Summer is over - A few observations

• My kids didn't evern care what brand of sneakers they're mother purchased
• Jazmin still hasn't worked an hour at the job she was hire for in March
• Again, without picking the color, the black Pacifica was replaced by a black Expedition
• My kids only spent 11 days of summer vacation at their home
• Launching the Aqua-Trax cost me the deductible on my HTC Touch Pro. Should have just bought a case rather than carry it in my pocket
• Camping in WV seemed more like work than relaxing
• Vick is an Eagle. Yes, this is good news
• Still haven't wired speakers to the garage or deck... lazy or intimidated
• 80 hour work weeks still suck
• Summer colds (caused by kids going back to school and 80 hour work weeks) suck
• 1.75 years old are tough
• Looking forward to a fall vacation

The Fence is Down

At Jazmin's request, on Mother's Day, we began taking down 3/5's of the fence in our side yard. There was no marching or trumpet blowing but the wall still came down. The hardest part of this is moving the gate from opening West to parallel to the house opening north. We left the back of the fence up to border the woods. (Our next door neighbor found a 3.5' to 4' snake across her front door.) We found 2 snakes in the fence demolition process. 

Fence demolition process - favorite tool - Craftsman Reciprocating saw (thanks Dad). The whole fence was down in 2 hours. Digging out the post was a different story. In the end, the fence and gate I put up is 99.5% recycled, we have enough cedar for the fireplace for the whole summer. 

Well. Sunday, a week later, and we are 100% done and the gate actually works. Now we have to grow some grass!

Eagles & Vikings v Mall of America

My Will and Melissa have mentioned more than once that they wanted to go to an Eagles game. After hearing that there were thousands of tickets available for the playoff game, at 11AM we decided to go. We left for the 10+ hour drive at 2AM on Saturday morning. 

We visited the Mall of America which is really something to see. Roller coasters, the Lego store, Starbucks, and Eagles jerseys everywhere; Melissa was allowed to pick up an early birthday present at the American Girl store. 

The weather was ridiculous! Saturday in Minneapolis was complete with a Winter Storm Warning and snow, maybe 2", then ice. Sunday was worse, with the high temp of 8 degrees, clearing a car covered with snow and ice, and then packing that car was not fun.

The game was great. We rode the Metro rail right to the stadium, sat in the 2nd level, watched a great game then returned the way we came. Will and I cheered on our team, watching Samuel and Westbrook each score touchdowns. We didn't even mind seeing AP run one in for a score. 

The roughest part of the weekend was returning to AR after the game. Minnesota rodes were not great. The temp stayed low and the salt caused some melting and re-freezing. Iowa on the other hand was horrible. when we crossed the state line we were greeted with horrible rode conditions and cars off the rode everywhere. I prayed a lot in northern Iowa. 

By the grace of God we made it home in time for Will and Melissa to go to school, which they did. I took 2 hour nap and went to work. What a great weekend! 

Thomas and the "Ball Activity" Station

Uncle Carl bought the Ball station but come Christmas Morning there were no batteries. He left town before he could see that that Ball Station was a hit. 

Anyway, Thanks Uncle Carl!

Thanksgving Stay-cation

For the record... For as much as we like to travel, it has been a great week staying home. It was 65 degrees today in NWAR. I put up Christmas lights before Thanksgiving because I hate cold weather. The Trees are up and decorated. Heck, I even ran a cable line to the bonus room for the upstairs computer and installed a webcam for Skype. Feel free to reach out.

Here are the best parts of a "stay-cation": No rental car, no hotel bill, no long car ride, eating at home v. eating out for every meal (no McDonalds!), sleep in my own bed, didn't forget anything (toothbrush, phone charger), arrived ahead of schedule... for that matter, there is no schedule. No need to even turn on the GPS. Need I continue?

You know I'm trippin' b/c we event went to the Mall and I didn't complain! Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Best yet, Carl, David and Tiffenay will be here. The kids are excited. We're planning to cook the turkey on the grill and play paintball in the woods. 

On a different subject, Fantasy Football, I actually have a chance to make the playoffs in my work league. I will most like not finish last in my neighborhood league and therefore not have to host the Superbowl party; and have a good chance of not losing in my family league. The bottom line is, I am in way too many leagues. I just don't have the time to study NFL stats and certainly don't have the memory to remember all of the players on my 3 teams b/f the bi-weeks. With all of the bi-week moves I was completely lost. I am finally coming up for air but have to figure out how to lessen my Fastasy Football burden for '09. Any suggestions?

Great Getaway

Last week was a nearly perfect vacation. First we went to FL and spent time with Jazmin's parents eating out, Disney, you know the routine. Then Jazmin and I left on a 4 night cruise on the Sovereign of the Seas to the Bahamas and Coco Cay on Royal Caribbean. Here's the thing. It was a really cheap cruise. Last year we were on the brand new Freedom of the Seas. FYI, You may be a little let down when you go from a state of the art, largest cruise boat in the world, flag ship with all of the bells and whistles to a 20 year old, in it's last 20 days of life in the fleet boat.

On the flip side of the coin, we discovered that there was not much to do on the boat that we hadn't already done so we really just relaxed: watched movies, drank coffee, worked out, spent lots of time on the beach. We did want we wanted to do. No pressure to climb the rock wall, spend $300 on an excurison, smoke Cuban cigars, or shop for lavish jewelry. Also on the flip side on the coin, the staff on the boat was about the nicest we've seen. The folks that took care of us, entertained us, and safely conveyed us were some of the best we've come across. (The one exception was the lead male performer. He really got on our nerves.) All told we were very impressed with the staff. As always, we met a lot of nice people on the boat most of whom will end up on Jazmin's Facebook page.

We were last at Coco Cay the weekend after September 11, 2001 and Jazmin was pregnant with Melissa. When we were on the island, there was a few rows of beach chairs, a few picnic tables, no electricity and low rent snorkel gear. No complaints, the beach was great and the weather was perfect. RCL was busy during the those 7 years. There were beach chairs and hammocks as far as the eye could see... or at least as far as I was willing to walk; PWCs, giant water slides, an inflatable mini-water park, electricity... It was really nice. I snorkled for hours (saw a sting ray, grouper, lion fish, cow fish, and plenty of tangs, angels, pork, and damsel fish. Jazmin read a book. We agreed that we'd rather 2 days at Coco Cay than go to the Bahama's. We also decided that we won't go on any more small boats. We're planning a cruise in 2010 on the new Oasis of the Seas. You're welcome to come along. Hollar at me for the details (or just call Jazmin cause I'll tell you that I have to get the details from Jazmin and I'll call you back, then get side tracked and forget to call you back and you'll blame me when you miss the trip). 

Jazmin's parents did fine with the kids while we were gone. Finally, we celebrated Thanksgiving with Jazmin's family and I headed home. Jazmin and the kids, her mother and sister and her sister's 4 kids went to Siestia Keys for the second week of Fall break.

Tommy Walking

Yeah... At 11 months the monster is walking about 1/2 the time. His confidence has grown in the last week considerably. He still does his spider walk and crawls occasionally and you should see him climb a flight of steps!!