A to Z Family

It's been so long......

2010-07-01T18:25:00.000-07:00

So, it's only been 11 months since my last post. That pretty much sums up the chaos around here. Here's a big update starting with the youngest.

JuJu - the name has stuck and that is pretty much what she is referred to by the other girls. She is walking, laughing machine that is very reminiscent of Emma at this age. She is certainly demanding and knows what she wants! Future prediction of her career - Doctor. Must be the wit.

Frey = handful. She is somewhere between the two's and three's. Loving going to summer pre-school, but she is struggling every night as she is giving up her nap. Bedtime around 7:30 now as she goes as long and far as she can before the crash hits. Despite all this, she is awesome. Future career prediction = Vet. She loves animals.

Emma - she is sort of scaring me in how much she has grown up. Only 6, but extremely independent and sharp as a tack. She is definitely going to keep us on our toes the next decade. Future career prediction = teacher. Nurturer at heart.

Anna and I are plugging along and enjoying life. The summer schedule has been fun the last few weeks.

Next post, June 2011.

the summer rolls on

2009-07-25T10:35:00.000-07:00

The summer has been rolling on.

Emma is wrapping up t-ball, last game is next Saturday. She is doing well, but I don't think baseball/softball is going to be her sport of preference. I'm pushing for golf, but we shall see.
Getting ready for Kindergarten to start on August 12.

Freya is starting to really talk a lot and is now asking us questions. Who, where and what have popped up. Why is certainly around the corner.

Julia had a good 2 month checkup yesterday. Her soft spot has grown, so it looks we won't have to worry about that issue at all in the future. She has been more alert and smiles at us occasionally now. They do change so much in the first year.

Funny thing is happening to us when we go out in public. We are seeing people that we haven't seen in 12-18 months. Sort of a shocked look on their face when they see another baby in the family. It wasn't that long ago that Freya was still crawling and Julia wasn't even a thought.

Anna and I had a great 10 year anniversary celebration the past couple of days. I probably pulled off the biggest suprise ever by taking to her a private dinner at a local bed and breakfast. We had a great time...actually have a babysitter tonight as well.

Three more weeks of summer.

Nicknames

2009-06-04T04:45:00.000-07:00

With the newest family member arriving, the nicknames have started. Here is a quick run down of the nicknames.

Anna - Ann, A, A-Dog, Anna Banana

Zack - Z, Z-Dog, Z-Man, Uncle Z

Emma - Em, E-Dog

Freya - Fray, Fray Fray, Fray-Dog, Little Z

Julia - Jules, Ju Ju (J-Dog has not appeared yet, but it is only a matter of time)

T-Ball starts to tonight for Emma. Hopefully she enjoys it more this year!

One week

2009-05-28T06:11:00.000-07:00

We have survived one week as a family of five. Special thanks to Jon and Carol for helping us out. Anna came up with a t-shirt idea that says, "I survived having three kids for one week" on the front and "and the kids survived too!" on the back. Here are a few more pictures...

Happy Birthday - Julia Bennett Hall

2009-05-21T15:52:00.000-07:00

Julia Bennett Hall - Born 5/21/09, 9:09am, 8lbs 9.6oz, 19.5 inches long. Julia is doing great, she has slept most of the day. Anna is doing great, I mean who looks this good 30 minutes after delivering a 8.5 lb baby?

We enjoyed the day with the older girls stopping by this afternoon. Hopefully we can get some good sleep tonight at the hospital.

Enjoy the pictures, more to come.

Mini Marathon Finish Line Photo

2009-05-05T06:06:00.000-07:00

brightroom event photography

Am I really that bald? Guess so. This was taken at about mile 13. Over 2 hours to finish...painfully slow, but at least I made it!

Small update from the Halls

2009-04-21T13:41:00.001-07:00

A hectic few weeks have just passed and we are anticipating a few more hectic weeks coming up. A few small updates:

Emma - Soccer league has started up again. She scored 3 goals the first game and 5 goals last Saturday. This may be her sport. She is really enjoying it. She is starting swim lessons this week and will probably start the swim team in the summer. Just signed her up for t-ball this summer as well. I hope the other kids get to participate in all these activities as well! We started allergy drops with her to hopefully combat future allergies...we shall see what happens with that.

Freya - She is starting to talk a lot more and has begun to put 2, 3 and 4 words together. She is a truly a funny little girl. She has discovered that watching TV is really fun and wants to watch Gullah Gullah Island every 15 minutes. Good thing the weather is warming up and we can get outside more.

