You will cry!

Good grief, this is one of those emails that one just can't ignore. It certainly made me reflect on something. Obviously what I say now will only make sense once you read the article and watch the video. When Tayla is not acting herself and giving Ash and I a diffecult time, I feel very frustrated and wonder if I'm being punished or something. The truth is that she is just being a normal baby with normal baby issues. Here is a dad who was able to overlook the series diffeculties of his son and in fact do everything he could to make his son's life fulfilling. I really need to put things into perspective...

Strongest Dad in the World[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay fortheir text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles inmarat! hons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchairbut also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountainclimbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking yourson bowling look a little lame, right?And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick wasstrangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged andunable to control his limbs.``He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told himand his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an institution.''But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followedthem around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineeringdepartment at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help theboy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told. ``There's nothing goingon in ! his brain.''"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lotwas going on in his brain.Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touchinga switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate.First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzedin an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick peckedout, ``Dad, I want to do that.''Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran morethan a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried.``Then i t was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore for twoweeks.''That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, itfelt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rickthat feeling as often as he could. He got into! such hard-belly shape that heand Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite asingle runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a fewyears Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then theyfound a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran anothermarathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the followingyear.Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he wassix going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans inHawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by anold guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says. Dickdoes it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with acantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th BostonMarathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their besttime'? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record,which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held bya guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of theCentury.''And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had! a mildheart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95%clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him,``you probably would've died 15 years ago.''So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, andDick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always findways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete insome backbreaking race every > weekend, including this Father's Day.That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants togive him is a gift he can never buy.``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chairand I push him once.''

This one begat that one begat that one....

Geez, it seems as though I forgot I even have a blog. I have just found a new hobby...I want know where I come from. I have started a family tree. It's amazing that when you begin, before you go back generations you actually get ridiculous when you go laterally. I'm using a program called Legecy 5.0, which is software that helps you to map a family tree and link the various relationships quite easliy. If you are interested in doing this, it is surprisingly interesting. The software is available at this website www.legacyfamilytree.com. Let me know how you go. If you have ever dabbled in this hobby and you have any advice, let me know. I will soon post a link to an HTML version of my family tree.