They grow up so fast

Caiden is almost done with his first year of school. He's already tired of school and would drop out if I let him :-).

The thing is, I have to realize how much I smother him and just back off a bit as he gets older as it could hurt his own self-image in some ways. He already knows it's not "cool" to give your parents a hug, even though he'll do it a lot when no other kids are around.

This morning as I dropped him off at school, we were standing outside the truck, but still protected from the open door so no kids could see. I went to give him a hug and noticed him kind of pull away quickly, making sure no other kids could see. I felt so badly that I wanted to hug him like he was a little baby again. I still somewhat remember when I was 6 and all the pressures you face among your peers even then. I want him to be comfortable and do what he would prefer to do.

I can still remember when I first dropped him off at pre-school when he was 3 years old. He was so adorable, so shy (he is still pretty shy) and he would not let go of me. He was almost stiff with fear as he looked at all the other kids in his class.

Now it's the opposit. Now he just wants to run to school and not show the fact that he does love his daddy (which I know he does). The saving grace of it all was cute in that he was one of the last kids to run into school and as he walked he kept turning to me and giving me the "I love you" sign with his hand. He did this about 20 times as he walked to the door. He smiled big and waved the sign over and over. However, one thing that he did made me even prouder (is that a word) as a father is that when he opened the GIANT door going in, he looked back and noticed a girl getting out of her car to get to class. He stood there and held the door open for her. I was so proud of him for doing that.

Anyway, I always wonder if the want to show your children love, ever wears off? If not, it must kill my parents to not get to hug me as much as they want. Of course, they have a lot of kids to hug, so maybe they get to "give" as much as they want.

I read this article (I'll post it below) by Sports Illustrated writer Rick Reilly about Tiger Woods' dad and the kind of father he was to his son. I had always figured he was the kind of father that pushed his son to no end (because he was always in the news) when it turns out he was the opposite. This gave me even more respect for Tiger himself, because I believe that for someone to be as great as they are, they need SOME sort of pushing/prodding/encouragement from someone.


Pop's Last Lesson

I suppose we could celebrate the life of Earl Woods with a whiskey and ginger ale, which he loved. Or with jazz, which he loved. Or with a long drag on a cigarette, which he also loved too much, seeing as how smoking probably figured in his death last week at 74.

Or we could do it with tears, since with Earl there was always more crying than on the first day of kindergarten. Every time I saw him get up in front of a crowd to talk about Tiger, he'd wind up bawling. And every time, Tiger would hop up, grab the mike and go, "That's my Pops. I love him."

I suppose we could remember Earl as perhaps the most famous black man in America who is celebrated solely for his fatherhood. In sports, all we hear about is the black father who runs, but Earl was constantly there, famously there, lovingly there.

Hell, Earl couldn't leave the kid's side. He never left him with a babysitter. Wound up quitting his job for the kid, mortgaged the house twice, took out home equity loans. He couldn't bear to punish Tiger -- that was his wife's job. Earl was hopelessly in love with the boy he called the chosen one.

You wondered what Earl's other kids thought of that -- the chosen one. Because those three kids from his first marriage -- Earl Jr., 50; Kevin, 48; and daughter Royce, 47 -- were not the chosen ones. They hardly knew him. A career Green Beret, he'd be gone for six months to a year at a time. "I wasn't around," he once told me. "I'd come back, and I'd find three totally different children."

Maybe Earl didn't know how to be a father the first time around. He was the youngest of six kids, and both his parents were dead by the time he was 13. He learned to be alone. But when he married Kultida, a Thai secretary, and got a mulligan for fatherhood at 42, he made the most of it.

Earl was fun to play with -- gave me a lesson once, too -- and even more fun in the bar afterward. And Tiger loved his burly playmate from the start. Even as a toddler, he had his Pops' phone number at the office memorized, so he could call and beg to play together after Earl got off work. Earl had 1,000 crazy games to play on the course. He needed to. Tiger was beating him by age 11.

