Coach Hep's continued cancer issues. But nobody expected this. Nobody knew that he was in that bad of shape. But how it hit me was just another example of how we need to live in the moment, because tomorrow is never guaranteed. Live with vigor, enthusiasm, passion, and intense hope like Coach Hep did. I later discovered that Coach Hep and his family have a strong faith (no surprise there) and so I was relieved to know that this is a man who is no longer in pain, but is now with Jesus in His glorious kingdom, and I'm sure that Jesus has told coach: "Job well done". I had learned that a former player had taken communion with him at the hospital just a couple of days before his passing - and a feeling of peace came over me. My prayers are with the family and I know Coach's incredible spirit will live on.

That night I came home and watched Joel Osteen deliver a message of...what else...living in the moment. Joel discussed the fact that only God knows how long we will be here on earth. Most people know that they could be gone and not live to see next weekend, yet they live their lives like it is a certainty that they will live to be 70 or 80 years old. I do not believe that it was a coincidence that I heard this after thinking so much about Coach Hoeppner that morning.

It makes me think of people I know who I pray will someday begin to get this. There is someone I work with - no need to mention names - but this person is grumpy every single day. Never says hello to people. At least this person never says hello to me - ever. Always responds to my question of ""Good morning! How are you?" with a variation of the following: "not good", "um....I don't know", "lousy", or my favorite - dead silence. Smiles about once every three or four weeks. Never inquires about others....you get the picture. And this is someone who is supposed to be a positive role model for the teens in the youth shelter....kinda scary. Anyhow, I pray that people like this will realize that they are choosing to live their lives this way. They do not have to. I'm not saying I understand what their life is like, because I don't. Maybe they could give several good reasons for their negative state. But it is all relative. I am aware of people with terminal illness and other catastrophic things going on in their lives and they are actually happy people. It's amazing. Those people simply have a different outlook on life and choose to live happy and in the moment. I really, really want to do this...and I have some work to do, for those of you who know me well.

Last week I have made every effort to use up the 11 hours of comp time that remained for me. Basically, I needed to use it or lose it since next week (actually starting today) I cannot use it anymore due to my position change at work. For those wondering, my position is the same, but I have moved to 40 hours/week and I am unable to earn comp time. So I took Thursday off and the family went to Leiber SRA for an afternoon of picnicking and swimming. Had a real nice time. It was the first time we had been there, and the pool was alot nicer that we expected. There is a big ol' water slide, diving board, nice sloping shallow area for the younger ones like Carse. Kim didn't utilize the sunscreen and ended up with some red shoulders and back. But we had a great time - here is a picture of the boys.
I shaved off the goatee that I had on my face since December.

Last thing I want to mention is a great message at church today. Fit right in with what I have been thinking all week about Coach Hep and living life to the fullest. Pastor Brice gave a message today that was the first in an eight part series titles "The First Step to Freedom". It is actually a message written by Rick Warren, the Purpose Driven Life guy. Anyhow, a significant part of the message was about recognizing that all people have sinful nature. We all screw up. And there are people who look at other people who mess up and then hold grudges about these people. And judge these people. Take everything personal as if whatever happened was intended to hurt them. It hit home for me because the real issue was about control. And this is a big problem I have is trying to control everything. When I accepted Christ into my life last Fall, I was going through all kinds of stressors and I realized that I cannot continue to try to control everything. I cannot do everything and I should not try to. That was when the real change happened for me. And it is easy to forget it. But I have been gently reminded. We need to let God be God and not try to take care of everything ourselves. He wants to help us and He wants us to ask for His help. But we have to let some things go....relax....follow him....and be at peace knowing that He is in control, not us. He is the only one who is qualified to judge people, because He is all-knowing. We are not all-knowing, even though we often act like it, and we do not have the right to judge others. Wherever we go, whatever we do...there will always be people who have the potential to hurt our feelings and there will be people who will disappoint us....there will always be problems. If we expect to get to a point or a place where this is not the case, we are only setting ourselves up for major frustration in life. And that is a guarantee.

Romans 8:5
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

Terrible Two's: The Peak (I hope it's the peak)

2007-06-16T15:11:00.000-04:00

Today has made it clear to me that we are currently near the peak of those terrible two's with our young little Carson. I think it would be healthy for Kim and I to accept the fact that during this stage we will absolutely not have a tidy house. Not that it usually is tidy, but right now it is just not really possible. Our time at home basically consists of alternating between three things: cleaning up a mess of his, scolding him for hitting someone, or redirecting him from doing something that places him in immediate danger. That's pretty much it. We are having some recent difficulty with him getting objects from something and then hiding them elsewhere. For example, I am in the beginning stages of growing a Grisly Adams beard because he seems to have hidden the charging cord for my shaver somewhere. I have looked all over this house and driven myself nutso looking for it. Hope he didn't throw it in the trash. Oh yeah, the TV remote....it's missing too. You know it's hard telling what he might have put in our trash and we have thrown out without even knowing it. He also has developed a big-time fascination with all light switches. He will make flat-out certain that all lights and fans are on in our house at all times. And the refrigerator....absolutely will not keep it closed or stay out of it.

We got back from the drive-in last night around 2am - went to see Shrek: the Third and Spiderman 3. We had not been to the drive-in forever and neither of the boys had ever been. We were skeptical about it, primarily not knowing how Carse would do, but overall it worked out pretty good. Anyway, even though we got him in bed about 2am, he still was up climbing in our bed and laughing at 7am as if he had been asleep for twelve hours. You all know that once your toddler wakes up - you are up. Don't matter how tired you are or how glad you are that it is finally the weekend and there was a 5% chance that you could sleep in until maybe 8. You are up. A few days ago while he was still i his crib, Saturday mornings meant he would lay in his crib after he woke up and sing us a few songs and stuff while we dozed a while longer, but now he is jumping up and down on us like we are human trampolines and kicking us in the face.

Maybe in a year or two we can start living in a house that does not look like a tornado went through it.

Carse says bye-bye to the crib

2007-06-12T11:27:00.000-04:00

During the middle of the night Sunday night, Carson wakes up and decides to climb out of his crib. Typically when he wakes up during the night, he immediately starts whimpering...and he has never tried to get out of his crib. Well, all of a sudden we hear a load crash through the monitor and then crying, and then he comes trotting into our bedroom just as we are beginning to realize what has happened. He seemed fine and fell asleep in our bed moments later. We put him back in bed after a little while and then in the morning when I go to wake him up I see the huge black eye. He looked like Rocky Balboa after a fight with Apollo Creed.

So needless to say after I got home from work last night I converted his bed into a toddler bed. He actually did fine with it last night and only got up once and Kim used the SuperNanny technique and he went to sleep after just a few minutes. So in a span of about 5 weeks, he has reached a couple of real nice milestones in saying farewell to his pacifiers and his crib.

Also, I wanted to mention that I have been playing with this new photoediting software....check the previous post of Jackson's graduation and see what I did with the picture of him in from of the garden at school. Here is a picture of Carson from October, 2005. I always thought his eyes were a brilliant blue color in that particular shot, so I decided to play with it and here is what I came up with.

I think the thing that is really cool about this is that those shades of blue are not edited in any way. Those are the actual colors from the original photograph.

the graduate

2007-05-31T20:43:00.001-04:00

Jackson's kindergarten graduation was great. I think it means that he is officially not a little boy anymore. He will be a big, bad first grader next! He was a little nervous, but did very well and made his Grandma, Maam, mommy, daddy and little brother real proud of him. All the graduates got to say a little line during the during the program and Jackson said his just fine: " I like to learn about science, and birds and bugs!". Here is is holding up his diploma right after the ceremony.

I was fortunate enough to be able to capture this tender moment between mother and son...

awesome stuff, right there!

Doug E. Carson

2007-05-25T22:11:00.000-04:00

So the fam is all having fun watching the American Idol finale on Wednesday night and when Jackson's favorite contestant Blake Lewis showed up on stage with Doug E. Fresh, our eyes were glued to the TV. After watching for a few moments in delight, we notice that Carson slips out of the living room and appears about 15 seconds later looking like this and grooving to the beatboxers!

I'm telling you, the Carse-man is going to be quite the entertainer.

our boys...

2007-05-15T11:25:00.000-04:00

they're so awesome!

A day at the track (2007)

2007-05-09T07:43:00.000-04:00

Some of you might remember that last year, I took Jackson to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first time and I took a few minutes to add it to TWN. Tuesday provided another great chance to go back to the track...it was the first day that all drivers were able to practice and I already had the day off due to primary elections. Even though last year was a little shaky for Jackson when we went, he stressed to me that he really wanted to go this year - that he was almost 6 six and that the noise would not bother him as much. There was no chance of rain to I picked him up from kindergarten and we headed for the track. We had a great time. It turns out that a year made quite a bit of difference for him! Yes, he still got a tad whiney as we sat in the stands for part of the day, but after we got to the turn 3 infield grassy area we got more comfortable. Here are a couple of the better photos.

Then in the evening, Jackson had a baseball game, here he is making a great hit!

2007-04-23T21:40:00.000-04:00

My last post was three weeks ago. It is getting harder and harder for me to make time to post on here. Work has been a real challenge and it just seems like every single day, weekends included are jam-packed and I am completely exhausted by 9pm, when I generally take the time to post. I am pooped right now but I made myself get off the couch and sit down at the computer. There are several things that i would like to post on so hrer goes.

Thanks to my Aunt Frannie for sending the pics of little Brennen. I don't get too many contributions, so when I do I want to make sure I get them on here. Sounds like the little furry headed one is doing fine, although he did go through a rough time and needed 2 surgeries in less than a week for a narrow passage leading out of his stomach. Sounds like things were fine after the second surgery and he has really started eating now that he is digesting properly. This picture was taken at Easter, right after his surgeries. Awwww!

I also wanted to make sure I put on here the interesting evening with Carson about a week ago. We were sitting there having dinner, tacos, black beans and corn, and then Carse started acting funny. We quickly realized that he had crammed a piece of corn in his nose! We got a kleenex and he quickly blew it out on the first blow. We thought that was all there was to it but then 5 minutes later he is acting funny again and we had watched him close to make sure that he didn't do it again. We get to looking and he has another kernal shoved even further up there. It was so far up there that we couldn't even see it every time we looked. It was like it was moving around in there. Well, then he decided that he would not be blowing his nose any more. So Kim and I were thinking this piece of corn was going to cost us a trip to the ER and several hundred dollars. He got increasingly irritated and so did we. Finally, Jackson saved the day. Jackson blew his nose in front of Carse and we just praised and praised him and did hugs and high fives. Carse immediately looked jealous so we quickly got a kleenex up to his nose and BLAST! He blew and the kernal shot out like rocket into the Kleenex. I was so dang happy to see that piece of corn out of his nose. Check out the visual documentation.

What else....well Kim and Carse both had visits to the ENT doctor and left with not great news. Kim has a nasal polyp and Carson has already lost one of his ear tubes. On the bright side, surgery is not an immediate requirement for Kim....she will try other techniques to deal with it and try to pacify it. I'm sure that she is real happy that I am discussing her nasal polyp for all to know...The other major part to this is that the ENT doctor says that Cosmo must leave our house. He needs to live elsewhere or become an outdoor cat. Not sure how this will play out. He is a big wimp and we're not sure he will do alright as an 11 year old first time outdoor kitty. We will see what happens. As for Carson, his left tube is out, and has likely been out for a month or so. the drum has sealed back shut and there is some fluid buildup behind the drum. There is no infection right now, but it still is not great news. We got what, 7-8 months out of the tube in his left ear. Right ear still has a tube.

Tee-Ball has started back up. Jackson's second and final year of tee-ball. He is doing great so far and enjoying it. There are not many second year players on the team so he kinda stands out right now. We are the A's and it sure bring back some memories for me. I was on the A's for two years in Little League so it is cool to see my little Jackson sporting the A's hat and playing baseball.

Work has been a real challenge of late....I basically go in there and bust my tail all day long, often tooo busy to stop for lunch, and then when I leave there is still 12 unattended things on my to-do list. I just cannot catch up. I did get a really good eval and my bosses are making every effort to increase my hours (and subsequently my salary). I hate to spend another 5 hours a week at work instead of home, but we need the money and I need the extra time at work in order to be capable of doing my job properly. But we will have to wait and see if it gets approved by the County Council. With all the HR stuff I have been doing...screening applicants, doing interviews, checking refs, initial orientation and employment paperwork, and then initial training....bottom line is that it is keeping me from doing all the things that I really need to do.

OK, I'm tired and ready to zone out.

2007-04-02T07:44:00.000-04:00

Spring Break is officially over. I've got to head back off to work in about 35 minutes. Before I go, I wanted to take the chance to post some pictures from our Spring Break in Gatlinburg. We had a great time. Our cabin, Bear's Hideaway, was the coolest one we have ever stayed in. Here is a picture of it.

It did not have the view that we had last year, but it was private, but much closer to all the fun stuff in Pigeon Forge. It basically had everything we wanted. We went to the Rainforest Adventures Zoo, which was a new experience for us. We enjoyed it, especially Jackson who got a kick out of all the reptiles and lizards. Carson really seemed to enjoy the lemurs.

Of course we ate at Applewood restaurant again. Very awesome food again. That place is special. We went to Cade's Cove, but saw very few wildlife this time....a little disappointing, but nonetheless a beautiful experience, as always. We also went to Christus Gardens, which was basically a wax museum that had many different scenes from Christ's life.

