New Job

Guess what ? Dad didn't go to work today because he had a job interview at Gundersen Lutheran today. But the lady Who was supposed to interveiw him couldnt. So she called him for a over the phone interview. And after it was over she told him that he got the job. :) so we're wating for the phone call in a few weeks to tell him he can start working there. But for the moment he will stay at Apac Customer Services.

A change of authorship

As those who might check here a bit to keep tabs on us can see I have handed over authorship of the blog here to the oldest squirt Chloe, and earlier today she made her first post. Being back in Wisconsin now I'm finding less and less tie to keep up with things on my plate but I can understand the desire for family not directly in Wisconsin to maybe want to keep track of us a bit. But my plate has been a bit full lately and to be honest I'm at a loss for words when it comes to us if I'm not relating the insanity that was the state of Maine. I thought that a different perspective may be interesting, at any rate I'm interested in what Chloe will have to say here. It'll be a good exercise for her.

So go ahead and continue to enjoy, she's 13 and I warned her that she was not allowed to whine too much over the world wide web. I think she'll behave her self and I hope that everyone will enjoy her perspective, The toils of the family through the eyes of a 13 year old. . . no diary of anne frank, but then again you never know.

If you want to keep up with what I'm doing personally I am keeping up on my personal blog about my woodworking shop at www.insidetheworkshop.blogspot.com

so cheers everyone, I'll probably still stick my nose in here from time to time, but give her some feedback and let Chloe her know how she's doing.

before I go I'm gonna put up one of my favorite pics of my girls.. . .  three peas in a pod . . . most days  :)

Derek

Back Home

Ta da I can't believe we're back in WI, Badger State, home of the dairy cows. It feels good to be home. We're living in a 2 bedroom apartment above My aunt and uncle. Schools going great for all of us including mom though i think she gets more home work than me though. She's taking 4 classes now but eventually she's going to be a nurse. My friend spent the night last night and we played on the Wii till 12 pm It was fun other wise life is well, life. Dishes laundry and school I'm not complaining to much though its not that bad. Fayth And fin are doing alright they have a lot of homework too now in at a loss for words so i'll go saying I'm glad to be home.

same ol same ol

Well I am on the computer this afternoon, so I thought I might as well put a post up here see as how I have no excuse not to. :)

There is not much going on here that is new to report, Chloe left today to go on a trip with her friend down to some amusement park, she will be back in a few days, Fayth and Fin have found a deck of cards and are busy discussing the finer points and subtleties of "war". Naomi interviewed for a job at TAMC as a receptionist. We have not heard back yet but then again things run on "Maine time" here, hurry up and wait.

I have been working in the woodshop quite a bit, I built myself a new workbench, the first real and true workbench I have every had, I never though it was that big of a deal but let me tell you hand tool work goes so much easier on this thing, and it's a beast as well, It pushes 200 lbs on its own and then when I put all the tool boxes underneath...I bet I'm pushing a half a ton. well over a 1/4 at least.

anyhow just thought I'd drop a quick note and a few pics

We all miss you, and hope to see you all as soon as possible

D

Summer is Here

well it has finally warmed up around here, temperatures up into the low 80's wooo hooo, Honestly a polar bear like myself, I just love it cool so this is hot enough for me.

Oh yes and Happy Fathers Day to all of those out there who read this from time to time, especially to you Dad. I am the man I am today because of you . . . there are no words other than, thank you and I love you.

OK away from the serious. . . This morning I decided that my daughters have pre prepped them selves for the dawning "text messaging age" with all the lol, lmao, idk, bff, and wtf around I received a Father's day card from Infinity this morning, I knew she was working on it because the construction paper is in a cabinet by our bedroom door and I heard her rummaging through it while I was still laying in bed dozing. any how I got a yellow card, construction paper folded in half, that had three purple hearts scotch taped to the inside with strips of paper that made them spring off the page and wiggle in the air. on the hearts she had written three letters H. F. and D. She then went to the cutest pains to explain to me that for sure HFD meant happy fathers day.

"are you sure it doesn't mean Happy Farts are Dry?" I asked,
"NO" she said
"Harry Finds Dinner?"
"NO!"
"Hefalumps Fly Downwards?"
To this she stopped and I got THE LOOK, the one that says "dad you are just being stupid now" As if "Happy Farts are Dry" is smarter than hefalumps and their precarious flight patterns
"Dad...It means Happy Fathers Day"
"OK OK" I said, She won, she often does.

I also got a cool castle from Fayth that she made in school and has been hiding up in her room for almost a month. That is one hell of an accomplishment for her, she can never keep a secret for more that a few minutes at best, One of the things I love about her, there is no guile in that little girl, she can be stubborn to a T, but if you ask her she will tell you exactly what she is thinking whether you like it or not

Oh I have one more Infinity Story before I get going

Naomi conned Fin into folding the laundry for her the other day,
"If you're hungry then I will make supper, but I cannot possibly make supper unless you help me fold all these clothes" not that it takes much convincing usually to get her to do stuff, but sometimes... anyhow Fin agreed and began folding clothes in the living room while Naomi made supper.

Fin would run into the kitchen every couple of minutes and ask something like "whose shirt is this?" so she could put things in te right pile, eventually it was bound to happen she came into the kitchen with a pair of my boxer briefs.

"Mom . . . whose shorts are these?"
"Honey they're not shorts, they're your daddy's underwear"
Fin looked confused for a second and then asked
"Well. . . why do they have a pocket in them?" refering to the fly.

I do not know how Naomi kept a straight face...but she explained that they are not really a pocket, that boys used the fly to pee standing up.

To this Infinity made a face that said "Oh My God Gross!!" promptly held the item at arms length and walked back into the living room, obviously sorry she had asked.

