A parent never knows what talents lie hidden in their children until the passing of time. It has been a long time hope of Greg and mine that at least one of our children will have a knack for music. For now, Lily is just enjoying her world of noises and making an impact in her own small way. I guess you can call the attached video clips music videos. Enjoy.
Earlier this week, Greg became resolved to improve our method of shownotes prep. Here’s a photo of his latest creation: The Evergreen Book. It contains timeless topics for us to discuss on future programs. Good job, Greg!
The next photo revolved around a very dark topic. Dark beer that is. We wound up talking so much about Guiness Beer on that particular show that he HAD to drink one during our broadcast. As you can see in the photo, Greg is lovingly describing the complex structure of the alluring dark and satisfying beverage.
This guy finds a junk door and then spends $15 on paint, about $60 on brand new hardware, and then tells his wife he promises he’ll buy her a house.
Not when he’s throwing away $75 on a door that’ll be stuck in their living room for the next 5 years as he saves up for a down payment! And that $75 could have been put towards the house! He should have bought her a card instead.
Remember when people used to return from vacation and have every single second captured on film and put on slides?
And then remember when someone would make you sit down and watch every single slide they took on their vacation?
Hopefully this won’t be like that.
Instead, what you’re about to see is nearly 30 movies and a ton of photos we took from our first week-long family vacation in over five years.
And we tried to only take movies of the fun stuff.
So here’s how we spent our summer vacation in Pensacola, Florida:
Saturday
Saturday was a long day. I woke up early to start packing the van and the new roof-top cargo carrier we finally had to break down and buy. Our family has gotten too big and I think Lily needed as much stuff as all the boys combined. Here I am attempting to close the cargo carrier:
I actually ended up having to unpack the cargo carrier and repacking it because the baby seat we had hoped to bring simply wouldn’t fit:
It was a very long drive to Pensacola, and we passed the time blaring U2 music for most of the trip. The boys were excited to be on the road:
And Jennifer was more excited than she looks in this photo:
We stopped in LaGrange, Georgia for some drive-thru coffee:
And we finally arrived in Pensacola, Florida after almost seven hours of traveling (with far too many stops):
Jennifer’s enthusiasm was now much more evident:
We checked into our condo at the Portofino resort, which is a fairly new place in Pensacola and was a LOT nicer than we expected. Here is everyone standing outside the door to our condo right before we opened the door for the first time:
So what was the place like? Here are our boys to tell you first hand:
And here’s Jennifer’s reaction:
After getting somewhat settled, we were all very hungry and headed to PegLeg Pete’s for dinner:
It was at PegLeg Pete’s that I, as the sole driver that day, finally got my reward:
After PegLeg Pete’s, Jennifer dropped off me, Sam, Walt, Tom, and Lily so Sam and Walt could go jump in the ocean before it got too dark. Here we are at sunset as the boys played on the beach for the first time this trip:
After the swim at the beach and a very long day traveling, we were all pretty tuckered out for the night.
Sunday
Sunday morning was our first chance to just lounge about on the balcony. It’s amazing how good coffee tastes early in the morning while sitting on a balcony overlooking the ocean. The only thing better is later in the day, drinking a beer while sitting on a balcony overlooking the ocean.
After taking it easy for a couple hours in the morning, we got ready to go to Mass and thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the community at Our Lady of the Assumption in Pensacola. One thing I noticed is that in that packed Church that morning, that most of the people were on vacation. That meant they were at Church because they WANTED to be at Church, and not out of some self-made obligation. There was a true sense of the Holy Spirit there that morning.
Another cool thing is that after Mass, a missionary from FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) got up to speak. Afterward, we talked to him a bit and we’re actually planning on having him on our show in a couple weeks to talk about the good work that FOCUS is doing at universities around the United States.
After Mass we went out for some Mexican food:
And then, after lunch, we made a trip to a store that I’d been dreading. With a family our size, it is inevitable that we’d end up at Wal-Mart, stocking up the fridge for our vacation. When my dad saw this, he thought I was giving a sincere endorsement of Wal-Mart. My mom immediately detected my sarcasm:
After getting groceries, we FINALLY made our way to the main pool at Portofino (there were 8 pools total at the resort). Here we are hanging out at the pool, where we spent a LOT of hours during our vacation:
We also stopped and bought a new set of adult goggles and a snorkel so we could explore under the sea a bit more closely. Here I am trying out the new gear:
Monday
Monday was one of our best – and longest – days at the beach.
Using a portable cabana we borrowed from my folks, we headed to the beach and set up camp. On past vacations, we never lasted more than a couple hours before having to head inside because of the children. But with the cabana, we were out there for a good five hours.
