Get ready to cry.....awesome stuff right here.

100th Post! : Chris Tomlin concert

First of all, my 100th post! Kinda proud of myself that I have actually kept this up for as long as I have now. Sure I have my droughts, by I have kept with it. Not sure how many are reading???? But I have stayed with it. It's fun.

OK, what I wanted to write about......the Chris Tomlin concert. Kim and I drove down to Evansville last evening to "The Center" to see the band. We bought our tickets when they went on sale about 3 months ago and so we had awesome seats in the first row of the balcony, right near the center. Great seats, GREAT seats. We didn't realize that Evansville was on a different time than us, so we ended up having an extra hour to spend. (Big thanks here to Grandma Marie for watching the lads, by the way.)


It was an awesome time...awesome experience. That many people together just jamming to God was really something. Halfway through, Louis Giglio spoke a great message, as well. Then it was more Praise! I know that we will not forget it! Time for my disclaimer....I would like to say that I took the picture above - I did not. Matter of fact I forgot to take my camera! Man, I never forget the camera. But I did....so I had to go to flickr and pick out an awesome shot that represents what we experienced, and this is what I found.

Thanks for reading....hopefully I can do 100 more posts!

A long one...

This might be my biggest blog entry ever by the time I get it finished. I have been meaning to put all this stuff on here and today I'll just do it all at once. I guess it is mostly pictures, but i wanted to tell you all about four different things that have happened lately.

A couple of weeks ago, on a quite foggy morning, we had noticed as we were all getting ready for the day that Roscoe was barking hysterically. Of course we were kinda rushing around in the morning like we normally do, and we had not taken the time to see what his issue was. After I got Jackson on the bus, and I could take a deep breath, I peered out into the back yard and saw a freaking racoon poised on the top of our fence taunting Roscoe. I figured as soon as I opened the sliding glass door that he would take off. Nope. I grabbed the camera and took a few pictures as I slowing approached it and tried to shoo it away. No luck. This dud was not budging. he didn't even budge when I picked up our umbrella base from the patio and hurled it at him. It kinda grazed him barely, and he did not move...just kept growling at us. Every time Roscoe approached him the coon tried to bite and scratch him. I thought, ""OK I'm going to get rid of this pest" and I went back in and got a large, heavy metal pole that we use for reaching stuff...It was actually a curtain rod of some kind, but it was made of thick, heavy metal. Well, I tried to poke him away. No budging....So I decided to give him a good healthy whack on the head, and it knocked him off the fence - I was amazed that he did not run off!! I gave him a few more pokes from over the fence and then i went in to finish getting ready. I get my shower and was absolutely stunned when I looked out and saw him back on the fence! I grabbed the pole and said enough of this. I bashed him on the head several times, and he really did not seem too bothered by it. So I went all out and beat the heck out of it. I had heard before about nasty coon actually killing dogs, and I was not going to let this happen to Roscoe. He was just laying on the ground on the other side of the fence when i left for work, I was completely expecting him to die there, and I would have to get him out of the yard after I got back from work. Well, he must be the Michael Myers of racoons, because when I got home after work - HE WAS GONE!!!!



Jackson finally lost a tooth! He had been wanting to lose a tooth for a long time, as his friends were losing their teeth and I think he felt like he was missing out on the experience. He got a little scared about 15 minutes before it actually came out. He was sitting on the couch, wiggling his tooth and tasting some of the blood and he was crying! "I am going to die!" He exclaimed. A little while later he got it out with Kim in the bathroom and he was very relieved.


The boys were Anakin Skywalker and Superman this year. I ordered the Anakin costume off eBay and it got here just a couple of days before Halloween.



Kim and I got to go to the Colts-Patriots game in the dome on Sunday. It was being dubbed as the Super Bowl in the middle of the season, as it was the first time in NFL history that two teams 7-0 or better had met. The Colts really outplayed them for the first 3.5 quarters, but in the final 6 minutes, the Patriots scored 2 TD's and won 24-20. We went with Todd and Shelly. Here we are in the endzone seats about 30 minutes before the game.


