A group of buddies and I took a Mountain Biking trip to Moab, Utah the week of October 4th. We covered a lot of trails and had a good time checking out Utah. Thanks to my lovely wife for letting me go and for being a single parent for a week!
Here are the albums of each day:
Monday, October 19, 2015
No TV
As we were eating tonight we were talking about the future of our TV from the bedroom after we get a new one for the living room. Josie was almost in tears when we said, "No Josie, you can't have a TV in your room. I didn't have one in my room until I was out of high school," I said. Her response, "Yeah, but that was like in the olden days."
Saturday, January 31, 2015
In Remembrance of William “Roger” Minnis
April 2, 1925 - December 10th, 2014
Grandpa Roger, or his CB name of “The Blacksmith”, could make anything out of metal. For example, bale racks for carrying eight round bales at a time or hay rake dollies that could connect multiple rakes together. Normally, we could hook three together but when dry times prevailed we even connected four. Another special piece of equipment he created was what he called the “hootenanny”. It was a cantankerous electric machine that had two transmissions hooked together. The driving end was connected to a v-belt pulley powered by an electric motor. It had two shifters and PTO shaft coming out of the other end that would connect to the crank on a silo-unloader. Looking back it really wasn't very safe at all, but did accomplish quickly raising the unloader prior to filling the silo. You could always rely on Grandpa having a sharp knife. He had sharpening stones in his chopper tractor so while waiting for an empty wagon to arrive while chopping corn or hay he'd be busy sharpening one of his many pocket knives.
Grandpa always had a helping hand. I can remember him bringing his loader tractor or snow blower out to clear the roads for the bus or the times he helped the REC get to broken power lines after storms. A few times we'd even have to make an emergency call to Grandpa for him to bring up his gun to take care of a coon in the willow tree near our house or coons in the old stone school house across the road. He was also involved with the Riceville Cemetery and helped put up the 100s of flags for Memorial Day. He loved his David Church family and the thing I remember most is him helping hand out the brown paper bags of goodies and peanuts that He and Grandma put together for Christmas Eve services.
He not only helped out us humans, but his beloved polled Herford cattle with the late nights or early mornings calving with the first year heifers. He loved his horses and telling stories about them from what we call the “good old days”. One story I can remember was about working the field across from the house and a team of horses getting stuck in the natural spring. He had a riding horse, Trigger, that he would take out to the yard on the west side of the house every morning and bring him back down to the barn at nights. A couple times he’d hoist me up and let me ride down to the barn while he led.
One day my Father, Leland, and Grandpa attempted to get our pony, Trigger, hooked up to a two wheeled cart. Trigger was supposed to be broke so no big deal right? Well, the horse took off running across the road with my Dad in tow, holding on for dear life. They circled around with my Dad standing and pulling on the reigns as best he could trying to slow Trigger down. Fortunately, Trigger ended up going between two round hay bales and no one was hurt.
With him loving his dogs, there was one dog in particular that was easy to remember...you know how something is so unusual that you would never forget. Well, Sport was that kind of dog. He had blue eyes, mostly gray fur with splotches of brown and black. He was a cross between an Australian blue healer and something from another world. Many times he was too good of a guard dog and prevented us visiting Grandma. That alone wouldn't make it memorable, but the fact that when Grandma would create her recipe of food for it, Sport would go through quite the act. Grandpa along with all the rest of us loved watching Sport as he would start out looking at the food for a while, start circling around it, finally growling at it like the food was going to fight back; fangs and all! Many of his past dogs were trained so well that when cattle feeding time came, Grandpa would whistle and the dog would jump up and run down to the cattle yard to herd the cattle away from the bunker so Grandpa could feed them.
We had a few picnics growing up and some entailed a bonfire made up of old trees and scrap wood. One fire was so big we had to stand back about 15 feet just to roast our hot dogs. Even with a “safe” distance from the fire my cousin, Rick, had the bottom of his shoes melt from the heat. We had trips out on the loader bucket to the North end of the farm to have picnics on top of the big rock. We even got my mother on top in spite of her fear of heights.
While we remember Grandpa, I also thank my Grandma, Anita, for being his right hand through thick and thin. Her devotion is a testament to true endless love.
In parting, Grandpa always carried his “medicine” around which was either butterscotch hard candy or the Brach’s Milk Maid Royals candy. He also liked his bowl of ice cream and crackers. So, as you get ready for bed tonight, treat yourself with a bowl of ice cream in remembrance of The Blacksmith.
