easy rider

on thursday diana came to visit. i worked all day, but she had the day off, so she came early and did a little shopping. she was looking around one of the stores and found a bike that she really liked. now, i didnt know that she even wanted a bike, but she found the bike of her dreams: an old retro style bike that was all pink! (she is a bit obsessed with the color pink...) when i got home we went out to eat and then went back to that store so she could show me just how amazing it was. we went back, and she gave me a look with those adorable eyes of hers 'please?...' i guess im a bit of a push over cause we got it for her. (i am going to be a terrible parent...)

we drove it home, walked it to the gas station to fill the tires, and she rode all around the neighborhood with a huge grin!

looks like im going to have to get a bike now too. but mine will be much manlier.

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trim

i started work this week. this means a couple of things: first, it means that i have to start waking up on time again, and second, it means that i have to start looking professional again. ugh to both. ive been cultivating a beard recently, but now that i have care about the way i look again, it was time for me to trim it. it always makes me sad to see a beards life cut short. (pun intended)

plans made

on monday i had some work type stuff to do in the morning, meetings and such. diana had told me that her mom and david had set up a meeting with a travel agent to make final plans for our honeymoon. i wasnt sure how long the work stuff was going to go, so i figured i wouldnt be able to make it. but, fortunately for me, it looked like i was going to be able to make it! so i headed out to south bend. i called dianas mom to let her know that i was coming and to figure out where they place was. but, as i so often like to do, i made sure diana didnt know i was going to be there!

i met david in the parking lot, the girls had already gone in. we walked in and diana was shocked! i always love to see her so surprised and happy! soon we got down to business and hammered out a trip. we made a reservation, and now we know where we are going for our honeymoon! we are both amazed and excited about the place we get to go!

after making the plans, the four of us walked over to a really great thai food place downtown. we had a great time talking and telling funny stories together. david works just down the block, so we went over and checked out his office and video studio. it was pretty cool to see where they film the different documentaries and videos that he works with.

i brought diana back to her car, and then it was time to head back. the visit was only about three hours long, but it was certainly worth it!

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not 'real' sports

this weekend diana stopped by for the day. we went out to eat at a really cool mexican place thats in the old town hall of munster, indiana. the food was great, but the best thing about it was this crazy ceiling fan they had: it was a ceiling fan with two other ceiling fans on it! it has to be seen to be believed... afterward we didnt have anything to do, so i suggested that we go to wicker park and play frisbee golf! i dont know if they actually have a course there, but you can always just aim for any old tree you want. i dont have any frisbees so i figured we should go to the sports store. there is a new cabelas that opened up a while ago, so we stopped in there. as it turns out, thats not really a sports store. oops. they dont have any stuff for real sports, it all outdoorsman type stuff. well, we figured we would give it a look see anyway. that place was amazing! it was so huge! it had a full size prop plane hanging in there, as well as hundreds of taxidermied animals set up in nature scenes. even though i have absolutely no interest in outdoorsman stuff, it was still pretty cool just to walk around and check it out. they even had a food court and a general store where they make their own fudge. diana had to get some of that, of course. we were so entranced that after we left we just headed home, totally forgetting about the frisbee plans...

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one last hurrah

last night ali invited over a bunch of friends to her place. it was a couple of her friends and a bunch of teachers we work with including derrick, the new teacher this year. it was kind of a way for us to catch up after the summer and meet derrick for the first time. it was a good time. they put some chicken on the grill, and we played that one bean bag game out on her front lawn. i had poco for the weekend, so i asked ali if she would mind if i brought him. it was no problem so i brought him along with me. he had a great time being petted by so many new people! he behaved himself a lot better than i would have ever thought! we got a chance to talk, catch up, and laugh together again, which is always great. by the end of the night it had devolved into us just watching and talking about the olympics. around 11pm poco and i headed out. i must say, im looking forward to the school year starting and getting to work with these people again. i kind of miss them...
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poco time!

thursday when diana visited she brought her dog poco. before she left that night, i was able to convince her to let him stay! she is coming back to go to church with me on sunday, so i figured i could handle him for the two days she was gone. i didnt have too much up, so i knew id be around. well, it has been a blast! i had forgotten how much i love having a dog! i dont even mind the walks i have to take him on, or the bags i have to bring to *ehem* clean up after him...

i love sitting in my chair watching tv and having a cute little puppy sitting on my lap! unfortunately i have to wait a long time till he gets to stay here all the time. so im making sure to enjoy the time messing around with him while i can! he sure does love to bite socks...

