Congratulations Crystal!

Well, even though Crystal didn't quite make a post per day, she did a pretty darn good job! And, for that I congratulate her! Of course, the challenge for May will be a post per day, and there is 1 more day in May than April. April only has 30 days, and the 30th one is the best!!!

Crystal has been busy lately, getting up at 5:30am some mornings to get things done, so right now she's off for the next 7 or 8 hours at a scrapbooking event! She deserves it and I hope she's having fun.

Me, I have Guys, Flies & Pies (Visit www.GuysFliesAndPies.com) in 29 minutes. Should be fun! I have kid duty and I'll be trying to teach some flies to some new guys, and order pizza.....that's Crystals job. I hope I can handle ordering pizza! Wish me luck!

MIKE
PS - sorry, no picture for now!

Happy Birthday Brooke!

Today my little princess is 4 years old! She's so smart and beautiful. She makes us laugh, and sometimes almost cry! Brooke is taking dance lessons and loving it. She loves to play outside and with Barbies, and her babies. She is a great big sister, and a typical little sister. We all love her and are so glad that she's part of our family. We love you Brooke, Happy Birthday!

Mike and I decorated for her last night so when she woke up it would be beautiful down here for her. She was very excited to see the streamers and balloons. I also wrapped up an outfit for her to open to wear on her birthday. I took a picture of her sleeping last night, her last night as a 3 year old girl! Here are a few pictures of her seeing her decorations and opening her gift. And every princess needs a blinking crown to wear on her big day!

April 20th 2008

Happy Sunday!

Today we went to church, then Crystal went to a baby shower. She had a great time and won a do-rag. Well, it's not technically a do-rag, but a lightweight towel thingy that you wrap your wet hair up with. Being the man that I am, I had to wonder why a towel wasn't good enough, and why someone would have to invent a towel like this. Well, for all you guy(s) (are there any guys that read this blog?) out there wondering, apparently a normal towel is really heavy and hard to have on your head. I guess it's something about being off balance while trying to scrub the floor.

I'd like to take a moment out to thank a few people. First, I'd like to thank myself and Crystal. Crystal because she started this blog, and myself because I put the words Guys, Flies & Pies on it when I mentioned my new website called www.GuysFliesAndPies.com. You might recall that I did that so mighty Google would see it posted here, and then decide my site was worth putting in the results page for a search for Guys, Flies & Pies. Well, blogophiles, it worked. Have a look at the search results! It's the 5th result down, but I swear the other day it was at the very top!

What's in store today folks? I'm glad you asked. We have a 73 degree Fahrenheit prediction and I think it's going to happen. Of course, my Wrangler jeans covered legs hope I'm wrong, otherwise they will be off to sweat land when I leave work at 3pm. Then, it's home so Brooke Star can go to dance class.

I guess that's pretty much my day! So, here's what I'll do. How about a contest? Everyone loves contests. The person who gives me the best home cooked dinner idea for tonight can join me and the family for dinner, and get the rarely used spot next to ME at the table. Please submit your entries by 3pm EST or else I get your dessert!

G'day mate!

DOH - almost forgot a picture for your viewing pleasure....let's see what I got today.....

"How much for that Brooke in the window?"

The last couple days...

As you can see, Mike hijacked the blog for the last couple days. I am grateful to him for trying to keep up with my post a day, but he's a little crazy with the stuff he posts about. But, we love him anyway!

We've had a really fun week. The kids are all of from school, so we've been able to really enjoy the beautiful summer like weather. We've spent most of our time outside, and it's been great! Tyler begs to go out as soon as he gets up in the morning, and cries every time we come in! On Wednesday we went to the zoo, and the kids had a great time. I always like to go too! We met some friends there and walked to see everything. Tyler loved the Elephants, he was barking at them (barking is the only animal sound he knows, so he barks at everything, even squirrels). Brooke liked to see all the things. Seth liked seeing the lemurs. If I remember right, McKee liked seeing the elephants.
Thursday we spent the day running around. Tyler had his 15month check up and got one shot. He's 22.8lbs and 31 inches tall. His weight gain has slowed way down, but that boy does not stop moving from the moment he wakes up, so we're not concerned. McKee also had to go for a follow up on his medicine and a weight check. The last medicine we had him on was causing him to lose weight, so they are keeping track closely. He's up to 56lbs again. We're trying to beef him up, but he's so skinny. I also had my 2nd apt at the Chiropractor. It was quick this time, only 20 minutes or so. I'm feeling much better. He thought I would only need one more visit. I hope so. Our insurance doesn't cover my visits, so my first one was $110 and the second was $55. I know it's helping, so it's worth it, but it's really expensive.

