Paul, Lynne, Anja, Isabel, Connor & Daisy

Snow Family

2012-01-23T20:06:00.001-05:00

The weather is almost freaky right now. Over the last two days, this the third week of January, we have experienced well below freezing (15F) to moderate temperatures and six inches of snow to gale force winds and high temperatures in the high 40s. Anybody know of any worldwide climate phenomenon going on?

We took advantage though; all five of us including Daisy were out in the front yard for ages yesterday snowballing, playing chase and building snowmen. We built five in all, a Snow Family, one for each of our family. Everybody enjoyed it, except for one little boy (name withheld) who got a little too cold in the end…

Sledding

2012-01-21T14:52:00.002-05:00

There was no blog update this week for good reason. Right after my last update, I started feeling quite ill with the nasty bug that Isabel and Anja had contracted. It was nasty indeed; I was wiped out for most of the week.

We’re all fully back healthy again, to the extent that we all went sledding this morning over on the Purdue golf course. It was a cool 17F (-8C), in hindsight a little too brisk since Connor and Isabel only enjoyed it momentarily.

More Illness....

2012-01-14T12:07:00.003-05:00

OK, I spoke (or blogged) to soon about how quickly Anja bounced back from sickness. She is still vomiting. She got sick on the bus coming home yesterday and is doing so periodically since. Isabel is also sick now too, we were bathing her and stripping bedclothes in the middle of the night last night. She continued to vomit throughout the night.

When I called the doctors office this morning they simply said…it’s going around, most people in the doctors office has it, it’s viral and there is nothing you can do only take tiny sips of water. Oh, and it last about 5 days. Nice…..

Here is a picture of Isabel in the same pose as Anja the other day and I also took a little video…Poor kids. Our only fear now is that Connor is next and we’ll be soon behind him.

Ordinary Week with a Few Illnesses

2012-01-13T12:27:00.001-05:00

It’s Friday afternoon and we have emerged from the week relatively well. Anja was violently vomiting Wednesday night and most of Thursday only to bounce right back today as if nothing had ever happened. Amazing really. Brooke has also been ill and Connor bust his lip pretty badly. Another ordinary week really.

Last night we got our first real snow of this winter, a good 4-5” so the kids had an hour playing in it this morning as a result of their school delay. Lynne is actually on a trip, she left yesterday for a very cold Minnesota, lets hope she manages to get all her connections tonight to be home with us for Saturday morning. I trust all are well, hope you all have a relaxing weekend.

Lucy Owens

2012-01-10T21:40:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we added to our wider family. Congratulations to my brother Clive and Tracey who had a beautiful little baby girl, Lucy. I spoke with Clive twice yesterday, everybody is healthy, doing well and obviously very excited indeed. Well done Tracey, you did a great job; nobody ever doubted that you would. We wish them both the warmest of congratulations, well wishes, health and happiness as they start this new journey as a family. Take lots of pictures guys, soak up the moments, these are the happiest times.

Ballet and Weekend Update

2012-01-08T19:36:00.003-05:00

The kids are now all tucked up in bed, really tired and ready for a new week after a relatively eventful weekend. This was largely due to the great weather we have had. We were all out yesterday playing in the garden for well over an hour, this is virtually unprecedented in January. It’s so nice to get some fresh cool air and get a little exercise too.

Today then, the girls and Lynne got all dressed up (well the girls did anyhowJ) for their annual trip to the ballet. Our local ballet company performs The Nutcracker each January and the girls love going. Whilst they were out, Connor and I hit the golf course, figuratively of course. We took a walk with Daisy on our local golf course, which is great for her, she races up and down the fairways like a racehorse. Then to top it all off this evening, Lynne made a great apple crumble and made Birds Custard to go with it, yumee…

We also had a houseguest this weekend, which provided endless entertainment. Marley, Randy and Lorraine’s cat, stayed while they together with Cy visited Chicago for his birthday. Have a great week everybody.

Shown below are various photos, I love the first one of Connor, it looks like Elmo is coming down the slide.

Happy Birthday Brad

2012-01-07T20:54:00.001-05:00

We just spent a very pleasant evening with Brad and Lisa for Brad’s birthday. Happy birthday Brad. We were entertained with the usual spread of excellent food, relaxing atmosphere and a chance to sit and chat with longtime friends. The weather here in Indiana has been freaky for January, were are still enjoying temperatures well above freezing so Brad fired up the grill for ribs like it was a Spring evening.

As normal, I was snapping a few photos of everybody, some of which are shown below. Thanks again you guys.

The Fairy Garden Project

2012-01-01T18:43:00.002-05:00

Over the past week, the girls and Lynne have spent many hours busily working on their Christmas project: A Fairy Garden.

This has been an ongoing project all week; the girls (and Connor although often uninvited) have been very enthusiastic with their help, although at times it looked like a Lynne exclusive project. Anja was continuously stressing that the materials used be “fully recycled”, with extensive use of left over cardboard, yogurt pots, bottle caps, a pasta box and much more.

They finished it up this evening and it is now fully decorated with their recently acquired fairies for full imaginative play.

Happy Birthday Tindra

2011-12-31T18:07:00.003-05:00

Happy Birthday Tindra. We simply cannot believe that you’re now four years old. When I showed your photos to the girls this afternoon they instantly remembered your visit a few years back. We hope you have a great birthday and a happy new year, a special year since you’re going to become a big sister. Congratulations Håkan and Eva-Lotta and thanks for the letter and picture.

Happy New Year to All

2011-12-31T18:00:00.001-05:00

Wishing you all a Happy New Year, best wishes to each of you for 2012.

Shown below are a couple of recent pictures that never made it on here…

Milestones......

2011-12-30T23:24:00.001-05:00

As we progress through family life we achieve millstones, albeit sometimes mini-milestones. We achieved two of those in one week and I know they may not seem very big to you, but to us they are big steps.

We transitioned Connor out of a crib (cot) and into a “Big Boy Bed” and with his new level of confidence and abilities (or dare I say stubbornness), we were also able to remove the stair gate. This stair gate and crib removal is a big deal, they have both been a permanent fixture in our lives for almost seven years. Now that they’re gone, their absence seems weird…..that’s weird…

Try Anchor Porter......

2011-12-30T23:01:00.001-05:00

It’s wintertime and some of us reach for the darker beers. I tend to gravitate toward stouts and porters but unfortunately the options in those categories are limited in central Indiana.

Thankfully we can get what I believe is a very under appreciated beer and that is, Anchor Porter. This beer from the famous San Francisco based Anchor Brewing Company. They are most famous for their Steam Beer and Liberty Ale (both of which are very good), however, in my humble opinion; this Porter (or ugly sister to these two flagship beers) outshines them both. If you have a chance to taste this great beer please do. The folks over at Beer Advocate also agree, they too rate it higher than the more famous “sisters”.

Relaxing Week at Home

2011-12-30T14:31:00.004-05:00

We have all been relaxing here in West Lafayette, each day trying to do a few different things. The girls have been playing with their Christmas present whilst Connor is buzzing around busily trying to disrupt that play. Anja was very proud playing with her snap electronics set the other night, she copied the diagram on the box and built an AM radio from the components in the box (it actually worked). Isabel has been playing with her block counting game which she loves (game to help kids learn the principles of addition using blocks of different sizes).

Lynne has been doing all sorts with the kids too. Sewing and doing a few crystallization experiments to name a few. I have read a couple of the books I got as presents and have been playing with my new software toy, Aperture. I also managed one run this week and even baked a couple loaves of bread, something I have not done in way too long.

We have also had snow which provided a great morning of activity. I trust you’re all having a good holiday.

