Christmas with the Singermans

We made it to Wheeling to see Lisa, Bob, Carol, and Steve. Although Owen had a rough night, it didn't show as we went to Steve and Carol's house. Tom and I had the chance to catch up with everyone and enjoy some wine and football. Owen did a QC check on the kitchen cabinets, fireplace, and remote controls. Along the way, he also rearranged Carol's flower arrangement and fed Boomer, the dog, an acorn. After dinner with some energy to spare, Owen and Aunt Deetz played soccer for a bit and laughed a lot together!

We also did a group photo in front of the fireplace. Now, that we are pros at this, no accidental butt or running man outtakes needed to be reshot.

Who pushed the 'Suck' button?

Nothing is worse than hearing your baby start screaming and when you open your eyes, it is still pitch black - not a good sign. This was us last night at about 3am. We thought maybe dirty diaper, maybe hungry, maybe got freaked out that he wasn't in his own bed - whatever it was, I will never know. I do know one thing - Owen has the energy of the Energizer Bunny. He never really went back to bed with maybe a 30 min. snooze between 6-6:30am. It is now9am, and you would not know that he only got a 1/2 of the sleep he normally gets on any given night with the exception of the bags under his eyes. He's climbing on things, dancing, singing, and showing pau pau (g'ma) & gung gung (g'pa) all his tricks!


Later today, we are planning on visiting Aunt Deetz and the Singermans since we didn't yesterday due to all the snow that fell. Milwaukee got 6" (i caught all the news this morning), a record snowfall. Tom put on my dad's winter gear and took the snow blower out for a whirl while Owen stood on the porch with Rocky watching me shovel off the walkway. Here is a picture I took this morning from the couch - I love how everything looks right after a snowfall!

Why Men Are Never Depressed

Initially this email was created by Women for Women. The mistake was that Lee Ann had included Joe on the distribution list. Joe, for whatever reason, is always the ONLY guy who eats lunch with us. Well, he had responded to the email adding his male perspective - I got a good chuckle and thought I'd share...

WHY MEN ARE NEVER DEPRESSED
Men Are Just Happier People - What do you expect from such simple creatures?

Your last name stays put.
Our name stays put but our money doesn’t. We get to keep our names but everything else we had when we met that had any personal significance, history or character (including many of our friends) was thrown out to make room for doilies, boxes of clothing that is two sizes too small, and that thing I am not allowed to touch in the room that I am not allowed to go in.

The garage is all yours.
The rest of the house is all yours. Did you want the garage for something? Maybe this is the day you start up that birdhouse-making hobby. Better yet, my car needs an oil change. Today, the garage is all yours.

Wedding plans take care of themselves.
So does the litter box. Both were your idea.

Chocolate is just another snack.
True. Food is food. Love is love. Neither is an adequate replacement for the other.

You can be President.
The odds of me becoming president are ~ 150,000,000:1. I don’t know how many zeroes you need to round off to “can’t”, but it’s pretty close.

You can never be pregnant.
No but I had to live with someone who was hormonal, whiny and excessively needy. Then she got pregnant.

You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.
Yes you can.

You can wear NO shirt to a water park.
Yes you can.

Car mechanics tell you the truth.
Mechanics tell us the truth because we know when they are lying. This is an area of knowledge, taken out of this context, you find superfluous and boring.

The world is your urinal.
The unique physiological difference that allows us to urinate in situ has more drawbacks than advantages. First, you’ve seen that thing. You want one? Second, it makes us do things. Stupid things.

You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky.
Yes I have. I travel with a woman and preschool aged girl. I too have to hold it until we find that clean gas station.

You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.
From the 12:00 position, it is lefty loosey; righty tighty. Say it to yourself.

Same work, more pay.
Let’s talk this over beer sometime. Corporate email is probably not the best place for me to write my thoughts.

Wrinkles add character.
Good. Women cause them.

A wedding dress is $5,000 but a Tux rents for $100.
Hmm. That’s funny because I can still fit in what I got married in!

