Hofstra Film Festival

 Very cool memory for today.  Jaden won 2 awards.  Second place for best intermediate film and first place for best alternative film.

Then on top of that Alex won 2 awards as well…including first place for her film in the senior thesis film category.

Jacob starting high school volleyball again

 A little pre-season activity.  The boys went 7-1 in sets, beating St. John’s and Taunton and split 1-1 with Milford.

Another comedy club try

 Awesome to spend an evening  with Dave and Eileen tonight….but, sadly, the comedy was TERRIBLE.  

The food was not great at Six Strings either…so I think we were 0-2 on the night…glad we were with friends :)

Honestly the funniest part of the evening was the comics having to deal with a woman who was celebrating her 40th birthday who got a little aggressive in her heckling….considering how un-funny they had been up to that point, we should have bought her a drink for giving them some material to talk about.

Kristen birthday - foot bridge

So, one of Kristen’s gift this year was this little foot bridge that I made today and then placed over our little “creek” in the backyard.

I moved some of the rocks to try to create a nice flat space and the. I supported it with rocks in hopes that it won’t get weak from walking over it, but I suppose time will tell.

Kristen birthday

 We celebrated Kristen’s birthday today and probably for the first time ever she enjoyed sharing it with St Patricks Day.  I think that was because we found the Reunion Tap and Table restaurant.  It had live music and was an awesome time as Kristen and I stayed after dinner with the boys to enjoy drinks and music.

She met another birthday girl and we even met a gentleman from church who is part owner of the location - he picked up the bar tab too!  Then we had Jacob act like an Uber driver and pick us back up to come home.

An awesome day and an awesome way to celebrate with Kristen.

Level up - follow up

Well, what an awesome moment to appreciate that God both honored our decision to help lead a workshop and to give us that desired feedback that helped affirm that we were helpful.

Paul Jackson, from church, came to a session and then shared one of our teachable moments with Rachel, his wife, that same day as they got home from the conference.  

The “protect your yes” segment actually played immediately into a situation with one of their children and they felt that it was helpful and impactful to their own discussion and decision making.

How wonderful that they then chose to share with us today as well.  

Leadership conference - level up

 

Kristen and I helped 2 breakout sessions at a leadership conference at the church this weekend.

We were asked to talk about influence in parenting and enjoyed spending time working it with the Coopriders.  The discussions were interesting and we are hopeful that God used the discussions to help soon-to-be parents, current parents, grand parents and even folks that just have kids around them.

I think we enjoyed and learned as well.  Kristen and I both loved one of the Coop’s points in our talk that spoke about knowing waiter/waitress’s names as a way of both showing our kids the importance of recognizing people around as as people that God knows and loves as well as making a point to not allowing people to blend into the background…just there to help serve us.

I imagine we will make a point of working on that ourselves.

I hope others took away things that will help them too.

Feb vacation

 

This maybe wasn’t Kristen’s best Airbnb choice as the parking was non existent, the street was a mess with dead mice on the sidewalk and we were surrounded by graffiti- 

 We invited Katherine to come with us - a first for us - as a girlfriend has never been on a trip before…it was part of what made us look for 3 bedrooms in an Airbnb…which wasn’t easy to find at any kind of reasonable rate…part of why we ended up where we ended up :{

 One of the reasons we choose to go to New York for this break was to use our Broadway credits…from 2 years ago when Sheldon was perming and it was shut down due to COVID…

We went to see Harry Potter and it was incredible.  It was a 3hr 30 minute for the show with a fifteen minute intermission…so long, like wow long…but amazing.  The stage work, the special effects, the direction - all made for a memorable experience.  So was the $200 I spent in the theatre for drinks and popcorn…but someone had to pay for the Harry Potter themed carpet…. 

 Dressing up to go to town

 Our first ever forays into the subway system.  We navigated it ok…but we were very happy that Jaden and Alex were guiding us the first night.

 An awesome picture - during the daytime that day it was in the 70s temperature wise and during our 4 hrs in the theatre it dropped down to the 30’s and got windy.  No one was prepared for that except me…which is why Kristen is wearing my coat :)

 The Harry Potter stage

Graffiti near our Airbnb-for memory sake :)

Kristen and the kids got to do the Ferry during one of the days in New York while I worked from our Airbnb.

 Jaden and Alex - we only saw them for the time at the theatre…but it was a wonderful memory together.

Office update

 

While Kristen was cavorting around the states, I worked to get my office fixed up a bit.

I figured…it would be WAY better to do it while she was out of town because…well…it is just easier to not deal with the anxiety that comes with making a mess as I made shelves, and file drawers and such and took everything out of my office in support of organizing and cleaning and updating my office.

Kristen is very happy and says it is way past due…and that she is glad that it looks like a professional office now rather than a “catch-all” junk room.

