How could I forget?

I forgot my most important gift that I got.

Lynn got me a new gym Bag, Eddie Bauer. It is pretty cool.. I've used it now for a couple of days and it works great. I used to have a back pack I would use, but it was a little cramped on the days that I had to take my work clothes to change into. Mostly it was the shoes that caused the issues, but with the new bag, I can carry a lot more.

Thanks Hun!!!!


Later,

Christmas Haul

Well, thought I would share all the stuff I got for Christmast:
I used to have pictures for each of these but I removed them all cause they take some people a while to download if they don't have a broadband connections..

In my stocking I got this roll of Peanut Butter and Chocolate cups. My favorite snack:
Lynn also got me a pair of polyesther boxers, that I wore yesterday also, and I thought I would spare you all the trama of seeing a picture of my dirty underwear....

My Brother and Sister in Law got me the Dilbert Desk calender for 2008:

Mom and dad got me a leaf blower:


And My sister got me a garden hose caddy:


Lynn got me the following:
Got a new shower mirror/radio/clock thing. My old one had started to fog up pretty bad so I tried cleaning it with GooGone and it seaped into the mirror and made these lines, so she got me this one:

She got these "nerf" guns also, for our enjoyment:


I had heard on Talk Radio about Bill Bennett writing a series of books on the "real" american history. SO Lynn got these for me:

Also, I got a HB of one of my favorite authors, Margaret Weis and Tracey Hickman. This is a new series they are putting out based on one of my more favorite fantasy worlds, DragonLance. This January, they are coming out with a direct to DVD movie with Dragonlance, and I am sooooo hoping for it for my birthday. Don't know if I will get it, but it would be nice...



Lynn got me a cigar, haven't had one in 15 months though, so, don't know if I will smoke it or not..


I asked Lynn for a set of a series of a comedy or something, so she got me the first season of The King of Queens. I think this is one of the funnier series out there, but unfortunately, it isn't on TV anymore....

Lastly, but not least, got this from Lynn also, it's a red shirt for work.

That's all. We are helping out a homeless family also this season. Donating some funiture and money and such. should be good.

Later,

Starbuck Christmas

Left Friday to come up to my parent's to celebrate Christmas. On the way up, we hit an "incident" North of Palmyra.

Yesterday Nate got to See Santa again. Don't know how that guy gets around so much. We had the typical reaction, he was pretty scared of getting too close. Did get this picture of him standing within a reasonable distance of Santa...


He did Give Santa a Hi-Five though, that is about the best we can do with Santa sometimes:


My dad tried getting him close to Santa. As you can see, he didn't like it..


It started snowing and sleeting here yesterday a bit. Last night at about 9:00 the power started flickering on and off. When we had gone to bed it was off for good, but came on again in the middle of the night.

I found an old sled out in the garage and Nate and I went out in the snow in his New snow suit. I even took Nate down a hill in the front yard. he enjoyed it the first time, second time he had had enough. Here's some pics we took:




jackson got in on the fun also:


Santa had given Nate an apple, and he was able to eat pretty much the whole thing himself.


Well, we are all getting together today for dinner and presents...
later,

Nate and Firetruck Santa

Our Maryland Heights Fire Dept. has an arrangement with Santa where they go around our neighborhood blaring the sirens and giving candy canes out to the kids. Well, Nate still is not sure of Santa. He'll say "Santa Clause" so he knows who he is. Still intimidated by him. He did get halfway up the wagon to see him and took a candy cane. He still has one more chance on Saturday when Santa comes to see my parent's hometown.





Lynn left Nate in his room the other day and came back to see him sitting like this:




With the snow that we got, the birds are actually using the bird feeder out front. I like this pic cause from afar it looks like one of those Thomas Kinkaid paintings. YOu need to go to the other side of the room to really appreciate it.. It all looks kind of muted....



Well gotta go.

Later,

Nate and Cooper

Posting some pictures of Nate and Cooper. Cooper is the son of friends of ours from our Sunday School. They have moved out to Washington state and were back in St. Louis for the Season.

Video from the Gardens

I posted the video of Nate at the Train thing at the Botanical Gardens for you all to peruse. I can be found at:
http://www.vimeo.com/436354

Limbo Time!

It's been snowing pretty heavily tonight. Looked out the front window and saw that our snowman was having some issues. Looked like he was trying to do the Limbo. I had to go out and knock off the extra snow. He popped right back up again...



Here's a picture taken with the flash so it shows all the snow.



Later,

LetItSnow, LetItSnow, LetItSnow

Well, apparently we are in the middle of a big Weather advisory here. Supposed to get lots of snow. Oh well. On Friday, My sister and I took Nate down to the Missouri Botanical Garden so Nate could see the Gardenland Express: Wilderness Escape. It was a bunch of Train's with Poinsettas and other Christmassy flowers around them. It was pretty cool. Nate was entranced by the trains. Only more reason for me to dig out our toy train set for him to look at...

