An Announcement to our Family ...

It's been awhile, again. I'm slackin!

So, as per the norm, I'm not going to attempt to catch up on all the ins and outs of the past week and a half. There was Halloween in there, a party at Covenant Harbor for families with ties there (games and candy for the kids), school, church, I worked quite a bit more than normal. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but apparently it was enough to throw me out of my normal blogging rhythm!

I don't have any good pictures to offer up. Now that Cyndie has her new computer, she's been taking the pix off the camera and putting them on her computer, so I'm a bit out of the loop. You're going to have to complain to her, or look at her facebook page (I think she put some up there).

The one thing that I will take the time to update on, however, is a pending addition to the Wildwood DeVries family.








We had been waiting to share this until we were more sure.









We're excited, but a little nervous too since we haven't really experienced this for a while.








Announcing a new addition to our family ...











You can call her Sea Ray! We are not official as of yet ... won't be until our money is gone, and the boat is in our driveway, but I'd say we're 80% of the way there. As of right now, the boat (whose home is in Jackson, TN), will arrive sometime next week (still working that detail), and, pending a thorough investigation by a marine surveyor (kind of like a home inspector for boats), we'll complete the deal. We found it on the internet. It's at the high end of our price range, but is literally half the price of other similar boats. So, as boats go, we think this is a great investment, both in the boat, and in the time that we'll gain as a family together on it! This type of boat is called a deck boat, which could be compared to a pontoon boat layout on a ski boat hull. Here are a few more pictures ...

This is inside in the bow seating area (it's under a canvas cover when the picture is taken, so is a little dark. There's bench seating for four adults (probably eight kids) comfortably. You can put a table in there, and can also make it so the whole area is one big, level padded seating area. There's a built in cooler up between the seats, and you can walk off the front easily for swimming.

This is the bathroom ... yes, our boat has a bathroom complete with pump out toilet (like and RV), fresh, running water, vanity, and porthole!

This is the back (called cockpit) seating area. There's TONS of storage under the deck, L-shaped seating. There's a gate out to the rear swim platform (a 2 1/2 foot wide platform from which to jump/swim), a sink with running water, and place to put in a table.

This is the wetbar (or so they call it), with a sink, built in cooler, and room under for a trash can and carry off cooler.
Here's the helm area with wrap around windshield (not all deck boats have that, but we felt in the windy upper midwest that it would be nice to have). There are two captain's chairs. The door to the left is access to the bathroom.

So, there's the exciting news ... we'll take a few more pix when it comes, and share more as it happens! We're going to have to be patient in operations. We'll take a sea test before we complete the purchase, but other than that, we'll likely just get it ready for winter, and then have to wait until next spring!

Bits and Pieces

The week is rolling to a close ... yeah! I had a busy week of work, so I'll be especially glad to hit the weekend. This morning Tim had a couple of friends from church (Matthias and Lukas) over for a play date (and to give their grandparents a little break ... their parents are out of town for a few days). I had worship practice last night, and Cyndie had a Roots and Wings (like MOPS, but for mothers of elementary age kids) meeting. Tonight we're headed down to Crystal Lake to do a movie night with the local cousins. Should be fun!

On the health front, I think we're generally improved. Timmy coughed a bit after school yesterday, but I wonder if it might have been something he's allergic to there or something. He's not 100%, but is getting there. I think the cold/allergy related things (minor) that Cyndie and I had earlier in the week are pretty much history too.

We had a beautiful day yesterday (I think it was yesterday, maybe Wednesday ... am I getting old?). Weather in the 60s, light breeze. But now we've turned to cooler (40s) and rain. It's a bit dreary. Though the leaves on the maples are still beautiful!

