Hanna . Family . Blogging

January 2008

2008-02-04T20:59:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year, but I think I ended my last post with that...

First off, the kids and I are campaigning for Ron Paul. VOTE RON PAUL.

Staying busy this month. Work got a little chaotic, my Mom has been helping a lot getting Christian to Tae Kwan Do early. I wish Christa would help out :S Tor starts ballet next month, and I'm sure that she'll help with that! Tori is adorable in ballet!

We went skiing again at Ski Whitetail. Christian did good enough to ride the ski life and go down the bigger green slopes! Tori went back to Grandma's for a couple hours while we kept skiing! Good times, and another confidence boost for him. Meanwhile, Tori did as expected. She's getting the hang of it, but likes to just go at her pace, and smile, smile, smile. I love it.

We went to the Herr's potato chip factory on one of their days off. For any at home mom's in the area that like to take their kids to educational places, Herr's factory is just 30 mins north of my house and is 100% free (avoid the gift shop!). No pictures, forgot the cam.

Just this past weekend Christian's buddy Drew came over for a couple hours. They had fun running around being boys, and some Nintendo mixed in.

What else? Tor had her last cavity filled, Christian had a doctors appointment. Eternal cold symptoms for all of us. Boring month. Still gets dark early which makes it hard. I'm going to try and teach Christian to ride a bike this month (Feb).

Until next month, or hopefully earlier :S...

December 2007

2008-01-01T22:11:00.000-05:00

Ah, the month of Advent and Christmas. That crazy month where I wait until 12/23 to do any shopping whatsoever.

Plenty of Advent and Christmas pics!!!

We had our first good snow day. Tori and I played outside for a good bit

Early in the month, we decorated the tree

Mid month we took a vacation to Snowshoe, WV for the kids first ski adventure. Wow. We had so much fun staying near the little village. The kids both took to skiing quite well, with Tori actually doing better than Christian on this trip. Best times were had sitting in the outdoor hottub watching the kids go down the OUTDOOR water slide (heated) in 10-20 degree weather. It was a trip.

Aside from that, New Years was boring (no kids this year). HAPPY NEW YEAR!

November 2007

2007-12-04T21:51:00.000-05:00

It's been a slow month. With the daylight savings change, there isn't much outdoors stuff to do during the week. The kids and I have been packing and preparing for our move that happened on November 23rd.

I took my family to Jeff Allen comedy night at my Church on the 9th. It was a great time! MY grandmother and her sister couldn't stop laughing. We thought they were going to keel over and die right there. Meanwhile, my cousin Trish took the kids to chuck-e-cheese where Christian lost his first tooth!

Christian started back in Tae Kwan Do now that we're starting to settle in and school is underway. What it has done for his confidence is amazing.

We had our pictures taken for Christmas Cards by a friend from work who does photography

I celebrated Thanksgiving at my parents house, no kids this year.

Throughout the month, I had all of the floor coverings in the house replaced, repainted every wall and ceiling, had all of the plumbing fixtures replaced, bought a new washer and dryer (dishwasher still doesn't work, budget ran over, didn't expect to be left broken appliances... It'll be hand washing for a LONG time). It all culminated with a big Moving Party while my Mom watched the kids friends and family helped me move back into my house. It was great fun (?).

I switched the kids rooms in the interest of space, and did his room in Disney Cars, and hers in Disney Tinkerbell. The rooms look GREAT.

October 2007

2007-11-03T07:28:00.000-04:00

Wow, it's been a while. So sorry family, everyone keeps complaining that I've been slacking off. Due to the chaos in my life I think I'll be blogging only monthly for a little while.

We had Christian's brithday at the local laser tag place. 10 of his classmates and neighbors came by for a coule hours of shooting fun. On his actual birthday, Christa and I took them to Sakura (same with Tori's birthday, did I mention that last month?), and then I took him next door to get him a snake.

We did our pumpkin carving mid month, the girls made pumpkins that were throwing up, and Christian made a terrorizing pumpkin with an apple in his mouth. We had a great time doing this, and a lot of playing outside this month! Great weather!

I wasn't supposed to have the kids for Halloween night this year, but Christa had a Halloween party to go to so she let me take them for the night! First we went to Tori's Halloween parade at Kindercare, then we did "Trunk or Treat", which is sponsored by my Church. We decorated my trunk like a snowboarder hut (?), and handed out THOUSANDS of peices of candy to the neighborhood kids. What a wonderful way to spread the message of Christ.

Great month overall, and starting yesterday, I'm now cleaning out my old house that Christa has now left. It wasn't left in the greatest shape... massive cigarette and cat urine smells, coupled with almost every appliance being broken and fleas. So I'll be busy this month! I'm replacing all floor coverings, and repainting every wall. Fun.

