Once again, another year has gone by and I still did not find the time to rewrite the entire gift registry application. No loss though, since everyone is already a member and I’ve left it as is. What that means is that it is now time to start thinking about firing that puppy back up and getting your lists made. There was an issue, recently, with email being sent from that box, which is correct now, so everything should be pretty much ready to go.
Best approach is to go through your list and remove everything. If you have something on your list that you still want to keep there, I’d remove and add it again, just to ensure that no one had it reserved still.
Being proactive now makes it easier for those shopping, such as me! Please drop me a line or shoot me a message should you have any issues regarding the registry. Same as last year, thus should be pretty straightforward.
This past weekend the three of us, Delaney, Theresa, and I, made the trip to Columbus, GA, for Neill’s ‘Turning Blue’ and Graduation ceremonies. It was an adventure, for sure, with limited sleep, to start, but was great to spend some quality time. Neill’s girlfriend, Celeste, and her family, made the trip as well. Was great for us to have someone to talk to when the two wanted to spend some time with their friends (Lester and Stephen, two of Neill’s friends from Liberty, were there as well with Lester graduating the week before, and Stephen making the trip from South Carolina) or were shopping. Funny how much shopping a bunch of “boys” do, given the opportunity.
I’ll recap a few highlights from the trip:
Our flight from KC to Atlanta was delayed by two hours, because of weather conditions in Atlanta.
Delaney’s booster seat didn’t come down with the regular luggage, thus meant we had to try to track it down. Luckily we happened upon it pretty quickly.
Everything into Atlanta was delayed, thus it is probably best to have ONE person working the rental car desk. Good times.
By the time we got to Columbus, checked into the hotel, and get ready for bed, it was 2AM. Wake up time for the next day? 5:30AM!
Ceremonies were great. Short and sweet, with enough activities to keep everyone interested, including a 4 year old. Only complaint is why they didn’t combine the two events to be on the same day. Each was an hour at the most, thus seems we could have been with both and had another day to do whatever.
For whatever reason we could not find a thing, even with the GPS. Mainly this is due to the use of generic terms, but we did take a tour of the main post trying to find something that apparently wasn’t even on the main post! But we found our way; no harm, no foul, although I will say my wife is a far better driver then navigator.
I love food. There is no secret to that. Not even so much eating it as preparing it, although eating is very HIGH on my list. So trying food from different areas of the country is something I love. I enjoyed Portland, in May, because I was able to fill myself with fresh seafood. So when in Georgia, eat like Georgians. We tried a BBQ joint in Columbus. I wanted to like it. Smelt good, had a great look, and they had fried pickles. Who wouldn’t like that? One problem, the food was awful. Meat was dry, sides had no taste, and fries reminded me of the substance that Lane’s mom made on Better off Dead. I could make a killing down there by opening a BBQ restaurant.
People from the South really are polite. Now they may not be in a hurry, when driving, but dang they are friendly and polite.
We spent a lot of time with Rudy and Shelly, Celeste’s mom and dad, which really made the trip more enjoyable then it would have had we made it alone.
Ok, well now that you know most of the highpoints, how about the really good stuff? PICTURES!
I have a few more pictures, of general activities in Columbus, but I still need to get them uploaded to the site. Check back for updates.
We spent this past weekend playing at the lake, like most weekends during the summer. It differed from some of our other weekends in that we ended up not hanging out on our dock, rather we headed down the lake to hang with new friends. What I love about today’s technologies is that they are compact and convenient, thus when everyone decided to take their turn on the water trampoline you have the opportunity to capture it all on film.
No one wants to hear all the smack talking taking place, hence the music in the background. It was thrown together pretty hastily, so please excuse the editing; I’ll clean it up tonight and repost it.
That’s all folks!
[EDIT] Been brought to my attention that the navigation bar is missing for the video player. Not sure why, but I assume it is due to the program I used to create the video. When I redo the video I’ll be sure to use a different program. Hopefully that should fix the issues. In its current state it still works, just a bit off-centered.
