The Bartley Family

Into the Archives (Part 2)

2009-01-03T17:51:00.004-06:00

I know the calendar has turned over to a new year, but I thought I would continue our journey into the archives of 2008 for a bit longer. Let's move just into the summer and take a look at a few pictures from Soccer Camp. The boys attended the local soccer camp hosted by MLS Camps in conjuction with Greater Lewisville Area Soccer Assocation (GLASA). The camp was one week long for 3 hours each morning and was just what the doctor ordered to kick the summer off right (yes, I know that's a rotten pun, but is there ever a good pun?).

Grant playing goalie!

William tries to score on Grant.

The boys with Coach Johnny--not sure why they decided to imitate his hair style :)

And here is a video of one of their training drills. It's hard to watch because so many boys are involved, but if you're trying to pick out William and Grant look for white socks. William's shirt is untucked and Grant is tucked. There is a third boy wearing white socks, but ignore him :) A few more tips--Very early in the drill William is the first to reach the ball and gets to take the first shot. A short time later Grant gets the ball and proceeds to use his booty to shield perfectly and then turns quickly and gets off a pretty good shot. William also gets a nice shot in from about 6 yards out near the end of the video. Now that I've overexplained it, I'll just say that it's much better in person!

Into the Archives (Part 1)

2008-12-30T22:12:00.007-06:00

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!

2008-10-30T22:16:00.009-05:00

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

2008-09-16T21:38:00.003-05:00

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?

2008-09-13T16:02:00.002-05:00

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

2008-09-11T20:07:00.006-05:00

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

2008-08-24T23:05:00.003-05:00

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

2008-08-20T06:20:00.002-05:00

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

2008-08-16T08:28:00.002-05:00

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

2008-06-11T22:57:00.002-05:00

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

2008-05-11T22:24:00.006-05:00

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

2008-04-28T19:59:00.022-05:00

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

2008-04-14T20:16:00.004-05:00

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

The Playset is 75% Complete

2007-08-05T21:41:00.000-05:00

As of Saturday evening (Aug 4), the playset is approximately 75% complete. I still have a lot of work to do on the roof and I have to build the swing support, but it's almost finished :) I know the pictures are not the best, but it's because I tried to take them at the end of the day when I had the most work finished. Unfortunately that means I was working until it was dark.

A Quick Update

2007-07-30T23:07:00.000-05:00

I have made a lot of progress on building the playset/swingset in the backyard. I worked on it for about 6 hours on Saturday, but I haven't had the time to work on it since then. Our VBS started yesterday and I've been busy with that. Hopefully I will get some new pictures by the end of the week. Not a lot of other news at this time.

New Project

2007-07-23T23:43:00.000-05:00

A week ago I started a new project; a backyard playset for the children. I found a great deal at Sam's club and thought it would be a weekend project. I was wrong. Some assembly required would be the understatement of the century. What I bought was 200 lbs. of lumber pre-cut and pre-drilled and 50 lbs. of hardware to hold the sticks together and a simple booklet with 100 easy steps to the playset of my children's dreams. Hopefully it'll be ready by next summer:) Here is a picture of what it's supposed to look like when it's finished. Here is what it looks like after the first weekend of working on it. Here is the rest of it.

We're home

2007-06-25T23:32:00.000-05:00

We made it back Saturday evening from our enduro drive to the west coast. The trip was great (except for the driving part). We had a great time and were able to see lots of friends and family. Below is a slideshow of our photos from the Disneyland Resort. Clicking on it will take you to the photo album where you can browse more leisurely and see larger pictures. I am working on getting more albums created of our time in San Diego.

Heading West!

2007-06-08T23:26:00.000-05:00

Wow, I'm really bad at keeping this site updated. We are off to the west coast. Tomorrow morning we leave (at 4am) for Disneyland. We are driving. The kids should be getting used to this, but I'm sure as soon as they wake up (hopefully at 9 am) they will ask if we're almost to Disneyland. We're hoping to make a lot of progress tomorrow and make it to Tucson so that Sunday will be a pretty easy drive into Anaheim. We're spending 3 days/4 nights in Anaheim then it's down to San Diego where we will be for 8 days. I don't have a laptop so I can't provide updates along the way, but I will take plenty of pictures and video to post once we return.

