Fat man in the chimney

Ho Ho holy cow! I've almost missed the entire month of December. Apparently my sister hasn't noticed because I haven't caught any crap about it yet. Well, disaster averted, because here I am. I wish I could say I've been too busy enjoying the holiday season to write. But the truth is I've been too busy working to do either of the above. Which beats the alternative, so I'm not complaining.

So...about two months ago my wife informed me that she wanted a toy box built for our son for Christmas. Which was fine by me, I've built two before, so I didn't give it much more thought. Until last Saturday. When I started on it. Oops. But I'm happy to report that the final coat of stain was just recently applied and all is well. Junior can now tear the hell out of it....and then some day I'll teach him how to fix it.

No pics for now....I'm off to moms in the morning for brunch. Then back home tomorrow afternoon for dads festivities. And then finally off again to the in-laws Christmas afternoon. I'm anticipating some great food, good laughter, and probably a few gifts that will need returning.

So here's ME wishing all of YOU a very Merry Christmas!

Tree

Santa baby...
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November

Wow...I've just about missed the whole month of November on here. I'm happy to say I didn't miss it in real time though. We've had two birthdays (Macy and Crystal), deer season opened, Thanksgiving, and the Christmas tree went up. Whew! And now.....some pictures.

A girl and her cake. She likes the Macy's store so Crystal had her cake made to look like a shopping bag. She loved it.

She had a family party and then a girlie party (I was gone hunting for the latter!)

Your fearless author tuning up the deer "condo"

The 2010 opening weekend meat pole. Jerky anyone?

Ace wasn't quite sure what to make of the tree. He has since become an expert at removing ornaments.

My angel putting on the angel.

Life Worth While

The reason I get up and go to work...and the reason I can't wait to get back home.

Yes. That's a laugh.

Life is good. The kids are great....the wife is getting healed up (still on crutches)....and we're heading into hunting season. I can taste the sausage already! Have a great week everyone!

Long Lunch

My friend Ray invited me to go on a little bike ride for some lunch last Sunday. 445 miles later I got back home. It was a great time riding through some awesome south Missouri scenery. We ended up eating at The Cave Restaurant in Richland, Mo. I've been in several caves but this was definitely the first time I'd ordered lunch in one. I'm not going to tell you it's a five star establishment...but it sure was interesting.

Ray and I getting ready for the ride home....I don't know what's up with that pose.

Fall guy

Here are some pictures from our outing to the Weston Red Barn Farm last Saturday. It's the perfect place to get in the mood for fall....and the pumpkin picking is bad either.

The kids, myself, and my beautiful sister

Trying to get these two in a picture would wear down Jobs' patience.

If you thought clothes shopping with girls was bad....

We have our winners!

Biker Momma

There are two kinds of bikers. Those who have crashed, and those who are going to crash. My wife is now among the first group. While taking the Riders Edge course at Worth Harley Saturday morning she laid the bike down....on her foot. She told the instructor she thought she'd broken her ankle, and about an hour later the E.R. doctor confirmed it. So instead of a motorcycle license she's getting a cast.
I'm gonna be honest. I laughed a little bit. Since she works for Harley I know she's going to have a rough day tomorrow as her co-workers pile on the jokes. Besides that she's doing great. No surgery should be needed and she'll get the cast on in a few days. I just gotta keep her from crashing on the crutches.

My trooper

Come Together

James/Anderson '10 was this past weekend and went over with flying colors. This family reunion consist of my dad, his sister, and the kids and grand kids. The yearly gathering used to always be at Thousand Hills State Park, but lately we've branched out a bit. Last year we hit St. Louis, the year before was Tan-Tar-a, and this year found us back at Lake of the Ozarks. Instead of the usual hotel or cabin renting we opted for a house....a really big house. This place was great, and allowed us all (20 total) to be within close reach. (kinda the whole point of getting together.

Let's face it. You can not get together with family and not eat...so we always eat good. Saturday was "bring your own meat" night and Dave was nice enough to cook it all up for us. After downing a Texas size t-bone and chasing it Sunday morning with biscuits and gravy, I'm pretty sure I need a few weeks of close dieting.

Shopping....ho hum. This house was about a mile from an outlet mall. My brother-in-law and I did find a knife store to keep us occupied for a few minutes. We thought it a bit odd to have tactical military knives right across the isle from Precious Moments dolls so.... we took a picture.

I'm pretty sure the kids had a blast. The property had it's own covered dock equipped with a couple kayaks and a paddle boat. This is a picture of Macy on her maiden voyage. She did rather well considering she's never paddled anything in her life. She only yelled "daddy come save me" once.

