Isn't It About . . . Time?

Well . . . I guess since it's been more than 8 months since I last blogged, it's time to write something. And, in regards to the title of this post, the reason (excuse?) I haven't written for a while is that my time has been consumed elsewhere. Having a busy wife, a job that seems to require more of time this year than ever before, and a baby boy is not condusive to an active online presence. On the brighter side, I've had many opportunities for bonding with my 2 favorite children and have actually had a great year so far.

We just got back from a full week 'camping' at Carlsbad State Beach. I put camping in quotes because it still doesn't seem like camping unless there are mosquitoes and flies and a bruise on my back from the rock under my 1/2" thick sleeping 'pad'. None of those things occurred on this trip - which I appreciate - but the word 'camping' just doesn't seem to fit. And to further complicate things, we were so nervous about camping with our 26" long human baby, that we decided to rent a 26' long RV for him to sleep in. Maybe a little bit of overkill, but it ended up working out really well and little IO was a champion the whole week.

Rach's parents camped with us and we had friends visit in the afternoons and evenings for several days. It was a great time. Here are some of my favorite photos from last week:

Quiz Answers

The correct answers to the ‘quiz’ are:
1. (a) It’s so unfair for the rest of us . . .
2. (a, b, c, and d) Best diving in San Diego: Scripps Canyon. Yes, that Mitt Romney. The Yukon is a 366 foot Canadian Destroyer warship sunk in 2000 and is a classic San Diego dive site. Number of lobster bagged at Casa Cove: 0.
3. (d) or (e) Miriam says the best part was ‘Getting goals’, but she technically didn’t ever do that. After watching most of the games, I’d have to say that she appeared to be having the most fun when she was dancing with Audrey.
4. (a, b, c, and d) I think my favorite is walking 490 steps to work every day.
5. (-none of the above-) :-) Do you really think I’m irresponsible enough to admit any injuries on a scout campout? We actually did all of the activities mentioned, but there were no injuries requiring first aid beyond a band-aid.
6. (b) We did NOT drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, and never actually ventured north into the San Francisco Bay area. We spent the reunion time in ‘Angels Camp, CA’ (home of the jumping frogs made famous by Mark Twain’s story about Calaveras County), and Watsonville, CA (on Monterrey Bay). One of the highlights was a day spent hiking in Yosemite.
7. (d) I have a picture to prove it.
8. (b) Isaac means ‘he will laugh’. I thought that was appropriate.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

DIXON FAMILY 2008 QUIZ

The correct answers will be posted on DixonMania.blogspot.com on Dec 31, 2008.

1. Rachael is the head coach of the Rancho Bernardo High School boys volleyball program. This spring, she took her varsity team to tournaments following locations (select all that apply):

a. Honolulu, Hawaii
b. Redondo Beach, California
c. Tijuana, Mexico
d. Newport Beach, California

2. Jeremy is an active SCUBA diver. In 2008, he dove 20 times (so far), including the following San Diego area locations and dive buddies (select all that apply):

a. Scripps Canyon / Carl Robbins
b. La Jolla Cove / Paul Johnson, Matt Romney, and Mitt Romney
c. Wreck of the HMCS Yukon / Simon Prout and a guy named Ned
d. South Casa Beach / Benjamin Carter and Jeff Wagner

3. Miriam participated in her second season of soccer with the 4S Ranch Youth Soccer League. For her, the highlight of the season was (select only one):

a. Kicking the ball more than once during a single game
b. The end of season pizza party
c. Helping Jeremy make the ‘Killer Bees’ team banner
d. Dancing with Audrey Fisher during timeouts
e. Getting goals

4. In June, we bought a new house. The things we like about our new house include (select all that apply):

a. Jeremy’s 490 step commute
b. Miriam’s kindergarten class with 7 girls from her Sunday school class
c. Miriam asking EVERY SINGLE DAY if we can go swimming at the neighborhood pool
d. The garage big enough to park both cars and still have room for the other stuff

5. Jeremy was asked to be the 11-year-old boy scout leader for the troop sponsored by our church. This year, he took them camping and was able to perform the following forms of first aid for acquired injuries (select all that apply):

a. Heimlich maneuver, necessitated by an over-aggressive game of ‘chubby bunnies’
b. Ankle wrap; maybe we should have tested the rope inside one of the Arroyo Tapiado mud caves before we tried climbing it
c. Direct pressure to stop heavy bleeding. Whose idea was it to let 11-year-olds use an axe to prepare firewood?
d. Water rescue of an 11-year-old who is ‘a great swimmer’. As much as I enjoy camping at the beach . . .

