Joe and Kari

India 2010

2009-08-17T18:18:00.008-05:00

So as I am sure most of you know by now…I am going to India!!! I will be leaving January 2^nd and will get back on February 1^st. I am able to take a part in this trip because of the Rotary Group Study Exchange program (GSE webpage). While I am there I will be learning about my vocation in their culture. It’s kinda like a foreign student type of thing but business instead of school. ;-)

While on this exchange I hope to gain more insight on the Indian culture and how Fair Trade has bettered working conditions for their citizens. Several of our Fair Trade items actually come from India and I have often thought about the individuals who make these crafts and how they incorporate themselves and their culture into their art. By participating in the GSE experience, I hope to be able to bring firsthand accounts of the Indian culture back to our clients in Paris and help them better understand the crafts that we offer as well.

Joe has been pretty supportive of me going on this exchange. I don’t think he was excited as I was, but he is the one who has to stay in Paris while I am in India so I guess I understand that ;-). Covering the shop for the month was pretty much the only obstacle that we were going to have to overcome, but I was going to find a solution!! The solution is possible because of the amazing support and help of our families!! One week Joe is going to take off work and will cover the shop, one week Dave (Joe’s dad) will cover, one week Judy (Joe’s mom) will cover and one week my mom will cover!

We had our first training session yesterday morning in Clarksville, and reviewed information about visas, insurance, vaccinations and uniforms. While we are in India we will be giving presentations to their rotary clubs so we have to have matching shirts and blazers for those. We picked out our 3 shirts, blazer, and pants colors. (Green, Orange and White shirts with black blazers and pants) We also had our first Indian meal! In India they don’t use utensils…instead they use their right hand. The left hand is considered ‘un-clean’ (Won’t go into that….) so you cant us it, not even to tear the bread. It was an interesting experience!! The food was delicious (even though it had goat in it) and I can’t wait till our training next month!! We have to start working on a power point, which

Matthew is in charge of, and will eventually get a blog for the team going. Once we get the blog I will send it to everyone so you can keep up with us while we are gone. Not sure how much face book contact I will be able to make…….maybe I should start backing off face book now so the withdrawals wont be to overwhelming!!

Below is a link to the GSE page on Rotary’s website so you can read more about the program yourself! For all you locals they are actually looking for more applicants for the Africa trip in April right now!! ;)

http://www.rotary.org/en/ServiceAndFellowship/Fellowship/GroupStudyExchange/Pages/ridefault.aspx

This is the picture we took of "Team India" the day of our interviews

James Doorman, Paul Falcon, Me & Matthew Radar

Loft Tour Video

2009-04-23T13:04:00.002-05:00

If the pictures weren't good enough here is a virtual tour of the loft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmbDgmOQ-m0

I suggest turning the volume down so you don't have to listen to me ;)

Almost ready...

2009-04-23T08:05:00.009-05:00

Well I promised Brian pictures a few days ago so here they are!! The Loft is coming along really nice!! I'm so excited about moving and its taking everything in me to not just pack up one day while Joe is at work and just move us myself....who needs painted walls & a clean floor?? ;)

This pictures is standing at the front of the building looking towards the back. We took down the only wall that was upstairs, it went along the back columns that have different colors of paint on them.

This area is where the small bathroom originally was...we decided to tear it out because it was too small and in pretty bad shape. But once we did it uncovered this really cool little area where you can walk all the way around the stairs. So we are leaving that open and moving the bathroom to somewhere else...not sure where yet...

This picture is taken from the same area as the first picture. We unbricked all the back windows & Bob (our amazing carpenter) built new windows. The wall facing the front is the back wall to our room. It will have mirrors on it and that area will be my Jazzercise room, where i can learn my routines and watch myself in the mirror to make sure I am doing everything correctly!!

This is the other wall to our room. We put the windows on top to help keep natural light flowing. And the door way is double french doors. The little entry way to the right (almost hidden by the column) goes into our bathroom.

This is our bedroom! The inset area on the wall will be Josiah's closet. We got some of the Pax System units from Ikea for both of our closets. His will have doors on them. The door to the right goes into my closet. My Pax system wont have doors since it is behind doors.

And this is our bathroom! You walk through double pocket doors that match the french doors. To the right will be our sinks. We got some vanities from Ikea and some really big sinks (also from Ikea). And the best part about the sink area.....there are 2 sinks!! So I dont have to share with Josiah anymore! ;) Along the back wall is a stand alone shower. Yes there is a window in the shower but we will have a shower curtain that stays closed in front of it. To the right of the shower will be were our tub will eventually go. Right now the elevator is there but someday (after we get moved) the elevator is going to be gone. There will eventually be an elevator at the front of the loft for moving purposes.

This pocket door (directly to the right of hte shower) will go into the toilet room. The flooring in the entire bathroom area will be black cork flooring!! I'm really excited to get that down!!

Our carpenter is upstairs right now tiling the shower so I will get a picture of the tile up in the next day or two! He almost has up all of the tile that we have but it isn't going to be enough. We had to special order more from Home Depot and it wont be in for another week probably. We are hoping to be moved in in about a month or two. Depending on the shower. That is really all that is holding us up. We just need to get some cleaning done and finish the floors. All the plumbing is already run so it will take no time at all to get the sinks and toilet hooked up. Joe is going to be refinishing the floors in the bedroom soon which will take some time. But while we wait on the shower tile there isn't much more to do..... :)

Oh yeah...we also listed the house with a realtor about 3 weeks ago. It has been shown 11 times now and no serious bites. But hopefully that will change soon since we are finally almost done fixing the floors form when the toilet broke. Our realtor is convinced that once we finish that it will sale pretty quick....but I'm not holding my breath... Here is a link to the website listing....http://paristxrealestate.com/detail.cfm?proptype=residential&mls=22562

I Passed!!

2008-12-15T09:22:00.003-06:00

I passed my jazzercise audition Thursday!! After months of hard work I finally got up on stage in Dallas and did my 2 audition songs. "The Party's Just Begun" (which I messed up on during practice auditions) & "Love Vibrations" (the hardest song we had to learn). I made it through both of them & I didn't mess up....at least I don't remember messing up...;) Its kinda blur now!! So starting January 5th at 8:00am I will begin teaching my own classes!! Every Monday, Wednesday & Friday I have an 8:00am class! Today I will start teaching some songs during Kristina's normal class. Today I will teach 4 songs and then work up from there until the 5th!! I'm terribly nervous and EXTREMELY excited all at the same time!!!! :D

The picture below is everyone I went through workshop with!!

Front(left to right) : Sonya, Linda, Deborah, Heather, Me, Alecia, Erica, Starlin

Back(left to right) : Jolanta, Judy, Jodi(also from Paris), Melea, Marjory & Anna

Everyone Passed!!!

Randomnicity....

2008-11-03T08:58:00.003-06:00

My mom has tagged me to participate in a random challenge.
1. Post the rules on your blog.
2. Write 6 random things about yourself.
3. Tag 6 people at the end of your post.
4. If you're tagged, DO IT and pass on the tag.

So, 6 random things about Me:
1. I have been trying to be a vegetarian since January 15th.
2. Had to cheat every now and again so now Its been about a month and a half.
3. I go to workshop in December to become a Jazzercise instructor
4. I have already voted for Barack Obama and Joe Biden
5. My dog is named after a Star Wars character
6. I have never been a good speller

My randomnicity...Tag: Laura, Christi, Dad, Larr, Shelia, Joe

Election Map

2008-10-29T16:06:00.001-05:00

Obama Tax Cut Calculator

2008-10-15T11:38:00.001-05:00

Join the I'm Inititaive

2008-07-25T09:57:00.002-05:00

If you use Microsoft messenger you could be making a difference with each message you send! And all you have to do is at a few extra characters to your name :) Depending on which code you use Microsoft will make a donation to the charity of your choice. All you have to do is add one of the following codes to your name. For example my name on MSN was just Kari but now it is Kari*hsus So now every time I message someone Microsoft makes a donation to the The Humane Society of the United States. Its that simple....pick your Charity and then add their code to your user name. Its the little things that make a big difference ;)

Text Code Cause

*red+u American Red Cross
*bgca Boys & Girls Clubs of America
*naf National AIDS Fund
*hsus The Humane Society of the United States
*9mil ninemillion.org
*mssoc National Multiple Sclerosis Society
*sierra Sierra Club
*unicef UNICEF
*help StopGlobalWarming.org
*komen Susan G. Komen for the Cure

http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/Join/Default.aspx
for better instructions & more info.

Bicycle 101

2008-07-23T09:14:00.003-05:00

Obviously I missed that class!!! This past Saturday I rode in the Tour de Paris.....with 2 flat tires. I made it Downtown and back to the high school and was exhausted! I had fallen way behind Crystal, Dee & Brendan so I just quit early. It wasn't until we got home later that day that I realized just how flat they were! I knew that I had at least one flat tire (another rider pointed it out to me) but both were down and Joe could feel the rim though the tire. Then I looked at the picture that Joe took of me coming through Downtown. You can see how flat they are!!! So considering I was riding on flats..I did pretty good. So, I'm ready for next year, but this time I will check those tires!!!

Drilling in ANWR...Will it make a difference?

2008-07-03T09:05:00.007-05:00

Just another quick post that no one will probably comment on....but I've got to get it out there anyways....it's something that is important to me...

Fast Facts on Drilling and Gas Prices

Drilling will not lower gas prices today or solve our energy crisis.

• Even the U.S. Energy Information Administration has said that massive exploitation of new oil deposits will not produce oil for nearly a decade -- and then will not lower gasoline prices by more than a few cents per gallon.

• Under the Bush Administration, drilling permits have risen from 3,802 to 7,561 between 2002 and 2007. Eight years of increased oil leasing and production on America’s public lands has left us with nothing but high gas prices for consumers and record profits for Big Oil companies.

• More drilling would not affect world oil prices. The US has less than 3% of the world's oil reserves, yet we consume almost 25% of the world's oil.
 Expanded drilling threatens permanent damage to wildlife.

• Offshore drilling threatens dolphins, whales, sea turtles and other imperiled wildlife. Drilling discharges mercury and other toxins into our fragile ecosystems. Such pollution can destroy beaches, and poison and kill the marine wildlife that we all care about. The noise from drilling is also incredibly disruptive to marine mammals. So while oil companies like ExxonMobil would continue to swim in record profits, dolphins and whales could become fatally disoriented, beach themselves and die.

• Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge threatens polar bears and other Arctic wildlife. The noise and disturbance caused by drilling in the Arctic Refuge -- the most important onshore denning habitat for America’s struggling polar bears -- could cause polar bear mothers to abandon their cubs to die.

• Expanded drilling perpetuates global warming. Such drilling would further extend America’s dependence on climate-changing fuel sources that are threatening the very survival of polar bears and other animals.

 The following is a link the the Energy Information Administration's ‘Analysis of Crude Oil Production in the Arctic national Wildlife Refuge’  Please pay close attention to page 9 (which shows the facts of why we would see no production from ANWR for a decade) and page 17 (which says that oil production would have little effect on world oil prices).
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/servicerpt/anwr/pdf/sroiaf(2008)03.pdf#page=1

So PLEASE someone...anyone...i don’t care who you are....PLEASE tell me the good that will come out of this?? Because all I see is waste and destruction. And yes God gave us dominion over the creatures of this world, but what gives us the right to disregard their lives and their habitats???? Why don’t we just send the Hummers to the Arctic and let them run the Polar Bears down now...and get it over with. Because if we drill in ANWR that is basically what we will be doing..........

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

2008-06-16T14:13:00.001-05:00

The news for polar bears is bleak -- polar bears could disappear entirely from Alaska within 50 short years due to a drastic decline in Arctic sea ice.

But Big Oil and their allies in Congress are willing to sell out our vanishing polar bears for a few barrels of oil. Well, I'm doing something to protect Arctic wildlife and our polar bear's last stand -- and I hope you will, too.

It's easy to get involved -- Just take action online at the website below:
http://action.defenders.org/arcticwilderness

Polar bears and other Arctic wildlife are facing a double-barreled threat from Congress and the Bush/Cheney Administration.

President Bush is calling for Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling in his budget. And Sens. Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have introduced legislation to link drilling plans to gas prices -- despite federal estimates that such drilling would do next to nothing to reduce gas prices.

Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would, however, threaten the most important land-based habitat that America's vanishing polar bears have left.

Please urge your Senators to reject the latest Arctic Refuge drilling plans and permanently safeguard this special place by designating portions of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as federally protected wilderness -- take action online now at:
http://action.defenders.org/arcticwilderness

The Balmoral Beach Collection

2008-06-10T14:53:00.005-05:00

Well we FINALLY had our first event at the gallery this past Saturday!!! We had an art showing for Gerald Hutchings. Gerald brought his stuff by one day just to see what I thought about it and see if we would be interested in having a show. I knew right away that I didn’t care what Joe thought...I wanted to have a show!! Just the few pieces he brought that first day were awesome!! I LOVED them! Gerald & Laura (his wife) had been to Australia to visit her daughter and while they were there Gerald took extreme close-ups of the rocks along the Balmoral Beach, which was 15 minutes from their house. He brought 42 or 43 pieces and we had an artist reception for him from 4:00-8:00 on June 7th. It was a lot of fun! And I didn't get to stressed getting ready for the event other than the AC fiasco. We were getting our AC installed and the AC people knew about the event and that it had to be done by Friday. So they are going along just fine...I'm just fine...no stress..................but then the ac guy comes and tells me...."well we are ready for electricity". I just kind of looked at him and was like...."okay.....do it...." "Well our quote didn't include the electrical work....." Okay...no big deal, I'll give Doug a call and he will come get it in and installed and running for us in no time right.... WRONG!!! Turns out the AC guys installed AC units there are bigger than our breaker boxes. (Yeah....figure that one out!!) So I'm told Thursday afternoon that there is no way there will be AC on Saturday. So of course I freak out call Joe pissed off and just generally in a bad mood...as I'm sure you can imagine. Anyways....we set up a lot of fans and left the small window unit in the back of the building running and it works just fine. No one really said anything about the temperature and those who did know said it didn't seem that bad in here, so I felt better :) But other than that the week went fine and the event was a success! We haven’t sold any of his pieces yet, but you never sale anything the first night...people think about it then come back later, so I’m waiting for them. And I've got one picked out for the loft!! Judy took pictures during the reception so I'll get those posted up here later.So our first big show went off great and I'm already looking forward to our next one...hint hint Brian ;)

Seen any good movies latley?

