Well, it's official - this is the worst year for picking NCAA teams that Andrea & I have ever had. We are last & next-to-last, respectively, in both of our pools. I think all hope is lost for Andrea (she picked Stanfod to win it all). I, on the other hand, am holding out hope that Kansas will win it all. I think this is the only shot I have at this point. We'll see what happens tonight!

We made a special trip to Wal-Mart last night. For the past four weeks or so the boys have been earning & saving money doing odd jobs around the house. They've faithfully been saving it up 50 cents & $1 at a time. Josiah has been wanting to get a "Mouse Trap" board game & has been saving up his money until he had enough to buy it. Yesterday he earned the final dollar of what he needed & he about jumped out of the roof when we told him we would go to get his game last night! He was so excited!

Micah bought a "Dora the Explorer" UNO game as well & we came back to the house for an evening of family games ... it was great! It was so uplifting to see our boys 'getting it' that money comes from hard work & good things come from saving up your money, not spending money you don't have.

On a side note: Emerie is pulling up on everything nowadays. She may very well be one of these kids that just skips crawling all together & jumps straight to walking. As I type this she is pulling up on Andrea while the boys play a round of Mouse Trap (they couldn't wait to get it out this morning!).

Well, we rolled into town around 8:30p tonight. It's amazing how a 6 hour drive to Texas can turn into an 8 hour drive home from Texas. While it wasn't the best thing having to drive down late at night last Thursday (we left town around 6:15p or so), the good part was that the kids slept most of the way. Micah woke up at the Texas state line & stayed awake the rest of the way to Nana's (about an hour and a half longer - starting at around 11:30p/midnight). All the kids woke up when we got there & proceeded to stay awake for at least another hour and a half because they were so excited!

Continue reading "Back in Town" »

Well, if all goes well we'll be well on our way to Dallas this time tomorrow night. We're taking a few days to visit with Andrea's mother, Nancy, since the kids are on Spring Break next week. I've got a youth trip to Springfield next Wed & Thurs or else we'd probably stay a little more than just over the weekend. It will be a nice visit, though.

Part of me is feeling torn. Tomorrow is the beginning of my favorite time of the year with basketball morning, noon & night. We've decided to pack up the TiVo and take it with us. Call me pathetic (I am), but it will make things a lot better because I can just TiVo all of the games, watch them when I want & how much I want, fast forward through parts I don't want to see, pause the live game, etc. March Madness without TiVo ... I don't even want to go back there. (What can I say? I'm spoiled!)

Be sure & visit our March Madness section & fill out a bracket now ... time's running out. The games begin tomorrow morning around 11am. I'm removing the time limit on submitting picks, but be sure & get them in before the games start. Then check back to the page after each session (Thurs afternoon, Thurs night, Fri afternoon, etc.) to see live, up-to-the-date standings, compare your picks against others in the pool & more throughout the tournament!

Oh, the marvels of modern technology ... Andrea took Micah to Bartlesville this morning to get his picture taken. I'm still here in Coffeyville working, but got an email that our pics had been posted to the Sears Photo website. So, even before Andrea & the kids got home, I've already been able to preview all of the pictures taken during the session this morning.

Here's a couple to share. Josiah & Micah just got these new cowboy hats last week & have been wearing them around ever since. Micah actually had some taken without the hat & jacket, but these were definitely the cutest..

"It's the most wonderful time of the year ..."

No, not Christmas - NCAA March Madness time! March is the month where annually our TV is always tuned to basketball. We watched the selection show & ESPN's Bracketology special after I got home from church last night. Just a couple of peeves at this point ...

• OSU definitely got the shaft! The selection committee chairman pretty much admitted that they didn't take into consideration the Big 12 Championship (& Big 10 one as well) because of the lateness of the game. Had they taken that into account there is no way that they would have put St. Josephs above OSU for the No. 1 seed. I'd say that I'm hoping those two meet up in the regional finals - but honestly I want to see St. Josephs lose in the first round.


• Big 12 only got four seeds? What happened to the dominance our conference has enjoyed the past several years? Notable shuns: Oklahoma, Colorado, & perhaps even Missouri (although I'm not sad a bit that they didn't make it).

Well, enough griping. I did want to invite everyone to join our pool for the tournament. No money involved - just for fun. Good luck!

Well, it's WAY past my bedtime. I'm actually fixing to hit the sheets, but wanted to take an opportunity to post something quick here to keep everyone updated. Everyone is doing well. Emerie possibly has an ear infection (keeps grabbing at her left ear, snotty nose, no fever though). Other than that all is well. Micah is doing fabulous & is such a different kid than just a month ago! One of the major changes (besides not being sick) from before his surgery is in his food habits. He has always been a picky eater - sometimes going for days without eating much. Now his favorite phrase is "I'm still hungry" which he continually (chosen word) repeats throughout the day. It seems like he is either eating or wanting to eat. His appetite at meals has greatly improved & is now eating things that he never wanted to try.

Si's getting along great at school. He weekly amazes us with things he remembers from months/years ago & knowledge of things that we're still not sure where he is learning it or picking it up from. Very bright kid. It will be good, however, to have a break from the 'weekly routine' for Spring Break in a little over a week. We're planning on heading down to Texas to see Andrea's mother & her Aunt Emmie (whom Emerie was partially named after).

One of the reasons I haven't been posting as much here is because we are super-busy right now. Part of it is trying to get some things taken care of before we leave for TX. Part of it is finishing up writing assignments I had accepted a few months ago. Part of it is trying to start up our own Internet/Graphics design business. re:IMAGE Design is slowly getting off the starting gates. I've been working on our website & hope to have it up in a couple of weeks. Already have several clients that I've designed websites for. We're also looking into selling Graphics CD collections for church use for worship services (using a lot of the images that I'm currently distributing through avisualplanet.com.

Well, that's us in a capsule - much more that I could share, but for both of our sakes I'd better call it quits.

Emerie is definitely crawling now (even though it still resembles a 'scooch' as much as anything). She will do it a little more on demand than a few days ago - although she still won't do it everytime. It's just a matter of time now before she is totally unstoppable! I also got a chance to see "The Passion" again tonight with our church. It wasn't any easier to view the second time. Our church bought out two showings this week at the local theater & it was packed tonight.

Continue reading "Crawling Even More & the 2nd Passion" »

It's about time! Andrea & I stayed up last night watching the Oscars (we're both very big movie people). Every time the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King came up for an award we kept chanting "Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Rings" & amazingly they would say "The winner is ... the Lord of the Rings!" I think we had something to do with it - you know, positive mindwaves (or something like that).

All I have to say is that it's about time that Peter Jackson and that crew/cast were recognized for these movies. They've had to endure the snobbish overlooking by the 'distinguished' Academy of Motion Pictures for the past two years. I think Peter Jackson hit it on the head when he thanked the Academy for recognizing fantasy as something more than an "F" word. 11 nominations - 11 awards won! Amazing! Not sure if that has ever been done before (winning everything that you're nominated for), especially with that many nominations! They did say that this ties the record for the most awards by one film - with Titanic and Ben Hur - pretty good company (although, Titanic, in my opinion, doesn't hold water with either of the other two - no pun intended)!

Kudos, Peter Jackson & the LOTR crew - we've known it all along ... we're glad everyone else has started to clue in!