The Vileation Nation

Keeping Busy

2009-06-29T15:57:00.005-04:00

We had an amazing time in Avalon, NJ this past weekend...and in Jersey City, NJ and Langhorne, PA the previous weekend...and in Foxburg, PA the previous weekend...and in Perryville, MD the previous weekend.

In other words, we've been busy.

It should be noted that Jake started taking some shaky steps during the Perryville, MD weekend (which was June 4-7). Now he's cruising the beach like he's been doing this all his life.

So I think Jake has just about covered his "Things To Do Before I Turn One" list.

Learn to sit up unassisted
Say Da Da over and over again (with the VERY occasional Ma Ma)
Find two things and bang them together
Feed myself (but not with silverware...that will be on my Things To Do Before I Turn Two list)
Try pizza and ice cream
Pet Luther
Crawl
Walk
Trick my parents into thinking I'm playing safely in the TV room, but really walk over to the stairs and start climbing
Visit NJ, PA, OH, DE, GA, OK, WV (and probably more that my parents have forgotten)
Learn to respond to my name
Laugh when people tell me "no"
Make some friends
Make my parents laugh every day
Drive a car (pictured below)
Put my feet in the ocean
Grow my hair out
Visit a couple Civil War battlefields (yes, Antietam AND Gettysburg)
Learn how to update the blog

Jake has about 4 weeks left to figure out that last bullet point. Here's hoping. But don't hold your breath, this guy has places to go, people to see...just check him out below!

Blame it on Facebook

2009-05-26T21:21:00.016-04:00

I mean, Facebook is where it's at. It's a virtual vortex. It consumes all my time. Well, almost all my time. Any leftover time is spent over at Cake Wrecks. Makes me almost as happy as a 9-month old with a teddy bear.

Okay...here's what's going on over here. This past weekend we were fortunate enough to hang out with Joe and Jess...who gave us the shredded map piece of Furoma...oh wait, that's a Mousehunt allusion from Facebook, sorry. Anyway, they introduced us to the most fabulous trail situation in Greater Baltimore and we are GRATEFUL. Check out some pictures from our trail adventure...it was spectacular. Interestingly, we hung out with Joe and Jess on Saturday night...to watch the big UFC fight(s)...true story...and that's when they introduced us to this trail idea. Well Kevin, Jake and I gave it a shot on Monday. And who did we see while we were there? Joe and Jess! (I bet you guessed it.) And yes, those are a couple pictures of Jake at Chipotle after the trail adventure.

It should also be noted that we have a houseguest this week. His name is Buddy and he is a Boston Terrier. He is a delight. Luther may disagree, but hey, he can't type, so we're saying that Buddy is a delight. Even though this video ends with the guts of the toy rabbit in Buddy's mouth.

Jake is a hoot and he is having lots of fun cruising around. He's not officially walking, but he's pretty darn close. He is on the move and therefore so are we.

Hmmm, let's see, wow, it's been a long time since we've updated. We have also attended the Wine in the Woods event in Columbia, Jake experienced Baby Dedication at church, Kevin evidently has some fabulous green thumb because our yard looks good, we saw Slumdog Millionaire, we found out Jake isn't going to be the youngest of his cousins (congrats, Casey and Chris!), we added some weird branches to our family tree by attending the wedding of Kevin's cousin, who is good friends with my Dad's cousin, which means Jake somehow puts us all in the same family, and I'm sure the list goes on.

And frankly we've had lots on our minds. We've been thinking about finances and adoption and prayer and politics and jobs and...the list goes on.

Which leads me to ask...what's on your mind? (...those in the know will recognize that as a little homage to Facebook...)

What's on your mind?


Add: Link Photos Video Go Buckeyes!

Under Construction

2009-03-28T08:32:00.010-04:00

Is Divorce Court still on TV?

Because Kevin and I might be auditioning.

Okay, seriously, it's not that bad...but Project Bathroom is still not over and I'm itching to begin Project Dining Room...so...we need to be finished.

Enjoy some pictures of our journey. Note that I'm not in these pictures. That's because I was running around taking pictures of "our" bathroom project that Kevin did all the work on. And if I wasn't doing that, I was whining "I'm tired, I want to go to bed," or maybe something like "why didn't you rinse out those brushes?!?!"

Once again, Kevin is a saint.

(ps...Happy...um, I did not mean to steal the cartoon idea from your site, I really didn't!!! But hey, imitation is the sincerest (most sincere?) form of flattery...so, hopefully you're feeling sincerely flattered!!!)

"I'm Too Sexy For My Shirt"

2009-03-10T14:47:00.007-04:00

The time has come to submit Jake's picture to Grove City College so that he can be oooohed and aaaahed at via the Gedunk Magazine. Yes, alumni send pictures of their children for all to see. So GCC was kind enough to send a complimentary shirt as it is a requirement that the child be wearing the very shirt in the picture.

The shirt indicates that it is for an 18-month old. Evidently it is for an 18-month old hamster. It was NOT a pleasant experience to shove Jake into this shirt. And consequently I did not score any good shots.

Here are a few samples. To view the entire unfortunate collection, click here.

A weekend in PAradise

2009-03-09T20:51:00.012-04:00

You read it right. "PAradise." Meaning Pennsylvania...hence "PA"...hence "PAradise."

Anyway, we road-tripped it on out to Pennsylvania this weekend. Jake, Luther and I dropped Kevin off in Happy Valley and then continued on to the Greater Clarion area. We enjoyed a brief tour of the PSU campus and got the picture Kevin has been waiting for all of his life. His son with the Nittany Lion. We also have the one where his son almost fell off the Nittany Lion, but now we're back on the subject of calling CYS.

Because I took the camera with me, there is no documented footage of Kevin's stay in State College for the wrestling Big 10 tournament. I imagine Kevin is very thankful for that, seeing as how he was "dehydrated" when I picked him back up on Sunday.

And guess what? Those of you who follow the life and times of Karen over at "Another Stella Day" will be pleased to learn that I got to see her and her sweet little baby bump on my way up north. She and her GCC girls were having a reunion of sorts and were gracious enough to let me crash in for a minute to say hi, make Jake a bottle, let Luther out of the car, and snap a picture. Thanks girls, and it was absolutely fantastic to see you! Karen, your "Grubelet" is gorgeous already.

Then, in the Greater Clarion area, Jake, Luther and I stayed with my Nana and my parents came in to visit, too. Jake got to go meet his Great Great Grandmother...yes, that is two "greats." My Great Grandma will be 103 in April...born in 1906...can you imagine? 1906? And she is sharp as a tack. It was great. We also got to see my Aunt Carol and Uncle Rod and catch up a bit. Uncle Rod let Jake try on his hat which was a big hit! Check out four generations below...

After our visit with the McHenry side of the family, we went back to the Jordan side where we got to hang out with Uncle John and Aunt Helen and family. Have I ever shared this riddle with the blogging community? Well here it is. My mom's Uncle John, the gentleman I just mentioned, is not just her uncle...he's also her cousin. I promise...nothing scary...just an interesting fact. See if you can solve the riddle!

Next, we put Jake in the middle of the road and took his picture.

Then we even photographed the weird cows/bulls/steer (I don't know enough to tell the difference) across the street. I feel this was especially gutsy in light of the recent chimp disaster. Or especially stupid. It seems gutsy and stupid are separated by a very fine line. For complete coverage of the Greater Clarion tour, click here.

And then we were on our way back to Happy Valley to pick up Kevin. We enjoyed dinner with Pop Pop Vile and Walt...and even got to see Andrew for a minute. And that was that! A fabulous weekend for everyone in the Vileation Nation. And we even remembered the time change. Miracles still happen.

Oh, and check out pictures from Dog's baby shower here if you so choose! Dog is one cute pregnant lady, so I suggest you see for yourself.

Please don't call CYS

2009-03-05T08:54:00.004-05:00

Yes, I look as though I haven't showered in weeks (and likely haven't). And Jake looks like a smurf who is going hunting.

But it's still a funny picture.

And please don't call Children and Youth Services on us. We really do clean ourselves up now and then and dress our child normally. We just don't take pictures of boring stuff like that.

I lost my camera...?

2009-03-02T12:27:00.013-05:00

Just looking for a good excuse for why it has taken me this long to feed and water the ol' blog.

Since there is way too much to cover since Christmas, I'll just pick up from a couple weeks ago.

Dog and Jim came to town (and we played lots of "Ticket To Ride").

Kevin turned 32 (and Jake tasted frosting).

Sharyn came to town (and we went to Wegmans).

The Kruks had twins...a boy and a girl (and the Cudas and the Hardestys each had daughters!).

We went to Oklahoma City to see Casey and Chris (and the memorial from the Federal Building bombing).

I went to Columbus to celebrate with Dog at her baby shower. And I don't have pictures to share yet because, as mentioned, I left my camera in Ohio. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

That pretty much catches you up!

Oh...I finally read "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." Loved it. Loved it so much.

And also, Jake laughed a lot so far this year.

Glad to be back!

PS...some of you may remember that I participated in a marathon a couple years back...part of Team in Training, San Diego, etc. etc. (If you weren't aware of this maniacal event in my life, you should also pay close attention to the word "participated" and note that I by no means ran the whole thing...but darn it, I completed it). Anyway, if you are looking for a way to contribute in the fight against cancer, please consider giving at this generous woman's Team in Training site. It's a really difficult thing to fundraise $4100 and it's awesome when complete strangers pitch in. It really defines "community." Anyway, consider it! Thanks!

Jake's Christmas Gift

2009-01-03T22:26:00.004-05:00

Well, Jake wanted to give his grandparents some fun gifts for Christmas. Check them out below!

1 - The Journey of Jake

2 - Announcing Jake!

3 - Getting to Know You

Amy's note: If you don't laugh out loud right around minute 1:25-1:30 in the Growing Up video...well, I don't know...but you should. You should laugh right out loud.

Christmas Recap

2009-01-03T10:25:00.007-05:00

No real news over here at the Vileation Nation. We rang in 2009 with a pizza from Papa Johns (we tried the whole wheat crust because, you know, we're really trying to be healthy now that we have a Wii Fit). We also managed to convince a few people to come over and watch the Rose Bowl with us...I'm really glad we did because Kevin had to maintain some level of mature behavior since we had guests. If there were no guests, I am sure that he would have been in bed, under the covers, miserable. I am sure of this because that is exactly what happened after the big Iowa loss.

Anyway, here are our Christmas recap pictures...we really did have an absolutely wonderful holiday season.

And don't miss our pictures from the trip to the Eisenhower House in Gettysburg. Kevin wanted to get there in December because the house was decorated for Christmas. What they mean by "decorated for Christmas" is "a wreath on the front door." That part was a little disappointing.

Finally, here is a picture with Jake and his bear at each of his month birthdays so far.

Sharing Christmas

2008-12-18T18:20:00.008-05:00

Megan over at A Day with the Demos had a wonderful idea in inviting people to share Christmas via their blogs. Sadly, I don't have very much decorating skill. So here are a few shots of what we have going on in the Vileation Nation. But if you know what's good for you, you'll visit Megan's site which has links to other sites where people are also "sharing Christmas." People who actually decorate...and decorate well.

Here's the tree...and a toy of Jake's...

"Everybody loves a turkey and some mistletoe..." Or is it "Everybody loves a pug and a Christmas tree?"

We're so excited to have new titles this year...Mom and Dad! Which means new stockings, too...and of course Jacob has his own stocking as well.

Got this fun Advent calendar on sale at Target.

