Went Fishing...

Well, not exactly...

Being Wednesday, I had the kids and I took them down to feed the fish at one of the lakes. Someone had told me about this a few days ago and said, "go to 'such and such' dock and bring the kids with you. They'll love to feed the fish!"

At the time, I thought, "that sounds cool. We'll probably get a handful of fish food and throw them in the water and see an occasional fish pop his or her little head up and eat it." Boy, was I wrong!

First off, there was thousands of fish the side of small boats sitting around waiting to be fed and man, they were agressive! I kept holding on to my children because I thought that if they accidently fell in, the fish would eat them!

Here they are at the dock, about to feed the fish:



Here's a close up of the little guy feed the fish. I think I took the picture just in case he fell in and was eaten, I would at least have a picture of his last moments. I'm telling you, these fish were mean! There were some ducks nearby who were trying to grab a little grub as well, but the fish kept smaking them upside the head!



Here's the girlie, being all girlie like while feeding the fish:



Overall, it was a lot of fun but next time I think I'll bring rope to tie around their waists.

They're in the Musical "Cats"

Ah, first a funny!

Okay, now for the real stuff...

Mediation took a long time but the results were awesome! I get the kids every weekend and every Wednesday, plus three seven day holidays a year. That rocks!!!

My kids are ecstatic about it as well. I will never be away from my kids for more than two days. I've spent the last two weekends with my kids and we've had a wonderful time together, playing and going places, including the movies where we went to see Evan Almighty and laughed a lot. (We even did the dance after the movie was over: if you don't know what I'm talking about, you haven't seen the movie! hee hee)

We also went to see Surf's Up!

Yesterday, I bought them a tag game with these pistols that have Velcro on the ends, a Velcro vest and protection glasses, and they played outside with this for a long time. They finally called me outside to tell me that they got the little guy, so this is what I find when I get outside:

I think they take their acting classes a bit too seriously... Talking about acting, the two older ones got parts in the upcoming productions of the Musical "Cats." (The little guy was too small.) I can't wait to see them in their Cat suits, running around the stage and singing! Don't worry, I'll have pictures!

Okay, you Ebay fans!

Do you know anyone who's addicted to Ebay? I do; I know this lady who lives, eats, and breathes Ebay. The funny thing is, she's on dial up and you should hear her complain about losing a bid because her internet connection is slow and she gets outbidded by people on broadband connection! So it's only fitting that Weird Al write a song just for people like her.

Here's Weird Al's Ebay song! Common! Sing along...

"C" isn't always the right answer...

Have you ever taken a test where the answer is either true or false? It's hard to fail a test like this since you have pretty good odds of getting the answer right. A little intuition, a little common sense, and you're bound to guess correctly.

Right? Well, not really, apparently...

If the correct answer is either A (true) or B (false), picking C is not going to do it for you:

Here's what his instructor had to say:

Dear Michael,

Every year I attempt to boost my students' final grades by giving them this relatively simple exam consisting of 100 True/False questions from only 3 chapters of material. For the past 20 years that I have taught Intro Communications 101 at this institution I have never once seen someone score below a 65 on this exam. Consequently, your score of a zero is the first in history and ultimately brought the entire class average down a whole 8 points. There were two possible answer choices: A (True) and B (False). You chose C for all 100 questions in an obvious attempt to get lucky with a least a quarter of the answers. It's as if you didn't look at a single question. Unfortunately, this brings your final grade in this class to failing. See you next year!May God have mercy on your soul.

Sincerely,

Professor William Turner

P.S. If all else fails, go with B from now on. B is the new C

Putting my ducks in a row...

Well, after nine months of STUFF, I finally have a date set for divorce mediation. I'm not sure if it's the same everywhere, but here in Tennessee, you HAVE to go to mediation and work out a parental plan and the finance stuff. If we don't agree, then we go to divorce court and have the judge agree for us. I've been busy trying to work things out on paper, making sure that the children's situation is the best that it can be, but I find it ironic that two people who had a hard time agreeing on much (which is the reason for the divorce) are now mandated to sit and discuss things in order to agree on how assets and time with the kids are to be divided.

Anybody have any advice about this? Perhaps if you've been through this before and want to share the experience, I'd be greatful.

I spent four hours with the kids yesterday and we had a pretty good time; we went to church and then went back to my house and ate, had pillow fights, played outside, etc... Still, I had this uneasy feeling that the divorce was weighing heavily on their minds. The deadline is always looming, "how much more time do we have?", and when it's almost time, they makes comments or their attitudes change and their spirits aren't as high as it was. I'll hear them saying, "maybe mom will be late and we can stay longer."

I didn't see my father until I was 11. We left Cuba when I was less than a year old, but he didn't come with us because he was in the armed forces and couln't leave at the time. He served his country for several years but then it took several more years for him to apply and be allowed to come to the US. I didn't really miss him at the time because he wasn't in my life, but looking back and having kids of my own, I wish I could have had him in my life growing up.

I have always been a part of my children's lives and I want them to know that their dad is always there for them. Maybe that is what makes things more difficult; having to divide my time with them. I would like to ask for your prayers and/or good wishes and thoughts so that good decisions are made next week in mediation, that the children benefit the most from the decisions that are made.

Happy Birthday, Little Buddy!

You turned seven yesterday, my little buddy, and I simply cannot believe what an impact you have had on my life, and everyone else's, for that matter. You are so special and mean so much to me that when you leave my side, I instantly miss you and wonder what you're up to, hoping that you're having fun and enjoying life and learning from everything around you.

Know, little buddy, that your daddy will always be there, no matter what, to celebrate your birthdays, to make sure you're okay and to show you things, and to play with you and love you.

Dad...
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I have a friend who owns a boat and he was kind enough to invite me and the children over so that we could celebrate little buddy's birthday and it was so much fun! First, there was jumping off the dock into the lake:



Of course, you HAVE to push a friend into the lake with you or it wouldn't be any fun:



Then there was a VERY BIG EVENT for him; catching his very first fish! He was so proud of this that people watching had tears in their eyes.



Finally, it was birthday cake time with the friends:



My goal was that he have a memorable and fun seventh birthday and swimming in the lake with his friends was fun (he told me so) and catching his first fish was very memorable, at least for all of us watching him, but had you seen his excited face and his little voice yelling out for all to hear of his wonderful feat, you'd have to believe he'll remember that as well.