Been a while

Sorry for the big delay between posts, but I've been busy busy busy. The house is finally done! We're somewhat moved in, enough that we are living there now! We're moving the rest of our stuff during the evenings and Deanna is doing some during the day. We're so happy that it's finally done! The house is wonderful, though there are a couple of minor things that need finishing, the power company cut down some trees that are still laying around, I&J is going to chip them in a couple of weeks, and they also need to fix the grade by the basement door to outside. The dishwasher leaks a little, but it is usable until Sears can come fix it. We're supposed to be getting our washers and dryers, the satellite TV hookup, and the landline phone installed today. I'm going to be getting Verizon wireless broadband instead of satellite modem, less equipment, and hopefully EVDO will be out where we are before long. Even still, the 1X-RTT isn't bad, about 2x a 56k modem, and I don't download big stuff that often. I need to get a LP tank installed for the fireplace and the generator that my father-in-law is getting for us.

Meagan, Brenna, Sarah and I are all still doing Karate, though Sarah is going to be taking a break to play soccer this fall. Riley and Eryn are also going to be playing, and I am going to be coaching. Should make for a busy couple of months, with us still moving in and all. School has already started for the older 3 girls, and Riley and Eryn will be starting pre-school on the 30th. Deanna's going to be lonely during the day while they are gone, but she will still have Lissa for a couple more years.

That's all for now, as you can see, I've been quite busy. Hopefully I'll be able to post a bit more regularly now that the house is finished.

Wedding

Chuck and Claire's wedding was on Saturday (6/3), it was nice, but
long. I was one of the groomsmen. Meagan and Brenna were junior
bridesmaids, and Sarah was a flower girl. I forgot to drop off the kids
shoes the night before like we were supposed to do, but it worked out
OK, they just took pictures barefoot. Debra had to bring the twins down
about an half hour before the wedding anyway, so they had their shoes
for that. The Men's Warehouse gave one of the groomsmen a red tux
instead of a blue one, and didn't have any more of the blues left. They
ended up bringing a charcoal gray one, and Chuck wore that so the
groomsmen would be the same color. Turned out OK in the end.

Kids and I have tests for our next belt levels coming up on Thursday.
Mr. Craddock says the kids are all ready, I know I am. I could almost
test for Orange instead of Yellow, but I'm missing one kata, and I don't
think I've done some of the others long enough to be at orange level
with them.

House

The house is coming along nicely.  They have most of the interior done, Frank is working on the HVAC now.  They need to get an electrician in to put in our second panel for the generator, and the plumber needs to finish up and hook up our water heater.  Deanna is going to paint the girls rooms this weekend so she can have that done before they get the carpet in.  The porch looks really nice, the side one should have a nice view of the creek once they finish clearing.  I'm really looking forward to getting  moved in.

House

Woo Hoo!! The house got delivered today! Three of the four pieces were waiting in the road across the street from my driveway when I drove home. The 4th arrived a couple of hours later, and the truck pulling it broke down upon arrival. Unfortunately that was one of the bottom pieces, so they didn't actually get the house set on the foundation today, but they did manage to get all the trucks on the property (I didn't see this, Deanna did. I'd like to know how they got them all in there, going to have to look in the morning). The crane they were going to use unfortunately has a job with VDOT tomorrow, so they may not get it put on the foundation until Friday. Hopefully things will progress quickly from there. I've talked to one of the plumbing guys about getting the tankless water heaters, and he is going to be getting me prices. I'm also talking to ANOTHER plumber (why we have 2 I don't know) about placement of the rough-in plumbing for the bathroom in the basement. Unfortunately the septic tank doesn't sit low enough to have the bathroom in the corner we wanted it (the one under the master bath), so it looks like they're going to be running pipes through the basement ceiling to the other side of the basement. Ah well. We're all very excited that it is finally here!!

House

Been meaning to write about this, just haven't had time to get to it until now.  We're finally seeing some progress on the house, the basement walls are up, and hopefully the plumbing will be in soon.  Still haven't seen any additional clearing. I'm going to call Ian tomorrow and find out what's going on with that.  I'm hoping everything is done by June, but we'll see.  The kids are writing down what they want for a playground, I'm going to make them something nice.

Karate

The white belts in the adult class got their green stripe on Tuesday. On Thursday we got to spar for the first time since I joined the class. It was fun, but I was against a yellow belt that was about 14, so not much challenge. Next time I'm going to try to go against one of the adult yellow belts, or maybe one of the higher up students, or the teachers. I really want to get some good sparring time in, I like doing it.

House

Still waiting...

Karate going ok, one of the yellow belts annoys me, I will treat it as a learning experience. I have learned Kihon 1 (though I'd like to know what it's actual name is instead of it's number. My previous training in Tae Kwan Do interferes sometimes, as I tend to take too wide a stance, and twist my torso.

Kids are doing well, Meagan is having some trouble with the front leg muate, but doing well overall. She has a tendancy to interrupt the instructor though, going to get her in trouble at some point, but I think he's making allowance for them at the moment.

