T-Rex Love

T-Rex From Grandma Fran

Aidan loved his T-Rex that he got in the mail today from Grandma Fran. He played with it for hours. Fed it. Chased mom and dad with it. He loves scary stuff like this.

Norma said, "looks like the T-Rex beat out Tickle Me Elmo Extreme!" She was a little upset because she thought he would love Elmo. He does, but Elmo doesn't growl, his eyes don't grow red and he doesn't have a long pointy tail.

Aidan is such a boy!

The Elmo is neat though and he does chuckle at him. As he gets older and understands that he can tickle him, he might enjoy Elmo more.

He also loved his dinosaurs from Aunt Aimee and the magic writer from Uncle Terry & Aunt Sue. That is pretty neat. He'll grow into that one also. He's already taken the shapes of it and put them back in by himself.

This kid is beginning to think every day is his birthday! He's so spoiled.

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Aidan's Birthday in San Antonio

San Antonio 2nd Birthday

Check out our photos from San Antonio over the weekend. We had a great time. Aidan loved his gifts and loved spending time with everyone. :)

He's already two! Amazing.

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Powder Puff in the Rain

Tonight was our first ever Girls Powder Puff Football game at AHS. It was pretty wild. It rained and things got pretty crazy. Neither defense could stop the offense from scoring since the defense couldn't keep their footing. My junior team lost by a touchdown. There was a lot of controversy over some penalties that were called and the girls were really upset and felt robbed.

I tried my best to explain to them that sometimes you win... sometimes you lose. It's just the way it goes. Both teams really played well. I was real proud of all of the girls. It was entertaining football for sure.

My favorite part of the night though was when Aidan got there with Norma at the beginning. He came running out to me on the field as we warmed up and smiled to me. I gave him a big hug and let him blow my whistle. He loves doing that. I told him that I had to go and give me a hug and a kiss. He did both and it really made me smile. Norma walked him around the field a few times, but then it started to rain hard so she took him home just before the game started.

I can not express how happy Aidan makes me. It is an amazing thing. He is absolutely the best. Even on a night that was disappointing and dreary in the rain, I am so happy because of my wonderful son.

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Having a Great Time with Grandma

Swinging while at the Halloween Pumpkin Patch on Sunday
Aidan and Daddy watching Toy Story that Grandma Karen got him for his birthday
Opening Presents from Grandma
Sneaking some cake before it's cut!

Aidan has been having a really great time with Grandma Karen and Aunt Melanie this weekend. We have done lots of great things... it is late so I wanted to post a few pictures. I will write more later.



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Paper Clips

Tomorrow my high school is going to spend 3 hours with freshmen in the morning and teach them about the holocaust and other genocides. This is a pretty big endeavor and we have been planning it for weeks. I am still pretty nervous tonight as we are a few hours away from getting this big thing going.

The rest of our school is going to be taking the PSAT and ASVAB tests. The freshmen don't take those tests. We are going to be using just about every classroom in the school to give those tests. So the freshmen are going to the competition gym, practice gym, auditorium, and the dance room for sessions on service learning.

Half of the freshmen will sit and watch a movie in the auditorium for an hour and a half. The movie is called Paper Clips.

PAPER CLIPS is the moving and inspiring documentary film that captures how these students responded to lessons about the Holocaust-with a promise to honor every lost soul by collecting one paper clip for each individual exterminated by the Nazis. Despite the fact that they had previously been unaware of and unfamiliar with the Holocaust, their dedication was absolute. Their plan was simple but profound. The amazing result, a memorial railcar filled with 11 million paper clips (representing 6 million Jews and 5 million gypsies, homosexuals and other victims of the Holocaust) which stands permanently in their schoolyard, is an unforgettable lesson of how a committed group of children and educators can change the world one classroom at a time.

Then students will move from the movie to one of 5 stations. One of the stations is in the dance room and our coaches will be in there. The coaches are going to be walking the students through an exercise to re-enact the horror of the Nazi Holocaust. They will split the students up and have them stand in large rectangles that represent railcars.

One of the other five stations will be with me in the small gym. I will have a laptop and projector setup. We'll step through a power point lesson I have created about Genocides. I concentrated on "What is a Genocide?", "The History of Genocide" and "What can you do to prevent Genocide?". I am hoping that I can give the students some concrete things that they can actually start doing to make a difference.

You can check out the power point here:
Genocide Power Point

I am hoping this goes well. It could be very powerful. But, we are a new school with a new faculty and we have not been very organized so far this year. I am quite a bit nervous about it. We shall see.

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Conductor Aidan

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This should be a busy week

Lots going on this week:

* Two Powder Puff Football practices (I am coaching the junior class girls in the Forthcoming game - we don't have Homecoming, it's the first year of the school)

* Wednesday I am doing a presentation for our Freshmen about Genocide. It is a co-ordinated effort by our Social Studies team during the PSAT tests (which our Freshmen will not be taking). We have groups of kids moving from the Auditorium, through the parking lot, and the two gyms to learn about what service projects are, what genocide is, what they can do about it. I am hoping it works out well. It could really make a big impact if it does.

*Thursday I will leave school early (I have planning period for the last hour and a 1/2 on Thu) and pick up my Mom and Aunt Melanie from the airport. They are flying down to spend a long weekend with us. It will be the first time that they will have seen the house. It will be great to spend time with them and for them to see Aidan just before his 2nd birthday.

*Cleaning - we'll be getting the house cleaned up for our visitors. We spent a lot of time outside yesterday doing the yard and also getting the house pressure washed. In Houston we can accumulate a lot of dirt, grime and mold on the house because of the wet and hot weather. It was a serious pain doing the pressure washing, but it looks great now.

