Proud Homeowners

We decided to close our eyes and jump off the mountain a few hours ago. We are the proud owners of a great home in Frankford, WV. (It's the same one that we posted pictures of.)

We're very excited, and you are all very welcome to come visit anytime you want.

Contract is Signed!!

The HR lady at the Osteopathic School mailed me a copy of my acceptance letter but it had the wrong start date on it. So, I told them instead of mailing me a new one, I'd just show up and sign the contract (w/ the correct start date) in person, because I'd be in town for my nephew's graduation.

Then, we went to the bank and got pre-approved for a loan. Now we have to decide what house (if any) we'd like to buy. Conquer one hurdle, face another one. But it's all part of the journey, and we're very grateful for what we have.

Possible House in WV

We have found a potential house in WV. It is located just outside Frankford, WV, which is about 10 miles north of Lewisburg and the Osteopathic school.

We really like this house. A lot!!

It's very cozy but has a lot of room to grow in.

It's on 2 acres and has a great view of the mountains in the distance.

We're very excited about this house, and we hope everything works out.

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Even though I had planned to take the day off today, I still went to work. But I did duck out early and go to a cookout with friends. We played wiffleball and had a cookie cake. It was good times.

I got the job!!

On my day off last week, I got a call from the HR lady at the O-School. She told me I got the job!!

And we're very excited about the opportunity. I'll keep you posted as more details come to light.

Tairy Greene's Acting Seminar for Children

I got my nephew Noah to become a proud student of Tairy Greene's.



(Just in case you have no clue what this means, watch this video)

Scavenger Hunt

A quick warning: I'm not advocating gays in the military here.

This is actually me helping my team win a video scavenger hunt. One of the challenges was "Get a picture of someone kissing a statue." So, we went to downtown Lynchburg to find the only statue we could think of: the war memorial on the steps leading up to the courthouse. It was a tall statue, so guess who got put in charge of kissing? That's right, the tall guy.

I'm not even sure if my team won, but I feel like we should have. One of the other groups got a picture of someone kissing a magazine photo with a statue. Big freakin' wow!! I planted one on G.I. Joe.

Why America is Great (in less than five minutes)

Here's a succinct explanation as to why America is the greatest country on Earth:

Lawn and Garden Care (plus a warning about being tall)

I've been out in the yard quite a bit lately. I have to have my house "sale ready" by Memorial Day. Part of that means doing some much-needed work yard and flower beds.

I mowed three times this week, and yesterday, I weeded the gardens and put down some fresh mulch. Today, I'm going to rake leaves and take trash to the dump.

Side note: If you're tall, never go to Wal-Mart wearing an all blue shirt, because people (especially old women) think you work there. The same goes for wearing an all red shirt to Target -- same thing happens to me there, too.

I got approached twice yesterday about where stuff was in the store. Old lady #1 wanted to know where hoses were. Because I actually knew where they were and I didn't want to make her feel bad, I just played along with it and told her where to go. Old lady #2 was looking for birdbaths. I didn't know where birdbaths were, so I politely told her I didn't work there, and she was half-embarassed, half-pissed. I felt terrible.

A Very "Bud" Week

We were very blessed to have my mom's cousin, Carol, stay at our house this week. She is the youngest of three sisters, and when her family used to come to our house growing up, they called my brothers and I "Bud." So, we called them "Bud" right back, and the name stuck. Now, all of her sisters and all of my borthers (and, by assimilation, any of our spouses and/or children) are collectively known as "The Buds." It's funny how things like this start.

Anyway, Carol lives in Texas, but she is getting her Master's Degree in counseling via distance ed from Liberty University -- which just so happens to be about 10 miles from our house. Her degree requires her to take three week-long courses on-site, and this was her third - and final :( - trip to see us. This makes us very sad, but it was really cool to have her over.

Live United

Yesterday, I got to duck out of work early to partcipate in United Way Day 2009. We dug a sandbox at the salvation Army Day Care.



That's what it looked like before we put the sand down, and this is what it looked like afterward:

Mother's Day Follow-Up

I've been really busy lately, and I still haven't sent my mom her Mother's Day card (but I did call her!!)

Anyway, Mom, just to show you how much I love you, I give you this:

Enjoy!!

Happy Mother's Day

We want to wish all mom's, grandma's and kitty mom's out there a very Happy Mother's Day.

We couldn't do it without you.

The Weasel Behind the Mirror

A few weeks ago, we repainted our bathroom. Opposite our shower is a long mirror, so we pulled it down. What we found was the hull of an old medicine cabinet. Apparently, the bathroom sink used to be on that wall.

The weird thing was that inside the cabinet, the previous owners had left a toy weasel. It looked like something that came in a Happy Meal or something.