Midweek Doings

We're meandering through the middle of the week here in Wildwood-land. We have health issues, fun stuff, academics, all kinds of stuff to talk about, so here we go, in my favorite, bulleted format:

• Emma had a little cold on Sunday (I think), and then Tim picked it up. I think his was aggrevated by some allergies. Anyway, he came home from school on Monday pretty wiped, then didn't sleep at all well on Monday night (and as a result, neither did Cyndie). He did a lot of laying low yesterday, but even by then was feeling much better, just a little tired. By today, he's feeling 100%. We still kept him home from school in honoring the school's request to keep kids home for 24 hours after they are better. I can't remember if I wrote this before, but on Monday, Timmy's class of 16 only had 5 kids. Another local school shut down for the day. I guess it is sickness time!
• Emma had her second before school spanish class today. She really enjoyed the first one and is liking the extra session. We'll see how much it helps her really pick up the language (or not).
• Cyndie and I have been pretty excited about the prospect of buying a boat. We've done quite a bit of searching online and are trying to schedule a trip to a showroom to just look around. We'll see where it all leads, but it's an exciting diversion right now at a minimum.
• We also met with our new financial planner today. We're looking forward to that, and him helping us out in saving money for the future!
  

So that's about it from the Wildwood DeVries!

TransSiberian

Watched this one on Sunday night with "the guys".

TransSiberian (3.9/5)

A good one, and the type of movie that I often enjoy. It was the story of how a couple of Americans, through their own naivete and goodness, get caught up as Mules in a drug run. It was a suspense/thriller type of movie, not a big budget one, but with some decent actors and production value. It was a bit dark, but that's right down my alley. Overall, there were several moments that were not horribly believable, but those, for me, only came up upon second thought while thinking back over the movie. During the actual viewing, I was pretty captivated, especially after a somewhat slow start. The movie at least met my expectations, making the overall experience an enjoyable one.

The overall summary: A very solid suspense, thriller with good acting, and a fairly well thought out premise.

Movies I've seen recently:
Juno - 4.8/5
Slumdog Millionaire - 4.6/5
Iron Man - 4.2/5
Lars and the Real Girl - 4.1/5
Wall-E - 4.0/5
Traitor - 4.0/5
The Dark Knight - 3.9/5
Star Trek - 3.9/5
TransSiberian - 3.9/5
Wolverine - 3.8/5
Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist - 3.7/5
Definitely, Maybe - 3.7/5
Kung Fu Panda - 3.5/5
The Passion - 3.5/5
Valkyrie - 3.5/5
The Incredible Hulk - 3.4/5
New in Town - 3.2/5
Horton Hears a Who - 3.0/5
Inglorious Bastards - 2.9/5
Push - 2.8/5
Meet Bill - 2.1/5
Jonah, a VeggieTales Movie - 2.4/5
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 1.9/5
Burn After Reading - 1.5/5

Full Weekend

Well now, it's time to slow down from a full weekend, but I'm not sure that's going to happen!

Lots going on over the weekend ...

• Emma had a playdate with her good friend Olivia on Saturday morning. The girls did a pretty good job of including Timmy too, which was very nice.
• We helped a bit with my aunt's octoberfest part over at her apartment building ... I spent about an hour cooking brats and hot dogs while the kids played outside in the crisp fall air! The kids found all kinds of "treasures" in the woods ... including the handle of a ski rope, a bike tire, and a 6 foot long bungee cord!
• We had our small group at our place on Saturday. It was a pretty good group of folks, and was good to connect with some people.
• Auntie Jane came to visit starting Saturday evening and is still here. The kids love to play and be with her. The cumulation of that visit will be dinner tonight over at Laura and Gow's.
• Sunday we lazed about a bit in the morning, and then headed over to my folks for lunch with the fam, and then watched the Vikings/Ravens football game.
• Church was different in the evening ... a prayer/music focused time (our pastor was out of town). It was very cool, and a fun/unique way to experience worship.
• After that some friends split up between Laura and Gow's (the ladies) and our place (the guys) and watched movies ... The Proposal for the ladies, and Trans Siberia for the gents. That was fun, and was made all the better by the awesome gift of a Lou Malnati's stuffed pizza from the worship leader, Leslie, one for Gowans, and one for us. That's some good stuff!

