The Return of LBJ...It's All Downhill from Here!

Driving home today, Julia and I had a conversation about snow. She was remembering a recent trip up to Connecticut when we went sledding with Ben and Luke. This was Julia's first time on a sled and I fear that after it, she'll never want to do it again!
As she recounted to me in the car tonight, "It was fast and the snow got all in my face and it was cold!" In hindsight, I probably should have shielded her better!Now Luke had a blast. He must have gone down that hill about seventy times! Meanwhile, after giving a try to the sledding thing, Ben and Julia were more content to just sit at the top of the hill and make snow angels!The entire weekend was such a blast! We literally played all weekend...sledding, setback, air hockey, bowling and even castles and dragons (and who knew Jules would be so fond of dragons!).

After a thorough air hockey a$$ whooping that I received from Courtney, Julia and Benjamin wanted to play. We let them and this may have been the funniest thing that I have ever seen in my life! They could barely see over the table. The game was actually moving in slow motion!
They say that having a child can age you...I disagree! I have never felt so young. I find that Julia and our nieces and nephews inspire me to just be a kid for even a moment! While we were sledding, I felt like I was twelve again! They don't age you! They add years to your life!
Now when I woke up the day after sledding, I felt sixty!

-Andy

A Great Labor Day...with the Girls!

With the exception of a fantasy football draft and poker game, I'm really grateful to have spent every minute of this long weekend with my girls! The ladies even came up to Chestertown for the draft, but hung out with the other wives and children in the league.

As always, the reason for Fantasy sports is to connect with some old friends. I really wish I could've made it to the CT and Chestertown drafts this year, but CT just wasn't in the cards. Hopefully next year will be different.

Possibly the highlight of the trip to Chestertown was spending a couple hours on the corner of the bar at the Blue Bird Tavern with Thad and Louie. I haven't been there in forever and that place just never changes and that's the best part about it!

On Sunday we spent the day in Cordova at Pop's birthday. Ma Jones, Mickee and Carrie put together a light lunch for us all consisting of BBQ Beef, Hot Dogs, Mac & Cheese, Coleslaw, Zucchini Casserole, Baked Beans, Stuffed Croissants, Fruit Salad, Cake and Ice Cream (why do I feel like I'm missing something). Every bit of it was delicious.

Last night we had some friends over for BBQ Beef ourselves. I tried a new potato salad recipe that went over pretty well and all the food came out decently, in spite of Mother Nature raining on my smoker all day. It did delay the meal a bit because it was tough to keep the heat up, but it turned out OK. It was great to see some good friends!

If you're a regular blog reader, you know that we just recently replaced the floor in our kitchen and by doing so, raised the height of the fridge, forcing us to remove a cabinet. Well today I fixed that project, cutting some ornamental moulding and adding a shelf. Still needs to be painted, but I was fairly impressed with myself. I really didn't think that I had the skill or the patience to cut the moulding. Check it out!

-Andy

I'm Walkin'!

It seems that every time Julia spends time with Luke and Ben that she comes away with some new skill. Well, lately she's been teetering on walking...taking a step here, a few steps there. Well we just got back from an awesome visit to Connecticut and Julia will never be the same.

It seems that she's earned a new nickname...Ms. Rita at daycare calls her Frankenstein...because of what she looks like when she's walking! It is too funny. I'd show you a video, but they're too large to post. I'm going to have to figure this thing out.

We had a great time up north. Although I'm still a little upset with myself that I fell short in the Whiffle Ball Home Run Derby at Liz & Nate's Memorial Day Party, it was a great time. We managed to visit a few folks, although there's not enough time to get to see everyone when you're only there for a couple days.

Julia got along great with her cousins. I think Luke really likes her. She definitely lights up when he's around...good thing we don't live in West Virginia.

The car ride was even pleasant. Traffic was light in both directions (relatively speaking), so I guess we'll think about heading up there again next Memorial Day. Besides...I need another shot at the title!

-Andy

Reunited (with the blog) and It Feels SO Good!

I don't even know where to begin! So much time has passed and so much has happened since our computer died that I know I'm going to miss quite a bit! Here's a try at some headlines that would almost certainly have elicited a blog post when they happened.

Julia switches to (almost) real food!

No! I don't do leaves Daddy!

Go Shorebirds!

The Becks come to visit!

Go Cobras!

Mommy gets the date of the Christmas Program wrong!

True story! For weeks we have been preparing to survive our first day care Christmas Program. Apparently even the infants have a part. I was thinking that in their version of the story, Mary gives birth to sextuplets and names them all Jesus...kind of like the Foreman family. That has got to be the only way that an infant can have a viable contribution to a Christmas Program.

