March Geography Lessons

March in NE Ohio sucks.

For the past two years, we've had massive snow storms followed by seemingly endless rains, and random 60 degree flirts of sunshine.

Did I mention that our weather sucks in March?

This is a picture of the newly formed Holman River. The Holman River has its headwaters in the middle of Drew Carey's backyard.

It used to collect in our basement before our builder "remembered" to attach the drain tiles to the sump crock. Our builder is now out of business. Surprised?

Anyway, instead of creating fishing holes in my basement, the water now flows downstream to Jim & Adriana's backyard, where it forms into "Lake Rickon."

This was the scene on Sunday at Lake Rickon.

Unfortunately, the fish were not biting. However, I did spot a pig's hoof and a crushed can of PBR. As the Germans say, "goot times".

Don't ask.

Joey Van Halen

Henry snapped some of his trademark "random" photos on Sunday.

JJ obliged him with an homage to the classic Van Halen - 1984 album cover.

(Easy folks...that's a graham stick)

Ringer!

Greetings from Caroline

Caroline spent Thursday night at a sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa.

Judging by the photos she sent us, she's enjoying her stay.

A classic Caroline smile!

Caroline's imitation of Switzerland.

Caroline hard at work determining who the Browns will get once free agency starts.

Mobile Joey

This is Josephine (aka Josie, Jo-Jo, Joey, Mini-Me, Princess Crappa-Lotta).

She's a professionally-trained heart melter.

We can't figure out how something that looks so much like her father could be so compassionate, happy and toothless.

Okay, maybe the toothless part makes sense.

Anyway, Joey is nearly one year old.

Jo-Jo can sleep on command.

Ever since she was seven weeks old, she's skipped meals just to fall (or stay) asleep.

Here she is this past weekend after "borrowing" Caroline's blanket. She rolled over in the middle of the family room floor, put the Hoffman sedative (her thumb) in her mouth and proceeded to snore away her Saturday.

I am jealous. When I try this at work, no one thinks it is cute.

Here's some live action Josie footage. She is now completely mobile, quick and dangerous.

Surprisingly, her mobility has helped expand her ever-changing diet. We didn't see that one coming. Today she managed to discover the joys of low-grade edible meat (aka Iams dog food). According to a nearly wretching mommy, Joey apparently slammed several pieces of dog food in her mouth before being discovered doubling as our newest house pet.

And I thought Bear Grylls ate weird food. Who knew?

But seriously, could you be mad at this sweet little girl?

February 14th: Valentine's Day Catch-Up

Nearly two months and 40+ inches of snow later, we're finally ready to play some much-needed catch-up.


It's Valentine's Day so I'm dedicating this blog post to the beautiful woman on my right.


That's Erica. We've been dating/married since September 5, 1992. That's 6,006 days and counting.




Erica is a Sagittarius, whatever that means.

I think it has something to do with a half-man, half-horse looking dude. You know what they say about half-man, half-horse dudes? Big noses and lots of flies, right?

Anyway, whatever a Sagittarius is, it makes her a happy goof.

She laughs at my jokes. She also likes to dance and lip-sync to Jenny Lewis songs. She does a mean "Robot" dance and a wicked Hula-Hoop.



Erica likes ice cream at midnight and making sure that I never EVER do the house laundry.

Apparently, I do not know how to fold clothes. I also launder whites, darks, satins, towels and American flags in one load.

I'm worried about Lake Erie.

Erica used to be faster than me when we would sprint race each other, so I got her pregnant three times in order to slow her down.

I am now faster than she is.



This is our family. From left to right: Dad, Caroline, Erica, Josephine, Henry and 3/4ths of Madelyn Holman (my niece).

The best part of our kids is the wonderful sampling of Erica in each one.

Caroline is mini-Erica. Henry has Erica's agility and athleticism (I can still run faster than him, though). Josephine has Erica's heart-melting compassion and the Hoffman thumb comforter.


Don't worry about me, though. Each of the kids have giant heads. That's my contribution.


I love Erica. This is our 16th Valentine's Day and while they probably aren't as laughingly awkward as they used to be when we were teenagers, we're still enjoying all of the moments year after year.

To our blog audience, please commence with a collective "Awww."


P.S. I'm still faster than Erica.