Big First Day

What a day! Jack was up at 6:00 AM dressed and ready to go for his first day of kindergarten. "At least now I won't be late!" he exclaimed as he came up stairs. The picture of him on the stairs was taken just after that, thus the bleary eyes.

Aidan knew something was up. He's been sleeping very lightly lately. He needs reassurance. It's almost like he's afraid he will wake up and we'll be gone. This was his first day at Sandra's without Jack, an important step for him.

We had a little scare this morning. The middle/high school bus came through just as we were coming outside to take pictures. Rookies that we are, I picked up Aidan and told Jack to run. After hitting the neighbor's yard we realized that those were some big kids getting picked up.

When we finally got to the bus stop (Jodi was doing her hair), it was obvious that the parents were much more nervous than the kids. All of their parents to see them off made it seem like a holiday. Watch the video closely and you will see Jack holding neighbor friend Mikayla's hand. Until, that is, she proves too slow and he takes off without her.

It was amazing. Jack was grinning ear-to-ear. He never looked back until he was on the bus next to the window with two girls. Then we saw one huge smile. Amazing!

Ogre Aidan

Don't be alarmed. Aidan's head wasn't forced through a small tube. We're just clowning around on the deck with Photo Booth. He's been entertaining himself with cars this afternoon while I've been entertained watching him.

He took a short nap and woke up demanding the granola bar and Gatorade he had been promised before nap. Jack had pond hockey in Chaska for the last time and brought a Gatorade and granola bar with him. Aidan saw that and demanded as much.

Last night (Anniversary Night- Part 10), Jodi and I went to Jack's after school daycare open house. We were very impressed. He should have a blast and we can feel reassured knowing he's in good hands.

Anniversary Advice

On the eve of our 10th wedding anniversary, I've learned that's it's best to plan ahead. I could have had a dozen flowers delivered for $20 tomorrow if I hadn't waited until 5:00 PM tonight to go online.

Anyway, it will work out. We've got lunch planned at a place on the lake and I've got a couple of little gifts she should like. We would go out for dinner, but Jack's after school care has an informational night tomorrow evening.

Aidan went shopping with Jodi to get me something today for the anniversary. He seems to think it's my birthday tomorrow.

It's amazing what's happened in the last ten years. We both graduated college, got jobs, earned master's degrees, bought a house-sold it-and bought another, had two boys, expecting another, and many more lessons and experiences. It's been amazing. I can't wait to see what great things the next ten years hold.

For Only 23¢ A Day This Boy Can Have Arms

Jodi has often accused me of being "all Mr. Nice and sweet" in front of everyone only to turn into an ogre when it's just us. Maybe. But if that is true I blame my mom.

She is well known among my brothers for this. She would be frothing-at-the-mouth angry at us boys for fighting or breaking something or breaking something while fighting only to have the phone ring and answer in her sweetest, most compasionate voice, "Hello."

The boy you see above also fits this description. He may appear to have no hands, but they are there. And most likely they're holding something of yours you don't know is missing yet. At today's reunion the young master was at work.

Aidan climbed up the deck steps arms behind his back, blond hair bobbing among Jodi's gathered family. He tilted his head. He smiled. He climbed on Nana's lap. He told them "I want to go home with you." Collective "ahhs" were heard and "what a sweetie."

He has them all fooled. After they left Jekyll became Hyde. As I tried to vacuum the floor he repeatedly unplugged the vacuum cleaner.

"Aidan." I called out as I lost power. Power resumes and fails. "Aidan!" Power back and ... gone. "Aidan!!"

He also insisted on eating a granola bar as he toured the carpet I just vaccumed. Some nights bedtime doesn't come soon enough. Although he does look pretty cute sleeping.

Rainy Day

The first rainy day of the summer seems like a good time for a new posting. As the rain soaks the grass, the kids are playing downstairs. Having an older cousin stay with the boys has kept them busy. Since Thursday night we've visited the community center twice, had ice cream, went to Caribou after hockey practice, ate at McDonald's, stopped by Jodi's school, and rented two movies.

Today is the calm before the Reunion Storm. Tomorrow Jodi's side of the family will gather at our house. She's been busy baking and cleaning obsessively. I pity the first person that smudges the counter. It will be a nice time. After a refreshing rain it is supposed to be sunny with light wind and temps in the low 80s.

