House for Sale – Cheap

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Yesterday we had a pair of Realtors come over and we put the house on the market. It was lower than we thinking we could get, but we will still get out with a profit. The rest of the day was spent sprucing up the place, mainly mowing the lawn and putting some fertilizer down.

Since we bought seasonal passes to Disney World last October, we felt we needed to use them before we leave Orlando. So, we decided to head over there today and go to the Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We were just there a few months ago, but we only got through about half of the park and we decided we had best go back so we could finish out the rest. We saw a few live shows: Beauty and the Beast, Playhouse Disney, and Lights, Motors, Action Stunt Show. Isabelle loved the Playhouse Disney show because it featured the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and the stunt show was amazing with the live car stunts. The two things that the kids didn’t ride, but me and Jennifer opted for were The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and the Rock n’ Roller Coaster. Both were great rides and had a lot of unexpected features to it. The Tower of Terror I figured was just something that took you way up high and then dropped you, but it was more than that. It had some special effects that tied into the Twilight Zone and then it rose you up and let you free fall several times. The Rock n’ Roller Coaster was also great. It is an indoor roller coaster, which goes upside down. It was one of the better coasters that I’ve ridden. It was a long day, we got to the park at 9:30 and didn’t leave until 5:30. Probably the longest we’ve stayed at a Disney park before.

We headed home and got there just in time for the start of the Super Bowl. The Giants ended up winning by a field goal just as I predicted. However, I thought it was going to be a last second field goal to win. It turned out to be a last second touchdown. Now the long seven month wait for football to come back. Too bad I’m going to miss Baseball Spring Training this year. But, I guess I can now go to live Astros games. So, no complaints.

End to an ErA

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While in Houston over the Christmas break, we made a family decision to go ahead and move back to Texas since we missed it so much. Since we both like Houston so much, I looked up the only game company I knew there, TimeGate Studios. It turned out that they had a position that fit me perfectly: part manager and part software engineer. After much debating with myself and encouragement from Jennifer, I put in my resume. The following week I flew in for an interview and liked what I saw. This past Wednesday, they made me an offer and I accepted. We are going to be moving back to Houston.

This left me with the unenviable task of informing the company I’ve worked for for the past seven years, EA-Tiburon, that I would be leaving, leaving in the middle of production. I didn’t get much sleep the night before, but like a Band Aid, I just went ahead and did it quick. They are all sad to see me go and I thank everyone at Tiburon for all being so understanding.

Tonight we told the girls. The only one who really was sad was Abby. She said that she was going to miss all of her friends, especially our next door neighbor. It was tough seeing her cry. I remember my mom and dad tell us when we were moving away from Houston when I was in the seventh grade. But, I think this is for the best. We’ve really missed being close to family over the past five years and we feel it’s time. I will continue to update Frenchville letting everyone know what’s going on during the big move back. The first step is getting the house sold and that starts tomorrow with a visit from a real estate agent.

Universal Day

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Today the company I work for, EA-Tiburon, bought everyone tickets to Universal Studios Florida. It was foggy and misty this morning, but we decided to head out anyway. I had visited Universal once before, but this was the first time for Jennifer and the girls. Overall, everyone had fun. However, it wasn’t anything that you couldn’t see at one of Disney’s parks. The one exception being the Revenge of the Mummy, which is one of the best roller coasters I’ve ridden. We ended up riding the following rides: Jimmy Neutron, Shrek 4-D, Twister, Revenge of the Mummy, Jaws, Woody Woodpecker’s Nuthouse Coaster, Fievel’s Playland, and E.T. Adventures. We had to explain to Abby how each ride was based on a movie, since she had never seen Twister, Jaws, or E.T. We told her it might be a while before she can see Jaws, but we would try and add E.T. to our Friday movie night. Isabelle was quite funny during the Jaws ride. She kept burying her face into my side each time the shark would pop out. Everyone kept saying “awww” every time she would do it. By the afternoon the fog had burned off and the sun turned the park into a sauna. After that we only spent a few more hours because we all were starting to get cranky.

One other event of note is that we’ve been potty training Isabelle over the past week, starting last Monday. So far it’s looking like success. She now tells us when she needs to go instead of us asking every hour or so. It has been two days straight of her staying dry and she even survived the trip to Universal Studios and stayed dry all day. This is quite a momentous occasion for me as a parent. This now marks the end of seven straight years of changing diapers. Yea!

