Merry Christmas from the Barrys!

Dear family and friends,

Greetings to those who don’t know me or have never seen me. I am the Barry’s new home….out in the country. Today, I am protected by 4 foot snow drifts on all sides and my owners have not left me for 48 hours. Not by choice, but do to being trapped in by 3 miles of impassible roads. Welcome to the country, suckers! I welcomed the Barry family on June 30^th of this year and what a group I welcomed. The family itself is nuts, but the help they had was pretty amazing. Either they had a ton of neighbors that were glad to push them into the country or just a lot of great friends and family. Ben says it is the latter and he is so thankful. So, let’s meet this family I now know and love….

The youngest is Abby and what a deal she is. At 2 ½ she still walks and runs on her tip toes at times, has quite the vocabulary but speaks it in a strange way, and loves to take care of her many babies all day. This girl loves babies! She has asked for a doggie for Christmas despite her fear of them. Her parents think next spring will bring a puppy to this country acreage, so maybe Abby will get her wish. She loves daycare with Tracy and thinks she is “all-that” since Jack goes to school most days and she loves to be Ms. Independent. She loves to run throughout the new larger house and cries to go outside when it is warm and she can run for miles. The move has been good for her.

Jack is Mr. Schoolboy this year. He goes to Carlisle preschool 4 days a week during the afternoon. Ben and Reagan are very thankful for such a great preschool and Jack thinks he is pretty cool with his Superhero backpack and new school clothes. His parents are pretty proud that Jack can count to 130, knows all of his letters, can write his first and last name, and his biggest strength….playing so well with others. I think he may be trying to become the teacher’s pet. Jack loves to dress in costumes (he was Iron-man 12 hours a day the first 2 weeks of November!) and play any sort of games. He wants to have “family game night” every night now. He is pretty bright and amazes us with things that he knows or remembers. He is still not very excited about nature, but he will have to learn to love nature around me and the outdoors since my yard includes lots of bugs, snakes, and up to 30 deer at times.

One of the owners of my house, Reagan, is obviously the handy one. Since they moved in, she has served as contractor to fix the quickly broken fancy tile shower in the master bath, has ripped out and changed the tile backsplash in the basement bar, and has put all sorts of neat decorative touches to make me become a true home. This is in addition to helping Ben rip out 1200 sq. feet of carpet, replace it, and repaint the whole basement. And that was on the 2^nd day they lived here! You might wonder where Reagan gets the time since she works 4 days a week and some weekends, plus works hard to keep this larger house clean from the dirt and dust that sneaks through my cracks every day. I honestly don’t know. I do know she loves her scrapbooking room and actually uses the basement (something she did not in the last home). She still works as a PA at Mercy East (7 years now), just 15 minutes away. Next Spring, she will work to coordinate the landscaping redesign of my outside. Can’t wait to see what amazing ideas she has!

And then there is Ben. He fell in love with me a year before he moved in and was happy that I twice was almost sold but stayed available until their Easter Lake home finally beat the bad market and sold (much cheaper than he hoped but 354 days and one offer was enough!). Apparently, he fell in love with one part of me, the theater room. You can find Ben playing the Wii, watching sports or shows on HDTV, or watching the new movies on my 6 ft. by 8 ft. screen. Reagan even bought him 6 leather movie theater recliners and a popcorn machine. I think this guy is spoiled by his wife! In return for this gift I give him, he mows the 2 acre yard, attempts to snow blow (he is still learning), and is obsessed with sweeping my floors. Ben doesn’t just play with these toys all day, he does work, sometimes. He is now the full-time counselor at Carlisle Middle School. As if officiating MS girl fights isn’t enough stress, he also decided to help coach the 7^th grade girl’s basketball team. He coaches the 2^nd team and they are doing well and keep Ben young, but balding quicker. His classes are huge this year, biggest in the district, but that could be because he has the famous “Septuplets” in his 6^th grade class. Ben loves his job and thinks he finally found his true passion.

It has been a stressful year with Ben finsihing school & Jack starting school, the family lowering their home price until it sold but getting a good deal on me, and dealing with unforeseen problems in fixing me up and repairing my broken parts, but I am so glad to be loved by such a loving family. Ben and Reagan grew up in the country and love being back in the country. Even though they are snowed in, it helps them see the true Christmas spirit. Sure Christmas means snow, stockings, and kids ready for Santa’s visit in their new home, but it also means seeing God’s wonderful gifts. The media likes to remind us of the bad that is happening this holiday season, but I know the Barry family sees Christmas and Christ’s birth bringing so much hope, joy, and love to our world. Ben and Reagan see problems in people’s lives each day at work, but have faith that the Lord will protect and provide for all who believe. And when you look out my window at a sunrise, deer wandering around, or the snow glittering in the morning light, it is impossible not to believe that Jesus was born for a reason. And at Christmas, we celebrate that reason.

Merry Christmas and God Bless this Holiday season!

The Barry’s new home (10980 Cleveland Trail, Norwalk, IA 50211, 515-480-3939 or 515-306-1415)

(Also Ben, Reagan, Jack, and Abby Barry plus cats and fish)

Planes, Trains, and Inner tubes

Wow....where does time go. Seems like just yesterday I was under water stuck in a current fighting for my life and trying to find the surface. Actually, that would be my wife's explanation. My near-death experience was part death and part trying to find the "Beer tube" after losing my coke-bottle glasses to a large rock in the center of a river. Either way, I thought the end was near. And yes, I lost my beer when my tube flipped and I went under to see my life flash before my eyes. Probably for the best....never a good idea to show up to the gates of heaven with a beer in your hand and no glasses. So, how did I get to this point? Well, let me back-track some and talk about the planes and trains.



My wife and I snuck away to New York to see good friends of ours that were living about an hour north of the city for the summer. Getting there brought me actually closer to death, or death of others, than the river ever did. We flew out of KC since the flights were much cheaper. Flying out of "Des Moines International" takes a loan from a local bank, a dowry, and you have to leave your first born or your laptop computer at the terminal as collateral. I would leave Jack for the record as my laptop went with me, but flying out of KC was the way we went. Despite my history with Delta Airlines, we still chose to fly with them. Let me tell you about their slogan: "They love to fly and it shows". Uhhh...if you love to fly so much, why do your freaking cancel or delay ALL OF YOUR FLIGHTS!!! We were to leave from KC at 7, but it got delayed until 8, then 8:30, then 9, then 10, and then 11:10. At one point the automated lady in the ceiling confirmed our flight would be leaving at 8:30 despite the terminal man telling us it was now delayed until 10 p.m. When the shouting died down, computer ceiling lady confirmed the bad news. It was so bad and people were so wrapped up in their own anger that no one but Reagan and I giggled like teenagers when the man next to us let one rip while listening to his IPOD. We really don't think he knew that he did it out loud, but at that point, no one cared. Once into NYC after 2 in the morning, we toured the city until 4 a.m.



But the flights on the way back were great right? Nope. 7 a.m. flight cancelled. Only one up to noon that got cancelled. Then our 2 new flights (yes, 2 flights instead of 1...that is awesome!) were both delayed. We finally got into KC about 7 hours after we were supposed to and then got back home to 2 kids and my Mom...ALL very anxious to see me! But, we did get to fly first class on the first flight, however, we were so tired that we slept through the free alcohol, hand towels, foot rubs, tour of coach to laugh at the commoners, and whatever else they give out. When we were done, my wife now agrees with me that we will never fly Delta again.



