Here are the pictures of the girls with Santa Claus:
Above: Santa with Emily & Jillian (Christmas 2007)
Above: Santa & Emily (Christmas 2007)
Below: Santa & Jillian (Christmas 2007)
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Saturday, December 15, 2007
No More Weekend Snoozing
Let me give you guys another peak into life at our house on Saturday mornings.
5 AM: On weekends, since my body is still use to waking up early, I usually wake up early and make my way to the TV room couch.
5:30 AM: Following 30 minutes of channel surfing, fall back to sleep.
8 AM: Missy and the girls gradually start to wake up and join me in the TV room for some Saturday morning cartoons.
8:30 AM: Missy takes a big stretch and announces to the rest of the room that she is going downstairs to start cooking breakfast. Since the girls first instinct is to follow their mother, I am left alone in the TV room to take a quick snooze on the couch.
9 AM: Missy sends Emily upstairs to inform Daddy that the coffee is ready and that he needs to come downstairs. Daddy says, "okay, go tell Mommy that I am on my way." Emily runs downstairs to give Mommy the message.
9:15 AM: Missy sends Emily back upstairs to inform Daddy that the coffee is STILL ready and that breakfast is now also ready. Daddy says, "okay, go tell Mommy that I am on the way." Emily runs back downstairs to give Mommy the message.
9:30 AM: Missy sends Emily back upstairs to inform Daddy that the coffee is STILL ready and that breakfast is now getting cold. Now that Daddy has gotten a full extra hour of wonderful weekend snoozing, it is time for him to get up and make his way downstairs to his well deserved breakfast.
At least that is the way that is used to work up until recently. Now here is how it works at my house on the weekends:
Everything is pretty much the same until:
9 AM: Missy sends Emily upstairs to inform Daddy that the coffee is ready and that he needs to come downstairs. Daddy says, "okay, go tell Mommy that I am on my way." Emily runs back to the top of the staircase and shouts, "MOMMY, DADDY SAYS HE'S ON HIS WAY!!!" Then she turns and runs back into the TV room and continues attempting to wake up her father. Realizing that he has been defeated, Daddy rolls off the couch and starts heading downstairs for coffee.
I am not sure how this has happened. Was it a well coordinated, evil plan perfectly executed by Missy? Or is Emily just getting old enough to realize that she can't trust her Daddy to get up on a Saturday morning? Or has some of my laziness finally started to come through in my daughter in that Emily doesn't walk all the way back downstairs to deliver a message but instead just shouts the message from the top of the stairs? Or is it a combination of the three?
5 AM: On weekends, since my body is still use to waking up early, I usually wake up early and make my way to the TV room couch.
5:30 AM: Following 30 minutes of channel surfing, fall back to sleep.
8 AM: Missy and the girls gradually start to wake up and join me in the TV room for some Saturday morning cartoons.
8:30 AM: Missy takes a big stretch and announces to the rest of the room that she is going downstairs to start cooking breakfast. Since the girls first instinct is to follow their mother, I am left alone in the TV room to take a quick snooze on the couch.
9 AM: Missy sends Emily upstairs to inform Daddy that the coffee is ready and that he needs to come downstairs. Daddy says, "okay, go tell Mommy that I am on my way." Emily runs downstairs to give Mommy the message.
9:15 AM: Missy sends Emily back upstairs to inform Daddy that the coffee is STILL ready and that breakfast is now also ready. Daddy says, "okay, go tell Mommy that I am on the way." Emily runs back downstairs to give Mommy the message.
9:30 AM: Missy sends Emily back upstairs to inform Daddy that the coffee is STILL ready and that breakfast is now getting cold. Now that Daddy has gotten a full extra hour of wonderful weekend snoozing, it is time for him to get up and make his way downstairs to his well deserved breakfast.
At least that is the way that is used to work up until recently. Now here is how it works at my house on the weekends:
Everything is pretty much the same until:
9 AM: Missy sends Emily upstairs to inform Daddy that the coffee is ready and that he needs to come downstairs. Daddy says, "okay, go tell Mommy that I am on my way." Emily runs back to the top of the staircase and shouts, "MOMMY, DADDY SAYS HE'S ON HIS WAY!!!" Then she turns and runs back into the TV room and continues attempting to wake up her father. Realizing that he has been defeated, Daddy rolls off the couch and starts heading downstairs for coffee.
