Christmas In Illinois

I do not know where to begin, but our trip to Illinois was filled many memorable moments. We arrived on December 20th at around 9:30 am. We made it in 15 hours, a new record. That day we stayed at our good friend's house, the Janeks, Mike and Kara. Did I mention it was -2 that day. More of our friends came over and we played "What if..." It was good to see Mike, Kara, Tony and Katie. Sunday morning we went back to our old church and Sunday School class. That was awesome, great praise and worship and incredible teachings. Sunday afternoon we saw Amanda and Sean Fierce. Amanda and I spent last year teaching together and now thay have a brand new baby girl named Arlene. She was very cute and Marijon really enjoyed holding her.

Sunday Night we went to my parents house for the remainder of the week. Mom made her home made spaghetti sauce and we ate like kings. It was so great to see my mom and dad. Christmas Eve was great. Marijon and I joined my parents at a family gathering at my cousins house. I got to see all of my relatives and then upon arriving home that craziness began.

Sienna, our brown lab, had chewed into 20 ounces of dark chocolate and looked like she had a balloon in her belly. She was so fat. Well after reading some very scary stories about the toxicity of dark chocolate in dogs including death, we called Lix Jones in Texas for some advise. We found out after Mary, from Critter Care, called me that we had to make Sienna throw up. And that we did. Hydrogen Peroxide will make dogs throw up, did you know that? Well she threw up all over my parents garage, all 20 ounces, and the garage smelled like a chocolate factory. Needless to say, she survived and a huge thank you should go to Liz and Mary, you helped save our Sienna.

Then we had Christmas, which was great. Mom's stuffing, turkey, and sweet potatoes were all just amazing. Probably the best part of christmas was teaching my mom to use that lap top. She learned email, Skype, and how to use the track pad. It was great to see her suceed and it will be great to communicate using these skills as time goes by.

We arrived back in Childress at 10 am Sunday morning. As always it was hard to say bye to family and that will never change, but Marijon and I really loved the time we had in Illinois and hope everyone has a great remember of the Holiday season.
Joe and Marijon opening on Christmas Day

Joe and Ed (Joe's Dad) on Christmas Day

The Three Kids: Kim (Oldest), Pat (youngest), and Joe (Middle Kid)


Dylan (Kim's son), Arlene (Joe's Mom), Joe and front and center is Stephanie (Kim's Daughter)

New meaning to cold!!

When I was in college I can remember this kind of cold, but today and yesterday give new meaning to cold. Today it is Bone chilling, freeze the snot in your nose, take your breath away, frost bite your face cold. Last night in 40 mile an hour winds and temperature of -2 degrees MJ and I drove from our old home town of Bourbonnais, to my parents house. This is normally an hour drive, but it took us an hour and a half due to the wind and blowing snow. On the way I had to get gas, because it is bad to leave small amounts of gas in your tank with weather this cold, so we filled up. When I got out at the gas station I could not believe it. With no hat and no gloves the wind just went right through your clothes to the core. It was crazy. Then we drove to my parents house and pulled my car into the garage to unload all of our stuff. That was the easy part. We figured it would be best to keep my car in the garage, but it would be a tight squeeze length wise for my car to fit and the garage door to shut properly. This is when I screwed up. I went to the back of my car to remove the receiver hitch because it sticks out and we needed all the room we could get. So I knelt down and pulled the pin off the hitch and removed the receiver thinking nothing of it. About that time my Dad says, "you should have gloves on to do that." And as I am saying, "Why it is no big deal?" I can feel my fingers that are touching the metal receiver begin to burn. I threw the receiver into the back of my car, thank the good Lord the back door was open, and could not believe the burning in my fingers. Imagine holding a hot curling iron with your first three fingers and your thumb, and the burning feeling that would follow your reckless actions. Well I had that for a good 45 minutes after recklessly grabbing a metal object that had a temperature below zero.

Anyway, we made record time to chicago, 15 hours. We left Childress at 6:30pm Friday and arrived at our destination in Illinois at 9:30 am the next morning. It was a good trip overall. The pictures are of the ice left behind from the Storm Thursday night and Friday morning here, pretty awesome.

It is good to be home, MJ and I are about to go enjoy having every store imaginable within 15 minutes of here. In other words we going out. Unfortunately, the temperature is still -2, but the wind has gone down a bit.

Take care and have a Merry CHRISTmas.

What more can I say?

It snowed today. Or as they would say where I come from, "We had some Flurries this morning." Can you believe that some people actually asked if we were going to get out early due to the weather. Our friends in Chicago are laughing, but they do not understand that salt does not exist in Childress. They throw dirt on the road, or gravel to make the roads safe. Do you think that works very well? So this morning I got to hear rocks clinking against my car the entire drive in to work. I digress.

