October 2010

There is only one way to start off this month’s memoirs, with the exciting news that:

Deb is pregnant and due on May 1st, 2011!!!

That’s right! We are expecting next spring and Deb has just completed the first trimester of her pregnancy. As of the end of October, she is 14 weeks along and doing great! Aside from her clothes maybe being a little snug and her bedtime arriving about a half-hour earlier each day, things are going about as normal as they usually are for us. She hasn’t had too many cravings, except she really wants fruit and pizza, but she really liked both those things before she was pregnant. Deb has been flooded with maternity clothes from friends and also done a little shopping on her own. We don’t know when those clothes will be needed, but at least we are well prepared! We have heard the first thing we need to do is to look at daycare centers, so that is our priority item before Thanksgiving.

It is hard for anything else to really follow that news, so here it goes! On October 9th, we had 2 weddings we wanted to attend. Chris Wahl and Michelle got married in Chicago, while Amy Dryden and Kurt got married in Indianapolis. Amy was a bridesmaid in our wedding and is one of Deb’s closest friends. We decided a long time ago that I would attend the wedding in Chicago and Deb would stay in Indy for Amy’s wedding. I went up on Friday and spent the night with the Anderson’s, where I got a chance to catch up with Jeremy and Erin, along with their daughter, Emma. We played some Wii games, had some beers, watched some re-runs on TV and ate some pizza, so apparently things don’t change that much from college. I attended the wedding the next day with a large group of our friends from the flag football league. I crashed in the Bassett’s room and drove back with Brandon and Diane. Deb enjoyed Amy and Kurt’s wedding. She enjoyed the ability to see her friend Rick Richardson after so many years along with a chance to see Julie, Bill, Angie and Kristin. Angie and Deb actually set Amy and Kurt up a few years ago so it was fun to see the matchmaking actually work!! On October 16th, we attended the Light the Night event for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It was held at Victory Field here in Indianapolis and the weather couldn’t have been better. We had a good group of family that attended this year, with the Caslers, Wahmans, Vandervaarts (Pete’s family included) attending. Dad has recovered well from his fall in September and is doing much better. My comments last month were a little dramatic and he was back to using his injured hand early in October.
A few more items from this month:
• Pete joined me in a basketball league that plays on Tuesday evenings. It is organized through a guy I know at work and we lost one a few guys from last season, so Pete was able to help out.
• We had to replace our kitchen faucet this month, which I didn’t trust myself to do correctly so we invited Pat and Paul Casler over for dinner so Paul could help/supervise my work!

September 2010

September was relaxing change to end our summer as we stuck around Indy all month and enjoyed several events. I know we are always on the move, but we really do enjoy sticking around and not doing much sometimes and having football to lounge around and watch makes it an easy decision!

Let’s start with an update on Anna. Her wounds are finally healed!! They definitely have left their mark, but she is almost back to her usual self again!! She is back to work and doing well. She has been working catching up with the new adjustments at Frontier (Verizon was bought out by Frontier), but we all know she is picking it up quickly and doing well. Hopefully her calf is ready for ski season and she is ready for the slopes!

My Dad took a fall in late September and had a dislocated finger along with some bumps and bruises. It sounds like for a majority of the month of October he will be dealing with one usable hand and will need to adjust most of his daily activities. Before this fall, he was walking outside about 2-3 times a week and was getting around the house. We hope and pray he can get back to those activities soon.

Early in the month, we took my cousin Chris to a preseason Colts game for his high school graduation (early present). We brought along my uncle Frank as well. We enjoyed some tailgating, along with having some decent seats and taking part seeing a game at Lucas Oil. We had a good evening and enjoyed hanging out with Chris and Frank, as you can see from the pictures.

We also were fortunate enough to go to the Colts vs. Giants home season opener. We enjoyed tailgating with Beth, Laura and Jeff Ferrand before the game.

Later in the month, I went to a fundraiser for Big Brothers Big Sisters in downtown Indy. I received my ticket through work that allowed me to head to this event, where the feature speaker was Bob Knight. Now, I know being a Purdue fan I shouldn’t really be excited about this, but it was great to hear his stories about basketball and coaching. Some of his stories can only be re-told in person and the picture below tells it all, and about how excited he is to be there! I did get a chance to shake his hand, ask him a quick question, and then he was onto the next person!
We attended the 2nd annual LobsterFest at Tom and Tracy’s house this year. It was a good time, as we flew in live lobsters from Maine. It was a great night, as we played some cornhole, ate some appetizers, enjoyed our lobsters and hung out around the fire (and watched WVU vs. LSU play football).

A few more items from this month:
• I continued playing flag football with the Horses. We got new jerseys and we mimicked Charlie Brown’s shirt, with everyone being named after a character from the show, and I got Linus, the one that carries the blanket!
• We attended Diane Steffey’s surprise 30th birthday party, where we tried a new restaurant in Lebanon and came back to Broad Ripple for some music at the Wellington.
• I attended a Bob Schneider concert at the Rathskeller with Tom, Tracy, Diane and Lawton.