I feel about ten years older than I'm supposed to, thanks to kidney disease! I will blog about my kidneys, my family, and other things in my seemingly ordinary life. Enjoy!
I was born on December 16th, 1978. For the 30 days leading up to my birthday, I'll be posting (mostly) pictures and (a few) stories about the years gone by.
Here is another official school photo - I thought that I was The Man when I saw this come back from the photo people. Now that I look back, I'm not so sure that red headed people should take photos in front of red screens.
And again with the wax in the front catching the flash on the camera. I really was stylin...
I was born on December 16th, 1978. For the 30 days leading up to my birthday, I'll be posting (mostly) pictures and (a few) stories about the years gone by.
Here's my brother, my father and I in a picture taken at church for the directory.
And here is my official school picture. Welcome to the Flat Top Years!
It's funny that you can see the hair product more than you can see my hair in the picture!
We went to Disney World that summer, too. Check out my brothers rolled socks (I rocked them too) as well as my self-inflicted bunny ears. Dorks.
The fall of 1990 was my first year in Maryland after moving from my mom's house to my grandparents house. Want to know the meaning of culture shock? Move from coastal North Carolina to a Washington, DC suburb while transitioning from public elementary school to a private middle school!
I was born on December 16th, 1978. For the 30 days leading up to my birthday, I'll be posting (mostly) pictures and (a few) stories about the years gone by.
Here is us three siblings, Jason, Rob and Michelle, in that order:
Here is another that I hope is from Halloween:
Wow, going from sweet to young-terrorist that quickly. Just wow.
One thing that I remember is that I went to a school called Rochelle which we all renamed Roach Hell. I never once saw a roach, but I was a pre-teen like the rest, so that's what I called it too!
There are many many things to be thankful for this November, and the list below is only a sample.
I'm thankful that....
...we have a warm place to live and enough money to keep it warm
...I have a wonderful family, both the ones that live inside this house and outside of it
...I have wonderful and supportive friends as close as next door and as far away as the other side of the globe
...Anny got her National Board Certification last week. It's a great relief that the waiting is over.
...we will get to spend a little time with a lot of family today
...in less than a month we will be visiting with even more family in St Louis
...Abby is a wonderful child in every way
...I have friends that I've met through the net and keep up with
...for as much as I look for something to complain about, life is good
I was born on December 16th, 1978. For the 30 days leading up to my birthday, I'll be posting (mostly) pictures and (a few) stories about the years gone by.
1988 brought about the birth of several new family members! But first, my school photo:
Here I am with my brother, and our cousin Jon.
It seems that I liked photography a while ago, too. It's fun that I've picked it back up recently.
My sister was born in '88 as well, but later in the year, but her picture will come tomorrow.
I was born on December 16th, 1978. For the 30 days leading up to my birthday, I'll be posting (mostly) pictures and (a few) stories about the years gone by.
Here is another guessing-on-the-year picture!
This picture is in such good shape that you can see the thumb-smudge in the corner. Hooray for pictures in boxes!
I was born on December 16th, 1978. For the 30 days leading up to my birthday, I'll be posting (mostly) pictures and (a few) stories about the years gone by.
The only thing I can find for this year is a school picture...
Guess I'll fill space then by letting you know that the first computer virus was released in 1986. It was named Brian.
I was born on December 16th, 1978. For the 30 days leading up to my birthday, I'll be posting (mostly) pictures and (a few) stories about the years gone by.
Okay, I'll be honest, I'm totally guessing at the date on this photo. Since I don't have any others that I can peg as 1985 from dates on photos, this will have to suffice.
This one too:
Again, I'm so happy that Abby will not have to guess about dates and all that, because she will have electronic copies of her pictures!
I was born on December 16th, 1978. For the 30 days leading up to my birthday, I'll be posting (mostly) pictures and (a few) stories about the years gone by.
Here is a shot that I hope is from Halloween!
Here I am with my brother having a heck of a time!
I was born on December 16th, 1978. For the 30 days leading up to my birthday, I'll be posting (mostly) pictures and (a few) stories about the years gone by.
I guess I will start with the slightly more embarassing picture of this whole poject....
I was born on December 16th, 1978. For the 30 days leading up to my birthday, I'll be posting (mostly) pictures and (a few) stories about the years gone by.
Okay, I'll be honest about the 1983 pictures - I'm not 100% sure of the date on these because I don't have the originals in hand. I THINK these are from '83....
It's Christmas Time
It's funny that I run from the camera these days when I look and see how much of a ham I used to be!
I was born on December 16th, 1978. For the 30 days leading up to my birthday, I'll be posting (mostly) pictures and (a few) stories about the years gone by.
In January of 1981 my brother was born. He's a cool guy now, so it's okay with me that he was born. There were a few years in there that it was questionable...
