My Team Won, Apparently

So I decided to wear khakis, a polo, and tennis shoes to work today. I was hungry at the end of the day, so I stopped by Buffalo Wild Wings for some food. I noticed a Gatorade cooler on the ground, so I walked over to see what was written on it. Then, out of nowhere, a football player shows up and dumps orange Gatorade all over my head. I hadn't seen him sneak up behind me, so you can imagine my surprise when the cold beverage was suddenly pouring down on top of me. Fortunately, someone happened to have a camera and took a picture of that very moment, and it perfectly captured the natural and spontaneous surprised look on my face.

A Comfy Place

Joshua loves dog things. He loves the dog bed, dog cages, dog water, and dog toys. One of the funniest things he does is crawl around carrying his toys in his mouth. I think this is very normal, but I also think it might be good for him to hang out with some friends that are human this year.

Poor Baby

It has been a really long time since Joshua has had a bottle during the daytime, but today he had some sort of a stomach bug so I tried to feed him mostly liquids. He was pretty not happy about that so I gave him his bottle to make up for it. Since a bottle of formula is his absolute favorite thing in the world, he was okay with the trade off.

Seamless

Although our house passed inspection, and we completed a few extra tasks per our agreement with the buyer, the appraiser found an issue that he said needed to be fixed to meet one of the regulations of the FHA loan that our buyer is getting.  The siding on our house was the subject of a class action lawsuit, so it's not good (and in fact is one reason we're happy we're moving before we have to redo it all).  But there was one spot in particular where the seam was split and a piece of the siding bowed out.  I'm no Ryan Sawyer, but I can occasionally fix some things on my own, and I managed to screw in the siding board, caulk it, and paint it so there's no longer any gap.  Hopefully that's the last major thing to fix.   

Two Ushers, Two Groomsmen, and a Groom

Today was the big day, as Jason and Kelli are now bride and groom.  Between the ceremony and the reception, there was a block of extra time, so all the guests were directed to Tanner's to hang out until it was time to head to the reception hall.  Here a few of us pose for a picture while the groom makes a face that can only be described as "Keeler-esque".

Rehearsing

Jason Keeler is getting married tomorrow, so tonight was the rehearsal dinner at Barley's on Midland Ave., which is exactly where Meghan and I had the rehearsal dinner for our wedding.  It started too late for Joshua to attend, so Meghan stayed home with him.  I had a great time hanging out with my friends, and the food was really good too.

A Good Day

Once a week Joshua goes to the Becks in the afternoon. Mainly I use this time to enjoy being alone because, though I love being a mom, I also love being alone and it's the thing I miss the most from my life before kids. Sometimes I have to work or run errands during this time. Today I went to the grocery store, but I still had a couple hours so I read a book. My resolution this year was to read 12 books and watch 6 movies. I have seen 5 movies so far this year so I will definitely make it to 6, but I have only read 6 books so I need to focus on that. Today I read number 7, Sarah's Key. I found some parts of the book very compelling and other parts very chick litty and I am not a chick lit fan at all. But I am glad I read it and had a very enjoyable day. The weather was wonderful so I read most of it outside, but I didn't think to get a picture of that, so here I am finishing it up inside.

The Best Babysitters

Today I had an appointment with a local client for some data work I am doing and I also had to go to the social security office to apply for a social security number for Joshua. Luckily, Peg and Ron were available to come and help out. They had a good day with Joshua and he had a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa. And the pugs enjoyed it too.

Mixing Soccer with Business

I've been going to Chicago quite often lately with my job.  We are working with one customer in particular recently, and one of the guys there mentioned he plays pick-up soccer.  I asked more about it, and he gave me details and said I'm welcome to play any time I'm in town when they're playing (which is twice a week, Tuesday night and Thursday night).  Today I had to fly to Chicago for a morning meeting, and then I have to stay overnight for a meeting tomorrow, leaving me with a free evening.  Because I love playing soccer so much, I wasn't going to miss the opportunity.  I had packed all my gear in my carry-on, and I met up with them earlier this evening, playing for about 90 minutes.  It was a ton of fun, and I'm looking forward to doing it again at my next opportunity.

This Doesn't Make Me a Fanboy

My company's product has traditionally been used on regular computers, but like most companies we've realized that we need to be able to work well on mobile devices.  As a sales engineer, I demo our product.  I can always show it on my laptop, and although I have my Android-based Samsung Epic, I didn't have a way to demo on any of the popular Apple devices.  Until now.  All the sales reps in my territory chipped in to buy an iPad 2 for each SE in the territory.  I'll be expected to use it in demos for customers, but it's truly mine, so I'm free to use it as my personal device as well, and I never have to give it back.  I've never had an Apple product before, and I've never really felt the need, but the iPad is clearly the way to go for tablets, so if I'm going to have one, it might as well be an iPad.  Here I am with my new toy.