Not long after we got set up in the cabin we discovered that Carson could climb out of the pack-n-play, which created a wrinkle in our sleeping arrangements. The cabin had an awesome loft with a king bed overlooking the main level, but we felt like we needed to sleep in the main level bedroom with Carson so we would know if he climbed out of the P & P during the middle of the night. We were worried about him trying to climb up the spiral staircase or go down the stairs to the gameroom. He never did climb out during the night, though. Here is a shot of little Carse enjoying the rocking chair on the upper level deck.

One of the other highlights for the boys was feeding the ducks during our picnic in Gatlingburg.

Well, I got more to say, but I better get to work...Can you sense the excitement in my words? One more shot though...here is our family vacation portrait at the cabin 5 minutes before we left. As you can see, Carson we real excited about it.

2007-03-03T09:29:00.000-05:00

This week we bought this 2006 Pontiac Vibe! So far we love it and feel like we made a good purchase. We traded in our Montana minivan, and it feels good to not have to worry about it anymore. We had the Montana nearly three years and overall we were a little disappointed with it. I got to where I just did not like to drive it. The handling was terrible, it was not great on gas, and all the aggravation that we were having with the electrical problems such as the fuel gauge being defective, and the power locks not working properly. It also had a terrible heating and cooling system....ugh!! The Vibe is nice, though....I feel like we got a good deal on it from National Car Sales. I had been researching cars in this class for awhile, looking at the Toyota Matrix, Ford Focus wagons, and such....We decided that we liked the Vibe. We visited three different dealerships and test drive three different Vibes and the one that you see above was the one for us. You hate to sign up for a car that you will have to pay on for so long when you are on the verge of paying off the van, but the van was not a long term vehicle, whereas the Vibe is.

We went through a couple of lousy experiences at the two other dealerships. The first place we went to was Westgate in Plainfield right beside Kohls. That place is terrible - we wasted alot of time because we had to fill out a credit request and test drive the Vibe before we even had any kind of clue what they wanted for it. Then the dude who was the "sales boss" was basically a slimeball and was not straight up with us at any point whatsoever after he came in the "close the deal". Then was went to Hare on the Westside off of 38th street to see their advertised Vibe specials of "11,900".....well, that was with 2000 down, which we were going to do anyway. But that means the actual list price was 13900 and the 2000 down "made" it 11900, according to the salesman. I said: "Ummm, doesn't that make the price of the vehicle 13,900?" He says, well, actually, yes.....Then I said "Then why was it advertised for 11,900?". After the test drive, Kim noticed that the front bumper was messed up in three places, so that was the end of that since I was ticked anyway about the deceit that had occurred. So we went to National and bought the one we wanted, straight up, no deception, no games, no pressure.

For all these people that make a living selling cars: Do everyone a favor and avoid the deceit. It ticks people off. Tricks and small print games simply tick people off. Just be straight up and don't waste your time and the customer's time.

2007-02-19T10:31:00.000-05:00

Winter Wonderland

I took the above picture while driving to work on February 14. This is 231 between our house and Spencer, heading south. We got a bunch of ice and then ended up getting about 7-8 inches of snow over that. Schools were canceled pretty much all week and we were concerned about losing our power, but that fortunately never happened.

Then we got another 4 inches on Saturday the 17th, and decided that it was time to take Jackson and Carson sledding for the first time...here are shot shots from this adventure. He had a great time. Jackson couldn't get enough of it, and Carson mainly wanted to eat the snow.

2007-02-14T22:43:00.000-05:00

Here is a Valentine's Day card Jackson made for us.

Here is the card I chose to give to Kim today. I'm such an idiot.

And here is one of the first pictures of Lisa and Dan's litttle guy, Brennen.
Congratulations! What an amazing blessing from God!

2007-02-07T21:36:00.000-05:00

On Sunday, February 4th 2007, The Indianapolis Colts won the Super Bowl.

They beat New New England Patriots, yeah that "dynasty", to get there. Of the twelve teams in the playoffs this year, the Colts defense allowed the fewest yards per game than any other. Including of course Baltimore, New England and Chicago. I looked it up, and these three teams I just mentioned ranked 1, 2 and 3 in the league in defense (lowest points allowed per game) during the course of the 2006 season. We beat them all.....defense wins championships? Yes it does, because this year in the playoffs, as I just mentioned, the Colts defense allowed fewer yards per game than any other team. We won with defense. We won with smashmouth football...line em up and run it down your throat. Remember when people said the Colts were a finesse team and dare we say "soft". I remember. Remember when people said Manning was a loser in the playoffs and could not win a "big game"? I remember. Remember when people said "oh the Colts are a dome team.....they will never win in the elements, especially not against a physical team." Well, let's see, it rained the entire Super Bowl and the wind was blowing at times. And I don't know abut you, but in my book the Bears qualify as a "physical team". I think all of these types of statements were absolutely, without question, proven false - as in very false. Oh it feels good. It felt good enough to go downtown when the temperature was 6 with a -8 wind chill to party with the Colts after they arrived back to Indianapolis from Miami. Judson and I went to rock out the dome and just say "Thanks" the only way we knew how.

I took this picture, without the zoom, from our seats in the upper level.

There are alot of things that are cool about this. First of all, the Colts won with class. This is a group of guys who are stand up men, Christian men, who you feel proud to cheer for. Their leader, Tony Dungy, is a guy who you cannot help but respect. A real team by every sense of the term. The first major professional championship ever by an Indianapolis team. All the adversity and tragedies faced...Dungy.....Wayne....Brackett. It teaches us to work through adversity towards our goals, with God there guiding us. He will take care of us if we follow Him. This season was orchestrated by the Lord, especially the last two games. Miracle comeback vs. New England. Then a come-back win against the Bears in the Super Bowl. The biggest play of the game was clearly the INT return for a touchdown by Kelvin Hayden. You cannot tell me God didn't have a hand in keeping Hayden's heel from being 1/4 inch farther out and onto the sideline. The replay and subsequent review of the play showed clearly that he did not step out.....but check out this picture and how close it was....God's work.

For the first time ever, the season is over and there is no disappointment with the result. That is a strange feeling, but I'll take it, because I may never experience that about my team again.

2007-01-24T16:33:00.000-05:00

Are you kidding me? The Colts not only won the biggest game in the history of the Indianapolis Colts, but they were came back from a deep 21-3 hole. Manning had just thrown a pass that was picked off for an easy TD for New England and the whole world was thinking "Here we go again. The Colts just cannot beat this team in the playoffs. Manning can't do it - he choked again". I don't care what you say, everyone was thinking it at that point. But they came back....somehow.....It's hard to really even describe how....but they did. Addai scored a TD with a minute left, and then Marlin Jackson picked off Brady with 20 seconds left and they did it. This game was basically a miracle. The Hubers were over and we were going nuts...our phone was ringing off the hook. I remember tossing Jackson up in the air. I remember holding Emma up in the air....I remember running down the hallway...I remember shoving Judson Huber out of excitement. So the Colts are going to the Super Bowl. It's so crazy how it happened. I recorded it onto my hard drive, so if anyone wants a copy, let me know and I may be able to burn it once I edit out the commercials.

Check out this picture of offensive coordinator Tom Moore on the sidelines by himself after the game...What an awesome picture.

2007-01-20T09:17:00.000-05:00

I had quite the scare this week. Good thing that I happened to be talking to God at the time, because He was right there with me and kept me safe.

I was heading to work Tuesday morning, and we had gotten a bit of a dusting of snow during the early hours of the morning. It was one of those deals where it was windy and the snow was swirling around on the roads. I was about 30 minutes into my 40 minute drive to work and was just getting ready to merge from 46-east to 37-south, right there in Bloomington. I was behind 2-3 other vehicles and nobody was immediately behind me. Suddenly, my back end swung out from behind me. I was going about 55 mph. I turned into the slide and it quickly swung back around to the right. From there, it’s kinda hard to remember exactly what happened but I ended up coming to a stop with my back wheels off the road and my front wheels on the shoulder of the road and it was stalled. Slowly 3-4 cars came up on me and checked to see it I was alright and I stuck my hand out the window and gave them a thumbs up. Then I went to work and changed my pants. I had kept putting off getting new tires for the Jeep and I think this was God’s way of letting me know that I had better get that taken care of immediately. Needless to say I get a new set of tires the next day on my lunch break. Honestly, that could have been pretty bad. Anytime you lose complete control of your vehicle going 55 mph on a highway during the morning rush and hit absolutely nothing – you must consider yourself blessed.

So we have the Colts and Patriots facing off tomorrow evening in the AFC championship. It is the first time that such a game has been played at the RCA (Hoosier) Dome. This is our time. It is the biggest Colts game ever. I have been excited all week. Manning vs. Brady. Dungy vs. Belicheck. We have heard for years (justifiably so) that the Colts cannot win the big game. Manning can’t do it. Dungy can’t do it. The Colts are soft. Defense wins championships. Can we please just shut everybody up….finally? It is amazing that as good as we have been over the last 4-5 years that we have never made it to the Super Bowl. It is time for that to change. Another disappointment would be devastating to the franchise.

2007-01-10T09:14:00.000-05:00

Kim and I declared 2007 as the year we get our act together. By January 9, we felt like we were right back to reality and chaos in our home.

Maybe that is evident by my lack of recent postings. There has been alot to post about, but little time to do it. I am home with the boys right now, as they are both recovering from round 2 of the stomach bug that they experienced at Christmas time. Now that they have been back at school and daycare, they have picked it right back up Jackson woke up after going to bed last night and puked, luckily he made it to the torlet. Carson wakes up every night during the night at least once now. Not sure what the deal is with that. We took him to Dr. Schechter on Monday and NO EAR INFECTION. That is a foreign concept to us, so we were surprised, must have been some stomach aches or maybe his teeth coming in (molars).

Here is Carson on his actual 2nd birthday, January 1, 2007. He is enjoying the fact that we are singing happy birthday to him. He can't wait to get into that homemade cake that Mommy made for him.

Last Saturday we had Carson's 2nd birthday party. He got a bunch of cool stuff and more Thomas train stuff, which he thoroughly enjoys right now. Here are some pictures:

After the party, Tom & Alex and Mom & Dad stayed to watch the Colts defeat the Kansas City Chiefs in the first round of the playoffs. We we surprised by the absolutely amazing performance of the Colts defense, which stifled Larry Johnson for only 35 yards. The Chiefs did not get a first down until it was nearly the end of the third quarter. Here is a shot of Alex and Jackson with all of their Colts garb on. Notice the "Lucky Colts Beads".

Let me get this posted......more later.

2006-12-27T22:14:00.000-05:00

Christmas is over. I probably should not be writing my first post in nearly three weeks at this particular time. I have a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth right now, so just be aware of this and take whatever comments I make with a grain of salt, alright?

We do not take elaborate trips for vacations. A big "vacation" for us is making the seven hour drive down to Gatlinburg for some time in a cabin in the Smokie Mountains. Alot of time we just stay home while on "vacation" and that's fine by me, honestly, as long as I do not even have to think about work the entire time. Having said that, supposedly I am on "vacation" right now. Now, I know good and well that a vacation for me at this time of year is not going to include a trip, and it is definitely not going to be a vacation where I do not have to worry about work. Why? Because it is the holidays. And that means that we are short staffed, everyone wants (expects) me to figure out a way for them to not have to work. This years holiday scheduling for me had been the most difficult of the 8 previous "holiday schedules" I have created since 1998. Unexpected personnel changes in the weeks just prior to Christmas have been the predominate reason why. I worked as the evening RC on December 23rd (while I was on vacation which supposedly started on Dec 20). And the entire time since I stepped out of the office on Dec 20, I have been worried about our schedule for at least on reason. I keep checking my YSB email (Kim says: "Why would you check your work email while you are on vacation?" - and of course I just think how I would love to not have to worry about it, but it is an absolute fact that I have to worry about it) and every time I do this while I am on vacation I just clinch my teeth because I just end up becoming aware of additional staffing/scheduling problems that I must deal with.

I just want (and i believe really NEED) a vacation where I am not constantly stressed. I mean, the holidays do that anyway, but add into it the constant worry about the shelter schedule and the only thing making it a vacation is that I am not physically in the office.

.......why am I putting all of this on here? I have no idea. I know that anyone reading this is probably on here because they want me to post how Christmas was and really has no interest in my aggravation with work issues. And that's fine, of course.....

Christmas....I have to be honest. This was the strangest Christmas I can remember. Do you want to know the first thing I did Christmas morning? Usually, I am woken by exclamations and announcements that Santa had indeed visited our home. Well, I slept absolutely terribly Christmas Eve night and when I finally did get out of bed first at 6:20am, the first thing I did walk walk quickly into our bathroom where I proceeded to puke my guts out. Kim and Jackson had already vomited on Christmas Eve, so it was my turn. Carson's bout with the illness was earlier in the week when he vomited an entire and intact McDonald's french fry on the living room floor. I could not for the life of me figure out how a 2 year old can swallow a 5 inch french fry without damaging the structure of it // Time out - I just had to take a few minute break from writing this because Jackson came out of his room with a worried look on his face and told me that he just had a bad dream. I picked him up and held him on the couch for a few minutes and then I asked him if he got scared about something and he said: "Well, Goldie and Marvin got shot. Some hunters broke into our house and shot them". (Goldie and Marvin are our goldfish). I look at him and was somehow able to keep from laughing and said to him:"Well, it was just a dream....Daddy's here and everything is alright, buddy."// Okay back to the story. So Carse was just recovering from his stomach flu and Jackson puked first thing Christmas Eve morning. Then Kim puked during the Day on Christmas Eve and then I hurled first thing Christmas morning. I'll tell you, for the first twelve hours of Christmas Day I felt like total crap...Nauseous, Headaches, no energy, no appetite, and of course not FESTIVE! That was awful for both Kim and I to feel terrible on Christmas and Jackson was better but not 100%. By the time we went over to mom and dad's in the evening, we both really started to feel better. It was also weird because for the first time in the 16 (total) years that Kim and I have been together we were not at Kim's mother's on Christmas eve, as she was in West Virginia.

