I know what you are thinking! "An update? But it hasn't been a month yet!" Yes, that's right! I'm shattering all expectations by publishing a few days early! Actually, I am sitting here bored at school waiting on my late round of parents to arrive for conferences. I'm sure I could be grading papers or something, but it's not like I didn't work today! :)

We got Brandon's grade card today, and he is doing AWESOME. He's making 95% plus in every subject. His Stanford 9 test showed he is reading at a 7th grade level. The boy reads constantly. Comics, magazines, short books, long books, you name it, he reads it. Several at a time, too. He's really quite amazing and we are totally proud of him.

Connor is changing so much! He's becoming so indepedent. His latest trick is going over to where you are sitting and pushing at your legs and bottom until you stand up, then taking your hand and showing you something. I haven't gotten sick of it yet. ;) We had a pretty funy incident the other night. It was late, and Deana was rocking connor to sleep. I was on the computer, and the sound on the game I was playing was too loud. Deana asked me to turn it off so Connor could sleep. I plugged in my headphones and played away. About 30 minutes later, I felt something on my back. I didn't think much of it, just figured it was Deana's foot maybe. It came again. I turn around and look and lo and behold, there is Connor, standing up, poking my butt through the bars of my chair, laughing like a maniac. Put him to bed early? Riiiiight.

More next time! Bye!

OK, so I am getting better about the updates. This time, it was just a month and 2 days, that's 2 days shaved off! When you are hyper-busy like we are, it goes fast.

So where to begin? Life is really, really, super good these days. Almost every day, I think to myself how happy I am. I have a great home, wonderful children, a fantastic wife, and for the first time in a long time, I enjoy my work. I'm so thankful for everything. It's amazing how everything works out so well. Just a few short months ago, I was worried sick baout our future, and now, well... we're blessed, is all I can say.

Brandon is excelling at his new school! He has made an impression on all the staff at Halfway, especially his teacher, Mrs. Seifner. (That's SIGH-F-NUR, a good trick my mom told Brandon is to remember "sci-fi nerd". It works!) She told me the other day he should just wake up and be a 30 year old someday, because that is how he acts and talks. Then, he says something that reminds her he is still a second grader. I have no idea where he learned to act like a 30 year old kid. *Looks around innocently*

Connor has learned a new skill: removing his diaper! I'm not nearly excited about this new thing as I was, say, walking. So far, it has been clean or just wet, but sooner or later.... eeeewww.... He's also been running after the cones and soccer balls at all of Brandon's games. As I predicted, I DO look silly running after a 15 month old.

Deana is really enjoying her time at home with Connor. She is so much happier staying at home. She takes pride in running a tight ship around here, and I sure appreciate it too. We walk in to fantastic smells coming from the kithcen and a glass of ice tea and kool aid every day. I tell ya, this is the life!

Well, enough sappy ramblings for one update. See you soon.

OK so it has been over a month. It's been HYPER busy.

We're finally starting to get into a normal schedule! Brandon came back a couple weeks ago, and we were so glad to see him. I think he grew about a foot and got 3 times more tan while he was gone! My reasons for wanting him back were more selfish. Connor can't really play video games or Heroclix, and I needed a partner!

My brand new school career has started! I'm teaching 5th grade at Halfway elementary school. We've been in session for a week and a half now, and I have to say I am very happy here. The staff, kids, and environment are 500% better than the situatrion I was in last year. Maybe 1000%, even. I really feel like a TEACHER and not a lion tamer these days. Another cool thing is that Brandon goes to school with me! I'm really learning to enjoy the drive to and from school while me and Brandon talk things over. It's been awesome, just awesome.

Connor is a walking fiend! He can go pretty much anywhere he wants now, there's np slowing him down at all. He has been cutting teeth which makes him a bit grumpy, but I'm proud to see him doing his precarious little walk all over the place. Next up comes running, which I am not exactly looking forward to. I'll look pretty odd running after a 15 month old...