a quick visit

on thursday diana had the day off, so she came down to see me. as a bit of a surprise my mom and dad called and said they had the day off and would love to come down too! the more the merrier i always say. so they came down as well. they got here around 11am. we went over to school and i showed them all the crazy construction going on, then we headed to lunch. we went to a great italian place. we were inadvertently rude to some other guests, but had a good time anyway. we went back to my place and got to talk for a bit, then they were on their way! it was only about a four hour visit, but it was good to see them and have them visit. although i know i wasnt the real reason they were visiting... they just wanted to see diana again!

soon after my parents left diana and i went to merrillville. we walked around the mall for a bit and diana got her watch fixed. then we got to go to one of my favorite places: the used dvd store! we looked around for a bit, but didnt actually buy anything, which was smart. we milled around target for a bit, then ate at bw3. sadly, when we got back she had to head back to her place. i tell you what, i have had just about enough of this living an hour away thing!

its me!

many years ago, back when i used to pretend i was an artist, i made a self portrait. as an assignment in painting class we were told to make a painting that was a self portrait. it could be any style, just as long as it displayed something about ourselves. well, i have always been a huge fan of comic books and the comic art style, so i figured id paint myself as a cartoon!

as you can probably tell, it doesnt really look like me anymore... back then i used to have long hair (oh, how i miss it...), and wore an earring. i always thought it looked hilarious, not much like me, but very funny. the best part is its size: this thing is about three and a half feet by three and a half feet! its huge! when i came home from college i had nowhere to put it and i wasnt going to bring it with me to utah when i moved there, so i gave it to aaron. and even through multiple moves, he still to this day has it hanging up! what a great friend...

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work delays

monday afternoon i got a call from work that i needed to come in and let them know what i would need for my temporary room at work. over the summer they have been making a huge addition to the building, making six new classrooms. all of those will be filled by the junior high, which includes me. unfortunately, due to poor planning, late permits, and bad weather, the construction crews are not done yet. that means that all of us are forced into other rooms for the time being. some dont have it too bad, like using the music and art room, but others do- the science room is temporarily on the gym stage... i got a pretty good deal, i got the room that was used for before and after school care last year. its a bit small, but its a real room with windows and an air conditioner, so i cant complain too much.
i came back here monday night to pick out what i will need, unfortunately i was too late! argh! it all worked out today, i went to the storage area and got anything i needed that they had stored away. so this morning i began to set up my room for the couple of weeks ill be in it.
its going to be a bit tough to deal with all the craziness once the kids get here, but im sure the kids will enjoy the chaos! we were told that we will be in our new rooms by september 15, but im not holding my breath...

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a day with dad

on monday my dad took half the day off so we could hang out together- score!!! we had been meaning to see 'dark knight' together since it came out, and finally we had our chance. we had a few things to do before the movie so we took care of that. brought back pop cans, then went to lia's pizza and grabbed a few slices of their great pizza. we saw 'dark knight', my second viewing, and i loved it even more. my dads review: 'that was a lot more complicated then it needed to be.' very insightful and true, but then we would have missed all the great stuff along the way!

after we got home my dad and i worked on replacing a blinker light on my car that had gone out. he even let me drive his rad crossfire car to go get the replacement bulb! that thing sure is small!

all in all we had a really great time together. again, it makes me wish i lived closer so we could do these sorts of things more often. hopefully soon...

light show

sunday night, after spending the day with my family, i headed over to aarons to chill with him and rex for a while. when i got there i saw that molly was there too! what luck! we hung out for a while, rex and aaron had some jimmy johns for dinner. we popped in a movie (italian job), but mostly just chatted over top of it.

rexy had brought a flashlight that had a laser pointer on it, so when it got dark we stepped outside to test it and see how far those things can actually point. it went a lot farther than i thought it would, thats for sure! we didnt know the exact distance, but we could still see it all the way down a side road, somewhere between 1/8th and 1/4th of a mile. id say about 9/67ths of a mile, if i were to estimate...

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puzzled

sunday evening we all sat down and had some dinner (my moms lasagna, one of my personal favorites). a short while after dinner the kids really wanted to put their puzzles together. jackson had a strange puzzle from the movie 'cars', and tweets did her best to assemble the barbie puzzle.

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splish splash

back to sandy pines on sunday to spend some more time with the family. around 1pm we went over to the water park at sandy pines with the kids. they really love this place! its new this year at sandy pines, they put in a couple new pools, a few water areas for kids, like big water guns and big water fountains and stuff. and best of all: a water slide! the kids really love the slide, but for now jackson is the only one who can go down alone. if either of the girls want to go, they go down with tim or jill.

i was even there to witness my mom actually going down the slide for the first time! it was really funny to see her splash on down the slide!

