Enjoy The Ride!

Family Picture Day

2011-12-04T21:00:00.000-08:00

Picture day in the Poggemann household is never a fun ordeal. The first obstacle being finding a good day to go out when everyone is available, nobody is too cranky, and the weather is somewhat decent. The second problem is always coordinating outfits. It's hard to coordinate that many people, especially when one of the older ones with oppositional disorder doesn't necessarily want to even look like he/she belongs to any of the others.

Somehow, all of the planets aligned on this particular day and I think we got some decent shots:


In this first one, Felix was just getting a lay of the land, but I love how Lissy's hair looks so alive!


This is a pretty decent family shot, but we thought we could be a little more creative.

This one made the biggest picture on the Christmas card, although it wasn't my favorite of me. Sadie looks awfully cute, though, along with the rest of the family!

This one was my favorite on the Christmas card (except for Spencer), mostly because my hair looks so cute and windswept! With these last two that were on the Christmas card we would all start at the camera and run in as soon as Felix pushed the timer button.


I liked this one second best, especially Lissy.


This one didn't make the card, but it's very telling as far as family dynamics and people growing out of pants.

Before the picture above, while we were running into a photo, Sadie fell and gashed her knee up really bad (you can see the bandage if you look closely). We had to pack it up and hoof it back to the car in search of some first aid. She was a real trooper and decided she could handle doing some more pictures. I don't think any of the other kids would have been so resilient.

The girls.

Sisters & Choncho.

The boys.

Brothers & Choncho.

Next comes what happens when we try to get all the kids to cooperate and take one nice little picture all together:

Why, oh why, do we even try?

The next step in this oh, so wonderful family picture day experience is to try to take individual pictures of each of our delightful children. Some actually turn out really good:

And finally, to wrap it all up, we take a few random shots of the post-portrait steam blow-off.

The END!

3rd Annual POGGEMANN PIE NIGHT!!

2011-11-18T23:00:00.000-08:00

Here you have it, folks! The 3rd Annual Poggemann Pie Night was a smashing success. We had over 170 men, women and children come through our home that night. They were in hammocks in the backyard, coloring and playing in the garage (and at one point having a pie-eating contest), watching a projected movie in the master bedroom, playing in the playroom, hanging out in various kids' rooms, and wreaking havoc in the front yard (not really), but most of all, hanging out in the kitchen with many, many delicious pies and desserts to choose from!

From the Oldest to the Youngest....

2011-11-10T19:10:00.001-08:00

This is a bad habit for everyone in our house and I am the worst offender. I wasn't aware until recently that Lissy, sadly, got the eat-while-you-read gene. She is probably just as bad as Mason who is the worst after me.

Time For An Update!! (Just a teeny-weeny overdue!)

2011-11-09T13:08:00.000-08:00

What the heck?! How on earth did 3 1/2 years pass by so darn fast? And I can not believe how Mason went from looking like such a little boy to looking almost like a man so quickly. Okay, so here is my intention: I am going to start from current and work my way backwards to 2008. Wish me luck! (And perseverance!)

Posted by: Jenn

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T23:00:00.000-07:00

Sadie was Medusa. She alternates every year being something sweet and something evil. This was obviously an evil year. We were trying to figure out how we could alter a dress, possibly from Goodwill, but then she found this fabric. She created the design of it by herself and she only had to stitch a couple of shoulder seams. Note the scary snakes! Luckily her hair looks pretty snake-ish all on it's own. We just added a couple of fake ones in for effect.

Spencer conceived this whole crash test dummy costume. We just bought some sweats, Felix took them in some and Spencer did the rest, including the make-up. (He did have some help running over the costume with a painted car tire.)

Jared was a viking. Earlier this year he had bought the set of hat, axe, and shield. Felix quickly whipped up this tunic from fun fur and the rest we improvised from things around the house. Jared wanted to do his own make-up, so we let him. I think it turned out great!

Lissy made such a cute little cheerleader! I found the skirt super cheap at Goodwill and Felix whipped up a top for her. (No pattern!)

Choncho, obviously proud, wearing his pirate costume. Need we say more? (As a note, this picture was taken AFTER Halloween. We couldn't find the costume on the actual night. I'm pretty sure he had hidden it.)

Mason was a hunch-back but unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of him -- so typical!

Posted by: Jenn

Jared's Baptism Day

2011-10-08T23:00:00.000-07:00

Jared was baptized on October 8th, 2011. It was our smallest baptism because we didn't happen to share the date with anyone and it was soccer season, so a lot of his friends couldn't make it. But it was a great day nonetheless! The whole lineup (with the exception of the pianist) consisted of our family, which made the talks, especially, so much more personal. Sadie gave the baptism talk and Spencer gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. It was all simple and quick. Afterwards we snapped a few pictures, thanks to the prodding and photography skills of my very good friend Susan Drybread.

A few hours later, Jared had a soccer game. You could just tell this kid was burning with emotion from the events earlier in the day. I've never seen him play like that, with such spirit and such joy. He made several solid shots on goal, but each time without success. (A little background -- Jared does not generally score goals.) But this day, I could see determination in him and at some point in the game, in the third or fourth quarter, he finally made it back towards the goal and kicked the ball in! He was so excited, I could feel it.

Sometime during my cheering, Jared covered his face and bent over, crying. My first thought was that he had maybe gotten hurt while I was celebrating, but I quickly realized as I was watching him that he was just so happy and so overcome with emotion that it all came spilling out of him in that moment. It was a sight to behold.

Mr. Darcy

2008-05-07T08:31:00.001-07:00

Catching Up: Thanksgiving Show

2008-02-13T20:18:00.000-08:00

This is the third time we've seen the second grade Thanksgiving show at our school. Sadie was in it this year (and Spencer two years ago, and Mason two years before that). Each class tells poems, sings songs, and performs skits about Thanksgiving.

Sadie was a puritan girl!

Catching Up: Hannah Montana

2008-02-13T19:58:00.000-08:00

The day after Halloween, Jenn and Sadie went with their friends to the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert in the Bay Area. The Jonas Brothers opened for Miley. Sadie, a princess in every right, dressed in her fanciest, most fashionable clothes. Of course, she and her friends compared notes before hand, so they could all match.

U2 3D Movie!

2008-02-09T11:13:00.001-08:00

I just went to see this last night at our local IMAX theater. Totally worth the $15 plus parking that it took to see it. The filming is pristine, and the sound -- oh! the sound. This is the best experience in a theater I have had in the last 15 or more years.

Catching Up: Halloween 2007

2008-02-03T22:36:00.000-08:00

Halloween this year Mason was a Werewolf, Spencer as Dracula, Sadie was an Evil Queen (a witch with a crown), Jared was several things but mostly Diego (Dora the Explorer's cousin) and Lissy was Dora. Jenn and I were invited to a huge Halloween party, which we attended as a Zombie Bride and Groom. Jenn got her wedding dress from Goodwill on the cheap. I felt bad destroying it for the costume.

Mason went trick or treating with some friends in the neighborhood. He came back several hours later with 14 pounds of candy. He had the pillowcase shown in his hand mostly filled.

The extra kid in the pictures with Lissy and Jared is Daegan, their buddy. He was Diego, too.

Catching Up: October 2007 - San Diego

2008-01-31T22:29:00.000-08:00

We went to San Diego for a little family vacation during October. We stayed in a vacation rental condo on the ocean in a town called "Imperial Beach" just south of San Diego proper. The town is great, the condo was perfectly located, the weather was beautiful, there were NO TOURISTS, and we all could just decompress for a couple of days.

We spent almost three full days soaking up some beach time. The older kids tried to boogey board, and we all dug around in the sand. Every night, we'd go out to the beach and play until the sun set in the ocean. At first, we were amateur sand castle builders, then we looked up a website the last day were there, and we figured out how to make things better. (Note to selves -- bigger shovels are key).

We spent one day at Legoland, and an hour or so at the Temple on the way home. Then we hauled the family all the way back home. It was all good. We'll be returning there this year.

Catching Up: Jared's Birthday

2008-01-29T23:23:00.000-08:00

Jared's birthday party was small, but lively nonetheless. He had a few buddies come over, and we played games, including "Simon Says." Mason did a whole magic show for them, using props he got over the summer. He's the big FOUR, now. What an awesome kid.