It's football season! I'm totally stoked about this weekend, where I get to go see the Chiefs/Rams preseason game with Curtis! I've never been to a Chiefs game at all, and to get the bonus of seeing the Rams too.... well... it's incredible. I just walk around grinning thinking about seeing all my favorite players in real life (albeit far away). I'm not planning on wearing my Marshall Faulk jersey up there, that's for sure.

I think that's all for now, hope to update a BIT more often!

Reign of Fire was a good movie. Not great, but good. I was expecting more of an Independence Day type of movie, and it actually was more like Aliens. I'd like to have seen more scenes with multiple dragons, and more of the war between dragons and men. There was a few awesome sequences, notably the parachuting scene. All in all, worth the price of admission.

We leave in 2 days for the final wedding of this summer of many weddings! Marcie and Kevin are getting marriued in Michigan, and Deana is in the wedding party! We'll be gone just over a week or so. And then, it's almost time for school to start. Wow, the summer has gone quickly!

Let's see what other interesting things have happened lately...

How about Connor running off from the bathtub into the dining room (minus diaper of course) and leaving a little... shall we say... present for us on the floor. All I heard was Deana's scream and ran into the bathroom, where she had Connor on the toilet, and he was hanging on for dear life! Hehe. He thought it was hilarious and of course it was, once everything was all cleaned up!

Deana bought be Warcraft 3 for my birthday, as I had requested. :) The game is awesome. I enjoyed the beta a lot, but I gotta say, the single player missions are incredible. The plot is better than most movies, the cutscenes are high caliber, the in game movies are perfect... It's a masterpiece, really, and well worth the wait. I tremble in anticipation of Starcraft 2 and especially Worlds of Warcraft.

That's all for now, live long and prosper!

Here we are, all moved in and good to go.

It seemed like it took FOREVER to move. Moving from a 3 bedroom house with a garage and a nice yard to a 2 bedroom townhouse apartment was pretty tough. We had to get rid of so much more stuff even after the garage sale. But, for the most part, we are all unpacked and only a few things are left to be done. I like the new place very much and am already feeling comfortable here. My allergies have been really calm here, too. All in all, a nice move.

Again, we have been busy even for this ultra-busy summer. Last week was Brent and Dana's wedding, as well as Brandon's last week here in Missouri for a while. Deana's family came back for a visit too, which we enjoyed. They helped us with the move a bunch, we appreciate that for sure!

Going to go see Reign of Fire in a few hours, I will let you know how good it was. :) Bye!

Wow, how busy can we be?

2 weekends ago, Deana's family came into town! We had a really nice visit. I enjoyed watching Justice League episodes with Brandon and A.J. and teaching A.J. how to play Heroclix with Brandon in particular. Oh, and watching The Sum of All Fears with Deana's Dad. And, the steaks for Father's day, and the grilled chicken the next day! I tell ya, we just get into using the grill again and then we have to sell it, since we can't have one at the new place. Maybe an electric (and legal) grill is in out future...

Speaking of the new place, we move in this Friday. We have packed up most of what we don't need to live with from the bedrooms so far. Tomorrow we will finish up, and then start filling the U-Haul Friday morning. We expect Deana's family back (and the little man too) Saturday morning, so there is a LOT to get done! Luckily, the garage sale was a big success and we got rid of a lot of stuff, and made enough money to get the new desk I'll need for the computers!

The best part of the summer so far has been my daily naps with Connor. We are getting to be good buddies! Too bad that'll just make school starting back up harder hehe. Course, this year, I am REALLY looking forward to school, for once. Can't wait to get my room set up.

I'll update again after the move, we'll have no internet for a while, until the 3rd actually. So expect more then.

I thought summer was supposed to be nice and relaxing!

