Pretty cold!

Well, it's certainly chilly around here ... no higher than the low 50s, if that today. I think it should warm up into the 60s over the next 10 days.

Today Timmy had his first soccer class and really did well. He cooperated with the other kids and followed the instructions of the teacher. More importantly, he enjoyed it!

In the morning Tim had his trial run at his preschool. He enjoyed that and Cyndie (who accompanied him) was happy with the school.

Emma (with Cyndie's help) has been filling out her birthday party invitations. She's very excited about the party, but being a little lazy about getting the invitations done.

That's the story from WI. Cyndie will be gone from Friday noon until Monday noon. Then I have a trip Wednesday afternoon through Friday night. That should make for a busy next week or so!

Neal and Cyndie go iPod ...

Well, we have finally made the plunge and purchased an iPod for the family. A week after we went retro and planted a weeping willow, we went trendy and did the iPod thing. Mostly it's a Mother's Day gift for Cyndie, but I'm sure I'll use it too. She's likes listening to books on "tape" (really CD), so we figured this would be a good way to do it, especially as she works out in the mornings.

Quickly

I have a lot of stuff to do for work this week (and a short week with Cyndie being gone), so I'll probably not post quite as much this week.

Some quick highlights ...

Cyndie got Tim signed up for pre-school at Calvary (for next fall). He goes tomorrow for a "trial" day (with Cyndie). Now he just needs to be potty trained (completely).

We got a dog run (wire between swing set and tree with pulley and wire to his collar) set up for Albert ... just in time for some rain!

Emma is busy today filling out invitations to her birthday party. This is the year for a "friends" party (as opposed to "family" ... we switch off every year).

Cyndie (and Emma) are busy trying to turn the guest room back into the guest room (from Emma's temporary room) and organizing Emma's room.

Cyndie is trying to find a trailer to get our spa with ... not as easy as we at first anticipated!

Sunday

Hey all ... not a whole lot new to report today. Emma's room is "done". We finished almost all the things that were on the list. About the only thing remaining is to cut and hang the mirror. That said, Emma slept in there last night, so we'll call things even, and consider it done. It looks great if I do say so myself.

The big activity for today was that we walked around to a few stores downtown because Emma wanted to spend some money she'd saved on a Webkin. Coincidentally, this weekend is Webkinz weekend or some such thing, so she ended up getting a real deal on her panda, who she named pansy.

So there you have it, weekend excitement. The excitement for next weekend is that Cyndie is headed to CA for a long weekend for a wedding and Grandma J's 100th birthday party.

Progress, but the list grows

So we got the balcony and railing up last night. It didn't take too long, and I was excited that that marked the "pretty much done" point for Emma's room. But then this morning while Cyndie was making some pancakes, we made a list of the things that we wanted to finish off today and it's a bit longer than I had hoped! I think we'll still be able to get it done today, it will just take a bit more time than I had hoped.

When the kids got up this morning, they were really excited to see the balcony and played on it a bunch (even at the expense of watching a movie!). They really liked jumping from the balcony onto the bed. They can both touch the ceiling from the balcony, and Emma can touch it with her head if she goes on her tippy toes! But she pointed out that she'll be able to use it a long time because even if she gets taller, she will spend most of her time up there sitting down.

It looks like a blustery day today! Probably a lot of time will be spent inside.

How Relaxing ...

What a nice way to start the weekend. We had some good food (ribs slow cooked all day). The kids were great at dinner ... they rushed home from the walk that they were on with Cyndie so that they could "make dinner" because they heard Cyndie say that she needed to get home to cook dinner* ... and now were sitting here quietly in the living room listening to the thunder and lightning and rain, while the kids play nicely together upstairs.

*They ended up not being able to "make dinner" (they were planning on having cereal for dinner because, according to Emma, "that's all we can make" ... I guess they have something in common with you, eh Dad?) since the ribs were already cooking. However, they were just as enthusiastic about setting the table, arranging the cookies (dessert) nicely on a plate, and helping to cook some frozen green beans.

