Home Sweet Home

It is good to be home. Got home around 7ish and while we enjoyed our time out and about, there's no place like home!!! :)

Chattanooga or Bust

So tonight we're in a motel in Monroe, LA. We're on our way home from a "soggy" family reunion in Ardmore, OK. We had 30 some-odd people there to all catch up on each other's lives etc. It was great, except for the 'soggyness'. :) I'll update that more later!

Anyway, we'll be home tomorrow night. Gonna do some geocaching on the way. Yeah hoo!!!

Not Quite the Garden of Eden, but It'll Do!

A friend recently was asking me if we had a 'garden' this year. My answer was yes and no. We do not have a traditional garden. I am not a man with a green thumb or the wisdom to grow a normal garden. All the ones I've done that way have been lacking.

I did have a friend once who taught me to 'garden' this way in 55 gallon drums cut in half, filled with dirt, mulch, manure and a bit of fertilizer. We've done this going on 3 years now and things have worked quite nicely actually.

This year we've got 6 containers with Green Pepper, Cucumbers, 2 regular tomatos and 2 roma tomato plants.

Um, um good. Can't wait for veggies to start growin.

No Freakin Way!!!

You have GOT to be freakin kidding me right? Oh this just sucks! This is a HUGE rip off and it THOROUGHLY ticks me off.

Man, I really, REALLY wish there was some way to see these Gas company execs get their come-up-ins!! They deserve it!

Morons!!!

Hair Trimmin'

I've got three 'beauticians' living in my house now! Doreen learned how to 'cut' my hair recently and has been doing an awesome job at it.










The most recent time she cut my hair, the girls asked if they could help. Sure, it's a very, ultra, basic cut. So when we started, the got to go first. Each of them took a turn cutting my hair.









Joelle was having a BALL with it. Natalie, not so much. The vibrating of the clipper kinda bugged her - but she was a trooper and tried.

It was all very cute, and I got a pretty good cut too! :)

Boat Buildin'

Between trips this week, the girls were over at their friends house. The friends had made boats and were floating them.











Obviously our girls wanted to 'make a boat.' So we did. I grabbed some wood, cut the shape, drilled the 'mast' hole and the girls sanded it down, colored them and sails.









We glued them together, mounted the sails, let the dry overnight and then the next day filled the wheelbarrel with water and the girls floated their boats! CUTE!!!

Cake Makin

With our birthdays here this past week, the girls wanted to help out making a cake for us. So Doreen and the girls went to the store, picked out a mix and some icing.









They made the cake one day when I was on a trip, then iced it the day I got back and we had a nice dinner and then some yummy cake. Red velvet cake with icing and colorful sprinkles. Wish y'all could have had a taste!

They did a great job!

Double Piggy Back Ride

We've kinda started this new thing lately. After worship we take and put the girls in bed etc, etc.

Well, we're doing this double piggy back thingy and the girls love it! It is a LOT of fun, but I won't be able to do it much longer - they keep getting bigger & bigger, older and older! :(

I'll enjoy it while I can!

Must Be Gettin' Old OR The Mature Person's Eye Chart

Got some nice cards in the mail (Both E-mail & Snail Mail) from friends and family for my birthday. If one of you were one that sent one - thanks.

One that I received, cracked me up! This one folded out in to a full 'poster' with this in it, "The Mature Person's Eye Chart." I got a HUGE kick out of 'reading' it - I hope you do too!!! :)

Growing Family

Back in 2003 (Yup I checked the date on the pic this time - he, he, he) we were on vacation visiting family in Colorado. This day we were at 'church' in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, a beautiful place. I wanted a group photo taken, so we finally got all the kids wrangled and this is what came out.




Just over a month ago, my family came out to TN to visit us. We all had a ball! One thing I wanted again was another group shot - so while we were out and about doing things one day, we happened to be at the Chattanooga Choo Choo and took this group shot. Again we had wrangle the kids, but once we did it - this awesome pic came out of it! What a famliy!

Family, Then & Now

Just looking through more family pictures for the family reunion. Here's my Mom & Dad, twin sisters and me in the 70's. (You can tell by the style of clothes - yick! He, he, he)











Now we zoom forward a few years, and here we are in the 80's. (Again, you can tell by the style of clothes. Cool dude! Yeah, Ok I am biased! He, he, he)










Now we skip a decade and here we all are in 2006.

My how things change!!! :)

Restaurant Review

This afternoon, we took Doreen to Provino's Italian restaurant for her birthday dinner. The best part of it was, on your birthday, you get a free meal.

So, a couple of drivers I know RAVED about this place saying it's the best around.

Ok - we'll give it a shot.

Ok - it was ok, if I had my choice, I'd have preferred Olive Garden! :)

The ambience was AWESOME. The food was ok, the price was a bit high (We paid the same price for 1 adult meal & 2 kid meals as we would have at OG with 2 Adult & 2 kids meals.)- but overall it was an OK experience.

I got the Chicken Brocolli Fettuccini. Very Bland.

