6th Times a Charm

Never again will this long a period of time lapse between my stimulating family updates. Well, at least not for the next 2 years until we decide to move again. Just joking. We're not moving for a very long time. Yet, when we tell our dear friends that, they laugh at us, roll their eyes practically out of their sockets and say "Bologna Sausage." I don't know why. It's really quite a mystery to us. Isn't it normal to move 6 times in a 7 year marriage? We're adaptable and that my friends is a very good thing. Unless you're near and dear to us and get roped into the heavy and frequent job of loading and unloading Penske trucks. Great trucks, by the way! We've become loyal patrons of the big yellow beasts.

So, we're in. Decor is hung on it's appropriate spots on the walls, closets are organized, dude has adapted to his new surroundings, and neighbors have already gifted us with cookies, home made doughnuts, courtesy of their family owned "The Donut" shop and home grown cucumbers the size of eels . Thus why no blogging has taken place. Priorities people. If you know me, you know that poor Tim has been one busy and very patient man. It's really not to his benefit during times like this that he's capable of just about any project known to man.

Photos of the new digs are below. You can view the post below this one to get an update on dude's perspective on the last couple of weeks in his mile high life.

What's Up With These Wackos?

So, I was 17 months and life was good. I would go visit Miss Vickie 3 times per week and hang out in her comfy house with a couple other kids, including my buddy Nolan. And the dog, Candy, let me grab her face and pull on it, which was just awesome. Mom would pick me up and we'd hang at home, walk to the park, eat some nuggets, run up and down the driveway waiting for dad to come home and call it a day. That was my routine. And I liked it. I was a happy dude.

Now I'm 18 months and let me tell ya, my routine disappeared and I am STILL trying to figure out where it went. Miss Vickie must have moved or got sick of me attacking Candy, because I haven't seen her in over two weeks. Instead, I get dropped off at this crazy place with tons of other kids with runny noses. Dad plops me in a table that has seats built in it with the other kids and then takes off. Does he realize that I don't know these people?

Miss Laura is my teacher and I guess she's pretty cool. She makes me put my fingers in paint and glue and I don't know why that's necessary, but whatever. As long as she hangs my pictures from the ceiling, I'm cool with it. Here's the best part....they lay these mats on the ground all over the room and want us to sleep! No crib, no pack n play, nothing. I'm super tired from the chaos that is my day, so I just decided right off the bat that I'd take advantage of the less than comfy accomodations and just sleep. Then we have crackers and juice and play outside and usually Mom comes to get me. Sometimes I act excited to see her, but I'm still a little peeved about the whole situation, so other times I act like I don't really care.

To top off the whole circus of this new place they call "day care," Mom takes me to this wierd house every day. It has all my stuff in it, so that's pretty good, but I think Mom and Dad are a bit confused about where our real house is. We haven't gone home now for over a week, so I'm getting used to this new place and I'll admit that I dig it. It has a lot of open spots that I can run around, flail my arms and say "wee." That's what I like to do. And they bought me what we call the "Mile High Swing" and it's pretty awesome. I've been able to play in these huge boxes and help put furniture together. Those screw things were pretty tough to get inside the holes, but I did a pretty good job for a little kid.

I'm saying "wee" here. Again, it's what I like to do.

My fantastic Nanna came to pay attention to me while Mom and Dad ditched me. She is the best! Mom was a bit uptight and ran around like there were fires all over the place. Then she got sick and laid on the floor with me for 2 days while I played. That was just what I needed!

Anyway, that's whats been happening around here. It's all cool now, but I tell ya, it was a whirlwind for a while there. So help me if they move my stuff to another new house again.

Vaca Follow-Up

In following up with the "Hurricane Gustav" post, we arrived home safely that Tuesday afternoon after a relaxing 5 days in Orange Beach. We rarely take "vacations" where we can just plop our booties down and not think about where we need to go and who we need to see, so this was just what the doctor ordered.

Dude was in heaven from the minute we set foot in Mom and Marc's house. He slept like a dream in the basement (much to Marc's dismay that we left him down there alone), romped around the beach collecting shells, kicked around in the ocean trying to drink the saltwater, jumped into the pool (hoping someone would be there catch him), danced to the live band at Jimmy Buffet's sister's cool outdoor restaurant and definitely grew attached to Grandma and Grandpa Marc (when Marc wasn't chasing him around causing nervous squealing).

It needs to be noted that the food was a sampling of seafood heaven. Much time was spent in the kitchen working up masterpieces. The screened in deck overlooking the channel was our favorite spot to soak it all in. Thanks Mom and Marc for a fantabulous time! We'll look forward to doing it again. Marc, make sure the wildlife know to stay the heck away from me next time or I might just be too spooked to ever come back! No more sting rays under my feet, crabs munchin on my toes or water snakes visiting the dock! Tall order, but I know you can work it out.

Ben & Gwen

The Democratic National Convention brought with it a whole bunch of random excitement here in the Mile High City. I'm gonna leave ya'll hangin' on the Ben Affleck piece for now. Our little fam drove downtown the Sunday before the DNC officially started with adventurous friends Josh and Jen to check out the scene. Everyone else thought we were crazy.

Between black SUV's stocked full of men in ear pieces or exteriorly loaded with police/FBI forces ready for a nuclear war, vehicles you might find in a monster truck show spray painted with language depicting Barac Obama as the anti-christ, photographers hiding around corners, masses of people walking around just to see if you might be someone with an ounce of celebrity status, Obama hooplah on every corner and in-between every corner and most importantly, the Rednecks for Obama group, lead by the one armed gentleman, we thoroughly enjoyed our sightseeing tour of our city. The dude had a gay ole' time as well. Especially when a young kid gifted him with a freaky lookin gingerbread doll. Dude hugged it and laughed and when he wasn't looking, we quickly disposed of it in a garbage can adorned with Obama signs.

Our mayor went so far as to offer "Venice-like" (I stress the "like" in that phrase) boat rides down the muddied river that runs through downtown, complete with a little Hispanic man offering details about the history of the brand new buildings they pass along the way. Spray painted buildings were cleverly painted over in colors not even close to the color of the buildings, so that looked natural. All sarcasm aside, it was a pretty cool time for our city. We (as if I had anything to do with it) did a great job of hosting a rather ginormous group of Democrats and only had to mace and attack a few people trying to mess it all up.

Now for the entrance of Mr. Ben Affleck. I work at a large Food Bank, which happened to be a volunteer spot for Mrs. Obama's day of service. We were graced with the presence of Ben, Justin Bartha (nerdy guy in National Treasure...very cool in person), Alicia Witt and a couple other celebs, as well as Senator Durbin and McGovern. They boxed a bunch of food in a game of sorts, interviewed with about 75 members of national media and called it a day. We got up close (not very personal) with all of them, so it was a day worth talkin' about at Food Bank. Ben looked my direction once (probably because I had my zoom lens in his face), so that was my brush with fame. The end.

Donna, Justin Bartha, Janie, Director Ben Younger, me, Alicia Witt & Kimmy