pirate adventures

it had been a long week and the weather wasn't the best, we had all been cooped up for way too long and ledger was getting antsy.  diana was exhausted from a full morning with his running around, so i wanted to give her a break.  i bundled him up and the two of us went outside for a little while.  we had gotten him a pumpkin for halloween (blue, of course?), so he grabbed that and brought it outside with us.  well, i put him to work right away picking up all the pine cones and gathering them all into his pumpkin.  he loved having a chore to do, something he was responsible for.  i helped him spot all of them and by the end his pumpkin was overflowing with pine cones!  we wandered around the whole house a time or two exploring and playing around.  his game of choice was pirates- i would be 'captain daddy' and he was 'first mate ledger'.  we were on a search for treasure!  my favorite part was that we came across the pile of brush that i had cleared out over the summer and he pulled out a stick from the pile and decided it was it was mr. stick- he was going to join us on our adventure.  the rest of the time he would consult with mr. stick and ask him where we should go next!  mr stick, by the way, was really impressed with our collection of pine cones.
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my beauty

so, every once in a while it just hit me. its like my eyes are opened up a bit bigger for just a moment and i get a glimpse of the bigger picture, of the whole thing.  a realization of the special in the mundane.  it happened recently.  i was just hanging out and enjoying the company of my wife and friends, and then it just hit me like a ton of bricks:  my wife is beautiful.  not just pretty, but gorgeous!  she is a stunning woman who i somehow conned into marrying me.  how did this happen?!?  i'm just a poor overweight shlub who watches movies, how did i win the favor of such an angelic beauty?  when she gives me that look and flashes me her secret smile that's just for me- my heart skips and my mind stammers.  i feel like i stole something valuable and i'm still waiting to be caught.  how did i get away with this?
now, don't get me wrong, my wife isn't just beautiful on the outside, she is an amazing woman with strong convictions, a vast intellect, a deep heart, and an abiding faith.  she is not so much my equal, but my better in so many ways.  this i know.  this i an able to appreciate and understand every day.  but i sometimes forget that she is also the most beautiful thing in all of creation!  i get used to it because i see her everyday, so it takes those special flashes, those momentary revelations, for me to remember 'oh yeah, she is a stunningly perfect beauty!'
i could continue to ask 'how did i get this lucky?'  but instead i will just say 'thank you'.

wake up!

that little boy of ours sure is cute!  recently i was getting him up from his nap and i open the door to this!  that little alfalfa hair, big brown(ish) eyes, a cute smile on his face under his binky, and a little wave 'hi daddy, i waking up now.'  yes you are son, yes you are.
let me take this opportunity to remind you that there are dozens more great photos of this little munchkin that you can enjoy over in the image gallery.  there are some special gems to check out in the 'random ledge' posts as well- check them out here:
random ledge.
enjoy!

have her cake and eat it too

its moms birthday in a couple days, so we planned to get together on sunday to celebrate it while ledger and i would be in town to join in on the festivities.  jill invited everyone over for dinner for the special event- she even made her a cake!  diana was sorry that she missed it, but we were all glad that ledger and i got to be there for it.  jill made a tasty meal for us, and then we got to sing 'happy birthday' and play around for a while at their house.  we had a lot of fun, but soon afterward the boy and i had to head back home once again.
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wormy balloon!

mom had to do some shopping including a visit to the dollar store for a balloon.  she has a friend at work with a birthday and wanted to bring in a gift and stuff for her.  ledger and i tagged along, but as soon as he saw the balloons he was obsessed!  the whole time we were there he kept running around asking if he could touch the balloons.  finally his mema relented and actually bought an extra balloon for him to bring home and play with.  spoiled rotten, i tell ya!  he picked the one that had little figures that looked like smiling worms?  i have no idea what they were supposed to be... he got it home and was playing with it in the living room but got quickly annoyed with the fact that it would float all the way up to the ceiling.  the string was long enough for him to reach, but he would still get mad at it.  'daddy, make it come down.  i don't want my wormy balloon all the way up there!'  he would tug on it, it would come down then float back up.  'no!'  poor guy, those wormies are never going to listen to you...
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back again

i know it seems like we were just up visiting but that's only because we just were.  no, its been a couple weeks since our last visit, its just that not much has happened since last time!  this time, though, its just the guys.  diana had the opportunity to go and visit lissa and help her out for a little while, so i told her to go and ledge and i will head north just the two of us.  she felt bad about not coming along, but i insisted.  she gets to visit my family so much more often than she gets to visit lissa.  i took friday off, so we headed up a bit earlier in the day so we could enjoy the whole afternoon up in grand rapids.  ledger was a-ok with that!  after taking a nap in the car, he was thrilled to see his mema... and her toys!  he pulled out a constructor set and wanted to play with them.  jackson had build a car out of them and so ledger had fun playing with that for a bit, but then he found the instruction booklet and it showed a picture of how to make a robot- oh, he was all about that!  'daddy, can i make a robot?' he asked excitedly.  well, they are a bit complicated for him, so i had him help me build it instead.  the hardest part of building it was finding all the scattered pieces it needed!  eventually we got it all put together and he loved it!  he played with that thing for hours, showing it to mema, then showing it to me, then even showing it off to the dog!
we had a very nice rest of the weekend, including a great much-needed discussion with time and jill about the future.  i think there may be some big changes coming soon...
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see the game, eh

