Baby Driver

After watching this commercial I had a few thoughts that really stuck with me. The commercial didn’t resonate in a way that made me run out and buy a Subaru, but it nonetheless it had an impact. The first thing that grabbed my attention was a dad talking to a little girl. The girl looks a bit older then Lucy, but it wasn’t hard to picture Lucy and me in that situation. The commercial cemented something for me that I probably already subconsciously knew, and numerous parents have told their kids (mine included)…"No matter how old, educated, or mature the girls get, they will always be our little girls!”

It also made me daydream about the day when Lucy and Paige get their drivers license and reverse out of the driveway for the first time. I am relieved that “the drive away day” is roughly a decade and a half away. I also realized that the day will inevitably arrive, and when it does it will feel all too soon. Between now and then we will just have to play as much pretend car in the drive way with little sister riding shotgun in her pink snowsuit as possible.

Valuable perspective

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone is preparing for a day of relaxing and giving thanks with loved ones. I wanted to take a moment to share a video a cousin of mine posted to her Facebook page.

This video helped give me some valuable perspective to parenting and life. This Thanksgiving I am thankful for the gifts of each ordinary day. The blessings of day to day life can often be taken for granted. Often overlooked by a focus on a lengthy to do list, a diaper that needs changing, or a house that needs cleaning.

In addition to eating as much turkey, stuffing, and pie as possible and taking in some football, this holiday I am giving thanks for the numerous blessings of each day.

Question Meme

I was tagged by A Day In The Life blog to complete the below questionaire. It is fun to be a active member of a blog community.

Question Meme
RULE #1: People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.

RULE #2: Tag 4 people to do this quiz and they cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other people.

1. If you have pets, do you see them as merely animals, or are they members of your family?
We love our fish, Lippy, but he is merely an animal. He won’t be pictured in the Christmas card and we don’t take him on family trips. On my wife's blog she answered this question by saying we don’t have pets, so we know where Lippy ranks in her book.

2. If you can have a dream to come true, what would it be?
End world hunger

3. What is the one thing most hated by you?
Intolerance

4. What would you do with a billion dollars?
Payoff debt, take care of family, invest, donate

5. What helps to pull you out of a bad mood?
A couple moments of silence, possibly a run, some fresh air

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?
Both are priceless blessings

7. What is your bedtime routine?
Many nights after reading to Lucy and turning off the light, it is lights out for me too. If I do get back up I usually watch Sports Center, go on-line, brush my teeth, and fall asleep right before or shortly after my head hits the pillow.

8. If you are currently in a relationship, how did you meet your partner?
We had a class together toward the end of my freshman year of college. We were partners for a presentation.

9. If you could watch a creative person in the act of the creative process, who would it be?
Watching others create music is something I enjoy. I also believe that a lot of creativity is used when people find common ground. I think unifying people from different backgrounds or schools of thought is a creative process. This is a process that I would enjoy watching/observing more of.
10. What kinds of books do you buy?
Mainly kids books currently. Lucy has been really into coloring books and workbooks. I like to read non-fiction and when I use to be a traveling salesman I loved having an audio book with me. I am currently slowly working on Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman. The last book that I completed was Greg Mortenson’s Stones into Schools.

11. How would you see yourself in ten years time?
Happy, healthy, and hopefully with a couple non-grey hairs on my head.

12. What’s your fear?
Something (illness or accident) happening to family, especially the girls.

13. Would you give up all junk food for the rest of your life for the opportunity to visit outer space?
I would strongly consider it. Outer space would be cool to check out. I really do like Snickers though and “rest of your life” is a long time, unless of course something goes wrong in outer space.

14. Would you rather be single and rich or married, but poor?
Married.

15. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?
Make coffee and check my e-mail.

16. If you could change one thing about your spouse/partner what would it be?
Have her get off my back about how much time I spend on fantasy football. (Please reference her answer to this question.)

17. If you could pick a new name for yourself, what would it be? First name is fine, but if you’re feeling imaginative, you can do the whole thing.
With P-Diddy already taken I would have to go with Turd Ferguson or Brick Tamlen.