But it killed Earl to be called "the dad who built the greatest golfer ever." No, he was trying to build a kid who would be kind and happy and responsible. He gets an A+ for that. But much trickier still: He kept his Mozart from burning out.

Never once did he tell Tiger to practice. Never once told him to try harder. He and Tida would withhold golf if his homework wasn't done. Golf was the dessert Tiger got when he ate all his vegetables.

Together, father and son started a fund of trust. Tiger trusted his dad when Earl tried all his psychological training on him -- dropping his golf bag as Tiger swung, calling like a crow on his backswing, rolling stray balls at his putter. And Earl trusted Tiger, who would put his pop four feet in front of him at clinics, have him hold his hands up like goal posts and hit full flop shots between them.

You think Earl did all this to get rich? Then why didn't he ever leave that little house in Cypress, Calif., the one he was living in when Tiger was born? No, Earl did it because golf's Stevie Wonder fell into his big lap. He did it for the three kids' childhoods he missed. And maybe he did it to make up for all the father-son days he missed when his own dad died.

And when Tiger hit his mid-20s and started to pull away -- moved away from that little house all the way to Florida -- Earl nodded proudly, but secretly ached. "It's sad in a way," Earl was quoted as saying. "This is what I've prepared for. Still, it leaves a hole because he's not there."

Now, Tiger must know exactly how he felt.

But more than all else, the thing Earl will be remembered for is his hugs. He did for hugs what Mrs. Fields did for cookies.

Remember the one he gave the triumphant Tiger coming off 18 at the 1997 Masters? That hug always chokes me up. Earl swallowed him in his huge arms and reminded us that this baby-faced, ice-blooded hit man was still somebody's little boy. From then on, those hugs became the one place this new god in spikes knew he could go to hide from the cameras and the pressure, the one place he knew he could feel loved and wanted and safe. Bet Tiger could use one right now.

And that's the best way to celebrate Earl Woods's life, by finding your kids right now -- no matter how old -- and giving them one of those great, smothering, lungbuster Earl Specials. See if you can squeeze the Skittles out of them.

Because all kids need to be reminded that they don't have to be Tiger Woods to be the chosen one.

Trip to Montana

Again, I don't have time to post specifics right now, but here is a link to the pictures from Montana. I'll post details later, trying to explain some of the pics.

Montana Trip

Kitchen/Dining Update

I have been SUPER busy, plus I just spent a week in Montana (pictures will come soon). This post won't be in super detail, I'm just going to post a link to the current pictures of the Kitchen/Dining area. Getting close to having it all done.

Kitchen

I love you Alene

:-)

Random horn-tooting time

Sorry I've been so lacking of updating my blog. I've hardly had time to breathe!

Anyway, I'm stoked about a couple of things.

The first, most people would not be stoked about. I got a C- in my Math class. Yes, like Chris Farley in Tommy Boy "I PASSED!" I HATE Math and I know that if I actually applied myself a bit better, I could pass it much easier, but sometimes I'd rather have someone pour hot wax all over my naked body, than have to sit through a Math class. Is that lame or what? Anyway, I just have one more Math course to take and I'm done fulfilling (hopefully) all my math requirements for college.

The second, I won a salsa making contest at work in the "most original" section category. I also came very close to taking the "Best overall" category. There were actually only 3 categories, the last being "hottest", which was true. I actually didn't try it, but I voted for it because my eyes started watering up as I came within 5' of that one! Still, I'm stoked that my salsa was liked.

Just an updated on everything else. The kitchen is somewhat in a normal condition. I just have to build the countertop for the island and seal the grout on the floor and countertop. The dining area is ALMOST done. I've got it ready for paint. After that I'll just need to add some of the baseboards around the bottom and a top cap across the top of the entry wall so we can hang plants and other things on there. I also need to climb into the attic and run a common wire to two light fixtures because the old lighting wiring (which is the only wiring that hasn't been updated in the house) has no common wire.

Anyway, I'm also stoked because at this time next week I'll be at Glacier National park, setting up a camp and relaxing a bit. I can't wait!

