Home Improvement

Well, this week we had a new countertop installed and bought a new kitchen faucet to go along with it. Being the handy man that I am (note the sarcasm) I was confident that I could install a new kitchen faucet. I quickly ran into a problem when I realized that our new sink was lower which now made the plumbing for the old disposal obsolete. This caused me many headaches and countless trips to Lowe's trying to make it fit with the limite space. Then on Saturday when I had just about decided that we were going to have to do w/o a disposal if Carrie ever wanted to have running water in the kitchen again (yeah, we went 3 days w/o running water and were washing dishes in our bathroom sink), she asked me if I had considered moving the disposal to the other side of the sink. Sounds like she should have been installing this thing herself. Well, that sped up the process and after a couple of more trips to Lowe's to get the right pipe, I successfully intalled the faucet and disposal. It may have taken 4 or 5 or 10 times longer than what it should have but I saved $200 in installation fees between the disposal and faucet.

Why am I telling you this, b/c I had a little help while doing this and I got a few pictures out of the deal so all in all, it was worth it. Ben loves to mimic just about everything that I do that involves work (mowing, vacuuming, whatever). Its very cute and he actually watches very closely and does almost exactly what I do. Well, when he saw me doing this he had to get out his tools and give me a hand.

Not quite, the typical plumber's view you would expect but its pretty close although I don't know too many plumbers who wear Spider Man underwear.

It was funny to watch because he tried to go in on his back like I was doing but he quickly decided that was too difficult and uncomfortable so he stuck to the position you see here.

Ben does not typically go around shirtless but he had just gotten through eating an ice cream sandwich and we didn't want him to get it covered in ice cream but I think it added to the overall look of the picture.

Finally, I would hate to leave out Collin so we here is a picture of the two boys in matching outfits that they wore to a BBQ we went to on Saturday with my team members from work.

Have a great week.

Catching Up

I sat down tonight and realized that it had been awhile since I posted. When I started this I had grand intentions of posting a few times per week. As you can see, I am lucky to get one or two. I'll try and make up for quantity with quality. So over the weekend we went to a hibachi grill (the Japanese restaurant where the chefs do all of the tricks with the knives and food). We weren't sure how Ben would react but he loved it. They even had some chopsticks held together by rubber bands that he used to eat his rice. Unfortunately, we forgot our camera so we didn't capture this Kodak moment with pics. So, instead here is a treat of Ben singing the song he learned at school last week.

In case you can't tell, he's singing God our Father. Its his prayer of choice before dinner.

Next up are some pictures of Collin we took the other night. Sometimes we think he looks allot like Ben at this age and then other times we think he has his own look. It really varies from picture to picture.

And finally, since I can't guarantee I'll post again before the weekend we would like to wish Mops (my mom) a HAPPY BIRTHDAY a few days early. I'll not divulge how old she turns on Thursday but Ben wanted to leave you with a special message.

Fun With the Family

Here is a picture of Earle, Collin, Ben and Robert Coggin (a friend of ours from Nashville) on Bourbon St. on Saturday.

Bear with me, it is my first time to post....This last week we had a great time with my mom, and my sister Lorie and her husband Josh. They came up for Ben's birthday, then on Thursday, we went to Mobile to celebrate Lorie's 23rd birthday. We had a great time visiting. Here are a few pics from Red Lobster in Mobile, AL. We also got a chance to visit with J.T., Rebecca, and Mary Katherine Harrison, Josh's family.

Here is a pic of Lorie and I, because we always forget to get our picture taken together....I think the last one we had was at her wedding....how terrible!

Here is a picture of Ben with a monkey on his head. He thought it was very funny. Mary Katherine gave it to him as one of his birthday gifts.Mary Katherine, Mom, and J.T. in the background.

Anyway, it was a nice little outing. Hope everyone is off to a good week!

Carrie

This weekend we had some friends visit us from the Nashville area. Since they had never been to New Orleans before we took them downtown to the French Quarter for lunch and to look around. After walking a little too long on Bourbon St. and passing some questionable establishments (Napolean's Itch and Big Daddy's to give you a hint of what we are talking about) we decided to make our way back to the square and on the way we passed some street musicians. Ben was absolutely mezmerized. He didn't want to leave. He was very interested in the guy playing the tuba and as you can see in the first picture, he wanted to drop a dollar in the bucket.









Just so I don't leave Collin out of this one, here are some random pics of the boys from earlier in the week.



Have a great weekend.

Happy Birthday Ben!!!!

Well, yesterday was Ben's birthday but we had his party here at the house tonight. I thought I would start out with pics from each of the 4* birthday's he has had (*if you count his birth). This one was small and really just a family affair. We had a big one for him last year and to be honest, we really don't know that many people with kids just yet.

It makes me said to look back at these and see how much he has grown in just such a short time. Time really does fly by once you have kids. Well, enough of the sentimental ramblings. On to the pictures

Ben calls this his fishin' hole. We have a little pond not too far from our house and he has been dying to go fishing in it.

We all had a great time and Ben loved all the gifts he got from everyone. Hope you all enjoy the pics.

Here We Go

Okay, so we have finally decided to take the plunge and start a blog. Several factors contributed to this decision. One of them is peer pressure. Several of our friends have started them and it is actually a pretty neat way to stay caught up with them and see what is going on in their lives. The second is our two boys. Ben and Collin are growing up so fast and it is hard to keep all of our friends and relatives caught up on their progress w/o cloggin up e-mail accounts with pictures. So..., we are going to give this a shot and see what transpires. We'll stick mainly to keeping everyone posted on the progress of the boys and every once in awhile Carrie or I will let you know what is going on with us. I am not making any promises but I will try and post a least a couple of times each week even if they are just pics. My days start much earlier than they did in Illinois and I am finding that I have less free time to play on the computer after getting home, eating dinner, spending time with the boys and getting them to bed, catching up with Carrie, and getting a bath/shower all before 10 or so in order to be in bed by 10:30. Whew, that makes me tired just thinking about it.

On Monday we took Ben to the aquarium here in New Orleans for an early birthday present. It was okay but we are kind of biased after going to the one in Chicago a couple of years ago. They just don't even compare. But we had fun and Ben wore us out.

In addition to that, as most of you know Ben started pre-school this week and the first day went really well. He goes on MWF from 9am to 1pm and so far, so good. Here are some pictures of him getting ready to leave and some of Collin for no particular reason.