minus7

Long story, but welcome to my new page.

I'm about ready to pull my hair out! (yes, i have hair again, not very long, but hair nonetheless)

Last week we decided to pull out of Wells Fargo because, well, they suck. So we both got out of work Friday afternoon to go and open (reopen, actually) accounts at Alpine Bank, which we loved and never should have left.

Now all of our money is at Alpine Bank, but we have no checks, no debit cards, and no online banking access yet! And of course Monday was a holiday, so everything is delayed that one extra day. Let me tell you, I'm going absolutely out of my mind not being able to access the accounts.

God is on our side though; we have a two week stretch of no bills to pay! The one that is coming due on Monday is local, so we can just hand deliver some cash (which stac did for me today). It seems like I've been paying bills nonstop since Stac handed the finances over to me, so how we got two weeks bill free can only be an act of God!

In the spirit of making our financial life a little less painful, we also decided to move our truck loan and the kids' savings to the credit union where our mortgage is. We were able to get that taken care of last Friday also, and I picked up the check and paid off the truck on Wednesday. The money posted to the account today and Staci was able to go and get that account closed out.

I know, it's all pretty boring stuff, but that's what has been going on lately, and pretty much plaguing my every spare thought!

It would be extremely helpful to me if everyone could leave a quick comment on this post (or any other if you'd like) so that I can get you marked as a "trusted commenter." Then I won't have to come in here and approve comments all of the time. :-)

TIA.

Bekah has been sooo good lately it's almost - no, it is - scary!

Of the changes I'm trying to make in my life, prayer is probably the hardest. It doesn't come naturally, and it doesn't take much at all to fall out of it.

One of the first things I started praying about regularly was our finances, and the second big life changing move was a decision to start paying tithe. It seems impossible to give over $300 a month back to God when you're running in the negative already, but I decided to give it a try.

Boy was it hard to drop that check into the offering plate the first time! In fact, I forgot to do it when the offering was taken up and had to put it in one of the offering boxes by the door instead!! LOL I prayed about that tithe, and the next one, and the two I haven't written yet because we haven't gotten the checks for our new bank account.

Last week I got a phone call when I got home from a friend's parents. They got a new computer that they couldn't get to work right and they wanted me to come get it going for them. And they'd pay me. I've worked on their old computer several times without pay, so this was something of a shocker. It wasn't much, but every little bit helps, right?
When I was finished Mrs. C told me that I should do this for a living, figure out a fair price for my services (I had them just pay what they felt was right) and with as good of a job as I do, and as quickly as I do it, I could make some money. She could be right, but that's just not something I've ever really wanted to pursue. Once you touch someone's computer, you get called for EVERYTHING! Plus it would keep me away from my family in the evenings. So I dismissed it.

It wasn't until a few days later that it occurred to me that the whole situation could have been an answer to prayer.

Yesterday one of the girls in the office sent a message on our internal message program that she was looking for some computer help and did we know anyone she could hire to help her out with a few things on her new computer. With the answer to prayer thought still fresh in my mind, I immediately replied that I could probably help her. We talked more specifically about what she was wanting and it turns out she was wanted to do some simple web page work, kinda teaching herself, but needed help getting started. Could this BE anymore up my alley?! We agreed on a price and met yesterday after work.

Also, the other day I was trying to project our finances a bit because we're making a trip over to Loveland this weekend. I don't know how, but it looks like we'll be ok, and I even figured in a double credit card payment and extra money to savings! How does that happen?!

At the very beginning of all of this I told Stac that I wanted that moment from Facing the Giants... "God, it's too much." Although no one has towed away my car and replaced it with a brand new truck, I'm already starting to feel it.

I am not worthy, but God is awesome!

Well, first there's nothing to post about, then am in the middle of postable stuff and don't bother posting, THEN am too busy getting back into routine to post. Not ideal, to say the least.

We were over in Loveland last weekend for alumni weekend last weekend. Our 15th! There were 11 of our classmates there and we had an awesome time hanging out with them on Saturday afternoon. B&M were there with their kids, so Brian had friends to hang out and play with while we were visiting.

Saturday night we took mom & dad out to eat with B&M and the kids. Party of 12, please wait forever to be seated and receive shitty service! Ugh. Better luck next time I guess.

Sunday we drove home in a snowstorm, so that was fun. Not. We managed, but it took longer than usual, so that sucked.

And here we are, back at work and busy busy busy.

