2007

Where in the world did 2007 go? I don't remember 2006 and I am almost sure there never was a 2005 or 2004. In fact I think this is all a big joke and it still is 1989. Since I spent $10,000 in medical bills this year I am kind of glad to see that the year is over. Although I have to start all over tomorrow on a new deductible.

Twlight Zone

Many of you probably don't realize but the best 2 days of the year are almost here. The SciFi channel plays Twilight Zone episodes all day December 31 and January 1. Even though these were filmed clear back in the 60's they still are great to watch.

365 Days Till Christmas

Only 364 more days till Christmas 2008. Next year is a leap year so there is actually 365 more days. I seen that my mom had already bought us ornaments for next year today. If any of you have your list ready for next year just let me know so I can start working on it now. I am really surprised that the stores are not already selling Christmas items for next year. I think I have already missed the sale on swimming suits. Which is alright because no one really wants to see me in a speedo anyways.

Good Mommy

Miss Winnie has had every kind of toy to choose from while deciding what to play with. There is all kinds of little girl toys from when Lexi was little and all kinds of boy toys from Jaguar. She does every once in a while push a truck or tractor around and make the rrrrrrrr noise but 95% of the time you will see her carry around a baby doll. She will wrap them up in a blanket and feed them a bottle while saying SHHHHH to anyone around so that her baby can sleep.

Big Brother

Winnie loves her big brother. What ever he does she is right there with him trying to do the same. One day Jag was upstairs watching TV and Winnie came up and decided to join him but she had to lay down in the same position. She is constantly coming up to me or Chandra and asking where is Jag.

Snowmen

Lexi got to celebrate her birthday with her class on December 12 since she has a summer birthday. Chandra decided to make these snowmen as a snack. They are powdered doughnuts with black icing. They have a cookie hat with a rolo on top. Their noses are made out of pretzels. They made some that were just heads and said that they had melted. Chandra said it was a little tricky transporting them to school.

Christmas Day

What a beautiful Christmas day!!!

The weather was great!!

Winnie got up around 4:30 a.m. Chandra got up with her while I tried to get a little more sleep. I actually woke Lexi and Jag up around 7:30 so they could open their presents and have some time to play with them before we went down to Chandra's grandparents. Jag has been playing with his diecast tractors and trucks all day. Lexi has been stuck to her Nitendo DS since she opened it this morning. She played with it all the way down to her great grandparents and all the way home. Winnie has been playing with a little of everything including some of Lexi's and Jag's. As for me and Chandra we are ready for bed already!!!! They are getting into their moon sand that Uncle Paul bought them at this very moment. Thanks Paul!!!! Although having sand through out the entire house is not a new experience around here. I have already heard Chandra say Don't eat it and Stop getting it on the floor.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

We are just now getting the kids to bed, so our night is just beginning. Morning will probably get here a little to early too. We had a good day today. This afternoon we celebrated Christmas with Chandra's family. The kids got a lot of good stuff and so did we. Lexi's favorites were probably the mp3 player and the polka dotted picture(canvas) painted by the very talented Kristen Harris. Jag loved his die cast elevated scraper which is some type of earth moving machine. He also loved his wrecking ball made by Aunt Krissy. My favorite present was a plaque in remembrance of my horse Yo Yo. I also loved our Marty Moose glasses that Kris and Clayton got us.

Later we went to the school for the Weaver side of the family to get together. Santa Clause showed up and gave the kids presents, which seemed to be a great hit with most of the kids. My mom got 10 pairs of jeans as her present from the name exchange, must have been from someone who reads this blog. Winnie got a baby doll and a hand made cradle for it made by my Uncle Willie. She also got a hand made book shelf from her Bepaw. Tomorrow we will be going to Chandra's grandparents (Dave's mom & dad).

It is easy to get worn out this time of year with all the traveling and get together. The kids are always wound a little tight which wears on me. I always find that I need to take a second and relax and remember what this season is all about. It is hard to believe that something as precious as a baby's birth can turn into something so commercialized.

December 23

Before Church this morning we all lined up in front of the Christmas tree and got our pictures taken.

We went to Chandra's parents yesterday to have a get together with her mom's side of the family, the dreaded loony Gulicks :) Her aunt Janene gave the kids a Disney game of Monopoly. We played a game last night for 3 hours. We all had a lot of fun. Even as I am writing this Jag is asking to play again this evening.

Christmas Snoop

I have always been a Christmas Snoop. If you have my present in the house I will find it. One year my mom and dad got me a new saddle for Christmas. They were well aware of my snooping, so they hid it in plain sight. Every year when it got cold I would bring my saddle in and store it the basement. They just replaced my old saddle with the new one. I walked by it every day to leave the house and played by it and never did see it. On Christmas morning they told me my present was over there in the corner and I still looked all around the saddle and never did realize that it was the saddle.

Day Off

I took yesterday through December 27 off. However I do think I will have to do some shoeing before then because of people calling me at the last minute. Today we decided to go back to Newark Mall which used to be kind of an annual thing for Chandra and I. There is a little difference between just me and Chandra going versus now taking 3 kids along.

First of all I wanted to eat at Denny's or IHOP, can you say redneck. We drove all over town looking for either one of the restaurants which I knew was somewhere in town but could not remember where. We finally decided to eat at Bob Evans, reluctantly because of some very poor service the last few times we have eaten there. Well today they lived up to their usual standards. There was a line clear back to the door. When Chandra went to put her name in one woman said they were not taking names they were just seating people while the other woman was taking names. :0 To say there was a little confusion is an understatement. The manager came out and saw what was going on and just turned and walked away. Eventually he did walk us to our table but it had nothing to do with me having a GRUMPY moment. Chandra did light a little fire under their hind ends but I again had nothing to do with it.:) The mall was fun but stupid me decided to wear my cowboy boots because they make me feel pretty. About an hour into walking around the mall I was sorry I had made that decision. Jaguar really wanted a wallet, so I bought him one at JCPenneys. We went to Walmart afterwards to see if we could get Lexi to spend some of her gifts cards from last Christmas. She definitely saves money better than me. We decided to eat at Roadhouse on the way home which I forgot how to get there. As we were turning around to go the other direction Lexi says I see Dennys. She said it is right over there it is just a little sign. I said where I don't see it. Right there don't you see the sign and then she spelled it out for us D E N N I S. :) Needless to say we never did find Dennys but we did find Roadhouse and had a very nice dinner. We came home and made some home made hard rock candy. We are all now just a little sugared out, yes even me.

