saying goodbye

as our memorial weekend visit comes to and end, its time to say goodbye to mema and papa.  i know this is the hardest part for my mom, she so looks forward to our visits, as regrettably infrequent as they are, and so when they come to an end its so hard to say goodbye.  now that ledger is getting old enough to actually interact with them, i'm sure its even harder.  we really do appreciate the time we get to come and visit.  its been so amazing to see ledger grow and change from one day to the next, i can only imagine what it must be like to only see him once a month!  the dramatic changes must make it feel like you are meeting a new ledger each time you see him!  we look forward to coming and visiting again soon so you can be a part of the amazing changes that have happened since last you saw him!  with summer coming, i'm hopeful that we will be able to get up there more and you can witness the amazing boy he is becoming!  he looks forward to spending more time with his mema and papa!

understanding toys

ledger always loves the chance to play with toys, and the best part of going to visit his grandparents is that they have new toys!  it has been so fun to watch him over the past few months because he has gone from just hitting toys and throwing them around to actually engaging them and understanding what they are all about. it was so cool to see him take the baby doll that mema and papa had and instead of just using it as a blunt object, actually watching him understand that it is a baby and trying to feed it with the bottle.  wow!  he had gotten so smart so quickly!  before we know it he will be talking and writing!  what an awesome joy it is to see him grow and change and learn!

visiting jeffry lee

sunday night diana and i got back to the house to put ledger to bed on time.  after the long day diana was ready to go to bed her self!  i wasn't too tired, so she suggested that i go visit my bestest pal in the whole world: jeffry lee!  well, i wasn't going to pass up that opportunity, so i gave him a call and headed over.  we had a great time, first doing a little shopping at walmart, then just hanging around his house catching up.  i always have such a great time with jeffry lee, its like i get recharged when i'm around him.  we have great conversations about anything and everything, digging deep one minute, and goofy nonsense the next.  oh how i love me some jeffry lee!

on deck

sunday we spend the afternoon playing in the deck with ledger.  he's still hasn't quite gotten the hang of that whole walking thing, so we was scurrying all around on his bottom.  going this way and that just having the time of his life!  we brought out some fun toys for him to play with. we passed a ball back and fourth, ledge racing after it each time.  we even took out an old rider toy that jaidey and aves used to use years ago.  he was the happiest boy in the world!  the problem, of course, is that by the end of all that playing he was absolutely filthy!  so mema had a great idea: bring out a bucket of water and give him an impromptu bath!  well, for ledger, this made a fun afternoon even better- that boy just loves being in the water!
(more pics)

five year engagement

while we were there over memorial weekend, diana and i both remembered that this was the weekend all those years ago that the two of us made the commitment that we were going to be in this relationship for the long haul!  it was may 24, 2008 that i finally got up the nerve to ask her if she would be willing to spend the rest of her life with me.  and to my amazement, she said that she wouldn't mind that too much.  (ok, that might not be exactly how it went, but you get the idea, right?)  we decided to go back to that exact spot and remember that special day, now five years later.  i love her more now that i could have even imagined then, so i'm pretty sure we made the right choice...
(more pics)

baby gathering

as happens every memorial day weekend, my parents hosted a potluck for all of their friends.  diana and i always try to be there for it because its a fun time to see all the old friends from sandy pines.  at first we had heard that squeegee and his wife weren't going to come and we were very disappointed.  rhonda, his mom, soon set us straight and let us know that they were coming, so we were relieved that the two who are the most fun to catch up with were going to be there!  we had a great time seeing everyone again, checking out how much all the babies had grown and meeting the newest additions to all the families.  i tell ya, as the years go on, it becomes more and more of a baby gathering than anything else- there were what seemed like dozens of toddlers waddling around!  ledger had a bunch of fun meeting all of his peers, playing with them and getting into as much trouble as he could!
(more pics)

have a seat

one of the things that lissa picked up at the flea market was a chair for ledger.  there was a guy there who was selling these small pvc pipe chairs with different designs on them.  she got one for ledger as a gift!  later that afternoon we let him check it out.  he's a bit young to really understand what chairs are all about, but we helped him in to it and let him sit there for a minute- he loved it!  look at that smile on his face!  its still a little big for him, he feet were dangling off the end of it, but soon it will be the perfect size for him to use every time we visit mema and papa at the pines!
(more pics)

cart ride

one of the best parts of sandy pines is the golf cart rides.  they were the only thing about the place that appealed to me when i was younger!  everyone, no matter how old, loves to tool around on those things and check the place out.  now that ledger is getting old enough to actually notice what's going on around him in the world, i knew he was going to love a cart ride!  so papa and i hopped on for a little 'three generations of brink' ride around the park.  ledger totally loved zooming around on that thing, and papa had a great time holding him seeing him smile and laugh as we rode.  definitely a special memory for all three of us!