People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them.
If it sometimes seems as if I am staring at your chest when we talk it is only because that is where your boobs are.

The occasional well-rendered belch is practically expected.
Girls burp. No one yells at women for belching...in church...while sounding out the words to “Our father”...

New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet.
How could that be? You tried on EVERY DAMN SHOE IN THE STORE. It’s mostly new shoes that do this. This occasion only happens for me once a year. It is your feet that have never been in a three month old shoe.

One mood all the time.
See pregnancy above.

Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.
That is the amount of time it takes me to convey the same amount of useful information as your three hour conversation.

You know stuff about tanks.
I’ve read stuff about tanks. Let me tell you about this “internet” some time.

A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.
Again, see pregnancy above. The fact I only need one suitcase doesn’t mean I don’t have to carry enough baggage to irreparably damage many of my boy parts. Honestly, do you really need a separate suitcase for – HOLY CRAP, are those books?!?!?

You can open all your own jars.
And yours.

You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.
What is this credit of which you speak? If I open a door for you, I insult your feminist sensibilities. If I don’t, I insult your feminine sensibilities. Also, this credit is worthless to me unless it is cumulative...bankable. When the slightest insult is perceived, all previous credit is forfeited. Not useful. Keep your points.

If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.
He or she can be your friend too. Try it.

Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack.
I’ll take your word for it, you bought them. I believe the novelty packs (ie the ones that say “Home of the Whopper”) are $12.95.

Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.
True. One pair of running shoes, one pair of dress shoes and my last pair of running shoes (for yard work). You too would only need three pairs of shoes if you only bought them for the clothes you actually wear.

You almost never have strap problems in public.
Oh, we have things that need adjusting. I blame the $8.95 underwear.

You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.
I see them. I’m not allowed to mention them because you are the one who did the laundry last. My clothes were removed and placed in a laundry basket to make room for your stuff. When a woman complains about the way men do laundry, she is merely being helpful, offering the benefit of her sage advice to make him a better man and a better husband. When a man does the same, he is breaking her spirit or denying her from following her bliss.

Everything on your face stays its original color.
Except for the ruddy red color of rage.

The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades!
Perhaps you have not seen the Magnificent Mullet pictures from my youth.

You only have to shave your face and neck.
ONLY have to shave my face? It’s our face, perhaps the most (ok, maybe second most) vascularized, sensitive surface on our bodies. Besides, you’re not fooling anyone. You only shave up to your knee unless you anticipate getting jiggy. That is how I know. If I can see hair protruding from your panty hose, I know not to bother tonight.

You can play with toys all your life.
So can you. Just because you don’t, doesn’t mean you can’t.

Your belly usually hides your big hips.
I don’t have big hips. My belly hides other things. Useful things.

One wallet and one pair of shoes, one color for all seasons.
To be fair, I can only see about 1/16 of the colors you do.

You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look.
My legs look fabulous. Moot point.

You can 'do' your nails with a pocket knife.
Do you want to? You can if you really want to. Hell, you can ‘do’ your hair with a fish bone and Elmer’s glue if you want to.

You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.
Whether or not I have a mustache, beard, goatee, fu Manchu or Abe Lincoln is somehow your decision also.

You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.
I did yours at the BP. Merry Christmas.

No wonder men are happier. Yeah. Happy.

White Elephant Party, Anyone??

Saturday night we went to Amy's house for a White Elephant Christmas party. How the tradition goes with Amy's core group of friends is that the host of the party for this year received the crocheted 'penis cozy' as a white elephant gift from the previous year. Yes, I guess it - 'the special gift' - was actually made with that function in mind...hmmm,don't ask. Anyways, Amy invited a few of us to enjoy in the fun as it is 'the more the merrier' when it comes to these exchanges...I actually had pretty good luck picking from the pile but both items were stolen from me and I ended up with this awful green cabbage leaf glass bowl. I think it sits up there with the pineapple wedding gift.

