well, mongo gained another inch and 2 pounds over the last month. at 4 months old, joey is now 26" long and weighs 18 pounds. he also rolled over for the first time this morning! i thought it was going to take another few months for him to do that, due to his size, but he was somehow able to work the momentum generated by his head and torso and rolled himself all the way over to his stomach. guess he'll be crawling soon.
finally, i'm back in the office at my pc and can update the blog with pictures. i've been inside the house the last 2 weeks because we were having our porch painted, and since it was being done by someone we didn't know, i felt more comfortable working in the house than in the garage. now that it's done, i've returned to my 'hood.
this year, we decided that we would have a costume party for charlie's 4th birthday, and that it would be on the saturday after halloween, november 1. starting oct 30, we had a pretty busy schedule for about 5 days. thursday was his costume parade at school, followed by a costume parade on the asbury boardwalk that afternoon. friday was halloween, so you can imagine how hectic that day was. saturday, we prepared for that night's costume party. kim had purchased all kinds of spooky decorations and turned the house into a frightening party vessel. the party was a hit, and all invitees (just family) were decked out in their best halloween get-ups. sunday, we went to six flags great adventure for the last day of its season and had a ball. while we were gone sunday, dick and nancy dropped off a bounce house for charlie to use for the week (they know someone from their church who loans it out to people). monday, we blew up the bounce house and jumped for quite a while. tuesday was charlie's birthday. we went out to dinner and gave him his presents from us that night. we are all now finally coming off our sugar highs, brought on by all the candy from halloween and the 2 cakes kim baked for charlie's birthday - 1 for the party and 1 for his birthday. Both cakes were real cool!
i've linked all the pictures to my online web albums in picassa (google's online photo album storage site). please let me know if you run into any issues trying to view the pics.
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| Halloween parades 2008 |
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| halloween and charlie's costume party 2008 |
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| charlie bouncy house and birthday 2008 |
for any of you blazing saddles fans, you know the charactor i'm referring to in the title of this post. if you're not familiar with blazing saddles, mongo was played by alex karras, a defensive tackle for the detroit lions in the 60s and early 70s (you may also remember him as the adoptive father in the sitcom "webster".) in the movie, mongo was a very strong, very large henchman sent to eliminate the new sheriff. however, mongo was defeated by the cunning new sheriff when the sheriff appealed to mongo's only weakness - candy. mongo then became an ally for the good guys and helped them defeat the evil attorney general and his band of misfits (if you haven't seen the movie yet, please watch it - it might be one of the funniest movies ever made.)
we've got a mongo jr on our hands with joey. he's now 3 months old and is 16 lbs and 25" long. he gained 3 pounds in a month, and has already more than doubled his birth weight. that milestone isn't supposed to be reached until 6 months or later. besides mongo, he's also being referred to as "the fire hydrant".
i just called xm satellite radio to cancel our car radio subscription and was on hold for a few moments. during that time, there was a promo announcement involving the merger of xm and sirius satellite radio. according to the promo, you can now sign up for the best of sirius, "featuring the howard stern channel, the nfl channel, martha stewart, the playboy channel, and nascar." what demographic are they trying to appeal to? do you think martha enjoys being lumped in with that crowd?
maybe they should have included martha in a grouping of stations that include ivan boesky, michael milken, bernie ebbers, dennis kozlowski, and samuel waksal.
this past weekend, kim, joey, and i ventured up to portsmouth, new hampshire to visit with our friends jessica and larry mcgondel (charlie wanted to stay home with his mimi pat). we ate some great food, drank a whole bunch of really good wine, and watched the red sox split the first 2 games of the alcs. saturday, we spent the day at the topsfield fair, about 25 miles south of portsmouth in mass. this was a huge fair with an abundance of food and entertainment. we saw cattle, pigs, goats, a border collie demonstration, played some typical fair games, and did some great people watching. at some point during the day, larry and i were talking about saturday night live and how the sketches are just too long and not as funny as they used to be. once back at the house, larry showed me one of his favorite sketches called mark wahlberg talks to animals, which i enjoyed very much, so i thought i would post that one along with my favorite. enjoy!
