Shriner's Circus

A few weekends ago a friend called inviting me and my son to go to a Shriner's Circus for FREE! Count me in. Once there I went ahead and paid the $10 for parking since my friend got the tickets and drove the 30+ miles to and from. He took his 2 boys and immediately purchased these light up swords for his boys. I knew then I'd have to buy one for my son. I really feel cheap when it comes to things like this because I usually manipulate my way out of buying overpriced items like this. I hestitantly walked up and said I'd take the blue light saber. $10.....WOW. My only other cost on the night was the $5 frozen solid snow cone. At least it came in a souvenir cup.

While there one of our 3 sabers broke, but we were able to get a replacement one. I felt okay about the night, we left early since the boys were bored by the 1/2 time intermission.

My son ended up breaking the light part of his saber the next day. It is hard explaining to a 3 year old why it broke and why daddy just wants to throw the piece of junk away. My son was persistent so I finally found the small screw driver and pulled it apart. Since I teach 5th grade and we deal with electric currents, wires and batteries I quickly saw the problem. This light saber had about 20 lights on a thin frame connected with tiny soddering. One of the soddered spots came undone 1/2 way up the pole AND the wire was disloged from the battery terminal. My chances of fixing it was about 5% or less.

It has sat on the counter for 10 days now and I think it will go out with the trash Friday.

It is sad that the non-profit organization is selling these dollar store made in China items for $10. Probably costs them about 50 cents or LESS for them. I usually give my kids a dollar amount and in this case he would have had to pick from the sword or the snow cone. My kids are pretty good about this too. It is just tough when the person you go with ends up buying his kids about anything they asked for.

Free wasn't FREE!

Deadliest Catch

Been a while since I've posted, but we're having battery issues with our laptop. Took the battery with me to a computer store and they needed the laptop model number to see if they had a matching battery. Why couldn't he just hold my battery up to existing batteries? I also pulled up to Battery Plus that same day and arrived at 6pm as they were locking the door. I proceeded to check replacement batteries out online....from school and LAST Monday ordered one. I emailed them yesterday, one week later, and was told the order was processed and SHOULD be here this week. So much for the "Ships out within 24 hours.....most cases..." Anyway I put the battery back in and after tricking my computer I manage to get it to work.

Tonight is the season debut of The Deadliest Catch. I LOVE this series about crab fishing in the Bering Strait. I even saw it advertised at the movie theatre on the First Look at Cinemark. Get the DVR ready!!!

Hopefully I'll be consistent posting again.

Hijacked

For a while now when I search for something on Yahoo or Google my search gets hijacked once I click on an intended website. For example, tonight I was going to research the demongraphic of buyers who've bought Pontiac G6s. When the Yahoo page comes up I click on one of the offerings and as I am going to that sight my computer gets hijacked. I ended up on Edmunds.com, a car buying and car selling website. Same thing happened when I typed in Major League Baseball. I go to click on MLB.com and then I'm switched to a site that sells baseball equipment.

How do I fix this or get rid of this issue? I've attempted to download Mozilla or Firefox, but kept getting hijacked. I'm currently trying to download Spybot.com. We shall see.

Long tiring day. One tough hour long work out followed up with about 3 hours of yardwork for a friend. I'm sore and stiff already. Should sleep well tonight.

By the way, I posted on my www.cravetheword.blogspot.com site tonight.

Jackpot

I felt like I hit the jackpot today. With my wife gone I was planning to take my 2 kids to a Jr. league hockey game tonight FOR FREE! Last night my daughter told me that I was going to have to get her a babysitter because she didn't want to go. Well, she got her way. A co-worker of mine asked if she'd like to spend the night with her daughter who is in the same class. SURE! I had already thought about this and expressed this desire with B from work.

So tonight my son and I went to the gym for a quick workout. Amazingly he didn't resist. I paid $5 for parking and parked right next to the indoor arena. Our FREE ticket included a hot dog(7 weight watcher points), chips (3 points) and a Dr. Pepper product. We stayed for 2 periods, bought a $2 foam puck souvenir and headed out. My son stayed up until 10:30pm, but went to bed right away. It was nice having just one kid to entertain.

Tomorrow could be busy: trip to trash dump, help a friend spruce up her property to put her house up for sale, entertain my 2 kids.

Tonight was a fun night!

Mowing Season

Mowing season officially opened for me tonight. The last 2 Sundays I tested out my equipment on my yard, but tonight I mowed for money. On days like this I'll load up my truck early in the morning so I can just head straight to mowing when school is out. The only real tester was on my first lawn when I ran out of gas for my weedeater. I brought what I thought was the gas/oil mix for my weedeater, but it didn't work. I cut my first lawn short and went to pick up my son from daycare.

I stopped and got gas as well as some 2 cycle oil. The new mix was exactly what my weedeater needed. I mowed 3 lawns all told tonight and I gave each lawn the spring treatment with weed and feed and ant killer.

My kids were with me and they did pretty well. After hitting a Sonic drive thru we got home at 8:30. So much for the new 7:45 start to bed time. As of 9:30 both were sleeping well. I showered up and will watch basketball and The Apprentice.

The wife is out of town so I've got kid duty all weekend.

Ink Refill

I am a VERY last minute type of person and when we run out of ink I'm no different. About 2 weeks ago our Epson printer ran out of ink. The whole Epson deal to me is a scam. I have 4 cartridges to purchase anytime one runs out. We tried to replace just one and no such luck. The black, blue, yellow and red cartridges run about $70 total so that is one reason I hold off on buying.

This weekend my mom visited and Friday she mentioned that at 4pm she'd need to print her boarding passes for her Southwest Airlines trip back to St. Louis. Immediately I knew it was time to get new ink. I've noticed a place nearby that's realitively new that refills ink cartridges. They are called Rapid Ink Refill. Early Friday morning on our excursion to yard sales I stopped by to see what the deal was.

I was greeted by a friendly, elderly lady and immediately I informed her that I was a first timer. I showed her my cartridges and she quickly grabbed the replaces from the wall. I didn't know if mine would be refilled and how long it would take so I was please to know that I'd have my product as soon as I walked out the door.

Great experience because the cost to me with a $3 teacher discount was just $27 with tax. Saved about $40. The lady informed me that my cartridges weren't completely empty. She said the little computer chip on the bottom was actually a page counter and it estimates how many pages it could print. That means many people don't get their money's worth when they buy cartridges, especially from Espon.

So when you run out of ink go ahead and check out one of those ink refill places. As long as these last a while, it will be well worth it!

Songs I Sing

I scoured through YouTube to listen to my all time favorites and the following is a list of sons I can't get enough of and I get charged from singing the lyrics EVERY time:

Asia-Heat of the Moment 1982
.38 Special-Second Chance
A-Ha-Take On Me(Great Video)
Peter Gabriel-Red Rain(Michael Stipe w/ Natalie Merchant is my fav)
Matchbox 20-3 am
Goo Goo Dolls-Slide
Benny Mardones-Into The Night
When In Rome-The Promise
Dwight Yoakum-Suspicious Minds
Dishwalla-Counting Blue Cars

More Later

Clean Shaven

Went to a place called Roosters to get my hair cut today. I had received a coupon in the mail and of course I was going to cash in on it. The first coupon I used in January was a for a free cut for my son. That was my first trip to this place. Like SportClips this place is geared towards men. They actually will serve you complimentary beer while you are there. Unlike SportClips this place has a decent standard for who they hire.

Today my coupon was for a free shave with a cut. My appointment was for 11am and I walked out 1 hour later feeling like I had cheated on my wife. The hair cut was typical. I then received a wash and a rinse followed with a conditioner and a rinse. Next was a gentle neck massage. My "barber" was indeed female and she was licensed to give straight razor shaves. This was a first for me. She did use a disposable razor on the neck and for trimming. She then gave me a neck and face massage as she put on skin conditioner. The event ended with a nice cold towel that would close up the pores.

What an experience. I felt guilty because my wife loves face and neck massage treatment. Not sure a shave would work for her though.

Other than that I went to see Vantage Point and it has rained all day. Some areas around here have already gotten 7 inches of rain and the creeks are overflowing.

Weekend Update

This is the first Spring Break since I can remember that I didn't leave town and visit St. Louis. This morning my wife headed out with our daugther on a camping expedition to Oklahoma. They invited a friend of my daughter and her mom who happens to teach at my school.

My first task of the day was detailing a Jeep Cj7. I still need to work off 2 details that I traded for a tree at Christmas. The hardest part was keeping my son busy. It was breezy so fortunately we both had jackets in the truck. My son managed to lock the doors to the truck and they keys were inside. A friend picked me up and I broke into my own house to get the back up pair.

I helped this friend mow the yard of the house he grew up in. His mom had been renting it out since 1984 when they moved into a bigger house. He said they paid $13,000 for it in 1972.

Afterwards my son and I played putt putt golf. This course has some really long, tricky holes. If I were golfing competitively, or should I say, if my wife were along, we might have needed to leave. A few day laborers were trimming the bushes around the course. At least 10 of the holes had SERIOUS debris: branches, extension cords, a bush trimmer, leaves and so on. My son didn't have a problem with it.

Maybe we should all have the worries of a 3 year old. Just the boys tonight!

Me Day

Dropped daughter off at school 8:00
Worked out 8:30-9:45
Took wife lunch 10:30
Went to movie 11:00
Washed truck 2:30
Picked daughter up 3:30

Beautiful day out. It was good to have a bit of mental health.

Indecisiveness and Appreciation.....

I don't know whether to say my appreciation first or talk about my indecisiveness? Oh well.

