"Christmas Time...Is Here..."

...well, not quite yet. But the cold winds have moved in and my favourite station in the winter, 103.7 Lite FM, has started playing Christmas music!! Not looking forward to putting up Christmas lights next week, mainly because it takes a gymnastic effort to get on the roof to hang them in the first place. But I shall persist. In fact, I've already picked out a couple of presents for Zach and Emily last week, and I hope they enjoy them. What are they? Nice try. No one will know until Christmas morning.

Sunday Mom Dad and Keri came out to conclude the celebration of Zach turning six. We met up at Zio's Italian Ristorante. Yeah, I think that's how you spell it. None of them had ever been before, and despite the service being a little slow, everyone thought it was one of the best italian places they'd ever been to. Maybe it was slow due to the Cowboy game. 44-7 win over the Bills!! We are at 5-4, and we should reach 8-4 at some point in the next month, putting us in good position to win the NFC East and maybe go to the Super Bowl! That's a pipe dream, I know. But it's my pipe dream.

A few pix from Sunday:


Me: "Um...how's that bellini sis?"
Keri: "Ugh...agghhhh....*slurp*...."
Me: "That good eh? Maybe you should slow down...?"
Keri: "MAYBE YOU SHOULD SHUT UP!!!!"
Me: "O...kay..."


Me: "Um...how's that pasta fa jole Dad?"
Dad: "Ugh...agghhhh....*slurp*...."
Me: "That good eh? Maybe you should slow down...?"
Dad: "MAYBE YOU SHOULD SHUT UP!!!!"
Me: "O...kay..."


Cool, an R2-D2 Trouble game!! We tried playing this a few days ago. Unfortunately, by the time we figured out the rules, it was time for bed. No worries. We will find some time now that sports is almost over. I tell ya, it's an all day Saturday affair sometimes. Glad to see some rest at the end of the trail soon.


Hey, what a good shot of us. I didn't know the sleeves on that shirt were so short. I wonder if Cari got me a girl's shirt ha ha. I'll have to wear it with a long sleeve shirt underneath I guess. Hey, when it's Captain America, it's all good.

My vacation is offically 34 days away!!!! I've said it before and I'll say it again...11 day Christmas vacation is almost here!! Cari is off the week after Christmas which is good because so are Zach and Emmy. I might be able to work out those mornings before work. Haven't done it as much as I'd like to lately, first because I was sick for almost 2 weeks! Sinus infection I think. Now I have this cold that popped up Wednesday night and I feel lousy again! I keep waking up at 3 in the morning and can't breathe which means I can't go back to sleep. Last night I woke up at 2:30 and then laid there until 5am. Time sure went by fast but I don't remember going back to sleep. Ugh I hate that.

Now that Zach's birthday is done for another year, we can start focusing our attention to MY birthday! Numero 37 is coming up, and now I know that 40 is not far behind. 40. Such a monumental birthday for some. I suppose it will be for me as well. On Dec 20 I'm planning a dinner at The Keg followed up by a trip to Winstar! I've invited 6 friends...plus Cari. So 7 friends then? Yeah, that's the math. Haven't been out for a really nice dinner in what seems like forever. Plus they have steak. And Mike = steak.

"They Say It's Your Birthday!!"

...well, it's my birhtday too, yeah!

Well, almost. In 27 days it'll be my birthday. But before mine, as always, comes Zach's!! He has finally turned the big 0-6 and is really starting to become his own big little person. Even though he got his folder signed *again* due to some kind of bracelet-stealing misunderstanding, and even though he took money off my bed table to "look at it" then he forgot where he put it, hopefully he's learning from all of these things and beginning to understand to think about things before just blindly doing them and getting in trouble for it later. What's sad is I was a carbon copy of that. Growing up I did so many unbelieveably dumb things. What's even sadder is how long it took before any of it sunk in that maybe I shouldn't continue doing it. So very dense was I. Seems like I still am sometimes. But at least I'm in a place in my life where everything seems to be going really good. Just hoping I can keep it up.

Anyways...a few pix!


