Mark's Trip to Venice, LA

Since these are pictures of me, Melissa insists that I be the one to tell you about them. These are pictures from a recent trip to Venice, LA with a group of guys from church. We went fishing for redfish which this part of the country is known for. This also happens to be one of the many places destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Obviously the fish are still there, but many of the people are not as they are still rebuilding. Even though you can still see some of the destruction, much of the clean up and rebuilding is ongoing. The people of the area are in good spirits and doing well. The fishing is AWESOME!!!


For those who may not know, the above picture is a redfish. They are known for their spots. This particular fish had seven spots altogether (3 you can see and 4 on the other side). Seven is unusual, but even with only two spots they are beautiful and strong fish.

Here I am fighting a red (not the one above).

And the fights ends successfully!!! This red measured 39" and weighs between 25 and 30 pounds from what I'm told.

The same fish (compare the spots on the tail) as caught on the Mississippi. That's right...freshwater redfish.

Here's the same fish to give you the idea of the length. Remember, I'm 6'2" tall.

A couple of hours later I landed this beauty of 41".

Again, here's an idea of how long this fish is.

This fish was caught out in the Gulf of Mexico along the beach. It's not a beach like you see at a resort, but for my purposes it was perfect. This red measured only 32" but was a joy to land.

Here's one of my best friends with his 38" red also caught in the Gulf. You can see we aren't far from shore.

This is Casey Duncum, one of the youth from our church, with his 38" red.

Craig, yet again, showing off. Craig had a rough day the day before not catching a single fish. He came back on this day to land 3 reds over 30 inches. Not a bad way to end a trip. Even though the fishing was truly amazing, the fellowship was better. I couldn't ask for a better group of guys to be with on a trip. There were a total of 14 of us on 5 boats all hauled from North Texas to the Southern most point of Louisiana. It was worth the trip. If you ever have a chance to fish for redfish in Venice, LA, invite some of your buddies and take the time to deepen relationship over a few large fish and larger tales.

The Latest...Drama

I received an email from my father late last night to let me know that he and my mother have officially started the legal process of "dissolving their marriage". I think that is such a sad statement. I don't even know how to feel about it. They have been having a lot of marital trouble in the last five years, so this decision is not a surprise. I have a double sided opinion in this matter (is that a correct term?). My two opinions are this: 1) I don't think they should be together right now, and 2) I don't believe in divorce. Well...this leaves me really wondering how I feel.

I am deeply saddened that my parents marriage has fallen apart. I don't even want to think about how much this changes things for our family...holidays, birthdays, weddings, etc. When I was talking to Morgan and Haleigh about it today Morgan said "what will happen if one of them wants to get married again" and Haleigh said "we would have three grandpas". Whoa.......hold on, they don't even know how to be married to each other, so let's not even go there!

I am hoping that my parents can find happiness in their lives. I think the happiness that they are searching for will not come from divorcing, but perhaps they think it will. I guess time will tell.

I don't actually have a lot of friends whose parents are divorced. If I do, their parents were divorced when they were kids. So, is there anyone out there in the same boat as me? What is it like? How am I supposed to handle this situation? What am I supposed to do when my kids ask questions? UGH...why can't we all just get along?

Those of you who know me well know that when something makes me really uncomfortable, I make a joke about it. So...here is a little divorce humor! Enjoy.

Half way there!

My student teaching is going really well so far. I am half way there! The past six weeks have actually flown by pretty fast, and I am glad to say that I really enjoy first grade more than I thought I would. I never thought that I would want to actually teach first grade, but that is where I wanted to do my student teaching because I knew the first grade teachers pretty well and felt comfortable with them. Having said all of that, I really do love first grade. The kids are so sweet, and they really love to come to school. My host teacher was out yesterday, so I got to teach the whole day! It was a lot of work, and I was really tired last night, but it was good to teach all day. Over the next two weeks I have to teach half of the day, and then for weeks 9-12 I have to teach all day, so yesterday was good practice! My clinical supervisor has come to observe me three times and has given me my mid-term evaluation. All three times she has been there have been good - she gives me good marks and comments, so that is nice. She said that she thinks I will be a really good teacher, so that makes me feel really good. Those kinds of things make me feel like all of the hard work I have done over the last two years was worth it. Anyway, now I just need to get caught up on writing my papers that I have to write for school or else I won't be able to graduate, and then all of this work would be pointless!