With fond memories,
Kevin
Grandpa Roger, or his CB name of “The Blacksmith”, could make anything out of metal. For example, bale racks for carrying eight round bales at a time or hay rake dollies that could connect multiple rakes together. Normally, we could hook three together but when dry times prevailed we even connected four. Another special piece of equipment he created was what he called the “hootenanny”. It was a cantankerous electric machine that had two transmissions hooked together. The driving end was connected to a v-belt pulley powered by an electric motor. It had two shifters and PTO shaft coming out of the other end that would connect to the crank on a silo-unloader. Looking back it really wasn't very safe at all, but did accomplish quickly raising the unloader prior to filling the silo. You could always rely on Grandpa having a sharp knife. He had sharpening stones in his chopper tractor so while waiting for an empty wagon to arrive while chopping corn or hay he'd be busy sharpening one of his many pocket knives.Grandpa always had a helping hand. I can remember him bringing his loader tractor or snow blower out to clear the roads for the bus or the times he helped the REC get to broken power lines after storms. A few times we'd even have to make an emergency call to Grandpa for him to bring up his gun to take care of a coon in the willow tree near our house or coons in the old stone school house across the road. He was also involved with the Riceville Cemetery and helped put up the 100s of flags for Memorial Day. He loved his David Church family and the thing I remember most is him helping hand out the brown paper bags of goodies and peanuts that He and Grandma put together for Christmas Eve services.
He not only helped out us humans, but his beloved polled Herford cattle with the late nights or early mornings calving with the first year heifers. He loved his horses and telling stories about them from what we call the “good old days”. One story I can remember was about working the field across from the house and a team of horses getting stuck in the natural spring. He had a riding horse, Trigger, that he would take out to the yard on the west side of the house every morning and bring him back down to the barn at nights. A couple times he’d hoist me up and let me ride down to the barn while he led.
One day my Father, Leland, and Grandpa attempted to get our pony, Trigger, hooked up to a two wheeled cart. Trigger was supposed to be broke so no big deal right? Well, the horse took off running across the road with my Dad in tow, holding on for dear life. They circled around with my Dad standing and pulling on the reigns as best he could trying to slow Trigger down. Fortunately, Trigger ended up going between two round hay bales and no one was hurt.
With him loving his dogs, there was one dog in particular that was easy to remember...you know how something is so unusual that you would never forget. Well, Sport was that kind of dog. He had blue eyes, mostly gray fur with splotches of brown and black. He was a cross between an Australian blue healer and something from another world. Many times he was too good of a guard dog and prevented us visiting Grandma. That alone wouldn't make it memorable, but the fact that when Grandma would create her recipe of food for it, Sport would go through quite the act. Grandpa along with all the rest of us loved watching Sport as he would start out looking at the food for a while, start circling around it, finally growling at it like the food was going to fight back; fangs and all! Many of his past dogs were trained so well that when cattle feeding time came, Grandpa would whistle and the dog would jump up and run down to the cattle yard to herd the cattle away from the bunker so Grandpa could feed them.
We had a few picnics growing up and some entailed a bonfire made up of old trees and scrap wood. One fire was so big we had to stand back about 15 feet just to roast our hot dogs. Even with a “safe” distance from the fire my cousin, Rick, had the bottom of his shoes melt from the heat. We had trips out on the loader bucket to the North end of the farm to have picnics on top of the big rock. We even got my mother on top in spite of her fear of heights.
While we remember Grandpa, I also thank my Grandma, Anita, for being his right hand through thick and thin. Her devotion is a testament to true endless love.
In parting, Grandpa always carried his “medicine” around which was either butterscotch hard candy or the Brach’s Milk Maid Royals candy. He also liked his bowl of ice cream and crackers. So, as you get ready for bed tonight, treat yourself with a bowl of ice cream in remembrance of The Blacksmith.
With fond memories,
Kevin
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
12 Years and 5 Fingers
So, a lot has happened since my last writing. The group I work with at Pioneer was re-orged, I've been through a bunch of tests for health because of stress from work (reorg, job interviews, etc.), diagnosed to have IBS and have since been de-stressing by running. Oh and today is my 12 year anniversary at Pioneer.
Kim got me an early b-day present yesterday which are the Vibram FiveFinger shoes. Today I took my first run in them. It will be interesting to see how my body feels tomorrow. I already feel it in my feet. But, wow! I love the feeling of wearing them. I've found so far that I love walking/running in grass and dirt. It gives a whole new dimension to running. I love "feeling mother nature"; the cool feeling from the dirt over the hard blacktop surface. So, we'll see how it goes, but I do want the FiveFingers to "work".
Till next time, keep'n it real.
km
Kim got me an early b-day present yesterday which are the Vibram FiveFinger shoes. Today I took my first run in them. It will be interesting to see how my body feels tomorrow. I already feel it in my feet. But, wow! I love the feeling of wearing them. I've found so far that I love walking/running in grass and dirt. It gives a whole new dimension to running. I love "feeling mother nature"; the cool feeling from the dirt over the hard blacktop surface. So, we'll see how it goes, but I do want the FiveFingers to "work".Till next time, keep'n it real.
km
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Sup Y'all
So, yeah, it's only been more than a year since I've last wrote. Time flies and I've been, you know, keeping things going both at home with Kim and the Kids and at work. Jayden's now 6, in Kindergarden, and had to have a couple of his front baby teeth pulled to make room for his more permanent fixtures. Josie is 4 and keeps both Kim and myself on our toes. Last year in preschool she was learning some sign language so Kim got some signing DVDs from the library and Josie's been eating it up. It's fun to see her so excited to learn.
