MARCHing along...

So far so good for 2009!

Archie had his routine 6 month cardiology appointment in January. He was semi-sedated so the echocardiogram produced some good clear pictures of his heart and pulmonary homograft. The graft is holding up well and should not have to be replaced anytime soon. Archie is off all of his medications too, which is wonderful! He's an active little guy and does laps around the house with his toy stroller. He is attempting to pronounce words like "apple" and likes to sing and dance to music, especially "Shout" by the Isley Brothers. Archie still has an oral aversion to solids but is doing well with other consistencies and will feed himself at school and at home. His preschool teachers are very proud of his progress since last August too.
He will be 3 years old on March 6th! and we will be celebrating at good old Chuck E. Cheese!


Josie turned 5 on January 29 and celebrated her birthday at our local dollar theater with her friends.

She finished up ballet/tap and gymnastics in January with a recital that her Grandma and Grandpa Haley got to see! T-Ball is up next, Chris has been practicing with her in the backyard and she's getting very good at hitting her Strawberry Shortcake ball with her Strawberry Shortcake bat and sliding into first! She was called in to audition for a couple of roles on In Plain Sight a drama on the USA network, but they told her she was too "bubbly" for the show! hehe


Chris is really looking forward to the TV digital transition on June 12, but would have been happier if it had been in February (Government's original plan). He is also planning a casting call event for America's Next Top Model and met one of the contestants from Albuquerque who was on the show! Cycle 13 will feature models who are 5'7" and UNDER which is a first. Chris is on a diet right now too and has lost a lot of weight! :))))


Robin is planning a possible road trip (with Josie and Archie!) to New York this summer to celebrate her Mom and Dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary and her 20th High School reunion! We will also be attending Albuquerque's 17th Annual Heart Walk for the American Heart Association which Archie will be walking in!

Thanks for checking-in on us and Happy Spring!

2008 in Review

So we haven't posted a new update in a few months. After receiving many "year-in-review" letters with Christmas Cards from family and friends this year, I was inspired to recap the year myself. Robin updates the blog for the most part, but I (Chris Iller) thought I'd take on this one.

For the most part 2008 wasn't a bad year. If I had to compare it to recent years...it was waaay better then 2005 & 2006, but probably had more highs then 2007. So, 2008...not too shabby as far as the Albuquerque Illers were concerned.

We started off the year with a quick day trip up to the Sandia Mountains (borders the east side of Albuquerque), to do some old fashioned sledding in the snow. And for those of you that think New Mexico is all desert...we have many mountains, ski resorts, and do get snow. Yes, it's true! And for some of you geography challenged folks...New Mexico is actually one of the 50 states that belong to the United States of America (believe it or not, some people think it's another country). But I digress.

Aunt Susan (Robin's Sister) and cousin Grady flew out to New Mexico to spend some time with us and to take part in Josie's 4th Birthday Party Festivities. Josie had her party at one of her new favorite places, Chuck E. Cheese (click here to see the party video)

We returned the favor in the summer and headed out east to Pottsville, Pennsylvania to visit The Zigners (Aunt Susan, Uncle Charlie, and cousin's Grady & Emily). It was Emily's birthday this time. Aunt Elizabeth also came in for the party with Max, as did Grandpa and Grandma Haley. The party was at a cool theme park in Pennsylvania called "Knoebels Amusement Park". We had a cook out (click here to see the video) then headed into the park for fun. While we were in PA, we also couldn't pass up visiting the place where they make one of Josie's favorite candies: The Hershey Kiss. That's right, we went to Hershey's Chocolate World and visited the museum/attraction and store (click here to see the video).

While we were out east, we headed north to Beaver Dams, New York and spent some time with Grandma & Grandpa Haley. Click here to see a video of us at Robin's old childhood playground.

We also headed out to Dayton, Ohio and visited with Great Grandpa Iller and Great Uncle Roy (click here to see the video). It was their first time to meet Archie face-to-face.


While we were in Dayton, I got to head over to the old TV station I used to work at and see a bunch friends I had been missing more than I realized. They took Robin and myself out on the town for a good time. We visited our old house in Centerville and became extremely home sick and wondered why we left Dayton to begin with.

Other trips that took place this year included another trip to Cliff's Amusement Park in Albuquerque, and a trip down to Roswell for this year's UFO Festival. This year, Josie won an award in the alien costume contest (click here to see the video).

