"Expedition" to Atlanta

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

Work & Play
Church.

Mom picked me up at the house and we went out to pick up the van at the rental place. They didn't have one...so they gave us an Expedition instead. Bad because there isn't as much storage/luggage space, good because this one happened to have a DVD player in it. We made do with 2/3 of the back row laying down, where our luggage went. Mom sat in the single seat that was left over. All the way in the back by herself, poor thing. We left about 2:30, stopped once at a rest area, ran into several spots of traffic, and wound up getting down here about 8:30. Took about an hour and half longer than we expected it to because of traffic.

Good thing was we are staying at a Fairfield that has a wireless connection, and Cherie brought her laptop, which allowed me to blog it up tonight...instead of trying to remember on Thursday what we did on Sunday. Hopefully I'll get to use it again the next two days.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
The boys did pretty good. Because the Expedition had the DVD, they were able to watch movies most of the time. If it didn't, we would have been in trouble because the battery for our portable DVD player is only good for about 2.5 hours. They did pretty good, but got kind of loud and grouchy the last hour.

Arellano Update
Forgot to mention this little tid-bit. Dad got a speeding ticket on Wednesday night as he was headed to meetings at the church. 55 in a 35...but since he hadn't had a ticket since '89, the cop dropped it 10 mph and said it wouldn't even go on his record...$110 later.

Christensen Update
Finally got to see Ryan, Bart & Cherie. Caught up with them at the hotel about 8:30. Ordered pizza and talked until about 10:30. Ryan had some pretty incredible pictures of the aftermath of Hurrican Ivan from last year. I had no idea it was as bad as it was.
Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 11:30 - 6:30 - I wanted to try to sleep in until 7:30, but I couldn't for some reason...excited to go down to Atlanta, I guess

TODAY:
Breakfast: 1 bowl of frosted flakes

Lunch: bean, meat and cheese burrito's on corn tortillas, coke

Dinner: Papa John's - two pieces of ham pizza, one piece of pepperoni pizza - sprite

Hagglin'

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

Work & Play
I really should have done some mowing today, since we are going to be out of town until Thursday...but it rained so much the last two days that I thought it might be too muddy out there. I'm sure it was...I just never checked it out.

Ran errands with the family this morning. We went out Wendover way, stopped by mom's then came home. After we got here I worked on our budget for a bit. It's been screaming to be done for a couple of months. We've had several changes with our re-financing and getting the Nissan paid off.

After I finished that and figured out that it is going to be tight, but we are going to go ahead and get the van, I decided to go see what colors were available on the lots. I left Shena and the kids here so that I didn't have to stress about them while I bartered. After sending out about 6 e-mails, I only got two quotes. One said he didn't have the car, the other 3 blew me off...or something. Anyway, one was Vann York Honda down in High Point so I thought I'd go down there first. I met the guy I was e-mailing back and forth. I asked him how many Odyssey's he had on the lot, he said "one. I had 8 or 9 on Tuesday, I have just one Touring model right now." He also proceeded to tell me that Honda wasn't manufacturing the 2005's anymore and that what was made, was made, and if I wanted a 2005 the color I wanted, it was going to take some looking around. He was a nice guy, very laid back and mellow. Too bad he couldn't help me out. He had me a little panicked about whether we were going to get what we want or not. So I went up to Crown off Wendover because they were the others who wrote me back and gave me a qoute. The # they gave me was more than Vann York gave me, but I figured I'd be able to move it down some. Wound up being more of the same there. They had 4 Odyssey's on the lot...3 of them were Touring editions, the other was Black, so we weren't interested in that at all. I talked to the salesman for about an hour...with him trying to track one down for me and get me to commit and agree on a price and such. They wanted me to put a deposit down so that they could look for the car I wanted and have it transferred to their dealership if they found it. I told them I wasn't leaving any money, but they could call me on my cell phone if they found one that they could get in for me. I don't know how it is going to work out because, seriously, while I was there, I heard three different people come in and ask for an Odyssey. I didn't realize, but today was the last day of the month, so they were pretty hopping inside the dealership. You know on the commercials for cars they show people all over the lot and looking around and inside and stuff? I thought that was just the commercial being optimistic...but that is really how it was today. I couldn't believe it. Never seen so many people in a dealership before. Anyway, I got the guy down another $400 so that he was actually beating the Vann York price. I'm not committed to anything yet, so we'll see what happens. I still don't like working with the people at Crown. The guy I worked with today wasn't REAL pushy, but I think part of that was that I had a quote already from the internet so he couldn't exactly start at MSRP and work his way down like he wanted to. Of course he got his "sales manager" out to talk to me. The guy promised me the world and tried to make me feel guilty for asking for the price I was...then acted like he was doing me a favor by "throwing the mud flaps in, if that's what it takes to sell you this car." I just laughed to myself. The experience really wasn't too bad because I psyched myself up before I went in..."I'm in control. I know what the invoice price is. I know what the dealer kickback is. I know all the tricks they are going to try to pull to keep the price up there." I just made myself feel like I knew what I was doing and that I was the one controlling the negotiations. I certainly couldn't have done that with the boys around. I told the salesman that I thought they could do better than the price that they had offered. He said "I don't know. That price is at invoice. How can we do better than what we paid for it? I guess I'll ask my manager and see what he says." Instead, he had the manager come out and made me ask him...like he was embarassed to ask or something. This is what I told him: "I am going to be financing through your dealership. I live here in Greensboro, on this side of Wendover, so when I get my Odyssey serviced, this is where I will service it. I was hoping you might be able to see me as a 'whole package' customer and be able to do a little better than what is offered right here." This was the part where he tried to make me feel guilty "Gosh, you realize that the price you are getting is the price we pay for the car, right? But I guess I can throw in the mud flaps," (which are a Crown Honda dealer installed option, $200). The way we left it was, while I was out of town, they would look for the color I wanted, and if they find it they will call me on my cell phone and ask me if I want them to bring it to the dealership. I will just have to be sure to verify the prices again with them before I tell them to go for it. I wouldn't put it past them to get the van, get me in the office and suddenly throw on $500 somewhere. I'll keep you posted (because I know you are waiting on the edge of your seat).

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
While out on Wendover, we took the boy's to A.C. Moore where they were having some kind of "Nickelodeon Day" where they went to these different stations and did different art project thingies. It was ok. They had a Darth Vader walking around (I don't know why) that Cade was scared of. He was constantly looking behind him to see if Darth was there. They got a bunch of junk while they were there (stickers, tattoos, pencils, markers, etc.)...we had to throw a bunch away when we got here...it would just wind up all over the house.

Arellano Update
Had dinner with mom and dad tonight. We were helping them with leftovers from Sunday or something. We finished planning our trip for tomorrow.

Christensen Update
We see them tomorrow!

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 11:15 - 8:08 - I didn't even realize I slept in, didn't hear Shena get out of bed or anything...at least that I remember.

TODAY:
Breakfast: none

Lunch: leftover enchiladas, rice and beans, water

Dinner: some roast beef guiso stuff that mom made, flour tortillas, cheese, coke

Kelson's Hollow Leg

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

Work & Play
We finally hung out with the Plummer's again. Hadn't seen them in several weeks. We ate dinner at "The Loop" here close to the house, then went over to their house to hang out and talk. We had a little excitement at the dinner table when Hank, their 3.5 year old, started puking. Poor kid. Not sure exactly what it was. We don't know if he was choking or if he was sick or what...but luckily I was two seats away and didn't smell or see much of it. The boys and I went out for a walk while the clean up was going on. Didn't do much when we went to their house. Just played a few Nintendo games and talked. It was good to spend some time with them. Who knows when we'll get to again.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
Kelson ate like a horse today. He usually takes about 4 or 5 bites and is finished. Today at lunch he ate 1/2 a tomato sandwich, then asked for two bean and cheese burrito's. I can't tell you where that came from. It's the most I've ever seen him eat...by a LONG shot.

Arellano Update
None to report that I know of.

Christensen Update
None to report that I know of.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 10:45 - 6:09 - see! when I go to bed at a decent hour, I can get up at a decent hour

TODAY:
Breakfast: 1 bowl of cinnamon toast crunch

Lunch: corn tortillas and beans with cheese, strawberry shortcake - didn't drink anything at all

Dinner: The Loop - cheddar cheese burger, no tom, no onion, fries, water - had two scoops of vanilla ice cream with chocolate on top for dessert.

#48 Rig

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

Work & Play
We got the title for our Nissan in the mail today. A good feeling to know that you've paid off your car and it is now yours...for better or worse. I wish we could have the feeling of no car payment for a couple of years, but that isn't going to happen.