As for the train, no biggie there, but we did get to ride the NYC subways. We also got to see Ground Zero, eat authenic Chinese food in a side alley of Chinatown, walk around Times Square (we even ate at the cool McDonald's in Times Square....something I have wanted to do before I die early due to clogged arteries!)., and got a tour of King's Point Academy from Christian who graduated there. All very cool. But the highlight and most interesting part of the trip was the "lazy ride down the river on an inner tube)



So, apparently New York has had a lot of rain this summer. That led to the lazy river, where sometimes you have to push yourself down due to the shallow areas, to swell some. So the four of us rented 5 tubes and 5 lifejackets. Why 5 you ask? Duh, the 5th tube is for the beer/pop and the 5th life jacket is to tie that tube to us at times so we can easily switch out our empty. Well, good idea, poor execution at times. See, the river was moving pretty good and some of the rapids actually a little interesting. I went through the first "rapids" first and had no problem. We did some scarier ones later, no problem. But with the lazy part of the river being somewhat relaxing and the life jacket hurting my neck, I routinely took the life jacket off and on (foreshadowing anyone??). I always put it on before the rapids, most of time securing it with the buckles (more foreshadowing). But when we reached one set of difficult rapids, I trailed Christian and watched him go over the small falls and flip his tube and plop into the water. Much like laughing at someone falling on the ice and then moments later staring at the sky, I noticed his debacle and started to grin and then I was underwater. No problem, just pop up...the water is only 4-5 feet deep, plus I miraculously fell in head first and missed the rocks that caused the waterfall. One problem, I seemed to have been stuck in the current. I fought my way to the top within about 5 seconds. Reagan claims I was under much longer. When I surfaced, I realized my tube and the vacant beer tube were further down the river and attempting to run away. I started to swim and float that way, but kept hitting rocks in the shallow water. Then, I noticed I had no life jacket or glasses. So I was blind and non-buoyant....not good with my anxiety disorder. Reagan started to panic as I made progress to my tube and then gulped water and then repeated this process. At one point, I didn't think I would ever catch my tube, but eventually I did and found a life jacket and put it around me. Ahhh....death averted. Seriously....die out of state in a 3 foot deep river?? That would be lame, glad I made it.



But...I lost a hat and my glasses in the river, a contact in the ocean, and my sanity in 2 different airports...needless to say, I had less the pack on the way back. But, one of the best trips ever and that is all that matters. Now, back in school for the first day of the year, I look back and see how much fun that trip was. Actually, how much fun this summer was. We moved, we vacationed, I didn't have class, I hung out with the kids....what a life right!? I do cherish every moment I live and work, as we all should. Summer may be done, but as with the changing of the seasons and the new experiences and weather they bring, each season also brings new experiences to our lives. Enjoy each day all that you can, life truly is too short! Take care and hopefully I can blog here and there during the school year. I still haven't told you about our new mower, my new job, and all sorts of other exciting stories!!

Love&Prayers,
Ben



3 Things to leave you with:
1. Too many times we say "we have to do something" when really we should say "we get to do something". What do you get to do today? Read this quick newsletter to see what I am talking about: http://www.jongordon.com/newsletter-080309-havetogetto.html

2. A special thank you and prayer to all the students, staff, and families that make education work each and every school year. My school and my brother's school have experienced too much tragedy the past several years, so I pray that this year is only positive!

3. And just because I need a site that makes me laugh at the end of a long day, I have found this site and love it. Check and it out and enjoy our societies failed attempts caught in photo or on video: http://www.failblog.org/

Finally...Photos of our new home!

Well, here is our house. Sorry for the delay in picures. We are having an Open House/Beer Tasting/Balloon Festival from a distance watching/Back to School Barry Bash this weekend, so figured now is a good time to post pictures. Hope you enjoy! Feel free to leave a comment if you want!

Livingroom on main floor

Kitchen and deck

Deck looking SE

Deck looking NE

Deck looking West (yes, that is our lawn, at least a third of it. 2.2 acres and about 1.8 acres is lawn. That needs to change!)

Basement area. We painted the whole main basement area with one coat of brown paint. Took a long time! Thank you Rhonda! Also put in about 1400 sq. feet of new carpet. Brown to replace the blue they had.

Jack's room. MESSY! Puffer fish in background (too small to see silly!)

Theater room. Stilll need one more movie poster frame. Will get that tomorrow.

Other side of theater room. Posters up on that side.

Ahh....the main view. 6 foot by 8 foot screen with projector. Our 3rd child. Theater seating comes in Monday and will later build a platform to have stadium seating for our 6 leather seats.

Guestroom and exercise room. Exercise equipment is for looks only. Please don't touch. We don't.

Master bedroom...looking East.

Master Bath/shower (tub is behind me)

Front of house from SW (and Abby!) :)

Front of House from NW

Ahhh....fire. Mmmm...fire... Oh, this is our firepit and then our house off in the distance

Jack and Abby's toyroom (we painted 2 coats of yellow over the grey/blue they had). Abby painted one small area brown. And she got in trouble.

View of open basement area from theater room

Bar. Painted it "merlot" and will retile it in the coming weeks. Four coats of that paint by the way! Door leads to utility room

Abby's Room. Left paint for now.

Swine Flu is returning and the CDC wants to know...Should they save you?

Well, news came out on CNN today that the CDC (Center of Disease Control, Atlanta, GA) is putting a committee together to decide who should get the Swine Flu, er, H1N1 vaccine should it prove to work in the next week or two. Seems like the vaccine will work, but they can't make enough of it, and with school starting back up, people sticking around home after summer vacation, and Midwesterner huddled together to stay warm this "Summer of 70s", they are worried that the virus could spread quickly....and be even more deadly! Don't even get me started on the scare tactics used or the fact that the media finally moving on from Michael Jackson and needs a new "top story", but history shows that diseases can be deadlier the 2nd time around. http://www.homeland1.com/Public-Health/articles/498101-1918-flu-epidemic-worse-second-time-around/ This link shows that the flu epidemic of 1918 was here in Spring but was mild. It got really bad in the fall....right about the time school started up. So, the CDC has to decide who should get the vaccine. Basically, who should live and who should die. Well, I thought I would help them out. Here are my choices....

Healthcare professionals: OK, that's a given. I remember my wife telling me that when pregnant with Jack she would sometimes have to leave the room to throw up. Her patients would always ask and Reagan would say it was morning sickness. Sorry, but if my doc is throwing up when I am getting my physical this fall, I'm out of there. So, give the docs, PAs, nurses, drug reps that sneak around the halls, whoever is there, the vaccine. I want them to be healthy. If they are the only ones to live through the "next epidemic" (or at least whatever is happening during Sweeps month for TV), we could end up with an interesting healthcare plan. Which reminds me....that means no vaccine for health insurers. Sorry if you are one, but if the docs live, you can't. The two of you would fight and kill each other off, thus ending the world.

Teachers/Counselors/School workers: OK, I'm selfish, I want in. Then again I never get a flu shot since I don't believe in them. Then again, I get sick every Christmas. Hmmm.....if you keep on doing what you are doing, you keep on getting what you are getting. I guess I will take the vaccine if offered. Maybe the vaccine could be offered to teachers who produce students with good test scores? A vaccine for performance idea? Sorry...I had to.

From there, its really a crapshoot. I am thinking nutty celebrities should be in the mix along with the people that work for TMZ and Perez Hilton. This apparently is America's only form of entertainment, so we would need them as much as I hate to say it. Don't give it to my KC Royals, they are already sickening. Give it to one newscast team in each local TV area, but base it on whoever has the most accurate forecast. Tell you what, we would have the most accurate weather forecasts ever! With a news team around to report the news, we should probably keep some people to be in the news. That means we need the politicians (seriously...they probably have the vaccine already but haven't told us). Without these people, we wouldn't have any news on fighting, wars, affairs, money laundering, theft, or dinners that cost $500 a plate!