We have been really busy since school let out. Now that I accepted the job in Halfway, we've been planning our move, looking at new places to live, checking all the options, that sort of thing. We've found a really nice townhouse style apartment, on the north side of Springfield. It seemed to be a good compromise, as it allows me to have a far shorter drive to work (about 40 minutes tops) while still staying in town so Mom can watch Connor, and Brandon can still go to WINGS. We hear this week whether or not we are approved to move in.

Of course, scaling down from a 3 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom apartment is quite a chore! We have thrown away so much stuff! The trash dumpster and several bags and boxes were picked up just yesterday, and already the dumpster is full again! Also, we have about half of the garage filled with things for a garage sale. I'm hoping we can get rid of all that stuff and get some extra money for the move, to boot.

We're looking forward to having Deana's family down to visit this weekend. It will be nice to see them again! I'm not sure that trading Ashley for Brandon is a good deal tho hehe.

Catch ya on the flip side!

Well, it turns out I was only unemployed for 3 days!

I accepted the position teaching 5th grade at Halfway, MO. Where is it, you ask? Well, it's HALFWAY between Bolivar and Buffalo. It's 45 minutes to an hour from our house now, but we'll be moving soon, to the north side of town. That will cut the drive down considerably. I'm totally excited about the prospect of teaching in a small school setting. It should be a real pleasant change.

Well it's been a couple crazy weeks here in the Allie family. A few items of note:

"I'm so excited about Star Wars I have a rash!"

Yes, that's right, my poor allergic-to-everything body decided that the amoxycillin I had been taking for an upper respiratory infection, stuff I've used since I was a kid, was BAD NEWS! And, starting at my hands, I slowly got covered with a nasty, itchy rash! Of course, it didn't happen til 20 minutes before school, and the were no subs, so that was a mess. Anyway, I go to the doctor, get a cortisone shot, and she says to take Benadryl to control the itching. She told me to not go to work in case I had more reactions. Luckily, she didn't say to skip the movies! However, the rash got worse overnight and I had to get even more doped up to control it.

"Why Yoda is MY HERO!"

Ok, my expectations weren't THAT high for Episode II. The Phantom Menace was a bit of a chore to sit through even recently, and I was afraid Lucas was gonna screw everything up. However, by and large, Ep. II was quite well done, very exciting, and the scene with Yoda alone was worth the price of admission!

But...

It's sad the CGI Yoda acts better than the dude playing Anakin. He seemed to be trying awfully hard, and it came off like someone playing the lead in a high school play. I know that there couldn't be a harder role to play, after all, Vader is a cultural icon, right? Still, his acting was pretty bad, and even notorious in the love scenes. I realize we are supposed to think he is a jerk; after all, he DOES end up slicing his own son's hand off. I think, though, that if you took out the love scenes, the movie would be almost perfect. I found the romance to be contrived at best and silly at times. Anakin standing on some cow-looking alien to impress Amidala? OOOOOkay. Rolling around in the grass? Riiiight. I was reminded of the scene in Shrek where Shrek blows up the snake and ties it like a balloon. It was hokey, but cool in Shrek because it was for laughs, but in Star Wars? Eeeww. And the scene right before the arena battle where Amidala all of a sudden loves Anakin came practically out of nowhere. Go watch the scene in Empire where Leia tells Han "I love you" when he is being frozen. Now, THAT is a fantastic scene. And since the whole Anakin/Amidala relationship is the CORE of the Sar Wars story, I expected much more.

The new ranking of the saga is:

Empire > Attack of the Clones > Jedi > New Hope and Phantom Menace (tie)

"A Wedding, Dinosaurs, and the Best Steak I Ever Had!"

Last week, of course, was my brother's wedding. I was quite impressed with it, overall. The ceremony itself was shorter than our own wedding, which was about impossible I thought! It was also way too hot in the house they got married in, but it was really really nice otherwise. The highlight, though, was the dinner at Devito's in Eureka Springs. Oh man was that a great steak. New York Strip, baked potato, some broccoli I didn't eat, and a great, dark leaf lettuce salad with awesome parmesan dressing. I know my steak and this was one of the best I've had. Makes me hungry thinking about it!

