Army Strong

Last Tuesday, Kristina's husband, Shaun, left for army boot camp. Yes he has joined the military.

Kristina is obviously missing him terribly and our thoughts are with her each day. He will essentially be training until early Spring but will return for 10 days at Christmas. She is starting to blog a little more about her love for him and how painful it is with him being away in addition to not having much contact with him over at Mr and Mrs Hawk.

 

Pictures from Ireland

Last week, my parents had The Station Mass at their house. This is local Irish tradition in which a mass (church service) is hosted in somebodies house, presided over by the local priest, and the entire neighbourhood attends. Each house in the neighbourhood participates on a rotating basis with two houses participating each year.

They had a good party afterwards since many friends and relatives visited from all over the country. Mum sent over a CD full of pictures which I have copied over to our web album space. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Congratulations Jonathan and all at PollDaddy

This morning after reading my brother Jonathan's blog, I learned that he has sold one of his companies. This week polldaddy was acquired by Automattic (the makers of Wordpress).

Congratulations Jonathan, you and Triona have worked really hard over the last 15 years or so on all your projects, you are well deserving of everything that comes your way.

The sale of polldaddy, a little spin out company from his other company Infacta, has received lots of media attention. Of note in the New York Times, Washington Post and others here, here and here.

The picture shown above was taken last year from when Jonathan and Diarmuid visited, he is proudly wearing his polldaddy T-shirt!

Congrats once again.

Mostly Sick!!

It has been a tough week here on Hillcrest Rd and not just because Lynne was away. Isabel was under the weather early in the week with a sporadic fever which was then picked up by Anja on Tuesday. We have had several 4-5am starts to the day and on Wednesday morning had a trip to see the doctor. Everybody has caught a virus, a nasty rotavirus that is going around. This spread further by the end of the week with Kristina calling in ill on Friday and myself feeling quite under the weather. Headache, sore throat, aching muscles...you all get the picture. We are going to try laying low for the weekend.

In a time of falling house and real estate prices, there is one popular place round here at the moment. Lynne's lap. The girls, each of them feeling ill, are dueling like we have never seen previously for Lynne's attention and comfort. Daddy simply does not cut it but I do understand how it feels since it was my lap that was the hottest ticket in town when Lynne was away.

Lynne returned safe and sound Thursday night. She enjoyed meeting old and new friends in Denmark. Håkan, Eva-Lotta and Tindra, many thanks for all the presents.

Lynne's Mum has settled in perfect, we are glad to have her this week to help out with ailing bodies. I hope you are all feeling better than we are, enjoy the weekend!

 

Hmmm ....What do you do...Laugh or Cry?

This is what I had to deal with this morning! The real advantage of having your children get a little older is that they need less and less constant oversight. Of course I may wish to revise this sentiment in later years but for now, roll with me. Last night long after I put Anja to bed I started to hear the familiar pitter patter across the landing floor, over and back a few times. It didn’t sound good so I went to investigate. Anja had found literally the only items of make-up that Lynne possesses. Mascara all over her hands and face.

This little episode was then followed by what greeted me this morning! There was this thick aqueous cream all over her hair. I was quite angry and inside was also dying with laughter. I did a poor job of conveying my sentiments since I started laughing mid way through our little chat!

 

 

 

Birthday for Randy and Dinorah

Yesterday we took ourselves over to Randy and Lorraine's house for a dual birthday celebration. Randy turned 25 and Dinorah, 21 :)) We only stayed a couple of hours but we had a lot of fun. Isabel was the star of the show, everybody wanted to hold and cuddle her. The highlight of the evening; the cake and ice-cream of course!!

Happy birthday to you both once again, it was great to see you!

 

 

 

 

Goodbye Mummy.....hello Gran!

This morning Lynne left for Denmark on a business trip. She will act as an external examiner on a PhD thesis at the University of Copenhagen. She returns from her trip late on Thursday night via the University of Kansas where she will give a seminar. We are getting relief here at home however.....

Lynne's mother, Pat or better known round here as Gran, actually arrives from London this evening. We are checking her flight status right now. She usually makes it over twice a year and this will be her usual Autumn visit, coordinated of course to help with Lynne's departure. More on her arrival tomorrow!

 

Weekend Update

Weather this weekend was absolutely fabulous. We took it easy for the most part, walks, cooking, a little shopping, visiting neighbours, Lynne did a little gardening and Anja became addicted to this coloring program online on the Fisher Price website. She is getting to be a dab hand using the mouse, she even started to show me how do it at one stage (not really sure whose personality trait that is :)

Our family blog was featured in our local paper, the Journal and Courier this week. They run a weekly column on local bloggers; the article can be read here.

All of you taking a browse for the first time, welcome. Enjoy the site, leave a comment and feel free to come visit us at anytime.

Weekend's over, hope you all have great weekend.

 

 

Here goes the weekend...

It's Saturday and we are looking forward to the weekend. Lynne went over to Kaisa's house last night for a girls gathering. Brad, Aulden Reina and Matt were here at our house kicking back for the weekend.

The day outside looks nice, experts are calling for clear blue skies and 70F so we are going to try heading out for a bike ride later.

Currently Lynne is upstairs sorting the girls clothes, Anja and Isabel are "helping". I snapped the two pictures below just a few minutes ago. Enjoy the weekend everybody!

 

 

Babies

We have two new babies to let you all know about. Interestingly, they were both born on the same day, one late and as you may read, one quite early.