And when the four foot and under crowd got tired of playing in the lake, they could go to the side yard and jump in the pool. (a polar bear would have got chills in that water)

Great food, fun, and family. Not a bad way to spend the weekend. The coming week has us looking forward to a carnival. Tomorrow is the opening of bow season. (woo hoo!) And I'm trying to put together a "four states in one day" bike ride for October. So goods things are yet to come.

The Pose

I wish I had a picture for half the time he does this. His comfort pose.

Soaking up Sunday

A short time back my wonderful sister informed me that my blog has been lacking in updates. I can't deny it...and even devoted a blog to the topic a few post back. So I've decided to attack September with a vengeance. This effort may fall on its face right out of the gate as my three day weekend will soon be over and life at full throttle will resume.

I left the doves alone this morning. I'm still a little punch drunk from them slapping me around yesterday. So today we loaded up and went to Backfire BBQ for lunch. I'm a bit of a biker fan, gear head, and foodie, so this place was begging for me to try it out. I kinda figured the food would be lacking because of all the attention put into decorating. Thankfully I was wrong...the food was great and the service too.




After lunch we headed up to dads to celebrate his 63rd birthday. The girls were more than willing to help grandpa open his gifts.

We grabbed some grub at a deli and headed to the park to enjoy some perfect picnic weather. (which turned out to be much better than the food I might add)

He earned every one of those gray hairs.....pretty sure I account for at least half.

And then we finished the evening off with some ice cream. A day well done.

And to keep the party going, tomorrow we'll be hosting my mother-in-law for her big 60. Next weekend will find us at Lake of the Ozarks for the annual James/Anderson family get together, which always proves to be a good time. Hopefully sis won't mind if I don't blog again until then....have a great week folks!

Beat down by the bird of peace.

It may still be summer but my official fall indicator arrived this past Wednesday...the opening of dove season. I personally think they should change it to dove day, for the sure fact that opening morning is about the only time you're going to remove a tasty morsel from the air. Our group didn't get out until this morning (Saturday) and five guys with around 400 shells fired exactly six times for zero dove. Complaints were few and far between as we enjoyed being in the great outdoors while the sun came up on a beautiful day.

Missouri has one of the nations best conservation departments... hands down. The men and women who manage our public lands do a great job, and the ones I've met are extremely helpful and passionate people. Now I could lie and say that Shane is just getting the inside scoop on some good dove hunting spots in the picture below....and actually it wouldn't be a total lie because the two agents pictured gave us a map and some good info and where we might have better luck. They also asked to check our guns and permits. That was all fine and good until Shane realized he was about nine months late updating his hunting permit. The rest of us had a few minutes to grab a water and laugh our butts off while he was receiving his ticket.

Macy welcomed us home and promptly wanted to know where the birds were. I hate admitting defeat to my kid but that's exactly what I did. She didn't seem all the disappointed after raiding the cooler for a gatorade though.

We may not have doves, but we've got good times aplenty.

A Thousand Words

He went after a toy. He got stuck.

Ace and daddy.

The girls don't know what to think. I kinda instigated this...but it was embarrassing none the less.

My niece Abigail going on her first Harley ride. She loved it!

My office.

Macy and mommy on the first day of 1st grade.

The turn out for the class reunion. Actually, this is just the class. The spouses and about two dozen kids were there also. A good time.

Lost Dog..i mean blog.

Wow...I kinda skipped out on July's blog writing. If this thing was a dog it would have starved or ran away by now. PETA would be camped out on my front lawn feeding the crickets. Micheal Vick would call me a bad example....

So summer got busy. In good ways all around. We've had some great times with various family members in the last month, and more on the way in the next few months ahead. Macy is still losing teeth and Ace still isn't walking. Crystal is currently in Milwaukee with work and I got a promotion. Whew! And last time I wrote I thought it was hot....well, it is now HOT! (I'm kind of a cold weather person)

I'm 9 days away from my first class reunion, which I'm helping to put together. I graduated in '96 so we're running a few years late. It's been a bit stressful because of the sheer size of our class. One of the biggest in school history....all 26 of us. :) I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone. Well, not everyone, but 75% or so. Some are globe trotting. Some are state hopping. And some are in prison. The rest of us are eating burgers and potato salad at noon on the 21st.

Macy starts school in a week. First grade! I'm gonna be hosting sleepovers before I know it. And not long after that I'll be putting the fear of God into some young soul who makes the mistake of thinking he likes my girl. ( I can hardly wait!)

