Along for the Ride

Since we arrived back from our Thanksgiving away, we've had quite a bit of snow here in Michigan. Now, I really do think that it's snowing abnormally early this year - and I'm not sure I'm so excited about it. Addison, on the other hand, is SUPER excited about the "NO". That would be Addison's version of snow - silent 's' and no 'w'... not to be confused with "NO" which is Addison for "nose" even though in her world both the facial feature and the precipitation cause her to say "no" and point to her nose. Go figure. AND of course there is also "NO" meaning, 'no way' - no way am I going to eat that, no way are you going to change my diaper, no way am I going inside and no way am I taking my boots/hat/gloves off. This girl really loves the snow!

Last Sunday, we all loaded up in the car with a couple sleds and headed off to Wilcox Park to do a little sledding. The hill is small and perfect for an 17 month old and sufficient for our dog - who thinks chasing us down the hill is about as good as going for a swim in the lake. I expected we'd be there for a half hours or so and that Addison would have her fill after a few rides and want to go home. Nope, a good hour of sledding and she was still appalled when we took her out of the sled to head home.

Now that the cold and snow has taken over the outdoors. It is simply unappealing at best for me to muster up the ambition to get out there and do anything. The fact that Addison loves being out there helps matters, but I think I still fall short of her expectations. For example, yesterday, Addison insisted on wearing her hat and mittens for a good 2 hours in the middle of the afternoon. I'm certain she would have tried to put her boots on as well if she had been able to find them. It was definitely more than a strong hint that she wanted to go outside and play. I wasn't going for it though, so then she rummaged through my pots, pans and bowls...got out the largest one and tried to climb into it. Dan thinks she was trying to tell me she wanted to go sledding, but I think it's just a phase she's in since she tries to climb into everything: her toy box, her little lunchbox, my oven drawer, the laundry baskets. Whatever it is, she makes a good case for getting me outdoors.

Thanksgiving (posted a few days late)

Back in July Michelle found a great price on airline tickets to California for Thanksgiving. The travel times were not awful, but not that great. To get that rate we had to fly out on Sunday the 23rd and return on Friday the 28th. The flight out was a decent flight, Grand Rapids to Detroit, a two hour lay-over which gave us enough time to get some breakfast and feed Addison. Then the long flight to San Francisco. Addison did really well. She slept about 1-1/2 hours on the second flight. Michelle’s dad picked us up at the airport and we got in the car for 1-1/2 hour ride to the house. Addison was charming her Grandpa the whole way home.

Time with the family seemed to go by so fast. Thanksgiving Day was great. Great food, as expected and plenty of football. I was even given the assignment of brining the Turkey and prepping it for the roast, which is quite a privilege considering how much Michelle's family likes to be in the kitchen, and I must say it turned out pretty good.

Before you knew it we were packing up to head back home. We were expecting a very trying day on the way home. We planned to wake up around 3 am to leave the house for the airport around 3:45. That would put us at the airport around 5 or 5:15 am for our flight at 6:30a.m. We then went to Minneapolis for a 1 hour lay-over, on to Detroit for a 3 hour lay-over, and then arrive to our destination city of Grand Rapids at 8:30 p.m. Everything went as expected other than the fact that we expected Addison to fall back asleep after we moved her from her bed to the car at 3:40 a.m. But she managed to stay awake until we got to the airport at which time we loader her in her stroller and headed to ticketing, then off to security, and on to the departure gate. She stayed awake through our first flight, a lay-over and the majority of the second flight. She actually fell asleep after we landed while we were taxiing to the gate. We successfully transferred her to her stroller and we were able to get a bite to eat before she woke up. Then we were fortunate to find room on an earlier flight to Grand Rapids, the only draw back was that our checked luggage could not be moved onto the earlier flight. But we were heading home now so everything we really needed was there, we could get Addison home and one of us would go back to the airport later that night to get our luggage. Addison was a doll the entire flight, until about the last ten minutes of the leg into Grand Rapids, and even then she wasn’t too out of hand because all the people around us thought she was really good. She was just whining to us, it hadn’t reached an all-out cry yet. We got off the flight and were actually back at the house around 7:45. Addison was in her own bed by 8:15 p.m. I had to go back to the airport to get our luggage which came on our scheduled flight (which was delayed about an hour and thirty minutes), we were so glad we changed our flight because Addison would have been a handful if we did not get home until 10:30 p.m.