I'm not sure what I'll do with my blog. I feel like trying to include some more software development information if I can...it's something to write about at least and I feel like giving back to the community.
I'm not sure what I'll do with my blog. I feel like trying to include some more software development information if I can...it's something to write about at least and I feel like giving back to the community.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
East Coast Fun
This summer we decided to go to the East Coast to visit my Sister and her family who live in New Hampshire. We weren't sure at first if we wanted to tackle such a feat with Jayden and Josie not being that old, but thought what the heck might as well give it a try. So, on May 24th, 2009 at we set out at 6:00 in the morning. We didn't make it out of Iowa before the kids already started asking if we were there yet. oh dear!
Our first overnight destination was the Maumee Toledo, OH area. Traffic wasn't bad up to this point despite it being Memorial Day weekend. We traveled from Toledo to visit Hershey Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The kids thought it cool and hadn't seen so much chocolate in their life. From there we traveled to Strasburg, Pennsylvania to visit the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum. Jayden and I could have stayed there a lot longer, but we had to continue on to visit the Crayola Factory in Easton, Pennsylvania. We got to see a mini crayola factory and all things color. We also got to play with some boats and cannals. We survived driving through New York City and Connecticut even though "Carmin" (The Garmin GPS) let us down in a few spots...more on her later. We managed to arrive at my Sister's place on day three.
It rained the first two days we were in New Hampshire so we decided to do a few things that didn't require us to be outside...shopping and visiting a few places. We went to the Cape Neddick Lighthouse on York Beach, Maine, and shopped at some outlet stores in Kittery, Maine. The following day went Boston to visit the New England Aquarium, and Ikea.
Finally, on May 29th we had no rain! We headed to The Flume Gorge and then up to a fogged in Mt. Washington.
We also made extensive use of Steve's Kawasaki Mule (Red Gaiter) and 4 wheeler. We also visited Hampton Beach a couple of different days. Jayden loved the ocean, but Josie hated it. Karrie and Steve also threw a party for us with Steve's family and their friends. It was fun to meet them all and have kids play/make new friends. Steve also hooked up his leaf blower T-ball machine. It was hard to say goodbye as we had such a good time out there.
On our return visit we stayed overnight at the Wolbrinks' in Liverpool, New York and then made our way to Niagara Falls, New York. We also missed the Supper Nanny, but saw her car. We arrived back at our place on June 4th after another night's stay in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Here are a few tips for anyone taking long road trips. Get your hands on a GPS. That thing saved us so much and let us find places that we normally wouldn't have gone to. Yeah, I can read a map, but this gave us the flexibility to do something at a whim instead of having to plan out the whole trip. I did have the hotels booked for on the way out before we left, but didn't book them for the way back. Garmin along with the Marriott 800 number got us places to stay on the way back. Another thing that I'm glad we got before we left was the iPass/EZPass for tolls. We only found one state that we had to actually pickup a ticket and pay at the end for tolls. The rest of the states we used the iPass. It was so much easier than having to stop and pay someone. We also packed Josie's little porta-potty thing. That saved us a few times. Her bladder really is as small as she is.
All in all, we had a great time and trip. The kids were great and Kim had lots of activities planned for them to do in the van. She's so organized. We wouldn't have been able to do it had she not had everything setup the way she did. Now we just have to figure out where we're going next summer!
The complete set of pictures can be seen here.
Our first overnight destination was the Maumee Toledo, OH area. Traffic wasn't bad up to this point despite it being Memorial Day weekend. We traveled from Toledo to visit Hershey Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The kids thought it cool and hadn't seen so much chocolate in their life. From there we traveled to Strasburg, Pennsylvania to visit the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum. Jayden and I could have stayed there a lot longer, but we had to continue on to visit the Crayola Factory in Easton, Pennsylvania. We got to see a mini crayola factory and all things color. We also got to play with some boats and cannals. We survived driving through New York City and Connecticut even though "Carmin" (The Garmin GPS) let us down in a few spots...more on her later. We managed to arrive at my Sister's place on day three.
It rained the first two days we were in New Hampshire so we decided to do a few things that didn't require us to be outside...shopping and visiting a few places. We went to the Cape Neddick Lighthouse on York Beach, Maine, and shopped at some outlet stores in Kittery, Maine. The following day went Boston to visit the New England Aquarium, and Ikea.
Finally, on May 29th we had no rain! We headed to The Flume Gorge and then up to a fogged in Mt. Washington.
We also made extensive use of Steve's Kawasaki Mule (Red Gaiter) and 4 wheeler. We also visited Hampton Beach a couple of different days. Jayden loved the ocean, but Josie hated it. Karrie and Steve also threw a party for us with Steve's family and their friends. It was fun to meet them all and have kids play/make new friends. Steve also hooked up his leaf blower T-ball machine. It was hard to say goodbye as we had such a good time out there.
