This will be a short entry, because I’m tired and I want to head off to bed. Not much happened today. One of the prongs on Jennifer’s engagement ring bent and she had to take it to a jeweler. They said that they would clean it up so Jennifer left her wedding with them as well. She got it back today all nice and shinny. They both look brand new.
Since there isn’t many pictures of Abby lately, today’s picture is of Abby in her playroom.
Another long day at work. I’ve been putting the long hours in because this weekend I’m being left alone with the kids as Jennifer treks off to a church retreat. That’s right, I will be left all alone with the kids almost all weekend.
Yesterday morning a note was left on our large garbage can by the garbage men. Apparently we aren’t supposed to have garbage cans over 32 gallons. We have one that is 50 gallons that we bought in Austin and moved here with us. We’ve been using it for five months now. What made them all of a sudden not like our garbage can?
Today was Abby’s school picture. I will scan it in and post it here once we get it in. At home, Abby’s been not wanting to get her picture taken lately as evident by today’s picture at the beach. You tell her to say “cheese” and she says “no” and turns away from the camera.
It was nice to finally have a day off from work. There was a lot of stuff to do around the house and Emily wasn’t feeling good because she is starting to get her two upper teeth. Because of this, me and Emily stayed home from church.
This week was Jennifer’s turn to teach Children’s Church. During the 11:00 worship, they have a little “children’s moment” for three year olds through first grade. After that is done, the kids go off to another building for “Children’s Church”. Jennifer volunteered to teach it once a month. She’s been scrounging for subjects to teach and finally went to a Christian bookstore the other day and picked up a Veggie Tales video to get some inspiration. I don’t really understand the fascination with animated vegetables. Maybe it’s because I’m not a real big vegetable eater. They watched a video about the “Good Samaritan” and then discussed what it meant to be one.
Meanwhile, I started laundry and cleaned up the laundry room. The top of the dryer had become a “catch all” for all kinds of Jennifer’s projects. That all got cleaned up and moved into the garage and I hung up a ironing board hanger so that the ironing board could be out of the way and not just leaning up against the wall.
After dinner we drove down to Baskin Robbins to get some ice cream because Abby said, “I ate all of my dinner so I need ice cream.” Afterwards we drove around Lake Mary. We’ve been up in the area for four months and I’m amazed how much I haven’t seen. It seems like day in and day out I’m just driving from work and to home and that is it. On the weekends, I’m just hanging around the house before it all starts back up on Monday. It was nice to drive around and see the area. Now that we are in Alpha, it might not be until July when I actually get to slow down and see the area.
Today’s picture is from yesterday’s trip to the beach. Abby playing in the sand.
Abby’s reign of terror has continued today as she dump over the kitchen chair Emily was sitting in. Emily cried of several minutes and Abby got in a lot of trouble.
Earlier in the day it was much more peaceful while they were down at the park. Today’s picture is of both of them climbing on the jungle gym.
Today Abby started showing her “terrible three” tendencies. She didn’t start the day off right when she started kicking Emily because she wouldn’t come play with her. Later after I went to work, she got into our bathroom and smeared Jennifer’s lipstick all over her mouth. When asked who had the lipstick, Abby said, “Sister has it”. Later while playing in Emily’s room, she ripped down the curtains in the room. Once again she was questioned what happed. Her reply, “Sister did it.” She has been getting into so much trouble lately Jennifer is afraid that she won’t be able to buy any of the new furniture that she wants to buy because she fears that the kids will just damage it. When she came to that conclusion, all she could do was laugh. It reminded Jennifer of something her mom told her, “She couldn’t have anything nice because the kids would just ruin it.”
Meanwhile, Emily (the good kid) is really starting to communicate more. She has started saying her second word: shoe. (Her first word was “bye”.) If you ask her where her shoes are she will run to her room to go get them. In honor of gathering her shoes, I’ve posted a picture of her as the picture of the day, with the shoes she gathered, of course.
It was a lazy Saturday. We didn’t do much. We went to the Sanford Mall and rode the merry-go-round and had ice cream.
