Second Racquetball League Game

Today right before lunch I had my 2nd game in the racquetball league.

Fun game, challenging game, I got my hiney handed to me! :)

Kevin H won in three games, 15-7 13-15 11-5.

I started really slow. Didn't have much time to warm up, which probably hurt me. Note to self for future games - show up earlier and practice a bit!

The second game I had him down 14-7 and he came all the way back to 13, not good. The third game we stayed tied thru 5 points, then I couldn't return his serve. When I did and when I'd actually get serve back, I'd blow by double faulting or just wiff on a ball.

I did that a bunch today. Gotta maintain more control and hit shots, then once I get that down regularly, then try to work the back corners and low ones.

Well - another good match - got another one next week. It's lots of fun playing against different people with different styles of play. I'm also enjoing playing people better than me so I can get better! Can't wait for the next challenge! We'll see how it goes!

Hopefully I'll win the next one!

125,000 Miles

Just got notice from my employer. I've worked there a 2 years 3 months and I've driven, actual miles that I drove, 125,000 miles. Of course, I've actually traveled in the truck double those miles. Wheeew!

Of course I haven't added up the weight of the snack cakes I've delivered. I'll do that later!

The cool thing is everytime I hit a pre determined milestone I recieve a safety bonus.

So I got a few additonal bucks in my check this week!

Coolness!

First Racquetball League Game

This afternoon I played my first game in our racquetball league. I played a guy named Jeff. We had a fun time. Played 3 games because we wanted to and had time. For the offical league scoring though, I beat him the 1st two games with the exact same score of 15 to 4. That is all that is recorded. For blog purposes I beat him 15-7.

Can't wait to play the next game, hope to have the same outcome! :)

Yeah racquetball!

Having a Ball - Literally!

Saturday night we went out with our 'young adult' Sabbath school class and went bowling.

We had a blast!















The kids were all on one lane and watching them bowl was precious!

















The girls (adult) had one lane and the guys were on the other and all just had lots and lots of fun! We hadn't been bowling since one vacation to Colorado a couple of years ago. My how time flies! :)

Nocturnal Week

This was a tough week at work. On all three of my trips I did all night driving.

Left out Sunday and was in the bunk from 5p to 11:30p. Got up and drove to central Michigan and arrived about 6a. Unloaded the truck with my partner and back in the bunk as he headed south. He ran out of hours at 9 and I was back up at 10, drove to the backhaul, waited 2 1/2 hours to get loaded and then homeward, arriving Tuesday about 5:30am. Tiring.

Slept all morning, up lunch with Doreen, chores & errands, time with the girls and then another 3 hours of sleep.

Tuesday night headed out at 10:30p on a trip to Mississipi. Arrived about 5am and worked - then slept the 4 1/2 hours back home, to arrive about 3 Wednesday afternoon.

Did some stuff around the house and a coordinator at the bakery calls telling me they had a problem and asked if I'd run an extra trip to South Carolina this week. Sure, trip leaves out at 9p my co-driver had been home since the afternoon yesterday and he'd drive out. Fine.

Get there at 9 and find out my co-driver's been home since 6 pm that afternoon and won't have any driving hours back for a while. So I drive out, get to the West side of Atlanta and am so tired I hit a rest area and sleep for two hours. Get up at 2am, and drive another 3 1/2 hours to the drop.

We get unloaded and he drives home. I'm in the bunk.

Today was a catch up day. Just chilled, we got a few things done, but mostly just sitting on around and doing stuff on the computer!

Wheeeeew!

Tired!

Headed to bed now! :)

Good night all! :)

A Good, yet Unexpected Day!

Today, I had to tell the children's story at church and then home for lunch with my in-laws and then back to the church at 4pm for a parenting seminar. Everthing was on schedule right up to lunch. Then right as the meal started I got a call, the power at church went out right after special music. They didn't know if it was gonna come back on, so we cancelled the seminar. It worked out great to just have a family afternoon, the 4 of us with my in-laws.


You'll have to check out my in-laws blog for some pics that my kids took of how they dressed up my father-in-law. But we had some great time to talk, Doreen, Joelle and I had a fun tickle fight and Natalie played numerous games of tic-tac-toe with my father-in-law. (My mother-in-law did a great job of taking these photos.)

I even ended up snoozing for a few moments on the couch.

Even though plans changed - it was a great day!

Report Cards - 2nd Period

Got the girls report cards Friday. Very good news. I wish I would have brought home report cards this good. Would have saved me a LOT of headache or should I say 'butt-ache!' He, he, he! (Sorry Mom & Dad!)

Joelle's Academic achievement scores are ALL the same as the last report - At Grade Level - Proficient. I'm so happy to hear that.

In her Skill/Character development, one section went down a bit, her "Demonstrating Self Control." We're a 'bit' concerned that she's taking after a couple of kids in her class that are kinda interesting! We'll have to work on that one.