Not much posting going on here, as you may have noticed. The problem is that the biggest thing going on in my life right now is of a personal nature and there's no way in hell I'm going to post about it! Even though there are other things going on, they all end up taking a backseat in my mind to this other thing, and so I don't get around to posting about them. That's totally on me. Sorry.

So... Some things that have been happening...

Last week we had parent/teacher conferences for the kids. They are doing pretty good. They had a couple of lowish grades that are as much the fault of the parents as they are their own, if not more. Other than that, they're doing ok.

Let me take a moment to note here that I believe in a special and super-secret circle of hell for parents of apparently perfect children. You know who you are.

Brian and I went motorcycle riding with B, M, and the boys on Sunday. That was several hours of fun. I'm still a bit sore! I took Staci's dirtbike with me so one of the boys could ride it for a while and see if he liked it. Turns out he did, so they bought it and took it home with them!

We went shopping the other night and one of our first stops was Murdoch's to get some cat food. When we got up to the checkout there were two teenage girls working the register and they asked us if we had two kids outside in a green car. Obviously this conversation couldn't go anywhere good, but we reluctantly told them that we did. It turns out that a customer complained about two unattended kids in a green car flipping them off in the parking lot. OI-VEY! I didn't look at Staci, but I'm sure she was as many shades of red as I was. Needless to say, the kids are in hot water with Mom & Dad right now!

Since we've been back from alumni weekend I've been gathering classmate emails. L is determined that I help her with contacting people for our 20th reunion. I realize that it's 5 years away, but I thought it would be a good idea to start getting my shit together now instead of later. So far I have emails for about 15 out of 54 classmates. After I hear back from a couple more MySpace people about their addresses I'll be sending the list around to the people I do have to see if they can fill in some blanks for me. Then I'll have to figure out how to track down the missing persons!

When I got home from work on Monday, I went to feed the fish like I usually do and noticed that the filter was just disgusting. So I changed it, even though the water was still crystal clear. Well, I don't know what I did, but the water started getting pretty cloudy. By Tuesday (yesterday) it was a solid cloud and the goldfish were all staying at the surface so they could breath! I took out about 1/2 the water and put clean water in, but it didn't really help. So last night, after the kids went to bed, Staci and I set about fixing the fish tank. We drained most of the water and then carried the tank to the sink to rinse it out good. We also threw away the filter that I had just put in and cleaned the uber-disgusting plastic part of the filter system. Staci got the stuff all put back in the tank and we refilled it with water, then put the fish back in. Well, by the time we went to bed the sucker fish and 3 goldfish were dead. This morning 2 more goldfish were dead. :-( All I wanted to do was change the disgusting filter!

In other, much much happier news, I ordered a new computer! A desktop. *GASP* It shipped yesterday, so there's a chance that I'll have it by the weekend. I'M SO EXCITED! I got a Dell XPS, loaded enough to play the newest of new games. Unreal Tournament 3 in particular. So, what happened is this; the guy I used to play UT with at work (we haven't played for about 6 months now) sent me this game trailer, and the next day I ordered the computer! LOL

And, of course, we've been watching DVDs. But I'll leave that for another post.

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.

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. :-)

I am SO tired.

I've been going to work early every morning and working late. On top of that, I haven't been going to bed until 11 every night, because by the time 10 rolls around I'm wide awake and enjoying the time just sitting around with Stac, so I'm in no mood to go to sleep. It's definitely taking a toll though, my ass is really draggin' right now. The extra money will help get us through this holiday season, that's what I keep telling myself. Over and over and over and over and...

I'm pretty sure I was going to post earlier this week about something really cute that Bekah did, but I haven't been able to remember it. Dang it.

Maybe this is what it was... On Tuesday(?) I went to work at 5:30 in the morning, and thus was able to punch out and go home at 6. Much later than the 3:30 I usually get off at, but earlier than the 7 or 7:30 that I've been coming home. Anyway, when I walked in Bekah came running and gave me a huge hug. "Daddy, you're home EARLY!" heh-heh

I can't wait for these long hours to be over.

In other news... Christmas shopping is pretty much done. The kids are making out like bandits, let me tell ya! It's too bad they won't appreciate it. I kid you not, the first one to utter the words "I'm bored" in the coming months may just find themselves laid out on the floor before they even realize that I hit them!

Ok, break's over, I better get back to it. Slave to the grind, and all that.

