The spousal unit and I had the rare chance to sneak away Friday night to take in a picture show. I also shamefully admit we used our precious date time to....go to the grocery store. There, I said it. It was actually a really nice time to turn something that is usually a tedious chore into a fun little event. Wandering the aisles of the Longview Walmart cracking jokes and embarrassing ourselves was pretty much a great time.
I will now bless you with my review of the movie we saw, 'Date Night'. This one was pretty fantastic. The concern for me beforehand was Tina Fey and Steve Carrell not being believable as a married couple. They both seem like such akward people in the normal roles they play. The akwardness could be too much. However, they both did a great job and their chemistry was quite excellent. Christy and I both found ourselves laughing pretty hard through the whole thing. It moved very quickly and it was never boring. Also, I would suggest 16-17 plus as far as age group. The language wasn't too bad and it wasn't as raunchy as 'The Hangover' but it had its moments. Do not take grandma to this one.
That's all for now!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
The Downside
So, feeling a little down today. Not really sure why. I feel grateful and blessed for the life I lead. There are many in the world who have so little but I couldn't tell you it is because I feel like I am missing something. I guess that I get like this every now and then. I wish that I could pretend that I do not get all down in the dumps sometimes, but I do.
Enough whining. We had Noah's birthday party and it went off extremely well. The weather cooperated nicely and only one of my children was bitten by a strange dog. Do not fear, the dog was tagged and it did not draw any blood, although the child in question was quite shaken. I want to give you a chance to guess at who had the confrontation with the little furry beast. Do I even need to say her name? Yes, it was Ava. If you have read this blog at all you know that she is probably the most accident prone of the bunch. She definitely gets that from yours truly. The dog seemed pretty tame at first and was mainly interested in getting scraps of Chick-Fil-A nuggets and birthday cake off of the ground. However, the fact that there was no owner in sight should have set off an alarm in my head. After the incident I ran the dog off and made sure Ava was okay. I was a little more than ticked off that this dog's owner (There was a house backing up to the park with no fence around the back yard. The dog ran inside this house via a doggie door) thought it would be okay to just let the dog roam free as if this city park was their private back yard. Dont' get me wrong. I love dogs. I think they are great. But any dog parents reading this post need to know that you can't let you dog run around unsupervised. Even if little fluffy has never been aggressive to anyone or anything in the past, it is still an animal and will defend itself if it feels threatened. I refrained from going and knocking on the door of the house to give the owners an earful as we were trying to wrap the party up and the dog was not coming back after I chased it off. I considered the event closed. I did however learn that anytime we run into a dog we don't know with the owner not present, I will just make sure he/she knows we are not going to be messed with. The dog owner's were not the only ones at fault in this situation.
After the party we got a chance to go to Allen (North of Dallas) to see a friends new baby. The kids went with Mom and Dad to spend the night and we got a night off to oooh and ahhh at a new little one. I can't believe how small they are when they are first born. We had an early wake up call the next morning to swing by Tyler and make it to church by 9:30 in the A.M. This gave me an opportunity to do something I love. That is, to be out on the open road before sunrise and watch the landscape slowly light up as the day approaches. It really was very peaceful and a great way to start a Sunday. We had lunch with friends after church and then Christy got some girl time shopping and we hosted the youth groups weekly bible study at our house that evening.
All in all, it was a pretty good weekend. We got to hang out with a lot of folks and our kids had a pretty good time too. I guess that's all for now. 'Till next time...
Enough whining. We had Noah's birthday party and it went off extremely well. The weather cooperated nicely and only one of my children was bitten by a strange dog. Do not fear, the dog was tagged and it did not draw any blood, although the child in question was quite shaken. I want to give you a chance to guess at who had the confrontation with the little furry beast. Do I even need to say her name? Yes, it was Ava. If you have read this blog at all you know that she is probably the most accident prone of the bunch. She definitely gets that from yours truly. The dog seemed pretty tame at first and was mainly interested in getting scraps of Chick-Fil-A nuggets and birthday cake off of the ground. However, the fact that there was no owner in sight should have set off an alarm in my head. After the incident I ran the dog off and made sure Ava was okay. I was a little more than ticked off that this dog's owner (There was a house backing up to the park with no fence around the back yard. The dog ran inside this house via a doggie door) thought it would be okay to just let the dog roam free as if this city park was their private back yard. Dont' get me wrong. I love dogs. I think they are great. But any dog parents reading this post need to know that you can't let you dog run around unsupervised. Even if little fluffy has never been aggressive to anyone or anything in the past, it is still an animal and will defend itself if it feels threatened. I refrained from going and knocking on the door of the house to give the owners an earful as we were trying to wrap the party up and the dog was not coming back after I chased it off. I considered the event closed. I did however learn that anytime we run into a dog we don't know with the owner not present, I will just make sure he/she knows we are not going to be messed with. The dog owner's were not the only ones at fault in this situation.