sorry, i couldn't resist the cheesy rename of october, adding to the already extremely overused rocktober and the not as popular shocktober. this is one of my favorite times of year to watch sports - the nfl and college football are in full swing, and the mlb playoffs have started. awesome! here are a few observations from watching the baseball playoffs:
- the boston red sox are on a collision course with the la dodgers and one of the most prolific offensive players ever - manny ramirez - who by the way they traded away during the season to the la dodgers (incidentally, being managed by joe torre, the longtime manager of the yankees, the hated rival of the red sox). my head is spinning.
- the tampa bay rays are for real and dangerous.
- there is some sort of device called a blackberry that can handle email/phone/pics, etc. this is an ingenious invention, but will never take off. no one wants to be in constant contact with work.
- academy award winner timothy hutton has a new show debuting in december on tnt, but it has been kept under wraps and its name escapes me.
- noah wiley is starring in an indiana jones rip off made-for-tv movie
- thank goodness chicago has the bears, bulls, and blackhawks, or there would be a spike in the number of people jumping from the sears tower this week.
- 100 wins in a soft division doesn't mean a thing (see "California LA Anaheim and whatever other geographic name you would like to give to the Angels)
- frank caliendo does great impressions, but how will they translate into a season's worth of shows?
- nobody cares about the phillies or the brewers
- everybody has a little captain in them.
a couple other things to ponder:
apparently, joe biden learned only 9 commandments, skipping over the 8th commandment at some point.
so far, barack obama's answers to america's woes are more vague than a fortune in a fortune cookie.
does being a vietnam vet and a "maverick" qualify someone to be president?
if sarah palin winks at a camera one more time, i think i'm going to go ballistic.
the economic bailout plan sucks! why should we have to pay for the idiocy of these large bank's decisions. shouldn't the decision makers/ceo's of those banks be held responsible?
i'm stumping for presidential votes, so if anyone is as fed up with the current candidates as i am, please feel free to write me in as your choice. i know i've got at least 1 vote so far.
that's what charlie called the apples during our 2008 apple picking excursion this week. the apples were plentiful and, as a matter of fact, scrumptious. this was joey's first apple picking experience, and he missed most of it as he was sleeping very comfortably in a front carrier that kim was wearing. once we got home, we made an apple pie and apple sauce. the apple sauce turned out terrific, but the apple pie could have used a little more flavor. i think our mistake was using mostly red delicious apples in the pie, instead of the more tart stayman winesap apples. oh well, you live and learn.
we've also found a new wine we enjoy very much - ferrari carano fume blanc. very light and refreshing and at around $15/bottle, very affordable too.
dont' think you're going to see a review of the movie starring mickey rourke and kim bassinger...
this is a joey update. we had a doctor's appointment today for joey, his monthly well visit, and it seems he had a small growth spurt over the last 4 weeks. at his last visit, 8/28/08, joey weighed 10 lbs and was 22 1/2" long, and everything seemed to be going very well. today, joey weighs in at 13 lbs, 8 oz, and is 24 1/4" long. he gained 3 1/2 lbs and 2" in 4 weeks. if he continues to grow at this pace, we'll have the next defensive lineman for the ny giants in 3 years. even more surprising was the revelation that joey has a big head. so big, as a matter of fact, that the doctor wanted us to get an ultrasound of his head to make sure there wasn't anything in the skull that shouldn't be there. not sure what he would have been looking for - a basketball, gazing ball, soccer ball, the world's largest rubber band ball, but he wanted to take a look to err on the side of safety (really, all he needed to do was take a close look at my head and he would have understood.) so we had the ultrasound this afternoon, and sure enough, everything is perfect. nothing in his head that shouldn't be there, other than a ton of brains.
i have to go now - joey's calling me in for my lesson on the theory of relativity.