Still a lot of work going on here, so there hasn't been much to blog about. I'm still going in an hour early every day (6am) and then let the workload determine when I go home. Last week I left an hour early once or twice, but since I came in early I still had full 8 hour days. Sometimes I leave at my normal time, which is an hour of OT in this case; and sometimes I leave an hour late which gives me a 10 hour day.

This weekend was pretty full, but I'm going to wait to post about it until I have some pics to upload with it. Maybe tonight...

Computer problems at home are kicking my ass, and making me very grumpy. Vista is totally pissing me off, I'm going back to XP Pro tonight. Hopefully. Maybe I'll find out that it isn't Vista that sucks but my fancy dancy new computer. Oh... that would suck.

Anyway, I will post about the kids' Christmas programs (yes, plural) and their piano recital with pictures AND VIDEO, once I'm back up and running. Hopefully things will be fixed tonight and I can post after Adventurers tomorrow. We shall see.

The Vista -> XP conversion is not going real well. I have XP installed now, but it was a major headache and took forever to accomplish. The good news is I learned about some things that I had no clue about before, like slipstreaming. The bad news is that Dell doesn't even offer XP drivers for my system, so getting things back up and running is going to be a real pain. I actually had to physically remove my network card to get a model number off of it so I could Google the manufacturer and get a driver. Ai-yi-yi! If the network card doesn't work right away with this driver, and I do mean IMMEDIATELY, I'm reinstalling Vista and praying for the soon release of service pack 1.

Hi Pat.

Well, my computer finally seems to be working at the high rate of speed for which I purchased it! After some thought I came up with the idea that all of the slowness was related to USB drives. After working in that direction for a bit I must've done something right (first time all week) because now it's fast as fast can be again! There are a few little kinks to work out, but none of them are "deal breakers."

I still need to post about the Christmas programs and piano recital, and now that the computer is working nice again I'll get to it. Right now, I'm enjoying a "break" and playing games. heh-heh

(hi miki)

So much has been going on the past couple of weeks.

The kids had 2 Christmas programs in one day. The first was a really really good one at church, the second was a crazy secular program at the school that night. It was called Christmas at Bethlehem Gulch and it was a country western type thing. It was pretty funny and all of the kids did a good job. Bekah was a sheep and Brian was a shephard. I have pictures, if I ever get the piano recital video stuff straightened out I'll post the pics too.

Speaking of... Bekah did great in her first piano recital! Her curtsy was The Bomb, crossed legs and all. It was Brian's second recital and he nailed it. It was a pretty great night and I was super proud of the kids.

Let's see, after that there was more work and a little more overtime, leading up to Christmas.

Christmas was pretty great, even with the Christmas Eve trip to the ER. Staci and I were out to get a couple of last minute groceries and walk around some stores just for the fun of it, when she only half made the step up onto a curb, twisted her ankle and fell. After she recovered her breath and battled off the tears of pain, we did our shopping, got my hair trimmed, and walked around some stores. Back at home we hung out with family and eventually opened some gifts. Shortly after we got home from that, Mom got here. We exchanged the rest of our gifts and Staci was still in incredible pain, so off to the ER we went. At the very least we should come away with some pain med that's stronger than Ibuprofen! Turns out she tore the ligaments in her ankle, so now she has a brace on and some crutches. Oh, and some decent pain meds! heh-heh On the bright side, that was the fasted in-and-out of an ER I've ever experienced.

So, Mom was here for Christmas, which was cool. We didn't do much Christmas day but lay around and watch movies, which I already posted about. I had to work the rest of the week, which sucked, but Mom stuck around until Friday. Tim and Mary came over Wednesday and we opened some gifts with them, got some pizza, hung out and played some games. Hailey wasn't feeling too good, which kinda sucked, but was kinda cool because she was cuddly. :-)

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful until Mom crashed through a deer fence about 2 miles from the house on her way home! But I'll leave that for her to tell.

Saturday we went over to the Pastor's for lunch and to talk with some people about Pathfinders getting started here. We came home at 10pm! LOL It was a good time, even though the Patriots won.

I kid you not, 15 minutes after we got home everyone was asleep except me. Crazy family!

Today we went out for breakfast and then went grocery shopping. I've been doing laundry and watching movies the rest of the day.

Tomorrow I have to work, and I'm already planning on putting in at least 12 hours. I'll have the rest of the week off and I want to leave as little extra work as possible from my buddy to have to take care of (preferably none at all).

