fattest of the fat

SO... big news in DEATH VALLEY...

the local paper published an article... Huntington, WV (which is right next door, like Ironwood and Hurley), and Ashland, KY are the FATTEST cities in America! Actually the five counties in this area of WV and KY are the fattest. So, putting it all together, I live in the FATTEST city of the FATTEST nation on Earth!... I moved to the fattest city in the WORLD!

And, really... not being mean... but I see more large individuals here than I ever have. Me and Shannon have mentioned that to each other many times since we got here. Now it is just confirmed on a survey level.

wow... I think I better go for a walk, or do a sit up.

Opening Day

Yea... you guys know what it is... Opening Day!
But, alas, I am not in Michigan, so it doesn't really matter... LOL

Around here, they don't understand missing school for Deer Day. How could they?

Instead, it was 55 here yesterday and last night, so I slept with the window open so I could hear the rain tap on my sill... nice...

And me and my mom have been clearing out all the overgrown shrubbery from around my house, and all the ivy... actually I did all that a couple weeks ago... it was crazy out of control. So, I got the chainsaw and went at it... I also used it to trim the hedges. It was pretty dangerous, but, hey, I don't have any hedge trimmers.

So, now me and mom carried bucket after bucket up my hill/front lawn to where the hedges where and filled it in with the best compost you have ever seen, from my sisters place. (She just makes the best compost...) Now we are gonna plant flowers in the back, and along the side we are gonna put asparagus and rhubarb, and then dig up some of my side lawn for a garden next year. Like she said, we are "displaced farmers". My shoes are covered with compost.

The YMCA had a Princess Dance tonight that ended with a special Daddy-Dance... it was precious. Pics later.

Shannon's dad is going down hill; I wouldn't expect him to last a lot longer... pray for her/him/us.

Kids are great, excellent, wonderful... Shannon and I have looked at pics of the Northland and wonder why we came here. I just read starlajane's blog and wondered why I am not hiking the North Country Trail myself... then I remember that I didn't hike it when I lived there... so why would this year be any different! LOL! Anyway, missing the Northland... I got on youtube, of all places, to find video of Lake Superior. I definitely miss BIG WATER. Or any water other than tap water, for that matter.

Hope all is well out there...

btw, they call this place Death Valley for all the allergies, sickness and cancer that everyone gets here... why did you guys make us move here? Just wondering...

Just Southern humor...

So, I was in class today and a student told me what he said earlier in another class....

Teacher: Tell me a joke.

Student: Women's sports.

Teacher: No, tell me a real joke.

Student: Women's rights.

Yea... i'm in the South.

Our House

Our Galley Kitchen



Florida Room/Dining Room


Turnip Head


Little Nut


Swing Set and half of back yard (not quite half)


Bathroom


Squishy Driveway (Sorry it's blurry, but you can see the busy road in the very lower right hand corner.)
I am standing across the street when I take this pic.


The other side of our house


And the front again


Living Room


The camera was full, so I had to stop. More later, now that I found the camera cable!

Vacation over

Well, it is the last day of my Fall break. With "year-round" school here, we get a break every nine weeks, and then a shorter summer. I knew of this break before we moved here and I have been looking forward to it ever since I got here! It has been so stressful and troublesome since we arrived, I really wanted to plan to do SOMETHING for the break! But, alas, I frittered it away, sick and tired.

At one point I wanted to go up North (Tawas) and see friends and family. That didn't work out... I thought I might start an EMT class that would meet 3 times a week until Christmas. This is something I had been wanting to do for a long time so I thought it might be the time. I enrolled and then thought about it... "if I have this much time and money (which I don't) then I need to be doing something else with it than take a class I don't need". SO, I dropped it after the first meeting.

Then I got sick and slept half the time for about 3 days. Then, Friday I felt better and cleaned a bunch of shrubs out from around my house, which was great! It felt good to have a bit of energy and get some yard work done. After that, I was exhausted. Yesterday all of us and all my sister's family went to Columbus to the zoo. That was fun, but it was a long day and it was obviously too soon for me to be that busy b/c I am sick again! Tomorrow I go back to school and I don't want to... I feel like I wasted my week's vacation and that is very frustrating. 

