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.

Why do we so often settle for yes-and-no?

• Do you love your job?
• Are you where you want to be in life?
• Does every day end with a sense of fulfillment?

I’m certain I could go on and on. Why shouldn’t we be able to give a definitive yes or no? Why shouldn’t we seek out the yeses?

I related in an earlier post how I feel that I am going through a regeneration. I am changing things about my life and myself that I hope will bring a more fulfilling existence to my family as well as to me. Her statement “Not yes and no!” Echoed in my mind as that’s exactly what I am now trying to accomplish: finding the yeses and avoiding the noes.

And above all else, deciding definitively yes or no and not settling.

This post brought to you by Dad-Blogs' FatherHood Friday. Be sure to swing by for all the other great Dads and Moms who love to share their lives online!

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.

Let me tell you, I’m uber-jealous. I just texted Kat, and she said she won against the sheep, by the way. I can’t wait to see the pics!

———————————————————————————————-

• Stateside, I’m still working on that regeneration I talked about earlier, with some of the life changes possibly interrupting my launch of the webcomic. Trust me when I say everything will be better for it…
• Speaking of webcomics, I have been surfing around for others that have a family-friendly feel. If you haven’t seen these, check them out:
  • Red’s Planet
  • Dog Eat Doug
  • The Bean
  • My Cardboard Life
• Calli doesn’t seem to be that jazzed about T-Ball… when she’s there. At home, she can’t wait to go again.
• Tristin is really testing out his legs, and has even taken a couple of steps! He’ll be running marathons any day now…

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That’s all I have for today, be sure to stop by Dad-Blogs for more Fatherhood Friday fun, and have a great weekend!

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• Five Fascinating Walking Tours in Sydney, Australia (australia-travel.suite101.com)

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:

****

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In the spirit of Fatherhood Friday and Week In Review, here’s what’s happening in the Howefitz world:

At the park yesterday, Calli claimed that I was a strong guy because I ‘pick up small childrens’…

Wednesday was Calli’s first day of Tee-Ball! She learned the ‘alligator’ and how to hold the ball, throw it overhand and catch. And even though practice went in to nap time and somebody got a little cranky, we all had a blast! Here are a couple highlights:

Practicing sccoping up the ball with 'the alligator'.

I could totally do 'the alligator'...

Then Calli got ahold of the camera:

'She's only 3, she's probably not even getting a picture of me. I'll just look crazy to play along...'

'Sissy has the camera. Ready penetrating gaze.'

Yesterday, we went to a park in Dillon, CO that we don’t get to very often. Pics!:

Tristin's working on his 'Superman'...

Attempts at a nearly complete family portrait with small children on a bouncy dock in high winds:

After the park, we went to a bookstore where Tristin saw a Batman book. He started shaking his fists in excitement, and, I swear, whispered an excited ‘Baban!’ It was better than if he had said ‘Daddy!’ At nine months, the fanboy training is paying off…

In other news, (Last, but not least) I bought the domain name for my upcoming webcomic. It will be called ‘Howefitz Sequential’, in honor of my web moniker and the more intellectual way of identifying comics: ‘sequential art’ (the art of telling a story in a sequence of pictures and words). Plus it kind of sounds like one of my favorite movies, ‘LA Confidential’, so I’m pretty proud of myself for coming up with it! Don’t visit the site yet, I’m busy building it and completing at least three weeks worth of material before I launch. I’m shooting for an official launch date of July 5. I’ll keep you posted!

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Fatherhood Friday!

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An Idiot’s Guide To Australia

When I found out that Justin’s step-daughter Kat had earned the chance to visit Australia as part of People to People’s Student Ambassador Program, I thought wow, that’s pretty darn cool. What a wonderful opportunity for a young adult to experience the bigger world and export good will to such a culturally rich country like Australia. Almost makes me kind of jealous.

Australia is, like, one of my most favorite countries in the world, right next to Chad and Turkmenistan (they really don’t get enough credit). In fact, you might even consider me something of an expert on the topic given my Wikipedia-like knowledge of the place. So, for Kat and all you readers who might one day visit, here’s a few tidbits that might prove to be useful during your trip.

Australia lies in the Southern Hemisphere, which is why it’s winter occurs during our summer and vice versa. (It’s also why the toilets spin in the opposite direction after you flush.) It is the smallest of the continents in land mass, and boasts a population of an estimated 22 million people who reside primarily near the mainland state capitols.

The earliest inhabitants of Australia were known as Umpa Lumpas, and they can still be found living in the bush country of the island’s interior. Umpa Lumpas are typically small in stature and enjoy singing, dancing and playing instruments such as the didgeridoo. They are also well known for their mastery in making fine confectionaries. (Their Everlasting Gobstoppers are to die for.)