For those inquiring about Christa, she moved to the Eastern Shore with her boyfriend DJ and his son Travis. They seem quite happy, and I'm glad that she came out of this crazy year with some new support.

September 2007

2007-09-30T19:27:00.000-04:00

This month I traveled to Houston for a couple days, I took Christian to the Haunted House (Field of Screams), I've been staying busy with Salsa dancing lessons (!!!), I took Christian to a baseball game (Yankees vs Orioles), we had a bday party for Tori, and we've wrapped up the season swimming at Mom's house.

No pictures this month at all except the camping in PA pictures on the last post. I took a ton of pictures, but I lost my camera at the Yankees game, so don't expect pics for MONTHS. Whoever found my camera, at least send the last month's worth of pictures. That would be nice.

Christian is doing great in school, and Victoria starts Kindercare tomorrow!!!

Yesterday we hit up the playground and went to check on our letterbox. Pics!!!

Camping in Pennsylvania

2007-09-18T18:23:00.000-04:00

We went up north to the PA Grand Canyon area last weekend and stayed a couple nights. We stopped by Tracy's parents' "campground" and let the little girls ride horses, and roasted marshmallows. Christian was too afraid to ride the horses (I don't blame him).

We also visited a petting zoo in the area, check out the pics!

School, State Fair, Updated Blog

2007-08-31T22:04:00.000-04:00

Christian started school on Monday! Their mother and I put him on the bus and waved goodbye. It wasn't nearly as emotional this year as it was last, and yeah, I forgot my camera.

We went to the State Fair last night. We had great food and good times. Tori LOVED the ferris wheel. It's always her favorite at any park. The animals, rides, and food were perfect. The kids behavior was wonderful after a little incident with Christian during dinner.... ergh...

NO PICTURES! Can you believe it, I forgot my camera...

Tonight we had our typical bi-weekly movie night. The kids have a birthday party tomorrow afternoon that their mother is taking them to, and I'm off to the pool at Moms!

In other news, I updated the blog layout. Blogger has made it much easier to add parts and move them around. I like...

Camping

2007-08-21T06:47:00.000-04:00

We went to Elk Neck State Park to camp this weekend. It was a real hoot. Tori loved the toads. That was all she talked about. Baby toads this and that. She actually wanted to SLEEP with her toad. Both the kids had a lot of fun playing in the woods with the other kids, and I had a ball just being lazy and dirty. :)

Tori and Daddy

2007-08-14T18:02:00.000-04:00

I love her to death, and love being her daily hero

In other news, Christian started Tae Kwan Do camp this week, and loves it a LOT. He really respects Master Lee, and is learning a lot.

All seperation matters are FINAL!

2007-08-07T23:40:00.000-04:00

8 months, 2 days, 23 hours, and 30 minutes after Christa broke my last infidelity straw which prompted me to leave her and move out of my house temporarily, she has signed the final settlement agreement! It's been a long time coming, and WAY too much craziness happening, but time has flown by pretty quick. If you read this blog Christa, thank you for finally ending this nonsense.

She'll be vacating my house on November 1st, and I'll be moving back in after some massive cleaning efforts. I'm eyeballing black Friday as a move date. Anyone interested in helping me move all the stuff BACK to where it belongs, let me know.

Thanks to all for the support, temporary relocation assistance, and for being sounding boards! Thanks Dad, Mom, Mary, Mark B, Mark Z (good luck dude), Scott, Jennifer, Tracy, Shannon, Mariya, Lori, Troy, and everyone else!

The final divorce will be in the next month or two, but won't really change too much. It's just the legal finalization of a marriage. I'm going to let the dust and finances settle for a bit first. One day I'll write a book on this adventure, but in the meantime I'll be nice and keep the drama to myself (well, and my personal sounding boards, lol).

Luckily, the kids seem to be pretty shielded from the divorce drama, and are still doing GREAT.

For all of those going through a divorce, or contemplating it - do it amicably and split everything down the middle. It's mathematically simple. I can understand the temptation to argue and "screw over" someone you once loved, but it's is nonsensical. But if you still want to try the Jerry Springer route, the courts, social services, the facts, and the judges will straighten you out eventually. Don't waste your money.

Ballet and Baseball

2007-08-06T21:30:00.000-04:00

Tori started ballet this week. She's just doing a couple classes, then coming back in the fall. She had a ball, it was bringing tears to my eyes. Christa came to watch too! Woot!

Tori has started getting heavy into the computer. She wakes up asking for the airplane game...

Christian went to the Science Center on a field trip with his daycare on Thursday. I was sorry not to be able to join him. He's really having a great time in that daycare. It's at Bel Air Methodist Church for those interested.

That evening, we went to the Ironbirds game with our church. It was a great time. Christian caught a ball, AND had it signed by a handful of players.

