Thanksgiving

I'm thankful for:

Three daughters that are healthy, bright, silly, loving, etc, etc, etc

A wife that is intelligent, understanding, involved, beautiful, etc, etc, etc

Sisters, brothers, parents, in-laws, out-laws, teachers, coaches and others for the support they provide in helping raise the girls - it truly does take a village

Friends that challenge and encourage me, mentally and physically

My health

A job that provides enough money to meet all of my family's needs and many of our wants

and so much more...

Ch Ch Ch Changes

So many new experiences to talk about in one post...

Thursday night was my first Tech night game. Thanks to Steven and Linda, I got to experience it in style - homebrew (a porter no less), spinich & crab dib, great seats (right where the twerps quarterback got knocked out - ouch), rowdy fan section - you name it! The weather was warm - we played a little frisbee before the game. Afterward I met up with some of my "crew" downtown to celebrate the victory. That led to another first...

First time eating at Five Guys. Great burger joint out of the DC area - go hungry and with a big group. Joel had warned us about the size of the burgers, however, he neglected to warn us about the fries. A regular order of fries comes in a lunch bag - full of fries. A large comes in basically a grocery bag full of fries. Two of us ordered the regular, and one the large. Seven of us couldn't even finish the two regular orders. The large order was completely wasted...

Friday was my last day with the client that I've been with for almost 4 years. I'm really going to miss the people there and the motivation that they've provided (career and fitness).

Over the weekend we visited my sister-in-law in Maryland. They have a pool which has not yet been drained. So, after celebrating Thanksgiving Saturday, many of us decide to join the polar bear club and take a swim in the 50 degree water (another 1st). The incentive was that they also have a hot tub that we could jump into afterward. Well, I jumped in with my kids and my neice and nephew and then ran for the hot tub. Unfortunately, it had been turned up too hot and we couldn't even stick a toe in it - it was more like a giant lobster pot. We spent about 20 munites adding water from a hose until it cooled down enough for us to get in. The kids ended up going back and forth between the hot tub and the pool for about an hour - I just stayed in the hot tub. Next time I'll make sure the water is warm, but not too warm before I jump in the freezing pool...

Sunday I ran my first trail race with my brother-in-law and nephew. The race directors said before-hand that the course conditions were the worst they had ever seen. They had blown all the leaves off the trail, but it was muddy and there were a number of trees down across it. Between the mud, rocks, hills, trees, roots, etc. you had to be pretty careful. There also wasn't much space for passing anywhere along the train. Despite all of that, I had fun. I definitely didn't get a 5K PR, but I did place in the top half of the finishers! Most impressive were some little kids (5-7 year olds) that I saw do this race - it was challenging.

And finally, today (actually yesterday at this point) I set up my first wireless network! I'm free to go anywhere in or around my house and surf! Way cool, even if I'm not...

Almost Paradise

We played ultimate frisbee yesterday - my last game on the bunker (unless I can convince them to let me back in from time to time to play). It was close to perfect - great weather, good turnout, well matched teams, AND I caught the frisbee for the last goal! What kept it from being perfect? Deer shit covered the field. You couldn't take two steps without stepping in it. Also, Angela, Rex and others weren't able to join us. Still, it was an awesome game.

A little voice inside my head said never look back

Strange weekend.

Went to a farewell dinner hosted by my former CRT co-workers. It was nice - good to see everyone again - but I was reminded of the good times that the group used to have and how close we used to be. We've all definitely moved on from those times, so it was a little sad and awkward, too. We wrapped things up by 7pm (a group that used to stay out together until the morning hours).

Luckily, K and I decided to call on some new friends (hey, we had the babysitter until 11:30 - we weren't just going to go home at 7pm) to see if they wanted to hang out. J, M & A met us at the Rivermill for a few drinks and some great conversation. It helped put me in much better spirits. I really hope to do a better job of maintaining friendships and building new ones.

Saturday I took G & M to a birthday party (K took H to another one). Then I went to a birthday party for a college buddy. He has a great place at the lake - I'll admit it, I'm jealous. I only wish the party had been in the summer so that I could have finally tried out a jet ski and could have done some water skiing again. It was good seeing some familiar faces from the past. The party got kind of weird toward the end, very junior high schoolish in some ways (girls crying, people leaving, etc.). Plus I got involved in heated political discussions that kind of put a damper on things. Oh well...

Sunday M & G sang in church. I played Scrabble with G for the first time - we tied ;) I also rough-housed with the three of them. We had a blast!

This week is my last in the bunker...

Update

Sorry for the long lapse - I tried to update Friday night, but it died and I wasn't up to retyping everything then.

The Saturday before Halloween Grace and Mattie ran their first race! We ran a one mile race in about eleven and a half minutes. Mattie was up ahead of me and Grace, but when she got near the finish she just stopped and waited for us. I thought she was being nice, but it turned out that she was afraid to cross the finish line by herself (didn't help that the grim reaper was waiting there for her...). We got really cool headless horsemen shirts. That Saturday was also my niece's 5th birthday party (her birthday is Halloween). She had her party at a gymnastics place - I had as much fun as the kids did playing on the equipment. Grace, Mattie & Haley spent the night with their cousin and got to trick-or-treat Saturday night with her. Two of them dressed as cats and one as a witch. They came home with three grocery bags of candy!

Karyn and I spent Saturday night volunteering at a fundraiser Halloween gala. She dressed as a black widow - not the spider, but a woman who marries rich men and kills them. Am I concerned? Not really - I'm not rich (in monetary terms). I dressed up as a vampire - one of about a dozen. Next year I will definitely be more creative. It was fun to do an adult Halloween thing for a change.

Halloween was fun. Grace and Haley were tie dyed witches. Grace's dress was pink. Haley wanted to be like Grace (this time) so I made her a purple tie dye t-shirt dress (thanks kris for the tie dying tips). Grace had a black wig with pink streaks and Haley had purple and black braided pig-tails. Mattie was more of a Gothic witch with black wig and a velvet burgandy and black dress. I'll post pictures as soon as we conduct the re-enactment. Almost every year we run out of time to take pictures - you try getting three witches ready to go trick-or-treating. So several days or weeks later we get them dressed up again and have a photo shoot. They got a bunch more candy - in fact we boxed up a ton of candy and sent it away to my nephew in college.

Monday night Mattie and Grace had their soccer banquet. Their coaches were really good this year - really focused on them having fun. Hopefully the girls will have a good experience in indoor soccer over the winter.

Tuesday - I voted. Karyn voted. Grace, Mattie and Haley voted 4-times (with each of us and with my parents) ... it didn't change the results. I also went to parent-teacher conferences for Grace and Mattie. They are both making all A's and their teachers love them. I'm so proud of them. It is really weird to go to these conferences - it seems like yesterday that I was in elementary school, now I've got two girls there.

Not much the rest of the week. I've been cooking a lot with the girls - it is a fun way to spend time together. We also did some yard work together this weekend - beautiful fall weather. Spent some time at the bookstore - bought two books for Mattie and Grace, which they ended up finishing before bed (getting library cards this week). Grace and Mattie were given bibles at church yesterday and had an afternoon of bible games at church.

I'll try to do better now that I'm caught up...