OUR LIFE IN 3D

15 Mar 2012

Happy Fathers Day!

This was a cute Fathers day gift last year from my oldest daughter and reprinted at Leanne Shirtliffe’s Ironic Mom site, “Stuff Kids Write“. It was cute to me, as I understand the reasons behind the answers. She is basically answering for herself and some of the things we shared together.

So here is the decoder ring:

1) She was three.

2) One thing her grandmother always said to her as she grew. (Guys kinda like it too)

3) She had the cutest little coat to wear to church and we didn’t mind showing it off!

4) It was the beginning of summer and I made this every week. And she loved it!

5) HER favorite song at the time was Margaritaville. She knew it, knew the words since she was a baby (Dying Day post). So I would always sing it in the car

6) We would give her Curious George gummy bears as a treat for her potty training success. And I would ask her, “Now what do you say?”

7) See #6 above (no more diapers!!)

8) I was always running to the store for milk with our two toddlers. It wasn’t that I liked it

9) We were making vacation plans to take her to the boardwalk at Ocean City, NJ that summer. I showed her the videos on youtube.

10) Dylan is the one that likes presents. I like ‘rest’.

11) Texas Roadhouse was the nearby restaurant we would eat lunch at every Saturday afternoon. They had the BEST manager there that would stop what she was doing and just adopt Dylan and then our youngest too for the afternoon. She took them everywhere…in the kitchen, behind the bar, etc and they would come back with either or both a bowlful of cherries or marshmallows. Tammy was awesome!

12) Dylan was going through a phase with lollipops, still is. But, if Mom holds up her little pinky finger (wrapped around…) every time Dylan asks for something and I jump the answer works well then also.

What were your favorite, most memorable Father’s Day or Mother’s Day gifts?

Stuff Kids Write

Last year, when Dylan was three, her nanny asked her questions about her daddy and recorded her answers. With Andy’s permission, we’ve annotated Dylan’s responses.

One thing is for sure: Dylan loves her Daddy.

Special thanks to Andy of Our Life in 3D for submitting this. He and Dylan’s Mommy have an entertaining daughter!

With both Mother’s and Father’s Day coming up, why not have your child fill in a questionnaire and send us the humorous results? Email us at stuffkidswrite(at)gmail.com.

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Posted in Archives and tagged fathers day, Ironic Mom

14 Mar 2012

10 Comments

It was a dark and stormy night

It was a dark and stormy night. Rain bounced off the windows like dozens of Skittles hitting the floor. The aroma of the dinner I prepared hung in the air like a paper mill’s bouquet at daybreak. The house creaked eerily with the pounding of the rain and the wind. It was late. It was dark. As my eyes scanned all around, one could only wonder what would happen next.

Then ‘next’ happened. A mysterious message from a Goddess came across the phone lines proclaiming some good news. She told me…….she chose ME to receive her version of the Liebster award!

Yes, SWM, Domestic Goddess (or at least pretending to be), liked my stuff enough to offer her award to 3D! I was both honored and surprised. The Domestic Goddess was one of the very first blogs I signed on for when I joined WordPress. She was a stay at home parent, like I was. I hoped to learn from her ideas, routine, innovations and kid activities to survive in my new role. And, like many others I follow, was also involved in some fitness and health activities creating another area of mutual interest. I hope you are still doing great there as well SWM! I am so honored for her to have chosen me as she writes so much better than me. She creates a fun, easy read that I look forward to in hopes of gaining some of a ~~Goddess’s~~ Godly insight into my mortal ~~problems~~ issues with the raising the kids.

So thank you SWM, Domestic Goddess! I really appreciate it! And I want to say to you “keep up your good work.” Do yourself a favor and check her blog out if you haven’t already. It’s my first writing recognition…positive writing recognition that is! Thank goodness for this thing called ‘spell check’ and a wife that’s a English minor or else these blogs would make no sense!

So in going with the tradition of the Liebster Award I have to follow some rules:

The rules of the Liebster Award are:

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog

2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you

3. Copy and paste the blog award on your blog

4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed (see below!)

