Author: John

Posted on by John

…well, sort of…

On March 21st, I got a photo of Ella in the bluebonnets, from Shadel. The photo was too cute, so I forwarded it to my friend Christian at the Statesman, and asked him to put together his “wildflower photo gallery” again this year.

Christian sent me back a one-line email: “Please don’t make me do it again” … I know that building the photo gallery for the paper is a lot of work for an overworked guy… so I felt his pain, but I sent him back an email begging him to do it.

I hadn’t thought about it again, until Christine pointed out to me today, that Ella was on Statesman.com.

Woohoo! My niece’s photo is part of the newspaper’s website. That’s soooo cool. I remember being a kid, and thinking it was cool to have my track photo, or Boy Scout troop photo in the Bellville Times.

I think it’s just too damned cool that Ella made it onto Statesman.com.

Cool Beans. She’s so cute, and in my opinion the cutest little girl in Statesman.com’s wildflower photo gallery.

I gotta buy Christian a beer for putting together the photo gallery. Love it!

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Posted on by John

From Shadel:

Ella is really starting to walk.

She is getting into everything! She especially enjoys being outside. Her favorite thing to do is push her push toy all over the yard. When we go inside she cries and sits at the window and just stares.

Evan and I have enjoyed every stage of her life, and it just keeps getting better. Everyday after school I race over to the daycare to pick her up! I don’t think she even cares when I get there because she is so busy with her friends.

Oh, well! I guess one day she will have me ducking in the car when I take her to school because she is embaressed of me!

Love to everyone!
Shadel

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Posted on by John

Today was a glorious day. Gosh it was gorgeous outside in Austin today.

Around noon, I went to Home Depot to buy some angle brackets and screws so I can hang the valances that Christine had Debbie get made for the baby room. While I was there, I also bought three water hose wranglers (you know, those boxes you store water hoses near the water spigot outside). One of them auto-retracts the hose for you… it’s spiffy.

When I got home, I started working in the yard. I raked most of the leaves out of the flower beds in the front yard, and then mulched them with the Black and Decker mulcher thingy I have. Then I spread new mulch down in one of the beds out front… I only had a few bags of mulch, and I’ll be buying more next weekend, along with some flowers for the beds out front.

I installed the hoses in two of the three hose wranglers I picked up.

I also rescued about 200 foot of water hose from the jungle on the south side of our house (that side is all ivy and ground cover, and the last owners of the house had left that poor water hose out in the jungle to die).

After all of that, I sprayed Sevin Dust bug killer on all of the plants and all around the house. Weirdly, though, I don’t think any of the spray actually came out of the applicator… No idea why, but I’ll take time to investigate the inner workings of the screw-on applicator next weekend.

I was exhausted by 5:30 p.m.

It was fun working outside, and I got the chance to listen to a lot of the new music on my iPod. I’ve decided that I really like The Used. The Postal Service has some catchy tunes, but some of their songs are weird. I like Eminem’s Encore album, and the Rob Zombie album I have … I think it’s called Hellbilly Delxue or something catchy like that.

I went inside and drank a cold glass of water. It tasted sooo good. Jack thought it looked good too, and when he grabbed it and pulled it towards his mouth, so, we let him try to drink it. It was hilarious, and after we got done drinking, he was soaking wet, as was I:

Thirsty Boy movie
Photos Here

After relaxing for a little while, Christine, Jack and I took a walk around the block. We stopped to smell the flowers, and tasted our toes on the way too:

Walk This Way movie
Photos Here

When we got home, Jack played in his exersaucer for a few minutes… it was a lot of fun, but I think it was toy overload..

Excersaucer movie

After playing, I went and got dinner from Freebirds (I’m sure burritos are on the Weight Watchers diet, somewhere). Mmmmmmmmm. Gooooood. Fooooood.

When I got home, it was Jack’s dinner time, then bath time, then bed time. He cried for 18 minutes (yes, my wife is a civil engineer and has the time written down) and was out. I think he was as tired as I am.

