Category: Family

Posted on by John

On Saturday the 26th, we packed the house with 25-30 people to celebrate Jack’s First Birthday at a Party all for him. Honestly this is the most people we’ve had at the house since we moved in, and I’m glad no one else showed up… the house was pretty full with just 25 people here…

The Buckaroo theme was in full force, and Jack wore his trusty bandana through the whole party, just in case some of the rustlers in attendance stirred up too much dust.

Here are some photos from Jack’s First Birthday:

See the rest here.

Also, here’s a video from the party. It’s a really big file, so if you’re not on cable or DSL internet, don’t bother… we’ll show it to you next time you visit:

Again, that movie is huge, so if you’d rather watch a smaller version that’s about half that size, follow this link. They’re both still pretty big movies… sorry about that. If the movie doesn’t work for you, follow the link to “Download Quicktime” on the right side of the englers.org homepage, and get the latest version for your computer.

Talk about some cool presents … many many great toys that Jack is still getting out of their packaging this week. Thanks all, very much. Very, very much. The party was a lot of fun for us, and I hope it was for our guests… it meant a lot to us to have everyone there.

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 168 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

This past weekend can be summed up in one moment. On Sunday afternoon, Christine and I drove into our driveway after a great night out and saw Aunt Peggy and Jack sitting in the front yard on a blanket playing.

That moment made this weekend perfect.

Jack looked so happy sitting there with a few toys and a smile on his face, in Aunt Peggy’s lap. As soon as we stepped out of the car he waved at us and then acted shy and leaned into Peggy’s chest… then he realized who we were and acted excited to see us…

Jack had a good weekend.

Backtracking to Friday: Christine and Jack pulled into the driveway, after their treck to Bellville this past weekend, with Aunt Peggy in tow (she pulled up right behind them) around 6:00. I was in the middle of cooking dinner for them. As soon as they got settled in the house, we all sat down and ate. Then I bathed Jack and we all put him to bed. Peggy, Christine and I stayed up watching Ghost Whisperer and looking at photos from the Fair.

On Saturday morning, Christine woke me up at 6:00 a.m. to get up with Jack, so I got up, made myself some coffee and a bottle of for Jack, and played with Jack. I tried to feed him breakfast around 7:15, because I thought he was getting sleepy… he wasn’t hungry… and then I tried to put him down… he wasn’t sleepy either. His protestrations woke Christine up, so she joined us, and we three played in his room until Peggy got up. Then we all ate breakfast together before Jack took a nap.

I then did some yardwork in the backyard (we have a bunch of limbs that needed collecting and chopping up) and mowed the front yard (didn’t have the time or energy to mow the backyard) while Peggy took care of Jack and Christine went grocery shopping.

Christine and I were invited to Brian DeRosa and Erin Bayer’s wedding, which was a 2:00 p.m. in downtown Austin. We got ready, and headed downtown while Peggy watched Jack for us. We walked into the church with seconds to spare… the entire church saw us arrive, just before the bride’s maids entered the chapel.

The ceremony was gorgeous, as were the people in it, and Christine and I feel really special for being invited to share in their special day. Erin and Brian are those kinds of friends that we wish we hung out with more often, just because they’re so much fun to be around, and because they always make you feel like you’re special to them.

After the ceremony, we chatted with a few friends before heading home for a break. The reception was at the Austin Club downtown, but didn’t start until 5:00. So while I took a nap, Christine and Peggy chatted, and we packed a bag for the night, in case we felt like heading out to Debbie and Raymond’s lakehouse for the evening after the reception.

The reception was amazing. There was a seating chart, and Christine and I were amazed to find that we’d been set next to the bride and groom at one of the front tables. We enjoyed sitting with Adam and Erin Taylor, Erin’s mom, Phillip, Tracy Wood, Troop, Asi and Phillip. Erin, Erin, Tracy, Troop, Asi, and Phillip all used to work together at the Iron Cactus back in the day, and they’re quite the clique (not in a bad way, by any means), and we felt like they were including us in the group… that was fun.

We partied all evening… it was a lot of fun, and the food… Oh my gosh, the food was amazing. We ate filet mignon and halibut. And it was amazing. If you ever have the opportunity to plan a wedding in Austin, use the Austin Club, if you can… they did an amazing job.

Brian and Erin rode off in horse-drawn buggy, and really looked like they’d had a good time.

[More photos from the wedding here]

Also, the wedding was just perfect from a “feeling” perspective. Honestly, it’s the first wedding we’ve been to in a long time where there wasn’t any tension at all between any of the groups represented. I think that says a lot about Erin and Brian. I think the last wedding we went to that was like that was Josh and Elise’s (though I may be over looking a few… it’s been a long time since Josh and Elise got married).

At the end of the reception, Christine and I decided to call it a night (the rest of the group was heading to the Omni hotel to party it up some more). We did that two weekends ago after Brad and Kim’s wedding, and we decided we just weren’t up for it this time … nothing like having a killer hang-over and trying to take care of a 10 month old to cure you of your drinking problem! (not that either of us has a drinking problem, but if we did, we’d be cured).

So we headed out to the lakehouse, got there around 11:30 p.m. and got into bed to watch a movie (Debbie and Raymond happen to also run the Lakeway Blockbuster movie rental place out of their bedroom). We started a movie on the big screen, and turned it off 10 minutes later. We were both exhausted.

We slept in until noon, got up, showered, bathed, brushed our teeth and headed for Austin.

