Todd's Blog

I got a Father's Day present from school this year! "Walk a little slower Daddy" said the child so small, "I'm following in you footsteps and I don't want to fall. Sometimes your steps are very fast, Sometimes they're hard to see; So walk a little slower, Daddy, For you are leading me. Someday when I'm all grown up, You're what I want to be; Then I will have a little child Who'll want to follow me. And I would want to lead just right, And know that I was true, So walk a little slower, Daddy, For I must follow you." Thanks, Happy Father's Day ;-) [todd-sig]

Mom had an appointment this morning, so the girls were hanging with dad (note: I've been told it's not "babysitting", because they're my kids). I had a bit of running around to do myself, so we kept the van, and made our way about town for a couple of hours. The first stop was the Killeen airport, where we went to see Capt. Hock return from Afghanistan. The flight came in early, so everybody was already at the luggage claim by the time we arrived. We stayed for 29 minutes .. I know this because when we left the parking lot, the girl commented that we'd just barely saved our buck (parking is free for < 30 minutes). Before we left though, I had to get my first picture of the day ... if for no other reason than to prove that the girls don't always look like hobos when I dress them. ;-) Everybody was really good at the airport. They played with each other, sang and danced a little, but no fights or crying at all. I'd love to say that I have som

Holy cow, I didn't even know there was a national flip flop day. But now that I do, I'm definitely celebrating it. As long as it's warn enough outside, I wear flip flops almost everywhere I go. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I lived nearly 1/3 of my life in Hawaii , where it's almost acceptable to wear your " slippahs " even to a fancy restaurant. Or maybe I just like getting a little sun on my toes. Either way, if it's summer, spring or fall, you're probably going to find me wearing shorts and a pair of flip flops anytime I'm out and about. :-) Keep havin FuN! [todd-sig]

I don't know how it is where you live, but here in Texas, the sun is getting pretty strong this time of year. Since the kids are spending a lot of time out in the back yard pool, the first step before they even go out the door is always getting spayed down with a generous coat of sunscreen. Sometimes it's tempting to just let them skip the sunscreen and go swim, since all but Joey have naturally dark skin. But while it is true that they are less susceptible to getting sunburned, apparently it's a bit of a myth that darker skinned people don't get skin cancer. So it's definitely a "better safe than sorry" situation. Unlike when I was a kid, and sunscreen involved a lot of messy lotion that needed rubbing in, today they pretty much just line up in front of me to get sprayed. 5 seconds on the front, turn around, 5 seconds on the back, and out the door they go. There's really almost no excuse to send them out unprotected. I guess I could probably be a

When it comes to exercise, and really life in general, your excuses don't have to be "good", or even rational. They just have to sound better at that time than whatever it is you don't want to do . As I currently work my butt off trying to get in half-decent shape, I can't help but reflect on some of the really good excuses I came up with during my recent deployment, which "helped" me get this way in the first place. The mother of all excuses was my hurt back. On the surface, it seems perfectly logical to take a "rest" from exercise in hopes that it would help make things better. But the reality was that I was just as sore after taking months of "rest" as I had been when I was at least attempting to workout from time to time. Another really good one was my eating schedule. If it turned out that I was really hungry after I got off work, and had to stop by the DFAC on the way home, well that pretty much ruled out the gym. I mean re

Pushing the girls on the swing, that pretty well answers the question: "so what have you been doing during your 2 weeks off after coming home from Afghanistan?" Throw in a bit of "swimming in the pool", "watching Nick Jr", with a bit of playing "Tickle Monster" and all-in-all it's been a pretty good little break. Tomorrow I'm back to work. That does have it's benefits as well though. It will definitely make my 2 workouts a day a little bit easier ... seeing as how I get to do PT every morning. Since I've been home, I actually did a lot better with the exercising than I expected to, but still didn't manage 2 workouts every single day. The girls will just have to make due with mommy until I make it home each evening ;-) Keep havin FuN! [todd-sig]

Today was Jaiden's last day of school for the year, but not her last day of Pre-K ... she gets to go again next year. Even so, they had a nice little ceremony, where she got called up to the front of the room and received her certificates. I recorded two videos. This first one is of the class singing an alphabet song with a good message: http://youtu.be/4zEoLlq7PyU And this is Jaiden getting her certificates: http://youtu.be/kAfGJIctv0w Mommy and Joey kind of stole her spotlight a little. :-) Well that's that .. let the Summer Fun begin! [todd-sig]