Life is a Beach...

Well the old slogan "Life is a Beach" came true for the Moore Clan last week. We headed south to Orange Beach Alabama for some fun in the sun with a car load of diapers, toys and sunscreen. It was quite an adventure. Have you ever headed cross country with kids. It looks so easy on TV everybody singing songs, playing games, laughing, and having an all around great time. What they show you is 20 minutes of a 16 hour trip. If we were filming the whole trip we could find 20 minutes of peace and songs and laughing and games. And we can also show you 16 hours of everything but that.
Finally we get there and the week starts. The first couple days Esther wasn't too sure of the sand. It is one thing to have it in the sand box in the yard, but another to have it all over your body. Hair, face, hands, arms, legs, but mainly diapers. I wasn't wearing one, so I don't know for sure how uncomfortable it really is and I don;t have any desire to find out. By the end of the week she started to enjoy it and actually say "lets go to the beach." She also spent quite a bit of time swimming in what she calls the baby pool.
From Graceyns point of view, she didn't know what was going on and really just wanted to stay inside the condo and hang out on her Einstein mat. She did make it down to the beach several times, but between naps, feedings, more naps, more feedings, and the occasional bath the days went by pretty quick.
Britt was a trooper! She didn't get the savage tan that she desired, but got enough to look like she was out of town.
It was also our Anniversary while we were there and we spent an quite romantic dinner over a Big Mac, large fries, and chocolate sundae. All we were missing was candlelights, soft music and romance. But we figured when we got back home we could spend an evening on a date. Besides when was the last time you ate at a McDonald's with a salt water fish tank with Nemo and Dori?
All in all it was a great trip! We had so much fun playing, swimming, singing, and laughing that I look forward to next years trip. I will just make sure to bring some spray on tan so that way it will look like I spent more time on the beach than I did.

Congratulations to Gordo!!!!

Hey Gordo- if you didn't know already... YOU WON!!
Amazingly enough you had the right day and sex of the baby and what is more, you knew the exact time the Garceyn was being born. How did you do it???
Next time you are in town we have a special surprise from Graceyn for you.
Hope you will be here soon cause it is starting to make the whole house aromatic.

Thanks and Back by popular demand... Brittneys Birthday

Thanks to all of you who took part in Brittney's Birthday card gift. She was so excited and happy to get so many cards. So I am giving everybody notice that you have less than 1 year till Brittney celebrates her 2nd annual 30th Birthday. That gives you all plenty of time to help me come up with another idea to get something special for her birthday and I pray that it isn't another baby.
And seeing as how people got so excited about famous days in History, here is one to celebrate Brittney's Birthday: MARCH 19th
1865 - American Civil War: The Battle of Bentonville begins
1915 - Pluto is photographed for the first time but was not recognized as a planet.
1917 - The Supreme Court upheld the eight-hour work day for railroads.
1918 - The U.S. Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time.
1931 - Gambling is legalized in Nevada.
1953 - Academy Awards are first televised with Bob Hope as the host
1962 - Bob Dylan releases his first, self-titled album.
1972 - India and Bangladesh sign a friendship treaty.
1979 - The U.S. House of Representatives began televising its day-to-day business. (that's pretty exciting to watch)
1995 - After giving up an attempt to become a major league baseball player, Michael Jodan returned to pro basketball with his former team, the Chicago Bulls.

Share a Birthday
Bruce Willis
Wyatt Earp
Craig Lamar Traylor- Actor 'Malcolm in the Middle'
Ruth Pointer - Singer (The Pointer Sisters)
Glenn Close
Elias Hicks - American Quaker minister; advocated the abolition of slavery

Back in the Dugout...

