Me and Evey sleeping in at the Lake of the Ozarks

I've been over here for a few hours now, so I have some time to post. I took the afternoon off today, I think I got food poisoned last night. Went to bed with an upset stomach, and it only got worse as today progressed. Anyway, I do feel better now... at least secure enough that I won't need to sprint for the restroom at any moment...

Adro snapped this pic of me and Evey while we were in Lake of the Ozarks with the Kamisnki's a few weeks ago. She really caught a cool moment, with Evey smiling right at the camera... we have the same smile here. Awwww....

Working on our new house tonight...

We're over at the new casa this evening, working on the new house. A photo of the exterior accompanies this post. Trust me, it's nicer on the outside. Heh. It's funny walking into what looks like a ghost house on the outside, and finding a modern home on the inside.

The house is 150 years old. It's still got the horse hitching posts out front, as you can see. It's a pretty special place, and we're really looking forward to calling it home soon.

There's a book called "Historic Homes of East Lawrence." This house is the cover shot, believe it or not. The house never appears inside the book, but sure enough, it is right there on the cover. If you're ever at a local Lawrence book store, check out their local section for the book, and you'll see our house. Otherwise, when you're over next, ask me about it... we'll surely have a copy soon.

Evey and Elvira

For a long time now I've wanted to get a photo up of Evey and the great lady who takes care of her everyday -- Elvira! (pronounced, el-VEE-tah)

Elvira is not only the wonderful woman who takes care of our precious little Evey Monday through Friday, she's also family! Somehow. She's a second cousin, or something. Well, at least she's MEXICAN... so you know she's related in some way! (Seriously, Adrianne's grandma Virginia is Elvira's aunt. If that helps.)

Everyday Elvira is teaching her Melosa espanol... today, she's convinced Evey said, "zapatos!" (Shoes!) Caramba!

The cousins!

My sister and her family have finally moved up to Kansas City! In the in-between time, they stayed with us for a day, and I was able to snap this pic of Evey and her cousins having a quick bath together. So cute! Evelyn is closest to the camera, Jett in the middle, helping Evey wash her hair, and Marina is in the back.

We're so excited to have Jess, Mark, Jett and Marina just 40 minutes up the road. Looking forward to more quality time with the cousins!

(Evelyn is almost nine months, Jett is almost 5, and Marina is 14 months.)

Here's lookin' at you...

We're watching you.

Where am I?

Trying to post on my blog, about every night. But Blogger is giving me some type of roadblock, so I can only post from the home PC, not the laptop (and remember, we're still not living at "home" yet... still at Judy's, for now).

Meanwhile, we're all doing great. Evey's got the army crawl down. She's just about ready to start crawling. Get ready, world.

More soon. I hope.

(pictured, Evey and her friend Emily.)

By the way

I can't figure out the poll thing (the broken link on the sidebar)... for now, it's just gonna have to stay. Sorry.

But, in the meanwhile... a new Evey photo...!

New stuff coming... I promise

It's just that the month of August is already SO busy, plus, we're in-between houses right now, so it's been tough to update regularly.

Still, I'll try to get stuff up on a semi-regular basis. Don't want to lose all three of my regular readers...

This photo taken three hours ago on Aug. 20th... see, she's getting bigger and bigger by the minute...!

Back from Chicago with NEW PHOTOS!

I’m in the back seat of my Dad’s new Pontiac G6, 50 miles away from Des Moines, Iowa. It’s 6 p.m. We’re on our way back from the Chicago Comicon. Been in Chicago since Thursday night.

I’m so excited to see my family again. Every report from Adrianne was that Evey was getting better and better (she’s had a cold for a few days) and it sounds like they’re doing great. I miss both their cute faces.

While in Chicago, I pulled out a camera I haven’t used in a while. I plugged in the card and found some of the most gorgeous photos of Adrianne and Evey that I have taken so far. They’re included in this post.

It was so neat to find myself surprised by the presence of these photos… almost as if the two of them came up to Chicago to surprise me. It made me realize how much I missed them. And now, I’m only a few hours away from holding them both.

So, the Chicago Comicon. It was CRAZY. I called it a vacation, but in the back of my mind, I knew it was a working vacation. But then I got there and found out quickly that it was just WORK.

(Iowa is really beautiful, by the way.)

I contacted one of my freelance writing outlets, comicbookresources.com, about doing some work for them while I was in Chicago. Attend a couple panels, write up a few stories, email them in, offset some of the cost of the hotel room and sharpen the deadline writing chops a little.

