Category Archives: Family

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.

Rita Heads Towards on Houston

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Hurricane Rita is on a track for Houston. Jennifer’s parents and sister have evacuated to the Central Texas area. It’s weird that if we still lived in the same place in Houston, we would also be under a mandatory evacuation, as all of Webster and Clear Lake are being evacuated. I remember when I lived there in 1998 there was a tropical storm which had the water rise close to my apartment. One of the buildings in the apartment complex was completely cut off from the road. With a category 5 hurricane I can only imagine how high the water is going to get. Our prayers are with Jennifer’s parents, sister, and everyone as they are forced from their homes.

Isabelle’s Christening

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I can’t believe it’s been over two weeks since I’ve made an entry in Frenchville. Last weekend was pretty busy. Jennifer’s parents, sister and her husband, Mike, and grandparents all visited. They were here for Isabelle’s Christening at church. Everyone is doing good and they had a good time visiting. Isabelle’s Christening went off without a hitch. No crying and even Abby and Emily behaved during the ceremony. Jennifer did a great job cooking each meal for so many people. Needless to say we were all pooped when everyone left.

Today is a big game for the Texas Longhorns as they take on a pretty tough team in the Ohio State Buckeyes. It has a little more meaning for myself because I’ve made a bet with the Lead Programmer on Madden NFL 06 Xbox 360, Ryan Burnsides, who went to Ohio State, that the looser must shave their head. #2 clippers, so not completely bald, but if my Longhorns don’t pull through then I will probably be nearly as bald as Isabelle in this picture.

Searching for a Photographer

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Wow. Look at this. Two entries in Frenchville in so many days.

Today Jennifer went out to DeLand to visit a photographer, Elizabeth Carol. Ever since we left Austin, one of the things she has missed has been the photographer she really liked: Jennifer Turner. Jennifer was walking through the mall the other day and saw a photograph that reminded her of Jennifer Turner, so she did some investigation and it turns out that this photographer has a lot of the same props that Jennifer Turner did. She was really impressed and has an appointment to get Isabelle’s 3 month old pictures taken with her.

I’ve been clamoring about getting a laptop at work by making hints in several meetings. Finally today, the Executive Producer on Madden said, “If we get you a laptop, it better be attached to your hip. You will be taking notes in every meeting.” I was thinking, “mission accomplished”.

They came to install our shower door today. It was the last piece to our bathroom re-tiling. Unfortunately, there isn’t a stud behind where the shower door would go, so they couldn’t hang it up. We now have to get the tiling contractor to come back and some how shore up that wall so that the door will hang. Right now we are at a loss for what to do. We were thinking that all of our projects would finally be done today, but once again we hit another snag.

I’ve been a little behind on doing the laundry and Abby didn’t have pajama bottoms. So, she had to go to bed in a pajama top and some panties. She didn’t like that. She kept saying that someone was going to see that and laugh at her. It’s funny that lately she’s been starting to get modest. It must be something she’s picking up at school.

For the past couple of days I haven’t had time enough to shave because I’ve been busy at work. Today I decided to shave it into a goatee. When I got home from work Jennifer noticed it for the first time. Needless to say, I will be shaving tomorrow.

It Was Over in the Blink of an Eye

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Between sick kids, the bathroom being re-tiled, and work, it’s been a pretty busy couple of weeks. First off, Emily brought some sort of stomach flu home from Vacation Bible School a couple of weeks ago. After a few days it spread to Jennifer and a few days after that it spread to Abby. Me and Baby Belle were the only two who were spared. Unfortunately, it delayed Abby going to her first day of school this past Monday, but she was better by Wednesday and was chomping at the bit to go. She had a great time and came home telling us how she learned about bones.

Today I was called home from work early because Emily had stuck something up her nose. At first Jennifer thought it was a carpet fiber, because Emily had stuck one of those up her nose before, but looking with a flashlight I could tell it was something plastic. So, I held her down while Jennifer got some tweezers out, but Emily would have nothing of it and was squirming way too much. Finally, I coached Emily on how to blow her nose. She blew a couple of times and out flew a piece of paper and an eye ball. Not a real eye ball, but one of those plastic squiggly eyeballs that stick to paper.

Re-Tiling the Bathroom

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Another thing that started this week was the re-tiling of our bathroom. I found water underneath the tile in our shower a couple of months ago and since we were going to have to re-tile the shower, we decided to go ahead and re-tile the entire bathroom. We hired a contractor and Jennifer used her discount at Pro Source to get the tile. It’s looking good. First they spent the first couple of days this week tearing out all the old tile. Then, they spent the past two days putting the new tile in. Once it’s all in, I’ll take some pictures and post them on the site. Won’t the home improvements end?

Abby and Emily are getting pretty restless, but it’s their last week of freedom. She goes back to school on Monday and she is going to start going every day Monday through Friday. Emily is also going to start going to pre-school, but she is only going to be going on Mondays and Wednesdays. Jennifer can’t wait.

Another Frenchville Reunion

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I had a pretty uneventful birthday on Sunday, but isn’t that what’s it’s supposed to be like once you have kids? The focus moves from your birthday to the kids’ birthdays. We went to breakfast that morning and that was a treat. We thought about going out to the beach, but with Isabelle in tow, doing stuff like that has become more and more tough.

Jennifer was sick today, so I stayed home from work. The girls and I watched the space shuttle take off on TV and then ran outside to see if we could see it in the sky, but I forgot that there’s still a time delay even in live TV, so we missed it. It had already gone behind one of the clouds by the time we got outside.

I had another Frenchville reunion today. An old high school friend, Jincy Pace, stumbled upon my blog. She’s living in San Jose, California and is a local police officer there. She investigates traffic accidents and tries to reconstruct what happens. It was good to hear from her. I’m glad Frenchville has been a great tool for getting back in touch with old friends.

The Play Gym is Up!

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Cue Theme to Superman. I am proud to announce that the play gym is up! It’s been a long and hard battle. It’s an epic story with bad guys, blood and sweat building sand boxes, 11 cubic yards of sand, and trials of patience. Now two fair princesses can go into their backyard and sit atop their tower looking down unto the world and their parents will be happy because they are outside and not inside running around like little maniacs.

So three guys from Woodplay, the people we bought the set from, arrived today to move the pieces back into the sandbox and then one guy stayed behind and put the thing back together again. I must mentioned that they said the sandbox was very well constructed. Once they were finished, the girls were all over the play gym. They put their lawn chairs up the tower part and they stuck flower-shaped windmills outside the lower playhouse portion. Needless to say, Abby and Emily will be well occupied the rest of the week.