Here’s the view of the Cabana:
And I couldn’t resist the temptation to record a video for our co-workers up in New York:
And every time we went to the beach, Lily eventually passed out (the orientation is goofy on this one…sorry about that):
Perhaps the most surprising thing we found on the beach on Monday were these things stuck in the sand:
Tuesday
Tuesday morning started with heavy thunderstorms, so we figured we’d go for one of our planned indoor activity outings. Of course, as soon as we decided this, the weather turned nice again. Nevertheless, we decided to head out to the US Air Museum in Pensacola, which is always outstanding. On the way there, Jennifer started quizzing all of us as to whether she should get a manicure while on vacation. The conversation was like this:
Once we got to the Air Museum, the boys made a bee-line for the Blue Angels cockpits that they could climb into. These are authentic cockpits from decommissioned planes, so it’s always exciting for them. Here are all four boys taking turns:
And what trip to a museum is complete without a trip to the gift shop? What’d the boys get?
The rest of the day was spent at the pool, but instead of going to the big pool for the whole complex, Jennifer and the boys hung out at the pool for our building, which we could see from the balcony. If you look closely, you can see them waving:
Around dinner, a really serious (but cool) looking storm rolled in and we hung out on the balcony as long as we could watching it roll in:
And just when we thought we’d seen the worst of the clouds, they really picked up:
Wednesday
Wednesday started with some one-on-one time for Walt and Jennifer, who rented a couple of bikes to see some of Pensacola on two wheels. Jennifer gives a tour from her handlebars:
As they were arriving back, Jennifer called me and asked me to take a video from the balcony. Again, they look like ants. Objects in this video are much closer than they appear:
After the bike ride, Jennifer and Walt hitched a ride on the shuttle bus. This video gives you an idea of what the Portofino complex was like:
Up to this point of the trip, we didn’t have anywhere to put Lily, so Jennifer and I were pretty much holding her for four days straight. We found out about a nearby place that rents baby equipment, so we rented an exersaucer for $5 a day. It was totally worth it and Lily obviously enjoyed it, as well:
Later on Wednesday night we went to a bargain theater that was showing Pixar’s UP for just $2 a person. All of us had seen it except for Jennifer and Tommy, and I think it was even better the second time around.
Afterward we got Krispy Kreme donuts. We shouldn’t have, but the HOT light was on in the window and we were drawn to it like moths. And we were on vacation. Give us a break.
Thursday
On Thursday we took advantage of the good rate that the resort offered for a Dolphin Cruise. Unfortunately, it took us almost two hours before we saw dolphins, but once we did it was pretty exciting.
Here we are heading out on the boat:
Here we are finding dolphins:
And on the way back, the boat captain let some of the boys take turns at the helm. They were very excited:
After the dolphin cruise we headed back to Pegleg Pete’s for lunch, but it was way too noisy for me. I barely made it out of there with my sanity intact. But that’s not saying much.
While we waited for our table, I attempted to teach the boys some basics of playing pool:
Friday
On our last full day at Pensacola, we came across an injured bird, who of course drew the curiosity of our boys. Walt spent almost half an hour just sitting near the bird, talking to it and looking at it. After a couple of hours, the bird suddenly stood up and flew away, just like that.
Also on Friday, we set up the cabana one last time and spent a few hours at the beach. Unfortunately, another sudden storm blew in and we had to head for shelter, bringing an end to our time on the beach. But fortunately, before the storm blew in, Lily and I were able to catch another quick nap on the beach:
And that was pretty much it. On Saturday morning, we packed up and headed home.
Considering that we hadn’t been on a week-long family vacation in so long, we couldn’t have been more pleased and I think it did all of us a lot of good to get away and do something so drastically different for a change. Hopefully it won’t be another five years before the next trip!
Here are some more random shots from our trip, as well:
In general, Lily is a very, very, very happy baby. It’s hard to believe that she’ll be six months old this week.
And though it’s not too difficult to get her to laugh, Lily thinks her brother Tommy is the funniest person in the world. She laughs at every stinking thing he does. If he just walks in the room, she starts smiling, and if he just jumps in the air she’ll start laughing. This video is just a small sample of how he can crack her up by doing the smallest things.
After talking about going to Confession today, we figured it was about time for all of us to go in for a Spiritual check-up so we headed to the Monastery of the Holy Spirit where the Sacrament of Confession is offered nearly every day.
One of the cool things about the Monastery is the lake there that is always full of very hungry ducks and geese who are more than happy to take your bread crumbs.
But today we had a bit of a surprise.
I’ve been going to the Monastery my entire life and have never seen turtles swimming right up to the shore, let alone in the huge numbers we saw today. Take a look at the video at you’ll see what I mean.