I am not sure how this has happened. Was it a well coordinated, evil plan perfectly executed by Missy? Or is Emily just getting old enough to realize that she can't trust her Daddy to get up on a Saturday morning? Or has some of my laziness finally started to come through in my daughter in that Emily doesn't walk all the way back downstairs to deliver a message but instead just shouts the message from the top of the stairs? Or is it a combination of the three?
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Formal Communications
I have written a few times about my hopes that Missy and I would be a little more formal with each other. Remember this and this? But I think this time we have really taken it to the next level. About a year ago, I set up a laptop computer with our wireless card and put it in our kitchen. Missy immediately set up her email account on this computer and now it has become our primary means of communications during the workday.
Let me back up a little bit. One of the first things I learned after marrying Missy is that she did not like to give me news that she knew that I would not like. So to avoid this she springs things on me. For instance, when she volunteers me for some sort of duty at the church. She waits until Sunday morning sitting around the breakfast table to tell me that we have to hurry up and get dressed and get to the church so that I can perform some sort of church related duty. This way she only has to deal with MAD-ADAM for a few minutes rather than hours, days or even weeks. Of course, she would claim that she told me about this several weeks ago and that I just forgot.
But now that has all changed. Like I said above, Missy and I have come up with a more formal way of communicating throughout the workday. If you don’t have the email to prove that you communicated the unpleasant message then it did not happen and the husband has the right to refuse this unpleasant duty. Here is a recent chain of emails that illustrates my point:
Okay so she won that one but there are other advantages to having a virtual paper trail:
Let me back up a little bit. One of the first things I learned after marrying Missy is that she did not like to give me news that she knew that I would not like. So to avoid this she springs things on me. For instance, when she volunteers me for some sort of duty at the church. She waits until Sunday morning sitting around the breakfast table to tell me that we have to hurry up and get dressed and get to the church so that I can perform some sort of church related duty. This way she only has to deal with MAD-ADAM for a few minutes rather than hours, days or even weeks. Of course, she would claim that she told me about this several weeks ago and that I just forgot.
But now that has all changed. Like I said above, Missy and I have come up with a more formal way of communicating throughout the workday. If you don’t have the email to prove that you communicated the unpleasant message then it did not happen and the husband has the right to refuse this unpleasant duty. Here is a recent chain of emails that illustrates my point:
-----Original Message-----
From: Missy McAnally (Home)
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2007 10:56 AM
To: McAnally, Adam (Work)
Cc:
Subject: church weenie roast
Adam, (editor’s note: she still refuses to call me Mr. McAnally but we’re working on that)
Just sending you a reminder that this Sunday afternoon is the church weenie roast and I signed you up to be the Head-Weenie. You will need to try on the weenie suit this evening when you get home to make sure that it fits.
I Love You!!!!
Missy
-----Original Message-----
From: McAnally, Adam (Work)
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2007 11:16 AM
To: Missy McAnally (Home)
Cc:
Subject: RE: church weenie roast
Missy,
A “reminder” implies that you had told me about this obligation in the past, which is not the case here. I therefore, will not be able to fulfill this important duty. Please pass along my regrets to the weenie roast committee.
Love,
Adam
-----Original Message-----
From: Missy McAnally (Home)
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2007 11:27 AM
To: McAnally, Adam (Work)
Cc:
Subject: RE: church weenie roast
Adam,
Please check your email for the message that I sent you on Wednesday, November 28, 2007 7:25 AM informing you of this obligation. Please do not be too late getting home this evening because I need to know ASAP if the weenie suit requires any adjustments.
Warmest Regards,
Missy
-----Original Message-----
From: McAnally, Adam (Work)
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2007 11:29 AM
To: Missy McAnally (Home)
Cc:
Subject: RE: church weenie roast
DAMN!!!!!
-Adam (a.k.a. the Head-Weenie)
Okay so she won that one but there are other advantages to having a virtual paper trail:
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Meet my Mini-Me
One of the best parts of being a parent is the ability to mold your children into the perfect partner for whatever hobbies you happen to enjoy. We all know that we should share many common interests and hobbies with our spouses, but it's never quite the same as being able to start completely from scratch and mold a perfect playmate. For example, some fathers enjoy fishing. They proceed to mold their children into the perfect fishing buddy. Someone that is always ready to help haul the rods and tackle boxes down to the lake and drown some worms. In my case, I am currently working on three different hobbies. First, I really need a tennis partner. Second, I really like playing two player video games. And finally, I really love playing cards.