Looking forward to another week at work.

Oh, and by the way… I think Daylight Savings Time is a stupid idea (in the spring).

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Posted on by John

Last night, Christine and I got home from the Lockett wedding around 6:30. We quickly changed clothes, and then started Jack’s evening routine.

Jack ate dinner, then we fed him rice cereal, and then bathed him. Around 7:30, we fed him again, and by 8:00 or so he was in bed. Here’s the good news. He only cried for 10 minutes or so last night, and was out. For good.

At 8:45, Christine and I were in bed ourselves.

He didn’t wake up until 5:00 a.m. this morning… but, Daylight Savings Time was in effect, so it was really 6:00 (we forgot about DST until around 10:00).

I slept pretty good last night. Christine woke up at 5:00 wondering where Jack was, and sort of panicked (for a second) that he hadn’t woken up all night… then she realized he was peacfully sleeping, and she couldn’t believe it.

Christine and Jack got up and ate around 5:30 a.m., and I joined them around 8:00 (realize that we didn’t change our clocks until 10:00).

So, night number two went well. Jack was exhausted yesterday most of the day though, so I think this is just the beginning of building the schedule… hopefully this sleep training pays off for us in the long run.

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Christine, Jack and I piled in the station wagon yesterday around noon, and drove as quickly as we could to Hostyn, Texas for a wedding. Rob Lockett invited us to his wedding to Ashley. Rob and I grew up together and were the best of friends. Our families have stayed pretty close over the years… and so, we were delighted to be invited to the wedding.

Hostyn is about an hour from Austin, just south of La Grange. We got to the chapel with about 30 seconds to spare (we still haven’t adjusted to having a baby and getting places on time — not that we were all that good at being on time before the baby, but now it’s a lot tougher).

The ceremony was very nice. A simple short Catholic ceremony in a beautiful country chapel. The bride was gorgeous, and there whole town was in attendance (I really think the whole town of Hostyn was there).

After the wedding ceremony, Jack got to meet the Lockett family, and the Fox family (Rob’s Grandparents and Aunt and cousins). Mrs. Housley (my 7th grade social studies teacher) was there too. We headed to the reception after saying hi to a lot of people…

Kari Burt, Rob’s cousin, is doing well at A&M. She’s a freshman, and the last time we saw her was when she ran hurdles in the state track meet in Austin last year. She’s still growing up, and still getting prettier every day. Amy was doing very well, and seems to be pretty much fully recovered since her accident 2 1/2 year ago.

Lori (Rob’s sister) and Jason are doing well… Lori seems as happy as I’ve ever seen her.

Halley’s middle child (Halley is Rob’s youngest sister) is just too cute… a little ball of energy with blonde curley hair.

Reese (Rob’s younger brother and one of Evan’s best friends) and Karen are well. Their two little ones are cute. Kade (the oldest and the boy) was the ring bearer in the wedding and cried all the way down the aisle, until he saw his mommy, then made a bee line for her with the flower girl in tow. Gabby, the little girl, still has the most beautiful dark brown eyes I’ve ever seen, with those long eyelashes.

Nanny and Bussy are still Nanny and Bussy… we just love seeing them. Bussy introduced me to one of his neighbors (I didn’t ask how many miles away this neighbor lived, but I’m sure it’s at least a couple of miles) and we talked about choices… Bussy’s always teaching me something, and I love him for that.

We also ran into Bronson Pilcik and his wife Becky. Bronson and I went to school together when we were young. Bronson’s doing well now. They have 2 kids, a two year old girl and a six year old boy. The boy is just starting to play tee-ball. We laughed about old times, caught up on old friends and where they are now, and then talked about family. Bronson’ll probably take over parts of his family’s business in Industry in a few years, and is doing great.