Keith and Sam, Lynne's brother and sister-in-law, had a baby girl yesterday in London. We have no name to report on yet and I'm hoping we will have an update in a day or so with some pictures and more specific details (Keith??). Congratulations to you all, we are thinking of you all. They also have two boys, Thomas and James and an older little girl called Ella.

Lindsay and Mike also had their little boy, Burke, yesterday. Not really sure if you have been following their story, Lindsay was on bed rest for over three months and has only recently been taken off. She got to 32 weeks this past weekend but had to have emergency cesarean section yesterday. Burke is doing well now. Congratulations once again to you all, we are thinking of you. They also have a little girl, Ruby.

Chillin out this Sunday....

Today we are taking it easy after our three stop activity around the counties of Indiana yesterday. This morning Lynne headed off for a bike ride with Kaisa while myself and the girls played with play dough, did some coloring and called Granny and Grandad Owens. I have just returned from my bike ride and it appears the girls have gone out to the park. I have just passed my summer goal of 1000 miles which I'm pretty pleased about.

Below are a few additional photos from yesterday. We drove over to Pine Village and called in at Dispennett's Orchard. They were doing free apple dipping for kids which as you can imagine Anja was just thrilled about (I didn't see any adults complain mind you).

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin Patch

Today was a fun filled autumn day. Weather was perfect, a brisk morning with a clear blue sky and the sun was up in no time. We headed off with the Mauer family to Oxford Indiana to visit a pumpkin patch to collect our annual fare. This farm, Millennium Farms, is very well organized and a great activity for children. They had a hay ride out to collect your pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, a bouncing castle, pony rides, a very good petting zoo area with lots of animals. We packed a rough picnic and it was great fun. We did this last year also and it may well become our little autumn tradition (Anja wants to go back tomorrow).

I took lots of pictures which are posted to a web album space.

 

 

 

 

Sleep Over and Water Fights

Last weekend Anja had her first ever sleep over. Randy and Lorraine had their grandchildren Scotlyn, Cy and Logan over for the weekend and Anja joined them for a fun packed evening. A bike ride, bonfire, grilled brats, S'mores, fun filled baths, ice-cream and lots of reading ensured a fun packed evening. I think the kids had fun also :). They had a balloon fight the next morning which turned into an all our water fight with the hose and various watering devices.

Anja had a great time and was exhausted after (thanks Randy and Lorraine).

For those of you on the other side of the pond not familiar with what a S'more is, it's a traditional campfire treat of roasted marshmallow popular in the US.

 

 

Pandora.com

So we noticed on Lindsay and Mikes blog the other day that they had started listening to Pandora. It's this free online music radio type site. Anyhow, apparently this has been up and running for some time but we have just started listening and it really is great, really cool (thanks Lindsay).

Have been listening now for a few days and I have already found a couple of artists that I really like but had never heard before. Plus of course it virtually only plays music you like. Awesome!!

I really like Colbie Caillat, an artist I had never heard of previously. Admittedly I never really listen to music radio. Anyhow, check her music out, plus she has a rather interesting and different story of how she got started.

Lindsay is still hanging in there by the way, she has done so well. She is 30 weeks now.

Overdue Update....

Hey...I know it's been a while....

Not a great deal to update you all on. Life is chugging along, the girls are getting bigger and the election here in the US is getting closer but ever more all consuming. Can't rally look at any TV or website without it permeating through. We survived hurricanes Gustav and Ike, we're not really in any typical hurricane path, way to far inland. We are certainly moving from Summer to Autumn here in West Lafayette, a little cooler in the mornings.

I have started running in earnest again, had quite the lull over the summer (i typically prefer biking during the summer months). I plan on running another half marathon on 01 November which is rapidly approaching. Yikes....need to get some miles in...

Girls are great, Anja is busy at pre-school and Isabel is getting steadier, faster and more inquisitive by the day...oh boy!!

We are ceratinly moving from Summer to Autumn here in West Lafayette, a little cooler in the mornings.

 

 

Jonathan and Family off to Australia!

Jonathan, Triona, Diarmuid and Nara will soon be moving to Australia (not really sure what's going to happen to Rosie and Kipper). They leave in just over a week, 11th September I believe. We wish them the very best of luck. I'm sure it will be exciting for them, moving to Brisbane, for just under one year. I believe their plan is to be back next August, in time for Clive and Tracey's wedding.

I heard that they intend taking it easy initially, if one can ever really do that with a small baby, Nara is just over three months.

I'm sure there will be frequent updates on Ozzy life on their blog once they arrive and get settled in so be sure to check in often.

Our family are a pretty global bunch really. We are in the US after having lived for quite a few years in Sweden. Davey and Sam are obviously in a different country every month right now (currently Thailand). Aiden lives and works in The Netherlands, Jonathan and Triona are moving to Australia (also lived in Indianapolis for a short time), Clive and Tracey currently live in Ireland but lived in Australia for one year and Eilish is still at home. Mum is willing to trot all over the globe but Dad, well he lives in Roscommon and always will now!!

 

Randy and Lorraine's Family

Sunday evening we had Randy and Lorraine's extended family for dinner. Lorraine's oldest son and grand daughter, Tony and Ashley, were visiting from Texas for the week. Lorraine's mother, Jane, was also over. Unfortunately Randy had to work. Anyhow, good food, great company, a few drinks, lots of laughs, some photos and generally a good time was had by all. We enjoyed it a lot.