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So, Bekah and I are finally getting a chance to take a mini-vacation this weekend! We are headed to Gatlinburg, TN otherwise known as the Redneck Riviera. The thing is, we won’t be staying in Gatlinburg. We are actually going to be staying in a log cabin closer to Sevierville, TN. I surprised her with it and the response was everything I had hoped it would be. We can not wait until Saturday when we take the kids down to Granna’s and head back up to Bell Buckle, TN to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the first annual Tennessee Shakespeare Festival! (My friend Lane Davies is both directing and playing Oberon and several of my students at MTSU are in the show.) Then, Sunday it’s off to the Smokies!

For a thousand different reasons, it’s been nearly three-and-a-half years since we’ve been able to go on a vacation, let alone have any time to ourselves away from the house. Sure, they’ve taken a couple of week-long trips to Granna’s in the past, but Bekah and I would just come home and do anything but relax. We’d do the major chores that needed doing or cleaned up the kids’ rooms. Those of you with kids will certainly understand. Those of you without, let that be a warning to you.

Anyway, I wanted to share with you some of the pictures from the Maples Ridge Cabin Rentals website. These are the shots of the cabin we have rented! By the way, the prices were right and the people were fantastic on the phone!

Be on the lookout late next week. I’ll be posting updates about our experience and some more pictures from our trip (at least, the ones I can).

So, Bekah is prepping for her big scrapbooking weekend with the girls and she was going through our vast collection of family photos to have printed out at Wal-Mart. She completed her order, but there was only one problem. Some of the pictures she sent to be printed were photos that were taken at various photo studios all over the southeast!

When I got to the store to pick them up, they had marked some of the ones that they thought were in need of a copyright release. However, not all of the photos were ones taken by a photographer. They had tagged some of my own shots aside! So, we had to go through the entire batch of pictures and pull out the ones that were “contraband” and I was refunded the money.

When I got to the car, it hit me: Someone thought my snapshots were professional photos! Here’s a sample of some of the shots they thought weren’t mine.

Has this every happened to you?

So, Ian’s got to have his tonsils out. It’s going to happen in about a month. It shouldn’t be that big a deal because we’ve already been through this with Morgan and she was younger than he is now when it happened. Still, there is no feeling worse than the helplessness that parents feel when their child is being wheeled off for surgery. I’ve already had that thought cross my mind about Ian.

I know. I know. It’s not that big of a surgery, so I shouldn’t worry, right? Well, what concerns me is that Ian’s is a little bit different. I’m not as worried about the actual surgery as I am the recovery. Because of his speech delay–or perhaps tied to his speech delay– I’m concerned how he might react to the pain during the initial recovery.

Anyway, it’s all going to be fine.

We are also taking him up to Vanderbilt in the next few months to have his developmental delays tested further at the Center for Child Development. Supposedly, it’s the best in the world. I’m anxious about going, not because I’m afraid of what we’ll hear as a diagnosis, but to have the diagnosis so we can get on with more specialized treatment for him.

He has come so far in the past 9 months with speech & language therapy as well as his occupational therapy he’s getting at preschool. We have seen major developments with him as time has gone by. But, as a parent, there’s always that nagging little voice in the back of my head telling me that we are not doing enough for his development. There’s got to be more we can do to help him catch up. Even though, I know that catching up is a very subjective term. Catch up with what? Statistics?

He’s a great kid and we are going to make sure he’s got everything he needs.

So, we got out of bed this morning and rushed out the door only to realize that we were an HOUR early. Bekah had already rushed out the door and was in her car on the way to work and I was trying to get the kids ready to rush out, too.

Bekah called me to tell me of our (my) error. So, I suggested that we meet somewhere to eat breakfast together. So, we converged on the local Hardees and sat down to a nice breakfast.

As we were wrapping up, a nice elderly lady sat at the table next to us and started talking to our kids. Do we all, as we get older become grandparents to every child that ever existed? Anyway, she sat down and immediately started making paper dolls for both of the kids with the newspaper she was carrying. Another elderly man sat at a table near us and Ian immediately went over and sat next to him and started chatting to him the best that he could. It was an older man who was hard of hearing listening to a young man who is still working on his speech delay. A match made in heaven, right?

