Into the Archives (Part 1)

Since it's the end of the year, I thought I would delve into the Bartley Family archives and dig up some memories from 2008 so grab a lantern and watch your step and please be careful if you're asthmatic. It's quite musty down here in the archives.

In late May William and Grant graduated from Kindergarten at Lewisville Christian School (LCS). Some of my family traveled from Virginia and North Carolina to see this truly momentous occassion. The graduating class at LCS was 11 strong and speaking of strong, Grant showed tremendous fortitude just to make it to the ceremony as the day before graduation he was at a friend's house jumping on a trampoline and took a suuport pole to the eye. His first quality shiner and it was a beaut. By the morning of graduation it had swelled shut and gained a wonderful color, but by evening it had reduced some as you can see in the pictures below. I told him that his sister already had "done the eye thing" and he needed to come up with something he could call his own.

The Biggest Mistake of the Year!

What's the hardest part of blogging? I say it's coming up with the over-dramatic Titles to my posts. I could never cut it as a new producer/editor having to continually create sensational headlines, but here it is, "The Biggest Mistake of the Year!" I know some of you may be thinking that it occurred during early voting when I accidentally checked Barack Obama (no that didn't really happen--are you insane?), but the biggest mistake is starting the project I committed to a year ago--Claire's hardwood floors. I truly believe I may have let down all husbands across America. I could have held out for at least another 2-3 years, but in a moment of weakness I actually started a home improvement project. The second biggest mistake of the year? Doing a pretty decent job at installing them. Now, Julie has started coming up with all sorts of new projects using the ego building line, "Well, you're doing such a great job with Claire's floors." I'm sorry men. I'm weak. Please forgive me.

Drumroll please....

The room is ready, but am I?

The first board is down.

The critical first 10 rows. As important as a firm foundation.

Over halfway finished!

A closeup of my fine work :)

Fall Baseball has begun

Grant is excited that baseball has finally begun. He had his first game last night at 7:30--yes that's the start time of a 7U baseball game on a school night, don't get me started. This year is a big step up with lots of rule changes and equipment changes from what he's played in the past. This year they moved to real baseballs instead of the reduced injury ball. The coach still pitches, but he has to stay on the rubber at 40 feet--no floating rubber like in the past. Also, strikes and outs count. Each batter gets 6 pitches or 3 strikes (swinging strikes only-no called strikes). It definitely felt more like baseball vs. the watered down, feel good, everybody's a winner version of baseball he played in the past. There's another equipment change that was interesting to explain to a 6 year old and that was the addition of some protective gear for his ummm... boy parts. He pretty much took it in stride, but did perform a "quality check" to make sure the protective equipment functioned as advertised :)

Grant is on the Cubs this year. Last night he went 2 for 4 with 2 strikeouts and 1 run scored. He made some great plays in the field especially the two innings he played at 1B, and on one of his hits he had to really turn on the speed to beat out the throw. He spends most evenings in the backyard practicing throwing and catching with his net and we look forward to a lot of fun games this fall.

Hope to get some pictures, but first I need to clear off all the pics I took of Claire this past weekend at her birthday party and post some of those here.

Is it a mean prank or my own paranoia?

I started my new job this past Monday. The first week has gone well so far. Originally, I was told that I had to wear ties, but I haven't figured out if that's a prank they play on all the newbies. Hopefully not, since I just went out and bought $100 worth of silk in the shape of neckties. Both of my interviews were on Fridays and I was told they could dress down to business casual on Fridays. Then I was told that they got a reprieve from wearing ties in August due to the heat wave. I showed up on Monday for the first day of work wearing a tie and promptly noticed I was the only one. They said that the August reprieve was extended through September 30. We'll see. All I know is that I'm not investing in any more ties until I see someone else wearing one :)

Fall Soccer is Here

William began his soccer season this past Saturday. Julie and Claire went to Oklahoma to celebrate Sandra's 30th birthday and it was for the best. William started the game, but 5 minutes in he had a huge collision. He was streaking down the field at full speed with the ball and the last defender came up and tripped him. He flew about 6 feet through the air and landed awkwardly on his arm. He jumped back up and continued playing until the next stoppage of play when he came running over in tears holding his arm. You have to understand that William doesn't leave the field for anything so I was pretty sure he was hurting a lot. We iced it down and he played the 3rd quarter, but was still holding it the whole time.

