Cruise Pictures

The girls and I had a lot of fun on the cruise. It was beautiful weather. Emily did miss home and daddy. She asked numerous times if she could go home. It's kind of hard to walk off a boat though. Ally was wonderful. She ate well, (no surprise there!), slept well, played well and was totally happy. She loved it. Em did too, but she's a little older and missed her bed and daddy.

We are definitly glad to be home and are in the full swing of the Holiday's.

For those Michael fans out there, I just want to add that he has always had full access to the blog. So if you want to hear from him, he can blog anytime. And yes, the house looked Great!

The End...

I've always said to Jamie and leaving for work, "I won't say goodbye because I don't believe in that... I believe in, "See you Later". Today ends the saga of living alone for a week while Jamie was gone on the cruise. So today, I won't say goodbye to what I experienced this week, but "See you later". What that means for the future is difficult to know or how long to wait...

Today at work I got a fax from the future. The fax was from myself in the future giving me strong warnings. It was really cool! This does not happen often. When I get these faxes, it even has my own letter-head on them. Today it said something like, "Mike, the candy jar on Tera's desk is poisened! Do not eat from the jar! More details to come later" It was signed by me from me in the future.

Ok, did this really happen? Yes! Was it real? No. But it was really cool... If anyone watches "The Office" on NBC on Thursday's, it was the funniest opening ever as Dwight got the fax from his future self. I suggest everyone to get last year's DVD collection to watch the series, and then dowload this years episodes from Itunes on the internet.

An update on the house.... it is totally clean. I'd like to dedicate the house cleaning to my mother since it is her birthday today! I could not see myself allowing my wife to come home to a filthy, dirty house and know that my mother would have to be defending me that I was not raised that way. So to make Mom's birthday special, I decided to show the true colors of her son.

On a more personal note... I've learned that I am probably more difficult to clean up after than what I knew. Things piled up pretty quickly. So the work Jamie does that goes un-noticed, was really seen this week while she was away. So in the past, when I failed to come home and recogize how hard she worked to clean the house while I was away was really because I never knew it was dirty. Jamie does a fine job of picking up around here and she has earned her way back home :) All dishes are done, laundry done, bed made, fishes fed. It took 14 candles lit for two hours to bring new scents to the house.

Nothing so much to update on the time-line of what happened. It was a pretty normal day and I'd be wasting my effort to write and your effort to read if I list what happened in the last 24 hours. Mostly, my free-time was cleaning the house and getting it ready for home-comming weekend.

My brother has encouredged me to start my own blog or take over this one. I'm not sure what will happen as I've enjoyed taking over Jamie's blog this week. I'll take some serious thought to see if I'll continue in a new blog... my main concern is to make sure I don't get writers block and lose my audience...

So until next time... good-night America... "I'll see you later".

A side note...

I read an article today about Guns N Roses. They canceled a concert in Maine because they were told that they would not be allowed to drink Beer, Wine and Jagermeister on STAGE. This was clearly not an issue where they were canceling the concert because fans could not drink.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061110/ap_en_mu/music_guns_n__roses

Guns N Roses issued a statement: "a band spokesperson blamed fire marshals for "making it impossible for the band to perform their show to the usual high standards that their fans deserve."

Hmmm, I'm thinking something is wrong that they canceled the concert because they couldn't drink on stage. Did the fans think that by them not drinking, the band would not be abile to perform to the "usual high standards that their fans deserve".

So maybe I should not clean the house today and blame it on the fact that I was not able to drink in the house and it caused me to not be able to peform (clean the house) because I couldn't live up to the high standards any longer.

Preparing for the Closing Cermony...

Well, 24 hours until Jamie gets home. It has been really quiet around here and it is going to be very noisy soon with the additions of kids soon. I have not totally determined what time they will get home, but I'm thinking between 5:00 PM and 8:00 PM. This is a tough angle... do I pick up the house tonight or take the chance that she'll have a late arrival tomorrow evening? I'm taking a poll of what you think I should do.

I found a very interesting thing tonight in the freezer. All those TV dinners that people think taste bad, including Jamie had a similar thing in another package. Jamie purchased a bag of frozen breaded chicken. Well, the chicken and gravy tv dinner is the same brand as the bag of breaded chicken patties. I never purchased the bag of chicken. So here is the interesting part... Jamie thinks the tv dinners taste bad (including the breaded chicken tv dinner) but she somehow enjoys the breaded chicken patties in the bag. I compared the two samples and they are identical. So maybe Jamie purchased this bag of breaded chicken patties as her way of telling me that she likes TV Dinners as well but doesn't want to admit it. Kind of like getting to pay the boardgame, Risk?

Jamie took the time to vacumn the house before she left. I wanted to let you know of an idea that I've stuck to all week. I've created traffic lanes in the house of areas that are safe to walk on and zoned off others that are off limits. You might ask why? Well, because if I do decide to vacumn before her arrival, I only need to vacumn 15% of the house since 85% of the house is zoned off. You are probably thinking, "Great idea Mike". If you like that idea, then you'll probably like to hear more of mine during our social gatherings.

I wanted to be the 1st person to say, Happy Birthday Mom!!! It is really tomorrow, but I'm actually on East Coast time tonight. You are asking why I'm on east coast time? It goes along with the idea of 15% of the house... I have my reasons, but this one is too complicated to explain.

Ok, enough chatter for now... I'm going to update the past 24 hours...

