Lily got to enjoy the afternoon snack on the front porch with me. Peanut butter & jelly on saltine cracker! Yum!

See how good she is to wait till we tell her okay! I love the way she looks away but keeps her eyes on it intently.

You know, I don’t know if it’s just me, or if everyone struggles to remember stuff going way back. I think my first real memories of individual scenes from when I was a kid date back to the time of my dad’s assignment to Germany (he’s retired Air Force). I vaguely remember one night being left at some kind of kids care on base with my brother (and what seemed then like tons of other kids). I think I remember us getting some kind of little super hero flashlights for when it was dark there. I also vaguely remember, or think I remember some canvas cots all lined up one beside the other in rows and head to toe in columns. Maybe in a gymnasium on base or something. Who knows.

I also have mini video clip memories of the day John F. Kennedy was shot. I think that was because I paid super careful attention due to the obvious emotion and concern I saw in my mom as she monitored the news about what was going on stateside. I’m pretty sure we were still in Germany when it happened.

And I remember my brother and some of his friends thinking it was funny to scare the little brother walking through tall grass between our apartments where they could duck down and knew I couldn’t see over the grass like they could to find them. Pretty scary when you’re a little kid and all you can see is sky above and grass all around and the comforting hand of the person who can see disappears amidst laughter and “shhhh!, He’ll find us!”

All that aside, as I reflect on Father’s Day about memories of my dad, here are a few:

Favorite: Both my brother and I got motorcycles when we were kids so we could enjoy riding. When we were teenagers in New Mexico we went on a weekend camping/riding trip with my dad. It was quite the adventure. We trailered the bikes to somewhere in Northern New Mexico (near Madrid I think I remember) and set up camp in what seemed to me a desolate rock quarry area. I just remember the tents on lots of gravel and not much vegetation around. We had two tents, one for Kenn and I and one for dad. We were so tired I don’t remember anything about the night. However, I will never forget breakfast the next morning. Seems we had remembered EVERYTHING when packing except more than one pot to cook breakfast in. Now understand, I love grits and I love corned beef hash, but first thing in the morning and cooked in the same pot… well, it looked like it had already been eaten and brought back up for a vote. Joking aside though, one of the qualities I remember about my dad that has influenced who I am was that no challenge would overcome him. When something seemed impossible he would always back off, think about it, and then solve it.

Scariest: I don’t remember much of the details, but when we lived in the San Fransisco area one night I got up late for some reason and met what I later found out was only my dad in a Alfred E Newman mask and trench coat in the hall. I don’t think I want to know any more details.

Most Humorous: (Punked!) I worked at a stereo store just after I graduate high school. One of the perks was that we could bring equipment home to try out while the store was closed. One Saturday after a long day at work for me and a long hard day of working in the yard at home for dad, I had brought home some really nice equipment and an amazing record (yes, even though cassettes and 8-tracks were around then) of rain and thunderstorms. Just after sitting down to dinner I excused myself briefly and set the speakers in the hall right outside my door (where they would not easily be seen) and set the record to play from the beginning. I wish I had pictures of the complete problem solving looks on his face as he attempted to figure out where the freak and enormous rain and thunder storm had come from when he had just come in from what looked like an amazingly clear evening. Oh, and the sound of the water falling off the roof and hitting something… he was really stumped by what the rain could be hitting. When he got up to check, as he neared the sliding glass door it became clear something was out of whack and then his ears led him to the hallway where he found the speakers I had set up. The look on his face was priceless. Oh…wait. There’s one better than this… ask him about night he came home from the theater where he saw Jaws and the plastic shark in the toilet!

Proudest: There are lots of times I remember to be proud of my dad. He was always the rock and everything seemed more stable when Pa (I started calling him “Pa” when I was in high school… daddy was just too childish to say as a teen and dad was not cool) was around. As an Air Force officer who promoted from 1st Lieutenant to Colonel he had many promotions, but there was only one the whole family went to. I know he went through many, but other than it being a lot like a graduation ceremony (people talking FOREVER … but it was cool because they were talking about my dad!) I remember when he stood at attention to have his oak leaf clusters pinned on in Albuquerque. “That’s MY dad!” I remember thinking.

Freakiest: When he almost drowned me capsizing our sailboat when he was learning to sail on a tricky lake and he used my back as the bottom to push off and get to the top. - haha, Pa, you know I had to put this one in here ;o) He still swears he didn’t, but I think the footprint is still on my back.

Commonalities: Though I know my wife and children would like point out many more things my dad and I share in common, here’s a few I’m fond of:

1. Strong love for Mexican - I think we could both eat it 3×7x365
2. Geekiness - we both love gadgets and tech stuff
3. Love the outdoors - though I can’t stand to be outside much in the South, out here in the West, where I grew up with daddio we spent lots of times outdoors doing stuff
4. Motorcycling - My dad planted this love in our hearts early on. I still remember the day he brought his first Suzuki home when we were in Colorado Springs. Now I ride a Suzuki (haha, Pa, mine’s BIGGER now!)
5. Analytical mind - Though we were on very different career paths the skill sets we both seem to have are amazingly similar. Problem solving is one of our fortes.
6. Temper - yeah, blah, blah, blah. Thankfully we’ve both learned to control it more as we’ve gotten older.
7. Opinion - we both have one. Sometimes they’re similar sometimes they are not.

