The Awesome

September 27, 2009
Happy birthday everyone!  Its birthday season again and what a joyous
celebration it has been.  First, let me wish a happy birthday to Jesse
and Kirsti and I hope they celebrated in style. (more…)

I had to move the newsletter away from work email accounts as personal
emails are not allowed through that system.  It took me a while to get
de-lazified enough to get the email addresses ported over.

August 10, 2009
Milo and Silas told Amber that eating their dinner was against the
word of wisdom.  We had just read the story of Daniel and how he
refused to eat the king’s meat.  They decided this was a clever ploy
to get out of eating what they don’t want.  It didn’t work.
About four weeks ago we took a drive down to the shore to enjoy the
few days of sunlight we actually had this year. We didn’t go to one of
the crappy close beaches.  Instead, we decided it would be awesome to
drive to one of the very far away ones called Long Beach Island.  With
traffic the drive took about 3 hours.  Traffic is one thing that we
have a lot of in New Jersey.  Jealous?
The beach itself was very nice and not crowded.  We spread out our
blankets and enjoyed the sun while the kids played in the sand.  I
buried Silas a few times but he kept escaping.  Maybe I should have
used wet sand.  Milo didn’t trust me enough to let me bury him.  He
kept complaining about liking to “breath” and “live”.  Silly kid needs
to learn to be more flexible.
Later, I took the kids into the ocean where Silas enjoyed getting
buffeted by the waves.  Milo was a little more fearful of getting
knocked over so much and wouldn’t come into the water to play.  Silas
got drenched over and over again, but, true to the Silas way, was
happy the entire time.
That night we ate at a place called Chicken or the Egg which
specializes in chicken and eggs (Surprise!).  The food was really
good.  I got a sandwich called the “Goshdarnwich” which consisted of
French toast covered in syrup with eggs, cheese, and bacon.  I could
feel my arteries screaming in pain, but my stomach rejoiced with great
gladness.  Deliciousness, they name is “GoshDarn”.  Mmm.
Three weeks ago we had an un-birthday party.  We were bored and the
kids have been asking constantly about their birthdays.  So we decided
to throw a surprise party.  We picked up some pizza, blew up some
balloons, and bought some legos.  Then amber and I hid behind the
couch and jumped out to surprise the kids.  The kids had a blast.
Two weeks ago we went to the Bronx zoo.  This zoo is huge both in area
and the number of animals.  They try to capture the animals’ natural
environment as much as possible so every animal is on large tracts of
land.  The zoo is not typical as you cannot simply walk over and see
the elephants, rhinos, and other large mammals.  Instead, you have to
ride a monorail around the zoo and look out over the edge to see them.
Basically, it’s a guided tour.  I was excited to hear they had a
panda, but disappointed to hear it was only a red panda.  Dumb red
pandas.  I was hoping for the black and white variety.
They had a lot of animals and we couldn’t even see them all in a day.
We ended up missing two or three exhibits.  Overall, the zoo was
impressive, but the day was hot and the crowds were huge making the
experience not as good as it should be.  They had a Tapir and 2 giant
anteaters, not to mention several cobras and other vipers.
Both Milo and Silas gave talks on temples in primary over the last two
weeks.  I wrote Silas’ and Milo wrote his own with some help from
yours truly.  I guess it was too much help as he complained heavily
that it wasn’t his words.  This was Silas’ first talk so he was very
excited to be in front of everyone.  In primary, he couldn’t wait and
every word of introduction was too much anticipation for him.  He did
a great job.
The comments on the two talks were about what you expect for Milo and
Silas.  Everyone was impressed at Milo’s vocabulary and ability to
write.  Everyone thought Silas was adorable.  At least, that is the
general consensus I got from the comments.  Milo refused to draw
pictures for this one and so it was very straight forward.
After Milo’s talk, Milo and I left church and went home as neither of
us were feeling well.  However, I did not want Milo to miss out on
church so I taught him a lesson from the family home evening manual.
I really enjoyed spending some one on one time with him and I think he
learned a lot.  I’m sure he will whatever he learned against me in the
near future.
Both of the kids enjoy primary and constantly raise their hand.  The
sharing time teachers rarely call on Silas but Milo gets called on all
the time.  Milo never knows the answer and will usually repeat the
last thing the teacher said.  This is an effective strategy.
Later
Jeremy