Leading News

Owen has started to drag things with him...the latest, today's paper!

Also, we are now using Picasa for pictures and there are ones up from Thanksgiving. Look for Tom sitting in the kids chair playing with kiddie legos - that's a classic! The link is to the right. Flickr got the finger from us as we found out that they only show the 120 most recent photos and we can see our entire set for a monthly fee...grr.

Ok, I'm off to make MA's yummy sugar cookies!

Diaper Me

I swear last night might've been a full moon over the Riker-Gong house. We had our typical evening which included bath night for Owen. Usually the process goes like this:
7pm: throw dirty Owen into tub, play and splash around until I see pruney fingers
7:20: dry off and Owen must turn on and off the bathroom light
7:25: head down the hall into the bedroom and finding clean clothes
7:27: chase naked Owen around the second floor trying to lotion him up and diaper him (because he's taken off while looking for clothes)
7:37: naked baby with diaper on askew

Last night, Owen picked up the diaper off the floor walked over to me, handed me the diaper, and lied down on the floor allowing me to diaper him without a fight! Tom witnessed this craziness and we both stared at each other with our jaws on the floor.

Small Victory

Thanksgiving week in Wisconsin was nice. We had an Asian fusion Thanksgiving which just means along with turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes you also had roasted pig, char siu, and roast duck in the mix! We also saw our first snow but can't say I was happy to see it already. I think my blood is thinning with all the time spent in Cincinnati.

We also were able to meet up with the Yun-Tauchen family (my best friend Michelle and the entire family). There were 13 of us and as usual, the younger people were on end chattering in english while the more mature people were on the other end conversing in a mixture of chinglish. Although conversation might be different, one thing remains constant at the entire table - Who will get the bill?!?

You see in the Chinese culture when there are gatherings at a restaurant, the game is who will get the bill at the end of the meal. Depending on how close nit the group is will decide on how much fighting will go on. People will literally lean over the table to yank the bill out of the other person's hand. Also, you also strategize on where you will sit at the table (at the beginning of the meal) to best position yourself of winning the bill. And on Friday, I got the bill. I was so sly that no one even noticed the waitress coming over to hand us the bill. I did get the evil stare from Michelle and I'm sure when we see them next at Christmas, they won't be letting their guard down.

Family Update...and thoughts for Thanksgiving '08

I realize that I've not blogged in a bit - one could surmise that I didn't have anything to say, but those that know me well would tell you that's not possible. As they say at work, here is my 1 pager (because at work, summaries are one page with 3 main topics...)

1. Owen had his first trip to the Emergency Room on Halloween night. He was screaming for 4 hours before we gave in only to find that it was a really bad cold. He of course was quick to recover and passed it on to Tom & I which took us twice as long to recover. We have all recovered, and at his 15 month check up on Friday, he is 'developing well' as the doctor puts it. Owen gained 10 oz (20lbs 10oz) and 3 inches (31") since his 12 mo. visit. The only thing we need to do is stop the bottle and so we have begun the process. Going cold turkey is not jiving well with him yet - it's only day 2.

2. Work is hectic, nothing new, and I've been leading recruiting efforts so it makes my full plate runneth over on some days. I forget that I'm an engineer on most days. The neat thing about recruiting was that I had a mini-reunion with my ChE peeps. During my college years, Kurt, Jason, and I were joined at the hips. We even traveled together to Europe for our summer lab - Kurt was my shopping buddy and Jason cried...over a very spicy taco. Sadly, since college I only loosely kept in touch with Kurt. Just recently I found Jason and to top it off, both boys recently quit their respective jobs and took new ones in Madison. Last week, I had to fly into Madison to do a recruiting presentation and grabbed dinner with the both of them - it was like those 7 years hadn't passed by - it was great! and Allison...yes, Kurt is still single...hint, hint.

3. I realized my little brother is growing up! He just bought a house, after 6 months of looking. He closes sometime mid- December. I don't think I've seen him this excited over much of anything. We've actually talked a couple times every week over the past couple weeks as he found the one to bid on and then looked for advice on the process.

