So much was going on in December I wasn't able to blog at all. Now that the new year is here, Happy New Year by the way, I figure I should catch everyone up on what kept us so busy. Technically this story is going to start in late November but hopefully you won't hold that addendum against me.

Emily turned 5 on Nov 26 amidst great fanfare and even greater parties. I'm not sure how many she had but trust me, there were a bunch. Lisa's parents drove down when all the hoopla had pretty much died down and we had one last gasp (well not really the last but I'll get to that later). While they were here we decorated the yule time tree and stood in a circle singing carols. Ok, so we didn't actually stand in a circle or sing carols but it was a nice rockwellian image wasn't it? (unless you have heard me sing then perhaps it was a scary image).

I had to work for the first couple of days of December (making sure to call my mother on the 2nd for her hundredth birthday or some huge number like that; it was also my friend Mike's birthday). On around the 5th we loaded up the family cruiser for a trip to Disney World. Fortunately we only had to drive the cruiser about 1 hour to the airport where we then flew to Orlando by way of Atlanta. We stay at the cheapest hotel at Disney, the All-Star Sports/Music/Movies. Our room was at the All Star Music. If you paid attention 2 years ago you might remember that we stay in a family suite which is really just two hotel rooms merged into one with a small kitchenette. It's perfect for the four of us because it basically has two bedrooms but we don't have to pay for two full hotel rooms.

The last time we were at Disney Emily was sick with some kind of flu. This time she was healthy the whole time and, I think, old enough to really get into everything. Earlier I mentioned the last bash for Emily well it came at Disney this year. We had pre-ordered a cake with dumbo on it saying Happy Birthday Emily and some balloons (free with the cake, sweet!). I had to pick the cake up from the hotel restaurant our first night there. However, I had to wait a while so I sent the girls ahead to the park to get some early rides in. Finally I got the cake and brought it back to the room with five balloons. Then I hustled back to the hotels bus stop so I could get to the magic kingdom and find the rest of mi familia.

Sadly, the cake wasn't really seen that night because, by the time we got back to the hotel, Emily had fallen asleep. It was understandable considering the drive, the flight, the bus ride to the hotel, the ride to the magic kingdom, the rides, the fireworks, and then the bus ride back to the hotel; she is only five afterall.

I'm reluctant to describe our entire week at Disney so I'll spare you most of the details and I'll just stick with the highlights for the girls; the biggest of which was their trip to the Bibby Bobbidi Boutique which is kind of like a beauty parlor for kids. The girls both had their hair done in a Cinderella hairstyle, they had makeup applied, and "pixie dust" liberally coating them. They both seemed to really dig the whole experience and they both looked cool when it was all done. It was weird seeing Emily with makeup on. Shannon has had to have heavy makeup applied before for dance recitals but Emily hasn't; it was really really strange to see her all dolled up. You can see a bunch of photos from Disney if you'd like

Overall, the weather while were there was cold but dry except for the Thursday of our week when it rained hard. We had gone to the Animal Kingdom and we were soaked and cold by the time we got back to the hotel so we spent Thursday afternoon at downtown Disney checking out the shops. We did that all backwards because Thursday afternoon turned out to be really nice. The best thing about the rain in the morning was that the Animals were all out on the safari ride and all of the characters were in one building (which was mostly devoid of guests) so the girls were able to meet 7 or 8 characters without having to wait in line at all. We also got to see a monkey going through dental surgery which was kind of cool. They had just brought in a local dental surgeon come in to do it since the procedure was pretty much the same for the monkey as for a human.

After we got back from Disney I had to work for one week before starting my 2 weeks of holiday vacation. It was the first time since 2009 (our honeymoon) that I had taken 2 weeks off in a row. With weekends that equated to 16 days off! Sweet. For the first four days I called it "Billcation" and I mostly just sat around and read some books. At the end of the four days Lisa was then off work and we celebrated our own little Festivus on Dec 24 where I gave Lisa her big gift, a trip to the Grand Canyon this summer. I went to the canyon while I was in the Army and it was amazing. Lisa hasn't seen it so I think she will really dig it. We will actually be staying in Vegas and my brother and his wife will be joining us which will make it extra cool.

