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.