2007-07-23T01:21:00.000-04:00

We started this week by playing in the Creek. Tori fell down and gashed her knee open and that brought it to a close. Tracy was obsessed with these little clams all over the place, and Christian liked skipping rocks. Tori liked following Tracy, and Skyler liked whining about her feet touching the ground(?!).

Just some goofin off at the house that night, and Tracy passed out. I had to wake her up and toss her and her kid out after the movie. lol.

What a weekend! We started by checking into the crummiest motel I could find in Lancaster, then heading up to Hershey for the evening. The next day we spent at Dutch Wonderland. This was a blast, Christian rode everything, and Tori enjoyed much of it. Sunday we checked out of the hole in the wall, and went back to Hershey for the day in the water and sun.

4th of July, Cheerleading, Hershey!

2007-07-10T22:25:00.000-04:00

4th of July was a bust. We were all sick (as usual), and it rained out. SO, I have a boatload of fireworks for next time I'm bored. No pictures, nothing to see.

On Saturday I took Tracy and the kids to Hershey park. The crowds were out of control because we were late (had to take Tori to cheerleading first). We lazed in the waterpark for a while, but it wasn't quite hot enough to get into it. Great sunshine though. Then we did a lot of the rides, and hung out at my favorite spot; directly between the bar and the skeeball :).

Cheer!

Hershey

On the 8th we went to church, then over to my Mom's house for a swim. AWESOME pics in here!

My Birthday, and More Summer Fun

2007-06-29T11:50:00.000-04:00

I had a big birthday bash on the evening of June 23rd with all of my friends... We had a good time, sang some karoke, and I was just a tad obnoxious. We won't be able to go back to that place for a while... No pics, or vid, thank goodness.

In the afternoon of the 24th (my birthday), I had family and friends over. We had a good time out in the sun and eating crabs.

The next couple days we had good old fashioned fun around the house. The kids had fun getting ready for the 4th, by exercising the party favors. I had the kids paint a giant picture for their mother. They had a lot of fun, I know she'll like it.

In other news, Tor dresses herself now, and Christian makes breakfast (bacon and cereal). So I'm basically not needed in the AM. Woot!

Fathers Day

2007-06-19T20:39:00.000-04:00

Kids and I woke up to pancakes, but Tori was sick. She's been sick a LOT lately. It's getting pretty old. In fact we've all been sick a lot lately. Seems like constant sickness since February.

In the afternoon I dropped Tori off with her mother and I took Christian to play at the arcade and Laser Tag.

Summer Water Fun

2007-06-16T23:36:00.000-04:00

We invited Tracy and her daughter Skyler over today to play outside in the sprinklers and pool. The kids had an OK time, but for some reason avoided the pool for the most part. They had more fun inside - the two girls just being girls, and Christian playing video games.

Tori at Hershey

2007-06-13T11:15:00.000-04:00

I took Victoria to Hershey yesterday. We hung out by the water park for most of the day, then did games, skeeball, and I dropped a bill or two at Chocolate World to keep my team at the office happy. No pictures today! I forgot the camera. Grrr

Hershey with Christian

2007-06-09T23:02:00.000-04:00

Tracy and I took Christian to Hershey today. We had a good time at the new waterpark and got some great pictures. Christian rode Lightning Racer for the first time today! So cool!

Yesterday we had fun having the neighborhood kids in to play Nintendo Wii for a while

Strawberry Pickin'

2007-05-30T23:46:00.001-04:00

Today we went strawberry picking at Jones Family Farm (?). After that we came back, ate strawberries and mac & cheese, and relaxed on the hammock.

Tori is mad at me in the first picture because I wouldn't give her candy. Why not? Because she's stubborn as a mule and wouldn't say please (and never did get candy OR say please)!

I forgot to use my camera while we were actually PICKING the strawberries - so Christian took this one for me after we got back and I realized my error... Stupid camera - I need one embedded in my eye or something.

Of course, the night was finished off with playtime in the basement with the mattress, which is STILL the #1 toy at my house - 6 months in.

Memorial Day Weekend

2007-05-29T21:32:00.000-04:00

I took off of work on Friday to stay with Tori as Christa had plans and was unable to watch her. We spent the day running errands, at the library getting movies, and at Michael's picking up some craft supplies. Tracy's friend Kelly came to visit from Illinois that evening. We spent time at my house on Friday.

Then we went to Annie's playground on Saturday.

Saturday evening the kid's went to their old neighbor Nick's birthday party (forgot camera). They had a great time - there was a magician, good food, and lots of friends.

While the kids were at the birthday, I carved Cinderella's Castle out of poster board with an exacto, and backed it with silver paper. The kids spent at least an hour or two after the party (WAY past bedtime - but it's Friday) pasting pictures on their posters.

