Visual Trademark - A Blog By CJ Mills

Post from January 1st, 2008 - Disney Trip PhotoBlog...

Above is a shot of our bus driver. He has had the right turn signal on for the last 15 minutes. I’m trying to build up enough nerve to tell him…
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Sent from my Treo smartphone

Post from May 14th, 2008…

I am a first time Dad. By that, I mean that I’m experiencing all the stages of being a parent for the first time. I am slowly learning all the “tricks of the trade” in preparation for my little boy who is scheduled to make an appearance in July; however, this week I have experienced a new one - the realization that my baby girl is starting to grow up.

I don’t know what caused me to realize this. Maybe the fact that we pulled her hair up for the first time (yes, the curls CAN be managed) and she just “looked” older. Maybe its the fact that she has been so good this week. Maybe it was the fact that she started drinking coffee with me in the morning (just kidding). Whatever it was, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I immediately started to think about what kind of teenager she will be. Who will she date? Who will be her friends? Who will be her enemies? Who will hurt her for the first time? When will she realize I’m not the coolest/hippest/best Dad in the world? When will she scream “I HATE YOU” for the first time? When will she say, with complete understanding of the meaning, “I love you” for the first time? When will she decide if Christ is to be a part of her life? How good of a student will she be? How good of an athlete will she be? How good of a musician will she be? Will she be a leader? Will she be a follower? How will she handle peer pressure? How will she dress? How much will she love me and her mother? Will she find someone who loves her as much as I do? Will she marry someone good enough? Will she ever know how proud I am of her? Will she ever appreciate how hard her mother and I work to provide the best life possible for her? Will she ever appreciate how great of a mom she has? Will she ever understand how deeply I love her?

These are only a few of the questions that I have thought about since she came into this world. This week they all became a little more real. But in the midst of all those questions, I know that she has an incredible mother who is raising her wonderfully. I know that she is one of the most polite little kids I have ever seen. I know that she is surrounded by parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and family friends who love and care for her deeply. I know she is loved.

I know I will go through this same realization with my little boy, but I will be a little more prepared for it. This is why I love being a parent. These tough questions really put life in perspective. They make you drop what you are doing, sit back, and watch your kid grow up in front of your very eyes.

I love you, Jadyn.

Post from February 10th, 2008…

Andrea went out to eat with a friend last night, so I was in charge of putting Jade to bed. Here is exactly how Jadyn tried to negotiate her way out of it.

Me - Time for bed Babe
Jade - I wanna watch Mickey
Me - Sorry babe, we need to go to bed
Jade - I wanna watch Little Einsteins
Me - Jade, I said we need to go to bed
Jade - Wanna watch FOOTBALL, Dad?

Aren’t kids hilarious?!?

Post from January 29th, 2008...

Post from May 30th, 2008…

Andrea typically puts Jadyn to bed, but tonight I ended up doing it as Andrea has a friend from Denver in town. With all the chaos surrounding the last week or so, it has been hard to get back in a routine. Jadyn is no different and has a real hard time settling down so I ended up laying down with her while she screams, “I want mommy.” In an effort to calm her down, I reached around her, pulled her in close to my chest, and held her hand. She instantly squeezed my hand and slowly drifted to sleep.

While I was laying there, sweating like crazy as the heat radiated from her body, I began to think how much we all need to connect. Whether it be the workplace, academic setting, church or home, we all have a desire to connect with those around us.

I can easily remember key “connections” in my life. Some are simple, like connecting with players on a traveling soccer team over the course of 4 years. Some are obvious, like connecting with my now wife. Some are old, like my Dad playing catch with me in my back yard. Some are recent, like my office rallying behind me in a time of need. Some are brief, like the McDonald’s window lady looking me in the eye, smiling and saying “have a nice day” in a tone that suggests she actually means it. Some are long, like my small group of 8 goofy middle school kids that are now young men in college. Some are physical, like the first time I held my kids. Some are not, like the many new friends I’ve developed through blogging.