every once in a while we get a random call from miranda and levi to do something.  its usually pretty standard stuff like 'hey, lets meet for dinner', or levi will ask 'can i come over and hang out for a while before work?' (his work is only about two miles from us and his house is about 15, so if he's in the area and has to kill an hour before work, its the easier alternative).  but this time when they called it was a bit more interesting: 'hey, do you want to go see a hockey game?'  um, ok!  i haven't seen a hockey game in forever and it sounded like something fun and different, so we said 'sure!'.  it was a notre dame game in town, so we met up with them there.  we got in and the seats were actually really good.  we were only about two rows up and right near the goal.  we had a great view, close enough to see their faces as they played and everything!  i know i'm not a big sports fan or anything, but its different watching it in person than on tv, its actually fun and interesting when you're there.  the game was great and we had a good time even just walking around the arena and checking everything out.  we were probably a bit under dressed though, not that we needed to dress up more, we just should have put on more layers- that place was cold!  who would have thought a building with an ice rink would be cold?  i know, it blew our minds too.  the game did go on a little bit longer than it needed to, after about the second period our interest had waned...  but still, it was a really evening and a great way to spend some time with friends!
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family time

after church on sunday tim, jill, and the kids came over for the last grill out of the season.  the weather was so unexpectedly warm that we had to take advantage!  as tim took care of the grill, the rest of us were outside playing in the driveway and yard.  we know there won't be too many more of these nice days, so we made sure to enjoy it while we could.  when the kids left ledger took a little nap... and so did we!  when all of us were back up and going we brought ledger over to jill and tims.  he had been asking all day if he could go over to their house- they had such great toys, after all!  eventually though, it was time to go, not just to leave jills, but to head back home to indiana.
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hiked up jamms

this one's just so good, i have to share:  right after his nap, as he was still a little bit groggy, ledger's mema happened to notice that his pajama pants were a bit baggy on top.  to be silly she pulled them up as high as they would go, and oh boy, she could hardly handle it!  my mom thought this was so funny it threw her into a laughing fit!  as you can see, it does look absolutely hilarious!  ledger looked down and thought it was pretty funny too- the two of them just laughed and laughed for about 10 minutes!  check out the rest of these funny pictures of him with his jamms hiked up!
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disc is the thing

i had a few hours to kill, so i gave the guys a call and we met up for the afternoon.  none of us really had anything in mind to do, so jon spoke up and said that he would like to go to the disc shop.  jon is obsessed with disc golfing, so this suggestion wasn't much of a surprise...  we headed over and when we got there the front door was locked.  jon was so disappointed, thinking we had arrived too late.  just as we were about to get back in the car, the owner comes up and unlocks the door- what luck!  so we headed in and checked out what they had to offer.  this place was a complete mystery to me, i have no knowledge of disc golfing and all its accouterments, so i just wandered around and looked at all the pretty circles, having no idea what any of it was.  jon had been in there many times, so he knew the owner a bit.  he struck up a conversation and asked him if he had gotten in the latest this-and-thats and what-nots.  turned out he had gotten the latest what-nots in, so jon proceeded to get a couple of them.  good for him... i think.  jeffry lee picked up a couple this-and-thats as well, then we were on our way!  (by the way, i have no idea what jeffry lee is doing in this picture, so don't ask me...)
they were both so excited to use the new things they had gotten, so we then proceeded to find a disc golf course and play a round.  i might not know anything about it, but i do really enjoy playing- even in my crutched state, i was up for it.  i played most of the holes, but called it quits before we got to the end.  i had a seat and the guys came to pick me up when they were done with the course.  it was a lot of fun and i look forward to playing again when my knee is better!
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the park next door

though it was starting to get a bit cold, we decided that ledger needed to spend some time outside.  well, it was not so much a decision as it was a necessity- ledge was bursting with so much energy that it was driving us nuts!  we took him across the street to the school to show him the playground.  he had never been back there before, so he was beside himself with excitement when we turned the corner and he saw it behind the school!  he ran toward the equipment and wanted to go on everything all at once!  he had to be a little patient though, considering i was in a brace and crutches, so it took me a bit longer to hobble over and help him up on everything.  thankfully diana was there too, so she walked ahead of me and played along with him on the different equipment and swings!  after about an hour the sun was going down and the wind was picking up, so we tore him away from the slides.  he wasn't very happy to go, but he was clearly exhausted, so he didn't fight too hard.
we will certainly have to come back here often- he went to bed really easy that night!
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weekend visit