Wednesday:
8:00 PM - Watched a missed episode of Law and Order
9:00 PM - worked on music for Sunday
10:00 PM - Off to bed, been staying up too late all weekThursday
6:30 AM - Alarm off (Don't remember turning it off, snooze
6:39 Am - see below
6:48 AM - see below
6:57 AM - see below7:06 AM - see below
7:15 AM - see below7:24 AM - see below7:33 AM - see below
7:42 AM - I don't remember pressing the snooze button except once. I woke up and the alarm clock was off. My arm that was asleep was the think that woke me up. Wow, running late.
8:05 AM - no coffee from Chevron this morning... didn't feel in the mood. Almost made a U-Turn to go back, but pressed on to work.
9:30 AM - Went to the bank to make the Farmers Deposit... I always want to ask the tellers for their business but I have not done that yet. I think starting next week I will every day... I figure they can't say no forever and they are always forced to take my deposit, so they can't avoid me.
11:00 AM - Early Lunch today, made eggs and hashbrowns, made a huge mess.
12:15 PM - Back to work...
1:00 PM - 7.5 more hours until "The Office" on tonight
2:30 PM - spoke with an auto underwriter today... I needed them to approve an auto application that was going to be difficult. I've learned that if I use the charm with the, be as funny as possible, compliment them, and treat them like gold... they generally will do anything for me. Underwriters get yelled at my Farmers Agents all day, I've learned to do the opposite. Since they get yelled at all day, the nice person that makes them feel special is going to get the impossible done.
3:30 - Had a very nice referral from a realator today, It surprised me because I didn't know if she would ever refer her clients to me.
5:30 - On my way home... worked a little late tonight
6:00 - Dinner started, cooked the tv dinner with breaded chicken in gravy and then compared it to the bag of breaded chicken I was talking about earlier.
8:00 - Finished the 4th Major of the year in Tiger Woods Golf... took 2nd place. I was really mad as I had the lead going into the 17th hold of the 4th round. I Bogied, the 17th and was even. The 18th hole was looking good, I had a really easy putt, and missed it. So much for the dramatic tie-breaker!

Closing cermony is tomorrow... look for my last posting of the week. Until then... look forward to the most dramatic of all posts to come. This next one will be shocking!

Another Day... the countdown starts

Well, we are well past the half-way point with Jamie gone. I've heard reports from her during the cruise as cell phone reception is doing well. Maybe not so well today as they are heading out to Ensenada, Mexico. She says the cruise is going well but this one is really more geared for adults. The Disney Cruise that we went on two years ago was far better and had a lot more for the kids. Emily has been home-sick since the 1st day of leaving the house. Jamie suggests that she is used to her surroundings and probably finds security around home. Maybe I should re-arrange her room as a surprise :)

Joel did inspire me to consider re-arranging the entire house. I'm currently working on a new floor plan and ideas to see if the vision can work. Jamie would be so happy with me using my creative gifts. There seems to be one issue with making things work... I can't at this point seem to get the fridge upstairs and in the bathroom. It makes total sense to have it up here right?

Ok, so most of the people that read this blog are republicans. Here are my thoughts about last night... Looking to 2008, it was a really good thing that the Republicans lost control of the House and Senate. If the Democrats can not do a good job and bring the change that the American people are expecting, they will pay a heavy price. Loosing last night could be the set-up play for the Republicans to take the President, Senate and House again.

Jeremy had a brilliant idea that the Republicans should have taken a month ago. It was so good, that he was right up there with Karl Rove and belonged in the war room planning 2008. Jeremy said, "The republican senators a month ago should have got together and demanded that Rumsfeld resigns. Then if he did resign, it would have made the Republicans look like they are tough, want change like most Americans, and can still make a difference. If that happened, some of the Senators probably would have held onto their seats that they lost and maybe the Republicans would still hold onto the Senate". Made a lot of sense, those probably were not Jeremy's exact words, but a good summary of what he said. Nice idea!

Here is the update of what has been going on with Jamie gone on vacation...

6:30 AM - Alarm off (listening to headline news on the tv and music from the alarm clock at the same time for one minute) snooze
6:39 AM - Alarm goes off, I'm up. Checking news to see if anything dramatic happened overnight with the election. Nothing good or big happened, thank God I didn't stay up all night waiting for good things to happen
7:30 AM - Just realized that I wasted the morning reading the same web-sites and news that usually takes me only 10 minutes in the morning.
8:05 - Off to Chevron for the usual top secret coffee drink. I don't do this when Jamie is in town as my motorcycle does not have a cup holder. Going to miss the car next week.
8:10 - Got to work, Sherry my staff person informs me that she is more sore today from softball than yesterday. I was too but did not admit it, I suggested bannanas for her as I wanted to sound like an expert on the matter of health and healing. Yeah, legs were pretty soar today.
8:30 - wrote a lot of insurance that I was not getting caught up on... lots of appliations today. On pace to break 50 applications again this month... not bad considering this is all raw new business. Still looking for more leads.... hint... hint...
11:30 - Broke for lunch, Today was Top Ramon and Cereal. My character on Tiger Woods is getting really really good. I'm usually hitting 7 under par all the time now. Joel, watch out... I'm taking you down! I can't imagine how Jamie's skills are doing with a one week sabatical.
12:30 - Back to work... still trying to get all those applications into the system. I did land a new client today with 10 policies! Lots of work to do with him. Don't find these clients real often. Because of him, he is probably going to push us over 60 applications this month.
3:30 - Read comments on the blog today.... I couldn't believe no one made a comment about the guy I talked to yesterday that wanted to talk about his cattle (cows) for 19 minutes but take 30 seconds to complain about the $5 service charge. Very nice guy, but it was actually really funny. Apparently he raises very good beef... I am hoping to get some cow from him. He said if I got a cow and sent it to the butcher, I'd probably not get the liver and heart. I asked why not giving the suggestion that they use it to make dog food, he replied and said it is the best part of the cow. I asked if they put it in ground beef, he said, Oh yeah! He mentioned that if you buy lean gound beef, then it has the liver and heart.
4:30 - Met with Matt at the office (church and softball Matt). I like the fact that he has sales background and not afraid to talk to people. I see a lot of me in him... can't say much more as the free agency period has not started yet. He is still under contract.
5:15 - Off to home... ate chicken, fries and corn tv dinner. Jen called at around 6:15 to invite for dinner... might take her up on it later this week. Hey Jenn, if you read this, what is on the menu this week? :)
5:30 - Started the preliminary qualification round of Tiger Woods Golf on XBox 360 that can get me to the championship round.
7:00 - Took 1st Place in the 4 rounds. I shot a 61, 69, 64, 62. I was up by one stroke after the 1st round, down by 5 after the 2nd, down by 3 after the 3rd round, and finished in 1st place after the 4th with a 3 stroke lead. This game is getting good...

