Productive Week OR Getting My Daughters Fingerprinted

This week was our first run on my regular route at work. Not it wasn't officially our 'bid' yet because the lady who has the paperwork has been on vacation. But we did take our trips.

I leave Saturday night and take ingredients to our Virginia plant, then swap trailers and run on up to Mechanicsburg, PA with a couple other cities there as well. Then we empty out, go back to our VA plant, swap trailers for another one full of different ingredients to bring back home. Get back Monday morning 6am-ish.

Then after a few hours at home, I get in another truck and head to central/southern Illinois. We leave around 9p and get back home on Tuesday between 8p and midnight. Another nice trip.

So, once I take those two trips - I am completely done for the week and except for the times I take a 3rd trip, I'll be home Wednesday, Tursday and Friday.

It was nice this week, got LOTS done around here. Course we still got TONS more to do - but it is EXTREMELY nice having a regular schedule. Aaahhhhhh!!!

Doreen started back to school fulltime on Monday. Tuesday in one of the lectures they talked about ALL they were required to do to graduate. Oh my goodness - it's a ton of stuff and it's kind of weighing heavy on Doreen's mind right not, but having a long weekend off will help - then I figure she'll do like she did at the same time last year with the same circumstances, just take one assignment or project and one day at a time and she'll do great!

For the last year or so, I've had these Child Identification - Fingerprint America booklets sitting on our desk. Basically, you fingerprint your kids, pull some DNA (Hair) and tape it to it, then fill in some detailed info on your kid - "Just In Case" something happens and you need info on your kid fast. The good intention has been to fill these out and put 'em in our safe.

Procrastination!

We finally got them done this afternoon. They both loved the fingerprinting thingy. They didn't like the pulling out of a couple hairs though.

Hope and pray we never need these things! But in case we do - we got 'em and GOT 'em done!

Kyaking - The Best Laid Plans...

Yesterday evening, I was going to go kyaking with a group of guys from a Bible Study Class. We were going to kyak on Nickajack lake. At one end of this lake is a huge cave, wtihin that cave is thousands of bats on the endangered list. Thing is, every evening they come out and fly around eating, etc and it's a TON of fun to watch.




Thing is, we got there on time and waited for the guide to show up with the kyaks. They never got there. Fortunatly, we had not yet paid. Unfortunately two other groups were their waiting, that had paid. So the whole thing was kinda fishy. After a phone call, we found out they weren't coming. How disappointing.






So we walked out to a point near the cave and waited for the bats to show. Sure enough about dusk they come out and start swirling around. It's amazing they did't run into each other.

Gotta go back sometime and get in some sort of boat and watch it from the river. That would be cool!!!

Even though we didn't get to kyak it was still a very enjoyable time!

Kindergarten Pool Party

Today, Natalie's Kindergarden class had a field trip, a pool party to a classmates house. Just a chance to get to know each other better and for parents to interact a bit more.








It was a lot of fun. Natalie had been watching Diving on the Olympics so she wanted to 'dive with almost no splash." She did very well.










Later on we tried a bit fancier Olympic dive couple of times. CUTE, CUTE, CUTE!!!



.














Doreen was there, unfortunatly not feeling well, so she sat on the side talking with the teacher and her aide and a couple other parents.

A good time was had by ALL! :)

Pro Racquetballer

This evening, I got my hiney handed to me playing a Semi-pro Racquetball player.

At our gym, they've brought in a guy to connect with our racquetball players to see if they'd like to take lessons.

This guy is ranked in the 40's in Tennessee in the racquetball sanctioned world.

He had me runnin' all over that court. Got some EXCELLENT exercise though! He, he, he!

We had some time to talk and he gave me some tips that I hope will make my game better. Hopefully!

It was a good time though!

Loggin

We've got a friend that had a tree fall in his yard during a storm a while back. He got most of it cleaned up, but had a section he needed finished because the chainsaw died before he could finish. So I told him I'd get my saw out there and finish it up. That was a little while ago. Every time I'd drive past his place, I'd see that tree and say 'Oh yeah.'

