~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
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Sunday, November 6, 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Farming #2
Another series of pictures I took on my poor-quality camera phone of working with my Dad and Grandpa.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Concrete reminder
So yesterday I was unloading beans into the small bin by the old hog house and was trying to remember back when Dad put that bin up. I knew it was right after he bought the 50 acres that we call "The Flatrock Farm". We got the bin for free for taking it and another bin that was over there down, the bins were on a plot of ground right next to what Dad had just bought (it was a larger piece of property that was sold into 4 sections, Dad ended up with one of those sections).
I don't know why I remember this but I know when we opened the bin door the first time their was a large nest of hornets that we had to deal with before we could even start taking it down. We spray painted numbers on all of the sections (so we could put it back together correctly) and then took the bin apart piece by piece loading it onto the goose neck trailer.
The bottom of that bin has a floor in it that is supported by cinder blocks, moving those is the part I remember the most, because as a 5th grader it seemed like really hard work, with endless blocks to be carried out... (it probably wasn't that bad) I do know we didn't put all of the blocks back in that floor, and that their is a pile of leftovers sitting by the yellow barn. (I could be wrong on this, and that they were all from the second bin that we never put back up.)
Anyway... the reason for posting this blog is because when we put the bin up in its current location and poured the concrete slab we left our mark in it... Casey and I have our hand prints in the cement, Dad just wrote his name, as well as grandpas initials (B.W.) and the neighbor who helped us (Danny Barnes)* as well as one special individual who wasn't supposed to leave a mark at all but did anyway... Peppy. After she put her paw print in the cement, Dad went ahead and wrote her name next to it, leaving a lasting memory of her.
Peppy is one of the best pets I ever had, she was an Austrlian Shepard and I will always remember her as a great dog. She passed away in Feb. of 2006 when I was at Purdue, she had been in poor health for awhile, rarely leaving the poarch. Mom said she debated on telling me the night she died or waiting until I got home to give me the news.
It was nice however thinking of her today
*note I didn't get pictures of Grandpa or Danny's names because they were on the opposite side of the cement slab and shaded by bin so that a picture wouldn't have come out well.
I don't know why I remember this but I know when we opened the bin door the first time their was a large nest of hornets that we had to deal with before we could even start taking it down. We spray painted numbers on all of the sections (so we could put it back together correctly) and then took the bin apart piece by piece loading it onto the goose neck trailer.
The bottom of that bin has a floor in it that is supported by cinder blocks, moving those is the part I remember the most, because as a 5th grader it seemed like really hard work, with endless blocks to be carried out... (it probably wasn't that bad) I do know we didn't put all of the blocks back in that floor, and that their is a pile of leftovers sitting by the yellow barn. (I could be wrong on this, and that they were all from the second bin that we never put back up.)
Anyway... the reason for posting this blog is because when we put the bin up in its current location and poured the concrete slab we left our mark in it... Casey and I have our hand prints in the cement, Dad just wrote his name, as well as grandpas initials (B.W.) and the neighbor who helped us (Danny Barnes)* as well as one special individual who wasn't supposed to leave a mark at all but did anyway... Peppy. After she put her paw print in the cement, Dad went ahead and wrote her name next to it, leaving a lasting memory of her.
Peppy is one of the best pets I ever had, she was an Austrlian Shepard and I will always remember her as a great dog. She passed away in Feb. of 2006 when I was at Purdue, she had been in poor health for awhile, rarely leaving the poarch. Mom said she debated on telling me the night she died or waiting until I got home to give me the news.
It was nice however thinking of her today
*note I didn't get pictures of Grandpa or Danny's names because they were on the opposite side of the cement slab and shaded by bin so that a picture wouldn't have come out well.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Thoughts - family
So for a blog series this month I thought I would just mention or talk about one thing that crossed my mind each day.
Day 6
Today I went to Brookevillw to Canoe and to a Movie "Bad Teacher" with Erin's family who are here to visit her for her birthday. Its just really nice and really a blessing that we both have supportive families who are there for us. Looking back (I'll admit I'm doing this blog a little late since I was so busy with everything this week), we wouldn't have been able to have nearly as much fun as we did without her family paying for it. They were really nice and I feel sort of guilty about how much money they spent on us this week but I had a great time. It will certainly be nice when we are making more money, and I hope that we can someday be as supportive/good parents as what we both have.
Day 6
Today I went to Brookevillw to Canoe and to a Movie "Bad Teacher" with Erin's family who are here to visit her for her birthday. Its just really nice and really a blessing that we both have supportive families who are there for us. Looking back (I'll admit I'm doing this blog a little late since I was so busy with everything this week), we wouldn't have been able to have nearly as much fun as we did without her family paying for it. They were really nice and I feel sort of guilty about how much money they spent on us this week but I had a great time. It will certainly be nice when we are making more money, and I hope that we can someday be as supportive/good parents as what we both have.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Thoughts - Connections
So for a blog series this month I thought I would just mention or talk about one thing that crossed my mind each day.
