View attachment 28585 My lovely wife, hiding behind a rose. I am so proud of her. When we were expecting our first monkey almost 14 years ago, she taught herself to crochet and knit. Over the years, she has knitted probably hundreds of socks and caps for our soldiers serving overseas, as well as all kinds of socks, sweaters, blankets and hats for friends and family. She has helped people get started and has given away trash bags full of yarn to help folks get started. Oh, but wait, there's more. She has always been a good swimmer, but now, she is at the point where a couple of miles of rough water swimming is no problem. She has taught herself to rock climb and had gotten pretty good. She taught herself to run. Started barefoot and would run for two minutes then walk for one. Now, she can hit a trail and crank out 20 miles in mountainous terrain. Yes, as the infomercial goes... But wait, there's more. She is teaching herself French and Spanish. All this while homeschooling our monkeys. And she can do all this while maintaining her black belt in Netflix. And she has given me two beautiful and smart daughters, while taking care of me and the family. If you meet her, you will find her mostly quiet and humble. She may get louder as you know her. But she is one caring, generous bad ass! My oldest monkey. So proud of her too. She is always super confident and smart. Put her on stage and she will shine. Have her speak in front of a large audience, no sweat. She can hold her own most anywhere. Little kid, she will be like a big sister. Same age, a confidant and friend. I remember when we had dinner with a very successful and wealthy business man before she was a teenager. He was blown away when she could talk business and politics and other sundry stuff like statistics with him. People skills and being fearless like that can help her. And she can talk you to tears. Yikes. That's my girl. My little monkey. Yep, you guessed it, I am very proud of her too. She is a foodie like daddy and an athlete like mommy. Maybe the most impressive qualities to me are her focus and persistence. And she hates to lose. We go on a trail, and she will run it ahead of everyone. Once when we were at the climbing at a climbing gym, there were a bunch of shirtless and ripped young guys climbing. They were are trying unsuccessfully to climb this route. When they stopped, monkey asks me to@lift her up so she can grab the hand hold. So I put her on. She has hands on hand holds and the rest of her is dangling on nothing. She scampers up the route goes over the top and climbs down the other side. The guys eyes and mouths were big. Then she says, "Daddy, again." So she does it again and the guys stopped trying that route after. Classic. If she loses a game, she will play it by herself for days to try to figure out how to win. Then she will challenge anyone she can find. And will repeat the process as necessary. I have watched her squat outside in the sun for hours, manning her live bird trap. And once, when our smoke alarm chirped, we couldn't figure out which one it was. She laid on the floor watching the most likely ones for a couple of hours until she determined the exact one. And I taught her to hit really hard. By the time she was 7, she could put tiny fist bruise marks on me and almost move my 200 pound frame. That's my girl. And me... I'm a proud papa and hubby. I am small business owner (25 years or so now) that hardly works. I pretty much rather do stuff with the family than work. Have done various martial arts since 6. I teach tai chi and chi kung for free to give back to the community. And I'm a major foodie. I love to eat. I like the outdoors and to read, enjoy sports, and hate crowds. That's pretty much all there is to me.
That's why I do not chase money. Rather have time. Time with family. Time with good friends, like @Bear. And even time for myself.
While my older monkey was at tennis practice, little monkey had a neighbor and soccer teammate over for some play time. It was really hot, so... Then, a sunset pizza picnic. Even the hibiscus are starting to close up for the evening.
