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.  

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. 

 

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. :)

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.

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...

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Crawling, American Idol, and Easter

What a busy month. This month has started out with Josie learning to crawl. She loves try and get into the entertainment center now and gets mad when we tell her she can't. She's also started to pull herself to stand next to furniture and even climbed her first step today. She loves watching Jayden and I'm sure is learning a great deal from him. It's been exciting to see her advancing.

Jayden's been learning his ABCs and numbers, as well as, preparing for the next American Idol. One day last week he was standing on the stairs and singing away. Then he said I sing like American Idol. haha. Speaking of which, American Idol and Ford have done an excellent job marketing. Everytime Jayden sees a Ford symbol he now associates it with American Idol. Sad isnt' it. :)

Yesterday we had fun watching the kids with their Easter stuff. The night before we told Jayden that the Easter bunny was coming and we needed to make sure things were picked up. In no time, he was running around cleaning up his toys and putting away shoes to make sure the place was clean for the Easter bunny. Talk about motivation!

Kim's been doing the best she can to not get too bored during this last spell of cold weather. I think she has everything ready for the garage sale that will be the first Friday of May (and maybe Saturday). So be sure to mark your calendars and come out and buy some good stuff. haha.

Work for me has been very busy. But, that keeps the time flying by. I keep thinking someday I'll get caught up, but I don't know about it now.

Check out Jayen and Josie's Easter Videos: , Video 1, Video 2, Video 3

Blizzard 1 and 2

Blizzards 1 and 2...

Well, we survived the blizzards 1 and 2. We didn't even lose power over the whole deal (first blizzard), but some of our friends and family did. Our trees that were really low to the ground after the ice storm even came out of it without a trace of damage. My parents were without power for about 40 hours because of the ice buildup and breaking of the electrical poles. Luckily both my Grandparents and my Parents have generators.

The second blizzard was something to see too. We got out of work early on Thursday and then on Friday Pioneer was closed. I'm sure glad I didn't have to go anywhere as the roads were full of snow and visibility was very poor. We did manage to make it up to Ames Saturday evening for some Hickory Park with Dave and Laura Ekhart and Tasha and Tony Vorm and all the kids (6 of them). Traffic wasn't too bad, but you could definitely see the aftermath of the storm.

A look back...

In some ways I'm glad that we got as much snow as we did as it, to me, makes things seem like normal. Growing up I can remember huge drifts being as tall as the honey suckle trees in our grove on the farm. In fact the drifts would be so hard, the cattle could even walk on them. The gravel road next to our place would also have been packed with snow. I can remember sitting at the top of the snow and roll huge chunks of snow down the bank after the road grader opened the road. My brother and I would always watch in anticipation, as someone came down the road, to see if they'd run over the snow chunks. Doing chores was the worst part about getting huge storms as you'd have to trudge through a ton of snow carrying straw bales to bed the pigs and calves. You'd also have to scoop out all the troughs so you could feed the animals. It was hard work, but we survived and have the memories, good and bad. I think chores also took longer just because we'd play around more just to enjoy the vast landscape the wind and snow created. You can't have all the snow without making a fort.

In other news...

Jayden and Josie have been growing quite a bit. Jayden's I think has been trying to grow emotionally as he's truly showing his 2 year old attitudes. He's having at least one melt-down a day and is a "joy" to take shopping. He's still a relatively good boy, but has his moments. We had to upgrade his play shoes to size 7 1/2 now so he's growing despite his weird interests in food (he'd choose a salad over a hot dog any day).

Josie on the other hand, even though she hasn't had a single tooth come in yet, will eat anything you put in front of her. She's beginning to question baby food and would rather have "real food" (small cut-up pieces of green beans, carrots or fruit). She's really getting a personality now and always has a big smile on her face, well, at least when she's not mad or crying. She hasn't crawled yet, but is really close. She does tend to migrate in reverse instead of going forward when trying to crawl.

Last weekend we walked for Amber in the JDRF in the Des Moines Sky walk system. I should say, Josie slept and Kim, Jayden and I walked. Jayden had fun in the inflatable games and I'm glad JDRF chose to get the games instead of forking over big bucks for a breakfast.

