The Art of Racing in the Rain

It's been easy to let Gina handle the girl's birthday blogs the last couple of years, especially considering she does such an incredible job with them.  I figured it was my turn to chip in on some level and so here I am blogging about our pooch.

Today, Casey turns ten years old.  It's hard to believe that.

Earlier this week I finished reading The Art of Racing in the Rain (suggested to us by Jeff and Martha) and it felt to coincidental not to take advantage of the timing and say something about Casey and about reaching this milestone.  For those of you who have not heard of the book, if you are a dog lover it's definitely worth checking out.  The entire story is told from a dog's point of view.

We got Casey in August of 2003, four weeks after we were married.  He was 14 months old.  By all accounts, he shouldn't be ours.  The shelter that he was at had a policy in place that would not allow them to hold dogs for anyone.  I had called about him on a Thursday after seeing his profile on petfinder.com but we were unable to get up to see him until that Sunday.  On Fridays and Saturdays, the shelter he was at had open adoption days and if someone wanted him during that time we would be out of luck.  But, something happened in the Thursday phone call.  What was supposed to be a five minute chat about the high level details for coming up to see him on Sunday (if no one claimed him yet) turned into a half hour conversation with the lady who answered the phone.  They had interested families in him that weekend but without telling me they had decided to unofficially hold him for us because she was convinced we were going to be the right fit.  

I fell in love with him right away.  Gina took a little more convincing, but mainly because he pretty much looked like a train wreck with long dreadlock / matted hair (the picture above is from our first day home with him), not to mention his smell.  To Gina's credit, she saw how I responded when he was brought out to see us and she never questioned whether we should take him or not.  She let me make the decision.  She also let me name him Casey (and reference my love for baseball).  

It's only fair that dog number 2's name will be up to her. :)

We had a lot of fun with him the first couple of years.  In this picture we are up at a cabin with Matt and Ann before any of us had kids.

This picture is at Matt and Morgan's place in Chicago.  He stayed with them for a couple of days while Gina, two month old Natalie, and I continued on to the St. Louis area for Andrea's wedding (Gina's cousin).

Casey's been there for pretty much every big event in our life since our wedding and in the process he's gone from being our baby #1 to our baby #4.  At times it's been hard on him but he's transitioned well all and all.  

He's been an amazing dog with our children.  Some of the abuse he's endured from them as toddlers would drive anyone nuts but he's been incredibly patient and tolerant with them.

Here he's enjoying being outside, nothing like a little wind in the face to make his day.

At the park (Spring 2012)

With his girls (June 2012)

In the Art of Racing in the Rain, you're basically forced to think about life from your pet's perspective.  It's a good thing to do.  

I'd be so curious to hear what he has thought of the last nine years being an eye witness to so much of our lives.  More than anything though, I'd just hope that he'd tell us that we'd done right by him and that he's thankful to us for giving him a good life.  We probably should have taken him on more walks or maybe slowed down a bit and made a little more time for him but overall I feel like we've made sure he has been an integral part of our family.

He's been a great dog.  We were so fortunate to have ended up with him.

As of today (his 10th birthday), I am going to try to do something going forward I haven't done very well with over the years.  For so long I have dreaded the day that we will lose him.  I've recognized that even though he's been here with us for so many incredible memories, he won't be here for even more.  The times that I think about it (which is more often than I probably should), I get really really sad.

But, he's only ten.  I need to keep telling myself that.  Initially that seems like such a landmark number for a dog to hit but with some luck (because he is small) he could live another five years pretty easily, maybe even more.  

Going forward, I am going to be very intentional about enjoying my time with him instead of dwelling on what he is going to miss out on with us down the road.  

At a minimum, I owe him that.

A bittersweet symphony

Here are 40 random observations from the last week or so:

• When Evie was born, her right hand was next to her face. So, Gina unfortunately had to do a little extra work to get her out. Thank you epidural.

• Evie is pronounced ee-vee (just like saying the letters e and v together) and not ev-ee. We weren't expecting to need to clarify that when we chose it but in retrospect I can completely understand why it's been a bit confusing for everyone. We panicked a bit when everyone was mispronouncing it but we both still love it.

