Almost 2 weeks ago I had shoulder surgery to fix an injury from 2 years ago.  I finally decided it was time to take  care of the issue and get rid of the constant dullness and other varying degrees of discomfort.  The surgery went pretty well.  And at this point I almost have my full range of motion back.  However it still gets sore from time to time and I find myself dropping some ice on it at bedtime (helps calm it down for bedtime).

Tomorrow is my follow up and I get my stitches out.  I’m sure it will only get better with time.

Christmas is always special.  This year it was extra special for my wife and I.  Since we are in the process of adopting 2 boys, this was our first Christmas with our kids.  It’s been 4 awesome months since we had them placed in our home.  We had so much fun buying them gifts and spending time with the family.  We also threw a birthday party for Jesus and had cake, etc.  It was truly a wonderful day.  We were also blessed with having a white Christmas.  A very cold but white Christmas.  I think we ended up with at least 7 inches of snow and the snow drifts from the 50mph wind conditions made it even deeper in places.

Last year we flew up to Seattle to my family for Christmas and was stuck in about 18″ of snow.  It started falling a couple hours before we landed and didn’t really stop for a day or two.  So we are blessed to have two white Christmas’ in a row.  In fact if we would have been in Texas this Christmas we would have had a white one as well. (very unusual)

I love the Christmas lights too.  This year we took the boys to a city park with all these lights and it took FOREVER, but we enjoyed them and had fun even though it was a late, late night for all of us.

Christmas – the Birth of Jesus:
Luke 2:8-16 (ESV)

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And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.10 And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

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Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!

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When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.

The forecast changed rapidly and some times the news meteorologists have been wrong.  But not a few days ago.

I drove up to my Christmas destination on the evening of the 23rd.  It was really crazy.  When I left it was 73 out.  a 2.5 hour drive later and it was in the 40’s.  The original forecast earlier that day talked about a chance of a trace of snow and really cold weather over Christmas.  When I arrived the forecast change to 1-2″ of snow.  Now bedtime we check again and now it’s changed to 2-4″ of snow but not until mid day after some rain and sleet.

So when we woke up, nothing major was taking place and my mother in law and I were headed into town to get some last minute things a little more food, just in case we lost power, etc.  About 9 or so, sleet was starting to accumulate pretty fast so we took off.  For me the roads were not that bad.  Mostly slush at this point.  By the time we were done, all the non snow driving people were getting stuck and trying to do things you just don’t do in the snowy weather.  Then the winds pick up to a constant 20-30 mph level.  Sleet hurts when it pelts you in the face at this speed.

By the time we got home they issued a blizzard warning and the snow started falling.  It was just crazy.  I think in total we got 7-8″.  The snow drifts with the 50mph gusts created some areas that were over 20″ deep.  It was fun and really cold, but it was nice to have a white Christmas.

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow.

I am very thankful for a lot of things this year.  There are far to many to list.  But a couple of my top thanks.

• My lovely Wife
• My 2 Sons (who we will be adopting soon)
• My family and extended family
• My Church and their faith.

What are you thankful for this year?

Please have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday and weekend.
1 Chronicles 29:11-13

11 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.12 Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.13 And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.

On the way home from my wife’s college homecoming (it was the 100th) we decided to take a small detour for a couple of hours to visit Turner falls.  I have never been there before but have driven past it and seen it from the observation point.  Well this day did not disappoint.  It was a beautiful day.

Here is one shot of it:

We heard a rattlesnake but never saw it which I think is a good thing.  The people behind us coming up the trail did see it and got a picture of it.  The boys had fun and so did we.  We really didn’t want to leave.

We will have to make some plans to go back up there in the future.

It’s been nice to have my parents here the last two weeks.  They flew down here to meet there new grand kids.  I’m glad they were able to come since travel is so expensive these days.  Originally we were going to fly up on Thanksgiving but only 4 days.  But now we got to see them for 14 days which sure beats out 4 any day.

Now the first part of there stay I want to blame them for the weather as it was non stop cloudy and rainy.  Then the day we went to the Texas State Fair the rain stopped (but remained cloudy and cool) then a couple days later the sun reappeared until this morning.  Back to a full day of rain it looks like.  Oh well that’s OK cause we have had our fun and their trip is almost complete.

We will miss them come Saturday afternoon.  Next time will be in the Summer, most likely in June.

It’s unbelievable really.  We have been so busy the past few months.  Soccer started back in full force.  Then we got news that we were selected as 1 of 2 families to adopt two boys (Brothers).  One week went by and we were selected as the adoptive family.  So after reading many, very many pages of case files we took a leap of faith and said yes to adopt these 2 boys.  They are 3 and 8.  It’s so awesome! 

However it was or has been a lot of work to prepare for this.  Tonight will mark the first week that we have had them.  Yes it’s a hard adjustment from being a married couple with tons of time on our hands to having two boys and no time on our hands, but it is and will be worth it, the remainder of our life.

We love them…

So now that things are settling into place, I hope to update this more often and have stories to tell about our mis-adventures of our new family…

I really want a vacation.  But with some family changes that just took place this might be some time before I get to go anywhere.

I have always wanted to go see a different part of the country.  Often when you do plan for a vacation a lot of people tend to think of sun and beaches but over look some of the other destinations.  I was doing some checking and ran across this place in Tennessee.  Gatlinburg vacations in the Tennessee mountains, looks like it has a lot to offer.  I think it would be fun to take a road trip over there.  From North Texas it cannot be too bad of a drive.

After going over all of the attractions and things to do, I want to make sure that I keep this on the radar so when we can actually take a road trip I will remember this place.

It’s almost that time of year again.  Yep back to school.  My wife is a teacher and after having the entire summer off she is not ready to get back to the daily grind.  I always remind her that I continue to work every day and she should be really lucky to have a few months off in the summer time.

I think in about 2 weeks she has to start going back daily to get her classroom ready.  She will need to dust and clean.  Get the textbooks organized and ready.  And then she will have to put on the final touches when she gets the list with kids names on them.

I think she is going with her Frog theme again this year.  It was really cool last year.  I know her mom is coming down to help her which she loves and I’m sure I will pitch in at least one night to help out.

I actually cannot believe it’s been this long..  I have been rather busy and there has been a lot going on this last month.  I have a lot to write about just don’t have a lot of time lately.

Here is a small list of things:

* Soccer season just started
* Weekend getaway to Fredericksburg, tx
* Trying to adopt a child

Over the next day or two I will post some write ups on these things..