Spiritual Helps for Mothering

When you are feeling thin and worn out as a mother, do you have certain articles or scriptures that help you to catch your breath? That help you gain some perspective and to remember the big picture in parenting? Here are three of mine.

"Behold Your Little Ones" by President Gordon B. Hinkley
(I particularly love the story he mentions of Corneli 's Jewels, which is quoted from one of our school books this year. I love this book!)


"Happiness, Your Heritage" by President Uchtodorf
This one is not directly related to mothering but is directed to women in all circumstances. It is uplifting and speaks to "all who are weary" and lets face it, as moms we often are weary! I also really love the counsel to be creative. What unique advice. I have found following this counsel to be so true- to do something creative, even cutting out and laminating file folder games for our homeschool, can uplift my soul. I wonder if some of the magic in this is that as a mother and homemaker our job is never done. We do a job and the next day it needs to be done again. It feels especially good to do a project and see it truely "done!!" In a spiritual sense, taking part of creation is part of our divine natures, perhaps a drive we have. And that makes me think a lot about pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding and how powerful of an experience that can be for a women.  I also really like the counsel to serve others and through service we can find perspective, meaning, peace, and happiness in our lives.

"Daughters of God" by M Russel Ballard
When I first heard this talk in conference, I really needed to hear it! And I read it often. I still read it often. First of all, I love how he reminds us how important it is to be a mother and how our children need us. How our children are with us for such a short period of time and how we need to "focus on the things that can only be done in a particular season of life." However, he acknowledges how hard it can be to do in actuality and gives counsel on things we can do right now to help us in our journey.

These are my three right now. There is one more from a more recent General Conference I might add to the list soon, but I need to re-read it. I would love to hear some of your favorite spiritual resources for mothering!

Celebrating Womenhood!?

Well, Tristan is just 2 days shy of 13 months and a much watched for and anticipated milestone is upon me. I've suspected to reach this milestone "any day now" for a month. My anticipation started the week of Tristan's first birthday, as I thought, "surely it will happen soon." But no, it alluded itself for one more month. Then for the past week I started having very strong suspicions that it surely was upon me. And now tonight, yup, it has arrived.

My menstrual cycle is back. Is this perhaps the final stage of the life cycle of my pregnancy? Well, no, I think weaning would be the final stage.) But it is certainly monumental.

With my very first pregnancy with Sierra Mae, which ended with a loss at 20 weeks, my period returned so quickly it felt so wrong! How could I go from being pregnant, to not being pregnant, to having my milk come in, to having my period so fast??! I suppose from a biological stand point, when breastfeeding didn't happen my body got the message that there was no baby, and well, if there is no baby, lets work on making another one! With my second pregnancy with Garrett, my post-labor bleeding lasted a full 6 weeks. I was going up and down the steps and lifting stuff way too much. Lesson learned. But once that was finally over, my period didn't return until the week Garrett turned a year old. I was pretty happy with that even though I knew many breastfeeding moms who enjoyed an even long hiatus then a year. I was a bit envious. I would even occasionally run into mothers at our local La Leche League meetings whose fertility had not returned who were wanting to get pregnant. I did however, have one unfortunate friend whose period returned within a few months of her baby's birth despite exclusive and very frequent breastfeeding. At least that wasn't me! Poor girl. With my 3rd baby, Tristan, my post pardum bleeding went away a lot easier and went away quicker this time thanks to not lifting anything or doing steps for 2 weeks and fully relishing the "baby moon." But I unexpectedly started bleeding, slightly, again somewhere around 6-8 weeks PP. I called my midwife.  Is my period returning already?? Am I the unfortunate one this time? Or am I doing too much and my body is still not all back together? She told me she had recently had a string of moms whose period returned early despite exclusive breastfeeding. I finally went in for my last check up and I was spotting. But my uterus was back to normal and the midwife said everything looked great- and I was feeling great (except for some PP.)  But then just like that it was gone. I had a total of two very light spouts of period-like bleedings for 5 days and then it went away.

And now it has returned. Probably for good now. Am I really happy about it? Well, no. No I am not. Having your period isn't something the modern day young lady is ever taught to appreciate. But I told myself months and months ago that when my cycle returned I would try to embrace it and celebrate it. If not for the actual event, then at least for what it means. I want to (try) to extend my new found respect and revere that I have discovered for my body, myself, and for the process of giving life which my natural, conscious pregnancy and homebirth with Tristan has taught me.

