I CAN'T SPELL

SORRY, I DID NOT SPELL THIS CORRECTLY THE FIRST TIME. IT IS Efusjon!!!!!!!!! THANKS TO MOM FOR BRINGING THAT TO MY ATTENTION. I'M ALLOWED TO MAKE ONE MISTAKE A YEAR AND THIS WAS IT. AS YOU ALL KNOW...JOSH IS ALWAYS CORRECT AND NEVER MAKES A MISTAKE!

EFUSION

OK HERE IT IS...EFUSION www.myefusjon.com/pimpjuice THIS IS MY WEBSITE, PLEASE LOOK AT IT AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK. THIS IS A GROUND FLOOR OPPORTUNITY TO BE ABLE TO GET IN ON. THIS IS A REVOLUTIONARY DRINK AND OPPORTUNITY THAT IS GOING LIVE ON FACEBOOK JULY 31ST. ARE YOU IN....?

Wii or is it Weeeeeeeeeeee?

I finally broke down and bought a Nintendo Wii yesterday and I think that it is the best $300 bucks I have ever spent. I have always had the Nintendo, PlayStation's, Atari...even going way back to Intellivison! I like playing games but never have been a hardcore "gamer". Well this is the most fun I have ever had playing any game! I don't know how PlayStation and Xbox can contend with the Wii...the interactive part is what makes it the best out there. If anyone has suggestions on good games, please let me know. We have Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Mariocart, Carnival Games, a bonus game that came with it...just random games like pool, ping pong, shooting game etc and my favorite the Cheerleading game. It works with the Wii Fit, you practice and then go to tryouts and become a cheerleader! We started playing at 5pm and just now shut it down at 9pm! Ya, ya, I know...too much game system is not good for you. My comment back to you is..."You must not have a Wii then!"

Take me out to the ballgame...Yes with a Cub fan

Monday was gameday...Even our Chicago boy Cody couldn't resist the warm reception of "Baseball Heaven" a.k.a Busch Stadium. We arrived plenty early got to our seats, took Madison and Owen down from our seats to try and get some autographs... no luck though. We had great seats...everyone had their Cardinal gear on (Except for Cody) but they lost to the Rockies. One highlight is that doesn't happen very often was that Madison, Grandpa, Sarah, Cody and O-Diggity got on the Jumbo-Tron. I saw the camera man heading their way and got my camera ready to capture it. Look close and you can see...

Family FUN and Vacation!!!!!!!!!!!

Well Saturdy started off with everyone packing up to head out for the zoo...Long story short, no parking spots within two miles of the zoo so we headed to Grant's Farm. We all enjoyed the tram ride in and headed in to see the animals. No one was interested in feeding the baby goats...I was silently glad for this. I didn't want to touch the nasty things and they smelled even worse. We moved right on to the carousel, then slowly moved down to the elephant show...this was the highlight of the day for me. We all sat in our seats right in front of "BUD" the 13,000 lb, 12 foot tall African Elephant. He was just standing there taking everything in waiting for the show to start. His trainers were giving him "snacks" as Madison put it and letting him drink right from the hose. His trainer would stick the hose right into his trunk and then remove it about a minute later. This continued off and on for about 15 mins. The show started and the trainer has only said about five words and BUD cut loose! Yes...his very impressive stream of pee was spraying the ground like a fire hose that had just been turned on. He continued to do this for about a minute! I think he could of filled up a swimming pool with the volume he got rid of. Then as he was finishing...You guessed it...He dropped about 250 lbs of dung and the crowd went "ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhwwwwwwwwwww". I laughed and thought wow...that's impressive.

Finally....Vacation starts!

Yes, today is the first day of my vacation...The basement is finished (I've been finishing that for the last two years...pictures to come later) and everyone is headed to the STL for a week of fun filled family fun. We decided this year to stay close to home and have Grandma, Grandpa, Sarah, Cody, Owen and Cam come to our house. We will be hitting the zoo, Grant's Farm, of course we are going to a Cardinal game and doing other various things. Madison has a two softball games while everyone is here, she wants all of them to see her play. Stay tuned for pictures of the event filled week.

"Dad, you sure those girls weared thier hair on purpose like that?"

I was going through some things downstairs tonight and Madison was looking with me. I was going through all my sports memorabilia to decorate my new accomplisment downstairs in finishing the basement. Finally... a place where I can hang my autographs pictures, balls, magazines, flags and other misc things to admire. I found some old school pictures of me and friends in the Rubbermaid container's I was going through. Madison wanted to see them, so I showed her and she made a funny face. She asked, "Dad why is their hair so poofy and why does it look like that?" I explained that's how the girls wore their hair back then. She was cracking up and said that looked very funny. I didn't think I was getting old and out of touch with everything but...It took my back thinking of high school and all the poofy do's and how big the hair back then really was.

Dancing Queen again...