Christmas Report

2011-12-26T18:24:00.003-05:00

We had a great Christmas Day yesterday. We had a house full of people most of the day, Kaisa, Kevin and their three children together with Brad and Lisa with their two. Thanks for coming guys and making our day an occasion. Alden, a special thanks to you for being such a good help playing with Connor.

Of course the highlight of the day was the excitement of Santa and the presents he left. The girls could not contain themselves and any picture I took could simply not tell the story. It’s hard to capture continuous present ripping in any one shot. These Christmas mornings with small children are so very very special. If you think Isabel's hair is a little odd, well it's just missing some. Evidently Santa does not consider cutting your own hair as naughty an activity as parents do :)

Hope you all had an equally exciting and relaxing day. Today we took it easy.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T19:29:00.001-05:00

The veggies are prepared, the stuffing ready, turkey prepped, cakes made, kids bathed and in bed….all we are waiting for now is Santa.

We’ve had a busy day here. Coupled with doing all of the above, we had Steef, Ginette and Matt over with their kids to watch The Polar Express and stay for dinner. It has been hectic and the kids were exhausted.

After leaving cookies and milk out they all trotted off to bed without any issues (except Connor who was overtired and kicked up a fuss at every step).

Merry Christmas Everybody, hope you all have a wonderful day.

Excited Children

2011-12-22T21:42:00.002-05:00

Got the girls and Connor off to bed tonight after a busy day. They are hyper excited about Santa coming in a few days, it’s literally all they can think about. They are off to the movie theatre with Brooke tomorrow as a special treat to see the new muppet movie. Should be interesting since I don’t believe they have ever seen those characters.

I took these pictures this evening as they were having a bath and reading before bed.

Christmas Week

2011-12-22T17:04:00.001-05:00

Our week before Christmas is going well. I have been off all week and it’s really nice getting a chance to wind down before the weekend. Earlier in the week I did some final shopping, took Isabel to the doctors, went to Anja’s class party, played racquetball for the first time in ages and even managed to get out for a couple of runs (the weather has been crazy warm for December).

Lynne has also been in full gear with present buying and wrapping in addition to some baking and sweet/truffle/fudge making. It’s now quite a tradition for her. Brooke too has been busy doing holiday activities with the kids. Yesterday they decorated cookies which is always a big hit.

Ebert Prize Winner

2011-12-22T10:05:00.002-05:00

We're all terribly proud of Lynne today. Most of you know that she works in the Department of Industrial & Physical Pharmacy at Purdue University and her passion is her research. The fruit of any good research program is publishing the results of that research in the scientific literature. This year Lynne and her group reached a major milestone in terms of publications, she published her 100^th paper. This is a big deal; many research professors will work a lifetime to achieve this, if at all.

It got even better yesterday when she was informed that she was awarded the 2012 Ebert Prize. The Ebert Prize is presented annually by the American Academy of Pharmaceutical Research and Science to the authors of an article published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences which describes particularly new, original, and novel findings that have a high probability of significantly impacting the pharmaceutical sciences.

It was for this paper:

A Classification System to Assess the Crystallization Tendency of Organic Molecules from Undercooled Melts. Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. 99(9):3787-3806.

Well done love, we’re all very proud of you.

Purdue Tree and Gingerbread House

2011-12-12T19:59:00.002-05:00

We made our annual trip to the Purdue Memorial Union on Sunday afternoon to see their huge Christmas tree and Gingerbread house. The kids love doing this because they can go into the house but mostly because they cannot help but nibble at it. It is completely made of cookies, icing and sweets and to them it’s simply irresistible.

The funniest yesterday was when Isabel emerged from the house with icing on her chin. We asked her if she had eaten any and her face froze and eyes widened. She said, “I didn’t eat any, I just tried it”….I wish I had the video camera on that.

Connor 2nd Birthday Party

2011-12-11T18:30:00.003-05:00

We had a great 2^nd birthday party for Connor yesterday. Thanks to all who came and made it a special day for Connor and our family. We had a house full of friends as usual and since everybody knows each other quite well at this point, it was an extremely relaxing afternoon.

Thanks are due to my Mum for Connor’s little outfit (sorry the tie and cap did not last long), to Brooke for the great cake (he loves Elmo) and to Randy and Lorraine for watching the kids whilst we prepared for the party.

There are a couple of pictures below and as always, if you feel an urgent need to scroll and/or download more, click here. Thank you once again everybody for all the presents, your help throughout the day and for coming of course.

Happy Birthday Connor

2011-12-06T19:47:00.001-05:00

Our little trooper turned two years old today. Happy birthday son. Unfortunately we did not get to see a lot of him today since it was a workday but we'll have a little party for him on Saturday and we’ll celebrate in style.

He did get presents from his sisters though, we had ice-cream and we sang him happy birthday. He just about understood the concept of a birthday; he very much understood the idea of getting a present containing something exciting that needed unwrapping.

Extended Birthday Celebrations

2011-12-05T10:07:00.002-05:00

It’s Monday morning and I’m reflecting on my rather unexpected extended birthday weekend. It all got off to a great start on Friday morning with cards and gifts from the kids and Lynne but it was most memorable because of the shower of affection from the girls, they are so cute. The day continued to get better, helped by the fact that I was on vacation, when I managed to get a great 9 mile run in. It was a warm sunny clear blue-sky day, incredible for December. Then I joined Anja at School to make their Gingerbread Houses.

I thought that was pretty much it but Lynne told me at lunch that she had arranged for both of us to head to Chicago for the weekend, wow, that was cream on top. Randy and Lorraine had graciously agreed to watch the kids for the weekend whilst we headed for a relaxing weekend with Kay in Chicago. Friday evening we had Thai food and joined Dave and Emily and their friends. Saturday we had Italian food, toured around Chicago and visited The Art Institute. Sunday we went for a long walk along the lakeshore and went to Chinatown for lunch.

We had a fantastic weekend; thanks as always are due to many. Thank You.

Birthday

2011-12-01T19:51:00.003-05:00

By the time you read this, it will be my birthday. Yip, another year older. Going to be celebrating it by taking the day off from work and going in to volunteer at Anja’s class. They’re making Gingerbread houses tomorrow so that should be fun. Anja is all excited that I’m coming in to help, I’m just very happy that she ‘s excited about that. I’ll be taking some pictures.

I don’t have many photos of me that I like to post here but this week I was at one of those “Corporate End of Year, All Day, Off-Site Meetings”. One of those days where you spend all day with your work colleagues “getting to know them and thinking about strategic plans for the following year”. Anyhow, it was actually much better than it sounds, I enjoyed it and it ended early enough. At the end we had an open bar (probably the best part of the day) and they had games including a caricature artist. Shown below is how he saw me!!

Thanksgiving Dinner - Round Two

2011-11-27T14:44:00.002-05:00

We had Thanksgiving Dinner – round two yesterday. Randy and Lorraine hosted their usual great dinner followed by a relaxing evening for almost twenty people. It was a very enjoyable evening meeting up with old and new friends. I have a few select pictures below and more here. A big thanks to you both once again.

Prior to dinner, Lynne took poor Isabel to urgent care for round two of her chin saga, removal of the dreaded stitches. By Lynne’s account this sounded even more traumatic than the original stitching. Imagine a poor frightened screaming four year old been held down by a few nurses and your mother, your head squirming while the doctor tried desperately to dig eight tightly knit stitches that were difficult to snip…well that’s what happened yesterday. She is doing much better today.

Have a great week everybody.

Busy Day

2011-11-25T19:57:00.001-05:00

We had a very relaxing Thanksgiving yesterday with Kaisa, Kevin and family. They cooked a fabulous dinner, a big roast turkey with many trimmings and two great desserts. Thank you both again for having us over.