I did my part to cheer them on, although Patriots fans are claiming that the noise is artificial. There was some kind of technical/audio malfunction during the fourth quarter that people apparent assume was coming from inside the dome. I cannot stand the Patriots....I posted this on the Boston Globe after hearing the ridiculous reports that the crowd noise was fake and simulated:

OK....I just had to address this. I am a Colts fan, and live in Indiana. The Patriots players, head coach, front office, and fans are absolutely unbelievable. It almost leaves me speechless, but not quite. I realize that the RCA dome is the smallest in the league. Nonetheless, there are 56,00 seats in there, and the place was packed - of course. This means that at least 56,000 were witnesses to what you all are claiming happened. I happened to be one of those people at the game. I was there, were you? I have not heard of ONE SINGLE PERSON, out of the 56000 who were there, who claim to have heard it in the dome. Nobody. No Patriots people, no NFL people, no CBS people....Nobody.....guess why? It wasn't audio coming through the soundsystem, that's why. I was there......I love the Colts and of course I wish they would have won. It was a good game. But if I heard the same noise as what was heard on TV, I know that I, along with 56,000 other people who have been immediately confused. It would have been noticeable. Think about this with your brain for a moment, not your Patriot loving hearts....If that strange sound, lasting several seconds, was actually piped in, and loud enough to come through CBS mics, don't you think maybe somebody in the dome would have noticed? just one person, maybe? Or a few thousand (more likely)? This is why the Pats, their coach, and their organization is so disliked by the entire league. Coach Bill has not one ounce of class. Up 42-0 on Washington and going for it on 4th down???? Are you kidding me?? He thought he was above the rules and got busted for it with the whole videocamera thing. I vividly remember last year after the AFC championship when he refused to show the same kind of sportmanship that little league boys show after a loss - and brushed off Dungy and Manning. The evidence for my opinion goes on and on...plain and simple he is a great football coach but a miserable human being. Now listen, maybe you all out their do not value sportsmanship, and that's your choice. I just think if you are going to support this kind of behavior, and then claim the Colts pumped that noise into the dome......It leaves me speechless. There is no doubt that you have a great team to root for. They may end up arguably the best ever. But what you have in talent, skill, and the know-how to play the game successfully may bode well for you in the win column, you pick up losses in the eyes of the country as a result of the manner your players and coach conduct themselves. The Patriots may go 19-0....they might....but even if they do, the vast majority of the country will not honor it because you have absolutely no class whatsoever. I would much rather root for the Miami Dolphins or another pathetic team if they had some class, as opposed to rooting for a great team with a jerkball coach and no class or respect for other people. But that's just me.

St. Louis Zoo!

On 10/19/07, we took the lads to the St. Louis Zoo. It was Fall Break and getting out of town for a couple of days was a very nice idea. For those of you that have never been, it is the nicest zoo I have ever been to. We took Jackson a few years ago, probably when he was around Carson's age, so he was too young to remember any of that, plus there are some things about the zoo that have changed over the last 2 or 3 years.

Here they are poised at the outdoor penguin area, hanging out with a fake puffin. They seemed to have wonderful time and particularly enjoyed the snakes, monkeys, and penguins. Jackson would tell you thast the highlight of his trip to the zoo was going to the Build-a-Bear store and making "Jacob", his new little Black Bear. Lil' Carse got to pick out a penguin stuffed animal....He grabbed ahold of it as we strolled through the gift shop/exit of the penguin area and proclaimed "My penguin!" - they're not spoiled or anything! You know, Jackson can be predictable on some things, but this was a little bit of a surprise for us that he took so much interest in the Build-a-Bear. We stayed at the Holidome in St. Louis, so we were able to enjoy some swimming after a long day at the zoo.

Newest Bengals Fan!

Boy, I've been in the midst of another Whited News slump. It's tough to make time for the blog now. Here is a photo sent to TWN headquarters by a proud grandmother of the newest Bengals fan. Apparently lil' Brennan gets so excited about the Bengals that the mere act of watching them play causes him to salivate!

my new windshield tattoo

This is what my windhshield looks like on the passenger side of the Jeep. I was driving to work earlier this week, and a rock(?) seemed to fly out of nowhere and strike the windshield. I was not behind a dump truck and there was no apparent reason why this happened. On my way home, I took a closer look and it gave me chills. You know, even when something crappy happens, we have to remember that no matter what it is, God is bigger. My new windshield tattoo reminds me of this. I actually don't mind it too much. It's kinda cool.

Carse at Breakfast

I got a new toy

I took a little of my annual longevity and got me a new toy. After 4 years with the sony cybershot, I decided it was time for a little upgrade on a digicam, so I went with a canon powershot a550. I took 10 shots with it when I got home this evening and here are two of the better ones.

