Meggisi

I was just thinking how much I am looking forward to March. It’s actually kind of bizarre. I really don’t remember having such an affinity for March before. When I recall memories of March from the past, here is what I come up with: melting snow, accumulating now, tornadoes, MN State HS Tourneys (Hockey and Basketball), NCAA Basketball Tournament, spring training, Daylight Savings Time, ice starts going out.

But today, as I buckled the kids into their car seats for a trip to Chairman Bob’s establishment in Lakeville, it dawned on me why I am looking so much forward to this March. Everyone always wonders whether March will, “Come in like a lamb and go out like a lion,” or vice-a-versa. March is a month of veritable weather changes. It is a month of sports pandemonium. It is a month full of general uncertainty. The northern hemisphere awakens from winter slumber in March, shakes off the dust of inactivity and gets moving again. Hell, we even set our clocks ahead one whole hour to increase our daily productivity.

March 2010 for me will be the first month in close to 1/4 a year that I have been able to control my own work schedule. December, January, February, my employer determined it for me as I endured “long-term training.” Now that I have completed said training, I was able to bid a schedule for March using the preferential bidding system I worked on for the last few years with my union brothers. Now, the result wasn’t ideal by any means…Sarah still works weekends, and I will be flying over two of them in March. Lucky for the kids they have eager grandparents who look forward to such conflicts in my schedule, as they gladly watch the kids for us.

The truly nice thing about the schedule being back in my hands is this:

This is Sarah and the kids at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. On truly a whim, we decided on the day after Oliver turned 1 year old to just hop on a flight to Chicago and spend the day there. The loads were quite good – very open in and out of Midway Airport. We enjoyed both flights – down on Compass’ E175 and back on Mesaba’s CRJ900 (my plane…making the trip special for the family because Daddy could annoy them with all the play-by-play action of every move the airplane and the crew made.)

This was a day where we all were together. We all were able to be a family having fun…sharing a day of adventure. It was really a special, and given the last couple of years, a unique thing for us. With more personal control over the sked, kids at a decent age to do things like major travel, and the weather getting warmer, March (and the months beyond) look better and better all the time.

So what else is going on. No doubt if you have visited Meggisi recently you saw the video of Oliver’s first steps. Well, especially this weekend, Ollie has become a full-fledged toddler! More video is forthcoming, but in the meantime I want to share some great pics from me’boy’s 1st birthday:

Oh yeah. It was my mom’s birthday this last week too, so the celebration was for her too. As you can see, she was having a blast!