Most already know the story of the stair diving incident, but I’ve finally found the time to go ahead and get the pictures uploaded. For those that do not, here is a brief recap. The day before her 4th birthday, Delaney had a misstep on the stairs while going from upstairs to the main floor. She ended up falling down about four stairs, which given that she is a daredevil and falls all the time didn’t seem like it would have been a big deal, other then scaring her. Theresa was right there, scooped her up and tried to comfort her. We figured she was probably bruised and scared, but nothing major. Boy were we wrong. Theresa asked her if she was alright, which she responded that her arm hurt. Upon pulling her away to get a better look, tied with a collective gasp from Theresa, it didn’t take but a second to realize that everything wasn’t alright. She had clearly broken her arm, which was now doing its best attempt at imitating the letter S! We were dressed and to the hospital in 15 minutes.
She was an incredible trooper throughout the entire process, not even flinching when the nurse hooked up the IV. She was in a softcast, with splint, for two weeks, followed by a bright pink fiberglass cast for 3 weeks. Because she broke both bones in her left forearm, she had to have a full arm cast. Didn’t slow her down a bit. She was riding her four wheeler within a week, with her softcast, and took everything in stride. Amazing that she turned such an event into nothing more then a small inconvenience to her.
Time has past and her cast is now off. She still has a small area of one of the bones that hasn’t healed completely, thus she is still in a brace for another four weeks, but it is removable and not full arm. We were at the lake and swimming, in the “deep water”, within a day of getting it removed. Having a cast during the summer may be one of the cruelest punishments for a child that loves the water. Not that you’d wish for it to ever happen, but the day before her birthday, in the middle of the summer, is just bad timing.
You can view the set of pictures that we took during the span of her cast experience.
I also took a video of her getting the cast removed, just so she has something to remember the whole ordeal. We are still scared of the steps, but I suppose we can’t be there for every step she is going to take. We just hope that she slows down and uses more caution in the future.
I know it has been a while since we provided any updates or news, and for that I do apologize. Things have been incredibly busy, with my new job, Neill graduating, and life just happening. I hope to get things back on track soon. I’m looking to simplify the site, again, as the current site just doesn’t provide the necessary interaction I’m looking to accomplish. It probably will not be anything soon, but you’ve been warned.
Neill did graduate from High School this past weekend, for those that were not aware. We are extremely proud of the effort he put into it and are now anxiously awaiting his next journey, which will be boot camp in June. We hate to see him go so soon, but also know that it will be huge in getting the next phase of his life started. We have a ton of pictures from the graduation to post, which I will try to get to tonight. I’ll post an update to this post once that is complete.
Sorry there haven’t been any updates lately, just seems like there are just too many things going on. I am currently in the process of changing jobs, which requires finding one first, so between regular work, my work on the side, and the job situation there just haven’t been time for updates. I hope to get back into the flow and start posting more pictures and news, but until then please be patient.
The Christmas cards have been sent and should be safely in your hands, unless you were one of the few that I did not have an address for. There are a handful of people that I still do not have addresses for, thus their cards will be VERY late; everyone else should have theirs before Christmas. We went with the kids only, again, this year. Let’s be honest, no one really wants to see either Theresa or I.
We had some help with preparing the cards this year, so if you got a card with the return address label sideways or upside-down, well just know that Delaney helped personally with your card.
It is now three days until Christmas, all our shopping is complete and now just wrapping to complete. If we can keep the little one occupied long enough so that she doesn’t drive us crazy, everything will be golden. It is a whirlwind, it seems, but somehow we actually ended up ahead of the game. I hope everyone else can say the same.
Until we see everyone, of if we don’t talk to you until after, please have a safe and Merry Christmas.
More Thanksgiving dinners, more weight, and more name drawing. We drew names for my side of the family, this past weekend. Once you eliminate significant others, it makes it the possibilities rather limited.
Darin -> Scott
Scott -> Mike
Mike -> Darin
Theresa -> Lindsey
Lindsey -> Theresa
It wasn’t planned, but it did end up being that the girls got the girls, guys got the guys. We should just dub this the “Potpourri and Beer” exchange!
