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!

Goodbye 2007, Welcome 2008!

Pigskin Pick'em Nelson/Pester Bowl VIII - Results

For 8 years my family has competed against each other in picking the outcomes of the NFL games each week on ESPN.com's Pigskin Pick'em.

Oh has it been fun. Making the picks rooting for a team, even though you dislike them, just because you picked them to win in the game trying to get "one up on the guy behind you."


Well, another season has finished and it is time to crown this years champion.

Before we get to that, let's do a quick re-cap of previous champions.

Season - Winner
1 - Scott won the inagural family challenge.
2 - Scott repeated to take the championship the second year.
3 - I won my first championship.
4 - I repeated to take my second.
5 - Again, I re-repeated to take my third championship.
6 - I won my fourth straight family championship.
7 - Tim (who couldn't compete this year because of a new baby & school)
won and was the first, other than Scott & myself to be champion.

Season 8's champion is....

...wait for it...


Scott, to take his third championship!

Hip hip, Horray!

Congratulations man on picking well done!




Second place had a tie between Doreen & Sue. This is the second time in her Pigskin Pick'em record she's come in second.





Congrats on pulling out a second place tie Sue.






My dad and Dan finished in a tie for 4th place.






Kudos to them.





My sister, Staci, finished 6th.




And of course, for the first time in my Pigskin prognosticating career, I finished last.





I think a good time was had by all. I thoroughly enjoyed the NFL season, even though my Denver Broncos didn't fare so good, and loved picking the games against family. Makes the NFL even more interesting, if that's possible.

Thanks to you all for playing another year. Enjoy the off season and we'll see you again, on the Pigskin Pick'em gridiron for another season of smashmouth competition!

The Roof

Here is our new roof! We're pleased 'as puddin' how it turned out. Now if we can just get the new siding, a new garage door, new driveway asphalt, a rock walk around the house, the sidewalk moved, the furnace fixed, some electrical stuff straightened out, the deck stained, a new shed built, some rocks in the back yard... etc. I could go on for hours! :)

We are thankful for our house and we're excited anytime we can make improvements.

Hopefully this one will last a long, LONG time! :)

Paintin' & Tentin'

Today the girls had quite a bit of fun at home. One of Joelle's Christmas gift was a set of wood horses to paint. So she worked on that and Natalie just created her own paintings.








Here's the finished product. Precious!







After painting, the tried making a tent to play in. It didn't work very well, so they enlisted an experienced master tent builder - Mom. Here's the finished product. Nice!






The girls moved in and played in there pretty much all day! Cute!

Ahhhh Christmas - Nice!

Hey Family and Friends, I hope you had as great a Christmas as we did! It was awesome!

Christmas eve, we opened presents! What fun!


Here Joelle & Natalie are wearing some very funny, cool hats from the 3 C's. Good pick Monkies. Very cute.











Here are some super comfy outfits that Grammy & Poppy sent. It has become immediately Natalie's favorite. BTW - Joelle is not that much taller that Natalie, she's just wearing her new Heelys.














Joelle's giving her new bicycle a initial run!








Christmas dinner at my in-laws house was most delicious! Of course I've got to brag on my wife's mashed potatoes. Yummy!!! She also made a pie, apple, from the stock my folks sent us a while back. Also extremely delicious!

The nice thing was, afterwards we took a quickie tour to see the progress my in-laws have made in redesiging the room over the garage. Larry & Joelle stayed out there, Sandra and Doreen played the board-game Upwords, Natalie played a DS and I took a nap. Very cool!

This evening after the kids got put to bed we watched the Bourne Ultimatium. Awesome flick!


Of course I have to share the quote on a t-shirt gift I got! I LOVE it - thanks family!








Again - Ahhhhhh Christmas!

Best Wishes to You and Yours!!!!

Worker Girls & A Relaxin Dad

Went over today to my in-laws. They're home for the holidays and working on a renovation project in the room over the garage. My girls wanted to get into the act!









They went at it with gusto. It was sooooooo fun watching them hammer those nails into the wood.