However, the kids have had a great time being with us and with Grandma and playing outside and sleeping with daddy and all that fun kids stuff... so that is a bright light in my week. 

Me and Raymond (Kelly's hubby) went kayaking and fishing one day last week, right when I was starting to get sick the first time. It was nice and I enjoyed it, but it is not the Northland, that's for sure. I have lots of aches and pains and life is really getting me down.... 

About 3 weeks ago I ran a road race. It was great fun and I did better than I thought I would, but I pulled some muscle or tendon right at my hip somewhere and I haven't been able to run since! I don't get it... I can run about 30 yards, then it feels like a screwdriver in my hip joint. If it was just an ache or pain, I would run through it, but it makes me limp and I have to lean on stuff to walk. SO, I am not running. (again). (Again, again, again).

Me and Shannon are thinking about joining the YMCA. I could lift there and swim and the kids could play and have a great time. So, I think that might be the way to go for my exercise. I could walk, but I can't stand it, so I don't.

Well, I am planing on going camping in two weeks. I sure hope it works out... I need some WW time... Woods and Water!

I know most people don't think this is "city living" but it sure is for me... and I don't really care for it. We are on a busy street and our front steps are one sidewalk width from the busy street. When the kids go out the front door, we gotta go in front of them and "herd" them to the van so they don't stumble into the street. Our driveway barely fits both of our vehicles; I scrapped the side of my truck on the cement blocks lining my driveway a couple weeks ago. Our back yard is small, but the kids can play and it is all fenced in, so there are no worries there. I got the swing set up and there is a little tree that Nathan loves to climb in... they have  a great time in the back yard... so that is great.

Anyway, I hate getting on here and filling it up with woes, but I gotta be honest... I haven't found a lot that I enjoy here at all... I am keeping a good attitude, for the most part. Our family is doing well; the kids are adjusting and me and Shannon are putting all our efforts into them and keeping everything wonderful for them. But, personally, all I do is school work. Same with Shannon... there is too much to do with school. I am trying to find a hobby or a friend or something to split up the time (that was one thought with EMT school), but so far, nothing. There are no guy friends here that I have found yet. I want to find a place to "hang out" sort of, but I am not much of a "hang out" guy... so I don't know how that will work.

I need to find the local music store and a good coffee shop. I have played my guitar a bit, and am making more time for that. That is a needed thing... but I don't do it much. I have been spending time in the Word. Good times in the mornings for me... but lacking the sleep takes it's toll, too. I get up at 5, shower, and read for about a half hour. The kids are up by 6 and then we snuggle on the couch for a while. That is a great way to start the day. They look forward to it and so do I. But I gotta have an "out" somewhere... I feel like my days are dark and closed in... not good. I was just telling Shannon that I wish I could just go over to Joe's and sit with some java and talk about life. Maybe we could go for a drive, or watch a game, or chat about the Lord... something... but, it wouldn't matter if I was back in Ironwood or here, pretty much everyone is gone anyway.

Shannon has been dealing with the same feelings. We know why we moved here, and it had to do with family. The kids love being near grandma and their cousin... I like being near my sister and grandma and all them... it is great. It is something that we hoped for for many years. On the flip side, however, that is our whole social circle. We have no friends, no goals (except to get done with school), no projects... and that is not a healthy place to live. Somehow I gotta get myself out of this funk and find what I want to do here. 

The church we go to is nice, but it is a very old church. There are very few people our age... probably 70-80% of the church is retirement age. There are a couple families in our Sunday School class that seem nice enough, but no one that I would really try to culture a friendship with. The youth group is basically non-existent... I mentioned being interested in working with the youth group, and the current youth leader thought that might work out... but that was the end of it. No ones fault, there just hasn't been any more talk about it for about 2 months. We are not making it to church every Sunday anyway, so I am sure that plays a part.

So, I wish this vacation would not have slipped by... but it has. I wish I had a friend here... but none yet. Sure, there are a couple guys I talk to at work or church, but that's it... very surface... you know the type. Nice guys, but no relationship. Probably my fault more than anything... I am pretty picky about friends, I guess.