Anna - I anticipate another 4.0 coming up this semester. She is plugging along and is almost finished with all her school work. As soon as that is done, she'll be ready to hatch baby #3.

Me - not much news, had a little golf trip in Nashville last weekend. For anyone that cares I shot 79, 89 and 84. Not great, but I'll take it. I'm officially ready for baby #3 to arrive.

Baby #3 - that is the unofficial name right now...we are getting excited about finding out what the gender is...

Got to run. I'll post more after the baby is born!

The Sunshine State

2009-02-25T07:49:00.000-08:00

I'm heading to Jacksonville, FL in about 15 minutes for a short work trip. Anna is joining me tomorrow afternoon. The girls will be with Pop Pop and Grammy while we are gone.

Looking forward to warm weather!

Back on Saturday.

Late February Update

2009-02-20T08:45:00.000-08:00

I'm a slacker on this blog thing. Here is a quick update on what is going here in Kentucky.

Weather - it stinks. We are basically holed up in the house as the temp hasn't been getting up over 40 much. If it gets to 50, then we get the girls outside to play. It has been too cold to even golf...I've only gotten in 5 holes all year. Hopefully that will change soon.

Florida - Anna and I are going down next week to Jacksonville. I'm heading down on Wed. for a conference and she is coming down Thursday for a little relaxation. Going to be a quick trip as we come back on Saturday. Hopefully we will have warm weather and a nice break from the "real world".

Anna - She is plugging along with school this semester and she is constantly making references to statistics. Pretty funny to hear all these stats terms come up in our normal conversations. Baby # 3 is doing well...

Baby # 3 - had our final ultrasound last Monday - no, we didn't find out the gender - and everything looks normal with the heart. No more ultrasounds, so it really will be a surprise when he/she pops out. I would say we are about 99% certain on a girl name and 85% on a boy name. We really aren't planning to tell anyone, but Emma has an idea so there is no secret about it.

Freya - She is really a ham. Laughing, running and playing all the time. She recently started eating well again (there was a stretch there where she lived off Vitamin D milk) and will eat the strangest things. Salad, hummus, salmon, salsa, she likes it all. Her favorite thing to do is probably play with Emma.

Emma - As lively as ever. Soccer starts in a couple of weeks. She loves preschool and her teacher. She is really, really good with playing with Freya. It is nice how her sweetness and kindness is rubbing off on Freya - they are quite a pair.

Me - Work, exercise, dinner, girls, relax, sleep and repeat the next day. Busy, but I couldn't ask for much more. I'm training to run a 1/2 marathon in April again, so have an hour plus run on the weekend, but that is about it for extra-curricular activities until golf starts up.

Next post - March sometime...hopefully. Maybe some pictures soon.

Snow, Ice and a Fireplace

2009-01-29T10:32:00.000-08:00

Major ice/snow storm in Kentucky the last couple of days. Most everything was shut down yesterday, but things are opening back up today. We are surviving and have been able to drive around without any problems. The major roads are fine, the back/side roads still have some ice on them.

Our biggest problem is that we lost power at 5:30am yesterday (I saw the transformer blow) and it is still out. Apparently there are over 180,000 outages from our power supplier. As of now, there is no timeline on the repair or as the automated man on the phone says, "the estimated time of restoration is not known at this time". Pretty frustrating as the only other estimate we heard was up to two weeks before all service is restored. I can't even get a customer service agent on the phone. Anyway, we cranked up the gas fireplace yesterday and last night and let it heat the house. We bundled the girls up in extra layers of clothes and played games in the dark. Looks like we may have a repeat performance tonight.

I previously didn't like our fireplace, but I am starting to like it now that it is keeping us warm! If the outage continues we will most likely head to Shelbyville.

The worse part of all of this - I can look out our living room window and see lights on inside a house 100 yards away. Oh yeah, and that we missed American Idol last night.

Facebook

2009-01-25T04:05:00.000-08:00

So I finally decided to join facebook after one of Anna's friends found her after not talking for 10 years. I have actually found some old friends and remembered some friends that I had forgotten about!

So far it is taking way too much of my time trying to find everyone, look at pictures of their kids, see where they live, etc. I'm hoping that it slows down some point soon!

Lazy weekend for us here. I'm playing guitar in the contemporary service for the 2nd week now. Will probably be doing that once or twice per month. Pretty fun so far.