Friday we relaxed and McKee was gone at Damon's house so we hung out with the rest of the kids. We took them out for ice cream and then to the park. Can you believe I didn't get a single picture of the ice cream? I'm such a slacker. Tyler had just a cone because he's allergic to ice cream. But he seemed to enjoy it. We drove down the street and let the kids play at Grandview park. It's one of my favorites, and the kids love it too. It's a little big for Tyler, but he did pretty well. Then we headed home and grilled and played outside. I was pretty tired, I had been up early hanging laundry on the line, and cleaning the kitchen and playing with the kids. I also cleaned up the strawberry patch and pulled some of the skeleton plants out of the garden to get ready for planting in a couple weeks. I ended up falling asleep while Mike was working on some GFP stuff.
Tonight, Saturday, Mike and I are going out dancing to celebrate mine and his b-days. We're heading to Famous Dave's for dinner and then meeting some friends at the Pelican's Nest to see our favorite local band Uncle Plum. I'm so excited! I love going dancing, it's a great form of exercise. The kids love having a baby sitter too. They keep talking about Adam and what they get to do with him. A couple of posts ago I mentioned the necklace and earrings my mom gave me. I decided to wear them out tonight so here is the debut of my new jewels. Thanks Mom.

April 18th 2008

(How many times do you have to do something before it's a habit?)

Oh, come one, calm down.....I know you are all excited that MIKE is writing another delicious post, but keep the noise down, Crystal is asleep on the couch!

Last week we went to the North Greece Firemen's Pavilion to check it out to see about using it for Guys, Flies & Pies this coming November. I took a few pictures of the place so I could reference them later at home when trying to decide if I'd rent that place. Well, Seth decided he need to be in the photos. I think you'll enjoy what I got!

April 17th 2008

(Is anyone else starting to think that ever since Crystal turned 29 she's loosing her mind? Since her birthday earlier this week, she's forgotten to blog twice! I might need to take her to a nursing home soon. I'll miss her around the house, but "visiting hours are 9 to 5 and if I show up at 10 past six well I know (she'll) find someway to sneak me in.")

Yo, it's MIKE again, picking up some slack (but not the slack 5 weight fishing line I'd more like to be picking up). So here we are, chilling on April 17th 2008. Let's recap the day for all you blogophiles.

3am - wake up, shower, go to work
4am - chill at work with Kham, one of the new guys
6am - BAGEL TIME BABY! yum
12pm - leave work
12:30pm - make a call to get a charge reversed FOR THE 3RD TIME
1:45pm - walk 3 houses down and back with the kids and Crystal, turn home so Brooke can use the little girls room
2pm - make a follow up call about the charge, left voice mail
3pm - i'm sure i did something
4pm - help neighbor put a new sink into his kitchen (i was the muscles....hey, stop laughing you inconsiderate fools, i got some muscles)
5:45pm - help Z move. as far as moves go, it was pretty easy.
7:30pm - get back home, chill, put the kids to bed.
8:32pm - ________________
9pm - Watched The Office......"that's what she said!"
10pm - went to bed.
10:47:32pm - Wrote this post (remember, don't tell Crystal I really did it on 4/18)

So, there you have it, all that information about my day, and all it cost you was about 2 minutes of your life. 2 minutes, that you will never get back, ever. seriously, you'll never get those minutes back, so stop looking, because, unlike when you loose weight, you'll never find the minutes again. with loosing weight, it's usually found just around the corner....at Taco Bell, Burger King, or Wendys.