Jenn made that way cool cake with the Lightning McQueen car for a decoration.

Catching up: Miscellaneous September Pictures

2008-01-29T22:55:00.000-08:00

Lissy is so cute!

Mason works on his defender skills.

Catching Up: SLO Town

2008-01-29T21:17:00.000-08:00

We listened to books on tape the whole way down to the central coast. One of the kids' books was from the Judy Moody series. It talked about the famed San Luis Obispo Bubblegum Alley. The kids interested, and since we were headed to the San Luis area, we took them to see it in all its disgusting glory.

You can see Lissy isn't happy about this. It really is somewhat horrifying.

At the corners where walls of the alley meet the walls of the storefronts, the layers of gum were particularly thick, about an inch and a half.

Jenn's sister Alicia got up close and personal.

After depositing our own contributions to Bubblegum Alley, we went to the creek. Lissy had a good time splashing in the water.

Catching Up: Labor Day

2008-01-29T20:41:00.001-08:00

For labor day this year, we headed to the beach in the Central Coast. We spent a quick extended weekend, then headed back to our lives. The kids had a great time at the beach.

Sadie in her favorite Dora swimsuit.

Spencer, Sadie and their cousin Evan digging holes.

Here's me with Jared and Lissy in the shore break.

Jenn's mom supplied this cool fish kite.

Mason (with the help of Spencer and Evan) dug two really big holes. Then they dug a tunnel between them . Then they took turns crawling through the tunnel.

Heading through the tunnel. You can see the top of Evan's head on the right.

Jared

Sadie and Uncle CJ

Catching Up: The Rest of August

2008-01-29T20:23:00.000-08:00

Lissy is quite a character. Here's a picture of her showing off one of many summer dresses.

We have this one blown up and hanging on the wall next to the piano.

Sadie played her second year of soccer.

Here she is as Goalie!

Hooray Pink Flamingoes!

I think this picture was for Jared's cooperative preschool.

LOVE THAT GIRL!

Catching up: Back to School

2008-01-29T19:53:00.000-08:00

August wrapped up the summer. Nowadays, summer vacation ends the second week of August, making school start in the hottest part of summer.

We have new neighbors (our third set in 18 months). They have three sons, who are about the same ages as Mason, Spencer, and Jared. The boys find it faster to get into each other's yards by going over the fence.

Jared has grown up a lot. He frequently gets his own breakfast (oatmeal, or cereal) all by himself.

Mason on the first day of school. He's at the local middle school now.

Spencer on the first day of school.

Sadie on her first day of school.

Catching Up: The Boat

2008-01-28T22:30:00.000-08:00

This summer I bought a boat. It is a Buccaneer 18, made originally by Chrysler (then Starwind, then Cardinal, now Nickels). It is the second fastest non-trapeze monohull under 20 feet according to the Portsmouth Yardstick handicapping system (the Thistle is faster). The boat is 18 feet overall, has a main, a 3/4 rig jib (with a furler), and can be rigged for a spinnaker (meaning it eventually WILL be rigged for a spinnaker).

I have named her the Stede Bonnet. Not a becoming name, but if you google it, you will see why it is appropriate.

Catching Up: Jenn's Birthday in Tahoe

2008-01-28T22:09:00.000-08:00

Our friends, the Petersens, have a family getaway on the Nevada shore of Lake Tahoe. Sometimes, when their whole extended family isn't using it, they invite us up for a long weekend. Last summer, we happened to go on Jenn's Birthday. If you want to know how old she is, she's older than when we met, but younger than she will be next year.

Catching Up: July 2007

2008-01-28T21:32:00.000-08:00

The rest of July delivered plenty of fun. The kids went to a local church's summer school, as they have for years. Afterwards they had ice cream. Here are Jared, Spencer, and Sadie digging into their frosty treat.

For some time, Lissy thought that you had to close your eyes to smile. Here she is smiling pretty for the camera.

Jenn took a curling iron to Lissy's hair to see what it would do. We though she looked like Emily Elizabeth from the Clifford books.

Pioneer Day! The girls (Sadie with Emma) wore their (now quite small) Pioneer dresses from a few years back.

Also at pioneer day, Jared got his face painted.

Lissy is sitting cute at the kitchen table.

Sadie models some new goggles.

Sadie has her friends over for a get together.

Catching up: July 4th, 2007

2008-01-27T20:55:00.000-08:00

I'll be danged! It sure has been a long time since we've posted anything here. In order to make up for lost time, we've decided to perform a chronology of the events starting with the last half of summer from last year. We hope to have caught up to the present within the next week or so.

Here we go.

We spent the Fourth of July with our friends the Drybreads, like we do most years. They have a pool, and we light lame California "safe" fireworks. The kids have a great time, and the guys have this crazy contest to see who can dive off the edge of a pool into the smallest floaty ring. Ah, traditions.

Lissy was an all-American girl in her cutie swimsuit.

Sadie and her best pal, Emma.

Spencer and Mason duke it out on the Foosball table. (Felix and his friend Slade were undefeated for the evening).

Spencer and his Grandpa Larry.

Jenn with Lissy, next to her friend Jennifer Gauntt, who has Maren in her lap.

Swim Team

2007-08-14T06:16:00.000-07:00

This summer we put the kids on the Broadstone Barracudas recreational swim team. There the kids swam 3 days a week, plus swim meets about every Saturday. People who know me would rightly assume that I was living in a personal version of heaven. I would swim my workout at the same time as the older kids, and help them figure out some of the details of going fast. Mason, Spencer, and Sadie were learning the basics: something I'm no good a teaching.

Mason was not too keen on the idea at first, but over time he stopped pouting about it and really enjoyed himself. Sadie was princess of popularity at the pool. Spencer showed a lot of potential, and seemed best suited for swimming in a pool, alone in his thoughts.

Here are some pictures that I downloaded from the the team's web site.

The whole season was a hoot! We'll be back next year, maybe with more experience.

Another Catch-Up Post

2007-07-29T21:31:00.000-07:00

I know! I KNOW! I am really sporadic, at best, in catching things up. I have been getting pressure from our friends the Brunners for a long time, now. Then the Petersens became eerily regular in their postings to their family blog. However, when our friends, the Smiths, updated their blog (their last pictures had snow in them) I knew it was time to provide some long-awaited pictures.

This first post will be more of a photographic summary of the last few months, similar to catch-up posts I have done before.

I will no longer make pledges of regularity, quantity, or quality of posts, due to my eroding integrity with you, my beloved readers. Rather, I ask that you indulge me by checking back every fortnight or so to see whether things have changed here in Northern California.

Enough explanation. On to the pictures. Read them from the bottom up. I will try to post more in the near future. I have a whole list of pictures, so the hard part's done.

Maybe we should send her to finishing school.

Opening her presents.

She blew out her candle by herself!

So beautiful!

Sadie gave her a big ol' doll. Lissy loved it.

Eating pizza and waiting for cake!

Queen Lissy turns 2. The kids always make crowns for each other on their birthdays. Take a look at the post from last June to see how much she's changed since last year.

Jared performs in his end-of-the-year skit and songs in pre-school.

Jared poses with his "graduation" cap.

Here is Mason in another rare picture. We bribed him.

This is a typical picture of the young Mason.

This is Jared displaying to us his alpha male pose. 5/21/07

Spencer is happy.

Sadie's First Lost Tooth. (see below)
5/21/07

So Sadie kept telling us her tooth was loose. She constantly worked on it, and asked us to feel how wiggly her tooth was. It wasn't really all that wiggly. One morning (5/21/07) she woke Jenn and I up. "I lost my tooth!" she exclaimed. She had wiggled it a lot, then twisted the stinking thing right out of her mouth! The above picture is her tooth, with much of the root intact. Puke-o. I just don't know how my dad did this kind of stuff for so long.

Jared a few days before pre-school let out.

This is Spencer playing with the neighbors. I think we must be scary because the house next door (which is a rental) has had two tenants come and go since we moved here. The next new tenants move-in today.

Resting from a trying day of tag.