So between the whole family being sick, not being with Kim's family at all, and me worrying the entire time about work issues, it really was a strange Christmas. Despite me feeling like dog-crap, I did get a couple of decent pictures from Christmas morning at our house, after the discovery that Santa had been there. Here they are:

Here is Carse running around after the great discovery. I love the expression. Notice how Santa knocked out one of the logs from the fireplace!

Carson enjoying the moment as we opened presents after S.C. had already come.

Here is Jackson checking out the stuff from Santa...I think he is looking at a treasure map from his "Pyrates" legos.

Here is Mr. Jackson sporting the new Spiderman robe we got him.

2006-12-09T10:10:00.000-05:00

We took the boys to see Santa at Metropolis in Plainfield last night.

2006-11-24T09:13:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving from Jackson and Carson Whited

2006-11-21T16:48:00.000-05:00

I have had a “crick” in my neck for six days. Usually when you sleep on your neck wrong, it lasts for what, a day or two? So I don’t know if my neck is broken or what…

“I feel that your management skills need some adjustment”. This is what a (now) former employee stated to me in an email today. She had just blown off a shift on Sunday and had not make any contact with anyone whatsoever until today when I got the email. This is someone who had done this once before a few weeks ago and everyone was calling for me to fire her, and I chose not to. Instead I gave her a second chance and put her on probation. So when this young 21-year-old indicated this today, I felt the need to reply with the following: “I agree that my management skills need some adjustment. I certainly make mistakes. For example, I absolutely should have fired you the first time your lack of responsibility put our team in this kind of crisis situation. You may have heard the old saying, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me".

Remember when George W. Bush made this reference? Hopefully I did not flub it up as bad as he did (check out the very last scene of Fahrenheit 911).

Anyone want to work at a Youth Shelter? Give me a holler if you would and I’ll try to hook you up.

Apparently, my father fell of the roof of the house while hanging up Christmas lights? Mom said that he hurt his arm/shoulder pretty bad, but he refuses to go get checked out by a doctor, even though he has been having to walk around with his hand in his pocket to hold his arm up. Anyone ever wondered where I get some of my profound stubborness?

2006-11-16T08:04:00.000-05:00

STAR STUDENT

The Whiteds have a new celebrity in the family. Mr. Jackson Whited was selected as a star student of the week at Cloverdale Elementary school for October 30-November 3. He brought home a "Star Student" license plate holder, and a coupon for a free Frosty from Wendy's. Of couse Jackson has handled all of the publicity in a humble manner, announcing "I'm really not that famous" after dinner last night.

2006-11-09T14:21:00.000-05:00

I love it when people submit stuff. Here is a photo of Alex, all set for Halloween. Thanks Tom!

Also, I wanted to mention that I found out yesterday that Lisa and Dan have discovered the sex of the baby................it's a BOY! (although my mother could not immediately recall the name....a little help here, anyone?)

2006-11-07T10:38:00.000-05:00

Can someone remind me again why we got a dog?

2006-11-06T19:19:00.000-05:00

I have been the commisioner of a fantasy football league for 10 years now. I started out in the early days back when I had to gather everyone's stats on Sportcenter and from the newspaper and calculate everything myself. Anyhow, I posted the following message on our league website this evening:

Well, I made a decision today. And I'm OK with it. This is going to be the last year for the Gosport Enigmas. I can't do this anymore. Obviously this means that I will no be the commisioner after 2006, so if you all want to continue with the league I'm sure you will do just fine without me.

I can't simply enjoy football for what it is anymore. It's too complex. As much as I love NFL football, fantasy football is draining all the joy out of it. Anyone that knows me knows that I am a big time competitor. And I'm a sore loser. It's a fact and I admit it. And I just cannot continue to go through this.

Just consider this and maybe you will begin to understand: After losing my 3rd straight yesterday, it brought back serious Deja Vu. I started out 6-0 this year, now three straight losses. So I went back and checked every game of the last four seasons. Here is what I found: my cumulative record starting out these four seasons is 29-5. My record to close out these four seasons, including playoffs, is 4-17. Now how does that happen? Every season? I don't know and it doesn't matter anymore. What I do know is that I cannot invest myself in this anymore.....Combine that with all the headches of being a commisioner and it's just something I would be better off not having to endure. My family deserves to have a husband and a father on Sunday and Monday nights, not a sressed-out lunatic who looks at the computer every minute-and-a-half.

So......I'll finish out the season as the Enigmas and the commish, of course. I'll do my best to collect the remaining prize money and hand it over to Smashmouth after week 16. At this point, though.....I am in the red so there may be no prize money.....Hope Smashie can accept that. Thanks everyone for all the memories, good and bad. Let me know if there might be anyway for me to help with transitioning to a new commish for 2007.

2006-11-03T18:58:00.000-05:00

I'm getting worse and worse about posting on here. Time is just flying by. It seems like I just have less and less time for The Whited News. By the time we get the boys to bed every night, Kim and I are both just completely exhausted and all we want to do it just grab our blankies and fall alseep on the couch with Dancing With The Stars or The SuperNanny on the TV.

We have been more involved with stuff though. We have been doing "small groups" through church with the Hubers and the Teipens and have enjoyed that very much. I have been going to Praise and Worhip band rehearsals on Thursday nights at the church and Jackson has been going with me lately. It looks like I will be alternating on the drums every other week with DeeDee. This past Sunday was the second time I have played for the service. It was great. I'm getting alot of comments about it and it has been something I have really enjoyed. For years I have wanted to play drums again, but it is completely different this time around. In high school, I just thought I was the bomb - to be honest. As conceited as that is, it's the truth. It was all about me and I just tried to overpower the band with my drumming. The Cloverdale High School band was not very good, we had poor direction , and I was just looking after me, basically. I will admit it. Now, it's a totally different story. This is for God. I'm playing with some extremely talented musicians. Brice told me that I would probably never play with a better band and I think he is right. I am basically trying not to screw things up. I want feedback. I want direction. It's a total 180.

Halloween was a fun night. Jackson was a Star Wars Stormtrooper and Carson was a little doggie. We went to the church for games and treats and then to Sheila Brinkman's, then to the American Legion to see Ma'am and Pap, then to Marie's, and finally to Kogers. I snapped some pictures. Here they are.

2006-10-12T15:49:00.000-04:00

Many of you know the about the great things that have been happening to Kim and I and the boys through the glory of God. In the past month, we have rededicated our lives to Christ, gotten baptized, and joined the church. A number of things that we have been searching for and hoping for over the course of the last few years have happened very quickly for us, and it has been wonderful. Overall, I think I can speak for Kim when I say that we feel rejuvenated, more focused, less stressed, and it’s just as though we have a comforting assurance from the Lord. I may have mentioned in a previous post that we were baptized on October 1, and the service was just a wonderful experience from beginning to end. We had family members there to support us, the church was embracing us with love and excitement…..it was great.

Then the wheels came off at church 3 days later. Real bad.

Without going into much detail, I guess I’ll just say that there was a huge division in the church that was proposed by the senior pastor, in which 2 wonderful Christian people who both have a huge (and I mean gigantic here) role in the church, would be dismissed for reasons, as described to us directly by these two people, were unwarranted reasons. Niether of these two people had done anything morally wrong or unbiblical to warrant their dismissal. It was all about, it seems, personality differences with the senior pastor. I have since done a significant amount of research on church conflict and divisions, and numerous accounts support the following concept:

The true shepherd of the church will be the one who seeks to keep the church together. He will not initiate a split as a solution. He will seek to settle the legitimate issues, while maintaining his focus on the higher issue of Christ-centered unity.

So this helps clear up what is really a complex situation – for me. We attended an emergency church informational meeting on 10/10, in which one person after another stood up and voiced their emotional displeasure with the senior pastor in regards to direct encounters that they had had with him. The deacons of the church each spoke about a meeting that recently took place in which the senior pastor and elders asked the deacons to sign a form authorizing the termination of these two employees. It was clear that most of the deacons were very opposed to signing such a form and did not agree with it or how this was being handled. I could go one and on, but the bottom line is that right now, nobody knows what is going to happen. The senior pastor has cleared out his office and as a result the church thought that he had resigned, but apparently that is not the case.

This has just been tough on us for several reasons. For this to happen immediately after we made this strong commitment to the church is rough. And we have very strong opinions about one of the staff members who was to be fired. This guy is a great Christian. He leads the Praise and Worship music team, and invited me to come in and play some drums for the group. I have wanted to play the drums again for the longest time, and to have a chance to do it for the glory of God was just an opportunity that I felt very blessed to have. He is very inspiring just by being himself, and we find it outrageous to think of terminating him. His wife also is a teacher at the church, and was actually Jackson’s preschool teacher last year. She really did a good job with Jackson and the rest of the class. The kids love her. Jackson would come home and talk about what she taught him about Jesus that day was very influential on us going to the church in the first place.

Anyhow, it is a long story. And it is a real mess right now. But we are just praying for God’s will to happen, and we have faith in that.

2006-10-02T16:11:00.000-04:00

What a great weekend...Really does it get much better than this last weekend? Friday night: new members banquet for the church. It was really neat to get together for this and meet with the oter members of the church and the new members. Then Saturday was we had Mom and Dad and Tom and Alex down to our place to celebrate Tom and Mom's birthday. It was great weather, a nice Fall day, and we just had a nice day. Then Sunday, Mom & Dad, The Hubers, Sheri, Larry Suz and Payne came to second church service to see Kim and I get baptized (or as Jackson says "babatized"). What an experience. What a service or worship/prayer and Pastor Steve delivery a wonderful message from God. I just cannot say enough about this weekend. We are so blessed.

The following are pictures taken in our backyard on Saturday afternoon September 30, 2006.

2006-09-28T07:33:00.000-04:00

Man, two weeks since a post...

I have really been busy at work. This week things have slowed down a little. But I went through a 2-week stretch there where it was pretty rough. Pretty much every minute of every day was spent trying to get something done. I interviewed several, hired 2 new people, then did their orientation and initial training, as well as taught a CPR class, and First Aid class, you get the picture....so not much time for TWN.

So it's not that nothing is happening. Actually, there are some big things happening with our family. No - we are not having baby #3. Kim and I have been doing some spiritual searching for quite some time now. We have said for a long time that we would like to find a good church for our family to attend regularly and perhaps join. One that is kid friendly and vibrant. We think we have found what we have been looking for since back when we lived in Ellettsville. New Providence Baptist Church. There is quite a bit to the story of how we got to this point, but we have finished three weeks of membership classes, met with the Pastor and some Elders and Deacons, and we have recommitted our lives to Jesus Christ. We will be going to a New Members banquet tomorrow evening. Kim and I are going to baptised on Sunday. Hey, this past Sunday I sat down at a drum set for the first time in probably 14-15 years on the stage of the church and started jamming. It was like riding a bike. Man, it felt good. I am going to the Praise and Worship rehearsal tonight at 7pm. Now, I think they have at least 2 other drummers, so there really may not be much of a need for me, but I want to be involved and I believe this is one of the ways that God is working to get me to engage and meet other church members and be involved in what is going on there. So God is doing some cool things. We are praying everyday, we are reading our bibles. Heck, I downloaded some Contemporary Christian music off Wal-Mart.com yesterday! We just feel that God has been speaking to us for some time now, and He is doing so in a way that is compassionate and patient. If we are not responding to Him then He may find it necessary to capture our attention in a more drastic manner. We are not interested in waiting for that to happen. We have tried to do things "our way" a long time now, and it has been a definite struggle with all of the demands of our lives and giving ourselves more credit than we should about who is in control. The time is now to begin our spiritual walk with Jesus. So far it has been great.

2006-09-13T11:47:00.000-04:00

There really have not been many significant events to share with people, thus the lack of recent postings…..I guess I’ll do the next best thing then….Random thoughts on a Wednesday morning – Straight from the mind of the Publisher:

Why did our President have to talk so much about Iraq when he addressed the nation on the 5th year anniversary of 9/11? Why couldn’t he just honor the victims and celebrate the courage and pride our country showed after the terrible tragedy? Nope – he had to sit there and tell us AGAIN why we invaded Iraq.

That hit that Trent Green took on Sunday was one of the worst I have ever seen in a football game. It made me sick to see hit head snap directly into the ground with that kind of force.

Jackson is obsessed with the new Star Wars Lego 2 video game.

Why is it that every single time that we have a non-routine doctor event/procedure, that we have to go through all sorts of problems with the doctor’s office and the insurance company? They always just point the finger at each other and hope that you run out of energy to either investigate or raise hell about something. I’m not kidding, every single time I have to call and be a jerk to 3 or 4 people just to get the stuff taken care of.

What new items has Roscoe destroyed this week? Another window screen, more glider damage, two small limbs off of our silver maple tree, and he has dug a moat around the boys’ turtle sandbox.

Will the Colts be able to run the ball this year without Edge?

Why do people sit in a job interview with me and say that that want a part-time job where they can work 30 hours a week, and then when they start working it’s like pulling teeth to get them to work 10?

Google Earth is pretty cool.

