A Year of Change

Good morning.  The boys and I got up at 6:30 and made our way downstairs to feed the dogs and cook breakfast.  The kiddos ate bacon, eggs, hashbrowns and toast.  They must be growing because they inhaled their food. I think the oldest’t inseam maybe the same as mine…if not I’m sure it will be by tomorrow.  The youngest is growing just as fast.  He is right on pace where his brother was at age 8.  The pants we buy…or that Aunti B and Uncle T. buy have to be 2 years more than the age of the munchkin. The 10 year old needs pants that are 4 to 6 years more, but when he was 8 he wore 10’s as well.  Obviously not so much to write about today.

I asked to leave work about 30 minutes early yesterday and WF was very accommodating, as always.  I picked up the youngest from D.I. where the Destination Imagination teacher had offered to keep him at her house until 4:45. That was quite kind especially since he didn’t want to miss building the prototype for the competition.  The oldest went with his friend Jennifer and they filmed their project for “Skinny Bones” a 4th grade assignment.  They went to dinner and talked Jenn’s Grandma into stopping at a park so they could play some more.  Jenn’s Grandma called to make sure it was okay to keep the oldest a bit longer so they could play….of course it was…but nice of her to check.

The boys did their homework…the youngest sped through his in order to go and play with the kids across the street and the oldest waited to do his reading in bed.

Today I have a fun day of….you guess it….cleaning.  I wish I could get a cleaning lady for $50.00.  I have to clean before I can clean.  The legos and a massive assortment of toys adorn the youngest’s floor. The other kiddo has one of each sock he owns and all of his covers from his bed on the floor…plus some dirty clothes.  The guest room has been a storage room for all of the clothes that the mister and I need to go through…keep or donate….and tomorrow we have a guest coming that will actually need to sleep in one of the beds.  Yea me!!!  I will feel great once I have finished…it’s the “Starting that will be tough.

Time to get the youngest in the shower.  Have a great day!!!

God Bless,

LLF

Good morning.  Red sky at night sailors delight, red sky in the morning sailors take warning…Well….the sky was a beautiful crimson, glowing bright, outlined with golden orange that met with the still darkness.  The heavens were sparkling with a million tiny diamonds.  Sailors may need to take warning… but this morning…diamonds are a girls best friend. Stunning.

I went to P.T. for the first time since my hip locked up in November.  The woman was shocked at how tight my back and hips are…she even asked if I have arthritis in my hip.  The nerve…I still can’t believe she asked such a question.   I did laundry the rest of the day….the Physical Therapist gave strict instructions not to vacuum.  Thank you PT lady.

I picked the boys up from school and we headed off to look for the coveted “Stealth Elf” Skylander; it costs $7.99 and the oldest was going to buy it. We only went to one store and the shelves were literally cleaned out.  Empty….not one Skylander to be found.  I then called and sat on hold with three different stores, just to find out that their shelves were also empty.  The trucks get to the stores at 9 a.m. to unload the store open at 10, and the darn things are sold out in 15 minutes.  I’ll call again in the morning…10:01.

We returned home for snacks…rice cakes….turkey jerky….pirates booty….fruit and milk. A bit of homework (they saved some for later) a lot of fighting and screaming (them not me) a couple of punches a couple of kicks….more screaming and chasing each other around the house…all of which was happening while I was on a phone call…of course.  I’m sure you have all been on the listening end of the chaos of 8 and 10 year old boys.  These actions seem to happen on the first night that the Mister is away….like clockwork….hmm…maybe something to that… Whom or who is the Alfa while Dad is away?  I’ll check with my mom on the grammar…pretty sure it is “Whom”.

Everything calmed down in a matter of seconds….the food must have digested at that point…because, the kiddos were apologetic with one another and life was once again bliss. They played upstairs for about 45minutes and then we gathered together on the couch to watch one show.  Looks like “No T.V.” is out while Dad is in New York.

The Mister landed in New York and headed to his hotel.  He worked out at the Hotel gym…showered and primped for meetings and dinner out.  He called after dinner and was going to watch a movie.  He has more meetings today and Thursday and he will be home Friday.  Hurray….we miss him already.

