Happy Birthday Collin

It’s the big number 10 this year!  We over-frolicked this weekend, throwing a kids birthday party for Collin (also for his friend Micah, as has been our custom) on Saturday.  We went to Lincoln Elementary School’s gym and wore ourselves out.  We had about 12 boys there, all with way more energy than I had to keep up with.

Then, on Sunday, Renee’s parents, Marsha & Paul and the girls, and Charlotte & Craig and their kids came to celebrate.  Renee baked 2 cakes (one for each party) and made lunch for everyone on Sunday.  Needless to say, we were exhausted and went to bed at about 9:00 last night!

Tonight, we got a sitter for Ian and took Collin to Applebee’s (his choice) for his birthday dinner.  He said he had the best birthday ever!

I took a bunch of pics, they are on Facebook, or you can click here to see them.

Collin’s Ocean Room

Ok, Ok, I know.  My last post on this blog was Aug. 29.  I’ve been posting most of my life over on Facebook (hint, if you get a Facebook account and become my friend, you’ll keep up with me much better!).  However, for those of you who have yet to join Facebook, here are some pics of Collin’s room.  A friend of ours came over and painted these on Collin’s wall.  It’s part of his birthday gift from us.

Great White Shark:

Spotted Dolphin:

Commerson’s Dolphin:

Orca:

Bottlenose Dolphin:

Madden NFL ‘09

I just bought Madden NFL ‘09 tonight with some of the $100 prepaid VISA card I got for filling out a health quotient for the health insurance (that I’m no longer enrolled in after switching jobs).  They were giving them out to people that filled in their health information.

Anyway, I think the beginning level is too easy, because I won my first game 127-0 and Collin is now winning his first game 91-7.  The Steelers were the beneficiaries of both wins, but I’m pretty sure we need to up the level.

It’s a fun game – I’ll have to have some Monday Night Football parties and have Madden at halftime.  Now Collin is up 105-7 and still only in the 3rd quarter…

Back From the Missing

I’ve been chastised by at least a couple family members for not writing anything on this blog for a while.  A lot’s been happening.  The last time I wrote, I had just started my new job as IT Director for Hanfield UMC.  That’s been going well, but I have been pretty busy there.  I’m still not in my permanent office, but that it slowly but surely coming along.  I’m working on getting their web site redesigned in time for the Fall Kickoff on Sep. 7.

We took our vacation to Florida at the end of July.  We had a fun time even though it rained just about every day we were there.  We went to Discovery Cove in Orlando and it only rained for one hour that day and that was during lunch, so that worked out well.  We got to interact with a dolphin named Diego (or “Eggo” as Ian would say).  The last thing we got to do with Diego was swim out about 50-70 feet and ride him back in to shore.  That was cool.  We left Ian with grandma and grandpa for the day so we could have a more relaxing time.  Collin enjoyed the snorkeling:

We also celebrated my birthday with a family get together while we were there.  We played a rowdy game of Pit:

We went to the beach one day, and as you can tell from the dark skies, we didn’t get to stay long…

We also went to my 20th high school reunion while we were there.  We had a good turnout (about 1/3 of the class) and everyone was so excited to be able to reconnect with each other (we hadn’t had a reunion EVER).  I took the bull by the horns about a year and a half ago and decided to get the ball rolling for it, and many were thankful that someone had done that.  I was glad to be “someone.”  Here’s a pic of us:

Collin started school Aug. 12.  He’s going to a new charter school here in Marion called the Faulkner Academy.  They have a long day (7:30-3:30) but every day they get an hour called “arts academy” where they do different things like art, music, theater, career previews, and other stuff.  Collin is in the career preview part right now, and they’ve had a hairstylist, woodworker, fireman, florist, veterinarian and others there to share what they do.

Ian is still being as cute and ornery as ever.  We just went to a case conference for him to see if he gets to continue on to Head Start when he turns 3 in October, and they’re going to let him in for 2 days a week.  We were hoping for 4 days, but he’s doing so well that I think we’re lucky to get him into the program at all, so we’ll take it.  He’s starting to run a little bit and just loves life, until he misses his nap in the afternoon and gets grouchy toward evening.  But that’s OK.

So now no one can complain that I haven’t written.  At least until the next time I write…

I Started My New Job Today!

I’m now officially on the payroll at Hanfield UMC as their Information & Technology Director.  It’s funny, most of the time when you start a new job, someone comes and tells you what you email address is, what your login and password is, and all that fun stuff.  They told me – YOU set up your email account and your login and password.  That’s OK, that’s what they hired me for!

The first day has been good.  Got the new laptop in on time so I have a computer to work on.  I’ve spent most of the day setting it up (along with my email address and login to the network).  I still need to get some more software to finalize everything.  And I got treated to lunch a Ivanhoe’s, so that was good.

