Like Popcorn

 I dug this one out from 2019, and I thought with school starting for many, this is a great reminder for parents and teachers, and for anyone working with kids.

Kim and I have two daughters, Hannah and Emily. They are so much alike, but they are also so different from each other. One is a bit more reserved than the other. One likes to organize and plan down to the moment, while the other can plan if she wants to, but is more apt to roll with it.

Way back, I remember Hannah taking her first steps. Kim and I were at a friend’s house. Bret and I were in the living room eating pizza, when Hannah stood up on wobbly legs and walked across the room. I remember sitting there stunned. Kim and I expected it. We knew it would happen. We just didn’t know when it would occur. Then all of a sudden, it happened.

For the life of me, I cannot remember Emily’s first steps. I remember the “cruising” portion of her life where she would use a couch or a chair for support as she moved. Often, she would do this when tired. She would cruise in my direction, climb up on my lap and fall asleep. Kim and I would joke that I was Em’s teddy bear.

Same thing with reading. When we were potty-training Hannah, we’d sit her on her own “throne” and read a book to her. One day, we found Hannah’s teddy bear sitting on the “throne” and she was reading a book to it. We have the picture of her doing this. Both of us laughed, thinking that it wasn’t exactly what we had in mind, but oh well.

In Kindergarten, the teacher thought Emily had a reading problem. Weird. Kim and I never noticed that. She read early and often to be exact, so we didn’t know what she meant. I remember a time when she sat in her corner of the couch (think Sheldon Cooper on “Big Bang”). Hannah went into the kitchen, walked into the family room stopped in mid-step and stared at Emily. She said, “Emily, what’s wrong with your eyes?”

Emily was reading so fast that her eyes rocketed from side to side. In fact, Emily was so engrossed in her book that at first, she didn’t hear Hannah. I still think about that and chuckle. In 9^th grade, Emily used post-it notes to organize “All Quiet On the Western Front” so she could better discuss it in class. The planner and organizer of the two.

Same kind of thing happened between my brother, Jim, and me. Jim is four years older than I am. In high school, he struggled mightily. He just didn’t “do school” well. Tried college and a tech school with pretty much the same result. Enlists in the Air Force, does a stint in Vietnam, comes back, goes to college and graduates with honors with a double-major in Art and Architecture. Ended up teaching business classes at a community college.

I breezed through high school. I think because I did, I ended up struggling in college. I never had to study, so I ended up not knowing how to study. It wasn’t until grad school that it “clicked” for me.

Kids are like popcorn.

Each kernel sits in the same pot. Same heat. Same oil. But they don’t pop at the same time. Some might pop only partially, while others might not pop at all.

And I think each of us are like popcorn. Why shouldn’t we be? We develop at our own pace and in our own time. Some of us “pop” quickly, while there are those of us who “pop” slowly and over time. That’s okay. For kids. For us. Kids . . . we . . . will get it eventually. We all do. Something to think about . . .

Live Your Life, and Make A Difference!

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Betrayed: Two Top Shelf Awards: 1^st Place Fiction-Mystery; and Runner-Up Fiction-Crime; A PenCraft 1^st Place Winner for Thriller-Fiction! A Maxy Award Runner-Up for Mystery/Suspense! A Literary Titan Silver Book Award Winner! A Reader’s Ready Recommended Read Award Winner! A Reader’s Favorite Honorable Mention Award Winner for Fiction-Crime-Mystery!

Betrayed is Now Available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback! https://amzn.to/3AfUUpS 

A late-night phone call, a missing kid, a murdered family, but no one is talking. A promise is made and kept, but it could mean the death of a fifteen-year-old boy. Greed can be all-consuming, and seeing is not believing. No one can be trusted, and the hunters become the hunted. https://amzn.to/2EKHudx

Fan Mail: New Release! A Maxy Award Finalist, an Eric Hoffer Award Nominee, and a Literary Titan Silver Book Award Winner!  

A barrage of threatening letters, a car bomb, and a heart attack rip apart what was once a close-knit family of adopted brothers. Randy and Bobby, along with fellow band member and best friend, Danny, receive fan mail that turns menacing. They ignore it, but to their detriment. The sender turns up the heat. Violence upends their world. It rocks the relationship between the boys and ripples through their family, nearly killing their dad. 

As these boys turn on each other, adopted brother Brian flashes back to that event in Arizona where he nearly lost his life saving his brothers. The scars on his face and arms healed, but not his heart.   

