A Day a School With My Boys

Today I volunteered at Rodney and David’s School for the whole day. We started the day with Amy dropping us off at the school a little early. (Having one car we some times have to do things a little different.) Because we were at school early and it was a nice day I took them to the play ground to get rid of their excess energy. As any one who has boys can tell you, this was a futile effort. David as always was full of energy today.

So I was there to help out in David’s class room in the morning. I then got to have lunch with both boys, and then I got to go out with them for recess. (My first recess in years) After recess I had some time to help out more in David’s room before Rodney’s IEP. (Individualized Education Program) Wile in David’s class I got to go out side with him and his 5th grade buddies to read. I was a perfect day to be outside, and I got to help with redirecting David.

After the hilarity with David I went in side for Rodney’s IEP. The meeting was mostly to talk about getting Rod through the rest of the year. (last year was very hard for him for the last weeks of classes). We he also has had a few problems with aggressive behavior towards the staff and students. How ever we all were in agreement that he is doing much better than he did last year.

So it was a great day with my kids, and as a stay at home dad I have to say this is something I would not have gotten to do when I was working.

Yolanda King

Here is a new report that was not widely covered by the media this week. Also I have Started Posting to my other blog again. you can find it here: http://satyagrahaandahimsa.blogspot.com/

MLK's daughter Yolanda King dies
51-year-old was actress, advocate
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Errin Haines
Associated Press

Atlanta -- Yolanda King, the firstborn child of the first family
of the civil rights movement, who honored that legacy through acting and
advocacy, died late Tuesday. She was 51. The daughter of the Rev. Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King died in Santa Monica, Calif. Family
members did not know the cause of death, but suspect it might have been a heart
problem.

"This is just the last thing and the last person that we
expected this to happen to," said Issac Newton Farris, the Kings' cousin and
chief executive officer of the King Center. Former Mayor Andrew Young, a
lieutenant of her father's who has remained close to the family, said King was
going to her brother Dexter's home when she collapsed in the doorway. Yolanda
King, who lived in California, appeared in numerous films including "Ghosts of
Mississippi" and played Rosa Parks in the 1978 miniseries "King." She also ran a
production company.

"She used her acting ability to dramatize the
essence of the movement," said U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat who
worked alongside King's father. "She could motivate and inspire and tell the
story. I heard her recite I Have A Dream' on several occasions.

"She made it real, made it part of her. I think her father
would've been very, very proud of her."

Yolanda King's death came
less than a year and a half after Coretta Scott King died in January 2006 after
battling ovarian cancer and the effects of a stroke. Her struggle prompted her
daughter to become a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association, raising
awareness, especially among blacks, about stroke.

Yolanda Denise
King, nick named Yoki by the family, was born Nov. 17, 1955, in Montgomery,
Ala., where her father was then preaching.

She was just 2 weeks
old when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus there, leading to the
Montgomery bus boycott spearheaded by King's father. When the family's house was
firebombed eight weeks later, she and her mother were at home but were not hurt.

She was a young girl during her father's famous stay in the
Birmingham, Ala., jail. She was 12 years old when he was assassinated in
Memphis, Tenn., in 1968.

"She lived with a lot of the trauma of
our struggle," said the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who worked with her father. "The
movement was in her DNA."

The Rev. Al Sharpton called King a
"torchbearer for her parents and a committed activist in her own right."

White House press secretary Tony Snow said President Bush and the
first lady were sad to learn of King's death, adding, "Our thoughts are with the
King family today."

Yolanda King founded and led Higher Ground
Productions, billed as a "gateway for inner peace, unity and global
transformation."

In 1963, when she was 7, her father mentioned her
and her siblings at the March on Washington, saying: "I have a dream that my
four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged
by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Her brother Martin III was born in 1957; brother Dexter in 1961;
and sister Bernice in 1963. King was a 1976 graduate of Smith College in
Northampton, Mass., where she majored in theater and Afro-American studies. She
also earned a master's degree in theater from New York University.

Funeral arrangements were to be announced later, the family said
in a brief statement.