These two were apparently two of the Hardees breakfast regulars and they were incredibly nice and I think it made everyone’s day a little brighter.

It just reminded me of why I love to live in the South.

Have a great day.

Okay, the guys over at Stray Dog, must have been some editing fools because that Krystal spot I shot is already on YouTube and I’ve had several people tell me that they’ve seen it on the air.

So, here it is! Look for the construction worker toward the beginning with the red hardhat and sunglasses in the back of the truck. Ton of fun to shoot!

I know what you are thinking. “Why is he posting on Father’s Day?” Answer: Because, I can!

Anyway, it’s been a pretty good weekend thus far. We had a nice, relaxing day and a pleasant dinner with the in-laws. Then, we finished Season One of The Tudors.

Today has been pretty lazy so far, too. Slept late (at least, as late as the kids would let us - in this case 7:45a), ate breakfast, read some in my book, and sat down at the computer for a little while before heading over to the in-laws again for the “official” festivities of the day.

I haven’t had a chance to talk about it yet, but I had a great time on the shoot last Thursday. The highlight of the day had to be meeting Mr. Abraham Lincoln. Not kidding. He was there on the shoot. Dennis Boggs is a nice a guy as you’d ever want to meet and is very enthusiastic and passionate about his duty as a Lincoln impersonator. He shared some snippets of his various programs as he presents them all over the Southeast. I don’t want to take away from some of the other’s I met on the set. Tony Morton and I had a great conversation about the world of teaching theatre both to high school students and college students. I also got to know Amanda Bailey, host of Inside Music Row. She’s a hoot and a real joy to work with.

I’ll post the video of the spot as soon as I get it in my hands!

So, today is the day apparently.

I’m taking just a moment to let you know that I just booked a commercial for Krystals.  It’s a regional buyout so, chances are, you’ll see it.  From what I know of it so far, it feels like a football season-type commercial.  For now, I’m frantically getting ready for my wardrobe fitting which is in about two hours yet nearly an hour’s drive away.  Oh yeah, and scrambling for daycare for the shoot tomorrow.

Film at 11…

…a year makes.

So, it’s been well over a year since I’ve posted anything new to this website. I promise it’s not because of a lack of anything to say. It’s just been that kind of year. Still, I’m again inspired by Sarah who seems to always take the time to post to her blog (which runs on the same software as mine) and always has something witty and clever to say.

Here are some of the highlights:

• we finally bought a place
• we moved again (obviously)
• Ian was diagnosed with speech delay and it’s not covered by our insurance unless he’s recovering from a stroke or something
  • we spent the better part of the past year trying to get him the therapy he needs without breaking the bank (again)
  • We finally succeeded and Ian is making amazing progress in a short time.
• Morgan turned 6. This means that we are only 10 years away from her driving.
• I lost even more hair. (See the previous bullet point.)
• I gained even more weight. (I attribute this to stress and no time to hit the gym. Oh yeah, and eating all the stuff that’s bad for me. I may write a book about this. Think it’ll sell?)
• The podcast has really taken off. We are now being consistently downloaded in 43 countries and at least 1000 times every Monday.
  • On that note, we went back to SETC (where they welcomed us with open arms) and we were invited to attend the Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville. No really, as in like real grown-ups. We were invited to the major press weekend!
  • We are also coming up on our 100th episode of the show! I can’t announce it just yet, but we are working on at least one humdinger of a special guest. God, I really hope that works out…
• I’ve had to take a mild hiatus from auditioning for anything. It now costs me more in gas money to get to Nashville than the jobs I’m driving up there for pay. And, that doesn’t account for driving up to an audition that I don’t get.
• We got Morgan and Ian a dog. Jack. He’s a border collie/dalmation mix.

There’s even more crap that I won’t get into because I don’t want this to become a pity party. Suffice it to say that I’ve been a little too tied up to actually sit down behind the keyboard to write something that wasn’t for school or the show.

I’m not going to promise I’ll write more here, but I’ll certainly be posting updates on my work as well as a few belated pictures of the family and kids.

Thanks for still reading the site.