The most terrifying sound

The pitter-patter of little feet on the hardwood floor at seven in the morning when I don't need to go to work until noon. Some day I'm sure that I'm going to miss those footsteps, but right now I just want to sleep.

Zach gets a major kick out of bouncing on his mattress. He holds onto the railings and just goes crazy. He laughs and bounces like a madman. It would be even funner if he would wait until the sun rose before waking up the house with his jumping.

Sometimes, Olivia will wake up in the middle of the night and decide that she wants to sit on my head. At least that is what she does. I don't feel her climb up the sheets or crawl on the bed. She is very strong and a good climber. What wakes me up is the weight of a 2T butt squishing my head to the pillow.

Looking OK for the Twins

1.5 games out right now. Games against the Royals and White Sox to finish off the regular season. Hopefully can catch the Tigers so we don't have to play the Yankees first round. Tigers play the Royals and Blue Jays the remainder so it will be tough.

Olivia picks up phrases at daycare and uses them out of the blue (and sometimes correctly). This morning she wanted to watch Dora and Elena had the remote. Olivia asked and was waiting patiently. Elena was finishing something up and was reaching for the remote when Olivia piped up, "It's OK. I don't want to rush you."

Zach has been getting good with saying, "Thank you." It comes out, "Gah-Gah." But he uses it appropriately. He is much better at climbing up and down stairs. He also likes to play shy with us. He'll face us straight on then slowly turn his head to the side but keep his eyes fixed on us. Then he faces up and does it again.

Sunday School

Olivia has been going to Sunday school. She enjoys it but Elena has been having to stay with her or she gets very upset. Zach gets dropped off at the nursery and forgets about us. There are just too many toys to play with.

Today we went to church and got there at our usual time. Late. Nobody's fault it just takes us a long time. I dropped Elena and Olivia off at the door and Zach and I rushed to park. He went to the nursery and I went back to sit with the congregation. The pastor was doing his opening remarks and I waited to go in so as not to disturb. He finished and everybody stood to sing and I tried to sneak in. The usher welcomed me and gave me a pamphlet. I was feeling bad for being late and awkward about being alone. I haven't done anything social alone in I don't know how long. I saw Pastor Wahl walking around and he greeted one of the ushers and said a quick word. I was wandering around the back pathetically looking around for a seat, the place was fairly packed and he came up and patted me on the shoulder and said, "Glad that you are here." I turned and he was already off doing his other duties. In a million years, he wouldn't know my name but he took the time to greet my late, lost self. I'm sure he does that all the time and is only second nature to him but it meant something to me today.

I did eventually find a seat in my favorite part of the church. It is next to the choirs, brass section, hand bells and toddlers.

The Vikings lost today. Not so good.

Hawkeyes won yesterday. Very good. #1 Ohio State next week. Gotta be up for that one.

Went to Decorah yesterday too. Saw the McCoy's for a bit. We went to Luke and Adam's birthday party. It was a good time. We played some cards and socialized.

Past few days

I had a short day at work and the kids were at daycare so Elena and I went to the library and out to lunch. I picked up a couple of Monty Python tapes and was content. She got some books and off we went.

We drove by Salad Brothers but they were still closed for remodeling. So we went to the one in the Gallaria. We had baked potatoes with cheese and bacon, cup of soup and the bread rolls. Somebody set off the fire alarm so through half the meal we listened to the sirens.

Becky and Kyle came over to visit a few days ago. We didn't do a whole lot, just sat around and visited.

Vikings win their opener

Really good win for Minnesota tonight. Longwell hits a field goal with a minute to go and the Redskins couldn't answer. Off to a good start in the Wilf/Childress era.

How about Johan Santana? Twins not just looking for the wild card, we're after the Tigers and the division. This year they started out not able to score a run and now they're winning all sorts of ways. Awesome pitching and scoring a good amount of runs. Radke and Liriano are on the DL so when they come back, hopefully they can get the rotation all set to get a good playoff run.

Cardinals aren't looking so good. They'll make the playoffs but don't look like they're going to do much. The whole NL is looking stinky except for the Mets. And they aren't anything special. Oh well.

Zach: 1 Supper: 0

Hard to beat spaghetti for supper. But it can be done.



