All Caught Up!

We have a lot to catch up on! It's already the first week of school, so before I get too busy with classes and work I thought I'd get a post up. In the last month we've been to Florida twice and also to Baton Rouge for Christmas. Thanks to the friendly folks at Allegiant Air, flights to Orlando's Sanford airport that cost $9.99 each way were available. Luckily, we heard about this promotion right when it went live, so we were able to snag this deal a couple of times. I had to visit our plants in Orlando and Merritt Island about a month ago, so Susie and Cade came along for fun. It was a good way for Susie to depressurize after a trying semester. We stayed on Cocoa Beach, and the sun didn't come out at all. No big deal, Susie and Cade spent a lot of time relaxing. And despite the weather we were able to spend a little time on the beach as a family. It wasn't particularly cold, just cloudy and rainy.

Cade loved the beach. We took him to Cocoa Beach back in May, but I don't think it sunk it as much as this time. He was all about playing in the sand and wading into the water. Big smiles all around.

And yeah, he loved the sand so much he just had to get a mouthful to see what it tasted like.
The sand must have tasted good, because the next time we went in the water he decided to give that a go. Not my idea of thirst quenching, but I'm sure it's a little different when you have fresh eyes to see the world.

On to Christmas! Before we talk about our Christmas, I just wanted to thank all of you that sent in or brought donations of money or toys way back when we had Cade's first birthday. Because of your generosity we were able to put together a very large number of boxes for Operation Christmas Child. Cade helped us pack some of them, and it was truly a blessing for us to be able to be used in that capacity. I got an email from Samaritan's Purse telling me where the boxes went. Your gifts helped children in Ghana and the Baltic nations in western Europe experience a better Christmas. So thank you all very much. You know who you are.

We opened some gifts at home before we left for Baton Rouge. Cade definitely got into the unwrapping part way more than he ever has before.

One of the coolest gifts Cade received (in my humble opinion) was either the crazy ball game from Uncle Dustin or these superfly funky monkey slippers. Cade, of course, has other favorites, but I like these the best. Tell me you've seen better slippers anywhere on anyone. I don't think it's possible.

Cade got a kick out of this puppet from Uncle Paul and Aunt Amy. It's the craziest looking thing you've ever seen. He calls it his "bear." I don't feel comfortable correcting him because I have no clue as to what to tell him it is. So "bear" it shall remain.

On to Baton Rouge. We chose to drive to Baton Rouge for Christmas instead of fly. It's about 11.5 hours, and we stayed in a hotel (thanks to many Hilton Honors points as a result of many nights on the road) just south of Memphis on the way there and back. That ended up being a good strategy. Not sure if Cade could've taken much more than what we asked him to. This was especially true because he was sick pretty much the entire trip. It was a bummer for a lot of Susie's family that don't get to see him much to see him in poor health like that. That first night in the hotel he showed us his dinner and repeated that routine almost every day of the trip. Many thanks to VeeVee for helping us out big time with pukey laundry. When we got back home we took him to the doctor and found out he also had a couple ear infections. As a result of having a sick kid we spent a decent amount of the trip in self-imposed sequestered hibernation.

Despite the illness, we did end up having a great time. We were able to spend time with family that we don't get to see enough. I was able to play with Susie's cousin Conner (also here) at his church that Sunday morning. And as you can see in the picture, Cade spent some of his recovery time honing his stacking skills.

Here's the traditional Christmas Day picture. Poor little guy. Unhappy.

The woman in the middle is Susie's Grandmother. Susie lived with her when she was getting her masters at LSU. This is when I met and started dating Susie. Her Grandmother has cooked countless delicious meals for me and others and is one of the most hospitable people I know. She always has an open door and a full plate of food ready. She hosts family every year, and we are all blessed to be a part of her family. Here she is with all her guys. What a great legacy.

Even though I'm a little partial to the funky monkey slippers, mostly because my funky monkey was a toy from my childhood, Cade also got these way cool Rudolph slippers from Susie's Grandmother. His little footsies will not be cold this winter. In fact, they'll stay warm in style.

Just last week we were able to head down to Florida again. This time we stayed in Orlando near all the theme parks. We didn't venture into any of them because we figured Cade is too young to really fully appreciate how much it sucks to stand in line for hours. We got a hotel deal that kind of fell into our laps. For our incredibly cheap suite, we were required to attend a two-hour tour of one of Hilton's Grand Vacations Club resorts there in Orlando. Having made up our mind beforehand that we were not interested in a timeshare-type contract, we sat through the schmoozing and went back to vacationing on the cheap. Those two hours could fill an entire other post, but I wouldn't do that to you.