Appreciation:
We were car shopping with the kids Friday night and wanted to go back Saturday to try to finalize a deal and really didn't want to chase the kids around for another 3 hours. I called my good friend B and hinted at being able to leave the kids with him and his wife. He graciously agreed. I just want to say how nice it is to have such a friendship like this that allowed me to first impose, and second for him to accept. More often than not I fail to ask others for help for fear of being a burden on someone else. Since we don't have grandparents around it has gotten costly just to go out or hire someone to keep the kids while we do something like visit my heart doctor. I just appreciate what B did for me and hope my kids don't get strep since they were at his house for 3 hours Saturday.

Indecisiveness:
I don't really do well when given choices. Even when it comes to picking out a type of tortilla chip for our dinner Sunday night I struggled. My cheapness, or frugality, often makes decisions for me, but Sunday night I wanted a good chip to go with our chicken nachos. I held up 2 bags and let my son pick.

2 Thursdays in a row I was offered FREE tickets to local pro sporting events. The first was 4 FREE hockey tickets to see the Dallas Stars. My wife would ask, "What do you want to do?" And I would say, "It doesn't matter, I'm indifferent." We finally went and enjoyed it. This Thursday a friend asked me to go see the Dallas Mavericks and it took my 5 minutes and a "let me talk to my wife and call you back" before I finally decided to go. One thing my wife said and it has stuck, "You'd talk yourself out of winning $1 Million. And it is practically true. I'd do much better back when Henry Ford gave his customers ONE color to pick from...BLACK.

A few of my nicknames that I was given during my Emotional Wellness training a few weeks ago was: Chose Not to Participate, Path of Least Resistance, Non-Confrontational. I don't have much emotional baggage, but I do probably rob myself of some joy by sitting out at times when I could participate and have fun. Imagine the process my brain has gone through since we started thinking about cars back in December.

I am so glad we got the car we did! No looking back!

A Brand New Car

We finally did it. If you think about something long enough and want it enough, it happens. Yesterday I received an email from a local dealer advertising 0% financing for 72 months. I saw the same ad as I drove by the dealership on my way to school. I convinced my wife to go and look at the Pontiac G6 last night. We took the kids and they did great compared to previous shopping experiences.

We drove a middle of the line V6 G6 and were quoted a few payments. We had decided not to do anything last night so we were ready to head out. I qualify for the GM employee discount since my dad retired from there. We were able to get a price of $17,500 on a car that listed at $22,000. Basically about $1000 less than someone who might come off the street without the discount. I was told we couldn't get the 0% with the GM discount.(OF COURSE)

The 2nd manager showed us the top model V6 GT that listed for an additional $5000, but he could sell it for only $1400 more than the middle model. We really liked this car. It was a car that they displayed at National Dealers Autoshows. It has everything except a sunroof. We went back this morning to look at it again and brought the title to the Neon.

They gave us an up front decent price on our Neon. The finance manager dropped the finance rate from 6.99% to 5.5% so he could put in a bumper to bumper 100,000 warranty and our payment just went up $8. Imagine how much our payment could have gone down had they given us the 5.5% up front. I guess he played the shell game with money that gave us a good deal and made a bit more for the dealership.

That said, 2008 Pontiac GT V6, Silver, Leather, anti-lock brakes, traction control, automatic with a stick shift option, 18 inch rims, tires filled with Nitrogen, heated seats, On Star(1 year), XM radio(3 months) and so on. And we didn't lease it so we can put miles on it driving to St. Louis. Can't do that with my truck anymore.

MAVS Game

Currently at the Dallas Mavericks game for FREE! A friend of mine, Toon, called and asked if I wanted to go to the game tonight. Keep in mind I almost wiped out in my truck on the way home since it was the 2nd day this week we had SNOW in the Dallas area. I thought about it and my wife finally said, "Just go before you talk yourself out of it." At the game I've spent $0 since we are being hosted by Compass Bank. Free drinks, cashews and fajitas. NICE!

AND, no lines at the bathroom. SWEET.

Very little traffic on the way in. My town got about 2-3 inches of snow. Downtown Dallas-0 snow.

Awesome experience.......for FREE! So ME!

Dora or Daddy?

Last night it was a bit past my son's bedtime and I had already started a 30 minute Dora segment on TV. Mommy said it was time for bed and my son wanted to finish watching Dora. I gave him the choice of watching Dora and going straight to bed, or come to bed now and daddy would play basketball with him. He's got 2 hoops hanging from his closet doors and about 1/2 the time we play ball before he goes to bed.

He insisted on both and I gave him my teacher choice of Love and Logic: Either pick one or you go to bed with nothing. I waited anxiously as he decided. He picked playing basketball with daddy. I was waiting to be rejected, but was affirmed when he decided to spend time with me playing hoops before going to bed. Special times indeed.

The set up is pretty cool. Grandma bought him a lighted hoop and a basketball with lit neon stripes. We play in the dark. I got outscored last night 4-2. He was really on last night. Bad thing is this winds him up a bit and our prayer time usually isn't enough to calm him down. He ends up coming out of his bed 2-3 times before calling it a night. By this time his "sis" has been sound asleep for about an hour. She's like her mommy, "Lights out" as soon as her head hits the pillow.

The Daniel Diet

For 10 days my wife and I will be eating mainly fruits and vegetables along with some nuts. This idea comes from the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament. Read the following where the king finds men to train for 3 years and they are given royal foods and wines. David did not want to defile himself and asked if he and his men could eat just fruits and vegetables. When the royal servant showed concern saying how would he answer the king when David and his men showed up at the end of 3 years of training looking weaker than the men who got the royal foods. David reponded,

12 "Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see." 14 So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.
15 At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. 16 So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.

A friend of mine says he often goes on this type of fast when he has hit rock bottom with his eating habits. I really feel I've hit rock bottom as well. It is possible to lose 5-10 pounds during this time, but as always, consult with your own doctor before trying such a plan.

I've done fine so far today. No headaches and no caffeine. I ate a real late breakfast about 10am: small orange and a small apple. Around noon I had a can of cooked corn and a jar of my dad's homegrown green beans. I also drank a small cup of pineapple juice along with a few sunflower seeds and almonds. My afternoon snack was a banana and I just had a small tomato soup.

I'll keep you posted.

The Evolution of a Diet

According to the Bible, which I firmly believe is the truth, we were originally fruits and vegetarians.

Genesis 1:29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food."

It also says in verse 30 that all animals were given every green plant for food. No carnivores yet.

When Adam and Eve failed God's command and ate from the tree of knowledge or good an evil God added another twist to the human diet. In Genesis 3:17-18 God says. "17....cursed is the ground because of you: through painful turmoil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field."

It seems at this point in time man would have to work the fields for his food. He would have to deal with weeds and earn his food. The plants of the field included vegetables and grains. No longer could he just go and pick fruit, eat, and be happy.

When God flooded the earth and only Noah and his family was spared another twist was added. This was the 2nd major downfall of man. Genesis 9:3 God says, "Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything."

At this point in time animals also began to fear man. The whole predator-prey food chain started as well. If you think about it there would have been no vegetation or fruit to choose from if the earth had been flooded. Protein was now added into the mix. There were some stipulations about which types of meats and such since the sacrifice of animals would come into play

Since a friend from church brought up that I hadn't posted in a while today I posted on my Crave The Word blogsite about signs from God. Tomorrow I am going to post a passage from Daniel pertaining to the Daniel diet which I am going to do for 10 days. I'll tell you about it Monday night.

Once Removed

It has been 4 days since we really tried to purchase a car. We left the last dealer with an offer of "about" $265-275 a month. That was paying the $700 for window ID etching. Yesterday I got a call that the new offer was $249 a month. I politely called back today and talked to an assistant and said no thanks. I got another call saying he had talked to the "owner" and it was now $240. That $25-$35 a month could have been $1500 more out of my pocket, and profit for the dealer. That is why it is smart to educate yourself first and be ready to walk away. Their last offer was $3 away from my wife's number of $237. I was hoping for $230. If the number would have been $240 Monday night she'd be driving the 2007 Sebring. I'm so glad they didn't offer that amount.

We've reconsidered whether or not we really want to make the purchase. That $2500 out of pocket with money down and monthly payments could pay off our Lowes card. We could realistically be out of debt by Christmas....outside a house payment and my truck.

So, when buying a car....TAKE YOUR TIME and be ready to walk away. My walking away has already changed the balance into my favor by at least $1500.

We did leave our garage opener in the car that we drove last weekend. Hope they mail it. Not wanting to drive 80 miles round trip for the opener.

Happy Birthday to Me

42 today. Weird when I think 14 years ago I was 28, and 14 years from now I will be 56. A real good friend from school is about to be 28 and I can't believe we are really 14 years different in age. Anyway, spent most of my day looking for a car for my wife. We came home with our 2000 Neon.

Country Dealer-we drove a 2008 Dodge Avenger for 2 days since they couldn't find the 2007 Sebring we drove up to see Saturday. They located it at one of their other 3 dealerships. The ad said 16,000 miles and it had 21,000 on it. We were disappointed by the condition it was in. Obviously it was a rental car at one time and it was nicked up a bit. It took us about 45 minutes to leave the dealership. We had to wait to get our car back. On top of that we had to meet 2 sales managers who had to ask us why we couldn't put a deal together. Simply, "WE DON'T WANT THAT CAR!" "Well, what about a Dodge Caliber?" NO NO NO! Nobody wore dress clothes. Deer hunting gear seemed more like it at this place

This dealer was 40 miles north of our home and the 2nd dealer was about 30 miles south. We left Country Dealer a little after 6pm and dropped our kids off at home to a sitter. We woofed down cheeseburgers on the way(more on this later.)

City Dealer-Everyone had on white shirts, ties and sport coats. The salesman had the car sitting up front when we got there. Test drove, gave our credit info, laid out our have to's on payment and such. They came in $30 a month higher than our limit. Deal or No Deal? No Deal. This car had 5,000 more miles than advertised AND they were charging $700 for window etching AND there was some body damage. At least this guy let us leave right away once he realized we weren't going to budge. Then again it was 9:30pm and he was scheduled off at 7pm.

