Happy Birthday to Gage and Gavyn. Gage’s birthday was the 13th and Gavyn’s was the 24th. They’re 4 and 2; respectively. We had a party at the house. Allie’s sister and her family were with us, as well as Bob and Rachel and Kim and Ken, and my parents and sister.

We cooked out and rented a big inflatable castle for the kids to jump around on. It was a nice afternoon; though it started storming later that night. My wife’s sister and her family stayed with us until Thursday night, when we went over to visit Allie’s brother’s house. We all went fishing at Raccoon State Park, where Allie managed to catch herself a Sun Fish.

The Bennigan’s near Chapel Hill Mall closed down. There pretty much gone from this area, so I think it had something to do with Corporate miss-management. The building sat vacant for some time, until they put in a new restaurant to take its place. The new restaurant is called “The Brick House Tavern & Tap”. Not knowing anything about it, me and Allie decided to give it a try. We took the kids and looked forward to trying the place out.

When we got there, Allie sent me in ahead so that I could get us on the list while she got the kids out of the car. The waitresses were dressed in slutty little hooter-like outfits; short shorts and tops so tight and low cut that they were about to burst. Their little catch line for their buzzers are that they say “here’s your “vibrator””; and the thing says something about “This is for your hand, not for your …”.

Bottom line, The Brick House is not for your kiddies and it’s not a family restaurant. Don’t take your kids unless you feel like explaining what the girls have balloons shoved down their shirts. I feel sick for the children proudly displayed with the half-neckid girls on their Facebook page. As a resident of Cuyahoga Falls, I’m sad that they would approve an establishment like this. Especially given how much they touted being responsible for bringing O’Charlie’s to the area. I will be emailing the mayor about this one.

We ended up going to Applebee’s instead. The place was sadly bare on a Saturday night. It looks like the Brick House is taking a lot of their business.

The Library was closed on Monday, so I decided for myself that I’d do whatever on Sunday without feeling guilty. We ended up going over my Uncle’s house for a cookout. Allie went shopping with the girls, so it was just me and the kiddies. Gage and Gavyn got to swim in their huge backyard pool, as well as play on their excellent swingset\treehouse. I got to catch up with some relatives, and my parents and sister were there.

Following the cookout we headed back to my parents to meet Allie and see the fireworks. We watched them from lawn chairs on the sidewalk. When the fireworks started, my little one asked for daddy. She watched the fireworks from my chest, blanket in hand, shielding her eyes. She peaked through to see them and then cuddled up when she was scared. As a father, there’s NOTHING better than having my little daughter curl up against me, safe in my arms.

I went to the eye doctor for my annual checkup the other day. He checked my eyes over and did the “is it better at 1 or 2, 3 or 4, 5 or 6?” test. I was there for contacts. He mentioned that I had a pretty bad astigmatism, which nobody has ever mentioned before. I usually get chided for wearing my disposable lenses too long, but who doesn’t? Anyways, the lenses he gave me felt a little funny. The doctor said that I just had to get used to wearing them and to let them adjust to the right position. He had me schedule a follow up.

It’s my opinion that follow ups, be it an eye doctor or a general doctor, are just a way to get me to pay an extra co-pay and pad their fat wallets. I tried these lenses for a week, but I couldn’t get past how uncomfortable they were. Looking closely at the lenses, I could see to slits in the sides of them. I supposed that was how they did their magic to correct the astigmatism.

If you wear contacts, you know how it feels when you rip a lens; that uncomfortable feeling that makes you want to itch your eyeball. That’s how I felt in these lenses. I tried them for a week, but they didn’t feel any better.

When I went back the following week, I told the doc that they still felt uncomfortable and that I couldn’t wear them for more than an hour at a time, a problem I’ve never had with other lenses. I’ve been wearing them since I was 12, so I consider myself an expert on contact lenses.

I pointed out to the doctor that they had slits in them, he said “no, they’re not slits they’re just lines. All contact lenses have lines”. This response pushed the “bullshit-o-meter” into the red zone. Call me paranoid, but I haven’t trusted eye doctors since once of them said that the little tube in the annoying glaucoma test wouldn’t actually touch my eye, but he still needed to numb it (not the annoying “puff” test, the other one that shoves a tube onto your cornea). Trust me, they were slits, and they were touching my eye, and they were annoying the hell out of me. It felt like I had to constantly adjust them and put drops in my eyes.

I eventually said that these wouldn’t do and got a set of regular lenses. These don’t work “as” well, but they’re good enough. It’s my feeling that he just tried to suggest these other lenses and astigmatisms because they were new, and they were not disposables, and I’m sure he gets a bigger cut from selling them. Maybe he gets a bigger “spiff” on them; to use entertainment store lingo. I’m not paranoid, honestly.

At least I have contacts and they work pretty well. I’m happy enough. I think I’m going to order a box of the regular lenses.