It was nice to get a first picture of Connor and Anton. We have literally hundreds of our four girls together, so it was nice to get one finally with the boys. The picture of the girls below on the sofa was taken during a "show" that they put on for the adults. I was warned beforehand against flash photography during this show so they were very upset when I took this picture :)

Today we got our Christmas tree and decorations up; the kids were hyper during that. Would you believe that Lizzie also returned last night right on time. We also had a little trip to the mall to buy some new chairs for our new kitchen table. It was a full day and tomorrow will be even busier.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T10:59:00.002-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to everybody in the US who will celebrate with family and friends today. It’s always a great time to reflect on what exactly you’re thankful for. I’m thankful for many things but most importantly for our family and our health and happiness. Enjoy your turkey dinner everybody (the picture below was last years turkey).

Isabel in the Wars Again

2011-11-20T14:06:00.001-05:00

If you're a regular reader here on our blog, you'll know that poor Isabel is a little accident-prone. We had the next installment in that story last night. Herself and Connor were playing chase around the house after dinner on these ride-on toys that we have. In a split second (that I can still see replaying over and over in my mind), she hit the door saddle (floor boundary between kitchen and hallway) and toppled head over heels hitting her chin into the floor.

There was blood everywhere…everywhere. Lynne whisked her off to urgent care where four nurses held her down screaming while the doctor stitched her up, eight stitches in total.

She is fine today, running around the house chasing Connor like nothing ever happened. We're wincing every time she runs close to something, seeing danger at every turn. I’d like to wrap her up in cotton wool but unfortunately as parents we can’t do that.

Dad in Hospital

2011-11-18T10:42:00.001-05:00

Many of you will know that my Dad was recently admitted to hospital with pain in his neck, but in case you didn’t, thought I’d let you know. They have completed many tests and are now awaiting an assessment from those tests. He is in good spirits, I spoke with him this morning, he indicated that he was feeling a little better and he sounded much better too.

Lynne with New Glasses

2011-11-18T10:39:00.001-05:00

Lynne was showing off some new hardware last night. She has new reading glasses. For years she had 20/20 vision but recently she felt the need to get her eyes checked and sure enough she needed glasses for reading. She looks good in them.

Short Update

2011-11-15T20:09:00.001-05:00

Hi Everybody. There is not a lot happening around here at the moment, which is not all together such a bad thing since I normally let you all know when somebody is sick. We’re all healthy right now so fingers crossed for more of that as we approach our Thanksgiving holiday.

One thing that I did wish to mention is that our days of diapers (nappies if you are the other side of the pond) are rapidly approaching a finish. It will be a little time before we are fully liberated but Connor is getting very good at going on his little potty, now often without even any prompting. We’re very proud of him and thankful to Brooke who is pushing him. Boy are we ready to be finished with nappies…..

Local 1Km and 5Km Events

2011-11-06T19:35:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we participated in our first family running event. There was a local 1km run for kids and a 5km for the adults in a park a few miles down the road. It was a really small event hosted by the local Wildlife Center. We talked with the girls about doing this event and they were extremely excited about it all week. I couldn’t stop them “practice” running around the house Friday evening.

Everybody enjoyed the event. Both girls predictably went out running way to fast and got tired quite early. Anja did really well, ran the entire 1km with Lynne. Isabel, who was probably the youngest runner of the day, also did very well (mostly since she was carried part of the way by Daddy).

Randy watched the girls while we ran the 5km. This was probably Lynne’s longest run since the girls were born and she looked good out there. Randy got a good picture of her which is shown below.

I was planning on trying to beat my 20:46 best time for a 5km run but I ended up with a little more than planned. My target pace put me in the lead for the first half of the race (I did say it was a local race right) with this 14-16 year old kid. I was really proud to have the kids see me out front of the race, particularly since the course looped back a few times through the start where they were standing. I was with this kid runner all the way to the finish. We had a sprint finish but on the day youth won out. To be fair he looked like he had a lot more left in the engine whilst I was totally maxed out. I was pleased with my time though, just over 20 mins which isn’t bad for 5Km.

We all had a great day. My favorite quote for the day though was something I heard these two kids saying after the race. One said, “Hey did you see the end of the 5Km run, it all came down to this young guy and an old man running for the line”….nice….!!

Lilly and Rosie Owens

2011-11-06T12:18:00.001-05:00

Congratulations to my brother Davey and Sam who on Thursday became parents with the birth of two absolutely gorgeous baby girls, Lilly and Rosie. All are doing well and getting settled as a family.

Well done Sam, you did a great job carrying those girls for as long as you did, they look absolutely perfect. You have a big job now Davey, three girls to look after. We all wish you the very best over the coming weeks, enjoy these moments, they’re simply priceless.

40 Years of Marriage

2011-10-31T21:19:00.002-04:00

Forty Years ago yesterday my Mum and Dad got married. Congratulations to you both, may you have many many more happy years together. They went out to celebrate for dinner last night with Eilish and Eddie.

Forty years together is a wonderful achievement. Keeping a marriage together requires a lot of work, it doesn’t simply magically happen. Everybody constantly needs to work on their relationship, particularly in times when there is more to focus on than simply the two of you. Raising a family, busy work schedules, health or money concerns can all lead to additional strain. Forty years together certainly doesn’t happen by accident.

We all love you both so much, thank you for being our parents.

Trick or Treating

2011-10-31T20:53:00.001-04:00

Halloween and Trick or Treating on our street went well this evening. Anja was a Supergirl, Isabel a Cat Princess and Connor a Fireman. We headed out to see everybody around 6pm and saw most of the neighbors. There was lots of candy along the way and Connor figured out very quickly what that was all about.

Shown below are a few pictures, including a few of the neighbors in addition to Cy and Scotlynn who were over last night (sorry Logan I didn't get a photo of you).

Pumpkin Time

2011-10-29T19:54:00.001-04:00

We had an autumn and Halloween theme today. We cleaned the garage and got a little ready for winter, we went on a great walk through our local Happy Hollow Park to rustle in the leaves but more importantly we carved the pumpkins in preparation for Halloween on Monday night.

We all pitched in with the “goop cleaning”, design choosing, cutting, scraping and shaving. We have a "Wicked Witch" and a "Bat Cat", whatever that is. Shown below are a couple of pictures from the carving plus a few from earlier in the month of the kids painting on the pumpkins (under Brooke’s watchful eye and supervision).

Illness and Chaos

2011-10-26T20:20:00.002-04:00

It has been pretty hectic here since my return home from Europe. Let me clarify, it was extremely hectic here whilst I was away and it still is.

Whilst I was away, Anja was ill and had to go on antibiotics, which is pretty rare for Anja so when she is ill, she’s pretty ill. Connor fell and tore his fingernails to the point that he has totally lost a nail on his big finger. Finally, now that the weather is turning poor Isabel has fluid build up in her eardrums again (recall she had adenoids removed and ear tubes put in last November). Her hearing has deteriorated again so she has more tubes in her future. It was a tough 10 days for Lynne, I’m only glad that Pat was here to help out.

Things have settled down a little now, as always time is a great healer, although Connor now has a cold also. I too did not escape some illness, I’ve had a bad cold since my return, I took a trip to the doctor this week and found out that I had a double ear and throat infection. Life is tough.

These pictures below are random pictures from these last few weeks. i thought Anja's fancy dress plus wellies was cute and it's obvious that Connor loves his little train set.

