Pictures, quick

As the lines between negativity, apathy, and daily survival blur together in my head to the point where I can't even focus... Let's stick to some pictures and save the good stuff for another day shall we?

This weekend, Megan and I enjoyed some quality alone time, as Andrea was down visiting her parents helping with a garage sale they were doing. Friday night we hit the park and gelato, while Saturday morning we had a fun time at a local free "family fun days" at a Lakeville school. In reality, it was an attempt for some local businesses to connect to the community with some not to subtle advertising mixed in. Overall there was a lot of fun for the kids. Not to mention, TONS of free food. From Perkins mini muffins, to Subway, to Domino's pizza.

Megan was excited to go, as I talked up the morning events. She had her car keys and purse ready!



Megan playing musical dots with help from Grandma. (Grandma helped a lot that day!)



This next picture requires an explanation, before people think I just like to torture my daughter for picture amusement. Megan saw this thing and WANTED to go inside. She even waited in line for her turn, and she NEVER waits her turn. When the door was opened up for her, she ran straight inside... Once the money started going, she just kinda froze up, but didn't freak out or anything. After it was turned off, she seemed to have had a fun time and grabbed a hand full of dollars on her way out.



Megan was also chasing the school mascots (Cougar and Panther) around, making the cat sign and growling sounds.



Sunday brought a big surprise for me... You see, I had this grand idea to try fixing my garden this year. I mentioned it to my Mom, and next thing I know she and John show up at my door step with a tiller, top soil, and some flowers! So what the hell, we dived right in. I took back seat to the gardening masters and just kinda went along with the flow.

Not a true before picture, as the garden itself was completely over run with tons of grass/weeds.



Megan even added some help, carrying over the flowers.



The finished product... Do I qualify as a gardener? Hardly.



Check back in a week, see if anything survived. And for the record, I am now the proud owner of a hose. I won't even get into what a fiasco that was...

What makes the world go round

I said I was going to talk about my bike ride of last weekend, but now I'm just not motivated. The ride itself was an experiement to see if I could do some kind of half drive-half bike commute to work. Overall, I'd say the experiement failed. The ride was way to hard for something I'd want to do, and the alternatives were not appealing. I could drive a full 12 miles, then bike another 9? My normal commute is 18 miles... so I'd save 6 but spend 9 biking. Hmmm, maybe. Anyway, here is the route I did (there and back):



In other news, I've been starting to take some new perspectives on work lately. I think for awhile there I was getting caught up in the overall importance of it all. Because for the first time, I was at a job I actually somewhat enjoyed and wanted to stay at from a long term perspective. But it's quickly come apparent to me that I need to take a step back from all that, to get back to where I once was. Work is nothing more then a means to an end. I had those thoughts as far back as 2005, and I just need to get back to that. I'm going to live a large percentage of my life in a cube working on shit that has no baring/meaning/importance, and I'm okay with that. Because it's just what I need to do to provide the things my family needs.

I've posted my thoughts about money before so I guess I should stop rehashing the same old shit. I guess I just find it odd that 3 years later, it's just the same thoughts running through my head. What does that mean? Does it mean I hate how our society works? Does it mean I'll never be content working within the system? Or does it simply mean that no matter what I think, I'll forever be a slave to that system?

God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.

Tuesday Picture Day

Megan went to bed tonight without any fuss. Not that she is particularly fussy about bed time, but she likes to fight it like any normal kid. When we put her to bed, she usually comes out of her bedroom anywhere from 1-4 times until finally going to bed. My Mom watched her over night on Saturday night and asked, "Is she always that good with bed time?" Apparently so!

Just wanted to get some pictures up of recent days. Nothing special in particular, just a few fun shots.

Here is a picture of that night I mentioned a few days ago, about Megan and I just playing around on the floor one night. We ended up falling asleep together, it was great.



We got some of those Flavorice sticks recently. They were a bit too cold for Megan, but with some minor help, she was eating them in style.



Just a cute shot of Mom and Megan.



Megan was very excited when she found out we were going to see Grandma Gayle.



If you're keeping tabs on my Exercise Log, which I know everyone does! You might have noticed I actually did something OTHER then run this weekend. Yes, my first actual bike ride of the summer. It was a bit rough, but fun. More on that later this week.

5:51

The first 4 day weekend is here, and what happens? I get a cold that hits me first thing this morning. Seriously... wtf? What on earth did I do to deserve that? Oh well, I'm not going to let a little thing like that stop me from having fun this weekend.

Last night was the Twin Cities 1 Mile run. Sort of a silly event, but a lot of prize money to be given out. I settled on a goal of 6 minutes, and was able to do 5:51!!! That time puts me REALLY close to the top 10% overall. (220 out of 1893) And to think... $10,000 dollars was a mere 1:51 within my grasp.

Before the run, I had a small dinner of pasta and one garlic bread. I sort of regret that decision, but the timing of the event (7:30pm) made it so I couldn't go all night without food!

During the run, I was afraid I was pushing to hard. I started out near the front of the pack at something just above a 5 minute pace. I knew obviously I was going faster then my body could handle but figured, what the hell, it's only 6 minutes right? Somewhere around the half mile mark I figured I was done for. In other words, straight up quit.

Somehow I kept going, even though I dropped my pace down hard. Then I saw the finish line and bursted with every thing I had left.

After the run, I felt sick to my stomach. I got a bad metallic taste in my mouth, which my friend explained to me was lactic acid. I have no clue how the body works under these situations, so I had to do some goggling today. One of my toes started burning as well, turns out a blister formed + popped all within that single mile. Not quite sure how that happens.... Maybe it was just there all along and I didn't realize it.

It was a fun time, and now I have to wait until Saturday to find out if I get selected as one of the 400 people for the TC 10 miler. My odds are about 1 in 5 to get selected, not too bad really.

Now, if only I could find some way to stop checking my damn work email while on my 4 day break!

uncustomized-post-template

It's past midnight on a night I thought, "Hey, I bet I could get some extra sleep tonight." I decided to go ahead and start tinkering with my blog layout, updating to use the new templates. I then proceeded to spend 3 hours getting it tweaked to just how I want it. The last 45 minutes were spent fixing this lame thing where the comments link was no longer right justified.


See how that looks? Compared to how it looks down below? Ya... so I get a bit obsessed sometimes. It ended up requiring that I stick the aforementioned title of this blog post somewhere deep in the bowels of bloggers junk.

I'm not done tweaking the layout yet, because I think it's time for a new header picture. It might take me awhile to find something new that I like, but by the end of the weekend something should be up.

