The Hoffheins Family Blog

The Times They Are A-Changin'

2008-06-29T20:24:00.003-04:00

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Marcia and I have decided to move. But we aren't going far. Actually, only about 4 miles away or so. As Marcia and I have grown together, we've realized what is really important and although we have an absolutely beautiful house, we simply don't use a good chunk of it nor do we want to spend the time and money maintaining it. We already spend most of our time away from it so why spend so much on it? Less is more. We've been kind of talking about this since January but finally decided that now is the time to do it.

We are moving to a new community called Millbridge. It is a planned community. Marcia and I pretty much fell in love with it as soon as we found it. It will have about 14 miles of trails, a very nice amenity center/clubhouse and is situated next to an elementary school and city park with soccer and baseball fields.

Not to mention that but we found a model that fixes all the issues we have with our current house. That's not to say there is really anything wrong with our current house, it's just got extra space we don't need. We don't use a formal dining or living room. The new house has a formal dining but we will use it as an office. There is only one family/living room. It's about 600 square feet less than this house. It's really quite perfect for us.

We are very excited. We will be listing our house next week. We shall see what this housing market is really like. We are pretty optimistic given the location, cul-de-sac, wooded lot and the fact that we are an all brick ranch which is in demand but not in high supply right now. We shall let you know how it goes.

In other news, our 9th anniversary is coming up on July 3rd. Dude. Who woulda thought.

Latest and Greatest

2008-06-15T11:57:00.000-04:00

Alright, so I know I haven't been so good at keeping up with keeping up here but sometimes life gets in the way. Anyway, things are good. We've been busy with summer stuff like going to the pool. It's been damn hot here.

Bella had her annual dance recital yesterday. She, of course, did wonderfully. She is a natural. I think she will be a dancer of some sort or be involved with dance or theater when she grows up. She did Hip Hop and Jazz this year. She is really enjoying it and really doing well. Next year she is doing it again as well as doing Acro which is like gymnastics dancing with tumbles and flips and such. She will definitely be good at that too. She is excited about it. Pictures from the recital below.

I can't remember if I posted this or not. Melissa finished up an undefeated soccer season with the same team she was on in the Fall that won the county. She then decided to do Challenge soccer which is a traveling league. She had to try out for the team and she made it! Season doesn't start until the Fall. Practices start at the end of June. She is very excited. She is very good, especially at goalie (takes after her Dad that way), and I think soccer is going to be her thing for some time to come.

Oh yeah, I got my hair cut. No more long hair - EVER again. It 'bout drove me to the house. I was getting sick of waking up in the middle of the night because I couldn't move my head because my hair was under my shoulder. Marcia loved it and I love her so I love anything she loves but the threshold of pain had been reached and breached.

Memorial Day Beach Trip

2008-06-01T16:54:00.000-04:00

We went to Wilminton and Carolina Beach for Memorial Day weekend. It was quite nice.

Melissa's 8th Birthday Party

2008-05-11T19:49:00.000-04:00

Cinco de Mayo was Melissa's 8th birthday. We had her party yesterday. There were like 23 eight year olds running around at the party. It was a crazy good time. A couple of them drank so much they had to spend the night. Damn kids.

Anyway, the full album is located at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/hoffheins2000/2008510MelissaS8thBirthdayParty

One More

2008-04-01T19:25:00.001-04:00

Oops, missed this one ...

Time is the Fire ...

2008-04-01T19:06:00.001-04:00

... in which we burn.

OK, so I been a little bit busy lately as you can probably tell by the fact that the last time I posted anything was February 24th. As I said recently, I lost an employee at the store and decided to sweat it for a while. Things were slow (REALLY slow) but now they are starting to kick again. So anyway, here's the latest.

Marcia went to VA last weekend to visit Peggy and the Sommers and to do a yoga workshop at Flow Yoga in Leesburg. She had a good trip and took a few nice pictures.

Marcia is doing well. She has picked up more teaching at the studio. She is still doing the ad sales thing but not much lately due to busy-ness with teaching and spring break and such.

Not much has really happened otherwise in the last month since I posted on 2/24. We've just been livin', and lovin', life. :)

What's New

2008-02-24T21:04:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, Marcia took her first step down a new path that I think she will excel at. She had her first traveling yoga event. She went to Shelby, NC and taught to classes. She had 20 people in the first and 10 in the second which is amazing given that it was her first away game and that Shelby is a pretty small town. I am very proud of her.

I have been very busy working on her new website for this endeavor. You can check it out here.

We are all doing very well!

New Car(s)

2008-02-11T16:05:00.000-05:00

OK, so here's the deal. When Marcia and I make changes, we make changes. And for us, that seems to work really, really well.

As you already know, we started off this new year with Marcia getting a new job and a new dog. If that wasn't enough, Marcia got a new car. She traded in on her lease (limited mileage was going to be a problem with the new sales gig) for a Honda Pilot. Very nice car. It's a '05 I think with about 60K on it. It's a red/maroon with a beige interior. We are very happy about that.

I have wanted a new car for some time. For quite some time actually. For about the last year I've had my eye on a yellow Jeep Wrangler. I just thought that would be a fun car to have. However, those visions changed as soon as Marcia decided to get an SUV. Suddenly we had two SUV's and that just doesn't make sense. I also am going to be working a bit harder for a while as I just lost my full time employee to greener pastures.

So after eight wonderful, loyal years, I have parted with my 2000 Subaru Outback wagon. That car was very good to me and had 111K on it with very little major work done to it. I could have kept it but what better excuses do you need to finally face up to the fact that it is time to own your 3rd new car of your life?!? Yes, my 3rd car at the ripe age of 34.