its about time for another visit to grand rapids.  if we wait much more than two or three weeks between visits, my mom gets anxious and starts to demand that we bring her grandson up to see here!  well, who are we to argue?  it had been a while since we got to see the kids too, so we met up with them and jill for a quick lunch to start off the weekend.  it was a pretty nice and relaxing weekend, well, as much as a jam-packed weekend can be relaxing i guess!  ledger always loves to see his cousins, pestering avery and telling them all about it.  i tell ya, that kid doesn't stop talking!  the whole weekend was a great time, but having to wear my brace did make the whole thing a bit more challenging.  the kids were intrigued about the whole thing though.  it took all of their will power to not steal my crutches and play around with them all weekend!  they do seem like fun, so i can't blame them there...
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ouch, my knee!

i got to make a special visit to the hospital recently...  the weather was nice outside so david and i decided to get going on a project that i had been procrastinating on all summer: replace the soffits and fascia on the house.  (if you don't know what those are, don't feel bad, i didn't either!  its the stuff that covers the sides and bottom of the roof overhangs on a house.  your welcome.)  we were doing a great job, getting them up and getting the house looking pretty good.  the overhangs were really easy from the deck, it was only about 8 or so feet up, but as we got around to the sides of the house it got a bit trickier.  over on the side its more like 12-14 feet up.  well, it just so happened that as i was climbing it, the ladder decided that it was done.  it twisted and i came crashing on top of it, falling to the ground.  at first i was just a bit surprised by it, then i started to feel a strong pain in my knee.  i stayed down on the ground for a minute until the shock passed.  it started to feel a little better (well, not really, its just that the adrenaline kicked it and so i couldn't feel the pain as bad), so i got up and walked it off a little bit.  we finished the piece that we had been working on and then we packed it up for the day.  as i was bringing tools back to the garage the pain started to get worse and worse.  i asked david to take care of the rest of the equipment and i headed inside to sit down.  i put my leg up a little bit and just rested for a while.  the pain still wasn't terrible or anything, it just hurt a bit.  after sitting for about a half hour i tried to get up.  that's when the pain really hit, oh boy!  i could still put a little wait on it, but i figured i probably shouldn't...  diana kept asking me if we should go to the emergency room and i told her i didn't think it was that bad, it would be ok.  i was wrong.  after about another hour the adrenaline had finally wore off, i guess, because the pain really hit and i got dizzy, hobbled to the bathroom, and threw up!  ok, maybe its time to go to the emergency room...  we got there and i got to take a little ride in a wheel chair! wee!  we only had to wait about 20 minutes or so, they called us back, took a look at it and decided to take an x-ray of it to really figure out how bad it was.
when they got the results back they had some good news- it wasnt broken, nothing was torn or sprained, i had just strained a ligament in my knee.  i was given a brace and crutches and told to stay off it for a few weeks.  alright, that's not bad, i can handle that!  i have never had to use crutches before, so this should be pretty interesting.

saturn resurrected

now that the grand prix is down for the count, it was time to get the ol' saturn back in working order.  after it died in griffith, i took the grand prix in to the shop to get looked at and they told me that there was nothing they could do to fix it- it was beyond repair.  so, off the the scrap heap with it!  that meant that we needed to get the saturn up and running or else we were going to be stuck.  we brought it over to dexters and he took a look at it.  he spent a few days with it and figured out what the problem was, and now its running perfect!  it was only a hundred and fifty bucks to fix.  its a good thing we brought it in because the original plan was to scrap the saturn a couple months ago- now we are so glad we procrastinated!  now i'm taking this little silver guy back and forth to work, and wow what a difference it has made with gas.  the grand prix would get about 25 miles to the gallon, but this thing gets 37!  thats right- 37!  that money for the repair has already been saved in the first two weeks of driving it!  and to be honest, as nice and cushy as that grand prix was, i actually prefer this little guy!  although, i do miss the cruise control...