In other news, this is just the sort of thing that happens when you don't find a replacement hobby. Putting aside my World of Warcraft playing wasn't that big a deal, but I still haven't found something else to do in it's place. I've tried a few video games, they've all been meh. I pored a bunch of time/thought into creating a D&D character for a campaign that may or may not even happen, to be run by someone else, while spam emailing everyone trying to make sure the first session happens. Last weekend I went to three movies on Sunday.

Blarg, why must I do everything in extremes?

On the plus side, there have been a few nights of extra sleep, and lots of fun time with Megan and Andrea. Last night, around 8:30pm, Megan just laid down near me down stairs while I was on the couch. So I jumped down and laid next to her and we talked and played. Then I moved her to her bedroom where we drifted off to sleep together, with her hand resting on my cheek. That was undoubtedly the highlight of my day.

Piggies as promised

I'm sorry for using my blog for my own selfish purposes. :-) Here are some pictures as promised... besides, it's the only reason anyone comes here anyway!

Let the 4 day weeks begin

Survived another week. Not sure why I say it that way, it's not like my life is some kind of war zone. Yet some times it feels like a battle is raging... somewhere.

Quoting Wiki-pedia, the only source for information these days:

Over the past twenty-five years, there has been a substantial increase in work which is felt to be due, in part, by information technology and by an intense, competitive work environment. Long-term loyalty and a “sense of corporate community” have been eroded by a performance culture that expects more and more from their employees yet offers little security in return.

Translation? Work people to the bone and then get rid of them when they are no longer useful.

Fact: I've been the lowest rung on the corporate ladder for 10 years (come June)
Prediction: I'll probably remain the lowest rung on that ladder for 30 more (if I can even last that long?)

Fact: I've never been fired, laid off, or otherwise given any indication that my job was at stake. (I've even survived lay offs)
Prediction: I'll probably be fired, laid off, or otherwise let go at some point in my life.

Fact: At every single job I've had, I've had ZERO of the skills actually needed for the job.
Prediction: I can probably adapt to any job as needed in the coming years.

Why do none of these facts or predictions make my stress any less? You'd think that by now, I'd have a good sense of my career "path", yet it's clear to me that in fact, there is no such thing.

Work is not a path I feel a need to walk down, it's a path I'm forced to walk down. The fact that human existance in our life time is centered around work, money, collection of wealth/meaningless things just makes me depressed. I don't want to be a part of that system, but there are no alternatives. (aside from winning the lottery?)

I don't know where I was going with this rant, other then the fact that when you start to spend only 3 hours a night with your family you start to question the point of it all. Existing only for the weekends is not good by any stretch, but sometimes it feels like that's all I have.

Enter the 4 day work weeks. For the next month, I've lined up some days off so that I have to be at work only 4 days every week. It includes two 4-day weekends, and I'm looking forward to it. I probably should be taking more time off work, but for whatever reason, I find myself in a situation where I have to "burn" time off. Meaning, if I don't use it, I'll lose it. Pretty sad, I know.

If I could survive on half the income I make, and work half the time, I would. Too bad that's not really an option either. Maybe I need to start doing the research now into the career "path" I will actually retire with. Because despite Peter Gibbons question of "What if we're still doin' this when we're 50?" My answer isn't quite the same as Samir's response of "It would be nice to have that kind of job security."

Giving everything

The cold was something else this morning. I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry at the whole situation. What was I doing? Running outside on a day like that? I had no hat, no gloves. My finger tips were ice cold. Yet sure enough, run is what I did. And I can honestly say, for the first time, as my 3rd attempt at this race, I gave everything I had.


I ended with an offical time of 45:32, almost a full minute faster then my goal for the year. I was very happy with that time and will be in no rush to attempt to beat it. I was just spent at the end of this race, honestly out of any energy left.

So what does a crazy below freezing temperature run need at the end of it? You guessed it, ICE CREAM!



It may look nice out in that picture, but trust me, it was freezing. And you know what? We ate the damn ice cream anyway. Why? Because sometimes in the face of crazy sub zero temp runs, you just have to be crazy too.

I'm glad I did it, I wish the weather was better, and maybe, just MAYBE, I would have had a slightly better time. I'm already signed up for another 10k this year and in 2 weeks is the silly "Twin Cities 1-miler". I only signed up for that to get an extra shot at a random ticket into the 10-miler. Don't ask... it's complicated.

In other news, Megan's hand is healing up just fine. She has no problems with it at all, and is using it totally normal. We've resumed normal bath times and stuff, and so soon it will just be a fading memory.

Lame, lame, LAME!

This weekend is shaping up to be worse weather than the very first Get in Gear that I ran. I'm not looking forward to it, but I'm still gonna do it. The fact that the weather is not going to cooperate just means I'm going to go ahead and sign up for another 10k asap.

Runners often talk about a new PR. That stands for "Personal Record". Most runners use "offical" events to set their PRs, and I'm no exception. Every single race I've done has had some form of PR attached to it. I've got all sorts of goals for PRs this year. For the 10k, I had (have?) a goal of 46:30, which is a pace of 7:30. The thing is, I've already hit that on a practice run this year.



So is the race PR really that big of a deal? I dunno... It is and it isn't I guess. If the weather is lame, then I'm not going to be all upset if I can't hit my goal. Then again, maybe if it's cold I'll just end up running fast to get it over with!

In other news, quitting World of Warcraft hasn't been all that hard. Not only has the game itself got stale, but they are making changes soon that will make it even harder for the casual gamers to have fun. Okay, I get the hint! No need to kick me on the way out...

Problem is, I need something new to fill those few hours in the evening I have to myself, or I tend to get bored. Last night I fell asleep at 7:30pm. That was crazy weird. I woke up to Megan crying at 11pm. She was cold after having climbed into her crib. (a new habit we have got to break) After that I wasn't able to get back to sleep until 1:30am. Don't want that to be happening again.

Well, wish me luck this weekend and hope for good weather!

Good news, honest

This weekend was great, not the long weekend I needed, but great just the same. I've designated May to be my "4-day work week" month. I've lined up some vacation days so every single week in May is only 4 days long. (with two 4-day weekends as well) All I need to do is get through the next 2 weeks!

Saturday was mostly just Megan and I doing our thing, from reading to playing to lunch and everything else. I wanted to give Andrea some time to herself because I had a large amount of plans on Sunday. It worked out great, and we both enjoyed our time.