So here it is: Having my menses return reminds me that I have a life giving, functioning womb. My menses is one vital part necessary for me to bring my precious babies into the world. This signifies that I (most likely) can surely get pregnant again at this point, if I so desired. What joy that really is! The gift of fertility. Of every month my body preparing a safe, nutritious place for my new baby to grow if I did happen to conceive a new life. And when it doesn't happen, it cleans up and starts all over again! Even though I don't want to get pregnant right now (and maybe never will have the chance again?!) I am grateful and honored to have the blessing of fertility. Having my menses return gives me reason to ponder, once again, how amazing my body is. What amazing bodies Heavenly Father has created for us. The more I learn about fertility, conception, pregnancy, labor, birth, and lactation the more amazed I am at these tabernacles of clay. And to think that there is still so much to be discovered about how our bodies help us rise to the challenge of being mothers. And how our bodies help us to be mothers in complete love, adoration, and attachment with our babies, in ways we don't fully understand yet..

Here is to the ability to get pregnant and to bring other sweet babies into the world....even if I don't ever get another chance.

Now, if anyone has any ideas how I can celebrate this milestone in a meaningful way, in a way that embraces womanhood, let me know! I think I will add a quilt square to my Blessingway art mural.

Vampire Weekend!

Ok... first, a primer. Vampire Weekend is a cool band from New York. Wiki describes them thus:

Vampire Weekend is an American indie rock band from New York City, formed in 2006....The band is influenced by both African popular music and Western classical music,^[4] describing their genre of music as "Upper West Side Soweto", with such songs as "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" referencing Congolese soukous music.^[5]

Check out their website or search for them on youtube to become more familiar.

 Now on to the post...
Yesterday was such a treat- a date with Brian! Grandma B came from NJ to watch the children.

First we drove down to Columbia and stopped for a bite to eat at this cool French place called La Madeline. Think Panera Bread but French. It was yummy. I had a pasta dish.  You just have to love Columbia with all the outside of the box food choices. I'm not sure moving to Columbia is going to be good for our waist lines or wallets! 

Then on to Merriweather Post Pavilion. Local friends, if you have never been here for a concert, do put it on your to-do list! Its located in Columbia, an easy drive down 95 from Harford Co. The parking is free. It feels so relaxed and fun. People tailgate in the parking lot before the show eating, drinking, playing cards, etc. "Inside" is really an open pavilion. In the very front is the pit, standing area only. Then the chairs under the pavilion so you won't get rained on (this is where our seats were.) And then there is the lawn. That is right, bring your blankets and get there early! You can even bring some food and water in (but check the website for the guidelines.) They also have a camera crew that records the concert and shows it on big screens, so even if you are far away you can still "see" the band. Brian and I are going to make it a point to take the kids there for some concerts on the lawn when we relocate. . 

The show started with a fun punk-rock all girl band called The Dum Dum Girls. Think: black hair, black stockings, guitar rocking girls. And The drummer, an Asian girl, was awesome! She had a lot of energy. The only one of the 4 member band who didn't have black hair was the base player. She was tall, red headed, probably a bit older then the others, and characteristically acted like a base player- with a serious air and only a little bit of bobbing back and forth.

In between sets I saw some people we know sit down a few rows in front of us. I elbowed Brian to point them out and he didn't believe it was them, so he tweeted to this person and a minute later the person looked back and waved. Oh thank heavens for Iphones. haha. What geeks!  ;) 

Up next was a band called Beach House, who are from Maryland. They were interesting. I liked a lot of their music but will have to listen to it more to really grow into it. They used a lot of keyboard sounds and had an interesting array of sounds. I could tell there was a large Baltimore fan base there, so excited to see a band that started out in Maryland. The lead singer in this band is a women who played the keyboard and was very melodramatic..especially with her head\hair. I could tell she was really into her music! She has long curly hair that covered her face just about the whole time. They had a nice stage show too with stars, lights, and some pyramids. Here is a video from the concert (I did not record this.)

By this time, the venue was packed! The lawn was really, really packed. People were so excited to see Vampire Weekend. This was their first concert ever in Maryland. The band came on and it was such a good show. Everyone stood up and everyone was dancing. I particularly enjoyed watching all the men dance! (I just don't have a lot of men in my life who dance openly!) Its neat being in an environment where all these people are having fun and are connected in some way for a brief while, even if only based on the fact they all enjoy one band's music and are there to have fun.