Would he once again have to put himself in harm’s way to save them? And if faced with that choice, will he? https://amzn.to/3eNgSdS 

Blaze In, Blaze Out: Best Action Crime Thriller of 2022 by Best Thrillers! A Literary Titan Gold Book Award Winner! A Readers’ Favorite Award Winner! A Reader’s Ready Recommended Read! A BestThriller’s Editor’s Pick!

Blaze In, Blaze Out is Now Available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback! https://www.audible.com/acx-promo\

Eiselmann and O’Connor thought the conviction of Dmitry Andruko, the head of a Ukrainian crime family, meant the end. It was only the beginning. They forgot that revenge knows no boundaries, vindictiveness knows no restraints, and ruthlessness never worries about collateral damage. Andruko hired contract killers to go after and kill O’Connor and Eiselmann.

The killers can be anyone and be anywhere. They can strike at any time. They care nothing of collateral damage. Andruko believes a target is a target, and in the end, the target must die. https://amzn.to/34lNllP 

Caught in a Web: A PenCraft Literary Award Winner! Named “One of the Best Thrillers of 2018!” by BestThrillers.com 

Caught in a Web is also available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback! http://bit.ly/2WO3kka

They found the bodies of high school and middle school kids dead from an overdose of heroin and fentanyl. A violent gang, MS-13, controls the drug trade along the I-94 and I-43 corridors. They send Ricardo Fuentes to find out who is cutting in on their business, shut it down and teach them a lesson. But he has an ulterior motive: find and kill a fifteen-year-old boy, George Tokay. 

Detectives Jamie Graff, Pat O’Connor and Paul Eiselmann race to find the source of the drugs, shut down the ring, and find Fuentes before he kills anyone else. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CKF7696  

Spiral Into Darkness: Named a Recommended Read in the Author Shout Reader Awards!

Would you recognize a serial killer if one spoke to you? Vincent and Shirley didn’t, and now they’re dead!

He blends in, is successful, intelligent, and methodical. So far, he has murdered eight people. There is no discernible pattern, no clues, and no leads. The only thing the FBI and local police have to go on is the method of death: two bullets to the face- gruesome and meant to send a message. But it’s difficult to understand any message coming from a dark and damaged mind. Two adopted boys, struggling in their own world, do not know they are the next targets, and neither does their family or local law enforcement. https://amzn.to/2RBWvTm 
 
The Lives Trilogy Prequel, Taking Lives:

FBI Agent Pete Kelliher and his partner search for the clues behind the bodies of six boys left in various and remote parts of the country. Even though they live in separate parts of the country, the lives of Kelliher, 11-year-old Brett McGovern, and 11-year-old George Tokay are separate pieces of a puzzle. The two boys become interwoven with the same thread Kelliher holds in his hand. The three of them are on a collision course and when that happens, their futures grow dark as each search for a way out. https://amzn.to/34nXBH5  

Book One, Stolen Lives: Editor’s Pick by BestThrillers! Literary Titan Gold Book Award Winner! A Crime Thriller finalist in the 2021 Best Thriller Book Awards!

Two thirteen-year-old boys are abducted off a safe suburban street. Kelliher and his team of FBI agents have 24 hours to find them or they will end up like the other kids they found- dead! They have no leads, no clues, and nothing to go on. To make the investigation that much tougher, Kelliher suspects that one of his team members might be involved. https://amzn.to/3oMo4qZ   

Book Two of the Lives Trilogy, Shattered Lives:

The boys are home, but now they have to fit back in with their families and friends. Their parents and the FBI thought the boys were safe. They were until people began dying. Now the hunt is on for six dangerous and desperate men who vow revenge. With no leads and nothing to go on, the FBI can only sit back and wait. A dangerous game that threatens not only the boys, but their families. https://amzn.to/2RAYIk2 
 
Book Three of the Lives Trilogy, Splintered Lives:

Three dangerous men with nothing to lose offer a handsome reward to anyone willing to kill fourteen-year-old Brett McGovern. He does not know that he, his younger brother, and a friend are targets. More than anyone, these three men vow to kill George, whom they blame for forcing them to run and hide. A fun vacation turns into a nightmare and ends where it started, back on the Navajo Nation Reservation, high on a mesa held sacred by George and his grandfather. Outnumbered and outgunned, George will make the ultimate sacrifice to protect his adoptive father and his adoptive brothers- but can he? Without knowing who these men are? Or where they are? Without knowing whom to trust? Is he prepared for betrayal that leads to his heartbreak and death? http://bit.ly/SplinteredLives   

Photos courtesy of Unknown