When we painted the wall and got ready to put the mirror up, we debated about what we should put there to leave our mark. We decided leaving another weasel, because future owners might find it kind of creepy. Instead, we just wrote our initials, dated it and put the mirror back.

Our bathroom looks really great now. We fixed the wall near our tub where the drywall was chipping away. It looks a lot cleaner. Plus, I feel a lot better knowing that when I get out of the shower, there isn't a weasel staring at me behind my mirror.

Getting my money's worth

The light fixtures in my bathroom were constantly burning out bulbs. I decided to buy new fixtures, and I installed one of them myself. One of the bulbs exploded, and then the next day, the entire fixture just stopped working.


So, I called my wife's uncle, an electrician in West Virginia. He told me to call one of the local electric gusy out of the yellow pages and have them test the voltage coming into the house. If too many volts were coming in, it could be the cause of my problems. He said it should only be about a 15-20 minute job. So, I called an electrician, and the receptionist was like, "It's $80 per hour."


And I said, "OK, cool, so it'll be like $40 if he's here for 30 minutes." She says back, "No, you get charged for the full hour."


Well then, I decided I was going to get my money's worth out of this. The electrician came today, and I had him do the quick voltage diagnostic. No problems there. He said it might be a problem with the wiring in my new fixture. Yep, it was.


So, I had him re-install it the right way. He was a very nice guy and did a great job, but I'm still thinking, "I need to get my money's worth out of this." I had him install the other new light fixture in the bathroom. Then, I had him fix a flourescent light in my basement. And with some time to spare, I asked him if he had bolt cutters.


Back story: The previous owners of our house had some really hideous looking doggy doors in the basement. I'm all four kinks and improvements in houses, but this was just an eyesore. They weren't even normal looking. It was just a couple 2x4's and a couple pieces of plywood nailed together. It was easy pulling them off, but they anchoring bolts were still sticking out of the floor. They were cemented into the ground.


The electrician said he didn't have any bolt cutters, but he did have a metal saw. So he goes out his truck and gets this sinister-looking, hand-held saw, and with four quick swoops buzzed the bolts off of the floor.

When he's done, he asks, "Is there anything else?"

Nope, I got a full hour out of you, and I can honestly say I got my money's worth.

Must Get Fit

We had a health fair today at work. I went over to a booth they had set up; they tested your body mass index and did bloodwork. Long story short, my numbers have gotten quite a bit worse over the past couple years. And it really comes down to one thing: I gotta lose some weight. Let's get rolling.

Poker Night

I played No Limit Texas Hold 'em for the first time in like four years. I was over at a friend's house from church. I'm a very tight player -- I only play when I have good cards.

Doing it this way has two upsides. One, you don't lose much. Two, whenever you enter a hand, you have a good chance of winning, becuase you have good cards.

Then there's the downside: When you don't have good cards, you sit around folding all night. Which is basically what I did for an hour and a half until I ran out of chips. Still, I don't have any regrets. Remember -- "It ain't Texas Hold 'em, it's Texas Fold 'em."

Congrats, Michelle and David

Our good friends were married at a mountain church in West Virginia last weekend. We were grateful to be part of the festivities. Mrs R, the perpetual bridesmaid, was asked to be in the ceremony, and she more than happy take part.

A reception followed at the State Fairgrounds. The food was catered by the same bakery that did our wedding. We didn't actually get to eat any food at our wedding, because we were too busy having 5 million pictures taken of us. So, it was nice to actually experience what our wedding food tasted like had we actually been permitted to eat.

The couple went to Tennessee for their honeymoon, and then took off to Florida where they'll be living.

The nuptials kicked off our "Six Weddings in Six Months" Nationwide Tour.

A Trip to Huskerville

A couple Christmas' ago, my family bought me a really cool book call "Huskerville." It's written by a sociology professor in Ohio who had grown up in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Long story short, it basically says you can take the Husker fan out of Nebraska, but you can't take Nebraska out of the Husker fan. No matter where you go, you will always be a Husker fan, and you share a common bond with other Big Red fans, even if they were otherwise complete strangers. You are a permanent citizen of "Huskerville" -- a common, worldwide community of people who have ties to Nebraska



Which brings me to today. We bought a new couch a few months ago, but the reclining part was constantly getting stuck. The furniture store offered to send a repairman for free. When I pulled into the driveway, the guy noticed my license plates, and he asked if I was a Big Red fan. Turns out, he grew up in Omaha and was a huge Nebraska fun. He and I immediately struck up a conversation about football, Bo Pelini, the QB situation, recruiting and everything else.

Here we were, complete strangers 1500 miles from Lincoln talking to each other like we grew up on the same street. It's a strange and wonderful experience that few people truly understand.