Year in Review 2011: Part 2

Note: This is a start of a four part series, the object being to give a quick review of my experiences in the year 2011. In this part I will cover the months of April, May, and June.

April

Easter was in April and as per our sort of tradition Casey and I dyed some Easter Eggs and tried to make our poison egg once again. (trying to get one as dark as possible with a pirate skull on it) Ben had come over to see Casey and Erin came over to see me, even if she doesn't like silly things like Easter Egg dying.





At work I had our Annual Dinner, as well as Chantel's wedding, it was difficult getting it all arranged but I got to see the wedding, the annual dinner, and the end of the reception with Erin looking stunning :)



towards the end of the Month Erin and I went to Brown county with her dogs, and had a wonderful day walking in the park.



On a sad note in April, my great Grandma Zeumer passed away at the age of 98.

May

In may I got to experience my first "dog birthday party" as we had to throw a celebration for Erin's dog Jude who turned three and became much more mature.... what kind of gifts did she get? well balls of course!





As always I spent a lot of this month hanging out with Erin.

I was also going to the gym a lot in may, trying to drop some of the pounds I had gained since starting my new job at the museum, seemed like I gained around 10 pounds this spring... and I had the added incentive of being part of a pedometer team at my Aunts school so I was trying to get as many steps in as possible.

Towards the end of the month we had a big storm hit Decatur County, we would be without electric for 3 days as power lines were ripped down all over the place. Many houses in Greensburg including the Museum had storm damage and needed there roofs replaced a process that is still going on. I was at Anytime fitness with Scott when the storm hit and you couldn't see the parking lot from inside the gym with how bad everything was blowing.

After the storm let up I picked up dinner for Erin's family and went to their house, where we spent the afternoon without electric before I went home late that night.







Actually before all of these storms I had went with my Dad, Grandpa, and Grandma down to Brookville to see the family graves for Memorial day.

June

June started out with my birthday! and Erin got me two great gifts... A laser disc player and a hippo bank! and Casey got me Muppet Treasure Island, so it was a great birthday!





At work I started what would become a long process (still not complete) of getting the roof at the museum replaced due to the storm damage. As well as working to put together an Apprisal show for the museum which was a big project!






Erin took me to see her friend Josie who works with baby tigers at a local petting zoo, which was cool because we got to pet a 4 day old baby tiger.





And in what is a summer tradition around here I spent some time helping my Dad bale hay on the farm.



In June Brock had hosted a party to watch the Aliens movies at his new place, which was fun hanging out with everyone...

And that takes us through 1/2 of 2011

Year in Review 2011 : Part 1

Note: This is a start of a four part series, the object being to give a quick review of my experiences in the year 2011. In this part I will cover the months of January, February, and March.

January - Checking out

I kicked of the New Years celebrating the holiday with Bruce, Joe, Chantel, and Brock at Joe and Chantel's... I'll say the night before had started out with 3 shots of Everclear and went downhill from there. I woke up that next morning and Joe's and made my way home still feeling under the weather.



I went to a couple snowy stoage auctions this month as well, still never bough anything, but enjoyed looking around at the possiblites... just have to take that big jump of risk..if I ever want to buy one. Check out my blog in January of this year for a full write up on Storage Auctions

For fun I played at least one weekend at Columbus some Heroclix with Bruce, Joe and Brock

The biggest news by far thought this month was me interviewing and getting the Executive Director position at the Historical Society! I had applied for it while I was at Check into Cash University last winter and on a friday in January got an interview. I was lucky that they moved the interview to the first thing in the morning and my co-worker opened the Check into Cash store for me that morning so I could interview and then rush off quickly to Indianapolis.

It was a couple weeks later that I would recieve a phone call from the President of the Society to offer me the job while I was driving home, it distracted me so much that I got off at the wrong exit and spent an extra 30 minutes driving around Indy calling my parents and friends. I knew it was going to be a very tough budget shift for me, but was exicited for the oppertunity.

Next up was just to call Check into Cash and put in my two weeks notice, which I did and was excitied for the next month to begin my new job.


February - A new face

Well I didn't get to go to work on my first day because of an Ice Storm, we lost electricity for a couple days and Casey's friend Tess got snowed in with us. The generator died over the first night so Dad and I went to town and bought a new one. Tess, Casey, Dad and I played board games (Masterpiece) by candle light and overall had a decent time. We blocked off part of the house and Mom brough in a kerosine heater to cook soup on in the dinning room. It only took about two days for everything to melt off.










After talking on facebook post back and forth every so often I met up with Erin on Feb. 18th to see the movie the Eagle.  It was an intersting experience, we met for the movie and she only let me buy her a drink (large mountain dew without ice of course) and we went to the movie. I liked her right off the bat but didn't think she was that into me. After the movie was over we left and both went home our seperate ways, I had wanted to ask her to dinner but was a chicken I guess, lol so we text back and forth a few times that night and it wasn't until a few days later when I was playing heroclix with Brock and Joe in Columbus that she started texting me again. She had found a cattle skull in the woods and we joked about the skull caps the guys in the Eagle had worn.