Day 4
Today was the 4th of July and since Erin's Mom and Step-dad are in town visiting her we went to a family get together with her stepdad Andrew's family. Throughout all of the talking and general conversation it is intersting to think about how intertwined everyone is in the world. Its probably more so in Decatur County where his family could sit there and talk about all of my neighbors and who farms what field and so on, but still look at how far there familys had branched out. Erin's mom and Andrew had went to school together here in Indiana but wind up meeting each other again in Flordia and getting married. Crazy how things work out and even with billions of people in the world, we seem to move in such tight little groupings.
Day 4
Today was the 4th of July and since Erin's Mom and Step-dad are in town visiting her we went to a family get together with her stepdad Andrew's family. Throughout all of the talking and general conversation it is intersting to think about how intertwined everyone is in the world. Its probably more so in Decatur County where his family could sit there and talk about all of my neighbors and who farms what field and so on, but still look at how far there familys had branched out. Erin's mom and Andrew had went to school together here in Indiana but wind up meeting each other again in Flordia and getting married. Crazy how things work out and even with billions of people in the world, we seem to move in such tight little groupings.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
May happenings
So May blog wise pretty much got filled up by the May Music blog series I was doing, so I wanted to just do a quick recap of some of the major events that happened. During the month...
Jude's Birthday -
The first of the three birthday get togethers I went to this month was for Erin's dog Jude who celebrated her 3rd birthday. I brought a gift of some dog treats and went to celebrate with Erin, her grandparents, and their other dogs. (several pictures previously posted in a blog on the subject)
Casey's Birthday -
Casey turned 23 on May 6th, we went out to eat at the Nascar grill at the Indiana Live Casino for her birthday. Erin went with us and got to see some horse races for the first time. I got Casey a 24 pack of coke and a 12 pack of vinalla coke for her birthday.
Megan Schwering's Birthday -
Megan had a Birthday party at Joe and Chantel's house on Saturday the 7th. It was going to be a big production with 2 bands and everything but at the last minute got toned down and I was kind of glad that happened really. Bruce, Megan S., Joe, Chantel, Brock, Megan B., Arron, Cassie, Erin and myself all attended. It was an intersting night and was nice to get together with people.
Thor -
Went to see the movie Thor with Bruce, Megan and Erin one night. Bruce and Erin really liked it while Megan and myself weren't as impressed. (note I didn't think it was a bad movie, just wasn't as good as I was hoping) after that we went out to eat at Buffal Wild Wings. It was a fun night.
Counting Steps -
My Aunt Pam's school was having a step/walking challenge and she asked Casey and I to carry a pedometer in place of a couple of the teachers at school, and that we would get the prize if our team reached the goal. We were on teams of 5 and had to get 1,000,000 steps per team to earn a 25 dollar check. I ended up scoring over 400,000 steps for my team and will be getting a prize check. Though Erin does think it's silly that I wear the thing. I'm going to keep wearing it the summer because if I walk 500 miles as an individual I will get another $25 dollars.
D&D -
Got in a game of D&D, saddly only one thus far, with Brock, Erin, Bruce, and Joe. It was my first time running a game as a DM and I think it went fairly smooth. It was nice getting a game in since it has been since last September that we played. I enjoy D&D its just so hard to get everyone together for a session it seems. Anyway it was nice to get some ideas and creativity flowing.
Cemetary -
Went to put flowers on the graves of some ancestors for Memorial day with Dad, Pam, and Grandma down in Brookville and Harrison. Its nice to look back at the family history every once in awhile and this is a nice family tradition of sorts.
Storm -
As I dedicated a blog to in May we had a major storm hit Decatur County, at home we didn't have any real damage other than being without power for 60 hours. At the museum where I work we lost 8 windows to the hail. I'll refrain from saying much else since I have already covered it in a full blog.
Predator -
Brock moved into an apartment next door to his Mom's house and on memorial day weekend had what I guess you could call a house warming party of sorts. Brock, Bruce, Joe, Erin, Casey, Bruce, Chantel, and I all got together to watch Predator and Predator two on Blu-Ray.
Well i doubt anyone was that intersted in what I did last month, but if you were there is a quick run down of my life! Since I'm not doing a full blog series this month maybe I'll keep up posting the events that are happening/have happened in my life.
Jude's Birthday -
The first of the three birthday get togethers I went to this month was for Erin's dog Jude who celebrated her 3rd birthday. I brought a gift of some dog treats and went to celebrate with Erin, her grandparents, and their other dogs. (several pictures previously posted in a blog on the subject)
Casey's Birthday -
Casey turned 23 on May 6th, we went out to eat at the Nascar grill at the Indiana Live Casino for her birthday. Erin went with us and got to see some horse races for the first time. I got Casey a 24 pack of coke and a 12 pack of vinalla coke for her birthday.