First is tennis. Missy and I have played tennis a few times, but she usually gives out after about 30 minutes because her shoulder starts to bother her. So far I have had only limited success turning Emily and Jillian into the next Venus and Serena Williams, but it has been fun trying. We usually just swat at the tennis balls in the driveway. This fall, Missy and I enrolled Emily in an after school program called Playball, and we have already seen a dramatic improvement in Emily's coordination. Hopes are very high that eventually I will have a couple of top-notch tennis partners.
Next is two-player head-to-head video games. Shortly after getting married, I talked Missy into letting me buy a Playstation 2 since it would also double as a second DVD player. But even as a kid, the only video games that I really enjoyed playing were the games that two players could play together at the same time. Remember Atari's Combat or Joust? Those were the games that I could play for hours with my brothers and sister. So the only games that I bought were games that two players could play at the same time. The games that I own are Virtual Fighter, Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup and Gran Turismo. Missy didn't turn out to be very much of a gamer, and since I am easily bored playing video games by myself, for the next 6 years my PS2 really was just a second DVD player. Now, that has all changed. Last year I began teaching Emily how to play Gran Turismo. She is coming along pretty well. She is learning how to work the PS2 controller and beginning to learn how to navigate her car around the track. I predict that in a few more months, I will not have to LET her win the races anymore and then the real competition will begin. One thing about playing this game with my daughter is that sometimes I get the feeling that her favorite part of the game is shopping for a new car. She really gets into picking out the model of car and then takes forever to choose which color is just right. She gives absolutely no consideration to the horsepower of the car that she is picking. In fact, I think that she feels that the actual race itself is just the thing that you just have to do before you can shop for another new car. But as long as we are spending time together, both having fun, it's a very good thing.
First is tennis. Missy and I have played tennis a few times, but she usually gives out after about 30 minutes because her shoulder starts to bother her. So far I have had only limited success turning Emily and Jillian into the next Venus and Serena Williams, but it has been fun trying. We usually just swat at the tennis balls in the driveway. This fall, Missy and I enrolled Emily in an after school program called Playball, and we have already seen a dramatic improvement in Emily's coordination. Hopes are very high that eventually I will have a couple of top-notch tennis partners.
Next is two-player head-to-head video games. Shortly after getting married, I talked Missy into letting me buy a Playstation 2 since it would also double as a second DVD player. But even as a kid, the only video games that I really enjoyed playing were the games that two players could play together at the same time. Remember Atari's Combat or Joust? Those were the games that I could play for hours with my brothers and sister. So the only games that I bought were games that two players could play at the same time. The games that I own are Virtual Fighter, Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup and Gran Turismo. Missy didn't turn out to be very much of a gamer, and since I am easily bored playing video games by myself, for the next 6 years my PS2 really was just a second DVD player. Now, that has all changed. Last year I began teaching Emily how to play Gran Turismo. She is coming along pretty well. She is learning how to work the PS2 controller and beginning to learn how to navigate her car around the track. I predict that in a few more months, I will not have to LET her win the races anymore and then the real competition will begin. One thing about playing this game with my daughter is that sometimes I get the feeling that her favorite part of the game is shopping for a new car. She really gets into picking out the model of car and then takes forever to choose which color is just right. She gives absolutely no consideration to the horsepower of the car that she is picking. In fact, I think that she feels that the actual race itself is just the thing that you just have to do before you can shop for another new car. But as long as we are spending time together, both having fun, it's a very good thing.
And finally, we have card playing. Anyone that knows me and my family knows that when we get together we going to play some cards. Spades, Hearts, Poker - it doesn't matter. A family sitting around the table playing cards, talking, laughing and sometimes drinking is a wonderful thing. Emily and I have been playing cards for the last two years now and yesterday we took a great leap forward. Up until now it's been Go Fish and Old Maid, but yesterday Emily and I started playing one of my personal favorites: Crazy-8s. We had fun although it is not as easy to let her win Crazy-8s as it was to let her win Go Fish and Old Maid, but I think that learning to lose is just one of life's lessons that has to come sometime. So far, the only down side to our card games has been that she has picked up some of my love of trash-talking during the game. You should just hear her whenever she fishes out the card that she needs during a game of Go Fish. I predict that it will only be a matter of time before Emily and I are playing Texas Hold'em double-or-nothing for her college account money. Wish me luck!!!
Adam's very own Mini-Me
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