Masquerade Ball

Cora and Jessica's school had a Daddy-Daughter dance yesterday. I have been so excited to help get the girls ready for it. The preparation began a couple of weeks ago, my sweet sister-in-law Leah, gave us two boxes of princess accessories that came with shoes, bracelets, gloves and a purse. Then I was able to find masks for the girls to decorate. So Thursday the girls and a friend / classmate of Jessica named McKenna came over and decorated the masks. They had a blast!! Josh didn't want his decorated though. I think that he looks like a handsome old school batman.

Josh without his batman mask.( Opps, I think that he might be upset that I posted this picture before he got a chance to edit. You can see that his suit needs to be dry cleaned.)
No daddy -daughter dance is complete without corsages and boutiniers. The girls came with me to pick out the flowers. They were very excited about the idea of wearing flowers on their wrists. I even made one for Maren, which she kinda ate this morning. So as far as I know orchids are non-toxic. Good thing. Aren't the girls beautiful.
Cora likes to pose for the camera. I have no idea what Cora is doing with her foot in this picture. Silly girl.
Apparently, there was a chocolate fountain at the dance. So the girls enjoyed chocolate covered strawberries. Mmmmm.

And so you have it. The long aticipated daddy-daughter date. It's a good thing that the PTA only put this on once a year. To buy tickets for the three of them was$25. Josh complained that High School formal dances aren't even that expensive. Oh well. I will gladly pay $25 for the fun they had and the memories that they will have.

A brick wall...

Ever have an assignment that just didn't go right. I am teaching a statistics lab, in which I am supposed to instruct tomorrows budding social scientists in the wonders of SPSS (Statistics package for the social sciences).
Day one, I grab the wrong syllabi (argghh).
Day two, there is supposed to be a drive linked to all computers in the lab to access information, I do not have access to that drive (arggghhh).
Day three, supposed to have the drive issue fixed, but no still don't have access (ARGGHH).
Day four (today) email students data set for class because I figure the stupid drive won't be working, students go to open file and it won't open properly (ARRGGGGHHHHH).
Add on top of that one of my students was looking up something online during lecture and talking about it with the kid sitting next to him, so I have to tell him to stop and at least pretend to pay attention. Honestly, I don't mind teaching Statistics (which is rare) but this class is starting to suck. Plus I started class with a sinus headache, and that never helps. I can already anticipate bad reviews from students. Hopefully next week will be better.
Also, if you ever happen to be in or move to Texas for any duration, may I suggest don't do so with little children. They seem to have an infinite supply of cold germs in Texas, all of which quickly come home and spread like wildfire. In Utah I maybe got one cold a year, and it wasn't bad, a week or so of a runny nose, some sinus pressure, a single night of tylenol to get a goodnights rest and I was back and at em. I have had three colds this year, three. The first one lasted for a month and a half, plugged up my ear for 5 weeks and I had to take z pac to get rid of it. Emmett has only been here for three months and poor kid is already on his second cold. So if it can be avoided, I highly recomend it.
-Josh

Emmett's Blessing

I have the most handsome boy ever!!! (I may be a little biased, then again maybe not)

Papa, Granny and the Girls with Emmett.

No Wonder that kid is so good looking, what a hot Mom.
(and man does he look stylin' or what)

Well, Zebby graduated (YEAH ZEBBY), and my parents came out for the graduation. Since they were here, I thought it would be a good idea to bless Emmett the same weekend. In retrospect it was and wasn't. It was great to have Mom and Dad here, but it made for a pretty hectic Saturday. We woke the girls up at 6:45, got them dressed and had breakfast in the truck as we headed down to Waco around 7:30. Fortunately we didn't hit any traffic and we pulled into Baylor with 10 minutes to spare, then we couldn't find where we were supposed to park. 15 minutes later we got out of the truck and went searching for the right building and ended up getting to the graduation about 20 minutes late. What we did see of it was good, and we didn't miss anything important. We got to Zeb get hooded in the "robes of the false priesthood" haha. Then we went back to Zeb and Leahs house for a while before driving back home to get ready for the blessing. After that we got the girls in bed, I went to the store for some last minutes items, and Carol prepped food for the next day. Needless to say we got to bed late. In the morning I started the brisquette smoking and we went to church, and were heading home just as my Mom and Dad got into Denton. We actually timed it almost perfect, so that they were able to follow us right back to our place. We hung out with them and Zeb and Leah got there about 20-30 minutes later. At 5:30 we got started, had a prayer, I blessed Emmett, and we ate and mingled. I gotta say I felt a little dorky since I ended up talking to Jeff (Mormon and in the Psyc. program) and two other students we invited most of the time, and most of it about psychology, teaching, and stats. Oh well, gotta embrace that lovable nerd in me sometime. Then one by one people began to leave and we got the kids in bed, talked for a while and headed to bed ourselves. Mom and Dad decided to stay through Monday, which was great. The girls and I ditched school and we went out to the Bass Pro Shop. Dad kept telling me that they were getting robbed blind at Cabella's and Sportsman's in comparison. Then we went to Grapevine Mills, not for any particular reason, it was just something to do. After that we headed home, rested for a little while and Dad told us he wanted some really good Mexican food. The only place Carol and I know of is all the way down in Fort Worth, so we set out again. I will say the drive is always worth it. Then we made an unscheduled stop at Cabella's in Fort Worth. The girls liked all the animals, though they have been before, and Maren keeps telling me she saw the crocodile eat a frog. It's cute. So there you have it, our jam packed, self proclaimed, three day weekend. Thanks Mom and Dad for being here, we were all so glad you came.
-Josh

And time marches on...

I tried to post a video of Emmett starting to show signs of giggling, but it didn't work. The sound was just awful, and while you could see his sweet smile it just wasn't the same effect without the sound. SO in lieu of that video, I am going to share an insightful exercise. I am taking a class in Death and Dying. Yep, it is a real downer. I don't know why but I came to grips with death fairly early on. That being said, we had an exercise recently that got the gears a turning, and Carol's tears a flowing. We had to make a Will. It was fairly informal, and I honestly am not going to post it here (mostly because I said things to certain people that I wouldn't say with out the guarantee of a more permanent barrier between me and retaliation, hahaha j/k) It was just a little to personal thus Carol crying. But if you have a late evening with your thoughts, think of the possessions in your life that you have assigned some value to and then think of whom you would like to have those things if you were to be called back home tomorrow, or whom would you like to have some momento to remember you by, and what that item would be. Then take it a step further and think what kind of message you would want that item to carry. I think you might discover a few things about the people whom you love and interact with and the relationship you have with them.
-Josh

p.s. There may be few more thought provoking threads coming out soon. I seem to be in a contemplative mood (and if you know how my brain works that is really saying something). Not all of them will be introspective, but hopefully they will help you take a fresh look at our world.