Our son

Not that I ever forgot one moment with Rigby, but these last couple days I have rediscovered how wonderful our son is.

He was away with grandparents, cousins and friends from Wednesday, February 8 - Saturday, February 11. Stacy and I only got to see him for just a couple hours each day while we were welcoming Lucy to the world.

Now, holding Lucy was equal to the experience of holding Rigby when he was first born. It is a feeling hard to describe watching the miracle of life come from Stacy’s belly. It is equally hard to describe the feeling having your family watch on when you walk out of the operating room with wife and newborn.

I went to pick Rigby up on Saturday afternoon at the Cope's house. My, had he grown in the past couple days. Just watching the new things he had absorbed and sentences that came from his mouth was amazing.

We left the Cope's and went to Target. Rigby and I had a conversation that is the best it can get between a 35-year-old and a 2-and-a-half year old. As we approached the Target parking lot, Rigby exclaims, "Daddy, we going to Target, I get pink icee, no, I get bloooo icee."

After buying an Icee, we strolled through the aisles and just talked about whatever came up or whatever was on the aisle. Rigby described things he saw, colors he knew and once stopped to tell me, "Daddy, I love you."

Rigby neared the end of his Icee, and handed me the cup, "You want some, there's more in it." The generosity of this child is awesome.

As we walked out of Target, a beautiful snow was falling. Rigby was so excited. "It is snowing at Target." Finally, Rigby told me that it was too cold and "we need get in car - that's you seat, that's my seat, you drive," he said.

In the car, Rigby asked me to play "peoples." I thought he was talking about The Beatles, but I did not realize Rigby was asking for a certain song - his own, Eleanor Rigby, which includes the line, "Ah, look at all the lonely people." After that it was Yellow Submarine, which Rigby sang the chorus.

Before going in the house, Rigby and I discussed the importance of taking care of Baby Lucy and Mommy and being gentle.

When we got inside, Rigby went to the bed where Mommy and Lucy were laying. Rigby climbed up the bed, laid his hand on Lucy's head, and said, "It's okay, Lucy home."

And so the next chapter in our life begins. Our son and daughter begin their lives taking care of each other.

The miracle that is our existence.

Lucy Clare Gray

Our little girl is here!

Lucy Clare Gray
February 8, 2006
8:43 a.m.
7 lbs. 7 ounces
18 1/2 inches long

We are all home now and doing great. Lucy and Rigby are such great blessings in our lives.

Blackbird

Erik was in the kitchen this afternoon singing the beginning of the Beatle's song, Blackbird.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly

And Rigby, sitting in another room, finished,

All your life

It was awesome!

Lucy is almost here!

It is almost time to meet Lucy. We are very excited. We have most of her room ready to go. We bought her stroller and car seat today.

Rigby seems to be ready. He knows Lucy is hiding in Mommy's belly.

Banddaddy

Stacy’s grandfather, Victor Alton Oglesby, affectionately always known as “Banddaddy,” passed away shortly after midnight, Friday, March 4, 2005. He had a short battle with cancer and its complications.

He was born February 19, 1923 in Jones Mill Community, Meriwether Co., Georgia.
He served our country in the Armed Services from 1942 – 1945 in the 873rd Army Engineer Battalion, South Pacific Theater of Operations of World War II.
He was a loving husband, father, brother, grandfather, great grandfather and great friend to all.

Our son, Rigby, was lucky to know him for the 18 months he has been on this earth. And we are happy that our Banddaddy had the opportunity to know and love our son.

Rest in peace, Banddaddy.

Grandparental visit

This past weekend was a time of entertainment with family. Erik's parents came down from upper East Tennessee. We took Rigby to the Creative Discovery Museum where he proceeded to take the place by storm. We could have let him play there for six hours. We alter walked around the waterfront area, admiring the new river pier and the aquarium expansion. We also go to watch cranes place the steel beams in place for the new walking bridge to the Hunter Museum.

The next day, Rigby made his first trip to the Tennessee Aquarium. Oh, how Rigby enjoyed the fishes. He paced back and forth across the expansive tanks, yelling at his swimming friends. He had a grand ole time.

And we had a great time with grammy and g-daddy. It was good to have them in our home.

Cincinnati Trip

This past weekend found us in Cincinnati. Stacy's sister, Meghan, auditioned for her doctorate admissions in clarinet at the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. Stacy's parents also made the trip.

We had a great stay at the Marriott Kingsgate. We ate a huge dinner with good friends at Buca di Peppo on Friday evening.

We made the standard trips to Busken Bakery for the cookies, Xavier bookstore for Musketeers items and Skyline Chili for the deliciousness.

The trip home was really bad as it rained the entire way back. The fog was very bad at the Kentucky-Tennessee line.

However, another great trip to the 'Nati. We sure do love her.

Super Bowl

Well, it had to come sometime, and it happened at the fraternity house. Quite fitting.

Rigby and I went to the Sigma Chi house to hang out with the guys and watch the Super Bowl. We had our Terrell Owens Philadelphia Eagles jerseys on.

Rigby started the evening with a tasty apple oatmeal bar and a cup of apple juice.
He was having a blast throwing a ball all over the living room while we watched the Super Bowl. By the end of the second quarter, he got real tired and came to rest on my shoulder.

Just as the New England Patriots scored their second touchdown, Rigby threw up. I whisked him to the bathroom and he let loose twice more. He was scared more than anything.

So we got in the car and came home, but not before he threw up on himself in the car two more times. Our jerseys were ripe to say the least.

Once I got him in our house and cleaned him up, he went to sleep. He is fine, I guess he just got too excited.

Many of the brothers said when he is 17 years old, they would back me up when I tell him his first puking incident was in the fraternity house when he was 17 months old.

Happy New Year!

A great year

What a great year. Our first full year with our son - a year that may not be topped!
We had a great holiday season. We celebrated Christmas in White Pine at Erik's parents the weekend before Christmas.

Meghan and Sam came in from Albuquerque for a couple weeks. Christmas at the Oglesby Ranch was fun. Food in the afternoon, gift-opening at night, most of the night!

Thanksgiving 04

November 19 was an awesome night at the UTC McKenzie Arena where the Lady Mocs played the Tennessee Lady Vols in front of 10,051 fans. The Lady Mocs lost, but it was fun.

This Thanksgiving was a good one, even though Erik had bronchitis. The Gray family went to Asheville to celebrate Thanksgiving with Mom, Bob, Tobi and Corey on November 20-22. We had a good time. Corey made the entire meal. All Stacy and Erik did was buy wine.

We spent Thanksgiving day in East Ridge at the Oglesby Ranch with Stacy's side of the family. We ate much and had a good time.

The 15-month-old little terror, a.k.a. our son Rigby is progressing right along. It has been an awesome past year and a half with him.

Halloween

It's Rigby's second Halloween. Last year he was a little, red pepper. This year he was a RigBEE.

The family all went to "Boo in the Zoo" at the Chattanooga Zoo.

Rigby is almost 14 months old and he is now all over the place letting mommy and daddy chase him. We are having so much fun with our little man. Everything that moves is now a "buh-buh." It started with barking dogs, but he has expanded his description.

Rigby's Party

It's birthday party time! We had a great day of festivities. Our birthday boy was under the weather with a fever and did not have much to do with the party.
Erik "snuck" Stacy's sister, Meghan, from Albuquerque to Chattanooga for the party. Everyone was surprised.

We had a great time with friends and family. Rigby got great gifts.

We had a football tailgate themed party, complete with chicken wings, special dips and chips, snack foods, cokes and beer. Football balloons adorned the house and blue and gold spirit shakers were strategically placed around the food and gift tables.
Rigby’s big cake was a huge hit. The cake said, “Happy Birthday, Rigby, Our MVP” with a football in the middle. The border of the cake was blue icing, which dyed everyone’s teeth, lips and tongues blue. It was funny, and the cake was very tasty.

Rigby’s personal cake had an icing football helmet with “Rigby” on it. He played with it a little, but because he was not feeling good, he did not eat any of it. We are saving it for later when he can dig in.

The guys ended the day watching the LSU-Oregon State football game.

Rigby finished the day in better spirits. He found his new toys to be quite fun and danced around with many of them

Happy Birthday, Rigby

Happy Birthday to Rigby! The first birthday for our son. The day was pretty normal. Now that Rigby is walking he just wears himself out at school and when he gets home he falls straight to sleep. Since today is Wednesday, we are waiting until Saturday to have his big party.

New Smyrna Beach

Stacy, Rigby and I spent a week at New Smyrna Beach, Florida with our friends, Beth and Steve. We stayed in a beach house across the road from beach.

We had a great time enjoying the lazy days. We would wake up around 8 a.m., which is late for us. We would play with Rigby for a couple hours, and then when he got tired, we would all go to the beach. Rigby would be slathered up in 60 SPF sun block, asleep in his strolled and placed under a big umbrella. That gave us time to lounge on the beach and play in the ocean.

The house we stayed in was great. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room and a sun room on the back that extended almost the length of the house. There was also garage where we could store all of our beach stuff.