It has been very quiet around here all week... looking forward to seeing real people once I get out of this house by Friday night. The feeling of what it is like to be Mike this week... "I'm like Martha Stewart who just got out of prison but confined to house arrest for 6 months with the ability to leave the house for 20 hours a week to go to work and back." I make myself feel like Martha so that I don't feel guilty playing Tiger Woods so much. Do you think Martha had Xbox 360?

Day 3 - The update...

Hey, I know everyone would be shocked to hear of what I did today. You are probably really curious to know, so you'll have to read the highlights below. Something really shocking...

Monday:
9:00 - Worked on new worship music for church... got to learn about 15 songs by Chris Tomlin, Third Day, Todd Agnew, Hillsong. It was actually a good learning curve as I usually don't get a lot of time to practice.
10:30 Checked SF Giants headlines before bed, no new signings. I'm wondering if they will really re-sign Pedro Feliez again.
11:00 Off to bed, had to get ropes and special gear to crawl over the pile of clothes. It is turning into an obsticle course.

Tuesday:
6:30 - Alarm goes off (guess what? snooze)
6:39 - Alarm goes off, snooze
6:48 - Alarm again, I swear last time, snooze
6:55 - stayed awake before the alarm could go off
8:07 - Off to Chevron for my special .99 coffe. Secret recipie but it works, 1/3 filled with English Toffee machine mix, 2/3 filled with coffee, a splash off half and half creamer. I did that math on the way to work, if I did that every day and Jamie got her fountain soda every day, we'd spend $60 a month on morning drinks. It made it a little depressing drinking that, so I stopped doing math.
8:18 - Arrived at Farmers
11:34 - Lunch
12:45 - Back at work... looking for exit polls on the internet. Feeling confident the Republicans will hold onto the Senate
2:25 - customer called and talked about his cattle for 19 minutes and complained about a $5 service charge for the other 30 seconds
3:30 - Joel calls to warn me that the cops are again using radar on the speed trap. It is terrible, I know I'm getting 10 tickets this year as that hill is the highest statistical area of tickets handed out. My Realator should have warned me about that before moving. Props to Joel for the warning, saved me some dough today.
5:00 - Off to home to watch election results
5:15 - Pasta and meatballs in the tv dinner
5:45 - Republicans are loosing bad, started round 2 of 4 of my Tiger Woods championship
6:30 - checked election results, not looking good, back on Tiger Woods
7:45 - The house is a mess, I decided to do all the dishes and throw away trash. I filled an entire garbage can of tv dinner boxes and other trash from the counter. I only did this because I could no longer see or get to the espresso machine. It was desperate times.
8:15 - back to Tiger Woods, ate a bowl of jello and whip cream to initiate the next set of dishes that will pile on the kitchen counter
9:00 - Chatted with Brother Jeremy and blamed him for the Republican mess as his state was a major swing state
9:30 - Thought about softball game for next week, can't wait until Monday
10:00 - Started having panic attacks about the speed trap that I'll be driving through tomorrow... decided to consider setting cruise control at 35 mph.
11:15 - Getting ready to crash and enjoy the tv being on all night while I sleep, Jaime usually turns it off once she can confirm I'm in a deep sleep. I usually keep it on a major network channel so when I start the launch codes to wake up, I catch 30 seconds of news updates in the morning before going back to sleep during the snooze cycle.

Day #2 - The Expirement...

Well, it has been over 48 hours since Jamie left. I'm still working on the social experiement of what happens when a wife leaves the house for a week on a cruise. I'm not sure of what Jamie expects of me while she is gone except that I'm know she would want me to have as much fun as she is. So here is an update of what has happened since my last post...

Sunday (continued)
6:00 PM - decided to start working on "My Space" to get my site started. This was a goal of mine to help me feel young again.
7:00 PM - Back on the X-Box
8:00 PM - stopped playing X-Box to start 2 taped episodes of law and order
9:00 PM - finished 1st episode of law and order, started a bag of popcorn and did an expirement to see what it tastes like with skittles. It was actually really good, sweeter than kettle corn.
10:00 PM - Finished Law and Order, back on the X-Box
11:00 PM - getting tired, decided to start the launch codes for going to sleep

Monday
6:35 - Alarm is off (snooze)
6:44 - Alarm is going again (snooze)
6:53 - Alarm is singing (snooze)
7:02 - I now figured out with the Alarm going that the TV was on all night, it was confusing because, when I thought the alarm was off I was still hearing noise. (snooze)
7:11 - Alarm off (getting close to getting up, snooze)
7:20 - Alarm, not yet (snooze)
7:29 - I'm finally up.

