Road Trips Rock!!

December is a busy month for me. Our anniversary is the 16th. Christmas is the 25th. And Shawna's birthday is the 31st. This year, Shawna and I decided to leave the kids with her folks and get away for a few days. New England was the place of choice.

Now, we have two family traditions. Both Shawna and I would like to go to all 50 of the United States over the course of our marriage. Also, we like to go the Hard Rock Cafe. We seldom eat there. We just like to buy some souvenirs and leave. With that in mind here is how the trip went.

We left out of Kansas City on a delayed flight on Saturday. We went to Chicago and again got delayed. We flew to Pittsburgh. This was the first time we had been to Pennsylvania. We met some college friends and stayed two nights with them in West Virginia. During the course of our stay, we made to to Ohio for lunch. These were new states for us as well. After worshipping on Sunday, we took off early this morning for Washington, D.C. This required going through Maryland. Again, first time. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Washington, D.C. and then to the one in Baltimore. Then we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe in Philadelphia which required going through Delaware (first time there, too) and we took a tangent into New Jersey. Can you guess? Right. First time.

We are staying the night in the Philadelphia area and plan to return to Pittsburgh tomorrow and see the Hard Rock Cafe there. We fly out Wednesday morning.

All in all, we visited seven new states and hopefully will have visited four new Hard Rock Cafes. ROAD TRIPS ROCK!!!

Additional details and pictures will be coming soon...

-J

Early Christmas

This is what our tree looks like after the presents have been opened. JT. and Kaylee begged to open presents today so they could play with some of them before we left town. The two presents you see under the tree are for relatives with whom we plan to visit in the next few days. I (J.T.) got bluetooth headphones. I have been borrowing my dad's for a long time and using them to listen to music on my phone. Now, I have my own! Here is me rocking out. I also got a bakurack, clothes, and one bakugan, so far.

I (Kaylee) got these gumballs. I also got a Hannah Montanna guitar and a Jesse McCartney CD. I got some clothes and a Hannah Montanna game that comes with a DVD. Here is me with my gumballs.

After gifts, we relaxed all day and Shawna cooked our traditional Christmas meal. Since we usually get turkey and the fixin's two or three times after seeing family and friends, we make it our tradition to make chicken fried steak, mash potatoes and gravy, corn, biscuits, and other such things. J.T. took this picture right in the middle of our dinner.

Kaylee could not let J.T. take a picture without her getting to take one.

After the meal, Jeremy, J.T., and Kaylee blogged while Shawna cleaned up. But, we didn't want to leave her out of the blog so here she is.

And again.

We already had Christmas with some good friends of ours on Saturday. We plan to see both sets of grandparents over the next few days. Shawna and I plan to leave the kids with some grandparents and get away for our anniversary, Christmas, and her birthday.

Please keep reading the family of N.

-JJT&K

Those Embarrassing Moments

After consulting someone recently and being reminded of an embarrasing moment in my life, I was encouraged to put it on the blog. So, here it is.

Imagine this: I was officiating a funeral for a member of the church which we attend. The funeral service had started. The coffin was escorted to the front of the auditorium. The participants of the funeral made their way to the podium. The first song had been led. The prayer leader stood up behind the lectern and said, "Let us pray." It is silent. Heads are bowed. And then...my cell phone rings. OH, YES. It RINGS right LOUDLY! Not one of those normal rings either. I had the phone set for this caller to ring some bizarre funky ring. Talk about embarrassing!

Later on at the meal the congregation provided for the family, I approached the widower to apologize. The good hearted guy simply said, "People have been calling her all her life. It just makes sense someone would try to call her on her way out!"

-J

An Unusual Milestone

This past Tuesday, Shawna and I crossed 13 years of marriage. She gets agrevated when I say that 11 and a half of them have been happy! At any rate, I see this as an unusual milestone for a variety of reasons. First, most would not acknowlege 13 years as it is not divisable by five. Then, many do not make it to 13 years. Also, it has simply flown by so fast. Most that know me know that I calculate things in unusual ways. Here are some of the more unusual (and some obvious) things that have been accomplished over the last 13 years:

1. We have lived in 10 different houses/apartments, but only three cities. We have lived in this place for five years, meaning that there were nine different places (and two cities) over the first eight years of our marriage.
2. Between the two of us, there have been eight different jobs over 13 years.
3. Two children have been a fine addition to the family.
4. We started with eight grandparents and one great grandparent between the two of us. We are down to five grandparents.
5. When we started, cell phones and internet access were not common household items. Not to metion, we started with one black Mazda truck and shared it for a year before getting second vehicle.

