Emu Email Episode XLVII: Lessons Learned from a "Summer Off"

All,

In just a few days, I will come into contact with over 300 students in my room. I usually only teach about 120, but apparently when you work on your Master's, they trust you with more. My numbers are actually inflated due to the fact that I will be teaching about 225 Middle School kids that come into my class every three days. It will be an interesting year; a wild year; a stressful year; a year of learning by both students and me; and a fulfilling year as it will be finally a career change and a chance to put my 3 years of Master's education to work. But before all the learning starts, I wanted to reflect back on 10 lessons that I learned this summer with my kids by my side every step of the way....

1. "Find a way to smile everyday" And as Mom would say, smile at someone who needs it. I think Jimmy Valvano said to laugh everyday, either way, do one of these. And yes, this email will also be a recap and use weblinks, so here is your first one: Valvano's ESPY speech...a great watch! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePXlkqkFH6s

2. "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff". Okay, I stole this one, but its a good one. Our Supt. talked about this on our first staff day saying that when he talked with President Clinton, the President told him about his 1 Billion Year old Moon Rock that sat on his desk in the oval office. When leaders would argue, he would remind them that we are "all just passing through" and this rock was here long before and will be here long after and we should just settle the argument because it was petty in the grand scheme of time and other things. So...remember...don't sweat it!

3. "You don't have to win to see the positive" This doesn't mean just sports, but as a Celtics and Royals fan, I saw positives in each this past season. Sure the Celtics won it all and that's great, but my Royals are in last and gave up 10 Runs in the first inning to the Yanks today. But, they have improved from last year and even during this year. So did the Celtics, alot! Shawn Johnson has 3 silver medals....and she smiles even more! I will find positives in my students this year, even my worst ones.

4. "Never give up and don't listen to those that are against your dream". Jack tells me every week that he will be a doctor someday and he will fix people. I hope he follows his "dream". However, if his dream is to be an artist and sell his paintings on the street, I will support that dream too. I always encourage my students to follow their dream regardless of what others think. Again, as a Royals fan, I have enjoyed the story of 26-year old rookie Mike Aviles. Read his interview and count how many times people went against him or almost convinced him he couldn't play in the majors. And yet, he has a chance to win the Rookie of the Year Award or the Batting title....or both! http://royalsblog.kansascity.com/?q=taxonomy/term/1

5. "Remember how good we all have it sometimes". As a counselor, I had my first meeting where we discussed the incoming students and what 'issues' they may have. This was not the typical asthma, diabetes, ADHD talk we get from the nurse. I know I am going to deal with 6th graders who have been abused, who have witnessed attempted suicides by family members, who are into drugs and alcohol, and some who simply hate all others. Sure, I have always dealt with these type of students before, but I never consciously knew what they are going through. I am so much more thankful for my life and the life of my family and I feel so much sadness for the problems of these young people. But knowing these problems, hopefully I can help the students even more.

6. "But, sometimes those who appear to have less, might have more." Our opening speaker reminded us of how quickly many countries have caught up and passed the U.S. in their educational process. Our argument is always "Yeah, but we have food or democracy or freedom or something better". So? Why not have better education too? India and China have a rivalry and it is not with us, its with each other. Each country has over 1 Billion residents and they graduate more people from college each year than the U.S. even has ENROLLED IN COLLEGE! But, they ask more of their students. Don't believe me? Try this website, but make sure to read the background first. The movie is huge in education and the tests are fun...but scary!http://www.2mminutes.com/third-world-challenge.html

7. "Given certain circumstances, the World can pull together to fight true evil". I am not talking terrorism or the evil axis, I am talking worse problems: hunger, poverty....global warming??? Yes, global warming and the earth's slow destruction is a problem, but China resorted to drastic measures to clean up their air before the Olympics. And it took $3 and $4 gas, but the U.S. is fully engrossed in the the Green Revolution. Jack noticed today that the lights in the freezers at Walmart turned on as you walked by. It's little things like this that make a difference and we can all do little things to make a difference. If we do, the world will see a big difference. By the way, I "googled" 'Green' and look what I got. I think this says that the environment is the focus of the world now. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Green%22

8. "Life is always changing, never take anything for granted". I say this after a scary 30-60 seconds today of losing Jack in Walmart. I told him to step forward as I checked out and moments later he was gone and when I noticed, my adrenaline went through the roof. About a million thoughts went through my head and I was never so happy to see a Walmart worker holding Jack's hand walking towards me. He said he "only cried a bit", and yes I nearly "cried a bit too.". And yes, that is about the only time in my life that I will be happy to see Jack holding the hand of a Walmart worker, but it was a good sight. Now I know how Mom felt when I wandered off in the Chicago Zoo. But at least I got to ride in a cool zoo car then!

9. "Disasters bring out the best in people". Whether it be the big disasters that hit Iowa: Floods, Parkersburg tornado, or the Little Sioux Scout Ranch tornado; or the small disasters: our basement almost flooding about 4 times, the good stories are easy to find. Countless amazing fundraisers have been held for all the Iowa victims and the towns are all vowing to rebuild bigger and better. And the individual stories of survival are truly inspiring. And Reagan and I keep thinking back to the 42 minutes of bailing water to save our basement on the Sunday morning of our first open house and how it took the two of us working to perfection or else our basement would have been underwater. We had our stressful days and nights, but we had so many laughs along the way. I think it was actually kind of fun working as a team to "fight the evil water". Amazing survival stories from Parkersburg:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080527/NEWS/805270370/-1/mischeds&theme=DEADLY_IOWA_TORNADO

10. "Pray" After a weekend that saw both candidates appear together for the first time since the election process began, I think of how prayer can be important. See, the candidates met with Rick Warren, a pastor of a "super church" and best-selling author. He did what no one else has been able to do: basically hold a debate without negatives, mudslinging, or focus on the War and the Economy. He simply interviewed each candidate and got inside their head and soul and what they thought about Spirituality and what guides them to make decisions. We used prayer almost nightly to attempt to help those affected by storms, to keep our basement dry, to keep our kids safe, to end Wars in the world, and to sell our house. Quite a random list and many of those prayers have yet to be fulfilled (including our house selling), but we are confident that the best plan is happening for us. Although we would love to be in a new house by now, at least our current house isdry. Prayer is important and helps me to keep my life in balance. I know I will rely on it constantly over my next 5 months of stress with my teaching, my learning, and my client caseload that I have to carry for my class. (cnn article about Warren event)http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/17/forum/index.html

Wow...what a summer and what a chance to finally write regularly. I am sure I wrote more regularly than all of you read, but I hope something I wrote this summer hit you, either in a funny way or in a thoughtful way. I wish you the best this fall and winter and hopefully you will hear from me again. Take care...

Love&Prayers,

Ben

Emu Email Episode XLVI: State Fair....Iowa Style

All,
I am taking a break from school work as I started school today. Before the administrators get worked up that I am wasting contract time, I am not on contract, at least not with the school. This is my own personal contract to get myself into school shape. That means waking at 6:00 and getting to school by 6:45 and working until 4:00 just like a regular day. Also, a good chance to get work done without the kids. However, with teachers coming in and out and my new room right by the door to the teacher's lot, they are almost just as distracting. I am sure my Adult ADHD doesn't help much either. Regardless, I officially start Thursday and the students next Wednesday. This means next Monday's Emu will be my last for a little while. I might do little quick ones here and there (yes...it is possible for me to write short emails/blogs), but it will be pretty sporadic. Before I got back to work, I did attend Day 1 of the Iowa State Fair with our family on special "free admission before 8:30 Day". My observations....

*I have found a new way to play Bingo at the State Fair, and no its not Cow Chip Bingo! Next year, I am making Bingo cards that don't have numbers, but have things you can observe. It will have spaces that can be used at any State Fair: person eating corn dog, cow pooping, tractor for sale, etc. But I would like to put some special Iowa State Fair observations on there too: "Mullet-Dad with 3 kids all with mohawks", parents using child-leash (seriously...how are those things legal??!), butt crack from adult, butt-crack covered by thong from 13-year old or less (actually....I could see this everday at our middle school!), person with less than 16 teeth (actually would be the free space on most cards). Everyone would get a ketchup packet and put a drop on each space that they can successfully point out without getting noticed doing so. If you get noticed, you are disqualified and likely beaten up as the people displaying the above observed features are usually likely to attack....yes even the 13-year old girl and the mowawk kids...sometimes they are the worst! Either way, its another fun thing to do each year at the Fair!

*Fair Food: As long as I have my pork chop on a stick, I am fine. However, it was so crowded this year on Day One (stupid free admission!), that the line was too long to get one of these. I settled for a corndog. We also decided try one of the Fair's famous inventions: Sugary unhealthy food deep-fried in heart-attack inducing oil. Yes...we did the "Fried Oreos". Tough decision as we could have had the Fried Snickers, Fried Twinkie, or Fried heart of man in front of us that just died (it was too expensive). And sadly, the Fried Oreos were pretty good. Nearby police thought I was committing sucide when I was chugging pills from my pill bottle, but when I showed them it was Lipitor, they let me go. Then word got out and next thing I know I was crushing the pills and selling the Lipitor dust as a condiment at my own stand for $50 a pill.

*Birth of live animals: If you do visit the Fair, make your way to the Air-conditioned building in the NE corner. This is the baby animal experience, a great hands-on experience for kids and adults. If you time it just right, you could see a baby calf be born with a veterinarian's help, or possible baby pigs, baby goats, or baby chickens being born as well. The baby chickens actually just hatch and are pretty easy to time since they have a zillion eggs hatching all day, but it is amazing to watch any of these events. A little disappointed that the vets didn't pull the calf out with a log chain like my Grandpa did, but now makes the birth of our own children make more sense. Never did understand why hospitals didn't have long chains, but since we will someday have more kids, I will stop there. Anyway...go see this part of the fair, its the best. And make sure to watch the "city kids" watch the live births or videos of live births playing on all the TV screens. Its like a car wreck, they don't want to watch, but they can't turn away. Fun stuff!


After all of this, I have realized why you do the State Fair every year....for the kids and the experience. Jack got a Cyclone hat, several fresh cookies, a corndog, and stickers. He got to see and hold several small animals and pet the furs of the dead ones (I still think that is a little morbid, but thank you Conservation Board). Abby got to see and shout at every living animal she saw and pet a horse which made her speechless. She, too, ate a corndog and danced to the hill billy music in the background as we ate under a shade tree. We covered about 40 acres of Fairgrounds in just 4 hours and the kids took it all in. It has been a good summer and the Fair was a great way to bring it to and end. I just wish Jack would quit asking me if he could have a mohawk and telling me that I could have a mullet if I could grow more hair....

Love&Prayers,
Ben


Things to ponder this week:

1. Olympics...if you haven't watched them yet, you need to. West Des Moines own Shawn Johnson had a great first night and if you get to read anything about her, she is what the Olympics and sports needs. She is a 4.0 student that was not "forced" into her sport. She is friendly and modest and has a smile that is contagious. I hope she wins for her, her family, her school and city, and her country.

2.Also, when talking about the Olympics with sports fans online, many mentioned that they wished politics (China's human rights policies, Georgia vs. Russia, Iraq's inclusion, candidates views, Dahfur, etc) stayed out of the Olympics. I fought the other side of the coin. Olympics have always been about bringing the world together every 4 years away from their wars and countries, but have also been about bringing the world's issues to the forefront for at least a couple weeks. We need to be talking about these issues and if sports gives us a comfortable way to start that conversation then so be it. When they wouldn't take that, I told them look the history of the Olympics...it is always about politics whether people like it or not: Munich, Russia, boycotts, terrorism, China, the Cold War, etc. I could go on forever on this topic, but I will enjoy the Olympics for their intended purpose right now....

3. And on a lighter note, this video will forever be remembered as the highlight of the Fair. If you haven't seen it yet, watch it from beginning to end. It was on CNN, news stations around the country, and now Youtube. While you watch, focus on a couple things: remember that this is all live TV, listen to the other 2 newscasters reactions and words (and laughing), and look at how tight this guys pants are by the end of the video... I think he had to be in some pain or at least very fearful for his future!

http://www.kcci.com/video/17135694/index.html

Emu Email Episode XLV: The Unwritten Rules

All,


This week saw a lot of relaxation for me. I didn't really do much but hang out with the kids, get a full workday at the school, watch our dream home go off the market, and hold a "beer tasting" at our house. You will have to read all the way to the bottom to find out what the winning beers were in this very scientific testing of 13 beers! I also found a website where you can watch live sports on your computer, so I have also been enjoying watching the Royals in their recent hot streak. Yesterday was even more fun as they beat the White Sox by getting 19 hits for the 2nd straight day and scored 14 runs. The best part (or worst if you don't like this sort of thing) was the brawl that occurred when the Royals batter got beaned by the pitcher. The pitcher threw 2 straight pitches up and in and then hit him on the 3rd. The Royals young ace pitcher later hit a White Sox batter and got ejected too. The bad blood between these two teams is now worse and willlikely only increase before their next meeting in 10 days. So what does this have to do with my title this week? Well, the Royals pitcher had to hit one of the Sox because it is an unwritten rule of baseball: "If you feel you were hit intentionally, then you must hit one of their batters. Don't aim for the head, go for the side.". Greinke hit the guy in the hip with a straight fastball. The White Sox manager was angry after the game saying a Royal batter broke an unwritten rule by bunting when the Royals were up 6-0. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. But when KC almost blew a 6 run lead in the last couple innings the day before and the batter hasn't hit for a week, I don't think it was on purpose. Now, as I write rules for my high schoolers and even the 6th and 7th graders that I am going to attempt to teach this year, I am contemplating some of life's "unwritten" rules that I have come across....
(video of brawl: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=280803107 )



1. "Never ask a teacher what its like to have their summer's off". A guy actually did this several beers into poker night with 5 of us teachers. I have never heard our group get so quiet. Even worse, 3 of the guys were head coaches, 2 who had practice or games virtually every day of the summer. Its like asking a "stay-at-home" parent if they ever plan to "work again". It may not be work as the working world knows it, but a stay-at-home parent works year round and a teacher works during the summer, some actually even hold real jobs!! Weird!! As for me, I have changed my overhead notes into powerpoints, downloaded educational videos off the Internet and copied them to DVDs, moved my classroom to a different room, updated binders for all my classes, made a 80-slide powerpoint to use for 2 of my classes, made a school blog and 6 school websites for my classes, and now started my lesson plans and paperwork for the upcoming school year. Oh yeah, and this wasmy first summer "off" to take care of the kids, which has been a ton of fun. But no...we don't have summers off!



2. "Every guy has a turn when buying pitchers of beer". Four guys out for some beers and one guy says "how about a pitcher" and all agree. When the beer comes, that guy pays for it immediately. When the pitcher is gone, one of the three guys left volunteers. This continues until all 4 buy one. This is actually why guys get drunk...this rule forces 4 guys to drink 4 pitchers. What if one guy has to leave? Very easy unwritten amendment to this rule. That guy, after taking barbs for being a wuss and leaving, leaves a $10 bill to cover the next pitcher and tip. Simple. I have only seen one guy not buy a pitcher when it was his turn and he is no longer teaching at our school. I also jokingly "bought" the 5th pitcher at a bar in Council Bluffs where the 5th pitcher is free....not cool. Now, for you women, you have your own confusing rules and tend to pay at the end and have to all get out your calcuators to calculate down to the penny who owes what. After 4pitchers, the group of women look like drunk accountants. Besides, if four women drink four pitchers of beer without any guys noticing and offering to pay for any of the drinks, you should probably have another...you deserve it! But make sure you all chip in $2.37!





3. "If the temperature gets above 95 degrees in Iowa, all TV News must start with the 'weather' and the weather person must make some cheesy joke and then say...but it could get even hotter tomorrow!". I don't have much to say about this rule except that it is freakin' hot here today and I am not allowed to have contact with the forecasters anymore due to a restraining order stemming from 3 straight massive rain storms they "didn't see coming". Well, our basement saw it coming you overpaid idiots, so why couldn't you? That black cloud headed our way? Yeah, you might want to check that out. Oh, and no clouds in August...uh...it will get hot, its not news. It's Iowa, it happens.





4. "If you are first at a stoplight and going to go straight, stay out of the right lane". Not a biggie, but a pet peeve of mine. I know its not always possible, but if you are going straight, stay out of the right lane. I hate waiting to turn right behind a car that is going straight. When I do it accidentally, I do try to pull forward as much as possible so that cars can get by to turn. Don't pull forward too far or else you will get T-boned and then everyone gets angry!Okay, four unwritten rules is probably enough for a hot Monday. Only 1 or 2 more Monday Emus/blogs from me, then it is off to what will be my hardest and longest semester of teaching/graduate schooling ever. I hope to get a couple Emus/blogs out during that time, but we will see how it goes. Stay cool and dry and enjoy what's left of the summer!





Love&Prayers,


Ben





Things to ponder/leave you with this week:





1. Six couples were at our beer tasting and we tasted 3 oz. samples of 13 beers through a blind taste-test with the focus being on dark or less common beers. In the end, we had 2 clear champions. First place was a beer called "Newcastle Brown Ale". This had a dark look to it, but tasted very smooth and even those who didn't like dark beers liked this one. Second place went to my #1 beer: "Boulevard Wheat". This beer is a little darker than your typical Bud/Miller Light and tastes great with a lemon slice. Both can typically be found at a liquor store or Hyvee.





2. Are the actors in the Dark Knight cursed? Heath Ledger died before the movie was finalized. Christian Bale (Batman) dealt with a strange assault charge on his own family. And now as I write, Morgan Freeman flipped his car several times and is listed as "serious condition". The news is just breaking now, but weird news for the key actors in the movie.





3. I will leave you with an intersting money saving concept started by some local Des Moines guys. Look at the site and read about how they got their start and what magazines have talked about them and where their clients are located. Interesting...http://www.smartypig.com/

Emu Email Episode XLIV: What it means to be a Hero.

All,
Maybe it was finally seeing the Dark Knight, maybe it was celebrating my Dad's 60th birthday, or maybe it was the multiple beers and late in the night conversation around a campfire with my brothers and sister-in-laws, but I started thinking what it takes to be a good parent and raise children in these times. Wait...why did the Dark Knight get entered into this conversation? Well, the movie was phenomenal (now over 300 million in earnings in 10 days which beat the record of 14 days. Appears to be the first real challenger to the Titanic for most money of all time...600 million plus). Reagan loved it, I loved it, Heath Ledger will get nominated and the movie will nominated. And as the title says, very "dark". The themes are very political and very thought provoking. One overarching theme (and no I am not spoiling any major plotline here) is that a Hero isn't always the 'good guy', he/she is what somebody needs them to be. Hello parenting! I guess you could even include teaching in here as well. In our attempt to do these jobs, sometimes we all forget that we need to be a hero, not always a nice guy/girl. This can be difficult, but no one said these jobs were going to be easy. And they pay about the same too! So, as I finish up my summer as a 'full-time parent' and go back to becoming a 'full-time teacher', and sadly miss my children 3 nights a week with grad school stuff, I am reminded by the lessons my parents taught me and how I learned from them. If you don't learn anything from my email, please watch the video in the link provided at the end. This video has been watched by over 3 million people and the professor that became world-famous after giving his "Last lecture" just died of the cancer that motivated him to give that speech. He was a Hero, Batman was a Hero, my parents are heros, and hopefully we can all be heros to someone in our lives... (note...the following lessons were chosen due to their humorous memories or importance in my life)

Lesson #1: The birds and bees...and the pigs. I suppose their are many lessons that I try to remember so that I can teach my kids, however this one sticks out. This is one of my fears...teaching my children about this. And I am a biology teacher and a counselor and my wife is a physician! I think it can be traced back to my Dad's attempt with this process. These attempts were one of many topics discussed at our campout last week with my brothers. We all remember going on a day-long "sales-trip" with Dad and having the "talk". And the talk always began with "You seem to watch the pigs alot, have you ever seen the one big pig...." And you can guess how the rest went. The talk is akward no matter what, but using farm animals to explain the process of a boy growing up was a stretch at times. Do other pigs develop faster than some? Do the pigs laugh at the little pigs in the barn during their shower time? How does a boy pig know he has found the right girl pig or right 50 girl pigs? Although Dad meant well and tried his best at this strange talk, it was probably the sole reaason Reagan and I waited until we were married to act on these lessons. But the point is, Dad tried and he talked to us individually and made us understand the importance of growing up and what true love is all about.

Lesson #2: Finance. Yes, my parents devised many ways for us to learn about finance. From getting us investing in stocks by middle school, to picking weeds for pennies, to having quasi-performance reviews yearly. These reviews allowed us to go deep inside Dad's mind and attempt to understand his pay raise schedule. I was the only kid that did not get $5 or $10 for a weekly allowance, I got $124.83 a month based on 3.2% yearly raises. Once the check was in our hand, 1/2 went in the bank and another 10% went to church and our charity jar. Dad then taught us about debt as he would borrow from the charity jar only to pay it back just before we chose a charity to give it to. Funny thing, is that Dad never paid interest on those loans, yet here I am today paying my parents monthly on a loan they gave us for our house.....at 5% interest. It was 6% interest, but when I told Dad that 6% was the highest interest rate of any of our loans, he allowed us to re-finance and "buy a point" by taking them out to eat. Yes, the money lessons were many. I won't even get into how we had to dribble a basketball up and down the highway and write down our miles in order to later cash in those miles for a trip to Mo. Valley (the big city!) for dinner if we had enough miles. Yes, my parents were sort of an early credit card company program, complete with rewards and cash advance loans!

Lesson #3: "Can't is not a word". This is one I use a lot with Jack and it really works. However, sometimes he says other words I don't want him to say and I reply "Jack, you can't say that word". This causes him to say "Don't say that word Daddy" and then confusing conversation continues from there. As a child, I never really understood how damaging the word "can't" was, but now I do. "Can't" held Jack back from doing a lot early on as we tried to train him how bad of a word it really was. Now I am working on words and phrases like "I don't like this" and "I'm not good at that". I was reminded of this lesson many times from Mom and Dad growing up, each time making me angry when I realized they were right. I am sure Jack and Abby will be no different.

Lesson #4: Show your kids how proud you are of them. Again, this works in both teaching and parenting. I have programs like "Student of the Week", prizes for top scores on tests, I put up student work in the hallways, and I try to watch one of each extra-curricular event to see them play. One time, a parent emailed me and thanked me for giving her daughter a student of the week certificate. She said that she acted like it was nothing, yet it went up on her bedroom wall along with pictures of her friends, movie stars, and other things. Now I try to do that with my kids as much as possible. Sure, it is usually acting amazed at how much poop Jack can fit in one toilet bowl and how Abby can almost hit her mouth with her wobbly fork, but it makes a difference. So far today, I have been proud of Jack's hitting 1 of 10 pitches and Abby's ability to wipe her own nose. Yes, small successes on another Daddy daycare day. Oh yeah, and Jack had 2 poopies in the potty today!

Lesson #5 (final lesson for today): Prayer, hope, and help. My Grandpa George actually taught me one about "help" the best. During the floods of '93, I was constantly working to stay caught up mowing our yard, Grandpa's yard, and my neighbor's yard. On the off-chance that the sun came out, I would get on the mower and try to finish at least one lawn. When I was rushing to get his done, he flagged me down and told me to quit immediately. The river had gone out in Pisgah and the town was sand-bagging to save their town. I told him that I had to mow his lawn before the next rain. He didn't like that much and told me that as long as water was threatening the town, that was more important than cutting his grass to a lower height. He always thought helping others was more important than helping himself. Jack and Abby can't help others much yet, in fact, most times they actually do the opposite, but in time, they will hopefully understand this lesson as well. And its funny I use a flood story, because Iowa just got hit with a 6-8 inches of rain for the 3rd time in 8 days. Luckily the 3 nights were all in slightly different locations, but many areas have seen 15 inches of rain in the last 8 days. Most of Iowa averages 30-35 inches of rain for the whole year! We have been praying a lot lately that the rain doesn't hit our house, but I am reminded by what my Grandpa said and find myself praying for others more than our house now. Something must be working as our house has stayed dry and areas 10 miles to the East and 10 miles to the West last night got about 4 inches of rain, while we got only 1.4 inches. We are hoping and praying that the rain stops soon.....if not, I hope and pray that we can help those affected by the rain.

With just 3.5 weeks until I am back teaching again and away from my kids for what will seem like weeks at a time, I am getting more reflective about my first full summer "off" and hanging with the kids. I am sure I will think of more lessons along the way, but I thought that this was a good list to start me off. Remember, if you get some time this week, watch these videos, one is short, and one is almost an hour long. The hour-long video is a must however, you will not regret it! Take care...and stay dry!

Love&Prayers,
Ben

Things to ponder:1. I know, over an hour long...I don't have time for this?! Make time for it. The guy gave an amazing talk that will bring you to tears. He passed away last Friday, but his speech will live on forever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

2. Okay, much shorter, but just as good. Less than 10 minutes, could change your life with his lessons and humor. He also passed away, but as Uncle Todd knows, he changed college basketball and is a huge influence on many coaches:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xsxUEG_1wg

3. I guess if you watched those other 2 videos, you are probably tired by now. Just search funny cats or something like that on youtube.com and enjoy whatever funny videos you can find.

Ben's Top 375 Movies of All Time!

Notice...since kids have been born, no updates. This needs an update, but likely will not see one until this Christmas break. Maybe then it will be top 400 movies of all time.

