it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

This weather can't get any better. It seems that every night we are outside enjoying the backyard with Ella and Gage, doing yard work and day dreaming about projects we want to do! The only we aren't looking forward to is mowing and raking!

Ella is telling more stories and saying more words. "Ouch" and "Hi" are frequenters and an occasional "Gage". Nodding yes usually follows any question you ask her. Although she does rely on the crawling quite a bit, she is walking more and more. She likes to try and wear Mom's jewelry. And if she has her hands full, she will hold things in her mouth or under her chin.

I don't want to dwell on it, but I did accept a new position at Northern Tool and will be starting their in their marketing department as an Ecommerce Web Designer. It will be swell to work at the same place as Dawnzer and with that stellar people she works with. But with that said, a full time gig for my Dad, Brother Hugh and Rose are still in need!

song: Justin Bieber ft. Ludacris - Baby (Don't hate You Bieber, You Brought Her)

memory: Planting new plants in the backyard and attempting to grow grass in bear spots reminded me of the many Summers in Merrifield at the cabin. My father, being the perfectionist that he is, was always worried about planting new shrubs and making sure fresh, green blades of grasss were visible on every square inch of the lot. What this meant? Always filling a 5 gallon bucket of blue Miracle Grow water. It seems every time I turned around I was filling another damn bucket. But hey, it was a cool, blue color. Oh those Summer days. I realize now how much my rents worked at the cabin when they should have been playing!

Since I am in the mood for more music talk, I have to mention these song lyrics. The song, Bed Rock, its quite a sick lyrical song, but this line is so fly (yep, I said it):

I love your sushi rolls, hotter then wasabi
I race for your love, shake-n-bake, ricky bobby

Lastly, I mentioned in a previous post about how Jamie Cullum was on the Concordia campus to shoot a music video. Its been released and its a pretty cool vid, especially how it features the CU sports facility. Anywho, check it out:

livin' is easy

The housewarming party has come and gone. And what fun it was. Leading up to the party, the cleaning and fixing up commenced. Surprisingly, we updated and finished everything we planned on. The master bath was finished, the kitchen hardware updated, and every inch of the main floor painted. We lucked out with awesome weather on Saturday. More on that later.

Ella got a cold in the early parts of last week. That made it hard for her to sleep at night and made the tantrums come more often. She seems to be over it by now. Because the weather has been so great, she has spent a lot of time outside at daycare, and loved every minute of it.

At some point last week, the state board of higher ed decided to officially change the Fighting Sioux name of UND sports. tear. Since moving in and especially since this news broke, neighbors have been stopping by to comment on the Sioux flag in the front. Its time to run out and snatch up the last of the Sioux gear before its gone!

Also, last Wednesday, I called in to leave my favorite musical moment on the Dave Ryan in the Morning Show hotline of KDWB. By singing a few measures of the Full House theme song, I got a call back Friday morning about 6:30. I sang the bit again on the air and won a 32GB iPod Touch. Pretty friggin' sweet if you ask me! Now its just a matter of recovering my iTunes account and start using the bad boy for what its made for!

Back to the party...I think we invited about 30 adults in total. We probably ended up seeing closer to 40 adults since more neighbors and friends showed up. We had fantastic weather and had guests spending time in the kitchen, porch, patio and the kids enjoyed the backyard. Hugh Jr. and Brady ended up closing down the party (thanks to the neighbors who borrowed us their firepit). Fun was had by all.

Song: Full House Theme Song (I sang the last 10 seconds on air)

Memory: No memory comes to mind right now. But I will say that I found more family genealogy after a few rigorous Google searches. I have surpassed 1,500 profiles added to the Springer/Satermo/Sheehan/Kuehn/Fladeland/etc. family tree. With all the people I still need to add, I am expecting to reach 4,000 when everything is said and done.

And last, a video of Madeline and Ella acting silly in the bath tub: