Playtime with the Kiddos

Had a great evening with my wonderful family tonight

Katie fixed an awesome dinner....leftover pizza, queso, and dip.  I used the last of the chicken which kinda kept her from making the soup she had planned on making.

After dinner I played on the computer with Ben.  We played Diego Safari and Thomas the Train.  He's getting really good at them both.  We're going to try and play several days a week so that he can get better.  I started about the time I was four and have loved computers all my life, still do.  He's getting a late start considering how prevalent computers how but I'm pretty sure I can catch him up.

Got Ben in bed then had some play time with Lexi.  She's getting so close to crawling.  She gets up on all fours, projects herself forward, scooches her legs up and then does it again.  It's not exactly crawling but she can certainly move.  She played in her bounce station and we laughed and played.  We played with her dolls, well the teething 5 month old mostly chewed on them, but we played all the same.

Now I'm catching up on some shows, email, blogs, and eventually going to get a little work done.

A New Year

I am getting a late start to the new year.......but better late than never

The last 8 months of my life have been a blur...a big project at work on a condensed time frame put my life on semi-hold.  Reading, blogging, etc went by the way side.  I would go into more detail but part of my new outlook (thanks to my wife) is to not dwell on the bad but focus on the good and positive.  Then Lexi was born late August and that added a wonderful new element to the blur.  The project at worked is mostly wrapped - at least slowed down, Lexi is 5 months and counting so life is coming back to a normal pace.  With that comes a whole list of important things back into life -

• Bible Study
• Family Time
• Exercise (need to lose the 60 lbs I've put on in the last year)
• Blogging
• Reading
• Etc., etc., etc.

Whirlwind Month

It is crazy to me that it is the 28th of September already. Where had this month gone. It seams like only yesterday that it was the beginning of the month. It seams like Katie and Ben and I have had something to do every week and weekend and work has been more than crazy.

Benjamin started Mothers Day Out this month and it is awesome. He loves it. He goes there on Tuesday and Thursday from 9 - 2:30. It is amazing to see how many things he is learning both from the teachers and from the other kids. He is getting so good at talking. He is consistently speaking in full sentences and is enunciation is improving in leaps and bounds. We had a little period where he had some trouble adjusting from being with Mommy all day every day to being at MDO two days a week. He is essentially spending 18 hours a week up at the Church between Sunday, Monday MOMs, MDO, and Wed night. Needless to say it took him a little while to adjust to that. He was very much missing his mommy time for a while.

Katie is really enjoying school. At first it was very overwhelming but now she is settling into the routine and doing very well. She has always been a excellent student and now is no different. She works very hard and will continue to do well. It's taking a lot more time than she was expecting to be in there full time so next semester she is considering backing off to part time but either way I'm very proud of her and excited that she is working on finishing.

Work has been crazy. Every week there is a big deadline and a big project that we've been working on. I have one long term project that has been taking up an enormous amount of time along with other shorter term things here and there. It has been a crazy month and will probably keep up at this pace through the end of the year. It's a very exciting time at the office as lots of things are falling into place to lead to us growing and really starting to get moving ahead like we've been working on for a while now.

A Proud Day

Today was Benjamin's first day of Mother's Day Out. It's not really his first day of school but in a lot of ways it felt that way. We headed out the door this morning book bag and lunch box in tow. Walked him up to his classroom and headed off. He had a great day. He's going Tues and Thurs from 9 AM to 2:30 PM. It's a great time for him . He's going to be learning stuff, playing with friends, and most importantly spending time with other kids and learning to interact and share. It also gives Katie several hours of time to take classes and study.

Benjamin never ceases to amaze me and Katie and I are very proud of him.

Weekends are too short

This weekend was a lot of fun. As usual it flew by. Friday night we went out for Pizza and Beer with some friends. We had a really good time. Ben got to laugh and play with one of his friends and Katie and I got to spend some time with a really great couple that we are trying to hang out with more often.

Saturday morning my sister was in town for my uncle Joe's wedding so we went over to parents house for donuts and pastry and to visit. It was a really good visit and lots of fun. Benjamin had a blast and it was good to get to visit with my sister.

