Author: John

Last week, I was in New York all week. I went there on business, as we had a quarterly sales meeting at the new corporate offices. I was in New York Tuesday – Friday.

Thank gosh Christine made me go to Foley’s and buy a good wool overcoat. It was 20 degrees in New York most of the week. If I didn’t have the overcoat, I don’t know what I would have done.

The sales meeting was very productive, and after work each day, we all headed to a bar to get to know each other better. Each night was long, and that made for a tough Friday. I was doing all I could to stay awake at the airport waiting on my flight to leave.

I was really glad to be back home on Friday night.

While I was in New York, Christine and Jack spent the week in Dallas with Grandmother and Granddad. Christine spent some of her time there visiting our old friends from Fort Worth, and from the sounds of it, I missed out on some fun lunches and dinners, and visits with the old neighbors. Christine didn’t take any pictures like she was supposed to, so I don’t have any pictures to share with you… sorry.

When I got home on Friday, I swear Jack had grown 2 inches. His face has filled out, and he’s definitely developed some new skills. Jack is now almost laughing at times, and has learned how to be ticklish (I think Mary taught him that skill). He’s making more noises now, and has a lot better motor skills. He can now hold an object in his hand for a little while. It’s funny to see him holding his toys… he can hold them, but can’t actually control his movements… it’s cute.

On Saturday, we drove home, and briefly visited the brithday party Josh threw for Elise and Michelle. It was Elise’s 30th birthday party, and Josh did it right. Wish we could have stayed longer, but we had a good time while we were there. [photos here]

On Sunday we watched the Super Bowl, which I’ve already written about.

On Monday night, I realized that I missed New York, so I pulled two strip steaks out of the fridge, and grilled two New York Strip Steaks for Christine and I. And before I cooked the steaks, I spent 20 minutes excercising… probably the first 20 minutes of excercise I’ve done in a year… my calves hurt today.

Christine and I hosted a small Super Bowl get together today, primarly because last night we meant to spend time at Josh and Elise’s celebrating Elise’s 30th birthday and Michelle’s birthday, but we had to leave early because it was past Jack’s bed-time.

Kim, Brad, Elise, Josh, and Victor all came over. Brad brought some brisket he’d cooked the day before that was really good. Josh brought some salsa. And Victor brought paper towels. (Gotta love it when your friends pitch in).

It was fun to watch the game with good friends that were looking for a laid back environment to watch the game in.

Jack enjoyed the game, and went to bed right before it ended. He’s sleeping good now that the Patriots won.

I played with Jack a little this morning, and shot some quick video footage of him in his bouncy chair. His facial features are really starting to develop, and he’s kicking and grasping for things with his hands:

(Quicktime required)

I also took a few pictures today of him in the bouncy chair … some of them are too cute.

We took Jack to our church on Sunday, January 30th, so that we could introduce him to the congregation. We aren’t an extremely devout family, but we want to be more active in the church, so this past weekend was our first attempt to do so.

Christine read that our church was inviting all babies born in 2004 to come to church Sunday morning to meet the congregation and to be a part of a ceremony celebrating their birth. We thought that was a perfect way to introduce Jack to the church.

We met Erin and Kaulen at church, and asked them to take pictures of us. We had our little camera, and Kaulen was kind enough and thoughtful enough to bring her good camera with the telephoto lens to get some closer shots than our camera would handle properly.

Going to church with Jack was fun. We started downstairs in the pews with the rest of the congregation, but soon after our introduction ceremony, we headed upstairs to the cry room. The cry room was really nice, and was full of babies (not all of them were crying).

We listened to as much of the sermon as we could, and then later went downstairs to join the church. That was comical… we barely made it to the front of the church in time to join the new member ceremony, but we did.

After church, we were welcomed into the fold by the congregation, and we ran into Stewart Pickard, whom I worked with while at the Statesman, and his wife Lisa.

Thanks to Erin and Kaulen, we have photos of the event to share with you.