We’re in Dallas this week (after a quick trip to Tulsa for a wedding).

When we got here, Frank told us that he’d set up his old camping tent in the back yard for Jack and Grayson to play in while we were here (keeping them outside is a great idea, by the way).

So last night, Jack and I “went camping” and slept in the tent.

We went to be around 8:30, and by 8:45 Jack was snoring. I think I was probably asleep pretty soon after (I remember Christine waking me up to check on us at some point).

I woke up on and off all night, but not because I was all that uncomfortable (the weather is perfect for camping right now), rather because Jack sleeps like a jack rabbit on speed. The kid tossed and turned all night. At one point, I woke up and Jack had his foot on my neck, and was kicking me repeatedly for some reason…

We finally woke up around 6:45 a.m. this morning, and to be honest, I was well rested, and glad that the beating I was taking was over.

We went inside, and turned on Curious George, and all was well with the world.

Fun times!

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I put this movie together months ago, but never fully edited it until last week. So, here it is:

Jack helping his daddy put together a ceiling fan.

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Jack and I were up one morning, and Jack found some buttery waffle cookies in the pantry … So I took some photos of him eating them… Mmmmm… they were good…

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Last weekend, Christine asked me to take the kids to the park for the morning, to give her some time to get some things done.

So I did.

I also too the camera with me, and took a bunch of photos.

Towards the end of the trip (right before we ate lunch), Jack and Grayson started getting really dirty. They were throwing dirt at each other and loving it.

I snapped this photo, and I think it’s definitely my favorite photo of Grayson, ever… at least for now…

Just a little dirty…

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Pat Green sings a song called “John Wayne and Jesus” and I pretty much dig it… just good song writing, in my mind, and a catchy tune.

So, I got Jack to say a few of the lines:

I Love John Wayne and Jesus

and

Jesus is one pretty cool dude

I’m looking forward to playing that back to him when he’s 30 someday.

[Note: The recordings of Jack are in AAC format, and may require Quicktime to play on a Windows computer. Get it from Apple]

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I found this post on Ancestry.com:

Subject: ANTHONY & MARGRETHE ENGLER/WILLIAM FISCHER-MADISON WISC:
Hi looking for information/relatives on a great, great uncle WILLIAM FISCHER. Born to Martha and Johan FISCHER in Langland Denmark, approx. 1858. Immigrated to America with his brother Edward in 1881 to Iowa, moving after first year to Grayling Michigan. Died in Compton California after 1915 (?). He married Marie Johnson and had eight children two who died in infancy. THe six remaining; Mrs. Margaret ENGLER (MR. Anthony R. Engler married January 1, 1908) and William FISCHER of Madison Wisconsin, Mrs. Camilla Sorenson of Grayling MI, Mrs. Lillie McPeak and Mrs. Vita Shanahan of Grayling MI, and Mrs. Anna Hodge of California.
His other siblings: Edward, Rasmine (minnie) Otsen of Colorado, Hedwig (Rasmusson) Hanson, Emilie Sorenson, Marie Peterson, Anna Olson all of Michigan

So, it stands to reason that my great-great-grandfather William Fischer, from Langland Denmark, had a father named Johan Fischer. So the name comes from my great-great-great-grandfather from Denmark. Looks like they lived in Grayling, Michigan (from that post) which helps me figure out how the “the Engler side of your family hails from Michigan” part of the Engler history I’ve heard…

That Anthony R. Engler that married William Fischer’s daughter, Margaret Engler, was the same Anthony Engler that was my great-grandfather that was mentioned in Time in 1943, I think.

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I ordered this ad on eBay the other day. Pretty cool if you ask me 😉

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My grandfather John F. Engler, that is my Dad’s Dad, owned Engler Manufacturing Company in Houston, Texas back in the 60’s. Engler Manufacturing was best known for making the “Terrain King” mowers, which were the first wide-swath flex-wing highway mowers available. Engler Manufacturing Company was bought by Alamo Industrial in 1969 for $2.1 Million, today Alamo Industrial is based in Seguin, Texas, and is traded on the NYSE as ALG.