A Taste Of Seattle

I had a nice relaxing weekend in Seattle with my sisters and my niece. My sister Rebecca moved to Seattle to go to college and liked it there so much she never moved back to Colorado. I have never been there to see her or where she lives and works, so it was fun to go for a quick visit. I would never ever want to live there, but she enjoys it a lot. Here is a picture of her house that she rents with four other girls. This is what you can get for $1800 a month in the city of Seattle. It is an older house on a small lot, and she said that they are getting a nice deal on the rent...like I said, I could never live there!


Here is a picture of me with my older sister Erica (far left) and my little sister Becky (middle). We have jackets on because it was chilly in Seattle.

This is Pike Place Market - it is a street market with a lot of different things to buy. There was tons of fresh flowers for sale, and they were really cheap. A "small" bundle of flowers was $5.00. The prices are cheap I guess since the rent is so high!

This is also in the market. There is all sorts of fresh sea food to buy. This place is a popular place to buy sea food. This is the place you will see in the movies where they throw the fish. It was pretty cool.

This is a picture of the same place. The guys bring the fish out in boxes and place it on the ice. They stay on this side until someone orders something, and then they will throw it to the guy behind the counter - pretty cool.

Here's a picture of some pepper arrangements that they sell. I thought this was cool and colorful. These were pretty expensive - I was surprised.

This is the original Starbucks - it is really quite small. It is just across the street from the market. There is usually a group of people singing or a person playing an instrument. This group of guys were gospel singers. This Starbucks is about 1 of 100 in Seattle - they were everywhere.

We went to the salon and got pedicures while we were there - this is my sister Becky and my niece Emma (you can't start them too young)!

There's a park where you can overlook the city - here is a nice view on a nice day of the Space Needle.

This is a picture just to the right of the picture above. There are a lot of ships that come in and out of Seattle.

Just a picture from the same park of me, Erica, Becky, and Emma.

We went down to the beach for dinner and had some awesome clam chowder. Just across from the restaurant was the beach front where they have fire pits set up. Some of my sisters friends from church were meeting to roast marshmallows and hang out, so we went down there for a little while. It got really cold after the sun went down, so the fire was nice.

Saturday was cold and rainy, but we still had some fun. This is a picture at a fountain just outside the arena where the Supersonics play. They were having an Italian festival, but it was kind of weak due to the rain. This location is really close to the Space Needle, so we got to see it pretty up close. We didn't ride up in it though, not a real fan of that kind of stuff.

Here is a nice view of the ocean from a place where we went to shop. It was rainy, so the picture looks kind of gloomy, but it is really quite beautiful. There were all sorts of ships - cargo ships, cruise liners, ferries, etc.

Anyway, just a quick glimpse of my trip to Seattle. It was very nice, and I would like to go back again someday. Maybe next time I can take my family (or maybe we should include our brother)! It was nice to get away for a little though and take a break from the hustle and bustle of my life. I was back to my student teaching today. I just started week #6, so I am half way there!

Seattle

I am enjoying some time with my sisters in Seattle. My little sister Rebecca lives here, and my older sister Erica flew out too. We are having some sister bonding time! I will post some pictures when I get home - I saw the first Starbucks! Woo hoo. I wanted to see Bill Gates house, but Becky said that you can only see the gate at the entrance. Oh well! It feels really good to have a little break from school, work, etc. I slept really good last night - so good that I snored all night and kept my little sister awake! I didn't hear a thing! It is also about 60 degrees outside. I had to break out my winter clothing to come here. It feels soooo good.

