Life

We plan on carving our pumpkins on Wednesday and Thursday is trick or treat and Friday the Briggs family is heading to Massillon for an overnight. The Massillon v. McKinley game is that evening and I don't think Henry has missed one yet, even though its rained the last few years. Sarah and I are going to the game on Saturday; my neice Cara will help out my dad in watching the boys for a few hours.

Jack wearing his Massillon shirt and some pretty cool glasses.

A movie showing the ongoing construction of the top floor of the lakehouse.

One of the things I got done last night, most of Henry's closet floor is in and it looks like we'll have enough wood floor to finish our closet.

We went on our annual pumpkin picking trip today and ended up visiting two patches. Again, Doran's in New Albany proved to have the best pumpkins. All these in my arms for $12, can't beat that.

There is another Henry Briggs in New Albany schools. He is in first grade though so at least he's a year older than our Henry. We may have to go with Hank after all. What are the odds?

Henry had his 6th birthday party at Kingdom of Bounce. Here he is with Afton.

Just a note about the boys, because after all, this blog is for them.

Henry at 6 years is generally a pretty good boy. At times he doesn't listen to his mom or dad but I think that's normal. We have had to send him to his room at times and will continue to do this to teach him right and wrong. I'm not opposed to spanking him but things rarely rise to that level.

Jack at nearly 3 is right where he should be. He's still learning right vs. wrong but is generally a good boy and hasn't really learned how to be a bad boy yet. He's a bit hard to get to bed, we have to read books and depending on the night "cuddle two minutes" or "read book Henry's room". I love that both boys enjoy books.

Jack pretty much does whatever Henry does. If Henry rolls on the floor, Jack rolls on the floor. It's really comical. The brothers are very close and love each other very much.

I'm golfing today. That sounds like fun except I really don't want to do it. It's going to be cold and rainy, my game isn't up to par with Scioto at this point and I'm golfing with a couple good golfers.

I need to post some photos from last weekend but the trip to South Bend for the Notre Dame game was fun but long. The bus left Parma at 1:00 p.m. and eventually arrived in Michigan City around 5:30. We ate dinner at an Irish bar before heading to the Blue Chip casino/hotel. It was nice and we proceeded to gamble a bit. The bus left Saturday morning for the game at 10:15 and when we got there we set up our tailgate. It was raining a bit so some of us stayed on the bus until it stopped. We had Lake Erie perch fried up in a big turkey fryer and the game was at 3:30. I left at halftime because it started to rain and watched it next door in a campus bar. Overtime game so we probably didn't leave until 8:00 or so and got back into Parma at 12:45. I got to my hotel at 1:15 and woke up Sunday to head to the Browns v. Bengals game. Another OT game but I had left at the end of the 3rd quarter. I was tired.

I erased Henry's touchdown tonight but this was a pretty good run. He needs to just use his speed though and run to the endzone rather than dance around.

Here is the cottage with all the ugly bushes cut down. It looks a lot different, smaller maybe, and will need some plantings there either this fall or the spring.

I'm back from Indy. Two nights there was enough but it was a good trip. Unfortunately, I am off tomorrow to Cleveland and then to South Bend for a Notre Dame game on Saturday. If you know me, you know I can't stand ND but this is a fundraiser event for the Chair of the House Public Utilities Committee and something I probably need to do. I feel bad for Sarah because its unfair to her to be with the boys all this time. I also feel bad for me because I miss Sarah and those boys. The bus leaves South Bend Saturday after the game and arrives back in Cleveland at midnight and then I have more work to do Sunday: I am hosting people in our suite for the Browns v. Bengals game. All this sounds great until you are the one doing it and then its just work. Sure, its more fun than picking beans in a field but I don't like traveling this much. Especially since I have to go to Detroit on Tuesday morning. But that's only for one night and then I plan on sticking around Columbus for a long time.

On another front, the bushes are down in front of the lakehouse, along with the spruce and the trees against my neighbor's house in the back. I guess its a mess but its progress. Also, the county installed the culvert across the road and so I just need to get my two pipes close and the "pit of weeds" will go away next spring. I found a plumber to replace all the pipe in the basement and once that's done I can start building walls. Oh, and I'm getting close on the new door and window in the basement but there is a big difference between the price one place quoted me and and the one from the Big Box in Zanesville. Big box price is $2695 for the door, smaller place is $4446. That's a HUGE price difference but I want to buy off the smaller price so I've asked them to go back to their Pella guy and ask why the difference. Because I'm looking at the two quotes and they are for exactly the same door. I guess it pays to get quotes.