BEN’S TOP 375 MOVIES OF ALL TIME!!!
*Denotes addition in 2005 version
1. Shawshank Redemption
2. Saving Private Ryan
3. As Good as It Gets
4. Braveheart
5. Sling Blade
6. A Few Good Men
7. A Beautiful Mind
8. Traffic
9. Out of Sight
10. Bowling for Columbine
11. Good Will Hunting
12. Stand by Me
13. The Sixth Sense
14. Memento
15. Cast Away
16. Toy Story
17. The Insider
18. The Green Mile
19. Schindler’s List
20. Silence of the Lambs
21. A Time to Kill
22. Christmas Vacation
23. Minority Report
24. The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
25. Scent of a Woman
26. Cold Mountain
27. The Fugitive
28. With Honors
29. Fargo
30. Face/Off
31. Fight Club
32. Batman Begins*
33. Rainman
34. Big
35. American Beauty
36. Ransom
37. Legends of the Fall
38. Shrek
39. Fletch
40. Die Hard
41. Enemy of the State
42. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
43. And the Band Played On
44. Nurse Betty
45. The Raiders of the Lost Ark
46. Good Morning Vietnam*
47. The Firm
48. The Thomas Crown Affair
49. Hoosiers
50. Aladdin
51. Payback
52. A Perfect Murder
53. Election
54. Forest Gump
55. Fletch Lives
56. Drop Dead Gorgeous
57. True Lies
58. Boyz N the Hood
59. Quiz Show
60. Maverick
61. Spiderman
62. Aliens
63. Arlington Road
64. Toy Story 2
65. The Rookie
66. Gorillas in the Mist
67. Austin Powers 2
68. ConAir
69. Miracle
70. Apollo 13
71. Seven
72. American History X
73. Men in Black
74. The Game
75. Die Hard: With a Vengence
76. October Sky
77. Shakespeare in Love
78. The Usual Suspects
79. Finding Nemo*
80. Wedding Crashers*
81. Something’s Gotta Give
82. Air Force One
83. Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
84. Runaway Jury
85. Far and Away
86. Truman Show
87. Philadelphia
88. The Hunt for Red October
89. Anchorman*
90. Batman
91. Radio
92. Empire Strikes Back
93. Rocky IV
94. About a Boy
95. Gattaca
96. Glory
97. Finding Neverland*
98. In Good Company*
99. 50 First Dates
100. Top Gun
101. Jurassic Park
102. Unfaithful
103. Contact
104. The Score
105. Three Kings
106. Billy Elliot
107. Catch Me if You Can
108. The Sum of All Fears
109. Primal Fear
110. Falling Down
111. Thirteen
112. Days of Thunder
113. Breakdown
114. Ghost
115. What Lies Beneath
116. Wall Street
117. Rocky I
118. E.T.
119. The Italian Job
120. A Simple Plan
121. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
122. Titanic
123. Ocean’s 11
124. Primary Colors
125. Men of Honor
126. Spiderman 2
127. The Edge
128. Risky Business
129. Jerry MaGuire
130. Rounders
131. The Shining
132. Super Size Me*
133. Cinderella Man*
134. Hitch*
135. Seabiscuit*
136. Signs*
137. Backdraft
138. Rudy
139. Remember the Titans
140. Armageddon
141. Coach Carter*
142. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory*
143. The Bourne Supremacy*
144. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
145. Liar Liar
146. Austin Powers 3
147. The Seventh Sign
148. Lord of the Rings III: Return of the King
149. Pirates of Silicon Valley
150. Cocktail*
151. Twister
152. Crimson Tide
153. Dead Man Walking
154. Farenheit 9/11*
155. Hotel Rwanda*
156. Swingers
157. The Rock
158. The River Wild
159. Empire Records
160. The Incredibles*
161. Spy Game
162. Back to the Future
163. Fear
164. A Bug’s Life
165. Scream
166. Beverly Hills Cop I
167. Beverly Hills Cop II
168. Platoon
169. I am Sam
170. Don’t Say a Word*
171. Paycheck*
172. So I Married an Axe Murderer
173. Mickey Blue Eyes
174. The Others
175. Beaches
176. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
177. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
178. Return to Paradise
179. Pay it Forward
180. Gladiator
181. The Hurricane
182. Jaws
183. Dave
184. Father of the Bride*
185. Murder in the First
186. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
187. Frailty
188. On Golden Pond
189. Lion King
190. Patriot Games
191. Pleasantville
192. Lord of the Rings II: The Two Towers
193. The Mask
194. Troy
195. X-Files: Fight the Future
196. City Slickers
197. Blast from the Past
198. The American President
199. Speed
200. Count of Monte Cristo
201. Leaving Las Vegas
202. Changing Lanes
203. We were Soldiers
204. Bull Durham
205. Small Time Crooks
206. The Contender
207. Tommy Boy
208. The Godfather
209. Independence Day
210. Goonies
211. X-Men
212. Adventures in Babysitting
213. The Patriot
214. Total Recall
215. A League of Their Own
216. Meet the Parents
217. Mission Impossible
218. Pretty Woman
219. Circle of Friends
220. Sixteen Candles
221. Trading Places
222. A.I. Artificial Intelligence
223. Chicken Run
224. The Bourne Identity
225. Young Guns
226. There’s Something About Mary
227. Return to Me
228. Never Been Kissed
229. Gone in 60 Seconds
230. Dolores Claiborne
231. Dinosaur
232. Wayne’s World
233. The Matrix
234. Erin Brockovich
235. Keeping the Faith
236. An American Tale
237. Identity
238. Naked Gun 33 1/3
239. Chocolat
240. The Mummy
241. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
242. Six Days, Seven Nights
243. The Other Sister
244. Sleepless in Seattle
245. Return of the Jedi
246. Searching for Bobby Fischer
247. South Park: The Movie
248. Beetlejuice
249. Breakfast Club
250. Nothing in Common
251. Arachnophobia
252. Star Wars
253. The Great Outdoors
254. Karate Kid
255. Lethal Weapon
256. Pulp Fiction
257. Ghostbusters
258. American Pie
259. Sister Act
260. The Gift
261. The Client
262. The Family Man
263. Happy Gilmore
264. Fallen
265. Phone Booth
266. The Heist
267. Spellbound
268. The Running Man
269. Tootsie
270. Nell
271. Awakenings
272. Gremlins
273. The Truth About Cats and Dogs
274. Michael
275. Ghost and the Darkness
276. Entrapment
277. Mr. Holland’s Opus
278. Tin Cup
279. We Were Soldiers
280. Grumpy Old Men
281. Coming to America
282. Parenthood
283. Spaceballs
284. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
285. When Harry Met Sally
286. Dazed and Confused
287. Star Wars: Episode I
288. Die Hard 2: Die Harder
289. Caddyshack
290. Dumb and Dumber
291. Instinct
292. Back to the Future Part II
293. National Lampoons’ Vacation
294. Naked Gun
295. Dances with Wolves
296. That Thing You Do
297. Pearl Harbor
298 Boogie Nights
299. Matrix Revolutions
300. 12 Monkeys*
301. Vanilla Sky
302. Old School*
303. Man on Fire*
304. The Adventures of Lemony Snicket*
305. I, Robot*
306. Last of the Mohicans
307. The Saint
308. 13 Going on 30*
309. Batman Forever*
310. Behind Enemy Lines*
311. Elf*
312. Serendipity
313. 8 Seconds
314. Bone Collector
315. Napoleon Dynamite*
316. War of the Worlds (2005)*
317. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
318. Me, Myself, and Irene
319. Beauty and the Beast
320. Austin Powers
321. Cutting Edge
322. Frequency
323. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
324. A Christmas Story
325. One Fine Day
326. Planet of the Apes (2002)
327. 21 Grams*
328. The Interpreter*
329. Red Dawn
330. Love Actually*
331. School of Rock*
332. Sideways*
333. National Treasure*
334. Higher Learning
336. Mystery, Alaska
336. Ocean’s 12
337. The Godfather Part III
338. Outbreak
339. Prefontaine
340. Major League
341. U-571
342. Big Fish*
343. X-Men 2
344. Star Wars Episode II
345. Sleeping With the Enemy
346. Deep Blue Sea
347. Bandits
348. Miss Congeniality
349. Antz
350. O Brother, Where Art Thou
351. Ali
352. Malcolm X
353. American Wedding
354. Long Kiss Goodnight
355. Grosse Point Blank
356. Wizard of Oz
357. The Full Monty
358. Land Before Time
359. What Women Want
360. Unbreakable
361. You’ve Got Mail
362. Scream 2
363. Scream 3
364. Rocky II
365. A Perfect Storm
366. Lethal Weapon 4
367. Duplex*
368. Finding Forrester*
369. Alive
370. The Waterboy
371. Waking Ned Divine
372. Clear and Present Danger
373. Collateral
374. Twins
375. The Whole Nine Yards
JUST MISSED THE CUT:
Fast and the Furious
Mission Impossible 2
Wayne’s World 2
The Cider House Rules
Matilda
Die Another Day
Bad Company
Panic Room
Bicentennial Man
My Cousin Vinny
Legally Blonde
Black Hawk Down
Antitrust
The Pelican Brief
Home Alone
8 Mile
About Schmidt
American Pie II
Bend it Like Beckam
ChicagoHildalgo

Emu Email Episode XLIII: The Night is always Darkest before Dawn.

All,
So why this quote for my title? I am hoping it describes my weekend or maybe now even my week. I need to see "Dawn". It also happens to be a quote from the Dark Knight movie that Reagan and I went to in order to celebrate our anniversary. Yes, the same movie with the late Heath Ledger and the 2nd highest reviews of any movie this year. Yes, the movie that set Midnight showing records, opening day records, and opening weekend records...All-Time records. But this email/blog isn't a review of that movie, because Reagan and I can't do that. Why? Well, let me start at the beginning...
Saturday started at Midnight for me as I continued to share stories, beer, and my money with 6 other poker buddies on our deck. What a beautiful night/morning. Reagan even let me sleep in on our big day due to me getting to bed just short of 3 a.m. I made up for it by getting her 25 roses because I am a good guy. Okay, I got them because they were 50 cents a piece, but it was in honor of our anniversary the next day. The kids got a good nap in and then we were off to the Bowling for Apes event. They were impressed with the amount of money we raised....so thank you to all that donated!!! I started my quest for a 200 with Strike, Strike, Spare, Strike. A score of 100 after just 4 frames...hello 200! Oh, and I won the first door prize of the night, always the best one to win. It would take me the rest of the night just to find out all the goodies I won. But the munchy on 7 slices of free pizza and having 9 glasses of free pop caught up with me and by the 10th frame, I even let Jack bowl as I was nowhere near 200. Bowling and family fun for a good cause continued until we braved the 92 degree heat/84% humidity again in order to get our kids to their next stop: Brian and Kelly's house of fun! With the kids off and playing, it was time for Reagan and I to go to the main event: The Dark Knight!
We arrived at the theater 30 minutes early to make sure we got good seats. We bought our tickets online at Fandango (shameless plug), so getting our tickets was not a problem. Neither was forking over $12 for concessions. Normally, we see a matinee, try to use coupons, sneak in our food, but not tonight, baby, tonight was special! Fifteen minutes of lobby waiting and then fifteen minutes of waiting for the commericials and previews. At 9:10, the theater darkened in advance of the 31 minutes of commericials and trailers. And at 9:41, the movie began. Now would be a good time to tell you about the conversation Reagan and I had on our way to the movie and another reason for the title of my email/blog this week. Just to the North of the theater, the sky was a shade of black that has previously been unseen by life here on earth. The only thing giving it coloer was large bolts of lightning that could turn a herd of cattle into a BBQ convention in an instant. But brother/babysitter Brian said that although tornados have been spotted, the storm should stay to the North (foreshadowing?). So just before I ran into the theater using the 40 MPH wind at my back, I told Reagan "You know what will happen? We will be watching the movie and the weather will shut it down and we won't get to see it!" (Okay, if you can't use foreshadowing well, I'm practically spoiling the ending!)
So the movie began at 9:41 and ended at 9:44 during the widely talked about first bank heist scene. In fact we thought the theater sirens and flashing lights were actually part of the movie since the movie was still playing. But then we were told to leave the theater. Then to go back in and sit down. Then told to wait for the fire dept. to arrive to give the all clear and the movie to start back up. We waited as our eyes turned bloodshot with the flashing lights and ears aged years with the loud siren. And then finally, it got quiet and what must have been the worst "Rock/Paper/Scissors" player out of the 18 theater employees stood before us with a message. He couldn't have been older than 15, no facial hair, and puberty was just a wish for him at this point, but he had a message and he was going to be brave and tell us Bat-nuts something we did not want to hear. In a stern voice he did what doctors and counserlors are taught to do:State the truth and don't sugarcoat it. So he stated "The movie will not start back up. You all need to leave the theater. The movie will not be shown this evening. Do not try to go to a later showing, they are sold out. Just leave the theater now and pick up refunded tickets." And then he ran....fast. I saw couples madly in love swear loudly; I saw a guy dressed as Batman strip to his undies (Iron Man undies) and shout at the Gods, I saw teenagers text their friends right beside them to tell them what just happened. It was mass chaos, but I did not move. I wasn't holding out for a full refund of babysitting costs (I know...it was free), gas money, concessions, or more gifts for having to live this tragedy, I was simply in what many call "shock". I was one of the last one's to move. And from out of nowhere, I just started laughing. It was not at the brave employee who noticeably peed his pants, but the fact that I knew this would happen all along! I was calling this the big weekend event despite a charity event and my 6-year anniversary. I had worshipped this movie for 2 years by digging for online facts/updates, probably making me less of a father/husband. Or it might be simply because actually seeing the movie and having a normal weekend would make for a boring Emu. But for whatever reason, I knew it was going to happen, but despite not seeing the movie, I remembered the quote in my title.....and I knew this was as dark as it could get...tomorrow would be a new dawn and a better day.
So is this the darkest it gets? Will it get darker? Is Dawn near? Well, after the movie ended much too early, we returned home to a sump pump doing its best at keeping our basement dry (just barely) after another 2 inches of rain in 40 minutes, left church early as Reagan was incorrectly called into work, then fixed that issue only to rush home and clean the house for 2 hours straight to prep for an open house that saw a total of zero visitors in 3 hours, and then laid awake until 4:15 a.m. monitoring the 3rd round of monster storms, this one bringing a 68 MPH wind to our house that lifted our deck furniture off the deck and placed it none too softly on the ground 12 feet below, but our basement stayed dry yet again after more rain in small amounts of time. I woke up 2 hours later to report to my 7 a.m. dental appointment that lasted 140 minutes (same as Dark Knight movie) and began with liquid shots of pain and continued with more drills than a Hardware Superstore and yet still no official new tooth? So will dawn be coming soon?? Let's hope so. Oh, and this is my 3rd attempt at this email/blog as the first 2 were mysteriously deleted. Have a good week, or least better than mine so far!

