Adoption - four years down

It was four years ago today that Dan and I sealed the adoption deal. And oh what a deal! Three different homes, a broken rake, busted lock boxes, three trips to the emergency room, one 90 day D&A program, one thirty day boot camp, a job at the truck wash, and several bottles of Excedrin. Cussing, swearing, taking off in the middle of the night, knife holes in doors, strange people in my home, and girlfriends. MDEs, IEPs, and 'Five Star'. What fun we have had.

Fishing trips to Canada, Christmas Holidays, Risk, Milk Money, and other games. Shooting guns, gutting fish, trying to make his life better was my wish. Satisfaction has finally come in seeing Dan become a trusted and respected craftsman. Thank You Mia!

Was it all worth it, I ask myself? Answer - Hell Yea!

The Tan Man is a poet

Nicole's son Tanner wrote a piece of poetry. I asked if I could share it. Here it is!

If I Were In Charge Of The World

I'd cancel long school days,

Music classes in school ,

Unnecessary doctors appointments,and also

Nasty tasting broccoli.

If I were in charge of the world

There'd be extra food in school,

A lot more gym,and

Dolphins for pets.

If I were in charge of the world

You wouldn't have household chores.

You wouldn't have any harmful animals.

You wouldn't have homework,

or "wake up it's time for school."

You wouldn't have mean brothers (only nice ones).

If I were in charge of the world

There would be no more war.

And the countries would be united with one name.

And a person who has a cold,

And is really getting old,

Would still be allowed to be

In charge of the world!

Alive in Baghdad

One of the first video podcasts that I started viewing regularly was 'Alive In Baghdad'. AiB was started in 2005 when a disgruntled(?) reporter did not like what was being sent to American news viewers. The "sound-bite driven" news models needed to be countered. The gist of AiB is that Iraqis film and produce segments from their perspective with the help of their American counterparts. AiB attempts to post a new segment each week.

The podcast has been very informative and does a great job of presenting a third view to what is going on in Iraq. The site is well worth checking out. Earlier in the school, when we had fewer students and I had more time, I would show the AiB segments to the students in the morning.

Click on the banner to go to the Alive in Baghdad site.

February Stats in Brief (very brief)

I have, with the help of Google Analytics, calculated the number of visits to 'Ecksclamation'.

In February their were 82 visits to the Ecksclamations. Just over half of those were new visitors who had not been to the site before. Keep on checking out the Blog and Thanks for the support!

Where are you politically? A short Test.

I have found an interesting little quiz for you to take. It rates your political stance. It is very short (eight questions), requires no registration, and prints your results on a cool little chart.

First, Go to the Test --

Then come back here and post your result so we can see how we score as a group.

Get Free Opinion Polls

I look forward to seeing our results!

A discussion will follow.

Yeaaa!! I can post again!!!!!

Being down was not cool. Although it was annoying and I dropped a few explicit expletives about Google, I'd have to say that they did not take overly long in clearing my blog after their Spam-Bot attacked it and shut me down.

So -- Back to blogging!