• Gina has said she is still in a fair amount of pain but looking at her you can't tell. She looks great! She's also been pretty sassy since just after Evie's birth which is definitely a good sign.

• Gina's labor was pretty interesting. I don't know when it officially started but on June 19th we spent the night at St. Joe's because she was contracting and things never really stopped from there. There were breaks where nothing was happening but then it would pick up again shortly thereafter. I think Gina plans to post about the days leading up to Evie's birth so I'll leave that story for her.

• We thought that Evie was constantly awake in Gina's stomach but it turns out that the girl is moving her hands and feet all the time, even when she is sleeping.

• The title of the blog simply refers to Evie being our last child. It's relieving yet very sad all at the same time. I hold her sometimes and think about how I'll never hold my two day old / three day old / etc. son or daughter ever again.

• Leaving St. Joe's was very difficult for both Gina and I to do. We have felt so loved there with the birth of all three girls. It's an amazing place to deliver a child. We were able to see many of the nurses that were involved in Natalie and Macie's first few days and were also able to make a couple of new connections, especially with Jessica. She was with us all day on Thursday (the 24th) and was absolutely wonderful.

• Evie will always be considered a preemie. It seems weird to say because she is doing fantastic. But, she was born at 36 weeks and six days (one day short of being considered full term).

• Preemie's need to have a number of extra tests done on them before leaving the hospital. All of the results came back very positive. The only thing they noticed was that she has extra red blood cells because her liver is premature. It is just something to note and not uncommon in preemies. It isn't anything to worry about.

• Evie was given the full ballard test because she was a preemie. Full term babies only have a partial test done. With the test, they do things like count the creases in the newborn’s foot to confirm that the due date of the child was correct. Sure enough, Evie's score came back placing Gina between 36 and 37 weeks along.

• Most of you who will read this post already know about how interesting this pregnancy was for Gina. It began with a subchorionic hemorrhage on December 21st and the discussion of potentially doing a DNC. But, as we all know now, Evie and Gina are both fighters and with a lot of love, prayers and support everything turned out just fine. We are grateful in so many ways.

• Because of everything Evie went through, our pastor has dubbed her "el milagro." It means the miracle.

• Furthering that point, Evie means life. While we already loved the name that definitely added to why we decided on it for her.

• In 2009, Evie was the 723rd most popular name for girls in the U.S. One in approximately every 5,000 girls were given that name last year. I don't expect for her to ever need to go by Evie S. because there are too many Evie's in her class. However, it surprisingly was the 10th most common girls name in the U.K. in 2008.

• We definitely considered the name Rory (both for a boy or girl) as a first name but in the end decided that it just didn't feel quite right. We also looked at possibly using it for a middle name instead.

• Where did the name Evie come from? Gina liked it more than I did originally. Most directly, it is Natalie Portman's character in V for Vendetta. In the movie she spells it Evey. I wasn't convinced it could stand on it's own as a first name until I saw the movie. After seeing it, I knew it was a strong enough name and began falling in love with it.

• For the first time, I had the final decision on the name. It was far more stressful than I thought it would be. I should have probably held my tongue with Gina and let her deal with that pressure (I joked about never having the final say even though I would have picked Natalie and Macie as well). You live and learn I guess.

• Evie's announcement was finished on Wednesday.

• Congratulations to Susan (a co-worker of Gina's) for winning the expectnet.com guessing game that 60 people participated in.

• Evie decided to buck a number of trends. All of the milestone dates in our life fall on another date of significance (generally tied to the Gina's side of the family). But, there is nothing on June 24th that we are aware of. Had she waited one more day she would have been born on my Grandpa S's birthday and my Grandma and Grandpa K's wedding anniversary.

• Evie was born on a Thursday. Both of the other girls were born on Tuesday.

• Evie was born in room 2528 (what use to be room 205). Both of the other girls were born in room 201.

• Sleeping or awake, Evie is constantly making sounds with her mouth. It is so funny to listen to.

• I think people at church were surprised to see us at the musical on June 27th (with Evie). We didn't want to miss it. Not only was it well written, but Natalie and Macie were absolutely adorable in it.

