Another Christmas is Almost Here

Yet another Christmas is almost here. It is hard to believe that I have been through 41 of these. I am thankful for what I have been blessed with. I have two wonderful girls, and five step children. I feel so blessed to have found Lisa during such a dark period of my life. She is my best friend. I don't have much else to write today, but I will try to make a point to write again soon.

I need to be more proactive..

In posting to my personal blog. It has been a while. I turned 41 last week. For the first time in my life I am starting to feel old. This is simply because when I was little I used to think how old my dad was when he was 40. Now I am older than what I thought was old. It is weird. I am not embarrased about my age the way some people are, but this birthday was the first time where I felt like I was being reminded that I am just getting old.

I am looking forward to my road trip this weekend to cheer BYU on to victory or UCLA. Whether they win or lose it should be a good game. I am trying to get Lisa to go with me, but her schedule might preclude her from going. I hope she can.

My girls are growing up!

I cannot believe how time rolls on. First of all, it is still hard for me to believe that I am 40 years old. I don't feel 40, and I certainly don't look like people did when I was a kid and they were 40(you believe that don't you?). But what amazes me is how my girls, are both growing up so fast.

Last Thursday, Rachel went through her 8th grade promotion, and will be starting High School at the end of July (yes, in this district, the school year starts at the end of July). My daughter will soon turn 14 and be able to go to Stake Dances. I remember as a youth how huge of a deal this was as Stake dances were the big thing when I was growing up.

I am excited for Rachel, even though these next few years, as she journey's through adolescence, could be very difficult for her and our relationship as she begins to break free of her youth and grows into a woman. I am not too worried. Rachel seems to make the right choices in her life.

But, last week was not only huge milestone for Rachel, but it was also a big one for Jessica as well. Jessica Graduated from Preschool and is no longer going to Ms. Amy's daycare. We had been taking Jessica to Ms. Amy's a month or so after Suzette's passing, and was a true blessing. I could not have asked for a better person to provide such loving quality care for Jessica while I had to leave her for work.

Jessica is so excited to start kindergarten. She wakes up almost every day and asks if she can go to school today. I have to remind her that she does not start for another several weeks.

Both of these events have reminded me of how short life is. I cannot believe that my girls are growing up. I am so grateful to have them both in my life. I cannot imagine how empty my life would be without children. It saddens me when I hear of people who get married and decide to never have kids. It is such a joy to be a parent. Yes, it is stressful, and difficult but what a wonderful life it is to have children. I only hope that I can continue to be a good father.

Using my blackberry.

I have just enabled blogging via my blackberry. I don't know if I ever will use this feature, but I wanted to try it out nonetheless. I love technology!
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Whew!

Last day before Vacation!

I am looking forward to a week away from work. I do not think I will even think about work while home. Gelato and I are going to starting painting the interior of the house. I am not excited about painting, but I am excited about changing the wall color from white to the colors we have chosen. Maybe the house will finally start to look more like a home.

In other news, a Super Target opened near our home. One might wonder why I even mention this. Well, for the past three years the nearest grocery store was about 10 minutes away. Needless to say almost any trip to the store took at least an hour, when you add travel time in with shopping time. Target now three minutes from home. So cool. We keep pinching ourselves and wondering what we will do with all of the extra time.

Also, I just finished my first Cisco networking class. It was much more challenging than I ever thought. Computer networking is such a different world than so many other aspects of computers. I am looking forward to my next class. I really hope that this will take me down a career path that will allow me to make better than adequete money.

Middle Schoolers

Wow! I never thought that teaching middle school students would be so much of a challenge. I took a job teaching middle school Language Arts across town (long commute), for a couple of reasons, one of which was the opportunity to teach lower income kids, in hope that the intrinsic rewards would be a little greater than teaching kids who suffer from suburban angst.

Boy was I wrong. It is sad to see so much money being wasted on kids who do not want to learn. These kids and their parents put so little effort into their education that it makes my job as a teacher that much harder. Yes, I made the conscious decision to go back to teaching, but my experiences this year, coupled with the low pay (not surprising) and horrible employee benefits(extremely surprising), I have decided to leave education once again.

I am taking steps to move away from education and into IT (Cisco Networks). I think it will be a good move for me and my family. So long education, it was bad while it lasted.

Welcome

Welcome to my personal blog. I have decided to create a blog that will chronicle my happenings. its intention is to be a kind of journal. I have another blog that has more of my political views. I am sure at times that the two might overlap and the reader might see some of my political views here as well.

Within this blog one will find from time to time more spiritual things. I am proud of my faith and spirituality. My faith is a integral part of my life and thus my weblog journal would not be complete without it. If these things are offensive to you, then you might not want to read this blog.

Quite frequently I will add photos that I have taken. Digital photography is one of my hobbies, and until I have the time to dedicate to a photo blog, I will use this one to post some of my favorite images that I take.

Finally a word about criticism. This is my personal journey. If you feel like you must criticize what I blog about, go to my other blog which is listed in my links. If, however, you find something that I write about that intrigues you, feel free to comment or drop me a line.

Sincerely Deckard