Labor Day? Isn’t this supposed to be the big holiday where we celebrate hard-working Americans? It sure doesn’t feel special this year, not with my wife laid off along with many of my friends and associates. It’s a scary time right now, and I hope that the next year turns around for our country.
As I eat a bratwurst and hang out with family this afternoon, I’m going to count my blessings, which include two great jobs (which I need more than ever right now!), a wonderful wife, an awesome son and another child on the way. Oliver turned 18 months old yesterday – yes, a year and a half! Crazy, and it also means that Sarah’s pregnancy now has less than six months to go. Maybe that will be the “labor” for me – Sarah’s pending labor, as she will be delivering yet another beautiful life into this world early next year. Ahhh … that makes me feel much better. Time to go fire up a grill now …
Category Archives: Family
Video of our parents finding out about Sarah’s pregnancy
About a month before we announced my wife’s pregnancy to the world on this blog last week, we told our parents the big news. We used our son as a prop and shot video of our parents finding out. Below is a link to a short video I put together of their reactions (and yes, I asked for and received permission from my good sport MIL to include the slow-motion replay!). Enjoy:
Another life chapter in the books
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my life in terms of chapters. The next big one, of course, will be the arrival of our second child early next year. Well, another major chapter just ended as well. Yesterday was Sarah’s last day at her job. As some of you know, her company was bought out earlier this year. Since that time, she’s been a contract/transitional employee for the new company. The contracts all ended yesterday.
Now, Sarah is pregnant and jobless. We’re a one-income family. It’s not as if we haven’t prepared or are worried at all. We should be fine, but it will definitely mean big changes for the family. There will be job searches/interviews, after-work meals (a man can hope, can’t he!), more personal attention for our son, etc.
This new chapter officially will start on Monday, when I head off to work around 7 a.m. Wish us luck.
Oliver lights up over visit from Aunt Carrie
My little sister, Carrie, and her boyfriend travel all over the country for their jobs, working in different cities for several months at a time. This week, between their last gig, in Boston, and their next, in some city in Florida that escapes my mind right now, we got the chance to see them. Such visits are pretty infrequent — we get maybe four a year.
Oliver loves his Aunt Carrie. He has a little photo book and he likes to point at the picture of Carrie and Eli in there. So when the couple showed up in person this week, his face just lit up.
Carrie and Eli watched the boy on Wednesday while we were at work. They even took him to the local school and played on the playground — that is, until the principal kindly asked them to leave (they didn’t realize St. Charles has year-round school, and they didn’t question why there were dozens of kids running around the playground I guess).
Anyway, Carrie and Eli loaded their car back up and left today for their next destination. We’ll see each other on Skype several times over the next few months, for sure, but it’s not the same as being together in person. Next time we see her could be this fall, or maybe even around Christmas. We all look forward to it. In the meantime, below are a couple pictures we shot last night. I wish I had taken more, especially because Oliver’s eyes are closed in the second one. Oh well. Enjoy:
Our trip to the Springfield, Mo., Zoo in pictures
Been behind in my blogging, so this post should catch us up. I’ve been meaning to share some photos from our recent trip to Springfield, Mo., to visit with my parents and grandma Carol. We had just a wonderful time. Below is a slideshow from our day at the Springfield Zoo. Oliver just loves looking at animals. The weather was borderline hot, but at least tolerable. Enjoy:
Happy Fourth (OK, Sixth – I’m a little late) of July
We spent the Fourth of July weekend in Springfield, Mo., with my parents and my Grandma Carol (who was visiting for a few weeks). What a fun time. I’ll post some more about the visit later, but for now, I’ll share some details about our holiday outing. My parents’ house is just south of town, so we headed out a couple miles to nearby Battlefield, Mo., to watch fireworks.