• The middle name of Marie is in honor of Gina (it is her middle name as well). It is also her mom and grandma's middle name too.

• Even though she was a preemie, Evie was born with a higher birth weight than Macie was. Evie was 6lbs 7ozs and Macie was 6lbs 3ozs (Natalie was 7lbs 12ozs). For those who are wondering, Natalie was three days late and Macie was one week early.

• Evie is on a very positive weigh path so far. She left the hospital at 6lbs 2ozs on Saturday, was 6lbs 1oz at her in home visit on Monday and 6lbs 4ozs at her doctor's appointment on Wednesday. Seeing her weight begin to increase already is a very good thing.

• If you want to see a crazy picture, click on the one below and check it out. It's pretty hard to dispute whether or not these three are sisters.

• We call Evie a treefrog because of how she curls up on your body when you hold her upright.

• Years later, JoAnn's prophecy that Gina would have three girls has been fulfilled.  Gina and I were laughing (and crying) when we figured out that we had yet another girl. We would have definitely enjoyed having a boy but we are pretty excited to be a family of girls.

• Thanks again to my mom (Wednesday and Thursday) and Molly (Friday) for taking care of the girls for us while we were at the hospital.

• Thank you to everyone who has visited us at the hospital (and at home). It's been great seeing all of you.

• Both Natalie and Macie have been so great with Evie. They are going to be amazing big sisters. Right now, they want to hold her and spend as much time around her as they can.

• It was pretty cute on Thursday night (the 24th), when Natalie was around Evie she couldn't stop giggling.

• At first, Macie kept asking "where's my baby?" after we got home from the hospital because she couldn't remember Evie's name. Natalie took a little while to remember it as well.

• Both girls love to push on Gina's belly and tell her that it is squishy now.

• We've had great doctors with all three of our children (and have been blessed that each of them have been there to deliver our babies). I must say though, Dr. Kelly was absolutely the perfect doctor for us this time. Since December, she has been exactly what Gina has needed. We are both so thankful for everything she (and the clinic) has done for us the last six months.

• We love Target. Well, we sort of do. We have been there almost every day since leaving the hospital. If it's not one thing it's another. It's great to have a one stop shop for things but we feel a little to dependent on the place right now.

• Speaking of Target, three and a half years is a bit longer than we thought between kids. We are going to be replacing a few more baby items (bottles for example) than we were planning on.

• The summer of the babies is underway...we are already looking forward to Carrie and Nick (due July 29), Matt and Morgan (August 22), and Becky and Eric (September 5) having babies in the near future as well!

Songs in the key of moo

Natalie and I are getting ready this morning for a field trip to see "Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type" at the Stages Theatre in Hopkins. It's a field trip through her school that I am helping chaperone. It's one of my favorite children's books so I am looking forward to it. Natalie is also very excited that I am going with, it kind of melts your heart. I'll chalk it up to reason 53,891 why I love being a parent.

We've got boys in the family?

I have some time (and am surprisingly motivated to do this) so I wanted to add some updates about the family (particularly the children) since I have been M.I.A. for so long from Vox.

Mack and Brody

As most of you know, we have two new nephews.  Mack was born on the 13th of May (Sarah and Chris) and Brody on the 16th of May (Beth and Luke).  Both of them are wonderful and Gina and I are ecstatic.  Brody (6lbs 11oz) is a peanut and Mack (8lb 11oz) is a truck.

An item of note with Brody is that Beth and Luke have carried on the date significance tradition we have going with Gina's side of the family.  Some of you know this already but for those that don't try to comprehend the odds of all this happening.  I use to think Gina was the link but now I am thinking it may be Amy.  It's crazy.

~ I was born on the same day (July 18th) as Ed (Gina's uncle / Amy's father)

~ Gina was born on the same day that Ed passed away (February 1)

~ Gina and I share Ed and Mary Jo's wedding anniversary (July 26)

~ Sarah and Chris share Grandma and Grandpa S's wedding anniversary (June 28th)

~ Natalie was born on Gina and Amy's Grandpa S's birthday (May 31)

~ Macie was born on Gina and Amy's Grandma S's birthday (February 7)

~ Chloe (Beth and Luke's daughter) was born on Amy's birthday (January 19)

~ Brody was born on Joe's birthday (May 16)

Natalie

Here are some quick notes on Natalie from recent events:

~ On Wednesday, she completed her first year of pre-school.  She loves school, which we are very happy about.