Mason at his orchestra concert. He is really camera shy. Most of our pictures of him have his hand extended between the camera and himself. This is a rare image of his face, and was taken from behind a blind of other spectators so he would not know he was being photographed.

GRAND OPENING!

2007-05-18T06:58:00.000-07:00

Jenn and Susan's business is officially open! You can visit www.domesticdarlings.com and shop for their super cool stuff. And the shopping cart works now!

Let me give you that website again:

www.domesticdarlings.com

The Difference Between "Vacation" and "Trip"

2007-05-06T19:56:00.000-07:00

Before I get started, may I suggest two things: first, I have drastically reduced the pictures so click on them to see full size; second, try going to itsamadmadmadmadworld.blogspot.com for more pictures.

Many years ago, we heard an acquaintance say that the difference between a vacation and a trip was whether you took the kids with you. We just got back from a vacation.

We went with our friends Nate and Betsy Brunner. I met Nate when we were both going to the University of Chicago. He was getting his MBA there, and I was finishing undergrad. He is the only person from college that I still talk to regularly.

Our trip started out at 10:13 p.m. with a drive to the airport. We were both very excited to go, yet had not slept at all before leaving the house. Here are pictures of Jenn and I with no sleep, at about midnight, waiting to board the plane.

Sleeping on the plane was impossible. On the first leg, I had a kid behind me talking incessantly to his mother, and kicking my seat back. In front of me was a younger Russian couple who seemed to enjoy adjusting and readjusting their seat backs so as to repeatedly bang into my knees. Ah! the joys of flying coach!

I'm guessing there must be a flight to Canada or Mexico to justify the "International" part in Sacramento "International" Airport, because no airline flies anywhere from Sacramento, unless you happen to be heading to that airline's hub. We were flying Continental on the way out. We had to stop in Houston. I found more items showing Texas' infatuation with itself. We ate yucky fast food, and changed planes to continue our journey to Fort Lauderdale.

The excitement proved to be more than I could stand, and despite there being no unruly child behind me or restless Russian in front, I still could not sleep. We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale about 11:00 a.m. Eastern time. Our bags made it in one piece, and we caught the inter-terminal shuttle from Continental to American, where we met up with Nate and Betsy. I don't have the pictures yet, but when Nate showed up, he was wearing exactly the same shirt from Chuy's in Austin that I was. While it seems unnecessary to say this considering my surplus of manly heterosexual maleness, for the record we did not plan the twin shirts and you should draw no conclusions about this incident.

We caught the shuttle from Ft. Lauderdale Airport to Port Everglades, where we jumped on the biggest boat you've ever seen. The Cunard Queen Elizabeth II docked at the pier right next to ours, and it looked like a tub toy compared to the monster we were in.

Here's Nate looking disturbingly fresh, considering that he had not slept the night before, either. The instant we stepped foot on the boat (about 1:00 p.m.) the cruise staff ushered us upstairs to the buffet. No, "Hi! Welcome aboard!" or "May I show you to your room?" No. Like any great cruise, this was all about food. In large quantities. Day and night. And all the next day and night. We'll discuss this more later.

At first, the decor in the two-story buffet, which looked like severed arms holding illuminated dumbells, was a little disturbing. After awhile, you didn't notice it so much.

You may, in particular, stop noticing les bras du lumieres upon realizing that the buffet has soft-serve ice cream on demand 24 hours a day. Mmmmm. Soft-serve. I ended up eating that stuff three times a day. That first day, we ate, then talked late into the night, then ate again, and then ate again. We passed out in our rooms.

When we came to, we were pulling into Key West. We had decided to ride bikes around the island, so we hooked up with a bike rental company. We had to wait a few minutes for our ride to the bike lot showed up, so I took a picture of Nate, Betsy, and Jenn.

This picture doesn't really do our bike rental guy justice. He was really happy and smiley. He was wearing a hemp necklace. He smelled strongly of patchouli oil. This is what Wikipedia says about patchouli oil:

Patchouli oil and incense underwent a surge in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly among devotees of the free love and hippie lifestyles, due in part to the fact that the pungent smell of patchouli is known to cover the smell of burnt cannabis.

Hmmm. Well, we got a decent deal on the bikes. And he was really easy to get along with. I cast no judgment.

We only had a couple of hours on Key West. We immediately rode our bikes to the southernmost point and took lots of pictures.

Key West reminded me of my hometown of Morro Bay, California. This is because nobody had any real sense of urgency, ambition, or drive. Everyone seemed to be cool with living in paradise forever.

Also eerily similar to Morro Bay were the artists. They were everywhere. This guy was particularly focused on his work. He would study his surroundings, then add the tiniest bit of paint to his canvas. Then he would contemplate his work, study the surroundings again, reflect on his work, and dab a little of paint on the canvas. After taking this picture, I looked over his shoulder to see what he was so intent on painting. It was even more strange, because he was painting the same kind of ocean/beach/seagull crap that hangs in every art gallery in Morro Bay.

The next stop was the Earnest Hemmingway house. He apparently lived there for several years while married to wife no. 2 (of 4). The place was well maintained, and had a lot of great stories to its construction and the collection of stuff in it. The explanations of these pictures would take a huge blog post alone. The first picture is of a water dish for his cats made from a urinal from Sloppy Joe's, which was his preferred bar in Key West. Then there is Hemmingway's "last cent." Next there is a picture of the typewriter in his office above the pool house, and some poor critter that obviously made the ultimate sacrifice in Hemmingway's pursuit for manhood. I love that guy. His office had a really cool vibe to it. Key West has a fascination with the man, and even has a 10 foot tall bronze statue of him in front of their local museum.

After Key West, we returned to the boat, where we ate too much. At lunch, a French-speaking Belgian and I started a conversation about French fries (des frites) and what Mahi Mahi is (le poisson comme albacore). We took in a show, ate some more, talked, read books, ate. Then we ate.

Our next stop was Cozumel. We took a tour where we did "Snuba." In this tour, they put a weight belt and fins on you, then hook you up to a 30 foot tube attached to air tanks that are on a raft on the surface. You breathe through a regulator, like with Scuba diving. We went around a reef off the shore of Cozumel for about 45 minutes. Then we went back to the bustling city of Cozumel for some shopping. Nate's blog has pictures of us Snuba diving.

The city of Cozumel is like many other cities in Mexico. I was uninspired to take any pictures of the area until I saw this:

It is imperative that you click on the picture. Look carefully at the part that says where the "Coach" bag was made. Also note the spelling of the word "genuine." When Nate and I saw this, we had to take a picture. I ran into the shop, where Jenn was looking for earrings. I grabbed the camera and trotted back outside. The first time I tried to take a picture, the camera was set to video. I changed the settings as the man confronted me outside. We had an exchange that, to my best recollection, was as follows:

Him: Why you take picture?
Me: 'Cause it's [the bag] funny!
Him: It's no funny! I no take picture of you!
Me: You can take all the pictures of me you want. [Click!]

The hand in the picture is not him displaying his wares. It was lucky timing as he waived his hand between me and the bag in an effort to prevent me from taking a picture of his counterfeit merchandise.

After this, I had to look for other funny language problems. I found the following. Again, I suggest that you enlarge each picture and carefully read everything.

I only wished that I had started collecting such pictures much earlier in the trip.

This is obviously going to take some time. I will post what I have so far, and add to it later.

Felix

Three Readers!

2007-04-22T19:42:00.000-07:00

We hadn't been to the library in a few weeks, so we took the older kids yesterday. We checked out 23 books. I think the kids read the first 10 or so the first day. Mason checked out five Animorphs books. He finished the fifth one after church today. He's a freak.

Spencer discovered Calvin and Hobbes this week. They think it's the funniest thing ever. We think Calvin exemplifies Jared's behavior perfectly.

Jared's been crazy about bedtime lately. He'll get out of bed 20 to 30 times every night, and he is completely unaffected by any form of discipline. We were going crazy -- until last night, when we figured out a new means of behavior modification that we cannot discuss online. Needless to say, he was in bed and asleep by 7:20 tonight (as opposed to 9 or 10 every other night lately). If you want a foolproof method of getting your child to stay in their bed, and you are a heartless parent, please call us. We will not divulge our secret online, as we are considering writing a book about it.