The bridge coverage continues. Most interesting to me is the Governor's openness to a gas tax hike after vetoing the idea a couple of months ago. Either he is feeling the political pressure to do something or he is just now understanding the amount of work that has to be done around the state.

I saw a small item from the Wall Street Journal about privatizing roads and bridges. Steve Malanga is the columnist that writes for that idea. I couldn't get access to the WSJs website to read the entire article but it seems a mistake to me to put corporations in charge of our road system- almost as big a mistake as not funding our roads sufficiently.

Must Keep Shoveling

We've shoveled the driveway three times today and it could be done again. The snow just keeps on coming. There is so much snow that our driveway resembles the continental United States- Appalachians on the east side, Great Plains in the center, and the Rockies on the west. The pile that Jack is on started last weekend when I shoveled all of it to that end so it wouldn't blow back during the night. It's about as tall as I am.



School was let out early in both of our disticts today. I was told about 10:00 this morning that we'd be let out at 1:50 (about 90 minutes early) and that I needed to start calling families now. At that point, learning was over. The kids did busy work (can't teach and talk on the phone) and I dialed away.



It has been fun though. We all made it home safe and have no where urgent to go. We did have a scare with the furnace. It started blowing out cool air around 6:30 tonight. I tried restarting it and turning up the thermostat. It sounded like it was taking in gas and blowing, but not igniting. I checked outside and the vents were drifted over with snow. After those were cleared I flipped the breaker on and off and crossed my fingers. It worked. I had visions off a frozen house with burst pipes or the house going up in a natural gas vapor cloud.



With the furnace running, we all went back outside to shovel again. Aidan loves to help and Jack loves to climb an jump. Jack got a snowmobile ride from Neighbor Steve. I'm going to try to post that on Google video when I have a faster connection and put in a link to it. He like it a lot and didn't want to get off. Aidan was concerned for his safety and kept backing away from the snowmobile yelling "Get off Jack, Come Jack."



The news said Chaska had over 13 inches by 5:00 tonight. We must be at least that by now. It just doesn't quit. The weather people say we're about half-way done with this. It will be fun for the boys to play in tomorrow since both of our schools are closed. We've never had this much snow at this house.

Sometimes You Feel Like a Nutt ... Sometimes You Don't

Dad's cousin Mike Markuson might be changing jobs after all. With Bill Parcells retiring. Jerry Jones might consider hiring Houson Nutt to coach the Cowboys. Jones is an Arkansas alum whose love for Arkansas runs so deep he once brought in Clint Stoerner to play QB for the Cowboys.

So I see 5 scenarios for Mike (listed from most likely to least).
1. Nothing changes. Nutt stays at Arkansas.
2. Nutt gets hired, brings Mike with to Dallas.
3. Nutt gets hired, Mike stays with Arkansas (possibly to a loftier title)
4. Nutt gets hired, is not brought with to Dallas, Arkansas hired a new coach who brings in his own staff (yuck-thanks Parcells for waiting 16 days)
5. The NCAA adopts Jay Weiner's proposals from the Jan. 13th Star Tribune and football is abolished at the collegiate level.



According to a man from the UK, yesterday was the most depressing day of the year. Apparently winter weather, Christmas debt, failing New Year's resoultions, fading holiday memories, and lack of motivation don't contribute to a chipper disposition.

The guy devised a formula with the different variable expressed an in equation(expression?). I do see an error though. He did not take into account the Sick Kid Quotient or the Bunny-Induced Shrub Destruction Index. Pretty shoddy.

At the O'Brien house things are status quo. Jack is still sick (although much better) today. I knew he was still sick because of two events: 1) He woke up coughing at 2:30 this morning and needed to be nebulized. 2) When we woke up this morning at 6:00 on the couch downstairs he said "Dad, I love you. You're my favorite person in the world." So obviously ill.

So another day home. The boys played really well together and were able to constuct the toy moziac on the card table that you see in the picture. It looks like he's at a flea market.

Also, Jodi and I both received the results of our wellness screening. It consisted of a survey and a blood test. According to the survey results her cholestrol is 11 points lower than mine. When she read that the first thing she did was scream for joy then she said, 'I've got to call my mom."

She's very healthy but her lack of vegetables per day, glasses of water per day, body weight, and other habits dropped her down on the survey report to below the national average in health for someone her age. However, the blood results put her at the highest level of health on the scale in that report.

The moral
1. She didn't cheat on the survey like the majority of women did.
2. Blood tests don't lie.