My mom insisted we get there early, and early it was. I think we had just over two hours to kill before the show started. Oliver spent most of it running, with his head down, back and forth across the sidewalk, through the playground area and in/out of the crowd. It was really tiring chasing him everywhere, and he was extremely stubborn about being redirected back to our spot on the lawn. However, just before the fireworks he was pretty tired, as seen here in this photo taken shortly after we gave him a bottle as he watched the band play:
The fireworks were actually pretty impressive, though the show was a bit short. Honestly, it was one of the better firework displays I’ve seen in my 33 years. While watching, I had my camera and tripod set up to try and capture a few images. Here’s one of the few firework pictures that worked:
After a while, I turned the camera over toward Sarah and Oliver to capture the picture below. It was actually almost pitch black by that point, so I had the camera set to capture as much light as possible. This shot also was aided by the light of the fireworks. Here’s the pic:
Overall, Oliver really seemed to enjoy the fireworks. He sat and stared at them calmly, though it was about two hours past his bedtime. By the end, he had turned around and put his head down on Sarah’s shoulder, but he kept twisting his head around and opening one tired eye to catch a glimpse. It was pretty cute. Next year should be even more exciting, since he’ll be talking and all that fun stuff.
Anyway, to wrap up this post, below is a YouTube video I shot and cleaned up (mostly reducing the darkness). You can tell my mom was enjoying herself, from her enthusiastic, booming voice! Oliver was just calm as could be. Enjoy:
A really nice Father’s Day
I had a really nice Father’s Day, for those of you who care to know. The day started out with a big breakfast, then I got a really sweet card. Sarah made it with some help from Oliver. It features his first ever doodles (we just bought him crayons).
Next, we headed to Brentwood, where I had an ice hockey game. That was special for me, because it was Oliver’s first time “watching” (said loosely) me play. It was hard for me to concentrate on the game at times, as I kept looking across the ice and seeing Oliver running back and forth behind the top row of seats. Was pretty cool, and I’m always going to remember him watching me play on Father’s Day.
Next, we headed to Sarah’s parents’ house for a barbecue. That was, of course, also very nice. Had a great time. Now we’re home and relaxing before bed.
Below are a couple pictures of Oliver with his proud dad today. (Oh yeah, and I’ll write about his haircut later — you may notice between pictures that his ‘do is shorter later in the day.) Enjoy:
Taking our son to his first baseball game
On Saturday, we had the opportunity to take our son to his first baseball game. My father-in-law was given four box seats to the Cardinals game behind home plate, so we tagged along with them. It was a beautiful night, perfect for baseball. I think the temperature was in the low 70s with a cool breeze. Very nice.
The game was a snooze-fest bummer, with the Cardinals getting their butts handed to them by the Colorado Rockies by a score of 10-1. But we had fun anyway. Oliver was really well-behaved the entire time, which surprised his parents and grandparents. He sat on our laps and ate snacks, stood in front of us, gawked at other fans (they gawked back, often commenting on how cute he is) and then conked out.
Below are a few pictures. Enjoy.
Oliver and his momma:
Looking interested in the game (I think he actually was staring at the scoreboard lights):
Sleeping on Sarah around the seventh inning, as Rod and Annette look on:
And finally, the wife and me on the roof of the parking garage shortly after the game ended:
Springfield, Ill., trip: Part V — Illinois Old State Capitol
Our last day in Springfield, Ill., started out with a nice breakfast at the B&B. Then we decided to just head back into the downtown area and walk around. We planned to leave town around lunch time.
First, we went to a farmer’s market. Was nice, but nothing too special. Next, we checked out a few local shops. Then we walked around the Old State Capitol Building. We saw that the gate was open and people were exiting, so we decided to check it out. It turned out to be one of the cooler things we did (for history-loving, geeky folks like us anyway!).
