Primero semester de espanol Love Song (cancion de amor)
In honor of upcoming transfer of latitudes, and the fact that my two high schoolers are in Spanish II Or Espanol dos, as we prefer to call it, I present you the First Semester of Spanish Love Song.
I took three years of Spanish in High School / College so I can understand the language decently. However recalling it is quit another challenge. One technique that helped me was the songs.
In High School I absolutely abhorred the songs. I hated singing them, I hated learning them, but most of all I hated performing them. Yes we performed the songs. Every year at Christmas time our teacher, Ms. Heitkamp, would give us a list of songs to learn. We would then practice the songs for weeks culminating with our grand tour. The tour consisted of the Social Studies, Algebra, and History classes all in one morning. It was exhausting, even for a performer of my caliber. Further, performing so close to the audience adds another uncomfortable dimension to the show. I like distance between me and my fans, we were right on top of them and I could see my fellow basketball team mates snickers, my fellow “cool crowd” pimple faced buddies pointing, and everyone else holding it in the best we can as the chorus of “Rudolph el Benedito” rang throughout the halls. It was quite terrifying, and I am sure it was quite hideous to observe and hear. I am just ever so thankful phone cameras and YouTube had not yet been invented. However, as horrifying as it was, I can still recall most of the lyrics when needed. So if I ever meet someone with a bright nose and I need them to help me through a snowstorm on my sleigh, I can whip out “Jefe, con nariz de luz, quieres guirre me autobus?”
So in honor of all that and without further adieu, I give you an oldie but a goodie, the first semester of Spanish Love Song. Enjoy, sing along and you too will soon be speaking enough spanish to get you through Los Angeles.
It’s a safety dance
This post is in honor of my wife, as it is almost her birthday. To me, she is as perfect as a woman could be. She does, however, have one flaw that I am going to share with God and our blog followers. This flaw is not that big of deal, most of the time, but it can make me angry sometimes, and embarrass me other times. I don’t think she will ever get over it, and I love her in spite of it. It rears its ugly head at the most inopportune times, and yet I think it is pretty much uncontrollable. Have you guessed? Her flaw is that she loves to laugh at other peoples pain. Now I am not talking about kidney stone, root canal type pain. I am talking about people trying to be cool, or just minding their own business and falling, or getting hurt unexpectedly type of pain. When she sees it, she bursts out in laughter.
I get angry when it is me she is laughing at. I get embarrassed when it is others she is laughing at in my presence. Kids are not immune, in fact if they are our kids, it is somehow even just a little bit funnier. The best thing about this flaw, she uses it on herself. Now I won’t say that she is clumsy, but she gets to laugh at herself a lot. So these two videos, oldies but goodies, are for my giggling gal and I hope that any time she needs a laugh she can log on and look. Then maybe she won’t be following me around when I have a hammer in my hand.
So if you are a compassionate, kind, caring person, you may not want to watch the following videos. And if that is true, then you have probably been reading the wrong blog. For the rest of you, those of you that maybe chuckle just a little when someone experiences just a teensy weensy bit O’ pain, then click on, and just remember, we are all fair game.
Happy Birthday to Me!!
So it isn’t actually my birthday, it’s the blog’s birthday. Yes this blog is now a year old, and my oh my how it has grown. One year was key for me, very key. You see I hate being an average statistic. For some reason that just sticks in my craw (have no idea what that is but I hope it isn’t bad). If you know me you may have picked up some clues. For instance, the average American family has 2.1 kids we have a few more. The average American gets married between June and October, we got married in December ( much to the shagrin of someone). The median age for a first marriage, 27, me 20. About 3% of American kids are home schooled all of ours have been, in fact we probably account for 1% of that in our family alone.
So what does all these stats have to do with anything? I am very glad you asked. You see when I first started this blog ( after influence from my Jedi blog master Ty at schemanski shenanigans ) I read a stat. This stat stated that something like 92% of all blogs do not last 1 year. So there it was staring me right in the face, a challenge, a glove to the kisser and I knew right then, even if the only people that ever read it was me, Tracy and my mom, I would be blogging for at least 1 year. So you see this day means a lot to me. My last challenge was from twitter, the average twitter has 112 followers, you know what that means! Don’t follow me on twitter unless you really like the stock market and charts, cuz that is all I talk about.
I am glad to see that we have a pretty consistent and growing readership and I really really enjoy the comments, emails, cards etc. They keep me motivated to keep on writing. I must say, this past year has had some of the most difficult moments ever in our lives, and it was theraputic for me to write about them on this blog. I was very conflicted whether or not to post those blogs, they only took me moments to write, but hours to decide whether or not to publish. In hindsight I am glad I did. They were some of our most read posts.
In closing, I want to thank you all so much for reading the blog and encouraging us, for prayers, thoughts and kind words. I especially want to thank those who take the time to comment, whether on our facebook link or on the actual blog. It seems to intimidate people, so I love to see those that do step out. Some of our all star commenters are Liz, Alli, Chelsea, Ty, & Brad. But our top two have been STEPHEN Stephen’s blog, and NIKI schemanski shenanigans, they are the winners of the annual akgodfreys commenters Oscars. Congrats, you two deserve it.