18. Would you forgive and forget no matter how horrible a thing that special someone has done?
I feel blessed to have not had horrible things done to me. With that said I would have to answer the question by saying I don’t know.

19. If you could only eat one thing for the next 6 months, what would it be?
So many great foods to chose from, but if I had to eat any one thing for 6 months, I would keep it simple and go with PB&J sandwiches.

20. List 4 people to tag: I guess I am breaking rule #2.

Siblings

As Paige develops there are an increasing number of ways that Lucy and her can interact. When Lucy is pounding on a drum or blowing into her recorder, Paige bounces, smiles, and occasionally claps. This evening when Paige was jumping in her ExerSaucer, Lucy stood next to her and jumped. There is nothing more precious to me then hearing them laughing together.

When it is time for Paige to eat Lucy loves to eat the same thing. If Paige is having banana, pear, or apple baby food, Lucy insists on eating one of the same. Not coincidently, Lucy never seems interested in playing the "match the food" game when Paige is eating sweet potatoes or peas!?!?!

Libby and I are very excited to see their interaction continue to increase as Paige begins to walk and talk. We can already see how they will each teach each other many things. While we are optimistic that they will mainly teach each other positive things, we would be naive to thing they won't be partners in crime through the years.

In addition to all the fun times they will have, we are also anticipating the squabbles, etc. All part of being siblings. I recently read a quote that summarized this point. It said, "Siblings are great to lean on, count on, and tell on!"

As one of four I couldn't complete a siblings post without a picture of my siblings. (Truth be told, I couldn't resist showing a pic of the beard either!) As many siblings do, I feel a strong and unique connection with each of my siblings. Another quote I read described brothers and sisters as "nature's built in friends". I feel that accurately describes the crew below.

Libby and I feel luck to have the girls and we can already see how lucky they are to have each other.

"A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life." ~Isadora James

Stay-at-home dad to start on Sunday

As a stay-at-home dad blogger I feel obligated to blog about a stay-at-home dad who gets to play in the NFL.

The Associated Press in Charlotte, North Carolina reported yesterday that the Carolina Panthers have names Brian St. Pierre their starting quarterback for their game this Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens.

Panthers to start QB Brian St. Pierre
"Brian St. Pierre has thrown five passes in eight NFL seasons. He wasn't in a training camp this summer and as recent as last week was a stay-at-home dad."

"St. Pierre, who had last practiced in January as he finished a stint with Arizona, was spending his days taking care of his 18-month-old son in the Boston area and doing some television work when he was signed to the practice squad on Friday. He was promoted to the active roster Tuesday."

May the power of all the stay-at-home dads from around the country who like to toss the pigskin around in the backyard with their kids be with you. Although many of us have dreamed of playing in the NFL, I am not jealous that Brian will be getting tackled by Ray Lewis.

Brian St. Pierre being the starting QB for the Panthers does not help my prediction in the fantasy football post yesterday that Steve Smith would have a productive last seven weeks.

Best wishes to you Brian! When I am not following the Packers/Vikings game this weekend I will check in your health and play.

DUDE REPORT: Fantasy Football review and predictions

On September 5th I posted some fantasy football predictions for the upcoming season. Now that we are 10 weeks into the season, I wanted to analyze my preseason predictions and apologize to anyone who followed them. The predictions were pretty bad.

As an attempt to make up for my numerous incorrect predictions I have listed some players to watch for the stretch run of the season. My league has three weeks left in its regular season and then three weeks of playoffs. It is definitely crunch time, but if your league is like mine there is a lot left to be determined. I hope some of these players can help you out.

To breakdown my preseason predictions I will assign a win or loss to each prediction.

Booms: players who I predicted would exceed expectations.
QB: Tony Romo: Loss. This is a tough loss because he was playing as a top 5 QB before his injury. Rumors are floating around that he may try to return this season. Stay tune.

RB: DeAngelo Williams & Jonathan Stewart: 2 BIG losses. The Carolina offense has been terrible. In the preseason I thought Matt Moore, would be good enough to keep defenses honest and allow Williams and Stewart to run. It is embarrassing to type that last sentence!??!?!