Then Jonah (executive director of CBR) asked me if I was interested in doing more than just a few stories. He asked me if I’d like to lead the charge for CBR at Chicago. Turns out Jonah wasn’t going to be attending ChicagoCon at all, and needed someone there to lead the charge in attending panels, doing interviews, writing copy, directing freelancers, etc. So of course I took on the job. I called in four friends to assist me in getting stories and doing the reporter thing. And per Jonah’s request, I kept all the “big” stories with tight deadlines for myself. We submitted our first batch of material Thursday night. We’ve been almost non-stop since.

Each day I had three panels. The panels lasted an hour each. Immediately following the panel, I’d type up the all the key announcements, questions from the crowd, etc., and try to get them emailed in as fast as I could. Then I was grabbing flash drives from my crew in the meantime, giving their stories a quick read and submitting them as well.

All in all, I think we did a pretty darn good job. The guys are worn out… I think reporting stories was a little more involved then they originally thought. But also, they all proved to be really good writers. In fact, their stories were more often than not better than mine. I was on a tighter deadline, but still, I’m the one that’s been doing this for years. The newbies showed me some really good stuff.

22 miles to Des Moines.

The best panel I got in on was the “Dark Knight” panel. You had to acquire a wristband to gain entry, which was handed to me courtesy of my press pass. In attendance was Gary Oldman (“The Professional,” “Dracula”), Aaron Eckhart (“Thank You For Smoking,” “Erin Brokovich”) and Christian Bale (“Batman Begins,” “The Machinist”). You can read my story here.

OK, we’re pulling into Des Moines for an ice cream break. Marlan just learned that I saw Oldman in Chicago and they're freaking out about it. But hey, they rode the elevator up with Michael Madsen (“Reservoir Dogs”). That ain’t bad.

Happy 8th month birthday, Evey!!!

Evey is 8-months-old today... whoo-hoo!

So Ryno came over to help me move some new furniture... we then grabbed dinner and sat down with Evey. I snapped this shot while Ryno was holding her.

The next photo is of Evey in her crib... she likes to play 'peek-a-boo' in her crib now. So if you're nearby, she'll look at you through the crib and expect a smile!

So 8 months went by amazingly fast... it'll be her 1st birthday before we know it!

OK, so what's she doing?

I've been meaning to tell you guys for a long time -- Evelyn has pretty much abandoned the sign language to tell us "milk." I think it was mostly our fault. See, Evey also learned 'bye-bye' at about the same time. And that made a lot of people happy. So she started waving 'bye-bye' to everyone, and "milk" was lost in the excitement.

Fast forward to just recently. Evey was thirsty... and she signed for "water," which I didn't even really know we were showing her much. (The sign is like making the "OK" sign and then holding it to your chin) So, make it three things that she'll sign to us -- milk, water and bye-bye. Cool!

What else? She's trying to crawl. She picks herself up in the air, on all fours, butt in the air... and rocks back-and-fourth. And she usually ends up going backwards.

She likes to make this "bbbtttttthhhhhhh!" sound.

She really likes to jump up and down in her Johnny Jump-Up... she just jumps and smiles at anyone who will look.

She plays piano. Well, at least, she likes to slap away on this toy piano her grandma got her. And when she finishes, she'll look at you and wait for the applause.

She's a good eater. She's eating veggies now, like green beans, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, etc. And apple sauce.

And her hair is really growing in.

Sorry for the older, blurry photo... new photos coming soon...

Hello from the new casa!

Well, we've been so busy with the move... here's a sign of progress: I'm blogging from the new casa! Whoo-hoo! I took Friday afternoon off (sorry, boss) to stay home while the cable guy hooked up cable, internet and a phone line.

Now the bad news: Evey is sick. She had a fever of 102.2 Saturday night... so it was a bit of a harrowing evening for us. She's doing better today... lots of naps, lots of water. Here she is with Mom taking a nap... picture taken with my PDA, hence the bluriness.

Anyway, more soon, as things continue to settle down.

MVP of the move? Trish!

And now, for the MVP of the move, the person that gets the BIGGEST thanks... our friend Trish Averill! (Pictured here with her dork fiancee, Eric "Double-Bogey" Neuteboom.)

So a huge THANK YOU to Trish, who lifted about 10 times as much heavy stuff as Eric... Eric kept asking, "Do you have any more blankets, or pillows, that need to be moved?"

Mmmmoving

Sorry it's been so quiet around here lately. No, the UFOs did not abduct us. Instead, we moved. And it's been crazy, hectic, stressful... you name it.

More to come soon. But for now, a quick photo of Evey (gotta bump the UFO off the top of the page), and a heartfelt THANK YOU to the following movers:

SCOTT WOGOMON

BART LITTLEJOHN

ERIC NEUTEBOOM

BRENT FRY

SEAN LIPFORD

and to Judy Romero for having a lunchtime feast for all of us!

More soon... once we start getting out of all these boxes!