We will have to get some pictures up soon of the girls. Will have some next weekend for sure when we celebrate 5 years of Emma!

Negative 3!

2009-01-17T04:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was to my knowledge the coldest ever temperature where I have lived or been. I have no recollection of any negative numbers, yet when we got up yesterday we were at -2 only to see that drop another degree around 9am. It got to the low single digits when we lived in the Mid-Atlantic, but never like this.

Sitting at 9 right now and is getting up to 37 today. 40 degree one day difference, I'll take it.

In other news, Anna's semester started up on Wednesday. Should be a little bit busier for her/us this semester compared to last fall. All is well with the pregnancy as she is hitting 22 weeks soon. Emma got her ear's pierced last week - was an early birthday present. Freya personality is starting to shine through. She is a character and is not shy at all.

We will pretty much be stuck in the house for the next few weeks until the temperature gets up to 50!

Half way home

2009-01-05T13:50:00.000-08:00

Had our 20 week ultrasound for baby #3 today. We followed through with not finding out the gender and have just one more ultrasound to go on February 9th. Both Anna and I tried to figure out if we had a little boy or girl in there, but we honestly couldn't tell. Guess we are in for a suprise.

Old photo #2

2008-12-17T19:39:00.001-08:00

Circa 2000. Who are these people? Well at least the three on the left.

Gearing Up for Christmas

2008-12-17T14:37:00.000-08:00

Where's my pretzel?
I love playing with my food!

This man in the suit is really scary!

Turn down the lights.

Which one is a real person?

Youngest member of the Frankfort mariachi band.

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Just a few photo's of us from the past couple of weeks. Apparently Santa is coming to town.

Old photo

2008-12-13T15:28:00.000-08:00

Anna and I were cleaning the basement today to get ready for the new carpet that is getting installed on Monday. I ran across this old photo of me and Chris Green. Apparently they sent me the proof in the mail and I just kept it instead of buying a new one. The photo is from either late September or Early October 2000. Green and I were training for the Marine Corps Marathon and this photo was taken the last couple of hundred yards at a 20 mile race in Virginia somewhere. It is amazing how 8 years and 25 lbs can change your appearance, but deep down you feel like you look the same. I was probably in the most fit shape of my life during this time.

I think I may start having the "Old photo" blog every once in a while...I'm feeling a new theme.

Thanksgiving 2008 - 13 wide

2008-11-30T05:24:00.001-08:00

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year with Anna's family at Lake Hope State Park in Ohio. It was tough, but we managed to squeeze all 13 of us into one of our cabins for each meal. Lots of food and fun for all. The cousins are starting to enjoy playing together - especially Emma and Stella.

Presenting baby #3

2008-11-08T05:16:00.000-08:00

Here she/he is. Anna went to the high risk Dr. yesterday and got a good profile picture. Everything is looking fine with the baby. Updated due date - 5/25/09. Big sisters (especially Emma) are getting excited.

Needs

2008-11-07T03:54:00.000-08:00

So I heard about people doing this, so thought I would try it and share.

Go to Google, type in your first name followed by the word "needs" and then search. Then share the top 10 items that come up. Interesting cause some of these are true.

1. Zack needs your help. Don't we all need help?
2. Zack needs a belt. Crazy thing is that I really do need one. It is on that list of things I need to buy but don't want to spend more than $8 on one and just haven't found that good of a deal.
3. Zack needs to ride a bike. Well, I really wish I had a road bike to ride around some of the horse farms here, but can't seem to win the lottery and pull the trigger on a $1000 bike. Guess I'll stick to running.
4. Zack needs urgent diabetes treatment and back surgery. I better go to the doctor because this is news to me.
5. Zack needs practice. Not sure what I need to practice, but I guess I need it.
6. Zack needs to shave. Well that is true about 6 days each week. Can't seem to make this a daily routine. I bet this turns up on Malcolm's "needs" list as well.
7. Zack needs to apologize. Sorry everyone.
8. Zack needs to be skinny. Well I don't think skinny is obtainable, but I could shed 10 lbs.
9. Zack needs to know. Don't we all need to know something.
10. Zack needs a new hoodie. No, I don't. I have at least three that I currently wear maybe twice per year.

Your turn.

75

2008-11-06T05:25:00.000-08:00

For some reason the temperature has been in the mid-70's here all week. Not complaining, it just makes it real hard to sit at a computer all day when it is nice out and then go home and it is dark. Anyway...

