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Madison's First Birthday is here!!!

Today is my brown eyed girl's first birthday! She is growing up to be a little ball of fire and she has so much spunk! She spent her afternoon practicing her walking skills and playing with her mommy's Mother's Day balloon - she gets a kick out of watching it go up and down. She was also having a ball going after her big brother, Joey, and petting him. She is fearless! All of us love her big hugs - she stretches out her arms and grabs you around the neck and shoulders. Sometimes you'll even get a nice reassuring pat on the back to go along with it, which is a plus. It's so much fun watching her grow up - we have so many wonderful years ahead of us. It feels like it was just yesterday that we were changing her diapers, giving her her late night bottles, and giving her a bath in the tub - wait a minute it was yesterday.

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY MADISON!!!

MOMMY AND DADDY LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!

Deep Thoughts

I was driving home from work the other day and a light drizzle began to fall. Suddenly, a large number of drivers began to slow down drastically and seemed to forget the fundamentals of driving. I asked myself, is this rain, or is this stupid juice falling from the heavens?

An Occasional Rambling Rant

What I wouldn't give to go home right now ...

Have you ever been so bored that your head hurts? So bored that you are dreading the remaining minutes, let alone hours, of your workday? Well today was one of those days for me – I sat there, staring at my computer monitor, dumbfounded at the fact that I was working instead of spending this wonderfully beautiful day living life rather than letting it waste away.

Unfortunately I could not just stand up and leave – that would be unethical and irresponsible. I mean, I do have a family to support, responsibilities to my employer, and a certain strange sense of responsibility to our, yes our, clients. I realized that I had to be productive somehow you see, so I instead sat there and pondered what has become of our society and how it relates to myself at this very moment. I asked myself one simple question that has been haunting my mind ever since I graduated high school and began my chosen path – “What have we done to ourselves as a working culture striving for something better than what our parents had?” I analyzed what has become of our working society and I began to realize that we haven’t been making ourselves better as a whole. On the contrary, we spend less time at home now than we ever have, we strive for things that we shouldn’t own, and we shelter ourselves from the lives we should be touching by staying home, watching TV, and surfing the web. We spend less time talking to each other and more time decompressing from the stresses of work.

I’ve realized that our private lives have been negatively affected by the advent of “time saving” tools that we have developed over the years that were meant to pry our time from the iron grip of our places of work. Computers, cell phones, Blackberrys, e-mail, etc. have all become bastions of our working environment. We once thought that these tools would allow us to be more productive, in less time, and with less effort. We thought that this, in turn, would allow us to free up that much needed extra private time that our families needed. But, as many of you may know, these tools have become our curse – they hover over us like one of those grey clouds we see in cartoons. There is no escaping them. No matter where you go they are right there over us. Have you ever found yourself at home, wondering if you received that email you were waiting for from that all important client? Or maybe you’ve received a call from your boss on the weekend asking you where you put that file, or even to see if you can make it in to help out a bit – on your own time of course. This goes beyond an invasion of privacy, this reeks of invasion of the home and of the family. We, as a whole, are now expected to produce more, in less time, with less money, and still work our 40+ hour work weeks.

Not so long ago where the days when communication with our clients involved the proverbial “snail-mail” and responses took days, sometimes weeks, to reach their intended parties. In today’s world, if a response to an email or phone call doesn’t reach a client or boss in mere hours, they are often upset and sometimes insulted at the very fact that our response wasn’t post-haste. At what point in the corporate timeline did we lose our patience? At what point did we stop respecting each other as husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters? We all need to take a step back and realize what we are doing to ourselves as a whole. We need to realize that it may not only be what we have done NOW that is important, but what we leave for the future that is of the utmost importance – and that is our children. Take the time to carry them, to be with them, to enjoy their lives as well as sharing yours with them. Don’t be afraid to miss a day of work – tomorrow is another day and if you don’t make it to tomorrow, then you didn’t waste the day, you only made it better.

I guess it’s back to the grid iron for me – I feel like a nap coming on.

National Audubon Society presents ...

Ever thought you could juke a grizzly bear ... we did! Forget the "Grizzly Man", we are the "Grizzly Men!"

Picture Perfect

Just when you think that you've captured the moment ... this happens.

Deep Thoughts

If a squirrel farts in the forest, and there is no one there to smell it, does it smell like fart or does it smell like squirrel?

Madison and Elysse

Best friends already!

Madi's first beer

Guess who was the first one to teach little Madi about the wonders of beer drinking. (disclaimer - neither the beer nor the glass actually touched the baby's lips) 

My father-in-law

Can't keep his hands off of her - she has him wrapped around her finger. 

Great-grandma

This is Madi and her great-grandma ... she was so happy to see her little Cecitas daughter finally here. It saddens me deeply to say that we lost her a few months later to cancer. We loved her very much. 

My brother and sister-in-laws

I hope they don't spoil her too much ... 

My mother-in-law

She is crazy about her little granddaughter. 

My sister-in-law

Guess who is going to teach her about Gucci, Fendi, and Prada - using daddy's credit cards. Bankruptcy here I come. 

My mom

This is my mom - she is infatuated with my daughter. This is the little girl she never had (not counting my brother of course - whaaaa hee hee hee). 

My dad

My dad ... if i were the one pulling his ear, he would get pissed, but she pulls his ear and he laughs.

My brother

This is my brother ... is he in love with his niece or what - but then again, can you blame him - just look at that face.

The wife and I

Here is a picture of my wife and I - isn't she hot!

My wife and daughter

This is a picture of my second born ... and my beautiful wife.

My son

This is my first born, Joey... this picture was taken in March 2004. He is a little on the hairy side - came out like his dad.