Jake will get a new ornament every year...this year he got a Panda, of course! And where did we get this ornament? Valley View Farms!

Our friend Glen is the coolest. He has given us the special White House ornament both this year and last. Very cool because last year's ornament is "A White House Wedding" and last year was our first Christmas as husband and wife. This year's ornament is "An Old Fashioned Christmas Tree." These ornaments are spectacular, I wish the picture could do them justice. Check out this site to get a better idea of how beautiful these ornaments truly are.

And here is Kevin's special ornament this year. You know he put the "Vile" in "Elvis."

Merry Christmas, everyone! Thanks for sharing the holiday season with us!

Santa Baby

2008-12-17T16:58:00.002-05:00

Yep, that's Santa and a baby, alright!

Experiment

2008-12-11T21:28:00.006-05:00

I have been experimenting with baking. Obviously. The gingerbread boys seem to have club feet.

I say "experimenting" because there is always a high likelihood that none of my end products will be fit for consumption. That's why we always have a good rotisserie chicken available as backup. Ha. Not sure why there's a chicken in the picture.

But some of the end products have looked decent this year, which I suppose is a start. Hopefully I'll have things actually tasting decent before Christmas arrives. Because so far nothing has really stood out as a winner. The sandwich-looking things above were relatively good...cranberry-oatmeal cookies with cream cheese icing in the middle. Thank you, Rachael Ray.

In completely unrelated news, I paid $18 (tip and everything) for a haircut today. I don't want to tell you how much cheaper that is than what I normally pay, but suffice it to say that now we can actually heat our house this winter.

I did something else monumental today. I killed a spider. With my father's college fraternity paddle. Just looking at the link for the spider is making me want to run and scream. A house spider. Come on. I've heard of house music, house parties and house keepers...but never a house spider.

Heckuva day over here in the Vileation Nation.

Check out Jake talking with Luther. Luther is obviously really blown away by Jake's sparkling conversation.

8 stones lighter...

2008-12-06T14:28:00.005-05:00

Luther is officially 8 stones lighter than he was last week at this time. He had surgery this week to remove the pesky bladder stones that have been making him crazy for some time now.

We didn't know Luther was preparing to go under the knife...we just thought he was going in to get his teeth cleaned. For those who don't know, dogs actually get "put to sleep" (the good kind, not the kind where they never come back) to have their teeth cleaned. Anyway, the doctor said that she would go ahead and take out the stones, too, if we wanted. Since the poor guy was already going to get anesthesia, we figured he may as well go all the way.

So here he his, recovering at home.

He seems to be recovering very nicely. I guess he should be...he doesn't have any of these things in him anymore:

In other news, Kevin is at the Army/Navy game today...GO ARMY, BEAT NAVY!

Thankful

2008-12-01T09:37:00.009-05:00

(thanks for the great bib, Aunt Dog and Uncle Jim!)

We are thankful for so many things...this year we are especially thankful to have seen so many friends and family members throughout the holiday...some of those friends being pumpkin pie, stuffing and lots of butter.

The McHenrys (on location in the Poconos...with the Dailey family who we somehow do NOT have a picture of!! That is the only drawback I can think of to the Pocono Experience...walking away without a souvenir photo of the Daileys)

Hanging out with Grandmom Vile

Playing Scrabble with Pop Pop Vile

Taking it easy with Glen and GG Mom

The Kmiecs (welcome, beautiful Megan!)

The Kruks (so excited to meet the twins!!!)

The Butvilles...with Kevin standing in for Jodi (welcome, sweet Carter!)

Alison and Aunt Evie (congratulations, Ali!!!)

Family

2008-11-24T09:44:00.008-05:00

Gosh...we love our family.

Right now we are mourning with our family. And there are other things that we are celebrating with our family. But especially as we enter this Christmas season, we are overwhelmed at the power of family.

And because the Vileation Nation is not known for its depth or proclivity for intensity, we'll stop all attempts at that sort of thing right here and now.

So...if any of our readers reside in the Greater Charlotte area, you absolutely must check out Angela Pace Photography. You will not be disappointed. Jake heard such good things about this lady that he called her up and asked her to come be his photographer. And guess what...she did it. THE Angela Pace got on a plane and came to Baltimore just to take some amazing shots of our Jake. It's also worth noting that THE Angela Pace happens to be my cousin and has been known to go ridiculously out of her way to help people out. You may recall that she somehow recovered all of our Key West pictures. Yep...she's good. (check out her site for some more cute pictures of Jacob.)

Anyway, I have been searching for the words to express just how incredible a photographer she is, but hopefully you've already clicked on the link to her site and have seen it for yourself. I'm telling you, she's amazing. All the pictures on this post are of the SAME baby...can you stand it?

So that was our excitement this weekend! A visit from our fabulous cousin who has been blessed with an incredible gift for photography. Special thanks to the Pace family for letting us steal Ang for the day!!!! You'll never know how grateful we are!!! Especially because most of our pictures look like this:

We'll be back to posting our own horrible pictures in the near future. And as a teaser...it turns out that Kevin has figured out the iMovie feature of the Mac...so...stay tuned...

So now that the election is over...

2008-11-05T21:44:00.015-05:00

...when does Scrubs come back on the air?

We at the Vileation Nation do not plan to share how we voted, but you have to admit that this article is pretty funny. (Please note the "I Voted" sticker in the above picture. Please also note that I still can't figure out how to use this Mac.)

So here's what we've been up to. A big trip to Columbus, OH to watch Penn State beat Ohio State. But other things happened there, too. For instance, we watched LeBron James arrive to be a guest at Game Day. Here he is. Right behind his body guard. Great photography skills by Amy. (read "unbelievably poor photography skills by Amy.")

Also, Kevin made Jake a nice sign to hold up in an effort to get on TV.

Also, Dog made cookies commemorating the occasion.

Then Amy headed to Cleveland with her parents and Jake so that she could be in Akron for work on Wednesday. It was a WONDERFUL week of lots of visitors and home-cooked meals. Thank you to Mrs. Edwards, Mrs. Olwert, Mrs. Elwell, the Daileys, the Goodmans and the Ciuleis for your visits and your general celebration of Jake! Below are Jeff and Julie, James and Joseph...welcome back to Ohio, Goodmans!

Speaking of Jake, he took his third flight. Evidently Continental knew he was coming because he was given an entire row in First Class and his mother was given a nice big glass of wine after she struggled to keep him from screaming before takeoff. Also...our JD laughs now! The best way to get a good hearty laugh out of him is to dance around like you have a top hat and cane. Gets him every time. He loves this fabulous John Lithgow CD that the Ciuleis gave him. Perfect for dancing as though you have a top hat and cane.

Kevin's parents came to visit last weekend and somehow we did not get out the camera. Glen came up for dinner, too, and it was really just such a nice, relaxing weekend.

Oh...and Halloween. Jake didn't dress up too much, he wore a cute little Halloween sleeper, but Luther wore his annual bumblebee costume. We can't get enough of Luther dressed as a bumblebee.

Luther, however, can get quite enough of Luther dressed as a bumblebee.

The Newest Member of the Vileation Nation

2008-10-16T12:18:00.006-04:00

No, the newest member of the Vileation Nation is not a baby, the newest member is our spectacular new sister-in-law, Kristin! Congratulations to Brian and Kristin on their marriage which took place this past Sunday, October 12.

Check out the pictures here. I wish I could have captured every detail on film, Brian and Kristin did an amazing job. Here is a list of just a FEW things that just really stood out. Incidentally, I'm typing this as I enjoy some of the homemade cranberry apple butter that they gave as favors. I am also listening to some music from the cd that they gave as a favor. Loving it.

Adorable welcome baskets when we arrived at the hotel (chocolate, hand cream, gum, maps, awesome!)

Amazing rehearsal dinner venue...the whole back patio area to ourselves! Complete with wine that Brian and Kristin selected from a wine tasting event.

Unbelievable place cards that were stamped with a nature theme. Look for them in the pictures.

Awesome music from a live jazz band and then a live band from Nashville, the Protomen!

Kristin MADE all the bouquets, boutennieres, etc. Made them. Whoa. She was at the wedding site cutting flowers and tying them together the morning of her wedding.

Hundreds of little meringue mushrooms that Brian and Kristin baked to put on their cake. Check them out in the pictures...amazing.

Honestly, the list goes on and on. Brian and Kristin had a beautiful day for their wedding and treated us all to a feast and a wonderful time of celebration. Congratulations to the Newlyweds!

At the Movies

2008-10-16T11:37:00.002-04:00

Here's Jake enjoying a "movie" from his crib.

Back in the Saddle

2008-10-15T21:46:00.016-04:00

Or "Back in the Baby Cage." Whatever.

Oh boy. It's a real Catch 22 around here. We've been having fun non-stop and have so much to report and share. However, all the fun we're having leaves little time for blog-posting. Especially when SOMEONE in the family insisted on buying a Mac as our new personal computer. We have no idea how to use it. SOMEONE should have done research on her own rather than just listened to people saying "you're going to love it!" People said "you're going to love it!" about the movies Spaceballs and Throw Momma From the Train, but SOMEONE didn't enjoy either of them. *note: the weird font nonsense that occurs halfway through this post is a result of the aforementioned someone not knowing how to fix the tricky html language junk. I blame the Mac.*

Anyway, we cannot possibly capture all the excitement that has gone on in the past month, so here's the quick run-down so that you're back in touch with the Vileation Nation. We then plan to start fresh with covering Brian and Kristin's wedding which occurred this past weekend.

So...

We hung out with the Kmiecs a couple times, which included playing SpiderMan Yahtzee, Uno Spin, and Blow Out Your Diaper.

We hung out with the King girls for a little while, which included Jake being enamored with older women. That's right, women between the ages of 4 and 9.

We hung out with Megan and Krissy and their kiddos. Check out Krissy's synopsis over at Two Are Better Than One. Megan and Krissy were the BSG Ambassadors (that's Bible Study Girls) and they treated Kevin and me to some amazing dinners and tons of hands-on child rearing experience!! It was a joy to spend time with Faith, Jonathan and Toby.

We hung out with the Jaglowskis as they passed through on their way to Ocean City for vacation and Sam's first experience with the ocean! They tried to convince us that we will love the Mac. Hmmmm.

Amy and Jake hung out with Melissa (from prenatal yoga) and her son Jack at the mall a couple of times. We also went to Baby and Me yoga and learned such hits as Hopalong Yogi and Chugga Chugga.

So that's the quick recap. Soon we will post about the big wedding in Atlanta this weekend. Hooray for Jake as he is now a member of the Delta Sky Miles program. Well, not quite, but he did manage to get to Georgia and back in an airplane, so we are very pleased with his progress. You will see that he has also become quite a prodigy at using his play center thing. With the help of a pillow for his feet, he's really giving that toy a run for its money. Then finally we have a picture of the boys outside for their fall photo shoot. Sadly this is probably the best shot. They are both super cute in person, the pictures don't do them justice...!

"I Can Tell That We Are Going To Be Friends"

2008-09-17T08:00:00.010-04:00

This past weekend Jake learned that there is life on this planet to which he can relate. Jake's new friend, Aaron, came to visit along with Aaron's mom, Susan, and the famous Dog. It's no secret that Jake is a bit of a fussbudget from time to time...but what we had previously chalked up to gas is more likely the misconception that the only people in this world are giants that weigh over 100 pounds and stand more than 5 feet tall. When Jake was hanging out with Aaron, a happy 5 month old, he was a different man. As Susan said, it was like Aaron was saying "dude, you're acting like such a 2 week old. You're old enough to smile and be fun...you should try that out."