That next week we went and had dinner at El Reparo and were at the resturant for around 3 hours when they were getting ready to close. Then we sat in my car and drove around the county, throwing broken limbs off the road (it was raining), only to come back and sit in the El Reparo parking lot some more.... It was almost 4 o'clock when we called it a night and she went home.

I also joined Anytime Fitness this month to start working out at their Gym, I went in with Scott and signed up, every one in awhile I still meet up with him and work out there.

March - Hanging out

I went to Dave and Busters with Bruce, Megan, Joe, Chantel, Casey, Brock, Cassie for Chantel's Birthday party, it was fun I had never been to Dave and Busters before. After we got back to Shelbyville Erin met up with us at Joe and Chantel's and we played some games.



Erin and I started seeing each other a lot, and played a lot of video games, Wii bowling is something Erin turned out to be a professional in. We also played a lot of N64; Mario Cart, Smash Brothers, Mario Party, Pokemon Stadium

Thankful 15

~This Blog is part of a series for November, adapted from the series Erin is currently running over on her blog. For this month in honor of Thanksgiving I will release a blog every other day about something/one/idea I am Thankful for. I've broken the criteria down into a guideline of sorts that I will follow, the month will contain 5 People - 5 Things - 5 Ideas . The order that I post things in has no particular significance or ranking behind it.~


Erin
People 5

Well if you follow my blog you know I got behind on finishing this series, but this is one that is certainly past due. In this past year Erin has become a major part of my life, as I've discovered how much I could care for someone else, and everything about them.

When I say that I mean I care about her, her pets, her things, her family. Its strange I never knew it would be like that with someone else.

I guess I have known Erin for a long time... apparently we went to Day-Care together... but it wasn't until last winter that we started talking, with facebook messages at first and then on Feb. 18th she talked me into going to see a movie with her. It was an awkward first date that I failed with flying colors as I let her go home that night right after the movie without making any moves at all... However I would get a chance to redeem myself the next week when we went to El Reparo and sat their for 3 hours until the resturant closed and then proceeded to spend almost 6 more hours just hanging out in my car.

Since then we have had a lot of good times and I look for many more to come.

Thankful 14

~This Blog is part of a series for November, adapted from the series Erin is currently running over on her blog. For this month in honor of Thanksgiving I will release a blog every other day about something/one/idea I am Thankful for. I've broken the criteria down into a guideline of sorts that I will follow, the month will contain 5 People - 5 Things - 5 Ideas . The order that I post things in has no particular significance or ranking behind it.~

Hippo Bank
Things 5

Had a hard time deciding on my last "Thing", as most of what I have is easily replaced well make that replaceable if I had the money. So I'm going with the Hippo Bank Erin gave me for my birthday. It is the first birthday gift I got from her and its pretty cool as well. It's an old late 1940's wind up piggy bank that shoots the coins into a hippo's mouth.

Hippos are my favorite animal, it was my first gift from Erin, I like money, and I have a feeling it would not be easy to replace... thats why it makes my list of 5 things I'm thankful for.

Thankful 13

~This Blog is part of a series for November, adapted from the series Erin is currently running over on her blog. For this month in honor of Thanksgiving I will release a blog every other day about something/one/idea I am Thankful for. I've broken the criteria down into a guideline of sorts that I will follow, the month will contain 5 People - 5 Things - 5 Ideas . The order that I post things in has no particular significance or ranking behind it.~

Childhood
Idea 5


I've always thought that I had a great Childhood growing up here out in the country in Indiana. Sure sometimes we were a little isolated but my parents always made sure Case and I were involved in things, 4-H, youth soccer, youth basketball were all major parts of growing up at our house.

We also had a bunch of pets, one advanagte of being on a farm and my family was always supportive of that. Rabbits, Dogs, Cats, Hamsters, Guinea Pig, Pig, Goats, Chickens we had them all at some point in time.

I guess I always think of growing up and Childhood around the winter holidays because we have always had such a great time then. I'm glad my family hasn't ever had any major rifts and we have stuck together and I hope to do the same once I have a family of my own.

Thankful 12

~This Blog is part of a series for November, adapted from the series Erin is currently running over on her blog. For this month in honor of Thanksgiving I will release a blog every other day about something/one/idea I am Thankful for. I've broken the criteria down into a guideline of sorts that I will follow, the month will contain 5 People - 5 Things - 5 Ideas . The order that I post things in has no particular significance or ranking behind it.~

Grandparents
People - 4


 
So my limit of 5 people gets kind of tight I noticed when I was trying to come up with todays post, so I'm going to cheat a bit and include 3 people in this one post. My 3 grandparents that I have been lucky enough to know.
 