Growing Up

Like I said before I have been reading the book How To Raise A Modern Day Knight. It talks about how do we know when we are an adult. I remember when I had a AHA(or it could be a DUH) moment in my life. I had been working for the Vet hospital for a while and they asked me if I would like to move into the apartment upstairs. That would be great, I thought!! After a long day of moving my stuff into the apartment I decided to take a shower. When I got out of the shower to my dismay there weren't any towels to dry myself. Where in the world is all the towels for the last 18 years there had always been towels waiting on me to dry on after I took a shower. I had never thought about where the towels came from they were just always there. I did not have any towels of my own, never even dawned on me that I would need to have some. While drying off with some paper towels I thought to myself I bet there isn't any food in the refrigerator either. AHA I just started my journey into adulthood.

Blogging Break

I took a little break from blogging due to the fact that my mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law and all their kids were at Walt Disney World. I decided to try to fool them that we were there with them. It started out with me calling them and asking too many questions about where they were going to be the next day. Then I had my cousin Chris call and say he was having trouble with their stove, just to make them wonder why he was doing their stove. The following day I started texting them messages on their phone and just happened to get a few things right on the nose. So the more they thought I was there the more I aggravated them with text messages. I even got my dad and Courtney to answer their door with out even knocking by sending a text that said knock knock. Chandra and I had more fun messing with them from 1100 miles away then I think we would have if we had actually been there with them. I told them I was registered under the name of Don Duck at the Wilderness Lodge hotel and I had dinner reservations under the name of Peter Pan. I can't wait till they get home to compare notes and see how much we messed with their heads.

Expelled

Here is another movie.

Expelled

I guess their faith in evolution isn't strong enough to be put along side creationism. This is great you just fire those around you who do not agree with you. I guess being self employed has some advantages. :)

The Golden Compass

I have received the emails and letters about the movie The Golden Compass. I have decided not to let my children see the movie. I am not into boycotting movies, stores, restaurants and etc. but I can decide where I will and will not spend my money. I have discussed the movie with my sister but other than that I have pretty much left it alone. If someone was to ask me my opinion about it I would tell them but I am not out on the roof top screaming not to see the movie. After reading this article though it kind of makes wish I would have.

Golden Compass

First the lovely author of this article calls me a religious fear monger and then later while talking about the book says she wonders how much reading someone that denounces the movie actually does anyways. I believe if I were more educated I just might take offense to that statement. I wonder if in all the reading she does if she has ever read the bible. They always go to the same argument that isn't your faith strong enough to watch something like this and that they believe in allowing everyone to have the right to chose whether or not to watch the movie. Well that seems funny to me because as soon as it comes to evolution and creationism boy their beliefs go out the window. Isn't their belief in evolution strong enough to withstand creationism being taught also? As for me being strong enough in my faith to watch it, I have no worries that I could watch it and still believe in Jesus as my Savior. However like I have said before I am not putting trash like this in my head anymore because once it is there it is always there.

Green

GREEN

Green is now officially my least favorite color thanks to AL GORE!!! If I have to hear one more thing about being green I am going to be sick. Every TV program now has some sort of green message to help us earth hating mongers know how bad we are destroying mother earth. I thought I had heard it all until the other day when I saw the story about the woman having an abortion because she didn't want another person adding to the Carbon Footprint. ARE YOU KIDDING? She just hates it when people judge her for murdering her kid (her words) and the fact she wanted to be sterilized so she wouldn't have to have anymore abortions. She has no problem with lecturing a woman with a lot of children about the damage she is doing to the planet. I don't care if she gets herself sterilized in fact I prefer it to her murdering more babies. Even Kermit hates being green. It ain't easy being green.

Music Box Christmas

To understand the significance of the year my dad got my mom a Music Box for Christmas we have to go back to the prior Christmas.

Everything was going great me and my sister were tearing into our presents to see all the stuff we had gotten for Christmas. That is when it happened. My mom opens up a present from my dad. It just happened to be a pair of jeans that were way too big for my mom. Of course the next thing out of my moms mouth was do you actually think I wear this size of jeans. At this point my dad was totally screwed there is no good answer to this question. At that moment he uttered the words that came close to being his final words here on earth. I held them up and thought they looked like they would fit you. That was just about where the Christmas Joy ended that year.

So the following year he pulled me aside and said here is $50 buy your mother something nice. It is amazing at how much wiser you become in a year. No matter what I bought my mom would be happy because one of the kids picked it out for her. So I went shopping with my mom and my aunt Mae. The entire time I was looking for something to buy my mom. It never dawned on me to buy her a bunch of small things, I had $50 and I was going to buy something that was exactly $50. I finally found it. It was a Santa Clause music box. With tax and everything it would be right at $50. Now my mother and my aunt were wondering where this $50 came from. My mom thought I had taken it out of a cookie jar that we used to keep money in. It wasn't until Christmas morning that when she opened it up that me and my dad told her that he had given me the money to buy her a Christmas present. I don't know but I think that was maybe the start of her music box collection.

More Christmas Memories

I remember one Christmas we had just got our first VCR, again I don't know that we got it for Christmas but it was right around that time. Video A had just opened up in Marengo and you could go rent movies. I remember watching movies all Christmas break just sitting around in our pajamas. The only movie I can remember watching was Raiders of the Lost Ark. I still love the scene where the big boulder comes rolling down towards him as he is running for his life.

One of the first Christmas Memories I have is my dad bringing home a big box of stuff that Nestles had given to their employees for Christmas. It had different kinds of instant coffee and most important Nestle Crunch candy bars.

I do remember asking my mom if Santa Clause was real and she told me to go ask my dad. I did but I don't recall what he said, however I do remember already knowing the truth. I was pretty young when I figured it out. My sister would still believe if we hadn't ever told her. :) I think she figured she would get more from Santa than from mom and dad. She even seen the Easter Bunny once with her own eyes.