when we were speaking with the director of Charlie's preschool, she told us that they will be teaching the kids to print the capital letter J without its top (or hat) because that is the way the entire school system is teaching it. huh??? there are so many other issues that should/could be addressed rather than spending time to decide to teach the capital letter J without its top. imagine the discussion - "should we be teaching evolution or creation? should their be prayer in the school? whatever we decide, we have to make sure that the kids don't put a top on their capital J." i don't get it. and i'm guessing it's not the teachers making this decision, it's the administration.
did anyone think of how the letter J might feel about this? maybe he likes to wear a hat to keep his bald head from being exposed to the sun. maybe she likes to wear a hat because she's famous and likes to be incognito when she goes out. shouldn't they teach it both ways and let the kids decide which way they want to print it? or is that too much to ask of our teachers?
maybe there is a valid reason for this, but i haven't been able to find one. maybe it's because the capital letter J looks similar to the capital letter T, but if the teachers aren't able to teach the difference between the 2, we've got bigger problems. i asked the director of the preschool and she doesn't know why and i can't find anything on google or wikipedia. if someone knows, please leave a comment. i just can't believe they've taken away the letter J's identity. without its hat, it's just a hook.
charlie's first week of school has passed with things going off without a hitch. there weren't any separation issues - as a matter of fact, he wants to know when he can go back. obviously, a very good sign. however, on his first day (the open house) day, they took the parents up to the church portion of the nursery school to give us some information about the year and what we should expect, as well as give the teachers an idea of how the kids are going to react to mornings without mom and dad. during this session, the head of the preschool spoke about each child's cubby and that we should check it often for important information regarding classes, volunteer opportunities, special events, and so on. and then she drops this bomb - "and you'll find that we have a homework assignment for your children in their cubby for their next class." homework?!?! the first day of class? in preschool? all of these thoughts went through my head, accompanied by a large, disappointed sigh. obviously, you can gauge what kind of student i was by my reaction that my preschool child had homework. all we had to do was thumb through a magazine to find a picture of something yellow, something blue, and something red, cut them out, put them in an envelope with our child's name on it, and make sure the teacher gets it first thing in the morning. couldn't be any easier, yet i was bothered by the fact that homework had now worked its way back into my life. after kim talked me off the ledge, i realized that the next 23 years of homework will be different than the first 28 years (keep in mind that it took me 10 years to finish my higher education) because this time around, i'll be the one making sure the homework is finished, not the one doing the homework. i will assist whenever i can with whatever Charlie and Joey bring home (unless it has to do with math, then kim will take over) and will love helping them when they need it. let's just hope they don't give the kids homework over the weekend - yuck!
some exciting news from monday's golf outing. first, our team won the event with a score of 11 under - our first win ever. the team of my brother, my father, my grandfather, and I had never even been close in the past, so this was as surprising to us as it was to everyone else. also, that day was my grandparents 63rd wedding anniversary, and our 8th anniversary, so it was a great gift to my grandfather and i to be playing together and win on our anniversary. But now, the real big news - my brother got his first hole-in-one! i've never seen one in person and it was quite a thrill to watch and be a part of. i wonder if there are any 33 year olds out there that can say they got their first hole-in-one while playing with their brother, father, and grandfather. a truly special moment for him!
it's been quite a while since Raynor Shine has sat near the top of the blog rolls, but with it's triumphant return, it should stay at or near the top for quite some time.
summer is unofficially over here at the jersey shore, but the weather has still been beautiful. we're "bracing" for Hanna to strike this weekend, closing all the table umbrellas and brining in all the floating pool toys. hopefully, the storm won't last into monday because that is the day that my brother, dad, grandfather, and i play in a golf tournament that benefits nancy's employer, interfaith neighbors. our 4some has never won, but i think we have a pretty good chance of surprising some people this year. my brother is finally playing very well, which should help the team tremendously.
charlie starts preschool next tuesday. he'll be going to school from 8:45 - 11:30 tuesday and thursday mornings. the first day of school is an "open house" day, which just means the parents stay with their children throughout the morning to get a feel for what will be going on the rest of the year. charlie seems to be very excited to start school and meet new friends. he's already asked me if i could build a bed for his bedroom so that he could have friends stay overnight. i think that's a little ambitious (the idea of the sleepover and me building a bed), but i would bet that it won't be long before his friends are coming over to play and have snacks.