My Grandpa Minnis had knee surgery this last Tuesday. Everything went really well. But, I guess today/last night he'd been whacked out on meds or something as he pulled all his IVs out last night and then had my Grandma stop the machine that bends his knee every so often. Hopefully he straightens up so he doesn't get into more trouble. :)

Sick Kids

Let's see...where to start. We've been pretty busy despite the coldness outside. Kim's with Josie at the Doctor's office as I write this. Jayden fell asleep on the couch while watching Sesame Street. It all started last Wednesday. Jayden came down with a fever and then it turned into coughing. We called the doctor's office and they said to bring him in on Friday if his fever didn't go down. It did go away on Friday, but then it came back yesterday. His coughing has been getting somewhat better, but he still looks like he's going to cough a lung up when he coughs. So, I think Josie got the same thing as Jayden. I'll find out when Kim gets back. She coughs like a dog and has a high fever (103.3). Nothing like having Josie rip your heart out when she can hardly breath. :( Luckily she could get an appointment this morning. Jayden goes in for his appointment at 1:00 today as he's still running a fever. That's one of the annoying things of having sick kids on the weekend. You can't visit the doctor's office.

Aside from the kids being sick, we painted our living room a couple of weeks ago. We were sick of the poorly painted yellow that the old owners had. Funny it took us about 4 years to get it painted. :)

Update: Well, it appears that Josie has croup and Jayden has ear infection. At least Jayden already had it once so now we know what to do with Josie. Josie seems to be doing better after they gave her a steroid shot. Jayden's at least eating some cereal now.

Getting the Hang of Christmas

Sorry to all of my viewers for not updating for more than a month. It's been a busy time of year, between getting Christmas presents purchased and a project at work, I haven't had a lot of time to get this updated.

Last weekend we had Christmas on the Wagner side. We all had a good time and watched the normal movie, "Christmas Vacation". We all got some good presents and more presents.
Yesterday Kim and the kids hung out with Emily and Mady. The kids exchanged gifts and apparently Jayden wanted to keep opening gifts...even though there weren't anymore. So, I think Jayden is getting the hang of Christmas or at least the gift part. haha.

Josie has been growing a bit...not as fast as Jayden did at her age, but still growing. She had her 6 month checkup yesterday and was a whole 12 pounds. She's starting to sit up on her own now. She'll sit for about a minute then fall over.

Don't forget to good and if you need help tracking Santa be sure to visit the Santa Tracking Site.

Merry Christmas!

Mini Projects

Finally, we're done painting the front of the house. I, with the help of Tony and Martin, got both windows replaced. What a relief to have the job done. The windows work really well in sealing the cold out and keeping the sun from baking the bedrooms. I still have to do the trim work on the inside, but at least I don't have to worry about getting another warm day to get the job done. The staging is all put a way so I don't have to look at it any more. Sad to think that the staging was up in some form in front of our house since July.

Jayden has been busy being a big brother. He does pretty good with Josie, but at his age, just doesn't grasp being gentle. :) He's also showing his being 2 a bit more. He knows what he wants and can have the occasional meltdown if he doesn't get his way. He LOVES the new Car's movie that just came out on DVD. He sat through the whole thing watching it when we got it and now wants to watch it all the time. I think Thomas the Tank Engine is getting jealous as he's starting to fade in the background. But, he still loves trains so Thomas shouldn't feel too bad.

Josie's been having fun in her bouncy seat. She just loves it. She's also started to roll over on her own from her stomach to her back. It's amazing to see how much different she is from Jayden. She's way ahead of Jayden. She likes to try different foods and usually drinks her whole 6 oz. of milk within 15 minutes. She also has found her voice and likes to "talk". I hope it's not a sign of the future when she gets a cell phone. :)

Kim has been keeping herself busy (most of the time...but she gets bored staying at home) being Mom. She does a great job keeping everything ship-shape in spite of Jayden's use of the living room as the play area. At least Jayden likes to organize his cars. He usually has them all lined up all straight and tidy. Kim's also getting everything ready (shopping) for Christmas which helps keep her mind occupied. She continues to read lots of books. I think she reads one a week. Too bad I didn't have more time to read. Oh well, maybe when I retire.

