We had not seen the progress on our new home since your 4th birthday two weeks ago. So it was really exciting to see our driveway has now been poured, along with the sidewalk in front of our house; as well as leading up to the front door.
But the bigger surprise was seeing that a back porch has been added on to our house!
Built into the price we are paying was supposed to be a 5×5 foot concrete slab to put patio furniture on.
Instead, they built us a 12×12 back porch.
I suppose it had something to do with the land not being level enough for the originally intended patio. Granted, we’d rather have a back porch anyway.
The way I see it, it’s technically like having a 5th bedroom, or a 2nd bonus room!
Mommy and I are planning on buying a fire pit for the backyard. We truly want to have bonfires on a regular basis, especially in the summer and fall.
Now, we will have a back porch to add to the fun!
Our marble countertops for our bathrooms are now in, which I am proud to see are made in America.
While I carried you around the house, Mommy measured for the Roman Shades we are considering putting up in the windows.
Other points of progress we noticed include the trim being painted and the automatic garage door opener being installed.
In the meantime, our family has officially been moved out of our townhome for a week now, as we’ve begun living with some friends for the next couple of months until our new house is finished.
And I plan to have more exciting news about all this within the week, but we’ll have to see how things go…
I kept assuming it wouldn’t actually happen- that somehow there would be some kind of technical difficulty get the call through.
Fortunately, I was wrong. I indeed was on an hour long conference call with Kirk Cameron today.
Obviously, I’ve been reviewing movies for a while now, from a family friendly perspective. That means that sometimes, like with 23 Blast, I am even asked to review the movie before it even arrives in theatres.
That is the case this week with Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas.
While the majority of the call revolved around his new movie, he was able to speak a lot about other things.
He spoke a whole lot about his family; his wife and 6 kids! I could tell Kirk is truly a family orientated guy.
That’s what he talked about more than anything, actually; his family. Oh, and he loves Christmas!
He mentioned how living out in California, or as he calls it, “the land of fruits and nuts,” (a reference to food, not people) his family is definitely health-conscious, but referenced his loved for Southern style biscuits; as he recently visited the Duggers (19 Kids And Counting) as well as the Robertsons (Duck Dynasty).
Kirk contributed a lot of his health consciousness to his wife; Chelsea Noble. He loved talking about her; explaining how they met on the set of Full House.
His mother who happened to be there because Kirk’s sister Candace was there for taping, encouraged Kirk to find a girl like Chelsea who was “even more beautiful on the inside than the outside.”
Eventually Chelsea played Kirk’s girlfriend on Growing Pains and a year later, he proposed.
When asked if Kirk missed the days of Growing Pains, he laughed, with no relectance, to say no; comparing that part of his life to high school.
I could tell he wasn’t at all annoyed by the Growing Pains mentions, but his focus is clearly on his family and his faith. He has moved on with his life.
Kirk does, however, keep in touch with Jeremy Miller, who played Ben; and occasionally Alan Thicke and Tracey Gold.
The main takeaway from my conference call with Kirk Cameron was that he’s far from a has-been. It’s evident he’s doing much more meaningful and remarkable things in his life now than ever before.
He’s humble. He really is. I heard him talk for an hour.
It wasn’t about him; it was about family and God the whole time.
Now, it’s time for me watch his new movie Saving Christmas so I can write a review for it here on Family Friendly Daddy Blog; which is sort of the whole point of my conference call with him!
So last weekend I broke my Grandma out of the nursing home without anyone knowing it, then I pushed her in her wheelchair a mile down the road while she wore a “seatbelt” we made from a rolled up blanket…
Wait, actually, that’s probably not the best way to start this story. Let me try again.
The last time my Grandma had seen her younger brother Bob was back in the summer of 1987, back when I was six years old, when we took a family vacation road trip to Buffalo, New York where my Grandma and my mom are from.
That was 27 years ago…
But then randomly this year, my great-Uncle Bob decided that he wanted to visit my Grandma (his sister) by train with his girlfriend (he’s never been in a plane and he’s only left the state of New York once).
So I decided it would definitely be worth the 2 and a half hour drive from Nashville where we live, to my hometown in Alabama; taking my own family (my wife Jill and my son Jack) to witness this great reunion- 27 years in the making!
