Peaches

Last year after we moved into our house we decided to plant a couple of trees. We planted a sunburst maple in the front and a Gleason (Lemon) Alberta peach tree in the back. We were surprised to find that the peach tree, although quite young and small decided to give fruit this year. From what I understand this is not typical for the first year after planting. We probably had around 30-40 fruits in the beginning, which I thinned down to about 20-25 earlier in the season.

A couple weeks ago we had some kids over playing who found the peach tree (and obviously didn't know better) , picked the green fruits and threw them down on our concrete patio breaking them into little pieces. Here's a picture of what remained on the tree which we picked this week.

First day of school - 2008

Pics of the kids - each on their first day of school.

Quick update

Yes, yes, my blog is terribly out of date. That's what happens when things get really busy. Seriously, for the last few weeks I've put in 10-12 hour days doing some intense work with strict deadlines and I'm sick of looking at a computer by the end of a day. Things are getting a little better but the days are still long. And so it goes with work.

Let's face it - most of you read this to know what's going on with the other people in my house. Who cares if Caleb has a birthday. I will have you know that the only call I received on my birthday was from Jared Moore. Local family might be off the hook since they came on Saturday and sang happy birthday. Lenna sent an e-card if that counts. I don't know what happened to Brad and Hannah.

So the kids started school. Rachel is a big first grader now. Kaylee is going to kindergarten in the afternoon. Bryant goes to a new preschool in the neighborhood on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. They all seem to be adjusting pretty well. I'm mostly surprised at Bryant - things that he's not very inclined to do at home (like behave and listen) he seems to do well while at preschool according to his teacher. Maybe some of it will stick...

Heather is still huge. Only a few more weeks to go. She will be going to the doctor once a week starting next week. I anticipate we'll have a better gauge on the delivery date soon. She's been induced almost a week early with all of our others. As long as it doesn't come the week of September 15, we'll be fine (I'm traveling to Austin, TX that week). We'll see if this one follows suit. Honestly I can't wait for the new kid - I actually get paternity leave with Omniture - two weeks paid time off. I'll probably take a few days off initially and then work half days from home for another couple weeks.

DeAnna asked about baby names - yes we have discussed a few, but nothing is decided. We probably won't share any of our ideas until after the baby is named because that's the way we do it now. We've typically decided the day the baby was born, with the exception of Bryant - we had him named from the time we were thinking of names for our first before we knew the gender.

That's all I have time for now. I'll try to post again soon with pics from the last few weeks.

Always wear your safety equipment...

...And don't play racquetball with beginners.

If you haven't already heard, Scotty nailed me just below the eye while playing raquetball yesterday. I was serving the game point serve - dad and I were up 14 to 11 against Scott and Nate. I served a high one to Scott who was back and to my right. I watched the ball as it went past to see if it was in play because it was a high serve. As I turned I saw Scott make a play on the ball before it hit the floor or back wall. Scott has terrible aim and ball came careening toward my head, which by this time was turned at him. The ball connected and I went down pretty quick, eye throbbing, blood rushing (swelling), lots of initial shock and pain. We got ice and I iced it down before I left. Dad was bugging me to take pictures, so here they are. This first one was taken within an hour of being hit.

Heather hasn't been feeling well the last couple days so I had dad pick me up to go get my eye checked today. They dilated my eye (that's a first for me) and I'm still pretty light sensitive. Everything is fine - no sight loss, just a couple of small scratches on the surface that will heal, and an evil eye that will probably have some red in it for the next 2-3 weeks. Here's a pic from this afternoon. If you click on it for the details you can still see my dilated eye.



I'm fine, although it's pretty annoying to have the puffiness around my eye. Needless to say I will be wearing my safety glasses next time we play.

Garden update

So our garden is doing well (finally). It seems to have come on in the last couple weeks. We now have a number of tomatoes, bunches of lettuce, zucchini, and yellow squash. Cucumbers and peppers are on their way. I was going through the garden last week and found this monster. I don't know how I missed it. We're happy to see the fruits of this effort, although it is late in the season.

Caleb's Tag

Okay, I'm working on getting everyone to do one of these things so we can be done with it.

3 Joys
My family
My house (I don't know how we did so many years in an apartment)
When a project gets completed

3 Fears
Kids getting hurt
Missing a deadline at work
Spiders (more the startle factor than the bugs themselves)

3 Goals
Get my next promotion at work
Refinish the furniture in our garage
Be more patient with my kids and wife

3 Current obsessions/collections
Collection: Star Wars Legos - some things never change
Obsession: work - I'm working on a high profile/high maintenance client engagement
Obsession: trying to keep my yard and garage clean and orderly

3 Random facts
There are 14 states that I have not visited.
I've been bungee jumping.
I've flown on more airplanes in the first half of this year than I have in all previous years of my life combined.

Bryant's Tag

3 Joys

Playing
Playing with friends
Loving Mom and Dad

3 Fears

A shadow
Things that are really noisy
Bad Guys

3 Goals

Be good at playing games
Get more army guys to play with
Drinking water (he's looking at the glass of water on my desk)

3 Current obsessions/collections

Cars
Playing the Wii and XBox
Do anything but listen to Mom and Dad

3 Random facts
Bryant laughed the first time he saw synchronized diving stating - "they are silly"
My granny potty trained me in a week
I hate getting my hair cut