christmas grandma

after diana got out of work thursday, we headed up to grand rapids to see my family for christmas. hurray! its finally here! we arrived that night and just took it easy. friday morning diana and i got up, got ready, and finally headed out to do some much needed christmas shopping. (who ever said last minute shopping was a bad idea?) meijers was actually surprisingly calm for being the day before christmas! after a bit of a headache with me loosing my phone, we eagerly awaited the arrival of our special christmas eve guest: grandma! that side of the family decided not to get together this year (which seems understandable, the family is just getting too big- i think there's about 174 of us now...), so instead we had grandma over to spend christmas eve with our family. after dinner we got to have a good time with her playing cards and chatting! she had never played 'phase 10' before, but rather enjoyed it. at the end of the night diana and i took her back home. she said she had a wonderful time, and so did we!

last day bowling

the last week of school before christmas break is always one of the most difficult weeks of the year. the reason is most kids have already checked out of school mentally and are only focused on what they are going to do with all that free time and with all those new toys they expect to get! well, one thing that helps out is the fact that the last day of school before break has no classes at all! instead, we take the kids to the local bowling alley and let them run wild! when we get back from bowling, the kids have a pizza party in their room, and then they head to the gym to play for the rest of the day. it is always a good time, and the kids really love it! this year we tried a few different things to make it run smoother, and most of them worked. since there are no actual classes that day, instead it feels like i'm a babysitter instead of a teacher. not that i'm complaining, its a nice change of pace!

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cabin jumper

the next day most of us slept in pretty late. finally, after we were all up and had taken care of replacing the gas we used in the generator, we packed up and cleaned up. once we got everything together, keith started up his 4 wheel drive suv. except, there was a bit of a problem: the battery had died! i had to drive my little saturn around and give it a jump. who would have thought that my little car would need to help out his big suv?!? it was a pretty funny sight to see! after we got it started, we all said our goodbyes and hit the road. we are already looking forward to next year...

cabin night

the rest of the night was filled with tons of fun. as the years go by we find that this trip up to the cabin seems to be the only time each year where all of us are actually together in the same room! we had an amazing time of playing games, being silly, and getting honest. this visit up to the cabin ends up being a highlight of the year every time we go. no matter what changes go on during the year, we are able to talk, laugh, and have a good time together while we are up there. it always reminds me how much i miss seeing those guys more often. living two hours away has its distinct disadvantages...

sporties

another important tradition that we have when we go to the cabin is making a visit to the local dive bar sporties. now granted, its not actually called 'sporties' anymore, but it was when we started making this cabin visit an annual thing eight year ago, so why change what we call it now? they always have amazing hamburgers, and the most pleasant of shady clientele, so we knew we were in for a treat. turns out, we visited on the very night of their 'customer appreciation day' party! the place was packed! usually when we go there are about two people in there, the waitress and a really creepy looking guy hiding out in the dark corner. this year there were thirty or more people in there having a great time! they had even classed up the joint a little too- they had new tables and chairs, and even one of them fancy jukeboxes thats hooked up to the internet! i dont know about all these changes, sporties. but at least the food was just as good as i remembered it, so all is forgiven.

shootin'

one of the traditions at the cabin, along with being very very cold, is going out and shooting stuff with guns! nice and manly, right? well, usually all we bring up there are little 22 riffles, but since keith came with us, that purveyor of all things firearms, he brought along his big ol nasty shotgun! there were a couple other ruffles that we brought too, but everyone wanted a turn with the shotgun. he had a blast shooting up empty cans and shooting over empty shotgun shells! keith will now be invited up with us every year from now on, just so long as he brings his shotgun!
(check out this hilarious video!)

