Howefitz Blog

The other day, my wife and I were discussing something that has now been lost in the folds of my addled brain. She asked a question that I also can not recall at the moment, but I remember my answer. I had said, “Well, yes and no.”

The reason I remember my answer is due to Calli, my four-year-old-tomorrow. Her eyes shot up, looked deep in to mine and said, “Not ‘yes-and-no’. Just yes. It’s always just yes.”

Since her birth, there has been no shortage of wonderful lessons she has given me, but this one gave me some serious thoughts.

G’Day, Mates! This Fatherhood Friday, I wanted to give you the update on Kat’s Australian adventures!

We’ve been communicating through text and the leader has been emailing us, so unfortunately, there are no pictures yet. They are in and out of phone service, and don’t have access to email very often, but here’s what I know so far:

They have repelled off of the Blue Mountains, swam at the Olympic Park, toured the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Aquarium, visited the Opal Museum, took a cruise of Sydney Harbor, visited the Parliament House, swam at Edith Falls, visited Aborigines, and Kat wrestled a sheep.

After much deliberation, it has been decided that Joanne Owens (@hangglided on twitter) is the winner of my Sweet As Sugar Milk contest. She’ll be receiving her copy of Sugar Milk in the mail soon, I’m shipping it today! Congrats, and thank you so much Joanne!

With that, I am pleased to announce that through the generosity of my blog readers, friends, family, and a few impromptu garage sales (not to mention most of my tax return), Kat’s trip to Australia with People to People is now reality! She flies out on the 16th for 17 days in the Land Down Under. I can’t believe that it’s that soon! Incidentally, on the graphic above, I found a font on Artweaver called ‘Australian Sunrise’. What else would I use? Here’s a glance at Kat’s itinerary while she’s down there:

Good morning and Happy Fatherhood Friday to everyone! I am very excited to have my good friend, Ron Mattocks, author of the wildly popular fatherhood memoir, Sugar Milk, here for a guest post. Ron’s alias is also Clark Kent of Clark Kent’s Lunchbox, and since you never tug on Superman’s cape, I am going to quickly step aside and let him explain why he’s here:

An Idiot’s Guide To Australia

Since I was a little boy, I’ve wanted to make cartoons. The dream has taken many forms, from animation to comic books. I look at my children today, and I don’t want them to see a man who didn’t accomplish his dreams.

I’ve already detailed here how I’m putting more effort into developing a webcomic based on the very family I hope to make proud, so I hope it will not come as a surprise that my blogging will become less frequent as I focus on my webcomic.

I don’t think a day goes by that I am not amazed at the stories my three year old, Calli, likes to tell. This is how storytime generally goes in my house:

Calli: Daddy, can’t you tell me a story? (This is how she asks for everything now. ‘Daddy, can’t you…’ As if she’s tired of asking.)

Me: What kind of story?

Calli: I don’t know…

Me: OK. So. Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Calli.

Calli: Was she a Princess?

Me: Yes, she was a beautiful Princess!

It’s Fatherhood Friday once again, and I’ll get right down to business. I would like to take this heightened traffic opportunity to once again ask for your help.

We just recently found out that Kat needs to finish raising the money for her People to People delegation to Australia by May 14th! If you are able, please make a donation of any comfortable amount by clicking on the Chip-In button to the right of this page. Kat and my wife are working on hand drawn thank you cards that will be sent to you from Australia, time allowing, or when she gets home. If you’ve already donated, you’re already on our mailing list!

With my new three on, three off schedule at work, it gets hard to sit down and pound something out for certain days. Since I’m in the middle of the three on cycle, I’m furiously typing this just before leaving for work. I just had to give an update on Kat’s trip to Australia with People to People.

This week has been an absolute whirlwind for our family. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, we took Kat down to learn about the People to People student ambassador program, Calli has started to be able to use the potty when we’re out, and Tristin turned six months old, leading to that all important milestone of eating food.

So just as the week was a blur for us, please enjoy this whirlwind photo tour of the weeks highlights!

What is Calli sitting on? A stone wall?

Image via Wikipedia

This Friday before Valentine’s Day, let me just join PJ Mullen in saying ‘I hate Valentine’s Day!‘ That being said, I find myself this Valentine season thinking about how I went from a nerdy kid who hated Valentine’s Day because I couldn’t get (read muster up the courage to get) a girl, to a husband and father with four Valentines that hates being told there’s one particular day to celebrate your love. Although I generally do not enjoy planning the future further out than tomorrow, I find myself looking to the future for my 4 Valentines…