The Lieslands

After several days of hard work (mostly by Susan’s Dad) our once worn and dirty kitchen walls have been transformed into. . . . well. . . . something better. We took down the old wall paper and applied some fresh paint to create a much more inviting space. Walking into our kitchen this morning was certainly a pleasant experience.

Aside from all the work it was a nice visit from Susan’s parents who were in town since last Saturday.

In case you missed the above link, click here to view some pics of the kitchen.

Per Kathie’s request, I have added some recent pics of Andrew to his photo page.

Enjoy! ! !

In other news, I think Andrew snapped himself with a hair rubberband this morning, which could have gone over better.

I have recently developed the habit of going to bed at 9:30 and washing diapers without soap.

Susan has gone to work at the BP down the street so that we can afford to send Andrew, et al, to the Cincinnati Waldorf School.

In a stunning fashion, our volleyball team actually won last night.

It was a rough start as the other team took a commanding lead in the first game (Don’t ask me what it was. I only remember that they just kept scoring.), but our team stayed strong and got our act together. We took the first game and then ran away with the second. It was truly inspiring, and I guess a little painful. I served the final point and before I served one of the girls working at the scorer’s table asked me to “get this thing over with quickly.” Turns out her boyfriend was the umpire, I assume, since Holly caught them exchanging lustful glances and they left the arena together. OK, so it wasn’t really an arena, more of a gym, but still.

Go, Team, Go! ! ! !

Well, for the past few weeks, we have been on cruise control. Andrew is feeling better and acting like it. He is even beginning to sleep better of late, which could change at any time.

Susan’s belly is popping out. Our Dr. told us that it is time to start working our birth plan, which is always fun.

Susan’s classes are going.

We have some major changes planned for our house in the coming months, including, but not limited to: painting, moving furniture, and (my favorite part) setting up our stereo in a better place. Hopefully our TV is going to make its way downstairs, which would be nice. Maybe the computer should go with it? just a thought.

Anyway, nothin’ major coming up. Hopefully Susan’s parents are going to come visit soon, which is always fun.

Volleyball starts tonight for my team from work. We got bounced from the preseason tournament pretty quickly, so hopefully we will do better in league play.

Well, after a rough week and a half, Susan, Andrew and I are settling back into our normal existence. Andrew welcomed us back to Cincinnati by throwing up in bed, twice, and then pooping in the bath tub. I think that he was trying to tell us that he was not feeling well.

So last week was hell. He didn’t really want to sleep and was always in a fussy mood. The good side of all this: his ears came out unscathed, so maybe they are on an upswing (hopefully to never come back down, but I doubt it!).

Another good thing that has come out of the last week is that Susan and I have been reminded of how truly blessed we are by Andrew. Now that he is well again he is a lot of fun to be around and to play with.

So there is a little Andrew update.

Susan’s classes have started again. Today we made the semi-annual trip to the bookstore to see what she needed. Her one book was $100, so we went to the internet, where we found it for $70. Gotta love BigWords.com.

I have just been getting settled back in at work. Normal stuff.

After getting our tire fixed, Susan, Andrew and I have made it back from Des Moines. We spent the week after Christmas hanging out with her family. There was much celebrating: Christmas, New Years, and Ian’s 1st Birthday Party. By far my favorite part of the trip was doing the Sesame Street Exercise record. Yes, record. We have survived yet another holiday season and are now trying to get ready for Susan’s last semester of school.

Andrew is walking better than ever and his speech patterns seem to be developing. Not sure what language he speaks, but we will figure it out.

Tomorrow we are hosting the computer science reunion at our house, which should be a good time.

Other than that, just working on the house and playing with Andrew.

Well, for those of you who left the family christmas party early, let’s just say that you may have missed something:

The After-Party

It is about 21MB, so I would recommend right-clicking on the link and choosing “Save Target As”. After you save it to your machine, you can just double-click on the file and the computer should know what to do from there.

For the third time last night, Susan and I lost another rocking chair. We have now officially broken two rockers and a glider since Andrew was born. Last night was our saddest loss. When I sat down to rock Andrew to bed the rocking chair that we got from Susan’s parents broke. This chair has been around for a while, and hopefully the $85 that I paid the chair-repair guy will do the trick.

In other fun news, I bought a new snow shovel this morning in preparation for the white death that will (hopefully) descend upon Cincinnati over the next few days. I don’t mind the white death, but the cold to follow won’t be much fun.

Susan, Andrew and I are gearing up for another fun holiday season. Last year was rough because Andrew wasn’t very happy, so hopefully this year will be better.

Let is snow!!!

So, life has been pretty normal lately. We are getting a lot of shopping done and hanging out. We had some cool plans pass us by as our trip to Cleveland was cancelled due to me getting the 24 hour flu and leaving me crippled on the couch instead of up North partying, but things like this are bound to happen.

Susan is wrapping up another amazing semester. She never fails to impress me with how she can breeze through her classes. I think that she was born to be a school counselor. Next semester she just has two classes, and then another chapter is over (just in time for another to begin!).