(Addison with her cousin Garrett)

Fall

Last weekend Dan headed up North for what could easily be considered the final outdoor sporting event of the season - the Iceman Cometh Challenge. I would say that I've been dormant since September, but Dan has been out on his mountain bike a fair amount in the past couple months. Now, there have been years past where Dan has spent more time training, but I would say he still got in a good amount of riding this year. This "Iceman" is a 28-mile mountain bike race from Kalkaska to Traverse City. For those of you not familiar with Michigan, this is North of us about 3 hours - usually a little cooler than here at any time of the year. So, the race is appropriately named "iceman" (Dan just chimed in saying that he thought I was being misleading, but I attempted - yes, ATTEMPTED - this race ONE TIME and it was ICE and SNOW and MISERY!!) Anyhow, he did great - finished in 2 hours and 23 minutes. I believe he would even agree that he did well...and had plenty of brew to celebrate the fact which returned him home in a worthless state...but, I'm happy he did well and had a great time :)

So, now I would say we are both in a dormant state... I think it's appropriate for the winter season. Our weather here has finally turned. I did appreciate the late tease of 70 degree weather last week, however, I think that was truly the last of the 'nice' weather for quite awhile. Today was still nice enough to bundle up Addison and walk to the Wilcox Park where Ruby could play fetch and Addison could giggle on the swing. It seems like the swings are currently her favorite playground activity. I usually try to encourage her to be social and play in the little fort-type play area with the slides etc, but tonight she took one ride down the slide and left me for the swings. Luckily for me, she still needs a push!

Autumn Adventure

September.

Well, it has been busy as usual! There has been a lot to blog about since our last post. Dan didn't mention that I turned 30 this July. I’m not sure whether I should view it as thoughtfulness or maybe that was just so that I wouldn't mention that he turned 39 in August! It shouldn't really bother him though, he ages well and you'd never guess he was 39 by the way he acts. I'm dreading the day we meet new friends and, when finding out that we're 9 years apart, they assume I'm the older of the two. (I know it will happen some day) For now, I'll say that 30 is just fine ;)

Addison is busy, busy, busy - she's running and climbing on everything. She's got quite the vocabulary - some of it we understand and some of it is still baffling. I know there are definitely words she says for some things but whatever her word is for it, it isn't the same as mine! I’m wondering if I’ll ever acquire that mommy trait of toddler translation.

We had some visitors in September - my parents and my younger sister, Emily, visited. They were here for about 10 days and it was great to have them around! We managed to get out (in between days of rain...) and took Addison to the zoo for her first time. She just LOVED the penguins. She squealed and giggled watching them swim around and dive under the water. She liked them so much; she kept trying to pull herself over the wall into the tank! She's quite strong for being only 24 lbs.
We also made a trip to Robinette’s apple orchards. We took a walk through the orchards there and stopped inside for some cider and doughnuts.

Also, Emily joined Dan and I in doing the Reed's Lake Triathlon this year - it was her first triathlon and she did great! In fact, we all did quite well. I was so excited to have her there - I thought it was a lot of fun, I hope she did too, despite being exhausted later that day ;) This was Dan's 10th consecutive year doing the triathlon - a goal he set a long time ago....good job, honey!

Other than these items, we have been busy fixing up our rental house. We are fairly certain we'll be selling it soon, even though it's a lovely little home. Dan spent a good amount of time fixing, painting and cleaning the house to get it ready to sell. We have some friends moving into it this weekend - they sold their home a couple months ago and have not yet found their new residence, so it works well to have them move in for awhile. Plus, it will be nice for us to have friends next door (again) and Addison will have some playmates! We’ll have to wait and see if Ruby enjoys the new neighbors…but I think she’ll have fun playing with the girls too.