Grandma and Grandpa are my Dads parents and they live just across the road from me and always have been great. Casey and I are their only grand kids so its safe to say we have been spoiled somewhat, especially around Christmas time when as a little kid Christmas at the farm was as big as it was at home. We call their house the farm as Dad and Grandpa have always been farmers and Grandpa's house is where all of the equipment has been stored.
 
I remember them taking me to see my Aunt's basketball teams play, and how we would keep scorecards in the stands to discuss the preformances at the end of the night on the way home. They are where I got my love of basketball from.
 
My Grammy is my Mom's mom... she is a very nice and caring grandma. We call her Grammy because her last name is also White (insert jokes) and it was confusing to Casey and I when we were little. I remember staying the night at her house on weekends when we were little a lot.

My #1 memory of her was when I was having a horrible allergic reation at her house on the 4th of July of the year before I went into 5th grade.... My face was all swelled up, I couldn't see out of one eye and was struggling to breath, she burst into the emergency room lobby yelling "This is an Emergency, get this kid to a Doctor"

Overall I have great grandparents

Thankful 11

~This Blog is part of a series for November, adapted from the series Erin is currently running over on her blog. For this month in honor of Thanksgiving I will release a blog every other day about something/one/idea I am Thankful for. I've broken the criteria down into a guideline of sorts that I will follow, the month will contain 5 People - 5 Things - 5 Ideas . The order that I post things in has no particular significance or ranking behind it.~


Camera
Things - 4

By Camera I guess I mean the one I have now, but also all of the pictures I have... which count as things as well I suppose. Working at a museum I see a lot of older photographes on a daily basis and enjoy seeing how they capture memories of the past.

Just looking at photographs can bring back a flood of memories, as well as the emotions that they carry with them. Even if you weren't involved in the photo they can tell you so much and give such an insight at just a glance.

I enjoy taking pictures, and while I've never had a great camera I still take pictures all the time anyway.


My personal photo collection only really dates back to around 2004, but I have found some old family photos that I plan to scan into my computer to keep a record of as well.

I also have two videos of family vactions 2007 and 2010 that I enjoy having and am hoping to take a film of Erin and I driving to South Carolina today!

Some random pictures I've taken at various times

Glasses

If you know me, you know that I wear glasses all of the time. I'm basically blind with out them, having to squint to see the big E at the eyedoctor.

I've gotten by since the summer of 2004 with this pair of glasses



As you can see they have seen much better days. I got this pair after I lost my previous pair while swimming in the brookville reservoir. One nose piece has been missing for a year and a half, the black paint on the frames is mostly gone leaving them silver, the plastic on the ear pieces is cracked and broken and the lenses are all scratched up. The lenses actually used to tint to a sunglasses like darkness in the sun, but now the most they do is get a slight yellow tint to them.

So with my glasses on my their last leg I decided I had better get to an eyedoctor for an update prescription and some new glasses. Being cheap and having a job without access to health insurance I headed to Walmart to see their optomitrist who surprised me by saying that my eyes had got slightly better.  (though I am still basically blind without my glasses) I looked at glasses there but they said the price of them would be around $140 for the lenses plus the cost of the frames. So I decided to go and look at some online places I had heard about. I ended up selecting eyebuydirect.com and with some help from Erin picked out some new glasses.






the prices there were actually really cheap, I got two pairs for $140, one pair I went with the higher grade lenses and the second pair I figured would be a back-up pair so I took a downgrade on the lenses, but am still really happy with them.

I went with "semi-rim" frames, which intersting fact I learned are held in with fishing line


pair 1 - my "good pair"


pair 2 - my "back-up"

Thankful 10

~This Blog is part of a series for November, adapted from the series Erin is currently running over on her blog. For this month in honor of Thanksgiving I will release a blog every other day about something/one/idea I am Thankful for. I've broken the criteria down into a guideline of sorts that I will follow, the month will contain 5 People - 5 Things - 5 Ideas . The order that I post things in has no particular significance or ranking behind it.~


Patience
Ideas - 4
 
I've been told that I am a very patient person and for the most part I'd have to agree, and it may be a weird thing to be thankful for but I'll try to explain why....
 
A lot of people in the world are always jumping from one thing to the next trying to find what makes them happy, a search for instant gratification. To me this just seems like it would be more frustrating, and cause you to get worked up about things that don't really matter,

I like to see myself as more of a big picture thinker, I feel that most people would describe me as calm, and someone who doesn't get rattled too easily. I'll admit sometimes my patience can lead to a lack of urgency that has come back to hurt me sometimes but overall I'm thankful that I am more patience at most.

