Busy couple of months

So I have talked about the dining room and the rest of the paint projects and meeting The Pioneer Woman. Once that all died down, it was time to decorate for Heather's party. Let the chaos ensue: a total of 7 trees.

First up: the living room

This tree the photo tree. It has wallet-sized picture frames hung with red ribbon on the branches along with 4x6 and 5x7 framed photos stuck into the branches. The small frames a silver and the larger frames are black along with red ornament balls.

Next is the dining room.

This tree has all of the ornaments that we have either been given, kept from childhood, or things the kids made that they want to hang. Heather calls is the Heritage tree. I call it the tree with all of the old stuff. Then in the middle of the dining room table is the wreath. We just pulled the table slightly apart and dropped the electric cord through. The cord is run under table and the across a small part of the rug with piece of plastic that is the color of the rug to hide it and for safety.

The other three trees are a set of a 5, 4, and 3 foot trees that we call our forest. Then each of the kids have one. Don't be that impressed.

So the day of the party this is how the room looked.

The jars on the table look like this:

You can thank Bakerella. It's all her fault.Heather made 30 of these. They weren't too expensive but you spend about $65 to make 30.

So after that not much happened. Heather went to OKC this last weekend to see Beth Moore along with Precila Shirer and Kay Arthur with several friends and had a great time. Sunday morning all of the kids in the children's choir had their performance and they did well.

Yesterday was Heather's birthday. So instead of trying to go out to dinner last night, we went down to Tulsa and went to Ted's Cafe Escondito. The place was very good. Until....

The waiter asked if we had been there before while Heather and Reid went off to the restroom. I answered "No, we are here for my wife's birthday". Heather and Reid get back and just shortly after getting our food, they came over and ...

began to sing. The sombrero was an unexpected, but welcomed side benefit. Shortly after I took this with my iPhone, Heather yanked it out of my hand and took this:

This way there was evidence that I was at least having a good time before the bodily harm started. They needed a way to ID the body. But no, Heather decided that I should pay in other ways.

My penance - purchasing her a

iPhone 3GS. 32 Gigabytes. Black. So her device has 4 times the storage and has some features that mine doesn't have. I'm thinking that her tactical maneuver was more psychological than financial. So much so that I actually had a slip of the tongue when were talking about her phone: I said "my phone" instead of "your phone". She immediately said "Excuse me?" Oops. Bad Damon.

The funny thing was as Heather was getting instruction on how to use the device, the kids were over at the iPhone display playing games that were on their demo devices. When we went to leave, Reid asks "Where's my iPhone? I want one!" I couldn't contain my laughter. Sorry dear Reid. Not any time in a future that you can comprehend at the age of 4 3/4!

I had another doctor appointment this week for some follow ups. I think I have just one more but we'll see. Heather gets an MRI Thursday for her knee. Looks like she may be having some repair done on her menisci on her left one. We'll just see.

More later.

Sidelined again...

So the ankle is acting up again. Guess the running will have to cease for a bit. Back to the bike. YUCK! Oh well.

So an update, I am 57 pounds down. I waiver between 206 and 207 and really have not budged much. In time it will change, but still sucks. I can just taste 199 and it kills me. That means that when I hit 200, I will still have like 20 more pounds to go; totally awesome on one hand because I am that much closer to goal but also it is like "I still have 20 more!!!?!?!?" Oh well.

Things with church have continuted to dicentigrate and I really think we are going to leave. Really do not want to but not sure there is any choice. "Tune in tomorrow for another episode of Days of our Church."

Jacks started 4th grade today. How is that possible? That means that DD will be starting Pre-K next year. That is more than wrong. How again did I get to be 35 and with a kid who is over half-way through elementary school?

Renovations, vacations and other such nonsense

So the other nonsense first.

I have taken 2 minutes off of my 5K run time and actually added distance. So instead of 34 minutes to do 3.1 miles, I can get up to 3.25 miles in 32 minutes and I can easily get that in over my lunch hour. So, I'm pretty stoked about that. I can also report that I am now down 43 pounds. So I'm on tract to be down about 80 pounds by my birthday in December. Awesome.

