I'm Back!

You know. January and February did not exist. Somehow those two months just skipped over me. I think that it must have been a combo of work and school. Work is busy as always, but I'm a bit nervous at school. I'm taking a multicomponent mass transfer class that is supposed to be the toughest I'll take. Like everyone tells me, I'll do fine, but that still doesn't take the stress away.

And then preparing for the baby to come. :o)

Back from Vegas

Man, it's great to be home, although this week dragged on at work. There is something really interesting with the human psyche that makes a mind slow after a long break. I didn't want to do anything, anywhere. Hopefully this weekend will cure that.

I started putting tile in one of our bathrooms. I had my dad re-learn me a tad and then I sailed through the rest. It will feel good to actually finish something in this house instead of half-way doing all of it.

Ugh, my thoughts are molasses. I'm really struggling to write this today. I'm going to end this by saying I have two more days of freedom before school starts again. It will never end...

Deep into December

Well, I'm committed to December. As the last six years have shown, December is the hardest month of all both physically and spiritually. Physically because the days get shorter and the dark creeps in early. Finals lurk. The last two weeks are always too busy. Snow pretends to fall, but usually it's a combo of rain and dirt.

Spiritually because our world is quickly losing the real purpose of Christmas, spiritual meaning of gifts is lost to checking names off of a Christmas present list, more time is spent shopping than spending it with family and Christ is nowhere to be found. TV commercials make it worse.

When I was living in Russia during Christmas time, I was always confused by the way that they celebrate Christmas and New Years. You put up the tree for New Years. Santa (Grandfather Frost) comes on New Years. Presents are given on New Years. Family got together on New Years. I thought they had it all screwed up. What I didn't realize is maybe they have it right. They went to Church on Christmas.

I'm not saying that we have to give up our traditions to celebrate Christmas. I think that our traditions should enhance the spiritualness of truly celebrating Rozhdestvo (The Birth).

I'm hoping that we all can take these next few weeks and really celebrate Christmas the way it should be.

And here's an early rendition of St. Nick for fun:

Why Politics?

Typically, I don't actively write my opinion on politics, but today I read a comment by someone that said that they are glad that they are a democrat because how scary the republicans are. For some reason it really bothered me. I came to the conclusion that out of all the professions on the earth, the only one that claims it does everything for humanity, but in reality does practically nothing, is politics.

I could expound, but I'm tired and you're all smart enough to come up with supporting evidence that this is true. Honestly, my city council does more for me than the Fed will ever do. And most of them were picked because their name came first on the ballot, not from politicking.

Post- Thanksgiving thoughts

Out of all of the holidays of the year, I think my favorite is Thanksgiving. Not because of any fabricated hype by the various stores trying to win my dollar or even the turkey or family. It is my favorite because out of all of the holidays it is still the most pure. It has not been tarnished so much by political correctness or commercialization. I re-emphasize "so much" because some are trying to ruin it.

The day before Thanksgiving, I was bored at work. The "Rocket Shop" was empty and all of the not-so-urgent paperwork that was sitting on my desk did not help my mood. Instead of real work, I decided to look at what REALLY happened on the first Thanksgiving, since most of the time in school we learned how to make paper indian headbands or paper turkeys with oddly colored feathers. What I learned... not much.

I did, however, come across an article written by George Washington recommending the people of the US to take a certain day off in November in 1789 to give thanks to God for all of the blessings that they had. I recommend you all to read it at Thanksgiving Article (remember, many of the "f"s are actually "s"s). I was shocked! If any American president today said anything near to what Pres. Washington said, he'd be lynched!

So, I celebrated this past Thanksgiving the way that Gen./Pres. Washington recommended. Honestly, it was one of my favorites ever. I think that I really did feel the spirit of Thanksgiving.

Of course, I have a lot to be thankful for. And I don't mean it cliche-y. I won't list any of them here, fearful to bore you, but I'll just say it again: I have a lot to be thankful for.

And, yes, it's a boy! <>

Many firsts

Besides this being my first blog post ever in my life, there are a few other things that marks the "many firsts" occasion.

Today, I've posted a family website. Although technically it's not my first website, it is very different than any other previous website. I've been working on the style of it for many months, learning new programs and a little bit of programming on the side.

I know that Kelsea has felt a little abandoned from time to time since the inception of the "personal website" idea, but I felt like learning something new that would take my mind off of work and school. It's still "beta" so, some of it is still not working just right. Of course, any suggestions would be great. Take a look at www.brandonandkelsea.com.

Tomorrow will be the big "first" for me. It will be the first time that I will actually get to "see" the baby, my baby, or at least a graphic representation of the baby on a screen. We will also hopefully find out if it is a boy or girl as well. It will be a nice gift to all of our family this Thanksgiving. It's definitely something that I've been looking forward to for weeks now. I feel a little like Kelsea has been feeling for the last few months; I just want to see her (my guess) and her little heart move. It brings a little comfort to something that is truly unknown and uncontrollable.

I think this is enough for now. I have a lot to say, but most of it will have to wait until later.

Happy Thanksgiving!