Megan Schwering's Birthday -
Megan had a Birthday party at Joe and Chantel's house on Saturday the 7th. It was going to be a big production with 2 bands and everything but at the last minute got toned down and I was kind of glad that happened really. Bruce, Megan S., Joe, Chantel, Brock, Megan B., Arron, Cassie, Erin and myself all attended. It was an intersting night and was nice to get together with people.
Thor -
Went to see the movie Thor with Bruce, Megan and Erin one night. Bruce and Erin really liked it while Megan and myself weren't as impressed. (note I didn't think it was a bad movie, just wasn't as good as I was hoping) after that we went out to eat at Buffal Wild Wings. It was a fun night.
Counting Steps -
My Aunt Pam's school was having a step/walking challenge and she asked Casey and I to carry a pedometer in place of a couple of the teachers at school, and that we would get the prize if our team reached the goal. We were on teams of 5 and had to get 1,000,000 steps per team to earn a 25 dollar check. I ended up scoring over 400,000 steps for my team and will be getting a prize check. Though Erin does think it's silly that I wear the thing. I'm going to keep wearing it the summer because if I walk 500 miles as an individual I will get another $25 dollars.
D&D -
Got in a game of D&D, saddly only one thus far, with Brock, Erin, Bruce, and Joe. It was my first time running a game as a DM and I think it went fairly smooth. It was nice getting a game in since it has been since last September that we played. I enjoy D&D its just so hard to get everyone together for a session it seems. Anyway it was nice to get some ideas and creativity flowing.
Cemetary -
Went to put flowers on the graves of some ancestors for Memorial day with Dad, Pam, and Grandma down in Brookville and Harrison. Its nice to look back at the family history every once in awhile and this is a nice family tradition of sorts.
Storm -
As I dedicated a blog to in May we had a major storm hit Decatur County, at home we didn't have any real damage other than being without power for 60 hours. At the museum where I work we lost 8 windows to the hail. I'll refrain from saying much else since I have already covered it in a full blog.
Predator -
Brock moved into an apartment next door to his Mom's house and on memorial day weekend had what I guess you could call a house warming party of sorts. Brock, Bruce, Joe, Erin, Casey, Bruce, Chantel, and I all got together to watch Predator and Predator two on Blu-Ray.
Well i doubt anyone was that intersted in what I did last month, but if you were there is a quick run down of my life! Since I'm not doing a full blog series this month maybe I'll keep up posting the events that are happening/have happened in my life.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Year in Review: Part 3
Year in Review
Note: This is the 3rd part of a four part series, the object being to give a quick review of my experiences in the year 2010. In this part I will cover the months of July, August, and September.
July – The Hike
At the start of this month Casey and I went with our Grandma to a family Reunion for my Grandpa on my Mom’s side of the family. Case and I didn’t really know that side of our family that well since we never met our Mom’s dad.
Mom wasn’t able to go to that family reunion because she was in Europe, visiting England, France and Italy. You can see some pictures of that trip featuring Howie by clicking to post from July of this year.
The 4-H fair came and went, still isn’t the same when you aren’t in 4-H but I went to it a couple nights and watched the Demolition Derby.
A big story this month was the return of Kong! He had went missing back in June and miraculously returning 5 weeks later. He was really skinny when he came back, but he was alive. I took him to the vet and everything checked out and he has been happily living inside with us again.
In pet news Pepper was still doing good, mom bought her a new soccer ball and she has gotten really good at playing ball.
Then of course the main event of the month was the Hike over Mount LeConte which I have reviewed in detail here: http://nomadwaystation.blogspot.com/2010/07/hike-or-that-time-i-walked-over.html
I had gotten pretty good at doing my walks here at home, regularly doing 10-11 mile walks in 90+ degree heat so I was pretty prepared but it was a tough trek for sure. The rest of vacation was good as well, Casey and I saw Ramsey Cascades, and we played putt putt golf and all of the rest of the great Gatlinburg things.
August – End of Summer
Well as we transitioned into August I began to walk less, I guess it was because the Hike was over, but I kind of wish I had kept up better with it.
Dad had his Power of the Past, he didn’t seem to enjoy it as much this year but it is a lot of work for him. I went a few days of the show but it was about the same as always. I hadn’t been the year before though since I was living in Indy.
Megan Brant had a party at her new place now that she had moved to Bloomington, it was a good time. I was going to take Bruce and Megan S. down but Bruce bailed on us so it was just me and Megan heading down to hang out with Megan, Emily and Amanda. We played board games, talked and just hung out that night.
D&D games were still going strong throughout August, but people’s schedules where changing so we could see the beginning of the end on that front. I also remember hanging out with Bruce and company one night at his wife Megan’s place that turned into a great night in which we ended up at Denny’s and someone took a syrup shot… lots of great quotes from that night.
