Mom & Mags

Rub-a-Dub-Dub 2 kids in a tub

Jack was finishing his bath last night when Aimee decided to throw Maggie in the mix. It continues to amaze me how much she has grown! She thoroughly enjoyed her time in the tub and continues to frighten Aimee and me with her daring and lack of fear. I had her on the bed after the bath and she bolted for the edge. Looks like the next few months are going to be a little interesting.

Dirty Steaks are AWESOME!

Well, after about a year of thinking about it then immediately forgetting, I finally got up enough gumption to try a "dirty steak". A "dirty steak" is when you cook the slice of bovine directly on the natural lump charcoal. You get your charcoal white hot, make sure your steak is dry then lay it directly on top of the coals. Your first thought is that you just ruined a nice piece of meat, but 3 minutes per side later you are rewarded with a perfectly cooked steak. No charcoal sticks to it and it is not burned (some char, but WOW is it good)!!! I encourage you to give it a try, or you could simply buy two 2 inch thick rib-eyes and I will be over directly!

We bought a new security system for the house.

A 4 year old in a spider-man costume is all the protection we need!

Does this green shirt make my head look big?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Jack is now officially four years old and Mom and Dad are late (very) in getting any evidence of the birthday bash up on the web (sorry). Jack "my head is optimus prime" Piland had a terrific time (of course we must ignore the fact that he re-injured his head by bumping into a running party goer, she was WAY out of line playing at a party, the nerve). A few tears and an icy pop later, all was well. We enjoyed a split birthday party with his pal Peyton Williamson. The building was decorated in two parts (1/2 transformers and 1/2 tinker bell). Much much fun was had and the birthday celebration lasted the entire week. Check out the picasa web blog (upper left of the page for more pics). Our little boy is quite awesome!

New Pics!!!

Click on the middle of the slide show picture (top left of this page "The Kids") to access the Picasa Web album. We have added quite a few pictures! ENJOY!

SAFE!!!!!!!

I do think that their is a time and place for just about everything. For example, the first time you attempt a Head-First "Pete Rose" slide, you should locate your attempt on a well-maintained baseball diamond......NOT a church playground climbing apparatus. We were attending our annual FALL festival at church a week or so ago and Jack was enjoying himself on the playground. In his diligence to climb back to the top of the slide faster than Optimus Prime would be able to do, he dove head-first into the corner of a step. He got up, cried out and walked over to Aimee and me. It all looked to be ok until the hematoma started forming and blood started spewing (too graphic...sorry), I mean niagra river flowing like he ruptured a main under the city of Atlanta with its antiquated plumbing system close-down Peachtree street for a week spewing (better?). I got the bleeding stopped with a baby wipe and the golf ball size hematoma was iced down with a first-aid cold pack. All pain and hurt was quickly nullified with a raspberry icy-pop and we were sitting back at the playground in no time at all. Jack was finishing his icy-pop and sitting in my lap when, being the concussion "expert", I decided to give Jack the once-over. Kids having a great time all around us, hollering and screaming with glee, I asked Jack to count my fingers (I held up three). He looks me in the eye and goes, "Three dad, can I go play now?" I'd call that cognitively intact. He then went around showing off the massive lump on his forehead.

REAPING the rewards of one's efforts

Aimee and I had Jo and Joanna over the other night for some grillin fun which led to Aimee realizing that Jack had never tried SMORES.....For that matter neither had I. One coat hanger, some hot coals, 2 Chocolate bars, a few marshmellows, and a box a graham crackers later we realized that we ALL like SMORES. After devouring two of the big delicacies Jack decided that the resulting sticky fingers were too much to deal with. He asked to take a shower......WOW we should have SMORES more often.

SMORES: First Timer

The PEDIABOX 5000 Infant Entertainment System

I was going through some of the hundred or so pictures I have been meaning to post when I came across this little contraption devised by Aimee. I am thinking about drafting a provisional patent and claiming Intellectual Property on this device. I think that we can have this on the shelf by Christmas! $79.99 base price with an additional $29.99 integrated padding and playset upgrade. Thoughts?