Mom and dad came over for dinner tonight. We just ate and talked, played with the boys. Relaxing evening, for once.

I forgot to mention this article that I came across the other day. This guy (Jim Pollard) comes out and plays basketball with us at the church every now and then. He showed up for the first time in a long time a couple weeks ago. I remembered him from about four years back when he was coming out and playing on our league team. Then one week he didn't show up and I asked Chris Baughan why, he said "He just got a new job driving the trailer for Jeff Gordon's race team." Anyway, he's a nice guy. It was an accident that I found the article. I was just checking the news on USAToday and in the upper right hand corner on the main page I saw a picture of the Lowe's trailer and thought, "hey, that's Jim's rig...I wonder if there is a picture of him." I didn't know the whole article was going to be about him. Pretty cool.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
Shena walked over to mom's this morning. She's been wanting to for a while, but it has been to hot. Since the weather has cooled off some, she took advantage. She's got shin splints right now, so she can't walk as fast as she'd like, but she is still walking. She is definitely tougher than me...I'd be using the splints for an excuse to not have to exercise. I wonder if the shin splints will affect her during labor? Maybe we'll have to tape them up when her water breaks.

Arellano Update
None to report.

Christensen Update
Just as I was headed to work this morning, Cherie called and said they (She and Bart) were sitting outside the mission office and there was nobody there. She didn't understand why because that is where Ryan said to meet them. She actually read the e-mail wrong..he said to meet them at the mission home. Problem was, we didn't have an address to the mission home, or a phone number. We spent about 20 minutes trying to find it. Shena finally was able to get the phone number by calling the Charlotte Mission office and asking them if they had a listing, which they did. But they didn't have the address. She tried to call Cherie back to give her the number, but by that time Ryan had called and wanted to know where they were. I'm sure Cherie was near tears because she couldn't find her baby...and Ryan was probably thinking in his head "maybe they didn't make it out...they are stuck in SLC and can't get on a plane" or something terrible like that. All is well, though. They apparently spent the day driving around Tallahassee and headed to Pensacola to visit different areas Ryan was in. We'll see them on Sunday night.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 11:00 - 6:51 - Shena woke me up at 6:01 and said "the alarm is about to go off"...I was awake just enough to turn it off because I knew I didn't want to hear it...next thing I know it's 6:51

TODAY:
Breakfast: 1 bowl of cheerios, with a banana cut up in it (healthy, huh?)

Lunch: 1 quesadilla on flour tortilla - 3 corn tortillas with cheese, 1/2 bottle of Sprite, 1 piece of spice cake and milk

Dinner: enchiladas, rice and beans with sour cream, all mixed up together (just how I like it), apple juice - had strawberry shortcake for dessert

This is the way to Deal with Car Salesman

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

Work & Play
When the power went out last night, I called Duke Power to notify them. The computer said they were working on it and would have it done by midnight. It was 9:00 when I called and it was already getting hot in our house, so we decided to go over to mom and dad's to spend the night. We probably could have stayed here. When we got to the house this morning it looked like the power came on about 20 minutes after we left. I know I would have slept a lot better had we stayed.

I've been doing the van shopping via e-mail. I've liked it so far. No hassle, low pressure. I e-mailed about 6 dealerships, have heard back from 4 of them. One said they didn't have anything in stock like what we were looking for. Two made offers and one asked me some additional questions, but I haven't heard from him again yet. We're not in a huge rush just yet, so I'm not worried about the ones who haven't responded yet. The two offers that were made were somewhat close, but there was definitely a difference. About $500. They both are pretty close to invoice, which is what I expected. Keep in mind that is before I have made any counteroffers. I don't know if they won't accept any counteroffers, but I will for sure try before we make a decision. I won't get into the logistics of it all...but I've done a bunch of reading to try to prepare myself. Hopefully the reading was worthwhile...I'm sure it will be.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
After work we ran to the mall. The Disney store was having a sale on some pj's that Cade likes to wear. He is growing out of the ones we bought him last year, so we thought we'd get him some more for his birthday. We also stopped into K*B Toys so the boys could look around for a little bit. We weren't in any huge rush to get back home, so we just kind of moseyed. Unfortunately, that is the excitement of the day.

Arellano Update
Dad kept workin on his weeds today. He is almost done with the front yard...then he's got the back yard to do, too.

Christensen Update
Final real day in the mission field...

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 12:45 - 6:40 - I forgot to take earplugs with me...and there are no fans...so it was much too quiet in the house for me to sleep. Didn't sleep well at all.

TODAY:
Breakfast: none

Lunch: Burger King - whopper with cheese, no onions, no tomatoes, fries, chocolate shake (it was hot...the shake sounded good)

Dinner: leftover frito soup...I wasn't real hungry for some reason (milk shake, maybe?)

Power Outage

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

Work & Play
It has been so hot around here that there have been blackouts through the city. We had one tonight. I was in the middle of the blog for yesterday when it hit. I already whined about it then...so I won't again.

The bad thing about the weather being so hot is that I'm back to driving Marcos' car since dad got back. His car's A/C just doesn't work very good at all. Never has, according to him. They've had it checked several times, and it just doesn't get cold. It blows somewhat cooler than normal moist air in your face, but it never gets cold unless you are on the highway doing 70. Shena loves it because that means that it will push me to get her new van sooner than later. I don't know if I can handle driving Marcos' car for 2 more months of miserable hot and humid weather. I guess I shouldn't say too much. I see people who have to walk or ride the bus...so I don't have it that bad.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
Cade had a swimming lesson today for the first time in over a year. Last one he had was in Idaho last summer. We were trying to get him in at the "Y" but no luck. Shena took the boys the other day to Lundrigan's and Williams' pool and she bumped into the girl who taught the Lundrigan's. Leesa recommended her, so Shena lined it up. $15 for a 1/2 hour lesson. Good thing is it is a one on one, so hopefully he can learn faster that way.

Kelson is in the "parrot" stage (as you've heard from the "You the bum" story a few days ago). It is cute most of the time, but we have to be careful. And Cade isn't. There are times when Kelson just follows Cade around and does whatever he does. We have to be careful what we say/do around him. He may embarass us one of these times. Today we were trying to get Cade to be quiet and Kelson started yelling at him "Shhhh! Cade! Shhhhhh! Hey!!! Shhhhhh!" Pretty funny, but it didn't make Cade very happy.

Arellano Update
Dad spent all day weeding. First thing in the morning. Really makes me feel bad that I didn't have time to get his yard weeded myself. I guess it's ok. He likes to work in his yard...just makes me nervous that he is out there in such hot weather. I think he was smart about it, though. Just worked in the morning.

Christensen Update
2 more days for Ryan in the mission field...

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 12:45 - 7:10 - I wanted to get up early...but the weekend was rough...then we were up late last night seeing dad in at the airport...oh well.

TODAY:
Breakfast: 2 bowls of cinammon toast crunch...I was starving...FINALLY! Got my appetite back

Lunch: tuna on white, two slices of cheese, baby carrots, 1/2 bottle of sprite

Dinner: beans and store bought corn tortiallas, 2/3 bottle of coke, had some milke and cookies before bed (at mom's)

Grandpa A's Back in Town

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

Work & Play
This will be my second time posting this day...stupid power went out just as I was getting to the end, and for some reason "Blogger" wasn't backing up like they normally do throughout the post...sorry if I'm it seems dry...I don't have the energy to try to be entertaining (as if I ever am).

I woke up feeling ok, but not great. Decided to talk 1/2 day and go in at 1:00. I got ready for the day by 10:30 and remembered that our Nissan ("Mosi" around our house) was due for it's inspection by the end of the month. I figured I had some time before I planned on being to work so I took it by the Crown Honda place so I could also check out what Odyssey's they had on the lot. When I got there I found out I didn't have my registration (which means they can't do the inspection)...it got misplaced somehow. $10 later and a 1/2 hour trip to the Department of Long Lines and Grouchy Employees (aka the license plate place) I had a duplicate registration. Hour and a half later they finally got my car done. I was approached six times by different sales people as I meandered around the showroom. Salesdude "Have you been helped sir?" Me, "I'm in the service department, just killing some time in here." Salesdude "I can trade in your car for a new one!" Moron. Did I say ANYTHING about wanting a new car? Maybe it was the inflection in my voice...or the enunciation of the word "service" that made him think that it was really some weird game I was playing "Ok...I want to buy a car, but I'm only going to buy a car if a salesman comes up and when I tell him my car is in the service department he offers to trade-it-in...THEN I will buy a car...otherwise, no." I'm not looking forward to the "game" when it comes time to buy that van for Shena.