However, whenever, wherever these connections happen, something happens inside of us. We all of a sudden feel good about whatever situation we are in. We feel like we should feel - part of something.

Funny how children can help us see the most simple complexities of the world, isn’t it?

Check out this week’s schedule:

Monday - Fly out to Orlando for a 5 day business Trip.
Friday - Arrive home from said business trip at 10:00 in the evening.
Saturday - Wake up at 6:00 in the morning to move from this home to our new home.

Sounds fun, doesn’t it?  My wife and kids will be at home without me, which is always hard, but making things more interesting is the move this weekend.  Should be exciting….

My blogging takes a dive when I’m on business trips.  I pack my days full, maximizing on the time out of the office, resulting in late nights.  In an effort to continue shoving daily blog posts your way, I’ve found 5 posts from the past to repost.

Pray for sanity and safety this week for the entire Mills fam!

Check this out, and then come back here to discuss.

1) What does this say about society when people feel the need to get “married” in a virtual world, in addition to the real world?

2) How the heck do you have sex with a virtual prostitute?

3) Do you think cheating in a virtual game is the same as cheating in real life?

4) Can you believe there are online private detectives?

5) I don’t know about you, but my favorite part of this article is at the very end - “Taylor is now in a new relationship with a man she met in the online roleplaying game World of Warcraft.“  ARE YOU SERIOUS?!

**UPDATE - Video From The Office

(HT: Josh)

Tonight I started to pack up our entertainment center so I didn’t have to worry about all the cables and wires while everyone was loading boxes up.  While moving our sub woofer, I noticed something banging around inside.  I looked into the hole on the side of the box and noticed a few interesting things….my old cell phone, Andrea’s old cell phone, an empty medicine bottle and a toy block.  I wonder how those got in there….

Jadyn was quite an exploring little kid, as a result, she ending up stuffing all sorts of things all over our house.  It was quite funny finding these items in there, but the humor quickly began to fade when I realized it wasn’t going to be easy getting the items out.  The hole in the side of the woofer box extended 3/4 the width of the box itself.  The rest of the box was open, so it wasn’t like I could just flip the sub woofer and the items would fall out (besides, the thing was heavy).  So what did I do?  I got CREATIVE.

I attached a piece of electrical tape to the end of the string.  I then lowered the string down to one of the items and used an extremely long screwdriver to force the tape to stick to the item.  I then, very carefully, pulled the item up!  Pretty simple, right?  No, not really, but it ended up working….

I have not been the best father to Jadyn over the last 3 years.  I let her mother do a lot for her, and as a result, she tends to give her mother a lot of love back - makes sense and Andrea completely deserves that.  Recently I’ve started to think that I’ve been cheating Jadyn and have wanted to be more intentional about interacting with her.  I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve never taken my 3 year old daughter out, just the two of us, so I decided to do that tonight.  We had our first Daddy/Daughter date night and it was a blast.

We went to McDonald’s - where every 3 year old wants to go for dinner - and dropped massive change on an extravagant dinner ($7).  She got me napkins and a straw, all by herself (she was pretty proud of herself).  It was fun to “talk” about what she “did” today and how excited she is for her new house and new toy room.  After dinner, we went back home to play Wii together and eventually settled down and went to bed.  It was a lot of fun and I deposited a lot in the relationship bank with her tonight.

I feel as though I’m missing out on Jade’s life and tonight was a big step towards gaining that time back.  I look forward to more dates in the future, which I know will develop a massive ROI (return on investment for you simple folk).

Jade was in rare form last night.  It actually was pretty funny - until she stopped listening to me alltogether.  I gave her a few warnings, and then resorted to something I don’t do very often - spanking.  I hate spanking her.  I hate the fact that she becomes afraid of me for a brief moment in time.  I’m pretty much a sucker and she knows it.

Curious to know if any other parent out there struggles, or had struggled with this same issue…