6 Pieces of Pizza

It's been a busy last few weeks planning for Eli's 2nd Birthday and keeping busy at work.  

I know I promised Westphalia Youth Choir for my next topic, so I thought I would stay true to my word and give the people what they wanted.  Anyone from Westphalia that grew up in the late 80's and early 90's was most likely a member of the Westphalia Youth Choir.  

We sang at church about once a month and also made appearances Christmas Caroling and during the Westphalia 4th of July Picnic.  Christmas Caroling was the best because it always followed a pizza party at the Fire Hall.  Those who witnessed my devouring of 6 pieces of pizza as a six-year-old after caroling still remind me of it to this day.  In fact, I think that moment was probably was the beginning of my competitive eating career.  

In 3rd grade I ate 8 hamburgers at Shane Schechinger's birthday party.  You might think that was a lot, but we did go swimming beforehand.  I put many men to shame with my eating abilities and most recently took the title of Food Service Spagetti Eating Champion in college where I ate 7 plates to Shane's 6.  The rest of the competitors weren't even close enough to garner mention.  At least I know I have a fall back career.

Kobyashi ain't got nothin' on me

Anyway, back to Youth Choir.  It was 1989 and I was in 1st grade.  Matt Gross and my cousin, Dana Schmitz, had been chosen to perform the solos in "Do You Love Jesus?", the song for 1st Communion that year.  At the last minute, Matt had to leave town for the weekend and that left the choir short a soloist for 1st Communion.  Choir director Jan Rau and organist Gloria Schmitz had me step in and do the solo.  The rest, as they say, is history.  I've since gone on to win 3 Grammy's, sell 3 Platinum records, and make millions.  

Actually, in reality it was more like a scene from the Wonder Years where Kevin's voice starts to change and his voice goes to hell.  That, and the fact that I quit Youth Choir when I was 12 because I didn't want to sing Yankee Doodle Dandy with the choir at the 4th of July Picnic while my friends were throwing Black Cats and squirting Magic Ink on anyone they could find.

My mom still had a cassette tape of that performance and I just converted it to MP3 for all to enjoy.  Here you go:

Youth Choir Performance - 1989 First Communion

Same Performance Edited to sound like the Chipmunks

Is that Theodore?  No, it's Kevin Malik.

Next time I'll have videos and pictures from Eli's birthday.  I still have some work to do to get the videos online, so it will probably be a couple days.  

Drive Time, '91

As part of my future plans for this blog, you will be seeing a lot more video of past events.  These videos may range from my favorites growing up to obscure family videos that I am working on converting to digital format.  For instance, I may feature baseball bloopers one week, and footage of my brother Mark with a semi-mullet the next (don't worry, it's coming).  You might see me as a portly 8 year old in a stunning purple shirt (again, don't worry, it's coming), and the next entry might feature the 1991 Minnesota Twins tribute video.  

If you were voting for the Twins, you're in luck.  

My aunt and uncle and their two kids lived in Minnesota and knew that I was a big baseball fan growing up.  When the Twins won the World Series, they sent a VHS tape to us featuring a Tribute to the 1991 Twins.  This video was my favorite thing to watch for 2 years straight.  I wasn't even a Twins fan, but it was really well put together and kept me entertained.  This video is part of the reason I idolized Chuck Knoblauch for a number of years.  I watched it so much, I even memorized the Twins Pennant race song:

"We got Puck, Chuck, Jack, Mack...Chilly, Willy, Bush, and Tap, Harper, Gladden, Alan, Gags, Hrbek, Willis, Bush and Pags.  Aguilera, Erickson, Terry and Bedrosian. Guthrie, West, and the rest. Don't you know we've got the best!?"  

Now, it wouldn't be fair to talk about these fine videos without actually showing you them.  The whole video is an hour long and has tons of highlights and clips throughout the season, but I chose the most obscure and corny moments of the video to showcase here.  It's kind of like the Super Bowl Shuffle meets M.C. Hammer meets the "Not" t-shirts of the 90's.  I hope you enjoy.

The Twins are on the runnin', in 1991!