Wow, that's quite a group and I haven't even got to the common people. I am likely pretty close to being out of vaccine, so I would offer the rest up to the lottery system. Open up Powerball to all states for the next few months (you know, before the "Epidemic of 2009 II: This time its personal, I mean, even more personal than last time"). You still win the jackpot if you match all 6 numbers, but now if you match 3 or more, you win the pitiful $7 you normally get for defying the 1 in 360 odds (1 in 787 for 2 numbers plus powerball), but now you also get the vaccine. Considering my Dad has been buying 2 tickets per draw twice a week for 20 years or so now and has hit this winning combo about 6 times, I think this will be a hard enough task for the common person. A side benefit would be the amount of money the lottery would make and give back through schools, public works, etc. Because we all know that when "you play the lottery, you are actually helping yourself and your neighbor through giving". Huh? Anyway, with the remaining vaccines rewarded, the rest of us will have to just hope this 2nd epidemic of 2009 goes like the first one (well, minus the 5000 or so deaths worldwide....don't worry, the U.S has seen 20,000 people die of the regular flu so far in 2009, so 5000 worldwide due to H1N1 is not so bad). All I care about is seeing 2010. My favorite shows "LOST", "24", and "Spiderman 4" start up again then and I would hate for some pig flu to kill me off before the the LOST series finale and those other shows.

With that, I sign off for awhile. With a beer tasting party, er, Open House this weekend and a trip to New York City next week, my summer is closing with a bang. I am already training for school by waking up early and trying to do something school related everyday, but I am nowhere near ready. I hope to still do some blogging in August and maybe even some here and there during the school year. But my new profession has multiple confidentiality laws and rules, so I may just continue to make fun of myself and talk about silly things I do such as nearly knocking myself out twice in 5 minutes with just our vacuum yesterday. And yes, 24 hours later, still a little dizzy from that event. Take care and enjoy more of the cool summer (if you live in the Midwest!).

Love&Prayers,

Ben

3 things to leave you with:

1) Which beer will take home the title as "Best beer according to a sampling of Barry friends, coworkers, and family" this year? 2007's B.O.T.Y (Beer of the Year) was Boulevard Wheat. In 2008, a year focused on darker beers, the award went to Newcastle Brown Ale. I am entering 3 beers this year and we expect as many as 20 beers to vie for the title this year. I might comment below as to what won the August 1st contest. Feel free to leave a comment if you have a beer you think should be entered.

2) OK, I finally watched the wedding video that everyone is talking about. Pretty good. Click here and enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

3) Pictures of the house will be posted in a special blog tonight. I have to figure out how to post lots of pictures, but some of you have emailed me wanting pictures. I finally took some. House is not completly ready yet (may finally be where we want it by 2013), but close. Hopefully, many of you can see it this weekend at the Open House.

Billion Seconds old, Married 7 years, the Royals are horrible.

Wow! Isn't this the greatest shirt ever! I have waited for 3 years to turn 1 Billion Seconds Old.....and I missed it. Stupid anniversary and Royals trip with my brothers distracted me. And what a birthday to miss! All I had to do was to concentrate and party for one second and I was done, but NOOOOO, I missed it and realized it well after my billionth second of life. Ho hum, my 2 Billion second birthday is coming up very soon (31.7 years), so I can party twice as hard on that one.




I know, seems silly to care about turning a billion seconds old, but most people only make it to 2 billion seconds, with a few making it to 3 billion seconds old. I am not sure if anyone ever turned 4 billion seconds old, maybe a tortoise, but probably not a person. But I was distracted with a big week. My wife and I celebrated our 7th anniversary this week, just not on the actual day. I actually agreed to travel with my brothers to KC to watch a Royals/Angels game (Doug's favorite team are the Angels). Instead, it rained hard for hours on end and then rained Rum and Cokes in the bar for hours on end. The next day seemed to be just pounding thunder, but turns out it was just a pounding headache! So, with my very understanding wife waiting patiently at home, I returned to the Des Moines area now a billion seconds old, feeling each and every one of those seconds with my hangover. We grabbed the kids and a nice hotel ($50 on priceline.com!) and enjoyed a night/morning away from home. Kids swam in the pool and Reagan ate out at the Outback (I tried to eat too... I really did...still too soon!). And then we all returned home for a nice day before family and work came back to visit. Wow....what a wife I have!




I suppose at this point, I should dish out some marital advice that I have learned the past 7 years. Many guys reading this might wonder what it was that I did to not get killed by spending my anniversary with my brothers drinking everything but the river in KC. Well, here is what I got:





1. Flowers, but not expensive flowers. Little did I know, mid-July is Hy-Vee's annual rose sale. So every year, Reagan gets tons of roses. She is not huge into flowers, but does like them. Getting flowers cheap, I think, is even something Reagan likes. So....study up and marry (or celebrate) during flower discount days!


2. Laughter. Man, do we laugh. I don't try to use humor to get out of an argument. I learned NOT to do that from Dad. His jokes would usually backfire and the next backfire we would hear was Mom peeling out of the driveway. Awesome...french toast for supper again, thanks Dad! But Reagan and I make each other laugh alot with silly faces, voices, and just plain stupid stuff. If you can't laugh, you can't stay in love. Simple as that.


3. This one is from Doug (yes, the Angel's fan): "Always tell your wife you will be home 15 minutes later than you plan to be. That way, you tend to be home 'early' all the time". I didn't do this early on in marriage, but now I try to. I still screw up, but when I do it right, Reagan always smiles and says "Wow, you're home early!". Bonus points.....


4. Just for fun, bring up this question: "Hon, what if you DID catch me having an affair sometime?" When she answers with this response "Well, I would be mad and hurt and our trust broken. Then I would take you for all you are worth and cut off your manhood, burn it, and spread the ashes in your mistress's beat up Honda civic....or do something in my clinic far more painful" and never once breaks a smile or stops what she is doing, you won't have an affair and will never risk losing that trust. (btw....could she really do something more painful?)


5. Learn from others. We both learned how to be in love from our parents and our siblings. With so many good examples, how could we go wrong. But the trick in this tip is that once you are married and in love, now others are watching you. We try to never forget that our love is partly because of the examples we had and now we could be setting examples for others. Probably why Jack sat up at our basement bar yesterday and said "Done with work Daddy. Long day. Get me a beer please." Maybe also why Abby likes to follow Jack and say "okay" and "yep" all the time and then when Jack's not looking, steal all of his toys.


Well....if Reagan reads this (she always does since I tell her she has too!) and I am around to write another blog, hopefully I will have some more wisdom for you. I am not sure the above is really wisdom, but really marriage doesn't take wisdom anyway. It takes love, laughter, faith, trust, and time....oh, and a whole lot of work. If you can do those "simple" things, than you will not only live to be 2 billion seconds old, you might even be married for 2 billion seconds! (that's 63 years for those who are dying to know!)

Love&Prayers,
Ben


3 Things to leave you with:

1) My big week sort of ends today with another milestone: My Dad is 61 today! Happy birthday Dad! Just 2 more years until you turn 2 Billion seconds old. If you don't plan on living until 95, better party hard when that event comes around. Until then, you rock and Happy birthday!

2) With school getting closer to starting, I have started another blog for our school counseling staff. Here is the website if you want to give it a look: www.carlislecounseling.blogspot.com

3) A big thank you to Larry and Donna King for all of their help with moving furniture and carpet back and forth and fixing some of our "farm items" since I don't have a ton of farm tools yet. If all goes well, I will be mowing and spraying up a storm this weekend. Well, hopefully no storms b/c then I wouldn't be able to mow and spray, but you know what I mean!

Oh...and now anyone can comment since I made some changes to the settings. Enjoy and feel free to post your own marital advice!