We spent the night in Eureka Springs, and the next day, after breakfast with the newlyweds and my parents, we took a sidetrack and toured Dinosaur World. It's basically a little park and gift shop. You can drive through what is probably a couple miles of gravel road and look at probably 2 or 3 dozen plaster sculptures of dinosaurs. Some of the dinos were life sized, but not all. The highlights were the T-Rex, King Kong (with a woman in his grip!), and the Octopus in the lake. Maybe I will scan in some of the pictures soon. The boys both got little Godzilla toys at the gift shop, too, but Connor lets me play with his.

"6 hours and 45 minutes left of school!"

YES it's the last day! I am almost through at McGregor Elementary! It couldn't come any quicker, in my opinion. I will have all summer to find a new job, so that is a good thing. I've a second interview at Halfway, MO next week, for a 5th grade position. I am confident it will all work out in the end.

That's all the news for now, more to come soon!

Just a couple pre-Episode II ramblings.

Brandon and I are going to watch The Empire Strikes Back and The Phantom Menace this week to prep for Friday night. I picked these two out of the 4 for one reason only:

Awesome fights involving Jedi and Sith masters.

Let's face it, the fight betwen Obi-Wan and Vader in Ep. 4 leaves a lot to be desired. I am sure that the poor effects of the time was part of it, but it only makes sense that an old, retired Jedi who was out of practice would have little chance against a Sith Lord in full power anyway.

In Jedi, the whole father/son thing ruins the duel aspect. These two obviously cannot unleash their full strength on one another.

So why do I like Empire? Vader, plain and simple. He uses the force and his skills with the lightsaber to maximum effect. I still get chills when he starts force pushing objects at Luke. It's a demonstration of absolute skill and power.

The Battle of the Fates scene in Ep. 1 is the purest of them all. A full trained, deadly Sith vs. a Jedi Master and a powerful Apprentice. While I was a bit disappointed in the death of Darth Maul (and the non-development of his character) the action was impeccable. Astounding leaps, acrobatics, and the first 2 on 1 battle in a Star Wars movie. Plus, the novelty of Darth Maul's double bladed lightsaber was a nice touch. This fight is easily the best of the Star Wars franchise, and perhaps the ebst in ANY movie.

Let's see what Lucas cooks up in Episode II!

I apologize for the lack of updates. I hope to get at least a weekly update from now on so you know what we are up to. It has been a crazy busy time here at the Allie house.

This past Tuesday, I had my most recent of 3 interviews for positions in surrounding school districts. Let's just say that they aren't exactly beating down my door to hire me. I'm going to start looking for alternatives soon; my teaching career might be finished.

However, Spider-man kicked BOOTAY so I really can't feel that bad hehe. Spidey has always been one of my favorites, and this movie actually did him right. It was 99.9% true to the comics. I'm always disappointed when a movie based on a comic changes things (Batman using a gun? The Punisher with no costume? David Banner, not Bruce Banner, in the Hulk TV show?), so it was a real treat to see the classic stories on the big screen. I get all choked up when I remember how cool it was seeing it with my boys. ;)

A few people I have talked to seemed to think it was way too slow for a good action flick. That may be the case, but when you look at it as the start of a franchise of movies, I'm glad they took the time for good character development. Pretty much every comic book fan seems to love the movie; lamers who didn't read comics as kids find it merely adequate.

The Hulk, Daredevil, and X-Men 2 are all in production. It's nice to see what was once seen as a "geeky" medium (ok ok comics are a bit geeky... ok, a LOT geeky even) get great treatment in the mainstream media.

Plans for this weekend include watching all the Star Wars movies to prepare for Episode 2 next week. I just hope it's as good as Spider-man.

Movies to look out for this summer: Men in Black 2, Reign of Fire, xXx, and then the new Bond movie in the fall.