Last Post on Ireland Trip

2011-10-26T19:48:00.004-04:00

I have one final post regarding my trip to Europe but specifically to Ireland. Thank you all for your hospitality, I had a great weekend, thoroughly enjoyable.

The last picture in the series is shown below from the Sunday afternoon we spent with Tracey and Clive in Portarlington. Tracey, with some help from Sam and Clive, cooked a fabulous Sunday roast dinner with all the trimmings and dessert on top. Thank you again, it was delicious.

Another Night Out

2011-10-16T09:06:00.000-04:00

My little mini tour of Ireland continues. I just arrived in Portarlington to stay with Clive and Tracey for the night. It’s actually turned out to be a small family gathering since Dad and Eilish traveled with me from Roscommon and Sam and Davey just arrived from Dublin. We are going to be treated to Tracey’s Sunday dinner.

We had another late night last night. We were out in Dads local pub with him and Eilish and Eddie. I was also treated to Eilish’s full Irish Breakfast this morning. This little tour of Ireland is starting to be bad for my health.

Malahide and Night Out

2011-10-15T13:19:00.001-04:00

After two days of catching up with Davey and Sam in Dublin, I've arrived in Roscommon to see Dad, Eilish and Eddie. I had a nice day yesterday, Sam and Davey took me on a coastal tour of north Dublin through Malahide and Portmarnock. We stopped in to see the beautiful Malahide Castle followed by coffee and scones at a small cafe in the village.

Of course last night we hit the local pub and Clive and Tracey even come to meet us. A long, late and enjoyable night was had by all. It was a little to good for our own good health but Sam made us the perfect breakfast of bacon and egg sandwiches. Poor Sam was not feeling that well, she has a double ear infection that is extremely painful.

Trip Through Europe

2011-10-14T07:56:00.001-04:00

I’ve been wandering my way through Europe this week for work. I spent two days in Hannover, Germany at a conference in which I gave a presentation. I then flew to Belgium and visited Brussels and Liege before flying to Ireland. I’m now in Dublin staying with Davey and Sam. I arrived late last night to a great welcome; Sam had made this wonderful Beef and Guinness pie in my honor. We had a few drinks last night, had some great Guinness at Davey’s local pub. Davey and myself even managed to get out for a 10km run this morning in Dublin’s famous Phoenix Park.

Davey and Sam are doing great, obviously with the expected arrival of their twins, they think sometime over the next four weeks, they are very excited for their future. Sam is looking extremely well and in great spirits.

Wishing everybody a great weekend, I’ll be travelling to Roscommon tomorrow to see Dad, Eilish and Eddie (Mum is on holiday) and then off to see Clive and Tracey on Sunday.

Chicago Marathon Update

2011-10-09T18:42:00.002-04:00

Today I had a great running day, I completed my first ever marathon in Chicago in a time of 3hrs 38mins. My official results here. It was a little longer than my stated goal of 3:30 but I'm incredibly happy with my time and achievement. I'm a marathoner !!

I was quite nervous at the start since I knew it was going to hurt and boy was I right. The weather at the start line was perfect (for sitting around waiting for the race), but it was obvious however from the first mile that it was going to be a hot day. It was 61F at the start and by the time I hit the midpoint it was in the 70s. I tried to be wise and kept well hydrated.

Now yes it was hot and I may have run a little quicker and hit my target if it was cooler but the reason the time I attained was off from my target was simple; I committed the classic new marathoner mistake. I knew I had to start slow but I got sucked along. At the start there is simply so much energy and you feel just great and so excited to be finally off and running. Between miles 5-13 I ran about 15 sec a mile faster than plan and ultimately paid the price. By the time I hit 19 miles, whist I was still on target, my hamstrings were screeching and I was now going a little slower. By the time I was at 23 miles, I was going a little slower even still and really wanted it all to end. I was so glad to see the 26 mile marker indicating 0.2 miles to go!!

It has been a great weekend here in Chicago. Had a huge pasta dinner last night with Brad (finished in 4:29) and Kay has been such a wonderful host. See the picture below, she is celebrating our marathon finishes harder than we are :))

And so it ends, this has been a great marathon journey, nine months in the making. Finally and most importantly, big thank you again to all of you who helped and supported along the way, this was not possible without you, you know who you are.

Happy Birthday Randy

2011-10-07T19:24:00.001-04:00

Happy Birthday Randy, I hope you have a great day. It’s always nice to be able to wish somebody the very best on their birthday, it’s even more special when it’s a close and dear friend. Randy is such a friend and to us all in so many different ways.

The kids adore him; he is their trusted helper, especially when it comes to sewing up a torn teddy bear arm or a dolls dress. He has done so many of these. He is also their fountain of knowledge, if we stumble upon a topic of special interest where there is some uncertainty, they simply declare it uncertain only until they next meet Randy and “he’ll know the answer”.

Randy is a great debating partner, sounding board, chess partner, chef, and biking buddy and is constantly thinking of Lynne and myself when it comes to helping out with a variety of things. This is often help with doing something at the house or running an errand whilst we are at work. He is of course also a great husband and a truly willing partner with Lorraine when it comes to watching the kids for a night to allow Mum and Dad a night off.

Thanks for being who you are Randy, Happy Birthday.

Marathon Prologue

2011-10-07T12:01:00.001-04:00

I’ve just completed my final training run for the Chicago Marathon, my first ever marathon, which will take place this coming Sunday morning. It starts at 7:30am. I cannot believe it has been 9 months since I first announced that I would try training for this event.

For the most part training has gone according to plan; I managed a personal best in the Indy half marathon (1:39:15) in order to secure a seeded starting position in Chicago (Corral C, Bib #7958). A seeded start will allow me to line up in the first 5000 runners, (closer to the Kenyans in case I’m feeling good on the day) and have most of the remaining 40,000 participants behind me.

Generally speaking I followed my training plan; I’ve run over 1000 miles so far this year and on my third set of running shoes. Check out the picture below, it’s a snapshot from my training log showing weekly miles since January. I’ve dropped a well-needed 25 lbs and feel great. I’m really in the best condition I’ve ever been in and that includes when I was training 3-4 times a week when playing rugby (somehow I’m not partaking in the very festive “off-field activities” that I was back then.

I have many people to thank, John who helped with the training and offered advice along the way. Steve, Neil, David and Brad who have ran on a few training runs with me. Of course I’m extremely thankful to Lynne and the kids who have suffered my absence on many occasions. Long runs require early starts (6am and earlier) and time on the road. I must also prospectively thank Kay who is graciously hosting us (Brad and I) on Saturday night. I think we have the best seat in town. Her apartment is literally 0.2 miles from the start…how about that!!!

So, as you read your paper over breakfast this coming Sunday, wish me luck as I slog my way through 26.2 miles of Chicago’s downtown. I’m hoping to finish at a time close to 3 hrs 30min (8 min/mile pace) but since it’s my first marathon, a finish is the ultimate goal. I’ll post a race update on Monday, wish me luck!

Davey and Sam Back Blogging....and just in time :)

2011-10-02T20:38:00.001-04:00

Davey and Sam are back, on the blogosphere that is. I spoke with Davey this afternoon and he told me of his first blog post yesterday in two years. I’ll let you take a trip over there to see the new blog look, be sure to leave them a comment, it helps every blogger to know that somebody out there is reading.

Welcome Back Pat

2011-10-01T14:09:00.001-04:00

Lynne’s mum, Pat, arrives for a three week visit again today. The kids are all excited. We are busy preparing her bedroom and they are feeding off the excitement. She will be here to visit and see everybody obviously but also to help over the coming busy three weeks. Lynne is off to Nevada to a conference for almost a week first thing tomorrow morning and next weekend I’ll be in Chicago for the marathon but will then travel for work to Germany, Belgium and Ireland with a weekend stop in Ireland for obvious reasons.

