Happy Valentines Day to you and yours.

All is well in the Scott domicile these days. Asher is doing well in school. He recently got an award at school called the Rucker Rocks award. It goes to students who help make the school a better place by treating people nice and making good grades. Asher is making friends church and school and is a very good boy. We got to see the Chipmunk movie the other day. Asher liked it and so did Tina and I. It was a pretty good movie. We have been watching some of the old Star Trek movies since Asher is so interested in Astronomy. He is enjoying them. So far he has only seen "Star Trek:Insurrection" but he wants to see some of the others. Baseball season is coming up in April and he is excited to play.

Ayden is crawling all over the place now. She has pretty much got the crawling thing down and is ready to start pulling herself up on objects and walking. She tries to pull herself up but hasn't quite mastered the technique. She usually ends up slipping and hitting her face on something. I just laugh and laugh. J/K! She is nearly weaned off the boob now (sorry I am not a p.c. guy). She can say "Momma" and "Dadda" now and that is about it, but that doesn't stop her from gibber jabbering nonstop. I tell Tina she gets that from her, but we all know it is from me.

In other news I was very sad to hear the news that Postum is no longer in production. After many decades it has been discontinued due to lack of demand. So I have made the shift to really the only other naturally decaffeinated coffee like drink, Pero. It was hard to find. I like it, but Postum is my preference.

It is kind of weird. I went about 27 years of my life really never reading a book except church books. In fact the only book I remember reading growing up was a few Jack London books. My favorite was "White Fang". I had trouble finding books that could hold my attention. After getting into the Harry Potter books a few years ago it has really opened up a love of reading for me. Since then my brother and dad have introduced me to several Fantasy writers and I have really enjoyed them. I now have a line of about 10 books I am looking forward to reading. If any of you have any suggestions for books you have read please let me know about them in the comments section. In job news, I didn't get the Tech job but that was good because I have been there and done that and I didn't want to go back to it. I did get the part time Library job at Collin College so that was nice. I was also hired at Market Street a few weeks back and have done some training with them over the past couple of weeks. Market Street is really the first company I have experienced that did things right in my opinion. They treat people right, they promote from within and are friendly and kind. I am going to try and work there part time in addition to the library. Also I have been trying to substitute teach in a very large district and couldn't figure out why there was no jobs. Well after talking to the district they had messed up my login so I couldn't see any jobs. Well they fixed it, so now there are tons of jobs out there. So I am going to try and do all 3 of these jobs in addition to my 6 credit online graduate hours. I take my Social Studies exam one week from tomorrow. If I pass it I will be qualified to teach Economics, Government, History, Civics, etc.. in grades 7 -12. If I don't pass it my plans might possibly be delayed by quite a bit. So I need to pass it the first time. My knee is still screwed up. I have had an X-ray, I have had it checked out by a orthopedic surgeon and tonight I am getting an MRI on it. Problem is I don't have insurance so if surgery is required I might have to wait a while to get it fixed. It has been jacked up now for almost 2 months. It is a little depressing because I would like to be playing softball and basketball for the church and the city. Also I can't go out and play with Asher very much.

Tina is doing great as always. She is loving being a mom and is very good at it. She and I went to Red Lobster for Valentines day. I don't really know what else to say about Tina. She always makes fun of me because I never write much about her. But I don't know what to say about her, she is just great.

I should be cained for my neglect of this blog.

Hello again fans and media to The Usual Scott's blog. I wanted to pose the following question: Isn't it curious sometimes, how we don't see the signs that are right in front of our eyes? No I mean literally right in front of your eyes. Seriously, right in front of our eyes. Look at the picture at the bottom of this post and you will see what I mean. This morning for the second time Ayden and I were awakened to the sound of our intruder alarm. Did we have a break-in you ask? Maybe. But as it turned out Tina just forgot to disable the alarm before she opened the back door to let Homer (our dog) outside. Hey it happens. You know what we should do; we should put up a sign on the back door reminding everyone to check the alarm before opening the door. Oh wait, we did. Of course I say this tongue-in-cheek, I very much love my little wolf crier. Another deep question for you: How come canned soup never tastes the same as the real thing? (Tina just asked me this question as I was writing this blog, so I wanted to give you a peak at our deep, intellectual conversations. This is the type of stuff you can't get anywhere else. Thought provoking questions, hard hitting news, sports talk, job grumbling. This blog is gold. If it is not one of your links or bookmarks then you are missing out on my random, infrequent, sporadic posts of grandeur).

Ayden has begun her movement. I use the word movement because she can get from one side of the room to the other, but it is not always crawling. She likes to roll over and then do her little lean pose to check things out. I tell Tina that Ayden is just lazy. If there is something on the floor she wants, she will legitimately crawl to it and get it. If not, she is content with just leaning and rolling around. So she can crawl, she just chooses to do it sparingly. Her second bottom tooth has broken through the gum. I have taught her how to make noises with her mouth by saying "ahhh" and then she puts her fist back and forth to her mouth.

Asher is doing well. He has been making a lot of parachutes with paper towels and yarn the last couple of days. He also likes making a variety of things out of paper; as a result I need to buy more printer paper. Asher won a little experiment at school in his science class, so that was cool. He is excited to play baseball but that doesn't start until April. Meanwhile we are going to try and get him in the Chess club that goes on after school. He likes Chess and does pretty well in it. He has been a pleasure to have in our home.

Meanwhile last and deservedly so is me. I am doing well. I am taking two graduate courses online. I have come to the conclusion that as much as I enjoy school, I can't stand night school and I am burnt out of going to classes in person. Maybe some day that will change but for the time being that is the way it is. That being said I am enjoying taking my classes in my own home at my own leisure. I was hired at a specialty grocery store a week ago called Market Street. I would be working in the cheese and deli section. My plan to work as a sub teacher didn't work because teachers decided not to miss any work, so there was no work for me. While I did accept this job, I still continue to look for one that is better for the family and our future. I had two interviews this week. One was a library position with Collin College. The other was a Technical Specialist position with a local software security company. I think I will get them both and will thus have a decision to make. Don't know what it would be. As far as my weight loss effort is concerned it is coming along. It hit a little bump during the holidays but I am back on regular track toward the sexiest man alive award. I will inform you of the statistical progress in the near future. Peace out.