Update!!

Maverik in his classroom

Maverik puts his bookbag away

Maverik at home! He's getting so big! (I may be biased, but he's one good looking guy!)

Today is the rare day when there's not a ton of new stuff going on, so it's just an update day. Nothing wrong with an update day!

• Kari's Golf season will be winding down in the next few weeks.
  
• I'm starting our preseason strength program for the basketball team.


• Maverik is off and running at school!


• Jaecy will have her first official day at preschool this week!


• Jayden stayed home Friday with the sniffles, he and Mav are fighting a cold.


• We are celebrating Grandpa Merel's birthday today!
  

It's very unusual for the Nelson family to actually look forward to a new season on television, but we've grown fond of the TV shows Friday Night Lights and Heroes. We're up to date with what happened last season and are ready to go!

The Beginning of Things to Come

I was about to begin this blog with a "First Day of School" title, but then I began to realize that this day was just the beginning of lots of "firsts". My buddy Jerry Bechtold always called a high school student's senior year their "season of lasts" so I would say that for the Nelson family this is the beginning of our "season's of firsts." Jayden was picked up for the bus for school for the first time, and Mom was there to catch it on film. I'm also going to try and include footage of Jayden sitting up on the new carpeting to catch a glimpse of one of his favorite shows. (DORA!!!)

Jayden Sitting Up Like a Pro (And Doing Something Funny With His Tongue)

Jayden Getting On The School Bus For The First Time!

In other good news, I have almost made it through the first week of school alive and well! The boys are about to kick off their first football game of the season this Friday against Lew Wallace.

Summer Ends

Well, tomorrow it's back to work for me with an all day meeting at Calumet High School. Maverik and Jayden both start this week, and Jaecy will start her pre-school program early in September.

For teacher's this next week is almost like New Year's Eve. As a teacher walking into a new school year, I always make resolutions to try things different or avoid past mistakes. This year I am using the beginning of the school year to lose some weight. I've actually started another blog on the issue, I've labeled it THE MISSION and have it linked on the right side of the page. Hopefully the blog will be a positive reinforcement towards losing some weight. I start officially tomorrow, although I've been tracking things since last Monday.

It's amazing how quickly things change. In the last week Jayden has really taken off with sitting up and getting on his hands and knees and rocking, almost like he's thinking about crawling. These are things that he's worked on during his therapy for quite some time now, so to see even the little break trough's is very exciting!

Kari and I have been following the Cubs, the Olympics, and the Big Brother live reality show. It really sounds worse than it is, we're not really couch potatoes but once we get caught up in something we're hooked!

Recommendation of the week: I just saw the movie Deja Vu with Denzel Washington. It started off a little ENEMY OF THE STATE'ish, but it really picked up half way through and really surprised me with how caught up in it I was.

As I type this Maverik is laying next to me reading about 50% of what type. He's a pretty slick whistle! More news to come as I hear what's going on at Calumet tomorrow.

Wrapping Up Summertime

Happy Birthday Mav!

Maverik's Birthday cake had a Wall-E theme

With summer winding down in the next few weeks the Nelson family has been busy with a number of activities. We've celebrated Maverik's Birthday and are working towards getting new furniture and carpeting for the living room. I've included some pictures and a video of the birthday action.

Well, in the last few days I've caught Jayden in the act of sitting up straight in his crib! Sunday morning I walked into his and Mav's room to get him out of bed, and Jayden was sitting straight up and looking at me. Jaecy and Mav were playing in the room today after their naps and Jaecy starting yelling at me, "Jayden's sitting up Daddy, Jayden's sitting up!" Little moments, little steps....this boy's gonna walk some day.

Back in The Saddle

Whew! That's all I can say now that I'm done with my annual 10-11 day summer job. For those of you not aware I (Dustin) and my brother work at the Porter County Fair for the entire duration of the fair. That basically means working 11 days of 15-16 hours a day in a row. The job leaves me tired and plain worn out, and to be honest it took me almost a full 3 days before I felt good once the fair was done. We have lots of little things going on right now, so I thought a short update was in order.

• Mav and Jaecy went to the Dentist! They were very brave!
• Kari and I went to see The Dark Knight.
• We've been doing some window shopping for living room furniture.
• Kari has started her Golf practices at Calumet High School.
  

We have been to lots of movies this summer, The Dark Knight being the latest. It was a really good movie, one that I'd recommend to anyone. So far we've seen TDK, Hancock, Wall-E, and The Hulk. I have also watched some new DVD movies, I really liked Vantage Point and Definitely, Maybe.