We've been invited to a party tomorrow night, so I guess we haven't fallen COMPLETELY off the radar. heh-heh. Not sure what we're doing Tuesday, probably as little as possible. The Pastor will be coming over for supper that night though. Who knows about the rest of the week; I'm sure it will take care of itself.

What. A. Week.

I worked on Monday, but had off the rest of the week.

Monday, after work, we found out that the kids were staying up in GJ with The Twins. That left us free on New Years Eve! We called and bowed out of the party we had been invited to so we could spend a quiet evening with just the 2 of us.

We called Olive Garden to see what the wait was like, and it was horrendous, so we decided to just go to Chili's for supper instead.

Not long after we sat down, Staci's phone rang. It was our new pastor asking if we could come over and hang out for New Years Eve! He had a party planned and had invited several Western Slope pastor's, but when they found out his wife wasn't in town they all bailed on him. We were so tickled that he wasn't sick of us yet... we just couldn't say no. So after supper we went over there. One other (older) couple from church ended up coming over, and that was it. Needless to say he was super glad that we were there! We started munchin' and playing a card game. The pastor had been skiing earlier in the day and crashed pretty bad once; his wrist was really hurting. Not long into our game it was becoming clear that he was in a lot of pain and it was getting worse. Flashback to Staci's ankle situation on Christmas Eve! So we talked him into going to the ER. He's a great sport. He grabbed the fresh-out-of-the-oven brownies for the ER staff and we were off. It was quite an adventure. The nurses were totally stoked about the brownies, and it turns out he most likely broke the scaphoid bone in his wrist. A splint, some Vicodin, and we were on our way. Back at the house we had fun finishing our card game and ringing in the new year. It was a little after 1am when we got home.

Tuesday morning we went out to breakfast with a huge group of people. I think there were about 14 of us! To be honest... neither Staci nor I can remember a damn thing about the rest of the day!! LOL I have no clue what happened. Scary.

Wednesday morning we had an appointment to drop the truck off with a mechanic in Olathe, so we did that at 7:30 and then I took Staci in to work. Back at home I got on the computer for a bit and hung out with the kids, then went back to town to drive Staci on her morning errands for work. Back home, more computer and more kids, then back to town to drive Staci on her afternoon errands, which were extra long in preparation for this weekends company holiday party and took us clear to closing time.

Thursday, Staci took the car to work and left me stranded at home with the kids. I slept until about 9am, warmly snuggled under our new comforter. I LOVE our new comforter! Anyway, the kids were hellions from that point on. Talk about feeling like a complete failure of a parent... spend an entire day at home with your kids! Ok, maybe just MY KIDS. At any rate, IT SUCKED ASS!

Today I got up and took Staci to work, then came home and spent the rest of the morning catching up on my RSS feeds. At 10:30 Bekah and I went in to drive Staci on her morning errands and then we went to lunch at Pancheros. YUM! Back at home I worked on a PowerPoint presentation for Sabbath School tomorrow morning and did a little laundry until it was time to go pick Staci up from work.

OH! I sent the kids out to play this afternoon and they were out on the frozen over irrigation canal behind the house. I guess the ice broke and Brian fell in! He came in soaking wet up to his chest and freezing. heh-heh I put him in the bathtub for a few minutes to warm up and then he went back out with Bekah again. When they came back in a while later they told me about crossing the canal and going up to the pond on the property behind us. Of course, they were out on the ice! So we had a bit of a talk about safety and what to do if one of them got in a dangerous predicament.

Anyway, more messing around on the computer after I got Staci home, then supper down at Jerilyn's, followed by more computer time while the kids played hide and seek.

OH-OH! On the way home from picking up Staci, she had me stop at a store to show me some fleece lined Crocs. They didn't have the color she wanted (pink), but I ended up getting me some new black Crocs (not the fleece lined ones)! When we got home the first thing I did was go online and find the ones she wanted in the color she liked, so those are on order. ;-)

I made some pretty exciting computer progress tonight! First, I FINALLY got the file that was stuck on my Vista desktop deleted!! I had tried just about everything and had finally resigned myself to its presence. It's sat there, taunting me, for over a week now. So I signed up on a techy forum and was getting ready to post my predicament and see if any genius could help me get that damn thing deleted. First though, I thought I had better browse around to see if my question had already been answered. I found a thread about my problem, but the solutions had already been tried and hadn't worked. While ready I had a thought of something to try. I shared my desktop folder on the home network, got on my laptop and tried to delete it from there. AND IT WORKED! I couldn't believe it. It took a couple of tries to do things just right, but damnit... IT WORKED. I can't even tell you how relieved I am.

