All I Really Want for Christmas

I know Thanksgiving was a few weeks ago, but I am so thankful for my family. I have the best wife and kids anyone could want. Even in a year when the presents will be thin, we have been so blessed and sometimes it is easy to forget...it's the little things that matter. There are kids all around the world that would love to have the family we have.

Say what?

While Blake and I were out shopping this weekend, we were waiting to cross the street. No cars were stopping, and Blake said, "Dad, don't they have to stop for the Presbyterians?"

Graduation!

Saturday Barb graduated from college! Just to put it into perspective, here are a few prices of things when she started in school:

Stamp .03
Bread .13
Gas .15
New Car $1,300

A lot has happened since then and at 63 years old she finished! Congrats Barb, way to go!

Gingerbread Houses

I try to be involved in the boys school as often as possible and Friday was great. It was gingerbread house making day in Gavin's class and he picked me to go in with him. He said, "Sorry mom, maybe I'll pick you next year." We had so much fun and made quite the mess. I think we got more icing on the floor and our clothes than we got on the house :) Somehow, the candy keeps disappearing from the house...GAVIN! :)

Before:


After:

Baby Names

Have you ever been called a "nobody"? You? Him? It? Right now that is what we have...nothing! Only a few weeks to go and this baby has NO NAME! With millions of names to choose from we just can't decide. Please help with any suggestions. If you pick the winning name, you will get an all expense paid trip for 2 to Maui.*






*Disclaimer: Due to the fact that we are flat broke, we will not pick your name no matter how good it is.

Happy Birthday Debbie!

I love you and am so thankful to have you for a wife and mother to our boys! You are the best and deserve the best. If I may quote Ricky Bobby, I'm also thankful for "my red hot smokin' wife".

I'm a LOSER!

Well...not yet, but I want to be. Weight has always been a struggle for me so I've decided to FINALLY do something about it. I've tried about every diet out there and know that there is no quick fix. I know it gets harder to take the pounds off the older you get, so I have to start NOW! I got back in the gym and started watching my calories. I've started with about a mile and a half on the treadmill and 2,000 calories a day. I love watching the Biggest Loser and seeing the transformations, but here we are in season 10 and I've done nothing about myself. I know it's a dumb time to start during the holidays, but here we go! So here are my goals.

Starting weight: 289
Current weight: 281

Goal by Christmas: 266

Goal by baby's due date (Jan 12): 259

Goal by 2011 MLB opening day (April 1): 239

Goal by our 13th Wedding Anniversary: 220

Final goal: 189 for a total of 100 lbs!

I haven't worn my wedding ring for the past 9 years because it was too small...or maybe my fingers are too big. So, my final goal is to put my ring back on and leave it on!

Check out the video from my first workout:

And so it begins...

Today was "Back to School". Summer flew by and today the boys started the school year. Blake started 4th grade and Gavin started kindergarten! Where does the time go??? It's hard to believe that we have both in school now. Gavin was so excited to start kindergarten but was just a "little nervous". He asked me if I was a little nervous when I started kindergarten too. Today was a little easier for them because the parents come on the first day and walk through a few things with them. So now we are back to earlier bedtimes, no late night ballgames, homework, packing lunches, and all the other stuff that goes with school starting. The good news I told Gavin is he only has 2,339 more days of school until he graduates!

Favorite part of the first day: Blake...Mountain Math
Gavin...cutting out an apple

Another Weiner!

Tuesday was an exciting day. It was the day that we got to find out if our baby would be a boy or girl. We found out with the other 2 and wanted to find out for this one too. Girls are hard to come by in family but I guess it is a 50/50 chance. Well no surprises here. Our third (and final) baby will be a boy. As you can tell by the second picture down it is pretty much a sure thing. I know that most of our family and friends wanted a girl, but we are really excited for another boy. First, we know boys...already have 2 of them (3 if you count me) :) Second, it will make everything so much easier with rooms, clothes, toys, etc.

When the boys found out, Blake was a little disappointed. He said he has already done the boy thing and wanted a sister. Gavin really didn't care and just said to let him know what it was. I think he is excited now that he realizes he can teach the new baby baseball.

So now we wait...January will be here before we know it!

That's right, I said new baby...we need a name. Any ideas?

Between the Lines...

Over the past few seasons, we have made friends with several baseball players that play in the Atlantic League. Most have been from our hometown Lancaster Barnstormers, but there have been a few from other teams as well. Last week the Bridgeport Bluefish played their final game in Lancaster this season, so we wanted to go say goodbye to Adam Greenberg, Antonio Alfonseca, and Luis Lopez. After the game, Adam invited us to come into the club house and hang out for a while. Blake got to try on Luis' AAA Sacramento Rivercats championship ring, and Antonio picked up Gavin for a huge hug and said, "I will miss you until next year Little Pappi". Luis Lopez then invited us to York this past Saturday to watch batting practice on the field before Saturdays game. My brother and Chad went with us early and we got to York several hours before game time or any other fans were allowed in. Antonio escorted us through the clubhouse and down the tunnel to right field. Luis greeted us and introduced us to the Manager Willie Upshaw. He played for the Blue Jays when Rick and I were growing up so it was pretty cool for us talking to him.

We got to watch them stretch, take bp, play catch, and then Louis took the boys out in left field to shag some fly balls. Anytime you can spend 6 hours at a ballpark is awesome, but Luis, Adam, and Antonio treated us to a special day at the ballpark! Thanks guys!

Summer Splash 2010

Sunday our church had Summer Splash 2010. It is a great afternoon of free hot dogs, snow cones, bounce house, and 2 200 foot slip n slides! It was a great afternoon for it and was a ton of fun! The boys are already can't wait for next year!