Who wants a picture? Ok, let me find one........

"I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell!"

A Couple Pictures from a Beautiful Spring Day

Here are some pics of the kids from yesterday. It was beautiful and we spent most of the day outside and at the park. Tyler is getting to be pretty brave, he likes to climb up the ladders to go down the slides. I also noticed that my trees and lilac bushes are really budding up! I love spring!

This is my lilac bush...and the second one is my peach tree.

April 15th 2008

(It's 5:25am on April 16th, Crystal should be sleeping. If she wakes up and asks anyone, tell her I posted this yesterday just so she doesn't realize she missed a day in her month of blogging. Sorry about the italics, but crystal can't read italics, so this note is safe right up front.)

Yeah, that's right all you punks in Punkville, it's MIKE and I'm back with another life affirming blogalicious post! Sorry to keep you all waiting in anticipation of what joyous truth nuggets I might share with you. Let's see how I do. So, grab your pen and paper, you're going to want to take notes!

Today (remember, if Crystal asks, I wrote this on April 15th) was quite a day. I got up early, went to work for 12 hours and the kids and Crystal stayed home, watched soap operas and ate Bon Bons (are those available still, or did the price of oil in China kill them?)

The kids got to play outside, inside, right side up, left side down, and even got to go to the park, hows that for ya!

Wow, no real bits of wisdom yet, it must be early (no....i mean late......***yawn***....I should get going to bed soon)

Don't spit into the wind!

If there is one thing I've learned in life, it's that you can learn things in life. So, stop reading my post and go learn something.....from Regis!

OK, now for a shameless plug. As all of you know, or should if you are cool, I am putting together the biggest fly tying event I've ever heard of for the Rochester area. For a year now I've had a group of guys join me to tie every month. Well, this November I'm going to put together a huge event. Huge, in comparison to the 5 or 6 (or 11 like last November) guys that we get monthly. I'm going to be renting a place and trying to get interest from guys I've never met. I hope to have at least 40 guys come through the door. Well, in awesome, smile till you cry, news, I have 2 guys providing 2 fly rods for a raffle! yeah, go ahead, take off your glasses all you Barbara Walters 20/20 vision wannabes, and clean them off. Read it again.....I have 2 guys providing 2 fly rods for a raffle! Yep, not 1, but 2 fly rods, at almost no cost to me! That is freaking awesome! So, any of you that want to join us, please do. And, now, so Google hopefully will find me and put me at the top of their search engine results for Guys, Flies & Pies, here's a cool, free today only, link to my site www.GuysFliesAndPies.com. Oh, and although I don't have a 1993 construction stick figure man digging away, the site is still "Under Construction" so be patient while I finish it and finally get it "Over Construction."

Yeah, so let's recap so you can check your notes.

• MIKE woke up early
• Kids and Crystal chilled
• Kids played at park
• GFP is going to be huge
  

Got it? There will be a test, more like a pop quiz, so study up on your favorite Coke and Pepsi products and be ready, you never know when I'll strike again!

Oh, and Crystal always puts in pictures, so here's one for your viewing pleasure!



(All portions of this message are copyrighted. Use for personal or business gain is punishable by law....my law, so you better be careful)

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today I turned 29! It's funny because it just seems weird to think that I'm almost done with my 20's, but I really don't feel any different. Everyone keeps teasing me about getting old, and I have no problem with playing along, but I still feel pretty young. I've gotten really good at pretending to be an adult, I think I can keep it up for a while longer before anyone catches me! As you can see in most of the pictures, my skin is rebelling the age and decided I was due to have some fun zits. Just a couple days ago I was thinking, wow, my skin has been doing really well lately! I jinxed myself I think!

My morning started off with a couple good stretches. I've been doing stretches every morning since I had to go the chiropractor, and the kids like to join me. (McKee did a great job taking some pics for me today.) Tyler thinks I'm laying on the floor so he can jump on me! I spent most of the day hanging out with the kids, and talking to Rachel on the phone. I really didn't too much that was productive, and I didn't mind that too much! The kids spent a lot of their time downstairs playing and then outside in the back yard. Brooke and I played Barbie's for a while, that was fun.