After our little celebration we loaded up the car for a trip to Cleveland where we spent about 7 days with Lisa's family. It is always nice to see them. My nephews are all basically young men now which is a little strange but cool. One night my three nephews and I went to a local university to play some pickup basketball. It turns out I still suck but now I am in such bad cardio shape that I couldn't even make up for my lack of skill with effort. Danny and Chris both tried hard and Pete was doing really well from three point land. We played 3 games of 2-on-2 with Pete and I winning the series. Then we switched to a four on four game where Chris (the youngest and shortest) played much better. He had to guard a really big guy (wide, but not really tall) who was pushing Chris all over the place. Chris didn't back down and even swatted a few of the other guys shots. It was great. Danny ended up getting some seriously nasty looking blisters so he and I sat out after the first game of 4-on-4 so that the teams would be even still.

Danny, Chris, and I along with the girls went bowling one day where I dominated with an avg of 146. We all went again another day with Lisa, her sister Jane, and her dad as well and, while I had the best average (146 again) Lisa had the high score of the week with a 178. She had been using a 10 pound ball and was struggling, she moved up to a 12 pound ball and never looked back. It was really cool to see her do so well. I think she and I need to go bowling more often. We both enjoy it and it isn't too expensive (though for the 17 games our group played plus shoe rental it was over $100!)

The only truly negative part of out time in Cleveland, for me, was that I am now officially burnt out on Hand and Foot. We were playing with 7 people in each hand and that is just too many. We really should have broken out into 2 groups because each game just took way too long.

Once we returned from Cleveland my Dad, Patty, and my brother Chris, swung by and we had a nice dinner and they gave me a really nice Scarf for Christmas. I already had a Liverpool Football Club scarf but it isn't very long and its very red so doesn't go that well with my work clothes. It has been fairly cold and windy here lately so a nice scarf fit the bill pretty well. This one is green and gray striped and is very long so I can tie it on like I saw everyone in London doing so now I'm not only warm but fashionable!

Ted sent us a digital picture frame with about 500 photos of his part of the family on it. That was cool because we tend to harass him about getting some photos. My mom sent me three books I've been wanting to read and I've already finished 2 of them. In fact, over the past month I've knocked out 11 books. I have some serious reviewing to get to over on my book blog. Lisa's parents gave me some new rubber for my mountain bike tires that should help improve my grip. I haven't been out riding in a while but I am hoping to hit the hills this weekend with Ed and Mike (and maybe Gilbert).

Finally, we had a small party for my dad's 63rd birthday the night before his actual birthday. We had paella and apple pie. It was great. Plus my dad had put together a prototype for a secret project we are working on and the prototype was perfect. We agreed to work on the final version sometime in the next couple of weeks and I'm really excited about it coming to fruition. I suppose I'll probably let the cat out of the bag when it is done just because I will be so excited about it and want to show it to everyone! Stay tuned.

#Sports #Family #FunStuff #MyLife #Travel #Featured #Entertainment #Photos

Last night was the night of the big cut; Shannon had about 5 or 6 inches of hair removed. It looks a lot different (and not much like the picture of Julia Styles to me) but it still looks good on her. She is really happy about it which makes it much better. Hopefully it will make her hair brushing life a little easier.

Emily also had her hair cut. Her's wasn't really long before hand but it was a bit butchered since she had cut it herself a few weeks ago (though I didn't think the hatchet job was very noticeable). Now she has a cute little bowl cut that I think fits her pretty well.

Here are some photos of the girls with before and after shots (though I couldn't find a good shot of Shannon from the front that showed her hair and was recent).

#Family #Photos

So we are thinking about making a pretty profound change in Shannon's life - a hair shortening. Now, I love her long hair and am a pretty big advocate of girls with long hair; but - it is a pain in the ass for both her and her mother. For Lisa it is nothing but a stress inducing nightmare to get it combed in the morning and for Shannon (while she likes having long hair) it is a source of daily pain as she tries to comb out the snarls. Like I said, it's a pain in the ass.

Shannon can comb her own hair but honestly she sucks at it. She dawdles, as most 7 year olds do, and takes forever and then it is still pretty cruddy looking. Then Lisa, seeing the time left before they have to head out for school, has to jump in and finish the job. Shannon seriously dislikes this period of time because one can only be so gentle when they have no time. Add into this the fact that Shannon is a bit of a wuss and the tear faucet is on for the entirety of the brushing. It's not much fun.

This morning her hair was particularly nasty. She had this ugly knot of tangled mess at the nape of her neck. I was handling the combing duties today (something I do once in a while) and she was crying before the brush even reached her head. She just knew it would hurt. This isn't the sort of psychological state I really want my daughter in each morning. Plus, I don't have the same sense of duty of getting her to school on time so I'll take an inordinate amount of time to carefully unsnag and brush her hair (part of the reason I only do it once in a while). Thus, a solution must be found.

