January recap

Its cold!!!

Did you make any resolutions for the new year? Have you broken them already? I'm not a fan of resolutions, in my experience resolutions are little more than pipe dreams. Seriously, are you really going to change simply because the calendar flipped to a larger year value? After all, its just another day. Maybe I'm being cynical? Tell me what you think.

With that said, we have had a little fun and excitement around the Lee household since the start of the new year. Nothing beats this past Tuesday though. We finally decide to get a vehicle for Brooke (our baby). So, last weekend, we started our search for a reasonably priced vehicle.

As luck would have it, the best deal that we found was on a vehicle that Big E has been wanting for some time now. I had to remind her that we were not searchable for a new vehicle for her, instead, we were interested in a vehicle for Brooke. I might as well have been talking to myself!!! We did see a nice small SUV for Brooke but it was way out of our price range.

On Tuesday, after some negotiation, Big E called me to say that she had settled on a price with the dealership for that nice small SUV for Brooke. I was a little surprised, but she had convinced the dealership to get the price down to the zone we wanted to be in, so I agreed and went back to work.

On Tuesday afternoon, I left work satisfied that Big E had accomplished a good thing with the dealership and that Brooke would be pleasantly surprised when we brought the vehicle home to here.

I pulled on to our street and noticed an unusual vehicle in front of our house, at first I thought that one of our neighbors had been out car shopping too. As I got closer, I came to realize that the new vehicle was parked in our driveway, and it looked a lot like the vehicle that Big E wanted from the dealership.

I still held out hope that she was simply test driving the vehicle and wanted me to experience it too. Then it hit me, kind of like a ton of bricks falling from the sky onto my head, she got a great deal on Brooke's car because she pulled a two'fer on me!!!!

We now own enough vehicles to qualify for fleet coverage from the insurance company!!! Fleet coverage! Is that insane or what? Two of those vehicles are new to family as of Tuesday.

Sure enough, with a HUGE smile on her face, Big E crawled out of her Chevrolet Avalanche (used mind you) and asked "what do you think?". Now, I may have been tired from a long day of work, but I ain't dumb enough to fall for that question. I simply smiled!

It was a two'fer day for some lucky car sales guy. Imagine that guy going home and telling his wife, "honey, tonight we go out and celebrate ....".

For those that are curious, we got Brooke a cute little Ford Escape. It too is used but appears to be in pretty good shape, runs well and looks nice. Big E picked Brooke up Wednesday from work in the vehicle at which point, Brooke figured out it was really for her (not a rental car for my out of town trip). Brooke was very excited and has thanked us multiple times (I wish she would clean her room to show her appreciation!!!).

Having four cars was enough but now we have five and one of them will not fit into the garage (the Avalanche!!! hehe). As a result, we have an entirely new argument going on at the house, who gets to park in the garage. Ughh, another argument!? I wish my truck would fit, but I dont really feel like moving things around in the garage, so the girls now argue over who gets to park in the garage. Five vehicles, one garage, one driveway, will the insanity ever end?

Well, thats life in our neck of the world. I hope you are having an equally exciting time in yours. Until next time, pollute the ozone, buy more cars ......

Technology is awesome

Let me start by saying that my wife is a genius!!! I absolutely love her!

For this holiday season, I opted to update (read: replace) some of the technology in the house and that resulted in the need to upgrade a few additional peices of our technology. As with most technology, all of this stuff is Internet connectible. The problem is it requires networking magic to make it all happen and I am not a wizard of the network (nor do I have the patience to be a wizard). This is where the Magi Queen comes into the picture.

I won't bother to list all the goodies, but lets just say that my TV talks to the Internet, the Xbox is rocking more than just games, the disc player talks to everything and I think we can control all of this stuff with our phones and computers.

Being off work this week has given me a chance to figure out the basics of this stuff. Today I was playing a game on the computer, playing one on the Xbox, streaming radio off the Internet, and watching a TV, ALL at the same time. My mind was a little overloaded but the sheer coolness of being able to do all of that simulaneously is awesome.

