Some pics....

Ok, promised some pics, so here they are...

Here are the girls on their first day of school, Kayla now in sixth grade and Maddy starting kindergarten.


This is Maddy in her karate outfit - not Halloween...both the girls go to Karate lessons for afterschool care.

I missed taking any pictures when both girls had a board breaking excercise. For the record, they both were able to break the boards.


And here is the production line of pumpkin cutting creations. I will post a night-time shot once I take one.


Just in some other recent news, Kayla received her report card today, she made A/B Honor roll - all A's and B's. We will get Maddy's at the end of this week, but she has two more days to get stars for every day in the month of October. That just means she has behaved and been good and done everything she is supposed to in class for the day...so that is a whole month, pretty good accomplishment for the kindergartner.

That's all for now, I will get pics of the girls in their costumes and lit up jack-o-lanterns shortly.

5 months in the sun...

Ok, sorry for the delay.

We have now been here for five months and I think we are all doing quite well adjusting. Of course that depends on what 30 seconds you happen to talk to the girls. They both go through their minutes when they miss NJ and the family there, but then they also remember us being home a lot more and having six friends in the neighboring two houses.

Both girls have been doing well in school. Kayla had all A's and B's on her mid termo progress report. Madelyn has been getting stars everday in her class, currently has not missed one day this month. Kayla has started in band this year, clarinet the chosen instrument. She still needs some practice, but then again she has only been playing for a couple months.

No news on the house in NJ at the moment, hopefully something soon.

Not really much going on the work front, its going all right for both Laura and I. I'll definitely state again, really enjoying the short commute after the years of 160 miles of daily parkway traffic.

Not really much else at the moment to report, I have some more pics but on this machine at the moment, so I will post them as soon as I can.

Just note we are all doing well and thinking of all of you!

The school year has begun

Ok, well I did better than I thought. Kayla has started her time as a sixth grader and miss Madelyn is now a kindergartner. We did drop her off at her classroom, and I held it together as best I could. Kayla decided to take the bus in for her first day along with her new friends. Of course now we heard today that Kayla got lost again in school again, we all had a laugh at that. What wasn't a laugh was poor Maddy was sent home on the wrong bus and was sent to the afterschool program that she was not signed up for yet. Thankfully today she did make it home today on the proper bus.

Regarding the trip over the pond, Laura and I had a very tiring trip. After making it there first thing in the morning, we put the bags down and went out touristing. Not sure how much walking we did, but for two days straight we basically walked. Then a week of work along with trying to get in for some nighttime sights.

I'll post the pics next chance I get, there were some good ones. I will also post some pics of the girls from their first days, they looked beautiful.

That's it for now, hope someone is viewing the postings.

Over the pond

Well, been a couple months and Noni made her trip down. After a long day of flights and a few delays she landed in Pensacola. She'll be visiting with the girls and getting a chance to have some fun for the next few weeks.

In the meantime, Laura has some business to do in the UK, so I am coatailing along. We'll make our first trip together over to the Croydon office. We are both pretty excited about going together. The last time I was there, I went for a week on my own with far too much work to accomplish. I didn't get a chance to go out and do much sight seeing, so this will give us a chance to go and see the sights.

If anyone wants a house in Ocean Acres, ours is still available unfortunately. We won't go into that, but its still on the market.

Things are still going well down here for us all. Maddy and Kayla are done summercamp now with Noni's arrival. They still get to go and do their swim lessons. Kayla has moved up another level and Maddy is now almost ready to swim all the time without her bubble. Good accomplishment for the both of them with only a couple months of swimming.



I'll leave you with a pic of the house if you haven't seen it yet. This is from the listing, nothing really has changed much except the wall colors on the inside.

Take care and we do miss you all. But let us know if anyone is interested in a trip to the south.

We made it....still doing all right...

OK, it's been just over a month now that we have been down here and we made the trip just fine. I wouldn't try it again with a minivan, two kids, two dogs, a hermit crab and the remainder of what was in the house that we didn't get packed on the moving truck.

Since we have been down here, Maddy and Kayla have been going to day camp at the YMCA. For the most part they are enjoying it, getting to have swim lessons and free swim and just playing games all day. Kayla was also told by her swim teacher that she was the best in her group and was already moved up to a higher level.

Laura and I have surely been enjoying the MUCH shortened commute. Getting a few hours back in a day is wonderful, and the "traffic" down here isn't bad at all. Its a nice drive to the office with the girls, as we drive over the Escambia Bay and then along side the bay on Scenic Highway, nice way to start the day.

Of course it has been hot, no pool yet, and we still haven't made it to the beach. The last couple of weekends Laura and I have been working on building a swing set for the girls - well when it is done I'll post a picture, more like a mini condominium. That should be completed in a few days.





Laura and I joined the kickball league with our office, we haven't won yet, but it sure has been fun. I think the girls really enjoy watching mom and dad play a sport while they get to sit on the sideline and mock/cheer us on.

We did find a little time to get to the zoo with Maddy, as Kayla had already made a friend that invited her to a sleepover birthday party. The zoo was more than I had expected, it was really enjoyable to see so many different animals. Then we tried another new pizza place, still not as good as NJ, but closest since.

I am sure I have plenty more to say, but for the time being that's it.

Moving South......

Well, been a long time since I made an update to our blog, but in case anyone still checks it out, latest news is the family is moving to Florida. We go down next week to close on our home and then a couple weeks later the furniture will follow and we will become Floridians.

Its an exciting new time for the family. We have never really been that far away from everyone. With the relocation, I will get a work promotion and we made sure that our home was not very far from the office, so no more 160 mile a day commutes. We are looking forward to actually seeing the girls. Been a long time since I have seen them for more than an hour during the week, and on the weekends, won't have housework to catch up on from the week all the time. We are really hopeing it gives the four of us (plus the animals) a real chance to be a family.

That's all for now, we'll be around for just under a month, then ya'all can come visit.