Abby's First Baseball Game!

Alternate Title: Technically, the Experiment Worked

(I am realizing that part of the reason I do not blog as often is that I include updates about Abby and myself over on Facebook. That being said, I am going to start to incorporate more of those updates here.)

From FB, on our way to the game:
Take me out to the ball game - take me out to the crowd!
Pre-bought hot dogs and soda-pop, extra fun 'cause we're going with a cop.
Yes it's root, root root for the home team, If they don't win it's expected. (sorry, but it's true!)
For it's one (gorgeous day), two (train rides too!), three (of us going)
to the old.... baaallll..... game!

Yesterday afternoon we took Abby to her first baseball game ever! The weather was great, and we were there as part of a great deal from a group of children at church who started a service organization called Kids Who Care. We got tickets and lunch for less than it would have cost us for a movie, and we got to actually hang out and not just sit and stare at a screen!

We ended up sitting a row in front of some friends from church, so we hooked up with them beforehand to ride the train together, too. Always more fun to do something like that with friends, right?

When we first arrived, and for about an hour of the game, we were in the hot sunlight. We finally convinced Abby to put a hat on and that helped bring her whining into check. I think that if she knew a little bit more about baseball she might have had more interest, but I was doing my best to keep her into the game. I think that the reason I like other sports better is that I can tell Abby "there are ten more minutes left" instead of "I have no idea kid, if this guy makes a hit this could go on for another hour!"

Before the game actually started I thought Abby might get into the game as Fredbird (the Redbird i.e. Cardinal) came out onto the field. Abby knows him through a lot of our outings to festivals and such.

Some time during the 5th inning I needed to get Abby up and moving, as she was already saying it was time to go home. We went around just a little bit and found a really awesome photo-op spot!

She actually got a bit more into the game from this vantage point - we were only a little bit closer, but there was more room for her to be up and about, and SHADE! (By the time we got back to our seats the shade was more plentiful, and I got her ice cream.)

I also got here a tiny baseball bat! She loved trying to swing it - which was okay until she started accidentally hitting people. We had to put it away right after this picture:

Busch Stadium is the cleanest I have been to, outside of the first trip down to MCI/Verizon Center when it was brand new. The trains were also exceptionally clean, though a bit confusing for us newbies. Great to have people with us that knew routes and such better than we did!

At the end of the day I asked Abby what was her favorite part of the game. Fredbird? Nope. Ice Cream? Nope, surprisingly. Her new Pink Bat? Nope. It was playing with her friend Henry. That's my girl!

Abby in the St Louis Post Dispatch!

Alternate Title: Do I really need an alternate title, Abby's in the paper?!

So it is clear that we like to take Abby out dancing, even more clear if you saw all of our Facebook status updates. If there is a free show we are there, especially if it is an outdoor show. This weekend we ended up at two - one massive outdoor festival and one local park-opening. Can you guess which got a picture of Abby into the St. Louis Post-Dispatch?

Since we do not get a newspaper anymore, I put out a call on Facebook and ended up with two or three copies of the newspaper above! (For a clearer image of the picture in the picture, click HERE.) Not only did she get a picture in the paper, but a huge picture at that! (The article is not great - a lot of focus on some random guy five blocks away that had to clean up trash from his yard from a person that paid $10 to park in his yard. Oh well, the picture is fun!)

The guy in the blue shirt is someone we do not know, and will likely never see again, but he and Abby had a blast dancing for a while, mostly to get a better picture for the photographer. She is used to me taking her picture, but the guy from the newspaper had a bigger camera, and was a complete stranger, so she needed some coaxing. Just as I was going to go up and get her twirling and hopping, the guy in the picture hopped up to join it.

It was completely hilarious for me - I never get to see how silly I look when I dance with her in public. Now I know how silly it looks, but I plan to keep it up!

So, here is Abby's first newspaper appearance. In this day and age that also means that she has her own "tag" on the newspaper's website. Crazy. Cool, but very crazy!