driving up

keith and i drove up to the cabin this year. we got a pretty early start, leaving around 11am. most of the way the weather was pretty good, but for about ten miles it got pretty rough! the snow was coming down and the wind was blowing badly. at one point we had a rather exciting event. we were driving through the snow and wind, which caused the road to be a bit slippery. well, turns out there was a truck that had slid off the road and flipped a couple times. there were emergency vehicles on the scene already by the time we got to that part of the highway, but for some reason i cannot fathom, the vehicle two cars in front of us decided to slam on their brakes. now, this is never a good idea. its especially bad if the road is slippery. why did they slam on their brakes? i have no idea. the emergency vehicles were still about a quarter mile ahead and the traffic wasnt slowed either, it seems that the person driving this vehicle saw the police lights and slammed on the brakes. which is a bit of a bother for the car behind them who was traveling 40 miles an hour. it just so happens that the car behind them was me! well, somehow i got an amazing flash of nascar, because i slammed on my brakes, slid to the right, toward the huge ditch on the side of the road. as i was beginning to slide directly into the back of the car, i hit the gas and somehow managed to dodge around the vehicle, barely missing it by about an inch with my side mirror! after sliding around the vehicle, i was able to correct the car and return to the right lane of the highway, completely avoiding the destruction of hitting the other car, or falling off the highway! both aaron and dusty, who were riding with me, were shocked and impressed. i was too- i've always considered myself a terrible winter conditions driver, but somehow managed to make it through this impending accident with no problem at all! God was definitely guiding that one! yikes! after my heartbeat returned to normal, we stopped at our usual place for lunch on the way. as a side note, please be sure to notice the person sitting behind brains in the photo above. not only does he have some amazing facial hair, but he is also sporting a fantastic curly mullet!

cabin time again

its that time of year once again, that time when the guys and i head up to the cabin and have a great time doing cabiny things! this year, due to christmas and new years falling on the weekends and not everyone having the week off in between, we went up a bit earlier than usual. i traveled up to grand rapids the night before so i could get a good nights sleep in preparation of all the fun we were going to have. i knew i was going to have to drive my little saturn up to the cabin, so i picked up rex and dusty on the way over to aarons. we met up a bit earlier than usual, but surprisingly everyone made it there on time- even jeffry lee! before we headed off we hung out at aarons for a few minutes getting everyones stuff packed in the vehicles and figuring out the seating arrangement. we were all very excited about the fun ahead and were ready to get rollin!
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snow day!

it happened again! every once in a while, when the weather is just right (or wrong, depending on your perspective), we get that wonderful thing called a snow day! as a teacher, i always love it, i'm sure parents might feel a bit differently about it, but i sure do love them! it was only my forth snow day ever as a teacher, so i treasure them all the more! sunday evening the weather was really bad, the snow was coming down in buckets, and the wind was howling. they were projecting that it would last straight on through to monday afternoon. well, school made the decision sunday night to cancel and called everyone to let us know. that, by the way is when its the best: when you know the night before that school will be cancelled! diana didnt have to work monday either, so the two of us stayed up extra late, snuggled up in the blankets away from the cold, and watched a movie! when morning came and we got up, which was extra late because we got to sleep in, we peeked outside to see how bad it had gotten. and would you know it, there was only about three or four inches on the ground and the rest of the day was sunshiney! diana and i had a great time with our extra snow day and wouldnt mind at all if there was another one around the bend...

barbara's back

every once in a while diana's sister drops by to visit. we always love having her, and she always gets a free haircut out of the deal. not bad, huh? this time when she came she brought her boyfriend with her and we had a great time getting to know him and just hanging out. we went to three floyds for dinner and then ended up going to a party at one of diana's work friends house. we had a great time! it was really nice to get to know barbara's boyfriend, and also have a blast at kat's place chatting with everyone and enjoying the product of her great baking skills!
in case you are wondering, this is a picture of barbara showing diana a bunch of youtube videos which barbara quotes all the time! they were quite funny, as you can tell by the smiles!
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b-balling it

as happens every year, there is a 6th grade basketball tournament at our school. we, and three other schools in our area, get together on a saturday and challenge each other for the much sought after title of basketball champ. i've been working at the tournament for a few years now, i sit out in the hall at the ticket booth. its not terribly interesting, sitting at a table taking money for five hours, but thats ok. i get to see all the kids and parents in a different setting than the classroom, which is nice! the tournament went well and we ended up in second place, not bad for a team that lost every single one of its season games...

tweets reads!

one of the most exciting moments of the whole thanksgiving visit came that sunday afternoon. after we had finished our turkey dinner and had been playing around for a while, i sat down in the armchair in the living room. tweets came up to me and wanted to show me something. she hopped up on my lap and pulled out a book and started reading it! what?!? our little tweets is old enough to read?!? when did this happen? i was so amazed! she was able to sound out the words and she ended up reading the entire book 'bath time for biscuit' to me! wow! i am such a proud uncle! before you know it she will be driving and dating and all that stuff- good luck jill and tim!

