Presenting Allison and Peyton’s first music video: I’m Only Me When I’m With You, by Taylor Swift… or as Allison affectionately refers to it, My Loud Song.
The girls love to listen to this one over and over and over and over and, well you get the picture. They ask me to turn it up as loud as I can and they dance their little hearts out to it for as long as I am willing to let it play. After a few of these dance sessions, I thought it might be a good idea to get my camera out, since I have a few of them lying around.
The coolest part about it for the Dad behind the camera is seeing the love they have for each other come through the lens in this video - and you should see them watch it and get excited about seeing each other on screen. They have probably already watched the video about 3700 times in the few hours since I finished it… and the word I expect to hear as soon as it ends: Again. Play it again!
So, without further delay, we present, for the first time anywhere, Allison and Peyton, accompanied by Taylor Swift in their world premiere video, “I’m Only Me When I’m With You”.
Enjoy.
Posted 2 years, 2 months ago at 7:43 pm. Add a comment
Ok, so it was short lived and there wasn’t that much snow, but when you have a 4 year old that has been looking forward to seeing snow, any amount of snow is worth celebrating.
Enjoy.
Posted 2 years, 5 months ago at 5:28 pm. Add a comment
It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a week since we made the trip up to Dallas for what is always the most anticipated game of the season.
It was my 19th Texas-ou game in the last 21 years to see in person.
There really is nothing like it. The State Fair of Texas… 92,000 rabid fans decked out in burnt orange or crimson… split right down the 50 yard line… 47,000 fans cheering on every play… Fletcher’s corny dogs… boomer sooner… TEXAS FIGHT!
Since she was born, I’ve had a lot of people tell me that my oldest daughter is a mirror image of her old man. And while I can certainly see the family resemblance that proves that I have in deed passed a great deal of my genes on to my baby girl, it would seem to me that a lot of our similarities end at the outward appearance.
This morning I was on the phone talking business with a good friend of mine and as we were talking about upcoming deadlines and billing issues, I suddenly took notice of just how patient my little girl was being as she waited for me to get off the phone so she could ask me a question. Now, for a 3 year old to understand patience and even more for to put it into practice so well is in and of itself noteworthy, and it is just one of the many things that I am so proud of her for. But even more than that, what struck me in that moment was just how much better a person she is than I am in so many ways.
In fact, the realization hit me so hard in the moment that I just blurted it out to my friend, “My daughter is so sweet — and I’m really not a very good person” I’m sure to him that sounded like about as random and strange a comment as I’m likely to throw out there, but fortunately, he is a very good friend and he is no stranger to my seemingly out of left field thoughts.
What I realized in that moment was that at the tender age of 3, there is so much I have to learn from her… and how much I hope all of my many shortcomings don’t mess her up too much.
While I may be more well versed and practiced at the socially acceptable behaviors that would suggest patience, politeness and general good manners, in her heart, she has me beat by a long shot. Though she doesn’t know as well how to hide her flaws, she doesn’t need to since she has so many fewer to try to conceal.
I won’t go through the laundry list of all the things she already excels at, but I will say this:
She makes me want to be a better man, a better husband, a better father and a better example.
Posted 2 years, 7 months ago at 2:19 pm. Add a comment
It was 5 years ago today that I woke up early and headed to the hospital to have surgery to remove a tumor - a tumor that tests would later confirm was testicular cancer.
5 years ago today we were just starting a potentially scary journey on an uncertain path.
There was talk of possibly needing to do chemotherapy.
There was talk of a very serious RPLND surgery that would’ve removed all of the lymph nodes between my pelvis and my neck.
There was talk that I may or may not have been able to have kids.
As it turns out, I was very lucky and in my case it was all just talk.
When I walked out of Seton Hospital 5 years ago today after recovering from surgery, I was effectively cancer free.
In the days that followed, it was confirmed that I did in fact have cancer, but none of the worst case scenarios came to be.
I didn’t have to do chemo or the RPLND surgery and as has been well documented on this blog, I have 2 beautiful little girls.