I like doing these things to get decorations for their walls. I'm renting this townhouse, so I'm not trying to pick out curtains or anything ;). We also got to spend time together remembering the fun we had doing Disney!

Sunday we did Church at Mountain Christian. The service was about Heaven again (did I blog last week about it?). It wasn't as good as last week, I didn't quite enjoy the speaker as much. He was a little dry. BOTH kids did the kids' programs this week, and had a ball.

Right after Church we headed to Columbia to spend the next 2 days at my parent's house swimming.

It was the typical daytime pool fun with the kids, and nighttime pool fun with the adults. The late addition of a volleyball net helped us get through the evening.

Um... oh yeah, Christian can swim. Really well. I've worked with him through last year on confidence (read: throw him in the deep end), and this year on doing it right... He's awesome. He can swim across my parents pool no problem. He jumps in the deep end and swims to the waterfalls or wherever. GO CHRISTIAN! Maybe I should sign him up for swim classes at that place I used to take him years ago... Whatever, I'm talking to myself now...

Disney World

2007-05-17T18:44:00.000-04:00

It's been a long time since a blog entry.... And that's because we were at Disney, and recovering! It was an unbelievably great time.

We did character meals every day, rode a ton of rides, spent a lot of time in the pool, and relaxed A LOT.

We stayed at Pop Century resort, which was great - especially with kids. The hotel rooms were small, but not cruise ship small. More like Motel 6 size. The value that you can squeeze out a vacation like this is amazing. We did an all inclusive type package which included meals, hotel, and park tickets. It left little to spend money on - just souvenirs.

The kids got into the pin trading this year, as a way for me to keep them away from buying those pesky souvenirs. It worked GREAT. The trick is to buy them pins that they HATE, and to get one for yourself to show them how it works. Once you break the ice on the whole thing, it's all downhill. For those who don't know about pin trading, here's how it works.
Almost all Disney cast members have lanyards with pins around their neck. Anyone is allowed to trade a pin for ANY of that cast members pins. It's the gift that keeps giving. The kids felt like they got a new gift everytime they traded. Victoria liked trading so much that on several occasions, she traded a pin for an identical pin.
Sure, the whole pin thing slows you down when the kids want to look at every pin on every cast member's lanyard, but it beats buying other stuff. Also, many cast members gave us free pins - Tinkerbell of all things (my new fav Disney char). I had fun giving pins away to other kids and explaining how it worked, while the kid's collection of pins somehow grew from the 4 that I bought, to over a dozen.
There is a whole underground market for rare pins, and on several occasions we were told that it was a bad trade because we had a "rare" pin. I explained to the cast members that the kids don't care about rare or ebay selling. They just like to trade.

Favorite rides? Me: lounge chair at the pool; Christian: Space Mountian; Tori: Dumbo.

Favorite Moments? Me: All of it; Christian: Bragging to Tori about how he remembered all of this from years past; Tori: Butterfly garden at epcot.

We spent a lot of time doing the less headliner stuff this year while we took it slow. Of all things, the Epcot Kidcot tour was AWESOME (World Showcase, Epcot). The kids traveled around the "world" collecting special charms for their masks (paper masks obtained in "Mexico"). Each stop they learned something new, got to color, and talked to residents of the country they were visiting. Meanwhile Dad got to browse the shops, and taste the food and drink from various countries. Can't ask for more!

Tae Kwan, Parenting, Church, and Zoo

2007-04-29T23:30:00.000-04:00

Yep, another busy week.......

It started with Christian's weekly Tae Kwan Doe lessons on Wednesday, then our ritual of going to Chick-fil-a afterwards. I've stopped taking pics of him at Tae Kwan... Same old thing...

Thursday my Mom watched the kids while Christa and I went to our co-parenting classes. The classes are OK, not too boring. They have a good speaker and Q&A session that covers a lot of stuff. Bottom line that you get out of this is that the parents have to get along, and to avoid court. Here's hoping Christa comes around...........

We laid low on Friday and Saturday, just played around in the neighborhood.

On Sunday we started the day with Church at Mountain Christian in Fallston. The kids LOVED IT. Tori went to her kids program, and made a flag of sorts. Christian sat through a really interesting service about intimacy in marriage. It was high level enough that he didn't get the juicy stuff, but he loved the Barbie dolls that the speaker used to demonstrate. I'll swear God sent this sermon just for me... How appropriate! :S

After Church we went to Outback Steakhouse for some good food - no rules, just right.

Then it was on to the zoo. We visited a zoo in the Aberdeen area with our friend Tracy and her daughter Skyler. It was small, but we coerced our way in for free, and the kids loved the free roaming peacocks.

There were giraffes, monkeys, tigers, bears, deer, bison, etc... The kids had a great time.