And I'm amazed at how fast the lead singer, Ezra, can talk\sing!

When the band was done with their set and they said "good night" of coarse everyone was screaming and cheering. It was so loud. My ears were ringing from it. I really wanted to stay to see if they could come out for an encore, and I really thought they would, but we left on account of having a baby at home and knowing if we left just a bit earlier it would be so much easier to get out of the parking lot. Sure enough, as we were walking out the band came out and played at least 1 more song. At least I got to hear it as we walked to the car. I hate being one of those people who hi-tail it out of their ASAP just to avoid traffic. (Isn't it horrible when people leave a baseball game at the top of the 9th inning, just to avoid the traffic?!)

Here are some videos from the concert:





We got home at about midnight. The baby did well. Grandma was rocking him in the living room because every time she put him in the bed he would wake up and cry. When he heard my voice he woke up and was happily awake for a while. Grandma left to drive home to NJ. We went to bed and for some reason at 2am he woke up screaming bloody murder for 15 minutes. Joy!

All day today while packing and working on house projects we were listening to V.W. and taking breaks to watch their music videos. Now I have my eyes on tickets to see Cloud Cult. They will be preforming in both D.C. and Philly soon, both places are 1.5 hrs away from us. I really, really want to go but think childcare will be an issue.  I love Cloud Cult!

Why....

Why is life always so stressful and complicated? Why can't I just have a normal life for once, with more normal problems? Ok, maybe I do have normal problems. But I have a few not so normal problems for a person of my age and situation in life.

What did I do with all my time when I had just Garrett and he was a toddler\pre-school-er and I didn't work? 

Any why do "they" made pieces-of-crap stuff? It makes me so freaking' angry.

And why can't I just live in a grass hut and get my water everyday from a river and carry it in a basket on my head?

Things to Know, Remember, Love, and Cherish

Today (well yesterday actually since its now past midnight) Tristan turned 10 months old. It is hard to believe how fast time is flying by. Even though I started this blog shortly after Tristan's birth, I realize I haven't been journaling his life and development. I recently was really impressed by a friend's (Megan!) scrapbook of her son's whole first year- taken mostly from her blog. It make me thing "I wish I would have done that!"

So here are things to remember, love and cherish this night on his 10 month birthday.

Tristan has 8 teeth right now. What a fast teeth-er! Yikes. He got his first tooth towards the end of his 4th month. That means we went from colic pains straight to teething pains. One of his teeth has a yellow spot. The dentist said that tooth will be more prone to decay. Great. I'm pretty sure he must be getting some new teeth soon because he has been chewing and biting on everything, all the time.

Tristan is a biter. He will bite and pull hair. Almost every morning, when inevitably both of the boys are in the big bed with me, Tristan wakes up first (usually around 7-7:30, sometimes as late as 8:30 if we got to bed late). He sits up in bed, all happy, and will do the following until I get myself and him out of bed: pull on Garrett's hair and play with the pictures on the wall. The results- Garrett crying in pain and the pictures often falling down (or almost fall down since I"m prepared to catch them at this point.)

Tristan will also bite when he is hungry. He will also be crawling and will do a dive bomb, face colliding with the carpet. He is apparently trying to bite the floor because he is hunger or tired. Or both. He pulls on his ears when he is tired.

When he was very little I always seemed to get the worse pictures of him- he could make really "ugly" facial expressions back then and I always seemed to capture them on camera. Now, he has a great gorgeous smile. I think he is posing for the camera sometimes (well, I think he is actually posing for him mamma!) But really- he is just so happy. If he looks up and we lock eyes together, he gives this great smile. He puts his teeth together and gives a big grin!

Look at that grin!

Tristan is a very happy baby. Except when he is not. My friend, Sommer, calls this a "hot\cold" baby. Another way to think of it is this: whatever he is feeling, he is feeling fully and passionately. (He throws pretty good baby tantrums complete with throwing himself on the floor!)

