The Squeakquel

Last night I had the best night of the new year!

Aundie and I headed into town around 6:00 so I could get a haircut while she played for a bit at Grandpa and Grandma's. After that we headed to the theater to watch the 8:45 showing of Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel!


I don't think I remember the last time that I laughed so hard during a movie. Half of my laughter came from Aundrea's laughing! The movie was funny too!

Aundrea picked up on many of the more subtle jokes which surprised me a great deal!

We also shared a bag of popcorn and a large drink (which cost more than the movie) She sat most of the time on the edge of her seat (shoveling popcorn and navigating the cup all by herself) and then spent the last 20 minutes on my lap. It was a pretty neat experience for me and her as well!

The chipmunks have changed a little bit in twenty years...

Yeah, I can remember being around Aundrea's age and thinking the Chipmunks were basically the coolest thing ever made!

It's pretty cool to know Aundrea thinks the same thing!

Shame on us

I just finished watching TLC's "Brace For Impact" which chronicle's the Flight 1549 on January 15, 2009.

If your not familiar with the date, or the flight, it's about Capt. Sully Sullenberger and Co-Pilot Jeffrey Skiles.

Still not sure what I'm talking about?

How sad of a deal that is. Although your not alone. Apparently many of us have forgotten about a real life dynamic duo that saved over 150 lives by landing an Airbus in the Hudson River.


Even Times Magazine forgot, as they selected Ben Bernanke as their "Man of the Year".

Captain Sully was such an easy shoe-in for anything significant about 2009, especially anything about "Man of the Year".

Of course, I guess he didn't get sworn in as the first A-A President (goodness, there's only been forty-some president's... who cares!), nor did he guide his team to the Superbowl or the World Series, nor did he make headlines for two months for having an insatiable appetite for women, nor did he become famous as "the King of Pop", nor did he overdose on painkillers or anything else popular among the "stars" of today.

The dude is married, has a family and really just lives a normal life like the rest of us.

He should have immediately signed a contract with Pepsi or Nike. He should have been made the first Billion dollar Pilot in the world. The guy did something more important than a Congress that will never get health care right. Yet I believe we haven't given the guy the kind of honor's that he is due!

If you get a chance check out the hour long documentary, it's a great salute to an extraordinary individual... individuals really. Again, the show is called "Brace for Impact" and is very well narrated by Harrison Ford.

I'll now publicly say that I would rather meet Captain Sullenberger more than ANY individual currently walking the face of the Earth!

NFL Play-off Predictions

Ok so I did really bad at my bowl predictions... 15-19 overall fortunately with my point wager's I was middle of the pack in an office pool.

With that kind of bad predictions... I am going to now going to reveal who is going to win the Super Bowl!

AFC
Wildcard-
Cinncy over NY
Baltimore over New England

Divisional-
Indianapolis over Baltimore
San Diego over Cinncy

Conference-
Indianapolis over San Diego

NFC
Wildcard-
Arizona over Green Bay
Dallas over Philadelphia

Divisional-
Arizona over New Orleans
Minnesota over Dallas

Coference-
Minnesota over Arizona

Super Bowl-
Minnesota over Indianapolis

GO BRETT!

4.0/18 Wish I was that good with my bowl picks

Alright! Just checked my grades for the fall semester!

I have been fairly nervous for the last two and a half months about my Informational Literacy class. Through 12 credits I had a 4.0 GPA and was hoping for the same in the fall semester.

I have really desired to do very well in my MA at least better than my BA at TBC. Tonight I checked on my grades and got an early little Christmas present to learn that I kept the streak alive with an A in both classes.

Informational Literacy was a pretty tough test for me and now that I am past it I'm pretty happy! I guess my final project must have been good enough to pull me up into the A range. I was pretty nervous about the whole ordeal.

I am now half way through the program, both academically and financially, and I have obtained a 4.0 while raising kids with Samantha and having a full time job... one more year!

Concerning my bowl picks... could they get worse?

Wyoming won... that should have been my sign.
Rutgers did beat UCF as I suggested!
Middle Tennessee won.
BYU beat Oregon.
Utah thumped Cal.
And right now Southern Methodist is beating the daylight out of Nevada.