Lastly, just so the whole Riker family has the heads up. Owen was asked to be in a wedding, which I said yes to before knowing the date. We just found out it will be Thanksgiving weekend 2008. So, we'll have to see when we'll be able to get together as a whole family! I think we'll be in Sodus in August for Tom's 15 year reunion, which that just sounds old but I'm sure will be fun. Those are the big dates we know of for 2008, we are still planning on a trip to Europe if Tom can finally settle on a country he'd like to visit.

Tomorrow we head to Wisconsin to spend this Thanksgiving with the Gong household - Cross your fingers that Bottle-Withdrawl will subside enough for a semi-peaceful ride up north!

Neighborly Fright

Our neighborhood had a halloween parade which had all the kids walking up the main road to the clubhouse. We decided it was probably a good thing to partake in and meet a few more of our neighbors. We weren't exactly sure where the starting line for the parade was but we didn't need to ask for directions because you could a herd of kids decked out in their costumes all migrating towards the starting line. Most of them were 12 and under. It was quite a scene - strollers, wagons, and dogs..oh my! Owen was a bear thanks to pau pau's gift. Fun was had by all and a preview of halloween night. Above is Owen in his costume and more pics can be found on our flickr site.

Monumental Day

We now have something to worry about...out of nowhere, Owen has just decided he can walk on his own without our help. Last weekend, we were noticing that he walked really well when holding one or both of his hands (he preferred to have both held) but if you just set him on his feet, he much rather sit down and crawl rather than walk/lunge to something solid. Today, while Tom and I were enjoying our cup of coffee, I noticed Owen walking away from the couch to the kitchen and made past the kitchen table before falling onto his well cushioned bottom. At that point, in the middle of the floor, he proceeded to get back up to standing position and take off again - heading to the stairs.

Oh, and he also has fast hands - he got a piece of Rocky's dog food into his mouth before we caught him and the only reason why I knew was that he spit half of it out - I think he ate the other half.

A pat on the back

I have a fear of dentists. I'm sure it results from when I was young and my 'traditional' dentist decided to pull my baby teeth (4 of them) that weren't ready to fall out without any novacane. The reason for pulling the teeth out was to avoid needing braces, which was true. There were a few other occasions that followed which didn't help the cause.

Well, I decided I probably it was about time to get my teeth checked (it's been 3 years at least) and made an appointment with a dentist that came recommended. Good news, I didn't freak out and no new cavities. Bad news, I have to go back two more visits to refill the current two cavities for various reasons. Ugh! Small victories.

iResuscitation

Success - my iPod is alive for a while longer. I was directed to a site full of good iPod info (www.ipodlounge.com) - Thanks Deetz! :) where you can look on the forum to see discussions on just about anything with an 'i' in front of it. I didn't have to look hard because my problem is quite a common one (who knew) - When I turned on my iPod, it showed a folder icon with a big exclamation point on top of it and then you can hear the hard drive whirling madly without accomplishing what it really wanted to do....it had crashed. The suggested fixes sounded farfetched but I tried it anyways - jam a screwdriver in it to open it up then shake it a little and replace the top and Voila! You are on your way. I barely jammed the screwdriver into the seam to open it up and did do a bit of shaking as I was trying to get a good hold of it and open up the face. That amount was all it needed and it is fixed - the folder icon went away and I was able to get to my music!!!

iFuneral

My iPod died while on my trip to Germany. It was so sad, a 10 hour flight and no music to listen to other than what the airline piped in. The flight home on Saturday was uneventful. I did see 3 co-workers on my flight home and then about 4 more people when I landed (they took the Paris flight home) - All I could think was how much money we must've spent to send all of us to Europe. I guess that's the downside of working for a global company.

As soon as I landed, I headed to Jon & Kristi's house for a 1 year birthday party for Julia. It was fun, relaxing and I was ready to see everyone. When Owen first saw me, he gave me a look that said 'I think I know you, right?' It wasn't until I started talking to him a bit more that he was excited to see me and then clung to me the rest of the night and most of Sunday as well.