house kids

sunday afternoon was filled with fun! after church the kids came over and we had a great thanksgiving meal- with all the fixin's! once the table was cleaned, we all went into the living room to hang out. diana sat with the kids looking at books (in front of the heat dish, of course!). we all got a chance to laugh and play with the kids and talk to the family and everything! these times are what diana and i most look forward to on our trips up to grand rapids!
(more pics: 1, 2, and a couple dance videos by the girls: 1, 2)

game day

one of my mom's favorite things in the world is to sit at the kitchen table and play games. it doesnt really matter what game we are playing, she is just happy to have the opportunity! well, i certainly got that love of games from her. diana and i spent hours and hours playing different games with mom over the weekend- i think we spent the entire saturday going through all the different games mom hand and giving them all a try! there were some winners and some losers as far as the games go, but we had a blast playing them anyway! one of the most surprising things of the weekend was that papa came by and joined us for a few games too! he's usually not very interested in playing, but he was a good sport and pulled up a seat (mom was shocked and amazed, to say the least!). we will definitely have to do this again soon!
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at the hut

one of the special events during our visit to see the family was a trip to pizza hut! we met there for the lunch buffet and a chance to have a good time! the kids all pigged out (and so did the adults...) as we made a game of waiting for the servers to bring out the next pizza- 'is it a supreme? is it a supreme?' mom kept asking. the kids favorite was always the bread sticks though! its so fun to just spend time with jills three kids, its amazing to see how each of them are developing their own personalities. each time diana and i go up there it seems like they have grown so much! all three of them are so amazingly sweet and loving- jill and tim must be doing something right!
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brinksgiving

after a great time with diana's family, we made our way up to grand rapids to see my family. since we had already had a huge feast, mom and papa figured they would push their thanksgiving meal to sunday when tim, jill, and the kids could be there too. instead, we spend thanksgiving day just hanging out and having a great time! it has felt like forever since we were up visiting them, we havent been up there since chad visited in august, so we were long overdue!
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allen thanksgiving

with a bit of a break for thanksgiving, diana and i made plans to go visit my family for the holiday. at the last minute we mixed up our plans a bit and made it to the allen family thanksgiving too! we arrived there thursday around 11am, after dropping off our little dog at barbaras. uncle arnold and aunt nancy hosted the feast at their house and had everyone over- which was about 35 people! it had been a while since we last saw her extended family, so it was really great to be able to see them all again. unfortunately her grandma has been steadily declining in health, but she was having a good day and was able to join us for a while. diana's mom and step dad were even able to join us, so the whole family was there!
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my wife, the stylist!

when diana and i first got married she started cosmetology school with the hopes that one day she would be a hair stylist. well, shes been working for about six months now at a salon as an assistant, working her way up. recently she finally got the call: she is now a full fledged hair stylist! we are both very excited! she is a bit nervous, but looks forward to what challenges are in store.

now comes the real challenge: finding people who want her to cut their hair! the hardest part of becoming a stylist is building a clientele. one way that her coworkers have suggested is by creating an advertisement to give to people that will get them interested in coming in. well, thats where i come in! i've got a little experience in designing stuff just like that. i took a bunch of graphic design classes in college and really loved it. so i thought this might be the opportunity i've been looking for: create an advertisement for my wife! well, after a few hours working in photoshop (and many many hours trying to get the dang printer to do what i want), i came up with a design that we are both proud of. i printed it on a heavy stock paper the size of a postcard and we have since send out a couple hundred around town. hopefully we will start to see the results soon! the picture at the top of this post is what i came up with for her. if you live around us, please click on it and print it out so you can give her a call and use the coupon! she hopes to see you in the salon soon!

chicago bub

after we finished at the lego store we wandered around on michigan ave. for a bit. tim kind of wanted to check out the niketown store (but was sadly disappointed- they didnt have any college sports teams stuff at all), and also checked out the disney store so we could get a couple things to bring back to the girls back home.
bub had such a great time, i'm sure this weekend will be one he remembers for the rest of his life!
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lego bub