Positive reinforcement is supposed to be positive. Read this rediculous story.

2006-09-02T13:00:00.000-04:00

After a flurry of postings in early to mid-August, I took a little unplanned hiatus from the Blogging world. No particular reason beyong just beyng bust (like every one else, I guess). I remember reading on someone else's blog one time that it is funny how when nothing is going on in your life, you have all this time to blog, but nothing interesting to say, but then you are busy, there is alot to say but no time to actually post it. This past couple of weeks have been that way.

So here are my ramdom thoughts on a Saturday afternoon as Kim, Carson, Cosmo and Rosco nap - while Jackson plays Ultimate Spiderman video game and I blog:

I'm pissed at one of my two credit card companies: Citi. They suddenly reduced my cash bask rewards for gas, grocery, and drug stores from a nice 5% for a lousy 2%. Almost no point in keeping the card now. I noticed that Citi actually doesn't even offer the divended card anymore - bastards!

For what reason would Cosmo chew all the bark off of our beautiful Bradford Pear tree in the backyard? Whatever that reason is, it is probably the same reason why he has destroyed the screen door from the sliding-glass door and chewed up out brand new beatiful cedar glider on the patio.

How the hell am I going to cover the schedule for three consecutive weeks of overnights in the shelter? Have they approved cloning, yet? If anyone knows, please let me know.

Am I ever going to beat the computer on "All-Madden" level in Madden 2007?

I wonder what Dean Biasucci is doing? Maybe he can come back and kick for the Colts since Adam Vinatieri mangaed to beak his foot in training camp doing conditioning drills.

I can remember a time when I needed the weekend for rest, relaxation and entertainment to get rejuvenated for the work week. It used to be that way. Now it seems like the only way to get my blood pressure down is to go back to work.

We have about five 4-leaf-clovers taped to the inside of one of Jackson's hardcover bible books. It seems like he finds one every 2 or 3 weeks. I don't think I have every found one in my whole life.

2006-08-20T21:45:00.000-04:00

Penneys in July

I have been meaning to get these posted on here. We got these taken at JC Penneys in July. They turned out GREAT. The only thing is, we did not order enough pictures. You see, for those who have not experienced this sort of thing, they make you select your pictures right after they are taken. That means, they put you on the spot while your five-year-old and toddler is in the process of destroying the studio. Here's Kim chasing our kids all over the place, and the staff member is showing me55 great photographs, asking me to select what we want in about 2 minutes and 30 seconds. People are waiting for their pictures to be taken (of course they have kids too, who are about to lose their patience with us) and the staff member is getting sick of showing me pictures over and over and waiting for me to decide what we (I-again, Kim is chasing Carson all over the place). Why is the world they do not allow you to go home and select your pictures in the privacy of your home while your children are napping or watching Jimmy Nuetron, I'll never understand that.

But, as you can see, the pictures themselves turned out great.

2006-08-16T22:54:00.000-04:00

JACKSON'S FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

It's official. Jackson is a big boy now. I can't believe it. Yesterday was his first day of Kindergarten. It went very well and he was super excited about it. You should have seen him standing by the front door several minutes before it was time to leave, backpack fastened tightly to his back. Our whole family was there to walk him into his new school. Carson was waving at people he had never met, As we approached the building Jackson blurts out, unprovoked: "I'm not even nervous at all!".

But once we got in the classroom, you could tell that statement was not really the case...check him out here...I snapped this from across the classroom as the kids and there parents were filing in and addressing Mrs. Baugh. Looking a little nervous here, if you ask me! Check out the look on his face!

So as me, Kim and Carson are saying our goodbyes in the classroom, he covers his face with his pencilbox. We left, realizing the we had one little boy left and we were carrying him. The other son was now a big boy. As I buckled Carson in the van before Kim headed for daycare to drop him off, I mentioned, "Hey Carson, this will be you in only four years". Kim about started crying and told me not to say that - as though I had just said something terrible. But it's true and that might be even more amazing.

2006-08-13T21:26:00.000-04:00

It has been brought to my attention that the last few posts have been lacking good youngster photos. These two pictures will stop that trend!

Here's Carse eating some yummy corn on the cob yesterday, 8/12. Notice it's just his size!

This one was taken this afternoon in the backyard. We think Roscoe will be the size of a horse before too long.

2006-08-12T11:54:00.000-04:00

After months of repeated ear infections, Carson got his ear tubes on Thursday. We drove down to Bedford so that he could get it done sooner. This was an actual surgical procedure, so of course he had to be put under and everything. And, he had to fast since basically dinnertime Wednesday night. This part was tough, because Carse ussually wants his breakfast and his "Uh-Oh" (his drink) as soon as he wakes up in the morning. Since we couldn't explain to him why he could not eat of drink, he we upset and understandabley confused why would would not get him something to eat or drink. Then, the doctor was once agin late and his 11am procedure did not happen until 12:30pm. Everything went fine, though, but the doctor said that there was alot of pus in his ears and that it sure was a good thing that we did it. The toughest part of the whole thing was right after they did it...Carse spent about 20 minutes in recovery and then they brought him to us after he started waking up. They told us that he would likely be upset and they were right on with that. He had a hard cry for well over an hour and there was nothing that we could do about it. They said that he was basically like being drunk and the disorientation and dissiness really tends to upset them when they are that young. Plus, all the crying filled him up with air and he kept arching his back, belching and farting - so that might have been a big part of his discomfort. finally he calmed down, thanks to the light switches in the hospital room. He rather enjoyed turning the lights off and on and that calmed him down finally. Then he ate some mashed potatos and chicken strips, drank some more uh-oh and he was in good shape after that. The transistion from pissed to feeling pretty good was a quick one! A a couple of hours later he was home and acting mostly normal. We just hope that the tubes do not fall out early or the tube could get clogged with junk and be basically usless. The doctor was a little concerned about that happening - maybe clogging is more likely than falling out. But right now it looks like a good thing we did it. Hopefully he will hear better and have much healthier ears!

2006-08-09T13:02:00.000-04:00

I’m starting to get pissed…

I’m not a business guru and I am certainly not an expert on marketing. But I did minor in Marketing back at Ball State University and I would like to think that I did learn at least a little from the many Marketing/Advertising classes that I completed. It helped me to become aware of the tactics that advertisers will use to target people for promoting their products. It helped me to understanding that there are several important issues to carefully consider when marketing your product….because the last thing you want to do is piss off your target audience. Well, I’m getting pissed.

Maybe I should have pursued a career in marketing, because even I know not to do some of the things that these nimrods like Speedway and Rhapsody are doing.

There are two examples that are just flat-out misleading. I think the average person would agree with me on these things.

Let’s start with Speedway….you know, the gas stations. Look, people are already pissed off about the gas situation. It’s getting freaking ridiculous, folks! So what does Speedway do? Well, they have a rewards program, the Speedy Rewards Card. Yeah go ahead and click the link and check it out. Now, up until recently I have been pleased with the rewards program. It’s been a good thing for me. But last week, I’m driving past a Speedway, and notice the large sign on the marquee stating that August was “Double Points month!”….Note that this was on a marquee, and you ain’t gonna find no damn small print on a marquee, right? Right! I did not buy gas that day….but I noticed it, and I decided that I would make even more effort to purchase gas at Speedway for the entire month of August….even if it meant going out of my way a little.

So the next opportunity, I did…..as I was pumping the gas, I noticed several other signs declaring “DOUBLE POINTS on your Speedway card in August!” I finish pumping and as I am pulling away I take a look at the receipt to see just how many points I had earned since I just spent over 40 bucks on their gas. The points earned was NOT DOUBLED! I grumbled something about it to my wife, who gets tired of me being a cheap ass, and I just tried to leave it at that and forget about it. But then yesterday, I get more gas at a different Speedway location – Same damn thing – NO DOUBLE POINTS…..And then it hit me…..I got suckered…..Double points are only for certain items like dried up hot dogs and gross breakfast sandwiches…I don’t know about you, but I am not eager to eat an egg product prepared at a gas station. So SPEEDWAY is on my defecation list.

Then there is Rhapsody….. you know, the music download service. After I got my Sandisk Sansa mp3 player last month (which I enjoy) I accepted the invitation that came with it….a one month free subscription to Rhapsody To Go. This was, after all, a $15 value….The card that promoted the service states (and this is verbatim, folks) “Rhapsody To Go gives you unlimited access to our entire catalogue of over a million songs and lets you take it with you on your Sandisk Sansa for no extra charge”. Let me repeat for those that did not see those last three words: “NO EXTRA CHARGE”. I’m thinking, geez, I’ll load up on songs for the month and then cancel before it has been a full month. Hell, all I have to do is dial 1-866-420-5833 to cancel anytime. This is a no brainer…duh….free month of Rhapsody service….NO EXTRA CHARGE…unlimited downloads…these are the actual words used…..I should have known it was a crock of feces. Turns out there are Additional charges for each and every song downloaded – to the tune of 88 cents each. Now I figured this out just in time before loading my mps player up with a hundred songs – but I could have easily downloaded them with no worry because, as advertised it was a free month of service with unlimited downloads with no extra charge. By the way, I checked out the fine print on the card and it only refer to details about the one-month trial period – nothing about the fact that you still have to pay for downloads…..It’s just stupid….I mean what is the point of having Rhapsody and paying the 15 bucks a month for it? Geez, you can go the Wal-Mart.com and get whatever you want without having to have a subscription!

Nuff said……okay, tell me what you think? Am I being a little unreasonable here?

2006-08-07T23:09:00.000-04:00

I had so much fun posting the Bob Knight golf video, I thought I would also post about one of my other favorite clips. Anyone, like myself, who grew up in the 80's remembers "Always Something There To Remind me" by Naked Eyes. Well, it is my pleasure to present to you, some dumbass named Tony singing...

"Always Sentimental Remind Me"

2006-08-04T13:56:00.000-04:00

We made what has become our annual trip to Ruse-Hulman for Colts camp this past Wednesday. It was 97 degress with a heat index of 105, but we still had a great time. It was me, Jackson, and our great visitor from the North - Todd. This was his first time to Colts camp, and he loves football more than anyone else I know, so he thoroughly enjoyed it. He took his football that Marvin Harrison threw to him after pregame warmups this past season. He was able to get Peyton, Mike Doss, Jeff Saturday, Tarik Glenn, and Dallas Clark to sign it. Obviously 5 quality starters. It was awesome. I was able to get Peyton Manning to sign my Tennessee Vols hat....I bought that Vols hat last year in hopes I could get him to sign it, but no luck last year...So I now have a Colts hat and a Vols hat each signed by Manning - Sweet! See picture below!!!

2006-07-29T23:20:00.000-04:00

When I was in high school, during what I consider the glory days of Indiana University basketball, I was with some friends over at my buddy Mitch Raney's house. He popped in a black market videotape of Bob Knight playing golf and the outakes of a golf show that Knight hosted. When I first saw it I thought it was easily one of the funniest things I have ever seen. This was extremely rare footage and not until recently did I get a chance to see it again, thanks to the wonders of the internet. So without further ado.....I present Bob Knight raw on the golf course.

click here to laugh your ass off

2006-07-25T21:55:00.000-04:00

Check out this little Jackson story...So Saturday night we are having family game night after getting Carson down for the count. We were playing Monopoly Junior for the first time with Jackson (our 5 yr. old). I had developed this routine of telling someone when they would land on my property (and thus be required to buy lemonade) "Thank you for buying lemonade from me today. I sure hope it tastes good on a hot day like today" or something similar. Well, Kim lands on my property and I say: "That'll be two bucks, I sure hope you enjoy it" and Jackson chimes in:

"Yeah, especially since Daddy farted in it before he gave it to you!"

2006-07-20T11:43:00.000-04:00

I want to post about my week off last week – I think I’ll go in reverse order. So let’s start with 4 Sport weekend. Fun as always. We didn’t have Ton-Loc this year, but the replacement was a suitable one. Uncle Billy’s son Roger made his first Four-Sport Weekend appearance and certainly added some fun and entertainment to the festivities in much the same way Tony always does.

He got so drunk Saturday night that when he woke up to play golf at 7am Sunday morning, he was still drunk. This year the event comprised of bowling, the Reds game, golf, and there was swimming for the boys, as well as a little bit of corn-hole competition. What made the weekend a little more interesting and enjoyable was the personal conversations that took place. It was nice to see our family open up a little bit. It was a little more real…I mean, we always have fun, but this year was a reflection that life is not all fun and games. So The Whited News would like to applaud the family for being more open to personal discussions and conversations of real substance.

We also found out, as alluded to in the previous posting of TWN, that Lisa and Dan are expecting their first child in March 2007. How cool is that! We are very eager to meet little Easton Whited when he/she enters the world. This was apparently not the only surprise of the weekend...Alex Whited was "frankly" surprised to discover that Nan was still alive, and had no reservations in disclosing this to her.

The Reds game on Saturday was great despite being a little warm. It was a very close nail-biter that came down to the very last play of the game – a two-out, two-run infield single in the bottom of the ninth to give the Reds a 3-2 win over the Colorado Rockies

2006-07-18T11:19:00.000-04:00

I'll have to make a post later when I have more time about my time off last week, and 4-Sport Weekend, but for now I just had to post about this...