This wild area, commonly referred to as “the outback,” is also where Danish Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke established a coffee plantation in 1913 which later, using the pen name Isak Dineson, she wrote about in her now famous memoir entitled Out of Africa.

Schwarzenegger was quoted as saying, "Good on ya, extra prisonahs!" as he saluted the early Australian colonists.

Following its discovery by Sir Isaac Newton, Australia was colonized by convicts and felons who had been freed under California Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger’s early release initiative aimed at reducing prison over-crowding. Australia remained a colony until 1986 when humble, screen actor Paul Hogan using the alias, “Crocodile Dundee,” led a successful rebellion resulting in Australia’s birth as a Commonwealth. His rallying war cry, “That’s not a knife. This is a knife!” became the country’s official motto.

Crocodile Dundee ruled benevolently until 2001 when his popularity began to wane following an adventurous visit to Los Angeles. Eventually he handed the responsibility over to his charismatic nephew, Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter, who sadly was killed by a mentally unstable stingray with a strange obsession for Jodie Foster. Currently Australia is presided over by the Crocodile Hunter’s daughter, the much beloved Bindi Sue.

Let’s see, what else? Oh, the country’s national anthem is, “I Come From a Land Down Under” written by the patriotic group Men At Work who were inspired by the sight of the Australian flag still flying over the capitol, Sidney, after invading Californians tried to burn the city to the ground.

Economically, Australia is very solid. Their chief exports are shrimp, barbies and an odd-looking shoe known internationally as Crocs which were modeled after the bill of a duck-billed platypus.

Australia’s cultural influence has had a great impact on the world, especially here in the United States. Few realize, for example, that in 1989 an exchange student from Melbourne attending the University of Texas at Nacogdoches taught fellow classmates how to crush over-sized beer cans on their forehead which lead to a national craze in fraternities all across America.

We can also be thankful for Australia’s artistic contributions which includes a long list of unparalleled actors and actresses such as Errol Flynn, Hugh Jackman, Heath Ledger, Nicole Kidman, and Tina Turner whose breakout performance in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome has become legendary. Also worth noting is the interpretative dance troupe Thunder From Down Under, now one of Las Vegas’ top shows, and a must see for any family that gets the chance.

I could probably go on, but at this point, I think it would only be seen as bragging. Besides this is more than enough for Kat to use in impressing the great people of the Australian Commonwealth. I hope it serves her well. (*see note)

One more thing. In support of Kat’s trip, I’d like to donate a copy of my book Sugar Milk which is filled with even more fun facts about, not just Australia, but for Chad and Turkmenistan as well. At the end of this post, Justin will explain how you can win a copy of this very handy book by helping Kat with her needs for the trip. I’m thinking she will make a way better ambassador to Australia than I ever would. Your support will be greatly appreciated I’m sure. Thank you.

*Note: This post has been thoroughly denounced by the Australian Department of Tourism.

W O W! Thanks, Ron!

So. How can you get your very own autographed copy of Sugar Milk? How can you win the book that founder of The Good Men Project Tom Matlack said ‘captures the real American Man of 2010, and the American family, with honesty and humor not found in the stick figure portrayals so prevalent in popular culture.’? Keep reading and I’ll tell you!

• Donate to Kat’s trip. Yes, I am asking for money, but you decide the amount. $1, $5, $10, more. It’s all good. Each donation earns you an extra entry in to the contest. Simply use the Chip-In button on your right. If you have already donated, thank you very much, you’re already entered.
• Bonus Points (be sure to let me know in the comments after you complete each entry):
  • Share and share alike: Share the contest on twitter with a tweet that sounds something like ‘I just helped a smart kid get to Australia, and got a chance to win an autographed copy of Sugar Milk! You can too! http://su.pr/1MLwsW‘
  • Blog Australia: Write your own blog entry about Australia and why you support Kat’s ambassadorship. Post the link in the comments here.
  • Give us some sugar: Have you read and reviewed Sugar Milk? Post a link to your review here in the comments and let others know why they NEED to own this book!
  • Stumble and Digg! Stumble or Digg this post and comment here. If you followed the su.pr link, there’s already a like button at the top of your screen! Easy!

I’ll end this giveaway on Thursday, May 27. I’ll use random.org to choose the winner, and announce the winner here next Fatherhood Friday!

I’d like to thank you all for your help. A very special thanks goes to Ron Mattocks for the donation of the book, and the amazing guest post. You’re the best!

This post brought to you by Dad-Blogs' FatherHood Friday. Be sure to swing by for all the other great Dads and Moms who love to share their lives online!

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 still absolutely love Daddy Blogging, and I will continue to do it, but I feel that now’s the time to pursue my very first passion: making cartoons.