8:00 - off to work, hard to focus because I'm thinking of all the things I could be doing at home since Jamie is gone. X-Box is one of those thoughts.
9:00 - Spoke to Jamie, Started to miss her around. It has been fun as we have been text msg'n for the next two hours.
11:45 - Lunch at home, tv dinner again (excellent)
1:00 - Back to work, thinking about softball tonight. I'm really bummed at this point that Jamie won't be there. I've always loved playing with her. I think it was more fun watching her have a good time on the field than myself playing.
5:00 - Off to home, getting the line-up card ready for the big game.
7:00 - Game started, team is looking good. Sad to not see Jamie in Left Center... I was always her cut-off when she got the ball. She always appreciated my direction in where she should be positioned in the out-field. Actually, she hated that.
8:00 - Game over... got to chat with the team and friends. It was a blast.
8:30 - on my way home... I was really thirsty and I forgot to get a drink. Jamie was always my wing-man in the car and would always give the clicking sound that she was thirsty. I forgot to quench the thirst and left the house to head to Chevron. Items purchaed, Dasani Water (Grape), Tall Boy Amp Energy (mountain dew), Diet Dr. Peper, Full Throttle.

The house update... it is a real mess. Tons of trash in the kitchen counters, lots of dishes, tons of clothes on the floor. I'm going to work on getting a camera from Joel and Leslie and take some photos for the next update. This is really a site that needs to be seen.

I'm thinking about getting a house cleaner Friday morning so that Jamie can see that I'm cleaning up. Really, as long as it is clean when she gets back, then I'm ok. I'd rather clean up the house in 2 hours Friday than maintain the house during the week.

Getting ready to go watch "Heros" on NBC... probably will check out the SF Giants headlines tonight, read some political web-sites to be ready to see what is new.

Tomorrow will be a great evening as I'm looking forward to watching the election results. I think the Republicans will hold the Senate but lose 4 seats. I'm predicting the Republicans will lose the house and the balance of power might be a difference of 19 seats.

Thanks for reading...maybe Thursday we'll have a get together here at the house in the dirty state it can be in. Jamie would love those photos knowing people were over with a dirty house.

Jamie, if your reading, I miss you!

The 1st 24 hours...

Well, Jamie is off on the cruise with her parents and with Emily and Ally. She doesn't get back until late Friday evening. In almost 6 years of marriage, this is the 1st time I will be living it up like a bachelor for about 6 days. I'm taking this opportunity to kind of live up those years of remembering what it is like. So below, I'll recap what has been going on.

Saturday:
2:30 PM - said good bye to Jamie and dropped her off. The house is spotless at this point, all laundry done and dishes clean. Jamie has only given me a few simple instrutions at this point, keep the house clean and return a battery charger to one of the girls in the church.
3:00 PM - arrived at home, got on the X-Box 360 and played Tiger Woods Golf.
6:00 PM - took a break from X-Box to eat a tv dinner (1st in many years as Jamie doesn't buy those). It was a mexican dish with beans and rice and only cost 77 cents. It was actually really good and looking forward to it again as I have 2 more of the same kind.
6:15 - Back on the X-Box 360 to work on my player skills.
8:45 - Took a break to watch 2 Law and Order episodes that were recorded as I got a little bored of the X-Box for the last 5 hours.
10:00 - Worked on music for church the next day.
10:45 - Back on the X-Box again.
12:00 - In bed for the night

Sunday
7:50 - Jamie calls in the morning to remind me to not forget an important instruction to return the battery charger to one of the girls in the church. She failed to remind me to feed the fish.
8:00 - took inventory of the house... clothes all upstairs on the floor, trash in the kitchen counters, 3 spoons, 1 plate, 3 cups in the sink. Not ready to clean all that up yet.
9:00 - Left for church
11:30 - Played indoor soccer after church in the school's gym. Jamie probably would have not let me stay for 1.5 hours like we did.
1:00 - Got home, turned on the X-Box while the next TV dinner warmed up. This time it was spaggetti and meat-balls. It was very impressive and again only 77 cents
1:30 - Back on the X-Box
5:00 - took a break from X-Box to blog.

I'm really open to ideas from others of how to spend the next 5 days. So far, so good. It has been really quiet around here... almost too quiet. I'm working on planning the next 24 hours right now.

A Happy and Hilarious Halloween!

We had a really great Halloween. We had 13 people over for tacos before we all took off trick or treating. It was a first Halloween for 3 little ones. Ally was the fat bumblebee, Isabella (aka Bella) was the fairy, and Weston was the giraff. They were all so cute and for the most part enjoying it. Ally didn't car for all her roundness, but she was still cute, afterall, Halloween at this age isn't for them, it's more for us! After dinner, we all went trick or treating and let me tell you, going with 2 four year olds, (well, Em's ALMOST four), was quite an adventure. They were a traveling comedy show. Emily told EVERYONE when she knocked that she was Barbie, (she tells everyone that everyday, so this isn't anything new). And after she got her candy, after every door she would run up to me and ask, "do we get to go again?" Although as the night progressed and she got cold, she started asking, "Are we done now?" However when I would ask her if she wanted to stop she would say no and run on to the next house. Tessa was our kind hearted indian princess. She always made sure any of the babies that went up got their candy too, going so far as when a lady forgot Allyson, Tessa took one out of her pumpkin and put it in Allysons. What a girl! Halfway through the night Emily declared she would no longer go to the "scary Houses" she would only go to the happy ones. And she stuck to that, everyone else would go and she would patiently wait with the mommies. It was a great night and we all got too much candy and plenty of laughing. If you haven't gone with preschoolers before, I highly recommend it!

9months!!

