New Year's Eve...

Out with the old, in with the new... For most people, all over the world, party preparations will be ongoing and many will be penning New Year's resolutions... Something, I might add, that I never did quite understand myself...

"He who breaks a resolution is a weakling; He who makes one is a fool." ~ F.M. Knowles

The success rate of "resolutions" is so poor, it's almost stunning. Be it to lose weight, stop smoking, save more money, get out of debt, drink less, etc, many people are failures when it comes to their resolutions before the hangover has completely subsided... It's not that I don't think about resolutions, I just don't make any. I suppose there are things I could change, but why wait until the 'New Year' to make said changes if they are indeed something that should be done or changed?? Yeah, I don't get it... So many people make them though that I have decided to make two of them myself:

1.) To just be myself

2.) To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time (I'd claim this as my own, but kind of hard to do with the Internet and all... by James Agate :)

So when the clock strikes twelve and your 'slate is clean', here's wishing you the best in 2009!!

Biased Outrage...

It's so blatant, it's amazing... All you see on the news is talk about all the "poor" people in Gaza, why don't we hear or see any news about missiles being fired FROM Gaza into Israel?? Which is WHY Israel is fighting back. Name me one other sovereign nation that WOULDN'T retaliate...

"Death to Israel", on a wall in Gaza...

If Canada had been firing missiles into Maine for the past three weeks, or if Mexico had been firing missiles into Arizona for the past three weeks, I can assure you that we would annihilate them... So yeah, the media bias is stunning... Well, not really...

Merry Christmas!!

Hope everyone is having an enjoyable day with family and friends!! The presents are all unwrapped, stockings emptied and now just tidying the house up for company later... :)

We started the day off with me reading the Christmas Story... The kids insisted on having a cake for Jesus as well. Not sure if anyone actually tried the cake though, it was a bit early in the AM for cake... The kids all look like they are still asleep... :)

Stockings first!

Ditto!

Now everyone is entertaining themselves with their "loot" while Carolyn and I straighten the house back up... We have company coming over later, and Cory of course will be by sometime. Can't wait for Christmas dinner actually, and of course then we can kick back and watch some of the many new movies we now have... :)

Merry Christmas to all!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Hope everyone is having a great day, I'm sure everyone is as excited as my kids are about tomorrow! It's SO exciting just seeing how excited they get! Me? Yeah, I am about to grout that slate I just put down... Seems like I am always doing stuff like that on Christmas Eve, oh well... :)

Santa looked a lot like Daddy...

Or Daddy looked a lot like him. It's not the way I had him pictured, Santa was much too thin...

I always liked that song for some reason: Brad Paisley...

Tick tock... Four days to go, the kids are getting quite excited, as I'm sure all kids are all over! They decorated their rooms yesterday, our neighbor was "getting rid" of a bunch of stuff and unloaded it all on them... Ugh! The last time that happened, it took me nearly a month to "get rid" of it all myself... Oh well, they have a blast with it all, so who cares.

Well, I'm off for the rest of the year (pretty much), I am on call still until Monday morning at 8 so hopefully nothing else happens. I ended up working Friday night and Saturday morning until about 5:30, then got called again at 7:56AM on Saturday and worked until nearly 6PM correcting a disastrous mistake made by another "IT person", using that term quite loosely I might add! I'm about to start laying slate in Cory's room, which is the last room in the house that hasn't had a new floor put down since we got this place, so we'll see how that works out...

Hope everyone is enjoying the last few days as the countdown to Christmas continues... :)

I'll Have A Blue Christmas...

without you. I'll be so blue thinking about you...

I love that song! There was a group that sang it on Imus yesterday and it was beautifully done, but I can't for the life of me remember who they were... I doubt I'll lose any sleep over it though... :)

Taylor at her school Christmas party...

I did make it to Taylor's Christmas party at school, but could only stay about 5 minutes... Carolyn and Chance were there the whole time though, so she was happy! Tanner and Taylor are both ecstatic that the "winter break" has officially started! Of course I'm off until the end of the year myself, so it should be nice and relaxing... Of course I suppose that depends on your definition of relaxing... :)

Silver bells, silver bells...

It's Christmas time in the city...

Of course I suppose it's Christmas everywhere and not just in the city... I just love Christmas songs, well, some of them anyway... :)

Hope everyone is having a great holiday thus far! I missed Tanner's party at school today because I had to go down South to a power plant this morning to try to fix someone else's screw up... Turns out it's going to be a 2 or 3 day fix, luckily I brought a remote board with me so now I can fix it from anywhere rather than having to go back to the middle of nowhere again... I'm always amazed why they let some people even touch equipment, oh well... Carolyn and Chance went to Tanner's party without me, and hopefully I'll be able to make it to Taylor's party which is tomorrow...