5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

Like SWM said, Rule # 4 is hard since I really don’t know how many readers the blogs I follow have. So I am going to name a few here. In genera,l I really don’t follow the high volume blogs. Don’t know why.

Another part to Rule 4 is that some of the blogs I would recommend at this point I have done so already in past week’s Tagged posts. While they are still some of my favorites, funny, creative, and motivating, I really don’t feel like I should embarrass Cafe 23, The Camel Life or The Healthy Fit Diva, again. Trust me, there stuff is good and I look forward to each new post. Give these ladies some applause!

So I have a wide variety in my family of blogs that I read and look forward to. A gothic seamtress, a pastor, a Mom with teenagers (capital M), a nomad, and another Mom with grown ones that I sometimes defer to for answers.I read several other fun, motivational blogs t be sure. However I just feel I have gotten to know these bloggers a little bit over the last few months from comments here and at there blog. They are all great people and I feel I have something in common with all of them, which is part of the draw

So here they are, my fav. five blogs worth a visit. Give them a big ‘hello’ at their blogs:

1) NoThrowaways, This blog is written by a Pastor. Now I can tell you I do not have the relationship with God as I should. Derek’s blogs can help a bit with those voids. He is also a Dad with four happy and amazing kids. I often think of him when my energy runs out. How could I ever handle four? He does a great job with four and a job and a blog and more. He does a great job, with some great stories and pictures of smiling happy kids.

2) Taking The World On With A Smile, I don’t know Karen as much as some others I blog with. But knowing her as much as I do I feel like she is so much like myself. Or someone I grew up with. She sounds like people at home. Her local pictures remind me of home. She has two great kids in their early teens and I hope mine turn out as level headed as hers. She blogs once a week (which is another thing I may have in common with her) , writes very inspiring and upbeat posts. Check her out!

3) Lazy Subcultural Girl, is possibly the most diverse blogger I follow. She’s a sewing addict, which I know nothing about. She has a great, yet sarcastic sense of humor, which I love. My favorite features of hers are…….’Headbanging Fridays’ (gotcha), which I love and ‘Sci-fi Sundays’, which I love. Quite possibly my WordPress soul mate here. She has a few kids but they are not much more than some speed bumps in her blogs and a husband which she lovingly refers to as “the Hubs”. Oh, and she currently has purple hair. Too cool!

4) Raw Emotional Writer, is a straight forward, honest writer. That is the best I can describe her as I am not quite sure who she is yet. I do know she is a bit a of a nomad that has lived in Jamaica, the US and Germany. She doesn’t paint rosey pictures all the time (life is not rosey all the time) but does speak her mind. She has very interesting posts and if you ever want a friend on WordPress she would be a good choice.

5) Jing Hu, is a new blog I follow. I find that she doesn’t post that often but when she does its really interesting things. Most recently I just stole a HITT running workout from her web site and loved it the next weekend in the gym. She has other interesting travel pics in a fun, easy to read blog. “加油!” (Go for it!)

and last but not least,

6) Worry Warts Guide to Sex, Weight, and Marriage, first of all, if the title to her blog doesn’t grab your interest from the start, her pen name will, Diary of a Wimpy Mom. But I don’t see this lady as wimpy. She talks about all topics, has some great travel ~~pictures~~ stories, and occasionally talks about her great kids and the road to getting them there. If there is a blog that I read to learn things or gain more knowledge, it would be hers. And yet, I still have not ~~learned~~ read about anything about Sex, Weight, and Marriage from this blog. Hmmmm?

Thanks again SWM for your consideration of my blog! I apologize for the length of time its taken me to acknowledge this wonderful award. You have inspired me to try to live up to your praise. Thanks!

Posted in Archives, The More Awards I Get The Worse I Look (awards and other surveys)

02 Mar 2012

8 Comments

Help Wanted:

Help Wanted:

Energy can not keep up with demand! We are currently looking for P/T employees to play Princess Castle with our two little girls for short, intense, inquisitive shifts.

