One swingin' koala eh? Yes, I know I'm a 33-year old man with a stuffed bear with Batman pajamas on it. My choice eh?
Here is the photo collage I made while the family was on vacation:
Not bad eh? I'm afraid I'm falling into that group of people known as: the scrapbooker. Actually I've been looking into making that my 2nd hobby. Hopefully this one won't cost too much $$$. I went into a Joann's Craft Store for the first time and saw a lot of things I'd like to start getting into. Geez...I think I'm turning into my grandma. Anyhoo...I liked that one so much (and so did Emmy) that I decided to make one just for her! She was excited about helping me out but most if it involves:
1) picking just the right pictures
2) cutting them just right so they overlap the boundary enought but not too much
3) taping them just right to the picture is centered perfectly
If you think this is too much for a 7-year old, you are correct sir. She picked out a few pics and cut a few of them, but I did most of the work. Anyhoo...here's what we put together:
After I put this together I realized "Hey...there's no pictures of me in this thing!" But there is one great one of us that I had printed and was going to bring up to the office but Emmy wanted to put it in a frame in her room:
I can always print another one, right?
Emmy has finished her second week of second grade today. So far, so good! She seems to respond to Ms. Kohutek very well and actually looks forward (a little) to going to school each day. She gets dressed, gets her breakfast, packs her lunch if we have Lunchables, brushes her hair and her teeth and makes sure her folder is signed (by me or Cari) all without having to be asked (usually). I couldn't be prouder of her for showing that kind of initiative and ambition. I often wonder how much of that is credited to us and how much is due to her part. I'm more then willing to give 99% of the credit to her. Maybe that's what I'm supposed to do. No one was (some say still is) lazier then me. I did not join any afterschool clubs, never bothered to cultivate longterm friendships, always did the minimum at any job I had...there was just no motivation. I'd probably still be delivering pizzas if Emmy hadn't come along. But I did know that working nights while my child was growing up was not in the playbook. Ultimately, my family motivated me to find something more career-oriented for a job. I enjoyed delivering, but I hated telling people what I did for a job. Hated it. Wasn't ashamed of what I did, but the fewer people who knew, the better. My goal then was to get a nice 9-5 job with no weekends and no holidays. Well, it took like seven years, but it finally happened. I did not want to retire with Pharma(don't)care because the benefits were abysmal. But here things are pretty decent. My dad has worked for the same place since 1992. Now he's vice-president. Not sure what's changed since he still works so much overtime. But he has kind of been an example of how I wanted to conduct myself when I found a good place. It was kind of hard for him when we came back from Canada. He had to re-learn his architect skills all over kind of as everyone was using AutoCad. But he did, and he worked some crummy jobs along the way. He drove the school bus...for my high school...my senior year. Pay wasn't anything special but the kids just loved him. One of the kids was a sophomore when I was a senior. Her name was Melanie. Five years later we were a couple. Who knew? My dad always thought we were going to wind up together, which we almost did. But it was not meant to be. She was moving two hours away with her mom and asked me what I wanted to do. She actually sprung this on me after I proposed to her. I knew my life was perfect right here and did not want to disrupt that. And with that, she left in May of 1999. Wow, has it really been nine years? So now I have my life in Arlington with my family and all of my relatives and I could not ask for more.
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