Tomorrow we will make a trip to our second Christmas party of the year with MJ's work buddies. I cannot express how happy MJ and I are to have been blessed with great job opportunities in Texas. Last night we were at my work Christmas party. Which brings me to the point I have been trying to say. All you folks in Texas probably take this for granted, but one thing we love about this small town is that the people here seem to be resistant to the many changes in society to remove CHRIST from everything. On the main road going through the middle of town a bank has a light up Chirstmas sign that actually says "Merry Christmas." Not Happy Holidays or Seasons Greetings. In Chicago or a bigger town like WF, you probably will not see that in front of a business. And this for the sole purpose of not offending anyone and being PC. It makes a great impression to see something like that. Shoot, last night we prayed over our meal at my "School" function. Lead by our AD, and everyone participated. Maybe more comforting, everyone took it as completely normal, and even standard protocol prior to eating. At School, in the Library!!! It is nice. Very Nice.

A Milestone

Well Mj and I are in training to run in the Wee Chi Tah half marathon. Do you know how far that is. 13.1 miles. That is the distance from the Bishop ranch to the United Supermartket in Childress Texas. You cannot even see the United from our house. That is super far. I am scared. Today was a milesonte for us, but more for me. We ran 8.2 miles this morning. I made it, but it hurt. At least when I finished I could say, #1 I have never ran that far before in my life, #2 I accomplished something great, #3 my wife is proud of me and I of her, and #4 Thank the good Lord we finished before the 40 mile an hour winds hit this morning. I am sure I will be very sore and MJ will not, but we are making progress and hopefully training stays on schedule.

In response to the post from Donna Smith, I am very proud of our students and think that this Thursday and Friday we should dismiss early. How does that sound.

Have a good one, MJ and I leave for Chicago in five days, isn't that exciting.

A trip to Chicago

I cannot wait to get to Chicago two weeks from today. MJ and I first get to visit our good friends in Bourbonnais and then it will be on to my home town Lemont Illinois. If you do not know where Lemont is, our claim to fame is the movie, "Save the Last Dance." The beginning of the movie is in Lemont High School and the opening scene is various shots of the Landscape of the town. Anyway, my family is there and we cannot wait to visit with them and eat their food. As an added bonus we will get to go to our old church and hear some awesome praise and worship along with Dereck our old Pastor. He did such an awesome job making everyone feel welcome, a lot like Trey Morgan at C of C. I cannot wait to see Katie prego. To visit with Mike, Kara, Tony, Katie, Sean and Amanda. Marijon is really looking forward to holding Arlene, Sean and Amanda's newborn who is named after my Mother, Arlene Waldron. I must have made a great impression on Amanda during that year of co-teaching we did at Manteno High School. Anyway I am rambling, so I will go, just wanted to share the excitement and let you all know Marijon and I will be really cold in about two weeks.

Bishop Ranch, Click on pic to view photobucket page

Photobucket Album

A weekend away

The view from the 9th floor at the Gaylord.

MJ and Joe in the Atrium of the Gaylord.

Well, MJ and I went on a weekend away for the first time since our honeymoon. It was a great time. Thanks to a hook up from a family friend we were able to stay at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, TX. This place was awesome. Our room was on the 9th floor, and the view from the balcony was impressive to say the least. On Saturday we did 80% of our Christmas shopping and then went to the Cheesecake factory for dinner. MJ had the Cobb salad, which she just loves to death, and I tried the Navajo Sandwich which was awesome. For dessert we shared chocolate peanutbutter cookie dough cheesecake, and I hurt myself. Sunday morning we ran in the fitness center and went to Whole Foods in Arlington. For lunch we happened to run across a Panera Bread and just had to have it. I miss that food choices are so large in Illinois where we lived and now it is all I talk about when we leave Childress. Did I forget to mention we also found Chipolte in Southlake. Man, I love food. Anyway the time away from home with my wife was awesome. We had fun.

Mommer's and Walter's B-Day

MJ, Mommer, and Joe at Main Event 11/16/08

Walter Lambert and MJ at Main Event on 11/16/08

Sunday we celebrated a mile stone for two of my wife's favorite people. Edna Mae Lambert is my wife's mother's mother, or in short my wife's grandmother on her mom's side of the family. I guess that is not really short. She turned 90 on Saturday November 15th. Walter Lambert is my wife's mother's brother, or MJ's Uncle, and he turns 70 in just a few days. Both are special people to both of us and we were honored to celebrate with them on this special occasion. With MJ's side of the family mainly working in the farming world, at the celebrati0n I got to talking to Trey Lambert, Walter's son, about how much has changed in farming over the lifetime of Walter and Edna Mae. We talked about horse drawn plows that worked only one row at a time and all the manual labor involved that is now done with diesel powered motorized equipment, John Deere equipment. It amazes me what they have seen change and how the Lambert family has been so instrumental in the development of so much cotton farming equipment. Amazing people. I reminds me of how proud I was of my Dad when he used to tell us stories about the software he used and modified in the CPA firm where he worked. I think it was called Symphony. It was ahead of his time for the accountant world and the Lamberts were ahead of their time in farming cotton. MJ and I, as kids in two great families, have enjoyed talking about how proud we are of where we came from and we both hope we represent our families well in our daily lives.