So, here’s to Pa on Father’s Day. There’s a lot more I could say, but hey, what would I post about next year?

Some events in your lifetime pass and are never remembered again. Well, the date anyways. You may remember what actually happened, but the date not so much. Those are not necessarily etched in your mind.

This date however will likely be etched in my mind for quite some time. One year ago today I sat in the office of my supervisor at the company I had worked at for 11 years and was informed that my position was one of three being eliminated to make room in next year’s budget for other types of personnel. I cannot describe the rush of things that go through your head in a moment like that. If you’ve been there you know what I mean.

A folder is pulled out and you go over all the paperwork related to severance and all. How crazy is it that once you are told you will be without a job they go over all these details and expect you to sign a piece of paper agreeing to all the terms right there as this amazing thought-flood is going on. Anyway, I elected to have a lawyer friend review mine before I signed and left the office.

I was told I could go for the rest of the day, finish the week, and then, though I officially was not finished until July 31, if I had transitioned all the stuff I was working on I was no longer expected to be in the office after that Friday. I have to say, all this flexibility and a generous severance package was the bright side of the coin but there still is no rush like being told you are being laid off permanently. (I guess that’s different than being fired. Fired would be if you screwed up or did something immoral or illegal. Laid off is when the type of service you have to provide is no longer needed or organizational changes mean your skill set is no longer part of the mix.) Either way, after Friday the 15th I was gone.

One of the interesting pieces of all this was how Julie and I had already discussed that we wanted to have our own business established by the date the severance was set to run out. Difference was rather than working full time and at the same time laboring to launch a sustaining business, we now had a severance period to concentrate on establishing the new work and would not be looking at a two week notice and transition.

On the way to lunch the next day before going in to begin the transition and cleaning out process it hit me that this was the perfect time to move back to Colorado (where we had lived before going to Nashville). And, if we were going to be working to establish a business, it was better to establish it where we ultimately wanted to live rather than establish it and then relocate later. Hence, the whirlwind escalated. That was June 13. August 1st our house went on the market. August 6th we had a contract. August 26th we were out and on our way to Colorado to find our way. So, here we are. One year later. Since this is getting long, I’ll wait till August 1 to update the status and reminisce about where the business is now.

Thanks to everyone who helped us through the amazing transition train we’ve been on. Here are some of our transition support super stars to whom we are SO SO grateful:

Ray and Katie Carman who helped with the whole house sale/purchase thing (even so far as traveling to CO for a scouting trip Jul 26-31) as well as being amazingly supportive friends to lean on, and were gracious enough to host a drop by for folks who wanted to come by and say good bye before we left. Oh and hats off to Ray who was the packing/loading ANIMAL! We never could have gotten out of there if it were not for you guys.
Todd and Monica (as well as AJ and Ashley) Donaldson who opened their home to us in CO while we house hunted and were here for us to lean on at the CO side of our journey.
Scott Wendland, Chris Papetti, and Tripp Karrh who graciously labored to help load us up, drive out on the trek from Nashville to Denver in the dual-26-foot-Penske-truck-with-car-carriers-Pathfinder-motorcyle-trailer caravan, and unload and stuff all the stuff into storage buildings.
Our awesome kiddos Jes & AK who helped with lots of stuff and checked in on us to make sure we were making it okay (oh and have since relocated to CO as well… what sweeties!). You guys were so strong and never showed any nervousness which helped mom and dad not worry so much about leaving you in TN.
John and Debbie Revell who helped pack and were amazing pillars of support for us when the pressure began to mount.
Denver and Amy Bierman who were the rocks we leaned on. Though we know you were incredibly busy (Denver with the whole Next Great American Band thing and Amy months from delivering London) crushed by our leaving, you continue to be incredibly encouraging and full of support emotionally and spiritually through the transition.
Kathie Hill of Kathie Hill Music who was one of my first clients back in 2005 and who patiently endured during our moving right in the middle of her launching WAM! a whole new revolutionary product line for kid’s music.
And everyone else who encouraged us and whose thoughts and prayers supported us in the transition.

So, we press on in Life 2.0 mode one year later.

Well, sorta anyways. Maybe only the backs of our heads or something. On Craigslist the other day I saw a post for movie extras for a feature film being shot in the Denver area so I replied… and check this out! We got invited to come today. YAY! Have no idea what we are getting into. Hope it’s not some shady film production. We shall see! Heck, we get a free meal out of it and a final copy of the DVD.

Oh, and on a side note, referring back to my post about An Exciting Day for Kendall Media Group while we’re still waiting for expertvillage to get our videos online, I had to get some samples up for another similar service we are working to get set up with so here’s a link to some of the video we shot with Sam Brede of Carver’s Ski Snowboard Sports in Breckenridge CO on Feb 22. You can’t see them, but Julie’s on one camera and Amy Bierman, a.k.a. The Super Amy, who was visiting with us at the time we did the shoot, is crawling around on the floor holding the boom mic pole. Oh, look… I found a picture! Love ya Amy!