6. This July, we attended a Dixon family reunion in Northern California. This trip did NOT include (select all that apply):

a. A bear sighting in Yosemite National Park
b. Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge
c. A ‘Dora the Explorer’ piñata
d. The Monterrey Bay Aquarium

7. Jeremy’s maternal grandfather passed away in September. His funeral was attended by a large number of his direct descendents. How many of his children were in attendance?

a. 2
b. 6
c. 12
d. 38



8. Miriam’s baby brother was born on November 30, 2008. His name is (select only one):

a. Moses Grant Dixon
b. Isaac Jay Dixon
c. Talmage Jeremy Dixon
d. Simon James Dixon

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! Check back in a week for the answers to the quiz . . .

Dixons on Ice

Last night was our annual ward ice skating party. We rent the 'Ice-O-Plex' (note it's the same middle name as Chance!) in Escondido and pray that no severe injuries occur. None of last night's injuries required a 'Life Flight' helicopter or even an ambulance, so I guess things turned out alright.

Miriam was soooooo excited. Ever since I told her we were going, she's been asking how long until we could go. When the time finally arrived, she was almost beside herself.

The first time around the rink was comical. Miriam was like 'Bambi' on ice for the first time. That was when I decided to perform the standard 'ice hardness test' with my chin and successfully verified that the ice was sufficiently hard for skating.

When we finally got our hands on one of the little PVC 'ice walker' things, Miriam became a champion skater. She was fearless when I turned her loose on her own.

When she held on and I pushed her, she was thrilled and kept telling me to go faster. Which I did, until I became fearful for my own life. She kept yelling, 'wheee!' and 'I love ice skating' over and over again.

It made for a really fun evening, and will be a great annual Christmas tradition for our family.

Baby Pics

On Sunday, November 30, at 3:02pm, we welcomed Isaac Jay Dixon to the world. He weighed in at 8lb 1oz and 20.5 inches long. I'm sure he'll be embarrassed about this for the rest of his life, but that's smaller than his big sister was when she was born. Here are some photos.

We chose the names for a couple of reasons. His first name, Isaac, Rach came up with. She's actually been calling him Isaac for months. It was very thoughtful of her to at least let me pretend to have a say in the matter, but the thing that finally got me was the Hebrew meaning of the name. It means "he will laugh". Hopefully, that means that he will be a light-hearted and happy person throughout his life, and bring joy to all around him. It may also mean that "he will laugh at his dad" for being a dork.

His middle name, Jay, is the long version of "J". That came from two places. First, I didn't want to have Jeremy as his middle name. I didn't particularly like my name when I was a kid* and just didn't like the sound of Isaac Jeremy Dixon. But we liked the idea of naming him after me, so we just went with Jay. Second, my dad's middle name is J. Not Jay, just J. So he's also kind of named after my dad, but without the lifelong challenge of explaining that his middle name is just a single letter, and no, it's not short for anything.

As you can tell, M is pretty excited to have a baby brother around. She hasn't yet figured out that she's supposed to be jealous.

*So, back to the story of why I didn't like my name to be Jeremy when I was a kid. At the time, I didn't reallize that is was a very trendy name in the early 70's - I just thought it was weird. And I don't know if I was just too shy or quiet or if I mumbled when I was a teenager introducing myself at dances and being called 'Jerry' or 'Jared' for the rest of the evening. So I'd spend the whole night being embarrassed that the new people I'd met still didn't know my name. Don't know why I felt obligated to include that particular piece of my personal history. Maybe because I've been up since about 4am and am slightly delerious.