Happy Valentine’s Day

 I know Kristen is on her trip - and somehow it seems we are apart for one reason or another on Valentine’s Day - but she still made sure that the boys and I were loved today :)

Also, Jacob took out his girlfriend tonight and was surprised that it was a fixed menu and had a price per person for the multiple courses.  He called me and I had to give him money to help cover for the night…but he said it was the best food he ever had, and, I imagine being the only teenagers in the restaurant helped cement a memory for them as well.

Kristen trip - part 1

 2-9 to 2-20

Kristen is away for the longest trip/time that we have ever been apart.  She is visiting with Elizabeth and Lyra in Colorado and staying with Jason and Melissa while getting to do the “auntie” thing.

The comedy scene



Went to the Comedy Scene tonight with Kristen for another Groupon activity that K bought to make us get out.  We were the very first people there….it didn't start until 8, and we were walking in the door at 7….the bar wasn't open and they weren't even ready to redeem tickets…oh well.

Unfortunately, the comedy wasn’t great.  It was expensive for Kristen to have a couple drinks, and it was bitterly cold tonight getting in to and out of the conference room where it was held.

Got K French fries on the way home to make sure there was a happy memory in there as well :) 

Happy New Year - 2022

We did make it to midnight last night and even a bit later as we hit the hot tub for a short spell after the ball dropped.

We had the pleasure of meeting Alex, Jaden’s girlfriend tonight and then saw them off this morning to head back to New York.

While Kristen is still recovering from COVID, and largely just rested for the day after getting up to do the breakfast work, Jacob and Jude…once they finally decided to start the new year by getting out of bed, did end up going out with friends to enjoy an Escape Room adventure and dinner out.

Year in books - 2021

From the Goodreads app, they provide this cool snapshot for the year.  Always nice to see a retrospective :)

51 books was a good amount of material but I am determined to to a better job getting they more non-fictions in 2022 than what I did this year.

I think 8 of the 51 were non-fiction out of this list- so, definitely a year of enjoyable reading more than anything else.

Jacob is 17

 

I love that we do a plate for each birthday. - I kind of wished we had purchased 20 plates from like a dollar store and done 1 for each birthday and then give them back to the kids for memory keepsakes.

Jacob being 17 is crazy and while I know he didn’t get to spend it how he would have liked…he did still get to sleep in, open presents, play games, eat Chinese food and brownies….and even got to have socially distanced time outside with his girlfriend today.  So - hopefully still a great birthday.  

Covid Christmas

 Trying to maintain some social distancing within the home during Christmas does NOT make for good pictures or for the best family time.

Jaden and Jude shared this couch area to open their stuff

Kristen made a beautiful tree - though very frustrating that Christmas morning one strand went out right in the middle of the tree creating a dark ring.

This is Jacob at the very top of the stairs, Jaden and Jude 2/3rds down so that I can be at the bottom to take the picture…not being too close to Jaden and Jude…while making it look almost like Jacob is near Jaden and Jude…

Jacob in his corner of the living room

Mom in the middle of everything handing out the gifts

Uncle and Aunt - again

 Welcome to the family Lyra!

Kristen is ridiculously excited and already planning her trip to visit this little angel.

Dec 23rd - what else would we be doing?

 

Jacob and I are at the urgent care awaiting Covid testing.  We got here at 7:45, stood outside in line to check in for about 30 minutes- it was coldddd!.  Came in the building and checked in, which was probably 15 minutes?  Waited in the car for about an hour, came inside to the waiting room for another hour, to finally see the nurse around 10:40.  Quick questions and testing to wait the 15 minutes for results.

Leaving at 11:00 - sadly we are positive for Covid and have to now quarantine for 10 days.  Happy holidays indeed :(

Wicked Good Challenge

 

The 18th and 19th had Jacob at his first Club volleyball tournament.  

Jacob’s team played pretty well on Saturday and won 2 of 3 matches.  I went nice and early with him…leaving the house at 6am to get to his first game…and spent till about 2 following him around to his games with Katherine and Katherine’s mom, Melissa, joining me in the sideline watching.

Sunday…while Jacob had Mom, Jaden and Jude to cheer him on, the team did not fare well.

They lost the first match in 2 sets…to the eventual champion and then played a consolation match and won that one 2-0 to close out the tournament.

Award miles

Just a fun memory

Jaden called tonight as he was working on travel plans for his January break from school.

He called about using some miles he had accumulated for signing up for a card - “I have 3,000 miles…my flight is for less than that…how do I use those miles?” 

It was just one of those things that you never have to deal with until you do…so when would you ever learn that 1 mile of award miles doesn’t equal a mile of a flight?”

Well…Jaden was today years old when he learned :)