Spring Break

I am taking the week off during the kids spring break. On Monday we went to the zoo with Penny and Madison.

Then on Wednesday we left for a trip to Tampa/St. Pete and Sarasota. We had lunch at La Teresita in Tampa and walked around downtown St. Petersburg and The Pier area. We are staying at the Hilton on the bayfront across from the formerly named Al Lang Stadium.

Today we visited De Soto National Memorial in Bradenton and learned about some Spanish history and saw a live musket demonstration. We then went out to St. Pete Beach in Treasure Island and had some pizza from Original Pizza.

Tonight we are watching the Rays play the Baltimore Orioles. The first 10,000 fans received a Super Cow Bell (pictured) sponsored by Chick-fil-a. Jeff Niemann started for the Rays but left in the 2nd inning after getting hit by a Miguel Tejada line drive. The Rays are leading 2-1 in the bottom of the 4th.

Opening Day for Softball

The season started this afternoon with a beautiful afternoon. Ashlyn's team is the Hot Rods and they won 6-2. I am an assistant coach and there are 15 girls on the 8U (8 and under) team. The age range is 6-8 I believe. Ashlyn had a good time playing.

Lego Magazine

About 2 months ago I signed Ethan up for a free, 2-year subscription to the Lego magazine. After a very long wait by his standards he finally received it in the mail and was very excited. From what I understand, he was checking the mail saw it and yelled to his sister for her to get everything else. He had what he was looking for.

Mark's Basketball League

Our score from week 1 was 61-37 not 61-32 according to the weekly newsletter. Also a new feature Christ's Church is doing this season is a player of the week for each division. I was named POTW for Week 1 in our division.

Our game tonight was against one of the better teams in our division. We prevailed 59-58 in double overtime. The rules for OT are 3 minutes for the 1st OT and then 1 minute for each OT after that. We actually found ourselves down 29-8 with about 7 or so minutes to play in the first half. By halftime we had cut the lead to 30-22. We then went up 54-50 but saw the other team tie it at the end of regulation. I scored 17 and went 2-3 at the line. I think I had 5 boards again and made 3 3-pointers. I had a poor shooting night. I had one short stretch in the 2nd half when I scored 11 quick points on 3 threes and a two.

Yes...I finally caught up...

It is much easier to fall behind then to stay current much less catch up on blog postings. And yes since I am using this blog to chronicle various events, things about family, etc. I have backdated postings to make sure they are in the time frame of when it happened. My biggest holdup tends to be wanting to get pictures with a post which works great with a camera phone but causes a delay with a non-wifi digital camera. So going forward I may just have to publish a post without the picture for expediency.

I finished getting up to date while listening to the Canadian national anthem for the curling team's gold medal. At which point a certain someone commented "what I don't understand is they are in Canada but they are singing the national anthem in English."

Ethan & Ashlyn...learning to play basketball

We bought an adjustable goal for the kids at Christmas...well we actually bought it the day after Thanksgiving but gave it to them as an early Christmas present. Ashlyn of course could make baskets with the rim at 8 feet but Ethan struggled to get it up that high. A few weeks back he told us he made a basket but his first basket was witnessed on Valentine's Day. That same day, Gina raised the rim to 10 feet for a while and Ashlyn made it at that height for the first time. Yesterday Ethan called me at work to let me know he made 20 shots with the rim at 8 feet. Gina and Ashlyn stayed outside counting the number he made until he hit 20. Needless to say he was very excited. Of course I told Ashlyn her practice needed to be making 100 shots each day. I think the reaction was along the lines of that is too many.

Christ's Church Basketball League - Game 1

Our season kicked off last night with a 61-32 victory. We were up 38-10 at halftime. We are in Division 3 (the lowest). Of course since we don't have guys who can dunk and basically since I am the youngest or second youngest guy on the team at 38y/9m it is best that we avoid D1 and D2. Team members are Rob Scoonover, John Shields, Greg Stuart, David Hudson, Jim Griffin, David Putz and myself. And as of this morning we picked up Milton Bullard...he brings size and youth...now I am for sure not the youngest. Last night we played Panda Express which was probably a mid-20s-30 year old team. They could not keep up with our fast break offense. They had me down for 27 points, 5 boards and 2 assists. 2-3 at the line, and 3 3-pointers. John had 19 points. And my point guard David was racking up the assists all night long. Last year we basically played 3 on 5 the whole game with no subs so it was nice being able to get a rest during the game. Yes we have 5 on the court at all times last year but 3 on 5 gives you an idea of the rest of the team from last year.

2009 tax return...e-file complete!

Not an exciting post but a post nonetheless before the end of January. I'll strive to post more often. I actually have drafts saved just haven't posted them. Of course that doesn't do a lot of good.

As for the tax return, it was e-filed this evening which establishes a new record for how early it was done. I've come a long way from the days of driving to the post office in the 11 pm hour on April 15th.

2009 Christmas Letter

We hope this letter finds you full of joy during this season of remembering the gift God gave us. We have had a fun and busy year.

Ashlyn has kept us busy watching her in all the sports she enjoys. She plays basketball, softball, swim team ( this summer, it was a challenge) and soccer. She is in 2^nd grade and is doing very well in school. She is a little bookworm and also enjoys writing.

Ethan played soccer again this fall and enjoyed running around on the field, not always following the ball. He is in kindergarten and has adjusted to the length of the day and seems to enjoy himself, he is doing great. He spends his time playing Lego's and jumping around out of excitement.

Mark has been busy with work, he is working 4 ten hour days. It is nice to have him around the house for three days every weekend. He still enjoys playing basketball and at certain times during the year he plays 3or 4 times a week. In the spring he and a group of guys went to watch Spring Training baseball games. This fall his boss invited him to a number of Jacksonville Jaguar games, he has kindly taken Ashlyn to one and the whole family to another. We all enjoyed getting to go, it was the kids' first professional football game.

Gina has stayed busy getting the kids to their activities, trying to keep the house somewhat cleaned and walking whenever possible. She also volunteers once a week in Ashlyn's classroom and helps with parties and other activities. Once a month a group of friends gets together to scrapbook, which has been great fun and very productive. She still helps with AWANA at church and learns a lot from that group of 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th graders.

This year we were able to take a few trips. In May we went to Tampa and spent some time at the beach and we watched a Tampa Rays baseball game. In July we went to Minnesota and met Marks' parents and his brother Bruce and his wife to celebrate his parents 50^th wedding anniversary. We all had a great time visiting with relatives in Minnesota, the temperature was a welcome relief from Florida's extreme heat in July. We stayed on the farm with Mark's uncle, which was relaxing. We also spent a few days at the lake, which was beautiful. Then we made a stop in Minneapolis and of course we watched the Minnesota Twins play a game. In September we went to Cocoa Beach and stayed at the beach and visited the Kennedy Space Center. We all enjoyed learning a little about the space program. For Thanksgiving we made a trip over to visit with Mark's parents, his brother and sister and their families. We will spend Christmas with Gina's parents and her sister Julie's family. We all look forward to this time, especially the kids. The kids always plan a Christmas nativity program with their cousins for all of us to enjoy.

We wish you peace in the coming year. We pray that you might come to know personally the One whom this season is about, Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Love,

Mark, Gina, Ashlyn and Ethan

Jaguars vs Colts (13-0)

On the way to tailgate before the Jaguars-Colts game tonight. And as an added bonus will hopefully get to see my fantasy football playoff game off to a good start.