A New Way to Roll

Today we went on a walk to enjoy the weather and Joshua rode in his new bike. He seemed to enjoy it, though his is a little on the short side so his feet weren't quite long enough for the foot rests.

Canine Friends

Tonight we went to our friends the Hansons' house for the evening.  One of Joshua's favorite things is animals, and in particular, he seems to love dogs.  This works out well, as Terrence and Natalie seem to be two of his best friends (though with Natalie, it's more of a one-sided friendship).  The Hansons have two dogs, so Joshua is always excited to see them and play with them.  Here he shows his love for Cody by grabbing some fur (we're still working on being gentle) while Millie looks on in terror.

Perhaps Jane is Addicted to Poor Performances

I went to high school in the '90s, and almost all of my favorite bands are from that decade.  One of my favorites was Bush.  They broke up in the early 2000s but recently reunited.  96.5 The Buzz hosted a concert at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park featuring Jane's Addiction, Incubus, and Bush.  I decided I wanted to go, and I invited Jeff to go along with me.  I was excited by the opportunity to see Bush, and I don't mind Incubus, but I really don't like Jane's Addiction very much.  I saw them once before and they weren't good.  Everything lived up to expectations, as Bush was great, Incubus was pretty good, and Jane's Addiction, the headliner, was so bad, we all left only a few songs into their set.  But it was still a really fun time and very much worth it.

Crammed

Usually when I feed Joshua at night in his chair, Natalie likes to sit with us.  There's plenty of room in the chair for the three of us.  Tonight Terrence decided he wanted to be part of the group, so he joined us as well.  That made for a crowded chair as the four of us all tried to find some space.  Alex's normal spot of the top of the back of the chair was available, but I think there was a bit too much doggage nearby for his liking, so he stayed away.

Potbelly

I've been in Chicago each of the past three weeks, so I've had several opportunities to eat out while there.  One place that my sales rep introduced me to a few months ago is Potbelly.  It quickly became one of my favorite places to eat, as it had many delicious yet moderately healthy options, and the restaurants all have pleasant ambiances.  I've tried several things, and I've really liked every one of them.  At this point I actively seek it out as a place to go if I have time to drive somewhere for lunch.  Sadly, they are mostly in the Great Lakes region and a few other states, so there are none yet in Kansas, but I'm hoping that changes in the future.

Two Hours of My Life I Will Never Get Back

So we got a bike for Joshua a couple months ago that we bought off of Amazon. It had problems with it so Jason contacted the company. They chose to ignore him. So after awhile of trying to get them to do something about their shoddy merchandise, we gave up and contacted Amazon, who has really great customer service. Though they did scold me a bit for trying to return something outside the return window, they still overnighted me a replacement bike out at no charge. So today I put it together. On the plus side the wheels worked on this one. On the downside, it was still a total nightmare to assemble. But I finally got it and everything seems to work except the clutch. It would be nice to have that because it stops the pedals from moving before your child is old enough to pedal, but I think we can be okay without that feature. I did email the company just in case they choose to actually care about supporting people who have purchased their products, but I am not expecting a response.

Our Wills Be Done

We had been meaning to create wills for awhile, but now that we have a child, it's even more important.  So recently we worked with a lawyer (the same one we were already working with for Joshua's adoption) to draw up our wills.  Today we went to his office to sign the final copies.  Here Meghan signs hers.  Hopefully they aren't needed any time soon.

Last Football-less Sunday until February

With my crazy work schedule combined with all the work we did to prepare to put our house on the market, I haven't had much free time lately.  Jason Keeler has been so busy preparing for his wedding, and he travels a lot with his job, but we both had a little free time this afternoon, so we decided to go meet up at a sports bar to enjoy some mediocre bar food and some preseason NFL football.  Apparently even though there were games yesterday and games tomorrow, there are none today, as the preseason schedule isn't the same as the regular season.  So no football, but at least the food and drinks were pretty good.

Finally Dent-Free

Due to the April hail storm, we had damage to our house and to both of our cars, totaling $25,000 in damages, though of couse all but the deductibles were covered by insurance.  There was extensive damage to the region, so some repairs were backed up for months.  Meghan's car was the last thing we were waiting on, and it's been in the body shop the past three weeks getting fixed.  Intially it was all going to be paintless dent removal, but they ended up needing to replace some panels.  We weren't thrilled with this, and it caused the process to drag out longer.  But today we finally got her car back, and Meghan was very glad to have it, as you can see here.

10 Months

Today Joshua turned 10 months old. He is getting to be a very big boy so he didn't want to sit in the chair since he likes to be on the go now.

