Lizards Leapin' Through Donuts & Fog.

Well, well, well. If it isn't Tuesday already. I guess a blog update is in order, huh? Ok.

Last week was a long work week. I drove over 3000 miles and didn't get home until 8:30am Sunday morning. I went from Dallas, TX to Houston, TX to Jackson, MS to Grenada, MS to Nashville, TN to Dallas, TX to Houston, TX to Harlingen, TX and finally back to Dallas, TX again. At least the paycheck's gonna look really good next week. To bad all the bills are going to eat it up.

After I was done working on Sunday I came home and decided to treat my wife & son to a day of fun. I brought donuts home for breakfast. It was Joshua's 1st donut. He's only eaten donut holes before Sunday. He loved it...Duh! For lunch, we met the Spencer's at Chili's. Joshua ate a corn dog and corn-on-the-cob. He loves both of those things. We even had to hide the corn-on-the-cob from him so he'd eat his corn dog. When he was done with the corn dog and we broke out the corn-on-the-cob he almost jumped out of his seat with excitement. It was hilarious to watch him go nuts eating it. When we finished with lunch, we headed to Leapin' Lizards. It's an indoor playground. It has blow-up bounce houses and a 4 story playscape. It also has a toddler area with quite a number of fun toys to play with. We all had a blast. Joshua was so tuckered out that he almost fell asleep in my arms on the way to the car. It didn't last long though. He woke up about 10 minutes after we got home and wasn't too happy that we were at home and not still at Leapin' Lizards. For dinner we ordered pizza. After dinner Joshua got a bath and when his tub was draining he began farting. Susan had me hurry and get the potty seat and she sat him down on it. She began reading a couple of books to him and all of a sudden we hear the potty playing music. He had pee-peed in the potty for the 2nd time since we've had the thing. He never pooped though, so it must have just been gas. After all that excitement, we put Joshua to bed and listened to him scream and cry about it until he gave up and fell asleep. He rarely does that. He usually goes to bed really easily. As for me, well, after having been up for more than 28 hours. I went to bed and crashed. I don't even remember my wife coming to bed or anything. She told me that at one point in the night I reached over, grabbed her hand, mumbled something she couldn't understand, and then turned back over. Oh well. At least I got a good night's rest.

Yesterday was spent mowing the grass, trimming bushes, raking leaves, putting down weed & feed, and watering the lawn. For dinner we ate fish sticks and mac-&-cheese and then aften a failed attempt at potty time with Joshua, he went to bed. When Susan went in to check on him before she headed off to bed she called me into his room to look at something. When I got there, his room was full of fog. I had added to much salt to the vaporizor and it fogged up his entire room. Even my glasses fogged up the moment I entered. Oops! We unplugged it and left it off for the night.

Anyway, now I'm all caught up and done with typing for now. Until next time.

Going Bonkers In The BlueBonnets With Diet Coke

It's been a crazy week. I only drove from Tuesday night until late Thursday night. I had to be home on Friday because my wife was having surgery early in the morning. It's only been two days since her surgery and she's is doing great. Actually, she's been doing great since the moment we left the hospital. Even if she is in any pain she's not acting like it. The nurse told her to take it easy for the next week and to not lift anything or do too many activities. Of course, that didn't stop her from carrying our son and running all over town for the last few days. She's such a tough cookie. I just hope she doesn't over do it.

After we left the hospital we went to pick up my new glasses. Everyone seems to like them. I like them too, but them seem to be giving me trouble with focusing. I've had them on since I got them, hoping that my eyes just neeeded to adjust to the new lenses, but they haven't. Tonight I was trying to read a story on the computer and it seemed so blury to me. I decided to put my old glasses on and discovered that I could see everything on the screen clearly. I'm going to have to take the new one's back tomorrow and get them redone. Unfortunately, that means I'll have to wear my old one's for a few more weeks.

On Saturday we meet my wife's mom and stepdad for breakfast at Golden Corral. Thanks again to them for buying our meals. After that we did some running around with the Spencers. First we went to Babies 'R' Us / Toys 'R' Us and bought a couple things, including a bubble lawn mower as a birthday gift Joshua. Yes, I know it's early, but we've been looking for this gift for a long time and finally found it. It was also the last one they had left. We also bought him a little Scooby-Doo toy to play with. We also did something very bad, by accident. We had picked up a pack of six socks for Joshua and forgot that they were behind his back. When we got out to the car and I picked him up out of the cart, there they were. I know it was wrong and we've never done it before, but since the door alarm didn't go off when we left the store and everything else was already in the car and we had other things to do we took them. We still are feeling the guilt.