Stopped and got an ice cream with the wife on the way home to top the night off.

TIRED!

I Wonder....................

I wonder how much the guys who hold those 80% OFF CLOSE-OUT sales signs along side busy intersections make? Do they make more than the guy who dresses up like Uncle Sam during tax time trying to get people to file their taxes with Liberty Tax Services? Nothing like dressing up in Red/White/Blue stripes with a big top hat.

Do you think they do criminal background checks?

Just something I've been thinking about lately since I saw both situations today.

TV Time

Then only things set on our DVR right now in case we aren't home are The Apprentice and Survivor. Even with the writer's guild of America being on strike there are plenty of shows out there and I am not interested in watching any dramas or comedy sitcoms. That said, Thursday night is really the only night I really want to be home to watch TV. Last night I got sucked into the mindless Deal or No Deal. The show is so bad that they have to make 1/2 of the briefcases $1M just to keep viewers interested. This show is definitely on the decline side of it's life cycle. The only fun part for me is trying to guess the amount that the new offer will be. I'm pretty good at that.

Backlogged on "my DVR" is about 10 Flip That(this?) House and a few poker shows. That's it. I really don't crave watching TV anymore. I do find myself mindlessly watching a few shows on the FoodNetwork and HGTV. I don't even care to watch SportsCenter anymore.

What's on your DVR?

Bring Out Your Dead

Great scene from a Monty Python movie where a cart master is going around picking up dead people and a guy tries to get rid of a guy who is "almost" dead. The last 10 days have been tough on me. Every since a week ago Wednesday I feel like I've been less than alive. I probably could have and should have taken a day or 2 off last week. Finally Friday I visited a local Emergency Care place which diagnosed me with Sinusitus. At least it wasn't Flu or Strep.

Hard to sleep at night when you are coughing and blowing the nose every minute or two. Today is Thursday, about 9 days after I really started feeling sick and I feel I'm about 90% back to capacity.

I did take off yesterday, Wednesday, and napped for about 2 hours. I even took a brief nap on my co-workers small sofa during my plan time today. Been drinking lots of water and juice too!

I developed a new plan to get healthy. Last weekend, during my illness, I attended a health class. My 3 simple keys to getting healthier right now are:

1. Drink 2-3 bottles of water before drinking a diet Pepsi.
2. Only have breakfast away from home on Friday's-Chick Fil A DAY!!!!
3. Walk/jog 2 miles a day no matter what.

So far I'm 4 days in and successful! Now if I could just sleep thru the night and get back to being myself.

Acting Childish AND Holding Parents Accountable

I watched most of the President's speech last night knowing things would bug me a bit. I can't help but point out how childish the two parties act while the whole nation is watching. Most things the president would bring up brought clapping and sometimes standing ovations from the Republicans while the Democrats just stared basically sitting on their hands. There was the occasional smirk of a Democratic candidate caught on camera. I know the response would be the same if it were a Democratic President giving a speech. No wonder today's new generation of voters could care less. Grow up!

As a teacher I perked up a bit when Bush brought up the No Child Left Behind program. Indeed schools are getting better being held more accountable, as well as the scores of all children, especially minority students have gotten better. When Bush said the line about holding teachers accountable I really wish somewhere in the NCLB program parents could be held accountable as well. It really isn't "fair" for a teacher to be held accountable for a child's state test scores when he/she has been absent more than 20 days this year, 30+ last year and was home school the year before that(this in no way portrays a real student and was just a hypothetical situation).

It is my understanding that Congress is being sued by some the largest teachers union along with Texas, Michigan and Vermont for holding states accountable to the NCLB guidelines when Congress has failed to fully fund the program. The Supreme Court reviewed the lawsuit and last I heard they have given it the okay to proceed.

You are welcome to read about it: January 8, 2008 article.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/08/6255/

How about you?

Desensitized

Around 5:30pm I hopped on the local highway on my way to the high school basketball games that I was going to announce. The following is an account of what happened that evening.

Friday was a gloomy day with off and on mist that occupied most of the day. By evening it had stopped raining, but there was a sense of wetness still in the air. As I neared my exit the multiple flashes of brake lights caught my eye. I then noticed a truck about 10 car lengths in front of me the finally hit his brakes a little late and after swerving a little left he brought it back to the right towards the shoulder to avoid what I thought was stopped traffic. I was far enough back that I was probably doing about 20mph at this time I saw everything. That's when I noticed a parked car on the shoulder and the truck in front of me smashed the rear end of this car knocking it off the shoulder and on to the grassy area.

I had plenty of time to maintain my speed and check to see if anyone was in the parked car. I glanced at the truck as it came to rest, but my focus was on the parked car. I eased by and did not see anyone in the parked car so I went on. I thought, "Wow, that was a crazy accident."

After I got to the basketball game I realized that my emotions or anxiety level barely went up. My anxiety level had been tested earlier in the day at school with my last class and this event didn't even rival the blood pressure elevation from class. I told my colleagues at the scorer's table that I had just seen an accident.

This weekend I have reflected back and wonder how I should have responded. Should my heart have raced more quickly after having seen such a violent event? Should I have stopped to assist the driver of the truck? I didn't have a cell phone so I couldn't call police. It really seemed surreal.

I wonder what caused all the brake checks that led to this last minute costly reaction of this driver? I did see a guy about 100 yards up the road driving his 90's model Cutlass Cierra backwards on the shoulder. Or there was one of those orange roadside information deals. It could have been a car that entered the highway that may have cut someone else off. I guess I'll never know.

Bad Weather Days

I remember growing up in St. Louis and my first 4 years of school we were just outside St. Louis in a very hilly area so the district had a significant number of bad weather days built in. 90% of the kids rode buses so when it snowed school was cancelled regularly. I'm talking 6-12 inches of snow at a time. I looked forward to these days because I was able to make some cash shoveling snow.

Now that I am a teacher I still get caught up in the excitement of possible bad weather days. But since I live in Texas we might have 1 day a year that it MAY ice up.

We came home Thursday night just knowing that Friday would be the day. Rain overnight and temperatures dipping below 32 just before 5am. Right in the heart of rush hour. In a way I went to sleep Thursday night with the TV remote and 2 phones on my bedside just knowing school would at least be delayed til 10am. I went to bed even thinking I'll get to sleep in.

I woke about 4:30am for a normal trip to the bathroom. I did see that it was raining a bit and even turned on the TV. No school closings at this time. The weather had not dipped below 32 so it wasn't turning to sleet or ice.

I think that really affected my overall attitude at school. I became so grumpy by my last class that I was so glad to see the kids leave.

So much for bad weather days in Texas.

Tax Rebates

It looks like my family would stand to gain about $1800 if indeed the recently talked about tax rebates pass in congress. I am sure 90% of the people who will get this money have it spent already. My wife has earmarked it for paying down debt. I immediately thought about paying cash for our first REAL family vacation. That would easily cover a 3-4 day trip to San Antonio and Sea World. I'm even sure we'd have a bit left over for the Nintendo Wii. That is if I don't get one for my birthday in February. Our regular tax refund should be in our account by then.

Speaking of birthday gifts I really never seem to want anything special. This would indeed be something special. The whole family could enjoy the Nintendo Wii.

Have you already spent your potential tax rebate?

All CLEAR!

After 2 months of being concerned about my heart the doctor gave me the all clear tonight. He said I had the best possible score on my Calcium score which tests for calcium and blockage. The ECHO(sonogram) was fine as well. All he said I need to do is bring my weight down which should lower my moderately high blood pressure. I checked in at 150/100 today and the bottom number should be closer to 80. My cholesteral is fine as well.

Basic plan involves monitoring what I eat: only diet drinks, substantially reduce the fried foods, try to mix in more fruit, drink more water, work out 4 times a week.

Thanks for your prayers and concerns. It was a 2 month process and I'm glad I have nothing major to worry about.

I did post on my Cravetheword blogsite for any of you wanting a biblical feeding. I challenge you to keep me accountable with this website. I've read the bible 2 days in a row! I'm trying to draw closer to God!

Paying Cash

My wife and I have started a new system where we only pay cash for things other than gas and groceries. We did this back in September wish some success, but for some reason failed to continue it in October. This somewhat mirrors the Dave Ramsey get out of debt plan. The main goal is to know where all your money goes. Even if we pay heavily on our bit of debt we should have a lot of money left over each month. We don't! I'm counting on this to help us track our careless spending and hopefully eliminate our debt within a year, outside a house payment.

By the summer of 2009 I want to pay cash for a big vacation. My son will be 5 then and ready for kindergarten and my daughter will be 8. Possibly Disney World or Sea World. Not sure.

One thing I notice is I know not to leave coins laying around or my wife will scoop them up. I basically have an allowance right now of $150 a month which includes 25 each week for my Friday lunch and a few other incidentals. I've planned in $50 for going to the movies and playing cards. I know I won't be buying the $11 large popcorn and soda anymore. I'll just sneak in a small bag of my own.

Last night I stopped by Walgreens and picked up a $2 bag of licorice for us to munch on as we played Sequence. When I mentioned how much it cost my wife gave me $1.

Will keep you posted of our successes!

Thankful For Much

One night at camp this week I was having a hard time falling asleep so I began thanking God for all that I have. I came to realize that I have been given much. I have been blessed beyond measure and know that God has given me more than I feel that I deserve.

What I am thankful for:

2 healthy, unique, fun kids
1 extremely complimentive and compatible wife
41 years of good health-I see heart Dr. next Wednesday
2 parents who are still living into their 60's
parents who gave me much more than they had growing up
parents who sent me to college at no expense to me
my career path: insurance, pizza, Jeeps, movie theatre, teaching
my current teaching position-WOW
new friends I've made at my school-BH, AG and many others
my daughter's one special friend from school
the handful of students who are ALWAYS awesome
a classroom with good, hands off, parents
2 reliable cars and 1 cheap payment
a giving older brother
church friendships from MBC that God continues to strengthen
my poker buddies
my church family at SSCM
great neighbors
the joy and peace I have in believing in Christ as my savior

I wonder how much more I would be blessed if I could only spend time with God on a consistent, first thing in the morning basis. Hmm?