Afterwards, I took my sister out into the actual garden to see it. She's been in St. Louis for 13 years and has never been to the Botanical Garden. I told her that December is probably not the BEST time of the year to look at things. We did see lots of frostbitten flowers though.

We walked across the park to the Japanese garden and hoped to see the Koi Goldfish, but I guess they are hibernating right now. Nate did get to feed the ducks though.

Afterwards, we went to Hodak's, a little restaurant/bar in S. City. They are famous for their Fried Chicken. I had a hamburger, Amy had a turkey burger. Nate had chicken strips though.

Got home and just hung at with Lynn for a while. Went to Schnucks last night to get the standard "milk and bread" to wait out the storm.

I have pictures below. Nate is sitting on some "sheep" in the garden. I guess he must have learned this move from his cousins cause this is how they show their sheep...

Later,

Mini-Vacation

Tomorrow starts a mini-vacation for me. I'm off Thursday and Friday. Fun!

Nate will be in Day Care all day long so I don't know what we are going to do.

Tonight I had my guy's Bible Study. Afterwards, I went over to the Y because Lynn had the girls over for a nite out thing. Fun. WEnt to Borders and then went to White Castle to hange out for a while to pass the time. Their still talking now, and it's 11:00. Oh well. I'll head to bed early so I can get up and go to Y tomorrow morning.


Later,

Winter Wonderland 2007

Today, we all went into my work for a Winter Wonderland celebration. It was pretty fun. Nate got to see Santa, got face painted, dove in peanuts for penguins, made deer antlers and a christmas tree ornament. Pretty fun....

My Country Questionaire

Well, I'm down with the flu right now. Stomach was feeling kind of funky around 1 o'clock today so I came home from work. NOt pretty. Thought I would take a break anf fill out this survey:

1.Have you ever gone muddin......'?
yes

2. Have you ever lived on a dirt/gravel road?
most of my life (18 years)

3. Ever been swimming in a lake or river?
yes, both, one was a pond, the other the mighty Miss.

4.Ever been to a bonfire party?
Yes

5.Have you ever driven a tractor?
Once, not to well, I drove it into a tree, but I was able to finish up raking the rest of the day (My dad didn't tell me how to stop the thing so I could cross a bridge, stupid clutch).

6. Have you ever been on a horse?
yes, fell off a couple times too.

7. Kissed someone in a pick up?
I guess so. Lynn mainly. I would think.

8. Ever done 90 miles per hour down a dirt road?
not quite..

9. Been to a rodeo?
no.

10.Do you own cowboy boots?
no.

11.Do you have a cowboy hat?
nope

12.Country skyline or a city skyline?
country.

13.Ever ridden a 4-wheeler?
ridden, I drove...

14.Are you from the country?
yes.

15.Gone hunting?
not really.

16. Gone fishing?
yes

17. Been on a hay ride?
yes

18.Camped under the stars?
yes

19.Have you ever been cow tippin?
Um, no. they really don't sleep standing up...

20.Do you drive a pick up truck?
no.

21.Own a pair of overalls?
no. Nate does though.

22.Milked a cow?
no.

23.Is iced tea your favorite drink?
has to be sweetened. Some of our old friends back home would make the nastiest tea, they would have the pitcher that was stained brown from overuse. Kind of gross...

24.Do you know how to clean out a fish?
no.

25.Do you put salt on your watermelon?
umm, no. Don't put salt on much of anything.

26.Have you ever eaten honey from a hive?
I've had freshly extracted honey from a hive. My mom and dad were bee keepers for a while.

House Decorations

Lynn and I got the lights hung up outside the house yesterday. It was such great weather, until the rain came in and the temp dropped 20 degrees. Missouri....

Here's what it looks like:


here's what it looked like in 2006:


Here's what it looked like in 2004:


And lastly, this is what it looked like in 2002, when I had just bought the house and was living alone..



My dad always teased me saying the last one looked rather Scroogy of me. I guess I could have done a little more. I like the way it is looking now though. Not crazy nuts like the neighbors..... Can't imagine what their carbon foot print looks like....

Later,

Christmas Tree in Stages

Here's some pics of us putting up our Christmas Tree this year. We also hung out the lights and I'll get pics of those up also soon:








Here's a pic of Lynn and Nate also. Nate started vomiting on Friday night up at Grandpa's so we've been keeping a close eye on him. He's got the flu, first time he's really been this type of sick. Right now he is in the back room, has been sleeping for like 4 hours, and it is currently 3 in the afternoon. Tired boy.... You can get all the details by checking out Lynn's Blog.


Later,

Bagged a Tree

Nate, Lynn and I bagged a Tree.....

Have to come back later and add more...



Later,