Yes, I have gotten to know the process of CT scans and blood draws much better than I ever thought I would and I’ve become very acquainted with several great nurses and doctors as we’ve closely watched for any signs of cancer’s return, but so far we’ve found nothing.
So in my mind, today is an anniversary of being healed from cancer. Even though the medical community needed a little more convincing over the past few years that the cancer was gone and wasn’t coming back, to me today is the day we beat cancer.
I say we because I didn’t face it alone.
By the Grace of God, the power of prayer of so many people, and some wonderful doctors and nurses that God provided for me, we beat cancer 5 years ago today.
My wife, my parents, my family, my friends and even my yet unborn daughters beat cancer 5 years ago today.
Above is a photo of a cancer free me, a wonderful wife that traveled the sometimes scary path with me and two amazing little girls that we didn’t know we would ever be able to have 5 years ago today.
We have truly been very blessed.
Today is my 1,827th consecutive cancer free day — Happy Cancer Free Anniversary to us all.
Posted 2 years, 8 months ago at 9:23 am. Add a comment
With the return of football season and all the talk of a possible former player reunion lately, it got me to digging into the archives and pulling out this little gem from some memorable Friday nights lights gone by.
It’s hard to believe it’s been almost two decades since the last time this video was viewed publicly. It was one of my first attempts at editing a highlight video, and the tools I had at my disposal then were nothing like I enjoy now - and though I couldn’t resist touching up a few transitions and graphics, this is still basically the same video Corby and I put together in 1990. The footage is old and remastered from decaying VHS tapes, but it is still a fun little piece of my history - both as an editor and a player.
Posted 2 years, 9 months ago at 8:50 am. Add a comment
These days it seems like life is always moving at a pretty brisk clip. Between the craziness of fathering two young kids, working and trying to wedge in some “leisure” time - which, let’s face it, can often be anything but truly leisurely- it seems like most of us are going 90 miles an hour with our hair on fire.
Yeah, maybe I have a small advantage over some of you out there in the hair on fire department - or maybe I was going so hard and so fast that my hair just flat burned off - but either way, we all seem to have a problem down-shifting and slowing it down a bit.
This morning, I came across the following quote that made me stop and think a bit:
We Christians must simplify our lives or lose untold treasures on earth and in eternity. Modern civilization is so complex as to make the devotional life all but impossible. The need for solitude and quietness was never greater than it is today.
— A. W. Tozer
It is true that my life these days does make devotional time very hard to come by. There always seems to be someone running into my office, a email dinging on my Blackberry, a phone call coming in or a deadline looming… and in the few moments when the stars align long enough for all of those things to take a brief time out, I tend to realize I am so exhausted that sleep rapidly creeps up on me.
So the challenge today is to become more intentional about carving out time for the solitude and quiet that will help me better hear God’s voice. A time when I divert from the daily grind, leave the computer and the Blackberry in the office, put the kids to bed and take time to just be still.
Surprisingly, being still may just prove to be the biggest challenge of all.
Posted 2 years, 11 months ago at 10:40 am. Add a comment
A few weeks ago we had our family’s first photo shoot with someone other than me taking the pics - and I have to say that we could not have more pleased with our experience. If you’re looking for a great photographer that is very affordable, call Amy at Amy Melsa Photography. You won’t be disapointed. Here is a small sneak preview of just some of the amazing images she captured — and these are low res screen grabs. We haven’t gotten our masters yet, but they will be even better than what you see below.
The other day Allison saw me doing some work on my camera and of course she wanted to get hands on with it and learn how to use it - just like she was with wanting to learn how to edit. (Teach Me to Work, Daddy)
I let her start working the camera a little bit and the photo album in my head told me that I had seen this somewhere before. So I grabbed my camera and started shooting.
What can I say? Like father, like daughter once again - and it doesn’t stop there.
As I type this entry, I’m watching Madagascar 2 with my girls and believe it or not, Allison is quoting parts of it… she’s 3 years old and she’s quoting movies already.
Like I said - like father, like daughter.
Posted 3 years, 3 months ago at 7:51 pm. Add a comment