I don't think Sarah likes it quite as much as she did when Brenna and Meagan were in her class, but she still seems to be having fun with it.

Karate

Meagan and Brenna moved up to the adult class tonight, and I started my first class. The 3 of us went off separately with a green belt to go over the basic blocks and stances. I think Meagan will enjoy being in the older class, I'm not sure about Brenna though. She says she likes it, but I think she would have more fun in the kids class. She is Meagan's size, but still only 9, that 18 months makes a good bit of difference in maturity between the two of them. Sarah is still in the kids class, and she still enjoys going. While we are practicing she watches stuff on our portable DVD player, the other two do while she is practicing. I'm just glad they are all having a good time. I'm going to see if I can get them to practice with me in the evenings some now, they haven't really been doing that on their own.

House again

When my parents came by to drop off the kids today, I took them down to have a look at what had been done so far.  As we were walking back, I happened to look down the property line, and noticed that a great deal of the driveway was on the wrong side of the property line, so I'm going to have to get the construction people to move the driveway yet again.  I already had to have them move the entrance because they had that too far into my neighbors property according to the easement we have from them.  This is on top of them not knowing that they were supposed to have cleared 2 acres of land around the house which they are going to have to come back and do.  Hopefully they can get it all done at one time.

House

Well, the house is getting closer and closer. The closing went though just fine, and they have the hole dug for the basement. Unfortunately they couldn't put it exactly where we wanted it, as we have lots of shale clay in the area. They had to move it a bit closer to our property line (thankfully the one we share with my sister-in-law), and twist the house a bit, which has become a bit more problematic than the moving of the site. The door out of the basement now has to be on the right hand wall, as the property slopes from left to right, so if it was put on the back wall there would have to be retaining walls. We were planning on having the electrical and HVAC stuff in the back right corner, but now the door is going in that area, so I want the interior HVAC in the back left corner. The master bedroom is on the left hand side of the house, so having the outside unit over there may not be a good idea, although it would be near master bathroom, as that is what is against the back wall. The house is supposed to be on site sometime this month! Yay!

I'm going to be putting in 2 on-demand water heaters, one near the master bedroom, and one near the upstairs bathroom. I'm looking at a 2 model 180's, I think they should do quite well.

Skiing

Meagan, Brenna, Sarah, my parents, and me went skiing to Wintergreen yesterday. Once they had their lesson and went down the hill once after that they all had a good time. It was a pretty good day for it, just a little windy. Temperature was just a bit below freezing, cold enough for them to make snow. Meagan had the hang of turning for the most part by the time we left, and was doing pretty well. Brenna and Sarah we're still falling most of the time when they turned, but had improved a good bit during the day. On our last run right after lunch they were all tired, Brenna and Sarah not doing as well. They all said they wanted to go again, don't know if we'll get a chance this season or not. I think I will try snowboarding next time we go.

House

Well, got a new set of documents to the loan officer today, as they needed more recent copies of everything I had given them before because it has taken so long to get the release approved. Thankfully it was all easy to get my hands on. I love doing everything online. Now if ING would just do checking accounts.
I've been doing some Tai Chi lately, and I need to get back into doing yoga, my back has started bothering me again, due to me sitting almost all day long no doubt. The 90 minute round trip drive doesn't help, but at least I don't have to deal with much traffic, that would put me over the edge. I'm going to ask Wachovia again about getting remote access to their network so I can work from home sometimes. Would be nice to be able to work from home once or twice a week again.

Karate

The kids are doing well in Karate. Meagan and Brenna are making good progress. Sarah is doing well also, but I think she is tired by the time we get there, so is somewhat distracted, jumping around and playing games. Hopefully Meagan and Brenna will be ready to get into the 11+ program soon so I can start taking it with them.

Good news on the house today, Debra and Joe's bank approved the partial release and the documents should be at the title agency tomorrow to be signed and filed with the county. We are supposed to close on the house next Thursday, and hopefully building will proceed quickly from there! I am very excited and definitely ready to get into my own house again.

Karate

I got the kids signed up for Shinki-Ryu Karate, with a 9th level black belt as the soke. He teaches class at the school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I like his philosophy, he doesn't just give out belts for learning how to punch and kick, the students have to follow many of the Japanese traditions in order to progress. They have to actually keep track of altruistic behaviour to people outside the family, things they do to help their family, and a number of other things that aren't done at most Karate schools. He also teaches them respect and responsibilty, which is lacking in a lot of teaching. I will start taking the class as well when Meagan and Brenna are ready to move up to the advanced class, which is currently taught right after the younger students class.

Soccer and Junior Bridesmaids

Well, the last games of the season were yesterday. Brenna's team won, 4-0, Sarah's team lost 9-7 (a good game, high scoring, but we lost focus at the end), and Meagan's lost 2-0. Unfortunately Meagan's team didn't win a game all season. Brenna and Sarah's teams got there trophies for the year yesterday, but Meagan's coach was at a tournament, so they will be getting theirs Monday night at Roma's.