Which brings us back to driving into our driveway to see Peggy and Jack playing in the yard, and eating really big acorns.

[More photos from the front yard]

What a great weekend… Thank you Aunt Peggy for joining us, and for taking care of Jack all weekend!

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 263 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

On Wednesday night of this past week, Christine and Jack drove to Bellville for the Austin County Fair.

Oh my gosh, did they have fun.

They stayed with Grandma, and got to spend a lot of time playing with Ella and Aunt Shadel.

On Thursday morning, they all got up, and headed to down the road to the Austin County Fair Parade. They found their spot on the side of Highway 159 near Mrs. Payton, Jennifer, and their bunch of kids, and settled in to watch the parade. They were also sitting next to Mrs. Hueni and Brian was there (Haven’t seen them in forever and I’m sorry I missed them).

The parade started, and soon, there were firetrucks and ambulances from all of the towns in the county driving through town, making all sorts of racket. There were a few bands, and the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts paraded through town. The fair queen candidates rode in on a trailer, as did all mannner of cheerleaders and mascots.

The kiddos were getting tired towards the end of the parade and ended up falling asleep in their strollers.

On Thursday evening, the family got dressed up and headed to the fairgrounds. The saw the opening of the rodeo, and met some goats, and pigs, and cows, and other animals, before heading over to the carousel for some fun. (The animals scared Ella just a little).

Christine finally got to meet Dixie Haverlah, who babysits Ella for Aunt Shadel and Uncle Evan. They all had lots of fun on the carousel.

Jack got to taste ice-cream at the fair for the first time ever… bad mommy… she gave in to temptation…

Ella and Jack got some whirly light toys and had lots of fun playing with them, before eventually heading home. On the way out of the fair, Christine plopped Jack on a tractor. Jack was totally in command of his element.

Now that you’ve looked at all of those photos, here’s a quick video from the Fair photos and videos that Christine shot:

See all of the photos from the Fair in this gallery.

On Friday, they all headed towards the pumpkin patch in Sealy to take photos with all of the pumpkins. Evan told them that there were plenty of pumpkins out, but the Great Pumpkin must have liberated them all, because when Peggy met the girls and kids there, there weren’t but two pumpkins left…

So they took lots of photos with the two pumpkins that were there, and then Aunt Peggy and Christine drove back to Austin.

Sounds like they all had lots of fun at the Fair this year… I’m gonna have to make sure I go next year.

Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 292 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Steven Kamp (Christine’s little brother) had a birthday on October 10th, so Christine, Jack and I headed up to Dallas to visit. Here are the photos from that trip.

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 211 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Christine, Jack and I flew to Dallas this past weekend to visit with the grandparents and see Jack’s Uncle Steve on his 27th birthday.

We flew up Saturday morning. Jack and Christine got to fly first class to Dallas for their first time ever… fun! Jack fell asleep while the plane was coming down to land and stayed asleep in my arms all the way out of the gate, into the terminal. He woke up as we walked into the baggage claim area.

Mary picked us up, and we headed to their house.

On Saturday evening, Christine and I let Mary take care of Jack for the night, and we headed to a movie. We ended up seeing “In Her Shoes” with Cameron Diaz. It’s a sappy girly movie about two sisters growing up without a mother (dear old mom killed herself when they were 6 and 8) and finally rediscovering their grandmother after they got into a fight. Sappy movie, but Cameron Diaz appears quite a bit wearing little more than her underwear and a pair of high heels, so it’s not a bad movie for the fellas to go see. In fact, we both enjoyed it a lot.

Baa BaaOn Sunday, we slept in (Mary got up early with Jack) and then hung out with the family. Christine made a trip to an Oshkosh retail store that was going out of business. She spent about $100 on clothes for Jack, but came home with probably 20 items, which ain’t bad for Oshkosh clothes… gotta love that thrifty streak in that wife of mine ;). She also picked up a second Baa Baa (by Boyds, order online here, pictured on the right) for Jack – so that we have a second one, just in case we lose the one Kim gave us.

Steven and Michael came over for dinner, and we all enjoyed a good meal, and then home made cheesecake before Steven opened his presents. Mmmmm that cheesecake was good!

This morning, we got up, said our goodbyes and Michael picked us up for the return trip to the airport. We boarded as soon as we got there, and we were sitting in row 3, seats E&F, which happens to be the first row on the airplane, with easy access to the first class lavatory…

Jack drank a bottle during take-off, and proceeded to giggle and play all the way to Austin. About 2/3 of the way to Austin, Christine decided she needed to pee. So, she got up, and went into the lavatory.

As soon as she closed the door, and latched it, we hit a little turbulence. I laughed a little to myself, as I knew Christine wasn’t enjoying that. She’s usually pretty clausterphobic and hates flying, especially take-off, landing and turbulence. Think of the last time you used the toilet in an airplane… small space, doesn’t smell great, and combine that with a fear of flying and a hatred for turbulence.

Anyways, as soon as we hit the turbulence, I started giggling. Then the stewardesses came running back up the aisle with the drink cart. The were storing it, when I noticed the “occupied” sign on the lavatory door changing to “vacant” which meant Christine was coming right back out. But there was a stewardess standing in the way (remember Christine hates flying and turbulence).

Then we hit a little more turbulence. At this point, I was trying not to roll into the aisle laughing, and Jack was just having a good old time bouncing in my lap.

The stewardess moved out of the way, right as Christine opened the door to the lav, she looked out at me… saw me laughing and starting laughing at herself too. As she tried to cross the aisle, I told her to close the bathroom door. She pushed it and tried to sit down again.