On our return visit we stayed overnight at the Wolbrinks' in Liverpool, New York and then made our way to Niagara Falls, New York. We also missed the Supper Nanny, but saw her car. We arrived back at our place on June 4th after another night's stay in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Here are a few tips for anyone taking long road trips. Get your hands on a GPS. That thing saved us so much and let us find places that we normally wouldn't have gone to. Yeah, I can read a map, but this gave us the flexibility to do something at a whim instead of having to plan out the whole trip. I did have the hotels booked for on the way out before we left, but didn't book them for the way back. Garmin along with the Marriott 800 number got us places to stay on the way back. Another thing that I'm glad we got before we left was the iPass/EZPass for tolls. We only found one state that we had to actually pickup a ticket and pay at the end for tolls. The rest of the states we used the iPass. It was so much easier than having to stop and pay someone. We also packed Josie's little porta-potty thing. That saved us a few times. Her bladder really is as small as she is.
All in all, we had a great time and trip. The kids were great and Kim had lots of activities planned for them to do in the van. She's so organized. We wouldn't have been able to do it had she not had everything setup the way she did. Now we just have to figure out where we're going next summer!
The complete set of pictures can be seen here.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Getting Caught Up
Okay, so i'm not a steady blogger. I'm not really sure what the reasons are, but some of them are just being busy being a dad, Twitter, and Facebook. It seems that I've done more micro-blogging if you want to call it that using Twitter.
So, what's been going on? Well, we had a great Christmas and 2009 started out pretty well inspite of The Great Depression II. I'm very fortunate that the Ag industry is holding strong.
Jayden has been learning all the time and is becoming the little man. He loves to figure out how everything works. He also loves talking your ear off once he gets going. He also knows how to use pause on the DVR. It's sad he won't even know what a VCR was. (Actually, it's a good thing the VCR is dead. :) ) Jayden got to make a pirate box to put his pull-ups into and have the pirates visit with a bunch of treasure. We're so glad that he's doing pretty well in making it through the night without a pull-up. He still wakes up wet occasionally, but he's getting there.
Josie is a daddy's girl. It's not uncommon to hear her tell me, "I need you" and then proceed to try and get you to drop whatever you were doing and pick her up. I don't mind. She's my little Princess, Tinkerbell or Cinderella depending on the day. One day we tried to straighten her hair, but I told Kim that I never wanted it straighted again...unless Josie does it herself when she's a teenager. She did not look like our little Josie at all.
Kim has been feeding her facebook "addication" and has hooked up with quite a few people from her past. It's pretty cool to think we can reconnect with people in such an easy method.
Well, there you have it. The start to 2009.
So, what's been going on? Well, we had a great Christmas and 2009 started out pretty well inspite of The Great Depression II. I'm very fortunate that the Ag industry is holding strong.
Jayden has been learning all the time and is becoming the little man. He loves to figure out how everything works. He also loves talking your ear off once he gets going. He also knows how to use pause on the DVR. It's sad he won't even know what a VCR was. (Actually, it's a good thing the VCR is dead. :) ) Jayden got to make a pirate box to put his pull-ups into and have the pirates visit with a bunch of treasure. We're so glad that he's doing pretty well in making it through the night without a pull-up. He still wakes up wet occasionally, but he's getting there.
Josie is a daddy's girl. It's not uncommon to hear her tell me, "I need you" and then proceed to try and get you to drop whatever you were doing and pick her up. I don't mind. She's my little Princess, Tinkerbell or Cinderella depending on the day. One day we tried to straighten her hair, but I told Kim that I never wanted it straighted again...unless Josie does it herself when she's a teenager. She did not look like our little Josie at all.
Kim has been feeding her facebook "addication" and has hooked up with quite a few people from her past. It's pretty cool to think we can reconnect with people in such an easy method.
Well, there you have it. The start to 2009.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Is it Luck?
Wow, time has gone by like you wouldn't believe and with it have quite a few events. We had a garage sale on the 3rd and ended up selling quite a bit of stuff. It's really amazing how much "stuff" everyone has in the U.S. Just look at all the people giving to Good Will on weekends (after garage sales).
Around the same time period, Jayden and Josie got pink-eye and then gave me the pleasure of experiencing it too. Needless to say Josie ended up getting it twice and Jayden three times before it was all said and done.
Kim's Mom had surgery back on the 19th so I watched the kids (I took last week and this next week off from work) while Kim went and waited with the rest of her family. We took the kids to see Grandma Pat that afternoon and then went back again that night to help Kim's Dad get back to our place to stay the night.
This memorial weekend was rather interesting to say the least. On Friday Kim came back from shopping with a friend and said that she had some interesting news for me. As soon as she said it was about her Dad, my heart sank as his health has been questionable as of late. The good news is no health problems that he currently has was the issue. The bad news was that he had been struck by lightning while sleeping Friday morning. Dale was sleeping when he felt the lightning bolt start up his feet and continued up through his spine and ending at his head. He especially felt it when it hit his back as he has metal rods in his spine from previous back surgeries. He told Pat that he thought his legs had blown off when it initially happened. It's odd that he even drove himself to breakfast that morning as he was pretty incoherent later that morning. The lightning knocked the picture off the wall and left a mark on the white paint (see larger image from link above).