Mom went back to work at school, and Dad was getting ready for the harvest. It had been super dry this summer so he was going to be starting right away. Really I don’t know if we had a real rain all August.
September – Farming
While my August wasn’t very eventful, September started off with me doing a lot of farming. Dad was hitting the fields and since I wasn’t doing anything I spent the biggest part of the first 3 weeks helping him by hauling wagons and emptying them. Grandpa hurt his back so Dad did really need me a little this year. Honestly not a lot to say about that, other than I listened to a lot of talk radio those weeks.
Here are a bunch of photos from farming: http://nomadwaystation.blogspot.com/2010/09/september-photographs.html
Also during September Mom, Casey, and I went to a Purdue game with our cousins since Derek had just started his freshman year at Purdue. Purdue won the game vs Ball State. We all had a good time. (Again a pic is in the above link) Dad had stayed home to fix some of the machinery we had broken while working in the fields. It was actually good for him to have a day to fix things since the weather had been so good, we hadn’t had any reason to stop since no major breakdowns had occurred.
Earlier in the month I had began putting books on half.com, books I had from school and wasn’t ever going to use again. I did pretty good selling them and made a little money.
I also bought a new laptop this month. Since moving home I had been having some trouble with my desktops hard drive. As well as the fact I don’t have wireless on my desktop I was back to using my old laptop, which was a middle of the line laptop from before I went to Purdue (2004). Needless to say it was very outdated. So…. After about three weeks of looking over computers and thinking about what I wanted. I pulled the trigger on the Dell laptop I’m using now.
Since school had started I had put in an application to substitute teach and this month I had my first class. A half day for my old Biology teacher in high school, it was easy… had them watch TV and that was about it. It was nice to do some I guess real work that I got paid for, even if it wasn’t much, and would lead to me having to fax like four papers to the unemployment office telling them that this wasn’t a full time job.
I was also searching a lot more for jobs this month, going to the truck stop at least once a week just to upload applications. I knew my unemployment would be out in November so I needed to get something by then.
On the entertainment side of things, a cousin of Bruce’s came home for Labor Day weekend and ran a one shot D&D game, but this was pretty much the end of the summer of D&D for my group of friends. All of our schedules had begun to change and getting together late at night wasn’t going to work anymore.
I did also start his blog in September, and began the tedious efforts to import all of my old MySpace blogs over here, since Myspace and Blogger don’t work well with each other, this is a time consuming process. But I’m glad I started when I did now that Myspace’s Blogs are set up differently. (I don’t know if I will ever be able to see my oldest myspace blogs so they may never get over here)
Note: This is the 3rd part of a four part series, the object being to give a quick review of my experiences in the year 2010. In this part I will cover the months of July, August, and September.
July – The Hike
At the start of this month Casey and I went with our Grandma to a family Reunion for my Grandpa on my Mom’s side of the family. Case and I didn’t really know that side of our family that well since we never met our Mom’s dad.
Mom wasn’t able to go to that family reunion because she was in Europe, visiting England, France and Italy. You can see some pictures of that trip featuring Howie by clicking to post from July of this year.
The 4-H fair came and went, still isn’t the same when you aren’t in 4-H but I went to it a couple nights and watched the Demolition Derby.
A big story this month was the return of Kong! He had went missing back in June and miraculously returning 5 weeks later. He was really skinny when he came back, but he was alive. I took him to the vet and everything checked out and he has been happily living inside with us again.
In pet news Pepper was still doing good, mom bought her a new soccer ball and she has gotten really good at playing ball.
Then of course the main event of the month was the Hike over Mount LeConte which I have reviewed in detail here: http://nomadwaystation.blogspot.com/2010/07/hike-or-that-time-i-walked-over.html
I had gotten pretty good at doing my walks here at home, regularly doing 10-11 mile walks in 90+ degree heat so I was pretty prepared but it was a tough trek for sure. The rest of vacation was good as well, Casey and I saw Ramsey Cascades, and we played putt putt golf and all of the rest of the great Gatlinburg things.
August – End of Summer
Well as we transitioned into August I began to walk less, I guess it was because the Hike was over, but I kind of wish I had kept up better with it.
Dad had his Power of the Past, he didn’t seem to enjoy it as much this year but it is a lot of work for him. I went a few days of the show but it was about the same as always. I hadn’t been the year before though since I was living in Indy.
Megan Brant had a party at her new place now that she had moved to Bloomington, it was a good time. I was going to take Bruce and Megan S. down but Bruce bailed on us so it was just me and Megan heading down to hang out with Megan, Emily and Amanda. We played board games, talked and just hung out that night.
D&D games were still going strong throughout August, but people’s schedules where changing so we could see the beginning of the end on that front. I also remember hanging out with Bruce and company one night at his wife Megan’s place that turned into a great night in which we ended up at Denny’s and someone took a syrup shot… lots of great quotes from that night.