The kids start Christmas break (or as they call it, the holiday break) Monday and I'm pretty much off the rest of the year myself, so who knows what we'll get into. Don't really have too much planned for next week, I'll probably tackle the slate in Cory's room and get that out of the way, Carolyn's sister and her husband are coming down Christmas day and that's really about it... I STILL haven't mailed out my Christmas cards, but at least I have them in front of me now so I'll hopefully get them out tomorrow... :)

I'm Dreaming...

Of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know...

Well, I'm not really, but the kids are... They are likely out of luck though as it should be 67 today. Which is FINE with me I might add! :)



Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays with friends and family! I've kind of been slacking this year for some reason, I haven't even mailed cards out yet, there's still time though I suppose... :) We did make the mistake of going to the mall the other day, WOW! It's actually kind of amusing going to the mall, people watching and all... Actually stunning is a better word than amusing I suppose... Not much else going on here, perhaps I'll attempt to post some photos later, of course I have to actually TAKE some first, which I haven't been doing lately...

Congratulations Carolyn!!

Carolyn finished school today, or rather is taking her final right now... :)

Tis The Season...

For everyone to relax... So many people get so uptight and stressed this time of year, and for the life of me, I can't figure out why... Oh well, better them than me I suppose. We finally got around to trying to take some pictures for our 'card', this is about how it went...


I think we finally ended up with 1 out of the 50 we took that will have to do... Yeah, those will be in the mail 'soon'! :) Other than that, just enjoying the holidays. Hope everyone else is as well!

Hmm...

Do You Believe?

"Four billion people say they believe in God, but few genuinely believe..." Do you like to think? Are you capable of thought, or are you just some mindless, empty carcass walking about waiting on something? Interesting stuff... :)

I like to think, and don't consider any topic to be off limits. It's funny conversing with people though, so many do have topics that are off limits, others get annoyed when other topics are broached and refuse to participate... I always found that rather stunning myself, but then I like to think, at least I think I do... :)

Anyway, what prompted this line of thinking? A book I started reading online, and I kind of got sucked in and before I knew it I was through with it... Interesting... It's free too...

God's Debris...

I Can't Wait!!

To vote AGAINST this moron tomorrow:

I don't even know anything about the guy running against him, but don't care either, anyone but him! It's kind of funny too, you hear all these people all over talking about "We've got to get Chambliss elected so the Dems don't get their 60 vote majority!" Well, Chambliss should have actually THOUGHT about that while he was serving us in the Senate, and as far as MY vote is concerned, BEFORE he responded to my e-mail with an arrogant attitude to the tune of: "I know what's best for GA, butt out."... Yeah okay, he will probably still win, but he won't get my vote, and I could care less if my vote was the deciding vote and gave the Dems their majority, I would still vote against him...

Deck The Halls...

We had a great day yesterday, we did decide not to cook a huge meal though, so we went out to eat with Cory and had a great meal and a good time together... Then we decided to go see a movie, but I wasn't too interested in seeing High School Musical 3 or many of the other ones that were out, so we finally all decided to go see The Dark Knight. I think Chance likes the superhero movies, on the way home he asked if we could get Superman Returns, so we did and watched it when we got home...

Today we dragged all the Christmas decorations down from the attic and put on the music and got to town getting the place decorated for Christmas! Of course to the kids, it practically WAS Christmas... We have every toy they have ever had up in the attic, so they ran through the attic reminiscing and unfortunately dragging some of it down, I was kind of hoping we could put some more stuff up there instead!! :)

The kids are SO excited they can hardly stand it, I just LOVE this time of year! Taylor is wrapping some presents as I type even though it is way past bedtime, I may go to bed before they do they are so excited! Hopefully I'll get some pictures of the kids up here in the next day or so... I didn't even take any pictures tonight, Chance took some though, and I just borrowed his camera and took this one...

I suppose I need to go to bed because I have to throw that turkey in the oven first thing in the AM, well, I don't HAVE to, but it does sound pretty tasty, so I suppose I shall...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I Got Tagged...