Total chicanery

The best part is when Hrby is pointing at Wille Banks dancing.  And what is Tony Oliva doing?

Eli is really starting to talk a lot more recently.  Just last week he starting putting multiple words together.  Previously, if he wanted picked up he would say, "up."  Now he says, "lift up."  If he wanted to lay down, he would just say, "lay."  Now he says the whole thing.  You get the picture.  Tonight I noticed it starting to become 3 words.  It's really amazing to watch him grow up so fast.  

Amber was on the treadmill while I was giving Eli a bath and I decided to try to see if Eli wanted to try singing.  You know, just to cover my bases so if he isn't a MLB All-Star second baseman someday, he'll have a good start to a smashing singing career.  We started with "How Much is That Doggie in the Window."  This was a good song as it features sound effects (arf, arf) that Eli thoroughly enjoys.  So after I sang it about 3 times, we were ready for our duet.

Me: "How much is that...

Eli: "Doggy" 

Me: "in the window?"

Both: "Arf, arf"

Me: "The one with the waggily..."

Eli: "Tail"

Both: "Arf, arf"

Me: "How much is that...

Eli: "Doggy" 

Me: "in the window?"

Both: "Arf, arf"

Me: "I do hope that doggy's for..."

Eli: "Garage"

Apparently Eli associates sale with garage. 

Next post:  The Westphalia Youth Choir sings the hits

Don't call it a comeback

I've had a severe case of writer's block lasting nearly 10 months and finally, it appears that it has passed.  I had attempted to hire monkeys that could type 40 words per minute on a typewriter to do my dirty work for me in the meantime, but it didn't work out well.  We had negotiated their compensation to be Popcorn Shrimp, Popcorn Chicken, and Popcorn Popcorn.  Well, after 2 months, all I had to show for it was a VIP Customer Card to Mickel's, KFC, and Snappy and three barely coherent paragraphs documenting the health benefits of bananas.  At least I've found an alternative use for my monkey friends:

I could go on all day making obscure monkey references, but I'll spare all of you the details...for now at least.  That is, until the 10 month writer's block sets in again.

I've realized that this blog is not only a great way to torture its readers by forcing them to read my tongue-in-cheek comments, poor use of the English language, and over-utilization of weird YouTube videos that have no relevance to my topics, but to document what happens in my life over the years.  In 20 years I can look back and see what happened at this point in time in my life and what was going on.  

Another reason About Schmitz is back with a vengeance is because of the incessant emails and requests I have gotten to continue blogging again.  The requests have poured into my inbox like V!agr@ email messages into an email account without spam protection.  The numbers are mind boggling; in the triple figures actually:

My sister Kim

Also Daniel

My sister Kim again

3.  That's triple figures in my book.  Granted, my sister Kim just wants to see more pictures of Eli and Daniel was probably just trying to be nice.

So anyway, life in the Schmitz Family has been pretty crazy this past year.  Eli is talking and keeping busy as ever.  He eats like a horse, but moves around so much he hasn't gotten much bigger.  I really hope he has better metabolism than his dad.  Currently, he loves books and is starting to get more into watching Bob the Builder and some Baby Einstein videos.  He knows that our new president is Obama and walks around the house saying "'Bama".  He is also obviously working on his Spanish because most adjectives are preceded by the noun.  "Bama" lives in "house....white."  This is a really fun age right now with something different every night. 

Amber stays busy with Eli all day and is currently expecting.  Schmitz Baby number 2 is coming near the end of March.  Eli has given his suggestions for names:

Boy Names:

Arnold

Hutch

Ben

Brody

Girl Names:

Amen

Ben

I personally am partial to Amen, but I'm not sure if I have final say in the matter.  I've been busy with work and coached baseball this past summer.  

So that's the last 10 months in a nutshell.  Here's some pictures for those of you who are too lazy to read.

Watching Bob on Dad's iPod

"Mittens!  I don't need no stinking mittens!"

First Sled Ride

I just realized that this post reads like a poorly constructed Christmas Letter, published 2 months late.