During Thanksgiving weekend, we headed up to Durango, Colorado. Robin found out that the old fashioned train station there was doing a recreation of "The Polar Express". All the kids had to get in the Pajamas and hopped on board the train, and headed to The North Pole to visit Santa. Unfortunately, Archie had other plans that involved smashing his fingers in doors...twice on the same trip...with the same fingers. First time happened just before we boarded the train, he went into an old fashioned phone booth and slipped his fingers in the crack as I was shutting the door. He got a huge blood blister, nothing too serious, but he needed some extra time to calm down, and had to miss the train. So just Robin and Josie climbed aboard. The next morning in the hotel room, Archie decided to try sticking his fingers in the bathroom door as it was shutting to see if it would do the same thing. It was worse. I freaked out when I saw his fingers bent sideways and was sure that there was pertinent damage. But after a rush to the hospital, x-rays showed us his fingers were fine...just a little bruised. Needless to say, a hospital trip kind of puts a damper on a nice weekend getaway, and we headed home a little earlier then planned. We hope to visit Durango again soon.



Since the bad stuff is more fun to talk about and creates better stories, here are a few more for you...

We live on a Cul de sac with a total of four houses (including ours), but we face the backs of 5 houses. Almost every one of these houses have outside dogs that looove to bark. And the owners love to leave them outside from the crack of dawn until very late at night and spend no time with them. The barking got so bad we called the police, animal services, the home owners association, etc. We left them notes, and did everything but confront them face to face (we didn't want them to know we were the ones complaining, because we feared it would get ugly). Then the police suggested we try an official police supervised mediation. This took place, and now they knew it was us. Then it got ugly. Several yelling matches, and threats of suing each other occurred. I had to get up at 2am more then once to walk down the street and yell through a door to "bring your dogs in!". It did get better, but it's not resolved (they are barking as I type).



















I did win a case with the Home Owners Association who agreed to fine residents who neglected their dogs and ignored the law when it came to dog barking city ordinances.

It hasn't been too fun becoming the most hated family in our neighborhood for making people actually take care of their dogs, and being labeled as a family of complainers by any organization that we had to battle.

No sooner had those issues been tackled (for the most part), another one arose in our neighborhood. Behind our house is a community owned park, complete with a playground, a large grassy field, and a swimming pool. As soon as school let out for the summer, this park, as well as our street, became a haven for gang activity, drug transactions, and backseat "dates". We even had one drunk driver crash his car into one of the neighbor's brick wall (see picture). I decided to become the neighborhood protector and started confronting these people. First I just chased them off our street. Then at the park, I started getting in their faces. It did get ugly a couple times, and I did fear for my life more then once. But because we had already been labeled as complainers for the dog barking, whenever we reported this activity it was only met with a bunch of eye rolling. But on a few occasions, we did get the police to haul off a few of the bad guys. I've backed off a little with the face-to-face confrontations, but still keep a watchful eye over the neighborhood and fight the battle alone...like Batman does with Gotham City. At least that's how I like to think of my night time activity.

Because of the problems we've had in this neighborhood, we are considering a move to another part of town. But don't know if that's a good idea in this economy. We shall explore that option in 2009.

Towards the end of 2008, Grandma & Grandpa Haley came to Albuquerque for an extended vacation. They got to spend time with us during both my birthday on December 15, and Robin's Birthday on December 20, as well as the birthday of baby Jesus on December 25. They will head out to Phoenix (to the West of us) for a week in January and visit relatives in Colorado (to the north of us), but be back for Josie's Birthday on January 29.




This year also hit us hard in the finance book. With several unexpected expenses (high property tax hike being the main culprit), we discovered our credit cards were getting a major work out. So towards the end of the year, we cut back on a lot of stuff. We will probably spend a lot of 2009 paying off those credit cards and creating new spending habits.

We did finally find a baby-sitter we trust this year, so when finances allow for it, Robin and I actually get to go out on short dates (baby sitters charge a lot these days) from time to time.

In other news, we started attending a new church. It's called Sagebrush Community Church. It's a non-denominational church. Very casual dress code, the pastor is a very good speaker, and it's a huge congregation. It's fairly new, and we just like it a lot. In the next year we plan on becoming more involved.


Now for some individual updates:

Chris Iller
Other then becoming a neighborhood vigilante and a crusader for the rights of ignored pets, work has kept me pretty busy this past year. Extremely busy during the summer, where I usually got into to work around 5am and left at 6pm.

One event I helped plan & organize involved a Free Community Event for the TV stations. This event was focused on stand-up comedy. We teamed up with a local Comedy Club and conducted a competition for the best local amateur comedian. We also flew in a few stand up comedians, including one of my favorites , Kevin Meaney. The goal was for the public to associate our TV stations with laughter, and to fulfill an FCC requirement that we have to do something good for the community. Even though attendance was lower then I was hoping for, it still had a good crowd, and it ended with a standing ovation, which was mostly for Kevin Meaney. It looks like it might become an annual event for the station, and it was an idea I had been kicking around for years. So I was happy it turned out well.

