Happiness is.....

coming home from work and your son is looking out the window and gets really really excited to see you..

That's cool.

Nothing much been going on lately. I've thought about going over my new year's goals, but there's not much I've gotten accomplished. eheh. OH well. Gotta go. i'm watching Nate right now..

Later,

Auto Show

went to the autoshow yesterday with Ben and his dad. Lotta neat cars, but we're not really in the mode to buy one right now.

Ben and I got our picture taken in front of a jeep though. Here's the picture:



Later,

Monopoly loser.

Lynn and I played Monopoly tonight. we did a time limit thing and ended at 9:30. I collected about $2600 worth of value, she got $3600. so, she won. We wondered about the property which is best to own. I found this site which kind of listed this guy's though. don't know if there is any statistical analysis on it all, but it is all random to start with anyways. But I think some of the card directing you to certain properties helps out.

This site lists some Monopoly strategies. I think we both didn't care for Monopoly much beforehand, but I think if we do the time limit thing, we'll do okay. Need to bring out the egg timer....

Had a good day at work. Didn't really do much, but did a little studying on J2EE technology. I'm starting to train some people on it. I go through a lot of it and tell them "I don't know much about this.". HOpefully, I'll learn.

Tomorrow, I am going to the St. Louis Auto Show. Find some cars that we could have bought new, but didn't. Heard that GM and Ford are both discontinuing their Mini-vans. Sad.

later,

No new updates

Sorry I haven't posted all week. Nothing really new in our lives... I'll see what I can come up with tonight..

Later,

Light dusting

ONly got about 2 inches last night and weathermen don't seem to think we'll get any more. Oh well.

In other news, lately, Nate has been climbing into baskets, boxes and other things and sitting in them. Guess all kids do that. Here's some latest pics:







Later,

Here it comes

Big Winter Storm is supposedly coming again tonight.



We went over to Columbia to see my dad and met up with my Cousin Edie also. Had some fun eating at CHili's and shopping at the Super Wal*mart.

Later,

SNee Kurgery

So, my dad had Knee Surgery today. He made it through okay and I talked with him on the phone today. NOthing much else new.

May be going to Columbia on Saturday to see him (if he doesn't check out).

Later,

New (Used) Van

WE got a new (used) van this weekend.


Hope the above image displays. I'm pulling it right off hte autotrader website.

Pretty much uneventful weekend. I had yesterday off, we took Nate to see the doc to check out the ear infection. He's all clear and she recomended to keep him away from the other kids awhile to shield him from getting sick. so we might not be going to church with him for a while and no playgroups. Poor guy. Oh well, he's healthy, that is all that counts.

I got some good news at work today that I don't have to finish up the MAP Fee project I was working on until later. This weekend in fact. Gives me time to work on some stuff.

I also got a small effort to work on where I am supposed to show where we get our SEC Fee bill amount from. apparently teh exchanges just go out and charge us a certain dollar amount and we have no way to backtrack to determine how they get the nubmer. This will be a good auditing point for the operations area.

Here's a picture of Nate from a couple days back. we had breakfast for dinner and he got some chocolate chip pancakes. We put a little too many chocolate chips on teh batter though..



Well, I need to go.

Later,

No power, then power

our power went out at about 8:04 A.M. and came back on about 4:44 P.M. Thanks Ameren. It's kind of weird to hear the trees crack and crash just randomly.

We went car shopping today to get us out of the house. Found a car we would like to maybe purchase, it is currently sitting in the driveway, we'll take back on Monday.

Another 2 rounds of the ice storm are coming. Hopeing all is well so that on Monday we can get done what we need to.

Later,

Stealing my thunder

Well, if you read Lynn's Blog, you'll see most of the things that have been going on lately that I refered to in teh last post. horrible storm comijng to st. louis, so lynn is out getting the milk and "bread". Nate is being a handful now.

here's a pic of that BIG Storm. We're all ready for it. have moved the food to the freezer and stocked up on stuff to ride it out this weekend. I don't think they'll have church on Sunday, but Lynn seems to be a little more optimistic then me....



WEll, about my news from last post. Lady for Washington Mutual called about our mortgage refinancing. But, now today, I get the letter and it says that they want to put us into another ARM. ugh. Maybe I can wheel and deal them to get us a 15 year fixed with no closing costs..

We'll see.

Big news in St. Louis seems to be the winter storm and the discovery of Shawn Hornbeck. This kid disappeared in 2002. Seems he'd been living in Kirkwood all along. Good news. Strange, but good.

Well, we shall see what happens with the power and all. If anything happens, It's not going to look good for Ameren (our power company). but then again, is it really their fault?

later,

Not much time

Not much time for me to blog tonight. I've got to get to bed so I can do some testing with work later. But, we've got some big developements on the horizon. Even got a call out of the blue today which will help me fulfill one of my goals. More on that later.