We had a good time this weekend. My mother watched Gavyn while me and Allie spent some quality time with Gage. We took him to Steak n’ Shake for dinner (which ironically has a “kids eat free” special on the weekend …. DING), and then took him to see his first movie at the theater. We saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It was different than the book, but still had most of the essential ideas and scenes. I bought the book for Gage a while back and had been reading it to him.

We had a good time, and Gage was totally worn out from the experience. He enjoyed the personal attention, and the popcorn.

Happy Birthday Gage …

Gage turns 3 today. I can’t believe he’s already three years old. It’s true that they grow up too fast. I look back on all the little baby pictures. He’s not my little baby any more, but he is my little boy. Back in college, I wondered if I would ever have children. Now, I’ve been blessed with two. I love being a father and its one of the decisions in my life that I would never take back.

There are a lot of things about Gage that I love. I love that he’s out of diapers (thank goodness ;-) ). I love the endearing ways he mispronounces some words (“Thanks you daddy”, “Increbables”, He calls Cameron “Camera”). I love watching him rock himself to sleep, and I love occasionally getting to recover him with blankets at night.

He’s a good boy and I thank God for him every day. I hope that I can continue to be a good father and that I raise him right.

The Urban Renewal I’m talking about is my friend Bob’s house, and the smell refers to the geyser of foul smelling raw sewage which poured into his kitchen. A very unfortunate set of circumstances, especially given that his wife is so pregnant, she’s going to pop any day now.

The festivities started last Wednesday. The wonderful people from the city decided to rip a tree out of my friend’s tree lawn (its city property, so I guess they can rip out trees whenever they want to without consulting you. It was apparently hindering people from seeing on the road or something). On Wednesday evening, the geyser erupted in sweet smelly glory; covering his entire kitchen in a pool of wretched puke.

A few days later and a professional cleaning crew later, I found myself ripping vinyl tile from the kitchen floor. By now, the smell was less smelly and the yard was pretty much clean. Unlike some people, my friend is covered to the teeth in home owner’s insurance. He will hopefully be fine, even if the city decides it doesn’t want to own up to its error (an outside company confirmed to Bob that the problem was in the street and not in the lateral or his property).

My friend will probably get a new floor in both his kitchen and his bathroom out of it; though it is a little too much pressure to be having now of all times. Please keep Bob in your prayers.

I wanted to post these slightly humerous pictures that Allie sent me this evening. I'm working the late shift at work. Allie was putting Gage to bed for his nap. Gavyn was a little upset that she wasn't included. So, she decided to try and climb up the stairs.

Previous attempts at climbing had met with failure, but she's getting stronger and getting closer to walking so I guess this time it worked.

My wife and I had to make a tough decision yesterday. She’s been having a rough time at work for a while now. It really started to get worse after she was promoted to the Director of Social Services. She’s been working really late, getting home past 7 or 7:30pm, but even when she comes home, she’s had hours of extra work to do. She ends up going to bed later than me. The stress and the lack of sleep were making her physically sick.

She told me last night that she really wanted to quit, things had become that bad. I considered that thoughtfully, and we came to the decision that the stress of the job was just too much for our family. She really supported me through the problems with my last job, so I felt that the right thing to do was stand behind her in this decision.

She gave her notice today. We both felt peace about the decision. She has thirty days to find a new job. We’re really trusting God, that there’s something better waiting and that the situation will work out when it needs to.

I finally became eligible for vacation time at work. With the job hopping, this is the first time I’ve had vacation time in a little over a year. So far, I have two weeks built up; and decided to take the first week of March off.

I had several projects that I wanted to tackle; as well as spend some extra time with the fam. I talked my wife into taking Tuesday off. We packed up the kiddies and headed to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. I remember going there in school as a kid, so I thought Gage might have some fun. Gavyn was a little too young, but I’m sure she enjoyed seeing all the different sights.

We and Gage always joke about dinosaurs, he has a few kiddie books about them (i.e. How to Dinosaurs Say Goodnight). So, I wanted him to get to see them first-hand. Once we got to the museum, he of course saw the planetarium. He was fascinated by the scale model of the moon, as well as the exhibit that shows the night sky during various seasons. Gage also enjoyed the animals that they have on display, particularly the King Cobra.

When we finally got the dinosaur room, Gage saw the skeletons and got a little upset. He decided that he would only enter if Mommy held him, so we switched kiddies and she carried him into the room. We took several pictures near the two largest models, a triceratops and a tyrannosaur I think. I really wanted a picture with him, but as we tried to convince him to jump over to me, he clung to his mother’s coat for ear life. I got a pretty terrible picture with him, before instead getting a nice picture with his sister; Gavyn was all smiles.

We finished up the museum as the kids started getting really tired and decided to head home for nap time. The rest of the pictures are linked to this post.

One of my friends recently made a comment that the last year has gone by fast. I stopped for a second and throught about it. You know what, I think this has been one of the longest years of my life. It seems like my perception of time has really slowed down a bit. Which is good; I wouldn't want to go through life at hyperspeed. Enough of it has gone by already; I want to enjoy the time I have still ahead of me.

