Sunday, August 28, 2011

Summertime Fun

Ok, so I know its been a long time since I posted anything. At least, I can only get better. :) Here are the highlights of our 2011 summer.

-Visiting Joe's family in Wisconsin. Joe could only stay for a few days, but Afton and I were able to stay for a couple of weeks. Afton loved playing with her cousins, aunts and uncles. We were able to meet our newest niece, Sadie. It was fun just hanging out with the fam.





-Joe and I went on the 4th year girls' camp adventure. We went, or I guess I should say Joe went biking and white water rafting for the adventure. (For some reason, the outfitters don't like pregnant women doing these things and I couldn't convince them that I've just been eating too many donuts lately.) Anyways, a lot of the girls had crushes on Joe. It was hilarious. They called him Mr. Matt Damon and heat attacked his tent and such. It was pretty dang funny. Lucky me, Joe likes older and more mature girls. :)

-Cocoa had to have surgery to remove many and many bladder stones. She is much happier now!
-The County Fair. It was a little on the hot side, at least from my very pregnant perspective. Afton loved it- the animals and especially the rides. She loved the merry go round and the flying elephant ride, but she especially loved the bigger kid rides like the ferris wheel and such. We've decided that Afton has no fear when it comes to big scary roller coaster rides.
-Going to the pool throughout the summer. Afton loves the water and would stay at the pool all day if I would let her. She loves to swim underwater and being a mermaid. It was especially nice just being able to cool off in the hot summer.
-Getting some house projects done. Our guest bedroom is now cleaned out where people can actually sleep in it. Yahoo!!We redecorated Logan's room with a cute train and automobile motif. I'm glad it makes me feel like its a new room.
-There was an earthquake in Virginia. It was pretty awesome. It was small scale with minimal damage (we didn't even have anything fall off of our walls.) It took me a little bit to realize we were actually having an earthquake; I mean come on, who has earthquakes in VA? Anyways, it was pretty dang exciting. :)

-Camping out in Shenandoah Nat'l Park. We only stayed the one night but it was so fun. It was the first time I haven't played any jokes on anyone, such as toilet-papering and such, but families were still scared or maybe just paranoid. :) Afton loved camping, especially roasting the marshmallows. She would say, "Here Mommy, let me show you how to do it. You just do it like this" and sticks the marshmallow straight into the fire so its nice and crispy for me. We left after breakfast- something about a hurricane coming in, which by the way turned out to be very anti-climatic.


Tuesday, August 16, 2011

County Fair 2011

We went to the county fair today. I'll let Tracy explain it later, but here's the pictures we took.


Thursday, August 11, 2011

Sometimes, the datacenter surprises you. Normally, it's just a platform the servers run in. Sometimes, it's more. Yesterday I just soaked in the sensations for a little bit. It reminded me why I love my job.

The deep blue of the permanent lighting highlights the aisles, leaving the cages' perimeters murky. Stacks of servers are defined by power indicators and the flicking lights of hard drives on one side and network connections flashing bits of green and amber light on color-coded cabling on the other. Your ears get a full spectrum sound test by the low thrumming of the coolers, the steady hum of the switch fans and the high-pitched whine of the servers while your skin gets blasted by cold air on one side of a rack and hot exhaust on the other.

It's almost the exact opposite of a sensory deprivation tank. I wish I could take pictures in there.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Breakfast deception

We should consider renaming this blog "Afton's Exploits".

I woke up this morning and heard 'odd' sounds coming from downstairs. I went downstairs to find Little Einsteins playing on the computer, but no Afton watching it. Then I heard more sounds coming from the kitchen. I walked around the corne, and saw her stuffing something into the niche beneath the island, where the vent and power outlet are. She turned around, saw me, jumped in surprise, put her back to the niche, and put her hands out to block my view.

"Afton, what did you put under there?"

"I'm sorry."


It was the 1 gallon bucket of ice cream we had in the freezer. The one that she can get out on her own, but can't put back in.

Tracy and I had to explain that we don't eat ice cream for breakfast.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Afton's sweet tooth

So 10:30ish pm Joe and I are watching TV downstairs, and Afton comes walking down with bits of candy stuck to her lips.

Joe: Afton, did you eat some candy before walking down here?
Afton, with a huge grin: Do you want some?

No wonder she can't go to sleep at night-too much of a sugar rush.