About three weeks ago I was driving our Focus in a parking lot and heard a weird noise coming from the front. Hmm. Brakes? Sure enough, the brakes were getting bad. I only heard the noise about 2 times and didn't think they were that bad, but as you can see from the picture, they were almost metal against metal. So, Zach found me a good place to order them online and because he'd just replaced his brakes in his Focus, helped change my brakes this week. What a difference that can make. They are a lot better and shouldn't make my wheels dirty as I ordered the ceramic pads. w00t!

Jjjaaaaaaayyyydddeeennnn

The title of this entry reflects one of Jayden's books. We changed the name of the child the book was talking about to Jayden and go through the whole thing about why Jayyydddeeen, likes mud and mud likes him. It's been fun. He giggles all the time. Jayden has been getting smarter about lots of things. It's amazing how much he's been picking up. If you're not careful, he'll repeat stuff you don't want him to repeat. :) He now knows how to get out of his room and apparently yesterday morning when I opened the garage door, Jayden heard it and went down and watched me leave. Kim was sleeping yet, so when Kim came down, Jayden was playing with his cars. Yesterday he also found a screw in the computer desk drawers and went to another drawer where he knew a screw driver was and started playing with that. So, he knows about nuts and bolts and tools.

Josie's also been growing a lot too. She's starting to coo and is fascinated by her voice. She also has found her hands. She's been "eating" them like mad lately (No, she wasn't eating popcorn as seen in the picture :) ). We're not sure if it's just that she found them or if she's already getting teeth. She has a runny nose today so hopefully she isn't getting too sick. She loves to sit up and watch everything that's going on. It makes feeding her fun sometimes as she turns her head where ever Jayden is or to watch TV. Yes, I'm afraid she's already glued to the TV.

We went up to visit Tasha and Tony up in Nevada on Saturday to see their new little girl, Mataya. It's so cool to see them finally get another one adopted. They've been waiting for a long time. Notice how much bigger Josie is. She's already that much bigger. :)

Last night we carved Jayden's Pumpkin. Jayden thought it was fun this year and wasn't sad like he was last year. Wow, looking back on the pics, I can't believe how much Jayden has grown.

Kim also had fun trying to clean out the pumpkin as seen in the video below. hehe. :)

New Digs

So you probably...
didn't even realize that you are reading this blog from a different location than you usually do. I pulled up roots and moved from shieldhost to a new host, Site5. How do you like the new location? haha. You may notice the page load faster as I think the servers have more umph than shieldhost did.

I'm glad...
I made the move as it will give me an opportunity to get more for the money. Most notably, I'll again have SSH access (Shieldhost turned it off saying, "It isn't secure."). FTP is about as open as you can get and is the only alternative they gave for accessing your files online. For those of you who aren't computer savvy or know what I'm even talking about, it's about equivalent to sending a pay check in the mail without the envelope. Whereas, SSH everything is encrypted (Sending the check through Paypal). In addition to the whole SSH access, Shieldhost has been lagging on support (see Cedric's article). It takes them a while to get back to you if you have problems. I am fortunate that I didn't have the problems that Cedric did, but I did have some issues with Shieldhost (but, they are cheap...that's one point that I'll give them).

Some other features...
of Site5 include the ability to setup source control with either cvs or subversion. I've been working on some free lance web projects and having source control on the web server is something I've wanted for quite a while. I'm used to having source control at work and it would be a nice to have feature. Additionally, I am also pleased that they support RubyOnRails. I'm very new to it, but from what demos and documentation I've seen, I think it will speed up my web development and maybe organize things even further. I currently develop mostly PHP sites(outside of my real job which consists of Java, .Net, and a few other languages/environments). For PHP I'm using an open source framework called CodeIgniter which is based on the MVC approach, as is RubyOnRails.

Now for the good stuff...
Here's the kicker part of the whole Site5 deal. I can get a MultiSite account (Yes, more than just a domain pointer). You can have up to 6 domains on the first MultiSite plan and they all have an independent "control panel". You can add users to each site and they won't be able to see the other sites that you have on the main account. You can also maintain all sites from the main account. All this for $8.25 a month if paid annually, or $6.21 a month if paid in 2 year increments. This is all through their promotion and after the time you pay for (1 year or 2 years), the price goes up, but you can always switch to the shared account. More details can be found at their MultiSite Webhosting Specials page.