Why Wouldn't He Be There?

Today Joshua learned he could climb on furniture and get on top of things. It is extremely exciting for him. His preferred way to get down so far is head first, but he is managing it okay. It's really low so I think that's good because our pediatrician recommends letting kids fall off short things so they learn about gravity. Before the only thing he was ever on where falling was an option was our bed and that is much too high to consider letting him fall off of so hopefully this will be fun and also help him learn and be safer.

Working on Standing

Once Joshua started pulling up, I thought the next big thing would be cruising and then walking and standing. But that hasn't really been how it's gone. He has very little interest in walking so far and is perfectly content with crawling to get between locations. What he is very interested in is standing. He got into the standing position from a sit without holding onto anything for the first time right before we left on vacation, but today he has been working really hard on it. So far his record for staying up seems to be about 10 seconds, but as hard as he is trying to do it I think he will get better soon. I am curious if getting better at standing will make him want to walk.

Learning Fun

Today we had our Parents as Teachers meeting. Joshua always has a lot of fun at these because she brings him new toys to play with. They have a new curriculum that involves toys that most people have around the house. Today she brought plastic jars of various shapes and he really enjoyed them so we may have to save some containers from recycling for him.

A New Necessity

We most often bathe Joshua in the shower with one of us. It's just easier and quicker. However, he has recently been quite messy in eating his dinner so he has been getting an evening bath. He really enjoys splashing and standing in the water. Here he is while examining the faucet.

Climbing Trees

Before we left for vacation we had some problems receiving certain channels on our dish, apparently due to the tree branches. When we got back, we could no longer receive any channels. Jason went out today and trimmed the tree in hopes of us being able to watch some TV. However, it didn't work. So we canceled our service and we'll try again at our new house. We rarely watch TV so it wouldn't really matter at all except for some possible college football games in August. So that's kind of a bummer, but I wanted to switch cable providers anyhow.

For Babies on the Go

Joshua is a great eater, but it is really hard to feed him anything he can't pick up because he doesn't like to be fed with a spoon. And then he tries to take the spoon and eat the liquid food with his hands and it's very slow and messy. I decided to try GoGurt. He likes yogurt a lot, but I rarely give it to him because it's so messy to feed him. He did pretty well with this. He needed some help moving the yogurt that got stuck in the bottom of the tube, but other than that he figured it out really fast and there was very little clean up. He cried when it was gone so I guess he liked it. So this is one of our new snack foods.

A Demanding Dinner Companion

Today we went out to dinner to eat Mexican. It was really nice because it had been forever since we had Mexican food, since it's not really what Hawaii does, and it is our favorite. We brought Joshua and he was mostly good. The key is to ask for flour tortillas as soon as you sit down. Then all will be well. Here I am tearing a tortilla up into little pieces for him while he stares at me with a "if there isn't food on my plate in five seconds, we're going to have a problem" look on his face.

Plenty of Fiber

So in the two weeks we were gone, Joshua somehow became a toddler. He can't walk yet, but he is totally different than he was before and absolutely into everything. This is him right after he got into the cabinets and spilled dog food all over the floor. Terrence and Natalie ate it all up, except for two pieces, one of which is in his hand and one of which is in his mouth. I believe that explains the weird look on his face. Not my favorite moment of the day. I am really debating whether I should just not allow him to play in the kitchen for the next 35 days or if it's worth the effort to put locks on all the rest of the cabinets and drawers. I am leaning towards the former, though it's difficult if I am cooking and Jason isn't home. Last time I childproofed, it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. It definitely involved a drill and that seems really unappealing.

Dubya

I've mentioned before how I love the W hotels, and I was fortunate enough to get to stay in one again tonight while in Chicago.  There are two in downtown Chicago, so sometimes one is in a better location than the other depending on where I need to be the next day.  I have a couple more trips to Chicago over the next few weeks, so hopefully I can stay at a W again soon.

Tiger Fan for a Night

I have a meeting in Detroit tomorrow, so my colleagues and I flew in tonight.  Since we were in town and all enjoy baseball, we went to the Tigers/Rangers game.  Although I prefer the Rangers overall, it's more fun to root for the home team, so I rooted for Detroit tonight.  And I think it's only reasonable to assume that it was that little bit of extra cheering from me that put them over the top, as they eeked out a win over the Rangers, 6-5.

All Together Again

Today we went to go pick up the pets from Ron and Peg, who were nice enough to watch all three while we were away. We have a rental car right now since mine is still in the shop and Jason's won't fit everyone so this is in our RAV4 as we got home from Lawrence. It was really nice to have all the pets there and sleep in our own beds with everyone in their normal places.