For a week last summer my wife was in New Scotland and my kids were in Scotland County, and I was home alone. This provided me the opportunity to be rather bored. It was during this boredom that it occurred to me that I couldn’t remember the last time I actually felt really bored. As I complete my third decade of life, I recognize this has been a pretty significant change in my life, and I didn’t even realize it had happened. Sure, I noticed other big changes, like those that came when I became an employee, a husband, a father, a homeowner. But I had overlooked the fact that I’m not bored very much anymore.

I can distinctly remember, in school and college, being bored a lot. I identified strongly with song lyrics like “my boredom has outshined the sun.” Not that I was necessarily unhappy or that I didn’t have any fun or enjoy the time. There was just a lot more time than there was stuff to do, or stuff I wanted to do. I often thought of my life as a series periods of waiting. Wait for the bus to class. Wait in line for lunch. Wait until I’m old enough to drive. Wait to get into a concert. Wait to get into a movie. Wait until I go off to college. Wait for grades to be posted. Wait until class is over. So much time, bored. Idle. But at some point it went away, and I didn’t even notice. I guess I was waiting for the life I have now.

I just posted a ton of pictures from our recent trip to Disney World. There are also some miscellaneous pictures from January and February that I posted a while back but never mentioned on this blog.

I just celebrated my thirtieth Christmas1, which turned out to be my first white Christmas. It was quite magical—it started snowing around 9:30 am on Christmas day, while we were in the middle of opening presents, and it didn’t let up until about noon the next day. It snowed continuously and consistently, but never very hard, which created the softest snow I can remember. I’m sure it would make for great skiing.2 With the exception of not getting to see some of my relatives because of the weather, I’d rate this as one of the best Christmases of my life.

I have several pictures from our white Christmas in Newton, which are split into two albums: outdoor pictures and indoor pictures. While I was at it I also uploaded another set of photos from Thanksgiving that I still hadn’t loaded from my camera.

An interesting thing that happened is that my youngest brother, Jake, got the same present for Christmas this year that my other brother and I received for Christmas when he was about four weeks old: an NES. Well, technically, it is an NES-compatible device, that plays all the old NES cartridges.3 We had lots of fun playing the old games—I think we put in a good six hours over two days playing two-player Dr. Mario. We’re a lot more evenly matched in skill now than we were as kids, which makes it a lot more fun. We also broke out Duck Hunt, and Jake taught Emma how to play. Here, watch a video of it (and you might notice the snowfall outside too):

It’s really a testament to how timeless Nintendo’s old games are.

Here are two short videos from our Labor Day weekend in New Bern.  First, we have Stephanie and her mom playing with some 18th-century toys. This is the kind of thing kids did to pass their free time before video games.

And second we have a video of Emma “sweeping the yard.” I guess they didn’t have rakes back then? Also, I introduce Emma to a philosophical discussion, continuing the work of Mark Twain, as to how to discern between work and play.

Yesterday morning Grayson Matthew Robinson—the handsome little boy shown below—came into our lives:

The last time I managed to write about Emma’s birth within a few hours, but this time around I guess I’m a little late. Mark my words, someday when Grayson gets rebellious and I ask him, “Son, why did you drop out of school and get all those tattoos and start a Metallica cover band? I mean come on, no one liked Metallica songs even when Metallica performed them, and even before Lars Ulrich had that gender-reassignment surgery. The only people who ever liked Metallica are in their eighties now. It’s just a poor decision.” And he’ll reply “I did it because I wanted to be first. I always got second best, Dad! Look at the day I was born, you couldn’t even be bothered to write a blog post about it! Emma got a blog post. Emma got to pierce her nose. Emma got to go to Harvard.” Then I’ll tell him, “Son, the only reason you didn’t get a blog post that day was because I was so busy falling in love with you.” Then he’ll say “eww gay.” That’s just how teenagers talk.1

All kidding aside, I actually was somewhat concerned that I would never be able to love him as much as I love Emma. But I quickly learned that your love for your children isn’t meted out in discrete quantities from a finite supply. I already feel like I have just as much love for Grayson as I do for Emma. It is very surreal. It seems to be multiplied somehow when I see how much Emma loves her brother too. The video below shows just that, with Emma holding Grayson for the first time.

It has surprised me just how much I can already tell that Grayson has a different personality than Emma. For one thing, he loves being held much more than Emma did. Even as a baby, being held didn’t do much to console Emma. She’s never been much of a snuggler (except when she’s sick). Grayson, on the other hand, is very content to be held. He’s also generally quieter than Emma was at this point, though it remains to be seen if that trend will continue. Emma I’m sure was a little extra fussy because (as you may recall) she was born with a black eye.