Mastering English

Yesterday, training ended early and most everyone darted out of the hotel relieved that it was Friday and the beginning of Octoberfest in Munich. There were a few of us, mainly me and people from Japan who would not be catching our flights until the following day or Sunday.

While we were taking in the sights and getting to know each other better, they eventually got to a comfortable point that they were willing to ask about some clarification on a concept we learned in our training. The concept was why be good when you can be great - how can you make something even bigger, do it better, faster, cheaper. The trainers termed it 'Being a Waterwalker' or 'Waterwalker Attributes'. For the Japanese, this phrase brought to mind images of old grandmas and grampas who do their daily exercise by walking laps in the pool. They could not understand why the trainers were asking them to be more like grandmas and grampas. One I explained to them it was not about being a grandpa/grandma but more like a kung-fu master, you saw the lightbulb go off it their head!

Always a Researcher!

Although I am here in Frankfurt, solely to focus on this training - I can't help but always observe things to help move my project. I am working on a global product do design products for the bathroom and of course we would love for one product that can fit both regions. I have been told and sent pictures of the western europe bathroom so I can understand the differences from the US bathrooms and it isn't until you are here living it, that you can say 'Ah, I know exactly what they mean!"

One product is a toilet product and so understanding how toilets are different and the mindset about appropriate behavior is needed. Well, it was quite eye opening when you see the true toilet design here as well as the fact that they keep a toilet brush next to the toilet (yes, I am talking about the public ones here in the hotel) so that if you make skid marks, you clean up after yourself! In my US mindset, I hate touching my own toilet brush, much less some public toilet brush that you don't know just how many other people might've used...I'll leave you with that thought.

Now, I'm off to my last day of training.

Willkommen Frankfurt

I arrived in Frankfurt today on time. My flight was pretty uneventful with the minor exception of an overbook flight and being on the same plane as our Mayor, Mark Mallory. The Frankfurt airport was quiet and still on an early Sunday morning and moving efficiently as I don't expect anything less from the Germans. I was a bit bummed because I forget that shops are closed on Sundays but nevertheless I did get to wander the center of town and have taken a few pics which I won't be able to post until I return home next weekend.

It was perfect outside - sunny and ~70F. There was a lot of street musicians out there but their talent is quite a few notches above anything you see in Cincinnati, including one guy who was out there with his piano! You thought you were at an outdoor performance.

It is only 4pm here but already, my eyes are feeling heavy - only a few more hours to stay awake before diving into my bed.

Ladies of Hunters Green

Right before labor day weekend, Tom found a flyer stuck to our mailbox which advertised creating a ladies group and listed the events going on for the coming year. I decided to join them for dinner last night and see what it was all about. I had hesitations as I guessed most were stay at home moms and I wasn't sure how well I would fit in with them. At the same time, I was intrigued by the idea of getting know more of my neighbors and seeing if any would have kids around Owen's age. It turned out to be quite a fun night. It was nice to meet new people from a range of ages and some who do have kids relatively close to Owen's age. It was still difficult to be one of the 2-3 people there that worked for any amount of time outside the home and my world doesn't revolve around the kids and looking forward to when Tom came home to give me relief. I found out that I probably had more in common with their husbands - as they seem ALL to work at P&G; I guess that's how they can stay home. I think I'll go back out with these ladies and give them another try next month before I decide whether or not I'll commit to joining the group.

Mad about Cleaning Products

Our weekend was full of good food, hot weather, and crazily shopping for cleaning products. At work, we are trying to place a test to understand what people think about our product versus that of our leading competitor. As you can imagine it is easy to obtain our own product because we can either make some or call up the warehouse and ask them to send us some. Normally, we can go to one of the stores we always work with and place a large order of the competitive products we need

But as it turns out this product is quite new and is replacing an old product so it is hard to find...not only that we need hundreds of them so I've spent my weekend trying to locate as many of these products as I can, amazing race styel. If you can imagine, I park, run in and make a bee line for the cleaning aisle and rustling the shelf for the exact product - exact size and scent. If it is there, I hoard all there is on the shelf and make a crazy women, mad dash to the checkout line - I prefer the self-checkout at times like these. Otherwise, you deal with curious checkout people asking so what are you going to do with 17 of the ?