Today we finally got that project done. We picked the girls up from school, changed, loaded up our tools and over to his place.

Project completed!

Here's Joelle giving me a hand with the saw. She helped a couple other cuts too.















Natalie gave it a try - once and that was enough for her. :)

High/Low - New Blogging Feature

At our Sabbath school a few weekends ago, during our prayer request time, the people who were teaching had us do something instead. We did High/Low.

Basically we all went around and shared with the class what may have been a low in our lives during the prevous week and what was a high. Course, if you don't have one or the other - just pick one. No prob. It was really enlightening into our classmates and we liked it so much we brought it home to share with our daughters.

They too thoroughly enjoyed it. Sometimes we forget and they remind us. Sometimes they tell us what their high and low was, then remember something after we've moved to someone else and they interrupt and share another high.

Precious.

So - watch for Highs and Lows on here when they're something worthy of sharing!

Draw Partner

At Chuck E Cheese they have this little machine, that for a token, it'll take your pic and turn it into a drawing. We tried getting all for of us in, but our heads were all too big.

So - we did it in couples, here's Joelle and Natalie - PRECIOUS!




Here are Doreen and I. We kinda had to scrunch down a bit - but not too bad all things considered!

Special Music OR Hide and Go Seek

Today was kinda cool!

For starters, Doreen played her Marimba for Special Music at Church. She doesn't do that, that often and when she does I thoroughly enjoy it!

The only problem she had today was the wind from the ceiling fans blew her music off the stand. Oops! She did great!




My in-laws came over for lunch and we had quite a good conversation etc. After they left our family played some hide and seek in the house. Their is a 7 year old girl hiding in this photo, can you find her? :)

Yup, you found where I hid her once, on top of the refrigerator.













Their is a 5 year old girl hiding in this area - can you spot her? How 'bout a hint, look for the shadow of a hand.












Yup - you found her. She was hid behind the blinds in the basement. It has a wider ledge and just enough room for her to lay there.

It was extremely cute and fun today with my family!

Automobile Makes

Question - can you name all the Auto Maker Emblems in the collage above?

Well, Joelle can!

Towards the middle of the summer, Joelle began showing an interest in the different makes of cars and wanted me to tell her what each car was as it passed us - so we started doing that.

Now she can name you every make of car shown above and probably some others - it is extremely precious!

Oh by the way - her favorite? The Pontiac!

Auto emblem key - L to R, top to bottom...
Cadillac, Honda, Chrysler, BMW, VW
Ford Mustang, Pontiac, Ford, Chevy, Mitsubishi
Suzuki, Dodge, Toyota, Subaru, Acura
Lexus, Buick, Lincoln, Oldsmobile, Jaguar
Jeep, GMC, Land Rover, Mozda, Volvo

Musical Learing

A couple of weeks ago, Doreen was talking to some friends at church and they told her about some software to teach young kids all about music. Joelle's wanting to play the trumpet in the school band when she gets old enough - we're just not ready for 'lessons' for her yet. Natalie is already taking 'recreational' piano lessons from her Papa. He's just doing it for fun and just because she asked him to teach her. It's extremely cute!

So we found a brand new piece of this software for an excellent deal on Ebay. Got it loaded up yesterday and the the girls went through the 1st two lessons, as did I.

It's actually kinda fun. They picked it up pretty quickly too. It will be interesting to see how they do and if it helps them when they actually start taking lessons and playing an instrument!

Oh yeah - the software is called Music Ace Deluxe.

"Rock On!" :)

He, he, he!

"Let's Get Physical"

Yesterday, I had a chance to get back to exercising at our local gym. This summer has been extremely busy (See 1st day of school post) and so after returning from Colorado, I just never had a chance to get back into the gym.

Of course we did some swimming, and much of the time while the girls were playing, Doreen and I would be treading water in the deep end to get in some physical activity. Man, that actually is really good exercise.