It's been a busy Summer

I just noticed that it’s been a month since we made an entry. Man how time flies by. In the past month Michelle and I were both busy with helping organize on Millennium Triathlon on August 9th. I was the Run course coordinator and she managed registration pick up and coordinated volunteers. All of the proceeds are going to charity. The books have yet to be balanced, so I can't officially say how much is going to charity but I'm sure there will be some checks written and they should make a difference. An announcement should be on the website in the next couple weeks.

This past weekend I took part in the Pando 6/12 hour challenge. It’s a mountain bike race at Pando Ski Resort in located in Rockford, MI. There were two events, a 6 hour race and a 12 hour race. Participants can sign up as a 4 person relay team, a 2 person relay team or as a solo. My friend Jim and I registered into the 6 hour event as a 2 person team. We were satisfied with our results: we got forth out of five teams in our category, which does not seem that great, but we were less than 15 minutes behind first place after six hours, and only 2.5 minutes behind third place which would have gotten us on the podium, so we were happy with that considering that we did not train for the event (heck, Jim had not been on his mountain bike since last November, and I have only been on mine a hand full of times this year). It was hard, I can't imagine how it would be for solo rider. Some people just amaze me.

Addison is just so much fun these days. She going everywhere and getting into everything. She says “hi” to everyone, and lately she’s been saying “dank coo” quite frequently, which means thank you. There are a bunch of photos on the camera waiting to be uploaded to flickr, so hopefully we get to that this weekend, but with a church group meeting on Friday, a pool party on Saturday, a house warming party on Saturday evening, and a possible triathlon on Sunday I’m not making any promises.

The big ONE!

It is simply unreal to me that Addison is 1 already. Yet, looking back, it's also unreal to think about the leaps and bounds she has made in one short year. We love our little "peanut" or, (as Dan sometimes calls her) "peanut cake" - because she outgrew peanut status so fast and was more like a pound cake ;)

Addison was quite the trooper on her birthday. She napped before the party and woke up just as guests were beginning to arrive - she was her giddy, rambunctious self for most of the afternoon.

She got to play with her little boyfriend, Finnegan, and although she wasn't quite into the opening of gifts, she sure loves them all now! And, of course, there was cake...and ice cream.

We have some more pictures of her 1st birthday in the flickr account, please check them out.

Look out World, here comes Addison

11-1/2 months and walking. She started last Wednesday, July 2nd. She probably be running two weeks from now on her birthday.

Up into Thin Air

We're back from the family reunion in Colorado. Michelle’s mother’s side of family gathered in Estes Park Colorado last week. The attendance was perfect. Michelle’s grandma, all of her children and there spouses, all of the grand children and their spouses, and all of the great grand children made it to the family gathering for photo’s and a few BBQ’s the week of June 15th through the 21st. (Not everyone was there every day but they were all there at some time or another and everyone was there for photos on Tuesday the 17th).

We drove from Michigan; we left home around 9a.m. on Saturday the 14th. Since there was a 10+ month child in the car we attempted to not set any big goals for making good time on the road. Which worked out well since interstate 80 was closed due to flooding near Cedar Rapids Iowa. We decided to take the Iowa Department of Transportation recommended 120 mile detour rather than risk the outcome of trying to find our own way through the country-side. Needless to say this was a set back, but we still made it to Des Moines Iowa around 8 p.m. Saturday. We felt that was pretty good considering we had to stop for gas, diaper changes, a couple meals, and time let the tot get out and about.

Sunday Morning Addison woke up bright and early (as always) and we packed the car back up, had breakfast and were on the rode again at 7 a.m. local time. We stopped a few times in Nebraska that after noon, had a 2+ hour stop at a Ruby Tuesday’s (service was horrible – maybe because it was fathers day, I don’t know) but from there we put on the push and made it to Boulder around 8 p.m.