Puttin' the Family Back on the Farm

Well, we did it. Yep, it took a long time, but we did it. And boy are we happy. WE GOT INTERNET BACK AT OUR HOUSE!!! Oh, and we moved. But seriously, 2 weeks without Internet, I thought I was in the 1990s. We had some storms come and I was watching the tiny radar in the bottom corner of the TV trying to see if it would hit us. I actually watched CNN for the news! And for the first time in a long time, I watched Sportscenter to hear about sports news!! Glad, I have the internet back and I can shut off the TV and shut out the kids (sorry...did I say that out loud??!). Anyway, enough about the Internet, how about our move!
Well, Reagan and I grew up in the country, my country house was even classified as a farm. This new house is similar to our childhood homes in that it is on a rock road and in a development like Reagan's old house and has lots of flies like my old house. I have killed 37 flies in 4 days WITHOUT a flyswatter. I have used towels, my Grandpa George's jedi hand trick, a brick (not my best idea for indoor fly killing), and teleportation. No clue where those flies got transported to, but it was at least more of a challenge than the towel. One of these days we will either find our fly swatter or buy one. One of these days.....


We moved on June 29th and that was the last day I had Internet in the home before last Friday. I did survive though and got a lot done around the house. As you can see from the Google Earth map above with some points of interest, I truly have been busy. I converted their "burn area" towards the back of our lot into a "fire pit" with some retaining wall brick and rock. I got the rock from an old landscaping area they attempted to make in the middle of their yard. Since it looked horrible, I dug up the river rock and wheelbarrowed it across an acre or two to the firepit. This wheelbarrow had a flat tire mind you and since I used to be a science teacher, I know flat tires create more friction which creates more work. Three showers has been the norm for me in this new house due to the newly created yard work. I also declared all out war against clover. Congress and Senate (Jack and Abby) unanimously approved and a aerial and ground attack was launched. I mowed and sprayed....okay? The spray was sprayed by hand. Yes, 1.8 acres of walking up and down and back and forth spraying the lawn. Very similar to playing golf with me only this time I had a 1 gallon sprayer armed with water, 24D (some lady in a store that I stopped to get some told me it was outlawed....huh??), and a little napalm and volcanic lava for good measure. Results should start coming by the end of this week. Likely will reveal what Congress and Senate estimated....this lawn has no grass and will soon become Iowa's largest desert or beach. Anyway, I would win the war and that is all that matters. I probably should not have stood on my deck last night and shouted "Mission Accomplished" to my cloverfield. Will see how that turns out.


As for the inside, my moving help (THANK YOU KARI, SARA, JANA, ALEX, CRAIG, LARRY, DONNA, TIM, TRUDY, CHRIS, RHONDA, CARRIE, BRIAN AND FAMILY, DISH NETWORK DUDE, and A-1 MOVER GUYS!!!) helped to rip up 1300 sq. foot of carpet that was nearly brand new (something about my wife not liking the color) and send it up to Ankeny to Reagan's brother. Next, Rhonda helped us paint the 1300 sq. foot main room in the basement the next day with one coat. I put 2 coats on the toyroom (Abby put a 3rd coat on...unfortunatley the wrong color and Daddy had to throw her brush in a short bout of anger when he found her happily painting...we all had a good laugh later), and we all chipped in to put 4 coats of "merlot" paint on the bar/basement kitchen. That took most of the week and Home Depot came in and put carpet down a week later. Ummm...editor's note: Home Depot has a 7-day carpet guarantee and we signed up for it and paid "big bucks" for it. Apparently that is 7 business days and does not count the day you order or the day before a Holiday. It also doesn't count the other freaking 8 days that elapse and the two parties you attempted to host without freaking carpet. Home Depot....you can die and Lowes you can crush them. With that said, I am still a stockholder so feel free to also have amazing success. I just will not be your customer anymore. (Hey....I do my boycotts a little different okay!) With all the painting and carpet in place, I have avoided much of those areas anyway and nestled myself in the theater room which has lived up to the the hype. When the doors close, you really do feel like you are in a theater. With a 6 foot by 8 foot screen, I have watched 6 movies in 2 weeks (more than I watched the first 6 months of 2009!). Each and every one has been very enjoyable. Twister was good on the big screen, but Dark Knight still rules.


So, we are finally settling in. We realize we will never see out our back windows of the vehicles as they already have a layer of dust no finger can even penetrate to write anything dirty. We realize that flies, ants, snakes (lots of them!), and weeds come with the territory. We realize our mailbox is literally a 1/2 mile away and that stinks most days. But we also can sit on our deck and watch 4 towns celebrate Fourth of July at the same time. We can see the hot air balloons take flight every night near Indianola (publicity note....the 3rd largest balloon festival in the U.S. will start Aug. 31st in Indianola...our house has a nice view for those interested!!!). And we can eat dinner just a football field away from a herd (or according the neighbors sometimes over a hundred) of deer as the sun prepares to bring another day to a close. Do we miss our old house? Yes. Have we found the house of our dreams and will we be here when our kids go off to collge? Definitely. Life is good in the country. So I guess if you "take the boy out of the country" you can put him back someday. Enjoy the week all and thank you for all the prayers and blessings you have given me and my family over the past year and especially more recently!


Love&Prayers,
Ben


3 Things to leave you with:
1) 4 more lots are still available out here plus 3 homes for sale. Yes, I want you all out here. Plus, once all lots are purchased, the development's road gets paved! BONUS!

2) Recently, a dog-fighting ring was busted when arrests from 5 states. A big portion of that ring was right here in Central Iowa. The Animal Rescue League has taken in 35 of these dogs and needs help caring for them. No, you don't have to take home a pitbull named Crusher....but they could use a donation. Click on this site and make sure to write "help for the dogs" in your "in honor of who" line. Tax deductible!
https://secure3.websiteencryption.com/ARL/aspx/generalcontent.aspx?pid=2&cid=39


3) We are hosting an Open House and Beer Tasting this Friday....you are all invited. If you can't make it, maybe you want to suggest a beer I can submit for the tasting? Needs to be bottled and sold in the Des Moines area. Last year's winner was New Castle Brown Ale. Year 1 winner was Boulevard Wheat Beer.

Memories, a Week of Memories

What a week huh? Here I thought the people of the world really only cared about the Barry family moving from their first home in Des Moines, Iowa to their new home out in the country, but then the week happened. From a continued crisis in Iran and the other country known as "Jon and Kate Plus a Divorce-ville" to crazy sports stories (College World Series, U.S. Open, Wimbleton, a near upset of the century with U.S. Soccer) to the celebrity deaths. And who are we kidding, our society was shocked more by the celebrity deaths than anything else this week. In fact, the Michael Jackson death was the first death to actually stop the Internet with facebook, cnn, Twitter, and several other sites actually grinding to a standstill due to an overload of people. A friend and I once challenged ourselves to think of 5 people in the world whose death would bring the world to a standstill and would cause mourning worldwide. World leaders/former leaders and old people were excluded. Michael Jackson was one of our five....and we were right! (Nelson Mandela, Muhammed Ali, Tiger Woods were others mentioned). And with any death, memories are what we turn to. I am at a unique age where I don't remember the Jackson 5, but I remember his 80s music and his effect on pop culture, TV, videos, dance, and music today. I also became an adult and understood the legal and moral issues he found himself caught up in, so my memories are mixed. But I have learned both through books and through life that our memories tend to be more positive than actual reality and those memories get even more positive with time (actually, counselors and investigators know this and consider this when evaluating patients/suspects). I have reflected a lot this week on memories and their importance due to 2 events, neither of them a "celebrity death".




The first, actually kind of is a celebrity death and one that was the lead story on cnn and espn.com before other celebrities took over. The tragic shooting death of Ed Thomas, a football coach, teacher, father, Grandfather, religious leader, community leader, etc., etc., etc. in the Applington-Parkersburg district in northern Iowa. He was killed in the school weightroom in front of 15-20 of his own players. The "suspect" is a former player and no motive is known. Considering his mental state and recent behavior (attempted to destroy a random home over the weekend with a bat and was talking gibberish), a motive will likely never be known. The only guess is that his recent stay in a hospital for a psych eval. likely triggered a memory and Ed Thomas took the brunt of that memory. It was likely even a positive memory. In fact, most only have positive memories of Coach Thomas. He put his heart and soul not only into coaching football, but also into being a teacher, a family man, etc., etc. He rallied the community nearly one year ago today after a tornado nearly wiped the town from the map. He put 4 players in the NFL. He was the 2005 NATIONAL High School Coach of the year voted by the NFL. But when you listened to his players and community members tell their memories, you knew Ed Thomas was special, more special than the accomplishments that can be listed on paper. It made me think about all the things we do in our life and all of our accomplishments and how what really matters is what people remember. With each celebrity death this week, I read about the celebrity, but what struck me was the memories mentioned and the emotion of those memories. So, what will people remember about me when I die? Hmmm....makes me think about what I do in my life.