Alabama Score

A little late is posting this, but this captures a true DAWG's reaction to the Bama game.

Short lived screams and night of the iguanas: I feel a "FOY" award coming

Well it is Tuesday afternoon, about 4:00. I am sitting here on the living room floor, back propped up against the couch watching Miss. Maggie play in her ExerSaucer and contemplating on how awesome of a father I am. Two things have happened over the past three days to foster and confirm such thoughts. I had to take Mags in to the physician for her 6 month exam today. I must admit that at first I was not too thrilled about having to take her. Today was one of those days you build up in your head as a truly purposeful and productive day. I already planned how everything was going to transpire in my head: Finalize the research manuscript that has been collecting dust on my desk for over a year and move on to three other new projects (Today was the DAY). That was until Aimee reminded me of the appointment last night. So, begrudgingly at 12:00 I drove over and picked her up and we went to the pediatric clinic. We arrived early and they got us in early (really cool). They anticipated that Miss. Maggie was going to have a bad visit (lots of planned sticks ahead of us). WOW! What a pleasure to have such a calm, cool little cucumber as a daughter. How dumb am I? (uh no post on that please...rhetorical). I would have missed out on the coolest 20 minute doctor visit ever (Yeah 20 minutes...my girl rocks!) This little (16 pounds 6 ounces; 27 & 1/2 inches long with a 17 inch head [insert quote here: "its got its own satellite system.....HEED PANTS NOW!] girl has got some moxy, for after three shots, one finger prick and an oral dose of something terribly nasty, my little tough one was smiling. One short lived scream, one split second glance of "why are you doing this to me?"and (without pause) smiling. NOT the little "are you sure it is going to be okay?"grin, I am speaking of the ear to ear, cheek compressing, lip attenuating "I Love You Daddy! You are the greatest" written all across her face, could smelt iron ore in the middle of the arctic circle smile. Both of her tiny pearly white bottom incisors gleaming up at me (covered by copious amounts of slobber of course). She is a TOUGH little cookie and I don't even care that the manuscript has collected another day of dust. It CAN wait......now on to "the rest of the story"...Feats of great fatherly ability and Big Brother.

We started the AWANA program at our church on Sunday nights. This past Sunday was the first session. Intent on getting Jack hyped for how much fun he was going to have later that day, I decided to talk non stop about everything AWANA. How we were having AWANAs at the church, and how much fun all the boys and girls were going to have....you know, because of having AWANAs. I really ran this one into the ground for about an hour, with good effect, Jack seamed to be getting pumped about AWANAs being at the church later that day. Weeeeeeell, Aimee is reading a book to Jack prior to his Sunday nap and she asked him, "Jack are you excited about going back to church?" "YES! Daddy told me that we are having Iguanas at church. I want to pet one!".....mission accomplished! Go ahead and send in your nominations for my "FOY" (Father of the year ) :)

LOW SPOT

Can you find the low spot? Can you find the ditch? Nope? Keep looking. Wanted to post this to show just how much rain we received from Gustav. Saturated is a good word. Our builder is building a house two doors down and had just finished putting in all the top soil for the yard.....now I have a bunch of top soil (which is great because I have a few low spots), but it is located in the one spot I wanted to keep low (see ditch). Ditch digging party anyone?

Do these girls look a little stir crazy?

Trent had enough! Being trapped in a house for a 24 hour period is enough to make anyone a little stir crazy, so he and Kristy emptied their fridge, loaded up Kiley and came over. I moved the grill to the front porch and realized, with the evilish grin of 12 year old, that the best way to get your coals to turn white is to place them in the direct path of the 30 knot wind. We went from cold to cooking in about 5 minutes. Half a bag of charcoal was white hot in no time at all. We had some shrimp, potatoes, chicken, onion, salad and of course Polk's sausage...ecclectic (spelling ?), but delicious. The company was, as always, terrific and the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I have to admit that it was pretty weird having Kiley, Maggie and Jack (supervisor) all playing together. The girls are finally at that age where the age difference is narrowing and the playing thing is in full swing. We awoke this morning to heavy, heavy rains. Our front yard is a disaster area. Looks like most of the top soil from our neighbors yard is now mounded up in our ditch (can I get a very unethusiastic yipppeeee).

