One of my joys is the opportunity to drive my son to school in the morning. Often we chat about video games, life, God, how chores are for building character and such. I love this time with my son. But, sometimes I leave just late enough to cause stress for my son and I. He loathes the idea of being tardy–as he should.

Some mornings the traffic lights are all green and the four mile drive is effortless. Its as if all is right with the world. No obstacles. The destination appears almost too quickly. My son and I have to actually interrupt our chat and he is off to class. Read the rest of this entry »

My son is in middle school. What I remember about the 6th grade besides the raucous East Side San Jose campus was how huge 8th grade boys looked up close. Wood shop, algebra and lunch in the quad. Memories somehow blend those all in one cocktail called “middle school”.

Ethan had a science project and of course something like mold would be of interest to him. At the science fair you could tell the projects displayed by boys. Everything from a potato gun to fire whirlwinds to mold. The girl–of course–who won did the extraction of DNA from pees!

No boy would even have interest in peas. In fact, girls do not either. But, what would parents and teachers love most? A child that not only loves peas but the extraction of DNA. She rightfully displayed her blue ribbon and also made sure to educate those passing by her display.

Indeed, I am not complaining that my son’s mold experiment did not win. I am simply stating how fun it is to see the difference between the boys and girls at this age–other than most boys being shorter than the girls.

What memory of middle school strikes you the most? If you are a parent, what worries you the most about walking through this with your child?

Thanksgiving is approaching and I would like to extend my series of posts on this (Part 1, Part 2) with the hope in all of this. The victims sister has asked me to pass on the following to our community of Murrieta and my neighborhood: Read the rest of this entry »

PART 1: Kids tell all, 20/20 wants to film in our house.

No kidding here. My house was a murder scene one year before we purchased it. The man of the house bludgeoned his wife eleven times in the head and tried to cover it up. He is now in prison awaiting sentencing for a murder conviction. The story has all the interesting things like a computer found with Google searches for poisoning and the fact of life insurance being purchased suspiciously before the murder. It’s a tragedy fit for TV. In fact, 20/20 of ABC has asked to film a reenactment in our home. Read the rest of this entry »