Look, we live in a world of cheap electronics, fast computers, Internet connected everything (just look at the newest refrigerators!!) and everything else that the imagination can conjure up. I think it is awesome but at the same time, I question, are we really any better off, are we really any smarter?

I don't know about you but I don't think I am any smarter but I sure am having fun with the toys! Thank goodness for my wife that seems to be a heck of a lot smarter!

And everyone plans to sleep good ...

Wow, what a day. Cant go into details now. Thanks to everyone that came over today, thanks to everyone that helped, thanks to everyone that participated, we had fun.

The dogs are exhausted. The cats are tired. We are out of it.

Merry Christmas.

Pre-Christmas happenings ...

I hope your days have been as crazy as ours lately and I hope you have enjoyed it too. I don't know what is more tiring, the week leading up to Christmas or the weekend of Christmas. I think Big E would say that it is the Pre-Christmas run up that is more tiring.

We've had a blast the past two weeks with family happenings, work happenings, friend happenings, shopping happenings, and more ..... Now, we are trying to prepare for a really BIG Christmas Eve day and night.

Tonight, we had a party with our surrounding neighbors. We aren't exactly in the same age bracket as most of the neighbors (most are retired) but with that said, we have a great set of neighbors. We are truly blessed to live in an area with older people that can provide wit and wisdom for us. The party was a nice break from cleaning and baking.

We are hosting two different parties on Christmas Eve (tomorrow).

In the morning, we have my family coming over to open gifts for all of the kids. This was the only time that all of the kids (regretfully this does not include my sister since she is so far away) could be in the same place for an hour or two. So, Big E and I will be cooking breakfast, serving breakfast and laughing as our kids and nephews open presents. I am truly looking forward to it.

In the evening, we have Big Es family coming over to open gifts, play dirty Santa (why is it called that), eat and catch up. Everyone brings food to the evening event, which means you have no idea what you will be eating but you know it will be good and plentiful. This is a yearly family event and I really enjoy it each year.

I don't know what we will be doing the rest of the holiday, but I bet we will be sleeping in on Christmas morning. What you ask, sleeping in on Christmas? Yes, our "kids" are older and think getting out of bed before 10:00 AM is early. I kinda envy everyone with little people waking them up at 4:00 AM screaming about Santa Claus.

In the meantime, I think all of the stockings are hung, all of the gifts have been delivered or are wrapped and under the tree, nothing has to be put together (thank goodness), and the kitchen is cleaned (finally my mom gets to see the house clean!!!), so I am going to bed .... Happy Christmas Eve Eve, Christmas Eve and Merry Christmas.

Pride, my belly and Christmas Shopping

As you can imagine, our family is like most other families at this time of the year, we are shopping for Christmas presents. One of the problems, is that I tend to get frustrated after an hour or two and start to shop for myself!! When I know what I am after, I am one of the best at getting in and getting out. However, the idea of spending all day "browsing" for the right thing does not make sense to me.

I can not be specific about the gifts and individuals, but I have really been blessed with some good ideas, thoughts and strategies this year. Maybe I paid attention to "hints" or maybe I simply lucked up, eitherway I've hit the jackpot on ideas and prices in many cases.

With that said, I spent yesterday ... "browsing". This resulted in me shopping for myself. I bought a new pair of jeans. I've had two pair of jeans give up on me lately (ie. the crotch area literally blew a big hole in each pair). You can put a patch or even ignore a hole in your jeans in any location but the crotch (I'm modest like that!). I should say that both pairs of jeans were five plus years old, one was probably closer to eight or nine years old.

So, I took a break from Christmas shopping and went Stephen shopping. Since I haven't bought new jeans in several years, I went with the size that I remembered buying last time (34 X 30). I've been that size for many years. However, when I got home, the jeans had shrunk!!!! .... or I bought the wrong size? I tried squeezing my way into the jeans (and could!! haha) but I couldn't breath after I cinched the last button.