2008-04-20T22:17:00.004-05:00

Across the Universe is a combination of two of my favorite things!! The Beatles and Musicals!! The entire movie is a musical using only the Beatles' songs! It was much different than I expected it to be and I didn't realize how many songs the Beatles had that I actually had not heard before!! It was one of those movies I will be able to watch over and over again...We saw it yesterday and I'm already ready to watch it again! If you haven't seen it yet, you've got to make your way to Blockbuster or Hastings or wherever and get it now! Even if you don't normally like musical movies...its the Beatles!! ;)

Daniel Gallery Tour Part One

2008-03-13T22:52:00.005-05:00

Well I hope this works!! I got a new camera this week and it can do video..So I decided to do a tour of the downstairs! Now those of you who aren't in Paris get to take a walk around the Gallery!

Gallery Tour Part 1

I can't get You Tube to upload part 2, 3 & 4...it just sits there! So once I get it to finally work I'll post the rest of the tour on here :D

Where All My Time Goes...

2008-01-24T15:46:00.000-06:00

Two posts within a couple of days of each other! :) I’m doing pretty good huh!!!

I just thought I would expand on my ‘I’m always busy because of committee meetings reference,’ since I’m sure it seems like committees shouldn't take up so much of a person’s time that they can’t blog! But I’m here to tell you they can!! :D Although I don’t think there is a single committee I would want to get out of if I had to, they do take up a lot of my time! But they are all for the betterment of my community and will be beneficial in one way or another to my future children, so I think it’s worth it. Listed below in no particular order (other than Main Street is my favorite so its on top :D) are all the committees and boards that I am a member of.

Main Street Board – This is a group that is supporting Downtown. We plan different events that happen like the Pumpkin Festival. And this year we are adding at Competition at the Skate Park for kids and Movies in the Park. We are also working on a “Fire Festival” that would celebrate the rebuilding of Paris after the 1916 fire. We are working to have this event up and going in 3 years and then have a HUGE event for the 100 year anniversary of the fire! I could probably make a Whole post about everything going on with this Board…so I’ll just leave it at this for now ;)

Main Street Promotions Committee – This is a Committee from the Main Street Board that I am actually the chairman of. We are in charge of planning the events such as the three listed above! It’s really exciting and I think I found one of my true passion through this committee…Planning Events! I just LOVE being one of the people behinds the scenes getting an event going. Most people want to be the person that gets to go to all these parties and things…I like being the person providing the event for people to enjoy!!

Paris Downtown Association – This is another group that promotes Downtown. It’s mainly made up of different merchants in the Downtown area but also consist of some residents living in the area, and others who just want to see Downtown grow. We were originally called “The Downtown Merchants” but we changed our name and our direction, which is to promote Downtown in general instead of just looking at the merchant side of things. Its really taken of lately and a lot of exciting things are coming out of it, like a fashion show that will be happening in April or May (cant remember when it is).

The Arts Downtown – The Arts Downtown is a really small group of the galleries located Downtown and is considered a subcommittee of the Paris Downtown Association. It was started to just promote the Art that is downtown, and to try to have more art events and make Downtown more of art community type atmosphere.

Keep Paris Beautiful Board – The name probably gives you a hint about this Board. We do what needs to be done to Keep Paris Beautiful. Such as pushing the city to tear down old buildings, and we help fund things such as the Trail de Paris and some Leadership Lamar Class projects. I’ve actually only been to one meeting for this group, so I’m still learning.

Keep Paris Beautiful Education – This is a committee from the Keep Paris Beautiful Board that focuses on educating people about Keeping Paris Beautiful, I guess that’s the best way to describe it. Right now we are focusing on getting recycling available to the schools, which as most of you know, is something that I’m also very passionate about!

Holiday in Paris Committee – Obviously this is another committee whose name says it all…we plan the Holiday in Paris event that happens in December. Right now we’re kind of taking a break and will get going again in July probably. We did have a recap meeting in which I was given the responsibility of the Art Walk!!! Joe and I have some ideas on how to improve this, so I was really happy when I was able to take it over!

Tour de Paris Committee – Another committee that is all about planning an event! We have our first meeting of the year in February and we will start getting things taken care of. This year we are working on moving the route so that it will go through Downtown!! I get to be in charge of getting the numbers for the riders and Goodie Bags, which I found out last year, is actually more challenging that it sounds!!

Ambassador Club – For this group I just have to go to Ribbon Cuttings any time there is a new business in town that joins the Chamber of Commerce, and we have monthly meetings to just talk about what we did the past month and what is coming up the next month. I won the Ambassador of the Year award for this group this year!

Leadership Lamar – This is just a one year class that I’m in. We basically just learn about different things that are offered around the county and get to tour different places, such as Kimberly Clark, Campbell Soup, The North Campus of the hospital, and the new Police Station. Plus we have a class project that we have to work on and our project is Ryan’s Heart…the new boy’s home for homeless or abused boys ages 14-18. The other shelter in town can’t keep boys over the age of 14 and families were being split up. This facility will give the boys somewhere else to go now instead of having to go to Tyler, which is the closes facitly that they could go to.

Save the Grand – This committee isn’t actually in place yet but there is a lot of talk going on…and when it happens you can bet your butt I’ll be there!!!!!! :)

Well…I think that’s it!! Hope that wasn’t to boring for ya! But I thought I would leave y’all with something to read while we’re gone!! Although I’m sure if we have internet in the hotel at Vegas I’ll post and let y’all know how things are going :)

We're Still Here!

2008-01-22T20:59:00.000-06:00

Yes, we are still here! Time is just flying by this year!! Its almost the end of January already!! So what has been going on in the Daniel household since the last post? Well obviously there were the holidays…which all went by great...never really felt like Christmas this year for some reason...but what ya gonna do? Then of course there is the shop...I'm there all day every day now. I keep thinking I will be able to get back to blogging since I'm alone all day, but there is actually a lot to do! :) Well then there is also all the committee meetings and then there was Max :)

Joe & I got to be foster parents for 5 days. Max was a Golden Retriever that was found in our neighborhood on Christmas Day. Long story short...it was either us take him or he was going to the shelter, and I wasn’t going to let that happen, so we got him! He was so sweet and playful and I wanted to keep him so bad, but we don't have a big enough back yard for him and he would have eaten us out of house and home!! I finally found him a home with a friend of mine!

Well now we are getting ready to leave for Vegas Friday morning!! We are going to a Framing Convention at the Hilton. We are staying at the Sahara and will be there until the 30th. Then we will head home and stop at the Grand Canyon...which at first I was really really looking forward to...but then I got to thinking...its going to be REALLY REALLY COLD!! So I've got two scarves lots of sweaters thick thick socks and gloves!! I should be okay...but we'll see!

And some sad news...I did my usual visit to broadway.com (Someday I will get to go...until then Broadway.com is my little fix) and on the home page is the news....No, the news of Clay Aikin staring in SPAMalot, that just makes me sick...no the sad news is this... " After 12 amazing years on Broadway, the beloved musical hit Rent is closing. Now you've got less than 525,600 minutes to see it again!" Rent is closing!!! And I won't get to see it! June 1st is the closing date and I know it won't be until next year (if that soon) before I get to go! So no Rent and Clay Aikin in SPAMalot....if only I could go back in time!! All I can hope for is Clay Aikin will be gone....there will still be no Rent...but there will still be Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, Lion King & others!

Well I've got to get to packing!!!

Give Peace A Chance

2007-12-10T15:18:00.000-06:00

Saturday, December 8th, was the anniversary of the death of John Lennon. While I didn't make time to post about the anniversary I did think about it. Mainly I thought of John, what would he be like today? Would he be making the rounds with Yoko to hotel rooms across America? Would we be standing outside in groups singing "Give Peace a Chance"? Would we see more "War Is Over If you Want It" billboards around the states? And how thick would his FBI file be today???

Just a week before that on November 30th was the anniversary of George Harrison's death in 2001. On that day I remembered where I was when I heard he had passed away from cancer. I was driving home from school when it came on the radio and yes...I did cry a little bit.

Luckily we still have music from these men that will live on forever, and continue to inspire us and future generations.

Michael Vick Sentenced!

2007-12-10T14:07:00.000-06:00

Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison today for his part in dogfighting!! While I don't think 23 months is long enough it has put his football career in jeopardy, so there will be life long consequences so that kinda makes up for it! If he serves his full term he will not be released until October 2009 which would take him out of three seasons in a row! And according to a ESPN reporter it is unlikley he will be able to get back in the game after 3 years out. Hopefully this will set an example for other sick individuals out there that are taking part in this kind of disgusting cruelty! If a "celebrity" isn't going to get away with it...you sure as hell won't!! Originally his trial was only calling for him to spend like 13 weeks in jail, but because he lied about the involvement he had with actually killing innocent dogs, he was sentenced to a longer term.
With so many people out there with a blasé attitude of...."it isnt like he killed anyone...its just some dogs..." it makes me reallly happy that he didn't get away with it and our court system made a stand that yes its cruel and uncalled for and no we wont let it happen in our country without consequences!

If you want to read more about the trial just google "Michael Vick" and the news reports will jump out at ya!!

Just thought I would share the good news incase you all had not heard yet!!!

2007-12-05T10:57:00.000-06:00

I promised Pictures so here they are :D

Here is our Christmas Tree this year :) Real quick I feel like I need to explain the fact that it is a real tree, its kinda confused a few people. The first question I was asked about our tree was basically...'but you cut down a tree, isnt that kinda the oposite of what you guys are all about.' That is why I need to explain ;) At first I felt the same way....but after doing some reading it is actually better to buy a real tree, because in short.......Christmas Trees are farmed and each time a tree is cut down from one of these farms it is replaced by at least one tree, and sometimes more. The amount of trees that are grown for this reason help to remove from 40 to 300 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. So if these trees weren't farmed that carbon dioxide would still be in the air. And you think artifical trees will last you 10 to 15 years...think how long they sit in the landfill....pretty much forever!! Besides Christmas Tress were originally put up to show life in the dead of winter, and they smell good ;)
We opted for a tree that had not been cut but instead still had the roots in a pot, so that next year it will be bigger and we can use it year after year....or until Joe & I kill it like we have almost every other plant we have had :(

This is a view from the door looking towards Joe's bench. This is where he does all the "clean" work for framing, so that customers can see the process. Thats my most important customer there, Sophia...oh and my dad is the guy holding her ;)

This is another view from the door looking towards our moveable walls. We have 1 big one and 2 small ones right now but will be building more later on. We've got them on wheels so that we can easily change the set up! That is all Brian's art that you can see on the walls!!

This is the setup we had for Amy's art during the first weekend of the art walk. We had her prints and her originals sitting on the bench. We've brought in some shelving from our house that we have them on now for the next weekend.

And this is a view from the outside look at the new store front!! I've got to get pictures up in a album thingy on pica or whatever showing the process from the old store front to this!! Remember it had the glass all the way across the front with that UGLY green brick!! Well its not done yet but thats it so far! Our carpenter is an amazing guy and did so much more than we had imagined when we first decided on doing this! It took a lot of hard work on his part and then a lot of painting on our part to get it looking this great! Plus an interesting night and a Kari freak-out to get the glass out....but thats another post ;)

I'll get more pictures up soon! But for now...I've got to get back to work

We're Open!!

2007-12-01T23:12:00.000-06:00

Well, we are Finally unofficially open for business!!! I turned the sign to Open at 5:00 Friday for the annual Holiday in Paris Art Walk. We had an okay turn out for the Art Walk, mainly family and a few couples we didn't know. And then had a great turn out for the Progressive Desserts after the Paris Community Theater's show. Joe and I didn't get home and in bed till 1:30AM!! I wish I had remembered to take a picture Wednesday night...It was a mess!!! We still had plastic hanging from the ceiling sheet-rock dust every where...walls still not painted and of course...no art in sight! We had Me, Joe, My mom & Dad, Joy & Joyce & Judy for a little bit, helping just clean up. The difference we made in just 2 hours was unreal that night!! A guy stopped in on Thursday (just walking by) and was curious what we were about to be putting in the building. I told him our plans with the Gallery & Frame shop, and then I told him we would be opening the very next day.........He just looked around gave me a funny look and said "oh....really???" Our mailman wasn't even sure I was going to make it!! But we did!! We didn't have any art out except a few of Jerry's sculptures and one of Brian's paintings ;). But we worked though the Art Walk and in the time between the Art Walk and Progressive Desserts and we got the rest of Jerry's stuff downstairs and got Brian's art all up on the walls. I'll get more pictures up in the next day or two so you can see how it looks!!