We left the reception before they served dinner, as it was time for us to head back to Austin for “Learning to Sleep – part two”. We did stop at Dairy Queen on the way home though, and both of us had a “Dude Sandwich” … love those things! Funny thing about “the Dude” is that I think they only sell them in Texas… you should have seen the look on the face of the counter clerk in Kentucky when I asked her for a “Dude”. Heh… I’ll have to tell that story sometime.

Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 256 user reviews.

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Last night, Christine and I put Jack to sleep in his crib at 7:10 pm (after the evening ritual of feeding and bathing), and for the first time in his life, we didn’t go check on him again, until he was asleep. We are training Jack to learn to go to sleep on his own, and to comfort himself to go back to sleep when he wakes up in the middle of the night.

The decision to start doing this on Friday night, didn’t come lightly. We were ready to start doing it last week, but we wanted to talk to the doctor before we put Jack through this training, just to make sure we’re being smart about it, and not starting too early.

So, at 7:12, Jack started crying. He was asleep at 7:52. He slept for an hour or so, then woke up, and we listened to him cry again for about 45 minutes two hours. After he fell asleep the second time, he slept until 3:50 am. Christine got up to take a shower (it’s hard to listen to your baby cry for any longer than about 2 minutes) and by the time she was back in bed, Jack was asleep (and so was I).

Jack woke up at 6:10 am or so this morning, and we (that means Christine) started the day with him. He ate pretty healthily this morning (he usually eats once or tiwce during the night) before taking morning nap.

It’s 11:00 am right now, and we’re all getting ready to go to Rob Lockett’s wedding in La Grange, and we’ll come home tonight to start day two of sleep training.

All of the books say it takes three nights to train your child to sleep through the night without being checked on … for some reason, I’m having a hard time believing this training will be over after 3 nights.

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Ella at One Year
Ella in Black and White at One Year

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Get this, Austin will have a professional basketball team next year. It’ll be an NBDL (National Basketball Development League) team (like the minor leagues for basketball).

Enter their Name the Team Contest and take me to the games with you (I don’t really care for basketball all that much, but I can’t pass up a chance for something free, like seasons tickets to the local basketball team games.

Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 182 user reviews.

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This was Jack’s first Easter. Christine and I had hoped to spend the afternoon at the church sponsored picnic and Easter Egg hunt on the lawn of the State Capital building, but, the weather proved difficult on Saturday afternoon. We went to the picnic, after picking up a couple of sandwiches at Jimmy John’s Sandwich shop (we found that place while we were at the hospital back in November).

When we arrived at the Capital, we ventured out onto the lawn with all of the other families gathered, sat down, and ate our lunch. We discovered Jack likes to people watch while Christine and I were eating. One of the preachers came and visited with us, and then we decided it was just too cold and wet to stay out too long… so we waited for the Easter Bunny to show up, took a picture with him, then headed back to the house. We stayed home Saturday night and watched Troy on DVD. (Nothing like watching a film about Greek mythology on Easter weekend right?)

On Sunday morning, we got up and went to church. Kim, Brad and Kim’s mom saved us some seats in the balcony (church was packed today with all of those Easter Methodists) and we sat through the whole ceremony without a trip to the “cry room”. I guess Christine got the feeding/nap schedule down this morning, because Jack was really good in church. He didn’t make any crying sounds, though he did start talking to me at one point during the service. We got a lot of compliments on how cute Jack was after the service, which tells me he wasn’t a bother to anyone around us.

After church, we drove out to the lake to have Easter lunch/dinner with Debbie, Raymond, Peggy, Payton and Shirley. Payton was wearing his school ring, which he’s earned as a Junior in High School… He sure is growing up to be a fine young man.

It was a gorgeous day today in Central Texas.

Right before we ate, we drove down to the Hamilton Greenbelt there in Lakeway, and took some photos. The best ones came from a setting on the creek, near a little set of rapids. Jack got a little cranky, because he was tired, so Christine and I headed back to the car early. Jack fell asleep in Christine’s arms as we walked back to the car. He was snoring in her arms. That was cute.

