We were originally introduced to Joel Peigh by Tiffany about a year ago - we were looking for a good contractor for our front porch. He came highly recommended not only because he is a high quality craftsman, but also because he is an honest, hard-working, high quality man. After finishing construction on our front porch (ahead of schedule and under budget) we could not agree more.

Joel was recently diagnosed with an advanced stage 4 esophageal cancer (median survival rate of 8 months). It is a shock - he is young and seems so healthy. Peigh It Forward has been created to chronicle the journey he and his family have embarked upon.

Please bookmark Peigh It Forward so that you can share this journey with Joel and his family. I’m not a very religious man, but I am keeping Joel and his family in my prayers and daily thoughts - please join me in doing so.

This past Saturday was the perfect day - we went to our babysitter and good friend Lauren’s house to celebrate her high school graduation. The weather was gorgeous: light breeze and a bright sun.

The graduation party was very nice and fully stocked with food and drink. In back they even had a pond and terraced yard - it was just one of those days that I wished never ended:

Pucci and Julia got married over Memorial Day weekend on a beautiful Florida beach. Shannon and I are so happy for both of them - they are such a wonderful couple.

Here are a few pictures I scalped from Deanna and Pat’s blog:

Congratulations Ben and Julia!!

We had a wonderful bar-b-que over at Jeff and Caroline’s house on Saturday. Reese and Libby played very well together (they are only a few months apart), we ate tasty food, and as always had a great time with Jeff and Caroline.

Here are Reese and Libby playing in Reese’s crib:

This past weekend Betsy and her daughters Hailey and Brianna stayed with us a couple nights. Gretchen also joined us with Claire, the newest addition to her family.

For those of you keeping count that’s 7 women and me. Yeah, that’s right: I’m quite the ladies man.

Here they all are (left to right): Libby, Claire, Hailey, and Brianna.

Needless to say it was a fun and busy weekend.

The album of our trip to Baltimore is up. I won’t go over everything; you can read more details here. Suffice it to say we had a very good time and Matt will probably win the highly coveted “Husband of the Year” award. A few highlights:

• Surprising Alison for her 30th birthday
• Going to One-Eyed Mike’s and joining their club
• Going to the “Poets & Pirates” concert and watching Big & Rich, Brooks & Dunn, and Kenny Chesney

A big thanks go to Nana for watching Libby while we had fun on the town!

I finally posted an album for Posey and Lawrence’s wedding. It was an amazing weekend, and Shannon and I had a really good time in Texas.

Enjoy!

I have returned from a weekend Bachelor party celebration for Pucci (a good friend from college). An album of pictures are forthcoming, but for now I hope this picture will tide you over:

Pucci: the Man, the Myth, the Legend.

UPDATE: the album is now online.

The first picture of the year, taken just ten seconds into 2008:

Brent and Heather graciously hosted Jeff, Caroline, Reese, me, Shannon, and Libby for a wonderful new years celebration. We ate some very tasty grilled chicken, (giant) baked potatoes, seasoned green beans, and topped it all off with two helpings of a low fat graham-cracker-pudding-whipped-cream dish (I’m sure that’s not the name, but it was good).

Everyone stayed up late, but us boys drank like we were young and foolish again. We paid for it the next day… but it was worth every penny.

Life, my friends, is good. We wish you and your families a very happy new year as well!

I hosted a poker night with some work buddies a few days ago and forgot to post pictures (holi-daze).

We played a Texas Hold-Em tournament with a $10 buy-in with a winner-take-all pot (we also gave $5 to the first player out for the half-ass effort). To make sure play did not continue for too long we doubled the blinds every 30-45 minutes. I think a good time was had by all.