Field Trip to the Planetarium

2007-04-23T20:19:00.000-04:00

This morning I was a chaperon for Christian's field trip to the planetarium. I think I've gone on EVERY field trip he's ever been on, though I recall maybe letting Christa go to the pumpkin patch with him one year.

The planetarium is at Edgewood Middle School, and was very nice. It's part of the Harford County curriculum to go there once per year, so this was their first visit, and was a bit of a "getting to know the planetarium".

The gentleman who operated it was great with the kids, and threw in some humor for the parents too. I think I have pics on my phone maybe, so I'll pop them up later.

Happy Earth Day

2007-04-22T15:53:00.000-04:00

Not sure what Earth Day has to do with this post, but Christian reminded me of it like 20 times last I saw him.

Friday night I had the gang over for our monthly fiesta. It was a blast, and no one broke anything with a Wii-mote.

Also in the slide show is our Saturday evening which included crabs and Tracy's friends Danny and Tammy who stopped by (for the crabs) to have a good time.

I signed Tori up for Cheerleading on Saturdays, and that started yesterday. She had a GREAT time tumbling with the older girls. I'd like to sign her up for the real cheerleading club later in the summer, but it's a ton of cash. Maybe I'll throw a donate link up here ;).
I took no pictures as I forgot my camera, but expect some soon!

Also to note, I found a GREAT Church today. I went to Mountain Christian Church in Fallston, and loved it. I can't wait to take the kids next week!

A Visit From The Vellas

2007-04-19T06:01:00.000-04:00

Last night the Vellas were in town from Florida and stopped by to visit. It was good to see them, we ate some food and laid around chatting while the kids played.

Funny how well the kids remember each other even though they see each other at most once a year.

Busy Busy Weekends

2007-04-16T12:39:00.000-04:00

Our weekends now are pretty busy, this one is no exception.

We started off our Saturday by visiting Christa at the bank. The kids and I enjoyed seeing her at work.

From there we headed over to the kite festival at a park in Bel Air. The kids enjoyed watching the kites, and playing on the playground.

On Sunday we were supposed to go to Church for my nephew David's baptism, but Christian was sick. That didn't stop us from celebrating - the Easter bunny came to my house that morning.

2007-04 Easter Bunny Comes

And we had a good evening sipping hot chocolate and watching movies.

Springtime WAS here

2007-04-09T15:13:00.000-04:00

I've had the kids a ton lately, and haven't had the time to keep this updated. I took the day off work today to get caught up a bazillion things, and this is one of them.

Christian is getting better and better at reading. He reads his sister's bedtime story some nights before we do his books. Here he is in action.

2007-03 Christian Reading

I bought those Crayola "Color Wonder" finger paints for the kids. They are VERY neat, and have very vivid colors. Overall it was great fun. However, a couple days on the fridge and the whole thing turns into a blurry mess. Occupied them for about 30 mins in the AM - plus they've been out more than once, so I give them two thumbs up.

200 7-03 Magic Fingerpaints

GORGEOUS weather, we spent it outside playing. The kids came home nice and muddy, ready for a bath. I had plenty of time to get some housework done, and kick back and relax. I met a lot of the neighbors as well - this street is SO much better for kids than the last street we lived on. There are dozens of them all right in the kid's age range. It's going to be a great summer here.

2007-04 Playing Outside

We celebrated Easter a week early this year, as Christa will have the kid's on Easter. We went to grandma's house, had our pics taken at JC Penny, easter egg hunt, egg dye, etc... Weather still GREAT!

2007-04 Easter at Grandmas

I picked up the latest Guitar Hero 2 game since it came out for XBOX 360. I've been a fan of the game as my buddies bring it over to play on the PS2. However, since it finally hit my console I picked it up. Christian is doing great rocking out, and learning rhythm (in addition to classic rock!).

2007-04 Guitar Hero

We spent this past Friday at Hershey. It was FAR too cold (in the low 40's), but we dressed appropriately and no one complained about the cold. Christian is tall enough for the next level of rides, so we had fun on several of those, though the big coasters were closed. He and I can't wait to go back and ride Lightning Racer!

2007-04 Springtime Hershey

Another fine, fine weekend

2007-03-20T19:36:00.000-04:00

It's been a good couple weeks. I spent the weekend of the 10th snowboarding at Snowshoe. Great resort, great conditions. Good times!

2007-03 Snowshoe

It's tough not having as much time with the kids anymore. I'm used to having the flexibility to do things any weekend, but now it's just every other. It works out pretty well though because we all have those days where there is work to do and you stay inside/shop/etc. It's just a matter of getting your schedule on track to maximize the time you have. How great for the kids though!

The kids woke up on Saturday morning and were being crazy. They wanted to dance to "Heya" (by Outkast). Tori really cracks me up the way she is starting to dance.