Peanut Oil?

2007-11-09T13:35:00.000-06:00

Did you when the diesel engine was invented it was actually invented to run on peanut oil? The Petroleum companies actually converted the engine to run on diesel fuel....

The video below is the Winner of the Environment Preservation Award at the 2006 Activist Film Festival. Freedom Fuels takes an in-depth look at renewable fuel sources....and its worth a watch!

If the video doesn’t work just follow this link...http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1155295707/bclid921117040/bctid507841597

Enjoy!

Top Five

2007-10-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update :) I made the top five!! We vote on Wednesday this week to see which project we will be doing. I was #3 on the top 5 so we will see how it goes. There are some problems with the #1 project that our class president is just sure we are going to get sued over...but it wont happen...she just doesn’t like the project and is trying to shoot it down in my personal opinion :) The project is a boy's home for homeless boys...she thinks some parents will sue for harboring a runaway........but that’s not what the home is for....anyways its a long story which means a different post later when I have time :D
Just wanted to give a quick update...

Presentation

2007-10-01T18:52:00.000-05:00

Just a quick little update :)

I did my presentation today for recycling! I don’t know that I've been so nervous!!! I was the 3rd person to present and the other two projects were really good so that made me even more nervous!! But I stumbled through pretty good I thought and only forgot to say one thing...but it was on my handout so that’s okay! :) I didn’t get to get much feedback from the class as I had to leave early for Jazzercise, but they were all listening to me and had a few questions, that I was prepared to answer, so that made me feel good. Now its just waiting to see how the votes go! :)

Where has the time gone?!

2007-09-29T10:30:00.000-05:00

I just realized yesterday that next week is October! Can you believe how fast time is flying!! Things have been crazy for me these past 3 months. Once I found out I was only going to be working 20 hours a week at the Chamber, my first thought was, YES! Finally some time to blog! ;) Oh, but the opposite happened, I seemed to have just as little down time as before! Yeah I had more time to be at home and work on the house, but still no time to catch up on everyone’s blogs and blog myself. Well one look at the calendar and I realized why……I’ve got Ambassador Meetings, Holiday in Paris, Leadership Lamar Classes, Tour de Paris, Paris Downtown Association, The Arts Downtown, Ribbon Cuttings, Jazzercise and Paris Main Street Board Meetings. I have somehow become one busy girl!! ;) But the thing that has taken all my time in the last week is a presentation I am getting ready for on Monday. I don’t know that I have been so nervous in a long time!! The presentation is for my Leadership Lamar Class. Each year the class does a project and we have a lot of people come in and tell us about different projects that we could do. Why so nervous you ask…you think I tell stories and stuff bad on here…well get me in front of a crowd just staring at me and listening to me and I ramble more than I do here!! But I’ve got all my facts down on paper (100% post consumer paper;) ) to pass out to the class and all my notes ready, so I think I should be okay! I’ll let yall know Monday night how I did. We wont make a decision for another week or more, so after a nervous presentation I have to wait at least a week to find out if anything is going to come of it, and I’m not a patient person! ☺

Happy 100 Post

2007-09-29T10:22:00.000-05:00

Wow...it only took like 3 years to get here ;)

Landfill...

2007-09-18T16:09:00.000-05:00

I promised a post about the landfill and here it is…..Finally!! ;) And just keep in mind that I am a Terrible writer!! This story had such a huge impact on me I know I could never do it justice in words…but here goes anyways…..

We had some boxes of floor tile that we pulled up at 111 that were in the way and needed to be taken out to the landfill. We got our manifest filled out and were ready to go. Well Joe and his Dad and Mom were ready to go that is….I had already decided I was going to stay at home and clean house…I didn’t want to go to a landfill! I was cleaning the house when my phone rang, it was Joe letting me know he had forgotten the manifest and could I please bring it up there to him. Still giving me the impression that I was not going to the landfill…I was just bringing him the manifest and then I was leaving. But he tricked me!!! I ended up in the van on the way to the landfill!! I’m not really sure what I was expecting to see (and smell) when we got out there…but what I saw (and smelled) wasn’t it!! The smell was HORRIABLE!!! You know how bad rotten eggs and bad milk smell?? Well put both of those smells together and multiply it by 1000!! Luckily Dave had air freshener in the van that helped a little bit. ☺ So as we start to smell the landfill you still cant really see anything yet…its all behind the large “hill” that is to your right. So as we pull the van around and up the hill there it is…..This huge massive area full of trash! Yes most of it is already buried (hints the “hill”) but there is still a lot not covered. As we were sitting there waiting for the worker guy to dig a hole for our garbage 2 or 3 trash trucks come and dump their loads and I was just amazed at how much stuff can be in a single garbage truck! Imagine dumping tuna fish out of the can…you know how it kinda keeps it shape…Well that’s kinda what the garbage did…until a bulldozer came and started plowing it down. The guy finally finished digging our hole and we had to drive up into the actual land fill part (before we were just sitting at the edge of it). Other garbage was literally inches from the end of the trailer. At first I just refused to get out of the van, because if the smell is this bad while I’m still in the van…I Don’t want to be out in the open air with it!!! As I sat in the van looking around I was over come with emotions….anger at all the people who had wasted so much….resentment for those who let us get this wasteful and those who don’t care….absolute sadness the nature we had destroyed, you could tell just beyond the fill that this area used to be full of beauty and life….and most of all, guilt. I had helped fill this place up…how many bags and bags of crap have I just thrown out without a second thought? I eventually had to stop just sitting and thinking and help Joe get the heavier boxes off the trailer. But once that was done I stood on the end of the trailer for a second just looking out at the massive pile of garbage, and I was overcome with the urge to cry and vomit at the same time…while I never did vomit I did have to hide a few tears (cause I knew Joe would probably give me a hard time).

I know it probably sounds cliché and some will call me a tree huggin hippie, but that trip was a life changing experience for me. For a while now I have believed that Global Warming is not just a hoax and that we as occupants of the planet have a responsibility to take care of Mother Nature, and Joe and I have been trying to live a “green lifestyle.” But, the landfill really made things even more real to me! Now instead of just turning out the lights, we are now turning out the lights and recycling all paper, plastics and aluminum that comes through our home. Since we started working on 111, we have been going by “green” standards and using as much reclaimed wood in our remolding as possible, and now we are also recycling everything that we absolutely possibly can.
And if that makes me a Tree Huggin’ Hippie…than so be it! I will gladly wear “Tree Hugger” on my messenger bag once I’m riding my bicycle instead of driving a car (which will be once we move to 111).

Things go as planned?

2007-08-29T16:02:00.000-05:00

Well I orignally started this post on 8.29 and istead of trying to pick up were I left off, I just thought I would start over! :)
So here goes....lets see if I finish this time!

Things go as planned....isn't that a nice Concept?? Well thats all it is...a concept. Last week I had planned on coming home and writing a post about a trip we took out to the land fill (that post will still be coming), but when I pulled up to the house I noticed the sidewalk was all wet and Joe's car was parked pretty crooked and his door was still open. Then I walked in the front door and found water standing in the entry way! Apparently sometime during the day one of our toliet supply lines broke and flooded parts of the house!! Joe had found out because his mom called him to let him know that the mailman called to let us know water was flowing out of our house. He knew our neighbors which know Judy and knew where she worked. Now I know what some of yall are thingking..."Kari, dont you work with your mother-in-law....why didnt she tell you since you were just in the office above her?" Well the answer is...my Mother-in-Law knows me well enough to know that I would have freaked out and speed all the way home crying...so she called Joe and just let him handling my crying when I got home :) So I grabbed the camera took some pictures and called the insurance company. Luckly we did have water damage coverage and were able to get all the damages covered. Now we just have to pull up all the lamiate and decide what we want to do.... Course thats all easier to say than actually do. I'm almost done pullling up the floor and we still havn't decided for sure...do we just relay new laminate or stain the concrete and lust put down big rugs...since we are still trying to sale the house anyways.

I would post the pictures I took but I dont know hot to resize them with any of the programs I have on this Mac...as long as I've had this thing you would think I could something as simple as resize a picture! :) Oh well....

Blood and Tears

2007-07-24T16:52:00.000-05:00

Wow.... two posts in one day. Well when you have to lay around for a while...there’s not much else to do :)

First tears...As you all know the last installment of Harry Potter came out on Saturday. I had pre-ordered it about 3 months ago on Amazon.com so it was delivered to the house at around 3:00...so that’s what I have been doing since after the Tour that keep me from making a post for so long ;) I finished it at about 2 this morning. I just wasn't tired enough to stop reading and I didn’t want to stop reading when I did start to get a little tired (I only had 3 chapters left). So after some tears, I get really emotionally even just reading books, I finished the series. Its sad now...knowing there wont be another book. But oh well...I'll just have to find something else to read.....

Now the blood.........About a month ago they started planning a blood drive at the chamber, and to be honest I've been dreading it since I first heard the words, just cause i knew this involved needles. I HATE needles! I wouldn't say I have phobia but I just don’t care for them at all. So I knew I would sound so pitiful telling my coworkers that I was a coward and couldn’t do it. I just hadn’t said anything about it until it was mentioned last week and I told them...no thanks...don’t do needles. Not much else was said but I was still dreading it...I just knew I would feel like an idiot with all those people going in and out giving blood and my coworkers doing the same. So today finally came...I pulled up and saw the blood drive vans and my stomach dropped. Judy and Rachel had been turned down (not enough iron) and in a moment I would have been relived they were both kinda upset. So I kinda dwelled on it all day. Then I started thinking about "the glass door incident," surely I lost enough blood that day to have to receive blood. I called Mom and Dad did confirm that I received a good bit of blood that day. Blood that had been donated in the same way these people were doing today. So I went home for lunch and decided to head back to the chamber and go for it. So about half way through it....I started getting light headed and almost passed out. One second I was fine...the next there were five people over me giving me ice packs. I laid down for like 15 or 20 minutes, tried to get up...and had to go through it all again. I never actually passed out but Joe had to come pick me up. Total, I probably laid there for about 45 minutes or so. So now I'm just laying here for a while..........

Tour de Paris

2007-07-24T13:46:00.001-05:00

Well I'm starting to get emails asking bout the bike ride so I thought it was about time I let everyone know how it went!! :)
It started early for me and other volunteers, we had to be at the high school at 5:30 that morning, because riders would start coming in to register at 6:00. We ended up having 759 riders this year! At about 10 till 8:00 I headed out of the cafeteria to meet up with Mike, Crystal, Connor, and Brendan. And finally at 8:00 we took off. Mike and Connor took off a head of us and Crystal and I rode along with Brendan. It was nowhere near as hot as it was last year so that helped out a lot!! Once we got to the first rest stop I knew we weren’t going to turn back, it didn’t seem like he had gone near as far as we had last year, but it was in the exact same spot. We had a lot of fun! The countryside is actually kind of pretty out that way! Kind of smells from the cows every now and again but not to bad :) We stopped at every rest stop along our way to fill up on water and cookies! Brendan did ever better this year than last year! He never actually complained...only asked "how much longer till a rest stop?" It really was a great ride this year and I hope some of you will join us next year!! I can’t wait!! Just someone please remind me about that stupid stuff called sunscreen!!! ☹ I don’t have any pictures yet but if I get some I’ll post them later.

Can she make it??

2007-07-17T21:31:00.000-05:00

We'll its that time of the year. Tour de Paris is this weekend and this year Brendan wants to try the 24 mile route this year! So since the ride is this weekend I figured I better go check out my bike and make sure its still in good working order. So I went out to the garage and....both of my tires were flat and there were cobwebs all over it (of course there was a lot more wrong with it than just the tires) !!! So Joe decided we could just go buy me a new bike. So today we took off at 7:15 this morning and headed on over to Richardson Bike Mart. I tried two Electra Townies but they just werent comfortable. Then I tried some Treks that were much more comfortable. I finally settled on a Trek Navigator. So now I'm good to go Saturday. Joe and I took it out on the bike trail down the road and went for about 7 miles....and thats where the title comes from....Not sure if I can make it....:) But of course after Saturday it wont just sit in the garage like my other did. Once we get moved downtown Joe and I will go back down to one car and my bike will be my transportation since I work so close. :) It even came with a little silver bell on it!

Paris' Has Talent

2007-07-05T22:45:00.001-05:00

We've had Duane Allen (the Oak Ridge Boys) Raymond Berry (Football) Samuel Maxey (Confederate General) Gene Stallings (Dallas Football Coach) Vanilla Ice (Singer) Denver Pyle had a home here....Charles Taylor (Treasure Hunters) and now we've got Cas Haley! Cas went to North Lamar here in Paris and was in a few bands through out high school (including one with Brian...I think they were Staind). We were all shocked and blown away (as I'm sure the rest of America was) at Cas' performance! I personally had never heard Sting's version of the song put after downloading and listening to it...hands down Cas' was better!!