It feels odd. I haven’t seriously picked up a pencil for probably 10 years! And now the ‘pencil’ is on the computer screen. I hope you all will join me on this journey of rediscovery for me, but be forewarned: I will be first and foremost drawing cartoons that I enjoy. Sometimes, it will deal with parenting or marital issues that are near and dear to all of our hearts, sometimes I may go off on some geek tangent. (In other words, it’ll be a lot like this blog!) But here is my promise to you: I am going to have FUN! Hopefully, I can pass on to you a little enthusiasm for the artform known as comics, or if you want to sound all high-falutin’: ‘Sequential Art‘.

I appreciate your understanding, and I look forward to any constructive criticism or just plain jeering and heckling you may have.

One more thing before I leave you today: Have you looked in the mirror lately? Have you become who YOU want to be?

This all came out of me looking into that mirror and realizing that I didn’t want to be a ‘wannabe’ or a professional admirer. I didn’t want my kids to see me looking wistfully at a comic in print or on the web with a tear in my eye for what might have been.

Have you achieved your dreams? Have you given up? I refuse to believe that it’s ever too late. Find that thing that gets you going. Whether it’s a career change or simply an exciting new hobby, but stop cheating yourself and find that thing. I wish you the best of luck on your quest, as I step off of my soapbox.

I’ll leave you with my newest completed cartoon (click for larger image):

A funny thing happened at the park...

Incidentally Calli already gave me feedback on this one: she’s disappointed that I didn’t draw the entire playground.

I would love to hear about your passions, and whether you’ve achieved your dreams! Please feel free to share in the comments below!

This post brought to you by Dad-Blogs' FatherHood Friday. Be sure to swing by for all the other great Dads and Moms who love to share their lives online!

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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!

Calli: Did she have a brother named Tristin?

Me: Yes she did! And he was a Prince! He was as handsome as Princess Calli was beautiful.

Calli: Yeah!

And so on. It’s kind of cool, actually, she makes my job easy!

=====================================================

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m playing around with trying to create a webcomic based on my family. I posted my first design of Kat as a manga character on DeviantArt last night, but if you missed the tweet, I’m posting it below. I’m taking my time with this, and I want to have three weeks of the comic done before I launch. But I’ll be posting sketches and ideas at DeviantArt and Flickr, and of course, sharing it all through Twitter and Facebook. So feel free to follow, friend, or fan me to see if my excitement will translate to the electronic page!

Speaking of Kat, we’re in serious crunch time for raising money for her Student Ambassadorship to Australia! They need all the money by May 14! We’re having a garage sale this weekend in a last ditch effort. If you would like to contribute, please see the ‘Chip-In’ badge to the right of the blog. Every little bit is appreciated, and we’ll make sure you get a Howe original thank you note from Kat either from the Land Down Under, or as soon as she gets home!

This post brought to you by Dad-Blogs' FatherHood Friday. Be sure to swing by for all the other great Dads and Moms who love to share their lives online!

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!

A work in progress by my wife...

One of Kat's Thank You cards

In other news…

Calli, the 3 year old, has become increasingly bossy, despite the constant reminders to say thank you. The establishment of who’s boss seems to be constantly on her mind. A few nights ago, as we were getting ready for bed, Calli pointed at me and said, ‘You can’t boss me, Daddy. Mommy can boss me. That’s her job.’

She must have doubted that fact a couple nights later. ‘Mommy, you’re not the boss of me!’ Only to quickly recant, ‘Oh. Wait. You ARE the boss of me!’

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Last night, Kat had an interview with one of the teachers who is leading her delegation to Australia. I was working, so I wasn’t here to stand over her shoulder and make her even more nervous. She feels that she did very well. She got the impression that the teacher liked her, and she was told that her application is ‘pending approval’. Part of that process is getting letters of recommendation from teachers, which she has already talked to the amount of teachers she needs and is just waiting to get them back and send them off.

I can not relate to you through these words how proud I am of ‘The Teenager’. Too often, I make fun of her here, on twitter and facebook, and at home. It’s all in good fun and easy. After all, she’s a TEENAGER! But truth be told, I am amazed each and every day at the young woman she is becoming. I remember utterly failing at getting in to Honor Society in high school because I couldn’t work up the courage to ask a teacher for the recommendation, something Kat has no problem with. I’m almost jealous of her courage, but also extremely proud.

She is creative and smart and fun, and I am truly proud to be a part of her life. I’m sure she’ll teach those Aussies a thing or two this June!

This post brought to you by Dad-Blogs' FatherHood Friday. Be sure to swing by for all the other great Dads and Moms who love to share their lives online!

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?

Nope! This is a sculpture of a serpent named ‘Squiggles’. Squiggles lives at the Arvada Center of Arts and Humanities in Arvada, Co. Here, Kat helped Calli make it to Squiggles’ head. I’m not sure how big Squiggles is, but he’s HUGE! The Arvada Center is where we went to the People to People presentation. We probably could have spent the entire day here…

Tristin looked thoughtfully over his sisters playing on the giant serpent. That’s Daddy’s little Jedi!