Successful candidates should have a working knowledge of the films, Beauty and the Beast (Belle), Mulan (Mulan), Sleeping Beauty (Sleeping Beauty), The Little Mermaid (Ariel), Tangled (Rapunzel) and Tinker Bell (Tinker Bell). Flexible shifts available for this position are 5:00a.m. until 9:00a.m. and 6:00p.m. until 10p.m., Mon. – Fri. Opportunities for monetary advancement include cleaning, errands, and preparing dinner. Please list any experience in manners, sharing, and making chocolate milk in your application.

Competitive benefits include Paid Holidays, Paid Vacation and a stocked kitchen including cookies, ice cream, milk chocolate and Spaghetti O’s.

Apply on line at: Princess Castle.com

Princess Castle.com is an Equal Opportunity Employer; Member Chamber of Commerce, AFL/CIO.

Posted in Archives and tagged ariel, belle, cinderella, mulan, princess castle, rapunzel, sleeping beauty

29 Feb 2012

2 Comments

Tagged Part III

It seems I created a small buzz with the last two Tagged questionnaires. It seems all a guy needs to do is post a picture of himself wearing a bra and people want to know more! Or hide their children from him. My fun friend, the Healthy Fit Diva, tagged me with some questions then.

I am joking. Sarah at the Healthy Fit Diva tagged me the same day as I posted the last Tagged. Sarah, I apologize for beings so tardy! My work has me behind right now. If you haven’t checked out her blog, she does a healthy, upbeat blog full of healthy recipes and exercises. Her ‘healthy’ cookies were too much a of a tease! You’ll see why later. She promised to meet ½ way with some until I found out she was from Australia.

She claims to be from the land down under but I always wondered. She writes too many ‘Y’all’s’ and too few ‘mates’ I thought to be from there. It turns out she just moved there from the US and the land down under may never be the same. Can’t you hear? Can’t you hear the thunder? You better run. You better take cover, oh.

Sorry. I regressed. So if you haven’t found out ‘too much information’ about me yet, here are 11 more questions and answers. Thanks for checking in once again. And check out the Healthy Fit Diva. ~ Its summer down there!

Here are the Fit Diva’s 11 questions for me for you:

What is your dream car?

The Lamborghini would be my fantasy car. I have always said though, “When I get my Jaguar I know I have made it.”

Its waiting for me

I would love to have a Saturn Skye as well, and if i got one Right Now, I could take care of ita and give it to my youngest daughter when she turns 16. However, I hear it is not a “family car” so two seaters are out right now. Pitty!

Skylar would look so great in this car! So would I I think.

What are some of your quirky qualities?
Lol, once again not enough space. OK, promise not to tell? No, wait I can’t tell you that. Cereal is my coffee in the morning. I can’t do anything without a bowl first. I am the weird guy on the treadmill does the air drumming from time to time (with the earphones in). And I have a sonic clap….my super power. My wife actually asks me to dial it down in public sometimes so as not to bring us attention. I have no cartilage in my left shoulder, maybe from weightlifting or wresting in high school. And my ears and toes are so hairy that they look Trool like. Yuck! I shave the ears so I don’t scare small kids. See? TMI!

What is your favourite ice cream?
My favorite that I make is the Oreo Mint ice cream. Moose Tracks is even more decadent than I can create however. It doesn’t last long in our house.

Sweet or savoury?
Right now it has to be sweet, regretfully. My wife gave me a sweet tooth and it is very hard to kick with my genes of ice cream and cookies in the house. In fact, our neighbors call us the ‘Dessert Couple’ as every time we go out we get dessert. ..I’ve got it bad!
Cardio or weight training?

Coming through!

For about the past 10 years I have been working hard on my running and seemed to have gotten faster each year. This year I am having trouble however. Frustrated I am spending more time on the weights. Prior to my running I had spent most of my time doing weight training, with the running for maintenance, ironically trying to put weight on. Now, after too many cookies and ice creams, the weight is slowing me down. I enjoy both weights and cardio. If it hadn’t been for my shoulders getting wrecked I would still be lifting.