I went in to work for about 2.5 hours. Just long enough to get some stuff done that kind of needed to be done ASAP. At about 3:30 I realized that I hadn't eaten since 5:30 on Saturday night...and I was starting to feel light headed and dizzy. I decided to head home. Spent the rest of the night chilling...trying to feel better. I surfed a bit and found this article...makes you want to move to Greensboro, doesn't it?

I also spent a little time online preping myself for the big purchase in a month or so. Reading up on MSRP and Invoice Price for the Odyssey. I think I may go the "internet buying" route and just haggle with the dealerships via e-mail. Gives me a little more time to think and obviously it is much less pressure. We'll see how it goes.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
See below.

Arellano Update
Dad got home at 11:05 tonight. The boys wanted to go and see him, so we put them to bed at 9:00, then woke them up about quarter to, to drive out to the airport. They slept the whole way out, but woke right up when they saw him. Since they were already in their pajamas, we let them spend the night too. They were excited about that.

Christensen Update
Just a few more days and Ryan is back into the cold and dreary world...wonder how weird he is. It's been a while since I've been around a fresh return missionary. They can be pretty strange.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 11:45 - 7:45 - at least I slept all the way through the night...I wish I could have slept in longer...I could have used it

TODAY:
Breakfast: 1/2 bowl of cinnamon toast crunch

Lunch: PB&strawberryJ, small glass of milk, which I ate at 4:00...so it wasn't really lunch

Dinner: Shena's frito soup (chili beans, hamburger meat over Frito's, sour cream and cheese), milk, and a piece of spice cake with cream cheese frosting - sounds like a lot but it really wasn't...I only had one bowl of soup...I would normally have 2...and the piece of cake was "normal" size, which I normally don't eat...I usually have an XL size piece.

You Don't Want to Know

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

Work & Play
This one is going to be easy...I laid in bed today...moved to the couch about 9:00, moved back to the bed at 10:45 (after a pit stop in the bathroom to dry heave for a while), back to the couch at 1:30, back to the bed at 3:00 ish, back to the bathroom about 4:00 (more dry heaves...those suckers hurt your ribs, you know?), back to bed, out to the recliner in the living room to "watch" The Aviator...didn't make it through it...fell asleep.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
Everybody else went to church, to mom's for lunch and then to Lundrigan's for desserts...I didn't get to participate in any of it. Cade and Kelson were supposed to spend the night at Grandma's, but Cade got in trouble while he was at Lundrigan's, so he didn't get to go. Kelson was excited to spend the night with Grandma by himself. I hope Cade learned his lesson, because he was VERY upset at not getting to stay.

Arellano Update
None.

Christensen Update
None.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: HARDLY - can't even describe it I was up and down so much

TODAY:
Breakfast: none

Lunch: 1/4 cup of apple juice

Dinner: 1 piece of bread, 1 piece of toas with jam (several hours later), 1/4 cup of juice

Pillagin' Shena

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

Work & Play
Started working in our yard at about 8:00. Hope the neighbors didn't mind. That's kind of early to be running a lawn mower, but I had two yards to do before about 1:00 and I also didn't want to be mowing in the heat. It wasn't too bad this morning (temperature wise), so I don't even feel guilty for waking aybody up (if I did). I also pulled weeds in our flower garens (they were looking white-trashy). Took me two hours to get it all done between the work and trying to keep an eye on the boys and keeping them happy. Took me two more hours to mow mom's house. I didn't think the grass would be that long...but it was. I feel bad for their neighbors right now. They have two of them that are trying to sell their house (one straight across the street, one right next door...I wonder if mom and dad's yard was the reason they decided to sell?!?!). It can't be easy to sell a house when the house next door/across the street looks like it is abandoned and weeds growing 5 feet tall in the front flower beds. I told mom the other day that I would pull them, but I don't know what are weeds and what are plants dad wants. He has so many different kinds out there that I am afraid I would pull up something he has been trying to grow for years.

After mowing, I took a shower then fed the boys a good, hearty meal from Taco Bell. It is a good thing their diet doesn't depend on me much. They would be in poor health and over weight. It is too easy to take them out for fast food. We ran dad's car through the car wash, then headed out to pick up G'ma at the airport.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
The boys were pretty good for me most of the day. They didn't fight much, they played pretty well together while I did all the yard work. Cade told me as I was finishing mowing mom's house, "Daddy, I stink. I need a bath." Not sure why he thought that, but both of them were pretty dirty from playing outside in the dirt and on the playground while I was working in our yard. So they got an afternoon bath.

Shena got home from Charlotte at about 5:30 with her spoils. She spent a few minutes telling me her stories and showed off the great deals she got. She especially enjoyed bragging about how she didn't spend NEARLY as much as Teresa and Dede. Sounds like she had fun, though. We called mom up because she wanted to go out to eat when Shena got home, so we headed over to Outback. After dinner we came home and I spent the rest of the night feeling like crap...lots o' gas, and nausea...pretty thought, huh?

Arellano Update
The boys and I went and picked up G'ma A at about 2:30 at the airport. We dropped her off at her house and the boys wanted to stay and play, but g'ma had too much to do. They weren't very happy about that. So we came home and played here at the house until Shena made it home.

Christensen Update
None to report that I know of.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 12:20 - 2:15, 2:30 - 4:50, 5:00 - 6:40, - I guess Kelson was missing his mommy or something, because he sure did get me up a lot last night.

TODAY:
Breakfast: 1 bowl of cinnamon toast crunch...had to get my energy up before I started working in the yards

Lunch: Taco Bell - steak gordita supreme, no tomatoes - bean burrito, no onions, Mt. Dew

Dinner: Outback - Alice Spring's Chicken (chicken breast covered with cheese and bacon, no mushrooms, side of steamed vegetables, some of their bread, pink lemonade.

Shena's Slumber Party

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

Work & Play
For some reason, my brain tends to switch off on Friday afternoon. Today I was plugging along, working away, when something (don't remember what) made me think "It's Friday afternoon...almost time to go home for the weekend." I then proceeded to think about what was going on that night, and the rest of the weekend and I was pretty much useless for the rest of the day. I think I realize now that is the difference between me and a millionaire. They can work through those types of things...as of right now I can't. I'm going to have to work on it. It's like they say, when you don't feel like working, that is when you should work hardest. Fight the feeling.

Left work a few minutes early because Shena was supposed to be meeting Dede and Teresa at 6:30 at our house. We had to get dinner and put some curtains up at mom's house (Shena told mom they would be up before she got back from out west...she's coming home tomorrow) before she left. Shena has been planning this trip for a couple of weeks and has been real excited. They (she and her girlfriends) decided a couple months ago that they should go take a night away somewhere. They decided on going down to Concord Mills and go school shopping...but instead of making it a day trip, they decided to do an over nighter. People slowly dropped out until it was just Teresa and Dede going with Shena. I'm sure they will have fun anyway. I wonder how often she is going to want to do this. Could be good...could be bad. :)

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
Not much else to say here. Kelson cried for about 5 minutes when Shena left. He wanted to go with her. I said "Let's play some football," he stopped crying. They were little grouches the rest of the night, though. Wouldn't stay in bed either. I thought it would be a good idea to put their tent up in the baby's room (old office) and let them sleep in their sleeping bags. They were excited, but they wouldn't stay in there until I threated to let the boogie man out of his closet if they didn't stay in bed (actually, that might work...I might try that one of these days).

Arellano Update
None to report that I know of.

Christensen Update
None to report that I now of.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 12:22 - 7:30 - I got caught up watching "This Is Sportscenter" last night. Ever seen it? It's a live "behind the scenes" look at what goes into the 11:00 (also live) show. Pretty dang interesting. They've had 2 or 3 different episodes of "This Is Sportscenter" before, but I still think it is fascinating to watch. Amazing to me that they make it look as polished as they do with all the different people involved and all of the talking that goes on between the producer and co-producer and anchors and so on.

TODAY:
Breakfast: 2 Krispy Kreme original donuts - Teresa brough them in for the office.

Lunch: 2 peanut butter and strawberry sandwiches on wheat bread, milk

Dinner: McDonald's - quarter pounder with cheese, no onions, fries, orange drink - we ran out of time between hanging curtains and Shena leaving to make something. The boys really wanted McDonald's, I didn't. But I didn't feel like fighting. I forced it down.