Then I hurry back out to my car and throw them in the backseat along with the other plastic bags full of the exact same product hoping that there aren't any nosy customers near me (probably thinking I have OCD) and make my way to the next store...

Among hoarding of cleaning products, we did have time to have dinner with the Cetti's. They all came over afterwards and Julia was playing with Owen's toys as normal and actuall using his mower as it was intended. I think Owen finally realized how it was to be used and as soon as he had a chance to steal it away from Julia he took it cruising. I've uploaded a video of it.

Happy Birthday Owen

We celebrated Owen's first birthday a little early ... but I guess that's fitting as he did arrive early too. He loved his cake and actually ate his entire piece. (check out pictures for proof) We had invited a few people over to grill out and at one point there were 6 kids under the age of 4 in our house, utter chaos and great birth control too. Owen did get a couple gifts (even though we said no gifts) but as anyone could predict the shiny bow and crinkly tissue paper were his favorite items.

Harry Potter, the Deathly Hallows

I finally finished Book 7. If you haven't read it yet, I wouldn't continue reading on - itll have spoilers.

All in all, I thought it was a pretty good book - action right from the very first page with minimal amounts of slow spots. I did guess correctly that Harry was one of the Horcruxes and so that he would have to die if Voldermort is to die. I just found it a bit disturbing that we needed that happy ending of Harry not really dying at all and to return to the living so he is able to kill off Voldermort.

I think I also had an issue with the epilogue - I don't know if it needed to be in there. Then again, I guess it is really a children's book.

Anyways, all-in-all a good read.

Safety First

I know we all want to be good parents and make sure our kids are safe at all times but this a little much for me. I was browsing through the catalogue of kids stuff when I came across this. I must say even in my half awake state (was reading while eating breakfast), I laughed. The picture reminded me of an 80's movie where some boys were wearing bras on their heads.

Odd Inventions...

I was on the web looking for car seat covers so that we minimize the amount of Rocky we leave in the car on our trip to Wisconsin this weekend. We know we treat Rocky like he is our child and I believe he thinks he is human. But as I was scrolling through the websites, I realize that we are quite normal indeed.

Doggy Booster Seat...designed to give dog unobstructed view out the window.

Doggy Stroller so you can exercize without straining your poor dog. And I will say that there is someone in our neighborhood who actually has one...

The Big Red Beast

We have finally succumb to a family mobile. We've been looking for a while and realize that we needed something that has 3 rows of seating and that the second row is captain chair seating so that Rocky has somewhere to sit without feeling the need to sit in someone's lap. The lead runner was the dreaded minivan, Honda Odessey, until we test drove the Acadia. We then knew it was it - our answer to the minivan! We picked it up on Saturday and had an inaugural ride to Lowes & Biggs!

Owen and his girlfriend

Thought you'd get a kick out of this...Here is Owen and Julia playing together when we grilled out a couple weekend ago.

Overworked?

Ok, so yesterday we were trying to pull together some research for today and ofcourse at the 13th hour, our designer tells us that he NEEDS to take our McGuyver prototypes with him and he needs to leave with them in an hour. So needless to say, we spent the rest of the day playing mini-McGuyver again trying to recreate our prototypes.

In the midst of this, I decided to look at my calendar and clear off any and all meetings I had so I could conduct the research. I see that there is a doctor appt on my calendar (CRAP - they are so hard to schedule) and so I call them to reschedule. The kind lady on the other end of the line had to remind me that I didn't have an appt for tomorrow but for Tuesday April 17th. As I look back at my calendar, I realize I was looking at the WRONG MONTH & WRONG WEEK! Ugh! I felt like a moron...