This past weekend Jennifer, Lily and I had a quick getaway to spend some time at Jekyll Island, Georgia with our friends Mac and Katherine Barron (winners of the funniest Catholic podcast award). While there, Mac had the brilliant idea that he and I go find a firing range he heard about where we could shoot an automatic machine gun.
That’s right. A machine gun.
Having never shot such a weapon, we went off in search of Shooters of America, and this video is evidence of what transpired there. This experience definitely made me realize even more just how powerful these weapons are.
Watch the video and see for yourself.
Note: Latest updates can be found at the bottom of this post, just above people’s comments.
Wednesday, 7/15/09 at 12:53 PM EST
We’re currently at the hospital (the second one of the day for my Mom and Dad) waiting for Dad to go into surgery.
Monday while he was working, he started to experience pain on both sides of his neck. For once in his life, he could not blame one of us kids as being the pain in the neck in question. 🙂
Unfortunately, though, the pain would lead us to discover something serious was at work, but we’re thanking God that it was discovered before it got worse.
Tuesday morning he went to the doctor to have the pain checked out. He was immediately set up with an outpatient procedure for this morning to check for any arterial blockage. He was sent home yesterday with nitroglycerine and had to take some last night after experiencing the pain again.
This morning Mom and Dad got to the hospital for the procedure and they discovered blockage right away. His right artery was 90% blocked. The EMT we talked to later said that particular artery is called “The Widow Maker.” Not necessarily something we wanted to hear.
Several other arteries (see the diagram to the right) had 20-30% blockage, as well.
As soon as we learned about the blockage, Jennifer and I called into work and asked them to broadcast a replay. Assuming everything continues to go well and Dad heads home tomorrow, we’ll do a show tomorrow.
After they transferred him from one hospital to another one, my sister Nancy and I headed down to be with Mom and Dad and now Dad is in this hospital’s cardiac unit and is currently being prepped for surgery. The ambulance arrived about 40 minutes behind schedule, so I would guess he’ll be in surgery sometime around 1:30 PM EST.
Dad is in very good spirits (as evidenced in the picture below), but we’re all obviously quite a bit shaken by this.
Mom is doing well, just ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and is in good spirits, as well.
Rather than updating in multiple places, I’m going to stick to posting here on this one post. I’ll post update times in the header as more information is known, so please keep checking back to this one post for additional information.
Thanks to everyone for all your prayers. They’re definitely being felt.
Update 2:35 PM EST on 7/15/09
Dad’s doctor just arrived and hopefully he’ll be heading back to surgery.
In the meantime, we’ve had multiple visits from nurses prepping Dad for surgery.
While we were waiting, Dad recorded the following message for everyone:
Shortly after he recorded that video, a priest arrived and heard Dad’s confession and then gave him the Anointing of the Sick. Dad said he thinks that was the first time he’s received that particular Sacrament, so now he’s had 6 of the 7 Sacraments.
Below is a video of Dad receiving the Annointing. I’ll update more here later as we get them:
Update 3:05 PM EST on 7/15/09
Dad was just taken back to surgery. The doctor said it’ll be about an hour.
Update 4:31 PM EST on 7/15/09
Dad is out of surgery and doctor just came back to give us the update. Everything went well and he now has a stent in place in his right artery where there was 90% blockage. Nothing was done to the other arteries that had 20-30% blockage.
Dad will now be placed on medication to lower his cholesterol, as well as for his heart in general. The heart medicine he’ll be on for at least a year.
We’ll be going up to see him in about 15 minutes and he’ll most likely be discharged in the morning.
Update 4:54 PM EST on 7/15/09
Dad keeps saying, “I feel so much better. I feel so much better.” He says it feels like a weight has been taken off of his chest.
Here he is, just minutes after coming out of surgery, describing how he now feels and how he feels like he just dodged a bullet:
Update 11:04 AM EST on 7/16/09
Just a quick update to let everyone know Dad called me around 6:30 AM this morning and he sounded great. He said he’d been up and walking around, had had some coffee and something to eat, and was anxious to head home.
He sounded just as energetic as usual, and continued to say how thankful he was for how he felt, as well as for everyone’s prayers. So thank you, again, for all of your prayers. Please keep them up!
Update 8:51 AM EST on Monday, 7/20/09
Ever since his angioplasty last week, Dad still has not been feeling completely 100%. From my understanding, he’d wake in the morning and progressively feel worse throughout the day. I guess there is just some level of discomfort and a feeling that something simply “isn’t right.”
Yesterday Dad was at home while everyone was at Mass and he started to feel light-headed.
He checked his pulse and at three different times, it seemed that he’d skip a beat every few seconds. After talking with my brother-in-law, it was decided to call an ambulance.
The EMTs took almost 25 minutes to arrive, which is ridiculous considering there is a fire station less than 2 miles away, so that of course has us concerned for the future.