Moving

2007-06-26T17:39:00.000-05:00

Well its been busy here in Paris for the Daniel family. David and Judy sold their house and have to be out by tomorrow…so we put off our frame shop move and helped them get everything out of the Fitzhugh house. Its crazy how much stuff you can accumulate over about 30 years. They’ve been living in their new house for like 6 months but the old house still looked like someone could be living there. It was pretty interesting getting to see some of the old stuff they still had… I got a few dresses from Judy that she wore in the 60’s…they are really cute but they make me look pregnant…so they are going to become pillows in the loft ☺ We did get to move some stuff for the frame shop...we have moulding and equipment there now so its starting to look like it might be a business!
It’s been raining almost every day the past weekend and the end of last week so I haven’t been able to mow the yard and we were starting to look like the white trash of the block, so I made up my mind yesterday to mow. When I got off work I went over to Larr and Christi’s to watch Sophia while Ace and Christi went to the movies, at this point in the day it was bright and sunny and I just knew I was finally going to get to mow. But, I kid you not, right when I started to get ready to leave it started pouring! Just my luck huh…So today I knew I was going to mow…nothing was going to stop me. But this morning I had to take my car to the shop because of a flat tire. I got off work..it was sunnyish…Joe took me back to the dealership, I got in the car and right when I put it in drive….guess what...its started POURING!!...for about 2 minutes…
So I went ahead with the mowing. Like I said…nothing was going to stop me. It was horrible…and a little bit embarrassing…the neighbor was sitting on his front porch the whole time and I just know he was laughing. I literally had to mow the yard twice…once to get the grass short enough that the mower would actually go without stalling and then the second time to get it short and even. An hour and about a mile later (according to my trusty pedometer) I was finally done…with the front yard. I was to tired and sweaty to do the back yard so I went and took a shower and now here I sit with my Alba Organics Deep Sea Facial Mask on and The Wonder Years playing on the TV.
Tomorrow we are going to start finishing up on all the painting we have left to do at the shop and this weekend we will be moving….or at least that’s what I keep telling myself…my grand opening was going to be March 15th remember…

Sophia and Aunt Kee

2007-06-16T22:00:00.000-05:00

Here I am with Sophia! Hasn't she grow up so much! She is about 6 months old now and I don't think I could love that little girl anymore!! She is absolutley adorable!! She is starting to laugh and smile now. Joe and I went to dinner Larr, Christi and Sophia and after we were done eating I stood her up between Joe and me and she kept turning to try and look at Unc Joe. She has such a cute smile!! :) Anyways....just thought I would share the picture. :D

What a week....

2007-05-19T23:57:00.000-05:00

It was a bad week to be a pet in the Daniel home.....Monday Joe walked up to me and said "Kari...I've got some bad news...Bubbles passed away sometime last night." Well Bubbles is our fish...she was about 6 years old so I was okay with her death...she was old... Well then, I guess it was Tuesday, Joe was standing outside with Wicket and he saw me coming....normally he waits till he is done pottying and I am out of the car to come run up and jump on me...but this time he took off into the street and was next to my driver side door. Course I freaked out and Joe says I'm over-reacting but I almost ran over my Baby!!! Well when I pulled into the driveway on Thursday Joe was standing there to let me know the sad news that Bender (our other fish) had also passed. Apparently Bubbles just wants old...the heater broke on the aquariame and the water was at 115 degrees. So 2 of our 3 pets didnt make it to the end of the week. THEN Not only during all this pet sadness I lost my credit card! I left it at a clothing store that is going out of business and she cant find it...So I had to call an cancel the card..which wouldnt be so bad but the lady on the phone tried to get me to sign up for that identity protection think and of course I said no, to which she responded 'Well you did just lose your credit card, and if this happened again you would...blah blah blah blah.' It was just kind of condesinding. Anyways...so here are the pictures that I promised a while back.

Just a boring update...

2007-05-14T21:50:00.000-05:00

Well I promised a post last night so here ya go! Not much is going on other than just working on the building still. :( We've rented 2 different "tile scrappers" and they didn’t really work very well :( We are still scrapping up the tile I was talking about on April 10. BUT....Joe got a 3rd scrapper machine thingy today and it works!!! We SHOULD be done with the floor this week!!! :D I'll get some pictures taken and try to post them tomorrow. Really...other than that there’s not really much going on! Today was first day being part-time at my job instead of full time. I went to lunch with my Mom, Ace and Sophia and it was just weird sitting there at lunch realizing...I don’t have to go back to work!! But I enjoyed getting to do some other stuff....I cleaned house a little bit, scrapped floor (didn’t really enjoy that part) and went and bought some new pants and then went to yoga class. Still not eating that fruit I said I was going to but I go to yoga every Monday, last Wednesday and Friday Joy and I went to Pilates class. We were going to start taking that class every week but it’s 50 something dollars a month and we just don’t want to spend that much money. Anyways....I guess I'll get some pictures up tomorrow...Good night!!

No Power

2007-04-24T21:46:00.000-05:00

Well our power is out so I have nothing to do but sit here and type up a blog post…of course I can’t actually post the post until we have power…so for now its just in word ☺
So I actually have some time where I have nothing to do…let me rephrase that…I have a lot to do but I cant do anything!!! How did people live without electricity?!? Anyway…. Will Someone PLEASE tell me what it is with people littering!?!?! Since we were without power and nothing to do Joe and I decided to run to Sonic and get some drinks and some fresh air (he hasn’t been feeling well today), and while we are sitting there I watched as the guy in the back seat of a pick-up reaches around the front seat and throws him hamburger wrapper out the front window!? All I could think was what the h***!?!?! I mean it wasn’t like opps…didn’t mean to drop that…it was…hhmm…I don’t want to hold on to this and put it in the trash later…Hey that area right outside the window looks like a pretty good trash can! What would Confucius say if he saw how we treat Mother Nature?! Think of the most beautiful picturesque site you can imagine and then throw some trash in there….not as pretty anymore huh!? I know a lot of people probably think the Sonic workers will put it up…but first off really don’t you think they job is crappy enough? And sometimes they cant get the trash on a windy day. As Joe was driving down Clarksville the other day the driver of the car in front of him threw a diaper out the window. A Diaper!?!?! Yes a diaper!! Where they changing the kid now...or how long did that dirty thing sit in the car that they didn’t have the opportunity to throw it in a trash can earlier? Joe and I have been watching a show called Survivor Man where the guy. …can’t remember his name, I think its Les….anyways Les strands himself and tries to survivor for 7 days completely alone….and this guy finds litter in some pretty remote areas, such as deserted islands. And I cant tell you how many times I’ve picked trash out of David & Judy’s (Joe’s parents) yard and I know Larr & Christi get a lot of trash thrown in the yard too! So if anyone reading this post litters…Just stop it! ;) No really…if you’re in your car and you don’t know what else to do with your trash…throw it in the floorboard call me and I’ll come dispose of it properly for you. :D
But really in all seriousness don’t we owe it to Mother Nature to take a little better care of her? I don’t know about you but I don’t want my children playing in the park with trash all around. I want to see my grandchildren run through Bywaters and not have to think about the litter lying around them.

Work..work...work....

2007-04-16T21:26:00.000-05:00

Well I promised an update last time so I thought I would go ahead and post the update. We had to send out a search and rescue team for Wicket after he went out for a potty break so I finally went ahead and mowed the yard!! Then we headed to the building to start painting. We were ready to start moving the molding and mats and then Joe had a wonderful idea....Hey instead of cleaning and planning and laying and staining and finishing the wood for the floor...why don’t we just pull all that tile up and expose the concrete and seal it......it will be easy and will go so much faster. So now we are scraping up more floor. Yeah, the same torture we are going though upstairs...we are putting ourselves though that voluntarily!! Some of it is coming up really easy....but a lot of it isn’t....:( Oh well...it will look great when we are done. I had my 2nd Hypnotherapy session today...So far things seem to be going good. I have been more aware of clenching during the day time and that is the first step we were working towards. We made a second cd today. And man I'm telling you...it is SO relaxing! It’s kinda hard to describe. I listen to it on my ipod while I am going to sleep and it puts me to sleep.
My new job has been just awesome! I love it...its so fast paced and there are always things to do. We had an archery tournament a few weeks ago that was just unreal!! We had 3 people from England...a few from Canada and Mexico...and somewhere else out of North America but I don’t remember where it was. There were over 1,000 registered archers, all the hotels were booked solid...Magel's Grill had a 3 hour wait line!!!! The Archery people said this is the Largest even they have ever had and its only going to get bigger!!!!! I was more excited about it than Joe and I probably got on his nerves talking about it but it was just amazing being in the middle of it all. I wasn’t involved until right when the event was getting here since I just started working at the chamber, but I still had a lot of fun! I called all the restaurants, hotels, and banks and asked them to put "Welcome to Paris ASA Archers!" on their signs and it was so fun seeing all the signs say that and a lot of the archers were talking about how they felt so welcomed by everyone at the event and even by the town in general with all the signs welcoming them! I just cant tell you how much fun I had!! Becky, Mindy and Greg did all the work getting this group here and getting everything together!! It was just fun! I worked in the concession stand on Friday and Saturday. This year the event was Friday-Sunday and next year its going to be all week long (so don’t be surprised if I call you trying to get you to work in a concession stand ;) )We are getting ready for the Uncle Jesse Bass Tournament on May 5th and then after that we have the Tour de Paris bike ride coming up. I was just put on the committee for that and we have a meeting the 19th! ANYWAYS.......This is getting to be a long post ($50 bucks says Larr saw how long this was and said "forget that")
The only bad news is...My computer died on me today :( I tried to turn it on to set up a slide show for my boss and it just wouldn't turn on. I started freaking out a little cause I have A LOT of stuff on that computer!! Plus I was trying to set up a slide show for my boss.....that was scary enough.... So I'm using Joe's computer right now. I'm probably going to get this laptop and Joe will probably get another new desktop. But I'm not sure if I like it 100%. I love Macs but it is so different than I used to...so we will see.
Anyways....this is really long so I better go...and I bet there are probably a lot of grammar and spelling mistakes....

WE HAVE COLOR!!!!

2007-04-10T23:48:00.000-05:00

I painted a few of the posts!!! We are going to be covering the floor and I really like the color we used so I made the suggestion of painting the columns that color!! And Joe actually went with it! ;)
AND I LOVE IT!!! It is going to be that punch of color I was looking for and I'm so excited to have all the painting done!

The cream is what is going to go on all the walls. And we wont be painting over the places where brick is exposed.

These are the racks that Joe and I built for the molding. They sit where those offices that we took out originally were. For those of you who might not know (Mirk & Dan ;)) we are going to be running a custom picture framing shop on the bottom floor.

And here is Joe's bench!! he has been looking forward to this thing for a long time!! Its HUGE! Its 46 inches wide and 24 feet long! And that's smaller than he originally wanted it!! This is where he will put the frames together and the mats will be stored in the bottom. You cant see it from this picture but there a little dividers all the way down!

Anyways...I know its been a long time since we posted so I thought I would just throw these pictures up really fast. But its midnight and I have a Downtown Merchants Meeting at 8:15 in the morning so I'm going to bed! I'll post more on whats been going on tomorrow....

GOOD NIGHT!!!

Pop Quiz Answer.....Finally....

2007-03-09T21:43:00.000-06:00

Yes the answer is the First Methodist Church

Pretty sad when a reader who doesn’t even live here lets everyone know that Cruisermom was right ;) I've kept on telling my self...I will make the post tonight with the answer...but something would come up and I would of course just put it off :)As I'm sure you could probably guess, Joe and I have been pretty busy!! We've got a good bit done on the building. We went and bought a planer but couldn’t plan the floor yet because some of the floor might still have nails in it and we can’t put that through the planar or it could ruin the blade...and those things are 15 bucks each!! So we had to wait till we had a little hand held metal detector...Who would think it would be so hard to find one of those...but Joe went to like 4 different stores here in town and no one had one!! Luckily a teacher from the school had one that she brought Joe for us to use. Bob (the carpenter) started on Joe's bench last weekend, so we should be able to start moving a few things here in a couple of weeks. Since Joe is on Spring Break this week he is going to start making the racks for the moulding. So maybe we can move the moulding soon also...but who knows...
As a few of you know I have been grinding my teeth during my sleep for a VERY long time at least since 6th grade, maybe younger. Well when Joe and I got married it bothered him and we bought me a mouthpiece that was supposed to make me stop but I just chewed through the first mouth piece in a month and then went through 4 more in about 4.5 months. So I'm trying another 'treatment'. Starting next Tuesday at 3:00 I'm going to a hypnotherapist. Joe and I had just kind of mentioned something about hypnoses and whether or not we thought it would work and then like 4 days later I had a Ribbon Cutting for a hypnotherapist who was just opening up shop here. So I asked her about it and she said she's worked with "grinders" (that’s apparently what we are called) before and the hypnotherapy works. So I figured what the hey...its only $60 a session and I will have to go to 2 possibly 3 sessions, so that’s only $120 - $180. We already spent about $350 on those stupid mouth pieces. So I'll post Tuesday night on how it went. I had a consultation Thursday and I just got some information and had to answer questions and all that boring stuff. The therapist said that I hold her records for the grinding thing...most people only start grinding after they have gotten married and started a family, and she has never heard of anyone going through that many night guards. I just hope that wasn’t supposed to be encouraging........

Paris Pop Quiz

2007-02-24T23:12:00.000-06:00

Where is this in Paris??
I took this today during the wind/dust storm so thats why the sky is that weird color!

2007-02-24T22:54:00.000-06:00

Well we started at 8:00 this morning...And the right mezz is gone!!! The left is almost gone but the staircase is still there so we cant pull it all down yet. We are working again tomorrow and the carpenter is going to be coming back. You can see him working in the first picture. He's got the wall framed out and just has to put in the swinging door, the pocket door, and all the sheetrock, soundboard and insulation stuff(probably not in that order but what do I know)...Its starting to really look like something there instead of just a mess of junk!!!