It seems that I had to have my hair cut:
For the record, I still whine that much when I get my hair cut. Don't believe me? Ask Anny.
I was born on December 16th, 1978. For the 30 days leading up to my birthday, I'll be posting (mostly) pictures and (a few) stories about the years gone by.
Here are a couple of photos that (as best as I can tell) are from 1980:
With as excited as I look in this picture, you might think that I would love bikes. I do not.
I do, on the other hand, love me some Easter!
This is the last year that I can say that I was an only child!
*****UPDATE*****
I found these two this morning, and they were too good NOT to put up:
A friend at church asked me yesterday how I chose where to put photos of Abby online, so I thought I would share a bit of how I have spread out on the world wide web, and I really have streched out to enjoy the stay!
Blogging
You obviously know about this blog, you're reading it!
I also jointly blog with Anny over HERE to keep people informed about Abby as she grows, and she really is growing!
We have a recipe storage blog, HERE, where we keep things that we would like to be able to access no matter where we are, without having to sign up for another service.
I am also a monthly contributor for the PC(USA) blog. I was asked to answer questions as an Elder, which I am, but I have turned it around to asking Questions to the Community on very non-controversial issues like stewardship and photos on the web.
Friendliness/Community
I'm on Facebook, which I avoided for a long time at the request of my sister. I have had fun catching up with old friends. I don't accept a friend request of someone that I don't know outside of FB, so it's managable.
I'm a member on the DadLabs Crib, where I am more direct with fatherly type questions and feedback for others. It's a great place if you want to hop over. Abby has been mentioned by name on at least one video!
I keep up with other people with Kidney Disease through NephSpace, which is now hosted by Inspire. I don't check that site daily, but it's a good place with a lot of information.
Photos
We use Picasa by Google to edit photos, so we naturally use it to store them online. But, we have gotten away from being good at that because I've started posting on Flickr.
I post daily pictures to Flickr. It's Yahoo's storage program, but does not have nearly as nice of a editing software. I use Flickr because there is more community there, and am friends with a bunch of other parents that are doing a picture-a-day and are at various stages in that process.
Official, Real Websites
Right now I am the webmaster for Laurel Presbyterian Church, my church. Once I got everything set up, it's much more just regular upkeep and changing things on the front page.
At work I help out on our website, too. I am in charge of updating committee information as well as information for all of the various teams that work for the committees. Right now I'm in the process of updating the sites that we list all of our churches on to include their December worship services. It's tedious, but gratifying when it's done.
Her question, though, was how do I decide what goes where? Well, I used to post on Abby's blog about parenting stuff and rants, but now it's solely about her and her development. I use my blog here for all sorts of things, like my countdown to 30 that will stared yesterday and will continue until my birthday!
As far as photos, Picasa gets bulk dumps that I want others to browse through, like for events. Flickr gets a picture of Abby a day, and on occasion will get other shots that I like or want to tweak. I only put a picture on Facebook that I'm REALLY happy with, and those are not daily occurances.
Here's the thing, it looks like I would spend six hours a day working on this stuff, but really I just put in a few minutes here and there. I enjoy the larger community and conversation, and these sites are an easy outlet since I work in a small office!
So, where do you hang on the web? Any place I should add?
I was born on December 16th, 1978. For the 30 days leading up to my birthday, I'll be posting (mostly) pictures and (a few) stories about the years gone by.
I obviously don't remember a whole lot about 1979, either! Here are a few pictures, though:
Looks like I learned to sit up in 1979! A skill I proudly still know today!
I was born on December 16th, 1978. For the 30 days leading up to my birthday, I'll be posting (mostly) pictures and (a few) stories about the years gone by.
My first picture is obviously from the first year I was a live - 1978. I was not around very long in '78, but I'm sure it was nice.
Here's me:
(Okay, it was more likely early in 1979, but it's the earliest shot I can find!)
I wanted to blog about this last week, but there are a lot of things going on, including a memorial service for a woman barely older than I am, that have made my computer time a little more limited. I'm okay with that. I think I have finally found a good online/real-life balance again.
On Monday night I told Anny that if divorce was not so expensive, I would push her for one right now. Before you think that there is trouble in our little paradise, let me assure you that all is well in our lives, home and marriage. It's that last word that is troubling me.
Last week California took away the legal rights that had finally been granted to the LGBT community - that of marriage - with Proposition 8. I guess I had only been reading liberal websites, because it looked to me like it would be overwhelmingly defeated by what I could tell.
I just can not wrap my mind around knowingly taking away someone's rights that you enjoy yourself.
Please do not quote to me from the Bible - I can not believe that God wants for some of us to have freedoms that others do not. Do not tell me that "God intended for marriage between one woman and one man" because that is not where marriage came from. If you look, from the Old Testament, marriage was typically between one man and many women. Not exactly something that would fly these days. Later it was merely a way to unite two land-owning families.