So we decided we'd head down to Creston on Saturday after attending a couple of graduation parties. It's always an eery feeling going somewhere when you're not sure what to expect. Yesterday Dale feel asleep a lot (he fell asleep with his breakfast in his lap). He also slept through Dinner. Fortunately he was doing a lot better today. He even drove himself to the restaurant for breakfast this morning.
It's amazing that more damage hadn't occurred and I consider it a miracle that Dale even survived. So all in all, quite an eventful month.
Â
Around the same time period, Jayden and Josie got pink-eye and then gave me the pleasure of experiencing it too. Needless to say Josie ended up getting it twice and Jayden three times before it was all said and done.
Kim's Mom had surgery back on the 19th so I watched the kids (I took last week and this next week off from work) while Kim went and waited with the rest of her family. We took the kids to see Grandma Pat that afternoon and then went back again that night to help Kim's Dad get back to our place to stay the night.
This memorial weekend was rather interesting to say the least. On Friday Kim came back from shopping with a friend and said that she had some interesting news for me. As soon as she said it was about her Dad, my heart sank as his health has been questionable as of late. The good news is no health problems that he currently has was the issue. The bad news was that he had been struck by lightning while sleeping Friday morning. Dale was sleeping when he felt the lightning bolt start up his feet and continued up through his spine and ending at his head. He especially felt it when it hit his back as he has metal rods in his spine from previous back surgeries. He told Pat that he thought his legs had blown off when it initially happened. It's odd that he even drove himself to breakfast that morning as he was pretty incoherent later that morning. The lightning knocked the picture off the wall and left a mark on the white paint (see larger image from link above).So we decided we'd head down to Creston on Saturday after attending a couple of graduation parties. It's always an eery feeling going somewhere when you're not sure what to expect. Yesterday Dale feel asleep a lot (he fell asleep with his breakfast in his lap). He also slept through Dinner. Fortunately he was doing a lot better today. He even drove himself to the restaurant for breakfast this morning.
It's amazing that more damage hadn't occurred and I consider it a miracle that Dale even survived. So all in all, quite an eventful month.
Â
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
An Ode to My Blanky
Tonight Jayden sleeps for the first time without his "blanky" since he got it when he was just a baby. It's quite monumental to have him part from it. He decided today that he would give it to another baby who really needed it. The baby he chose was Josh and Jodi's baby, Olivia. He didn't have too hard of a time going to sleep, but you could tell he was sad. I thought  it would be fun to write a short poem. So here goes.
I miss you so, my taggy blue. Â
Please bid Olivia well.
You gave me comfort,
through thick and thin.
From the time of constantly carrying you,
to the having you only at night.
Take care my taggy blue,
I'll miss you so.Â
Â
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Single Parenting
This past Friday and weekend Kim and her Mom, Sister, and Niece took a shopping trip to Minneapolis, MN. That means I got to take care of the kids for the weekend. I did have planned to go to Humboldt to help my Brother and buddy, Scott, put in some cabinets that Scott had ordered from my Brother's business. But, Tasha, one of our friends that was going to take care of the kids while I was gone ended up getting the flu. I wasn't quite sure if I should even attempt to take the kids for an hour and a half drive by my self. I ended up taking them and managed to stay sane. Josie cried for at least a half an hour on the way up and both of them had their moments on the way back, but I managed.
How does a single parent manage to handle two kids? All I can say is I don't know how. Take the simple thing as having Jayden needing to go to the bathroom. We stopped near Ft. Dodge on the way back and had some McDonalds (I know, I usually dislike eating there, but it's quick and the kids usually eat something there). Well, about half way through our lunch, Jayden needed to go use the bathroom. Not a big deal if Kim and I were both there. Obviously, I took Josie (with chicken nugget in hand) in with Jayden and I. Everything worked out okay, but still, it's not fun having to deal with both of them at the same time...making sure Josie doesn't touch something she shouldn't and keeping her chicken nugget off the floor.
All in all, the kids were pretty good for the whole weekend. But, it sure is nice having Kim back home. :)
How does a single parent manage to handle two kids? All I can say is I don't know how. Take the simple thing as having Jayden needing to go to the bathroom. We stopped near Ft. Dodge on the way back and had some McDonalds (I know, I usually dislike eating there, but it's quick and the kids usually eat something there). Well, about half way through our lunch, Jayden needed to go use the bathroom. Not a big deal if Kim and I were both there. Obviously, I took Josie (with chicken nugget in hand) in with Jayden and I. Everything worked out okay, but still, it's not fun having to deal with both of them at the same time...making sure Josie doesn't touch something she shouldn't and keeping her chicken nugget off the floor.
All in all, the kids were pretty good for the whole weekend. But, it sure is nice having Kim back home. :)
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Dirty Business
This will probably be short. It's amazing how fast Josie is catching on to things. She's almost 19 months and so far has sat on her potty and gone in it 3 times. Yeah! Amazing, I know. To most people this isn't a big deal, but to a parent, this is huge. :) Now, if we can just find small enough undies for her. The ones Kim got last night are huge and that's the smallest they make.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Having Some Fun
Well, we're in the new year. Christmas was great and we all got lots of goods from everyone. The kids are finally over their colds/flu and all that jazz so we're moving along with some fun times. Josie is getting more teeth in all the time so that makes her a little crabby at times to say the least. Today Josie even told us potty when she went in her diaper and walked into the bathroom...so who knows, maybe she'll be potty trained before Spring. :) One could only hope. Jayden's been playing full time with his toys and loves to play with his train sets on his train table in the basement.