Welcome back Pat, great to see and have you as always!! The picture below is from when she was here earlier this summer.

Nikon D5100

2011-10-01T14:04:00.002-04:00

Over the last week I've had a chance to play with a new Nikon D5100. It’s a very nice camera and I highly recommend it to anybody considering a new SLR. It’s very convenient to use and flicks to video extremely easily. Of course I used it on my favorite subjects (shown bellow), I’ll be sad when giving it to its new owner next week.

Wea Creek Apples

2011-09-18T20:32:00.001-04:00

Today we had our big annual trip to a local orchard. This year we visited a new orchard just opened, Wea Creek Orchard. Fortunately for us it it’s now only a short trip (the orchard we had previously visited was a 35 min drive but has since closed).

Turns out Lynne knows Perry the owner, he works at Purdue and Lynne has met him a few times. He gave us all a tractor and trailer ride out through the apple, pear and peach orchards, through a few pumpkin patches (we picked three) and on a walking tour of the bee hive area.

We got lots of apples, jam and honey, nothing like a freshly picked apple in autumn. Anja ate three and Connor even gnawed his way through one. Lynne then made a delicious Apple Custard Pie for dessert….Yum!!

Guinness Black Lager

2011-09-17T22:28:00.003-04:00

I tried a new beer out tonight. Saw a Guinness Black Lager in the shop and thought why not give it a try. Black lager is already a style of its own; it’s called Schwarzbier, so Guinness has not come up with something new here. I’ve actually triad a couple of different schwarzbiers over the years, both from bottles here is the US but also on draught when I have visited Germany. Unfortunately Guinness did not make a beer to match some of the great German versions.

This beer was just OK. I thought it tasted well enough but nothing special. It certainly had that classic lager crispness with a slight bitterness but the beer was dominated by the roasted barley malt (presumably the same malt used by Guinness to make their signature Dry Irish Stout). I may buy it again, we’ll see. It received a rather poor rating on both Beer Advocate and Rate Beer.

Lynne Has Been Sick

2011-09-13T20:08:00.001-04:00

We’ve been keeping our heads down for the last week, Lynne has been sick. She had quite a fever all last week, sometimes well over 100F. Two visits to the doctor throughout the week didn’t help much; a viral infection is/was the likely culprit. As of today she is feeling a little better but it will most likely take most of the week for her to return to normal. And of course as most people know, when the Mummy is sick the whole household is all out of whack (a testament to how much they do for everybody).

Shown below are a few recent photos of the kids. Got a cute one of Connor in his little chair, which he loves, and another of him playing dress-up with the girls, he loves that too!!

Labor Day Weekend .....Report

2011-09-05T20:06:00.001-04:00

We have had one very busy Labor day Weekend.
At the outset we didn't really have many plans but we certainly filled our time as the weekend progressed. Started at home with some gardening, weeding, and harvesting on Saturday morning along with the usual weekend chores. It was a cool pristine morning and all five of us were out there in our work clothes getting stuck into weeds with rakes, spades and forks. The kids absolutely loved it, it's amazing how excited you can get kids about something if you really make them part of the activity. To hear Isabel and Anja tell how hard they worked later you'd swear we had them in a forced labor camp.

Steef and Ginette then came over to play, eat, drink and have fun on Saturday afternoon/evening. They brought this great Greek Yogurt dessert, a huge bowl, most of which was consumed before they left (sorry I got no picture). Connor took a particular liking to it as you'll see from the photo below.

On Sunday, after a relaxing morning of reading, we visited with Randy and Lorraine to catch up on how there're doing and dinner. We ended up staying for a bonfire which the kids were thrilled with. Not sure exactly if they love roasted marshmellows or the bonfire more. There was a beautiful sunset in the background right as the bonfire was ready for roasting action.

Today then, Labor Day, Lisa and Brad hosted us for their typical great spread of food and good company. Weather was great, we got caught up on other old friends, picked some fresh veggies from Lisa's garden, kids played in the creek and generally relaxed and enjoyed the day.

We'll all sleep well tonight. Hope you all had a great holiday weekend and a good week. A sampling of the weekend's photos are shown below.

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-01T15:00:00.002-04:00

The 1^st September is here and although it’s over 94F (36C) outside, there are a few signs that summer is coming to an end. The mornings are starting to get a little darker and a little more brisk, Anja and Isabel are back to school and of course, Labor Day, the traditional US celebration to end Summer is this coming weekend. Last big grilling day of the year.

Anja has been a little ill this last week, nothing really bad, if you don’t count vomiting as a major illness. She has missed three days of school already. Isabel is perfectly healthy and injury free, which is always welcome. Connor is his normal destructive self.

Lynne is also well, albeit busy at work. This semester she is also back to school since she is taking two classes. It’s a Purdue initiative to allow faculty time off from administration duties to allow study in a second discipline. I think she's enjoying it.

My marathon training is at a peak at the moment, running about 45 miles a week. I’m still injury free and on-track for Chicago, keep your fingers crossed. Its about 5 week away.

Shown below are a few photos of the kids from this last month but also two that my Mum sent over from a recent wedding they attended. She is shown pictured with my uncle Michael (her brother) and aunt Cepta and in the other with Paul and Gertie, our neighbors in Ireland.

Hope you all have a great Labor Day.

Back to School and Another Dress-Up Parade

2011-08-21T10:15:00.001-04:00

I trust you’re all having a relaxing weekend? There’s not a great deal to discuss form this last week, other than Anja returned to School and into first grade on Tuesday morning. Isabel goes back to her school, the Lafayette Montessori School, this coming Tuesday.

Last night Laura and Emma stayed for dinner, it’s been a while since they were over and it was nice to catch up on how things are going. The girl’s put on a fashion show for us after dinner. They love doing this; they get dressed up in various outfits and do a little parade expecting me to photograph them (which I’m always very willing to do).

I’m off to Boston again this afternoon, leaving tonight so that I can avoid a 3.30am start in the morning to get there for a 9am meeting. It’s a very short trip; I’ll be back Monday night.

Isabel's 4th Birthday Party

2011-08-13T21:40:00.003-04:00

We had another great day here in WL having fun with many of our friends, this time to celebrate Isabel’s 4^th birthday, which was actually this last Thursday. The weather could not have been more perfect, lots of people came, all had fun and generally it was a great day. Isabel's ankle has also healed sufficiently so that helped. It’s such a lot of fun to see so many kids race around after each other, high on all sorts of sugary content, and generally enjoying the gathering.

Thanks to all of you who came, a special thanks to those of you who helped out and contributed. Brooke made the cake as usual, a true labor of love; she does such a good job at it.

There are a couple of pictures below and as always, if you feel an urgent need to scroll and/or download a 100 odd more photos, click here. Thank you once again everybody for making today a special for Isabel.

Congratulations Padma

2011-08-06T19:39:00.005-04:00

We just returned from a great day and evening over at Randy and Lorraine’s house where we celebrated Padma’s graduation. She graduated this morning from Purdue University with a Masters in Science (MSc) in Organizational Leadership. Congratulations again Padma, a job well done. We also wish you all the very best over the coming months as you prepare for a little girl in your family (Padma is due in late October).

It was great to see Cody and Lisa again and their growing children who cannot really be classified as kids anymore, they are getting so mature. We also had a chance to see Jane (Lorraine’s Mom) in addition to Dinorah and her mother. We all had a great day. If you wish to see a fuller photo set click here (you can also download photos from here too).