Papa B and Grandma B came up Sunday, but I was off doing my thing, so I didn't visit with anyone. I ended up doing a 10 mile run with my running buddy. He suffered a minor set back during the run, hopefully it won't come back to haunt him during the Get in Gear this weekend. The weather started out a little over cast and cold, but by midway into our run the sun was coming out and things were warming up nicely.

After that I headed over to Eden Prairie to catch lunch and a movie with a coworker and friend. That wouldn't have been so bad, if it wasn't for the fact that I also play World of Warcraft with these two guys. Going to lunch with the people you play WoW with shortly after quitting... is like going out with your drinking buddies the day after becoming sober. Time will tell...

Anyway, on to the ACTUAL good news that just came in this afternoon. Megan's hand has healed so well, she is going without bandages! This is great news and we are both so relieved to know there most likely won't even be any long term visible scaring. It still in the healing process so we have to be careful with her outside (sand, debris, sun exposure, etc). But she is using it normally with no ill effects. If you are curious (and brave?) you can see the close up shot of her hand below.

Ah well, screw it

I got my World of Warcraft account back, although it wasn't without a price. They stripped one of my characters of everything I had "earned". Did I cheat to earn what they took away? You bet. Do I feel guilty about it? Of course not. It's a form of entertainment, a way to kill time, and nothing else.

The problem is, the game isn't actually that fun. If it was, I wouldn't want to cheat to bypass the lame parts and time that has to be invested. On top of that, even the parts I was enjoying for a while have started to become stale. The people I play with have schedules that don't jive, the competitive parts of the game I was enjoying are saturated with people way better and with way more time.

So screw it, I don't need to waste money on something I don't enjoy. I cancelled my account, time to find a new night time hobby. On the plus side, until something comes along my new default night time hobby is sleeping. Quite a strange hobby, but damn, went to bed at 9:30pm last night. 10 hours of sleep!! Don't know when the last time was that I got that much sleep...

In other news, the Get in Gear 10k run is just around the corner. Have I trained for it properly? Not really... am I going to hit my goals? Maybe... As long as the weather behaves and nothing crazy happens between now and then. I did a practice run and hit my goal with room to spare, so I know it can be done.

Megan update: Hand is healing well according to the doctors. It's way past the point of any infection concerns and the skin is growing back nice and fast. She might be able to go without bandages as early as next week. Only things we have to worry about now are keeping the bandages on and keeping any exposed skin out of the sun. Not to hard with this weather...

As far as the other things are going, Megan is amazing us every day with what she is learning. Her lack of language seems to not be preventing her from learning a lot of things. For example, she can identify a large number of letters now. Not just pictures, animals and words, but individual letters! That's huge. From a verbal perspective, she can make animal sounds "Moo" and "Baa" and roars for Tigers and Lions. She also says "Boo" when playing the peek-a-boo game. In general, she is vocalizing strings of sounds together, so you can tell she is trying to communicate.

My prediction is still a late summer time, early fall when that explosion occurs and the words start coming. All the time between now and then will be just building up the individual words and then working on putting words together.

Last night Megan and I went to the grocery store. As we were going down the aisle, all of a sudden Megan started doing the sign for "Dog". I asked her where she saw the dog? She pointed and I was still confused, so I slowly backed up the cart until I could see what she was point at. Sure enough, right there on the cereal box was Clifford the Big Red Dog. Way to go Megs!

Oh Noes!

Will I have to face the harsh realities of Real Life!?!?!?!?!


One can only hope not...

Something Positive

The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

I'm just going to get the horrible shit out of the way, in the odd chance that I can come up with anything positive. It's been awhile since I quoted THE song. Oddly enough, for me it was 2pm on Tuesday, not 4pm this week. I got a phone call at work from Andrea, she was in the emergency room with Megan.

While helping make her lunch of Mac & Cheese with Mommy, Megan managed to get her hand on the stove and got some pretty bad burns. She suffered second degree burns on portions of her left palm along with some burns on the fingers. Needless to say, it's been a rough week.

Fast forward to today, 2 doctor visits, codeine spiked Tylenol, and numerous scary bandage replacements... And we've survived. All things considered, Megan has been quite the trooper through this whole ordeal. I haven't seen her cry once, not even the night Daddy climbed into bed with her to read some bed time stories, only to accidentally lean on her hand, resulting in a popping of the largest blister on her hand.

This is actually the first time Megan has been to the emergency room. Statistically speaking, it probably won't be the last either. But it was still a horrible thing to happen and it came at a time when things were starting to pick back up.

So where is this positivity I promised? I don't know... It sure as hell isn't this weather. I swear, snow and rain were the last thing I needed to add to this week. Can I just get a FEW days/weekends of nice weather? PLEASE!?! Work is okay for the most part. We made revenue goals last quarter, so that means some profit sharing this month. Can't complain about that I guess.

Last weekend was something nice at least. I was able to spend some time with my Grandparents and Scott and Val. They came over on a Sunday afternoon and got to see Megan and then we headed out for a nice lunch. Megan was great and I was glad she got to spend some time with her Grandparents. We don't see them enough.

In other news, my grandparents are getting a lap top and internet! I'm sure the traffic to my blog will be shooting up soon. I promise more positivity and lots of pictures of Megan just for you Grandma!!

The decision is Winter

I don't even know where to begin. 5-8 inches of snow? So much for any chances of decent outdoor training this year, I might as well kiss my 10k time goals goodbye. Suppose I'll shoot for the times I want later in the year...

It's been a long time since I've posted any form of deeper thoughts on my blog. Life has been hitting me from all sides lately, hardly giving me time to catch my breath, let alone organize my thoughts into any form of coherent stream of text. Things have just been so negative lately, I've been unable to think of anything to write. I do not want my blog to be just a place where I go to whine about the problems of my life.

There are also the questions of privacy. Some of the problems going on in my life are just too private to share here, no matter what I might think. Add in the fact I can't talk about detailed aspects of my job and what stresses me out there... what I am left with to talk about? Apparently, just the weather.

My week was so rough last week, that prior to Sunday, the only highlights of the entire week were: 1) A Bud Light commercial where a dog says "Sausages!" and 2) A philosophical question posed to me at work. Sad huh?

Things did pick up on the weekend. We had a fun family swim Saturday morning and went out to dinner Saturday night. Sunday we had Grandma B and Papa B over to visit, and they brought Megan a bunch of presents including her own fish tank! She is loving that. She is also vocalizing "M" sounds in all sorts of new ways today, which is all great stuff.