I'll also admit that sometimes I don't have long term goals all laid out like some people think I should have, I guess I just have confidence in myself that I will make things happen and they will work out for the best as long as I make safe and smart decisions.

Thankful 9

~This Blog is part of a series for November, adapted from the series Erin is currently running over on her blog. For this month in honor of Thanksgiving I will release a blog every other day about something/one/idea I am Thankful for. I've broken the criteria down into a guideline of sorts that I will follow, the month will contain 5 People - 5 Things - 5 Ideas . The order that I post things in has no particular significance or ranking behind it.~


Casey
People - 3
 
Casey is my sister and one and only sibling. While we have had our fights before I would say that we get along better than the majority of most brother-sister pairings. While we don't always talk to each other alot we know that we care about each other a bunch. 
 
Casey is just shy of being 3 years younger than me, and I guess I could tell a bunch of stories about us I will limit it to just a couple...
 
She stole the show at my Kindergarden Open House, as a picture of her being there, reading a book, made the front page of the news.
 
When she was little she made a rule for herself that she couldn't play video games until she was 7, so she'd sit and watch the rest of the family play games and then give advice based on what she saw everyone else do, now she is a big video game player herself.
 
One of the best things we did together was being in the high school drama club play "Rumors" every night when we'd drive home together we would review how well the rest of the cast knew their lines. We may have not be the best actors (she is good, me not so much) but we always knew our lines better than the rest of the cast.
 
Playing games together when we were little... G.I. Joes playing in her kitchen set, and littlest pet shop pirates as well as her American Girl play game that we would team up on to make outragous stories... when you live in the country you have to imporvies games with boy/girl toys since there are no neighbor kids
 
Overall Casey is a great sister


Casey and I rocking out on Guitar Hero II in October of 2006

Thankful 8

~This Blog is part of a series for November, adapted from the series Erin is currently running over on her blog. For this month in honor of Thanksgiving I will release a blog every other day about something/one/idea I am Thankful for. I've broken the criteria down into a guideline of sorts that I will follow, the month will contain 5 People - 5 Things - 5 Ideas . The order that I post things in has no particular significance or ranking behind it.~


Computer
Things - 3

Of all the items I own, my computer is easily one of my most well used possessions. I'm on it at least an hour a day and probably closer to 3 hours a day average.... which is an 1/8 of the day... or over 45 days a year.... I'll stop my calculations at that before it starts to sound to depressing lol

My computer is my main form of communication with the world as well as entertainment, I use it for work and play, so its a fairly versitile piece for me and seems to be my major time waster.

It also stores some things that are really important to me such as all of my pictures from the last 6-7 years... I never go to get them printed, I just keep digital files which I would hate to lose for the sentimental value.

I have owned 3 computers thus far in my lifetime. ..

My first computer was an HP Laptop that I bought in the summer of 2004, before I went to Purdue for my freshman year... I must say while I felt a ton of buyers remorse buying it, I did get my money out of it. I used it heavily for 3 years when an accident involving a cup of water killed it. I was able to get it up and running again later by salvaging some parts off of my Dad's old laptop and most recently used it in the Summer of 2010... Its super outdated but still functions which is nice.

My second computer was a custom built Desktop computer I bought off of ebay after the previously mentioned "accident" that happened with the HP laptop. I really liked this computer and it was a major upgrade power wise over the HP. I did have to replace its power source once while at Purdue and then in 2010 something went wrong with the computer that I have never completely figured out or fixed... where the hard drive gets wiped after about a week of use.

In 2010 after issues arose with the desktop and I had to switch back to my old HP laptop I began searching for a new computer which is how I ended up with my current Dell laptop. I got it in September and have been very satisfied with it, and hopefully will be for at least another 2 years.

As I said I use my computer a ton, and its the one thing other than my car if it died or was destroyed I'd have to immediatly search for a replacement.

Thankful 7

~This Blog is part of a series for November, adapted from the series Erin is currently running over on her blog. For this month in honor of Thanksgiving I will release a blog every other day about something/one/idea I am Thankful for. I've broken the criteria down into a guideline of sorts that I will follow, the month will contain 5 People - 5 Things - 5 Ideas . The order that I post things in has no particular significance or ranking behind it.~


Opportunity
Idea - 3
 
You don't even have to be the most patriotic person in the country to say that just being born in the United States gives you opportunities to succeed and have a high quality of life that you may have ever dreamed of from other places in the world.
 
I for one am thankful that I have had, and will have a lot of opportunities for success; I'm fairly intelligent and have a college degree, I'm not in a large amount of debt, my family is supportive of me and while I'm not exactly successful now I have the chance to continue to improve myself.
 
From the time I was little my parents always told me I could be whatever I wanted to be, and while that's not entirely true... I'm never going to be a professional athlete, it speaks towards the opportunities we are given. The fact that they helped me through college is a major step towards becoming successful, and while I didn't pick the most financially rewarding degree there are opportunities out their for me to gain success in multiple aspects of life.
 