Isabel's Latest Accident

2011-08-03T20:08:00.001-04:00

For those of you who have kept an eye on these pages over the years, you will have noticed that our little Isabel is a little accident-prone. She is constantly bumping into stuff, tripping over things, getting scratched etc. Well, on Tuesday she twisted her ankle, which swelled up quite badly. After another trip to urgent care (I was there 10 days ago after Connor scratched my eye, but that’s another story) we found out that thankfully she had not broken anything. Nothing more required than rest, ice and compression.

For those of you who have forgotten, this was the little girl who broke her leg before she was even one year old (see cute picture below). To bolster my point, in that picture, she had a black eye, which was acquired from a totally separate incident. We love her so much!!

Weekly Update, Boston and much more

2011-08-03T19:52:00.002-04:00

It’s been a few days, so here goes. Last week I was in Boston for a few days. It was a great trip (I gave a talk at a conference) but mostly since I got to actually tour the city for the first time. I went running through the streets quite early on two mornings that I was there. I really like that city. Shown below is a view from my hotel across the city with a view of the Charles River and the city of Cambridge in the background (that’s where Harvard and MIT are). I also ran through Boston Common and took a picture of the famous Boston ducklings. If you don’t know the story, click here. It’s OK, I had never heard of them until we had kids, we’ve obviously now read the book lots of times, the kids love the duckling’s names.

On Friday evening, Lynne and I went to Indianapolis for a house party a colleague of mine was hosting. Another colleague of ours, Tammy pictured below, was sadly leaving our group and Bill and his wife Claudia were gracious to host a great evening with lots of drinks and great food (thanks to all who made that happen for us).

We had the Webb’s over for dinner then on Saturday night since they have now returned from their summer trip to Australia. Anton has grown incredibly big, almost as big as Connor although not yet with his dexterity or motion, soon though. Great to see you guys again.

Finally, Lynne had the great idea on Sunday to go to our local charity shop to pick out some fancy dresses with the girls for dress-up since their current lots of princess garments are getting a little tight. Lynne then altered them to fit the girls who loved them. They were more than willing to pose for pictures and do a little fashion show. It was hilarious.

Olivia Visiting

2011-07-24T13:45:00.002-04:00

Phew, it’s finally cooled down here. We’ve had a storm system come through with some rain and now it’s a cool low 70s, finally. Yesterday we entertained Olivia, one of Anja’s class friends all day with her parents also coming over for dinner, Angie and Nate. It was nice to get to know some new people; we had a great evening chatting about all sorts.

We’re off to the movies this afternoon to see the new Winnie the Pooh movie. It’s not really one that we’ve being waiting for or anything; it’s simply what’s playing on this wet Sunday afternoon (I showed Anja the trailer to Cars 2 but that went down like a lead balloon).

It's Way Too Hot...

2011-07-22T14:01:00.004-04:00

Not much going on here this week, we are all simply trying to stay cool and hoping that our air conditioning unit holds out. Most of the USA is under a heat wave and we have had scorching temperatures with high humidity’s. Yesterday it reached over 100F which feels like 114F when the humidity is factored in, that's over 45 degrees centigrade.

Friday mornings is my usual "Long Run Day" and it was tough this morning. I had planned on doing 17 miles via three separate loops around the house (to restock on fuel and water as I passed through) and managed to get on the road by 06.15am. First loop was fine, the second was mostly okay but my body would not allow me out on the third. Whilst I had stayed well hydrated by using my Camelbak, I felt simply awful as a result of the heat. I stopped after the second loop, which was after about 13 miles. It was 88F (feels like 95F with humidity) when I threw in the towel....:)) I think I did well enough.

Michigan Vacation

2011-07-17T13:06:00.006-04:00

We returned yesterday from our weeklong vacation to Saugatuck in Michigan. You may recall that we also visited this small art focused fishing village on Michigan’s coast where the Kalamazoo River enters Lake Michigan itself. It’s a lovely little town situated on several large sand dunes with many small art shops, cafes with lots of vacation activities to entertain all who visit. We liked it then and still do.

We had a wonderfully relaxing holiday, I think everybody enjoyed it. Randy and Lorraine also joined us again this year. We did many things, a little something for everybody really. We went riding our bikes, short and long rides, Lynne took the girls fishing, we all did lots of swimming, went to Oval Beach to swim and build sandcastles, we bought kites and played with those, we had picnics, some of us did a little shopping, Randy and I played lots of chess, the girls had movies for some down time, everybody napped and did some vacation reading at some point and we all had lots of great food (and drink) and more…..

There are lots of pictures of Anja on her bike, she went without training wheels for the first time ever this week. Lynne and I even went on a 3 mile bike ride with her, she was very proud of herself.

As usual, I had way too many photos, many are shown below but I have put selected the best 100 or so and uploaded them to the web which can be viewed here.

Anja's Lily

2011-07-05T20:19:00.001-04:00

With Lynne’s help and encouragement Anja and Isabel each have their own flower garden. These are small-defined portions of our larger flowerbeds, which the girls have taken “full responsibility” for. They are really into it and are incredibly proud of their achievements. Anyhow, Anja has this beautiful lily in her spot and on Saturday morning she was urging me to take a photo of it, which I did. Thought I’d share its beauty with you.

04th July Weekend

2011-07-05T20:03:00.003-04:00

We had a very busy but exciting 04^th of July Independence Day Weekend. We spent most of the weekend either chilling out with Steef and Ginette or relaxing over with Randy and Lorraine. The holiday festivities got started with Brooke’s Flag cookie, which went down a treat. On Saturday we visited the water fountain again which we followed up with food, drinks and sparklers at our house.

After bunch with Randy and Lorraine on Sunday, we spent the day relaxing and entertaining the kids. Lorraine actually went over to collect Jane, her Mom, who had dinner with us. It was nice to see her again, it has been a while since we had seen her, she looked great. For those of you who have never met her, she is an extremely spritely 89 year old.

Then on Monday we had more of the same with Steef and Ginette hosting us with water games, food, drinks, firecrackers, sparklers and more. We had a great weekend everybody, thanks to all who had fun with us. I posted lots and lots of photos below, sorry, but I figured they’re easy to scroll through and you’d enjoy doing so.

Gran Leaving Tomorrow

2011-06-25T13:40:00.001-04:00

Sometimes you wonder where time simply goes. Pat has been here for three weeks and tomorrow she returns home to England. Granddad, or Dave as he is more commonly known, has been missing her company and will be glad to have her home again. We of course will be sad to see her leave again.

She has been great company for the last three weeks and a huge help around the house. The kids will obviously miss their bath time and reading routines as will Daisy her morning walking routine.

As always, thanks for visiting and all your help Pat, we only look forward to your next visit, perhaps in the autumn?

Shown below are a few select pictures, my favorite is obviously the dress-up picture. It was one I took yesterday after the girls had used her for dress-up. They thought it hilarious to dress their Gran in their dress-up clothes.

Glad Midsommar

2011-06-23T19:02:00.002-04:00

Till alla våra svenska vänner, vi önskar er en underbar midsommar! Har en lycklig dag, drycka någonting för mig….Skål !

Raspberry Time Again

2011-06-23T16:48:00.001-04:00

Ever since we planted our Raspberry bushes several years ago, June in our house has become synonymous with Raspberries. We literally have more than we can eat, although the kids try their best. Not an issue we are really complaining about. This week the kids picked sufficient for Lynne to even make some jam. We had some this morning on toast and it was delicious, a real intense flavor that you simply don’t get with store bought jams. We all love our raspberries here.