Tell House

Photobucket Album

Change is Good

Marijon and I have been here in Childress for a couple of months, and life could not be any busier. It seems as if we leave our house at 7:00 in the morning and return at 9:00 in the evening everyday. Hard to believe. Thank the good Lord for the "Doggie Door."

Here are just a few things that have changed in our life over the past month.

• Joe has now touched and feed cows and horses
• MJ started a new job
• Joe started a new job
• MJ learned how to make glasses
• Joe learned how to administer corporal punishment
• MJ learned how to change a flat tire
• Joe learned how to kill rattle snakes, 5 total and black widows, too many to count.
• Joe learned how to back a trailer without jacknifing it into his own car
• Zoey has developed a bad knee that seems to not be getting any better
• Joe and MJ have started to remodel a house for us to live in starting this spring
• We have learned how to blog
• Joe learned what a turn row is, what a wheat drill is, what grain sorgum is, and various other farming lingo
• Joe learned to resopnd to being refered to as Marijon's husband, and Marilyn's son-in-law
• MJ learned that a gas stove is way different than a electric stove

Overall MJ and I have learned to love each other more and more and with all that is changing, things are great. The future is exciting and we cannot wait for what is over the horizon.

A little work

I thought I would show you all the wonderful demolition work I have done over the weekend. The two pictures below are of the same space. Basically, it is the view looking from our family room into the kitchen. I have removed all the cabinets and taken down one of the soffit but not the other. The top picture is the most recent and the bottom is the start of the project with only the carpet removed. A true work in progress.

A Dirty House

No not our house, but the house we hope to live in soon. This new house is located in Tell, Texas, and is a gem. Unfortunately, the house needs many updates and they are long over due. None the less I thought I would share. It is a two story house with five bedrooms and two baths, it will become a four bedroom with three baths and a master suite. I have included some pictures. Some great features include the open space, and front and back porch that can be screened in, two car garage, and tons of storage. We are excited. I will keep you posted as we update. As of today we have begun to make one bathroom upstairs into two baths, a master and a guest bath. We have also started to remove the carpet. This is one gross job with dirt and urine and bugs all over this very old carpet. Well, I will let you know more as time goes on.

Parenting

As the days go on MJ and I get closer and closer to the day when we may actually consider being parents, and to be honest it scares both of us. We find reasons not to take the plunge. Things like money, or will we be good parents, or will we be strong enough to make the hard decisions when needed. We both also know that each of these concerns are petty and if we were "gut level honest" with ourselves, no parent is ever really ready to be a parent. Just today I was approached for the millionth time about when MJ and I would be putting together a nursery, and I always respond with "NEVER." But the truth is that maybe someday it will happen. Honestly, I want it to happen because I think my wife will be the greatest mother, and I know that my mom and her mom will make sure that our children are treated properly as spoiled little grandbabies. It also does not help that our good friends Tony and Katie in Bourbonnais, IL are expecting and I am just a little jealous.

Is anyboody really ready for kids? How do you deal with the pressure that comes with raising a life that you are competely responsible for?

I guess in my job I see how parents act. I see all kinds. The scary ones are the ones who truly try hard and their kids are still bad. I guess I need to focus on the posiitve, and know that with a good solid Christian home kids have the best chance and that is what is important.

Your Thoughts?????

My WIfe

With all the bad relationships I have been through in my life, God must have been watching over me on August 4th 2004. This is the day I first laid eyes on my wife. I was visiting a friend's house for the first time in my life and Marijon walked into that house after a long walk with her friend Beverly. You see Marijon lived there also, and to my surprise she was the roommate to the 62 year old lady who I was visiting. Who would have thunk! A 62 year old lady with a HOT 20 something roomate. I was floored. Looking back I know it was God. You see Marijon and I were both in bad relationships and we had many people in our lives praying for us to find a solid christian partner, and on that day in August, God delivered.

I did not sit down to write this to tell you that, but I did intend to tell you all how lucky I am to have such a wonderful spouse.

On June 7th 2006 we were married and since that day my love for Marijon has grown by leaps and bounds. She is the perfect woman for me. She allows me to be the man I have always wanted to be. She is supportive, loving, encouraging, and committed to making our marraige work for the remainder of our lives. She constantly prays for me and our marraige. She makes me happy and I wanted everyone to know how much I love my wife. I am so thankful God placed me in that house to see that HOT 20 something walk through that door. That was the very best thing to happen in my life.