Anyhow, at Mom's instruction, I clear my calendar for tonight and pump myself up for what is sure to be an awesome theatrical spectacle, only to find out earlier in the week that Mom had the date wrong and the program was actually on Tuesday. Looks like Mary only had five.

A Surprise Visit!

Last Thursday, our phone rings at a little after 2 a.m. I get up to answer it thinking that either someone has died or one of Julia's little friends is playing around. At the other end of the line is my mother, claiming that she and my sister are in our driveway and asking me to come down and let them in.

I hang up the phone and Courtney asked what was that? I believe my exact response was "I fear that my mother and sister are in our driveway".

They drove all the way down from Connecticut to surprise me for my birthday and boy was it a surprise. The only problem was that I wasn't ready for it!

You see, for weeks I had been psyching myself up for a nice long, quiet birthday weekend. I've been so busy for the last few months that I was just looking forward to decompressing. As it turns out, Julia was teething, Ben had an ear infection and Luke was just being himself.

It put me in an irritable mood and I really regret that because their visit was the best birthday gift that I could have gotten. I just wish that I knew it was coming!

By the way, moving forward I will be referring to Luke in this Blog as "The Great Negotiator". The kid negotiates everything. Here's an example:

"Can I have a cookie?"

"Yes, after you finish your lunch."

"But if I finish half my lunch, can I have half a cookie?"

"No, you need to finish your lunch to get a cookie."

"But if I'm full and can't finish my lunch, can I have a cookie?"

And on it goes...the kid is a riot!!!

It's good to be back!

-Andy

Luke, Ben, Julia, Rock Band and Orthopaedics

A couple weeks ago now, Julia made her first trek up north to visit family and friends. Thank goodness that she is not yet at the age where you get hysterical stories about car rides. See Liz's blog if that's what you're looking for.

No, pretty much she just slept and slept and then slept some more. The drive was pleasant. Well...except for the CT traffic. I could really complain about that, but I won't.

It was great to see a lot of family and friends, but the highlight had to be the surprise party for Nana. We got her good! She had no idea that the surprise was coming. The girls and Ben went shopping in the morning (Ben...when you get older, we won't let you get sucked into that) and came back to a visit at Dawn's house, where everyone was waiting.

I think she was really surprised and I hope everyone had a great time. Nana just needs to remember that when the time comes for retribution, the entire thing was Julia's idea!

Now one of the highlights of a visit up there is my man Lucas. He is just SO fun right now. I really can't wait for Julia to ge to that age...just ask Court. His day is comprised of three activities. 1) Playing Ball. 2) "Nackling" People 3) Chasing anyone around the house.

The little guy wore me out! And then, during one of Luke's monster nackles, I felt something weird in my knee, but really didn't think anything of it. We keep playing and later that afternoon, Nate asks Liz if he can go buy rock band. Much to his surprise, she agrees.

The four of us proceed to spend the next 4 days playing rock band in between feeding and changing diapers! You really need to stand up to play guitar well and I spent a lot of time on my feet. So my knee starts feeling worse and worse and worse. By the time we get home, it hurts so badly that it's keeping me up at night. It hurt so bad that I agreed to schedule a doctor's appointment!!!

Then mysteriously, under the care of my fantastic Athletic Trainer and wife, the pain went away. So I cancelled the appointment and everything has been normal since.

But I haven't thrown away the doctor's number. Upon returning home, we bought rock band. Inevitably, one of these nights after Julia goes to bed, we'll rock out hard enough to put me in the hospital!!!

-Andy

New Strikout King!

Here's a shot of Luke and I celebrating after having successfully struck out "Daddy" and "Papa"!

There will be a follow up shot taken in 2026, just before Lucas leaves for Tennessee, where he's an Offensive Tackle. The only difference will be that Uncle Andy will be on his shoulders!

-Andy

Weekend in New England

It was a short visit, but we were glad to get up there. Time really seems to fly lately and Benjamin is already at the ripe old age of three weeks. Before you know it, we'd miss his youth entirely and he'd be off to college! So we packed up the family truckster (10 pts if you can name that movie) and headed up to CT for what amounted to a one day visit.

We hadn't seen Lucas in a few weeks either and he's up to about 6'4" and really getting good at dunking the basketball. I'm serious here folks. Nate's got him watching too much Sports Center because now when we play hoops in the living room, all he does is throw 'em down and hang on the rim! So we decided to take him outside and see what he could do on a more challenging hoop.

Then there was little Benjamin, who has clearly mastered three of the most important things in life...eating, sleeping and pooping. Giving Courtney and I a short glimpse into what we are headed straight into, this was a pretty enlightening weekend. We need to be ready to provide total care all the time.