We frequented some local taverns on the beach. The beer of choice was Yuengling.
We did eat seafood, but there was a pizza place across the street from the house that had fantastic pizza and good beer and pizza specials. Their double cheese pie was the best!

We had to leave a day early from our vacation because of Hurricane Charley wreaking havoc on the state of Florida. We got out in time, and the hurricane eventually killed 27 people and caused billions of dollars of damage. It was weird to watch the news when we got home and saw some of the places we had been destroyed by the storm.

Memories

This weekend is one of memories.

We look back 60 years and remember some 150,000 who fought and 10,000 who died on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944 - D-Day. It is sad to think the last of our World War II heroes are at the sunset of their lives. Today is a time to remember what was acheived 60 years ago today - the beginning of the fall of Hitler, France's release from Nazi Germany and American courage. In 1941, America's military was not even known to be in the top 10 powers of the world.

Today is also a day we mourn the passing of our 40th President, Ronald Wilson Reagan, a true American legend. Politics aside, this great man helped end the Cold War, encouraged citizens to be true Americans and honor the country we live in. Rest in peace, Gipper.

On a personal note, Stacy, Rigby and I enjoyed a great Saturday evening with Aunt Meghan (Stacy's sister) and Uncle Sam at Hiroshi's on the Soutside of Chattanooga. Meghan and Sam are visiting from Albuquerque, where they are both working on their Master's at the University of New Mexico. We are going to visit them in the Fall.

We ate enough Sushi for six people. Hiroshi also made us a treat that was not on the menu - ribeye steak wrapped around asparagus - it was awesome. He also presented us with fried cheescake smothered in chocolate sauce, whipped cream and cherries.
Rigby slept in his stroller the entire time - we were there for almost two hours.

May was a great month!

Stacy, Rigby and I went to Savannah May 15-20 to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Gray Wedding. We stayed at a hotel on Bay Street in the historic downtown area. We visited most of the beautiful old city squares, enjoyed some awesome food, and a walked a all over the place.

We also visited Erik's cousins in Savannah and had a short but good visit. We took a 30 minute drive East to Tybee Island to give Rigby his first view of the Atlantic Ocean. He absolutely loved the ocean water and the waves coming in to shore. He grabbed at the soft sand and squeezed it between his fingers. Nothing seems to scare him.

Savannah pictures are on Rigby's Site.

We went to my parents' house in White Pine for part of Memorial Day weekend. Tobi and Corey also came in from Asheville - a quick hour drive.

Rigby had a temperature of 102 on Friday and was pretty miserable. He woke up on Saturday another child from the day before. He was laughing and playing and acting like the day before never happened. Soon, we noticed a little something in his mouth - his first tooth peeking out! That is the only thing I can think of that got him so irritated the day before.

The cicada bugs were in full force. They only come out once every 17 years. It was so loud during the day time with all the bugs chirping. The trees and bushes were covered with cicadas and the ground was littered with dead ones. It was wild to see.
The second half of Memorial Day weekend was spent at the Oglesby Ranch in East Ridge. We had a southern shrimp boil on Monday and ate until we were about to pop.

Most of Stacy's immediate kin was there. It was a good day to remember.

Crawling

Batton down the hatches, bar the door and run for your lives! Rigby is starting to crawl. It started Friday evening when he was lured by David Cope holding a Sesame Street light just out of Rigby's reach. He took a couple shuffles and then went to his belly. since then he has performed three to four knee shuffles forward. He does not seem to surprised by it all when everyone in the room cheers him on.

On Saturday, May 1, we participated in the annual Chattanooga MS Walk. We had a good time and the Grays raised $440. Rigby enjoyed his time at Coolidge Park on the Chattaooga North shore.

These last couple weeks have really flown by at work. We are staying hard at it I suppose.

Rigby turned 8 months old on May 1. Hard to believe!

Rigby's first baseball game

Rigby saw his first baseball game on April 3 - the Cincinnati Reds and Baltimore Orioles in an exhibition game at Chattanooga's BellSouth Park. It was chilly to begin the day, but the sun came out and we had a great time.

Easter weekend was fun at Erik's parent's in White Pine. It was a lovely and relaxing weekend. Tobi and Corey came in from Asheville and we all ate a lot of food and watched Rigby talk jibberish and roll over a lot.

San Antonio

Erik traveled to San Antonio the first weekend of March to participate in the Sigma Chi Alumni Training Seminar. I had been to previous ones in Los Angeles and Nashville. This year I took on a role of a team leader for one of the three alumni dicussion groups and presented a communication seminar to the entire alumni group. San Antonio was wonderful. I took great pictures of the Alamo in the bright afternoon sun and then at Midnight under a full moon.

I spent a lot of good time with brothers I had never met. We had a great last evening on the Riverwalk. We had a big meal with many Pacificos and then wandered to Durty Nelly's, and Irish pub on the Riverwalk. We ended the night at Pat O'Brien's - yes like the one in New Orleans. Two Hurricanes finish the night just right! whew!
We moved Rigby to the UTC Children's Center this month. It is in downtown and much closer to work. We enjoyed our couple months at Primrose School in Hixson, but it was time to get him closer to us and the opening came up.

One of my alma maters, Xavier, made it to the Sweet 16 after knocking off Louisville and Mississippi State. Xavier's next stop was Atlanta and I hooked up with many Xavier fans and friends from school who made the weekend trip to the A-town. We beat Texas in another great upset and then almost beat Duke, losing by four. It was a great time and I am proud of the Musketeers.

In addition to a couple days in Atlanta, we feasted on some Varsity, the 75-year-old hamburger joint downtown. I brought home Rigby a Varsity hat that he wore with no fuss!

Rigby is sitting up, smiling and laughing and rolling over now! It is awesome.

Erik to Cincy

Rigby has his first ear infection and second cold. He is such a trooper. He barely complains (cries/yells) and he had a 102 degree temperature. He went to the doctor to get checked out and get prescription drugs. He weighed in at 19 lbs., 9 ozs. and 27.5 inches long. He is a big boy!

Rigby is starting to grab at everything, smile at mom and dad, and laugh heartily. He is so much fun.

We are doing great. Both working hard and loving every moment with our son.

I went to Cincinnati last week en route to see a University of Kentucky basketball game. I stopped in to see friends at University of Cincinnati and to gloat on the big Xavier win over the Bearcats (again!). I walked through Xavier's campus and visited the Cintas Center, where hoops reign.

Oh, first thing we did when we hit Cincinnati? Skyline Chili!

I spent the evening and into the early morn with some of my Xavier classmates. That was a great time to catch up and visit a new and old haunt of ours.

The UK - South Carolina game was awesome. UK won by one. We sat in the press row "crow's nest" which hangs off the second tier. The main press row is now occupied by wealthy season ticket holders.

We also got to sit in on the post-game press conference and listen to head coach Tubby Smith.

Not much fun winter weather in Chattanooga - just a lot of rain. I suppose I am now ready for Spring.

Happy New Year!

It is hard to believe that 2003 has come and gone. Hard to believe that we have a four-month-old son!

We have had a great two weeks during the holiday season. Stacy took Christmas week off and I worked most of the time, but it was okay. Being at work was not too bad. Seemed like all of the external partners we work with were on vacation so we got a lot of older issues taken care of.

We spent New Year's Eve at White Pine at my parents' house. We actually all went to sleep before the stroke of Midnight. As long as we knew Dick Clark was counting it down we knew it happened. :-)

We also used this time to celebrate Christmas with them as we did not get to visit at Christmastime.

New Year's day brought a lot of football and me on the couch.

My sister, Tobi and her husband, Corey, came over from Asheville on New Year's Day and we all had a great time.

No time for diets as we all ate heartily!

We came home on January 2 stopping in at the Super Target in Knoxville. What an awesome place!

Rigby has his four-month checkup at the doctor's office tomorrow. He is doing great. He had his first cold last week. It was hard to watch our little boy coughing and congested. He is getting through it though. His temperament is so great!

He has great head control, is very alert of his surroundings and laughs at mom and dad when they make funny faces and sounds. It is great!

Rigby's First Christmas

Merry Christmas! What a great time of year and a special Christmas for our family. Today we experience Rigby's first Christmas. Rigby acquired a load of loot from Santa Claus.

Stacy's sister Meghan and her husband, Sam, came in town from Albuquerque, NM. they are at University of New Mexico working on their master's degrees. It was great to see them. It was also their first time to see Rigby.

Stacy's other sister, Amanda and her husband Eric also came in from Knoxville, bringing the little terror, Connor, with them. He is almost two!

We spent many hours at the Oglesby Ranch (Stacy's parents) in East Ridge and had a great time with family.

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving!

The bellies are full. Stacy and I are on a diet so we did not fully enjoy all the foods., but we had our share. We had dinner at Aunt Donna's, Stacy's aunt. We had a good time with family.

The Christmad tree is up and decorated. Mom and Bob came to Chattanooga and brought us their artificial tree with 1,200 lights. It is awesome! Live trees do not work for us. Moe and Boo (our cats) love drinking the water dry and chewing on limbs.