2007-03 Dancing

The Vella's (Nathaniel and Kayla) sent the kids stickers, so the kids spent an hour or so decorating paper and writing letters to their Florida Family.

2007-03 Stickers

I taught Christian to tie his shoes on Sunday morning. Hes so proud he had me tell everyone. To celebrate, we went out and got them both some new shoes too. He loved showing the girl in the shoe store how good he was too!

2007-03 Christians Shoes

Sunday afternoon - after a long day of shopping the kids finger painted tracings of themselves. Christian did a great job painting clothes on him, and writing his name. Tori just scribbled and spread paint everywhere. In one of the videos here she even tells us that she painted her "penis". Funniest moment of the weekend. I still can't contain myself.

2007-03 Fingerpainting

We finished up the weekend by having a celebration for a couple things that happened this weekend. First off, Tori is sleeping through the night in her bedroom regularly now. Secondly, Christian learned how to Heely!!! I'll get video tomorrow when I have him, but he looks so cool - it's helping his confidence and making him glow. Thirdly, he learned how to tie his own shoes. This is not only awesome for him, but for me as well. I don't have to put their shoes on them anymore (Tori has velcro). I have no clue why I didn't teach this to him earlier.

We drank bubbly, and ate cake!

2007-03 Bed and Shoe Party

Great weather, keeping busy

2007-03-04T19:17:00.000-05:00

We had some great weather this weekend. It even hit 65 degrees on Saturday!

The kids and I started our time together on Thursday with me picking up Tori from daycare and taking her to pick up Christian's taekwando uniform. We took it to the cleaners to have the patches sewn on (I have no sewing machine...). Then Tori and I picked up Christian from the bus stop and took him to his Taekwando lessons, then on to school night at Chick-fil-a (CHAOS!), then Christian went to his CCD classes.

Christian was glowing after his time at taekwando

2007-03 Taekwando

On Friday we took it easy. Gram and Pop came to visit, and we did some work around my house, and laundry. Christian played Nintendo Wii with Pop all night.

On Saturday we got up super early and went down to D.C. for the day. As expected, the kids loved the subway ride (I took the Greenbelt train on purpose so a transfer would be needed). Christian learned how to read a subway map, how to buy subway tickets, and how to read the signs regarding which trains to take.
We went to the Air & Space Museum, and the Natural History Museum. We didn't visit each in completeness, but hit the big things. An IMAX movie about the moon visit and Apollo program history (Christian was floored by most of this), walking through space probes, looking at airplanes, a visit to the Hope Diamond (Tori!!!), and of course a walk through the dinosaurs.

Our D.C. trip

2007-03 DC Trip

And on Sunday, we went out to eat, and rested!

Playing in the snow at the old house

2007-02-28T22:21:00.000-05:00

It snowed pretty good today, and I headed over to my old house to play in the snow with the kids. I figured Christa and her brother/brother's girlfriend would come play with us but they kept to themselves inside. Christa just ducked her head out to smoke a cigarette and snap some pics of the kids. We had a great time - although I wish it were longer. Tori loved sledding, and of course Christian loved throwing snowballs. Jackie (the neighbor's daughter) joined us for a little while, to Christian's delight.

2007-02 Snowy Day

Air Mania

2007-02-23T01:01:00.000-05:00

I took the kids to Air Mania in Columbia to play and spend some time with their cousins. Due to a series of unfortunate events, their cousins couldn't come. They arrived too late (thanks to their mom [haha Mary]) and were "locked out". Regardless, we had a ball. Tori wasn't afraid of anything - she climbed to the top of all the slides and even met a girlfriend to drag her around. They even let Daddys on these things, much to the amusement of Christian.

2007-02 AirMania

The snow at Grandma's

2007-02-20T07:57:00.000-05:00

We headed over to my mom and dad's house for the day. The kids played in the snow and had a grand time. It was eventually the adults that couldn't take it anymore.

2007-02 Mom and Dads

Playing on the ice

2007-02-18T21:33:00.000-05:00

We were on our way out, and I couldn't resist stopping and letting the kids slide down the hill on the ice. Both kids had a great time. We went home and I grabbed the camera, but when we returned Tori was too tired to go at it again, so no pics of her. There's a great shot of Christian here. He really loves getting out and running around. We walked around the ice field for at least 2 hours before I had to call it quits. They would've stayed until dark.

2007 - Ice Sliding

Debbie's Party

2007-02-16T13:43:00.000-05:00

We went to an old co-worker's house for a party. She had a Hawaiian party complete with grass skirts and coconut bras. They had a DJ, and tons of entertainment for the kids, and us adults had fun talking about old times. I hope she does this again next year, the kids had a BALL!

We spent the next day at my mother's house just relaxing and sleeping in. What a great weekend.

