Parent Teacher Conferences

Monday was our first Parent Teacher Conferences.

It was an interesting experience. I kinda went in apprehensive as to how the girls were actually doing.

Come to find out, they are both doing FANTASTIC!

Natalie was a bit frustrated at the beginning, but after her teacher created her an ABC book to work 'at her own pace' she has settled right in and is going GREAT!

Joelle had nothing but high marks, except being able to focus. She gets distracted so easily, it makes it a challenge in the classroom with some roudy kids in the room.

Overall though, both my girls are little angels and learning excellently!

Coolness!!!

Campout

This past weekend we had our last camptrip of the year at Chilhowee Campground. The cool thing is that it's on a mountain that's about 1000 feet higher than where we live. It literally was 'cooler' and felt great.

We also celebrated Natalie's 5th birthday there. Actually we had 4 people in our group that had birthdays, so we celebrated them all together. It was a great time!



On a hike, Joelle climbed to the top of this rock and said, 'Daddy, take a picture.' She was already posed and set to go. Couldn't help myself but snap a pic! CUTE!
















Some of our group brought about 3 hammocks and the kids had a ball playing in them - as Natalie is here!

Kittens & Artsy Fartsy

Some kittens were dropped at a 'farm' right next to my inlaws place. Three precious little balls of fur. Everytime we go over there - the girls are drawn to them. They are cute. I even pet them, then run in the house to wash my hands because I'm deathly allergic to 'em! :)







One day this summer, we were lighting off fireworks. Natalie, of course, took a moment out and found this little flower to carry around. She put it down and wanted a pic, so voila! :)

Grandparents Day

Last week, at the girls school, was grandparents day. They had a Luau! Looks like they had a LOT of fun, some yummy eats and precious entertainment!


Here's Natalie with her teacher, Mrs. A.

Very Nice!

A 'Daffy-nition' of Me & The Fam.

How Will You Be Definined in a Dictionary?

Steve --

[adjective]: Extremely extreme!

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Doreen --

[adjective]: Pretentiously academian

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Joelle --

[adjective]: Banshee-like

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Natalie --

[adjective]: Fuzzy to the touch

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Just WRONG!!!!

See this Jelly Belly jellybean? Yesterday as I was driving, I had a small bag of Jelly Belly's. In that bag I ran across a number of jellybeans that were this color. Do you know what the flavor of this colord Jelly Belly is? Popcorn. That's right, I said popcorn. Now, understand that I thoroughly enjoy popcorn, the flavor and the texture of actual popcorn.

To have a jellybean that has the popcorn flavor, that is just plain WRONG. No jellybean should have a popcorn flavor - especially when you pop two or three jellybeans in your mouth at the same time. You get two yummy flavors and one that clashes with the other flavors terribly.

I'm thinking about protesting the Jelly Belly Popcorn flavor! Well, maybe not, but I guarantee, when I see this color on a Jelly Belly - I will NOT be eating it!!! :)

YUCKY!

(GRIN)

"Super" Daughters

I've got some 'super' daughters. Yes, the double entente was intended! :)

Enjoy! :)

Super Saturday!

What a GREAT day!

Well, this shot wasn't today. Just to lazy to post a second post tonight! :) Here's my little monkey Joelle climbin the tree!










After church we had some friends over after church for lunch, then decided to go do some geocaching. This is at the very beginning. Found 6 today. Coolness!










Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's up the trail we go!



















Natalie cooling our friend down with her wind-up fan! Cute!


















One of our finds. Oh yeah!













Takin' a little rest on the way back.














Singin a few song for worship before playing some games.

2 Year Anniversary

I just realized that as of the 17th, I've been at this job for two years now. MAN - time has just zoomed by!

Things have been great for all of us since taking this job! I love it - it's hard work - but oh well!!!

No stress, time at home, extra pay, a fun job. What more could one ask for? Probably lots but I'm content!

Ok - check this out. In the last two years - here are some interesting numbers!

2 years
252 Trips (Approximately)
252,000 Miles Traveled
705,600 Cases Moved
10,080,000 Pounds of snack cakes delivered.

Woah!!!!

WOAH!!!!!!!

Here's to next year!!!

Daddy Daughter Day (Like that Alliteration? GRIN)

Fall break is here. Doreen had the beginning of the week of and Joelle & Natalie have the 2nd part of this week off from school.

Things worked out on my trips just perfectly, so that I could be home on their days off. I didn't even ask for it - it just happened.

So, they've been doing so great in school and I wanted to do some fun stuff with them for fun.


We started out today making Jack-O-Lanterns.













