The "new" Four His Glory

It's great to see the tradition of Four His Glory is rolling on even though the original group is not performing together right now. I found this video on YouTube and it's great. They could probably teach me a thing or two. Check it out.

The "new" Four His Glory

TJ

we're back

We went down to Iowa on Christmas Eve and came back late Christmas Day. We woke up this morning to around 3 inches of snow. We got a lot of good stuff. I got a new game for the Wii, Super Mario Galaxy. Stephanie got a Willow Tree Nativity Set. Plus, a bunch of other good stuff. I'll have Stephanie leave a post from her new present. Now we've got Christmas at our house with Stephanie's family on Saturday.

TJ

christmas

I realize most, if not all of you, check this blog at work. So since this probably will be your last day at work before Christmas. Merry Christmas!

By the way, voting ends in 4 hours for the poll!

TJ

weird

Wouldn't it be weird if we smelled from our butt and went to the bathroom from our nose?

TJ

weekend

On Friday and Saturday we went to IRBC for my mom's side Christmas. It was fun. We played a lot of games and I even went sledding for the first time in a few years. It was fun. On Sunday Stephanie sang in the church Cantata Sunday morning and on Sunday evening we both had parts in the church program. I took 4 hours of vacation and went into work at 10pm.

TJ

christmas at camp

Just a quick post today. Got a lot to do. We're leaving this afternoon for Christmas on my mom's side at Iowa Regular Baptist Camp in Clear Lake, IA. We'll come back tomorrow night.

TJ

Christmas cookies

Stephanie had Nicole and Dana over last night and they made a bunch of Christmas cookies and goodies. I'm not sure that they are going to last until Christmas. She may have to hide them.

TJ

hi

Stephanie has been sleeping at her friend's house for the last 2 nights. I had to work Saturday night and she had choir practice for the cantata so she just stayed at Keith and Amy's house in Faribault on Saturday. Then she stayed there all day on Sunday and decided to spend the night again last night. I don't know if they had any pillow fights. I think they played a lot of "Truth or Dare." There was a bigger version of that game that I called "Truth, Dare, Double-Dare, Promise OR Repeat." Stephanie called it "Truth, Dare, Double-Dare, Promise TO Repeat." So is it Promise Or Repeat or Promise TO Repeat?

TJ

language

They speak a different language in Minnesota. I'm not talking the accent on "...oat" words like: boat, goat, etc.. No, they use different words for certain things. Take for instance, the game "Duck, Duck Goose." Up here it's "Duck, Duck Grey Duck." What?! Or, let's say you want to have a delicious casserole. Nope, not here. It's a hot dish. What?! Can anybody think of any others? I know there's more out there.

TJ

Televangelists

So I read today that 6 organizations are being probed by Sen. Chuck Grassley from Iowa. They are "TV preachers." Grassley was acting on complaints from the public and media. He's looking into their expenses, executive compensations and amenities. I find "televangelists" to be hilarious. A lot, not all, of the preachers on TV are a joke. If you have cable or satellite you probably have "TBN" and all the other big Christian networks. TBN is the best. Here's my favorite from that station: Jan Crouch. I mean come on, look at that picture. How is that not funny. Stephanie's gonna do her hair like that. That suit actually looks a lot like mine. So the televangelists they are looking into are: Benny Hinn, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Creflo and Taffi Dollar, Bishop Eddie Long, Joyce and David Meyer, and Paula and Randy White. I've seen some of these on TV and they're great. The best is probably Benny Hinn. He's been asked about the use of a private jet, a home in Cal. and my favorite, "lay-over trips" while traveling on ministry business. Here's a great Benny Hinn story I found. Joyce Meyer is in trouble for gifts she recieved of money and jewelry, the handling of cash from overseas trips, and the best part, they were asked about expenditures at their headquarters including a $30,000 conference table and a $23,000 "commode with a marble top". And don't mess with Joyce cause she could probably beat you up. Paula White is in trouble for the 3 homes she owns, cosmetic surgery and a Bentley convertible she bought as a gift for Bishop T.D. Jakes. Here's a website I found with info on different televangelists expenses.

Stephanie and I have set aside $777,777 (7,the perfect number) to give to Benny Hinn. In return for that we should receive over 2 million dollars.

Before I go, here's a hilarious tv clip from a preacher that some of you have seen. Gas Producing TV Evangelists . I'm so immature.

By the way, it's snowing.
TJ

This report just out

I just clipped this from the Owatonna paper and scanned it for you to read.

By the way, it's snowing again.

TJ

Happy December

Do you like the new look?

We have snow...and ice. We're supposed to get more snow on Tuesday too. And maybe some more this weekend. Stephanie didn't have to work today cause she has to work Saturday, so she's home. Bye.

TJ

brrrr

It's cold out. 7 degrees right now. We're supposed to get a big snow storm tomorrow. We'll see. We're going to watch the Faith girls play basketball tonight at Pillsbury. I heard they're pretty bad.
I just saw that the place where Stephanie worked in Des Moines may be closing. Stephanie didn't like working there. She worked there as a temp. They wanted her to start full-time but she told them no. She said they were messed up. Here's the story.

TJ

"i got worms"

That's what we're gonna call it. We're gonna specialize in selling worm farms.

o holy night

Since it's time for Christmas music, here is what may be the greatest version of "O Holy Night" ever. I had it sent to me a year or two ago. I downloaded it to our IPod. It's great. You've got to hear it. Go here to listen to or download an mp3. I haven't read this site so I know nothing about it.

TJ

what a weekend

We had a great Thanksgiving with Stephanie's family. On Wed. night and Thursday night we had 13 people(including us) spending the night at our house for 2 days. We had four kids sleeping on the floor in our bedroom. We had 18 people here on Thanksgiving. There was plenty of good food...all weekend. We played a lot of the Nintendo Wii. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving too.

TJ

Thanksgiving

We are having Thanksgiving at our house with Stephanie's family. There will be 18 of us. That's a lot. Our house really isn't that big. I think if we lock all the kids in the spare bedroom, we should be fine. Of course, we'll give them a potty break every 5 hours. And they can come out and eat for 10 minutes. Speaking of eating, we're just not sure what to make for our main course. Maybe hamburgers or chicken. Maybe I'll grill the turkey. We'll let it thaw out and I'll just throw it on the grill for a few hours.

TJ

A Milestone!

Wow, this is so exciting! This is the 100th post on this blog! Who knew it would grow into what is has become today, a national phenomenon. I think this blog might be bigger than Oprah. It's pretty amazing. And just to think, it started out with very humble beginnings in the Mississippi backwoods.

TJ

shopping

My wife went to Ikea and the Mall of America today with some ladies in my family. They came and spent the night last night and have been shopping all day. She said the Mall is absolutely crazy. It took them forever to find a parking spot.

I added a slideshow of various pictures. It plays on this page.

TJ

Black Friday

Next week is Black Friday. The day everyone gets up at 3:00 in the morning to go to the store and stand in line for 2 hours to get a camera or whatever. I'm included in that. I don't think I'll get up at 3, but it will be early enough. Stephanie doesn't get to go shopping this year because she'll be working in it at Office Max. If you would like to check out the ads for Black Friday go here or here.

TJ

decorating

Stephanie started decorating for Christmas last night. We're a little behind this year. Stephanie has a little tree she keeps up year round in the living room. She says it's not a Christmas tree. I don't know about that. Anyway, we want to get a 9ft. tree but don't have the money right now. So she just decorated the little tree for now. We may just keep it there this Christmas season. All of Stephanie's family is coming over for Thanksgiving so it may be better to just have a little tree up instead of a big one so there's more room. Now all we need is some snow. Okay, not yet.

