2009: A Year in Review

Our Christmas letters are slowly making their way into mailboxes across the country, but we are also posting the annual message to our ever-so-infrequently-updated blog because it simply wasn't possible to mail to everyone.

We hope you enjoy!

Sean, Mary, & Katie

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2008’s season finale saw our heroes, Sean and Mary, looking ahead to a major life change. Talk about a cliff-hanger… We welcome you now to the 4th installment of:

The Christmas Letter (2009)

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FOOTBALL (Did you doubt I’d start with this?): It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Best: A 4th quarter comeback in Atlanta vs. Alabama earned Florida yet another SEC championship and a ticket to play Oklahoma in the BCS National Championship for the 2008 football season. We won’t talk about what I ended up paying to get a ticket, but long story short, I was fortunate enough to go to Miami and watch Florida beat Oklahoma to secure their 3rd National Championship (2nd in 3 years). Worst: After a promising 12-0 start to the 2009 football season, Florida suffered a disappointing loss to Alabama in a repeat of last year’s SEC championship game. While a Sugar Bowl match-up against Cincinnati isn’t a bad consolation prize, another title sure would have been nice. At the end of the day, it still is great to be a Florida Gator! Make no mistake though; I will root for Alabama over Texas. Keep it in the SEC, baby!

WORKING FOR THE MAN: The beginning of 2009 saw Mary growing increasingly pregnant and trying to finalize (and defend) her dissertation proposal before going out on leave. Unfortunately, things didn’t work as planned (pregnancies are harder than one might think) and Mary is still currently sans proposal. But she’s preparing to start anew in the spring of 2010 and I doubt it will be long before she’s back on track! Meanwhile I celebrated 5 years working with ESG (still working in the area of PeopleSoft) and just finished a large software upgrade for a client in Philadelphia. This project kept me on the road pretty steadily from April through mid-November, though I’ve been doing my best to enjoy vacation/downtime since completing that project while waiting for another to start.

A LITTLE LOVE GOES A LONG WAY: Lots of exciting things happen over the course of one’s lifetime, but for us few rival the events of August 6th, 2009. Eleven days after Mary’s target due date of July 26th, we decided, along with her doctor, that it was best to induce labor. We were helped along in our decision by the fact that we had been awake a good portion of the night before with Mary going through some early labor pains. At around noon we were admitted to the hospital, though our doctor was kind enough to let me run out and grab Mary a quick lunch from Boston Market before we got started. After all, nothing says “delivering babies” like turkey with gravy, mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, and cornbread. All things considered, the labor process went fairly smoothly (I didn’t feel a thing!) ;-). We started the induction at around 2:30 pm and by 9:44 pm, had a beautiful baby girl, all without the aid of an epidural! Katherine Alice (aka Katie) joined us at 7lbs 2 oz and 21 inches long with a head full of dark brown hair. It was a little touch and go there for a while, but after 4 months we’ve decided that we’re going to keep her . We have been thoroughly blessed to have such a healthy, beautiful, and sweet little girl. And the fact that she has slept through the night starting the first week she came home from the hospital sure doesn’t hurt! We were also fortunate to have Jenny (Mary’s mom) join us for about a month to help us get the hang of things. This was especially helpful since my client only gave me one week off to be home after Katie was born and my trips to Philadelphia resumed August 17th.



TRIPPING: No, it’s not what you think. Over the course of the year we managed to go on a number of trips, in addition to my all-important pilgrimage to South Florida.

> In May Mary and I journeyed to Mt. Vernon, OH for her 5 year Kenyon College reunion. A baby shower thrown by Mary’s Mom and Grandmother also allowed us an opportunity to visit with a good number of Mary’s family.

> In September (while Katie was only about a month old) I ventured alone to Maryland for the wedding of one of my best friends, JP, where I had been asked to be his best man. JP and his beautiful bride Jenny celebrated their vows in a small Catholic service followed by a lively celebration.

> In November, I completed my PeopleSoft project for Quest and we immediately left for vacation. In fact, I think I flew home Friday night and we literally hit the road the next day. At about 3 months old, we figured Katie was finally old enough to do some serious hiking. So we headed west to Big Bend National Park where we spent about 4 days hiking some incredible trails in the Chisos Mountains of Southwest Texas. I can’t be certain, but I’m thinking Katie got the easy end of the deal as seen here…




> A few days after returning from Big Bend, we headed off to Ocean Springs, MS for thanksgiving with my immediate family, my Dad’s sister, and her family. There were 11 of us, and except for Jenny (who joined us from Baton Rouge), everyone there met Katie for the first time. Between this and the Big Bend trip, we put nearly 2,500 miles on our car over a 2-week period. C-R-A-Z-Y!