Dog, Susan, the boys and I spent Saturday in Annapolis walking around the Naval Academy (mainly so we could earn our trip to the fudge and ice cream store). Then we walked around Hunt Valley on Sunday (mainly so we could earn our pizza for lunch). We had a great time touring around Maryland while Kevin spent the weekend in Syracuse watching Penn State dominate. Unfortunately only one of us could have the camera, so check out Amy's pictures here. Below is how Jake felt when Dog, Susan and Aaron left. It's also how he felt after the big OSU loss.
Also, the Vileation Nation has been sucked into Facebook. And the Nation has also purchased a new computer. This is a bad combo. I could use another 8 weeks of maternity leave (more like "materNERDy leave") so I can learn all this new technology (read: "so I can play fun new computer games").

*special thanks to Aunt Linnea and Aunt Sarah for Jake's weekend wardrobe!!!

The towel rack...as promised

2008-09-08T13:20:00.009-04:00

Before the big reveal on how we used a towel rack to "improve" our son's room, please note that Jake is SMILING in this picture. I think it's the real deal. He smiles when we get him out of his crib in the morning, too, which is so sweet of him since most days he has been crying for a good hour before one of his lazy parents actually gets out of bed to help him out.

So here's the towel rack. My vision is that Jake can use this for accessing his books when he's able to, well, access books. We'll see how this vision pays off...you don't see this idea in too many magazines (by that I mean ANY magazines), so I have to believe it's going to backfire in a big, awful way. As though putting a towel rack in a baby's room isn't already considered backfiring.

And here are Kevin, Jake and Luther at the Reisterstown Festival yesterday. We strolled through and enjoyed a lovely day of family time. Now it's back to the grind for Kevin and back to figuring out ways to make Jake keep smiling for me. Note to self...the sling does not bring smiles.

Labor Day

2008-09-06T22:49:00.007-04:00

What better way to celebrate Labor Day weekend than by celebrating the fruit of your literal labor.

Jake spent the weekend hanging out with both sets of grandparents as well as Great Nana. It was a wonderful time and the event is commemorated in photos here. You will note that we are prone to taking 6-7 pictures of the same thing. Each picture more blurry than the next. But anyway, here they are. Happy Birthday, Jake's Grandma!!!

Not to repeat myself, but we are tired. Very tired. Therefore the wittiness of the blog is suffering. So instead we'll say this...Jake becomes more awesome every day. He is weird and quirky and we love that. He is in love with a toucan sticker that is at his changing table. He thinks it's great if we pretend to eat his hands and feet. He looks like Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber when his hair is brushed a certain way. And he's always happiest right before spitting up. He's great.

So that's it...we'll work on getting wittier and more poignant. But no promises on when that will occur. Likely not until Jake is old enough to write the blog entries. Which could be next week. Because, look...that is a little bit of a smile there in the picture below...who knows what he might do next!

Oh...and good news, we've done some work on Jake's room and it looks far better. Even though the main improvement involved a towel rack. Pictures forthcoming.

Week 6

2008-08-29T21:56:00.008-04:00

As of this coming Saturday, Jake has successfully completed 6 weeks of life outside the womb.

He had a wonderful time at Kayla's first birthday party and he even got to meet Uncle Andrew and Aunt Jodi. As much as he enjoyed the two of them, he's even MORE excited to meet their son who is due to experience "life outside the womb" in early November.

And here is Jake doing two impressions. The first one is of Austin Powers. The second one is of Dr. Perry Cox from Scrubs. Even though we named him JD, he's got a little bit of Coxy in him.

And not to be left out, here's Luther taking a break from playing with all Jake's toys.

Hitting Our Stride

2008-08-22T21:17:00.013-04:00

We're all starting to get used to each other here in the Vileation Nation. Luther has stopped howling when Jake cries, Amy has stopped crying when Jake cries, and Kevin has stopped wiping Amy and Jake's tears every two hours. We're calling that progress.

Jake is a superstar. He can lift his neck, he can roll over from his tummy, he can make eye contact, and he is always guessed to be a boy by people when we're out in public. As a nod to the Olympics, there are only two events left in which our JD needs to achieve gold. Those events are sleeping through the night and smiling at his parents. We'll let you know when those hurdles are overcome (ha ha, another Olympic reference).

It should also be noted that Jacob made a trip to Pennsylvania to meet Great Nana and the extended Bowser family. We had a great time and he's already begging to go back! Check out the four generations in the first picture below. The second picture is Grandma and Grandpa entertaining Jake (and Luther). The third picture is 4 Bowser siblings! Uncle Rod, Aunt Helen, Aunt Mary and Great Nana! And finally, the last picture is Jake meeting Great Nana for the first time. Such a wonderful occasion!

Tomorrow Jake is attending the birthday party of his soon-to-be-friend, Kayla. She's turning one and we hope that she'll coach Jake on those events of sleeping and smiling. Stay tuned!

A Visit from Our Attorney and Pediatrician

2008-08-12T09:19:00.010-04:00

Dog and Jim came to visit!!! Not only are Dog and Jim super fun to be around, but they are constantly helping us in the legal and medical realms. Not that we're in constant legal trouble, but we just like to be up to speed on whether Kevin has to pay an $.80 toll from Illinois (from 2006) that is now somehow $46.23.

Anyway. Not only did Dog and Jim come to visit, but they brought Jake some cool outfits, too! Check it out! Grove City girls, I do hope you've noticed the "Four Square Rocks" onesie!!!

During Dog and Jim's visit, we took a quick trip up to Gettysburg. Dog navigated us around town and we saw pretty much every inch of the place with the exception of some memorial to North Carolina. I was okay with missing the memorial to North Carolina because on the way to Gettysburg, I was able to locate a Dairy Queen. I really cannot stress the importance of this. It even has a drive-thru. Jacob is good at "driving thru."

Then on Saturday, after Dog and Jim met up with their other friends (or their excuse to get away from us), Kevin and I headed up to Langhorne for Kristin's bridal shower. Of course I forgot my camera in the car, so I have no photographic evidence of this event. But suffice it to say that Kristin is such a gorgeous bride-to-be and such a gracious showeree. It was a wonderful day and it was great to meet Kristin's sister, Stefanie, too!

We had another banner weekend and now we're looking forward to a visit from Jake's Cleveland Grandma this evening. Jake is currently squawking with delight! (Or maybe squawking with the need for a diaper change...I'm still trying to figure that out.)

Week in Review

2008-08-04T17:16:00.008-04:00

Jake had such a great week. He had a bath, he filled his diaper genie, he logged some hours in his swing, and he had visitors! This week's visitors were Jason, the Slifkey family and Grandmom and Pop Pop. Thank you guys for stopping over, it was WONDERFUL to spend time with each of you!!! And congratulations to the Slifkeys as they are expecting a brother or sister for little Cyprian in January!

Sleep...

2008-07-31T12:10:00.010-04:00

Here's something we used to enjoy...sleeping. Actually, we're pretty fortunate because Jake seems to enjoy it as well...just for much shorter intervals than we're used to. He appears to try to stave of sleep with everything he's got (even when tightly swaddled) as evidenced in the short video below. Truth be told, he could be waking up here, rather than falling asleep, but mainly we just wanted to share how cute his little facial expressions can be.

He'll probably sleep pretty well today since he endured the awful "heel stick" business at the pediatrician's. But Dr. Pete said that little JD is looking good and can continue to live with us rather than go to a foster home. So all in all, a good day.

Jake's fan club and paparazzi

2008-07-26T09:07:00.016-04:00

Well, Jake has quite a fan club. To be fair, the main contributors to his fan club are his parents and grandparents, but we are really big fans.

Here are a few shots from Jake's first week home (he'll be a week old tonight).

Luther standing guard

Mom and Jake

Dad and Jake

Grandpa and Jake

Grandma and Jake

Jake's first walk (don't worry, we'll strap him in!)

The Whitmans and Jake (thanks so much for stopping by and for the sweet gifts, guys!)

Introducing Jacob Douglas!

2008-07-21T21:46:00.001-04:00

Jacob Douglas has arrived!!! Although we don't have all of our pictures up yet, we're hoping to finish them tomorrow. His story is below...as documented by his father.

Amy woke up at around 5am on Saturday morning with some minor contractions...fortunately she didn't wake Kevin up until 8am.

Amy did a great job focusing on her breathing and reducing the pain while Kevin wrote down the time she was having her contractions. Amy's biggest concern was that these were 'fake' contractions and that if we went to the hospital she would be sent home :(

Here is Amy before we went to the hospital. Obviously this picture was taken in between contractions.

We arrived at the hospital around 12:30pm on Saturday afternoon and were admitted pretty quickly. The room was very spacious and comfortable. Amy did a great job in handling the contractions until 3:30pm when they just were out of control. Kevin was told to 'keep his distance' and was smart enough to stay out of her reach. His jokes were met with sharp dagger eyes and he was amazed at how his wife had transformed into some jungle beast. For the sake of humanity (and Kevin's fear for his own life) there are no pictures recalling this horrible, horrible time...

Fortunately, there is such a thing called an epidural. Amy took the epidural at 3:30'ish and quickly turned back into the wonderful woman Kevin married. Magic! Seriously, over and over Amy commented on how great it was and was very thankful it existed. Below is a picture of Amy after she got the wonderful needle o' fun!
Shortly after that, Grandmom and Grandpop arrived from Langhorne Manor (go Eagles!) despite the treacherous and construction-ridden I-95. We were very excited to see them as it really was good to have their support! Thanks Mom and Dad!

At 7:30pm more wonderful family support arrived, only this time it was our Ohio family, Grandma and Grandpa from Mentor (go Browns!). They were able to stop and let Luther out on their way! Thanks! Even if there were no baby to be born, one thing was for sure - the grandparents were going to have a great time anyway!

Now that everyone had arrived, it was time to get the show on the road! At 9:45pm Amy started to push. While we watched King Kong on TV.
1 and 1/2 hours later, at 11:13pm, a beautiful baby boy was born!!!

We had originally agreed that if we had a boy we would name him 'Jacob Douglas.' We like the name Jacob and stole the Douglas from Kevin's brother Brian's middle name. If Jacob had come out as a girl, we weren't sure if we were going to make the poor girl suffer through life being called 'Jacob' or go with something else (Jillian, Jenna, Grace, Megan, etc.).

Sunday started with a great time because the grandparents were all there to see their beautiful grandson!And much to our surprise, the fun was just beginning! Jim and Lorraine (let's go Penn State!) stopped by to see Jake and brought wonderful gifts for him, too! In fact, we were most excited to have some 'boy' clothes for the baby (in addition to all of the green stuff we have)! Thanks Jim and Lorraine!

Next we were surprised by a visit from Glen, who was generous in giving Jake his first Teddy Bear in real life! Thanks Glen! The night of visitors rounded out with a dinner from Noodles with Grandma and Grandpa McHenry (Grandom and Pop Pop Vile had already returned to Philly). Amy and Kevin both stayed at the hospital and were able to spend time with wonderful Jacob on several occassions (11pm, 2am, 5am, 8am) - we were thrilled to see our little JD each time! And when we say we both stayed...we mean that Kevin even had his own bed...seriously!!! The next day Jacob was ready to leave the self-contained baby community known as Howard County General Hospital and get ready to venture into the real world, where he hopes to see ALL OF YOU SOON!

Pictures from Jake's transition into life at home coming soon...whenever we can get him to stop crying for a minute or two...!

From poppy seed to pumpkin...