Climbing Higher

2007-04-14T11:27:00.000-05:00

It's been quite some time since I last posted, and yes, the complaining from some of you has finally worked and I'm updating the blog. I have several pictures and some video of the kids that I will post over the next week (if I can figure out the whole technology aspect of it). Here are some pictures from a birthday party last Saturday where the boys tackled a rock wall. There is also a video of each boy climbing the wall. The quality is pretty poor because I had to take it with my cell phone. William is in the blue shirt; Grant is in the white shirt.

Spring Sports

2007-02-28T14:08:00.000-06:00

The spring sports season has begun. William decided to play soccer again this spring so I am coaching his team, the Cannonballs. William and Grant both played with the Cannonballs last fall, and I was the assistant coach. This year, I am the head coach, and Grant has left soccer to pursue baseball. He will be playing for the Ironbirds, and he is excited about baseball practice finally starting (tomorrow). We have already had our first soccer game and we lost--actually we don't keep score at this age, but since I am who I am, I keep the unofficial score and the Raptors demolished us 9-4 in 40+ mph winds. I was actually happy that the field was in desperate need of mowing since that kept the impact from the wind somewhat under control. William played great and scored 3 of the team's goals, but we definitely missed having Grant in the game while William was on the bench. Of course the most important thing is that everyone had lots of fun. Claire did have her cast removed, but if you were to see her walking, you would think she still has it on. She limps around a lot and walks very stiff-legged. It's going to take a few more weeks to get her back to walking normal. This week she is suffering from some infection. She has conjunctivitis (Pink Eye) in both eyes and an ear infection. Also, I have changed the settings on the blog, and if you are so inclined, you can now submit a comment at the bottom of each post. The comments are viewable to everyone.

Claire adapting well

2007-02-19T11:20:00.000-06:00

It's now been a few weeks since Claire received her special gift from Grant, but she is adapting well. She has been walking on the leg and has even attempted running a few times when she gets excited. As you can see from the picture, she is not slowing down at all. Yes, that is a scooter she is trying to ride with her broken leg. She gets her cast off tomorrow morning. I think we'll all be happy that the sponge baths are over--especially washing her hair with the spray thingy at the kitchen sink. One last thing. If you haven't checked yet, you must take a look at the ACC standings in men's basketball. My beloved Hoos are tied with the Tarheels for 1st in the ACC. It's been an exciting year with more to come hopefully.

My first fracture

2007-02-01T14:06:00.000-06:00

We visited the orthopedic clinic at Children's Medical Center this morning. Claire does have a fracture on her lower leg--the fibula to be exact. She will have a cast until Feb. 20, but the doctor claims she can walk with the cast on; she has a little shoe to wear over it to help her walk. The question is will she walk or will she be a drama queen and make me carry her everywhere. Here are some pictures of her with the initial leg splint and now her cast.

Running Fast

2007-01-29T21:23:00.000-06:00

The boys and I went to Ameriquest Field in Arlington on Saturday for the annual Fan Fest event that the Texas Rangers hold (the baseball team, not the police force). The boys got new baseballs and were playing with them all evening. About 7:00 pm Grant was chasing a routine grounder behind the couch and it was getting away from him. In his words he was "running so fast I had to close my eyes". As he rounded the corner of the couch, with his eyes closed, he met up with Claire. An hour later she still could not put any weight on her leg without falling to the floor so off to the ER we go. The initial diagnosis is a sprained knee-no fracture; however, the ER doctor admitted that X-rays can be misleading with children this young so we are following up with an orthopedic specialist at Children's Medical Center. Their earliest appointment is Thursday so hopefully we will have more info at that time. Currently it is splinted from hip to ankle with one of those sleeves with all of the velcro straps. And the lesson of the week is: No matter how fast you can run, keep your eyes open.

Welcome

2007-01-29T20:09:00.000-06:00

Welcome to my blog. I've decided once again to try to maintain some sort of website for the family so everyone can stay up to date with the Bartleys. This is my third attempt at this, but it should be the easiest format to maintain so hopefully I will keep it more current than past attempts. I'm quite certain I won't be updating it daily, but hopefully a few times a week.