Mom went back to work at school, and Dad was getting ready for the harvest. It had been super dry this summer so he was going to be starting right away. Really I don’t know if we had a real rain all August.
September – Farming
While my August wasn’t very eventful, September started off with me doing a lot of farming. Dad was hitting the fields and since I wasn’t doing anything I spent the biggest part of the first 3 weeks helping him by hauling wagons and emptying them. Grandpa hurt his back so Dad did really need me a little this year. Honestly not a lot to say about that, other than I listened to a lot of talk radio those weeks.
Here are a bunch of photos from farming: http://nomadwaystation.blogspot.com/2010/09/september-photographs.html
Also during September Mom, Casey, and I went to a Purdue game with our cousins since Derek had just started his freshman year at Purdue. Purdue won the game vs Ball State. We all had a good time. (Again a pic is in the above link) Dad had stayed home to fix some of the machinery we had broken while working in the fields. It was actually good for him to have a day to fix things since the weather had been so good, we hadn’t had any reason to stop since no major breakdowns had occurred.
Earlier in the month I had began putting books on half.com, books I had from school and wasn’t ever going to use again. I did pretty good selling them and made a little money.
I also bought a new laptop this month. Since moving home I had been having some trouble with my desktops hard drive. As well as the fact I don’t have wireless on my desktop I was back to using my old laptop, which was a middle of the line laptop from before I went to Purdue (2004). Needless to say it was very outdated. So…. After about three weeks of looking over computers and thinking about what I wanted. I pulled the trigger on the Dell laptop I’m using now.
Since school had started I had put in an application to substitute teach and this month I had my first class. A half day for my old Biology teacher in high school, it was easy… had them watch TV and that was about it. It was nice to do some I guess real work that I got paid for, even if it wasn’t much, and would lead to me having to fax like four papers to the unemployment office telling them that this wasn’t a full time job.
I was also searching a lot more for jobs this month, going to the truck stop at least once a week just to upload applications. I knew my unemployment would be out in November so I needed to get something by then.
On the entertainment side of things, a cousin of Bruce’s came home for Labor Day weekend and ran a one shot D&D game, but this was pretty much the end of the summer of D&D for my group of friends. All of our schedules had begun to change and getting together late at night wasn’t going to work anymore.
I did also start his blog in September, and began the tedious efforts to import all of my old MySpace blogs over here, since Myspace and Blogger don’t work well with each other, this is a time consuming process. But I’m glad I started when I did now that Myspace’s Blogs are set up differently. (I don’t know if I will ever be able to see my oldest myspace blogs so they may never get over here)
Monday, December 20, 2010
Winter Pictures and Putting up the Christmas Tree 2010
Winter
Pepper
Howie
Putting up the Tree 12-5-10
Casey
Mom and Casey
Howie
My Hippo Ornament
Pepper
Howie
Putting up the Tree 12-5-10
Casey
Mom and Casey
Howie
My Hippo Ornament
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Year in Review : Part 2
Year in Review
Note: This is the 2nd part of a four part series, the object being to give a quick review of my experiences in the year 2010. In this part I will cover the months of April, May, and June.
April – Easter and such
The major event in April was spending Easter with my family. I remember Mom worked to guilt Casey and I in to watching “The Easter Beagle”… not that great of a show. After that Casey and I worked on dying some Easter eggs of our own, including our attempt to produce the famous “pirate egg” (which is really just our effort every year to somehow make a black egg)
Easter morning we ate breakfast and went to Church with Grandma, Grandpa and Pam like always and then headed to Grammy’s to spend the rest of the day with Mom’s side of the family.
Derek, Erica, Anita, and Joe brought the foreign exchange student they were housing with them, and events of the day included flying kites and a trip to the woods in which there was some getting wet and throwing of sticks into the water, as well as Howie getting some photo ops in a junk pile back there.
I also really got into Xbox live this month, and enjoyed a few games of Civ Rev online with Bruce and Brock. However this would be short lived as near the end of the month I found myself packing up and moving home as the lease ran out on my apartment on the 24th, and with me being unemployed and no idea where my next job would be I moved home with my parents once again.
May – Homeward Bound
At the end of April I had packed up and moved home, so the start of this month was me settling back in at my parents. Casey’s Birthday was on the 6th, and Bruce’s wife Megan also had her birthday party around that time.
I remember going to the horse track in Andersonville I believe three times between the end of April and through May to watch my Grandpa’s horse run, but she never did very well in those races.
I guess overall May wasn’t that eventful, probably the biggest development was my group of friends getting into D&D 3.5, a game that would provide us a lot of fun over the course of the summer. With Casey moving back and being unemployed, myself being unemployed, and everyone else working Part time at Fedex or at Taco Bell we were able to get everyone together for a game session at least once a week if not twice.
