Ted on Watch D.O.G.S duty

This program is spreading like wild-fire in north Texas. I don't know if other states are getting involved, but all campuses in our district participate in this.

Watch D.O.G.S.

D = Dads

O = Of

G = Great

S = Students

Ted, along with many other dads, take 1 or more days off work per year and spend it at the kids' schools, greeting students in the morning, helping out at P.E., recess, lunch, math, writing, library...anywhere that the teachers or administration need them; primary with the students.

Ted loved it and has done a couple of half days so far this year. The big event the Watch DOGS plan and staff is Breakfast with Santa in December. The kids love it and so does the community. Ho Ho HO!

Ted's "Ladies" and the 20 yr reunion

Ted has 2 "Ladies" as you can see in this photo...

fab photo by Sweet Lime Photography

http://www.natashaerinphotography.com/

So, to preface the next photo, Ted went to his 20 year reunion in Salt Lake City last weekend. He came home with a Memory Book and I could NOT believe how many mullets were still being worn in 1989!!!!! (Not at East High School, mind you, where I went; we had about a 3% ratio of mullets to non-mullets and those mullets were only sported by the guys who hung out at 7-11 smoking; that was in 1986; but the Cottonwood Colts were wild about mullets, apparently!)

Ted does still love to joke about mullets and has a couple of mullet-wigs that come out for special occasions. ha! Nick learned about mullets when he was 5 years old and used to tease this buddy, Ryan Olson (of NH and now TX), about his "mullet" (which is a fake in this photo)--he is not a mullet-man, either.

Ted commented in the Memory Book, under the question (oh, what was it? something to the effect of what you miss or remember about CHS???), anyway, Ted said he was glad he never had a mullet...and now I know that he really stood out like a sore thumb with his annual summer buzz, coming into Fall and school starting. Wow! Currently, Ted wears his thick mane like this. If you haven't seen it up close, it doesn't move in the wind. He says that if he grew it out, it wouldn't go down his back (like a mullet), it would grow straight out, plus it's a bit wavy, so he'd be groovin' with the 1970s afro-look! All summer (and ALL spring) Ted joked about getting on Facebook to "check out my ladies" (said with 'cool-dude' intonation) and that he was jogging so much to get in shape for the reunion with his "ladies"...we just cracked up, me and the kids, both. But I did get this set up in the backyard and threathened to not let him go if he insisted on bringing up the "ladies". Just kidding!!!! Ted is rather introverted (except around family) and since I practically had to propose 13 years ago, I wasn't worried in the least about his former "ladies"... hee hee So, quickly, I will mention one of the highlights of Ted's 20 year high school reunion (Cottonwood HS in the Salt Lake City area). He said that on the first (of the 2 nights), the night that spouses did not come, a lady friend came up to him and told him, "All the ladies were talking about who we had crushes on during high school, and you got the most votes." Woo-eee! Way to go, honey! I wish I could have gone the next night with all the spouses to show those ladies which LADY got him! And he's not getting away...refer to photo above.

Ted's power nap

Although this photo was taken in a high school auditorium lobby (yes, indeed), Ted takes naps like this on the floor at home (sometime face-down) and zonks right out for about 10-15 minutes and wakes up feeling TOTALLY refreshed! How jealous am I?! Here we were waiting for some time to see the play Maddie was in (entry about 2 weeks ago), I Never Saw Another Butterfly.

Ted's patented mask for men

When I read at night past Ted's bedtime (which is every night), he puts this black shirt over his eyes and zonks right out. He calls it "The Mansk" which is incredibly hilarious and apropos considering it is the era of the "Man-room" and "Manopause" etc. He just needs a design team and some gusto to patent this thing...

Ted's New Blog...

What? Dad's got a new blog?!

aghhhhhhhhhhhh!

With the announcement of Ted's new blog, I would like to give a special tribute (Late Father's Day Glory) to his talents, personality, spirit, and wit with these photos and captions.

These are some of the many reasons we love and appreciate our dad and husband:

Ted LOVES to swim with the kids. Shark time! He has a blast at water slide parks and the local pools. He created the "water baseball" games in our backyard with small, plastic or blow-up pools using soft water balls and bats. The kids (and neighborhood kids) totally enjoy it!