the big plans for the day in chicago mostly revolved around bub getting to go to his new favorite place on earth: the lego store! he was so excited to go that he told us in the morning that he had dreamed about legos all night! after the half hour drive to downtown chicago, we found a place to park and walked over to michigan ave. we didnt exactly know where the lego store was, but that was ok considering we had gotten downtown 45 minutes before the lego store even opened! after figuring out where it was and heading up to the third floor of the mall, we found it. bub was in his glory! as soon as the doors of the place opened he raced inside, leaving his dad and i in his dust! he spotted the star wars legos right away and was all set. we pulled him away from them for a couple minutes so he could walk around the rest of the store and check out all the cool stuff they had to offer, but he quickly returned back to the two sections of star wars legos. bub was given an important decision to make while we were there: he had been given money from his grandparents and from his mom and dad to buy his christmas presents, not he had to make sure he made some good decisions about which lego sets he wanted! not one to take the decision lightly, he spend the next hour going back and forth between the two sections of star wars legos looking at his options, weighing his choices carefully. he finally picked two larger sets, and two smaller ones and was happy with what he decided. then we waiting in the 15 minute checkout line (it seems that everyone finished their lego shopping at once...) and bub got the latest addition to his star wars lego empire!
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bub sleeps

eventually, after the movie was finished, we tucked bub into bed. i had planned ahead and gotten the inflatable matress out of the shed for him and got it ready in the second bedroom of our place. as he was getting ready i began to realize what a production this was going to be! after the matress was blown up he asked if we had a night light for him, which for some reason, we did. next, he asks for a fan so that he can have some noise while he sleeps. next up, he needs some music playing so we had to sort through some music so we could have a good cd playing while he slept (granted, the music playing was mostly so that it would drowned out the noise of the trains as they go by during the night), then he needed an alarm clock in the room so he could tell what time it is if he woke up in the middle of the night. yeesh, that kid needs a lot of stuff just to go to bed! i guess i cant complain too loudly since i need a fan blowing too...
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bub's visit

early in the week i got a call from my brother in law tim. he asks me if i have any plans yet for the weekend. i dont. so he runs an idea by me: would it work if he and my nephew came down for a night and we all went to chicago together on saturday? well, of course! what a fantastic idea! well, i spent the rest of the week cleaning up the house (not because we are slobs, but because he was also bringing a couple pieces of furniture for diana and i and we needed to make some room for them) and getting ready for them. they arrived friday night and we had a blast! soon after they got there and settled in we ordered pizza and hung out watching a movie. the movie was pretty bad, but that didn't matter- i got to spend some quality time with my favorite nephew ever!!!

turkey day early

one of the biggest challenges about being married happens when the holidays come around. the big question arises: whos family do we spend it with? well, diana and i were able to avoid that little problem this year already- her mom and david invited us over for thanksgiving three weeks early! we were both very excited to go see her family and at the prospects of a delicious meal! they decided to have it a bit early because dianas step sister (and her son) was visiting that weekend and because barbara had the day off of nursing, so it all just worked out perfectly! we got there sunday afternoon and had a great time. the food was amazing and we were able to just lounge around and enjoy the day and the company. always a great time to see her family!
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soup ball

every year our school has a soup supper fundraiser, and every year i get roped into making the wall decorations for it. i enjoy making the decorations, but i've really got to get better at not waiting until the day they are due to get started on them! the fundraiser this year was for new uniforms for the basketball teams, so the decorations were in line with that idea. i was pretty stuck coming up with an idea on what i should do, but then i just figured i could make a bunch of basketballs and silhouettes of basketball figures. easy and affective! they turned out pretty well and did their job, so everything was ok. diana and i stopped by later that night to enjoy the soup itself- which was amazingly good!
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halloween treats

halloween has never been very busy on the street we live on, but diana and i bought some candy to hand out just in case. most years i've lived here i would only get about 3-5 visitors at my door on halloween, but this year it was quite different! i dont know what it is, but there were dozens of groups of families walking around our street getting candy! diana and i decided that instead of opening the door and having our stinky little dog scare the trick-or-treaters half to death, we would sit outside on our porch and welcome the kids as they stopped by. it was a good time seeing all the little kids dressed up as different princesses and ninjas and pirates and all the rest! we did run out of candy after a while, but we were able to help out quite a few candy-hungry kids!