Famous Family Member

Peter Parker snapped this photo as he was strolling through Times Square this week. J. Jonah Jameson was not interested in purchasing it for The Daily Bugle, but after Parker offered it to The Whited News, The Publisher immediately paid top dollar for it.

Now we know that we have at least one famous member of the family, Laura Whited.

You go, girl!

Family Picture - July 2007

We got this taken the day after we got back from vacation in July.

1st day of 1st grade

Here is Jackson today heading out the door for the 1st day of 1st grade.

Now, for comparative purposes, below is the picture I took of him heading out the door for the first day of kindergarten last year.

Take a look at the door behind him and check out how much taller he is. My goodness, it's like he never eats anything but it almost looks like he's grown 5 inches!

He gave very conflicting reports about his first day of first grade today, one minute raving about how wonderful it was, the next minute he complained about it. By the time he went to bed tonight, he was looking forward to going back and said he couldn't wait because "first grade is awesome". At one point this evening, he was whining about school and said: "I'm too little for first grade....(drastic change of voice tone).....well....actually.....I'm the second tallest kid in class." There's classic Jackson for ya.

whew!

It's been awhile...again. And last time I put something on here, it wasn't even a real post, but instead a photo display. I guess that means that I have some catching up to do. Only I really don't feel like spending much time documenting what we have been doing over the last 3-4 weeks. Instead I have the urge to comment about other stuff.

Before I do that, though, I do want to post a picture I took at Colts camp a week ago. You know, it is just a weird but cool feeling to be like ten feet away from a group of people including Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, Adam Vinatieri, and Tony Dungy. So close that you can actually heat just the normal football conversation between them. But that is what it was like at camp, where we were seated on the ground right along the sideline of their practice field at Rose Hulman. Here is a picture of what I am talking about. Oh, and I just have to put on here the picture of Coach Dungy looking at me like he is about to come over a kick my butt!

OK, here is mostly what I had the urge to post about. Does anyone else out there with FT jobs and small children feel like it is a real challenge to make time for nurturing your relationship with your spouse? Kim and I are doing a horrible job of this. We, us, our relationship and marriage are always on the back burner - and we are very aware that this is simply not good at all. I mean, we are doing OK and all. I don't want people ready this and thinking that were are in trouble or anything, because that is not the case. But my goodness, we have grown accustomed to this being the norm and we don't like it. We try to make time after the boys are in bed...but with daylight savings and all by the time they are finally down for the count we are absolutely wiped out and just want to veg out or sleep...usually sleep...or just not be bothered by another human being, no matter who it is. We have planned out what we want out morning routine to look like this school year and we are going to set aside 20 minutes between 6:20 - 6:40am to sit and have coffee/breakfast together. Maybe that is a start. We also are looking to hire some trustworthy teenage girl that he can utilize as a somewhat regular sitter, so that we can actually go out on a date. It is a sad fact that I have to sit here and think real hard about when the last time the two of us went out to eat just the two of us.....we did not even do this for our anniversary....our 10 year anniversary and that was more than three months ago....I'm still thinking......I honestly do not know when it was or where we went... So that is pathetic and I am embarrassed about it. We might start doing some "babysit swapping" with our friends the Hubers, where one weekend we watch their kids and the next weekend they watch ours, giving us the chance for both couple to have some non-kid, husband and wife time. I am all for this idea. Does anyone else out there have any great suggestions for what has worked for them? I am all ears.

Well, I better go...Carson is yanking on my shirt sleeve hollering "bite, bite, bite!" Apparently he is interested in some sort of snack.

vacation photos

PreVacation

We are going on vacation next week. It took us forever to make a decision where we were going to go and what we were going to do. This is something that takes some careful analysis when you are going on vacation with kids aged 6 and 2. You know, the trip to Vegas will have to wait. DC? They are too young to appreciate….Disneyworld?…not yet! So we decided to keep it simple and just head up north of Chicago so we could go to the Lake Michigan Beach and hit Six Flags Great America. We also are planning to make a stop downtown to see the Shed Aquarium and maybe Navy Pier. We are also taking advantage of the opportunity being “up north” to see our friends the Hochstetlers up in Nappanee. We have not gotten our families together for 3 years this summer! We will visit with them and then head to Chicago.

So we are ready. Not so much physically ready, but mentally ready. I still feel like we have a lot to do to ready ourselves for the trip. We are heading to Wal-Mart tonight with our list.

Before we go…some thoughts.