I'm way behind on posting and even further behind on pics, but right now I've got kids to put to bed and laundry to put in the dryer.....I'm so glad this isn't a dog.

The Heat...My Feet...I'm beat

I pray for days like today. I pray, so I don't have days like today. It was hot. Hotter than Satan's junk in a deep fryer! Which is where I don't wanna be, so I pray. Add to that my flat feet, in size 15 B. Who in the world wears a 15 B!? (you can check the popularity of your shoe size on ebay. there are 850,000+ pairs of men's shoes for sale at the moment. exactly 60 of those are 15 B's, and most of those are Hush Puppies.) Where was I....oh right! So I'm trying to break in a new pair of boots. This isn't a pleasant experience due to my above mentioned freakish feet.


The yard needs mowed. The garage needs cleaned. But all I seem to do is come home, take a wicked-cold shower, drink a few swimming pools worth of water, and play on the floor with the kids. Okay, this is actually how I'd like to end every day but sooner or later the grass has to be cut. Maybe tomorrow, or a few tomorrows after that.

This past Saturday I did something a little selfish. I went with a group from church to do some work on a house for Habitat for Humanity. It's selfish because I learned long ago that helping others makes you feel good. (or it should. if it doesn't you might consider a self evaluation...i'm just saying.) So here were all these inside office types grabbing hammers and lumber in some oven hot heat to help someone they didn't know. It was just an awesome thing to take part in.

I think just about everyone was on the verge of having a heat stroke, but I didn't hear a complaint one. The site foreman had to tell them to quit working....just a great group of people.

So...have a great week folks. If you're taking part in this heat wave remember to partake in some water at regular intervals. (And wish me luck with those boots!)

Happy birthday to you...

Happy Independence Day America!

Stole pic from here

Kids and a public service announcement

Ace got his one year pics taken a few weeks back. Professional pictures are, well, professional. We use this awesome photographer quite a bit and she rocks. Luckily I'm immune to puppy dog eyes.

Macy finally lost that front tooth. She didn't actually lose it. She pulled it. By herself. The second one in a row! That's what I'm talking about! Hoorah

For those of you with a long holiday weekend ahead, I hope you enjoy it. Just remember kids: Alcohol and fireworks don't mix. You heard it here.

My 10 year take

So, tomorrow marks my 10th anniversary of being a domesticated man. Happily married. Since we already took our trip, and its a week night, I'm off the hook until Saturday. I'm a guy...I wouldn't say I dread anniversaries, birthdays, and Valentines....I'm just your normal procrastinating underachiever. :)

To mark the occasion I thought I'd give you my top 10 list of things learned in ten years. Enjoy.

1. It's give and take. (and hope they take what you're giving)

2. Experts say kids and money are hell on relationships. I say relationship experts are hell on money.

3. Don't say you're sorry....show you're sorry.

4. My wife may always be right, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

5. When your wife says she's going into labor you shouldn't question the fact. (who knew?)

6. Two things you don't run out of: Diapers and Toilet paper. In that order.

7. I think my wife will lap the block several times to make sure her truck is on empty before I get in it. I'm pretty sure she hasn't pumped gas since college.

8. Having an off switch on my ears is handy. (I actually tried that once during a disagreement...not so good.)

9. When you're newly married your smoke alarm may indeed double as a cooking timer.

10. Marriage is work. Hard work. But the benefits are unbeatable.

To my dear wife...I love you. Thanks for 10 wonderful years and two beautiful children. Now get in the kitchen and cook me some dinner! ;)

Have kids. Will camp.

Dad Camp version 4 is in the history books. Despite the diversity (think hurricane winds, rain and 90+ heat) it was a success. We had a total of five dads and ten kids and numerous thieving raccoons. We stayed at Watkins Mill State Park for the third year but did manage to change campsites this time. (We moved across the street) What can I say, we live life on the edge. I did have to run off some squatters when I arrived. They got a bit moody when I told them I'd reserved the sites two months prior. The woman started tossing tent polls and curse words but they did move....right into another reserved spot. The last time I saw them they had their fully erected tent strapped to the top of their mini van driving into the sunset. So, if you plan on camping at a state facility when there isn't snow on the ground, you should probably get a reservation.

And now, some pictures....

No, we didn't lose any children, a couple had to leave early.





Ace is a bit small for camping, so mom brought him by for a visit.

When your four foot tall that's a big fish. Honestly, she just likes to play with the worms. She's my girl.

Smiles for miles

Tuesday's makes kids happy. Now you know.