Tag Archives: Family

Out of state

January 5, 2013Family, FunFamily, Fun, Snow Suckswarren

I have been pretty behind on saying much, but we have been busy! We have been on holiday vacation! We stayed at home for Christmas as we always do. I don’t like to rush around and do much of anything on Christmas day…it impedes my playing with my new toys/eating cookies/napping. This year, a few days after Christmas, we went to visit my brother and sister-in-law in Maryland (my parents met us there too). I mentioned in my last post about the snow storm…let me complain again…it sucked. A normally 6 hour drive took us 11 hours. Here is why:

Anyhow, once we got there, we had a great time. The boys stayed at home and ran the tractor, cleaned the chicken coop, drank…mountain dew. I had another run-in with an immovable object and my head…namely the chicken coop. Once again, I lost though it was slightly less gross/severe this time.

The ladies went on in to Washington DC to check out the art museums and enjoy the humanity around them on the metro.

We had a really great time and didn’t drink too much…mountain dew. Everyone made it home safe (in a second fairly bad snow storm) so I call it a success!

We have a teenager in the house!

December 17, 2012Family, ThoughtsFamily, Thoughtswarren

Just a few days ago, Isaac crossed over into teen-hood. Some folks dread the teen transition, but for us, we see Isaac becoming much more enjoyable. The boy was a bit wild when he was young, but he has settled down into an awesome kid! We give Isaac some room and let him be around us when he wants and be alone when he wants. I don’t know if we are just fortunate or if other folks try to push their growing kid into something they are not. Whichever way it goes, I am so thrilled that Isaac is growing into a pretty great young adult.

Isaac was born under duress. You can read more about that here. When he was born, he was 19 inches. In a mere 13 years, he has grown to 5’8″. That’s is just a little shorter than I am. He wears a size 14 shoe. That’s bigger than what I wear. I am not sure when he will grow into his feet, but I think he is on a pretty wild path!

I don’t know what is ahead of us, but I know that I am so proud of both kids and love them more than anything. I love being able to watch them grow into ~~real people~~ adults and to be a part of such wonderful lives!

Hide the pickle

December 14, 2012Family, FunChristmas, Family, Fun, It's a Family Traditionwarren

We like to play hide the pickle at our house. It’s an old tradition meant for the whole family to enjoy. We sometimes play hide the pickle when guests come to visit also. Gosh, I love to play hide the pickle!

When we lived in Nashville, we had a friend who worked part-time at a place that sold Christmas ornaments. One night at a get-together, she asked if we wanted to play hide the pickle. Being young and carefree, we eagerly agreed. She gave us a box with a glass pickle inside. I had never heard of the tradition but apparently folks back in the old country would hide a glass pickle ornament somewhere in their Christmas tree (check this out for an explanation).

I think whoever finds it has to clean the kitchen or do push-ups or something like that. The kids love that of course! So, we put our tree up the other night. Only since we moved back to West-by-God-Virginia have we had a real tree in the house for Christmas. We headed to the farmers’ market to get a tree grown in WV (which isn’t all of them at the market) the other night and finished decorating it finally. The finishing touch was for me to hide the pickle deep in the tree which delighted Abigail. Really, it’s a great tradition and one for which I am thankful!

Well friends, I don’t know about the people with whom you spend time, but if they ever ask you if you want to play hide the pickle, cautiously nod your head and see what happens!

Some fancy earrings

December 12, 2012Family, FunFamily, Fun, Yikes!warren

The other day, after my birthday hootenanny, my wife and kids only complained a few minutes (in honor of my day) when I said I wanted to roam about aimlessly in the local Cabela’s store. The Cabela’s people put on quite a show and I like looking at all of the things that I may buy cheaper elsewhere. There is something cool about actually fondling the products you are considering purchasing.

Anyhow, we all wandered by the fishing area where Abigail happened upon a lovely display of earrings they had out on display. She was amazed at how many varieties they had and how soft and fluffy they were. “Do they just leave them out in the open like that?” she asked. As Emily and I turned to see what she was talking about, we noticed that she had found the fly-fishing display and was holding one of the flies up to her ear to see how it would look. Thankfully she didn’t end up with a hook in her finger! I guess you could wear flies in your ears and they would be pretty cheap as earrings go. You’d better not walk too close to a stream though or a hungry trout may jump out of the water wanting a kiss!