A few days this month I helped my Dad in the fields but overall I was just a bum most of the month of May to be honest.
One last thing to mention was somewhere near the start of this month was the great Jack kidnapping, in which Jack the dog went missing… turns out he was picked up by someone driving by thinking he was their bosses dog who lived a few roads over, and had gotten lose. However, once their boss got home she realized Jack wasn’t her dog and set out to find the real owner…. She couldn’t find the owner and left him with a neighbor who called the pound on him.. so Jack was kidnapped.
Mom eventually found out he was being held for ransom at the pound and had to bail him out, which was crazy because she was giving him away in a week. But he is living happily now where he is an inside dog and gets to sleep in bed with his owners and has a lot of other dogs to play with.
June – Walking
My Birthday was on the 1st and my family and I went to the NASCAR grill to celebrate it, as well as my Dad’s birthday the next week.
Job wise this month I was still unemployed, but I began to start thinking about getting in shape again… and well I was in pitiful shape so I began to go for walks. At first they started out as 2-3 mile trips and I would take Pepper with me and sometimes Mom, Dad, or Casey would come along as well.
However as the summer would draw on these walks would become longer and longer until they would hit the 10 mile journeys I took almost every day in July. Infact a couple times I walked to St. Paul via the rail road tracks… in which I got these pictures over the Flat Rock River.
I also remember it raining a lot…. And getting stuck in the rain on walks quite often at the start of the month… but a little rain never killed anyone.
We did also come home once from my Grandmas and see this huge turtle…
On the job front I was still unemployed, but I did help my Dad bale quite a bit of hay this month which helped keep me somewhat busy.
In entertainment… not a whole lot going on this month, Steve and I started hanging out more as he moved back home, sometimes we would go to the truckstop for some high speed unlimited bandwidth interneting, as well as doing quite a bit of late night cruising around Decatur and Shelby Counties, trying to find some of the spookiest places…. Including the famous floating horse!
Note: This is the 2nd part of a four part series, the object being to give a quick review of my experiences in the year 2010. In this part I will cover the months of April, May, and June.
April – Easter and such
The major event in April was spending Easter with my family. I remember Mom worked to guilt Casey and I in to watching “The Easter Beagle”… not that great of a show. After that Casey and I worked on dying some Easter eggs of our own, including our attempt to produce the famous “pirate egg” (which is really just our effort every year to somehow make a black egg)
Easter morning we ate breakfast and went to Church with Grandma, Grandpa and Pam like always and then headed to Grammy’s to spend the rest of the day with Mom’s side of the family.
Derek, Erica, Anita, and Joe brought the foreign exchange student they were housing with them, and events of the day included flying kites and a trip to the woods in which there was some getting wet and throwing of sticks into the water, as well as Howie getting some photo ops in a junk pile back there.
I also really got into Xbox live this month, and enjoyed a few games of Civ Rev online with Bruce and Brock. However this would be short lived as near the end of the month I found myself packing up and moving home as the lease ran out on my apartment on the 24th, and with me being unemployed and no idea where my next job would be I moved home with my parents once again.
May – Homeward Bound
At the end of April I had packed up and moved home, so the start of this month was me settling back in at my parents. Casey’s Birthday was on the 6th, and Bruce’s wife Megan also had her birthday party around that time.
I remember going to the horse track in Andersonville I believe three times between the end of April and through May to watch my Grandpa’s horse run, but she never did very well in those races.
I guess overall May wasn’t that eventful, probably the biggest development was my group of friends getting into D&D 3.5, a game that would provide us a lot of fun over the course of the summer. With Casey moving back and being unemployed, myself being unemployed, and everyone else working Part time at Fedex or at Taco Bell we were able to get everyone together for a game session at least once a week if not twice.
A few days this month I helped my Dad in the fields but overall I was just a bum most of the month of May to be honest.
One last thing to mention was somewhere near the start of this month was the great Jack kidnapping, in which Jack the dog went missing… turns out he was picked up by someone driving by thinking he was their bosses dog who lived a few roads over, and had gotten lose. However, once their boss got home she realized Jack wasn’t her dog and set out to find the real owner…. She couldn’t find the owner and left him with a neighbor who called the pound on him.. so Jack was kidnapped.
Mom eventually found out he was being held for ransom at the pound and had to bail him out, which was crazy because she was giving him away in a week. But he is living happily now where he is an inside dog and gets to sleep in bed with his owners and has a lot of other dogs to play with.
June – Walking
My Birthday was on the 1st and my family and I went to the NASCAR grill to celebrate it, as well as my Dad’s birthday the next week.
Job wise this month I was still unemployed, but I began to start thinking about getting in shape again… and well I was in pitiful shape so I began to go for walks. At first they started out as 2-3 mile trips and I would take Pepper with me and sometimes Mom, Dad, or Casey would come along as well.