Even with the unemployment so high, and the economy tanking shortly after I graduated from Purdue, I've always been able to support myself. I've worked at hotels, as a payday loan branch manager, and in my current position as an executive director. Even when I didn't have a job, employment kept me living comfortably.
 
I also hope to someday leave a last impression on someone, somebody, someplace.... because I know I can be of some use to do something productive and good in this world. I may be too much of a people pleaser but I want to be remember as someone who contributed to this world.
 
I guess what I'm saying is I'm thankful to have the opportunity to live a successful life and for all of the things that have conspired to give me this opportunity.

Thankful 6

~This Blog is part of a series for November, adapted from the series Erin is currently running over on her blog. For this month in honor of Thanksgiving I will release a blog every other day about something/one/idea I am Thankful for. I've broken the criteria down into a guideline of sorts that I will follow, the month will contain 5 People - 5 Things - 5 Ideas . The order that I post things in has no particular significance or ranking behind it.~




Mom
People - 2

My mom has been one of the most supportive people in my life, and while Casey and I tease her about some of the things she did when we were little (such as not letting us ride our bikes past the stop sign on the road) she has always been there for us.

My last post was about pets, and well Mom is the main reason we got to keep a lot of those pets and the reason Kong is an inside cat. Dad's farmers outlook on pets isn't as loving as Moms so she was influential in getting the majority of them.

It's coming up on Christmas time and that is probably Mom's biggest holiday, while she isn't that into the decorating part, she likes giving gifts. Casey and I always have lots to open on Christmas, even if some are toothpaste, deoderant and the like, she makes sure we have the same number of gifts to open and just loves the opening part in general.




I know sometimes Erin feels awkward when my Mom randomly gets her a gift, but thats one of her ways of saying she likes and and loves us.

Mom has been an elemenrtry/High School librarian for I think 28 years now, so she has always been caring towards kids, it made it easy going to Elementry School when I was little with my Mom working there. We rarely had to ride the bus because we could catch rides with her.

She is one of the few Mom's her age that I know who like to play video games, sure its mostly farmville/countrylife style games but she also has a DS and was a big Super Nintendo player back when Yoshi's Island came out.

Overall I couldn't ask for a better mother.

11-11-11

So today is 11-11-11 as well as being Veteran's Day.

I was just thinking about how intersted people get with certain dates... I guess I've been lucky enough to live through 01-01-01, 02-02-02,etc... and so forth... its the advantage of being alive at the turn of a century... most of the intersting dates won't happen again for another 100 years..

Well that is if the world doesn't in in 2012 when the Mayan Calendar ends...

I honestly don't get that excitied about dates on the calendar, I'll admit everyone at somepoint gets intersted/superstitious with numbers... I remember during the Summer Olympics in 2008, 8 is a lucky number in China so they reported a lot of people in China were trying to have babies on 08-08-08 which was during the time of the Olympic Games. Also having worked in a hotel I can tell you many more people than you would expect are superstitious about numbers, not wanting to travel on the 13th, and most hotel's don't even have a 13th floor.

I guess we should just be happy to be alive for these "special numbered dates"

Well I think I'm going to go to McDonalds here in a few mintures... in honor of 11-11-11 they are having Big Mac's for $1.11 from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. *limit 11

Thankful 5

~This Blog is part of a series for November, adapted from the series Erin is currently running over on her blog. For this month in honor of Thanksgiving I will release a blog every other day about something/one/idea I am Thankful for. I've broken the criteria down into a guideline of sorts that I will follow, the month will contain 5 People - 5 Things - 5 Ideas . The order that I post things in has no particular significance or ranking behind it.~



Pets
Things -2

I've been blessed in my life thus far by being able to have a wide variety of pets.

Now some people have told me that some of my pet stories are sad, but I look at all of them with good memories of being able to spend time with the pets, sure we had a couple bad streaks when I was little with stray dogs coming and going as our pets as well as the constant rotation that happens with barn cats.

I figure the best way to cover this is to touch briefly on some of the most memorable pets in my life

Buck - Buck was a big black dog and the first pet I remember having, he was hit on the road when I was 4 or 5

Furball -  a big gray fluffy barn cat we had when I was 6 or 7, he would come when you called his name

Muffin - muffin was a little fluffy white dog that was dumped on our road and we took in, we only had her for 2 days before she ate some poision, Dad liked her so much he even took her to the vet but it was too late

Mousetrap - Kong's mom and a kitten making machine! She once had a little of 11 that she took care of all of them, as well as a litter of 9 she cared for. Kong was from her first litter of only 3 kittens. When we got Mousetrap, Casey had a cat who was her sister named Kieko, but Kieko went crazy, Mousetrap was the longest barn cat we ever had 4-5 years.