At OG, I get the Chicken con Brocolli with Garlic sauce - AWESOME.

I loved the rolls at Provino's. They were the best part if you ask me.

I like trying new places, but hate being let down, so we don't do it much.

It was good to experience this place - once. Unless I really get my arm twisted, I'll probably not go again.

That's my story and I'm stickin too it! :)

Birthday Part 2 OR 18 Years Without, 18 Years With

Today is another special day. It's my precious wife's birthday. That's right, my birthday is May 7 and her's is May 8. The kicker is, she was born a year after me. So she's ALWAYS one year behind me and never catches up. In fact, on the 7th she's a year and a day younger than me. Typically on my birthday, she'll call me "old man" or something along those lines! It's kinda cute!

This birthday marks for her a milestone. She just turned 36. No that's not the milestone, we met the first time when she was 18. 18x2=36, so that means she's known me as long as she hasn't known me. We've been together for 18 years (Dating, Engaged and Married) all together. Next year she'll have been with me longer than she was without me. Kinda interesting eh?

Happy Birthday Sweetie!!!

Early B-Day Present OR 37, OUCH!!!

I have been blessed. I got an early birthday present last week. (I'm typing this b-day blog today because I'm gonna be at work on my birthday! GRIN) I had a trip Saturday night to S OH, got back Sunday night. Then swapped trucks and headed right back out to N OH. Ran the trip and got home by breakfast time Tuesday morning and that was it. No more. (This is me at age 1 I believe.)











I had ALL of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at home! It was like a mini vacation. Paid of course! :) (Me and my Papaw!)














Man, I love my job. I was just reading back over some previous year's posts and boy I got to the point where I hated my old job. As I look back over this previous year, I feel extremely blessed with how thing have happened. Some good, some bad, some up, some down but over all life has been a blessing. (Me at age 2 or 3 standing on the hood of the car at the Denver (Old one) Hair-port (Airport) watching planes land and take off. I LOVED that as a kid. Course, I still LOVE it!)





On Monday I turn 37 and I've had a blessed 36 years! Can't wait for this next year to see what happens!!! :) (Me at age 36, just a couple of weeks ago, on a campout with good friends at Fort Mountain, Georgia.)

Our Family 2007

Our church was putting together a new church directory and we had our pic taken for it. It was also close to Joelle's 6th birthday so we killed two birds with one stone and had her b-day pic taken.

Here's a cutie pic of Joelle & Natalie

And here's the whole clan, a year older! :)

Reliving the Past

Coming up at the end of the month we're having a family reunion in OK for my mom's side of the family. Part of my 'job' for this event is to gather some pics from my direct family and compile them and send them to a cousin for a Saturday night presentation. So that's what I've been doing in my free time lately.

It's been a LOT of fun looking through some of these pictures. Some are absolutely scary (stuff from the 70's) and some humorous, some thoughtful and some just a lot of fun to look at.

These two pics are from my grandma. The top is my Mom, her sister Jane and my Grandma in 1959 with a case of Dr Pepper. The bottom is my Mom, Jane and grandfather swiggin a bottle of DP each!

As I have time I'll put some more of the family pics up - just for fun!

Divine Timing or A Tale of Two Pickups

A couple of years ago I was working for a ministry, not making a lot of money. For 4 years, we'd made it being a one vehicle family, occassionally borrowing a vehicle from my in-laws when the 2nd vechicle became necessary. Doreen was going back to school soon, and things were happening so we were starting to look for a second vehicle.

My parents had just purchased a brand new Dodge pickup to have and to pull their 5th wheel. They wanted to get rid of the old pick-up they had, a 1981 Dodge Powerwagon that had been used hard before my dad got a hold of it. So they asked me if I wanted it - talking about timing - yeah!!!

So they brought it out. We had some stuff to get it legal in Hamilton County, TN. I drove it for quite a while. Used 4WD to pull a trailer with a 25' satellite dish up the side of a mountain. Coolness! It came in handy. Of course it GUZZLED gas, but I wasn't driving too much.

Well, gas prices started climbing steadily, and the girls were getting bigger and I needed something not quite so big to drive back and forth to my new job. My father-in-law found a 1999 Ford Ranger, King Cab, for a steal. We couldn't pass it up. So we bought it.

We tried for a while to sell, Iggy, with little luck. We had a few bites - but nothing serious. Eventually the 'For Sale' window paint came off the windshield, and the battery died, a hose leaked out most of the gas, and I just didn't have the time, energy or interest to do anything with it. So it sat for a while.

The little "For Sale" info sheet I printed off was still in the window, and would get scattered calls on it. Again, Nothing serious.

Well, one day on a trip, I get a call from a guy who's interested. Then we had plans right after I got home, so I couldn't get with him for about a week. When I called him back, he was ready to check it out.

I scrambled, got some gas in it, bought a battery, tighened the hose and a few more things. He took it for a test drive, and wham-o bought it.

Just the day before I'd taken the Ranger into the shop with some complaints about the front end. Turned out, it needed $800 worth of work on it. I believe God had Iggy not sell until we needed the money to cover some work on the Ranger.