He is a go-getter. I call him a "bulldozer." I see him get an idea in his head and he simply goes for it. This is so very opposite from Garrett. He sees a little girl at church crawling around? Lets just go up to her and pull on her bow, maybe bite (aka kiss?) her, maybe pull her hair or take her toy. Lets show this trait in its more positive side. A picture might work better then words here:

Jello? Let's dive in!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These picture's were taken at cousin Hope's first birthday party. Aunt Heather put these bowls of jello down for the babies to play in. The other two babies? They where not so sure about things at first and took their time experimenting. Tristan? "Hey, whats this? Lets dive in!"  (I have great video's from this activity! Aunt Heather is so creative!)

Tristan by far has the cutest baby butt. Fat. Chubby. It is just so cute. I'm going to be sure to tell him that when he is, oh, I don't know, about 15. Here is photographic prof.

Speaking of chubby, fastness. Tristan weight at least 23 pounds as of a few weeks ago. He is big (and I'm reminded of that when I see other babies his age) but his weight gain has slowed down. He is not huge anymore. I knew that would happen and am glad for it.

Eating: this boy loves to eat! (Something else that is very different from big brother.) Whenever anyone around him is eating, he wants to eat too! And if he doesn't get it he will let you know he is not happy. He will cry and fuss and fuss (boy, can't wait until he learns some sign language!) He doesn't eat a lot as far as quantity goes though. He also prefers to do it all himself. He will let me feed him a bit with a spoon but he would much rather grab it from my hands and do it all by himself. He also loves drinking from cups and is very good at drinking from a straw. One cute incident: trying to leave Chick-fil-A, I had my arms full carrying him, y milkshake, and the high chair. He got a hold of the straw to the milkshake and was just drinking away as I carried him out. A man saw him and laughed and said "he really likes that milkshake!" 

Tristan really was very motivated to eat from a pretty young age. But his development just wasn't where it needed to be in order to eat solid foods successfully. He wanted food so bad, so I would let him try it, and he would choke, gag, all that pleasant stuff. But there was a week when his development just seem to have this epiphany- he got the whole chew and swallow thing down pat and was eating away. This happened on our Tennessee vacation in July and warranted an update to daddy who was still in Md: "He finally figured out how to chew and swallow. He is eating all kinds of things!"

Humm, weird I can't find any pictures of when he is a total mess from eating

 

 

  Speaking of eating, he puts anything and everything in his mouth. I know this is typical baby behavior, but man! Its constant.

A Few Current Favorite Activities of Tristan's: 

Pulling stuff out of the recycle bin, usually once a day. Unfortunately, he often pulls the bin on top of himself as well.

Unloading the dishwaher, climbing into the dishwasher, anything dishwasher

 

 

He simply loves to swing. He smiles and has a grand old time. But he will also, just, almost go to sleep in it when he is tired. When ever I decide its time for him to get out of the swing he has a fit about 99% of the time. 

 

 

Water sports: pool, beach, river, baths. Loves them all.

Some of this other favorite activities (no pictures to go with these, this project is really showing me where I'm lacking in the picture taking department. Or maybe I have an uploading-from-the-camera problem.)

-Emptying all the color pencils out of their holder which is next to the kids's desk. He does this at least 3x a day.
-Crawling up stairs. Gosh, he loves this. I think part of his love of stair climbing is the feeling of joy from  having command of his body and also his motto of....
-"I  want to go where I'm not." I other words, if he is in the dining room he wants to go downstairs. If he is inside he wants to go outside. So if I take him outside he climbs up the porch to go back inside. If funny though, when I put him on the grass in the front yard he always crawls to the driving way and crawls on the cement. But if I take him to the grass island, he will simply sit and looks around. I suppose he doesn't like crawing on the grass too much.

He also spends a lot of time at the top of the steps, confined by gate, staring down at the living room watching Garrett and his friends playing. He is a threshold baby. 

The excitement in this picture is the big machine outside eating up the street in preparations for paving the road.

 

 

 

He also loves playing with the Leap Frog ABC magnate thingy on the refridge. He likes to make the magnets fall out of the airplane. He thinks it is so funny! He tries to put the magnets back into the airplane-he knows they go in there- but naturally he doesn't have he hand coordination to do it yet. 

On account of the time, I'm going to bed. I have more to write but this is good for now.

Giving Myself Permission....

This afternoon I took the boys out to a local favorite nature spot. We meet several friends there. Good friends. Friends who  have been such a huge support to me since Garrett was less then six months old. Friends who I don't see as often as I should these days.