Hopefully we'll have a productive and relaxing weekend. We're hoping to finish off Emma's room tonight and tomorrow. Tonight we'll just put the balcony up (with the railing). Then we'll do some finishing touches tomorrow. We'll try to take some pix and get them up sometime over the weekend.

GREAT Thunderstorm

Interesting weather today ... this morning around 10 or so, the sky was so dark it was almost like nighttime. Then the sky opens up and it just pours for a while. Following that was lighter rain and some really great thunder and lightning. It was really sunny around one, and now it's slightly cloudy and pretty breezy. I guess as we get used to have weather (of any sort), we'll also get used to the weather changing rather rapidly.

Timmy = Hilarious

So Emma gets home from school today, and she's in the laundry room taking her coat off (or something like that). She says to Timmy, "Tim, do you want to go play in our fort?" Timmy replies, "Yeah, come on Emma, let's go play in our fort" (pause) "What is our fort?".

It cracked me up. Just thought I'd share.

Sally Jane pix

Hey all, there's not a whole lot going on right now except for the new niece in the DeVries house ... Sally Jane. So, for those of you who may not have seen pictures of her yet, here you go ...

Sally Jane is in the house!

Hello all. Laura had the baby! Both Laura and the kid are doing great. This from Jane who is the privileged one who actually gets calls from the Laura and Gow:

This is the very proud and enthusiastic Aunt Jane announcing the birth and passing on more details on my new niece on behalf of her proud parents Neil & Laura Gowan:

Sally Jane was born at 12:12 pm (central time). She is 7 pounds 4 ounces and 21 inches long. She has a little bit of blackish/brownish hair, hazelish eyes, and a loud cry.

Laura sounded GREAT...just the same as when I talked to her last night. Of course she had lot of details to be share so here goes.... Most of all she said it went fast...they're still sort of in shock!

She started having light cramps about 10pm last night and then had contractions off and on all night. She was able to sleep some between them. About 4am she woke Neil/Gow up cuz she couldn't do it alone anymore. They got to the hospital at 8:25 this morning, and she was already 5cm dilated. At 9:36 she was 6-6.5 cm dilated and at that point had an epidural which she said was the biggest blessing from God! At 11:39 she started pushing and she was in this world not much later at 12:12 p.m.

They (Laura and Neil/Gow) are both exhausted. When she called, Sally Jane was in the nursery getting a bath and they were eating something I think. Before that Sally Jane had already nursed for an hour and 45 minutes.

Oh, of course you have to have "funny" story in the midst of this and that's that when Neil cut the cord, blood splattered all over him. =) Wouldn't be a Laura story without that!

We all join together in celebrating God's precious gift and praising Him!!!

Proudly, Auntie Jane

P.S. Watch their blog for photos soon...if you don't have that address, let me know!

Actual excitement ...

So I received a phone call this morning that Laura is laboring to rid her body of its little guest! This was about 8:30, and I believe the message was that she had been in labor for an hour or so. This is her due date, so she's right on schedule.

I'll post more news as I get it.

Life rolls along

Nothing horribly new or exciting to share here today, just some random thoughts/happenings.

Emma and Timmy each were told that they need some outside/play shoes so that they are not getting all their shoes dirty. Timmy's are some velcro ones that he can put on by himself ... we're very happy about that. He does a really good job, and only puts them on the wrong feet one out of every three times!

One of the kids favorite things to do is to go "wooding". In fact, Timmy calls his play shoes his woods shoes. Apparently wooding is the act of exploring your way through the forest around our house. This activity is made even more fun if you bring Albert with and have to try to deal with keeping him from wrapping his leash around every tree in sight (and there are a lot of those).

Emma finished her swim lesson session last night (Timmy finishes today). She passed onto the next class. She's doing very well, and getting braver and braver about getting her face wet.