Had our first ultrasound with Hall baby #3 on Monday. All looks well and everything is right on track. The Dr. said that based on the measurement, due date was 5/26/09, but we all decided that saying it was on Anna's birthday was much better. That said, I'll be suprised if we make it past the Ides of May.

Halloween was a blast for all of us. We went around our neighborhood with all the kids from down the street. We then got in the golf cart and we to two other nearby neighborhoods. Emma was in the zone running from house to house and Freya got the hang of things by the end. She realized that if she just walked up to the door and held her bag out that they would give her something. We now have more candy than a post-Halloween Wal-Mart and it will be going to
the Y or church in the next few days for someone else to enjoy.

We'll be down in Auburn next week for the AU/UGA game...hope the Tigers can pull of the upset.

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T19:03:00.000-07:00

Recovery

2008-10-30T13:17:00.001-07:00

So it is now about a week after the big 5K race (Black Cat Chase) that I organize. We ended up with 1060 registered participants...quite a lot for this little town. It was the most we had ever had for the race, so I now have even more work to do next year to top this year. Race website link.

The original plan was for Mom to come up and take care of the girls while Anna and I ran the race. Yes, I can run it even though I organize it - trust me, there is not much to do while the runners are out on the course. With Lauren on bedrest and Malcolm in Australia, Mom headed up to Huntsville instead to take care of her. So Anna pushed Freya and I pushed Emma in the strollers. The race starts at 7pm and Freya goes to sleep about that time now. Long story short, Anna walked about 1/2 mile and then turned around and went straight to the car to go home.

So I have Emma for our third "Stroller 5K" of the year. It was sort of wet and chilly, so Emma has on rain boots and roughly 6 layers of clothes. I'm concerned that I am going to have to walk since she weighs about 15 pounds more than normal and there is a big hill in the middle of the race. Turned out the cooler weather helped me a little bit. Ran in 24:55 (about 8 minutes per mile pace) and we finished 2nd in the stroller division with our PR (personal record) for the year. No, there is no stroller division, but I'm considering having one next year. I'm not sure what time the first place stoller finished, but last year he passed me in a race with his kid and I didn't have a stroller.

Best things about pushing Emma during a race:
1. She cheers the entire time - "Go Daddy Go!" - over and over and over and over....
2. She thinks we win every time. She is so sure, that I start thinking we actually won.
3. I have somebody to talk to during the race.

Emma was stuck with me, so she got to help with the finish line, raffle prizes and the awards. She also got to eat a big Cinnamon Crunch bagel from Panera...if you haven't had one then you need to try it. We didn't get home until 9:45pm or so and she was out like a light as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Because of my involvement with the race for the last couple of weeks, I have pretty much neglected the rest of my work responsibilities. I have spent all week just trying to recover and go through the piles of paper on my desk. I think I have finally caught up because there are only about two big piles left...that is the norm.

Gotta go...big Halloween weekend coming up.

Numbers

2008-10-18T05:22:00.000-07:00

5/27/09 - Anna turns 33. Turns out that also is her due date for baby #3. Should be an exciting time! We have decided (at least for now) not to find out the gender since we have with the last two. Everyone has told us that we are going to have another girl...the blog poll shows differently though.

12:05 - I signed Emma up for a kids one mile fun run last night. Grammy and PopPop took her to the event since Anna and I had dinner plans. I wasn't sure if she would be able to run the whole thing, but turns out that she is pretty fast. She won the Pre-school Girls age group and got a trophy. When I told her how proud I was, she responded with "I'm proud of myself too

623 - The current # of people signed up for the 5k run I organize at work...last year we had this many about 90 minutes before the race started. Race is one week out, so hopefully we can get to my goal of 1000.

Weekends

2008-10-11T04:32:00.000-07:00

Aren't they great?! Busy one here for us today, but should be fun. Going to the KSU homecoming parade this morning, then Emma's last soccer game at 11, then a birthday party at 2pm. I hopefully will be settling down to watch some football after that...

All is well on the home front here.

Hopefully will post a soccer video later today.

Just some random pictures

2008-09-30T11:45:00.001-07:00

Some of Freya's first steps

2008-09-29T18:50:00.001-07:00

#3

2008-09-28T08:23:00.000-07:00

That's right, we are going to be blessed with a third child. A little shocked and excited right now and trying to figure bedroom logistics. Seems that we are going to send Emma downstairs and create a new bedroom for her in the existing playroom.

More on this new development later.