hair wedding

one of the girls at the place diana works at was getting married and diana and i scored an invitation! because all the people from the salon were going, they closed down early that saturday (which diana didnt mind too much...) so everyone could attend. we went to the reception and had a blast! i hadnt really spent much time with diana's new coworkers, so it was great to be able to finally put faces to names.
it was kind of strange to be there, considering i didnt know anyone at all. i kind of felt like a wedding crasher a little bit... we were at a table on the opposite end of the hall from where the bride and groom were seated so it felt like it was completely unconnected from the festivities, which was ok, but kind of strange. we had so much fun chatting and enjoying the night! congratulations, bride and groom (i have no idea what their names are...), we really enjoyed the free dinner!
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toll cruncher

after diana and i got home from the great weekend with miranda and levi in milwaukee, we had to go and pick up our stinky dog from her dad's place. we took the indiana toll way and stopped at one of the rest areas along the way. i had never been in this rest area, so i was really surprised and quite excited by the fact that it had its own penny cruncher! i know, having a penny that says 'indiana' on it isnt very exciting, but adding another crunched penny to the collection is! ah, its the little joys in life that keep you going, huh?

hello harley

the place that miranda and levi were most excited about going to in milwaukee was the harley davidson museum. (dont worry, the place wasnt on fire, they just bring in some of the fire equipment to show it off on the weekends!) both of them are big motorcycle people and come from motorcycle families. as for diana and i? well, we werent all that excited about it, but were willing to try anything once. turned out to be a lot more interesting than i would have thought! we had a fun time learning about the history of the company and seeing all the really old motorcycles and stuff. the coolest parts were seeing the motorcycles they manufactured for the wars. we all ended up having a great time there- i know my dad would have been jealous!
(more pics: 1, 2, 3, 4. we even ate at the museum restaurant!)

tasty buca

when diana heard that milwaukee had a buca di beppo she announced that we just had to go there! never one to turn down a really delicious meal, i agreed. after heading back to the hotel from our visit to the third ward, we made a reservation and headed over to the restaurant. now, if you have never gone to buca di beppo, then you are missing out on an amazing time! its an italian restaurant that serves their food family style. that means that you really only need to order two things to feed three people. well, we ordered three things, and boy were we full- and we had tons of leftovers!
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old milwaukee

one of the places that diana found while researching milwaukee was the third ward. its an old part of downtown that has been rejuvenated recently and is filled with cool little shops and ends with a great fish market type food commissary. we stopped there one of the afternoons we were in milwaukee, just to check it out. there werent a ton of places for levi and i to check out, but diana and miranda were in their glory! levi and i wandered around for a bit and found ourselves in the food market. it was a really cool place that reminded both of us of the fish market in seattle, it was a bunch of little kiosks that that sold specialty foods and trinkets. levi and i found a seat on the second floor and chilled out for a while and just chatted. eventually when the girls arrived there as well we took a walk along the waterfront and got to see some more cool sights of milwaukee.
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sprecher brewing

one of the things we knew that had to be done while in milwaukee was to go on a tour of a brewery. well, none of us really much care for beer, so levi found a milwaukee brewery that made beer and soda! we went on a tour of the sprecher brewery, which was pretty cool, and then at the end we got all the soda we could drink (and we could drink a lot...) it was a pretty cool tour, but sitting around after the tour just chillin and chatting was even cooler!
(more pics: 1, 2)

blue ribbon mansion

after we decided on milwaukee for our weekend destination, diana quickly went to work trying to find things that we could do while we were there. she found a cool old mansion that we could tour through, its the old pabst homestead, the home of the family behind the beer fortune!
the mansion itself is pretty impressive, its an old house from the 1890's and was built by and for the pabst family to live in. there was some really cool history we got to hear as we took the tour of the home. the decorations and furnishings were really impressive- this place cost a fortune to build! the family had sold it years and years ago, it eventually was purchased by the catholic church and was the residence of the local archbishop. in the 70's it was purchased and turned into a museum. what was kind of cool about the place is that it is still in the process of being restored. only the main floor is completely restored. the second floor is about half way done, but they have to work slowly because they dont have a ton of money or anything to restore it quickly. its interesting to see some of the rooms redone to look like the period it was built, and then one room over see it in its unrestored state, as it was when the archbishops lived there. they havent even touched the third floor of the place, so we werent allowed to go up there at all. it was a really interesting place with tons of cool elements from the time it was built. this was diana's favorite part of the trip- i think she just likes to nose around in other people's stuff!
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hotel milwaukee