> As we near the end of the year, Mary, Katie, and I will be joining Jenny and Charles (Mary’s brother) in Baton Rouge for a week surrounding Christmas. We hope to catch up with a number of Mary’s friends and also introduce Katie to some good old fashioned Louisiana cuisine! She likes her breast milk spicy!

> Looking ahead to next year, we’d like to try to make the rounds with Katie to visit Ohio (Mary’s family), Orlando (additional family on my side), and Maryland (friends). We’re also hoping to head to North Carolina for a ski trip with some of my college friends. Do they make skis for a 6 month old???


AS THE SUN SETS ON ANOTHER YEAR: We’re truly blessed for all that we have been given and look forward to another exciting year with our newly enlarged family. I apologize if we have been a bit out of touch with some of you. But know that we’d love to hear from all of you and if you ever happen to be in Austin, look us up. We’ll show you a little Texas hospitality and take you out for some barbecue!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Sean, Mary, Katie, Annie, and Riley
E-mail: sean_p_love@hotmail.com / mary.sutcliffe@gmail.com
Home Phone: 512.535.3875
Sean (Cell): 512.769.2187
Mary (Cell): 512.791.4949

06/27/2009: One month and counting...

Several of you have commented that you periodically check for blog posts and that there hasn't been one since late January. First, it's nice to know we've developed a following, albeit a small one. Second, I guess you get what you pay for. I'm thinking about charging a subscription fee. Then I'll be incented to publish on a more regular basis. But alas, that's after I quit my day job ;-)...

Let me fill you in on life in the Love household:


In early March we discovered the sex of our baby. I think most of you already know this and how we learned about it. Unless of course you've been waiting for a blog post. In that case, this paragraph is for you!

We went in for our ultrasound on March 5th. Our technician asked if we wanted to know the sex of the baby. Taking a cue from my brother-in-law's girlfriend, we had the technician write the sex down on a piece of paper and staple it shut. We then sat on that piece of paper for about 3 days. And yes, it was hard to wait. It probably would have been fewer than 3 days, had it been up to Mary, but we had several things going on at the time and I really wanted the "revealing" to be a little more meaningful than something done in a hurry between errands. So we waited until Sunday, March 8th and after an evening with our church youth group, we took the dogs down to Lady Bird Lake. We walked for a bit and then found a nice bench overlooking the river. With Annie and Riley at our side (they are part of the family after all), we opened the envelope and looked at the words that would change our lives forever: "It's a girl!"

Over the last few months, it's been a crazy ride. Take a look at this progression of pictures.

Mary at 6 weeks:












Mary at 20 weeks:












Mary at 34 weeks:












One beautiful woman, that's for sure. Look at that belly!

We're slowly moving toward the big day, July 26th. And we've made progress. The baby's room is not quite finished, but coming along nicely. Pictures to come in a future posting, but here are some of the highlights. We have our crib, a gliding rocking chair, and just today made the acquisition of our dresser. Our room is kind of small, so not a lot of room for furniture. We wanted something that could double as a changing table/future dresser and ended up picking out a nice raw pine dresser. Mary and I also picked out a series of pastel colors: blue, pink, yellow, and green - and over the next couple of weeks I'm going to try to turn this into something befitting our little girl. I hope it turns out as nicely as the image currently in my head...

Okay, rather than try to type everything in one post, I'm going to stop for dinner. I'll try to post a little more regularly in the future. Take care of yourselves and stay tuned for more information.

01/31/2009: Baby Update

Will keep this one brief. In about 6 weeks we'll know the sex of the baby. Stay tuned, TV land, stay tuned!

01/31/2009: Home improvement confessions of a perfectionist...

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm a perfectionist. And wouldn't you know, sometimes that makes life difficult. That's not to say I'm perfect. Far from it as a matter of fact. Just ask Mary :). But that doesn't stop me from trying to apply those ideals to many different aspects of my life. I could go on about this for days and we might need a therapist couch, but tonight we'll stick to the topic of home improvement.

Since moving into our house in July of 2006 we've undertaken a number of projects. We renovated the kitchen our first year as well as refurbished our two master bedroom walk-in closets. We added a wooden fence for the benefit of containing our two favorite puppies and then followed that up with a new sprinkler system and a backyard of new sod. I've spent a good amount of time outside trying to get the better of so many different species of plants, trees, and assorted shrubbery. Last year I tackled a limited guest bathroom remodel. What started out as a desire to simply update a vanity turned into something a bit larger, with drywall work, new plumbing, baseboards, and my redoing the tile floor. And we won't talk about the general painting, arranging, and other tasks associated with trying to make a house a home.