Steel Magnolias vs. Hanging with the boys

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

Work & Play
Got a phone call from Kristy Stout, an old friend from high school today. She and her husband live in CA, but her mom and dad live here in the area. When they came out last year to visit we went to the pool with them, then went on a double date later that night. We had a good time, so they promised to call next time they were in town. She was calling because they are coming first part of August and wanted to get together one night. I was honest with her..."I don't make those kinds of decisions. Shena keeps track of everything that is going on and she would be better to ask when we could meet up." We are excited to see them. It is always good to see old friends.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
I had two options for choice of activities tonight. 1) Go with Shena to see "Steel Magnolias" on the Greensboro Stake Center stage OR 2) Stay home with the boys. I'll give you three guesses which I picked. The boys and I had a good time. We hung out, ate some food, played some football, read some books. And Shena got to go out with Nippy. I'm just glad she doesn't get TOO upset with me when I do all I can to avoid those kinds of "chick" things. That is why she has girlfriends...to go with her to chick flicks and talk about chick things.

The boys had a rough morning. Still feeling the effects of their stomach aches. They had a case of the runs. As I told some of the people at work "that is why I come to work." I have a hard time dealing with those kinds of things. I guess I would if I had to, but I'm grateful that Shena doesn't mind it.

Arellano Update
I IM'd with Marcos for about 20 minutes in the middle of the afternoon. I should have been working but that kid just likes to argue. Funny thing is I know how it is going to end...the same way it started. He has one opinion, I have another and nothing the other person says is going to change the other's mind. That is part of the reason I don't argue in general. Very, very rarely does arguing about philosophy or politics change somebody else's mind. Those types of things run too deep to change just because someone else is a better debater. It's a good thing he is my brother and I love him...otherwise I don't think we would talk much.

Christensen Update
I talked to Cherie for a few minutes this evening. She was doing some shopping and wanted to know what size Cade wore. As soon as she asked she knew that I would have no idea. I went and looked in his closet and saw some shirts that said "6" on them, so I told her that. We'll see if I'm right or not.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 12:04 - 7:50 - Just couldn't get to sleep last night. I was paying bills until about 10:45 - so maybe I was stressed about that...I don't know.

TODAY:
Breakfast: none

Lunch: egg burritos on corn tortillas with cheese, milk and a brownie

Dinner: white rice, chicken baked in cream of chicken soup, grean beans, french bread, fruit punch kool-aid

^

Buy A House in Pocatello, ID!

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

Work & Play
I've been interested in this whole "real estate" boom that's been going on for the last couple of years because it feels oh so familiar to the internet craze of not so long ago. People are jumping in without having the proper knowledge of what they are doing. So I read the headline for **********
Ok, so I have no idea how this happened, but Blogger obviously cut me off. Not sure why. I don't remember at all what I had written for this date, but since it is 5 days later, it is all gone from my brain...I do, however, remember the article I was going to link to with the opening above:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8598955/site/newsweek/

Sorry!

16 Weeks Along

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

Work & Play
Heard from our mortgage company today. We will be closing (finally, I thought we'd be done with this whole addition/re-finance thing about 3 months ago) on Friday. We also heard back on the appraisal on our house, and to be honest I was a little disappointed, but I think it has more to do with the fact that the appraiser works for the mortgage company, so I'm sure they give him a target price and it's his job to make it happen. It doesn't mean a whole lot to us, to be honest, so we will just say "whatever."

Doctor appointment
After work I finally got over to mom's to mow the back yard. It was like a jungle out there. I'll have to do it one more time before dad gets home on Monday...probably do it on Saturday.

After I finished mowing, I watched the last 20 minutes of "The Sting," which I had never seen before. I have been watching it off and on over the last 2 months or so. When we went over for dinner on Sundays I would watch it until dinner was ready...so I was watching like 20-30 minutes at a time. I obviously didn't get into it enough to feel like I had to know what was going to happen.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
I haven't exactly gotten Shena's permission to do this, but I may as well let you know. We had our 3rd doctor's appointment at the OB/GYN. Shena is about 16 weeks along and everything is fine. She's been nervous to tell anybody because we didn't want a repeat of earlier this year. We got a little anxious and told people we were pregnant, then went in for the 12th week heartbeat check and we didn't hear one. So this time she wanted to be sure. We heard the heartbeat at 12 weeks, and then again today. Doctor says everything looks great so far. We are due the first part of January.

Didn't see the boys much today. As soon as I got home we ate a quick dinner then I went to mom's. By the time I got home Kelson was in bed and Cade was watching a movie and so he didn't talk to me much. I also didn't make it home for lunch (because I went with Shena to the doctor for an hour), so it feels like I didn't see them at all.

Arellano Update
None to report that I know of.

Christensen Update
None to report that I know of.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 11:45 - 7:00 - Almost back to normal...

TODAY:
Breakfast: none

Lunch: Taco Bell - bean burrito, no onions, steak gordita supreme, no tomato, Mt. Dew - also had a raspberry finger (like a twinkie with a raspberry type covering...kind of like Hostess Tiger Tails)

Dinner: french toast pizza (slices of french toast, covered with spaghetti sauce and cheese, pepperoni), Fruit Punch Kool-aid, brownie and milk before bedtime

"You're the bum!"

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

Work & Play
I got home for lunch today...and I normally don't even look at the computer, but Shena had asked me to make a change to outlook that she wasn't sure how to do. So I sat down and opened the program. In comes an e-mail from my long lost college buddy Jimmy Rae (aka Dallas). He said he wasn't talking to his Aunt Virginia and Uncle Bob who live in Greensboro. Turns out Jimmy and Gordon Lundrigan are cousins and pretty good friends. Pretty wild. All the times I have talked to the Lundrigan's about Canada, I've always said "my buddy in college used to say..." or "my buddy from Canada told me..." But I never said his name. We talked to Bob & Virginia about Shena's family who was from Alberta, but for some reason I never asked them if they knew Jimmy Rae. I guess I figured that Calgary was too big a city to even try. It used to bug me when I was out West and I would tell people that I was from NC. "Oh yeah? Do you know Jack B. Nimble? He's from NC. Somewhere close to the beach, I think." Yeah, I know Jack. I know all 15 million people (or whatever) that live in NC. I've heard that foreign missionaries get that a lot overseas too. "You are from Idaho? That is in the US, right? Do you know Steve Jones? He's from NY." I digress. Unfortunately, Gordon is gone to Scout Camp all week with his boys and so I won't get to talk to him about it until Sunday. Can't wait, though. I've already pulled out some pictures to show them (which is really stupid...I mean, they already know what he looks like. And I'm sure they don't think that I'm lying about it...so it's not like I have to PROVE to them that I know him).

I did my daily check in at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Steelers page to check on movements with my team, when I saw this article. Talk about some steelies…this guy is incredible. Maybe that is the wrong word. Dude has issues, that is for sure.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
Teresa and Munsey were going to do some painting in their bedroom tonight. I was a good husband and volunteered Shena to go over and help. Teresa came over one night to help Shena paint our West Wing, so I thought for sure we owed her that much. Actually, I didn’t volunteer Shena, I told Teresa that one of us would be there, then gave Shena the option of having some time away from the boys and the chance to hang out with her girlfriend and talk, or send me while she stays home with the boys. I didn’t really need to ask. She went.

While we were eating dinner, Shena said to me at one point “Cheeto, you’re the bomb!” I can’t remember why, but I’m sure it was well deserved. Anyway, suddenly Kelson goes “Your bum!” and starts pointing at his butt. I didn’t get it at first. I said “What?” Kelson goes (while pointing to his butt), “Your bum, daddy!! Your bum!” Hilarious.

I mentioned Cade's baseball glove, right? Here is a picture of it...his is the black/grey one.

Arellano Update
None to report that I know of.

Christensen Update
None to report that I know of.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 1:58 - 7:45 - I couldn't sleep for some reason last night...I got to watch a cool show about some detectives tracking down a serial killer, though. I should have been reading...that might have helped me go to sleep.

TODAY:
Breakfast: none

Lunch: Leftover roast beef sandwich on wheat with cheese and strawberry jam (don't knock it 'til you've tried it), a couple baby carrots, two pieces of apple pie...I have a good reason for that, really. That pie was about 3 or 4 days old I was worried that it was going to spoil...so I decided I didn't want it to go to waste!!!

Dinner: pasta with spaghetti sauce, covered with cheese, french bread, covered with cheese, water

Tiger Rules

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

Work & Play-Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
Shena still wasn't feeling real well today, so we left after sacrament meeting. The rest of the day we just kind of hung out. We invited over Craig and Susie Hiatt and Christoper and Kristi (Yow) Malcolm for dinner. Craig didn't make it because he is out of town for scout camp for the next 8 days, and the Malcom's were waiting for a Dish Network installer guy to show up and fix their satellite, so they didn't make it until about 6:00. It was kind of weird, eating in two different shifts, but it was nice to talk to them all.