Next Post: The 1991 Minnesota Twins (seriously)

Procreation, Relocation, and attempted Copulaiton

Some big news to report this week from the Schmitz family:

1. My sister Karen had a baby boy on March 25th. Drake Phillip was born 7 pounds, 2 ounces, 21 inches long, and everyone is doing well. Everyone was waiting with baited breath for what the name would be as the other boy names passed around by Karen and Doug in the past have ranged from Hutch to Haymish to Joe. Of course Haymish was only mentioned to scare the crap out of my mom; it worked. I like Drake though. Sounds like the name of a doctor on a daytime soap opera.

My top three TV doctor names: 1. Drake 2. Doogie 3. Dr. Nick

Here are some pictures of the cute little guy and the happy fam. Cute little guy, looks like his uncle.

2. We finally found a house! We close on the 22nd of April and are looking forward to having our own place again. I'll let you know the address of our new place once we move in, but here is a picture:

3. Kent and Deb have adopted some stray cats and Gus has become very fond of them. He tries to get action from the cats all the time when he's outside. I feel sorry for him and the cats both, but it is pretty funny watching a 4 pound dog trying to romanticize a 6 pound cat.

No one ever said that pimpin' was easy

I promise more pictures of Eli to come soon. It's really hard to get pictures lately as he never stops moving. That and I've been a little lazy lately when it comes to generating things for this site.

No pictures, but all the macaroni salad you can eat

I know I promised pictures and videos in my next post, but this blog's intention is to disappoint everyone by saying I'm going to do something, and then doing something entirely different. No pictures or videos yet, but I do hope to have them up before the week is over.

This week is exciting for me because its a short week for school as students and teachers are on break Thursday, Friday and next Monday, Tuesday. I still have to work, but it is a good opportunity to get something done when people aren't around.

Amber and I are doing well. Amber keeps busy following Eli around and believe me, he is constantly going. Last night we went to my mom and dad's for the Westphalia Fire Department Chicken Supper and Eli was excited to have an audience. He's a total show off anymore. He really doesn't like his toys much. He's still very into kitchen utensils and exploring the house. But he ate tons of macaroni salad. He loves the stuff.

Lately Eli has started dancing. He even has a little spin move he likes to do. When he gets in the kitchen, sometimes he likes to crawl backwards for some reason. It's the most hilarious thing in the world, so of course, he never does it when I have the camcorder nearby. Videos of everything else will be coming soon.

We're still looking for a house. More are coming available recently, but not quite what we are looking for yet. We're getting a little desparate...it's hard not having your own place after being on your own for almost 4 years.

I nominate this post for most boring ever. That's why I'll liven it up with this random YouTube video I thought was entertaining:

Catch up or Ketchup or Catsup?

As Eli would tell you, it's not fun living out of a suitcase.

The with the writer's strike finally coming to an end, About Schmitz is back with a vengence. Don't call it a comeback, we've been here for months. It was a long, hard battle, but the agreement was finally made and the monkies with typewriters are back at it, helping to put About Schmitz on the map. And if you don't know how to read that map, here's why:

A lot has happened in the past three months, so I'll try to give you all a crash course to get caught up.

Eli got a really bad case of the stomach flu in late November and it lasted about 2 weeks. I never thought that I wouldn't mind getting puked on, but when it's your own kid, it's not so bad after like the 11th time. It also helps that it was just milk usually. Gross, but not as gross as you would think.

He is now recovered and is doing better than ever. He eats. And eats. And eats some more. I think he lost a little weight being sick, but he is working hard at regaining that and then some.

Just a little snack.

After that was Christmas, Eli started walking, and Eli's Birthday. I've been working quite a few hours at my new job, and with everything else going on, the blog went on hiatus. I plan to follow this post up with video the above mentioned and other craziness. We are still living with Amber's parents right now. Although they have been more than hospitable, we really want to find a house. Harlan and Avoca are not exactly buyer's markets however. It will happen, it's just been frustrating.

I don't feel as if this post is my best work, but I'm a the monkies are a little rusty after the long layoff. It will get better.

Just Pictures

For those of you who have not seen Eli in a while, here are some pics. I promise, I will start posting some info soon. Merry Christmas!

Where's China?

After a two week hiatus from blogging, I'm going to make an attempt at posting here regularly again.