This is a little late as she's been 9 months for a couple of weeks, but here are a few fun little facts about what Ally is up to. She doesn't have another checkup at the doctor until 12mo. but doing the weigh me then weigh her and I together thing, she weighs in at 17 lbs even. She can sit on the scale and it says the same thing so I'm thinking she is in that ball park. I'm going to ask if I can get her weighed when we go in for flu shots soon, so we'll know for sure then. She is still very contemplative and quiet for the most part. She gets very excited when she sees people she knows but it's only a second and then she's content to sit quietly. Totally different than her sister. She can say dada, (which is totally unfair but really cute), nana, and is now starting to say mama. She can also clap her hands and wave "hi" and "bye bye". And her FAVORITE thing to do, and this seems to be a hit for both girls, is look in the mirror at herself. She waves, claps and giggles. It's so cute! But I don't think she understands whose holding her when she looks in the mirror. She waves and smiles, then turns and stares at me, then the mirror again, then me. I think she's trying to figure out who that person is that looks just like her mommy and is holding a cute baby. It's very funny.
Ally just recovered from her first stomach flu, very fun for me. It's always hard when they are this age. But after 2-3 days, she is much better.
And a quick note on Em, her new friend Billy is now discovered to be her son and his brother is Mickey Mouse. We find out new things about the mysterious Billy all the time!

And the Girls Play Risk...

Jamie and Leslie made a vow that they would never play Risk with us. It took about 3 weeks for us to break them. This was a classic game as Joel, Leslie, Jamie and myself played Risk together. Joel and I got beat and it was Leslie and Jamie left to battle it out. This was a dream game for us to see the two girls left, playing a game that they vowed to never play. They still have to play one more game with us... stay posted for the results.

Has Anyone Seen Billy?

Emily is pointing to her new "friend" Billy. Billy goes everywhere with her, well anywhere at home. Billy isn't allowed to leave the house according to Emily. She carries him in her hand but she says that he isn't small. So he must be a heavy little friend. We do know that he has dark hair. She puts him to bed, they play in her room, watch tv together, etc. Pretty much Billy goes and does where she goes and what she does. It is cute in a funny way. Can anyone else out there see Billy?

I guess she's not a get up and go girl.

Allyson is definitly not a girl who can get out of bed and go about her day without a major hair fix! She has the worst baby bedhead I've ever seen! And the first picture is to show you what her hair normally is like. She is also showing signs of a messy eater. That was well after she had eaten. I don't think she understood the problem though!

Our Little Princess, Isn't she Beautiful?!

Farmers Agent - The Miker

For those of you that know me with a sense of humor... this shows the proffesional side to me! I've been sending out about 1,000 post cards per month in Redding. I've got a cable tv blitz that will be going for the next 6 months with over 1,000 commercials that starts really soon.

I'm ALWAYS looking for more business as I started this from the ground-up with NOTHING. Thanks to all for the support as I could not have done this business without a lot of people that read this blog.

Check Out The Bedhead!!

Ally's Going To Jail...According to Emily Anyway

It's been a little while since I put on some recent pictures. The three in their dresses are of this past Sunday before church. I can't believe I had time to take them before getting to church. But as you'll notice, Em's hair is still wet. But at least I got some cute pictures. The one on the bathroom floor was so cute. Emily has this Dora that dances and sings. But she is on rollers so she really only works on hard surfaces. At our old house she worked great, now here we have mostly carpet. So Emily was wanting to Show Ally how her Dora doll worked. She coaxed Ally into the bathroom and sat there showing her how to use the doll. It was so cute. This was how I found them. They play really well together for the most part.

It's not always hearts and flowers though. The other day Em was rolling around with Ally and I guess Ally grabbed her and she got scratched. Emily came into my room whining that Ally had scratched her. But then she got really serious and said, "but it's okay mommy, I called the police and they are going to come and get her because she was mean to me." And then she just turned around and walked out. So today, we were all upstairs when the doorbell rang. Mike and I headed down to answer it and Em stood on the top of the stairs and asked who it was. On a whim I said it was the police that Em had called and they were there to take Ally away. I thought she would laugh since it was a joke she had created. But instead she started sobbing that she didn't want them to take Ally away. It was heartbreaking, (but funny).

Ally has now figured out the stairs. Lovely! Keeping me really busy now. Plus she now has a tooth on the upper right. She is so cute. The other a.m. she was sitting in my bed before I got up and I was letting her play with a wooden coaster. I was putting it on her head until it fell. I did it 3-4 times and then just let it drop. She waited a second and then picked it up and tried to put it on her head. It was so cute. It's amazing how much they drink in at this age. She also waves and says bye bye.

For those of you who haven't heard, Emily is no longer in Pre-school. No, she didn't get kicked out! We found out that she misses the kindergarten cutoff by 6 days so she'll go when she is five. So we decided that since she was 50/50 about it anyway we would stick her in next year for five half days to let her do pre-kindergarten. I'm not sure who wasn't ready, her or me. But either way, she gets to stay at home again. And she actually hasn't said anything about not going other then she still prays for her teacher. But she still gets to interact with kids her age, she is in children's church this year at church and has just started a Wednesday night program at church. She is loving both of them.

A new look...

We've changed the background on the blog to do something different. Jeremy inspired the change with his new lime green look. Hope you enjoy it. If you want to be added as a link on the side, let us know. I lost all the links in changing the background and want to make sure we didn't miss anyone.