over the summer diana and i made plans with her best friend miranda and her husband levi to take a trip this fall for a weekend away. we spent the next couple months thinking of places to go. we originally wanted to go downtown chicago, but soon realized that that was way too expensive! that forced us to get a little more creative and try to think of other cool places that didnt involve too long of a road trip. we decided on milwaukee. i think the deciding factor was that they have a harley davidson motorcycle museum and levi loves harleys. works for us, just so long as we get to go away for the weekend!
miranda and levi came to pick us up nice and early so that we could get up there and be able to enjoy the day. the trip wasnt too bad either, it ended up only taking a couple hours or so to get there which went really quick! we actually got there too early to check in to the hotel, so we wandered around the town for a while before we could unload the vehicle.
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the day the tivo died

the other day i get home from work and diana tells me 'there's something wrong with the tv'. i check it out and cant get the dvr to turn on. after about five minutes the thing turns on, but there is a slight problem: it says that it has lost everything saved on it. what?!? i am completely dumbstruck! everything we have saved on there is gone?!? what a pain! turns out our dvr decided it needed to reboot itself and everything we had saved on there was erased.

after i got over my initial outrage, i calmed down a bit, after all, we only had a few shows saved on there that we hadnt seen yet and most of those shows we could watch on the internet if we really wanted to. the thing that was saved on the dvr that i am saddest about though, was the episode of 'the late late show with craig ferguson' that i was in the audience for. a couple years ago i went out to l.a. to visit a great friend and we went to a taping of the show (it was a ton of fun, which i wrote about here). i had it saved on the dvr since then and would show it off occasionally because you could actually see me in the shots of the crowd. again, i'm sure i could actually find that episode on line too, so its not the end of the world. i did give our satellite provider a call though and share my frustrations... turns out if you ask to speak to a manager you can talk them into giving you a discount on your bill for a year and a free movie channel package for three months! score!

teacher convention

every year we teachers get a couple days off of school to gather together and remind each other why we do this whole teaching thing. this past thursday and friday we had our annual teachers convention in south bend, indiana. its usually a good time of listening to speakers talk about different subjects that pertain to our field and give advice or ideas on how to improve our curriculum. the seminars are pretty interesting, but the real highlight of the convention each year is just getting to sit down and talk with someone who does the same thing as me. talking through some of the things that work and dont work with fellow middle school teachers is always great. hearing others problems or triumphs renews me as a teacher, and its just at the right time: when the newness of the school year has faded away and the harsh reality of three more quarters sets in...

birthday buckaroo

it was mom's birthday last week but diana and i werent able to make it up there to celebrate, so instead we met in the middle! saturday night we headed over to benton harbor, the halfway point to grand rapids, and met up at texas corral with mom, papa, jill, tim, and the kids for a special dinner! it was a great time for everyone, diana and i were so excited to see the family- it felt like it had been forever since we last saw them! the kids are growing up so fast! we got to sing happy birthday to mom (along with the entire staff of the restaurant!) and gave her a few presents too. i know mom always loves it when we make a special event out of her birthday, and i'm pretty sure she had a great time!
more pics: 1, 2, 3

batteries charged

we had a free sunday and knew diana's mom needed a little company, so we grabbed our dog and headed over! barbara had some time off, so she came by too- a mini family reunion of sorts. its always nice to see her family, especially on a lazy sunday afternoon! we got a chance to talk with her mom and david about a few things and just generally lift each others spirits. it always does those girls good when they are together- it recharges their batteries, i think. i guess thats what makes family so valuable: no matter whats going on, they love you. even the stinky dog too.

nothing much

Things have been kind of slow around here lately, which i rather like, to be honest with you. diana and i havent been up to too much, just taking it easy. its these slow times that really make me appreciate the life i have: a good job, a roof over my head, and the love of a good woman. oh, and a stinky dog...
to celebrate the fact that not much is happening, we went out and ate some mexican food- diana's favorite!

the leak returns

sometimes being a landlord isnt too bad, but then there are times when it sucks. recently i got a call from our renters that there was a problem with the shower. this is nothing new, the tub faucet over on that side of the duplex has had problems before with leaking. this time it wasnt leaking though, it was the shower head. or so they thought. they told me that when the pulled the tab to make the water go to the shower head it wouldnt go, so i went over there to check it out for myself. turns out the little knob that directs the water to the shower head had busted and needed to be replaced. so i went to the hardware store and got a new faucet head to make things better. after a bit of work (and a faulty caulk gun) i got the new one working. one problem though: the leak is back. you know, i really should have listened to my dad when he said 'you can fix anything, but when it comes to water, get a professional!'. i think i will take that advice now...

