Matthew came home from school the other day with his underwear like that. That was either one huge toot, or a monster wedgie!
Matthew’s Underwear
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Author Archives: Graham
2010 Christmas Gift Exchange
Last year, the drawing took place November 5, and today is Nov 6, so I’m only 1 day late…
The drawing of the names has been done, and the results are below. I believe that no one is buying for anyone that they’ve bought for in the last 5 years or more.
- Alisa buys for Dad
- Andrea buys for Julia
- Brianna buys for Graham
- Dad buys for Ron
- Graham buys for Mom
- Jason buys for Brianna
- Julia buys for Lisa
- Lisa buys for Alisa
- Mom buys for Nanny
- Nanny buys for Andrea
- Ron buys for Jason
Note: Last year there was a mistake and it took us a few weeks to notice it. Please look it over and let me know if you see any problems.
Here are some guidelines:
- We will continue with the $50 amount. There is no rule about spending exactly $50 to the penny, and no rule about whether it is $50 including tax or $50 plus tax. Just get something nice for the person that is close to $50.
- Don’t get a gift card for the person (or give cash, or equivalent) unless that is what they specifically ask for
- It would be good if people could provide a list (more than just a couple of items) to the person who is buying for them. That way the person receiving will be getting something they want, but if the list is long enough, they won’t know which it is.
We’ll be hosting the traditional Christmas Eve party at our house again. Nanny has also mentioned to us that she’ll have some games ready. We’re also open to discuss anything new you’d like to try/do that night when we’re together. We’ll send more details out as we get closer to December.
A sad time…
Many years ago whenever Lisa wanted to do something boring, I would say to Andrea and Brianna, “I wish I were mini-putting”. They ended up getting me a custom made t-shirt with that phrase on it. You’ve seen it many, many times, I’m sure.
Unfortunately, the shirt just got too thin and started to rip around the letters. I had to throw it out 🙁 Good-bye old friend!
On another sad note, last night Lisa and I watched the movie 2012 last night. If you haven’t seen it, DON”T!!! You’ll never get that two and a half hours back…
Our groundhog adventure
So, you’ve heard about our raccoon adventure. How about our groundhogs? Our neighbour has a big concrete patio at the back of his house. Last year we had a groundhog living under it and we named him Willie. This spring there were 3 babies, and still only one adult. We assume that Willie was actually Wanda (and apparently was a floozy). Occasionally we would see all 4 of them out at the same time. Over the last week or more, we’ve only seen one of the smaller ones out.
Anyway, yesterday it came out, and I followed it to the front yard. It hid beside our air conditioner, so I had Matthew grab a net and after a bit of work I caught it. Dad and I took it across the canal and set it free. We’ll see if there are any left…
Matthew is beginning to think that I can catch anything. His friend told him they had a mouse and Matthew said that his dad could catch it 🙂
Our raccoon adventure
Yesterday we had around 15 people over to help us with our yard. We shovelled dirt into our hole, we leveled the front yard, and we dug up weeds all over the place. The missionaries came over just after everyone had left and apologized for not making it over earlier, but they’d been at an appointment. We were talking with them outside when we saw a raccoon around our chimney. Let me fill you in on that a little more…
On Wednesday morning Lisa heard a noise coming from the fireplace. There were “chirps” and even some growling. It was apparent we had an animal with babies in our chimney, which we assumed were raccoons. Lisa called around to a few places, and it was going to be $300 or more to have someone come and remove them. When Dean first showed up, I asked him what he would suggest, and he said he’d had success with loud music.
So, back to the missionaries… I threw some rocks at the raccoon to scare it away so it wouldn’t go back down the chimney. Now the problem was how to get the babies out. We decided to “smoke ’em out” (as someone said). We got a fire going and not too long after, a baby raccoon fell down. Elder Hanks had some gloves on (and one of my t-shirts over his dress shirt) and grabbed it right away and took it outside. Another 10 minutes or so later another one fell down. We still heard some chirping, but the last one wasn’t coming out. Elder Hanks was using some different sticks/rods/hooks to try to get it out, but it just wouldn’t come. He eventually knocked it down and we got rid of it as well. I then covered the chimney and so we’re good now.
By the time Elder Hanks put the third raccoon outside, the other two were already gone, so we assume the mother took them. This morning, the last one was gone as well. As far as we know they were all alive when we left them in the ravine.
As Elder Hanks was leaving, he said with a big smile, “Is it wrong that this is the highlight of my mission?!” (he’s from the midwest and loves the outdoors and hunting).
Here is a picture of Elder Hanks with Andrew and the second raccoon.
Have you seen Avatar?
I have, but don’t remember these strange creatures…
2009 Christmas Gift Exchange
After the initial request for comments I sent out and the limited response, I have gone ahead and done the drawing for the 2009 Christmas Gift Exchange. I do have to confess that I did get one request to rig the election, but my high moral values wouldn’t let this happen (or the person didn’t offer me enough to make it worth my while!). I did this about 3 weeks earlier this year than last.
I’m pretty sure that once again no one is buying for anyone that they have bought for since we started this. This will be the last year this will happen so next year some people will need to buy for someone they’ve already purchased for.
So, here are the arrangements:
- Alisa buys for Brianna Julia
- Andrea buys for Ron
- Brianna buys for Jason Mom
- Dad buys for Nanny
- Graham buys for Alisa
- Jason buys for Lisa
- Julia buys for Jason
- Lisa buys for Julia Brianna
- Mom buys for Andrea
- Nanny buys for Graham
- Ron buys for Dad
We will continue with the $50 amount. There is no rule about spending exactly $50 to the penny, and no rule about whether it is $50 including tax or $50 plus tax. Just get something nice for the person that is close to $50.
I assume we will be hosting the traditional Christmas Eve party at our house again, but Lisa can send more details about that later.
What’s for dinner?
🙂
The young couple invited their elderly pastor for Sunday dinner. While they were in the kitchen preparing the meal, the minister asked their son what they were having.
“Goat,” the little boy replied.
“Goat?” replied the startled man of the cloth. “Are you sure about that?”
“Yep,” said the youngster. “I heard Dad say to Mom, ‘Today is just as good as any to have the old goat for dinner.'”
Matthew the Archaeologist
For Christmas, Nanna and Poppa (Mom & Dad) got Matthew a gift that would let Matthew “dig” for dinosaur bones. It was a block of sand of some kind, and there was a toy dinosaur inside in pieces. It would have taken Matthew a few years to chissel out the pieces as they were in there pretty good. Even Lisa wasn’t able to help much. The set came with “tools”, but I even had to get out a real hammer and chissel to get the “bones” out. Regardless, Matthew had a great time, and we made a huge mess (you can see stuff all over the table and floor). Here are some pictures.
Matthew “digging”:
You can see lines from Matthew’s goggles:
Here is the raptor that we put together with the bones we dug out:
Mike’s (Lisa’s Dad’s) birthday in Florida!
I’m sure most of you have heard by now that we are going down to Florida in February. Lisa’s parents have rented a house for a while, and we are flying down to spend 8 days with them. We happen to be going when it is Mike’s birthday, and we will be going to Disney World that day. Well, the park heard about it, and this video was released. Wow, when the Rowland’s celebrate, they sure do it big!