Lissy is talking a lot now. She's thrilled that she can communicate. Her hair is finally as long as it was before Jared cut it all off last January. We'll try to get more video of her on the Blog as soon as we can.

Exclamation Points!

2007-04-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

I seem to use a lot of exclamation points in our titles lately. Huh.

Domestic Darlings [temporary site] is Open for Business!

2007-04-21T12:21:00.000-07:00

Jenn and her friend Susan started their own business a couple of months ago. Their first product is a line of cool halter-style aprons.

<-----Here's an example of one. Doesn't she look like a Domestic Darling? Note how she handles the broom with a look of sheer bliss. Anyway, the temporary website is up and running until the professionally designed one with a shopping cart and everything is finished. www.domesticdarlings.com

For those of you who live in the Sacramento area, Ann Rolke, author of Hands Off Cooking, will be on Good Day Sacramento, local channel 31 or 12 (depending on your provider) at 9:00 a.m. on Monday. She will be wearing a Domestic Darlings original.

<--- This one shows Susan wearing another fabric, and has a good shot of the matching headband. In case you missed the website the first time, go to www.domesticdarlings.com today for more information or to order yours!

Makes a great gift.

Mother's Day is just around the corner!

Know anyone who is getting married? Bridal shower.

I will stop shamelessly plugging my wife's business now.

Oh wait. A special woman in your life having a birthday? I'm just making suggestions here.

Never too early to plan for Christmas.

Pretty Girls in Pink Dresses!

2007-04-15T18:03:00.000-07:00

Because of Sadie's bee sting, the girls didn't make it to church last week on Easter Sunday, so we waited until today to put them into their Easter dresses. So pretty!

The boys didn't have any special outfits for Easter because we are loser parents, so we didn't take their picture last week or today.

HAPPY 9th BIRTHDAY, SPENCER!!

2007-04-15T18:00:00.000-07:00

Spencer had a fun birthday. On Saturday, Felix took him and a few friends, Joseph, Michael and Caleb, to Laser Quasars to play laser tag. He has been begging to do that for a long time. Felix came home so excited because he won overall. Is that really okay to brag when you're playing with a bunch of little kids??

Afterwards, they came back to our house for cake and ice-cream and to open presents. Although we allowed both Mason and Spencer to have birthday parties this year at fun places (in exchange for only having a small gift from us), I'm pretty sure we're done with that. It's just way too expensive, no matter how or where you do it. Yes, we are cheapskates.

A video from Jenn's mom

2007-04-15T15:16:00.000-07:00

I just found this on our desktop. Jenn's mom took the pictures, and I think she and Jack worked together on the video.

Blond Filipina!

2007-04-08T21:24:00.000-07:00

Some have speculated that Calista is not my child. What with her straight blond tresses and her bright blue eyes, one may think that Jenn had strayed about three years back.

But I now have proof that she springs from my gene pool. This video shows classic proof of her Filipino heritage.*

* For those of you unfamiliar with Filipino ways, language, and culture, I will explain. Most people who grow up in the Philippines and learn English as their second language speak with an accent. They frequently substitute the sound /p/ for /f/ and the sound /b/ for /v/. In linguistic terms, they replace the unvoiced and voiced labio-dental fricatives with their related unvoiced and voiced bilabial stops. The word "fine" becomes "pine" and the word "video" becomes "beedeeo."

Spencer Practices Dental Surgery.

2007-04-08T20:47:00.000-07:00

Jenn took this video of Spencer taking out his own tooth. It really is a big deal to him, because this is the first tooth he has lost that was not extracted by the dentist. Poor kid's in third grade, and hadn't really lost a tooth yet! The video is from April 4, 2007. I can barely watch this. If you listen really carefully, you can hear the tooth ripping out of the socket. Barf.

Happy Easter, Sadie!

2007-04-08T19:59:00.000-07:00

Sadie said this is her worst Easter ever; kind of like her 2006 birthday when she had chicken pox. Yesterday afternoon the kids were out in the backyard when she stepped on a bee. Can you tell which foot it is? So the girls stayed home today while the boys faithfully went to church.

FYI

2007-04-08T19:41:00.000-07:00

We have now added captions to the catch-up post. We originally tried to do it the night we created the post, but the computer crashed when we were almost done and since it was already after midnight, we decided we just didn't care. So if you were at all confused about who or what the pictures were about, your mind can now be at ease.

New Family Pictures

2007-04-03T23:51:00.000-07:00

Our friends the Brunners (see link at right) took their annual bluebonnet pictures and posted them to their blog, so we tried to do the same. This small hill of pretty blue flowers was right down the street from our house here in California. They look like Bluebonnets, but we have no idea what they actually are. Enjoy.

A lot of pictures from the last few months.

2007-04-03T22:46:00.000-07:00

We've been delinquent again at posting pictures, so here are some to satisfy any of the faithful who continue to check this blog.

There are a bunch from recently at the boys' Pack Meeting where Mason received his Arrow of Light -- the highest award in the Cub Scout program and the only badge that can be transferred to a Scout uniform. This is a picture of the boys waiting in line to shoot arrows.

Here is Mason taking aim. He missed his first few and then got the hang of it and hit somewhere on the target for most of the rest.

Jared posing with his American Indian headband.

Felix and Jenn presenting Mason with his Arrow of light award.

Spencer making his headband.

Just Lissy being her happy self.

Sadie and her friend Sarah.

Mason and Matt, the other kid who was also awarded his Arrow of Light. Until Mason and Matt, it had been a few years since anyone in this troop had achieved this award.

Mason in his uniform.

3/7/07
Mason turned 11! On the 10th, Mason had his friends Alex, Chad and Caleb over for bowling and then some fun at our house.

Lissy and Jared being silly with the hats they found.

Lissy and Jared.

Jared at preschool. He was Superstar and they celebrated his half birthday on the same day.

Susan and Jenn are producing aprons and this is a picture of them with the fabric they bought on a one day car trip they took to LA.

Sadie posing (as usual).

Spencer looking polished.

Calista with her sheep-dog hair.

Sadie being silly.

Lissy sometime in February.

The kids decided they wanted to make a cake for Felix. Mason had a tough time turning it out of the pan, but they made the best of it (and it was still yummy!).

Jared with a funky look.

1/1/07
Sadie celebrates her birthday with a bunch of friends. It was actually on New Year's Day. She wanted a pajama party, but they all left around 7.

Our Christmas Letter

2006-12-18T21:34:00.000-08:00

This entry is mainly for those people who haven’t seen or heard from us in awhile. People who have been keeping tabs on us in person, or who keenly await our next blog entry here need not reread this, because they likely already know most of the stuff posted today. For everyone else:

THE YEAR IN REVIEW.

Calista, 18 months, turned into a toddler this year. At the beginning of the year, she was a bald, smiley, toothless and relatively immobile baby. In the middle of the year, the family bestowed a nickname upon her, “Lissy.” By year’s end, she became a chubby, busy, walking, talking toddler with a big ol’ jack-o-lantern smile, a head of buttery blond hair, and a huge personality. She thinks everything in the room is hers. She climbs up on chairs, tables and counters. She gets into the chemicals under the sink. And she is the first Poggemann child to hate baths. Being the fifth of five, she has learned some important self-defense moves, including “the shriek” (a loud, all-purpose, sustained vocal alarm); “the sweep” (a lateral strike with the right hand, used to move brothers out of a parent’s lap); and “the catapult” (a hammer-fist strike with the hand, used to punish those who happen to be sitting where she wants to be, or who are playing with toys she wants; also useful for throwing objects). Yes, she’s a bit of a bruiser, but then she smiles and flirts and laughs, so you forgive her fast.

Jared, who is three, thinks he is a big boy, and loves to be called “Big J.” About August, he decided that big boys don’t need naps, so he stopped taking them. He started the year with short sentences, and now he talks like a big kid all the time. And most of what he says, you can understand! He is inquisitive, smart, and, when he is silent for more than two minutes, is likely to be making a bigger mess than all the other kids combined. He clogs the toilet with too much toilet paper, he gets into all the food in the pantry, he eats continuously, and is like a little lovey puppy-boy. He is in his “helper” phase, and finds no bigger joy than when you hand him a measuring cup full of laundry detergent and say to him, “pour this on the clothes, please.” His biggest goal is to be a big kid: when the other kids are riding bikes, he is too; when the other kids are in the back yard, so is he. He spends a couple of hours two days a week in preschool now and loves every second, especially when he gets to paint. (The last time he got to paint school, he made a whopping 10 pictures.) Dig the cool spikey cowlick.