But upon their arrival, they couldn’t detect anything out of the ordinary, and it was decided they’d bring him to the hospital to have him checked out. As the evening progressed, it was decided that after EKGs, X-Rays, and multiple other procedures, that they’d check him in for overnight observation.
I talked to Dad about an hour ago and he said he woke up at 5AM, and sure enough, as the morning has progressed, so has the discomfort.
Obviously, it’s the not knowing that is so frustrating to everyone, Dad especially. But we’re all glad he’s being prudent.
We’re still going to do a broadcast today, so hopefully as soon as the show is over at 1PM EST I’ll be able to get some more news from the hospital as to what is to be done next.
Update 9:14 AM EST on Monday, 7/20/09
Mom just called me and Dad was just taken down for a cardio-stress-test. His cardiologist himself will be administering the test. They were thinking it wouldn’t happen until this afternoon, so this is good that they’re on it so quickly this morning.
Update 10:58 AM EST on Monday, 7/20/09
Email I just got from my sister: “Mom said Dad is having a Nuclear Stress Test. She called to find out how long he should be gone (still gone at 10:44). Here is info about a Nuclear Stress Test:
When physicians recommend a stress test, they are usually referring to an exercise electrocardiogram (EKG). This test measures the heart’s electrical activity before, during and after exercise. However, technically speaking, a stress test is any test that is performed in conjunction with exercise. Thus, a nuclear stress test usually refers to stress testing that is performed in combination with a nuclear imaging test, such as SPECT scan or a PET scan.
In general, a nuclear stress test is more accurate and provides more information than a standard exercise EKG. However, these tests do have drawbacks. They are more expensive and require more time, and there is exposure to a small amount of radioactive substances.
Because of cost issues and availability of radioactive tracers, the SPECT stress test is the more common of the two. During a SPECT stress test, the patient is injected with a very small, (of negligible harm) amount of a radioactive (radionuclide) substance, such as thallium.
Once in the patient’s body and taken by the heart, this substance emits rays that can be detected by a special gamma camera. The rays allow the camera to produce clear pictures of heart tissue on a video monitor. These pictures show contrasts between light and dark spots, which can indicate areas of damage or reduced blood flow that are present before, during and after exertion.
During a PET stress test, the radioactive tracer (usually rubidium-82) is attached to a molecule such as glucose. When the glucose is absorbed into the heart tissue, special sensors detect the rate of absorption and the degree of absorption. This allows physicians to evaluate the metabolic health of the tissue.
A nuclear stress test is often performed in addition to the procedures that come as a part of a standard stress test. Aside from some possible discomfort as the radionuclide substance is injected (twice), this is a painless test.”
Update 12:28 PM EST on Monday, 7/20/09
Update from Nancy:
“Test results show it is not his heart and it is not the stent.
Dr. determined that as a result of Dad being required to lay flat on his back the day of both procedures (how many hours was that between the two of them and the transportation between hospitals??) his discomfort is due to muscle strain and tension. Being in ER and then in observation last night on a terrible cot/mattress whatever that gurney thing is called, did not help either!
I am on the way to pick them up and bring home.”
This past Friday was the 5th Annual Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A restaurants across the country. Fortunately, our friend Tracey posted about it on Facebook so we were able to put our boys to work making homemade costumes while we were on the air this past Friday.
So what exactly is Cow Appreciation Day?
Basically, it means free food if you’re willing to make a bovine of yourself. Or your children.
All you had to do was walk into any Chick-Fil-A fully dressed as a cow and you’d get a free combo meal.
Jennifer and I paid for our meals, but the boys were more than willing to dress up.
Ben especially got into the act.
Hat-tip to my college buddy Bill for posting this on Facebook. Very funny video. FYI – Be weary of some of the other videos on the site this video comes from (they appear as “recommended” at the end of this video). Skip the others, but this one really made us laugh.
This is becoming a regular thing to end the days with Lily, but apparently Lily really likes live music right before bedtime.
I was playing piano for Lily and singing a rather pitchy version of Mr. Jones by Counting Crows when Jennifer started recording.
Not my best rendition, but it’s neat to watch how carefully Lily was paying attention, especially near the end of video.
Last week Walter was in the living room with our dog Jody when we heard Walter cry out.
He was petting Jody while she was furiously scratching at an itch around her ear when suddenly a big clump of hair flew off of Jody’s head and onto the ground.
Walt came into the kitchen with this little clump of hair, followed proudly by Jody, who didn’t know why we were making a fuss, but apparently perceiving that the fuss was about her.
Jennifer and I looked at her ears, and sure enough, there was a little bald patch at the corner where her ear and top of her head connect, and there was a tiny cut that was bleeding.
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