2009 SWIM SEASON (Part One)

This has been a wild swim season. Several meets were delayed for lightning, meaning that sometimes S's last event did not conclude until after 10:00 PM. We learned just how hardcore swim team can be as we sat in the rain for 3.5 hours with umbrellas and ponchos waiting for S's next event. Despite swimming in the rain, and a "disgusting" saltwater pool, she managed a couple of personal records at that meet.

Here are some of our favorite pictures from the few good-weather meets we enjoyed this year:


Pre-race preparation (We'd love to know what she's really thinking):







A quick break in the psyching-up process to smile for the camera:





Ready, Set, Go!








And here she is nearly stopping to smile for the camera. "I wanted to look good in the pictures." That's our girl!






Some of our favorite between-race portraits:

ANOTHER PRICELESS DIALOGUE

Quite sometime ago our oldest son “A” got a little confused and started referring to Zucchini as bikini. We of course worked to correct that, but he still slips up from time to time. Tonight we began to wonder if there was really any confusion left at all. I don’t know if you can really appreciate the ‘flavor’ of this dialogue without being there, laughing hysterically and wondering whether he was really talking about Zucchini or bikinis.

A: “Hot dogs and bikinis for dinner?! Woo-hoo!”

Mr. P: “It’s Zucchini, not bikini.”

A: “We’re not having bikinis for dinner?”

Mrs. P: “Do you know what a bikini is?”

A: (After some careful reflection) “Uh, swimming suits for girls?”

Mrs. P: “What kind of swimming suits?”

A: “What kind?”

Mrs. P: “one or two piece swimming suits?”

A: “Two piece that show your belly.”

Mrs. P: “That’s right.”

A: “But we could still have bikinis for dessert!”

S: “You can’t eat bathing suits for dessert!”

A: “Not for dessert, for DINNER!”

S: “You can’t eat any kind of bathing suits for dinner or dessert, unless it were made out of candy.”

A: “Yes! We could have candy bikinis for dessert.”

S: “Or, maybe chocolate bikinis made out of the same chocolate that they make the little Easter bunnies out of.”

The edible bikini conversation went on a little longer than above, but by that point we were laughing too hard to process the entirety of the dialogue between A and S. There is nothing like having your 4 and 8 year old children discussing edible swimwear at the dinner table.

LITTLE BREAKER BOY
(plus his Trainee)

Playing with the 3.5 frames per second continuous shooting feature on our camera:

YOUTH SPORTS AT THEIR FINEST

We recently purchased a new lens for our camera. We took it out to the soccer fields last weekend for a test run.

'S' had her first try at goalie in an actual game. Here's how it went:

Getting psyched up.



Oh the anticipation!



Still waiting...



Burned near post!



Lonely despair.



A chance for redemption, but way out of position.



Things are bit more low-key for 'A':

His first sportrait.



As you can see, there is a slight height disparity between 'A' and most of his teammates.



Here is 'A' demonstrating his paternal genetics with some exceptional break-away speed!

BEAUTIFUL EASTER SUNDAY

We had a beautiful Easter Sunday. The weather was perfect. 'A' made himself sick several times by means of a sugar overdose and never seemed to regret it. Between church, Easter egg hunting and dinner preparation, we managed to find some time to take a few family pictures with the self-timer. Unfortunately, Mrs. P broke the tripod after the first shot so we had to improvise afterward. The kids were good sports with our never-ending string of "Okay, one more time." We all got a very nice laugh at Mrs. P as she ran from the back deck to try to beet the timer.

So, which one do you like best:

Bathing Suit Competition





No, I won't be modeling;) I'm competing in a blog giveaway on this blog , hoping to win this adorable suit! It's a Lime Ricki
suit. They're all about hip, funky, modest bathing suits. Spread the word and don't forget to mention I sent you :)

Projectification!

It all started with an inability to find a dual workstation computer desk that we liked. Then there was a brilliant design by Mr. P, followed by some less than brillaint cuts made by Lowes, a last minute design modication by Mrs. P and the first project was well under way.

In the meantime, we bought new appliances, which created a couple of additional projects (moving one set of cabinets, cutting another set, installing the dishwasher and replacing all of the cabinet hinges and door handles). Not wanting to miss an opportunity, Mrs. P picked up a mammoth tank-like 5 drawer filing cabinet that was in need of a "little" TLC.