Aslo She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Incorporated (the official national memorial to her father) and was founding Director of the King Center's Cultural Affairs Program. She served on the Partnership Council of Habitat for Humanity, was a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a sponsor of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and held a lifetime membership in the NAACP

Well the past two days has been interesting. On Monday I took every one to there destinations, we only have one working car right now. I took Amy to work, Rodney went to school and David had the day off so he stayed with me. (Our school district has a weird kindergarten schedule. The kids go 2 full days and one half day.) I went home to do much laundry and get caught up on other work. Later on wile I was making lunch for David I get a call for school that Rodney is running a high temp of 102. So I went and got him, and took him home. I gave him some fever reducer and he fell asleep. But I then a few hours later had to get him up to so we could go get Amy form. With all the running around I really need to go out and thank god it was Monday. It is my guys’ night out and I go play board games and drink beer just about every Monday. This is a big must for the at home parent. We all need to get out once and a wile.

Today Amy took David to school and I stayed with Rod. His temp was up and down all day. Today also was Rodney’s field trip to the zoo. I was going a long, but we stayed home. Rod napped much of the day and I got some cleaning done and finished doing the laundry. In the afternoon Amy called me to see ho he was doing. I had just taken his temp and it was a little high. Being the worried mother she went to talk to the school nurse after we got of the phone. She then tried to call me two time but Rodney, who was felling much better, and I were watching a movie. So I didn’t here the phone. So she went ahead and made an appointment for him, and left school early. On the way she called me only to find out he was doing better. Because of the bug going around we took him any way.

Once we got to in to see the doctor and after he checked him out he told us to continue doing what I had already been doing. Lots of water and aspirin. Rodney seemed to be on the mend but a few hours later the fever had come back. Kids always seem to get better when you take them to the doctor. Any way Rodney will be home one more day and hopefully no one else will get it.

The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Last week I mentioned I would write up some thing about the Greek Orthodox Church designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The Church is a land mark and is located right next door to my grandmother’s retirement home. Wright was one of the world's most prominent and influential architects. He developed a series of highly individual styles over his extraordinarily long architectural career and influenced the entire course of American architecture and building. His most famous work was Fallingwater, also known as the Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. Residence.

The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin was designed by Wright in 1956, and completed in 1961. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Church is one of Wright's last works. In 1956 Wright showed the original drawings for the new suburban church to the Milwaukee congregation, one of the ten oldest in the country. He died in 1959 before the ground breaking and the dedication of the church in 1961. Wright's circular design represented a radical departure from traditional Byzantine church architecture, yet it retained the concept of a domed space and incorporated symbols and colors associated with the Greek Orthodox faith. The basic design of the church is based on the Greek cross inscribed with a circle. This characteristic motif is repeated in several decorative features which include the gold anodized aluminum icon screen, and the gates to the exterior sunken garden.

I hope some day to see the inside of the church, but it is only open to the public during Greek fest.

Mather's Day 07

It’s was Mother’s day today and we started out the day the same as we always do; Me and the boys fixed Amy’s breakfast in bed. Rodney and David did better this year at helping than they have done in past years. Rod helped with the eggs and David helped with the toast. Of course I made the coffee the way she likes it, one cup of sugar and three table spoons of coffee. Once everything was ready I carried in the tray, David carried the card, and Rodney her gifts.

After we all finish eating we got ready for services at Interfaith. We had an enjoyable time there. The boys were very good. Dave Bell, our minister was back from Florida and gave a talk on Forgiveness. This was part two of a four part series on metaphysics. I had a nice chat with some of the other members of the church during fellowship time right after services. I looks like I going to be helping out with recreating the song books for the center. This should be no problem for me to do with all of my graphic design and printing experience.

After we got home we had lunch and I took the boys to the comic book store. We are going to start reading together the World War Hulk comic book series. This is marvel comics big summer event, which will have an effect on many of their titles this summer. I will do a blog on it as things get moving later this summer. We then came home and the boys played out side for a wile, and Amy and I did a few things around the house.

Every Sunday after dinner we have family clean up. We usually spend an about an hour cleaning the house together. Today we mucked out the boys’ rooms. We got rid of lots of stuff and took some old toys to Good Will. We have found by working together as a family we get more done and we can teach our kids how best to clean and put things away.

Post 100, Celebrating with my Family

This posting will mark my 100th entree to this blog. And what better way to celebrate it than with telling you of my great day with my family.

Today we went to my mom and dad’s to celebrate both Amy’s birthday and Mother’s day. We first took my mom to see the matinee of Spider-man 3. The boys were very excited to go see it. They ran strait for the door. The movie was not as good as the first two films, but the visual affects were nicely done. Rodney and David really liked it however. My mother was a little board with it. I felt the film was a little long and had to much going on in the plot.