RB: Michael Turner: Loss. He was predicted to be a top seven running back. He has been good this year, but not top seven. I am optimistic based on Turners schedule that he could finish the season as a boom. To date it must go down as a loss.

WR: Greg Jennings: Loss. Jennings has been a top 20 WR this season due to a strong last four weeks. This prediction is a loss to date because he needs to push toward top 5 to be considered a boom.

WR: Hakeem Nicks: Win. Finally on the board with a win! Nicks started the season with a 3 TD game and has hardly looked back.

TE: Jason Witten: Win. I am going to mark this a win, but it is questionable. Witten had a 1000 yards receiving last year, but only 2 TDs. I listed him as a boom because I thought he would get into the end zone more this year. He only has three 3 TDs after 10 weeks, but has outscored Tony Gonzalez, Brent Celek, and the injured Dallas Clark and Jermicheal Finley.

K: Matt Prater: Loss. He is a kicker. This prediction was like throwing darts.

DEF: San Francisco: Loss. Like kickers this is kind of like throwing darts. With that said I threw a couple of duds at kicker and defense. 49ers have only one defensive TD and single digit interceptions.

BUSTS: players I predicted would underperform expectations.
QB: Eli Manning: Loss. Giants offense has been clicking all season. Eli has thrown 3 TDs in three games and 4 TDs once.

RB: Rashard Mendenhall: Loss. Mendenhall has been a top ten RB all season. Over the last month his carries have started to be limited. If he gets less than 20 carries in future games and fall out of the top 15 I could mark this bust a win.

RB: Ryan Grant: Win. Hurt in the season opener.

WR: Larry Fitzgerald: Win. Predicted to be a top five WR, but QB issues have him performing closer to the 20th best WR.

WR: Mike Sims-Walker: Win. Over 800 yards and 7 TDs last year had many people optimistic about him coming into this season. Mike has had two good games this year, but otherwise he has been a dud.

TE: Owen Daniels: Win. Daniels has been even slower than expected in his return from last season ACL injury. Predicted to be top 15, but has hardly been on the field.

K: Jay Feely: Win. Throwing darts, but Feely has been bad. ESPN preseason predicted Feely would be top ten.

DEF: Denver Broncos: Win. ESPN predicted they would be the 11th best defense, but with only one defensive TD and 5 interceptions they have underachieved.

Sleepers: late rounds picks no one was talking about
QB: Kevin Kolb, PHI: Loss. Lost starting job after a week one injury. He ranks as one of the highest scoring back up QBs if that counts for anything.

RB: Arian Foster, HOU: Win. Big win with Foster. He has been the top RB in fantasy football this season.

RB: Cadillac Williams, TB: Loss. Not sure what I was thinking here. Williams has lost his starting job to LeGarrette Blount.

WR: Jeremy Maclin, PHI: Win. Vick looks poised to have a historic finish to the fantasy season.

WR: Jacoby Jones, HOU: Loss. Potential does not earn any fantasy points.

TE: Jermaine Gresham, CIN: Loss. I remain optimist this will be a win before the season is over.

K: Neil Rackers, HOU: Win. Again, throwing darts, but Rackers has been a top ten kicker behind the high powered Texans offense.

DEF: Cincinnati Bengals: Loss. Below average defense.

Summary
Booms: 2-7: That is embarrassing!
Busts: 6-2: I guess I know a bad player when I see one!?!?
Sleepers: 3-5
Total: 11-14

Stretch run predictions
• Donavan McNabb has looked pretty bad lately, but he will be a top twelve QB the remainder of the season.
• Josh Freeman will also be a top 12 QB going forward.
• Aaron Rodgers and Michael Vick will be the two most common QBs to play in fantasy football super bowls.
• Felix Jones will finally reach his potential and be a top 20 RB.
• Knowshon Moreno is now health and will prove it by being a top 15 RB in the stretch run.
• Frank Gore will finish the season as the second highest scoring RB behind Arian Foster.
• Peyton Hillis will remain in the top 5 RBs the rest of the season.
• Mike Tolbert will finish the season with 12 TDs.
• Jamaal Charles will help many fantasy owners make the playoffs over the next three weeks.
• If Carolina plays an NFL QB at all this season Steve Smith has a good chance of having a fantasy impact before seasons end.
• Tampa Bay Mike Williams will have a strong finish to the season and end as a top 15 WR for the year.
• Marques Colston will play the rest of the season like the top 12 WR we predicted he would be before the season.
• If Todd Heap stays health (which is a big if) he will finish the season as a top 5 TE.

