Saturday, June 24, 2006

Welcome to the Cotterman Chaos Blog. I am hopeful that this will help our family and friends keep up with all that goes on here at 300 North Main Street. It is my hope to update this once weekly. Let me know what kind of information you want to see here and I will try to comply. I am pretty new to this so hopefully I will be able to get this thing up and running. I would like to post some pictures each week as well.

Just a quick update on everyone who is involved in Cotterman Chaos:

CJ: also known as the head honcho. Works like madman on everything without asking much in return, except maybe a Yankee win. Spends a lot of his time at Equity Group making hamburgers for McDonald's, keeping his wife in business. Recently named to the coaching staff of the North Baltimore Midget Football Team. Continues to run into burning buildings with the North Baltimore Fire Department, and drives the ambulance for the North Baltimore EMS, again keeping his wife in business.

Tracy: Chief cook and bottle washer. Runs around like a chicken with her head cut off most days trying to get everyone where they are supposed to be on time. Would love to spend her days out in the garden or scrapbooking some of the 4000+ photos she has taken with her digital camera. Spends most of her time at Wood County Hospital in the ER trying to save a few lives, whether they like it or not.

Lindsay: Working hard to get everything she wants out of life. Works full time at Wood County Hospital in the Registration Department, (giving her mother too much work.)and goes to school at Owens. Chases after Garrett frequently.

Paige: The resident snoop. Likes to spend her time checking up on all of the gossip from around town and the family. Will be starting 6th grade in the fall. Hardest job right now: keeping her braces clean. Finishing up softball season getting ready for volleyball season.

Noah: Easily the busiest kid I know. Is constantly into one thing or another. He is our resident shark expert and sports guru. Loves his Yankees and Penn State football. Spends most of his time playing one sport or another. Loves the Playstation and Star Wars. Is finishing up baseball season while playing on two tournament teams. Will begin work with the Midget football team as the water boy.

Emma: God's little gift. Spends most of her time trying to keep up with the "big kids". Loves to sing and dance. Thinking about potty training, but not quite ready. Will surely miss the kids when they go back to school in the fall. Favorite pastime today watching Blue's Clues and Sesame Street.

Garrett: Just doing all he can to not let Emma have all the fun. Doing a pretty good job of it too. We just need to get him to understand that only food goes in his mouth, and that Emma isn't really food.

Smokey: Our favorite feline. Spends most of his time in basement keeping away from...

Freida: Our newest member. Came to us by way of the Humane Society. Spends most of her days chewing things she shouldn't and chasing the cat.

This week we are trying to swim out from our flooded basement. Third time in three years. We didn't lose any important items this time. Just some laundry to do. We have learned our lesson and keep everything up, but the water still got into our furnace and water heater, baths at the neighbors you know. We received about 7.5" of rain in just a couple of days, so I guess it was to be expected. Smokey finally made it up from the basement, we were beginning to get a little concerned about him, but all is well. Planning on getting it dried out then building HIGH shelves to keep everything on. I guess it will always be a learning process. We are lucky though, some people in our area lost their houses because their basement walls caved in. Work has been very stressful this week. Lots of really sick people in Wood County this summer. Usually we get a bit of a break in the summer, but so far this year,we have been unable to get even lunches.

CJ was asked to help coach the midget football team. He has been wanting to do this for as long as I can remember. He is already coming up with drills and plays for the boys. Noah is going to help by being the team waterboy. Another busy sports season is just around the corner.

Paige had a stressful week. She was helping CJ clean the pool when she stepped into the skimmer and cut her foot pretty badly. A quick trip (after dodging funnel clouds) to the ER proved that she wasn't broken, but she did require some stitches. She talked the MD into "super-glueing" her lacerations so that she could play in her tournament this coming week. She had to sit out a couple of the last reqular season games, but should be ready for tournaments. Volleyball camp is this week. It's tough being the social butterfly.

Noah has been asked to play on two different tournament teams this July in baseball. We will be running between Maumee and Van Buren for most of the week after July 4th. He is spending a lot of his time in the pool. He didn't attend Safety Village this year as he felt he "knew it all", but instead helped his dad with the fire prevention program

Emma is just loving to be outside. It has become quite the chore to get her to take her nap in the afternoon. She has grown summer knees. You know, the ones without much skin from all the running she is doing.