Pictures

2007-02-22T23:59:00.000-06:00

Here are the pictures I promised!

Almost done!!

This month so far...

2007-02-19T23:08:00.000-06:00

Well I’ll keep the post really short tonight but just thought I would put in a quick update!
We’ve been really busy this month so far…I’ve got a new job (not the same one as the interview) and so I’ve been settling into that. And tonight at 8:55 we finished pulling up the floor and moving it all into the pile in the middle of the floor!!! I didn’t take any pictures tonight because we were tired and just ready to get home. We have a carpenter coming in on Saturday to start building all the walls and moving the right staircase to the left staircase so that the left staircase will come all the way from the loft to the business since the mezzanines will be out by Saturday (he needs the lumber to build the walls). After this week Joe and I won’t know what to do with ourselves!! Pretty much everything left to do downstairs is going to be done by a contractor. The carpenter is also bringing a planar (assuming I spelled that right…) which will sand down the planks of wood so we can lay them down and refinish them. I’ll try and get some pictures and get them up tomorrow. I’ll make a longer post about the new job and all the other boring stuff that’s been going on later…for now…I’m tired!! (And the fruit thing is going better...I had a kiwi tonight!!)

Floor Pictures

2007-02-01T21:27:00.000-06:00

Well here are the pictures I promised!
You can tell the progress by the air conditioner, it didn't move from picture to picture.

And the job interview went great....but I'm going to turn it down if they offer it to me. There were just to many negatives to it. 1st - I would have to quit the ambassador's club (we go to all the ribbon cuttings and grand openings around town). 2nd - I wouldn't be able to go back to school (they let the last girl go when she wanted to go back). 3rd - I would feel REALLY REALLY guilty when I quit here in a few years to work at the frame shop/photography studio (they want to hire someone who will "retire here" I'm only 23...I'm not ready to be in the job I'm going to retire in). 4th - NO benefits (selling insurance to other people but I wouldn't get any benefit its) Oh well...It would probably be a great place to work but it just wont work for my goals.

Fruits; Running; and other Boring Stuff....

2007-01-31T21:29:00.000-06:00

Well, here I sit, eating my 3rd fruit since the last post...which I actually went and got so I could say I'm eating my 3rd fruit...I've been doing Horrible with the whole daily fruit thing. Mostly cause...well cause...fine I don't have a good excuse!! I've just been doing bad with the fruit thing...and the running thing. Its still to cold outside!! It was sleeting today...true not long...but it did. I have done Pilates *once* but the amount of work I've been doing at the building has more than made up for that!!! What I did from 1:30 to 5:30 is worth at least 2 nights of Pilates!!! You remember when I mentioned that Larr & Brian & Joe worked on the floor while all us girls were at the baby shower. Well Joe told me today he thinks I got more done on the floor in my 4 hours alone than the 3 guys did in their 4 hours of working together! Did you get that...I did more than 3 guys!! Sounds like at least 2 days of Pilates to me!! And oh my goodness am I feeling it now. My knee was already feeling tired before I started and at 5:50 I told Joe 'all that really hurts right now is my knee...it hurts worse but other than that I'm just tired'. Well its now 9:40 and my arms hurt...my shoulders hurt...my back hurts...my knee hurts...and my neck hurts...and every other muscle in my body hurts too :( But oh well...I'll sleep it off and back to work tomorrow!! Speaking of tomorrow....I've got a job interview at 9:15!!! I'm kinda nervous, its not like if I don't get the job we are screwed so there's not a lot of pressure, but its a job interview!! Who doesn't hear 'job interview' and get nervous?! So wish me luck!! Well I've got 3 outfits I've got to go try on and decide what to wear so I better get off here now. I'll let ya know how things go! Oh and we forgot the camera at the building so I'll post pictures tomorrow night of what all I got done today.

And here she is...

2007-01-23T21:03:00.000-06:00

Sophia Grace Rhea Finally graced us with her presence at 6:02pm. She apparently had to powder her nose first! She was 7lbs 5oz and 19.5 inches long! She is absolutely adorable!!

And here is the mural that her Unc Joe painted for her in her new room.

Sophia Grace Rhea

2007-01-22T09:37:00.000-06:00

Well today is the day we have all been waiting for!!
Christi is in the hospital right now ready to have baby Sophie!!
Joe and I have 3 nephews (Larr's boy Adian and Crystal's (Joe's sister) boys Conner and Brendan) and I'm so ready to have a little niece to just spoil rotten!!!!
So keep an eye out for pictures later today on Larr's blog!!
And I'll get pictures up on my blog of Sophie and the mural, that her Unc Joe painted, that she will be coming home to!!

Now you know why...

2007-01-17T22:14:00.000-06:00

Wow I go from no posting to obsessive posting....Anyways...

Well I made one of those new year resolution things...you know those things you swear you're going to do but never do...I made two this year...One: To start walking/running at least 4 times a week. Well yeah, I haven't walked/ran once this year. But hey.....now you know why....

If its cold enough to do that...I am not walking out that door!! I'm always cold anyways...everyone else can be sweating and I'll be over there shivering with my jacket still on! So I have a good legitimate excuse of why I haven't started my new year's resolution thingy...

The second one I have been more successful at...Well Joe has been better than me but I'm doing better. Last year...and pretty much every year before that...I've never eaten just all that good...its constant junk food for me. So this year I've vowed to eat better...mainly a lot more fruit (yeah I know there's more to it than just fruit but baby steps people baby steps!) I keep this...

on our kitchen bar to help me remember to just grab an apple sometime during the day. Joe has pears that he eats...(looks like he might need new ones).
So I'll just keep eating my fruit until it warms up enough and then I will get out side and do some walking and maybe even some running! :)

ArtWalk Pictures

2007-01-17T21:04:00.000-06:00

Well Click on the loft link under Photo Galleries to the left and you can see some pictures of the art walk!

Cross your fingers and click.... :)

I Did it!

2007-01-15T14:06:00.000-06:00

Okay so I finally upgraded to the new blogger....maybe I just haven't played with it long enough but I don't see anything different!!
My stupid pictures STILL wont enlarge..as I'm sure y'all figured out from the post below :( So what makes it so much better...am I missing something? And why wont those stupid pictures enlarge???

I'm Back!!!

2007-01-12T21:19:00.000-06:00

Well since Joe is watching Fearless (all I hear are bones cracking) I thought I would finally make time to sit and catch everyone up on the craziness that has been the past 2 months!! Well in the 1st 2 weeks of November we did nothing(those were the good ol' days)...but in the 3rd &4th weeks of November all we did was work on the bottom floor of the building. On the first and second weekend in December there was going to be an Art Walk Downtown and we wanted to have the Gallery open in time to be included. So we went from this....

to this...

in about 2 weeks! I know it doesn’t look like much but Joe painted the floor and we hung sheets all the way around the mezzanine and Joe hung the hanging system for the art work. But the 1st weekend Joe and I weren’t there...instead we were in Oklahoma with my family. It was my mom's 50th birthday and all of us kids surprised her at the cabin. She didn’t know we would be there...so we arrived about 30 minutes before her and dad and hid our cars and surprised her when she walked into the game room. It was a really fun weekend...and a long needed relaxation period for Joe and me! But after that weekend it was back to work. We finished up a few more things, including putting up track lighting above the art for better lighting, for the second weekend of the art walk. Downtown was so busy and just buzzing with people...we had carolers dressed up in Victorian outfits and of course Santa was in his hut right next to the fountain. It was a great weekend...and I was told the 1st weekend was even better! The second weekend we didn’t get many people though the gallery but Joe's parents said the first weekend was busier. It’s already in the plans to make "Holiday in Paris" an annual event. So the 1st and 2nd weekends in December this year you know what we’ll be doing. Wow this is getting to be a really long post....anyways...Well right after the art walk was finished the art was put away in a safe place...the sheets came down...and then the real mess started. Joe and Joy (Joe's sister) pulled the bottom of the left mezzanine down. It became one huge mess!! Then, while all of us girls were having fun at a baby shower for Christi (just 10 more days) Joe and my brothers, Brian and Larr, were pulling up the wood flooring along the top of the mezzanine. By the time I got there after the shower they were already half way done with the first side of the mezzanine!! I was really impressed with how much they got done!! Joe and I finished that leg the next day and started along the middle section. Hopefully tomorrow we will get A LOT more done...Well this post is really really long now...so I'll just leave you with this picture so you can see the mess we have literally gotten ourselves into!!

I really hope all those stupid pictures enlarge with a click after I publish.....

:D Oh by the way...Happy Thanksgiving...Merry Christmas...and Happy New Year!!!!!

Building Update

2006-11-17T21:50:00.000-06:00

Salvation Army moved out completely on Thursday! They left the place really pretty clean!

Here is the view standing at the front door. Its just one big room now! You can even see the back door (the dark area right in the middle) All our supplies will be stored along the back right area and the back left is where Joe's saw will be. We are going to build walls for that area to keep all the saw dust cleaned up better. I dont know where we will have the mats and glass.

Here is a view standing in the back looking towards the front door. I think the frame and mat samples will be in the front right corner, but I'm not sure what Joe has decided.

This is the right side of the mezzanine. This is where we are going to have an art gallery.

This is the kitchen that is down stairs. Its not much but we will have our good kitchen upstairs.

We are going to start pulling peg board down this weekend and start painting next week while we are on vacation!

We Really Have Windows!!!

2006-11-13T21:34:00.000-06:00

We really have windows now! Actual windows! :)
I didn't take any pictures from the inside but for now here ya go...A picture is worth a thousand words!!!

The Guardian

2006-11-10T23:55:00.000-06:00

Well I promised more pics so here you go :) Thursday I had a really really bad headache and figured some fresh air would help. So i picked up the camera and headed on over to Evergreen Cemetery. I had once heard that the population of Evergreen was greater than the population of Paris, so I Googled. Well for the first time Google didn’t work. I found a few sites that said 40,000 at least 2 sites that said 20,000 and two others that said 18,000 so I have no idea. Anyways...back to the pictures. Okay most people that know me know how big of a chicken I am about everything! And cemeteries are no exception. I'm one of those people that won’t walk across the graves. So you people should feel very loved that I actually went to a cemetery ALONE when it was starting to get dark!!(For some reason the pictures don’t always enlarge with a click so I hope these will)

The first two were some I just walked past while walking around. They were both for young girls. The top one was only 3 and the praying angel was 4 or 5.

And this is the one that got me a little bit freaked out. Yeah I know…it’s just a statue give me a break Kari. But like I said at the start of this post...I'm a chicken!!! :) When I approached this statue I got a much different feeling than the young girl's headstones. This angel, unlike most others, was masculine and sitting. And he wasn’t just sitting down...He was sitting with purpose. He wasn’t just there to look pretty for centuries to come...he was there to watch over this family laid to rest at his feet, as if he was their true guardian angel. The family spot was marked off with a concrete walk and I used that to get the perfect angle. I came upon him from his right, but nothing in the background but clear skies just made the whole picture to bright, so I walked in front of him. And as you can see in the picture he actually has detailed eyes. Most statues like this just have smooth eyes with no detail at all. It was as if his eyes followed me the whole walk across, and as I kneeled with tripod in hand, I just waited for him to break his gaze and blink or turn his head and look at me. I cant even describe the feeling this guy gave me but this is the only picture (other than one with a completely white background) I was brave enough to take. As I walked away from this guardian my hands were shacking a little, but hey maybe the family laid to rest here didn’t want people to linger and mourn them…so they decided to get a statue that would freak them out and run them off!! Worked for me! :) :)

Paris Sites

2006-11-06T17:34:00.000-06:00

Well Joe had to work late tonight so I figured I'd use the time to myself to go take some pictures around town. I told Mirk I would post a picture of the Jesus with Cowboy Boots so I added that to the list of where all I would stop by. But first I headed over to the Chamber of Commerce building (The old train depot). I got out the camera, took one quick bad shoot and the camera battery died :( So of course I didn’t get any good pictures tonight. I decided on the way home that after work every day I'm going to go and take a picture of one historic place in Paris. Who knows how many times I'll actually do it ;) But until then here is an old picture I took a year or two ago of the Jesus in Cowboy Boots!

Loft Pictures

2006-11-02T20:22:00.000-06:00

Blog is finally working again so here are the pictures I promised :)

The front with out the white signs. And one piece of the green sheet metal is down, it is covering the steel beam that goes all the way around the building and some more windows.

And here are our windows!!

I made Joe stand next to one so you could see how big they really are!

Loft Update

2006-11-01T21:42:00.000-06:00

We finally took the signs off the front of the building!! Larr and Josiah got to work on them on Sunday and it didn't take them long to get them down. The bricks are kind of dirty and there are a few bad spots from the nails that were holding the signs the up, but the important thing is that the brick was not painted green! We bought some chemicals that we are going to try on the brick that is painted green. Hopefully it will get the paint off so we don’t have to just paint it another color.
(Blogger is messing up :( so I'll post a picture tomorrow)

Oh yeah and we got out windows in today!!!!! Well they were delivered anyways!!!
The sealer that they will use has not come in yet. Mike said he wanted to get the windows in this week but it just depends on when that stuff comes in. So hopefully it will come in in a few days!! :)

(I would add another picture of the window but blogger won’t let me)

2nd Annual Daniel-Rhea Pumpkin Carving

2006-10-28T01:03:00.000-05:00

Tonight we had the 2nd Annual pumpkin carving for the Daniel & Rhea family. We started last year when Larr & Christi wanted to carve pumpkins and we all had such a great time we decided to do it again this year. This year Conor & Brendan wanted to join in the fun, and I think they had a good time. We all came out with really good pumpkins again this year!