I got up early Monday morning and found a car wash to wash the bugs off the car. When I got back we had breakfast then loaded Addison into the chariot and towed her behind our bikes around Boulder. We Went to Performance Bike , REI , Boulder Running Company , Playfair Toys , and then we went to Heidi’s Brooklyn Deli for some lunch. After lunch went next door to Farfel's Farm and then we wandered over to University Bikes to see what they had. Once we were all packed up and ready to head out of town we found a few more minutes to go to Folsom Street Coffee and acquire a couple beverages for the road. It was right about then that Michelle’s parents and sister Emily came into Boulder from California and we followed them into Estes Park to the Condo.

We unpacked Monday night Tuesday was family photos and a cook out.

Not much happened on Wednesday, then on Thursday I hit the road early on my bike and rode into Rocky Mountain National Park. I rode up Trail Ridge road for a little over an hour then turned and headed back to the condo, the ride back only took about 25 minutes since it was all down hill, and I had time to stop and take a couple photos like this, this,and this. I was back in time for Breakfast (French toast). Then we all packed in the cars and headed back into the park for some hiking (click here for another photo of the girls hiking) and a little picnic. Then Michelle’s dad, brother-in-law and nephew did some fishing. After that Michelle, her sister Emily, and their dad hopped onto their bikes and rode back to the condo while the rest of us drove back in the cars.

Friday morning Michelle’s parents wanted some time with their grand daughter, so we took advantage of the opportunity to take on a little adventure ourselves. We had Michelle's sister Emily drop us off at the bottom of Old Fall River Road Old Fall River Road. We rode our bikes to the Alpine Visitior’s center and then rode Trail ridge Road back to the Condo in Estes Park . I’ve completed several 35-40 mile bike rides before but this one was definitely the toughest to date. We got a few good photos though. Bighorn Sheep view from about 1/3 the way up At the visitors center Michelle in the snow.

Saturday and Sunday we traveled home. Addison was a good little traveler, she had some fussy phases. I think she was running low on patience the last few hours. She was essentially hysterical the last 20 minutes of the trip, but a big smile appeared on her face when we pulled into the driveway. I was surprised she could recognize that we were home.

Oh, and for the record, Addison is not walking yet. I think she can walk, but she doesn’t know that she can. She always wants the stability of holding onto something. It will just happen when she’s not expecting it.

Doing the stair climbing routine

Mother's Day Surprise

Sunday morning we were lounging on the sofa and the peanut had pulled herself up and was leaning on the sofa while standing. She does this all the time these days, then suddenly she let go of the sofa and balanced there for eternity (well, probably about 5 seconds). It was so exciting. She must have thought so as well because she must have done it about 20 times over the remainder of the day.

Siesta Key - Sun, Sand and Sweat

Well, we embarked on another flight - this time to the sunny state of Florida!

Addison has decided that plane rides are way too much fun to sleep through, which makes the ride extremely challenging for mom and dad! While we are trying to keep her from being noticed, she is doing her darndest to make new friends. Luckily, most people find her cute and will happily wave back at her and make funny faces for her...

We had a fantastic stay in Florida - the weather was wonderful. Hot and sunny :) It may have sprinkled one day when we were there, but for the most part it was just clear blue, sunny skies. We made the trip with another couple and their son - who is 15 months old.

Although the beach was quite close, we opted to take the kids to the pool most days. The idea of a rambunctious 9 month old coated in sunscreen and trying to crawl all over a sandy beach, stuffing her fingers in her mouth and picking up anything that may cross her path just doesn't seem right.

During the day we would take the bikes out for a spin, lounge around, go for a little jog, take the kids to the pool.... all good stuff. At the end of the week, the adults headed over to St.Petersburg (Tampa Bay) and stayed a couple nights there to do a triathlon on Sunday. Everyone found the finish line alright - despite the heat! This was the first time I'd spent a night apart from Addison and I must say that I think I did just fine. She, on the other hand, reportedly did not sleep well - she's cutting new teeth.