A second event that triggered my reflections on memories is our move to the country which takes place in less than 12 hours now. This was our first house and the house we brought our children home to. Heck, even brought our cats (our other kids) home to! I am never emotional about houses, I just want out and into the next one, but this week made me start to re-think everything. We really do have a lot of memories in this house. So, since I like lists....here we go, my Top 10 memories of our house. RIP Barry house: June 2003-June 2009.




1. Bringing Jack home to our house, May 1st. Snowed on the way home. House was in mid-50s since we didn't turn on heat. Heck, it was 75 degrees when we left to give birth to him just 2 days earlier!
2. Bringing Abby home. Sorry, Abby, 2nd place. She came home in March to much better weather and a much pinker room. Actually, scratch that, my memory is failing. I forgot that Reagan didn't know she was a girl until born, only I knew she was a girl. So her room was pretty blank.
3. Wine-tasting Year 1. That was quite a night. Any night of novice wine-drinkers becoming moderate experts via google and a lot of tasting is a good night. One post-drinking injury and a golf ball thrown at a wall topped off the night.
4. Poker on the deck well into the morning. Ahhh...man-ly times. My first manly memory of the house and it only ranks #4, ouch.
5. The Flood of 2005. Jack was less than 2 weeks old and Reagan lifted a big screen TV nearly all by herself. 8 inches of rain in 4 days and a basement saved by a couple who decided to fight the flood all night long and all day long the next day. We saved the basement and all of our furniture and through some dirtwork and a new sump pump, we have been dry since.
6. Santa's visit in 2008. Surprisingly his first and last visit to our house here in Easter Lake. Every other year he found us at some other house. But this past year, he found Jack and Abby and their stockings. Seeing the look on their faces when they came down the stairs....hmm....makes me think this should be #1. I love Christmas.
7. Our cats when they were kittens. Now they just throw up and attempt to ruin the carpet before we move. But once upon a time they were little and would sleep on our shoulders, actually chase things, and destroy stuff with their claws. Now they are missing half of their claws and think dumping a water bowl is enough activity for a long day. Hmmm....kittens at our new place?
8. Back to School Bashes. The beauty of moving is new memories and more parties. I am glad Reagan lets me throw parties and sometimes even likes them. Also, staying on at Carlisle lets me throw more parties for the staffs that I love so much! Next staff party in 3 weeks and another one in August!!!
9. Building things. Okay, my memory is not good here, but I am pretty sure I didn't build much. But the people we hired did and they did good. I will miss our deck and basement the most, the two things we designed and helped to build....some. The new place has these things too, but not by our design. Just not the same....
10. Family and friends. We have had a lot of family and friends through our doors and the last of them will come tomorrow to help, but my memories throughout my life always involve family and friends and are almost always good ones. My guess is that family and friends will be a big part of the new house too!




Wow....that was quite a list. I will miss this ol' house, but I am excited for the change, the extra space, and yeah, the movie theater room! But like I said, all the events of this week got me to think about memories, both short and long term. What do I say to kids during the day that they will remember at the end of the day. What do I do during the school year or during my life that people will remember long into the future and after I die? Will people's memory of me be positive or negative? What if they were interviewed for TV about me? Hmmmm......




Take care all and have a great week. Make some memories and be a positive memory for someone else. Next time you hear from me, I will be a country-boy again.




Love&Prayers,
Ben





Three things to leave you with:


1. Speaking of memories....did you know it takes about 10 positive comments or actions to replace a negative one? Doug should know this as this is something Boys Town is very strict with when training their staff and how to work with kids. I try to remember this with the kids I teach. If I get after them once or do something negative, I really have to work hard to replace that memory with positive ones. Negative comments/actions can be very damaging....



2. As a way to remember Ed Thomas, I think ESPN 360 did it best with this video. Amazing 11 minute clip filmed after the tornado last year and all the way through the first football game. Titled "Sacred Acre": http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=3591008&categoryid=3060647



3. Other interesting discussion games to play with family or friends. List 5 events for the following:
1. 5 biggest world events in your lifetime (inventions or shifts in human nature don't count)
2. 5 biggest things to happen in your life (this includes everything...so the creation of the Internet/email could work here, but not for question #1)
3. 5 biggest events to affect you. (9-11 likely affected you, but the Cold War maybe not so much unless you think it did. It didn't to me due to being so young, but likely did my parents)
4. 5 biggest events of your life (this might be birth, marriage, something more personal. 9-11 could still be here if personal to you)

Fatherhood....it's Simple, Right?

Well, in short, no it's not simple. Not simple at all. I'm not just saying this because I am a "Summertime-Stay-At-Home Dad" that potty-trained my daughter and taught my son how to add and subtract in the first 3 weeks of summer. I am saying that because it really is hard and really does take a lot of work!

I learned how hard being a Dad was at a young age when I would wear myself out arguing with my own Dad and he always seemed to win. I was usually huffing and puffing and falling asleep exhausted from my antics and yelling and he would go on about his day. I thought I was working hard, so he must have outworked me. In fact, when growing up, I actually learned all the subjects of school from my own Dad (Tim Barry if you haven't figured this out yet). Let me explain....


Math: Dad had very good math skills. He gave us 3.2% raises to our allowances every year. This was in-line with inflation, never much more. That is how a good business, er, family is run. He also made sure we donated 10% to charity, 10% to church, 50% had to go in the bank, leaving us with basically nothing. And now all of us boys get made fun of for saving too much money. Well, we are only used to spending 30% of our paycheck! Lastly, Dad had us work on our own math skills by picking dandelions for a penny a dandelion top. A great science lesson about the spreading of weed seeds was unfortunately missed here, but we all new how to multiply by 1 to get loads of money, sometimes over a $1.

Social Studies: Well, more math was involved here. Hmmm...cross-curricular lesson...nice work Dad! Dad had us dribble up and down the highway (okay, not the best lesson or the safest, but hey, it was a different era) and keep track of our miles dribbled. Once we had dribbled 52.5 miles, we could go to Missouri Valley and back for dinner (26.25 miles away...more math!). Parents would pay! If we saved our miles, we could go to Omaha for dinner by cashing in our miles. Basically, my Dad was our first "Rewards" Credit card. Dad also taught up about the U.S. by taking us on many vacations, always driving there. Nothing better than telling people you drove to Maine, New Orleans, and California in your childhood and took a plane to Chicago. The difference was that Mom was in charge of the Chicago trip.

English/language: Wow, I could talk forever here. We learned a ton of swear words most kids didn't learn. Dad is the nicest guy I know, but when he gets mad, he really gets mad. He shouts every swear word ever created in the English language, most at the exact same time. Nearby priests would not say Dad sinned, they would more likely weep and pray as they would assume he was speaking in tounges. Us boys would usually just laugh until Dad made eye contact and then we would kick something and act angry too. My favorite swear words by Dad: "Mother Fussing Posibitchinay", "Son of a Rippo", "Sussapono bitchazz ahh", and a few others. It was quite interesting.

Spelling: No, we did not learn spelling from Dad. Actually, we learned how to not spell from Dad.

