Warrior Dash 2013

Urban Adventure 2013

Ski Trip 2013

T.F. Strikes again!

Yesterday, Travis lost his third baby tooth.

It came out in the middle of the night, so in the morning, he put it in a bag and then wrote a letter to the tooth fairy asking her why she collected teeth, and why she writes backwards.

Her response:

Here it is when viewing it in the mirror:

"Dear Travis,

Where I come from, teeth are very valuable. We use them for many different things, like jewelry or even houses. We don't need money, only teeth.

I write backwards because that is how I learned to write. I come from a special family of tooth fairies that are only visible in the mirror.

Thanks for the tooth!

T.F."

What I Taught my Kid about Manti Te'o

I've been absent from the blog for a while.

Sorry bout that.

I live in Notre Dame country, and the big buzz around here these days is the revelation that our star football player's dead girlfriend story is a hoax.

I, along with many others, was intrigued by young Manti's story amidst the tragic deaths of his grandmother and girlfriend within mere hours of each other. I watched him during the season, cheered him on, and rooted for him to win the Heisman. Finding out this pivotal story was not true has had an unsettling impact on those of us that drew inspiration from his leadership.

My eldest recently turned eight, and now that he's a bit older, I've enjoyed having some more in-depth discussions about all range of topics, like slavery and the civil rights movement, Christianity and homosexuality, love and marriage, all sorts of things. Naturally I keep things age appropriate, but you can bet we're talking.

So tonight, Manti helped me teach my kid some valuable lessons.

1) Everyone makes mistakes. Role models are humans too. Your childhood hero has probably screwed up. Maybe even a lot. But the way that person inspired you is still real, and you can use the way that they made you want to be a better person, and have that fuel your own life. 

2) Don't trust what you see online. People that you don't know in real life may not be what you think.  Use extreme caution with online activities. 

3) Some things have lasting effects. Manti's NFL draft stock has likely plummeted, and this story will follow him the rest of his life. Be aware that some bad decisions can change your entire future.

4) Don't judge people. We talked about how Manti may have been fooled, and then embarrassed about it, and then made up some lies to cover it up. Maybe he even made the whole story up to begin with. We may never even know the story, and it's not really our business to know. But no matter what, and no matter who was involved, we'll never truly know what was in these people's minds and hearts when this went on. And it's not our place to know that; let's focus on being the best people that we can be.

5) Own up to your decisions. What we do know about this situation is that some bad decisions were likely made, and if Manti tried to cover things up because he was embarrassed about those decisions, he certainly didn't do himself any favors. Be truthful about your mistakes, and people will help you through it.

So if nothing else, Manti, thanks for the good conversation pieces tonight. My eight-year-old and I got a lot out of it.