Fudge - Can't have a pet post with out Fudge or Peppy, We got Fudge the summer before I went into first grade and would have him for over a decade, until the Summer of 2007 when we lost him in a tragic accident. He was a great little dog who was loving and cared for us. He patrolled the house and farm with the best of them despite his smaller size and was the "bark" in the team he and Pepper made.

Peppy - Fudge's best friend Peppy was orginally my Grandpa's dog who basically came to live with us and hang out with Fudge and us kids. She was super fast when she was young, and would run back and forth with the car going to the farm keeping up the whole way at 35 mph. They became a tag team one winter when it snowed hard and because of the ice on the roads Fudge could keep up, they were rarely apart after that. Later in life she slowed down quite a bit and became a fixture on our poarch, still keeping an eye on everything going on.

Fudge and Peppy

Kong - Our crazy cat, and the first inside pet we ever had. I make up tons of stories about him, but he does have one amazing story of his own... He once excaped outside and lived over 5 weeks lost in the corn field before he found his way back home, much skinner but over all fine.

Pepper - We bought Pepper at the Brookville Flea Market, she was small enough we carried her around in a clothes basket. She was picked knowing she would someday have to replace Peppy. Which she has now, she is a nice dog though very timid. It's sad that an accident with a horse has given her a bad leg. She still runs the show here making sure everything is in its place.

Jack- Though we didn't have Jack long I think something needs to be said about him here... Jack was a big black lab and was really too much for my parents to handle, I was living in Indy at the time and Casey going to school at Franklin. Jack was Pepper's first friend as a replacement to Fudge and he was up to trouble all the time, from chewing on metal cogs and taking out the internet to his most famous act of being kidnapped and held for ransom.... (some neighbors picked him up thinking he was someone elses dog, then he was taken to the pound where we had to bail him out) Mom gave Jack away to a family who he lives happily with as an inside dog now.

Sparky - Sparky is our beagle puppy, full of energy and out to sniff things out, he unlike Pepper likes other dogs so he likes it when the neighbors dog wanders over sometimes. Its funny though when he sees one of us coming or outside he will hurry to run off the neighbor dog because he thinks that is what he is supossed to do. But we know he is friendly with them when we aren't around.

Sparky on the day we got him last November

Living on a farm I've also had a variety of other animals as "pets"

Rabbits

Pigs

Chickens

Goats

Guinea Pig, a Fish & Hamsters,, though they aren't farm related

Thankful 4

~This Blog is part of a series for November, adapted from the series Erin is currently running over on her blog. For this month in honor of Thanksgiving I will release a blog every other day about something/one/idea I am Thankful for. I've broken the criteria down into a guideline of sorts that I will follow, the month will contain 5 People - 5 Things - 5 Ideas . The order that I post things in has no particular significance or ranking behind it.~

Health
Ideas 2

Intersting that I am writing this topic up as I have been limping around on a sore back since the 4th, from most likely pushing myself too hard at the gym this last week.

However Health is something I'm thankful for, and I'm willing to admit the majority of my life I haven't been in the best of health by being massively over weight. I was pushing 300 lbs when I was 22 years old before making a major life change and turning it around.



Unfortunatly I then probably pushed it to far the other way, getting down to 153 lbs on my over 6'3 tall body.

That said I'm pretty close to a healthy weight now (slightly over but not too drastic) and overall losing that weight was a great thing, had I waited till later in life I would probably never lose it and be fat all my life. It also helped inspire confidence in myself that I could do things. I am glad that I don't have any major problems and that for the most part my family has been healthy as well. When it comes down to it, our health effects so much of our lives... small thing that is something genetically determined can destroy someones life, stop us from doing the things we love, and just cut of thousands of oppertunities and things we really should be thankful for.

I rarely get sick and while I'll probably become diabetic and have a bad back when I'm older from my genetic history.... well I can't  really complain in the long run.

Hopefully I'm not jinxing myself here because I currently don't have health insurance

Thankful 3

~This Blog is part of a series for November, adapted from the series Erin is currently running over on her blog. For this month in honor of Thanksgiving I will release a blog every other day about something/one/idea I am Thankful for. I've broken the criteria down into a guideline of sorts that I will follow, the month will contain 5 People - 5 Things - 5 Ideas . The order that I post things in has no particular significance or ranking behind it.~


 
Dad
People - 1
 
Well since I mentioned him in my first two thankful post I figured he would be a good person to cover now. I'd have to say I have a great Dad, he has always been supportive and has really helped shape who I am today.
 
As I mentioned earlier he played a big part in my childhood, playing games, teaching me math, reading bed time stories, working with those horrible spelling test, we had to practice Monday-Thursday with him to pass our elementary spelling test as both Casey and I are horrible spellers just like him, which is why he had the patience to sit there and quiz us multiple times every night.
 