Ocean City, Maryland

We've had a busy August and I'm finally catching up on some posts. A couple of weekends ago we went to see some friends from college. Christi and Josh live in Salisbury, MD so of course we had to get a baseball game in. We went to see the Delmarva Shorebirds and got to see former Barnstormers Ryan Minor and Troy Mattes. The Shorebirds won 3-2 on a walk off in the 9th! Pretty exciting. We headed back to Christi and Josh's house for smores and just had a good time catching up around the fire. We got up Monday and headed to the beach. I'm not a huge fan of the beach, but the kids do love it. I did see a few guys that looked pretty intimidated by me, so I made sure to leave my shirt on! After the beach we had some overpriced pizza at Doughboys and Ritas for desert. Great weekend catching up with friends and seeing the boys play with Luke and Nathan.

Weekend in Philly

Debbie and I just celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary and decided to go away for a couple of days. We figured out it has been 7 years since we were away by ourselves and with the baby coming in January...we needed to go! We booked a room on priceline and headed for Philadelphia (no, the Phillies were not in town). The last time I was in Philly for anything besides a football, baseball, or basketball game was when I was about Blakes age! We decided to go visit the historical area and just relax.

We checked into our hotel at Penns landing and they upgraded us to a water view suite free of charge! They also brought up a bottle of wine and chocolate covered strawberries for our anniversary! We walked around the historical area for a little bit and came upon a statue of the Philly Phanatic at the Liberty Bell. We found out it was a summer promo called "Phanatic Around Town". They had different artists paint the statues and placed 20 of them all over the city. We (yes WE) decided it would be fun to look for them on Monday.

You can't do Philly without cheese steaks, so we headed to Genos to get a steak. Didn't know they don't take debit cards, so we split one because we were starving! That did nothing for us so we went to Chikie's and Pete's for some crab fries. They were getting ready to broadcast the Phillies post game show live :) We said no baseball on the trip, but Deb was excited and they boys got to see us on TV.

Monday morning came around and we started out at IKEA. Deb said it was the quickest she'd ever been through there...1 hour? That was plenty! Now to find the Phanatics...Deb had the map in hand and we walked, and walked, and walked all over the city. We had so much fun...and it was FREE!

After we were worn out from walking we headed over to Pat's for a cheese steak! We took cash this time so we could get our own. I ordered mine "wiz witout". We both decided Genos was better steak, but Pat's had better bread and cheese. After being stuffed with cheese steak, we headed home to pick up the boys. It was a great and much needed time away! Now to get ready for the baby...

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

12 years ago today I married my best friend. Happy Anniversary Debbie! Thanks for 12 great years and many more! I love you!

Hersheypark Happy!

This past weekend we had friends in from New Jersey. Deb went to high school with Christa and Steph and has remained good friends ever since. They have visited every couple years since we've been married and they love coming to Amish country. Friday we had a day planned for Hershey Park. With temps in the mid 90's and heat index over 100, it was going to be a HOT one! I'm not going to lie...I'm not a huge amusement park guy and with the forecast...not looking forward to it. They boys couldn't wait to ride the rides with Gabriella and Ariana. We figured the water park would be packed, so we hit the rides first. Gabriella is 5 and Ariana is 3 so there were plenty of kid rides with Gavin. Blake wanted to ride the "bigger" rides but was great with the little kids too. Blake, Gavin, and I finally got to the roller coasters! Comet was the only one Gavin was allowed even though he wanted to ride them all! Blake and I got to go on Lightning Racer several times with NO LINE! Part of my dislike of amusement parks is the lines...just not worth it. On a Friday in July there were NO LINES! It was great! We ended the day at the water park and realized how old we're getting when we went to wake up on Saturday! :)

Saturday after work we went to Outback steakhouse for dinner and headed to our favorite ice cream spot for desert...The Strasburg Creamery!

I can't believe he just said that!

One of the reasons I started a blog was to record the fun things they do and say. I certainly wish I would have started earlier because there have been some "good ones" that I just forget about. While Pa and Muno were here this past weekend, we were talking about some of the stories.

Blake goes to Good News Club at school and Debbie helps out, so Gavin goes too. When Gavin was 3 the leader asked who is someone that is VERY important in the Bible that starts with the letter "J". With Gavin raising his hand and making those "pick me" sounds, she called on Gavin. All proud of himself, he said "Derek JETER!" Well, Jesus was the correct answer, but at least he knew his J sound at 3 :) He has since received Bible story books and has memorized a few. It's his turn to read the Christmas story this year so we'll see how that goes! :)

Visit from Pa and Muno

Last weekend, Deb's dad and step mom came in for a long weekend visit. We always have fun when they come just hanging out at the pool, going to Outback, or hearing them talk about "Assault & Battery" (Blake & Gavin). Friday we had a nice drive through Amish country and went to Strasburg Railroad...sort of. We didn't do the train ride this time because of time but did walk around and the guys took the little train ride. We headed to the Strasburg creamery for ice cream and then to their hotel pool. Sunday was the big day. The boys won the Halloween costume contest for the Barnstormers and part of their prize was a "first pitch" this season. Since Pa and Muno live in New York, they don't always get to see the ball games, school activities, and other fun stuff that the boys do. They saved their pitch so that Pa and Muno could watch. We headed to the game on Sunday night and the boys did great! It was a great night for baseball (not sure if there ever is a bad night) and the Barnstormers won! They headed home Monday morning and looked forward to some "Peace & Quiet"!