1998

This way the year our sweet little Lexi was born. Notice how thin I was. I still have the Grumpy hat on. We had just moved into the barn a little more than a week before she was born. The construction wasn't done but we wanted to be in our own place when she was born. She has never lived in a place that was not under construction.

It was a hot day, I had been out shoeing until late and Chandra had worked all day. We eat dinner late together and she said she was feeling a little weird. We both went to bed and some time in the middle of the night she woke me up to tell me that her water had broke. We jumped in the car and took our dog Secret to drop her off at my parents house. We went to the hospital and she was born in the afternoon. I had never seen such a beautiful baby as my Lexi.

1997

This year we took on the massive project of renovating a barn into a house. Everything that needed done was on a massive scale. The best memory during construction was BePa slipping on the roof with his fingers grasping the barn siding as he held on to the drill that was going full speed because of his kong fu grip. All though me and Kris trying to lift the corner of the corn crib by ourselves is a close second. I was convinced if we just got a big enough lever we could do it. I crushed my finger with a hammer and Chandra crushed her thumb with a hammer. When we bought the barn the entire barn was filled 2-3 foot deep of animal poop. It took us all day with a bob cat to clean it out.

This year our parents turned 50.

1996

This year I became an uncle for the first time. Now I am an uncle to 4. =:-0 After my sister had her first little girl we all went down to JC Penney to get our pictures taken. It took 6 of us to keep up with one very rambunctious little girl.

The hat I am wearing is the original Grumpy hat that began my collection. I believe I had just finished my apprenticeship as a farrier at this time. We were living with my Grandma because we had sold our house and had not found another yet.

1995

I finally suckered Chandra into marring me!!!!

It only took us 8 years but we finally took the plunge. It was a beautiful day. We had got up early and blew up hundreds of ballons for our reception. There were streamers every where. My uncle Mark performed the ceremony.

For our honeymoon we stayed the first night in Columbus at the Hyatt. Then we headed down to Florida. We stayed a few nights at Clear Water. We got to see the sun set every night and there were dolphins jumping in the ocean every day. There was a waffle house in the lobby of the hotel and me and Chandra got hooked on the waffle house. It is still one of our favorite places to eat. We had a really good dinner at a place called Adam's rib. We had borrowed my mom and dad's convertible to drive down there. After Clear Water we went to Disney World for ten days :), thanks to my parents. However, they did join us along with my sister and her boyfriend. =:0

Oh No!!!!!!

We were getting ready for Church this morning when I looked out to see that the pool was only 1/2 full of water. I yelled Oh No and ran out to see what was going on. Chandra, Lexi and Jag came running too. We just stood there and watched the last 1/2 drain out in about a minute. We are not sure what happened. Jag is convinced that he will never swim again. The pool is now closed until next year. :(

1994

This was the year Chandra graduated from OSU. She was Magna Cum Laude. This was a hard year, Chandra went away for 3 months to study over in Italy and left me alone to fend for myself. I nearly went nuts. We bought a motorcycle to ride back and forth to feed the horses. We had also bought our first car on our own. We decided to buy a black Jeep Wrangler.

1993

This was the year we bought our first house. It was a ranch house that had 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. It did have a pool which we enjoyed. We had a crazy neighbor that moved in next to us. She first painted her house to match ours, then one night we saw her cutting her grass with a pair of scissors. Chandra stole a exercise bike out of one of our neighbors trash. She never used it. Our favorite thing to do was to bring our mattress out in the living room and lay in it watching TV and eating pizza.