Jackson got stung by at least one wasp a couple of night ago and his left hand swoll up like an inflated oven mitt. At first we were worried that he might be having an allergic reaction, but the swelling stayed localized.

You know, I absolutely hate dealing with doctors and insurance. It is easily one of my least favorite things to do or even think about. I did this reasearch and discovered this fact: Three of five (62%) of all adults with medical bills or debt problems said they or their family member were insured at the time the debt was incurred. Our lousy insurance, Humana, refuses to pay any money whatsoever for “diagnostic tests”. Doesn’t matter if your doctor (within the network, mind you) declares the tests medically necessary. Humana just says, “we ain’t paying nothing”….because it is “diagnostic”. I am sorry but that is totally asinine and there is no way that insurance companies should be permitted to get away with crap like that. THE DOCTOR DECLARES THAT IT IS MEDICALLY NECESSARY AND EVERYONE INVOLVED IS “IN THE NETWORK”. Doesn’t matter….insurance companies can do what they want and they do. We also will have to switch Kim’s allergy doctor because the doctor refuses to fill out a simple form so that they will join the Humana network. All they have to do is complete some simple paperwork but they are too lazy and now Kim has to find a new allergy doctor even though they have treated her for 10 years. I emphasized how unfortunate that this is to the doctor’s office but they couldn’t care less.

I like how our president can just overrule the legal system and allow convicted criminals who are buddies of his and Dick (Mr. Excitement) Chaney to just skip their prison time and go home without serving a single day in the joint. Yeah, that’s great.

Colts training camp starts in 17 days.

My next digital camera will probably be this one.

I heard on the radio today that you should not buy gas when it is real hot outside because the gas expands when it is hot, so you actually do not get as much for your money as you do when it is more mild.

One more thing...Carse has not demonstrated his ability to take a leak in the potty chair since his one successful event 5 days ago.

TINKLE

Guess who pottied in the potty chair for the first time ever last night after bath? I guess that is a dumb thing to say given the picture above...It might be awhile before he does it again, as so far today he has shown no interest in it whatsoever and proclaims "NO!" every time we ask him if he wants to sit on it. But we just want to celebrate the small victories since it seems we see very few victories at all!

4 Sport Weekend 2007

The week in review

I've had several items that I have wanted to mention in TWN this week and rather than having multiple small posts, I think I'll just out them all together.

• Tuesday was an ordinary day, but turned out to be a meaningful day in terms of perspective. I had been at work for about 10 minutes before I discovered that Terry Hoeppner had passed away at the hospital that morning less than a mile from my office. Just the week prior IU had announced that there would be an interm head coach for the 2007 season, due to Coach Hep's continued cancer issues. But nobody expected this. Nobody knew that he was in that bad of shape. But how it hit me was just another example of how we need to live in the moment, because tomorrow is never guaranteed. Live with vigor, enthusiasm, passion, and intense hope like Coach Hep did. I later discovered that Coach Hep and his family have a strong faith (no surprise there) and so I was relieved to know that this is a man who is no longer in pain, but is now with Jesus in His glorious kingdom, and I'm sure that Jesus has told coach: "Job well done". I had learned that a former player had taken communion with him at the hospital just a couple of days before his passing - and a feeling of peace came over me. My prayers are with the family and I know Coach's incredible spirit will live on.

• That night I came home and watched Joel Osteen deliver a message of...what else...living in the moment. Joel discussed the fact that only God knows how long we will be here on earth. Most people know that they could be gone and not live to see next weekend, yet they live their lives like it is a certainty that they will live to be 70 or 80 years old. I do not believe that it was a coincidence that I heard this after thinking so much about Coach Hoeppner that morning.

• It makes me think of people I know who I pray will someday begin to get this. There is someone I work with - no need to mention names - but this person is grumpy every single day. Never says hello to people. At least this person never says hello to me - ever. Always responds to my question of ""Good morning! How are you?" with a variation of the following: "not good", "um....I don't know", "lousy", or my favorite - dead silence. Smiles about once every three or four weeks. Never inquires about others....you get the picture. And this is someone who is supposed to be a positive role model for the teens in the youth shelter....kinda scary. Anyhow, I pray that people like this will realize that they are choosing to live their lives this way. They do not have to. I'm not saying I understand what their life is like, because I don't. Maybe they could give several good reasons for their negative state. But it is all relative. I am aware of people with terminal illness and other catastrophic things going on in their lives and they are actually happy people. It's amazing. Those people simply have a different outlook on life and choose to live happy and in the moment. I really, really want to do this...and I have some work to do, for those of you who know me well.