2008-07-17T07:03:00.001-04:00

Today, we've officially achieved Pumpkin.

Meaning that the baby has graduated from watermelon size, to pumpkin size. At least according to one popular website.

And we've also achieved seeing the "you have 0 days to go" mark from another popular website.

But when will this Panda arrive? It's still anyone's guess.

Getting ready to be a big brother

2008-07-07T16:06:00.001-04:00

Luther is gearing up for his responsibilities as big brother. He has been testing out a few of the baby's toys, he has been waking us up in the middle of the night (barking, moving around in bed, etc), and seems to enjoy the music that the Pack and Play emits. I think we might try swaddling him tonight, just to see how it goes.

Anyway, since our pictures in the near future will likely be of the baby more than anything else, here are a few of Luther's best shots (as Tyra Banks of America's Next Top Model would say). We love him like he's our baby and welcome any ideas/success stories for making his transition into big brotherhood a good one.

Oh...and we would have posted all about how great our 4th of July was, but we didn't do anything. At all. We planned to go see the Baltimore Symphony at a local park, but every evening of this weekend got rained out. So instead we watched Dan in Real Life and Charlie Wilson's War. We also weeded the yard and spent a lot of time at the Home Depot. Kevin's new workbench is well underway and is looking fantastic! Pictures will be posted when Kevin (aka Bob Vila) finally feels that the garage is presentable.

PocoDOS! (A Vileation Nation Reunion!)

2008-06-23T17:35:00.001-04:00

Yes, that's right, PocoDOS...meaning our second trip up to God's country, the Pocono Mountains. This time our travel partners were other members of the extended Vileation Nation...meaning Kevin's family! We had a terrific weekend, absolutely wonderful. Here it is in bullet form:

Thursday: Pick up Casey and Chris (the Oklahoma City Viles) at the airport and walk around the Inner Harbor. Stumble upon a FABULOUS Brazilian restaurant and eat like we'd never seen food before. Finish the evening by grocery shopping, eating ice cream, and letting Casey and Kevin get to the business of Guitar Hero. (Pictured below are: Casey and Chris, Brian and Kristin (the Atlanta Viles), Mark and Sharon (the St. Louis Hasemans), and the authors of this blog)
Friday: Enjoy a leisurely start to the day by baking cookies and sending Casey to Dunkin' Donuts for the obligatory caffeine injection. Kevin transports Luther to Dogtopia. We drive to Albrightsville, PA where we meet the rest of the Vileation Nation. Enjoy a tremendous pasta and meatball dinner courtesy of Chris and then wind down with what else but Guitar Hero.
Saturday: Begin the day with a pancake breakfast, then walk off the pancake breakfast. Put on our team gear (check out the pictures to understand!) and head off to the fields for some softball action. Come home (kids went swimming), watch the Sandlot, eat more, play Trivial Pursuit, celebrate Mom and Dad Vile (40 years of marital bliss!), and receive our t-shirts for our big photo the next day! Thank you, Sharon! Also, several people topped off the evening with Guitar Hero. HAPPY 40TH ANNIVERSARY, MOM AND DAD VILE!!!

Sunday: Wake up early and begin the big process of getting a Vileation Nation photo. Accomplish goal and head home to get Luther. Grill out with Casey and Chris, then drop them at the airport. Finish the day by going to bed while it was still light out, we were so tired. So as you can see, it was a wonderful weekend! And thank you for your prayers if you prayed that the baby would stay inside for the big trip, it's still in there!

More Parties for Panda!

2008-06-16T17:17:00.000-04:00

It is a major concern of mine that I will never be able to get people to understand how truly grateful I am for them. I just don't know how to express it strongly enough. And after this past weekend, I'm confronted with this issue yet again. How can we ever adequately thank all the Maynard "family" and the Bible Study Girls for the love they've shown us??? I am back to being truly overwhelmed and very, very grateful.

(Because it's boring to just read my ramblings, we've peppered in some nusery pictures here and there. We have a long way to go and there is no real theme yet, but here are some pictures anyway!)Incidentally, so far I totally recommend having children later in life because you get to learn from all the experts who've gone before you! Thank you, ladies, for all your advice and your listening ears...and those of you who said "feel free to call anytime, in the middle of the night, whenever," I would like to remind you that you've dug your own grave. Because I will call. And I will be desperate. So watch out.Click here for some pictures from the Maynard shower...the ladies threw an absolutely gorgeous book-themed shower over lunch last Thursday. Check out the amazing food everyone provided! And speaking of food, not only did I take home such sweet books with personal messages in each one, but we were given a little box full of restaurant gift cards so that we will have sustenance once this baby arrives! What a FANTASTIC gift...the hard part is not spending them now!! Thank you, Maynard girls, for the beautiful shower and the thoughtful gifts, you'll never know how special each one of you is to me, and you'll never know how grateful I am to work with people as loving and generous as each of you. It should also be noted that it is Maynard tradition to offer a company shower, too, so you'll see pictures of that as well. We got to enjoy some cake before a big meeting on Friday. Thanks, Maynard!!! We are ready to go do some wild spending at Target with that awesome gift card and the bath gear for Panda is adorable! Thank you!!!So if you're keeping track, that was a shower on Thursday and a shower on Friday. Kevin is astonished because it is rare that I actually TAKE a shower each day, let alone attend one in our child's honor. But the parties aren't over, because on Saturday the Bible Study Girls (BSGs to those in the know) hosted a spectacular event at Josie's new house. Check out the pictures here and look at how they thought of every detail. The theme was polka dots and even the ICE CREAM in the punch was in the shape of little dots! The vases for the flowers had little dots on them and even the cake carried the theme. The flowers, by the way, were favors and just so sweet and beautiful. And they weren't the only favors...Joanie made personalized chocolate bar wrappers...check it out! Again, it's hard not to be totally overwhelmed and feel totally inadequate when given a shower this beautiful. These girls went to great lengths to have just the right decor and the most incredible food...Joanie even put together a devotional for the occassion. It was just wonderful to see these girls. Thank you, precious BSGs, for an unforgettable day and for your sweet gifts...I've unpacked all of them and I'm ready to use 'em! Thank you!!!

So once again, that is three shower in three days. That also means three cakes in three days! I was in my glory. Thank you, everyone, for making this such a special time for Kevin and me...please know that we love you and appreciate you and respect you so much. We are surrounded by wonderful people and we're going to work hard to live up to all the love you've shown us!

Ode to the Blog Readers from PSU

2008-06-10T21:31:00.000-04:00

At Jason's 30th birthday party I (Kevin) was proud to learn that at least 2 of my friends had taken the time to read the Vileation Nation blog (or at least admit to it). To show my appreciation, this is my segment to them: Ode to the Blog Readers (both of them)

Blog Reader #1: KYLE (he got to go first because he actually left a comment...once...)

Kyle grew up in Honeyoye Falls, NY, a suburb of Rochester, NY. He was raised on Cheese Factory Road, however, don't be fooled - the Cheese Factory had shut down years before. While we were roommates in college, Kyle once came at me with a baseball bat. Fortunately, he later met his wife Sherry, who decided to do charity work and marry Kyle. They now have a wonderful family of 4 (Kyle, Sherry, Teague, and Brody).

If you want to meet Kyle you can often find him at Penn State football games. You can find him by looking for the guy who walked a mile carrying a bag of pork.

Blog Reader #2: ANDREW (he is second because he only can 'claim' to have visited the blog)

Andrew is another Penn Stater who is more commonly known as Lights, Camera, Butville (lucky I can no longer find the link). Andrew and I went to high school and college together. Andrew is married to a saint named Jodi and they are expecting their first child in November (congrats!).

If you want to find Andrew I would suggest trying NYC at a bar that has a beer pong tournament.

Thanks for tuning in (or at least scrolling to the bottom of this post) to read Ode to the Blog Readers, the Kyle and Andrew edition.

And finally, here is the real test....will Kyle and/or Andrew leave a comment?

PocoYES!

2008-06-09T09:24:00.000-04:00

Who knew that the Poconos could be more than champagne glass shaped jacuzzis and hunting lodges? Well it turns out that it is much more...in fact, it's a beautiful region of the world. Just ask Heather and Jeremiah as they were stranded about a half-hour outside our rustic retreat and had to enjoy sitting on the side of the road, taking it all in. I hear they found a wonderful place called "Dairy Queen" while they waited.

Anyway, truly, the weekend away in the wilderness was fantsatic. When I say "wilderness" I am saying that the road we were staying on was essentially unmarked and unpaved. After that, we had all the modern amenities, which is the only way I "camp." We were only 5 miles away from a grocery store but we were reminded of the Blair Witch Project every time we set out to find it. In a good way. In an exciting "we're on an adventure" way.

So it was a great time. Sawyer and Aaron (the newest babies) got to meet each other for the first time, and big brother Joshua (Aaron's big brother) definitely set a fantastic example for the other two boys. Poor little Joshua had fractured his tibia shortly before the trip, but it didn't slow him down one bit. He was so happy and playful and sweet and CUTE. It seemed pretty evident that Aaron and Sawyer plan to follow his lead...I'll tell you, the children of the GCC girls are real lookers.

Check out a few pictures from the weekend here. Everyone earned the title of "Guitar Hero," too ...you'll see everyone rockin' out to the tunes. Watching Dog and Jim was like actually attending a concert, they were movers and shakers. Literally. Next step...purchasing "Rock Band."

It should also be noted that we watched the space shuttle Discovery take off...courtesy of JC who is a big fan of the NASA channel. I had no idea there even was a NASA channel, but now I'm a little hooked.

And a very special "thank you" to Susan, Heather and Amanda for the absolutely spectacular photo book for the baby. I'll have to figure out some way to scan a few pictures into the blog, but this thing is amazing. Honestly, the book is so professional and beautiful, we still can't get over it. Thank you, girls! I read and re-read the book all the time! Also, I'm finally getting the hang of the alphabet, so thanks for doing the whole "a is for...b is for...c is for..." theme. My favorite is "n is for napping...that means you, baby." I still don't know where you found all those crazy pictures from our past, but I'm so glad you did.

Stay tuned for another Pocono posting as Kevin and I will be traveling back up there next weekend for the Vileation Nation family outing. It will be the first time Kevin's entire family will be together in a LONG time. Years. Since his three siblings are all affiliated with the military in some way, they seem to spend a lot of time serving our nation in foreign countries. We're just so glad they're not in some desert right now since it is a miserable 100 degrees in Maryland today.

And by the way, we're into week 35 of growing this baby, so I'm hoping that this heat wave is not labor-inducing in some way! I could use just a little more time to get ready for this person...

Kevin is a saint

2008-06-02T13:43:00.000-04:00

Being the husband of a nagging hormonal bully is tough.

Here's Kevin mowing the lawn after incessant nagging.

Here's Kevin making a milkshake for himself and then sharing with his obnoxious wife who wasn't satisfied with her own dessert.

Here's Kevin with his beloved Mountaineer right before we took it to Saturn to trade it in for something more fuel-efficient (and consequently less manly).

Here's Kevin patiently tolerating Infant Care class. I'm glad he looks so happy since we're going back for Part II this week.

I sure do love this man.

Celebrations all around...

2008-05-14T12:05:00.000-04:00

We are official residents of Reisterstown, so I'm sure that anyone who owns the book "100,000,000 Places To See Before You Die" will want to check Reisterstown off the list. Come visit anytime! You can see some pictures of the new place here, but we'll do a better job of posting pictures in the future. Or, as mentioned, you could come visit.So moving into the new house is one big thing to celebrate, the next big thing is that Amy gets to go to Iowa and check that state of her list of "50 States To See Before You Die." I think I only have a few left...mainly the vast midwest interior. If anyone's looking to travel to Nebraska in the near future, I'd love to join you.