a yummy alarm clock

diana is not a morning person. thats ok, though, because i am not either. this is usually fine for her since she has a job that doesnt start very early in the mornings. most days she doesnt have to get to work until 3pm, which is just the way she likes it! unfortunately though, on saturdays she has to be to work by 9am. that is not her favorite thing in the world, to be sure. in fact, most weeks she begins to dread this early wake up by wednesday and begins worrying about it three days in advance. i decided to use a little trick i learned from my brother in law tim: on saturdays he gets up and makes cinnamon rolls for the kids to keep them happy. i figured this might work for us too- and boy does it ever! we now have a tradition at our house: saturday morning i wake up with diana and whip us up a batch of tasty cinnamon rolls to help her early morning go a little better! she's still annoyed with having to get up early, but at least he has a happy stomach! the way to a man's heart is food? hey, it works on women too!

here's lookin at you kid

diana's step sister, alanna, and her son have been staying with diana's mom and david for a couple weeks this summer and it has been a lot of fun getting to see them. we have been able to stop by there a couple times during their visit. we went back once more to say our goodbyes as they both head back to boston. her little boy, tavish, is so cute! i know diana's mom and david really loved having them stay for a while. now that they are leaving though, diana and i are sure to feel some pressure: 'oh, it sure was nice having a baby around again... maybe its time to have some more grandkids...' great, now we are going to get the pressure from both sides of the family! yeash. thanks, alanna...
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his mom

on a friday night i was just hanging around the house with diana and i got a call from my old pall matt! he and i worked together for a few years, but he left a couple years ago and moved his family to ohio. he and his wife kim were our special guests at our wedding, but it had been a while since i last saw him. turns out he and the family were in town for a long weekend. he gave me a call wondering if i wanted to stop by and catch up. certainly! it was already about 10pm, and diana had to work the next day, so i went alone to see him. we went out to a wings joint and got to talk for an hour or two! it was really cool to be able to see him again and catch up on whats been going on in his life. he works for a ministry called hearts to hondurus and travels down there a lot to help out. pretty cool! anyway, sounds like things are going great for them in ohio (but we really miss him here...). it was really awesome to see him again, and i'm sure it wouldnt take much to convince diana that we need to take a little weekend trip to ohio soon so we can hang out again!

through the gate

the stargate con was a blast! as you can see from this picture i didnt let the fact that i was there alone deter me from having a great time (and no, i have no idea who that guy is...). everyone there was so friendly and eager to talk- maybe they are like me and dont actually know anyone else who likes the show and this is their only opportunity to talk with people who share their love! what ever the case is, i found myself chatting it up with a bunch of people there and hearing their different takes on all things stargate. (on a side note, i must say, i was quite surprised by how little the fans of the show actually know about the show! i seemed to be the only one there who had any knowledge of the actors and other behind the scenes info. although, now that i think of it, maybe that just means that i was really the nerdiest person there... oh, the truth is ugly...) check out some of the pictures from the convention: the actors, the merch i got, and the rest!

shanks a million!

i wasnt sure what to expect at a stargate convention, i went in blind. turns out it is a lot different than the comic book convention. comic con focuses entirely on the books and merchandise that goes along with them. the stargate convention was focused instead on the guests that were there. i arrived around 10:00 and went in and got a day pass. i wandered around and found the room that had the booths selling stargate stuff. turns out there isnt that much stuff, the merch room was pretty small and only had about 5 sellers in there. one sold clothes, one sold books, one sold cds, one sold toys, and the other sold photos and posters. pretty simple. around 11:00am the main hall opened up and they had different guests and speakers lined up for us to see and listen to. there were a few actors from the shows themselves who where there to share stories and answer fan's questions, joe flanigan and david hewlett from stargate atlantis were first. there was also a writer who came up and talked about stargate comic books, dan shea from the show was there to share some really funny stories, and a time for feedback on the newest stargate show which just finished its first season. later they had an auction and another actor, michael shanks from the original stargate sg-1, come and shared. it was a great time, and a lot of fun to get to know the actors and hear some of their perspectives on the stargate fanchise.