Heaven

Hello All. Recently my good friend Jenn, showed me a blog of one of her friends daughters patient, (did you catch that!). Anyway, her patient is this cute little boy with a disease called Trisomy 18 also known as Edwards downsyndrome. Most babies don't make it to birth, the ones that do usually pass away a few days later and a small percentage live to their first birthday. This amazing christian family had their baby boy, Elliot July 20th. They just celebrated his 2 month birthday. And it is definitly a real celebration. He is on feeding tubes and has a hole in his heart and needs 24 hour nursing. But he is really cute and so far has a lot of spunk for someone so sick. Every little thing he does is so important to this family and as I was reading their blog today, below is what the dad had to say about how his son has taught him to long for heaven. It is very touching and I hope it stirs your desire to be in heaven with God. Not sometime in the future, but longing for it NOW! I've always personally struggled with wanting heaven. I keep saying after I get married, after kids, after I raise them, after after after. But that isn't what we are supposed to feel like. Anyway, enough from me. I hope you get as much out of this as I did!


Eliot continues to teach, and we continue in our pursuit to pass on the lessons learned. I must admit that, until recently, I have never longed for heaven. Don’t get me wrong, it has always been somewhere I eventually wanted to be; it sounded great and all, but, honestly, I enjoy the here and now just fine. I looked at heaven as through a telescope. It was a nice place, not too distant, the surface of which reminded me of my current surroundings.Scripture describes the feelings that we as believers should have for the afterlife with these words: longing, burdened, & groaning. Whatever my affections for heaven were, these words would not be an apt description for them.Enter Eliot…he is my reminder, my illumination. This world is out of kilter. Not quite right. Eliot’s head bobs with each breath. His heart has a hole in it. The list continues from there. For the first time, I long for heaven. I want to be there. I want it worse than any desire that I have ever experienced. This world will no longer suffice. I am restless for that which lies beyond. Eliot has revealed the distance from earth to the afterward. He has taken my telescope and fashioned a magnifying glass- and the true distance from here to home has been exposed.so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life…We…would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. II Corinthians 5 Matt & Ginny Mooney

What a Day!

Thursday Evening will have an awesome line-up...

Bunko Starts for the ladies (and little children) at our house at 6:30 in the garage!

Risk Starts for the men at our house as early as possible inside the house!

My Name is Early Starts at 8:00 PM

The Office Starts at 8:30 PM

ER Starts at 10:00 PM

Hope to see many of you there!

Risky to Let them Play...

I came accross another blog where the game Risk seems to be a hot topic. This photo came accross and I thought this would be a classic photo to include. Do you see her reaction when she lost?

I think the recent comments from the previous post really highlighted one thing. Why in the world would we want the wives to play with us? Do you see her reaction losing a game she probably got forced to play? Not pretty when everyone goes home!

We might as well be real with each other avoid the trouble that comes along with letting the ladies play. Is it really worth getting their cards like I took from my lady friend Joel? On a positive note, if our wives came dressed like her, it could make the game at least a little interesting. So maybe we should let them go shopping before the game since that is what they really want to do.


Here are some comments from the web-site on Risk. I'll share a few of them here: http://www.funagain.com/control/product?product_id=07838

"That game that starts us all off"
"Simple, Fun, Timeless"
"The best game ever"
"We are a family addicted to Risk"
"Risk is one of the best boardgames ever invented"
"This is a classic"

So when does this tournament start without the ladies. What is our budget for them to go shopping, $5 to $7? Maybe we should just give them slurpie money for the kids and send them to the park while the credit cards stay with us? -Mike

And the Risk Champion is.....

At Last we got to play Risk at the house. Jed and Joel came over for the challenge. The ladies watched the husbands suffer.

It was a great victory and I have to provide many thanks to Joel for letting me have your cards!

Can't wait to stick it to you again :) Now if we can only get the ladies to learn how to play this game. Sure beats the board game that forces us to get our feelings out.

Pictures of the New House

The long awaited photos of our new house!

The outside of the house from the front. Notice my clean and organized garage!

The Kitchen. Loving the Granite. The Dishwasher is so quite that you would never know that it was on. This makes it nice to watch a Giants game in the evening as the only noise you hear is Barry Bonds hitting HR's! We have some taller Bar Stools on order.



Our Dining Room with the Tall Table and Tall Chairs. Great for playing Texas Hold'em! Looking forward to Winter with the Fire-Place and Leather Couch! The only thing missing will be the Giants games on TV this Winter. The good news is that we have the TIVO to watch all 162 games over again this Winter. You think the players only watch video to get better? Wrong, as I have to watch video of the Giants to learn how to become a better fan!




Up the stairs we go! Make a Left and you'll see as much as the loft as we could get in the photo. Great to relax as we have a nice computer area up here.



Emily is very proud of her room that she put together all by herself :)

Ally's room looks almost exactly like the old house!

Our Bedroom, Walk in Closet to the Right of the bed. The TV is mounted on the wall. The cords will be hidden behind the dresser.

Below you'll see the Master Bath in our room and then Emily and Ally's Bath-Room to the right.

Come by and Visit Anytime. We have room for two to sleep upstairs in the loft or Two to sleep down-stairs in the living room!

All moved in!

This past weekend we were finally able to move in to our house. We got our keys Wednesday and started slowly moving stuff. My mom and I came in Wed. and Thur. night and painted the girls rooms. They turned out really cute. I'll post some of Em's room soon. Ally's room looks the same as it did at the old house.
It was a little crazy because Emily got sick on Wed. and then Ally and Mike on Friday. So We were all running around with colds but Everyone seemed to do okay so we moved on. But it was worth it because all the boxes are unpacked and everything is in its place and we are just enjoying it now. It was nice to move on a holiday weekend as we get an extra day to relax before we get back to the routine of day to day life. And yes, it must be said, I never want to move again! Although I'm sure we will, but I can pretend that we never have to pack and unpack a house again. And by the way, the only bad thing about having a house with stairs is moving into a house with stairs. Up and down for three full days is exhausting. If it weren't for all the fast food we ate during the weekend I would have lost 5 lbs!
We also just want to give a quick shout out to those who helped us move. There was no way Mike and I could have done this by ourselves and your help was wonderful and we are so thankful to have all of you as friends and family. Thanks again! And to any of you who move in the future, count us in! Just not in the next week or two.