I started my new job last Monday and Amber, Eli, and I are temporarily moved back to Shelby County. We are staying with her parents right now because I have been and will be working quite a bit in the coming weeks. I really need to get familiar with my new position, because right now I feel a lot like this guy:

"Where's China?"

I'll have some more pictures and information up tonight or tomorrow night. That's all for now.

Worky, work. Busy bee.

Blogging is going to be down for the next few days and maybe even longer. We are trying to do some work around the house and trying to get ready for when I start my new job on Monday. Things on here will pick up again when we get settled, but it may be a week or two. I'll have more pictures and videos of Eli then too.

"I can't blog now, I'm in the zone over here."

And for those of you wondering what exactly a technology director does, here is a brief video that details my job description.

"I don't got time for pain! The only pain I got time for is the pain I put on fools who dont know what time it is! Whoo!"

Turkey Day Eve

Things have been pretty hectic around the Schmitz household lately.

You never realize how much spare time you had pre-rugrat until you have one. We've become well trained in the art of night napping, the practice of sleeping 1 or 2 hours and then getting up and trying to get Eli back to sleep.

Amber and I haven't had a date since Eli was born. Our new concept of dating involves Godfather's, driving around Carroll, and walking through Wal-Mart. I know, I'm such a romantic husband.

While I seem to have more personal time than Amber with her feeding Eli, personal recreation is at an all-time low. As opposed to watching a movie, I now see a trailer for new movie while watching my recording of The Office after Eli falls asleep. Instead of sitting down and reading a book, I catch up on my reading by watching the 6 AM news on Channel 13 in closed-caption format.

And I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Tonight is Thanksgiving Eve and things have been extremely busy for us the past 2 weeks. We are still preparing the house to look as good as possible for potential buyers. I've been trying to wrap up projects at work while planning and preparing for my new job. We're still trying to figure out how we are going to manage me working over an hour away from our current house. And Eli doesn't know when to slow down.

He hasn't been sleeping well lately again, but he is getting closer and closer to walking. The last few nights he has been taking about 3 or 4 steps between me and Amber and walking along the furniture. He still has a ways to go on his balance, but if I had to take the over/under on when he will be walking and the line is Christmas, I'm taking the under.

Amber isn't feeling well tonight. I think she is probably more warn out than anything with as active and sleepless that Eli is. I hope she is feeling better by tomorrow, because we have a big day of Thanksgiving festivities planned.

Eli is getting big and trying to do everything. He is pulling himself up on things and is even starting to be able to occupy himself a little bit with his toys.

I don't know why, but lately he seems to love his Dad even more than usual. I leave the room and he's either screaming or crawling to come find me. I had better enjoy it now, because it won't last forever.

I have a lot to be thankful for.

Holiday Cheer

In the spirit of the holiday season, I have choreographed some videos for you all to enjoy. I plan to have them in a video format on the blog itself, but in the mean time, here you go:

Deck the Halls
Jingle Bells
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Dashing Through the Snow
Jingle Bell Rock

Insert shameless plug [here]

Things I like:

Daniel Rosmann's Blog
http://seizurebear.livejournal.com/

He thinks I plagiarize from his material, but I've probably read it so much that I think some of his ideas are my own. Good stuff and he blogs more often than I do.

For my personal favorite of all time, go here. Warning: I laughed so hard when I read this that I had tears in my eyes.

My video/multimedia business
http://www.triplemproductions.net/

If you know anyone getting married, that's my specialty. Help feed my kid! The website is under construction.

Our house with a SOLD sign in the front yard.


It's for sale and it can all be yours, if you're the next contestant on The Price is Right!

Next post: Canned peas or frozen peas? What are you using in your tuna casserole?

Also: seizurebear.livejournal.com sues aboutschmitz.blogspot.com for a record setting $1.2 billion for plagarisim. Ben Matlock to try the case.

Moving!

So I was listening to KNOD the other day, and Ron Novotny tells me he walked into Hy-Vee and saw "BUNS! 99 cents!"

"12 pack Coke products, 3 for $8.00!"

"Van Camp Pork and Beans...only 59 cents!"

