Lazy Doggy

Recently we had some friends over for a Friday evening worship. After it was over and the girls went to bed, we stayed talking with our friends for quite a while. Mocha must have found it pretty boring because she sacked out in Doreen's lap! :) Course we couldn't help but pose her a bit for a photo! Cute! :)

Stuff...

I've been extremely busy lately - if not working then doing stuff around home and I've been neglectful of this web-page. Sorry! I know how I like to read regular updates from the rest of you who have a page and it bugs when nothing has been updated and I've gone and done the same thing! :(

So here are a few random thoughts, happenings and pics to enjoy! Hopefully! :)
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DIPSTICK

Mocha is growing like my girls - weeds! :) I come home from a 2 day trip and she looks so much bigger. She's doing great and learning every day. We're still working on the 'potty-training' thing. Can't wait until she goes regularly outside!!! A friend saw her recently and told us we gave her the wrong name. We should have named her dipstick. Look at her 'black' tail and it does look like an oil dipstick! Funny! She's still Mocha though! :)
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SCOIOLOGY

Doreen's school is going great, although I will be EXTREMELY glad when she is finished with Sociology. This class is driving us BOTH insane. Doreen dislikes it because the unorganized mannor of the teacher and some of his 'theory's' and just the whole pseudo-science of sociology. The teacher has asked the students in the class to each write a paper, and has so many strict perimeters that it is making it extremely difficult. Poor Doreen is having struggles with it. Unfortunatly I can do little to help her but listen. She's getting a very good grade, "A" in the class, but it is extremely frustrating the way the teacher presents things and stuff. Of course she tells me about it and I get annoyed because of some of the stances and statements the teacher makes and - oh!!! I'll just be glad when she is done with this and gets on to 'real' science classes! :)

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PARENT/CHILD CURSE

Well, my parents have successfully done it. They have passed along the 'curse' that a grandchild will exhibit some of the same characteristics of the child that drove the parent crazy. Understand? Basically it boils down to that my parents put a curse on me that one of my children will do some of the same things to drive me crazy that I did to drive them crazy.

For instance - when I was 'younger' living at home, when I'd get in trouble I would never give my parents a straight answer. I'd delay (I don't know!) Deflect (It was my sisters fault) Sidestep (Answer only part of the question) Ignore or just completely make sure not to answer the question and implicate myself in any possible wrong doing.

It's come back to haunt me. My youngest, Natalie, is beginning to exhibit those tendencies, 2 or 3 times last week she got into trouble and I felt as we were 'talking' with here, that I was having an out of body experience seeing myself sitting in front of my parents answering their questions the same way she was answering ours. Ayi yai yai! We've got to take care of that now. It only gets worse as they reach the teen years, believe me - I know! :( :)

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Crazy Hair

Doreen's been growing her hair out for the last little while, trying to get it long. Funny thing is she complains about it not being how she wants it yet, it's too short for this and not long enough for that, etc! We'll it's long enough she can do and imitation of 'Thing' on the Adams Famliy.



Duh, da da duh, snap, snap...





Oh hello! :)
















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WORK

Work has been going great lately. In the last 4 weeks, I've run 3rd trips the last 3 of the 4. In fact, we calculated it, last year, I ran 26 third trips. That's a nice chunk of change to fill in some 'holes' we had financially. Those trips enabled us to do some things we otherwise would have not been able to do. I'm extremely thankful to be able to work that extra to help occassionally.

While it is nice to have the option of a third trip, only running the standard 2 it awesome. Last week I ran out Sat night, got back Sunday evening. Then ran out Monday morning and got back early, early, EARLY Wed morning. So I had 4 days at home before working again, All day , Wed, Thur Fri and Sat! Sweet.

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MEMORIES

One of the things I was able to do during that stretch off...

...finish a hanging of some stuff from my Great Uncle Russell. He traded me a .38 revolver for this German Luger he brought back from WWII. So I got some authentic patches off of Ebay from the Army (Bottom L) Unit (Top C) and Division (Bottom R). Then with a couple of pictures he gave me and a couple of Army Medals, put this together.

I think it's really nice and adds a nice decorative feel to our Office, Entertainment, Excersize basement.

Well that's all for now.

Blessings!!!