Next update, sooner than the last. Later!

I had an interview yesterday! I am so pumped up and excited. I feel like I have Code Red pumping through my veins. In fact, I was so hyped up that I woke up early this morning. Early, as in 2:45. It was good, though, I wasn't tired and I worked on getting the last few things installed on the computer. We are, once again, digital camera and webcam equipped. So, expect to see more pictures and videos here at the Allie Alley.

I have to say a few things about what an awesome day last Saturday was. We woke up early to go to Brandon's first outdoor soccer game! It was so much more fun than indoor soccer, though my nose might disagree. The Sunshine Sidekicks won, 1-0. Brandon is turning into quite an athlete!

After the game, we went to Sonic for breakfast/lunch. Now that Connor is so mobile, it's quite an experience to eat fast food. He wants his own food, so we order plain hamburgers for him. He eats the bun, and loves them. He also likes to suck on french fries. It's an odd image, I know.

After Sonic, we went to Best Buy. I needed to buy a good shielded coaxial cable for the VCR and TV. Of course, we looked through the movies while we were there. Lo and behold, I hit a gold mine! For a mere $7.99, double drive-in features of such classics as The Wasp Woman and Attack of the Giant Leeches could be had! Deana let me buy two, the aforementioned DVD and also the Beast from Something Cave / The Brain that Wouldn't Die. It's fine cinema, I tell you!

Here's a belated rundown of all the cool stuff we did during Spring Break.

First off, we went to the movies TWICE! As a family! The last movie we had all seen together was Monsters, Inc., last November. So, it was a real treat to go! Plus, I saw another movie with Adam, Chad, and Carissa. Here are my reviews:

The Fellowship of the Ring: 10 out of 10! I was spellbound from the first minute. In fact, the first 10 minutes were the best of the entire film. I was awed and amazed at that fantastic army sequence, and when Sauron struck at the elf/human army and knocked his foes into the air, my mind boggled. It was so incredibly well done, which is certainly not the norm for fantasy-inspired movies. Compare FotR with Dungeons and Dragons, for instance. I certainly won't wait 6 months to see The Two Towers! Favorite character: Sauron! (I liked Megatron and Cobra Commander as a kid, too!)

E.T: 20th Anniversary Edition: 9 out of 10. I get the willies when I hear the E.T. theme anyway, since we played it in marching band in high school. The new scenes and alterations were seamless and added to the story. Watching it again from the perspective of a parent was even more meaningful. Seeing Elliot's pain when E.T. was dying was very hard; I just imagined how I would feel if it were Brandon or Connor in his shoes. And when he says goodbye... Umm... something just flew in my eye, I better move on before I get too sappy.

Blade 2: 8 out of 10. If you didn't like the first one because it wasn't violent enough, you will love this one. Not for the kiddies or the squeamish, there were some truly grisly scenes. One cool thing was that the new, mutated vampires looked just like the Nosferatu from that old silent horror movie. I've always thought that look was creepy and it was awesome watching Wesley Snipes shred 'em. The last fight was one of the better special effects-enhanced scenes in recent memory, evoking the Matrix and the Lightsaber duels from Episode 1.

I downloaded a demo of and subsequently bought a copy of Freedom Force. The game is so cool! It's like playing a comic book! For a comic book fan and computer gamer like me, it's the best of two loves. Sorta like if Deana wore clothes made out of Beef Jerky. Well, not exactly like that, but I think you get the point. Anyway, one feature is you can download new characters off the internet and make up powers for them! So, I grabbed a Blue Ranger from the internet, colored him up, and Brandon and I made a squad of Power Rangers to destroy the city with. You can throw cars at each other and whack each other with traffic lights. There is a fantastic story mode and strong multiplayer, too. I have played EQ 3 times and Magic none since I got FF. That says it all.

There's the highlights! Maybe I will add some more later.

What a crazy week!