So, it'll be a busy week. I didn't even mention that I have meetings galore at school. Seems like every free minute is used this week. But, that's what makes life fly by doesn't it?

What do you think of the new look for the blog? It is updated due to the new Google led changes at Blogger. I figured that I would update and keep current with the times. There are some things I like and some things I don't like. What do you think?
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Cartoons Make Him Smile

Tomorrow is Friday. Yeah!
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School Pictures

One of my former students send me these pictures tonight. I have been asking people for a copy of them for weeks. The first is of the father-daughter dance at the football halftime a few weeks back. You can find my post on it here: Me Dancing? Yep.



It's funny how these girls look so much older with so much makeup on! Crazy. This was just after we were done and we had come off the field. My smile is one of relief! Whew... we are finished. As you can see there was a packed house there that night.



This picture is at the very historic and first ever AHS NHS induction ceremony. National Honor Society is not something that I could have been inducted into during my high school career. So when Joe (pictured) asked me to be his co-sponsor, I jumped at the chance. When else could I have ever said in my life that I was "in" NHS? :)

The two girls pictured are two of my very favorite students from last year. They are now juniors and were inducted that night. They are also a part of my very favorite class of kids that I have ever taught. A WONDERFUL group of kids. I am proud to be their sponsor because I know that there is literally nothing that they could do that I would not want to be a part of - they are awesome kids.

So those of you that have been wondering, where are all the posts? Why doesn't David get some things going on this blog lately? Well, I have been busy with great kids like these. Yeah, I guess I am a pretty lucky guy for that reason, too.

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Happy Birthday Momma

[click the picture for a bigger look]

Aidan enjoyed his mother's birthday almost as much as his mother's cake. It was a good day. We had Mexican chicken fajitas from Norma's favorite place. Later we had cake. There were only three candles... hmmm, maybe each represented at least 10 years? We'll have to look into that one.

I am a VERY lucky man. My wife is an amazing woman. We share so much together. Our beautiful son (soon to be 2 years-old himself on the 27th), our jobs, and our lives. We are best friends and there isn't anyone I'd rather spend my time with on earth.

Does it get any better than that?

Happy Birthday Honey.
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Aidan: Sneak Preview - Halloween

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Daily Show on Bush Explaining What His Job Is

This is pure genius... errr, about pure stupidity.



I have been super busy lately. I need to post more. I am going to post more. I must. As busy as life gets, it's still important to come here and let out some of my frustration and to share some things. I saw this Daily Show bit the other night and immediately said, "I must put that on my blog." A week or so later... and yeah, I have been pretty lax.

Here's hoping we'll look back on all of this Bush crap and just laugh. If we are able to survive it.
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Buck O'Neil Passes

This really made me sad today: Former Negro Leaguer O'Neil Dies

Norma and I met him when we went to spring training a few years ago. He was walking onsome of the back ballfields behind the Royals spring complex. I walked up to him and said, "Hey, you are Buck O'Neil." He just smiled and said, "Sure am, hope you folks are doing good today."

He was a great old guy and it is a horrible shame he was only 1 vote shy of the Hall of Fame this past year. He sure deserved to get in before he passed. In my mind, he was a hall of famer for his contributions to the game and his good will.

"What a fabulous human being," Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson said. "He was a blessing for all of us. I believe that people like Buck and Rachel Robinson and Martin Luther King and Mother Teresa are angels that walk on earth to give us all a greater understanding of what it means to be human. I'm not sad for him. He had a long, full life and I hope I'm as lucky, but I'm sad for us."

A celebration of his 95th birthday was to be held on November 11th with a guest list of 750 of the games greats. Maybe they can all get together that day and remember Buck... an all time great person, player, coach and ambassador of the game.

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The Addiction Starts Early

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Bedtime

Bedtime is always the same routine for us. Aidan comes upstairs around 7:30pm and plays. Close to 8 we start getting him undressed and start to coax him towards the bathroom. Water running and bathmat down, but still it takes a lot of effort to get him into the water. He knows it's the beginning of the end of his day. He'd rather play than sleep.

Tonight a red plastic shovel (that is almost as tall as he is) got him into the bath. Luckily it was too big for him to control and actually dump water out of the tub, or our upstairs would have been flooded.

After I give him a bath, Mom gets ready in the bedroom to lube him up with baby lotion and get him dressed in his pjs. He will jump up on his window seat cushion above his bed (the mattress sits on the floor, he'd climb out of a crib and kill himself) and we call out animal names. We have cards for each of the letters of the alphabet and there is an animal on each card. He runs and points them out. He is very accurate!

Then Norma starts to ask him to come down to the bed, which takes a while. He plays to the bitter end. Then it's kiss for Daddy and lights out. Norma usually lays with him for a few minutes until he falls asleep. Some nights it's longer than others. Tonight I hope it is quick, she has some school work to finish.

Things have been crazy this week because of Open House at school. That was Tuesdsay night and it was a late night for us. I think we are still recovering. It will be great to have Friday tomorrow. I am going to take my camera in and take some pictures of my classes. It is Jersey day. It is a promotion for the football team. I give bonus points on my quizzes for participating in spirit day.

I'll be wearing my Texans jersey that my Dad got for me last Christmas. I will think of him all day in that thing. I really miss my Dad. There aren't many hours that pass through the day when something doesn't make me think of him. It's so crazy for me because sometimes I think he's still just home, at work and going through his day. I really miss talking to him. I would have loved sharing this whole experience of opening a new school with him. I keep thinking to myself that he would be proud of the kind of person I have become.

Aidan outside

Fun times outside in the back yard. Weekends are great, aren't they?

:)
More pictures tomorrow.
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