Home Sweet Home

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We finally arrived home yesterday evening from our long two week Christmas trip to Texas & Louisiana. That last day was grueling. We started at 8:00 a.m. Central Standard Time and didn’t get home until 6:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Basically: sunrise to sunset. Everyone was tired and the girls are very whiny in the back seat. We were all tired from the 16 hours in the car. I’m not sure if we are going to be making that trip again by car. It’s just too tough.

The last week was spent in Houston at Jennifer’s parents house. I went to see the last Houston Texans’ game of the season thanks to my friend George. They won ending their season 8-8, their best record ever. Afterward, Jennifer picked us up and we met up with George’s wife Heather for some dinner at a restaurant.

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The rest of the week was just driving around and eating or looking at places where we used to go. The highlight of the week was Jennifer’s parents taking Abby and Emily to one of the many stables near their house and setting them up with horse riding lessons. They both enjoyed it and will remember that for years to come.

Though the driving was long, we had a nice trip. Thanks everyone for the gifts and for letting us come and visit. I’m anxious to get back to work and the swing of things. I can now say that I’m working on NCAA Football 09 as the Development Director. They announced that there will be an NCAA 09 over the break as a tie in for the Bowl Championship Series. We are about half way through Production and will soon be heading into Finaling at the beginning of March.

One last thing I have to mention is that today is Emily’s 5th birthday. It was 5 years ago today at 1:11 p.m. in the afternoon that Emily was born. We are having her party on Saturday. We always have to have her party on the weekend after because no one is back from vacation on the weekend closest to her birthday. In celebration, we went to have some ice cream after dinner. I will have some more posts and pictures from the actual celebration.

The Trip to Nana & Poppy’s House

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Two days on the road and we made it to Nana and Poppy’s house yesterday. The drive was fairly uneventful. The first day took us through Florida where we once again stayed in Mobile, Alabama. We found a pretty nice hotel which actually had a suite: two bedrooms and a fold out couch in another. So, Abby & Emily had one room and Isabelle had her the fold out couch. Jennifer and I had our own room. This all actually helped when getting them all to bed and we could stay up and watch TV while they went to bed.

The second day we went up diagonally through Mississippi and hit I-20 in Jackson. From there it was a straight shot to Shreveport. We were able to make the second trip with only one stop for lunch in Vicksburg. When we got to Shreveport, Poppy and Jill were waiting for us. That night the temperature dropped and the wind picked up. Jennifer and I went to see I Am Legend and when we got out of the movie theater, we almost froze to death just walking to our car. It’s currently 80 degrees back in Florida and you suddenly dropped us into 32 degree weather.

Today Jennifer and I continued some Christmas shopping and stopped off to eat at one of our favorite Italian restaurants in Shreveport: Monjuni’s. Excellent bread and lasagna. While we were doing that Poppy and Jill took Abby and Emily to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. Abby and Emily both said the movie was good, but they didn’t really give specifics on what their favorite parts were.

We allowed the girls to open up one present tonight as well. Abby got upset because the other two opened up toys while she opened up clothes. We took pity on her and let her open up one more present.

Austin: Menace To Society

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A week ago Austin bit Emily on the arm when she fell on his back. Since this is obviously as sensitive area for Austin since he had back surgery, his instincts took over and he ended up leaving one puncture on the inside of Emily’s arm. We would have thought nothing of it, but the wound started to show signs of being infected. So, we decided to take her to the doctor so we could get some antibiotics. Unfortunately, when a dog bites someone, they have to report it to the county and they did and we got a visit from animal control. Since it was our dog biting someone in our family, Austin had to be “quarantined” inside our own house for a week. This was a pretty simple punishment since he spends 99.9% of his time inside our house anyway. Today the county called us back and said that the quarantine had been lifted and Austin was a “free dog”.

Also today was Emily and Isabelle’s Preschool Christmas Program. We were treated to the likes of “Jingle Bells” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”. For Isabelle, this was her first performance. She was a little shy, but she did well during “Jingle Bells”. Emily is an old pro and sang really well. After the singing, we all had milk and cookies to eat and Santa came out and visited, giving all the girls and boys presents. Both Emily and Isabelle received books about Christmas.