Fathers

"Grandchildren are the crown of old men, and the glory of sons is their fathers" Proverbs 17:6

I have just started reading the book "Raising A Modern-Day Knight" by Robert Lewis. It really focuses on the roles fathers play in their sons lives. At the same time I am watching society in general portray men as just stupid morons who stumble around not knowing what we are doing. Every commercial anymore the man is just an idiot and the mom/wife is trying to fix his mistakes while making fun of him with the kids watching. I am afraid the days of men being respected as fathers and head of the households are fading quickly. You might think I am joking but go to this site baby. It is a story about the British Courts ruling that a mother doesn't have to tell the father of her baby she is pregnant. She would like to give up the baby for adoption but doesn't want the father or grandparents to have the option of keeping the baby. What has the world come to that the FATHER has no say what so ever. It already drives me nuts that a woman can have an abortion with out the Fathers consent. I know there are men out there that don't care and would rather not be in the child's life or even worse encourage the woman to have the abortion. I believe the majority of these men probably have not had a good father figure in their lives. It is high time that Men need to stand up and take the rightful position as father/husband and start leading their families. It is also time that families respect their husband/fathers and expect them to stand up and lead the family.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

That's right I said it and according to an after Thanksgiving survey released by the Rasmussen Reports 67 percent of Americans prefer Merry Christmas to Happy Holidays. They said that the results were the same between men and women but it did differ between Republicans and democrats. 88 percent of Republicans prefer Merry Christmas while only 57 percent of democrats prefer the greeting. I don't understand why retailers go out of their way to please the 33 percent. I would think you would like to keep the majority of your customers happy. I think it probably has to do with the fact that the 67 percent don't make as big of a fuss over Happy Holidays as the 33 percent does over Merry Christmas. Now that I think about it, it actually makes sense to me because most of the democrats I know are big donkey whiners. Ha Ha I personally prefer Merry Christmas even if I am a perpetuator of the big "Santa Lie". :)

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope that everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We just finished our third Thanksgiving meal. At least they were all on different days. I heard that the average Thanksgiving meal was 3000 calories multiply that by 3 you have one stuffed turkey. Believe it or not I actually tried to buy another container of Chocolate Mousse today, thank goodness they were out. CAN YOU SAY PIG!!! As we were driving I was thinking of my past Christmas memories. I thought I would share some over the next few weeks.

Today Chandra drug me down to the thrift shop and we went by the store that my mom and dad bought our first computer. I don't remember if it was Christmas but I know it was cold. I still remember the smell of the store. It smelled like computer paper and vinyl disk with a little electrical smell added in. We were buying the Apple IIe computer which was just amazing at the time. It had no memory but it had two floppy disk drives. The printer paper had holes you lined up so that it would feed through the printer right. It had a word processor on one of the disk. There was no such thing as spell chek. :) They bought a book on how to program in basic and I read that thing from front to back and could do anything in that book. Which wasn't a lot but it taught me the basics of programming. It cost about 3 times what the computer I am now using cost. I don't remember it ever crashing like these new more up to date computers do.

Parenting

Christian Parents

The above link takes you to an article about what Christian parents are buying their kids for Christmas. It ends with saying parents are afraid of standing up to their kids and losing their approval. I haven't ever been one to worry about my approval rating. I am sure it is going to go down over the next few years anyways. I have told my kids that what ever you put in your head is there forever. Unless it is the answers to your Chemistry final, but to be fair those answers were never really in my head to begin with.

People Drive Me Nuts

Click on this link below to read about the company who forgot to put eggs as an ingredient on their label of egg nog.

You would think people would have enough common sense to figure that out. I am so tired of having to hold everyone's hand all the time. Grow up and figure this stuff out on your own. If you are too stupid to know that eggs are in egg nog then I think a little natural selection isn't all that bad. Another thing I don't believe we should have to print it in Spanish either. Not that I have an opinion about it. :)

Egg Nog

Dirtiest Jobs

According to MSN's new survey of dirtiest jobs Farrier ranks number 3. They also tell what they think the salary is for a farrier, I will tell you they are way off on that statistic. They also write the salary is with benefits and bonuses. There are no benefits and very seldom does anyone give you a bonus(tip), because they think they are paying too much to begin with. Now you might ask how do I stay so pretty and neat while doing one of the dirtiest jobs, that is a mystery for the ages. :)

Oinkle Jonny

My nephew Andy started calling me Oinkle Jonny a few years ago and it stuck like mud to a pig. Courtney would call me uncle Jonny and did it so much that Lexi actually called me uncle Jonny for a while. I finally got her to call me daddy Jonny and then back to just daddy, although I didn't mind daddy Jonny. Today Little Winnie called me uncle Jonny. I am just hoping that she doesn't start calling me oinkle Jonny.

Miss Winnie has been sick with that hands, foot and mouth virus. She is now starting to feel better. Chandra took her to the Doctor today and she said that it looked like she was starting to get over it. The doctor also told Chandra that in a week or two not to be surprised if she lost some of her finger nails and/or toe nails. This is funny because a few years ago one of the other kids brought this home and I got it and about a week after having it I lost some of my finger nails and toe nails. They all grew back and looked perfectly normal but me and Chandra just thought that I was a freak of nature. I told her there is something just not right about losing your nails. The Doctor said they have found this is pretty common anymore after having the virus.

Pirate Winnie

Here is Winnie down at WDW dressed up in a pirate hat. She is really growing up fast. Just these last few weeks she has been saying a lot of new words. Today she said Chandra. I asked her where is Chandra and she pointed to her mom and said mommy. I asked her where is Jonathan and she pointed to me. Then I asked here where Winnie was and she pointed to herself. She has been saying please and thank you for a while. She will say baby, potty, dog, NO, mine, sissy, here you go, ice, cold, Donald Duck, Mickey, Pluto, Goofy, and tonight she said spaghetti. Her favorite words are candy and Mommeeeeeeee. Nothing is safe anymore. If she can't reach it she will just move a chair to get to it. She can open any door we have. Don't you dare try to stop her because then you will see the red head come out of her. I am sure there are a bunch of words I left out but that is all I can think of now. It is just like over night she began to talk where we could understand her. She has always had something to say ever since she was born we just couldn't understand her.

Thanksgiving Dinner

We had our first Thanksgiving Dinner this evening. :) I always enjoy the traditional Thanksgiving meal. The more of them I get the better. We went to Chandra's parents for dinner. Everything tasted great!!!! Miss Winnie enjoyed the deserts the best. She was running around raiding the candy dishes. All of us played a couple of games of uno and rummikub, which is always fun. Lexi and Jag are starting to get old enough to enjoy and participate in the games. There are always a few references to the Christmas Vacation movie while eating. I am looking forward to more Thanksgiving meals!!!