After the party we got a chance to go to Allen (North of Dallas) to see a friends new baby. The kids went with Mom and Dad to spend the night and we got a night off to oooh and ahhh at a new little one. I can't believe how small they are when they are first born. We had an early wake up call the next morning to swing by Tyler and make it to church by 9:30 in the A.M. This gave me an opportunity to do something I love. That is, to be out on the open road before sunrise and watch the landscape slowly light up as the day approaches. It really was very peaceful and a great way to start a Sunday. We had lunch with friends after church and then Christy got some girl time shopping and we hosted the youth groups weekly bible study at our house that evening.
All in all, it was a pretty good weekend. We got to hang out with a lot of folks and our kids had a pretty good time too. I guess that's all for now. 'Till next time...
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
The Odyssey
I mentioned in a couple of posts ago that we are going to be making a long trip this summer. I have decided that it is time to divulge more information. My older brother is getting married this summer to a girl from West New York State. So that means that their wedding is going to be in a small town in the area. You might be thinking that this is not that big of a deal. Just jump on a plane and drive in from Pittsburg, Erie, or Buffalo. Since Christy is preggars we are not going to make the trip via plane for fear of mid-flight delivery. That onle leaves us with one option...Driving!!! Oh yes, I said it, that's right. We are going to load up the Caravan make the trip the way God intended; on the open road.
Let me first say, yes I know that we are absolutely out of our minds. But Christy and I have a motto; we either do things together or not at all. If we are afraid of have the baby during that time frame, then why would I go by myself? This is probably an immature way to look at this situation but we do not want to let fear of the unknown keep us from a potentially really neat experience.
I have included a picture that will give you an idea of how long this is actually going to take us.
According to our wise friends at Google Maps the drive is 1,220 miles with about 20 hours of driving time. That is a realy long time to be on the road. However, our approach is going to be like any other big project we take on. All we will do is take one step at a time. We will give ourselves 2-3 days to get up there and 2-3 days to get back. This vacation is going to be about the trip as much as it will be about the destination. The more I think about it, the more excited and nervous I get about it.
There will be many stories to tell of, I am sure, but I am hoping to get some great material for the blog which will in turn be entertaining for you readers. I am thinking about pitching a reality show to FOX, ABC, CBS, or NBC about the trip. We can call it, "Crazy fools drag their enormous family across the country". We could have all sorts of weird challenges which will make us wrestle Alligators or evangelize to members of a nudist colony.
I plan to keep the blog updated during the trip so everybody can follow along. This is going to be fun....
Let me first say, yes I know that we are absolutely out of our minds. But Christy and I have a motto; we either do things together or not at all. If we are afraid of have the baby during that time frame, then why would I go by myself? This is probably an immature way to look at this situation but we do not want to let fear of the unknown keep us from a potentially really neat experience.
I have included a picture that will give you an idea of how long this is actually going to take us.
According to our wise friends at Google Maps the drive is 1,220 miles with about 20 hours of driving time. That is a realy long time to be on the road. However, our approach is going to be like any other big project we take on. All we will do is take one step at a time. We will give ourselves 2-3 days to get up there and 2-3 days to get back. This vacation is going to be about the trip as much as it will be about the destination. The more I think about it, the more excited and nervous I get about it.
There will be many stories to tell of, I am sure, but I am hoping to get some great material for the blog which will in turn be entertaining for you readers. I am thinking about pitching a reality show to FOX, ABC, CBS, or NBC about the trip. We can call it, "Crazy fools drag their enormous family across the country". We could have all sorts of weird challenges which will make us wrestle Alligators or evangelize to members of a nudist colony.
I plan to keep the blog updated during the trip so everybody can follow along. This is going to be fun....
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
What the....???
