one mo blog

I’ve had a lot to post the last few days, but I was also knocked on my butt by a really bad flu-like bug. I got it last Wednesday evening, and I’m just today starting to feel normal again. It was pretty bad. So anyway, a lot to get caught up on, but I’d be awful if I didn’t start by saying: I LOVE MY WIFE!!!

Jenny and I have been married for eight wonderful years today. I think we’ve crammed more into 8 years than most couples do into three or four. Two masters degrees, three children, three homes (soon to be four) seven jobs…I’m getting tired just thinking about it. But there is no one I would rather do life with.

As if to highlight to me just how wonderful my wife is:  Three of our former youth group students, all girls, are coming to babysit our kids so we can go out tonight. Two of them go to school in Baltimore, but they are all home on summer break right now.  They are making the trip just so they can say ‘hi’ to Jenny, and let us go on a date. I think the fact that they are so enthusiastic about doing this five years after our time with them in Salisbury ended speaks volumes about the strong, Godly relationship Jenny created with them, and how wonderful a woman she is.  I am truly blessed to be able to live with this woman every day.

Jenny, I love you!

Family

Mark your calendars. Yesterday was a big day in the life of the Otto family. I chose a job. I’ve had the offer on the table for a few days, but there was one more interview I wanted to take to see if it might be a better fit for me and the fam. It wasn’t. It’s exciting, because I really feel like this decision is the beginning of the transition of me and my family from my student-counseling time to my professional counseling career. It marks the decision not only for where I am going to work for the foreseeable future, but also where our family will settle and live…well, probably until Jenny and I retire!

Obviously this is a huge decision, but Jenny and I really feel like God is calling us to settle some place for the long haul for the health of our family. It means making some sacrifices, changing some things that we are not quite ready to change, but in the long run I think we will be able to take much better care of our children.

More is coming soon.

Family, Life Children, Counseling

Jenny and I watched Bill Cosby Himself over the weekend. It’s on-demand free on Comcast. I had a couple thoughts about it:

I’ve always thought this was a really funny stand-up routine, but it’s SOOOO much funnier when you have kids.

Kids really do have brain damage.

that’s all

Family Children, Funny

Hey folks,

It’s Sunday afternoon and the family and I are enjoying our first full day at home together. Mia and Mommy are upstairs sleeping and taking care of each other, and I’m downstairs with the other kids watching basketball and playing. It’s a nice, fun, chill day.

I just thought I’d check in to say thanks for your thoughts and prayers the past few days. We’re all doing very well and starting to get back to normal.

BTW: I have updated my flickr account with pics of Mia. They are bookmarked for friends and family only, so make sure you send a friend request if you want to see them.

Family Baby, Children

Jenny and I would like to introduce you all to Mia Elizabeth Otto. She was born yesterday (a St. Patrick’s Day baby) at 9:33 AM, and weighed in at 7lbs 13 oz.

Mommy and baby are both doing great. Jenny is recovering much better this time than the last two. Zach, Cayla and Emma are all elated, especially Cayla, who has been doting over her every minute they have been together.

Family Baby, Children

Cayla and I were talking about how great God is today and she said:

“God knows what is best for us, just like papa smurf.”

I think maybe we need to cut back on the TV.

Family Children, Weekly Quote

Just FYI since I’ve made such a big deal out of this around here lately (and rightfully so):

You may have noticed that the countdown timer for our Baby’s birth changed. We couldn’t schedule the c-section for the day we wanted, so it’s been rescheduled for March 17th.

Family Baby

Yesterday was quite a day. Zach and I got a late start on his pinewood derby car. We started over the weekend, and it was going pretty well until yesterday. While Zach was at school I broke his car trying to put the weights on. I was hoping to get some of the more complicated final details done so he could put the finishing touches on and we could go…but I broke it. Clean break, it glued back together nicely, but it was still frustrating, and I had to re-paint it too…ugh. Problem with repainting it so late in the game is that the paint was still tacky when we were putting the finishing touches on car so it got a bunch of marks on it. Ugh again. Then, as we were putting the wheels on the car broke again! So we were both really frustrated, but Zach held it together and worked hard and got it done. The finished product was held together by a combination of wood glue, hot glue and duct tape. It was a rather ghetto looking car, but I was really proud of Zach for how he handled the whole process, worked hard through it and got it done.

So six o’clock last night we went to Cub Scouts and raced the cars. That’s Zach’s car in the first lane in the picture above.  Long story short, that ghetto car, that I was sure would fall apart on the first run, came in first for the Webelos den and third in the whole pack. 

We were both pretty pumped.

Family

We passed the one month mark in our countdown to Mia this past week. I can’t believe she is almost here.

Family Baby

So, we’re sitting around doing something the other day and Cayla asks me:

Daddy, where is Alice’s wonderland?

So I tried to be honest and told her that I didn’t know for sure, but I thought it was just pretend. She responded

No, I think it’s in Florida.

So there you go, you wondered why Florida was so weird, now you know.

Family Children, Weekly Quote