Power Down

At 9AM this past Saturday morning our power went out. The loss of power was due to the heavy wet snow that had been falling since the night before. This heavy snow led to tree damage and down power lines our neighborhood and throughout the Southwest Metro.

In total we received about a foot of snow on Saturday. It was eerie and a bit scary to hear trees close by popping, cracking, and eventually falling down.

Power in our neighborhood was restored sometime Sunday night. Lib's Aunt and Uncle let us stay with them during the outage. They not only hosted our immediate family, but my dad and brother who were in town for believe it or not, a fall clean up weekend!?!?! Thank you, thank you LouAnn and John.

Our neighbors across the street maintained power throughout the storm. We were able to run enough extension cords from their house to save our freezer food. With no heat for 36 hours our house got as cold at 50 degrees without power.

I hope the powers that be within the National Blog Month hierarchy have some leniency on my four missed days. I plan to take National Blog Month to December 4th to complete my month of posts. I also plan to post some pictures of our tree damage soon.

Glad to be back in a lighted and heated house, as well as posting and reading blogs again!

Solid progress

Tomorrow Paige is 8 months old.

Although there have been a lot of tired days, especially for mom pulling the night shift, the time has gone by quickly. Paige's hair is starting to get a bit longer. She is on the verge of pushing through two more teeth. She isn't crawling yet, but seemed to be able to wiggle herself over to a toy she wants by rolling and scooting.

Her personality also seems to be emerging. It is pretty early to tell, but I think she is going to be an observant gal, who goes with the flow and loves to laugh. Living in a house with three people who like to talk Paige has learned how to be a good listener. With that said, if her babbling is any indication, she won't have too much trouble getting a word in.

Paige loves being with mommy. Of course mom being a food source is a factor, but it goes beyond that. There have been multiple evenings at dinner where she is in her high chair or I am holding her and she is crying. When she gets into mommy's arms she will smile and laugh.

Our soon to be eight month old is also eating solid foods. She hasn't crossed paths with much she doesn't like. She also loves to grab "puffs" and try to put them in her mouth.

Paige has a big sister who loves her very much. Lucy in the last week has mentioned a couple times that she misses Paige when they aren't together. The love is reciprocated from Paige, because she loves to laugh when Lucy is talking to her.

We love you Paige.

Dad Life

One of the main goals of this blog is to explore and document life as a dad. This YouTube video talks about life as a dad and it really made me laugh. I hope you enjoy it!

Food and Grocery: Where's the Beef?

I recently read an article that discussed how you could save roughly $3000 annually on food. They listed six ways to do this and assigned a dollar amount of savings to each action. The six ideas were: Eat Vegetarian a Few Nights a Week, Minimize Waste, Plug in the Slow Cooker, Discover Great Ways to Use Canned Fish, Don’t Order Pizza Make it yourself, and Pack a Lunch. I hope to explore some more of these cost savings ideas in future “Food and Grocery” posts.

When planning a meal my default thinking is always to start with the protein. Meal prep typically starts by going to the freezer to see if we have beef, chicken or pork available. I don’t know how my default thinking got this way. It may simply be my love for meat, the way I was raised, or being a male.

In regards to how I was raised, meals growing up, like in many homes, were based around a protein. The fact that we loved to repeat a popular commercial from the 1980’s Where’s the Beef? should tell you all you need to know about my family! In fairness, there were a couple popular exceptions included Sam’s Club frozen Stir Fry and my mom’s fruit salad.

Regardless of how I got the “meals start with meat mindset” the above mentioned article, as well as Lib recently telling me she would be fine with some meatless meals, got me to thinking. It got me to thinking about going vegetarian with some regularity. Maybe we will start with one dinner a week.

