Wow We We Wow...This is awesome

Snow...

The forecast is snow, snow, & snow. It's butt cold & it's gunna stay that way for a little while. I went to a couple Home Depot's yesterday in a quest to purchase pellets for my pellet stove. I was victorious. For those that don't know, pellets are a recycled wood that are formed into chicken food looking objects. You burn them in a pellet stove. I have one, thanks to the previous owners of the house. It pretty much heats the entire house, which means that I don't have to use the furnace (natural gas) until bed time. Big time money saver. I would recommend a pellet stove to anyone who likes to stay warm at a fraction of the price. I know someone who is rather large that used to sell & install them. They also sell pellet furnaces. I don't have one. Now all that is left is to stock the fridge for the next couple days I have off. Yay for snow. Yay because I can stay inside, play xbox, & drink hot chocky to my hearts desire.

Drei

It's strange. Yearly "celebrations." Birthdays... Anniversaries... With my birthdays, I remember the excitement of knowing that I was gunna get cool stuff, or get to do something fun. I liked my birthdays so much, I tried to drag them out for a week. I think my wife believes that I still do this, but this is not the case. For clarification, my birthday is not till July. Yesterday was our 3rd anniversary. It was a fairly good day. Started off normal. Up at 5. Off to the gym @ 5:35. Home @ 6:45, with a steamy hot chai for my wife of course (chai is not a daily occurrence due to the cost of chai). To work by 8. Me & baby Todd hanging in the office (which is phenomenal).

Anyway, I planned a date to "The Olive Garden." This is Jessica's favorite restaurant. It was also the location of our first date 3.5 years ago. I ate the new dish, the Lasagna Rollatini topped with chicken & a lite alfredo sauce. Simply delicious. I was proud that I was able to try something other than the Manicotti. I would suggest either dish. Ellie joined us. She was her normal self. She sat in her chair & watched us talk & eat, and she occasionally chimed in with her opinion, when appropriate of course. We talked about some of what we would like to see in our relationship/our lives in this next year. Went home, watched some recorded tv shows. Put Ellie to bed.

On "special days," my mind usually goes other places, mainly the past. It's been 3 years. 3 years ago, we were vastly different people in a vastly different place. On one hand it's amazing to see how we've changed & to see what has transpired in our lives over the last 3 years. It's easy to recognize the goodness of God in these reflections. On the other hand, the last 3-4 years have been extremely painful (not the doing of my wife). Broken relationships. Broken trust. Accusations. Judgement. Burnout. Anger. Indifference. Doubt. Further burnout, which leads me to ask, how do you burn burnt toast?

Maybe it's normal to reflect, but it's way more fun to think of where we are now, 3 years in & with a baby Todd. Friends. Good jobs. Generally having fun. Yay for the present.

Thunder Gulch

I apologize. The picture of the spatter in the women's bathroom will not load. I will continue trying & load it ASAP. However, I will continue with this post. Upon further investigation, I've come to a few conclusions on the unresolved matter:

1- The offender (I am offended) is between 5'2 & 5'7.
2- This person does not hold the same beliefs that I do.
3- This battlefield shall be referred to as, "Thunder Gulch."
4- "Thunder Gulch" was nowhere near as bad as "Blood Gulch."
5- I will not revisit "Blood Gulch."
6- I no longer clean the church, therefore, I will probably not have any more good pictures to share.
7- I like turtles...

God's Provision...

Thursday night or Saturday night. Also known as poker night. It usually brings me great joy as poker night approaches. Friends. Poker. Suds. Interesting conversations... Last night, most of the usual crowd made over in spite of the pats/jags game. Brint, Nick & myself were the last 3 in, which isn't uncommon, & Brint commented that this game could go on forever. The next hand, all 3 were all in. Sadly, Brint won, followed by Nick, then obviously I was left clinging to my $5 buy in. Brint commented how he didn't know how he would pay for gas every week if it wasn't for poker night. I chimed in, why it's God's provision Brint. It's not something I'd develop a theology on, but I seemed to win a lot more when it was time to purchase another bag of diapers. I was going to leave this for Brint to blog, but since he slit his blog wrists, I guess he's left to commenting.

Sodium...

I'm sitting here in my office, just finished off a cup o' noodles, beef flavor. I still think I prefer chicken. I love that I can get 52% of my daily sodium intake in just a few bites. Moses prefers the beef flavor because the way chickens are grown. I say, how about the way chickens are slaughtered & processed. A good reference would be the X-Files episode which takes place in a small town & a chicken plant, "Chaco Chicken," where everyone works. It just so happens that Mr. Chaco & his buddies perform ritual sacrifices & dump the bodies in with the chicken leftovers to be processed. Think about that next time you eat chicken. I won't ruin the rest of the episode for you. It's worth watching. Speaking of which, I lent Matty season 1 of the X-Files so he can expand his mind. I received the complete collectors edition for christmas, complete with all 9 seasons, the X-Files movie, a comic book (never was really into comics) and a sweet poster that will be hung in my office. Chicken or beef. Right now beef because we have no chicken. Baby Todd is hungry. She gets to eat in 7 minutes & all her problems will be solved.

I've considered blogging for some time now. I'm intimidated to blog. I get bored with my thoughts not too long after I decide to blog about them. I do however have a picture on my phone of a toilet seat in the women's bathroom after what I imagine was a messy battle. I will post that next.