Love&Prayers,
Ben

Things to ponder:

1. A few weeks back, I told you that I gave some thought to who would play me in the possible story of my life, but I never told you who. Sorry! Here you go: McCauley Culkin until mid-teens. Looked like I did and my family would agree acted similar too. Matt Damon from here to age 30. Basically, Reagan would like this and I simply like how he has stuck to his roots despite being a bigtime actor. Age 30-50 would be Matthew Broderick. More people have compared me to him than any other actor, apparently I look something like him and sound like him. Would have never guessed. And finally, Phillip Seymour Hoffman gets me from age 50 'til death. One of the greatest character actors of our time. If you don't know him, search him on http://www.imdb.com/ and you will learn that you have seen him many times. Alright, feel free to play this game at home/work now, just use yourself.

2. What is a blog/email about a movie without my top 375 movies of All Time list? When I started this list 5 years ago, I never imagined that I watched this movie. The scary part was learning that I was able to rate almost 1000 movies. That is 40 movies a year for 25 years (assuming I was movie-free until age 5). Pretty good since I am probably averaging 10-20 movies since kids arrived in our house in 2005. Click here and enjoy my movie list: http://emuemail.blogspot.com/2008/07/bens-top-375-movies-of-all-time.html

3. So what is your favorite movie? Your top ten? Or what are your thoughts on my movie list? Go to that same link above and post a comment on what your favorites are or simply critique mine. You know you want to!

Emu Email Episode XLII: The Sun Can Still Burn You While Underwater

Well, I am back on dry land after spending the last 4 or 5 days down in the Lake of the Ozarks. With attempts at water skiiing, water tubing, and just general swimming in deep water alot, I am happy to say the only thing that sunk was my sunglasses. And they were only $5, so I was not out too much. A good time was had by all, but now Reagan is back at work and I am back doing 6 loads of laundry, feeding a tarantula, feeding the kids (notice I feed the tarantula first...he is nastier than Abby when hungry!), mowing the lawn, attempting to sell the house, and planning out each day of the final 30 days I have left before school starts up again. With all this work to be done and realization that my job(s) and night classes will again be up and running soon, I would like to take some time to reflect on the vacation to the Lake with our family and Reagan's family....

Before I get to far, let me explain the picture of the stairs that you see just above. There were 149 stairs between our cabin and the dock/lake. This meant that some small news crews interviewed and got video of anybody that made it up the stairs just as if you had climbed Mt. Everest. Apparently, they are very similar climbs. I only needed to call 911 once and that was likely due to the large meal I had before attempting to climb up the steps. In all seriousness, I think the climb is over 500 feet up to the cabin and as long as you only did it once a day, it wasn't too bad. The worst thing? The first time I went up the stairs and had to stop to rest twice and was so proud when I finally made it, I turned to look at my son who was following me. He did the stairs all by himself and didn't even breathe hard when he talked about how fun the stairs were. OK, I will start working out tomorrow and eating less....

Secondly, wow, what a lake and what a rich place to live. We took a pontoon boat around parts of the lake on Saturday and almost every portion of the shore was filled with mansions, houses with perfect landscaping, or sometimes simple houses with houseboats and yachts bigger than our current house. It must be rough to live the type of life where your biggest daily decision is which boat to take out on the lake (speed, yacht, or ski boat) and who will tell the landscapers what to do while you are gone. Fortunately for us, we had three kids under 4 and one pregnant lady, so our bathroom breaks were often and we chose only the best houses to pee on, I mean go inside and ask politely to use the restroom. The owners always seemed confused why all 14 of us had to go in each time when only one person needed to use the restroom!

But the trip wasn't all fun and games. The King/Caldwell family was on a mission: see Ben attempt to water ski. Now, those on the boat saw the event live and have been sworn to secrecy, but I will give you a couple analogies that may give you the appropriate visuals to understand how it went. Imagine putting a big strip of scotch tape on our 18-pound cat Jangles and her then trying to get that tape off at all costs. That was what I looked like putting on my skis. If I were to get up on the skis for any length of time, my guess is that I would have looked like a giraffe walking on mouse traps, but sadly, I could not even get out of the water. Actually, I think I invented a new, more challenging sport: Underwater Skiing! If I managed to keep my eyes open under water (that was traveling at my face at speeds near 20 mph!), I probably would have noticed the many schools of fish that I was splitting in half. But, I gave it three attempts, never close to getting up out of the water. Reagan, attempting skiing for the first time since her pre-Ben years (the 80s??), faired better, but never quite got to the point where she was skiing on top of the water. As I perfect the underwater version, I will invite her to try my sport. Fortunately, people like Dave and Christy and even beginner Keri showed us how it should be done. And fortunatley for others, my skiing could provide some daily humor.

And if that sounded like tons of fun, I also got my yearly sunburn. My doctor/dermatologist was not happy at all that I had decided to go outside during daylight again this summer, but I told him that I would try not to stay out longer than the 8 minutes maximum time limit that my fair skin can handle. Well, after applying the SPF gigapower (somewhere above 100?) sun armour, I felt comfortable to swim with the kids all day. But, I forgot about that stupid "re-apply" rule and was soon burned to a point that likely shortened my life by a couple years. Couple that with my ample chest and back hair (that the Kings and Caldwells were impressed with!), and I was a dead ringer for Elmo. That actually helps as now Jack and Abby believe my Elmo impression even more. Actually, my sunburn wasn't as bad as I just stated and it was mainly located on my shoulders and chest, but last night was the first night where I did not wake up with every movement in bed or every time a sheet touched me above my belly button. But in just one short week, I am sure my red will turn back to a color comparable to Albino white and I will again attempt to avoid the sun and heat until October hits again. Ahh, the life of the fair-skinned family...

Well, that is it from good ol' Des Moines, Iowa this week. If you are yearning for more updates on my life, let me help you out: Still haven't sold house, still not ready for school and grad school to start up again, still no clue what sort of Guidance curriculum I will be teaching to 6th graders, still attempting to organize 3 back to school parties, and still trying to figure out how my Royals can lose so many extra-inning games or 1-run games. Also, getting ready for a big weekend as it is our annivserary weekend, but also the weekend of the Bowling for Apes fundraiser and the opening of Batman, The Dark Knight...the first movie that I have purchased tickets online a week in advance just to be sure I get seats. Also, more donations are needed and welcomed for the Bowling for Apes. So far, some of you have donated a total of $165, but Reagan and I have agreed to match up to $200, so you still have another $35 you can milk us for! Have a great week all!

Love&Prayers,

Ben

Things to ponder this week:

1. I referenced my anxiety this week as I await the sequel to Batman Begins, a top 50 movie of mine. I never try to tell people "how good a movie is", but rather direct them to a site that has been named #1 in movie sites 3 years in a row now. Anyway, this site takes all the movie reviews from around the country for a certain movie and puts them in one place and shows you the approval rating. The Dark Knight currently ranks as one of the highest reviewed movies of the year. Click here to see the reviews...

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_dark_knight/

2. Doug forwarded this site on to me. Watch the video and read Boone Picken's bio. He is an oil guy that is on CNBC a lot sharing his thoughts about oil. But as you can see, he has turned to the "dark side" (or is it the "light side"??). Makes you think...

http://www.pickensplan.com/

3. Remember, my blogs that are now up and running. I have one for my EmuEmails and now one for my school students/parents. If you get a chance, look around both. I have added over 30 Emus to the Email blogspot....kind of fun going back to see what I was thinking in 2000 and 2001!

http://emuemail.blogspot.com/

http://mrbarry.wordpress.com/

Emu Email Episode XLI: Happy 4th of July for those who are healthy!