• Last week I have made every effort to use up the 11 hours of comp time that remained for me. Basically, I needed to use it or lose it since next week (actually starting today) I cannot use it anymore due to my position change at work. For those wondering, my position is the same, but I have moved to 40 hours/week and I am unable to earn comp time. So I took Thursday off and the family went to Leiber SRA for an afternoon of picnicking and swimming. Had a real nice time. It was the first time we had been there, and the pool was alot nicer that we expected. There is a big ol' water slide, diving board, nice sloping shallow area for the younger ones like Carse. Kim didn't utilize the sunscreen and ended up with some red shoulders and back. But we had a great time - here is a picture of the boys.
• I shaved off the goatee that I had on my face since December.

• Last thing I want to mention is a great message at church today. Fit right in with what I have been thinking all week about Coach Hep and living life to the fullest. Pastor Brice gave a message today that was the first in an eight part series titles "The First Step to Freedom". It is actually a message written by Rick Warren, the Purpose Driven Life guy. Anyhow, a significant part of the message was about recognizing that all people have sinful nature. We all screw up. And there are people who look at other people who mess up and then hold grudges about these people. And judge these people. Take everything personal as if whatever happened was intended to hurt them. It hit home for me because the real issue was about control. And this is a big problem I have is trying to control everything. When I accepted Christ into my life last Fall, I was going through all kinds of stressors and I realized that I cannot continue to try to control everything. I cannot do everything and I should not try to. That was when the real change happened for me. And it is easy to forget it. But I have been gently reminded. We need to let God be God and not try to take care of everything ourselves. He wants to help us and He wants us to ask for His help. But we have to let some things go....relax....follow him....and be at peace knowing that He is in control, not us. He is the only one who is qualified to judge people, because He is all-knowing. We are not all-knowing, even though we often act like it, and we do not have the right to judge others. Wherever we go, whatever we do...there will always be people who have the potential to hurt our feelings and there will be people who will disappoint us....there will always be problems. If we expect to get to a point or a place where this is not the case, we are only setting ourselves up for major frustration in life. And that is a guarantee.

Romans 8:5
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

Terrible Two's: The Peak (I hope it's the peak)

Today has made it clear to me that we are currently near the peak of those terrible two's with our young little Carson. I think it would be healthy for Kim and I to accept the fact that during this stage we will absolutely not have a tidy house. Not that it usually is tidy, but right now it is just not really possible. Our time at home basically consists of alternating between three things: cleaning up a mess of his, scolding him for hitting someone, or redirecting him from doing something that places him in immediate danger. That's pretty much it. We are having some recent difficulty with him getting objects from something and then hiding them elsewhere. For example, I am in the beginning stages of growing a Grisly Adams beard because he seems to have hidden the charging cord for my shaver somewhere. I have looked all over this house and driven myself nutso looking for it. Hope he didn't throw it in the trash. Oh yeah, the TV remote....it's missing too. You know it's hard telling what he might have put in our trash and we have thrown out without even knowing it. He also has developed a big-time fascination with all light switches. He will make flat-out certain that all lights and fans are on in our house at all times. And the refrigerator....absolutely will not keep it closed or stay out of it.

We got back from the drive-in last night around 2am - went to see Shrek: the Third and Spiderman 3. We had not been to the drive-in forever and neither of the boys had ever been. We were skeptical about it, primarily not knowing how Carse would do, but overall it worked out pretty good. Anyway, even though we got him in bed about 2am, he still was up climbing in our bed and laughing at 7am as if he had been asleep for twelve hours. You all know that once your toddler wakes up - you are up. Don't matter how tired you are or how glad you are that it is finally the weekend and there was a 5% chance that you could sleep in until maybe 8. You are up. A few days ago while he was still i his crib, Saturday mornings meant he would lay in his crib after he woke up and sing us a few songs and stuff while we dozed a while longer, but now he is jumping up and down on us like we are human trampolines and kicking us in the face.

Maybe in a year or two we can start living in a house that does not look like a tornado went through it.

