Pictures, pictures, pictures...

Good lookin' kid, eh?

 

Oh my!!! #5

Hear ye! Hear ye! Read all about it! The Custers have added child #5!

Yep - he's here. Boog*. Born January 10, 2013, at 4:27 a.m. He weighed 8lbs even and the labor and delivery were smooth. Quick. But smooth. Susan was a real trooper - as always.

When it came time to fill out the Birth Certificate information, we decided to give him a traditional name - but most of us still call him Boog. His "traditional name" is Landon Neil. The name Landon has a story behind it. Neil is Susan's father's name.

Landon's name started with a Google search I'm sure - trying to find a name that went with Weston. When Susan mentioned the name to me, I immediately thought of Michael Landon. I always liked Michael Landon's characters - starting way back with Little Joe on Bonanza, then Pa on Little House on the Prairie, then Jonathan Smith on Highway to Heaven. I think he was one of the few actors that "got it." He didn't have to be crass; he didn't have to be dramatic. He just had to be a great guy, and people would watch him.

So, when Susan mentioned the name Landon, I jumped. It is a great name.

OK - well. More pics to follow. ...and maybe a post or three

*OK, now the story about Boog. Boog is pronounced Boo!-g, not like a shortened version of Booger. Boog is the name of a funny character from the animated movie Open Season. Since I saw the movie, I thought that would be a cool nickname. This is Boog:

New family picture

Imma let you guess whether this was a planned family photo...

My long overdue update

It's been a long time since I updated the blog - and so much has happened since last year. It would be impossible to catch up, so I'll just start with this summer. We've been very busy! Best to start at the bottom picture (the school bus pics) and work your way to the top...

And, now back home again, soccer season has started again. This is Lexi with her neighbor friend. Lexi is the last of our kids to get in to soccer. She really likes it, and actually scored a goal in her first game, making her very proud. She mentioned that "it was hard work."

This is a spray park near the beach - the sun is setting just in front of us in this picture. The spray park has some water jets that shoot straight up out of the ground for most of the time, then about every 30 minutes, these fire hose type jets come on and spray hundreds of gallons of water into the center of the park. The picture doesn't do justice to how much water is really coming out.

This year we went north from my parents' home to Holland, MI. As you can tell from the picture, there is a Dutch Village there where you can see all kinds of things that you would have seen, and may still see today in Holland. The kids learned how to do some dances, tried on some wooden shoes, and walked several goats during the day (yes, WALKED goats!)

While were visiting my parents in Michigan, we visit Lake Michigan, which has become one of our favorite beaches to go to. The waves are just right for the kids, and the crowd at the beach is generally always family friendly. The sand is perfect, and there's always a nice breeze. Somehow I always end up with a sun burn on my shins and my feet. I could swear that I hit them with sunscreen, but I probably didn't.

Lexi and Ivan decided to get married when they get bigger. Ivan will have two jobs: acting and being a billionaire. I'm not as concerned about his success being an actor. Lexi decided to have a dog store and a an ice cream store. She will alternate between jobs during the week.

Heading back to the train... In the background (the tall white building just right of center) is Club Quarters - a hotel that I used to stay in while working in Chicago. The entire room is one of these hotels is about as big as an average bedroom in your house, and that includes the closet, a very small desk, and a bathroom. Everything is almost literally at your fingertips.

"The Bean" in Chicago is a fun stop.

When in Rome...

One of my favorite things to do on vacation is to head out to my parents' home in Michigan and our friends' home in Chicago. When we go to Chicago, we take a train from our friends' home to downtown, then hop on this water taxi that takes us to Michigan Avenue, then just walk around to see what we find. Chicago is one of my favorite cities in the US.

Another Custer family tradition is to go to Kennywood each year. Its a local amusement park that has great rides for the young and old kids. Every year I think I need to take just Susan so we can ride all the big-kid rides - but it never happens. No worries - we always have a good time with the kids.

Weston turned the ripe old age of 11 over the summer. You wouldn't know it was summer, what with his snow hat on and all!

