manly-stanley

A Walk In The Park

It's so fun being a new family.  Our new baby boy is just over 3 weeks old, and we took him out on his first walk the other day.  We have a local park that is close by, and so it's very convenient to get to.  It's hilarious when you take a newborn out into public.  People will give you all kinds of reactions.  Everyone wants to line up and see the little guy.  If I were smarter, I'd sell raffle tickets and put this kid to good use!  We don't mind people coming and looking.  It makes us feel very proud.

There are all sorts of people in the park.  You have your runners.  You have your old folks.  You have your dog walkers.  You have your horny teenagers.  You have your moms.  It's fun to see the different kinds of fashion for each group.  The runners are in their Under Armour.  The old folks are in their jogging suites and Tilley hats.  The teenagers are in their skinny jeans with beaded belts.  The moms are just glad to be out of the house!

We had a nice little walk, but mom got tired pretty quick.  She mentioned that although being pregnant in the summer was awful, it sure is nice to have a baby in the fall.  I agree.  Our dog does too.  He loves the new little baby, and has somehow managed to sleep up in our room the past few nights.  I'm fine with it.  As long as I keep giving Legend his dog meds, he should be around for a while to be best buds with this new little baby.  If you are ever shopping a dog to have with kids, golden retrievers are amazing!

Birthday Month

October is always birthday month for my family.  I'm the fourth.  My parents are the 17th and 18th.  We are sandwiched by my brothers who are in September and October.  It's always fun in this time of life because, while we don't get as excited about the presents anymore, it's nice just to get together.  If we get together once a month as a family, we're doing good.  We don't live that far away, but it's just difficult to schedule it in.  I suppose with a higher family priority, we would be more consistent, but that takes a strong family vision.

I don't have a gift picked out for my mom yet this year, but I think I found something that my dad will really like.  I can get him a custom military ring from this site with his name on it, and his specific Air Force division.  That's pretty cool.  It also won't cost me an arm and a leg.  I think he will really like it.  For my mom, I'm going to have to keep brainstorming.  In about 10 weeks, she'll be helping baby sit our new little man once a week.  So, she might like to have some baby blankets on hand, like these.  We bought these swaddle wraps and so far they have worked wonders at getting Emil to sleep.  That's not nearly as cool as the ring, but if you can get a baby to nap well, she might appreciate it.

It feels so good now that cooler fall weather is here.  Those baby blankets are actually finally needed to keep our baby warm!  So glad football is here and some leaves changing.  The Bengals got an ugly win yesterday, but a win is a win in the NFL.  I just don't think that when we go against the tougher teams, our offense will be enough.  Carson looks hideous right now.

New Diets

For the past six months or so I have been trying to eat only natural foods, no preservatives, no added sugars and things of that sort.  It all started when I watched this documentary, Food Inc. and wrote a couple of papers on it.  I decided I should be eating my food as close to the source as possible, so that's what I have been doing and it has been really great.  I feel overall much better and I was thinking that I should do this same switch for my dog.  My dog has always eaten the generic eukanuba but I decided to switch him to something new, natural balance dog food.  He seems more energized but I am hoping it helps with his overall health, and I wont have to keep buying expensive pet medications.

Best Day Ever!

Yesterday I had the best day ever! No I didn't find a magic wallet, nor did I win a raffle, but I did get engaged! I am so excited to start this new phase of my life and I can't wait to get planning! It is so exciting to plan a wedding and a new life, but there is so much to consider.  Things I have never had to think of before, like what kind of health insurance we need, where we want to live, how to find a great house in Cincinnati.  Before finding a home, we have to decide where we want to live, Anderson or Clermont or New Richmond, so many choices! Although there is a lot to think about, I am still so excited about the ring and telling everyone! 

Rainy Day

The past week here in Cincinnati has been terribly rainy, and since today is my only day off of work this week I would love to do something exciting! But what? When I was in elementary school, my brother and I came up with a list of what to do on rainy days, while most of this list would result in us being surrounded by doctors in scrubs, some of the list was pretty amusing.  Our favorite thing to do was to dress up and make up stories to be in.  We would borrow our moms jewelry box to find pirate jewelry and then find makeshift pirate costumes to be on the open seas.  Or we would raid the kitchen and record our very own cooking show.  The choices are endless, and the list is always a funny memory of a time when rainy days were always fun and full of possibility.  It helps me to remember that I can do much more with my day than spend it surfing facebook and youtube. 

Lice!

My brother Mitch, is 16 and always getting into trouble.  This week he discovered some fairly unpleasant news, he has lice! His head started itching really bad on Monday and then on Tuesday he started using the lice over the counter type shampoo and medicine, but that just wasn't cutting it.  Since he couldn't go to school with the lice and I am free during the day on Thursdays, I recieved the honor of driving him to the doctors to get some perscription medicine for his lice problem.  I made him sit in my car with a plastic bag on his head all the way to the doctors, and once we got there we had to wait about an hour to see a nurse (who had on some seriously awesome scrubs).  Finally we got to see the doctor and he gave Mitch some lice medicine, he described it like flea control for humans!  On the way home we brainstormed where he caught the lice and Mitch remembered that on Sunday he had been trying on things at goodwill for his pirate costume that he was making for a spirit day at school.  That is the only idea we came up with, so no more trying on hats at goodwill! 

Nursing Home

Yesterday I had the chance to volunteer at the local nursing home and it was very insightful.  They were trying to remodel their garden so they needed our group to put up some wood dowels and spindles in the garden to liven it up a little bit.  We worked for a couple of hours outside and then we got to go inside and meet a lot of the residents.  One of the residents couldn't stop talking about his new custom army ring that his daughter got him for his birthday.  It was so interesting to hear his stories and it made me miss my grandfather who also fought in the war but died just a few years ago.  I loved volunteering at the nursing home and our group felt like we actually made a difference so I hope we go back sometime soon!

End of the Season

I know it has been a few months, but it finally has hit me that basketball season is completely over and baseball season is in full swing.  Don;t get me wrong, I love going to baseball games, but it just isn't the same quick paced energy of an awesome scrappy college basketball game.  I already miss the free giveaways at games, and the abundant foam fingers.  At Xavier, they even give out raffle tickets at the game and if you get chosen you can go try and shoot a half court shot for $1,000! I wish I could be as lucky as these two guys, this video is so incredible! I guess I will have to start adjusting to the new season, and forget about basketball for another few months.  

iPhone 4G

I can't believe some Apple employee left an iphone on the floor of a bar. Don't get me wrong I am glad to know we are going to see an new iphone but it kind of steals all the surprise for Apple. I think its funny that Apple is not threatening to sue if the iPhone is not returned. I guess the law get's kind of murky when it comes to cases like this. However, from what I read Apple has the right to reclaim the phone. A few have purposed that Apple intentionally lost the phone to gauge customer response. While I highly doubt this Apple is capable of a tactic like this. Check one of the many articles here about this. 

Tricked

One of my uncles is getting close to retiring from the Air Force in a few months. As a family we wanted to get him a gift to celebrate. We have all pitched in and I was tasked with actually purchasing the gift. We decided to get him one of those military rings that every retired guy from the military wears. After a lot of looking around I decided on this one.

It was much cheaper than we were expecting. So I took the extra money and bought him a sort of gag gift. See my uncle is quite the jokester and has spent his whole life pulling tricks on us. He hates pirates and they have totally freaked him out since he was a kid. So I am going to hide the ring under the pirate costume. He will know that is not his actual gift but will struggle to lift it out of the way to see what the actual gift is. He can't resist a good surprise. I told my mom and dad the other day and they loved the idea. Its about time he got some payback for all those years.