Relatives

I am already related to one of these space cadets and soon the other will be a relative. :0

SUPER....

Back To Work

Well I am back to work. It will be two weeks tomorrow that I had surgery. I trimmed a few horses last Tuesday and that was a little to soon to be working. I was alright until I tried to rasp the feet and every muscle in my stomach came alive. I was able to do 6 horses on Wednesday, took Thursday off and did a full days worth of work on Friday. I have been shoeing every day this week and feel pretty good. My stomach is a little tender but it is tolerable. I went to the surgeon on Monday afternoon for him to take a look and make sure everything was healing like it should. He said I looked great. He said I should be able to go back to work in a few weeks. Actually he said to use my own judgement and as long as it wasn't hurting me I should be good to go. Now I am just trying to catch up on some of the horses I missed the last few weeks. It makes me laugh because everyone says you need to take it easy after you get my horses done.

Winter

It is beginning to feel a little like winter time. I am ready for some cold weather. I have broke out the union suits and have been wearing them the last few days. Don't worry I always make sure the back flap is closed, well most of the time. When I bend over and feel a draft up the rear it reminds me to close up the flap.:) The kids were discussing how they were going to build their snowman today on the way to school. I told them I didn't think we would be getting enough snow today to build a snowman. They were just happy to see some flurries. I received my first Christmas gift from one of my customers this evening. It is the hoof pick pictured below. These are typically used to clean out the horses feet, but I don't think I'll be using this one for that purpose. I just love this time of year. I am not burning up while shoeing, there are no flies and people give me gifts. How much better can you get.

Parent Teacher Conference

Tonight was our Parent Teacher Conferences. I was a little tentative to hear what Jaguar's teacher was going to say. I was pleasantly surprised with what I heard. Jaguar is doing great!! He is really good academically and socially. We asked now does he get in trouble for talking a lot and she said yes. She said he is a very loud talker but he has been toning it down since the beginning of the school year. She showed us a paper of his hand writing and it was very neat. The other night at dinner he was sounding out words and we would ask him how to spell another word and he would spell it for us.:0 It just sneaked up on me that he was starting to read. I was so anxious for Lexi to read at that age.

Then we went to Lexi's conference. I never seem to worry about what they will say about sweet little Lexi. She is doing great. She is doing well academically and socially also. She wanted to show me her locker. She has a picture on Winnie, baby Hudson, and Courtney in her locker. Jaguar could fit into the locker so me and Lexi kept shutting him in there.

Just wait until they have to deal with Winnie.

Halloween

Here are the kids in their outfits. Jag was Batman, Lexi was a pirate, and Winnie was a pumpkin. Winnie didn't know what to expect at first but she soon realized that there was candy behind every door she went up to.

Jackpot!!!
The kids really got a lot of candy. You can see that I already have my hand into the pile eating some of their candy.

New Experience

We always get a kick out of going to Ryans on a Friday or Saturday evening to watch the people. It is like a farmer throwing slop to the pigs. Heaven forbid they bring out new fried chicken because I am right up there with them fighting and snorting my way to the front. :0 )

Today I got to see another great thing. It was a big bin of Halloween candy marked down 50% at Walmart. People were diving into this bin up to their waist just to get the candy they wanted at the bottom. The more people that surrounded the bin made the other people that was watching think they were missing out. I, of course, wanted to dive in and get my nerd candy and Chandra yelled at me in mid dive and said we didn't need anymore candy.:( I definitely fit right in with the Walmart and Ryan clientele.

Pumpkin Carving

All the kids had a good time carving pumpkins. Winnie didn't like to touch the inside at first but then she really got into it. OHHH AHHH she was yelling as she pulled out the seeds. There were seeds from one end of the kitchen to the other, a few even found their way into the bedroom. :)

Lexi

We took Lexi to the dentist today. They removed some of her gum tissue from in front and from behind her front two teeth. They had told us today was just a consultation but when we got there the dentist decided to go ahead and do the procedure. Lexi got a little nervous Chandra said but it went well. She does have one stitch in the front incision. She just can't eat anything real hard or crunchy because it will hurt the area they cut out. They said she had so much gum that if they took off the braces the gum tissue would just spread her teeth back out. Now her mouth is hurting a little bit. She decided she couldn't talk a bunch. I was wondering if we could have all the kids done so that there might be a few days of quiet around here. It might just be worth the $500/kid. :)

Surgery

I had my surgery yesterday. I am now officially gall bladder less. It went pretty well we dropped the kids off at school and went to the hospital. The doctor was running about an hour late, which drove me nuts because I am always early for everything. I remember taking about three breaths of what they told me was oxygen and the next thing I knew I was waking up. The nurse was talking to another nurse about her relationship with a guy that wasn't going very well and me being completely out of it I told her it was probably because they were both being buttholes. She promptly told me she did not think that was the case. :) That is the first thing I remember saying, who knows what I said before that. About that time they decided to move me back to the recovery room, I guess they had enough of my insights into their lives. They let me out and it was just in time to pick the kids up from school. I felt sore last night but all in all pretty well. This morning I felt like I could go out and shoe some horses. So after laying around I decided to go with the family to get Lexi's gums looked at by the dentist and go get something to eat. After we ate we decided to go to Menards and look around. We walked around for about an hour and half and I was starting to hurt. When we got to the van I looked at my bandages and one was leaking pretty good. Well we decided to go home and let me take it easy. Now I am hurting a little worse. I think I just over did it a touch. Like it or NOT I am going to have to lay around and take it easy for a little while. I did receive a pair of Grumpy slippers in the mail from the Stacy, Shane, Paige, Chase, Julia and baby Hudson. The Howensteins sent over soup and brownies. Thank both of you very much!!!!

Update

We had the propane people out today and they regooped the joints on all the piping. They said it had looked like the last guy used tub caulk for goop which is not good. Chandra called the Amerigas and they said they would be out tomorrow afternoon to turn back on the propane.

As for me I am felling better. The inflammation has went down.:) It took until about Sunday afternoon before I started to feel better. I have been able to shoe yesterday and today. It is just wearing me out a little more than usual. I was going about crazy just laying around last week. Who knows what I will be like come this weekend. I have had a couple of other horseshoers help me out and are willing to help me out for the next few weeks. I need to get some of the family to start learning how to shoe so that I can have them help me out. My father and father-in-law are both retired you would think one of them would be able to shoe a horse.

Dead Mouse or Propane Leak???