Emma's room is getting closer and closer to done -- phase 1. The bed itself is pretty much finished We put up the curtains and last bit of trim last night as well as some finishing touches. The mis-measured bookshelves/Barbie mansion are in place. The next step is that I'll build the platform for the elevated play area and Cyndie will do some finishing touches. We also need to cut the mirror that we have for there in half so that we can get it up the stairs.

Introducing ...

So, here is the news that you've all been waiting for ...

I know the excitement level is high ...

I've decided to name the willow tree Otis.

Thanks to all for suggestions ... some more creative than others. It was a difficult decision, but I decided that I better not wait to come up with a name or it would never happen! Laura gets the grand prize for coming up with the name ... one that I consider to be sort of slow, laid back, country ... all things that a weeping willow is in my mind.

April showers

Well, it is April showers time. As I sit here there is a lovely rain storm watering my new willow tree ... the sound of the drops is awesome. Hopefully this will really green up the lawn (without all the work I see the neighbor across the street putting into his lawn).

Measure twice, cut once ... or something

So I learned a little lesson last night. After working on the bookshelves/Barbie house for much of a week, I was finished and so solicited Cyndie's help to carry the beast upstairs. I was a bit concerned that, due to the length, we might have a problem getting it around the corners and up the stairs. It turns out that that should not have concerned me. Rather, I should have thought to measure the width of the hallway ... 35 and three quarters inches ... to see if the width of the bookshelves ... 36 and one quarter inches ... was too great. Your answer (for you math whizzes playing along at home) ... yes, it is too great. Fortunately, there is an end piece which is 3/4 of an inch thick that I can remove fairly easily ... hopefully we'll make it after that ... it will be tight!!!

The aftermath

So it turns out that losing your tooth is not all good if you are five. Emma had some problems going (and staying) to sleep last night. It was hard to tell exactly what the problem was, but I think it was a combination of being tired, excited, and the unknown. She was a bit scared of the tooth fairy (I think), and she definitely wanted to keep her tooth. But she also didn't want to tell us why she was sad/afraid. Anyway, Cyndie ended up sleeping with her (thank goodness she's in the guest room right now where the double bed is!).

Hopefully today (and specifically tonight) will be much better!

Excitement this morning!

Birthday weekend Pix

Here are some pix from the weekend ...

Dad, Cyndie, Emma, Timmy and I took a hike on a trail that basically goes from our house to Mom and Dad's ... it's an old railroad trail.


Here's Tim and Emma helping to plant my birthday willow ... we had to take out some bushes to make the appropriate space.

Dale and Jeanine (and Caleb and Anna) came over for dinner so we all took our picture by the newly planted tree.

Here are some pix of some of the building materials Cyndie has procured for the play area (named the Dragon's Lair by the kids) ...
Here are the two six foot high play platforms that we hauled over here last Monday.

See, it is actually spring ... there are green, living things in our yard!

Saturday

Good morning people ... how has your weekend begun?

I'm dropping a few pictures from Cyndie's account ... some more of Emma's room and a few random ones ...

Emma at teeball (the first, cold day).

Emma and her friends Olivia and Hannah at Suessical.

Progress in Emma's room. Mom and Cyndie made the "frame" shape and painted it. Now we just have to hang the curtains and put a little trim next to the wall and ceiling.

The bookshelves in the progress of being assembled.

Another view of the bed (showing the headboard).

One of the drawers pulled out ... I still have to mount the face on it.

Construction progresses, children regress ...

Things are moving along in Emma's room. Her bed is almost completely done. Cyndie finished the painting last night, adding the neat purple "frame" painting around the entrance "door" to the room. I worked on assembling the bookshelves/Barbie house. Originally I had hoped to finish up the bedroom this weekend, but since when do things complete on schedule? It will probably be no sooner than next weekend ... oh well.