I will finish today’s rambling with links to our top ten posts over the past year in order of popularity. Dumb I know since they are the most popular you have already read them eh? Maybe I should do the least popular and have you read those ones instead, that’ll teach ya! Nope, most popular in order.
1. I have a bbq stain on my white t-shirt This one gets a lot of hits due to people searching for this song. It was not intended.
2. 2009 Christmas Letter Mostly about Florida
3. Costa Rica Day 4 Surf\’s Up! The whole time we were in Costa the blog was hit hard, it was great.
4. Apparently Popping and Locking Refers to the Knees in Hip Hop Dancing Alli’s knee surgery was very popular, probably due to the nasty pics of her knee.
5. Costa Rica Day 12/13 A Thorn in my Heel
6. Costa Rica Last Full Day, Sailing Take me Away
7. At What Cost The day we had to drop Jo off.
8. The Real Costa Rica First Day in Costa
9. Kodiak Moment = Orlando Trip Some of Dorian’s pictures showing off his skills that earned him a trip to Orlando for Fine Arts.
10. It\’s not about the money it\’s about the memories The first time we found out that Jo was leaving us, this one had quite a few comments as well.
So there you have it, they span over various topics, moods and time periods. I wanted to repost the very first blog I ever did, but I moved hosts since then and I couldn’t find it. Trust me, it was no big loss.
Bradley Clipperhands vs. Goldilocks
You never know the events that will take place when a rambunctious 9 year old and his uncle have time on their hands. I was fortunate to catch this rare interaction on video and I thought I would share it with you. Oh yeah, we didn’t tell his mom about this either. Love ya honey and hope you like it.
Had some youtube problems, so we used dailymotion this time. I hope you can hear it.
We really appreciate it!
First and foremost, I want to thank everyone for their support and prayers. I really think it helps, and I am not just saying that. Second, I want to give everyone a quick update, Jo is still with us this week and it looks like she will be with us until Sunday. After that, we will only have her from Friday to Sunday, and I don’t know how long that will last. We are struggling between what is best for Jo, and what we can stand emotionally. I know I have felt spent the last week, physically, mentally and spiritually. Just flat wore out, as they say back in Tra’s home town, and I am hoping for a renewal this weekend.
Third, and I hate to harp on this because I know everyone is busy, believe me, but it seems that we have hit an extremely busy portion of our year. As you have seen, Dorian started basketball with practices every day at different times just to make it fun, I am coaching Ben’s basketball team with practices, and then games at least twice a week, Alli, Olivia, and Kassie are all doing dance, two high school classes every day, therapy, Dr. appointments….. just like everyone else. Oh and to top it off, Tra got a flat on her brand new tire, a blow out on the sidewall, so she has been driving the van, all 11 miles per gallon of it.
So today I left for work at 0630, after trading for an hour and 1/2, then got home at 4:30, took Livy straight to dance by 4:50, went and coached Ben’s game at 5:30, drove 20 miles from there to Nikiski to watch the end of Dorian’s game, drove 40 minutes home from his game to eat from 8:20 to 8:35, left home and went to dance and picked up Alli and Chloe, drove Chloe home, came home with Alli and did stock research till now, 10 pm.
Without complaining, I just haven’t had time to work on doing a good family post and I feel bad. Pretty much every day this week has been like this, and maybe it is a good thing. Maybe it helps keep my mind occupied, but man I am just plumb drained this week. To make matters worse, we have noticed a change in Jo, and we think she senses something is going on, so please continue to pray for her. Tomorrow, Friday, I think I will have some time to do a good post, no basketball games, just dance, school, practice and getting a tire replaced.
So now that I have bummed you out, I will include a video I found particularly funny. Of course that doesn’t mean anything because, as many of you already know, I have a particularly sick sense of humor. I really, really get a kick out of the cameraman, the fact that he is laughing just slays me, because, as ashamed as I am to admit it, that would’ve probably been me.
Need a laugh.
Update on Dorian, his second game he had four points, a rebound, an assist and a blocked shot!! So they called a foul on the block shot, but it was sweet, especially for the second smallest guy on the team. He swatted that shot right out of play, even his team mates were shouting about it. That has always been one of his favorite things to do, block shots. Well, it has been a while since I posted a video not about “the family” so I figure it was about time. This is Thor Ramsey and he is pretty funny. I can relate to a lot of what he says so that makes him all the more funnier to me. There are some great christian comedians out there and he is one of them. So if you are in the mood for a laugh click on the video below and enjoy. The video is just under 5 minutes long. Oh, btw, they won their game again and he plays again today!
Have you ever had days like this?
I was going to analyze this video and put it into a real life situation, but I don’t think it is required. This is obviously taken in Alaska ( for us Alaskans wink wink) so for those of you lower 48ers that are now reading this, you get a taste of what we see every day ( wink wink). I have been on both sides of this epic battle between fin and fowl. I have won many times, and lost many more. At the risk of sounding a little mushy ( and after posting some of my very masculine college pictures, this could confuse some) this video is cute. I usually hate cute videos, but for some odd reason, I liked this one. I guess it shouts out life lessons and morals, like never give up, never surrender, always try your hardest, you can’t teach on old dog new tricks, yada yada yada.
However, I like my moral: If you’re gonna have wings and not fly, you better have a plan B.
Please for you to enjoy.