About a week ago we started to smell something out of the ordinary in our house. We decided it was a dead mouse in the duct work. Nothing is better than telling visitors to your house never mind the smell it is just a dead mouse we haven't been able to locate yet. :0 Of course we try to mask the smell with candles or spray but it ends up smelling like a mouse has died in the forest. After tearing apart some of the duct work trying to locate the smell and me and Chandra running around the house with our noses stuck in every crack saying I think it smells worse over here, we decided we were not going to find the cause of the smell. Thursday, after spending the day in the ER on Wednesday, as I was sitting in my chair half loony from the drugs I thought that smells more like propane today. We shut off the gas and called our propane company. They came out and checked and sure enough we have a leak. No we have leaks. The guy who installed the pipe did not use the right dope to seal the threads of the piping and after a few years they all have began to leak. The propane company completely shut off our gas until we have it fixed. Which means no furnace or water heater. With the wood stove we don't use the furnace much anyways so that's no big deal but I like to have hot water. We have a electric hot water heater that runs the mother-in-law suite, so I decided to hook up a hose from the washing machine and run it to the bathroom so we can have hot water to bathe. Nothing says class like a 25 foot garden hose running through your living room and kitchen to the bathroom.

ER

I spent the entire day in the ER. Yesterday I was fine until about 6 p.m. Then all of a sudden my right side started to hurt. Chandra took Lexi to her soccer game and I watched the two little ones. I was in some pain but not too bad. By the time Chandra got home at 9 p.m I was starting to hurt pretty bad. The pain had spread down into my right testicle. I decided not to go spend the night in the ER and see if I could tough it out. Well this morning the pain had went for almost intolerable to excruciating. So after Chandra dropped the kids off at school we went to Grady's ER. I told her on the way I know a few people that work here I really hope I don't see them and have to explain about how my testicle was hurting. Wouldn't you know the very first person that checks me in is one of my customers. :) What brings you in? :0 Then she informs me that another one of my customers is working today. Great!! At this point I am in so much pain I don't really care if I have to strip down in the waiting room and show everybody. After a bunch of test and a few thorough exams, I have Gall Stones. Now the Gall bladder is inflamed and is inflaming my right testicle who really has nothing to do with this expect being amazingly sore. I can't walk, sit or lay down. They gave me some pretty good pain medicine and some antibiotics to bring this inflammation down. Next Thursday they have decided to take out my gall bladder if I can wait that long. Little Winnie sat there all day and did pretty well. Although she did lick everything from one end of the room to the other. We had planned on going to Fort Rapids next Friday and Saturday because the kids have the day off of school well Daddy has ruined that for everyone.

Update

About 12 weeks ago I started trimming this horse. He is a draft horse and probably weighs close to 2100 pounds. :0 I don't usually trim draft horses. This guy is still real nervous and has to be sedated.
I am amazed at how fast his feet have started to look normal. This is a picture of his feet 12 weeks later after being trimmed 3 times. He had been neglected for several years.

Double Chin Reducer

For 3 easy payments of $49.99 you to can rid yourself of your double chins. Just wear this collar made of the very best elephant intestine proven to tighten and firm the chin area every night as you sleep.

Disclaimer: Collar may smell of elephant feces and or flagellation. Collar may cause baldness. Collar may cause a lengthening of the nose. Collar may leave a brown mark around your head.

First Grumpy Hat

It was December 24th and everyone decided it would be fun to go down to the newly built City Center. As we went to leave the car was stuck in the snow. I went to the barn put on my old barn boots and got a shovel to shovel out the car. Everyone else was inside keeping warm. Well I finally got the car out and we all loaded into the station wagon to go to the big city. It wasn't until we were about to park in the City Center's garage that it dawned on me that I was still wearing my barn boots. These boots had been around for a while and had cleaned out a lot of dirty horse stalls, so to say they had a bit of a aroma is an understatement. No big deal I'll just buy me a pair of shoes in one of the stores as soon as we get in there. City Center was brand new and the stores were a little on the pricey side and I am a lot on the cheap side. The first store we looked at the shoes were all around the $200 mark and that wasn't going to happen. By the way these boots were insulated so that as I walked around the mall that was a 100 degrees my own body heat was making the aroma even more pleasant. So after an entire afternoon of me moaning and groaning about my intoxicating smell and why anyone would even want to shop on Christmas Eve, Chandra came out of the Disney Store with my first Grumpy hat which I proudly wore from that day forward.

Riding in the front seat

When me and my sister were kids we used to fight about who got to ride in the front seat of the car. Anytime we went anywhere there was always some fussing that went on about who got the front. Funny thing is neither one of us usually wanted to sit in front on the way home. There was a good reason for this, mainly after a few hours of shopping with us our mother was aggravated at our behavior. On the way home who ever was in the front seat was in the smacking zone.:)

I remember one day going shopping and it started out with us fighting over the front seat. It wasn't too long into the shopping experience that my sister was pressing her luck. Finally our mom got down in my sisters face telling her that if she didn't straighten up we would be going home. Right then my sister decides that she should inform our mom that she had bad breath. She said this loud enough for everyone to hear. That was it we were done shopping and headed back to the car. As we are making a b-line to the car my sister looks at me and says you can sit up front on the way home.

The Poopie List

Ghost Poopie : The kind where you feel the Poopie come out, but there's no poopie in the toilet.

Clean Poopie : The kind where you poopie it out, see it in the toilet, but there is nothing on the toilet paper.

Wet Poopie : The kind where you wipe your butt fifty times and it still feels unwiped, so you have to put some toilet paper between your butt and your underwear so you don't runie them with a stain.

Second Wave Poopie : The kind that happens when you're done poopie-ing and you've pulled your pants up to your knees, and you realize you have to poopie some more.

Turtle Poopie : The kind of poopie that pops out a little and goes back in a few times before it finallly comes out

Pop-a-Vein-in-your-Forehead-Poopie : The kind where you strain so much to get it out, you practically have a stroke.

Lincoln Log Poopie : The kind of Poopie that is so huge you're afraid to flush without first breaking it into little pieces with the plunger.

Gas-sy Poopie : The kind where it's so noisy, everyone within earshot is giggling!

Corn Poopie : (Self explanatory)

Gee-I-Wish-I-Could-Poop Poopie : The kind where you want to Poopie, but all you do is it on the toilet and fart a few times.