All,
It is July 6th (almost the 7th and almost the work-week again) and everyone in our household seems to be getting better. Getting better from what you ask? Who knows...I just know that Reagan worked all weekend and each day brought me a new sick child. Luckily, our 4th of July tradition is to do Prairie Meadows Horse Racing and fireworks on July 3rd every year, so having sick children (and even Reagan was sick today) on the 4th and 6th was not a big deal. However, I missed getting tons of candy at the parade. I mean, Jack and Abby missed the parade and gathering candy to eat throughout the summer. Actually, I was going to use that candy for my student of the week program (my principal allows us to reward students with candy at times, unlike my mean brother Doug!) So, back to the sickness and how I handled it...
I think I handled it quite well. I remember the first time I was left alone with a sick child. Jack was 1 year old and looked fine when Reagan left for work that day. Heck, he looked fine all the way to dinner time and even ate a ton. But then he screamed and threw up and guess what? The puke was the least disgusting because when I realized that he was screaming about his diaper or what was left of it, that was when I almost fainted. I called Reagan in a panic and had her leave work to come home and help. I had no clue what to do (probably why I put Jack in the tub and only half-naked and watched him get sick more...and then I fainted again)! As for this time, we awoke on July 4th and 6:32 a.m. to the sounds of both cats puking...and then Jack crying and yelling at us he puked too! I just looked at Reagan and said 'Happy 4th of July' and rolled out of bed. Jack told me all day that he felt fine and that his stomach was fine, so I of course wasexperimented with small amounts of food or even some dreaded milk after he pleaded that he needed milk and promised not to throw it up. Every time, he threw it up, even the milk which came out of his nose just as fast as his mouth. So, with all plans cancelled and Reagan at work, I made it through the day. Reagan only worked a half day, so she helped with the afternoon cleanup crew that I was running. Saturday went great, but then Abby was up all night puking and crying and Reagan got no sleep again. Magically I slept through most of it (okay...kept my eyes closed and laid real still). Reagan worked another full day and I managed to make it through another day with a sick kid. I even did 4 loads of laundry and got in some Nintendo Wii time! It helped that Abby upped her nap time from 2 hours to 5 hours. The point of this whole story besides another holiday in our house ruined by rapidly spreading stomach viruses or bugs?? I have obviously matured in myability to care for kids. Reagan even noticed this when Jack started throwing up just before bed and I went racing across the room and slid right up next to him in order to cup my hands beneath him and catch as much former dinner as I could. I said my instinct was to protect the carpet, but she said I was just being a Dad. Either way, the carpet got another stain and Jack was un-impressed by my efforts, but I did kind of smile when I realized that my instinct was to do what I did.
I hope all of you had a great and safe 4th of July. We live in a special country and none of us should forget that. Next week's Emu will update you on our family vacation with the Kings/Caldwell's down in the Lake of Ozarks. Nine kids age 10 and under with just 10 adults (I know...including myself with the adults is questionable), I am sure some stories will develop.

Love&Prayers,
Ben

Things to leave you with:

1)Please consider donating at least $1 (or more!!!) to Reagan and my efforts in our Bowling for the Apes fundraiser in just 2 weeks. We are matching all donations up to $200. We already have $150 pledged from readers!
http://www.greatapetrust.org/

2)Remember, all of these emus are being blogged now. I know, big stuff...I wonder when my blog will go worldwide and get syndicated??
http://emuemail.blogspot.com/

3)Congrats to my brother Doug for joining the family tradition in saving a life last week. I don't know too many details, but apparently he had to hold a rag on the girl's neck for about 15 minutes until the ambulance came. With Brian having an experience similar to this on New Year's many years ago (but I don't think that person lived), and Mom and Dad as first responders and reviving several people with CPR, I guess I am the only one that has not had an experience like this. Probably a good thing, because as you know....I would faint. Good job Doug, and nice comment in the comment section of the article. Read article here:

http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2008/07/04/news/local/346ba1711bdabf628625747c0010554c.txt

Emu Email Episode XL: The lessons of a Stay-At-Home Dad

All,
I write to you from Council Bluffs as I thought Reagan needed time away from me and the kids after a long 50 hour week. In fact, with drive time, she was gone for 55 hours and that meant I had 55 hours of quality time with Jack and Abby. Just me and the kids. Yes….just us. Lots of fun and lots of alcohol at the end of the day. Before I gave it much thought, I found myself taking the kids for another 2 solid days to give Reagan some alone time. I don’t plan to calculate the hours that this will add to our quality alone time, but I have a feeling I will drink a few more glasses of wine by the time I return. So, with anything I do and then relay on to all of you, I did try to learn some lessons along the way and make some mental notes for this week’s email. So…things I learned this week about being a “Stay At-Home Dad”….
1. I look forward more to new episodes of Dora and Wonder Pets than I do LOST or “The Office”. Yes, sad, I know this. But unlike watching repeats of “The Office” where I can quote the funniest lines over and over, when watching a repeat of Dora, I have to listen to Jack repeat the lines over and over and hear Dora’s shrill voice say things 3 times just so all kids under 10 can understand her. So when a new episode comes on, at least it is new to me and new to Jack, so I hear the lines a few less times. The invention of the DVR does not help as Jack knows how to work it and loves to watch the same episodes saved on our TV over and over. But yes, after this week, I could now tell you all the characters of 6 morning TV shows and would struggle to sit through an adult TV show unless it had kids songs or had a key letter or number that the show focused on.
2. Mall Playgrounds are a good place for Dad’s to size each other up. I went to the mall playground about 3 times over the past week or two and each time, I noticed one other Dad with his kids there too. Unlike the mothers who gather together and chat while drinking their coffee, us Dads sit on exact opposite sides of each other and just stare at our kids and occasionally make awkward eye contact at each other. The simple reason for this is we are trying to figure out the back story of the other Dad. The other Dad is likely a divorced father given his 12 hours of weekday contact time and a mall playground is free, climate controlled, and easy to monitor. Plus your kids think you are the greatest for letting you crawl on a stupid plastic turtle in an island of other plastic climbable animals. However, the Dad could simply be jobless and told his wife that he would go out looking for a job, yet took the kids and is getting away from his wife for the day.You hope it’s one of these two options, because option 3 is the stay-at-home Dad and they are usually not fully stable by about 10 a.m. (trust me I know) and the fourth is a person who is not a Dad at all…just some weird guy watching a bunch of kids play. I think this 4th option is what causes the rest of us Dads stare at our kids as they wind their way through this plastic playland!
3. Two kids can be the easiest or the hardest to take care of. When Jack and Abby play well together, I can get house work done (and of course surf the Net) for hours on end. However, despite the many toys (4,253 at last count), a few toys always end up being first on each child’s list of toys they NEED to play with. When this happens, Abby usually pulls as hard as she can and eventually Jack lets go and screams as if Abby beat him up. Abby meanwhile will stumble back about 12 steps until she finally hits the closest wall and then face plants into the floor, many times missing a carpeted floor and hitting a solid floor. Screaming from Abby begins immediately and father must choose who to go to first. After some shouting, I usually choose the computer and all is well again. That toy returns to the toy box and to the land of “who cares about me” for about 1 month when both kids MUST play with it immediately again.
4. Outside of those 3 big items, I have learned many more things, but I don’t want to waste your Monday (now likely Tuesday) any more than I have already, so I will be brief. Here is a montage of what I have learned in just 55 hours this week: Fruit Loops have addictive properties to children under 2, Abby can go up and down carpeted steps but will tumble down wooden or cement stairs, Jack will repeat most of what I say, I cannot swear anymore, I need to allow for 15 minutes a day to focus on Jack’s poopies and how awesome they are, I need to allow for 15 minutes a day for Abby’s poopies and how gross they are, I must keep in mind the four main food groups (nuggets, peanut butter, milk, and McDonald’s anything), Happy Meals are much cheaper on Wednesdays, and do not plan to do anything important the next day because Murphy’s Law will force the kids to be high maintenance on that day (best plan? Plan and act like you have nothing to do and thekids will allow you to do anything).
I would love to say that this coming week will be different, but my wife won the chance to work the Fourth of July weekend this year, so I am sure I will have a chance to put my learning to the test again, and at the same time, learn even more. I have enjoyed my summer with the kids and wouldn’t change it for the world. With that said, a day at the school with no one else around or a nice glass (who am I kidding, a nice bottle) of red wine at the end of long day finish a close 2nd and 3rd. Enjoy the week and stay dry/safe. Have a Great 4th of July!

Love&Prayers,
Ben

Two things to leave you with:

1. In my random thoughts, I thought what if my life was a movie, who would play me? Then I thought that everyone should do this. So…give it some thought. Pick someone to play you as a child, teen, young adult, middle-aged adult, retired adult. Play this game with your family and friends. I will reveal my actors next week with reasons why I chose them.
2. Reagan and I will be “Bowling for the Apes” again in July. It is a big fundraiser for Primate Protection worldwide and is run by the Great Ape Trust right here in Easter Lake. Click on this link to learn more (Bowling info is on right hand side...feel free to explore the site to learn about the Bonobo chimpanzee...my favorite animal of all time!). And consider sponsoring us this year as we will pledge to match our pledged amount up to $200.
http://www.greatapetrust.org/