I had to point out that the door wasn’t closed. She pushed it again, and tried to sit down.

I cracked at that point, and pointed to the door. She lost it too and was laughing hysterically as she shoved the lav door shut and finally plopped into her seat.

We both laughed so hard at that point that I thought I was going to need to pee too.

Then, after we calmed down a bit, Christine laid back in her seat and started zipping her pants up. Turns out, she was so freaked out by the turbulence that started right after she unzipped her pants that she decided to hold it, and then tried to get back to her seat with her pants still unzipped, and then the damned bathroom door wouldn’t close.

We proceeded to laugh until we had tears streaming down our cheeks.

We landed uneventfully about 10 minutes later, taxied to the terminal and got off the plane. What fun!

We went to baggage claim to get our suitcase and Jack’s carseat, and American had lost Jack’s carseat. Great.

They let us borrow one of theirs, and we drove home, stopping at Sonic for a super heathy lunch before getting home.

Jack took a nap from 3:30 – 6:00, and a guy from American showed up with Jack’s carseat around 4:30.

All in all, a great trip! It’s always fun to see the Grandparents.

Next big trip up — the Austin County Fair this weekend!

Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 163 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

On September 9th, Christine, Jack and I boarded a plane headed for Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Christine’s Father’s mother, and Jack’s great-grandmother, Oma, was turning 90 years old this year on September 10th, so her family planned a surprise 90th birthday party with all of the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren in attendance.

We arrived in Tulsa on Friday morning, around 10:30 in the morning… got our rental car, and headed out for our hotel. We were staying at the Doubletree that happens to be about 5 blocks from Ben and Gale Overton’s (Gale is Frank’s sister) house, where most of the festivities for the weekend were taking place.

After checking in, we ate lunch, and I worked a few hours, while Christine and Jack headed to a park to play. Jack took a nap, and then we all headed over to Ben and Gale’s house and just hung out for a few hours.

On Saturday morning, we got up early, and Mary went to breakfast with us (Jack loved eating breakfast with his Grandmother) at the hotel breakfast buffet. Then after a nap, we all headed over to the Overton’s again, where the rest of the family was gathered to wish Oma a happy birthday. Jack had lots of fun playing with his Uncle Mike and Steven and letting his cousin Elizabeth walk him around the house.

While the family was singing Oma happy birthday, Jack was playing with the balloons in the room, while sitting on my shoulders. He was having a blast.

Jack got to meet more of his extended family, and even got to meet his long distance cousin, Benjamin. Benjamin is Angela’s (Ben and Gale’s youngest daughter) son. He’s such a good little boy… he was so quick to share his toys with Jack and enjoyed playing with him in the living room on the floor… Too bad Benjamin and his family live on Long Island, because I know those two would love to see each other as often as they could.

After the birthday party, we headed back to the hotel with Mary, and she put Jack to sleep while the kids headed to a sushi restaurant for dinner, and then to the bar to enjoy ourselves with a few of Christopher’s (Elizabeth’s brother) friends.

Mary and Frank ended up sleeping in our hotel room for the night, thankfully giving Christine and I a night, and a morning, off from taking care of Jack… so, we maybe partied a little too hard with our cousins, but it was fun… lots of fun.

On Sunday morning, we all headed back over to the Overton’s house to play a little more before we said our goodbyes. We got one more photo of Jack and Benjamin, and then headed to the airport.

We almost missed our flight, but Southwest was great, and made sure we got to it in time (we weren’t late or anything, but getting gas, turning in the car, finding the ticket counter, changing a diaper, and the like… all take time).

Jack enjoyed playing with the napkins, plastic cups and tray tables on the flights home.

All in all, this was one of the best trips I’ve ever had to Tulsa (thank God we didn’t have to drive… Spencer (Lisa’s husband – Lisa is Ben and Gale’s oldest daughter) had to drive from Austin because he did miss his flight).

Click here to go through all of the photos from Tulsa

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 184 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

On Saturday, Christine, Jack and I headed out to the lakehouse to visit with Debbie, Raymond and Miss Shirley.

We got there around 11:00 am, at lunch, and then headed for the pool. Jack got out around 1:00 or 1:30 and took a nap. When he woke up, we headed home. Jack had gotten his good tanning session in for the day, and Christine needed to pack for her camping trip this weekend.

I grilled T-bones without any marinade, just some seasoning salt (need to use the marinage next time) and we had peas on the side around 8:00 p.m.

Christine stayed up late packing. I tried to go to bed early, but we didn’t end up turning out the lights until midnight or so.

On Sunday morning, I got up with Jack around 6:30 a.m. We played, and ate breakfast, and then walked around the block. I woke Christine up when I was leaving the house for our morning walk (about 7:45 a.m.) so she got up and finished packing and getting ready.

Christine was heading out to an all girls weekend camping trip/bachelorette party for Kim (of Kim and Brad fame). Elise and Michelle were supposed to pick her up at 9:30 a.m., and she still needed to wrap presents for Kim.

When Jack and I got back from our walk around the block, Christine put Jack down for his morning nap.

Elise and Michelle showed up around 9:45 a.m. and the girls headed out. Jack woke up around 10:15 or so. I loaded him up in the car after a quick bottle and dirty diaper change, and we headed back out to the lakehouse!

Jack had pretty bad diaper rash again, so I had to be pretty careful about changing him often and making sure he was doing okay.