As the children ran around like crazed maniacs, reminding me of Lord of the Flies, we mothers chatted. All morning I had looked forward to this chance to talk to my friends. In essence- pouring half my guts out to them about all my current parenting woes, set backs, frustrations and insecurities. (The children did calm down into more focused playing in the river and I did calm down and made sure others had enough time to chat about their struggles.)  It was a good, very needed visit with these wonderful friends. And I can say it was productive. It wasn't just a gripe session. And, a least tonight, I feel calmer. A bit more OK with my world and not quit desperately feeling so weak, frustrated, like things will never improve.

Tonight I give myself permission to:

• Acknowledge my feelings. Aceept them for what they are: information about me. Information about the condition of my everything. (I say everything about I can't define myself in a nutshell by saying my spirit, emotions, physical, and social self.)
• To accept my feelings with out judging myself or putting myself down, with out the negative self defeating self-talk. In other words, I give permission to love myself without strings attached.
• Hope for a brighter future, a better day. 
• Have patience and love for myself as well as with my family. 
• To celebrate small achievements and improvements, no matters how small they might appear.  

(I did eventually end up in the river and took Tristan in. It was so cute, I took his diaper off and snapped his jumper up. But his jumper is getting too small. He was playing in the water and- sure enough half his buttons had popped open and his little penis was hanging out. It was so funny. He didn't seem to mind.) 

End of Part 1.

Part 2:

On Monday we started homeschooling for the year. Garrett is considered to be in 1st grade. I feel like this year is a our first "real" year homeschooling because we were very unstructured last year, for the most part. I decided yesterday it would be a good idea to write down why I decided to homeschool. I think it will be especially helpful for rough days. So I am going to attempt to write this in a nutshell.

Brian and I come from very different educational backgrounds and experiences. Polar opposites really. And our experiences are really the springboard for the reason we ever even considered homeschooling. I was a very late bloomer academically. I started Kindergarten when I was 6 due to my birthday being Sept 19th. But I really struggled in school. I repeated 1st grade. If you do the math, you will figure that I got my driving license as a freshman in high school! At some point (I want to say around 2nd grade) I was put in "LD" classes (learning disability classes) for just about every subject except math and social studies. (Which is really funny because math is not my strong suite.) I actually remember the testing I went through in order to be placed into this class. And I remember a horrible conversation on the playground when some girl pointed out she had the test done too but it was to be put into gifted classes, and I had to to be put in the LD classes.

I really struggled learning how to read. I don't know that I really cared to learn to read for a while. Well I suppose the desire was there but not enough to struggle through with it. I had a very vivid imagination. I remember one day "reading" a book (looking at the pictures and making up my own story) and my grandma asked "why don't you try to actually read it?" Umm..no. I loved stories though. I remember sitting around during reading time. My books where so boring. I would sit there and instead of trying to read my books independently like I was suppose to, I would instead listen to the other students read out-load with the teacher from there much more exciting readers. When my step-mom, Leslie, entered the picture, I remember her reading The Secret Garden to me (and I know my mom read to me a lot too.) That was lovely- I really liked that story. I remember the Boxcar Children series was really popular back then. I wanted to read them so badly but my reading skills were not good enough. I remember getting sick with the shingle and having to stay home for a whole week, by myself while my parents worked. I picked up the book The Little House in the Prairie (or maybe it was the Big Woods one) and I slowly made my way through it. I think that was a turning point in me- a realization that I really did want to learn how to read better because then this whole world of books would be open to me, with out having to rely on others. So the motivation was there. I was only in that LD class for about 1.5 years (it was great learning style for me too- a lot of independent work which I rocked at, still did when I went to vo-tech in high school to escape high school.) For all my struggle, in 9th grade I was placed in honors English. In college I was also in honors English. I caught up mostly. But I did have holes in my education (mainly from moving a lot. Also from not picking up on concepts fast enough before the class went on to the next subject. This is one of the reasons I really stink at math and am very insecure in math.)

