cindy and the boys

I’m not 18 yet…

ElShaddai — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:13:11 +0000

Sam’s ability to recall random comments made in passing is a source of constant amazement. Over the past few days, Cindy and I have tried to explain the whats and whys of voting to Sam, with little visible response.

However, Cindy asked Sam today if he wanted to be President. To which, Sam said:

No, I’m not 18 yet…

Okay, so maybe a few facts got mixed up, but we certainly can’t assume he’s not listening!

After dinner with Grandpa O and Grandma Jean

ElShaddai — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:13:06 +0000

We had dinner Sunday night with Grandpa O (Cindy’s dad) and Grandma Jean, and took the opportunity to get an updated family photo:

Happy Halloween!

ElShaddai — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 03:53:59 +0000

The boys and I made a safe venture around the neighborhood earlier this evening, collecting chocolate, candy and confections. It was a beautiful night, clear and “warm” (~50°), but Cindy said that things were pretty quiet overall at the house - I think the overall “kid age” in the blocks around us has gotten older to the point where we’re seeing fewer local kids stop by.

After wearing his Power Ranger outfit to the party this past weekend, Sam went as Spiderman tonight, though the “good” Spiderman vs. the “bad” Spiderman last year (he has a reversable red/black Spiderman suit, presumaby derived from one of the more recent movies in that series). Ben decided not to wear Elmo again and instead fit into the Barney costume that Sam wore a few years ago.

We’ve adopted the rule that the kids will be able to eat as much of their candy tomorrow (and maybe Sunday) as they want, but after that, it’s put away. Hopefully they’ll get their fill without dragging the begging on into the weeks to come. It worked out pretty well with the loot gathered from the summer parades…

So pretty, I killed the camera…

ElShaddai — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 02:15:29 +0000

Our friends Brian and Victoria held their third annual Halloween costume party yesterday. Cindy and Erin came up with the inspired idea that Cindy and I would go as Major Tony Nelson and Jeannie from “I Dream of Jeannie”, with the gender roles switched of course. So while Cindy got to lounge around in her brother’s old Air Force blues, I was “pretty in pink” with a complete costume provided by our seamstress friend Laura. I think the boys are young enough that they won’t be permanently scarred by the experience!

Of course, these are the last photos that our camera took that night, as the shocking images caused it to convulse and seize up with awful clicking and whirring noises. We await our friends’ photos from the evening’s festivities with bated breath! My costume was judged “most funniest” by our peers, which is good, but just a little short of Cindy’s “best overall” award last year for her high school prom outfit.

P.S. After a little research this evening, I was able to determine that some leaf dust had most likely settled in the lens barrel, causing the malfunction. Fortunately the most expedient fix worked, that being a couple of sharp knocks to the side of the camera.

Jumping into fall

ElShaddai — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 04:45:20 +0000

Nothing quite says “Fall” like a big pile of raked leaves and a tall garbage container to jump from:

In search of the Great Pumpkin

ElShaddai — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:45:19 +0000

Grandma (Cindy’s mom) Odefey’s neighbors, Keith and Kathy, have a vegetable patch in their backyard, including pumpkin vines. The boys were invited over, along with cousins Kyle and Ryan, to pick their pumpkins this afternoon before we all had dinner at Grandma’s.

The four boys are pretty much self sufficient playing together these days, so that makes visiting *a lot* easier and we enjoyed getting caught up with Kevin, Keith and Kathy.

Update on Sam at school

ElShaddai — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:21:21 +0000

Sam has been doing really well at his new school. He’s still in a Montessori program, but at a new school than the previous two years. Over the past month, he’s really begun work on his writing and reading - he can read most 3-letter words and sound out a lot more than that. We’re halfway through Dr. Suess’ “Hop on Pop” and he was moved up a group in school to be with readers of the same level. His goal is to have more “bookworm” segments (for each book read) than anyone else in school - go Sam!

These are Sam’s school pictures for the 2008-09 year. Looking at our own youthful mug shots, Cindy and I are in agreement that Sam is beginning to look like Cindy’s dad and the rest of the male Odefey clan.

Photo albums update

ElShaddai — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:10:15 +0000

For many years now, I’ve been using pBase as our online photo archiving service. However, for various reasons, I’ve decided to move to a different service. I’d experimented with Flickr earlier this year, but wasn’t satisfied with the limitations of the free service and it didn’t captivate my attention enough to move all our photos over. For now, I’ve switched our 2008 photo albums to Picasa, a photo service from Google. The links to the earlier years’ archives in the right column still point to pBase, or at least until I get all the albums recreated on the new platform.

You can view our albums either directly at Picasa or here on our website. The monthly albums on our Photos page are being mirrored from Picasa, so any updates or new photos that we add there will be reflected here as well!

Ben plays “doctor”…

ElShaddai — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:12:23 +0000

While Cindy and I were at Pam’s funeral yesterday, Ben and Mimi evidently decided to play “doctor”… thanks to Jennifer (Mimi’s mom) for the great photos!

Burnsville stadium, team line up for ‘09 start

ElShaddai — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:28:53 +0000

Undaunted by the nation’s worsening economic crisis, owners of a new minor league baseball team with a familiar name are ready to proceed.