He has always loved games; video game, board games, made-up games... not so much sporting games though... (He wrestled in high school, but his brother and sister were more of the sports stars in the family)
-Board games.... he taught me chess when I was in first grade and still plays weekly with one of his friends in the winter. He is also one of the best Clue players I've met. When I was in 5th grade he bought us the game Warhammer 40k of which we spent many hours over the next 7-8 years playing together.
-Video games... He had a colecovision which was our first gaming console... from then on we were Nintendo loyal fans until the Xbox came out. He still has an Xbox360 that he plays a lot.
-Made up games.... well there was rope bridge wars... Dogs & Rabbits (which I don't think he made up but I don't know anyone else who knows it) and the G.I. Joe games we used to play when I was little.
 
When I totalled his truck he never said a mean thing to me about it, totally took it in stride and said it was his fault for making me drive it. He has always been supportive in that way... I remember telling him I didn't want to farm when I was little, and he always supported me in whatever I wanted to do.. I mean right now I'm back home living with them and he has never made me feel bad about being a college graduate who is living at home again.
 

• So for being a great Dad I put him in this list.

Thankful 2

~This Blog is part of a series for November, adapted from the series Erin is currently running over on her blog. For this month in honor of Thanksgiving I will release a blog every other day about something/one/idea I am Thankful for. I've broken the criteria down into a guideline of sorts that I will follow, the month will contain 5 People - 5 Things - 5 Ideas . The order that I post things in has no particular significance or ranking behind it.~



My Car
Thing - 1

While in someplaces of the world having your own transportation isn't important... in rural Indiana it is a key to freedom that I have been lucky to have since I was 16.

Which is good considering I totalled my Dad's truck on my 13th birthday... I vowed I wouldn't drive again after that, but my parents were supportive and wanted me to have my licence as soon as possible. I took my drivers ed at Waldron and my Dad got me my first car... a 1986 Monte Carlo SS with T-Tops, I actually really liked this car, despite it being a gas guzzler and only a year younger than me.



My friends and I had a lot of fun driving around in it as I was basically the driver for everything we went to in high school. It also got me through all four years at Purdue before I retired it due to the cost of gas / basic age and needed repairs.

Next I drove my parents old mini-van for almost a year while I was looking for something else to drive. The Mini van was nice in that it got much better gas mileage than the Monte Carlo despite not being as cool. (22 mpg is a big improvement over 15 mpg)

Finally after a lot of looking around I made my choice.... a Kia Soul...



I bought it on my Birthday, in 2009. I originally wanted a white one but they didn't have one in the model I wanted and I knew if I waited it would take me even longer to make a move on a car.... Spending that much money was a big leap for me. So I pulled the trigger and bought my car on my birthday. I actually really like the care and haven't felt much buyers remorse on it (which is unusual, so I think it was a good choice).

I was telling Erin today it was cool having the only soul I knew around for a long time (they were a brand new model when I got mine) and it sort of sucks seeing more of them around nowdays. This may be the most expensive purchase I make in my life (other than a house hopefully) so it was a big leap for me and I'm thankful I've had the car and that so far I haven't had any real problem with it.

Thankful 1

~This Blog is part of a series for November, adapted from the series Erin is currently running over on her blog. For this month in honor of Thanksgiving I will release a blog every other day about something/one/idea I am Thankful for. I've broken the criteria down into a guideline of sorts that I will follow, the month will contain 5 People - 5 Things - 5 Ideas . The order that I post things in has no particular significance or ranking behind it.~


Education
Idea - 1

As I write this I am currently sitting in a little cafeteria/lounge area of IUPUC where Erin goes to school, so it seems an appropriate place to start this blog series. I have been lucky in life that my parents helped me get a good education and that I was born with what I would consider an above average compacity to learn. My mom working as an elementry school librarian certainly helped but my Dad was always their too, reading to me when I was little and giving me Math Quizzes on rides to the sale barn. Dad even taught me how to multiply at Chucky Cheese's when I was in kindergarten as well as having a boatload of patience when helping Casey and I practice spelling.  So I've always had good a lot of support when it came to expanding my knowledge base.





A series of books Dad used to read as bed time stories.

To say that I have liked school wouldn't be correct... I remember in elementary school telling my mom I didn't like school, and sadly I guess I never really liked Elementary or High School. I always did well in my classes and for the most part excelled, Going to State with the Academic team twice (the only team that ever wanted me lol) I guess it was school was never that challenging and/or I never enjoyed the social aspect.

I told my parents I didn't want to go to college... which was met with a great deal of opposition... So I went to school on the agreement that after one year I could quit if that's what I felt like... I started Purdue in the school of Biochemistry... because well I had to pick a major and I never knew what I wanted to do... that first year didn't go too great but I still didn't know what I wanted to do with my life so I decided to finish out the whole school thing (hey why pass up those Purdue football games and Basketball games?) I switched majors to History and did well in school the rest of the way.