But what about Shawn? How is he doing? Not sure I know the answer to that right now. One of the hardest parts about internalizing everything in life, is that sometimes it just gets to be too much. Those are the times that I get into a funk that won't shake for a long period of time. What's funny, is this funk comes 6 months from my last one(October), which was 6 months after another one (April)... Is there something about October and April that mess with my head!?!?

Winter Spring... Spring Winter...

Make a decision already! I was out for my second outdoor run this week, for a nice long 10 miler. And today there is a friggen snow storm? Seriously? I'm having second thoughts about my love of Minnesota. Between the snow falls lately, and the near car accidents I've had, this week was one of those weeks where I'm just happy to come out the other side alive.

Sometimes you just have to keep moving forward, and that's just what I'm going to do. Let the hardships of the week slip away as I focus on the weekend and the soon-to-arrive real Spring time.

What's on tap for this weekend? First up is Easter egg coloring, which we are going to start right now actually. This year, we will most likely focus on colors with Megan this time. She has been doing very well with all her colors lately... In fact, I can hear Andrea right now asking her to find the "Yellow" one...

Tomorrow morning we are heading bright and early to the Zoo baby animals, at the Minnesota zoo. Megan has also made huge improvements in her identification of animals through signs. She even knows the actual sign for "animals". She loves watching this one web site that goes through animals and doing the signs as she listens.

Anyway, I'm being told that my real life is slipping away while I blog. Maybe there is some truth to that. I had better end this for now!

Picture Day

More pictures today! We had a great time at the Children's Museum yesterday. Although it was fun, at the same time it was difficult for us. The place was packed and so noisy, it wasn't exactly conducive to the one-on-one speech time we want to focus on with Megan. That isn't to say we shouldn't do these kinds of events, but at least we acknowledge they are more about fun for Megan, and less a real opportunity for work on language. But FUN is important too!!

You can see Megan doing the sign for slide in this picture. Grandma Gayle is learning signs from Megan every time she sees her.



Name this movie: "I wish I liked anything as much as my kids love bubbles."



Megan learning her colors with Grandma:



Megan and Mom rocking out to music where they could see themselves on TV... Wait a sec... TV is the debil!! RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY!



Here is a random picture from a few days ago. Megan and Andrea are modelling their new hair cuts.

One is all you need

The mood around the Anderson house has improved over the last week. We did our best to share the nitty gritty of our situation with our family, to get them to see what it is Andrea and I are going through. Of course, they continued to try and downplay things and give us words of support and encouragement. I wouldn't expect anything less, they are my family after all! More importantly, they listened and really took the time to understand what we are feeling.

That fact alone has helped us this week, the whole divide your sorrows thing going into effect. On top of that, Megan has developed a lot of new babbling talk. She is constantly vocalizing now, something she was doing a smaller percentage of the time before. All day with the noises, and pointing at things, her way of asking questions.

Today I took a half day off today to get Megan in to see the doc. After her cold came right back, I wanted to make sure her ear infection didn't come back as well. Turns out she was just fine, and after that we stopped at Burger King for some fun time in the indoor playground and a strawberry shake.

This week also marked my first outdoor run of the year. Headed out Thursday night with a buddy from work, around the usual lake paths. It was a little wet, but otherwise pretty good. Hopefully the weather holds out and I can start more serious training for the Get in Gear 10k. I have some big goals this year and I haven't started much on them.

Tomorrow we have some more fun things going on, as we are hitting up the Children's Museum in the morning. Grandma Gayle is joining us as well, it should be a great time. I'll try to get some pictures up tomorrow or Sunday of our adventures in learning!

Not Enough Hours

Just when I'm at a time when it feels like I never have enough time, we have to go and lose an hour.

Since my blogs have become somewhat of week in review, I might as well go with it. This week started off on an early note as I took some family to the airport to goto Las Vegas. I was up at 4:30am to get them there on time... Ugh. From that point, it felt like I just never caught up on sleep all week long. I suppose the staying up until midnight every night didn't help matters.

Tuesday sucked with that surprise morning snow storm. Okay, maybe not a snow storm but it made my commute take an extra 20 minutes. Not to mention, I got so frustrated that I almost hit the ditch (or much worse). Didn't even tell Andrea about that one... hmmm guess I'm screwed now!

The rest of the week was blah for the most part. The cold weather is still here, I'm still struggling with running indoors, and I was damn glad to see Friday roll around.

Today was a bit more fun, as I started off the day with a solid 7 mile run. After that, the fam headed to Edinborough Park in Edina. It was JAM packed for a Saturday morning, but we still managed to squeeze an hour of fun out of it. Megan and I ran all around inside the tree house together, she loved it. After that we hit a nice big lunch at Red Lobster, where Megan was very well behaved. All in all, a very pleasant Saturday afternoon.

Here are 2 shots from today at Edinborough:

Project Club House Complete!

This was a multi phase project... It broke down like this:

Phase 1: Move the TV (8:00am)



After moving the TV, I went for a 7 mile run, and didn't get restarted on the project until 11am.

Phase 2: Clean (11:00am)



Phase 3: Break overhead light fixture while unloading



Phase 4: Finish unloading (11:30am)



Phase 5: Mid way point, take a lunch break (1:00pm)



Phase 6: Finish! (2:30pm)



Phase 7: See the look of surprise and enjoyment on Megan's face as she got home tonight!!

Bye Bye Birdie

This week between posts crap has got to stop. Problem is, I just don't spend time down stairs near the computer like I used to. Makes it hard to get any time for blogging.

What do I want to bitch about tonight? Let's see... I'm not getting enough sleep, not getting enough exersize, not eating as good as I should be. Works slowed down, but still finding ways to stress me out. A domain expert, and somewhat of a mentor to me just left the company this week. Good times.

What's going on with Megan you ask? She is doing okay, still picking up new signs on a regular basis and attempting new words every once and awhile. She can now do signs for various daily objects on her own, just by hearing the word (as opposed to also seeing the accompaning sign). She still has a ways to go, and I try to keep us positive, but it's hard when logic dictates that either she will get caught up, or it will just be the way things are.

Tomorrow is the big day. Time to say goodbye to the TV and hello to a basement playzone of fun. I was able to solicit for help early Saturday morning to get it over to my Mom's house. At that point, Andrea will be taking Megan down to New Ulm for the day to spend some time with Papa and Grandma B. In the meantime, I'll be spending the day setting up the play house. Check back tomorrow for the exciting results!