Wow, I'm Exhausted

I'm being a little bit sarcastic with my title. I finally had to teach students today. I didn't do much teaching other than give the instruction to make a poster about our 5th grade camp. It's called "A One Pager" and all the student has to do is to write, draw, illustrate, create diagrams about all they learned at camp. Much of it was science based. I gave 90 minutes for this project and out of 60 students, maybe 3 finished. Now my problem is when do I let them finish?

The students will have completed at least 30 days without structured instruction. We really lose 1 week before our "Holiday" break. Then 2 weeks. When we came back we gave 4 straight days of assessments, kind of like finals for elementary. Then this week we had camp the first three days and then today was the only real day. I created an easy lesson.

The students have a 4 day weekend and then it's back to serious business. Now is the time we really gear up for the state assessments. I think reading is first, then math followed by science in May. I'll identify students tomorrow who need a heavy dose of tutoring and start that soon.

Friday is a teacher workday so I hope to get my plans together for the next 2-3 weeks.

5th Grade Camp

Made it back this afternoon from 5th grade camp at Possum Kingdom Lake just west of the DFW metroplex. As usual 90% of the students did great, 5% did as well as expected, and 5% disappointed. I really can't talk about students, but I can talk about my experience.

The 4-fifth grade teachers stayed in the clinic with the assistant principal, school counselor and school nurse. The 2 male teachers stayed in the south wing. We had 5 beds in our wing so we were able to double up on our paper thin mattresses. I felt like I was sleeping in a bowl though. On a positive note we had electricity, indoor plumbing and a refrigerator. The weather was AWESOME(60's) as well. On a downside we had concrete floors, no window treatment and third world country bedding. We also had a few food items that were truly inedible. I PASSED ON FRENCH FRIES!

This camp was heavily geared towards teaching and reinforcing science concepts that the students learn in 4th and 5th grade. I was really satisfied with the curriculum. Our "naturalists", or camp guides, were spectacular and probably tilted our experience into an area that we have already tentatively scheduled a timeframe for next year.

I am fortunate that my homeroom parents, or chaperones, are really low key and did a great job. Our nurse should have gotten paid extra with all that she had to deal with. On top of dealing with medications she had other things to deal with. One non-staff person really put a damper on her trip.

I am glad to be home. I've showered and shaved and really look forward to getting more than 2 hours of sleep tonight! That is, if my wife can keep her hands off of me :) .

Heart Update

I went Tuesday for the first round of tests on my heart. The first thing I did was lay on a platform that pulled me into a machine that took 640 sliced pictures of my heart. This was called a Calcium Score. This will detect any blockage that I may have in my heart. It took about 10 minutes and was pretty easy.

The second thing on Tuesday was the Nuclear stress test. I got hooked up to the EKG, had my blood pressure checked and then got to walk on the treadmill. The goal was to get my heartbeat up over 152 per minute. I was hooked up to an IV so once my rate got high I was injected with some dye. After this I was placed on another machine that took pictures of my heart for 15 minutes.

My first day took about 2 hours.

On Wednesday I had an echo cardiogram of my heart. Kind of like a sonogram. It was neat to see the little valves opening and closing on a regular basis. I joked that the lady didn't say something like, "OH MY!" She didn't find a baby either. This only took about 15 minutes and my next appointment wasn't for 2 1/2 hours. This technician hooked my up with my next step and saved me 3 hours.

I went for part 2 of the Nuclear Stress test. I was injected with some dye and sent off to eat a fatty meal. After reading a paper and having my Subway meal I got to lay on the machine that took 15 minutes to take images of my heart. I guess the dye shows up in some way.

All told it was pretty easy to do. I was finished on day 2 by noon. My toughest decision on the day was whether to go see a movie or come home and do housework. It was cheaper to just come home. Payday isn't until Monday.

Well, it is what it is. You can still pray for me, I appreciate it. I go on the 23rd to sit down with the doctor to see if anything is wrong.

Bowling Butt

Sure, I got your attention with that title. After bowling 4 times in 9 days I think my right buttocks is a little tight.

Made it home in 10 hours. The kids did GREAT. Just one potty break. Promised the kids a PLAYLAND in Joplin MO and after cruising by 3 McDonalds and NO playlands we got back in the truck and headed out for our last 5 hours. REALLY, the kids did great. We left STL at 11:30 and arrived around 9:30pm.

I got a great nights sleep in my own bed. No bed that cranked my back and no couches either. I slept well!

I worked out today and tried to regain some sense of normalcy.

We played cards tonight and even though it was P O K E R we have a great group of guys who go to church regularly. I ask that you pray for my friend J who is on his second bout of leukemia treatments and he is undergoing his 2nd transplant. This guy is GREAT and he never complains. I appreciate him very much. I also ask that you pray for me as I go for deeper tests on my heart Tuesday and Wednesday to find out what the little "quirk" is on my EKG. Everyone who played cards tonight is a "prayer".

It is good to be back and I hope to get control of things in my life. First spiritually, then become a better husband to my wife. Then a father to my kids. The "spiritually" thing MUST happen before the others can play out. After that I really want to step it up physically with my work outs and dining habits. After that I pray that 2008 is the year that we become DEBT free. It all revolves around DISCIPLINE!

Week ONE of 2008!

Tour St. Louis

My trip to St. Louis is soon coming to an end. Plans were to leave Saturday early, but I think I'll head out by noon on Friday. I've been here 9 days and I'm just about ready to get back home.

I went bowling 4 times. I think I ended up 6 wins 2 losses to my brother. His ball broke my last trip here. I bowled 3 games with my wife and didn't strike....that's horrible. Yesterday BillyV bowled with a 10 pound ball and had high game of my trip, 203. Then he bowled less than 1/2 that the last game. At least his 10 pound ball wasn't pink. We bowled 12 games with 2 shoe rentals and were only charged $13. What a DEAL!

They shut down a major highway in St. Louis on the 2nd. I drove this hwy everyday for about 6 years. Glad that isn't my route anymore.

I took my wife to the airport 5:30am on Wednesday and she nearly missed her 6:30am flight. They held the plane for her and a few others. There were people EVERYWHERE!

Traffic light cameras. My friend Jon informed me that the light right by his house has a camera that will tape you as you enter the intersection. This is a light which would be easy to coast thru as it seems as if you should just yeild before turning. I warned my mom that she might receive a ticket in the mail since I drove her car New Years Eve.

Food. White Castles 3 times, Cecil Whittakers pizza twice, Lion's Choice twice. No trips to Ted Drewes or Gus' Pretzels. Remember my physical report told me not to change a thing about my diet. I wonder what my thorough heart exam next week will tell me. Start PRAYING!

Most likely driving back Friday, possibly Saturday.

Oh MAN, Where Art Thou?

Long time no MAN. I just haven't felt like blogging or even visiting my blog friend's sites. I think I'll look to renew my passion for blogging after the new year. I'll leave you with a few updates.

1. My heart: Went for a consultation last Wedneday and the heart specialist's EKG confirms that I've got some quirk with my heartbeat. Could have been born that way, something could have happened along the way. I go back the 8th-9th for major tests.

2. Christmas: My church is not having a Christmas Eve service. We did something on Sunday so we do not have plans tonight. I look to allow the kids to open ONE gift tonight to play with since after we open gifts tomorrow we will head out for St. Louis. Merry Christmas.

3. St. Louis: Will be there 25th-5th. The wife is flying back on the 2nd since she has work commitments the 3rd and 4th.

4. 2008: Reduce debt, recommit to losing weight, maybe buy a Jeep(new or used), continue to look into whether or not we really want to move back to St. Louis(Minman is shaking his head right now say, "What a big tease."

Merry Christmas and have a blessed New Year!

Day Off

Actually stayed home most of the day today. Our church was doing our 2nd Saturday Outreach today, but participating would have blocked about between 6-8 hours of my day as the group was traveling about 70 miles away to help another church plant get started. I had many reasons(some might say excuses) for not going.

1. I'm just tired. Seems like since basketball season started I've had something just about every night of the week.
2. My house has been neglected. I can't even park in my own 2 car garage. It has become a dumping ground.
3. I have 2 kids. I couldn't imagine taking a 3 an 6 year old on an hour plus drive. Then while there try to entertain them. Then drive back. They'd probably fall asleep on the way back IF we didn't ride with anyone.
4. COST. If I had to drive myself there would be no way I could cough up $70 in the amount of gas that would need to be bought.
5. I have 2 kids. If I went by myself I would be away from my family a second Saturday in a row. Last weekend I worked a basketball tournament.

That said I slept in til about 8:30 this morning. My wife and I cleaned the garage and turned into a mini basketball court for my son and now both kids can play and ride their bikes in the garage. I also spent about an hour tweaking my bible lesson for tomorrow. I took an hour long nap. Dropped stuff off at the Goodwill. Worked out. I was going to try and bust the 24 minute mark for 2 miles, but quickly pooped out and just made sure I got it in under 30 minutes. I've had to heavy calorie nights in a row and I think it caught up with me.

Tonight I'll probably go and see a movie.

Impotent

Really no matter where you work you could always keep a journal of what has been said and possibly write a book. The following are things I've heard said by elementary aged kids the 10 years I've taught, or someone else reported it said.

1. While researching the planet Uranus(sounded 'yoor uh nus')
Student: "Hey, I'm looking at pictures of your anus." So it sounded.
Also on one students poster this child wrote, "Hearing the name makes people laugh..."