TJ

refreshing

My night off was very refreshing. I didn't do much. We went to church, went to Arby's, played Scrabble and slept in till 9:30. It was nice. It's back to work tonight but I'm refreshed and ready.
Have a good day.

TJ

no work

I took tonight off(Sunday). I haven't had a day off(vacation) since June so I wanted to take a day off. So I did. So I'm going to church tonight for the first time in the evening in a long time.

TJ

I'm alive

Sorry I haven't been updated on a regular basis. I know you all expect so much more from me.

I'm looking a Christmas Trees online. Artificial ones. Stephanie and I want a 9ft. tree. I found a website, TreeClassics.com that has all sorts of trees. Here's the one we're looking at. It's only $7,000. This is the 20ft. tree. We wanted the 30ft tree for $12,000 but they're sold out. It's either a tree or a car. Hmmm.

Stephanie is doing her Scrapbooking Weekend this weekend with the ladies in her family. All they do is scrapbook. Aren't they crazy. So I'll be babysitting my niece and nephew, Alexis and Elijah. I'm looking forward to that. It'll be fun.

Lastly, I would like to say congrats to Mark and Crystal Vance and the birth of their boy, Owen David.

TJ

cold

Besides being cold and very windy outside. I have a cold now. I felt it coming on Friday morning and now I've got it. I'm drinking water, water, water. Hopefully it goes away soon.

TJ

Totinos

Everyone's favorite frozen pizza, Totinos, has a recall out.

Funny story. I used to eat Totinos pizza all the time. Now I think they're disgusting. Funny, huh.

TJ

It's November

It's November and we still haven't decorated for Christmas. What's up with us? It's about time to get all the Christmas music out.

I got the Wii set up. I downloaded Donkey Kong Country. Stephanie's mom has it for the Super Nintendo and we always play it when we go there. Now we can play it here.

TJ

I got one!!

I went into Wal-Mart today and they had 3 Wii's! So I bought all three. Okay, so I only got one. Woohoo! I got the Wii Play too. That comes with some more games and another remote thingy. I probably won't be able to open and play it until Thursday.

TJ

cookbook

So, this person came into Officemax and had scrapbooked a cookbook of her and her friends favorite recipes. It was really cool, and got me thinking. I should do that. So awhile ago I decided I was going to do that, and started typing up all my favorite recipes. The guy TJ works with (Will is his name) does the cooking in his family and is always asking TJ to bring him the recipe for what TJ was eating for supper, or something TJ talked about, or whatever. So I told TJ to tell him I was working on a cookbook, and I'll make an extra one for him. Well, I guess Will has been asking TJ every night at work if the cookbook is done yet! Talk about pressure! So yesterday I decided I would finish the cookbook for him. I made a cookbook on the computer for just for Will and went in to Officemax today to get it printed and bound together as a book. I immediately dropped it off at Viracon for Will. I wanted to bring it to him personally, but at the door I have to go through to get to the section where TJ and Will work, there were a whole bunch of guys taking a smoke break and I didn't really want to walk through that. So I put it in the car for TJ to give to him. I was kinda bummed because I wanted to give it to him myself. Oh well. Hope he enjoys it. Now I have to actually work on my cookbook! The scrapbook one. That's the fun part for me!
That's my story-----Stephanie

fire

I went to WhoTV.com to get todays news in Iowa. I see Des Moines is burning down. There was a big chemical explosion at plant in the Des Moines area. They have the interstate shut down in the area too. I'm watching "live-streaming" on the internet and there's 55 gallon drums blowing up and flying through the air. How exciting.

TJ

good weekend

It has been a good weekend. On Friday, Stephanie and I and another couple went bowling in town. I've never been bowling at the alley here in Owatonna because you could smoke there. Well, they passed a state-wide ban on smoking in public places so now it's smoke-free. It's a lot bigger and nicer than I thought it would be. Stephanie killed us all in the second game. I think her score was 176? Pretty good. Then we came home and had pizza and played Settler's Of Catan. On Saturday we met Stephanie's mom in Mankato and went shopping. I'm in the market for a Nintendo Wii. I sold my XBox Friday night with all the games for $100. So now I'm trying to find a Wii. They're all selling out again. I'm going to keep checking with GameStop, Target and WalMart in town. I had to be back at 6 so I could work all night. This weekend we're going to Stephanie's mom's house so I'll check in Mankato again for the Wii.

Have a good week,
TJ

Dance (Pt. III) -Last One-

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!****Warning*****
You may go blind after seeing this. Sorry.

TJ

Our New Dance (Pt. II)

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!The other one was changed. So here's a "new" dance for you.

good news

Good news everyone. Everyone's favorite martial arts expert, Chuck Norris, has endorsed Mike Huckabee for president.

I don't know about you, but now I know who I'm voting for.

TJ

on my own

Stephanie went to the Women of Faith Conference in St. Paul yesterday and today with her friend so I'm on my own. I'm watching the Hawkeye game right now while I clean the house. Yeah, that's right, I'm cleaning the house. I think I'll go to Culver's for lunch.

Oh yeah, it's sunny! Woohoo!

Have a good day,
TJ

sun

I think the cloudy weather is getting to me. I'm ready for some sun. Don't remember the last time it was sunny.

TJ

**SPOILER ALERT**

I watched the DVD.

I'm famous.

TJ

Finally

Woohoo! Today we got the new Gaither DVD/Cd, "Together." I'm listening to the cd right now that features both the Gaither Vocal Band and Ernie Haase & Signature Sound...together. I'm liking it. I haven't watched the DVD yet so I don't know if we're famous or not. The package also came with Gordon Mote's new cd, Don't Let Me Miss The Glory.

Sorry I haven't wrote for a few days. I guess I have nothing to say. And I can't think of any stupid stories. It's hard to keep a blog that's kept at such a high standard going at that high standard.

TJ

good sunday to you

I'm getting ready to go to work. Another wonderful 12 hour night. I had to work last night too - 12 hours. Nothing exciting has been going on around here. The Hawkeyes won. I guess that's exciting. Stephanie and I are singing in church next Sunday. We were looking for a song today. I think we're doing "Passin' The Faith Along" or "How Deep The Father's Love". It's a toss-up. Maybe we'll throw in "Boundless Love - The Remix" into the mix too. That's always been Stephanie's favorite.

We'll gotta go.

TJ

grocery shopping

I ran some Arends today. I went grocery shopping by myself. Scary, isn't it. Stephanie gave me a list and I went at it. I hope I did all Wright. It was so cold in the house so we finally turned the heat on. Now we've got some warm Ayers finally. Just think, it Will get colder.

TJ :)

crazy

When we got back from the Dells on Saturday we turned the air on in the house through Sunday cause it was so hot and muggy. Now, I wake up today and it's freezing cold. I'm about ready to turn the heat on. Crazy.

TJ

review of the dells

The Dells is a very nice place. You should visit.

TJ

Okay, I'll right a little more. This time in the dells we spent more time at the hotel. We really didn't go anywhere else except to shop and eat. Since we were only there for a couple days we wanted to spend time swimming. The wave pool was a blast as always. We spent the most time there. The other 2 waterparks were great too. One of the indoor parks they were remodeling the inside where there used to be a kid play area, so that was a big pile of dirt. But we were still able to go around it and use that one. It was hot! The outdoor parks could have been open. We taught Settler's of Catan to Will and Melissa. Melissa even won a game. We got some more cheese from the cheese store too. We went on the way there and the way back.