In any case, I hope you’ll join me in welcoming Grayson into the world. You can find pictures from his first two hours of life on this very website. I’m sure more will be coming later, but probably not until after we are back home from the hospital.

I just put up a new photo album covering our 2010 beach trip. I tried my hand at a panoramic photo again, now that I know what I’m doing a little better. I got much better results than I did with my Hawai’i panoramics five years ago. The main thing I had to learn was to take one picture in auto mode, then put the camera in fully-manual mode (duplicating the settings from auto mode) before taking the pictures you intend to stitch. This keeps the camera from being darker when you’re looking at the sun and lighter when you’re looking away, so that everything can be stitched seamlessly. It seems obvious once you know it, but it didn’t occur to me for a while. On the software side, I used the completely free Microsoft Research Image Composite Editor to stitch the panoramic together, and it worked quite well (thanks for the tip, Jonah). Like magic, really.

To think that five years ago, Kip and I came together and promised our lives to one another.  Many of the people that follow this blog were in attendance that day.  It was a warm and blustery day that ended rather cool.  But I had a good time, and I hope that Kip did too! :)

I wanted to make this post as a retrospective on the past five years that I have spent with my husband.  A lot has happened over the years.  I didn’t link back to all previous posts I’ve made on this site, because there would have been a lot of them, so I’m just going to list the major events that have transpired as I remember them.  Please be advised: there is a lot of text here!

We spent our first week together visiting Hawaii, and had a marvelous time in the sun, sand, and sea.  We also enjoyed it from the air in a helicopter ride, that neither of us could fully enjoy due to motion sickness. Kip came home with a wounded foot after a snorkeling accident on the second day.

The next month Kip got to experience helping my family with a yard sale at my parents’ house, and was amazed at the crazies that come out at five in the morning and don’t allow you to fully set up the sale before they totally decimate the merchandise.

In June of 2005 we nearly got in a fight at Carowinds while waiting in line for the Borg.  It was quite terrifying at the time, but now, to look back on it is pretty funny.  I’m proud of my brother-in-law, who was brave enough to stand up for us when people tried to jump the line, when it wasn’t moving.

The month of July didn’t bring many exciting events, just a lot of reviews by my husband.  Things like movies, video games, and radio stations.  Not very exciting stuff.

August, however, was a pretty big month because we found out that our family would be increasing in number by 1.  We were going to be gaining a puppy that was left on Kip’s mom’s front door step.  We lost her a month later to a heart condition that was terminal.  It was a very sad thing to go through.  We then were able to adopt another dog, Punky, that we still have today, she turns five sometime this month.

Sometime in November Kip decided that he needed to reconnect with his stick figure days, and pulled out all his old drawings.  I’m not sure I approve, but they are kinda funny.  I also took up heavy-duty baking in all my free time, and created the infamous cupcake turkey army.  I still can’t believe nobody wanted to eat them.

In 2006 Kip learned how to file our taxes, which was a little stressful, but a necessary evil.  We had a winter Olympics in February, which made recording what we watched on tv interesting.  And I went on a job interview in March.

April brought around our first wedding anniversary.  We celebrated by going to the mountain house up on Roan Mountain.  We enjoyed warm fires, and year old wedding cake.  And I got the job that I interviewed for back in March.  Kip bought a new car, the Solara.

The next couple of months are pretty mundane, with Kip talking about computer stuff, and me being excited about getting the complete collection of Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre.  Kip then made a really long review of games and showed off his cubicle at Dassault.  And, we became Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Kip (but it wasn’t mentioned until October).

In September we celebrated Labor Day with my parents at Chimney Rock, and Kip talked some more about computer stuff.  (Have you sensed a pattern on what he talks about a lot!)

October had quite a bit going on with Kip getting excited about the upcoming release of the Nintendo Wii, I made a top 5 list of movies I would want with me if I were stranded on a desert island (in which I waxed romantic at the end), Kip created a MySpace page for some unknown reason, and we made a jack-o-lantern ghost.

The remainder of 2006 went as follows: we went to the Renaissance Fair with my parents, Kip led game time for AWANA at church one Wednesday night when there were apparently no other people available, Kip turned 25, he lost his cell phone while furniture shopping at the Hickory Furniture Mart (and later found it, Thank God), my car was broken into while I was at work and my purse with my cell phone was taken, the police called us late that night to tell us they caught the guys that did it and had my purse and cell phone in custody (again, Thank God), and Kip got a Wii for Christmas!!