Jack took a nap around 1:00 again, and then we all went swimming when he woke up. We ate dinner (hamburgers and bratwurst – man Jack loves bratwurst) and said our goodbyes and drove home. Jack fell asleep in the car.

When we got home, I woke Jack up getting him out of the car, so we changed his diaper, fed hima bottle, and then rocked to his music. He was out within 30 seconds of me putting him in bed.

Jack slept until 7:15 this morning (alright!) so we got up and drank a bottle, then walked around the block before eating a whole jar of peaches.

I just put him down (9:00 a.m. or so) and he’s finally asleep after about 20 minutes of playing in his crib and talking to his toys… too cute to hear that through the door.

Needless to say, we’re both pretty tired little boogers right now, and can’t wait for mommy to get home!

update: Jack never did really go to sleep, so around 9:45 I went in, got him out of his crib, changed his diaper, and gave him a bottle. He was asleep before he finished the bottle ;).

Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 196 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Christine’s cousin David Redmond is in Iraq. David is a Command Sergeant Major (the highest rank on the enlisted side you can reach) in the Army. He’s serving now as the CSM for an infantry unit over there, and he sent this update through Mary:

From: [email protected]
Date: August 31, 2005 10:48:00 AM CDT
To: Mary Kamp
Subject: Re: Hi

Aunt Mary and Uncle Frank,

Thanks for the nice e-mail. I just got my system working in Baghdad and have started going through the hundreds of messages in the queue.

I am doing very well. We are quite busy as you can imagine. I sent that letter out so that the family would know what was going on.

Living conditions are almost like in garrison. My boss, Lieutenant Colonel Pacher, and I share a trailor. As a Command Sergeant Major it is the first time in my career that I have rated a shower while on deployment. The work is long and tedious. The job requires 16-20 days, 7 days a week. During my last 7 month deployment I did take half a day off. We will see how this one goes.

I do leave the forward operating base to patrol out in town, but we are a well trained and well armed outfit. That is the positive and down side of being in an Infantry Brigade.

I will try and send updates out periodically, but wanted to let you know that I arrived safely (two weeks ago) at my final destination. The weather is cooling down into the 105-115 range and it feels great after 130+ degrees in Kuwait.

Love,

David

We’re all hoping David makes it home safe soon, and brings all the young men and women he’s leading home safe as well.

Average Rating: 5 out of 5 based on 198 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Last weekend, Aunt Murrell, Jon and Hanna Weakley (my family – from North Carolina) all visited Austin. It was part of Jon and Hanna’s first visit to Texas.

They got to Texas sometime the week before, and had been touring all over south and east Texas. I know they spent some time in Kima, Beaumont, Houston, and parts in between there and Austin. They got to Austin on August 11th, and Christine and Jack drove out to Debbie and Raymond’s lakehouse to meet them and welcome them to our hometown.

I was still in Detroit, so when I got home (at 1:30 in the morning on Friday 8/12) I went to bed, and planned on meeting them on the 12th.

Around noon or 1:00pm on 8/12, they all came to our house in central Austin, before we headed to lunch at Jason’s Deli. Jon and Hanna were really hungry (actually, they’d been eating lots of food all week, so that’s sort of an inside joke). Christine and Jack stayed at the house to take a nap.

After lunch, we headed over to the LBJ Library, and tootled around the exhibits. They’ve got a really nice view of downtown out the 10th floor windows there. And the Presidential Limo that’s on display there is pretty cool. I also didn’t make the connection that LBJ presided through a lot of crap this country had to go through: War, Civil Rights, a depression of sorts, and other stuff… I should learn more about our history sometime.

After the LBJ Library, we went to the Bob Bullock State History Museum. We walked the first floor of exhibits before heading up to watch the “Story of Texas” mini-movie. That was lots of fun. They all enjoyed it. If you haven’t seen it, I’d highly recommend it. We then walked a little of the second floor exhibits, trying to figure out what happened at Goliad. It was a massacre.

After we were “Bullock’d out” we walked down to the Capitol Building. I showed Jon how you can stand in the very middle of the bottom floor, right under the rotunda, and if you talk, you’ll hear your voice echoing, but no one else will hear the echo. Pretty neat stuff… especially since I remember that from my first visit (my Mom took Allen Hillboldt, Bradley Froebel and I there when we were like 10 or 11 – almost 20 years ago, ugh). We also walked into the House and Senate chambers… it’s neat to be so close to one of the great statehouses in the country. It’s too damned bad our legislature can’t actually get much done (like school finance reform).

Then we met up with Christine on “the drag” just to the west of the UT campus. We went into the Student Union building and got our tickets for our tour of the UT Clocktower. The Clocktower is fairly well known as the place where, “On Aug. 1, 1966, Charles Whitman, a student at the university, barricaded himself on the observation deck and began shooting passers-by with a rifle. At the time, the shooting was the nation’s worst mass killing. It lasted 93 minutes, ending with Mr. Whitman’s being killed by the police, but its after effects have spanned two generations.”

The tower was closed to the public in 1975, due to a rash of suicides, and was reopened in 1999, to guided tours. The tours are led by student workers, and they’re lots of fun to listen to.

The view from the top of the Tower is pretty cool. I’d recommend the sunset tour, if you ever plan on taking the tour. I’ve heard it’s pretty cool.

We also found Aunt Murrell’s dormitory from when she attended UT back in the 1930s. I think Austin’s grown a bit since then…

Afterwards, we headed to Trudy’s for dinner, but they were packed, so we drove over to Serrano’s on Red River. Great food, but we were all exhausted.