flea fashion

here's what we had been looking forward to for the past few days: the sandy pines flea market!  every year they have a bunch of flea markets at the park, the first one of the year is on memorial weekend.  lissa had never been to one, so it was very exciting for her- she went nuts and got tons of stuff!  it was especially fun because ledger could tag along and even walk along side us for most of the way!  our little fella is gettin' so big!  one of our favorite booths is the one that sells t-shirts.  my brother-in-law tim, diana, and i always love to check out their selection.  they might not be the most fashionable shirts, but they certainly are the cheapest!  they are really high quality, but the price is just right: 4 for $10!  you cant go wrong with that price, right?  they are usually sports teams or souvenir type shirts from around the country, advertising different touristy type things.  but honestly, for that cheap it doesn't really matter whats on them!  i actually found four of them that i liked, diana found four, as well as two nice hoodies- we basically got new summer wardrobes for less than forty bucks!  we had a great time checking out the rest of the place, mom got her usual haul of new flowers to fill up the deck outside their trailer, and the kids got fun little knick-knacks to play with for the day.  all in all, it was another great flea market at the pines!
(more pics)

some father and son time

finally a vacation!  with memorial weekend here, i took off of meijer and made plans to visit my family up in grand rapids.  diana and ledger had been house sitting for her mom and david along with lissa, so the three of them actually headed up friday afternoon so they could settle in before it was ledger's bedtime.  i didn't get out of work early on friday, so i headed up to join them as soon as i could.  unfortunately though, i didn't arrive there until after our little guy had gone to nigh-night land.  it was great to see the wife again and hang out for a while with lissa, but we called it quits pretty early so we could get to bed and be ready for the fun saturday ahead.  then, finally, i got to see my boy!  when he woke up i got up with him and got to spend a nice morning with just the two of us.  while the ladies slept we headed out to get a few things from the store, some more baby food, milk, and other assorted vacation items.  oh, it was so nice to have those couple hours with my boy- how i had missed his little smile and cute babbling noises!  when we got home it was time for him to take his first nap.  soon after the girls got up and we got ready for the day.  by the time ledge was waking up it was time to go to sandy pines and see the family!

first walk

its finally here.  this is one of those days i had been looking forward to ever since diana and i first found out that she was pregnant: going for a walk with my son.  he has been getting better and better at waddling around the living room on his feet.  it started off with him having to hold both my hands while he tried to kick-walk with me holding up most of his weight.  little by little he gained more confidence in his step, still relying on me holding both hands.  well, recently he has taken that next step toward walking, holding only one of my hands, and even is able to take a few steps on his own!  the past few days i have been taking him out in this nice warm weather and, holding only one hand, walking with him down the sidewalk a few houses and back, going a little further each time out.  he's getting brave, and his dada is getting proud!
(more pics)

sun's out...

with the warm weather coming in, its time for ledger to ditch the short sleeve shirts.  might as well ditch the sleeves all together!  'sun's out, guns out' i always say!
(more pics)

happy birthday

along with spring comes a very special day: my beautiful bride's birthday!  now that we've got a little one with us, it makes celebrating a little bit different. instead of being able to have a nice romantical evening together, we get to go out to eat really early so that we are back in time for ledger to get to bed.  oh well, we made the most of it and diana got to go to one of her favorite restaurants: qdoba.  it was nice to get a little bit of time out of the house together and celebrate her 29th (ish) birthday.  sorry honey, its not as much as you deserve, but at least we marked the occasion somehow, right?
(more pics)

reading on the go

one of ledger's favorite things to do these days is look at books.  granted, he cant quite read them yet, but he has so much fun just paging through them and checking out all the pictures.  whenever he's in the car we just hand him a book or two and he does a pretty good job of entertaining himself for a while.  he sure is a cute little reader, huh?
(more pics)

new again

though ledger and diana had a great time with lissa, i was very happy to have them back!  and it turned out that ledger was pretty happy to be back too.  the morning after they came back (he went straight to bed the evening they actually returned) he came back to his pile of toys and had a blast!  it was like he didnt even remember he had ever played with them before!  he would pull out one toy and play with it, another toy would catch his eye and he would toss off the first one- like a kid in a candy store!  ...although, perhaps it would be more accurate to say a kid an a toy store, huh?  he and i were able to play together again for the first time in a while, and boy did we have fun!  i always love having the morning with him, a short little 45 minutes to hang out with him and play before i head off to work.  it makes the day go buy so much easier knowing that i got to spend some quality time with my son, and that i would be able to have another hour or two when i get back home!

