Updates

Wow - 2 weeks since my last posting. Some updates. Steph is pregnant. I guess you probably knew that but she is really pregnant. She is feeling very done with about 9 weeks to go and hoping our little girl joins us a bit earlier than expected. The biggest issue is Steph's inability to sleep through the night. She usually sleeps until about 12-1am and then stays awake until 5 or 6 am. It's not very restful and very frustrating. She's tried taking doctor approved Tylenol PM and got a couple more hours but not the big change she was looking to get. Work continues to be a major stress factor for her as she tries to get things tied up for her being gone. People there are in a rush for her time because they are now realizing how valuable she is and that she won't be around for 3 months. She's feeling pulled in a lot of different directions right now. If you try to call and talk to her, please understand if she doesn't answer, has little time, patience or sanity left. I tell her that her main job is to take care of her health and the baby. If that means she goes to bed at 8pm every night and misses a few phone calls then that's what it has to be. Please know she is not ignoring you. There will be a lot of time to catch up soon.

The kids are doing well. We had a Parent/Teacher conference with Dylan's teacher last week. He's doing very well. The one thing he needs to work on is finishing his "Bell Work". That's the work they are to do in class. When this initially arose we asked him why he wasn't getting his work done on time. He promptly told us that the other kids were distracting him. That when they didn't want to do their work they distracted him but he wanted to do his work. We all kind of chuckled at that one. Apparently he likes to daydream instead of his school work. Not that I blame him much but we are working on it.

Chloe continues to be Chloe. Every few days she suprises me with how much she is growing up and learning. She is becoming a little girl who can express her thoughts and negotiate her way with words now instead of just with a look. I'm still a sucker for her. I can't even imagine what it will be like being wrapped around 2 girls little fingers.

Me? I'm doing well. I'm enjoying my job and I think doing pretty well at it. There are enough challenges to keep me moving right now and a path I can see for when this role is mastered. I know next year will be a bit more travel for me as I go out to the field a bit more. It shouldn't be too bad. Salt & Pepper is filming this Saturday (22nd). I'm looking forward to that. We should have a pretty good product for Drakeel to go shop. It's going to be in HD and done very professionally. I'll give you my story on that next week.

This is sometimes.

OK, so I didn't make the once-a-week posting...

My excuse? I've been busy. At work I've helped coordinate 2 moves in 2 weekends. The first one was my group - Sales and Marketing - and we moved about 150 people from our Home Office building into a newly remodeled space across the street. You would think that just moving across the street is not a big deal. Apparently, it is. Things went relatively well for a move into new space. The clean up on Monday was hectic but fun. I got to meet a lot of my customers (the Sales and Marketing people) and we came out looking pretty good. Even better than I normally do ;) This past weekend however did not go so well. We were to have a 3rd party come in and reconnect all the PCs over the weekend. That didn't go as planned as they were setting people up with their backs to doors and not connecting things properly. Then we had people moving that packed things up we needed to connect. Like - power strips... One guy even took his power strip home over the weekend! We're working through it and I'm glad I wasn't on point for this move. It was the Clinical and Research people.

We did have a good Halloween. Chloe went as a black cat and Dylan was Jengo Fett (Star Wars). Steph went to both school's Halloween parties and managed to take some pictures. That night the Bailey's came over for dinner before heading out together. James and his mom Denise came down also. We were quite a crew all walking the neighborhood together. Scott brought the wagon for the little girls to ride when they got tired so we were pulling that around. The great thing about the wagon is that it has a little cargo trailer. The perfect size to put a small cooler. It was filled with some water bottles needed for the kids after running from house to house and some, ahem, adult beverages for us as we pulled the wagon... The night ended at the Conway's so the kids could play a bit and burn off some more of the sugar.

OH! Rod & Ryan - I found a place near my work that has $0.99 Miller Lites on Friday night Happy Hours - We'll go next time you are in town. Finally a place that doesn't overcharge for Lite beer.

Poker at the Bailey's was Saturday night. Steph and I both made the final table without re-buys and I finished either 4th or 5th. Out of the money but good enough to want to play again. After a couple of bad beats I tried to make a move and got caught chasing a flush that never came.

Sunday we took the kids to the park. We taught the kids to play frisbee for a while before a rousing game of hide n seek. Steph sat that out and played 'Warmer/Colder' to help direct the kids to me. Dylan and I worked on throwing the football and I think it is finally starting to click with him. After a few minutes he was throwing and catching. I'm not sure he's ready to play yet though. Instead of trying to make someone miss when he has the ball, he runs the other way. We'll work on that.

When we got home I was playing with the kids in the front yard for a while and went inside to check on Steph. They started rolling around in the leaves because they wanted to get dirty and when I called them in for supper they had made their way up to the house and were picking up mulch and dropping it all on their heads. Of course they thought this was hilarious! I wasn't quite as amused. They had dirt and wood chips all in thier hair - especially Chloe. After an immediate bath I had dried Chloe and she was sitting on my lap, I was telling her that I didn't mind her getting dirty and that at times it was OK. I said I just wanted her to wait until she could clean and wash her own hair before doing it again. She said "When I'm a teenager you won't have to help me do anything anymore because I'll be able to do it all myself." I said "I know and when that time comes I'll really miss times like this." Then I gave her a big hug. She turned and looked up at me with tears nearly in her eyes and said, "I'm trying not to cry and I don't know what's making me feel like I need to cry." I said, "Well, sometimes you cry when you are really happy." She said, "Yeah, this is Sometimes." And gave me a big hug.

She couldn't have been more correct.