1 word survey

You.
Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.
Not as easy as you might think.
1. Where is your cell phone? BANNIESTER
2.your boyfriend/girlfriend? WIFE
3. Your hair? BROWN
4. Your mother? MONTROSE
5. Your father? TRUCKER
6. Your favorite thing? GEOCACHING
7. Your dream last night? NO
8. Your favorite drink? POP
9. Your dream car? NEW
10. The room you're in? BASEMENT
11. Your ex? NONE
12. Your fears? FEW
13. Where do you want to be in 10 years? PEACEFUL
14. Who did you hang out with last night? KEN
15. What you're not? CRAZY
16. Muffins? BLUEBERRY
17. One of your wish list items? DEBTLESS
18. Where you grew up? COLORADO
19. The last thing you did? TV
20. What are you wearing? COMFY
21. Your TV? REALITY
22. Your pet? MOCHA
23. Your computer? SONY
24. Your life? BUSY
25. Your mood? TIRED
26. Missing? PAWPAW
27. What are you thinking about right now? SURVEY
28. Your car? PONTIAC
29. Your work? TRAVELING
30. Last summer? HOT
31. Like someone? ABSOLUTELY
32. Your favorite color? BLUE
33. When is the last time you laughed? TODAY
34. Last time you cried? UNKNOWN
35. Your school? CAMPION

Quick "Hi!"

Hey, been busy, busy, busy, BUSY lately!

No time to post or do much else. So I just wanted to say...

"HI!"

Have a great day!

--Me

80's Test

Haven't done one of these in a while - so here goes.

So you think you know the 80's. ;)

sspester7, you're now logged in!

Below you'll find your test result. After, continue on to your homescreen to discover what we're about.

continue to OkCupid homescreen >

Thank the great god Balki! You're finished! You scored 24 out of a possible 30 Accuracy Points, and you earned an extra 5 Bonus Points!

I hope you enjoyed the test. If there were any questions that really stumped you, feel free to write me for the answer key.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 22% on Accuracy You scored higher than 5% on Bonus

Link: The Think you remember the 80's? Test written by jahazarak on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

We're Cookin Now

For Christmas the girls were each given a baking set to help mommy in the kitchen. A few weeks ago, they made some 'mini-muffins.' We just forgot to take a pic.








Well for the Superbowl, we brought cookies and brownies. Yummy. So the girls got all geared up and started cookin'.










And a super job of baking they did. They made some yummy bar cookies, and some brownies, one set had some mint chips in it. Super yummy!

Of course being related to 'Doreen' the girls had to ham it up a little. Each of them is so very "super" cute!!!

Superbowl Sunday

I love the NFL. I love football. I love the Superbowl. Tonight was a GREAT game as well! Doreen and I are really glad the Colts won. We like Peyton Manning. He is a class type of guy. Tony Dungy is a top notch coach who is the definition of class! We watched the game over at some friends and we all had a blast. Good food, good game, good fun!

The superbowl was great, but getting there just about wore me out. Had to leave for a trip to Ohio for work Saturday night. So my partner and I both wanted to be back for the superbowl, so we decided to leave as soon as the gate at work opened and run it straight through, no stopping. That's exactly what we did. We ran 850+ miles, unloaded 42,000 lbs of product all in just over 20 hours and got home with a bit of time to spare. Awesome. I was sure tired though.

Glad I made it - the food, company and game were perfect!

Maybe next year the Broncos will win the superbowl again. Maybe??!! :)

A Tennessee Snow

Wednesday we had a snow here in TN. Our first of the season. Of course we had to get out in it and have some fun.


Here's the little 'creators' making a snow man.



What a cute little guy, and wearing a Denver Broncos hat in TN, what a snowman!



Here's an artsy fartsy pic of one of our deck posts for my brother in law! :)

Little Beast

We've got ourselves a ferocious little beast! One evening this week, I was playing with Mocha on our bed and Doreen snapped a few photos of our little cutie! Enjoy!

New Look

So Joelle's hair has been a 'sticking up' point lately. We have her comb it, etc and it never would lay down right. Eventually we had to do something about it! So Doreen looked around and found a haircut that would accent her face.


She really loves it and we do too! What a precious little girl!!!

Mocha Comes Home

Friday we got our new family member. Mocha, 5 1/2 weeks old, came home!