clean rugs

one of the things we do from time to time for the rental property is clean the carpets.  a  couple years ago my brother in law tim replaced all the carpet over there, so i figured i should really try to make it last as long as possible, so i rented one of those carpet cleaners from the grocery store.  it worked pretty well over there, getting out most of the stains (except one- for some reason the last renters left a giant six inch blop of hot glue on the carpet in one of the bedrooms, completely ruining the brand new carpet tim put in there!  argh!  so much for their deposit!) and getting the place smelling a bit soapy.  since the wife has often asked if we could get a carpet cleaner for our living room, i thought i would surprise her while she was gone in detroit with a nice clean carpet when she returned!  it was a bit of a pain moving around all the furniture (on the other side the whole place is empty, so i didnt have to move anything!) but the fresh and clean carpet was well worth it!  i'm going to have a pleased wife, me!

vacancy

while diana was gone in detroit, i had the enviable task of getting the duplex ready to rent.  our renters had told us that they would be moving out- they were going to be buying a house!  we were excited for them, but disappointed that we were going to be loosing such great neighbors.  so, the much dreaded task of repainting and cleaning had come again.  because of this task i told diana that this would be the best time to visit lissa because i wasn't going to be able to spend any time over the week with her- it was going to be straight from work to painting for me!  never one to miss a fun opportunity to see lissa, she took me up on the offer!  i went to the hardware store, got all the supplies i needed, and got right to it.  i have always hated this task, cleaning up the duplex, but it went a lot better this time than it ever had in the past.  i think one of the reasons was because i just popped in my headphones and listened to podcasts the entire time!  that really made time just zip by.  i would pop the cap off the paint can and before i knew it i had finished the living room and a bedroom!  (my favorite podcast to listen to while i worked was this one!)  with time flying by, i was able to make some real progress on the place and got it whipped in to shape in just a few days, ready to be rented out again.

baby in the water

recently diana and ledger went out to detroit to visit lissa, diana's old college roommate.  while there, the three of them went to the ymca to do a little working out and to take a dip in the pool.  well, diana picked up some swimming diapers for ol' ledger and gave him his first taste of swimming!  she said he totally loved it!  he always loves taking baths and playing in the water, so it makes perfect sense that he would love this giant tub all the more!  she sent me this picture to let me see how much fun he was having- what a great time!  i wish i could have been there, but its great to know that the two of them had a blast!

south bend weekend

diana's mom had been asking us to stop by again for a while, so diana and ledger headed out saturday morning to spend the day over in south bend.  i had to work, so i waved them off and then headed over to the m store to move around a bunch of boxes!  when i got done though, i drove out to spend saturday night and sunday with the family.  we had a great time playing around, watching ledger scoot around the house.  he's been getting better and better at taking a small step here and there.  i would bet that before we know it he will be walking all over the place!  its always a good time to see diana's mom and david- ledger always loves it!  the only bother with this set up is that diana arrived in her car and i in mine, which means that we have to drive home separately as well.  aw man, then we miss the best part of traveling: talking to each other as we go!  oh well, a small price to pay for a fun weekend!
(more pics)

oh poop.

we've been having problems on and off at our place with the sewer line for the past half dozen years.  it would get backed up and then we would call some one to root it out, but then a year or two later they would be back again to do the same.  well, about two years a go the guy who came told us that we would be needing some major work on it soon.  he said that the pipe that was running out of the house was made of clay (apparently that's what they used to use back when this house was build) and the roots from the trees and shrubs had crushed it and the pipe had collapsed.  oh boy.  well, diana and i took note of this warning and tried our best to ignore it so it would go away...  unfortunately it didn't.  it finally happened, the pipe had completely collapsed and stopped any flow of sewage out of our place.  well, i guess we cant ignore it anymore.  so, we got the plumber guys to come out and dig a huge hole in the yard and replace the five feet of pipe coming from the house.  fortunately it wasn't as bad as we had initially feared, it turns out that the pipe in the front yard that went out to the road had been replaced at some point in the past fifty years, so the clay was only the first five or six feet.  we were quite thankful about that, we had feared that they would need to tear up the whole lawn, a couple sections of the sidewalk, and maybe even into the street!  well, its done now, so that constant worry in the back of our heads can finally be quieted.  they guarantee it for five years too, so we should be good for a while... we hope.
(more pics)