Random Thoughts...

So earlier this week I created an exceptionally creative and humorous post about who I was writing this blog for. Unfortunately, I lost the post through some irritating and stupid action on the part of me and my web browser. I'd worked on it, crafting a work of art, and in the blink of an eye it was gone. Needless to say, I couldn't summon the creative aptitude to create another post. The only reason I'm here posting this at this point is that my brain has accumulated an assortment of random thoughts that I need to get up here.

• Seems as though schools get cancelled for a lot less crappy weather now than they did when I was in school, or even a few years ago. Someone spits on the road and it gets too cold, they call off school. My theory has always been financial--we're a lawsuit happy society. Bus drives in difficult conditions, bus wrecks, kid gets hurt, parents sue. My friend Kirk adds another wrinkle to the finacial theory--it gets too cold, district must heat the schools, which ain't cheap. Since schools can't afford to provide all the services and programs to students anyway, they call off school instead of paying to heat the schools. Sounds good.
• I'm feeling old. Twice this last week, Kelsee has assisted me in the this endeavor. 1) While watching a Morehead State basketball game last week, our little group was talking about the crowd favorite, a freshman named Ken Faried. Someone noted that he is still just 17, to which Kelsee replied, "Jason, he's half your age." 2) We were watching House Hunters International the other night, and the couple on the show, who were about 40 years old each, commented that they had done things conventionally for the first half of their lives and that they wanted to do things differently the second half. I mentioned that I thought that sounded like a good idea, to which Kelsee replied, "Well, your second half starts in five years." Add in Kelsee's observation of a couple of weeks ago that she thought I was entering a midlife crisis at only 34 and she's being very helpful to my efforts to age ungracefully. Thanks, honey. 'Preciate it.
• Haley story: So we had a family home evening lesson recently about keeping the Sabbath day holy. Anyway, so we're at home late Sunday afternoon, and I just figured I'd sit down to watch catch a little of the NFL playoffs. Haley, who was messing with barbies in the same room with me, whips her head up and gasps within seconds of me landing on the channel. "Daddy, this is not keeping the Sabbaf day holy!" *Sigh* Chastized again by my 5-year-old. (BTW, this is the same kid who nearly panics when we pick up the sister missionaries and we have our non-church playing on the radio when they come out of their apartment.)
• So, I'm trying to adjust to life with glasses. I still have good acuity (20/20 or whatever), but I've developed an astigmatism, which basically means my eyeball is an egg and not a sphere. Anway, the biggest irritation isn't getting smudges or water droplets on them. Nor is it knocking them off when I take my sweatshirt off. It's not the weird feeling of looking through pane of glass constantly, either. It's that I keep getting caught staring at people. I never used to wear sunglasses much, but when I did, I could follow people along with my eyes and stare a little longer at the interesting ones. Sunglasses are great, because you can hide behind them. Now my instinct is to stare when I have my regular glasses on and when people see me the glare at me or quickly walk away. I guess this is bringing out my creepy side. Someone's going to punch me someday.

Unusual Post

This post isn't funny. It makes no attempts to funny, and that is unusual. I'm just feeling a little subdued at the moment. This was an interesting weekend. I'm not going to go into details, but it was a definite weekend of reflection. I woke up this morning feeling exceptionally glad I'm a member of my family. I feel like I have the best wife and daughter anyone could ever have, and I'm not sure why Heavenly Father blessed me that way. What did I do to deserve it? In spite of all my failings, weaknesses, inadequacies and idiosyncracies...

Moving Day (and a bonus Haley story)