We have so much to be thankful for.

Travelin'

We just got back from our 1,000-mile whirlwind tour to see friends and family. We left Friday, November 14 and spent five days on the road.

Our first stop was Augusta, Ga. where Rigby met some of his cousins and is great, great uncle, Lonnie Wilder, the last brother alive of the namesake Rigby was named for. Lonnie is 85 and still goes deer hunting he told us. That was a very special day for me.

Our next stop was Charlotte, NC where Rigby met his Carolina pediatrician and one of Stacy's best friends, Christina. We had a great time with her and met her new boyfriend, who looks like "the one" for her.

We made our 45-mile trek east of Charlotte to spend the night with my grandmother in Peachland NC. My grandmother is doing well and she was very happy to meet her great grandson. Another very special time for me - for Rigby to sleep and stay in the same house I spent some of my childhood days in.

While in Peachland I met a distant relative who took me to a remote cemetery with many of my ancestors. The cemetery was in the middle of a soybean crop under a huge oak tree. I think the power and spirit of the Grays that were buried there made that tree seem larger than life. Jeremiah Gray born in 1797 is buried there - he is Rigby's great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather. How cool is that!!?

We moved on to Asheville, NC where Rigby spent some time with his Aunt Tobi and Uncle Corey. Tobi's house is awesome and we went to dinner at the Bier Garden downtown. Asheville has made some great strides in the past 10 years.

We ended out tour in White Pine, TN to see Mom and Bob (grammy and grandaddy). We had a very good visit.

Rigby is a great traveler. Good thing because we do love to travel.

Getting Acquainted

Things are going well at the Gray household. Rigby is almost seven weeks old! Hard to believe it has already been that long since we were just welcoming him to he world.

He is doing great. He is eating, sleeping, pooping, peeing, cooing, smirking, squirming and crying. So pretty normal.

He has started somewhat of a sleep schedule. Stacy puts him to bed around 9:30 p.m. He wakes around 2 a.m. and then again around 7 a.m. It is nowhere near as bad as some of the baby stories I have heard from others.

Rigby slept with us in our bed for the first several weeks. He is now in the warm friendly confines of his own bed/crib. Fridays are sleepover night and he sleeps in our bed.

Stacy is doing well. She goes back to work on Dec. 1. She totes Rigby around town with ease now. He spends one day at his great grandparents where he hardly gets any attention.

I am doing well. I am still digging into my manager role at work and enjoying it more and more.

Halloween is almost here and Rigby will be going as a chili pepper. Pictures will posted on the website soon.

Well, that's about it! Take care . . .

Rigby is Born!

Stacy and I had our first son on this day . . . . Labor Day!

Stacy started having contractions early Sunday morning. We opted to stay at home for the first stage. It was rough for her, but she did a great job. Her parents came over and hung out with us for a while. We also got some good ole Formosa Chinese food.

We gave in and went to Erlanger East around 10 p.m. Stacy first was examined at one centimeter and we were told to wait in a room for an hour to see how she progressed. An hour later she was at two centimeters and we were admitted to the Larkspur Suite. Erlanger East has 16 birthing suites. Need I say that they are very roomy and first class?

Stacy went through the night contracting every 5-8 minutes. Stacy's parents and sister, Amanda, were with us the whole time.

Noon time came around and Stacy was at six centimeters time for the epidural. We were told it would be about 10 minutes, but that is an hour in doctor time.

The epidural is a great thing, but Stacy had to stay completely still through contractions while the anesthesiologist put the epidural in. How rough that must have been for her.

Stacy hit 10 centimeters around 3 p.m. and it was time to start pushing. Stacy pushed on every contraction and in various positions for three hours. We were getting no where and learned that Stacy's pelvic inlet was just not big enough for our newborn's head to fit through. A C-section was decided on.

The C-Section began around 7 p.m. and I sat near Stacy's head at the operating table. I was very nervous as this was major surgery. There must have been about 20 people with various tasks to perform in the room. Our midwife took pictures of me next to Stacy and then invited me to look at the surgery to see the baby come out.

What a sight! It was very awkward looking inside my wife's midsection. When the doctor pulled the baby out at 7:18 p.m., I yelled out, "It's a Boy!" and our lives began to change for the ultimate best!

I watched as nurses took our newborn to a table to perform various functions, cleaning, checking vital signs, etc. A couple minutes later, he was in my arms and I took him to Stacy's head for her to be a part of the moment.

I watched as the doctors sewed Stacy up on the inside and outside and then ran a film of flexible "super glue" to protect the incision.

Stacy on her bed and me with newborn in arms made our way to our new room, the Gardenia Room. This room was one of two for mothers who had C-sections. This room was bigger than the first and was tucked away from a lot of the noise and visitors.

I had taken about 80 pictures and around 10 p.m. drove home to post the news to our web site and email the masses.

The first night with our child, Rigby Wilder Gray, was a

Lucky

The big event is almost here. Sept. 6 is the due date. Stacy looks as though she is smuggling a watermelon under her shirt. She looks great and has had a great pregnancy. We have been lucky that the summer has not been really hot and humid.

The nursery is complete. We have the crib ready and the furniture is in place. We recently bought and finished a toy chest - much needed since we were so fortunate to receive many gifts.
We had three baby showers and have almost everything we need. The generosity of our family, friends and coworkers has been tremendous. I cannot go on enough about how much it means to Stacy and me about how many people care about our future. Stacy spent one evening writing 53 thank-you notes for one shower! She is a champ.

Work is going well. Stacy plans to work up until the day, and she will take three months off. I plan to take off two weeks after the birth.

We have put the bathroom renovation on hold as we decided to finish up our bedroom and sitting room before the baby comes.

Oh, and our dog, Sully, is almost a year old. He is an outside dog in a 25' x 25; fence enclosure I built for him, complete with a big house! He likes to bark a lot, but I think sometimes he is just lonely, but I am not too sure about another dog. He is getting better.

It has been two years since we moved back to Chattanooga. I recently sent emails to my Xavier friends and heard back from most of them. It is scary to think I have not seen them in two years. They all seemed to be doing well. I do miss them and miss Cincinnati sometimes - it is a great city. Chattanooga is our home though, and we are very happy.

Getting Ready

Things are going well for the Grays in Chattanooga. We are on house vacation this week!
We have been quite busy at work, getting ready for Baby Gray and still working on remodeling projects in our house.

This August marks two years since we have been back in Chattanooga. it is hard to believe it has been this long since I have seen my Cincinnati friends. I do miss them.
Stacy got another promotion on June 1. She is now Director of Corporate Marketing and Editorial Resources at UnumProvident. She works her butt off, and her efforts are really paying off.

I am still transitioning to my managerial role at UnumProvident. I will have 14 team members reporting to me. Who would have thought! I have an awesome customer service team and hope to make them proud.

Stacy is doing great carrying the little child. It is quite awesome to see him/her swimming around in her belly. She has not had many rough times with the pregnancy. Due date is Sept 6, the same day the Chattanooga Mocs beat Vanderbilt in football.
We are still holding strong and not finding out the sex of the baby. We do have some names picked out.

The nursery is almost complete. I removed a wall between our hallway bathroom and the future nursery to make the bathroom a little bigger. The nursery is a great size, 12' x 13' and the bathroom has widened by 18''.

We have a crib and all the furniture waiting to be moved in. Stacy has been staining and painting (with proper ventilation) our unfinished furniture that we bought for the room. The chest of drawers and tall chest have been stained and the rocker was painted white. We bought the crib at Babies R Us.

By the way, we are registered at Babies R Us and Target.
As for the bathroom, it has been thoroughly gutted and awaiting new white tile, white beadboard a new Kohler pedestal sink and Kohler toliet. The 50-year-old cast iron tub is staying.

Baby Update and Man Den

Well, Stacy is in her second trimester and is doing very well. She is eating well, working a sane amount and not feeling much sickness that usually comes with pregnancy.

We have been to the doctor twice now and our visits have been regular and normal.
Do we know the sex yet, you ask? No, we are going to wait until the baby enters the world.
Erik accepted a new position in his department at UnumProvident. The position will be Manager, Customer Service in the Voluntary Workplace Benefits organization. This is a great accomplishment as his one year anniversary for joining UnumProvident is April 1.
All is going well at the home front. We are getting ready for spring. We have been outside working in the yard already!

Inside work is going okay. I am 95% done with the downstairs den. I have some ceiling tiles I need to cut and place and finish some of the molding. But we have completed everything else. I did everything except lay the carpet and Lowes did that. I should have part ownership in the Hixson Lowes.

After completing that project, I promptly went to Best Buy and bought a new Yamaha Dolby Digital Pro Logic II receiver, Samsung DVD player and a Samsung 47'' widescreen - 2 years no interest - so I can pay it off without having to pay the man any more. Plus, Monster Cable which set me back but hell, what the hell? So that little den with the JBLs surrounds pumping is quite cool. Matrix, Lord of the Rings and others are simply awesome. PS2 is cool on widescreen.

