That's My Boy!

When I was a kid, the only way my parents knew what I was up to at summer camp was when I chose to send them a letter. But thanks to the wonders of the internet, I can follow my kids' exploits whenever I want! Brad and Spencer's camp provides updates pretty much 24/7... telling us what activities they've been doing every day and what they were served for lunch and dinner. They also upload dozens of photos daily so we can see them having fun (What a GREAT marketing tool, by the way!)... AND - we can send e-mail to our boys as often as we want, so it makes writing them much easier. The emails are printed out and delivered to the kids... They still have to write us by hand, just as God intended!

So last night, I checked in and discovered that 10-year-old son Spencer auditioned for the camp play, "West Side Story", and won the role of Officer Krupke! I suppose I should ponder the fact that Spencer's main responsibility will be to stand on stage and receive the verbal musical abuse of several other kids singing "Krup You" to him, but instead I'll choose to bask in the glow of my son getting his first dramatic role! As you may have read earlier, we're big supporters of musical theater for kids in the Matthews household!

We always knew Spencer would be our artsy child... He enjoys singing in the school chorus, and played clarinet in the orchestra this past school year. Hopefully, this taste of musical theater will make Spencer hungry to continue in the arts.

Now I just hope he'll pick up a pencil and write us to tell us about his good news - Last year, Spencer failed to write even one letter from camp - but at least he was having a good time!

Unwanted Nostalgia- Remembering Life Before The Internet!

Even as I write this, my internet service is fading in and out on me this morning. It's really incredible to note how quickly I have come to depend on the web as my lifeline to everything... in fact, if I had to choose between keeping the web or keeping the TV and TiVo, I think I'd have to choose the internet! When my service went out at around 6 this morning, I knew I had to contact Verizon immediately - the problem was, I couldn't get the Fios webpage up on the internet, so I had to find a PHONE BOOK! Verizon tossed a couple of them on my driveway a few weeks ago, and luckily, my wife refused to let me throw them away, so I was able to call Verizon and after a few minutes of voice mail hell, get a technician on the line. Thank God my wife is a luddite!