He loves to take the kids to sporting events: hockey (in NH), basketball, baseball, and football (in TX), especially BYU or TCU games. He even likes to go to the local city and school games. The kids love it. I love not having to go; I never went as a kid and I just get too bored. There's about 20 things I'd rather do than watch a sporting event. Unless it's BYU playing. :)

NICK insisted on taking this photo of Ted doing his favorite thing to unwind; due to his love and obsession with reading newspapers (yes, he skims/reads the UT newspapers online) as well as the Wall Street Journal which his job gets for him, he is VERY up-to-date on what is happening, what has happened, and what might happen. Trivia from 10 years ago is still lodged in his cavernous brain; people, places, and events from before his birth are there, too; if he's read it anywhere, anytime, it's in there and he can still pick it out, though, when I complimented him on this amazing talent, in front of recent company, he said, "Yea, I can remember all the things that no one cares about." But we could win a million dollars on some game show--if he would just sign up!
He is a hard worker in the snow (that is a Texas photo and not a New England photo by the way), mowing the grass, taking out the trash and making sure the cars and lubed and oiled right on time. Plus he cooks the Sunday morning pancakes and the kids prefer his to mine!

Need to mention this photo-allusion to Nacho Libre when he is in baby blue pant-suit outfit...

He loves to play, wrestle ("tackle time"), tickle, and tease the kids. He loves to have movie nights with them on Fridays and he loves to take them to get donuts or pancakes on Saturday mornings, which he has done since they were tiny. I have LOVED the Saturday morning sleep-ins!! Thanks, mi amor!

Ted loves to take the kids to the beach, the lake, the mountains; to explore, hike, and find things. He will still carry Nick on his shoulders. Nothing does a wife love more than to see her husband loving their kids. Truism or what?

Ted loves to coach or assistant coach the kids' sports' teams. He has been one the baseball coaches for 3 years now for Nick and was also Maddie's basketball asst. coach this year.

Both of these represent Ted's love of being crazy and dressing up with the kids.

ELVIS: Fan of the Fans

"the fan of the fans of Elvis"

When we were in Chile last year, I was trying to explain to some excellent new friends that we met that Ted is not an Elvis lover or Elvis fan, yet he collects Elvis paraphenalia, he dresses up as Elvis for most Halloweens, and he reads books about the fans of Elvis; I finally came up with this phrase in Spanish, which is similar enough to the English that I think you'll catch the drift: "Ted es un fanatico de los fanaticos de Elvis" = Ted is a fanatic of the Fanatics of Elvis.

Viola!

Once in awhile he can be dramatic (for the kids sake I'm sure), like when we opened these super soft socks for his birthday last December and he made this funny face and cried, "Ahhhhhhhhh!"

Yes, he can dance (but not like on the TV show...I wish!) and more importantly, is WILLING to dance with me (here, in Chile, to my favorite type of music) and even at church dances for the 'grown-ups' which we have yearly. This is my favorite thing to go do and he is even willing to go for some lessons to improve our grooves. ¡Que hombre! (what a man!)

His blog can be found at:
http://www.tedsessentialist.blogspot.com/

This is where you can really see what's going on in that amazing mind that is constantly full of facts, trivia, songs, puns, news, editorials, etc. The titles he came up with for his blog are a riot! You can vote on them when you go to his blog. I love his wit and wisdom, which he uses to either make me laugh, or conversely, to make me get real and scratch off some of the too many things to do on my list or on my calendar. Both are a blessing!
Be on the lookout for future postings of the (in)famous musical re-writes of some classic Sinatra tunes that reflected some of what trials were going on in our lives (as a way to imbue some humor into the situation)
Maddie & mom's Lice: "That's Lice" (from "That's Life"--Sinatra)
Ted's Tic: "I Get a Tick Out of You" ("I Get a Kick Out of You" --Sinatra)
Spiders (all over the house): "Spiders In the Night" ("Strangers In The Night" --Sinatra)

And he came up with all the word changes and rhymes in about 20 minutes, maybe less. He definitely has the linguistic knack for pulling pop culture, current events, songs, and movie lines into one setting or one conversation. It's crazy. and fun. and we love you, man!

Holiday Beatdown, as told by Ted

On Dec. 8th we took a "Holiday Lights" city bus tour; the lights were standard and nothing too joyful or triumphant. The bus driver got lost while returning us to point of origin and most of the long time on the bus was a tour of Fort Worth's finest industrial areas. Holiday transit woes continued on 12/26 when a certain airline decided we did not meet the check-in cut-off time which then mandated a late flight putting us in Salt Lake at 2:30 a.m. on 12/28. Sticking it to the man did not work so we could not fly home from Las Vegas after a great three days in St. George, so we had to rent a car to return to SLC and all that was left was a 15 passenger van. Not really that fun driving in heavy winds! We were not surprised when one piece of luggage was delayed and delivered to us 30 hours after our arrival back in Texas. So now for the positives: a few "Christmas Jars" miracles, sleeping in and staying in PJs until 14:00, using those gift cards, seeing our wonderful families in Utah, and watching Robyn wail on the Wii - she is my guitar hero! Photos to follow.