I work this morning from 8:15 to 5.  The boys have an early release day today…out at 12:15.  The oldest is going to Jennifer’s to work on a school project…have fun…go to dinner and her Grandma will drop him here at 5p.m.  The youngest has D.I. until 2:30 and he will stay there until 4:30 when I can hopefully pick him up.  Uncle T. or Aunti B. may  be getting a frantic phone call from me if I can’t leave work early.  WF is really great about family first.

I am off to shower and primp…make breakfast and lunch for all.

Have a great day and God Bless,

LLF

Look out, here it comes, the election season officially kicks off tonight with what is billed as a State of the Union speech by the President. Now I don’t watch these but you can bet that it’ll be more about getting him re-elected than anything to do with the state of our country. After all, how would talking about high unemployment help him get re-elected? Trust me, it’ll be all about how he’s better than them, meaning the republicans. Boy are we in trouble, no matter what you think. We just continue to kick the can down the road. Ok, that felt good, haven’t talked politics for weeks, maybe months. I’ve been resting up for the big run between now and November.

How about the Boston Bruins MVP goalie that didn’t show at the White House yesterday with the rest of his team to protest how big government is and how they’ve trashed the constitution. Good for him, and by the way, he was protesting both parties!

Ok, I’m of to New York this morning so you’ll get the misses thoughts for the next few days. There’s a truck strike in Italy right now which is causing me a few problems. You see when they strike over there, it’s not just not showing up for work, no, they block the highways! Give me a break, hope it ends soon.

The boys had a good day at school. The youngest brought home a bunch of work that was graded 4+. This is the highest mark you can get and is equivalent to our old A+. The afternoon was spent playing games, doing some homework and then having dinner. The misses seems a bit overwhelmed with the house but I told her to just relax. You see, it’ll never get clean until we get rid of some stuff. We just have too much stuff, period.

Time to run, sorry about the short posts the last couple of days, I’m just super busy. We’re still bummed about the football games but at least I did win the fantasy football Super Bowl. I’m so far ahead, no one can catch me now. Too bad it doesn’t come with a big check! Have a great day, stay healthy and God Bless. Give the misses a call in the next few days to say hi in case she’s lonely. See you soon.

We woke up at 6 and were on the road a bit before 8am headed off to the ski slopes. The traffic was so thick, it took us 2 1/2 hours to drive what normally would have taken us 45 minutes! When we finally arrived, the snow was blowing sideways and the temperature was just above zero. We met up with our friend who started teaching the boys the finer points of snow boarding while the misses and I ran inside for a cup of coffee. By the time we made it back outside, we were told the boys had already picked up what normally takes hours to learn. So the misses and I began pulling both boys up the hill. It was so windy, the lifts were on and off. After a few runs the cold became unbearable and the day was done. All in all, it was a great first day and both boys did very well.

We stopped by the grocery store on the way home and arrived just in time for the kickoff of the first game. We made a bunch of food for lunch for the boys and then the oldest and I decided to play some catch. After 5 minutes outside, we quickly came in as the wind was blowing right through our coats. Around 4:30, the game we were waiting for was just starting. I’m sure everyone knows the outcome so no need to belabor the point, but the misses, and I, are both sad San Francisco lost.

Both dogs are in now and it’s a bit after 5:30. I have a ton to do today as I’m off to NY tomorrow and scheduled to return Friday morning. I might be able to get out Thursday night, we’ll see.

Time to grab another cup of coffee and get to the gym. Maybe the misses will chime in this morning. Have a great day and God Bless,

We’re headed up the mountain to Loveland Ski Area for the boys to get their first taste at snow boarding on a real hill. The wind is blowing with gusts of 60 miles an hour right now but we think we’re giving it a try anyhow. We should be headed down the hill by noon to get ready for the football games. Wish us luck.

Yesterday we were at Big Time on and off for most of the day. With two parties, the boys got lots of exercise. Then the youngest and his friend, whose birthday it was, lobbied hard for both boys to come to our house for some more playtime. We gave in, loaded up 3 boys and were off to home. They played hard outside until around 5pm when it began to get dark. Meanwhile the oldest I played some catch with our gloves and a baseball. Now I don’t want to overstate this but the oldest was catching everything I threw at him. Towering pop flies, hard grounders, fast balls, I mean everything. He also now has quite an arm throwing me the ball from down the street after he’d have to chase a missed ball. We’re going to try to get him into baseball this Spring. In a few weeks we decided to go find some batting cages as he seems to have some natural talent.