Well, not really, but I stole this from Petra's blog... :)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial!! I had a real one once, never again…

3. When do you put up the tree? Sometime Thanksgiving weekend, perhaps tomorrow this year… :)

4. When do you take the tree down? New Year’s weekend.

5. Do you like eggnog? Not really…

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Hmm… I don’t really recall, actually the only thing I can even remember off hand is those bricks, and I’m not even sure they were for me, I think they were for all of us…

7. Hardest person to buy for? Never really thought about it, my mentality has always been: “Don’t like it? Feel free to throw it away or regift it!” :)

8. Easiest person to buy for? My kids…

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, not on the front lawn or anything, but we have one…

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. I think e-cards are tacky…

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I think all gifts are great, at least whoever gave it thought of you, even if the thought was, “Jeez, we’ve gotten everyone something except Matt, do we have anything we can throw some wrapping paper around?” :)

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Not a huge fan of them actually…

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Usually January 1st, depends… :)

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Oh yeah! :)

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Ham!

16. Lights on the tree? Tons and tons! Can’t have too many lights, and yeah, only white ones! I hate those multi-color lights...

17. Favorite Christmas song? Pretty Paper.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Home! It’s the one holiday I think kids should wake up in their own home, although once they are older, let’s travel! If everyone wants to… :)

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? I suppose I might be able to if I started singing Rudolph… :)

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Depends on which one isn’t broken… We have both, and whichever one of them ‘stays’ the best is what it is…

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning!

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Stressed out morons, the uppity type, and the type who would get offended if they found out that you actually *gasp* regifted! Relax people and just enjoy it!

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Whatever is in the “ornament” boxes goes on the trees, quite varied actually…

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Ham, potato salad, and all the trimmings!

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I could care less, I really care more about getting my wife and kids stuff… I always tell everyone not to even bother getting me anything, but if you must… I try to think of something they can get me, and in my kids case, that won’t dip into their “fund” too much…

26. Who is most likely to respond to this? Who knows…

27. Who is least likely to respond to this? Hmm… Titus.

Finally...

Only about six years later... The office is done, well, ALMOST done, I still have a few pieces of trim to put around the windows, I suppose I'll attempt to get it up in the next few years... :) It's kind of hard to see the slate in some of the pictures, but it looks great!

You used to walk in and just see piles of crap that had accumulated over the past six years... Glad that's gone! We'll see how long it takes to accumulate more junk... :)

Yeah, I need to figure out what to do with the door that used to be there, I'm probably going to put a pocket door there, but yeah, it's NOT all that urgent of a project...

Carolyn was glad to get back in here as I had to cram her desk in the corner in the "school" room for the past two weeks or so... :)

I also am aware that my desk is a bit banged up, but hey, I got it at a garage sale for a dollar about ten years ago and it works just fine... :)

Yeah, I know my camera sucks, who knows, perhaps Santa will bring me a new one... :)

Uh, Yeah...

Has it been a week already?? I suppose it has, hard to believe that it is nearly Thanksgiving... The kids are getting excited about dragging down all the Christmas decorations though, I suppose we all are though, fun time of the year! We don't really plan on doing much this week though, the kids are out of school, I have to work and Carolyn has school (except Thursday and Friday). We were going to go down to Tonya's, then changed plans because Carolyn's family was coming down, then that changed, so now we might just go out to eat and see a movie... We did get a turkey though in case we change our minds again... :) Why do people only cook turkeys on Thanksgiving? Of course maybe some people cook them all the time, who knows...

No, I don't have the office back together yet, and it's getting on my nerves... I finally finished grouting it all today though, so I suppose I'll be able to move everything back in tomorrow, which will be nice, because the contents of the room have been scattered throughout the downstairs for the past several weeks... Perhaps I'll post some pics later, I have been awful about taking them lately though, probably because everyone keeps passing around a cold and I just haven't felt like it... Hope everyone has a great week though!!

Have I Mentioned...

How much I detest cold weather?? Ugh! It's here to stay though until March I suppose... I don't get a whole lot done outside when it is cold out, and keep in mind that "cold" is pretty much anything below 60 degrees... :) I did get the slate put down in the office though...

This is pretty much how I spent my weekend...

I DID get it done though, well, not done yet, as I still have to seal it and then grout it, a chore I hate nearly as much, if not more, than actually laying the slate... We'll see if that gets done in the next few days, although I'm sure it will because I can't not have my office back together... :)

Something else that has been killing me lately is hearing all these people comparing the current economic mess with the Great Depression...

I've not yet seen anyone living like this...

Or this...

Nor is it likely that we will see people living like that... Will it get worse than it is right now? Probably... Are we all going to be living in "Hoovervilles"? Doubtful... You hear some of these doom and gloom people talking about the end of times, stockpiling food, etc, etc... Reminds me of some of the kooks who sold all their shit before Y2K and moved to the hills. Idiots!