So, a year ago, when I started exercising regularly at our gym I was over 214 lbs. By the time school was out and we left for CO, I was down to 202, just couldn't get under that 200 lb mark. One time at the gym in the middle of the summer I weighed myself and I had unintentionally jumped back up to 208. Oops, too much eating of the wrong stuff and not enough exercising or work! :)

Well, with swimming and watching what I was eating I'm starting to get a little better, I'm at 204 and I'm hoping by Christmas time, with some consistant exercising to get under 200 for the first time in years.

That's my goal, we'll see!

I Dislike Olympic Judges!

So, I'm sitting here catching up on some blogging I needed to catch up on, with the Olympics on.

Well, a female American gymnast just performed on the balance beam, Shawn Johnson. She did a tough routine and had two little 'balance checks' and a step on her dismount. She got a mediocre score.

Another gymnast just performed and just gettiing up on the thing bobbled badly, had a number of 'balance checks' failed to connect a couple of elements and had an easier dismount and a bigger step on the dismount. This little gymnast from the 'host' nation just got a much higher score.

Man, I HATE THAT! I hate the subjectiveness of Olympic judging and how crooked it seems. It is not fair to the competitors and just annoys the heck out of Olympic fans!

Argh!!!!

Ok - got that out of my system - thanks! :)

1st Day of School - Part 2008

Monday, Joelle and Natalie started school.

They were SO excited and I was excited for them. Wish I could have been home, but Doreen got to take them and see the rooms and greet the teachers and stuff.

I am SO thankful my girls really enjoy school. Now if we can just keep that up for the next 10 years! :)

Man, where did the summer go. Just a few short days after school let out, we took off for a 3 week vacation to Colorado and after returning - Cue the music 'Flight of the Bumblebee" - things just got crazy with family visiting, responsibilities and activities planned that just chewed up our summer and just spit it out.

Oy!

Ok - let's go with where we are now and HOPEFULLY things will slow down a bit! :)

Boating Before the DH Flood

Sunday, Doreen and some of her classmates got together for one final day of fun before the crazyness starts. They still had a week left before some preliminary meetings and then the start of the madness that is the 2nd year of Dental Hygiene school.







One of the things they did was to pull a tube behind the boat and they all took a turn - looks like she's having a bunch of fun!

(BTW - Thanks L & S for watching the girls - it's nice she could have a bit of free time to relax before heading back to classes.!)

2 Computer Problems

Sunday, between returning from a Knoxville, TN trip at 7:30a and leaving on a Saginaw, MI run at noon, I stopped at the computer for a second to check e-mail and transfer the old trip off my GPS and put on the new one.

While I was transferring, I tried logging on to the www. No luck - so I tried looking around to see what the problem was. Found it. Computer problem #1 - equipment error. Our cable modem was dead.

So I called our provider and they couldn't do anything until Monday, and we'd just need to bring the old, dead one in and they'd swap it out for a new, working one.

Ok - a project for Doreen since I was going to be in central MI.

Computer problem #2 - Operator error. While I was on the phone, I was transferring and hit the wrong button. Oh My Goodness. I accidentally deleted the file, which I did not have backed up, with ALL the drops, pick-ups and fuel stops I'd been to in the last two years. Over 470 waypoints deleted - forever.

AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!

I absolutely HATE it when I do that. So I've started a new one for all the drops I go to now. Which I now am backing up regularly.

Oh well.

On a little side note, Doreen picked up the new modem, got it all hooked up, called and got an idiot customer service rep who asked a BUNCH of nonsense questions - totally unrelated to what she needed to do.

So Doreen called me to get the info, she called our ISP back and got a different CSR who asked one or two questions, then got us connected.

I'm so proud of my girl for gettin' that done all by herself!

Now - for NO more computer problems for a while would be great! :)

Expectations? (joke)

Two girlfriends are on vacation when they see a five-story store advertising men for sale. They go in and see a first-floor sign that reads "All the men on this floor are short and ugly."

The women decide to take the elevator to the next floor. There the sign reads, "All the men here are short and handsome."