Pretty Standard Stuff

Long but short week. For a long time I was dodging the sickness bullet. Everyone I worked with was out sick. The two guys in both cubes next to me were out sick days last week, another guy I work and eat lunch with was out sick before that. Megan was sick... FINALLY, it hit me this week. I decided to go ahead and take Friday off.

Turns out Megan also had an ear infection. Not that big of a surprise. She had been pulling at her ear for a while, so we got her in and sure enough. Got some antibiotics, hopefully it should clear up soon.

Speaking of Megan, things are still progressing well. Our attempts at sign language are going well. Megan picks up new signs almost every day. She isn't 100% using them on her own (meaning self initiated), but she can do almost all her signs in response to the name of the object they represent. From a word perspective, there have been a couple of developments. Apple was a big one, we were excited to hear that.

The rest of the week was just dealing with this stupid cold. I got two runs in tues/wed... I'm undecided if I'm going to try and run tomorrow morning. Speaking of running, I also caught a movie about Marathons Thursday night. I think the most interesting part was the myth of the marathon being based on someone who ran the distance and then collapsed over dead. Irony? Did it make me want to run a marathon any more? Maybe a little... but not a whole lot more then my current thoughts about it. (i.e. maybe SOME day...)

The worst part of the week was the drive to the movie. On the way over to my Mom's, a cop was camped out nabbing people for "not fully stopping" at a very common stop sign. Apparently the residents of the area had complained of people not stopping there... He gave me a ticket for it, which is lame. But I suppose it could have been worse. My drivers license wasn't up to date, and that's another $100 fine. He didn't hit me with that one.

Anyway, off to bed. Need to be rested for tomorrow’s day of fun!

Sneak Attack

I survived the week! It was an interesting one to say the least... Started out pretty rough, and I managed about 5 hours of overtime. Yes, I know - nothing in comparison to some people, but for me it was a big deal.

I had two strange meetings this week. First, there was a special "incentive" meeting put on by the CEO. Basically the newest project I'm working on is very important to the business, and so they sit about 30-40 of us working on it in a room and say look - if you can get this thing done early, we'll give you a 4 day paid trip to a resort up north. Interesting tactic.

Then, we had another larger company meeting. You know, the ones where the CEO says everything is great, we are making lots of money, keep up the good work, yadda yadda yadda. The unexpected part of this meeting, was when one of the presenters started talking about the project that I had been working on for the past year as a "major accomplishment of 2007." Now, not to get anyone thinking I'm all that - this project was the result of huge amount of man-hours from a TON of people. I was just a small piece of it. I liked to think of it as the tip of the iceberg. Because the part I worked on, is what the customer interacted with. It was what the business saw, and what was looked at as the result of this project. So I was then surprised to see actual screen shots of the part of the software that I created, thrown up for the entire audience to see. Pretty cool feeling...

Anyway, if that wasn't enough, I also had my yearly review today and subsequent yearly salary increase. Icing on the cake I guess... I've already spent a big chunk of it to purchase the indoor play set for Megan. I ordered it direct from the company, since they offered free shipping. Not sure when it will arrive, hopefully by the end of this month.

As for a Megan update, things are going well. It feels like we are making steady progress now. Some milestones this week:

• Consistently using the sign for "more"
• Identifying many items on flash cards, from animals to objects
• Responding to questions like "Megan, can you find the fish?" and "Bring Daddy the fish." (picking out the fish from a large grouping of flash cards)
• Responding to words or signs used once for the first time.

For example, knowing where her "pop" was when asked. Or just tonight, using the sign for "open" after seeing it only once. All great strides... we hope that all this will lead to that spark where her communication goes both ways.

I don't think I've mentioned before, but she is also very sick so we are dealing with that this week as well. Bad cold, lots of congestion, and being so stuffed up that her body throws up during naps because her airways get blocked. Andrea has had a rough week, but I think Megan is showing signs of getting better.

4pm on some idle Tuesday

What's in the works you ask? Well, Andrea and I got on the same page regarding the TV. It's as good as gone, it's just a matter of how soon. Basically it comes down to how soon I think I can get it out the back of my house through the snow. Once the TV is out, I'm replacing it with an indoor jungle gym for Megan to play on.

Is getting rid of the TV going to cure our problems? No, of course not. In fact, it probably won't have any positive effect what so ever. What it WILL do is stop making every night a battle over the fact that we don't watch movies anymore. And the replacement will be something fun and interactive we can do together.

Call it extreme. Call it removing a problem instead of dealing with a problem. I honestly don't care how other people judge me at this point. I'm good enough at doing that on my own.

Aside from that, Andrea and I are both pulling in on our extraneous activities. We are going to focus all our free time and efforts on getting Megan caught up to where we think she can be. We can tell she wants to interact and wants to learn, we just have to figure out what that spark will be to get through to her. A friend tonight told me that someone he knew had a 4 year old who still wasn't talking. The spark? The boy band, In-Sync. Apparently he liked the music so much he sang along, and those were his first words.

I'd like to think we can help Megan before she turns 4. Tonight, we worked really hard on "ball" and she repeated it twice. Overall, we think she tried 4 words tonight, and she picked up on the use of "Pop", in response to "Megan, where is your pop?". All positive signs.

This past weekend, we got out to the Apple Valley Winter Festival. It's our second year, and once again it was fun even if a bit cold. We went early Saturday before it got too cold, so that helped a lot. Megan had fun on the inflatable slides, but got stuck at one point when she went up with lots of big kids going. Thankfully, a young girl, maybe 10 or 11, offered to go up and help Megan slide down so we didn't have to squeeze up there and rescue her.

The Battle Continues

No, not the battle for middle earth. The never ending fight to remain positive in the face of all that Andrea and I are dealing with. For us, every day is a struggle. We are feeling very isolated and without any reassurances that anything we are doing is making one damn difference.

I'd post more but no reason to go into a downward spiral right now. I'll try to get another post up tomorrow on some things in the works and some of the more fun things that we did this last weekend.

Also, I've just been told that there is a very high probability that I will be working more then a few weekends from now until mid-May. Isn't life great?

And Then?

Next thing you know it's a week later and I haven't got a damn post up! Sheesh, I'm such a lazy bastard. I honestly have no excuse... I mean, I think the most exciting thing I did this weekend was getting a haircut on Sunday. Oh, and I watched the last 5 minutes of the super bowl. Can't forget that!

It's just a slow month I guess, but things are going to start to pick up in Feb. Starting right off the bat with this weekend... I will be attempting to resurrect my Dungeons and Dragons group!! That's right, I'm going to give it another shot this year and see how it goes. I want to run a 13 session campaign that will take place over 8 months... Ambitious? Maybe.

