A Surprise For Choo Choo Fans

We took a drive this morning to the North Carolina Mountains. Both Kallsen and Parker are fans of Thomas the Train. Well Thomas was making a stop at the Great Smokey Mountain Railroad. It was a great experience for both boys.

One thing nice about the Thomas the Train at The Great Smokey Mountain Railroad is you don't have to pay any money unless you plan to ride the train. You're able to take your kids and take in all the other activities at no expense.

Bank Building Collaspes

I was thrown into news duty again after the Bank of America building in Seneca partly collapsed after a furniture truck clipped the top of the drive through this afternoon. The truck was apparently cutting through the parking lot on its way to make a delivery. No one was hurt.

This same bank was robbed by armed gunmen last Saturday. Both the suspected gunmen have been caught. If I worked at the bank, I may ask for hazard pay to work weekends.

Too Big for a Trike

Parker decided on Thursday night that he was too big for a trike and decided that Joseph's bike was a better fit.

Joseph's bike was on the kickstand in the driveway and Parker, all on his own, climbed aboard and decided to go for a spin.

And Then He Was Three...

Today Kallsen turned three. An exciting day indeed!



In this first picture, Kallsen asks for help in blowing out the candles on his cupcakes. The cupcakes he picked out all by himself.
In this next picture, Kallsen decides that Parker should enjoy his new sleeping bag too.

Weight Loss Update

As of this morning my weight was down to 266 lbs. My weight was down a little lower a few days ago. I tend to loose and then gain a little back before losing again.

For those that don't know I began a new program to lose weight when I stepped on the scale on December 18th, 2006 and saw it reach 320 lbs. My goal is to lose 90 lbs and possible more. I won't make that determination until I hit the goal of 90 lbs.

My program has been two protein shakes...one for breakfast and one for lunch with eating what it is we fix for the kids for dinner. I might have one snack during the day. I don't drink sweet tea or sugar soda. I have been taking vitamins everyday and also do a full body cleansing every three months.

Other than losing the weight the other benefits have been having more stamina, having more energy, getting comments from others, having no more pain in my knees, being able to sit comfortably in waiting rooms that have arms on the chairs (for those that have never been over weight, those chairs are an uncomfortable situation) and being able to slide down the slide at the playground with my kids.

For anyone who is interested in losing weight and living a different lifestyle, I have a blog where I have been tracking my weight loss. This program will work if you follow it. And my doctor gave me the go ahead that it was safe.

It does take some getting used to eating 1,000 to 1,200 calories a day.

AJ

Caught 'em, we had

I believe we have rid ourselves of the mice that were calling our kitchen home. No sign or sound of any mice since last Tuesday. So tomorrow will be a week without mice.

We are preparing to move our dishes back to where they belong and hope to not have to move then again...

A whole family of 'em

Caught another mouse overnight. That's one on Thursday, one on Saturday and one Tuesday. The one we caught on Thursday we let go and one of the two we've caught since could be the same mouse. The one from Saturday and last night have been put down. And my wife reports that she heard something in the cabinets today.

I'm just hoping this doesn't become a big problem. I know that an occasional mouse is a reality living in the country. But I also know that I don't want to continue finding them where I store my food and dishes.

By the way...the food and dishes have been moved.

A Hunting We Will Go

Our creature is back. Two days after thinking we've rid our house of our unwanted guest, the mouse or a mouse reappeared in one of our drawers in the kitchen.

As we began to inspect, we found more droppings in areas we had just cleaned up. So off to Wal Mart I went to buy mouse traps. We'll let you know how the hunting goes.

I purchased glue traps, snap traps and shoot traps. Also we will be searching to find where our visitor is coming from.

Our Trip to the Zoo

Hollywild is located in Inman, SC and is not known as being a great zoo by any means. What it's known for as the company that supplies animals for Hollywood films, TV shows and commercials. It is more of an animal perserve than a zoo. We spent several hours there yesterday with the kids. We'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

A Creature Was Stirring

Tonight we discovered a mouse was in our house. Sara found some droppings while cleaning the kitchen and then while cleaning the living room we discovered more droppings behind our couch. And then the mouse was climbing on our couch.

After several loud screams we got together a plan. We had the mouse cornered and I was armed with a trash basket and Sara was armed with the vacuum. As we moved in I tried to get the trash basket over the mouse while Sara came in with the vacuum. And vacuum the mouse up we did.

As we took the vacuum outside to empty it out we discovered the mouse was still alive and he ended up running off into the night.

Joseph helped with the hunting of the mouse and Kallsen thought the whole ordeal was lots of fun. Parker slept through the hunt.