where I talk with my inside voice
One year ago, we got rid of our chickens, but the plan was always to start over with new chicks. This weekend we added 8 new members to the family. Say hello to Aphrodite, Aurora, Luna, Selena, Emma, Miley, Claudette, and Petunia. Now I have to get started on building a new coop!
Where does the time go? Next month, our little boy will crossover to Boy Scouts and say goodbye to his years as a Cub. Last night was his last Blue and Gold Banquet. He received his Arrow of Light badge and a really nice plaque. I am looking forward to seeing all of his achievements in the years ahead.
We spent Friday afternoon at the St. Louis Foodbank boxing up over 13,000 meals to be shipped to senior citizens across Missouri. The kids did an awesome job and we are so proud of them!
Dixie took the kids down to Orlando for a week to visit her grandparents. They got to spend a couple of days at the beach and a trip to Bok Tower Gardens. Photos are up in my album.
Parts of 2016 were a blur. The highlights for me were our trip to California to drive the PCH and finally publishing my book. This was a surprisingly hard year on celebrities – Prince and Carrie Fisher, to name a couple – people I grew up with, and who left us too soon (57 and 60, respectively). The election was...
Christmas was good this year. The kids got Airzookas, Legos, Mathsharks, and a bunch of other stuff. Dixie and I got Legos too, so we all spent Christmas day at the dining room table putting our sets together. Santa also brought me a 3D printer, so I spent some time learning how to use it. I even created my first...
It’s been almost a year since I started my Notre Dame cathedral in Minecraft. Here is where I am as of today. Roughly half-way, I’d say. Still quite a bit left to do on the rear end, and a lot of stained glass left to do. So far so good.
I missed a couple of years, so I’m not sure if I can still call this an annual event, but here is our video Christmas card for 2016. I hope you enjoy it.
This isn’t our official Christmas card for this year (I’m still working on that), but I thought it was cute. Here’s a link to JibJab.
A couple of days after Christmas last year I went to Lowes and stocked up on lights that were on clearance. This year I’m liking the results.
I certainly have a lot to be thankful for in 2016. We hosted the family again this year for Thanksgiving dinner. We also made a trip over to Eric and Mary’s on Friday morning to see Abby, who was home for the weekend from VMI. Then, in the afternoon, we made our annual trek to Meert Tree Farm to find...
Wednesday seemed like a good day to take off work and go to the zoo. The weather was cool, but not uncomfortably so, and we were about the only people there, so there were no lines for the train. We got to see some of the critters more active than usual – like the new polar bear – and Josie...
It was pretty exciting on Tuesday this week to finally publish my first novel. It’s been an embarrassingly long time coming. I wrote the first few chapters in 1999. When Dixie and I met, there were plenty of other things to occupy my time. I continued to play around with it for years, but it wasn’t until the first year...
The kids both carved their pumpkins and went trick-or-treating on Main Street in St. Charles, as well as around our own neighborhood. A good time was had by all. Photos are up in my album.
In preparation for crossing over to the Troop this spring, Noah spent the weekend camping with the Boy Scouts at Beaumont. It was a little chilly on Friday night, but the rest of the weekend was beautiful and good time was had by all. Noah’s patrol won the Iron Chef competition (for the second time), but struggled a bit with...
Noah’s birthday falls on a Saturday this year, but since we’re going to be camping with the Scouts next weekend, we decided to celebrate his birthday a week early. This year Noah chose to go bowling, so we spent a couple of hours at Olivette Lanes. This was also the year that Dixie passed the cake-decorating torch, so he got...