We returned home on Wed. April 30th...back to the grind. The wonderful things about being back are:
(1)Ruby
(2) sleeping in my own bed
(3)there's actually some green in the landscape now
(4)there's no place like home....

How do you know when a child has learned to wave?

About a month ago we received an invitation in the mail to Michelle’s nephew Garrett’s 1st birthday party in California. What’s the likelihood that a family of three in Michigan, one of which is 8 months old, is going to make the trek to California for a 1st birthday party? Normally, I’d say not too likely, that kid is never going to remember it; But not this time. As it turns out, about a week after we received the invite, my boss asked me if I could go to California to install some new parts on a test unit at a customer’s facility which just happens to be 9.8 miles from Michelle’s parent’s home. Michelle checked the availability of frequent flyer tickets and landed herself a ticket that would get her and Addison there with no charge (only 37,500 miles – still leaving a balance of over 200,000 in Michelle’s account). So it’s in the books, Michelle and Addison left on Wednesday of last week, and I headed out on Friday morning. Addison got as much quality time the with Michelle’s family as possible in 5 days. Addison and Garret had their own little crawling race. Addison faired pretty well considering she is 2/3 his age, but Garrett won the event. The Jury is still out as to which if them will be walking first. Either way, it’s a consensus amongst the family, that when the two of them see each other again at the Colorado family gathering in late June, they will both be walking/running and we’ll hold a rematch. That’s right, I’m speculating that Addison will be walking by the time she’s 11 months old.

So yesterday was the return flight. Our flight was scheduled to leave Sacramento at 9:00 a.m. Monday morning which meant we needed to leave the house at 6:30 to get to the airport between 7:30 and 8. So we got up around 5am to get ready for our trek. We arrived in Sacramento around 7:30 with plenty of time, and the first flight took off on time, but arrived in Minneapolis about 20 minutes late because of weather. Addison was so excited that she was only able to get in a 45 minute nap during the first 8 hours of her day. And we had just arrived in Minneapolis where one delay led to another. She was not about to sleep now because of all this activity. Our tight 50 minute lay-over turned into a comfortable 2+ hour lay-over, but Addison still had not slept. Now we boarded the plane and the plane headed over to the line of aircraft waiting to be deiced. Michelle was holding off on giving Addy her bottle until we started the accent so the sucking would help make her ears pop. This deicing process was just dragging on and on. We had now been on the plane for over an hour and anticipated a complete melt down at any moment. Wouldn’t you know this is right when the highlight of our day came. Addison was crawling/climbing all over us getting fussy, and the deicing had just begun. She noticed the snow on the window melting as this pink fluid ran down and she began crawling/climbing toward the window. The deicing fluid is applied by a large truck with a man-guided capsule on the end of an extendable boom. When the snow melted off our window Addison had both hands and face pressed up to the glass and right outside our window was this capsule.

We could see the man in the capsule smiling and waving to her. She however was mesmerized by the machine and oblivious to the fact there was a person inside the machine. I could see the guy in the capsule talking on his two-way radio to the driver of the truck and motioning him to look at Addison. At which point he moved the truck closer to get a better look and then he too took time to wave at her but she was still only seeing the outside of the truck and not able to comprehend that there was a human inside. Then came this guy in a bright yellow rain suit and florescent orange gloves, he must have been inspecting each and every aircraft for thorough coverage of the deicing fluid. He walked from under the plane beneath our window and as he turned his head up to look in the vicinity of our window he too saw Addison and waved. This is when she started to laugh hysterically, she cackled then pounded on the window. She was waving at him!!! We’ve been trying to teach her to wave at people and have seen signs that perhaps she understood the concept, but at this moment we knew she understood. He would wave back and she would cackle, wave and pound on the window and laugh. As our camera’s were all packed away and phones shut off we could not put the memory into a photo so this is my attempt to keep this memory as vivid as possible and put it into words.

P.S. We should have some new photos on the flickr acount later tonight!