Mom has been tired for a few days now so we just sent her to bed and had a “boys night”. For dinner, our first course was waffles with warm syrup and then thick pad thai noodles with butter. The youngest commented, “wow dad, you give us a lot more syrup than mom!”. This information of course came too late as they’d already licked their plates clean. The rest of the night was the three of us laying around laughing, making various man sounds (I think there was a contest but I’m not verifying anything) and watching the Nuggets beat the New York Knicks. The game went to double overtime so it was a bit after 8:30 before we headed up to get our rest for the big day. The youngest had taken back a few things from Christmas to Target and received a $70 store credit so he bought himself a couple of new DSI games. He and his brother were consumed with these as well for most of the evening.

It’s now 6:49 and the misses is trying to find our snow pants as she and I will be tugging and towing the kids up and down the hill this morning. I don’t think we have to buy lift tickets after all as our friend, who is an instructor, says the first step will be just hiking up the hill a bit to get comfortable. He’s meeting us up there to give the boys a lesson. His boy started when he was 3 and he has a web site called familyshred.com which is all about family’s and snow boarding.

Wish us luck and go 49ers, have a great day and God Bless

We’re all glad it’s the weekend. For some reason we all need a break. The kids from school and birthday parties, the misses and I from work. Oh wait, the kids each have a party to go to today and the misses and I have a bunch of work to do today on the VIP event for Andrea Bocelli. You see as I mentioned yesterday, the misses is taking the lead on this. She’s already made her target list of things to go into the gift bags. Among the items for inclusion in the goodie bags are upscale skin care products, artisan chocolates, baseball caps from Netjets, a Bocelli CD, a gift card from Whole Foods and Maggiano’s and more to be determined.

Now this is just one part of getting ready for the event. The menu has to be decided and finalized, VIP reception needs to be set up at the arena, music for the room backstage after the show needs to be found and arranged, dinner the night before, and the list goes on and on. Oh yea, and the event is 3 weeks from yesterday! She has her work cut out for her but knowing her passion for putting on parties, I’m sure it’ll be great. Who knows, maybe this’ll be the start of a new career. I told her yesterday, who else can say that their first event of the party planning career was for Andrea Bocelli! Should look good on her resume.

As I said, both boys have birthday parties today back at, you guessed it, Big Time, the trampoline place. We should get some kind of season pass there as much as we go. Tomorrow the boys are going snow boarding in the morning and then we’ll rush home for the football games. I’m not sure what the misses and I will do today, other than work, but I’m sure we’ll be cleaning the house and doing laundry. Hopefully we can get in a walk for the dogs. I think I’ll head to the gym now while everyone is still asleep.

Not much else going on. Lots of snow on the east coast but it looks like it’ll all be gone before I get there next week. 62 degrees here today with lots of wind. We’ve sure had freaky weather this year, it’s either freezing or warm like late Spring. You need to be prepared for everything.

Time to run so I can get to the gym. Hope everyone is well, have a great day and do something nice for someone today! God Bless

What do ya know, my Moms dislike of my sweater/coat has resulted in an offer from Aunt Ali to buy it from me for her nephew! (see yesterdays comments) Maybe I’ve stumbled onto a new business. I can wear clothes my Mom doesn’t like and then when others find out, they’ll offer to buy them! I’ll have to look around but I must have at least $129 worth of stuff she doen’t like. This is like winning the lottery, I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before! I’ll have to call Aunt Ali today to discuss her offer. It will be a tense negotiation as when you’re dealing with high fashion like my sweater/coat, you just can’t agree to the first offer. After all, according to my Mom, this is the first time ever, she’s ever seen me (according to her) wear something that wasn’t cutting edge and stylish. I can’t let this go too cheap as I figure if I wear it around her a few more times, I can probably get an Armani suit of out of her dislike for it. I’ll keep you posted.

The misses worked cleaning the L.O.L. house all afternoon yesterday for an extra $50 which always helps out. Today both boys have spelling tests and the youngest is up now practicing with Mom. She works today from 8 until 5 and I have a sales meeting at the distributor at 10:50 and then an appt. at 11:30 and hope to be home by 1pm or so.