2007 came in with nothing too exciting happening.  Kip talked a lot about programming stuff, and video game stuff.  I complained about mandatory work, that isn’t work, but menial labor.  Then we went to Florida for spring break to visit the newest addition to our extended family.

Our second anniversary was spent at home that year, but I got Kip the most awesome gift ever.  He was graced with his very own Kip Bobble Head.

May started with Kip complaining about filters on different programs, and me telling everybody about falling down the stairs on Easter Sunday and ruining two pairs of shoes.  The month ended with Kip warning people to watch what they say in airports.

The summer had several gaming highlights including us beating Super Paper Mario, and a 5 year old impressing Kip with his gaming skills.  I quit my job, and we bought our first house.  Kip continued blogging about LOST (which he had done several times previously on the blog).  Kip then had a crazy week in which our air conditioning went out in our new home and he got rear-ended on his way home from work.  The summer ended with us announcing our “big news” and Kip sharing quite a lot of his violent stick figure art with the world.

The year ended with Kip going on a business trip to Seattle, us finding out that we were going to have a bouncing baby girl the following spring, Kip and I both had birthdays, the carbon monoxide detector went off in the house, and we decorated for our first Christmas in our very own home.

The year 2008 began with the return of American Gladiators on tv, Kip realizing that Dane Cook is not nearly as funny as he used to be, and us taking our babymoon to Atlanta.  Kip also reviewed some games and determined that we would be traveling to see the full lunar eclipse in 2017.

March of 2008 brought Emma Leigh Robinson into the world and our lives.  She has been a true blessing to both Kip and myself.  For those of you that don’t remember, her arrival was a bit traumatic, but well worth it.  Looking back, I’m thankful that we were able to learn so much with her and help prepare ourselves for her little brother, who will be joining the family in mid-July of this year.

After Emma’s birth we posted a lot about her, and Kip did some more programming stuff.  For my first Mother’s Day, Kip bought me a brand new Honda CR-V, which I still love today.

Over the summer, Kip programed some more, there was stuff on video games and Facebook, Emma had her first beach trip (she didn’t like the water), and we went back to Florida.  The summer Olympics took place in Beijing, and USA did a pretty good job in the swimming events.  By the end of the summer, Emma had gone swimming at her Mimi’s house, and started eating “solid” foods.  It also held the life changing information that Kip’s current employer was closing the Charlotte branch in six months.  It was yet to be learned which layoff he would be included in.

The fall included a nice date night, and Emma going to the polls for her first voting experience.  We also posted quite a few videos of Emma growing, developing, and being really cute.

January 2009 brought snow, and Emma got to go sledding with her daddy.  February had Emma learning to walk, and Kip going on a mission trip to Matamoros, Mexico with our church.

March brought Kip looking for a new job since his would be ending at the end of the month, and his new use for all those business cards they gave him.  Emma also had a pretty big milestone when she turned 1.

Thankfully, Kip was hired for a new job in May, so we didn’t have to go into the unknown world of unemployment for very long.  Before he started, we took a family vacation to Myrtle Beach, and Emma had a blast in the lazy river at the resort.

During last summer, Kip got to experience the guy that sells meat out of a freezer strapped in the bed of his pick-up truck.  We also made another trip to the beach, this time with Kip’s extended family.  The summer ended with me going to the first planning meeting for my 10 year high school reunion.

In the fall and winter of 2009, Emma went trick-or-treating for the first time, and was quite the hit among the other parents and groups we passed or visited.  Kip also realized that he was getting old while I helped throw a wedding shower for my little sister.  My sister got married, and we had Christmas with my family at the beach.  We also found out that we were expecting our second child before the end of the year.

Although 2010 has barely begun, some things have happened since it began.  I was curious if anybody had any old wive’s tales that would help predict the gender of the newest Robinson, and Kip learned that teaching Emma her pronouns was going to be a challenge.  We also had more snow, and therefore more snow fun with Emma and her penguin sled.

Kip quit watching the Simpsons and found out that there is another him in the world.  A second winter Olympics started and ended since we’ve been married, and this time we did pretty well in downhill skiing and speed skating.

In the last month, we found out that the next Robinson will in fact be a little boy to be named Grayson Matthew Robinson, and Emma had her second birthday.

