Christmas 2005

Well, we've had a great Christmas holiday. We went to my parents in Skiatook on Thursday 12/22. Jonathan went fishing with grandpa on Friday, but didn't catch anything. We went to look at some abandoned lab pups, but some of the neighbors had already picked them up and took them to WalMart for giveaway. For awhile I thought we were going to end up with another mouth to feed!

We left Skiatook Christmas morning and made it back to Edmond to celebrate and have lunch with Katrina's mom & dad, sister and brother in law, and their 3 great kids. By the time we got home we were pretty much wiped out. Yesterday Katrina's aunt & uncle came over with their family for a visit.

Santa was good this year, and the big wheel that Joshua got and the skooters that Robby and Jonathan got are the big hits of the season.

No posts lately

Well, anybody reading this knows that I haven't blogged in awhile. Been extremely busy. Extra business is going well, and looking forward to more follow-on work.

Received my 15" powerbook on Monday. YEEHAAWWW! It's really nice! I really like the high resolution display, and the thing really performs great w/ 1.5GB of memory and 7200 RPM drive! I've been moving all the personal stuff off of my work powerbook, and getting it configured the way I want.

Tiger Cubs Field Trip

Jonathan's Tiger Cub den took a field trip to Mercy Medical Center in OKC on 10/14/2005. Neither one of us really knew what to expect, and I thought we would just walk around the ER or something. We had a pleasant surprise when we were lead into the operating room area, the boys were decked out as any fine surgeon should be, and they were shown the OR. The kids couldn't quit smiling, and neither could the dads! The kids got to check out the instrument table, the microscope equipment, the anesthesiologist station, and of course the operating table. The table had a plastic tub under the surgical drapes that was full of M&Ms. The kids used the surgical instruments to try and get the candy out!

We had an absolutely great time. Check out the photos! Jonathan looks right at home in the OR!

Great Weekend!

We had a great weekend. Started out Saturday with Jonathan's football picture and game. After that Mark and Jonathan took off to Stillwater to meet Grandpa Wyckoff for the OSU / Missouri game. OSU lost, but we had a good time. Jonathan's first OSU game was a big hit! We made it home just in time for Jonathan and Robby to go to their cousin's house for a sleepover.

Sunday was spent doing yard work and doing some picking up in the house.

Joshua's Second Birthday Bash

Today we celebrated Josh's second birthday! We celebrated in Blue's Clues fashion. Technically, it's tomorrow, but who's counting. Katrina's parents came up from Norman, her sister and brother in law and their 3 kiddos came over from West Edmond, Mark's parents came from Skiatook, Mark's aunt came from OKC, and Mark's brother came up from Frisco, TX. We had a great time, started off having some sandwiches, then opened presents, then had some cake, then RUSHED out the door to Robby's soccer game. Couldn't have asked for a better time or better company. Josh had a blast opening presents and stuffing his face with cake.

Here are a few photos...Enjoy!

Weekend Update

Well, we had a GREAT weekend. Jonathan had his first flag football game, Robby had his first soccer game of the season, and we had some wonderful weather. I will likely be helping with Robby's soccer team, at least at practice. Jonathan was supposed to have his first Tiger Cubs meeting tonight, but it was moved to tomorrow night. Katrina took him and purchased a uniform (shirt, bolo, neckerchief, belt, council patches). He's is so excited, he was wearing the uniform when I got home from work tonight and wore it until we had him take it off for dinner!

Labor Day Weekend..then back to work!

Well, the 3-day weekend is come and gone. We had a GREAT weekend, but I didn't get nearly enough stuff done around the house. Friday night we stayed in and watched a movie. Saturday I worked on cars in the morning (oil changes, air filter in Expedition, etc.). Sunday night and Monday morning I took Jonathan and Robby fishing. Caught a few blue gill. We went to the OKC botanical garden on Monday (see picture). All in all we got to spend a bunch of time together and have some fun.

I took Aunt Carol to the hospital today to get her knee replacement. The surgery went well, and she starts her rehab tomorrow.

Haven't worked out since Friday, so it's past due. Going to try and get up early to go in before work. We'll see.