Pictures of the girls

Mike finally had a few minutes to show me how to transfer our images from our new camera onto our blog. so here are a few cute ones. The first is of Emily and Mike washing our car. She loves to help him, but mainly gets herself all wet. The second is of Allyson standing up, her FAVORITE thing to do. It's funny because she just started crawling a couple weeks ago and the only crawling she wants to do is to go to something that she can pull herself up on and stand there. She looks SO proud of herself when she finally gets up, which is getting faster and easier each time. I'm thinking we'll have an early walker for sure! She also crawls to things she isn't supposed to have and when we tell her no, she sits down and dissolves into tears with a broken heart. It's very cute, even if she doesn't think so!
The bottom two are of Emily on her first day of preschool. She was so excited and when I dropped her off, she just ran into the room and didn't look back. She is also the Only child that when I come to pick her up cries. The other kids come running MOMMY MOMMY and throw themselves into their parents arms. Not my child, she tell me to go home again! But I guess that is a good thing! She has already learned a bible verse and seems to be totally involved and enjoying it.

Big Week For Allyson

Ally totally skipped the scooting phase and went strait to crawling. She started cruising around yesterday and she is able to pull herself up on some things. Plus, she learned to say papa and mama this week. I can't believe how fast she is growing up!

Did you know Peter Pan goes to church?

Emily had a cute "revelation" at church on Sunday. It takes a little background to give you the full idea of what happened, so bear with me!

Our friend, Rebekah, who goes to church with us, was recently Peter Pan in a play at our local theater. She has a beautiful voice and actually has natural red hair. So she got it cut pixy style for this play, ( I was very impressed what she was willing to do to fill this role to the best of her ability). She is also very petite and was perfect for Peter Pan. So naturally we got tickets to the first show and got almost front row seats. Emily had a blast but as most of you know, Emily is pretty much scared of everything and that included Peter Pan. She was fine with "him" during the play but when Rebekah came out so we could tell her what a great job she did, Emily didn't want to go near her.

So a couple weeks passed by and it happened that with vacations and church activities that Rebekah didn't sing very much during the Sundays between the play and this past Sunday. So when we got to our church on Sunday and she was up front waiting to sing, Emily was literally clinging to my dad with her head buried in his shirt, we were all scratching our heads trying to figure it out. We thought that maybe it was because we were in a new building but during nursery she was fine. As soon as nursery ended and she went back into the gym, she started freaking out again. As soon as Rebekah came up to her and told her that her dress was pretty, Em stuck her fingers in her ears and ran the other way, almost in terrified tears. We weren't sure what was wrong with her. But later nana figured it out. She realized that the only time Emily was scared was when Rebekah came near her. And at the beginning of church she kept telling my mom that she was trying to get to daddy, but refused to go see him. And since Rebekah was singing with Mike that day, she was standing right next to him. Later that night, my dad asked her if she had seen Peter Pan recently. And she said "Yes." So he asked her where and she said she had seen him at church and that she didn't like him.

Poor Rebekah, who has known Emily forever, will always now be known as Peter Pan and Emily will probably be scarred in church for a long time. Who knew Peter Pan went to church?

Family Update

Mike and I recently bought a much needed new camera. It's a great camera and came with a great picture program. But I haven't figured out how to get the pictures from the camera to the BLOG. So, I'll just give you a quick update on the with our Family and put Mike to work tonight.

As most of you have been wondering, our house will be done and ready to move into on September 1st!!! YEAH!!! We have our new address and phone number and will send it out via e-mail in the next few weeks. We also traded our gas guzzling van with a more efficient car. We bought a new Chevrolet HHR. It's really cute and just perfect for our little family. We decided that a car is plenty of room since we are pretty sure we are happy with just the four of us, sorry all of you grandparents out there! I guess it's up to our siblings to continue providing grandchildren.

Allyson is growing up very fast, as usual! She has been sitting by herself for quite some time and it's rather challenging putting her to bed because she immediately pops back up and plays. But she put's herself to sleep. She is also super close to crawling, going so far as to take one small crawling step. But she hasn't quite perfected it yet. She even pulled herself almost to a standing position today at the doctors office. I personally think she'll walk before Emily did, but I've been wrong before! She is still a very happy baby and loves to squawk and say blah blah blah. She still isn't saying mama or dada though.

Emily is getting excited about preschool. She starts two weeks from today and has proclaimed that she doesn't need to wait that she is now tall enough to go.

The girls and I just got back from four days on the coast. My friend Jen has a girl Em's age and a baby Ally's age and we took all four girls over to the coast by ourselves. He parents have a permanent travel trailer over there. We had an awesome time and didn't want to come home. It was wonderful to get away from the 115 degree heat. We stayed very busy with the girls but overall it was still very relaxing. The four kids entertained each other so it was actually easier than being at home and being the single woman entertainment committee that I usually get to be. Then Mike and I took the girls to the Giants game on Sunday. They both seemed to have a lot of fun, and a miracle occured...the Giants actually pulled off a win.

Anyone need insurance? Mike's business is going really well. For any of you who live near here, you should come and see it. It looks really good. Mike and I have spent many hours framing and hanging pictures. He seems to really like it there, in fact so much that most days he gets ther at 7 and gets home at 7! Maybe we should use the same decor at our house! Kidding aside, it is a lot of work for him but I think he has finally found his niche in life and we are truly happy that he has had this opportunity.

