A month in pictures

This month saw my dad near retirement, Tate nearly walk, 2 Thanksgivings, and a lot of fun (couldn't think of a clever closing statement). Life is going well and as Tate grows older (and bigger), Mel and I grow increasingly thankful and humbled by the gift that God has given us in him. When he is not bringing us books and crawling in our laps, he is saying new words and finding new ways to entertain his parents (that would be us). Our life has been good. We are blessed. Enjoy the pictures.

Yes on Tate.

Neon Night @ thEvent!

My Dad's Retirement Ceremony

Thanksgiving 2008

Mel's Girl Reunion + Offspring

Though it does not look like it, I did spend time with my family on Thanksgiving and even went to dinner with Mel and Tate at my grandparents house two days before Thanksgiving. November was good to us. Bring on December and more vacation!

Tate Loves to Drive

Untitled from dan bowen on Vimeo.

FUNNY VIDEOS

Untitled from dan bowen on Vimeo.

Untitled from dan bowen on Vimeo.

Election Results (from the pivotal under-18 upper middle class demographic)

Today I held an election in my Freshman and Junior English classes. Last week the students in one of my Frosh classes came in and wanted to have a debate on the various Props (2, 4, and 8 primarily). The debates were lively and most of the positions were predictable. Today I had the students vote on Props 4 and 8 and the president. Though there were some staunch conservatives, the results definitely leaned left. Enjoy.

Juniors (ages 16-17) - 28 total (6 didn't vote-they must not have registered!)

Obama - 17 votes
McCain - 3 votes
Ron Paul - 1 vote
Mr. Bowen - 1 vote (no joke)

Prop 4 - In short, requires minors to get parental (or another family member in cases of abuse) consent prior to having an abortion.

Yes - 11
No - 11

Prop 8 - In short, would ban gay marriage.

Yes - 8
No - 14

Freshman Class A (ages 14-15) - 18 total (2 forgot to vote for president which doesn't bode well for the future of America)

Obama - 11 votes
McCain - 5 votes

Prop 4

Yes - 6
No - 11

Prop 8

Yes - 7
No - 11

Freshman Class B (ages 14-15) - 16 total

Obama - 11 votes
McCain - 3 votes
Nader - 2 votes

Prop 4

Yes - 5
No - 11

Prop 8

Yes - 6
No - 10


Overall, the results were pretty predictable. It was interesting that the older students voted evenly on the abortion consent vote. The younger students felt that it was an invasion of privacy while the juniors were able to see both sides of the issue. I am enjoying my classes. It is fun to dialog with the students about real-life issues and indoctrinate them with my opinions and beliefs. Just kidding. Seriously though it is great to be able to debate and discuss things with the students. Last week I had them write about an intangible weight that they carry with them and it was pretty heartbreaking to read about some of the crap that these kids are going through. It definitely gave me more empathy for them. I'll post some of their writing sometime.

I hope that you enjoy these real-time election results. Beat that CNN!

By the way...I'm watching CNN right now and the 3-D hologram correspondent thing is absolutely ridiculous. However, I think it would be fun to be a 3-D hologram.

Funny Cell Phone Videos

Tateopotomas

So this year marks Tate's second official Halloween! Although this was the first time we actually dressed him up. He was an adorable Hippo! Tate and I started off the morning by heading over to my school for the Halloween Parade. He loved seeing all of th kids dressed up and waved to everyone watching! He was quite the hit with all of my students! I loved having Halloween off to spend with Tate.
Later that night we headed over to visit Great Uncle Tony and Great Aunt Janet we even skyped Great Grandma and Grandpa Conley so they could see Tate all dressed up. We then made our way to Grandma and Grandpa Bowen's to show off our little Hippo! After Grandma and Grandpa Bowen's, we (Tate and I) went to Jen and Jeff Freitas's House to take pictures and trick-or-treat with Bradley, Ashley, Baby Andrew, Stacey, Amy, Dan, Carol and Katie. Tate even got to trick-or-treat at cousin Josh's new house! As if we didn't do enough, we ended the night at the Morse's for a yummy barbecue with Jen, Allison, Laura, Lacey, McKenna, Ashely, Uncle Chris, Tyler, Chad, Charlie, Jake, Melissa and Addie. To say the least we had a fun and eventful Halloween! Tate was a trooper too! Dan got to teach all day and then work all evening getting ready for a fun filled Halloween night with the junior high students. They started the night off at the church and ended at the ice rink for a game of broom ball. We hope you all had a safe and enjoyable Halloween as well!