My mom was over to visit and sent my little boy PJ into the office, where I was loading my iPod, with a card and this message:
My youngest boy is standing now, which gives him the opportunity to get out of the stroller and look in certain places. This is one. He stood forever looking at the prairie dogs, until they finally started staring back! The Dakota Zoo has a lot more in store for him, and as soon as he starts walking, his zoo experience will get even more exciting.
Proverbs 31 is my favorite because it describes my wife, pictured above with little Sparky. The latter portion describes the virtuous woman, whose price “is far above rubies.” Here are some of my favorite verses:
11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.
12 She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
…
27 She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.
28 Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.
29 Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.
30 Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.
I have a sweet, beautiful, hard working wife…a woman of integrity and character. She’s such an amazing mommy for our two little guys, and makes our house a home. She brought the little fellas to the shop to visit me today, so I got to run around with them for a few minutes before tucking them back into the truck.
I like to tell her on the 31st of the month, “I read about you today.” After posting this, I’ll read ahead a chapter, since tomorrow brings chapter one. She stepped out for a bit so I got the dishes done, house tidied up, and little boys tucked snugly into bed. This isn’t the only day I try to show my appreciation, but it is somewhat special I suppose. Next month, when most people are celebrating Halloween, I’ll be celebrating my wife again!
I just got done spoon-feeding Jonathan tonight, as one does with such a little baby, and it reminded me of a story I heard this weekend.
Click on the dreaded Windows icon to hear two brief examples of consolation.
I know, I am no huge fan of Microsoft or Windows. If you have a Mac and want to listen to it, simply click here to download the components to play Windows Media files in the Quicktime Player on your Mac (free). I use them to listen to ASX, WMV, and WMA files on my liquid-cooled, quad-core G5 Mac at work. They are fantastic, and they are free.
Back to the audio. Touching stuff, huh? As a relatively new daddy I was floored by these two stories. They were spoken by a missionary to the Pacific who visited our church this weekend. I’d love to give him direct credit, but some of these guys take a risks being in the field, often political and sometimes physical. Putting their names on the Internet can sometimes cause unintended harm and I’d hate to do so.
Hopefully by electronically enabling you to hear this man’s words, which moved me as I struggle to be a good daddy and provide my little boys with blessed memories, I can pass along some of that consolation he was talking about.
For the music reference title of this post I picked a Lyle Lovett song, but I’ll always think of it as a JPL song, since my favorite version of it is done by my pals in JPL. Two of the guys are my frequent live-sports coworkers and employees of NBC in Fargo, and the third (J) is the brother of the other (L). They are extremely talented, and the best of their work isn’t even on the Myspace page I have linked for them. Enough about JPL, though…this picture is of JCP: Jonathan, me, and PJ.
We spent an evening by the river this week, with PJ learning how to throw rocks into the river and calling out every airplane, boat, or motorcycle that passed our view. He really loves motorcycles, which he calls “norlkles”, and can even turn the key and start one of my Kawasaki motorcycles if help him get up onto it. Imagine what he’ll be like when he’s two!
The river seems to be where it’s at this year. The sandbars are now fully revived as a place to gather and spend a summer afternoon, despite the city of Bismarck decimating the summer sandbar scene when they carved up Sertoma Park many years ago. Nowadays one simply needs a boat (or a friend with one) to join; I don’t, but considering that my little boy thinks they’re so keen, I suppose it’s time to shop for one! I never wanted one before because I didn’t think I’d use it enough to justify it. I suspect that these two little guys would encourage me to take the boat out plenty. Hm…if I had a boat…
I’m honored to call Al my friend and to have worked with him for a large part of my broadcast career. I started working with Al in 1991, when I was just getting my feet wet as a technical director in the mornings. He was patient with me as I’d make the occasional gaffe, sometimes popping him up on camera instead of going to a tape or graphic. He once told me of one of his goofups, back when commercials were run on slides. He dropped the box of slides for the morning, spilling them all over the floor, after they’d been sorted and organized for the day! I guess it happens to everyone. I don’t recall ever seeing Al make a significant mistake on the air, myself.
As usual, I’ll try to provide some additional insight in this blog post:
– As I recall, Al worked at KXMB way back when, before joining KFYR and becoming their farm director. In fact, I think that’s where he was working when he dropped that box of slides.
– Nothing can rattle him on the air. If there was a problem with a tape or graphic or something, we could just cut back to him and he’d keep going. When we would do news cutins throughout the morning on KFYR, he’d give me a script for a tape if he had one, so I knew when to go to the tape and when it would be done, and the rest he’d do on the fly. He would have little filler stories ready and always add or subtract whatever needed to make his news updates time out just right, every time.
– Al would come in at 3:30 every morning, like clockwork. He’d get his morning prepared for radio and TV, making the rounds from the radio building to the TV building throughout the morning. Between 5 and 6 he’d get some time to catch a break and call his wife, Peg, to see how her evening was. Because he had to come to work so early every day, he had to go to bed early too. So he would faithfully call home and see how his wife was doing and if anything exciting happened the night before.