Favourite book or magazine?
I actually don’t like to read.. To me reading is like work. Go figure! I love to write though and probably would be a much better writer if I read more often and picked up some concepts. Reading yours, and everybody’s blog, is the most reading and most enjoyable I have had in years!
How do you like to relax and unwind?
Hot showers, watching movies, the computer 😦 On particularly stressful days at work I like to go for a run or move some weights at the gym.
What’s your fondest childhood memory?
Hmmmm, so many. What comes to mind first are some football plays from sandlot football and high school. ~ I actually had the record for longest touchdown in our Junior High. Another was running a punt back. A 80 yard TD in Sandlot when I learned not to look back in a race. Smashing the all county half-back, causing a fumble that led to a score. I didn’t get to play football because I was big but because I was the fastest on the team.
Who is your celebrity crush?
Salma Hayek can do no wrong in my book. I would turn to jelly around her. The fit Poppy Montgomery (another fit Aussie) on the TV show Unforgettable is a new crush.

Unforgettable!

Into the Blue still stands out as one of my favorite movies, mainly due to all the diving scenes in it and Jessica Alba was adding to the underworld scenery I think.

Coffee or Tea?
I don’t drink either. I caffeine up with either Mt. Dew, Mello Yello, or Pepsi Max.

What are your 3 biggest goals you hope to achieve this year?
1) This year I hope to redo our backyard into some place fun for our daughters to play in in upcoming years. 2) We haven’t been out of the country in two years so hope to travel to some place warm and exotic this year. 3) And I am having a lot trouble getting my running back into gear this year and hope to get back down to a sub 7:00 minute mile and place in some races. Not grand goals but attainable.

Now, howabout you? My non-truth in the last post was number 1. Shannon and I aren’t really good friends. Maybe acquaintances. But i found the answers very interesting from all of you! One blogger ate some monkey it seems. Another loves rifles with large scopes. And some I haven’t found out the answers to yet.

Do you have 2 Truths and 1 Lie you want to share? It doesn’t have to be the biggest lie ever. Just something fun to share!

Thanks again for checking in. I will try to have more blogs on the kids coming up! They really haven’t given me any material to work with lately. One is half way through potty training and the other is learning to read. I will keep you posted!

Posted in The More Awards I Get The Worse I Look (awards and other surveys) and tagged Austrailia, Jaguar, Jessica Alba, Poppy Montgomery, running weightlfting, Salma Hayek

26 Feb 2012

28 Comments

Tagged II

There seems there is a blogger out there named Mooselicker and he or she was tagging some of the best bloggers in Ontario this past week. How do I know? Well two of the best bloggers there each tagged me with their questions. Some of my favorite bloggeresses, Cafe23 and The Camel Life each told there readers a bit more about themselves and asked some more of their reader to do the same, me being one of them, each, er, both.

So today you get twice the info; more info than you really want or need. If I haven’t scared you off yet grab a chair, opps sorry, read on. It might get long but if you follow my blog you know I post less like blogs and more like manuscripts anyway. So YOU must like to read! And know, at the end, there will be a surprise for you. OK?

So here are the answers to the questions Breezy K. posed to me and her other readers. If you enjoy a fun and zany read you might want to check her out at The Camel Life. Here goes….

1. Are you left or right-handed? Do you play into either stereotype?
I am right handed and what is the stereotype? I dunno? This is some hip idea that I am not privy too, isn’t it? I’m so not down!

2. Are you more of an introvert or an extrovert?
On all my personality tests they say I am an introvert. I think I get the results from a lot of conservative answers. I am shy in a crowd but do possess many extroverted traits as well. Cooking, writing, popping jokes, leadership roles at work and school so …I dunno. I think I am something in-between that they haven’t defined yet.

Yea, definitely an introvert!

3. Who would win in a fight between a grilled cheese sandwich and a taco?
I am aware of the Power of the Taco but spice and got nothin’ on the ole grilled cheese. I swore by these in my youth. Put every imaginable leftover in one. Grilled cheese and tomato soup? A staple! Now, what are your cheat methods of making a grilled cheese.