I was a good student. Very willing to please and to learn. But I was a late bloomer for sure. Part of it I think was my personality. I was very shy and introverted as a kid (except with my one best friend.) I was also severely made fun of by other children (this started to go away at about 6th grade but finally stopped at 7th grade. Do the math, don't forget about 2 yrs in 1st grade- that is a lot of time to suffer through being made fun of.) My family life wasn't always very stable either, (I think my parents separated right about the time I entered K) so I know that had some factor in it all too. Even though I was  a good student later in my childhood, I did go to vo-tech starting in the 10th grade to study child development. A huge factor in this choice was to make high school a bit more bearable. But to be honest, I dropped out of high school at the end of the 1st semester in 11th grade. Yup, I'm a high school drop out. But I got my GED in the state of Maryland and I have an actual Maryland High School Diploma.) So....Umm...I think I should have been homeschool. ;) 

Well, my dearest husband had the exact opposite experience. He was always gifted. He was a very smart kid. And is still a very smart adult. He is one of those people that really doesn't have much of an educational weakness. Great at math. Great at writing. He was an early reader. He was reading things like Steven King at a really young age. So young that the librarian at the local library thought he was checking out inappropriate books to read. At some point, he was bused every day to another school in order to attend a class for gifted students. He reports he really liked it. He was challenged and not bored. But things changed. The family moved in order to give his brother a new start in school because his brother was getting in trouble school. His parents though turning over a new leaf would help. Unfortunately, with the move Brian could no longer go to this class for gifted students. He ended up in normal class and was very bored. In fact, he was helping to tutor the other kids. His educational needs were not meet. He did find an outlet for himself, in his own personal time. Computers. In high school his grades were poor. I guess he was just bored and at that point didn't care. He also was struggling with some health issues. He would fall asleep in class. Once when he had fallen asleep in computer class the teacher had had all the students gather around in a circle around him. He woke up and they were all staring at him. (Turns out, he has narcolepsy. And of coarse he fell asleep in computer class. He is a computer guru and has been since he was very, very young.)  

So it is from these two very different backgrounds we come from. Why I want to homeschool? To meet my child's needs, whether those needs are average, slower then average, or gifted. To let my child learn and grown in his own time frame. To be able to linger on a subject that interests him. To be able to linger on a subject he might need extra time to absorb. Or to speed past a subject that he doesn't really care about (although I do think something we have to learn even if we don't really care to learn them!). Basically, to meet his needs. I also want to teach my child to love learning. To teach him how to learn. That learning is never over. Our whole life is one big learning experience. Learning does not stop when the bell brings and we go home on the bus. (oh, or after we finally do our homework.)

I also feel that current public school philosophy pushes too much too fast for our children. The schools are requiring more and more of our young students. Is it really working? I don't think so. I would much rather let the kid play in the mud and be a kid. Academics come soon enough.

I also feel the most natural environment for a child to learn in, is in a place he feels at home. By his mothers knees. Who loves these children the most? Who knows them the best? Mother and Father!

Also, I think there are so many interesting ways to learn. So many different styles of learning. Some many philosophies on education (maybe too many good options!) I want to have options! Why limit a child to one style; public school style? Why limit a child to 4 walls? We are each so unique and individual. What may be good for 20 pupils in a class room probably is not good for at least 1 of them!

Those are my main motivations for wanting to homeschool. There are some other perks, other goals. But its getting late and this is long so I won't write about them.


Tonight I give myself permission to:

• Enjoy the homeschooling ride with my child. Relax and enjoy!
• To have fun
• To let my child grow at his own pace. (To not compare him to others. To not freak out if he is  "behind" his public school counterparts.)
• Not follow the schedule I think I should follow. To take all the time Garrett might need. 
• Be the authority on my child and his educational needs. I know him best.
• Take the pressure off. Its not my job to teach him everything.
• Grow and adapt to my needs and the needs of my children and family
  

Tristan's Birth Story Posted & Rock Star Husband

I wrote Tristan's birth story and a testimonial for one of my midwives. Check it out! When I was under her care she was finishing up her midwifery apprenticeship and she is now a full fledged midwife. She is awesome and is sure to provide wonderful care to many mommies and babies in the year to come. So, if anyone is looking for a homebirth midwife in the MD\DE\NJ\PA be sure to check her out!

Also, the hubby was on a podcast a few weeks ago. He talked a bit about his book and general talk about cyber security, talk about upcoming conferences, and some current issues in his field.. (So my readers of this site probably won't be interested in listening to this really!)

And his signature is on this interesting item up for bid on Ebay (as a fundraiser.)

I keep teasing him he will be on Fox News soon and he says absolutely not. (And really, he is just very humble. I do like to tease him though.)