Monthly Archives: October 2005

Fall Festival

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Today was the annual Fall Festival at our church. You purchase tickets and then you use the tickets to do different sorts of rides and activities. This is the third time we’ve gone since moving to Orlando and Abby and Emily love going. They did the bounce house, rode a train, and Abby bought a giant tube of colored sugar to eat.

The Longhorns were victorious once again this time against the Oklahoma State Cowboys. I was biting my fingernails during the first quarter. Actually, it was more like yelling at the television screen. But, the Longhorns regrouped after half time and ended up crushing the Cowboys 47-28.

The Great Escape

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We’ve been apprehensive to leave Isabelle with a baby sitter so young. We had the bright idea the other day that we could just go out after 8:00 p.m. once all of the girls are in bed and just hire the baby sitter to be in the house and she wouldn’t have to do anything. Isabelle has been going to bed around 7:30 – 8:00 and then she’s out for the night. So, tonight Jennifer and I escaped to The Melting Pot, our favorite “going out” restaurant. It was nice to get away from the girls and we are going to try and make this a regular event.

Pumpkin Hunting

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Today I found out that it’s pretty nice just having Abby in school. When Emily isn’t around Abby, she’s a very good girl. She will go in the back yard and play by herself for hours. It’s only when you get Abby and Emily together do they become a unstoppable force.

We went to a pumpkin patch to pick out the pumpkins we were going to carve up for Halloween. I also climbed up into the attic to retrieve all of our Halloween decorations and we spent the afternoon putting them out in the yard.

Abby and Emily Free Day

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Yesterday was the first time I got to experience what it was like to have both Abby and Emily in school. It was great. The house was so quite. Me and Jennifer (with Isabelle) went out to lunch to Logan’s and it was great being able to sit there and actually eat. I went ahead and extended my vacation one extra day and I’m glad I did so I get to experience one more Abby and Emily Free Day.

Abby and Emily went to “Kid’s Connection” (the Wednesday night children’s activity get-together at church) in their Halloween costumes. Abby is going to be a princess (no surprise there) and Emily is a poodle puppy. I’ll have pictures of them in their costumes on Halloween. They got candy and made Halloween crafts.

Tonight was the Madden Next Gen Wrap Party. Most of the team met at a Chinese restaurant called The Crazy Buffet. We had dinner and toasted champagne to celebrate finishing the game. Unfortunately, the game is still going on. I haven’t been called in, but my boss, Brian, has taken over what I was doing in order for me to get some rest with the family.

Well, the Astros lost again, getting swept in the World Series by the White Sox. I don’t think the Astros did a bad job. It was a thrill for them to get to the World Series for the first time ever. Every game came right down to the last few innings. Hopefully they can make another run next year.

Tough Oil Change

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Well, it was a pretty bad day at work. I ended up being there all day and into the evening. One issue after another kept coming up.

Abby went back to school today while Emily, Isabelle and Jennifer went to get the oil changed in the Sequoia. When we bought the truck, we got some free oil changes, but the dealership is quite some distance from our house so it’s a pain in order to go and get the oil changed there. Then, Jennifer had a bad experience waiting in line to get the oil changed. You have to go through the regular repair line where everyone lines up their cars and the attendants come out and ask you want is wrong with your car. Jennifer waited around for twenty minutes while everyone else but she got waited on. Even after she got out of the car and complained they still helped other people before getting to her car. She’s sworn not to go back there to get her oil changed again.

The poor Astros. I’ve just stayed up until 2:30 a.m. as their game went to the 14th inning and they came up short again. If they don’t win the next one that’s it. Every game has been close, but they just haven’t been able to follow through.

Restaurant Test

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I was correct. I got the call from work today that a major bug that was found with our game. So, I have to go back into work tomorrow in order to get that issue resolved. Hopefully it won’t be too long and I can get out of there at a regular time.

Hurricane Wilma was pretty weak in our area. There were just a few dead limbs down on the ground at that’s about it. Once it blew through the skies were blue and it turned real cold (for Florida).

Jennifer braved the storm to take Isabelle to the doctor. The diagnosis was an ear infection and we got some antibiotics and are keeping her nose clear. Hopefully she gets over it soon. She sounds so pathetic when she coughs.