On the kid front we've had quite a bit of problems with both Timmy and Emma being pretty darn feisty lately. It can make for some long days! We're going to try some different approaches with them, so hopefully that will help them take steps forward instead of backward!

Spring ... really!

I think I can finally, without reservation, proclaim spring is here. When I was outside yesterday morning helping Cyndie get some things out of the car, I noticed that one species of bush around the house has little green leaves starting to sprout out! Spring is here!!!

The weather has actually been great this week. Mostly sunny and really no rain. We're supposed to pick up some rain over the weekend, but I guess that will just bring us some May flowers, right? Another sign of spring that we noticed this week were blankets of small little blue flowers under the trees in several spots as we drove to the library on Tuesday evening.

Some Pictures!

Long awaited, much requested, here are some pictures.

First some of Emma's room ...

In progress stuff to build the L shaped book shelf.

The bed (mostly painted). Those are shelves without their faces on the bottom. The bed will be visible about 8 inches in the opening. The external colors will be the same as the wall.

This shot from the door at the foot of the bed (that will lead to the little raised patio) of the headboard and crystal light.

The light.

Here's our new doors (while still at Home Depot).

The kids table at cousin Benny's birthday party.

The cake.

Timmy at teeball.

Emma Reading ...

Emma read her first "real" book by herself, and then she wanted to read it to us ... Cyndie caught a bit of it on video:

WINDY

Wow, it is really blowing today. I have the window open in my office (because it's also 70 degrees out) and the gusts have blown my door closed twice ... with a LOUD slam. Cyndie and the kids were working on covering up the building supplies outside, with minimal success due to the wind. I was painting some stuff in the garage earlier and had to close the garage door because so much dust was blowing in. It makes me feel like we're back in SoCal what with the warmth, wind, and dryness. Ah well, it's also supposed to rain for the next 2 or 3 days ... definitely not SoCal like!

Midweek is here

Good morning and good midweek.

Not a lot of excitement here, but we're nearing halfway through the week. I guess the only news of note is that we picked up the doors that we got at Home Depot. It was a really good deal (not sure if I mentioned this before). We got some $2300 doors for $500 ... they were a custom order that someone returned. Since it was going to be $59 to deliver, we decided to go get them using the Uhaul trailer while we still had it. We also go the rest of the wood needed to finish off Emma's room (minus the desk which will come later).

When Cyndie returned the trailer to Uhaul, the guy there told her that she did the best job backing up with the trailer of anyone he'd ever helped ... way to go Cyndie! You're ready to be a trucker now!!

That's about it for now.

Pooped!

Okay, so we spent three hours yesterday (that felt like six) moving the two platforms for the play set from Elkhorn to our house. This involved renting a Uhaul trailer*, going to the house we picked up at, loading a twelve foot tall platform (that probably weighed 600 - 800 pounds), driving to our place, unloading**, driving back to Elkhorn, loading, driving back to our house, unloading. It was tiring! Thanks to Mom and Dad for helping with the loading/unloading and watching the kids!

*We were not impressed with the Uhaul people ... it took half and hour to rent the dumb thing of which 25 minutes was us just sitting there while they tried to figure out the paperwork!

**We only had one small hiccup on the whole thing, that being a slight intersection of a tree and an extended beam off one of the platforms. The platform survived, but not fully intact ... a bit of repair work will be required.

Fortunately, the weather was great. Now we just need to find some time to complete Emma's room and then get to the playset.

In the midst of all that yesterday, the kids had teeball ... this time in beautiful weather. Today is a playdate for Timmy and his "friend" Makoto (Makoto is actually only 16 months, but they should be okay together). Emma has swim lessons tonight as well.

Monday

Hey all you blog readers. Good Monday morning to you.

The quick weekend recap ...

Friday night ... dinner out, ran a few errands.

Saturday ... Helped Dale out with a computer problem, worked on harvesting the play set thing that we got for free, went down to Dave and Amy's for Ben's birthday party.