Yesterday, Andrea and I went to a sign language class. Not sure what to think about it. I've already memorized the alphabet and a bunch of words... will they help? Will it add anything to Megan's language development? Probably not. All I know is that the other couple there had a child with down syndrome, which to be quite honest, put our situation into perspective a little bit.

In other news, the whole bedtime thing is going swimmingly. Megan has zero issues with bedtime around 8pm after our "routine". She almost seems to look forward to it now, and enjoys giving big hugs and kisses good night. We tried a night light for a while, but she just took it apart and got the bulb out. No more of that, and she ended up not needing it anyway. The only down side are the nights I get home at 6pm from a run, and with dinner right after, I only get to see Megan for an hour or two during her bed time routine.

Don't know much else... Later this month we are doing an overnight at Mystic Casino for free, courtesy of my Mom and all the gambling she does (free hotel coupons). It will be our mini Valentines get away. Mom will be watching Megan overnight for us, which should be a breeze now!

Suppose I should get to sleep now... For some reason I've been depriving myself of sleep for the last 2 weeks. I can't really say why, but constant 5 hours of sleep every night does weird things to your brain.

All Better

I got a 45 min run in on Monday and there was no blood or pain, so the toe is all healed. It's still all scabbed over, so as long as I don't pick at it...

Some new things have developed with Megan that are making evening life much less stressful around here. No, Megan isn't talking yet. This is regarding her bed time. Awhile back, Megan started giving up her daily nap - but it wasn't 100%. Some days she would still end up getting SOO crabby or just fall asleep at random on the couch or floor. Now it seems she might have given it up for good.

So what else changed? Well, we tried to capitalize on this change of no naps. Basically it means she is very tired at a normal hour of around 8pm. We started a nightly routine of 1 or 2 movies and dinner. Then a bath and PJs. Finally story book time in her bedroom on her bed at 8pm. After reading a few books, we say good night and let her fall asleep.

First night, it was rough. Andrea got this whole ball rolling that first night, with a solid half hour of crying and Megan climbing out of bed. By the second night, it was maybe 10 minutes. By the time Saturday night rolled around (and I was home alone with Megan), she didn't even cry for 2 minutes or come out of bed. Last night was ZERO crying. I said good night, and she gave me a HUGE hug and kiss goodnight, and off she went. Tonight was just a minute or two, but in general it seems to be going very well. Perhaps another corner has been turned...

Just thought I'd end with some cute pictures of Megan and Andrea baking cookies from the other day. The second shoot is very cute, because Megan choose to arrange the cookies like that.

Day of Injuries

Today was a bit rough on the Anderson house hold. Megan was first this morning with an injury on the way home from the YMCA. She slipped and fell face first before getting into the car, cutting her upper lip badly and causing a small scratch under her chin. The worst part was the blood. In Andrea's words, "there was blood everywhere."

Speaking of blood... I was next in line. Earlier this week I had pulled out a part of my big toe nail, and thought nothing of it. It didn't hurt too much, and just bled a little bit. No big deal right? So this afternoon I head out for a run, and like 30 minutes into my run I feel this wetness in my sock. I look down, and what do I see?



And even worse....



I decide to cut my run short, and will probably take a small break from running for a few days to give my toe some time to heal. The weird part was that it didn't hurt at all while I was running. The upper part of my toe is a little tender, but that's about it.

Tomorrow Andrea is heading down to visit and spend some time with her Mom to do a project involving lots of pictures. They will also be doing lunch and Andrea is spending the night there, so it will just be me and Megan holding down the fort. I plan on getting some grocery shopping in and visiting with my Mom as well. Other then that, it should be a very mellow weekend.

Slight Slacking

Couple times last week I thought about getting something posted but just never got around to it. Main reason I think is that nothing too exciting is going on really. This cold weather just kind of grinds everything to a halt. I managed to get one run in this morning, but other then that I haven't left the house all weekend. A high temp of negative 7 yesterday!!

Not a lot of news on the Megan language front. We are starting with some sign language things, which she is picking up rather quickly. Although we tried to teach her "more" and "please" at the same time, she seems to use "please" for both now. She has also become SLIGHTLY less demanding of movie time, only wanting to watch them at night which I think might be a decent compromise. That isn't to say I've abandoned the idea of TV removal YET... Time will tell.

The gym traffic is slowing down already - maybe it's just the cold weather. But the last few nights I've been able to get in fine and right away. I think I'm going to get outside earlier this year then previous, simply because I miss it so much already.

In other news, I'm going to attempt to get some Dungeons and Dragons going again this year. I decided I needed at least one other hobby besides World of Warcraft. My guess? It might last long enough to keep me occupied through June, but I could see it falling apart through the summer. Once again, time will tell.

Stupid Resolutioners

I hate to start out with a rant, but what the hell. Once again, the people are flocking to (and filling up) the gym so that a) parking is damn near impossible and b) there are wait lines for treadmills. I didn't even feel like dealing with it tonight, and completely skipped my work out. Instead, I came home and ate 2 chocolate covered pretzels weighing in at 140 calories a piece. SUCK ON THAT, New Years Resolutioners!

I'm ready for spring, that's all I have to say. It is too damn cold and I need some out door type activities. I'd hate to admit that my mood would be so effected by weather, but who knows. I'm honestly going to give biking a bigger shot this year, with planned adventures and maybe even some crazy stuff like biking all the way to work. Hey... dream big I say.

In other news, I'm contemplating moving my ginourmous TV out of the house. This is an alternative idea to selling or getting rid of it entirely. The reactions I've gotten have been anything from "that seems extreme" to "I grew up with no TV". So why on earth would I want to get rid of one my most joyous of purchases from 2006?

There are a variety of factors... that have been building over time. Everything connected to the TV has already been moved for Megans safety. I never bought any of the new next gen gaming systems, and don't even own a high def DVD player. Not to mention, all my DVDs are in the garage anyway.

The final straw was that recently my receiver died. It had been flaking out for awhile. But why buy a new receiver, for speakers that aren't hooked up, and movies I don't watch anymore? Why keep a TV in the house that is just an empty shell?

This is of course all just secondary to the real reason I want to get rid of it. A firm belief that the TV and/or movies have played a part in Megan's delayed language development.

My Mom tells me I'm crazy to think that, and that we just need to teach Megan limits. Maybe she's right. Maybe I'm just using the TV as a scape goat for my own failings. I'm told not to be so hard on myself, but how can I not?

