Five for Friday: Five of the coolest things I have seen while on the road.

I love to travel. I have been to over half of the states and several countries. I grew up going several places every year. I hope that my children love to travel as much as I do and can't wait to take them places like Colorado to go skiing. I would really like to take them to some of the places I got to go when I was growing up, like Disney World and the World's Fair in Knoxville. I usually flew everywhere when I was younger, now I mostly drive. I was blessed with flight benefits while growing up.

Now I take a lot of road trips. I love taking road trips, they can be very exciting. I have several thousand mile under my belt. I have seen a lot of interesting things on my road trips. Here is five of the coolest things while on the road.

1. Exploded cow. A good friend of mine and myself where driving to Lubbock Texas from Ft. Worth to drop of my friend's extra credit paper at Texas Tech so he can pass a class. We left at about 3am and after we stopped to refuel with some great road treats such as beef jerky and when where getting back on the Interstate there was what looked like an exploded cow all over the entrance ramp in the middle of Texas. Ever see Three Kings? Yeah it was like that. Messy.

2. Blizzard. I on the way to Colorado for a ski trip and we got caught in a blizzard. We ended up sleeping in the car because they closed the Interstate.

3. Rivers. When I left Texas for Chicago, I crossed the Red River and the Mississippi River. Both are cool, the might Mississippi takes the cake. That is a sight to see.

4. Corvette Museum. On my way back from a short nine month stint in Miami, I stopped at the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green KY. We had planned to stop, but we didn't plan on staying so long. We were there for hours. Much longer than we planned. It is that cool. Where else can you see a 1963 Stingray with a split window?

5. The back of a U-Haul Truck. I once was part of a trip from DFW to Boston, with no stops. There was four of us and myself and the now godfather of Maggie spent most of the trip sleeping in the back of the truck. What a trip. I got off work at 11:30pm and hopped in the back of the truck.

My Girl

Here is my girl on the drive back from down state Illinois. It looks as if she is yelling at me, but she is just reading her book. We had a great trip. Lots of Grandma and Grandpa time. I got lots of cigar time in.

Maggie is picking up on so much so fast. I am amazed by how much she changes from week to week. So far this week she is patting herself on the legs for an animal to come to her. It actually worked yesterday on our way back from the park when a neighborhood cat came up to say hello. She has also learned the signs for please and help. She is learning words faster and faster everyday. She is walking better and starting to run a little. She is even starting to throw temper tantrums. She had a good one early today when we were getting her dressed to go to the park and didn't want to wear anything we put out for her. Throwing the clothes on the ground as she saw them, and screaming her head off.

This temper tantrum and other things has brought a new challenge for us. This is how to discipline her. We would like to put her in time out, but she is at the age where she is not going to sit still for any amount of time. So right now we are playing it by ear. If she is doing something wrong we tell her no and try to move her away. My wife used to be a nanny and that has help a great deal, especially with discipline.

The Remote Incident

Today Maggie grabbed the remote while I was fooling with the printer. Usually not a big deal, but I didn't see what she did with it when she was done playing with it. This was about noon. After hours of tearing the house apart and checking places over and over again and me crying on the floor, I finally found it sitting just out of view behind my beautiful forty two inches of high definition viewing pleasure. Of course it was behind the TV. That's where I knew she would put it. This was at 9:30. Just shoot me. Please.

This is Maggie and her boyfriend Gabe. In case your wondering  my wife and her friend has arranged their marriage.  I guess he better behave himself if he wants my blessing. 

Five for Friday: Five things I saw on the road today.

We drove down to my in-laws place today. Good ole I-55.

1. The Wiener Mobile. Made me want hot dogs.

2. Construction. Wait, what? Not on I-55!

3. Maggie sleeping in the back seat. Too cute.

Maggie taking a snooze in the back of the car. Ah the good life. Before I know it she will be driving me around. 

4. My wife reading her book the whole way and pretty much ignoring me. Good times.

5. Rest stops. After what happened last trip I don't think I will ever set foot in one again.


We are here for the weekend in nice hot downstate Illinois. I was bribed today to mow the lawn. It had been over a decade since I have done that, but it all came back to me.  