Here's some pictures.

TJ

we're back again

We're back again from the Dells. We had a great time. I think instead of getting a regular pool in our basement, we'll get a wave pool.

TJ

Happy October!

Wow, it's about time to decorate for Christmas. If this is anything like past years, we may decorate in October. I love Christmas and everything that goes with it. I think we're going to get a new tree this year. A fake tree. I've never had a real one and I don't want one either. I love Christmas music too. I've already got my first Christmas cd of the year, One Wintry Night, A David Phelps Christmas. Very good.

It's still raining.

TJ

rain,rain,rain

It's raining again here. It wasn't supposed to rain yesterday, but it poured. I just put grass seed down so hopefully it didn't wash it all away. And once again today it's raining.

Stephanie's working today so she doesn't have to take as many vacation hours this week when we go to the Dells.

I worked last night. I have to work every other Saturday night now. They're behind at work so we have to work more to make it up.

TJ

date

On Friday evening Stephanie and I went on a date. It's been a long time since just us two have gone on a date. We went to Mankato and ate at Red Lobster. Then we went shopping. It was fun. Stephanie had her usual chicken cause she doesn't like seafood at all. I had a lobster tail, crab legs, and shrimp. Mmmm. Now Stephanie is making Chicken Alfredo Lasagna! Mmmmm!

TJ

piano

Last night some friends from church were moving. They needed somewhere to store their piano so we offered to take it. And of course this is one of those 3 million pound upright pianos. The front door to our basement is really not that far. But when your lifting a 3 million pound piano-even with 7 or 8 guys- it seems like an eternity. But we made it. All I can think of is when they want it back! I can wait to lift it up the stairs. Hopefully, that's not for a long time. Now I have to get a "Teach Yourself To Play Piano" book.

TJ

The Office

Tonight is the season premiere of my favorite show, "The Office". It's starts at 8 and is an hour long. I've heard the first three episodes are an hour long.

Our only real movie store in Owatonna, "Hollywood Video" is closing. I thought that was strange. We have 2 grocery stores that rent movies and the McDonald's Redbox, but no real movie stores. They're just so expensive and not as popular as they used to be. I'm going over there today to see what kind of deals they have on movies for sale.

TJ

good weekend

We had a good weekend in Iowa. The concert on Friday was great as always. I prefer the stage in the middle instead of the end but it was still good. We had a birthday party on Saturday for my nephew Cole. We played some more Liar's Dice too. Sunday, we went to church in Slater and then went to Hickory Park Restaurant. Mmmmm. We sat with my sister, Melissa, and her husband, Will. Will wasn't too happy with the waitress. She refilled his drink and moved the straw from his old glass to his new one with her fingers. Will didn't like that. He asked her for a new straw and she came back with a new one holding it with her fingers and stuck it in his glass. It was pretty funny... cause it didn't happen to me.

Good news everyone, Jamie has updated her blog.

TJ

Headed to Iowa

We're going down to Iowa today. The Gaither concert in Des Moines is tonight. Woohoo! This will be my 14th Gaither concert. And we've been to 2 video tapings. My dad just called to inform me he was driving by the arena and saw Guy Penrod, Marshall Hall, Bill Gaither, Kevin Williams and a cop car. I think they're all being arrested. I told him he should take em out for lunch. I've seen some of the singers out and about at different cities. I never say anything to them though. Stephanie always says, "Go say something." What am I supposed to say? "Uh, I enjoy your music. Looking forward to the concert." I don't think so. I like to give em some privacy cause I know what it's like. Being a member of a wildly popular group, we had people surrounding us everywhere. The paparazzi wouldn't leave us alone. I can relate.

TJ

CMT

You all know I love music. All kinds. One of those genres of music is Country. I like country music. There, I admitted it. It feels good to get that out there in the open. Some of it is trash and drives me nuts. But I like a lot of it. Classic and new. I like to watch(or have it playing in the background) CMT- Country Music Television- when they are showing music videos. Although, most of the time they are showing some stupid reality show or something. Well for around 5 hours in the morning they play videos. So I flipped it on this morning to see what was playing. I was hoping to see Reba's new song, "Because Of You". I like it. It was Carrie Underwood's new video for her song, "So Small". Good song. The video was good too, the first time. Then they showed it again, and again, and again, etc. That's the only video they are showing. Over and over and over. They play it twice then go to commercial and so on. I like Carrie and her music, but seriously, come on. Now I'm sick of it. There, now I feel better.

TJ

Arrrrrrrrg!

Today is "National Talk Like A Pirate Day". ARrrrrr.

So a pirate walks into a bar. The bartender asks the pirate why he has a steering wheel in his pants? The pirate says, "Arrrrgh! It's driving me nuts!"

That was courtesy of Assistant Pastor, Jeremy Arends.

TJ

The sad weekend continues

It's over folks. Yes, it's a sad day. The "Consecutive Working Days Without Breaking Glass" is done. I hit 43 days. I was holding a piece of glass in my hands and it shattered. It wasn't a huge piece, but it was a good size piece. My partner(only a working partner) Will, said he didn't see it hit anything. He thought it just broke. But I'm wondering if I might have nicked a piece of metal, cause that will do it. So, yes folks, I broke my 43 day streak last night at work. So sad.

TJ

iowa lost.

: (

laughing

Stephanie likes to laugh at me when I "injure" myself. I bump my finger or hurt my leg or do something that involves hurting myself and she thinks it's the funniest thing in the world. Today she was laughing so hard she about peed her pants. I can't say I ever feel like peeing my pants when I'm laughing really hard. When I laugh real hard my face will hurt and I don't want to laugh anymore, then it's even more funny. I've also never had anything come out of my nose while I laugh. My mother has though. Eating supper at the table, she found something super-funny and milk came out her nose. The weird thing was that she wasn't drinking any milk. I just find things funny at the wrong time, normally during something serious, like church. Then I can't stop laughing and you've got to hold it in too. If I'm with Jeremy then it gets REALLY bad. You know what else is funny, the word "laughing". hmm

TJ

Brrr.

Boy, was it chilly last night. It was nice. Not sure exactly how cold it got, but I had to turn on the rear defrost when I left work this morning cause there was a thin layer of ice on the back windshield. Maybe this will kill some of the bugs off. Friday's low is supposed to be around freezing. The high in the low-50's.


I also found out on Dish Network I have the "Vs Network" as a free preview channel this month. So Woohoo!, I can watch the Iowa vs. Iowa State game.

TJ

Stephanie's hair

<-- Remember this picture of Stephanie's "new" hair-do. On Saturday evening we went to our awesome new friend's house. Keith and Amy Kramer are their names. Pretty nice people. A little strange. : ) Anyway, Amy reads this blog. Before we went to their door I told Stephanie she should do her hair like the picture to see what they would say. After some twisting of her arm I finally got her to do it. We went it and they didn't really say anything. Well, we found out later, Amy was hiding her head behind the fridge, laughing and wondering if she was really doing her hair that way. I guess she didn't know what kind of friends she was really getting. We keep up with the latest hair fads. So NO, Stephanie is not really doing her hair that way. But it sure was pretty funny. We were laughing so hard when we took that picture. I don't know why I found it so funny. Oh by the way, here's a picture of our new friends, Keith and Amy Kramer and their son Carsen. I don't have an actual picture of them, so here's a drawing. They're pretty skinny.

woohoo!

Just found out that Dish Network is carrying the Big Ten Network now. Now I can watch the Iowa game on Saturday! And others. Woohoo!