After a late lunch/early dinner, we watched Finding Neverland on DVD. Good movie. A bit slow at first, but a great ending.

Then Jack played “Who’s gonna eat that hand” with Raymond. Here’s a little movie from their playtime. Jack was laughing so hard. I wish I’d have grabbed the camera sooner to capture more of it on film:

We headed home shortly after 9:30, and Jack is sleeping in his car seat now (never wake a sleeping baby, right?)

Hope you all had a happy Easter. You can see all of our photos from this weekend in this gallery.

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Posted on by John

Last night, Christine’s friends and I conspired to throw her a surprise birthday party at Kim and Brad’s house.

I don’t know how we pulled it off. I was horribly unorganized about planning it, and totally wishy-washy about the date and who to invite. Kim stayed on my ass about it though, and on Monday this week, we had a plan. Between Kim, Cyndi Erin and Elise, we threw a pretty decent party, I think.

El Arroyo catered, and arranged for a margaritta machine. Cyndi made the cake. Kim decorated and Brad bought the beer and liquor. I arranged for a baby-sitter for Jack (our first night to use a stranger to baby-sit for us).

Around 7:30, Christine and I left the house to “pick up Brad and Kim to go to dinner with them”. Christine opened their door to say “let’s go” and was greeted with a “Surprise!”

Lots of people showed up, and we had a good time at the party. (We really don’t need much of a reason to get together and have a good time). The hail storm that blew through midway through the party was interesting.

Thanks to everyone that helped us pull off the party, and to those of you that stopped by to join in the festivities.

Christine and I got home around midnight and were both exhausted after a great night.

Pictures from the night are here.

Happy Birthday Christine!

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Mello YelloThe last time I had a Mello Yello to drink I think I was somewhere between the ages of 6 and 7. I think I was about that old because, the only thing I remember about drinking that Mellow Yellow was pulling up to the “Coke Store” as I called it back then (I’m sure it was a 7-Eleven or a Utotem in Houston) and telling my mom I wanted a “Mellow Yellow”.

My mom returned to the car dutifully with a Mello Yello in hand just for me. I took one sip and promptly puked.

I bring this story up for you all because today at lunch, I was asked if I wanted a “pop” to go with my sandwich, and for a second I had no idea what I was being asked, then, as the cashier motioned towards the soda fountain, I saw Mello Yello, and said “Yes, please.”

I had a Mello Yello today for lunch.

I almost puked.

Average Rating: 5 out of 5 based on 183 user reviews.

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If you’re looking for babynames, then look no further than this neat way to visualize the popularity of baby names. Just start typing a name, and the graph will change slowly showing you all possible names with that combination of letters and the rank of that name over the last century.

Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 167 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

When booking an airline trip, call ahead to find out if the entire Westlake Marching Band will be on your flight, and if they will, allow for an extra hour of security checks.

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Last night, after a wonderful dinner (Christine cooked a delicious lemon oregano chicked dish last night), I spent some time downloading photos and movies from the little camera, and here’s a round up of recent photographs and a movie:

  • 29 – A few select photos from my 29th birthday party.
  • Ella’s a Year Old – These are a few photos we took at Ella’s Birthday Party (I can’t believe we didn’t take more).
  • Reading his book – Mommy took these photos of Jack reading his book during morning playtime.
  • Goodmorning Sunshine – On Saturday morning, Jack and I went out to greet the sun, while laying in the hammock. Afterwards, we went inside and woke up mommy.
  • Reading with Daddy – Jack and I read a book before bedtime last night.

And for this week’s movie, we present Life of the Party. At my 29th birthday party, Jack and I danced to a song Josh was playing on the radio. The poor guy was tired, but he hung in there, and was the “Life of the Party”:

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Ella shows us all that the Bluebonnets are finally starting to bloom:

Ella in Bluebonnets

Isn’t she adorable?

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