However as the summer would draw on these walks would become longer and longer until they would hit the 10 mile journeys I took almost every day in July. Infact a couple times I walked to St. Paul via the rail road tracks… in which I got these pictures over the Flat Rock River.
I also remember it raining a lot…. And getting stuck in the rain on walks quite often at the start of the month… but a little rain never killed anyone.
We did also come home once from my Grandmas and see this huge turtle…
On the job front I was still unemployed, but I did help my Dad bale quite a bit of hay this month which helped keep me somewhat busy.
In entertainment… not a whole lot going on this month, Steve and I started hanging out more as he moved back home, sometimes we would go to the truckstop for some high speed unlimited bandwidth interneting, as well as doing quite a bit of late night cruising around Decatur and Shelby Counties, trying to find some of the spookiest places…. Including the famous floating horse!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Year in Review: Part 1
Year in Review
Note: This is a start of a four part series, the object being to give a quick review of my experiences in the year 2010. In this part I will cover the months of January, February, and March.
January - The beginning…
So I started out New Year’s this year partying up in Indy with Megan and Emily, ok well it wasn’t that crazy of a party but we had a good time, watched the ball drop and all of that jazz that goes along with the New Year.
After that start however, the main story was certainly me becoming unemployed. I knew it was happening; the management company I worked for lost their contract over the hotel I was working as the Operations Manager of on December 31st of 2009. I ended up being with them until January 15th… and then I journeyed into unemployment.
To be honest I wasn’t upset about this, it actually made me happy at the time, I had been working 6 days a week or 10+ hour days for the last 4 months or so. Things had been stressful because the hotel wasn’t doing that well and it was obvious changes had to be in the works. So I was fully relieved to be out of this and ready to get some rest and then find out what the next chapter in my life had in store.
Who knew that this would lead to a 10 month journey into unemployment? I didn’t at the time but it was a risk I was taking, and to be honest… I don’t regret it looking back.
The rest of January wasn’t that eventful, got some rest, and got to start catching up with Friends I hadn’t been able to see much since moving out of Decatur County and working as many hours as I was at the hotel. I started going and visiting with my parents a lot as well.
Oh the Colts played in the Super Bowl and lost…..
February – Being Free on Unemployment
I started getting unemployment this month and found I was making a decent amount of money, enough to cover rent, my car payment, and food / entertainment. Of course my crazy frugality helped out in this case… I was still well into my challenge of not heating my apartment all winter, in fact that was pretty much an easy success at this point as I had made it through most of the worst part of the year. Though I did find I was spending more money on food/entertainment since I wasn’t doing anything all day. I also succeeded in exercising again at the end of January/Start of February for all of about two weeks or so.
I remember one day this month I took my Grandma to the doctor to get stitches out of her hand that was an interesting day visiting her.
On Groundhogs day I celebrated it with Casey, Steve and some of their friends on Franklin College’s campus. It was a good time had by all, I love celebrating silly holidays! We ate Chinese at the Blue Turtle and then played some poker… of which I lost as usual.
Also in February my Grandma White had to come home early from Florida to attend a funeral, so Dad, Pam and I went up to get her from the airport, we made signs and everything to make her feel like a VIP. This was the first time she had flown alone since she flew out to meet my Grandpa in Alaska over 40 years ago.
Finally in February I went to a Sick Puppy / Chevelle Concert at the Murat with Bruce, his wife Megan, and once of his friends from work. It was a great concert, and the first one I saw at the Murat. I fully admit I went to see the Sick Puppies and they were awesome but Chevelle totally commanded the show and put on the best performance. Janus the opening band however, not impressed. I took Howie and he got his picture on the stage and with Emma the bass player with the Sick Puppies but sadly it came out blurry!
March – Adventures!
March was Spring Break for my parents and I ended up spending that week down at my parent’s house sitting / taking care of Pepper and Kong. I ate dinner with my grandparents most of that week. It was funny because the corn stove went out and neither I nor my Grandpa could get it restarted, but I didn’t care since it wasn’t that cold, I mean I was living without heat all winter, but he was really worried.
On March 6th Megan and I took Howie for a photo Op with a Giant Pink elephant holding a martini glass, I will hopefully get a picture up of this… because really the picture will do much better than a description.
Also In March, Bruce had really wanted to go Geo-Caching so we did. We found I believe 4 of the 7 things we were looking for; it was a fun afternoon driving around Decatur and Shelby counties looking for hidden caches. Now our GPS wasn’t the handled kind, only the in car kind so we didn’t have the best equipment but we both agreed we had a fun time and should do it again. (Howie even got some good photo ops in) However, we never really got around to doing it.
