Office Floor

I haven't posted anything about it but most of you know we are in the midst of a massive remodel at the house.  We've been on a concrete slab for 5 weeks now.  The floor installers are doing concrete work today and will begin putting down the hardwood tomorrow.  When it's all done I'll have pics and such.

The office however is done now.  The office (aka the Blue Room) has been a multifunctional room since we moved in.  We originally were going to put carpet back in the room.  Then we decided to extend the hardwood into there.  Then we decided to extend the hardwood into our bedroom and wanted something different in there.

So.....here we are installing the new cork flooring last weekend.

Subtle change to site

Only pay attention if you are truly interested!!!!!

I've been experimenting how to get video to upload to the site from my phone.  The problem is exporting to a small web file from iOS to my ftp site.  The conversion leaves something to be desired and I've been looking at presets.  The presets are the typical web fair and then HD stuff.  I figure with the advent of retina displays, high speed internet, and the fact that we all have HD cameras in our phones these days, it was time to stay ahead of the curve and up the resolution.  So I've changed the content width of the site to 720 pixels from 640.  To keep the site from being too wide I've dropped the content padding from 75 pixels to 15 pixels.  It'll still be a little wider. Hopefully older posts won't be too wonky.  We'll see.

Easter 2012

Happy Easter weekend everybody.  I hope your holiday was wonderful.  Ours was fairly busy but enjoyable.  

The big story of the weekend was Campbell giving her pacifier to the Easter Bunny.  As you know we've built it up big time over the past 2 weeks.  She was all excited but on Saturday morning we went to the Easter egg hunt at our church.  Guess who was there. The...Easter...Bunny

I went home and got her pacifiers and brought her one.  Well, stage fright set in.  A 5 foot person in a bunny costume can kind of do that I guess.  She wouldn't go near him.  She wouldn't even look at him.  I had the good camera out and rolling to capture the moment in it's HD glory, but she just hid behind us.  She walked over to me with her arms out with that scared look.  So I stopped filming and picked her up.  She put her head on my shoulder looking away from the Easter bunny. 

Then the funniest thing happened.  She took the pacy out of her mouth and-without looking mind you- threw the pacy to him behind her back.  When I say she threw it, I mean she THREW IT.  It went about 30 feet and skidded up to the bunny's feet.  She was so proud the rest of the day.  "Gave pas to Eater Bunny! Big girl!"

It was classic.

Self-inflicted busy day

Busy days usually make us grumpy but this one was self-inflicted so it just made bedtime easy. We went for a bike ride at Lake Fayetteville. Noah is becoming quite the bike rider. He made it 3 miles without nary a complaint. He had to walk up the big hills and had one good scare going down another but overall he's rockin and rollin. When we were done, the climbing wall at Lewis and Clark was open so we gave it a go. Jenna rang the bell and Noah made it about halfway. His legs gave out on him so I figure next time we'll do the wall first. Throw in church, 2 workouts, choir, and Cam's nap and it was a pretty full day.

 

Happy Holidays 2011

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.  We were able to see almost every family member over the past week. We enjoyed Christmas morning at our house then we loaded up for the LA tour.  Last night I was going through the aftermath and was amazed how blessed our children are.  Not just from the gifts but from the large number of people who love them and want to contribute to their holiday. I'll put a gallery up soon.  Until then, I hope everyone has a happy and safe New Year. Cheers.

p.s. If you want a little holiday game, click the picture above for a larger view and try to find Noah.

OT Reunion-Part Deaux

Another year and another Arkansas-LSU matchup.  This year the stakes were the highest ever and unfortunately it didn't go our way.  Jenna and I actually headed down for the game.  After my college buddies from south Louisiana, Scott and Gino, came to Little Rock last year; Brad and I planned a reciprocal trip to cajunland this year. We even had another college friend, Javier, show up and I saw my high school buddy Kenneth for the first time in about a decade.  

Despite the outcome of the game we had a blast. It was Jenna's first trip to Baton Rouge and it was exactly what she pictured with the huge oaks and an ancient southern town. My personal favorite part was having my little southern girl with her Texarkana accent thinking my friends talk funny. We had another whole adventure of her trying to prounounce the streets to Scotty as we drove from Chimes.

Can't wait to get back to the kids and NW Arkansas but it was a great trip we'll always remember.

"And wuv, tru wuv, will fowow you foweva..."

Feeling pretty good about our marriage right now.  We were invited by the Marriage Enrichment Council to participate in an Oldie/Newlywed game.  So Sunday night we joined 7 other couples on a stage with the full intent of not embarrassing ourselves.

Fortunately the questions we were asked matched up with things we knew and we won. At the halfway point we were way ahead. One couple that had been married about 40 years made a furious comeback but we held them off and took home the grand prize of a dinner and movie.  When I get some pictures I'll post them.

Hippos and T-Rexes and 4 Loco, oh my!

We had an awesome trip to St. Louis last weekend. The DiCarlos played perfect hosts. We spent the whole weekend either shuttling the kids to something cool or hanging on their deck and just enjoying the company. Our families click well with the kids getting along and laid back parenting. I did a fair job of hanging with Nick, but the trip home had me regretting the Four Loco and seeing the other side of 1AM three nights in a row.

I uploaded a gallery above. It's mostly the kids at the Magic House, Zoo, and the Science Center.  


The cost of bananas is out of hand

Lesson of the day:

Just because Wal-Mart allows you to slide your debit card and enter your PIN before the computer gives you a total, doesn't mean it's a good idea.

The cashier had to manually enter the price for my bananas that were $1.47. When he went to hand me the receipt all he could mutter was an 'Uh-oh.'

The manager let me bypass the line at customer service but no one was mad. In fact there was no shortage of chuckles.

Oregon-Summer 2011

Last week we embarked on a new adventure to the West Coast. We flew into Portland to Amanda and Sue's to be joined by The Jordan's, Powell's, and Magga.


We were the only one's in the group yet to visit here and I think we were 'digging it the most.' We were there for just a day before heading to Pacific City for the 4th. I acclimated to calling it the 'coast' instead of 'beach' right away since it was unlike any beach I'd ever experienced. I'll break the trip up into parts with more posts, but I think this picture sums up the trip pretty well.

I'd credit whoever took this photo, but I found it on my computer and have no idea who took it so speak up if you know.

Happy Father's Day 2011

A guy and I were talking last week.  He and his wife are starting to think about kid's and he asked me how great it was.  My only response was it is everything you can imagine but this is not the week to ask because everyday I come home, Noah has paint on his hands.  He won't tell me what it's from, only 'it's a secret.' Finally, this morning I was given the fruits of his labor.  A blue box he painted for me. Inside was written, "I love you because..." and a bunch of notes.  Jenna swears he came up them all without prompting.  I also got a new apron with a new moniker that was pretty clever. Highlight of the day was hitting golf balls in the yard beside the trampoline while the kids jumped with a sprinkler on.  Noah singing with VBS at church was cool too.  All around great day.

Happy day to all the father's out there, especially my own.  I love you man.  Can't wait to tee it up soon.