The Lindenbergs

For the moment things are pretty much in a "steady-state" at the Lindenberg household. Pierce continues to go to preschool and seems to be enjoying it. Most days he comes home with a project he worked on. We've got lots of drawings, letters from the alphabet, and many stories about his day that we can't quite decipher.

Work is going well for me (Eric). The Kansas Department of Education, after two years, has successfully deployed the grant application we built for them. The school district response in the state seems to be very positive. New Jersey Department of Education is now in its third month of using the grants software we built for them and they've been a fantastic customer. We're starting to move forward on phase II of their software.

Lately I've been working on a couple of home video projects (I'll try and include some links to online versions of them later). The whole Lindenberg/Hundelt clan has been digitally inserted into Pierce's favorite Blue's Clues episode, and I'm finishing up a Star Wars spoof featuring Pierce and Anna. The next project (assuming Nora gets me the materials) is a surprise (more news to come).

The wedding shower Nora and her friend, Carrie, organized was last weekend and it went very well. Nora was up until the wee hours of the morning the night before finishing up the final touches on games and activities. Let's just say she was a little draggy the next day... Now her energies are turning towards organizing the kid's birthday party. We're going to schedule around my Mom's visit in early November -most likely we'll have a party at Chucky Cheese.

Anna continues to grow and blossom. Her vocabulary is exponentially expanding and is speaking in looong sentences (not that we always understand them). She's still very much a Daddy's girl -just the way I like it. She and Pierce get along fairly well together. They're both "sharing" each other's toys and not complaining too loudly about it.

In conclusion, life couldn't be better

-Eric (Dad)

If we've ever given the impression that our kids are little angels then the latest incident should dispel that impression.

Walking into Haywards barbecue Restaurant:

Pierce: Oooh, a gumball machine, can I have that (pointing to the machine with superballs in it)

Mom and Dad: How about after lunch?

Pierce: Ok

During lunch:

Pierce: I want a blue superball from the gumball machine

Mom and Dad: Pierce, you don't get to choose what you get, it just comes out of the gumball machine

Pierce: Ok, but I want a blue superball

Mom and Dad: Do you understand that the gumball machine will pick what you get?

Pierce: Yes

Dad: Are you going to cry if you don't get a blue ball?

Pierce: No

At the gumball machine:

Nora: Here's your quarter, put it in the machine

Eric: Turn the handle Pierce; turn, turn, turn

Pierce: (pointing) I want THAT blue superball

Eric: Open the door...

(a yellow superball rolls out)

Pierce: WAHHHHHHHHH!

A tantrum ensues....

-Eric (Dad)

Nora and I spent our 5th wedding anniversary in Jamaica (no kids). Here's Nora's description of our vacation:

It was wonderful! We had beautiful weather the whole time, except for a few hours of rain on Sunday. We spent most of our time in the resort.




We arrived Thursday afternoon and we were a little confused about the time change. We thought the local time was 2 hours ahead of KC time for some reason. It turns out it was the same time there as it is in KC right now, because they are on EST, but do not do daylight savings time. We were exploring the resort and once we figured out what the correct time was, things made more sense! We ended up eating dinner at about 4:30 because we thought it was 6:30 - stuff like that.






On Friday, we went snorkeling and then hung out at the pool. On Saturday we went to the Mayfield Falls for a day of climbing the Falls (which was incredibly beautiful and fun!) and lunch was included. Then we did a little bargaining with some local 'shop' owners for some souvenirs after lunch.








On Sunday, we'd planned a 1/2 day excursion of horseback riding through the ocean, but we ended up canceling because the van that was supposed to pick us up at the resort broke down and never showed up. So, Sunday was spent relaxing at the pool or on the beach (Eric went windsurfing and kayaking), and Sunday night there was a Beach Party!





Monday morning, we spent an hour at the pool after breakfast, and then went back to the room to shower and pack. They had a Disco and nightly shows. We ususally stayed for part of the show (they were not very good), then headed back to our room. We are just not the party animals we once were! We tried to check out the Disco on Sunday night, after we danced a little at the Beach Party, but the Disco was closed.




And as part of our package deal, we flew first class there and back! That was the first time I'd ever flown in first class and it was a very nice way to begin and end our trip!