2007 - Debbies Party

Fun with the Kids

2007-02-02T15:29:00.000-05:00

Had a great weekend with the kids. They've adjusted to their new schedule, routine, and bedrooms. I'm happy they're so comfortable with me and are very excited about the time we get together (Every Thurs night and every other Fri, Sat, Sun night). It's not enough time for sure, but that will change eventually. I live in the same neighborhood, and less than one mile from my old house - so Daddy is always nearby for them.

Tori was so photogenic in the bathtime so I HAD to post these.

Kids Jan 2007

Skiing in New Hampshire

2007-02-01T23:31:00.000-05:00

Rick and I went on our annual ski vacation to New Hampshire this year. We skiied Wildcat mountain and Cannon mountain. Both were gorgeous, and we'd have more pics except Rick left his camera in the rental car and a lot boy stole it. UGH!

New Hampshire 2007

Christmas 2006

2006-12-25T08:21:00.000-05:00

We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve morning this year at our new house. The kids had a ball, and I had a great day relaxing.

Christmas 2006

My New House

2006-12-22T22:07:00.000-05:00

Well, in case you haven't heard, I've moved out. Lot's of reasons, but in the end it comes down to Christa and I just not getting along anymore. She's still living at the old house with the kids some of the time, and her brother and his girlfriend most of the time. She'll be going back to work fulltime, and the kids will be starting daycare. Pray for us!

Here's me and the kids having a great time at our new house!

New house with kids

Tori's Christmas Play

2006-12-20T11:21:00.000-05:00

I took the day off work to be at Tori's Christmas play. She did a great job, I'll try and get some video uploaded. She's such a social butterfly.

Afterward we had a party with good food, crayon trees, and paper tablecloths for the kids to color on. Tori received a book as a present from her teacher, she gave Christa and I a snow globe with her picture in it.

Tori cmas play 2006

Day at Grandma's House

2006-12-10T21:35:00.000-05:00

We had a great day at grandma's house. We took a couple pics for me to use in rags that ask for pics and stuff. More soon!

Kids and I 2006

1st Sunday of Advent

2006-12-07T16:40:00.000-05:00

We had our first Advent dinner of the year at my parents house last week. It was great, loud fun. Tori was a doll! Click for the whole series of pics (not many).

A New Software Developer Boasts An App A Week

2006-11-06T21:56:00.000-05:00

Check out my latest creation!

He will do screen broadcasting of his code as much as possible, but WILL NOT have a set time to code each day. He will release a new application every 7 days. These will be more polished than Jedi's apps as he has 7 times as much time per application. Start getting ideas together and post them to www.TheSoftwareJedi.com!

read more | digg story

Tori's third birthday

2006-09-03T19:23:00.000-04:00

We had Tori's party today. It was at Grandma Hanna's house, and was a My Little Pony pool party. It was a great time, the kids loved the pool. Poppy had it heated up to 91 degrees!
Here's us singing happy birthday:

Click for pictures!

Tori 3rd Birthday

Sep 3, 2006 - 45 Photos

2006-08-27T21:56:00.000-04:00

I've started a little blog on the side with my Florida buddy Jason. We worked together for about 18 months and enjoy bashing each other so it's should be fun. Check it out at http://webtoys.blogspot.com.

2006-08-26T17:17:00.000-04:00

Lot's of blogging these last couple days... Lot's going on!
Trisha's birthday was today. It was EARLY in the morning (for Christa and I) at 10:00am. The kids were great and had so much fun playing - especially dressing up. Christian even dressed up like Snow White (for some reason I don't have a pic though).
Pictures were taken with my new work provided PocketPC device. Yep - camera phones still suck BAD. I won't bother anyone with these pics anymore. It's a good camera for those slow speed "I wish I had a camera" situations. But it's not in the same league as a real camera - certainly not my new one... Enjoy!

Trisha's 2nd Birthday

Aug 26, 2006 - 13 Photos

2006-08-26T13:30:00.000-04:00

Christa took the kids to the beach for a week... They stayed with her mom, aunt +kids, and grandmother. The kids and their cousins had a great time on the beach!

OC Beach

Aug 21, 2006 - 82 Photos

2006-08-25T20:37:00.000-04:00

I took Charity and Staci to Hershey Park today. We rode all the big boy coasters (except Comet and SuperDooperLooper), then had a ball at Chocolate World. Comet had a long line, and SuperDooper was CLOSED?!?!?!? It was a relatively short day, but we were all a bit tired and the girls were too chicken to do water rides. It was a first time trip to Hershey for both of them and they seemed to enjoy it! Charity is actually smiling in most of these pics. She seemed to have left her "ew face" home since I woke her up at 7:30am in such a hurry. LOL!
More Floridians SOLD on Hershey Park (Mike and Bonnie last time...).

FL Girls at Hershey

Aug 25, 2006 - 31 Photos

See pics and info of the coasters here!
Next up, Six Flags Great Adventure!