We have often suggested to Shannon that she is going to get her hair shortened because the daily brushing is such a pain. However, this morning, I think I made a command decision that it is going to happen. The question now is, how short and in what style? Thus I'm going to present a few ideas here for people to look at and consider. The final decision will be made by Shannon with some input from Lisa and myself but I thought it would be fun to get some feedback from our friends and family (who know what Shannon looks like).

[caption id="attachment_769" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Kirsten Dunst - Bob Hairstyle"][/caption]

I really like this one though, honestly, I don't know how doable it is. I think to get that little under-curl thing going we would have to use some kind of hairstyling gel. But I think she would look really good with this style of hair.


[caption id="attachment_768" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Julia Styles - Long Bob Hairstyle"][/caption]

I also like this style. It isn't substantially different from her current hair except that it is a bit shorter; probably 5 inches or so. I think she would look good with this one as well. This same lady, Julia Styles, has another hair cut that I think would look cool on Shannon but I'm not sure it is feasible either with the overall thinness of her hair.

[caption id="attachment_771" align="alignnone" width="195" caption="Dakota Fanning with a "Bob" hairstyle"][/caption]

For my mother I present the same basic hairstyle, just on a kid. There really aren't many example sites out there with kids and hair styles beyond pigtails. This girl has much thicker hair than Shannon and the style is a few inches shorter than Shannon's will probably be but it gives you a basic idea. Really, all three images have the same basic style, the Bob.

So, tell us what you think in the comments.

#Family

Today Shannon competed in a pumpkin decorating contest at the nearby Milton Pumpkin Festival. The pumpkin festival is kind of a big deal around here in small town WV and thousands of people attend each year. In fact, the only time I hit a traffic jam each year is when trying to get to this festival. I don't know how many kids, in her age group, showed up today to decorate pumpkins but Lisa figures there were close to 100. The rules were pretty simple: you can decorate your pumpkin with only natural (possibly edible) items. Anything else automatically disqualifies your pumpkin from judging.

So, after disqualifications there were about 50 valid pumpkins. Shannon's pumpkin was a pig. She used sweet potatoes to make ears, marshmallows to make eyes and a mouth, and a cucumber to shape the nose. She also included a spiral tail she peeled off of a carrot. Her pig wasn't an ordinary mud wallowing pig though - oh no - it was a pretty little girl pig so she also included some flowers in her hair and some dangly earrings made of raisins. Overall it's a fairly cute little pig.

Now, you might think I'm biased (and you'd be right) however, the judges agreed and she won first place in her age group! That's right baby - Shannon is the #1 second grade pumpkin decorator in this part of WV! She was awarded a $7 cash prize and a medal. Boo yah!

#ShannonsArt #Family #MyLife

This past weekend Lisa and I packed up the girls and drove to Cincinnati. We left on Sunday and met up with my dad and stepmother, Patty, at the Ikea there. As we pulled into the parking lot I though, holy crap that place is huge. Patty, having shopped at the one in Portland before said, "Oh, how cute, look how small it is." I'm not kidding - the biggest store I have ever seen was described as cute and small! I have long heard of Ikea but this was the first time I had actually gone in one and it was quite an experience. Just inside the front door is a child drop-off point for a day care type facility. This place knows it is so big you will be there for so long that you need to get a babysitter once you arrive! We passed on the daycare and headed upstairs to the cafeteria. Yes, we needed sustenance and we hadn't even shopped yet. The Cafe served a variety of Swiss/Norweigen foods and Lisa and I both had Swedish Meatballs. They were OK. The price on the food was right as it cost about $22 for the whole family of four to eat and I even had a nice piece of chocolate cake for dessert. Once we were done eating we headed toward the actually shopping part of the store. Even having seen the outside of the building I didn't fully comprehend what I was getting myself into.

