Clara at 6 weeks

Clara is getting bigger every day and she loves taking baths.

Here is a photo of her with her first little girlfriend, Shaelyn Aagard (Clara is on the right).

A photo of Clara wearing an adorable sweater from her "Auntie Trin."

Motherhood is wonderful. My favorite part is when I pick Clara up out of her bassinet in the morning. She smiles and coos and seems so excited to see me.

English Phrases - Help

For my next trip to Sweden, I need your help. My coworkers in Sweden and I try to expand our language capabilities. Everyday, I teach them on US phase, and they teach me a phase in Swedish. They all speak English, so I have to teach them an American slang phase. I need your help, because I can’t think of and phases to tell them. What I need is a phase and a description for that phrase.

For example:
Phrase: “Bless their hearts”
Description: You can say the worst thing about someone, but if you add a “Bless their hearts” at the end, everything is ok and you are not really insulting that person.
Example: Greg cannot play basketball to save his life, Bless his hear

I hope this makes sense. Please tell me any one that may be unique. It is so fun to hear someone say a US phase with a Swedish Accent.

I will let you know what phrases I select and the Swedish ones that I learn.

Clara and The Top TV Shows

We know that we could not go another blog without a Clara update. Greg, however, still demands that another contest takes place. So the first part of the blog will be a Clara update, and the second part will be yet another contest.

Clara update:

Clara is now 5 weeks old and is over 10 lds. She is sleeping most of the way through the night, waking up only once a night for feeding.

She has started to smile and Nicolle has heard hear laugh in her sleep a couple of time. Clara developed Thrush http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/oral-thrush/DS00408 but seems to be getting over that. She is great.

She loves to be held by anyone, and has developed a little crush on Brandon Sweat. Did we leave anything out? Let us know.

TV Contest

The latest contest is a top 4 list. It is the top 4 TV shows that can be seen on TV. Before naming my top four, I want to give a shout out to all those shows that are great but did not make it to my top four list.
Mythbusters – Great show, answering questions that I have always wondered, and received strange looks for asking
Pardon the InterruPTIon – I love the show, Nicolle hates it. I will leave it at that
Reruns – Mash, Cosby Show, Seinfeld and Star Trek TNG
Sportscenter - www.youtube.com/watch?v=l33ohfzgk9k
The Colbert Report – Get ready for truthiness

My Top 4



The Office

This show is great, because it is discusses something we spend 5 days a week doing, working. I have received many an idea from this show on the pranks that I can pull on others. My hope is that is doesn’t sell out and just do the popular things. It needs to stay with what made it great, Michael, Dwight and Jim.

Lost

If you have never seen this show, I can’t explain to you why it is on my list. If you have seen it, you don’t need an explanation. The show keeps you guessing and trying to figure everything out. It is just great.

The Amazing Race

This is the one reality show that I still watch. You can see the world and all the great things to do in it, on this show. Plus you get to see what people act like under presure.
Show Highlight: Joyce Shaving her head, Never did one act make me hope that one team would win like this one.


The Simpsons


This show has been on TV since I was 12. That is 18 years. 18 YEARS. They have kept the same cast (With the exception of Phil Hartman, RIP). 18 YEARS. I can't tell you how many times I have used a clip of Mr Burns or Homer in my presentations. 18 YEARS




There are my 4. Lets hear from you.

Clue or Cranium

The votes are in, the ballots have been counted and by an overwhelming 3 votes, Clue and Cranium haven been selected as the top board games. I would celebrate this victory, however, I feel there is some “Other” influence being felt here.

Let me explain, Prior to one, “Henry Gale” voting, there were no votes for Clue. After Henry Gale had voted, a spell was cast upon the blog and all anyone could do was vote for Clue. For those of you that do not watch Lost, I am sorry, and what I just said makes no sense.

Other awards:

The Anti-Beatles Award – Kris
I have not heard of any of the games that you talked about. I am sure they are very fun, but the closest thing I had heard of was Ticket to Ride, but that was a Beatles song not a Train Game.

The Best Games That You Are Not Playing Award – “Apples to Apples” and “25 Words or Less”
These two games are classics and should be in every household, but are not.

The Man Law Awards – Steve and Mike Britt
You must consider Risk as one of the greatest game. MAN LAW

Thanks to all those who commented, they make the blogging much more enjoyable.

Board no more.

You don’t have to worry, we will be posting more photos of Clara, but we don’t want to overwhelm you with them.

The theme for this installment is “The Top 3 Board Games of All Time.” Please feel free to name any game that you feel ranks as the best of the best. Here are my top three:

3. Racko Baseball – You can look all you want on ebay, but you will not find this game anywhere. My brother Rob and I created it and this is how it works
a. Items needed:
i. Baseball cards
ii. Racko card holders
iii. 2 dice
b. How its played:
i. Same rules as baseball
ii. You have to have all positions filled by players whose cards you have
iii. The batting average on the back of the card dictates how high of a number you have to roll the dice to get a hit
iv. The ERA of a pitcher dictates how high of a number you have to roll the dice to get a strike or out.
v. You use the racko card holder to hold your team
vi. Rob, did I forget anything?
This game was created in the attic of my friend’s house and we had a blast playing it. Years later I saw something similar for sale at the store, but I knew that it could not measure up to the brainchild of Greg and Rob Sherwood.

2. Acquire – For rules, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquire
This game is great. You can only get on Ebay, I have yet to see a store stock it. I have to credit my brother in law’s family for introducing this game. When I was 10 or 11 I played it with them, and loved the business aspect of it. The main point of it is to buy shares of different companies and try to become the majority shareholder in the largest companies. The game teaches investing, cash flow, economics and a ton of other business principles. If you are up for a game, all you have to do is give me a call.

1. Risk – This is the greatest game ever. It can be playing over days, weeks, and even months. Seinfeld had an eposide on this game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2k0PRbYxVs . One of my friends came up with a great documentary idea. Video people playing risk in the airports of the world. The location would be determined by the country that was being attacked. For example, if Venezuela attacked Brazil, they would film the attack in the Sao Paulo airport. If you get corporate sponsorships from some airline companies and airport food vendors, this could be a profitable documentary.

Anyway, I need not speak about the merits of Risk, they are too numerous to mention.

Lets now hear your top 3, and the results will posted by the end of the week.

Clara's photo shoot

To see some adorable (yes, we are proud parents) photos of Clara, go to the following link...
www.janiesphotography.com
go to the Contact/View Proofs page
password: sherwood