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Updated weekly on Mondays Here's what's going on in our lives (if you care):
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December 2007 |
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12-17-07: Good morning. I hope everyone had a good weekend. Ours was fine. My mom and dad came into town Friday night, so Hobs had a good time. They played most of the weekend. Our 6 year anniversary was Saturday, but we didn't really do much. We were going to go out that night, but decided not to. We have started to move furniture to get ready for the new kid. We moved a lot of Hobs' old furniture out of his room and put it in what used to be the office. Hobs got some of his new furniture yesterday, including his new bed. The crib is still in his room, but he was excited to sleep in a real bed, so more than likely we will go ahead and move the crib out pretty quick. Here is a pic of him enjoying his new bed.
That is about all for now. I may not post again until after Christmas. With everything going on, it may be hard to sit down long enough to get something done. Who knows, maybe I will, but if not, have a good one.
12-10-07: Hello again. Not a lot to report this week. I summoned the courage to climb back onto the roof this weekend to get the lights up and running. So far so good. Hobs is doing good. He is obsessed with football. He carries his football around all day going "hut" and throwing it. He runs around with it and then falls down and says "tackle." He asks to watch football all the time. My favorite sentence of his is "watch, football, Texas." That's my boy. I found out I got a job teaching a bachelor's class at UTA next semester, so that should be interesting. My parents are coming into town this weekend. Also, Hollie's family is coming into town, and we will probably go to Six Flags, so that is fun. I will post pics. Have a good week.
12-3-07: Well, it is the first week of December, which means Christmas season is upon us. If you know Hollie and me, you know we are both huge fans of Christmas. I have loved Christmas my whole life, and as soon as I had my own house, I decided I was going to deck it out in lights. Well, our first house in Providence was a two story home with an extremely high roof. This resulted in me defying death on several occasions to install lights. I devised a series of ladders and pulleys to help install the lights there, often times making me fear for my life, to assure that all of Providence was blessed by the beauty of our home. Upon moving to Allen, I was very excited that we were moving to a one-story home, one that was much easier to install lights on. I soon found that this assumption was false. So, Saturday morning I took all of the boxes of lights I had out of the garage and began untangling the rats nest of cords and plugs that had been cohabitating in such chaos for the previous year. I plugged each one in to make sure it worked, and of course, most did not. I assumed I had enough to at least get started, so I began. I started my effort by taking a nice long look at the simple one story house, constructing a mental plan of attack. Having outline my every move, I begun by borrowing my neighbor's ladder. After several underestimations of the ladder's length, resulting in me picking it up by the bottom and stumbling about my yard trying not to tip over backwards with it, I finally (with my pregnant wife's help) got it propped against the front of the house. I slowly crept up toward the first eve above the door, constantly looking at Hollie to in order to determine whether she sensed this poor ladder would hold up under the pressure of my muscular frame, or whether I was about to be planted next to the rose bushes in the flower bed. The first eve was done without a problem. Next, I had to get up on the roof. After about an hour of negotiating the gutters and the porch cover, I finally began my ascent of the roof, only to realize that it was much steeper than I had originally thought. I got the lights onto the front part, balancing ever so delicately. I ran the lights up to the top part of the house, and was now sitting on the highest point of my home. At this point, the wind had picked up significantly, which resulted in multiple occurrences of me hanging onto the chimney like a cat clinging to someone's sweater, wide-eyed and whispering prayers of forgiveness before my impending death. I finally, with the help of a higher being, got the lights all installed (with a trip to Lowe's to restock on lights, only to realize I had more brand new boxes in the garage). At this point I had been working approximately 6 hours, about 3 hours longer than it usually took me at my other house. I came back down the ladder, trembling after many near death experiences. I spent the next 3 hours putting lights in the flower beds and on the trees, with yet another trip to Lowe's built in. About 9:15 I finally finished. I took all of my extension cords and plugged them into the outlet, ignoring the silly warning on the boxes not to string more than 3 sets of lights together. 3 sets, 9 sets, what's the real difference. Really, how much electricity can a stand of lights really use anyway. So, I call my lovely wife out to look at my work. I flipped the switch, and everything came on. There she was, a beacon of Christmas cheer to all those who looked upon it (as well as a possible landing beacon for airplanes in distress if need be). I sat back with my arms folded, admiring my creating much as the Lord did on the seventh day, saying to myself "it is good." About that time I heard a sudden surge of electricity and a popping sound, followed by the lights on the roof flickering out. My smile disappeared. My wonderful spouse then chimed in "well, it was very pretty." I looked at her in disgust and said "go get me a flashlight." I climbed back up the ladder and took the fuse out of the first string of lights. I got the spare fuse out of the cord, looked at it in satisfaction, and then proceeded to fumble it around with both hands before it fell into the bushes. I shouted some word which I cannot think of, and began popping open other light cords in search of a fuse. I finally found one, installed it, and the lights shown gloriously once more. Not wanting to tempt fate, I hurried into the house before the lights could taunt me once more. Yesterday, we were on our way out to small groups. I loaded Hobs into the car, and then noticed the lights come on behind me (they are on a timer). I smiled to myself once more, realizing what a blessing I was to my street. I turned to say something to Hobs when I once again heard the sound of surging electricity. I doubt that the sounds of the opening of the gates of hell could have been any less welcome at this point. I spun around to see, once again, my un-illuminated roof. Noting that my 19 month old son was behind me, I bit my tongue and looked at my wife, who simply said "just get in the car." I did so, fuming about my failure as a family head for the remainder of the evening. It turns out that when the boxes say no more than 3 strands at a time, they probably mean it. So, next weekend, I will once again brave the elements and ascend the heights of my roof. I will not be defeated. See you next week, maybe.
How many view of weekly news this week.
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