4. Who is your favourite Kardashian sister and why?
My testosterone tells me Kim is my favorite. (Did you hear her pet name is Jasmine, from the Disney cartoon? Check out the similarities in the way they look. Hmmmm? From the show, the one married to the wimpy white dude seems to be the most down to earth. But if I was to pick a favorite it might be one of Jenner’s kids. How ordinary would any of us look if we had cameras on us 24/7?

Have you seen my eye liner?

5. Do you write anything else outside of your blog?
I have an article being published next month in Bethany Christian magazine. I have wrote for my running club and my grad school’s business alumni newsletter. My favorite piece was a feature article in a Myrtle Beach weekly entertainment magazine where I took on the role of a bar drunk sitting at the waitress station at the bar called, Another Saturday Night with J. D, McKay. J.D was cheap, drunk, brusk, and the butt of all the bar staff’s jokes. I was actually running a nightclub at the time and tried to use funny stories that happened there in my stories.

6. Are you a vegetarian? have you tried meat substitutes? (JOKES, don’t worry, I’ll just ask one of the 300+ other people who already told me)
I eat meat. I don’t eat a lot of red meat but couldn’t survive without chicken.

7. Who is your biggest role model/inspiration in life?
Oh boy, I have so many. Joe Paterno, from Penn State University, RIP. My dad, my wife, my boss when I move to Myrtle Beach and worked in that hotel chain. The Dean of Business at my graduate school got me interested in writing and a very sharp guy as well. Joe Paterno was tops though and will be missed.

Her shirt got more attention at the bowl game then me and my mask of Joe.

8. What is your favourite junk food?
Donuts and also ice cream. I actually make ice cream at home and am trying to figure out how to make Donut Ice Cream.

9. Who is your favourite band/singer? and have you seen them in concert?
Hmm? For bands, it is Godsmack and no, I haven’t seen them. I love Jimmy Buffett and think he is a music genre all by himself for creating a coastal feeling. I’ve seen him a few times. And I love Celtic Woman too for their Irish Music. You can’t compare that to metal. I enjoy them and Irish music too and saw them once.

10. Do you have any brothers or sisters? (If not- want mine?)
I have a younger brother and older sister. Yes, I am the middle child!

11. What is your favourite (non-sexual) thing about the opposite sex?
One thing that comes to mind is that they inspire me to be a better person. Nice gals ( I know there are nice gals and not-so-nice gals) are helpful, friendly, and get to know you for you. My typical experiences with guys are that they constantly seem to one up you. I hate that. Where does it end? I don’t try to impress people and my favorite guys are humble as well. Ladies rarely seem to be like this to me. So to hang with some nice people / gals you better be one yourself it seems. Maybe I sometime try to one up them in ‘trying to be nice”. But I am happy and honored for the great gal pals (nothing sexual) that I have as friends (and blog followers!).

OK, are their any surprises there? The following are my answers to Janice’s questions in her recent tag at Cafe23. Janice is from Ontario. I enjoy her blog as she has a fun way with words and is full of surprises. She has shown us pictures of her shooting rifles and from a penitentiary museum after she once volunteered at one (!). So if you are ready for a few more things you may not know about me here they are.

1. Do you have any tattoos? If yes, of what and where? If not, what tattoo would you get if you had to get one?

No tatoos for me right now. If I got one I thought about getting a lightning bolt kinda thing, similar to the one on the Flash and get them on my ankles. Kinda like the god Mercury. I like to run and used to consider myself kinda fast.

2. What’s your alcoholic drink of choice?

Not enough space here! They are all my favorite ~ I know, that’s a bad sign. I used to say ‘whatever it is you put in my hand’. German beer, Cuervo margarittas, Tanqueray & Tonics, Frangelico, Sterling Cabernet, Dewars, Drambuie…. sorry, I know that doesn’t answer the question. Or does it?

3. What would you say is your best personality trait and why?

I want to say it is my sense of humor but judging by the 6 people that read my blog that can’t be it. So I think it must be that I am caring person. And that I love to help others out. I do work with charities and offer to help any one I can.