A tour was in progress so we joined it. The building was used from 1839 to 1876. According to the official site (because I don’t recall everything we were told):
During the dramatic years leading to the Civil War, the building had an important role in the political struggle between Stephen A. Douglas (1813-1861) and Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865). Lincoln visited the building frequently as both a lawyer and a politician, serving in the building during his last term in the Illinois House of Representatives and delivering the famous 1858 “House Divided” speech in Representatives Hall, and using the governor’s rooms as a headquarters during the 1860 presidential campaign. The building was the scene of the assassinated President’s final laying-in-state on May 3-4, 1865.
Below are some pictures I took while there. First, the outside of the building:
This is the old state Supreme Court area. Lincoln argued, I think this is accurate, more than 200 cases there:
Below is a picture of an actual drum that a 14-year-old boy carried into battle during the Civil War. The drum was displayed in a tiny room on the second floor. We were told that you had to visit this room, if you were an Illinois resident, to enlist to fight in the Civil War.
Ulysses S. Grant’s first job was in this building. He was a recruiter for the military. Funny story, though. His desk was too big to get it through the door to the office he was assigned, so his “office” was under the staircase that led up to the third floor. Here’s a recreation:
When we were at the Lincoln Museum, they had a display set up to look like the room pictured below. This is the old state senate area. Lincoln’s body, after his death, traveled across the country. The last stop was here, where the casket was placed in front of this portrait of George Washington (this is the actual painting). More than 75,000 people went through this room in one day to pay their final respects to the president.
This is a picture of the actual desk used by Lincoln when he was a state senator:
Across the corner on the back side of the building is Lincoln’s old law office. He worked on the third floor:
After this, we grabbed lunch and headed home. Overall, this was a fun trip. Two nights (and three days) was plenty of time for us to see everything we wanted to see. Not sure if there’s much that would draw me back in the near future, but might be cool to take a train there with Oliver when he’s a little older. Thanks for reading along about our journey. I’ll start back with the more typical posts here soon.
Springfield, Ill., trip: Part IV — Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
During the afternoon of our full day in Springfield, Ill., we visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. I know it’s fairly new, but can’t tell you when it opened because the Web site for the museum is hard to navigate.
The museum was pretty cool, though it sounds hokey. There are different areas around the building, each set up to showcase a time period from Lincoln’s life. In these areas are wax figures, artifacts, interactive activities, etc. I’m telling you, it’s worth going if you’re into American history. My favorite part was in the Civil War area. First, there’s a “Civil War in 4 Minutes” video that shows you the battle lines and casualties that took place over the course of the war. Pretty amazing. Then, there’s a wall with close to 200 old photographs on it. At the base of the wall are computer monitors with touch screens, and you can click through to select pictures from the wall to view and read descriptions. I also enjoyed seeing one of Lincoln’s stovepipe hats, which had finger marks worn into the brim from all the times Lincoln’ tipped his hat at passersby.
We were at the museum for hours. At the end, Sarah wanted to watch one of the free movies playing in the theater area. I reluctantly agreed, but must say that the presentation was among the best I’ve ever seen at a museum. I think the show was called “In Lincoln’s Eyes.” Was very good. Then we watch a short, live-action show called “Ghosts of the Lincoln Museum,” or something like that. It was merely OK. Probably more exciting for kids.
The one drawback for a Canon digital SLR camera-toting tourist is that you can only take pictures in the lobby area. That said, here’s a photo of me, being goofy and acting stoic, with a wax Abraham, Mary Todd and son family outside the “White House.” Enjoy:
That evening, we hit the city’s “finest” restaurant, Maldiners to celebrate our anniversary. The food was excellent, though the spot we were seated at was right near the kitchen and workers were running around the area like crazy the entire time. We got some wine and headed back to the B&B where we ended up watching, I kid you not, this hilarious local elementary school’s spelling bee on a community television channel. Some of the kids were sooooo bad. Makes you fear the future. At least we slept well that night.
I’ll wrap up this series of posts later today or tomorrow, then we can get back to all the parenting stuff you’ve come to enjoy.
Blog Full of Letters 