And boy howdy, what a car I got ... a 2005 BMW 325i. All I will say is behold the beauty that is my new car. Well, I will also say it's amazing to drive (especially after having driven a wagon for eight years). I caught myself doing 80 today in 3rd gear. The car was in it's sweet spot so I didn't even notice until I realized that things were going by faster than normal.

Untitled

2008-02-01T22:38:00.000-05:00

What happens when you get busy?

Life.

Introducing Cinnamon Sugar Cookie

2008-01-20T12:02:00.000-05:00

OK, it took me a while and these aren't the best photos but I have been busy so buzz off.

Cookie is probably about the cutest damn thing I've every experienced (except of course for my wife in Downward Facing Dog).

Latest and Greatest

2008-01-17T17:42:00.000-05:00

OK, so we've been just a little bit busy. I plan to post some pictures and even video soon but wanted to let you know what the dealio isio foshizio.

Here's the latest:

Marcia got a new job

I am taking over managing the studio

We got a new video camera (this may not seem like a big thing but trust me)

We got a new puppy - her name is Cookie (Cinamon Sugar Cookie to be specific) and she is a 7 week old Yorkie

Ok, so it doesn't seem like much but with everything else we have going on, it's a bunghole load. I need to figure out how to post some video so stay tuned.

Later (soon).

NewYears Eve

2008-01-02T21:14:00.000-05:00

We went to the Fusaro's for New Years Eve and had a wonderful time! We all ate WAY too much food though. I woke up at 4 a.m. feeling very sick and very dehydrated. It was not good. All four girls made it to midnight!

Christmas "Vacation"

2008-01-02T21:11:00.000-05:00

The day after Christmas, we went to VADCMD to visit my Dad and Kate and see some friends. It was a nice trip. We didn't get to see everyone we wanted to but we'll be back in March ya'll!

Christmas (revisited)

2008-01-02T21:03:00.000-05:00

OK, so my computer was playing tricks on me and thankfully we didn't lose the pictures I'd thought we lost. Here are a few good ones from Christmas morning.

Christmas

2008-01-02T20:57:00.000-05:00

We had a great Christmas! The girls got only a few gifts this year but they were all BIG. Melissa got a Nintendo DS and Bella got a digital camera. They both got a trampoline! They were happy. Unfortunately, most of our pictures from Christmas morning were lost due to unknown technical difficulties. Oh well, we have them in our hearts. The ones below are from our family get together.

Making a Gingerbread House (Is Not As Easy As It Looks)

2007-12-16T17:28:00.000-05:00

A friend gave us a "easy-to-assemble" gingerbread house as a gift. We put it together tonight. It didn't quite look like the picture on the box. And it wasn't all that easy to put together. We had fun though. It actually looked pretty good until the end when the girls decided they wanted to eat it and it basically fell apart.

Yoga South Holiday Party

2007-12-16T17:23:00.000-05:00

We had our annual Hip Hop yoga class and gathering at the studio on Friday night. We had 25 people and so far (still getting donations) have raised over $500 in cash and a ton of clothes and household type items for the Shelter for Battered Women.

Marcia taught a crazy awesome class. I was so sore today I could barely walk. It was a great evening.

Beautiful Girls in New Shirts

2007-12-05T20:40:00.000-05:00

The girls got new shirts from Aunt Marta and the LOVE them.

Leaf Jumping

2007-12-05T20:08:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend we had our annual leaf jumping ritual. Gotta love it!

Decorating the Tree

2007-12-05T19:58:00.000-05:00

We decorated our Christmas tree the other night. It was much easier this year because we bought a fake tree that already had lights on it. It is the most beautiful tree I've ever seen.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-25T11:11:00.000-05:00

We celebrated Thanksgiving at the Condon's. Dorothy came down with Mom from VA. Maura and Mark and their boys came down too. It was very nice. We ate too much and were very lazy.

Melissa the Soccer Champion!

2007-11-18T21:01:00.000-05:00

Yesterday and today were Melissa's soccer league playoffs. They played the first of three playoff games yesterday morning at 11:00 a.m. which they won pretty easily which meant they were on again today at noon.

The game at noon was UNBELIEVEABLE! They were down 2-0 in the 4th quarter and came back and tied it with the second goal coming in like the last 5 minutes of the game. They then had a double overtime and won in the last 20 seconds of the second overtime. It was unbelieveable. Especially because Melissa played goalie and although the two goals they scored were scored on Melissa and both were complete break-aways that she could do nothing about, she had like seven saves that were amazing. One of them was crazy! The other team had like three players standing right in front of her trying to kick the ball in and every time they kicked it she either punched it away or kicked it away. It was crazy.

The championship game was at 3:00 p.m. It was against the only undefeated team in the league. They won 5-0! It was all very exciting.

Yoga South Holiday Party

2007-11-18T10:12:00.000-05:00

OK, so this is what happens when I forget to take pictures. We don't have many. Last night Marcia had all the wonderful teachers and staff and their significant others from Yoga South over for a little shindig. It was fun. Had great food, good stuff to drink, fires, music, all the toppings. These are the best pictures. Bella passed out in the end.

Old Pumpkins

2007-11-09T22:04:00.000-05:00

This is what our Halloween pumpkins looked like today. Next year I think I am going to have the girls carve them 10 days BEFORE Halloween so they look like this ON Halloween.

Bella's 6th Birthday Party

2007-11-04T09:30:00.000-05:00

Thursday was Bella's 6th birthday (if you can believe that). We celebrated as a family since it was a school night by getting some Mexican food and watching a movie. Bella's party was last night. It was an "almost sleepover" and was girls only (except for me). All the girls got their hair, nails and some make-up done by Mrs. Marcia. Then we had pizza and a cookie cake followed promptly by a viewing of "High School Musical." There was abundant drama during the movie but overall it was a successful and fun party I think for all the girls.