And to make things even more fun, we were able to review the 2014 Lexus GX 460 in the process. Which, for the record, was my personal favorite out of all the many Lexus vehicles I have reviewed within the past year.
The way it drove reminded me of the Toyota Tacoma, my favorite Toyota vehicle, which I reviewed on my 33rd birthday back in April.
My wife Jill appreciated was how spacious the 2014 Lexus GX 460 is. We had to transport some of our son’s toys to my parents’ house; as we are in the process of building a new house (as I recently wrote about when I reviewed the 2014 Lexus GS 450h) and needed a place to store some things.
Meanwhile, my son Jack loved the stadium seating in the back because he could see everything that I could from the driver’s seat. Also, it has a 3rdrow seat from can fold up from the very back.
He convinced us to let him sit in the very back for the entire round trip! Not to mention, to and from school a few days as well.
I was surprised at how easy it was to hear Jack and Jill all the way back there. (I’m sure many educated people at Lexus have labored countless hours over making sure the sound carries that well!)
The visibility from the driver’s seat also greatly impressed me as well. I can’t remember the last time I drove a vehicle with better visibility than the 2014 Lexus GX 460.
So we arrived at my Grandma’s nursing home and along with my dad’s help, were able to lift my Grandma from her wheelchair to the car.
In the process, I also “re-met” my great-Uncle Bob while there, who of course didn’t recognize me as a grown adult. As we talked, I learned from him that it was nearly 100 years ago, in 1923, that his own parents moved to New York from Michoacán, in southern Mexico; though he nor my Grandma ever really spoke Spanish.
The whole family met as a whole back at my sister’s house, just a mile away from the nursing home.
First, we celebrated by brother-in-law (who apparently happens to look a lot like me) turning 30 years old.
Then we headed outside to the “jumpy castle” as Jack and his cousin Calla burned off extra energy they mysteriously gained from not having to take a nap that day.
And of course, we checked out the storm shelter, which has sort of become the routine when we visit.
Next we had a plant-based (vegan) lunch, prepared by my sister…
Followed by an instantly made-up game of “bean bag bumper cars”…
That’s about the time we got a call from the nursing home. Turns out, none of us even thought to actually sign my grandma out. And coincidentally, no one working there noticed us wheeling her out the front door!
The workers were so glad to hear that we had Grandma with us instead of, I guess, her somehow escaping (?) on her own.
However, by that time she was ready to get back to her home. The thing was, she was afraid to be lifted back up into a vehicle for the 0.925 miles back.
We did what every all-American family would have done in the same situation:
My sister and her husband rolled up a large blanket, then I MacGyvered it into a home-made seatbelt. And now this particular photo collage begins to make more sense…
After all, despite it only being about a mile away, the journey was all hills.
Fortunately, my daily routine of mountain biking during my lunch break had conditioned my body to be able to get my Grandma to her destination in less than 15 minutes. She even got to catch a glimpse of the County Fair a few blocks away.
Before we left the next morning, we made sure to snap a few pictures of our family.
Since my brother-in-law/look-alike turned 30 recently, and until Jack turns 4 next month, it means that we are living in a time when my wife and I are both 33, my sister and her husband are both 30, and their daughter Calla and our son Jack are both 3.
So we figured we should take an official picture of this cool “3-30-33” moment.
And that just goes to show that anytime my family gets together, it’s never “normal.”
But it is fun.
If you were entertained by this story, then be on the look-out what happened after we drove back to Nashville to see a Dierks Bentley concert that my wife won tickets for!
Car Review Stats:
2014 Lexus 9700A GX 460 5-DR SUV
4.6 liter V8, 301 horsepower
17 mpg average, 15 city, 20 highway
as shown: $55,505.00
See all 4 posts on the 2014 Lexus 9700A GX 460 5-DR SUV:
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Weeks after the fact, I’m still partly in denial about Robin Williams’ death. When an entertainer who was always part of the backdrop of your childhood passes away, it’s like losing a constant. (Reference to the 77th episode of Lost.)
It’s almost like you subconsciously think to yourself, “He can’t be dead. If he’s dead, am I dead too?”
Five years ago, around the time of my 10th year class reunion, three legendary American entertainers passed away: Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Ed McMahon.