For today, we'll stick with an update on the original project, the desk. The uniform reaction from every friend and neighbor who has seen it has been "Wow, that's big". Measuring 85 inches across, 30 inches tall and 24 inches deep, there is certainly nothing compact about it.

Having completed the cutting, drilling, assembling, disassembling, redrilling, reassembling, sanding, sanding, sanding, filling, sanding, we are now ready to prime and paint this baby. Constructed of 3/4 inch oak plywood, it's not the finest piece of furniture in the world, but it looks like it will serve its purpose well. Here's what it looks like so far:

HELPING HANDS

On very rare occasions our children are not only willing to help (a rarety in and of itself), but are actually eager to get to work. Since these moments are so seldom, we are sure to capture them.

GETTING BACK ON THE WAGON….

It has obviously been a long time since we’ve posted here. Unfortunately, posting to our family blog has been greatly impeded by the lack of liquidity in the global financial markets. If people would just make their mortgage payments, then our blog would be brimming with new posts.

In any event, we wanted to share a couple priceless dialogues that took place in our family today.

First, while we were on our way to church this morning, ‘A’ began with this query:

A: Does jump have two Os?
S: No. Jump is spelled J.U.M.P.
A: Oh. If our van had a button that said “Jump,” them Mommy could just push it and our van would go crazy and then it would JUMP!

Evidently he needed to know how to spell jump so he could visualize the button that Mrs. P would have to push to make the van jump.

After church, ‘S’ came into the kitchen sobbing heavily and holding her head.

Mrs. P: What happened? Did you hit your head?
S: Yes! On the power tower!
Mrs. P: How did you do that?
S: I standed up really quickly and it….!
Mrs. P: You stood up?
S: Yes! I stood up really quickly and it really hurts!
Mr. P has to turn his face away so S won’t see him laughing at Mrs. P correcting her sobbing daughter’s grammar – all the while thinking “way to get the ‘ly’ on your adverbs”.

For those of you waiting to see pictures of the new dual workstation computer desk we have been building (Grandpa P), that construction project was temporarily halted while Mrs. P (with a little help from Mr. P) installed our new dishwasher. Thanks to Grandpa N for the telephone consults!

FALL FUN AT THE HOUSE OF P

Our girl is celebrating the change of seasons. The other day she opened the front door to see leaves littering our front lawn and exclaimed “Finally! It’s really fall!” Of course most exciting to her is the fact that it means a change of wardrobe. She has been pining for her opportunity to wear sweaters, jackets and long pants.

As for our boys, it’s business as usual. With only a modest increase in the use of the childhood expletive “aawwe” from our oldest boy (or in the case of our youngest, an aggravated shriek) when required to add some additional clothing before bounding out the door (or in the case of our youngest, at being dragged back inside), they are as adventurous and mischievous as ever.

Now, on to the more interesting portion of this post, the pictures:

BOYS AND GIRLS…..

I was thinking the other day a little bit about the socialization process. I started thinking about my two oldest children and wondering how much of their personality seemed to be built-in. Have we as parents done anything to reinforce gender specific behavior in our children?

Absolutely.

But, are we really this good at it?












Perhaps.

FAMILY ALBUM

While visiting with a friend from out-of-town (the author of Rees Genre), we were asked when she could expect to see a family gallery here on the blog. Well, here we go.

I thought I would begin with the newest member of our family. For those of you who have not met our newest addition, allow me to introduce…..

P182:



Is that not the coolest computer case you’ve ever seen? Mrs. P loves the spoiler.

After seven years of faithful service to our family, we finally had to replace our old PC. Over the past few years, Mrs. P and I have built nearly a dozen computers for friends and family (including four for my office). The Antec P182 is the most interesting case I have ever worked with. Designed to maximize cooling and minimize noise, the case has an entirely unique design. While functioning extremely well, isolating the PSU in a lower chamber makes for some tricky cable management. Ultimately, we ended up with this beautiful build:



Just look at that baby gleaming in the morning sunlight!


(I did have a little difficulty getting the tripod to stand level in the grass)

Almost majestic, no?