Visiting Family

Matt and Mandy came up from Vegas to the folks house in Manteca. It was fun.

Here are some more pictures of Bradyn. He put on my hat and watch and was playing on the treadmill.

Veto'd Entry

Jeanann says it was spam, and noone cares. And she doesn't want to hear about me 'kissing other people in the rain'. She just doesn't remember when we kissed in the rain. She must have been a little tipsy.

New Year Plans

Things for us have began picking up. Next week for me school starts, and in 9 weeks or so Jeanann is due. I've applied to UF, hoping for a little luck. http://web.anthro.ufl.edu/ That's the web page describing what I've applied to. I'd like to stick to Cultural Anthropology. There are some interesting areas of study if I can get into it in depth. Here is a cut and paste of what I'm curious about in this field. "Multiscalar Processes and Structures: the intersection of macro (e.g., national, global) processes, institutions, and forces with micro (e.g., local, subgroup) contexts Anthropology of Development, Political Economy, Transnationalism, Diaspora, Sovereignty and Citizenship, Entrepreneurship, Cultural Heritage Management" Where will it take me? Who knows. I believe putting the work in will take me somewhere though. We've put a hitch on Jeanann's car, and will be picking up a trailer here in the next few weeks. Jeanann will most likely not be returning to work after she gets off for maternity leave. We'll keep everyone posted for when things start happening. I think mom Wren may be coming out... we'll see. I may ask some of you to watch Bradyn for a few days here and there. I'll still have 18 units of classes to keep up with, so I'll need a little help to keep from falling behind. The hardest part of college is just showing up to class. If you can do that, and pay attention while your there, that's most of the work there. I need to stay focused as much as I can. Last semester I made it through with a 3.2, while going through a bankruptcy, with an a$$ hole repo man threating to break my skull, so I'm pretty confident I can do at least that this semester. Jeanann will need some help though, so hopefully some of you will be available and willing. She's already itching for finding a new position at UF, and there are positions open in her field which pay the same or more. Some of these positions are steps up, or work a little more in different areas that she's interested in. We'll see though. I hope she's able to enjoy a few months with the kids before jumping right back in, but she's already itching I think to get her foot in with the next opportunity at UF. Daycare will be less than we're paying now. For Bradyn to go part time, we pay a fortune. For both kids full time, in Florida, at a highly recommended place it will be less than we pay for Bradyn here, part time. That blows my mind. Anyways, enough about that I guess. We're both ready to go. It's like standing on the edge, by a pool waiting to jump. We have plenty to do in the meantime, between having another kid... work, school, pack, throw stuff out... We're looking at moving out of here before June 1st now. So if anyone would like to come help pack the final things! I have things I need to get rid of. Mom has a treadmill if any family wants it. I like it, and use it, but we wont have much room in the trailer, and I want as little 'stuff' as possible for this trip. A Gas Grill. Picked it up for 100 or so, I'll try to get rid of it cheap online, unless some family needs it. We used to cook steak on it every week... so it works great! Pretty hard to screw up fire I guess. We have a pretty crappy futon. Not moving that. A coach or two. The brown leather ones and the green ones. The leather ones are nice, I'll need to try to sell those for a little bit to help with moving expenses. Happy New Year! I'm trying to get in shape like 90% of everyone else. Since being back from Florida I've ran almost 20 miles, and started lifting a little. I'm 'killing' myself on the treadmill, and I'm up to jogging on that thing for 60 minutes at a time at an average speed of about 4.8. It sucks, but I've noticed I sleep better, and can concentrate a little more. I hope some of you are working on your New Year's Resolutions.

Florida Pics

We went fishing with Grandpa and Grammy Wren. Here are some pictures. Here are some of the fish we caught. When we went out with Bradyn we didn't catch anything, so we went back out, caught some, and had to show him his first fish. He liked going on 'rides' with Grandpa. Grandpa liked taking him around, and after Bradyn kept saying 'ride' and trying to climb on the 4 wheeler.

After a little while on the boat, Bradyn was walking around a little checking things out. He's a little young to fish, but he had fun. I like this picture.

Grammy let him drive... sort of.

The old man was fishing and Bradyn was watching.

We had fun. We're going to look around 'High Springs' in Florida for a rental when we get there. We toured UF and spoke to some people about me getting in. I should have a good chance to get in, and they'll set me up with a job working with one of the VA Departments in Gainesville. I'm looking into Anthropology at UF. I may switch over to business once I get in if they let me, and if it doesn't extend the time It'll take to graduate too much.

Jeanann had a good time visiting family, and I had a good time too. Everyone loves Bradyn. I have a few itchy bug bites I'm not used to, but I figure they're just itchy reminders of how much I love Jeanann and how much nicer it'll be to raise kids in Florida, and how much easier I hope it'll be to get some land out there.