Deja Vu

The past few nights have felt like the nights back in October. Owen has not been sleeping through the night but unlike last October, we weren't excited that he slept a 6 hour stretch...we were horrified that he ONLY slept a 6 hour stretch before crying.

Hopefully as his tummy feels better, he will revert back to his normal 9-10hr nights or our week will be very painful and we will look like walking zombies by Friday. On the upside it will make us appreciate vacation that much more. The packing has begun and the dog is having anxiety attacks because he sees the luggage out as we try to pack today.

Never say Never

I've always said that Owen would never roll over. In fact, just yesterday I was telling my co-workers my theory...and of course Owen decided to prove me wrong. Guess he didn't like me telling him he 'couldn't' do something. I'll have to keep that in mind for the future:)

But his milestone was reached at an unoptimal time. (as if I could dictate when...) 11pm last night, Owen was stirring but often times is able to put himself back to sleep - not last night. Eventually we heard a 'thump' and found Owen up on his side plastered to the wall of the crib screaming. All we could do was laugh. The last laugh was on us though...because I think that brought him out of sleep and into playtime. He proceeded to roll again when I placed him on his stomach and then bounced on me for a while. Long story short, we did not go to bad til 1am.

Mission Complete

Happy to report that we actually used the grocery list we compiled this week. The secret .. create the list while you are out and then go directly to the store once list is created!
Allie - yes, it's true. You can laugh as hard as you like - but we've started compiling a grocery list on a weekly basis but it always got left behind somewhere!

Now, we can sit back and relax ... well, until 3:30pm when the OSU vs Wisconsin basketball game is on - GO BADGERS!

Fotogenic

Owen's becoming less stoic when the camera is revealed.

Separately, what's up with the calorie labels on food products? I was snacking on some graham cracker sticks and it said that one serving = 14 sticks. Who keeps count? Why 14 sticks, not 15? Not that I was counting calories but even I wanted to I would do miserably because I lost count of the number of sticks I had eaten.

My Brain Hurts

Art Class never ends. I had two different brainstorming sessions with work on two very different projects. It was fun and exhausting - at the end of the day, your brain hurt from all the thinking. Who knew that thinking outside of the box could hurt so much.

The funnest was the second brain storming session, partly because it directly impacted my project which i can't talk about in this blog or I'd have to kill you :) Anyways, we spent the 2nd half of the day building prototypes from what we had available - if you could see what we built, you would've thought we were Mini-McGuyvers...duct tape, sand, pipe cleaners, empty water bottles, & sharpies - it was great! So much better than sitting in meetings with a phone taped to my head.

Date Night...Finally

YES! Last night was our first real date night since Owen's been born. Just Tom & I out for a nice dinner. For our 2006 New Year's Resolution, we were going to try a new restaurant every month - but then with a new house and baby on the way, it altered our plan a bit. So we decided to keep that resolution for this 2007 as well.

We went out last night to celebrate the fact that I finally was getting a paycheck again. Our friends, Adam and Andrea, were very nice and offered to watch Owen - Thank Goodness for Good Friends when family is far away. We had gotten our Cincinnati magazine with the Top 25 restaurants for 2007. I had heard of Slims and was very surprised to see it make the top 25. It was a great meal - to read more, click on Tom's Blog link - he went into detail.

Now, what restaurant to visit next month...hmmm...

Owen's new toy

Check it out - he knew how it works from the first moment he sat in it. Tom's going to upload a video shortly.

In Training - Plan X

When you are becoming first time parents, you have all these ideas of how life will be with a baby, what routine looks like, and how I'll be able to balance everything. Will he sleep through the night? How long will he sleep? You have A Plan ... and it goes flying out the window the first breath they take. You come up with another plan...and that too goes flying out the window. You would think after 6 months, I would embrace the unexpected without question...But still as Owen cried last night at 12:45am, all I can do is think 'What time is it? Will he go back to bed? He can't be hungry already? Doesn't he understand it's the weekend?'