I was optimistic that it was just bruised and hopeful that it would feel better after a good night's sleep. Sunday morning he woke up and was still in a lot of pain so I took him for X-rays. Nothing broken thankfully.

So what was the real evidence that it was bothering him? This is his 5th season, and that's the second game he's played without scoring a goal. Ironically, it's the second game in a row because our final game of the Spring season we played the best team in the league and got killed :(

He really is a very talented soccer player. I know... I know... I'm the proud dad that can only say positive things about my kids, but he really is very talented so give me just a moment to brag on him a bit. We played in the toughest division last spring and there was probably only 1 or 2 other boys that could match his speed and skill level. He has a ton of fun and just turns into a different person when he gets on the field. He's such a class clown type personality when not on the field, but when he pulls on those cleats he gets so intense and focused and REALLY competitive (I don't know where he got that). Anyway, Julie and I continue to watch him develop and are very proud of his accomplishments.

What about Grant? Well, he decided to play baseball and that starts in 2 days if Ike stays away...

Yep, that means another long post of me doting on one of my children ;)

Pictures from 1st Day of School

Here are a few pictures of the first day of school. As always, you can click on each pic for a larger version. For those of you who aren't sure, William is on the left and Grant on the right in the first 3 pictures.

Grant, William and Mommy stop and pose in the atrium of the school. In the background you can see the equipment that will be used later during the boys' favorite "subject", RECESS!!!!!

William is quite finished with the picture taking at this point and begins to contemplate whether we will actually leave or not :)

Grant has already seen us linger in William's class and gives us his best "polite face" all the while wondering, "Are they going to act like this next year for second grade too?"

Starbucks

Well, the big day is here! It's 6:20 AM right now on the first day of school for 1st grade. Ugghhh!!!!!!!! All I can think right now is, "I don't think I know where a Starbucks is on the way to school." We worked this summer on finding the best route to go to school since it's a 14 mile commute during rush hour. We found several shortcuts, but the route includes mostly roads that are not widely used thus my issue of the moment. I may have to wait until after dropoff to find a Starbucks :( Whose idea was it anyway to start work and school so early in the day? The founding fathers? Surely, a man as intelligent as Thomas Jefferson could have foreseen that lazy sleepyheads such as myself would be much better starting school around noon. I guess this post is just a long way of saying, "I HATE MORNINGS!!!" First day of school pictures to come later :)

Change

Change seems to be the theme of August for our family. Julie and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary at the beginning of this month and we celebrated Julie's 33rd birthday this past week, but the real change is yet to come. Next week the boys start 1st Grade at a new school, Prestonwood Christian Academy, and they will be in separate classes. It will be a huge change to our morning routine since school starts earlier than their kindergarten did and Julie will have a 25-30 minute drive to get there vs. the kindergarten which was 2 blocks away. I accepted a new job this week at Overhead Door Corporation to manage their financial reporting systems. My last day at Citi will be September 5th. Hopefully that's all the change we'll be experiencing for now. Too much more, and my hair might start turning gray ;)

Claire Dancing

Like many girls her age, one of Claire's favorite things to do is dance. Here is a video Julie took a few weeks ago. My favorite part is when she turns around and discovers Julie holding the camera. Does she get shy and bashful? No, she immediately starts throwing down her best moves. Moments like these show how different she is from her brothers. They would have stopped the moment they saw the camera and we all would have been grateful because their "moves" closely resemble mine :)

Easter

I don't have much to say with today's post. I just wanted to get some more pics up of the kids. These are from Easter Sunday at our house. They are always wanting to take "silly" pictures so I included one of those as well.