visiting shawn

it was time for another play date for ledger and diana!  sarah and vince invited us over to their place this time, so we headed over to michigan city for the day!
it was a little bit wet outside, so the boys didn't get to spend too much time out there, but even the mud and rain couldn't keep these two from enjoying the swings!  after vince was done grilling, we all headed back inside and enjoyed some amazing barbecued chicken and the boys played with all of shawn's toys.  we had so much fun, but had to wrap it up early so we could get home and put that little guy to bed.  he actually fell asleep on the way home- shawn tuckered him out pretty good!
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hero in a half shell

halloween is coming up soon and ledger is starting to understand what that means: that means candy and costumes!  last year he wasn't interested in it at all, so we weren't entirely sure what to expect this year.  we asked him what he would like to dress up as and he gave us all kinds of great answers, but eventually decided that he would like to be a turtle.  so, we headed to the store to see what we could find.  we found a really cute (and cheap) turtle costume for him and i had him try it on in the store.  he loved it!  so we brought it home and he got to show it off to mama and the grandparents.  his interest in it soon waned when he realized that he couldn't pull his own head into the shell like a real turtle.  oh, he was so disappointed!  if he can't do that, then whats the point of being a turtle?  you make a strong argument, son.  once he made that realization, the costume held no appeal and was tossed aside rarely to be played with again.

a play date for ledger and diana

diana's good friend from growing up lives about a half hour away and she has a little boy who is only a little older than ledger.  she and her husband came by a time or two over the summer and the girls would talk about trying to do that more often, so the boys can spend some time together and play.  well, we are making good on that now!  we invited sarah and little shawn over to play and they had a grand old time!  ledger always loves to have someone to play with, he got to show shawn his toys and the two of them had a blast playing with them and running around!  shawn is the perfect counterpoint to ledger: ledger is loud and talkative, where as shawn is quiet and doesn't talk that much.  we hope that the two of them will rub off on each other a little bit, ledger can learn to be a little more reserved and shawn can do a bit more chatting.  we all had a lot of fun and look forward to doing it again soon- in fact we already made plans for the next play date!
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mac and me

so... i've been commuting to work for about a year and a half now.  we've been living in south bend while i still work in highland.  this has been annoying.  these two places are 62 miles apart.  that means that every day i drive 124 miles both ways.  sounds terrible, i know.  but it hasnt really been that bad (i'm lying).  it takes about an hour and a half each way, which gives me a ton of time to listen to my podcasts!  thats the upside, the downside is that i never get to see my family.  i would leave for work around 7:00 in the morning, and get home around 7:30 at night.  if there's good traffic and good weather.  on the roughest winter days, i have actually left around 6:00 am and gotten home round 10:00 pm.  those were some rough ones...  all this is to give you some background for this story:  so i was on my way over to the rental property to show it to some perspective renters when my car broke down.  i managed to get it all the way to the duplex, but just barely.  this becomes a big problem because now i dont have any way to get home.  i had been planning on staying the night in the empty rental that night anyway, so i actually had a bunch of extra clothes, an air mattress, and a few other things i might need.  our other car hasnt been working either, so diana coming to get me was out of the question.  if someone came to get me there wouldnt be any way for me to get back to work, so i just hunkered down and planned to wait it out!  thanks to the generosity of my coworkers who where willing to pick me up and bring me back each day, i ended up stuck alone in an empty duplex for the rest of the week.  without any simple ammenities like plates or forks or hot water, it became a challenge.  fortunately i had my computer and some handy dvds of macguyver, otherwise i would have gone insane!  finally on friday diana borrowed her mom's car and came and picked me up- it was so nice to see her again, i cant even tell ya!

dine and dash

we recently got a new kitchen table.  with miranda and levi moving to their grandma's house, she had a beautiful table and chairs that she was looking to get rid of.  knowing how huge it is and how big our dinning room is, we figured that we would swoop in and take advantage of the opportunity!  so we bought it off them and moved out our old one and put in the new one- and it is gorgeous!  its a beautiful dark wood and with the leaf in it, its about 10 feet long.  when we moved it inwe were so pleased with it and admiring the table, but our boy was busy enjoying the chairs!  he decided that he needed to make an obstacle course for himself, so we lined up three of the chairs, he stood at one end, we said 'go!', and he would race through the chairs, laughing and giggling the whole way.  'phew!  i'm a fast little boy!' he exclaimed when he finished the course!  this kept him busy for at least an hour...

rental work

we have had an empty rental for a while now, and i have been busy getting it ready.  with the repainting and fixing up, it really became obvious that one of the things that was in serious need of replacing was the stove.  i've known that for a while now, but its easy to forget- you know, 'out of sight out of mind' and all that.  well, now its in sight, so its in mind!  we were trying to figure out what to do about a new stove when i was talking to levi and he was looking for a little help with moving out of their old house.  i gladly offered to help him with moving some of the bigger stuff.  after moving the fridge and a few other things, i asked him if we should unhook the stove to move it too.  he said 'actually, the new place already has one, so we aren't taking it with us'.  well, well, well...  i asked him if he wouldn't mind if i took it.  and he said that he wouldn't- it would be a waste to just leave it, so i told him i would gladly take it off his hands!  a few days later i brought it over to the rental and- voila! problem solved!  now we just need to find a renter...
(oh, by the way, i put the old stove on the curb and it was gone in about 15 minutes- a new record!)