Recall your play fire station?

One of your favorite toys to play with when a preschooler was the Fisher Price Imaginext fire station pictured at right. I bought it for you when you were two, but you played with it no matter what your age!

It had neat doors that you could park the fire truck behind, as well as bunkbeds so you could pretend that the firefighters were at the station before they got called to put out a big fire. One feature I really liked was the pole on which the firefighter could spin down from the roof to the ground level.

I bought some additional fire trucks and ambulances as well, so we could have quite the adventure with the play set. Often after the firefighters left the station, it became the burning building they had to save!

I always kept it on the mantle next to the fireplace, as it was a favorite toy of yours to enjoy. You'll probably see it in the background of several photos from our time at the green house in Lancaster!

Your first California snowfall!

It never rains in Southern California - but it does snow! Snowfall covered the Mojave Desert the afternoon two years ago today. It was the first time in five years that snow had fallen where I'd lived near Los Angeles - and it was YOUR first snow fall in California!

 

You'd played in the snow in the mountains near where we lived in Lancaster so knew how much fun it could be to be outside, so you asked if you could go out in it. I got you quick dressed, and once outside you ran through it like crazy and made snowballs.

 

Later that day, one of our trees in our backyard fell over! It couldn't handle all of the wind and the heavy snow on its branches.

 

Here's a whole bunch of photos from your fun hours outside in the snow!

My work as Prescott Journal editor

After teaching in New Mexico and Wisconsin for nearly eight years, I went back into newspapering into spring 1999. I got a job as the managing editor of the Prescott Journal, a weekly newspaper in Prescott, Wis.

Prescott was a special town for me. First, it was where a cousin, who was like a brother to me, lived for several years during our childhood, so I always had fond memories of the town. Secondly, I actually lived there for a few months as a baby while my father (Grandpa Bignell) worked in nearby South St. Paul, Minn.

My staff and I totally revamped the paper's look and content. We began to sell more and more copies and quickly became a force in the community and recognized among our peers.

In fact, in 2001, the Wisconsin Newspaper Association named us Weekly Newspaper of the Year for our work done during the year 2000. I consider it one of my greatest achievements.

Remember New Years Eve at Legoland?

One year ago today we were at Legoland in Carlsbad, Calif., celebrating New Years Eve!

Although I'd moved back to Lancaster just a couple of weeks before, I still had stuff at the storage shed in Encinitas, so we quick stopped there to pick up some totes. It was a long drive!
Then we went to Legoland, as we had year-round passes. The big problem was a heavy fog off the ocean, though, which really obstructed the fireworks.

The foreworks were held a bit early - shortly after 6 p.m. or so when it is dark during winter. We wore special glasses so that the fireworks looked like Lego bricks in the sky!

Here's a couple of pictures from our trip!

Always tell the truth, no matter what

I'm very proud of you, Kieran, because during the past year you told the truth, a very important principle that I'd always tried to instill in you before others decided to cruelly keep us apart. Thanks to you being honest, we likely will be able to again be with one another.

Unfortunately, you will find yourself surrounded by people who believe telling the truth is only important if it serves their selfish purposes. While lying may benefit them in the short term, over the long haul one's lies have a way of catching up with you. The result is that more harm comes to them because on balance more people than not believe in telling the truth.

Why is telling the truth so important? Because our reputation is our worth in society. Once we lie, our reputation suffers, sometimes to the point where we lose things important to us. The heartache of losing what we value always is worse than the trouble we might get into if we are truthful.

Being honest is important because lying is unfair to others. People make decisions based on the assumption that what we've told them is the truth. We should not be unfair to others because it violates the Golden Rule - "Do unto others as they would do unto you." We would not want others to be unfair to us, so we should not be unfair to them.

My email sent to you Dec. 29, 2012

Here is the email I sent Dec. 29, 2012, in case you don't receive it:

Dear Kieran,

How are you doing today? I miss and love you very much!

I hope you’re enjoying winter break from school. Sometimes winter breaks can get awful long as you don’t get to see and play with your friends every day, but having free time to play with your own toys is fun, too.

What did you receive for Christmas? Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Chris and Aunt Suzy, and I had lots of fun picking our Christmas gifts for you. We still have a couple left to give, and I’ll be sure to bring those when we get together next Friday – which is in just six days!

I bet you’re having fun playing in the snow. Have you made a snowman yet? You always enjoyed going out into the snow in the mountains when we lived in California. We’d go sliding, make snowmen, and toss snowballs.

What do you plan to do for New Year’s Eve? A lot of people stay up until midnight so that they can say they were awake during the first minute of the new year. That’s staying up really late! Last year on New Year’s Eve, we went to the fireworks at Legoland. It was held at 6 p.m., and you fell asleep in the car on the way back home!

Have you read any good books lately? I have. It was “The Big Snow,” by Berta and Elmer Hader. It’s all about how geese, rabbits, deer, raccoons and chipmunks in a forest got ready for the first snowfall of winter. There are some very beautiful illustrations of animals in it. I bet your school library has the book; if not, your local city library probably does.

Well, that is all for now. I can’t wait to see you on Jan. 4, and in the meantime I look forward to receiving your email responding to mine.

Love,

Dad

My next teaching job

After working in New Mexico for two years, I came back to Wisconsin looking for a better paying job. I landed one in Merrill, Wisconsin, where I taught from fall 1994 to January 1999.

My first year was spent teaching English to eighth and ninth graders, The next year, our junior high became a middle school, and we changed to a "team teaching" concept. I taught English to eighth graders on the Delta Team, a five-teacher team, which I headed for four years.

During this time, I went to school during evenings at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and earned a Master's degree in English. I spent two years of night classes and summer school from fall 1996 to spring 1998 getting it done.

I also wrote a lot of short stories and even a couple of novels during this time! None of them are anything I'm particularly proud of, though each of them have their moments. It was more a lot of "practice" as I learned the craft of writing.