Two 'marks' in the same section went up and we are SO excited about that. Attending to Tasks and Using Time Wisely came up and so did Turning in Assignments on Time! Awesome!

Then on Natalie's report, they don't really have 'scores' just comments by her teacher on her progress. The main comment Mrs. A wrote that we're so proud about is, "There's not much change with Natalie other than continued growth and just amazing work. She's so on top of things. Every once and a while, if she's tired (usually in the afternoons) she'll be in a bad mood but she does well to still be kind and obey... She's such a sweety!"

That does a parent's heart good!

"John" Repair

Last spring when my family was out, my dad helped me fix a little problem with our toilet in our half bathroom. It worked for quite a while, but then we'd hear water still dribbling after the tank was finished running. I could tell it was starting to get worse, so I had to fix it.


I got the necessary parts at the local do it yourself place and started right in on it. An hour later - it was fixed. The problem was it was still leaking on the outside now. A hose was leaking, so I went and got a new one, put it in and the whole thing is working great - for now! :)

New Telephone Number, the Short and the Long of it!

Hey, we have a new telephone number. The short of it is, we changed VoiP companies and they couldn't get together and get the number swapped. Oh well. The new number is 423-XXX-XXXX. Yeah, like I'm gonna post that here. You should be receiving an e-mail with the new number in it. If you don't it means we don't have an updated e-mail address for you (Or we just forgot ya! Sorry! :( )so send it to us and we'll get you the new number.

The long of it is, we've been with MyPhoneCompany for over two years. We moved into this house just about two years ago and in the move, I e-mailed them asking them to update our E911 service. Well, I checked a few months later, no change. So I went onto their tech site and twice, asked them to change it. Nothing. Well, remember a while back when Doreen passed out? I called 911 and they got the WRONG address, it was still the old one.

So - I finally 'got round to it' and changed to a much more service oriented company, at least it seems so thus far, Lingo.

I checked with the police office and our 911 info is now correct if the girls have to call in an emergency.

Wheeewww, but what a pain.

When we swapped, we requested the number move with us. We waited a week and checked with Lingo, they were waiting for MPC, nothing. So we finally cancelled the original service and sent the box back and they turned off the service without giving Lingo access to the number.

So - to get the number, MPC has to re-activate it for Lingo to grab it. Yeah - like they're going to do that!!! They couldn't do the easy thing, so why are they gonna go out of their way to do this.

The final outcome is we now have a new telephone number!

Hope to hear from many of you now! :)

Have a great weekend!

Racquetball League

I just signed up for a racquetball league at the recreation center this past week. Never did that before. Hope it's a lot of fun.

Their is 20 of us in the league, and they have us broken up into the best division A, the middle people B and the beginners C. I signed up in the B bracket because I have no idea how I'll measure up against people.

Anyway, got my schedule yesterday, we play everyone once then a double elimination tournament.

I'm really looking forward to it. Good exercise, good fun, new challenge!

Snow Day

So, as true to living in the south, we had a forecast of snow and they FREAK out and shut everything down. Well, almost everything. ALL the schools around today were closed, at least all the elementary and high schools. The funny thing was, we got about an inch of snow last night, but as the night wore on, the temps rose and it turned to rain so there wasn't much snow left.






It was still too much for them 'southerners.' It was a blessing that my schedule was so that I was home today to be able to watch the kids and our friends two kiddos. We had a 'muddy' snowball fight and they tried building a snowman, but that didn't go to well. Still, it was kinda nice to get some of the 'white' stuff this winter!

Favorite T, Lost and Found

I'd been bummed. It was in November, I was looking for my favorite Green Geocaching T-shirt. I couldn't find it anywhere. So I waited a week or two and did another intensive search trying to locate it!

Nothing.

I had NO idea where it was. So I figured that I might have changed somewhere and forgot it!

Bummed I was.

For Christmas, Doreen got me another Geocaching T-shirt, which is super cool. I crack up everytime someone reads it!

I'd forgotten about my other shirt.

Well, we had this Adventurer sleep over and we pulled our sleeping bags out, that we'd not used since the end of October.

When I climbed in mine, I felt a 'lump' at the bottom. Couldn't figure out what it was. So before going to sleep I pulled the lump out. Turned out it was that T-shirt, a pair of shorts, socks and underwear.

I couldn't figure out what the deal was, then it dawned on me.

Our last camptrip out was very cold! So before going to bed that night, I got my next set of clothes out and stuck them in my sleeping bag to be 'warm' while I was sleeping so I wouldn't have to get up in the morning and put on a freezing cold set of clothes.

Well, we got up, I threw on my old set, we broke camp headed home and showered. I was so looking forward to that shower, I had forgotten all about the clothes I'd stuffed in my bag.

The good thing is, now I have another geocaching T-shirt.

Coolness!

New Diet Plan?

GOT THIS AS AN E-MAIL FORWARD FROM A FRIEND. I LAUGHED SO HARD! SO I WANT TO SHARE IT IN HOPES THAT IT'LL PUT A SMILE ON YOUR FACE TODAY!