Sadie, who turns seven on January first, loves school. Everyday, she comes home excited to do her homework or tell you what she learned. She is always full of news about her classmates. With her recent broken ankle, she had to miss three whole days and was miserable. We had to cut down some crutches to make it so she could go – that made her the most famous kid in the first grade (for the day). She loves to do art projects and favors for everyone. This past fall, she played her first year of soccer, and proved herself a worthy teammate, being the first of our children to play forward voluntarily and with aplomb. She works hard to forge her own fashion style – which means she is usually dressed in funky, clashing colors and layers of clothes. She pretty much looks like a homeless child most days. The broken foot was the result of two factors: a “double bounce” on the trampoline; and matchstick thin ankles.

Spencer, eight, spends his free time at home taking care of his baby sister and brother. Nothing seems to give him more satisfaction than when Lissy goes to him for a hug. In our most recent move, we took residence next to another little boy who is almost exactly the same age, Thomas. Spencer never played with Thomas for the first four months. Then one day, when we were outside riding bikes and playing in the front yard, Thomas came over with a book, Dragonology. Spencer immediately knew he had a bosom friend. They play together almost every day. We asked him how he feels about Thomas after only their second day of playing together. Spencer said, “He’s pretty much my best friend now.” He eagerly rides his bike to school everyday with Mason. This year, he finally lost two teeth, though he’s holding on to the rest (see blog entry, May 27, 2006). He has been cast as the stinkbug in his class play (entitled “Bugz”). He spends his extra time reading books by the truckload, especially those about dragons. He set a goal last summer to finish Harry Potter volumes 2 through 6 (he had already read volume 1) by the end of 4th grade (giving himself about 2 years). He finished the last one 3 months later, much to his surprise. He is working on his wolf badge in Cub Scouts.

Mason is 10 and is turning into a young man right before our eyes. He enjoys taking on responsibilities of an older kid, like sitting a brother or sister while we run errands, riding his bike to the grocery store for needed items, and hanging out/riding bikes with his buddies un-chaperoned. He spent the soccer season as one of his team’s star defenders and currently wants to learn lacrosse or tennis. One oddity about Mason is that he will wear t-shirts and shorts until its 32 degrees outside; getting him to wear a jacket is almost impossible. He is working on his Webelos and Arrow of Light patches in cub scouts. Mason is always willing, very responsible, and tries hard to do the right thing – that is, whenever he is not teasing his little brothers and sisters.

Jenn has spent the year keeping up with a pair of toddlers. Her most complicated task is to make sure the kids are getting the extracurriculars they need, while at the same time striving to keep life for the family at its most simple. She started doing some work at the firm in order to have no-guilt spending money. At church she enjoys working in the Young Women’s program as an Activity Advisor for the 14 & 15 year olds. She was actually able to take a couple of short trips away from the family this year, giving her a much-needed break after being on call 24/7 for the last 10 years.

Felix’s firm is clipping along nicely. At the beginning of the year, he started swimming again, only to stop when injured due to foolish need to fulfill manly a challenge of jumping off a 50 foot cliff (see entry and video August 9, 2006). His biggest challenge lately has been balancing a growing firm and his home life, plus his position as Assistant Scout Master for the 11-year-olds (which is made especially tough considering his utter lack of any experience in scouting). He has recently signed up to do a short triathlon with friends in Paso Robles later in 2007. Let’s hope that he comes back alive.

It has been a great year in general. If you look through the rest of the blog, you will see our chronicles, with the exception of some recent months. We moved again, but this time because the landlord wanted to sell the last house we lived in. We are now living in a fancy-pantsy neighborhood with lawn Nazis and too many rules. The houses all look the same, making our friends visit our neighbors accidentally. But we love our spacious and beautiful house that all of our friends and family can stay in with their own bathroom and everything free of charge and with only 24 hours advance notice!

Have a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

Love,
The Poggemanns

My Broken Ankle, by Sadie

2006-12-13T17:57:00.000-08:00

I was jumping on the trampoline and Mason was trying to bounce me really high
and I landed with my foot sideways.  The way that your ankle usually does not bend.
Then I went to the doctor the next day and the next day after that, I got an x-ray
and they said it was broken.  The doctor couldn't find any crutches for me because
all the crutches were too big and so my mom bought me some that were my mom's size
and she tried them out and my dad cut them to be my size.  4 days later I got a
cast and I have, like, a thousand names on my cast.  And there's this blue sandal
that I have to wear outside.  My mom wrote on my cast and it said, "Mommy Loves
Sadie" and how my mom got the idea of that is my dad wrote it on my cast, but
instead of writing "Mommy Loves Sadie," he wrote, "Dad Loves Sadie."

Here are some pictures of how I broke my ankle.  The first one I got my crutches
and there's a picture of me using my crutches.  Second, it's my mom showing how
small my dad cut them.  Third, it's me showing my cast and my sister.  Fourth, it's
me showing what my mom and my dad did how I told you that they wrote, "Mommy
Loves Sadie" and "Daddy Loves Sadie."

Love, Sadie

Its been a long time since I rock and rolled.

2006-12-07T18:55:00.000-08:00

Been a long time, been a long time, been a long lonely lonely lonely lonely lonely time.

I have been feeling mighty overwhelmed since school started. I spent a lot of time doing administrative and otherwise time consuming -- and, let's face it, LAME -- stuff at work, instead of the real stuff that makes money. Like mailing letters. And answering the telephone.

So I posted a job announcement all over the local internet. Craigslist, three law schools, two junior colleges, and a local paralegal school, looking for the perfect person to be my assistant/paralegal. Just as I was throwing my hands up in despair, I found her, or should I say, she found me. Her name is Valerie, and she is crazy good at her job.

So then I needed somewhere bigger to move. I was searching all over town for the best combination of cost and space. Then I found a small executive suite only about 2 and a half miles from home. I signed up for two offices.

You should try calling in to see just how good Valerie is at her job. 916-817-6500. Or drop by the new office: 2280 East Bidwell Street, Suite 200, Folsom, California 95630.

Happy day.

Felix

First Day of School (8/14/06)

2006-08-31T21:54:00.000-07:00

I can't get these pictures to go in the order I want them to, but here it is -- my cute little kiddies on their first day. We've gone to back to school night and really like all their teachers. This will be a great year for all of them.

Let's Back Up a Few Weeks

2006-08-31T21:39:00.000-07:00

As you must know by now, we packed up everthing and moved a little over a mile away. This was our grandest pile of boxes (we had a bunch in garage and then a bunch that got packed last-minute). Just for the record, because we get asked a lot: We do not like to move and we are no good at it, even after so many times.

Mathematic Vindication

2006-08-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

I have seen skeptical looks from people when I informed them that the top of the boulder (discussed immediately below) was about 50 feet from the water. Today, I have been informed by my friend Todd (the maniac in the blue and grey shorts who dove in from the top) that he measured it with a rope and that it calculated out to be about 49 and a half feet.

HAH!

On another note, when you hit the water, you're going about 38 miles per hour.

Felix

JUMP!

2006-08-09T21:53:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are in the know, this link takes you to the video of me (Felix) and some guys jumping off a very large boulder into the American River.

When I time the fall, I seem to get an average of 1.75 seconds of freefall before we hit the water.

Newton says that the position of an object over time at constant acceleration is equal to the initial position, plus the initial velocity times the time spent travelling, plus one-half acceleration times the square of the time spent travelling. Objects accelerate as they fall to the earth roughly at a rate of 32 feet per second per second, if we assume that drag is negligible (as shown in the video, drag is greater for two of the jumpers).

Thus, if we start at rest (initial velocity of zero), and count the top of the boulder zero feet, based upon the average time spent in the air, the math to calculate the distance to the river should be P = 0 + (0)(1.75) + (1/2) (32)(1.75)(1.75), or (16)(3.0625), or about 50 feet.