The other thing was "discovering" a cool new utility that's going to save my life. Actually, Mom told me about it, if you can believe it. It's called SyncToy, and it totally KICKS ASS! I can't tell you how stoked I am about it.

Anyway, it looks like Staci is finally ready to throw in the towel on her game, so I'm off to bed.

Tomorrow afternoon we're going out to D&J's to celebrate LAM's bday, and then tomorrow night is Staci's company "holiday party."

I won't even hazard a guess when I'll post again! :-D

(hi gwen)

Well, it's a quarter til 5 in the morning... I think I'll go to bed!

Well, we finally woke up at about noon! LOL The first thing we commented on was how amazing it was that we had no phone calls wake us up. And that's when we remembered that the phone was forwarded to my cell and we never turned off the forwarding! HAHA So I checked my messages and sure enough, we missed 2 calls. So we got up and I got the calls taken care of. Another round of laundry has been started, and now we're sitting down to watch a movie.

What a day!

(hi kev)

Last night the kids wanted me to help make a snowman, so I bundled up and went outside with them. Well, we had plenty of snow, it just wasn't "sticky." So I came inside to get supper ready. Brian REALLY wanted that snowman and wouldn't give up, but he continued to have no luck. Finally I suggested to him that if he wanted a snowman that bad he needed to take a spray bottle outside and spray it on the snowball, add more snow, spray it, add snow, spray, add, ad infinitum.

So he did!

Last night when I went out to call the dog in I got a good look at his little snowman and was blown away! Check it out!

(hi cheryl [cuz])

We took Staci's truck into the shop last Wednesday because it was blowing cold air on the driver's side and hot on the passenger side. It turns out the bottom half of the heater coil was clogged up, and that was the half that provided heat for the driver's side. The part had to be ordered from Denver, and the weather was spotty all last week.

Well, they got the part on Monday and the truck back in working order by noon on Tuesday. Jerilyn and I went and picked it up after I got home from work on Tuesday.

$750!

On the bright side, it's not 4 digits, like Steve's furnace! Still... ouch!

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I think it was Tuesday that I finally tried installing the full software for my bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Of course... it didn't go so well. After installing a Dell connection wizard came up, and then a "New Hardware Detected" thing. Well, it couldn't find drivers for the bluetooth mini-receiver! So I tried pointing it to some places, but to no avail. So I just moved on without i since things were working ok. I had to manually close the connection wizard though.

Things were fine until I rebooted. The same connection wizard came up, accompanied by the same hardware detected thing. Still no drivers, so canceled that and manually closed the wizard again. I got on a tech support chat with Dell and they couldn't fix it either, so I decided to just uninstall the bluetooth software.

Oops, now the mouse and keyboard wouldn't work at all!

Wednesday I brought home a USB keyboard and mouse so I could do something, even if it was wrong (which it has been most of the time recently). I did a system restore back to a point when it worked, rebooted, still not keyboard or mouse. So I called Dell tech support on the phone and got an Indian that I could barely understand! Oi-vey! Luckily he wasn't in the XPS department and had to transfer me - heh-heh.

The next guy had a much softer accent and was really good. We set up a Dell Connect session and he basically worked on my computer while I watched. FOR TWO HOURS!

Did I mention that Wednesday is Adventurer night, and the last time I got tied up in a Dell support call was also on a Wednesday?!

In the end we never did figure it out. We ended up telling the hardware detection thing to not ask about that device anymore and then went into the system and manually told it not to run the Dell bluetooth connection wizard on startup! So we're right were I was before I uninstalled it, but with the messages we can't fix turned off! Ai-yi-yi!

I did make it to Adventurers, but I had to run out the front door and through 6 inches of snow down to Jerilyn's house to catch the truck because Staci was leaving my ass behind! :-D

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Did I mention that after getting the truck back from the mechanic the BRAND NEW STEREO quit working?!

Yes, this is the luck I am having. Stay far away from me, it may be contagious.

So, we had a nurse at Adventurers to teach the kids some first aid stuff which left me with time to go out to the truck in the freezing cold night and see if I could figure out what was wrong with the stereo. Which I did... because I RULE. HA!