He then brought up that it was Harlan's Crazy Days Sale and that if I missed this sale, "[I'm] crazy!"

So I said, "That's it. That settles it. I'm not standing for this any more. We will not miss another Crazy Days sale under my watch. We're moving back to southwest Iowa."

Shelby County missed us too much and I couldn't go any longer without Klubhaus Tacos, Tiny Lund Festivals, and parish picnics. Well, that, and the fact that I got a job with the A-H-S-T School District as Technology Director.

We are very excited to be moving back to the area. We're not sure where we are going to live yet, but will probably be looking to buy once we sell our house in Carroll. If anyone knows of any acreages that may be for sale, let us know. Also, if you know of anyone interested in giving us land, materials for a house, and building a house for us, that would be appreciated also. Just keep your eyes open for guys with hammers, big piles of lumber, and "Free Land" signs nearby.

Most likely, we will have owned 3 separate homes in a span of approximately 4 years. We should be institutionalized. This will be our last move in a long, long time. The next time I move it will most likely be to south of the Mason-Dixon line when I am old and gray.

I'm extremely excited for the job. I'll be responsible for managing and developing the technology in the A-H-S-T schools. They have a new elementary school under construction and I will have the opportunity to get involved in a lot of different areas like coaching and classroom involvement along with the main responsibilities of the position. It should be fun.

I will miss my job in Carroll, but this was an opportunity that we couldn't pass up. I had mentioned to Amber that I may look into teaching and education administration earlier this summer and this would allow me to see if that would be what I really want to do and the location would be great as we would like to be a little closer to brothers and sisters and grandma and grandpas.

It's been really tough on us that last 2 years living so far away from family. The long trips home for holidays have been brutal. We typically stay the night at a location about halfway in between. I prefer Templeton. Amber is a fan of Manning. Eli likes to "rough it" by camping out at the Park and Ride on HWY 71. Either way, it will take a lot of stress off our marriage by eliminating the pain of living so far from home.

When we don't have time to drive, we usually fly. The move will prevent us from having to pay those excessive airfares. I guess I'll have to find another way to build up my frequent flyer miles.

In all seriousness, we are very excited to be living closer to home and are looking forward to Eli becoming a Future Viking or Future Cyclone. With as much energy as he has lately and as much trouble as he likes to cause, I'm just praying it isn't Future Fugitive. And if you think it couldn't get any worse than that, I have two words for you: Future Husker.(gasp) No wonder I don't sleep as well as I used to.

Before we leave, I thought I would pass on a few tidbits of info that Carrollrillians may like to know prior to our transition. Below are the three most common questions I received from people in Carroll since I've lived here...because enquiring minds want to know.

Question: How could Harlan lose a McDonald's, but keep the Burger King?
Answer: The Burger King took down the HamBurgler in Wrestle Mania XVII, thus taking control of the local fast food burger chain monopoly.

Question: The football team is way too good. They must put steroids in the water, right?
Answer: Of course they put water in the steroids. I was just unfortunate to be on rural water my whole life. :(

Question: There's a lot of money in Shelby County, isn't' there? (Same question can be said for Shelby County residents of Carroll County)
Answer: It all depends on where I live. Wherever I go the money goes. Coincidence? I think not.

So if anyone is looking for a home in Carroll, IA, please, let me know. I will accept tacos as currency in lieu of cash. Terms of the transaction are contingent on not telling Amber that I will accept tacos for real estate. The exchange rate on tacos right now is definitely favorable. Financing available.

Next post: Matt finishes his post by previewing his upcoming post, only to largely disappoint all blog readers when he writes about something completely unrelated.

Side note: Whatever happened to that post Matt promised about similarities between babies and chihuahuas?

Also: More Matt talking about himself in the third person. It's riveting.

In addition: Due to popular demand, more brief titles followed by a colon and incomplete sentences.

Gimmie Three Steps

This is my attempt at Simponizing Eli. http://www.simpsonizeme.com

Last night Amber, Eli, and I were all down in the basement hanging out. Eli's new thing is pulling himself up on various things and showing off by waving one hand in the air. He thinks he's the bomb when he does this.

