Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has come and Thanksgiving has gone. (Or as they say on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, "Thanks-A-Bunch-Day".) We had an awesome day of wrestling, watching football, eating too much good food (thank you, Publix), and napping. This was our first Thanksgiving to stay home as a family and it was very relaxing, I highly recommend trying it to any stressed out travelers.

In addition to our adventures yesterday I have a couple of backyard projects in the works this week. I'm excited about the playground I'm building for Noah which is a remodel from the previous owners. I'm leaving the shell and adding a walk up ramp next to the slide, a deck style tower platform on two levels, all new swings, and a fresh coat of paint. While I'm working on the playground I have a builder about to complete my new man cave. I admit I lost some major man points by having someone else build my workshop for me, but I've reached a point in my life where money is not nearly as important as time. Is it just me or does it seem that in life you tend to have the time but no money or if you have the money you never have the time. Here are some shots of the progress.

Today we got out the Christmas boxes and had a fun time with the tree, stockings, and my favorite Christmas tradition, electric trains. Noah will stare at the trains for hours if we let him. I think I could play with them all day if Kimberly would let me.

Adventures in Church Hunting

I know it has been a while since I posted, but I've had quite a bit going on in the last several weeks. I'm back to work full steam ahead which means 4:00 AM is once again on the alarm clock. Besides work, attending to the family, and still pounding out the new house punch list, I've been steadily scoping out churches in the area with my church buddy, Noah. He's been a trooper as we've visited some really great places and some that we burned rubber heading out of the parking lot.

Last Sunday we went to a church just down the road that Kimberly saw and thought looked nice (she has said the same thing about strangers on the side of the road). I had a funny feeling about the place as we walked inside so I decided to keep Noah with me in the service instead of finding the nursery as usual. During the music Noah was in awe of all that was going on and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy having a toddler in the service was working out....then the music ended.....the pastor started praying and Noah was right with him for about the first 10 words. Then he looked up at me and grabbed my head to pull me down to him. I thought he was going to pray with me like we did at home with our heads close together, but instead he proceeded to give me a full breath raspberry on my cheek. Nothing like a little farting noise during a prayer to liven things up. I stopped him as quickly as I could but I realized it was going downhill fast. He started talking and squirming so I grabbed our things to head out the door. I took too long, however, and by the time I was at the end of the aisle the prayer was over. Eyes were opening all around us to which Noah made eye contact and decided to give everyone a big bye-bye as loud as he could all the way out of the back doors.

We cut our losses and went across the street to Target.