Science: We learned a lot about how technology works from Dad as he was determined to fix things on his own. This usually meant anything electrical or metallic came apart and all their pieces spread out. From here, it was really a crapshoot. Most times we learned how a phone works and how to call for help. Sometimes, we would help Dad put things back together. Our broken chainsaw became a pencil sharpener, our push mower became a loud child's toy, and our moped became a bicycle. Okay, so not everything got fixed like new, but nothing went to waste and we never told Dad that it didn't look right. Oh, I also learned about electricity when Dad got stuck by electricity to our dryer for 8 seconds (longest electrical attachment by human to in-home device without 911 call in Iowa history) and about the human body when my first childhood memory got etched into my young brain at age 4: Dad being pulled out by the Jaws of Life from an auger that he stepped into. Whenever I tell people I can't stand the site of blood or electricity, I remind myself that my first 2 childhood memories are the problem. As for learning about the birds and the bees, well, I won't even get into that. Those that I have told about Dad's teaching of this important lesson still can't believe the story....

Physical Education: Let's just say watching my Dad "pump iron" with the 5 pound bar and "25's" on each side of the bar along with his post-shower pushups and situps before alot of clothes got put on his body told me all I need to know about physical fitness. Sadly, these were more of my first childhood memories. And sadly, no, I don't exercise anymore.


So, was fatherhood hard for my Dad? Well, first of all, it is still going on and just as hard for him as he is now a Grandfather. But outside of getting his foot in a 1000-rotation per second auger, getting electrocuted until what hair he had on his head stood, breaking and fixing most technology we owned, Dad made it look pretty easy. See, Dad does the things a father should do: he listened whenever we needed him too, he attended every event we were in (not just sports, but music, 4-H, and presentations too), he loved our mother and helped her whenever she needed it, and he talked with us and taught up values and morals.

I was never sure if I would be a good father. There is no manual, you just train your whole life and then when you have your first child, you throw everything out the window and just do what you can and try your best. In fact, I studied counseling the past 3 years and now I have 2 months before I become a counselor. I know I will throw everything out the window and just try my best to be the best counselor I can be. The funny thing is that what I learned from my Dad and my own "fatherly" experiences, I will use as a counselor. They seem to be the same job! I have been trained as a counselor to listen, give gentle advice and guide, set boundaries for young people, use humor, be empathic, and advocate and support my students. Hmmm....Dad did all those things for me and I try to do all those things for my kids too. Suddenly, I realize my "new" job isn't so new at all, it's just being a Dad to alot more kids. But.....it will still be a hard job that will take hard work everyday to be a good Dad, er, counselor.

Happy Father's Day all!
Love&Prayers,
Ben

3 Things to leave you with:
1) Do you have a Smart Phone? I don't. But they are getting much cheaper. If you are a Dad and got a smart phone for your special day or simply a Dad that already has one, take a look at this TIME magazine site. The top 10 Smart Phone Apps. for Dads: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1906008_1906001,00.html

2)If you aren't watching what is unfolding in Iran and how technology is helping the "revolution", you should be. I don't care if it doesn't interest you or its tough to watch, what is happening there affects nearly everything in our future...maybe even our present.

3) Watched Star Trek with my Dad this week. Very good movie. Oddly enough, it blended my Dad's Star Trek with my love of JJ Abrams (LOST, Fringe, Alias, Star Trek) and our generations together. And we both liked it! Next movie I will see?? It will be in our theater room in our new home in 8 days!

If you are reading this blog, the world did not end!

Last night my son came down and requested a private talk with Mommy, not Daddy. Apparently, he remembered a talk earlier in the week about death and how we would all die someday and now this talk was keeping him up at night and causing him to cry. Wow.....talk of death at age 4! What brought on this talk and thoughts of death? (I mean, besides my earlier revelation to him) Was it his genius mind thinking things through? Was it something that happened during the day? Was it his Daddy's mission to kill all ants he sees? Or was is simply mass media's attempt to take something like the Digital TV switchover and create the feeling that the world could be ending! Actually, for those addicted to reality TV, yet no cable/satellite/or digital conversion magic box, their world has basically ended. I mean, seriously....without rich men picking from 25 celebrity and money hungry bimbos, thousands of Americans who think they can dance, sing, or chew gum and walk, or celebrities who starred in movies that rank between 300 and 500 on my all time list and are now stuck in a jungle that magically has 42 night-vision cameras, how will the world really go on? But all this brings me to my real point.....we live in a world of 24-hour media coverage through a 1000 different networks and avenues and all they can really do to get noticed is to make the simple thing seem like the end of the world, or at least a reason to visit your local grocery store and buy enough can foods and water to wait out the panic. Phew...glad I had my pork and beans and 4 gallons of water yesterday, it was chaos outside during "the conversion" (which even sounds a little religious/end of times too doesn't it?)

Over the past year, I thought about blogging several times about these "end of times" stories. 2 of our 3 local stations would sign off from the nightly news every night with a second-by-second countdown timer of when the digital TV switch would occur. Talk about chaos, when the deadline was extended by 4 months, those countdown timers had to be reset! But good thing it was extended as 40% of the American population was not ready. Seriously? Not ready? I know the economy is rough and all, but all you need is cable or satellite TV or a freaking toaster oven on your TV that magically switches your picture. DISH has a package for $9.99, you just don't get much (local plus C-Span plus Reality network I assume, the crap channels). And now word is that given a 4 month extension, 35% Americans still weren't ready! So....we were tested with the "end of the world" and 40% weren't ready. Then the TV Gods (and the government) threw us a bone and gave us 4 more months to prepare and only 5% more people took this seriously? I hope we do better when Rapture begins! I'm confused...let's look at another end of times event and see how we fared.

Ahh, the Swine Flu, er, pardon me: H1N1. Even though the Swine Flu was not really only caused by swine and couldn't be transmitted by eating pork, the name change didn't matter, the public was already pigphobic. Great job media, you should be a lawyer. Put something out there and then try to take it back and hope the jury "doesn't consider it". Egypt ordered all 300,000 living hogs in their country be slaughtered immediately? Huh? Well, at least now we have some people taking the end of the world seriously. But Egypt is battle-tested and been through this end of the world stuff before (see Bible for more details) But alas, the media loved this story and went with a different timeline than the World Health Organization (WHO). I know this because yesterday the flu finally was deemed pandemic and the most serious level it can reach. The media didn't cover this as they had already exhausted all the facts and rumors of this story and were on to more important stories (see California paegant news, Conan O'Brien's debut, and the rigged Iranian election). But you have to give it to the media, they had us buying canned foods, water, and masks again to avoid the disease that could "end the world". I wore my son's Darth Vadar mask to school for a solid week! God forbid we actually do some research and see that up to March 31st, the Swine flu had killed 1 American while the regular flu (Influenza A) had killed 13,000 Americans. Yes, that is 13,000 to 1. If that was a football score, you might be an Iowa State fan and might be very depressed. But Influenza A doesn't sell, swine does. Well, not pork, but swine does. And the world went into a panic, schools closed, businesses shuttered, and yes even my church stopped shaking hands at the sign of peace. However, they did keep drinking wine all from the same communal cup. Gotta love Catholics. Friendly handshakes?? No way dude, you could have the flu! Pass me the cup, I need my alcohol before 10 a.m., I mean I need the blood of Christ...I don't care if I am 243rd in line!

As a teacher, I got emails on how to protect myself and my students. I was instructed on how to sanitize tables, chairs, and doorknobs. I was to talk to my students about the importance of cleanliness. Schools and teachers were going to fight this disease using prevention and we will overcome! Hmmm....can you imagine if media would cover STDs to this level and schools were given permission to fight these? 1 in 3 teens has an STD (compared to 1 in 39 million American teens who have the Swine Flu) yet my students are touching doorknobs with rubber gloves in order to open it to leave the building and go have unprotected sex with someone they chatted with on Myspace. What is wrong with this picture? With mass media coverage and current technology, I have twitter and facebook updates telling me of the dangers of a disease that has killed 1,965 people worldwide....in the history of the world! And the students listen to every word and follow the media's instructions. But when it comes to AIDS, STDs, lung cancer, and simple diahrrea (one of the 3 leading causes of death worldwide), I can't convince anyone of the dangers of smoking, drugs by needles, or unprotected sex! These diseases have killed MORE THAN A BILLION WORLDWIDE throughout history! Huh? C'mon media, focus on the real problems! I won't even go into the government handing money left and right to countries and agencies to fight the Swine Flu, yet Bill Gates and Bono seem to be the only rich people that care about the spread of AIDS worldwide.

