Our New Light

Norma and I are very happy with our new light in the dining room. We had a mini-chandelier look before and I hated it. It came with the house. The bulbs were these silly decorative bulb like 'flames.' All that would happen is that the bulb would heat up so much that you could not get the thing unscrewed from the fixture. Horrible.

So we had like 1/2 the lights permanently burned out that couldn't be replaced. That made reading at the dining room table next to impossible. That's one of my real joys is to sit down after a long day's work and nurse a good meal and look through the newspaper and magazines. On the weekend, with a cup of coffee after breakfast. Now I'm living like a king. The light is beautiful, matches our dining room/living room area perfectly and it's very nice and bright.

Plus, the old light was hot. With this one we can put in CFG bulbs and they are so much more energy efficient and are cool. I no longer feel like I have to turn that light off immediately. We can leave it on at night and it adds a nice light in the room when watching tv. I'm super happy with it.

Fox Does It Again

Lunch @ Chilis

Today we had lunch at Chilis. We don't normally eat out a lot. We do get some drive through stuff and always have Chinese takeout on Saturday's for lunch. But, Aidan hasn't really been able to sit still long enough to have lunch or dinner out. Until now. He was great today.

We were ready with a couple of Transformers toys and some Spongebob books. Aidan kept himself entertained most of the time and he ate a lot of his grilled cheese sandwhich.

It was really nice to sit as a family and have a meal at a restaurant. :)

The Last Lecture

This is the most inspiring thing I have seen all summer. Great words of wisdom.



I am going to be picking up Randy's book this summer www.lastlecture.com

Here is the full lecture - an hour and 1/2 long.

Aidan's Big Boy Bed

We finally have a nice bed for Aidan. He destroyed the crib that Norma's sister gave us. So we put a matress we had on the floor for him. We felt it was safe, in case he rolled out of bed. But, Aidan is getting bigger and more independent. We felt like a new bed would be perfect for him this summer. He is loving it.





The first night he said, "Thank you for my bed. I love it." It made us both feel good.

Fireworks

We had a great spot in Town Center for the Kingwood Fireworks tonight. We strolled around the park and did some people watching. Then just after 9pm, the first fireworks that Aidan has ever seen (as far as he can remember) were shot off. He was pretty happy for the first 10 minutes or so. But, the finale reeled him back in. Exciting!


4th of July 2008 Fireworks from fordee on Vimeo.

Where the Hell is Matt?

This simple but inspirational video is really a marvel. I have seen it before and remember his website as this was starting. It is amazing.

You can check out the website here: Wherethehellismatt.com


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

"The moral of the story is we're here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And, what the computer people don't realize, or they don't care, is we're dancing animals. You know, we love to move around."
- Kurt Vonnegut

I love a parade

See all the pictures here: Flickr Page

@ the Parade

We had a great time at the Kingwood 4th of July Parade today. Aidan loved the floats, candy, and fun. It was pretty hot, but a good time was had by all.

Tonight is the big 4th fireworks in Town Center. Aidan is pumped to see fireworks - IN THE DARK! He is going to get to stay up late. So we are hoping for a nice long nap this afternoon. Shouldn't be hard for him to nap. He was out in the heat for over an hour for the parade.

New Phone Takes Good Pictures

My wallpaper. :)

This made my stomach turn

How low can you go? FoxNews uses photoshop to alter images of NYTimes Reporters

Wow, this is sick.

Summary: During a segment in which Fox & Friends co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade labeled New York Times reporter Jacques Steinberg and editor Steven Reddicliffe "attack dogs," Fox News featured photos of Steinberg and Reddicliffe that appeared to have been digitally altered -- the journalists' teeth had been yellowed, their facial features exaggerated, and portions of Reddicliffe's hair moved further back on his head.

So why do they feel like they have to stoop to this level? Just ridiculous. In this age of the Internet, it is just great that we have the technology to call people on this kind of terrible reporting. I hope lots and lots of people see this. Sad.

Karate Friends

This is Aidan's karate friend Odin. Aidan is younger, but a little taller. And tonight for the first time ever, Aidan got the most skittles at the end. Master sits with them at the end of the class and explains what they did well and what they need to improve on for next time. And then the skittles come out. Tonight there were only three kids (4th of July week) and the two older boys got 2 skittles, Aidan got 3. It was a pretty big deal to him. He didn't even want to eat them, just hold them in his hand and keep counting them.

He did well. He's improving. The best thing that I am seeing is that he is listening to someone other than Norma and I. When he starts preschool in the fall, he'll need to listen to someone else. This is great practice.

I also like the discipline aspect of what he is doing. It is invaluable to get training in routines. He is going through the same stretching each time he goes. I can see his improvement. It will be amazing to compare his progress over the next year.

The other major part of karate for him is meeting other kids his age. Being an only child is going to be good and bad. The good part is that he gets lots of adult attention from Norma and I. But, the bad part is that he is home alone without other kids around. So we need to get him out with others and invite friends over to the house. We have a few neighbors that we should really work harder to know. And their kids and Aidan could be pretty good friends.

Aidan has a great way with other kids. He's very outgoing. Almost in a scary way. We've been having the 'strangers' talk a lot lately. He just trusts everyone. So we keep eagle eyes on him when we are out. Today we biked down to Sonic for breakfast. Aidan went up to this guy who was sitting at a table by himself. He sat across from him and said, "Hey dude!" It was wild. Walking away he said, "Hey Mom, that's my best friend."

It's awesome that he's so positive and loves talking with other people. But, I am afraid he's far too trusting. We'll keep working on it. I am confident he'll change as he gets older. He is only 3. Most kids go through a real stage of shyness. He's going to, right?