Today, Emma has a huge day. Her first Spanish class is before school for 40 minutes, then school, then girl scouts (she sold an even 100 boxes of cookies), then over to Laura and Gow's for dinner, then back home to finish off a report on several states for school tomorrow! Whew, I'm tired thinking about it!

Did a little work on the jacuzzi over the weekend ... no dice, we still have a slow leak. We still filled it up though. We're hoping we might be able to use some "fix a leak" (a solution you put in the water that can fix small leaks) to get where we need to go. If not, we'll have to dump the whole thing out, and tip it up to try to find the problem.

Cyndie and I have spent some time browsing around online looking at boats. We'd like to get something to take out on the lake next year. We'll see where that leads!

Whoa!

I guess I missed a few days ... where did the time go? It was a rather normal week thus far with not a whole lot to report, so perhaps that should be my great excuse. Some bullets to catch up ...

• The weather has continued to be cool, and a bit misty/rainy on top of that.
• Finally got out to make an attempt to patch the jacuzzi. I'm not sure if the leak is around the jet, or in the jet. I used some all temperature caulking to try to seal around, so after it cures for a few days, we'll raise the water level and see where we're at. I've been getting requests from both Cyndie and the (finally?) non-pregnant Laura regarding this, so the pressure is on!
• Emma is going to start before school spanish class two days a week starting next Monday. She's pretty excited about that.
• We're continuing to plug away with some work on the house. The focus right now is in the Dining Room and Craft Room. The painting is complete, and the baseboards are finished. Now we're moving into the "heavier" work of building some furniture (bookshelves to hold the kid's craft materials and Cyndie's desk lead the list). Here are a few pictures of the floor and each room:

The latest flick ...

Wolverine ... saw it at Dave and Amy's in BluRay over the weekend.

Wolverine (3.8/5)
I enjoyed this one ... surprisingly. I think this one was another one that just goes to confirm my theory* about watching movies. The movie didn't try to do too much, just focused on telling the story of Wolverine's origins. It wasn't a great movie, but it had enough depth to hold your attention, while having enough action to keep the popcorn movie crowed engaged. The production values were first rate, the plot decent, acting sufficient, and the special effects well done.

The overall summary: It's not going to win any academy awards, but it was two entertaining hours well spent.

*Neal's First Theory of Movie Enjoyment:
The level of enjoyment a person derives from watching a movie corresponds directly to the difference between that person's expectations of the movie and the actual quality of the movie.

A movie goer enters each movie experience with expectations regarding that movie. These expectations then serve as a baseline against which the movie is weighed. If the movie is better than expectations, the viewer will have a movie experience that is largely positive. Conversely, if the movie is worse than expectations, the viewer's experience will be poor.

For example, I went into Kung Fu Panda with high expectations (call it 4.5 out of 5 for what I expected the movie to be). The actual movie experience was more along the lines of 3.5, and since that is much lower than I expected, my movie experience was not good, even though Kung Fu Panda is actually a pretty good movie.

The FToME applies equally to all kinds of movies. An average movie (3/5 rating) which a view goes into with low expectations (2/5) is therefore an enjoyable experience while a very good movie (4/5 rating) which has very high expectations (5/5) may turn into a poor movie experience.

Movies I've seen recently:
Juno - 4.8/5
Slumdog Millionaire - 4.6/5
Iron Man - 4.2/5
Lars and the Real Girl - 4.1/5
Wall-E - 4.0/5
Traitor - 4.0/5
The Dark Knight - 3.9/5
Star Trek - 3.9/5
Wolverine - 3.8/5
Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist - 3.7/5
Definitely, Maybe - 3.7/5
Kung Fu Panda - 3.5/5
The Passion - 3.5/5
Valkyrie - 3.5/5
The Incredible Hulk - 3.4/5
New in Town - 3.2/5
Horton Hears a Who - 3.0/5
Inglorious Bastards - 2.9/5
Push - 2.8/5
Meet Bill - 2.1/5
Jonah, a VeggieTales Movie - 2.4/5
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 1.9/5
Burn After Reading - 1.5/5