I spent most of the day watching the British Open, rooting for Tiger. I don't have much to say that hasn't already been said all over the internet. He is the man, what can I say? He gets too much credit when he is behind, but not enough when he is in the lead. Everybody thinks it is a bad thing to have him within striking distance on Sunday, but truth he is he rarely wins when he is trailing on Sunday. But if he is leading, he's even less likely to lose. Just incredible to watch him play. Someday I'll be that good.

Arellano Update
None to report that I know of. Both of my brothers are total blog slackers.

Christensen Update
None to report that I know of.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 1:21 - 7:40 - started reading a short story, "Bartleby the Scrivener" - wanted to know how it ended (very disappointingly, by the way)

TODAY:
Breakfast: none

Lunch: a couple Famous Amos cookies and a small glass of milk

Dinner: Roast beef, new potatoes, carrots, corn on the cob, home made wheat bread (Susie's contribution) with butter and strawberry jam on top, water

Look Out! - Another Soap Box - Islam

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

Work & Play
Spent the good part of 2 hours working on digging out a stump this morning. I saw what I thought was a small limb coming out of the ground somewhat near the swingset, so I thought, for safety's sake, I would dig it out real quick. One broken shovel and two bottles of water later, I finally got the top part of the stump chopped off so that the rest of it is about 8 inches below the surface. What a bear. Bad thing was it took all my energy to do it. I'm not a manual labor kind of guy (which I've mentioned, once maybe twice...ok a dozen times), and so it was all I could do to get our yard mowed afterwards. I had intentions of getting mom's yard mowed again...but that is going to have to wait for another day.

After I took a shower, Shena and Kelson went down for naps and Cade and I went out to run errands. It was bout 1:30 by the time we left the house, we didn't get back until about 4:30 - 5:00. So that I don't bore you with the details, we went by Target, Omega Sports (where I bought Cade a baseball glove for his birthday present. He's been bugging for one for the last couple of weeks and I figured it was time to get him a "real" one, instead of the plastic one he has now...the one I bought at Omega was 25% off, and was about $6 cheaper than Dick's price...I had to be smooth when I bought it too, so that he wouldn't see. I sent him to the back of the store to look at the baseballs, then snuck off when he wasn't looking. He almost panicked because he couldn't find me [for those who don't know, Omega sounds like a big store...it's not, so it isn't like I was abandoning my kid in some store where a stranger would pick him up...the cash register is by the front door and I told the cashier to keep an eye out for a kid in a Panther's jersey leaving the store]...anyway, he didn't know I bought the glove), we went to one library, Wal-Mart, back to another library (where they were holding something for me), to Grandma A's, then to Harris Teeter. Cade was a good kid the whole time, which surprised me because he was whining up a storm just before we left the house. I was wondering if I was going to be able to get anything done.

I also spent a good part of the day finishing up transferring the files from the old computer to the new computer. It was as tedious as I thought it would be. I tried to do bits and pieces between different things, but I didn't finish it until tonight. I figure I had about 6 or 7 hours invested in the thing. Pretty frustrating. I hope I don't have to do that again for another 5 years.

I borrowed a DVD from the library called "Islam: Empire of Faith" to watch. I honestly don't know much about the religion, and I was hoping it would shed a little light on it and why it has bred some of the extremists it had (although I figure there are millions of others who are smarter than I am that I trying to figure out the same thing). It was interesting, but didn't help much. Then I found out that it was prodcued in 2000. That completely changed my opinion of it. At first I was really disappointed that it didn't even breach the subject of terrorism. It is really just a summary of the first 1,000 years (which I would have figured out had I read the back of the DVD). Knowledge I gained: a little about the background of Mohammed and the beginning of the religion, the main reason behind the Sunni-Shi'ite split (for you Mormons think of the reasons behind the break off of the "Re-organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints"), and a little about the spread of the religion.

Here's what bugged me. It seemed to me that it was slanted strongly towards putting Islam in the best light possible. There didn't seem to be much objectivity to it at all. I know, I know, there are people who say everything they see is to put Christianity or Judaism in the best possible light. But as the show discussed the crusades, the narration made it sound like they were completely and totally unprovoked...the Muslims were just minding their own business and did nothing whatsoever to draw the ire of the CATHOLICS (I'm sure there were many other Christians who were opposed to the murder going on). That doesn't excuse the atrocities that went on, but that was the theme of the program. The Muslims never did anything wrong (except for ONE crazy leader who had lost his mind and burned down the church of the holy sepulcher) and the Christians were the unprovoked aggressors. One thing I didn't know how to feel about was the depiction of the original spread of Islam. According to the program, Islam didn't spread by the sword...well, kind of, they say. Mohammed and his group conquered the Middle East, but they didn't MAKE ANYBODY become Muslim. I remember being taught (in public schools, mind you) that there was a clear understanding by the conquered that they would accept Islam, or else. Like I said before...undecided on what might be the truth there. Probably a little of both. Enough about that. I'm obviously no expert on Islam, but I'm glad that I was able to learn a little more. Just makes me wish that people wouldn't group all of the different Muslim sects into one big pot...because I know I don't like being grouped with all those radical, over the top "Christian" groups (like the various neo-Nazi groups that claim to be Christian). But then again we also don't support or condone the acts of these people, we openly apologize for them and their so-called affiliation with Christianity...and there seems to be a reluctance by mainstream Muslims to condemn the terror attacks that happen on a daily basis in the name of Islam. The end.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
We watched 1/2 of Napoleon Dynamite tonight during dinner. You know the part where they are doing sign language during the song "Some Say Love"? Kelson was trying to copy them. Hilarious. We didn't want him to think we were laughing AT him, so we held it in...but I wanted to bust out.

While I was working on that stump, the boys were playing on the playground. I had a "Cat's in the Cradle" moment when Cade went and got his plastic tools and said he wanted to help me. Kelson was on the swing and yelled to Cade "push me!" Cade, in his most serious voice said, "Not right now, Kelson, I'm helping daddy." Makes me wonder how many times he's heard me say "Not right now, Cade" when he wants me to play with him and I think I'm too busy. I made a point the rest of the morning while we were out there to push them if they asked...I don't think I said once "Not right now, I'm busy." I'm going to have to work on that.

Arellano Update
Talked to mom for a few minutes this evening. She finally checked in. Called to say she was fine and that they were having fun. She said she and Marcos were on their way back to Pocatello from Clearfield, UT. She also said dad called to talk to her. He is getting really excited about coming home.

Christensen Update
None to report that I know of.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 1:30 - 8:00 - I guess the late nights I had this week made it hard for me to get to sleep last night.

TODAY:
Breakfast: 1/2 bowl of frosted mini-wheats (I ate what was left of them)

Lunch: Taco Bell - bean burrito, no onions, Mt. Dew - that's all I had time for...ate as I Cade and I ran the errands.

Dinner: Applebee's - "Pick Two" - Honey chicken and steak sirloin, steamed vegetables (brocoli, yellow squash, carrots), mashed garlic potatoes, garlic bread, coke - sounds like a lot, huh? Well I didn't eat much the rest of the day, so I was just making up for it. It actually wasn't that good...and I was starving. I'm losing my taste for Applebee's I guess. The steak was decent, but not great, the bread soggy, the chicken was actually kind of gross...texture was weird, the vegetables tasted frozen. I also had a piece of hot applie pie (thanks to the microwave) with a scoop of ice cream on top, with 1/2 glass of milk...that made me forget about the bad dinner.

No Power = No A/C

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

Work & Play
When I got to work the power was still 1/2 out in the office...and this time the A/C was out too. It was pretty toasty in the office for a while. We spent the first hour and a half of work hanging out and talking in the dark until they got the power back on. One of the girls who worked there, Meagan, is headed to Clemson to be a graduate assistant for the women's basketball team, so we were chatting her up before she left. We didn't feel real guilty for not working...we couldn't, and Meagan was leaving, so we had to spend some time with her, too. About six of us from the office went out to lunch together (which we never do) as a "good-bye" for her, too. If you happen to read this, Meagan, knock 'em dead. Can't wait to see you on the sidelines as a "real" assistant coach in a couple of years (and then of course on to Head Coach at some big powerhouse). Don't forget about us little people on the way.

I brought home an external hard drive we use at work to backup some of our files to use as a way to transfer files from our old computer to the new one. Gave me headaches all night. I thought it would take me about an hour 1/2 or two. Not even close. I keep getting error messages and the old computer keeps locking up. Good thing is it re-inforced that this wasn't an unnecessary purchase...our old computer really was a dinosaur. Bad news is it is going to take a good day or so to get all these files across. Oh well.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
The boys had one of their buddies from church over today. Devan Williams is 3 and he likes to play with Cade and Kelson. Shena and his mom had talked about getting together, but hadn't set anything in stone. Sherman (his dad) made the mistake of saying that he WAS going to come over. They said he kept asking when he got to come over, and wouldn't let it go. Probably something that the mom would know not to do (say anything too early), but us idiot dads don't think about.