It’s warming up around here meaning the dogs are bringing in a few pounds of mud each time they go in and out. Not much else going on except lots and lots of work. We have a big Andrea Bocelli event, after his concert in Austin Texas on February 10th, and the person supposedly in charge in our company really doesn’t have a knack for event planning or details and seems a bit overwhelmed. So we’re going to put the misses in charge. I know she’ll be all over it, guests will receive gift bags when they arrive at the hotel, town cars will be waiting, and the private VIP reception with Andrea will be set up perfectly. After all, this is her forte, she lives for planning party’s. Who knows, maybe this will be her new career!

The misses and I did make it to the gym yesterday and we walked the dogs. Today it’ll be a bit tougher to squeeze in some exercise. The kids are going snow boarding Sunday and taking a lesson in the morning before the football games start so maybe the misses and I will ski for a half day. We probably won’t just because it’d be $100 in lift tickets alone. The kids lessons are free from a guy we know who’s doing us a favor.

Well, time for me to run as I slept in and it’s now 6am. There’s a bunch of new movies out we’d like to see and thanks to Grandma Annette and Grandpa Jim for the movie passes the boys received for Christmas, we for sure will be using them.

Ok, take care, have a great day and God Bless each of you, we’ll see you (talk to you) tomorrow!

I woke up at 4am today which I guess is not that abnormal for me. Good news is we went to bed around 7! The misses has a 6:30am meeting at work which is mandatory so she’ll need to get up around 6. She slept a bit better last night but did wake me a few times.

I have lots of work as always and really need to clean out the basement soon. I did get the house cleaned up pretty well yesterday before I picked up the kids and the misses got home from work. It seems to never end around here. I forgot to mention the other day that when we were driving five 8 year olds to the youngest ones party, one of the kids dropped something and blurted out “oh shit”. I turned around and said “what did you say?” to which he replied “holy crap”. I then said “what” and he sheepish looked at me and said as if he was guessing, “oh shucks??”. Hard to believe that in 2nd grade kids are swearing but it was pretty funny. Next up our youngest said to his friends, “my dad went to the leaning tower of pizza, and guess what, they don’t even serve pizza!”. All his friends said things like “what a ripoff” and “that’s not right”. I didn’t have the heart to tell him it’s the tower of pisa, not pizza, as they were having too good of a time. Sometimes if you can stop and just watch or listen to kids, it’s pretty amazing the things they say and do. Lucky his older brother was in another car or he would have corrected the situation by telling them all “it’s not pizza you idiots, it’s pisa!”.

Right after school the boys went straight for a new lego toy the youngest received for his birthday to put it together. Both kids room needs a makeover to the extent that we should probably apply to one of those tv shows. In fact, our kitchen really needs it. The formica on our counter has delaminated and it raised about 4 inches on one end sticking straight up into the air. We just look at it and laugh, what else can you do.

My Mom called me last night to let me know she didn’t like the sport coat or sweater or whatever it was, that I wore to dinner the night before for the youngest guys bday. I thanked her politely for her fashion advice and told her it was a good thing I only paid $19 for it at Nordstrom Rack. Now I personally like it (it’s actually a sweater that it styled like a sport coat) but I guess I can no longer wear it as if you all remember, my Mom is the Coco Channel of Lakewood Colorado! She did say she found a new coat she wanted to buy me so at least I get something out of it. She also said she thought it was the wrong size for me. When I told her that it was the correct size, she replied, “oh, well maybe it’s the way you stand”. It’s always good to get a few words of wisdom each day from your mother. I don’t know how I would have slept last night without this information, thanks Mom!

It’s really windy outside but seems to be warming up. I think we’re about to pay for all the warm weather we had over the past few months. Seattle had a huge snow storm yesterday that shut down the entire city which means it’s probably headed our way on the jet stream.

We’ve done really well with no tv. We don’t miss it at all but do still watch movies. Hence, I don’t have much to talk about regarding politics but I’m sure it’s the same old thing, nothing new. I’m sure Grandma Dix is happy.

