Here's Jen with Claire rocking her Claire Bear 10 jersey that Kate made for her.  She later went on to stain it after William Shatner gave her diaper a visit.


Claire prefers eating her hands over her bottle of milk.  They do look tasty!


We replaced the window with a sliding door this week.  It's so much more convenient to walk out the door versus climbing out the window.


All that's left is to prime, paint, install trim, and stain the deck.  I'm hoping to get that all done next week.


We had the Houser's over for dinner and drinks on Saturday night.  They live two doors down and I run with Curtis.  It just so happens that their baby Rosalie Marie was born two weeks after Claire.


Their dog Lucy was send home for breaking deck rule #23: Barking too much.  Luckily she only had to travel about 75 feet to get back home.


This Sunday was my first Father's Day.  I can't speak for Claire but I was a little tired from having a few margaritas the previous night.  We'll make naptime a Father's Day tradition.

I recently finished up my mid-year goal setting session and the main themes were relationships, staying healthy and enjoying life to the fullest.  I just finished up building the deck so that is going to play a big role in enjoying life and strengthening relationships.  Here are some of the key points that I want to focus on for the next half of 2010.

RELATIONSHIPS:

Jen and I have been grilling and eating dinner out on the deck every night for the past week or so.  We used to eat dinner in front of the TV which really didn't lend its hand to much discussion and interaction.  The new dinner setting will be a great way to keep our relationship strong for another 10+ years.  It's hard to believe that Jen and I will have been married for 10 years in August.  Time flies when you have a great wife!

Aside from Jen I'd also like to continue to be the best dad I can be.  I think I'm doing a good job so far but will continue to read up on the different developmental stages to ensure that I understand (as much as I can) what's going on in Claire's head.  All I really need to do though is show her love and have fun with her which comes very easy for me.  I'm pretty lucky that I get to spend so much time with Jen and Claire now.  Since our families still live in the midwest I also want to ensure that we spend enough time up there for them to get to know her and for us to play a positive role in the lives of our neices and nephew.  We've got a two week trip planned for the midwest around Christmas time so we'll be able to also see some of our extended family that we haven't seen in quite some time.

The deck will also help to build and strengthen relationships with some of our friends.  Since I've left the triathlon arena I haven't seen or heard from most of the triathlon crew.  I'm realizing that all of the training hours together weren't really quality friendship building hours.  I've gotten to know a few of the guys really well because we would spend one on one time together or travel together for races.  Group settings are not the best way to build great friendships....especially in a competitive environment.  That being said, Jen and I like to have people over on the weekends and the deck will be a great place for us to hang out and have dinner and drinks with some friends and get to know each other a little better in a smaller setting.

PROFESSION:

I don't foresee any changes in profession over the next 6 months.  I've got a great job and couldn't ask for a better manager and team members.  I'll continue to read up on new technologies and continue to learn more about the different businesses within our company.

HEALTH & FITNESS:

I've put fitness on the backburner lately and would like to reintroduce it into my daily routine.  My goal is to run at least one mile every day for the rest of the year.  I'd also like to do some form of strength training twice a week.  I'm not sure if I'll race before the end of the year but if I do I'd like to run between 15:30-15:45 for 5k.  I'm not in any kind of shape right now so that would take some consistency and smart training.

FINANCES & REAL ESTATE:

By the end of the year I would like to put a screened in porch on our half of the deck and then also screen in underneath the deck as well.  Along with that I'd like to lay pavers down underneath both sides of the deck.  Jen would like a hot tub under the deck and I'd like a hammock down there so screening in the top with a roof and drainage is key to keeping water away from under the deck and will create a nice living space for hot summer days when we want some shade.  We eventually plan to turn the duplex into a single family home so we'd have a sun area and a screened area.  If those projects don't take me to the end of the year then I'd also like to build a fence around the perimeter of the back yard as well.

SELF IMPROVEMENTS & HOBBIES:

Jen and I have three weddings coming up before the end of the year so I'd like to enroll us in ballroom dancing lessons.  I think it would be a great way for us to spend some quality time together and will be fun to put into action at the weddings.  I'll see about setting those lessons up for August/September.  I also want to focus on reading at least one book per month and continue to cook better food on the grill.  We've got to eat so it might as well taste good!  Aside from that I'd like to go sky diving in August or September.

Claire has a Christmas outfit that won't fit her by the time the holidays come around so we figured we'd take a photo now for our Christmas cards.  She's growing quite a bit as expected.  She's 17 weeks now and weighs 12lbs 4oz.  She investigates and looks at everything and loves her talking stuffed animal "Violet" and her Disney mobile.  Jen and I are only allowed to turn the mobile on for one nap each so Claire doesn't associate the mobile with sleep and have issues sleeping without it.


The deck is done and passed inspection.  We got some furniture for Dave & Laura's side of the deck to match ours.


We'll be spending a lot of time out here.  The next step is putting in the sliding doors and then staining the deck.


I finished the stairs and stair railings.

Claire is now 16 weeks old and weighs 12lbs 0oz.  She has been consistently sleeping 7-8 hours each night which is a very nice change!  She smiles really big every time I do bicycles with her legs and in her spare time likes to eat and suck on her hands.  I was a bad dad this week and didn't take any photos of her so this is one from last week.

This is proof that Jen practices what she preaches.  Here she is doing some SMR (self myofascial release) on the foam roller.  Gotta love the pink leopard pattern shirt.


Here's a photo of The Great Budinski.  He just recently won the Best Cat of the Year award for the 10th straight year running.  Budinski acts like a dog in a cat's body.  He begs for table scraps, comes when I call him, and is a loyal friend.


His side kick, Whiskers, wasn't even nominated.  She was passed up due to her pestering ways and the fact that she doesn't like to be touched on the head.


I got the pavers done Saturday morning.  I created the pattern in an excel spreadsheet.  Here was the process:
* Dug down 7 inches deep
* Laid down weed fabric
* Poured 4-5 inches of gravel...tamped it and leveled it
* Poured 1 inch of sand and leveled
* Laid the pavers
* Put up the paver support wall
* Poured sand into the paver gaps, watered lightly, and tamped it again


I got the stringers up and put down some of the stairs on Saturday and Sunday.  Long hours and it was HOT out there.  The toughest part of the stringers was planning and calculating the rise and run and figuring out exactly where the stringer would end up so I knew where to start my pavers.  The actual marking and cutting of the 16' stringers wasn't all that tough.