I am thankful that I got my college education, sure I haven't had the best jobs thus far... graduating just before the economy took a dive in 2008 didn't help. But I know I don't have to pursue a dead end job, people look up to me as someone who is knowledgeable and competent, and I know that I gained some skills to be successful. Currently I know that I'm still in the stepping stone phase of my life, just needing to find the next step, but without having a good education I would most likely be stuck in a dead end factory job having reached the peak of my earning potential.

I know that when I have a kid/kids I will push them towards getting a good education and I hope they are smart and succeed. I know Erin gets grumpy at me when I comment sometimes about her schooling, but its because I want the best for her and I guess that starts with getting an education when you think about it.

Halloween 2011

Last night Erin and I went to Beech Grove to Emma and Bruce's house to hang out for a Halloween party. We were late arrivers and couldn't stay long due to our work schedules and them being an hour from home, but it was really nice to see everyone. Bruce wanted to have a theme of Batman villians as he was going as the Joker and Emma as Hariquinn. So my Mom was kind enough to make me a Scarecrow mask and I put on some dress clothes to be Dr. Crane (dressed up as he is a Dr. at Akham Asylum before he puts on the mask to become the villian Scarecrow).

Chantel was Poision Ivy
Bruce was Joker
Emma was Harriquin

then others dressed up included
Arron as Batman
Cassie as Houndstooth
One of Emma's friends as the White Rabbit
A Black Cat
Joe as Thor

Erin couldn't dress up do to having to come right after work got off, but I'm really glad she was able to come with me.

Below are some pictures

Speaking of History

The end of October was a busy month for me at the Museum when it came to public speaking/presentations... so a quick recap of my work/life/events the last two weeks.

Optimist Club


A member of the Optimist club came into the museum one Thursday afternoon looking for someone to do a presentation for their meeting that upcoming Thursday, their previous program had fallen through so they were trying to find someone at the last minute.... so since I was there that person became me.

They were a great group to give a presenation to and very nice, plus side was I got a breakfast... the downside was... their meetings are at 6:30 in the morning... but everything went well and you can get a lot done in a day when you wake up that early.



Lions Club



This presentation I had plenty of heads up on, Erin's grandparents had asked me to give a presentation 2 months in advance so I was ready. They got a more expanded/better presentation than what the Optimist got complete with a slide show and everything.

The meeting went well and Erin's grandparents are still working on getting me to join Lion's Club.


Boy Scouts

One Thursday afternoon I came in late to open up the museum to a pack of boy scouts who wanted to tour our "Life Before Electricity" exhibt... they were a good group who were full of energy.





Indiana State Museum Volunteers

This group volunteers at the State Museum like their name says, I gave a 10 minute talk on the history of Decatur County to them while they ate breakfast at High Point Orchard before they came to tour the museum later on that morning.

Joys of Travel

This was a group that came to tour from Cincinnati, I think they had a good time walking through the museum. Many commented how they enjoyed the town of Greensburg and the museum.

100 Things about Erin #4

*This is the last part in a multi-part blog set for the month of October*

76. Erin is good at the card game hand & foot

77. She started dating her current boyfriend in Feburary

78. She has lived in the following states: Indiana, North Carolina, Flordia, Texas

79. She doesn't like cold weather

80. She likes to sleep in as much as possible

81. She does like it to be cold when she sleeps though

82. She is against killing people/death penalty

83. She has a nice smile

84. Erin is midly addicted to the game Bingo Blitz on facebook currently

85. She loves the show Cold Case

86. Really anything crime/cop related is a big hit with her

87. 4th of July and Thanksgiving are her favorite holidays

88. She likes to carve pumpkins for Halloween

89. Erin likes the sound of pianos

90. She does like skull themed items, more of the cute stuff though not the full on goth or Nightmare before Christmas types.

91. She has an iphone but puts very few apps/games on it... she says they are too clutery

92. She does have the app foursquare and we are the mayors of Arby's

93. She doesn't like McDonalds other than for their ice cream

94. She doesn't like waiting

95. She like Nachos

96. She wishes she had her own house instead of living at her grandparents

97. She is currently fighting a Mountain Dew addiction

98. She wants to visit the Waverly Hills Sanitorium now that I told her about it

99. She wants to have 3 kids

100. Erin is a very caring person

Halloween at the Museum

Last year the museum hosted a Halloween party for kids, and being the new director here I was put in charge of hosting our second annual event for Halloween.

We had good publicity on both the radio and newspaper but our numbers were a little down, probably due to all the other events going on around town. We still had over 45 people attend the event from 1-4 on Saturday so I was pleased with that.

Below are some pictures from the event and our great volunteers!