Evan, Shadel and Ella got to Austin while we were eating dinner, so Christine, Jack and I headed home to visit with them, while the rest of the gang (Murrell, Debbie, Jon and Hanna) headed to the lake.

On Saturday, the 13th, the girls (Shadel, Ella and Christine) went to the Mall around 10:00 a.m. The boys (Evan, Jack and I) stayed home and played, then watched a little TV. When Jack woke up from his morning nap, Evan and I took him out to the lakhouse (we got there around 12:30).

We all took a dip in the pool, and then ate lunch. Christine, Shadel and Ella showed up around 2:00 or so, and around 3:00, we all headed to the lake. We’d rented a jet-ski and a pontoon boat from Hurst Harbor Marina. I piloted the pontoon boat, while Evan and Shadel drove the jet ski out. We headed out of Marina Point to the west, and parked in a little bay cove just around Lakeway. It took us around 25 minutes to get to where we were going, so we really only had an hour on the lake.

Jack slept in Aunt Murrell’s arms, all the way there. Ella napped on her Grandma’s lap too.

After parking the boat, we all went swimming in the lake, while we took turns driving the jet-ski. First out was Evan and Shadel, then Evan and Hanna (Evan drove). Debbie went out with Evan next. Then Jon and I went out (we let Jon drive). It was Jon’s first time driving a jet-ski, and he did pretty good. Then he let me take over for a little bit. I was a bit rusty, and ended up throwing us both off the jet-ski in a high-speed (attempted) turn.

Then we let Hanna drive, with me on the back. Ha! That was sooo much fun. Hanna was pretty content with testing out the jet-ski first, and seeing what it could do, then she slowly started pushing it pretty hard after we did a few donuts and figure eights while waiting on the pontoon boat to catch up with us. That was the most fun I’ve had on a jet-ski in a while.

At the Lakeway Marina, I traded in Hanna for Christine, and I rode ont he back with Christine all the way back to Hurst Harbor. It was Christine’s second time to drive a jet-ski, and that was just as fun for me as riding with Hanna had been… Christine was pretty funny… she scared herself good a few times, and forgot to let off the gas because she was gripping the handles so tight.

Then, right before we got to the marina, she threw me off the jet-ski by goosing it good while I was showing off by not holding on to anything.

After we put up the boats, we all piled back into our cars and headed to the lake house. Aunt Murrel cooked a really good shrimp-boil and veggies for dinner. I told Jon that I’d bought him his very own domain: jonagon.com (Jon’s had a business since he was 4 or 5, if I remember correctly, called Jonagon. I thought he should own the domain); so look for more from Jon on his new website.

We celebrated my Mom’s 55th birthday after dinner. She got lots of fun cards, and some great gifts.

When it was good and late, we all said our good-byes and called it a weekend.

Christine got up on Sunday morning and drove Jon and Hanna to the airport. Jack and I stayed home and played… it’s so much fun having him all to myself every now and then ;).

Sadly, we forgot our camera at home during this weekend, so I don’t have any fun pictures to show you, but we all had a great time.

Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 278 user reviews.

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Posted on by Christine

Jack and I have had a great summer together. We’ve spent time in Lakeway with Debbie and Raymond and the rest of the family, we’ve taken swimming lessons and learned how to kick and splash in the water, we gone to many many weddings, we went to North Carolina to see Aunt Murrell, Grandma came to visit and helped us with inside stuff, and then Granddad came and helped us with outside stuff (the office). It has been super busy and super fun.

Then last week (July 12th thru 14th) we got to go to Bellville for a few days to visit Aunt Shadel, Uncle Evan, Cousin Ella and Grandma! We had a blast!!! Jack loves to play with Ella, and Ella loves to give Jack hugs and kisses. The two kids were so much fun to watch together!

While we were there we went out to Cap and Maxine Hillbolt’s ranch to go swimming in their pool. Jack and Ella had so much fun playing with Grandma in the water. We took some really great pictures of the two kids on the ranch. They even got to say hello to a group of cows that had come up close to the house for a snack. We “mooed” at them and they “mooed” back. On the drive out of the ranch I had to dodge a few cows in the road… honestly, I think that’s the closest I’ve ever been to cows! What a city girl I am! After Max and Cap’s we had Golden Pagoda for lunch… YUMMM!

That night Grandma came over and Shadel and I headed out for a night on the town. Bellville has a new restaurant on the square that looks like it is transplanted from the warehouse district in Austin. It is called The Fainting Goat. It is a great little place. They specialize in wine and mediterranean style food. We weren’t that hungry so we ordered a fruit and cheese plate, a hummus plate, and a bottle of wine. The food was very good, the wine was delicious, and the atmosphere was awesome. The couple that owns it transplanted to Bellville from Manhattan. That’s got to be culture shock! On Friday and Saturday nights they have live music and bring in bands from Austin, Houston, and even New York! Out waitress actually commutes to work there from Austin! Its really a cool place. If you’re ever in Bellville you should try it.

After The Fainting Goat, we went to another small bar that’s new to town, but it was so empty that they closed it early. Then we headed to the other side of town and visited the Blue Moon Saloon. That’s where we found the party. There were a few of Shadel’s friends there with a group of guys and gals. We hung out for a little while and then headed home around 11:30. It was great to get out… Thanks Grandma!

