Painstaking re-construction ...

I've been busy re-adjusting to both my new hair and my sexy bad-guy moustache!

Very-sensitive-beard Man! I wish I could do this in real life.

Mini-Knutson

This is Miss Brenna. She is in Grade 7, and she's 12.

She's just like her mother.

She has always been a character. Early videos of her showcase a talent for making folks laugh.

She wants to be an actress. She has already been in community theatre and she was the Global Microphone in the 2005 Buffalo Days parade. Both performances were met with rave reviews!

She wants to live in New York.

She is also an athlete and a painter. She's played basketball and volleyball, and has done bitchin' at both - despite a lack of experience. Her art is all over the house, and has won her awards at school!

She is a great sister. She plays with her little brother a lot - they can be heard giggling and carrying on all over the house!

She is very sweet and very kind to animals and friends.

She has lots of pairs of shoes.

She picked out the rockin' lime green color for her bedroom, and she won Best Costume at a recent Halloween Dance!

She is a great babysitter, and she is great with all types of kids.


She has started wearing a tiny bit of make-up. I have jokingly told her my rules for life --- NO BOYS. (I'm only half joking.)

When she was younger, she complained of getting a bead stuck in her ear. She said that our cat had did it. Later, at the hospital, she admitted doing it herself. When the doctor removed the bead for her ear, he was shocked to find another bead behind it! (This one apparently came from a friend at daycare.)

Her and her brother have grown up so much. They have lived in many different places and seen many different things. They've been to DisneyWorld and the Smokey Mountains and the Gulf of Mexico and the Red River and Costcos in 2 different countries, and they've taken it all in stride.

She is a great daughter and I love her very much.

BMK

This is the man! He is in Grade 8, and will be 14 in December.

He is a great kid. Very earnest, very conscientious, and very kind.

The ladies have been noticing him since 2005, as he is a veteran of the dating scene. However, his sister may have inadvertently blocked his first kiss!

He is a hero to his little brother! Known as "Bro", Braiden shares his time and energy with his brother, sharing a love of video games and trips to the park. They can be spotted joyously riding around town on a bike ... and for a 13 year old, that's pretty frickin' cool.

He is awesome around the house. With Kristin out of town, he cleaned up everything - dishes, carpet, garbage - all without being asked. The joy of seeing his eyes light up when I gave him 20 bucks made my day as much as it did his!

He has always been a great brother. When the kids were younger, Brenna was stung by a bee. Braiden came and got his mother, and stood around nervously saying, "Oh, my Brenna ... my precious Brenna!".

He is a lover of grandmas, and player of Monopoly.

He is looking forward to getting his licence. He has had a chance to drive once, and he really enjoyed it.

His congruent childhood dreams of becoming an architect, a rock star, and the owner of a fitness center - all at the same time - has not been put on the back burner yet. He recently wanted to buy a very large boxing bag and hang it from his ceiling.

He dislikes the new carpet for his room, but he never complained.

His favorite book is a survival guide from the US military. He knows what plants are safe to eat, and the best way to clean an infection should one not be able to move.

He intends on going to Minot State University ... for financial reasons.

He is a great son, and I love him dearly.

The reason for vacations & cameras

This is the love of my life. The picture was taken at a restaurant in Willimgton, North Carolina in 2005. It was the first real vacation that we'd taken together since 1999.

She's beautiful. She always has been.

I first met her in 1993. We were in a theatre class. She was pregnant with Braiden at the time. My brother and I were in the class, and eventually we both dropped out.

I didn't see her again until 2 years later when we both auditioned for a play in college. During the audition, we were paired up to act out a scene together. She says she noticed me right away! ;) We both got into the play, and we were paired up as husband and wife!

Later in the year, we were in another play together, and I really got to know her then. She was really frickin' good in that play, and we still have the best actress plaque she got for her work!!

We spent a lot of time together, and I really loved being around her. Late in the '95-'96 school year, she got a really short haircut, which made her look even more beautiful. I used to see her in the hallways and razz her about looking like Pat Benetar. (Which was right down her alley!)

As I got to know her, I really started to like her. We shared the same interests and sense of humor.

Our first date involved a trip to Bismarck, North Dakota. We went to a bar that had an Ozzy Osbourne cover band. The singer could sing like Ozzy, but in between songs, he couldn't keep up the English accent! We laughed the whole time, and I enjoyed every second we spent!

It wasn't long before I was in love with her. It's amazing when you find that perfect person that fills in all the empty spaces in your life.

I've always been a complicated (read-difficult) person, and Kristin always knew how to deal with me and my moods. When we got together, she helped build me up after a really difficult time in my life. She is loyal and honest and opinionated and funny.

She also was willing to do anything. We'd stage little wrestling matches in WalMart. I'd pretend to whip her into the ropes or fake hit her with a child's mattress. She always went along with whatever goofy thing I'd try.

The night we got married, we used the whirlpool tub in our honeymoon suite. I turned it on and shot myself right in the rear-end with the jets of water!

She was just as talented at broadcasting as she was at acting. At both places we worked, all the photographers begged to work with her, because they knew that not only would they have a great story, but that Kristin could write it in no time flat.

One time, she couldn't find our car keys. She looked around the entire apartment. Turns out, the key chain was hanging from her mouth! The kicker to this story ... earlier on, she had had come to me, with the keys in her mouth, asking me for help finding them. I guess I looked at her and asked, "Well, where did you look last?".

I love every thing about my wife. I love that she sings the harmony parts of songs. (It's the reason I keep showering her with cassettes and CDs of her favorite groups. I never would have bought a large percentage of Hall & Oates's back catalogue on my own! Some goes for Air Supply, REO Speedwagon, and The Monkees.)