Sledding Adventure 2008

Not much has changed in the past few weeks. At the time of our last entry, Addison was just starting to crawl; now she is really moving around. On one hand you really got to keep an eye on her. It used to be you could set her on the carpet in the middle of the room, run down stairs to sort laundry and start a load and return five minutes later to find her in the same place playing with her toys. Nowadays, you run down stairs for two minutes to find that she’s made it from the living room to the kitchen and she’s playing with the dog’s food bowl. On the Other hand it's nice because she can move around an entertain herself while we are busy getting ready in the morning or cooking a meal. As of late, Ruby’s Kong toy is also Addison’s favorite toy, whenever Addison catches a glimpse of that thing she drops anything she has and starts heading straight for it. Oh, and we’ve attempted the following little test several times: We set Addison in the middle of the room Mom goes to one side of the room and Dad goes to the opposite side of the room and we see who is her favorite. The answer is….hands down… no competition… she loves her dog the best. This test has been performed on almost a daily basis and the result is always the same.

On Saturday, May 1st the sun came out and the temps got up into the mid 30’s, so that afternoon we headed over to Wilcox Park to go sledding. There is a little hill on the south end of the park where we thought we could see how Addison would react. She was neither scared nor excited; I guess you would say she was expressionless.

Ruby on the other hand was beside herself with excitement.

We went up and down the hill about twenty times and every time we climbed to the top of the hill she could not wait for the moment that we took off so she could chase after us down the hill.

Plus she just loves the opportunity to be a social butterfly and showcase her speed and agility to the other members of the the canine pack.

Namaste

When I was 13 weeks pregnant, I decided that maybe I should partake in an activity less strenuous than running...this was before I had the "no exercise" edict and LONG before bedrest. So, I enrolled in a pre- and post-natal yoga class. I am now convinced that it was money well spent since my little 7 month-old child has mastered several of yoga's poses. Most nights (or mornings) I will find Addison sleeping in what is fittingly named "child's pose." It is the cutest thing - every time it just makes me smile and want to give her big hugs - but I don't b/c she's sleeping ;) I think my parents may confirm that I loved this pose when I was a kid. I seem to remember watching TV like that...


The next pose she has mastered is the cow pose and she follows it up with a near perfect "downward facing dog" I will definitely need to back this up with some photos, but it's tricky to catch all of them. I think she's definitely getting in her daily workouts - she has begun crawling. She isn't fast and sneaky yet, but she definitely gets around on her hands and knees....no army crawling, this is belly off the ground and going somewhere crawling.

Cold's, fevers, bruised egos, and icy roads.

I really don’t know what to write here anymore. I’m just going to go on a rant and randomly place a few photos along the way. Addison is growing everyday. She’s such a strong healthy little girl (even though she is currently sick). She was running a fever for a few days last week. We had to keep her out of daycare on Thursday because she had a fever of 103 on Wednesday night. Other than the fever she seemed pretty good, a little lethargic, but pretty good. Then on Friday her fever came down but her chest became congested, and over the weekend her nose got stuffed up as well. Now her appetite has dwindled, we think this was because she can’t breathe through her nose while taking a bottle. And since she is not eating well she is crabby and not sleeping well. Last night she woke up around 2:30 and got all fussy and we finally got her settled down around 4. Then she slept till about 6:15. I think I am to blame for her waking up. At about 6:10, I got up to take a shower and the house was freezing. I checked the digital thermostat and it showed that the house was actually 56 degrees inside. I went down to the basement to see why the furnace was not running. I attempted to decipher the code of the LED that flashed a code number 14. According to the label on the face of the access door on the furnace, code 14 basically states that the furnace is cycling through “ignition reset – see code 34” and code 34 had a list of potential problems, that sounded like something needed to be cleaned. That’s where the engineering instinct took over and I started removing covers to take a closer look. Well here I was in a poorly lit basement, still in the process of waking up, and on the floor in my PJ’s and I removed the cover that has the label on it. Apparently that was not correct order of disassembly; the cover above this that was supposed to come off first came crashing down on my head, making a racket, which was followed by me mumbling a string of involuntary profanities. Not realizing that the duct work was acting like a megaphone to the bedrooms up on the main floor, the next thing I knew, my wife was standing behind me with our child in her arms and dog at her side asking what the heck I was doing. By then the furnace was running like a champ and I was just trying to put the covers back on the furnace. I guess all I needed to do was pull the cover off to get the thing running. I know better than that, there’s probably a service bill lurking in the near future.