2. Doing the "it" word family my daughter threw in "shit".
Teacher: "not in this family....."
A few kids later someone offered "tit"
Teacher: "No, next word."
A few kids later a kid says, "Clit, my friend is named Clit."
Teacher: "I think that is Clint, let me spell it for you on the board...."C L I N T."

3. First grade doing the "ell" family:
A kid offers up "hell" and the teacher acts like it is not a word and the child says, "Yes it is, as in 'hell yeah'.

4. We researched fossil fuels this week and one student typed up the top 10 things about petroleum. This student then made a poster and only had the top 9 reasons, but the printed out research notes had a number 10 and it said, "Each year 84 million burglars are impotent." Imagine my curiosity when I only saw #10 on my printer. I thought about it and finally noticed a computer in my room was on. When I went to log it off I saw a website that said we import 84 million? or billion? barrels of petroleum each year. It SHOULD have read "Each year 84 million BARRELS are IMPORTED. Think teaching spelling isn't impotent? I mean important.

On a side note I had a personal best on the treadmill: 2 miles=24 minutes 10 seconds.

Tree Shopping

Once again I worked out a deal to get a "free" Christmas tree. Friends from my former church run a tree lot real close to my house and I happen to be his son's teacher for the 2nd year in a row. Last year we went with an 8 foot Nobler fir, which tonight I was informed was the Cadillac of trees. The have a huge one that is marked at $499. WOW! The tree last year was marked $129 and I traded out 3 auto details, one of which I still owe.

Tonight we bundled up the kids as it is a bit chilly here. My wife was wanting a taller tree since we have 12+ foot ceilings so we ended up sellecting the entry level Douglas Fir and it is near 9 feet tall and was marked $79. That will cost me 2 details.

Before we had this deal we usually bought a 6 foot cheapy tree from major home improvement stores in the area and would budget about $40. I'm told thru my current hook up that these trees are cut WAAAAY in advance and usually don't stay "fresh" as long. Maybe.

My best tree experience came in Carthage MO in 2001 when we went to a tree farm. We walked the grounds, selected and cut down our own tree. Boy was it a fatty. It took up half of our small dining room and I had to cut off branches just to get it outside after it had dried up.

Tomorrow night's task is decorating it. My wife will do that while I announce basketball!

Crank Dat Soulja boy

I announce different sporting events for a local high school team and often get my warm up music from students. One of my requirements is that I preview listen to them in advance. The main thing I look for it blatant profanity. If there is cuss words in it I won't play it. From there it becomes gray in many areas. The "clean" versions of songs have the words bleeped out, but you can clearly hear, "mother _____ er" and to me that is just as bad. Then there are a few rap songs where the "N" word is bleeped out. Also the scene in many of these songs is the about what goes on in "da club." Then my least favorite is the hidden sexual innuendos in songs.

I researched "soulja boy-crank dat" after hearing it on someone else's cd. It had a great beat to it and it sounded perfect for basketball warm ups. I copied this song and have played it at about 3 basketball games and the kids go wild. Well, yesterday I went to www.urbandictionary.com and looked up what "superman dat hoe" meant. It was extremely vulgar and nasty. I was sick to my stomach.

I also dropped a song that Trick Daddy song "Lets Go" where he samples an Ozzy Ozbourne song. I've had this one in my collection for a while. The song starts out, "There's a lot of F "N's" in the club tonight....." The real lyrics have the F and N word probably about 50 times. The song I have is edited and you can't really pick up on it. Although the song talks about drug dealing and carrying guns.

If anyone has some decent action songs they can recommend or some good warm up songs without words I'd really appreciate it.

The sad thing is I would probably get complaints if I played a Christian song. I also found out the "Crank Dat-Soulja boy" is played on Radio Disney. SICK, SICK, SICK.

Got to go old school I guess!

Gator Aid

Dr. J. Robert Cade, the inventor of Gatorade, died this week at the age of 80. A while back I remember seeing commercials of how Gatorade was created and thought the commercial was a spoof. On TV they show the Florida Gator football team back in 60's needing something to help them replace all the sweat and body's minerals as they played football. Along comes Dr. Cade with his fantastic creation.

Well, after reading the obituary today I learned that this was indeed a true story. The first batch cost about $43 and they only tested it on freshman during the games since they did not want to hurt the varsity team. "It sort of tasted like toilet bowl cleaner," one of the researchers stated. They then added sugar and lemon juice to improve the taste. It eventually was used by all players and the Florida Gators became known as a second half team who outlasted opponents. In 1967 the losing coach of the Orange Bowl said his team lost because it didn't have the GatorAde that the Florida Gators had.

Pepsi now owns the Gatorade name brand and it has brought the University of Florida more than $150 million in royalties. Gatorade held 81% of the $7.5 billion sports drink industry in 2006. There were 4 original flavors and now there are more than 50 flavors available internationally.

I think it is ironic that Dr. Cade was Florida's first kidney researcher and his cause of death was kidney failure.

Small Town Texas

Tonight I went to small town Texas to watch a good friend coach a high school girls varsity team. This small town had a population of close to 500 and I think I only saw one gas station and it closed up for the game. This town is surrounded by farmland. We're talking fields for corn and wheat, not the Texas Longhorn kind. That's somewhere else in Texas.

I gave my wife the night off as I took the kids. I met the coach's wife and her kids and we carpooled. She is a good friend that I first met through teaching and now we have become good friends through our church. I got to live her twice nightly winter routine. We left her daycare parking lot at 5:30. Went straight to the Sonic drive thru for 1/2 price Tuesday night burgers...my treat. She probably saved me $9 in gas so it was not much of a sacrifice.

The following is a list of what I did see: hairstyles straight from the 80s, good ol' boys, Wrangle jeans, cowboy boots, bleached blond hair, and lots of people having fun. Lots of really WHITE people too.

My kids did alright. My 3 year old son actually watched most of the first 1/2 and wasn't too much to handle. My 6 year old daughter basically ran around everywhere and I was assured by the coach's wife that she was fine tagging along with her 5 year old daughter whom everyone knew.

Bottom line was it did take about 4 hours out of our busy life. I did get to support a good friend and see what he does for a living. AND my wife got 4 straight hours of alone QUIET time.

Tigers win! They're 12-0 and ranked in the top 10 in the state for a 1-A school.

Good Friends

A few weeks ago one of my best friends from St. Louis called me out of the blue. It was great to hear from him. This is the same friend that despises keeping up with The MAN via my blogs. We caught up on things and one thing I've always appreciated about MIN the Master is that he would often prompt a spontaneous prayer. When we were roommates he often would suggest that we pray together. Later when we lived states away we would get together and he rarely let an opportunity go by without recommending we end our time together in prayer. In a way I kind of thought it to be corny, but I always came away from those prayer times feeling better and deep inside I appreciated this. It is awkward suggesting to someone "lets just pray about this RIGHT NOW." I let many opportunites go by without doing this and it is something I should get better at.

This past Friday my family was invited to have an awesome soup lunch with the family of the pastor who married my wife and I. We actually met at a weekly bible study at this pastor's house. This was the first pastor in my life that we got to hang around and we got to know his family on a personal level. It was indeed a special time in my life. I sought consel about dating my wife who was 19 and 8 years younger than I and they said it would be okay. A little over a year later I married this beauty. This was back in Missouri about 15 years ago and times have changed. The preschool family that he had are now in college and high school. My kids are the age of his kids when we moved to Texas in 96. A few years later we were fortunate that he would again be our pastor as he took a job at a church in North Texas.

Our busy lives crossed paths only a few times since the turn of the century and getting together Friday rekindled old times. I was reminded that the conversation back then did not revolve around getting older, growing prostrates, heart issues and such. We had a great time. We also got to be around D & B as they came in from out of state to visit the pastor and his family. Our special time ended with my wife and I having great conversation with D & B as the pastor had to leave for an afternoon wedding.

For me being a Christian allows me to have such special friendships that remain strong even when our lives take different paths. Being a Christian allows me to quickly gain "new family" when we have joined new churches over the years.

Thanks Bro Bill and family for having a big impact on my life! So much time does not need to pass before we get together again! Thanks for having us over Saturday!

Your friend in Christ,

The MAN

Happy Turkey Day

My mom and dad flew in to Dallas Monday morning and experienced temperatures in the 80's. Monday night we went to our church grounds and picked up pecans and my dad went to watch me announce my basketball game. Tuesday afternoon my wife and I got to go shopping and then to a movie and last night we went out with a friend to watch to Mavericks basketball game. It sure has been nice to spend time with family this week.

This morning we feasted on donuts for breakfast and afterwards I went to the gym. I achieved another personal running/walking record and shaved off 50 seconds on my 2 mile trek. I spent a personal high on running shoes Tuesday as well. With tax I ALMOST spent $100. When it comes to shoes I am CHEAP. Not this time though. These shoes will be my "gym only" shoes.

We plan on eating turkey about 1pm. I prefer the early turkey dinner for various reasons. First of all if you eat early you can eat it again for dinner. At dinner you load up only on the things you really like. No needing to be nice and taste everything. I also like eating earlier because I know for sure I will snack all day preceeding the meal. Chips, chips, chips and dip.

Other plans for me today include finishing up a detail on an Expedition. I'll also probably fold a mountain of clean clothes that are blocking my route to the wash machine. Not sure what the ladies are doing later on to meet their shopping needs!

Life is good. I'm thankful for my family!

Mooooooon River

Went for a long overdue physical yesterday. I was the first person on the books at 8:30am and I was wondering why at 8:35 I hadn't been summonsed. A nurse walked in about 5 minutes later and guess who called me into the office?

First up was blood pressure reading along with the withdrawl of blood. I'm not good with needles, but I did manage to donate 2 small vials worth of my blood. Next up was the eye test and I passed with flying colors. My left eye is slightlly more dominant than my right eye. I then peed in the cup followed by the ear test. The last thing the nurse did was administer the EKG heart reading.