joey is doing great. he's eating very well, and loves to sleep. he is now 10 lbs and 22.5". that equates to a 2 lb, 2.5" growth spurt in 4 weeks. he and charlie get along very well, and charlie is very protective of his little brother. it looks like joey will have dark eyes, probably brown. right now, his hair has a lot of red in it, but that will most likely change. he loves to furrow his brow, and when he does, he turns from cute baby to old man in a matter of seconds (for anyone who can remember, when he scowls, he looks like the men in the Keystone Light, Bitter Beer Face commercials).
kim starts back to work the week of 9/15. she'll work 2 days that week (tues and thurs), 2 days the next week (tues and thurs), and then 3 days a week (tues, weds, thurs) until mid march, when she'll go back full time. i know she's going to miss all 3 of her boys, but i'm pretty sure she's anxious to get back into the grind.
here's an ode to summer in pictures:
tv, wine, music, and a razor. 3 of these go very nicely with one another. and, surprisingly, music held its own as i was watching tv with a couple glasses of wine shaving my stubble. :)
so you think you can dance finale:
i believe the voters got it right - joshua was the strongest dancer and seemed to excel with every genre of dance that was given to him. the final show was excellent, with a good old fashioned breakdance competition as the special event of the evening. i did pretty good with my picks, too. when they narrowed it down to the top 20, i chose the 2 i thought would be in the final - twitch and will. will was in the top 6 before he was voted off, and twitch made it to the final 2.
ledson medocino county chardonnay:
in the last post, i mentioned that i have a flip video ultra video recorder and thought it was awesome, recommending that you should run out and purchase one asap. well, it just got infinitely better. earlier this week, while surfing on the flip video website to provide you with the price of the model, i came across an accessory that i had to have - an underwater case! it is made only for the flip video ultra and is somewhat hard to find. luckily, the local circuit city had one in stock, so i picked it up and broke it out last night while charlie was swimming in the pool. i love it! it was $50 and well worth every penny (i think). check out the video posted below. the video appears a little pixelated because of the upload to the web, but when viewing it from the original file, it is clear as a bell.
it's been a busy 2 weeks since joey was born and i haven't had a whole lot of time at the pc, so i plan on making up for lost time with this post. joey was born on a monday and we were home by lunchtime that wednesday. from wednesday through the weekend, we had many visitors come by the house to introduce themselves to joey. nancy flanigan, my brother, and a neighbor all brought us dinners that were delicious and because there were so many leftovers, we ate well for the last 2 weeks. my mother plans on getting in on the action this week by making us a scrumptious turkey/chicken meatloaf. once that is done, i guess we'll have to start making our own dinner again. ;)
before joey was born, kim decided she wanted to breast feed him. while at the hospital, joey took to breastfeeding very well. there were a couple instances where kim would need the help of one of the nurses to get joey eating, but everything was going along smoothly. there was a ton of pressure to breastfeed from many of the nurses and even kim's midwife, but i continued to let kim know that i was behind whatever decision she wanted to make regarding the nutrition of our baby. she wanted to continue to breastfeed until it was time to put him on a bottle. a day after we got home from the hospital, we ended breastfeeding and went to the bottle, and things were perfect. joey didn't want to have anything to do with breastfeeding once we got home and instead of going through the stress we went through with trying to breastfeed charlie, we switched over to the bottle. we also use room temperature water to make his bottles, which is a switch from when we would give charlie his bottles. charlie's bottles had to be warm, and that posed many logistical problems, so with joey, we went out and bought a case of water from costco and keep the water bottles on the counter at room temp. this makes it much easier to feed joey. he's a great sleeper, waking only 1 time a night to eat, and then falls right back to sleep when he's done. he goes to sleep around 10:30ish, wakes up about 3:00 in the morn to feed, and then is back to sleep until around 7:30. he rarely cries, except a couple times when he was starving, but we couldn't get to his bottle because we were in the car going someplace, and the one time when the tip of his finger got pinched in the shoulder strap clip of his car seat, which, by the way, will never be discussed again. charlie loves his little brother. he sings lullabies to him at night (using his own words) and is always giving him hugs and kisses. he helps us with diaper changing and anything else that he might be able to do for his little brother. it's a wonderful thing to watch and be a part of.