And the next big celebration is the absolutely GORGEOUS baby shower that my mom hosted this weekend in Ohio. Dog orchestrated the games (so fun...got some great and FRANK advice!), Susan orchestrated the balloons (and managed to not smother her newborn while transporting the balloons) and Sharyn handled the gift documentation (with lively commentary to boot). Like a well-oiled machine, those ladies. The event was so fun and I just loved seeing people from different parts of my life...people I've known since my own birth, music teachers I had as I was growing up, moms of my junior high and high school friends, some wonderful Grove City friends, etc etc. It was a wonderful, special day and I am so grateful to my mom for the lovely affair. And as you know, I get pretty excited about dessert...cake in particular...and my mom had this wonderful idea that I encourage everyone to do. She got one large cake for us all to share, and then several little cakes that were used as prizes throughout the day, so those people who were winning at the games got to take home a cake! I can think of no better prize than a cake, truly. Pictures are available here.

So now Panda is all set to make its debut. It got a lot of good loot over the course of several showers. I didn't receive a pain-relief kit for the actual birth of Panda, but I'm sure that's coming. We registered for it.

Time Delay

2008-05-06T09:08:00.000-04:00

We're sorry, but the Vileation Nation is experiencing a time delay.

We moved all our belongings this weekend and now we're suffering a medieval plague known as "Lackointernetosis."

We will not have internet at our new home until May 12, so there's no guarantee that we'll have any sort of exciting update until then.

In the meantime, please rejoice with us in one major celebration...Amy has Maryland license plates. Sure, they're not actually ON the vehicle, but they are in our possession. I think. Actually, they may have been lost in the move. Do not be deceived into thinking that the experience at the MVA of actually obtaining these plates was easy...oh no...2 hours worth of nonsense.

But it is over. And we're legal. And broke. We hope Maryland is happy.Luther thinking about how tough it is to move (but also happily relaxing in a legal vehicle).

Birthday Celebrations

2008-04-21T09:41:00.000-04:00

Jason turned 30! There's no way around it, Jason is 30. His wife Kristen threw an incredible surprise party for him and we had a great time of catching up with the Penn State contingency.Highlights from the evening were seeing Kyle and Sherry's family (with sweet sons Brody and Teague),me freaking out that everyone would get salmonella from a key lime pie Team Vile had made, Kevin winning at beer pong 3 times in a row, and of course, the fact that everyone who mentioned they read our blog also insisted that we not blog about them or show pictures of them. This is no democracy, this is the Vileation Nation...there are no release forms to sign, no consent forms to approve, no nothing. If we experience it or take a picture of it, it could find its way to the blog. Unless it's ugly pictures of us, which we will absolutely delete. It's just our policy.Anyway, it truly was a great night celebrating Jason's birthday and then we moved on to celebrating the impending birthday of "Panda." Kevin's mom and our future sister-in-law Kristin threw a gorgeous baby shower in Langhorne on Sunday afternoon. You would not believe the food at this place...unbelievable. And you would not believe the CUPCAKES that Kristin made. They were nothing short of exquisite and involved cutting open the tops, stuffing them with lemon curd, closing the tops and icing them with cream cheese frosting. Amazing. And the decorations and games and centerpieces that everyone put together...just perfect. Definitely check out the rest of the pictures to see the gorgeous pink and blue themed pansies that Mom Vile potted for each guest. I think "overwhelmed" would best describe how Kevin and I felt in response to everyone's generosity and kindness. It was just a great day and made us all the more excited to actually meet this baby. Check out some pictures here (if you were thinking you were safe from being pictured, Jodi, you were wrong...lucky for you you're looking great so we thought you'd be okay with it...).Great weekend over here at the Vileation Nation...now we're just enjoying some April showers in Baltimore and planning our next visit to see the Orioles play. We went to Camden Yards last week and caught a game against the White Sox (actual attendance is represented by the picture below, seriously. Some are blaming the dry spell in Oriole's attendance on those hot-shot Nationals who just moved in in DC). I was shocked to see Jim Thome playing for the White Sox since I thought he was still with the Indians. I think it's time for me to revisit baseball and stop asking about people like Jose Conseco and Albert Bell.

Tag

2008-04-16T08:44:00.000-04:00

The Vileation Nation has been "tagged" by the good people over at "Two Are Better Than One." While only one of us was specifically called upon to relay 7 interesting facts, we decided to make it a team sport (since we are, after all, Team Vile) and see if we could find 7 interesting things about ourselves as a team. We couldn't. We came up with 6 and instead we have a quiz for those who think they know the Vileation Nation as our #7. Here we go!

1. We enjoy traveling and have traveled to such exotic locales as Paris, Rome, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Alaska and even Birmingham, AL. We are trying to see all 50 states together. Too bad DC doesn't count as a state.

2. We refer to our unborn child as "panda."

3. We worked for the same company for several years and were even on the same project at one point. Speaking of exotic locales, it was in LaRue, PA. We didn't care much about each other on that project, really. Hard to believe we didn't fall in love in LaRue, but we didn't (Incidentally, the picture below is not LaRue, PA).

4. We enjoy fine reality TV programs such as Flavor of Love, I Love New York and Rock of Love. We have enough sense to be embarrassed of this.

5. We have operated a tandem kayak twice and almost got divorced as a result of the experience twice.

6. We have a ridiculous list of names that we call Luther. Poodle J. Pug, Pugsicle, P Pants, Das Luther, etc.

7. And since that's where our not-so-interesting facts end, here is our quiz. See if you can figure out which of us matches each question below.

a. Insists on setting ice cream out and allowing it to thaw before eating it.

b. Insists on reading every plaquard and piece of information available at museums.

c. Likes orange juice with lots of pulp. Which is something the other hates.

d. Once had pet goats.

e. Claims to have seen Ed Norton at the Hudson Hotel in NYC.

f. Claims to have seen Iron Eagle over 25 times.

g. Is a night person.

h. Is responsible for the ironing.

i. Is responsible for the laundry (excluding ironing).

j. Thinks it's fun to see if there is a website for weird things...such as "poodlepugs.com" or "iloveteamvile.com" or "ilikethesmellofmysocks.com" etc.

k. Refuses to cash checks or use gifts received until the thank-you card is written and mailed.

l. Could happily do nothing but crossword puzzles all day long.

Okay, that's all we've got. We were asked to "tag" others as well, so while there is no pressure to actually respond...you're up, Land O'Leary, Jaglowskis, Avocados and Asparagus, Lillibridges, Living Local, and Yanks in the UK! Those of you who are not listed, it's only because I think you've already done this or I have not received proper approval that I can publish your website yet! You know who you are...

(Quiz answers....Kevin is letters b, d, f, g, h, j and Amy is the others...although Luther has probably seen Iron Eagle over 25 times as well.)

Aaron is here!

2008-04-12T16:43:00.000-04:00

For those of you who are wondering how Luther did with his surgery...well...he did not have surgery. We got the whole way to Cleveland only to learn that he is a relatively healthy animal and that he could hold off on surgery for a while. I guess this is good news, but what is even better news is that the trip afforded Amy a visit with Susan and JC's beautiful sons! Here's a picture of our baby and their baby.

Joshua is the proud older brother of Aaron and it was such a joy to visit with them. Check out the pictures here and make sure you don't miss JC's new "man basement." There's even a picture of JC with his good friend Mike Jordan...see if you can find it! All the kids are going to want to be at Joshua and Aaron's house when they get older. Their mom and dad are the coolest. Here's a picture of JC and Susan pre-kids, several Halloweens back. Yes, JC is wearing a wig, c'mon

We made dinner!

2008-04-07T21:24:00.001-04:00

I recognize that many of you do this every night...you make dinner and eat as a family. We don't do this very often. And if we do, it is something frozen that we heat up. But we were bit by the "let's cook dinner" bug and made ourselves some spaghetti, salad, garlic bread and biscuit cake with strawberries for dessert. Again, to many of you this is not news. This is not blog-worthy. We consider this the biggest news since we learned we have a baby on the way.
Here's what I looked like after eating.

Also, please say a prayer for our little pug...Luther is having surgery on his cursed bladder stones on Wednesday. Poor guy. So I'm driving him to Cleveland tomorrow to go under the knife. Honestly, it is roughly a $700 savings to do the surgery in Cleveland rather than Baltimore. Unreal. We will take that $700 and go grocery shopping and continue to try to cook dinner.

Dog and Dog Take Tucson

2008-03-30T13:35:00.000-04:00

Dog and I just spent a great three days in sunny Tucson, AZ where we hiked, swam and ate. It was really pretty perfect. My only regret is my evident lack of photography genius. If you click here to see our pictures, you'll see that I took about 47 of the same shot, and none of anything particularly interesting. Which is a real shame because we took some incredible hikes that even included a snake. Dog got a shot of the snake, so hopefully soon we'll have some new, better pictures. Right now, enjoy looking at a field of cacti, over and over again.

And truly, if you enjoy hiking and the outdoors, Tucson is your place. But we also felt that this was the right time of year for it. Warm, but not hot. Very pleasant weather with a breeze and everything. And even though we didn't see any of these things in nature, we were told that you could see a mountain lion or a big horn sheep or a javelina at any moment. I guess that's the hook. Oh well. Maybe I should look more closely for those things here in Baltimore.

My Wife, the Birthday Girl!

2008-03-23T22:02:00.001-04:00

Admittedly I am nervous about my first post (yes, this is Kevin and not Amy for once), but nonetheless I will struggle through this and do my best...please forgive me for littering my wife's wonderful blog with my stupidity.

The reason I am putting up this post is because today is my wife's birthday! It was on this day 22 years ago that my wonderful wife was born. Below is a picture of Amy enjoying her gifts at her parents house in Cleveland yesterday. It was a great trip, and even though we left yesterday and are already home, we were able to see her parents, Nana, the Goodmans, Susan and JC and Joshua, and Mark and Roni and Elyse. (Check out some pictures here.)

Through the past 8 months of marriage I have to come to realize that I must be the luckiest man on earth. Seriously, being married to Amy is one of the best things that has happened to me. My wife is a wonderful listener when I need someone to talk to, makes me smile when I have a bad day, and loves me even when I'm at my worst.

My favorite part of our marriage is the time we spend together and how she is able to make everything fun. Whether it be taking Luther for a walk, going for a quick drive to walk around Washington DC, having 'pizza night!', or celebrating 'garbage eve' (Sunday & Wednesday if you are interested), Amy finds a way to just make even the simple things in life fun. As a result, even the bad days are good days.

Well I'm not good at discussions like this, so I'll try to keep it simple as I end it: Happy Birthday Amy - I love you! You're the best thing that's happened to me! Thanks for making our marriage a fun one!...and sorry about the lame yoga blocks I got you for your birthday...

Friends and Family (and a request)

2008-03-19T17:58:00.000-04:00

...Remember that song "Friends and Family" by Trik Turner? Great song.

We have had non-stop celebration around here. Kevin's parents came to visit this weekend and we enjoyed a nice time of birthday gift opening (someone in the family has a birthday this weekend) and birthday cake eating. Kevin's parents always think of everything...they make every event super special and fun. They dragged a cake the whole way here from Philadelphia. It was really a wonderful surprise to get to host them for an evening. Our friend...nay...Godsend...Glen came over as well. We would be nowhere without Glen. He housed Kevin for a month or two before we got married and he recently leant us his fabulous treadmill (which Kevin actually uses and I think about using). He has also volunteered to help us move and is a good Guitar Hero companion of Kevin's. Anyway, great weekend all around!