From a office with an window to a cube. Our company continues to grow, and our space can hardly contain us. So they took an old file room in the middle of our office suite and crammed six cubicles in there. Guess who gets the cubes? The IT and Development teams! Before, we were in offices on the perimeter of the suite, with great window views of the pond outside. Now the view consists of beige cubicle walls. But it's really not as bad as it seems, for me at least. 1. I shared my other office with one and a half other people. (Ever seen half of a person? Pretty gruesome.) We were separated with cubicle walls. 2. The position of my computer that made the most sense put my back to the window and the afternoon sun made it impossible to see my screen. I used to have my blinds open in the morning and closed in the afternoon. I got lazy and quit opening them in the morning. 3. My old office had a key pad you had to punch a code into to get in. While this was good for keeping the undesirables out, it was a pain in the butt. You had to punch in every time you wanted to get in. The sound was annoying on days when folks kept coming and going. The door was finicky and if you didn't close it just right the flashing silent alarm would go off and you'd have go up front and disarm it. But hey, at least my stuff was secure from all the hoodlums here. 4. In my new cubicle, my back is toward the entry, so people can sneak up on me and scare me, which should definitely add to the excitement of the day. 5. Since our office was locked to the unprivileged, I had to do garbage duty once a week. That also meant that our office never got vacuumed. You should have seen it. ------- On another note, a Haley story. Last night before we went to bed we were working with Haley on her letters as part of her "schooling." We have these big plastic letters. Kelsee would hold them up and ask Haley what letter it was and what sound it made. Occasionally, I would ask Haley for a word that starts with that letter. (This was probably in an attempt to not be left out.) Anyway, we got to V. When I asked her for a word that started with V, she shrugged her shoulders. I tried to give her a hint. "What did we drive to church today?" We drive a van, by the way. She thought for a minute, and finally said: "Vvvvvvv-ehicle." Only Haley.

Now That the Fun is Over

Well, the holiday season is over. I'm not sure what that means exactly, at least with regards to my life. Fewer parties, I presume. Less eating. Well, at least less frequent eating. I can say that this was one of the most satisfying holiday season, though. We can thank Haley for that. First of all, there is nothing better than a little kid who is really starting to "get it" when it comes to Christmas. If Haley's life was like the Truman Show, we'd have handfuls of great soundbites as she built up to Christmas. She played the season exactly the way a kids should, complete with a never ending list of toy requests, questions about whether Santa was real, excitement at buying a gift for Mama (and the subsequent "secret" of keeping it from her), singing at the top of her lungs when we went caroling. A couple of stories... - As I think I mentioned in an earlier post, she carried her American Girl catalog around for days. Of course, Santa ended up bringing one, and that was her favorite gift, supplanting the Talking-And-Singing-Gabriella-from-High-School-Musical Doll. At least until that was supplanted by the Groovy Girl doll and accessories she opened a few minutes later. A few minutes later she opened a nightgown that her Grandma Kappes and Mama made for her AG doll that matched her own nightgown she'd received the night before, and the AG doll re-assumed the top spot. That changed again later that night when she received a trio of slumber party barbie dolls. But wait! That's not all! Then came the Karoake machine from Grandma Dee. Haley can't read, so the Karoake part isn't all that great. It's the fact she can play her own CDs and sing in the working microphone. Aren't we lucky? Now her favorite gift is whichever one she happens to be playing with. What a diplomatic child. - Haley is apparently an anxious child. So we'd been talking a lot about how Santa works. That he comes to our house on Christmas Eve while we are asleep and brings presents blah blah blah. Anyway, after we opened and put on our new pajamas at Kelsee's parents house (about 30 minutes from our house) we were all sitting around and talking preparing soon to head home. Haley and all the other cousins went back with their Grandma to look on the web on one of those track Santa websites and see how close Santa was to our state. At that time, he happened to be in Florida. Haley emerged from the other room with an anxious look on her face and came up to me. Suddenly she burst into tears. "Daddy I'm scared. We need to go home now. Right now. We're going to miss Santa and he won't stop at our house unless I'm asleep." Broke my heart! I consoled her and told her he was much farther away from our house than we were. Still we couldn't get out of there fast enough for her. - I sang a song in church during the Christmas program. Since this was only my third or fourth solo, I practiced it. A lot. I'd sing it in the shower. I'd sing it emptying the dishwasher. I'd sing it driving to the store. I'd sing it playing games. It got to the point that whenever I'd start to practice it, Haley would let out a groan, followed by: "Not again, Daddy!!!" - We had a ward Christmas party, ward caroling, primary caroling, a trip to Southern Lights with my family, a Kappes family party (Kelsee's dad's siblings and their brood), a birthday party for Kelsee's dad, Christmas Eve caroling, Christmas morning present-opening, Christmas afternoon present-opening (with Kelsee's family), and a day after Christmas present-opening (with my family). Sometime toward the end of all this, Haley sighed and said "I'm all Christmased out." And that was before the New Year's Eve party and spending half of New Year's Day with Sammi and Hannah. I know what you mean, Haley. I know what you mean.