Family Update...

As I know that each of you woke up this morning wondering... "What's the Daniels Family been up to lately - really?"  I've decided to focus on answering that very question, and I know you don't want just some snapshots of us doing something stupid with a confused expression on our face, you want DETAILS.

Let's work chronologically which is a compound word, meaning simply that it is a word comprised of two complete words.  The first word "chrono" originates from the latin-chronos, which is the root for the word chronosome.  If you have even an elementary understanding of biology you understand "chrono" means - gender.  The second word (in our compound word chronological) is from the Hebrew- 'logical.'  Webster defines logical as, "according to or agreeing with the principles of logic."  It doesn't take a Jewish scholar to figure out that if we're going in "chronological order" we're going to start with the "logical gender..."

Jacob is doing well.  Football is winding down, our last and final game(s) is this weekend.  Jacob started the season at running back, but has recently moved to quarterback.  For you ladies out there, a quarterback is 4-times better than a Fullback.  Additionally, I should inform each of you, all seven of our readership, that just yesterday (Sunday, Feb 21st) Jacob's football teams scored their first touchdown of the season.  To recap the score, Jacob took a quarterback sneak right up the middle... breaking twenty-seven tackles and out-running about 87 world class sprinters to the end zone for a 54-yard touchdown run.  He had another touchdown run, sneaking the ball around the right side of the defense from about 40-yards out, but the wide receiver committed a clip at the goal line to have the play called back.  Yeah, we benched that receiver.

Jessica, she would be our oldest daughter (for details, pictures, etc. please take a more detailed look at the BLOG).  Just the other day, Jessica went to RENWEB (Summit's on-line school thingie) and checked her grades.  She was quite disappointed about an "A-" in some class nobody cares about (like Social Studies or World History... ).  I would also like to proudly report that Jessica STARTED for the Summit Christian Academy Eagle-girls (Eaglettes?) Junior High Basketball team.  She's finally started to listen to me about basketball-
  1. Treat everyone on the court like they are playing with your ball and you want it back - NOW!
  2. Treat everyone on the court like they are your 9-year old brother.
Can you say, "domination?"

Stephanie is still our youngest... yeah, I know, we're still disappointed about that - and yes, I've told her that to her face.  Soccer season will be starting up any day now.  There's talk of practice and team rosters with "new" girls floating around the locker room.  At dinner, Stephanie reported that she's just finished her math table up to the digit 9.  Apparently, that leads the pack - the "pack" being her class of 3rd graders.  Although I'm sad to say that after further examination and cross-examination we've learned that some others in her class have managed to "tie" her at the digit 9 on math tables.  We only spanked her once and limited her dinner to the vegetables nobody else would eat and a stick of butter.  Last I saw, she was in her room madly multiplying tens.

Speaking of butter, Jessica would like everyone to believe that margarine is only, "... one cell away from being a plastic..."  After all, one of her classmates read it on the internet.

Dad, which would be me, is keeping up nicely with the BLOG, although we haven't received a single donation to keep the thing going.  The weather improved dramatically on Sunday, so Jessica and I were able to spend five or six hours hitting the volleyball at each other.  I promised her a dollar if she could hit the ball at my face hard enough and break my nose.  Thus far she has failed... which is another one of those good news/bad news things.  I've also challenged Jacob to a recreation of the San Diego Chargers regular season on Madden 2010.  Basically Jacob is playing the Chargers while I play every single opponent the Chargers faced last year.  Through three games, Dad is 2-1.  I lost an hour or so ago as Jacob managed a late score (with 8-seconds left) on a 4-yard run by Darren Sprolles to win 42-41.  Yeah, I know what you're thinking, "why didn't you go for two on that last score with only 1:31 left in the game?"  What can I say, he's my son.

After those heart-warming stories of me, Jessica and Jacob I'm sure your anxious to hear of games and fun between Stephanie and I.  To which I say, didn't you read the part about her being TIED with some other pretty average kids at school on her Math Facts?

My wife Barbara is doing very well.  She's survived "end of year," which for an accountant is supposed to mean something significant.  I don't know if you got the memo... I'm not an accountant.  She did show me the new shoes she bought for Jacob, and, in the process, showed me the "cute" new shoes she got as well.  She also received an amazing Valentine's gift from... seriously, do I have to tell you who got her the gift?  Really?  For Valentine's I gave my wife an incredibly romantic Disney Christmas ornament from Disneyland.  I had it hand-carried all the way from the Magic Kingdom (actually it was Epcot) in Orlando to get here in Austin the day before Valentine's.  She might tell you some story of how she had a similar ornament in her possession before the Christmas holidays and that said ornament may have disappeared when the tree toppled over... (stinking dogs!), but I'm writing THE BLOG BABY!

To close, Eric's Valentine's gift to Barbara was officially, "The Most Romantic Gift Ever."