Bad Day/Good Day

I had an awful start to my day on Friday. Haleigh and I got into it over her lying to me about brushing her teeth. I don't understand why kids lie about the stupidest stuff! Do kids think that we are so dumb that we are not going to know if they brushed their teeth or not?! I have had this exact same talk with Morgan when she was Haleigh's age. UGH! Anyway, she started crying because she got in trouble and got her book fair money taken away. Well, that led to Mark wondering if she lies to avoid a confrontation with me. His suggestion was that maybe she lied instead of saying "NO" because she thought that if she said no I would get mad. Well, I choose not to believe this side of the story...because then maybe I am at fault. I think she lied because she just didn't want to brush her teeth. Anyway, anybody that knows Haleigh very well knows that she is a really happy, crazy kid. Lately she had been bummed out. She looks sad, she says she's tired...I jokingly say that she is bi-polar (I don't say this to her, I say it to Mark). If things are going Haleigh's way, Haleigh is happy. If things aren't going Haleigh's way, Haleigh isn't happy. Well.......I say all of this to say that she told Mark the reason she is never happy is because mommy yells at her too much and I don't yell at Jacob or Morgan. Well, this was like a knife through my heart. She proceeded to tell me that Morgan is good and she's not. She thinks I like Morgan and Jacob more than I like her. All the while, the knife is pushing further into my heart. I never want my kids to feel this way. I never want to be part of the reason why they feel that way. I explained to Haleigh that the reason why she seems to get "yelled at" more is partly her fault. She acknowledged that she doesn't always do the right thing or do things when she is told to...she knows that she has fault too, but I felt awful. My whole morning was ruined. I decided to eat lunch with her (she goes 10 minutes after me). It was short but sweet. We decided that we needed a mommy/daughter date. We decided to go to Joe's Crab Shack because it is her favorite and then go to Build-A-Bear Workshop. We had so much fun. We ate shrimp and crab legs at Joe's, we made a bunny at the mall and dressed her and everything, and then we got ice cream. We had a long time to talk in the car. I turned off the radio, and we just talked by ourselves. I don't realize how little we talk alone because there is usually other people with us. We talked about school, friends, homecoming, mums, "girly girls" (as Haleigh calls it) in her class that she doesn't understand, etc. We just talked and talked and talked. I bet no one can imagine me and Haleigh doing that, can you? It turned out to be a very special day - one that I will never forget. I feel bad that I may have contributed to Haleigh feeling like she is "bad" because we get onto her a lot. I need to work on that - find better ways to get the desired behavior we want out of her. Anyway, my heart was hurting Friday morning, but now it feels a lot better - I think hers does too!

Here's a picture of that little girl I love more than I can express.

Jacob's Birthday Party

We celebrated Jacob's 4th birthday on Sunday. His birthday is actually tomorrow (Sept. 19th), but we celebrated a little early. Here is a picture of the birthday boy! Isn't he just so handsome?


Here is the jump house that we rented for Jacob's birthday - as you can see Superman was the theme of the party! This was a cool jump house - it had a large jump area and then a slide down the back. The kids had a ball! If you look close you can see Morgan, Haleigh, and Jacob in the doorway! That puts the size of this thing into scale!


This is the cupcake design that Jacob picked out for his party. He didn't want a cake, so he chose the cupcake instead because he really liked how it looked. RED icing - what fun!

Here are the silly kids taking a group picture for me. What fun!

Jacob blowing out his four candles - I think his friend Wyatt thought he needed some help!

Here is Jacob's little friend eating her red cupcake - don't you know her mom was thrilled with this. She actually did a great job not getting frosting everywhere.

Here are a few pictures of the kids enjoying the jumphouse.

I love the hair in this picture!

Here are a few enjoying the slide!

We had a great party - I wish all of you could have been there to share in our fun. Jacob is already talking about his birthday next year!