Dereliction of Duty

The crack staff at Poogie's Echo Chamber have fallen behind in their award-winning blog updates. For this, we apologize. We've missed a few important events, including Halloween, Caroline's 3rd Birthday Party, the first of two major snowfalls in NE Ohio and more gratuitous shots of Josephine. Perhaps some of the pictures will explain the problem.

Yep, that's the problem. That's our leader carving what turned out to be his brother's pumpkin. Thanks to Bill for swiping the $6.00 gourd and carving it up before realizing he had the wrong one. Judging by the look of the head Poogster, it would not have mattered.

That's Henry (above) at his preschool Halloween costume line-up. I dig Cooper's bear outfit, though. They tell me it was supposed to be Simba, but I'll call it like I see it. Cute kid and my future son-in-law (wink).

Our first trick-or-treater of the evening was none other than Mason as a warm and snuggly Elmo. We caught up to Jim aka "90" and Mason after a few houses and continued on with them during the evening. Mason had the good sense to drive to each house in his Little Tikes push car. Unfortunately, we had to abandon the car somewhere in the neighborhood in order to catch up with the older kids. Being the good sport, Mason and Caroline finished the night in the Radio Flyer and could not have been happier!

The Halloween crew sans Josie.

Cue the gratuitous Josie shot.

We received our first of two notable snowfalls in early November this year. Caroline, like her dad, loves the snow. We're readying for another Kendall Hills sledfest. Last year, Caroline was a good sport to head down the big hills with Daddy. She's been eyeballing the Wham-O-Boggan ever since.

Henry and Caroline in the backyard snow fort.

Caroline turned 3 on November 4th. We celebrated her birthday on the weekend after Election Day at Bear on the Square in Hudson, Ohio. Good times!

Caroline vs. three candles and ice cream. Advantage: Caroline.

A Beautiful Day for Baseball

On Saturday night, someone suggested we stop talking about taking a few hacks at the old ball yard and go out and do it. For the Holman brothers, beers were involved in the decision making process. That's usually a bad sign. On Sunday morning, we made the suggestion into reality.

Joined by our usual partner-in-recreation who shall be known simply as "90", we made our way in the drizzling rain to the ball fields at Barlow Farm in Hudson. It was a beautiful day for baseball. Then again, when is it not?

Ground balls, infield throws, Fungo, BP, soft-toss and the 90's one-man home-run derby show. As Brett Michaels would say, it was "awesome". (Does he know any other word?)

A couple of funny asides:

1. The Holman Brothers drilled "90" at least five times during batting practice. By all accounts, he was okay.

2. Billy "the Tasmanian Devil" broke two bats on successive swings, including my favorite El Cheapo Louisville Slugger which we finally discovered was a Derek Jeter model. So much for Derek Jeter.

3. I managed to bust a moob while "diving" (or collapsing) for a shallow pop fly. Note to self: there are no points for shagging the most pop flies when you are 33 years old.

4. Billy hit the base of the wall during his turn at home-run derby. I was nowhere near the wall and had limited swings with my broken moob. "90" managed to deliver a blast into the driveway of a home 350 feet from home plate. There were no other casualties.

Here's a picture of the Holman brothers at the conclusion of the day.

Good times.

Sam Wiggle for President

So we went to the Wiggles show with the kids on Thursday night. For those who haven't been, the Wiggles consist of Anthony, Murray, Jeff and the newest Wiggle - Sam. During the show they come into the audience and Erica managed to snap this picture of her new favorite Australian singer.

Sam Wiggle (photo by Erica Holman)

In case you can't tell, he actually posed for this shot. He literally held up the show for my wife. I think she's smitten. She hasn't stopped talking about it. Caroline is also in love with Sam.

The Holman family before the show.

Boo at the Zoo with the Hoffmans

We met up with Erica's twin-brother, Chris, and his family for the Cleveland Metroparks Boo at the Zoo this past weekend.

Here are the dizygotic twins outside the Zoo. Who said you don't learn stuff by reading our blog?

And of course, the kids. Left to right - Cleopatra (Autumn); Raphael the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (Henry); Incredible Hulk (Tyler); Tinkerbell (Caroline); and the Happy Pumpkin (Josie)

I wasn't kidding about the Happy Pumpkin.

Each year at Boo at the Zoo, this spooky-looking group wearing black shrouds and junior high art class masks hang out with little fanfare. They make no sounds and just amble around the entrance to the kid-friendly Haunted Hay Maze. I don't know whether to wet myself in fear or feel sorry for these poor schleps. In any event, they've freaked me out since I first crossed paths with them in 2004. This year I got the courage to go have my photo taken with them. Chris and I walked up and asked if we could have a family photo. True to form, they said nothing.

I'm still scared.

Happy Anniversary, Rob!

We survived the seven year itch!

I wanted to do something a little different for Rob on our anniversary. Today is our 8th wedding anniversary!!! The traditional 8th anniversary gift is bronze or pottery while the modern gift is lace or linen. My gift is a blog post...lucky Rob!

This is the church where Rob and I were married. The Church of the Immaculate Conception on the campus of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.

The past eight years have been filled with many blessings, but the most significant blessings are our children.

Here is a picture of Rob and Henry in October 2005. Henry was the only child in this picture...in just a couple of weeks things would change.

Caroline arrived in November 2005.

And Josephine followed this past April.

Sure there have been some rough patches...

But eight years later, we are still smiling, laughing, and having the time of our lives. I fell in love with you when I was fifteen years old and things just keep getting better. I look forward to many more years with you and our family!

Happy Anniversary, Rob!