2006-08-25T20:36:00.000-04:00

Victoria joins in on the Mentos/Diet Coke craze!

2006-08-08T14:12:00.000-04:00

Just got back from British Columbia early this AM. It was gorgeous. It's a real pain to take pictures of myself with the camera, and it looks kinda dumb, but I didn't want just all landscape shots. You could get them on Google images.

British Columbia

Aug 6, 2006 - 120 Photos

I was the best man in Rick Stanley's wedding.

Rick's Wedding

Aug 5, 2006 - 82 Photos

Before the wedding I went to Mt Baker, the pics speak for themselves.

Mount Baker

Aug 4, 2006 - 150 Photos

2006-08-01T14:18:00.000-04:00

Got back from N.C. mountains last week. What fun it was to see (almost) everyone again....

NC 2006 Landscape

Jul 27, 2006 - 19 Photos

Follow the link back to the album page for ALL of the pics!

2006-05-29T15:27:00.000-04:00

We went to Disney again - a business trip with a happy ending. We just can't get enough of the magic. I got tons (4.6GB) of HD (720p) video with my new camcorder - so stay tuned.
We did all 4 parks via VERY busy days and nights. I stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge for the first part of the week while I attended a technology conference. Then Dad, VA, and Christian joined for a couple nights - the last night we booked at Contemporary (TOO much of a strech to expect the company to pay for this happy ending). AKL was awesome - we had the best room in the place - 4562. Contemporary was.... well, maybe contemporary in the 70s.

2006-05-07T14:27:00.000-04:00

I got a video camera finally:
http://www.sanyo.com/entertainment/cameracorder/index.cfm?productID=1239

It's a HD camcoder and 5MP digital camera. Pretty sweet. Here's a sample vid and pic!

Tori on the slide (video - slow download):
http://dana.servepics.com/Pics/ToriSlide.wmv
(actually quality is slightly higher, I sized down to 3-5Mbps make DL slightly reasonable)

Parents pool (picture - 10MP - slow download):
http://dana.servepics.com/Pics/SANY0007.JPG

2005-08-04T13:18:00.000-04:00

I created a pretty wild prototype of Baltimore traffic cameras live through the Google Maps API. Check it out!

http://dana.servepics.com/gmaps/gmaps.html

2005-07-22T08:45:00.000-04:00

It's been a while! Nothing too new - we've been doing our normal Spring theme park tours. I've made videos of Hershey Park and Dutch Wonderland. My video camera died 30 minutes into our Lancaster, PA Camping/Dutch Wonderland trip, so it's a pretty short one... Here they are!

Do a right click "Save As" to save on your drive and play from there. Download times may be quite long!

Hershey Park Small(12MB) Large(38MB)
Dutch Wonderland Small(8MB) Large(14MB)

Kayleigh Bouncin' at Hershey Small(5MB) Large(12MB)
*Sorry for my annoying commentary on this one - it wasn't planned for the edit reel :)

Coming up is a visit from Mike and Bonnie where I believe we'll be doing trips to Six Flags Great Adventure and again, Hershey Park! Christa, the kids, and I are big theme park buffs - we've done Hershey 4 times, Six Flags America, and Dutch Wonderland so far this year. We'll be hitting Disney in some form in September.

2005-01-23T18:16:00.000-05:00

January 2005 Snow Storm

What a great weekend! Couped up in the house - able to avoid all of the running around we tend to do most weekends. We didn't get as many pictures as we'd like due to horribly short battery life, our camera's broken card slot, and the lack of a functional digital camcorder (ours is BROKE). However - we had a great time - Daddy and Christian spent most of it playing video games. I think Mommy finished a book or two, and Tori - I'd say she split it between the rocking horse, the frogs, and of course the TV.
The final snow total came in at 8.75" as measured on the patio table.
Click here for all of the pictures!

2005-01-18T22:35:00.000-05:00

I built a terrarium for Christian and I to work with. He enjoys it, but is easily distracted. Tori is very difficult to pull away from it. She loves looking at the frog we put in there today. Ultimately we will have 4-6 Fire Belly Toads in there - possibly a reptile addition, but I have to play with the environment for a while to get it right.

1/22/05 Update - 4 Fire Belly Toads are living happily in the terrarium now!

2004-11-19T00:02:00.000-05:00

Isn't she a doll?

2004-06-13T18:58:00.000-04:00

Well I got a gmail account, but there was a bug when setting up the account. I clicked the "check availability" several times, and one of the times it registered. I got the name "javagod" but I really didn't want it. I wanted to know if it was available! grr...

2004-06-12T14:12:00.000-04:00

Wow - Blogger is giving out Gmail accounts? Wish I was lucky enough!

gmail swap: checking for invitations