paulandemily.com

Apparently our house is a Sears and Roebuck kit house which were very popular from 1906 to 1940. These houses are a great part of history and luckily Sears has archived their history for us:
http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/
We are going through the floor plans and have a few that we think are the plans for this house. Our kitchen was remodled by the previous owners and I’m sure some of the previous owners have had their share of work into it.
It is pretty cool to lear a bit of the history of your house though. When Brian and Ash bought their house down the street, they went to the courthouse and library to do research on it. I may have to do that myself! These PDFs are priceless though. Depending on what model house we have, Sears priced them from $1600-$2500. Wow.

Paul got on me because I haven’t written about my new job yet; so here goes.
I started my new job at Campbell County High School on 8/7/08. The position is a Transition Coordinator. It’s a grant position under Title 1 Part D. I’m working with students that are currently in Campbell Lodge or Holly Hill (residential facilities) or those that are transitioning back to the high school from the alternative school. Typically, these kids would come to the school, get enrolled, be handed a schedule and basically told “good luck!” There wasn’t anyone to make sure that the kids didn’t fall through the cracks…they had guidance counselors, but they are really busy and don’t have the time or resources to monitor these kids as closely as they need to be monitored. Thus, my position was created.
My overall goal for the program is to make sure that these kids graduate. This grant was created to reduce recidivism and dropout rates. I have spent the past 1.5 weeks developing the position from scratch. It’s been difficult because A) no one knows exactly what I’m suppose to be doing B) I don’t have a direct supervisor or team to ask questions to in my building C) I have a HUGE learning curve with learning the school system, the programs that these kids are coming from, and all of the in-school supports / programs / testing that is available for them.
Basically it looks like I’ll be spending my time helping the pre-transition process like getting their transcripts put into the computer, making a schedule for them, notifying the teachers of the child’s situation, and getting to know the kids before they even come to the high school. Once they are ready to transition, I”ll be showing them around and monitoring them weekly (via face to face visits, emails updates from teachers, phone calls home or to their residential facility) to ensure that they are holding up ok, fitting in, and being successful. There’s a TON more stuff that I have to do including holding ARC meetings, making a graduation plan, career planning, teaching organizational skills, social skills, self-esteem, etc etc etc. I already have about 40 kids on my caseload, and it will just go up from there. I assume that I’ll keep the kids until they graduate so my list will eventually be really huge.
It looks like it’s going to be an exciting job; all the teachers and staff at the high school and alternative schools are really excited for the prospect of the program and what it can do for the kids. I’ll update more in about a month to let you know how it’s going!

So, some new stuff has def. happened recently.
My brothers company, CarDomain.com has downsized once again, ex-ing the staff from its long standing SoundDomain division, amongst others. SoundDomain.com is one - if not THE - largest online community for audio enthusiast. Their forums and members are very dedicated. They have users on there from beginners to shop owners, to those guys that seem to have nothing better to do then make their car as loud as humanly possible!.
Emily and I got a new phone system today. We’ve been using vonage for a while now - and previously another online group that went WAY under. Vonage has worked well for us, unless I had some huge download going Previously we were using a two phone 5.8ghz system that worked pretty well for the last 2 or 3 years. One of the phones recently started acting up so we have now upgraded to the new Dect phone system.
Dect? what is dect?? Dect is a new frequency used by home cordless phones. Its a lower frequency, but right now, its only for cordless digital phones - this means it should be a really clear, strong signal. Previously, the 2.4ghz and 5.8ghz range were shared with wireless computer networks, absorbed microwave and other electronic interference, etc. So this should be a nice upgrade.
I went with a Panasonic 4 extension system (it can take up to 6 handsets). Should be a nice upgrade to our 2 phone system - esp for those who want to get a hold of us :). We looked at vtech, uniden, AT&T and other phone systems, but this panasonic one was the most comfortable unit, and to be honest … panasonic really has cornered the market on cordless phones.

We’ve been struggling with Sean’s sleeping routine for a few weeks now. He decided that he likes to wake up 2-3 times/night instead of 1. The past 3 nights have been great. He slept all the way through the night 2 nights ago (8pm-515am) and last night slept from 7:30-4:15, then went back to sleep until 6:30. I feel much more rested (and I’m sure Paul does too) and Sean’s a happy camper. Still doing the Vick’s rub too; seems to be doing a good job!

Paul’s family is coming tonight to visit. Little Sean is very excited to see everyone and show off all his new tricks!

Came across this article today while surfing around the interwebs. Its titled “Fathering in America: What’s a Dad Supposed to Do?” Thought it had some useful advice and would be nice to share with other dads (and dad’s to be!) who may read this blog. Its brief but to the point.

