My kids rock...

My oldest daughter, (I'll call her Honey Bee), doodled this logo for the blog. I need to do a higher quality scan job, but I had soon-to-be, son-in-law quick scan it so I could brag a little about the kids. Somewhere along the line Sunny and I did something right. We have four spectacular and talented children.

The Bee is a tremendous artist, writer, poet, singer, scrap-booker and mother. She is 23 now and I couldn't be more proud of her. She is making a pretty good living and is re-contemplating school now that the kids are a little older. She will go far in life. She almost won Taryn's Karaoke Idol contest one year, but Jesse Tinsley took the title. The Bee got a well deserved second place.

You know what amazes me is that all of my children are talented in the arts. Sure I have my talents, and so does Sunny. but our kids seem to excel in areas that neither of us really did.

My second oldest, (I'll call her Ty), blew us away when she decided to take debate in 8th grade and won a state title. She wasn't even supposed to compete in her grade level, but blew past even the older competitors. She is a dynamic public speaker. That experience motivated her to run for school office and she won every campaign she started. She even beat out a senior for all-school president when she was junior and then took the all-school presidency again in her senior year, which earned her a scholarship at NIC, where she is about to graduate with an AA in business. She wants to open her own hair salon (which she is also excellent at). We have no doubt she will figure out a way to pull that off.

Her brother, and my third oldest, is a scrapping 6-foot-four with one of the biggest hearts I know. He is a great artist as well. He also taught himself how to play guitar and the harmonica. I am blown away by his sense of responsibility and maturity. At his age, 18, you don't see those qualities much these days. How many young men do you know who would drop everything to go help a neighbor shovel a couple of piles of gravel, or swing by his grandpa's house to make sure he's doing Ok?

And our youngest daughter, Daisy Girl, is showing some of the same traits as her siblings -- especially in art, public speaking, music and photography. She is also in volunteering her time, and has a dream to one day help an African community with clean water technologies.

Sunny and I are blessed, I tell you. I can remember thinking that if my kids are only half the trouble I was as a kid, I'd consider myself a success. So far, I am successful beyond all of my expectations. It kind of like Owen Wilson's line in Marley and Me: " I just keep on surprising myself..."

Back to the graphic. I'll have to rework the site soon and incorporate that into the design. I'll also get on that blog role.