~ She's a human highlight reel at this point in her life.  So much of what she says is hilarious.  

For example:

     ~ "My foot is sprinkling" (when referring to her foot falling asleep)

     ~ "We don't eat crabs because they do this" (as she pinches both thumbs and pointer fingers together)...however we didn't tell her that there are ways to deal with the claws.

     ~ "I already have a castle...it's in my playroom" (in reference to hearing Molly tell a random story about how cool it would be to own a castle as she was explaining what any good castle needs to have).

Macie

~ On March 23, we had a lump removed from the side of Macie head that had been there since just after she was born.  It was lima bean shaped, though not quite as big as one.  None of the doctor's were to worried about it but we had it taken out, in part, because they believed it would continue to grow as she did.  It was hard seeing her put under but everything went well.  We had the lump biopsied and it came back as a benign cyst which is obviously good news.

~ Her speech has taken off lately.  It's been fun to see (and hear I suppose).  However, she still has some work as you will see by the next story.  Last night, on the way home from picking them up from daycare I told the girls we were going to go make dinner for Beth, Luke, Chloe and Brody.  I then said to Mace, "can you say Bro-dee?"  Her response was "Rory."  That caught me off guard.  I composed myself and tried it again, "No, Broooo-deee."  To which she once again responded, "Rory."  At first it was a little weird but by the end of the night we were asking her to say it just because it was kinda cute.  She clearly needs some work on the "b" sound but we'll probably let her say Rory as long as she wants.

A video I am not proud of

I blame Gina and Molly for this.  At least they changed the lyrics for the girls to "oh hot ham, this is my jam."

Miscellaneous Items

~ Unfortunately, while waiting for Macie to return from surgery on the 23rd my mom informed me that my godmother Diane had had a heart attack the night before and passed away.  I was so sad.  She was an incredible person and had been one of my mom's best friends since early in high school.  She was also friends with my dad before my parents met and was one of the main reasons they were introduced.  So, I owe a lot to her on a couple of different fronts.  She will be greatly missed, especially by my mom's side of the family which had adopted her in as one of their own.  Another thing, which I just love, is that my mom received a letter from Diane on the 24th.  Sometime on the 22nd Diane had put a letter in the mailbox that basically told my mom what a great friend she has been to her over the years.  How cool is that for my mom to always have as a keepsake?

~ We tried to refinance, it didn't go well.  Our house appraised $80k less then we paid for it three years ago.  Grrrr.

~ Check out this book, it's fantastic.  If you're willing to read a non-threatening book about religion that will make you think a little bit but will also keep you laughing from cover to cover, you'll love it.

Walking for Causes

In the last two weeks we've done two walks: 

~ On the 10th, we did the Race for the Cure in honor of JoAnn, who has now been cancer free for over three years!  Attendees: Molly, Jackie, Gina, Natalie, Macie, JoAnn, Theresa, Meghan and myself.

~ On the 16th, we did the Celiac Walk for Natalie.  Well, we sort of did.  We raised a bunch of money, got there early and checked out all of the booths they had.  We very much enjoyed ourselves and learned a lot.  In the end we decided not to walk with two children who were not 100% healthy with outside temps in the upper 30s and winds that could blow over an ox.  We did go to the Mall of America, however, and enjoyed ourselves at Nickelodeon Universe.  Attendees: Morgan, Molly, Gina, Natalie, Macie, Rick, Al, Jeanine, Amy, Joe and myself.

The girls being absolutely ridiculous

Shakin' our tailfeathers

Natalie and I attended the annual daddy/daughter dance tonight put on by our community education program here in town.  We had friends (Brielle and Justin) who went as well, which was nice.  There were around 25 different groups of daddy/daughter's who attended. 
It took a while for Nattie to warm up to things but once she did we had a great time.  We were able to dance together quite a bit and she also did a lot of dancing on her own.  Here are a couple of pics (and a cute video of Nattie showing off her ballerina skills) from the event.