Well from the previous post "In the Bullpen..." till now a lot has happened. I had a Black and Blue salad from O'Charlies, poured me a cup of coffee, made a few phone calls about a survey, and I guess the most important thing was getting pulled out of the bullpen and put back on the bleacher in the dugout. Baseball analogies might not be the best approach, so I'll just put it to you straight. The baby decided that it isn't quite ready to make its appearance. Not much has changed since our last meeting with the Doc. Brittney got a haircut, but the baby hasn't continued to make it's way down. It's just kinda hanging around waiting. So we made an appointment for next Thursday March the 15th at 5:30am to go to the Hospital and induce (if nothing happens before). So Kelly Crossland- you were a late entry, but seem to be the most accurate so far. I guess anything can still happen, but Esther was the same way. We made an appt to get her. Usually I feel that we are more spontaneous than this, and making an appointment to have a baby just doesn't sound right.
But here are some of the historic parts of that possible day: MARCH 15th
Ides Of March
1919: American Legion founded
1937: The United States sets up its first central blood bank
1945: Record album charts first published in the United States
1820: Maine admitted as 23rd state
1994: 8th Soul Train Music Awards: Toni Braxton, Whitney Houston win
1991: 4 LA police are charged with beating Rodney King
1987: "Starlight Express" opens at Gershwin Theater New York City for 761 performances
1977: "Eight is Enough" premiers on ABC-TV
1493: Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after 1st new world voyage
1897: 1st indoor fly casting tournament opens, at Madison Square Garden (that's pretty cool)
1990: The Soviet Union announces that Lithuania's declaration of independence is invalid (how would you like to be a Lithuanian and wake up to that news)
1998: Titanic defeats Star Wars for the #1 place in the North American domestic box office, grossing $471 million.
44 B.C. Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of nobles that included Brutus and Cassius
2004: Martha Stewart resigned from the board of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia 10 days after she was convicted in a stock scandal.
2005: Former WorldCom chief Bernard Ebbers was convicted in New York of engineering the largest corporate fraud in U.S. history. (He was later sentenced to 25 years in prison.)

Share a birthday
Fabio
Eva Longoria actress
Bret Michaels, guitarist for Rock band Poison
Terrence Trent D'Arby, rock vocalist, Wishing Well
Andrew Jackson- 7th President
Dee Snider, rocker Twisted Sister
Sly Stone, of Sly and the Family Stone- ("Everyday People" song)
Ranganandhan Francis, born in India, field hockey, Olympics gold 1948, 52, 56
Veselin Topalov, Bulgarian chess player
Terry Hardesty

Well you get the idea...

In the Bullpen, Restless Nights, and The Big 360

Well the day will be here anytime now and I am just on standby waiting for the phone to ring and the signal to call me up to the mound. Officially, I think that the original due date is next week, March 14th, but the common question that I wake up thinking is will today be the day. And today could be. I looked at my schedule and it is pretty clear the rest of the day. For that matter it looks reletively open the next week, except for one or two little things. As long as it doesn't come May 4-6, I should be okay. I have a fishing trip scheduled and don't want to have to cancel that. Anyway the possibility of that is pretty far fetched. That would be about 2 months late, and I don't think that Britt will be able to wait that long.
Another question that people often ask besides when I think it will be, is if I think it will be a boy or a girl. I think that it will be Kurt Russel. I had a dream last night that my buddy Gordo and I were being chased by someone and we were trying to flee from him. We were in some big city with a lot of traffic and near a fancy hotel that you had to walk through some glass doors and down like a subway escalator to be able to hide. Finally I decided to let Gordo run and I was going to fight the guy chasing us. I started to do some sort of round house kick on him- which I actually did in bed which woke me up, but just before I awoke, I saw Kurt Russels' face. I was Kurt Russel. How random is that??? So next time someone asks if I think its a boy or girl I am going to tell them its a Kurt Russel.
Esther is 19 months, I am 399 months and Brittney will be the big 360 March 19th. For those of you that have a hard time with math she will be 30 years old in less than 2 weeks. So if you think about it give her a call, drop her a note, and give me some ideas on what to get her. I haven't a clue. Another thing when do we stop with the ages as months and when does it turn to years? Is it because the clothing company stops with 18-24 months and changes to 2T? Then why don't we go by sizes. " 'Hey how old are you?' 'I'm 34x36 or if Im wearing Banana Republic then I'm Medium.'" Anyway- back to Britt. She is turning 30 and that should be a fun day, but most likely the baby will be here and I don't know if she will be up to a surprise party so if you have any suggestions let me know.