Happy Mother's Day!!!!!

Let it Snow

In my quest to catch you up on the last 8 months of the Bartleys, here are a few pics from the winter. We don't get a lot of snow in Dallas so it was a pretty big deal to get 3 inches or so in early March. We hardly got any snow or ice all winter, but just as we were getting ready to move into Spring we get a snowstorm. If memory serves it happened on a Thursday and we didn't get to play our soccer game that Saturday. We had to reschedule a lot of games (both soccer and baseball) last Spring due to rain-outs, but this was my first snow-out.

Also, if you remember my theme from my last post, I was working a lot. Well, most of the finance staff on our floor panicked at the snowfall predictions when it started shortly after lunch and left early for the day. My department??? We stayed until about 10 PM that evening because obviously moving numbers around on a spreadsheet is much more important than employees arriving at their home safe and sound.

I know for many of you 3 inches of snow is no big deal, but it is out of the ordinary here in Dallas so the kids went out after school and had a great time playing in the snow and made a snowman just their size.

Reviving the blog... again

As usual my ADD kicked in and enthusiasm for updating this blog waned, but I'm trying to renew the blog and begin updating it again. It's been 8 long months since my last post and a few things have happened since the last post. Here are the highlights.

• I finished the playset.
• I worked a lot.
• The boys started Kindergarten.
• I worked a lot.
• Claire celebrated her third birthday.
• I worked a lot.
• Julie traveled to Calgary, Canada with the Richtones to perform (as outgoing Champions) at the annual Sweet Adelines International Competition.
• I worked a lot.
• For Halloween, Claire was Snow White, Grant was Darth Vader and William was a Ninja.
• I worked a lot.
• We traveled to Oklahoma City in late December to visit our new nephew. We also celebrated the boys' 6th birthday there.
• I worked a lot.
• Christmas at our house.
• I worked a lot.
• Spring sports started with Soccer. I'm coaching William and Grant on the Cavaliers again this season. They continue to excel at soccer.
• I worked even more.
• The boys' school, Lewisville Christian School, held their annual auction and carnival. We came away with some great stuff including a new pet hamster. We named him Munchy. We also got a one night stay at a new hotel in town called the Great Wolf Lodge which has an indoor water park.
• I worked a lot.
• After a lot of energy, effort and prayer the boys have been accepted to and enrolled in Prestonwood Christian Academy for first grade next fall.
• I worked a lot.
• Baseball season has started. I'm not the head coach, but am assisting with the Tigers. William and Grant are both playing. It's coach pitch, but after 3 missed swings, the kids get to hit off of a tee. I'm the pitcher and am feeling the pressure. I haven't yet beaned a kid, but am waiting for the moment when a wild pitch hits a kid in the head and an angry father runs out on to the field unleashing profanities while swing an aluminum bat at my head--not that I've had nightmares about it or anything.
• I worked a lot.

Well that pretty much sums up the last few months for our family. Oh yeah, one other thing...

I was told last Thursday that my job had been discontinued and I would no longer need to show up for work after June 14th. After I got back to my cube, I did the happy dance (No, there is not a YouTube link to see my performance). In case, you couldn't tell, I was working way too much and needed a change. When one door closes, another opens and though I was offered a very nice severance package I've also received an offer for an internal transfer which I'm going to accept. It will offer new challenges and a much better work/life balance.

Anyway, I will try my best to keep my ADD under control and to consistently update this blog. I will try to get some pics up soon of the kids. You won't believe how they've grown (unless you're reading this post in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metropolitan area and see them on a regular basis).

I do appreciate those of you who've consistently checked in on the blog with your fingers crossed, hoping I had posted an update. Hopefully, my extended absence has not completely discouraged my already small audience of readers.

All the best,

Dennis