Incidentally the video clip of me on this shows the specific jump upon which I went down a little crooked, and hurt my knee.

Hope you enjoy this one.

Felix

Sadie's Half-Birthday

2006-07-02T16:05:00.000-07:00

Sadie's birthday is Januay 1st. That has always caused all of us a bit of heartache because it is so close to Christmas. For her last birthday she got the Chicken Pox (see earlier posts), which made things even worse.

This year, we started a new tradition: the No-Present-Half-Birthday-Get-Together. We will still have a low-key celebration with presents every new year for Sadie, but the party with all of her friends will now be each July. As it happens, this year July 1 was on a Saturday, so that was when we had her friends come over.

Note the 6 and one-half candles on her birthday brownie! Happy half-birthday Sadie!

Moving -- again!

2006-07-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

This time it's not our fault. Really.

Our landlord came to us and tried to sell us the property. Without going into the details of the transaction, there is no way we're going to buy a house in a market currently deemed fifth most likely in the nation to have a decrease in home values in one study, and overpriced by 53% (price versus income) in another.

After attempting to sell us the house, he hiked the rent about 10%, told us he was putting the house on the market, and said we were going to be month-to-month until he sold it. We said, "Heck no, gotta go!"
Not wanting to be at our landlord's whimsy for the next year, we headed back to Craigslist, which is arguably the coolest internet site in the world. The problem we faced: is it possible to find another house that will fit our entire menagerie, plus Felix's office. Boy did we score!

The best part is it comes with a gardener.

The house has everything, including a "Junior Master Suite" for Felix's office, and an interior balcony for rehearsing Shakespeare or launching airplanes. The kids will be in the same school, and we'll only be moving about a mile. The house was built in 2002, making it the newest we've ever lived in. We'll be moving at the end of July.

Sadie Girl-ifies her Baby Brother

2006-07-02T15:57:00.000-07:00

Our bush out front started flowering. Sadie couldn't resist.

Calista's birthday treasures.

2006-07-02T15:56:00.001-07:00

Calista enjoys her birthday loot from her Oma and Opa.

A Trip to Tahoe.

2006-07-02T15:56:00.000-07:00

Our unbelievably generous, good-looking, prosperous, noble, and wonderful friends, the Petersens (who, I am told, read this blog regularly) asked us to stay at their family retreat on the eastern side of Lake Tahoe for a long weekend. Being ever-willing to hang-out up there, we accepted their kind-hearted and gracious invitation. Here's a (long) movie of us doing stuff there.

The first night we had some bait fish, which we put into a crawdad trap. The next day we pulled out about 35 crawdads. The kids played with (tortured) them for a few hours before we cooked them as a side dish. Feeling emboldened, we put a can of tuna into the trap the second night. Here are the results.

On the last day we were there, Calista celebrated her first birthday.

Take a look at the pictures, below.

2006-07-02T15:55:00.000-07:00

Mason watches over his little brother.

2006-07-02T15:10:00.000-07:00

Mason and spencer at the beach.

2006-07-02T15:09:00.000-07:00

Sadie in a floatation suit, yet still glamorous!

2006-07-02T15:08:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday, Lissy!

2006-07-02T15:08:00.000-07:00

We have one just like this from two years ago, only with four kids.

2006-07-02T15:07:00.000-07:00

Lissy digs into her birthday cake.

2006-07-02T15:06:00.002-07:00

Spencer started the practice of naming these things.

2006-07-02T15:06:00.001-07:00

Sadie's not quite comfortable with her crawdad, yet.

2006-07-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

A boy (Mason) and his crawdad.

2006-07-02T15:05:00.001-07:00

Jared is excited about his creature.

2006-07-02T15:05:00.000-07:00

The kids showing off their favorite crawdads.

Memorial Day

2006-07-02T12:28:00.000-07:00

Wow! First update in a whole month!

On Memorial Day morning, some friends came by (for those of you in the know: the Neads, the Grimsmans, and the Laytons). We ate pancakes and had a generally wonderful time. The Grimsmans have three girls who are all older than Sadie, so she inherits all kinds of stuff from them, including their old dance recital costumes. Sadie did a Big Dance Number.

In the afternoon, our neighborhood had a block party. We blocked off the whole street, and put basketball courts, tables, chairs, and other stuff in the street. Our house somehow ended up as the geographic center for the block; the barbecues and potluck table ended up in our driveway. Our way cool neighbor Dave Rambo (yes, like the Stallone movies with guns and explosions, only Dave has never been a Green Beret) has a riding lawn mower. He disconnected the blade, and let the kids give each other rides up and down the street. In the video, I'm the one driving, Spencer's in my lap steering, Mason and Jared are in the trailer, and our neighbor's son is on the skateboard. Everyone had a great time. We cooked our favorite meat on sticks: terriyaki kabobs, a.k.a. meat-candy.

We love this neighborhood. It's too bad we have to move. (<--- Did you see the foreshadowing?) More later . . . Felix

Take the Poggekids Bowling, Take Them Bowling.

2006-05-28T19:31:00.000-07:00

Some fun video of the kids bowling when we went to San Francisco to visit Jenn's sister Alicia. Extra points if you can figure out the inspiration for the title.

Our walking [and falling] doll!

2006-05-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

Here is some video of Calista (sometimes referred to as "Lissy") walking. She falls a lot. But she's getting better everyday.

Spencer's Teeth

2006-05-27T22:15:00.000-07:00

As many of you know from the last entry, Spencer was almost done with the second grade, and hasn't lost any teeth. After Karate class, he came to me saying, "what are these white bumps in my mouth, dad?" I looked, and there was a tooth erupting behind his lower left central incisor. We took him to the dentist, who extracted his two middle teeth.

Here is a funky picture of Spence after the extraction.

Catching Up for the Month!

2006-05-15T21:37:00.000-07:00

Wow. It's been a long time since we've posted anything here. Where do we begin?

During spring break, we went to Utah to visit Jenn's Aunt Janice. In Utah, I picked up some sweet new duds at Mr. Mac in Provo, and took the kids to a museum in BYU to look at fossils. Then Jenn lost her purse and I lost my PDA. At any rate, the weather was perfect, the kids were well behaved, and the drive was uneventful. Eventually, I am gonna have to see the cars go really fast out at the Bonneville Speedway. Below are pictures of Calista with her little cousins (Jenn's cousins' kids), and Sadie with similarly related cousin, Allison.

While we were in Utah, we celebrated Spencer's 8th Birthday! He had a bunch of his cousins from that side of the family around to help.

Then we visited with our very good friends the Bothells on our way out of town. Aaron (Bothell) is loud and talks incessantly -- like me. When we are together, there is not a whole lot the women-folk can do to get a word in edgewise. Below is Aaron, followed by a picture of our nine collective children.

We came home early so I could finish some projects at work, and to watch the UFC title bout between Tim Silvia and Andrei Arlovski. Despite the fact that Arlovski totally screwed up the fight, losing me some bragging rights, I am still inexplicably drawn to the sport. I watch at my friend Cam's house on the big screen. It is like watching two hours of car wrecks bigger than life, then on replay, then in slow motion, then from a reverse angle. Fascinating. The next big one is on May 27. Matt Hughes is fighting Royce Gracie. Gracy may be the past super-champ, but Hughes is going to waste him.

Easter was fun. The kids repeatedly had easter egg hunts. We went to church, spent the day with some friends, ate too much. All good stuff.

Spencer was baptized on April 22. Lots of people came, including a large contingent of Jenn's family. Spencer was so excited to have his baptism, and it really helped him to have so many people there. Spencer sang at his baptism. He has a really great voice. The next day he bore his testimony at church, and everyone complimented on how well he spoke. The kid has a gift for oral presentation.

The next day, Sadie gave a talk in Primary, and neither Jenn nor I had to help her read the talk. (I held up the visual aid).

On April 24 Mason did a science project presentation. He and I worked on the experiment, the tri-fold report, and the presentation for a whole day, to make sure he was adequately prepared. When we sent him to school, we told him to volunteer to be first to get it out of the way. He chickened out. Then he went the second day, and got a perfect score on the project! Way to go Mason!