(Other things we did this weekend include the aforementioned second-concert that included climbing in and around a fire truck; some yummy ice dream at a home made candy store; a little hockey for me this evening. Next weekend will also be big - Sunday will be Abby's first baseball game! Hopeful for good weather and a Card's win!)

Daddy Daughter Dinner Picnic!

Alternate Title: Making up for a Summer in an Evening

Remember two weeks ago when I posted about how great it was that my wife and daughter were headed back to school and our "normal" routine would finally come back together? (Here it is, if you need a refresher.) Bottom line is that I was jealous of the time they got to spend together every day.

I have had some opportunities over the last few days to make up for an entire summer of jealousy in having a good chunk of Saturday and all of Monday all to myself with Abby. Saturday Anny went with the Middle Schoolers at church to help out as they volunteered at a food kitchen. Monday was a weird schedule thing with the day care who runs off of the school calendar. Though teachers had reported almost a week earlier, they were closed Monday. 

What really made up for the summer was Back-To-School night for Anny. I asked Abby in the morning what she wanted to do, and she was clear that she wanted to have a PB&J Picnic! While she played after we got home I made a couple of sandwiches and grabbed some goldfish and strawberries. We packed up the the tiniest picnic basket she could find and were off:

I suggested we drive, but mostly because I wanted to stop for dessert on the way home. I could not tell hert that was my reason. Abby had her heart set on walking to the park. I had my heart set on not walking the stroller over there and told her that if we went she would have to walk both ways, without complaint. She thought about it for a minute, then decided it was a good plan. Walking to the park we caught up about each of our days. It was nice. 

When we got to the park Abby was already pretty hungry and looking for a quick place to eat. We walked around the lake a bit until Abby found just the right place. 

It did not last for long because she needed a potty run. We packed our stuff up and headed for the potty, and closer to the playground itself. After doing-what-she-does she declared that we were going to eat the rest of our dinner ON the playground! How about no, kiddo. We found a new spot to sit and eat that was out in the grass, but close enough to see the Green Dinosaur that is half of the reason she likes Kirkwood Park. 

We sat and at the rest of our sandwiches, shared some strawberries and had some goldfish. I always seem to take more of those than we end up needing! 

(Notice that we created no trash! Thanks Camp K, for teaching Abby that we can be trash-free, even when we pack a picnic!)

We watched a men's league softball game for a few minutes before going to play on the swings and heading home. The thing I am just realizing is that she wanted to go to "The Green Dinosaur" park, but did not even ride on the green dinosaur. Funny duck.

I am proud of Abby - she planned an evening with minimal help, AND she committed to walking to the park and home without complaint, and she did just that. She carried her little basket both ways, too! I am sure we will do another picnic dinner with Anny as we get into the fall routines a bit more, but I was glad to share a special picnic with just Abby. With pictures like this one, it has become apparent that she is getting older, and quick:

I have said before and will say again, I do not want to miss a thing when it comes to my daughter growing up!

Meeting Our Moving Goals, Mostly

Alternate Title: Not All for Naught

Before we moved we talked a lot about when, why and how we would move. The "when" discussion lasted for about four years before finally pulling the trigger, including a brief plan the year before to move that was called off. Few people know this, but we were one interview away from moving to Missouri instead of Maryland when we left Virginia. We are both very glad that we landed in Maryland for the time we were there, but are also very happy to be where we are now.

One of the things we did is talk about the "why" of moving a lot, and talked through goals of our move. No point in moving halfway across the country if we would be just as unhappy about parts of our life as we were if we stayed put, right? We never wrote down our goals, but in and out of the packing process and on countless road trips we would each come with an agenda to the conversation and talk through our reasons and concerns about different things.

Like any other homeowner we assumed that our sale would be "tough" (in quotes) in this economy, but we did not realize that it would be as tough (no quotes, and very bolded) as it was. When we started talking about the sale we immediately started talking about what size house we wanted - never starting at the small and working up, but starting the other way. Once we actually sold the house and lost almost as much in the sale as it would cost us to buy said big-townhouse we realized that we had to completely change our thinking.

