Alrighty, it's been almost 4 months since my last post and I apologize for that. It's been a busy few months, with a ton of stuff going on, and I will try to skim over it as best as I can(but it probably won't work). I'm currently deciding if I will talk about my daughter first, then myself, or just get my stuff out of the way so we can delve completely into everyone else. I think I will just mix it all together and see what sort of dish we can come up with. Where to begin...
Let's start with one big thing that happened about a few moths ago.It was my birthday. My 29th to be exact. Birthdays are always a tricky thing for me. On one hand, you love the small amount of attention you get for others that affirms the fact that they care about you. On the other hand, it's a grim reminder that you are getting older. 29 isn't that old, but still, it's old enough. My wife made a fantastic cake for my birthday. It's based on a tabletop game I play right now called Warmachine(I will mention it in a later post but don't want to hit the details of it at the moment). There is a particular character in that game that I love playing with, and she made a cake with a drawing of him on it. I was impressed with how awesome it looked, and how much time and effort she obviously had put into it. It made me feel very special. The next night I had some friends over and we ate some grilled hamburgers and steaks and the cake that Jamie made and watched District B13. A great movie if you like dude movies. It was nice to have my friends around sharing the time with me.
The next day we went to Critter Company for one of my friends' daughters first birthday. They had cokes and pizza and Elena had a great time. They brought out 5 animals for the kids there to play with. They were a hedgehog, chihuahua, bird, ferret, and snake. The snake was a giant python, easily 10-12 feet long and as thick as my arm at it's biggest point. Elena enjoyed the snake most of all I believe. As soon as they laid it out, Elena went running towards it making this hissing noise like a "Tsssssss Tssssssss" and was just petting on the snake. It was funny because most adults are even deathly afraid of snakes, but Elena would have probably liked for us to take it home if we could have. The birthday girl received this giant stuffed animal for her birthday. Think of a stuffed animal just slightly smaller than me. Elena had taken a shine to it and was not super happy that she wasn't able to keep it. So immediately after the part was over, we went to Albertsons next door to grab some basic groceries, and Jamie saw a giant stuffed giraffe and we got it for Elena. We call it her baby and she absolutely loves laying on it.
Next was Halloween. My daughter had a beautiful Princess Leia outfit that I had purchased from Thinkgeek.com. She didn't want to keep her headpiece on so we had to put it on sparingly. Her grandparents came over and they walked about 3 or 4 houses, allowing Elena to do just a smidge of trick or treating, while I stayed home and made sure any kids who came by got their candy, minus any Dots I could get my hands on, since I absolutely love those things to death.
In the midst of all this time, I began a process of slowly getting everything about me checked out because I want to make sure that I am alive as long as I can be for my family and friends. I know things like skin cancer and colon cancer aren't really things to worry about until you are in your 40's, but I figure that if they are good enough to look at then, they are good enough to get a jump start on 10 years early. I went to a Dermatologist and had some things looked over. He took a sizeable chunk of my left arm out because apparently a cyst had formed, and even though it was completely harmless, it was a bump I had been wanting to get removed for quite some time. One thing of note, however, was a mole on my neck. He wanted to remove it, saying that type of mole statistically had a 20% chance of being quite an issue down the road. Well, I know 1 in 5 are good odds, but when skin cancer is the item on the line, it's not really something that you want to chance. Test came back later saying they got it all, and I have a checkup appointment in about 4 weeks to make sure that it's all good to go and there are no other spots to worry about. Next on my list is a gastro specialist to see about colon cancer. That's one of those issues that you need to get checked out early, because generally by the time you start getting symptoms that tell you that something is wrong, it is too late to do anything about it.
Then there was Thanksgiving. Nothing really of super importance other than we spent time with friends and family and just tried to make the best of juggling all of our family obligations. Most of December was the same way. I will try to sum it all up so that you don't fall asleep reading this giant update. Early December was us getting our lights and Christmas tree up, and saw me have my fate sealed in our Fantasy Football League. Late December was far more interesting. Myself, my wife, and my daughter spent time going to my sisters for Christmas so Elena could see her one of her sets of Grandparents(My father and my Stepmother). She had a great time, got some good toys, saw her cousin, and I even got a chance to go play a game of golf with my father and brother-in-law. I have to say that I enjoyed playing golf that day. The country club had some great scenery, and it was quiet, and overall a beautiful day. Sunny, but a nice wind that kept you just cool enough not to sweat. All in all, I loved it.
Then there was actual Christmas. We went to the Christmas Eve party at my mom's house. There Elena got to see some of my family that she doesn't see often, like my Aunt, my cousins, and the relatives from that side of the family. After much feasting, most of the people went home and my immediate family exchanged gifts. Like before, Elena got a ton of things, and was more interested in the boxes and wrapping paper than in the contents. Come Christmas Day, we relaxed and put together all of Elena's toys until it was time to go to Jamie's stepdad's house. Rinse and repeat at her fathers house. It was all a good, but very busy 3 days overall.
Then came New Years Eve. We spent the night hanging out at my great friend Jason's house with his family, his friend Christine's family, and our friends Mike and Brandi. We had an awesome time playing games, eating food, watching the New Years celebration on TV, but most of all, popping fireworks. Last year, Elena was too young to really care about the fireworks at all. And this last 4th of July, there was a fireworks ban because the weather had been dry, and there had been a slight drought. But I am a man who loved his fireworks, and I figured that now that Elena could appreciate it all, I was going to go over the top. We fired off Artillery Shells, and just about every single firework imaginable. But instead of the amazed look I imagined Elena would have, it seemed that every shot scared her. Kind of a bummer, but there is always next year. She stayed up pretty much all night until probably 12:30, and then completely crashed on the way home. The whole household slept in quite well that morning.
Well, that's all. I will do my best to keep updating this thing more frequently with pictures and such. I just had a sudden gut feeling to post and was more interested in catching everyone(by that I mean myself, since I am the only one probably reading this) up. Expect another post this week with what I hope is more insightful observations. But as for now, I think I have pretty much written the entire Internet in this post, so I will call it a night, because it's getting late. Night night.