Brendan gets just a little bit of help from Uncle Joe, while Conor works hard carving out his ghost.

Larr, Christi and Joe get to work on their pumpkins.

Larr's wolf, Christi’s winkin' devil and Brendan's Bat sitting on a Pumpkin

Joe's reaper, My witch (with a face coming out of her cauldron) and Conor's Ghost & Bats

Removing the Bricks...

2006-10-15T10:34:00.000-05:00

Well I promised another post and here it is…..
We met the contractor at the loft at about 9:45 and got to work pretty much right away. The guy had a dump truck that he parked along the sidewalk under the awning. Bobby (the contractor) and Joe rigged up a shoot like thingy with some plywood boards. They sat the boards up against the rods holding up the awning and then had one going from the awning into the truck, so the plan was for the bricks to fall straight down slide along the slope of the boards and into the dump truck. Well of course nothing works as it is supposed to!! I stood in the road to get cars to stay at least one lane away from the dump truck (leaving two other lanes open). Well with the first hit of the hammer brick just started flying!! They were going out into all the lanes of the road and I still cant believe no cars were hit!! After a little bit Bobby was finally able to get going where the bricks weren’t flying to bad and things were finally starting to go as planned (with lots of adjustments to the “shoot.” Once they got a rhythm down it took only about 30 mins a window. At about the last 4 Joe started getting the bottom half of the window while Bobby started on the next one. Once all the bricks were out we just swept all the debris up and Bobby took all the brick away. Joe’s mom brought us some plastic and staple guns so we could put plastic in the windows to keep out birds and hopefully if it rains it will keep that out too! Unfortunately the plastic came out because of the wind and the next day we had to go buy blue tarps and put them in the windows!

Here are some pictures of the day!

WE HAVE WINDOWS!!

2006-10-08T22:48:00.000-05:00

Or holes anyways!!
We started at about 9:45 and got home about 9:40.
And I'm going to bed. Just wanted to get a picture up real fast.
I'll post about the long day another time!

Loft Update

2006-09-23T10:53:00.000-05:00

Well we now have 9 squares out of 16 done! So only 7 left!! And they are all at least 50% done so we don’t have much more to do!! Salivation Army is supposed to move out of the bottom floor the 1st week in October so we will finally get to start getting the place ready to move the business! I think Joe is more ready for that than anything else! He has to drive a little bit to get out to work now and it’s a small area to work, and while his grandfather worked wonders in those small areas, Joe and I just can’t figure out how he was able to do it!! Joe was supposed to start pulling bricks out of the windows, but he had to put it off because he is getting so much business right now and he has to get frames done! Besides it’s ACTUALLY Raining!!! So he couldn’t do anything right now anyways!! Its been so long since we had a good rain! And this one has actually lasted at least 30 mins now! Much better than the 30 second rain we got like a week ago. I’m supposed to go talk to Mike Taylor today about how much it’s going to cost to get windows put in. Hopefully it wont be to much more than we are expecting and we can get at least two put in within the next two or three weeks. Once we are finished scraping the floor Joe has to sand them, and we have to get some kind of ventilation before he gets all that dust flying around! I’m going to try and get a few more pics of the loft today and if I do I’ll post them tonight. Not much to see other than a few squares with floor scattered all over them, but I like taking pictures of the progress!! I’m already planning the scrapbook!! :D

Paris in the evening

2006-09-17T13:07:00.000-05:00

I took this picture a few nights ago during the full moon and just thought I would share it with everyone. Just for the history for Mirk and Dan....since the city was named after Paris, France a much smaller version of the Eiffell Tower (standing 65' tall) was constructed. In 1998 a cowboy hat was added to it to make it "Texan."

Loft Work

2006-09-11T21:24:00.000-05:00

Here are some more pictures!!!
Last week we got a lot done and then during the weekend i swept it all up.

We also did a little bit of work on the front.

http://www.danielframes.com/inprogress3.htm

Little Visitor

2006-09-09T22:41:00.000-05:00

He was waiting for us in front of the door when we got home tonight.
Anyone know what kind it is? No Joe didnt kill it.....he just pushed it out into the yard and towards the neighbors... :)

Story of our life!

2006-09-05T18:10:00.000-05:00

Well Josiah decided to take a shot at the sign...I've been ready for it to come down for a while. So on Sunday Joe climbed up on top of the awning...and went to work! We mainly wanted to find out if the brick behind the sign was painted or not. Well Joe was able to pull the away from the wall and didn’t see green so we got a little excited because we thought he was seeing brick. But no....here is what we found........

Yes...ANOTHER SIGN!!!!! :( Another stinking sign!!! We only took down enough to expose the "O" and were just so frustrated we just went ahead and put everything up and went home....So there it is...the story of our lives.....nothing is as easy as you think its going to be...there will always be something else...
Oh well....I'll just have to complain a little bit more to get Joe to get the second sign down :D

Floor Pictures

2006-09-03T22:11:00.000-05:00

Here is a link to the floor pictures :)
http://www.danielframes.com/inprogress2.htm
Only a week after they were promised :D

Another "Vacation"

2006-08-27T22:09:00.000-05:00

Well I was on vacation last week and guess what I did……Yep…worked. I did actually get a good bit done on the floor at the loft. I will have to take some pictures tomorrow and get them posted. I spent one day sweeping up everything and the other days scraping :) the last two days though I had so many blisters on my hands (total of 5) that I did more resting then anything else. Luckily for me I had a cool place to go rest every now and then, I just walked right across the street, where I spend all my days when not on vacation, and took a break on the couch :) Well its getting late and Its back to work tomorrow…I’ll get pictures up soon I promise!! :)

What the…???

2006-08-08T23:18:00.000-05:00

What the heck is wrong with people now aday?? In the past two days I have heard one horrible story and been the victim of two stories that make you just say…’What in the heck is getting into people?!!?’
First, yesterday, Josiah and I went to his parent’s house to show his mom how to start his motorcycle (so when people are looking at it she can show them how) and he saw something on one of those shiny pipe things; at first we just thought it was like bird poop or something, but later on he realized…that’s an egg shell and that’s egg!! Someone had egged his motorcycle!! Who does that??? And…what…did they just happen to have an egg in the car??
Then, today, I read a story on Tass’ blog about a lady named Jane Tomlinson who is suffering from terminal cancer and cycling from San Francisco to New York to raise money for charity. She had reached the halfway point and was cycling along the road when some ****** in a dodge pickup threw a full can of coke at her as they drove past!! Another….WHO DOES THAT, REALLY???
Joy (my sister-in-law) and I have been riding bikes and occasionally rollerblading for the past week and decided to change it up today and go walking/running. So we left from my house and started walking down the road to get to the mile track just down the road. Well, as we are walking some guys drive past us and honk and yell...of course we just ignored them and gave them that look…you know the look…you’ve either given the look or received the look at some point in time (depending on if you are a girl or guy). So we carry on about our merry way and walk, and run a little, for two miles and then head back to my house. We are running along talking, minding our own business when something hit my arm…and it hurt! Joy was like…”they just threw a tennis ball at us”…which my reply was “yeah and it hit me!!” After it clicked what really happened I really wanted to just pick up the ball and take off after them and HURL that ball at their little bitty old crappy POS!!!! I mean seriously!! Who throws stuff at people biking and running down the road!! We think it was the same guys that yelled at us on our way to the track because it looked like the same car….maybe it was…maybe it wasn’t.
But three stories that really just make you think….what is wrong with people!!?!?!?!?

Cat vs. Dog?

2006-07-25T14:23:00.000-05:00

Our little Wicket is continuing to go against the natural order of things…Normally a dog sees a cat in its back yard and what does it do? Chases that stupid cat out and scares it so bad it doesn’t come back for some time right? Well not the case for Wicket. About a week ago Joe and I noticed Wicket standing the backyard just staring at something and barking every now and again, so we went out to investigate and there was a cat just sitting along the bushes on the back fence. We stood at the door telling Wicket “Go get it…make it leave your backyard” So he started to move a little closer and bark a little bit more fiercely and then run back to the front of the yard…he did this little circle for a while before the cat FINALLY decided to make its move. It got up and started to come towards Wick at little bit…by this time Wicket was standing in the dirt area were all the monkey grass used to be…and dirt went flying!! I’ve never seen that little dog move so fast!! His poor little back legs couldn’t even keep up and he was dragging his butt behind him! I will say it was the most pitiful thing I have ever seen!! Once the cat was out of the yard he went to the fence where it jumped over and started barking as if saying….”yeah…and never come back” as if it was him who had finally scared the stupid thing away and not his Daddy heading out the door. So you would think…maybe that will build up his confidence and next time he will try a little harder to scare the cat away…but NO. I went to let him back inside this morning and noticed he was just laying in the dirt staring towards the back fence…he was actually just laying there and not barking, staring at that same dad gum cat! The whole scene played out just the same; me having to tell Wicket to “get ‘em” and the cat finally running off when I headed out to scare it off. This time he went though the bamboo and Wicket followed to keep him moving. The cat jumps the fence and that should be the end of the story right. Well Wicket got so far back in the bamboo he started acting a little freaked out when he tried to come back out...but a few seconds later he finally made his way out of the bamboo and back into the house. I think it is clear that I am the proud owner of the most chicken dog in the world!!

Tour de Paris

2006-07-16T20:06:00.000-05:00

Well sorry it’s been such a long time since I have made a post and I still haven’t gotten those loft pictures up that I promised...but I've had an excuse!! :) The 22nd Annual Tour de Paris was the 15th and all last week Joy, Brendan and I were "training", except for Tuesday and Friday. The tour started at 8:00am Saturday at Paris High School. Michael, Connor, Crystal, Brendan, and Joy all meet here at the house and we just rode to the school since it was so close! Brendan, Joy and I did the 9 mile trail while the rest did the 25. Brendan is only 7 years old so the 9 miles was pretty impressive!! He did an awesome job and says he had a great time, he came in third place!!! Joy and I also had more fun than we thought we would and are already planning on getting new bikes and participating again next year. We hope to be able to do the 25 mile, but we will just have to wait and see. On our way to the finish line Josiah meet up with us on his roller blades and took some pictures! Here we are on our way to the finish!

Almost there!!

Brendan toughing it out to the very end!!

Rich vs Poor

2006-06-30T09:03:00.000-05:00

Between 1997 and 2006 the minimum wage has not been raised and it's been the longest period the wage hasn't been increased, ever. Just more proof that the rich continue to get richer and the poor get poorer.

Whats ironic, is that the people who are making less money or minimum wage tend to be the people working the hardest or dealing with the most crap. I say, lets pay politicians minimum wage and let's get some people who will work harder for us.

Ouch, That Hurt!

2006-06-27T20:40:00.000-05:00

Why are schools banning games that teach kids to resolve disputes, learn from others, and games that excercise their bodies and problem solving skills? Check out this article about schools banning games in the name of safety.

I guess we could just send our kids to school under constant supervision, strap them down in their seats so they wont be a danger to themselves or others, and feed them through a straw like the invalids we are raising them to be. While were at it.. Let's not teach them to poop in the toilet either...They might fall in!

And so it begins...

2006-06-13T15:06:00.000-05:00

We started working on the loft Sunday! We didn’t do much at all really…I just got everything out of the middle of the floor and swept. Its amazing the difference just a little bit of cleaning will do. Joe started pulling down the peg board that is covering the side walls. He also started working on pulling up the tile floor stuff. Of course it didn’t come up as easily as we had hoped! Why would it?! So we didn’t get very far at all with that. I am going to start gathering up all the info I need to start getting to ready to talk to the historic society. For those of you who don’t know there is a group of people here in Paris that can tell you what to do and what not to do with your own, historic, property. Now I totally get that they want to keep everything historic but sometimes they can go over board and don’t let you do something because they personally don’t like it. We ran into problems with them at StarNet when we did remolding, but I can tell you they aren’t going to push me around with our building like they did StarNet. Although I really don’t see us having any problems considering everything we are wanting to do is going to be taking it back to the historical look they are going for. The only thing we are going to have a problem with is going to be the brick. Right now it is painted green….UGLY Green! (What is it with me and Joe running into ugly green paint colors….) We want to sandblast it and try to get the paint off to take it back down to the original brick color…but how easy it will be to convince them that is the right thing to do and how good it will work is a different story. The only other major thing we are wanting to do is open the windows back up….and tell me why in the world would they have a problem with that?? I just can’t wait to get started!!! We have stopped working on our house now since we are pretty much done so Saturday we got to just sit around for the first time in a LONG time. Joe enjoyed it, he took a nap, but me….well….to tell you the truth I was absolutely totally and utterly bored out of my mind!!! I don’t like to just sit around and not do anything you know…I like doing stuff. But I know once we get started working and doing all this hard work all over again I am going to wish we were done!
I'll add some pictures along the side tonight or tomorrow. Keep an eye out for em..

Trashy News

2006-06-12T16:47:00.000-05:00

Sunday evening Kari and I went on a brief cycle ride around and about our neighborhood and on some of the more ‘back’ roads in order for me to pick up some aluminum cans. That’s right, cans. I’m on an ‘aluminum can kick’, especially after finding out that they are selling for approx. 74 cents per pound. It takes around 26 cans to make a pound. You do the math.