Now one thing you have to understand, Joelle HATES sticking her hands on the inside of a pumpkin. For all her 'tomboyishness' she hates getting the guts out of a pumpkin. Found some latex gloves for her, 10 sizes too large, but she did it.








Pumpkin guts!













Once we got the carving done, the girls had more fun playing with the cut-out eyes, nose and mouth of the pumpkin. So here they are 'trying on' the smiles!










Natalie's posing with the pumpkin dudes!













Joelle posing with them in her own way. (See the HUGE difference in the personallities of my kiddos??)

After we got everything cleaned up from that, we went to watch a new movie we recently picked up, "The Secret of the Cave." It was a 'little' old for them, but I think they got it in the end!






When the movie finished, it was time for lunch. Joelle's putting her touches on our pizza.











Natalie added her style to lunch.














Salad makers!















The finished product.













Here's our pizza, just before we devour it!!!













After lunch was over, we went to Burger King to get 1 chocolate shake and 1 strawberry shake, a medium order of fries and a water. Then we went in the playplace, share the shakes and fries, then the girls go play in the playplace and had a BALL! (It was raining here today, so a perfect day to play inside.)

After we left there we ran some errands, got home, put stuff away then played for a bit till Doreen gets home.

It was a GOOD day!

Loopers

A special package arrived for Doreen today. It's something she needs for Dental Hygene. It's basically safety glasses with these funky magnifying glasses to help her see things while working in someone's mouth.














Here's she's checking them out on a bag of Mini-Chocolate Morsels!

Loopy! :)

Quarterly Back-Up

After hearing multiple stories from family and friends losing stuff saved on a computer, I started a regimine of regularly backing up the information every quarter.

So, September has passed, that means we're into the 4th quarter of the year.

Got in from a trip last night at mightnight, did a few things on the computer and then started the 'D' drive back-up. It was all done this morning.

Sweetness. All those pics, letters and stuff for church that I've done/saved on the computer are now backed-up.

Now I've got to post here and then back up this site. (Doreen really suggested it cuz there is SO much stuff to remember in life and keeping it in this journal is nice!)

I'll get it going and then off to bed!

3 Things to Ponder

Got this from a friend, Angelia, on myspace. Got a KICK out of it! :) Hope you do too!

:)

Three Things to Ponder:

1. Cows

2. The Constitution

3. The Ten Commandments



Cows
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that our government can track a single cow born in Canada almost three years ago; right to the stall where she sleeps in the state of Washington ? And, they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give each of them a cow.



The Constitution
They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq . Why don't we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it has worked for over 200 years, and we're not using it anymore.




The Ten Commandments
The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse is this: You cannot post "Thou Shalt Not Steal," "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery", and "Thou Shall Not Lie" in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians. It creates a hostile work environment.

To Your Health

We've got a guy in church that is going through a TON of health problems. Seems he's always taking time off from work for one thing or another.

Then I start looking around, as I watch some truckers waddle up to a truck-stop, in a grocery store or people walking around in a mall, and there are a bazillion people over-weight, seriously so, or out of shape, and that's just in the little 'berg' where I live.

A while back, we did some walking and it flat wore me out.

So when the girls started school, I started going to the local rec center to exercise, to get into decent physical health.

I hate seeing my friend in church go through all the pain he deals with. I'd like to avoid that if I can and a couch potato life won't help avoid that life.

I've already lost a few pounds. When I stared I was pushing 214, now as of today's weigh-in, I'm down to 207.

When we do anything physically exerting, I notice that I don't get winded as easy as I used to.

You know, it's hard eating a healthy diet on the road as a truck-driver. I try taking lots of fruits and veggies and eat a little better.

But if I'm gonna live a decent life - I'm gonna have to exercise regularly to offset the bad food I get out there.

That's ok though - suprisingly enough - I enjoy it!

To your health!!!

:)

Making the world a better place???

At the rec center where we go to exercise and what not, one of the showers, the one I typically use, had 2 little used up - but not completely - bars of soap on the top of the shower.

I've been going there for weeks/months and everytime, they're still there.

Finally a couple of weeks ago, I was starting to feel irritated because the 'employee' who cleans the bathroom wasn't doing a good job. All three times I was there that week it's like, "Dude - come on do your job!"

The next week when I went in, sure enough, the soaps were still there. I started to feel annoyed again, then a thought came into my head, "You're a big boy, why can't you just do it?"

"Cuz I'm not being paid to keep this place clean," was the reply to myself.

"So," I replied. "If it was you cleaning this place, wouldn't you appreciate the help?"

"I wouldn't miss it if I were cleaning the place," I retorted, "yeah - you're right, I'd appreciate it."

