the graduate

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

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...

they're so awesome!

A day at the track (2007)

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!

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.

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.