Also, work is going well too. I've got approval to begin a remodel job that I'll be over-seeing. It's so fun seeing "change" in a place you've worked in for 7+ years.

Can I just say........

......I really love my wife?

Kitchen/Dining update

Didn't get a ton done on the weekend. By the time I went to the dump and got home, Alene and I were ready to decorate eggs. I really wanted to get a ton done on Saturday, but the day just flew by. I can remember when I was little, how I could not WAIT for the day to be over, now it seems like they get quicker and quicker!

For the kitchen, we basically need to grout the countertops, add the base/door trim, and build the island countertop. I'm hopeing to be able to grout the countertops this weekend, but I guess we'll see. I spent part of Tuesday putting up some of the trim in the kitchen. I spent last night painting the rest of the trim (I paint it before I nail it, less messy that way and I only have to touch up the nail holes). I should be able to put up more trim today.

Last night I built the famouse arch I've been dreading to do. This is the arch that leads you into the dining room. It actually turned out to be easier than I figured.

Here are some pictures:

I wanted to match the arch that leads into the living room


I used some cardboard to trace it and create a template


I traced it onto the drywall to cut out


Here it is all cut out



I used cut pieces of 2x4's to fill in, in between the walls, then screwed them in with drywall screws


Here is the rough wall, but not too bad. To hang the drywall under the arch, I had to cut the back of the drywall every inch (about 96 cuts) then broke each cut so the stuff would bend. That took a while.


Here is the arch I tried to match. Not too shabby.


I'm going to try to get most of the trim hung tonight, date night on Friday, then grout the kitchen on Saturday.

I have ton of prjects to do outside as well. For starters, I just want to get the lawn mowed, as it is close to 1' in some spots (but some other spots have hardly grown). I have a TON of weeds taking over everything too. Alene and I are going to plant a garden someday, but we better do it soon.

We had a good easter

It blew by quickly, but it was good. The previous night we spent time decorating easter eggs and placed them in a basket on the back deck. We told Caiden that the Easter Bunny would come and hid the eggs for him. Obviously we hid them, but you should have seen the look on his eyes when he saw the basket was empty. He is so cute when he gets so innocently excited.

We went to church, then went down to my sister Julies house for easter dinner with the family. It's crazy how much our own family is growing. Janna, Julie, and Amanda are all pregnate again. Julie and Janna are both expecting their 5th, Amanda is expecting her 2nd. It's so cute seeing all the nieces and nephews get along so closely, they all recognize they are family and they love it.

Here are some pictures of Caiden on his egg hunt:







I found this cool "Siamese Strawberry" among the group of strawberries I bought.

Caiden had a Karate thingy today

He was so cute. They ran them through these obstacle course, then had them do some grappling (basically wrestling), then they got to do some sword fighting with these foam swords.

Here are some links to video of him:



This was cute. Caiden had to face this kid who was likely 2-3 years older than him. He knocked the foam sword out of the kids had twice!



Here are some pictures:

Fishing Atlanta

We went out to Lake Lanier to do some striper fishing (Striped Bass). We only went out for 4 hours, but it was funner than I expected it to be. I don't fish (I have, but I don't do it regularly) and I am looking forward to learning the art/skill of fly fishing in the future (when I have more time), but I've never thought much about wanting to go out on a boat and just sit and wait. I'd rather work it up and down a river like the fly fishermen do.

Anyway, here are some pictures:

This was what the sunrised looked like on our ride out to our spot


This was our guide (shane), who also owned the guide service company. He was pretty much leading all his boats as to where to go, etc. He was a stud fisherman and knew exactly what he was doing.



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This is the first fish I caught, which was a spotted bass. We weren't looking for those though and it was only 6 lbs, so we tossed it back.


Here is another striper I caught. Biggest fish I've ever held.


This is me kissing one of my beautiful babies.


This is one of my co-workers (Todd) with a tasty bass.




Here is a striper another co-worker (Al) caught. This one was HUGE (about 23 lbs)


Here is Al on the boat


Here is the losers (my other co-workers) boat, from a distance. They drank more beer, so they didn't catch as many fish :-).