What I did on my birthday

December 6, 2012FamilyFamilywarren

I recently completed another trip around the sun. I am in favor of more trips as the alternative is not so good. Anyhow, this birthday, I had the pleasure of hearing Abigail sing in the annual Appalachian Children’s Chorus Christmas concert at the Clay Center here in the city. Abigail loves music and has been singing lots in preparation for this concert. It is so cool that she has the opportunity to perform in front of a large crowd in a first-class facility.

12_03_2012 055 — Bad pictures protect anonymity, right?

I did enjoy a birthday party at a local restaurant with some of my family several days after my actual birthdate and that was cool of course. It’s really been a week-long celebration of, well, me! It’s ok though, I am worth it!

So, anyhow, back to the concert. Abigail is a part of another musical group which performs Wednesday night as well. None of us knows the songs she’ll be performing or how this concert will proceed. It’s like a surprise present! Birthday presents when you are a kid are cool, but I think I get this adult thing a little now…the best gift is hanging with the kids and seeing them doing things they love! I still think I mostly think about things as if I were a 14 year old, but every now and then, I get to be an adult and it’s pretty cool!

Right now

November 28, 2012Family, ThoughtsFamily, Thoughtswarren

It was a busy holiday weekend…but we were actually most busy at finally relaxing. I mean, we had things we had to do, here and there including the annual turkey gorge which was awesome as always. We also took several naps, stayed up too late watching silly stuff on HBO and slept in every day. I am thankful for so many things this Thanksgiving, but, of course, I am most thankful for my family.

My Dad turned 70 the day after Thanksgiving. He had cancer a dozen years ago and very nearly lost the battle. He has some troubles as a result, but I am thankful that I was able to celebrate his 70th birthday with him and the rest of my family in PA.

It’s funny, the small things that we do when we are with family. In PA, we had a great time shooting a new gun I got. We all took our turn shooting and we all shot about the same…awful. Dad tried to show Abigail some pointers on shooting but she had a mind of her own, of course. Mom got to laughing and her shot was not helped by that at all either. It was really nice just standing around in our funny looking shooting muffs, laughing at each other.

Taking our annual neighborhood walk…Abigail is almost too big to carry!

We spent Thanksgiving day with Emily’s people in WV. There were about 20 of us who spent time eating too much and snoozing wherever we could find space. We pretended to watch the Lions lose and we ate too much…did I mention that? Those of us who weren’t comatose took a walk around the neighborhood as we always do. It’s the same neighborhood were Emily’s mom and dad and aunt grew up. I always love to hear stories about how the area was when they were young. We talked about old times and new times and how glad we are to be able to just spend time together.

It’s funny how just a couple of things that we do together as family mean so much to me and to all of us. I love to be where I am and when I am. I am thankful for right now and for all of the people with whom I am fortunate enough to share right now!

Is it really over?

October 24, 2012Family, FunFamily, Funwarren

I have been pretty lax on writing for the past…oh…3 months or so. It’s all because of soccer. Particularly when we started the season at the beginning of August, we had something soccer related 6 days a week. Even in the middle of the season, we were running at least 5. Since I was one of the middle school coaches for Isaac’s team, I was at every practice with the boy so everything else sort of fell by the wayside. I loved spending the time with Isaac but we are all tired I think.

09_27_2012 016 — Kinda looks like Friday night lights but it’s better…it’s soccer!

So, Monday night was his last game and Wednesday night is the overall last game for the team (we have one varsity and two jv teams). To say the least, we will be dancing when the season ends (oh yeah, except the fact that we are in the play-offs). I am proud of the team for which I was responsible. Our season ended 7-0-2 which is pretty great I think. It’s all in the coaching of course.

Abigail is in recreation league soccer which is much less demanding but that season ends this weekend too! Hooray for freedom. Now we can enjoy the short rainy days and sinus infections we all seem to get! At least we can all huddle under blankets on the couch as a family, watching the weather channel hoping for nice weather…and the return of soccer season.

Can you hear me now?

October 18, 2012Awesome, Family, TechnologyAwesome, Family, Technologywarren

Isaac was born early and under very hard conditions. You can read most of the details here. We had to make many hard decisions and face many hard realities when he was born. We were told that he would likely have a variety of issues that might present themselves as a result of his premature birth and the subsequent treatment to save his life.

Hearing aid box — His hearing aids came in a cool box!

As it turns out, Isaac does have one issue that resulted from some of his treatments. During his time in the NICU when he was most critical, we had to sign several releases acknowledging that some of the meds they were giving Isaac may result in his being deaf. In fact, he does have moderate hearing loss in both ears and it centers around higher frequencies…right where most voices tend to fall. As you can imagine, that makes school and sports teams and even home life sort of interesting.