Another cool gluten free site

The World's Gluten-Free Search Engine: Gluten Free Fox

What a difference a year makes

It was a year ago today that Gina received the call saying that the bloodwork done on Natalie strongly suggested that she had celiac disease (which was confirmed a few weeks later with an endoscopy).

Since that phone call, Nattie has been gluten free.  As you all know, life has changed for us in many ways because of that.

What I want to say with all this though is how blessed both Gina and I feel at this point.

Nattie has gone from surviving to thriving.  The joy she had for life returned shortly after the diet change and she has grown so much that by the time May comes around she will likely be taller then the average four year old. 

Considering she barely grew for an entire year and actually lost weight in 2007...that alone leaves me speechless.

Even though I prefer Caribou, this is pretty cool

Starbucks New Idea

Our schoolgirl

A couple of updates based on Natalie's wonderful pre-school picture we just received (below):

~ I'm still amazed how quickly she is growing up.  She looks so old in the picture doesn't she?

~ In a conference last month, her teacher had many nice things to say about how she is doing in school right now.

~ This is, yet again, undeniable proof that her and Shane are related.  Just look at the smile...

Halloween 2008

For Halloween this year, my parents and Matt/Morgan came down to hang out with us.  Gina and Morgan stayed back at the house to hand out candy and everyone else (Al/Jeanine/Matt/Molly/Casey/Nattie/Macie/me) went out.  Nattie was a skunk and Macie was a chicken (recycled from a few years ago).

As always, Molly was kind enough to buy a new outfit for the girls this year. 

Our trip path was around the pond that is out our front window (both sides of the street).  Gina and I figured that Macie would make it about ten houses and then we'd need to bring her back but she ended up being a trooper.  We trick-or-treated for almost two hours.  Both the girls were fantastic and had a great time. 
Surprisingly, the skunk costume was the hit of the neighborhood.  I couldn't believe how many people commented on it.

Here are some pictures from the night:

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.

Where does time go?

It's hard to believe it but Nattie is now "of school age."  I brought her to the first day of preschool this morning.

Some finality (on a handful of fronts)

Mixed Bag

Welcome to another episode of one of my mixed bag blog entries.  Seeing as I am so hot/cold when it comes to blogging I've accepted this method as a way to catch up instead of thinking about all the entries I haven't done and in turn digging a deeper hole to get out of then I can recover from. 

I also went back through my past entries and tagged all blogs like this one with "mixed bag" so that they are easily accessible (mainly for my sake). 

As usual, there's been a decent amount of updates to get everyone caught up on.

Daycare

After much deliberation, we have decided on our daycare provider for the fall.  We are very excited to have Amber taking the kids and it's a relief for the decision to finally be made.

Nattie/Macie

Seeing our girls play together is quite a site.  One minute, they can't get enough of each other.  Just moments later, one is screaming (generally Macie) for the other one to leave them alone. 

Looks like it's going to be a classic love/hate sibling relationship. 

In all seriousness though, they get along pretty well.  They have their own secret communication system and can still make eachother smile and laugh in ways that no one else can.  There's definitely moments, but we've been blessed with kids that like eachother (for the most part) so far.

Nattie

Celiac update
It's been six months since Natalie was diagnosed with Celiac.  It's hard to believe. 

It's standard practice to have blood drawn at this point to compare the results to what they were initially.  A couple of weeks ago, Morgan came over to stay with Macie so Gina could bring Nattie to Children's for the bloodwork to be done.  You'd be amazed at how much blood is actually needed to do all the tests they needed to do.

As a whole, the results were good.  Her three celiac panel numbers moved as expected (the tTG numbers went up and the Gliadin IgA and IgG numbers both came down quite a bit).

Her iron was low still though so we will need to supplement with a multivitamin to see if that helps.
The only real concern the doctor had was with her thyroid levels, which were in the inactive range.  We will be talking to our primary doctor soon to determine if we should go see an endocrinologist.  The good news is that since January, Natalie has grown a little over two inches so it may just be that her body is still adjusting to things and everything is alright.

