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.