From a cost standpoint, the article says that if you replace 1 pound of sirloin ($5.99) with a 14-ounce block of tofu ($1.96) once a week you could save $210 per year. To put that into perspective, this savings after a whole year of munching on tofu (something I don’t think I have ever eaten) would buy you about a half an iPad. Nonetheless the principle is good, and in additional to cost savings, I know there is multiple health benefits from mixing in more veggies.

I turn to you blog community for assistance and information. Do you eat vegetarian with any frequency? If so, what are some of your favorite non-meat recipes? Thanks A Day In the Life blog for your Potato Soup recipe post during your Menu Monday, I look forward to giving that a try.

Thanks for your help and I look forward to hearing from you and giving your recipes a try.

Power of Genetics: That Look

From the first moment that I became a parent my perspective on the power of genetics was changed. Seeing Lucy for the first time was a life changing experience for many reasons. One of powerful emotion that I recall feeling at that moment was just how much this new human looked like me.

We can all recognize a family that shares the same hair color, facial features, or eye color. Through observing the girls (and Libby and I as parents) I have come realize that eyes and hair are just the tip of the iceberg for genetic power.

From the way Lucy's pinkie toe curls the same way has her moms, to the way she loves starburst over snickers liker her mom, to sharing the ability to make the below look like her mom.

I look forward to exploring the power/oddities of genetics with the section of posts. Like Mother,
Like Daughter!

Family Photo

I am going to keep the Halloween theme posts going one more day by posting a picture of some of our pumpkins. The pumpkins that are shown below are ones that we grew in our garden. I didn’t know it at the time, but the type of pumpkins we purchased were called Casper Pumpkins. This is a type of white pumpkin. Throughout the summer and early fall we kept asking ourselves when they were going to turn orange!?!?!

After harvesting our white pumpkins, we decided to drawn on them instead of carve them. With Lucy standing in the picture with the pumpkins, we have been joking that this is a great family photo. Don’t you think this would make a great family Christmas card!

Moving left to right across the picture we have Dad, Mom, Paige, and then of course Lucy.

In a slightly related story, I occasionally check out this website for a quick laugh...http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

Paige’s Trick

With Paige’s diet still consisting of breast milk and baby food, she went the trick routine versus treat this Halloween. She pulled off her trick over the course of two days.

Like in many homes with young children our living room is typically filled with folded clothes, books, and toys. With this particular morning being the day after Halloween there was a higher than normal number of candy wrappers sprinkled throughout the living room mess.

While getting Lucy some breakfast and negotiating with her to eat some healthy food between treats, I had placed Paige in her ExerSaucer. After dropping off the cereal and apples I noticed Paige had gotten a hold of a tootsie roll wrapper. She has put it into her mouth and seemed to be enjoying chewing on it. I fished half of a wrapper out of her mouth immediately and did a quick look for other wrapper pieces. I was unable to find it, but did not get alarmed. I assumed that it was just somewhere in the mess.

The second half of the tootsie roll wrapper was eventually found. It was found in a dirty diaper of Paige’s the next morning! Paige’s trick of making half a tootsie roll wrapper disappear for 24 hours and then reappearing, although impressive, is one I hope she doesn’t attempt to pull off again.

In discussing this event with my mom, who works at a pediatric nurse call line, she said it is somewhat of a common Halloween event. For us it was scary to think about her possibly chocking or what else the wrapper could’ve done while it is was rattling around in our baby’s body.

Paige, next year at Halloween you will be able to eat solids. To clarify, that means solid foods!?!?!?

Lucy’s Treat

Tomorrow’s post is titles Paige’s Trick. I thought I would mention that just to provide context to this title.

Lib did a great job recapping our Halloween with pictures in November 1st post, Happy Halloween.

I wanted to document my observations on what was the first Halloween that Lucy really got into. She enjoyed being a monkey last year, but got tired of trick-or-treating quickly and really wasn’t too interested in other costumes. This year, she got excited just thinking about trick-or-treating. “I can’t wait! I can’t wait!” was a commonly heard phrase when she was asked about Halloween.

When trick-or-treating finally rolled around she enjoyed seeing what the neighborhood kids were wearing. She also loved running door to door and was pretty good about saying, “trick-or-treat” and “thank you” after receiving candy.