Baby news!

Well, we have some great news!

Lord willing, Stacy and I will be parents in 2003! Our baby due date is September 8, 2003.
We really wanted you all to know at once from us but could not run to see all of you in person.

So the adventure is beginning. We are very excited and look forward to sharing our joy with you all in the months and years ahead!

In other news, Erik was selected Wednesday to go to the UnumProvident Training and Recognition Conference at the Grand Floridian Resort at Walt Disney World, May 12-15.
About 5% of the employees are selected to go.

We had meetings in our large atrium for different departments to announce the participants. So all were announced in front of peers and and some senior management. Mickey Mouse was there to congratulate the winners, who even got Mickey ears with their names embroidered.

Work, Home and Play

It has been a long time since I have written to you all. Last time was mid-March when I started my new job at UnumProvident.

WORK
I am enjoying my job and have caught on rather quickly to the products and processes of the Voluntary Workplace Benefits aspect of insurance. The people I work with in the office are great, and I am lucky to have good people to work with out in the field as well. The account managers and enrollment firms I work with the most are in Florida.

My better half of UnumProvident, Stacy, is constantly making great strides at work. She recently had the opportunity to hire two managing writers who will report to her and, in turn, Stacy was promoted to Public Relations Director in Corporate Marketing. It is pretty cool to see the name "Stacy Gray" on documents that are viewed by UnumProvident's 12,000+ employees and many others.

HOME
It is hard to believe we have been back in Chattanooga for almost a year. We moved back here on August 3, 2001. We are getting a lot of pleasure from our home and all the fun projects we have inside and out.

PLAY
Stacy and I have taken two trips this spring/summer. We spent four days in May in New Orleans with another couple/friends. It was the first time down there for us and we made the most of it!

We spent the first couple of weeks of July in the mid-Atlantic/northeastern states. We were in Philadelphia for the Fourth of July and stayed two more days seeing the sights there. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is a must see.

We then made our way to Boston. We walked the famous Freedom Trail through the city and saw a Red Sox game at Fenway Park, where we happened upon a dear old friend who we did not expect to see there! We also spent a good amount of time in Cambridge, home to Harvard University.

We stopped in Providence, RI for a day. Rhode Island is a nice state. It had more scenery than I would have thought. We stayed in New Haven, CT, and visited shops and toured the campus of Yale. We were quite scholarly on this trip.

We made our way to New York City and stayed in the Theatre District / Times Square. Our hotel was in the building above the Ed Sullivan Theatre, home of David Letterman.
Sadly we visited the WTC site. There were not many dry eyes down there as many visitors looked into the massive hole. I am very glad that I went down to lower Manhattan to pay respects. All the stuff you see on TV it is so much more somber and eye opening in person. We even visited the hospital St Vincent's where some of the injured and victims went. This was the area where all those missing signs were posted. Sadly, hundreds of them are still there and have been enshrined in a glass case.

We did have a good time in NYC. We took in a Broadway play, The Graduate, starring Kathleen Turner and Alicia Silverstone. It was a well-done adaptation of the movie. And Times Square at night nothing like it in the world.

We finished up in Washington DC. We sat at the bottom of the Washington Monument at midnight and looked out over the Great Mall, seeing the glowing Capitol Building and the Lincoln Memorial in the near distance. It was awesome. There may have been five other people up there at that time, not counting the two National Parks guards.

Well, I could go on and on. We were very excited about everything we were fortunate enough to see and do. Oh, and we drove 2,398 miles total.

That's all for now. Thanks for keeping in touch and reading up on our recent experiences!
Hope all is well

Quick shout out

Long time since I last wrote. I have been hard at work at my new career path at UnumProvident Corporation. I am really hvaing a good time. My coworkers are my friends and that is very helpful.

Our house projects are going well. We have finished up our living room and are heading into other rooms. The kitchen is nearly done. A friend, Steve, and I tiled the kitchen floor this past weekend. It really looks good.

Stacy and I are doing well. Just wanted to send a quick shout to everyone

New Job

Well, it has been an unusual couple of weeks since Stacy and I returned from our vacation and cheering on the Chattanooga Mocs in Charleston, S.C. I came down with a really bad cold/flu with a hint of bronchitis last week and spent most of my hours in bed trying to get some rest and overdosing on medication and basketball conference tournaments. This past week I have dealt with some robust sinus reactions.

Guess since I am a househusband I do not have to report sick days, however, that is coming to a change.

I confirmed on Friday, March 8 that I will begin a new interesting chapter in my professional life with UnumProvident Corporation, the world leader in income protection. Chattanooga is UnumProvident's headquarters and is listed at 198 in the Fortune 500 and was ranked by Fortune as one of America's Most Admired Companies.

I will be a consultant in the voluntary workplace benefits organization. I had a great interview several weeks ago and along with great resources and references, I landed the position.
My job description includes:

-Conduct broker education of voluntary benefits products and process flows
-Serve as operational business flow advocate for field representatives
-Develop and deliver proposals
-Implement sold business to ensure successful acquisition and maintenance
-Ensure continuous improvement of relationships with brokers and field representatives

During the past several months while I was working on remodeling projects in our house I was going on selected interviews hoping to find the right position that would fit my goals.
Having the opportunity to work at UnumProvident is a great one. Everyone I talk to loves working there. The hours are reasonable, the pay is good, and the benefits are better than most can provide. Another great benefit is that Stacy and I will be working in the same building downtown and we can car pool! They also have good green beans and corn in the cafeteria. :-)

My first day at UnumProvident is Monday, March 18.

New email

I hope you are having a good day and life is treating you well.

In the fall of 1995, I jumped on the Internet chuck wagon and AOL with ERIK237 at aol.com. It is hard to believe I have had that address for almost seven years, but AOL keeps getting bigger, more of a hassle and slower even with our handy cable modem, so I am letting her go.

Stacy and I have personal domain names now and have begun work on personal websites and web-based email that we can also use through other email software.

So as of the first of March, our AOL account will become dormant, but AOL Time Warner will still take over the world.

Our new email addresses are:
erik at graystation.com
stacy at graystation.com

These email addresses are active, so please begin the transition of using it now.

We are going on vacation and heading to Charleston, S.C. Wednesday to cheer on UTC in the Southern Conference Tournament. The Mocs are a No. 2 seed and the Lady Mocs are the No. 1 seed. Seafood, sights, sodas and hoops are waiting.

My other alma mater, Xavier, is 20-5, No. 24 in the country and has clinched the Atlantic 10 West Championship. I don't think I will be making it to Philly for the Atlantic 10 Tournament though. Go Musketeers!

Well, that's it!

Aunt and Uncle

It's official ... I am Uncle Erik!

Michael Connor Miller (goes by Connor) was born Wednesday, January 16, at 3 p.m. to Stacy's younger sister, Amanda, and her husband Eric.

Connor weighed nine pounds even, has dark hair (and a lot of it), dark eyes and pudgy hands and feet. He is healthy and doing well getting used to the world.

Amanda was admitted to East Ridge Hospital on Tuesday morning and had contractions throughout the day. The doctor said it wasn't time yet and gave her something to help her sleep through Tuesday night. Wednesday morning, they resumed inducing her labor.

At noon Wednesday, Amanda's husband, Stacy, her mom and dad began helping her push during contractions. I was told it was intense. She worked very hard for the next hour but the baby did not move much, so the doctor advised a C-section. We are not surprised at this now that we know how big Connor is!

Amanda will be in the hospital at least through Saturday beginning the recovery from her surgery. We are all extremely proud of her ... she stayed so strong through it all.

New Year!

Hello and Happy New Year!

Stacy and I have had a great holiday season and hope you all have had the same.
Here's to a great, safe and successful 2002!

Settling in

Stacy and I are doing well. It is hard to believe we have been back in Chattanooga for almost three months.

Stacy and I are flying to Los Angeles this Thursday, Oct. 25. I am attending a Sigma Chi Fraternity alumni conference at Loyola Marymount University and Stacy is coming along to visit a friend. We are flying out of Atlanta and flying back Sunday night.

Our new house is coming along great. Our house was definitely livable when we bought it, but we wanted to make it more our own. We have finished the complete rewiring of the house involving electrical, phone and cable. The electrical was outdated (no grounds) as it is everywhere in our 50-year-old neighborhood. The phone and cable lines are now the best we can get as well.

Now it is on to the kitchen, where we are doing a complete remodeling. Our new cabinets came in and are ready to go. Now we just have to get the area ready. The painting of rooms is also on the horizon.

I am working on establishing a new lawn, as the old one was full of weeds and moss. We have a large oak tree and two hickory trees in our front yard that provides a lot of shade. I noticed the first sprouts of new grass today!

We have a great neighborhood. Everyone we have met is really nice. Plus, we are only five minutes from downtown.

I got my diploma from Xavier University in September so I suppose it is official. Now someone just needs to offer me job. I am out looking, and I am sure I will find a career I enjoy soon.
Stacy has made it to the big time at UnumProvident. Her name is featured as a contact on the company's website. Go to www.unumprovident.com, click Overview and News, then click Company News and there is her name under Market/Product. Very cool.