We did watch some movies this weekend as well, nothing like a roaring fire in the fireplace and a good movie to watch on a cold night! 'The Bank Heist' was pretty good, so was 'Street Kings'... I also liked 'Lions for Lambs'. Of course the places we get movies are running out of options, we got 'Color of Freedom' and 'He Was A Quiet Man' for tonight, I'm not getting my hopes up on those two though so we'll see how they are. :)

Before...

So I've spent the past three days emptying out the office so I can finally put the slate down that has been stacked in Cory's room for who knows how long... It's LONG overdue for it I might add, I think it's the only room in the house that hasn't gotten a new floor put down (well, except Cory's room, but he doesn't live here, so it hasn't ever seemed all that urgent... :) So anyway, here are the before shots, hopefully the after pics will be up within a few days! :)

Happy Veterans Day...

Note To Self...

When the temperature is only going to be in the low 60's and it is going to be windy, DON'T wear short sleeves and shorts! Yeah, I can't wait until Spring, and it isn't even Winter yet... We decided to take off to Red Top Mountain yesterday for some hiking and a picnic...

About to start off on the trail... Yeah, it's not exactly wilderness hiking or anything... :)

They always drain a lot of the lake this time of year, but enough is left to enjoy the scenery...

Tanner contemplating what to do with the 'crust'... He ended up removing it... :)

That rock would normally be under water, and it will be again come Spring!

Carolyn has more pics posted on Facebook if you are interested in seeing them... :)

The Right Wing Nutjobs...

Not that McCain was, but it's time to rework the GOP... Getting rid of the far right-wing wackos is, in my opinion, one of the FIRST steps that need to be taken... We'll see how that works out, now just need to get more people of like mind involved to rid the party of the morons who have allowed the current bunch of 'leaders' to stay in power so long...

Tick Tock...

Well, today is the day... Who will win?

The Chosen One?

Or these two clowns??

Yeah, I'm still undecided because I don't like either one of the choices... Although I have already voted... :) I honestly think that conservatives actually NEED a wakeup call, and I think this is a hell of a wakeup call: Democrat majority in the House, possible filibuster proof majority in the Senate and the White House... Not to mention the possibility of a few SCOTUS appointments... What were the Republicans thinking when they chose McCain?? Who knows, but we'll soon find out how that works out for them, and it's possible that he may even win...

The thing I find the most stunning is idiots like this:

Obama Is Going To Pay For My Gas And Mortgage!!!

Big Government will take care of us, go Obama!! Wow! This is PRECISELY the reason that our Founding Fathers DID NOT give everyone a Constitutional right to vote, even though you hear many morons spouting that nonsense over and over... If I was in charge, I would start restricting the "right to vote", only people who are self-sufficient would be allowed to vote, but alas, I'm not in charge... :)

I Did It...

Vote that is... Turns out it was a waste of time because Carolyn and my votes kind of negated each other, so we really could have both just stayed home and it would have had literally ZERO impact... for the rest of the votes, I just voted against the incumbent. I think more people should stop voting along party lines, and just start voting against the incumbent for a few years and maybe they will get the hint... Anyway, I'm just glad I got it over with today, even though I did have to wait in line for over an hour, of course 'poll workers' aren't the brightest lot in the world, if you get my drift... :)

Bo got a hair cut last week, Tanner looks like he needs one...

Taylor in her costume...

Everyone...

Ready to go... We really splurged on "costumes" this year as you can tell...

So everyone got a huge sack of candy and other treats and are all eating them now... :)

Mindless Online Activity...

Try it...

I've Got Nothing...

To post that is... Oh, I've got plenty to say, don't get me wrong... :) Is it Saturday already?? I've GOT to go to the dump today, my trailer is piled high with crap that has been sitting there waiting for a trip to the dump for months now, and the kids are going to be wanting to go on a hay ride Friday, so I suppose I'll go get that chore over with sometime today... I've also not taken any pictures this month for some reason, or at least very few, I go through phases...

I'm also STILL undecided believe it or not, of course I'm sure everyone knows by now that I can't stand either one of the choices, I keep just trying to figure out which one is the lesser of the two evils... Everytime I think, okay, I'll vote for McCain, I come across articles like this:

Make-Believe Maverick...