The mother was a mixture of Jack Russel and Beagle and the dad was Heinz 57. So she is a pure mutt, but precious! Very, VERY precious!















She loves to cuddle with us and more importantly loves ALL of us as a family! Awsome!!!! Look for more pics of our expanded family later! :)

Not The Same

So the Denver Broncos haven't been the same since John Elway retired. In a way they are, falling just short. However in his later years with JE, they won two Superbowls. Anyway, on ESPN.com I just read this article about him since football - 8 years ago. Has it been that long? Ouch! For Bronco fans, enjoy! Elway drives for another comeback

Closet & Garage MakeOver

I love it when we get things accomplished around the house. Of course, sometimes the hardest thing is to either find the time or the energy (And the money) to do all the projects we have to do. I remember our first place in S. Illinois - we had a whiteboard on the wall in the laundry room with a list of everything we needed to do around the house. It seemed like everytime we got it whittled down - we'd start adding to it again.



Well, we've been getting things done around this house and yet the list still grows! :) When we moved in, we stuffed things into the hall closets. Lately it's been bugging me. So we took everything out of the two closets, whittled down what we don't need, or use, then added more shelves and put everything back and it is SOOOO much better!




As we've done some projects around the house, I've occassionally had to cut/trim/paint/stain stuff in the garage and I don't have a workbench out there with it being a one car garage. We do have a little space at the back, but that is used up with storage. So what to do? Yesterday, Doreen and I built a fold away work bench.

It's actually pretty cool. It's up out of the way for us to park the car in the garage, and then when we need to get some things done, out goes the car, down goes the workbench and off we go!

Upgrades to a house are always good! Very, very Gooooood! :)

The Great Travel Bug Race is ON!!!

Geocaching.com has these things called Travel Bugs. They're basically Dog Tags with a tracking number that as the Travel Bug (TB) is moved from cache to cache one can keep up with its travels.

GC.com has come up with a promotion for the United Nations cause against Diabetes. They're sending out all these TB's to encourage people to learn about diabetes.

My brother-in-law, Scott and I got a couple of these TBs.

The plan is for him to start on in Colorado, and I'm going to start one in Tennessee. We'll see which one gets to the others home first.

It's 1552 miles from TN to Colorado. Driving it would take around 24 hours.

I guess we'll see how long it takes for these TB's to make it - that is if they don't get ripped off, lost or misplaced.

So keep an eye on these Travel Bugs, see where they travel and which one arrives first.

Scotts Travel Bug Photo

My Travel Bug
Photo

Pester Family Announcement

The search is over. We've finally found our newest family memeber. She is still too young to leave where she currently lives, but by the end of Jan, 1st of Feb we'll have a new addition to the Pester Family!

Mocha Pester is a Heinz 57 puppy. Her mom is Jack Russell and Beagle, here dad is pure 100% mutt.

You should have seen the way Natalie was holding her when we visited her this morning. We had the choice between 'Mocha' and another puppy, but decided Mocha was the way to go!

It'll be a challenge getting her house broken and trained, but she'll be our famliy puppy and love us all. No previous psycho stuff! That's good! Very good!

Look for more updates!

For now, I've gotta go get a Latte'. I've typed Mocha enough, I'm thirsty! ;)

Geocaching Hides

After Geocaching since 2004, we finally put out 4 hides. I've been wanting too for a very, VERY long time, just haven't ever gotten 'around to it.' I've had the containers and the the SWAG to in the containers and stuff, just haven't ever done it.

Well - finally, I said, "Let's just do it."

So, in Wildwood, GA where Doreen's grandma lives, there are 3 truckstops relatively close together. 2 in GA and 1 actually in TN. We found locations to hide to Micros and one Small cache.

Saturday night on my trip up to Kentucky, I go by a Pilot truckstop that doesn't have a geocache within 20 miles, so I stopped at midnight and left one there.

So that's now four of our own hides out there! Cool man.

Check 'em out if your iterested!

#3 GeoTrucker - Fast Travel

#4 GeoTrucker - Pilot or Co Pilot

#5 GeoTrucker - Co Ne Co

#8 GeoTrucker - Stinking Creek Cache

Oh yeah - Geocaching Rocks! :)

Run Away Shopping Cart

Last week Natalie had her 4 year old well child check. She's growing 'on schedule.' Like a little weed! Anyway, at the same visit we had the doctor look at what turned out to be a bad sinus infection she had.