Here is Keith Olberman's response to the vote. He pretty much sums up my thoughts.
If you view it as protection for children, ponder this... Would it be better for a child to grow up in a loving household of two parents, regardless of gender, or to have a split home where parents are fighting all the time and calling each other names? If you're against gay marriage for the sake of "the family" perhaps we should outlaw divorce too.
Here's another way to think about it: more marriages means more money for your state/county budget. Yes, you can think about this issue in a number of ways, why not just make it about cashola? If you are denying the rights of same sex couples from marrying, really you should be charged more in taxes to make up the difference, because getting married is not a cheap affair. Not just the state/county fees, but think about all of the people being out of work that could be catering, singing and organizing more weddings.
Civil Unions does not do justice, either. That's not true - how about make everyone do a Justice of the Peace Civil Union and not call it marriage. The playing field needs to be leveled.
I'm closing comments because I don't want to argue about this - and I know that I differ from some of your views. I don't need more conversation. I need for people to think differently - to be differently.
Anny and I have been in conversation for about six years now about the use of a word. Turns out that the dictionary supports both of us (Stupid Websters, won't pick a side!) so that was of no use.
The word causing such great debate? Cuddle.
You can imagine how many times the word "cuddle" gets used when you have the most adorable toddler in the world, so it drives one of us crazy when it is used in an alternative fashion. I will not say which way I think is right and which side Anny falls on, so that I don't skew the results.
So, using the poll feature on the right, please choose which of the following is correct in your opinion:
Abby's napping, so I'm going to go cuddle her.
Abby's napping, so I'm going to go cuddle with her.
I know that the only correct one would be "Abby's napping, leave her the heck alone," but that's not an option!
Okay - so I had not payed attention to my statcounter for more than a week, but I am proud to say that this morning I received my 10,000th hit! I know it's not as big as a lot of other places, but it's big for me!
So, whoever checks the blog from in/around Towson and came over from Abby's site - show yourself! I'll send you something to celebrate. It might be something expensive (probably not) or something in the form of home made from Abby. (since you checked her site first, I'm guessing that whoever you are you're okay with it!)
(This also counts as my second posting for today! Woo Hoo!)
I have so much to say. I really need to blog more regularly. Here goes:
1 - I'm elated beyond words at the Obama Presidency that will be coming. I hear he's already in town (or on his way) to get things geared up for January 20th. This is amazing: http://obama2008.s3.amazonaws.com/headlines.html
2 - Abby is teeting really badly this week. I stayed home Monday because she had such a high fever that daycare would not have allowed her to come. Thursday morning she cried unless she was eating - and even then it was wimpering. We believe that this might be the two year molars coming in. Bad because it sucks in general to have a teething baby, good because it means that we won't have to deal with teeth for a long time after these come in.
3 - We have started a compost pile with the goal of composting the leaves from our yard. The problem is that the leaves are not really falling in OUR yard. Would it be awkward to rake a neighbors lawn to harvest their leaves? (Yes)
4 - I'm thankful for technology. I have recently been going through old pictures of myself for a birthday project I'm working on. It's really hard to figure out when a couple of the school pictures are from. There are a few fuzzy years in my life for various reasons. Abby will never have to deal with this, because the computer will tell her when the pictures are from!
5 - We're going to a memorial service tomorrow for a friend who died way too young. She fought with lung cancer for a few years, but that does not make it less unbelievable. I worked with her when I was at Camp Glenkirk and she was great at balance and humor. It's really hard for me to think about the fact that she was only 36. We will go tomorrow to mourn with our extended church family and celebrate a life taken too early.
6 - It's hard to maintain my positive outlook on life when thinking about #5.
I have some blog posts that I'm going to be writing this weekend because it's really healthy for me to share with people, and this is a healthy way for me to do that. Beginning soon there will be a post-a-day project leading up to my 30th birthday next month!
At Abby's school yesterday they had a costume parade, and played with bubbles:
Here she is leading the charge for more fun!
I made a flower to go with the costume at dinner. It did not last long once she figured out people were giving her food!
We only visited five or six houses, all of folks that we wanted to say "hi" to anyway. In spite of that, she got a bag FULL of food! Here she is checking out her haul!
Upon closer investigation, she dumped the bag and picked out a Reece's Peanut Butter Cup (my favorite, too). We did NOT let her eat it right before bed time, I promise. (And for the record, I didn't eat it either!)
Here is my favorite shot from the night. I like it for several reasons, but mostly because she was just so blissfully happy to dig into a big container of sugar. I'm sure she would have, if we let her.
Now the big question is whether or not to let her have some candy. She's had a few pieces of candy over her short life (Thanks Amy!) but typically chocolate winds her up. We'll probably have some with breakfast and keep it at that!
Happy Halloween!
(Or, at this point, All Saints Day!)
