A little reminder of why I can’t wait for Springtime!

Riding the Sporty down Bluff Road from Lemont to Bolingbrook Then back to Woodridge

Please excuse the bumpy camera work… I don’t have a steady-cam mount for this camera yet.

Singing with my Dad Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy

I love singing with my dad.

Here we are at the Polte Family Christmas Celebration. We didn’t get to practice much together due to schedule conflicts but we do enjoy the time we have singing. You can tell by us laughing at the end.

Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy sung by Marvin and Todd originally performed by Bing Crosby and David Bowie

Hope you enjoy this as much as we enjoyed singing it.

My thoughts on Amanda Todd and the cyber bullies who murdered her.

Anyone who knows, meets, or is currently "friends" with one of the cyber bullies of Amanda Todd, should say to that bully  that you hope they can forgive themselves for the pain and death they caused."

That should be posted on each of their social media pages every day.

It should be the first thing said to them every morning when they wake up.

It should be the first thing said to them every time they are met in public.

Every day right before they go to sleep it should be the last thing they hear.

This statement should follow them wherever they go.

They should have no escape from this statement.

This should continue until they understand and acknowledge what they have done.

Acknowledge it just as publicly and as many times as they posted their bullying statements to Amanda.

This is what they deserve... but to do so, would be considered to be bullying them.

Deserving or not, bullying is wrong.

So these bullies will not get what they deserve and they will get away with this "murder".

Published!

Well it has happened. George’s Christmas Wish is being published.

Ethan had an idea for a story when he was around 9 years old. He asked me to help him write it, so I helped him put his ideas down and then helped him arrange his story ideas into a full story. We thought it was a very cute story and were hoping to have someone draw the pictures for it. 12 years later we still had no drawings.
I figured when he went to college for animation and was taking all the drawing classes that he would start, but between work and school assignments it never came to be.

Then Jordan surprised me with a manila envelope addressed simply “For that home worker (that means Dad)” 

I opened it up to find several sketches that Jordan had drawn just from memory of having Ethan and I talk about the story. I fit the pictures into the story and had him draw a few more. We liked it and we scanned the pictures into the computer and he colored them in and Ethan put some finishing touches on them. We had a nice Word Document that looked like it would be a fun thing to hand out.

Then I looked online for information on how to get this printed out in book format. On one site I put my email address and phone number to get information… that led to an amazing process and quite by accident initially, we ended up with a published work.

Paperback will be available soon for order online and an eBook format is also going to be available for direct purchase from the publisher, from Amazon, and other online bookstores. I will post the complete list of locations when I receive them.

So Ethan is a published author, I am co-author, and Jordan has his first published illustration work.

AMAZING!

OK I am not a salesman and I am not saying you have to buy, but I and my publishing company would like to let you know that 
Preorders of the paperback are available at xLibris.com
http://bookstore.xlibris.com/Products/SKU-0116366017/Georges-Christmas-Wish.aspx

Stairs out with the old… in with the new!

Mary and I have been talking about replacing the banister on our stairs for a long time now.

We spent a lot of time looking for ideas and this year we started getting quotes.

As the contractors came through all were willing to do the work. But all seemed to be too much variances in the quotes and what work was needed. We couldn’t tell if one was over priced or the other was not giving honest quotes. Finally Mary asked on Facebook if anyone knew a handyman who could help us. Her friend contacted us back recommending her son Danny Osmon. We looked at some pictures of cabinets and furniture he had built. We could not believe we could afford his work.

After he came and looked at our stairs he said he could easily replace our old banister, but if we ever wanted to replace the stairs later, we would have to replace the new banister… none of the other contractors had mentioned that. They just said they would give us a quote for new stairs when we decided to proceed.

We asked for a quote for replacing everything. When we received it we could not believe how reasonable it was.

As he began to work I was able to watch Danny and his brother Mike work on taking a pile of Oak boards and change them from a pile of wood into an unbelievably sturdy and beautiful set of stairs.

   

First they replaced the basement stairs. On removal of the old stairs he found a problem with the wall under the stairs. The original wall was not fastened to the floor in the basement. This was causing the old stairs to be unsupported from underneath and the sides were spreading causing the steps to crack and come loose.

  

This meant the entire wall under the stairs had to be removed and rebuilt before the new stairs could be installed. After that wall was rebuilt

 

During this process we had one day that we had to go up a ladder to go to bed. Mary said she felt like Little House on the Prairie.

 

After the stairs were in, we could not stop saying to each other how beautiful our new stairs were. Over and over when we walked by them we would exclaim, “WE GOT NEW STAIRS.”

 

   

 

 

Then, the painter came. It took almost as many days to stain and varnish the stairs as it took to build them.

 

As each stroke of the stain rag or varnishing brush went by they became more and more beautiful.

So now we have these beautiful stairs!

Funny times at home

Last night Mary and I were watching the SNL: 2000-2010 special. It was about 8:30pm

Ethan came downstairs for a snack and blurts out, “I notice your not in bed yet, Mom.”

I immediately say, “I notice your kind of an ass sometimes, Ethan”

Mary says “Don’t call my son an ass, you idiot!”

to which Ethan reply’s “Don’t call my Dad an Idiot, you … (long pause)”

Mary and I almost in unison … “So? Go Ahead! What are you gonna call your Mom!?!?” 

The New Driveway’s Here! The New Driveway’s Here! Woo Hoo!

The new driveway has been completed!

I so enjoyed watching these men work. They not only did a great job, but went beyond my expectations and actually added dirt and planted grass in the areas that the Driveway was not very good before. Now we have 5 days till we can park on it. But they said we can walk on it already…

So after all the work these men put in… we have the new driveway!