We were also told that we could start introducing regular milk back into her diet.  She had been on soy since all this happened because dairy is hard to break down so it was just going to be one less thing for her stomach to deal with.  As long as she doesn't begin bloating again or have loose stools, we can make the switch permanent.

Pre-school in the fall
Natalie starts pre-school in the fall.  Two days a week for a couple of hours each day.  She's definitely ready and I think she is going to love it.

Pushing our buttons
As a three year old should, Nattie is very good at pushing our buttons.  Most of the time she is a sweetheart, but she also is trying to figure out how far she can push us with increased freqency these days.  Unfortunately for her, it's usually not as far as she'd like.  It's different now a days (i.e. on a whole different level).  She's doing things like saying no to us, getting out of bed when she is suppose to be falling asleep, etc.

The lifetime of cat and mouse games are definitely underway.

Question and answer
If you plan to hang out with Natalie for any length of time, be ready for a barrage of questions.  It's incredible how many things she can ask about in a day.  Most of the time it's great because she's learning by asking, but after the eighteenth time she has asked the same question over the course of a week it can get old too.  It can also get hard when she is asking about things you know she already knows the answer to. 

We've even had to implement "it's not question time" on occasion.

Macie

Walking
It's nothing new, but Macie took her sweet little time to start walking.  And as usual, she's gotten real good real fast when she decided to start doing it.  Since the video on Gina's blog, she has improved significantly. 
Some nights, her sole purpose in life is just to make circle after circle around our living room couch.  She rarely crawls now and never scoots.  She's a walking machine these days.

Talking
Macie also talks your ear off.  It's just that only a small percentage of what she says is decipherable.  Words we can definitely understand are mama, dada, dog, all done, thank you and natalie (sort of).  Most of what she says is still jibberish.  There are times though that she can use her sounds in a certain ways (and by pointing) where we can basically understand what she is trying to say.

She still is a very moody child and I think part of that is because she can't tell us what she wants to very easily.  Hopefully (cross your fingers) this will change when she's able to use her words more effectively.  I know it's a slippery slope but I'm personally up for that challenge if the change evens out her mood a bit.

Stair master
Last week Gina spent a day working with Macie on the stairs.  That's all it took.  She completely gets needing to slide down on her tummy when she is on them and wants to be climbing up and down them all day long. 

We are a ways from removing our gate yet, but we are definitely making progress towards that.

Gina

Next time you see Gina, ask about her current Deadliest Catch / Flipping Out addiction.

A handful, literally

It's hard to believe that Gina and I have been married five years already (as of the 26th).  It's been five wonderful years but it sure has gone quick.

Molly

Molly recently decided to make Gina an inspirational scrapbook to help her get through the days where she is struggling with motivation.  It turned out incredible.  It has a bunch of quotes in it and pictures of G with the four of us.  Mo kept it fairly simple, which in this case really adds to the impact of what she was trying to do.  Here is a sample page so you can see what I mean.

Casey

Casey got his teeth cleaned and some bloodwork done last week.  The total bill was a lot, but it included many different things.  He's six now and while some dogs never need it, it was definitely time for him.  His teeth look great and his breath is so much better.  They did a number of other things as well, including testing his poo, some bloodwork, etc.  All the labwork for those items came back looking great.
The one issue they found was a mass inside of his mouth.  They aren't all that worried about it but a portion of the bill was to send it off to a different lab to make sure that it's not anything serious.  We decided we'd rather pay the expense to know for sure.  The results of the biopsy will be back in another week or two.  Hopefully everything is alright with our little guy.

26

A mess of books
I never picked Prince Caspian back up.  Hopefully I will be motivated again sometime in the future.  Nor did I finish No Country for Old Men.  It was intense (which I liked) but was a little off topic of what I want to be reading at this time.  I also started The Golden Compass but it was too slow for me right now so I returned it to the library.

What I have read recently is Clive Cussler's Mediterranean Caper.  It's by no means a classic but I was definitely entertained with Dirk Pitt and his adventures.  I will likely us the series as fill in books when I need a break from what else I am reading. 

