Survey Says...

Hello everyone!

So Father's Day has come and gone for the year, and I wanted to tell you about my favorite present from the kiddos...

It was one of these surveys that you can download from the Internet, where you fill in answers about your dad.  My children are young, and so the answers were pretty awesome.  Here are some of the highlights:

1.)  My Dad is funny because:

"he's not funny"

2.)  My Dad thinks I am funny when:

"climb trees"

3.)  My Dad is _____ years old.

"2"

"21" - I'll take this one

"60"

4.)  His favorite thing to do is:

"play little Legos...that's what I'm doing"

5.)  My Dad's job is:

"at his new work"

6.)  He loves to eat:

"pizza & macaroni & steak"

"pizza"

"steak" - I see a trend

7.)  He is really good at:

"Nerf guns and playing video games"

"building Star Wars Lego ships" - because grown-up skills are overrated

8.)  My Dad always says:

"nothing"

"I like to eat newspaper"

"to obey"

There are a couple of other answers that I'll keep to myself, just because they were extra sweet.

Anyway, Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there.  Keep up the good fight!

How Bad Do I Want It?

Hello world!

Naturally, it's been months since I've last bothered to blog. As a result, this could turn into some stream-of-consciousness rant...you've been warned.

In any case, I wanted to monologue for a minute about the exhausting nature of fatherhood. Now, before all you mothers out there get all bent out of shape and decide to slash my tires for my possibly implying that fatherhood is harder than motherhood, know that I have nothing but respect for my female counterparts, and that I will declare on demand that mothers almost always work harder at parenthood than the men. I merely intend to speak to what I know of parenting, which is fatherhood.

I think constantly of all the things I could accomplish if I were not burdened by the need to both bring home paychecks and raise up obedient, compassionate and, I'll admit it, COOL kids. I could write a book, get ripped again, or even learn how to cook things more sophisticated than pizza rolls and ramen noodles. Perhaps there are some fathers out there who can do it...but I'm certainly not one of them! For me (and I suspect, most of my peers), it's the alarm clock at 6, the lingering in bed until closer to 7, the workday, the few precious and maddening hours with the kiddos, the bedtime routine, then staying up later than recommended just to have enough time to watch an episode or two of Doctor Who before collapsing into bed for [hopefully] 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep, which are almost always interrupted anyway.

This is why I have a BMI implying obesity (who am I kidding...it's true), why I've punted twice on taking the Professional Engineer exam, why the garage isn't clean and why I only tend to blog on a semi-annual basis. And let's not forget all those sports cars I'm missing out on thanks to the estimated $750k price tag for raising 3 middle-class kids!

So is it all worth it? I think so. It's miserably exhausting, and pretty stifling to give so much of myself to these children, but in return, I get to establish a legacy. My diligence could yield cancer-curers, Mars-walkers, or simply a nation of citizens who will respect and love their fellow man. Of course, I love the more day-to-day things as well. I get to teach my kids how to wrestle, build LEGOs together, and convince them that a baseball glove goes on the hand NOT used for throwing (they're still a little skeptical).

Alright. I'm done complaining. I just needed to talk it out awhile. But I would like to get ripped again. Just sayin'.

And just for fun, here is a picture...because I know you guys love pictures...