Not much to report in the past month. Still working on the house. Putting in plugs, switches, lights and painting. Cabinets are next. I have cysts, torn cartilage and a separated ligament in my hands (unknown cause) so most of the work is getting very painful. Bryce made a good friend in that neighborhood and they went rock climbing in an amusement center. He also won a bike in a reading contest at the library. He’s also doing quite well in math. He read and completed the problem in the picture on his own. Zoe is a monster but she’s so darn cute. Babe and Paw Fields and Piper (Bryce and Zoe’s cousin) came for a visit. I put Chalmer to work in the house.
We just got back from a week in Jamaica. We stayed at one of those all-inclusive resorts on the beach and highly recommend it. The food was incredible. We went on a catamaran cruise, cliff diving, got massages, went to a martini class, went sailing, went to a bonfire on the beach, and did all that touristy stuff. It was awesome. The kids got to spend some quality time with grandparents and Uncle James. Grandma took the kids to amusement parks, museums, Chuckie Cheese, and spoiled them rotten. They (grandparents and kids) are still recovering.
Looks like a house. Driveway and walls are in. Lisa oversaw the entire drywall project while I was TDY last week and even joined me at the dumpground to help unload about 1500 lbs of drywall scraps.
Lisa is home. She was bothered to learn the kids have been partying like rock stars. You can see pics of Zoe while she was on tour with a Grateful Dead cover band and Bryce wigged out on brownies.
Lisa is in her second week of her 2-week annual Air National Guard tour in Louisiana. What a drag. So I’m Mr. Mom now. I’ve been on leave taking care of the kids and working on the house. Zoe IS the Tazmanian Devil. She can’t go 3 minutes (I’ve timed her) without messing with something. She undresses herself, pees on the floor, throws things at the dog, and tears up whatever she can. I often find her with candy, crayons, pens, markers, incense, cell phones, and various breakable things. One of her favorite things to do lately is to take off her bib and dump her food on her lap or on the table. The dog enjoys this. I can’t stay mad at her though because she often follows her acts of terror with something adorable like pointing at me, tilting her head to one side, cutely glancing up at me through her eyelashes and saying, “das MY daddy.” Little punk.
The house is still coming along. I’ve insulated the garage, hung A wall of drywall and even tried my hand at taping and floating. There’s an art form there I never knew about. Today we had the Soy-based urethane insulation sprayed in. This stuff is really great. If you’re interested check it out at www.biobased.net. It’s a super-efficient green building product. Bryce and I go over to the house everyday after school and work. He hands me tools or holds supplies and he’s ready to call 911 and notify the neighbor if I fall off a ladder or electrocute myself. He and Zoe also play in the sandbox I made them with left-over lumber and sand. We’ve had about 6 inches of rain this week and the trees are starting to bloom. The lot is beautiful right now. The trees are pretty big (not Ohio sized – but big enough). If you look in one of the pictures Bryce is a little blue speck at the bottom of the trees. There is a seasonal creek on the lot. After the biggest part of the rain (the night the tornado was 9 miles away) the creek was a little river.
Lisa… come home!
January was far too cold. We had an ice storm that had all of central Texas shut down. We were trapped in the house for four days. Thousands of folks lost electricity for a couple of days. My truck (and everything else) was encased by about a solid inch of clear ice. Construction on the house came to a dead stop for a couple of weeks. Bryce has decided not to get his hair cut anymore. Zoe has decided she needs to make goofy faces at dinner every night. She also seems to enjoy taking off her diaper so she can pee… on the floor… awesome. The exterior of the house is almost done. We’re not exactly sure what we’re going to do with it once construction is complete.
We haven’t updated this page in a while. We haven’t taken almost any pictures in the past couple of months. Christmas and New Years came and went in a flash. The kids got to see tons of family members. I took no pictures… awesome. It’s cold. Everything is iced over. I would like to hibernate. Must… hold on… until… spring.
