Last night Josiah and I camped out!!! Yeah, we set a two man tent up in the living room and watched TV and slept in the tent. He was so excited about it all day. This is an easy way to create lasting memories. To see his excitement made it all worth it, even if I didn’t sleep good and my back hurts today! Here are some pics of our Guys Night!
Today started early with a nice appointment to the Chiropractor. While adjusting me the Chiropractor said “You really needed this didn’t you?” I guess was a nice way to say, “Man, you are messed up!” After about 10 minutes she was done and moved on to Stephanie. Visiting the Chiropractor seems to be the family stop when we are in Salem. I have no idea why, that’s just the way it goes.
At noon all the family showed up for another Thanksgiving meal. This time we had ham instead of turkey. The food was so good. I think I have gained 15 pounds just this week! We took tons of pictures! It seemed every time I turned around someone was snapping a picture.
Sadly, Mizzou lost to Kansas today in Football. It was an exciting game and KU played good. Sad day for MU fans but a great way for KU to end the season and hopefully get a bowl game. Yes I said it, that’s for you Mike and the Cunningham’s!
Here are some of the pics from today.
One of the things that has become a tradition for Josiah when we visit Nana and Papa’s house is to go on a tractor ride with Papa. Today, he got to do that; and boy was he excited. Also one of the things that has become a tradition for all of us now has been going to the farm and having Great Papa give us a ride behind his big tractor.
Today we did things a little different! Instead of being pulled behind a tractor, we just piled in the back of Great Papa’s pickup and went for a ride through the farm. Both boys had so much fun and Stephanie’s Grandfather loves to do it. We saw cows, drove through the creek, went past the old barn, and saw more cows. Doesn’t sound like much, but the fact that the family was all together and the boys loved it, made it so worth it!!! To top it off, the weather wasn’t to bad either, it has been colder!!!
Afterward, we all came back to the house for some good ole BBQ Pork Steak!!!! It was so good! The night was capped off with Christmas Gifts for the boys. Nana and Papa said, since this is the only time we will all be together lets do it tonight. However, Nana said something about coming to Texas over Christmas. After the opening of gifts, we celebrated Rachel’s Birthday with an Ice Cream B-Day Cake. It was sooooo good, and I don’t even like ice cream that much!
Today was a lot of fun. Here are some pics of our adventure.
We made it!!! After eating a ton of food, playing with, better yet, being worked over by kids, and getting my rear kicked by my nephew in Madden 09 football, we packed up, left Nixa and headed for Salem MO. We got in at about 8:15 last night. Some exciting news . . . we bought gas last night for $1.57 and saw it for $1.41 on our way here! We are excited to be here and will celebrate another Thanksgiving feast on Saturday.
Here are some pics from yesterday:
We slept in, haven’t done that in awhile but it was so nice!!! On the agenda today was Chinese food, Jump Mania, and the Mall. Yes, we can’t seem to go to any town with out visiting a Mall.
So we accomplished all of these things however, the Chinese place that I was craving apparently was having a bad day. As we walked in a guy told us that the food wasn’t very good today that he eats here all the time but today it made him sick and he was getting his money back. Whether the story was true or not, we left and went to a different Chines place. I was so excited until I got there. They had a great Buffet but the Cashew Chicken wasn’t the kind I was craving. So needless to say, I didn’t get my Springfield style Cashew Chicken that I am still craving.
From eating Chinese we went to Jump Mania. A place a Larry Stehr, one of my former teachers in College and Youth Ministry friend recommended. It was so much fun and it only cost us $5.00. Both boys had a blast and Stephanie and I were able to play with them. I must say, that it wore me out. I have a feeling I am going to be sore tomorrow.
From there we went to Battlefield Mall, a place I know all to well. It’s the only real Mall in Springfield. It was nice just to walk around without an agenda or time frame. The only problem . . . my wife decided to close the Mall down. Yes we were there for 5 hours. Jackson was soooo good, and Josiah, well he wanted to go home with Grandma Sheila after Jump Mania, so it was just the three of us. Maybe that’s why we were there for 5 hours.
So tomorrow will be our last day here at Grandma Sheila’s. We will have our big Thanksgiving Day meal and then leave early evening for Nana and Papa’s. It’s only a 2 hour drive but its not very entertaining. Here are some pics from today.
WOW, my sister and her entourage of 5 kids just left. Having that many kids in my mothers house, that is not child proof, was very challenging. 3 of the 7 kids are under 2 and all of them are under 10. This is why I work with teenagers!!! Anyhow we did have fun! We played in the leaves, bowled, played hide and seek, got in trouble, ate some chicken noodle soup, all while making as much noise as we could. As I sat and ate my soup I felt like i was on an episode of Super Nanny with Jo walking in at any minute! Both Jackson and Josiah had fun playing with their cousins. Tomorrow sounds like we do it all again. Here are some pic’s from tonight!