Emu Email Episode XXXIX: Don't laugh...I CAN offer guidance

All,
Another week has gone by and the floodwaters are receding in most places. Sadly, they are only revealing the true damage, both monetary damage and emotional damage. The floods are far from over, but the last week gave most parts of Iowa very little rain, so hopefully we can start the healing process now. This week I offer you the behind the scenes look at how I decided to change my career path.... This process actually started 2 years ago when I asked the district to increase our science staff to 3.5 instead of just 3 teachers. I was not requesting a "little person" to join our staff and be the 1/2, but was instead proposing for me to become the .5 position and thus allowing the district to use my wide-ranging and rapidly increasing skills elsewhere. They thought I was silly. So I said, well fine, don't use me, I will stay at home with the kids. Jack and Abby thought I was silly for saying that. When all was said and done, we couldn't find anyone that could replace me, so they kept me full-time teaching science and hired an "older" gentleman to teach science 1/2 time with me. It worked and got us through the year, but with my 3rd year of grad school approaching (commonly known as"do your internship and get the heck out of our program...you have been here to long...but we still like your money), I needed to modify my career so that I could complete my internship. I floated many ideas around and finally an idea stuck. It was not my idea, but it worked anyway. I would become a 1/2 time science teacher at the high school and a 1/2 time Guidance teacher at the Middle School. So, after 7 years of teaching and ranking in the top 10 in years of experience at the high school and in the top 25% in experience in our district, I jumped at the chance to: 1. Move rooms 2. Move out of the best science room into an old Spanish room 3. Move into a room with no running water, no phone, and no windows. 4. Travel over my lunch break (I know, its only 1 mile, but it's still travel! I will submit my miles of course!) 5. And use my 2 planning periods to counsel At-Risk students. Apparently, I have not learned much by being a part of our school bargaining team these past 5 years. However, this will count as my internship and I am excited. I will actually be doing more teaching and "guiding" then I will counseling. I know for some of you, that is a relief. Many of you that knew me before the age of 13, probably would have never imagined me guiding and counseling others, especially in the areas of "anger management", but apparently 2 years of graduate school, $15,000 of school expenses, and 20 years later, I am almost certified to do just that. Now, I said "certified", not "certifiable"! I will actually start my day in the high school with a planning period with the rest of the science teachers. I will use this to plan lessons with our new (and great) science teacher and work with 9th graders who are labeled At-Risk. Again, they are labeled this BEFORE they come to my room, not while there. Although, they could be At-Risk with me to since I have not finished my Master's program yet. After working with these gems that were allowed out of the middle school on the understanding that they would listen to the advice of fine, young counselors like me, I will teach 3 periods of class and then hop in my car with my lunch and eat lunch at our middle school. I am sure some lunch duty will be mixed in there as well (lunch duty: duty #1 that Drake teaches all counselors to never do as it is not a good use of our skills and not a job for a Master's level educator....but a job that counselors do since it gives them kid contact time and allows that out of their room away from the troubles that come out and surface behind closed doors). The district then allows me, I am not sure why, to teach all of the 6th graders and half of the 7th graders about life. Yes....me teach them about life!! Things I will attempt to teach them: responsibility, respect, how to spell my last name (84% of 9th graders do this by year-end...very sad), the importance of collecting random items, and how to manage their first stock portolio. Things I will not teach them: how to bong a beer, how to get into a bar before age 21, how to back up a tractor and wagon (never did figure that out), or how to dance (but I will likely chaperone a dance and attempt to teach them by modeling). In fact, my 6th graders will spend most of the first semester preparing to run a little town at a place called BizTown for one day. I know nothing of this place or my curriculum, but that is what the next 45 days are for I guess. If I manage to survive teaching 9th and 11th graders in the morning and 6th and 7th graders in the afternoon for 180 straight days, Drake will likely let me get my degree and then I will likely have a party and practice most of the items I listed above that I would not teach the students (except for the backing a tractor/wagon up, Reagan won't even let me back the van into our garage!). It will be an interesting year and I am sure a good year full of unique experiences that I will be able to convert into an outrageously long email to all of you. Keep me in your prayers, or at least all of the kids that I try to guide through life next year. I am sure I will screw up at least a few of them for life. Have a great week and please continue to keep all of the Midwest in your prayers as we continue to try to recover and become an actual land mass again!

Love&Prayers,
Ben

Things to ponder this week...
1. Summer has now officially started, so technicallythis is my first EMU of the summer. Also, since thesummer solstice has come and gone (this past weekend),the days are now getting shorter by about 2 minutesper day. Winter is coming in other words...

2. One of my summer/yearly professional goals was tocreate a website for parents/students to use. Give ita look, I obviously have some work to do yet. I highlyrecommend Googlepages to all of you. Believe it ornot, I have never made a webpage before this, nor didI have any clue how (I may use the Internet alot, Ijust don't understand how it got there): http://barryb4384.googlepages.com/home

3. Finally, look at the attached pictures of my kidstoday. Here are my theories of the cause of Abby'sappearance:
a. We had so much fun at DADDY DAYCARE today, thatnoon was as far as she could make it today
b. I finally spent so much time on the computer, Ididn't realize that my daughter fell asleep in herhigh chair
c. I found a way to chemically add Tryptophan in herPB&J sandwich, but added to much (look up that bigword if you don't know what it is)
d. In my effort to save money, turning off the aircaused us all to feel a little sleepy.Enjoy the Monday and the week!

Emu Email Episode XXX: Don't worry...this is not Triple X rated...just the 30th edition

Emuers,
Summer is here but it did not get off to a very good start, sadly very similar to last year. The beginning of the '05 summer saw a former baseball player and CHS grad get killed in a car accident and then not even a month later, a current CHS student and athlete was also killed in a car wreck. Well, this year, we dodged a bullet in late April when one of our finest 10th graders was critically hurt (and may never play sports again!) but not killed due to wearing a safety belt when he collided head on with another car. Unfortunately, on our last teacher day of the year, we all received word that another 10th grader and former student/ballplayer of mine committed suicide at his home during the night. This was a huge shock to all of us as he was one of the happiest and funniest guys we knew. He always helped others and his smile was what many called "contagious". It hit me hard, as any student death would, but harder than some of the others. Others? Sadly, I have taught here for 5 years and stood by as 7 students or former students have died, none by drugs or alcohol. Since Lucas's death, my life has been crazy and it has been a long summer already, but in honor of Lucas, I will do what he always did: find a way to laugh and look at the situation from a positive point of view. So Lucas...here's my best shot at "the positive approach"
** Jack's 7 day virus which saw us visiting doctor's 3 times, almost to the ER once, almost an IV, and a record setting 48 minutes straight of crying. Oh yeah, and an 8% drop in body weight.
**Positive? We are much closer to our insurance deductible, I ate Jack's extra food, and I appreciated my baseball games much more!

** My baseball team. We are now 4-12 overall, 0-8 for the "B" team. We have given up 11, 12, and 15 runs in single "innings" and are attempting to bounce back from a 21-0 loss and an 18-0 loss. By the way...those games were played in 4 innings and 2 innings respectively!
**Positive? Exercise for my players! Increase inself-esteem for the opponents, I have a nice suntan, I appreciate Jack more (he would start on this team), and I now have reasons to drink at 3:00 in the afternoon and do not feel as badly about spiking my gatorade in the coach's box. Also...just yesterday I got to watch the opposing pitcher get the last out and scream "Coach...we won!!!" and then tackle his catcher. Ahh...making the other team happy...there is no better feeling in the world!

**Broken house: AC broke yesterday, Garage door broke 2 weeks ago, water and clocks are still haunted (no joke...no clock on our main floor has worked in the 3 years we have lived here), and we put a box spring through our basement wall when moving it.
**Positive? Got a chance to install a Boeing 747 engine that I got through owning company stock finally in place of our AC. We love it...a chilly 43 degrees at all times inside now. Haven't seen the cats since, we think they got blown through our screen. As for clutter...we just sweep it into the engine and poof...gone! Garage door being broken = permanent garage sale. No takers on the car but our garage surpisingly looks much cleaner. Finally....our hole in the wall....makes a nice spot for a house plant. Also a good place to stuff cash that will be used to pay all the people that will eventually fix our problems. Once these are fixed, things will be looking so good we plan to again address the flooding issue and get all new basement carpet since the last batch (#2) never got treated. I love this happy thing!

**Lastly...since Lucas loved baseball and thought my Royals were horrible....my Royals. They are horrible, but think...
**Positive? Finally, a good chance to break a record: most losses ever. And hey, if I weren't a diehard fan, I wouldn't get so ticked at how bad my teams are and turn to fantasy sports. Now I have a fantasy sport addiction and could care less how my teams do. I have also talked with my wife alot more since she enjoys my nightly "Guess how my 9th grade and the Royals lost today" conversation. I usually swear and throw a remote, but I wake up ready to go again the next day. We thought about having my 9th graders play the Royals for a fundraiser for the blind, deaf, or disabled, but those 3 groups have all beaten my 9th graders this year already so we are tired of helping them! Oh well, think positive....if the Cubs can win once every hundred years, than the Royals should get one here in the next 20-40 years! YEAH! There...positive thinking does help. It's even raining out and ending our 41-day dry spell! We may even get rained out tomorrow which means no wins...but also no LOSSES!!! I pray that I do not have to attend a student funeral in my final 30 years here, especially not for a kid like Lucas who had so much going for him. I will miss you Lucas...take care.