Next it's on to Digital Fortress (by Dan Brown), which I have checked out from the library already.  When I finish that I will read The Watchmen.  Carrie was kind enough to lend it to me.  Just based on her giddiness alone, I am excited to start reading it.  As a former comic book collecter, I can defintely see myself liking it.
From there, we'll see.  I haven't made any firm decisions yet.

Wisdom teeth decision
After much debate (internally mostly) and some good advice, I've decided to have all four wisdom teeth pulled.  I've got the referral from my dentist to have it done and all I need to do now is call the dentist office that will be doing it.  I hope to make the call to setup the appointment early next week sometime.  I'm not excited about this at all.

Rory

July 18
For Molly and I's birthday, we made the decision to go to see The Dark Knight on opening night at the MN Zoo IMAX theatre.  Some of the group (Amy, Joe, Lucas, Carrie, Jon, Heather) attended with us which was really nice.  The movie was significant on a number of fronts, especially because of Rory of course.  He was the one person I knew for certain I would have seen the movie with.  Having him not be there with me (physically at least) was hard to accept.

Fortunately, I was able to enjoy the movie still.  It would have been hard not to as it was one of the best movies I've ever seen.  Heath Ledger was even better then advertised (which is saying a lot) and all the rest of the main characters all did an admirable job as well.  To say the least, the movie was wildly entertaining and Rory would have loved it.

Afterwords, most of the attendees were able to come over to our place (as well as Matt & Morgan).  Molly, being the goof she is, bought me a baseball cup-cake (see pic to understand).

The humor in it all is that my birthday is not a big deal to me (which I've documented before) and Molly loves hers (as most people do).

I have enjoyed my birthday more in the recent past though, mainly because I'm able to watch Molly enjoy hers so much.  I want the day to be all about Mo.  Going forward though, Molly has stated that her mission is to make mine a big deal for me. 

Sounds like one of those "when an irresistible force meets an immovable object" situations for future birthdays.  Molly's cake won this year (in my defense she caught me off guard with it) but I now have over 300 days to scheme for July 18, 2009.  Stay tuned for round two next year.

On a side note, I went to IMDB.com to look at quotes/trivia/etc. about The Dark Knight this week to see if there was anything else worth mentioning here about the show.  I wasn't looking for anything in particular but what I found absolutely blew me away.  As we all know, films have working titles for a while before they are officially named to help out with filming locations, etc.  What do you think The Dark Knight's working title was?  I'll let the picture speak for itself.

Top Five Records

I had always planned to change my fantasy football team name this year but I was having a hard time coming up with a name.  All I knew is that I wanted it to reference music (partially for Rory).  I love the movie High Fidelity and in the past I have used Championship Vinyl (the name of Rob's store in the film) for various online games.  I liked the idea of referencing the movie still but I wanted to use something different.  I decided on Top Five Records (Rob's record label).  I even decided to design my own logo for it.

From ashes to ashes
Last week, we spread Rory's ashes in Paul and Karen's back yard (as Rory has asked them to do).  They chose to do it on the trail in between the trees and weeds that Rory and I had worn down between our yards over the years.  I love that trail and I was honored that they chose that spot to do it.  Paul said that it made sense to do it there because many of his happiest moments were spent going back and forth between our houses. 

The gathering was small and there was no formal ceremony of any sort, but it did feel significant at the same time.  It was something that needed to be done and I can personally say that I feel better now that we have released him, in a sense.  Paul and Karen kept some ashes as did Gina and I.  Everything else was left on the trail that night.

Matt and Morgan

Matt and Morgan moved back on the 11th of July.  It was bittersweet for them as they are definitely going to miss Chicago. 

I can already tell you though that it's been so nice seeing them more often now that they are here. 

Matt's transferring his job in Chicago to MN and is starting law school in a couple of weeks.  Morgan recently got a teaching job for the fall.  Things have fallen into place for the most part from that perspective.

Finding a home has not been as simple.  They are looking primarily in Edina (near 50th and France) and SW Minneapolis without much luck. 

Hopefully, they will be able to find something soon.