The small part of me that still has access to logic, dictates that Megan will grow up. She will eventually communicate with the outside world. And one day I'll look back at this time and laugh at how worried I was. But that part is so small these days, and just seems overshadowed by self doubt.

The TV as it was in it's heyday:



The empty shell of today:

Arch Support FTW

Ran a solid 6 miles tonight on the new shoes. I ended up getting the next ASICS in the line I like, the GT-2130. This pair seems to fit my foot better then the 2120s, a tad wider and not so tight over the top. They were great right off the bat, hardly feels like I have to break them in. Over the last 2 months I was having a lot of soreness in the arch of my foot, and tonight there was none. Lesson learned? When the arch starts to get sore, get new shoes!

I'm not quite sure why I thought things would "slow down" at work. It just feels like they want to suck the marrow from me until I'm dry. It's hard to stay motivated, but at least I enjoy what I'm doing and like the people I work with. Review time is right around the corner, so that is the only thing I'm kinda stressing about. Not so much that I'm worried about my review, but more so that for the first time in awhile, I feel like I deserve a specific review. And if it doesn't happen, I'm going to be very disappointed and most likely be very vocal about it.

Tonight was a pretty mild night, with Megan and I enjoying some time together while Andrea went to her volleyball game. I was able to capture a fun little video of Megan's basketball skills. This is something I had been wanting to buy for her for a long time, but she ended up getting it for Christmas instead. It's definitely one of her favs.

Better Update

Taking Monday off was exactly the right decision. The funny part was, the day itself was very stressful. Megan was very unhappy and not cool with napping when she should, and ended up having a melt down. This of course caused me to have a melt down. Thankfully, Andrea remained the rock solid parent she is and calmed us all down.

On the positive side, I've gotten two runs in the last two days and that has made me feel better. My cold is still full blown, but hopefully it will start to wane towards the end of this week. I'm going to try and get two more runs in before the weekend and see how it goes.

Work started good today with "no new problems" to deal with, so that was nice. The end is in sight and I can look forward to getting this project out. I'll probably never get much credit or fanfare for my work on this project, but it will be a big personal victory to see this one succeed. Whether or not the customers think it's a "great" thing is yet to be determined.

On another up note, my bro has offered to watch Megan tomorrow night. I think we will take the opportunity to hit a dinner and just relax. I'll probably stop off at the Running Store and get some new shoes. I think some recent foot pains I've been having can be attributed to worn out shoes. Plus, I need to break in a new pair to start working on my 2008 running goals. (more on that later)

Anyway, today was yet another "No nap for Megan" day, so I have to go do my best to help keep her awake as long as possible. If she falls asleep too early, it just causes her to wake up crying around midnight, or even the possibility of her coming out of her room.

Bad Start

2008 isn't starting off exactly as I had hoped, but pretty much exactly as I expected. Over stressed, under exercised, sick and lazy!

The long New Years break was great, because although Christmas break was 4 days, it didn't even feel like an actual break. New Years weekend was much more relaxing. My Mom even offered (for the 2nd time) to watch Megan over night on New Years Eve. We totally took her up on it, and managed to get in a dinner/movie date.

The bad started with going back to work. Not that work itself was that bad, but we are STILL at the end of this project cycle causing me undue stress and getting me into situations where I have to work until 5:30pm. This of course cuts into my running time. Now combine that with a really nasty cold I started getting this week, and you have a recipe for disaster. I haven't run this year at all!

Could I run through this cold? Ya, probably. I've done it before. Do I feel like it? Not really. I feel like being lazy and getting better. Sleeping in, resting, and taking lots of drugs. I'll probably call in sick tomorrow and if I'm feeling up to it, get a run in then.

In the meantime, I thought I'd get a picture up of Megan. This one is for you Mom!

Why 2008 will be better

3 weeks since my last post... might not seem like a long time, but it might as well be 3 months. As I said to one of my relatives over the holiday weekend, the best thing about letting my blog die, is that once I finally do revive it, the only ones coming back to read it will probably be the only ones I want reading it in the first place.

You didn't REALLY think I would let my blog die did you? Of course not... but I think some time away was what I needed. Give me time to think about what was important to me about my blog and what wasn't. One change that will be occurring is 2008 is the rating. It's high time my posts were R-rated. Life isn't PG, so why should my blog be censored?

The title of this post implies that 2007 was bad. That's not really an accurate statement. 2007 saw a lot of great things happen, ranging from achieved fitness goals to achieved financial goals and more. What made 2007 so rough was my stress levels. I think overall, 2007 also saw the highest stress levels I've had in a LONG time.

So why will 2008 be better? Less stress. And what changes will occur that should bring about less stress? Here is my short list:

1. The project I've been working on at work for basically all of 2007 will be released to customers in the 2nd week of January. This is going to be a huge stress reduction. I've learned a lot from this project and I think I've gained some insight on how to approach future projects in a way that won't let the stress build.


2. Megan should be talking by the end of 2008. I say should only because I'm such a pessimistic. I strongly believe she will be talking or starting to communicate before summer. Having a higher level of interaction and seeing progress there will really lower my stress levels.


3. My damn roof will be done, with gutters, at some point in 2008. I thought this would be such a simple thing to get a new roof, boy was I wrong. I'll be so happy once this thing is finally done, and that stupid ass company puts my gutters on. I slipped once already this winter, and am so fucking pissed off at that company for not getting them on over winter. It a danger to my entire that I'd rather not worry about.

As I said, that's the short list. I think there are other things that will make 2008 a better year, but it will be awhile before some of those ideas solidify for me. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to a lovely New Years Eve date with my wife, as my Mom has offered to watch Megan over night for New Years for the second time! Will she go for 3?

Are You Serious?

What a weird week. It must be karma or something. To have such a large amount of things happen right after I'm on the cusp of quitting my blog. Where to begin? I'm not even sure. This is gong to be a long post, because if I'm going to do this, I might as well put some real effort into it.

Monday came and I had zero desire to goto work. Andrea reminded me that the speech specialist for Megan was that morning at 10am. That was all the reason I needed to stay home and be part of that process. I'm glad I did, and it's been requested that I'm there for a follow up session later in Dec, which I'm sure I will do. The gist? Yes, Megan is lagging behind in speach. She's not forming two words together, let alone many single words. She speaks mostly in "AHHs", pointing, and in physical ways. She understands what we say and will usually do things we ask. She just doesn't want to talk back. I can't even get into how this all makes me feel, but I'm sure you can guess it's nothing positive.

