Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind… all the best to everyone in 2012 and beyond!
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Happy New Year!
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Where Did Everybody Go?
Is there really time enough at last to make regular posts? No and there never will be, I would guess. Our last post here was almost one year ago when Emme was born, which means that she turned exactly a year old yesterday. Most of our time, when it allows, is spent on Facebook with our friends there. Feel free to come find us there but don’t expect too much more posted here.
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Bonus Baby!
Happy Father’s Day to my father and all fathers out there! I’m also taking this moment to welcome our daughter, Emme Elizabeth Moon, to the family – born 17 June at 1:25 PM, weighing in at 8 lbs 15 oz and measuring 20 inches in length (on the same day the Red Sox and Fenway Park celebrated its 500th consecutive sellout with a win). Life is grand!
The Red Sox are off to a slow start – in fact, their worst start since 1996 at 3-6 – but there is little reason to push the panic button just yet barely two weeks into the season. Old-timer Tim Wakefield gave us reason to believe this afternoon against Oakland with a complete-game victory against the Athletics in which he went seven-plus innings before yielding a hit. This was coming less than a day after the Sox not only lost in 12 innings but also lost Daisuke Matsuzaka due to “arm fatigue” after just one inning of work in his start. So the Sox get an off-day tomorrow (Thursday) before starting a nine-game home stand Friday, where we hope to see them pull back to .500 before going back on the road.
Baseball also begins soon for Jakob, who we signed up for T-ball. He collects his uniform this weekend and practices start in May. Jeff has signed up as an assistant coach and, having dealt with his softball team for the past three seasons, should be ready to handle five and six year olds (or so we hope!).
In other news, the baby’s due date is exactly nine weeks from tomorrow (18 June)! Tiffany is more than ready to have the baby now but realizes that waiting another couple months will be worth it. We visited our friend Alex the other week who just had her first this past winter and the kids seemed taken by her, so we hope that will translate to having one around all the time very soon.
Happy Tax Day?
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It’s A Nice Day To Start Again
Unfortunately, we needed to make a switch from one hosting account to another and, as such, our old posts have disappeared. Hopefully, this is just a momentary lapse.
Obladi oblada life goes on bra
Lala how the life goes on
UPDATE – 6:00 PM Wednesday: We’re back!
Twice in the past week we’ve had major snow melts. Late last week we saw several large mounds nearly disappear, but then we got socked with another foot of snow Monday, only to see it nearly disappear again over the past two days with temperatures close to 60°F. That should mean that spring is getting close; in fact, tonight is when we are suppose to set our clocks ahead one hour for Daylight Savings Time. It seems strange to be doing it so soon – didn’t it use to be the last weekend in April? – but I’d rather be enjoying more daylight late, even if it means going to work a few weeks in near-darkness.
So what’s happened since our last post – wow, that was in mid-December? Well, for one, I had arthroscopic surgery on my right knee to clear out some “floaters” that had been making it damn-near uncomfortable for the better part of six months. It only seems to have been a temporary fix, however; I’m still having some issues with it so I may need surgery again. We’ll see – only time will tell.
Jakob and Lea are still enjoying school. Jakob has caught up with his classmates, which is good news for him because it means that he’ll be heading to first grade this fall. We also have him signed up for Little League this spring; that should be fun and I’ve signed up to volunteer as a coach. Lea also tested for pre-K in the local public schools and easily passed, so she should be where Jake is this year, though he’ll be going to another school next year. That means, of course, that we’ll need to figure out how to get them both to school on time.
The big news is that we are expecting number three in June! Tiffany is finishing her second trimester and all appears to be well. According to the ultrasound, it will be a little girl, which means that Jake and I will be grossly outnumbered in this house (even our two cats are female). The kids are very excited to meet their new baby sister; both of them are also claiming to have babies in their bellies like Mommy so we’re playing along with it.
Finally, Opening Day is less than a month away now (06 April) and this year the Red Sox actually open at Fenway Park, which is a little unusual. According to Baseball-Reference.com, the Sox have not opened at home since 2002, when they lost 12-11 to Toronto, and the last one before that was in 1995 against Minnesota, though that opener, due to the 1994 baseball strike, came on 26 April. I plan to attend at least another half-dozen games this season, which should be a fun one. The Sox came within one game of the World Series last year with nearly the same team so they should be contenders again this season.
See you in another few months! … or sooner… or later… ha!
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Change 2.0
That didn’t take long! After just a couple of days, we decided that the Elegant Grunge theme was not our style, so we did another search and found this theme. Nothing flashy but it works.
Today we woke up to the experience of having an ice storm pass through the region, leaving trees covered in ice and downing several limbs under its weight. Several places are without power and this post is made possible only with the assistance of Jeff’s work account.
**UPDATE** Power has been restored as of one hour ago (8:00 PM). Joy and rapture!
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A Change Would Do You Good
Six months has to be a record between posts on most sites that have not been completely abandoned, though this one gets as close to that as possible. Again, it’s not for lack of news but just that we find ourselves caught up in our everyday lives with more important matters to attend versus writing about them here. Well, one change that we are making here is the design of the site – welcome Elegant Grunge 0.4.3 by Michael Tyson. As I understand it, it was developed more for photobloggers but I thought it just looked cool. If you like it, feel free to visit his site using the link at the bottom of the page.