So we did.

Some of our goals, and how we're doing so far:

Live Smaller - the house we bought was too big for our needs. Abby is an only child and we did not need to buy such a big house. Our apartment is the perfect size for our needs right now, and for a while into the future. If we need more space where we are there are townhouses to rent that would be a slight upgrade in space and buying even longer.

Pay Down Debt - our house-payoff was done in a *very* creative mix of borrowing from family, a bank and a zero-interest credit card. Our smaller living has allowed us to pay down the institutional debt in chunks this year. We will not be done at the end of this year as we had hoped, due in part to how long the credit union dragged on and we had to keep paying for several months longer than we should have. We will keep paying those and then get to the family debt (if you're reading this, family, I promise!) and, with luck and some thought-out planning, be done in the next 18 months.

Do Not Add Debt - funny, right? This should not have to be a goal after all that we went through, but when you are in a new place and unsure of things is when you tend to spend money you do not have. We were lucky to be living in someone else's house and paying practically nothing for the first four months. We did not succeed completely on this one because the transmission in both cars needed work. We are working to pay that one down, too. Aside from that, though, nothing has gone to plastic - even our two trips back to Maryland.

Live Locally - we have been Farmer's Market frequenters for a few years, but that was about all of the local-living we did on purpose. If we went out to eat we started thinking with big companies before the little ones. For a bit more than a year we have flipped that around. Our first choice is the place with the fewest locations, followed by places with their bases in the metro area. I joke that I only shop local... or Target. Our apartment is on the outskirts of Downtown Kirkwood, which is a great place for local businesses, so it's worked out great on that front too. 

Live Near Work or Play - this was because traffic sucks and back in Maryland we both had commutes and would never hang out at the mall closest to our house (Beltway Plaza - gross!). Now neither of us have commutes to work, Abby's daycare is only a five minute drive. We are close to a big mall, and only about 20 minutes from the city. We walk a lot of places, like the park or to church. Success on this one is high.

No Volunteering for a Year - well, I missed the mark on this in major ways. I made contact with Nephcure, a non-profit that works with patients with FSGS (my kidney disease), about help with finding local nephrologist suggestions and have ended up helping to get a local chapter going! At church I lasted a little bit longer than I think Anny expected - I did not volunteer for anything until just about six months after we moved which is probably what we both expected in reality. (I tend to get sucked in, willingly, to things I am passionate about at church. After the All Church Retreat last fall I was pretty much ready to sign wherever requested to help plan for the next one.)

There are still days that I with I could just pop over and have Thursday Family Dinner with my family, or days that I think "why don't we call (insert name here) and go grab dinner" before realizing that they are hundreds of miles away. We made our move for dozens of reasons, but how cool would it be to have the ability to have done both - move and bring everyone with?!

All in all I think that we're doing pretty good on meeting our reasons for moving. Still getting a feel for the place, and for the people. We have some friends, but are working to strengthen those right now. We will get there.

Back At It!

Alternate Title: ...It's the most wonderful time of the year...!

For starters, our heat wave seems to be a thing of the past. It lasted for the month of July, and then just long enough for a full ten day visit by the In-Laws. Once they fled back to Wyoming the heat went away. Coincidence? I think not...

I am confident that I only feel this way because Abby is not in *real* school yet, but I love this time of year, but I love back to school!

If I'm being completely up front, it is mostly because I am a jealous person and Anny and Abby have had all sorts of fun without me this summer as they passed time! They did several trips to the zoo. A full set of swimming lessons. Trips to the Science Center. More trips to the mall than I can try to count. Two tons of laundry at the laundromat.

Okay, maybe not jealous about the last one, but you get my point. I have been sitting at my desk at work, day after day, as they have been out and about having fun. Even when it was not "having fun" at least they were together. Together without me.

Anny is excited to be going back, I think. She really loves her school and co-workers, which is awesome. This will be just her second year at school in the new district. It is still very funny to see the differences between this small school district from the last ones that Anny has worked at.