Well, that's the news for now. I hope you are waving your flags and trying to get back to some level of normalcy. To those it pertains to, I hope to see you at UTC Homecoming Nov. 3.
Keep us in your prayers as we fly across this great country.

Show our strength! Donate to: www.libertyunites.com
GOD BLESS THE U.S.A

Hello from Chattanooga

Well, our stint in Cincinnati has officially come to an end. We now call Chattanooga our home again. I completed my internship last Wednesday and my M.Ed. from Xavier University will be confirmed on Aug. 18. Eleven months of classwork and studying was well spent, and I am really happy I did this!

Stacy and I had quite a weekend. Stacy drove back up to Cincinnati with David Cope on Thursday. The three of us drove back down on Friday with all our belongings. Big thanks to one of my Xavier friends, Jay, for assisting in our move!

I cannot tell you enough how great it is to know that I have made some close friends in Ohio. They're my Xavier crew - Forever Musketeers!

We hit some rain in Kentucky and an hour traffic jam just over the Tennessee line, but despite these hurdles made it to our house closing only 15 minutes late!

The closing went smoothly once we got there, and we are now officially homeowners! It is a tremendous feeling and we are so happy. We spent the remainder of the weekend moving in and unpacking. There is still so much to unpack and put away. Special thanks to the Oglesby (in-laws) clan, the Copes and the Merciers (sister-in-law/brother-in-law) for assisting in the heat!
We have a lot on our to-do list, and it will all come in time.

Thanks to everybody for their good wishes as we made this move and your continued support during the past year. Knowing you were thinking of us and keeping in touch means a lot. We are happy to be home and will miss the friends and good times we had in Cincinnati.

Last time from Ohio

Hello once again, and for the last time, from Cincinnati!

I have fallen behind on keeping in touch with you. The month of June has come and gone, and Stacy and I have accomplished a lot in preparations for our move back to Chattanooga.
We spent several weekends in Chattanooga looking for a house, knowing the mortgage rates were low and we thought of no better time than the present. We have indeed found a home that fits our wants and needs. The house is on Ozark Circle in North Chattanooga. We are very excited and plan to close on August 3.

Stacy left for Chattanooga on Tuesday and will start her job at Unum Provident Wednesday. She has been working for UnumProvident from here for a month now. Her birthday was Monday, and we had a great day.

As for me, I will be in Cincinnati through July, finishing up my internship and class work at Xavier.

My internship is at Don Schumacher & Associates. DSA conducts event management, sponsorship sales and event marketing through work on events such as the 1996 NCAA Division I Hockey Championships, 1997 NCAA Women's Final Four, 1998 Conference USA Men's Basketball Championship, the Kroger Senior Classic, and the company's signature event, the annual Skyline Chili Crosstown Showdown, the nation's largest high school football event - five games in one day at the University of Cincinnati's football stadium.

Don started the Greater Cincinnati Sports & Events Commission in 1989 and resigned from that commission in 1998 to focus more on DSA, Inc. He is currently the Executive Director of the National Association of Sports Commissions, an organization Don helped create in 1992 with 15 original members and a current membership of 266 organizations across the United States.
So as you can read, I am getting a lot of experience and knowledge from this internship. It is quite exciting to learn from a man like Don and from his staff members.

I hope you had a good 4th of July. I went on a three-hour, self-guided canoe trip on the Little Miami River with a bunch of my classmates. It rained all morning on the trip, which made for more of an adventure. But as we made our way for the afternoon cookout, the sun was shining, the skies were blue and we had a great day.

I am traveling north this weekend to Youngstown, Ohio to see one of Y. State's most famous employees and go to a Pittsburgh Pirates game at the new PNC Park. I have made it quite a summer with my ballpark visits. Of course I have seen the dismal Reds several times here at Cinergy Field. I have been to Wrigley Field to see the Cubs and Brewers and was lucky enough to see the Reds and Indians at Cleveland's Jacob's Field. I really, really enjoyed Wrigley Field there is nothing like it, but I am ready to visit Turner Field and see the Braves.

I have really enjoyed keeping in touch with you during the past year as Stacy and I spent our "year-long vacation" in Cincinnati! Thank goodness for the power of e-mail. I can tell you we are excited about Chattanooga, but we will sincerely miss Cincinnati and the friends we have made here. I encourage you to take a trip here and enjoy all it has to offer.

I hope you will be thinking of us as we make our move back to Chattanooga. Yet more exciting times ahead!

Talk to you next time from Chattanooga . . .

Back to Chattown

Hello, BIG NEWS from Cincinnati!

I hope you are doing well and enjoying life.

I finished my spring semester at Xavier on May 10 and started the summer sessions May 14. Some break, huh?

I finished the semester with an A in research and statistics, an A- in marketing and an A in management and promotion. I am actually petitioning the A- in marketing - I'm never satisfied!
And as the summer approaches I have good news to relay. I will finish my M.Ed. this summer by completing the final 12 hours - seminar, fundraising, sport law and internship. It will be a nose-in-book summer, but I will be done by the end of July. How awesome? I will earn my M.Ed. in 11 months!

I cannot tell you how excited I am that I made this move in my life. I have learned so much at Xavier and am equally pleased that I worked at UTC and waited four years before starting graduate school. Being able to apply real world experience has proven its worth.

In addition, I really appreciate all the support you have offered in the past 10 months.

** And now for the BIG news. Stacy and I are moving. Yes, we are leaving Cincinnati. Stacy was offered a job by her former employer, UnumProvident, that will provide her with great opportunity.

So, yes, that means the Grays will be reclaiming Chattanooga as home. Get the coolers stocked and ready to go!

Stacy really enjoyed working at the University of Cincinnati Foundation. She really likes her boss there, and it makes it hard for her to leave. But the opportunity for Stacy to get back into the corporate world and the fact that a Fortune 100 company approached her was icing on the cake.

Although we will miss this great city of Cincinnati, we are excited to come back and be closer to friends and family.

Stacy will start her job as managing writer in corporate marketing at UnumProvident on July 11. I will not move down until the end of July.
As for me, who knows? I do not plan to be a househusband, so I will begin my search immediately for career advancement in the Chattanooga area. So be on the lookout and keep an ear to the ground for this dapper young man with skills.
I wish we could call everyone individually, but this e-mail will serve as a great way to let a lot of people know at the same time. Hope you are doing well. Take care

Riots in Cincinnati

Hello from Cincinnati, a place CNN is calling the "City of Unrest."

We are experiencing some scary times here in Cincinnati. Stacy and I wanted to let you know we are doing fine in our corner of Cincinnati. We are on the northeast side, suburbia, so we are not experiencing the racial tension and riots like in the downtown area.
Don't know what I am talking about?

It all started on Monday with protest over last Saturday's police shooting of an African-American man, the 15th one of its kind since 1995.

Citing a ''clear and present danger,'' Mayor Charlie Luken today declared a state of emergency and imposed an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for all persons throughout all of Cincinnati after violence, vandalism and looting spread out of the inner city late Wednesday and early today.

The city-wide lockdown applies to all events, including evening Good Friday services and Easter services Saturday night. The mayor has urged citizens to stay at home and pray.

City officials are still considering asking the National Guard for assistance as police continue to work long 12-hour shifts without relief.

There has been some extreme television coverage of the situation. I have seen footage of hundreds of people breaking store windows and dragging mannequins down the street, knocking over hot dog stands and stealing all the food, throwing newspaper stands into the street, stopping cars and pushing the owners out and throwing anything they can get their hands on at anything they see.

There are images of police using shotguns firing beanbag ammunition into crowds and drenching crowds in mace. There was some footage of a man walking toward a police line being shot in the chest with a beanbag. It knocked the guy right off his feet.

Many of these images have been shown on the national news and CNN the last several days.
Last night the riots got really bad and a policeman was shot. The bullet went under his vest and struck his belt buckle, which saved his life.

Last night, a white woman was dragged from her car by a crowd of black youths about 9:30 p.m. and ''beat to a pulp'' before police officers rescued her. This is only one of many instances.

SWAT teams barricaded blocks in an area of town hunting for a rooftop sniper last night.
Dumpster fires have become so commonplace that city firefighters stopped responding to them.
There is extensive coverage of all of this at www.Cincinnati.com

Aside from this scary situation, the trees are beginning to show their green, the flowers are blooming, the grass is thick and green and we have had some beautiful 85-degree weather. The thunderstorms hit late at night and the skies are blue all day long.

We hope you are doing well in your corner of the world.

Here's to a safe and peaceful night and a very Happy Easter holiday to you

March Madness

Hello from March Madness City!

It is that special time of year. The basketball gods have blessed us with a great upcoming tournament and at the same time the midterms gods have laughed at it straight in the face. I have midterms this coming Monday and Tuesday. When am I going to study when there is so much basketball on TV? Plus, St. Patrick's Day is Saturday!