Needless to say, during our journey we found and saw more than just cans, or should I say, more than just –beer cans-. Initially, after seeing cans and bottles and other crap littering the sides of our roads, we thought we might pick up the litter too, but we soon came to find out how ill equipped we were for such a task and decided to stick to just cans.

We’ve suddenly become extremely aware of how incredibly polluted our environment is while I’ve been on this ‘can kick’. It has started rubbing off on Kari, now as we drive to destination A, we both can’t help but acknowledge how many cans are on the side of the road, along with all of the other crap. Did you know that for each pound of aluminum recovered, Americans save the energy resources to generate about 7.5 Kilowatt-hours of electricity? That’s enough energy to meet the electric needs of a city the size of Pittsburgh, PA for six years. But HERE, don’t take my word for it.

‘Why is the litter situation in itself so bad?’ we ask ourselves, what makes people so uncaring? I try not to think about it anymore, it just makes my head hurt. Maybe it’s the lack of education? I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, “Stupid people litter, smart people fine you for it.” Or it was something to that effect. It really makes me want to station a couple of video cameras so as to catch the fools in the act, although it probably wouldn’t be admissible in a court of law for some reason…I guess I’ll stick to picking up cans, unless I run across some homeless person doing the same thing. Perhaps one day I'll even start picking up the litter...I might make it 10 feet down a road a night.

Wicket's Loft Living preparations

2006-06-05T21:41:00.000-05:00

We started preparing Wicket for the no lawn in the future thing last week. We got him a dog litter box this week. Weird huh..I had never heard of dog litter but someone told me about it and I looked it up and sure enough. We really thought it would be easy to train Wick to use the box, he was so easy to train on everything else so why would this be different? Well that little dog was scared of it the first day!! He was very skeptical when walking up to it...I finally had to actually pick him up and put him in it, at that point he freaked out and ran out and off! It was kinda funny actually. Now when we put him in it he just sits there looking at us like...'ummm what am I supposed to do now'. I know its only been like 4 days but still...I'm not patient! We've still got a several months to get him ready for the transition, I'm just not looking forward to the possibility of having to clean up messes! I remember that from when he was a Pup and I hated it!
We've almost got this house finished!! All that is left to to nail the base board up and do touch ups. Once that is done the bathroom is it and then we will be done!!! Joe still has 4 days before his vacation so he has got to get to work fast :)

Good News for the ANWR!

2006-06-01T21:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the senate rejected oil drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge(ANWR)! This has been a hot topic for me recently. I've been arguing on the side of the senate hoping they would not allow the drilling because we know Bush would have let it happen. Like a co-worker said "When it comes to oil, I don’t see Bush as a president but as an oil-man," since we all know he is involved with Halliburton. Yes, Bush keeps saying that we are "addicted" to oil yet he was pushing for the senate to pass the bill to drill in Alaska, and then he goes and visits Biodiesel (a company working on alternative fuel sources) and talks about how much he loves "the innovative spirit of our entrepreneurs in this country" but yet after searching and searching for literally hours (just ask Joe) I cant find a SINGLE dollar amount that is being set aside to help these innovative spirits achieve their goals!! Isn’t it kind of contradictory to say what he is saying, but then turn around and try to move to Alaska for about 5 more years worth of oil, now, when we still have at least 15 years worth of oil reserved or in production? Not only that, but the government is also giving tax breaks to those who buy Hummers and any other gas guzzling SUV (A good thing gone bad that has still not been fixed).

If we started drilling in Alaska that would give the government another 5 years(Approx) to put alternative resources on the back shelf! I mean give me a break....haven’t they been saying since at least the 1950's, and earlier, that we are going to run out of oil and we need to find something else. Yet the government has always pushed it to the back...we still have time. Enough is enough...stop putting it off and do something!!
Why does Japan have more fuel efficient cars than us?? I mean Toyota (Japanese automaker) had 3 hybrid cars in production before Ford (American automaker) finally decided they should get with the times and develop one!

Our fellow blogger, Tass, said he is paying about $6.00 a gallon, yet you don’t hear him and his fellow countrymen crying about the high gas price there. We are only paying $2.60 and yet we complain, why is that?...Because I am sure Tass' car probably gets way better gas mileage than the average American's vehicle. That is why the $6 doesn’t kill them like it does us, or maybe it does, I’m not sure, but it stands to reason that they need less....we need more to fill up our Escalades, Hummers, Expeditions and Excursions. Next time you watch a film or see a photo that was shot in Japan or Europe...look at all the little cars then look around next time you’re on the road... BIG trucks and SUVs as far as the eye can see. And no, I don’t think they will make the move to alternative resources overnight! But why is America taking so much longer to get at least more fuel efficient cars.

Well I didn’t do much talking about Alaska…but I for one am VERY happy the senate voted against the bill and did their part in actually protecting some of our American wildlife.

Here Here!

A Quick Take II: updated

2006-05-30T10:31:00.000-05:00

We finally went to see a new movie at the theatre which happens to be a semi-controversial flick called, ‘The Da Vinci Code’. 'Why is THIS movie so controversial?' I was thinking throughout the movie. Ironically enough, I believe it is because it makes people question their faith, and ardent evangelical church members do not take too kindly to their brothers and sisters questioning what they believe. Still, ask someone why the Da Vinci code movie is so controversial and they'll most likely say because it depicts Jesus in an uncharacteristic light. If that was the case, no one but sadists, atheists and agnostics would go see this movie. It simply depicts Jesus in a different light. Can you not be human and divine at the same time, even if you’re the son of God? Is it against the rules? And who exactly makes these rules, God? Why is it so unrealistically unfathomable that Jesus might have sired children? Fact is, this movie does no more damage to faith in God, then does the 'The Lion King' or 'The Prophecy' movies.
---
Then there is the argument as someone last night pointed out, that if Jesus had sired children, then he wouldn't be the 'spotless lamb' that the bible claims him to be. -Who makes these rules?- Also, this person points out that the son of God, or God in human form would not have sired children because, 'what is the point?' Why would God want to have fathered a child, it seems unrealistic and unfathomable. I said, becuase he wanted to experience it, to which was said, that he is God, he is all knowing, he knows what it would feel like. So I let it be. Perhaps, what I should have said, is that God works in mysterious ways. WHAT a mystery, eh? Perhaps not if you are a true believer. Perhaps so, if you believe there is more to the bible then is told.
---

So what did I think of the movie? I thought it was really great; it seemed to really bring the book to life, which they followed remarkably close. Still, and as always, the book was much better.

Loft Pictures

2006-05-23T09:56:00.000-05:00

Loft Pictures added to the photo galleries.

1 year!

2006-05-21T21:33:00.000-05:00

We got to eat the top section of our wedding cake today in celebration of our 1 year anniversary!! Seems like only a couple of days ago! We went to the bridge today and it was almost as hot, but man the breeze would have been nice last year!!

It's Official!!

2006-05-20T21:39:00.000-05:00

Closing was on Tuesday for the Old Swaim Hardware building! Hopefully the Salvation Army will be moving out soon so we can get to work on getting the downstairs ready for the Framing Studio and the upstairs ready for our loft!!

We went ahead and put a For Sale sign in the front yard! We are going to try and sale it ourselves first and maybe get a realtor later.

We went on the Loft Tours downtown this afternoon and I have become VERY excited about getting our future residence livable. I was nervous about the whole move at first but now that I have seen other people do it and have seen how much we can do I'm eager! There really is SO MUCH we can do!! Joe is Really excited about refinishing the floors. The original wood is still there!!

One person had a deck on the roof just like what I want so I know it can be done!! A few others had a sun room type thing which we can do in the back room once we unbrick all the windows! I will of course get pictures of the loft once we start cleaning it up and stuff and post them on here for everyone to see!

Happy Mother's Day

2006-05-14T22:20:00.000-05:00

Hope all you mother's had a great mother's day!

Wedding Gallery

2006-05-12T09:08:00.000-05:00

I started the wedding photo gallery
Look along the left to find it!

Then & Now

2006-05-07T20:34:00.000-05:00

Well here ya go!!
Before & After Pictures of our House!

The Best Cure

2006-04-28T10:27:00.000-05:00

I wasn’t going to bring this topic up, because I know most would disagree with me, but here goes anyways…feel free to disagree.

I couldn’t have said it better myself. "At the end of the day, the best cure for high gas prices is high prices." It forces us to either come up with another, hopefully cleaner, method of propulsion, or to get use to curbing our “Addiction”.

Addiction or necessity, to me it doesn’t matter, we have too long become complacent in the idea that our ‘civilized’, ‘we’re the best’, ‘we deserve more’, ‘bigger is better’ attitude has finally got to come to an end. This mindset has plagued our culture for far too long. It’s time we all just grow up… Sure high gas prices hurt, but what’s more hurtful, high gas prices, or our whiny national attitude? I wonder what Europe thinks about us and our ‘high gas prices’. Don’t they pay around 7 or 8 dollars a gallon there?

A Different Kind of Energy

2006-04-27T15:28:00.000-05:00

Anyone who doesn't believe wind farms are beautiful should be shunned and depreciated as responsible humans. What's more beautiful then a machine that can harness the power of nature (cleanly) for our own benefit?

This just doesn't make sense to me at all.. The politics behind wind farms should be condemned as un-American. Did you know they've shutdown windfarms or had legal battles over the fact that they might kill migrating birds, bats etc? Politics or truth, I ask you. If birds can't stay away from a few hundred blades whipping through the air, then they are obviously not respectable birds in my humble opinion, however, from everything that I've read, it appears to be more politics then truth. The effect of wind farms on wildlife is extremely minimal, much less minimal then the effect of cars, sky scrapers, hunters and noxious gas producing power plants. Why opponents of wind farms even have a leg to stand on, is beyond me. The people who couldn't care less about these animals appear to be the ones battling the issue in favor of them, instead of the environment, which really makes sense. Politics be damned in my opinion. Politics be damned...

We have molding!!

2006-04-18T21:16:00.000-05:00

After sitting in the middle of the living room floor for a long time the molding was moved to the blue room next to Wicket's room (we had to put a towel over it because he was scared of it and wouldn't jump over it to get to his room) and has now finally been moved to its rightful place, the walls!!! We ended up just paying someone to come hang it....it wasn't going to get done any other way and I was ready to get it over with! And now it looks awesome!! All we have left to do is sanding where I filled in the nail holes and then do touch ups. We have already done that on most of the molding but still have to finish some of the living room and all of the study. It just finishes the walls out so well and the off white looks just awesome against the dark sage-ish color in the study! I LOVE IT!! Now All we have to do is get the base board done.....not holding my breath :)

In the kitchen and dinning room

close up of the molding

In the study

His Own Worst Enemy

2006-04-07T11:01:00.000-05:00

He's still at it. And how best to describe his actions, and his followers, then by a quote.

“When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.” --George Bernard Shaw

Phelps is a byproduct of his own bigotry and hatred. The only reason he has followers at all, is because of the foulness of his message. These People who follow such a 'so called man' are obviously only attracted to the controversy, noise and putrid stench that surrounds him, like flies to dog shit.

He says God is punishing America and soldiers and so forth. I wonder what he would say about himself, if, by some freakish accident, his arms, legs and nether regions suddenly burst into torturous flames, melting his very skin from his bones? What so called divine message would he have then? Who's to say what God is doing, his actions are obviously beyond our comprehension, to talk for him, would be to devalue him. Maybe what God needs, is our understanding, appreciation and Love? Should we even suggest what God needs, or should we just do well by him and let him do the rest?

I'm Feeling LUCKY

2006-04-06T17:23:00.000-05:00

Do this.

Go to www.google.com

Type in "miserable failure"

Hit the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.

Laugh out loud if you must.

Green TV

2006-04-06T17:09:00.000-05:00

If you have some time at work or home to enjoy a new, great broadband TV channel dedicated to environmental issues, visit Green.tv, it's free, it's important and best of all, it's educational. This site has become my new favorite place to visit on a regular basis. The images alone, in the short documentaries are worth the visit.

Why We Watch

2006-04-06T13:32:00.000-05:00

I’m writing this, so people who might take offense to my previous post, (no, not the one about racism, which I think is a much more important issue) the one about the fact that American idol is a goofy program, so everyone will understand where I’m coming from. Sorry for any hurt feelings, I’m just trying to illicit some responses about a very, in my eyes, important issue, which is only our way of life, or rather, or current way of life and the fragility of it.

Everyone should agree that America, and possibly, the world, though I’m not sure, watches entirely too much television. Kids are more likely now to spend more time on the Internet, playing video games or watching T.V. instead of reading or playing outside. Adults or, I guess the elderly, as well, although some would disagree, are addicted to the tube and TIVO, despite the fact that they did not grow up subjected to the set. Why have our habits as a nation created us and molded us into couch potatoes, relaxing and munching on snacks as images of violence, sex, and profanity wash over our sentient brains. Have we become too complacent in the times we live in to even explore what effects this is causing on our generation and future generations?

Something must be done, research needs to be conducted on so many areas that we are neglecting. We are subjecting infants and toddlers to new media, and we are still unaware of the impact this is having on our children. Media immersion begins early with Baby Einstein videos and Teletubbies before children can even walk or talk, and then it soars. It is critical we learn more. According to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation in the United States, children aged eight to 18 have an average media usage of six hours and 21 minutes daily. So, basically half of all children’s waking hours are spent staring at a TV or computer screen. And don’t even get me started on the stats when it comes to how many murders or sexual acts children witness on the tube before they turn 18. Let’s just say it’s in the hundreds of thousands.