As of May 2, Spencer still had all of his baby teeth. About April 26 or so, he came to me after Karate, saying, "what are these white bumps in my mouth?" I looked, and there was a tooth coming in right behind his baby tooth. On May 2, the dentist pulled his lower two central teeth. He was afraid until we told him that the Tooth Fairy pays a 50% premium for teeth that were surgically extracted ($3 versus $2 per tooth). The teeth still had pretty much their entire roots on them. Crazy.

On May 7, Jenn's brother Josh got married. To simplify things, we left the older four kids at friends' houses on the day before (we owe you big). We drove down on Saturday. I went to visit my friend Larry in Morro Bay, and lo! a classic car show was afoot with 600-odd cars. I was in heaven.

Later that night, we went to a play that Jenn's brother CJ was in. The play was really really really weird. It wasn't our style, but CJ's part was great (he was the normal guy in it). Afterward, we went to Lolo's restaurant in Morro Bay for a late dinner. Mmmmm.

The wedding was fun, and small, and had good food. Josh looked very dapper, CJ wore a suit, and Josh's bride Taylor had an amazing dress. Emily caught the boquet and Alicia's boyfriend Heinte caught the garter. Reluctantly, we left after about four hours to drive home tired and fulfilled.

At some time during all of this, the sky stopped dumping rain, and the sun came out -- with a fury! Temperatures soared instantly into the 90's, allergies started en force, and suddenly that parking space under the tree became a coveted thing again. All the boys have been fighting allergies, drippy noses, swelling eyes, and other nasty things.

Which brings us to the father and sons campout last weekend. We went, we ate meaty things, we poked sticks into the fire (Jared especially) we slept in a tent, we played in a lake. Everything was picture perfect. Spencer, Jared and I left at about noon, leaving a perfectly healthy Mason to go home with his buddy, Alex. After a few hours, we got a call from Alex's mom because Mason's eye was swelling. I told her to give him some antihistamine and tell him to wash his hands. We thought nothing of it.

They apparently didn't like what they saw, and brought him home to us. When we saw him, I darn near fainted. He looked like Rocky, after his fight against Apollo. His eyes were very swollen. So much so, that even the white around his corneas were swollen. It was nasty. After two days of prescription antihistamine eye-drops and heavy doses of Benadryl, Mason's ok.

That same day, I fixed the front brakes of the van. Jared, who is extremely male, put on his "glubs" like his daddy, and "helped." Notice that he is shirtless. So much machismo in a 2-year-old.

So that pretty much sums up our month. Sorry to leave so much for you to review at once. We will try hard to keep up in the foreseeable future.

Felix, with assistance from Jenn

Rain Stinks.

2006-04-03T22:44:00.000-07:00

We have had a record wet winter. It won't stop raining. It was fun for awhile, and the lakes and rivers are full, but we want sunny California back! :-(

Fun in the Back Yard!

2006-04-03T20:12:00.000-07:00

A video of the babies on the trampoline.

Catching Up On Pictures

2006-04-01T23:31:00.000-08:00

Spencer wanted us to take a picture with Angel the Cockateel (Mason's class pet).

2006-04-01T23:30:00.000-08:00

Sadie's Belt Promotion Ceremony (March 21, 2006)

2006-04-01T23:29:00.000-08:00

Sadie gets her yellow belt (March 21, 2006)

2006-04-01T23:28:00.001-08:00

"I'm hiding!" (March 19, 2006)

2006-04-01T23:28:00.000-08:00

A busy boy. (March 19, 2006)

2006-04-01T23:27:00.000-08:00

Calista (March 19, 2006)

2006-04-01T23:26:00.001-08:00

Spencer playing hide and seek (March 19, 2006)

2006-04-01T23:26:00.000-08:00

Spencer at the park (March 19, 2006)

2006-04-01T23:25:00.000-08:00

Calista playing in the sun (March 19, 2006)

2006-04-01T23:23:00.000-08:00

Sadie at the park playing tag (March 19, 2006)

2006-04-01T23:21:00.000-08:00

Mason earned his bear badge the same day he became a Webelos Scout. (March 8, 2006).

Video?

2006-03-12T17:33:00.000-08:00

I'm trying something new. Let's see if this works.

Video of Spencer and Sadie singing with their friend Emma at a church talent show. This file is big (about 4.5 Megs) and will take a couple of minutes to download. They will sing this same number at the school talent show next week.

Video of Jared singing preschool songs. We had to bribe him (hence his initial demand for CANDY! at the beginning of the video). This file is also large (2.5 megs) and will take some time to download.

Family Photos

2006-03-12T16:14:00.000-08:00

By request, here is the family picture that went out last Christmas. And just for fun, here is the picture that almost went on last year's Christmas card. It may be a more accurate representation of our family.

Swimming Update:

2006-03-11T20:23:00.000-08:00

I (Felix) attended my first Masters swim meet since 2001. It took place in Palo Alto, a little more than two hours away (assuming, albeit foolishly, that there is no traffic). Because of the big drive, and because swim meets are boring for everyone who isn't personally invested in the races, Jenn stayed home with the kids all day, while I made the drive, swam, then drove home.

I swam in four events, though only three were regulation, with the following results:

50 Fly: 26.71 -- First place 30-34 age group, about 6th overall.
50 Free: 23.09 -- Second place 30-34 age group, 5th overall by my count.
100 Free: 51.77 -- First place 30-34 age group, 1st place overall (I double-checked).
200 Free: 1:58.25 -- Second place 30-34 age group, unknown overall rank.

While these are nowhere near my best times, I still had a hootenanny at the meet.I met a lot of people, swam well, and did well overall.

My first event was the 50 free, which really got my spirits up. I had no idea I sill had a 23.0 in me. Next came the 200 free, which I feel lucky to have finished. That one really knocked the wind out of me ('cause I'm still a bit on the chunky side). The 50 fly is non-regulation, but some meets run it for grins. I felt like freakin' Hercules swimming an all-out 50 fly. Finally, I had a guy that I met at the pool take my splits in the 100 freestyle (which was my last event, when it had gotten really cold out). He says that my splits were 24.7/27.0. Those splits stink. They should be within one second of each-other if I'm going to do well at World's.

Nevertheless, I won three out of my four heats, which, again, was a real confidence builder. I took second in my heat for the 200. That event really hurt.

For those of you who are curious, I will do a comparison of Felix at 18 versus Felix at 33. I will leave out the 50 fly, because I have not swam that event for an "official" time since I was 12, and thus, I can not pull my best time from memory.

Event: / Then: / Now: / Percent diff:
50 Free / 22.27 / 23.04 / 3.3%
100 Free / 47.72 / 51.77 / 7.8%
200 Free / 1:47.00 / 1:58.25 / 9.5%

Interesting how the gap grows as distance increases. This exercise illustrates the importance of conditioning, even to sprinters.

I emphasize the "overall" places, because I think there were only about four guys in my age group. Nevertheless, several men at the meet, both older and younger, were quite fast. I think most people were using this meet as their benchmark, like I was.

These are good times to use while I continue training for the World Championships in August. As other meets come and go, I will post results.

Karate Belt Promotion Ceremony!

2006-03-02T07:13:00.000-08:00

Here are the boys getting their yellow belts in Karate. I know that the pictures are dark, but you can see in this first picture that they are wearing white belts with five stripes on the ends. This means that they have learned the five steps that it takes to move into the next belt level.
The ceremony is done in silence. The boys bow to show respect to their teacher. They receive their new belts humbly.
After it is all over, they pose for a photo opp. You can see Spencer checking his new belt out in the mirrors (which line the entire wall to the left of the picture).

Update on Calista

2006-02-26T16:15:00.001-08:00

Calista is at the super-fun baby age! 4 weeks ago she she began her own special form of belly crawling and eventually began sitting from her crawling position and crawling from sitting. Last weekend she pulled herself to standing for the first time. Everyday she practices and we cannot keep her away from that awful fireplace; it is just the right height for her needs. She has also developed imitation skills that the other kids crack up over. If they clap, she hits the table, if they shake their heads, she shakes hers, if they say a-bah, she does the same. We all love it. Babies are good entertainment, especially this sweet, happy one.

Can you pass it?