One thing that was really cool about this past weekend is that we found out from Lisa and Dan that they are having their first baby in March. The family is really excited and it was a big topic of discussion over 4-Sport Weekend. So I come to work yesterday morning after being off for a week and I open the following email from one of my co-workers: (By the way, this woman accurately predicted the sex of both of our children and the pregnancy of Carson and has "forcasted" many events for other co-workers....but I had never received an email similar to this from her)

marcus,
for a week and a half i have been seeing "pregnant" around you. did one of your relatives, a sister in law, just find out that they are pregnant? or possibly your wife?

just wondering........
cinda

This was pretty freaky and I about fell out of my chair at work when I read it. I'll post about last week/weekend very soon.

2006-07-15T06:12:00.000-04:00

I have to tell you about a strange encounter last evening. I was out mowing and I look up and Kim is waving for me and pointing at something. I turn off the mower and hop off and she hollers "is that a fox?" I look up and here is this animal wandering around just off the edge of our yard, smelling around in the field. I start walking towards it and it does not seem the slightest bit phased by my approach. I kinda saunters off, heading towards the pond, mostly sniffing around in the field. I continue to get closer and closer until I'm about 15 feet away. I run into the house and grab the camera to get a picture of this creature. I'm thinking it is a fox. It acts disoriented and looked a little skinny to me, at one point just waking around in a short circle over and over. It wanders over to the pond...hops in....swims for 2-3 minutes and them climbs out...shakes off...lays down in the woods and starts grooming itself....Iwalk right over...take a couple of step in the woods...hold out the camera and take this picture.

Can anyone tell me what this creature is? A fox, right?

2006-07-07T12:24:00.000-04:00

I’ve been slipping, huh? It’s just been hard finding time to sit down and write a new post. Here I go…

I’m in a good mood. My vacation starts today. I had taken all the stuff down from my office walls because they are going to paint my office while I am on vacation. It’s going to be a pale green color. That will be better than this boring light gray that I’ve been looking at for the last 8 years. I have spent my morning getting things ready to be off for a week so that I will not have to think about or deal with the Youth Services Bureau until July 17. Updating the work schedule, making appointments for the week that I return, etc. It’s a good feeling.

This will be the first time in awhile that we are really not going anywhere during my week off. We are getting a fence put in the backyard next week, so that Roscoe can be safely secured whenever we need to leave the house for awhile. Roscoe has been a pretty good dog so far. Of course he has chewed stuff up, trampled the gardens, pooped all over the place, dug up 50% of our flowerboxes, you know, dog stuff. We were trying to enjoy dinner on our patio last night and he would not stop jumping up on the table trying to eat our hot dogs and macaroni and cheese, so I put him in the garage so that we could eat in peace. Apparently he was not happy about this and demonstrated his displeasure by taking THREE gigantic dumps in the garage during a span of 20 minutes. He is still only a puppy, but damn those looked like adult human shits. I’m trying not to be too upset about it, since these are things to expect from a puppy. But it does piss me off. He has grown like a sombitch in 6 weeks. See picture below.

It’s been a tough Summer, to be honest with you. It’s tough on Kim. She don’t get too many breaks. Things you try to do for fun like go outside and play turn into stressful situations real quick….trying to manage the behavior of 2 small kids and a puppy outside is not easy – keeping Carse from playing in the dog crap, keeping Roscoe from constantly tackling Carse, keeping Carse from running out to the road, keeping Roscoe from doing somersaults in the flowerbeds, all while trying to play with Jackson to keep him engaged. I’ll tell you, it’s enough to drive you frickin nutso. A few minutes of it and I can’t wait to get the hell back inside.

So this is what I have to look forward to during my (relaxing, right?) vacation. I should be able to leave work by 3:30 or 4:00pm today so we can get this party started!

2006-06-25T20:37:00.000-04:00

This has been one of the longest stretches without a posting on TWN since it’s blog format began nearly a year ago. Whupps! Guess we just been busy like everybody else. Hopefully I didn’t have any of you giving up on me.

We finished up Jackson’s tee-ball season yesterday. It really was a great experience for both Jackson and myself. I’m glad I decided to coach. If I wouldn’t have done it, I would have been wishing I would have every time he had a game and I was just sitting there on the sidelines. I wanted to post some pictures taken during the last game, including Jackson and me with his trophy after the game.

2006-06-02T12:12:00.000-04:00

Here is a big congratulations to the Hubers, longtime friends of the Whiteds, on the birth of their second child, Zane Riley Huber. Zane was born 5/25/06 at 5:48pm. He weighed 7 pounds, 10.3 ounces, and is 20 inches long!

Awesome!!! We cannot wait to see him.

2006-05-28T07:58:00.000-04:00

We've really done it now...

What's the logical thing to do when you are already going nutso and living a life of chaos? Get a puppy, of course! We go into Wal-Mart for a quick visit for diapers and bread and we come home with a puppy. This family was at the entrance to Wal-Mart with a litter of the cutest puppies and we were just not able to resist. His mother is German Shepherd and they think the father is Golden Retriever. He has the calmest personality for a puppy that Kim and I have ever seen. The boys love him and he has been very good with them so far. He spent the first eight weeks of his life with kids and you can tell by his demeanor. Yes, we are crazy, but we think we made a good choice with this particular doggie.

Introducing Roscoe Anakin Whited:

2006-05-25T15:59:00.000-04:00

Kim had me read this article that she got in her regular ArcaMax emailings. As I was reading it, I just kept thinking, "Wow". I was thinking this dude has been spying on me and my family and is writing an article about it! But after I read through the whole things and thought for a few moments about it, I quickly decided that it was one of the best writings I have ever read. Then when I opened up my email this morning at work, I see that Tom sent me a link to the very same article. I've never posted someone else's writing on TWN before, but this is good stuff...

When is Fathers Day?
Mark Brandenburg MA, CPCC

I'd had about as much as I could handle for one day.

My computer was frozen, I was tired from a weekend with too little sleep, and I was working in a yard that would soon need a scythe to manage it. End-of-the-year school activities were crowding an already crowded schedule, and there seemed like no time to relax. When do other people find the time to do all these things?

As I entered my house, I marveled at how sore a human body could get from yard work. I was still annoyed that my kids had left stuff in the backyard after repeated requests to pick them up. And, I'd been noticing that the rest of my family had done their share of relaxing while I toiled in the yard. Where was Fathers Day when I needed it?

I was not ready for any more to be put on my plate. "Honey, will you make dinner?" my wife called from the family room.

A very angry voice appeared in my head, saying things to me which weren't supportive of maintaining a kind, loving family. I considered a few suggestions from this voice, before discussing the dinner plans with my wife. It became clear from this discussion that my wife had her own issues going on.

I swallowed hard, and went into the kitchen to start dinner. The angry voices went with me. "That's some gratitude for you!" I said to myself. "Does anyone notice how hard I'm working? I'm absolutely invisible!" Where was the adoration for a job well done in the yard? Where was the back massage and cold drink that I was so deserving of? (The fantasies of a victim have no boundaries!).

In the drama that played out in my head, I was a hard-working father who did all the right things, and a victim of an unappreciative family. I felt completely justified in blaming my family for not acknowledging me. And of course, by blaming them. I would spread the virus of blame around my family faster than a brush fire. I would feel "right," and I could feel justified in seeing them as "wrong," and as "blameworthy."

Fortunately for me, there was no back massage and no cold drink. There was not even any acknowledgement for a job well done. There was only the realization that I had failed to remember my purpose in my family and on this earth. I had failed to remember that I am not "owed" love by my family. Our job as parents is to discover love as the fundamental fact of life. It is to bring this expression of our love into the world.

Parents across the world have reason to be grateful, for we've all embarked on the world's most complete and intensive course on love. While we may resist it at times, we're called every day to express the deep reservoir of love within us. But sometimes, because we're busy blaming others, we miss the call completely.

Fathers go through periods when they feel "outside" of their family. They feel neglected, or they feel invisible. Or, they feel as though they're simply a "paycheck." But what's really happened is they've forgotten they're not on this planet to "get" love from their family members. They're here to discover the boundless love that's always been in them.

After catching myself in my "victim's dungeon," I began to climb my way out. "Hey, have I got a great dinner cooked up for all of you," I shouted.

And although the response wasn't overwhelming, I didn't even flinch.

2006-05-18T11:00:00.000-04:00

I’m always encouraging people to report interesting news to TWN and I really don’t get many contributions, so when I do I get excited. The following news event is out of Texarkana, Texas. The source was my Aunt Mary Wilson.

AUNT MARY STALKED BY SNAKE

Mary Wilson has endured the last several days under the surveillance of a black racer snake and she has been living in fear of this vicious creature that has posed a legitimate threat to her life. There have been multiple sighting and interactions with this animal since an initial incident occurred several days ago on the property. According to Ms. Wilson, she was in the process of clearing leaves and debris from the edge of their property with her commercial heavy duty leaf blower. Apparently this device is very high power and is strapped to the operator’s back, similar to what the Ghostbusters use to zap ghosts with. As Mary was blowing the leaves off the property, she uncovered a Black Racer Snake described as being about 4 feet in length. Much to her surprise, the power of the leaf blower began lifting the snake of the ground and the animal actually levitated over the ground for a considerable amount of time. As the snake was hanging in the air, Mary was faced with a decision, either to take off the equipment on her back or to just start running. Either way, she knew she needed to get the hell away from the snake as quickly as possible. She elected to leave the equipment on her back and haul ass back to the house (can’t you just envision her sprinting towards the house as fast as she can with this enormous pack on her back?). She reported that she got back to the house, where the Wilster was relaxing with a nice cold beer. After she explained what had happened, the two of them headed back over to the site of the incident and the snake was still there, dazed and confused. The Wilster identified the snake as a Black Racer. A few days later, the same snake was waiting at the end of the driveway near the mailbox as Mary made her daily walk out to get the mail. The snake began chasing her back to the house, but halfway down the driveway took a 90 degree turn back into the yard where it has been stalking her ever since. Mary is considering getting a restraining order against the snake, but is uncertain if a judge would grant this wish regarding an animal. She has asked her Sunday school class to pray for the safety of her and her family as she deals with the crisis and recovers from such a traumatic set of circumstances.

2006-05-12T15:49:00.000-04:00

When I think back to some of my fondest childhood traditions/memories, one of the things that is way up on the list is going to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with my Dad every year to hang out at the track, watch the cars, and have some quality father and son time. Getting to cut school and go to the track was my little treat for having a school year with good grades and good attendance.

Ever since I was a kid, I always thought this would be something I would like to do when I had kids of my own. With Jackson turning 5 just this week, I was thinking that this year would be an appropriate time to start this tradition. I had mentioned it to him a few weeks ago, and he seemed really excited about it. The first day with all veteran drivers was set for Tuesday, May 9th. I talked to my bosses at work on Monday and made arrangements to be off on Tuesday, and checked the weather forecast, which called for sunny skies and 72 degrees. Jackson goes to preschool on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday so he wouldn’t have to miss school on Tuesday. Everything was set…

I didn’t say anything to Jackson about it on Monday evening, just in case the weather forecast changed or something else came up. Plus I thought the element of surprise would add to the excitement and anticipation. We let Jackson and Carson sleep in longer than usual since it wasn’t necessary to get them up at the typical 6:20am time, so when Jackson got up and it was broad daylight and I was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, he knew something was up. When I told him what I had planned for us, he was very excited. Sometimes Jackson will claim that I do not spend enough time with him, and he is probably right, so he was happy that we would be spending the day together, just he and I.

We left for the track at about 9:45 am. We sang along to the radio and danced in our seats as we cruised along on I-70 east. I had a cooler packed with Kool-Aid pouches, Coke, and PB & J’s. We had a bag packed with snacks, sunscreen, and a digital camera. The weather was gorgeous. We were set.

We got up to the track a little before 11am and entered on the main straightaway off of Georgetown Road. I was a little surprised when the yellow shirts directed me to park in turn three. No big deal, but since I wanted to find a spot to sit in my favorite place near where they wheel the cars out to the pits from Gasoline Alley, that meant we would have to start our day by walking from turn 3 to Gasoline Alley. Anyone who has been to the track before will attest that this is quite a jaunt, especially when you have a little boy with you. So we walk all the way over there, walk by the new pagoda, stop for a picture at the yard of bricks and then made our way to the spot I was looking for. It was about 30 minutes before the green light would flash to start practice, so we got a great spot. Things were going great. We had noticed as we were making the walk to the main stretch that there were some cars on the track taking some laps. I was surprised about this because it wasn’t noon yet. It turns out that these were the 2-seater cars that the Speedway gives people a ride with after they empty their saving account for a ride in an Indy Car. Well, I should have known we were going to have a problem, because the noise of the 2 seaters at 170 MPH were clearly bothering Jackson already. Tack on another 55 MPH and the sound, while awesome to me, would almost certainly be frightening to him. And it was. As we sat there, waiting for practice to start, we quickly saw (up close) Mario Andretti, Helio Castroneves, Eddie Cheever, Danica Patrick, Rick Mears, just to name a few famous folks. So that was pretty cool. OK, so the cars start hauling ass at the start of practice. About 2 minutes into this Jackson has scooched up right beside me and wrapped my arms around him. About 4 minutes into this, he was on my lap. About 6 minutes into this, tears were running down his face and he was informing me that he was ready to go home. The sound of the cars were totally freaking him out. Some nice lady could see what was happening and walked over and was trying to tell me that she would save our seats if I wanted to walk him down to get some ear plugs – I think this is what she was trying to say because I could only here about every third word out of her mouth.