After the mini-meet, the kids participated in the city-wide swim meet. As you can tell from some of the umbrellas still up, we spent most of the day in the rain. The kids did well, with Weston getting first in the breaststroke, and Maddie doing well in her races. It's always a great time.

I am growing to dislike mechanics with each visit - so when my new mechanic told me he was going to charge me $400 to do my brakes, I fired him on the spot and went and asked a friend, who was willing to teach a man how to fish, to help me do my brakes. Thanks, @himni1!

As you can see - the kids did very well in their mini swim meet this summer. Madi and Weston took first in each of their races, and Avery took third in her very first swim meet. Nice work!

Blogger won't let me rotate this picture, and for that I apologize. At any rate - after lunch we went downtown to play in the water park.

After sliding, we went to an Indian restaurant. For the Goettlers and the Hollists (also in the picture) it was old hat - but it was new for the Custers. We enjoyed it - although I have to admit, I kept looking around for the meat.

Our good friends from Chicago (the Goettlers) came out to visit and introduced us to the "blue slide park" in Pittsburgh. This is a concrete, painted slide that we spent about an hour and a half at - give or take. You slide down on a piece of cardboard. The best part was when one of our crew slid down the slide with wax paper underneath her, laying down a nice, slick layer of wax for the next riders. We almost injured a few kids since they were not ready for how fast the slide had become.

My beautiful wife!

On the way home from Palmyra, we stopped at Lake Erie. This is a pretty cool beach since all the rocks were flat - perfect for learning how to skip rocks!

This is one (bad) shot from the pageant with the entire cast on the "stage" on the side of the hill - it's an outdoor pageant. (I need a real camera!)

The following week we went to upstate New York (Palmyra) to watch a pageant that our church puts on each year. It's also a historical site for the church since the church was reorganized there in 1830.

The first 15 seconds of the fireworks were the best this year. There was no wind to move the smoke from the previous fireworks, so after about 20-30 seconds, the remainder of the fireworks show was in a large smokey cloud. Still, we all had a lot of fun.

Continuing our tradition for the 8th year, we went to fireworks with a good friend and her daughter (far left). We sit on Mt. Washington and watch the fireworks that are set off from the river. Always a good show, and always good company!

Early this summer we went on an overnight camp-out with some good friends of ours - it was a lot of work, but a lot of fun, too. We all agreed that the amount of work put in to getting ready for, setting up, and taking down the campsite was not worth a one night camp-out. Next time we'll do at least two nights.

First day back for Madi

First day back to school in 2010/2011 school year - Weston and Avery

Lightning fast interwebz

So - we have FiOS now for interwebz and phone. Pretty cool stuff, but it took forever to get it set up. The workers showed up around 10:30am and didn't leave until 6:30 in the evening. Crazy, huh? But, we're (OK, I'm) enjoying it. (Susan couldn't care less - surprised?)

Kodak moments...

Jury trials

It's been a while since I've posted - for that I apologize to all our fans. :)

In case you didn't notice, I was doing an alphabet theme for the last several posts. This post is to start with the letter J. All I could think of was "Jury" so I thought I'd tell you a little about my recent jury trial.

As you are all probably aware - I changed jobs back in December 2009. I left the traveling job I had based on philosophical differences of opinion. It was a job that I really (REALLY) enjoyed for quite some time, until the powers that be decided that they wanted to change their focus. But that's another story for another day.

So I jumped back into practicing law (instead of doing the litigation management gig I had before) and was slammed with about 45 cases to handle and one upcoming jury trial. I was nervous about the trial because I had only had one trial before that and it was a complete disaster.

The nice thing about this trial was that it had a little bit of everything - medical experts, an accident reconstructionist, factual disputes, and legal disputes. I worked my tail off getting ready, and when the time came, I was as ready as I could be.

The case was pretty simple. The other guy pulled out from a stop sign into the path of my client - then the other guy sued my client. Unbelievable, eh? We all thought the jury would see the case for what it was - a sham. And in many respects they did.