Love&prayers,
Ben

Re: Emu Email Episode XXXVIII: Yes, it is finally a dry day in Iowa

All,
You could just feel it in the air today. People were a little bit happier, the wind felt more refreshing than normal, and the fish that feed at most people's front doors seem to realize that it would soon be time to retreat back to the rivers. I think it took a trip to the suburbs of Milwaukee this weekend to really see how the rain/tornadoes/floods have affected the state, despite leaving a house that has battled the weather for much of the last 2 weeks. So....Reagan, the kids, my parents, and I all navigated through a few detours on our way to Milwaukee. Unfortunately, due to the trip being so long, we never took in some of the worst sites that were just a few miles off of our path: Parkersburg (or sadly what is left after the monster F-5 tornado a few weeks back), Cedar Falls/Waterloo flooding, Cedar Rapids flooding, I-Cubs baseball stadium. So just how bad is the weather here in Iowa and why is it so bad? Well, I tried to dig up some facts...
It all started this past winter with all of the snow we got. Iowa averages 32 inches of snow, but towns like Ottumwa got over 70 inches this past year. I know for those of you who like to ski or live in the mountains, this sounds like a good base for a nice ski run, but for Ottumwa, its called "School in June and babies in September" (hopefully, I don't have to explain the timeline on that one). As I mentioned before, we had 4 snow days, 4 early outs, and 4 late starts. We once had 8 straight school days without the same time-schedule two days in a row. At our house, we had snow hit our deck in the middle of November and we decided not to scoop it off. In March, we finally cleared the snow off of our deck and saw our deck for the first time since that mid-November snow. It didn't even have time to melt during this past winter! Needless to say, all of this snow made for a long winter and a lot of anxious teachers/students/residents of Iowa. We were all looking forward to a great Spring and Summer when it finally began in mid-April. This hope was despite the weather forecasters reminding us that the winter snow was the most since 1993, ironically the famous "year of the flood". Spring in Iowa usually leads to a tornado or two, but as 2008 has showed us, Iowa weather was doing everything to the max. A tornado almost wiped out the small town of Parkersburg (small, but still 4 times the size of Pisgah!). Then a tornado almost hit Pisgah, but again, sadly, it hit a boy scout camp instead and killed 4 scouts and injured countless others. Several people on this email list live in that area and know many of the rescuers and how heroic they were on that night. As for Reagan and I, we stayed up until 4:30 a.m. monitoring our sump pump. We were just 4 days removed from bailing water from our sump pump to a nearby drain for 50 straight minutes using just our 4 hands and 3 plastic coffee cans(good thing my parents give us their coffee cans and drink tons of coffee!). We had saved our basement from massive flooding that Sunday morning, so we weren't about to let it get destroyed in the middle of the night while we slept. Using 2 sump pumps, one indoors and one outdoors in our pond that we could probably stock with walleye and pike on most nights this year, we were able to save our basement again. And we have been dry ever since. Des Moines has not been as lucky as they evacuated parts of downtown and Iowa cities followed suit. So, after all that snow, even more rain has turned Iowa into the 6th Great Lake and put 83 of our 99 counties on the federal disaster list (Congrats to the lucky 16...you will get no money from the government!). We have had almost 9 inches of rain in June alone and we only average 7 inches for the month (and only 34 for the year). Some cities actually have their year's worth of moisture already! As for tornadoes, even the national news are starting to notice a strange year. There have been 115 deaths related to tornadoes this year, but we>only average 62 per year. This is only the 3rd time the U.S. has seen over 100 deaths since 1974 (the year of the biggest 2-day outbreak of tornadoes ever). If we see 20 more deaths this year, it will be the most deaths since 1974. So why all the rain and tornadoes?? Actually, scientists are not blaming it on global warming, but something a little less talked about: La Nina. Not "El Nino", but La Nina has caused this stranger weather pattern. As for the deaths, the tornadoes have hit more populated areas this year, more people live in mobile homes now (7.6% now compared to 3% in 1974), and the stats are skewed due to the Feb. 5th outbreak of tornadoes that saw 87 tornadoes kill 56 people across the U.S. (that is 8% of our average YEARLY tornadoes in ONE DAY, and virtually our ENTIRE YEARLY AVERAGE OF DEATHS due to tornadoes!). When it is all said and done, it is just another year with strange natural events causing death and sadness across our nation. Many will argue over the cause, but hopefully all will try to make our communities safer, more indestructible, and remember those who were hurt or killed in these weather events.
As for us, we are just glad we have made it through the first 6 months of weird weather without any damage or injury. We lost a lot of sleep this past month worrying about our basement, but in the end it didn't flood and that puts us in the minority here in Des Moines and Iowa. And I have yet to fulfill my lifelong dream of seeing a tornado and going storm chasing, but at times like these, I wonder why I would even want to. God has blessed us so far this year and we pray that he continues. One thing we know to be a guarantee: Although this week's forecast is for dry 78 degree weather basically all week, we will soon see more strange weather this year and the news media will still cover it as it is always a captivating story. I just hope Iowa gets out of the news soon. Sunny and 80 doesn't make for exciting news and Iowa doesn't need any excitement right now. Neither do I....I am ready to start enjoying my "summer free of grad school". Take care and stay dry this week.

Love&Prayers,
Ben

Some interesting things to leave you with:

1. So have you seen the picture of the "Little Sioux tornado" come through your email yet?? Well, it wasn't a tornado, nor was it near Little Sioux. Click on this site to see where the picture was really taken and what it is a picture of (hint: the picture is real and really from Iowa)http://www.meteorologynews.com/2008/06/14/fake-tornado-photograph-falsely-attributed-to-boy-scout-camp-storm/

2. Also, want to know where Little Sioux is in relation to Pisgah, the great little town many of the Barrys grew up in/near? This site shows lots of tornado and radar pics, some showing you that the tornado was actually very close to Pisgah. By my estimates, the tornado came within 8 miles of our old house.
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_story.php?wfo=oax&storyid=15319&source=0 (Thanks to Brother Doug for the above 2 links)

3. Finally, a great site for national and local>weather is simply "http://www.weather.com/" If you put your zip code in at the top of the page, you can get local information and radar. If you click on the radar, you can interact even more by seeing time lapse and zooming in practically on your house.

Emu Email Episode XXXVII: 5 months to study up!

Emuers,
And you thought I wouldn't get this out on Monday!I have been without Internet for about 4 days, I am assuming because of the new Midwestern Ocean that has formed over the past week, complete with daily twisters, rivers merging with highways just for fun, and basically weather you only read about in parts of the Bible happening at all hours of the day and night. But, our basement is dry (one of only 23% of basements that are currently dry in Iowa), and since our house is for sale, I will not tell you our "dirty" little secret of how we kept it dry. But enough about the depressing weather affecting us all, how about the big news that happened last week?? I am not talking about Big Brown (who admittedly is given daily treatments of steroids) losing, the Royals splitting 4 games with the Yanks, or the fact that I survived 4 days without my friend, the Internet, I am talking about the fact that we finally have 2 candidates for our next President (sorry, Nadar...you don't count!). This email is not in support of either candidate, you can get that from me in person, but instead encouraging EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU to actually vote, but not until you have studied up on each candidate. To me, the only worse thing than not voting, is voting without any real knowledge of the candidate. Let me help you out....
1. First, visit each candidate's website. I had my students do this in order to research their views on science issues. The websites are pretty much standardized now by the political laws/rules, so they are pretty good. You will notice a similar format for both candidates. I recommend clicking on the issues and reading about each viewpoint.
http://www.johnmccain.com/
http://www.barackobama.com/index.php or go to a "neutral" site, NPR (National Public Radio)to get the candidate's views.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18437398
Disregard Hillary's views, sadly she is no longer with us. She is not dead, simply thrown onto a large heap of political hungry democrats offering anything they can to be VP. Hillary has offered both Bill and Monica for the Veep position, but Obama has asked for a politician to be named later!
2. Watch your email and research your email. Guesswhat?? I have a site for you:http://www.snopes.com/ If you have never heard of this site, you should be ashamed of yourself. My family knows that Doug and I get on people for fowarding stupid emails that are untrue or at least questionable. This site keeps track of all those forwards and the legitimacy of their claims. Guess what you can learn very quickly at this site??? Glade Plugins DO NOT CAUSE FIRES (never have), Bill Gates is not sending us all money because we email each other, your cell phone #s are not being given to telemarketers, and people are not killing you in mall parking lots after having you sample ether-laced perfume. But guess what else you can learn??? About the 2 remaining candidates! Obama has 29 different email "rumors" circulating about him, McCain 15. Let me help you out some: Obama IS NOT MUSLIM!!! This one I find funny since his "old" church that is in the news every week is definitely not Muslim. And if he was Muslim, is that such a big deal?I was born a white, male, Catholic, American....you can call me Mr. Majority. But by the time I am forty, being male will be the only thing that makes me part of the privileged or majority. Muslim is now the #1 religion, overtaking Catholicism last year. Hispanic decent will over take caucasian decent in our country by the year 2015 (according to census numbers), and if you haven't noticed, the U.S. is not really alone in world dominance anymore. One of my favorite facts: China graduates more people from college every year than our country even has ENROLLED in college! The world is changing folks, get used to it. Back to the rumors. Obama does not have plans to bring back slavery...but only for whites, his wife's thesis is not restricted until the day after the election, his occaisional absence of his hand over his heart during the National Anthem is not in protest of our country (to be honest...I always keep my hands behind my back), and he is not endorsed or funded by the KKK or Hugo Chavez. I am not sure how those two are even believable, but I know people who believe it! As for McCain, his current wife's history of addiction is true, but she has recovered and she IS NOT the candidate you are voting on. Also, why the divorce from his first wife? Well, being a POW for 5.5 years and his wife having a near fatal accident put a little strain on the marriage. (And I thought a fight over the grocery bill was bad!) He has no problem with the democratic party. (Is liking the other side such abad thing? I mean working together for one cause???) And actually, that is about all I could find on McCain. Most of his snopes.com stuff is not bad and it checks out to be true. Some people I have talked to swear he will be the oldest president ever and could die at any minute. He would be the oldest president, beating Ronald Reagan out by a few years. Old Ronny didn't do too badly now did he? Just disregard the ol' losing memory and Alzheimer's thing though...that happens! As for his health, he got a clean bill of health, as did Obama. I am a little skeptical however because I cannot remember any candidate not given this clean bill, plus I am on about 2 or 3 pills a day atage 30, I can't imagine these guys are perfect. C'mon...give us something! Acid reflux? Gout? Trouble sleeping? Something! The point is, do research when you see an ad, get an email, or hear something from somebody who heard it from someone else. Its like being in high school again...Don't spread rumors and lies, they are hurtful.
3. Yes....lastly....VOTE! I took part in my first caucus this January and man, how cool was that! Being an Iowan and getting to set the stage for the election to come. Hearing people shout and debate for their candidate instead of checking a box?! And then watching CNN for the next few hours just to see what the nation thought. Record numbers or Republicans and Democrats (and I suppose even Independents, Greenparty, Party of George Barry, etc) have voted, why should we quit now that the last vote is the one that finishes this whole process. We are at War, we are paying $4.00 for a gallon of gas (I paid 88 cents in 1997 in Cedar Falls), Global Warming is threatening our Earth (global temps went up for the 57th straight year. Notice I did not say "why", but you can't argue that the Earth is not warming. 57 straight years!), and we have so many other "minor issues": lack of health insurance and care, food costs rising, economy slumping, other countries in need of our help, my 401K. We need to vote and prove to the world and ourselves that we do care about our country. But don't just research and vote for the President, research and vote for all the races. Senate, governor, representatives, mayor. They all make decisions that affect you, so why not vote the person that would do what you want them to. And when the voting is done, unite together to support the people in charge. Thank them through emails and letters when they do things you agree with, ask them to listen and help when they disagree with you. I guess the moral of this whole Emu is not meant to be funny or make your week go any better, but to remind you of a privilege you have in this country....the privilege to vote. But you also have the privilege of information in our country that you would not get in other countries (China for example). Use this information and spread the correct information. And then vote.
Little long I know, but needed. I for one will not pay attention to much of the media ads for either side as it is just propaganda. I use the Net for my info and Imake sure its neutral or correct information. Enjoy the week...Tuesday is almost here in Central Iowa...and so is the next rainstorm.

Love&Prayers,
Ben

I will not leave you with anything this week as I think I gave enough weblinks and info to keep you busy enough already. Sorry there weren't more laughs this week.