Wordless Wednesday

Five for Friday: Five Things I am Excited About Buying a House.

Yes we are buying a house. This is the news I would discuss later. Well it's later. We have been looking for some time now. Nothing was for sure until a few weeks ago when a house we looked at in February price kept dropping. We decided to put in an offer because the timing was right because of our lease ending in September. We are due to close in August. We got lucky we put in an offer when we did. Another couple put in an offer that night, but we were already under contract. The owner lives in MI and he just happened to be in town that day. We had the inspection today and everything looks good.

So here are 5 reasons I am excited about buying a house:

1. Basement! I will now have my own space in the basement to do with what I please. All my toys and sports stuff can go up finally! The house even has a little work shop in the basement with a bunch of old tools. I can finally get the bigger boy toys like a table grinder and a kick ass sander. Maybe I will even start painting again.

2. Garage! I can park in my own space. My car has had hundreds of dollars of damage just from me parking on the street because some jack ass scraped my car. I can also do more work on my car again that I will have a work space for it. Got to convince the wife to get an air compressor, hehe.

3. The kids will have a (big by Chicago standards) back yard. A place we can go any time and do what we please. The yard also has a place to put a table, chairs and my grill. A great place to hang dry the diapers.

4. The space we will have! The house is the same square footage as the apartment we are in now, but that doesn't count the basement or attic. We are going to need more furniture.

5. No more paying to do our own laundry! As you know we cloth diaper and it can be a pain to run out and get quarters to do your own laundry. And with another baby on the way we will be doing twice the diapers.

Ten for Tuesday: Ten Parenting Surprises.

Things are going well for everyone here in Chicago. Spring is in full swing (except today, chilly). I have two job interviews this week. I hope they go well. We also have an important meeting in the morning. More to come on that later.

Maggie is becoming more of a toddler everyday. She walks around the house with her little purse and gets into everything! She is also getting a lot better about understanding what we are saying. She's a fun little person now! I'm writing this now while Maggie is watching DWTS and walking around and dancing.

Since I didn't post a Five for Friday last Friday due me just forgetting (I'm always looking for my keys or watch), I am posting a Ten for Tuesday to make up for it. Ten Parenting Surprises:

1. Poop goes everywhere. I mean everywhere. Its ended up on the wall. Don't ask.

2. You will get peed upon. I got peed on when Maggie was hours old. You'd thing I'd learn, but no.

3. Kids will make you late. I hate being late.

4. Babies need soooo much stuff when you travel. Maggie takes more stuff than I do and I always over pack.

5. You really are on your children's schedule.

6. You may rarely get to do what you would like to do. I haven't been to the movies in almost two years. Although I am scheduled to see Back to the Future on Friday.Bars, ha! Never. I don't even bother trying to play the Wii anymore. No Point.

7. Sometimes kids can do some pretty nasty things.

8. Toddlers are a lot smarter than you think they are.

9. Kids can get you to do things that you didn't do before they were born. A blog perhaps, or even join Twitter.

10. Kids can surprise you every day.

7.

Now That I Can Dance

Yes this is Hall of Fame Wide Receiver and former 49er  Jerry Rice.

Maggie loves to watch Dancing With The Stars. My wife and her like to sit on the couch and watch it on Mondays and Tuesdays. Maggie loves it so much we keep it on the DVR in case she is in a bad mood and play it for her. Always cheers her up. Every time we ask her if she wants to watch DWTS (we just call it "Dance") she waves both fists in the air like she is dancing. She claps every time the dance is over.

Maggie was just watching it before bath and swatted my wife's hand away because she wasn't ready to take a bath. So we let her watch one more dance and she was focused on the TV and moving back and forth like she was dancing. When we turned it off, Maggie started whining and shaking her fists in the air like to say put it back on!

I really don't watch this show. Not really a fan. I usually find homework to do while they are watching it. I really don't even like to dance. Probably because I am not any good at dancing. I'm glad Maggie likes it though. It makes her happy.