The Nellie Spot

Allison and I planned on going to Branson for the weekend and hitting up SDC and Celebration City with Emma. However, due to the amazing amount of rain we've had for the past week and expected rain for the weekend, we canceled. On Saturday (while I was at the office for 6 unappreciated hours), Allison and I looked at Sunday's forecast and decided we could make a trip on Sunday. So, we packed up the van (that still hurts a little to type 'van', but it's getting less painful) around 8:30 and headed to Silver Dollar City.

We got to the park and headed out to their new attraction area, The Grand Exposition. Lots of smaller rides, designed like a World's Fair in the late portion of the 1800's. The main reason we went there is because they had small kid rides that Emma could ride (and a pregnant mommy could ride, too). They had leaping frogs, ladybugs, elephants, and butterflies...all the same ride funcitons, but different creatures to sit in. To a 2 year old, it's all completely different and exciting! We rode them all, and I took a jaunt on the Electro Spin. Basically, they try to make you throw up by spinning you around and going side to side simultaneously. Emma even rode a ride all by herself, and had no issues with that whatsoever. She's fearless. We also rode the train (which should only be ridden during Christmas) and then played at Geyser Gulch before heading home. We were there for about 5 hours, which is about 2 hours longer than we thought we'd be there. Emma was a gem the whole day, cooperating with getting in her stroller, waiting her turn in line, and obeying us when not in her stroller. It was amazing. I wish THAT Emma would wake up everyday!

Thank goodness for all the rain we've had, but thank goodness God gave us 1 sunny day to go to Branson!

Last night, Allison and I were flipping through our Dish guide, looking to see if anything worth watching was on. We rarely watch but 5 different channels, so we were excited / confused to see a bunch of Starz channels listed. Come to find out, it was a Free Preview weekend, which is always amazing stuff! Here's the list of movies we have scheduled to record:

• Raising Helen
• Liar Liar
• National Treasure
• American History X
• Bewitched
• XXX: State of the Union (not porn)
• House of Flying Daggers
• Rounders
• Finding Neverland
• Jersey Girl
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe
• Hitch
• Herbie: Fully Loaded
• Life is Beautiful
• Sin City
• Two Brothers (for Emma)
• Blade: Trinity
• Hellboy

Google will rule the world someday soon, and I am OK with being a follower of the Google. I think Gmail mail be the best email system created, though it has (until recently) lacked the features that make MSN / Yahoo / AOL successful portals. The others have calendars / chatting / email / etc, and Google has just come alongside them with all new features, including the Google Calendar (unfortunately NOT called gCal...too close to iCal maybe?).

Anyway, Google Calendar is pretty nifty and is very similar to 30 Boxes that you see on my sidebar. But there's a 3rd party that just created a cool addon that let's you create a calendar event, then create a button so that others (like yourself) can click to add the even to you Google Calendar. Pretty nifty. Now if only more than 2 of my friends used Gmail / Good Calendar, things would be perfect.

As an example: you can click the button below to add the LOST / American Idol watch party event to your Google Calendar. That way, you'll know when I'm having a ton of fun at my house and can stop by.

I finally took the plunge and signed up for a YouTube account. It's a free video hosting site, so it's perfect for sharing home movies that are too big to email. You can check out my profile and videos here.

Currently, I only have 3 videos up, and of course they're all about Emma. I also used my camera's video feature to capture them, so the quality's a little lacking. I have a permanent link on my sidebar under the "My Daughter" section.

• Off Roading with Dora the Explorer
• Sliding
• The Marching Band
  

I'm not much of a photographer, and I don't have a crazy camera with lots of lenses. But I have found that I like to take pictures a lot. The more pictures I take, the more my eyes have begun looking at things around me through a lens. As I drive by a pasture with the days fading light, I regret not having my camera with me to stop and capture the magnificant beauty the light plays on the green grass and surrounding trees.

Since I'm taking these pictures, I figured I should start posting them to see what other people think (it's okay to think they suck, by the way). So, in an effort to become all artsy fartsy, I have created the Artsy Fartsy Wannabe blog. Stop by and tell me what you like / don't like / would suggest for future reference about the pictures.

This past Wednesday, my brother-in-law gave us his tickets to the Razorback baseball game against Northern Colorado. I had never been been to a Razorback baseball game, Allison went once in college, and we both wanted to see how Emma would like it. So, we grabbed the tickets and called Josh & Margo to go with us. We had 4 reserved seats down the 3rd baseline, 5 rows up...so they were good seats.

