The easiest time picking out a tree ever!

Traditionally we pick out and put up our Christmas Tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Sunday we headed to Lowe's to pick out a tree.  I steeled myself for the challenge.  You know how it goes.... what do you think of this one?  Oh no, there is a hole in this one.  Untie this one then that one.  Shake it open. That is too tall or too short.  No, it is too dry.  Too fat or too small.  On and on it goes until we find the "right" one, we give up to try another day or we settle.

But not this year, no sir!  As we walked into Lowe's I was prepared for the worst.  We are a bit picky when it comes to Christmas Trees.  Well, we are just picky in general:)  We like Nobels.  Not the people, the tree Nobel Fir.  Not that we don't like Nobility as I don't know any but I just don't see the need for it these days.  But I digress:)  Much to our surprise another family is standing in front of the Christmas Trees looking at two awesome looking Nobel Firs.  Not just Nobel Firs but 8 ft Nobel Firs!  One was skinny and one was .... well... husky:)

They were doing the Christmas Tree dance.  The one where they all take turns holding each tree while the others stand back and the holders spin the tree.  The CFO asked "would you like us to hold the trees so you all can look at them at the same time.  They were a bit bewildered but said thank you.  Luckily for us they chose the larger one and we took the smaller one.  I have no idea how long they had been there to find those two trees but they were both great.  We were done inside two minutes after getting out of the van!

BTW.... War Eagle!

Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
William Safire

When I played pro football, I never set out to hurt anyone deliberately - unless it was, you know, important, like a league game or something
Dick Butkus

Al

I am thankful I am not shopping

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE shopping and spending money, just ask the CFO:)  But it seems that Black Friday deals are not as great or awe inspiring as the use to be, thanks to technology.  Most items are already at rock-bottom prices if you know where to look thanks to Google and the like.  Now I know you can get Zhu Zhu Pets for $4 at Wal Mart but other than a few really good deals.

If you are already looking to buy something then you can probably find it cheaper today than other days but I don't know that it was worth staying up till midnight or getting up at 3am for, but hey, that is just me.  Not to mention you can get a lot of this stuff online anyway.  I know, I know, some people just love the thrill of the hunt.  You know what I like better?  Staying at home in our warm, dry house, eating bacon and eggs with a good cup of coffee while buying Talladega Nights for $1.99 from Amazon with free shipping.  But hey, that is just me:)

If you were not feeling all that thankful this Thanksgiving just watch the news.  I PROMISE someone else has it worse than you.  I for one am thankful for all the stuff that frustrates me.  You know...

• family - nuff said:)
• taxes - a job
• traffic - a car
• weight - food to eat
• dirt/dust - all the stuff I clean
• yardwork - a house

The list could go on and on.  So for at least one day out of the year I try to look at the bright side of all the stuff that makes me crazy.  But that was yesterday... now I need to deal with my crazy family as we complain about "wealth redistribution", 280 traffic, how fit we use to be and wonder when I will find the time for all my house work and get the flower beds weeded.


Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

Oscar Wilde

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts.  No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.  
H.U. Westermayer

Al

Biking

We got the Triplets bikes for their Birthday.  Well, everyone got them bikes for their birthday.  Bikes are not cheap!  My best friend growing up, the Marine Doc, bought them their new helmets.  I always laugh about how safety conscious we/I am now compared to when I was a kid riding in the "gunner" spot of a station wagon down the highway.

The CFO had the idea to take the Triplets to the culdesac at the end of our street to let them ride some.  The only challenge is that it is at the bottom of a hill.  We made it down and back up with little issues.  The only real challenge was that I was holding/pushing two at once and they had to ride close to each other without running into me, each other or stretching me out too far.

Next up, learning to ride without training wheels.  Maybe in the Spring when I can find a nice hill with a gradual slope.  I taught my self at a neighbors house in his yard.  I want to wait till they want to do it.

For instance, the bicycle is the most efficient machine ever created:  Converting calories into gas, a bicycle gets the equivalent of three thousand miles per gallon.  

Bill Strickland

I'm lazy. But it's the lazy people who invented the wheel and the bicycle because they didn't like walking or carrying things. 

Lech Walesa 

Al

An update on the rewards (bribery)

A while back we started rewarding (bribing) the Triplets with chocolate milk if they stay in their beds at night.  It usually works.  I have upped the ante by also offering toaster strudels if the ALL stay in their beds at night.  This has been a rare occurrence.