Yesterday, Jennifer bought Abby a Barbie vacuum so that she could pick up all the Cheerios that Emily spills on the floor. Barbie Vacuum: $30. Getting three year old to vacuum up after her baby sister: priceless.
Today Jennifer, Abby, and Emily took the bicycle down to the park. There, Abby found a new “best” friend and played with her. Jennifer said that riding the bike down there was a ton faster than walking down there which is what they had been doing.
I rented Sony’s Eye Toy for the PlayStation 2 from work today for Abby. This is a camera that sits on top of the television and plugs into the PS2. The camera puts your image on the TV and you play the games by moving around on the screen as things happen. It took a while for Abby to understand that she had to watch herself on television and not try to hit the TV itself.
Here’s another picture from yesterday’s bike excursion. Emily waves goodbye.
Last week Jennifer bought a bicycle buggy so that she and the girls could go on bike rides together. It arrived today and they had fun riding around the neighborhood.
For October we had lots of activity. Emily has started to walk as her primary mode of transportation. She is much more interactive and greets me at the top of the stairs when I come home from work every day.
On October 9th, Jennifer and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. We got a baby sitter and went out to eat at the Melting Pot restaurant.
On October 11th, Jennifer and I pretended we were not married to see if it would help the Texas Longhorns beat the University of Oklahoma. The Longhorns haven’t beat OU since we were married in 1999. It didn’t work. Texas lost 65-13.
On October 14th, we all went to Disney World’s Not So Scary Halloween. This is where they open up the part in the evening and all the kids get to wear the costumes and get candy. Both Abby and Emily had lots of fun riding the Dumbo and Tea Cup ride. According to Abby, she was dressed as “a princess” and Emily went as “a fairy”.
On October 18th, we went to the Electronic Arts-Tiburon Fall Festival. There was a hamburger cookout and there was games and rides for the kids. Abby had fun on the giant inflated slide and the merry-go-round. She also showed off her monkey bar skills on the playground.
October 25th, was the Winter Park First United Methodist School Fall Festival. This was a fund raiser for Abby’s school. There was clowns, pony rides, games, and other activities. Abby had lots of fun.
October 26th, George & Heather flew down in order for us to go to the Dallas Cowboys at Tampa Bay Buccaneers football game. The game wasn’t that exciting as the Cowboys were easily defeated by the Bucs 16-0.
For Halloween Abby had a Halloweek party at her school along with a costume parade. Later the girls came up to where I work and we did our trick-or-treating at Electronic Arts-Tiburon. The “princess” and “fairy” collected way too much candy wandering from cubicle to cubicle.
August was full of activity since I had extra time off from work since Madden shipped last month. Emily has started to stand up when holding on to something. She tries to walk, but usually stumbles. Abby and Emily have started playing together, but Abby usually plays too rough.
On August 2nd we joined the Central Florida YMCA in Winter Park in an attempt to get into shape and so Abby could take swim lessons. She loves going to the pool and we thought it would be a good idea to teach her to swim.
On August 8th George & Heather Galindo came to visit and we all went to Miami to see the Miami Dolphins vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers pre-season football game. Jennifer’s mother flew over to stay with Abby and Emily over night. The following Monday, George, Heather, and I went down to Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex to watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during their training camp.
On August 12th, Madden 2004 was released. So far sales have been doing good. I’ve heard that sales are up from last year.
On August 15th, I won tickets from work to go see the Miami Dolphins vs. Jacksonville Jaguares. Becuase we couldn’t fine anyone on such short notice, I went to the game myself.
August 19th was Abby’s first day of pre-school. She was very happy to go and has enjoyed going. She is going to pre-school at our church, First United Methodist of Winter Park. She goes two days a week for 3 hours. She really enjoys it and can’t wait to go again.
On August 25th Jennifer, Abby, and I went to Blizzard Beach, a water park at Disney. We floated down a river in a innertube, went down water slides. Abby loved every minute of it. She keeps asking to go back to “Mickey’s Water”.
Frenchville 