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a good night

saturday night i got to hang out with the guys again. rexy had a wedding to go to, so it was just aaron, jeffry lee, and i. after playing video games for a while, jeffry lee and i headed over to aarons. we hung out there for a bit, then went to go see 'tropical thunder' in the theater. afterwards we dropped in on our usual hang out spot: fridays. we had some great conversation and closed the place down. dropped off aaron, then back to jeffs. i got home, again, around 5am. i really got to start watching the clock better...

playing uncle

saturday afternoon i headed out to sandy pines to see the family. i stopped in to say hi to my mom (dad was out and about), and then visited tim and jill. tim was sitting out with a friend of his and we talked for a bit. the napping kids started to wake up, so i offered to take them for a little ride.

we were going to try and join in on the hayride that was going on, but we arrived too late, it was already full. so i took the kids to the candy store and spoiled their appetites for dinner (as a good uncle should), and then we went to the playground at the beach. jackson and avery played on the equipment for a while, they sure love the slide!

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movie night

this weekend i headed up to grand rapids for one last visit for the summer before work starts again. friday night i went over to jeffry lees. rexy soon showed up and we tried to figure out what to do for the night.

none of us were feeling very adventurous, so we decided to get some pizza hut and a video. we ended up renting 'doomsday' and had a good time just hanging out, talking, and playing video games. time flew by so quickly, i think i finally made it home around 5am...

the fair

after spending a few days home without a job i got bored. i cleaned up a bit, caught up on my tivo, and slept as much as i wanted. but i just wanted to see diana again... fortunately she had thursday off! what luck!

so thursday we decided to go to the local county fairgrounds. now, this is something i am not all that familiar with. growing up we went to the fair a time or two, but it was more like a carnival was in town, there were rides and food thats really bad for you, but that was about it. this one was a lot more animal centered. diana was telling me how this is the big event of the summer around there and growing up they would go a couple of times during the big fair week. a couple of her friends had animals that they would show, and she would go with them and hang out for the entire day there with them.

it was pretty fun, we walked through the different barns and saw all kinds of different animals. most i expected, like horses and pigs and cows, but there was one i didnt expect: llamas! what a strange looking animal that thing is...

we watched some of the horse events and even the llamas do a sort of high jump thing, then we walked through the area with the rides and different booths. we went on the ferris wheel, which was really high, and partook in a delicious funnel cake. for my first real fair it was a lot of fun!

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ring cleaning

this weekend we had a pretty good scare. we were hanging out at dianas and she dropped something on her pants. she didnt want it to stain, so she quickly changed them and threw them into the washer. no problem, right? well, it seems that she had put her engagement ring into her pants pocket and had forgotten to take it out before throwing them into the washer. oops. the big problem was this: when we realized it and took the pants out to examine for the ring, it was not there! we immediately freaked, and worried that it thad gone down the drain. i tried to take the agitator part out of the washer so i could look under it for the ring, but i needed a ratchet set, which diana didnt have. so we quickly drove to the hardware store and bought one and raced back and removed the agitator. nothing. there was nothing there. we were really worried at this point. we started to call plumbers, but werent having any luck. we figured we could try and dismantle it as best we could, because in reality, the ring is worth far more than the washer. just as we were about to start, diana says 'oh, here it is!' it had fallen out of the pants before she had even put them into the washer and was laying on top of a blanket by the washer.

wow. that was quite a scare! i know that it wasnt her fault, its just one of those things that can happen, but i am very very happy we found it without having to break anything! maybe next time ill think to look around the floor first...

game time

this past weekend when i went to visit diana we had the chance to spend an evening with her sister and boyfriend. its always a good time when we hang out with barbara and nick. we went out to eat at the local restaurant 'sunnys' and then back to the house. we played some games together. nick brought over his xbox and we played a game that he had called 'the bible game', he had found it for about 4 bucks at the store, and thought it looked pretty funny, so he picked it up. it was a game show sort of thing, there were questions about the bible, and small little mini games between turns. the questions were very basic and simple, but the mini games were actually a lot of fun! my favorite was the one where we throw rocks at the philistines. after a rousing game, we pulled out scrabble and played that. it was over almost before it began. barbara went first and her first word was 'sneeze' and she got 48 points for it. after that none of us ever stood a chance of catching up. but it was a fun time playing anyway!
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shut eye

this morning i headed out to see diana. she works today, but she has an hour lunch, so i got there in time to pick her up and go out to eat with her. she was working in the paint department this morning, so i walked in and saw her. she said it might be a few minutes because she couldnt leave until someone else came to relieve her. i didnt mind, i had no schedule to keep. so i wandered around a bit and found the patio furniture section, had a seat, and made myself comfortable. perhaps a bit too comfortable... after a few minute snooze i came back to and saw her and her coworkers snickering at me. oh well. give me a break, i worked all night and hadnt slept in 18 hours at that point. ok, you got me, it was kind of funny...

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