Well, we got out of the stands and went to a spot near Gasoline Alley with picnic tables. We sat there and ate out PB & J’s. Jackson improved greatly by getting out of the stands. It was still loud, but not as deafening. Then we checked out the gift shop right there by the picnic tables. I thought it would be cool to get Jackson a souvenir and he picked out a matchbox car Indy Car – Target Car, since he loves to shop at Target. They were selling ear plugs for $2 and I encouraged Jackson to get some. He told me that there was no way that he would be wearing those things. Despite my strong suggestions, he continued to refuse the ear plugs in the way that only Jackson can – emphatically and unwavering. I was not about to waste the 2 bucks, so we paid for the Target car and left. We strolled around the garage area, got Dan Wheldon’s autograph (last year’s champion!), and then I thought it might be a good idea to find a grassy area where we could hang out and Jackson could roam around a little if he needed to. But this meant walking all the way back to turn 3, near where we parked the Jeep. After the 20 minute walk, we find a real nice place in a small mound in turn 3 and stretch out in the grass. They were under yellow when we get there, so it was a few minutes before they had cars back on the track.

Sure enough, as soon as the cars started flying by at 225 MPH, Jackson says “Daddy, I want those ear plugs”. I about crapped my pants. I said “Jackson, I tried to get you the ear plugs, but you said that you would not wear them”. He says “No Daddy, get them for me”. My hopes that his insistence to get the ear plugs would diminish away were futile. He continues “Daddy, I need ear plugs right now!”…So of course, since I did not want to leave already, and I certainly did not want to hear him constantly whine about the ear plugs for a couple more hours, I took hold of his hand and here we were walking way the hell back up to the freaking gift shop at Gasoline Alley. We get there 20 minutes later. As we are approaching the door to the gift shop, Jackson has a small announcement to make……”Daddy, I wanna go home”. After a slight internal nervous breakdown on my behalf, we marched into the gift shop, gave the old woman the 2 freakin bucks for the ear plugs, and headed back to turn three. I had decided that we were not going home, and that we were going back to turn 3 and enjoying some fast cars. To wrap up this story, we ended up spending another 20 minutes walking back to turn three, 25 more minutes watching the fast (and loud…Jackson was by now informing me that the earplugs did not help) cars. I had had enough of his complaining and told Jackson that we were leaving. As we are getting into the Jeep and I am buckling him in Jackson says to me: “Daddy, can I keep these ear plugs for when we come back next year?”

2006-05-04T22:23:00.000-04:00

OK, the last two posts were wordy and lacking pictures. This post will be the opposite. Things are good. We are getting into one of the busiest times of the year with our family. Kim finishing school, our anniversary (9 years....can you believe that), Alex's birthday, Jackson's birthday, Mother's Day, my birthday...alot of stuff.

I never posted any shots from Easter. Here are two of my favorite from Easter Sunday..these two were taken at Kim's Mom's during the Easter Egg Hunt there on April16, 2006.

Here is a good one of Alex at his 7th Birthday party on April 30.

These last two were taken on May 2...I had the day off work for Election day and the boys and I were just hanging out in the backyard with the camera.

2006-04-24T14:52:00.000-04:00

I think sometimes people start getting a little worried about me after I write the “downer” types of entries like the previous one….So for those of you who are wondering, I’m fine!! Don’t we all have difficult days? Don’t we all go through periods of time when you simply find yourself struggling to balance your life and juggle priorities? Kim went to hear some speaker recently and this woman was talking about how all of us have problems. All of us have our struggles and challenges and issues that wear on us. Yesterday the message in church was a good one, and Kim and I both said afterwards that it felt like the preacher was speaking directly to us. The primary message was that we all face “storms” in our lives. Obviously some more than others, but God provides these challenges for us and he allows us the grace to be able to withstand the challenges – as long as we face these challenges with Him and doing it HIS way. It struck a chord.

Things have been going better it seems. What’s the latest with our family? Well, Carson came down with yet another ear infection last week. He has basically had one ear infection after another since December. Kim and I are wondering weather it is time to go to an ear, nose, and throat doctor – but the pediatrician thinks there is no real concern or need to do that at this point. The threat of hearing loss scares us, and we don’t want to just sit and do nothing if Carse is in the process of suffering permanent hearing loss. Jackson has been registered for Kindergarten in the Fall. He is excited about it, but he is worried that he will be placed in a class that doesn’t have any of the friends that he has made in daycare/preschool. He passed the screenings with flying colors and the people at the school said that he is in great shape to be “a successful kindergartener”. By the way, it is very strange taking your child in to get registered for school in the very same elementary school in with you attended 26 years earlier. The other things going on for Jackson is that he has been signed up for tee-ball, but we have not heard back from the people organizing the league. I even signed up to be a coach and there has been no word whatsoever and here we are and it is almost May. Not sure what the deal is with that. Kim is winding down the school year and, of course, she is looking forward to the Summer. She recently suffered the loss of one of her aunts, which caused her to be away from our family for a couple of nights while she was in West Virginia. This was the first time for something like this so it was not easy for any of us. Since the last posting, I have had a chance to get a few things done that have been on my mind for awhile now. I got the garage cleaned up the best I could until we have a yard sale and get rid of some junk. I also have been able to get out and mow for the first time this Spring. Lastly, I have been able to get out to the front of our property and cut down all those briars and brush that had grown up over the drainage pipe that goes under the road in front of our house. That was a damn tough job and I felt like one of those little things that people store push pins in by the time I was done. But it looks a heck of a lot better. I got outside and worked on the gardens and planted some flowers. That always is good for the soul. Great therapy, it’s just finding the time to do it. The weather over the weekend was absolutely perfect, so that helps too.

Sorry no pictures in this post. That makes two in a row. I’ll have to make up for that next time.

2006-04-14T15:08:00.000-04:00

I don’t know what my problem is the last couple of days. I feel just spent. I’m tired. I’m not feeling good. Low energy. I have not been motivated to do much. Why do I feel like the Kevin Spacey character on “American Beauty”? I mean, I doubt that I will be going into Taco Bell tomorrow morning and asking to have a position with the least amount of responsibility – but I can understand why he did it. The thing is, I cannot be this way. Maybe I can get by with being like this for one day, but more than that is not going to work out too well long term.

The constant demands of my time and energy have caught up to me. I’m probably being selfish, here, but I think it is fair to say that 80 percent of my time is devoted to helping other people and serving them. Carson is going through some very demanding times right now. Constant whining. This is normal for 15 month olds. Nothing pleases him for long. You know, when you have been at work all day taking care of other people and solving their problems, then you drive home 45 minutes, when you get home you are supposed to enjoy a pleasant evening with your family, right? Isn’t that the way it is supposed to work? Finally get home to relax, have fun, and enjoy your wife and family. Boy, I’d like to. I would like for things to be that way. When I get to within 5 minutes of the house on the way home, I start thinking, “OK, this is going to be a great evening”. And it is, for 3-4 minutes, after the hugs and kisses. Then it just gets numbing, because you are already exhausted and you have another 4 hours of nonstop tasks and busyness and redirecting. I do not want things to be that way. I do not want to have that attitude. But night after night, this is the scenario.

I just stood in the garage at 3:45 am this morning looking around. The furnace was having problems for the third night in a row and I was waiting for it to kick on. I was just standing there, disgusted at the condition of our garage. It is a freakin disaster. When will it ever get taken care of? Perhaps some weekend in a month or two it will get taken care of. Then, again, maybe not. Because we are approaching that time of they year when something’s going on every weekend. Jackson has been having problems, too. Last week, on consecutive days, he threw Grandma’s glasses across the room and he kicked Ma’am and told her she was a bad Ma’am. I think he has not responded well to the chaos that is his daycare situation right now. Our sitter dropped a bomb on us a couple of months ago that she was not going to be watching kids anymore. We had two weeks to figure out who is the hell would be taking care of our little boys. That’s a big decision, and one that I was not eager to make quickly. The result? Daycare facility on Monday, Thursday, Friday – my mom watches them Wednesdays, and Marie watches them Tuesdays. We can’t tell you how much we appreciate they help!!! Nonetheless, three different settings within a span of five days is not very stable for these young ones who need stabilization. That means three different sets of rules, three different schedules, etc. We just want to get through the school year and re-assess the situation. This is just a band-aid.

What I know is this: we have got to make some changes. More structure….more organization…more planning…more focus…more consistency. The problem is, in my eyes, that we need to get things in real good shape and get “caught up” before any change of lasting integrity will occur. The closets need cleaned out, the aforementioned garage needs cleaned out, dressers need cleaned out and old crap taken to Goodwill. Gravel needs to be ordered for the driveway and we need to purchase a shed to free up some space in the garage. The vehicles need to be cleaned up real good and the laundry room needs to be organized and used properly. Our house is in no way huge, but it is big enough, as long as we stay on top of the clutter. So – I know what to do. I know how to do it. But making time to accomplish these things right now is the real challenge. I need a week off work (which I just had a week off work to go to Gatlinburg!) when someone will watch the boys, and I just bust my ass getting these things taken care of. Otherwise this process will either not happen, or it will be strung out over the course of several months, and I not sure our family can wait that long before going flat-out nutso. But overall, things are good – really.

2006-04-09T08:25:00.000-04:00

What a Birthday!

Rod & Reel: $20.00

Life Vest: $40.00

Padded Chair: $20.00

Large Mouth Bass: priceless

Happy Birthday, Nanny! We all love you!

Thanks to Aunt Connie for the contribution to TWN.

2006-04-05T23:01:00.000-04:00

Smokies View, Part Duex

Here is part two out of two of our Spring Break posts. The first one was mostly views and stuff but this one has more pics of us doing stuff. I had mentioned that we went to the Ripley’s Aquarium. We were pretty impressed and felt it was worth the $44 it cost us to get in. We saw some four-eyed fish, piranha, barracuda, and frog-fish – but the best part was the huge aquarium with the sharks, eels and giant sea-turtles. Like I said before, we went “underneath” the surface with the sharks and they were swimming directly above us – very freaky. As you can see by this picture, Jackson was having a good time.

We had picnics at local parks on Tuesday and Wednesday. After eating our ham and cheese sandwiches courtesy of the local Kroger, the boys got to play on the playgrounds. I managed to catch a good one of Carse and Kim enjoying the swings here:

And perhaps my best shot of the trip, here is little Carson grinning at me as he was climbing up some steps at the playground.

Two years ago, when we were down there, Jackson (almost 3 at the time) picked out a “silly hat” like the one Steve wore on his Blue’s Clues movie. He just had to have it. You should have seen the look on people’s faces as we strolled through Gatlinburg with his shades and this silly hat on. Here is a shot of him (at the time) by a really cool fountain. I recall that he was dancing and entertaining the passers-by.

(The friggin file will not upload!!!)

Here he is, two years later at the exact same fountain – sans the silly hat.

By the way, if you have never driven through the mountains with two children who both have ear infections, you ought to try it sometime. I think you would enjoy the screams as you enjoy the breathtaking scenery.

2006-04-01T10:29:00.000-05:00

SMOKIES VIEW

We got back late Thursday night from our Spring Break trip to Gatlinburg. We had a really good time, I think....Those vacations that could be classified as "relaxing" are still probably a few years away, and we know that, but we still had a really good time. We were fortunate enough to get good weather pretty much the whole time, as well as the trip down and back. The boys traveled well and it helped that Jackson was able to watch Scooby Doo 2, The Incredibles, Ice Age, etc. on the way. You would not believe the view from the cabin we stayed in (here's a look).

We definitely kept busy and made the most of our time there. We had for years heard about the Applewood restaurant and had always talked about trying to eat there sometime. Well, this time we found it and ate there Tuesday night. It was the best meal I have had in years...It was so awesome....the food kept coming and every damn crumb of it was so delicious. We also went to Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies and were in awe of the cool fish and underwater wildlife, particularly the sharks....it was one of those deals where you get on a moving sidewalk type thing and go underneath the water with the sharks and stuff. Very cool. Of course we also drove through Cade's Cove (not to be confused with property of Jackson Cade Whited). I don't think any trip to the area is complete without doing that. We did not see any bears, but we did see tons of deer, some wild turkeys, and some of the most picturesque We rode go carts at The Track and played miniature golf at Ripley's Old MacDonald miniature golf. We had picnics on Tuesday and Wednesday and played at playgrounds afterwards. Did manage to get a small amount of outlet mall shopping done, as much as two little one's will allow.

Here are a few shots that turned out pretty good:

Not long after we arrived Monday evening, here is what the sunset looked like from the deck. Very nice!!!!

A shot of the "Smokies View" Cabin we stayed in:

2006-03-22T15:45:00.000-05:00

I was driving through town today and I saw this sign at the Cloverdale First Baptist Church. I had to go home to get my camera before they changed it.

2006-03-21T16:09:00.000-05:00

The First Day Of SPRING!!

This is what we have been anticipating for weeks – the first day of Spring! It sure was a treat to wake up to six inches of snow. School was cancelled for Kim and I decided it was not smart to trek down to Bloomington in this mess so we decided to make the most of the situation and have a fun day at home.

Kim treated us to an Apple Dutch Baby for breakfast.

Then Jackson was anxious to get outside to play in it.

Jackson and mommy worked on a small snowman while daddy made some hot cocoa and Carson took a nap. I guess this mean the first day on Fall this year will be 95 degrees and sunny.

2006-03-16T23:06:00.000-05:00

Haven't put very many shots on here of the lads lately. I guess I have been putting opinion stuff on here the last couple of times. So here you go. These were taken this past weekend.

