Moments With Joey

Pin It Several of you may know that Jason was about to publish his first book, a collection of his favorite "Moments With Joey" (some stories shared previously on this blog, as well as several new segments) around the time of his death.  Its taken quite some time, but I finally felt ready to revisit this project, as well as a few others he had been working on.

Yes, Jason now has his first book published.

It is bittersweet to see this come to being and not have him here to see his joy from all that hard work finally coming to pass.

Can I just imagine this moment for a minute? (Yeah, I know, my Photoshop skills suck, but just roll with it people!)

Jason had a way with words that could capture a moment and infuse it with  childlike wonder and delight so real that you could reach out and touch it. As such, I feel it is all the (to quote Jason) "more better" to now be able hold a little piece of that magic in our own hands.

Any proceeds that come from the sale of "Moments With Joey" will go into publishing other books he has worked on, including one some of his old students are well familiar with, "Take The Long Way Home". As planned, "Take The Long Way Home" and "My Brother Ryan" will both be published in 2019. Several children's picture books are planned as well. More on that to come.

With the purchase of the paperback, you will receive a deal to also purchase the eBook version at a discounted rate, perfect for giving or keeping for yourself. The Kindle version is also available to read for free as part of the Kindle Unlimited library (just in case you happen to be a member).

You can find "Moments With Joey" currently on Amazon, or just click the link above. Feel free to comment with some of your favorite Joey moments, or memories of Jason below, as we would love to read them.

Lastly, I get asked about the Joey Dosent Lyke Kittys shirt that Jason used to offer (drawn by his ever-talented sister, Miya Edwards). Yes, the shirts are now available again. Click the link above to be taken to Red Bubble's website where you will find the design available on a variety of shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers and more. As Jason would say, it is all just pure awesomesauce.

I wish you all the best for this holiday season, and joy in the new year to come.

~Shawna

Life is Good

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There comes a point in life when one looks at what they truly have. They see beyond the difficulties and hardships of the run-of-the-mill, and they notice—maybe for the first time in a long time—the blessings that their life truly affords. However, sometimes, this awakening takes time to completely appreciate.

Life is good.

Today I saw the sun setting, amid a cloudy evening. The screen of grey hung in the skies above me like a veil, as the light of the setting sun marinated the countryside around me.

It was intoxicatingly amazing.

Life is great.

Tonight I sifted through the blessings I enjoy—the lives that have touched mine over the years for good, and those that I’ve had the opportunity to touch in return. It was somewhat overwhelming.

Life is unbelievable.

I thought of the challenges that my very existence affords me. The challenges that destroyed me from the inside out, and tested my intestinal fortitude beyond the limits I thought I had.

Life is hard.

It brought to mind the difficulties yet to be faced in the future; the changes in life that will undoubtedly come, those small moments that will help define an existence.

Life is cruel.

I thought of these many things that have made me into who I am, those things which are good—as well as bad—that sculpted me, which continually define, and that which will undoubtely recreate me. As I thought of these things, I came to a final realization:

Life is so beautiful.

So it is for all of us, but if only we’ll take the time to see it.

The Wall

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There are days I know I’ve given my all.

I arrive to work long before the sun comes up, and usually find myself leaving when it’s completed its journey down into the fiery blanket of the western skyline.

I thought about this tonight.

I thought about my life.

I thought about the people that you just can’t seem to please, no matter what…despite the hours you put in, heedless of the amazingness you try feed into the day, there are those who just don’t seem to feel that your efforts have merit; it seems that all they are capable of viewing is that which you didn’t do.

You know those people I’m talking about, don’t you?

Of course, my greatest archenemy is probably none other than I, the scrutinizer extraordinaire. No matter what we do, it never quite seems to be enough for us to feel good about who we are…there’s always one more thing we should have gotten accomplished before day’s end.

And so today, I hit the wall.

No, not literally, but figuratively.

It was akin to finding yourself standing in front of a brick roadblock that is far too high to climb, and too step to traverse. You sit before it, dejected, and know that you are beaten as the rain thunders down from a vortexual sky.

There’s no point in going any further; there is nothing you can do.

You feel your weakened resolve as it begins to crumble, and you succumb into apathy.

It’s then, in that quiet moment that you make the decision not to give up, you realize that it is the wall that will come down.