Zoe turned two this month and has decided to typify the terrible two profile. She’s still my angel… but she herself admits, “I ee-bil.” Her birthday party was at her daycare. 11 kids drinking juice (not in sippy cups), eating cake and cookies, kicking balloons and dancing to Dora songs — chaos. Not the kind of party I ever imagined attending. On another note – Lisa was promoted to Tech Sergeant in the Guard. The best part was that Bryce and I got to “tack on” her new stripes. Thanksgiving was bueno. We got to spend time with friends we haven’t seen in 8 years. Thanksgiving round 2 was in San Angelo with my whacked out family. It was good to see Grandma with all the great-grandchildren… she was in her element. The house is moving along and I’m almost out of cash. Time for some creativity.
Bryce had more birthdays than any kid should be allowed. First he celebrated his birthday with his pre-K class. Then with us alone at the house. Then he had the big party at the bowling alley. He had 4 lanes reserved and there were umpteen kids wiggin’ out on cake, candy, pizza and bowling pins. It was a Superman/bowling theme (at Bryce’s request) complete with a bowling pin-iata. He was a hit with the ladies. He talks about how much more grown up he has to be now… we’ll see.
We’re still moving along on the construction of the house. After many delays (including the firing of the framers, ripping out all the rafters and replacing the lumber) we decided Mom should have her own place in shorter order. We’ll figure out what to do with the other house later. We found her a great house in Seguin TX. It’s 99 years old and full of character. With a little elbow grease it will be back to its original glory in no time (like a few years).
I’m selling a crazy ’99 F350 (former show truck) 7.3liter diesel, dualie, 4×4 with a crazy custom paint job. It can haul anything. Tell a friend.
Our friends, James and Cynthia, had their baby, Abriana, just before we left. Go to their links on this page to see pics. Congrats!!!
We just got back from Ohio and Belize. We were in OH for Lisa’s little brother’s wedding. We’re very happy an attractive and smart girl actually agreed to marry him. Bryce was the ring-bearer and he did a fantastic job. He took his responsibility very seriously. He listened well and practiced hard during the rehearsal and executed like a pro on game day. He was a trooper throughout the entire ceremony. At the reception we learned Bryce is a dancin’ fool!! He was on the dance floor for hours in his own world. We’re not exactly sure what you might call his dancing style… something between footloose and a seizure. When we left for Belize, we left the chilluns with Babe and Paw. We’re hopeful the kids will recover and be back to normal with a little time and therapy.
Lisa and I hopped on a jet and went to Belize where we stayed in a private villa and rented a Mercedes to get around to see the sights. Sounds fancy, right? In truth we got cheap tickets because we chose hurricane season for our vacation, the private villa was a little house right smack in the middle of a third-world residential area riddled with stray dogs. The Mercedes was circa 1970-something and continued to run for about a minute after removing the key. The owner calls this smoking diesel-beast the “Panzerkraft,” and we gave it a beating on some of the potholed dirt “roads” leading to some fairly remote areas. The people of Belize were quite intimidating and thug-like at first, but as you get to know them they are very friendly. We were fortunate enough to meet up with a local family who invited us in their home, fed us a couple of times and even took us to a Mayan Ruin and a local football game (soccer). We hiked through jungles for three days. We made it to the beach once. We relaxed a couple of days as well. Lisa also dragged me to the Belize Zoo. I had little interest but I must say it was one of the highlights. In the U.S. they build multi-million dollar zoos that are like amusement parks with animals viewed 20+ yards away. This zoo was a simple path cut through a jungle with wild animals within arms reach. In some cases there were not even cages, just a little electric wire. All the animals were native to Belize and all rescued animals. The culture in Belize is pretty diverse. There are Garifunas (from Africa and Jamaica), Mayan Indians, Indians, Guatemalans, Mennonites, Chinese and a smattering of foreign expatriates. The worst part of the trip was seeing the overwhelming poverty. Many… make that most, live in houses smaller than our garages and have only the bare essentials (if that). Many are without jobs. In Hopkins, it was wild to drive by all the hovels and not a half mile down the road pass by the million-dollar, foreign owned beach front homes. All in all, we loved Belize though. It was beautiful and we met a lot of interesting people. We will be back. There’s way too much to see and do in just 5 days.
