Sonics Fever?

So I have been a celtics fan since the early 80's. Mostly because my mom is from Boston and the celtics dominated during the majority of her lifetime. She lived there during their streak of 8 championships in a row and saw numerous great players make their mark on Boston basketball. Anyhow, once she moved to Oklahoma, Boston sports didn't really make it on TV that often but since the Celtics were in the playoffs every year and almost assured a spot in the finals. I grew up watching the celtics-lakers. This is why I hate the lakers. Anyhow, years of futility have made my loyalty wane and I was pretty sure that as soon as the Sonics came to town I could easily switch teams. But now the celts are back on top. What to do? I mean one is eastern the other western so i could split loyalty based on the fact that they will never play each other in the playoffs until the finals. But that would be like supporting a national league baseball team. And seriously, how can you support the NL when its the only level of baseball that doesn't have a DH. Even their minor league teams have a DH. Pitcher's hitting was a thing of the past before pitching got specialized with refief and closing pitchers. Its not the same game, don't pretend. Not having a DH makes baseball weaker. But thats just my opinion.

So...its been awhile.

So a lot has happened and I got a little off track with my consistent updating but here are all of the updates. Firstly, I stepped down as General Manager of the Northwest Expressway store. While I still Love Panera, It was just becoming too stressful to continue to do the job well. This was effecting my performance and wasn't fair to myself or the company. So now I am an asst. at the S. Penn store. Which is a huge change because I went from the busiest store in okc to the 6th. So right now I feel like a rockstar because I have time to get everything done that I need to get done and then I help out the others. Its a positive change that already has me enjoying my job more, like I did in the past.
Bailey is enrolled in Kindergarten at Northern Hills and we found out yesterday that Noah will be joining her at Northern Hills in the Pre-K program. This is really great for us because we can see the school from our back door. Quite literally right now because we recently tore down our fence rather than let it fall down slowly. Anyhow our kids can walk to school if we had to and thats nice. Back to the fence, so we tore down the old fence. When I say we, I mean me. Caryn's dad and uncle helped me in stacking up the pieces onto the trailer though and helped with all of the railroad ties that we got to build our retaining wall. Two weeks later and now the wall looks great and were finishing off the leveling of the yard where we are going to build the fence back. Level this time. This will be the end of phase one of the outdoor renovations. Phase two is the irrigation/deck and phase 3 will be the new roof. This should take us most of the summer but will greatly increase the value of our house. Plus the deck will be nice and we'll finally get to enjoy our back yard after years of drainage issues. Anyhow I'll keep you updated and will get back here more often to limit the number of obsenely large posts.

Were Back!

Well I have never been so excited to get back to freezing temperatures in all of my life. We had enjoyed the 60-70 degree temperatures of the southern california/baja mexico area all week. Although at least once a a day it dipped into the 50's. This would not be so bad but we had packed for the low to be in the mid 60's so we got chilly. We partially doomed ourselves because Caryn had read every single review of the ship and cruise area so she knew everything that we were going to be doing. So basically everything met our expectations. Which is really okay. We just weren't suprised.
Everything was just as everyone said it would be. A lot of food. Good food. The formal night was my favorite and dinner was always the highlight of the day. We met some really awesome people. Josh and Chesney from Tuscon, Arizona and Shelby and Nathan from Upland, California. It was neat how they seat like people together. (Which was really strange for the 1 gay couple on board) Overall we just relaxed a lot and enjoyed the time. Caryn read most of a book and we did a lot of shopping. Not a lot of buying but we shopped the mexican market areas and the shops on catalina island. The one odd thing about the cruise was all of the alcohol. It wasn't just at dinner, it was everywhere and all of the time. Everyone was shocked by their bills and ours was only 220 dollars. And that was with 80 in tips, 85 for a watch i bought, and 30 dollars for the unlimited soda pass. Anyway it felt odd being the only ones not drinking.
So the kids all got strep throat while we were gone. They missed more school in this week than every other time combined. Special thanks to Caryn's family for taking care of the kids. The kids have literally not stopped climbing on me since i have been home. its fun though.

OVerall we had a blast. Im sure I gained at least 5 lbs so it is time to start weight loss plan phase 2. This is where i actually start running again, other than basketball. The pushups and the situps. Hopefully this will help for the Red Bud this year. I am hoping to improve on my 5K time. My best is 28:12 and that was a year ago when i wan not in as good of shape as I am now. So a little running over the next month or so should set me up well. Also If it goes well I am hoping to run the half marathon later in april and just maybe the marathon in Tulsa. That last part is optional but the big goal is the memorial marathon next year. So I guess vacation time is over.

and away we go

Well this is definetely the saddest departure for a vacation that Caryn and I have ever taken. Never before has Caryn left a child this young for more than a couple of hours if not minutes. This will be especially trying for her. All of my employees and friends at work too do not want us to be gone long. I know we will have fun and the next couple of days are going to be a blast but right now we can only think of everything that we are about to leave behind. Look out for our kids while were gone.

Textually Active

I may be the only one who gets a heartly laugh everytime i discover a word that my phone dictionary brings up before the word that I am trying to text. For instance, once i told someone i was three instead of tired. Also i received a text that said that they had gone to the ER to get alone. They meant blood, which is odd true but alone didn't quite elicit the quick response that blood would have.

Even funnier was when Jordan came up Korean. That made me laugh for quite a while. Another funny one that luckily i caught before i sent it off was Panther. if you don't watch you just might be talking about panties instead.

Also I found this t shirt design on the right and thought that it was appropriate but its not quite as funny as this one. i couldn't stop laughing.

dinner : impossible

have you seen this show? this is my first time. they are constructing a restuarant in the middle of the mall. like seriously in the middle. everyone walking around them. They can only use items in the mall for their place and have to have a meal for 600 people ready in 6 hours. its crazy. they go to sears and get like 6 ovens and have them hooked up while they raid the macy for cooking utensils, then they go to the existing restuarants and steal alot of food. Its pretty awesome. After 1 hour they have like nothing done but within the next hour it is obvious that they are going to be done on time.
Anyway, here is a little clip of Noah singing in his ultra high counter tenor voice. he's pretty cute, and if you watch you'll see him playing with his ear. tucking it in. years from now, this will be proof of his ultra flexible ear.

For spaceship skies

Bailey came home singing this one after her second week of school. She's tried teaching it to the others but they just like listening.