The store is two floors. The first floor (with the Cafe) is broken down into sections based on rooms of your house. We started out looking at living rooms and family rooms. Nested within each section of the store were little showcase's that represented entire apartments. Some were about 200 sq feet others were closer to 600 or 1000. Each showcase was broken down into entire apartments so that there were bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, and closets. The showcases were pretty neat and really got me thinking about our home and the way we have things laid out. Eventually we made it through all of the different showcases and room sections of the first floor and headed down to the second floor. This floor is half "stuff" where you can find pillows or toilet bowl cleaners or glasses and plates. The pillow section was actually really cool because they were broken out by what type of sleeper you are - there were pillows for "back sleepers" and pillows for "stomach sleepers." I've always been a stomach sleeper so I was tempted to get one of their pillows but I resisted. The second half of the floor was the large product pickup area. For instance if you had seen a desk you really liked in the home office section on the first floor you could have written down a code and then, in the pick up section, you could find it boxed and ready to go. After the pickup area were the cash registers and a little grocery area that sold Norweigen snacks and other specialties. Patty bought some odd little chocolate filled cookies. The cookie part tasted like popcorn. They were pretty good but very sweet - I could only eat two at a time. We managed to finish shopping at Ikea five hours after we entered the store. Five hours? That is rediculous - who shops in one store for five hours? Apparently a lot of people because that joint was packed. Lisa and I made it out with nothing more than a small stuffed hamster for Shannon and a toilet bowl brush for the girls bathroom. I was proud of our restraint because there were a few things there we really liked.

We had actually gone to Cincinnati so we could go to their labor day fireworks show. It is supposed to be huge, maybe the biggest in the country, and we thought the girls would really get a kick out of it. I tried to convince the family that we should head downtown early so we could get to our intended dinner place early because the crowds would be huge but I was overturned by everyone. Unfortunately, the downtown area was packed, the bridges across the river were closed, and we couldn't make it to the Haufbrau house in time for our 8pm reservation. Mysteriously, when we called them at about 7:40 our reservations had disappeared anyway so it didn't matter. Instead we drove all over the place looking for somewhere to eat and then settled on a Longhorn Steakhouse. I like the Longhorn but was a bit disappointed we were eating at a chain we can eat at anywhere. Typically Lisa and I like to go somewhere more local when we travel so we can experience something new and fresh. On the bright side though dinner was really tasty but we didn't get back to the hotel until it was pretty late and the girls were exhausted.

The next day we were going to split into two groups. My dad, Shannon, and I headed to the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson Air Force Base while Lisa, Patty, and Emily went to a 6 acre large grocery store called Jungle Jims. Lisa really wanted to go to the Museum with us but she also wanted to see Jungle Jims plus Patty was definitely not going to the museum and we weren't entirely sure how cool Emily would be with looking at old airplanes all day so she sacrificed her opportunity to hear Dad tell some stories and share his experiences.

The Air Force Museum is much larger than I remember it from 1986. It is three huge hangers full of all sorts of air planes plus a silo that contains some some huge rockets including to ICBMs (which definitely gave me chills to see; they are a scary proposition). The first hanger in the museum contains historical planes and artifacts from early flight through World War 1. My Dad, during his time in the Air Force had actually worked (lead?) a team that restored an old biplane from that period for inclusion in the museum. However, we couldn't find the plane though we did find one that looked similar. I could tell my dad was pretty disappointed to not find the plane that he and his team had spent so much time working on. It would have been really cool had it been there. The second hanger had more modern planes from WW2 to the present. Thus there were old P-51 mustangs along side a brand new F-22 Raptor. This room was really cool. It was much better lit and we were looking at planes my dad had a lot of first hand knowledge. It was great hearing him talk about each plane and explaining how different parts worked or what bits on each were a pain to work on. Plus it was great to see him sharing some of his experiences with Shannon. After we finished up in the modern hanger we were pretty hungry so we headed for the cafe. My dad was kind of bumming about his biplane not being around and wasn't really interested in going into the third hanger, the Cold War. Shannon asked why we couldn't go in that one so Dad relented and after chow we headed into the Cold War. It's a good thing we did too. The Cold War room had bunch of different planes in it including the SR-71 blackbird (my favorite plane) and the B2 stealth bomber. As we wandered around looking at all the modern day artifcats we came across an F-106 from the 49th Fighter Interceptor Squadron of Griffis Air Force Base, Rome NY. The 49th was my Dads last duty station before retiring and he knew this plane very well. He instantly recognized it's tail number and started telling us it's history. He was very very excited to have one of his old planes in there. In fact this plane was retired from the Air Force the same year he retired. It was pretty cool.

After we finished in the Cold War hanger we went into the silo and then we headed onto the actual base to see the Presidential Hanger where retired "Air Force One's" are enshrined. The presidential hanger has a sister hanger on base which is full of experimental planes. One of the planes in that hanger was the only surviving XB-70 Valkyrie supersonic bomber. It is HUGE. It dominated the hanger. All of the experimental planes were really cool - some of them were little more than rockets with small wings; it was hard to believe they could fly. Overall the whole experience at the museum was really great. We got to see a ton of cool planes, hear some neat stories, get a hint of a story my dad doesn't want to tell me, and Shannon seemed to really enjoy it. We were there for seven hours and my back and legs were worn out but it was well worth it. I've uploaded some photos of the museum - the first few are planes my dad had hands on experience with during his career.