This isn't good enough, so the women continue up. On the third floor the sign reads, "All the men here are tall and ugly."

The women want to do better so they keep going. On the fourth floor the sign reads, "All the men here are tall and handsome."

The women get excited but decide to see what's on the fifth floor. There they find a sign that reads, "No men here. This floor was built to prove there's no way to please a woman."

________

--Um hummmm! :)

Summer Sendoff Part 2008

Friday was our official Summer Sendoff Celebration. We started a tradition last year, that the last Friday before school starts, we hit an ice-cream joint.









Well, this year we added a bit more, a stop to Chuck E Cheese. We also added some extra celebrationers, my-inlaws. Here's Joelle hugging that big 'ole rodent! :)


















I was suprised that Natalie was actually willing to give Chuck 'E Cheese a hug. She'd never, to the best of my recollection, never been willing to give him a hug before. It was truly precious!














Here's the 4 of us in front of the mechanical Chuckie.












Natalie's trying to 'Whack a Mole' and wacking them for all she was worth!











Joelle's feeding tickets to the "Muncher" to count the number of tickes we won.

















Then this year, for our Summer Sendoff Ice-cream, we went to a Marble Slab Cremery. YUMMY!

As we take a sec to look back, man was it a good summer. Seemed to short, but I guess that's all perspective!

Now, tomorrow, 'Back to school!'

15 Anniversary Celebration - Finally

19 Days late, Doreen and I were finally able to properly celebrate our 15th anniversary! We 'bartered' some babysitting time with some friends, thank y'all, and took off for Thur and part of Fri.

Thursday, we got up and ate with the kiddos, then dropped them off, hopped in the truck and took off for downtown Chattanooga.

There we jumped on our bikes for a nice ride. The day way cool but sunny in the morning as we rode the trail along the Chattanooga River Park. Man was it beautiful.
At one point we saw a turtle with a shell the size of a hubcap sunning himself on a log. He dove into the water as I neared to snap a pic. It was a fun ride, where we traveled over 14 miles. (Boy where our tushies starting to get sore!)

After the bike ride, we returned back to the pick-up, parked our bikes and hopped on the paddleboat, the Southern Belle, for a sandwhich lunch buffet and 1 1/2 tour up the Tennessee river. What an awesome trip was. The food wasn't too bad either!

When we returned from that trip, we got back on our bikes and rode over the walking bridge and checked out a couple ecclectic shops, just for the fun of it. We did a bit more riding, then headed back.

We loaded up the bikes and hit our downtown hotel, thankfully the room was ready, because it had started to rain and was keeping up a steady pace.

Inside we played a few games of Set (Doreen beat me on all three) - then took short nap. When the alarm rang, we got up and headed out for a Mexican restaurant. After asking for directions, we found this place. Man was it the best food!

Back downtown for a leisurly stroll around some new construction, then back to the walking bridge to watch 3 yachts dock. That was interesting!

Then back down the hill to the Bijou 7 theater to watch "Batman - The Dark Knight." Great movie, a bit long and extremely dark. Pretty good though.

Friday, we got up and ate breakfast, then back to the room for more of the game Set, of the three we played I only won 1. Oh well!

After 10a we arrived at the TN Aquarium to enjoy the sites w/o having to keep track of the kids every 5 secs. The penguins were hilarious. One was swiiming back af fourth so fast while jumping out of the water! Too good!

After that we went to the Northgate mall to wander a bit - then over to Chuck E Cheese to meet up with our girls and my in-laws for a summer sendoff celebration!

What an awesome day!!!

Happy Birthday - Twice!

Just wanted to take a moment and wish my twin sisters, Cindi and Staci and very happy birthday today. They're another year older! Course - they're still my sisters and I love them very much!















I just wish they'd quit having birthdays and forcing me to move forward and have another birthday! :) HE, he, he!

In pic #1 - My sisters are 6 months old. (Staci L and Cindi R)

In Pic #2 - My sisters and I right after they got home from the hospital. (I was 3 then!)

Happy Birthday sisters!!!