Soccer

2008-09-07T13:44:00.000-07:00

Emma scored her first soccer goal yesterday. We were both quite proud and Anna even shed a tear or two. She nearly scored two more goals and it became apparent that she actually knows what is going on out there.

The soccer goal recap.
Emma steals the ball away from about five other kids (both from her team and the other team) and leads a breakaway from her defensive side of the field. She get to a full sprint dribbling the ball ahead of the pack chasing her and shoots it in from about 5 yards out. Freya was even clapping. There may be a many more soccer games in our future....

Dishwashers are fun!

2008-09-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

Emma hitting a golf ball - a little grainy from the camera phone

2008-09-03T15:44:00.001-07:00

Lake, AU game and Labor Day

2008-09-02T13:07:00.000-07:00

Just got back from (what now may be) our annual Labor Day trip down to Alabama. 9 hours in the car Thursday wasn't as bad as we thought. Spent the day at the lake where Anna, Emma and I went tubing. I think Anna was scared she was going to flip, but Emma loved it!

Lunch at Niffer's on Saturday where Emma was very intrigued that I worked there. I bought the shirt that is the 2nd one listed here. Corn nuggets...yummy.

Emma's first Auburn game was on Saturday. She did great and at one point in the 1st quarter told Lauren and I to be quiet because she was watching the game. She made it to 8 minutes left in the 2nd quarter before she declared that "This game is boring." I agreed and we left three minutes later.

Labor Day was nice at the lake as Emma and I swam for about three hours and had another early morning tube ride with Freya. Freya sort of whined the whole time, so we got her out real quick. Was a long drive back, but well worth it!

beach pictures

2008-09-02T12:48:00.001-07:00

yeah, finally a few pics are up from the beach trip.

check out the water spout. never seen one before, but let me tell you Ryan (friend of ours that was on the trip also) and I were a little nervous about setting up the shade tent. It just disappeared after a couple of minutes and the storm moved off in the other direction.

Emma and Freya both loved the beach. Looking forward to taking them back.

Vacation

2008-08-19T07:07:00.000-07:00

I'm just now getting back into the swing of things...

The vacations were great - will have some pictures up shortly.

Golf Trip update - 72 holes in three days in 90+ degree heat is too much. I never thought I would say that, but it is true. Shot 74, 86, 77, and 90 to finish behind Skutta (again). 54 holes max next year has already been established, hopefully colder weather as well. Good times with the guys. For anyone that cares, the best course we played was Barefoot Resort - Fazio.

Family vacation - the house we stayed at was awesome - http://www.easystreet-rentals.com/Villa_De_Vino.html - thanks Marcie! Emma and Freya both loved the beach, but it was nice having a pool at the house. You forget how sand basically gets everywhere. I'm glad we had a rental car (we did have to upgrade!) to avoid sand being all inside our car as well. Nights were fun in the house with three other couples splitting up the cooking duties each night. It was sort of like going out to eat and not having to pay for it for three nights, but then cooking for 8 and still having to pick up the tab your one night of duty. Emma got swimmer's ear on Friday and we decided to leave early and spend a little QT in Opelika...was probably the most relaxing part of the trip.

Pictures later.

15 years

2008-07-22T05:55:00.000-07:00

So my 15 year high school reunion is this weekend. Unfortunately we will not be able to attend, due to some previous vacation plans scheduled in the coming weeks.

Hard to believe how much your life changes not only from the time you graduate, but also from the time between the 10 and 15 year reunions. We went to the 10 year extravaganza...3 days of events...as Anna said, "A little too much reunion for a spouse." Five years ago, we lived in Media (and were in the throws of renovation), Emma wasn't born yet, were still in our 20's, and had lots of our own "me" time. Now I'm curious to see how different life will be like 5 years from now...

Check this page out for details on the Opelika High School Class of 1993 - http://www.ohs1993.blogspot.com/

In other daily news - I found out my sister is having a baby girl. I guess we are just destined to have a lot of girls in our family!

Vacations - Two big trips coming up for me. Golf vacation with the guys from college coming up on July 30 in Myrtle Beach. 72 holes of golf and good times. I will post a round by round account when I can! As soon as I get back, we head to Destin, FL for our family vacation. For some reason, we are flying from Louisville to B'ham and then renting a car (more on that later) and driving down to Destin. We are staying at some friends parents house and 3 other families are going down. Should be a great week at the beach for everyone as long as there is no Hurricane coming into town. If so, we will abort Destin and be somewhere else!