After Natalie was done, I had the blessing of her coming over to chill with me. It's these times that I cherish. It's not gonna be long before they'll be too big - but I pray to remain this close to them!

What a day!

Ice Queens - Three

So this morning, I don't know what it was, but Doreen, Joelle and Natalie ALL had cold hands, EXTREMELY cold hands! And they all found their way onto me somewhere at some point.

BUUURRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

Chop Chop!

Tonight, we took the girls to a new experience. A friend's son was having a birthday and they let him choose whatever restaurant he wanted to go to for his birthday dinner. He choose Shogun and we were invited.

The girls LOVED watching the cook make dinner right in front of us. It was almost more cool watching their faces than the cook. Although - he was awesome. Talk about dinner entertaiment - the stuff he did with his spatula and an egg and his fork was amazing!!!

Christmas Play Participants

Tonight Joelle & Natalie took part in the Christmas Play for their school. They were SOOOOOO cute!

They sang Away in a Manger and Feliz Navidad with the rest of their classmates!

Very precious!

COOKIES!!!!

I am a LUCKY man. With all we've got going on, making cookies for 'this and that' is one thing that is first and foremost.

So all week out house has smelled YUMMY!

Awesome!

Sick, Crazy, Wore Out or Christmas Excitement

Hey there,

What a week it has been! The weather has been awesome. Except for a little rain here and there, it really feels like early spring here. It has been quite pleasant, however if it keeps up we're going to have to double up on the insect repelent this next summer! :)

Natalie got sick this week. So on the score card for school, she attended three full days, stayed home one and made it half a day on the other. One day at school she didn't do much except sleep, and rest with the teacher.

Poor little girl probably got a small sinus infection and the "side of her face," as she put it hurt. Unfortunately she get's that icky trait from my side of the family. When I get sick, sinusitus and bronchitis - guaranteed! :)

Thankfully she's much MUCH better now!

Doreen's been home all week. In fact the day Natalie had to come home, I was in Cleveland, OH and wasn't much help. So the teacher called Doreen and she went to get her.

Doreen's been baking cookies, cleaning, doing a little prep for a big report she has to write next semester and just hanging out.

Of course, I think the 'let-down' of no pressure while being out of school for Christmas break is getting to her. She and the girls were being absolutely hilarious tonight with their crazy thoughts, crazy faces and crazy actions! Also this morning when I got on the computer to check e-mail etc, Doreen hoovered right there and was giving me a very hard time about various things I'd type. Today was her crazy day! Very cute!

I reqested and got 3 trips for the bakery this week. On all of the 3 trips I ended up driving or working late nights and I'm a bit wore out. I've taken 3 cat-naps today. I'll lay down for a moment and be zonked out in no time! Doreen thinks I'll stay up to 3am tonight - hardly. I'll crash not long after finishing this blog entry! :)

Some presents showed up under our tree this week. I was downstairs when Natalie found them Monday morning. She started yelling, "There's presents under the tree, Joelle, There's presents under the tree." (Repeated numerous times of course.) Joelle came running out all excited and they danced around the living room with joy. It was very precious!

Then on different days this week, I've taken each of them separately to buy a Christmas gift for her sibling. In the past they both have wanted to get something they wanted for her sister, and this year they truly got something they thought the sister would like. Nice change!

Well - that's all for now.

Wheeeww!

Later!

Feelin' Fine

I was just talking with my mom, who lives in the western portion of Colorado, this morning. Our conversation, at one point, turned to weather. She told me they had 6 inches of snow fall and were expecting a bit more before all was said and done. My sister-in-law who lives in Minnesota wrote in her blog a week ago, they just received 8 to 10 inches of snow.

Here today in Tennessee, it's Sunny and 80 degrees. I've been inside, outside and just about everywhere today in nothing but shorts and a T-shirt. It's the middle of December!!! How odd is that?!!!

I told Doreen today after doing our grocery shopping on the way home, I feel like we live in Florida. This is Florida's winter weather, not east Tennessee!