Connor was up Sunday night SCREAMING. Not crying, screaming. It was horrible. We called the urgent care clinic and they recommended Motrin. My mom and dad rushed over with the medicine, and 45 minutes later he was far better. Still, it was a yucky way to spend the night.

Monday my motherboard came in! I asked Curtis to come over and we got it all together. Of course it takes a while to get everything back on, but I got the essentials on first! (That would be Everquest and Magic Online.) The new system screams. It's like going from an old rusted out VW Beetle to a shiny new Corvette. Vroom!

Deana did the unthinkable and cut Connor's hair! No more hippy look for my youngest boy. I knew she wouldn't be able to hold out til May! He looks like a big boy now, hard to believe he is 10 months old already. A picture of the new 'do is to come later.

1 hour until school is out! I have 32 ounces of Mountain Dew Code Red in my system now, I hope that will enable me to survive the last brutal minutes of the week before spring break.

That's all for now I guess hehe.

You ever have one of those weekends? One where you have almost no plans at all? One where when you try to remember what you did, but nothing just pops into your head? That is kinda how ours was. Of course, that's exactly the kind of weekends I like to have, so I am a happy camper.

We pretty much stayed home Friday night and Saturday. I went to bed so early Friday night, in fact, that I woke up at 4:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. So, I watched a movie and played some Magic Online. Pretty neat to be able to play in an 8 man booster draft tournament, for actual DCI points, at 6:00 AM on a Saturday! The wonders of the internet...

The big story for the weekend was Brandon's artwork being displayed at the Art Museum! His paper sculpture of a dog-dragonfly (yes, that's DOG-DRAGONFLY) was selected and will be on display for almost a month. As Ralphie said in A Christmas Story, "benefits and privileges already, at the age of seven!" I hope to scan in the picture of Brandon with his art when I get the computer hooked all together this week.

I feel lousy so I am going to log off, read a couple chapters of War of the Worlds, and hit the sack. My eyeballs hurt. :(

I am keeping busy working on my resume for the upcoming job hunt. I've already got a slightly modified version of my last resume here, but I'm still working on it. Take a look at it and give me feedback if you like.

I ordered my new motherboard Monday night, it should arrive in 3 to 4 business days. Guess I will have to go one more weekend with no EQ. :(

The kitty litter thing has been a great success. With Cleo, that is. Pharoah keeps leaving little presents in the utility room for me to clean up. That kinda defeats the purpose of the whole thing, so I'm gonna have to ease him into it, I guess. Or, give him some of Connor's diapers.

Connor has learned to push the power switch on the TV as well as my computer. Uh oh he's coming this direction now... Connor... don't push tha---

I'm suddenly in the job market. 'Nuff said.

Yesterday was D-Day. The D stands for "Dubya", as in, the tax check cleared baby! We celebrated by getting some stuff.

Connor got this. I foresee chasing balls around the house in my future.



Brandon got this guy. It changes into a neat-o mechanical cybernetic shark. (Duh.)



Deana got some unmentionables. I would post a picture, but this isn't that kind of web site! :P And here's what I got! I have been looking forward to it forever!



Yes, the thing I wanted most was an automatic kitty litter cleaner! For the man who has it all already! Hehe.

Great weekend really. I rediscovered my love for chocolate-covered espresso beans, spent some money, and watched two great movies, Jurassic Park 3 and The One. All in all, a weekend to remember!

What a busy busy day.

I had the day off school (kind of) and attended an educational technology conference here in town. Lots of cool stuff; boy would I love to teach in a Smart Board equipped classroom. Too bad our school system is about 5 years behind the pack when it comes to technology.

I got to pick Brandon up! That's always fun. He said this to me when I saw him after school: "Hey, do I know you?" 7 years old and already a comedian! You heard it here first.

Connor is not getting much better. We've been to the doctor 4 times in the past week and a half. Looks like he has a virus on top of his bacterial ear infection. Poor kid threw up 4 times today. None on me though! ;) I'm making Deana take the day off tomorrow so she and Connor can both get some needed rest.