Later,

Fortel's Night

Well, we went out for pizza tonight at one of our favorite local pizza joints, Fortel's Pizza Den. Nate and I played out game of SuperFast Ms. Pac-Man, got to like level 7 until those ghosts got the best of us. Oh well. Tuesdays, Kid's eat free, so we'll have to make it more of a tradition to go there. It wasn't packed at all, but it is GOOOOOD pizza.

Pretty lazy evening. Both of us surfing the net. Nothing much else new to talk about so I'll leave you all with that.

later,

No New updates

I've been recovering from a cold, so Haven't been blogging much lately. Played Scrabble with Lynn last night and I won. I think I hit like 4 triple word scores, and she got one. Oh well, there's always next time.

Later,

Eagle Oogling...

NAte and I went up to Alton, IL today to Oogle some eagles. didn't see any except for one live one that they had at the visitor center. Nate could really care less. I took him out for a solo adventure of taking him out to eat. We went to Applebee's, and there was a wait, so he walked about the restaurant three times. Everybody called him a cutey.

He loved the garlic bread that came with his meal. And of course, we get to add another collectable cup to his collection (Frosty the Snowman). When we got home, we spent sometime outside and he pushed his car around for a while. It was all good.

Here's some pics I took of him today. He's looking into a mirror in one and the other he is taking a nap with Jackson (No, we don't let him sleep with the dog). He had climbed into Jackson's bed and did his cute "I want to take a nap, lay my head on the floor so everyone thinks I am so cute", thing.

Click here to comment!

Click here to comment!

Later,

Games Here.

UPS guy dropped by at 7:30 last night and delivered my games. It's a little overwhelming with all of them. Don't think I will ever play ALL of them. Maybe eventually. But last night I put on my Willow movie and restarted Project Basement Reclaimation. Seems a never ending battle, eh? I picked up a lot of stuff that had just accumulated down there. I'm going to try to make that my game room. Also, the PS2 can play DVDs so we can watch movies down there also. Apparently, my parents are supposed to give me back a 27" T.V. I lent them back in 2000. That would be a great PS2 t.v. We'll see.

Last night, Lynn, Nate and I went to the Y to go swimming as a family. I use the term swimming lightly. we mostly sat in the pool and comforted Nate, cause I think he was a bit freaked out by the whole experience. I'm sure if we take him there more, he'll get used to it.

Nothing really on the agenda today. Maybe we'll get out as a family. I have a Border's Gift Cert that I need to burn.

Later,

Games are a' comin'

Just saw on the UPS website that my PS2 games just left Chicago this morning. I can dream, but maybe, just maybe, they'll be here tomorrow. Monday is more likely though 8(.

Later,

Boring night at work last night (and Christmas Goodies!!!!)

HAd to go into work last night to cover due to the Gerald Ford Funeral. Nothing happened. NOTHING!!!!! so i was pretty bored. But I made it through. I did some research on the internet regarding the JFK assassination. Pretty cool and interesting stuff. Also read about the Kennedy "curse". Poor family has been through lot.

I still owe you all a list of Christmas Gifts. I see that Lynn listed hers on her blog. I will have to get to it later. Or could try now.....

• $10 Gift cert for E-bay and a 4" level
  
• Suduko book, Lewis and Clark book, Casting Crowns CD
  
• Coffee table book on American Flag and $100 (this was found in my grand father's basement and spread amongst the grand-children.
  
• Book on Naval warfare in early 20th century and book on politically incorrect history.
  
• From "Santa" I got the following:
  
  
  1. VArious gift certificats to STeak and Shake, Quiznos and Penn STation.
     
  2. Shorts and Socks for working out at Y along with a water bottle.
     
  3. the movie Willow.
     
  4. Playstation 2 with Justice League Heroes game.
     
  5. $50 Ebay gift certificate. I used this with the other Ebay gift cert and the $100 to buy the stuff in the Post a couple of days back
     
  6. $25 gift Cert to Comic Relief, my favorite comics store.
     
  7. Garage Dust Pan.
     
  
  
• Boss lady at work gave us BlockBuster Gift Certs.
  
• got the game Cranium as part of an office gift exchange.
  
• Dual Gifts that were givin to Lynn and I
  
  
  1. Christmas Centerpiece candle.
     
  2. picture frames.
     
  3. Station wagon Cookie Jar.
  
  

I think that is it. If I left your gift out, I'm sorry.