But in the end, they found for the plaintiff. Ugh! The plaintiff put up over $125,000 in damages, but the jury only awarded $4,500. Then the jury hit us with the "pain and suffering" award. In light of the $125,000 being claimed, the pain and suffering number could have been as high as $250,000. Fortunately the jury "only" awarded about $40,000.

Still much higher than I had hoped (since I was hoping for $0), but I'll take it for my first trial.

The trial was a great learning experience, one that I will definitely take into the rest of my practice.

Since the plaintiff's last demand was $65,000 to settle the claim, and the jury came back with an award of about $45,000 - the company considers that a "win." So I am now (technically) 1-0. :)

Inspired

I read a blog post this morning that inspired me. So I think I'll share some of what I felt with all of you. It made me think of all the good things that happened this week.

Weston had a birthday this week. He's growing into a handsome young man with some qualities that I aspire to. He's an example to me in many ways.
I walked on sacred ground this week, and I'm thankful for a few friends who pointed me in that direction. Not being as educated as I want to be, I sometimes miss the important stops in life.
Argentine beef is about as good as it gets. Sharing it with an old friend tops it off.
I work with people who are smart, talented, and can get along well.
Susan gets more beautiful every day - and I'm glad I belong to her. I love walking through the door.

House plans

Susan loves (LOVES) house plans. One of my best Christmas presents for her included a book full of house plans (among other things). She read that book for weeks, perhaps months. It's really an art. To be able to see a house plan and see it as if it were real. Susan's good at that stuff. Unfortunately I am not. I am more of a visionary person. I need to see photos. This probably explains my huge stack of torn out pages from magazines that have come through our home over the years.

One day we'd like to move out into the woods, where we can't see, hear, or smell our neighbors. If all goes well, we'll design the house, then build it, but that may be out of our price range for a number of years (like 30?).

I enjoy watching Susan read her house plans. She's always figuring. I think that's a Woffinden trait. Those Woffindens can ponder and figure like no one else.

My requirements: A man-room, a large outdoor pool with a large deck, a large master bath, and a large master bedroom - probably all in that order. I'd like to put a home theater in, too, but that may be excessive. We'll see.

Graphite

Some months ago, Weston, his Grandpa Woffinden, and I put together a Pinewood Derby car for the great race. This was Weston's first year. Neither he, nor I, knew what we were doing. I recall from many years ago when I was in Scouting that the Pinewood Derby was largely a collection of dad-made cars that beat the pants off the cars my brothers and I made.

(Infuriating.)

When it was Weston's turn to get involved in this rite of passage, I made sure that I would only guide him and not get too involved in the making of his car. This was going to be his puppy. He designed the car, helped cut it (at a friend's house), sanded it, painted it and helped Grandpa put the weights on. I was not going to go crazy with the wheels, the axles, the paint, the sanding, the graphite (oh, the graphite - I still have bad flashbacks when I hear that word!), or the weights.

Plain and simple - whatever Weston wanted.

Weston's car did great. It came in a close second in just about every single race. He was never blown out. I was very proud of him and how well his little car did. In the end, he didn't place, but he did win the award for the Cub Scouts' favorite car (they all voted). He was very proud of that.

So, I made Weston a deal. Now that he's seen all the other kids' cars, and what went into them, if he wants to jazz up his car next year, I'll help him. But he has to do all the research and do most of the work. He'll still design, shape, sand, and assemble the car. I don't ever want to feel guilty of his car winning because I did most of the work.

Pinewood Derbies are for kids.

Farming...

So - ever since we moved into this house, we have tried our hand at farming (OK - gardening). We've planted everything. One year we even tried corn (that was fun, but not very productive). Over the past few years, we have been guilty of letting the weeds take over the garden. I am committed to combating them this year. It's my own little war in my back yard.

To some, I've committed a gardening sin. I've used chemicals. MiracleGro to be exact. But I'm tired of unproductive gardens. So this year I'm chemically enhancing our veggies. We'll see what happens.

The pics below are 7 days apart with only one dose of MiracleGro. The top photo is the earlier photo - the bottom is the later photo. I'll update this each week.

Blueberries and rose bush.

Tomatoes (right) and peppers (left).

Beans, broccoli, squash, etc.