Anyway, my overall point is that our current 999 channel TVs and the Worldwide Internet plus bloggers like me, need stories to cover and overcover. Unfortunately, good stories don't sell and everything must be made to be the "greatest threat to mankind ever". So, at the age of 31, I have already lived through the Flood of the millenium, blizzard of the century, 1 world pandemic, 3 countries labeled the biggest threat our country has every seen in its history, the 10 best movies of all-time (according to IMDB), the 10 worst white girl abductions from rich American families of all time, and likely whatever story the media decides we all must focus on today. Someday, I will tell my kids that I survived AIDS, Influenza, cancer, the unchanging American public education system and all my grandkids will say is "What was the Swine Flu outbreak like?", "How many terrorists did you kill?", "Did your car ever get bombed?", or "Did you ever meet a big celebrity like Perez Hilton, Spencer Pratt, or Jon and Kate? (bonus points if you know all 3 of those. And with those bonus points you win nothing but another subscription to Us Weekly and National Enquirer).

So, I don't have any solutions except to keep tons of canned goods and water in preparation for the real end of times, watch the final 10 minutes of the national news (only time when positive stories are run), and research every news story to see if it really is a big deal, and by research, I don't mean cnn.com, abc.com, msnbc.com, and fox.com. I mean neutral sites who don't get paid to have you watch their show. Wikipedia is actually decent as universities have now realized; and google searches on the topic aren't bad either. The news stories are serious and deadly and do need covered, but remember that our ancestors did live through 2 World Wars, a REAL flu pandemic, something called the American Revolution, and thousands of years where the average human didn't live past 45. And you think we have it rough and are living through some of the most amazing and horrifying events of all time? Hmmmm.....


Love&Prayers,
Ben

3 Things to leave you with:
1. http://www.snopes.com/ Seriously, if you aren't using this site to verify the facts of some email or internet rumor, you need to. Before you forward an email that claims the Swine Flu is actually developed by terrorists out to hurt the pork industry or that you get $10 from Bill Gates for forwarding a virus, check this site out.

2. If you really don't have any TV to watch b/c the conversion caught you by surprise, get satellite TV for $20 a month. That is $240 a year and can likely be made up by driving the speed limit and not buying items near the cash register (magazines, candy, pop....all nearly 500% overpriced when you compare their online or bulk prices)

3. And if you are still reading, stop reading and read the book "The Energy Bus". http://www.theenergybus.com/ This book has had a big effect on my life and is great for any educator, business person, coach, or leader. I will blog about it in the future, but for now...read it!

Did you ever realize how quickly technology is evolving?

Seriously....did you? Well, before I get into some of the "new" technology I used this past year and some of my favorite forms of technology, let me give you some quick updates:

1. House sold, house bought. Move in date still June 29th and still the house from my last blog.

2. Potty-training Abby this week. Reagan figured Jack did okay with me as his potty teacher, why not let me try Abby. Not going as easy as I would have hoped....she can't seem to pee standing up. Will have to read the manual again.

3. My school-issued laptop is back in my hands and life is good. Hence, why I am writing on technology this week. Also, due to TIME magazine's cover story on Twitter. Okay, here we go....

Seriously, did you ever stop to wonder about how quickly technology is changing? I didn't until TIME magazine's cover story on Twitter, Facebook, and the way we communicate. I have been to workshops and incorporated some cool technology into my classroom, but never really, really sat down to be amazed at how far we have come. Think about it, I am 31 years old and in my lifetime the computer moved out of an Iowa State Labratory and into our homes. In fact, the "green screen" computer that I grew up on is basically still around...its at my Uncle's house! The ol' Apple IIe. Then I started dating Reagan and the Internet was "invented". So, I have been with Reagan for half of my life and the Internet has only been around for the same amount of time. But in that time, computers moved from our desktops to our laps to our watches to our ears to our glasses to our calculators, etc., etc. We won't even get into how my Number Munchers Math game evolved into Halo 3 or "Car-Jack and Kill Innocent People for Fun 9"! Although, I suppose counting your ammo and kills could help math skills some. But since this is supposed to be a blog to help you all catch up on my life, let me tell you about some of my favorite forms of technology I learned or "joined" this past year.

Facebook: Most of you are reading this blog due to Facebook. Why? Well, duh, I posted a link to this blog as my status. My true friends likely went back to read the first 40 blogs that they missed (Hint, hint!). Joining near the end of 2008 changed my life as I now have a way to stay in touch with almost half of my graduating high school class. Okay, that is only about 13, but still that's cool! I also stay in touch with my teaching staff and even some former students. Not current students though....I am not stupid. Facebook may be great, but it does have its downside. Oh, and most of my family is on facebook too, just not my Dad or Mom. But they are easy enough to get a hold of by IM, email, text, or cell phone. More technology....

Internet video: Did you know you can search your favorite websites on an archive site to see what they looked like 5-10 years ago? Check out this version of espn.com from 1999: http://web.archive.org/web/19990420125538/http://espn.go.com/

Yeah, no video. Now, most websites have videos and commercials that pop up. In fact, latest research shows almost 10% of the U.S population watches a majority of their TV on their computer. Sites like hulu.com, youtube.com, and your network sites will play almost every episode of every show you like. For a family like mine with kids, this is great in case we miss our favorite episode of LOST, 24, or "Jon and Kate plus 8 plus paparazzi plus marital problems plus insane lady who doesn't get that money and fame is ruining their lives". My middle school students love days when they come into the classroom and see Youtube up on the wall even if they know I simply found another educational video stuck between "man gets hit in the junk by a bulldog" or "2-year old girl sings the Star Spangled Banner and now has life ruined by Youtube stalkers". On demand video has changed the way we live, but also changed the way we/I teach. I rarely order videos from the AEA anymore as most videos can be found online through sites our school subscribes too!

Two of my students' favorite youtube class videos:

Inspiration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ZuKF3dxCY

research done by ISU professor: http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEnFwiqdx8

DVR: So, why don't I watch my shows on my little computer screen? Well, that's because we also added DVR to our house. Thank you, DISH network! I heard a lot of people saying "Why would NBC sign Jay Leno to do 5 show a week at 9 o'clock? Why not put shows on at that time?" Well, DVR is your answer. The most watched channel at 9 o'clock in the U.S. is no longer a channel, its a lifestyle. You see, more Americans are watching a DVR'd (or TIVO'd or "tape-recorded"...do they still make VCR and VHS tapes?) show than watching any one network show. Amazing! I thought so until I looked at my life and my wife's life. We watch about 5 network shows, none of those on at 9, but we watch most of our TV from 9-11 p.m., all on DVR and all without commercials. In fact, on good nights, our kids are in bed by 8:20 and we watch our 8 o'clock show from 8:20 to 9:00 by cutting out the 20 minutes of commercials and by 9:00 we are caught up with Live TV. Thinking about catching up to live TV just sounds weird to type, but with kids DVR is a must, simply for the fact that you can pause and rewind to see what you missed during the "I was playing with the plastic measuring cup Daddy gave me as a present first" fight or to rush a kid to the potty before our carpet gets another stain before an open house. Wow...I love my DVR and its going with me to the new house!

