This video is the kids gift to you. One that can be enjoyed for years to come, if you can stand it.

An addendum requested by Tracy. She loves this guy, although I think he is a bit goofy looking, so I told her I would add him to the blog. He has a great voice, an obvious talent, just a little off- putting. I can’t quite put my finger on it. But alas, anything for my love on her birthday.

You are in the middle of the Iron Dog race, the longest, toughest, craziest snow machine race in the world. A race 1900 miles over some of the roughest riding terrain in Alaska. The moguls are true moguls bred from the stumps of the tundra, and often hidden due to the shadowless white world. The trail is new every year, laid by God through the natural weather of his earth. It is a true Alaskan man’s dream, the misery, pain, machine, self-denial, battling the elements, and eventually triumph over all of it, perhaps with a touch of frostbite, locked knees and a right thumb that looks like it has been pumping iron longer than the left thumb has been alive.

I write about the  Iron Dog because it is currently being raced right here in my state. To illustrate the difficulty of such an endeavor, prior to the halfway point, 11 of the 28 teams have already scratched; mind, machines, or body broke and unable to continue. However, I am breeding a new generation of racer, a brother and sister team. A team that will never surrender, that will be mentally and physcially strong. A team that will trust fully in God and fear nothing except losing. Although our training is in the early stages, I have seen promise and I have included a movie trailer to show what the VanMeter’s and Palin’s will have to contend with in a few short years. Soon, their story of victory and triumph and how the beat the odds coming from humble beginnings will be known world wide. But today, only you the select chosen few will get a sneak peek into the dynamic blizzard known only as the Iron Puppies.

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.

This one was discovered by my wife, and if you recall, kids are not immune. This is not our kid, but it is a kid, and although she is not in physical pain, she is in deep emotional pain. You will get the gist of the video in the first minute, but it is worthwhile  to watch until the end. I see some very challenging teen years in her future. I also predict that sometime during the video Niki will say “awww”.

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.

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.

Had some youtube problems, so we used dailymotion this time. I hope you can hear it.

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.

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.