On a serious note, my sister, Tobi, went back into Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga on Monday to have surgery to remove the rods from her back. It is hard to believe it will be three years this April.

You may remember last April the doctors had to take a part of one of the rods out of her back. The portion of the rod that was taken out had a staph infection on it, and the doctors thought it had been on the rod when it was placed in her back.

Well, the doctor, Dr. Pierce, who put in the rods in 1998 was the one to take them out. I am glad he was the one because he knew how he put them in. One wrong move could cut a nerve.
When the rods came out on Monday, the doctors discovered the rods were completely covered in staph infection.

For those who do not know, staph infections are caused by bacteria that grow in grape-like clusters and cause skin infections and serious internal disorders. Staph bacteria are usually harmlessly present on the skin of people, but when trapped in a sweat or sebaceous gland it causes a skin infection.

So here we go again. Last year, Tobi had antibacterial therapy with an IV to feed her antibiotics to rid any strain of infection.

We found out yesterday after she met with the infectious disease control doctors that she will not have to have a central line put in and will not be fed antibiotics with an IV. She will be able to take pills. What a relief for her and us.

It looks as though she will be released from the hospital today, Thursday. She will go back to her apartment in Atlanta with my mom and her fiancé in tow.

Yes, by the way, Tobi is engaged to a bright young chap named Corey Weldon. He will most definitely make a nice addition to our crazy family.

So, back to the NCAAs, the Chattanooga Lady Mocs are a No. 12 seed and play Clemson on Friday night at 6:00p.m. (TotalCast on gomocs.com).

The AWESOME thing about this game is that it is being played at Xavier's Cintas Center. The first and second round games are played at campus sites. HOW COOL? My alma mater playing at my graduate school. If I can't go to the Lady Mocs, the Lady Mocs will come to me!

I went to the airport last night and met the team as they arrived. It was great to see the team. I know they are so excited. Stacy and I will be there Friday night, then watch the Xavier women play Louisville, and then take in some TV viewing of the Xavier men playing Notre Dame at 10:20 p.m.

Well, I better stop here. I hope you made it down this far in my ramblings. Stacy and I are doing well and wait for the spring. The temperatures have been anywhere from 30 to 60 in the past couple weeks.

Hope you all are doing well. Take care.
Happy St. Patty's Day!

February 01

Good Day from Cincinnati,

I am sitting down and resting after a long weekend of televised sport contests, including watching the Governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura, act like a fool as a commentator for an XFL game. Guess I was a fool for watching.

It is quite hard to believe that the month of January is gone. Spring is right around the corner, or so the stores here in Cincinnati tell us. Most of the stores have packed up the coats, sweaters and gloves to make room for the new line of shorts, t-shirts and Reds baseball jerseys. No doubt we will get a foot of snow next month.

After only five months on the job, Stacy got a promotion and a raise at the University of Cincinnati Foundation. She is now the Foundation's promotions manager. Her duties have expanded, and she is taking the office by storm!

My studies are going well at Xavier. My research and statistics class is a boat full of fun, including the extensive research/theory paper I have to complete by April. My marketing class is very awesome. Xavier's assistant athletic director for external affairs teaches the class and he knows his stuff. He is originally from NYC, and he has a great wit about him. My event marketing and management class has been a pleasant surprise. I thought it would be simple, but it is well structured, and I will learn a great deal from it.

The basketball scene at Xavier is going well, too. The Xavier women's team is ranked 15th in the country, and the men are coming off two ESPN2 televised wins. The men are 17-3 and in first place in the Atlantic 10 conference. Every men's game is sold out this year with 10,250 fans in attendance.

Stacy and I went to last Tuesday's XU men's game versus Dayton. Dayton is a big rival game, as they are only 35 miles north of Cincinnati. The game was on ESPN2 at 9:30pm. It was late getting home, but it was worth it. We cheered our throats out as the Musketeers went on a 12-point run, including four dunks, to win the game.

I just caught some big news on the radio - Xavier is ranked 24th in the Associated Press poll announced today!

One place you have got to visit if you ever come up I-75 is the United States Air Force museum in Dayton. I had heard it was there, but I never realized it how significant it is.

Stacy and I drove the 45 minutes and took on the museum. First of all, it is free. The main museum is in three large hangers. The first hanger portrays the beginning of flight, WWI and into Pearl Harbor. The second hanger includes WWII and the beginning of space flight. There is one of each plane that was ever designed by the Air Force, Army or Navy hanging from the rafters or incorporated in exhibits, as well as many space modules.

The third hanger is the largest. It includes modern flight. There are 50 planes in this hanger, including the F-117 stealth bomber and the SR-71 Blackbird. It is quite a sight to see all these planes together.

There are more hangers about a half-mile away on the base, but we did not have time to go there. One of the other hangers houses the Air Force One that carried JFK! I cannot wait to go back and see that.

All in all, the USAF museum was better, cleaner and not as packed as the Smithsonian Air and Space museum in D.C. I cannot urge you enough to come see this if you ever get a chance.

Stacy and I are headed to Chattanooga on Wednesday, February 7. We will be there through the weekend. Stacy's sister, Meghan, is getting married in UTC's Patten Chapel on Saturday afternoon. We are excited to celebrate this occasion as well as get a chance to spend time with friends and family while we are in Chattanooga for five days.

I am also going to take in my first Mocs basketball game of the year on Saturday night. It will be nice to catch a game before the season is over.

Well, enough for now. I hope you are doing well and your life is healthy.

Cold!

Stacy and I are doing great here in Cincinnati despite the recent cold spell we had. We experienced 16 days below 32 degrees. It was usually 10-20 degrees with unheard of wind chills.

I am pleased to say we are thawed out now and our temperatures are back around 35-40. It was 49 yesterday!

Stacy and I drove around Cincinnati looking at the old mansions and castles on the area's various hills this past weekend. It is hard to believe single families live in some of those houses.
We also visited many of Cincinnati's parks. The park system is very big here. It is like someone took NYC's Central Park, broke it up and spread it all over Cincinnati. The park board does a great job here and there are many great places to enjoy the scenery. Several parks overlook downtown.

I start my second semester of graduate school next Tuesday, January 16. I received my fall semester grades after Christmas and got all A's.

This semester is going to be a hoot with Research and Statistics, Marketing and Management. I do not have much of a problem with the last two, but I have to write a thesis in Research and Statistics and present it at the end of the semester on PowerPoint. It should be fun as the department head teaches the class!

Stacy had her first University of Cincinnati Foundation advertisement placed in Ohio Magazine's first issue of the year. The ad encourages planned giving with UC. It is a great ad and it is great to see it in the state magazine!

On the sports front, baseball's Opening Day is right around the corner, April 2! It is a holiday here and best of all, the Cincinnati Reds opening day game will be a one-game set with the Atlanta Braves at 1:05pm!

I am also enjoying some successful runs right now by my favorite basketball teams. The Chattanooga Lady Mocs are 10-3, the Mocs are 7-5 and the Xavier Musketeers are 11-2 and sneaking toward the Top 25. The Muskies face UMass on Tuesday, and I am going to the game.
Well, I hope you had a good holiday season and are enjoying a great new year. We had a good time enjoying family and friends and came back to Cincinnati with a carload of gifts. We are very thankful.

Also, for all of those who recognized I forgot to say Happy Festivus in my last e-mail, I want to apologize and let you know that I am taking therapy and watching Seinfeld at least once a day!

Pay Rod

"The game just means so much to me, that I do not want it to be diluted by a dollar sign."
-Alex Rodriguez, 12-12-00
The day after signing a 10-year $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers.

Season's Greetings from Cincinnati!

I thought I would begin my periodic update to all of you with a pleasant quote. This one is by far the best one I could find. I heard it on ESPN's SportsCenter this morning and about choked on my laughter.

In other insane news, we have a winter storm warning today, calling for six inches of snow today and 2-4 inches after midnight with wind chills of 10. I love it! They say we are looking at up to 12 inches possibly.

It started here just about a half hour ago.

Stacy spent this past weekend in Chicago for a conference. She was there for the blizzard, but still had a good time. She experienced some local dining favorites while there, including the Billy Goat Tavern and Grill, where John Belushi did his famous Saturday Night Live skit, "Cheezborger, Cheezborger." She made it back safe and sound yesterday afternoon at the lovely (really) Cincinnati Airport.

I had one of my finals moved to this past Monday and it went well. I think I studied too much because my arthritis set in early. I knew all the questions and I was writing so fast. Then again, I hardly ever write anymore its all typing for me!

The rest of my finals are next Wednesday and Thursday, and I will be done for the semester, finally, but already! Next semester begins Tuesday, January 16.

Stacy and I are going to the Crosstown Shootout on Thursday. We were lucky enough to each get a ticket we are not sitting together, but we are going!

The Shootout is the main event University of Cincinnati vs. Xavier University basketball. The game is on national TV ESPN at 9:00pm. I cannot wait. The newspapers blow this up! Last year, Xavier beat then #1 Cincinnati 66-64. Dick Vitale is doing the game, one that he does by choice because he says, "this rivalry is as good as Duke-North Carolina."

