Graduation week

Well last week was incredibly busy for our family.  I drove home from work in PA on the 23^rd to get home for Christa’s graduation from 5^th grade.   It seems like the years have flown by, I can’t believe our baby in going to be a 6^th grader next year!   She was I a talent show last week as well and got a nice trophy for her dance.   I so wish I could have been there for her performance.  

Then on the 24^th my parents came to town.  It has been over 2 years sense I have seen my dad and a year sense I have seen my mom.  I think because of the not seeing each other for so long and the already strained relationship sure made it hard for all of us.    Tina’s mom came a day later to add the stress to a new level.   Now the grandparents get jealous of how much time each one gets to spend with the girls.

  

Saturday was our big day though; Brenna had her high school graduation!   Both Tina and I are so proud of her and how hard she worked to get to that point.  It was so nice to have all the family together to support her.  Tina and I were reflecting on how fast the time seemed to go by.  It just seems like yesterday when she was going to her 1^st day of school in Sitka.  Over the last two years we have seen how she has blossomed into a nice young woman.   I can’t wait to see what she does in her future.

What should I name my bear?

Last July My wife Tina gave me this teddy bear to me while I was in the hospital for a week.  It is funny I don’t have any stuffed animals other than this one, and I really am not into them either.  However I have really become fond of this one.  It was so comforting when to squeeze it when I was laying flat on my back in the hospital.  Even now when I’m feeling blue I love to grab hold of it and think happy thoughts and all is better.   I have taken it on all of my trips but one when I forgot to put it in the suite case.  It is just the right size to travel with me, and doest take up space.  I have lots of nice memories with this bear, being that I travel well over a 100 days with it.  A few days ago I realized that I failed to do something though; I have not given it a name yet.   I have just been calling it my bear.   So I am now on a quest to name it.  I am interested in what you think I should name it?  My first thoughts are New Hope, or Bristol.  So please leave me any thoughts of name ideas J

Progression of New Years Resolutions

I was pondering how well my progression and lack of progression of the New Year’s resolutions that I made.  In the past I really have hated to make any resolutions because it has always been something that I would end up blowing off and never coming close to meeting.  Maybe they have been too steep to be done, or just my lack of motivation to completing them.  This year like all the previous years I made a few resolutions with the expectation that I would fail to meet them again.  One of my goals was to lose weight and be healthier.  I didn’t set a weight because I didn’t want to fail. I have lost 20 lbs but gain 5 back so far this year.  Another goal was to be more physically active as well.  I started walking the 1^st part of the year with Tina and was really struggling to walk a mile or so.  At the same time I also started to eat a little healthier, which has evolved into eating vegetarian.  That kind of was an unexpected curve that I would have never thought I would have take, yet I am so happy I have chosen it now though.   I have also hit walking 5 to 7 miles a day in walking as well.   So I think that I am going to set a new goal.   I think it’s going to be a push and as usual I am worried that I will fail.  I am wanting to be able to run 5 miles by the end of summer.  I hope that I will make it to this new goal, it isn’t so generic like before and I think it will also push me physically as well.

I do have to laugh though; I really did blow one of my resolutions pretty bad.   I made one that I wanted to put the transgender part of me more in the background of life.  I really missed the mark so bad on that so far this year.   In January I got to help my friends as they went through gender confirmation surgery, which was so cool to be there with them.  March we did the Dr Oz show on transgender families.   It really has turned out to be a blessing though because I really have met so many great people that I’m really glad I missed blew this New Year’s resolution! 

Where do we learn to hate?

In the news lately there sure have been a lot of sad stories about how another transwoman was murdered and another teen committed suicide for not fitting in.  When is it going to be enough of this hatred and bulling, when is society going to realize that everyone has value as a human being! 

As babies we are born unbiased to everything.   So where do we learn to hate some one that is different from us?   Is it from TV, religion, scouting programs, teachers in our schools or parents?  How does society determine that being LGBT is any more unacceptable then being different in any other ways?  Who are the people that make the decisions of what is normal in our society? 

The last few weeks I had the opportunity to get to know two really cool moms while I was working up north.  What I really liked is that they unconditionally accepted their children for who they are.  In a very difficult time of major change in their lives, these moms’s chose to stick by daughters and support them 100%.  Because both of those moms chose to accept their daughters early on in their changes, the relationships have just blossomed into a close bond that every mother and daughter longs for.   This gives me hope that maybe someday my mom might be able to accept me as her daughter.  But more importantly it made me think about my relationship with our two daughters. I want them to know that we will be supportive of them even if they are different from what society thinks they should be.   I also want them to be accepting with everyone that they may interact with as well.  My hopes are that this next generation can put the stop to all the hatred out in this world.