As a result, I went Stephen shopping again today, to exchange the jeans for a slightly larger size. This is when it got funny. The nice lady at the store asked if I underestimated my belly!!!!! She better be happy its Christmas time or I would have ....

Aside from that, I managed to knock out most of my Christmas shopping. I still have an item or two that I am considering for my beautiful bride (she deserves it all) and I have a Christmas Eve gift to purchase, otherwise, I am done. I hope everyone enjoys their gifts as much as I enjoyed shopping, digging, brainstorming and other painful "ings" for them, but I also hope that everyone stops to remember why we celebrate Christmas and enjoy the family and friends that we share these moments with each year.

One last thought, its really nice having children that are old enough to purchase gifts on their own, with their own money!!!!! With that said, there are some items that they can't purchase. Today, one of them learned that she could not purchase a movie for her mother. No, it wasn't a dirty movie like that, but it was a rated R movie and she isn't 17 or 18 whatever the age limit is for rated R movie's. I guess I will have to make one additional stop to handle this purchase.

Last, to my Mom, the girls have requested frozen dinners for Christmas. You know what they want and it will be great to eat out one less night a week. Thanks!!!

I didnt say it!!!

Its been a really long day, so I will keep this one short.

I had dinner with the my daughters tonight; actually, the two younger ones joined me. For those not in the know, Monday Night is MY night out for dinner. I dont remember when or why this started, but Monday is like my night out to have dinner and recharge my brain.

Anyway, two of the girls joined me for dinner. I really enjoy having dinner with the girls without Big E (who is traveling today) because I have a chance to learn stuff (which helps me understand why my mom doesn't want to know some of my stories from my childhood).

Tonight, about midway through the dinner, the following was stated ... "I dont understand, aren't all girls born with the sense of where things are located at the grocery store?".

I promise, I did NOT say it. It was actually our middle child, Little E. She made the comment after admitting that she cannot find anything in the grocery store. Apparently, the bread aisle is a little difficult to find?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?

Of course, that brought a laugh or two and a comment about whether or not I would blog about it. Well, Little E, here is your answer.

One time before the holidays

Well, its been a little slow lately, so I haven't had much to post. I know its hard to imagine things being slow in my world, so let's say that its been slow with publishable material.

Last weekend, Big E decided it would be fun to get rid of a BUNCH of junk in the house, in "southern" terms that means "lets have a yard sale". A yard sale isn't exactly my idea of a good time, but it does allow us to get rid of what we consider junk and allows someone else to pay us for it (that is a winning combination, unless you are Uncle Sam and want a chunk of the proceeds).

My main problem with yard sales is the start time. Why do people show up at 5:00 AM? We specifically stated 6:30 AM and people were literally stopping at 5:00 AM as I was trying to get the junk into the driveway. For goodness sake, its still dark! Is my junk really worth that much to you?

Once it was over, Big E and I were off to Tuscaloosa for the Alabama v Mississippi State game. We were really lucky and someone gave us a couple of tickets to see the game! I won't complain since the tickets were free but lets just say that with binoculars, you still could not see the game. I felt sorry for the people around us since they most likely paid for the seats!!!

With that said, we had a blast. It was the first weekend that actually felt like football weather. There was a slight chill in the air and when the wind blew it was almost cold. Considering our seats were up at the equivalent of the altitude of a small airplane, we were cold. Bama won, we had a great time and the drive home was easy (I slept), so it was a great day.

Other than that, I don't have a lot to report at this time. The girls are doing great. The animals are going strong. Fall is here and it is finally cooling off. Life is good.

The holidays are coming quick. I plan on taking a little time off this season to slow down and enjoy it. I really haven't been able to do so in a few years but this year we don't have any big projects going at work or home that will prevent us from spending some time with the families and ourselves. I hope you get to do the same, and I hope to share a few moments of our fun with you. Until next time, happy Thanksgiving.