The next week Bruce, Steve, Casey and I packed up the Soul to take Howie to Daniel Boone’s grave. I had been there before with my Dad in 2007 when we went on the Bourbon Trail. Actually we had planned on going to some distilleries when we were down there, but poor time management failed us on that. But we did all have a good time, Saw Daniel Boone’s grave, found a geo-cache there, saw that Frankfort has a side of town that is 1/3 liquor stores, 1/3 auto repair and 1/3 bait shops. Just wish we could have went on a Bourbon tour.
Finally one last event for the Month would be Chantel’s 21st birthday party, which I may have had a little much to drink but it was another fun event this year.
Note: This is a start of a four part series, the object being to give a quick review of my experiences in the year 2010. In this part I will cover the months of January, February, and March.
January - The beginning…
So I started out New Year’s this year partying up in Indy with Megan and Emily, ok well it wasn’t that crazy of a party but we had a good time, watched the ball drop and all of that jazz that goes along with the New Year.
After that start however, the main story was certainly me becoming unemployed. I knew it was happening; the management company I worked for lost their contract over the hotel I was working as the Operations Manager of on December 31st of 2009. I ended up being with them until January 15th… and then I journeyed into unemployment.
To be honest I wasn’t upset about this, it actually made me happy at the time, I had been working 6 days a week or 10+ hour days for the last 4 months or so. Things had been stressful because the hotel wasn’t doing that well and it was obvious changes had to be in the works. So I was fully relieved to be out of this and ready to get some rest and then find out what the next chapter in my life had in store.
Who knew that this would lead to a 10 month journey into unemployment? I didn’t at the time but it was a risk I was taking, and to be honest… I don’t regret it looking back.
The rest of January wasn’t that eventful, got some rest, and got to start catching up with Friends I hadn’t been able to see much since moving out of Decatur County and working as many hours as I was at the hotel. I started going and visiting with my parents a lot as well.
Oh the Colts played in the Super Bowl and lost…..
February – Being Free on Unemployment
I started getting unemployment this month and found I was making a decent amount of money, enough to cover rent, my car payment, and food / entertainment. Of course my crazy frugality helped out in this case… I was still well into my challenge of not heating my apartment all winter, in fact that was pretty much an easy success at this point as I had made it through most of the worst part of the year. Though I did find I was spending more money on food/entertainment since I wasn’t doing anything all day. I also succeeded in exercising again at the end of January/Start of February for all of about two weeks or so.
I remember one day this month I took my Grandma to the doctor to get stitches out of her hand that was an interesting day visiting her.
On Groundhogs day I celebrated it with Casey, Steve and some of their friends on Franklin College’s campus. It was a good time had by all, I love celebrating silly holidays! We ate Chinese at the Blue Turtle and then played some poker… of which I lost as usual.
Also in February my Grandma White had to come home early from Florida to attend a funeral, so Dad, Pam and I went up to get her from the airport, we made signs and everything to make her feel like a VIP. This was the first time she had flown alone since she flew out to meet my Grandpa in Alaska over 40 years ago.
Finally in February I went to a Sick Puppy / Chevelle Concert at the Murat with Bruce, his wife Megan, and once of his friends from work. It was a great concert, and the first one I saw at the Murat. I fully admit I went to see the Sick Puppies and they were awesome but Chevelle totally commanded the show and put on the best performance. Janus the opening band however, not impressed. I took Howie and he got his picture on the stage and with Emma the bass player with the Sick Puppies but sadly it came out blurry!
March – Adventures!
March was Spring Break for my parents and I ended up spending that week down at my parent’s house sitting / taking care of Pepper and Kong. I ate dinner with my grandparents most of that week. It was funny because the corn stove went out and neither I nor my Grandpa could get it restarted, but I didn’t care since it wasn’t that cold, I mean I was living without heat all winter, but he was really worried.
On March 6th Megan and I took Howie for a photo Op with a Giant Pink elephant holding a martini glass, I will hopefully get a picture up of this… because really the picture will do much better than a description.
Also In March, Bruce had really wanted to go Geo-Caching so we did. We found I believe 4 of the 7 things we were looking for; it was a fun afternoon driving around Decatur and Shelby counties looking for hidden caches. Now our GPS wasn’t the handled kind, only the in car kind so we didn’t have the best equipment but we both agreed we had a fun time and should do it again. (Howie even got some good photo ops in) However, we never really got around to doing it.
The next week Bruce, Steve, Casey and I packed up the Soul to take Howie to Daniel Boone’s grave. I had been there before with my Dad in 2007 when we went on the Bourbon Trail. Actually we had planned on going to some distilleries when we were down there, but poor time management failed us on that. But we did all have a good time, Saw Daniel Boone’s grave, found a geo-cache there, saw that Frankfort has a side of town that is 1/3 liquor stores, 1/3 auto repair and 1/3 bait shops. Just wish we could have went on a Bourbon tour.
Finally one last event for the Month would be Chantel’s 21st birthday party, which I may have had a little much to drink but it was another fun event this year.
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