It's here!

IT'SHEREIT'SHEREIT'SHERE!!!

FedEx tried to deliver the new computer this morning, but of course no one was home to sign for it, so they didn't leave it. So what did I do? Went down and got it right of the truck, of course!

:-D

Staci is in the process of setting it up right now (I promised I'd let her do it), and I'm pacing impatiently around the living room.

Ooo, she turned it on! Gotta go!!

What is, number of hours spent at church before going home?

CORRECT!

What. A. Day.

Computer and PowerPoint challenges all day long. It was a stressful, stressful day. And not the impression I like to leave on Conference employees that are visiting our church.

It wasn't all bad though. There were problems that left a bad impression, but I spent my day working through them, which left a good one. :-)

Karen Lewis was here Friday night through Saturday late afternoon talking about friendship evangelism. She was real cool and we enjoyed her presentations, headaches and all.

Right after her last presentation we had a progressive dinner, which is always fun.

9am - 9pm. Whew! I didn't even play on the computer or watch a movie when I got home, I just went to bed!!

So... I was without my cell phone all weekend. Every time I thought I remembered where it was, it wouldn't be there. Well, I finally found it last night... in the bottom of the washing machine as I was putting the clothes in the dryer. DOH!

I opened it up as much as possible, blow dried it, and let it sit over night. When I put it back together this morning it actually turned on and sorta worked! Some of the keys weren't working anymore, which is a bummer. I really like my phone.

Later in the day is straightened out and everything was working pretty good, but then it went funny again. I think it's basically screwed.

Too bad Timex doesn't make cell phones!

So, not a whole lot going on here.

LOL - I think the last time I started a post like that I went on to recount all kinds of things that had been going on!

Work. Lots of work. If I punch out on time for the rest of the week I'll pocket about 14 hours of overtime... and it's only Tuesday! To accomplish this feat I worked for 10 hours on Sunday and 4 extra yesterday. There was an hour on Saturday night that I got paid for too, but that goes on a different pay period. Oh, and I don't anticipate clocking out on time for much of the rest of the week either. Maybe Friday. Maybe.

The phone saga has taken a nasty turn. One week after putting it through the washer, I lost it! I used it several times on Saturday to answer incoming calls, and haven't seen it since Saturday afternoon. Staci has looked everywhere and it's just not turning up. Unbelievable. So... don't try to call or txt me, I have no phone. Try Stac instead, she'll pass it on to me. :-) (i wonder what she'll say when she finds out i just volunteered her to be my answering service?!)

In other news... there really isn't any other news!

Next week is vacation and we'll be in Denver/Loveland the entire week, Saturday night thru the following Sunday morning. I'm really looking forward to it. Not sure how much family we'll see because it sounds like everyone is working. We have plans with some friends in Denver for Monday night, and we're hoping to take the kids to the museum and planetarium another day. Other than that, hopefully some rest and relaxation!

Unless something monumental comes up on the next couple of days, don't expect any more posts until next week, when there will actually be something to post about.

Holy shit, it's been over a month since I posted what we've been watching around here!

It never fails, if I don't stay right on top of the movie posts I'll end up leaving something out. Last time, or the time before, it was The Saint with Val Kilmer. I don't know how I forgot about it either, because that's one that I really liked. 4*.

Ok, let's kick this in gear...

TVD

Come to think of it, definitely not Grey's! I swear, season 3 was just an experiment to see how many ways they could have each character cheat on their significant other. So sad, because I used to love that show. I think I'd give season 3 of Grey's a 3* just because of all the cheating. Scale that waaaay back and I could give it a 5*. Big difference there, I know, but yes, it was THAT bad.

Anyway... right now we're watching season 3 of CSI, which is - of course - really good. 4*.

MOVIES

As it turns out, it was our second time watching Down to You as well! The further into it we got, the more we remembered having seen it years ago. Everything was familiar as we watched, but we couldn't remember what happened next. In the end it didn't really matter, nothing happens! 2*.

We watched Mickey and Waiting... one weekend.

Waiting... was pretty funny. 3*. So far we've liked Ryan Reynolds in everything we've seen him in. Still though, whenever I see him I can't help but think of Chevy Chase! He bares a striking resemblance, and his humor is very similar.

Mickey was good. I don't really have anything to say against it! 3*.

Another weekend in October we saw Mr. Brooks, Next, and The Invisible.

Mr. Brooks was creepy, but not scary, and very good. 4*.

Next was... different. Different, but good. As I recall the ending kinda sucked. It jumped around in time a lot and that took some getting used to. And just when I was used to it they threw a monkey wrench into everything and I was messed up again. If the premise sounds good to you, give it a shot and see what you think, then come back and tell me about it! I say 3.5*, but I rounded up to 4 when I rated it on Netflix.

The Invisible has a pretty good premise to it as well, and also has an ending I didn't like! The rating stays the same too... 3.5*.

With winter coming the kids will be forced to stay indoors more on the weekends, so I thought I'd start renting some documentaries about nature to watch on Sabbath afternoons. Last weekend was the first test run, and I must say it went quite well! We watched Deep Blue, and it was amazing! 5*! You have to check it out.

I think it was Sunday night that we watched Fracture. I really liked it! It's one of those who-done-it movies where you're shown what happened and then get to watch the one character try to figure it out while the other character tries to outsmart him. 4*.

Last night we watched Reign Over Me. It was quite good. Very good, actually. I got a couple of decent chuckles out of it, but it's most definitely a drama. Adam Sandler really impressed me in this movie. It's kinda slow going, it IS a drama after all, but I thought it was worth it in the end. I laughed AND cried; you can't ask much more out of a drama than that! 4*.