Meagan and Brenna had to go get fitted for their Junior Bridesmaids dresses for Chuck and Claire's wedding. They're getting married June 3 2006. Niki has set the date for her wedding, the weekend before Labor day 2006, can't remember if it's Saturday or Sunday. This is the house that they're renting for the relatives to stay in for the week. They're doing a beach wedding, should be neat.
Joe's father passed away on Thursday, he and Debra and Lissa left today to go up to MA. They were going up on Tuesday, so Joe is upset that he didn't get to see him again. Deanna says it's going to be strange without Debra and Lissa around.
Riley is doing really well with potty training, she has been sleeping in "big girl" panties for a while, and has only had a couple of accidents. We're still trying to deal with Eryn's pooping problem, we're giving her 2 doses a day of senokot to soften things up so she can get some control over things. She will pee if you prompt her, but she's been in pull-ups for a while so doesn't worry about it if you don't ask her. Hopefully things will get resolved in the next 2 months.

Soccer Saturday

Both Brenna and Sarah's teams won today. Sarah did a pretty good job, she still has some issues with following the person with the ball instead of kicking it away from them, but she did pretty well anyway. Brenna looked like she was playing some offense today, as was Meagan. Meagan's team was playing one that was undefeated, so the 4-0 loss wasn't too bad for them.
Brenna's coach had a pizza lunch for them, we were late because Brenna changed her mind on whether she wanted to go or not 3 times. I went with the kids and my parents, Deanna and Debra went to Potomic Mills with Lissa to get some Christmas shopping done. We had a good lunch, kids behaved well. Next week is the last soccer game of the season, so I hope Meagan's team wins so they can at least get one win.

Weekend

We had a busy weekend, soccer on saturday, camping in the yard saturday night, and Kings Dominion on sunday.

Breanna's team won, Meagan's and Sarah's both lost, Meagan was 3-1 I think, and Sarah's was 3-2. I saw some of the game before Sarah's, in the same league, the two best teams were playing, it was quite something to watch. They were really good for their age range. Meagan's team didn't play as well as they did last week, but they did ok. I didn't get to watch much of Brenna's game, it started in the middle of Meagan's, and Sarah's started right after it ended, so I had to go help them get ready. Games were late last week, 10:00, 10:30 and 11:30.

Because of the late games, I decided not to try camping at another location, as it was dark before Deanna got back from doing the grocery shopping this was a good plan. We had hamburgers and smores, the kids put the tent up pretty much by themselves, but the air pump broke right before they were done inflating the last air mattress. This was the one Sarah and I were sleeping on. I tried blowing it up, and got it inflated, but they have both a screw-on top and a valve for something, and I think I forgot to plug the valve, either that or it has a hole in it, and it deflated. I don't do well sleeping on the ground, I was waking up every hour or so.

Sunday we went to Kings Dominion, it was the last day of the season, and season passholders only. It was quite a bit less crowded than normal. The twins and lissa got to ride 3 or 4 rides, then we got lunch. After lunch Meagan, Debra, David and I rode the Volcano, then Deanna rode the scrambler with Brenna and Sarah. Meagan and David then went to ride the Rebel Yell and Hypersonic, Deanna and Sarah rode the Triple Spin, and the rest of us rode on the Carosel. The last thing we did was see the Spongebob 3D movie and get ice cream and funnel cake. Everyone had a good time, we had a pretty good weekend.

My mom was finishing up her certifications so she could teach water aerobics, that's why the kids were home, and she finished successfully. Congratulations Mom!

I got a call from my cousin Niki yesterday, she got engaged (I presume over the weekend), and is going to be getting married this summer. I jokingly asked her when the kids were coming (joking since she's always said she's not having any), and she said the were going to probably start trying next winter! Cool! I know Kenny is happy, as his son is also getting married this summer, both kids getting married in the same year. Congratulations Niki!

Happy Birthday Dad!

My Dad had his 58th birthday yesterday on Samhain, happy birthday dad!

Sarah's team played the only undefeated team in her league, they did pretty well considering. They have improved a lot since they started. Sarah has a lot of fun with it, she just needs to work on kicking the ball instead of chasing it. Unfortunately, they won't be having any more practices, as it will be getting dark about the time practice is supposed to start. Brenna's team won 4-3, and she got to play a lot during the game. She still needs work on going after the ball, and on running. Meagan's team played the Stars yet again, I think they have played them 3 out of the last 4 games we've been to. They lost again, but Meagan is continuing to improve every game. She was playing offense this week, and did pretty well, but didn't score. I think Meagan and Brenna would both benefit from running track, maybe Meagan will be able to do that for the middle school next year.

Well, everything is done for the mortgage except for the actual closing itself, for which I need to pick a title agency and give their name to the bank. Once that is done the building will get rolling. I'm about to make the call for that now.

Flock

I just downloaded the Flock browser, based on the source for mozilla firefox. It has blogging built in, and rss aggregator, integration with del.icio.us, and a couple other cool features, but it is currently pre-beta. It seems pretty fast loading web pages, so we'll see how it goes.

Technorati Tags: browser, flock, beta

Eryn and Riley on the beach.