If we knew the effect television has on our society, would we continue to watch, or would be floored to find out what has become of our great nation due to pixilated images making mush out of our fragile, yet resilient brains? What is so important that we must tune in every day to our ‘favorite’ television programs? Has entertainment finally or has it always gotten the better of us?

The fact is, television shows brainwash. Don’t believe me? Try not watching your favorite show next week and take note of how you feel knowing that you may never see that episode again. You’ll hear your brains contriving ungodly things. ‘Not a problem,’ it will say, ‘I’ll just get the DVD set when it comes out.’ ‘Ha, I’ll just go over to my friends house, they always TIVO it.’ ‘Man, I wonder what happened…hmm…oh well, there will be previews, that’s good enough..or is it?’ What things go through your mind? Do you get angry, depressed or sad? We should all know the answer to this. What show was it that they had to replay because so many people made a fuss that they didn’t get to see the very end of it?

The more you watch, the more you want to watch, until your brain just gets sick of it all and tries it’s hardest to tell your body to do something. Do we really want to train our brain to accept what it doesn’t really want to accept? How twisted and messed up will we make ourselves when we stop doing what our body must do to stay alive and healthy?

I’m guilty of it too. I watch stupid, goofy ass shows just like everyone else. I would watch ‘Blow Out’ 24-7 if my body would let me and it’s basically a long advertisement focusing on an egomaniac, hell bent on selling his products and making a name for him self. It’s sad, but true, and it’s working for him. He’s making money, along with everyone else spewing their ideals and everything else at you via a nonchalant household conversation piece.

We watch for so many reasons, mainly, escapism. I know that’s why I watch ‘Blow Out’. I know I’ll never live in Beverly Hills and be able to afford thousand dollar hair stylist appointments or be able to do up a famous persons do. Same reason I watch ‘Lost’, to escape reality, and the same reason I love SciFi. Reality to me, is something I’d like to avoid when I watch Television, I get enough of that during the day, dealing with all sorts of people, who are normally conversing about what they saw on the tube last night. It sometimes makes me ill. But its life and I’m use to it. I even get in on it sometimes, when it’s the same thing I watch, which is rarely. Go figure. Why can’t everyone find the humor and amazing messages that South Park point out in their amazingly funny episodes? God love em, because, most Christians obviously don’t, but that’s another post that will probably never happen.

I’ll leave you with one last question; make that two and a couple rhetorical. Do you let television rule your life? And, is this what we want for your children?

No, I don’t let it rule my life, or do I? Hmm, Thank God for TiVo, eh?

America The Beautiful, Not Productive

2006-04-05T14:20:00.000-05:00

America is falling dreadfully behind in almost every area of business, technology and education. China, Korea, Malaysia, even India are surpassing our once supreme economy that was once the envy of the world.

Why is this occurring and why hasn't America come out of the slumber that we are in? Are we too concerned with terrorism, safety and entertainment for us to notice what's happening with our "strong" economy?

Do you know that we spend more on national defense then all other nations combined?
Did you know that we are losing highly educated people to other countries that are actually developing new technologies and putting them into action at an alarming pace? Half of IBM's 190,000 engineers and technical experts now reside overseas.

Why is GM spending so much on advertising their huge gas guzzling autos instead of focusing on alternatives like Toyota who is poised to take over GM as the world’s largest carmaker?

While we watch The Super Bowl and drink beer, many students in China are finishing up their fourth book on quantum physics. It's a fact that their educational system, along with other countries, is far beyond ours, and has been for quite some time, why? Why are we so complacent to lead fat, lazy, stupid, happy lives while we watch our economy take a back seat to other nations? Why are Americans the last to know what's happening in the world? Do we not care? Have we gotten too complacent in the times we live or are we just ignorant due to the propaganda of our nation being spewed all over us every time we sit down to watch an episode of ‘American Idol’ or some other goofy ass program?

How long will it be, before we can no longer support ourselves without the help of other nations? Is our laziness a good thing? Should we all just give up our economic status and the benefits that come with it so we can live off the land like our forefathers?

How do you define progress? Is progress a good thing, or does it just teach us that regression is an important part of life? How much longer will we be able to live our style of life at the rate we are going? Why are we not doing more?

Happy Birthday!!

2006-03-30T16:13:00.000-06:00

Well...Happy LATE Birthday Josiah!
Hope you had a great one!

Stupid Game

2006-03-24T15:45:00.000-06:00

Click for a larger viewI liked this one so I thought I would share it with everyone!
Go to this link for more Calvin & Hobbes funnies.

Craz'ism Prizzay

2006-03-21T22:53:00.000-06:00

This subject is somewhat touchy to ultra sensitive for most people to talk about, so I'll try to be as brutal as possible.

Racism.

You may not even know you're a racist, or you may not care you are a racist. You may try to hide your racism by being overly nice to those who are different from you, or you may not be racist at all, although that is much less likely. And still some may not even know what racism is.

So what is racism?

Dictionary.com defines racism as being 'discrimination or prejudice based on race'. Meaning, members of one race prefer their race to another by using only preconceived notions about that race, religion or philosophy.

Anyone who has studied psychology knows about the study that shows that most white people have an implicit bias towards black people. What this means, is that most white people have a harder time associating black people with positive words, such as, happy, or awesome. Put a picture of a black person with a word such as 'convict', and for some reason, white people just agree and wouldn't question that such a thing would be false. Whoever said Justice is blind, was obviously not a psychologist. Well, now there is a new study saying that there is a strong correlation between having voted for Bush and having an implicit racial bias. While pretty much all white people have somewhat of an implicit bias, white Republicans had more of one than white Democrats.

So now you know that what you are feeling may not be right. But maybe racism has its place in the annals of modern society for a reason. Perhaps racism exists for a reason that we have yet to realize. I believe everything in nature is working towards a harmonic balance. Maybe it stands to reason that today’s racism is a counterbalance to tomorrows 'total acceptance'.

So where do we go from here? Do we point out this implicit bias that exists in most white people? Can we truly ever be fair and just as a nation united in its' distrust of black America? Perhaps one day we will be able to judge people on their character, and not the color of their skin...I'm pretty sure Martin Luther King Jr. said it much better than I ever could. We are definitely products of our environment.. Let’s try to make the environment our kids grow up in a healthy one, in more ways then one.

Note: I scored as having an approximately equal preference,
See what you score here

We have an Infestation!

2006-03-14T13:48:00.000-06:00

No, not a roach infestation…..not a termite infestation…..worse….a Bamboo infestation! It’s horrible!! I started working on it on the 3rd, the plan was just let me clean this bamboo up a little and then start finishing painting the house…well then that turned into an all weekend project…mainly just breaking some of the bigger ones and pulling up the really small brand new ones. Well then the 11th I figured cant be much more work to do…now I’ll start pulling down the really big ones and start pulling up some of those roots. Little did I know what I was actually getting myself into! It’s not just like, oh there’s a root…lets pull it up…of course not! It’s actually like, oh man there’s another one!! Lets start Digging it up and oh crap there’s one crossing over so I need to get that one first….man another cross over….gesh how many are there!!!! And it keeps on going and going and going like that! The bamboo first killed my Rose of Sharon and it actually looks like it started to kill it self because there was so much!! There was even a bird that looks like it got trapped in there and died. I’m still not even close to being done and I’ve spent two whole weekends on the mess!! But it is starting to look better…although now I have a huge pile of bamboo in the middle of the yard with no idea what to do with it! Any ideas anyone!?!? Until next weekend it just stands there haunting my dreams….literally! I close my eyes and I see bamboo roots being unearthed!!! I really can’t even put into words how bad it is!! Maybe these pictures will help a little bit…..but it’s much worse than the pictures can even begin to show!!

These are the ends of stalks I have broken off....I had to bend them down and then jump up and down till they cracked then fished cutting them with some tree trimmer things....

Here is the pile of bamboo I pulled down...this was before I finsihed....that pile is like twice as big now!

The line is where the bamboo came out to when I first started. You can kinda tell that it is even over in our neighbor's yard...It runs down her fence and to the other side of her yard also...

Why, materialism?

2006-03-09T16:33:00.000-06:00

Remember when you were young and you didn't know the difference between Nike and K-Swiss or New Balance and Puma? Remember when you could wear hand me down clothes without thinking twice about it? What about that first car you had that you were so excited about, but since it was most likely used and abused you didn't think twice about that extra ding you got while shopping at Wal-Mart. Wasn't it great not caring whether someone gently rear ended you, or that someone who accidentally spilled coke in your floor board? It was as if you had all of the luxury and satisfaction of being able to wheel yourself around without the stress or burdens imposed on you when that rock from the driver in front of you suddenly nails your windshield with a bulls-eye.

What happened to those days? What causes the materialistic culture that surrounds us to silently, methodically creep into our own, uninhibited lives? Is it due to the fact that we spent so much money on our precious that we can't bare to see harm come to it? Is it societies way of keeping us in track with the lives of others who care more so about their possessions then human well-being? And if so, what happens when we reject the social phenomenon that is keeping us at bay by employing actions that could be certainly described as loony. Such as parking where no other vehicles could possibly open a car door into your own, or continually buying new clothes so people don't remember you re-wearing the same thing, or possessing such crazy things as thousand dollar watches or accessories. What has society made us into?

I, for now on, shall be conscious of my actions when it comes to matters of a materialistic nature, and I shall reject philistinism for a much more appreciable way of life. Don't be a slave to materialism any longer and perhaps one day society will yield to you and wake up from this so called lifestyle of physicalistic behavior.

Wha wha whaaAAT?

2006-02-27T09:44:00.000-06:00

I thought my head was seriously about to pop off while reading this.

I am whole heartily appalled and speechless at this type of unrelenting, malevolent, loathsome behavior on the part of so-called Christians... at least someone is fighting the good fight. way to go PGR.

I'm amazed that people think this type of behavior is helping, when in fact it only adds to the hurt. Shame on them for attempting to put guilt on someone who's already lost so much. If I was to speak to these people face to face, I would obviously have to say 'if they want to help, then perhaps they should consider their primary respsonsibility to others is to leave them the hell alone.'

Happy B-Day!

2006-02-18T21:03:00.000-06:00

Happy 3rd/21st Birthday
Wicket

None Too Bright

2006-02-14T16:04:00.000-06:00

We roll out of bed, like a slumbering fool.

We brush and we scrub, but mostly we drool.

We put on our skins and adjust our wigs.

We leave our homes, I call it, my digs.

We plant our bottoms in the seat of our cars.

We pop into traffic as if we're from Mars.

We brake with force then we give it a gas.

We do nothing too cautiously, except maybe pass.

We have finally done it, we've entered the race.

We speed through life at an ungodly pace.

We are driven to live, or so we should be.

We sit pondering the future, alone but free.

We work by the hour, hoping not to be seen.

We visit the cooler and converse, not to be mean.

We end our day with enthusiasm, but alas, begin a new.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring, perhaps, the flu.

Helping our Children

2006-02-12T13:44:00.000-06:00

After a long break from the blog posting world I thought I would let everyone know that Joe hasn’t killed me yet...I am still here :)Just thought I would update everyone on what I have been up to!
Well first off, my second semester of Accounting started and it has started to kick my little bootie already! Thankfully I'm not the only person in the class not flying through like I did last semester! We did get a little break when our teacher's son got really sick and she had to miss two days of classes...thankfully he has gotten much better and its back to class as normal. We are actually doing all the corporation accounting this time and it’s a lot more complicated then you would think! We were assigned to pick one corporation that we wanted to do research on and follow their stocks and news releases for the whole semester. I was tossing back and forth either going with a company that I wanted to find out more stuff about so when I argue with people about why they should not support Abercrombie and Fitch I would have more ammo and be able to tell just how bad they are probably ripping you off....not to mention all their bad morals....but I decided to go with a company whose products I love and Josiah and I have given as a gift every chance we get! Leapfrog Enterprises! So far I have found out even more great stuff that they do which makes me want to support them even more! They are actually out there doing good things for the community, instead of basically promoting porn and selling inappropriate clothing to children and teenagers! I think that every child I have gotten a present for recently it has been Leapfrog...with the exception of Ace (my fav kiddo ever!) which I have also given some really really Cute clothes too! :)
Leapfrog started when a father couldn’t find any good educational toys for his son and decided to develop the toys himself. They now offer systems for the classrooms and I believe they actually care about the future generations! Like the Alphabet Bus we got Ace for his bday...he loves playing with that and its teaching him his ABC's and what sounds the letters make, I've also seen him enjoy his LeapPad (which his grandparents got him for his bday) which is teaching him words and many other things...if it gets set in his head at this early of an age that learning is fun it will probably stick with him better than the kid who grows up doing nothing at all but watching TV constantly (not that I am saying kids who watch TV are going to be stupid...you know what I mean). To get to my point....LeapFrog enterprises is a WONDERFUL company who has their heads in the right place! Our children are the future and don’t you want to see them grow and make our country and our world a better place than it is today! So next time you need another gift for a child and you just don’t know what they like...go to your local store and pick them up any of the leapfrog systems and I promise the smiles that will follow will be worth it a thousand times over!
And second...well....there is nothing else...school and work is about it....and nothing exciting really ever happens at work...