Just Checking In

You know with all the craziness of the Blogger competition I kind of fell out of touch and I thought maybe I should use this chance to just, you know, catch up with what's going on with me. You know, bring you up to speed with the old Cris... uh.. er... ok I can't really think of a cool nick name to make out of Cris. Maybe that's why I never had a cool nick name.

My daughter went out and got a job all on her own. I know it is not a big deal to you, but she is so empowered and proud of her accomplishment she can't hardly stand herself. She will waitress, or buss tables or cook or something. We don't know yet, but we do know it will cost me at least $50 so she can buy food worker's clothes. All this so she can buy her own gas.

My son's voice changed. Like happened to me, his voice changed over night. One night he was a sweet little boy and the next morning my own voice was coming out of his head. And just like when I was an 8th grader, I could talk to my father and my grandfather and only hear one voice. It's cool, sad, and for him another sign he is growing into a man. I have every reason to suspect he will be a much better man than his father, and to think, you read about the first steps when his voice changed.

My son is, like his father, a little thick around the middle. My wife says I am also think in the head, but that does not seem to apply to him... or at least not until he also gets married. At great urging, he took Vo-Ag at the local Middle School. He has enjoyed it, but for the past couple of weeks the Ag teacher got pissed off at all the talking and made the boys run laps around the barn. It did not take too much talking to start the middle melting away from this kid and he is becoming a tall, lean, muscled up deep voiced video playing machine.

He is getting in good shape so quickly, my Aries birth daughter is now thinking about taking up running. She is always working to beat the battle of the bulge (while drinking Ranch Dressing out of the bottle) so we might have the beginning of an Opprobrious track team.

My wife taught a class on child development last fall. She enjoyed it so much she is teaching three more classes this spring. The pay is pretty darn good but I am trying not to spend it for her on home improvements... so she can pay off her credit cards. But I would really like exterior french doors and hard wood floors in the den and dining room. Then I would like new counter tops and a kitchen floor and new master bathroom floor and .... ok you get the idea. I like to reinvest in our big investment.

MY Dad sold off his farm and ranch business. He is in full swing retirement and never seemed to work harder. He has gotten rid of nearly everything but the horse that threw him and put him in the hospital for two weeks. He is determined to ride that thing out of spite. As soon as he has healed enough to actually crawl back on. The big news is, with the price of oil and gas rising, Dad had two oil wells drilled on property where he owns all the mineral rights. He had big dreams of oil royalty checks of $10,000 per month per well... then the price of crude dropped and his Oklahoma oil baron dream seems to have ended.

I am pretty sure he thinks if we only had four more years of George H.W. Bush he would have had it made. .......hmmm... I wonder at what age it was when I stopped hearing the same voice when we spoke?

You know what I did today?

Stayed inside where it is cool! Sheesh it was 107 degrees in the shade. I had thought about mowing the yard this weekend, but with this heat, all I would do is damage the lawn. It can grow a bit more. It wont grow too much in this searing heat.

I had Jr go around the house and take all the hanging flower pots down and store them for the year. My typical summer schedule is I get flowers looking real nice and the house is very cute and inviting. Then I go to a conference while it is very hot and Jr somehow forgets the flowers need to be watered everyday. I suspect he also forgets daily requirements for the caring for the dogs, brushing his teeth and possibly clean underwear. I do the best I can as a parent, but I can't always be there to make sure he lives up to his responisibilities. But I can certainly point out how not living up to them caused death and destruction. ....to flowers.

I did see the first quarter of the FIRST Preseason game of the NFL!! Jason Campbell started for Washington and they looked pretty good. Payton was not there for the Colts. What was impressive was for the first game, actually a week early for Preseason... Neither team made a single penalty for the entire first quarter. Joe Gibbs is a genius and he turned that team around in Washington. It's a shame he felt like he retired as a has-been. I don't enjoy his style of play, and I never rooted for his players, but he is one hell of a coach.

A friend of mine told me before church that he went to see the new Mummy movie. He said it was really good if you are going for the old escapism type flick, kind of like the second Indiana Jones movie. He also agreed the new Batman movie was the best superhero movie ever made, but he did not really agree it was the best movie ever. He never said, but I suspect any logical mind would see it would take a really awesome movie to knock Tremmors off the throne of Greatest Movie Ever Made.