Storytelling

1 Comment Posted on October 8, 2014October 8, 2014 Nostalgia, parenting, reviews, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Book Review: The Truth About Nature, By Stacy Tornio And Ken Keffer

I’ve had a few people curiously ask me why it seems I never seem to review products that I don’t like; from cars, to food, to toys, to books.

Here’s why: I don’t feel it’s worth my time and effort to type up 500 words on a product I don’t believe in.

That’s why I do my research on a product before I review it, to make sure it meets my strict qualifications and standards before I invest in it.

With that being said, I believe in this book: The Truth About Nature: A Familiy’s Guide to 144 Common Myths about the Great Outdoors, written by Stacy Tornio and Ken Keffer; illustrations by Rachel Riordan.

My nearly 4 year-old son believes in this book too, but for different reasons.

Jack likes the book because he makes a fun game out of “finding the animals” in the 212 pages, most of which contain at least one illustration of the animal that page features.

“Daddy, I found the blue jay!” he proclaims from the back seat on the way home from school, with our copy of The Truth About Nature in hand.

What I personally like about the book is that in a few years, once Jack is able to start comprehending words other than his name when he reads them, he will learn some really cool facts about animals that most people don’t know.

Here’s an excerpt:

Myth 106: Animals sleep with their eyes closed. Sleep varies a great deal from one animal to the next. Some sleep standing up. Some sleep during the day. Some even sleep with their eyes open… Dolphins are the most fascinating sleepers. They actually sleep with one eye open and continue to swim while they’re sleeping!

Like my son, I also appreciate the book’s illustrations. I want to classify the style as “Portland, Oregon postcard from 1983.” The drawings are classic, nostalgic, and enchanted.

The retail price is $18.95. Again, this is a beefy book, with 212 pages.

Our family has discovered it makes a great “road trip” book with all our reviews of cars that we do. This book is entertaining in an interesting way, not simply just in a trivial way.

The authors, Stacy Tornio and Ken Keffer, have already proven they know what they’re doing when it comes to writing books. Their previous book, The Kids’ Outdoor Adventure Book: 448 Great Things To Do In Nature Before You Grow Up, was a winner of the National Outdoor Book Award.

Also, FYI, in case you’re interested in the authors coming to your child’s school, they are currently having a contest for that:

So there you go: I officially endorse The Truth About Nature. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have taken the time and effort to be telling you about it today.

You can learn more about the book here on their website. Thanks for reading my blog today!

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Leave a comment Posted on October 6, 2014 infographic, Storytelling, Uncategorized

New Infographic: The History Of The Telephone

If you’re a regular reader of Family Friendly Daddy Blog, you know that my family doesn’t have smart phones; mainly because we’re too cheap to pay for a data plan, and 2nd, because the thought of “being constantly on” stresses me out.

While I am dedicated to keeping my blog up to date and relevant, I’ve done so this entire time without the use of a smart phone; including the 3+ years I was contracted to Parents.com as their offiical daddy blog.

Every post, including my dozens of car reviews, has all been done by using a “dumb phone.”

I suspect that at some point in the future, data plans might actually start being free; as phone companies will attempt to tempt me with upgrades.

It would be similar to the way our family uses a credit card for the sole purpose of ripping off the credit card company by faithfully immediately paying off each purchase, then redeeming the points.

In the meantime, I am using a cell phone that peaked the charts of coolness back in 2007. And I suppose I will be ignorant to Instragram until, if ever, data plans are free.

I’m okay with that.

Today I present you with an interesting infographic featuring the history of the telephone. It’s pretty neat, actually.

Blessed are those who were able to move past the year 2007 in phones, unlike me.

Telephone System History by ITS Limited, who offer business telephone and broadband
solutions.

Were you interested in what you just read? Was this post a strangely pleasant distraction to other things popping up on your Facebook or Twitter feed? Ya know… you could always like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, or even subscribe to Family Friendly Daddy Blog by clicking on the appropriate icon on the left side of this page. No pressure though…

Were you interested in what you just read? Was this post a strangely pleasant distraction to other things popping up on your Facebook or Twitter feed? Ya know… you could always like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, or even subscribe to Family Friendly Daddy Blog by clicking on the appropriate icon on the left side of this page. No pressure though…

Leave a comment Posted on October 5, 2014October 6, 2014 parenting, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Dear Jack: Seeing The 1st Construction Of Our New House

3 years, 10 months.

Dear Jack,

It was exactly 8 years ago tonight that Mommy and I fatefully met each other at the taping of an episode of CMT’s Crossroads, featuring Lindsey Buckingham and Little Big Town.

Here we are now, 8 years later; with you, nearly 4 years old.