I’m not at all a superstitious kind of guy, but for the sake of argument, let’s assume it was real…
Robin Williams a few weeks ago, Joan Rivers today… who’s next? Could we predict it?
I am going to attempt to jinx the next celebrity death: Jay Leno.
Here’s what he has in common with both Robin Williams and Joan Rivers:
They all 3 are/were legendary American comedians who played themselves in guest starring roles in Louis CK’s FX show, Louie.
Louie, by the way, is surprisingly one of the few TV shows I enjoy. As dark as it is, I appreciate many of his takes on parenthood. I love his words of wisdom to his young daughter in the episode, “Pregnant”:
“The only time you look in your neighbor’s bowl is to make sure that they have enough. You don’t look in your neighbor’s bowl to see if you have as much as them.”
I want to be wrong about my theory. That’s why I’m going public with my theory. I’m not taking death lightly- I just would have be too weirded out if Jay Leno truly was the 3rd celebrity death and I only privately predicted it.
Now, here’s to being wrong… here’s to jinxing the “Celebrity Deaths Come In Threes” theory.
This letter was supposed to be a funny one about how I’m a typical dad in the way I hide your toys when you refuse to put them away when I ask you to.
But seeing that this is my last letter of 2013, I want it to have a more retrospective perspective.
So I’ll save my originally intended programming for next week and/or next year.
Instead, I can’t help but think of what this year, 2013, has taught me on this gloomy and rainy December night; letting this all soak in.
It’s been an interesting year for me in that it’s been like a dichotomy.
Three months into the year, I became a (new wave) vegan, which proved to take an epic psychosocial toll on me; yet physically and psychologically, I’ve never been healthier, and more at peace and in a state of gratitude.
(I have even sworn off caffeine for the rest of my life, as well; because I see it as the most unregulated addictive stimulant in the world.)
One of my favorite bands ever, Third Eye Blind, sings one of my favorite songs ever, “Motorcycle Drive By.” My favorite line of it serves as a bit of a motto to describe the private challenges I’ve dealt with inside my brain this year:
“And there’s this burning like there’s never been/And I’ve never been so alone/And I’ve never been so alive”
Before it sounds like I’m throwing myself a pity party, let me just clarify. I’m not alone. I have you and Mommy. I have family. I have friends. I have plenty of meaning in my life.
I have joy!
But there’s an undeniable disconnect that I suddenly became aware of during the weeks following my denying of animal products for nutritional sustenance. It was like cutting myself off from the rest of the world. I by default ostracized myself from what is normal in society. After all, I no longer participate in that historical human shared experience.
Then a few months later, for all practical purposes, I did something similar when I “quit” Facebook.
I went from spending a minimum of 30 minutes to 60 minutes a day scrolling through my Facebook feed, commenting and corresponding, and accidently instigating polarizing conversations based on my opinions that half my friends agreed with, while the other half didn’t.
Plus, I confused a lot of people whenever I used sarcasm.
So since June, I have made a conscious effort to spend only 30 to 60 seconds (!) a day on Facebook. Perhaps, in a sense, it’s selfish to my Facebook friends, but for this 2nd half of the year, the only news on Facebook I have known about is what shows up at the very top of my news feed; which is what the free market of my 960 Faceook friends decided was the most relevant that day.
It explains that, based on studies, “People who tend to use Facebook the most tend to have more narcissistic personalities or insecure personalites.”
That’s a weird thought… to be both narcissitic and insecure.
Well, in theory, that was me for the first half of the year.
No question- the second half of the year, sans Facebook dependance, was by far the better half of the year for me. I have simply been happier.
I have had time to focus on what really matters: you and Mommy. Being a dad and being a husband.
Without the two of you, who am I?
Just a bearded dude in a medium-sized funny t-shirt.
As for Facebook, I am now merely a lifesize cardboard cutout who smiles and waves, but ultimately, has no personal opinions.
Because like the idea of free speech, the “social factor” of social media is an illusion.
Anything I say or post in social media could come back to haunt me in my future career, and I’ve skated pretty close on that fine line this year.
But I’ve taken that extra 30 to 60 minutes a day that I used to spend trying to be clever on Facebook and Twitter, and instead use it on you and Mommy.
Here’s to 2014- the most realistic, unnarcissitic, most secure year I’ve never known- full of art and meaning.