I guess I'll take the 4.0 over being really bad at selecting college bowl games.

Christmas in the Bag!

We've got Christmas set! The presents bought, the packages wrapped!

I believe that I am almost more excited as a Dad waiting for the 25th to watch my kids eyes light up! This year is going to be great!

We did about 2 hours of Swimming at Watiki on Sunday. After swimming we headed over to Outback... Samantha has never been there and it's probably been 6-7 years since I last had a bloomin' onion of there quality! We also had some lobster tail and steak.

On a side bar... Samantha has always been funny with her steaks. She's always been a believer that a steak is only done if it's dark brown from one side to the other. Lately she has decided that pink in the middle isn't so bad. So lately if she get a steak she order's it Medium and has a big smile on her face! It's almost as though she's discovered a new food!

After the Outback we had a lot of time left for the night so we decided to get an early start on the Christmas shopping. First stop was Toys-R-Us! This store has really been one of those necessary evils for us. At least 90% of the the stuff at Toy's-R-Us are things we would never want our kids to have. The other 10% is pretty cool. We've found some very cool items for Aundrea over the last several Christmas and Birthdays!

Aundrea and Tristan were whipped after a day of driving, swimming and shopping!

Monday we finished our shopping and headed home after a meal at a local Mexican restaurant. When we got home, we sent the kids to bed and then started wrapping presents (while watching Ben Hur).

Now with the kids (and Samantha...thank you Vegas!) done, I can sit back and wait for Christmas to get here!

Christmas Countdown

Ok so we're off to Rapid for some swimming at Watiki and to finish up our Christmas shopping.

We've got a lot left to get for the kids. I've don't think I could enjoy Christmas anymore now that we have kids!

I am fortunate in that Samantha's Christmas is settled as Vegas covered that for the both of us! Now we just need to worry about the two kids and maybe one or two things for the pups.

Christmas movies are really becoming a tradition in our household. With the invention of the DVR we've really been able to record a lot of good movies for later viewing. Aundrea is currently watching "Happy Feet" which isn't a big Christmas movie but is really funny all the same!

So far I've been very pleased with Aundrea's attitude towards presents and gifts. She is struggling a little bit with sharing again... which seems to be a cycle for her. We need to do a little better job of putting her in situations to share with Tristan and other children.

Tristan was given a big wheel at Grandpa and Grandma Strong's a week ago... you can tell that he absolutely love's being on it, but is frustrated that he can't touch the pedals yet.

Off to Rapid we go.

College Bowl Pick 'em

Here's my guesstimate on the Bowl's:

New Mexico- Fresno over Wyoming
St. Petersburg- Rutgers over UCF
New Orleans- Southern Miss over Middle TN
Vegas- Oregon State over BYU
Poinsetta- Cal over Utah
Hawaii- Nevada over Southern Meth.
Little Ceasars- Ohio over Marshall
Meineke- Pitt over NC
Emerald- USC over BC
Music City- Kentucky over Clemson
Independence- Georgia over Texas A&M
Champs Sports- Miami over Wisconsin
Eagle Bank- UCLA over Temple
Humanitarian- Idaho over BG
Holiday- Nebraska over Arizona
Armed Forces- Houston over Air Force
Sun- Stanford over Oklahoma (Joy say's the Okies)
Texas- Navy over Missou
Insight- Minnesota over Iowa State
Chick-fil-A- V. Tech over Tennessee
Outback- Northwestern over Auburn
Gator- Florida State over West Virginia (FSU can't lose BB last game at the helm)
Capital One- LSU over Penn State
Rose- Ohio State over Oregon
Sugar- Florida over Cinncy
International- NI over South Florida
Papa Johns- South Carolina over Conn
Cotton- Okla St. over Miss
Liberty- East Car. over Arkansas
Alamo- TT over Mich. State
Fiesta- Boise State over TCU
Orange- Georgia Tech over Iowa
GMAC- Central Mich. over Troy
BCS Championship- Bama over Texas (Combined score of 48)

Ok we'll see how I do, a few risky picks but we'll see... bring home the big money!

Feel free to tell me where you disagree!