After the movie we went back to my parents’ home for a wile before dinner. Rodney and David worked on their moves on their skateboards. Once my bother Rob and his Wife Amy got there we had a nice dinner of my mother’s world famous lasagna. For desert we had carrot cake and strawberries, after my Amy and my mom opened their gifts. following dinner the boys had to show Uncle Rob their sweet moves on their skate boards out in front of the house. We had a very nice day as a family today, David was asleep very quickly in the back of the car.

33

Today (May 11th) is Amy’s birthday. To celebrate today I fixed her breakfast then, then she works all day, and when she gets home tonight I will fix her favorite dinner. I will be making potato and cheese perogies with vegetarian sausage and green peppers, and pea pods for vegetable. The desert will be a Tiramisu Torte and Raspberry sorbet. I got her matching dragon mats and stirring wheal covers for our new van as a birthday persent. We tend to get each other things we really need, most because it is truly what we want for our birthdays. The boys got her a DVD.

Tomorrow we will be going to my mom and dad’s to celebrate both Amy’s birthday and Mothers day. For Amy’s birthday one of the things she wanted to do was go see a movie. So we will go see Spider-man 3. I will let you know how good the film is tomorrow. I always get Amy a new Orchid for mother’s day. The photo above is of it. It is a Dendrobium Orchid with little purple flowers. Very pretty.

We currently are trying to save money so we can fix our old car. I was driving home from the store and the transmission kept skipping. So the transmission is going and it is no longer safe to drive. So it looks like we are going to have to make some sacrifices to get thought it. I will most likely have to go back to driving every one to work and school every day. Our anniversary will have to be on the cheep. And Birthdays will have to be smaller this year. I will also have to really look in to increasing the amount of work I get for my business. Other wise I will have to get a part time job.

Updates and the past few days

I have been trying to post more frequently to my blog (either every day or every other), but that has been hard to do this past few days. Monday was our first day back form our trip to Milwaukee, and I spent the day getting caught up on laundry, doing other things around the house and went grocery shopping. Also I need to get ready for the next few days at Rodney and David’s school. This whole week is teacher appreciation week at the school.

Tuesday for teacher appreciation week, me and the ladies from the PTO made breakfast for all the staff. I made my world famous pancakes. There were four kinds of my pancakes; plane whole wheat, banana whole wheat, banana nut whole wheat, and crapes. Later I had to take Rodney to a doctor’s appointment. And after that I had to go back to the School to set up for muffins with Mom. Some ware in there I found time to work in the yard.

On Wednesday I had to get up at 5:30 to go get milk, juice, and water for the muffins with mom at the school. Muffins with mom is were the kids can come in an hour early to school and have breakfast with their mom. So I work with another father on the set up and serving the moms. We had to be there and hour early to get the coffee ready and set out the muffins and Danishes. Amy came up with the kids about 7:30 so she could get to school on time. And the boys the were left in my charge during the event. Rodney really wanted to help me and did a good job of it. David being our social butterfly went around and talked to all of his classmates that were there. After it was over I cleaned up for about an hour after, then I came home to do a few things around the house. Then I got David off the kindergarten bus at 12pm. I gave him lunch, and then I collapse in to a heap. That night I then had to go back to school again for the last PTO meeting of the year.

Today is all about getting caught up. Also you may have noticed I redid the lay out of my blog. I really like it. The photo at the top is of my cherry tree this spring. Hopefuly today I’ll finish un-packing form the trip and go get Amy’s birthday present.

Our trip to Milwaukee and James and Ann’s Wedding

From this past Thursday May 3rd to Sunday, May 6th we were in Milwaukee for my Cousin James’ wedding. Rodney and David were ring bearers for the wedding. Today is the first time I have been able to sit down to work on my blog. For this up date I’m doing posting of each day of the trip. They will be in order NOT in the format that blogging is done with the newest 1st.

To see ALL of the photos I took go to flickr by Clicking Here

Thursday, May 3rd

On Thursday I spent the whole day getting read to leave for trip. Wile Rodney and Amy were in School, David and I went and got the Oil changed on the Van. Then we came home and packed. Once every one was home we left around 4:30 p.m. I had plenty of things to keep the boy entertained for the long car ride. They had new coloring books, Library books, toys, and Car bingo games. We stopped for dinner after about an hour at Cracker Barrel. We had hoped the boys would fall asleep after dinner or before we got to Chicago. But was not be, they were both up until 10:30 p.m. our time 9:30 local time. We got in to Milwaukee about 11:30 p.m. local time. We were staying with my grade mother in her retirement home; there were guest rooms available at a cheaper rate than the hotel. The Idea of saving some money and spending more time with my Grandmother was a great for me. Also it would give the boys a chance to get to know their Gee Gee (great Grandma).