Here are a few pictures of Madison before the big performance. The video is below...a little hard to see and follow her but it was the best I could do. She had a great time more pictures of this event to come, Grandma Debbie took some still shots that I wasn't able to get. For those of you who don't know Madison has been going to Dance/Tumbling class since the first of the year. Like all little girls do, cartwheels, roundoff's, back bends and other stuff I don't know what they call has become neverending. Everytime I turn around she is doing a cartwheel on the way to her room or jumping over something. Since Angie works every Monday night, I take Madison to class every week. I was sort of hesitant about this the first time...I thought it would be nothing but mom's and all fu fu crap I had to deal with. I came to realize that there are a few dad's that do the same thing I do and the husband of the woman that teaches along with him has a tie to Murphysboro. He went to SEMO, played basketball in college and was friends with a few a baseball players that I played with and knew well. Small world...Even smaller being in Festus and then him knowing someone from the Boro'? The other dad's and I exchange hunting and fishing stories every now and then. The mom's look at us like we are crazy and just laugh. Like I explained in an earlier post, this girl stuff is all out of my realm but I wouldn't change it for anything. This reminds me of the MasterCard commercial...Monthly class fee $45...Recital Fee...$45...Recital Costume $45...Flowers for Madison after recital $12...Seeing your baby perform and love what she is doing...PRICELESS!

Dancing Queen

Nicknames and number five on the way...

Let me preface this up front...Congrats to Matt and Jess with their little one on the way, which is a boy. This will make number five in the family with me being the only one with two girls and zero boys. As Madison said, "Another boy in the family, Wow! Thats number five!" Don't get me wrong I wouldn't change any of it, I enjoy the dance and tumbling classes thats something new... I never knew what went on at those places. Girl scouts is not too bad...you get cookies and punch every time you go and coaching girls softball is something I really enjoy with just being around the game. With that said, all my nephews are fun to play with, I like Thomas the Train, Spiderman, big trucks, just throwing random balls at each other and objects in the house is something I have always excelled at. Watching Owen and Cade reminds me of when Matt and I used to play basketball or play catch or just do anything...we always were competitve with each other. As most of you know that know me well,I do like to give everyone a nickname. Why you ask? I really don't know, I think I did it just to aggrevate everyone and have a little fun. At the age of 35 I still continue to do this today...just ask Angie, Madison and Danielle. Starting from the top we have "Cash-Money" which will come in handy on the basketball court for him. Next we have "Cam-a-lam-a-ding-dong" (Joe Buck sort of helped me out with that one). Then we have "O-Diggity Dog", sometimes we shorten it to just "O-Diggity" . Owen often refers to himself as "O-Diggity" when I talk to him on the phone...so he likes it and Sarah has expierienced Owen telling someone he has just met that his name is "O-Diggity!" Finally we have "Cader-Potater" this one was easy and Cade seems to like it too. Now Matt and Jess have to come up with a name so I can get to work on the next name. Maybe someday I will reveal the nicknames of my sister, Matt and Beth...I'm sure they haven't forgotten!

As a father of two girls and nothing but boys so far from Sarah, Beth and Matt I will close with a famous quote from a father who had only daughters.

"Have a little boy and all you have to worry about is that little boy...Have a little girl and you have worry about all the little boys!"

Take me out to the softball game...

Yes it is that time of the year again, Twin City Girls Softball and that is tcgsoftball.com if you would like to check it out. I'm coaching again for the second year in a row, yes our team name is the Cardinals! Everyone in St. Louis hates the Cubs so much we don't even have a team named after them in our league. They made that a by-law in the first board meeting this year. Madison loves to play and really loves to hit, she does take after her father and can hit the snot out of the ball. We have had two games this year and it's fun to watch the other girls faces when she hits it. She usually hits out of the infield into the grass about 30 feet on a fly. The best thing is that we don't use a tee, our league is coach pitch (which dad delivers it right where she wants it). I did use a tee when I was her age and over my two years in tee-ball I think I complied a home run record of about 300 homers. This if of course was steroid free and all legit. These are a few pictures of last year but I will have more soon of this year.

Festus High School Grad 2009

On May 21, 2009 my oldest and not so young anymore graduated from high school. She actually graduated in December due to the fact that she had enough credits to do so. Danielle graduated with honors and finished with a 3.7 GPA. We couldn't be more proud of her and glad she didn't take my path through high school. I describe that as "Not always taking the straight path, but I eventually made it to where I needed to be." She graduated with the A+ program, this is a program that provides the students two years of college paid in full if they meet certain requirements. The requirements are completing 50 hours of tutoring elementary students and must be present 96% of her entire high school career. That is a feat in itself! Congrats Danielle and we love you!

Mixed feelings on the blog...

I'm not to sure about this whole blog thing, it doesn't seem too manly to me. On the other hand it does show my fabulous creative side. To be honest it was my sister who suggested (well really dared me) to do this. I don't have as much time to invest as she does but I think I can regularly add new posts and make it look good. Stay tuned for the next post, it may have pictures...still learning how to do this.