Who’d have guessed my grandfather had some patents in his name:

Pretty cool if you ask me.

I just found an listing on eBay for an ad from 1964 of a Terrain King mower. Kind of silly, but I bought it for $10, and it’ll be here later this week. I’ll frame it and we’ll hang it in the hall way I think, and be able to show Jack and Grayson what their great-grandfather used to make.

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It’s just too hot outside. I love the iPhone forecast for this week. Ugh.

photo

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Grayson and Jack just love eating Popsicles outside in the morning.

photo

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This morning, Christine called me at work to relay this story:

Christine went out to the car with the kids to take Jack to school, put the top down, strapped both kids in, and then couldn’t find the key to the car. Which she needed to put the top down, so she’d obviously had it with her…

She called me on my cell (I was almost at the office by the time she called) to see if I’d left my key to the car at home. I hadn’t. It was in my pocket. She hung up with me, and I could tell she was frustrated.

She got the kids out of the car, to look in their car seats. Backtracked her footsteps out of the house. Looked around the kitchen. Dug through the car. She was really frustrated, and was about to say “forget it, we’re not going to school.” Then she realized she’d thrown something away that morning in the big outside trashcan, and it being trash day, that meant she might have also had the key in her hand and absentmindedly thrown the key away too, so she walked down to check, and the key was on the ground next to the recycling bins. It had fallen out of her pants pocket.

She loaded the kids back up in the car, and took Jack to school.

On the way to school on Mopac, Christine realized then how frustrated she’d been, so she apologized to Jack and Grayson for throwing a fit, and tried to explain that she was sorry she’d been impatient, and that it was nothing they’d done, it was just her losing her temper, and that she was wrong and was sorry.

Jack sat there quietly for a few moments and finally asked “Mommy, why did you say ‘SHIT!’ this morning?”

Christine didn’t know what to say for a moment. She finally answered “Jack, Mommy used a bad word that she shouldn’t have use. Mommy is not supposed to say the word ‘shit’.”

She then asked Jack if he understood that he isn’t supposed to use that word either.

Jack responded, “Yes, mommy. Shit is a bad word and Mommy is not supposed to say ‘shit!’ and Jack is not supposed to say ‘shit!'”.

Christine just said “That’s right” and dropped it.

A few minutes later she dropped him off at pre-school at the church.”

This afternoon will be interesting when she picks him up from school. Hopefully he doesn’t say ‘shit’ at school today… but if he does… oh well…

Here’s to getting our first kid to three and three-quarters years old without cussing.

Welcome to the real world Jack! 😉

I wonder how long we can get Grayson without cussing?

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Overheard this morning in the kitchen:

The Refrigerator is open.

Grayson: “Goguh!”

Daddy: “You want some yogurt?”

Grayson: “Uh-huh”

Daddy: “Okay, let me get it”

As soon as Daddy touches the yogurt, Grayson says: “Yes” just perfectly.

Daddy: “Can you say ‘yes?'”

Grayson: “Yes”

After getting the yogurt, Grayson says “Mmmmmmm” as he walks away.

So, yes, Grayson can now say “Yes” perfectly.

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Pretty cool… My mom found this article in Time from 1943, that talks about Anthony Robert Engler and his contribution to the war efforts. Anthony R. Engler was Evan’s and my Great-Grandfather, and would be Jack and Grayson’s Great-Great-Grandfather.

I PDF’d the article, if you want to download it for posterity’s sake here.

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Since the kids were on vacation this week, Christine and I decided to “get some things done” while they were out of town.

We ended up feeling like we didn’t get much done, but we enjoyed our little mini-vacation from the kids, and loved hearing about how much fun they had on their vacation to Camp Momo.

