My 33rd birthday morning began well, Matt made me a breakfast burrito, we were all packed and left on time for the airport. Our flight from Burbank to Dallas was good, the (medicated) baby got some snoozes, and Max played well with his Legos. The portable DVD player helped out some too. In Dallas, we knew we had about 50 minutes to get to our gate for our Lexington, KY flight. We walked casually, got some food, and then walked around some more, having passed our gate and seen no boarding action. We realized that it was getting pretty close to takeoff, when Miss Lucy had some stinky pants. I went to change her, and Matt took Max to the gate. I return with the baby and am HORRIFIED to see that we had missed the flight. They closed the gate at 10 min before the flight and it was about 2 minutes after that. We were ASTOUNDED to realize that all our dabbling around had made us miss the last flight to Lexington of the night. It was the craziest set of feelings – embarassed and disgusted and shocked. The agent was very kind, she set us up at a local (decent) motel with a ‘distressed passenger’ room rate. We got on the shuttle, checked into the room, and after Max and I ate a dinner of french fries and pancakes at the nearby Dennys, we all went to bed. This was probably one of the top #3 WORST nights of sleep in my life. Both kids were coughing (and trying to sleep in the same bed), I was feeling sick and did I mention we were all in our same clothes? Mmmmm – it was fun to wear those same clothes the next day, too. But – we got a very decent complimentary breakfast from the motel, and arrived in Lexington late the next morning with no further troubles. After Rob and Di were done laughing at us, they took us to their wonderful house. The kids (Samantha and Max) have settled into such a loving, fun time together – it is wonderful to watch. More details of our week here to come…

Matt scores as Maximus

After his family was murdered by the evil emperor Commodus, the great Roman general
Maximus went into hiding to avoid Commodus’s assassins. He became a gladiator, hoping
to dominate the colosseum in order to one day get the chance of killing Commodus.
Maximus is valiant, courageous, and dedicated. He wants nothing more than the chance
to avenge his family, but his temper often gets the better of him.

I don’t know about that temper part but here is my score. Lara Croft as number 4??

Maximus		83%
Indiana Jones		71%
Neo, the “One”		67%
Lara Croft		67%
El Zorro		63%
William Wallace		58%
The Amazing Spider-Man		54%
Batman, the Dark Knight		54%
James Bond, Agent 007		54%
The Terminator		50%
Captain Jack Sparrow		42%

Which Action Hero
Would You Be? v. 2.0

created with QuizFarm.com

The next couple of days are very busy for this Theule Family. On Thursday night (17 Nov 2005), we are celebrating Toby’s 33rd birthday by dining at one of Toby’s favorite restaurants, Maggiano’s
Little Italy. Friday is pack, pack, pack day. Friday night, I am helping out my
uncle by setting up a new computer for him. Saturday, we are flying out of Burbank
to Lexington, Kentucky to visit Toby’s sister, et al., The Perez Family. We will be
in Lexington for a week, spending Thanksgiving with both the Perezes and Don and Camille.
We will be back in time to do child care on Sunday at Santa Barbara Community Church.
— I just heard a statistic on the radio that I have been unable to confirm, but have
no reason to disbelieve. It is an unprecendented statistic. Fandango is
reporting that 93% of of the pre-sales tickets being sold for this weekend are for
1 movie : Harry Potter
and The Goblet of Fire. 93%!

Max enjoys playing soccer. Max gets very frustrated that he can’t put the ball where he wants it. We are working on continuing to try hard, even when frustrated. He is barely learning how to turn the ball around, but usually can’t, he ends up kicking it out of bounds.

Today was no different. He was not very interested in running after the ball, and he was usually not near the ball during the game. We talked about how he needs to run after the ball and try to kick it, and to always watch the ball. He was easily distracted.

With about 1 minute left in the game Max was standing away from the ball, far downfield, when one of his teammates kicked the ball and it got past the herd of boys. I yelled to Max to look at the ball, and he reacted perfectly. He dribbled past another defender who took a swipe at the ball but missed and Max did one more dribble (now about 3 feet from the goal) and the ball rolled in. Hooray. Everyone on the team whistled and cheered. He had a big grin on his face. He gave high 5’s to Coach Alberto. There was enough time for another kick off and for the last 30 seconds of the game, he was playing hard, trying to (and sometimes succeeding in) taking the ball away from any player, even his own team. His team, The Red Flies, ended up winning 2-0, even though in the Under-6 division there is no official score.

Below are some pictures from his soccer season. You can click on them for a larger view.

Action
Shot

Coach Alberto giving guidance

Official 2005 Red Flies Photo

Click on the pictures below to open large images.