And then I visited Pittsburgh for two days earlier this week and was treated to an incredible dinner by Sharyn. Those of you who know Sharyn know that she does everything top-shelf. Amazing meal. And an amazing time of watching Seinfeld reruns, too. We laughed until our faces hurt watching the one where Kramer takes a picture of everyone in the apartment building in an effort to get them to be more friendly and social with each other.

Oh, and please let it be documented that we enjoyed dinner with one BDC several weeks back(the bcarmel who recently commented on the blog). It was a lovely evening and we were remiss not to mention all the fun we had. Even though he's a snob from Columbia...since we are evidently rednecks from Reisterstown. BURN! Anyway, here he is in Mexico. No idea why I have this picture or who took it.

***Please take a moment to participate in our reader poll out to the right panel on our blog screen. Many thanks! This in no way indicates that we're having a girl, we just don't have any great girl names yet.***

Home Sweet Home

2008-03-16T12:44:00.000-04:00

Well, we did it.

We bit the bullet and bought a house in Reisterstown, MD. Here we are enjoying our new kitchen. Check out the pictures here and let us know when you're ready to come visit! Oh, and we're closing at the end of April, so you should know that if you've clicked on this website, we've recorded your email address and now you're committed to helping us move*. See you in early May! We've got a great backyard for cooking out, so we'll certainly feed you!

*This is a joke...we are not tracing our readers. But can you really live with yourself knowing that it's just Kevin and his soon-to-be-7-month-pregnant wife moving all alone? Just name your price...we'll see you in May.

Welcome, Team Vile!

2008-03-11T16:20:00.000-04:00

We were recently lucky enough to be a stop on Casey and Chris's tour of the eastern seaboard! They made the long drive from Oklahoma to visit friends and family and we had an awesome time when they came to see us. We met up at the Natural History Museum in DC and then had a nice dinner at the Old Ebbitt Grill near Pennsylvania Avenue. After that we went back home and introduced them to Luther as well as Kevin's Elvis wine collection. From there Chris and I both retired to bed and Casey and Kevin played Guitar Hero until somewhere around 4:30 am. Only true Guitar Heroes have that level of dedication.

Then the next day we introduced Casey and Chris to the gourmet world of Chipotle before they headed down to Chris's brother and sister-in-law's place. They acted very impressed and we are grateful for their acting skill. Check out pictures from the weekend here.

The next day Kevin and I headed down to the elusive Mount Vernon, home of George Washington. We bought the year-round membership, so we're hoping some faithful Vileation Nation readers might come visit so we can go back! We didn't get to watch the movie in the visitor's center and Kevin is less than pleased, so please come visit so we have a reason to return in the very near future. Check out the pictures here. I totally get why Washington wanted to live there, it's a beautiful place. And I bet he enjoyed all the museums as much as we did.

So that's the latest out here...hoping to get some belly pictures posted soon. That is, between my feedings. Today's big treat was Taco Bell and ice cream. I'm going to try to not make a habit of that. But those commercials about cheesy melts or something were just wearing me down. Now I've had my fix.

Baby on Board

2008-03-05T10:03:00.000-05:00

We had the big ultrasound experience yesterday where we got to see our little person move around and kick and stretch and all that fun stuff! Unfortunately we didn't get to see TOO much of that because our little person also likes to stay crunched up in a ball. Which gave us many nice views of its spine. And very few views of anything that would indicate gender, so we're still ready for a big surprise in July! Click here for pictures of the ultrasound shots along the way. We're hoping that because this person likes to stay crunched up and sleeping (in the "fetal position" of course), he or she will continue to like to do that once they're born. We need a good sleeper. Pray for a good sleeper. This person's mother is a good sleeper and cannot imagine living with someone who is not! (I know, all you experienced mothers are laughing and saying "ah, the naivete.")

It also appears that we better start saving for braces because I think we have a thumb-sucker. Or a Nittany Lion since it looks like our baby may have a paw.

The Farmers in the Dells...

2008-02-29T10:03:00.000-05:00

Well, not quite farmers, and really not officially in the Dells either...but the point is that I was able to get together with a college friend near her home in Wisconsin this week! She is not a farmer, in fact she is an engineer who specializes in cardio stuff regarding medical equipment. This could be way off, so Sarah, please correct me if I'm wrong! You could probably find a better word than "stuff" for what you do!

Anyway, we enjoyed a great meal and a great conversation and we even managed to take a self-timed picture. Good thing I was with an engineer. Even cameras are high-tech for me, cardio or not.

And it should be noted that the college friends welcomed a new baby into our circle...welcome to little baby Sawyer! Hope everyone's doing great, proud parents Heather and Jeremiah! What a beautiful little guy he is. And seriously, will you just look at perfect Heather? Whose mom looks that great after giving birth at 2:00 am?! Well, Sawyer's mom, that's who.

Angela and Asher!

2008-02-26T18:16:00.000-05:00

(I love the look on Asher's face in this picture! That kid is ALWAYS cute!)

Well it was a fabulous weekend in the VileationNation. My friend from childhood, Angela, and her sweet son, Asher, came to visit us! They came all the way from Denver and the only thing that was missing from it being a perfect weekend was that Angela's husband Paul stayed in Colorado to get some work done. But I think Angela and Asher have promised us that the whole family will return in the future, so we're doing our best to not take personal offense to Paul's absence!

Anyway, among the fun things we did...Angela and I went to my prenatal yoga class together (Angela is a yoga instructor so I don't know that she got a whole lot out of it, but it was wonderful to have her guidance and instruction as I attempted my pigeon pose). We took Asher to a place called Playwise, we ate dinner at a great little BBQ restaurant in Baltimore, we spent the day touring the zoo in Washington DC (Angela LOVES pandas and we got to see them up close and personal!) and we topped it all of with dinner and s'mores at Cosi in old town Alexandria.

(Check out the hippo eating in the background)

Luther also had fun this weekend because Asher gave him a lot of attention and even a new name! Luther is "oof" to Asher, and it was the cutest thing to watch them interact.

Everyone had a fun time at the zoo and we were amazed at how active the animals were, it was incredible. Check it out!

Pictures are located here...thank you for the incredible visit, Angela and Asher!

Some Important Information

2008-02-14T19:38:00.000-05:00

Well, we would have liked to have waited a couple more weeks to announce this news...but it turns out we're going to be parents! We're expecting to welcome a little Vile in July. We're getting our fun 18-20 week ultrasound in early March, so we were hoping to post that picture as our announcement, but I think that in our vacation pictures it might be obvious that we're on our way to parenthood! Look, in this picture we're practicing being parents to a sea cucumber. Those who know us well enough to know our wardrobes will recognize the fact that Amy is wearing Kevin's shirt. Because her belly has outgrown her own clothes and she looks like a sausage. We're about 18 weeks in to the journey, so it's getting exciting!

Stay tuned for some baby updates in the future. If anyone has any advice as to what we should register for and what we should do to prepare, we are very open to suggestions! I can't believe how much stuff a small human requires.

Since we don't have the fun ultrasound picture yet, here are a few of us celebrating back in November when we found out the big news.

Ode to My Cousin

2008-02-14T16:37:00.001-05:00

How does this woman do it all????

She makes being a fabulous wife and incredible mother look like it's the easiest thing in the world.

She keeps our entire extended family in touch. Which is no small feat and which would probably not happen without her attention. NOTE: this is not because we don't love eachother!!! It's just that we are "geographically challenged," as they say.

She is an exceptional businesswoman...she was recently promoted at her "normal" job and keeps Charlotte-area moms healthy and inspired in her "free time!"

She is quite possibly the most versatile and talented photographer there is. The picture of Grandpa a couple posts below is hers and the gorgeous self-portrait at the beginning of this post is also her work. Grandpa used to carry the picture below, of 3 of his grandkids, in his shirt pocket. Every day. And yes, this is her work, too.And most recently she has cleaned up my colossal mess and somehow led me to success in recovering our lost Key West pictures.

Thank you, Angie...you are a true genius and a precious and LOVED cousin! Thank you for helping us recover our Key West memories...we'll post them soon. You're incredible!

Margaritaville

2008-02-12T09:43:00.000-05:00

Well, we went to Key West and had a great time. Here is one of the only pictures that we actually have.

While transferring our pictures from the camera to the computer, I inadvertently deleted pretty much all of them. Pictures deleted include:

Touring the Harry S. Truman Little White House

Touring the Hemingway House (along with all the 6-toed cats)

Snorkeling (those who have been with me when I've tried snorkeling before know that proof is needed)

Kayaking at night, wearing headlamps, holding sea cucumbers and urchins

Kevin in shackles at the Pirate Museum

An amazing strawberry shortcake that we saw at a cute little restaurant

Us standing a mere 90 miles from Cuba at the "Southernmost Point."

And I'm sure many more.

So if anyone knows how to retrieve deleted pictures from the memory card of a camera, please send that information our way immediately! I am really, really upset. Those headlamp pictures were pretty great. I guess I'll just whip up a key lime pie and devour it in one sitting to make myself feel better. It is Tuesday after all, and that's normally what I do on Tuesdays.

Anyway, below is Kevin in the Miami airport (all of those crazy designs are actually fish) and me standing by our pool. I can't believe I messed this up so badly. No matter what, it was a great time and I think Key West is a quaint and lovely place. Tips for those of you going that direction soon:

Do not rent a car. Stay off Duvall Street somewhere in the middle. We stayed in the Merlin Guesthouse on Simonton and Petronia and loved it.

Do not expect there to be any hoopla around the signs that indicate the beginning/terminus of Highway 1. Mainly it's just some cars at a stop light.

Expect to see (and hear) A LOT of free-roaming chickens.

Expect to see a lot of beautiful women...and if the woman is especially beautiful it's likely she's in drag. We saw many beautiful drag ladies.

Definitely do the sunset/nighttime kayak trip. But consider the strength of your marriage if you elect to use a tandem kayak with your spouse.

Eat pie at each Blonde Giraffe location.

Use Big Al's taxi service from the airport. This could be tough because the service is only Big Al, so you might not get him. He told us a lot about the island and gave us a list of good restaurants.

Don't expect to eat grouper. I couldn't find a grouper sandwich for anything.

Consider the Ghost Tour where you learn about Robert the Doll. Oh boy. Scary stuff.

So that's it...great trip, wish we had proof that we went. And that for about 15 minutes I had a little bit of a tan.

Roar.

Remembering Grandpa

2008-01-31T11:38:00.000-05:00

It is really hard to put into words just how incredible a man my Grandpa was, but I know I speak for the entire McHenry extended family when I say that we're grateful that so many people managed to do that hard task and tell us about how much he meant to them.

We heard stories about how he would keep his yard perfectly groomed (and it is an ENORMOUS amount of yard to manage!) and how when the apples would start to fall, he would pick them up and take them to the horses down the road. And how he would save his grass clippings to take to the pasture at the same farm to help the mulching.

We heard about how he befriended a sweet little kiddo named Noah at church and how they became fast and fierce friends. How Noah would call "Mac!!!" when Grandpa would come in on Sundays. And how Noah loved trains as much as Grandpa did and how they could go on and on about them.

We heard about how long and how hard Grandpa would work as an Engineer for the B&O Railroad. We heard about how Grandma used to look for the steam of the train so she knew when to go pick him up at the station. We learned how he got a letter from her every single day when he was in Germany and Luxembourg during the war.