Lucy’s excite was also a “treat” for me to watch. I had forgotten just how exciting Halloween can be when you are young. Watching her took me back to the trick-or-treating days of my youth, when I hit up my home town as a football player, court jester, San Diego Chicken, panda bear and others. The pure joy was priceless to observe. It makes me really look forward to future holidays!

Sandler and our new fish

For Lucy's birthday, which was a couple months ago, she got a fish. She loved our trip to Petco. She was checking out the mice, rats, ferrets, and the wide variety of other animals they have for sale at the store. After talking to a store employee we learned that if you don't have anything prepared at home (fish bowl, fish food, etc.) you are most likely leaving with a beta fish.

A beta is perfect for us because, they are low, low maintenance. Feed it once a day, clean the water once a week, it prefers to live alone, and it doesn't need a filtration system.

For any pet owner, especially a three year old, selecting a name for your pet is a big deal. I wanted to share my theory on how Lucy named her fish and its funny double meaning.

Lucy has really been into rhyming words lately. This interest in rhyming often leads to her just making up words that share sounds with other words. When discussing names here brain starts by thinking of names she knows. Libby is typically the first name that pops into her head. With that being her mom's name that is understandable.

Recently she has been calling all her dolls Lollie. I think this is a spin off of the L sound. She did the same with naming her birthday fish. We landed on the name Lippy. I wasn't sure if the name would stick, but it certainly has. I would like to take a moment to publically welcome Lippy to our family.

The double meaning of this name that always makes me laugh is that Ms. Lippy is the name of Adam Sandler's odd preschool teacher in the movie Billy Madison. I think of Billy and Ms. Lippy regularly when we are feeding Lippy.

Before signing off today, I wanted to list my top five Adam Sandler movies. In researching this list, I realized there are numerous Sandler movies I haven't seen. I would love to hear your Sandler movie recommendations.

1)Happy Gilmore

2)Billy Madison

3)The Waterboy

4)Big Daddy

5)The Wedding Singer

DUDE REPORT: Beer and Beards

As parents we have learned the importance of being a step a head of your kids. Having a plan for a snack or nap can be very important to avoid a meltdown. While we of course want to teach our girls to be flexible too, a hungry 3 year old is hungry or tired 7 month old is simply no fun.

With this DUDE REPORT (the first non-sports DUDE REPORT) I want to list two examples of where I applied the proactive attitube to two aspects of my "dude life".

First, I started buying and drinking Octoberfest beer in early September. Octoberfest beer is my favorite seasonal beer. I anticipated my need, and was successful in being a step ahead. I analysis Octoberfest beer further later in this post.

Secondly, I started growing my beard for what I like to call “No Shave November” in early October. Again, if that doesn’t speak of being proactive, I don’t know what does. Don’t look now, but I just might have my Christmas shopping done by Thanksgiving!?!?!?

The "No Shave November" tradition started a couple years ago when I started deer hunting with my father-in-law and brother-in-law. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your feelings on beards, I plan to discuss my beard at least two more times during the month of November. Some many remember that I got some support with the beard last year. (The circus was in town)

Octoberfest Beer
As I mentioned, Octoberfest beer is my favorite season beer. Now that the calendar has turned to November, I wanted to reflect back on my favorite Octoberfest beers. Please let me know which ones I am missing and which are your favorites. Then together we can count down the days to next years “Octoberfest season”!

1) Hoptoberfest-New Belgium Brewing Company: From the makers of Fat Tire this seasonal beer took top honors for me this season. As you can see from the name it may be too Hoppy for the Octoberfest purist. In addition to not 100% knowing what “too hoppy” tastes like, Hoptoberfest was spot on for me.

2) Spaten OctoberFest Beer: Originally made on Munich, drinking this make me think that I was in Germany for Octoberfest. Going to Germany for Octoberfest is definitely on my bucket list. Buying it at my local Sam’s Club reminded me that I was clearly in America!?!?!?

3) Sam Adam’s OctoberFest: Sam Adam’s is always a favorite of mine. I wasn’t able to muster up the courage to buy or try their Harvest Pumpkin Ale, but it sounds intriguing and perfect for Halloween. Sammy’s Octoberfest were shared by a neighbor buddy who ranks this beer number one.