Later,

2007 New Years Resolutions

Okay, Don't normally do these kind of things but heard on Dave Ramsey about doing goals and he gave the following areas that we all need to concentrate on Career, Financial, Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Family & Social. So I thought I would try my hand at listing some of my goals/visions for 2007. I just came up with this list in 10-15 minutes but I have been thinking about these things for a while.
There is probably more, but for now, here is the list:

Career

1. Keep on chugging with what I am doing at Jones. I am going to be working on a big project at Jones this year which will challenge me with my J2EE knowledge. Hopefully I will get it accomplished okay for the implementation date they have set for August 2007.
2. I have a Annual Review in April. Don't expect any big change from that, but hoping that after it happens, I can really kick in with some real work to try for next year to get some big kudos.
3. Mentoring has been one of my bosses biggest goals for me this year. I will attempt to train/guide some co-workers into some of the J2EE technologies.

Financial

1. Refinance the house into a 15 year fixed term mortgage. This will set us to get our house paid for in 2022. I am hoping to have it paid off quicker, perhaps in 10 years.
2. Get on a budget that will work. We've not worked within an budget since we've been married. Pretty much just worked off a "you can spend about ths much".
3. Save up for another car. 2000 Dodge Caravan or 1999 Ford Taurus..... It's a race to see which might conk out first. I'm thinking that whichever goes first, we'll probably just get another mini-van, cause that is what we need the most around here (although I keep hearing that I need a nicer car, but I really don't have to impress anyone at work).

Spiritual

1. Find a spiritual mentor. Find a man to be a guide and lead/direct me with spiritual priniciples. I can probably find a guy within my men's ministry at church.
2. Find a place where God can use me. Could be anywhere, but I'm kind of picky on what I will do (I am kind of hung up on the commitment thing). Prayer that I can give that over to God and find something that fits our busy lives.
3. Deepen spiritual relationship with Lynn. This includes being a better spiritual leader in the household. This weighs a little bit more on me everyday when I realize that Nate's little mind of mush needs to be molded/sculpted. I just hope I do it the right way....

Physical

1. Lose 40 lbs by the end of the year. May be unrealistic with this, but will try to get this down. Would help me feel a lot better about myself physically and all. Will be achieved via goal 2 below.
2. Go to the "Y" at least 5 times a week. This should be easy to do.

Intellectual

1. Read a non-fiction book every month. Would like to concentrate on people in history. Funny one is that I would like to read about the Bill Clinton Presidency. Lynn asked me a while back about him, you know that everybody thinks he was a scoundrel, but he must have done something good with his presidency. I'll find out what. People I would like to read about
2. Do more Suduko. Lynn and Sandy both gave me Suduko books for Christmas. I've been doing one a night since. I think I have it figured out, but this will help keep my mind sharper.
3. Relearn Calculus. I love math, and just for fun, I would like to go back through my old Calculus book and relearn some of the things I've forgotten/"never understood in the first place". I have come to appreciate the fact that I think after a couple years of cooling off and not have academic pressure on you, concepts and ideas come to you more naturally. We'll see how that all goes.

Family

1. Spend at least an hour with Lynn every weeknight doing something one-on-one. We've been doing this pretty semi-regularly so I would hope to get it more regularly. I will shoot for 3 out of 5 nights. This would be something like playing games, sitting and talking, but NO T.V. Maybe getting a movie from Blockbuster would be okay.
2. Be a great Dad for Nate. Spending quality time with him everyday. Giving him plenty of hugs and lots and lots of pat-a-cake. Also read him books (not much reading right now, he likes to look a the pictures).
3. Be a better dog owner for Jackson. I think he's manaic depressive right now. Hope that I can spend more time with him also to get him a little more perkier.

Social

1. Do at least one night a month out with a guy friend. This can be pretty much anybody. I don't have real good guy-to-guy friendships right now.
2. Bond with a couple from our church Sunday School class. This can be a couple that we can call on a Saturday to come over for a movie night or something.
3. The above will require me to come out of my shell a little bit more also.



I guess I will let you all know next year how I did...

Later,

Ebay Purchase

Used Christmas money and Ebay purchases to start out a PS2 game collection. Getting the following:

1. Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup
2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
   
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
4. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
5. James Bond 007: Goldeneye Rouge Agent
6. James Bond 007: Nightfire
7. Need For Speed: Underground
8. Need For Speed: Underground 2
9. Need For Speed: Most Wanted
10. Gran Turismo 3:  A-Spec
11. Gran Turismo 4
12. Toca Race Driver 2
13. Downhill Domination
14. Medal of Honor: Frontline
15. Conflict Desert Storm
16. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
17. Time Splitters 2
18. Star Wars Battlefront
19. High Rollers Casino
20. Madden 2003

Not to hip on the Harry POtter or the MAdden Football, but the rest should be a great start to a game collection.

Later,