Now, renovations. So, 2 months ago we discovered water in our bedroom. Yes, water. Lovely when it is in the bathroom and more specifically, in the shower. But in the bedroom, not so much. Especially when it is running under a wall and soaking the carpet. Well, the shower pan cracked and that was the cause of the problems. So since then we have all been using the hall bath (aka the kids bathroom). Now here we are this week we are in the middle of the below scene:
Yes, that is tile you see on the ceiling. More to come after they finish that later tomorrow. So by next week after it is all grouted and sealed, we can have our bathroom back.

Now the cruel irony. We bought this house after it had been redone and all we had to do was move in. Yeah, now. Not so much. Tonight...we are standing in the master bathroom looking at the in-progress renovation/repair of our shower and decide with the new tile going in the wallpaper has to go, the floor in the bathroom really needs redone to match the new shower, and then, and then, and then. So we will see what we do next when we have the money to do so.
Oh my, this is the beginning of the end. Just shoot me now cause here we go.

So vacations. Vacations are nice. And so is this place: Great Wolf Lodge. Here is the outside:

This is is just the lobby: This place was just incredible, from the lobby to the water park to all of the details they take care of.

The room...

We had the Kid Kamp Suite and the kids had their own "camp" in the room. They slept in bunk beds in their "camp", had a little window, their own TV. one of the funnier things about the trip...throughout the day, at dinner, etc., you would hear the staff start a wolf howl, kind of like the wave in a crowd. One would start it and it would go all over the lobby, water park, etc. Our kids picked up on it and when they heard the wolf howl, they would howl. Reid's howl just too cute. In the end, the kids were beyond over the mood. More like over Saturn.

The Grapevine location had an 80,000 sq. foot water park (inside) and another water park area outside, something like nine water slides, a small kids area, a wave pool, a lazy river, hot tubs, a huge three-story water fort, and several other play pools. With our one night reservation, we were able to play in the water park for two days.They also had an arcade, restaurants (the spinach artichoke dip was to die for), an adult spa, a kids spa, and a thing called MagiQuest. You buy a wand for like 10 bucks and then go all over the hotel looking for clues to the Quest. There are pictures, treasures chests and crystals spread out throughout the hotel and when a kid would point their wand, the picture/chest/crystal would light up and give the next clue. We didn't have time to do it, but it was really, really cool.

That is about it for now.

OK, so I cannot give Robin any grief about posting

So, it has been longer than I thought since I posted. Lots going on: Heather's travels, kids swimming lessons, dealing with training new hires and the rest of my department. And of course toys.

Heather turned around and bought me a silver Nano. And I like it more than I thought I would. The smaller capacity makes me change up my music more often which is good for my runs. But now, let me introduce the newest member.

Isn't the box just pretty?

Hel-lo. Can we say crave-worthy? Do I like it? Yes. Do I like it more than a Blackberry (my other option)? Yes and no, actually. I love the way it works. It is just simple. I find that I probably will only use the iPod function when I take a break and am walking outside or the tunnels at work or when waiting at the doctors office. When I am out on a run, I will still either use the Nano or shuffle.

About the runs. I have taken up running again to help set patterns for my self and the kids as I reclaim my closet. I have actually gotten back to running a 12-minute mile. So I can get 2 - 2.5 miles in just over a 1/2-hour jaunt. I drove a path that I recently ran through our neighborhood and it was just under 2.5 miles and I ran it in just about 35 minutes (those darn hills). So go me!

So at church we are starting a discipleship program call "The Way of the Master." I have to tell you, we had the introduction last week and I think this is going to be really good. So Thursday night as Reid and I were driving home from swimming lessons, I was listening to American Family Radio. At 7 PM there is a radio program that is call Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah and the topic was Courage When Fear Dominates You. I didn't hear the first part but am going to go back and do so. But what I heard was very interesting. He was talking about how when you are putting your fears ahead of trusting that God has your back you are actually engaging in idolatry. That was really interesting and I intend to go back and listen to the two sessions. Very very interesting perspective. Let me know your thoughts after listening.