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Some of you have seen my kick-ass DVD storage cabinet, made and installed by a professional back when I actually had some good luck. LOL! I long ago outgrew that beautiful cabinet and bought a multimedia storage rack to catch the overflow. Well, I haven't really said much about it, but some time ago I outgrew that too! Last week I finally caved in and ordered another identical rack, the plan being to somehow stack it on top of the existing one.

It came today, and with the help of my amazingly awesome and gorgeous wife I now have a super storage rack. Floor-to-ceiling baby... yeah! Check it.

I figured it out (because that's how I roll), and I think I have room for about 135 more movies. Hm... maybe I shoulda bought two!

I can't remember the last time we had a Sabbath afternoon at home. Seriously! And yesterday was no different.

We stayed for potluck and then hung around for an hour and a half so we could go over to the nursing home to sing. We finally got home at about 3:30 in the afternoon, but had a school supper to attend at 6:30! Well, there was a little time in there, and I wanted a nap!

Brian was outside playing with his friend (whom he had invited to church and was essentially spending the whole day with us) so at least he was occupied. I told Bekah to grab a My Bible Friends book and come lay down with me. So there I was with Bekah cuddled up on one side and Staci on the other. Thankfully Staci took the initiative to read and halfway through the second story I was OUT! Having my two girls cuddled up with me as I fell asleep was easily the highlight of my day.

Brian's friend was staying the night now, so we took him with us to the school dinner. Hung out there with some friends, ate, listened to a group of ladies from the area sing some old-time songs, barbershop quartet style. They were part of an international organization called Sweet Adelines. It was quite cool. Staci could have fun in something like that!

We watched one movie when we got home and that was it.

Today we have to get Christmas stuff packed away, clean the house, do a bunch of laundry, and hopefully watch a movie or two. We'll see how it goes.

... your daughter has a temp of 102 and neither parent can afford to stay home with her. :-(

And by "afford" I'm referring to time, not money.

I have so much work to do it isn't even funny. I've been running a solid day or more behind for a while now, and the other guys can't get caught up enough to help me out.

At Staci's office, one of the girls is off for the rest of the week, so if she stays home it would be leaving one person to do the job of three.

Poor Bekah... what kind of message is she getting when she's legitimately sick and neither of us can stay home with her?!

I feel like a huge turd right now.

skipped SS
went to GJ
Olive Garden
Jim & Cyndi's (CoD4 & Boogie)
Angelica
Grace
Beau's party
Jennifer
insanity
pancakes (a, g, j, r)
shopping
Guitar Hero III

work
battlestar
emma
no superbowl
no wireless
no superbowl
shopping
home
pizza
gameplan
online gamecenter
thank you giants
guitar hero

Outlines seem to be about all I have time for these days. I was saving them as drafts so you couldn't see them, but I decided to just publish them so you would have a chance to see - in super abbreviated form - what's going on. Hopefully I'll get time someday to go back and fill in the stories... hopefully I'll remember the stories by then!

Peace out.

Check out our new truck!

Seriously. I'm not even kidding!

There's quite a story behind this, but you'll have to wait until later. Maybe I can get Staci to write it up on her page.

Oh! Speaking of Staci... check her out!

It never ceases to amaze me that, given the choice, my kids will choose a healthy cereal over a sugary one AT LEAST half of the time. Wheaties, Chex, Crispix, and Raison Bran are on level ground with Lucky Charms, CoCo Puffs, Fruit Loops, and Golden Puffs.

It's times like these that I think maybe, just MAYBE, we're not complete failures as parents. :-)

Farmer Scott and Farmer Brian did some ditch burning today! You know... it can hardly be classified as work when you're having that much fun. heh-heh

This just might be the coolest thing ever!

(after rock band of course, which i'm totally addicted to)

Until I can post with my Rock Band drum kit, I'm pretty much done here. :-)

I'm sure this hiatus won't last forever (it never does), but it's been a month since my last post and I honestly haven't missed it. And from the feedback I've gotten - which is to say, NONE - neither have you! Haha!!

If you need to, you can find me on tour across the country as the drummer for The O.G. AND Sàlvádôr, or as the lead singer for The Sexual Overtones.

Peace. Out.

Ok, maybe it's time to try posting a little bit again.

Thursday was Staci & I's 14th wedding anniversary. Believe me when I tell you that we're all kinds of proud of ourselves! :-)

We didn't do much, just dinner and a movie. We went up to Grand Junction to enjoy our favorite restaurant (Olive Garden) and then went to the 14 screen theater to see Hancock.

