Interactive Mike

I had a great experience with my younger son, Michael, today. We actually had some time together where it was just the two of us, and we were able to connect and interact without anyone or anything else getting in the way. It was pretty cool.

Cindy was busy in the other room doing chores or something, and Erik was using my laptop on the dining room table to make sure he had seen every ounce of content on The Wiggles' Web site. Mike and I had the "play room" (the family room that has no actual furniture in it, instead having most of the boys' larger toys) all to ourselves.

I was able to chase Mike around the room. He darted into the "tunnel," a birthday present we got for both boys to learn to play together with things. I looked at him in the tent connected to the tunnel, and he smiled at me. That smile definitely was telling me that he wanted to continue the game, so I went around the other side and surprised him. He let out a little yell, smiled, and then crawled off into the Pooh Tent (a Winnie The Pooh toy tent connected to this other tent/tunnel combo) and then looked back at me with another great smile.

I'll admit that, for just about all of his 12 months and 3 weeks "on the outside," I really haven't seen him as his own person. He's just been this thing that we take care of-- feed, change diapers, and wash occasionally. Erik, my 3-year-old, has been way more fun to play with. Maybe I'm just not a baby kind of person. Nevertheless, tonight was fun. I'm looking forward to more of it. Maybe I should start going to work earlier so that I can get home sooner to have more time with my littlest little guy.

Company Holiday Party

I went to my company holiday party last night. Due to a lack of babysitting options, Cindy took care of the boys all on her own, leaving me free to work my business connections.

These parties are a strange thing to behold, sociologically speaking. It's a very interesting thing to see people that you work with suddenly become a social creature, complete with alcohol. It's usually during these events where I realize that, were it not for us working at the same place, I probably would not want anything to do with many of these people.

One bonus, though, is that I got to meet Scott's girlfriend. She's a very sweet gal, and I definitely could see them getting married in the next year or so. You heard it here first!

Our party theme was "A Night in New York." If I didn't know that beforehand, I never would have guessed it, as there really was nothing to indicate anything Big Apple-ish. But I assume most of the people in the room haven't been to the City anyway, so no harm, no foul, I guess.

James Kim

James Kim is dead. I just read the news on CNN.com.

For those of you who may not know, Kim was the man who left his wife and two young daughters in their stranded car in the Oregon wilderness in order to look for help. They had been trapped for nine days in their car, surviving on berries and melted snow.

Obviously, after so long of a wait, they must have thought they weren't going to be found where they were. They were going to have to do something. So James Kim did the only thing that he could do: he decided to leave the relative comfort and safety of their vehicle in order to find help.

I can't imagine being in that situation. I'm sure both adults felt like it could be the last time they ever saw each other in this world, and both kids probably had no idea of the gravity of that moment.

Ephesians 5 talks about how a man should sacrifice himself for his wife (and, by extension, his family) just as Christ sacrifices himself for the Church. There is no more clear embodiment of that sacrifice than James Kim. It just breaks my heart. I hope that his daughters will, one day, realize just what their dad did to help them. May God comfort them all.

Reintroduction

Well, it's been such a long time since my last post that I think I should just consider starting over. With that said, allow me to reintroduce myself and this blog.

I'm Jay. I'm a Texan now living up in the Land of the Frozen Tundra. I have been married for six and a half years. My wife's name (as well as my mother's) is Cindy. (They are two separate people-- I told you I was from Texas, not Appalachia.) Cindy and I have two wonderful little boys: Erik (age 3) and Michael (age 1). I work at Schneider National as an application developer, and Cindy stays at home with the boys.

Of course, all of these facts are only part of the story. If you've read The Little Prince, which you should do immediately if you have not, you know that grown-ups often think they know a person based on these facts. You've probably already gotten some kind of mental picture of me and my life based on these few sentences. Maybe you're spot-on, but you're probably not. Over the lifetime of this blog, you'll learn more and more about me and how I see the world.

You'll find out more of these facts, of course, but you'll also discover my philosophy of life, the types of people I like to have close to me, the things in the news and elsewhere that interest me, and just how random one person's mind can be. Fasten those seat belts; it's going to be a bumpy ride!