I hope you have got your gifts bought and wrapped for the holiday season. I am ready to get to the families' houses and spend time with them.

If you have made it down this far, let me make you feel better when you look at your paycheck. Alex Rodriguez got his 10-year, $252 million contract. Let's break it down:

PAY PER GAME - $170,270
PER INNING - $18,918
PER AT-BAT - $45,487

· If A-Rod wanted to spend all of his $252 million in the next 10 years, he would have to spend $2,877 per hour -- around the clock It would take 23,525 years for a worker earning minimum wage to earn $252 million.

Thanks!

Well I wish you Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanzaa or whatever you choose to celebrate this season! Our best to you and your family this season.

I look forward to talking to, e-mailing you or seeing you soon

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from Cincinnati!

I hope you are getting the belly ready for some weekend treats! I am making appearances at the in-laws in Chattanooga on Thursday and Friday and then past Knoxville to White Pine to see my folks, as I double my eating pleasure.

Everything is going well here. It is colder than a well digger's boots, etc. here. The "feels like" temperature here last night was 0, yes zero. The real low was 15. The wind is brutal. We had some snow flurries yesterday but that is about it. It is supposed to get back to 50 this weekend. There is a dusting of snow on the ground today.

Well, I have three weeks left of my first semester at XU. I have projects due in each class and then finals. I have projects of evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of the Xavier licensing program, a marketing and budgeting plan for a pro sports facility, and a marketing and promotions plan for a local premier (semi-pro) soccer team here in Cincinnati.

Yes, in sports news, the Xavier men's basketball team opened the new arena on Saturday with a 68-54 win over Miami, Oh. The Cincinnati Bearcats won its 7th football game Saturday with a come-from-behind win over No. 20 Southern Miss; there are now a bunch of Bearcats car flags being dusted off. The Bearcats will more than likely be in the Motor City Bowl in Detroit hopefully against hated Marshall.

The Xavier women's basketball team beat Vanderbilt in its first game in the new arena on Sunday and moved to No. 23 in the nation on Monday!

I was sad to see the Mocs end the football season 5-6 with the gutsy 45-44 overtime loss to No. 4 Furman. And then the Mocs basketball team lost by one to College of Charleston on Monday night. UGH!

On the transportation front, Stacy and I got a new used car on Saturday a 1998 Honda Accord EX V-6. We have been driving it all over Cincinnati. It is a great car, and we are lucky to have it. We have three cars right now. I am taking the Ford F-150 to Tennessee to sell. It is worth more there than in Ohio. I hate to let her go, but she has given me seven good years of trucking fun!

I hope you take the time this week to enjoy your thoughts and be thankful for what you have. I am lucky to have many great friends. I am thankful for you and your friendship. I am thankful to have a great wife, a great family, a great life, good health, great peace and great friends.

Remember what is there at the end of the day. You may even want to drop to your knees and send one up to the big guy!

Well, take care. I hope to see you sometime soon

VOTE

I hope everyone is getting riled up and ready to vote!

I am watching George W. Bush on the "stump" right now in Chattanooga live on CNN. Of course there are old ladies behind George Dubya with orange and white checkerboard sweaters. Who makes those God-awful ugly things? And everyone in the crowd has orange and white shakers. Wish there was a little Chattanooga Blue and Gold in there!!

And of course the crowd is chanting "Ain't seen nuthin' yet!" Always nice to see on live national television that grammar=Tennessee, huh?

Speaking of "ain't" and weird phrases, we have learned up here that when you say something and a person does not understand you, they say "please?" instead of "excuse me?" or "what did you say?" The first time I encountered that was in class when I asked a guest speaker a question and he asked, "Please?" It sounds very odd.

Anyways, I do not have far to go to vote tomorrow, as the nearest voting location for us is in our complex's clubhouse.

Stacy and I are doing well. Stacy has been given a lot of responsibility at the University of Cincinnati Foundation. One of her big projects is the restructuring and redesign of the UCF's website.

I have about six more weeks this semester at XU. My midterms went well, and I have three A's at this time. My finals are on December 18, 19, and 21 just in time for Christmas! That is late, but the next semester does not start until Tuesday, January 16, when I will begin taking research/statistics, marketing and facility design classes for the spring term.

It looks as though I will finish in December 2001 with intern/research project and sport seminar classes in the summer and legal issues and NCAA rules/regulations classes in the fall.

Stacy's parents came to Cincinnati this past weekend and we went to Lebanon, OH, about 20 miles north of us. This little town is full of antique and other curious stores. It was a good time.
We finished the weekend with a lunch trip to Covington, KY, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. We ate at one of our favorite places, Jack Quinn's, an Irish pub. The corned beef boxty (a potato pancake with corned beef and sweet cabbage with a cheese/mustard sauce) is the best. Meanwhile, across the river, the Cincinnati Bengals were getting spanked.

Stacy and I are coming to Chattanooga on Thursday night, Nov. 9. Stacy is going to visit her friends at UnumProvident on Friday, and I will more than likely make my rounds around town to say hi to everyone. Then it is on to the last Mocs home football game of the year versus ETSU. Hopefully, after good wins over App. St. and The Citadel, we will pull out a win off the Bucs and secure a winning season. We are going to the UTC Fine Arts Center on Sunday afternoon to hear Stacy's sister, Meghan, perform her senior recital.

The weather has started to get a little colder here, as it was in the mid 20s for the low this past weekend. It is going to be in the mid 40s for the lows and mid 60s for the highs this week.

October

I hope everyone is having a good Fall and getting ready for Halloween! We have more than enough opportunities to visit haunted house attractions here it seems like every other house in Cincinnati is haunted.

King's Island, Cincinnati's big amusement park, has converted the park into "Fear Fest," which is open past midnight on weekends. We hear it is awesome, as the parent company, Paramount, has poured millions of dollars into the attraction, with The Mummy's Revenge, The Museum of Horrors, The Sewer, Studio Fifty-Gore, and Torture Tower.

They are charging $19.95 admission and say Fear Fest was designed to be very frightening and is not recommended for children under 15, or for adults who don't care to be scared. They have transformed the park adding special effects and roaming "scaracters." And to top it off, five of the roller coaster rides are open.

We are not sure if we are going, but for future reference, King's Island is less than five miles from our apartment.

I am starting my 8th week of classes at Xavier and it is going well. Mid-terms are upon me, but I believe I am good and ready for them.

I recently went to the Cincinnati Bengals new stadium, Paul Brown Stadium for the Tennessee Titans game. The capacity is 65,000 and there were more than 64,000 at the game. I never saw a long line at a concessions stand, every seat has a Bengals helmet logo imprinted into the chair back, and the two giant scoreboards look like those new high definition television wide screens.

That stadium is like something people have never seen. It is really awesome. It is unfortunate the people have never seen a good Bengals team, which is currently 0-6.

The news stations here in town are all coming up with spoofs on the Bengals. It is bad. The local Fox Channel here showed a video of the time the Bengals last won, Sept. 12, 1999 with the Barbara Streisand's song "The Way We Were" in the background. Then when it came back live to the anchors, it showed them all crying with tissues. Finally, the main anchor asked the meteorologist about a last look at weather, and he said he was just too choked up to talk and he walked off! It was hilarious.

One more note in sports, the turf has come up at Cinergy Field (Riverfront Stadium), and the reds will be playing on grass for the final two years in the ballpark. The new stadium opens in 2003. They are currently tearing down half of Cinergy to make way for the new ballpark.

Progress!

Stacy and I made it back to Chattanooga for UTC's homecoming weekend. We had a great time. I saw people at the football game I had not seen in over five years. It was really special to see so many people come back to their alma mater. I still wish more came back I noticed many of my friends who were unable to make it.

We missed Midnight Madness, the tip-off of basketball season on Friday night/early Saturday morning, altogether. We missed UTC's, and later heard Cincinnati had over 8,000 people and Xavier had over 5,500 for their midnight festivities.

I cannot wait for the basketball season to get started at Xavier. There is a lot of hype here for it, as well as at UC. I know I have mentioned it before, but XU's new arena, the Cintas Center, is amazing. There is a great story about it and some photos at this website at http://enquirer.com/xavier/2000/10/13/xu_xavier_moves_into.html and a great graphic of the facility at http://enquirer.com/xavier/2000/10/13/xu_cintasgraphic.html.

Stacy and I were invited to the University of Cincinnati's President's Ball this Saturday. It is a celebration to recognize the Foundation's goal setting of acquiring over $328.9 million. It is a black-tie affair, so I guess I have to dress up!

Cincinnati weather has no major difference from Chattanooga's. Only two weeks ago we were preparing for 30 degree temperatures and the cold season, however that brief spell came and went. It is back in the 70's. It rained yesterday for the first time in a good while. I have noticed the temperatures are about 6 degrees lower on average than Chattanooga's. I guess that will make up for something if we happen to get any snow here this winter.

