Friday, April 25, 2008

Birthday Party

We had a large Birthday Party for the kids this year and invited Veronica's extended family and some of our friends from church and girl scouts (Peddles)

We had cake and presents and a pinata. The kids loved it.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Priorities And A Thousand Marbles

I did not write this. In fact, I don't know who did. As it says at the end, a friend of mine sent this to me and I wanted to share it with you. Here we go...

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whom-ever he was talking withsomething about "a thousand marbles." I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.

"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your daughter's "dance recital" he continued. "Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities." And that's when he began to explain his theory of a "thousand marbles."

"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years."

"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part."

It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail", he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays." "I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear."

"Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life."

"There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight."

"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time."

"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 Year old Man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!"

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter..

Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. "C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast."

"What brought this on?" she asked with a smile.

"Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles...

A friend sent this to me, so I to you, my friend.

Author Unknown

If you know the Author please contact me and I will update my documents.

o Post here by William E Petersen

Webmaster of http://www.DaddyResource.com – A Practical Resource to Help Dads Grow. William is a father of two children, Angelina who is four and Carlos who is two. He lives with his wife and children in Texas.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Father involvement is a more important

Father involvement is a more important predictor than
mother involvement of the likelihood of children getting high
grades. For children in first through twelfth grades living in
single father families, higher father involvement is associated
with getting high grades and enjoying school and a lower
chance of suspension or expulsion for school.
--Source: Nord, C.W., Brimhall, D., & West J. (1997), Father
¡s Involvement in Schools, Washington D.C., U.S
Department of Education.

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Picked up a good book

Today I found the book called "Fatherhood" by Bill Cosby at the thrift store. It was kinda funny because if you go and google the term "fatherhood" you find Bill Cosby's book all over the place. I was a little suprised to find out it was published back in 1986. I figured that it must be a really good book if it is still a major topic on the internet 20 years after it was published.

Anyway, I will be reading it and finding out if it really is a good book. I expect that it will be. Then I will write my own review of Bill Cosby's book to appear here and on my web site www.daddyresource.com. It certainly should be a resource for dads and the subject is fatherhood after all.

My own children are growing up so fast. Carlos is talking more and more and becoming more and more understandable. He is amazing. Angelina is amazing as well. I love listening to her talk and listen to her perspective on the world.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

My son pees standing up

My son has done it many times, and is on his way for being potty trained, but today was the first time I saw him do it. I told him to go pee and he stood there and went wee into his potty. Makes a father proud.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

My daughter got stung by a bee

Today my daughter got stung by a bee of some kind. My sister in law pulled out the stinger and Angelina then came running to her parents. She has decided she now wants to have nothing to do with bees.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Nicolas and Jordan stayed

My nephews Nicolas and Jordan stayed Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night. They are also staying tonight (Saturday night). We had a great time with them and Angelina and Jordon are stuck together like glue. We all went to the dollar store on this afternoon and Jordon convinced Angelina that they needed to get the little clear cages to catch bees in. When they got back to our house they went out back and look for bees for about 90 seconds before giving up.