As for the rental car, Anna decided to do the car rental through Priceline and picked "economy" for the type of car. Hopefully we get upgraded as the picture of the economy car was a two door hatchback! 4 suitcases, golf clubs, stroller, car seats, etc....I am sure we will have a good story to tell about this!

July 4th

2008-07-05T04:13:00.000-07:00

Eventful Independence Day here for us.

6:15am - alarm clock goes off. snooze.

6:35am - roll out of bed, look outside, raining, get online, more rain coming, debate on if we should go to the Buffalo Trace 5k race or not

6:45am - decide to go, Emma wakes up on her own...she is "becited" AKA excited about the fireworks. she doesn't realize that they start in 15 hours.

7:15am - leave for the race - jogging strollers in the van

8:00am - race starts, pushing Emma in the jogging stroller. Freya is with friend Riley in the dual baby jogging stoller...Anna and Marcie sharing the weight.

8:01am - almost ran over some kid

8:22am - Emma declare's that she is "finished with the race". I concur with less than 1/2 mile to go. raining hard now.

8:25am - we made it to the finish line. Emma wins the fictional "stroller division". 25:30 pushing 60 lbs. I'll take it.

8:30am - Anna has aborted the race with Freya because of the rain. We leave and head to Franklin County High School

8:45am - run 400 meters around the track. 67.4 seconds for me, 86 for Anna. click here for details on why in the world we would do this. also, watch this video for a laugh. Emma doesn't want to run...not looking good

8:55am - head home to get ready for guests. Realize that Emma is sick. 102 fever. movie time for her.

11:15am - guests arrive. cookout begins. lots of meat on the grill

2pm - guests leave. naptime

4pm - best family nap ever. Freya sleeps 1.5+ hours and Emma goes down for 2.5 hours. She really must not be feeling well.

7:30pm - go to the clubhouse to argue handicaps (must be a golfer to understand) for the golf tournament this weekend.

9:15pm - get home, Emma is still up and ready to roll to see the Frankfort fireworks display.

9:38pm - fireworks start

9:52pm - fireworks end, weakest display ever. Emma loves it.

10:15pm - bedtime

2nd edition

2008-06-30T10:55:00.000-07:00

My second post! Congrats to myself.

Things are steadily busy here. With T-ball, swim lessons, golf league, book club, work, school, etc. going on our weeks are filled solid. We are enjoying them as a family though and the girls seem to be happy! I know we will miss all these fun filled days at some point. Anna has been singing some country song along those lines...."we're going to miss this" or something like that. Trace Atkins maybe?

Emma is really close to being able to swim. Anna gave her a mini-lesson last Saturday and she started to be able to swim on her own for about 10 feet or so to the side of the pool. Physically she can do it, all she needs is a little confidence in herself. It won't be long though.

Freya is constantly laughing at us and has a great personality. Not walking yet, but I'm okay with that.

Anna is now officially and "online course" guru. Although she isn't in full swing with her Ph.D until the fall, she is really enjoying her new adventure.

We are getting ready for our upcoming vacations - golf trip for me to Myrtle Beach and the family trip to Destin. More next month and happy July 4th to everyone!

We have finally made it...

2008-06-08T07:02:00.000-07:00

With the encouragement from my sister we are now trying to have a little blog page to keep track of our hectic life. With two kids, work and Anna going back to get her Ph.D, we will probably have an entry once or twice per year. But it is a start.

Update on the family:
Emma just finished up a year of dance classes and her big recital was last night. Only $800 to see her dance for 120 seconds. Well worth it. She is also participating in t-ball and we occasionally go hit a golf ball or two. We aren't sure yet if she really wants to play sports or just enjoys the post game snack so much that she puts up with the practices and games.

Freya is a really funny child. She is a little over 9 months now, but is in the 91st percentile in height and weight...so she looks like a one year old. Not walking yet, but I give it a month before she is doing that. So far she has been a pretty laid back child...quite a difference from her sister.

Anna is just starting back to get her Ph.D in Early Childhood Education at the University of Kentucky. Apparently you don't call in on the phone to register for classes and things have changed a lot in the 10 years since we have been in school. Also a Blackboard is no longer a physical object in the classroom.

I am still working with the YMCA in Frankfort. Work is great and fun and it is nice to be able to have the family come see me at work during the day. Golf is my most active hobby and I try to get out at least twice per week. Hard to fit in with all the other activities, but with the long days of summer upon us I can get out at 6am or 8pm when the rest of the family is asleep.