McCoy USA

Kim's Report 11/20/07

We've been busy around here. Since the nomads left, we've had a yard sale and wow, could you believe it, we actually made $5 on Dad McCoy's tile table masterpiece!

The mack-daddy grill looks great on the upper deck and we actually don't mind the hard-core Hillary Clinton supporters who have since rented the 'furnished apartment'. They don't care much for reading from the 'furnished library' or watching the TV, which seemed to be stuck between Fox News and Sci Fi, so we 're-purposed' the big screen into a functional coffee table and the satellite dish into a lovely centerpiece. It's amazing what a weekend of HGTV will teach you!

haha :)- real one below:

Hi everyone!

Well, I think we've adjusted to life with more than one child. I was so lucky to be able to stay home with Kendra for six months before returning to work. David's current role at his company allows him to work from home which is so great. I have also been lucky since going back that I can work part time and that Mom McCoy has been such a great help! It definitely would have been harder to go back if I had to put her in daycare right away.

Kendra's a great baby and definitely a pretty happy/content one (if you don't take something away from her that she shouldn't have!). I think though now that she's more aware of the things she can get into, she's more aware of her not being able to have it- resulting in the dreaded 2 second rage! She's 9 months old now and crawls around like an expert and loves standing/cruising around. She just loves her brother. Benjamin is so great with her.

Benjamin started Pre-K this year and is doing great (with the occasional 4-year-old lack of listening/disruptive behavior). We had a parent/teacher conference and he is apparently excelling in math (not much calculus in Pre-K these days, however). The teacher said he was the only one in the class to get all the evaluation questions right- way to go Brainjamin!

He recently finished his first season in baseball and really enjoyed it- it was a lot of fun watching the 4/5 year olds run around aimlessly. They actually learned quite a lot and Benny definitely improved with batting and fielding. I especially liked how he ran after the ball his teammate hit while he was at 2nd base, rather than running to 3rd. In addition to the trophy, he got the 'Rugby Captain' award for always running after/tackling the ball.

Benny has also started piano this year and is doing great. His teacher is very impressed with how he's been doing, especially for his age. Every now and again there's the challenge of getting him to sit still and listen, but on the whole he's doing great. He made it through his first books in the series faster than most, but she also contributes that to his practice partner! I guess it helps that I minored in music and can guide him. I could teach him, but I felt it was good to have the outside influence (and patience) rather than mommy telling him what to do, even though it's basically like that at practice times!

Back in August I had my first cello recital. I've been playing off and on for many years, but this was the first time I played in front of an audience where I was the focus. I was definitely nervous, but did pretty well. I played Sonata in C Major by Picinetti, a Baroque-era piece. My teacher was accompanying me and I made it through without serious mistakes, though near the end I started thinking 'I'm almost done, I hope I don't mess up' and that's when I lost my place. Oh well- I recovered and don't think it was extremely noticeable, but I was annoyed at messing up!

David's really enjoying racquetball and continues to participate in a local league. He is currently considered a 'B+' level (with A being the highest). Even though he beats a lot of A players consistently, unfortunately he didn't do so well in the last tournament, so he didn't move up to A's yet officially. As long as he's having fun and improving, that's all that matters- the professional that run the league knows he's good.

We've spent a good part of the fall going on family outings- camping, Cumming Country Fair, Stone Mountain festival, and a few too many pumpkin patches/farms. It was all fun though.

We're looking forward to seeing a lot of the family at Thanksgiving! My sister recently moved to Jacksonville so we'll have even more reasons to visit the area. I talked her in to participating in a half marathon with me in Jacksonville in February. It's actually a part of the National Marathon to Fight Breast Cancer where all proceeds go to the Mayo Clinic and women living with breast cancer, so it's a great cause.

Well, that's the novel for now. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Kim

Kim's Report 09/17/06

David and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary last week with a trip down memory lane by going to the High Museum for the day. For a little background, the only time I skipped high school (other than the occassional playing hookie) was to go to the High Museum with David back in 1993 (what a rebel!). A week later, we were punished with an ice storm making it impossible to leave our houses. I got a beautiful anniversary band and David got a card (whaa whaaaa).

Benjamin just turned three and we had a gathering at our house of some family and friends this weekend. I avoided the crazy kid party this year. I'm sure it will be soon enough that he requests all his friends come to his parties and I'll be forced to hire a clown or something creepy like that. He's definitely taking to the 'being a big boy now' speech I gave him- except for the crying, whining and defiance on a daily basis ;). Today I dropped him off at daycare and I was going to take him into his room like I usually do and he turned to me at the door and said 'I can go in by myself now Mommy' and took off. Boo hoo.

Work's going well. I'm heading out to Phoenix to meet with our new team. The IT department for my client has moved from San Fran to Phoenix, so basically that means entirely new people to get to work with and know. I recently got a very favorable rating/review which would be nice if it translated into a big raise, but it's just nice to be recognized (yeah, right). David's looking at the possiblity of a new role at his job leading a team which should cut down his travel considerably (or so they say).

As far as new baby goes, I'm now 17 weeks along and still trying to get used to the idea again of sleepless nights and packing up a bunch of junk just to go check the mailbox. We've gotten pretty used to mini-McCoy and the fact that he doesn't need too much now since he's potty trained and eats what we do and is basically just happy running around.

I left work early today to get my tire repaired- it had a huge nail in it that I'm not sure how long I've been driving 35 miles one way to work with. While I was there, they told me my radiator was leaking and my front brakes were 95% gone. Every trip to Goodyear is another sales pitch for a new car- but I refuse the minivan for now!

As you may have guessed, I am not training for a marathon this year, but I have taken up swimming recently and really like it. I usually swim a mile or so when I go and still mix in other cardio, weights and the occassional run throughout the week- though swimming is definitely better on the joints and will probably remain a good exercise throughout the pregnancy. David says he can see the headline now "Crazy pregnant woman trains for triathlon!" I'm definitely not doing that now, but perhaps that will be a good goal to have once the baby is born.

David is gone this week through the weekend. It is definitely challenging doing the single mom thing, but he'll have single dad duty when I'm gone next week. Maybe one of these weeks we'll be in the same town at the same time!

I think that's about it for now. I hope everyone is doing well!

Kim