We did, however, get to see Susie's brother Dustin at the restaurant/bar some of his fraternity brothers opened. If you're in downtown Orlando, make sure to swing by the Downtown Pourhouse. Very nice. (He told us it was "babies' night," but I don't think Cade got any free bottles, at least that I noticed.)

Our hotel had a racing game and Cade fell in love. And yes we're keeping our ears covered because it was in the 30s and 40s outside for our trip. We must bring crappy weather with us to Florida. Sorry to all you Sunshine Staters. But 30s and 40s was 30-40 degrees warmer than it was back in Owensboro, so we weren't complaining too loudly.

We had to get a picture near the luxurious pool. We even went for a quick swim (very quick).

Since the weather was chilly, we settled for the hotel's sand volleyball court so Cade could get his fix.

Cade received a "Build-A-Bear" gift card for Christmas, so we took advantage of being near one and built a frog. Added bonus: he got his gift card from a cute little lass named Olivia and she was able to come as well to build her own bear. When you build your bear (or frog), you get a birth certificate, so you have to come up with a name. We chose the cleverly inventive name of "Frog."

Here are Cade and Olivia hugging. Olivia's mom, Wendy, is a life-long friend of Susie. Wendy was the maid of honor at our wedding. Cade and Olivia are just four or five weeks apart in age, so it's been great for Susie and Wendy to do the whole "chillen bearin'" thing together. No word on whether they've planned their kids' entire wedding reception yet. I think they're still deciding on a caterer. :)

We went out to see the manatees at Apollo Beach.

Wendy's sister Amy has a 2-year-old daughter. The three kiddos had a blast playing together.

Next Rock Band champion? Possibly.

Wow, that was a long one. But now we're all caught up. Cade's feeling great and Susie and I are getting back in the swing of things at school. Thanks for stopping by. See you next time.

I love to count!

I don't have clue about whether this is incredibly great for being 18 months old, if it's incredibly behind, or somewhere in the foggy middle. Truth is, I really don't care because I'm pretty proud of Cade for being able to count to eight. We only got him counting to six on video because the camera ran out of memory space (I hadn't uploaded the Christmas pictures to the laptop yet so we only had a couple of takes to get this).

Sorry for the awkward camera angle, but this IS a family friendly blog. :)

Merry Christmas 2009

Here is a look back on 2009 for us. It was a year of a lot of firsts: first crawls, pulling up, walking, running, birthday, etc. We hope you and yours had as good and blessed year as we did. We hope you enjoy your holiday season. Merry Christmas!

Late Thanksgiving Post

I know what I'm thankful for right now: being done with school! I finished up my semester last week and am also enjoying some days off from work. With the craziness of the end of the semester I really slacked off on posting the pictures from our trip to Alabama for Thanksgiving. It was a great weekend of relaxing and enjoying family time around an outstanding (as always) meal.

Cade decided he liked his cereal so much he wanted to wear the box as a hat.

Susie was able to reconnect with a friend from childhood, Brandi, and the rest of her family as they were passing through the area on their way from Michigan to Florida.

I was pretty impressed when I found out they had just driven about 12 hours with four kiddos under the age of six (the youngest two are nine-month-old twins). These four kids were very well mannered, but no matter how good all the kids were, it was pretty tough to get them all to sit still for a group picture. We have multiple shots of kids in various positions and degrees of escape, but this one turned out pretty well all things considered.

Cade in the tupperware palace with the light-up tambourine. Very suave.

VeeVee and Cade outside on the swing. The weather was great over the weekend.

Now that's a handsome family!

Since the semester's finish, I've been able to spend a lot more time with Cade, especially over the last couple days as Susie finishes up her grading and schoolwork. He continues to become more and more of a rough and tumble playmate. He's always throwing something, or running somewhere, or banging one toy with another (if we're lucky he's not banging something breakable around the house). He loves to climb. Just this afternoon I turned away for what seemed like two seconds and when I turned back he was up on a folding chair leaning way over onto a card table. Last night we lost track of him very briefly and the next thing we knew he was almost two flights up the stairs. No fear. He loves being thrown around and hanging and swinging upside-down; we know when he's up for that because he'll come up to us and says "Bat Baby."

Cade's language skills continue to grow and grow as well. It's a lot of fun to actually talk back and forth with him now. In some ways it's almost a little frustrating for all of us at times. Because we can understand so much of what he's saying it can become difficult when he repeats something over and over and we just can't figure out what he's trying to say. I think it's more frustrating now because we used to be able to just pass his talking off as baby talk and not really have to try and decipher it and now we sometimes can't tell if it's just baby ramblings or if there are words in there that we should be picking up. But overall he's getting better at enunciating words and we're getting better at understanding his "dialect" and helping him speak better.