So, last week, I was home alone with my kids and they were spending a little quality time with our favorite babysitter, the television. I was milling around the house and I noticed an interesting scene on the screen. The munchkins were watching a show called "Ni-Hoa, Chai Lan" and there really are no words to describe what I saw. The girls, however, seemed to think that what was happening was a normal progression of events. I will let you decide. Beware, you may become extremely confused and may have the urge to find your nearest retailer and purchase as many children's toys as possible.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Home on the Range
In our attempt to claw our way to a debt-free existence, Christy and I have resolved to not buy a house until all creditors are paid with the exception of the lovely people (American Education Services) that lent us the money to go to school. That leaves us in the sometimes scary realm of renting. When we first moved to Longview last July, we learned that the rental market in Longview is very competitive with houses being filled left and right. We are very grateful to say that we found a really great house that fit our immediate needs very well. Our landlords are a fantastic couple that have been a joy to work with. Of course, our immediate needs last July did not include the arrival of the last of our little clan. The house is 1500 square feet with a fairly small living space that gets crowded when more than two adults are present. We are also facing a main road in town that is pretty busy. Do not get me wrong, I very much enjoy getting the surround sound of every ambulance and fire engine that goes by at 2 a.m. but a quieter neighborhood would be slightly more comfortable. We are not going to move unless the house is at least 2,000 square feet, in our price range, and in a quieter neighborhood. We are okay with staying here because we can make it work.
Thus begins our search. The most recent little nugget of fun on this expedition was when we traveled 7 miles north on Gilmer road to look at a place in the "country". We took a couple of turns down increasingly bumpier roads and eventually found our way to the end of the street that our desitination was supposed to be on. The road was a dead end, or so we thought. We had turned around when Christy noticed an older woman on a riding mower trying to chase us down. The had to have been in her sixties but in light blue jeans, T-Shirt, gray hair up in a bun on the top of her head, and a very stylish black leather purse. Now, put yourself in our shoes. We are driving around and have no idea where we are with our children asleep in the car and our possible murderer is chasing us on a 15 year old Honda mower. Well, you can probably tell that since I am alive and making this blog entry, she was not a murderer. She was actually there to show us the house on behalf of her son who is in the army. The house, we found out, was hidden down an old gravel driveway at the end of the road we were on. The house was plenty big but that is about the only good thing I could say about it. I think I still have the funky smell in my skin somehow. The carpet was all sorts of different colors and the angry and old Fangorn forest from the Lord of the Rings was behind the house. Needless to say it was a "Negative, Ghost Rider" on that option.
The good part about all of it is that is the worst experience we have had, by far. I know that we are going to be fine but it is at least fun to report all of the crazy stuff that we see while we go on this adventure.
On a different note, I need to say that the Collins family is going to be very well traveled this summer and our legendary mini-van is going to be put to the test on a special trip in particular. I will go into detail soon but it is safe to say that we are going to be on the road for a long, long time. Until then...
Thus begins our search. The most recent little nugget of fun on this expedition was when we traveled 7 miles north on Gilmer road to look at a place in the "country". We took a couple of turns down increasingly bumpier roads and eventually found our way to the end of the street that our desitination was supposed to be on. The road was a dead end, or so we thought. We had turned around when Christy noticed an older woman on a riding mower trying to chase us down. The had to have been in her sixties but in light blue jeans, T-Shirt, gray hair up in a bun on the top of her head, and a very stylish black leather purse. Now, put yourself in our shoes. We are driving around and have no idea where we are with our children asleep in the car and our possible murderer is chasing us on a 15 year old Honda mower. Well, you can probably tell that since I am alive and making this blog entry, she was not a murderer. She was actually there to show us the house on behalf of her son who is in the army. The house, we found out, was hidden down an old gravel driveway at the end of the road we were on. The house was plenty big but that is about the only good thing I could say about it. I think I still have the funky smell in my skin somehow. The carpet was all sorts of different colors and the angry and old Fangorn forest from the Lord of the Rings was behind the house. Needless to say it was a "Negative, Ghost Rider" on that option.
The good part about all of it is that is the worst experience we have had, by far. I know that we are going to be fine but it is at least fun to report all of the crazy stuff that we see while we go on this adventure.
On a different note, I need to say that the Collins family is going to be very well traveled this summer and our legendary mini-van is going to be put to the test on a special trip in particular. I will go into detail soon but it is safe to say that we are going to be on the road for a long, long time. Until then...
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