Happy Birthday Chance!!!

Wow! I can't believe that Chance is now a teenager?!? Where does the time go? Go it does though! Happy Birthday Chance!

First day of school, Chance was SO excited, he was up at the crack of dawn, dressed and ready to go. The excitement lasted for about 3 seconds once we actually got to the school and it was time for me to leave... :)

Yeah, Chance leaned against something I had just painted... He has had quite a few guitars in his 13 years, but has never learned how to play, perhaps I should finally spring for lessons?? :)

Easter a few years ago, handsome young man!

At Titus and Jackie's wedding, which seems like it was yesterday, but was three years ago... It's like I'm standing still and time is zooming by me...

With one of his MANY animals! He loves them though, so the more the merrier I suppose, as long as he tends to them that is... :)

Happy Birthday Chance, I love you!!

FINALLY!!

Got the satellite working, nearly there... ;)

Nine Years Old!

Taylor's Birthday Cake...

After blowing out the candles. Luckily we even had candles as I forgot to get any when I got the cake... :)

Taylor had about 5 of her friends over for a pool/slumber party. Tonya and her kids came up, as well as Tammy's kids, so there were plenty of people for the party!

Swimming after the lunch, cake, ice cream and presents... It WAS hot too, so they were in the pool pretty much from then on, as was I, and it's only the second time I've even been in the pool this year...

I had that pinata hung up, but the handle that attaches to the pinata broke after about the 3rd swing, so I had to hold it from then on... You'd think they would make the handles a bit stronger on those things since people will actually be swinging baseball bats at it, or perhaps we were supposed to use a stick rather than a bat... :)

So a good time was had by all, and my baby girl is NINE years old?!?!?! :)

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!!!