The Purina Diet

I was in Wal-Mart buying a large bag of Purina for my dog Lola and was
in line to check out. A woman behind me asked if I had a dog........Duh!

I was feeling a bit crabby so on impulse, I told her no, I was
starting The Purina Diet again, although I probably shouldn't because
I'd ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50 pounds
before I awakened in an intensive care unit with tubes coming out of
most of my orifices and IV's in both arms.

Her eyes about bugged out of her head.

I went on and on with the bogus diet story and she was totally buying
it. I told her that it was an easy, inexpensive diet and that the way it
works is to load your pockets or purse with Purina nuggets and simply
eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The package said the food is
nutritionally complete so I was going to try it again.

I have to mention here that practically everyone in the line was by
now enthralled with my story, particularly a tall guy behind her.

Horrified, she asked if something in the dog food had poisoned me and
was that why I ended up in the hospital.

I said no.....I'd been sitting in the street licking my butt when a car
hit me.

I thought the tall guy was going to have to be carried out the door.


WAAAAA HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!!!!

Fun Night or No Sleep

We had a GREAT weekend. Both Doreen and I had responsibilites at church, then home for lunch and some family time. We snuck in naps, then headed back to church with a trunk full of 'gear' for an Adventurer sleepover.






We got there and put our stuff up, then hung out. After a bit, we had a meal, worship and then went over to the school gym for two hours of vigiorus games.









Course, we came back over to the fellowship center, and played another hour of games capped off with a gigantic pillow fight. Then we all settled down and watched CARS and finally crashed about 11:45p. It took a while for everyone to finally fall asleep then up at 7:30, breakfast, more games in the gym while clean up was being taken care of, practice for Adventurer Sabbath then home!

At home we just chilled! Oh yeah!

It was a very good weekend.

Oh yeah, and we did get some sleep. (Some other parents did not.)

Last Truck In

Got home at 3p today from a run. This was the latest I've ever been home on a Friday.

My run was a relay out to our Arkansas plant. I was to meet another driver at a Transfer Point, swap trailers and come home.

I was scheduled out Thursday at 9am. To the transfer point it's about 500 miles. So I got to the yard at 8a to get the tractor and trailer hooked up and get my gear in the truck.

Got my gear in the tractor, and couldn't find the trailer. Turns out it is still in route from a pick-up in NC. The guy wasn't in any hurry.

He got in to the yard at 11:20am. I dropped the trailer, swapped tractors, and off I went.

Ran out and partway back, shut down for my DOT manditated 10 hours, then got up and boogied home.

About 40 minutes before getting in, a dispatcher called asking for my ETA, yup, I'm the last truck in.

It's good to be home! :)

Have a great weekend!

Compressor's Shot!

Just before Christmas our furnace starting acting up a bit. It would heat the house, slightly, then stop heating and just blow cold air.

I called a 'guy' and never heard back from him. Guess he didn't want the business.

Besides, it was right before Christmas and I didn't figure it would be easy to get someone out, or without charging extra cuz of the holiday.

So we kinda waited.

Well, after New Years, I called a different place and the guy came out today.

He ran about 6 tests on our furnace and it came down to the compressor, you know the one inside the condensor unit.

Arghhh!

Not to mention, since the compressor's not been working, the furnace has been using the heater coils in it to heat the place, using a TON more electricity than usual. OUCH!!!! Oh well!

So we've got to replace the condensor which is a 4 digit job. So I checked to see what a new condensor would be, just a bit more, but the problem is, our unit was made in 2001 and two years ago they changed some major stuff on all furnaces to make them more efficient etc and to pay the extra would be worthless cuz it would take some extra work to make it compatable with the rest our system and not really be that useful.

That means we're back to having 'the guy' come out and replace the compressor in the condensor on either Thur or Fri.

I guess that's the just one of the lows of home ownership! :(

The whole good thing in this is I am extremely thankful that the temps outside here have been between the high 40's and 60's. That's much better than bein' below freezing like it was just a week ago!

More news after the 'job' is done!

New Do!

Doreen's been talking about getting a new hairdo for months. But with school, studying and life going on, she hasn't had the time to find a good stylist. Then she found a couple of ladies in the church who she really liked the way their hair was done, so she talked with them.






Well, before the holidays she called to make an appointment and could only get in this week. So she went in an got an awesme cut. She really liked the stylist and I think she did a great job. She's got to do a couple of things to it she didn't before, but she's getting used to it and it looks great!

Oh by the way, she went shopping today and got this new shirt. Looks great on her!

Party Fun!

So one of the kids friends had a birthday party at Pump It Up. It was a TON of fun, as usual.











The girls had a blast jumping, sliding, rolling and running around.

















Of course I got in on the 'activities' running through the obstacle course!













And to end the evening, my girls landed the knock-out punch!