We are out of work today, but should return tomorrow. We were very thankful to not recieve the brunt of Gustav. Though is looks like folks in LA did not fair so well. Thanks for the prayers and e-mails and phone calls! WE LOVE YOU!

The Piland Family

Passing the Time

Well Jack has spent more time outside today than any other day in the past month. Eleven in the morning and it is typically 90 degrees and 100% humidity. We have spent our day enjoying each others company. Jack and I played outside for a while and enjoyed the wet weather (stiff 10mph breeze, no lightning, lots of steady rain) then we played with Maggie when the power went out. Power is back on now...uh never mind...uh no we are ok. Been like this for the past two hours on and off. Kids are settling down for naps and we are enjoying the day.

SCORE: Maggie: 1 Gustav: 0

Last night was long and sleepless, but not due to Gustav. Though it rained all through the night and we had some small gusts of wind (nothing worse than a typical summer thunderstorm) the real storm took shape of a 5 1/2 month old little girl. She howled and tossed around all night long. Gustav has nothing on her. Her little tummy was upset so Aimee took the first half of the night and I took the second. Jack slept great though and Maggie is out like a light this morning. Aimee and I are just staring at the local news that is saying that it will not get much worse today (except for the Tornado watches). Gustav has weakened and veered west. We will get some winds and more rain, but nothing near the ugliness of Katrina. Prayer answered.

More later: The Piland family

Well Hello There Gustav!

We snapped this on our way to church this evening. We had a small turn out, but I think people stayed home more to avoid the huge influx of people from LA. than the weather. Started raining just as we left the building to go to our car and has not stopped since. Looked like a nice little downpour was hitting just outside of town on the ride home. Other than that, not too much going on. Jack has decided that he is going to sleep with us tonight, apparently Mommy and Daddy need super hero protection against the storm (he requested his spiderman underoos tonight instead of pajamas). Yes, our son is a superhero and I will most likely be waking up to a bony behind clothed in spiderman undershorts in my face.

Live from Sumrall Mississippi!

It has begun. We have the outer ring of clouds from Gustav over the house. Still a few hours before we see the real stuff so I have enough time to head outside and prep the outside of the house. Trash cans in, hanging plants down, ferns in, dish TV removed ???(still debating on that one) I'd probably never re-establish the correct azimuth if I did. First order of business would be to correctly define and probably spell azimuth. Anywho.....a few things that I think will happen: 1) we will lose power, 2) did I mention that we will lose power, 3) we will have enough food and supplies to last a few days and we will work our way through them (I made sure to buy emergency cookies....uh for the kids of course) 4) if we have any winds that approximate three years ago we will not be back to wok within a week and a half. If this happens, I will be driving Aimee and the kids out of here. IF it is like las time we will end up spending much of our time digging people's homes out from under all the downed trees. I wish I had taken pictures. It was truly mind boggling just how many trees were down. A fella I work with had over 30 on his house and another 45 down in his yard......it was a sight. I pray we will not see anything near that level of damage. Well, I have to jump over to the National Hurricane Center for the update, then head outside to sure up the rest of the house. More later as we will blog until the cell phone towers go out.

What to do? What to do?

Well, we have been reading the information posted on the National Hurricane Center website like we have some training and know what we are doing. We are now on the outer edges of the "error" range of the predicted path. This simply means that we still do not know if we are going to be welcoming our dear ole "Uncle Gustav" in from the Caribbean on Tuesday. I have to admit that we have been enjoying the polarity of responses from people in and around H'burg. Wally world has made massive amounts of money the past few days on people who go in and start buying everything they need and even more things they don't. I have gone just to watch these people; intensely focused, brows furrowed, veigns popping as they frantically run around the store pushing one full cart and pulling another. Its great! Especially when you are trying to actually decide between cheerios or shredded wheat and are taking too much time "blocking" the isle. Let's all celebrate the great ole coastal tradition of hoarding. Like a bunch crazed chipmunks, cheeks bulging, feverishly stuffing the tree. Of course you have folks that are on the other end of the worry spectrum too. Hurriwha?? Where? aghhh! aint gunna hit us. Goin over to Texas. Regardless of reaction we all experiencing the gas price gouging. Twenty-five cents in about the same amount of hours. So cool to see people taking care of others.......of course by others I mean the greedy gremlins who own the stations. Fun Fun Fun....BTW Gustav is now a catergory 4 yipppeee!