Next we headed to Lewisville to a place called "Going Bonker's". It's a kids place that has a huge indoor jungle gym. Joshua and Adam had a blast! Heck, so did the adults. Daniel and I went though it with the kids and I can't speak for Daniel, but I had lots of fun and was very exhausted after. We must have played for 2 or more hours. I wish the place was closer. I'd love to take my son there more often. Later that evening we went to Pasado's for dinner and then ran to Khols to buy Joshua a shirt for him to wear for taking pictures in the Bluebonnets.

Today, us and the Spencer's went to do bluebonnet pictures out in Ennis, TX. First though we stopped in Wilmer, TX at Carl's Jr. to have lunch. I also bought 2 bottles of Diet Coke and a pack of Mentos. Yes, it was for what you're thinking. And if you don't know what I'm talking about drop a Mentos into a bottle of Diet Coke and see what happens. Anyway, we got a bunch of good pictures in the bluebonnets and my wife will post the on our Flickr in the next few days.

Okay. I'm done for now. I'll be back again soon.

All About This Week And Think Pink!

Another week has come and gone. It ended up being a short work week for me. They didn't have enough loads to send me out on Tuesday night, so I didn't get started until Wednesday night. Even then, the whole work week was slow. I spent most of my time either sitting around waiting for the loads to finish being loaded or waiting for them to find a load for me to move. They did still manage to get me far enough away from home that when I got my final load for the week I wasn't able to make it home until 4am Sunday morning. So, my route for the week went like so; Dallas, TX to Houston, TX to Jackson, TN to Memphis, TN to Grenada, MS to Memphis, TN and back to Dallas, TX.

Anyway, enough about work. During the day on Sunday Susan, Joshua, & I went out to lunch at Taco Cabana. I had ordered a plate of nachos that comes with sour cream & guacamole in a little red corn tortilla bowl. Joshua wanted nothing to do with his lunch, but everything to do with eating that little red bowl I had. Then he wanted all the red colored chips that were in Daddy's nachos. It was all about the red stuff for him. Afterward, we went to Toy 'R' Us where Joshua scored a few new Wonder Color Markers, some A-B-C & 1-2-3 flash cards and a mini Magna Doodle for traveling with. We also made our usual grocery run at Wal-mart. They're remodeling our local Wal-mart, so nothing is where it's supposed to be at right now. We ended up spending the rest of the day at home. I used my new shovel that I got for Christmas for the first time. I used it to aerate the front yard a little so that our grass might have a chance at growing better this year. I also, finally, picked up all the leaves that were left in the yard. I should mention, I hate doing yard work. However, it has to be done and my wife won't let me pay a gardener to do it. I know we don't have that kind of money, but I REALLY HATE YARD WORK!!! Joshua got to ride his tricycle outside a little bit and also played with his big blue beach ball too. He loves getting to play in the yard. For dinner we both were too lazy to cook, so we had Pizza Hut deliver a couple pizzas and called it a night.

This morning my son decided he was not going to listen to anything anyone told him to do. He didn't want to get out of bed, he didn't want his diaper changed, he didn't want his waffle, (he loves bananas, so he ate that with no trouble) he didn't want to put his jacket on so he could go to daycare. Finally, I had had enough and he got whopped on the bottom. I feel bad for having to have done it, but it did put an end to the misbehaving. And when he came home tonight he was a very good little boy. While everyone was gone to work and daycare I went to the bank, to Verizon, and went and got a haircut. I think the woman did a good job on my hair. My wife thinks it's too short. She likes my hair when it's longer. I find it just to hard to manage. Once everyone was home again, we went out to dinner with the Howard's, minus their kids. The kids were at their Aunt & Uncle's house. We tried a new Mexican restaurant called Rio Mambo. The food wasn't too bad, not great, but not too bad. For once, Susan & I decided to have something a little stronger than tea or soda. So she had a margarita on the rocks and I had what they called a "Miami Vice". It was a mix of pina colada and strawberry daiquiri. It was really good.

After dinner, Joshua & I came home. Susan went over to her sister's so they could go for their walk. Oh, by the way, Susan and her sister are preparing themselves for the 3 day breast cancer walk that's taking place in November. For more information about it and to make a donation to help them out, go to Susan's 3 Day website and offer your support.

Okay. I'm done for now. Be back again soon.

Happy Birthday Daddy From A Totally Awesome Dude!