I was able to get a reader for my camera’s memory card so I’m now able to extract my pictures. Today’s picture is of Isabelle from a couple of weeks ago (before she got a cold).

At work they raffled off the right to purchase an Xbox 360, since they will probably be in short supply when the new console comes out on November 22nd. I’m not guaranteed to get one when it comes out, but hopefully I will get one before our trip back to Texas so that I can show my parents and grand parents the game I worked so hard on this year.

We also went out to dinner tonight to Carrabba’s Italian Grill. All five of us. It’s usually difficult to take all the kids out to a nice restaurant, but they all did really well. Abby colored on the kids’ menu and Emily played with some dough that the waiter gave her. They ate all their dinner and did such a great job that we were amazed. We’ve attributed it to our eating breakfast all the time. We think it’s teaching them the right way to act in a restaurant.

Lazy Sunday

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I didn’t have to go into work today! The phone was silent, so everything must be going fine at work. Although, it’s Sunday, if something goes wrong, it probably won’t happen until tomorrow.

We didn’t do much today. We just hung around the house. I played several games of NFL Street 2 and Abby and Jennifer went to the nail parlor and go get their nails painted. Abby came back with orange toe nails with white ghosts on them.

Isabelle is still not feeling well. We may take her into the doctor’s office tomorrow.

For those who are following the news on Hurricane Wilma. It’s going to the south of us. We will probably get some wind and a lot of rain, but that’s about it. They canceled Abby and Emily’s school for tomorrow, though. I was looking forward to finding out what it was like with a quite house.

I’ve lost the cable to my camera, so I can’t take any of the new pictures off. I’m having to post a picture which is a couple of months old. I’m going to go to Best Buy tomorrow and see if I can find a replacement cable.

The Astros lost again in the second game of the World Series. They came back and tied it in the ninth after giving up a grand slam, but they gave up a home run in the bottom of the ninth. The series goes to Houston for the next three games. The rain and the cold in Chicago has looked like miserable playing conditions. At least Minute Maid Park has a roof.

I finished The Drawing of the Three today. Even though I’m having a great time with The Dark Tower series, I decided to pick up The Da Vinci Code for my next book. A movie is currently in production and I would like to have the book read before the movie comes out. Dan Brown became popular with this book, but I read Digital Fortress and Deception Point before reading this one. I enjoyed both of these books and since this one has had so much press (both good and bad) I’m sure I will enjoy it as well.

I’m Back

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I can’t believe it’s been exactly a month since my last entry in Frenchville. It’s been a wild ride at work. A whole lot of extra hours for many days in a row. It’s been: go to work, come home for dinner (sometimes), go back to work, come home and go to sleep. It’s finally letting up. We aren’t done completely (I had to go into work for four hours today), but it’s slowed down. I don’t plan on going back in for the next two weeks unless I’m called in.

Let’s see. Month in Review…

We were having our shower re-tiled since I found water underneath the old tile. We had door problems, but that finally got resolved and we are back into the shower in our bathroom.

Abby and Emily finished up their swim lessons. They are both now “expert swimmers”. I haven’t actually taken them swimming yet, so I don’t know how well they are doing. Next week we are planning on going camping at Disney World. They have a swimming pool at the camp grounds and we will probably be swimming there.

The whole family had coughs and more recently fevers. Currently Isabelle has been sick. She’s had a pretty bad runny nose and you can tell she’s been pretty miserable.

The Texas Longhorns defeated OU and then took on Texas Tech and crushed them today. We went ahead and bought tickets to the Rose Bowl, where the National Championship is being played this year. Hopefully the Longhorns can keep up their winning streak alive. The tickets include a tour of Pasadena and tickets to the Rose Parade. Jennifer has always wanted to go see the Rose Parade and so we got the tickets as our anniversary gift to one another.

The Houston Astros have finally made it to the World Series for the first time. I remember watching them against the Mets in 86 and of coarse last year against the Cardinals and making it one game away from the Series. It’s too bad they lost tonight’s game, but hopefully they can come back and win the next four.

It’s good to be home and to finally have a couple of weeks off. Now that I have more time, there will be more and more entries in Frenchville.