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A Tribute to Brian on Father’s Day:

This Father’s Day marks Brian’s second as a Dad to Gwyneth!  It is hard to believe that Gwyn is over a year and a half old.  Time really does fly when you are having fun!

Speaking of fathers and fun…there are several things I love about Brian and him being a Dad.  One of those things is how much fun he has with Gwyn.  Almost every evening, he makes her laugh.  He doesn’t just make her giggle but he can make her laugh this great belly laugh that brings a smile to everyone’s face!  I love how he gets down on her level and will play with her for hours!  If any of you have seen Brian around kids, you know he has a way with youngsters!!!

Another thing I love about Brian is that I can leave Gwyn with him and not get those phone calls that other Mother’s apparently get about “what should I feed our child for lunch” and such.  I find it hard to believe that when I’m around other Mother’s that they get these types of phone calls.  Brian knows exactly what to do with Gwyn, what to feed her, how to dress her (well…that sometimes can be comical but for the most part he does well), how to put her bed, etc.  I love that I can leave them for the weekend or longer have full confidence that Gwyn will be taken very good care of and this is more then I can say for most mothers!

And lastly, (not that there are only three things I love about Brian and him being a dad but I’ll only list three here) I love the fact that Brian is selling all his childhood toys and toys he has bought as an adult to help reduce our debt load.  I think he really wanted to share all these toys with a boy.  In all reality, we very well could have a boy if and when we have another child; however, I think he realizes that he has held on to them more because he is extremely sentimental.  I love this about Brian.  He can remember when he got a toy, who he played with when playing with the toys, who got him the toy or if he saved up to buy it…and probably even remembers the particular day…like March 8, 1984.  Because of his memory, when we are old and Gwyn is grown, Brian will be able to vividly see the days that I may have long forgotten and help me to recall these days when Gwyn is so young, so fun, and so full of laughter and everything good!

Thanks Brian for all you do and have done, all of us here appreciate it!  Gwyn, Keegan, Tess, Amos, Maizy, Sophie, and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Other Items:

It’s been a while since I last posted and a lot has happened!

First of all, the state of NC is having financial difficulties…imagine that.  The teachers first took a 0.5% pay cut; however, this pay cut for the year only affected the last two months of the fiscal pay, meaning that we took a 0.5% pay cut in May and June rather than over the full 12 months.  Too boot…Brian and I didn’t work full years as teachers but our pay was still reduced based on our full pay scale.  Now that is fair, huh?

Then because of budget cuts and the lack of importance given to education in the state of NC, Brian got let go from his job.  Basically they operate on a LIFO system (Last-in, First-out for you non-accounting people out there!) and he was one of the last teachers hired at North Lenoir this past year.  I still remain hopeful that something will open up and he will be hired back into the school system either in Lenoir County or maybe even closer to home so that we can enjoy him more in the evenings then we did this past semester.

I was very proud of Brian.  He worked hard up to the very end when others were saying that they wouldn’t have even gone to the school that day.  Brian is just not that way…he puts his heart into and he really took pride in teaching Civics and Economics this past semester.  Civics is not his subject of choice but he enjoyed the students and reading up on areas he has not taught before.  I’m very proud of him and ask that you all keep your fingers crossed that he finds something after this July 1st budget deadline when schools may supposedly begin filling their needs.

Second, with the lay off of Brian, we choose to take Gwyn out of daycare to save funds and pay off some debt in case he doesn’t get hired back on for the new school year.  We were extremely sad about this as we absolutely love Gwyn’s daycare!  She loves going there and I love that all the kids are around the same age.

Another new happening is that Gwyn started gymnastics this past Wednesday.  She loves the activity…climbing, attempting to jump, running, singing, playing, she loves it all.  The only things that she hasn’t grasped the concept of is waiting in line and following direction.  I guess it will come with time.  For now, she is just so enthusiastic that it is too funny and cute!

As I stated above, with Brian’s lay off and just because it was our plan for summer regardless of the outcome, Brian is selling most, if not all, of his childhood toys he has kept over the years.  Some of you  know that he sold some items back when we lived in Cary and he made some good money on items.  It is crazy that people will pay $50 for a little yellow transformer, but they will!  I have to admit it is fun to keep up with the auctions and see how much people are willing to pay in the end.  Last night we were looking at Ebay and a comic book that is graded a 9.8 is selling for $500 right now with like 7 days left on the auction.  Brian has two of these particular comic books…crazy to think we could get this much for a comic book.  So Brian is doing all his homework and treating this very much like a good business man would – I’m so proud…I’ve taught him well!  We may be sending some comic books off to be graded to get the maximum value!  While I get joy out of the money coming in the door, I feel compassion for Brian in letting go of all his memories that he holds onto physically, although I know that vivid memory of his will not let him forget them at all!

Update on the animals – We have added to our animal family…well, temporarily anyway.  We had a toad jump into our dog pool in the backyard and lay eggs.  So we have what seems to be a million tadpoles out back.  We will not just dump them because that is too cruel.  So we are waiting until they get a tad bigger…maybe mid-week this week and we will load them into a cooler and take them to the river.  It just starting to get too stinky out back and it attracts mosquitoes which we could do without!

Also, in the past month, Keegan seems to be losing clumps of fur.  I think that we bought a small bag of food to get us by because when I went to get the regular food…the store was closed and we were completely out of food.  Well, I think he must have had an alllergic reaction.  He seems to be losing weight to me too but I will continue to keep an eye on him!

And lastly – update on Gwyn’s development.  Gwyn is growing like a weed!  She repeats everything we say and do!  Brian coughed yesterday and she coughed.  She is a sponge right now!  She loves to do puzzles.  She is so good a memorizing things right now.  Brian is going to work on colors and counting this summer.

We went to the beach twice so far this summer.  I have some video of our experience that I will have Brian post shortly.  I’m not technically savvy and don’t know how to add the video here or I would!

I promise to post more frequently for those of you eager to see more of Gwyn!