Other then work, I became obsessed with the Family Tree. I started collecting old photographs from as far back as I can on the Iller side of my family and have been documenting as much as I can. During my visit with my Grandfather in Dayton, I took some time to ask a lot of questions and took notes, and borrowed and scanned hundreds and hundreds of photos. Also got a chance to have some of my old Super 8 home movies of my childhood digitized to DVD & Blu Ray. If I haven't hit you up for info on the family...especially photos and video...don't worry...I will. In most cases, I'm offering to have old photos scanned professionally, and will return the photos to you a few months later with a disc of all the photos that can be easily copied and shared with any family member who wants them. My goal for 2009 is to hit up my mom's side of the family. So be prepared.

Another hobby of mine that became somewhat of an obsession was Facebook. I joined Facebook and MySpace to see what the kids are doing these days (part of my job to know who I'm marketing too and what tools to use). But Facebook connected me too a ton of old friends and faces I hadn't seen in about 20 years. It's been great finding out what people have been up to that you thought you'd never see or hear from again. Many of my old friends from my Disney days as well as my church youth group days have all been popping up and we are discussing possible official reunions. I'd love to see that happen in 2009.



Robin Iller
Robin has been doing great at juggling the kids' schedules and mastering the art of working with insurance companies, doctors and such. I know she gets pretty frustrated with spending so much time on the phone and argueing and petitioning, etc. But she wins, and I'm pretty darn proud of her. She has joined a local Organ Doner group and we've attended a couple events and worked their booth at the local Fair. She has been making some good friends with some of the other mom's of Josie's preschool class, and actually getting to go out for some fun without me. She also volunteered with our Home Owner's Association's annual Fall Chili-Cook out to organize the Halloween Costume Contest for the kids for the 2nd year in a row.


Archie Iller
(turned 2 in March)

Archie had a good year. No heart related hospital visits! Early in the year, he figured out how to stand up on his own. Development-wise, Archie is still catching up for being in survival mode his first year. It's pretty common for most kids to start taking their first steps and first words around the 1 year mark. Archie was just learning how to stand with assistance in January just before the 2 year mark. He still has many visits to all types of doctors and therapists to check in on him and help him keep moving forward. They sent us a treadmill for him to practice taking steps on. And a walker that he could scoot around the house on. One of the therapies Archie participated in was something called Hippo therapy. In this therapy, Archie got to ride a horse once a week. They say it helps simulate walking movement and a lot of kids start progressing towards walking and talking faster. I don't know if it really helped or not, but Archie liked riding the horse. This past Fall, Archie started attending a pre-school for Special Needs Kids at one of the local Elementary Schools. He even gets picked up and dropped off on a School Bus (which he loves to ride in). This school has helped a lot. He eats and drinks on his own there, and is starting to at home. In October, just before Halloween, something clicked and Archie started walking full force. In fact, he'd open the front door and just start walking down the street. He doesn't talk much at this point, but he understands what we are saying to him in most cases, and he hums along with songs remarkably well. His recognizable vocabulary consists mainly of "uh-oh" and "wow!". He loves to do puzzles and instead of a Teddy Bear, he has something that's affectionately been named "Stinky Elephant". It's a blanket with an Elephant head on it that he loves to chew on. It's pretty disgusting, but it comforts him, so what can you do?

Josie (turned 4 in January):
This year, Josie is growing up before our eyes. She is definitely a social butterfly, and loves to make friends with anybody she comes across. She has continued her pre-school classes at a local Methodist Church, where she has made some good friends. We also started signing her up for lessons. In the summer she started swimming lessons and didn't do too bad for somebody who can't stand water on her face. She also is taking some dance lessons, and learning ballet and tap. She has also become quite the little artist. Her drawing skills really improved greatly over the year, and has taken a liking to drawing little pictures here and there. She has also taken up an interest in photography. Even though it made me nervous to hand over an expensive digital camera to a 4 year old, I was happy to see her testing out her skills and taking pictures of different objects. For Christmas, Santa brought her a cheapy digital camera for kids for her to practice on and so that I wouldn't be as nervous. Now that she's become more comfortable behind the camera, she has finally taken a liking to having her picture taken as well (she really didn't like people snapping photos of her before). She also was cast as a "featured extra" in one of the many big movies that have been filming in New Mexico. The movie is tentivley titled "GAME". It is scheduled to come out on Labor Day 2009, and stars Gerard Butler (300, Nim's Island) as well as many other big names, and is made by the same guys who made the movie Crank. Josie plays Gerard Butler's daughter in flash back scenes and photos. We have no idea how much of her performance will make it into the final film. She could wind up completely on the cutting room floor. Plus, we have a feeling it's a very adult film, and are kind of nervous to see what she's been associated with. But it's all kind of exciting too.


That about does it for the report this year. Robin and I will be posting updates on the blog when interesting things come up or when we have an update on Archie's health status. Thanks for checking in on us.