Yeah, I know, not a very romantic movie choice, but one that we both wanted to see, so it was perfect. Besides, $9 each kinda sucks any romance out of the experience that there might have been!

Anyway... here's to 41 more!

We spent most all day Friday and Saturday at the Nightvision Festival in Olathe.

Nightvision is a FREE, 2 day long, Christian Music festival. There were also Christian comedians (Tim... awesome!), a Christian illusionist (Tim... awesome!), and all kinds of other stuff. In Olathe!

And I'm not talking about local Christian worship musician's, though there were some of those in the afternoon if you wanted to check them out. No, I'm talking about Superchic[k], Leeland, Kirk Franklin, Mandisa, and MercyMe!

IN OLATHE!!!

Awesome. Tiring... but awesome.

I think we'll spend today laying around doing as little as possible to recover.

Oh, and it is official... my kids can sleep anywhere!

Driving home with the kids this afternoon and Bekah asks, "Daddy, what's a lesbian?"

*CHOKE*

Yeah... I deferred that one to Staci!

Brian went on a trip with Larry out to California and back.

Bekah's been out on the truck with Dad; they went to Oregon and back.

I have a 5 day weekend starting tomorrow, will work 3 days next week and then take a 4 day weekend to go to the church campout.

Our Adventurer/Pathfinder campout was this weekend; Friday night through this morning. We camped at the Colorado National Monument just west of Grand Junction. There were 40 attendees, 25 of them between the ages of 2 & 17!

I think it's safe to say that Staci was pretty much in charge of the shin-dig, and I also think it's safe to say that it was a splendid success. Much fun was had by all.

Some of the highlights:

A rousing Happy Birthday song from the whole group Friday night after supper. And cake!

Some parents and an Adventurer staff member took most of the Adventurers on a Sabbath afternoon hike. Unfortunately the gung-ho parent didn't realize that little kids don't walk as far as bigger kids and adults. They were out there hiking for TWO HOURS! Needless to say those were some tired kids when they got back and there was no problem getting them to sleep that night.

I got up at 5am on Sunday to go with Pastor Campbell to the Grand Junction airport and bring his car back to the campground for Heidi to drive home.

Hanging out with LB all weekend. :-)

We got National Park Passports for our family and collected the first, of what we hope to be many, cancellation stamps!

On the way home Sunday, Staci drove her the truck and 5th wheel while I followed in our truck. Just as we were about to leave Grand Junction one of the tires on the 5th wheel blew out! Luckily we were close to a good stopping spot and were able to get it changed without a hitch.

I have to admit, I was skeptical of having a very good time, but it turned out to be a nice weekend away.

I finally caved in. After 7+ years of no TV reception and only watching DVDs, we are getting satellite TV service!

Every year when football starts I waver. "Seeing" online that the Broncos were leading the Raiders 17-0 at halftime I finally snapped and immediately placed my order online for Dish Network. It will be installed Thursday morning, in time for me to watch football this weekend in the comfort of my own home for the first time in what seems like forever.

I am both excited and apprehensive. I don't want us to become slaves to the TV and its schedule, and believe me, I realize that I am extremely susceptible to that! In an effort to keep that from happening I got the service with a DVR, so we can watch what we want, when we want. Hopefully that will help. We'll see. I also paid extra to get the service with "no commitment" so we can bail on it at any time. :-)

GO BRONCOS!! I got TV for you... don't let me down!

You HAVE to read this.

That's MY pastor! :-D

Ya know... belting out a song at the top of your lungs like a rock star is a great fantasy.

But the reality is, give me the mic for Rock Band and even in the comfort of my own home I can't bring myself to do it!

In semi-related news... Metallica's new album is out. :-)

Brian's been wanting to watch Heroes lately, so I've told him he could watch season 2 in his room on Bekah's portable DVD as long as she says it's ok. (Staci and I are trying to burn through seasons 3 & 4 of House before hitting season 2 of Heroes. Meanwhile, season 5 of House and 3 of Heroes are accumulating on the DVR.) He's loving it, and it's driving him crazy that I won't let him talk about it beyond "Dad, Sylar is still alive!" :-)

Anyway, Sunday morning on my way out to the kitchen to help Staci with breakfast, I had to stop and do a double-take when I walked by his room. Heroes was playing on the TV that's in his room with the old Gamecube. He figured out, ON HIS OWN, how to make his sister's portable DVD player work on his TV!

Needless to say, I was a very proud Daddy. :-D