What a beautiful day. It's nice and cool and no humidity! Now it finally feels like fall. I'm ready for it. I like every season, but I'm always ready for the next season to begin. Especially fall cause it just gets so hot at work in the summer. I'm ready for the relief.

TJ

It's football time/Redbox

My Hawkeyes are off to a 1-0 start! Maybe they should just end the season while they're ahead. They play Syracuse, whom they barely beat last year, this Saturday evening. I'm hoping for a better season this year. The good news is they don't have to play Ohio State or Michigan this year. Hopefully they won't end up in the .Com/-gov.edu.insight/capitalone.visa Bowl.

For those of you that live in Iowa and are deprived of the Redbox DVD rental stations, your wait is over. They are now located all over at McDonalds locations in the Des Moines area, including Ankeny and Norwalk. If you don't know about them, it's just a touch-screen DVD rental station. You pick what movies you want to rent, slide your card, and go. They are a dollar a night. So if you only keep it for one night, they are dollar rentals. That's a pretty good deal, since they have brand new releases, every Tuesday that new releases come out. If they are out of a movie it just doesn't show up on the screen. If you go to their website, you can reserve movies to pick up at a certain Redbox location you pick. Also, you can get a free movie rental by going here. Just enter your email address. They don't send garbage email either. I've done this twice with 2 different email addresses and each time it was the same password - breakroom. Let me know if it's the same everywhere. It's way cheaper than a movie store. This is the only time we ever go to McDonalds. You don't have to go to the McDonalds counter either. It's off to the side. It's great.

TJ

Liar's Dice Rules/Glass Breakage

Here's the rules for Liar's Dice. There's a few variations. Instead of saying "Dudo" we just say "I Call You". The tricky part is increasing the bid.

Here's an update on my Consecutive Days Without Breaking Glass. Right now I'm at 38 working days! I can't believe how well I've done. It's amazing.

TJ

Camping

We spent the Labor Day weekend camping here at the campground in Owatonna. It was perfect weather. No rain at all. It was a lot of fun. The game of the year this year was Liar's Dice. I won't explain it cause I had a hard time catching on like everyone else. But once you figure it out it's very addicting. I kept getting knocked out but would keep coming back for more. It's like I was on drugs. I just couldn't stop. I also made my return to Karaoke on Sunday evening at the campground. I sang "To All The Girls I've Loved Before" by Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias with my dad and "Superstar" by the Carpenters with Stephanie. I spent a lot of time sitting around the fire. I never did get a nap in but that's alright.

TJ

have a good long weekend

I went out this morning to set up our tent for the weekend. Now I'm getting ready to finish packing and packing the Rendezvous. I'm hoping to be able to take some naps. I like taking naps in tents when there is a nice breeze blowing through. That and just sitting by the fire doing nothing. But this is a Friesen(Stephanie's side) event so I'll have to get ready to play some games. Sunday night is Karaoke night. Not sure what to sing this year. They are also having "Let's Make A Deal" on Saturday night. I'll have to see what that's about.

I hope everyone has a nice long weekend. If you have to work Monday that's too bad. I guess I have to work Monday though. I go in at 6pm, but I get Sunday night off.

TJ

summers almost gone

Summer's almost gone, but I don't mind. I'm ready for some nice, cool weather. Today is perfect. Mid-Seventies with a little breeze and sunshine. Hopefully it will be like this all weekend. It's our annual camping weekend with Stephanie's family(and my parents) at the campground in Owatonna. The last 2 years we've gotten rained on. And not just a quick shower or an overnight sprinkle, but downpours. 2 years ago we were under a flash-flood warning. Last year our tent got wet and we ended up sleeping at our house. According to the forecast so far for this year, it's supposed to be very nice - lower to mid-Eighties and sunny.

I'm excited to go swimming...this fall. The first weekend in October, Stephanie and I along with Will and Melissa are going to the Wilderness Resort in the Wisconsin Dells. That's the place we went on vacation in June. Even though the outdoor waterparks will be closed there are still 3 indoor waterparks, including a huge wave pool. I just saw that the Wilderness Resort was rated the #1 waterpark in the United States! Maybe we'll ride the ducks too.

TJ

Tuesday, Aug 28th

Hello everyone. It's new release Tuesday. There's a few new cd's coming out today. Casting Crowns releases, "The Altar & The Door". Point of Grace releases "How You Live" and Bill & Gloria Gaither release "Amazing Grace" & "How Great Thou Art" on DVD and CD.

You can preorder the new Vocal Band & Signature Sound DVD and CD on Gaither.com for $29.95. When you preorder you will also receive Gordon Mote's new cd, "Don't Let Me Miss The Glory" featuring the Gaither Vocal Band, The Isaacs, Alison Krauss and more. Plus you get the opportunity to see TJ and Stephanie on DVD whenever you want!


Any opinions on Stephanie's new hair-do? I think it looks like a hair piece.

my weekend

This past weekend I went down to Iowa to sing in Amy Niehoff's(now Earl) wedding with Four His Glory. On Wednesday evening I noticed I was starting to get a cold so I started drinking water. And boy did I ever drink it. On my way down on Friday I drank around 148 oz. of water. Not kidding. I stopped 4 times to go to the bathroom. I was trying to flush the cold out. I think it worked cause it's just about gone. On Friday evening we had the rehearsal. After that we went to Jeremy's house for a little bit, then we went to Will and Melissa's house and played the Nintendo Wii. My arms are still very sore. I played boxing against Brian "I Eat Danger For Breakfast" Niehoff. It's been a long time since I've been this sore, and it's from a video game. A certain someone called to see what we were up to. We said we were at Will's so he said he'd come over. Well, apparently he went to a house 2 doors down and rang the doorbell over and over. When no one answered, he went around back and banged on the back door. An old couple came to the door. This was at 11pm. He thought he was at Will and Melissa's. I won't mention his full name, we'll just call him "Louis, from Ankeny".

Saturday was the wedding. Here's a pic of the quartet singing during the wedding. We did "Your Grace Still Amazes Me". Mark looks like he's ready to kill someone. He's evil. After the wedding we dropped the bride and groom's presents off at their duplex. A certain someone took the labels off the canned goods. It was all me!

I came back Saturday evening.

Attention: If anyone is interested, some silly person(I won't name name's. We'll call him "Jeremy, from Huxley") has a pop machine if anyone is interested. It's old, it's very, very heavy, and it's at Mark Vance's house where it's been for 6 months. It's pretty sweet. If your interested contact Jeremy at 515-371-7541. Jeremy would be glad to move it for you.

TJ

Here's what I've been waiting for

WooHoo!

On October 23rd the Gaither Vocal Band and Ernie Haase & Signature Sound release the cd/DVD "Together". The studio cd features both quartets singing together. I'm listening to the clips right now online. It has 15 songs on it! The DVD is the recording my parents and Stephanie and I went too in Louisville, KY. It's going to be a good one. There's 24 songs on the DVD! Check out the song clips and more info.

It's still raining here. And it's supposed to rain some more this evening and tomorrow.

I'm going to Iowa this weekend to sing in Amy Niehoff's wedding. I think we're singing "Coming Down", one of our all-time favorite quartet numbers... and a great wedding song.

I better go. I'm going in to work overtime at work at 2pm. I normally go at 6pm. We'll see how it goes.

I gotta go potty.