Is that not the coolest cake ever!! I can think of one maybe a little cooler...if you know me at all you'd know what would be on it.


Me: "Okay Zach, say cheese."
Zach: "CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Me: "Okay, just a little too Guy-Smiley there...can you tone it down a little?"
Zach: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!'


Aww, what a good shot of us. Zach has a couple of acceptable silly smiles. I guess this can be one of them ha ha.

Man what a long afternoon / evening. Wore me out just watching 10 kids run around like crazy people with a handful of tokens. Zach had a blast though. I think we were the last ones to leave.

The Friday before, Little had their annual carnivale`! It was a lot of the same thing they always have, like the karaoke booth! Some boy got talked into singing this song:



If he had a man card it would surely be revoked!!!

Emmy ran into some friends and was MIA for like the whole night. Zach though was wham! right there. So we did a few things together:


PLINKO!! The Price Is Right game was now available to play! I was hoping they were giving away thousands of dollars like they do on the game show, but no such luck. Zach did win a tattoo though.


Golf! Zach got a hole in two! He almost got a hole in one, but it was not meant to be.


Cake walk! Apparently this game was not as easy as an actual cake walk. Zach used up all his tickets and came away empty-handed. Oh well. Such is life sometimes. I'm sure he got his fill of cake at his birthday party. He was smart enough to take up two squares though. Something to be said for that.


Swings! Didn't cost any tickets and I haven't met a kid yet who didn't think it was a lot of fun. Here's Emmy on the swings when she was his age:


Actually she wasn't even four yet, but she looks just like Zach...almost.

Sunday we're having a family get together with my family to complete the parade of birthday parties for Zach. Always have a good time when the four of us can re-unite at the same time. Time always seems to just run away from us and sometimes we need to just sit back and enjoy these moments in our lives. Speaking of time, this movie looks awesome:



Even though I'm not the biggest Justin Timberlake fan in the world, I've been fascinated by how time cannot be stopped, or even slowed down, but it never seems to pass by fast enough when you're waiting for something. For me, I'm waiting for my Christmas vacation to begin! 43 days and counting! Gonna make this one the best ever!

"Trick Or..."

...treat?

Yeah!

Zach and Emmy got dressed up and we hit the street once again in search of fun, adventure, thrills, and some Kit Kats. Emmy was quite the vampiress this year:


The teeth were a little big unfortunately, but she made it work. Zach of course was Jack Sparrow. We spent a good hour and a half walking around. We even crossed the street and went to this church's Trunk Or Treat where people decorate their trunks and hatchbacks and give out candy. Pretty cool idea. You can make a major haul in like 15 minutes!

When we got back to Cari's parents house we gave Zach another birthday present:


Great big giant Angry Bird! If you haven't heard, Angry Birds is like the biggest sensation to sweep the nation since...I dunno...Facebook? Here's a YouTube clip:



It's so addicting...trust me on that.

Sunday night we went out to catfish Plantation for our annual get-dressed-up-and-go-eat-fish dinner:


Zach got a cool jacket! About time too. All of his are slowly getting smaller.


Of course, we had to get him a Transformer! Ratchet to be exact.

When we got home we gave him some MORE presents:


Hey, cool shield!! Reminds me of one of my fave superheroes...

One busy weekend a-comin' up! Got the JB Little Carnival tonight, sports in the morning AND afternoon, and I have to get the yard fixed up for the winter. Haven't decided if I want to fertilize or not. Always seems like a waste of money, Apparently my grass is supergrass. Once we got some rain it all came back thick and green...with NO fertilizer. Decisions, decisions...I haven't mowed it in forever since it hasn't grown hardly. Might be nice to get back out there and get dirty again.

Watched "Charlotte's Web" at work yesterday. Man, I forgot how sad that movie could get. I also forgot how much singing was in it! Every 5 minutes, someone would bust into song. Ugh. But it did remind me just how short our lives are and how they always seem to pass by too fast. I just hope I'm able to make each day mean something to me so that when I do reach 60 or 70 I can be at peace with it. Not that being old is a bad thing. Just not ready for it right this moment.