And that officially catches us up. WHEW! Can you believe it took me two days to write this all up?!

I must do better next time.

I told you that I'd forget some movies, and I did.

I read about Disturbia when it was first out in theaters and wasn't interested at all. But M saw it and said it was really good, so when she bought the DVD I borrowed it. Turns out I really liked it! 4*.

And of course I bought Transformers! We watched it twice in one week. hehe Love it. 5*.

Ok, I think that's it.

Tonight, on the way home from Adventurers, Staci and I were recounting the mystery of the missing phone. When we got home Staci said she wanted to look under the seats with a flashlight. We've both looked several times, and felt, but we didn't use a flashlight.

BINGO!

Right there it was. It slid under the jack, which is mounted beneath the passenger side of the front seat. Unbelievable, it was right there the whole time! Whatever, I'm just thanking God that we found it.

The vacation is off to a great start. We left the house at about 6pm last night and got to Tim's at 11pm. The drive went great. We plugged in both laptops, gave the kids each one (with headphones), let them pick what movies they wanted to watch and it was smooth sailing!

Staci went straight to bed while I stayed up with Tim until about 2am. Stayed in bed until 10, which never happens, but was awesome!

Took a shower, channel hopped some football, ate lunch, installed a new stereo in Staci's truck, and am now chilling out and watching some more football.

Nice and relaxing... just what I needed. *sigh* Life is good.

Didn't do much of anything yesterday morning. Tim came home from work, but we didn't really get to hang out because he had homework to do. Slacker!

In the afternoon we went to a mall for some walking around and shopping. I came to a realization about my wife... nothing cheers her up quite like underwear shopping! Shoes... nah. Clothes... pass. Purses... hmm, yeah. Underwear... SCOOORE!

Besides some great underwear, I spent way more money than I should have on games and puzzles! I bought each of the kids a puzzle (Best Buddies for Bekah and The Spirit of Horses: Fame for Brian) and a game (Sherlock for Bekah, Sequence: States & Capitals for Brian, and Clue: Mysteries for Staci).

After making the kids suffer through the shopping we took them to The Apex Center, which they had been looking forward to for days! We hung out and played there for a couple hours, then headed back to Tim & Mary's to get the directions to our next stop: E&C's house for Monday Night football.

We had to drive to the opposite corner of Denver, in rush hour, to get there. I swear, it's so far to the east that I actually called E and asked how close to the Kansas border it was! Anyway, we got there and had a great evening hanging out with them, talking and watching the Broncos actually win a game. Good times, good times.

TODAY, we did nothing all day until Tim and Mary got home! Brian, Tim and I played some Stuntman on the PS2 before supper, and then we all played the new board games after supper. At about 11pm Tim decided that it might actually be a good idea for him to go to bed so he can get up and go to work in the morning. Wuss!

Now, Staci is laying here playing Sudoku on her DS, I'm typing this post, and everyone else has the good sense to be asleep.

Tomorrow... the museum!

Today we took the kids to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. It was a good, long day. We found out how tough and exhausting it is to take kids to a place like that!

Anyway, the Titanic exhibit was pretty cool. Staci enjoyed it the most, which was to be expected. Surprisingly (to me anyway), Brian liked it! My main goal was basically to keep Rebekah from having a meltdown. hehe

The planetarium was pretty cool.

I think my favorite part of the museum, and it was as a kid too, is the dioramas of birds and animals. We didn't go through all of the wildlife dioramas because we were all getting a bit tired, but we did go through the birds, and that was cool.

My LEAST favorite part, hands down, was the prehistoric journey (aka dinosaur exhibit).

Back and Tim and Mary's we packed everything up and headed up to Mom and Dad's. We'll be staying here the rest of the week until we head home on Sunday.

Tomorrow... Thanksgiving.

Family Food Football

Oh yeah, gotta love Thanksgiving!

That pretty much sums up yesterday, to be honest. *sigh* I do love brevity.

Dad, Staci and I stayed up til midnight catching up on past episodes of Grey's Anatomy. heh-heh Slept til 10!

No plans for today, so we'll see what transpires.

Well, we made it home and have jumped right back into the fray. I'm working overtime again and Staci is having to manage the kids.

My back is KILLING me! This morning, I literally couldn't get myself out of bed, Staci had to help me, and then she had to put on my socks for me. I was 5 minutes late for work, roughly the same amount of time that it took me to figure out how to put my shoes on. I went to the chiropractor and he says I have a bulging disc. I have to go back again tomorrow.

In other news... My new games came yesterday! Now, if I can only find time to play them.

I "hear" about how great The Office is everywhere I turn. Football articles on the internet say The Office is better than Seinfeld! But it wasn't until my own brother talked to me about the hilariousness of it that I added it to my Netflix queue. Disc 1 has 6 episodes, and I watched 4 1/3 of them before sealing it back in the envelope and moving on. Oh. My. Goodness. Awful. AWFUL! Quite possibly the most UNfunny thing I've ever seen! What complete and utter crap!! I'll assume that there are some bright moments somewhere in 3+ seasons of episodes and give it 2*, but really, what I saw only deserved 1*.

Moving on and hoping for something, ANYTHING, to wash the bad taste from my mouth, I put in Staci's rental, Crazy/Beautiful. Strike 2! Ugh... another 2* rating. I must say, I liked the ending though.

The next day we went with a sure thing, CSI. I think both Staci and I's opinion of CSI has been well documented.

Tonight we're watching Amazing Grace, and it's really quite good. 3.5* - 4*. I don't really know what to say about it other than "watch it." And if you do happen to take the advise of the only person on the planet that thinks The Office sucks, please let me know what you think about it. :-)