and since we're talking about charlie, here's a little story that i thought was very cute. every night, i put him in bed and tuck him in and we say our prayers - "now i lay me down to sleep, angels at my head and feet. in the morning when i wake, i pray the lord my hand to take." the other night, we got finished with our prayers, and charlie told me he didn't want the lord to take his hand because then he wouldn't be able to grab anything. i didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but i explained to him that he wasn't really going to take his hands, he was just going to make sure that he got through the day safe. apparently that explanation was satisfactory because he was asleep very soon after.
my brother, sister in law, and niece got me an awesome gift for my birthday in June - a flip video. if you haven't seen one of these yet, you need to go out and get one as soon as you can. they are fantastic. it's a digital video recorder the size of a cell phone that can records 60 minutes of video in color. it has a built in usb attachment that makes downloading these videos to your pc or laptop easy, and the quality is excellent. according to the flip video website, www.theflip.com, the price of the 60 minute flip ultra (my recorder) is $149.99. you can get them at target, walmart, best buy, sears, amazon, etc. they are really cool. i've posted a video of joey just a few minutes after he was born.
finally, now that kim is no longer pregnant, i will begin doing some wine reviews. for the most part, i held off on drinking wine while kim was pregnant, but now that she can join me for a glass or 2, i will post some reviews of some of the wines we like and dislike. look for the first review coming very soon!
remember the good ole days, when your mom or dad would drop you off at the mall for a day of cavorting with your friends, making fun of all the "old" people (which we have now turned into)? or if you were a parent, remember dropping the kids off at the mall and thinking to yourself "finally, a couple hours of peace and quiet"? i remember those days, and the best part about those days was heading to Orange Julius for one of their awesome Orange Julius drinks. Dairy Queen has since taken over the Orange Julius franchise, and there aren't many of the Orange Julius stores around anymore. but if you were ever a fan of the orange julius drink and have been craving one for the past 20+ years, you may want to try one of the recipes below. they are both for an orange julius.
Recipe #1
6 oz frozen concentrate orange juice
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
6 ice cubes (believe it or not, the quantity of ice cubes does matter with this recipe)
combine all ingredients into blender and blend until frothy.
call your mom or dad and have them come pick you up from the mall.
drink up.
Recipe #2
2/3 cup frozen concentrate OJ
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup powdered sugar
6 ice cubes
combine all ingredients into blender and blend until frothy.
go to the payphone to call your friend and tell him that jenny said that mary said that lisa said that betty likes him and wants to go to the dance with him.
drink up.
recipe #1 is much sweeter than recipe #2, but recipe #1 is the way i remember orange julius drinks tasting like.
and the winner is - believe it or not - me. with a guess of boy, july 18, 7 lbs, 14 oz, i was the closest to 1000 points with 994 (-3 points for the date, -3 points for the weight). this is a tremendous relief because now i can take the $1500 prize and put it in joey's college fund.
i think i'll celebrate by using a coupon for a free pint of ben and jerry's ice cream and indulge for dessert tonight.