Olivia stuck in a clothesline hole

Iowa played Syracuse today. Drew Tate, the Iowa QB, was hurt and didn't play and it showed on the offense. His replacement threw 4 interceptions. Ouch. Good thing the defense played so well. Held them to 10 points threw four quarters and repetedly stuffed them in the second OT at the goal line. It was an awesome stand. They had I think 7 playes from inside the two, due to pass interference calls, that they ran up the middle that were stuffed. Iowa won by seven against a team that hadn't won a game last year. Next week against Iowa State they've gotta step it up. Ohio State is just around the corner.

We went to our first Sunday School for Olivia today. It was an orientation meeting. She did very well considering. The test is tomorrow when it is the first official day.

After that we went to the farmer's market. Man, it was hustle bustle. There were probably 60 or so vendors and full parking lots. People were everywhere. We bought a chocolate chip-banana muffin, two yellow watermelons and a loaf of honey-wheat bread.

Fix up stuff

The kids and I have been busy fixing things around the house. I have come to accept that when I start a project with the kids that it will take much longer than expected, not turn out as well as hoped and that I will lose parts.

We put up an outdoor clothes hanger yesterday. I started it a while ago with the holes but it started to rain so that put us off a few days. Olivia and I had a great time mixing the concrete. She decided that it needed a lot of water in the 24 hour mix. I'm hoping that the concrete will be set sometime next week. I asked her to hold the posts straight while I poured the mix in the hole. She promptly started shaking it all around.

The refrigerator's ice maker line was leaking and I set up trying to figure out what to do. I unscrewed a back panel and made the mistake of setting the screws down. Zach casually walks over and takes them to parts unknown. I did manage to get them back when done though.

We have been watching on DVD the HBO series called "Six Feet Under." It is about a family who operates a funeral parlor. I didn't think I'd like it but it has really grown on me. They tackle issues in ways that the networks just can't/won't do. It is a series where nothing can go quite right for these poor people. Something good happens then something equally bad comes. There are many odd relationships including the teenage daughter dating a guy on the run from the police for drugs and robbery and how she deals with how she likes this guy even though he does some stupid things. Another is one of the owners seems to find a great girl for the first time in his life and he has passed the mortician test but he finds out he has serious brain problems. The other owner is very professional and proper but has at times a wild gay streak in him. The mother is trying to figure out her life after her husband recently died and her new relationships with her boss, a Russian florist and, I guess, a former hippie in Ed Bagley, Jr.

Talladega Nights

The kids were at daycare and I was able to come home from work early. Elena and I decided to enjoy the afternoon with late lunch and a movie. She said that we could go to Salad Brothers, just about the best place to eat lunch on the planet. I was all geared up for the baked potato, cottage cheese and salsa lunch with a cup of beer cheese soup, fountain pop and fresh bread rolls.

unfortunately when we got there, there was a sign saying that they were remodeling and would be open after labor day. We went to a nice cafe next door and had a couple of bacon cheese burgers. They were good too.

We went to Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby at Cinemagic. I really liked it. It was funny just about the whole way through the movie. It was a great time. I don't think that I would have liked it as much if I had been going on more sleep.

I watched Batman Begins earlier this week on TV. It was way better than I thought it would be. I went in thinking that it would be like the George Clooney one that was just awful. But it really surprised me. Hopefully they will continue with Christian Bale as the Dark Knight.

water colors

Elena and Olivia have been having great times painting pictures with their water color set. They put newspaper all over the kitchen table and paint away. Olivia has come up with some very interesting abstracts.

I'm taking a much needed break after work enjoying some time in front of the computer playing games. I think this sets off an alarm in certain peoples heads telling them that I am enjoying "me-time" and should be promptly interrupted. I get into the game and klaxons start going off in my daughters head.

*BREEPPPP* *BREEPPPP*

"Daddy come paint too?"

"Daddy, you paint here."

When I think of things I want to do on an evening off, painting watercolors is so far down the list I wouldn't have even thought of doing it. I sigh and close out my game and go to the table. Elena sets me up with a paper and a brush and we get to painting.

I channel Bob Ross and go for an outdoors scene. I had mountains, happy pine trees, bushes and a nice trail through the woods. I was really surprised on how relaxing that is. I have to be creative all the time at work trying to figure out peoples plumbing problems but I can really tell that this is flexing brain muscles that I don't use very often.

Olivia paints a really nice picture of what looks like what a three year old would do if they had 10 water colors and a brush. She has loads of fun painting. She could paint for hours I bet. It just has to be done after Zach is asleep so it is a limited activity.