4. What would you say is the characteristic about yourself that you need to work on improving or changing?

I have no patience. Having kids has helped me a bit with this but still kinda have a short fuse.

5. Do you believe in God?

I believe in God and his Son, Jesus Christ. When I was younger it didn’t matter to me so much but I have witnessed too many amazing things not to believe there is not a reason behind it. God’s Will. And his will is good!

God has been great and we are very blessed!

6. If you could only accomplish one thing in 2012, what would it be?

Hmmm? I have two short term goals this year actually. A) I want / need to fix up our backyard, get a new deck and get it ready for my little girls to play in as they get older (this year’s home project) and B) Go on another vacation out of the country to someplace warm. We haven’t traveled out of the country in two years. We’re / I’m due! ~ kinda shallow goals, huh?

7. You have a choice between two questions: a) Which person’s blog do you enjoy reading the most, and why?
(Don’t worry, I don’t expect anyone to say it’s mine lol! I’m just curious to know how your minds work 😉 … You can only pick one!; or b) If you could meet any blogger in person, who would it be and why?

I’ll chose option B) But my answer really mirrors my answer for A though. Right now, with my limited time, I have narrowed down the blogs that I read regularly to about 12 or so. They are all interesting and all different, which makes the writers all interesting and different. I would like to get to know all of them better really. Cafe23 is a good one for example. Did you see this chic knocking off rounds with a rifle? Who would have thought? Leanne Shirtliffe (who doesn’t even know my bog exists) at Ironic Mom is is always very funny, with a great outlook on having kids. Plus she looks like Tea Leoni. Breezy K. at The Camel Life is funny too ( another Canadian). I’ld like to meet all these people and more. Basically, I would love to meet anyone that reads / comments my blog as I feel I have gotten to know them all a little.

8. What will get you angry?

A) When things don’t work right. And B) when people don’t listen (I’m a manager), which in a way, goes back to my first reason of not working right.

Ya gotta hate that….

9. How would you describe your ideal significant other — looks-wise and personality-wise?

(Lets see if I can get this right) For obvious reasons, my ideal person is about my height, auburn hair, smart, great eyes (and other curvy things), athletic, a good person. Opps! That sounds like my significant other!

10. Why did you name your blog the name you named it?

I was unexpectedly thrown into the role of nanny when I lost my job. My wife took care of the kids for the most part prior. I never held a baby or changed a diaper before we had our two kids. So the idea of me taking care of these two for 10 hours a day, all by myself, was so scarey it was funny. But I had to do it so Daddy’s Day Dare, vs. Day Care was born. There were too many Daddy Day Care blogs out there already

11. What is one thing about yourself that you have never mentioned to anyone on WordPress (on your blog or comments)?

I want to answer this with a ‘reblog’ of sorts from a recent post by Ironic Mom called Two Truths and a Dare.

The rules are you write two things about yourself that are true and one thing that is false and then you (the readers) have to guess which one is false…. and nobody that reads my blog knows either. OK? Here goes….

1) I am good friends with the drummer in Godsmack
2) I have more speeding tickets than you and your whole family and actually lost my license once because of speeding.
3) My two wonderful daughters are not mine.

Which one is false?

Now at this point I think I am supposed to pick 11 more readers to tag. And if you multiply that by 2 you get higher than the number of followers I have, unless you count by 5’s.

So can you do me a favor? You all are funnier than me anyway. Let me know which of the above Truths is a Lie and then post Two Truths and a Lie about yourself. I would love to find out more about you this way and, hey, we’re all like family here anyway. Especially Breezy, Janice, Charity, Karen, Lora, Derek, Andi, Kristabel, Sarah, Worry Warts, Nikki, Kool Aid, Ms. Victoria, Laura, Kianys, Pat and anyone else who has been brave enough to leave a comment here (and I don’t know your name). I imagine we find out some really incredible things about each other.

Have a great weekend!

Posted in The More Awards I Get The Worse I Look (awards and other surveys) and tagged cafe23, Camel Life, funny, Ironic Mom, Jasimine, Joe Paterno, Kardashian, laugh