Back on September 7th, in my 1st letter announcing our family’s new home purchase, I included pictures of the broken ground and foundation. (See Dear Jack: We’re Building A New House In Spring Hill, TN as well as Our 2nd Visit To Our “New House”/ 2014 Lexus GS 450h: Family Friendly Review.)

Well, about a month later, it’s time to update those photos. But first, a quick video I made…

Yesterday we had made the journey to Sprill Hill to check in on the status on the building process. I expected very little progress, if any.

In fact, I was quite surprised when Mommy pointed at our house. At first I thought we were on the wrong street somehow.

Seeing this progress was a great encouragement to me. It’s easy for the process of selling our current townhome, plus the thought of the move itself, to overshadow the fun parts of this.

But just look- this is our house “being born.”

I particulary enjoyed the view out the windows from upstairs. I was able to get a good view of the farmland behind our lot, as well as a view of our next door neighboor’s background; to get an idea of what ours will look like as well.

There’s no doubt this is a scary process, though. I admit that at any given second, I am sort of expecting this to somehow fall through.

However, we’ve went through the budget more times than we can count and we know we can truly afford this new home and still have a decent amount of cash going into our savings. It’s very important to us we don’t become “house poor”; meaning all our paychecks just go into paying the mortgage every month.

Of course, we drive 10 year-old used Hondas, we don’t eat out at restaurants, we don’t have cable TV or smart phones, and the electronics we do own are laughably (!) outdated. So to say the least, we are an extremely frugal family.

If we hadn’t become as ridiculously conservative with our money as we needed to in order to get out of the $60K debt we had worked our way in, there’s no way we could have ever gotten ahead… to get to where we are today.

So having lived through that blessed/cursed learning curve that so many couples in their late 20s (at the time) have to encounter when it comes to the budget, or the lack thereof, we are now (in our early 30s) able to start catching glimpses of what Dave Ramsey has always preached on:

“Live like no one else now so that later, you can live like no one else.”

Based on my financial mistakes in the past, I guess there’s part of me that feels I don’t deserve this house.

Even now, I personally feel… hesitant… about showing info and pictures about our family’s new house.

But it’s important to me that I not only show you this “footage” for future nostaglic and historic purposes, and that I teach you to be as annoyingly frugal as I am… but also because you have many family members on both sides of the our family that want to see the updates on our house.

As for you, you’re still trying to understand that the model home is not actually our new home.

Love,

Daddy

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5 Comments Posted on October 4, 2014October 5, 2014 car reviews, funny, Nostalgia, parenting, People, Storytelling, Uncategorized

2014 Lexus GX 460 Family Friendly Review/Grandma’s Great Escape!

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 33^rd 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 3^rdrow 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:

2014 Lexus GX 460 Family Friendly Review/Grandma’s Great Escape!

2014 Lexus GX 460 Family Friendly Review/Downtown Nashville

Folding Down/Up The 3rd Seats Of The 2014 Lexus GX 460

Syncing Up Your Phone/Using Driver Assist In The 2014 Lexus GX 460

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Leave a comment Posted on September 24, 2014 parenting, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Dear Jack: 1st Day Of Fall/Mountain Biking Selfie Explanation

3 years, 10 months.

Dear Jack,

You almost got to see your 1st tow truck in action yesterday morning. As I was driving you to school, the radio cut off, I lost power steering, and the fuel gauge dropped to empty.

I warned you that we may have to stop driving.

By a miracle of God, I was able to make it to the parking lot of KinderCare and drop you off. But from there, my 2004 Honda Element wouldn’t start.

So I called a tow truck and ran back inside to get you so you could watch my car get towed.

Fortunately, my car started back again once the tow truck arrived and I was able to drive it around the block to Firestone; it needed a new alternator, for starters…

Also fortuately, I had access to my mountain bike, which fits into the back of my Honda Element along with our jogging stroller, so I was able to bike back to work until my car was ready several hours later.

It was an adventure of a day for us! And that’s how we started the first day of fall.

Autumn is by far my favorite season and it appears it is yours as well. For the past two mornings before walking you into school, you have asked to walk over into the school’s front lawn and pick out a fallen leaf.

Monday morning, you saw two baby deer on the way to school and two more on the way back, explaining to me, “It’s getting colder now so the deers come out for food.”

Well, even though it appears to be the shortest of seasons, I’m glad that the two of us can truly appreciate the subtle yet undeniable beauty of Autumn.

To celebrate it even more, we’re planning a family friendly road trip to Asheville, North Carolina in the next couple of weeks. I have a feeling it’s going to be pretty awesome!

Love,

Daddy

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