Well after getting a later start than we wanted too we left McKinney last night at 7:15 and arrived at my moms house (AKA – Grandma Sheila) at 2:30 am. The boys slept most of the way, and of coarse when we got here, they both woke up and didn’t want to go back to sleep. I think everyone finally fell asleep around 3:30am.
So today, we tried to sleep as long as Jackson would let us, but both boys decided that both Steph and I needed to be up a 7 this morning. So needless to say, neither of us got much sleep. However, today was a good day with the family. This morning I hooked the router up to my mothers cpu so we could have Internet, a process that took much longer than it should have. But we have connection now, thanks to the AT@T service guy.
When we come to Springfield there are always three places we want to eat,
Today for lunch we ate at Mexican Villa. This place is like no other Mexican restaurant I have been too. If you know me, you know I don’t like Mexican food; but this is one place that is to good to pass up. Grandma Shelia joined us for chips and salsa and my favorite dish a Sancho enchilada! It’s so good.
Tonight my sister and her 5 kids are coming over for dinner. Stephanie is making her famous Chicken Noodle Soup. My favorite. I am sure its going to be a fun evening, especially since there will be 3 kids under 2. I’ll let you know tomorrow if we survived!
Here are three pictures so far. The room all of us are staying in while at my mothers house, my plate at lunch and Stephanie posing with her plate at lunch.
It’s seems that the last two weeks have been crazy busy. It has really impacted my blogging . . . I just haven’t had time to write so here is a highlight of the week looked like for us.
Both boys have been sick. Not running a fever sick but we took them both to the doctor on Monday to find out that Josiah had croup and Jackson was put on an antibiotic. On Thursday, after the antibiotic seemed to be making no difference for Jackson and his congestion was causing him to throw up, we called the doctor and explained the symptoms and what we saw. Based on our visit and the symptoms the doctor said he had a sinus infection and changed his medication. Today he seems to be doing a little better.
Josiah missed two days of school this week but wanted to make sure he didn’t miss his teachers B-day on Wednesday. He made it on Wednesday and on our way to school we stopped to get her a little gift and Josiah picked out flowers. He is going to be a Womanizer when he get older!
Stephanie has decided to turn our house in to Christmas wonderland over the last two days. She called me scrooge earlier today because I was complaining about putting the lights on the tree. (FYI – I hate putting lights on a tree) What happened to Thanksgiving?
Tonight we watched Kung Fu Panda. It was really good!! Now Josiah runs around the house, like he didn’t before, karate chopping and kicking everything. He reminds me of me when I was a kid.
At small groups we made a music video and will show it Sunday during the Big Give. Tomorrow I go play paintball with the 8th and 9th grade guys! Should be fun I let you now how it goes tomorrow!
This morning was Josiah’s last soccer game for the season. The boys had a great season winning more games than they lost, but no-one keeps score, yeah right! Anyhow, today they lost in a big way. I don’t even think the Hawks scored. But all the boys seemed to have fun. After the game the team met at McDonald’s to eat, play, and receive their trophy. They don’t make trophies like they used to!!! Joes trophy is awesome.
From there we headed over to the Frisco Homecoming Parade. This was Jackson’s first parade and the first one that Josiah remembers. Both boys were wide-eyed as the parade started. We had fun as a family just being able to relax and the weather was awesome!!!
I finished all the carpets today also! But the real surprise and blessing came at 3:45 today. Words can’t really express our gratitude to the people of Grace and how God used them to bless us. Today we were given a gift that will help cover some of the expenses we have accumulated because of all of Jackson’s medical needs. We have been praying for these things here for a while now. God has been so faithful to us and He used people we know and people we don’t know to show us how big He is, and to remind us that we are not alone in this journey! Thank you Jesus!!!
Sleeping in, and hanging-out as a family was all that was on the agenda! With no real agenda we got off to a late start planning on going to Peter-Piper-Pizza and letting the boys play, especially Jackson! That soon changed to Chick-Fil-A when Josiah decided that’s where he wanted to eat. From there we went to see Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa for the matinee. It was a great movie and I recommend it to people with or without Kids. It was a great fun filled day, until we rented the carpet cleaner. Yes that’s right, a Honey do. My Friday evening was filled with cleaning carpet. Just one more spot of carpet left then to the couches. I personally don’t think the machine we rented is any different than the hoover carpet cleaner we have borrowed in the past. They both seem to do the same type of job.
Here are some pictures of the boys playing at Chick-fil-A, driving the shopping race car at Lowe’s, and the new way Jackson like to watch TV.
Dan Gould 