I didn't plan on writing this much... I think, for the first time in this blog, I am concerned about what my readers will think of me... but that sort of defeats the purpose of a blog, eh? (Yea... I get teased about "eh" too... they all say, "I thought only Canadians said that... you're not Canadian". I can't even seem to transplant correctly...

Man... again, I don't know where to begin. I will only make it short this time.

Jobs are not any easier, but a bit more organized. Kids are doing great... adjusting well and liking school. It is nice to see family a lot; we are spending time with Kelly (my sister and her family) pretty much every week. Usually my mom comes and spend a couple days a week on our couch, so that is sure nice to visit with her.

That's really all we do... school and family. I finally got my puter set up the way I want it... I have a printer hooked up now... just got it figured out yesterday. I got Otto's HUGE-MAN desk in my basement... it barely fits, but it is awesome. I didn't realize that the basement floor was unlevel until the whole desk was up. So, I had to get some large tools and pry it up and stick some wood under it to level it out. I got it, tho. Found my wireless router so now me and Shannon have our puters up and running. That's nice. Had to go buy a new office chair b/c I gave my other one to Matt Agee... couldn't fit it in the truck. :)

Still SO much organizing to do, but we can handle it. We are living in our home just fine now. Still some pockets of mess in the basement (it is a finished basement with our TV and puters) but we can deal with it.

I guess that's about it. I still want to go back and try to fill in the blanks of all the move... but I don't know how to do that. It was so convoluted and crazy... I don't know how I didn't lose my mind. I think, honestly, the only reason I didn't was that I had Nathan with me and had to be strong and collected for him. It was all I could do to keep him "settled", if that is what you can call it. But he is a trooper, as always. His life started out with him needing to be tough and he is. He gets upset about some simple things, but when it comes to being strong, he is strong. 

And Alia is a princess... a drama queen extrodinaire, but a princess, nonetheless. She is so sweet and cuddly... and squishy.

Looked through a bunch of pics of the UP last night... waterfalls, snowshoeing, Lake of the Clouds, fall colors, the Porkys... and Shannon said, "tell me again why we moved here, away from all that?"

I had to think....

OH YEA... family. To be near family. Gotta keep telling myself that.

Love to all who love.

Southern and Fried

I wouldn't know how to begin to sum up everything we have been through the last few weeks. I can safely say that packing my house and moving was probably the worst thing I ever experienced in my life. I am not sure if my father's death was worse or not... jury's still out on that one. Safe to say that if it wasn't for the help of a lot of people, some of who will never read this, there is NO way I could have done it. THANK YOU to all who helped SO much... Otto and Laura, Lisa, Larry, Travis and Chrisy, Matt and Brenda, and others that I can't think of right away.

I just got internet a couple days ago. I didn't have much email... so that's was nice. I can't check my email at school, nor can I get on the internet very much at all... I can't check blogs or anything. (funny how they want a person to work at school... crazy Rebs.)

Let me try to sum up... but I will have to get more detailed another time...

We spent 4 weeks in a rented trailer. There was two rooms, so me and Nathan slept together and Shannon and Alia slept together, at opposite ends of the trailer. All we had was a couple mattresses on the floors, our deck furniture for the living room. There was a small table in the "kitchen" but I just ate in my Barcha-lounger, which I made sure to bring to the trailer so I had a place to sit.... I'm such a panzee...

We moved into our house on the w/e of Labor Day. We have boxes everywhere. Our house is smaller than the one we left, so we don't have room for all our stuff. So we are trying to figure out what to get rid of... mostly kids toys. :)

I have lots of stories of how things went wrong ever since we left, but I don't want to sound like I am in poor spirits... so that will have to come out in time. Several things have gone right, also. We are all healthy, our kids are in good schools, we are closer to my family, My mom stays here quite a bit and we and the kids love it... so there are lots of positives.

That's enough for now... can't wait to hear from some old friends. 

Love to all... God's speed in all your lives. I am reading some Xangas... nice to at least pretend that we are all close again... lol.

g'night