4) Leinenkugel’s Octoberfest: Pains me to have a Wisconsin beer earning a 4th place rank. I am always open to retesting, and I think the Leine’s many have fallen victim to my high expectations. I love the Sunset Wheat and Summer Shandy and the Octoberfest was a slight step back.

Octoberfest I would like to try: Lakefront Oktoberfest Lager Beer, Milwaukee, WI, Beck’s Oktoberfest, Germany, and Ayinger Oktoberfest, Germany to name a few!

Who knew being proactive could taste so good!?!?!?

Why I love my cheap cell phone

At my last job our company work phone was a Blackberry. I remember how excited I was to have my first “smart” phone. The opportunity to browse the web, a full key pad, and having my e-mail on my phone were all features I was pumped for. Of course, shortly after receiving the phone I realized why the company thought these phones were so cool too…they could track you down anywhere and anytime if needed!?!?!?!

When I left my job the phone went back to the company. I joined my in-laws' friends and family plan and selected a phone from the options of free phones offered with a new line. The extent of my phone downgrade has been a bit of a running joke around the house.

Lib loves to laugh at how difficult it is for me to send a text. I have to agree, texting is my top complaint with the old school phone. Hitting 3 three times for c or 7 four times for s gets annoying quickly. I often find myself unable to send a text that accurately captures my feelings. For example, recently a friend send me a long text (clearly from a full key pad) inviting me to do something. I replied, “I out 4 2nite.” I couldn't even muster up a “thx” or a “ttyl”

The second main downgrade with the switch in phones was the quality of the camera. The camera takes grainy, low quality pictures. Unfortunately for you the reader this hasn’t stopped me from using the pictures in past posts. (Shopping Queen or wait… and Year One as a Stay at Home Dad to list a few)

Despite my various complaints and the on-going countdown to 20 months, when I am eligible for a new phone, I fell in love me my phone recently at the park. The phone made up for all of its bad features by not having a certain feature. Thank you for being a cheap enough phone to not have a zoom on the camera!

If the camera on my phone had a zoom I believe I would have been more then arms length away from Paige and Lucy after taking this picture. Being more then arms length away wouldn’t have allowed me to catch Paige when Lucy decided to let go!

It was my fault for putting Lucy, still only 3, in that position. Both girls were smiling and enjoying playing together on the pictures rocking toy. I decided to step back and snap a quick picture on the camera phone. After taking the picture I said, “Thanks, great, that was a good one.”

Lucy reacted like many 3 year olds at the park who fly from toy to toy. In her head my comment meant we were done with that toy and she was on to the next. I was going into my natural habit of looking at the phone to see how the picture turned out. Without even thinking about it I lunged toward the ground to catch a falling Paige. Thank the Lord that she fell my way and that I was able to catch an arm before anything other than her feet hit the ground.

I was scared, Lucy felt bad, and Paige expressed her feelings moments later, by filling her pants. The whole experience, which lasted about 1 second, took my breath away. The idea that Paige had the crap scared out of her made me laugh a bit after I knew she was alright.

With a full pair of pants and no diapers with us, and of course, the whole near miss fall thing I thought we had done enough at the park for one day. We were on our way home shortly.

On the walk home I found some time to give my phone a quick kiss!

My favorite candidate

Today in Election Day! Two reasons to celebrate quickly come to mind for me. First, is the opportunity to freely and peacefully exercise our right to vote. Secondly, today marks the end of the political commercials and phone calls.

This election season, like many before it and many to come, the candidates spoke of change. Things they would do to make our government and our lives better. I am posting today to point out a person that I feel has truly made great strides of change over the past two years. She does not appear on the ballot, but like many others of her generation, she has been working daily to figure out the world around her.

In two years when the political advertisements fill our airwaves promising more real change, without being pessimistic about our government, I am confident that she will have outperformed them again. Now that “our little candidate” has a running mate, I fully expect the next two years to go even faster than the last two.