Carse says bye-bye to the crib

During the middle of the night Sunday night, Carson wakes up and decides to climb out of his crib. Typically when he wakes up during the night, he immediately starts whimpering...and he has never tried to get out of his crib. Well, all of a sudden we hear a load crash through the monitor and then crying, and then he comes trotting into our bedroom just as we are beginning to realize what has happened. He seemed fine and fell asleep in our bed moments later. We put him back in bed after a little while and then in the morning when I go to wake him up I see the huge black eye. He looked like Rocky Balboa after a fight with Apollo Creed.

So needless to say after I got home from work last night I converted his bed into a toddler bed. He actually did fine with it last night and only got up once and Kim used the SuperNanny technique and he went to sleep after just a few minutes. So in a span of about 5 weeks, he has reached a couple of real nice milestones in saying farewell to his pacifiers and his crib.

Also, I wanted to mention that I have been playing with this new photoediting software....check the previous post of Jackson's graduation and see what I did with the picture of him in from of the garden at school. Here is a picture of Carson from October, 2005. I always thought his eyes were a brilliant blue color in that particular shot, so I decided to play with it and here is what I came up with.

I think the thing that is really cool about this is that those shades of blue are not edited in any way. Those are the actual colors from the original photograph.

the graduate

Jackson's kindergarten graduation was great. I think it means that he is officially not a little boy anymore. He will be a big, bad first grader next! He was a little nervous, but did very well and made his Grandma, Maam, mommy, daddy and little brother real proud of him. All the graduates got to say a little line during the during the program and Jackson said his just fine: " I like to learn about science, and birds and bugs!". Here is is holding up his diploma right after the ceremony.

I was fortunate enough to be able to capture this tender moment between mother and son...

awesome stuff, right there!

Doug E. Carson

So the fam is all having fun watching the American Idol finale on Wednesday night and when Jackson's favorite contestant Blake Lewis showed up on stage with Doug E. Fresh, our eyes were glued to the TV. After watching for a few moments in delight, we notice that Carson slips out of the living room and appears about 15 seconds later looking like this and grooving to the beatboxers!

I'm telling you, the Carse-man is going to be quite the entertainer.

our boys...

they're so awesome!

A day at the track (2007)

Some of you might remember that last year, I took Jackson to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first time and I took a few minutes to add it to TWN. Tuesday provided another great chance to go back to the track...it was the first day that all drivers were able to practice and I already had the day off due to primary elections. Even though last year was a little shaky for Jackson when we went, he stressed to me that he really wanted to go this year - that he was almost 6 six and that the noise would not bother him as much. There was no chance of rain to I picked him up from kindergarten and we headed for the track. We had a great time. It turns out that a year made quite a bit of difference for him! Yes, he still got a tad whiney as we sat in the stands for part of the day, but after we got to the turn 3 infield grassy area we got more comfortable. Here are a couple of the better photos.

Then in the evening, Jackson had a baseball game, here he is making a great hit!

My last post was three weeks ago. It is getting harder and harder for me to make time to post on here. Work has been a real challenge and it just seems like every single day, weekends included are jam-packed and I am completely exhausted by 9pm, when I generally take the time to post. I am pooped right now but I made myself get off the couch and sit down at the computer. There are several things that i would like to post on so hrer goes.

Thanks to my Aunt Frannie for sending the pics of little Brennen. I don't get too many contributions, so when I do I want to make sure I get them on here. Sounds like the little furry headed one is doing fine, although he did go through a rough time and needed 2 surgeries in less than a week for a narrow passage leading out of his stomach. Sounds like things were fine after the second surgery and he has really started eating now that he is digesting properly. This picture was taken at Easter, right after his surgeries. Awwww!

I also wanted to make sure I put on here the interesting evening with Carson about a week ago. We were sitting there having dinner, tacos, black beans and corn, and then Carse started acting funny. We quickly realized that he had crammed a piece of corn in his nose! We got a kleenex and he quickly blew it out on the first blow. We thought that was all there was to it but then 5 minutes later he is acting funny again and we had watched him close to make sure that he didn't do it again. We get to looking and he has another kernal shoved even further up there. It was so far up there that we couldn't even see it every time we looked. It was like it was moving around in there. Well, then he decided that he would not be blowing his nose any more. So Kim and I were thinking this piece of corn was going to cost us a trip to the ER and several hundred dollars. He got increasingly irritated and so did we. Finally, Jackson saved the day. Jackson blew his nose in front of Carse and we just praised and praised him and did hugs and high fives. Carse immediately looked jealous so we quickly got a kleenex up to his nose and BLAST! He blew and the kernal shot out like rocket into the Kleenex. I was so dang happy to see that piece of corn out of his nose. Check out the visual documentation.