The next day Grandma took us out for breakfast at Newman’s Bakery which was yummy. Jack got to eat grits for the first time which he loved. After breakfast we played at Grandma’s house for a little while (and took pictures of course) until the kids were ready for naps. Grandma has spent the last year fixing up her house and it looks amazing folks! You can tell by the pictures we took of the kids playing in the “TV Room”. We’re looking forward to more play dates at Grandma’s house.

After naps, I packed up all our stuff, we had lunch, and then Shadel and I took the kids to Walmart in Brenham to get some of the pictures of our visit printed. Jack and I left from Brenham and drove home. About 40 miles from Austin we ran into a horrible thunderstorm, but I took it slow and Jack slept through the whole thing so we made it home just fine.

We had a great time in Bellville. Thank you Shadel, Evan and Grandma!

See the rest of the photos from our trip to Bellville here.

Average Rating: 5 out of 5 based on 228 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

On Sunday, the house woke up, and Phill went to Los Altos to buy breakfast tacos… which were much better than Mi Madre’s tacos… will definitely have to buy our there from now on (they’re much cheaper too).

After hanging out in the house for the better part of the morning, we all (James and Janice, Chase, Phill, Melissa, Steve and Abigail, Christine, Jack and I) all got ready and left Austin for the wedding in New Braunsfels at 3:00. The wedding started at 4:00, so we figured an hour was plenty of time to get there.

We were wrong.

Two things contributed to our long trip to the church:

1. It was raining.
2. The construction all the way from Austin to the church really made traffic suck bad.

Long story short, even with driving on the shoulder, trying to cut through town, and cutting it close with a couple of lights, we arrived at the wedding right as the church let out. Crap!

Chase flew down from New York and Phill flew down from Pennsylvania and I couldn’t get them to the wedding on time. Blimey!

We followed the pack from the church to the reception at Saengerhalle, and packed into the hall for a party. And boy, were we treated to one.

Saengerhalle is probably one of the coolest dancehalls in Texas. It’s rich in history and speaks Texas Country to you as you walk in the doors… if those walls could only talk…

Anyways, back to the wedding:

Before the bride and groom arrived, we all got to meet up with old friends, and family. My ol’ lady, Chip, and his wife and daughter were at the reception, and it was really, really good to see them, and to finally meet Carly Rae. She was just adorable. All of my other buddies from the band were there too, except for Rodney Kelley and Chris Morgan. Rodney is in Iraq with the Marines, and Chris is in Special Forces pilot training with the Army, learning to fly Chinooks. We really missed seeing them.

Michael Medford, Dub’s ol’ lady when Dub was on Band staff, was also there, and Greg Holland drove up from Houston. Good to see them both as well.

Stanley and Emmy Jo Miller (Dub’s parents) looked fantastic, and are now living in Pontotoc full time, ranching in their retirement (heh, ranchers don’t retire Stanley informed me). Kelly Jo and her husband were at the wedding too… Kelly Jo looked fantastic as expected, and her beau was really nice… she done good, as the saying goes.

Marci and Dub arrived to a standing ovation, the hall was packed with people… lots of friends and family, and lots of musicians to boot… They made the rounds a few times, and when they finally danced their first dance, it was a picture perfect moment:

Christine, Jack and I left a little early, as the wedding was on a Sunday, and Jack had a little fever (turns out he has a mild ear infection)… so we drove home in the rain, after a full day, and a full weekend.

Right before we left, Dub broke away during the bride/father dance, so we could snap a few “buddy photos”:

We both wish we could have stayed longer, but we had a good time, and we are really happy for Dub and Marci.

All of our photos from the wedding day are here.

Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 224 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

This past Sunday morning, I got up before the butt crack of dawn (around 5:05 am) and got in my car and drove out to Lakeway. I met Raymond, Evan and Reese Lockett at the Lakeway Marina.

We had a date to go fishing.

We met our Lake Travis Fishing guide, Mr. Allen Christenson, at the dock at 6:00 a.m, shook his hand, got in the boat and went fishing.

We tried a little top water and plastic worm fishing from 6:30 or so until around 8:00 before moving on to live bait fishing around 8:15.

The lake was hot. The sun was bright. The breeze was non-existant.

Raymond caught the first fish pretty early, and overall we caught 13 fish, 5 of which were keepers. We caught a bass or two, some catfish, a drum, and maybe another type…

It was fun to just spend time with the boys, and to get rewarded with eggs, bacon and sausage afterwards.

Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 224 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

This year, we all took it easy for July 4th.

Christine headed out to the lakehouse to see Peggy before she drove home, while Frank and I worked until around 5:00 p.m. (we were hanging the last of the ceiling sheetrock).

When Frank and I finally arrived at the lake house, Jack and Christine were in the pool with Uncle Raymond. Raymond was playing with Jack in the pool… having lots of fun.

We ate dinner and drove home, watching some fireworks out the windows of the car as we hit I-35 in Austin… we went to bed early… it had been a long but fun day.

More photos here.

Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 282 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

On Friday, July 1st, I started finishing out the little building I had Affordable Portable build in my back yard, as that little building is going to become my office. Yep, that’s right… I got kicked out of my own house! Actually, I was pretty adamant with Christine that “We are moving (or something) so I can get some work done around here!” After many trials and tribulations, we decided to stay in our house and to build me an annex in the backyard.

While my original plans were to have a finished building on July 5th, I soon realized (along with a little help) that that goal was a little overzealous, to say the least. And while we didn’t meet my original goal, we sure did do a damn good job getting the building done (for the most part) on the 10th.

