And it's Gone!

No, I mean really gone. My parents have come to visit for the weekend and the princess showed off the loose tooth to them. I guess momma and I are just too far removed from our tooth loosing days to realize how fast they fall out. Not 20 minutes after they got here, she was eating a cooking when my Mom noticed a gap in her teeth. Somehow, the cookie had dislodged it and it was nowhere to be found in the area. It is presumed somewhere in her stomach at this point.
So, we just had to write the tooth fairy a note, signed by Momma as a witness, of course, that she really had lost her tooth. I guess we'll see in the morning if it was good enough to cash in :-)

A Tooth on the Loose

The girl is gowing up too fast. Today, she comes home from school and now has her first loose tooth. It's been decades since I went through that, so I don't remember how it goes anymore. Thankfully, I have the internet now to remind me.
Of course, the biggest thing I'm going to have to find out is what the current market value of baby teeth are. You know, have to make sure the Tooth Fairy doesn't short change my princess when it comes time for the under the pillow exchange.

Momma (verb)

My son is about 18 months old now. He has a growing vocabulary and he clearly understands a lot of words we say that he is not yet speaking back to us.

But, one of his favorite words is Momma. Of course, he's refering to my wife. However, it seems he's not always refering to her as a noun. For him, Momma is a verb. He will say Momma, but what he really means is...

Momma, I'm hungry!

Momma, I'm thirsty!

Momma, carry me!

Momma, take me with you!

Momma, change my diaper!


So far, Daddy just means myself in the noun sense. But Momma is definitely a verb - she's what's happening.

A strange sight - "Cheap" Gas

Just a quickie - I saw something today that I've not seen since I don't remember when.


Gas for $1.99 here in Pearland. Seems like it was just a month ago that $2.85 was scoring a good deal.

I may have to go trade that minivan in on a Suburban.......nah!

Meeting the Neighbors, again

It's been a quiet last couple of days. Now that momma is no longer traveling away, things are somewhat back to normal. But, the really nice thing is that now that the weather is cooling down, we can start hanging out with the neighbors in the front yard again visiting while all the kids run around. The two houses to the south of ours have been owned by the same people for several years and both have kids of a similar age to ours. It's nice to just enjoy the weather, talk about how life is going, and give the kids a chance to wear themselves out before bed time.
I suppose it's the kind of thing the single and/or chldless set does at their coffee shops, except it doesn't cost me $6 a cup to do.

Ed, Where the Hell have You Been?

Wow, it's been a whole week now since I last posted anything, so I guess I'd better check in. First off, apologies for skipping out on SPF this week. The last several days have been a blur as I've generally been at least double booked or worse the whole time.
My kids are still alive and we survived our time together with Momma away in Chicago. She came back Friday after a good trip. Actually, the kids and I had a pretty good time together and the days flew quickly.
On Saturday, the princess had her second soccer game of the season. The weather was awful - super humid and hot. Everyone was pretty much boiling in the air. But, the girl did great and played aggressively. She's going to be a tough one by the end of the season.
After the game, she attended her first birthday party for a girl from her new school. Close to half her class was there and I could see that she got along well with them. I got to meet some of the other parents, although, I'm sure I won't be able to remember their names for long. I truly suck at names.
Yesterday, I had my first day of teaching CCE at the Church. The princess started her Kindergarten class while I taught 1st grade across the hall. Overall, the first day went well and I'm pretty excited that it's going to be a good year.
Today, it was back to work on a normal schedule. Actually, work these days is the easy part.
I'll try to do a better job of posting and making the SPF rounds this week, but it's going to be another fairly full one. Stay tuned!

On my own

My wife has a good job. She's slowly starting to realize it. She works 32hrs a week from home for a company up in the great white north (Chicago). It gives her a lot of flexibility, particularly when it comes to taking care of the kids.
Well, as part of the deal, she has to go up to Chicago for one week each quarter. You guessed it, this is the week. She flew out this morning and she'll be back Friday night. Until then, It's just me, a five year old princess, and a one and a half year old tornado. We survived our first day pretty well and I can tell I'm definitely doing well as I had them both asleep by 8:15pm, which is a major feat in our household. It even gives me a chance to do a little post here tonight.
The princess started a new Karate class. Momma would have to sign the daughter up for a class that starts while she's out of town. But, I got her there just fine and managed to keep the tornado occupied during the class. He was wiped out and went down pretty easily after we got home.
Well, I think I'm going to see about getting a early bed time tonight myself!

I've switched

Alright, just a quickie post this morning. I've joined the modern world and switched over to the new Beta of Blogger. Guess we'll see how it goes.

A challenging Stuff Portrait Friday

So, we're supposed to be challenged with the subjects for this week's SPF? Well, I suspect we will get to see some interesting responses. Here's what I came up with:

1. Your Freedom

This is my wedding ring. It represents my marriage, which is my freedom. Now you're asking "What kind of crack are you on, Ed? Marriage is freedom???" For me, yes. And I'll explain.
As of this past September 4th, my wife and I have been married for 13 years. We've had our ups and downs and it has often been a struggle, but a worthwhile one, nonetheless. My marriage means that I am free to be the man that I am and I'm free to grow to become a better one. I don't have to pretend to be something I'm not, trying to sell myself in the dating meat market. After thirteen years, my wife and I are free to go out to dinner in shorts and tee shirts becuase we know we don't have to impress anyone else - it only matters that we care for each other and accept each other.
Despite my regular quip to my wife that I got married becuase she clubbed me and drug me to the altar, I know that I freely chose this relationship and the lifetime commitment that it entails. I look forward to growing old with her.