Sunday ... church, early lunch, Cyndie found another playset to harvest*, raiding a friend's construction site for left over lumber.

So it was a pretty busy weekend with not a lot of sit around time!

*We had driven by this place a couple of times before on the way to/from Dale and Jeanine's. There was a play tunnel thing out that looked like it was being gotten rid of. So Cyndie asked at the house and they have two free-standing platforms that we can have. Today we're going to rent a trailer to get them back to our house. I told Cyndie that she has to stop finding stuff because at this rate we'll never get all the stuff that we have currently up! It's pretty amazing, though, how much really good stuff that we've gotten for free just because Cyndie was willing to ask! Good job Baby!

In the midst of all this, we're still managing to get a bit down on Emma's room too.

Beautiful ... mostly!

It's a beautiful Friday morning. I took the trash out this morning at 7 am in shorts and a t-shirt with no shoes on and I wasn't really even chilled. A couple of hours later, the sun is out and it's really rather pleasant, just pretty windy. The rain appears to have gone home for at least a few hours. I think it's supposed to be in the 50s today.

Emma has a friend coming over this afternoon after school. Then tonight Rachelle the baby sitter is coming over and Cyndie and I are going to go to a Japanese place over in Delavan.

The bed is coming along just fine. It's all sanded down. Last night I built the drawers. I just need to mount them now and then we'll be ready to paint!! I'm sure it will take a couple of coats, so I would guess we'll be painting through the weekend.

Timmy is wearing big boy undies ... no accidents yet, although it's only been a day. He and Emma have been enjoying his new video that he got as a reward ... What's New Scooby Doo* (Season 1). They really like that show (we've borrowed several from the library).

*Whenever they watch Scooby Doo, I always laugh because Casey Kasem is the voice for Shaggy and I totally recognize him. I guess that comes from a lot of listening to Casey Kasem's Top 40 countdown when I was a kid.

Tomorrow we'll be down in Crystal Lake for Ben's birthday party.

Midday Joy!!!

This definitely merits my taking time out from work to post ...

Timmy pooped in the potty all on his own!

We've been really trying to get him to go in the toilet. He knows when he's pooping, but doesn't have the interest in going. So lately we've decided to try to bribe him ... toys, movies, whatever. And today, mere seconds ago, as I was sitting here working and Cyndie vacuuming, we hear a shout from Tim. He had locked himself in the bathroom and was yelling for some attention. It turns out he went in there all by himself, did his thing, and needed a little "cleanup help" if you catch my drift. Anyway, we are very excited. Hopefully this is a trend that will continue!

Oh, there are other things besides the Royals

So there are a few other things happening around here. Actually, there are probably three events of general interest from yesterday ...

1. Timmy is doing very well in his swimming class. Cyndie reports that he is much more comfortable in the water now and is willing to "swim" (with the help of a floatation device) by himself ... something that he would not have dreamed of previously.
2. Emma's bed is "complete" ... meaning that the structure is finished. Cyndie and I patched all the screw holes, etc. last night meaning that the next (very messy) task is to sand the whole thing down so that we can paint it. The plastic curtain goes up today (to contain the dust) and hopefully we'll have the sanding complete by the end of the day. Emma can't wait to sleep in her new bed!
3. Cyndie's scavenging has been productive. Yesterday (while Mom and Dad watched the kids) we visited two people that had free stuff to use for the tree fort. We got a free 10 foot slide (probably would have cost $150 new) and a free free-standing play structure with a 6 foot slide, a 5x5 foot platform, a little rock climbing wall, etc. Because of all the free stuff we've gotten, we decided to expand the "tree fort" from a simple tree fort into more of a playground-y setup. We even came up with a name ... the Dragon's Lair! Actually, Cyndie and I we going to call it the Dragon's Nest, but when we suggested that to Emma and Timmy, they suggested Dragon's Lair (I'm not exactly sure where they got that!). Anyway, it will be fun to build!

