WooooooooooooooHoooooooooooooooooooooo ...............

If you didn't get it in the title, let me say it again, woooooooooooooooooooohooooooooooooooooo ...

Do you know what time it is? It's school time. That's right, its school time again and that means we are back to a normal schedule!!!!!!!!!!

I cant stress enough how much of a routine kind of guy I am. Does that sentence even qualify as English? It doesn't matter, its my blog and I will write whatever form of Stenglish (Stephen + English = Stenglish) I want to write. Back to the topic at hand, I am a routine kind of person. I know its hard to imagine that a father of three teenage daughters could call himself a routine kind of person, but with me it is true. I cant stand to be out of routine. Routine = Sanity, at least it does in my world.

Here are a few examples ...

1. I like to get up at the same time each day. Big E is working on my weekend wake up time, but its taken her 6+ years to get me past 7:00 AM.
2. I start every day with a shower!!!!!! I don't care if its a shower to go cut the grass, I will be clean and awake before I do anything.
3. I have the exact same post shower routine each morning. Those details probably should not be shared in public.
4. I take the same route to work every day.
5. I cant stand to have anything of mine moved or out of place. Dont even consider putting something on or removing something from my desk. I will hurt you .....

Now that I spell those few items out, I think the word neurotic might be a better word. Holy cow, that is only a couple of hundreds of items that I could easily jot down. Maybe that is why my beautiful bride and kids make soooooo much fun of me. I am weird!!!!

Nothing like a moment of clarity ....

Anyway, sure school starting means we have to buy school supplies, uniforms, etc. but it is all worth it. Besides, school supplies are SUPER cheap this year. Have you seen the low cost of paper, pens and folders this year? CVS has practically supplied us with half a year of supplies for FREE this year. FREE!!!!!!! In fact, we managed to accumulate enough supplies this year to denote multiple bags of goodies to charity.

Quick aside, if you aren't into CVS "extra care bucks", you need to learn about their program. Sure, CVS isn't the cheapest place in town but if you know how to use the program, it can definitely be worth the effort. I wouldn't even consider Walmart, Target or Publix for our various cleaning (human and non-human) items, makeup, toiletries, etc. In fact, with our stockpiling of items, I don't need to purchase shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, toothpaste, body soap and many other items for the next six or seven months.

As an update, our oldest (Jessica) starts at Faulkner University this week, the middle kid (Little E) is starting her senior year of high school and the youngest (Brooke) is entering high school. Can you imagine? I know at least two grandmothers that are wondering where all the time has gone.

We are really starting to look forward to fall football games with Jessica (Faulkner is in year two with football) and with Little E and Brooke at the high school games too. Of course, that means fall needs to hurry up and get here!!!!

Changing subjects, we have been pretty busy around the backyard lately. Big E finally broke down and paid a fencing company to come out and replace the fence along the back of our yard. Elizabeth and I have been working (SSSSLLLLOOOOWWWLLLYYY) on replacing the planks on the fence since we moved into the house but she could take it no more. The fence looks awesome!!! With the fence done, we began planting a row a Crepe Myrtle trees along the fence. I love crepe myrtle trees (and azaleas too) so we are planting a full row of them across the back of the property to ultimately created a screen between us and the neighbors. I cant wait to see the trees in a few years after they've had a chance to grow. Big thanks go out to my mom and dad for letting us dig up their extra trees and plant them here.

With all of that said, I got to go!!!! 1 vs 100 starts live in a few minutes and we are playing tonight. What is 1 vs 100? Well, you've seen the game show, but now you can play it on the Xbox. Each Friday and Saturday, they have a live show with around 30,000 people playing for prizes. A few weeks ago, we were selected to be a part of the 100 mob. I wish I had a video of Big E's reaction to being selected. Regretfully, our mob did not win any prizes that time, but we had a blast playing.

One last update, last Thanksgiving we purchased a new washer and dryer. The washer is one of those front load fancy deals. We have been monitoring our water usage since then and I am proud to say that we have cut our water usage in HALF despite having Little E come to live with us full time as opposed to part time. Based on those water savings, you could actually use the water savings to pay for the dryer in a matter of a couple of years. Now, that is awesome and its green.

Till next time, learn a lot, leave my stuff alone, and root for your favorite team, see ya......