Barnicles 5/13

The last few weeks have been pretty darn great for Kenny and I.

This has been our "down time" at work and we've had a couple of events to celebrate the end of tax season. Last week we had our company wide Office Olympics. It's like elementary school field day, but with beer. Then on Tuesday we had our department celebration which was a trip to Dr. Pepper Ballpark to watch the Frisco Rough Riders baseball team. Activities like that make the work week go by pretty fast. And they remind us that we've been blessed to work at a company that wants to keep it's employees happy.

We seem to have hit upon a string of good luck as well. Kenny and I were both selected to go to Fredericksburg, VA, to celebrate the end of tax season with co-workers at that site. We'll be making that trip at the end of the month. Kenny attended a company wide conference that discusses how we can improve the our "create the offering" (make new products) process. He won an iPad! (You can see Nate playing with the iPad in my Wordless Wednesday post.) Then I won $50 at the Office Olympics. We should really buy a lottery ticket.

Even though football season has wrapped up, it's still been top of mind at our house. Fall registration has opened up and Kenny and his coaches have been working to fill the roster. Kenny even has me recruiting kids at a birthday party. The fall team is going to be a lot different. The boys will be playing 11 on 11 with some contact. Since it's not straight flag football they'll have to wear protective headgear (similar to what martial artists wear). I think this is the league's way of making a smoother transition between flag and tackle. It's definitely going to be interesting.

Both boys are doing gymnastics now. Gray is making progress in his class. Most days he will jump on the trampoline, ride the rope swing, fall into the pit of foam blocks, and do some assisted things (front rolls, back rolls, flips on a bar). Nate has had two Power Tumbling classes. He really seems to enjoy it, to the point that he practices at home. Kenny has gone with him both weeks, but said he is already seeing improvement.

Nate seems to be getting the end of school wiggles. He's had his "card pulled" (gotten in trouble) a few times over the last couple of weeks. It's always small stuff (interrupting the teacher, not keeping hands to himself, etc), but he had been doing really good about it. I think he is in need of his summer vacation.

I had been pretty worried about Gray's vocabulary (or lack thereof). However, he's really starting to pick it up right now. He likes to point at things and name them. I'm still a little concerned about his hearing. When we do animal sounds the cow and the cat both say meow and the horn and the horse both say beep-beep (yes, I know a horn isn't an animal, but we practice it with the animal sounds). I think I'll ask for a full hearing test when we go to the ENT in August.