Royals Update

I'm sure you are all on the edge of your seats wondering what the Royals did last night ... well, let me tell you.

The Royals took game 2 of the three game set from the Yankees with a 4 - 0 score. Righty Zack Greinke pitched eight shutout innings to drop his ERA to 0.60. The victory moved to Royals to 6 - 2 and into sole possession of first place in the American League Central Division. The Royals look to complete the three game sweep of the evil empire tonight at 7:10.

Midweek is here.

Well, there isn't a whole lot to report today, but I know my loyal readers (or is it reader?) expect to see* something.

*I'm not sure if that link to some Shutterfly pictures that Cyndie recently posted will work or not, but here's to trying!

Yesterday, Emma's class went up to Milwaukee to see Seussical!, a Dr. Suess based musical. Cyndie went with as a chaperone. It sounded like it was fun, but a little long. Grandpa D came over to play with Timmy while they were gone.

On the "Emma's room" front, as I sit here, the bed structure is 90% done, and should be completed either over lunch or this evening. After that, it will be a lot of painting to get it completed.

Some success

So we've gotten a request for some pictures of Emma's room in progress. I'll have to see if I can get some up here. It's more difficult now that my computer doesn't have the SD card slot which makes it easier to download pictures off the camera!

Now onto the title of this post. Cyndie, after a marathon shopping trip Monday night at Wal-mart for material for Emma's curtains, took a trip to Shopko to return some bar stools we'd purchased*. Anyway, thrifty her, she found some table clothes that are perfect that she got for a total of $8. This as opposed to the two different options she'd found at Wal-mart for $100 each! It turns out that the table clothes were supposed to be $12 each, but someone had mis-marked them. Nevertheless, we got the $2 price!!

*That's a whole different story! The stools were a good deal and matched our existing bar stools, so we thought we'd get two for when guests are over (to go in at the kitchen table). Well Cyndie got them home, and assembled one, and then discovered that the leather on the seat was sun bleached ... meaning there was a weird light spot on the top. The other stool was warped. It was very strange. Fortunately (other than the unneeded work of assembling a bad stool), it was fairly easy to return them and get some that were in good condition.

Now I'm sitting here working and there's a nice rain falling outside. I have the window open even though it's a bit cool outside because the sound of the rain is so nice!

The Decline

So Jane declined my offer of a Twins/Royals season record wager. I can live with that. But that just means that the Royals bandwagon is open to Jane since she won't have as much of a rooting interest in the Twins!

In the mean time Liverpool FC is locked in an epic showdown with Arsenal for a semi-final slot in the Champions league. At halftime, the two teams have played to a 1 - 1 tie. It should make for an exciting second half!

Oh yeah ...

I guess I shouldn't leave out that the Royals finished out their season opening road trip with a 4 - 2 record. Not bad for a team that many predict will dwell in the cellar of the American League Central all season. Given Jane's trash talking of late, perhaps this is the time to make a friendly intra-family wager on the final results of the baseball season. I'd be willing to bet that the Royal's will finish with a better record than the Twins this season. Care to wager Jane? And how can we make it interesting? Humm .... how about the loser buys the winner a t-shirt of their team? Stay tuned, we'll have to see where this goes!

The weekend is gone ...

Good morning all (almost afternoon actually). I hope all your weekends were outstanding. We had both a productive, and relaxing weekend! We did a little around the house and yard*, relaxed some ... all in all, pretty much an All-American weekend.

*I'm not sure how we managed to do it, but we have three projects running concurrently right now. We have Emma moved into the guest room and are currently constructing phase 1 (of 3) in her room ... her bed. I think we're about 60% done there. Hopefully we'll wrap that up by the end of next weekend. Project #2 is cleaning out a bunch of underbrush from part of our forest so that the forest is a bit more usable. Dad and I did a bunch of that on Saturday ... to the detriment of Dad's knee and my back! But we gained about 500 square feet of more usable yard in the process. The result is that we've decided to move where we're going to put in the tree fort as it will be more accessible. Which leads us to the final project. Cyndie has read a "How to build a tree fort" book and one of the big points was that you can build one for significantly less by using used or discarded building materials. So she's been on the lookout! She recently found a contractor taking out a deck and now we have a lot of wood in our driveway!