TJ

Drought's over

I think the drought we were in is over. Last I heard, we had about 7 inches of rain in 2 days. I haven't seen the sun since Friday. Saturday night was the big night for rain. In southern Owatonna a bunch of roads and homes were flooded. The Microtel Hotel right across from Viracon and Target was flooded again. It was flooded right about this time last year too. They built some kind of drainage ditch next to it to help the flooding. That seemed to work well. HA! A bunch of cars were flooded in the Viracon parking lot. Thankfully, I wasn't there. There were at least 6 deaths in SE Minnesota because of the flooding. Our county and a few others are in a "State of Emergency", which means.... umm, I don't know. Here's pics from the flooding. It's supposed to rain the rest of the week.

Also, I found the Deep-Fried Coca-Cola. It was $5 so I didn't try it, but I did ask them how they made it. They use the Coca-Cola syrup without the carbonation, then they add their secret ingredients and deep-fry it. It looks kinda like a funnel cake.

TJ

Little House On The Prairie

So with my $25 gift card I won at the fair to Fleet Farm I got Season 8 of Little House On The Prairie. I'm watching the first episode right now. Woohoo!

TJ

It's fair time

This week is the Steele County Free Fair in Owatonna. Apparently it's the biggest county fair in Minnesota. I wouldn't really know. I never grew up going to county fairs. It was always the Iowa State Fair, which I won't be able to make it to this year. Stephanie went to the county fair on Tuesday, I went yesterday and we're going today. Stephanie signed up to win something in one of the booths and the guy called me today telling me we won a $25 gift card to Fleet Farm. WooHoo! All I had at the fair yesterday was the Nitro ice cream. I had to get Stephanie's favorite, mini doughnuts for her though. This year they've got Spaghetti Sundaes, which is ice cream shaped like spaghetti, chocolate sandwiches, mashed potatoes on stick and the food I'm going to try and find tonight, Deep-Fried Coca-Cola. I want to know how they make it. I don't get it.

TJ

Close call at work

Let me create a picture for you.

So I'm working Monday night at Viracon. The guy I was working with and me were putting glass on a rack. It's kinda "L" shaped and you stack the glass sideways on it. Well, we're putting it on and this guy is driving by in the aisle next to us. He's pushing a trash rack. It's kinda like the rack we were putting glass on except it has wheels. It was full of trashed glass that was bad or scratched or whatever. He was on his way to the dumpster. He was pushing it with what is called a tugger. Well the connection to the rack came undone from the tugger. I was watching this all out of the corner of my eye as we were putting glass on. I noticed it was coming towards us but I wasn't quite sure what was going on. I finally realized it was stopping so I yelled, "It's coming" and jumped out of the way. It knocked a bunch of glass over. They said I was white as a ghost. But I'll have you know my record still stands at 29 days!

Hymns

I just got the new Gaither DVD's "Amazing Grace" and "How Great Thou Art" featuring all hymns. I watched one yesterday and am watching one now. I love em. If you like the old hymns you'll love it, if you don't, I don't recommend them because that's all they are. These are probably the best produced videos yet. They're my favorites. They feature the Oak Ridge Boys, Randy Owen from Alabama, David Phelps, the Vocal Band & Signature Sound, Booth Brothers and a whole lot more, plus a full orchestra. These are for everyone, even those that may not like the more upbeat videos like Signature Sound.

I've seen a lot of Hymns projects coming out lately. I love it. I love hymns. I'm not much of a "Praise and Worship" guy. There's a few I like, but most of them I find shallow. Hymns are so deep and lasting. Some are over a hundred years old. And I like to sing the harmony parts on them.

They release in stores on Tuesday, August 28th. Or you can order them online too.

Have a good day,
TJ

Wow! This is getting good.

I am now at 26 Consecutive Days of Work Without Breaking Glass! This is absolutely amazing. I might be holding an all-time Viracon record. Our Consecutive Years of Marriage Without Breaking Dishes also still stands at 5!

My sister-in-law was so impressed with our blog(who isn't), that she started one of her own. 7shoes It's amazing.


I wish I had 13 toes.

TJ

Stephanie is famous!

Many of you know that I am famous from my time with the critically acclaimed group, Four His Glory. But what you may not know is that my wife is also famous. She does it all. She has an album out - Check out her website: Stephanie Wright. She did most of her touring in New York City. She hasn't toured for a few years though. She also has an excellent book out for those who want to double their energy in just 8 steps! Kum Nye. In her spare time she writes blogs for the Michigan Daily paper for University of Michigan football. She has also been helping patients navigate the road to health. She has also been involved in real estate with my dad, Bob. Last year, she received an alumni award. Lately you can find her on the news in Illinois. She's also a dentist, International Student and Scholar Staff Assistant, attorney, librarian, and a tv producer. Oh yeah, she works at OfficeMax too. She's really changed her look through the years.

TJ

Ouch!

I just saw something on the news about a lady who fell while carrying a pencil. It apparently went straight into her head. THE WHOLE THING! apparently going in through the eye socket. That's what it looked like when they showed the X-ray. Yikes! Be careful with those pens and pencils, if you walk around carrying them. They said she was finally able to have it removed from her head/brain after so many years of it being in there. How Crazy! Just thought you might find that tid-bit of info interesting. Check out the link: Pencil in the head.
~Stephanie

good day

Good day to you all. It's been pretty uneventful around here, which is a good thing. I had to work all night on Saturday. Stephanie had to work Sunday afternoon. I think we are both going to quit our jobs and run a home-based business selling something. Not sure what though? Maybe homemade tables from my woodshop out back.

Have a good day,
Can't wait to get to work tonight.
TJ

bridge collapse Pt II

I woke up this morning at 7 and flipped on the tv. I decided I was too tired so I went back to sleep, but I woke up at 7:30. Of course I've been watching since(although I did take a shower). I was up till 12:30 or so.

The first thing I thought when I heard about it was Stephanie will never go on a bridge again. She doesn't like bridges anyway. She never has. Especially when it goes over water. I don't think we are ever going to be able to go East of the Mississippi again. We'll have to go up through Canada.

TJ

bridge collapse

I found out when I was at work tonight about the bridge collapse in Minneapolis. I came home at 10 and have been watching tv since. Any time something big happens like this I can't quit watching tv coverage. Whether it's the 9-11 attacks or severe weather coverage. It's addicting. Stephanie will probably go to bed and I'll watch for who knows how long.

For more info on this, visit this Twin Cities tv station website: WCCO

TJ

it's that time of year again.

It's coming upon Labor day weekend. Every year my family gets together to camp at Riverview Campground in Owatonna. 3 years ago we started getting matching "family reunion" t-shirts. I get the pleasure of making a design and ordering all the shirts. This year I'm having a block as to what to do for the logo. Let me know if you have any good ideas. I attached the pictures of each of the shirts we've already done.

camping

This past weekend Stephanie and I went camping in Iowa with my parents and my aunt and uncle. This is only the second time my parents have used their pop-up camper but Bill and Judy are avid campers. They camp almost every week. We stayed with them in their pop-up. It was fun. We ate a lot of food. We had steak, potatoes, hamburgers, pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage and fruit. Mmm. Stephanie and I are ready to go camping some more now. So we may take a weekend in August and go somewhere.

Have a good day,
TJ

gang activity

For Louie's sake, I'll update you a little on the gang activity. We haven't seen anymore people peeing by the side of the road, but we did find some tennis shoes tied together and hanging from an electrical line yesterday. And the underpass down the road from our house has some letters spray painted on the cement. Someone even spraypainted something on a stop sign. Where is it going to end? I can't believe it. I think we need to alert the authorities. Maybe next week I'll post some pictures of the gang activity we come upon. Then you can see for yourself the severity of the problem.