Over in Abby’s First Grade class, it was dress up like a fairy tale character day. Over the weekend we bought some red felt and Jennifer made a cape and hood so that she could be Little Red Riding Hood. She had a basket and put some plastic food in there to complete the outfit.

All I Want For Christmas Are My Two Front Teeth

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After you’ve been with EA for seven years, they give you an extra seven weeks of vacation which they call the “sabbatical”. That’s above and beyond the four weeks I normally get off and the week everyone gets at Christmas. So, there’s no way I’m going to be able to take off seven weeks all at one time, so I’m dividing it up into three parts. I took a week at Thanksgiving. I’m taking two weeks here at Christmas and then I’m going to take four weeks once the game I’m working on ships. So, I started my first week off this week and I don’t have to go back to work until January 9th.

I decided to treat myself to some lunch all on my own today. I went up to our favorite pizza place, American Pie. It was good being free from the kids just eating pizza and reading my book.

Later on in the afternoon it was time to rock. Jennifer went to a hair appointment and since she doesn’t care for Rock Band too much, it was time to get out the drum set and rock. I first looked over to see if there were any new songs to download from the music store. I picked up “My Sharona” by The Knack, one of my dad’s favorite songs. Mainly because he claims to have come up with the melody for the song. I’ve completed all the solo drum songs on “Easy” and now I’ve started going through all of them on “Medium”. Well, it appears I rocked too hard, because I think I pulled something in my ankle. I can barely move my foot around.

In another bit of news, Abby pulled her other top front tooth out tonight. So, she will be getting another visit from the tooth fairy and she will be without her two front teeth for Christmas. She was very exciting when it started bleeding coming downstairs and to inform the entire family. She then spent the next thirty minutes wiggling it until it finally broke free.

Abby 7th Birthday Camping, Day 2

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Today was the big birthday party at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. Two of Abby’s friends met us at Downtown Disney and along with Emily they all got their hair and makeup done as if they were princesses. The place was a mad house over run with giggling little girls. You can check out my Flickr page for pictures from my cell phone. When we get back home, I’ll post some better ones from our camera.

After the makeovers were done, our next door neighbor, Sadie, joined us and we headed over to Planet Hollywood for some lunch. Abby received a free sundae for being the birthday girl.

We then headed back to Magic Kingdom, but it was busy and we only had time for two rides: It’s a Small World and Haunted Mansion. It was getting dark so we headed back to camp for dinner. After some hamburgers for dinner the girls were getting cold and cranky so we quickly roasted some marshmallows for some smores and went to bed.

Abby 7th Birthday Camping, Day 1

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This year we decided to have Abby’s party down at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at Disney so that Abby and a couple of her friends could have “princess makeovers”. It was tough, but we did find an opening at Fort Wilderness from Sunday till Tuesday. So, we packed up the camper this morning and headed down to Disney after lunch.

We got the camper set up in record time (45 minutes) and we hopped on over to the boat heading over to the Magic Kingdom. We spent a majority of the time in Tomorrow Land. We even found a new “ride” we didn’t even know existed. It was an animatronic show called the Carousel of Progress, something Walt Disney designed himself and was presented at the 1964 World’s Fair. The audience rotates around various stages that talk about progress over the years. It wasn’t anything spectacular, we just thought it was amazing that there was something we didn’t know existed.

After watching the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor show we got pissed because we thought our stroller had been stolen. It turned out that one of the cast members had moved it so we wandered around in the dark for over five minutes trying to find it. This was complicated by the fact that Isabelle had passed out during the show because she was so tired from not getting a nap.

We found it and headed over to watch the Wishes fireworks show. I’ve put a few pictures from my phone up on Flickr if you want to check it out. After the show, we headed back to camp to go to bed.

Piecing Together Money

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Apparently money is still good even when it is cut into very very small pieces. For Halloween, Isabelle’s great-grandparents sent her a $10 bill. Not really knowing the value of money, but knowing that it does cut just like paper, Isabelle proceeded to cut the money using some scissors into itty bitty pieces. Jennifer actually did a good job of finding all the pieces on the floor and table and taped it all back onto a blank white piece of paper. She took it back to the bank today and they exchanged it for a new $10 bill. This time we will keep it away from the scissor wielding cutie pie.