Happy Halloween

Here is the Dr Suess Family of 2010 with the Cat in the Hat, the Red Fish, and of course Thing 1 and 2

Pensacola Florida

Laura's brother got married last weekend in Pensacola Florida and we drove down for the wedding. Thanks to Craigslist, BP, and good old fashioned bartering we got a great deal on a rental condo at Portofino Resort and had a fantastic beach vacation. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed out time down there

These first few pictures were taken at Ft. Pickens. It is an old military fort that was created just after the War of 1812 and was used all the way up until the 1940's. It was a very good tour and very interesting to see how military strategy changed so drastically with the invention of flight, rockets, and nuclear weapons.

The view from our condo was very beautiful!

Fun on the beach

Laura's entire family was there!

Our First Garden

Now that we have our own house and lawn we decided to planted a garden this year. I am so proud of our little plants (and our awesome Arkansas growing season) I wanted to post some pictures.

P.S. Thanks mom and dad for insisting that I go out and help plant, weed, and harvest all those times when I was a kid. You were right, I did learn a few things and now get to feel the pride that comes along with making something beautiful and being a little more self-sufficient.

The spring thunder storms and heavy rainfall have been hard on our little carrots and lettuce. They have taken some pretty hard beatings but seem to pull out every time.

So far, there have only been two garden casualties. First was a bunch of cheap Walmart seeds that did not germinate (I will usually stand by my Walmart, but I was really let down on this one . . . all seeds are not created equal).

Second was our eggplant. It had a hard time with the transfer from the pot to the garden and then one day I noticed hundreds of little black bugs eating the leaves. The bugs are gone now, and the plan is still not entirely dead, so there still may be hope for our little eggplant.

Here are a few more pictures of the yard.

The American Dream

I've done a lot of things in my life that have made me proud to be an American. I've marched in a parade, raised a cow, cooked an apple pie, and even owned my own business. But none of them made me feel like I was living the American Dream as much as what I did today.

I left a job that I enjoy with a successful company and came home to my beautiful wife in our very own home. After dinner I put on some work clothes and went outside to mow my own lawn for the first time in my life. My oldest son (3.5 years old) and I climbed onto our new John Deere riding lawn mower and enjoyed an hour of bonding time as the scent of fresh cut grass was carried through the neighborhood by a soft breeze.

I wasn't half way through the front yard when I realized that I had arrived. I was living the American Dream to the fullest. The job, wife, house, yard, sons and especially the John Deere . . . it doesn't get much more American than that!

New Backyard

Now that Spring and Summer are fast approaching, We've gotten back to work on finishing our yard and house. This week we had about 10 dump truck loads of fill and gravel brought in to raise the level of the backyard. We also added a retaining wall to that there would be a small area of flat ground directly behind the deck. The yards is still obviously missing grass, but I plan to have it all sodded in April.

The next project is going to be to add stairs onto the back deck and build a workshop in the HUGE crawlspace under the house. It will be a busy Spring/Summer!

Holiday Update

Hi Everybody! So, it is pretty obvious that I got behind during the holidays with keeping up with this blog. But, not to worry, I'm turning over a new leaf. I'll kick it off with a photo overview of our 2009 Holidays - Enjoy!

Harvest

Halloween

Anniversary (5 years!) & Thanksgiving

Christmas

New Years