– Al’s got some surprises up his sleeve. I remember one time when he came in to type up his market graphics. I had the control room speakers turned up with the Frank Zappa CD “Thing Fish” playing. Without even looking up from the keyboard, Al said something to the effect of “Frank’s talented, but I think he would get his message across a lot better if he wasn’t always trying to shock people with his lyrics.” I was stunned that he could actually recognize Frank Zappa, especially by hearing a short segment from Thing Fish! I never asked how he knew. I doubt he has a copy of “Joe’s Garage” in the tractor, though.
– He looks pretty good in a turban. I remember seeing a picture hanging in his office featuring him atop a camel, taken when Meyer Broadcasting sent him to the Middle East on assignment. I believe it was in Egypt. When the building was remodeled and his quarters were moved into the new, spacious newsroom, I think the picture adorned his cubicle as well.
– My favorite mornings were when Al joined Phil & Mark for the simulcast of “Country Morning” on the KFYRs (TV and radio). When I first started at Meyer, Country Morning was a 15 minute show. There was a staff of two: Al and the director. Most days it was my friend Mike Holwegner. When Mike was out fishing, it was me. It later evolved into a simulcast half-hour show, with cameras stationed in the radio studio. By that time I was working overnights, Mike would come in at 4:30, and the two of us would handle the behind-the-scenes part of the show every morning. Al had great chemistry with Phil & Mark, the perfect complement to their goofy style. Add to that the PMS trips to small town events around the state, with their trusty camcorder in hand, and we had the best morning entertainment to ever hit North Dakota screens.
I haven’t seen Al in a while, although I hear him on the radio. We have had lunch once since he left TV and I left broadcasting, and while talking to Jason Hulm on the phone I’ve asked him to shout out a “Hello” to Al as he walked by. Hopefully he’ll see this someday and have a fond memory or two of that kid who joined Country Morning back in the 90s. Let me say it again: it was a great privilege to work with such a consummate professional, the likes of which are rare in any industry, not just broadcasting.
I was about to head out for a 6am photo trip with a friend when my lovely wife informed me that the baby was coming. Almost 12 hours later, and 15 minutes before she predicted, he was born. Naturally. With enormous help from an epidural, of course.
This baby, like little PJ before him, is an enormous testimony. We’ve seen miracle after miracle with our boys, and not one single prayer has gone unanswered. In the beginning of this pregnancy, Stacy was diagnosed with placenta previa, a condition where the placenta forms below the baby . In extreme cases the placenta not only forms where the baby’s weight will cause it difficulties, but it also blocks the birth canal. That results in weeks or months of bed rest for mommy, plus a c-section for birth. When it is to the degree that hers was, it does not reverse itself. After fervent prayer by our family and our loved ones, this condition vanished. We’ve had a normal pregnancy all the way through!
At the time Saturday morning when I found out Jonathan was coming, we were still under the impression that he was breeched. That was what we’d discovered a few days earlier during a regular appointment. But when we got to the hospital, expecting a possible c-section again, an ultrasound showed that the baby was in perfect position. Prayer answered!
Thanks so much to everyone who besought the Lord on our behalf and on behalf of little Jonathan. He’s a wonderful little baby; content, a good eater who began nursing almost immediately, and a cute little thumb-sucker like PJ! Thanks also to our friends Shane and Erica for watching over PJ and Scooter. Now it’s back to business for this guy. Have a good weekend!
Scooter has been a true friend and enormous blessing over the past ten years. I’ve had him longer than I’ve been married; longer than I’ve been at my job; longer than I’ve owned my house, truck, or most of my motorcycles; longer than I’ve been a Christian. He’s been through a lot with me, and always stuck tirelessly by my side. Although I’m a daddy now and much more busy, Scooter is always right there, ready to play. He’s even been protective of little PJ at a time when we didn’t know if he would be jealous.
I was no stranger to birds when I got Scooter; my parents had a Quaker parrot and we grew up with a little parakeet in our home. I understood that a bird is a big investment of time. They have the comprehension of a small child and are not a pet you can leave unattended like a cat or a dog unless they’re safe within the confines of their cage. Certain things like air fresheners, scented candles, or Febreeze will kill a bird in minutes. They’re curious and must not be allowed to get into a toilet with the lid up, a pot of hot soup, or other such hazards. They really do require someone very meticulous.
I’ve never clipped Scooter’s wings…ever. That adds a whole new dimension of danger, of course. Only because I’m abnormal have we never had an incident of him flying out a door or window. But he gets to come and go as he pleases when we keep his cage door open, flying back and forth between my shoulder, my wife’s shoulder, or his house. We have to be even more vigilant now that we have a curious baby reaching for him!
The Bible says that “a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast” in Proverbs 12:10. I’ve always tried to do that. Someone told me that “once you have kids, your pets truly become pets.” That’s been true to a degree, but we still love Scooter tremendously and I always look forward to that first chirp in the morning. I thank God for Scooter and look forward to ten more years!
It was a little chilly, so we had just enough time to watch the sun creep past the horizon and take a couple of photos of ourselves in the process. Then it was back in the truck to watch an airplane take off at the airport, then home for some pajamas with little feet on ’em. For PJ, that is. I had to share the moment with the world, being the proud daddy and all.
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