The doctor then came in and asked if I ever had a heart attack. I answered not that I knew of. He showed me on the EKG reading how there was a reading that resembled someone who may have had a prior heart attack. He did say that he'd put about 85% confidence in the reading that I did not have the downward spike in the reading that went along with the initial spike that he was concerned about. My blood pressure was slightly high, but he said nothing to worry about.

Last real thing was the "drop your pants and put your elbows on the table" request followed with the "I"m sorry for about what I am about to do........." comment. The old finger up the rear exam. I've never experienced this pleasure and humbly yielded. My wife assures me that this is NOTHING to what women go through on a regular basis.

End result, I'll probably do a follow up visit with a cardiologist to check on the heart thing. The doctor did give me 3 weeks worth of Flomax which might help me make it through the night without getting up to pee 2-3 times.

The Gym

Yesterday I made it to the gym for the 3rd time this week only to find that my MP3 player had a dead battery. I stilled worked out and actually had a personal best on the treadmill for a 3rd straight time. The negative of the workout was having to watch Barry Bonds hit homer after homer as they reported that he had been indicted for perjury. I think I watched him hit the homer record yesterday as they continuously showed his 756 record breaking shot. I'm so sick of this story. Everyone including Barry knows that he juiced it as well as many other players during that time. I guess Barry is going with the "I didn't know" story. Would that defense work in any of these following MOCK cases?

"I didn't know my drink had alcohol in it officer so I didn't think I was intoxicated while driving."

"I didn't know she was only 17," says her 18 year old boy as he is charged with statuatory rape.

"I didn't know that the car I was driving was loaded with 18 Kilos of cocaine."

"I didn't know that my friend stuffed my pockets with $1000 worth of MP3 players."

Pathetic excuse.

I shaved another 55 seconds off my 2 mile walk/run today. I'll let you know when I make it to the 12 minute mile mark. I really need some comfortable shoes!

I did buy 4 Energizer batteries at the snack shop inside the gym. $4.

Date Night

I took my daughter on a date today. I awoke the other morning to a Christian radio station and the speaker was talking about how he would often taken his daughter out on dates so by the time she was really ready to date she would know how she was supposed to be treated by her date. I asked my daughter earlier in the week if she would go on a date and she happily said yes. Every day she would ask how many more days until our date.

I left the house today about 1:15 to go to the gym for a quick work out, a sit in the sauna and a shower. I arrived to pick up my date about 2pm. Her hair was fixed and she was in a pretty red dress. We held hands as we walked to my truck. This is the first time I've ever had to lift my date into the vehicle AND she rode in the back seat. She picked Steak and Shake for dinner and the best part of her meal was her chocolate shake. I ended up eating my meal and 1/2 of hers. I'm such a pig.

On the way to the movie we saw an awesome new black Chevy Corvette. My daughter says, "That would be a nice date car." Yes, but she was stuck with me and the pick up. We enjoyed seeing The Bee Movie. Pretty good movie and we both made it through without having to use the restroom. My customer service idea of the day is to have a self serve butter station in each theatre. This would serve as a convenience and possibly a safety measure for parents who are tempted to leave their child in the theatre to restock on that tasty butter flavor.

My daughter's favorite part of the date was seeing either a fox or a coyote in a field just outside the theatre. I would have saved about $30 just taking her to a nature reserve. Maybe next time!

Fried Chicken!

I think I posted the Fried Chicken story long ago so BillyV when you see the title does it take you back about 20 years?

Tonight we dined at Popeyes Chicken before church. You know me, I had a buy one get one free coupon. Problem is, that coupon came with 3 others so the whole day I was trying to figure out which DEAL my family should get. In my frugality I stopped by the house to pick up the kids 2 Capri Suns at the store price of 20 cents each saving well over $2 since I didn't have to buy them drinks.

I used my buy a 3 piece combo and get a 2 piece dinner for free COO PON. That was $7 with the add for one piece of white meat. I also got the naked chicken strips and 2 extra biscuits. The dinner ended up being $13 for 4 people. Not bad I guess. Had I gone the 8 dark pieces for $4 and added sides, 2 drinks and my naked strips I'm sure that would have been more so I think I made the right move.

Dinner was fine, but I personally don't go to Popeyes for the fried chicken. I really prefer their catfish, which is expensive and my second favorite is the naked strips. I do think that Popeyes chicken pieces are smaller than the other local places.

My favorite chicken places in Texas:
1. Chicken Express: best strips, good chicken, but I prefer the catfish. $1 Sweat Tea too!
2. Golden Chick: 1/2 price Mondays was a staple for a while until I got sick one time. Decent strips too!
3. Popeyes: catfish, naked strips, and the biscuits
4. KFC: My least favorite tasting chicken, but I love the wedges
5. Walmart: $3.97 for 8 pieces, not bad if it is fresh!

Mine and Billyv's favorite place in Maplewood was Church's Chicken. It is still in the same location and still has bad service. I don't know how many times we ordered 8 pieces for $2.99.

Chicken 3 meals a day?
Chick Fil A-chicken egg biscuit
Scotty P's fried chicken strips for lunch
Buffalo A & D chicken wings with chicken fried rice for dinner

Really, I did this last Friday!

The Big Tease

Just about EVERY time I go back to St. Louis I come back to Texas thinking about what would it take to move back to St. Louis. The weekend before Halloween I got to spend great time with my family and I long for those relationships. My brother happens to be selling his business and this past Saturday I jokingly mentioned that we could buy it and move back.

Well, I went to the movies late Saturday night and when I got home after midnight I found my wife sitting at the computer looking at houses in the surrounding St. Louis areas. This mental tease usually lasts for about a week. We'll refresh those desires Christmas when we both go back and probably pull every house magazine, visit realtor.com and then drive areas that we like.

I guess we could do the T chart and write down the pros and cons. We only go thru life once so as Red said in The Shawshank Redemption, "You either get busy living, or get busy dying."

Halloween 2007

It will be a perfect night for hunting down the best candy on the street. We'll also be going to church, well, at least my wife will be. My daughter just had a major meltdown after saying the paint job my wife did on her looked stupid. She said this 3 times and got her faced washed off. Now trick or treating for her is in jeopardy.

Costumes: I do not like masks that cover faces. To me that's the easy way out. I prefer students to have faces painted or extra hair and appropriate clothing to match the theme.

Candy: I have no problem handing out the cheap, small stuff: Tootsie Rolls, Gum, DumDums, etc. I enjoy pilfering through the candy that my kids get and picking out the good stuff. I'm not big on sweets so I really only take the GOOD stuff.

Time: I think allowing the kids to go out about 30 minutes before it gets dark is okay. I mentally have an 8:00-8:30 cutoff for going door to door. No kid trick or treat age should be out past that time anyway. All of those after 8:30 are teenage delinquents.

Lights out: When the time is right I turn out all the lights and move everything to the back room.

Parties: I've never really gotten into adult Halloween parties. Maybe it is the group of friends that I grew up with who weren't really much into partying. I think I went to ONE bar Halloween Party in my life.

November 1st is a good day to be going to a Catholic school. All Saints Day means NO SCHOOL!

Happy Halloween!

St. Louis Details

Thursday Oct. 25: Arrived about an hour late. We were waiting for a plane from Houston to arrive. My mom sat in the wrong terminal for 30+ minutes before she figured out where my flight came in. Good thing my flight was late. White Castles dinner at 11:30 pm. Mmmm.

Friday Oct. 26: Went to see Gone Baby Gone with my mom. I really thought the ending was good. The main character really has a tough decision in the end. Sometimes doing the right thing doesn't always mean the most positive outcome. I bowled 5 games with my brother that afternoon and ended up getting 11 hours sleep........NO KIDS!

Saturday Oct. 27: It was all about dad because it was his birthday. Family, friend, Fred and a good time.

Sunday Oct. 28: My brother conned me into going to the Rams/Browns football game. Tailgating started about 9am. With my small "squirrel sized" bladder I held off until 11am before drinking anything. I think I peed about 8 times at the game. Went straight to the airport after the game and somehow did not have to use the plane bathroom.

It was a good trip. Family is very important and I got a good amount a quality time with my mom, dad and brother. Unfortunately I did not hook up with any of my friends. One was on a church retreat and another did not call me back.

Mom and dad will be here to see the grandkids in 3 weeks.

Back Rubs

I remember back in my dating days one of the ways for me to flirt with someone was to offer the shoulder or back rub. Who doesn't like a little bit of the human touch. Well, I'm still giving back rubs, but it's to my family members. Tonight as I put my kids to bed my 6 year old daughter begged for a back rub. She likes for me to rub her back and count to 100 as I do it. Since she's in first grade I counted by 10's and immediately she said, "No fair." I then counted by 5's. She asked me to count by 2's. Pretty smart for a 6 year old to know that the smaller I skip count by the more time she'll get.

My son likes for me to write letters on his back. I ran through the alphabet 2 times, gave him a kiss and said mommy would be in after she got home from praise team practice. It worked. It actually works best if we do it after 9pm. Otherwise he's still wound up and it's not productive time spent.

My wife will throw the lotion out on the bed when she is hinting for some TLC. When she bought me the massage book for a gift, I really wonder who the gift was really for. She also likes a little bit of time spent on her feet. My daughter likes the feet to be rubbed also.

That said, we all love concentrated one on one time. Doesn't matter if you are a kid or a spouse. Now I'm not going to offer to rub my poker friend's backs. Just think how our relationships would be better if we unselfishly tried to meet other people's needs on a daily basis. Start the cycle and eventually the favors would be returned. Try it!

New Car Buying Tips

I sold Jeeps for 6 years and I am still uncomfortable with the car buying experience. I could post all kinds of stories but I will post my own personal guidelines for buying a car.