Many of you may not know the many talents of both our kiddos. One of AK’s less known talents is writing songs and recording them on his Practice Room Records label (because he records them in his practice room — ha, go figure!)

So, I’m posting them without his permission and he may sue me for copyright…

I Want You

Not That Bad

Stay

I'm Through (remix... he's already doing remixes of his own work)

The Christmas Song

Proud papa has these rights I think!

Well, it’s been about a week since I last posted. A lot has been going on, and not much has been going on at the same time.

Since our kiddos (for a little while anyway) are on the other side of the country and work in retail we awaited their arrivals to have our family Christmas day. AK arrived on the 24th, and Jes came in on the 27th. Then we enjoyed a Christmas-evening celebration the 28th.

AK had wanted for his Christmas a series of snowboarding days… he got one. We went up on the 26th (were supposed to go on the 25th but an all day snow made mountain roads treacherous… we’ll more treacherous than we wanted to navigate or risk) it was a great day… until AK took a front side toe edge spill and landed squarely on his shoulder. At first he thought it was only a bad bruise or strain so we worked our way back down the 2/3rds of the mountain left (we were at Keystone, so that’s a long way). When we got to the bottom, we were in a different place than we had parked since we took the easiest way down possible. I decided to find somewhere to sit him that was warm while I went to get the car and Julie, who had finished her day several runs earlier. The best place to leave him was the lobby of the on-site medical facility at the base of the mountain. When I returned with the Jeep and Julie, he was hurting bad enough and to avoid a potential later trip to an emergency room we decided to have someone look at him. Yep, he broke his clavicle. And, is this our family or what, not your usual break. His was basically at the tip of the clavicle. We followed up with an orthopedic doctor the next day and AK was grateful to hear no surgery required immediately or perhaps at all. The Dr. we saw was awesome and told AK that if he did do surgery, AK had done half his work for him already as with a break in that area they usually remove the tip of the bone and reattach muscles/ligaments to the part that’s left. And get this… the Dr. has a brother at Hendersonville Hospital in TN who practices same type of medicine. So AK is to follow up with him in a month or so, and then with Dr. here when he is back in CO.

We were sweating Jes’ arrival a little as we were expecting a significant amount of new snow by the time she came in on the evening of the 27th. She got here, but as is her flying luck she was about two hours later. However, the great news is all of her luggage came in with her on this trip. I was a little nervous about her arrival as she openly professes to hate snow and cold. I guess parking at the top level of the airport garage was not the greatest idea, but there was not much open at that point. She got to step out of the airport into the cold and wet. Thankfully she seems to have done great though since. In fact she seems to have stayed warm (similar temperatures feel so much warmer here than in humid areas) when dressed correctly for the weather and she’s not complained about the snow or cold… YAY!

Christmas was a nice quiet evening (instead of morning) as we exchanged gifts and emptied stockings (a Kendall family tradition we’ve enjoyed for years). By far the highlight was watching our two kiddos reaction when they opened the Rock Band game (we put the box with instruments away and just wrapped the actual game/case. AK was amazed we got it and we have all enjoyed playing on the big screen we’ve put up temporarily in the basement. Great fun!

Got our first eventon.tv entry edited and up on the website. It was Julie’s first run at the rover camera instead of the fixed tripod. It’s a little jumpy but still works. Here’s a link to the eventon.tv site I threw up to house the first event info/video. We’ve shot two other events since and I can’t believe the improvement she’s already shown. Have two more in the can to edit.

And, like we’ve not had enough to do over the holidays, I’ve been working on a major update to one of our client’s web sites over the holidays. A couple of snags have delayed it’s re-launch so I’m STILL working on that (why AM I posting to my blog right now?)

Today our kiddos begin trekking back across the skies to work/school. It looks like both will beginning their last semesters at MTSU in TN. Jes is set to graduate in May and AK, well it looks like he’ll be making preparations for a transfer to Colorado State University in Fort Collins beginning in the Fall 2008. He and I spent yesterday looking around up there and meeting with some faculty to see what they had to offer. It was a very impressive program and offers TONS better program and opportunities directly out of school. He’s very excited… we are too.

As is the case with most college graduates, Jes is planning to apply her Spanish/linguistics degree toward a future in baking. Yep, you read right. She is seriously pursuing the idea of opening her own bake shop. How exciting is that. We figured she’ll have a great opportunity to use her Spanish with customers.

And we begin the new year absolutely, 100% self-employed for the first time in our lives. We’re already being quite blessed as we had two new client opportunities last week and may already have all the work we need and can handle. Now we just have to buckle down and get ‘er done. Speaking of which, I have work to do… more later.

This year has been a year of many firsts for the Kendall family. Add another one for Thanksgiving. Since both Jes and AK are in retail they have to be in their stores early in the AM for Black Friday. So, today we are grateful to have shared Thanksgiving with our kiddos in Murfreesboro. This photo was taken at AK’s table we moved into Jes’ apartment. What an awesome meal and great day!