Shena gave the boys baths tonight, and let them play in the water for a few minutes (and stepped away). A few minutes later I walked in to get them out and Kelson had taken about 3 huge bites out of a bar of Dial soap. Weird kid. He will eat ANYTHING and I have yet to see him turn his nose up. We have to be real careful to keep cleaning supplies and medicines out of his reach because he has no concept of what is food and what isn't. His taste buds must be broken or something. At least he will be able to make some money on "Fear Factor" someday.

It was our turn to clean the church again. Luckily we got to clean both times with the Lundrigan Crew (8 of them all together, 6 of which can help) and so it only takes us about 30-45 minutes. The only bad thing was that it was pretty muggy in there. When it's not in use, the A/C doesn't go on, and it has been hot and humid the last week or so.

Arellano Update
None to report that I know of. My family doesn't talk to me when they aren't in town.

Christensen Update
None to report that I know of.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 11:45 - 7:00 - I finished my book about 10:45, but I wanted to watch Sports Center to see the British Open highlights...then of course they had all kinds of teasers on other reports they were doing that kept me around. They are so sneaky like that.

TODAY^:
Breakfast: 3 mini-cup cakes at work...Heather brought them in for Meagan's farewell

Lunch: Ham's - Ham melt (swiss cheese) on a croissant, mustard and lettuce, "homemade" mac and cheese, Mt. Dew

Dinner: Wendy's - 1/2 Chicken sandwich (Shena and I split it), no tomato, no lettuce, a handful of fries, Fruit Punch drink - had a piece of apple pie and milk as I worked on the computer

21st Century Technology

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

Work & Play
A little excitement at work today...we had a big thunderstorm about 3:30, 4:00. It knocked part of the power off in the office...so we spent the last hour of work kind of chit chatting around the office. Kind of hard to work without computers and telephones.

After work I spent the evening trying to get the computer up and running. The cable company came out to fix our cable (that went down the night before) so that we could get onto the internet. I got a couple more programs installed, then finished reading "Shadow Puppets." Good book. Now I will go back and read "John Adams, like I had originally intended before I started "Shadow Puppets."

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
Played a little baseball with the boys in their room. Kelson is a funny kid. One of the episodes of The Bernstein Bears that they watch is one where the cubs try out for a baseball team. Of course it shows a picture throwing the ball from the mound...putting the glove over his head, swinging his arms, leg up into the air and then planting as he throws the ball. Kelson has it a little backward. Instead of lifting his leg opposite his throwing arm, he lifts his right leg with his throwing arm, and holds the leg up in the air while he throws the ball. Pretty funny. Cade and I finally got him to swing the bat, too. He used to just stand there with the bat...good grip, good form, but he would never swing. He just watched the ball go by him all the time.

Arellano Update
Not much to report. The rest of the family is out west or in Mexico. I guess they are all safe because I haven't heard much.

Christensen Update
None to report that I know of.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 12:44 - 7:56 - Can't...stop...reading...

TODAY:
Breakfast: none

Lunch: tuna with cheese on wheat, frito's, milk - had a couple of cookies

Dinner: I tried something new for Shena tonight...but I didn't like it much - she was craving a dish her mom made...tuna loaf (like meat loaf, but with tuna), covered in boiled new potatoes and peas. I liked the potatoes and peas, but I didn't like the tuna loaf much. I'm not a big fish eater anyway...and when you heat tuna up, it gives it more of a fishy taste...I tried it, though. It's not like I puked or anything...I just wouldn't eat it again, unless I was hungry! :) - She baked me an apple pie, so that made up for it...I had two pieces and milk before I went to bed.

Wedged in the Backseat

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

Work & Play
We went looking for a computer tonight. We've been putting this off for over a year and a half now. I've been wanting to get a new computer for the longest time...but we just didn't feel like we HAD to have one. Well...we pretty much HAVE to have one now. Our old Gateway is 5 years old now, still running Windows 98 with only a 20 GB hard drive...which is now full. Every time Shena opens a program now, it says we are out of room. We finally decided to just bite the bullet and get a new one...of course nothing fancy. We checked out CompUSA (because we knew they would have a lot of selection and they could answer questions), but wound up buying from BestBuy (I hate that place). We bought an e-machines (which I have since figured out are made by Gateway) that should be fast enough and have a big enough hard drive (100 GB) to last us for another 5 years...I hope. We realized as we got the box down from the shelf that we were driving the Nissan and Shena's two kid stroller was in the trunk. So she had to ride home wedged between the car seats in back with the boys, while the computer got a nice comfortable ride in the front seat. One the way out to the computer store, we drove through a real bad thunder storm...and when we got back to the house our internet wasn't working, so I couldn't get it set up to even go online. I just loaded all of our software that we needed and it now sits next to the old computer, kind of useless until we can get the files transferred over.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
Shena spent the whole day cleaning the house (it looks very nice). Deep cleaning...like the stove top and the oven and the fridge. She and the boys didn't even go anywhere today.

Arellano Update
Marcos posted some funny pics of Ethan on his blog....you should check them out.

Christensen Update
Kyle helped us out tonight. BestBuy is about 25 minutes from our house (on the other side of Greensboro) and as we looked at the computer we were thinking about buying, I wanted to be sure that it was an ok deal. So I called Kyle and he just happened to be heading in to the house, so he got online and looked up prices on Dell and on e-machines to make sure it was a decent price. I'm bad about calling people, so it was good to talk to him...even if it was just for a minute.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 11:22 - 7:30 - I've been reading "Shadow Puppets" by Scott Card for the last couple of days...it was one of the Ender series that I hadn't read yet...and the further I get into the book, the harder it is to put down at the end of a chapter. I was going to go to bed early because of my late night last night...but I couldn't. Had to keep reading.

TODAY:
Breakfast: 1 bowl of frosted mini-wheats

Lunch: Leftover (from Shena's enrichment meeting last night) turkey and ham sandwiches on croissants (sp?) with swiss cheese and lettuce, milk - a couple of chips a'hoy

Dinner: Leftover spaghetti, covered with cheese, 2 pieces of wheat bread, milk, a couple of cookies

Broken Link

**NOTE**

Marcos tipped me off this morning that the link I have to "Pearls Before Swine" wasn't working. And you know that since I don't have many links, I only list those that I feel are ESSENTIAL, I wanted to make sure that it worked so that you could enjoy this comic strip. If it doesn't work...let me know...it worked from my computer.

Cheeto

New Photos

The other day while Shena was taking a shower, the boys found the digital camera. This is a picture by Cade...he took 35 other pictures, most not as good as this one. I'm just glad it wasn't a film camera...I would have been a little more upset. This was just funny.







*****************
The boys playing on their new play ground. They also have two seperate swings that you can't see in this picture. They like this thing the best so far because it is easier to get going and keep going than a swing. Cade is learning how to "pump" on the swing, but he doesn't have it all the way down yet.







****************
Kelson after playing in the water fountain at the Grasshopper's game. Just before we left he was dunking his head in the water and blowing bubbles...silly kid. Maybe that is why he had diarreha the next day.

The Huge Arellano Head Strikes Again

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

Work & Play
Worked - yeah...that's about it.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
Shena went to the dentist today to have a filling fixed. Not sure exactly when she broke it, I just know it's been bothering her for several weeks now. She kept cutting her tongue on it. They told her she also has a cavity next to the filling. She's in for a fun time at the dentist after she has the next baby...but until then they put a temporary fix on the tooth and said come back in a couple of months.

Shena had Enrichment meeting tonight, so we had a "boy's night" out. We ran a couple errands and just kind of hung out. Stopped by mom's to check her mail. Went to Wendy's for dinner. The boys wanted to go to Barnes and Noble to play with the Thomas Train set they have set up there, so we did that for 45 minutes or so. Then we went out to Dick's to look at baseball gloves. Don't tell Cade, but that is what I'm getting him for his 5th birthday. He still has just one of those cheap plastic ones, so I figured it was time he got a real glove and learn how to use it. We tried a couple on at the store and he wanted to buy one today. Of course as soon as Cade tried some on, Kelson tried some on too. We had a good time, they were very good boys. Cade is still bugging for a mini-van. I asked him why he wanted one tonight. He said "I want one that's white like Dede's." I tried to talk him out of it, but he said he would be mad if we got a different color than white. Problem is, there is no way we are getting a white one. The 2005 white ones only have tan interiors and we don't like the tan interior at all...so we will be getting one that has a gray interior. I'm not sure if Cade will complain if we get a different color...and if he does how long he will complain.