I can’t believe so much has happened or that the time has gone by so quickly.  I’m so thankful for all the fun times and many blessings we have had together.  I’m sure most of you found this post rather boring, but I had a lot of fun going back through all the things that have happened since we got married five years ago.  The day is almost over, so I guess I’ll go to bed since I have another busy day tomorrow, and lots more to do before our next big milestone gets here.

Many of you already know this from Facebook but I thought that I would make a post about it anyway because it is pretty big news in our family: we will be having a boy!

We went to the doctor on Thursday with Emma, Grammy, and Mimi in tow, to find out what the next little Robinson would be.  Grammy and Mimi were both fully expecting a girl, and Emma, when asked what the baby was, she responded “Gurl!”

After all the checking and measuring of the important baby stats, the technician had Kip call in the rest of the family to have the gender of the baby finally announced.  Once everyone was in the room, the Tech announced, “Well, it’s a boy.”  Her inflection showed no excitement or interest.  It sounded like she was telling us that “Well, it’s going to rain today.”  The reactions that followed though were more interesting.  Kip, according to my mother, beamed with a big goofy grin.  Mimi was so excited she teared up and exclaimed, “I know what to do with a boy!”  Grammy was all smiles, and asked me if I was ok.  (You have to understand that Kip and I really wanted another little girl, much like my sister Emily really wanted a little boy.)  I was in a state of shock and surprise for a few seconds, and then I just thought, “God is giving us a little boy, and he is healthy, moving, and going to be very precious when he gets here in less than 20 weeks.”  I was a little disappointed at first, and terrified because I figured out what to do with a baby girl with Emma, but I have no experience with little boys on an extended basis.  There are little boys in the nursery at church, but I usually let them be on their own and when they need a diaper change, I let the other worker handle that.  I am happy that we are going to have a little boy, and I am looking forward to buying him his own new wardrobe now that I know I need to have clothes for a little boy.

For those of you that have been living under a rock or don’t keep up with our lives like a stalker or super-fan, the plan as of now is to have the baby on July 19, via c-section, and name him Grayson Matthew Robinson.  No, the name isn’t a family name, it is just a name that Kip and I picked out when I was pregnant with Emma (in the event that she turned out to be a boy) and we still like it, so it will be the name of this baby.  And if you’re wondering, we are not naming him “Kip Robinson, III” because Kip says having the same name as your dad makes things too confusing. He figures maybe someday he might have a grandson named Kip. And I’m OK with that.

I got a fancy new DSLR camera for Christmas, and got a chance to try it out while spending Christmas at Myrtle Beach with Stephanie’s family. I got a ton of pictures, but I have only put up 113 of them.

The camera also records video in HD (720p 30fps or 1080p 20fps). The video below is one I recorded at 720p, though here it’s displayed at only 360p (which I think is equivalent to YouTube’s “HQ” setting). I would have trimmed the video more, but my recent upgrade to Windows 7 left me very surprised to find that Windows Movie Maker has been removed. Supposedly it has been replaced by Windows Live Movie Maker, a completely different program that lacks a lot of features that were in the Vista version of Movie Maker. I guess I need to install Premiere or something. I haven’t needed it in the past for what little video editing I do for this site, and I’ve been doing pretty well at using only legally-acquired software for a while. Oh well.

I have a whole new slew of pictures and video for you to partake of.  I doubled the size of our Summer fun 2009 photo album by adding more random pictures from the summer, starting with Emma in her kiddie pool.

I also added a new album of photos from Labor Day weekend at Williamsburg/Jamestown/Yorktown, totaling fifty-three photos in all.

As for video, I’ll warn you that there is quite a lot here.  Seven and a half minutes of video, if you put it all together.  The last one, alone, is over four minutes.  I group them together for those of you who don’t care about these things.  For those of you who enjoy them, well that just means more to enjoy.

First up is a short clip Stephanie recorded one day of Emma wearing her slippers and playing with a hat.

Next, we have a video of Emma playing the “Where’s Emma?” game behind the curtains at our condo in Williamsburg.  She’s been playing some variation of this game for quite some time, but this is the first time we were fortunate enough to catch it on video.

Next is a video of Emma’s various animal sounds.  She knows more than we got to.  Stephanie walked into the room partway through, and of course Emma found running to her much more interesting than reciting animal sounds with daddy.  From there, Stephanie grabs the camera to record Emma bringing me a book to read with her.

And lastly we have a video that may be surprising to some of you who know how non-athletic I am, but I’m actually trying to teach Emma how to play soccer in this one.  She’s actually quite talented for a seventeen-month-old, I’d say!