Saturday night it was off to Tres Suenos Winery outside of Luther, OK for my Uncle Joe's wedding. It was a good wedding but boy was it hot and it was an outside wedding. Thankfully they had us inside prior to the ceremony since it started almost 45 min late. Then we were outside for 35 min for the ceremony. It was very beautiful. They were having a problem with the sound equipment so unfortunately we couldn't hear any of it, but it was really nice. Plus we got to restock the wine rack with some really good wine so that was a plus.

This morning we headed to Sunday School and Church. After that I had a middle school parent lunch that I went to so I could meet some of the parents of my eighth graders. Met just a few of them but spent most of the time corralling the students while the parents learning about the MSM (Middle School Ministry)

This evening we went to a joint Sunday School back to school pool party at a neighborhood aquatic center. It was a blast. They have a water slide and a walk in "beach" front pool. Ben had a blast. He loved being able to walk into the water and play. He thought people coming down the water slide was great too.

Now I'm doing the Sunday night routine of looking at what's involved in the week and getting things ready.

I'm a tech geek

So I finally broke down and agreed to get Katie and iPod. I had resisted before and the last time she wanted an MP3 play gotten her another kind. It worked but just didn't have all of the bells and wistles. I thought it would be a good going back to school thing so she is now the proud owner of a pink nano.

The nano showed up today and I think I was every bit as excited to load it as she was to use it. I've been working on importing all of her CDs and setting it up. I hope that it proves useful and enjoyable.

I love Sundays

Sunday's are great. Typical Sunday means getting up and going to Sunday School and Church. Afterward going out to lunch with Katie and Benjamin. Home to nap, mow the lawn, etc. before community group starts.

This Sunday started a little differently because Ben decided that he'd wake up a little early. 5 AM early. So he and I were watching 101 Dalmations this morning. Well he was watching it and I was trying to get a little more sleep between requests for Milk, books and etc.

Once it got to be a normal hour everyone got ready and we headed to Church. Sunday school was really good and Church was excellent. After that we headed to Qdoba to grab some food. Ben had peed on his shoes while in the nursery so between him not having shoes and being up super early we decided to grab the food and take it home. We ate lunch and Katie and Ben load down for a nap. I ran to Sears to grab some weed eater cord and then headed back home to mow the yard.

After the yard I hopped through the shower and then finished getting ready for group. Group tonight was awesome. The people in our group are some our closest friends and we always have a good time. Tonight was no exception. We had a blast. We had a new couple that we had invited and they fit in really well.

Sunday ends with me relaxing and thinking about the week ahead. It's a good time to go through my to-do list at work set priorities for the week, check schedule, etc.

On that note.... I should probably get after it.

Oh yeah... just remembered.... this Sunday is exciting because I finally broke down and got Katie and iPod and it left the FedEx tactility in Memphis this afternoon which means it will probably be here tomorrow but definitely by Tues.

Fun Days

Friday was a great day at work. I got a ton accomplished and it was fast paced. Friday evening I went with some friends to play golf. It was my second time in two weeks. I also went last Friday which makes this the most I have played in more than a year. I had a great time and hope to keep playing about once a month. They guys I'm going with are a blast. I'm hoping to start playing about once a month to get back into practice and have some fun guy time. Yesterday I shot a 53 for nine holes which is averaging double bogey on each hole. I was very happy with that.

This morning I was at the Church for community group leader training. It was very good. They brought in the pastor who's in charge of community groups at Willow Creek. He has some excellent ideas and I enjoyed it very much.

After the training I picked up Ben from my parents and we came home and played and tidied up the house because we were having company over for dinner. My roommate from my freshmen year at OSU was joining us for dinner. He is a very good friend of mine and I just recently found out that he was living in OKC and he isn't living here much longer. He and I have gone to lunch a couple of times over the past few weeks and caught back up. He was interested to meet Katie and she him so we had him over for dinner tonight. It was a great time. Great food, conversation, all in all a wonderful evening.

Katie had non traditional student orientation day today at UCO. She enjoyed it and got a lot of good info. She's out at a fun before start of school event tonight. They were going to have laser tag, rock wall, and all kind of events tonight. She was going with a friend she met this morning and I'm glad she's going and getting involved.

Well..... I had better work on finishing the bible study for tomorrow nights group.