Showing posts with label amy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label amy. Show all posts

June 24, 2009

A river runs through it

Here is a picture of the route we took and some other pics from an enjoyable trip on the Cannon River (from Cannon Falls to Welch) we took with Amy and Joe a couple of weekends ago.

I wanted to see how far we canoed (11.37 mi) so I ended up using mapmyrun.com because we couldn't figure out another way to do it.



October 29, 2008

On the path to Wiilightenment

Amy/Joe

It almost goes without saying but we had a great time at Amy and Joe's wedding a couple of weeks ago.  Amy was beautiful and everything went as close to plan as you could have ever hoped for. I know I speak for Gina and Molly when I say that we were all honored to be a part of the big day.  It was so much fun seeing two of our favorite people take the plunge.  It was also great to see the out-of-town family as well.

While we were waiting between pictures before the wedding started, Gina asked Tisha if she'd take a few pictures of us.  They turned out really well so I decided to share.  I'm including one of the pictures of Gina and I and one of Gina, Mo and myself.  Thanks to Tish for taking these for us.





Wii

Yes, the rumors are true.  We now own a Wii. 

The day I bought the Wii (at the downtown Target store) I was walking back with my buddy Matt who was carrying a big box of diapers with him and he said something along the lines of "well it's easy to see what points in life we are at isn't it." 

While there is some truth in the statement I suppose, I clarified with him that we may not be in the full fledged diaper mode anymore but it's not quite as it looks.  At this point, we need to sell things we currently own, recycling our worth, so that we can apply it to other items that we may want to own instead.  In this case, it was my birthday money that I had hung onto, some award money that I received from work and by selling our PS2 to Beno and Heidi.

Right now we are on hold to buy anything else until I sell the BowFlex.  Supposedly I have a buyer though who is working on coming up with the money for it.  Once it sells we will be getting Wii Fit, Super Mario Kart and a couple of additional accessories.

Nattie

The girl is crazy.  I mean that in a good way.  I'm blown away every day by how much she is growing up.  This week she was able to say the days of the week and counted to twenty for Gina's aunt Bev.  She also loves tracing her name and writing letters/numbers.

Last night I asked her what day comes before and/or after certain days of the week and she had some trouble with that.  Gina said some of her first graders struggle with it still so I was asking a little much of her.  My bad.  She is always eager to learn though so I plan to challenge her (in healthy ways hopefully) whenever possible.

Another thing with her is that she is so loving still.  I hope that never changes.  Whether it be cuddling with us or someone visiting, giving Casey hugs (which he only welcomes about half of the time) or holding lamby, a different stuffed animal or one of her babies...she is so sweet and gentle.  Maybe being motherly just goes along with being the oldest grandchild on either side, I don't know.

Mace

A lot has changed with Macie in the last couple of months.

For one, she's talking.  She's not annunciating a whole lot very well yet but she has about a dozen words she will say with some regularity and there are others spoken here and there as well.  For example, she just decided to point out the window and say tree out of nowhere Saturday night as we were driving to watch my parents bowl / see my cousin K8 and her boyfriend Mark.  My favorite is when she says up please.  It's adorable.

We also decided to take the plunge and convert her to a big girl bed over the weekend.  I was not sure if she was ready for it but both Gina and Mo thought she was.  I must say, she has made the conversion with ease and I was definitely wrong.  Whether she is sleeping or in a time out, she stays in her bed until we come and get her.  Hopefully that trend continues.



More around the house

I gave up on the yard.  I’m not too proud to admit it.  With all four lots around our house being sodless, it has allowed the weeds to definitely dominate my battle with them.  Our friends Nick and Carrie have someone they use to spray and/or fertilize five times a year for them and we decided to sign up for the last two applications of the year through the same place.  While it’s not very green of us, I can say that our yard looks so much better.  It will probably be one of those necessary evils that we'll learn to accept until the sod issue fixes itself.

We also had gutters put on our house.  That and the shelves in the garage were the 2008 projects we wanted to complete.  We didn’t put them on one area of the house that we should have (I’m scheduling that to be done as we speak) but everything looks very nice.  They were able to match the color of our siding with the downspouts and if you weren’t looking for them you probably wouldn’t even notice they were there (which is a good thing in this case).

Our only major item on the 2009 agenda for the house will be putting in a patio.  I’d like to have that done before school ends so Gina and the girls can enjoy the back yard over the summer.  I may also add a work bench in the garage now that we know we can fit one there after all.