Naomi came down to where I was working in the woodshop in the basement almost in tears she was laughing so hard...

Ya sometimes life is too good

Love you and miss you all.

Well, again it has been about a month since the last update here. But I have some good news that will probably equal more updates... Time Warner finally ran a cable line down our street, and in the next few days we will be upgraded from this dial up to full on cable high speed internet woo hoo!!! it is about time, now I will be able to get some things done.

Memorial Day weekend was funny, I felt like I needed to do something, I was very restless leading up to the weekend and I couldn't figure out why... well I guess over the last two years I've conditioned my body and soul to run on empty over that weekend with the running of the Woden Thor Medieval Festival and Joust along with my two friends Thom and Greg. I imagine it was easier here, in a completely foreign surrounding, than it would have been back home.
At any rate we did decide to go do something other than sit home for the weekend. We rented a hotel room and spent the weekend in Bangor. Walked around the down town. You'll see in the pic the girls standing infront of a bronze statue in the downtown area, I forget exactly who it is...some early politician and I want to say the name was Hamlin... but I don't remember now for sure, it really doesn't matter, It was a chance to get a pic of my girls!
We went to the mall, the girls each got a friend from the "Build a Bear Workshop" and a book from Borders... Naomi found a brand new favorite store. "Burlington Coat Factory" we spent a good amount there. and of course...we made it to Sam's Club... ya we really missed Sam's.

School finishes up for the girls here on the 11th, they are looking forward to summer vacation. Oh and Naomi's job... well it sucked pretty bad, it was out going calls to make sales and in the training they basically told her to lie to the customers, to saythings like "ya I just got my grandmother that phone and she loves it" or "my kids use that all the time" that kinda crap, It's not right and I'm glad she left. We'll find something. there is no real rush or hurry.

Yesterday we took Karen and went to visit the Aroostook State Park. a gorgeous park with lots of hiking trails, and picnic sites and some nice camping spaces to. A couple of mountains with a lake right next to them. A beautiful clear lake that the girls had fun wading around in. actually they got soaked, but that was their problem, the sky was sunny, mid 70's for a temp, perfect, we let he kids run, sat around and killed a few beer and grilled out some hot dogs and brats. Chloe got a leech on her foot while she was in the water... just a little one, she was fine with it until Karen poured some salt on it and it started to wriggle and writhe... :) I let her suffer for a minute (I'm such a good dad) then I scraped it off for her, but it was funny as hell. Packed up and got out of there just ahead of an evening thunderstorm... pretty much perfect.

Naomi got the calls last night from her friends rockin out at June Dairy Days, I know she misses June Dairy Days like I miss the Medieval Festival. We are looking at probably not making it home this summer at all, but looking at trying to make something happen around Christmas. Gives us a goal anyhow.

Balloons, Confetti, Music, Dance, and the Sounds of the Soloist Kuzu

Greetings.
Well things are moving along here alright. Lately we've been helping our friend Karen move from one house to another. She was living at the base of one of the mountains up here called Big Rock in Mars Hill, about 1/2 hour south of us, but it was pretty isolated up there, no neighbors at all, and if any of you know Karen you know how much of a social person she is. So she started looking around and found a place to rent only about 3 miles away, big yard to mow, fire pit by the back deck. A nice place. Anyhow, we've been helping her paint and move in. We'll try to get everything done this weekend.

As a family we also have Big BIG news!!!! are you ready??? The Wii has arrived!!! (balloons and confetti, music and dancing) That's right, Mom and Dad finally followed up on one of their own campaign promises when it came to relocating, and the children (and the parents) now have the hottest video game system on the planet ...until the next one ... or this one may be out dated already....whatever its still fun. A couple of games and a Wii fit to boot, I have to say even Naomi, who is not a video game person, is enjoying playing.

But Wait thats not all. Naomi has gotten herself a job! (more confetti, more balloons, more music and more dancing, this time clothing optional) ;) She found work at a local call center called "Connect America" Its not an incredibly great job, and she's not completely satisfied wth going back to work on the phones...but she is happy to be getting out of the house, she has felt a little pent up as of late. and its easy work that she knows how to do well. She still has apps in at TAMC and is going to be putting some in at a local bank, where we hear an opening is iminent. but it is funny that it is easier to find work when your working but it is true.

and to facilitate that comes the third piece of big news, we're finally getting a second vehicle (we're outta balloons, confetti, and tired of dancing...cue the old man in the corner with a kuzu) Someone I work with is selling us a car for 750$, which is a pretty good deal here in Maine where you have to deal with yearly car inspections and what not. So we're happy, and things are looking pretty good.

Chloe just got back from a big class field trip to a couple of museums down state. One was a air and space type museum where the kids got to carry out the roles of astronauts during the apollo mission days, Chloe's job was on life support and she almost let the crew die!!! I guess you had to monitor your stuff and carry out experiments on a computer at the same time. SHe aparently is not a natural multi-tasker. But she had lots of fun. After the trip there was a school dance, we picked up her and her friend Chyane and they then had a sleep over here. (we're cooler now that we have the Wii) :)

Fayth and Fin both had "Crazy Hair" Day at their school this week, so I got some pics of them in the morning after Naomi had fixed their hair. You will also notice that Infinity has taken up boxing and has had both of her front teeth knocked out... well it would have made a good story. but it is fun to tease her about the way she tries to pronounce words sometimes. Hell she's just fun to pick on period!! The other pic is one I found on the camera as I was uploading onto the computer. Fayth aparently got into some experimental photography of her own... I don't know what she has stuck to her forehead, and I don't think I wanna know. but she's got that giggly look thats contagious, I had to add it here.

Well thats all I can think of this morning. Everyone have a good day