Happy Birthday Taylor!

They grow up quick, seems like just yesterday my baby was born! Now she is nine?? Where does the time go?? Today is her special day, and PLENTY of guests coming over to celebrate, so I guess I better get busy... :)

2003

2004

2007 - I love this picture!

2008 - Taylor is always writing, love it!

2008 - I was thinking this was last year, but I guess it was 2 years ago... Like I said, time flies... :)

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!! Hope you have a great day!!

Tanner's Graduation and End of School...

Hard to believe we now have two in middle school, but we do... Also, sadly, I put what I thought were new batteries in my camera before leaving, and of course they weren't... :( Oh well, I managed to take a few that turned out rather poorly...

Tanner's class, and of course when he went up to get his diploma, I turned the camera off rather than hit the 'take a picture' button, so I missed that shot, but then I always have...

That's it, Tanner is officially in middle school now. It'll be nice having Chance and Tanner at the same school next year though...

Taylor with her teacher, she is nice. She was also one of Taylor's teachers in Kindergarten.

Having ice cream before calling it quits for the year. Taylor will be the only one at Russom for the next two years. Of course they very well may only go to school 4 days a week next year, I don't think they have decided yet. The school that is, not the kids, decided that is... :)

Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park...

So the weather has been iffy all weekend, but we lucked out again today. We were able to go on our picnic, have a hike and then go for ice cream in the Marietta Town Square before it started pouring down rain on the way home! Whew! The boys were going to go to White Water (again!), but the neighbor decided she didn't want to risk the rain, so we all went together today, which was nice!

Setting up for our picnic, someone forgot to pack the cheese, but it was still a great picnic lunch!

Getting ready to go out on the trail for our hike. When we first got there, we didn't realize they were actually going to be firing the canons, so needless to say, when the first one went off, it scared the shit out of us... :)

After the hike, we went down to the Marietta Town Square to get some homemade ice cream. Chance and Tanner being silly...

Fountain in the middle of the square...

Just posing for a picture. All in all, a great day with the family! I love days like this! Many, many more to come this summer too, can't wait! Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend, we sure have...

Happy Memorial Day!!

Red Top Mountain...

Well, the guys headed off to White Water with T.J. so we decided to take a picnic lunch up to Red Top Mountain State Park and go hiking...

Taylor and I, she loved it!

Carolyn and I in front of an old cabin they relocated to the park. Carolyn asked if it brought back memories, I was like, "No, this cabin is MUCH nicer!" :)

Taylor trying to get into the cabin, they keep it locked, and with good reason I'm sure...

We only saw three deer, which is amazing, we see them all the time on our own property, as I'm sure most others do as well...

Taylor again. We need to go back with all of us and get a boat and go out on the water. They rent all sorts of boats there, and they are not really all that much. So we shall do that on a nicer weekend when it isn't supposed to rain. It has been raining off and on all weekend, but luckily it didn't rain while we were there for our picnic and hike. It did start to rain though just as we were almost back to the car, so it worked out! :)

Ha! Well, I've Been Busy... :)

Yeah, since it is nearly Father's Day, I suppose I should get busy putting something else up. Can't believe I haven't blogged since Mother's Day. I have been busy, and there have been the health issues.

I swear I have been to the doctor a half dozen times in the past few weeks, been having chest pain, tightness, and these periodic jolts/shocks to my heart. Which is the ONLY reason I go to the doctor. So the first time he said you are fine, did take blood, it was fine. Went back two days later, more tests, more blood work. All fine. I also had my first prostate exam, that was fun, wow. So yeah, everything about my body is "normal", so I might go see a cardiologist, I mean I will. I know I call my doctor a quack at times, but I do believe he knows what he is doing and I have been going to him for nearly 12 years. Who knows... So that has taken up a considerable amount of my time.

The rest has been my job, for some reason, the powers that be thought it would be a GOOD idea to have me as the only Citrix Administrator on first shift, wow. There are a gazillion Citrix farms across the world, so my days have become extremely busy!! Of course that's what they pay me to do, so I'm not bitching... :)

I'm nearly done with this nightmare believe it or not!! Just doing the final touches, nothing else major to do, what a relief!!

The pictures don't really show how nearly done it is, but wow, I've been working on this effing thing for what, three years now??? It's nearly done though, I do however still have to put the slate down in the rooms, but that is a one day job, so yeah, I am glad this is coming to an end!!!

