Where have I been?

2008 04 05_kids birthday party_0006.JPG, originally uploaded by ultimate_ed.

Yeah, yeah, I know. It's been a long stretch since I've posted. I keep meaning to and I've let a number of topics slip by on me. Truth be told, I've gotten sucked in to playing a good amount of Call of Duty 4 online. I hadn't seriously played an online shooter like this since the glory days of Quake 2.
So, what's been up? Here's the short recap. I made my weight loss challenge. 19lbs dropped in the 10 weeks of the challenge. I've slipped back up a few lbs in the last month, but I've reversed the slipping trend this week and I'm working my way back down again. I finished at 216 on the scale at work. I want to push to get down to 200 by the end of the year. I think I'm on track this time.

Now, as for the picture. That's the tornado taking a swing at the pinata we got for the combined birthday party we had for both the kids. With their birthdays two weeks apart, it becomes a bit of a struggle to do different parties. This year, we're getting them one big present of a playground for the backyard. So, we elected for a fairly simple party at the park for family and friends. It was probably one of the best we've had or been to. The weather was perfect. The kids had a blast on the playground. Everyone had just enough pizza and we didn't get stuck with a bunch of leftovers. And, the parents could hang out and relax and chat for a while. The pavilion is dirt cheap to rent for the day from the city and we didn't have any pressure to be packed up and out after exactly two hours so the next party on the production line could come in behind us.
Where have my weight loss pictures been? Well, I've definitely fallen behind on that as well. Can't post pictures I haven't been taking now, can I? I shall endeavor to start that up again this weekend.

Pearland Winterfest

2008 01 12 Pearland Winterfest 018, originally uploaded by ultimate_ed.

Yesterday was a pretty full day. Once again, our city's Parks Department held it's annual "Winterfest" at the big park in town. This year was generally better than recent ones. Pearland is growing very rapidly and it has been the case in years past that the city has not been able to put on an event big enough to hold everyone in town that shows up for it. This year, there was a good bit more to do and things were spread out around the park. So, even though there were a lot of people there, it didn't feel as crowded.
Both the kids had a great time, as you can see here. Both took to the snow field and the snow mountain slide. The princess and I road the Ferris Wheel and she also ascended to the top of a 40 foot tall rock wall that was brought in.
It's things like this that I enjoy about living in Pearland.

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!

Weekend Roundup

Well, I've survived another weekend. This time, my parents came to visit us - well, acutally, they come to see the grandkids :-)
The wife and I were able to get a few things done around the house and we also got to go out to dinner and a movie - JUST THE TWO OF US!!! We finally saw the new Pirates of the Carribean movie. We enjoyed it, although it could have been trimmed up tighter than the 2 1/2 hour run time w/o losing anything. Still, I'm definitely looking foward to number 3.
Our daughter starts kindergarten on Thursday (yikes, it's really here!) and there was an open house at her new school today. The school is brand new and looks amazing. We got to meet her teacher and some of the other parents of the kids in her class. She is already going to know two others that have been going to the Montessori school with her these last several years. She's been at the Montessori school since she was one, so this is going to be a big change for her. Overall, she seems excited, especially since she already knows some other kids. Her cousin and some other kids that she knows will also be there in the other kindergarten classes (I think they have eight of them), so there will be plenty of familiar faces. Thursday is the big day. I think Momma and I are more nervous that she is.
Finally, we finished the evening with the traditional birthday gathering at Pancho's. My father-in-law, sister-in-law, and her husband all have their birthdays at this time, and they always pick Pancho's for the birthday dinner place. The food isn't the best, but, there's not many places that you can gather with eight young kids that don't involve animatronics. We had a good time and now it's just time for settling down and getting ready for the new week.

Big Weekend

 
As promised, finally, here's my report for the weekend. It was a full one. On Saturday, we were pretty much committed to my daughter's dance recital. This is her second year, so we were better prepared for what to expect. The wife served as a "recital mom" and, based on last year's experience, did a great job of making sure the girls were taken care of during the long wait for their turn on stage.
We started off with a full dress rehearsal in the morning. We got Denali fitted in her costume and the wife did her makeup. The rehearsal went well and I was able to video it (no camcorders allowed for the real show - after all, they have to make a few bucks from the "professional" video shoot, but I digress....) and I'll probably try to post that to YouTube when I get a chance to work on it. Afterard, I let the wife have the pro photographer take pics of Denali all made up (the group pictures of the girls came in the evening). After that, we went home, got changed and went to lunch. My parents were in town to visit and we had a good meal at Gringo's.
The short afternoon was pretty much spent catching some rest. Jen had just come back from Chicago Friday, so she was still recovering from that as well.
The evening came quick enough. We had to be there by 6p for a 7p showtime. There were a good 30 acts for the evening with different dance groups from the different schools around town. Denali's group was in the second half after the intermission. They tapped to "Disney's Mambo #5" which is a kiddyfied version of the Lou Bega hit song. The girls got to go on about 9pm, so it was a long night. They were cute and it was a good show. We finally all went home after her number as there was still at least a good hour's worth of acts left to go after she finished. We wish they would start the show in the late afternoon rather than 7p so that it wouldn't be such a late night. However, we expect this will be her last year since she'll no longer be at Silverline.
As for Sunday, well that was the annual Bazaar at St. Helen Catholic Church, where we are parishioners. As has become tradition, I work on the parking crew. Since we built the new church building a few years ago, parking has been a challenge. On Bazaar day, this is multiplied tenfold. Even though the church runs shuttle buses from the nearby middle school, for some reason most people prefer to park and walk themselves. In many cases, their walking much further than if they had just taken the shuttle - did I mentioned the buses are even air conditioned? Anyway, the parking crew works to efficiently get cars in and out of the lot, especially in the morning when there is a mix of church goer traffic and Bazaar worker traffic. We have to reserve the back parking lot for the handicapped, so that's also a full time watch point. All in all, there are probably close to 20 of us working the lot over the course of the day. I went to work after the 7am mass. I took a few hours in the afternoon to have lunch and spend time at the Bazaar with the parents, wife, and kids. Denali and I went down the big slide together several times. After that, it was off to another birthday party for Denali, so I went back to work parking and finished up about 5pm. Since I've been doing this for a few years, I know just what it takes to avoid getting overheated and burned. I haven't heard the results yet, but it looks like we had a pretty good crowd again this year. 

And there was much coughing....

Well, it's a dreary Sunday morning and the report from the homefront is that three of the four of us are sick. The wife, myself, and the youngest boy all have the crud that has been running through the area. Coughing, sneezing, congestion, fatigue - the usual. Although, no fever. Seems we never get a fever with this.
My daughter has a touch of it, but she's mostly in good shape. Which, naturally, makes it worse becuase she wants to do things, but Momma and I are doing well to keep ourselves and the boy taken care of.
It's been a busy week, which is why I've been light on posting here. I had two meetings this week and the wife had some as well. She's gotten wrapped up in the PTA for the school that our daughter will be going to in the fall. Overall, I think it will be good for her to connect with other parents at the school, but right now, there's a lot of work involved in getting everything set up. As though we needed to add more to our schedule!