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

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

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.

100th Post! : Chris Tomlin concert

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...

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!

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!

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

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

I got a new toy

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

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

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

1st day of 1st grade

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!

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

PreVacation

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

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

The week in review

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.