Well I’m running out of material so I’m going to go. Food prices sure are going up, milk’s about $6 a gallon now, Wow! Hope you all are well, stay in touch and send a comment now and then. Most of you are really bad about participating, we need some feedback so drop us a line. Take care and God Bless.

The youngest started out the day with a good breakfast which he sure needed to get him through his spectacular birthday. He opened a few presents before school and then was off for the big day. Mom was running late so I went to Subway to get the boys some turkey sandwiches for their lunch. The day flew by as we were getting ready for the big party right after school. We showed up at 2:45 sharp and the misses coordinated all the kids getting in the appropriate cars. We then drove to another school to pick up the neighbor kids and made it to the party at 3:30, right on time. I then ran home to clean the house a bit while Mom stayed with, I think, 19 kids in all. I showed back up at Big Time (where the party was) to pick them up around 5:15. After waiting on a bunch of parents to show up (the last one was there at 5:45) we loaded up and headed downtown to meet Grandma, Uncle T and Aunt B for dinner. Now the birthday boy almost fell asleep on the way to dinner so we knew he’d be fading fast. Both boys did really well at dinner despite being tired. The youngest one was so tired he even passed on dessert which was a first! Thanks to Grandma for taking us to dinner.

We made it home around 8:30 and everyone was in bed by 9pm. It’s around 4am now and the misses works today at 7 which will be a bit tough as she’s been up all night long. She just couldn’t fall asleep!

We gave Grandma Dixie a call on the way home who scolded me as I omitted her when talking about the biggest 49er fans. Turns out she and Pa Don might just be the head of the Sacramento Fan Club for the 49ers. In fact, rumor has it, she was a former cheerleader for the team, the famous San Francisco 1849 ers! I was also taken to task (in a nice way) for not talking more about the cruise ship accident as I said I would. So here it goes. I had a chance to talk briefly with a few survivors who told me about the actual moment the ship went down. It was right at dinner time, right after they took their first bite (according to the woman I was speaking with) when all of a sudden the ship tipped onto its side. I asked if it was a gradual thing and she said no, it just went very quickly. Apparently what happened was after the hull was gashed from hitting the reef, the ballast tanks filled up with water and when they got to a certain point, the ship just tipped onto its side. Everyone in my hotel seemed to be doing fine and was taking the whole thing in stride. I think the people that suffered the most were the elderly as they were not able to get around as easy as the younger people. Of course this was the talk of the hotel and cheers to Marriott for taking in these people and lodging and feeding them at no charge. I didn’t get many more details but it was clear that it was a mad rush for safety. One person equated the experience to being on the Titanic. I’m sure this was harrowing but the Titanic might have been a step up. That’s all I have on the disaster. Pray for those still missing and hopefully they will be found. I’ve always said I’m not a “cruise guy”. For some reason I just don’t want to be held captive on anything that I can’t get off of when I want.

As I said, today the misses works so I’ll be making breakfast for the boys and taking them to and from school. The youngest has Destination Imagination after school so we’ll drop him off and pick him up around 4pm. We need to let both boys sleep as late as possible this morning as I’m sure they both need it. It’s 4:35 now so I think I can squeeze in a trip to the gym.

Tomorrow it’ll be 22 days since the misses and I had any adult beverages which is a milestone as they say it takes exactly that long to break a habit. Now this isn’t like smoking or anything as it’s just a mindset. We’re both in trying to get as healthy as we can this year. When we were getting the birthday boy his new bike, we were talking to the salesman who told us about a type of race that instead of a triathlon is something like a dualathalon meaning you have just the swim and the bike and no run, or two of the three. The misses is searching for various races to find one she can focus on. She might just go for the full fledged triathlon as she can swim, run and bike with no problem. We saw a beautiful tri road bike on sale as it was last years model. It was marked down to about $2500 which sounds like a lot but isn’t at all for a good bicycle. It’s actually a steal for what it is. For those of you that don’t know, a good road bike today runs between $7500 and $10,000! I’d sure like to get it for her but it seems pretty much out of reach. Maybe I can sell a hunting rifle or something and figure out a way to swing it as the misses really is a strong athlete. She’s one of those with natural ability, just a natural athlete. And while it’s true that 90% or so of your performance comes from training and heart, equipment does make a difference and is often the edge. Maybe we should start a fund for the misses new tri-bike??? Oh well, it’s always something. We’re still working on last years taxes but we’ll make do.