I hope you have all enjoyed our long update. A lot seems to be changing and happing in our life but I tried to condense it down for you all! I'll get some new pics of the house, car, and girls asap. And in a couple of weeks a very cute little girl on her first day of preschool!

Just an Emily update, it's been a while.

I'm loving Emily at three, (for the most part!). She says the FUNNIEST things every day. I wish I could remember them all. But this one is a nightly routine so easy to remember. When it gets close to bedtime we always tell her to put on her pull up, (we aren't quite night trained), and her pajamas. She runs into the bedroom and is gone for a long time so one of us goes and checks on her. Usually what we find is a naked girl looking for, what would you guess?? No not pajamas but shoes. You see, according to our little girl, socks and shoes are essential to bedtime. You can't put on pajamas unless you have socks and shoes. We've tried telling her that she doesn't need them, but anyone who knows Emily knows her one track mind. By the way, she TOTALLY gets that from Mike, like you wouldn't believe. They are two peas in a pod. So on go the shoes and socks. The funny part is, she never looks matching and she cracks me up. Tonight, as you can see, she is wearing black Patton shoes, red socks, pooh pajamas with a black t-shirt she decorated on top. And some nights she'll come running down the all totally naked and upset because she can't find the other shoe that matches the one in her hand. And no matter how much you tell her she doesn't need to shoe and to go get dressed, she will come back until she finds the other shoe, so we learned not to waste our breath and to just get up and find the other shoe for her.

On another note, her new word is lasterday. We think it means yesterday but we aren't entirely sure. But in Emilyland lasterday happens a lot.

Emily is now totally potty trained and mommy is SOOOOOOOO happy. So true to our word, she gets to go to preschool starting August 21st. The preschool we enrolled her in is at a church that is very charismatic. We figured they are the most equipped to handle our enthusiastic daughter. I'm sure they'll claim her as their holy spirit filled holy roller!! She is really excited. I think she'll really enjoy it, she's only been asking to go to school since she was able to talk. Unfortunately, I don't know how she'll take it when she realizes she won't be able to ride the bus to school. That would be the ultimate dream come true for her!!

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E- You betcha'!

For the past week Emily has been saying "You betcha' " to us for anything we ask her to do. For example...

Adult: "Emily, you need to put her plate in the sink"
Emily: "You Betcha' "

Adult: "Emily, You need to get dressed."
Emily: "You Betcha' "

And she does this hand motion with it. She has been saying it off and on for a long time, but the last few weeks has intinsified. And she says it with such enthusiasm. "YOU BETCHA' MOMMY" We've wondered where she got it and finally Nana figured it out one morning. It is from the mickey mouse club that the disney channel plays every day. Mickey Mouse always says, "You Betcha' " and does that hand motion. It is really cute, if not a little over done. We wouldn't mind her finding a new phrase to use once in a while. But we usually laugh anyway.

The other funny thing we figured out about her is that when we will say "kids" she will always say..."and girls". We found that "kids" means boys to her. So there are always kids and girls at the park. Not boys and girls, but kids and girls. She LOVES girls to play with so the boys don't really even get recognized, their just kids. But girls, now they are worth mentioning. I was watching her at the water park today, she never really goes up to the boys but she always makes a little girl friend. I didn't think cooties affected boys at so young an age!!

Ally 6 month update

Ally turned 6 months on Monday and to celebrate that momentous occasion I took her to the doctor for an hour and 15 min. visit with some shots at the end. She was very grateful I'm sure! Anyway, she weighed in at 16lbs 0 oz. and was 28 inches long. She is exactly 1lb bigger than Em was at this age and 1/2 an inch longer. I thought she was going to be shorter than Emily but I guess Ally is bigger over all. Although, I think Ally will slow down as she still doesn't think baby food is necessary, not even the fruits I thought she would love.

We also learned an important lesson on Sunday night. Nana had made cake and Ice cream and everyone was out on the porch eating it and Ally was the lucky recipient of 2 tiny bites of ice cream which she immediately spit out. Unfortunately within minutes her face swelled up and broke out in huge hives. It looked horrible and freaked me out. So definitely no more sneaking bites of ice cream for Allyson.

Just Some Cute Pictures

The first picture of the girls in the bathtub was the first bath that Em and Ally took together. I decided doing two separate bath times was not good time management so I bought the bathtub Ally can sit in with Em. They both loved it and entertained each other, another bonus there! It was really cute to see them playing.

The next two pictures are at my brother in laws wedding this past weekend. Mike, Em and I were all in it. It was a beautiful wedding and of course Em made it a laughing experience. Right when the three girls, (Emily and my 3 yr and 6 yr old neices), were about to go down the isle, her cousin Abby stopped abruptly and Emily, who was holding her hand, tripped. She decided to use that time on the floor to start making snow angels. When she got up again, she did make it down the isle, (running and holding her dress up to her knees), but she made it down. Overall, the three girls did really well. They looked adorable and I think had a lot of fun. But at the end of the day...it was great putting them to bed!

Bananas for Nana

My mom LOVES the jars of baby banana food. When Em was a baby she hated the bananas. So when we had Ally she was hoping that Ally would love the bananas so she could feed them to her and have an excuse to sneak in a couple of bites. So yesterday I bought a jar of bananas in the a.m. and waited until Nana got home to feed them to her. And as the picture shows, she didn't care for them either. She spit out pretty much every bite, we even tried mixing them with oatmeal and ended up throwing away a whole serving of oatmeal she would not eat. Poor nana, there are no banana babies in this family!!