I'm tired of all the hurricane Katrina finger pointing. The media needs to stop spending so much time trying to lay blame for percieved delays in response, and start helping the responders. Geez. I've heard of TONS of companies that have given big bucks for hurricane relief. I wonder what the networks have contributed? I may try to research that tonight and see what I come up with.


That's it for now. More later...

Mark

Robby Pre-School

Well, another busy day! Back in the office today, then home to grab some food before going to the church for service and a meeting immediately after. Here is a picture of Robby's first day back at pre-school at Peace Lutheran, with his teacher.

Going to bed now so I can get up and work out in the morning. G'night!

Back to School!

Haven't posted in a few days because we've been so busy. Jonathan's back in the swing of things at school. I stayed home this morning so Katrina could do PTO newsletter stuff up at the school, and I took Robby to his school to meet the teacher and see his new classrom. Then worked from home in the afternoon.

Church activities have kept me busy as well. Lots of things going on, and I guess I'm in the middle of most of them. Need to figure out how to say 'No'.

We're still painting the inside of our house. Wrapped up the entryway and dining room over the weekend. Tackling the living room next, and we've got to fix the hallway that we painted. Too brite yellow!

The workouts are going great! What a de-stressor! Worked out Thurs, Fri, Mon, Tues. Plan to take tomorrow off then back on Thurs Fri.

I'll try to get more pix up this week.

Mark

A new me!

Today was the first day in almost 4 years that I've worked out. Katrina renewed our YMCA membership, and I went through the machine and computer orientation tonight. Then spent about 15 minutes on the eliptical machine (ugh!). I now realize how out of shape burgers and pizza can make a guy. The equipment is great, and it's all computerized. Just key in a number, and it tells you the settings for the machine. It then catalogs everything into the computer and sends a monthly summary. I can also login to a website and get the info online. Pretty amazing.

Jonathan likes his new class, and his teacher. He's been kind of sick and is on another antibiotic. Maybe this one will knock out the bugs. On the downside, I've had a sore throat for a few days now.

Work is going okay. Busier than a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest! But that seems to be the rule and not the exception.

Often times when I try to describe what it is my company does, people kind of glass over. So today's pic is from our clinic in Ft. Worth, taken right after the installation. You'll see the fundus camera (allows photographer to get inside the eye and take pictures of the back of the eye called the retina), the stereo-capable monitor, and the Apple PowerMac G5 (in the back). This equipment is combined to photograph diabetic patients in order to get early detection and staging of diabetic retinopathy and macular edima.

Tuesday, Tuesday

Started out extra early (5:45) to go for a walk, only to find RAIN! So I went back in and started a pot of coffee, at some breakfast, and off to work extra early. Nothing like working early. I get more done between 7:00 am - 8:00 am than I do the rest of the day, or so it seems. I had a church website meeting after work, then home for late dinner and books with the kiddos. Joshua's hilarious. He followed me around with a book for about 5 minutes while I was getting out of my work clothes. He's persistent and won't give up until I read him a book when I get home.

With those lazy days of summer gone, I thought I'd offer up today's pic of the day. We'll remember this summer as the one when Jonathan and Robby took to the water!

Back to School!

Today was Jonathan's first day of first grade! What better time to start blogging on a regular basis. The day started with getting the kids out of bed, which was no easy chore as they've gotten lazy over the summer. The 10:30 bedtime, 9:00 wake-up are taking their tole! Robby told me that he didn't have to get up this morning, since he wasn't the one starting school! Unfortunately for him he is only 4 and way too young to stay at home by himself. We got Jonathan off to Mrs. Foreman's class with no problem, other than the rain we had to go through to get there. This picture is of Jonathan and Mrs. Foreman (who is obviously aware of Jonathan's reputation).

After drop off, it was back to work for me. Another busy day at the office, with many irons in the fire and all of them HOT!

After work I ran and got a hair cut, then home for some chicken enchiladas (thanks Katrina!).

I think Robby missed Jonathan today, and the rest of the week he'll probably be lonely. After that he starts back at the half-day preschool.