Hearing aids are not noticeable — You can barely see the wire into his ear

Now Isaac has never been a particularly organized kid. He loses his shoes almost daily. Sometimes he even misplaces his toothbrush if you can imagine. We were hesitant to get him hearing aids when he was younger for that reason. Now that he is in middle school though, he seems to be rounding the corner on keeping track of himself. The school situation was becoming more of an issue as well. The county had been making accommodations for him and provided in-school sound systems in his classrooms but it became hard to manage and he didn’t enjoy the extra attention that went along with it.

Hearing aid behind his ear — The only visible part and he may just grow his hair out some

So, we decided it was time to do something. Last week, Isaac was fitted for new hearing aids for both ears. They are very inconspicuous and work super well. I think the best thing was when we first walked outside from the doctor’s office. The office is near an interstate and Isaac stepped out and immediately looked around, sort of confused. He asked me what the hum was. He was truly shocked and neither of us realized how much he had been missing…I only wish his first “sound realization” had been something other than the traffic noise from the interstate. Still, it sort of made me happy just to see that he was finally going to hear like me!

Soccerific

October 5, 2012FamilyFamilywarren

We do soccer. Since the kids were 4 or 5, we have played spring and fall ball and the last few years, we have played indoor winter soccer. It’s funny how soccer works in our house. A few weeks before each season starts, we are ready to go! Soccer can’t come soon enough. About midway through, I (for one) am done with it. I mean, we finish it off, but I am ready to play the last game usually about the time we still have 5 games left. This year is taking even more energy as I am one of the middle school coaches for Isaac’s team.

Anyhow, this season has only a few weeks left and it sort of shows in my mood. This season, however, we had a little bit of a mid-season bump (in a good way). Abigail plays on a pretty good all-girl team. At her age level, all teams in the area play in a pretty big tournament mid-way through the season. It’s sort of a weekend of chaotic soccer, and, if we are lucky, rain and mud (but not this year!)

So, she played all weekend, last weekend. The team won and then won again, etc. When it all shook out in the end, Abigail’s team was the first place team! I think her favorite part was the cool trophy she got!

It’s super fun to watch the girls’ games because they provide their own cheerleading corps! Whoever is not actively playing at a given moment cheers on the sidelines. Sometimes they build pyramids and sometimes they just vibrate. Soccer season is long and sometimes tiring, but once in a while, we catch a little bit of the vibration as parents and it is soccerific!

Soccer

September 17, 2012FamilyFamilywarren

Aside from our cabin, soccer has been keeping us busy. Isaac is on the middle school team this year, just like he was last year. The difference this year is that I am one of the coaches. Two of the coaches from last year had kids on the team that moved to high-school so I am one of two new ~~victims~~ coaches this year. Middle school soccer is a little different from rec-league that I have coached before. In particular, it takes a lot more time. We practice 5-6 days a week for 2 hours at a time, especially at the beginning of the season. I mostly enjoy the whole deal and it is a great opportunity to hang out some with Isaac and some of his friends. It’s a good game too and I like to see the kids get in shape as they move from lazy-summer-existence to lean-mean-soccer machines.

Kanawha county makes it really though to be a volunteer though. I do not get paid for my work which is fine. I had to pay $250 out of my own pocket to take a 3-day class to become a certified coach. Fine. I then had to pay for my own finger printing ($38), do a ton of paperwork, show a college diploma (or HS), take a drug test, take 2 hours off from work to watch a really stupid video series for “orientation”. The only show the videos during the day at a certain time…exactly when I needed to be at my job that actually does pay money. It sucks and was ridiculous. It is amazing to me that I can buy a gun with less trouble and faster than I can become a coach. I get that we need to make sure that kids are safe and that creeps are not allowed access to them, but there has to be a cheaper and better way to make this convenient for people who work and simply do this to help kids out.

Anyhow, I am done with all of the paperwork (not really, I just got a new form Wednesday night, but it is simple) so I should be able to enjoy the actual coaching part. The teams are great this year and it is of course, more fun to win that lose (though I can handle it either way). When I was in school, I remember playing in the snow on several occasions. I hate that global warming is upon us, but if there is a chance that we won’t play in the snow, I guess I have to accept that benefit! Anyhow, cheers to soccer!

My Home Among The Hills

Life in WV!