1. Only buy when you are not desperate. If the need is not urgent or you are not impulsive you will likely get a better deal. The more times you can walk away the lower your price or payment will be.
2. If you feel unfortable at all......LEAVE. There are some good dealers out there who won't manipulate you or make you feel like an idiot.
3. Car buying is easier if you don't have a trade. A trade throws a whole other dimension to an already dicey situation. At this point you are negotiating price, trade in and payments. Even worse if you owe money on your trade.
4. Research. Find the car and model you like and watch the ads. I knew when I went into the dealership which car was the ad car and that the dealer had many of them. Actually they FINALLY matched an ad that another dealer had. Be prepared to buy the ad car or else the price on a similar car could be much higher. Or you could also pay $500 on pinstripes or $799 for the "environmental protection plan" blah blah blah. I got the already installed tinted windows on my car for free.
5. Buying verses leasing. I've leased the last 2 cars we've bought. My payment difference between a 3 year lease and a 5 year payment was about $130 a month cheaper by leasing. I simply turn it in after 3 years and get another vehicle. There are mileage restrictions so beware. A lease is just another way of financing. You still have a payoff, the bank owns it, and you can actually trade it before the 3 years is up. Leasing could fit the budget and you can often buy a better quality car since the lease payment is based on it's future value. Think future value of a Honda Accord vs. Chevy Malibu.
6. New verses used. I have a hard time paying $15,000 for a used car with just a little bit of warranty left when I can get the same car brand new for about $20,000 and a full 3 year warranty. The story is different if you are looking at a $3000 used car verse a brand new car.

Helpful websites:

www.autotrader.com
www.kbb.com kelly blue book
www.cars.com

Warranties? If you are going to for SURE keep a car for more than 4 years and put as many as 100,000 miles on it you may consider a warranty. Dealer cost on a warranty is about 1/2 the retail price. Dealers can negotiate on this too!
Color? I see these crazy bright yellow or funky off colors and it does affect resale. Not as much on a lease, but you severely limit who will look at buying your car if it has an odd color. Don't do it!

Feel free to ask questions since this is not all inclusive!

Weekend Update

Friday night I announce volleyball and our team got whipped.

Saturday I handed out 100 flyers for our Fall Festival October 31st, watched a few students play football and watched The Kingdom.

Sunday was church and family time. A big disappointment was showing up to get my son's hair cut as they turn the open sign off. An even bigger disappointment was driving by the car dealership that had a CJ-7 on the lot at 3pm and at 5:15 it was gone. I'll go back and see it on Monday.

Been having a hard time posting lately.

Trick or Church?

Early this month my wife and realized that we were being strategically placed to help out at church for our Fall Festival that will be held October 31st, Halloween Night. My wife made it clear right away that we would not be available since our family does celebrate Halloween, usually by letting our kids dress up and walk our neighborhood. We are participating at church by donating candy.

I guess church and halloween is kind of like church and state. They are very separate.

The biggest issue for us is the fact that we are leaders at church and are generally expected to be there on a regular basis. I guess my wife and I could divy things up and do both.

Give me some feedback on this!

What is more satisfying

2 things I did today were very satisfying, and possibly weird for some folks.

Today while mowing I was able to disturb about 6 different ant piles, most likely fire ants here in Texas. There is just something satisfying about kicking or hacking off a 1000 ants. I did get bit or stung by one ant while mowing.

After mowing today I went to a friend's house to watch the Mizzou/OU game. I reached into my gym bag with great anticipation as I searched for my new unblemished white underwear. I was in the guest bathroom, almost a bit giddy as I firmly put the new Hanes in place. Ah....freshness!

So, what would be more satisfying for you.......kicking an ant pile sending ants into defensive frenzy or pulling up those brand new undies? I'm still having a hard time deciding.

State Fair Woes

My wife hates my pessimistic attitude when it comes to outings involving large crowds. Yesterday 22 local school districts had the day off and all students plus teachers had a free ticket for the state fair. I ventured off with my family about 10 am. All told we spent at least 3 1/2 hours riding in our car, much of it in traffic. We also spent about an hour walking to and from the parking lot to the fair. Almost 1/2 of our "fairtime" was spent in our car or on the parking lot. We spent about 5 actual hours galavanting around the fairgrounds.

Pros of the state fair:
1. FREE, they even let my wife in on a student ticket
2. FOOD, lots of it EVERWHERE
3. KIDS, the kids got to explore. They seemed more interested in leaves and sticks than anything else.
4. BIRD SHOW-excellent upclose show about hawks, owls and other birds
5. AUTOSHOW-we spent about 20 minutes checking out mainly the new Jeeps-The concept truck for Jeep is called Gladiator. AWESOME!
6. A/C-many indoor exhibits had air condition
7. The Lion King-we saved about $20 buying our Lion King tickets at the actual box office. Service charges were $6.75 online.

Cons of the state fair:
1. FREE DAY-too many people
2. TRAFFIC-exits were closed and no clear communication on where to go. We were also funneled around to ONE entrance.
3. PARKING-$10 to park WAY AWAY. Picture the Griswolds at Wally World. They did have a shuttle servie. SEE #4.
4. SHUTTLE SERVICE-there was no clear system on who got to go first. People who were waiting often got shafted and had to wait while those who just walked up got a ride. AND, at 5pm there was about a 30-45 minute wait to get a ride back to the car. We WALKED IT.
5. HEAT-October 8th and it was over 90 degrees with HIGH humidity.
6. TICKETS-cash is rarely used. Ticket vouchers were needed and some of the ticket booths had lines that people would stand in for over an hour. PLUS, we didn't use $7 worth since I couldn't find the funnel cake stand.
7. RIDES-$5 for one ride. This makes Six Flags look like a deal.
8. MAP-the map didn't really clearly define what was what so we often guessed on where we were going.
9. LINES-just about EVERYTHING had long lines. Except the Cotton Candy line.
10. INEXPERIENCE-I now know to get a Fletchers corn dog instead of a generic one

I do understand that the fair normally isn't THAT crazy. Maybe I'll find out next Tuesday when we go to see The Lion King musical inside the fair. Our ticket lets us in to the state fair at no charge. I just worry about where to park. Next year maybe I'll take a "sick" day and go on a day when few people are there.

You are rude

"Mr. X, I am not calling to sell you anything......" the sales call started. I struggled to understand what the lady was saying and when she asked if I was interested I told her that I couldn't understand a word she said. She then asked me if I was an American. WOW, what nerve. I proceeded to tell her that I wasn't interested and it was family time. She continued with her sales pitch. I told her I wasn't interested and she asked why. "First of all, I can't understand a word that you are saying, and I am currently spending time with my kids........" She then said I was RUDE, so I hung up.

2 minutes later the phone rang again and it was someone else from a place called????Beachcomber? I couldn't understand this guy either. He asked me if I was a "national?" I told him I was born in the midwest and have lived in America my whole life. He asked if I was interested in a FREE vacation and I said no. He asked why and I reitterated that it was family time and I wasn't interested in spending part of my night talking on the phone with someone I didn't know. He said okay and we parted ways a little bit better than the first phone call.

What gall! Not trying to sell me anything? You may not be trying to sell me anything that costs me money, but you are trying to sell me on meeting someone who WILL try to sell me something. And to ask me if I am an American. Well, I am fluent at only one language, ENGLISH, and this lady and gentlemen couldn't say they were fluent at ENGLISH.

I wonder how far away this sales call came?

Down 30, Up 10

Last year about this time I finally decided to take dieting serious and I joined Weight Watchers the first week of November. In the course of 2 months I lost 20 pounds, thru the holidays mind you, and then an additional 10 pounds before I turned 41 last February. All last spring I bounced up and down a few pounds around the 200 barrier and gained back 10 pounds since summer began. On big contributor is the fact that I've been so busy and going to the gym is a distant thought. I've also loosened up greatly on what I allow myself to eat.

Well, October 1st begans the 2nd chapter of weight loss. I fully expect to lose the 10 pounds during November and would love to lose an additional 10-20 pounds before Christmas gets here.

The first thing driving me to lose weight is my trip to St. Louis at the end of October. I am going back for a weekend for my dad's birthday. Then mid-November I have my long overdue physical. I'd like to cushion the blow of "how much weight I need to lose" that the doctor recommends. Plus, I've felt like crap the last 2 months knowing that the clothes are starting to feel a bit tight again.

Day one! So far so good!

3 Things

I mowed tonight and it is still HOT here in Texas. I got a bit of sunshine as I mowed for 3 people after school.

1. My daughter tags along with me when I mow right after school. She is pretty good and can entertain herself with a notepad or a magnadoodle. She really gets excited when someone is home and she gets to play. These past 2 weeks as we drive around we've transitioned from taking turns on what we listen to on the radio: she wants Radio Disney and I usually listen to ESPN or some pop music station. Now we just listen to Classical Music and it is not that bad! At least she isn't going to hear something she shouldn't hear!

2. I mowed 1/2 of a duplex tonight. Early in the mowing season the next door neighbor asked if I would mow their 1/2 too! We set up $15 as a fair price and I began mowing. This summer when I left for St. Louis my neighbor mowed for me and covered this lawn 2 times before he showed up and they had a sign that said, "Don't Mow Anymore" on the door. Well, I've mailed to bills to collect $45 they owe me to no avail. Tonight the boyfriend's truck was there and for some reason I did not go and knock and demand my money. I think I've chalked it up as a loss. They've had many chances to pay and haven't.

3. We had Pei Wei for dinner tonight for the first time and I really liked it. We dined for under $20 and that include 4 drinks. One adult teryaki bowl, 2 kids teryaki bowls, 2 adult drinks and 2 kids drinks. They only upcharge 50 cents for each kids drink. That's FAIR! I'll go back for sure!

Enjoy your weekend.

Smoothies

I have been interested in making smoothies for a while, but our blender was big, bulky and required more than necessary assembly each time it was cleaned so I had yet to delve into the smoothy market, until Monday night. I went ahead and put in orange juice, a banana, a strawberry and some ice. Wasn't that bad. Had a lot of ice chunks though.