2. Your Hope

This is the sculpture of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that hangs upon the cross in the church my family are members of. He is my hope for salvation. But, I also know that many have done evil, claiming to act in his name. A majority of Americans call themselves Christian, yet we have no shortages in this country of failed marriages, abused children, murder, rape, theft. I am certainly no saint, myself. It is my hope that, especially those who would call themselves Christians, will really embrace Christ's call to love and charity towards our neighbor, and that we will stop using him as a club, a prop, or a snobbish justification that we're better than anyone else. We are all God's children, and we should treat each other accordingly.

3. Your Wish

This is a picture of me holding my daughter, who was obviously a newborn at the time. This was about five and a half years ago and I had managed, through a lot of sweat and reasonable diet, to get my weight down pretty close to where I wanted to stay. I was still on the high end of the BMI scale, but I was in about the best shape I'd ever been.
My wish is to get myself back to this state. I'm now about 40 pounds heavier than I was in this picture for a number of reasons. Actually, several years before this picture, through no sweat and a lot of bad eating, I peaked at a good 60 pounds above what I was in the picture. So, I haven't completely slipped back. But, it means that I was able to lose the weight before, so I know I just have to apply myself and I can get there again.

An Internet Free Holiday Weekend

Since my last post I have, for all effective purposes, been
Internet free until now.I spent the long holiday weekend away from the house.First, on the annual reunion gathering that my wife’s family has each year, and then over to San Antonioto visit with my own family.

We made our journey from home on Friday with some of my in-laws and that was a tough drive. I think I now know why. Both Texas and Texas A&M were having opening home games this past Saturday, so we were stuck in the migration traffic from Houston to both College Station and Austin. Once we made it out of Austin, things went smoothly the rest of the way to Lake
Travis, where the reunion was hosted.

Saturday was my 34^th birthday and we spent the day at the reunion. I’m old, but still not as old as Shell. I’ll try to get pictures posted to Flickr soon, but it’s probably going to take me a few days to find the time. We played games, went swimming, and just generally had a good time all around. Attendance was down some this year, and those who didn’t come this time really missed out.

On Sunday, we made our way down to San Antonio to see my parents (and so they could see their grandkids, you know how those old people get) We had a great lunch and then spent the afternoon resting while the kids splashed around and played with the grandparents. Later in the afternoon, we took our daughter on the promised returned to the Castle for bumper boats, golf, and arcade games. After that, we took her back to the grandparents and the wife and I went out for dinner on our own.

Yesterday was our 13^th anniversary and we spent it traveling home. The drive home was surprising difficult as traffic on Interstate 10
was the worst I’ve ever seen. Even in the middle of nowhere, traffic would come to a complete stop for no apparent reason. And, it was a banner day for the
state highway patrol as we passed dozens of points where they had someone
pulled over. At least the kids took a nap for the majority of the drive, so at least that part went well. We pretty much spent the rest of the day recovering from the mess we left behind, getting all our stuff unpacked, and preparing for the rest of the week. Even though it’s a short one, it is extremely busy for us, especially in the evenings. Next week is even worse, but I’ll get to that as events progress.

So, due to either not having internet access at all, or otherwise not even having time to sit at a computer, I was pretty much unplugged these last few days. I can tell that I’m never going to get caught up, but all in all it was a nice break. Now I just need to take a vacation to recover!

Stuff Portrait Friday - Round 2

Yes, it really is two SPF weekly posts in a row from me. This is starting to look like a trend. So, this week's topics are:

1. Show your Support (everyone supports something right?)


This is my Chapeau and Sword that I wear as a member of the Knights of Columbus - a organization that I support. The Knights are a lay fraternal order of Catholic men committed to a number of principles, Charity being first among them.

2. Show me your sacrifice (everyone makes them right?)

I decided to try to be a little artsy with this one - I saw this effect once and I was able to use my flash as a backlight through the bottles. But, why is this a sacrifice? Because, I have had to give up sugar sodas and this picture represents them. I'm struggling to get my weight under control and I've struggled with rises and falls for most of my adult life. I could easily down a two liter of Coke or Big Red every day and often did. That's a whole lot of high fructose corn syrup calories that I've sucked down over the years. So, for a good while now, I've been transitioning to diet soda and now that transition is complete. Thankfully, Splenda is making the change a good bit easier as it gives diet sodas a taste that is closer to sugar sodas - close enough for me to survive on, anyway.

3. Something red.

Well this one was easy enough. The cape that I wear as a KC has a red liner as I am a basic honor guard member.

Apologies in advance to the other players. I'll be traveling over the Labor Day weekend, so my Internet access will be limited. I'll try to check out everyone else's entries as I can. Have a good weekend, everyone.