Summertime Water Fun

2011-06-21T19:40:00.003-04:00

Now that the dog days of summer are here with us having frequent 90-degree days, it’s time for water fun. Over the last few days we have visited the Loeb Fountain at Purdue, had the sprinklers out in the garden and this evening a new game, sliding into the kiddy pool. They were all in their element.

Happy Fathers Day

2011-06-19T17:48:00.001-04:00

Happy Fathers Day to all you Dads out there (and Dads to be too).

I was met this morning with my cards and a present together with the most precious set of hugs and kisses from all around. Had some wonderful homemade cards as usual and a new biking shirt. The cards had a theme this year, I could not figure it out until Anja let me in on it. You will see that they have many hands on the pictures with the two middle fingers folded down. This is the symbol for “I Love You” in Sign Language!! I Love you too…….Anja's card, second from the end is also quite cute. She is standing on stilts to give me a kiss....

We had a relatively active day here today, we went bike riding in the morning, a quite lunch and then a trip to the fountain at Purdue (pictures on that later).

Lynne in Marseille

2011-06-18T20:17:00.002-04:00

Lynne has been away travelling this week so to give it a sports analogy, we’re playing here with one man down. She is at a very small conference in Marseille. It was a short trip so she’ll be back tomorrow. If you read this love; we all miss and Love you, have a safe trip home, we’ll see you tomorrow.

Things have gone very smoothly for the most part. I’m not exactly on my own here, I still have Brooke and Pat helping so all is well. The kids all went off to the zoo with Brooke yesterday, they had a great time. Thanks for taking them Brooke, they have not yet stopped talking about all the animals they saw.

During the week, the kids have also had lots of bonding time with Gran. She is now fully fluent in the bedtime rituals of bath, teeth, jim-jams and books. They love their routines and love their stories and books even more.

We had Randy, Lorraine, Kay and Nancy over for dinner last night. Kay and Nancy are here in town for Danielle’s wedding so we aware keen to catch up with them since we generally only see them once or twice a year. Danielle is Randy and Nancy’s niece who is being married as I type (Good luck to you both). Shown below are few pictures from the discussion above plus a few shots of the kids today.

Congratulations Clive and Tracey

2011-06-13T20:37:00.002-04:00

I have a birthday wish and a note of congratulations. Today Clive, my youngest brother living in Ireland aged one more unit. Happy Birthday Clive, although it’s over for you now, I hope you had a good one!

Now, on to much more exciting news. We have known for a little time but some of you may not yet know. Clive and Tracey are going to have a baby in January. A big congratulations to you both, we're all very excited for you both. I hope you're feeling well Tracey and that your first trimester is not too awful? We’re thinking of you both here in WL and just like my message to Davey and Sam the other day, now is the time to fire up that blog!!! These are old pictures I know. I don't obviously have any recent versions and I do like these two photos!!

Mum's New Bike

2011-06-13T20:24:00.001-04:00

The picture below, which I received from Mum the other day, tells a few different stories. Firstly, it clearly shows Mum on her new bike, she’s clearly very proud of it. It looks like a great bike Mum; I hope you enjoy many many miles on it.

Secondly, when Mum was over I gave her a few computer and camera tips, all of which she has clearly mastered since I received this picture via email. Well done Mum this is also great; keep it up.

Finally, this is a picture of Mum fully intentioned on riding a few miles every couple of days to stay healthy. She has recently been trying to eat a little better and get a little exercise. It’s paying off for her too. She is a great example of the idea that you don’t have to ride the Tour de France or run a marathon to stay healthy. A short period of exercise a few days a week and pretty soon you will feel amazing and start to look even better. It has rubbed off on Eddie and Eilish who also recently bought new bikes. Have lots of fun guys!!

Straight Arrow Day Camp

2011-06-11T12:24:00.001-04:00

Anja wrapped up her first weeklong camp for the summer last night. All week she has been going to the Straight Arrow Day Camp organized by the local YMCA. She has been coming home each evening totally exhausted after lots activities (swimming, horseback riding, canoeing, fishing, rock climbing, you get the picture). They traditionally finish the week with Family night. This is a picnic event with each of the counselors together with their “Tribe” (day campers) putting on a little skit. Its always very interesting and lots of fun (even more if there were no mosquitoes).

We met Kaisa and Kevin their, Anna was also attending camp, and Randy and Lorraine also joined us for the evening. A big thanks goes out to Randy who provided the picnic.

Pat Settled In

2011-06-11T12:04:00.003-04:00

I mentioned in passing last week that Lynne’s Mum, Pat, had arrived. She has now settled into full swing of helping around the house, entertaining the kids, visiting the neighbors, walking Daisy, some cooking and generally keeping us all company. Lynne was actually away this week for work on a three-day trip to Virginia Tech, so Pat was a great help this week. I have not managed to get any pictures of her with the kids yet, terrible I know, however, I did snap one of her helping Lynne in the Garden this morning. She was watching Connor (picture below taken this morning) while Lynne was busy.

Weekend in Madison

2011-06-07T19:19:00.003-04:00

Lynne and myself had the most wonderfully relaxing weekend. Even though we drove to Madison, Wisconsin and back in the space of three days (almost 600 miles round trip) we thoroughly enjoyed it. We went there to celebrate Professor George Zografi’s 75th birthday, he is Lynne’s old post-doctoral supervisor and mentor. We met up with many of Lynne’s former colleagues and friends, now my friends too.

The weekend was jammed packed full of events. On Friday evening we kicked off the events off by meeting everybody and visited our favorite pub in Madison, The Great Dane Brew Pub. On Saturday morning Lynne and Sheri visited with Julie, Craig, Henry and Emma to do some catching up. I took the opportunity to run a 5K race together with Sandy, Mehran and Jane who were part of the celebrating party. The race was a Susan G. Komen, Run for the Cure event. I managed a great run (20:46) which I was very pleased with. I had a few guilt free beers that night J

Then after a tour of the Farmers Market around the state capitol, lunch at Buraka, our favorite restaurant in the entire city followed by a few hours sitting on The Terrace at the student union (a well worn Madison tradition), we had the party at George’s house.

Sunday was mostly a relaxing day before the drive home. We had Sheri’s company the entire time; it was so nice to catch up with her to that extent.

Finally of course, our entire weekend was only possible since Randy and Lorraine were willing to watch the kids the entire weekend. Thank you so much, we needed that weekend! As you can imagine, I took many photos. A select few are shown below but many more can be viewed here.

Sheri's Annual Visit

2011-06-02T21:06:00.003-04:00

About this time each year Sheri comes to visit and teach at Purdue and stays with us for her time here. She is an old friend of Lynne’s from her time in Wisconsin who now lives in Connecticut and blogs over at Hangman Hill. This year we put her to work; she helped spread some mulch this evening. Pleasure as always to have you Sheri.

Sheri, Lynne and myself will actually travel together to Wisconsin tomorrow (via Chicago to drop Harry off with Kay) for the weekend. We will be celebrating Professor George Zografi’s 75th birthday. George is Lynne’s old post-doctoral supervisor who visited us here in West Lafayette in 2006. The picture below is from that time with Anja in the photo with him.

Happy Birthday Mum

2011-06-01T19:20:00.002-04:00

Happy Birthday Mum. I know you don’t like divulging your age, especially not on a website. Sorry, Mum turns 21 today everybody, doesn’t she look great? Wishing you a very relaxing and enjoyable day whatever you do. Hopefully you will go out for a dinner and a few drinks or find somewhere to relax and have a chat.

Shown below are three photos of Mum, each from a different time. We’re all thinking of you today here in West Lafayette. Hope you enjoy your special day.