We all got decked out in our Razorback shirts and headed to the game. It was a perfect night...about 75 degrees with a slight breeze. The field is absolutely amazing! The grass is perfect, and the stadium itself is really nice. Since it was a non-conference game, we had a few extra seats around us that Emma could run around in. The only thing Emma was interested in the whole time was the cheerleaders who came out and danced on the top of the dugouts. Of course, they only came out for about 2 minutes every other inning, so Emma was a bit sad when they were gone. It was a pretty boring game for the first 5 innings, so Emma and I went walking around the stadium to ease her restlessness. We got lucky, and the cheerleaders were all running around the concession area. Emma wouldn't take her eyes off them. So being the great Dad I am, I approach a few of them and ask if they would pose for a picture with Emma. How could any girl turn me down?? Especially when my daughter is so cute! Of couse, Emma gets all shy and just stares at them...she refused to crack a smile (as seen in the picture). We left after then 5th inning, but stuck around long enough to see the Razorbacks go up 1 in the bottom of the 5th. It was a good time, but there's not enough entertainment for a 2 year old. All in all, we had a great time.

I was driving home today, listening to random songs on my iPod, when Digital Underground's "The Humpty Dance" came on. Of course, I had to crank it up, despite being a whitey! That bass groove is just incredible!

Everytime I hear that song, it reminds me of a story. When I was in 8th grade, our church went on a week-long retreat to Lake Tenkiller in Oklahoma. For me, it was a trip that could easily be made into a movie. Flirting with a girl who wasn't interested. Then flirting with a girl who was interested until I accidentally yanked off her bikini top in the lake after dunking her (in front of everyone...), the first girl giving me a laxative-laced gum that did its job quite nicely, and lots of other relational problems most 13 year olds encounter at church camp. In my rebellion to a week of living hell, I went to a local music store and bought Digital Underground's "Sex Packets" tape (yeah...tape). My sister was on the trip (she's 3 1/2 years older than me), and found out I bought the tape. She was FURIOUS with me and made me feel quite guilty for buying it (which I should have been...but wasn't really). So, in my overdramatic ways, instead of just throwing the tape away, I got a lighter and performed a spiritual sacrifice ceremony on the sidewalk. That's right...I burned it. Right in front of the whole youth group (who by this point all hated me after that week).

And I wonder why people think I'm weird!

Happy Easter! 

I've been crazy busy at work, life, family, and yard work, so I apologize for not posting much lately. (as if you were actually getting frustrated that I wasn't posting something about my life)
Here's the skinny on my recent life events:

• Yard Work: redoing the front landscaping...well, Josh Hale is doing it, really. I've helped out some. But since I never do landscaping, I consider my part busy and difficult. And seriously, I can't believe it's time to start mowing again. Not sure if I'm ready for that yet.
  
• Computer Work: it's like there was a friend-wide computer breaking outbreak recently. I've made at least 20 phone calls to fix computers, and about 4 house visits.
• Kid #2 (the official name) Preparations: lots of housing prep being done for Kid #2. I picked up a fold out couch from my parents house a couple of weekends ago for the office/spare bedroom. Our current spare bed will become Emma' official "big girl" bed, and then we'll move all of Emma's crib and baby stuff into the ex-spare bedroom / Kid #2's room. Allison's doing great, and looks fantastic. I love my wife pregnant, though this is the last time I want to see her pregnant. :)
  
• Mountain Biking: I got a mountain bike recently from my friend Todd. I had it maintenanced and took a few outings on it to get myself into "real" riding shape. After 2 outings that were easy but killed me, I stupidly decided it was time to do the Lake Fayetteville Loop. I survived, but my butt and legs didn't like me very much the following 2 days.
• Family: with all the other things going on, it seems like I haven't spent a ton of time with Allison and Emma. However, I have had some great quality time with Emma playing in the back yard and putting her down for bed. She's continually cracking me up with things she says and does. We even took her to see her first movie at the theater (Ice Age 2)...and she did great! It was very enjoyable, though she ate a TON of popcorn and candy. But she stayed in her seat the entire time! Impressive attention span for a 2.35 year old!
  

We just got a new printer at work. Instead of throwing away the crazy huge box, I decided to bring it home and make Emma a castle! There's 4 foot tunnel leading into the main part where she has a bunch of toys already in there. Who needs an architecture degree??? This building / designing stuff is wicked easy! 

Anyone else get totally fried on Saturday?

I'm already regretting my statement: "No, I don't need any sunscreen Dad...I need to get a little sun." That was before spending the next 4 hours baking in the sun on the golf course. Ouch.