Gina, Molly and I have been having a good time together as well.  While both Gina and I were comfortable with the decision to have Molly move in, I don't think either of us ever expected it to be going this well.  She's absolutely become part of our family.  What makes it even better is that I'm comfortable saying that we'd all make the same decision again about having her move in if we had a chance to do it over.

I've also very much embraced that our house will forever be dominated by women (Casey only counts on some levels).  If we decide to have a third child, it will undoubtedly be a girl as well.  At this point, it would make more sense that way anyways.  And, you know what, I'm just fine with all of it.

Going green?

Gina’s been on a green kick the last couple of months (sans spraying/fertilizing the yard which was mainly my decision).  We’ve been forced to buy more organic foods because of Natalie but she has also converted to the reusable bags and has diligently focused more on our recycling efforts.  Good work G.

Nick/Carrie

Recently, everyone in our house has been spending a lot of time with our neighbors Nick and Carrie (see above) who live just across the street. 

We’ve been blessed with a wonderful neighborhood and we’ve made a number of friends that I believe we will stay connected with regardless of how long we/they remain living around here.  Some of them we wish we could see more but lives are busy and finding time is not as simple as it would seem, especially when it becomes a ghost town outside as the weather gets colder.

But, it’s been different with Nick and Carrie.

I was talking to Mess about it last week and he called them the new version of him and Ann to us.  In a lot of ways, he is right.  It’s nice when you can have people living near you that you’re able to spend time with when it doesn’t feel like work to get together or be around…and finding that is not very easy.  We had that with Matt and Ann in the townhouse and finally have it again here.  Needless to say, they are great people and we are having a lot of fun.

Pumpkin Patch

A couple of weekends ago we went with the Otters to a pumpkin patch near them.  It was a blast.  At first I though the $8 admission was a bit steep but after seeing all that there was to do I decided that I had no problem with the price.  The girls loved it and we were only able to see about half of what was available before it was time to go because the girls were hungry / needed naps.  We also bought a pumpkin for each of the girls (that we still need to crave).  Halloween should be a lot of fun and one of us will make sure to post a picture of the girls in their costumes shortly there after.

Baby Otter

We recently found out that we will be an aunt/uncle again in May and are very excited.  Congrats to Sarah and Chris!

Sickness

I’ve been under the weather in some capacity or another for at least the last month or so.  It’s been weird for me since I generally tend to stay pretty healthy.  The same thing happened last year at this time and it turned out to be mono. 

The craziest night for me so far was after Joe and Amy’s rehearsal dinner when one of my ears registered a 104 degree temperature.  Currently, I am having some sinus issues.  If it’s not one thing it’s another.  Hopefully it will all clear up soon.  I have a feeling once the sinuses clear up I should be on the path to good health.  As a whole, I have definitely been feeling better the last ten days or so.

Election

It’s taken me quite a while to figure it out but I’ve finally decided on who I will be voting for next week for president.  As you can see by this link, no candidate represents me very well.  I wish I was more confident in my decision, but I at least feel comfortable on some levels with the choice.

Mosephina

Molly and Gina have started making jewelry.  Nothing big, just something fun that they are both enjoying doing.  Molly has been doing it for a while but Gina just started up recently. 

To try and help out I put together a spreadsheet for them to figure some of their expenses and put a simple starting site for them to use on our homepage.

Twilight

I started listening to Twilight recently based on Carrie’s suggestion.  Her and I were talking about books/TV/movies recently and we determined that we have similar tastes (much like Amy and I do).  She has definitely enjoyed reading the series and thought I might like it as well.

I also figured it was good timing with the movie coming out next month. 

Other then the fact that it’s clearly directed at a teenage female audience (which I’ve noticed more and more since a comment that Amy made) I am definitely enjoying the story.  Hopefully that continues as I progress through the book.

Matt and Morgan

Matt and Morgan finally found a house after a very exhausting search.  Trying to find the right place, they looked at between 90-100 homes.  The one they bought is about a mile or two from where they had hoped to be but it is still in a great spot in St. Louis Park all things considered.  I will see it tomorrow and I am very excited about that.  From what I know, and in talking to them and my parents, I already feel that they made a good decision.



World Series

I did pretty well predicting the playoffs this year other then the Cubbies, but my Rays in six prediction does not look very good right now.  Philly has definitely been the better team and I expect them to win tonight or, at a minimum, take one of the two games in Tampa to win the series.