So I feed him and put him back to bed and he was up and ready for the day at 7am this morning. Another new day! :)

Insider Scoop

MA...Dawn Complete is completely dead... I've been told that you might find some bottles still on shelves in the Dollar Channel (Dollar General, Big Lots, etc) because they move inventory slowest of all the channels.

Happy Hunting

Gung Hay Fat Choy (Happy New Year)

Yesterday was Chinese New Year - 2007 is year of the Pig. In case your wondering if you were born under the Pig sign you are highly regarded for your chilvary & purness of heart, and you often make friends for life.

The 'forecast' for the Dragon during this Pig year is quite positive - one full of much happiness and celebration. I guess we'll see if that holds true. I'll have to take a look to see what Tom's forecast is. Hopefully, he got rid of all his negative chi on the soccer field on Sat. It was his first game in 5 weeks (3 due to injury and 2 weeks of no games for the team) and within the first 10 min, he was told by the ref to calm down before 1/2 way through the 2nd half, he got his red card.

I get the day off today but Tom doesn't so it feels like when I was on maternity leave with the exception that I was compelled to do a little work while Owen is down for his nap. BUT I only was on my PC for 5 min. before deciding that work could wait but I NEEDED to catch up on Gray's Anatomy from last Thurs. Now, I wish today is Thursday so I can get closure on what happened to Meredith.

A Long Weekend

I almost forgot that it is President's Day on Monday - more importantly, that I have a 3-day weekend. Yesterday, I actually had to decline a meeting that I originally accepted because it had slipped my mind.

We woke up today to more snow - they forecasted 1-3" over the entire weekend but I think 2" fell by 10AM today and it is still coming down. It reminds me of home (good ole Oak Creek, WI) and the fun we had as kids in the snow.

Needless to say, there isn't much going on with all the snow. We do have a soccer game later today and this morning, I gave Owen his first haircut. I was trying to hold off because it sounded silly to me that my 5 month old son needed a haircut. But it was aggravating that people will comment on what a 'Beautiful Girl' I have even if he is dressed from head to toe in blue. So I thought maybe it was the hair - it was looking like old man comb over/surfer dud-ish. Here is a pic of him getting it cut.



Also decide to post a pic of our newly painted Dining Room. We are pretty pleased with how it turned out. Now, we just need new window treatments, light fixture, and wall plates. Decorating your home just never ends...

White Death - Round 2

More snow - just what we need. People here get very anxious at the mention of snow. Yesterday, schools were cancelling class for today and at work, people didn't want to set up meetings for today. Each time I said, 'how about tomorrow?' their answers were along the line of 'well, i don't know about you, but I don't plan on being at work - didn't you hear that it was going to snow?' and give me the look that said where have YOU been?!?
We did get snow and then freezing rain on top of that. Lucky for me, I worked from home today as did 1/2 of Cincinnati so I didn't have to battle the Cincy drivers. We took a few pictures to share. Our poor tree, the freezing rain pulled it into 4 different directions. We had to take the picture through the window because we couldn't open our back door.















Here is a pic of Owen enjoying his first snowfall with Dad last week! (White Death- Round 1)

Another Superbowl Gone

Last weekend we had our usual Superbowl gathering and we paid even less attention to the game than the year before. The normal cast showed up with 2 new additions ofcourse - Ethan & Owen :) I made the sugar cookies this year instead of Amy because she wanted to test out her new cake pan - which makes a cake in the shape of a stadium. I was going to go without the cookies but that would be breaking a tradition that is one everyone looks forward to...how to rearrange the letters for a more 'provacative' phrase. This is this year's before and after.

Before
















After

Blogging Again

I've decided to start blogging again and hopefully I'll keep it up this time. It always starts off seeming like a great idea since family and friends are so far away and I'm not much of a phone person. But then I seem to forget about it after a few posts. So...add this link to your bookmarks and check it frequently to see if I've been keeping up!