Subject: A mecca to Niagara Falls

Hi Family.  The past three weeks have been some of the best since we moved here.  First, Lee came into town, followed by a trip to Niagara Falls , and ending in a fabulous 3 day weekend.  Now, my entire summer is complete, and I have nothing to look forward to except Amber’s and Milo ’s birthday and writing these newsletters.  Sadly, they will likely be the highlight of the next two months. (more…)

Subject: To there and back again

What a great last three weeks.  First, we went and saw the statute of liberty, then we went to DC, followed by a relaxing weekend of doing nothing. The entire three weeks was filled with awesome, which cumulated in me making the most awesome angel food cake ever.  I told Silas it tasted so good because I had added real angel wings into it.  He was confused. (more…)

Subject: In which we go camping

Apparently, this journal is going the way of all of my other journals that I have ever kept – I write in it a few times and then completely stop.

This MONTH has been one of excitement.  Amber’s mom came into town, Milo went to a whole slew of birthday parties, and we finished the basement.  Can I get a big Huzzah? That’s right – our basement has been rendered livable thanks to the hardwork of Amber.  Now we just need to make sure the entire house doesn’t fall down. (more…)

Subject: RE: Work

Three weeks since my last update.  I’m getting worse.  This last week was Amber and my anniversary.  We went and saw Monsters v. Aliens in 3D with the kids.  They loved it.  I thought the 3D was really good, but the overall show was only okay.  BOB was very funny but the rest was more lackluster. (more…)

Subject: In which Milo contributes to the letter

Good won this week as Silas the super villain renounced his diabolical ways and joined the forces of light.  Silas, the self-proclaimed mastermind of wrong, decided to express his villainy on Monday by telling people around him that he was a super bad guy.  To stress the point, he made sure to scream at the top of his lungs and fired everyone around him at the grocery store.  He told everyone that he hated them and told them he wanted to be bad.  He tried hard to think of ways to complete his plot for world domination and did the opposite of everything we told him to do…just because.  Fortunately, Silas learned the downside of being bad.  He wanted a treat and Amber told him that super villains don’t get treats.  Once he learned that there was a punishment factor, he apologized and decided to be a super hero instead.

Overall, the week was very good.  We finished the drywall on the basement (it looks a lot better now with the 3/8 inch sheet rock).  We spent every night working on it until 1 am.  Amber has started the mudding as well and I except we will try to level the floor this Saturday.  I do not think we will finish everything by our anniversary, but we should be close.

We also finished watching FullMetal Alchemist.  The anime is interesting, but I preferred Avatar.  Just thought I would mention that.

I’ve been talking a lot to my cousin, Dave Carr.  He just landed a new job as general counsel.  They will still be in Arizona , but he’s excited to be moving up in the ranks.  They implied that we should move to AZ as well, but we aren’t really interested in the heat.  I’d rather be somewhere where the choices aren’t hot or hotter.

I measured the distance from our house to my office.  The distance is exactly 20 miles.  I’ve started driving it rather than taking the train.  I like it a lot more.  The time to drive it is only 45 minutes compared to the 1.5 hours on the train.  I’ve been working later now that I drive, but I still get home at the same time.  The real advantage is that I get to see my children in the morning before work and I sleep in by about an hour.  I get there about 15 minutes later than normal, but since I stay an extra 45 minutes each day, work is really gaining about ½ an hour from me.

Milo ’s favorite book has become Hop on Pop.  He has me read it every night before bed.  When we get to the “hop pop, we hop on pop” part, he hops on me.  Ouch!  Its fun.  I try to sneak different words into the book to see if he can catch them.  He is very good at reading though, and I never sneak anything by him.  He catches all of my tricks.  I’ve tried hiding the book from him, but he always finds it and has it ready for bedtime.