actually, that coupon is the prize. i've been entertaining myself, though, picturing some of the reactions to the fake money prize. :)
i will post the winner of the baby pool shortly (as soon as i have it calculated), but here are everyone's guesses:
Gender Date Lbs Oz
Kim Girl 23-Jul 7 10
Doug Boy 18-Jul 7 14
Pat Flanigan Girl 18-Jul 7 10
Scott Raynor Girl 18-Jul 8 3
Laura Dundas Boy 23-Jul 8 4
Jessica McGondel Boy 22-Jul 9 8
Dad Raynor Boy 18-Jul 8 6
Maggie Dorato Girl 12-Jul 8 10
Mom Raynor Boy 16-Jul 7 8
Bri Ivey Girl 11-Jul 8 2
Nancy Flanigan Girl 14-Jul 8 1
Larry McGondel Girl 19-Jul 9 2
Nate Ivey Girl 18-Jul 7 7
Granny Sandusky Girl 27-Jul 7 11
Amanda Coppola Girl 23-Jul 8 4
Marge Raynor Boy 16-Jul 7 2
Chuck Raynor Girl 12-Jul 7 12
i've always said family should be the most important thing in somebody's life. work, friends, etc always come after family. since i try my best to live by that credo, i thought it would be very hard to charge the family to see pictures of the baby. People magazine wanted to pay a couple million dollars for these pictures, but i'm holding out for more (please don't forward this to anyone at People Mag). to see the pictures, just click on the picture below and it should take you to the web album for viewing.
without further ado, Joseph William Raynor!
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| Joseph William Raynor |
Joseph WIlliam Raynor was born July 21 at 11 pm weighing in at 7 lbs 11 oz and 19.5 inches. Mom and baby are doing well.
Kim and i arrived at the hospital at around 5:30 this evening and are ready to push this baby out. kims water brke around 5:30 this morn and since she really wasn't having any contractions all day, the dr told us to head to the hospital so that they could help the process along. kim just got an iv of petosin, which is a drug that apparently helps induce labor. she could be pushing in an hour, or it could be several hours before the pushing begins. what we do know is that they dont have any rooms left for us after the baby is born, so we'll have to stay in our delivery room until one comes available.
next post should be the introduction!
This is a test blog from my mobile phone. i want to be sure to give everyone the most up to date info on baby raynor and have set up mobile blogger to be able to do so. check back often over the next few days because it's going to have to happen any day now.
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Sent from my Verizon Wireless LGVX9900 device.
baby raynor is still resting comfortably inside mommy's womb, and it doesn't appear that he/she wants to arrive any time soon. we thought the heat and humidity of the weekend would help move things along, but we were mistaken.
stay tuned...
time for a couple more recipes. these are more of my favorites, especially in the summer.
spiked lemonade:
2 C lemon flavored seltzer or club soda
1/2 C citrus flavored vodka
1/2 C fresh lemon juice
1/4 C sugar
1/4 C triple sec (if you want to get fancy, use grand marnier instead of triple sec)
combine ingredients in a large pitcher. serve over crushed ice.
this lemonade is not recommended to be used for a lemonade stand. i'm pretty sure selling this by the glass without a liquor license could warrant a hefty fine from the authorities.
easy key lime pie:
1 - 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 - 6oz can frozen limeade concentrate
1 cup heavy cream
1 - 6oz graham cracker pie crust
-place the condensed milk, limeade concentrate, and cream in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until fluffy and soft peaks form
-pour the filling into the piecrust and smooth the top
-refrigerate until chilled and loosely set, at least 4 hours (and up to overnight)
sidenote - if you couldn't find a 6oz can of frozen limeade concentrate and had to use half of a 12oz container, use the remaining limeade concentrate to make a half of a pitcher of margaritas (see the margartia recipe at http://bubsraynor.blogspot.com/2008/06/perfect-refreshment.html, and just half the recipe).
today, we took charlie to monmouth park racetrack for their "dawn patrol" program. they open the track up to early risers, provide juice, coffee, and doughnuts, and give you a tour of the behind the scenes workings of the horse track. it is a very informative tour that takes you through the stable area, the backstretch of the track, and even into the jockey's room. cool stuff.
after dawn patrol, we headed north to sea bright to check out the pod of dophins that have been frolicking in the river for the past week. reports have the number of dolphins in the pod at around 14, all of which are moms and their calves. this is a big deal because dolphins don't normally hang out in the rivers in NJ. you usually find them a few miles off shore in the ocean. every now and then, they may come in close to the beach and give you a little bit of a show, but not that often. many are worried that the 4th of July boat traffic in the river will hurt the dolphins, so they are attempting to coax them back out into the ocean before next week.