Josie started making some funny tongue noises the other day so I thought I'd share them with you. Enjoy the video.
Funny Tongue Noises from Kevin Minnis on Vimeo.
Till next time...
Josie started making some funny tongue noises the other day so I thought I'd share them with you. Enjoy the video.
Funny Tongue Noises from Kevin Minnis on Vimeo.
Till next time...
Friday, December 14, 2007
Sick Kids
Well, it happened last week with Josie. She threw up twice and had well...let's just say problems at the other end too. Wouldn't you know a week later and now Jayden has it. :( Sucky! At least he can use the pot. He hasn't had any regurgitation out of his mouth so hopefully he can bypass that part. So, that means another weekend at home not able to go out. As it was last weekend, Kim and I took turns getting out of the house so we didn't go crazy. At least the weather won't be a part of the frustration this weekend. When Jayden is healthy, he's been up to playing more with his teddy bear and using his imagination quite a bit. Everything has been about sharing with his Teddy and Teddy wanting to do something. He's also coming up with some memorable phrases. Last week Kim gave him a snack down in the living room. He tends to make a mess as most kids do when they're his age while eating it so Kim told him to be careful and not make a mess. His response, "It's okay Mom (he doesn't say Mommy any more), you can clean it up."
On a brighter note, Josie's all better now and constantly grazes the cereal boxes whenever she can. She's also trying to talk more. You can kind of understand somethings that she says. She'll make the sound a cow, sheep, monkey and horse make. And she's also said tractor. She does play with Jayden's toys quite a bit.
Only 9 days till Christmas!
On a brighter note, Josie's all better now and constantly grazes the cereal boxes whenever she can. She's also trying to talk more. You can kind of understand somethings that she says. She'll make the sound a cow, sheep, monkey and horse make. And she's also said tractor. She does play with Jayden's toys quite a bit.Only 9 days till Christmas!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Zune - Not Made for Anyone
Okay, I thought I'd give it a try. I bought a 30 Gig Zune and took it for a drive. I owned a 20 Gig iPod before the Zune purchase, but it didn't have video. In deed the Zune has video but in Microsoft's infinite wisdom all video is converted to the wmv format instead of just supporting the major players (mpeg4, divx). There used to be hacks, and maybe they still work but I didn't try it, to force the Zune to "use" the other formats. But again, the Zune software will convert it to wmv instead of keeping it in the original format.
Okay, now for the real pain with Zunes. Microsoft did update the Zune software and underlying firmware which is great. I do like the fact that they can upgrade the Zune to be a newer version, but in my eyes, it was a PR stunt and they wanted to get something, anything no matter what it consisted of, out there for the Christmas shopping rush. They may have upgraded the whole thing, but they left out the critical pieces (Forum Entry). Unlike the iPod, the rating system is limited to a heart, a broken heart, or not rated. There isn't a smart/auto play list, only the playlist that you create by dragging the song to the playlist. For some people, this may be enough.
For a power user like me, having the smart play list found in the iPod is a must. I have 6 smart play lists which excludes songs from other smart playlists and includes into a playlist based on the rating of a song. For example, I have one name 1-No Kids. It's the primary one that I use and as you can probably guess from the name, it excludes Kids music. It also excludes slow music (that's in another playlist - 6-Good 4 Soul). The reason I use a number is that it sorts the playlists so that I can easily go to a play list while on the road with the iPod. I also have playlists based on ratings. 2-Best Stuff, 3-Great Stuff, 4-Good Stuff; each having songs included based on the 5 star rating scale.
One thing that I got used with my iPod using it as a hard drive. I didn't store a lot on it, but it came in handy when I wanted to copy something from my work computer to take home and work on. The Zune doesn't give you an option to even try and access it as a hard drive. Yes, there were hacks out there, but why fight it. The iPod just worked right out of the box. Who cares how you market a device, you shouldn't restrict a user in the use of the device.
Lastly, the odd thing about the Zune website is that you have to go to zune.net instead of zune.com. You'd think Microsoft could at least buy zune.com and forward it to zune.net.
Welp, off to listen to my video iPod that I traded the Zune for on Craig's List.
Okay, now for the real pain with Zunes. Microsoft did update the Zune software and underlying firmware which is great. I do like the fact that they can upgrade the Zune to be a newer version, but in my eyes, it was a PR stunt and they wanted to get something, anything no matter what it consisted of, out there for the Christmas shopping rush. They may have upgraded the whole thing, but they left out the critical pieces (Forum Entry). Unlike the iPod, the rating system is limited to a heart, a broken heart, or not rated. There isn't a smart/auto play list, only the playlist that you create by dragging the song to the playlist. For some people, this may be enough.