We learned that he was the source of many recent adventures...one involving driving around town at 2:00 am to make sure that others who were in need were able to be comfortable and taken care of in their final hours (and how he even managed to make such a difficult time like that one such a memorable and special one).

We learned how he was often one of the first to arrive and one of the last to leave when he went to area church and VFW dinners. Everyone knew him and everyone loved to talk to him.

Then there were a lot of things we already knew. That he was funny. VERY funny. And that he was kind. And that he knew how to sacrifice and save. That he is in Heaven with the God he loved and served.

We will miss him more than we can even predict. His passing was quick and unexpected but we are able to celebrate that he will never be lonely again. He can enjoy all the $0.25 pies Heaven has to offer (he was REALLY frugal here on earth!). He can enjoy perfect sight with no cataracts. He can enjoy meals far better than even the amazing feasts in Rockland. He can golf on courses far more incredible than even his cherished Myrtle Beach. He can see sights even more majestic than what he would marvel at in Colorado each year. He can reunite with all those who went before and were waiting expectantly for him. And the rest of us will look forward to joining him some day. And we know the first thing he'll say is "don't you want something more to eat? Come on, just finish up this corn. How about some more turkey? Ham? Eat!"

Love you and miss you Grandpa. http://www.thederrick.com/stories/01282008-1051.shtml

Visit to Boston

2008-01-20T21:11:00.001-05:00

I had a wonderful visit with my good friend Robyn and her charming boyfriend Matt this past Monday. Every now and then my job takes me to some fun places...this time Boston. When I asked Robyn if she and Matt were available to hang out, she graciously agreed to host me for the evening and said that it would be best for me to take the T (and who wouldn't trust this face).

Well. I've heard "The Man Who Never Returned" by the Kingston Trio enough times to know that it is probably best for me to stay off the T (lest I become "lost forever, 'neath the streets of Boston"), but she directed me to this website and we agreed that I could manage to sit still, count 9 stops, and then exit the train. So I did it and it was invigorating. For you Kingston Trio fans, the T toll card is even called the Charlie Card...can you stand it?! I think it's fabulous.
Anyway, it was a wonderful evening with Matt and Robyn...we enjoyed a great dinner at the neighborhood Cambridge tavern and then enjoyed pictures from Robyn's sister's recent wedding in Tahoe (congratulations, Adam and Diana!!!! GORGEOUS pictures, gorgeous couple). Then I made a ridiculously hasty exit as I was silently panicking about whether I could find my car at the T station when I arrived back in Quincy. Good news is...plenty of Celtics fans rode along with me and there is always safety (and confidence) in numbers. Below is a picture of Matt doing his "man at rest in the evening" pose which I thought was just oh-so-Cambridge. Delightful.Note the incredible art behind Matt and Robyn in the picture below...Dr. Seuss originals! Incredible.

Thank you for a generous, relaxing evening, Matt and Robyn...can't wait to host you for that Orioles game this summer! I'm holding you to it.

Luther's Day Out

2008-01-20T20:54:00.000-05:00

We took Luther to meet with the Annapolis area pugs last Sunday. Most red-blooded Americans were at home watching football, but we were chasing pugs around a fenced-in area, cleaning up poo.

Honestly, it was a really fun time and Luther enjoyed sniffing virtually every pug there. That is not to say that he didn't have a favorite pug or two...but he did a nice job getting to know everyone.

Can you find Luther in the picture below?

He's the one in the blue collar near the "ramp."

And he was definitely conservatively dressed compared to "sports bra pug" and "bikini pug" according to Kevin.

Pie on a Stick

2008-01-10T19:50:00.000-05:00

Thanks to my patient and generous husband, I have been granted a vacation in February! Our friends the Raths and the O'Learys once stopped by Key West when they were on a cruise, and when they returned to Pittsburgh, they said four words that I will never forget...

Pie on a stick.

I love Key Lime Pie with everything that I am. Our good friend Christy can make the most amazing, tangy, flavorful pie in the world. She even makes this incredible raspberry sauce to go with it. It is the best there is.

But I've been told of a magical place that takes a generous slice of key lime pie, dips it in chocolate, and then puts it on a stick so you can cruise around town and eat your pie. I must have this experience. Now that you see the prices for shipping them home, perhaps you'll want in on this vacation, too. It's almost cheaper to travel to Key West and buy your pie on a stick there than have it shipped to your home. Check out the pie on a stick place here.

If you have been to Key West, I would love your comments. We have no idea what to expect other than the must-see "Little White House" that belonged to Harry S. Truman. We also learned that Key West is only 90 miles from Cuba and it happens to be where Hwy 1 ends. We don't live far from Hwy 1 here in Maryland, and Kevin's parents live even closer to it up in Langhorne, PA. So because we're relatively geeky about stuff like that, we're excited to see the terminus. Oh, and of course this is the place Hemingway did much of his best work. I cannot wait.

If you do choose to comment about your trip to Key West, please only leave positive comments. Kevin's not totally thrilled with this whole thing yet, so any encouragement is welcome. Discouragement is not. I know that some might call this manipulation, but I call it going on vacation.

License to Kill

2008-01-08T19:48:00.000-05:00

I'm really starting to believe that obtaining a "license to kill" like in the Bourne movies or something would be easier than getting a driver's license in the state of Maryland.

Allow me to share the experience that Kevin and I had at the DMV the other day.

FIRST...in Maryland they call it the MVA rather than the DMV which already put me in a sour mood.

SECOND...they had the audacity to tell me that once Kevin got his driver's license, he could sign for me to get mine. SIGN for me???? Is this not the 21st century? I happen to have my very own Pennsylvania license which I would think would be good enough for these people.

THIRD...they told us our marriage license is invalid. INVALID. Kevin literally had to grab my waist and pull me back as I pointed to my passport and yelled "that marriage license was good enough for the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT when they issued me a passport with my new name as well as Social Security card! How can the state of Maryland suddenly have a problem with it?"

The bottom line is that Kevin waltzed through the line and came out the other side with a shiny new Maryland driver's license. What did I do while this transaction took place? I argued with the supervisor (who was actually pretty fantastic and kept her cool with me). Are you ready for the REAL reason that I can't get a driver's license?

The letter K.

That is it.

My Pennsylvania license says Amy K. Maiden Name. Well Maryland happens to be what's known as a "full name state." They need me to "prove the K." So I need to show them my birth certificate which will prove that my middle name is Katherine. Please keep in mind I have a new passport, a new Social Security card, a voter's registration card, proof of address with my new name and what I thought to be a valid marriage license. Now my mother needs to mail my BIRTH CERTIFICATE out here so I can "prove the K." My middle name isn't even Katherine anymore. My middle initial is now M. So the K is completely irrelevant. Unbelievable. Don't get me started on the fact that evidently my name is still not LEGALLY changed. Even though all my federal documentation as well as health insurance and payroll indicates that I'm now a genuine Vile.
Honestly, I'm out of my mind. So who knows. I might never be legal in this state. They should change the name to Redtapeland rather than Maryland.

(Oh, and seriously, every document pictured in this post is REQUIRED for me to get a new license. Of course they're all fakes, so don't think I'm giving away anyone's identity secrets or anything).

October 25 Can't Come Soon Enough....

2008-01-02T22:44:00.000-05:00

Yes - October 25 is the date of the 2008 Penn State - Ohio State game!

Check out the funny gifts we got for Christmas. Kevin's friend Chris gave him the football, Dog sent Amy the t-shirt.

(PS...new posts below as well...)

MAJOR Vileation Nation

2008-01-02T22:35:00.001-05:00

Congratulations, Major Vile!!!!

You may have known him once as Captain Vile (or according to this picture...a Gladiator), but you will now be thanked to address him as Major Vile.

Nice job, Casey...we hope you'll celebrate with another trip to the Cowboy Museum. We also hope you'll celebrate by having your wife come home in the next couple weeks.

(For the readers...Casey's wife hasn't left him or anything like that...she's currently serving our country in a foreign nation. Hope to hear you're home soon, Chris!!!)

Christmas Update

2008-01-02T22:07:00.000-05:00

We had a fabulous Christmas with our families and we have no excuse for not updating the blog sooner. We also have no excuse for forgetting our camera EVERYWHERE. Thank you, Dad, for taking pictures so we have some memory of Christmas 2007. Luther dressed in "business casual" attire for a good portion of our visit to Cleveland as pictured. We had a wonderful time eating non-stop and watching Christmas Story for 24 hours straight.
Kevin's big gift from his wife this year was Guitar Hero III for the Wii. No one can rock "Talk Dirty to Me" like he can. Amy's big gift from her husband this year was an incredible scavenger hunt around our house where she found MANY fun gifts like a magazine subscription, an iPod and her favorite...20 Godiva roasted almond truffles. Each clue was even a poem. Casanova.

We visited Philadelphia a couple times, too, and enjoyed a large and festive holiday party hosted by Kevin's mom. Two of his cousins were in from Hawaii...next year we plan on asking them to host Christmas. Mahalo, Ali and Brenda! We also got to see Kevin's sister Sharon and her family. Thankfully we actually remembered the camera for that occasion. Highlights included watching National Treasure Part II on the big screen and learning about webkinz. It was wonderful to see everyone and now we'll count the days until summer when we get to see everyone again! One thing we have to look forward to is seeing our future sister-in-law next weekend with her family. The celebration continues!
Amy will be visiting Pittsburgh this weekend, too, to attend the annual Bible Study Girl Christmas party. Hooray for frequent flyer miles and hooray for the BSGs (picture circa 2004)!!!

"It's Christmas Time in the City"

2007-12-08T20:46:00.001-05:00

We are so grown up. We have purchased a Christmas tree and even a couple of ornaments. We are certain the process of assembling the tree was very similar to what it was like to build the Eiffel Tower.

Happy Birthday, Kenny!

2007-12-08T20:37:00.001-05:00

Kevin's good friend, Vanilla Thunder, turned 30 recently. Kenny's wife Christin threw him a wonderful party and her mom even baked him an awesome cake.

The evening also included showtunes by Eric.

Thanksgiving '07

2007-11-28T18:51:00.000-05:00

We were sufficiently spoiled and well-fed this Thanksgiving. We started our greater Pennsylvania tour in Philadelphia with Kevin's family. We had an incredible meal and had a great time with Kevin's parents, his Uncle Ed and Aunt Judy, and Grandmom Vile. And even though the picture made it look like all we did was drink a gallon of Bailey's, we actually all behaved in a relatively tame fashion. We even had a great game of Scrabble to help our food digest.
We weren't the only ones who were well-fed...Luther did alright this holiday as well.
From Philadelphia we drove to the Clarion region and hung out with Amy's family. We had more fabulous meals with Amy's parents, Nana, and Grandpa. We played more Scrabble and even an interesting game called "Alfred Hitchcock's WHY?" from 1958. We also found some brainteaser puzzles and kept ourselves confounded the entire visit.
It was a wonderful holiday and we really gained a perspective on how much we have to be thankful for. We are thankful that we were not this bird because unfortunately hunting season in Pennsylvania means that slow, possibly hurt birds don't last very long. For all our "birder" friends out there, what the heck is this bird (may he rest in peace)?!?

Happy Couple

2007-11-20T18:32:00.000-05:00

Happy Anniversary, Jim and Dog!

As we celebrate the union of the best dancer of the 6th grade and the girl who was saved by the fire department on her wedding day, we reflect on how absolutely perfect Jim and Dog are for each other. They are fun, they are generous and their last name means "to repair" in Polish.