Last night I got home late from celebrating Nuke Doc's Birthday.  We saw Inception and it is LONG, a great movie but LONG.  When I got home the CFO said "I have something you need to see.  I thought ugh-oh.  See, I dropped the Triplets off at the CFO's work at 4:30 pm and she had the evening with them while I hung out with Nuke Doc and another friend, the Toolman.  Since she had them, or I should say they had her, to herself/themselves I was a bit nervous about what I was going to see.

William was dead asleep in our front hallway.  It seems he had gotten out of bed and upon noticing that the CFO was still awake he decided to just wait her out.  Needless to say, he spent the rest of the night in our bed.  I then woke up sandwiched between the boys this morning.  I just keep reminding myself that there will come a day when they don't want to spend time with us.

One of the indictments of civilizations is that happiness and intelligence are so rarely found in the same person.

William Feather

Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday
Proverb

Al

What to do, what to do

So here I sit with "nothing" to do.  Luckily for me there is a dirty messy house and a yard that needs tending to not to mention my little trio running around me.  BTW, I started writing this at a little before 7am and just finished it a little after 8:20am.  I don't think I will have a hard time staying busy:)

Always gotta keep busy or the voices start telling me to do wild things. 
Steve Brown 

Al

The sweetest prayer

The Triplets usually thank God for things like Oreos, their blankets and the like.  Or if they pray "for" something is is related to helping someone or a group of people that we have talked about.  The other night when we were saying prayers Jackson said one of the sweetest and simplest prayers:

Please let everyone know the truth of God's love.

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.
Mahatma Gandhi

Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.
Saint Augustine

Al

One more day

Tomorrow is the last day of my contract recruiting position.  Now if I can only remember all the stuff I have wanted to blog about over the last month I will have a lot to write about:)

Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
Mark Twain

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.
Maria Robinson

Al

The final stretch

I am in the final stretch of my contract recruiting position.  It ends Friday, 11/19.  Like most things I am a bit sad and a bit sanguine about 11/20.  I will miss the thrill of the hunt (recruiting is hunting), the excitement of success in hiring someone and the interaction with other adults not to mention the money:)  But I am looking forward to "using" the 30 hours a week I spent working.  I cherish my time with the kids more already.  I also have a crispy new Black Ops game staring at me just begging me to come play:)

I look forward to being a full time SAHD again but I also look forward to being a recruiter again.

Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.
Al Franken

Al

The CFO rocks yet again!

Anyone who knows anything about marriage knows it is (should be) a partnership.  In any good partnership there is give and take.  So in our partnership I have been taking time away from cleaning because of my contract recruiting position.  This past weekend the CFO gave.... big time!  This past weekend she (we) hosted her parents, her aunt and her grandmother.  She also cleaned the basement (no small task), washed the sheets from the guest beds (also remade the beds with the clean sheets), and cleaned all the hard wood floors but I somehow woke up Monday with no laundry to do.  She had washed and folded everything!!!

OK, I know that sounds good but the best is yet to come...  We have a PS3.  A year ago I was debating whether to buy the Xbox or the PS3.  At the time there was no comparison.  With WiFi and a blue ray the PS3 won hands down.  But now I have since realized that all my friends have Xboxes.  That is an issue as when you play online PS3s do not play with Xboxes.  I guess it is OK to be prejudice in cyberspace:)  As I have been making a little extra money for the family I have been looking at Xbox bundles.  The CFO and I talked about it last tonight.  I will let you be the judge of how great of a wife/partner she is..... her last comment before heading to bed was "it (buying an Xbox) only makes sense if we buy a bigger TV for the living room."

Nothing will work unless you do. 
Maya Angelou 

Al

Holding each other accountable or tattling?

William: "Daddy! .....  Daddy! ....  Daddy!" from upstairs
Daddy: "Yes sir, William"
William: "Jackson got out of the time out spot you put him in!"
Daddy: "He put himself there buddy, he was not in time out"
William: "Oh."

I don't want them to be tattle tails but I do want them to hold each other accountable.  Just another line that constantly moves:)

It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.
Will Rogers (1879 - 1935)

Al

Halloween recycling

When we got home from trick or treating we were almost out of candy to give to the people coming to our house.  What to do?  You got it!  Go through the Triplet's candy and give out what they can't eat, hard candy and the like!

Our last trick or treaters just wanted directions out of the neighborhood:)

Hope you had a GREAT Halloween!

Al

A grandmother pretends she doesn't know who you are on Halloween.
Erma Bombeck

Hold on, man.  We don't go anywhere with "scary," "spooky," "haunted," or "forbidden" in the title.
Shaggy

Al