Update on the Family

You know, Facebook sucked the life out of my regular blog postings. Anyway...

Annalise is now 4 years old. She had a zoo birthday party and a celebration at her school, which she will eagerly tell you about if asked. We also had cake at home on her birthday. She loves legos, barbies, little critters and other small playthings for creative imaginative play. She can be very talkative when her sister shuts-up and she is very whitty. She has a thousand different facial expressions and doesn't like to listen or follow directions when it's contrary to her personal goals. She loves helping Ryan cook. She is teeny tiny but with normal sized feet. It's only funny when you consider the fact that Madeline has the tiniest feet. She still wets her pants occassionally but seems to be getting better. She graduated up to having chores and is in charge of getting the dirty clothes washed, folded and put away. She also helps pack her own lunch.

Madeline is almost 8.5 years old. She had a sleepover party this year. There were a bunch of girls and they had a lot of fun. She is still extremely social and loves art and creative play. I am so happy that she is still a kid. She likes the pre-teen Disney shows like Wizards of Waverly Place but I can still find her watching princess movies and dressing up in princess dresses. She doesn't play Barbies as much as she used to, but will play with her sister, occassionally. She is very small and has tiny feet. She is a size 13. I think most of the kids in her class are a size 3-4. She wears slim 6/7 jeans and normal sized tops. She's just small, or maybe just normal and everyone else is big. Who knows. She takes hip hop class this year and is in no other organized activities. It's nice to be a little less busy. Madeline's chores include everything to do with the dishes. She sets and clears the table, loads and unloads the dishwasher and also vacuums.

I am still working for the County. I increased the size of my department by adding a professional planner to our group. We hope to add a civil engineer next year to be shared with the County Engineer's office. I travel a lot for fun both with the family and without. Because of travel I was not as good about keeping on top of my workouts but resolve to do better this year. I injured by knee and had surgery this year which prevented me from completing a marathon and triathlon but there's always next year.

Ryan is doing well with Leo A. Daly. He's been there over five years no and serves as operations director for about 60 people. He sits on their leadership council for the Omaha office, is the president of the Sarpy Area Arts Council, president of the College of Architecture Friends Association, was recognized in the Sarpy under 40, as well as the Midlands Business Journal 40 under 40, Father of the Year, Greatest Dad and so on and so forth...you get the idea. He's Mr. Perfect.

No plans for 2011, other than survival.

Wow, been a long time since I've posted a blog. I'm surprised I even remembered my login and password!

February

So this year's off to a running start. Marathon training is in full swing, I started triathlon training as well. I swim 4-5 time per week, am running about 35 miles per week. Madeline started the swim team, still takes dance and swimming lessons. Annie knows how to chill and doesn't do much of anything except tag along. Ryan got a new title at work: Senior Associate and became a member of the "Board of Director's", which is a super elite secret group. Ooops, let the cat out of the bag, didn't I? Anyway everything is going well!

My job is great. I have four new planning commissioners and all the fun of training a new board. I am very excited about the potential of this board. It is a very good cross section of the county and includes some very interesting and knowledgable people! I am honored to serve them. News on the County Board front is that our chairman will not run for a second term. Her opponent is a peer from the Chamber of Commerce. He may have a challenger which would make for an interesting race. It will be a very interesting year, to say the least! I love politics! At least, when they don't involve me.

January 2010

Since it's been a very, very long time since my last post...I will start my innaugural post of 2010 with new year's resolutions. I didn't actually make any, but I will think of some on the fly now.

2009 was a very interesting year. I hope that 2010 is also interesting, but perhaps in different ways. Such as the following:

1. Find better balance between my highest priorities; Ryan, Annalise/Madeline, exercise routine and career.
2. Spend more time building the evolving marriage relationship.
3. Strategize on how to impress the most important values onto the girls.
4. Finish critical home projects.

My personal goals include:

1. Run a marathon.
2. Finish a triathalon.

We hope to visit Europe soon, make a nostalgic trip out to Seattle and I would like to visit my best friend Mona in New York City for a solo (or with Ryan) vacation. So there you have it! 2010 in a nutshell.

I was able to close out 2009 by going through almost every item from my parents estate. I donated about 2000 cubic feet of items to the DAV and a vanload to the county department of community services. There is more to donate and that will hopefully be finished soon.

I started swimming class which meets weekly on Tuesday's. There I will learn all of the strokes and how to perfect my form so that I will be in top shape for the triathalon in June. :)

Demolition

I used to have a fireplace mantle and hearth. Now I have none. I still have a fireplace, though. I will post pictures soon.

Taylor Swift Concert

I will blog more about this tomorrow since it's late. Madeline and I were lucky to be able to purchase a couple of tickets to the concert tonight and attend with our friend John. He provided the opportunity to buy seats in a great location. We had a lot of fun. I have some pictures and videos to post.

Garden Update

I realized that it has been awhile since I updated on the garden. As many of you know we have a fairly extensive garden in an effort to reduce our carbon footprint.

Many of the crops did not get planted. I think I mentioned in a much earlier spring post that some things had not yet been done. They never got completed. Peas, beans, raddishes, lettuce, carrots or onions were never planted. A few things did get planted. Things that are doing well are fruits that are perennial. We had approximately well over 100 peaches. We had a variety of peach issues this year. There was some peach curl, a bug crawled over the peaches and gave them sticky spots and caused some malformation, worms got about 60% of the peaches and several were eaten or partially eaten by birds. We harvested all but one of the peaches. Several were eaten and I all found was a peach pit at the base of the tree. I'd say maybe 20 peaches were lost in that way. Even still we were able to harvest and keep a significant amount of peaches. We had about 40 that did not have any worms. Those were eaten whole. The rest are going to be canned. At least they are supposed to be canned, if Ryan does it.

The blackberries, grapes, tomatoes and peppers are ready. Raspberries are almost ripe (and there are many, which need to be covered to avoid loss from birds). The brussel sprouts are doing well and look to provide a decent crop. I almost forgot about the squash and cucumbers. Those are being picked now too. Pumpkin and butternut squash are growing now. I can't tell how many there are of each because of the way that Ryan planted them this year. They're in a cluster right now. When the growing season is over, we'll harvest them.

There are several pears on the pear trees. this is the first year fruiting. I don't know if they will ripen enough to eat. Only time will tell.