Stephanie

hey

Hi, were getting ready to go camping with my parents and my aunt and uncle this weekend. We're going to a state park by Forest City, IA. It should be fun. Thankfully, it's not supposed to be as hot as last week. Boy, I love the heat. Lucky for me, I get to work in a big building with no air conditioning. And even better, I can't wear shorts. And even better than that, I have to wear a Kevlar uniform over my clothes. And there are a few tempering furnaces there so it feels 20 degrees hotter. Boy, I love the heat. At least I work at night so it's not quite so hot.

TJ

Is it me? Or does it smell like updog in here?

Hey Howdy Hey Everyone!
Did you have a good day? I did! And to top it off when I got home from work TJ had bought pizza from Papa Murphy's. Yeah! I don't have to cook anything. What a great way to add to the great day!
I got a new book last Thursday night. It's really good. I'm almost done with it already. I think I only have about 15 pages left. And then there is a little snip-it of the next book to come. :) Any of the ladies out there who like good Christian fiction need to read this series! It's by Karen Kingsbury.
Like TJ said, we got a new game, The settlers of Catan. It's definitely our favorite game right now. We've already taught a couple friends how to play. Sounds like we are going to bring it with us camping this weekend to teach a few more people! How fun!
TJ just saw his favorite commercial. It's for Honey Nut Cheerios. The baseball one. He likes to cheer with the fans that shout, "Great Taste, Lower Cholesterol, Great Taste, Lower Cholesterol" He stands up and pumps his fist with them. Then rewinds it and does it again. It's pretty funny. Rewind on the TV is a pretty cool feature to have. I'm not sure I would ever want to get rid of it.
Well, tha-tha-tha-tha-tha-that's all folks.
See you next time!
Stephanie

It's been awhile

Hello. It's been awhile since I've posted. Nothing too exciting last week. It was actually very nice. Stephanie and I got new bikes so we went for a couple of bike rides. We also got a new game, Settlers of Catan, which is our favorite game now. We played that a few times. It was a nice, relaxing weekend.

Since I'm holding a record for "Consecutive Days of Work Without Breaking Glass", why not start "Consecutive Years Of Marriage Without Breaking Dishes". Right now we are holding strong at 5 years!

Have a good day,
TJ

wednesday

Hi.
For those of you who may be wondering why I've only gone 14 days without breaking glass, remember I only work 3 or 4 days a week.

I got an email today letting me know that Chris Farley lives! Wow!


Have a good day.

TJ

my record holds

My record for "Consecutive Days Without Breaking Glass" is at 14! This is getting exciting.

I found an interesting story on one of the Twin Cities TV websites today. I can honestly say I've never been in this situation before and hopefully never will be. Check out the link.

Could you imagine me 500 pounds! That's funny.

TJ

hello

Good Monday to everyone. On Friday I went down to Iowa to go to the Iowa Speedway in Newton with my dad. We went to a race on Friday evening, Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening. It was fun. We both picked who we thought would win each race. On the Saturday afternoon race we each picked someone and they ended up crashing into each other so we didn't do so well. The Saturday evening race was a motorcycle race. Those people are crazy. It was either 3 hours long or 2 hundred some laps, whichever came first. We stayed for awhile but it got hard to keep up with all the motorcycles and there weren't really any crashes. So we left around 8:30. Well, we should have stayed, cause a guy wiped out and his bike burst into flames and someone else ran into it. They life-flighted one guy to the hospital. Story here We tailgated between the 2 races on Saturday and listened to Lonestar. It was a good time.

TJ

Finally!

We finally have a paved road! They poured black top this week. I think they'll be putting something on top of it, but for now, at least it's paved. Roads are backwards here. They build the house and then the road. So today I'm cleaning out the garage. Wiping all the dust off everything and sweeping the floor real good.

We signed up for Family Camp next year at Iowa Regular Baptist Camp. It'll be fun to go back. I grew up going there but I haven't been there since I've gotten married. We'll be at Family Camp 2. Adam, Jamie and the kids went this year so they signed us up for next year. Stephanie's whole family will be there and my whole family will be there as well. We'll be in the Family Youth Dorms so we have air and a bathroom. My mom suggested we stay in "The Barn". Oh the barn. I think there is a certain someone who reads this that used to stay in the barn. I never had the opportunity to stay there though. Bummer. There's still room at camp, so call in and make your reservation!

TJ

ah yeeaah

What up G. Word. Since I am "The Gift-aka-Save Yo Lost Souls", I have found a new program to help me shape my image and work on my rapping. It's called "Hip Hop Harry". It's actually a children's program. It's Barney...from the ghetto. It's a big stuffed bear, kinda like Barney. The difference is that he wears his hat sideways and has a big medallion hanging from his neck. There's some kids there with him, but instead of singing cute little songs, they rap. You can't get any better than this. "When I say team, you say work! Team ___, team ___!" ah yeeaah. Check out the website and listen to some songs.

Good news for you game lovers. The game my parents played for years at camp is now available again. Rage is being printed again, in English. They made it in the early Eighties, then it went out of print. It was being made a couple years ago, but everything was in German. Now I found it online in English and I bought a deck yesterday. Woohoo!

TJ

Hi

My record for "Consecutive Days of Work Without Breaking Glass" is at 12 right now. The guy I work with broke a piece last night, but I'm still holding strong.

On Saturday evening Stephanie and I were driving and got stopped by a train. While we were waiting there we could see someone walking on the other side of the train. Now, it was around 7pm so there was still daylight. I told Stephanie, "I wonder what he's doing?" Well, he stopped at the first tree and started peeing! There was a whole line of cars and he's just standing there peeing. He didn't walk to the farthest tree, or go behind a building. He went to the closest tree by the road. Thankfully, we were on the other side of the train so we didn't see "anything". But I feel sorry for those that were waiting on the other side.

The Live Earth Concert to make awareness for global warming was Saturday. This next part is from christian comedian Jeff Allen's blog on Gaithernet.
-----------------
"Well I feel so much better today about the future of our planet. After the weekend Rock concerts to save our planet from cooking itself, I slept so much better. The funniest thing about the concerts was the paradoxical nature of the people in the audience having the time of their lives, whilst the doom and gloom messages scrolled behind the artists. Come on, if people really believed this crap I don't think they would have enjoyed the weekend so much. This whole thing is some kind of Marx type training program for the next generation; hence all the cartoon advertisements, as if they have given up on converting any rational thinking human, and are going straight for the moron who gets all his science from a cartoon. I.e. the average eight-year-old.

I know that sounds a little cold hearted, which could be the solution to Global Warming. Maybe we need to be a little more cold hearted and a lot less gullible. Perhaps we can get enough cold hearts and cool this planet off. Maybe the problem is not the SUV's but all these warm fuzzy propaganda pieces coming out of Hollywood.

I enjoyed Bon Jovi, but I admittedly had a hard time connecting anything he did with a solution to any dilemma the planet may be going through. I am less worried about New York drowning from a melting Polar ice cap that I am of New York drowning in a sea of irrelevance.

Jeff

P.S. These are the ramblings of the artist, and have nothing to do with the opinion of my warm hearted webmaster. "
-----------------------------

Have a good day,
TJ

The Sixth Of July

Happy Sixth of July to all.

Yesterday Stephanie golfed a 55 on 9 holes. Not bad for not golfing in a couple years.

Yesterday my niece told me we should get a pool. So I got to thinking, we've got this big, empty basement with nothing but a ping-pong table in it. How about a pool? We could get one of those big inflatable ones that are 3' deep and put it downstairs. That way we could swim in the winter. As long as it doesn't get a hole, we'd be good. Wow, what an idea!

Here's a weird story from the Cities.

