Author Archives: Derek

First Day of School

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Here in Texas today was the first day of school. I was in charge of getting them there on time so the pressure was on. Even when it’s not the first day of school I always feel like I’m running late but today I just felt like there was that little bit of extra pressure to get them there early. To make matters worse I got up around 6:30 and was thinking I needed to get them there by 8:00 and was taking my time when it suddenly donned on me that Alex needed to be there at 7:40, 7:45 at the latest which got me all worked up.

Despite all the rushing around I still managed to get the first day of school pics and like the previous years they made me get a picture of their backpacks which they are very proud of.

Alex and Andrew on the first day of school Alex and Andrew on the first day of school

Mightly Fiesty Sheep

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Today Andrew was playing with his collection of animals and one time when I passed by I noticed he had the following scene set up.

“Andrew, what is this over here.”

“Sheep.”

“What are the sheep doing?”

“They’re eating the cheetah.”

There’s something you don’t see everyday.

Trip to Canada Web Site Update

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Over the July 4th holiday weekend we decided to take a trip to Canada to visit the family. We looked into flying up but air fare was totally outrageous so we made the decision just to drive. We left here Friday night and took three days for the drive there with a stop in Chicago on the second night to see Amanda and Ryan and crash at their place. (Thanks guys.) Then we had five full days in Canada which we used to visit family and go around and visit all sorts of cool stuff. Then on Saturday we turned around and drove back home in two days, a very long two days. We ended up driving a total of 3200 miles (5150 km) after all was said and done.

Alex and Andrew did really good on the drive and I don’t remember hearing too may “Are we there yets”. On the second day of the ride home Andrew got a little upset but that didn’t last long since he fell asleep.

After a couple of weeks of sifting through the pictures, getting them organized, getting some additional pictures from Deanna and Doug, (thanks!), and it’s all done. Whew.

As an aside we played the license plate game and I think we ended up doing pretty well. 32 US States, 4 Canadian Provinces, and 3 Indian Trip, who would have known they have their own license plates.

US Plates Canada Other Special Ones
Arizona Maryland Oklahoma Alberta Cherokee Nation
Arkansas Michigan Oregon Manitoba Muskogee Nation
California Minnesota Pennsylvania Nova Scotia Wyandotte Nation
Colorado Mississippi South Dakota Ontario
Florida Montana Tennessee Quebec
Illinois Nebraska Texas
Indiana New Mexico Virginia
Iowa New York Washington
Kansas North Carolina West Virginia
Kentucky Ohio Wisconsin
Maine Wyoming

Project Runway

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Season 4 of Project Runway started tonight so it looks like every Wednesday night for the next 14 weeks Jen is going to be comendering the TV.  It’s going to be 14 weeks of “Auf Wiedersehen”, “Designers Gather Round”, and “Make it Work.”

Baseball Pictures

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Alex finished his baseball season a couple of weeks ago, well, it’s probably been just over a month now, but I took loads of pictures and just haven’t done anything with them yet.

Last night I tried to figure out the easiest way to get them all posted and decided to try something new and put them in a fancy photo gallery. It’s kind of the lazy way out since I didn’t edit any of the images or add any comments to the pictures but there were just so many of them I decided just let it be.

You can find all the pictures here. You can scroll through the pictures one at a time by clicking on them or there is a “Play Slideshow” button in the bottom left corner that will automatically scroll you through the pictures. This album also happens to support PicLens which is way cool browser add on for scrolling through lots of pictures at once.

Cupcakes

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This afternoon Jen and the boys made some cupcakes with the idea that we would all decorate them like eyes and have them after dinner. The boys were really excited with the prospect of decorating their own cupcakes and weren’t as concerned with making eyes as just piling as much stuff on them as they could.

When it finally came time to decorate Jen put down a layer of of white icing and Andrew added a couple of gummy life savers and a couple different colors of sprinkles, or “dinkles” as he calls them, to his cupcake. Then he starts eating from the top so he just gets the all the good stuff he’s put on.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen him do this and every time it sends me back to my childhood. Whenever we had cake for birthdays or special occasions Deanna would always get through the first piece and then start on a second piece. However, on the second piece the pace was much slower and she would end up eating just the icing off it and then inevitably it would be “Oh, I’m full, I can’t eat any more.” A couple of times she offered me the picked over icing free mess and of course I always refused. I mean come on, all the good stuff was gone.

Andrew is like a mini Auntie-D except he has taken it to whole new level. After eating off the candy, sprinkles, and icing he re-decorates it with more icing and sprinkles. This way he doesn’t have to trouble himself with filling up on the pesky cake part, he’s leaving as much room for the good stuff as possible. He’s discovered a loop hole in system where he can act like he’s eating a cupcake but it’s really the equivalent of eating spoon fulls of icing right from the container with some candy thrown in for good measure.

Boy’s Yearly Pictures

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Last month we continued our annual tradition of taking the boys yearly pictures and we’ve finally gone through them and picked out the best ones.

Here is the set from Alex. We had to get creative this year to keep Alex out in the yard to get a good set of pictures because after out thirty shots he figured he was all done. We tried bribing him with “Let’s get some action shots with you kicking the ball.” “How about one more, just move over here.”

Here is the set from Andrew. Right now Andrew is all about making goofy faces when the camera is on him so it made getting this years pictures a little challenging. In the end we had all sorts of pictures with him making funny faces but out of the bunch I think we managed to get a couple of good ones.

Andrew’s Birthday Pictures

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A couple of days ago I finished pulling together the pictures from Andrew’s birthday party. He’s really into animals right now and wanted to have a party with animals so Jen found the Owen’s Spring Creek Farms where we could have it.

We rented an air conditioned room at the farm where we could have the cake and drinks and open gifts which turned out to be the greatest decision ever because on party day it was 96 degrees outside. First they visited the stables and saw the horses and pigs, then it was on to see the turkeys, chickens, and donkeys. This was followed up by a hey ride around the property which Andrew described as “bumpy” and it finished up with feeding the sheep and goats.

Overall it was a big sucess but in the days since the party Andrew has mentioned to us many times that next year he doesn’t want anyone to eat any of his birthday cake.

Alex Lost His First Tooth!

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Big news, Alex lost his first tooth last night!

I’ll let Alex tell how it all happened.

I was watching the Stanley Cup Finals with Detroit and Pittsburgh and I was moving it with my tongue. Then it came out. I got 5 dollars from the tooth fairy and a new toothbrush for my new big teeth.

The other tooth that looks like it’s now sitting in no mans land is also loose and ready to come out at any moment as well.