Having...

My oldest brother was once into Star Trek. Not into as much as "lets all dress up and go to conventions" or "I can name all parts of the Enterprise" but he did have a poster. It was a "Everything I know I learned from X." Well I remember reading every last Spok-ish message on that poster, but I can't remember any, except for one: Having is not such a pleasing thing as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true.

I have only experienced this a few times in my life, and obviously I have always been disappointed when I have. Almost every time it has revolved around some gift that I had wanted so badly for so long. I would build it up in my mind forever and think about all the possibilities I could have with my gift. I would know the page of the catalog it was on by heart and would turn to it often. I wanted it so badly that when I finally got it I realized that it wasn't exactly what I thought it was. In those instances I understood what Spock meant, wanting is more pleasing than having for certain things (food is excluded in most cases). I very recently had this experience again. I was so excited and emotionally invested that when my desire came to fruition it seemed trivial to other things. What then, does this teach me? Or what should I learn from this experience? Should I not want things? No, I think desire of things is natural and leads to self-improvement. I think rather that I need to look at those things which I do desire and be realistic about what they can and more importantly cannot do for me. Realism, though sometimes a hard pill to swallow, will prevent disappointment.

big news ....

... and we mean that literally, Levi has reached an unprecedented 20 pounds by four months. His largeness is definitely a conversation starter with the general public; just yesterday after we attended a local library children program, an acquaintance was so amazed at his size she insisted she take a picture of him to show her family. OH Levi..

Drawing back the curtain: Inaugural blog

Hi everyone! (well whoever is reading this, which is probably not EVERYONE) Rachael and I finally decided to create a family blog. We thought this would be a good way to keep the proverbial "everyone" up to speed on what we are up to and allow people a behind the scenes look into what makes the Ritter household tick. It is a tricky balance being as cool as we are and yet still being parents, but we pull it off nicely I think. With this post we hereby inaugurate this blog into the wide blogosphere world and declare it good. Who knows if anyone will even read it but it at least gives us an outlet to showcase our MEGA-sweet family and show off how cute our two little boys are. Our family life is really ALL this blog is going to be about, so if that is not what you are looking for I suggest you bugger off. This blog, I assure you, will not contain any of Jeff's long rambling rants about his pet ranting subjects which include most biological discussions. If I (meaning Jeff) ever do feel it necessary to peddle my wares (that is, my exacerbatingly long winded logical deducement discussions) on the world wide web I shall create an entirely separate blog. Rachael is very excited for us to have a blog as she also thinks it will serve as a good outlet to keep in contact with people that no longer live close. I tend to agree. In our current situation, being in a married student ward, we make TONS of friends but they move away so quickly. This means we are constantly wondering where they are. I don't know why I'm writing this because, as you are reading a blog, I'm sure you understand the ability to keep tabs on people via blogging. Perhaps it is just in my nature to point out the obvious, or perhaps it lies in some more deeply routed desire to talk as much as possible whenever possible. You'll have to decide. At any rate, this is our blog. You can read it or not, I don't really care. All I will say is this, YOU WILL ENJOY IT OR ELSE!