Our beloved Red Sox were NOT able to repeat as champions this season, though they made it as far as Game Seven of the ALCS versus Tampa Bay (a surprise contender this season). The season was still a lot of fun as we got to witness several exciting games at Fenway Park this season. Hands down, the best was the last game Jeff witnessed, Game Five of the ALCS. Down 7-0 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, the Sox rallied for four runs, then three more in the eighth before winning the game in walk-off fashion in the ninth to force the series back to Tampa after the Rays appeared to be ready to head to the World Series. It was the second-biggest comeback in post-season history and the biggest in ALCS history.
Jakob and Lea are both settled into school, Jake being in kindergarten and Lea in her first year of preschool. It amazes us how much they absorb; Jakob has been learning to spell simple words like C-A-T and B-A-L-L but last week rattled off A-I-R-P-L-A-N-E like it was nothing. After being so far behind his preschool classmates two years ago, he has made huge strides in the past year and should be ready for grade school next year. Lea loves preschool, especially because it means the chance to glue things, like googly eyes to Popsicle sticks. Her vocabulary is incredible, too – what comes out of her mouth sometimes stops us in our tracks (and no, it’s not bad language!).
Our only recent news is that we lost Koko due to illness but rescued another cat from a local shelter. She is a American shorthair with tabby markings that named Zoey because Jakob was calling her “Zoo Kitty” after seeing her and all the other cats caged at the shelter. She appears to be very well-behaved and affectionate towards everyone in the family, and she shows a lot of tolerance for the kids, who often need to be reminded to treat her gently so she won’t hide from them.
More changes may be coming to the site but that will depend on a great many things… in the meanwhile, enjoy the holidays!
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The Sweetest Thing
I won’t lie – I am not a big basketball fan and neither is anyone else in our house. Still, with greater Boston celebrating another championship from a local sports, you can’t help but get caught up in the excitement. Last night, the Boston Celtics crushed the Los Angeles Lakers, 131-92, to win the team’s 17th NBA championship, the most in league history (the Lakers are second with 14). Paul Pierce won the championship MVP as he, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen, with a collective 35 All-Star appearances, each won his first NBA title. What is probably more amazing is that the team went from having the second-worst record last season and, with some bad bounces by the ping-pong balls, losing out on the top two picks in last year’s draft to NBA glory, the biggest single-season turn-around in league history.
So that makes two championships (counting the Red Sox 2007 World Series title) and two missed opportunities for championships (Patriots and Revolution) in the past eight months. Do you think we are getting our fill around here?
At home, Jakob has made leaps and bounds in his development. Everyone – his teachers, his therapists, and his doctors as well as his parents – is impressed with how far he has come in the past year. Best of all, he’s off to kindergarten this fall! Lea will be starting school then, too, and we’re pretty sure that she will have no trouble making the transition.
For us, after making improvements inside, our focus is now shifting to outside the house. Last summer, I tore down the old shed behind our garage and had a new one installed in late April. No longer will I have to keep my truck parked outside and store my lawn mower, snow blower, and other items in its garage bay. Right now, I’m in the midst of a deck project in the backyard that’s near completion. It’s an island deck, meaning that it sits less than a foot off the ground and isn’t tied to the house. We’ve had every intention of building one for the past few years but I finally took the initiative recently after my mother passed along some simple plans that she found in a woodworking magazine. I even added some built-in bench seats and it should be a great place for an outdoor dinner or just to relax. After this, we will be turning to the gardens as Tiffany wants to spruce up some neglected beds and bring a little more color to the yard – green grass is nice, but…
One final note: Tiffany and I will celebrate ten years of marriage on 27 June. Hooray for us! Take care, everyone.
It seems as though we’ve again neglected this site for months (five, to be exact) but we just find ourselves busy with this, that, and the other thing. Honestly, how interesting can our everyday lives be to the people that come here? It seems as though life is very routine these days; I go to work Monday through Friday, Tiffany goes in for an evening or two at the hospital each week, Jakob has school on weekdays, and Lea goes along for the ride.
Does that mean that it’s boring? Far from it! What entertains us are the little things with which the kids surprise us nearly everyday. One day, Jakob counts to 30; another day, Lea sings her ABCs. One day, the kids dress themselves without our helps; another day, they’re chasing after each other on the playground, laughing and giggling the whole time.
Jakob turns five at the end of the week and he’s already enjoying the idea of being five. Remember being five? I don’t but maybe it would be nice to be five again, even for a day.
Now for the obligatory Red Sox news bite: Boston is back on the field preparing for Opening Day tomorrow afternoon at Fenway Park. It’s been an interesting start this season for the local nine; they traveled to Japan for two games against the Athletics to open the regular season, then returned a week later to play two more in Oakland. Next, they spent the weekend in Toronto, where they got swept. Now the Sox will have a chance to spend 13 of their next 17 games within the friendly confines of Fenway. Plus, prior to tomorrow’s action, the Sox will hold a championship ring ceremony and raise the 2007 World Series winning pennant, so that will be fun to watch.
Take care, everyone!