Congratulations, Jim and Dog! Here's to many more years of marital bliss!

Love Bean, etc.

2007-11-07T22:27:00.001-05:00

I was just doing my daily check-in-with-other-people's-blogs routine when I realized that we haven't fed and watered our own blog in a while. I guess that's mostly because we don't have much of an update. We had a wonderful Saturday evening seeing Sharyn and her friends Leslie and Jason (who might even be our friends now, too, if we didn't scare them away, which frankly we may have) in Old Town Alexandria. We even did the S'mores at Cosi...it was THAT fabulous an evening. In addition, we celebrated Navy's win over Notre Dame. All in all, the perfect day.

Here's a picture of Sharyn from years ago when we tried to capture a shot of a loud and not-so-great singer on the streets of Squirrel Hill. I'm posting this picture because I know Sharyn never checks in with the blog and now maybe it'll keep her on her toes!

I want to thank Kevin's sister, Sharon, for sending this picture of a "love bean" that her family grew. We gave these little beans to our nieces and nephews at our wedding and I was really excited to see what they would look like when they sprouted. Order your own beans by clicking here - they have them in lots of different messages. They make great stocking stuffers or an extra little something for your Thanksgiving Host(ess)! Thank you, Sharon!

Also...I realize that this is the Vileation Nation, not just the Amy Vileation Nation. So if you want to read more entries from the Kevin Vileation Nation, be sure to leave your comments of encouragement for him!

Luther In Cognito

2007-11-02T13:40:00.001-04:00

No, Luther is not dressed in Steelers gear.

Luther chose to be a bumblebee for Halloween this year and was certainly the hit of the neighborhood. You can see how happy he was about the whole thing. But it was either a bumblebee or a ladybug and so...voila.

It was amazing how many kids made it the whole way to our doorstep and didn't realize that Luther was a dog. I don't mean to suggest that they seriously thought he was a bee, but they seemed to think he was a toddler or something. Kevin and I can only hope to have children half as beautiful as Luther someday.
We carved some pumpkins this year, too, which was very fun and very messy. We should have done a better job of taking pictures throughout the experience, but here is the final result. Kevin even cut a hole in the back of one of them and sprayed hairspray through and lit it to simulate a fire-breather. And Grove City girls...please do not miss the fact that THE WITCH is on my front door!!! Thanks, Susan!

Valley of Tears

2007-10-30T08:38:00.001-04:00

Well, turns out our good friend Vinny was right. #1 Ohio State defeated Penn State this weekend and turned Happy Valley into the Valley of Tears. Thankfully the rest of the weekend was pretty great, so I guess we'll just have to look forward to next year.

Click here for pictures of the weekend. We had a fantastic time in State College, hanging out with all Kevin's wrestling teammates and their families. Highlights from the tailgate were: learning that all Kevin's friends think he is a girl because he has a blog, getting a lesson from Kristen on how to tell irresponsible tailgaters to knock it off, eating (very tasty!) pork from a bag, learning that our blog has been featured in Mr. Wolcott's classroom, and just enjoying a great time overall with the Breidinger family!Then we moved on to go visit with our good friend Steadman. Nate (who is also Steadman) and Kevin believe they are the same person because they both love Iron Eagle, Penn State, chicken wings, Miller Light, etc. So it's emotionally tough on both of them when they have to face off in the classic game of athletic prowess...beer pong. But they made it through and are probably even closer friends for it. Nate's wife Tracy is so much fun and we had a great time hanging out with her (and their friends Bill and Julie) and learning the finer points of how to successfully tailgate.

So that was the big trip to State College! The next installment will be Luther in his Halloween costume...stay tuned...!

Luther's Hunger Strike

2007-10-23T19:29:00.001-04:00

Luther is a tough nut to crack.

He has so many quirky behaviors but there is one that we just cannot figure out. Luther REFUSES to eat out of his dish. Won't do it.

Here he is facing off with his dish.

He will stare at the dish for hours. Sometimes days. But we know the secret. The secret is to put the food absolutely anywhere else but IN THE DISH.

Has anyone ever heard of this crazy behavior? We've tried lots of tricks, like hiding rice and snausages and cheese and salmon and pizza crust and lots of other tasty things at the bottom of his dish. He works around it. Won't eat his food.

And see this face? This is the face of a hungry dog. Sometimes Kevin tries to help Luther out and pours a little General Tso's sauce or gravy or something over his food. Generally I don't do this because I really, really want him to eat out of his dish all on his own. In this picture Luther is VERY hungry because he hasn't eaten since yesterday morning (aside from the occassional reward for going outside to, you know).

Just to prove that this is about the dish and not about the food, I've taken a video to demonstrate his clear preference for eating his food off the floor. Notice how he's acting like he hasn't seen food in weeks. WHY WON'T HE JUST EAT OUT OF HIS DISH????

(also, please forgive the Friends episode that is so obviously playing in the background)

A Perfect Segue...

2007-10-22T16:03:00.001-04:00

This weekend Kevin and I decided that we needed to do something. No more sitting around, watching football and eating chocolate. It was time to get out and see the world. Or at very least, Annapolis.

We've been wanting to do a segway tour of some sort for a while now, and who are you going to trust but a company called Segs in the City. We were both under the impression that we would be part of some 10-12 person tour, so imagine our surprise when we showed up and were the only two registered. Turns out, that's the best way to do a segway tour. Our guide, David, was fantastic and very patient with us. He told us lots of neat Maryland history and he even dresses up like a Colonial guy on occassion.

You can take a look at our pictures here, and notice that we also walked around the campus of the Naval Academy a bit. What a great weekend. We can't figure out why people are not just waiting in line to come visit us...!

Oh, and we're headed to the big OSU/PSU game this weekend in State College. Be sure to weigh in with your comments on who you think will win as well as who you WANT to win!

Dog Wins!

2007-10-15T11:10:00.001-04:00

It should come as no surprise that a person who goes by the name of "Dog" has won the contest. The contest of "why is our pug named Luther."

Here are the top guesses that we hear regarding Luther's name:

Luther Vandross
Martin Luther
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Lex Luthor
"Not a winner but a luther" (courtesy of our Pun King from Maynard...you know who you are!)

None of these are correct.

Dog (who many of you will recognize as the Matron of Honor at our wedding) knows the truth.

Luther is named for Luther van Damm on the TV show "Coach." So now Kevin needs to get a bunch of office supplies to Dog and her husband Jim.

Incidentally, we just spent a fantastic weekend with Dog and Jim in Columbus, Ohio, home of #1 Ohio State. We attended a beautiful wedding and I embarrassed myself about 7 different ways during the rest of the weekend. I will post some updates (and hopefully pictures if my Dad will share his) about this weekend in the near future.

(Luther is pictured above with his new best friend Abby.)

Home Again, Home Again, Safe at Banana

2007-10-01T18:41:00.000-04:00

Only my parents (Amy's parents) will get the title of this blog. And even then, I'm not entirely sure that THEY will get it. For some reason this is what we would say when pulling into the driveway. It's not at all surprising that we would say something like this because we also watched a lot of ALF. The older I get, the more I appreciate how great my childhood was. My parents have done so many things right. In fact, I can't think of one thing they did wrong, except allow me to be a jerk to them for most of my life. That's for another blog, when I ask Susan for help in writing it...she and I both sit around crying about how we wish we were better to our moms. Does anyone else do that? Sit around and regret their horrible behavior? I wonder if this is an activity reserved for people who grew up in Northeast Ohio.

Anyway, the things my parents did right...as Kevin and I try to get our life together and put a plan in place, I realize how seamless my parents made it all look. I grew up in the same house for most of my life and knew the area neighborhoods well. I love "knowing" an area. I love having a connotation in my head when I hear the name of a suburb. In fact, I love that so much that Robyn once made me a photo collage of the exit off of I-90 for Eddy/Bratenahl. Something about that exit just brings me some sort of nostalgia/memory/happy feeling.

My parents also let me drive when I turned 16. Again, this is something that I'm grateful for. I love that they saw this as freedom for themselves as well as for me (at least I think they did, maybe they'll comment on this). I just read an article about that new show Kid Nation and how parents are so hyper-aware of their kids these days. Too hyper-aware. My parents were by no means negligent, but they did let me sit in a carseat in the back of a burning Audi once. That's the sort of thing I love about them.

And I love that my parents have life-long friends. There are some very special families that I grew up with and to me that is just priceless. Again, as Kevin and I try to get our life in order, I'm starting to be accutely aware of the fact that I want to live near friends. So all of you who are already our friends and think you could tolerate living near us, please move. We'll pay your closing costs. We're pretty desperate.

There are myriad other things my parents did right. Like love each other. I remember a childhood friend of mine saying that she was sure that if my parents ever got divorced, it would be a sign that the world was ending. Everyone who knows my parents knows that they love each other. There's evidence of it in my Dad becoming a fan of classical music and gardening/yard work and my Mom attending Indians games and Rod Stewart concerts.

Every year my parents visit a National Park of some sort. They're in MUCH better shape than I am. They are active in their church. They know everyone in our community. They're great cooks (both of them). They finish what they start. And while they don't watch ALF anymore, they do watch Two and a Half Men as well as The Office. Which is fantastic.

So anyway, the original point of the blog was to say that I'm home from Europe and you can check out my pictures here. But it turned into Ode to Keith and Carla...and I'm glad. They should take a minute to be all puffed up about themselves (another inside joke, sorry).

And since we don't get tons of comments yet, I'll try to solicit a few more. Tell us about some crazy childhood quirks that you remember. For instance, my Dad always says "study hard." Even now. I've been out of school for 10 years. And my Mom and I still think sock monkeys are hilarious. So leave your comments! Sharyn, you should start off about "bummin'" on Saturday mornings!

I'm going to nag at Kevin to post something soon about his childhood. He'll have me beat in crazy memories since he had brothers and sisters, too. And his parents are pretty great because they had GOATS as pets for the kids! Stay tuned for some good Vilehood stories!

Europe is only big enough for one Vile at a time...

2007-09-24T13:19:00.000-04:00

This is the Vile who is not currently in Europe. He is busy working and tending to the pug. Here is Kevin at the BWI airport, sitting on some airplane tires. Did you know that BWI is also called the Thurgood Marshall airport? I very recently learned that fact.

Here is the Vile who is currently enjoying a tour of Belgium, Austria and Slovakia. Amy is having lots of fun working with Bekaert over in Europe and has managed to embarrass all of America over and over again.
And finally, here are both Kevin and Amy, many years ago, as they boarded a train going the wrong direction when they were visiting Kevin's sister Sharon and her family in Mons, Belgium. Ignorance is bliss.
(The complete set of European pictures will be posted upon return to the other side of the Pond.)

Labor Day Weekend

2007-09-14T11:27:00.001-04:00

We were fortunate enough to have our first visitors at our new place over Labor Day weekend. Thanks for coming, Mom & Dad! We hope you enjoyed your authentic taste of Baltimore at Chipotle. We are still horrified.

Click here for some pictures of our fun weekend.

Honeymoon

2007-09-14T11:26:00.001-04:00

For those who have a great deal of patience, please click here to see some pictures of our honeymoon adventure in Alaska. If you do choose to view these pictures, may I suggest watching them in "slideshow" mode so you can read the captions.

Kev and Aim - Take One

2007-09-10T10:11:00.000-04:00

We are new to the blogging world, but we are committed to becoming really good at it. We even plan to link pictures to this entry. It should take us no more than 4 hours to figure this out.

Click here for pictures of our wedding.