After the long day Saturday, we decided we were very ready for a real Sabbath on Sunday. So we mostly relaxed. The day culminated in leftover sourdoughs with Grandma and Grandpa and dessert at Culvers, which the kids love!

The hard work going on in Emma's room was well worth it when this morning Emma came running down to the basement where I was working out and jumped on me and gave me a big hug because she was so excited about the progress in her room!

Hilarious

I'm sitting here watching a Liverpool game on the computer while the kids watch the sword in the stone on the TV. The hilarious part is that we have two nice couches and an easy chair in here, as well as a nice rug. All of these places would make a nice comfortable place to sit. But where are the kids sitting? Emma is sitting behind one of the couches on top of the hard hope chest, and Timmy is sitting on the window sill. What is he, a cat?

Three games, three wins ... behold a Royals dynasty begins?!

Well my fair reader, are you ready for the powerhouse that is Royals baseball? Today, the men in powder blue rolled over the Tigers (again), this time for a 4 - 1 win. This completes a Royal's opening series sweep over the Tigers, a team many predict will win the 2008 World Series. There was another homerun from super soph Alex Gordon, and another outstanding pitching performance, this time from Zach Greinke. The Royals continue to be on pace for that mythical 162 - 0 season.

In other news, we had a nice time with our friends Aya and Kaz last night (and their little boy Makoto). It was fun to learn more about Japan and their histories. Tonight, it'll be more work on Emma's room!

New look

The blog's new look in honor of the Royals fast start ... enjoy, and bask in the glory and power that is KC Royals baseball.

Royals on pace for 162-0!

I just finished watching the Royals and Liverpool games simultaneously out of the corner of my eyes all while actually getting a bit of work done too. Streaming video on the web is great! The Royals shut out one of the most feared lineups in baseball and now stand at 2 - 0 after a nice four to nothing victory. Second year pitcher Brian Bannister pitched a masterful 7 innings for the win. On the LFC front, the Reds drew at Arsenal on the first leg of the home and away Champions League tie. A good result because the 1 - 1 scoreline gives them the advantage as away goals are the tie breaker if the series is tied on points after two games. Keep it up LFC and KC!

Nothing really new to report

Good morning my loyal readers (do I really have any of those?). There's not a whole lot new to report this morning, but I thought I'd drop a post just to keep you coming back for more. Emma doesn't have school today (her teacher is testing the 4K students for next year), so the kids and Cyndie are running some errands and will probably see Grandpa and Grandma. Tonight we're having some friends from church over for dinner. Their names are Kaz and Aya (and their little boy is Makoto). They are Japanese. That should be fun.

That's about it for today. The sun is shining, the weather is supposed to be pretty warm. Enjoy your days everyone!

Spring cometh ...

It looks like spring may finally be coming. As I sit here at my desk, when I look across the road at the neighbor's lawn I can see a green tinge to it*. Perhaps this is because the start of the baseball season forces all the snow and bad weather away!

*I'm not too sure that I should get real excited since I've heard from a variety of people that there are often late snow storms around here. However, a quick scan of the 10 day forecast shows ever rising temps and fewer and fewer drops to lows below 32. I am ever hopeful!

The Royals picked up a nice season opening victory yesterday ... 5 - 4 in 11 innings. A nice start to the season for the boys in blue. Oh, and don't worry, I'll be sure to keep you up to date on their exploits as the season progresses.

Last night Cyndie and I finished the initial painting of Emma's room. It looks nice ... very bright and cheery. There's two tones of a fun green color ... darker (actually brighter) on top, and lighter on the bottom. Tonight I start constructing her bed.