A few minutes before the boys went to bed, they were playing in their room when I heard Kelson start crying. Usually he comes running (at least walking) when he gets hurt, so I sat and waited for a second for him to come into the office where I was. He didn't...he just kept crying. I walked back to their room and found him with his arm and head stuck through one of the openings in their little McDonald's play set thing they have (this picture shows where his head was...take the blue "garbage" door off and that is the hole he was stuck in). I went looking for a camera before I helped him, since he was in no danger (isn't that what I'm supposed to do?). But couldn't find it, so you'll have to use your imagination. Poor kid got his head in there somehow, but we couldn't get it out...I finally got his arm out, but his head wasn't coming out very easy without hurting him. Long story short I got him out, now we'll just have to see if he has learned his lesson, or if he really is as hard headed as we think he is.

Arellano Update
IM'd with Marcos for a few minutes today. We were talking about what kind of car he should get next summer. I'm glad he is asking my opinion (you all know how much I love to give my opinion). If he would have asked my opinion when he got his car after graduating from H.S. I would have talked him out of the Trans-Am he bought (which he no longer likes). He is being much more practical this time...more concerned about gas mileage than anything (what an Earth loving freak, huh?)
Talked to mom for a few minutes today. She is in Utah visiting my Aunt (her sister). I didn't make it back to mow her back yard. I didn't think I could face that smell again too soon. I'm sure I would have lost dinner all over my shoes if I did smell it again.

Christensen Update
Ryan has about 3 weeks of his mission left...a scary feeling when you get there. I still remember my last couple of weeks. Fear of the unknown...you can feel the stress starting to build up...when will I go back to school...what do I want to do with the rest of my life...what kind of work am I going to do...(and the most important) how can I get back into the dating scene?

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 2:15 - 7:50 - I don't know why, but I couldn't sleep at all last night. Spent most of the evening flipping between "Office Space" & "Sportscenter" & "Untold Stories from the E.R. (Discovery) & "King of Queens" & "Road To Baghdad" (1 of 2 - Military Channel)...etc.

TODAY:
Breakfast: 1 bowl of frosted flakes

Lunch: Leftover spaghetti casserole, covered with cheese, 1 slice of wheat bread, milk and 4 Chips Ahoy! cookies.

Dinner: Wendy's - Classic double with cheese, no onion, no tom, a few fries (stolen from the kid's meals), coke

THAT DIDN'T PINCH!

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

Work & Play
Work was work - nothing exciting

Mom's yard hasn't been mowed in about 2 weeks, so I HAD to get it done today because I wasn't sure when I would get another chance. I knew that I was going to have to bag the clippings, and I also knew that I was going to have to make SEVERAL trips back and forth to dump the grass unless I could put the clippings in some old black garbage cans that dad has for that purpose. Well I forgot that about 3 or 4 weeks ago I had dumped some clippings in there already. I was going to dump them before I went home, but obviously forgot. Have you ever smelled decomposing, wet grass that has beein a garbage can for 5 weeks in the humidity and heat of NC after several rain storms. A suggestion...DON'T, if you don't have to. It was one of the nastiest smells I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Bad thing was there were 2 garbage cans in the same situation. I was so flipping close to puking every time I got within 100 feet of that stuff. I wound up mowing just the front yard (where I couldn't smell the stuff). I'll have to mow the back in a couple days when the smell has aired out a bit. I hope the neighbors aren't too mad about the smell. I wish there were words to describe it. Nasty, nasty, nasty. How's that?

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
Cade had to go to the doctor today to get his shots for school this fall. Shena took him and relayed the following stories (probably told totally wrong...but since she refuses to blog, you'll have to believe what I'm telling you actually happened).

Nurse: "When I give you this shot, it is going to feel like a little pinch."



Cade: (pointing his finger) "THAT DIDN'T PINCH! THAT HURT" (begins to scream)
---------------
Dr. Ross: "Cade, we have to check your private parts."

Cade: "No thank you. My private parts are ok. I need to go to the bathroom. Mom, I want to go to the bathroom. They are ok."

I took Cade and Kelson with me over to mom's while I mowed to give Shena a break. She wasn't feeling very well. Somehow, the smell didn't seem to bother them. They played in the backyard like it was nothing. They were pretty good boys. Kelson even listened to me when they went inside to watch a movie. I told him that he had to stay in the living room (otherwise he would be in the kitchen going through the cupboards, getting into who knows what, or upstairs causing problems). I checked on him every 10 minutes and he stayed on the couch where I told him to.

Arellano Update
None to report that I know of.

Christensen Update
None to report that I know of.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 10:45 - 6:18

TODAY:
Breakfast: none

Lunch: Leftover spaghetti casserole with cheese, 1 piece of wheat bread, water, 1 vanilla pudding cup, 1 chocolate pudding cup (I couldn't choose which kind I wanted...so i didn't)

Dinner: Leftover re-fried beans and rice on corn tortillas with cheese, water

Weekend Update

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

Work & Play - Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood) - Arellano Update
Friday: Not much exciting today. Just work, came home, had dinner, stopped by Plummer's to borrow a movie (Napolean Dynamite) so that Shena could watch it...but of course we wound up talking to much at the Plummer's and didn't get home until about (9:00ish and Shena can't start a movie that late or she will be asleep in 10 minutes.

Saturday: First thing in the morning, Ed and I borrowed Hiatt's truck and went and got the rest of the playground from the Needham's. That was a little interesting because it was too big to fit in the back of the truck and was hanging out the sides and the back...but since it was about a 1 mile trip, we decided to just carry it as is, and had no problems. By the time we finished that, we had to run over to the church to meet the Crockett's to take chairs and tables over to the Lundrigan's for next Tuesday night's Enrichment meeting for Shena. We got those loaded up and then unloaded at Lundrigan's, then went back home to put the swing set together. That took about 45 minutes to an hour. There were several roots sticking up around the area where the playground is, so I spent another 45 minutes digging them up along with weeds and trying to level the ground. Next thing I know it is 3:00. I spent the next couple of hours looking for mulch from Lowe's or Home Depot. I was looking for a specific kind of this rubber type mulch that I bought several years back from Lowe's for the tree in our front yard. Well, I couldn't find it anywhere, so the playground doesn't have any mulch underneath it right now. I'll have to get that fixed sometime next week or this next weekend. I returned the truck to Hiatt's and agot home about 4:30. We rant out to Costco to fill the Jeep with gas, pick up a couple of t hings, and then stop at this Mexican store off West Market street to get meat for dinner on Sunday. Took all this stuff home, called the Crockett's to figure out where they wanted to eat dinner and decided to head for Chick-Fil-A. After we ate, we went to the baseball game. We were plenty early, which was good because as we were getting in the car, Kelson was eating a mint from the restaurant...I'm not sure if he didn't like the taste or if he maybe was chocking on it, but he started puking a little and got it all over his "Greensboro Grasshoppers" shirt. We hadto stop at Gap Kids (we had eaten there in Friendly Center) to get him another shirt to wear. Had fun at the game, left about the 7th inning with the 'Hoppers losing (of course).

Sunday: Church. Had the Plummer's over for dinner, hung out and talked, went over to their house for dessert and wound up watching Seabiscuit, which I had never seen. Ok movie, but hard to get into when there are kids running around all over the place. Part of the reason I don't necessarily like to watch movies that I've never seen before with the kids awake. I much more prefer to see a movie in the theater or with just Shena and no kids. No big deal, though. I got enough of the gist to know what was going on and to know what happened. I'm not a horse race fan in the first place, so I wasn't dying to see the movie in the first place.

Cade has been bugging us the last couple of days. Out of the blue he keeps saying "Mom, I want a van. Yeah, I want a van like Dede's. A White one." Maybe Shena has been teaching him to say that to put a little pressure on me?

Sunday night as Shena was helping Kelson brush his teeth, he drooled down the front of his shirt. Shena goes "Oh no! Not on your shirt!" Kelson goes "Oh, sh*t." He doesn't say his "r's" real well, plus he had a toothbrush in his mouth, which doesn't help with pronunciation. Still pretty dang funny...we laughed for a while. It is still really frustrating trying to get him to stay out of trouble. He knows when he isn't supposed to be doing something, he just chooses to do it anyway, which concerns me. While we were at Plummer's, the kids were playing outside, when Samantha comes in and says "Kelson's in the car again." I walked out to get him out of there and as soon as I opened the door he looked at me, wags his index finger and goes "No, no, no, no." But he wasn't telling me" No, don't get me out," he was saying "No, I'm not supposed to be in here." Little nugget.


Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: Thurs - 11:45 - 6:30 - I got caught up watching "Private Ryan" - then I realized how late it was. such a good movie it's hard not to watch it. ** Fri: 10:45 - 7:20 ** Saturday 11:30 - 7:30

TODAY:
Breakfast: Friday: none ** Saturday: none ** Sunday: none

Lunch: Friday: Leftover Chuck E. Cheese pizza...It's even better the 2nd time around!! Yummy! (Pbbbbbttt) ** Saturday: A chocolate chip cookie and a glass of milk...I didn't have time to eat anything at noon, then I didn't want to eat too much before dinner because we were going out for dinner, so I just ate something to get me by ** Sunday: Carne asada, re-fried beans, mexican rice, home made corn tortillas, cheese, Mt. Dew

Dinner: Friday: Spaghetti casserole, french bread, milk - had some chocolate cake for dessert ** Saturday: Chick-fil-A - grilled chicken sandwich, waffle fries, lemonade...also ate a couple of Cade's chicken nuggets that he didn't eat - finished off the chocolate cake after the game ** Sunday: (At Plummer's) chocolate cake covered with whip cream and crushed skor candy bar, milk

High on Fumes

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

Work & Play
I think I've mentioned before that the other occupants of the building I work in moved out this month, and the new owners are moving in (we lease). So, of course, before the new people move in they are doing some "touch ups" and making other changes to the building so that it will fit the needs of the new owners. Well, today they were painting and removing wall paper and who knows what else on our floor...which meant there were a lot of fumes flaoting around the building. We tried closing the doors to our office and I cut off the air conditioning as long as possible, but it didn't make much of a difference. By 9:30 I had a pounding headache and was feeling nauseous. Heather and I wound up going home for the day, while everybody else stayed, I think. I know, I'm a wuss...but I do have a sensitive sniffer (just ask Shena) and I wasn't getting much work done. I actually took some home with me and worked from Mom's house since she is out of town and there is no way the boys would have let me work from our house. I spent about 1/2 the time studying my CLU courses when I ran out of stuff to do and no access to the files I needed to create more work. (That probably doesn't make any sense to you, but it does to me).

I spent the rest of the day with a somewhat minor headache and the nauseousness never went away completely. By evening time the headache was back on kind of strong and I wasn't feeling very well. I never felt like I was going to puke, but my stomach wasn't in any mood for much movement. There, now that you all feel sorry for me (or not)...don't worry, I'll be fine.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
Shena and the boys got to go to Chuck E. Cheese's for lunch with Dede and her kids. Apparently they had talked about going on a picinic with the kids, but the weather wasn't real nice today (cloudy, rainy, tornado warnings, you know...the usual NC summer weather). I know they had a good time because Cade didn't want to leave...and was very vocal about it. I've come to realize that he doesn't like to be "surprised" much. He likes to know in advance what is going on and when. As long as you set him up for what is going to happen, he is usually ok with it...especially when you warn him in advance that he better be good and do what we ask. Otherwise he goes a little crazy. Kelson also got in trouble today for coloring Shena's carpet with crayons. I don't think she asked him to do that...but then again, she wants new carpet, so maybe she is trying to get him in on damaging it (no really).

Arellano Update
I guess mom made it to San Diego ok. She didn't call me, but then again, maybe she called Shena. I'll have to ask Shena if she did or not.

Christensen Update
Shena worked on an ad for Central Links Golf Course and RV park today. They are going to put it in an RV magazine or listing book or something like that. Because they are in the middle of farming season, they don't have a lot of time...and Shena has more that these days, so she said she would take care of it. She did a good job.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 10:22 - 6:24 - fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow...I was awfully sleepy.

TODAY:
Breakfast: none

Lunch: Chuck E. Cheese's leftover pizza (they brought it to me after they were finished). It's not that great but it was edible and I was hungry. Also had a coke with it.

Dinner: Because my stomach was still hurting, I didn't have much of an appetite. I had an egg sandwich on toast with cheese, glass of milk. Had a chocolate chip cookie about 8:30 (with milk, of course).

Can I Borrow Your Truck?

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

Work & Play
Seriously...nothing exciting.

After work I went by Needham's to watch/help Jeff take apart the swing set so that I can get it back together at our house. It is all of about 8 bolts. Hard part will be getting to our house. I have to track down a truck to get the three pieces that remain at Needham's (brought home the slide and one board that attaches to the "fort" portion of the swing set and has a hand swing on it). After that, put the kids in their pj's and headed to bed myself...I am way too tired to NOT go to bed early tonight...5:00 is just not my time of the morning (see below).

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
We were supposed to feed the missionaries tonight and instead of cooking for them, we decided to take them to the restaurant. Last time we talked to them they said they loved Mexican but hadn't eaten at the restaurant before. Shena and the boys made cookies for them as dessert because she felt guilty for not having dessert for them.

I had a business lunch today, and Cade and Kelson didn't like it that I didn't come home...although I don't think they were crying upset. Cade called me on my cell phone and said "Dad, are you coming home for lunch?" "No, bud, not today." "Oh, guess what? I'm making cookies for the missionaries......(and on and on he went for about 3 minutes)" So he wasn't real upset.

We decided that Shena is no longer going to work for Jim at all. She had been scanning files for us to help us get rid of some of the paper we have around the office. She would take files to the house, pull the staples and paper clips and organize them for scanning, then would come in every now and then to actually scan the paperwork. We are at a point now where we don't necessarily need that $250 a month she was getting from doing that (working about 20 - 24 hours a month), so we "fired" her. A little more pressure on me to get some more production, right?

Arellano Update
Took mom to the airport. She is headed out west again. She is going to help Melissa and her boys move from San Diego to Salt Lake, then she is going to travel around and visit more family. She will be flying back July 23rd, two days before dad gets back and about 7 days before we leave for Atlanta. She may spend most of August sitting on her couch here in her house after all this travelling she's doing.


Christensen Update
None to report that I know of.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT^:
Sleep: 11:55 - 5:08 - had to get up to take mom to the airport...no point going back to sleep when I got back home at 6:00

TODAY:
Breakfast: none

Lunch: The Loop - grilled chicken sandwich, moterrey jack cheese, fries, pickle wedge, coke.

Dinner: Mexico - Lunch Chicken Fajitas, beans, rice, flour tortillas, cheese dip and chips, Sprite

Back to Work

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

Work & Play
Back to the grind...and the lack of good stories to tell.

I got a phone call from Jeff Needham today. This weekend they had been talking about buying a new swing set for their girls and he called to see if we wanted their old one. I checked with Shena, and she didn't even pause to think... "SURE!" They are supposed to deliver and install his new swing set either Thursday or Monday, so we are going to have to get it taken apart before then. I will probably go over tomorrow. He said it wouldn't be real hard to make into three or four pieces. He has moved it at least one other time and said it wasn't hard. Next problem is getting some kind of path or grass between the deck and where we are going to put the swing set...otherwise the boys will be walking through the mud to get to the set.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
For a while there, Cade was doing pretty good about not playing the PlayStation too much. He didn't bug to play much. Then we bought ATV Off Road Fury for him again, which was his favorite game to play before. He has started playing it a lot again. Makes me wonder if he is addicted to video games? We may have to take the game away.

Arellano Update
Had lunch with mom and Lettie and the Llano crew at some little yuppy "wrap" place. Lettie was headed home today and she wanted to see us one last time. She actually got delayed for at least 2 hours here in Greensboro because Dallas was fogged in. Sounds like she is in for a long day of travel.

Christensen Update
None to report that I know of. I talked to Cherie for a minute the other day and she sounded stressed. It seems it usually gets like that this time of year. I can only imagine how stressful it is to try to get your crop raised and also to find buyers for it. Shena always said that she didn't like Fourth of July growing up because everybody was stressed out around the house and there was no time to enjoy the day because the crops had to be tended to. But that is just that part of the job. Some people have to work on Christmas Day, some people have to work on the Fourth of July.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 10:30 - 6:08 - still working on getting up every morning at 6:00

TODAY:
Breakfast: 1 bowl of frosted mini-wheats

Lunch: Roly Poly's (some wrap place just off Cornwallis and Battleground - Lettie wanted to eat there) - Hickory Chicken "sandwich" (not really...it's a burrito) - chicken, BBQ sauce, bacon, no onion, no mushrooms, grilled - Sun Chips (original) and a lemonade.

Dinner: Pinto beans, home made corn tortillas (by SHENA!!!), coke, had a piece of chocolate cake right after dinner (but not right before bed time, so the sugar had time to run through my system!).