I'm not going to write much, just mainly wanted to get a couple shots on here. We are just kinda hanging in there, looking forward to going on Spring Break to Gatlinburg the week after next. We have a cabin reserved for us in the Smokies so that is sounding good right now. We got Jackson signed up for baseball for this Spring, so this will be something new for him that I'm sure will produce many news entries in TWN when the time comes. Carson seems to go from one ear infection to another. Probably a result of the new day care that we have had them in 3 days a week. Welp, I'm going to bed....IU is playing San Diego State in the first round of the NCAA tournament and they are losing at halftime (surprise!). Maybe we'll watch the Hoosiers get beat from the coziness of our bed, so long as I can stay awake.

2006-03-12T00:54:00.000-05:00

I was just about to click shut-down on the computer and saunter off to bed when for some reason I decided to put down a few thoughts that will probably end up on TWN.

Being a parent. There is just nothing like it. Being a parent has caused me to have this urge to speak endlessly with people who will be expecting their first child in a few months. I don’t know why. Someone that I work with shared with me that her and her husband very recently discovered that they will be having their first baby. I had just showed her a montage I put together on Jackson and Carson with the background music, “Godspeed, Sweet Dreams” by the Dixie Chicks. She was so touched by the piece that she closed my office door and shared this news with me, and then mentioned that she had only shared this information with one other person in the office because it was so early still. I then had this urge that I jut mentioned, to talk to her for hours about becoming a parent and how my life is forever changed. To give her some kind of insight into how incredibly difficult it is and indescribably happy it makes me, both experiences usually within a matter of moments – and several times a day. It is the hugest emotional roller coaster ride for me. Before Jackson was born, I knew it would be a challenge, of course. But nothing can prepare you for the experience.

Now that we have had two kids now for more than 14 months, it gives me even more perspective. Has anyone ever noticed that life just seems to gradually get more and more difficult? At least this is the way it seems for me at this juncture of my life. Or maybe I just forgot about the stressors of being 15, 19, then 24….geez, what the hell was so hard about those times? Relative to now? I’m sure it was stressful at the time….but obviously I lacked the perspective then that I have now.

You know, I would have it no other way right now. I love my two boys more than I can describe accurately. Kim and I were blessed with having our children at times we were planning to. God literally gave us these awesome gifts right when we asked for them. Both of them. I was fortunate enough to find my soul-mate relatively early in life, while others have spent much of their adult life searching for someone to love the way I do Kim. I have been blessed with the opportunity to work in the field that I have chosen, and advance at times when it seemed like the natural thing to happen. So many things have fallen into place and I literally have nothing to complain about. But am I complaining if I share with you how difficult it is to balance everything right now? I know this is a test from God – actually everyday is…God has extended me enough grace to deal with these endless challenges….but am I utilizing the grace that he has granted? I don’t think so, because I get so friggin overwhelmed! I’ll not bore you with the details. But I have actually read enough other blog postings from other parents who have similar daily challenges to help keep me at least feeling like I’m not going nuts and that it is harder than hell for them, too. At least Kim and I are not alone. I have been able to share stories and struggles with my buddies Todd and Jud, whom also have young children at home and are my age and at similar points of their lives.

The thing is, our society has evolved to the point where most families need to have both parents working. And when you have both working, especially both working full-time, and you have young children – you are in for it. Because it is damn near impossible to balance everything. You have to prioritize, I know. God do I know! But there are still plenty of things that are very important that are getting put on the back burner everyday because you run out of either time or energy. And it makes you look irresponsible to people who either do not have kids or who had kids in a different era when things were drastically different than right now. I have gotten to the point where I hate hearing a 25 year old person at work with no kids or spouse talking about how stressed out they are because they can’t get their car in for an oil change, or because their roommate is messy. Or maybe they feel that they are on the verge of a nervous breakdown because they have to work this weekend and they were really hoping to go out partying. Man. That’s tough. How do they deal with these crisises? Or I hate to hear them say they are “busy”. I know, it’s all relative….but I’m sorry, they are not busy. Get yourself a full-time job, a spouse with a full-time job, and have yourself a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old. Then tell me if you still think you were busy before.

One other little observation I want to share....I have noticed that people who have small children often feel like when they go to work they can finally relax a little, not because they are slackers, that is not usually the case at all. But because compared to being at home, working is much, much easier!!!! Then on the other hand you have the single people with no kids talking about how much work streeses them out! It's the damndest thing, huh? I think this is a good example of the essence of what I am trying to convey right now.

Thanks for reading my dribble…..I feel a little better. Even though I know there is someone out there reading this with 4 young children right now, and that person is saying to him/herself, “This guy thinks HE is busy?”. It’s all relative, so I need to chill out and go to bed.

2006-02-28T15:42:00.000-05:00

“Daddy, I think my ear exploded.”

These were the words coming out of Jackson’s mouth as he stood by our bed at 2:45am on Sunday night.

I was trying not to laugh at such a funny thing to hear because it was obvious that he was hurting. Carson had just a few days prior finished taking meds for an ear infection, so this was mine and Kim’s first thought. So Kim stayed home Monday and ended up taking JC in to the pediatrician.

Now I don’t know what the deal is, but both of our boys seem to manufacture large amounts of ear wax in their little ear canals. Both of them. So when Dr. Schecter went to examine Jackson’s ear all he could see was a waxy mess. After using a “water pic” the doc was able to comfirm that an ear infection was the culprit. We were happy to hear from the doctor that his left ear had not actually exploded.

Now, here’s the real good part.

Jackson simply does not take medicine. He never has. Kim and I spent 35 minutes in the doctor’s office with him once when he was a toddler forcing antibiotics down his throat. It took me, Kim and the nurse to hold him down as he thrashed out of control and spit that sticky, slimy, pink antibiotic back in our faces. It is very simple – he does not take it. He will literally do everything that he can possibly do to ensure that no medication ever enters his body.

So you can imagine the situation last night when we were attempting to give him his first dose of liquid Amoxicillin. He is supposed to have two doses per day until the bottle is empty, probably 1-2 weeks. You want to talk about freaking out. You would think that we were trying to get him to swallow one of Cosmo’s turds by the way he was reacting. Nope, just bubble gum flavored pink stuff, 1 and ½ teaspoons. Have you ever seen “The Excorcist”? Of course you have, so think Regan, here. Think flopping on the bed and speaking in tongue and heads turning 180 degrees. After some threats to take away every single Lego that he owns and a few swift swats on the buttocks, coinciding with more screams, stomping, kicking, and more wailing, he somehow swallowed enough of it.

Now we only have 23 more doses and experiences like this to go!!!

2006-02-17T14:37:00.000-05:00

just my opinion...

One thing that I have meant to do for awhile now is to incorporate some opinion postings into TWN. I realize that you might not give your favorite two turds for my opinion, but that’s fine. Keep your poop and don’t read it. Every once in awhile I have an opinion about something and I have decided that I am going to start sharing some of those thoughts in this forum from time to time.

Let’s talk IU basketball and Mike Davis. It’s kinda surprising how much IU fans are being blasted by national media regarding the circumstances involving the coach’s resignation this week. The rip on IU fans is that Davis was never given a fair opportunity. That fans were too hard on him.

First of all. We are talking about Indiana University. When the average person hears about Indiana University, they think of basketball and the Indiana Hoosiers. It’s true. Any coach who takes on the opportunity to coach anywhere knows that the expectation is to win. But at Indiana, if you do not win – and I don’t care who you are – if you do not win ballgames, and a lot of ballgames, you might as well put your house on the market because you are toast. There is no doubt about it. No excuses. And I have no problem with that. It is fair.

Secondly, IU fans watch the IU games – duh. We all know how excruciating this experience has been over the course of the last three seasons. It is terrible. It’s not just the losing that is tough. It’s the obvious lack of basketball IQ demonstrated by the team and the coach. It is the obvious lack of offensive direction, plan, and execution. They just stand around and eventually throw up a 3. Now that may be fine for a high school program somewhere, but IU fans expect more and should not have to apologize for it.

Bottom line is this. Davis had a chance. He was here almost six years. That is plenty of time to demonstrate your coaching ability and ability to build top-notch program at an already respected place like IU. It did not happen. Watch the games, look at the numbers, don’t call it a racial thing, don’t say expectations are unrealistic, and don’t chastise fans for expecting excellence. Because to me, accepting failure is far worse than expecting success.

2006-02-09T12:29:00.000-05:00

FIRST HAIRCUT FOR CARSON

Updates seem to be coming further and further apart, huh? TWN has been put on the back burner for well over a month now. I just hope the readers don’t give up on me!

We finally took Carson in for his first haircut. He did great and it was much needed. Here are some shots from that experience. I also thought I would add a picture from Jackson's first haircut, for those interested in the comparison.

I also wanted to send a shout out to my Aunt Pat…She had an unexpected scare this month. After having really bad chest pains she went into the hospital and then next thing she knew she was having bypass surgery. Sounds like she is progressing and may be able to go home within a few days. We love you, Aunt Pat! We have been praying for you. Stay positive and take care of yourself….Do what your doctors tell you and don't get stubborn about it!

2006-01-21T10:04:00.000-05:00

Carson's First Birthday

Boy, I'm alittle behind, here, that can happen in a hurry.

The birthday boy had a great birthday, although it was a strange one. Poor guy was sufferring the ill effects of a new type of antibiotic since he had just broken out in terrible hives due to being allergic to penicillin. Anyone there will attest that he just seemed loopy, and really had no interest in walking around and playing like his normal self. Nonetheless it was a cool day.

It was especially nice to have Nanny, Aunt Pat, Aunt Paulette and Angie there. The Kogers made it, Tom & Alex, and of course grandparents Gramma Marie and Ma'am and Pap. So it was a special crowd to celebrate his birthday.

You can just tell from the pictures that he just did not seem to be himself that day. I also included the last of the monthly pictures from the first year. I am now ready to put it in the month by month collage hanging in our hallway. Getting good ones sure do get increasingly difficult for months 10, 11 and 12, as I easily recall from when I did it for Jackson!

2006-01-11T13:56:00.000-05:00

CHRISTMAS EVENING & THEN A SURPRISE!!

We had the opportunity to spend Christmas evening with Mom and Dad, as we have for the past several years. Of course Tom and Alex were there, apparently this was the fourth time that day that Alex got to have Christmas, so what a day it was for him! Wonderful presents were exchanged and it sure is a treat to see the youngsters open up their gifts. We got to spend the night, but left fairly early on the 26th because Jackson got sick. It seemed to just be a 24-hour thing or something because after the 26th he felt fine. Here are a few of the better shots of Christmas evening.

Then, we got word on Tuesday the we would be getting a surprise visit from Aunt Pat, Aunt Paulette, Angie, and Nanny. This was a huge surprise because Nanny had gotten really sick just over Christmas weekend and just did not sound well when we spoke to her on the phone Christmas night. They arrived Wednesday, and were able to stay until New Years Eve. We were all relieved to see for ourselves that Nanny was feeling much better. Here is a good picture of Nanny and Carson Jase, followed by a four-generation picture of Me, Mom, Jackson, Carson and Nanny.

2006-01-10T11:06:00.000-05:00

Here are the 3 shots that I was not able to include on the previous post....MW

2006-01-08T22:13:00.000-05:00

SANTA VISITS WHITED'S

(I have tried three times to post the pictures here after writing this - no luck, no clue what the problem is, but it's late and I am going to bed 1/8/06 - MW)

Once again, Christmas morning brought a big surprise for the Whited family. Jackson woke his mommy and daddy up with cries of "Santa's been here!!! Santa's been here!!!" at 6am. Bleary eyed, we all woke up and checked out the living room, where Santa had definately been not long before. Jackson ran into his little brother's room half-shouting/half-whispering, "Carson, Santa came!!". Carson was actually quite startled, as he has never been awoken in the fashion before. Next thing you know, we were all sitting on the living room floor, just checking out the great things that had been left there. Let's see....He brought Jackson a skateboard, a Star Wars lego tie-fighter with Vader, the "Thing" motorcyle from Fantastic Four, some Lincoln Logs. and the Shrek 2 video game, and a few other cool surprises. Carson started his first Christmas off with some awesome gifts from Santa, as well, including a "Busy Ball Popper", a pull along elephant thingy with blocks, a Leapfrog learning drum, and these cool little cars - just right for a one-year old. Santa ate every single cookie left for him, leaving only a few crumbs. One of the most awesome things was that Santa had hidden under the tree in the back, a very small package stating: To Jackson, From Mr. C. Jackson did not find this treasure until after we had opened up the gifts from each other that were under the tree, so it was certainly a surprise. Inside was one single sleigh bell, with a red ribbon. Jackson knew immediately that it was from the sleigh - as he had recently watched "The Polar Express." That was the icing on the cake. Jackson officially proclaimed it as the "Best Christmas Ever."

As you can tell from the following shot, Carson was trotting around with a sparkly bow on his head, and he was getting the biggest kick out of it....The picture pretty much sums up what Christmas is about for the young ones.

2005-12-21T11:53:00.000-05:00

WHITED CHRISTMAS

The traditional Whited Christmas was held this past Saturday at the home of James and Juanette Whited in Cloverdale, Indiana. Although the number of family members in attendance was a little smaller than in previous years, the amount of joy and festivus in the air did not dimish at all. This occasion marked the first Christmas for Spencer Gene Pruit and Carson Jase Whited, and they both seemed to enjoy the event tremendously. A delicious meal was prepared by Juanette Whited, which featured the traditional holiday ham, macaroni and cheese, and Jim Whited's famous chili. As always there were some very special gifts given, and although none of the gifts were puppies, it did seem that all members of the family enjoyed the gifts that were received. Some of the more notable gifts included X-ray glasses for John Whited, animal placenta for Mary Wilson, and Kelsey's nuts for several members of the family. Although the Publisher did not receive a damn potato this year, he did receive some Vienna sausages and a genuine Texan stained-glass window decoration. Tom Whited was proud to show off the recent dental work that he had done over the last few weeks. His smile just lit up the room (see photo below).

