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Still Missing You
We Love you, and miss you always!
Monthly Archives: April 2007
In A Way, It’s Calming
After work today I went down river and met Kylie, Tiffany, and Aunt Sissy at Applebee’s. When I walked in Kylie saw me first and said “Hi Lil bit,” and thus informed everyone else that I was there. She said this because I call her my Little Bit. Tiffany and Melissa told me she did this when I finally saw them and went over to our table. After dinner we all went over to Coldstone for some ice cream, where Aunt Theresa joined us. Then we went back to Kylie and Tiffany’s where Kylie took a bath and got ready for bed. After her bath I read her a book and rocked with her for a bit and then put her down for bed. Putting Kylie to bed is something that I didn’t realize I missed so much while I was gone. There is something calming and relaxing about rocking her at night and putting her down for the night.
It’s About Time
Looks like I am finally going to learn how to ride motorcycle. Every summer for the past six years or so, I have been saying that I want to learn how to ride a motorcycle. The local community college has classes every year taught by certified instructors, and when you pass the class it count for your state endorsement to ride. However, every year I have forgotten about the class and miss enrollment. Well not this year, today on my lunch break at work I finally registered for the class! It’s the beginners’ class and it’s aimed at people who have little to no riding experience and want to learn and get their endorsement. The class provides motorcycles for you to ride, so I won’t have to worry about having one of my own. I am now registered for classes at the end of July, it is seven week nights after work and as of now I am really looking forward to it. I actually owe me remembering this year to some guys at work who were talking about taking one of the advanced classes.
Operation Fat Ass
Today I started “operation fat ass” by starting on a new diet. Everyone says I look good and carry my weight well, but we all know the truth: I am over weight. I have always had a hard time losing weight, even when I was young I was always the “hefty” kid. I remember spending my summer days biking seven or eight miles to the pool, swimming all day and then biking home, and still not losing much weight. Throughout the years I have tried various diets and had some success, but nothing really long term, whatever weight I did lose always came back. I am hoping to try and change that once and for all. I am going to try going on Slim Fast and see how that works. I have never tried it before but Tiffany told me about their web site, and how it helps you make a meal plan for the week and even lets you print out a shopping list. I think I will do pretty well with this, as I am pretty good at following a list and not straying from it to much. We will have to see how it goes. My starting weight is, sadly enough, 295lbs; even if I can manage to lose 40lbs I would be happy. I am sure it is going to take a while, but hopefully I have the patience to stick with it.
A Night With My Daughter
Kylie spent the night last night for the first time since I have been home. It was really nice having here with me all night again. She slept in her pack-n-play without issue, although she did fuss a little in her sleep which always wakes me up. We had fun playing and watching TV, we watched her favorite movie, Disney’s Cinderella, a couple of times as well. It’s fun just seeing how excited she gets when I put that DVD in for her. She sat on my lap for a good portion of the movie, just watching intently, before moving to the floor to continue to watch. All in all it was a really good time, and I am looking forward to more.
After a Month and a Half
Today I got to see Kylie for the first time in about a month and a half! I met her and Tiffany at Bob Evans for dinner, and Kylie was very excited to see me, as I was to see her. When I walked in to the restaurant Tiffany pointed to me so Kylie would see me, and then she got all excited. She jumped up and down in her chair and pointed at me and said “Daddy, Daddy.” When I got over to the table she put her arms up to me and I picked her up and got a great big hug. She then sat on my lap for the majority of dinner, and when she wasn’t in my lap she was seating in her chair across from me with a great big smile on her face.
After dinner we went back to Kylie and Tiffany’s house where we played for a little while and then Kylie got ready for bed. I was able to read her a bedtime story and rock with her before she went down to sleep for the first time in a long time. The whole time I was telling her that I was home for good this time and that I would not be leaving again and she would see me more often now. I am sure she understood me because she went down to bed without a fuss over me leaving.
It’s really good to be home and near Kylie again. She has gotten so big since I have left; it is really quite amazing how much bigger she has gotten over the last seven months. I am sure if I had been here the entire time I would not have noticed it so much, but she really has gotten big.
Good News
Not only am I finally home, but I just got some good news too! I just got off the phone and finished verbally excepting a new position at work! I will be joining the Infrastructure Services group as A Systems Manager. I will be responsible for monitoring and implementing system backups across all the company systems. These systems are located all across the globe, so all of my work will involve remote access to these systems. In addition to the diverse location of these systems, the operating systems running on them will also be diverse. I will be learning to work with AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, various versions of Linux, and some Windows systems. While I already have experience working on many of these systems, I have vary little experience installing, updating, and managing backup clients and schedules. I will be working with IBM’s Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) in a capacity that I have never done before. Eventually I will also learn to allocate SAN disk to systems as well, as that also falls to my group to manage. I am very excited to have this opportunity and though I know I will face a large learning curve, I am excited to jump in and see what I can do. I guess I will find out just how much of a learning curve I will face tomorrow, when I go into work.
Home At Last
After a long drive I have made it home safe. I had a little bit of trouble going through Indiana because of some construction and my directions having some minor errors. I was able to figure everything out though and did not have any real issues. I made pretty good time too, I got on the road in Burnsville at 6am (7am EST) and made it back here about 5:30, making the totally trip including stops in about 10.5 hours. I guess I was averaging faster speeds on the way home then on my trip out to Minnesota, because I made it home about 1.5 hours faster than I made it out there. Not surprised though, I really wanted to make it back to Michigan so I could be that much closer to Kylie. Tomorrow I get to see Kylie again for the first time in about a month and a half!
One Last Night
Well tonight is the last night I will spend here in Burnsville, in fact I only have a few hours left. I will be leaving tomorrow morning, hopefully by 6am, this way I will be able to make it back home by no later than 7pm. I already have everything in my truck except for my laptop, work laptop, camera, and a few things I will need in the morning. I plan on getting up at 5am and getting the rest of my stuff ready and leaving. I will need to stop off and get gas first though, and most likely go over to McDonalds for a quick breakfast.
I have to admit that even though I am very excited to be going home and especially to see Kylie; it does feel a little strange to be leaving. For the past 7 months Burnsville has been my home. I have gotten into a very comfortable routine here and I have enjoyed my job. Along those lines, I am also a little upset because as of right now I am returning to my old job. Though I did enjoy that position while I had it, one of my goals in coming out here was to move up to a new position at the end. I am sure something will turn up though, as Rick keeps telling me they are just taking their time with my position; after all I am not going to Denver like he is.
I guess I will just have to be patient, but for right now it’s time to go to bed, I have a long day of driving tomorrow.