The Crew Family

May the Force Be With You...because it is not with me!!

Jack got to pick the first pumpkin design this year. He did not make
life easy for me. He could have picked something simple like a ghost.
Oh no, Jack had to pick Star Wars. He had to pick the most challenging
Star Wars design.

I am no artist as you all know, but I tried my hand
at advanced pumpkin carving just to please my son.

The finished
product looks a little mangled in the daylight but with the lights out
you get the full effect. Jack was happy.

We took a picture and now
Darth Vader's face is sinking slowly inward. My job here is done,
until it is Aerin's turn.......

 

Aerin's 5th Birthday Party

Aerin celebrated her 5th birthday last week with a party at Pump It Up - The Inflatable Party Zone. We invited all her friends from school and they had a blast. We even got to join in the fun with the kids. Jason won the obstacle course challenge by sheer gravity. Suzanne demands a rematch, maybe for Jack's birthday! The place was great and the staff did a wonderful job of making sure the party ran smoothly. Jack was the only injury (surprise, huh?) but it was only minor. He had fun hanging with the big kids and was a real trooper. Check out the pictures here.

Nanna and Popsey just left, and boy are we tired!

Check out some of the pictures to see why!

If we can dream it, we can do it!

Hey folks, Jason here.  Just poking around the internet today on my lunch break, and I came across this wonderful tribute site to my favorite EPCOT attraction, Horizons.  This ride met an untimely demise in 1999 after several years of off-and-on operation, and was demolished to make way for the much inferior (IMHO) Mission: SPACE.  I was fortunate enough, during our time in Orlando, to catch it many times from its official close in 1994 until its final closure and demolition in 1999; and of course I remember it from the two great trips Mom, Dad, John, Jena, and I took to Disney as a family in 1989 and 1992.   I just realized my kids never got to ride this...wow.

More than anything there, I think this attraction captured the excitement and optimism I felt as a kid and still feel as an adult about how technology and ideas can be an avenue for improving lives.  Watch the ride-through (!), you'll see what I mean.  Its closure is maybe an even better metaphor for the danger posed by the gradual loss of that sense of wonder, and how it can be slowly replaced by something shiny but shallow, masquerading as progress.

Anyway, this site has lots of goodies and is worth a look if you remember how wonderful that attraction was.  I had forgotten that this was originally sponsored by GE, but was glad to find out that the loss of sponsorship wasn't the driving force behind the closure.  That would have been a little too much irony for one day! I'm having fun at GE, but sometimes I really miss making the magic...

Click here to go to the site.

War Eagle!

We enjoyed watching the Auburn game with fellow Auburn Alumni James and Christie yesterday. Wow what a game! Auburn and LSU were so evenly matched that it made for a very exciting game. With Auburn eeking out a win, we are now ranked #2. Woohoo! Go Auburn! The kids even got into the Auburn spirit. Check out some pictures.   

Life in Houston

I don't even know where to start. When I wait so long between posts, I have so much ground to cover. So you already know that we are settled into Houston, and actually have been here almost 3 months believe it or not! Aerin is about to celebrate birthday number 5 in October and she is growing into such a little girl. She enjoys her new preschool (where Suzanne is teaching a 3 year old class) so much that she almost cries when we have to leave. Her teachers are wonderful and she seems to have a cute little class. She has made some new friends at school and has started the birthday party circuit. Aerin and Jack are on the same soccer team this year. It is Aerin's second year to play and Jack's first. Aerin played goalie last week and did an awesome job. She stopped everything that came at her (about 8-10 saves) and would grab the ball and run to the edge of the goalie box to throw it back into play. It really boosted her confidence and the coach of the other team even complimented her abilities. Aerin is interested in many things and so our preparation for Halloween and what costume to pick has started already with no end in sight!

Jack is really excited about his first soccer season. He is much more aggressive on the field than Aerin and is not afraid to get in there but he is also almost the smallest one out there. He holds his own, though, and has managed to get his foot on the ball a few times. He definitely gets his exercise when he plays. Jack is not in a preschool class at the moment and is riding out the waiting list. He enjoys his "school days" in the church nursery with his friends, Walker and Joshua. Jack has many interests as well but has been thinking about Halloween costumes for quite some time. He has narrowed his choices down to Spiderman or Captain Jack Sparrow (from Disney's Pirate of the Caribbean).  I think he is still negotiating for both! While Aerin could really be happy dressed in anything, Jack is another story. Every morning it is quite an ordeal as he carefully picks out his "matching" outfit. He thinks everything should match of course (blue in the shirt goes with blue shorts). It took us a week to convince him that khaki goes with almost anything. He also likes to point out when Aerin doesn't match which never goes over well, as you can imagine.