I'm not sure how early is too early to start looking for his two-year molars, but Cade has been early with all his teeth and he's showing signs of teething again. He's not even 18 months old yet, so I'd be surprised if he's getting more, but he's had all his teeth including the first molars for a while now, so I don't know. He's been drooling like a shaken up soda can, he's pulling at his teeth a lot, his nose is running big time, he's got a congestion cough, he's not sleeping well, he doesn't want to eat much, opting instead for lots and lots of milk, and he's working on some pesky diaper rash. These are all things he dealt with when teething with his last molars, so it would appear that he's got some new ones on the way, but if so it's extremely early. We'll see; I got my wisdom teeth all the way in at 14, so maybe it's hereditary.

Other than the teething(?) thing, we really do have a lot to be thankful for, and it's hard to find reasons to complain. We are blessed with a healthy and vibrant son, and he continually finds ways to keep us entertained and on our toes. Thanks for checking in, and we hope the Chrismas season finds you as greatful and thankful as we feel.

Buying time....

We hope your Thanksgiving was as great and relaxing as ours was. We definitely have a lot to be thankful for. I don't think blogger would allow me enough space to list it all. God is good. I have a number of pictures from our Thanksgiving weekend in Alabama, but........I'm in Bloomington this week with Susie and Cade and the camera transfer cord is in Owensboro. The picture above was one of many taken by our friend Meagan. So I haven't been a total slacker lately. Ok, I have, but I have a good excuse. So here's my peace offering in the meantime: a completely dark video of Cade. Let me explain.

Tonight Susie, Cade, and I went out to eat with a couple of Susie's classmates. We went to a Tibetan restaurant, and it was outstanding. On the way there we drove around the square in downtown Bloomington. Bloomington is like a lot of towns in Kentucky and Indiana (and elsewhere, I'm sure), where the downtown area is built around a square with a government building like a courthouse in the middle. The square in Bloomington is full of all kinds of restaurants and stores and coffee shops. It's a lot of fun to walk around. And every Christmas they decorate the trees with lights and string lights from the buildings around the square to the courthouse in the middle.

Let me take a minute to tell you that Cade LOVES Christmas lights. Over the last week or so he's taken every opportunity to point out the Christmas lights when we've been out and about. It comes out like "pee-tee-dites." It didn't always sound like this. For a while it was just three unintelligible syllables that were shrieked at an excitable pitch. The syllables were constantly changing, but the excitement and finger pointing pretty much told the story. In the last couple days the excitable pitch has settled down (unless he sees an impressive display) and he's settled in on "pee-tee-dites." Close enough.

Quick aside: because it's now dark when we pick him up from the babysitter he's also been pointing out the moon and stars on the way home too. If you get a chance, ask him to say "moon." I don't know if "n" is a tough letter or not, but it comes out "moot" with heavy emphasis on the "t." Hilarious. It's so hard not to laugh at him because it's so stinkin' cute the way he says it. Each time I tell him, "That's right Cade, that's the moon," with heavy emphasis on the "n." I'm sure he'll catch on soon.

He's also getting pretty good at identifying buses and trucks, which he does in this video. Sorry there's no light, you'll just have to imagine how cute he is. I posted a picture at the start of this post in case you forgot what he looks like. We think he looks model-rific in this picture; does that make us conceited parents? I hope not. I kinda figure it makes us like about 99% of parents out there. Who doesn't think their baby is the cutest? :) Thanks for stopping by.

Halloween and fall fun

On Halloween Cade was a pumpkin for the second year in a row. We were fortunate that the costume my mom got him last year was good up through 24 months. He wasn't real keen on the hat, but he wore it long enough for us to go trick-or-treating at our friend Carla's house and long enough to get a couple of pictures.
Later that night we went out to a party on a farm across the river in Indiana. My friend Chris, who I used to work with in Rockport, invited us to a large family party complete with turtle soup and a real headless horseman. It was a great time. Cade wasn't the least bit spooked by the headless horseman; in fact, he loved getting to pet the horse on the nose.
This last weekend we had some beautiful weather in the 60s and 70s. We spent a lot of Saturday afternoon doing stuff out in the yard. A while back Chris also gave us a tricycle they had laying around. It's in great shape and we've been waiting for a chance to break it out. Cade's feet don't quite reach the pedals enough to pedal yet, but he definitely likes to be pushed around on it.
I think this shirt is another one that I wore as a little kid. Looks pretty good on Cade! I raked some leaves into a pile and he liked playing in the leaves with Chili.
While we were outside I took the opportunity with the great weather to wash and clean both of our automobiles. I was in the garage vacuuming out the truck and Cade came walking in and wanted to help. He did a very good job on the floor mats.