Most of that I was already aware of, which is why I can't really stand either one of them... Yeah, I understand Obama is all about Socialism, and yeah, I really would rather see divided government than to see Obama, Pelosi and Reid have the majority they need to ram whatever they choose through Congress... I really don't want Obama to be able to appoint anyone to the Supreme Court either, because that is something that can have an impact for 30 or 40 years... I really don't want McCain to appoint anyone either though, therefore the dilemma... I also don't want McCain to attain his "prize" seeing as how he went about achieving it, I don't particularly like to award people like that with their ultimate 'reward'... I also don't like the fact that all these 'conservatives' who have been screaming about 'not voting at all', etc for months are now screaming about how bad Obama is going to be, and to 'vote for McCain'... Can you make up your mind already?? Idiots, what did they think their 'Just vote no' mentality would accomplish?? Someone IS going to win, and 'No' was never an option for actually choosing a President... Morons... So part of me thinks that whole crowd will get exactly what they deserve with the White House, the House of Representatives and a filibuster proof Senate in the hands of three of the most liberal, left leaning people in government... An Obama who may very well appoint one or two Supremes as well... I think they will get what they deserve and perhaps wake up and make some changes in 2010 after realizing that "Just vote no" doesn't quite work out for them all that well... So yeah, I'm still undecided...

Perhaps I'll take some photos for everyone's enjoyment this weekend, who knows... :)

The Difference...

"The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time. The hand of force may destroy but cannot disjoin them.” –Thomas Jefferson

I'm Freezing...

Well, not literally, but I'm cold! I don't much care for this time of year, when the transition is made from shorts to jeans and you don't know whether to turn the heat on or not... It's down to nearly freezing at night, but then gets up to the mid 70's to 80's during the day... It's like the weather can't make up it's mind or something... I do like the colors and such during fall, but I'm more of the type who if I had had a choice would hole up inside from now on until Spring... :) Ah, but that's not a choice... We did go get some pumpkins today to carve, one of the neighbor kids took Carolyn's, so we have to go get some more today, and of course the kids want to carve another one, so I suppose we'll be doing it again...

The kids with their pumpkins...

We all went out to the Etowah Indian Mounds on Saturday, Carolyn has posted the pics on Facebook... The kids want to build a mud hut out back, so we'll see how long that interest lasts... :) Other than that, pretty much just life in general around here, I can't believe that the year is nearly over though... I am looking forward to seeing what happens on November 4th, I just hope we know who won the next day rather than some long, drawn out legal thing... Tick tock, we'll soon find out... :)

The McCain-Palin Mob

Of course the far right is just as effing loony!! Jeez... If we could just eliminate the far right AND the far left everything would be just fine... Imo... :)

Howard Stern Exposes Clueless Obama Supporters

Wow! Yet another reason why some people should NOT be allowed to vote... Another thing that kills me is these clueless nitwits who keep screaming about the 'right to vote', there is NO constitutional right to vote, and SCOTUS reaffirmed that not long ago... Idiots...

Field Trip...

So yeah, same old thing going on around here... Yesterday I went with Taylor and her class to the Bartow History Center on a field trip, for some reason I only took about 3 pictures...

Off we go...

Inside the center learning about the Cherokee Indians that used to live around here before the Federal Government made them all go to Oklahoma... :)

After we got home, our neighbor took Carolyn and Taylor to a horse farm down the road...

They had a good time, now Taylor and the boys want to take horse riding lessons... So I suppose we'll sign them up, I always enjoyed being around horses myself...

Other than that, same old thing going on around here... The kids are off of school tomorrow, so we are going to take them out to the Etowah Indian Mounds in Cartersville for a family excursion/learning trip... :) I did finally get the rails around the deck, but for some reason I've not been taking many pictures lately, I go through phases where I'll take tons of them, then practically none...

The next few weeks should also be interesting, I'll be glad though when the election has come and gone myself, I'm rather tired of it all... Seems like this presidential election has been going on for nearly two years?!? I suppose it will all be over soon enough though, I'm sure half the country, if not a higher percentage, will be glued to the TV on November 4th along with me waiting to see the results... :)

Funny...

Why The Messiah Will Win...

Likely in a landslide...

Not Me...

Up for swimming that is, not that I don't like swimming, but it's too late in the year and I think the water is FREEZING! The kids don't seem to mind, even though they also admitted that the water was freezing... Tonya and Billy and their kids came up today for a visit, and it wasn't long before Kristen, Chance and Tanner were in the water...

I was cold just watching them... Of course I think they were as well, but swim they did...

Taylor and Karen soon followed... I thought that would be it, but they were all back in about an hour later...

Tonya and Billy

We had a great time visiting with them! We just have to quit going so long between visits though! Kind of funny when you talk to some people though, they assume that we all live in "Atlanta" so we must all get together often, I'm always like, "Well, Joshua lives about 45 minutes to an hour away, Marci lives about 40 minutes away, and Tonya and Billy are over an hour away." So it's not like we are all right across the street from each other... :)