Spinal Tap Poopie : That's the kind when it hurts so badly coming out, you swear it was leaving you sideways.

Wet Cheeks Poopie (The Power Dump) : The kind that comes out of your butt so fast, your butt cheeks get spashed with water.

Liquid Poopie : The kind where yellowish-brown liquid shoots you of your butt and spashes all over the toilet bowl.

Mexican Poopie : The kind that smells so bad your nose burns.

Upper Class Poopie : The kind of Poopie that doesn't smell.

The Suprise Poopie : You are not even at the toilet, because you are sure you are about to fart, but, OOPS---a Poopie!

The Dangling Poopie : This Poopie refuses to drop into the toilet even though you know you are done poopie-ing. You just pray that a shake or two will cut it loose.

I got this off of bathroomjokes.com

Shocker Collar

Jag has been staying in the yard a lot better since we installed the invisible fence and placed this shocker collar on him.

Grumpy

Grumpy!!!

Over the years I have started to collect Grumpy hats,t-shirts, and sweat shirts. Some how, about a year ago, I acquired this magnetic Grumpy on my truck. A Grumpy hat many years ago started all of this. Does anyone remember the story behind the first Grumpy hat?

Declaring myself as a Democrat

Any one who knows me knows that I make Rush Limbaugh look like a liberal, and am proud of it. :) I will tell you right now I am not real fond of any of the politicians in office or trying to get there.

The other night I was talking to a wise individual who pointed out that they were considering declaring their self as a Democrat so they could vote in the preliminaries. What a great idea!! I could have a say in the opposing sides nominee. :)

Bovine Lactation Consultant

A few years ago while at Disney during Christmas, we decided to go to a Christmas Dinner. My mom and dad, Chandra and myself attended the dinner. Imagine how thrilled I was to find out we were sitting at tables that sat 10 people. So that meant we had to hold a conversation and be cordial with 6 total strangers, neither of which I am good at doing. We did the polite thing and introduced ourselves, which is where I was hoping it was going to end but like usual someone asked another what they did for a living and now we all had to share. Nobody ever seems to know what a farrier is and if you say horseshoer someone always asks horrified "you shoot horses?" No!! I SHOE horses. For some reason this just drives me nuts anymore. Mainly because I know how the entire conversation is going to go but I can't seem to stop it. After an evening of strangers sharing their complete life story with me and acting like I know their aunt Ruth, who you know has gout real bad, I started thinking of funny occupations I could tell people I did if I was ever in a situation like this again. The one I think I liked best was Bovine Lactation Consultant. This job is about the lactation needs of cows. Proper grip of the utter, proper stroke technique, and basically anything we can do to make the cow happier with it's lactation experience. I know it is odd but it is the only way I can make it through situations like this.

Jag is in Kindergarten

Jaguar started kindergarten this year!! One day not long after the start of school the principal seen Chandra in the hall and informed her that Jag was a lot different than his sister. Chandra's response was we warned you. :) He has been doing really well. He has been in trouble a few times. He has had to stand against the wall during recess for throwing rocks. He has had to run extra laps in gym twice. Once for not being able to hold still and another time because he kept slipping and falling because the gym floor was so slick. The other day he could not quit laughing during nap time and he had to sit at his desk.

Jag has definitely changed my life. If Lexi would have done this a few years ago when she started kindergarten I would have been devastated. I would have thought me and Chandra were the worst parents ever. I would have considered going to counseling or parenting classes. Now it just makes me smile. Jaguar definitely has his own personality but I wouldn't have him any other way.

I wish I had known that side of him

My Uncle Ray passed away last week. I was a little sad to hear from some of the family that attended the funeral that they had seen a different side of Ray through other peoples eyes and they had wished that they had known that side of him. I did not know him at all. I had only seen him 2-3 times in the last 20 years. So I can't really say I knew any side of him. Well that is not entirely true I knew a side of him through my families eyes, which obviously wasn't the entire story of Ray's life.

Does anyone really know the real me? Probably the closest one to get the entire me is Chandra. (Poor Chandra) I do believe to some extent I am different with different people. I am a son, husband , father, brother, uncle, friend, and employee. I realize that I am self-employed but that just means I have hundreds of bosses. I think with each of these titles I bring a little something different to the relationship. I don't even believe that I am the same father to my daughters as I am to my son. I let some of my customers treat me in ways that I wouldn't dare let my family treat me and I treat my family in ways that I wouldn't dare treat a customer like. Now that seems backwards to me. Some people tend to bring the best parts of me out while others tend to bring the worst of me out. I hate the person that I am, with the people that bring out the worst of me and I try to avoid them.

Does my family know who I am now or do they just remember the little boy that wouldn't pick up his coat. :) Does my sister remember the way I was growing up or does she know who I am now? Do earlier memories taint the way you think of a person forever? I don't know that you can ever really get to know the entire person and you have to appreciate the parts they share with you.

So you had better enjoy the side of me that I share with you through this blog. It is as good as it gets.

Temptation

As I was driving down the road the other day I was thinking about a conversation me and a friend was having about temptation. I was thinking it would be a lot easier to stay on the right path if we were never tempted by anything. Then I thought well even Jesus was tempted by the devil himself. Then my next thought was I guess we all have to be tempted that is just part of the process. God spoke to me and said that you don't have to be tempted, at least not to the extent that you are now. What? He said Jesus showed you how to pray "lead me not into temptation". The he asked when was the last time you prayed for that? UHHHHH was my response. He followed by saying you are responsible for what your eyes see and your ears hear.

I can not believe the trash I let my eyes see. It is everywhere on the TV, movies, Internet, in the mall, and basically anywhere you go. Same with hearing trash. It is on TV, movies, Internet, in the mall, CHURCHS, and basically anywhere you go. The bad thing is once the trash has went into your brain it is there forever and the devil can use it against you.

Now I still believe God allows some temptations to come our way, just to test us, however I will be praying for Him not to lead me into temptation.

Are you thinking or reacting?

As I work with horses all day long I notice they seem to either be using the thinking side of their brain or the reactive side of their brain.

The ones using their thinking side are easy to get along with. They listen well and they try to please you. They may try to test their boundaries but they handle correction well.

The ones using their reactive side could care less about anything except themselves. Correction either has no effect or it completely blows their minds. You can work with a horse like this and get them to use their thinking side.

What amazes me is the amount of people I met through out the day who are using the reactive side of their brain and not thinking at all. Before someone points it out I know I have been guilty of this myself.