For a power user like me, having the smart play list found in the iPod is a must. I have 6 smart play lists which excludes songs from other smart playlists and includes into a playlist based on the rating of a song. For example, I have one name 1-No Kids. It's the primary one that I use and as you can probably guess from the name, it excludes Kids music. It also excludes slow music (that's in another playlist - 6-Good 4 Soul). The reason I use a number is that it sorts the playlists so that I can easily go to a play list while on the road with the iPod. I also have playlists based on ratings. 2-Best Stuff, 3-Great Stuff, 4-Good Stuff; each having songs included based on the 5 star rating scale.
One thing that I got used with my iPod using it as a hard drive. I didn't store a lot on it, but it came in handy when I wanted to copy something from my work computer to take home and work on. The Zune doesn't give you an option to even try and access it as a hard drive. Yes, there were hacks out there, but why fight it. The iPod just worked right out of the box. Who cares how you market a device, you shouldn't restrict a user in the use of the device.
Lastly, the odd thing about the Zune website is that you have to go to zune.net instead of zune.com. You'd think Microsoft could at least buy zune.com and forward it to zune.net.
Welp, off to listen to my video iPod that I traded the Zune for on Craig's List.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Mastering the smallest things
Well, the time is finally here. Jayden has mastered potty training and only wears his pull-up at night and when taking a nap, otherwise, he wants his "scibbies" and won't let us put on a pull-up. It's something how we grown-ups can think of it as a small thing to use the bathroom. In Jayden's case, it's like a horse and water. Jayden did it on his own time. You can't just force a kid to use it no matter how hard you want them to. At any rate, we're extremely happy that he is using it.
Yesterday we took our annual trip to Howell's Tree Farm to get the kids their pumpkins and to have some fun playing with all the stuff they have setup. While there we also saw Amy and Zach Larson so that was cool. It had rained the night before and it was pretty muddy, but we had a good time anyway and washed our shoes when we got home.
More pictures can be seen at the Halloween 2007 Picture Set.
Yesterday we took our annual trip to Howell's Tree Farm to get the kids their pumpkins and to have some fun playing with all the stuff they have setup. While there we also saw Amy and Zach Larson so that was cool. It had rained the night before and it was pretty muddy, but we had a good time anyway and washed our shoes when we got home.More pictures can be seen at the Halloween 2007 Picture Set.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Such a Fruit Cake
"Josie, you're such a fruit cake." Those are the words coming out of Jayden's mouth as we were eating supper one night. A lot has happened since my last blog entry. Sorry, life got busy so I didn't have time to get this updated. As you can see from the picture to the left, Jayden turned three in August. 
Karrie, my sister, made a surprise visit to my Parent's home and it happened to fall on the same weekend that we had Jayden's B-Day party so she was able to make it too. 
Jayden wasn't the only one to have fun during his birthday weekend. Josie likes wearing his hat and does a pretty good job modeling it. :) 
They also both had fun with shaving cream in the bath tub. If you're ever looking for something fun for the kids during bath time, shaving cream is another option. 
And of course after a long day's work, you just gotta take a rest from it all. Jayden feel asleep on his pillow in the living room during the middle of the day. :) 
We made the trek north to my Parent's home the first week of September and had a great time. My Aunt and Uncle, Iris and Gary Baxter had their 40th Wedding Anniversary party so we went and helped them celebrate.
It was a great weekend to go up as the weather was perfect. Jayden and Josie got to go outside and checkout the farm. Jayden helped Grandpa feed the calves and Josie got to play on the trampoline and other toys.
We also got to play with Great Grandpa's four wheeler.
And Jayden got to ride on Uncle Kelly's forklift with Brianna and Madison.
More recently, Jayden has started riding his bike. It's getting different going on walks now as he'd rather ride his bike over riding in the wagon with Josie. The next thing we need to work on with him is using his brakes. Instead of pushing back on the peddles, he puts his feet down only and his toes touch the ground. He's also trying to use the potty more. We're gaining ground which is good. Josie has been trying to say more words, "Belbo" for Elmo, baby, and "Daday" for Jayden, "Belba" for belly button and bubbles. She's cruising like none other and would climb up on anything if she were allowed. She got another tooth on her left side so she now has 6. We're hoping she'll get some more on her right side. :) We've also concluded that she's a Daddy's Girl. The minute I get home from work she's at my feet if she isn't eating.
More pictures of can be found under Jayden's Birthday and at our trip up north links.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Lots of Little Things
Okay, so the title may be a little misleading. There have been a lot of "little" things happening the past month or so.
Jayden now asks for a Dewski whenever Kim goes into Quicktrip or Kum & Go to get her fountain Dew. I'd say that's a pretty good accomplishment. :) He's almost there with using the peddles on his trike and bike. If only he were there with potty training. We're hoping that a switch will flip and he'll want to finally use his "big-boy scibbies". He talks about everyone else using the potty, but still no go. He still has the occasional melt down, but, knock on wood, they don't seem as frequent as before. He's also looking forward to his birthday and now asks for things for it.