This is one of the nightmares I had to deal with not long ago when I turned on the water! They say third time is the charm, ha, no, it's four! It took me two weeks to correct all the water issues, but all is well now and it is on and running! Carolyn LOVES having a hose out there now! So do I for that matter... :)

Then there is the dirt bikes!!! I got so fed up with the idiot who was screwing me on fixing the kids dirt bikes, I decided to start doing it myself! The issue was, I didn't have a stand to put them on to work on them. So I just made one out of scrap lumber I had laying around. So from now on I will be fixing them myself and teaching the kids how to do it. How hard can it be????

"What one man can do, so can another" from The Edge... One of my favorite quotes btw... :)

Happy Mother's Day Carolyn!

Spring Fling...

Yup. That time of year again, of course the kids LOVE going and they also LOVE the fact that once the Spring Fling arrives there are only a few weeks of school left... :)

Of course, as usual, I took no pictures and Carolyn only took a few... :(

Taylor on the bungee thing, I have no idea what the official name of it is...

Tanner taking a turn at it...

Then Chance... Yeah, like I said, I took no pictures, and Carolyn took these while waiting in line after I asked her if she had taken any pictures... :)

This is what I do of course during the Spring Fling. Although, Tanner's class had a super easy booth this year, and there were two other classes to help with it. All I had to do this year was make the sign and help man the booth. I think though that once your kid gets to 5th grade they give you the easy booths to setup and maintain because they figure you are effing over it! Which is true. They give all the hard booths to the K - 2nd because all those parents are gung ho and ready to GO! :)

Taylor with the 2nd to last puppy, the people were on the way to come get it. Only one left until Brianna has some that is... :)

That's about it... Except for life... :) I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my repaired Bobcat though, I called last week and they still hadn't even gotten to it!?! They did tell me when I dropped it off that they were super backed up though and it might take them a minute to get to it, I just didn't know they meant three weeks!!! Oh well, plenty of other things to amuse myself while I wait for it... :)

Tanner's 5th Grade Field Trip...

Today was Tanner's 5th grade field trip, I actually don't mind going because the kids love for me to go, which is the only reason I do... The only bad thing is I can't smoke, which probably isn't a bad thing, but I can usually sneak one in here and there, today that was not the case and it is also the longest I have ever been without a cig since boot camp in 1989... :( Oh well, we had fun.

We took tour buses to downtown Atlanta and went to the Martin Luther King Center, then to Turner Field and the final stop was the CNN Center...

It was raining pretty much all day until near the end, so that sucked, but luckily I did bring my umbrella! Only about 30% of the parents had them and none of the kids, I wasn't giving mine up though, I did let the kids gather around the edges though, so a few people stayed dry because of mine, but the most important thing is that I did!! ;)

First stop was the Martin Luther King Center, not sure who actually chose that stop, it was boring as hell! Luckily we didn't stay there long as we got started late and they decided to cut short that visit to not throw off the rest of the schedule... These were the three kids I was in charge of: Matthew, Jacob and Tanner...

Next stop was Turner Field. The kids enjoyed it there. This is the box where the press sits to watch the games...

Sitting in the visiting team dugout... We also got to visit the floor with all the suites and see how the people who have $$ get to watch the games, saw the visiting team locker room and the announcers booth as well...

The three yahoos I was in charge of again... It's stunning how many of the chaperones can't control just three kids!!???!!! Of course I'm usually one of the only men, so the bathroom breaks are something else. "Stop making a mess with the soap!", "Quit splashing water!", "Leave him alone!", "Come on, quit playing and lets go!", etc... :(

Final stop was the CNN Center. For the vast majority of the tour there we could not take pictures or use our cell phones, but we got to see live broadcasts in progress, see the newsroom, etc... I enjoyed it the most, as did most of the kids...

So one more of these to go in two years, then my 5th grade field trip days are officially over!!!

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah...

I'm LOVING Spring! Although I really can't wait for 80+ degree weather all the time, I hate being cold, which = anything below 70... :) In other news... The puppies are getting big and starting to run around and play, too cute!

Taylor with one of the puppies...

Cute!

They are cute, but I think Carolyn has 3 or 4 of them sold now, they get their final shots Saturday, then off to their new homes... Of course I suppose it won't be long until Brianna has a litter... :( The kids are counting the $$ though and trying to decide what they want to get...

Cylee... Zac's baby, Carolyn watches her sometimes when he helps me work on the pool house. She is adorable!

When you have a leak that is difficult, Shark Bite fittings are the ONLY way to go! They are about 5 times more expensive than normal fittings, but they just slide on and do not leak!

Just putting the final touches on the pool house, now that the water is on and I know there are now no leaks, it's time to button that nightmare project up and be done with it!! Hopefully I get my Bobcat back today or tomorrow so I can start working on getting the yard graded and grass sown, what a great day that will be when I can walk outside and not have anything to do but lay by the pool!!!