It's funny how, when buying a house, you tend to overlook all of the "projects" that will inevitably come with the purchase. Or short of that, perhaps you downplay them, either in terms of effort, cost, time required, etc. You're just happy to have a home, someplace to hang your hat. But the projects do come. Sometimes you take them on yourself. Other times you realize that you're really not a skilled contractor. Then they take longer than you expected. And they cost more. But it's worth it in the end, right? RIGHT???

Forward to the present - I'm sitting in the living room looking at a mattress/box spring set leaning up against our couch. There's a car carrier sitting to my right by the front window. A small chest of drawers rests near the kitchen on a small furniture dolly. Home Depot and Lowes receipts litter the dining room table. Our refrigerator is sitting in the middle of the kitchen, having been pulled away from the wall so I could investigate the cause of leaking water. Walk into the master bedroom and, short of a bed in the center of the room, you'd be hard-pressed to know it was a bedroom. Three roomfuls of possessions lie against every available wall, organized yes, but still indicative of that state known as chaos. Some of you were at our house not too long ago and may remember that it looked nothing like this. Oh but things change quickly...

Late last year I decided to redo my office. Somewhat outdated with 70's style baseboards and extremely worn carpet, I wanted something a little nicer, especially since I was spending so much time working from home. Then, with the discovery that a baby was on the way, we decided to redo the guest bedroom as well, turning it into a baby's room. For a brief moment I had planned to tackle these tasks by myself and had even scheduled a week of vacation expressly for this purpose. Fortunately I was saved from home improvement purgatory when my vacation was canceled and I was sent to Mexico for a project. Ask Mary, I can be good at some of the small things and am fairly handy around the house. But the larger a project, the longer it can take me. I'm good at taking things apart and great at starting projects. But sometimes my attention wanes or perhaps I get distracted by a newer project. Or worse yet I get frustrated by an inability to achieve the level of perfection I expect of myself. You think that sounds bad, you should try working with me professionally!

Well, the contractor is almost done with the two rooms and I think things look much better than they did before. Give me a couple of days to move furniture back and perhaps things will start looking normal again. Oh, but I do crave normalcy! But then, did I mention that, having now redone two of the rooms, we are considering redoing the flooring throughout the rest of the house?

It's funny. By the time we move from Austin in 3-4 years, we'll probably have redone the whole bloody place! I sure hope the next family likes it!

01/05/2009: The Holidays & Baby's First Present

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

I'm sitting here watching Ohio State play Texas (a much closer game than I think anyone would have thought, at least through the first half) and was thinking it might be a good time to update the blog. That, and our friend Margaret reminded me that an update was overdue ;-). Oh, before I forget - be sure to look for me on TV this Thursday while watching the BCS National Championship game. My seat is pretty crappy, but maybe I'll get some sympathy TV time! Alas, Mary won't be joining me - as she says, for what the ticket cost, she's not that into football... Go Gators!!!

This year Mary and I stayed home for Christmas as my parents, brother, and their 13 year-old Cairn terrier (Brandi) came to visit us for a week. It was definitely nice not traveling and I think that will be one of the plusses about having a baby (one of many). People will have to come to us, at least for a little while. Overall we had a nice visit. We played some golf, went out to see a couple of movies, ate too much, and sat around discussing religion as often as my parents could work it into the conversation (They're Baptist, for anyone following along at home.). Oh, and just so it is immortalized for all time, please note that I finally managed to beat my father at golf. It may have taken me 32 years, but I did it!

Okay, so you guys are probably more interested in hearing about baby-related things. New Year's Eve, Mary and I decided to drive over to our neighborhood Subaru dealer and see what sort of year-end specials they might have. Our current car is older ('95) and we've been wanting something with a few more safety features. Our choices are kind of limited, as we have to consider both of the dogs as well as a baby. You might think they could all sit in the same seat, but Riley's a licker and I'm not sure the baby would enjoy that. Or maybe the baby would, but I'm sure we'd get some strange looks from people. We both agreed that minivans are out, at least for now and I wasn't all that interested in another station wagon. We'd heard a lot about the Subaru brand and pretty much anyone we talked to about them had only positive things to say. To make a long story long, we got a good deal on a 2009 Forester (we liked the look of the redesigned Forester better than the existing 2008 and earlier models) and so ended up making a purchase. Baby's first real present, and boy was it a doozy!
Next big project - working on the baby's room. We're excited!
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