Josie has started to walk on her own. She does mostly walking now instead of crawling. It's fun to watch her make her tiny steps. She's kind of wobbly at times, but is doing a pretty good job so far. She's also good at getting into trouble. It won't be uncommon to turn your back for a second and find her standing on top of the kid's picnic table. She is learning a lot fast. She's also good at being a Daddy's girl.
House painting is done for the most part. I painted the back last week so the "normal" areas to paint are done. I'll probably try and get the garage door and the concrete part of the foundation done sometime before it snows. I also have to make a cover for the sandbox. I'm tired of looking at the blue tarp that covers it now.
Jayden now asks for a Dewski whenever Kim goes into Quicktrip or Kum & Go to get her fountain Dew. I'd say that's a pretty good accomplishment. :) He's almost there with using the peddles on his trike and bike. If only he were there with potty training. We're hoping that a switch will flip and he'll want to finally use his "big-boy scibbies". He talks about everyone else using the potty, but still no go. He still has the occasional melt down, but, knock on wood, they don't seem as frequent as before. He's also looking forward to his birthday and now asks for things for it. Josie has started to walk on her own. She does mostly walking now instead of crawling. It's fun to watch her make her tiny steps. She's kind of wobbly at times, but is doing a pretty good job so far. She's also good at getting into trouble. It won't be uncommon to turn your back for a second and find her standing on top of the kid's picnic table. She is learning a lot fast. She's also good at being a Daddy's girl.House painting is done for the most part. I painted the back last week so the "normal" areas to paint are done. I'll probably try and get the garage door and the concrete part of the foundation done sometime before it snows. I also have to make a cover for the sandbox. I'm tired of looking at the blue tarp that covers it now.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Busy as Can Be
Man, talk about a busy time. Where to start. I've been busy painting the house the past three weeks or so. Kim and I are both glad that it's almost done. It's been a challenge for Kim to take care of the kids while I'm out trying to get the painting done. We're almost done as we only have the back deck area to paint.
A lot has been going on with Josie too. Josie got baptized on May 27th with her Grandpa and Grandma's and Aunt Chris and Kacie watching along. She had surgery on a blocked tear duct on June 6th. It went very well and by the next day we could tell a difference already. It was nerve racking none-the-less, but everything turned out okay. Josie now has 3 teeth and is working on her fourth. They haven't been too difficult which is nice.
Yesterday Josie turned one. I took the day off of work so that I could be with her and Jayden and Kim. We went to the Jordan Creek area to get Josie's 1 year photos and then went and hung out at the Jordan Creek Mall for a bit. The kids played in the play area and Josie got to make a teddy bear. After coming home we went to Big Creek State Park to play in the water and beach.
We've had fun building a sandbox for the kids. I think Josie was more interested in it at first, but now, they both seem to like it. It helps when Jayden's friends come over and play in it too.
Oh, and we reverted back to a minivan. We were so cramped in our Pontiac Vibe so we traded for a Chrysler Town & Country.
So, all in all we've had a very busy month. Hopefully the summer will get a little quieter, which I'm sure it will once the house is done being painted.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Informatica World 2007
Wow, almost a month since the last update! Last week I was in Florida for almost a week to attend the Informatica World 2007 conference. I learned a lot and had a good time hanging out with Broox and Kevi. Broox was down there for and RFID conference so the timing was perfect. The weather was perfect too. It would have been fun if Kim would have gone with too, but that will have to wait till the next trip.
Back at the home ranch...the kids are doing pretty well. Josie is working on getting some teeth now so Sunday night was a tiring night as she didn't want to sleep much. It amazes me how growing teeth can be so painful. Josie's also crawling all over the place including going up any and all stairs she can find. Of course she can't come back down yet, so we have to run up and get her.
Jayden has been keeping his end of the deal up being an almost 3 year old; the almost daily melt down and his big brother attitude. He is as curious as ever and loves to "do things on his own". In his words, "I will do it!".
Kim was very busy taking care of the kids last week, as well as, organizing a garage sale (Jayden's pile and Josie's Pile). It went over pretty well and we got rid of quite a bit of stuff. It amazes me how much stuff one accumulates having kids.
It's good to be back in the groove now, but the Florida trip was fun. See more pictures in the Informatica Set
Back at the home ranch...the kids are doing pretty well. Josie is working on getting some teeth now so Sunday night was a tiring night as she didn't want to sleep much. It amazes me how growing teeth can be so painful. Josie's also crawling all over the place including going up any and all stairs she can find. Of course she can't come back down yet, so we have to run up and get her.
Jayden has been keeping his end of the deal up being an almost 3 year old; the almost daily melt down and his big brother attitude. He is as curious as ever and loves to "do things on his own". In his words, "I will do it!".
Kim was very busy taking care of the kids last week, as well as, organizing a garage sale (Jayden's pile and Josie's Pile). It went over pretty well and we got rid of quite a bit of stuff. It amazes me how much stuff one accumulates having kids.
It's good to be back in the groove now, but the Florida trip was fun. See more pictures in the Informatica Set
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