Can't wait for tomorrow. It's supposed to be 95 degrees. Yeehaw. Sounds like a good day to go swimming.

TJ

4th of July

Our Fourth was pretty uneventful. I had to work Tuesday night so I was sleeping Wed. morning. Stephanie had to work on the Fourth from 9-5. Everyone wants to go to OfficeMax on the Fourth of July. Who doesn't need to get office supplies on the Fourth of July. After she got off work we went to Waseca and ate supper and played croquet at Tim and Nicole's. Then we watched the fireworks in Waseca.

Stephanie's going golfing today after work. I'll make her give you a report on how she did :}

TJ

my record

My record for "Consecutive Working Days Without Breaking Glass" is at 10! Wow. This is so exciting.

Here's a couple pics I got from my parents camera from the Gaither taping we went to in Louisville.
Well, it's getting late and I'm tired. It's 6:30am! I'm gonna go to bed.

TJ

Post Reunion Post

I've had countless numbers of people asking for a "review" of the Abbott reunion. Boy, where do I start? It all started with a whistle blow. Yes, this year they had a whistle to keep things moving along. First we ate, ate and ate. Mmmm. Good food. Then, according to the poster that had a schedule for the day, we had music and devotions. We sang "Victory In Jesus" and "I Can Only Imagine". Hmm. Then, our very own Will Mitchell gave the devotional. It went well until he bashed our awesome T-Shirts. Then, we kicked him out and beat him up. After that we had a group activity - Tug Of War. Our team, the Sparks, won one and lost one. We were unfairly knocked out of the competition. But I won't even start on that. Then some people went tubing so some of us went to the swinging bridge to dump water on them as they went under. You can tell by the picture that I actually fell asleep on the bridge. I was pretty tired. Then in the evening we went to Mabe's Pizza in Decorah for the "best pizza in the world". It's good, but I don't know about the "best".

This was a pretty small reunion. Only about 100 people. It was fun.


TJ

It's reunion time

Tomorrow will be that time of year again. The 4,678th Annual Abbott Family Reunion. Yes, every year we venture to the Decorah area for the reunion of my mother's side at the Pine Bluff 4-H Campground. It's a hoot-hollering good time where we sit around and reminisce about our new tractors and how things are going on the farm. No, it's not that bad. It'll be fun.

TJ

Story time

The stories being shared by someone has brought to light some stories from me. I'll share one today.

In my stint as baritone singer of the wildly popular group, Four His Glory, we had the opportunity to sing at many different venues. Some outside, some inside. I can think of the time we sang in Cambridge,IA to about 20 people during an outdoor concert in the afternoon, then went to Slater and sang in the evening for the city's Fourth of July Celebration. Or the time we sang the National Anthem to about 7,000 people at the Iowa Cubs baseball game. And our "farewell tour" where we did a concert on a Friday evening at Saylorville Baptist in Des Moines, then the next day opened for Higher Power in Ankeny in the evening and left at intermission so we could drive up to Decorah,IA (3 hours away) and do a concert on Sunday morning.

But I guess our most interesting concert would have to be in Mason City,IA at a United Methodist Church. This was the first(and last) time we sang at a Methodist church. The only reason we sang there was because the organ player used to be Jeremy and Brian's music teacher in high school. It was a rather large, older church. We sang a few songs for their morning services( 2 or 3 of them). Lucky for us they had us sit up front. Now when I say up front, I mean where the choir sits. Thankfully we were able to kind of sit behind the piano because we were having one of our funny moods. When that happens, everything is funny. And when you're in a United Methodist Church, everything gets funnier. And when you sit through a few services, you get bored and find things funny. Well, this happened to be communion Sunday. Growing up in a Regular Baptist Church you get used to doing communion one way. But they do things different there as we found out. Instead of little wafers, they use a loaf of bread and you break a piece off. So the deacons came up and passed the bread. When it came time for Jeremy to take a piece, I think he took half the loaf. He ripped a huge chunk off. Remember, we are up in the choir loft. We had a terrible time holding it together. Out of all the times that we sang "We Shall See Jesus", never but this time have I had a hard time holding it together during the song. And I don't mean because I was going to cry.

TJ

What?

Did you hear about the girl who's feet were severed on a ride at Six Flags, in Kentucky?
Craziness! She rode the Power Tower (the one that takes you up high and then drops you really fast). Apparently on the way down, a wire snapped and hit her, cutting her feet off (above the ankles)! Yikes.
How does that happen?!?

hmmm?

It's been a couple days now. I thought by now I would have a story or something to say, but I don't.

So I'll throw in a picture for you all to enjoy today.

This picture was taken back in 1904. Technology has really come a long way since then.

TJ

It's Saturday

Today were just hanging out and relaxing. Stephanie has pretty much lost her voice. She's got a sore throat too. So we went to the grocery store and got some apple cider vinegar. It's supposed to fix whatever ails you. So I mixed 16oz. of water with, 3 Tbls. of apple cider vinegar, 3 Tbls. of lemon juice and 2 Tbls. of honey. She's only taken 2 sips so far. It's pretty gross. But it's supposed to help.

Yesterday I took my niece and nephew, Alexis and Elijah to the pool in Faribault. I thought it was going to be warm on Friday. Well, it was only 69 degrees. BRRRR! At least the water was warm. Of course that made it a lot worse when we would get out the pool. We had fun though.

Speaking of Faribault, Stephanie and I went to the newly expanded Super Walmart there on Thursday. It's huge! To me, it looked like the biggest one I've been in. Apparently they just had their grand opening. They had color guard marching up and down the aisles and one of the employees sang the National Anthem. Wow. The opening of a Wal-Mart is a major event. It's right up there with the Olympics.

{Retraction} I felt the need to post this. Stephanie stated on Thursday's blog that we were going to have Sweet & Sour Chicken. We did not. We had Papa Murphy's pizza instead. Please forgive us for lying. I hope nobody was offended by that.

TJ

WHOOT WHOOT

Hey all, Stephanie here. if you clicked the link that's what TJ looks like now. Somehow he's getting younger and younger. Ha ha. Just kidding, it's my nephew Cole.
I felt the need to post something. I'm not sure why. :)
So, I went to work at Officemax today. Remarkably I wasn't tired. I had a hard time getting to sleep last night, finally after 12am I fell asleep, and then I was awoken to loud thunder & rain, bright lightning, and a sore throat at 4am. You didn't know a sore throat could wake you up did you? I learned a "trick" when I was working for Randy Dierenfield, Doctor of Chiropractic. When your throat feels sore or you feel the start of cold symptoms, you are supposed to put an ice cube on the outside edge of your thumb. So I did that for 5 minutes and drank some hot water. Then I tried to take a nap before I had to get up at 6 to be at work by 7am. When I got up 45 minutes later, my throat actually felt much better and it didn't hurt to swallow. It was amazing! I still sound like I am losing my voice, but it doesn't hurt to swallow, which a good thing, because if you don't swallow, you drool. I wouldn't want to be drooling all day. I'm not like TJ. :)
Anyway, I worked 7-3 today. That is a great shift, I must say. I wish I could work that everyday.
Tonight we are going to have Sweet & Sour Chicken Stir-Fry for supper. Click on the link and you will see the recipe. I typed it up for you all to try it yourself. Enjoy!
Until next time, I'm Stephanie Wright.
(side track)-- I don't understand why newscasters say that. Like they are going to be a different person next time they are on the air?!?!

How's it going?