Happy Birthday to me! I am now old enough to know everything! Oh wait! I'm way passed being a teenager! Now I'm old enough to forget everything I knew. Damn! Anyway, today has been a busy day so far. Susan's B-day gift to me was an appointment with the optometrist to get new glasses. Thank you sweetheart. I haven't had new glasses in over 5 years. I took the exam and the doctor told me that my eyes have hardly changed at all. I picked out my new glasses and I'll have them in 2 weeks. I also went to the bank, paid on a loan we have, FedExed some house papers to our mortgage company, put insecticide on our dying bushes, fixed a drawer in the spare bathroom and anchored our son's changing table to the wall. I guess when things need to be done, it doesn't matter if it's your b-day or not. Tonight, for my B-day dinner, my wife is taking me to one of my favorite restaurants, Italianni's. I even have a coupon for a free dessert. (Their desserts are to die for!)

Oh, another thing I got for my birthday came from both my wife and my son. It is probably the most awesome present I have ever got. Check it out....


Susan said she had to record him for about 5 or more minutes before she could get him to say it. I totally love it! He is growing up so fast. I had to work an extra day this week and I missed him so much.

Anyway, like I said, I had to work an extra day this week and I didn't get home until 11:30pm Sunday night. So here was the route I had this week. I went from Dallas, TX to Shreveport, LA to Jackson, MS to Tupelo, MS to Jackson, TN to Houston, TX to Jackson, MS to Houston, TX to Harlingen, TX to Houston, TX and finally back to Dallas, TX. Unfortunately, I only get today off and then it's back to work tomorrow. I guess with so many people out of work I really shouldn't be complaining. My wife and I are both in fairly stable careers and consider ourselves to be really lucky people right now. I know so many people who are either looking for work, barely working, or just praying their job doesn't go away. I know things get better in the future, I just hope it happens before people really begin to suffer.

Alright, I've rambled enough. Everyone enjoy yourselves.

It's Curtains For The Snow, Joshua!

I guess it's time once again for me to peck at the keyboard a little bit. I never did learn how to type the correct way. My wife can type so fast I'm afraid her fingers are going to fly right off. I'm so slow at typing it's taken me 3 mins just to type this so far. Anyway enough about my lack of typing skills, here's how the last week has transpired.

Last Monday was spent putting up the boarder around the ceiling in our son's bathroom. I also put the outlet covers back on, put the mirror back on the wall, and put the lights back up above the mirror. The next day I put the shark picture that Daniel & Christina gave us into a frame, but I didn't have a hook to hang it up with. My wife bought on this weekend and hung it up for me (Thank you Love.) She also bought a few accessories and some decals to add the finishing touches the room. The bathroom was just about done. All that was left was to put the new vinyl shower curtain up. My mother-in-law took it out of the package and decided it was too wrinkly. So, she put it in the dryer. Can anyone guess what happens to vinyl when you put it in a dryer? Well, here's your answer......

My wife just about cried. The whole design of our bathroom was based on the shower curtain. On top of that, the design has been discontinued and is no longer sold at the stores. Luckily, I was able to find one exactly like it on ebay and Susan's mom bought it right away. We should have it in a few days and than finally the bathroom will be done.

My work week started off slow. My 1st run was from Dallas to Laredo. Then I went from there to Houston, with a 10hr break in the middle. From Houston I drove to San Antonio and then to Dallas. After another 10hr break there, I was sent to Baton Rouge. I took my next break there and was sent to Jackson, MS. However once I got there they didn't have a load available from there so, they sent me to Tupelo, MS. I stopped and took another 10hr break before I got there. When I woke up to start driving again the temperature outside had changed and it was really cold. I got to Tupelo, picked up my load and started heading for Dallas. About 1hr into my drive I received quite the surprise. It began snowing! I mean REALLY snowing! It got so bad that I had no other choice but to shut down in Memphis and wait until it stopped. I was stopped for about 3hrs. I hid in the fuel bay at our Memphis yard so that when it did stop snowing I wouldn't have to scrape snow and ice off my truck. Here's what it looked where I was stopped...

Once the snow finally stopped falling, I was able to slowly make my way home. I didn't reach dry ground until about 20 miles east of Little Rock, AR. From there it was smooth sailing. I didn't get home until almost 1pm Sunday. It's the latest time so far that I have been out driving since I started working the shift I'm on. I usually get home late Saturday or early Sunday morning.

My 21mo old son has been puting words together like crazy. He speaks so clearly for child his age. Here's a perfect example of what I'm talking about...

Well, I've blogged long enough. I got other things I need to be doing. Enjoy yourselves!