Renee and I have attended Hanfield for 17 years, and Pastor Tim officiated our wedding in 1993 when Hanfield was at its old location in a cornfield in the middle of nowhere.  So most people know us here, and we’re good friends with the staff and many of the people in the congregation.  There are about 550 people here for worship on Sunday mornings, so we’re a decent size church.

I’ve got lots of ideas to bring to the table here, and I’m looking forward to getting going with things!  So far, so good!

The Season is Over…

Collin’s baseball team lost their tournament game last night 10-2.  We played a team that was just playing very well.  Our kids were hitting the ball hard, but right at their players all night.  Not a whole lot you can do about that.  And the other team was just hitting the ball hard and well.  Our defense was good, but their hitting was just better.  Collin did get on base both times up and scored our first run.

So, another season ends, and I’m sad to see it end, because this was the last year for Collin to play in that league – he moves up to Little League now – and I won’t be coaching him any more.

I told the team that they have nothing to hang their heads about.  They played so well all year, and by the end of the season they were making plays and hitting the ball so much better than they were capable of at the beginning.  And that’s the main thing.  And I know they like it better when they win, but I think they all had fun, too.  This is the first year we’ve won more than we lost, so that helped.

Tonight, we go to an ice cream social at Matter Park to register Collin for school and meet his teacher.  At least we won’t have to worry about also having a baseball game at the same time…

One Game Down, Three to Go

Collin’s team played their first tournament game last night. They played one of their best games defensively, swung the bats well, and won the game 13-8.  Collin got on base every time, and made a few good plays to get outs at first base.  Our shortstop and third baseman made some great catches, too.

We play again tonight against a team that we were beating 10-3 before the storms hit us a few weeks ago.  Hopefully we come out swinging the bats well and keeping that defense up!

End of the Season Close

Collin’s baseball team played their last regular season game on Friday.  Today, they play their first game of the tournament.  It is single elimination, so they keep playing until they lose a game.  If they keep winning, we have games on Mon, Tue, Wed and Thu.  The first game is against a team that beat us this season, so they’ll have to be focused and play a good game tonight!

Collin’s been playing first base most of the season (although he’d rather play pitcher).  he’s not the tallest one on the team, but he’s one of the only ones that isn’t afraid of the ball when it’s thrown toward him.  Plus, he has a knack for knowing when to come off the bag, and when he can try to stretch to get the out.  he’s gone a very good job over there!

I finally took some pics of the action (at least until the batteries died in my camera, and I didn’t have the case with me that has the spares).  But here are a few of them:

The team before the game, listening (hopefully) to Coach Scott:

Collin getting ready at first in his own way:

Collin and his friend Micah manning first and second, getting ready for the next batter to hit:

Collin gets ready to hit:

He connects… it was a ground ball, but he was safe at first:

Collin makes the play to get the out at first:

We Got Wii Fit!

So, we’ve been wanting to get Wii Fit for a while now, but not bad enough to pre-order it.  Renee had a birthday June 27, and I took the day off work.  She said that whenever I could find Wii Fit, I could get it and that would be her birthday present.

Since I was off work, we went to the mall for her to look around at some other things she might want to spend her money on.  In the process, she suggested we stop a GameStop and see if they had Wii Fit.  So we got there and the kid comes up and asks us if he can find anything for us.  I asked him, half feeling stupid for even asking, if they had any Wii Fits in.  To my surprise, he says “Yes!”  They had just gotten a shipment in that morning and they had one left.  So we took it.

Combine this with the story of how we found our Wii the Christmas they came out, and Renee just seems to have the most Wii luck of anyone.

The game itself is pretty fun, except for it keeps telling me I’m overweight, which I knew in the first place.  But the games are fun, and the yoga is A LOT HARDER than it looks.  I’m going to try to do at least a half hour on it a day.

The kid at the store also told us that there were going to be several other games coming out that will use the Wii Balance Board, so it’s good to have it now.

Feast AND Famine

Well, my 2 other baseball teams, the Rays and Pirates, ended up on the opposite ends of the spectrum last night.  The Rays feasted on the Marlins, while the Pirates got it handed to them by the Yankees.

The Rays scored 10 runs in the 5th inning and won 15-3.  They’ve been concerned about their offensive slump recently.  Hopefully this gets them going.  Not to be overlooked was an impressive start by James Shields, giving up only 1 run in 7 innings.

The Pirates – well, let’s just say it was a game to forget.  They lost 10-0, which I guess is OK because hopefully the Yankees wasted those 10 runs when they only needed 1 to beat us.  I find it interesting that the Yankees decided to give Joba Chamberlain his first start against the Pirates.  Not much of a risk there, I guess.

One more game for each against their current opponents, and then the Rays and Pirates mix it up against each other in Pittsburgh this weekend.  Not sure how I’m going to handle that.  At least ONE of them will have to win each game…