To use the word excited would be an understatement for our dear Abby. Elated? Beside Herself with Exuberance? That is a mouthful, but much closer to Abby's feelings about the return of "School Year Normal" around here! She has been talking about returning to Ms. Karen's house for about three weeks. When strangers ask her how her summer has been, she says something along the lines of "great, and I get to go to Ms. Karen's again after Nana and Grandpa's visit!"

As for me, I guess nothing changes. I am still at my desk during the day and thinking about how short the evenings seem to be. (I think that is why Abby only takes one bath mid-week and one on Sunday morning!) Now when I get home I will hear different stories about how my ladies have spent their days - Abby all excited and Anny all "students were students today" types of stories, mostly.

The In-Laws felt like they overstayed and for the last couple of days said "we will leave so you can get back to normal" and I could not wrap my mind around what the means for us. Now that I have written it down, I think I do!

(I will miss the two free weekly concerts that we have been frequenting this summer! We will have to find weeknight alternatives, and quick!)

They both went back on Wednesday, though Abby's daycare is closed Monday due to some weird thing in their school district calendar. I decided today that I will take the day off so that I can have my Abby day for the summer!

Communication Brain Leak

In just the last week I have communicated with friends and family via:

Phone
Text
Facebook (Chat, Messages and Wall posts)
Email
Google+
Twitter
Google Reader
Commenting on friends' blogs

I have had opportunity but passed up:

Skype
Google Chat
Google Voice Chat
Good Reads
Nephspace (for Kidney Disease folks)

I never thought I could be one to fall to using terms like "information overload" but at this point I sometimes feel like I am going crazy.

Can not reply to Facebook messages via email. Can not get on Facebook/twitter from the office. Feel weird replying to Facebook messages via regular email.

On occasion I even get a blog comment or two here.

Rather than try to do any more communicating tonight. Going to watch a movie with my wife and her parents.

Happy weekend to all!

Quick Bits

Another one of those annoying, bullet point blog posts. Oh well.

The bat from a few posts ago is back in our window, and has actually made a habit of staying in our window during the day. I've done some looking online and it seems that it is not something we should have concern about, so we are just letting him... hang out! A friend of ours said that if we saw it more than once we had to name it, so Abby decided on Elmo.

Because of all of the heat, my camera is hibernating. It's unfortunate, but none of us want to be outside for more than ten minutes or so. A week! I can deal with lower 90's, but we have not been that low in a while. Last night at 8:30 I was on my way home from a meeting at church and the car thermometer still read 101 degrees. That is just gross. I hereby faux-vow to not complain when it gets bone-chilling cold next winter.

I am a fan of Netflix. I know people are complaining about the rate hike, but for us an extra $60 for the YEAR is not significant. I have been enjoying watching the series Scrubs over again, starting with the first episode. Anny has gotten into Bones thanks to the streaming option, again starting at the beginning. Really fun was the pilot episode of MacGuyver with my father-in-law on Monday. I can not fathom pitching that show idea to TV executives with as cheesy as the premiere turned out!

We have been experimenting with lots of fun foods this summer and some have turned out great! Tuna pockets went over better than we thought it would for Abby. Mixing sausage-meat into turkey to create stuffed burgers is better than I ever could have thought. Home made Corn Dogs were a hit, but that was not a surprise. I am most looking forward to Steak 'Um Pita's later this week or early next!

We have been experimenting with lots of fun foods this summer and some have turned out awful! Aloha Chicken was fun to make and yummy to eat, except the parts of chicken that were still raw. The only thing worse than that was when we had company over and tried a new recipe for "mint chocolate chip" "ice cream" that was really greek yogurt and spinach with chocolate chips and peppermint extract. We trashed all leftovers before our guests left. Abby loved it, to be honest, but I think it is mostly because she did so much of the work to make it!

I want to blog more, but don't want to be completely boring. I hope to get another post up this week, but who knows. This heat is so oppressive that I sometimes can not keep thoughts long enough to type them out... Really.