Oh well - I'll take it cuz it feels GREAT!!! :)

Hobos??? :)

Here's the four Pesters just hanging out on the railroad tracks like some hobos waiting for a ride to where ever!

Yeah right!

This was just a cool place we found while caching yesterday and thought it would be good to snap a family photo!

Have a great week!

2 Major Milestones Crossed

Hey, just wanted to share a couple of milestones that we've crossed recently.

Milestone #1 is I just passed 900 posts on my web-journal here. That covers a LOT of time from August 26, 2004 until today. It is AWESOME having this blog to go back and read from time to time to see what has happened in our lives that I've forgotten.

Coolness.

Milestone # 2 - We just passed 200 geocaches found! We went out with some friends today and together we found 5, just the number we needed to hit the 200 mark. There were 7 in the Chattanooga Audubon Park where we were. We tried to find all 7, but couldn't for various reasons.

Lets see, we started geocaching in Nov of 2004.

Waaa hoooooo!

Coolness!

Dry, for almost 40 years to come. Hopefully! :) OR A work in progress.

Work on our new roof began on Wednesday and finished today. I should have a 'finished' picture for you, but don't. I'll get one, but for some reason today, I just didn't think about it. Duh! :)









Anyway, this is a start to the renovating the outside of our house. We went with a metal roof because they're guaranteed to last 40 years. Let's hope that is true. Our next step is new siding and instead of brick at the bottom, we're going to have some rock-work that will really give us the 'rustic' look we're seeking for our house.

But for now, it's just nice to know the next time we get a Tennessee rain, we won't get any wet spots inside! :)

"Freeeeeeedooooooommmmmmmmmm!"

Borrowing the words of William Wallace there. Doreen has completed her first of four semesters to become a Dental Hygientist!

With LOTS of studying, prayer and hard work, she has passed this semester with stellar grades.

I am so proud of her for ALL that she keeps up with, including school.

Anyway, she's got a bit of downtime coming, then she'll have to get back to researching a report due at the end of the semester, so she's gonna work on it while the kids are still in school to get a head-start on it.

Great job dear!!!!! :)

Dental Hygiene Gals

At Doreen's Dental Hygiene Christmas Party - we had lots of fun. I enjoyed putting faces that go with the names Doreen tells stories of.

This isn't all of her classmates, but a good representation of them! :)

Very nice people.

Collegedale Christmas Parade

My family got to take part in the Christmas parade this year. Natalie rode on the Adventurer float and had fun tossing lots of candy to the attendees.







Joelle rode on the float with OAKS - her school and had a ball. Of course - this was messed up, with all the adults walking and kids riding. Who has more energy and should be walking! :)








Here was an interesting entry in the float. This brand new piece of machinery was HUGE!









Never seen Santa show up like this before. Guess the sleigh was in the shop! :)

Making Mice

Doreen's Dental Hygiene class was having a Christmas party. For that party Doreen wanted to take her little chocolate mice. It be came a family affair. Joelle & Natalie unwrapped the chocolate kisses.








Doreen melted the chocolate down and dipped the cherries in it. I put kiss on the cherry and the two little chocolate kisses for ears.

















After we got the whole crowd of mice created, Doreen put the eyes on them.



















We all wanted to try one, but waited for the party - then ate some - YUMMY!

Extra Expense

Last week, we had a pretty heavy rain here. One morning, I look up and see a wet spot. Aye carumba.








So I had an expert to come in to check our roof. Sure enough, our roof is about 15 years old and has worn out. It's going to have to be replaced. That was some money, that we don't have, we weren't planning to spend. Got to have a roof though.

Oh well - extra trips, here I come! :)

Buuurrrrrrrrrrrrr!

So, I was on a trip to Saginaw, MI yesterday night. We were working up there and it was 26 degrees. I can deal with that, but the wind was blowing at 30 miles per hour.

That adds up to a 16 degree wind chill. Not only is it cold, but that 'wind' blows right through you.

I am so happy to be back in the south!

:)