My wife doesn't care for banana so I went to make her an orange julius. I put the blender on high and left it running a bit longer in an attempt to get rid of ice chunks. Well, I burnt up the blender.....it started smoking and somehow managed to leak some black liquid into the smoothy.

It was 8pm and Big Lots was open so I went to look at their choices. Two cost $20 and one $15. The Hamilton Beach blender had about 12 buttons so I opted for the 2 button blender with the glass container. I LOVE IT! Easy to clean and it really chops up the ice.

I am looking for some HEALTHY smoothy options for the upcoming weeks. This morning I just had orange juice with a banana, no ice. Not bad. Got any recommendations?

Billy the Kid is back in town

Best news I received today was the my best friend billyv is back in town, blogwise that is. He took a short sabbatical for personal reasons, but he is linked once again. Welcome back billyv!

Lunch Disappointment

After church today I really wanted to go and watch some football. The only problem is in my decent sized town about the only place that would have most of the games on their screens is Hooters. This wouldn't sit well with my wife and it probably isn't sending the best message if this is my dining place of choice IMMEDIATELY after hearing a sermon from Matthew in which the pastor addressed the issues of lust in our society. As Homer Simpson might say, "Chicken wings, football, boobies."

About 40 minutes after NFL kickoffs we arrived at a restaurant just north of town and it was one we visited a few times last year with decent reviews. With 8 TVs going the Rams/Bucs game wasn't on so when the waitress addressed us I asked if we could get the Rams game. At least 10+ minutes later the manager finally hooked us up.

While the wife was in the restroom with daughter I ordered our drinks: tea, diet Coke, 2 kid sprites. She shows up with a large Sprite, large diet, and one kid sprite.

We ordered chicken nachos, wings with fries(hot sauce on the side), and a kids meal cheeseburger. While we waited for our food the manager and a few of his friends were playing the video golf game right next to us and he asked if we had been in before and I said last year. He informed us that he just took over ownership 3 weeks ago so it was a cool exchange.

The order came in a reasonable amount of time, but the wings were tiny and soaked in hotsauce.

When the waitress finally came back to our table we informed her of the wings issue, the need for silverware and napkins, ketchup and plates.

My wife also asked for some salsa for the nachos and the waitress brought back "wing sauce???"

We finished most of our food which didn't taste bad at all altough the fries were a bit wimpy and appeared to have sat under the warmer for a LONG time. Fries can be a deal killer for me!

My wife took my daughter to the restroom one more time and said one of the 2 toilet lids had a broken 1/2 lid. STRIKE 5. She commented that only someone with one butt cheek would be comfortable using that toilet. Plus she said her feet stuck to the floor as she walked across it.

The last deal breaker, well, the deal was broken long before we got the check. The total for our meal: nachos, wings with fries, kids meal burger and 3 drinks was $28. I left sick to my stomach that we went to this place. The service was not good at all. The food was decent, but not $28 range. We could have gone to Chilis, Saltgrass, or just about anywhere for that price. You know me, I find the deals. A nearby BBQ place would have been about $14 for us with ice creams for everyone! But, no games.

We were really disappointed that the one girl who was waiting on everyone couldn't keep up or remember things we asked for in a timely fashion. Probably the biggest disappointment was that the owner was standing within 5 feet of us and either didn't know the girl couldn't handle it, or didn't care.

The 5th Quarter had one chance to win us over and it failed. We won't be back.

What I Eat

I am very predictable when it comes to what I eat at which restaurants.

McDondalds-Filet of fish, double cheese onions only, fries
Pizza-sausage and pepperoni
Jack In the Box-2 tacos and onion rings
Scotty P's-chicken tenders and fries with cheese on top
White Castle-4 cheese-no pickles, fries, onion rings
Movies-large popcorn, large diet
KFC-tender/taco combo with potato wedges
Donut Palace-on cinnamon roll
Chick Fil A breakfast-chicken with egg biscuit
Chick Fil A dinner-tenders and a large waffle fry

I sometimes think about getting something different, but I don't. I think about getting a quarter pounder with cheese, onions only at McD's and I don't. I try not to get popcorn at the movies and I almost always do. I get bent if I have to eat a pizza that is not sausage and pepperoni.
I think one problem I have when I go somewhere new I think of all the menu combinations, the cheapest way to eat the most variety of food and so on. I have a hard time making decisions so being set on something does save me a LOT of time. The other day at Big Lots I was trying to decide on a snack chip and I think I must have bounced around the chip aisle for 10 minutes.

I guess I'm becoming an old dog!

Fiber1000

After teaching a few lessons on food and nutrition at school I decided to add fiber to my diet. One girl brought in a box of Fiber1 cereal and with one 1/2 cup a person could get 57% of their daily recommended grams of fiber. So when I saw Fiber1 breakfast bars I had my wife get some. They only provided 40% per bar so the first morning I had 2 of them with a diet Pepsi. BIG MISTAKE. By 10am I was experiencing some severe gas build up. I had not had this level of discomfort EVER. While monitoring my class I probably walked out into the hallway 10 times a half hour to let loose. I really had to be careful and hold back a bit because I know people down in the cafeteria or the gym would hear.

Everywhere I went I tried to pass some out inconspicuously. For the most part they were odor free, but I get moving around just in case. From 10 to 10 that day I probably let out about 1,000 air biscuits. The next day wasn't quite as bad, or should I say I didn't let loose as often, but the odor began to get offensive.

It took me about 3 days to recover and I think I will let someone else have my Fiber1 breakfast bars. I could let the kids have one each for breakfast!

WOW. I'm not exaggerating in this story. Buyer Beware!

No Time or No Desire?

I've been slacking in the blogging department lately. Well, sort of. I've probably posted about 80% of the time on my new bible reading blog www.cravetheword.blogspot.com. Since I am committed to doing that before I even check emails it has helped my spiritual life very much. I may be slacking in blogging because I am very busy and very tired. This has been an extremely busy start for a school year. This week I have 3 after school commitments along with other church, mowing and auto detailing commitments.

One huge blessing tonight was that my kids went straight to bed after I picked them up from church. I played hooky for 2 hours and got a grip on a bit of house cleaning. I can actually see the floor in my bedroom, 90% of the clothes are washed AND folded. Not sure I'm going to fold the load currently in the drier.

I am looking forward to a Friday night of cards. Friday night may be the only night in 2 weeks that I haven't had to do something.

I love my new school, the kids are great, and fall is just around the corner.........

Dining In Drawbacks

I really am surprised that I don't weight 300 pounds since over the summer we averaged eating out 2 times a day EASILY! We've made a decent attempt to start dining at home and scheduling our dine out times based on being busy with church and other school commitments. My wife has tried to design meals for the weak with the intention of us actually being home for those meals. Problem is when we both get home after 6pm many times neither of us want to take that extra 30 plus minutes making a meal AND messing the place up even more.

Maybe for us dining at home needs to be quick micro meals from Lean Cuisine or SmartOnes. The disposable dishes are handy plus the portions are very acceptable. Tonight when I got home I spent some time unloading the dishwasher and then semi-cleaning dishes to load the dishwasher again. I was able to remember some of the meals that we have indeed had this week.

The problems of our dining at home begin with commitment. We often buy the groceries for it, but don't always stay the course. Some of the food that is bought ends up getting thrown out. Also, my wife and I are not that good at closing the deal of doing the dishes. I've always been the type of person who: kicks my shoes off at the door, sets something down wherever I am standing, washes clothes and only folds them when I can't get to the washer, basically I ride the horse hard and end up putting it away wet.

I wonder if I planned dining out meals around kids eat free events or super cheap meals if it would actually be cheaper and even free us up on time since there would be less time spent cleaning up.

I guess I'm just not a good planner. We'll see.

$100 Update

If you remember a few weeks ago my wife found a $100 bill outside of a local bank after she went inside to cash our checks. By chance we used the inside part because we sat in the drive thru for 10 minutes without moving. When she got in the truck we talked about what to do? She found it on the parking lot. We decided to ask the couple who pulled up after us if they lost anything and they said no.

We have kept the $100 in a safe place for 3 weeks until Monday. On Monday, my wife's birthday, we went to an antique mall. Part of my birthday gift to her was getting a sitter 2 days in a row. As we browsed thru the mall I actually said a brief, quiet prayer that we would actually find a wooden blanket box somewhat like the one we had about 8 years ago and sold when we came back to Texas. We miss that blanket box that doubled as a cool looking hamper. Well, it wasn't one aisle later when we came across a decent looking blanket box. I had $200 in my and my wife later said she was thinking $195. It listed for $295. We looked it over good and finally walked on. I was easily justifying buying it since I hadn't got my wife much for her birthday. The next aisle we came across ANOTHER blanket box similar to the first one. It had to be the same vendor. Sure enough. A lady asked if she could help us and chatted a bit. Without any prompting she said it was her booth and she was taking 15% off for labor day.

Buy price would be $250 plus tax. Now we just need to decide which one. We ended up buying one plus 3 wooden chairs at $22.50 each. Our total purchase with tax was $344.

Total Purchase $344
$100 found money $ -$100
birthday check from mom -$ 75
wife's savings bond from 1978 -$ 50
$ saved from misordering flowers -$ 44

Real net out of pocket $75(or the antique blanket box for FREE)

I could easily justify that I might spend $75 for her gift. All I know is she is extremely happy with her mid-30's birthday weekend!

Date Night

Actually went on a date tonight with my wife.

Dinner: $6 cash,$20 giftcard
2 games of pool: $2
4 games of bowling: $11
1 large coke:$2.50

The sitter cost as much as our night out: $40. It was great getting away from our kids and seeing that we still enjoy being around each other. Kids are a blessing, but they do take away from the time a couple have together.

I really need for grandma to move to Texas and watch them on a weekly basis!

Have a great Labor(less) Day.