Kat and Calli pose at the tail of the beast.

We went to the Downtown Aquarium in Denver for lunch. Unfortunately, they were having a big Valentine dinner event and couldn’t seat us. But Tristin looked amazed by everything anyway!

We then wound up at the Colorado Mills Mall, where Calli and I got to ride a turbo-charged carousel. This is a huge outlet mall, and Calli and Tristin came out of Gymboree with entirely new wardrobes!

Tuesday, we got to feed Tristin for the first time. Due to a back order issue with the pad we ordered from Fisher Price, we didn’t yet have a high chair to put him in, but that wasn’t going to stop us from getting some carrots in to this kid! I apologize that I’ve worked my way in to these pictures. Just pay attention to the cute kid with the quizzical look on his face, not me. (Like that’s hard to do! )

Gimme that spoon, Daddy! I'll do it!

Calli: Hey, Daddy! Can I help? Tristin: I told you I got it!

That's the face of a baby with a full tummy!

I certainly hope you enjoyed this week in review! I know I’m having fun!

Happy Fatherhood Friday!

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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…

Tristin

It’s easy to envision a bright new world in the sparkling blue eyes of a nearly six-month old baby boy. Has it really been six months? It seems like I was just blogging his birth from the hospital room!

This coming week, Tristin will eat his first solid food, or as solid as baby food can get. The days of sweet-smelling yellow poo will be over, and soon will arrive the stinky poo. I can’t wait.

Although it’s certainly too early to see the interests that my son will have, there is a gleam of curiosity and possible mischievousness that I can’t wait to watch develop. Barely sitting up, this boy is already reaching and grabbing at anything that comes near him. Snatching the glasses off of my face is a favorite triumph, as well as grabbing at whatever food the person that’s holding him is eating. He’ll be a handful, but if I have survived his sister thus far, I think I’ll be alright.

Which brings me to…

Calli

If anyone can be described as a fireball, Calli can. Even while watching TV, this kid is on the move. We very nearly have to tie her down at night to get her to go to bed. (Not literally, please don’t call social services. I know how things posted on the internet can get…)

I have never met a more compassionate child. If one of us is sick or in pain, she is the first one there to offer condolences and see if there’s something she can do to help.

Nothing is more important to her than her family. In fact, as I’m writing this, she’s singing ‘One Big Happy Family!’ from a Winnie the Pooh DVD that she loves. She often reminds us that we are one big happy family.

Kat

Very rarely does the elusive Teenager allow her picture to be taken, so please excuse the reissue of her Halloween pic!

I find that it’s hard to convey what I feel about the Teenager. She’s a teenager, so she drives me crazy with the constant texting, IMing, Facebooking, and anime watching, often (literally!) at the same time.

But then she’ll turn around and say something that blows me away.

It doesn’t take much for us to push each other’s buttons, and my wife constantly tells me not to egg Kat on. But that’s just the relationship we’ve built, and I think it’s rock-solid.

Tomorrow we’re driving down to Denver to learn about the People to People program. They want to send Kat to Australia this summer. Her dream is to work with animals, so their brochure that claims you can ‘cuddle with a koala’ is just too irresistible to not at least go see what they have to say. I’ve heard these things are pretty expensive, but I can’t let an opportunity like this pass her by. Any ideas for fund raising is certainly welcome!

Which brings me to…

Bobbette

My wife and I celebrated five years of wedded bliss this past November, and ten years of being together. Did I mention time flying earlier in this post?

What can I say? I just re-read my Wedding Anniversary post, ‘My So-Called Romantic Life‘, and naturally, it doesn’t begin to encompass what I am truly feeling. As much as I love my kids, and as much as I center my life around them, Bobbette is the one I have made the conscious choice to be with, and she with me. Years from now, when the kids have grown and flown, we’ll have each other.

There is no one in the Universe I would rather have at my side. Quite literally, you would not be reading this blog if not for her. She provides me with daily inspiration and much needed encouragement. She instills me with the sense that I can accomplish anything. When I feebly make a mess of something, she’s there to pick up the pieces.

She’s strong when I’m weak, smart when I’m stupid, fearless when I’m  a coward.

I like to think that I do the same for her, but I am certain that I am getting the better end of this particular deal.

I have to work on Valentine’s Day, so we’ve agreed that, yes, we’ll contribute to the commercialism of the day, but we’ll do it the day after – at 50% off! Luckily, Calli, who is oh-so looking forward to it can’t read a calendar!

I’d like to take one final moment to thank all of you for sticking around and sharing this life with me. I suppose I could have said I have five Valentines, you being the fifth. Without readers, I would have given up on this whole blogging thing long ago. Without the community of friends that we have built, I’d think I was wasting my time.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about me and my family as much as I have enjoyed reading about many of you and yours. Have a great Fatherhood Friday, and a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

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