Tobin Family Website

I hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day weekend last week.  In the DC area, we had absolutely beautiful weather!  We spent quite a bit of time outdoors enjoying it.  Unfortunately, on Sunday and Monday Ben was ill with a fever.  We were concerned it might be strep based on his history, but he was better by Monday night.  As it turned out, I was next in line to get it and ended up staying home Tuesday and Wednesday with a fever and a stomach virus.  Thursday night it was Karen’s turn, although hers only lasted about a day.  Delaney seems to be the only one who avoided it altogether.

Despite the Monday holiday and being ill on Tuesday and Wednesday, I still managed to get 26-hours in at work on Thursday and Friday.  After working all day at the office on Thursday, I came home and changed clothes and then traveled to one of our operational sites in the DC area to oversee a software upgrade.  The upgrade was supposed to complete by 2AM, but ran into some database problems and didn’t finish until 6AM.  I then had to hang around to brief out the results of the upgrade to various offices that were reporting back to work on Friday morning.  After the briefings were over, I traveled back to my office for a meeting at 11AM and to finish up some other work that I needed to get done.  I finally got back to the house at 2PM on Friday afternoon and laid down for a much needed power nap!   

Last weekend, we went and saw the movie Pince Caspian, the latest movie in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series.  It was a very good movie, although not quite as good as the first in my opinion.  I had read the series a long time ago as a kid, and had always liked Prince Caspian, although I had forgotten the storyline.  As before, the movie was visually rich with some amazing graphics.  All in all, the family really enjoyed it.  We would also like to go see the new Indiana Jones movie.  Perhaps we will get that in during the next month.

Tomorrow, Karen and I will celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary.  It is amazing how time flies!  We have been together now for 20-years, which is almost half of our lives!  It has been quite a journey so far and we are looking forward to the next 20 years.  We have covered a lot of ground in those years, starting out dating while I was at school in Vermont and Karen was at school in Virginia.  After we married, we spent almost 5-years in Dayton, Ohio, before moving to Los Angeles and living in Redondo Beach and San Pedro.  During the 3-years we were living in California, Ben was born.  Then we moved back to the east coast and lived in Satellite Beach, Florida, for 3-years where Delaney was born.  Then it was north to Springfield, Virginia, for 3-years while I worked at the Pentagon.  After going through the surreal events of 9/11, we moved back to Florida.  This time we found ourselves in Fort Walton Beach up in the Panhandle along the gulf coast.  After 3-more years of soaking up the sun and perspiring in the heat and humidity, it was back to northern Virginia and the greater DC area.  Now we are trying to decide where to go next and what to do as I plan to retire from the Air Force next year.  We are looking forward to settling in a little longer than 3-years at one location, although it has kept things fresh and exciting.  We don’t have any grand plans on what to do on our anniversary, but we will be happy to just be together as a family!

Speaking of how time flies, Ben and Delaney both returned home with their latest school photos yesterday.  It is hard to believe that Delaney will soon be 9 years old and Ben is approaching 12!  They are both such good kids (most of the time), and they have really enriched our lives.  We are enjoying our time with them now, as we know that time is a fleeting thing and it won’t be too long before they head off to college! 

In the hockey world, I am looking forward to Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals tonight on NBC as the Penguins will be looking to even up the series 2-2.  I am hoping they can do so and send the series back to Detroit tied at 2-games a piece.  If they lose tonight, it will put them in a very precarious position going back to Detroit losing 3-1 in a best of 7 series!  For full coverage, you can check out my hockey blog at http://nhlpens.com.

Tags: Hockey, Photos, Tobin Family Update

Wow, what a beautiful day here in the Washington, DC, area!  It is 70 degrees and beautiful blue sky with a nice 10-15 mph breeze.  It is one of those rare days that you only get a few days a year.  In fact, Karen asked where we could move where the weather is like this all year round.  I reminded her that this is pretty much what it was like in Redondo Beach, CA.  She quickly said that she didn’t want to go back there!  I loved it there, but there were too many people and it was too far from family. 

It has been a while since I have posted an update here.  I have been pre-occupied with work, family and (of course) hockey.  Since my last post, I have also been struggling with migraines.  I went and had an MRI which came back fine…I actually ended up doing an open MRI because I could not handle be stuffed into the “tube”.  I didn’t realize how claustrophobic I was until they tried to stick me in that thing!  At my last neurologist appointment, they put me on a new medicine that I have to take daily in hopes of preventing the migraines.  Within a week of starting the medicine I had another migraine, so I guess I need to be patient.  The new medicine is supposed to help over time, and it is similar to medicine that Karen was put on.  It has generally worked well for her, so I am hoping for a breakthrough soon!

As far as hockey, I won’t bore anyone with it here…..if you are interested, you can check out my Penguins blog.  Suffice it to say that the Pittsburgh Penguins are doing very well and are making a deep drive into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  They may end up in the finals with Mr Papa’s Detroit Red Wings.  If that happens, I will be sure to start talking some more smack.

Karen has tendered her resignation with the elementary school, and Friday was supposed to be her last day.  Somehow, she is going to be continuing to work this week.  I guess her class is moving into a trailer to make way for some pending construction, so she decided to stay a few extra days and help out.  She is also considering a potential teaching assistant position for next year.  If she is happy doing it, I will be happy for her.  If not, I will be the first to tell her to quit. 

Ben and Delaney are doing very well.  Ben was accepted into a math and science program for next year.  This means that he will be going to a different school than his contemporaries.  The school has a focus on math and science and we had to go through an application process.  Only a couple of kids from Ben’s current school were selected to attend, so we are very happy for him.  Delaney was also recommended by her teacher for the gifted program in her school.  We have completed the applications and are awaiting the results.  I expect she will have no problems getting accepted as she is very sharp.  Ben was in the same program and he really enjoyed it. 

Well, time to go watch the Penguins beat the Rangers.  Game 5 starts now!

Tags: Family Update, Hockey