Andrew has been walking a lot more, but he is still not ready for the marathon. I would say that these days he is walking a little more than he is crawling, but when he really needs to get somewhere he crawls.

Nothing really new in my world. Good news on the Pearl Jam front as they have a new album planned and a tour also. Hopefully their plans will come to fruition.

Happy Solstice. Don’t be scared of the dark.

Well, after a hectic past few weeks, Susan, Andrew, Newbie, and I are starting to get back into the normal swing of things. Mid-November passed with a whimper, but late November more than made up for it. Here is a little run-down of the crazy past two weeks of our lives.

We were all set to leave for Des Moines on November 23rd for T-giving when I got a call on the previous Sunday (the 21st) from my sister who said that my dad was in the hospital because he was having some chest pains. Anyway, turns out his heart was trying to tell him something. By Wednesday (the 24th) he was doing much better, so Susan, Andrew and I got in the car at 4 in the afternoon on Weds to began the nine hour trip to Des Moines, or should I say La Salle, IL.

Our trip began very well. It was very warm in cincy and partly cloudy. I knew that we were in for some rough weather on the road ahead, but I don’t think that I really knew what we were in for. About an hour into our drive, and also into Indiana, we passed some cars and a semi that had all mysteriously left the highway about 50ft from a massive tree that was lying on the ground. Turns out we narrowly missed a tornado sweeping through the area, that was lucky.

Illinois was not lucky. Not long after we passed through Indy I said to Susan, “The rain looks like snow.” Turns out, it was snow. It wasn’t long before we were going 35 mph and by the time we reached the junction of 55 and 74 in central Illinois we were parked on the highway. We, along with everyone else on the road, were now in search of a hotel. Well, by 1 o’clock in the morning we managed to find one in LaSalle, IL. We had changed routes since 74 was a parking and headed North to find salvation in the form of a Super 8 (with some help from Erin and Nate).

On Thanksgiving morning we woke up to sunny skies and clear roads. By the time we were into Iowa the snow had disappeared from the scene and the rolling hills were blanketed by the sweet sight of old corn stalks.

Soooo, we eventually made it to Des Moines, where we had a great time hanging out with Susan’s family. Andrew got to know (and fear) his cousin Ian. He made tremendous strides in his effort to walk while we were there thanks to plenty of help from the family.

We came back to Cincy on Nov 30 in anticipation of Dec 1 when our new furniture was due to arrive. It came (minus one slip-cover) as scheduled, and it looks great in our living room.

That brings us up to this weekend. Many of my college friends were in town, which is always fun. Friday night we had a nice, relaxing dinner with our friends Simon and Rachel (who are always in town). Saturday night we went to a Christmas party at Holly’s and then after Andrew went to bed I went out and sang some karaoke with friends. It was amazing how people come out of the woodwork when just a few people are going to be in town.

We all went out for breakfast on Sunday and then Susan, Andrew, and I went out and got our christmas tree. It was pretty exciting to get our first tree as a married couple and put it up in our first house.

In the upcoming weeks we have all the normal holiday business, and I look forward to it! ! !

Susan and I have had many important dates in our lives lately, and June 1st is up next. June 1st is actually the target date for our next child. Even as I type, Susan is eleven weeks and three days pregnant. Here are the answers to some faq:

1. Did you do this on purpose?

   Do we do anything on purpose?

2. Are you going to find out the sex?

   Probably not, but you never know.

3. How is Andrew taking the news?

   Sitting down.

In other news, Gary and Kathie are visiting right now, which is always a pleasure. Kathie spent more time cleaning the first day than Susan and I have since we moved in.

We have purchased some new living room furniture.

I am about to put up some new pics on Andrew’s picture site. Do you think I need to create a whole new picture site for the newbie, or maybe just change the name?

Andrew’s first birthday has passed us by and he has now entered the beginning stages of walking. He will take a few steps, but then he sits down. He is really into books at this point and has already finished the next selection for Oprah’s bookclub (which may actually be defunct at this point, which also makes that joke defunct).

It has been a while, with nothing major to report, so i thought I would just give you a little update on what is going on. We have been pretty busy since Mary visited two weeks ago.

Last week we flirted with buying some new furniture, but that may have to wait a bit.

Andrew has been good, but he has an ear infection again and he has been a little whiney. Hopefully it will pass soon. Here is a link to some pics of him: Andrew Pics. I have added some new pics recently, so check them out.

We had a brief visit from our friends Nick (from St. Louis) and Jeff (from Alaska) last week, which was great. It was a great opportunity to hang out with some great friends.

After our last pumpkin was destoyed Susan carved another one at B.Y.O.P 2004. We left this one at Simon & Rachel’s so that it would be safe from harm. Also, it was nice to hear from Devon, who reported that their pumpkin met a similar fate to ours.

I think that is it for our lives. We have some fun weeks ahead, including halloween, a visit form Susan’s parents, and a trip to Des Moines at Thanksgiving. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you updated.