We got a prescription, took it to Wal-mart then went to eat lunch at a nearby restaurant.

An hour and a half later, back at Wal-mart, I go get the 'non-food' items and Doreen does our grocery shopping. I had only a few things to get then went to stand in line at the pharmacy. It was LONG. Took me probably 20 minutes to get up to the front. The needed my medical card for verification, then they were going to mix the medication. (It was a liquid.) I gave 'em my card and waited another 15 min at the side. They weren't getting back to me. Doreen had gotten there long before I reach the window the 1st time, so she took left her grocery cart, took then kids and went to look at the fish.

So after waiting at the side, I got in line again, and Joelle came with me. Doreen was standing in the next isle with Natalie and our cart. A friend called her, so they were chatting on the phone. Then a friend from church came by and they hugged and talked for a sec. When Doreen turned around - our grocery cart was GONE! Vanished, Disappeared. I believe it was an employee who, seeing it sit there for almost 40 minutes thought it was abandoned and took it to be restocked. Doreen found another employee who was obviously clueless, and very non helpful - so she went to do the grocery shopping again. I finally was able to obtain the medication, we met, finished the shopping and headed home!

That was way too much time in Wal-mart, waiting, and shopping twice! :(

Aye ayi ayi!!!

Night Driving

My last couple of trips out it has worked out that I've been doing most of the driving in the middle of the night. Of course the toughest time for me is between 3:30a and sunrise. That's always brutal. Sometimes I get so sleepy. However, chewing ice, gum drinking coffee, Vault or just listening to different stuff on my Sirius radio really helps.

However these last two trips out have been kinda cool. Both times have been either at full moon or nearly full. I don't know if it's the extra light or what but it sure makes it a TON easier!

Things always look 'neater' under a full moon. With no or little moon, you can barely see stuff. With a full moon you're able to see all sorts of stuff along the road.

I like driving at night under a full moon!

Nice!

Time to Crown a New Champion...

The NFL season has ended. Let us pause a sec to mourn the passing...



...It was a good season with many good games and contests. Now it will be interesting to watch the playoffs to see which two teams will square off in the biggest game of the year - the Superbowl!

It is now time to crown this years champion of the Nelson/Pester Annual Pigskin Pick'em family challenge.

Just for a quick reminder, the first two years of this challenge, Scott was the top Pigskin Picker. For the next 4, yes I did type 4 - that number is correct, yours truly was a 4-peat champion of the Nelson/Pester Pigskin Pick'em family challenge.

The time has come to crown a new champion. Someone who has not been in this spot before. Someone who pretty much dominated most of this season. Someone who deserves it.

The Nelson/Pester Pigskin Pick'em Family challenge winner is, Tim. Tim, we salute you. "Salute." Be a good champion! Enjoy your reign! Bask in the glow of knowing you outpicked the rest of us. Then know we will ALL be after you next year!!! :)















Congratulations man!

For the rest of you, here's a quick run-down of where the rest of us finished...

# 1 - Tim!!! :) Score 153
# 2 - Scott Score 150
# 3 - Doreen Score 149
# 4 - Steve Score 148
# 5 - Sue Score 147 - She did an awesome job and lead at one point.
# 6 - Mary Score 145 - She also lead early in the season.
# 7 - Larry Score 140
# 8 - Herb Score 127
And last by not least...
# 9 - Staci Score 100

What a great game - thanks to each of you for playing and making it an even more interesting season.

Everyone send Tim a virtual 'pat' on the back! :)

Sad Beginnings

2007 has had a sad beginning for the Denver Broncos!







For starters, they could have been in this years playoffs. All they had to win was one game against the San Francisco 49ers, a team with a sad losing record. They didn't, they lost and lost bad. So the season is suddenly over. Boooo hooo hoooooooo!






Secondly, and even sadder, one of the bright stars of the Denver Broncos Defense, Darrent Williams was shot and killed in a drive by shooting. How sad is that. This young man was 24 and a rising star in the NFL.









His life and career has been brought to a screeching halt by some thugs who think they're big men. Unfortunatly this is an awful indictment of today's society!

Sad, sad, sad.