What an enormous blessing!!

Don't you just LOVE God's timing??!!

One of Our Own

(NOTICE: This is a 'standing' joke between me and my nephew Brian. In this I am just yanking his leg a little bit. Please just have fun with this!!! GRIN)

[Spoken in the accent Marlen Brando used playing the Godfather!) Family, I must speak to you today of a serious problem with one of our own. It had come to my attention that our beloved Brian has broken with the Family tradition of being a fan of the Denver Broncos. This news was very hard to hear and a blow to the unity of the Family. I spoke with Brian myself to see where his loyaltys lie. I was shocked by the words he spoke to me.

Brian has become an Atlanta Falcons fan. What is worse, he has become a Michael Vick fan. He wears the number 7 in blasphemy to the great Denver Broncos quarterback who wore the number 7 in the 80's and 90's. I bring this up because of some news lately telling of how this Vick fella doesn't always back his team. This is disturbing to me. I also learned more of how he doesn't keep the faith - In March 2005 there was the Ron Mexico suit, in Nov 2006 as he was walking off the field he disrespected his fans by by flipping them the bird, Jan 2007 he was suspected with having disposed of some marijuana, just lately he has been accused of organizing dog fights at his place.


Now I ask you family, is this someone we want one of our own to look up to? Family, implore you, we need to bring this young man back into the the safety and protection of the family. There are serious reprocussions of one leaving the family, especially if he turns against the family. Not being part of the famliy unity we must bring him back.

Family - let us think upon this then decisively act and if he will not return then he must suffer the consequences.







:) He, he, he!

My Nine Names

This one is fun! Give it a try! :)

1. YOUR REAL NAME
Steve

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME (First 3 letters of real name, plus izzle)
Steizzle

3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME (favorite color & animal):
Blue Elephant

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, and childhood street):
Scott Clarkson

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 3 letters of mom's maiden name.)
Pesstsab

6. YOUR SUPERHERO NAME (2nd favorite color & favorite soda)
Orange Dr Pepper

7. YOUR IRAQI NAME (2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, any letter of your middle name, 2nd letter of your moms maiden name, 3rd letter of you dads middle name, ) Sstal

8. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME (grandmother/grandfathers first names)
Nellie Gerald or Florence Elbert

9. YOUR GOTH NAME (black, and the name of one your pets):
Black Mocha

Camping or Birthday #6

Two weekends ago (This is the 1st time I've had time to blog it! He, he, he) we went camping in Ft Mountain, GA. [Yeah, ok Scott being from the Rockies, they're molehills to ya - but they're still beautiful!!! GRIN]











I tell ya we had the most perfect weekend for camping. During the day it was EXTREMELY comfortable, and a night a campfire was just the ticket.












We had so much fun hiking around, finding some Geocaches, eating some deliciously made meals, playing with the kids, sneaking in a nap, taking some pictures, taking in the views from various places, enjoying the company and the pleasant conversation. Man it was awesome!











Snuggled as two bugs in a rug! :)


















Part of the reason we went camping is because it was Joelle's wish for her 6th birthday to go camping, and what a fun time we had. We took some gifts with us, left some at home for later. We made her a simple Cupcake Birthday cake that all enjoyed. (Had a terrible time keeping the b-day candles lit though with the breeze!) It was awesome!




Friday evening as we sat around the fire singing songs, a 'fellow' camper brought us what he called a Canadian Log. (We had a friend with us who is Canadian and she'd never heard of this before.) But the cool thing was, you threw this Canadian Log in the fire and it would burn all sorts of interesting colors, here in the pic you can see green and some blue. It was truly awesome.


I can't wait for the next camp trip - Mid Aug in the Boundary waters of Minnesota and Canada. Woo hoooo!

Mini Vacation?? or Celebration!

I tell ya what, I am blessed!!!

Saturday night I had a run to Southern Ohio, got back Sunday night and had a turn-around run to Northern Ohio. I got back from that one early, early Tuesday morning and my work week is over! Don't have to do anything more, work wise, until next Saturday night - at least.

So, we've been doing stuff like crazy around here. Doreen had her last final for the semester on Monday, so she's free too. It's been great.

Tuesday we got a bunch of little things that needed to be done, done. Today, we mowed, weed wacked, got the blower out and cleaned off the driveway, cut down a broken branch on a tree, cleaned out the gutters until next fall, got both blades of my chain-saw sharpened, ran some errands, went swimming with the family - just LOTS of stuff. Very COOL Day.

Then to make it cooler, Doreen got her letter today from Chattanooga State Dental Hygene Selection Committee. She has been selected to officially enter the program next semester. AWESOME! We really didn't have much doubt, but there was the unknown. 150 people applied, 45 of those were selected for interviews to fill the 18 slots available. I really have an exceptional wife!

Make sure to send her some kudos for doing a great job prepping for this program and getting in.

Wooo hooo.

Also, pray for her - she's got a TON of work to do in the program for the next two years! :)

What a GREAT week!