I’ve been trying to get the house cleaned up and organized before Addison starts walking. I’ve been in this house for almost 9 years now and suddenly I’m realizing how much of a pack rat I am. I thought we purged a bunch of stuff last spring, the basement was fairly clean in May, but I don’t know where it all comes from. I foresee several trips to the Salvation Army / Good Will / recycling center coming in the near future. This past Saturday I spent about 4 hours just filing and purging old papers/bills/tax records/documents that are no longer relevant, useful, or for that matter worthy of taking up space. That was a good start. I found old receipts and statements that had not been filed properly for the past two years. There were stacks within stacks in our makeshift office that needed to be filed. And there were files for credit cards that I cancelled several years ago and I never got around to shredding. It was always overwhelming and I did not know where to start. Now that I’ve made the commitment I’m hoping that it will be easier to keep up with down the road. The goal is to spend a few hours each week just getting things in place before that little someone is running wild within the confines of our house.

It’s amazing how fast a person gets out of shape and how much work it takes to get back in shape, if that is even possible. Because the side walks have been all wet/icy and down right messy, Ruby and I have been going on short little 2 mile runs a couple times a week since the start of the year. On Saturday I decided to take a break from the paper work and take Ruby on a little longer run. I didn’t think it would be such a big deal to take on the task of a 4.25 mile run around Reeds Lake. Something we did on a fairly routine basis back in October, a couple times a week with out a problem. Well, it was no problem for a young steed of a dog. Back in September/October I was still able to run at close to an 8 minute mile on that route, not something I was extremely proud of but I was ok with that, now, I’m between an 11 and 12 minute mile, that’s just a touch more than walking speed. Michelle always tries to remind me that I should not be measuring my abilities, and just be grateful that I have the ability to get out and run/walk and enjoy the scenery. I know she’s correct, but it’s still difficult to handle sometimes, especially when you are plodding along just staring at your feet wondering how much further it is back to where you parked the car so you can end the madness and drive back home. It’s official…….I’m turning old. Yep, I’ve just become a father and I’m already complaining about aches and pains and how strong I used to be “back in the day”. I think that little girl is made out of kryptonite or something. I was a train-wreck for the remainder of the day Saturday. For the next few hours my lungs were burning, my feet ached all day Saturday and for a good portion of Sunday, and to say the least, my ego was bruised. Ruby on the other hand was a stallion, we got home and she ran straight to the back yard to have a microburst that lasted a good five minutes. She was just running rampid around the backyard as fast as her little body would go to blow off some steam because that run around the lake was not taxing enough.

