"A Story About Me"

As part of his on-going history lessons, Austin had to write (dictate) his own story. The "History of Austin," as it were. It frightens me how much his whole world relies on various video game markers.

"Once upon a time it was my first time playing with Nintendo. I liked playing Mario. I loved it, I loved it, I loved it. Then Logan got me into Mario Kart and I also liked Tigger's Huney Hunt. Stankiewicz's gave me Mario Kart for Christmas. I also like Ms. Pac Man.
I did Phonics for a while then I got Toy Story 2.
When we moved we learned that milk made me feel bad at night. [not really true]
Then with Toy Story 2 I got bored with that. I watched ho Jesse got over to the slime time. Indeed he did.
Logan is my Nintendo buddy.
Then I was still sick at night and I didn't know why. My mommy and daddy didn't either.
We moved into a townhouse. I got Donkey Kong. It was kind of hard to move and I made friends even though I didn't want to. I miss Logan most of all. But I made friends with Benjamin and Jameson.
I wanted Mario Party 7 but Daddy said it was on GameCube.
Grandmom and Granddad came and gave me a game boy. I play Nemo and Mario Kart.
The I got Donkey Kong. I didn't like school and now I like school. I also learned how to do a digital camera. The end.

Breaking News (pun intended)

We're not sure how--and we're not even sure when, but sometime on Saturday, Lindsey suffered a broken ankle. Specifically the tibia just above the growth plate. We took her to the ER on Saturday night where her x-ray revealed a slight anomaly. She had bruising and swelling, plus she couldn't put any weight (all 34 lbs of her) on her leg.

She was a great patient, dutifully answering the doctors and nurses as they questioned her. Some real interesting answers and hypotheses came out of this little squirt. She's loving the attention and care that she's getting--totally eating it all up.

She got a splint at the hospital on Saturday and a cast today. Isn't that cool? She even got to pick the color of her cast. She's not allowed to get it wet or put any weight on it for four weeks. It is going to make our lives very interesting for a while. Janet is not looking forward to the next month!

Keels weekend visit

It was great to have some Ohio friends visit last weekend. We enjoyed having Brian and Pam and their girls all down for a quick weekend trip. Well, it was quick for us, their weekend was book-ended by long drives.

When they got into town late Friday, Brian and I tried to hook up to go hear some live jazz at Bogart's. Janet and I were just there the previous weekend with some new friends from the worship ministry at Providence and had a great time. I thought it would be a good place for Brian and I to hear some good tunes. I think they had a quartet called the "Lounge Lizards" playing that night. Who could turn that down?

We went down town at about 10:00 or so, got there at about 10:30 and found out that Bogart's had transformed itself from a high-end restaurant with dinner music to a hip bar/dance club/ pretty-people-social-place. We clearly didn't belong. When I saw the sign on the door outside that said something about "dress to impress," I knew we were in the wrong place! It was loud and packed--and oh yeah, the NCAA tournatment had started. What were we thinking? That restaurant and all the restaurants on that corner were PACKED with NC State, UNC, or Duke fans. There wasn't a seat anywhere, and we just weren't hip enough to belly up to a bar!

So, after overpaying a coverchage only to leave (the music and atmosphere was way too loud for a conversation) we walked down the street to the Armadillo Grill, which was perfect. Ordered Nachos and Wings. What could be better?

Saturday we found took the kids to Krispy Kreme, not far from where Brian and I went the night before. This was a fun place for the kids (and us) because you know you'll find something yummy to eat. They make the doughnuts right there as you can see with the conveyor belt in the background. There's a couple more pictures of the kids here.

It was only later in the week that I found out we did it all wrong. We were supposed to order the glazed doughnuts fresh, right off the conveyor. They're supposed to be amazing. The good thing (or bad thing) is that this place is only about a 20 minute drive downtown--I'm sure we'll have opportunities in the future to get it right.

Sunday the college band led so we took our time and went to one service--my responsibilities were only to close the third service with Eric. Sunday afternoon we went up to the Y and took the kids swimming. Somehow Janet and Pam got away with only sitting and watching while Brian and I sat in the kids pool and tried to keep them from drowning eachother. If you think you're going to see pictures of us in the pool with the kids, you're sadly mistaken. Instead, here's a picture of Reece, waiting in anticipation of a large bucket to dump water all over him. He loved it. It's one of the play area toys that they have in this pool that just keeps on filling and dumping, filling and dumping all day.

Sunday night, Brian and I got pizza for us and the kids while Janet and Pam disappeared for a while to the Cheesecake Factory. A good time was had by all.

Who's coming to visit us next weekend?

Uncle Kevin and Aunt "Nar"

It's been a while since we've updated our happeneings so here we go with some new stuff.

Janet's sister, Lynette and her husband Kevin drove from Waterloo, IA all the way out here over two days. (They got an intentional late start when the left). It was so great to have them here over a long weekend. It had to be the nicest weekend we've had since we've been here too. We enjoyed 80 degree weather on both the Sunday and Monday they were here and that allowed us to do some nice outdoor things. The kids had a great time riding in the go-carts (sorry about the dark pictures!), and we had a lot of fun at Shelley Lake at an after church Kentucky Fried picnic, and then on Tuesday we had a little lunch play-time at Chuck-E-Cheese.

I couldn't believe it, but when it was time for them to leave, they woke up early on Wednesday morning and left around 5:15am or so, drove the whole way back to Waterloo in one day--got in at 11:00 pm local time. Now THAT's impressive! It was great to have them visit and we all had a lot of fun!

Grandmom and Granddad visit

Wow--it's already been a couple of weekends since my parents drove down from PA to see us--I mean the kids. We were fortunate to have some pretty nice weather while they were here. We took full advantage of them being here--even though it was a short visit. We were able to squeeze a lot in. They were even brave enough to take the kids to Chuck-E-Cheese without Janet and me so we could go out with Jeff and Suzanne. That was a real treat!

We're excited to have Janet's sister and her husband here for a couple of days from Iowa (exptected to arrive any minute) and some other good friends from Ohio come next weekend. The weather has been great (sorry, Ohio friends!), in the upper 70's and 80's this weekend--we almost made a trip to the beach. We haven't gone yet, but we'll be sure to let you know when we do. Stay tuned for more!

Dad had these little feathers in his hat. After Austin noticed that, he started calling him "Peter Granddad" because it reminded him of Peter Pan. He kinda has his granddad's sense of humor!

The Kitchen Sink

It's hard to view the rent money as anything other than lost money. No equity, no tax benefit, just a bill paid every month that gives us the right to live where we're living. Very little benefits come your way from rent. Unless the kitchen sink stops working.

How does a sink stop working? Well, it stops taking water. This all happened while I was at work today, but early on, apparently the drain just had enough and stopped allowing water to drain. Our maintenance crew was great--they were right on it--but even THEY had to call for reinforcements. It was quite an ordeal. A black, sludgey, messy ordeal. But by the time I came home, everything was back to normal. Oh, and rent was due today too. (As well as the mortgage payment!)