We are proud of the development you have made over the last two years. I can’t wait to find out what the hot button topics are in 2012 when there is a 5 year old and a 2and a half year old in the house. Regardless you two will always have our vote!
















Lucy Elections Day 2008

Food & Grocery: Coupon Strategy

Since becoming a stay at home dad I have become more active in meal prep and grocery shopping. I have started to enjoy cooking, and trying to save as much as possible at the grocery store appeals to my competitive side. For these reasons, and because the grocery store is a lot less busy mid morning on a week day grocery shopping has landed on my to do list. Over time I have developed a system for making a shopping list, clipping coupons, and working my way through the store.

In many ways grocery shopping is like parenting. Millions of people do it, each in their own unique way. In parenting and grocery shopping everyone has their struggles (we seem to frequently blow the beer budget!?!?!) and strategies. As a parent and shopper I consider myself a work in progress and gain comfort knowing countless others are going through the same things are we are.

I want to lay out my current grocery shopping strategy, explain areas where I want to do more, and discuss some weaknesses of our current system. I turn to you blog community to help fine tune the strategy. I would love to hear your system, you strengths, weaknesses, etc. (As a guy who in a previous life went to Cub Foods coupon-less, I am now clearly over the top with my grocery issues!?!?!? My apologizes!)

Current Strategy: Lib prefers Target, I like Cub Foods, and in a pinch we use CobornsDelivers. Coborns seems to be a bit more expensive, but sometimes the convenience of having groceries at your door is priceless.

I try to do a weekly grocery shop. The girls are usually pretty good about shopping. Lucy rides in the cart, Paige goes in the front pack, and all the old women at the store smile and stare at our set up. Beautiful system!

In preparation we go through the kitchen, fridge, and freezer to see what we need. I go over the weekly Cub ad as well as the bi-monthly Cub flyer and the manufacturer coupons. There is nothing like double couponing an item (Cub ad and manufacturer’s ad)!

I love watching the total cost of groceries go down after everything has been rung up and the check out person starts scanning the coupons. I also love that on the Cub receipt they print % saved. My goal is always 20%, I get super pumped if it gets toward 25%, and with a few system improvements I think I can consistently be pushing 30%.

System improvements needed: I currently have two main areas of focus for improving the grocery system. I am hopeful after this post you will help me out with others.

First, I need to tap into the wide variety of on-line coupons that exist. I recently signed up for Shortcuts.com and ShopAtHome.com . I have yet to print and use any of these coupons, but I think these additional coupons could increase the savings. Do you have any web coupons that you have had a lot of success with?

Secondly, I want to streamline the shopping list. Many people lay out the weekly meal schedule and then only buy the ingredients they need for those meals. I am not there yet, but knowing we have a plan for the buy one get one free cantaloupe instead of just racing to fit it into every meal before it expires would be helpful. A detailed list of needs would also help me with one of my weaknesses…chasing the deals.

Weaknesses: I haven’t gone to the extreme of buying Kibbles ‘N Bits because it is such good deal even though we don’t have a dog, but I have come close. In my attempt to generate as high of a percentage saved on my receipt as possible, I have definitely bought items off the grocery list. Although I know this is playing right into the grocery store’s hands, it hasn’t been completely a bad thing. The buy one get one free ham steaks that I had no idea what we were going to do with went in the freezer and eventually turned into two good meals. (Lib and Lucy may argue that the word good could be left out of the last sentence, but they can’t argue with the fact they turned into two meals.)

My plan for a solution is to make the shopping list (hopefully more detailed in the future) and then use the coupons that apply to what we need. Coupons that can be used in future weeks can be cut, saved, and then used when those items are needed. Not sure how this plan will affect my goal of getting to 30% savings, but the real goal is saving dollars. If the percentage is lower that isn’t a problem as long as the overall spend is lower.

My second weakness, which will probably be an ongoing battle, is finding the time to execute the plan. Collecting coupons from multiple locations, laying out a week of meals, etc. can be very time consuming. The reward of dollars saved is good, but there is no denying that life is busy. I will keep you posted on attempts do make the system time efficient.

Your suggestions and recommendations on any or all of this would be greatly appreciated.

Happy start to National Blog Month!