"Ok" then take the 15 seconds it'd take to get a papertowel scoop 'em up and trash them. Do it just because you want to help make the world a little better place around you, even for something as small as this."

"Fine!"

So I did - and when I see little things like that, instead of just maybe kicking a piece of trash laying somewhere, I'll pick it up and dispose of it.

Imagine if ALL off us did that - what a much better place this world would be!!!

Something to think about...

World Series Bound!!!

It has been a MOST Awesome run. With 2 weeks left in the regular season, the Colorado Rockies were out of the playoffs by 4 games. Most people had factored them out of the playoffs.


Since then the Rockies have caught fire and won the last 21 of 22 games, including 7 playoff games to get to the 2007 MLB World Series. Now we just wait to see who they face - the Cleveland Indians or the Boston Redsocks.

Way to go Rockies!

Booo yah!!!

Adventurer Camping Adventure

This past weekend was our church's Adventurer campout. The girls really looked forward to it. We all did. It's been a while since we've been camping. It was a good camp-trip as we look back on it. The only real problem was it was in the 30's Friday night. COLD. The girls were great, but Doreen and I didn't sleep too good. Plus, I also had to leave early for another responsibility at church Sabbath afternoon and then a trip for work Sat night. That was a bummer. Here I am helping someone setup a tent.







We actually camped near one of our members house in a big field they have. They had a trampoline nearby and of course that was a big draw for the kids ALL weekend.









A shot of tent city, with another couple of tents on the other side of the driveway.










Doreen, in the hat, is helping to make breakfast. YUMMY! Camping food is ALWAYS better!










Natalie's checking out a rock she is going to make into a Ladybug, to get her Ladybug honor.


















Joelle's making her own little fire. She's a little fire freak! :)












Gotta throw in a couple of 'artsy fartsy' pics for good measure. Here's the Adventurer & USA flags.












One of the families setting up their tent as the sun begins to settle in the west.

Bibles

Don't remember what the reason was, but for the last couple of weeks the girls, especially Joelle, has been asking for a Bible.

It would have been a good gift for Christmas, but that's too far away and if the girls want a Bible - a Bible they will get!!! :)

Love Languages

The Five Love Languages

My primary love language is probably
Physical Touch
with a secondary love language being
Words of Affirmation.

Complete set of results

Physical Touch:		9
Words of Affirmation:		8
Receiving Gifts:		6
Quality Time:		4
Acts of Service:		3

Information

Unhappiness in relationships, according to Dr. Gary Chapman, is often due to the fact that we speak different love languages. Sometimes we don't understand our partner's requirements, or even our own. We all have a "love tank" that needs to be filled in order for us to express love to others, but there are different means by which our tank can be filled, and there are different ways that we can express love to others.

Take the quiz

Expensive Bump

A couple of weeks ago, while I was on a trip, Doreen called. During the course of the conversation she said, "So I was in the parking lot at Wal-Mart and bumped the mirror and it broke off." Talking about the drivers side mirror.

I asked what she hit, and she told me know, she barely bumped it with her hip as she was walking around the car to get in and it fell off.

Well - how irritating.

After I got home, I looked at it and sure enough all three plastic eyelits where the bolts go through to mount it to the car were broken. My guess is someone hit it pretty hard, rested it there and when she bumped it - boom it fell off.

Oh well - so I'll just get another one and put it back on.

By the way, this mirror has a power remote to move it to the angle you want to be able to see behind you while driving.

$75 dollars and 4 days later I had a new one and got it put on.

Man, I never realized how much I drive looking out my mirrors. When I was driving the car with that one gone, I'd look over to check behind me and - nothing.

Glad to have the new one on now!

No more bumps! :)

Spelunking

Another 1st.

This past weekend we got to take the girls on another first experience for them, caving, spelunking. Now they'd been in two other caves, both of them were 'commercial' ventures. #1 - was the Lost Sea, which is America's Largest Underground Lake and the 2nd was Ruby Falls, a cave that has a beautiful water falls in it. This was the first time we actually got to explore a cave on our own.

On the campus of Southern, they have a cave that is rich with history dating all the way back to the Civil War...


...in fact, it's right through that little 2 ft by 2 ft hole behind us as we prepare to go in.














Doreen, Joelle & Natalie in a hole in the ground once we went through the hole!













In one of the little side rooms along the main hall of the cave, Joelle & Natalie found this odd shaped stalagmite.



















Doreen's crawling through one of the tighter sections
of the cave.










Joelle & Natalie where the floor meets the roof. Not a lot of room there.













The Pesters four enjoying some good family time in a nice cool cave on a hot Tennessee afternoon.














Joelle & Natalie after we're all done showin off all the mud we slogged through!

It was a blast though!