Friday, May 4th

On Friday after waking up, at 5:30 a.m. local time, we very much had hoped they would sleep in but David woke everyone up) we had breakfast with my grandmother and my Uncle Bud. We got to talk about the up coming wedding and how the boys were doing. I took the boys for a ride around the retirement home on their skateboards. Along the way I stop to go look at the Greek Orthodox Church right next door to the home. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I will give more on that in a later posting. My Grandmother then took the boys to see the birds up on the 2nd floor of her retirement home. Rodney was in love He really like a little blue bird who was at the bottom of the cadge he couldn’t fly. Before lunch we took my grandmother to my Aunt Pats so she could be there as people arrived for the wedding. The boys spent time toughing their new spider-man frisbees from the upper deck of the my aunts condo, wile we worked out what to do about lunch and entertain the boys. We had a lot of time to kill until the rehearsal dinner that nigh.

After Bud and I took the boys to the park he dropped me off at Patties so he could go get his kids from the Airport and I could take Amy and the boys out for lunch and Custard. You just can’t go to Milwaukee and not get custard. After that we all went to the hotel were every one was staying for the wedding. This was to give the boys a chance to meet my Cousin Shannon’s kids and to go swimming. I got a chance to geek out with My Cousin James (he is the one who was getting married). We played Carcassonne and he won (only because I was a little sleepy fro the trip).

That night after feeding the boys and letting them play Star Wars with their Cousins, we went to the rehearsal and the dinner. On the way there David fell asleep from all the activity. At the Church the boys got to find out what their job was in the wedding and how important they were. They both were very good. My mother took the boys back to my Grandmother’s so they could go to sleep and Amy and I could go to the Dinner. Both boys fell asleep faster that any other time. The dinner was at a Mexican restaurant in honor of Sango de Mayo. Amy and I only stayed long enough for drinks and dinner. We were very tired.

Hmmmmmmmm Custard


Me and James Geeking out playing Carcassonne

Saturday, May 5th

On Saturday the boys slept in a little later that the day before. They could have slept in more but I made the decision to get them up at 6:00 a.m. so we would have time to get ready to go and the boys would get to play with their wedding gifts from James and Ann. David got Lagos and Rodney got Bionicles. So I sent the next hour or so putting them together.

We all had to be at my Aunts for brunch by 9 a.m., so we hurried up and got Gee Gee (my grandma) and went. I took lots of photos there however I was using my Cousin James’ digital SLR camera so I don’t have the photos yet. (I really need to get a camera like that) All of the young cousins got to play together wile we all sat and talked. The kids really like my Star Wars Minis. It was nice to get caught up with my family from the area and from Florida. All the guest were gone by 10:30

At 11:30 we got the boys dressed and head out for the church, witch we had to be at by 12:30. The wedding started at 1:30 and went until about 3pm and Rodney and David both did a good job. We were very proud of them. They even did a good job of having their photos taken after.

After the wedding we had some time to kill until the reception. So we took the boys to McDonalds and then to Old World 3rd street ware we got some chocolate.

The reception was at the Performing Art Center in Downtown Milwaukee. They place was beautiful. We started with drinks and refreshments, and then had a wonderful dinner. During the refreshments there was a jazz band playing, Rodney was very much in to this. He sate for a 20 minuets listening to them play. After dinner there was much dancing. This was the one thing David really looked forwarded to. He was quite the dancer. After the Reception I fallowed my Grandmother in our van back to our room, and she took us on tour of Milwaukee.

My Grandma and her 3 generations; 3 kids, 10 Grandkids, and 10 and 1/2 great grandkids

Sunday, May 6th

After packing up in the morning we had breakfast one more time with my grandmother, and hit the road. We stopped for on the way home lunch at another Custard place. Aand got back on the road. We stopped again just inside Michigan at a playground so the boy could blow off some steam. We had a really good trip and had lots of fun, but it was good to be home. How ever the next few days will be very busy the next few day for me. I have lots going on up at the boys school this week. Plus all the laundry to do and some yard work