a new level of nerdy

first of all, lets get this out of the way: i am a nerd. i believe ive been pretty up front with that. proof of my nerdiness comes from loving comic books, science fiction, and movies too much. just look at my last few posts about going to the comic convention for the 10th year and you will agree that i am a nerd. well, this weekend i turned that nerd dial up to eleven! (that reference? more proof of my nerdiness...)
on august 28th i went to another convention, one that is even more nerdy than a comic book convention. i know what you are thinking, 'is that even possible?' the answer is yes. oh, yes! this weekend i attended the chicago stargate convention. i've been a stargate fan for a couple of years now, and i have become obsessed. dont worry, i know full well that it is a pretty lame show. i would agree. but that just makes me love it more!
in the spring i heard that there even was such a thing as a stargate convention, and i knew that i must attend! i have been saving my money ever since so i could go. what will come as no surprise to anyone is that i went alone. i could not find anyone else who was willing to go with me to this event, so i went by myself. and boy, did i have a great time! it was a full day devoted to nothing else but glorious stargate fun! i got there around 10:00am and stayed until 6:30pm and enjoyed every single moment!

back to school

i knew it had to come, but did it have to come so quickly?!? its time to head back to school again. we started on august 25 this year, and it always seems to catch me by surprise. one of these years i'm going to be prepared for it, but this was not it...
getting ready for school involves many things, among them is getting my room ready for the year. i always try to come up with some good wall decorations for the room. ive done many different themes, none of which ever have anything to do with what i teach... i've had video game characters, animated cartoon characters, and even superheroes! well, this year i decided to change it up and actually do some decorations that have to do with what i teach. i took a bunch of different bible stories and verses and created a room filled with images to keep the kids interested even when they get bored with my talking! i think they turned out pretty good, now i just need to get everything else ready for them...
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end con

a trademark of comic con weekend is that particular odor that seems to permeate the house that next morning... as each of us got up we made our way to the living room and made ourselves comfortable. the guys didnt have any real deadline to be home, so we took it easy and just enjoyed the slow morning. around noon diana headed out to visit her mom; her step sister and her new baby were in town and diana had planned to stay there for a couple days to see them. the rest of us had a lazy afternoon and enjoyed the time together. round about 3:00pm, the guys decided it was time to head back home. we had a really great time this weekend, and i know everyone is already looking forward to next year!
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in the p'zone

after the comic con we headed back home, but the fun had just begun! as is our tradition, the night of the con we each get a p'zone from pizza hut and watch a movie at the house and unwind. diana, after finishing up her big day at work, was up for some p'zone love too! we each unpacked our comic con loot and shared what we had gotten, reading comic books or playing with our new toys for a while. then we ordered the food and picked it up. when we got back we decided to watch 'outlander', a fun vikings vs. aliens movie thats basically a retelling of beowulf (which i reviewed here). the guys loved it and diana didnt seem to mind it either! as we were eating we seemed to have a little pest at our feet waiting for his chance to get in the p'zone along with the rest of us...

still neil jammin'

one of the highlights of the comic con is going to the artists gallery and seeing our good friend neil fitzpatrick. he is the artist who created neil jam, a funny little comic that we all really love. we saw him last year (which i wrote about here), and were glad to see him back again. we wandered over to his table and he had a double take- he recognized us from somewhere but wasnt quite sure... well, we introduced ourselves again and shared our love with him. (heres a link to his site, he updates it with new comic strips at least twice a week, check it out!) we were all excited to see that he had published two new books since last year, so we quickly purchased them all! rex had even found his old copy of the book we got 10 or so years ago and asked neil to sign it, which he graciously agreed to! it was such fun to chat with him for a little while- we really do love his stuff!
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the con proper

every year at the comic con is a little different. i don't actually remember how many years i have gone, but if i were to guess, i would say this is probably my 10th time there. some years there is a focus on the vendors selling old comics, some times its a focus on the publishers themselves. this year the focus was on celebrities. there were tons of them! there were a bunch of people from old sci-fi shows and newer comic book movies, and for some reason i will never understand, wwe wrestlers. we didnt get to see everyone, but there are a few pics of the famous people we did see! oh, and the costumes. got to love the nerds who arrive dressed up to look like their favorite characters! for some reason there were even a bunch of cars at the show too. enough of me explaining, how about you just check them out below:

celebrities

costumes

cars

and a cool panarama of the booths