Texting: Yes, I did it, I finally got unlimited texting to my phone. Although I resisted at first, being through counseling classes I realized I must be open to all opportunities. I gave myself 2 weeks to attempt to use texting for whatever I could to see if I could find a purpose outside of loud bars or rock concerts. With 2 kids, a decreased alcohol tolerance, and my only concert ever being a Mannheim Steamroller Christmas concert, I needed to find other uses to justify this purchase. Turns out, I like it and have found uses. Maybe not always good ones or ones that have a point, but I did find uses. And I no longer get charged 25 cents when my cool friends/family text me. So I guess this means I luv text mesgs n havn fun doin them win the time is rite! :)

and if you need help with text acronyms: http://www.netlingo.com/acronyms.php wow.

So, what does this all mean? Well, I never even got to Twitter and that was what TIME magazine wrote about. I really didn't see the point in Twitter until reading the article. They talked about an educational workshop with a big screen. All workshoppers (is that a word?) logged into Twitter and during the conference could Twitter their thoughts and questions as the workshop continued. Like writing notes and questions for all to see. Then those questions and notes were answered or led to new questions. Then people from around the world who were not even at the conference started twittering with those at the workshop after finding this twittering online. Next thing you know, this little workshop had educators from all over the world working together and having a "discussion". This same philosophy is being used in churches, governments, corporations, and yes, even in the college and high school classrooms. Our school may not Tweet yet, but we do Moodle....a whole other story for another day! But what does this really mean? Am I out of a job since my job is all about listening and "being there for another person". Well, yes and no. I need to learn to use this technology both in the classroom and in my counseling. I need to understand the technology and how it can lead to problems in my students' lives (cyber bullying, sexting, YIKES!) But the beauty of counseling is that counseling is most successful face-to-face, human to human. And that is the best way to communicate still this day, face-to-face, human to human. Technology is great and the methods above are fun, but we must remember that humans communicate 80% by body language. Without seeing each other's bodies (almost done...keep mind out of gutter), we cannot truly communicate. With that knowledge and lesson, I will sign off until I connect with you again by blog, email, IM, text, call, Twitter, social network site, etc. :)

Love&Prayers,

Ben

Three things to leave you with:

1. Favorite technologies I hope to experience in the next year: Itouch (getting it later this summer), movie theater systems (in new house), more touch screen tech. in our life. See youtube to see how this will change our future yet again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP5y7yp06n0

2. Favorite current touch screen technology: REDBOX movies. If you are not renting from Redbox kiosks, you are crazy. $1.06 per movie. Quick. Easy. Free and discount codes in case you don't want to spend a $1.06. Simple. Love it.

3. Favorite websites of past year: http://www.pandora.com/ (online radio stations you create yourself. Currently listening to Green Day station), http://www.protrade.com/ (sports stock trading site that is funding my Itouch as a prize I earned), http://www.google.com/ (duh, always my favorite), http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ (movie review site and commonly known as the #1 movie review site online now), http://www.comingsoon.com/ (movie trailer site for people like me who love movie previews but never get to the movies anymore to see them. Check out the preview for "Where the Wild Things Are", my favorite movie trailer of all time!)

"Did we sell the cats too?"

New house "theater room" New house from outside

The summer blogging series is back! I know, all of you had your calendars marked for Memorial Day or even yesterday and were crushed when you couldn't read my blog. Well, I will make it up to you. I plan to blog twice a week this summer and maybe even once a week during the school year! Huh? Are you crazy? Well, yes, actually, but that is besides the point. Most of that is genetic, not my fault! Anyway, I have a lot to catch you up on from the past year, so let's get started....

Almost exactly one year ago today, we put our house on the market with For Sale By Owner. We had eliminated 1/2 of our furniture and crap by sending it on a truck to Western Iowa...man our house looks better now without that stuff! We had cleaned, and I mean deep-cleaned. We even had a garage sale as a way to advertise our house to the masses. We handed out fliers with a finders fee. At that point, we should have alerted to government of the coming recession. See, it didn't dawn on us that only one customer wanted a flier all weekend, yet Jack's underwear, a broken satellite dish, and everything from the "free" box sold. Huh? You want crap, but not this house? What? Well, that was the beginning of what is now called the "Great recession", which is pretty bad, but made worse by media and our new love of thinking everything that happens to us happens to be the worst event in history. (see Flood of the century, hurricane of the century, and the Royals baseball teams of the 1990s) But we waited patiently all summer showing our house here and there. We dropped the price and we hired a realtor and dropped the price again and again. During this time, the leaves turned brilliant colors and we enjoyed nights on our lovely deck by the firepit drinking cheap wine talking about how soon our house would sell. The snow fell....it was winter and 6 months since our house was on the market. The recession was in full swing and the optimism of an Obama presidency couldn't even change matters...it actually got worse! We started to wonder if we would ever sell our house. On top of that, we were thinking of adding a 3rd child and not having much success and I was about to begin my final semester of grad school, my internship, with a very bleak job market and possibly a pay cut! That was when I invented "the circle".
The "circle" was where my life got stuck going around from January to May. Everyday, same old thing. House didn't sell, job opportunities were nowhere to be found, and my internship drug on. Even my internship assignment to log every moment of my life minus my bathroom breaks (although I logged some just to get hours and I sometimes read counseling magazines while there.) and my Internet surfing time (I probably should log that...yikes, that would be scary!) was just logging the same thing day after day.. I told my co-workers that I needed something to break the circle as I was getting dizzy with boredom. I needed change, but being bogged down by OCD tendencies and anxiety, I am not the type of person to go out and break my own circle. I needed something to happen. I couldn't pick a job without knowing where we would find a house and I didn't want to pick a house without knowing about a job. Something had to give. Everyday was getting worse and the idea of the circle was getting in my head. Then, an interesting 6 weeks happened. Our MS counselor got a job in her hometown, I moved into her job, I finished my internship and graduated Drake with my Masters (only Iowa State left to graduate from for Reagan and I), and then we finally got someone to agree to look at our house for the 2nd time.....and he liked it. He put an offer after "flipping a coin" between our house and another and landed on ours. No word on whether we were heads or tails, but I am betting heads, I always bet heads. We didn't feel confident enough to do a counter offer and we didn't want to lose our first offer in 350 days, so we just accepted and high-fived each other. Jack, still being awake, also got excited and high-fived when I told him "We just sold our house!". He cheered and said "YES!". Then looked sad for a little while and said "Did we sell the cats too?". After laughing, I told him no and he relayed the good news to Bo and Jangles. In the week since this event, we have bid back and forth on a house that we loved since last June and landed that house today. So, the circle is officially smashed and I am proceeding along a line towards my future now. But.....was I really in a circle or have I just come full circle? Reagan and I both grew up on farm land on or near rock roads and our house is an acreage on a rock road. We are moving and starting a new job again, just like 7 years ago for Reagan. And at some point, we will have child number 3 and will go through diapers, sleepless nights, and temper tantrums again. Sounds a lot like being in a very large circle. Say...the "Circle of Life"? With all that said, I think the past year may not have been circles after all as it seems everything we did had to be done in order to get to where we are today. Maybe the circles were just in my head??

Anyway, the school year is done, we are moving in less than 4 weeks, and I have a new job and house to prepare for. I plan to keep you posted of all the interesting details of the past year as well as the upcoming summer with these blogs. I also hope to alert you to interesting facts, favorites, and things I like along the way in my final 3 things section. I thank all of you for the prayers, the communication, and the thoughts over the past year and pass all those prayers and thoughts back to you. Take care and enjoy the summer!

Love&Prayers,
Ben

3 things:
1. Best movies I have seen the past year (haven't seen many): The Dark Knight, Slumdog Millionaire (lived up to the hype and then some), and 7 Pounds (not sure why critics hated this one)
2. Best books I have read....okay....only read 2, but they were good: The Last Lecture and Outliers. Both very thought-provoking. The Last Lecture should be read by every person, including every educator. Outliers is simply very interesting.
3. Best website that I learned about: Facebook. I joined late last year and love staying connected with everyone, including most of you. It is addicting, but already a part of our strange and ever-changing culture.