"The Number 23" staring Jim Carey..."The Number 31" Staring The Moores You Know

I saw a movie trailer for a new Jim Carey movie that should be out sometime in the near future where there is some number that is apparently ruining his life. As you can tell the movie didn't stick with me too well and not to say that the number 31 is ruining my life. Let me start from the beginning...is there a limit on how many toys there should be in the bathtub? I was giving Esther a bath the night before last and realize that she has a ton of floating toys. We'll not a ton that would be 2,000. But 31 toys! Toys that pour water, toys that you stick on the side of the tub, toys that squirt, swim, splash, and all sorts of other things. I started thinking about it and wonder if that is some magic number. Is Hollywood wrong with the number 23? Lets take a look at 31... Prime number, 3 weeks till the birth of 1 more baby, 31 Days in a month, 1531 songs on my ipod, 31st is Halloween, 31st is New Years Eve, I was 31 years old two years ago(33-2 which is 3-1 to get the 2), 3+1=4 which is how many of us there will be when the new baby gets here, 3-1=2 which is how many people I know currently living in Scotland, do you need more examples?Okay how about 631 which was the prefix for the phone number that I grew up with, 31 Neutrons in the chemical element phosphorus, we had a house for sale 1731, Baskin Robbins used to be only 31 flavors, and the list goes on and on. So watch out Hollywood I have a spin on your movie! Or maybe the number is 13, which is the number of pillows we have on our bed, is the mysterious number. Wait...13- that's 31 backwards. This is getting way too scary.

Concert in the Red, Green, and Blue keys...

We'll we are still on track for the arrival of #2. What does that put us at 4 or 5 weeks left?? This was an off week for the doctor's visit, but I think that after the next one it is a weekly visit. So I am sure there will be more to follow in the near future. Nesting phase is on a vacation right now or it is getting ready for a strong comeback soon. Esther's room is painted, the bed is on the floor, the dresser is painted and full of diapers and clothes, and I finally got the closet cleaned and shuffled around. She has her table, tea set, all her stuffed animals, and doll house in her room and is loving it. Everynight when I get home she says "hand" and takes my finger and pulls me to her room just to show it to me.
Last night was my turn to get her to sleep. It only took about a half hour, and she slept there all night. We read the same 3 books at least 15 times before I could finally get her to sit still long enough to stare at the same spot to realize that she was tired. It was great! Like I said she slept all night and so did I. Unfortunately, I think that Britt was up and down parts of the night. Between a baby kicking her bladder and the worry of Esther being on the other side of the house, she was the good mommy and kept checking on her to make sure all was okay. This morning I woke up to the sound of my alarm, but kept hitting snooze till I finally declared defeat and rolled out of bed. Through the monitor, we could hear Esther reading books to her animals, and then playing a concert on her little piano. She is better than Mozart, Beethoven, or Bach. I would almost put her up against Billy Joel, but there is just something about The Piano Man. He also has quite a bit more keys and peddles than the little one Esther has. Anyway... Life is going well, for the Moore tribe and will only get better- or more active.
I still haven't shaved my beard and it gets better looking everyday. Or at least I think so. I keep saying that I won't shave till the new baby gets here, and if its a girl I won't shave till I have a boy. Britts response is pretty blunt. She says that if its a girl, we won't wait a year to have #3. Britt doesn't like the beard??? So I guess boy or girl the beard will be coming off soon. I thought that I would try to E-Bay my beard when I shave, what do you think a sack of beard hair would go for. Do you sell it by the pound, the cubic inch, or individual strands. I guess I have some thinking to do.