 One of the reasons for this feeling is probably the joys of parent hood. Namely; chronic lack of sleep, chronic fatigue, and chronic sympathetic pregnancy brain. Since Gage was born, I've found that it takes a great deal more effort to concentrate on things. Its a lot harder to juggle multiple tasks without becoming overwhelmed.  I dunno if its being a parent that causes it, or my age, or if its merely the tiredness factor.

Gage's birthday is next week. We're deep into planning it. We hope to bring together our friends and relatives for a little fun and relaxation. This weekend's main activity was preparing the place for guests. We ordered a dumpster which we filling with all our leftover debris from reworking the kitchen. It was hard work, but not that's another task to check off the list.

 Attached is a gallery of cute Gage pictures from this week.

So, we noticed that Gage's hair was getting a little long. Feeling a little uncomfortable doing it herself, Allie took Gage to the hair solon to get his first haircut.

He did pretty well. Allie held him most of the time, but he started to get a little sleepy near the end. Hell, I get sleepy when I get mine cut, so I can't blame the little guy.

He's been teething a lot lately. His first top tooth finally broke through his gums today. With hope, he should have four teeth come July 13th.

 In other news, still no word on that thing that I said I couldn't talk about yet. Hoping for good news, but you never know. The Govia twins are continuing to do well at the hospital. I havn't talked to Bob about it in a few days, but the last word was that they could come home at the end of this week. I'm sure the happy parents will be releaved to have their little ones at home finally.

Congradulations go out to Bob and Rachel Govia, some of my dearest friends. They were blessed by thte birth of thier twins, Caroline and Elizabeth (spelling subject to my aweful memory, will update later if necessary).

The babies are doing well, but will have to stay in the N.I.C.U. for another week before being allowed to go home. They have a few little health problems, but should be fine in the long run. I had the pleasure of finally meeting them yesterday. I got to hold the older one, Lissa I think, for about fifteen minutes while we visited them.

Our prayers go out to Bob and Rachel as they try to transition into their new role as parents. Children are both difficult and rewarding.

As for my own family, its been a long week or two. Allie actually got a pay raise, which is the first positive movement in our checkbook in about four years, it was a welcome relief from our ever-red budget. Sadly, some of the happiness was taken away when we learned that we were taking it in the backside by the insurance company again this year. Our health insurance rates went up by something like 20-25%.

Gage is continueing to work on learning how to walk. He's getting a little better, but continues to be scared of taking steps on his own. His top four teeth are coming in; we can see the first of them. His bottom two are lonely , they need company. With hope, at least a few of them will be in for his 1st Birthday Party next month.

I also have some other things going on, but I can't talk about those yet. Hopefully, if things go my way, I'll have some news to announce in the next week or so, so pray for me.

After taking a week off work to rest and relax, I'm back at the shop. Things went decently well while I was gone. Although, when I came back, we learned that our backup internal dns server had failed. We learned this because the day after I returned, the primary internal dns server failed and our network went down for like twenty minutes.

Gage is doing pretty well. We're in the process of planning his first birthday party. It sucks because my sister will be gone on her honeymoon. Oh wellz, I know its her honeymoon, but Gage only has one first birthday. She'll have to celebrate it when she gets back.

We're starting to slowely move Gage onto whole milk which, thank God, is less expensive than formula. He's talking a little more, but the biggest changes have been in his mobility. He can crawl anywhere, and the strength of his legs continues to improve. Now he can stand un-aided for short periods of time, grant it he's not happy when he does it, but he can. I think he'll be walking in no time

Today is moving day! Well, not for me personally; but for work. At work, our company actually has two suites here in the goodyear building. To cut costs, they've decided to slim us down to one. This means that office desity has increased, and we all have to move to accomodate the sales people who are moving over from the side we're giving up.

 I don't necessarily have to do all the moving, but it is my job to take care of all the network connections. If I don't get it all done today, then I have to work on Saturday, so you can imagine my motivation to finish up here.

 Everything is going good, so I think we're going to make that target. On a side note, I think that my vacation time should be approved as well. Counting memorial day, I should have a week off; which will be nice for destressing, as well as getting over this sinus infection.

So this was an interesting week. My boss, Steve, went on vacation for about a week. That means that I had to keep work running solo while he was gone. On Saturday, I got sick, and got progressively worse. By Monday, I felt so bad that I would have taken time off if Steve had not been on vacation. I've decided that, as soon as I am able, I'm going to take about 3 of my vacation days to rest up.

Gage is doing well, he turns 10 mos. this weekend. This means that the preparations for his first birthday are underway. He's talking more, and learning to walk. He's started to climb up on furniture and practice his balance. I have no doubt that he'll be walking by July. He's a cute boy, and I always enjoy seeing his big smile when I walk through the door at night.

A few possibilities have come across my lap in the last few weeks. Hopefuly, they will turn into something for me. I'm thanking and praying hard about them. Please join me in that effort. I'll let you know if something comes up.