2006-02-14T08:32:00.000-08:00

I saw this on a friend's website. She challenged people at large to see if they could pass the simple multiple choice citizenship test that asks basic questions about United States history and government. I am disappointed with my score.

Felix

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 9 out of 10 correct!

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

Our Sporty Family

2006-02-04T12:56:00.000-08:00

This winter, we have started on quite the sporty bent. To explain, we will go in reverse birth order.

1. Calista has started crawling. She can get to anything in the room, provided that she cares to get there (she can be quite uninterested). We'll post a picture as soon as we get a good one of her on all fours.

2. Jared has developed quite a style for running. People have described it as a "football run" because he has his elbows way out, and he looks like he's trying to break tackles. Funny thing, though: I don't think he has ever seen football before.

3. Sadie, Spencer, and Mason are enrolled in Karate. Mason and Spencer are almost done with their first belt (white) and are eager to move into the beginner class (and leave the "introductory" class).

4. Jenn is taking social ballroom dance classes with Felix at the gym, and athletically juggles the schedules of five little people. We have a great time at dance class, and we have learned some basics for swing. (Yes, Felix is capable of dancing. Go figure.)

5. Felix is training for the 2006 FINA World Masters Championships at Stanford University in August. He is lifting about twice a week, and swimming three times. He has developed this crazy idea that he can still be as fast as he was 15 years ago. We shall see.

We're always happy to hear from everyone, even when you write to tell us to update the blog. Keep the emails coming!

Felix and Jenn

Jared's Chicka Pop

2006-01-02T09:31:00.000-08:00

Jared is still traumatized by his chickenpox. When he hears about anyone else's chickenpox (Spencer and Sadie now have it, too) he shows you that he had one on his left middle finger. Here he's showing you exactly which finger had the chicken pock on it. If you click the picture you will see it clearly. You will also see that Jared's hand is in the shape of the evil eye. Closer inspection shows that his hand is also below the waist. Those of you who play the evil eye game know what I'm talking about.

2005-12-28T17:57:00.000-08:00

An update on Calista: On Christmas she decided she could roll both ways so now she is very mobile; rolling all over the place. That also means that I'm constantly doing the mouth-sweep because she is collecting all the little scraps of paper that the others carelessly toss aside. Anyway, she seems very excited about her new skill.

Calista

2005-12-23T13:42:00.000-08:00

Sweet little angel, Calista -- 6 months old. She is sitting very well now, but still only rolls one way, from her back to the front. She is such a jolly, fat, happy baby. Everyone loves her soooo much; the kids, including Jared, argue over who gets to entertain her. We tried her on solid foods on her six month day, but she had some sort of allergic reaction so we're holding off for a little bit longer. She's definitely not starving!

(BTW, for those who may not know, if you click on any picture you can see a bigger version of it. I posted these pretty small so they would all fit in a row.)

MERRY CHRISTMAS -- LOVE, THE POGGEMANNS

2005-12-23T13:16:00.000-08:00

Our poor Christmas card this year, as you may have noticed, had "Season's Greetings," our first names, and no other personalization whatsoever. I guess considering the craziness that's going on here I'm lucky to have gotten anything out at all this year, but there are a few other things I would have added, given the oportunity. I would have written a little note about how in spite of all our troubles, we've been very blessed this year. I would have written about our wonderful support system of family and friends and said that we have enjoyed those we have been able to spend time with this year and that we terribly miss the rest of you who are spread out far and wide. We hope we'll be able to make some trips this year, even if it means taking the kids out of school for a few days here and there (I know, we are bad parents). I would have said that we are so grateful for all 5 of our amazing children who drive us absolutely crazy and bring us indescribable amounts of joy. I would have said that we are so grateful for our Savior and are excited to, once again, celebrate His birth. I would have said that we hope 2006 finds all of you and yours happy and healthy. Last, I would like to have said, "Merry Christmas. Love, the Poggemanns."

A POX ON THE HOUSE OF POGGEMANN!

2005-12-19T13:44:00.000-08:00

Sadie's friend Emma contracted Chickenpox from another girl at the school who was "immunized." Emma gave it to Jared. He looks yucky, but has generally been delightful and happy, though itchy and occasionally in pain. The rash showed up on Thursday (the 15th) and we expect a full recovery by about Christmas.

And about the "vaccination" that they try to force on you at the doctor's office. Mason and Spencer both were "immunized" because the school said it wouldn't let them attend otherwise. They both got Chickenpox. Sadie has never been immunized, and yet has been exposed to no less than five kids with it, and once broke out with about six blisters that may or may not have been the pox. I looked up information on the chickenpox vaccine, and the manufacturer says that it is about 70% effective at preventing an infection. Other studies show that the effectiveness is closer to 50%. Plus, I've read that the vaccine wears out over time, making it theoretically more likely that you'll get shingles or chickenpox later in life -- when you're more likely to have complications. Jared will now have about a 98% effective immunization for life. Why bother with the vaccine, unless you are old or infirmed?

2005-12-19T13:42:00.001-08:00

Scary stuff, eh?

2005-12-19T13:42:00.000-08:00

Jared is in a tub of oatmeal. He looks like he's been attacked by bees.

2005-12-19T13:41:00.000-08:00

Jared moved when I took this one. He has some on his forehead and lip at this point. Now he has them on his nose, eyelids, and ears.

Just Let Me Gloat a Little

2005-11-21T04:38:00.000-08:00

Three parent-teacher conferences, three AMAZING reports. That's all I have to say.

I want my kids to get better!

2005-11-13T15:39:00.000-08:00

My babies have been sick, sick, sick! If you read the Halloween post, you know that Sadie was sick at that time. She missed four days of school, which I rather liked because this whole half-day Kindergarten is a big ol' pain anyway. Halloween was her first day out and then she went back to school on Friday but still sounded like she was talking with marbles in her throat for a few more days. Then on Monday the 7th, Mason came home from school saying he wasn't feeling well. Mason is an easy-going sickie: he just lays around and sleeps all day. Jared, on the other hand, who also fell sick on Monday, has been a holy terror -- terrible twos times ten all day and all night. His favorite thing to say this past week has been, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

On Thursday morning I told Spencer that if he would stay well I would pay him $3 on November 20th. He was very well and very excited to get that money. But alas, fate played a cruel trick on him. He came home from school chipper and happy, but about an hour later he was having a hard time hiding his headache and fatigue. Poor kid! He should get some sort of prize, though, because he did christen Felix's Mercedes with up-chuck on Friday (lucky he has leather interior). So now it's Sunday and the kids had to perform in a Primary program at church. They felt well enough to get ready to go, so we went, but left right after Sacrament Meeting. I have to say, Spencer sang beautifully. So basically, what it comes down to is this: I want my kids to get better!

Sickie Pictures

2005-11-13T15:30:00.000-08:00

The first is Spencer's little "sick camp." The second is Jared's holy terror-ness (the tent on his crib is because he just learned to climb out and we're evil parents who imprison our children when needed). As for the third picture, everyone was making playdough images of Jared to try to make him feel better and this is what Spencer came up with -- you figure it out.

HALLOWEEN!

2005-11-01T12:32:00.000-08:00

A mish mash of costumes. We didn't make a single one this year - there just wasn't any time. Jared was a dinosaur (or dragon, I'm not sure which) that we made for Spencer when he was 2. Sadie was a witch, Spencer a pirate, Mason a ninja and Calista a cow. (When I was nursing her Mason said, "Look! The baby cow is nursing on the mama cow." Thanks, Mace!) They had fun this year going to the school Halloween party, a church Halloween party, and going trick-or-treating around our new fun neighborhood. Sadie was (and is) pretty sick so she only went to a few houses, Jared stuck with Sadie and the boys flew around the neighborhood gathering as much candy as possible. I'm looking at all their loot right now and it seriously fills up a Trader Joe's paper grocery sack up to the very top! Disgusting. I have to hurry and get rid of it or else Felix and I will eat most of it.

2005-11-01T12:11:00.000-08:00

Calista Jane

2005-10-28T12:29:00.000-07:00

She has none of that pesky hair (ie. eyebrows, eyelashes, etc.) to detract from her true beauty!

Calista - 4 1/2 months