Well that's it, I'm off to play Magic Online. See ya next time!

Just a quick ramble before bed:

The "good side" of frying your motherboard:

1. Added incentive to finish tax return. Thanks Mr. Bush and CO., in advance.

2. I actually read a book in less than a week. I think that is a record. No, it wasn't a kid's book. There weren't even any pictures.

3. Good chance to tune up and optimize Brandon's computer.

4. Downloaded and can play the Magic Online beta test. I'm enjoying it a lot. Reminds me of the days when I first started playing Magic way back in 1993. I didn't know every card, didn't own every card, and still loved playing. Magic Online is as close to that as I have ever been since.

5. Brandon and I played Dungeons and Dragons. The pen-and-paper-miniatures-map-token-colored dice version. He is so smart. It was a hoot.

6. I have changed more diapers and fed more baby food in the past 2 weeks than I had been in a while.

7. More time to update the blog. ;)

It was another busy weekend here in Allie-land. On Friday night, we celebrated the end of the week by going to Blockbuster to rent movies! Rant mode on: Blockbuster won't take more than one free movie rental coupon per day, so we had to leave with just one. We made it up to Brandon by taking him to get his movie after his soccer game. Then, we got McDonald's and headed home.

Deana and I watched Snatch. It was great! Warning: don't watch unless you have a thick skin for profanity. It was so genuinely clever and well written that it made up for the swear words though. Best line:

"I don't care if he's Muhammad I'm Odd Bruce Lee!"

Friday evening wrapped up with the Olympics.

Saturday was busy as well. I worked on the computer, swapping a hard drive from the other PC to the one that's working now. Took forever but I have more storage now, until I get the other one fixed. The Power Rangers and Transformers were in fine form, of course. Brandon and I worked on cleaning his room. By that, I mean I played with and arranged his toys and he cleaned the floor. Connor mainly chewed on some of Brandon's books. The soccer game was a nail biter! Ended up in a tie, but boy the kids played hard. We ate at Cracker Barrel with Mom and Dad, and Adam and Jo came over in the evening.

Sunday was busy with church, and me writing the letters to Nigeria to be sent this week. That keeps us up to date. Brandon is yelling at me to come play Pokemon Stadium, so see ya next time!

Well! What a crazy few weeks this has been. The latest on the computer front: the cable modem is fixed! We had water in our line which was causing the internet and TV to be all whacked out. The cable guy fixed it. However, when installing some RAM on Monday night, I fried my mother board with a static shock. Ouch. There's about a $100 mistake! When Dubya sends me my tax check, I can buy another, but until then I am using Brandon's PC, circa 1997. No Everquest! ACK!

School has still been lousy. Here's my analogy. Soon, teachers are going to be held accountable for student output, rather than what they INPUT to the kids, as it is now. This is similar to having a great omelette making contest. All the chefs in the world are to make an omelette, and it has to pass certain minimum standards for taste, appearance, and such. However, while some chefs get the best, freshest ingredients, and a fancy kitchen, sparing no expense, other chefs have rotten eggs, moldy cheese, and an old greasy frying pan with pure lard to cook with over a campfire. Guess which kind of chef I would be?

Parents as Teachers visited Connor tonight. He is doing awesome for his age. He didn't show only two things: waving bye and playing pat-a-cake. Of course, as soon as the PAT teacher left, he played pat-a-cake, roll-em-up and all. It figures! I still think he is a genius.

Brandon is learning Spanish in WINGS. He can count to ten by memory, and can say the months and weekdays with the right pronunciation. Condering that I can't roll my R's, it's impressive. He is reading voraciously now. He goes to the bathroom all the time just so he can read. It's the "library" for sure.

TTFN!

Just a quick post from school here. Our cable service is out, and there isn't anyone available to come fix the connection issue until next Tuesday. So, no updates for a while. Also, no internet games, downloading anything, or checking email. Lame.

