Twilight: The Redeeming Quality

As I have been outed by Clint to his wife for listening to Twilight on my way to and from the hospital (what else am I going to do with those 30 minutes each day?) and from his wife to the rest of the women Melissa hangs with (lets face it you make up 50% of the readership of this particular blog) it is time to post my first of possibly many thoughts on Twilight. That last sentence may not be grammatically correct, but lets face, it I'm a doctor who majored in Exercise and Sport Science. You'll have to excuse me if English is not a very good part of my repertoire.

Since we were married 8.5 years ago Melissa has imersed herself in sports. She has taken it upon herself to be knowledgeable when watching a game so as not to pester me with questions (asking what Peyton Manning's towel is for, just as he snaps the ball in the last minute of the game on 4th and 3 is an example of a pestering question). She has been known to even enjoy a game or two, but in the end we both know that if I were to die tomorrow she would be perfectly content to never watch another sporting event on television, except for swimming, water polo, and some of the not-to-be-named lesser sports in the winter olympics. She watches sports for me. She knows it and I know it. With that in mind I decided to read Twilight.

I am just over halfway through Twilight. I am about as impressed as I was by the movie which is to say I am not overly enjoying the book. I have almost stopped listening numerous times, but as Melissa still watches sports with me I can't quit yet. It's not that I think it is a horrible book or that I'm offended in any way. I don't harbor bad feelings toward Edward as he makes me look like a pathetic excuse for a man playing the hero in every aspect for his beloved Bella. Heck, the best I can do is trying to convince Melissa that my reading of this book is a gift to her. How pathetic is that? The story is just not interesting to me. I think it's the same way that many women (not all mind you, I don't want a bunch of hate male) do not enjoy watching sports on TV. Stephanie Meyer does not bring anything earth shattering to the vampire story and the love story just doesn't do it for me. That is what I thought until this morning when I heard the following:

"So where did it all start? I mean, Carlisle changed you and then someone must have changed him, and so on..."

"Well, where did you come from? Evolution? Creation? Couldn't we have evolved in the same way as other species, predator and prey? Or, if you don't believe that all this world could have just happened on its own, which is hard for me to accept myself, is it so hard to believe that the same force that created the delicate angelfish with the shark, the baby seal and the killer whale, could create both our kinds together?"

Awesome! Finally something I can wrap my mind around. None of this mushy love human-vampire stuff but an actual theory as to where vampires came from, and to top it off one that involves a creator. The whole story takes on a new meaning for me. Edward and his family are struggling just like the rest of us. Sure the temptations are different, but the morality is the same.

Now certainly I don't believe in vampires, but I once read this book about a bunch of guys that lived for almost a thousand years.

I also don't know the origins of the vampire stories, but I'm betting it was related to religion in the beginnning. We're talking about a species who can only survive by drinking blood. That sounds vaguely familiar to something those old guys in the previous paragraph talked about. The best part for me is that with Edward being moral and all, the idea enlightens me rather than making me feel blasphemous.

My Cabin

32 years ago my parents moved back to Cedar. I'm not sure if it was at that time or years before that when my Dad decided he needed a cabin, but a few years after moving back to Cedar my folks bought some land up the canyon and my Dad commenced building his cabin. From the day they purchased the land my Dad has spent endless hours up there working, playing, building fires, and pretty much relaxing. The cabin has always been his escape.

I don't have a cabin, nor do I have any plans to build a cabin here in Indiana, but with Melissa's blessing I now have a place where I can escape. As you can see in the pictures I've got my shed with all my toys. Next to that is the garden. Next to the Garden is the fire pit (currently it is under a pile of branches that were cut from the tree) where the dutch oven cooking takes place. Finally we have the deck in all it's glory. All I need to do now is perfect my karate skills and find a self conscious teenager to nurture while he sands and stains the deck.
The slideshow shows the backyard as it was when we first toured the house to now. We've come a long way since then.

Budget man strikes again.

Here's another wonderful video about the federal budget.

Random Pics

About 3 weeks ago Spencer was screaming for help. I race downstairs to see what is wrong to come to find this. He explains that he was trying to swing in Kami's swing and got stuck. Needless to say, he wasn't to happy about me taking a picture of him before I helped him out.

The Purple Pickup being used the way it was intended to. Notice how low that back tires are riding. That is because there are 6 bags of cement in the back. It is amazing how many boards you can fit in and on top of a van!!

Jacob found a pretty cheap rate on the hotel he stayed in for his day trip to Nebraska. Unfortunately, it was cheap for a reason. Here is the dirty towel that was left in his room from the previous occupants. I guess housekeeping just isn't what it used to be.

Kristian thoroughly enjoyed the sidewalk chalk that both of his grandma's sent him for Easter. If you look closely you can see that he also figured out how to use it as war paint as well.

A Few Finished Projects

I still have an entire room full of project's I am working on not to mention half a house that still needs to be painted and updated but here are some of the latest completed projects that can be checked off the list.


First - Making Jessi a Belt


Jessi is so long and skinny that finding pants to fit her is not an easy task. We also have been given quite a few pair of really cute pants that I want her to be able to wear. So I decided to make a belt. Just 3/4 yard of ribbon, a bit of Velcro, and about 5 minutes and ta da!! You have a belt that makes my 3 year old very happy!! It makes me happy to as I don't have to see her cute little bum cheeks every time she bends over and the Velcro makes it so I don't have to assist her in getting her pants down every time she runs to the bathroom.





Second - Kamryn's Crib Quilt


So remember a few posts back when I said I was working on a new quilt to match the new crib sheet and bumper pads that I had made. Well it is done and I love it!! This is my first quilt that I made without a pattern. I just cut up a bunch of squares, and rectangles out of all my scraps and just started piecing it together. At first it was a bit difficult for me as OCD in me really likes to know where I am heading with a project. I pressed on though and by the end of it I was really starting to enjoy the total freedom in it. I then used the leftovers to make a binding and for the first time ever, free-motion quilted!! I am not perfect at it by any means, but I loved quilting it. It was so much fun and I just love the look of the finish product. Have I mentioned I really love this quilt.







Third - Job Charts for the Kids


I have wanted to make job charts for years!! Every time I start on one I get frustrated that it looks more like a spreadsheet than a kids job chart and delete everything I have started and give up. So the other day when Jacob's cousin's wife (say that 3 times fast) posted the cutest job chart that she had made on her blog I decided to pick up the project again. She had a link to a "template" that you could download and print. I thought great!! This really is going to be easy.

Well it wasn't that easy but it was fun. I quickly found out that you had to have Photo Shop to open the template so I talked to my good friend Becca, who happens to have Photo Shop, and set up a play date for our kids and us. Wednesday we ate lunch at her house and then began the project. She opened the download and I was shocked to find that the template consisted of black and white boxes. I asked her where all the colors and cute stuff went and she explained that a template is just the layout and the fun part is filling in the layout with all your choices. I was very fortunate that she had tons of cute digital scrap booking stuff and is very talented at photo shop. So anyhow, we had a great afternoon with 7 kids running around while 2 moms tried to keep everyone happy and create a digital masterpiece. I would say we were very successful!! Aren't they just great!! Thanks again Becca!! You are the greatest!!