2005-12-10T11:18:00.000-05:00

VISIT WITH SANTA

These were taken this morning when Santa made his annual trip to Cloverdale. Carson was facscinated by the big man in red and surprisingly Jackson was considerably nervous at first and was not going to go sit with him. As you can see in the picture, Carson gave the big beard a few good tugs and it worried Santa a bit. Jackson admitted to being "a little nervous" but after Santa spoke some kind words and a gift bag was offered Jackson climbed up on his lap. Jackson asked Santa for "The Thing motorcycle and a Shrek 2 video game and some surprises." Santa encouraged Jackson to mind his Mommy and Daddy and he told Jackson that he would see what he could do.

2005-12-08T10:39:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving in Cincy

These shots from Turkey Day in Cincy were provided by Thomas A. Whited. Thanks, Tom for your contribution. You will not be fired, after all.

2005-12-06T22:26:00.000-05:00

Getting ready for Christmas

Boy, I have not done a good just keeping fresh stuff on The Whited News. No Thanksgiving update, although Thomas plans to email some shots for contribution from the Whited Thanksgiving in Cincy. We spent turkey day with Kim's family this year, alternating as we always do. We have just been busy like everyone else. Trying to get a decent start on our Christmas shopping. The boys are doing real well. Carson is sick right now and is also getting more teeth, so he is double uncomfortable. Right now his smile is a bit lopsided. He is really walking well now, it just seems to start happening so fast. He can pretty much walk all the way across a room now without falling down more times than not. Jackson is preparing for a Christmas program at his preschool at church. His class will be singing "Away in a Manger" and other classic Christmas tunes. It remains to be seen if he will have his index finger jammed up his nose for the entire performance like last year. He has also really progressed with his writing and letter recognition as of late, and can write his first and last name and a few other words. He is really interested in this and proud of himself. The annual Whited Christmas will be taking place in Cloverdale this year, in about a week and a half so we are trying to procure all of our stocking stuffers and other gifts. TTFN.

2005-11-13T11:52:00.000-05:00

FIRST STEPS & WRITING MILESTONES

The past week has been an exciting one with cool milestones for both of our boys. Carson has been taking his first steps and is sure to be walking around pretty good by Thanksgiving. Jackson has been writing his name and doing a great job with learning his letters. On Friday, Jackson brough the envelope pictured here to his Daddy and explained that he had written a letter to him. Check it out! He did a great job writing his name all by himself. Jackson also received his first ever "report card" this week and it was exciting to see the the teacher had rated him outstanding in every single category, and had written: "Jackson is wonderful!" in the comments section. He loves his new school and is obviously doing awesome.

Mr. Carson has been taking 3-4 steps at a time this week and really seems to be enjoying his new abilities. Here are a couple of pictures of some of his first steps, taken today 11-13-05. He has been speaking with more clarity now, saying most commonly "Dada", "Mama", and "kitty". I have also included the "traditional" 10 month picture, actually taken 11-5-05.

The boys are the ones providing all the excitement around here, so clearly they deserve to dominate recent headlines of TWN.

2005-11-02T21:57:00.000-05:00

Halloween 2005

Happy Pranks and Candies!! It was Batman and Robin as the brothers had their first Halloween together. One might have thought that it would have been Batman played by the elder with the sidekick of Robin as a little one, but that was not to be the case! Next year "The Carse" will get to participate in the pumpkin carving, but for his first time, he was relegated to the role of spectator.

2005-10-18T21:00:00.000-05:00

A few other good wedding shots...

Here is Tom, Billy, Jim, Jackson and Alex outside of the AmeriSuites hotel getting ready to load up to head over to the wedding.

Here is a good shot of Tera and Spencer Gene outside of the church before the wedding.

Check out Tone-Loc, the father of the bride, Jimmy, and the Wilster hoisting up a few cocktails at the reception.

2005-10-10T16:03:00.000-05:00

LISA & DAN'S BIG DAY

The much anticipated wedding of Lisa Marie and Dan the Man finally took place this past Saturday, October 8, 2005. Weddings never go without the tiny bumps in the road, and theirs was no exception. Fran Whited reported to the Publisher that "things went real smoothly, with the minor exception of a seating arrangement problem at the reception". Well, we better ask Dan, though. As Dan and Lisa stepped up on the dance floor for the once in a lifetime "first dance, they embraced and began swaying lovingly with one another...everything seemed normal until Dan was heard shouting "Fumble! Time - out!". As the mesmerized crowd watched to see what would happen next, Dan axplained "This is my mom's song" and he approached the DJ booth...Was I the only only who wondered if Dan was going to knock out the DJ? Of course he didn't, but surely the thought crossed his mind if only for a nanosecond.

Bottom-line: The wedding was beautiful and the entire family was very proud of our Lisa Marie. She did great. The family had a great time and was able to enjoy the evening tremendously. The rooms at Amerisuites were terrific and it was nice to have chance to visit with the Texarkana group before the wedding. It was the debut of Mr. Spence (Spencer Gene Jelly Bean). The Publisher did his share to make things interesting by blowing out his back while sitting on the floor and twisting awakardly while reaching for a quickly escaping Carson. It took a good 10 minutes to even get the Publisher back on his feet. Thanks to some drugs and Icy hot pads supplied by the wonderful Aunt Mary, The Publisher was able to get back to functioning status enough to even dance in a bit of a reserved fashion at the reception. Some observers also noted that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see John Whited getting his groove on with Ludicris and the Black Eyed Peas on the dance floor. The clan got to meet Laura's new love interest, whom John Whited pointed out has a striking resemblence to Opie Cunnigham. There was also a Keith Hernandez sighting, at least there was thought to be until it was discovered that the man was simply a husband of one of Lisa's teacher friends. Martinis were hoisted, laughter was shared, and the love was aboud.

Here are a couple of the better shots taken. The top one is Lisa and Dan being announced at the reception. The middle one is John Whited leading Fran and Nan down the aisle after the wedding was over. The bottom one is the bride and her lovely family at the reception.

There will be more photos of some other people in the next posting. But this one is dedicated to Lisa, her new hubby, and her immediate family.

2005-10-05T14:54:00.000-05:00

HONORING MOM & TOM

On Saturday October 1, we had the pleasure of celebrating birthdays for Mom & Tom. Let's see, I think that was #59 for mom (sorry to post online, ma) and #36 for Thomas Andrew. We feasted upon some chili and then chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream. Marc dropped a package addressed to Mom while passing out presents, so it was no surprise that when she opened it up, it was a beautiful coffee cup that had literally broken into five pieces. "Good thing that was Tom's present to Mom instead of ours" quipped the Publisher with tongue in cheek, of course. We watched Tom and Peyton Manning get their asses kicked by Curtis Martin and the New York Jets in Playstation 2, and then watched the first half of Napoleon Dynamite (Are you gonna eat your tots?) Jackson and Alex played quietly in Jackson's room most of the day, watching movies and playing legos. - It seems that they are both growing up a little bit and appeared to have settled down just a tad. Carson walked behind his walker for the first time, coincidently in front of the small audience.

2005-09-21T22:19:00.000-05:00

The following is a contribution by Thomas A. Whited:

Dear Publisher,
Here’s a picture of Alex J. Whited and his friend Alexis C. Brown taken on Saturday 9/17. You may note that he has a bruise at the top of his nose, the result of a tumble he took in Wal-Mart 4 days earlier. Seems to be following in my footsteps. Also worth mentioning is the “ring” under his bottom lip… another similarity to some pictures of me when I was in grade school.
Sincerely,
T. Whited

This is another shot of Alex outside of Chuck E. Cheese's recently. Tom took this picture with his new digi-cam and sent it in. For those of you who have seen the movie Barfly, you may notice a slight rememblance. - Publisher, TWN

2005-09-10T09:51:00.000-05:00

Labor Day at Cataract Falls

The beautiful weather on Labor Day gave us a great opportunity to have a picnic at Cataract Falls about 6 miles from our house. Jackson had never been down there and it had been years since Marc and Kim had been there despite it's proximity.

We had some sandwiches and then walked around the Falls stopping to give Jackson a chance to make a new fuzzy friend and then play on the playground equiptment. Jackson really enjoyed it, and we got a kick out of it because he kept referring to the water falls as the "water fountains".

Here is a shot of Carson on 9/1/05, at exactly 8 months old.

Please send emails to the Publisher at mkwhited@yahoo.com and included family news and events. Photos are especially welcomed!!!!

2005-09-01T22:08:00.000-05:00

This is absolutely terrible...

This stuff that is going on down in the gulf area is mind boggling to me. I'm trying to understand what is going on down there and I cannot even begin to imagine it. Really puts things in another perspective similar to what 9/11 did, but the major difference is that 9/11 was in intentional act, whereas Katrina was a natural disaster. I camme across this blog from a guy living in the area. Somehow, he has been able to post regularly through the horrific ordeal and I thought I would post his site here:

http://www.johnstrain.blogspot.com/

Here is what I have seen on TV and read: Bodies are floating around in the streets, rotting. Tens and hundreds of thousands of people are suddenly homeless and without a way to get out of New Orleans, which is 80% underwater. People have been stuck on their roofs for 4 days. Civility is gone and people are in total survival mode. People have babies and small children in these conditions with no food to eat, water to drink, and a restroom to use. I mean this is horrible. Makes me never want to complain about a "bad" day again....

2005-08-21T11:04:00.000-05:00

I guess I have been waiting for some big news in order to post a new article on here. That could be awhile if I keep expecting a huge event to report on. So I'll just post a commentary and some recent little tidbits of what's going on.

I just came in from cutting out some brush from the drainage ditch from the front of our property. You know how sometimes you let things go and the next thing you know you suddenly realize that you have let something get to the point of rediculous? Well, that's the deal with this brush out there. I mean, I have a hard enough time keeping up with basic yardwork such as mowing and weedeating, much less cutting down huge weeds/trees that are twice my height. The funny thing about it is that I have virtually no apprpriate tools for this project and ended up using this tiny hacksaw. After about 25 minutes of work, I had cleared out the largest growth and started feeling like I was going to pass out from exhaustion, so that's it for today. Not real sure what I'm going to do with the brush, probably throw it over the road into the woods over there.

Kim just completed her first week back to school since December. Monday is her first "real" day back, though, because the first week in Kindergarten at her school is just testing with the kids and meeting with the parents. Regular school days begin tomorrow. She really seems happy to be back, although it looks like she will have some challenging kids and may have to do without an aide this year. Jackson and Carson are adjusting pretty well to having a new sitter and we feel like we made the right choice with Sheila.

Other tidbits: Carson is getting his two top teeth now and has just started crawling regularly ather than the "belly flop"...Big Time Fantasy Football starts with the draft on August 31. This will be the fifth year for the Whited's fantasy league under the current format - John Whited of the Cincy Bears has the #1 overall pick....I just completed my eigth year of full-time employment with the Youth Services Bureau - I celebrated by rearranging my office...It has been reported that Billy Wilson has received medical bills for a "leg amputation" but apparently this is news to Billy...Jim Whited has been enjoying a new hobby of building birdhouses, so place your orders now...

2005-08-04T06:58:00.000-05:00

Birfdays, Colts Camp, and mini-milestones

Last weekend the Whiteds got together to celebrate Kim's 32nd birthday and Jim's 59th. A delicious batch of spaghetti and meatballs were served by Juanette, as requested by Jim. The meal was terrific, although Juanette indicated that she was not happy with her soggy and limp garlic bread. The garlic bread was great, too. Jim received a Lowe's gift card, a Nascar t-shirt, and a round of golf at Clover Meadows. Kim received a scrapbooking kit, a Harry Potter book, some scrapbooking pens, and a book light. A great day.

That evening Marc, Jim and Jackson Cade headed over to Colts Camp to watch them have night practice. It was family night at camp and it turned out to be an all-time record attendance of 6,500 people. They stopped at Wal-Mart to get a Colts hat for autographs, and they had none - but they did have a Tennessee Vols hat. Marc thought that was great as long as they could land a Manning autograph for the second straight year. But that limited them to Manning, and after practice Marc and Jackson were within 5-6 feet of Peyton, but the security guard had to tell Manning to go inside because people were going nuts, pushing and shoving there way towards the front creating an unsafe situation with little kids around. So they came home empty handed on autographs but they did all get to meet linebacker Gary Brackett #58, shake his hand, and have a 5-minute conversation with him. It was cool.

Carson turned 7 months old on August first and this has been accompanied by some other little mini-milestones. He can now sit up on his own regularly, crawls all over the floor, and is starting to pull up on things. His legs are so dog-gone strong that this should be an easy transition. He is becoming more and more vocal with his babbling and has been experiencing some samples of some new fun foods like ice cream, cake, and popscicles. Healthly diet, huh.

2005-07-26T23:10:00.000-05:00

The Wilson's Cruise

Here are some shots submitted to "TWN" by Aunt Mary after the Wilson's returned from their Caribbean cruise this month. Luckily, they were able to avoid the hurricane for the most part, but it caused some major airline problems for them when they were to return to Louisville. The weary travelers made it to the Whited's in Cincy on Sunday morning after the Wilster had an unexpected and unwelcome encounter with a state trooper along the way. At least the cruise was great. Hey, did anyone else notice that the Wilster is pimped out like Regis in that suit with the yellow shirt/tie combo?