Boating

Papaw & Jag

Chandra & Lexi

Winnie

We always take time to go boating while down at WDW. I got to ride with Winnie this year. We are trying to teach the kids how to drive the boat behind the big boats so you can jump their waves. It is one of the best views of the hotels and the Magic Kingdom.

Coincidence or God Providing? You be the Judge

I have been telling Chandra for a little over a year that I wanted to get the kids a trampoline. I have even looked at and priced them online and in stores. As I was finishing up shoeing for one of my customers last Tuesday they asked me do you know anyone that would like a trampoline. I said I knew 3 little red heads that would love one plus their dad always wanted one. He gave me this trampoline it is basically brand new and it is heavy duty. We finished setting it up and went out to dinner and on our way home the neighbors had a basketball stand out in their yard with a free sign. So we brought that home.

A few years ago I had talked about getting a pool for the kids. Believe it or not I had a customer give me a pool. I didn't ask for it and they had no idea that I had wanted to get one. They gave me the deck as well. Someone else gave me a winter cover for the pool that fit our pool and some fancy steps that go into the pool.

When we went on vacation this year we had decided to fly I told Chandra the only thing I didn't like about flying was not having a car. That week one of my customers that is a travel agent gave me a stack of coupons for free car rental days.

This is just the most amazing ones. This happens on a regular basis. I know as a father that I would give my kids anything they wanted as long as I didn't think it would do them harm. I truely believe our Heavenly Father is the same. Not only is He providing for our needs He is giving us our wants and desires. I know I shouldn't be amazed but I am in AWE.

I sure would like a full head of hair! :)

Yo Yo

This is a flash from the past. I can remember the day this picture was taken. I am 12 years old and my horse Yo Yo is 7 years old. Yo Yo was a little excited about standing down next to this weeping willow tree, so he was pawing the ground with his foot and they took the picture when his foot was in mid-paw. My mom was aggravated about my hair being too long and it was sticking out of my hat funny. All the 4-H leaders hated this picture and didn't want it to be hung up at fair, but I insisted that I loved the picture and still do to this day.

Dr. Spock

I heard on the radio today that before Dr. Spock died he admitted he was responsible for a generation of brats. I tried to find the quote on line but only found a few statements about it made by regular people. Even though I agree he was responsible for a generation of brats I would hate to think he had to live with the knowledge of being the cause. It is hard enough to raise your own kids, imagine feeling responsible for a generation of brats. It surprises me because Vulcans are usually smarter than this. :)

Christmas

Jag has been sitting looking at a magazine for the last two days circling die cast bull dozers, log movers, and anything else that basically moves dirt. It is only over a $1000.00 worth of toys. :0 He has decided that it is getting cold so Christmas should be soon. We told him that he couldn't circle them all, he said it doesn't matter we didn't have to buy them Santa would bring them. He must have a little of Aunt Krissy in him because I bet she had already bought some Christmas presents and started her list.

Gas Attack!!

Crop Dusting: To pass gas as you are walking so that it dissipates before you get where you are going. :)

I am really good at crop dusting. However I sometimes misjudge the amount of distance I need for complete dissipation. Lexi, my dad, and I were walking into the Test Track ride and I was crop dusting the entire way. As we get to our place in line I soon realize, along with everyone else, the gas has surrounded us. Right about then they come on the speakers and say that Test Track has had to shut down due to technical difficulties, but my dad swears it was due to a gas attack. My one uncle has always bragged about passing gas so bad that it made a co-worker's nose bleed, however I think I have him beat by shutting down an entire ride.

Ice Cream Break

There is nothing better than stopping for a Mickey Mouse Ice Cream bar in the middle of a hot day at Epcot.

Favorites

I asked the kids what their favorite part of the trip was and they both said the Hoop Dee Doo. The Hoop Dee Doo is a dinner show, where the serve fried chicken, BBQ ribs, baked beans, and corn bread, while putting on a funny show. It surprised me that they either of them said this was their favorite part. During the show Jag was laughing really hard and said he couldn't take anymore. The picture above is Jag cutting the cornbread so all of us could have a piece.

Here is Lexi swinging her napkin and enjoying the singing.

Little Winnie had no trouble keeping up with us eating chicken.

Chandra said her favorite part was getting to see the inside of Space Mountain all lit up while riding the People Mover. It had broken down and they had turned on the lights to fix just as we were going through on the People Mover ride. My favorite part was one evening Chandra took Jag and Winnie back to the room to get them to bed and me and Lexi stayed out at the Magic Kingdom and rode rides. It was nice to spend time with my little Lexi especially now that she likes to ride the big rides.

Although riding the Tea Cups is always one of my favorite things. This year Winnie and Chandra rode in one and me, Lexi, and Jag rode in another. They love to spin as fast as we can, so do I. :)

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

The hardest part of the trip for Winnie was waiting her turn. Here she is giving the riders on Dumbo her sad face for taking off without her. She loved every ride she rode. She would throw a fit when we asked her to get off. Her favorite ride was probably It's A Small World. She definitely got animated during the ride. She was waving, dancing, and clapping. The Mexico ride has a part that is a lot like Small World, so she really loved that ride too. She really enjoyed the Winnie The Pooh ride. She loved bouncing with Tigger.

Mixed Marriages

Chandra, the kids, and I were in an elevator when an elderly gentleman got in with us. He looked at me and Chandra and said I know I shouldn't say this but mixed marriages don't bother me. Just look at what beautiful kids you have. :0 Chandra looked at me and we both just smiled and said thanks. I thought I had misunderstood what he said but Chandra had heard the same thing. We are the two whitest white folks you ever saw. I don't know what he was thinking. My dad said he probably meant educated and moron. We all know who the moron is from a previous post.

We're Home

We arrived home today around 1 p.m. It was a good trip but it could have lasted a little longer. Winnie really did well on both of our flights. Winnie and I got colds while we were there, I thought I was going to explode on the flight home from the sinus pressure. I don't remember my head ever feeling that way before. Lexi felt sick yesterday at Sea World but we think she was just over heated. There was one point where Lexi was riding in Jag's stroller, of course Jag couldn't walk because he was so tired, so I had Jag on my shoulders while pushing Winnie in her stroller. Needless to say I was happy when we finally got back to the car. :) There are a few good stories I'll share over the next few days.