Tuesday night was the big snow storm. My commute home was a solid hour and 30 minutes. I went in crazy directions to attempt to avoid traffic (I even passed my sister in law at one point). Apparently it paid off, because two other people I work with that commute to Apple Valley were on the road for 3 hours.

After arriving home, I decided to take the bike rack off my car. (which incidentnly, I never did get around to using this year) In the process of doing this through the snow covering my car, my hands got really cold and at one point I shook them to warm them up. The result? My wedding ring went flying in some random direction. I didn't even hear it land. Ya, it's pretty much gone now. Maybe I'll get a metal detector and look for it in the spring.... suuuure.

Tonight I came to yet another shitty realization. My attempts to play World of Warcraft "competitively" were a gigantic waste of time. Despite the raw video game talents I have, there is just no way I can play at the same level as college kids with nothing to do but play video games. I quit a large part of my World of Warcraft gaming tonight. Time will tell if I'm fully done yet again.

There is only one positive thing that has happened this week. Somehow, this one thing is keeping me going, because honestly, I don't even know what to think anymore. Over on the right side of my blog, under my Exersize Log, click the "Year to Date" total. That's right, 1203 miles! I hit my goal of 1200 miles in a single year. It was a good feeling to achieve a "year long" goal. The only hard part? To convince myself that it doesn't mean I get to take the rest of the year off!

Yes, I realize this post is one huge bitch session. Maybe that's what blogs are supposed to me. Life is full of ups and downs, as long as I'm posting about both, well maybe that's the whole damn point.

Blog Death

It's hard to say what killed my blog. It was just a combination of a bunch of little factors, that added up to a slow but eventual death. The main factor is of course time. Blogging takes time that 9 times out of 10, I'd rather be spending doing something else. Granted, usually that is just World of Warcraft, but that's not the only thing...

Megan has become a bigger focus of my evenings lately, from spending time with her when I get home from work right away, to putting her to bed on time every night. (around 10pm) Each night, I spend a good 30 minutes with her putting her to bed. It's worked out well, and in general most nights are much better. Take tonight for example, she went to sleep without the slightest complaint.

The other main thing that killed my blog, is when all my posts became nothing more then a series of complaints. What the hell do I have to complain about? I'm healthy, I have a great job, a wife that loves me and a daughter I just adore. My insistence of focusing on the few negative things here and there started to just bother me. And blogging about it even made things worse.

So what next? Is my blog really dead? It's hard to say. With November already over and the New Year right around the corner, thoughts of new goals and resolutions come right along with it. What do I want to focus on in 2008? Where do I want to spend my time? Where are my priorities? And most important of all, do I want to share my crazy struggle to find the answers to all these questions again and again on my blog? I suppose only time will tell.

Week from hell

Ugh! Week between posts. Maybe it's time to throw in the towel on this silly blog business. I'm so good at quitting! Might as well embrace the things I'm good at...

I honestly don't know what is stressing me out more right now - Megan's bed time issues or work. The problem is that they both compound each other into this really bad cycle. Megan keeps me awake until 1am. This causes me to be tired and negative at work all day. This results in me stress eating and/or being too tired to work out after work. Of course that puts me in an even worse mood followed up by another late night with Megan.

I just want to survive the week. Tomorrow is Friday, and it should go somewhat easier then the rest of the days this week. Then a short 3 day weekend to Thanksgiving break. Just... need... to survive.

Mid week was a nice visit with the family, it was my sister in laws birthday. We went out to Red Robin and Megan was decently behaved. She ate all of her pizza and for the most part stayed in her little area. Made for a pleasant evening. Wish I could see my brother more but with his work and school schedule these days, we don't have a lot of overlapping free time.

This weekend we are going down to New Ulm to get a night off. It's sort of our standard thing now, we go down, drop Megan off with the grandparents, and then enjoy a small break. Going to try and milk it for all it's worth and de-stress as much as possible. I'm sure that will involve a little bit of drinking as well.

Bed Progress

Overall I would say the transition from the crib is going well. Megan has been hit and miss with actually going to bed on her own so far. At least one nap time and one evening night time, she climbed into her bed all on her own for sleep. Other times we've put her in and she has climbed out. One night I fought with her for a good hour until she finally just collapsed in exhaustion and slept.

Although she stayed in the bed over night a few times, the last few nights she has either fallen out or climbed out. I've kept the baby monitor on over night so she isn't crying or anything, just falling out. But once I saw her like this... I realized we should probably do something about it.



So tonight I stopped off at Baby Depot and bought some bed rails. I think this should take care of the problem, although she might be weirded out by them at first.



The other big challenge we are facing is Megan's insistence on taking all her clothes AND diaper off. You take your eye off her for a minute and all of a sudden she will be running around naked. I'll go ahead and admit the worse part - when she then decides to go to the bathroom after getting naked. It's quite annoying. What advice we find online mentions tactics such as duct taping diapers and putting pajamas on backwards. Ohhh the joys of two year olds.

Bed and Bread

Bought a new bed and some bread this weekend! The bread was especially yummy, from the Harvest Bread Co. off 42. Had a coupon from a 2006 run for a free loaf that I never got around to using. Bought Megan a new bed, since she has figured out how to climb out of her crib! Not that we didn't see it coming, she might as well be a monkey with how much climbing she does. I was just surprised at how easily she can climb out without falling or hurting herself at all.



I realized I still haven't got around to posting Halloween pictures, so I'll just end my post with a bunch of pictures. Starting first with Megan and her awesome Snow White costume!



We did a little bit of Trick-or-Treating with Megan, but it was very cold and so we only did about 10 houses. Not that we didn't get enough candy... Ended up throwing most of it away, can't have that stuff in the house and not eat it!

The rest of these pictures are from my weekend in Boise. I thought I'd start with the best one first. This is "Ash" from the movie, Evil Dead and/or Army of Darkness, take your pick. It was an awesome costume that he built all by hand.



I made this guys night simply because I knew what his costume was. Could it be the 20 something generation is too young to know? Apparently no one realized he was "Brand", the older brother from the movie Goonies. Seemed pretty obvious! I heard they might be making another Goonies in the future?



Saw two Edward Scissor hands, but this one was the better costume in my opinion. The impressive part was holding a drink at the same time...



This was just a fancy costume I thought looked cool. Chesty as well...



I have more, but these were some of the better ones. Overall, there was a ton of good costumes that night. It had been a long time since I had "gone out" for a Halloween, so that just added to my enjoyment of that weekend.