They Did Fine

I went on a business trip to Washington DC last week. It was my first trip without Tina and Amanda in ten months.

What a difference that ten months has made. Amanda usually took it upon herself to punish Tina and everyone else she could find when I would travel. This trip was completely the opposite. She was cooperative and sweet and she and Tina had a wonderful time.

Along with my mother and older sister, they formed what they call, The Ladies Supper Club. Amanda is the self appointed president for life.

Those two hours each evening allowed Amanda to relax and gave Tina the relief they both needed to get through each day.

Something else that happened on this trip was Amanda insisted on talking to me on the phone. Tina finally entered the modern age by getting an iPhone 4. Seriously, she has only had four phones in twelve years.

Amanda and I spoke for about fifteen minutes each night. I thought it was incredible. She told me about school and dinner and I told her how I missed lunch for a meeting and had to wake up early.

I'll be upgrading to the next generation of iPhone this summer and then we can do face time.

The down side to this, is now I will have to travel a little more.

Why is this a downside? For example, while my room was nice, it was right above the the flags outside the building. The last night a front rolled in with thirty mile an hour winds and all night long I heard a steady, whap whap whap. The joys of business travel.

Getting back on track

The bench is covered in snow but it was actually too hot to sit on the last time I posted.

Amanda dropped out of the Christmas play she was in. It was simply too involved for her. However, she did participate in her 5th grade musical where she played air guitar, danced and sang. She truly enjoyed it.

In October she joined a newly formed cheer team for special needs girls. It is proving to be a great experience. The gym that is running it has a great group of teenage girls who are on the elite team who are helping. Amanda is actually jumping, which is something we never thought we would see.

In November we took a trip to Tucson where she once again showed how mature she has become. Traveling with her isn't difficult when at one time it was virtually impossible.

Tina and I are thrilled about this because that is the one aspect of the pre Amanda life we missed.

I think one of the reasons for my long absence from the blog is that I have been very content. The past four months have been as good as I can remember as a husband and father and I was simply lost in the moment.

But, there are a lot of changes about to take place and I want document them. Amanda will be thirteen in two months. She is constantly reminding us that she will be a teenager and things are different now.

In the fall she will be starting at the
middle school. And there will be quite a bit of travel this year.

So I will be more disciplined in my posting.

I think my iPad will help in the matter.