So anyway, Amber is folding clothes out of the laundry basket and Eli decides to pull himself up on the side of the basket. We were just watching him showboat in his victory stance and he all of the sudden decided to take off toward me, about 5 feet away. Before any of us knew what was going on, he had taken about 3 steps right towards me and was still standing when Amber, shocked by what had happened screamed and grabbed him because she thought he was going to fall down.

The whole event was pretty exciting. Eli got startled by Amber's reaction and in a span of about 7.3 seconds, Amber had gone upstairs to grab her phone, call her mom, and alert the press. Please see tomorrow's Harlan Tribune for the full details.

We'll probably see Eli walking here shortly. He can't wait.

I spent the weekend with vendors from my job visiting from Ohio. They run an HVAC company in Dayton, OH. Friday and Saturday were pretty exhausting for everyone. We went to dinner on Friday night and then tailgated, went to the ISU football game (which was awesome), and finished the day with and ISU basketball game on Saturday. A good time was had by all.

Here is a commercial from the company that was in town. I like it. It's not like other commercials you would see for this type of business and definitely catches your attention. All it needs is a voice-over from Ron Novotny. "They come wreck-a-mended!"

Tomorrow: Big, huge, shocking, earth-shattering news. Stay tuned.

The Laundry Basket 500

It's amazing the things we do to entertain ourselves anymore.

Since Amber and I haven't publicly humiliated ourselves on the blog quite yet, we thought no time like the present. Tonight the Laundry Basket 500 took place in our basement since Eli's taken a liking to the basket. At least this will give Eli a reason to laugh at his crazy parents when he's older.

And I also forgot to post the winning Halloween costume. It was a tough decision, but Elmo won out over the rest.

Eli, Inc. Announces Third Quarter Earnings, Dirty Diapers

Eli, Inc. (NYSE:ELIJAH) reported $3.2 million in net earnings for the third quarter in 2007. Eli, Inc., a subsidiary of Schmitz Enterprises, was acquired on February 3rd, 2007 and has seen much success in the first nine months of operation. Dirty diapers are also up 13.6%, with nearly 7.3% of the blowout variety.

"We were looking to expand our portfolio and really tap into the grandparent segment of the market," said CFO Matt Schmitz. "I really think that we have accomplished that with this acquisition."

In addition to testing well with the grandparent market, Eli, Inc. has also been extremely popular with the Wal-Mart Cashier demographic, elderly shoppers at the local Fareway, and waiters and waitresses in the Mexican Food Service industry.

The development of Eli, Inc can be traced back to nearly two years ago.

"I was the prime incubator of the business model we had proposed," said COO Amber Schmitz. "CFO Matt Schmitz provided the capital and planted the seed to expand the market. All in all the project took about 9 months to get off the ground."

While the initial public offering was scheduled to take place on February 1st, CEO Eli Schmitz made the decision to delay the offering by 45 hours as he was still in the process of developing the finishing touches of the company website. Despite the rocky start, Eli, Inc. has grown by leaps and bounds in its first 9 months of existence.

"A lot of research and development was done on our part in the first quarter," said Matt Schmitz. "We really had no idea what we were doing."

The first and second quarter marked many ups and downs, but the company began to build a lot of momentum halfway through the fiscal year.

"We hit a snag at the beginning of July with a substantial drop in bowel movements, said COO Schmitz. At first we thought it was the overall environment of the bear market and conflict in the Middle-East. It was later found that rice cereal and bananas were the cause of the lackluster performance. We quickly remedied the problem by launching a oat cereal and squash campaign. The results have been beyond our expectations."

Third quarter results have been beyond forecasts, but would have been more impressive without the 17% drop in Sleep.

"Overall, the synergies of adding Eli, Inc to our company portfolio have been very impressive both in the tangibles and intangibles," stated CFO Schmitz, "but the disappointing Sleep results leave us susceptible to our competition."

"All the other key ratios such as crawling, attempting to walk, laughing, sitting up, and spitting up have been increasing at a steady rate."

Schmitz Enterprises plans to continue to grown Eli, Inc. for many years to come with the ultimate objective of splitting it off to operate independently years down the road.