I love the pouty pose that she makes anytime she takes a picture with her sisters.

I love the fact that she's convinced that I have somehow programmed the DVD/VCR remote not to work for her.

I love how she hates the usage of the word "amazing".

I love childhood pictures of her. Especially any ones wear she's wearing glasses.

I love that she edits my e-mails and cleans up my spelling mistakes.

I love the fact she's always willing to try new things. She had the guts to move us to Fort Myers, FL for her first job. I never would have Thunder Beef and Pad Thai and Cincinnati style Chili without her.

I love watching her with our children. She has always been a great mom, and she's the reason all three of our kids have turned out so well.

I love her conscience. She has a beautiful sense of right and wrong, and she's taught the kids well.

I love how I have someone who was there with me thru it all. Someone who remembers the time I threw my back out jumping up in the air when she and the kids came to pick me up outside Peder Rice's.

Someone who was there the time Brenna got stuck in the toilet. Or when Braiden had his first date.

Someone who remembers ending up in the ditch coming back from Winnipeg ... the time I irrationally told everyone in the car, "I love you all, we're all going to die!" as we went into the ditch.

Someone who took me to hospital when I had strep throat, and who took me to the mall when the Alice Cooper box set came out.

Together we've seen the World Trade Center, the Gulf of Mexico, the beach at Lake Winnipeg, the old streets of Asheville, North Carolina, and the ghetto of Garry, Indiana. We've been in awe of the Tennessee mountains and in fear of the Pennsylvania turnpike.

This woman has both figuratively and literally saved my life on more than one occasion.

Things haven't always been perfect, but they have been exciting. I've been spoiled rotten by the best woman in the world.

Hurry back, gorgeous.

More Kissology ...

Here you go, Kari! I was searching your blog for a picture and came across this one of you and Derek Smith. I just want you to know that this gets addicting. A sure sign that you've gone too far is when you start putting make up on family members pictures or you use Eric Carr's or Vinnie Vincent's make-up!

Derek Smith was a real character and a very nice kid. I hadn't seen him since college, and I talked to him briefly a couple of weeks ago under some sad circumstances. I have some real nice memories of Derek in college.

He appeared on a live TV show that I got to have in college. My brother, who also went to college with us, was the director. The night Derek was the guest, Dave got mad at something, threw a fit, and walked off swearing.

While you can't hear really hear the profanity specifically, you can tell something's going on. Derek's reaction is priceless when Dave up and leaves! I can't remember how we got out of it, and to a break, because Dave was the director and he ran the board.

Derek married one of the girls from the Minot State University theatre department - Aili Davidson. I was in a play with them both called the Musical Radio Comedy Murders of 1940. I was the goody guy comedian, and Ali was the evil German maid.

The climatic scene of this play involved me hitting her over the head with a bottle and saving the day. Every time that I had to do this, I think I borrowed a move from the great Dynamite Kid and stomped my feet as I pretended to to bonk Aili with the bottle.

This bottle was so thick, I swear, it was like something Orson Welles would have drank out of. ("Ahhhhhhhh, the French ... Youtube Orson Welles if you're curious. It's the first thing that comes up.)

At the last performance, I go to hit Aili with the bottle, and THUD! I had actually hit her on the head. I remember not being able to say some of my last lines because I kept looking back to make that I hadn't knocked Aili out.

Afterwards, she said she was fine, and hopefully, she didn't have any permanent damage. I feel like a jerk thinking about it now.

Another time, for reasons that I can't remember, somehow Derek and I ended up getting hired by SRT - the local telephone company - to appear at their annual dinner.

The theme was connected to 'Back to the Future' ... therefore, we were hired to be characters from the movie. Derek was Michael J. Fox and I was Christopher Lloyd.

I remember that I had a horrible fever, and I was really sick, but the entertainment value alone of doing this was worth it.

The special guest speaker at the dinner was former Minnesota Vikings halfback Chuck Foreman. After Derek and I finished our 'Back to the Future' bit, Chuck got up and started his speech by saying, "Those were the two craziest white guys I ever saw.".

I guess Chuck Foreman's never met Phil Spector.

Took me a while ...

Don't know who the dude is, but consider yourself Gene-ized!

This is my best friend.

His favorite song is "Stacey's Mom". He also loves "Everyday I Write the Book" by Elvis Costello, "Another Postcard" by the Barenaked Ladies, and "The Hypnotist" by Adam Sandler.

There are many things he loves and many things he hates.

He has lived in 6 different places in his life, and he has left behind a girlfriend in just about every town.

When he gets too much sugar or not enough sleep, he gets like a 3 foot version of a drugged up Goodbye Yellow Brick Road-era Elton John.

He makes me laugh every day. He calls me many names and knows how to tell a joke.

He loves going to the park with his sister.

He looks like his mother. (Thank God.)

Before we knew, I was sure he was going to be a girl. His name would have been Addison.

He dances with his fingers, and he hates sleeping alone.

His big brother is his hero ... he calls him "Bro".

He learned to talk very early. His first name for his mother was "Umi".

The day he was born was my favorite moment on the planet.

I first saw him walk at the Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, NC. (He had learned how to walk while I was gone to Norman, OK, and he was standing there waiting for me when I got back. As I came up, he was crying, and then he took two steps towards me.)

He calls me his best friend. He always has.

He is 1/5 of the best family ever.

By special request ...

Dang ... tight spot!
Jason Wood - applying Kiss make up to celebrities' pictures for well over two decades!