Milo ’s school has a very strict outline.  On Monday, ,he goes to the library.  On Tuesday, he has music.  Wednesday is gym.  Thursday is art and Friday doesn’t have a theme.  Milo thought you all should know this.  Gym is his favorite, but he also really likes the computer time he gets.  The kindergarten here has a few computers so they each get to take turns using them.

Silas has read his first story.  Amber has been teaching him to read while Milo is at school.  Like Milo , he gets frustrated at times.  I came home one day to find him very upset after a particularly difficult session.  I gave him a big hug and explained that everyone needs to read.  I guess, he had been waiting to vent about how badly it had gone.  Other days, he excels and breezes through the lesson.

On Saturday, Milo went to a birthday party for a kid in his class.  They went to “Monster” golf.  It was glow in the dark miniature golf with a monster theme.   All of the parents stayed with their kids so I got to socialize a little with people in the neighborhood.  They are all very Italian.  Milo had a good time.

Anyway, everyone have fun in Utah .  See you later.

Jeremy and Milo

Subject: Work

Another week gone.  Another week without an extravagant boardgame purchase.  Sure there was a board game purchase, but not an extravagant one.

All that happened this week was work. We worked on the basement, I worked at work, and I worked at home.  Work, work, work.  Its not as fun as it sounds.  The basement is going well.  We got most of the sheet rock up only to find out the previous tenants had mixed sizes.  They had put up both ½ and 3/8 inch sheet rock on the ceiling.  Because we were trying not to start over on the whole room and were only patching the many places with holes, we didn’t notice this and installed ½ sheet rock.  Now it looks like there are bubbles.  I voted to tear down the whole ceiling and put up all new sheetrock.  Amber voted to tear down the bad parts and put up 3/8 instead.  With the vote 1 to 1, ties go to Amber.  So, she won.  I hope it looks good in the end.  Our goal is to get everything but the floors done by our anniversary at the end of this month.  I think we can still make it, but it will be hard with this set back.

I do not feel that the last newsletter adequately expressed how awesome the family vacation was.  It was very awesome.  Some might even say “awesome to the max”.  I enjoyed being with my family in the close quarters – even if Justin had trouble parking his car in a fashion that let more than one person in the driveway and even if everyone shared two bathrooms resulting a few accidents by my children and even if we had a see –through wall so that people could see my glorious self in the buck and even if Amber and Kirsti about came to blows over Friday mornings breakfast.  It was fun.

The all around best day was the first day of Disneyland .   The excitement was too much to allow us to sleep long.  We got up early and rushed to wait in line at the theme park.  And then we parked and rushed to wait in line to get in.  We didn’t have a stroller so we made Silas walk the whole day.  He got pretty tired.  The next day we rented one.  After that, we found out that the rental actually had strollers in the closet.  That made things easier.  The first day was filed with buzz lighyear action and space mountain.  Amber got a little sick from riding in the front in the dark.  It was also Milo ’s first roller coaster.  He didn’t like this one as much.  He did like rollercoasters but not this one.

Everyone’s least favorite ride was Innoventions.  A sales pitch seemed out of place on the happiest place on earth.  Although the home was sorta interesting, given a choice between  Innoventions and anything else, I think anything else would win.

One of Amber’s favorite parts of the vacation was finding this cool chain grocery stores called Fresh and Easy.  I think we went there every day.  They specialized in ready made meals that were both fresh and easy.  Plus they were really cheap.

I hope everyone has a happy week.  If you have anything you want to know more about then let me know.  If you have any ideas on how to blend or fix 3/8-1/2 inch drywall seams, let me know as well.  I really want to get this project done.

Jeremy

Subject: A slow week

This week has been a slow one in the life of the Rowleys.  There really isn’t much to say.  The weather was finally starting to warm up when all of a sudden it dropped back down to the low 20s and starting snowing like crazy.  I thought spring was just around the corner, but no – it had to pile up with another 2-3 inches of coldness. (more…)