What else....well Kim and Carse both had visits to the ENT doctor and left with not great news. Kim has a nasal polyp and Carson has already lost one of his ear tubes. On the bright side, surgery is not an immediate requirement for Kim....she will try other techniques to deal with it and try to pacify it. I'm sure that she is real happy that I am discussing her nasal polyp for all to know...The other major part to this is that the ENT doctor says that Cosmo must leave our house. He needs to live elsewhere or become an outdoor cat. Not sure how this will play out. He is a big wimp and we're not sure he will do alright as an 11 year old first time outdoor kitty. We will see what happens. As for Carson, his left tube is out, and has likely been out for a month or so. the drum has sealed back shut and there is some fluid buildup behind the drum. There is no infection right now, but it still is not great news. We got what, 7-8 months out of the tube in his left ear. Right ear still has a tube.

Tee-Ball has started back up. Jackson's second and final year of tee-ball. He is doing great so far and enjoying it. There are not many second year players on the team so he kinda stands out right now. We are the A's and it sure bring back some memories for me. I was on the A's for two years in Little League so it is cool to see my little Jackson sporting the A's hat and playing baseball.

Work has been a real challenge of late....I basically go in there and bust my tail all day long, often tooo busy to stop for lunch, and then when I leave there is still 12 unattended things on my to-do list. I just cannot catch up. I did get a really good eval and my bosses are making every effort to increase my hours (and subsequently my salary). I hate to spend another 5 hours a week at work instead of home, but we need the money and I need the extra time at work in order to be capable of doing my job properly. But we will have to wait and see if it gets approved by the County Council. With all the HR stuff I have been doing...screening applicants, doing interviews, checking refs, initial orientation and employment paperwork, and then initial training....bottom line is that it is keeping me from doing all the things that I really need to do.

OK, I'm tired and ready to zone out.

Spring Break is officially over. I've got to head back off to work in about 35 minutes. Before I go, I wanted to take the chance to post some pictures from our Spring Break in Gatlinburg. We had a great time. Our cabin, Bear's Hideaway, was the coolest one we have ever stayed in. Here is a picture of it.


It did not have the view that we had last year, but it was private, but much closer to all the fun stuff in Pigeon Forge. It basically had everything we wanted. We went to the Rainforest Adventures Zoo, which was a new experience for us. We enjoyed it, especially Jackson who got a kick out of all the reptiles and lizards. Carson really seemed to enjoy the lemurs.

Of course we ate at Applewood restaurant again. Very awesome food again. That place is special. We went to Cade's Cove, but saw very few wildlife this time....a little disappointing, but nonetheless a beautiful experience, as always. We also went to Christus Gardens, which was basically a wax museum that had many different scenes from Christ's life.

Not long after we got set up in the cabin we discovered that Carson could climb out of the pack-n-play, which created a wrinkle in our sleeping arrangements. The cabin had an awesome loft with a king bed overlooking the main level, but we felt like we needed to sleep in the main level bedroom with Carson so we would know if he climbed out of the P & P during the middle of the night. We were worried about him trying to climb up the spiral staircase or go down the stairs to the gameroom. He never did climb out during the night, though. Here is a shot of little Carse enjoying the rocking chair on the upper level deck.


One of the other highlights for the boys was feeding the ducks during our picnic in Gatlingburg.


Well, I got more to say, but I better get to work...Can you sense the excitement in my words? One more shot though...here is our family vacation portrait at the cabin 5 minutes before we left. As you can see, Carson we real excited about it.

This week we bought this 2006 Pontiac Vibe! So far we love it and feel like we made a good purchase. We traded in our Montana minivan, and it feels good to not have to worry about it anymore. We had the Montana nearly three years and overall we were a little disappointed with it. I got to where I just did not like to drive it. The handling was terrible, it was not great on gas, and all the aggravation that we were having with the electrical problems such as the fuel gauge being defective, and the power locks not working properly. It also had a terrible heating and cooling system....ugh!! The Vibe is nice, though....I feel like we got a good deal on it from National Car Sales. I had been researching cars in this class for awhile, looking at the Toyota Matrix, Ford Focus wagons, and such....We decided that we liked the Vibe. We visited three different dealerships and test drive three different Vibes and the one that you see above was the one for us. You hate to sign up for a car that you will have to pay on for so long when you are on the verge of paying off the van, but the van was not a long term vehicle, whereas the Vibe is.