Mo vs Mo

Two people I interact with very frequently in my life are nicknamed Mo. But, Molly was Mo to me before Morgan was. Now that Morgan is in MN too, this is going to get interesting.

Kate M / Scott

Gina and I were able to get together with Kate M. recently, which was so nice considering it had been far to long since we had seen her. She's just as wonderful as she has always been.

I was also able to hang out with my buddy (and roommate for two years in Fargo) Scott. He is back in MN for the summer and will be returning in a couple of weeks to Kuwait (for the third year now) for the school year to teach.

Fane / Noah / Baby Pops / Baby Gully

A rash of babies have invaded our lives recently (which is always a good thing). 

Our friends Haylee (one of Gina's roommates in college and our friend Taylor's younger sister) and Jerry had a son named Fane in June.  He was unfortunately born a couple of months premature. He's doing great though and Haylee has done a nice job of keeping us all up to date on how things are going through Fane's caring bridge site.

Our good friends Matt and Leah also had their first child (Noah) on the 16th.  He came a couple of weeks early but hasn't had any issues.  Things are going well and they couldn't be happier.

We are also anxiously awaiting the arrival of Jeff and Megan's baby boy any day now.  That's right, you heard me say boy.  Earlier in the week Jeff had said it was OK to share the news.  I'm sure some of you have heard this already too.  We are so excited for them.

And a new baby for Bob and Elena next year..talk about cool!

Snork's Dinner

On July 12, my grandpa held his annual dinner for the family at Cherokee Sirloin Room that him and my grandma always had for us each year in June.  This year, we did it on grandma's birthday and most of us attended a mass together (which mentioned her) before we went to dinner.  It was a nice night and as part of it the family gave my grandpa a scrapbook in which everyone made their own page with grandma (pictures, stories about her, etc.).  My aunt Mary did all the coordinating and helped anyone who needed it.  It turned out really well.  It was hard for him to look at initially but you could tell that he very much appreciated it.

Otters everywhere

We went to the zoo last Friday with the Otters (the van came in very handy for that).  No, not those otters (though we did see three different otter exhibits as we made our way around the zoo).  The Sarah, Chris and Hailey variety.  They stayed with us Thursday - Saturday and we very much enjoyed having them around.  

Here's family pictures of each of us that we got during the zoo trip.

Russia's Grizzly Coast

If you get a chance, get to the zoo and check out their new exhibit that opened up last month.  It's fantastic.  The whole area (though a little short) is very well done. 

My favorite are the grizzly's.  There are three of them and they are very playful.  Every time I have been there they have been in the water wrestling just a couple of feet away from you.  Last week, I watched one of the bears go right up to the glass (no more then a foot away) and casually look at one of the kids sitting there watching him squarely in the eye for a couple of seconds.  It was pretty neat.  Here's a picture of one of the bears that Gina took one of the times she was there with the girls this summer.

2008 MLB Trade Deadline

As weird as it is to say, I'm happy that the Twins have not made any moves this week just because they are knee deep in the race for the AL Central crown.  I've loved watching them this year but they are not true contenders in '08.  I just don't want them to give up something now that would be useful in the future when they can be a bigger factor in the next couple of years.  The only way I'd be for a move is if they traded Livan Hernandez to open up a starting spot for Liriano or if they made a trade to acquire a power hitting third basemen (more for the future then for this year) who is fairly young with a reasonable track record.  Unfortunately, a third basemen like that does not exist (unless Garrett Atkins were to become available again) so there is nothing for them to do this year. 

There is a lot to be excited about with them though.  You can see how this team should be good next year and how they could be really good in 2010.  All they really need to do is shore up the left side of the infield.
I'm very excited for the future of this team.

As for the Red Sox, boy did they give up a lot for Jason Bay but I think it was the right move on their part considering the health of their clubhouse, etc.  I am a big fan of Bay and had hoped they would let Manny walk at the end of the year and make a play for him instead.  As for Manny, he deserves a lot of thanks for what he did for the team over the years but it was definitely time for everyone to move on.

#4
I personally would welcome Mr. Favre to the Vikes.  Much of my dislike for him in the past has been because of the team he played for, not because of him.