The kid loves the Dentist!

Jack got to experience the dentist today! I am proud to report that he was a terrific patient! All twenty teeth were cleaned and examined by Dr. Lucas. We all had a good time. Jack strolled around the office showing off his freshly polished pearly whites. Maggie looked interested, but we decided to wait until she has a few more teeth!
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Porch Time in August?

Enjoying the slow and steady rain out on the back porch. The storm passed to our north so we get to enjoy 70 Degrees in August....rare indeed.
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Typical dinner

The two prior picture post are terrific examples of our typical evenings around ye ole dinner table. Sure going to miss this old block of a table, with its three broken and one borrowed porch chair. But, this is chasing a rabbit as tonight the realization is that the child on my right wants to discuss and debate the finer points of why shrimp does not taste good and how they taint the surrounding foodstuffs rendering the entire dish nonpalatable and inedible, and the child on stage left is just begining her preparation for the same conversation concerning sweet potatoes which will occur in what I am sure will be way too soon. All said, Aimee and I love Dinnertime!!
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SWEEEEEET EATS

SWEET POTATOES!!!
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Jack at the dinner hour (and by hour I mean two hours)

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Mall Parking Lot downtime

This is called waiting on mommy. We have been shopping this afternoon for clothes for our photograph Tuesday. We are having our family photo taken for our church directory. Our goal was to find outfits to enhance our daughters new smile! That is correct Maggie has a tooth! She is growing too quickly. Well, Aimee is calling for ride! More later!
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blackberry blog #1

Found out that I can post information from my phone to the blog today! Woo hoo!
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Welcome to the Future! Next year we are buying a VCR!

Two years ago we bought our first home. Lovely little place with all the amenities and comforts....well, except connections to the outside world. Apparently, one should check to see if the area they are moving to is of a substantial population density to support an internet provider. 18 Katherine Avenue in Sumrall Mississippi is not, shocking I know. I mean, what were we thinking? The house is not more than a mile from the backdoor of New York Jet QB Brett Favre. I assumed that would garauntee some level of service, but I suppose the Favre family (~5 per the 300 acres they live on) does not equate to a very dense population. Anywho. Our cell phone contract ended the other day and we decided to seek out a better option than AT&T (dead service whenever we entered the aforementioned slice of heaven on 18 Katherine). This was quite an undertaking....four days, way too much time on the phone and even more time at multiple dealer locations resulted (big big suprise) in a happy customer. Coming from a family that welcomed our first VCR into our home about the same time others were welcoming DVD players into theirs (Aimee assures me that her family actually acquired one while she was in middle school) I understand the idea of being behind the times...it is nearly second nature to me. So getting a phone that will tether fast internet is like cooler than color TV (we got that when I was about 5). With that, the past two years of friends blogging and family sending e-mails that we could only check into at work has finally come to an end (yippee). We are connected and updating the blog. Much fun to come! Aimee is pretty excited.
So, for our first at home post I present a very cool picture of Jack doing the heisman pose. This picture is quite awesome because it displays the kind heart and generosity of a dear family, Cliff and Debbie Summar. Cliff and I started working at USM together 4 years ago but since then, Cliff has gone back to Texas, a state not to mess with I here, to be home with Deb (and the dog). Cliff has pretty much been the sole supplier of sporting goods to Jack. The Summar's got Jack his first basketball set, soccer set, and now his very first Houston Texans Nerf Football. It showed up on the doorstep yesterday and may I say Mr. Jack was estatic. A big brown package containing a note and a football. We played, played a little more, and even postponed bedtime. Sometimes postponing bedtime is a great thing......thanks for making that happen Cliff.