The 4th of July

Personally I like fireworks, the science behind them is fascinating.  What people can invent with various metals, chemicals, etc... I just find that interesting.  That being said, I do not love the several days of amateur fireworks and firecrackers that usually accompany the 4th.  Leave it to the pros people, is it worth losing a finger or setting your neighbors house on fire to see a small explosion of sparks just a few feet above.  Oh yeah, don't forget the stick and hot tube of gun powder that comes hurtling back down to earth.
Anyway, it is always a nice weekend with the family and also a great time to take pictures.  So enjoy another long slide show of Oz and his amazing family and friends.

TWO YEARS AGO!

A little guy came in to our lives. We called him Oscar Robert after our grandparents. He didn't do much. He just kind of laid there, ate, pooped and burped. He cried quite a bit. We could tell he was going to be one of those overly dramatic kids. He was stubborn, eating only on his terms. But he is the the cutest little version of Jen and I in the world and we can't imagine a day without him. Everything is so much more interesting with him around. He now walks and talks and even dances a little jig for us.  He loves Yo Gabba Gabba, Glee and the Kooks.  He will eat beats like they are candy but won't eat mac and cheese.  He asks a million questions and tries to take apart everything to see how it works.  He has a head of hair that I am jealous of and a huge gap between his two front teeth.  We absolutely adore the little fella and I am genuinely amazed by him every day.
Happy Birthday Oscar and thanks!!!!

More Easter Pics

There were a few other pics from Easter that were too epic to be left out. One, for example, would be the once though extinct Tony Keyler smile. I assure you all I have seen it with my own eyes.

So now I will attempt to create a slide show without outside assistance. Wish me luck!

So the slideshow was a fail. However, I uploaded the pics and wrote this riveting piece before the beast awoke. All in all job well done!

Oz in purple and green

We took Easter as an opportunity to dress the little fella up and parade him around.  I have included some wonderful pics of Oz in full Easter duds, and you guessed it, slideshow time!! I even added some pics of the rest of the family, because I felt a little balance was needed.

Disturbing.

No pictures this time. Not even about the kid this time. I was in Hagerstown today visiting a customer. As I was white knuckled the entire drive due to nasty weather I was pretty tense. I exited the Hagerstown ramp and headed towards my destination. I have traveled this way many times, country road, farms, nice country homes. There is this one road I turn on to get to my customer, I like the turn, it's nice. There is a tall fence surrounding several larger, older homes that are very inviting. There are mature trees around the homes and pools, tire swings, tree houses, everything you would want in a nice country home. Back to the fence, it is about 6 feet tall with thin steel rods for the fencing. They come to a very sharp point at the top. I normally don't even notice them. This time I couldn't help but notice them. As I made my turn I had to slam on my brakes. Snow covered country road, right angle turn, not a smart thing to do. I slid, just a few feet though. I quickly got out my phone to take a picture. On the fence, impaled, was a deer. It had tried to jump the fence, almost made it over. I think it made it about to that soft belly portion on the underside, actually, it was pretty obvious how far it made it over. I took the picture out of grim fascination at first and to further document some of the odd things I see on the road. A few seconds later I realized how horrible an image it was. There was no way I was going to post the picture and I could not believe I had taken it. The fence was pretty mangled, the deer did not go gently in to the night. I am guessing that the struggles of the deer to free itself only hastened it's death. The snow had already covered any blood that might have been on the ground. There had to have been a lot. I just had to write about this, it is just one of the worse things I have seen on the road.

Less than 3 months! HA!

Yes! Less than 3 months between posts! Of course, I really just wanted to put up some pictures of Oz and Jen when we visited a local orchard. Oz picked out a couple pumpkins and loved that he could walk practically anywhere.

Halloween, well, we didn't exactly buy him a costume. Jen had a great idea and put his Superman shirt on underneath a collared shirt. We tried to get him to wear the glasses but he was not a big fan. So he went as Clark Kent. We went over to my parents where he received a giant coloring book and some crayons. I ate all of his candy. Later on, Kath, Stan, Mel and Tony came over to hang out and Oz loved that. We didn't go trick or treating, Oz was just getting over a nasty ear infection and lord knows what else, so we stayed in and enjoyed the costumes. Oz had his biggest treat when someone dressed a Brobee came to the door. Oz was so excited the little kid didn't know what to do. But all Oz saw was a superstar and he wanted to hug him. What can I say, he loves Yo Gabba Gabba. Especially the Jack Black episode, he is mesmerized by the bearded man.

Oz is better now and he is doing great. He is walking like crazy, saying things we don't understand and adorable. I can't imagine what I would do without Oz and Jen. I am pretty sure it would be pretty boring.

Obligatory slide show of the kiddo!!!

What, it has only been 3 months!

So we haven't posted anything in three months. What can I say, I'm lazy. Actually my hands were removed in a remarkable experimental surgery and placed on a goat, the goats front hooves were then placed where my hands used to be. This has made it very difficult to blog as the keyboards just aren't built for a goat handed man and the goat with the man hands just doesn't take dictation very well. Needless to say, the experiment has been a failure and my dreams of becoming a hybrid goat man are shattered. But enough about me, how about the rest of the family?Jen is wonderful. The most beautiful and caring women a man could hope for and we just celebrated three amazing, and active, years. We celebrated by taking the day off, dropping the kiddo off for his half day at school, daycare, whatever you want to call it. We went to Ichiban, our favorite sushi restaurant, and enjoyed some very good food. Our friends, Correy and Laura may have given us a bottle of champagne for our anniversary, and we may have polished that off already. It was a nice day, I turned my phone off and truly stepped away from work. Which I need to do more often, to not only give my wife a break from a very trying kid, but to give us a little time as a family. Weekends seem so packed and short and it seems that you rarely have time to just hang out.

Speaking of, Jen and I also took a little trip to Vegas. Not that we are big gamblers, but it was inexpensive and we know the place. The trip was nice, though I would not recommend the Luxor, the beds were akin to sleeping on a bed of nails, as most of the springs were pushing up through the mattress. They probably do this to keep people down in the casino. Our flight there was great. We sat in the back of the Southwest flight and a very nice guy gave us all of his vouchers for free drinks.

We gladly took advantage of this as Jen is not fond of flying and every little bit helps.

Vegas also has some nice restaurants. Jen and I like to eat, so we took the opportunity to try out a few places that we would not have access to in Indiana. The Burger Bar, by Hubert Keller was amazing and I would recommend it to anyone. Coming home was wonderful, Oz met us at the airport and we realized just how much we missed him. Jen had never really been away from the guy for any extended period of time and when you come home to this beautiful little kid, it, well, it was just wonderful.

Oz is doing great. He is walking, not talking as much as we would like, but he is getting there. He has no problem saying "Dada", but when you ask him who Jen is, he smiles and says, "Dada". Unless Jen isn't around, then you ask him where mommy is and he quickly responds with "mama?", so the kid is basically torturing Jen on a daily basis. I feel he is very proud of this and it does not bode well for our future sanity. He climbs on everything now and takes it as a personal challenge to make as big a mess as possible as often as possible. He refuses to eat things that he loved the night before and he loves things that he wouldn't touch yesterday. The kid is an enigma to us, but that is probably why he is so much fun.

One last thing, a quick congrats to my brother and his wife, they are going to have a baby girl and congrats to my sister and her husband, who had their third, Anna.