So I’ll try to tell the story of how we (Frank “Grandad” Kamp, Christine, Jack, Josh Janicek, Marc Swendner and myself) finished out my new office over the past week in 100+ degree weather.

On Thursday, June 30th, I hung the electric boxes and dug 90 percent of the trench that the electrical, cable, and phone conduits were going to go be buried in, from the corner of the house to the clubhouse. That sucked. It was hot and the ground was hard. Not quite as hard as Josh’s backyard, but I hit rock about 8 inches down.

On Friday, Frank got to Austin around noon, and I knocked off work around 1:00 or so. The first thing Frank and I did (ok, wait, I think we went to Home Depot first) was install the air conditioner (and Frank did most of the work). It was hotternhell outside, and we were going to be working inside the building for the most part, so I followed Frank’s lead, and we got the A/C running off an extension cord immediately.

Next, we started cutting holes in 2×4 studs and pulling electrical wire, phone and cable wiring through the walls. Once the wiring was in, we started installing the fiberglass installation in the walls.

On Saturday, Marc showed up early, and helped us put the insulation in the ceiling. Josh showed up later and helped too. Then the three of us put the conduit in the ground, pulling wires through as we went.

Oh, to heck with telling you what happened each day… the days all run together at this point.

By Monday, with Frank, Josh and Marc’s help, we’d installed all of the wiring, the power subpanel, insulation, conduit under the house to the main power panel and the phone and cable box. We’d hung most of the sheetrock on the walls, and had a nice cool building to work in.

On Monday Frank and I finished the ceiling insulation and hanging the sheetrock on the ceiling (that took a little while), then we started floating and taping (actually, Marc started that over the weekend, and we finished up).

After the sheetrock was up, we started sanding. And patching and sanding. And patching and sanding. After about the third day of sanding (it felt like it took that long even if it didn’t) we decided to build a custom desk in the clubhouse, to help line up the sheetrock where the rock was meeting between studs and wasn’t actually meeting.

So, Frank installed 2×2’s on the walls, where the desk and custom shelves would fit later. That helped the floating and taping go faster. We sanded one last time and started painting. And painting. And painting.

We put three coats (Christine pitched in on the third coat) of Ralph Lauren textured paint (Garden Wall with a River Rock finish) on the walls and ceiling, and it looks great… though I’d tell anyone that asked not to paint with a textured paint. It sucks, and is really hard to do right. We still have one or two spots that don’t look perfect.

After painting, we started installing the desk and shelving, which looks fantastic if I say so myself. We used thick and sturdy 3/4 inch Birch plywood for the desk surfaces, stained with Minwax Honey Pine polyurethane (2-3 coats, depending on whether I forgot if there were 2 coats on a piece already). Oh, and Frank installed a really nice oak parquet floor late into the night.

Frank put in all of the trim around the doors, windows, the A/C unit (inside and out) and the floor. I finished up the desk tonight, and am exhausted.

The building really came together yesterday (the 9th day of the building process) with some minor finish work happening today (I just needed to finish installing some shelf supports and staining the desk tonight)

I would be remiss if I didn’t point out how much help my buddies and Frank were in accomplishing this project. I could have never done this in 10 days myself. Hell, I don’t think I could have done it in 30 days. Josh and Marc really helped with the heaving lifting. Marc let Frank and I borrow his big power miter saw and his orbital sander. Without that miter saw, I think Frank or myself would still be hand cutting miters for the trim. The orbital sander also made short work of all of the sanding we had to do. Thanks Marc!

Frank really outdid himself though, and is the shining star of this project. He took my vision, improved it in some places, and worked tirelessly for 10 days straight. His expertise on the tasks required to do this job came in extremely handy too… from wiring the outlets, to tying in the 220 volts that power the building, to connecting the phone line and cable, to how to properly measure and cut sheet rock, to how to drive a copper ground rod eight feet deep into the ground… and how to properly cut a piece of plywood with a jigsaw… and on and on… It’s amazing how many little jobs there are when finishing out a building. I think Frank probably worked 10 hours a day minimum for 10 days straight, which let me work some during the day over the past week, while he progressed on the building.

Thank you so much Frank. I don’t think I can thank you enough for this project.

The finished project really looks great and will be the perfect work environment I think.

I picked up a really nice DeWalt 18v cordless drill, skillsaw, flashlight, and sawzall during the project somehow (funny how using Marc’s good cordless drill sold me on the idea that I wanted on, and then Dewalt’s rebate/freebie offer talked me into buying the 4-piece set).

I used every carpentry skill I knew on this project and learned a lot more new skills and really had fun building this building… though I’m really tired of going to Home Depot now, and I have a lot of crap in my garage that it’ll take a few weeks to get rid of (left over sheetrock anyone? The City of Austin won’t haul away “remodeling materials” so I’ll have to hide a little bit in the bottom of each trash load below a few bags of trash so they don’t notice it in the bin).

I’m tired, so I’ll point you to the photos of the process. I’ll post a few more later next week after I’ve totally moved in.

Next weekend: Landscaping around the building… ugh… oh, and Dub‘s getting married.

Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 194 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Last Monday, I flew to Cleveland to visit with a new potential client. This potential client produces a magazine for highschool athletes. It was a good meeting, and I’m glad I went. Downtown Cleveland is a lot nicer looking than the airport area, and the power didn’t go out in my hotel overnight this time.

I flew home from Cleveland Tuesday night, then got up and flew to Chicago and back on Wednesday to meet with two more companies: one in the financial research and advice field, and another in the online auction business. Both meetings went well.