I know...
this sounds like an advertisement, but I've done my research in hosts and Site5 has to be the best one that I've found. They are truly setup to succeed and in turn help you succeed. They have a ton of support listed through-out their FAQ pages as well as their knowledge base and forums.

What Can Go Wrong, Might Go Wrong

Well, when it rains it pours. It all started Friday evening. We were getting something out of the freezer in the fridge and noticed that not everything was frozen like it should have been. So, Saturday I made the phone call to a service place to see if they could come out and look at it...nope, wouldn't be able to look at it till Monday. Okay, so Monday came along and the repair guy replaced the fan in the back and said it should be good to go in a couple of hours. Two hours later the temperature still remained a cozy 65 degrees. Well, Kim and her parents and I thought it might be a good idea to take a look at what new refrigerators cost and find one we liked. So we went looking. I called the repair guy this morning to see if they would take the electric motor back that he put on cause I didn't want to put anymore money into it...nope, anything electrical they don't take returns. (Anyone want to buy and electric motor? Here I come E-Bay). I also had the repair guy come back out to see if he had any other ideas. He said that the compressor was out too and that it would be about $500 to replace. So, Kim and I finally found a few refrigerators today at Lowe's (they have a large select) and after about an hour and a half (the kids were very good during our search) found one we liked that they had in stock. Yay, we get a new fridge tomorrow. Case in point...you are better off replacing a refrigerator over repairing it. Sad to see how much of a throw away society we've become. I'd rather fix what I have, but it is definitely not economic to do so.

Oh, but it's not over
Saturday Kim's Mom came to town so we could go pickup the windows we ordered two weeks ago at Lowe's. We decided to also get a storm door while we were at it. "I need a 36x81 storm door like this one." I told the helpful Lowe's window guy. Took the thing home and was going to install it with the help of Tony...Opened the box and wouldn't you know I got the only 32x81 door that they had. For some reason the Lowe's guy gave me the wrong one. So, we took all the child seats out of the Vibe loaded the door up (Yeah, it can actually haul an 8' article) and exchanged it. I'm kind of glad though as the windows that we got were designed for a "drop-in" replacement instead of a regular replacement. The replacement windows that I should have gotten have a flange around the entire window which is what I needed. So, this Saturday Tony and I will make another trip to Lowe's to return these windows and order some other ones that will work.

It gets better
The highlight to all of this door not fitting, wrong windows, fridge done-n-gone broken, and Jayden doing a face plant is that Kim is on Jury duty for the week. That left me to stay home and take care of the kids yesterday and this morning. She'll have an updated entry of her own to explain how wonderful our judicial system really is.

It's okay now
I guess through all that has happened this week I'm just glad that everyone is mostly healthy (Josie had a cold Sunday and Yesterday, but is feeling better today) and no more things are breaking (hopefully). Thank goodness for Lowe's interest free for a year get out of jail card. haha

Painting with No Kids

This last weekend was a little different than most (finally, something different than usual) :). Kim and I took the kids and met up with their Grandpa and Grandma Wagner on Friday evening so that G'pa and G'ma could watch them for us. We then had the whole weekend to paint and clean. What a difference it makes in getting things done when you don't have a 2 year old at your legs or a 2 month old to hold on to. :) We managed to get all that we could get painted without having to move the staging on Saturday. Thanks to Kim's Mom and Dad for taking care of the kids and thanks to my Mom and Dad for coming down Labor Day weekend to help paint and watch the kids.

Sunday, we decided it was time to clean the carpets so we rented a Rug Doctor from Wal-mart. Man, what a difference it made. Looking at the dirty water wasn't a pleasant feeling as it was much less than clean! I'm almost ashamed we let the kids lay/play on it. haha

It was nice to be able to be just a couple again for a short time. Kim and I went to Jordan Creek Mall to do some walking around and I ended up getting a ton of shirts for cheap at Dillard's on Saturday. First time I've actually even gone in the store. Unfortunately, Kim didn't find anything that she liked. :( Then we went to Merle Hay Mall on Sunday.