#Family #MyLife #General #Travel #Entertainment #Photos

The girls and I went to the Gallia County Fair with my dad and step-mother last week. I have to be honest - I'm not much of a fan of county fairs but it wasn't too bad. The girls rode a bunch of rides and Shannon won an prize at a dart game. I even managed to win the big animal prize on a game - that one where you roll a ball up a small table and based on which hole it goes in your character races ahead. There were at least ten of us in the race so it was cool to win even though I almost choked after pulling out to a huge lead.

Anyway, here are some photos of the girls at the fair.

#Family #FunStuff #MyLife #Entertainment #Photos

I have updated the timeline page to include our photos for 2008. I just took the photos this morning so I was a little late getting to them this year but not by too much. It is pretty cool to see how much the girls change each year.

#Family #MyLife #Photos

Good news, good news, All Gnews is Good Gnews with Gary Gnu! Lisa had her pathology report back and her thyroid lumps were benign (which, if your like me and need to look that up, means it wasn't cancer). She is cancer free! She has to go back in a couple of weeks and have her blood tested to make sure the remainder of her thyroid is working OK - if so she won't even need to go on medications. That would rock.

She still has to have her tonsils and adenoids taken out and something is supposed to be done to her sinuses - but the worst "scare" of the bunch is out of the way. So have a little celebration in your head right now for her good fortune!

#Family

Lisa had half of her thyroid removed yesterday at a small medical center in Southern Ohio. The ENT who initially suggested the surgery was concerned she might have cancer. The pathologist who was in the surgery thinks, even though there were two nodules on the removed segment, that they are benign (not cancer). We will know definitively on next Tuesday. She had to stay in the clinic over night and was supposed to be there until this afternoon. However, I guess they thought she was recovering very well because she was able to come home this morning.

Normally she has a bad reaction to the anesthesia but this time it didn't seem to bother her to badly. In the past she hasn't been able to eat within a day of the operation but she actually ate dinner within an hour or so of the surgery yesterday. Very cool.

#Family

Two Sunday's ago while Lisa and I were out doing yard work a smallish dog decided to move into our yard. She looks like a corgi-dachshund-collie mix or something; she's very cute and very gentle around the girls. We figured she would move on but after about four days of hanging out in our yard we finally decided to feed her (she wasn't looking that great) and thus we ended up with a dog.

The Wednesday after the small dog, Rosie, moved into our yard a second dog appeared. This time it was a large black lab who was waiting for us when we woke up. He was just chilling on the porch with Rosie. We really didn't want him to stay around either but he did so this past weekend we took them both to the vet. He had worms and was still "all male" while she seemed pretty healthy. Both dogs ended up getting de-wormer and the larger dog got an appointment to have some dear friends removed.

On Monday we found a family who wanted to adopt the big dog who we have named, creatively enough, "Big Dog". The husband decided to bring their current lab over to meet Big Dog who, he knew, wasn't fixed. It turns out the dog they already had wasn't fixed either. Big Dog, I would guess, has lived on the streets for quite a while and doesn't back down from anyone. The visiting lab decided to mark our yard and so Big Dog went over to the side of the visitor and put his paws up on the others back. The visiting dog, it turns out, is also pretty domineering and didn't really appreciate Big Dog's insistence on being the Alpha. A full blown drag-out dog fight broke out in our front yard. Shannon, who was out with us, ran screaming into the house. Lisa became somewhat hysterical, and the owner of the visiting dog tried to separate the two angry beasts. Finally he was able to get his dog back into his truck and Big Dog calmed down nicely and cozyed right up to the owner of the other dog. Clearly, the two dogs weren't going to work with each other so we kept Big Dog while continuing to search for a new home for him.

We took Big Dog to the vet on Tuesday and had his precious friends removed. He then spent the next few nights at the vet recovering. He is home now and relaxing in the front yard. We are still looking for a good home for him. He is a great dog, very friendly and he loves to be with people. He is also a good guard dog if you are approached by an angry dog. He has already gotten a pit bull to back down. He is generally pretty good with the girls but he is a little clumsy. His awkwardness combined with his love of being in the car causes some problems but he is never intentionally rough with them.

I'll post some photos of the dogs on here as soon as I have a chance. I left the photos I currently have of them at work.

#Family #MyLife