It must.

A brick is pushed loose and the entire peak comes crashing down in a heap of dusty rubble.

And when the dust clears, you stand, straighten your shoulders, and you keep on running.

I Want an Alien for Christmas

Pin It It was a little over a week in the planning.

My team and I had to come up with something for our school Christmas sing-in, which we’d perform on the last day before the kids were to leave on break.

I’d jokingly thrown out, “I Farted on Santa’s Lap” as a possibility for the past three years in a row, but it’d never been considered with the least bit of enthusiasm or possibility of happening from my team…

…and this year was no exception.

However, I guess this was understandable coming an elementary school environment; you just know that you’d get a plethora of shocked intakes of breath from parents, copious giggles from children, and you’d hear the song caroled down the hallways and in the lunchroom for months to come.

It would give ‘deck the halls’ an entirely new meaning. Yeah, in other words the entire staff’d hate me.

Still, it’s fun to throw out the idea for the song every year, just to watch it crash and burn in a fiery inferno.

Yet even with this particular song being off the table, the fifth grade team has always managed to dredge up something that totally rocks…after all, my team and I are all about awesome and substandard just won’t do. Yeah, being a perfectionist with narcissistic tendencies is always a huge asset in regards to this.

It was about two weeks ago that we sat in our weekly meeting and kicked around ideas for this year’s performance. After all, our debut of “The Santa Claus Rock” last year would be pretty hard to beat.

After a few minutes I said, “Hey guys, I’ve got the perfect song for this year.”

My team waited for the usual proposal. I made it, it was shot down, and then threw out my real idea.

They loved it; it was so astonishingly overwhelming that they just couldn’t say no.

I came home and scoured the information superhighway in search of a karaoke version of this particular little tune, only to learn that one didn’t exist.

Curses.

Being resourceful, I pulled out my guitar, I looked up the chords online, and three practices with the students later, we were standing in front of the rest of the school ready to blow them away with our high school musical-ish performance.

Granted, in retrospect I wish that the gym hadn’t been quite so big…the roof-shaking rocking we’d performed in the classroom just wasn’t quite as strong as it had been in that vast space.

But still we were awesome.

Without further ado, I present the fifth grade in their entire splendor and glory…yours truly on lead (and only) guitar.




But now I’ve already begun to think about possibilities for next year’s presentation, mostly because I realized somewhere along the way that we’ve again set the standard for coming up with something amazing, and besides, I have to beat out my first grade teacher friend, Abe Yospe, when it comes to performance awesomeness.

...and he can be a tough act to follow.

Why Didn't I Think of That?

Pin It There have been moments in my life when I’ve wished that I’d had a particular idea, written a certain song, or come up with some brilliant way of writing something.

Yeah, don’t we all?

I was chatting with my brother recently, and we started talking about something we both had seen quite a while ago, but both thought was simply brilliant…enough so that we both wished WE’D have thought of it.

I know that many of you have probably seen this before, but I thought it was worth yet another look.

This was originally thought up by Andrew McDonald and is all about making sure that your lost camera can be speedily returned.

In word: Brilliant.

And I also hate him for thinking of this idea before I did...

And why couldn't I have written this while I was at it?

Hope of America - Year II

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Photos from http://heraldextra.com


A year ago I blogged about my first time taking part in the Hope of America program. In retrospect, it would be a waste of my limited time to repeat this same information all over again – especially when one could simply click here and read it over themselves, see the photos, and find out about the program I was able to take part in.

With this in mind, I will instead refrain from talking about last year’s program, and focus on this year’s instead.

It was amazing.

There is something to be said of taking part in such an event with thousands of others; namely, sharing a love for this wonderful country in which we live.

I wish I could have bottled up the emotion and the feeling that was there this past Wednesday evening – something that words alone could never accurately portray.

They just can’t.

Just know that the Hope of America was fantastic. If you’ve never before gone – and you have the means – I would highly recommend attending next year. I do wish to include two video clips a friend took for me (even after no training on how to work the camera).

Though video cannot do the program justice, it gives you just a taste of what the program was really like.

These were two of my three favorites; just look for the guy in yellow, row two, at 1:26 in the first video. Yeah, it's yours truly...

Pure, Rushing Awesomeness

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I really don't think further words are necessary...