Wow...

That's a lot of posting in just a few short days... :) I need to anyway, I've been such a slacker lately, and it is a journal of sorts...

No, I'm NOT a mechanic!! I try though, I can manage if I have the manual, but alas, I don't have any dirt bike manuals... Turns out Tanner's dirt bike is a 2 stroke rather than a 4 stroke, who knew?? So yeah, no oil, because who would think to look under the effing seat for the 2 stroke oil tank?? Yeah, the engine is shot now, but one of our neighbors fixes stuff like that out of his garage, so that's where Tanner's bike is currently...

Tanner, Chance and Nate with their bikes. Tanner is now anxiously awaiting for his to get the engine rebuilt, should be about a week the kid said...

Taylor went with another one of the neighbors to a birthday party for one of her friends and painted this picture at the party. Looks great I think, she now has it hanging on her wall...

Other news?? Yeah, I now have the bathrooms back in commission, wow! Not exactly what I had planned for the weekend, but what can you do?

With any luck I'll get my Bobcat back from the hydraulic shop tomorrow... You thought I had that pos fixed?? Yeah, so did I... :( Sadly, when I THOUGHT I had it running the other day, turns out there is another effing leak, so I finally got tired of messing with it and just hauled it down to the hydraulic shop...

Spring!

I LOVE it!! Unlike most people I suppose, I would rather it be 80 - 100 and humid than for it to be 65 or below... I'm sure the handful of people who actually look at my blog already know this though... :)

Another reason I love Spring is all the flowers and greenery... Flowers don't last long on azaleas or dogwoods, but it's nice the few weeks they do last.

If you reference the pic from my last post, yeah, that didn't quite work out, so I had to run all new wire for the phone/satellite/ethernet to the pool house, but tis done and the phone is hooked up, will test the internet and satellite today, should work though, as it is now a single wire going directly from the pool house to the house...

Luckily I haven't yet put concrete in that 'fire pit' area, because that was the perfect place to cut through with the new wire...

Other than that, same old thing here... The puppies are starting to walk around and eat/drink out of the 'big dog' bowls, now to just get rid of them in the next few weeks. The kids will try to sell them, if they have no luck, I will be giving them away, trust me!!

Then there was the 'water leak' in the downstairs bathroom that was coming from the upstairs bathroom, what an effing mess!! I had to rip out the ceiling in the downstairs bath and gut the upstairs bath... :( Oh well, they both needed a makeover, but I really didn't have the time to screw with it, but some things you have to make time for, such as water leaks... :)

Perhaps I'll actually take some pictures of the kids today to post later, don't wait up on it though... ;)

Well, I Actually AM Busy... ;)

I also haven't felt much like blogging once the day is done... :) I'm slowly crossing things off of my 'to do' list though, so I guess that is good!

Timberly, LeRoy and the boys stopped by on their way down to FL, but I only took about 4 pictures for some reason and this is the only one that actually turned out... I REALLY need to start taking more pictures!

Carolyn and the kids took the puppies to the vet for their first shots, they are getting bigger and starting to try to walk around, cute!

Puppies obviously... Yeah, I know that blanket is filthy... Carolyn buys blankets at garage sales for them, so they get a clean one every week... :)

One of the many things I've been up to, I ripped the phone/satellite/ethernet wires that go up to the pool house in two places last year when I was doing some digging, I have attempted to repair them, but too many connections now so I am going to have to run new wire, sigh. Always something...

Seems like I am always working on this effing pos! I broke one of the hoses the last time I was working on it, tried to get one at the Bobcat dealer for over a month, kept getting the run around, I finally went down to a nearby hydraulic shop and they made me one in about 15 minutes and it only cost $25... It required a "special" tool that I couldn't find anywhere, so my neighbor took a regular wrench and 'made' a crow foot wrench for me, which worked like a charm! So I finally have that damn thing running again, now to finally get my back yard graded and grass planted, Carolyn will be THRILLED when that day arrives! I will too for that matter... ;)

Yeah, other than that, I'm NOT working on that basement at the moment, waiting on the guys to finish the drywall and then paint, then I'll go over and do the finish work and it will be done! Winding down on the pool house as well, so with any luck THAT nightmare will also soon be complete! The kids were on Spring Break last week, although we didn't do much of anything, of course I was not off of work. The neighbor took them to a Braves game, they took the Marta down to Turner Field, had a blast! Taylor LOVES baseball, so I guess there may be some games in my future... ;) Yeah, I'll try to actually keep something up here, operative word being try... :)

Another Day...