One thing that I paid attention to and found fascinating was how Lucas related to Benjamin. Luke seemed to barely recognize that he was there. I don't think this is malicious, more just an out of sight, out of mind thing. Ben is obviously not very active and has yet to develop a personality, so Ben really doesn't affect Luke on Luke's level. It should be interesting when Ben starts to make his mark.

Luke, on the other hand is Mr. Personality. The kid is hysterical. He does not stop talking (except for when Toy Story is on). He loves to flirt, whether it's with Auntie Courtney or the waitress at breakfast. He breaks into spontaneous song and as Nate says, has an entire song set ready for Randy, Paula and Simon in his season 21 audition. Songs in that set include The ABC's, Itsy Bitsy Spider and some duck song that he sang at breakfast today that I really didn't recognize. I can just here Randy now..."Lucas, man...you brought that Itsy Bitsy Spider and you rocked it out! Yeah Dog!!!! Let's just say that if Benjamin develops 1/2 the ham-factor that Lucas has, Liz and Nate shouldn't stop laughing for about the next 20 years.

So after a short visit full of playing ball, shooting hoops, mowing the lawn (we brought Lucas a bubble mower and I think he and I mowed the entire 3/4 of an acre at least 6 times on Saturday) and Town and Country (I'll have to craft an entire post devoted to T & C sometime...it's that good!), Courtney and I got home this afternoon, picked a movie on demand and promptly passed out! I guess only time will tell how we will keep up with one of our own!

Here are a couple shots of Ben being held by Auntie Courtney and Uncle Andy. Note the Red Sox Booties...totally AWESOME!!!

-Andy

Pork & Beer... & Life is Good!!!

Last weekend was the Annual Pork in the Park BBQ Festival here in Salisbury. This is an event that our office manages and has become so successful, it is incredible. It's a BBQ competition, sanctioned by the Kansas City BBQ Society and it has grown to become the largest of its kind east of the Mississippi...right here in little ol' Salisbury.

It's a lot of work, but man is it a good time. Over the weekend we had 20,000+ come through the festival and enjoy music, entertainment, vendors, kids rides, frosty beverages and great food!

In other related news, we've been busy not preparing for LBMF (and speaking of MF, have you seen how hot Manny Ramirez is so far this season?). We are getting ready take a trip up to CT to see Benjamin and of course Lucas!

I talked with Luke the other night and told him that we were headed up to visit him this weekend and he was pretty excited. Well apparently, Luke doesn't yet have a good concept of time (not that I expect him to) because Liz mentioned that he was running around yesterday saying that Aunt Courtney and Uncle Andy are coming up today.

It appears that Courtney will be rivaling Liz soon in belly expansion. She is growing pretty quickly now. All that time when it barely looked like she was pregnant is long gone! I will say though that she is still doing great and aside from maybe tying her shoes, doesn't seem to be struggling too much yet. I'll get a pic up soon.

However, I'm thinking the over/under on pee stops on our road trip is at least 6...what do you think?

The last piece of the nursery will be here in early May. We're also putting in new windows and I just got word that they will be here by May 2nd. I just hope LBMF likes this room!!!

-Andy

Baby Shower Grunt

Last weekend, I got to do something that I do very well...carry heavy stuff around. Now I'm used to doing that around the house or at work (I work in an office of me and 4 women), but this atmosphere was truly foreign. Needless to say...I was scared!

You see it's pretty simple really. It's the law of nature. It states that women don't go to stags (alright...some women do go to stags I know, but I choose to keep this G rated) and men don't go to showers. Any violation of that rule is sure to disrupt the space-time continuum with catastrophic effects similar to what could happen if you cross streams (a couple fantastic sci-fi movie references there). Even my brother-in-law Nate, who is rumored to have survived one of these shower things just kind of chuckled at the prospect of me going to this thing.

Now we get there and I am helping my mother unload and set up and we're bringing all sorts of things into the hall from her car. In the trunk of her car, she had a roll of raffle tickets, so I bring them in and ask where she wants them. She reminds me that this is not a stag and the tickets aren't for the shower. I, on the other hand, see nothing wrong with starting a 50/50 at anytime.

The two pictures above show me working hard to maneuver one of our heavier gifts and Courtney posing with the newest addition to our nursery decor!

I joke, but it was a fun day! I did survive and it was great to see everyone.

We really appreciate everyone's generosity and are especially grateful for the efforts of Liz and Mom for putting the shower together. For me, it was also a great opportunity to hang in the back and talk politics with Dad over a couple of beers...which is something that we don't get the chance to do enough of!

It should be noted though that any chance of us moving back to CT might have been diminished by this trip. It was cold and snowy! Then we return to MD and we've been in the upper 60's everyday! Spring is in the air!!!

With that, I've changed up the color-scheme on the blog...it's good to have a fresh look from time to time.

-Andy