What?!?! Me... 40?!?!

Midlife what??? It's symbolic of where I am at this point in life.... took me a while to get it done, but now that the family is complete, I figured it was time.

Yeah, that's right... major milestone reached ... and I think the 3 week celebration is finally over... for all those that participated in making this time special for me, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Well, that's certainly not the only thing going on, but I will admit it did take most of the headlines over the past few weeks.

So for this wonderful event, my wife thought that it would be fun to take me (sans kids-yikes!!) to Disney World for a long weekend so we could just enjoy our own company for a little while... and boy was she right!!!!! In addition to partying like rock stars, we just laughed, and smiled, and had the best time. And many thanks to our friends/ neighbors, we had a great place to stay, and had a wonderful time together with them.... so many thanks to Tom and Sherry. Speaking of a great place to stay... Bay Lake Towers = awesome... Beautiful way to wake up every morning... and to just sit on the balcony like this couldn't be more relaxing, or beautiful... a fine place for a cup of coffee (and maybe a few Landsharks) at 7 AM. Of course, this was the way to get this trip started (not counting the 4 AM bloody marys before the plane). Had to show Cooper how close the monorail was... and I think he would probably just sit there and watch over and over as they entered the Contemporary. So dinner for my birthday was one of my absolutely favorite places to go - Shula's ... I highly recommend it if you have a little extra $$ and want probably one of the best steaks you have ever eaten. And on to JellyRolls for some dueling pianos.... methinks we had all had a good time, do you agree Tom? Sherry? And how cool is it to have seen the space shuttle launch during the day -admittedly we were a bit far away - like half the state of Florida - but cool to just see the 'matchstick' fire up... trail across the sky.... and leave a big, long vapor trail... the whole process took less than 2 minutes, but the vapor trail was there for over 20-30 minutes... it was just plain cool!! So just some fun pictures of acting silly... Tom and Susan enjoying the convertible... hanging with the characters.... checking out the animals. And do you know what?? they talk about the animals being most active at night or first thing in the morning on the Kilimanjaro safari, but we went right at the hottest time in the middle of the day and it was the BEST safari I can remember... maybe they just knew they were celebrating with me?!? And a little fun at Universal Studios... have to admit I am Disney snobbish and Universal doesn't even come close to the experience as Disney, but I will say the rides are absolutely wicked!!! Hulk... insane!!! Spiderman, Dueling Dragons, Jurassic Park, Dr. Seuss ride... and not to mention the sneak peeks at the Harry Potter world which really looks fantastic and should be a boatload of fun.

For the entire 40th celebration trip... see here.

So, enough about me I suppose.... how is everyone else doing? sharing the last of my birthday suprises - a little Dreamland BBQ straight from Birmingham, AL.

Susan's fortieth will be coming up shortly and I am sure that there will be some time put aside for that so I will defer until that time.

Olivia has been paying mondo amounts of softball between the coaches pitch rec league and the Stingrays traveling team. She has gone from a meek player to an aggressive little go getter... just last weekend she was in our home tournament and went 1-2 in three out of four games with several stolen bases and 4 runs scored... on base percentage of something like .850. And in coaches pitch, the team has not lost over 20 games in two years... much thanks to coaches Grandpa Bob and Grandma Kathy.... and coming up in 1 week will be her celebration for Student of the Month.

Kira has been playing a little t-ball of her own.. recently getting the game ball. She too has gone from barely being able to hold the softball to smacking it to both fields and fielding grounders. And to have gone from having trouble getting her letters straight out of preschool to see her taking 3-4 books to bed with her and reading is AWESOME!!! It's amazing how much growth she has gone through this past year.... we're all so proud. And maybe by the next writing a visit from the tooth fairy will have been in order???

And to our little boys... as previously mentioned, Tae has officially become a member of the Sattan family complete with new birth certificate and everything. Now to put the finishing touches on the paperwork and we are good to go. He is rapidly approaching his first year home with us and celebration of his 'family day', followed shortly by his 2nd birthday. Here he shares a nice moment reading with PopPop. Cooper recently celebrated family day on May 7, which was a perfect combination with mothers day. Cooper is having assessment by the school to see if we can get him some extra help when he goes to preschool next year. Overall he is a polite little boy who is well-spoken but not always appropriately spoken. And for those who have been witness he does have difficulty with his temperament and controlling his emotions, so we think that maybe some extra guidance would be beneficial for him.

Well, I think I have rambled on way too long so I will stop now... summer is coming and I am sure there will be more tales to tale, pictures to show, and laughs to share.

For now, be well...

Scott

PS - and for those waiting to take that long, scary yet rewarding trip... we are keeping you in our thoughts and prayers.. and can't wait to meet that new little man...