We started out on Saturday by attending a musical that Emily’s cousin Wes was in. It was a small theatre group introducing a new Christian musical. We enjoyed it. Sean enjoyed his afternoon with his Auntie Gamma (Emily’s Aunt Laurie).
Emily made us a reservation at John Philip’s in Crestview Hills. Its one of my new favorite restaraunts. The menu is small (wine list huge), but the selection of appetizers and entree’s is not missing anything. I went with the Filet (with a side of mushroom bourdalaise sauce) and Emily got the prime rib. Having a restaraunt of this nature makes me feel we don’t need to drive down to the waterfront anymore! The service is great as well. Our waiter was never overbearing and even remembered the last time we came in (and he wasn’t even our waiter that time!).
Ashley kept an ear out for Sean while we were out to eat - Thanks again Ash! Another advantage of the colony! Emily and I finished up the night watching the movie Jumper - although she didn’t make it through and had to finish it on Sunday. I don’t know why that movie got such a bad review when it was in theatre’s, as we both enjoyed it. Def. a renter and not a buyer though.
On Sunday, Emily, Sean, and I went to the Newport Aquarium. We got the idea a few weeks back when we visited a Petsmart store. He just stared with great awe into the little aquariums there.

We had a great time. Sean stayed up for it as long as he could. We actually got almost to the end before he couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore. He only missed the penguins (We’ll just have to catch them when we go to the St. Louis Zoo next time).
On Monday, I came home to a Father’s Day surprise! Emily and I have been looking for a small table and chair set to have on our front porch, but never got around to picking one up. I had a model that I liked, but Emily was unsure about it. Turns out, she liked it enough to make it my father’s day gift - I was quite pleased!

Last night was James Taylor at Riverbend! My mom got 8 tickets, 4 in the 2nd row of pit and 4 in the 5th row of pit. She set up a contest to see who was most worthy to sit closest to James during the concert. Two nights ago, we all took a 10 question general knowledge quiz about JT; that was the first part of the contest. Laurie came in 1st, me in 2nd, then Paul, then Ash then Brian. Phil didn’t have to compete for a seat b/c he and mom already claimed two of the “B” row seats.
The second part was that we had to bring something to the limo that best represented James Taylor to us. Everyone had really cute ideas; I brought Little Sean with a tag on his shirt that said “Sweet Baby James.” It was really cute and I got extra points for it!
The third part of the contest was a “finish the lyrics” contest in the limo on the way to the restaurant. Aunt Laurie won that round by far!
There was also an immunity idol that got you an automatic seat in the B row. If someone brought “the elephant” (long story…if you haven’t heard, ask us sometime) to the limo and sat it with them through dinner, they automatically got a B seat. Brian did it proud as can be and got his B seat.
I ended up with a B row seat for winning the overall contest, but gave my seat to Ashley so she could sit next to Brian. We all decided to switch it up anyhow after the intermission.
The seats were amazing and so was the show! During the intermission, some of us went up and got our tickets signed by James and got to touch him *sighs a dreamy sigh*. During the last couple songs, we got to go right up to the stage and sing and dance. My mom, Aunt Laurie and I were literally right in front of him against the stage…wow. It was cool. He looked right at us during “How sweet it is to be loved by you.” My mom nearly fainted
Thanks again to my mom for an awesome, unbelievable night! It was a blast!!!

Sean did great with his very first babysitter too, went to bed around 7:30 without a problem, and didn’t wake up until 4:00am. Thanks again Kristan!!

Since Monday night, Sean has been sleeping in his crib and his sniffles are all gone! Mom and Dad have been sleeping well (especially mom!) and Sean is back to his normal cheerful self. He went to daycare for the first time in over a week yesterday. He was so pooped when he got home, that he was in bed by 6:30pm and didn’t wake up until midnight for a bottle! I was secretly hoping he would wake up so I would actually get to spend some time with him

We traveled to St. Louis over Memorial Day Weekend to visit Paul’s family, and to attend Stephen’s wedding (friend of Paul’s). We had a great time and took a ton of pictures!

Still working on getting the wedding pictures online.

See pictures of Sean during the weekend by clicking below:

Sean’s getting so big! Just a few days ago, he started grabbing toys with his hand, then with both hands and then bringing the toy to his mouth. He loves this new skill and tends to hold on to his toys for 5-10 minutes at a time! He also is very talkative lately. He loves when people have “conversations” with him; mimicking the noises that he makes. He cracks up laughing and keeps the conversation going until you stop it. So cute.

I’m going to start getting some videos of Sean, hopefully on a weekly basis, and putting them on our youtube account. He’s doing so many new things each week, and we want everyone to be able to enjoy the milestones along with us. Plus, he’s so darn cute, who could resist a movie of him??

Happy Birthday to my sister Morgan!  Hope you have a great day; hope to see you soon!