When Mike got home from work, I was pleasantly surprised with some birthday gifts. Rulon and Rebecca were very thoughtful and left a gift for me before they left for their trip. It was a $25 gift card for Joann's and a couple 50% off coupons good for this week...now I just have to figure out what I want to buy! Rebecca also left a strawberry cake mix and strawberry frosting so Mike could bake me a b-day cake! Thanks guys, I really appreciate your thoughtfulness. On a side note, Mike managed to prepare and bake the cake for 29 minutes last night as I sat at the computer posting yesterday's entry and I didn't notice until 1 minute before the timer went off! He's sneaky, and I apparently was oblivious and really tired to not have noticed. It sounded like he was cleaning up the kitchen. I really had no idea what he was doing! Mike and the kids got me a really pretty pair of earrings, thanks again to McKee for taking these pictures, and a deck of cards that are clear plastic. I love collecting fun cards, I have a couple of colored decks I've acquired the last couple Christmases. For a long time I've really been wanting a pac man game and Mike and the kids got one for me! I'm so excited! Mike and I hooked it up quick tonight and played for a couple minutes. We're really going to have some fun with that! Mike didn't really get a chance to wrap the presents since I'm always around, and he was at work today, so he had the kids hand deliver them to me! Brooke had the batteries behind her back after she figured out what she was supposed to be doing! She brought me the earrings first and put them behind my back for me to find! It was really cute! In one of the pics, after I opened up my Joann's card, Tyler is cheesing around Brooke, it's really cute, I have to put it up here.

After some gifts, we loaded up the kids and took my newly acquired bogo coupon to the Old Country Buffet for dinner! I love the ranch dressing there, it reminds me of my high school salad bar that I actually really liked! The have fun hats for the kids, kind of like the burger king crowns.

It's nice because the kids can pick what they want, and they actually eat without complaining! They even had a couple things that Tyler could eat without worrying too much about his allergies! I was able to get steak and roast beef, mashed potatoes, and of course a salad smothered in ranch (I guess it was ranch with a little bit of lettuce and some tomatoes, but who's keeping track? It's my birthday, I'll pig out if I want to!) We got out of there for only $16, that's not bad for a family of 6, especially considering the type of food we ate. Mike was able to have some fish and steak also. It was really fun. I was smart and wore my stretchy pants this time! I can't seem to get the boys to really cooperate for a good picture that often, this was no exception. I barely got Mike to smile for a picture. He was a little more cooperative when Brooke was behind the camera!

And then there's Tyler who cheese's up every time he sees the camera!

When we finished stuffing ourselves, we left and took a nice drive down by the lake and just enjoyed the beautiful sunshine. Then we headed home for some birthday cake. Mike almost sang a solo Happy Birthday to me song, the kids joined in at the end. I think they're used to me singing along, but I didn't really want to sing to myself! Mike carried the cake in with the candles lit, and McKee again was our photographer. I made a wish, I can't tell you or it won't come true, and then I blew out the candles! I actually pretended to blow out the candles a second time so we could get a shot of me "blowing out the candles." The cake was delicious!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot...my visiting teachers came over just before we did gifts and left for dinner to wish me a Happy Birthday. Kirsten Bybee and Jolynn Frasier. The bought me a beautiful lily plant that I can transplant outside into my garden, and a handmade card. The called Mike earlier in the day to set it up with him so we'd be home but it was a surprise to me. They were so thoughtful! Here's my beautiful flower with my beautiful daughter who just had to get in the picture!

It was a wonderful day. Thanks to everyone who was so sweet to send me an email, or call and wish me a happy b-day, I really appreciate being thought of, more than you know! Watch out for next year, I'm going to have a slumber party for my 30th birthday! It will be loads of fun!

A Sunday Afternoon with Nana and her Fuzzband!