One quick story: this morning, Connor crawled into the bathroom while I was finishing my shower. I got out and he stayed in there and pulled the hair on my legs while I got ready. Definitely made my morning! Except for when he pulled my towel off. There's a mental picture for ya!

I'd like to post about all the stuff that happened at work these past two days. But I'm not going to. Told it too many times already, sick of it. It was lousy, let's leave it at that.

Yesterday morning, Brandon found a note from the Tooth Fairy under his pillow. Apparently, the Tooth Fairy had conferred with the Valentine's Day Fairy (or is it an elf?) and they decided to pool their resources. The note directed Brandon to the living room where a brand new Transformer was waiting: Cryotek! I thought Brandon was gonna cry! He looked so happy and shocked, that was the best $20 that I have spent... er.. that the Tooth Fairy has donated in a long time.

That toy is a booger to transform but wow it looks awesome. After a hard day at work there's nothing like changing giant metallic blue and green dragons to robots with your son to alleviate stress. I highly recommend it.

Along with more cool news, Monday night, Deana put Connor down and took a shower. After a few minutes, the poor guy woke up crying. I went to check on him. Now, usually, he will not even stay on my shoudler if I pick him up at night. He is attached to his mother BIGTIME. However, tonight was different! I soothed him a bit, and put him on my shoulder. I patted his bum and rubbed his head, and in a matter of moments, he was asleep again! I was so stoked. That is only 3 times I have got him back to sleep myself. And, to top it all off, he STAYED asleep when I layed him back down. It sounds like a small thing but man it felt good doing that. I immediately did a victory dance and told Deana all about it. I think she was pretty shocked hehe.

2 big events for the day:

Brandon lost another tooth! He had been working on it all week. Here's what happened as he told me this morning. "I was eating my biscuits and there was something crunchy. I tried to chew it but it was too hard so I swallowed it. Then I thought it was my tooth. I swallowed my tooth!" Our score so far: Tooth Fairy - 5, Brandon's Digestive System - 2.

Connor just crawled all the way across the house! He started by my computer and crawled all the way to Brandon's room. He is really feeling the Olympic Spirit, it seems. Also, he is starting to say "Ba Ba'. Is it Bottle? Brandon? Bite? Or just Ba Ba? Me, I think it is "Da Da" and he has a speech impediment.

Today was a big day. First off, Brandon woke me up at 7:45 wanting to watch TV. Good dad that I am, I had already set up the timer to tape the premier episode of Power Rangers Wild Force. I put him off for 15 sleepy minutes. Then we watched a full hour of Power Rangers. As I type this, Brandon is watching the tape for the 3rd time today, this time in bed in his room. By the way, Power Rangers is an awesome show. Cool martial arts? Got it. State of the art "Crouching Tiger" style special effects? Yup. Lots of explosions and lasers? Been there. Giant robots and radioactive monsters? Done that. Swords, axes, and magic spells? Uh huh. They even have stuff filmed like the Matrix. Plus, it's made for kids with an attention span of 2 and a half minutes. No wonder I like it!

Brandon had a soccer game today as well. Brandon's Thunderbirds beat the hippy tye-died Fire and Rain 3 to 1. That makes us 2 and 2! Brandon can kick the ball like Pele, but would rather walk then run after the ball. He has been watching ol' lazy dad too much I guess!

In the baby news, Connor pulled up on his knees for the first time. Unfortunately, he munched on a few videotapes on the second shelf. I don't mind if he eats a Barney tape (or a dozen, for that matter), but I might have to move the Godzilla tapes to a higher shelf. :(

Hello everyone and welcome to the Allie Alley. I read about this Blog thing and it seemed like a good way to easily update my friends and family on what we are up to. It's been since November since I posted new pictures; that's too long, I know, but Publisher stinks. Anyway, due to the ease and simplicity of blogger.com, I'll keep on top of things much better. At least, that is the plan!