We have made lots of new friends and enjoyed the old ones. Having James and Christie around the corner has been a blast especially now that football is back on. War Eagle! Aerin and Jack sing the whole Auburn fight song and the Cincinnati Bengals Who Dey chant. I can't imagine where they get their love for sports! Anyway, check out our new pictures where you will see soccer practice, the first game, Jack's Remote Control Rally Race, playing in the Market Street Fountains, a Veggie Tales encounter, Baby Wesley Wingo and more!

A Quick Update

Hi all,

Sue is working on some updated pictures and a post for the next day or so, but I thought I'd drop a quick note. 

Not a day goes by that we aren't left laughing about something the kids have said, and I'd really like to capture some of that here.  I added a new section at the top right of this page, "Random Quotes".  Check out the quote from Jack that nearly caused me to choke on water!

Also, I know no one understands the business I'm rotating through right now.  Suzanne sent out a link on Gasification, but it left folks more confused than before!  The following GE video podcast episode from our Global Research Center is more clear, I think.  Basically, this business makes a product which converts coal into synthetic natural gas, which we can burn in a power plant to make electricity.  The benefit is that we can greatly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from a coal plant using this method, at about the same cost.  You'll need Quicktime to view the following file...

GE Podcast on "Cleaner Coal" (requires Quicktime)

What's going on?

Whew! We made it through yet another move and are no worse for the wear (except one broken tv and a stolen trash can)! We are finally all settled in here in Houston and we love Texas so far. We have managed to find our way around pretty well especially since we figured out how the feeder roads work here!  Our last week in KC was fun. Here are some pictures of Father's Day, which was spent with our Orlando-turned-Kansas City friends Jason and Scharme and Baby Hailey. The trip down was pretty uneventful. We saw a lot of Oklahoma land, we ate at the world's largest McDonald's and we visited with some friends of ours in Dallas. Since we have been in Houston we have unpacked, and found all of the basic necessities like SuperTarget and Home Depot. Our old friends James and Christie and their very new baby Wesley, live in the same neighborhood as us. We have enjoyed hanging out with them and having them near has really helped us settle in faster. We went to a parade on the 4th of July in The Woodlands, which is right next to us. We were expecting a little, short parade but were pleasantly surprised to find it was quite an interesting and long parade. The kids really liked the costumed characters that walked around before the parade started.  All in all, we are doing well and enjoying Texas. I'll leave you with a picture of the kids new favorite hobby, washing the car with daddy.

Our Last Week in KC

We have had a blast our last week here in the Show Me State. We had a great time playing with Aliyah at the Children's Wonderscope Museum. It was an old school converted into a museum where every classroom was a different exhibit. There was a pretend grocery store and bank, a room where you could play with golf balls on all kinds of different slopes and loops, a space/crater room, a room dedicated to health, a room dedicated to outdoors and gardening, a craft room, and lots more. We also went to the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead. It was a beautiful petting farm/garden with lots of animals to interact with. The kids rode mini tractors in a tractor race and got to feed some baby goats. There was a cool playground there also with lots of different springy animals you ride on and I heard Aerin tell Aliyah, "The Duck has more spring action!" She is a mess. Look for the picture of Aerin and her lucky duck. Here are the pictures from both adventures. 

We were also able to finally get a hold of some pictures from Jenilee's wedding. The kids looked really cute and had a blast dancing at the reception. Thanks to Aunt Allie for the pictures!

As you can see, we are trying to get better at posting on a regular basis. However, due our move to Houston which esssentially starts tomorrow, we will not update again until we get settled in later next week. I am sure we will have some interesting stories to tell by then!

A playdate at the sprayground

Today we went to a sprayground/spray park here in KC. The kids had a blast. They should have these things at every park for cooling off during the summer.  We went with some friends of ours that we met through a local playgroup. The kids, Amanda and Dino, also went to school with Aerin and Jack. Aerin and Amanda became fast friends and Jack and Dino were just along for the ride. They all get along great and we will surely miss them when we leave.  Here are some pictures of today's adventures.