A little behind

OK. So I have been a little out of pocket. We have had to deal with Heather's dad and it has just gotten out of hand.

Some images of the last month:






So we have been in Winfield every other weekend for the last month-and-a-half. Heather's dad is not doing well. So it has been crazy because he was so out of it that she and Kemper (her brother) put him in a nursing home 1) because it was too much for Sue (his girlfriend) to do by herself and 2) because Sue was too much for Heather and Kemper. The whole discussion was they will do the home for 6 weeks and then re-eval. Long story short; Sue let a scenario occur even though she had been told what the plan was and didn' go along with Kemper and Heather and we wound up moving her dad.

So during October, Heather A and Price came down to go to the Pumpkin Patch. They all had a ball, as ususal. And of course there were wall-to-wall toys in our den. Price and Reid enjoy thenselves. And they both love to chase Jackson down.

The last picture is what Heather took to Jackson's school for his Halloween party. It is Ritz with peanut butter inbetween and pretzels for the legs. The eyes are raisins and have just a little peanut butter on it to hold them on.

More randomness

OK, how can this NOT make you happy:



It's just a jar of pickles you might say. Oh wait. Look closer:

What a nice way to be greeted as you pillage through the refrigerator. Especially when you have a 2-year old in full-out melt down. The effect of something just this simple giving you a moment of pleasure is completely lost on her. Oh, well. Her loss.

On to scrapbooking. So last year there was a class that Cathy Zielske taught on Big Picture Scrapbooking called Did You Know. So I took it. Here is my attempt. This was a digitally produced page:

So today I was reading the random blatherings (her description of her posts; not mine!) of Cathy's blog today and she posted an item from her 2peas days. Looks relatively similar to what she taught us in her class. Coincidence, I doubt it. Only she will know. Maybe she'll see my comment on her blog and look. Wouldn't that be cool.

OK. Wii may now resume (bad thing to have bought--too much fun)

Wii will play

Yes, we now have a Wii. If you have not heard about these, here it is:

This is really just a a cool thing. Depending on the game, you get you butt off of the couch and are actually participating in the game. The unit comes with a set of games called Wii Sports (you can see some videos from the Wii Experience here). Oh, my. The boxing can kick your butt. I stayed home with Jackson today, who was feeling a little under the weather, and wii (OK, I'll quit now) played quite a bit. Heather came home and said "How do I turn it on. I want to play tennis." Ten minutes later, she was sweatting. Shortly after, Reid wanted her turn. It was just too cute watching her try to swing the controller to hit the ball.

Heather and Jackson as set to go to Denver Sept. 10. He went to the doctor Friday and the took 6 vials of blood. That is not a blood draw; that's a freakin' donation. He didn't even get cookies and juice after that, man. I personally feel that he got the shaft on that deal.

Work is good. Employees who participate in a particular retirement plan today found out what our stock allotment was. All I'll say is I was suprised and thinking it was very cool!

Well, I guess I'll be off to bed here shortly since I do have to go to work tomorrow (darn it). We're off the Independence, KS to the water park Saturday and then to Wichita next weekend. Jackson wants to go to Kobe Steak House for this birthday. Pawpaw really opened a can or worms with that one. Kobe a japanese restaurant that cooks on the grill right in front of you. He is all over that.

Off and running...

OK. So I have practically driven myself nuts (and Heather in the process) of trying to get a blog going and get her to start as well. So she posted on her Xanga site to get me off of her back; I had not. Oops. Bad me.

I've been trying to decide what service to use. I'd really like to use Typepad because there are some things about it that Vox has that I liked (book and music linking with pictures) but didn't like all the ads and limited header options) But I'll save my pennies for that.

So, I was looking at Tara's blog. Damn. Even her picture of a dog is cool.I really want to spend more time in Photoshop and figure out how to do the shading so that it looks, you know, cool.

I guess I try to come up with something far more interesting next time around.

For those that I know who did not see this, The video below is Jackson's baptism. Happened on easter. Very cool. So proud of that bugger.