Two months in Cincinnati

Well, I have finished my fifth week of classes at Xavier and all is going well.
From principles and management of sport to finances, budgeting and accounting to media relations, I am neck deep in education right now.

No, it is not all bad.

A couple Wednesdays ago, my finance class professor took us on a field trip to Cinergy Field, the home of the Reds. Our professor is the Controller for the Reds. He is the guy who budgets the money to pay for things like Griffey and Barry Larkin's huge salaries. It is neat to hear his stories about the inner-workings.

Let me tell you two things I observed from the field trip:
1. The new Reds stadium to open in 2003 is going to be a thousand times better than this 30-year-old cookie-cutter hole of a stadium.

2. Ken Griffey Jr.!! Griffey had a sore hamstring and did not play the day we went to the stadium, which was great because he was not in the dugout. He was in the hall behind the dugouts where we were. He was talking to about 20 kids who were all sitting around him. I was about 10 feet from him, and that is as close as I got. He was doing some special talk to the kids they all had Pepsi shirts on. I did yell, "What's up Griffey!" to him, and he waved back and said, "what's up guys."
Well, we made it back to Chattanooga the weekend of Sept. 15-17, and had a great time with some of my family, friends and fraternity brothers. I also caught some of the Chattanooga Mocs football game - the 72-17 bashing of Mississippi Valley State. We will be back in town Homecoming weekend, Oct. 13-15.

Stacy is doing great at her new job at the University of Cincinnati Foundation. The building she works in, University Hall, is quite awesome. Her office facilities are very nice. The UC campus is undergoing some really large building projects, which add to the impressive campus.

My Thursday night professor, Betsy Ross, who works for ESPN, called class off last Thursday. She stayed at the ESPN studios to help cover the Olympics. She has been doing updates in the morning before the hourly SportsCenter.

So last Thursday, Stacy and I am went to XU campus for the dedication and blessing of the new 10,250-seat Cintas Center. Remember, Xavier is a private, Jesuit campus, so the President is a "Father." Father Hoff blessed the arena and unveiled the new Musketeer statue outside of the arena. The Musketeer is about nine feet tall carrying a sword and pointing toward campus. By the way, our nickname is Musketeers. If you were wondering, and I did, other Jesuit campuses include, Marquette, Georgetown, St. Joseph's, Boston College, St. Louis, Loyola, Santa Clara and about 21 more.

Now that I am pretty set in my classes and know what I can handle, I am starting to look for a job that will continue to help with my personal and professional experiences.

My birthday was last week so it was a time for gifts, including Pottery Barn delights, the new, very awesome Jimi Hendrix four-CD box set, some DVDs I wanted and some Ivy League gear my mom, step dad and sister got for me on their trip to the New England states.

Stacy and I are both trying to get involved with our respective Greek alumni groups here in Cincinnati. Stacy's, Sigma Kappa, is said to have one of its strongest alumni groups here. My alumni chapter here with Sigma Chi is deep-rooted in tradition as our first chapter was founded up the road in Oxford in 1855.

We are also hooking up with the University of Tennessee National Alumni Association Chapter up here. The chapter is watching the UT-LSU football game at a local sports bar this Saturday. The best thing about this is the sports bar is about ½ mile from our apartment. Sorry, we could not get the UTC-Wofford game on pay per view, though I would love it!

It is supposed to be sunny and mid-60s through the weekend. Well, thanks to everyone for keeping up with me and keeping in touch.

News and Notes

Hello from Cincinnati, home of your Bengals!!

Well, with that nice of a new stadium ($450 million) on the riverfront I guess they gotta be good, so I better get on the bandwagon. Uh, okay.

I finished another week of class and everything is going well. I got home in time to get the Mocs football game at UAB on the internet broadcast. We had them on down 15-7, but UAB came back and won 20-15.

In good news, Stacy finished her first day with the University of Cincinnati Foundation. She really likes the people in the office, especially her boss, which is a great thing.

Her first project is to research other college foundation web sites, and create a new direction for the UC one. She will probably present several approaches, then pick and have an outside design firm create the new site.

Our commute is definitely different from Chattanooga. We could drive down our driveway and be at work in five minutes. We live on Exit 19 on I-71. Xavier is on Exit 5 and UC is on Exit 3. It is interstate driving so it is not stop and go, which makes it just fine for me.

Last Sunday was the Tri-state area's Labor Day celebration, complete with 500,000 people and 30 minutes of fireworks. We watched the fireworks from the Kentucky side of the Ohio river, and I must say it was a spectacular view of the city skyline and the celebration. It is wild because mostly all of the streets on both sides of the river are closed all day long, so you can imagine the people and partying everywhere.

Stacy and I went to the Cincinnati Army football game on Labor Day. It was a nice day and some good football. The UC campus is very large with many unique buildings.

This weekend is the 23rd Annual Oktoberfest in Main Strasse Village in Covington, KY, just across the river from Cincinnati it might as well be Cincinnati. They have the ceremonial beer-tapping on Friday and do not stop until Sunday. We are going to celebrate this occasion on Saturday.

We are coming to Chattanooga on September 15. We are going to the Mocs football game on the 16th and will go out that Saturday night if any of you Chattanoogans are up for it.

Write when you can, and take care!

Good and Great News

Well, I have some good news and some great news!
The good news-
I had my first class tonight and really enjoyed it. I am glad I spent four years in the workplace before I started to pursue my masters. Being able to apply what I have learned at UTC Athletics is going to really pay off.
My class tonight was Principles of Sport Management. The PR and Communication class that I am taking on Thursday night is taught by a guest faculty member this fall, and I must say I am pumped! It is Betsy Ross, a lead sports anchor on ESPNews.
Now the great news-
Stacy accepted a job with the University of Cincinnati Foundation, as a promotional writer. It is going to give her a lot of exposure to marketing, development, advertising, and public relations - all the things she loves to do!
She will start next week. One great benefit will be the option to go to school there for free. She told me earlier she may need a long break from school, but this will likely change her mind.
This is a great opportunity for her, and I am very proud of her.
It will be interesting to live in a household with Xavier and UC ties - they are very big rivals, at least in the world of basketball. I do not think I will mind attending Xavier and UC games though.
On another note, we are having oppressive heat here - as the weathermen say - high temperatures near 87 and very muggy, 70% humidity. Folks, it is roll the window down weather compared to Chattanooga!
Well, that's all for now. Let's give the Mocs football team some good vibes for the home opener this Thursday night!

Home in Cincinnati

Well, I am happy to tell you Stacy and I have made it safely to Cincinnati. The unpacking process and exploration of our new home town is going well.

With the help of Trevor "the Penguin" Parks, David Cope, Jeff Romero, and Stacy's parents and sisters, we packed the moving truck until almost Midnight on Friday, which the Weather Channel informed me was the hottest day of the year in Chattanooga.

On Saturday, the caravan of Stacy's parents and sisters, Stacy and me left for Cincinnati, where we were welcomed by a nice 75-degree afternoon. It was a nice relief from the Tennessee humid heat, even though it has climbed back to the upper 80s here today.

Our first meal in Cincinnati was at Waffle House, mostly because we were in moving clothes and no one else would probably let us in.

We really love our apartment. We are in a northwest area of Cincinnati called Symmes Township. The areas here are called townships instead of suburbs, and Cincinnati is made up of dozens of them. Our apartment is a mile off I-71 and is a straight-shot 25-minute drive to the heart of downtown. We are a tenth of a mile from Meijer Store (a 250,000 sq. ft. part grocery, part Target, part Lowes), a Sam's Club that is being built and a Wal-Mart just down the road. As we have entered "the big city," the Meijer Store does not have check-out clerks. You scan your own items at a computer terminal. It is cool. It is also open 24 hours a day.

Between us and the interstate is a Barnes & Noble, Pier One, Target, Circuit City, Kroger's, Kohl's, TGI Friday's, Olive Garden, O'Charley's, Office Max, Lowes, and a huge Auto Mall to name a few places. Okay, now this sounds like a Hamilton Place without the mall, but it is really not that bad. There is one main drag with all of these shopping centers.

Saying that, our apartment is just past all of that, but it is very peaceful and quiet at night as we are on a side road from the hustle and bustle.

Stacy had an appointment at a PR firm downtown today, and I went to Xavier to get my books and my "Musketeer All Card" a.k.a. my ID. Three books -- $110. I have never spent less for three classes, so I was pumped.

Xavier has a great campus. The University started in 1831. I toured many of the buildings and walked through campus on my own. There are some great buildings, including the new 10,000 Cintas Center. I cannot wait to watch a basketball game there. They also just tore down the entire University Center to make room for a new one.

We also went over to the University of Cincinnati today. That place is HUGE. It has 35,000 students. I thought UT was big - this campus eats Knoxville up, except for the football stadium. I could not imagine being a student on a campus that size.

If you made it this far down and read everything, thanks for putting up with it. We are having a good time and are very excited about all of this.

Please keep in touch and let us know how you are doing.

P.S. Our two cats, Moe and Boo, are just fine and have already taken over Cincinnati.