Rockin Roller Coaster

We got up early this morning and ate at Chef Mickeys for breakfast. Winnie was a little unsure about the characters this morning. We went to MGM and Lexi got to ride Rockin Roller Coaster. Jag rode Tower of Terror with us and decided he isn't going to ride it again. He hates the up and down part. Then we went to Epcot to eat lunch at the Coral Reef. It is really neat to sit there and watch the fish go by. There was a scuba diver in the tank and he had a happy birthday sign for someone in the restaurant. We then rode soarin and just loved it. They spray evergreen and orange smell as you fly over the pine trees and orange groves. Lexi said it was a lot better than the smell I was putting out. :)

We are here!!!!

We spent the night at a hotel near the airport. When we got to our room it was a suite. Sweet!! The kids got their own room with a Jacuzzi tub. We got up at 6:00 a.m. this morning to get on our flight. Jag was a little scared on the plane, but all the kids did well. When we got to the car rental place they said they could upgrade us to a minivan for $20 extra. :) One of my customers gave me a bunch of free car rental days so we didn't end up spending much on the rental at all. We got to the Contemporary and our room was ready. We look right out on the Castle. We should have a great view of the fireworks. There is a computer in our room so I can keep up on the blog at least for another day. However I have no way of uploading pictures. We just got back to the room and we are all tired. We had a really good day at the Magic Kingdom. There wasn't hardly any lines. We ate at the Crystal Palace. Winnie just loved the characters.

2007

We didn't plan it this way but we fly out for Walt Disney World on our 20 year anniversary. The kids are excited. We are going to stay the night at a hotel near the airport because our flight leaves early. I am going to try to gain all the weight I lost this summer back in one week of gluttony at WDW. Wish me luck. :) Everyone keeps telling me it's going to be hot down there, well it's been hot up here. We are meeting my parents down there. They took off a few days ago and are driving. It was nice because we sent most of our luggage with them. I'll be sure to post pictures of our trip when I get back.

2006

This year our family was complete with the addition of baby Winnie. We named her Winter Darling Wilson so that she would have the initials that were the same as Walt Disney World. We thought at first we had another sweet, quite, little baby like Lexi but we are starting to think she is going to be our orneriest.

2005

Sammy Retires!!!

My dad finally retired from Anheuser this year. Well he isn't retired because he still works there a few days a week. We went down to Disney to celebrate and my sister and her family surprised him by showing up. We got off the ride It's a Small World and there they were her and her husband and all her kids.

2004

The biggest thing to happen this year was we added an entire 2nd floor to the house. We as in the Amish did it for us. There 3 - 4 guys that came every day during the week. They would arrive between 5:30 and 6:00 am. The moment they got here they started banging and hammering. This year was one of the wettest ever. There was like 80 some days it didn't rain but we got our 2nd story on without any rain at all. The 2nd floor is for the kids it has 3 bedrooms, 1/2 bath and a play area.

2003

Lexi goes to Kindergarten.

It seems like yesterday, that little Lexi got all dressed up in her uniform and got on the bus to go to her first day of school. We followed the bus to make sure she got there alright.
This year when we went to Disney, Chandra's family came along. We rented a 2 bedroom suite that looked right out onto a golf course. We kept a leash on Jag the entire trip. :) He found this Tigger and just loved it. I also became an uncle for the 3rd time. My sister had another little girl. She can hold her own with her brother and sister.

2002

Our sweet little momma's boy was born this year. Lexi was a sweet older sister. She helped out as much as she could. The stuffed horse he is laying on was mine as a kid. I used it as a pillow for many years.

My sister and her husband decided to move out to Indiana, due to his work. We decided to try to sell the barn and buy the house they had just added the addition on for my grandmother. We put the barn on the market and within 1 month we had it sold and was moved out. It was hard to sell the barn because of all the work we had put into it, but the new house was next to my parents and my aunt and uncle's place. It was also off the road more and we didn't have to worry about the kids playing.

2001

This was a busy year. My sister and her husband had decided to buy my grandmother's house. The Weaver family put this addition on the house. It is a nice mother-in-law suite where my grandmother can live. They had their 2nd child a boy that is not as rambunctious as the first but still keeps them hopping.

We flew down the Florida again at the beginning of September. We were at Disney World when 911 happened. They closed down the parks and sent everyone back to their rooms. We ended up having to rent a car and drive back home because the planes still were not flying by the time we had to leave.

2000

Griswold Family Christmas Tree

This was the year my father-in-law, Dave, nearly died getting his family Christmas Tree. It is a unique experience getting a Christmas tree with my in-laws. First you have to find a Christmas tree lot that is selling trees that are at least 12 foot tall. You would be surprised there is not much call for trees that big. Once we find a lot that sells them, we all head off in different directions to find the perfect tree. As we are wandering around you will hear phrases from the "Christmas Vacation" movie being uttered. "It's not going in our yard Russ" is often heard. Occasionally some stops to help Granny up from where she has fallen once again. Don't think you can pick a 10 foot tree or you will her Kris say "That is on the piddlin' side of puny" or "that's a shrub pretending to be a tree"

On this day we picked the biggest tree you could find, at least 20 foot tall. We had parked on top of a hill a mile away. After Dave cut down the beast we tried to drag it up the hill through the deep snow. Granny tried to help pull and she fell getting in the way. Dave, Kris and I started the long journey up the hill about 1/2 way up Dave fell to the ground. The tree had won. After a rest period we did finally get the tree up to the truck. You could not see the truck at all as we were following them home. That was the easy part they still had to get it in the house.

The next year Dave asked the guy if he could drive the truck back to where the tree was and he said "Yes".

1999

Let the spoiling begin.

This was Lexi's first trip to Walt Disney World. (Besides when Chandra was pregnant with her.) This was the first time we had ever flew to Florida. It was great!! In a little more than 2 hours we were in Florida. We were really excited about her getting to ride It's a Small World. We just knew she would love it. The first time we rode it she did not do anything she just sat there. We were kind of bummed that we didn't get a better response. Don't she know how much it cost? I at least wanted to see a smile.:) I think it was just over stimulating at first. The more we rode it the more she loved it. The was also the first time we had went down the week after Labor Day. It was great, this is one of their slower weeks. Nobody was there. We could ride anything with out waiting.

This was one of her favorite things to do at this age. There are little water areas at all the parks to let the kids cool off in. We would leave her with my mom to play in the water while me, Chandra, and my dad would ride the scarier rides.