All in all, it has been a great 13 years. I look forwared to another 100 years together.

Some try to come up with meaningful statements at times like these. I recall one good friend, who happens to be significantly older than me, making this statement: "Growing old is not for sissies." To that I would only add that it sure is easier to do with someone you love!

These pics are from our six months of dating, thus were taken somewhere around late 1995.

-J

Another Dr. Visit

I got another wake up call in the middle of the night (third one in a month's time). JT came in saying his throat hurt and he didn't feel good. So I took his temperature and put him back to bed. The morning wake up call came about the same way so we made yet another trip to the doctor for yet another confirmed case of strep throat. This is the third time he has had it in about a month. He is getting over it but for some reason it keeps coming back. He is hoping this will be the last time. But he is truly growing up because this time instead of liquid medicine, the dr. gave him pills. They are capsules and pretty big but he takes them really well. Pray for him that it doesn't come back a fourth time. Until next time...

-S

My Doctors Appointment

I (Kaylee) went to the doctor on Thursday and I got a great report. This was the pediatric neurosurgeon to check on my shunt. I had an MRI done. It was fun because I got to listen to Disney music. It played Jingle Bells and a Hannah Montana song all through some special headphones. The machine that did the MRI was shaped like a donut. The doctor said that all the shunt activity was good and that my brain looks good. She gave us some things to keep track of so that we will know if it is not working right. She also gave me some yucky news -- I have to start watching my weight and what I eat.

Please keep reading the family of N.

-J&K

Christmas Decorations

Enjoy!
-JT

Oh, Poor Samson...

We have always named our vehicles. Well, I have always named them and Shawna and the kids joined in later. My first car was Pin, the Pinto (ugh!). My current vehicle is Samson (a Chevy S10), named by the kids.

This past Monday, on a trip to Memphis and back, the battery light was blinking at high speeds. As it did not come on close to home, I had forgotten to check it out later. I did not drive it at high speeds or out of town Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. Consequently, the light did not come on so I did not think about it. Today, with a friend, Jeff, we went to another town in another state and we were in for a big surprise.

We took off and the light was blinking on and off at times but the truck was running fine. We went and ran some errands, saw some people, ate some food, and even stopped at the store on the way home. Everything was running fine and the light was only coming on and off from time to time. By the time we were about 15 miles from home, it was on constantly but still Samson was running fine.

As we turned into the last stretch for home, three of the dash warning lights were on, but everything was running fine. I was determined to get it checked out Monday but that was going to prove to be not quite soon enough. At about five miles, Samson began to act up but I was sure we would make it home. At three miles, he was going slower but still going. At two miles, he was going 30 miles an hour and not responding to the gas pedal. At two miles, Samson was drifting and came to a complete stop at 1.75 miles from home (the accuracy of the distance is thanks to the GPS Shawna got for me).

We took off walking and came to an elderly couple's home who are shut in but members of the church here. We asked for a tow chain and a ride back to the house. He gave us a chain and the keys to his old, old truck to get back to the house. We came back to the house and got Jeff's truck, took his truck back to him, and went back to my truck. We towed Samson to the house and returned the chain. Samson was still dead, completely unresponsive.

Right now, Samson is hooked up to a battery charger and we suspect the problem is the alternator. Right now, we are thankful that Samson gave out less than two miles from the house. It could have been 60 miles at the furthest point on this trip!!

Oh, poor Samson...

-J

A Great Nightly Ritual

Each night, I try to pray with Kaylee before she goes to bed. If I am out of town, she usually tries to call me so that we can pray on the phone. I will begin by asking her who she wants to pray for and this is usually how it goes:

Great aunt Diana
Aunt Lisa
Aunt Chelle
The X family (a family close to us that has been hurting due to a recent death)
Grampy and G. Jo
Tonight, she wanted to pray for Christian who was not feeling well at Bible class
and...











ALL the other people who are sick!

If she did not mention us by name, she got us in the end.

Just thought you all would want to know.

-J