Island Hopping

Bet you didn't know we could do 'island' hopping here in Tennessee, did ya?! :) Well we can. Recently we climbed aboard this ferry called the 'Fat Cat' on the Tennessee River and went out to an 18 acre island.








It was a fun little ride. It took less than 5 minutes to get from the dock to the island, but all the while a new experience for Joelle and Natalie.















Joelle was poking her head out this porthole.


















Natalie wanted to practically hang completely out it! :)
















This island is protected by the Audubon Society and it has lots of birds on it. It has 1.5 miles of hiking trails and a campground, canoe racks and a campfire pit. It also has 4 geocaches. Of which we only had time to find two. (The boat comes round every 45 min and we needed to be on the next one!) It truly is a beautiful location though.











Thought my in-laws would appreciate this photo. They just celebrated their 40th anniversary and their kids planned an outing for them, including a nite in this Inn. Now they can see it from the North side.













Their were probably less than 10 other people on the island while we were on it. With all the growth and foliage and sounds, it felt as though we were explorers finding someplace brand new. It was awesome!








Also a plus was the ride on the ferry back to the dock, we circled all the way around the island, so we could see from the water side, where we hiked too all the way to the other end of the island. What a fun day!

New Toy - Underwater Camera Bag

Next month, if all things work out, I'll be going on a day kayak trip with a men's ministry group. I wanted to take the camera and keep it protected, so I ponied up for an underwater camera bag. One day this week we went swimming and I wanted to test it out. Here's Joelle waving at ya underwater.





Natalie smiling - underwater style! It worked great in the fact that it kept our camera completely dry! Yes. However...










...sometimes the screen was hard to see - so you'd just be pointing at where you thought you wanted to shoot and snap a pic - sometimes they didn't come out as well as planned! :)









Got the girls diving off the diving board, of which they both do so well.












In fact, we just went swimming today with some friends of the girls and both my kiddos swam better than their older counter-parts. I'm so extremely proud of them!!!

The Passing of a Generation

Time constantly moves on and waits for no man!

Yesterday on the way home from a trip to Michigan, I was asleep in the bunk of a truck. I'd driven all night then worked the better part of the day - so I was bushed. Dad called about 6ish with the news that my Great Uncle Walt had passed away that morning. I got the basics, then went back to sleep. Later, when it was my turn to drive, I called him back and now that I was awake got the details. It is sad to lose family members!

I remember Uncle Walt being a HUGE fan of Major League Baseball. He was at one time a Pastor and at another time a denominal officer, but I remember going visiting one time, he and I just sitting and watching a game. Nice! Uncle Walt married my Grandma's youngest sister (On my dad's side).

Later, after talking with Dad, I talked with Doreen on the phone for a bit. It was late enough, I put my phone away, not expecting any more calls. How wrong I was.

At 1:30am my phone rang. I was heading south on I-75 at 72 miles per hour, only 30 minutes from the yard. That phone ringing was the last thing I expected and scared me silly.

So I answer it and once again, it's my father. Unfortunatly he had more bad news. My Great Uncle Dave passed away that afternoon. He had a stroke a couple of weeks ago, and just never really bounced back from it and went to rest.

I remember visiting Uncle Dave when he was the caretaker of a camp. He had this home-made potato gun, cannon was more like it, that would shoot tennis balls forever away. On one visit we stood in this huge field and just let those fuzzy green balls fly! What fun that was. Uncle Dave was my Grandfather's brother. (Also on my Dad's side.)

It is so sad to see quality people like this passing. They still have so much to give and share, but because time is so relentless, we have to lay them to rest.

All that is left of that generation on my dad's side of the family now is Aunt Grace & Aunt Lillian. Still got quite a few of that generation left on my mom's side, but time marches on.

It was quite the shock, the news of two of my family passings, within hours of each other. Wow.

So, good-bye Uncle Walt and Uncle Dave - we have fond memories of each of you and you both will be sorely missed! Until Heaven when we all will have a wonderful family reunion, in young bodies, rest well!

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