Then Friday morning, Christine, Jack and I got up before the sun and boarded an airplane headed for Raleigh, North Carolina.

I had two clients to meet in North Carolina (one in Raleigh and the other in Charlotte) and I figured what better excuse do we need to go visit Aunt Murrell and the rest of the Helmke family?

We arrived in Raleigh around 10:30 a.m., met Aunt Murrell and Karen at the airport, and then headed to downtown Raleigh for lunch. We ate lunch at the cafeteria at Exploris, which is where Karen teaches at the charter school and Karen’s son Tim works as an IMAX projectionist and certified technician. Tim joined us for lunch. The highlight of lunch (for me) was the sweet potato french fries… ummmm.

After lunch, the girls and Jack headed back to Aunt Murrell’s house to get settled. I headed to a meeting with my client in Raleigh. My meeting went really well.

I drove down a back road from downtown out to Aunt Murrell’s house in Clayton, which is about 20 minutes from downtown Raleigh. Let me say this: driving anywhere in North Carolina is amazing. I don’t care if you’re in the best neighborhood in town or the worst, just driving through is fun… All of the buildings are old, or are built to look old. You’ll see lots of old brick warehouse type structures, or old southern houses with large wrap around porches. Even the little shotgun houses have big porches (proportional to the house). The trailers all have porches as well, and if there isn’t a porch out front, you can be guaranteed there’s one out back.

The trees in North Carolina are all wonderful to take in. Towering pines are the dominant tree, interspersed with smaller magnolias and oaks. Kudzu is a problem in the southeast, and that includes North Carolina. It’s pretty, but it’s also not pretty … depends on your perspective I guess. There was a lot more Kudzu in North Carolina than last time we visited… but the landscape is still gorgeous.

Back to the story: on Friday night, Karen cooked us Barbeque Chicken with a home-made barbeque sauce, sweet corn-on-the-cob, fresh cantaloupe, and salad. Karen said that she was inspired by her sister Gretchen (Karen had visited Gretchen earlier that day and Gretchen was making a barbeque sauce) to make the barbeque sauce.

Jack was fed dinner by Aunt Murrell while sitting in the same high-chair that Carl, Tim, and all of the other kids in the family, ate out of at some point. Aunt Murrell told us that the high-chair came from Spain some 30 years ago.

After putting Jack to bed, we all stayed up really late just talking and catching up with each other. I think we stayed up ’till at least 1:00 a.m. Friday night.

On Saturday, we just enjoyed our weekend and relaxed most of the day… we sat around chatting, enjoyed the great outdoors in the backyard (they have a state forest that starts at the edge of their backyard), and waited for the family to come over. We also visited Patsy Aikens Designs’ Summer Closet Sale. We bought Jack some great Chez Ami clothes at a good discount and I’ve just about got Christine talked into becoming a Chez Ami consultant this fall.

Then, Saturday evening, the family came over to visit with Jack and us. We really enjoyed seeing Helen and Brad, Terry and Gretchen, and Jon and Hanna. Oh, my gosh… Jon and Hanna are so big now. It’s been 7 years since we’ve seen them, and they’re almost adults now. Jon is 17 and Hanna is 13. Jon will be a senior in highschool next year, and the editor of his school paper. Hanna is going to be a freshman at the same highschool (which she’s not 100% thrilled about, but she’ll push through that challenge I’m sure). Brad and Helen were wonderful with Jack… helping him walk and brining him his very own North Carolina bluebird stuffed animal.

Karen grilled bratwurst, hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner and we enjoyed eating out on the patio with everyone. We also had home made peach cobbler for dinner… ummmm, good.

On Sunday, Aunt Murrell and Karen taught Jack to pull up consistently, and helped him learn how to push his support across the room while walking with it. I can’t believe how fast this kid is learning new things, folks… he learned to pull up, crawl on his hands and knees, and cluck his toungue this weekend while in North Carolina.

Jon and Hanna joined us in the afternoon and we visited the Raleigh flea market at the North Carolina state fair grounds before heading to the pool. After Jon and Hanna left, Jack crawled around outside on the porch, and we all determined that the porch was a little dirty after we looked a how dirty Jack’s outfit was afterwards… here is a photo of Jack about to eat a mint leaf… you can see how dirty he is in this photo.

On Monday, I drove to Charlotte to visit a client (4 hours one way folks… bad idea, next time I’ll fly there). Christine stayed in Raleigh and learned how to make home made cards from Aunt Murrell. For dinner we ate pork tenderloin and sauteed new potatos with rosemary that Karen cooked, and we sampled a squash casserole for Aunt Murrell that she was considering making for a family that she has to cook dinner for this week. All of the food was good.

On Tuesday Gretchen and Hanna came over to visit a little more, I headed to work, and that night we met Tim out for dinner at The Irregardless Cafe. The Irregardless was really a fine place to eat. We were treated to live music while we enjoyed the light middle eastern cuisine. Jack really enjoyed the fish tank that Aunt Murrell showed him at the restaurant. Aunt Murrell and Karen gave us a little bag of North Carolina stuffs that we brough home with us… lots of little goodies that’ll help us remember our trip, and let us bring a little of North Carolina home with us.

This morning, we got up, packed, and got on a plane to come home [sidebar: cool photo from the plane]. It was a bittersweet farewell. We didn’t want to come home, but we knew we had to. We really had a good time in Raleigh with the Helmke clan.

A full set of photos from Raleigh is available here.

And here’s a video from a few clips we had on our camera:

Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 287 user reviews.

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