CEO Eli Schmitz is currently under investigation for questionable accounting practices and was unavailable for comment.

CEO Eli Schmitz was last seen in the Bahamas last week. This papparazi photo was taken of Eli celebrating his 9 month birthday with supermodels in a jacuzzi.

Financials (In millions of USD)

Income Statement

Total Revenue - 3,200.00

Gross Diapers - 6,068.00

Operating Drool - 2,303.00

Net Spit Up - 1,930.00

Balance Sheet

Total Current Cheerios - 31,572.00

Total Toys - 53,340.00

Total Current Teeth - 4.50

Total Steps - 21,860.00

Total Gallons Milk - 31,480.00

Cash Flow

Cash from Pooping - 2,738.00

Cash from Baths - -4,971.00

Cash from Stroller Walks - 504.00

Net Change in Wipes - -1,729.00

Key Stats & Ratios

Net Profit Margin - 20.46%

Operating Margin - 24.14%

EBITD Margin - 4.35%

Return on Average Boogers - 15.15%

Return on Average Changings - 25.18%

Emergency Room Visits - 1

Son of a Schmitz

Well, Halloween has come and gone (almost) and aside from dressing up like Elmo last night, I've figured out that Eli has been working hard to get into character for what he really is trying to be for Halloween: an insomniac.

I think the poor kid is afraid he's going to miss something by closing his eyes for more than 2 hours. Last night, we tried to let him get through it himself for almost 2 hours, but he just didn't want to go to sleep. He finally crashed at 3, only to get up 2 hours later. The night before he decided to get up for the day at 3, only to find out at 5:30 that he was really tired and need to go back to bed.

This too, will pass... I hope. It's amazing how lack of sleep can exponentially grow writer's block.; I'm going to bed.

Next Topic: How Chihuahuas and 9 month old babies are eerily similar in their behavior and cute Halloween pictures.

Bad Week

I hate to say it, but I'm glad it's Monday tomorrow. That means that last week is over and I can forget about it. Not saying that everything was bad, but it could have been better.

My cell phone died. Cody went into the hospital. And to top it all off, we had to take Eli to the ER tonight. It was far less serious than we originally thought, but we're glad we went anyway. He had an allergic reaction to some of the food we gave him for dinner. Scared the hell out of us, but he's back to himself again.

Needless to say, blogging hasn't been at the top of my priority list this week, but I'll try to get back on track in the next couple of days.

Halloween Vote

Eli's first Halloween is coming up and I'd like everyone's vote on what costume he should wear. Please leave a comment to vote for your favorite

Luggage...what every kid wants to be for Halloween. The upside of this costume is the immense candy storage space.

Farmer Eli. Time to plant the candy corn.

Biker Chick Eli. I think it's flattering.

Oompa Loompa. No face paint needed. Or Animal from the Muppets:

Hey coach, it's Johnny Orr! Same hair style and everything.

New for Christmas: Anger Me Elmo.

ET-li. Eli phone home.

Walker, Schmitz Ranger

This will be short and sweet because I am really tired and need to get to work early tomorrow morning.

Anyway, I bought a walker for Eli yesterday in Ames after the football game and brought it home last night. Once it was assembled, we put him in and thought he'd love it because he wants to walk (with our assistance) everywhere. Wrong.

He was terrified of the thing because all he could figure out was how to back up and it was freaking him out that we were moving farther away instead of closer. He was tired too, so we figured today may be a little better.

It took a little while, but he finally figured it out tonight. He seems to like it and his initial reaction once he started moving forward was lots of laughing and big screams of excitement. Unfortunately, I was a little late with the camera, but I was able to get some of the footage below. Enjoy.

Editor's Note: You may notice Eli shaking what appears to be a medication bottle. Everyone probably thinks we are the worst parents ever to give our kid a big bottle of pain killers to use as a toy.

In actuality, the bottle is an empty bottle of Amber's nursing vitamins filled with peppercorns for our pepper grinder that Eli likes to shake. We would never let our kid have a dangerous medicine as a toy; we always administer his evening dose of valium and vicodin to help him sleep ourselves. Duh.