Jeanann is ready to have our second. She's due in April but she's ready to be done already. Me too.

The move is scheduled for June. We hope to have a trailer parked up here much before that to start packing, but I could use a hand probably near the end to do the final packing, and also a little house cleaning to leave the place we're in in a good order.

Down with the Sickness...

http://draperphotography.com/ My brother in law Aaron and my sister Julie are awesome. Here are a few pictures they took at their studio in Modesto.

Julie was cracking up cuz we were dancing like fools behind the camera to keep Bradyn smiling.

Last week was rough. Bradyn came home with a friend Monday night and we were all screwed most of the week... Sick. We recovered enough by the weekend to go visit Julie and Aaron. We never get to see them. They were nice enough to take a few pictures. I hope all of you can take a second to check out their blog at http://draperphotography.blogspot.com/. He's amazing when it comes to pictures, and I just wanted to help spread the word. I'll have some new pictures soon! We're getting ready for the trip to Florida though, and working on getting rid of stuff we don't need to move next summer. We have a good plan to get out there, and we're both excited. There isn't much that can stop us at this point.

Bradyn's Treasure

I was giving Bradyn a bath yesterday, and he found something. He was fascinated, so much so that his toys must have become invisible. He was falling over trying to get a better look, trying to lean over, stand up, whatever it took to get a better view around his belly. It was his Pee Pee! There was almost nothing I could do to distract his attention away from his pee pee. The bond between man and his pee pee is strong. I think they were having a psychic conversation. "Size matters not! Judge me by my size, do you?" Yoda--

Here's a picture of some of his spoon training... and of Spencer and Bradyn sleeping on the floor.

Chicken Day!

We're having a girl, and we're thankful for that! With a boy and a girl I'm hoping Jeanann will agree to snip the stork's beak off. She's still not sold on the idea.

I'm thankful for life. It's good. It's extremely difficult to look past the immediate impending doom that seems to linger over our heads from time to time, but it's possible. Sometimes it takes a reminder like Thanksgiving to help pull our heads out of our rears and appreciate all of the good things. Thanksgiving is a great 'dislodger of heads' in my book. So I'd like to share a couple things I'm thankful for.

I'm thankful for Jeanann, and her friends who brought her to Durty Nelly's in Gainesville, where we met a few years back. She supports me and my dreams, and I love her. She makes smart kids too (I make em cute).

I'm thankful for Bradyn. He's 'begun'! He's curious and full of energy. I used to hear people say 'full of energy' and chuckle, not really knowing what they meant. 'Full of energy' is more like a cry triggering phrase I think. He's healthy and he loves us, and he makes me happy, even though he keeps us on our toes. He'll have a sister to help keep him busy before too long.

I'm thankful for the opportunity to go to school. I've been trying to work out some of my unused, slow, aging brain cells and turn them into athletes. I think it's working. Some of them are out of their wheelchairs and using walking sticks now. I still have a long way to go, but I understand what my high school counselor kept saying all those years. "You can do anything you put your mind to." The more I learn, the more I realize how far I am from the goal. It's like playing guitar... The better you are, the more you realize how much you still have to learn. And I now realize a little bit how to 'put my mind' to something.

I could list a bunch of things, and people, like this cup of coffee I'm sipping on,

the new VW we bought gets over 400 miles a tank, with a 14 gallon tank or so,

my fingers, they still remember how to play my guitars, even though they haven't practiced much lately, thankfully they're still attached to my hands,

my family, even those in my extended family who I haven't had a good chance to get to know yet, I look forward to the opportunity,

my lawyer, he was worth every dollar, he got the bankruptcy done before thanksgiving, so he's earned a spot on my list, not to mention he blocked the repo man from coming to my house to kick my teeth in... I'm thankful for that since I was sitting on my patio with Jeanann's shotgun,

I'm thankful I'm not in prison,

The three things I mentioned earlier is where I am focused right now, and where I hope to remain focused. Life is good. When it seems like it sucks, I remember this little story...

A young friend in NY (18-19) came to my house really upset about a local friend who died in Iraq. I listened to him a bit, and he wasn't too upset since he didn't know him too well. In my head I was glad it wasn't me, and glad it was someone I didn't know personally. I realized I 'dodged another bullet'. A minute later I said, 'I didn't know what I was getting into when I joined the Army, but I've learned one thing for sure... Life Is Good.' I think the tone in my voice expressed my understanding of that message, cuz he cried like a baby after that. I never fully understood it myself until that very second.

And it is, it's a hell of a lot better than the alternative, and I'm thankful for the chance to live it.

Have a good Holiday everyone!