We did accomplish a few things though:

  1. We rearranged the guest bedroom, so we can actually get to and use the file cabinet that is in there to store important papers and stuff.
  2. We test drove four or five cars.
  3. We washed three or four loads of laundry (trust me doing that many loads, that I’m actually involved in, in one week is a big deal).
  4. We went to dinner at Jeffrey’s with Tony and Lisa, and Andy and KK, Jack and Christine. What a night!
  5. We “borrowed” a car on Thursday night, drove to Josh’s house to get his opinion, had dinner at the Austin Pizza Park, sampled his latest culinary creation: TUBS (The Ultimate Bacon Sundae) which comprised of home-made candied-bacon ice cream in a bacon bowl with a strip of chocolate covered bacon perched atop the scoop of ice-cream. While delicious, it was clearly “too much bacon” for me. Josh gave his thumbs-up on the car though. We also visited Tony on the way home, since the weather was so nice, and Tony gave his thumbs-up too.
  6. On Friday, Christine drove to Bellville and picked up the kids from Camp Momo.

    I got home from work and showed the kids “Daddy’s new car” (realize we still hadn’t decided to buy it yet).

    Jack and Grayson came out into the front yard, where Jack proceeded to tell me my old car was “ucky” and he thought it looked like “poop”.
    I asked him what he thought of the new car, and he said “it’s cool… it’s a racecar!” (any car with a spoiler is a racecar to him).

    I then pulled the key out of my pocket, and said “Watch this!”

    Jack’s mouth opened as wide as it could while the top of the convertible automagically retracted into the car, and when it was all done, Jack just stood there and said the best one word a Dad can here from his son: “Cool.” No exclamation.

    Just. Stoic. Coolness.

    We loaded the kids in the car, and drove off into the sunset… Actually, we drove to a Hawaiian Snow Cone place, and got out and had snow cones (a first for both boys) then we drove around for a while with the top down, before heading to McDonald’s for dinner and some playground time. On the way home, Jack asked us to “make the car change” constantly, and no matter what we did, as soon as it changed, he wanted it to change again.

  7. On Saturday, we drove out to Lakeway for some time with Debbie, Raymond, Cheri, Greg, Paige, Patrick, Matthew, Peggy, Payton, Scott, Christi, Derrick, and their friend Brian.

    We took a boat ride with all of the kids, and put them all in a big three-person tube, and pulled them behind the boat (I’m sure Greg’s back is killing him today).

    I drove back to the dealership to actually buy the car… it’s official, we own a 2005 Saab 9-3 AERO Convertible, and we’re loving it.


    (we’ll get some photos of our actual car online someday, I’m sure)

    We then took a dip in the pool before dinner, and headed home, with the top down all the way.

    The kids LOVE this car as much as we’re loving it, I think. (There’s nothing like two kids in car seats in the back of a convertible in 100 degree weather in Austin, Texas.)


    Grayson was sleeping, Jack was holding his hand
  8. On Sunday, we woke up a little late, and Jack, Grayson and I went out for a drive on the town with the top down. We found breakfast, and fed a homeless guy while we were eating (bought him a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit to go with his cup of coffee).
  9. I cleaned out the Honda for Payton… will take it to get detailed and serviced this week.
  10. I made 13 CDs (mixes of lots of different music) for the Saab’s CD changer (I haven’t listened to an actual CD in ages) because I have no idea how to connect my iPhone to it yet.
  11. We met our newest neighbors Chris and Tina, who moved in across the street about three weeks ago and have a 4.5 year old son, Quinten, and a 2.5 year old daughter, Chelsea. After seeing that they’re totally moved in and pretty much decorated, we got motivated and…
  12. Stayed up until midnight on Sunday night decorating the living-room, searching for some furniture on Craigslist, and finishing the organization of the guest room.

So, that was our week and weekend. While we “didn’t get anything done” I sure feel like we did a lot!

Watch the movie of Jack and Grayson getting down to 50 Cent in the back of the convertible on the way to Lakeway:

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This past week, Grayson and Jack went to Bellville for Camp Momo… something we all hope will become an annual event.

On Tuesday, Christine drove them down to Bellville, and dropped them off. Momo took over. And Ella was there too!

We got nightly progress report phone calls, and the boys came home telling us stories about how much fun they had, and asking to call Momo. Grayson called for Momo for a few days every morning when he woke up. All-in-all the boys had a blast, and we can tell.

They did things like play outside…

Play in the water…

And got to climb on and inside an ambulance…

More photos here.

What a great week. And Christine and I had fun this week to with our little mini-vacation. More about that in the next post.

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