I’m debating whether or not to have a second cup of coffee or just head off to the gym. It’s supposed to warm up the next few days which will be nice so the boys can get some outdoor exercise. My right forearm is still killing me from lugging my carry on bags about 3 miles through 3 airports. It sure takes longer to recover as you get older!

I’m going to run, thanks for those of you that commented for the birthday boy, I shared your kind words with him. He was also very thankful for all his cards and gifts. We thank you too for helping make sure he had a great day.

Take care, God Bless and enjoy each and every moment.

Our youngest child is 8 years old today, WOW. First the oldest turned 10 and now 1 month to the day, the little guy (can’t say that anymore as it seems he grows every night) is now 8. We have a big day planned to follow up the pre birthday celebration from yesterday. Due to the holiday, the kids were off from school yesterday so we had a birthday lunch at his favorite local place and then took him up to Bicycle Village to get him a new bike. He’s of course very happy as his was actually too small for him last year and he rode his brothers whenever he could. He picked out a blue one with gears which is a step up for him as his previous “ride” had no gears. Turns out it’s actually a great time to buy a bike. Think about it, it’s the middle of winter and new models are arriving any day. So even though it was a tough expense to swallow, we’re really happy we were able to swing it.

Today the kids have school and he will be the toast of the town in his class all day and then it’s off to Big Time, the trampoline place where his brother had his party. There will be 12 or 14 kids, I can’t remember. It mushroomed into this large of a party as some kids overheard him inviting s friend at lunch and bam, the news spread fast. So there you are, 12 or 14 kids will be jumping up and down from 3:30 until 5:30pm. Then we’ll head off downtown to join Grandma, Uncle T and Aunt B at the Buckhorn for dinner. Thanks very very much to Grandma for taking us all out to dinner. The Buckhorn might be the oldest restaurant in Denver dating back to the late 1800’s. There are hundreds of animal heads all over the walls from bear to elk to deer to antelope as it is a true historical western landmark. There was some famous shooting there in the 1800’s which I can’t remember but it still has significance today. For me, I remember going there with my dad many times as he used to love it. This will be the first time any of us have been back since my dad has been gone so it will be bittersweet. Funny how life goes on and on. I hope the kids enjoy this place as much as we do, I’m sure they will. So it’s now 4;15am and soon the big day will start. I’ve been up since 3:30 or so as I’m still on Italian time a bit.

We went up to Grandma’s yesterday and she looks good but is still in mourning for her beloved Green Bay Packers. She’s still trying to make sense of it all as she said, the team just didn’t play like they normally do. We’re all sad for her but are now rooting for the San Francisco 49ers. This of course is the misses team and Grandpa Bob’s and Grandma Annette and Grandpa Jim and everyone else in the bay area. It’s also the only team that I have any attachment to as well, so go 49ers!

I forgot to let you all know how clean the house was when I arrived home as frankly, I was too tired to even see it. The misses really worked hard to get things sparkling. Of course it doesn’t take long for 2 boys and 2 dogs to make a mess.

We had a couple inches of snow yesterday and it’s cool outside now but I’m still heading off to the gym when I finish. I’m pretty much taking the day off with the youngest ones birthday so I can help with all the festivities. I think I’ll run now and get some more coffee and start the day. One more day of cold temps around here and then it’s supposed to warm up a bit. Give the 8 year old a call today if you can. The best time to reach us would be around 8:30 pm our time as we should be home by then. I’m sure the birthday boy will be showered with gifts today with a dozen kids attending his party. Sometimes his older brother gets more attention so we’re glad that it’s turning out to be a big day for  him. His brother came up to me last night and said, “dad, I haven’t got Ty a present yet” so today I’ll have to pick up something for him to give to his brother.

No tv yesterday and the kids didn’t miss a thing. Turns out nothing much changed in the world either. Politics still suck as does the economy and there’s still a bunch of bad people doing bad things. (you see the news never shows anything good as it doesn’t get ratings) We had classical music playing most of the day and I think I now know how to waltz. Maybe today the misses and I will dance!

Take care, God Bless and we hope you all are well and have a joyful day.