We were invited to spend the afternoon at my mom and husbands house for some bbq and some family. We headed over there at about 2:30pm after Tyler woke up from his nap. The kids were so excited to go and see Nana, but that apparently wore off after a couple minutes of driving because Tyler and Brooke both fell asleep!

The kids were sadly surprised when we arrived and they realized that it wasn't the same house they remembered from the last time we visited. She moved just before she was married, and this was our first trip over to her new house. It's really cute! She's not that far away from Greece in Irondequiot, I think it only took us about 15 minutes or so to get there.

We could smell the bonfire when we pulled up. That smell always reminds me of my mom. She loves to be outside and cook on the fire. The kids were a little concerned at first because they smelled fire, but we explained and it was o.k. Both Brooke and Seth had recently done fire safety in school, so they were talking about that a bit. At one point Brooke wouldn't go through the smoke in the air from the fire pit, she walked all the way around to get back to her spot at the table. I explained to her that's it's a different kind of smoke and she's ok and doesn't have to crawl under it, and a little later she came up to me with a huge grin and said "I didn't crawl under the smoke, I walked through it!" I was glad she wasn't afraid, but hopefully she'll be able to keep it straight if she ever needs to!

I was able to give my mom and Doug their wedding gift today. I made them a wedding album scrapbook. I really like the way it turned out, and they seemed to also! Mom was so excited to get her pictures and I think seeing them in an album with beautiful decorations was a nice surprise! I was able to transcribe her wedding ceremony and a poem that she read during the ceremony and print it out and used that in her album as the journaling. She liked that too! I was so excited to give her such a special gift! I like giving people things I make and I hope they enjoy them as much as I enjoy making them. Here's mom and Doug looking at the album just after they opened it.

Here's a slideshow of the album. I took pictures of the pages so I would have a "copy" of her wedding album.

Mom made a cake for my birthday, and my brother Brent's birthday is next week on the 22nd, so she put both of our names on there.

My mom gave me a beautiful necklace and earrings set as a gift. That was so nice of her. She also offered to babysit one night in the next couple weeks so Mike and I can go out for a while. Stay tuned for a post featuring me looking good wearing my new jewelry.
The kids had a great time playing outside. Doug has a fenced in area around his garden, and the kids were having a blast playing in there. They were also playing football, and soccer and then went on a little hike right before we left. There is a huge hill at the end of the property that's all wooded and the kids were begging to hike down there. I really couldn't this time because I'm still fighting off my neck pain, but Mike was a good sport and took the kids down there. I'm looking forward to feeling better so I can hike around down there too.

Tyler hung out in his stroller for a bit, but also had a chance to run around and throw a couple balls too. We were a little nervous with him and the fire pit. Tyler had his very first marshmallow. He loved it!


Hanging out with my family is always fun and crazy. Michael, my second youngest brother, was having a difficult time with his chair! I also learned that he has to work a 24 hour shift tomorrow! I was jokingly asking him if he could babysit for me tomorrow since it's my birthday and he said he had to work. And I said, in the morning?, and he said all day. I said you have to work for 24 hours? So that was kind of an ongoing joke all day. Michael taught Tyler how to do the fist pound. It was pretty cute.


Seth at one point jumped up on Brent and wouldn't get off. That boy is a monkey and a leech all rolled into one! It was pretty funny. Mom was having a little trouble spelling too. So we spent most of the afternoon picking on her about her marmallowsh. (I guess you had to be there!)

We had a great time visiting. The kids were pretty worn out and hopefully they will sleep in for me in the morning. I'm rooting for at least 7am! When we were getting ready to say family prayers tonight someone asked if we could pray about being grateful we went to Nana's and Fuzzy's house (Fuzzy is Doug's nickname). And Seth, who loves to play with words said "yeah Nana's Fuzzband. It was hilarious! As soon as I got the kids to bed I called my mom to tell her. She thought that was cute. When we were telling them that Nana got married and his nickname was Fuzzy, Seth started calling him Fuzzy-G! When I'm not wanting to strangle him, he's making me laugh!