Joe's Top Ten Movies

Some of my favorites in no particular order

• Bull Durham ("You won't hit me meat!" "Don't think, it is bad for the ball club!" "Lolly Gagers." The speech about what Crash "believes in." So many great lines. Maybe the best sports movie!!!!)

• Remember the Titans (THis movie shows how the struggle is what makes us great. I think it is the coach in me.)

• Braveheart (blood and guts, pass the testosterone)

• Troy - this had to replace Pulp Fiction, I could watch this movie all day long
  

• Ferris Bueller's Day Off (Irony considering my current job)

• As Good as it Gets

• Major League

• Saving Private Ryan

• All the Star Wars Movies

• Cars (I have a secret desire to be a race car)

Great post Mills, this was fun.

How about a top five best sports movies!

Here are mine

1. Bull Durham
2. Remember the Titans
3. Major League
   
4. Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
5. The Rookie
   

Our Recipe (Oatmeal Carmelitas)

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups uncooked quick-cook oats
1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, melted
1 (12oz) pkg semisweet chocolate chips
1 (14oz) pkg caramels
1/2 cup half and half

Stir together first 5 ingredients in large mixing bowl. Add butter, stirring until mixture is crumbly. Reserve half of mixture. Press remaining half of mixture into bottom of lightly greased 13x9 inch pan. Sprinkle evenly with chocolate chips.

Microwave caramels and half and half at medium (50% less power) for 3 minutes. Stir and microwave at medium 1-2 more minutes or until mixture is smooth. Let stand 1 minute. Pour evenly over chocolate chips. Sprinkle evenly with reserved crumb mix.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until light brown. Enjoy : ) : ) Yummy Yum
Thanks Kara Janek, we love these.

Last Week in September

What a difference a year makes. In 2007 MJ and I were in Bourbonnais Illinois, I had just finished coaching the Manteno Invitational, and spent the day with my Mom and Dad. In 2008 we spent the day today with MJ's Mom and Dad along with her oldest brothers family that came in from Amarillo. My Mom and Dad are busy in the Mediteranian Sea on a Cruise.

This week was crazy, I had the High School to myself on Thrusday and Friday due to the Principal being at a conference in Dallas, and that was fun. On both days we ended up having to call 911 and have an ambulance respond to the high school for different reasons. Not to mention all the other exciting things that happened, the list is too long to mention. I can tell you that I love every second of each day, but I wish it was not so exhausting.

MJ is great. She had a great week at work and ran a whole bunch in the evenings.

Things in Texas are warm and the allergens are in the air. MJ and I are both suffering and that is unusual. Normally it is just me. The nights are cool and clear and the days are warm and sunny. One thing that is definately a little crazy is the intensity of the mosquitos at all times of the day and night. You cannot go outside without being attacked.

Well enough about that, I want to wish my White Sox the best during the next two days as they fight to get into the playoffs. To all my Cubbie fan friends congrats to you, I will always be a Chicago fan, so I will be cheering on the Cubbies as long as they are not playing the pale hose. How about them Bears. As of right now the Bears are up by a touchdown in the third quarter, we shall see if they can hold on to this lead.

Talk to ya all later.

Cowboy Weekend

Well it was one of those busy weekends with football on Friday, a Tri-State Fair on Saturday and Church on Sunday. It was great and exhausting. MJ and I were apart on Friday as I traveled two and a half hours away to the Bobcat football game in Fritch, Texas the home of Ron White. We did not run into him while we were in Fritch. The Bobcats played hard and won. Arriving home at two in the morning MJ and I got up early Saturday and met Marilyn, MJ's mom, and Brooklin and Gage our niece and nephew to travel to the Tri-State fair in Amarillo, Texas. A good time capped off by the Rodeo that evening. The rodeo was impressive for me, a city boy. I now feel the need to get me some boots and a cowboy hat. It was great to spend time with our relatives and enjoy some new experiences. Sunday was church where MJ and I were convicted by our preacher, Trey Morgan at Childress Church of Christ, to use, read, open and share our bibles. We just got done cooking Sunday dinner for J.E., MJ's dad, and Marilyn, MJ's mom, and now we are watching the Cowboys destroy Green Bay. Myself being a Chicago native this is the perfect outcome as all Chicagoians, dislike Green Bay.

One final note to all the Cubbie fans, especially Tony and Chris, here come the playoffs, I wish you all the best until they meet the Soxs and then we will have to stop our friendship temporarily. Have a good one Swaff.

Well, it is time to start a new week, wish me luck, in my position you never know what is going to walk through my door.

No Longer a Bloggin Virgin

Well after starting at Childress High School it has come to my attention that blogging is something all the cool kids are doing so I thought I would give it a shot.

I am sure I will add more later but as of today this is a good start.