Happy Memorial Day

2011-05-30T19:58:00.004-04:00

It’s evening here on Memorial Day (Happy Memorial Day everyone), the kids are now in bed exhausted and all is finally quiet. We had an extremely busy weekend. We had Lorraine and Randy over for dinner on Friday, Steef and Ginette over on Saturday, we then had two days of dinner and an afternoon of playing, first at Kaisa and Kevin’s on Sunday and all day today with Lisa and Brad.

The kids never got a moments rest and you know how it goes, they’re fueled by lots of food with deserts and the excitement of playing with friends, throw in lots of free space for running around and a sprinkler at every turn. They run straight through the exhaustion barrier right until you tell them its time to go home and then all hell breaks loose. They melt….which is followed by lots of tears. It's nice reflecting on it, it's awful at the time!

We had a great weekend with many friends, I even got to see Anton for the first time, Kevin and Kaisa’s one month old boy, met some new friends at Lisa and Brad’s house today, thanks to all for making it a great time.

I took some photos, there are more online and I’ll get even more from Kaisa when she has time (probably when Anton is one). Have a good week everybody.

Marathon Training Plan Complete and Launched

2011-05-25T19:20:00.007-04:00

This week I started my marathon training. I had some help pulling my 20 week training plan together from a guy at work, John Stille, who knows a lot more about running than I do, he has completed several marathons, many of which were under 3 hours. Anyhow, I posted it below just in case anybody was half interested, it has my goal time, my general run schedule with distances and speeds together with my weekly total mileage (if you wish to see it larger, click on it).

Of course all of this is still a plan, we’ll see how well I stick with this, although I have already almost completed the first week. I’ll keep you updated.

Shown below is a picture of me as I near the end of the recent Indianapolis half marathon, can you tell? Below that is a picture of me hanging around with Steve and Brad who will each run the Chicago marathon with me.

Happy Birthday Eilish

2011-05-24T20:02:00.004-04:00

Thursday, my sister Eilish will turn over another year. From across the miles, wishing you a big Happy Birthday dear sister. I’d love to be there with you as you celebrate another year, however, I’m highly confident that you guys will manage to celebrate just fine without me. I hope you have a good day and night, we’ll be thinking of you here.

As you know, I always like to show a few photos so I pulled out two from your trip over last year with Mum and Dad. There was something in common with these photos, I simply couldn’t figure out exactly what that was :) Of course I also couldn't help but show a few very old and extremely cute photos of you. Isn’t she cute everybody? Happy Biirthday Sis…..

Davey and Sam having a Baby, Two of Them !!

2011-05-21T18:50:00.001-04:00

I had an excellent text awaiting me this morning as I scrolled through my phone waiting for the coffee pot to spring into action. It read “****NEWSFLASH**** We’re having a baby, two in fact…double trouble”. This wonderful and extremely exciting news came from Davey and Sam, my brother and fiancée who currently live in Dublin. They're due on November 28^th, Sam’s birthday, what a present! I spoke with him this morning and offered out heartfelt congratulations. They will make wonderful parents.

I have been urging him to re-start his blog, and over the last few months he has started promising to do so, I never connected the dots. Anyhow, recall that Davey and Sam toured the planet for a few years ago and blogged their way through it, I'm hoping with the pregnancy and coming children they will have lots of exciting stories and pictures to soon start sharing again.

I just love this picture below of Davey and Sam together with Anja many years ago when we visited England.

Happy Birthday Lynne

2011-05-15T19:40:00.002-04:00

As May rolls on, we continue with the birthday stream and Lynne is next. She celebrates another healthy happy year today (Monday). Happy Birthday Love.

Not much fun really having a birthday on a Monday but we did a few items over this weekend. Lynne and I went to Indianapolis last night for some quiet time, went to a great Thai Restaurant (Siam Garden if anybody is interested) and then went to the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra who were playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. It was brilliant and we had a very relaxing and enjoyable evening. It was great for the two of us to sit together for a few hours and relax since it seems we have had quite a hectic Spring.

Today the girls made cards and “I helped them bake a cake”. We baked Lynne’s favorite, a carrot cake, covered with her favorite color icing (the icing is a hit with the kids). The highlight of the baking is the mixing of colors to attain the purple color. It tasted good.

Happy Birthday Brov...

2011-05-07T21:28:00.001-04:00

Today, my brother David (or Davey as he likes to be called) turns 21 today. Sorry that I did not get a chance to call (or send you a nice bouquet of flowers), I was busy with this half marathon. I did think of you several times though. You cannot imagine how many times I saw 07^th May emblazoned on items today at this race and instinctively every time I said to myself, yip, "Today is Davey’s Birthday". Love you. Hope you had an enjoyable one. Catch up later.

The photo below of Davey is one I shot about two years ago at Clive’s wedding when he was best man. We were both in need of a bio-break after the church service so we both took off running together in search of the necessary. Being able to run a little quicker than him, I turned and snapped a quick shot as we both dived into the nearby toilet ::)))

A New PR in the Half Marathon

2011-05-07T21:12:00.004-04:00

Well I’ve completed round one of my marathon training, that of running a sufficiently fast time in a road race to qualify to ensure a good seeding at the start of the marathon race in October. Today, I ran the Indianapolis Mini Marathon (Half marathon or 13.1 miles) in a personal best time of 1:39:15, an average pace of 7:35 min/mile. I’m really pleased with the fact that as I get older I seem to be decreasing my PR for these long distance races, a feat that I know all too well will not last forever.

I had trained well for this race and despite having to stop running in early April with a minor injury for three weeks coupled with having a mild cold today (shivers and a cold throat for the last two days), I was extremely pleased with how it went. I shaved a full 1:30mins off the time I did in 2008.

Photos below of myself with Brad, Steve and Neil, my running partners, a before and after photo.

Anja’s 6th Birthday Party

2011-05-02T20:16:00.003-04:00

This week our little girl, Anja, turned over a new year and yesterday we celebrated her 6th birthday in style. I think it was the biggest birthday party we’ve hosted to date. In all I think we had about 20 kids of various ages but mostly Anja’s age from school. We were extremely fortunate with the weather; we had a warm sunny day with clear blue skies. We had our usual fruit, grilled meats, drinks and assorted sweet items in addition to cake and ice-cream. Lynne and Brooke organized several party games which went down really well. An additional bonus feature this year was Brooke’s face painting which was very popular.

Many did lots of work to make the day go smoothly; however, as always Brooke and Lorraine seem to always go a little above and beyond what would be considered normal. A big “Thank You”, to each of you. I must also thank all who came to make it such an enjoyable occasion for Anja and ourselves.

As usual, many photos were taken, the highlights are shown below with many more available here for the intrigued reader.

Welcome Anton Webb

2011-05-02T20:00:00.001-04:00

From the Owens-Taylor household, we all welcome Anton Webb into the world. Yes, Kaisa and Kevin have added another to their family and Anton arrived last Friday, a full 9lb 6oz. We understand that both He and Kaisa are doing well, they arrived home yesterday. A heartfelt Congratulations to all of you.

Mum Gone Home

2011-05-02T19:51:00.004-04:00

We were all a little sad to say “Farewell to Granny Owens” today. She is travelling back to Ireland as I type and will be home very early tomorrow morning. We all had a great time for her four and half week visit. She was a huge help to us in watching the kids, particularly when Lynne was in the UK and even in the evenings and weekends. Of course the kids really bonded with her given that the stay was sufficiently long for them to get really acquainted with her again. They loved waking her up in the mornings, the attention she splurged on them, their constant gifts and the many knitted items she did for them. Connor and her spent many many hours roaming the back yard.

Mum: - We thoroughly enjoyed your stay, you were a huge help, an easy guest and many thanks one last time for all you did for us all.