Saturday morning we had some family photos taken out at a park by a good friend Meagan. We look forward to sharing some of those photos with you all when we get them back. She's a very talented photographer, so we can't wait to see them. Thanks for stopping by! See you next time.

What I've learned from running

Here's part two of tonight's double feature:

Susie and I take a good hard look at our family budget at the end of each year as we look toward how we can best use our resources during the following year. At the start of 2009 we decided to quit our health club for a few reasons: we anticipated being out of town more in 2009 which rendered our membership useless, the club had gone severely downhill in maintenance and cleanliness, Cade presented the need for childcare if we were going to work out together, and we figured we could save a little money.

Without a designated place to exercise, I began to run. I have never liked running, but I figured it would be the easiest way to burn calories. Running is free, and I can run wherever I travel and in all seasons. Also, my health seems to go downhill easily when I carry a few extra pounds around. My nose was broken when I was in 6th grade (another story for another day) and I seem to be susceptible to upper respiratory problems if I’m not careful. But most importantly, I was feeling the need to set a good example for Cade in fitness and health. It’s amazing to see how much of our actions and words he’s already picking up on. My dad has been a picture of consistency in exercise for me, and I want to be that same picture for Cade.

Despite my loathing to run, I had found it to be the best way for me to lose unwanted pounds and stay in shape. The runs were purposely kept short at the outset, partially because it was still cold outside, and partially because we had started to train for a half marathon when we lived in Houston and my knees started breaking down due to overtraining. By very slowly ramping up my miles each week I could hopefully avoid injury.

Near the end of March I was sort of getting into a routine so I set my first goal. I was at 235 pounds and I wanted to get down to 210 by the time Cade turned one at the end of June. I don’t know why I picked 210, but I needed a hard number in front of me instead of a nebulous goal. To reach this goal I estimated that I needed to run at least 2 out of every 3 days. I made a spreadsheet to track my progress and Susie made fun of me because I’m a big dork.

I made my goal of 210 a couple weeks before Cade’s birthday and I found another goal. I let my buddy Jared talk me into doing a half marathon in October. Now I had a training schedule and a much bigger goal than merely weight. As I ran throughout the summer, something funny happened: I started leaving my iPod at home and started really enjoying my runs. If I missed a day I started missing it. As soon as my last run was done I’d start mentally preparing for the next one, especially if it was going to be a long one. As I mentioned in a previous post, the half marathon was a big success for me and so I wanted to write a post about what I learned while training for and competing in this race. Here we go:

· You can do a lot more than you initially think you can. I figured I could train up to running 13.1 miles, but it really was a daunting prospect. If my schedule called for a distance that I’d not previously run I’d have to mentally prepare to run it. So the first time I ran 8 miles, and then 9 miles, and so on was kind of intimidating because it was a step into the unknown. I ran 13 miles a few weeks before the race just so I had a mental edge of having done it before the race. But this goes far past running. It really applies to any aspect of life. We didn’t realize how little sleep we could actually function on until we were pressed to do it when Cade couldn’t go more than an hour or two without eating at the beginning. I didn’t realize how incredibly full of grace and love Susie was until I watched her interact with our son. Pushing boundaries is essential to becoming a better person.

· The things you appreciate the most don’t come overnight. 2009 has provided me with two opportunities to practice patience towards a goal. The first was losing weight and preparing for the race. I mentally had to expect to lose the weight over a period of time, not overnight. This long-term approach allowed me to trust my training and my eating habits and when it was all said and done I exceeded my goal. As I lost weight and gained conditioning, my pacing got incrementally faster, which encouraged me to stick with it even more. When your goals reference a point in the future you don’t get distraught over small temporary setbacks and you don’t get impatient with slower progress as long as it’s steady and marked. Secondly, I’d never read straight through the Bible. So Susie and I have been part of a Facebook group designed to get us through the Bible in a year. The Bible is a large book, but staying on pace with the group has kept us on track, and I believe we’ve become closer as a couple as we spend time in spiritual discussions that challenge our minds regarding what we’ve read. I’m not going read the Bible in one sitting, and I’m not going to lose 25 pounds overnight, but slow and steady progress makes the end result worthwhile, which brings me to my next point, which is:

· The end is not necessarily the end. I’ve referenced Don Miller in this blog before, and something he said in his talk a few weeks back has been working around in my mind. In his talk and his latest book, he uses the analogy of story for how to live fulfilling, meaningful lives. Every important aspect of story, such as a protagonist that desires something, conflict, and sacrifice all play a part in a compelling story. We would be wise to consider these elements and how they are involved in our lives. But there is one element of story that we are not meant to experience in this life, and that is the climax and the big finish. Companies sell us goods under the proposition that their good will lead to a fulfilled life. But what good ever has? Even Christian spiritualism has become consumer-centric, promising in many cases that Jesus will solve all your problems. This is not Biblical, but it’s preached ad nauseum. I don’t know anyone, Christian or not, that has reached the point in their lives where all conflict is gone. Even Paul in Romans 8 talks about how creation groans as in the pains of childbirth and how we eagerly await a future glory with hope despite our current sufferings. Not exactly a pitch you can use on a late night infomercial. This point was brought to mind as I watched "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" yesterday. I’d never seen the show before, but we watched because it was the episode that was filmed in Owensboro back in September. Throughout the show I kept hearing lines like “Our troubles are over,” “We don’t have to worry about anything now,” and “This new house will fix our problems.” The show was sweet and sappy, but unlike a fictional movie where the credits roll and all is happily ever after, when the credits rolled on this show the dad in the family still had health issues and treatments and still couldn’t work. The mom still had to be the breadwinner and care for her husband. Not even a new house and car in place of their trailer and clunker could completely fix and fulfill their lives. Not to sound like a downer, but this is the world we live in. That’s why, in order to continue to live fulfilling lives we have to continually push ourselves with loftier and loftier goals and never rest on what we’ve accomplished. I’ll have to admit when I first signed up for the half I had these lofty visions of ripped abs and laurels and glory as I crossed the finish line. I still have love handles. I can still get faster. There were nearly 400 people that finished ahead of me (and this was a small race compared to other half marathons). After the high of finishing with a good time wore off I was mentally searching for the next thing, because there is never fulfillment (read Ecclesiastes for extra food for thought). So as I type I’m currently pondering my next race in order to push myself again and train to beat my time. And now we’ll head back to less of a philosophical realm:

· When you run you automatically have millions, and probably billions of partners out there. The camaraderie is great. I like waving to other runners as we pass on the street or trail. I like to see other runners running when I’m driving around doing errands. It makes me want to run. There have been a few times where my path will allow me to run for a few blocks or more with a complete stranger, but we always seem to have a good time talking until our paths separate. While training I often did my long weekend runs with Jared, Jason, and Robert. One time I ran with Susie. Last weekend I ran with my uncle. Sometimes my pace is pushed, sometimes it lags more than normal, but it doesn’t matter, because it’s time to spend together and talk and experience the run together.

· Running provides good views. A city looks completely different running than it does when you drive through it. The slower pace allows you to soak in the surroundings more. I like this, especially when traveling. One place in particular I recall was when I was up at Purdue University doing some recruiting for my company. I parked at a park in Lafayette and ran down to the river and across into West Lafayette. My run took me up into campus and I ran around for a while before heading back. I noticed houses and buildings and people that I’d have never appreciated if I had just driven over to campus the next day for the interviews. It even let me scout out some interesting looking places to eat.

· The right equipment makes all the difference. I used to make fun of people who wore running clothes when they ran. Then Susie got me a couple running shirts and some running shorts. Man, did I feel light as a feather. Then my parents took me to a running store to be custom fit for some shoes based on my foot and gait. I bet the right equipment shaved 10 seconds off my mile pace right there. Susie also got me a GPS watch for my birthday that allows me to regulate my pace and train more effectively. The right equipment makes all the difference.

· People are generally very polite. I’ve noticed this as I’ve run along streets and encountered cars. Despite running somewhere between 600 and 700 miles this year (most of them on roads/sidewalks), I can only think of one time where I feel like a driver intentionally cut me off. For the most part people are very eager to yield to a runner. It’s made me more conscious of runners when I am driving.

· You can generally tell whether the people in each house use the sidewalks or not. If the trees and limbs obstruct the sidewalk, there’s a good chance the people in the house don’t take walks or they’d realize how bad it is. On the other hand, you can tell when people do utilize the sidewalks because the sidewalks in front of their houses are well trimmed.

· You can’t judge a runner by what he or she looks like. This is probably a “duh” point, but as people we spend so much time sizing others up based on their appearance. There have been plenty of times I’ve been smoked by someone at a race that initially looked too short or too fat or too unathletic. You’d be amazed at how goofy some people look while they’re passing me. This is like that whole idiom about a book and something about its cover, but it’s true.

So that’s probably more than you were interested in, and major kudos for still reading. I figured I could sneak this in if it came as a double feature. Thanks for continuing to frequent this inconsistent blog about my son.