Meghan Wins the School Geo Bowl

Meghan won the 5th grade Geo bowl for her school. This may not be a surprise for most with Alan a history/social studies major and me a political science major. Now this means that we are currently involved in a deep study of the 5th grade social studies book because in Dec she will compete against 66 other 5th graders in the county. Meghan's school is usually done in by the Florida history questions so that is a focal point of our study at this point. Meghan is determined to be the best showing that her school has had at the county level. Wish her luck!!!

Pride In My Daughter

As a parent often times you agonize over whether your child is developing into the type of person that you dreamed of during those infant and toddler years. As your child begins to be exposed to experiences and values outside your home you question whether you have done enough to send the messages that instill in them the values that you hope that will take into the world from home. I believe that I can find comfort in the fact that Meghan appears to be moving in that direction.

A couple of weeks ago, Meghan was invited to attend a family celebration for the birthday for one of her best friends younger brothers. Even though Meghan was not able to attend the family celebration, she still wanted to take a gift to the brother. The pride I felt at the time she said that is hard to put into words. She was thinking of people other than herself and that really makes me proud. We have tried to instill in her that gifts are something that you give because you want to not because you want to or expect something in return. I think this was a sign that she is hearing our messages even when we are not sure.

We take tremendous pride Meghan's accomplishments, and we hope that she does not become one of those kids that lords her opportunities and accomplishments over others. So far she appears to be maintaining the appearance of following this trend.

Return to School

Well it is the end of summer here as we returned to school on the 10th. Meghan is now in 5th grade!! Wow... why can they not stay small forever. So far, Meghan is very pleased with her teacher. She has big plans for the year. She will be in the strings program at school and made it into the BSYO Strings Ensemble. Alan and I will be the manager for this group this year. Saves a little of the cost but increases our time spent. Meghan also will have dance classes on Tuesday and Friday nights. She is not sure if she will keep all 5 classes in which she has enrolled.

We spent a great summer traveling and being with family that we have not seen in a number of years. I will try to post pictures soon. I have been trying to post a video of Meghan playing the violin at the church my inl aws attend.; however, I am having issues getting it uploaded here and on facebook. Probably operator error or impatience.

Florida Sunsets II

Just love the sunsets around here. The ones at the bottom are taken over the river.

Happy 4th of July!!!

Those of you that read and enjoyed last years post abut watching the fireworks will be disappointed that I do not have similar post this year. We began our day planning our evening of sitting and waiting for the fireworks. About 3 hours before the scheduled start time for the fireworks, we had one of "scattered" Florida thunderstorms. Living in Florida in the summer thunderstorms are a DAILY occurrence so you take preventive measures like roll your car windows up, cover things that you do not want to get wet. Come on its Florida and that is what you should do - afternoon thunderstorms are not a surprise. Apparently the people in charge of our fireworks are "FLORIDIOTS" because along came our afternoon thunderstorm and they failed to cover up the fireworks. So we came home with our Arby's roast beefs and watched the fireworks in Washington DC on TV. Hope your towns were better at handling their fireworks than our towns was.

HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!!

Accomplishment or Just Archaic and Pathetic

Today marked what I once viewed as a milestone...an accomplishment if you will. Now I am not so sure. Today I reached the milestone of having worked for my company for 20 years. Yes that's right 20 years and that equals more than 1/2 my life that I have given to my employer. As I contemplate all that means, I am not sure what I think or even how I feel about this "accomplishment". Perhaps I am a little bit of a throwback to an era that has come and gone.

I feel a degree of pride... how many people my age can say they have been with their employer for two decades. I grew up with the stories of my grandfather having worked for his company for decades. I was always impressed by the loyalty that he had for his company. The loyalty trickled into all our lives. To this day, many of my shopping expeditions revolve around the company to which he dedicated his life. (my wedding gown and all my bridesmaids wore dresses from that company) Not unlike grandfather, I have a feeling of loyalty toward my company; however, I sometimes question whether my loyalty is misplaced. I think companies in general today view their employees as less than an investment and more as a replaceable commodity. The hierarchy in my company is always telling us to hire quality people; and I believe the issues for that lie with the expectations that everyone that comes through your front door will perform at the level of a seasoned employee within moments of starting the job. The true reality is that quality employees are created through development, training and coaching(ie. the investment).

My company does make a small effort to recognize our service and about a month ago they mailed my 20 year pin to the store. Well the pin was suppose to have diamond look chip in the upper left corner. That's right folks, my pin arrived with the little diamond looking chip missing and an obvious hole where the chip was supposed to be. Now I found that amusing but someone did call about the pin being defective (no not me - I was not that concerned). A new one is being mailed out and we can just "toss the defective one" in the trash while the person telling us that acted put out that we would even ask about such a thing. I think that probably sums up the corporate attitude about someone giving the company 20 years.

Pictures from the Dance Recital

Well I finally managed to get through the photos from Meghan's dance recital. There are 134 photos on my Facebook page for those that are interested. However, this is probably my favorite picture that we took between the dress rehearsal and the recital. Mamoo and Papoo made it to be here with us for the recital. Meghan has another BSYO performance tomorrow and they will be here to enjoy it.