Saturday, February 21, 2009

Shameless Plug

A little while ago, we got this neat video phone. The boys were able to talk to their grandma face to face, real time (no delays like some VOIP services) and they had a blast! Here's a little clip of the action....



By the way, Larry joined this company and is really excited about this particular product. Click on the picture of us to the right if you want to know more. We can help you get set up and get one of these hot phones into your hands :) Also, if you enjoy the Apprentice with Donald Trump, he will be doing a two hour show on this company and these phones on March 22nd.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

The Finley Ghost

I thought I'd tell a little story from our past about the greatest prank I ever pulled. It was the summer of 2000, Larry and I were engaged and he was visiting me at my parents house. Once it got dark, I suggested to Larry that we visit the Finley Ghost. He was a bit confused, after all it was a random suggestion. I talked him into it and he felt a bit silly going along with this. Well we drove to a place by the river, I set up the scene with a story.....

"Once upon a time, there was a boy named Adam. He and his friends had just graduated high school and they had a party on the river dike. They were drinking and Adam thought he'd climb down the rocky dike and wade in the river. The water was up to his chest so he pretended to drown. His friends started yelling at him when they realized it was a joke. They threw rocks and beer cans at him. Unfortunately for Adam, a rock hit him in the head and he began to drown. His friends figured it was a joke and did nothing to help him. When Adam didn't come up for several minutes, his friends realized he was dead. He has haunted that part of the river dike every night for many years."

I added details and made it sound scarier, but you get the idea. Anyway, Larry and I arrived at the scene. It was pitch black, late at night and Larry was looking at me like I was some kind of retard for dragging him to the middle of nowhere. We climbed up the dike and down near the water, I stood on a rock in the water and started throwing rocks at it while yelling "COME OUT ADAM, WE KNOW YOU'RE HERE!" Larry chuckled a bit. It didn't even take a minute for Adam to respond. Five feet away from the rock I was standing on came a blast of water, it gushed 10 feet up into the air. I ran over to Larry as he screamed for a minute straight. As the water started to subside, he looked over at me and I was laughing so hard that tears were starting to well up in my eyes. This was indeed the best prank I've ever pulled. To Larry, this gush of water took the form of a man, he could almost see Adam in there somewhere because of the story I told. What Larry didn't know was that a pump was nearby and this happens about ever hour. [insert evil laugh here]

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy Valentines Day

I got some sort of flu bug last night, I've been a little sick this week (not enough to really bother me or effect my routine). Well I spent last night praying to the porcelain god (among other things) because my body was determined to get rid of everything I ate or drank during the last 24 hours. Around 4am, I jumped up to run to the bathroom and must have lost myself along the way because I woke up on the floor in some weird position. I was a bit confused, Larry came in and inspected the damage. I think I asked him to kill me at some point, but instead I got a blessing and then went back to bed. My fever broke sometime around 5am and I was able to start sipping water so I wouldn't pass out again. It took half a gallon of water before I could stand up straight.

I looked in the mirror this morning and it looks like I got beat up. I have a fat lip with cuts on the top and bottom, a bruise over my eye and one on my upper cheek. That's what happens when I pass out, I hit things on the way down. I'm just lucky I didn't break my teeth or something else, that would be costly to fix without health insurance. The last time I was this sick was 3 years ago, I passed out then too - it's not uncommon for me, it happened twice when Larry was in the Air Force. I went to the ER and they asked me if I was scared. I was confused. They were trying to figure out if Larry beat me up as I later learned. I mean, how else would a person get 3 bruises on the head or face? It's because I find a way to hit one or two things on the way down.

Yay pictures!
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Happy Valentines Day! :D

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Eagle scouting

Larry and I were very lucky when we were out driving in the park last weekend, we found two bald eagles perched up in a tree near the river. I only had my camera with my regular lens. It's perfect for portraits, but not for zooming in on something far away. So I borrowed my dad's 300mm telephoto lens and headed out on Monday after the David got on the bus. I drove up and down this park, but didn't find any eagles. However, I did find a bunch of squirrels fighting over a stash of food in a tree trunk so the day wasn't a total loss. I caught this one having a bite to eat.

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Sunday, February 8, 2009

DAVID ATE STEAK TONIGHT!!!

Finally a major triumph. David actually tried something different on his plate rather than push it away and accept the consequence. It took him a few hours (and no, I didn't make him sit the whole time). Here's how it all went down.......

David likes chocolate milk (actually he really really loves it) and asked for some before bedtime. I told him no because he didn't eat his dinner and that he could have water instead. David went to sit in front of his plate of cold steak and mashed potatoes. He pondered this for awhile. Jared came over and assured David that it really was yummy. So David asked me to warm it up and I did. I told him he only needed one bite, that was all. He stuck a fork in it and opened wide, then he put it in, but didn't taste it, he pulled it out to look at it and then put it in again..... It's like he couldn't make up his mind and he was having an internal debate about whether chocolate milk was really this important. So important that he would actually try this unfamiliar food. The chocolate milk won. His mouth closed over the fork, he pulled the empty fork from his mouth and put it down. Larry and I looked at one another and then back at David as he began to chew slowly. He chewed this tough piece of steak for 2 minutes and stored it in his cheek as he asked for chocolate milk. I didn't find out about his secret food storage until he later revealed to me that he had swallowed it with his chocolate milk. Yuck. Whatever works, right?

Friday, February 6, 2009

Seriously, so funny!!

This made me laugh today, I thought I'd share it.


On the job front, Larry has spent the week getting our financial situation set up so we'll last awhile on what we have. I can't see him being out of a job longer than we are prepared for, he has 2 very marketable skills. If you know of job openings at your company, then we'd love to hear about it. Larry was a Safety Engineer at his last company and has an MBA in Human Resource Management as of the summer of 2008. We'd be happy to email his resume to anyone who asks. Larry has also applied for a few jobs, 2 of which we are REALLY crossing our fingers for.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Laid off

I debated about whether to post about Larry getting laid off, but it's a big part of what's happening in our lives right now. Not everything we post on this blog has to be happy and perfect, right? Yesterday, Larry came home early and delivered the bad news. His company needed to downsize because of the economy and Larry was not the only one to lose his job. After the initial shock, we started making plans. I am optimistic that he will find something else. We both agreed that this could be an opportunity for him. We are also getting severance pay and Larry spent the morning doing our tax return while networking with people to find a job opening so we are going to weather this storm. We could use some prayers.