I'm eating a ham sandwich that I made. I decided to change things up and put Ranch dressing on it instead of mayo. I did that in honor of my favorite sandwich, the Market Turkey Sandwich, available at Palmer's Deli located in Ankeny, Urbandale, West Des Moines and Des Moines, IA. It wasn't very good. Ranch and ham just don't mix very well. Just a warning for you all.

Somebody mentioned the Suger Creek Gang in one of their comments. It reminded me of simpler times. Times when I was a child that the hustle and bustle of everyday life didn't exist. Nobody was in a hurry. We would play outside in the creek all day long with nothing on but a smile. In the mornings we would meet at the local Diner for breakfast with the townsfolk. Ma would spend all day making supper and churning the butter and Pa would stay out in the field till dusk plowing the field. Those were the days.

I own season's 1-7, and 9 of Little House On The Prairie on DVD. I get chided a lot for it. Not sure why? It's the greatest show ever. {show quote from Season 4, Episode 21, "I'll Be Waving as You Drive By" Pt. 1}
"PA, COME QUICK, I CAN'T SEE! I CAN'T SEE!" (Mary sobbing) (Pa comes and hold's Mary while crying) "I'm here. I'm here. It's okay. It's okay."

Wow, powerful stuff!
Anyway, when we were at Sam's Club a couple weeks ago I found Season 8 and the last season, 10, for $25 each. I haven't gotten them yet, but boy am I excited to get them. I can't watch season 9 yet cause I have to wait till I get season 8 and watch that first.

Where have all the good shows gone? Now we've got shows like "American Idol" and "The Office". Please!

TJ

what up,

It stinks going back to work after vacation. No, it just stinks going to work. Maybe it's cause it was one of the best vacations I've had. I'm in the swimming mode now but Owatonna doesn't have a pool yet. They're going to build one next year. I told Stephanie we're going to have to go over to Waseca and swim in their new pool this weekend.

I'm gonna go work on the lawn mower now. Have a good day.

If you're sitting at work and wish you could go swimming right now, just click on the web cam links and maybe that will help.

TJ

hey

It's been 3 working days now that I've gone without breaking a piece of glass at work. Wooho!

TJ

I'm back (part II)

We got back from vacation Thursday around 6pm. We had a blast. At least I did. I'm pretty sure everyone else did too though. We left Sunday morning for the big 3 hour trip to the Dells. We checked into the hotel and swam and swam and swam and swam. Then after that we went swimming. Let me put a plug in for the Wilderness Resort. It was awesome. There were 5 different waterparks at the hotel. Some indoors, some outdoors. Geared for both the kids and the adults. If you like your pools warm they have plenty of those. If you like em cold they had some of those. I highly recommend it. We did only 2 activities away from the resort(besides eating)- mini golf and the Wisconsin Ducks. If you ever go to the Dells, make sure you ride the ducks. It's a blast. And the tours guides are really funny. I think I found my calling in life- being a tour guide on the Wisconsin Ducks.

They even had a dry park with balls to shoot and throw around, an arcade and Lazer Tag. We played Lazer Tag twice. And according to the paper, I'm a Lazer Master. Wow.

18 of us went in three vehicles. We stayed in three rooms. 7 in one, 6 in another and 5 in one. For some reason our room became the party room. It's understandable though. Stephanie and I are so exciting. Or it may be because we bought or snacks in bulk at Sam's Club before we came. My brother-in-law Adam was the life of the party. He always wanted to be the life of the party. So we made him feel good. We ate at Danny's Diner, Uno's, Culver's, Pizza Pub and maybe some others I can't think of. Uno's is VERY good.

On the way back we even stopped at a cheese factory and got the best cheese curds I've ever had. I think I'll be backed up for awhile. Better go get some bran flakes.

I posted a bunch of pictures here Check em out.

TJ

I'm back

I'm back. More to come soon!

TJ

Good-Bye for a week

This is my sign-off post for a week. I'll be leaving for vacation. I'm sorry I won't be able to grace you with my wonderful words of wisdom.

Today thought:
Just what was the "Baby On Board" sign for? Did it help us decide which car not to hit in case of an accident?

TJ

THIS POST IS A HOOT-A-NANNY!

Someone has suggested that if the post will have anything funny in it that I put a warning on it. So there's your warning. Actually, I don't think this will be funny at all. I have nothing funny to say.

My count for "Consecutive Days Without Glass Breakage" is now 1 day. I had a couple close calls, but it's all good. At work last night I saw a "Pat". That's a person you can't tell if it's a guy or a girl. I honestly couldn't figure it out. I didn't hear their voice, so that didn't help. I still have no idea what he/she is. I'm leaning more towards a man, but there's a certain "something" that's throwing me off. Hmmm?.

I think I'll throw in a couple pictures today.
This is my niece , Josie, reading the daily paper. And my new job as a hairstylist is really taking off. Here I am doing my niece, Alexis' hair.

TJ

Good Day

Top of the afternoon to you. I have been freed from the prison of my house. I was sensing a lot of concern over me being stuck in my house for 2 months. Thank you all for that. But I was able to free myself by driving the car through the backyard and right onto the road. So thankfully I was able to go to work last night.

Today I am going to start counting how long I can go at work before I break a piece of glass. Now, I am going to start tonight cause I'm going in to work some overtime. I will only count the actual days I'm working and will also keep you informed on the severity of the breakage. Whether it's a small piece, a big one, or if I run into some glass on the forklift and have to pee in a cup, you will hear about it. I know all of you will be on the edge of your seat waiting to see when I screw up. I'm hoping to set a world record. Not sure what that is though. Maybe I can start a new record.

And now, an ode to the men's room.

And, for the Ladies.

I'll leave you with my thought of the day.
If you only have one eye...are you blinking or winking?

TJ

Wow! What a response.

I can't believe it! The response to my last post has been overwhelming. There's been numerous comments posted. At last count there was 2. It's just amazing! All the excitement has been for the TaterMitts though. But it's understandable. They're amazing. I guess I've never really used them but I just know from looking at them that they work great. What would we do without products like this, and this - Urine Gone, or the 5 in 1 Sofa Bed and the Spountin. Wow!

I guess I can't go to work tonight. My car is stuck in the garage. Technically, it's not stuck, but I won't be able to get it out of the driveway. They are getting ready to FINALLY pave our road. Apparently I should have answered the door while I was sleeping earlier. They told us it wouldn't be for 2 days. It's a good thing Stephanie has the Rendezvous at work, cause I'll just have to take that to work tonight. Hopefully it won't be very long. Good thing we just got some groceries. We might be trapped in our house for a month of two.

I'll try and get Stephanie to post something. I know you three could use some insightful wisdom from her.

Have a great day.

BIG SURPISE!!

I've been sensing a mocking tone on the comments from the one person that is commenting. I won't say who that is cause I would like to protect him. So, in order to shake things up and make things a little more exciting, I've got big news! Now, it may be true and it may not be. You can decide for yourself!

Before I get to the big news, I just saw a new awesome product on tv. TaterMitts. They are gloves that peel potatoes. "Uh Oh! You've peeled away half that potato." It peels a potato in 8 seconds! Wow! With our busy lives that we all face these days it's great to see a product that helps make our busy lives so much easier and quicker.

Now, back to the big news. I will be recording a new rap album. If you haven't heard, I am now a rap artist. Yeaahh. My rap name is The Gift-aka-Save Yo Lost Souls. My first single, "If God's Not Witcha, The Devil's Gonna Getcha", is being released to radio right now. Hopefully, my new cd will be available in late summer. It will also feature the song "You're Gonna Get Left If You Don't Get Right". Keep your eyes and ears peeled...and your potatoes.

TJ