We went through a couple of lousy experiences at the two other dealerships. The first place we went to was Westgate in Plainfield right beside Kohls. That place is terrible - we wasted alot of time because we had to fill out a credit request and test drive the Vibe before we even had any kind of clue what they wanted for it. Then the dude who was the "sales boss" was basically a slimeball and was not straight up with us at any point whatsoever after he came in the "close the deal". Then was went to Hare on the Westside off of 38th street to see their advertised Vibe specials of "11,900".....well, that was with 2000 down, which we were going to do anyway. But that means the actual list price was 13900 and the 2000 down "made" it 11900, according to the salesman. I said: "Ummm, doesn't that make the price of the vehicle 13,900?" He says, well, actually, yes.....Then I said "Then why was it advertised for 11,900?". After the test drive, Kim noticed that the front bumper was messed up in three places, so that was the end of that since I was ticked anyway about the deceit that had occurred. So we went to National and bought the one we wanted, straight up, no deception, no games, no pressure.

For all these people that make a living selling cars: Do everyone a favor and avoid the deceit. It ticks people off. Tricks and small print games simply tick people off. Just be straight up and don't waste your time and the customer's time.

Winter Wonderland

I took the above picture while driving to work on February 14. This is 231 between our house and Spencer, heading south. We got a bunch of ice and then ended up getting about 7-8 inches of snow over that. Schools were canceled pretty much all week and we were concerned about losing our power, but that fortunately never happened.

Then we got another 4 inches on Saturday the 17th, and decided that it was time to take Jackson and Carson sledding for the first time...here are shot shots from this adventure. He had a great time. Jackson couldn't get enough of it, and Carson mainly wanted to eat the snow.

Here is a Valentine's Day card Jackson made for us.





Here is the card I chose to give to Kim today. I'm such an idiot.

And here is one of the first pictures of Lisa and Dan's litttle guy, Brennen.
Congratulations! What an amazing blessing from God!

On Sunday, February 4th 2007, The Indianapolis Colts won the Super Bowl.

They beat New New England Patriots, yeah that "dynasty", to get there. Of the twelve teams in the playoffs this year, the Colts defense allowed the fewest yards per game than any other. Including of course Baltimore, New England and Chicago. I looked it up, and these three teams I just mentioned ranked 1, 2 and 3 in the league in defense (lowest points allowed per game) during the course of the 2006 season. We beat them all.....defense wins championships? Yes it does, because this year in the playoffs, as I just mentioned, the Colts defense allowed fewer yards per game than any other team. We won with defense. We won with smashmouth football...line em up and run it down your throat. Remember when people said the Colts were a finesse team and dare we say "soft". I remember. Remember when people said Manning was a loser in the playoffs and could not win a "big game"? I remember. Remember when people said "oh the Colts are a dome team.....they will never win in the elements, especially not against a physical team." Well, let's see, it rained the entire Super Bowl and the wind was blowing at times. And I don't know abut you, but in my book the Bears qualify as a "physical team". I think all of these types of statements were absolutely, without question, proven false - as in very false. Oh it feels good. It felt good enough to go downtown when the temperature was 6 with a -8 wind chill to party with the Colts after they arrived back to Indianapolis from Miami. Judson and I went to rock out the dome and just say "Thanks" the only way we knew how.

I took this picture, without the zoom, from our seats in the upper level.

There are alot of things that are cool about this. First of all, the Colts won with class. This is a group of guys who are stand up men, Christian men, who you feel proud to cheer for. Their leader, Tony Dungy, is a guy who you cannot help but respect. A real team by every sense of the term. The first major professional championship ever by an Indianapolis team. All the adversity and tragedies faced...Dungy.....Wayne....Brackett. It teaches us to work through adversity towards our goals, with God there guiding us. He will take care of us if we follow Him. This season was orchestrated by the Lord, especially the last two games. Miracle comeback vs. New England. Then a come-back win against the Bears in the Super Bowl. The biggest play of the game was clearly the INT return for a touchdown by Kelvin Hayden. You cannot tell me God didn't have a hand in keeping Hayden's heel from being 1/4 inch farther out and onto the sideline. The replay and subsequent review of the play showed clearly that he did not step out.....but check out this picture and how close it was....God's work.

For the first time ever, the season is over and there is no disappointment with the result. That is a strange feeling, but I'll take it, because I may never experience that about my team again.