Field Trip to Charlotte Area

***Text in this color authored by Shena***

Work & Play
Welcome back to the "Big Show!" Nice to have you.

I have been encouraged by the response I am getting from friends and family. I knew I had at least one brother reading the blog on a regular basis, but have been told that many of my family members are regulars, and that a few of my friends have also taken the time to check in from time to time. So far everybody has had positive comments about the idea...so, you all know you shouldn't lie like that, but I appreciate you considering my feelings! :)

You may notice a new addition to the right side of the blog. A "Links" menu has appeared. I hadn't really considered one in the past, but my brother Adam e-mailed me today to let me know he was going to start a blog of his own. I wanted to be sure to give you all the pleasure of reading his thoughts too, so I threw the menu in. After reading a couple of his installments, you will see he definitely is more creative than I am (we call him "SPECIAL" in my family). I'll have to come up with some other links later down the road...maybe even change them up on occasion.

Not a typical Friday for me. I actually WORKED until 5:30. I usually have mentally clocked out by about 4:00 or 4:30 on Friday afternoon, but stayed focused today. We've had a bit of a time trying to get this new version of our document imaging program running properly and I had fallen behind. I hope to be caught back up by Monday, but we'll see. Next week is going to be pretty crazy with Jim coming back from Florida for one day (Monday) Bart & Cherie leaving (Tuesday), mom leaving (also Tuesday) and construction starting on the addition (somewhere between Monday and Wednesday. Woe is me, right? Sheesh. I'm such a baby sometimes.

Had lunch with Teresa since the family was out of town. She is usually my lunch buddy when I don't go home for lunch. She's lived here in Greensboro her whole life, so she knows even more about the city than I do, especially places to eat. We went to Lox Stock & Bagel, which is next to Fleet Plummer and Omega Sports off Battleground. Never even knew the place existed, but they have pretty good sandwiches. I also got a peek of the inside of Mad Platter, where Shena loves to go with her girlfriends. Teresa had to pick up a project to work on or something. Kind of a cool place, lots of cool stuff for people to make, but nothing I feel like I could do. I can see why Shena would like to go there, though.

After work went to Mexico #6 (the restaurant closest to our house) with mom and the rest of my crew for dinner. We swapped war stories from the day, then headed home to chill the rest of the night. We all watched America's Funniest Home Videos (it was a 2 hour special), then everybody disappeared to their beds. Shena and Cade fell asleep in the chair about 1/2 way through the show, Kelson fell asleep in our bed again. I got their tent set up and put them into their sleeping bags.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
Shena, the boys and Grandma and Grandpa C went to the NC Transportation Museum in Spencer (about 50 miles south). It is a free museum, but they have a train ride that costs about $5 for adults to ride. Unfortunately, the trains don't run during the winter and won't start up again until next weekend. They were all pretty disappointed. They actually only spent about 2 hours at the museum itself, but said it was kind of cool anyway.

They then headed to Concord Mills since it was only another 15 minute drive further south from where they were. Cherie was proud of herself for not spending any money...and Shena was pronto of herself for spending $50, I mean, I'm not supposed to focus on what she spent, but on what she SAVED. I always forget. Supposedly she saved about $120. Does that mean I can go and spend $120 tomorrow?

They got back into town about 3:30, just in time for Shena to go and teach her 4:00 piano lesson. She said the boys were pretty good while they were on the road and at the museum, but Cade pitched a bit of a fit when the adults ran out of quarters to pump into the merry-go-round and the little kid car rides. I guess he wasn't ready to be done riding. She said Kelson was a Papa's boy today. He didn't want Shena to carry him, wanted Grandpa to.

Arellano Update
Talked to Lettie for the first time in quite a while. I've been pretty slack about calling her...but now that I think about it, she hasn't exactly been ringing our phone off the hook either. She said she is doing fine....feeling better after bout with a cold. She is still working at KPVI Channel 6 in Pocatello. She has a funky schedule where she works two 18 hour days in a row, four hours the third day and then is off for the next four days. A pretty good schedule for her because she likes to keep those kinds of funky hours. She is excited for her trip with mom to Las Vegas.

Christensen Update
You got most of it above in the "Llano update."

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 12:00 - 6:45 - the boys helped wake me up this morning. They both showed up together at the side of our bed and then climbed in and started jumping on us.

TODAY:
Breakfast: Bowl of frosted mini-wheats - not sure why I ate breakfast this morning...I was hungry or something.

Lunch: Lox Stock & Bagel - "The Asbury" - grilled chicken, prosciutto ham, swiss cheese, lettuce, mustard on a keiser roll (am I going to fail a drug test, now?), coke. They also had some pretty good cookies that I got for the road (they're small, Marcos...not the full size ones like Shena makes) - 1 chocolate chip (awesome), 1 macadamia nut (not bad), 1 oatmeal raisin (would have been good, but had walnuts in it...ruins the whole cookie)

Dinner: Mexico #6 - Combination #17 - One chicken burrito, one cheese enchilada, rice and beans, sprite. Ate several chips with cheese dip, and a couple of bites of Shena's fried ice cream. I also had 2 girl scout cookies (Pinata's this time) and milk just before I sat down to write.