And on Sunday I was planning to have a lazy day, just watch some NFL championship games. I love watching football, but I don’t think I ‘ve watched only but a few hours so far this season. Since Addison was sick we decided to not take her to church and expose her to all the other little ones in the “baby-bay”. We could easily download the sermon later this week. So Michelle decided to go the YMCA and go for a swim. Addison was down for a nap, and I was just watching some morning news on the TV. About ten minutes after Michelle left I heard Addsion stirring. So I went to see what the fuss was. Nothing big, she just wanted her pacifier. Then on my way out of Addison’s room I heard my cell phone ringing in our bedroom. It was Michelle, and appearently she had already called twice but I never heard it. By the time I talked to her, she seemed cool, calm and collected. She left home, got about a mile from the house, merged onto the freeway and lost control of my truck. She told me the truck had spun and she was stuck on the shoulder. Her only concern seemed to be how to get the truck from being stuck. So I asked her if it was in four wheel drive (4WD). She said not yet. You see, I grew up here in Michigan, driving an ill-handling short wheel based jeep with balloon tires in the snow. Compared to my jeep that truck darn near drives it self. She grew up driving in warm sunny California. To her the truck is squirly because there is virtually no weight over the rear driven wheels. Appearently she told me she had struck some hi-way guarding, but I failed to register that part of the conversation. She said she had the four-ways on but they did not seem to be working, so I asked why, and she eluded to there being front and rear end damage. At which time I got aggravated, looking out our front window at the street in front of our house the roads did not look bad at all. I don’t recall what I said but the bottom line is I insulted her driving skills. Then she let me have it. And rightfully so. I made several mistakes in that few moments. First and foremost, I never asked if she was OK. I can make the excuse I assumed she was OK because she seemed cool calm and collected, and she was OK, but the fact remains that I did not ask how she was. I’m SORRY. She put the truck in 4WD and limped back home. Shortly after she got home both tires on the drivers side went flat because the bead on the wheels got damaged. I had one spare tire, but had to get on the phone to find another, luckily my friend Mike had one that was the perfect size, nearly bald but good enough to get around for a few days. While I was on the phone tracking down a spare tire I saw the little message scanning across the bottom of the TV screen saying how the freeway was being shut down due to icy conditions. They even said a Michigan State Police car was involved in one incident on that same stretch. MISTAKE NUMBER TWO - I automatically jumped to the conclusion that it was Michelle's driving that caused the incident, not the conditions. Perhaps her driving skill was not the main contributing factor. All things considered I guess it’s really not that bad, mostly plastic trim parts. It looks like the front bumper, grill, valence, rear bumper, rear fender flare, and two wheels got damaged and need to be replaced. The only body panel that got damaged was the rear fender and that can most likely be repaired. My dad has already located two wheels and got the tires mounted, they are on the truck right now and he’s taking it to get an estimate. In the end I still managed to watch some football, but it was interrupted by several computer searches on the internet for car parts.

December Mayhem and Christmas...

Addison w/ Gma and Gpa Wissink

Well, I'm finding I have a difficult time getting around to posting. There are definitely those who are far worse than me... I won't name names but you know who you are ;) And, of course, there are those who diligently fill us in on all the goings on in the valley of the sun - thank you Lisa! So, I will try to summarize the past month or so and add some favorite photos!

Now, where to begin??? Our wonderful daughter made a grand step in sleep patterns and started sleeping through the night (mostly) just after Thanksgiving. It has taken some persuasion and she still has those nights (like last night) where she wakes up every hour wanting someone to get her pacifier or just say hello. She has also begun to roll over - mostly from her back to her stomach, but I caught her rolling from front to back once too(Dec. 29th)... it looked like something she'd done a thousand times it was so natural, but I haven't seen it since. She's sneaky like that. Besides rolling, she has found a way to scootch around. It isn't an army crawl and, really, it's difficult to notice. She finds her way into the corner of her crib at night and in general doesn't really stay in one place when she's set down for tummy time or just to play on a blanket.

Dan and I are also trying to soak up all those great gummy smiles while they last since she's sprouted TWO teeth...the bottom teeth are out! This didn't seem to slow her down too much. She was a good sport about it all, hopefully the rest of her teeth will be as easy for her :)




Outside of keeping up with Addison's new endevours, Dan has given the dining room a new look. He finished painting the dining room shortly after Thanksgiving and is now working on completing the entry way and hallway.

For Christmas we headed out to California to see my family. We left Friday 12/21 and returned home 12/27 via a red-eye flight. All the travelling went well and it was so great to see the whole family again. We have some great pictures of Addison with her cousin Garrett...there would be some with Logan as well, but he wasn't as cooperative with the paparazzi ;)




More photos can be seen on our flickr account

We celebrated Christmas with Dan's family on the 30th and tried to celebrate New Year's eve with some friends...but the kids were not so cooperative with that effort. We ended up driving home around 11:40p - such is life these days. We weren't really all that broken up about it to be truthful.