Vacation Details

Ok, well its back to work. I guess I knew it had to happen but it sure was nice to have the week off. I don't get very many vacations in fact that was the first full week I have taken in 6 years. Could be longer but that is about right. Usually the family goes and I get a couple days here and there while still trying to work.

Anyway... our vacation was great. We went to Yogi Bear camp grounds in Amboy, IL. Pretty nice park with plenty of things to do. The kids absolutely love going. There are three swimming pools, a mini golf course, 2 water slides, a game room, craft room, paddle boats, snack shop, and small store. Probably missed a few things but you get the idea. There is tent camping areas, small cabins, that would be a dry tent with a/c and small mobile homes (i guess that's what you would call them). That's what we get. They have 3 bedrooms 2 small and 1 with a double bed and a closet. The most important thing is they have a shower and a/c. Also a kitchen a fridge.

We also rented a golf cart for the week which if you have kids I highly recommend. The park is pretty big and with our kids they want to do everything at least 3 times a day so it would be hard to walk to everything all day long.

We were all set to leave on Sun. right after church. We had my Durango and Jens car packed. 4 girls for a week yeah its a lot of stuff. Really just the Durango and the car's trunk was full of fire wood. Jen getts to church and tells me the Durango isn't shifting right and running real bad. Amboy is about an hour and a half a way so I didn't want all the girls driving that far and taking a chance on breaking down so we borrowed her dads truck. Unpack and re-pack. That was fun. Then they left and I had to get the Durango to the shop so it could be worked on while we were gone. I still had to go to wal-mart and jewel after that. I thought I would never get start my vacation. Finally get to Yogi about 3:30 4:00. First thing I find out is the Internet service is down. Cant believe it. Not the end of the world but I do enjoy surfing the net and had planned on blogging all week about things going on. But after that it was smooth sailing great weather all week.

Me and my daughter Alexis did get to go fishing as I said before her first time. Probably been more than 10 years for me. Sense I do have 3 daughters of course we don't have any fishing poles or any of the things you need to just get a hook in the water. (those of you who really know me know whats coming next) So of course I had to go buy fishing gear and sense she wanted to fish I mhad to fish too. I cant believe how much it cost just for a couple poles and some hooks well maybe I got a few more things than that. Like the cool spider man tackle box I got for Alexis. (she is a spidy fan) So off fishing we go it was great to see how excited my daughter was about it and we don't get much one on one so that was great. I just wasn't sure how this fishing thing was going to go. They are girly girls. Not tom boys at all.

We bait up our hooks I cast mine then help her.....yeah that about how long it stayed in the water. Not sure if the bobber even got wet before she had it reeled back in. So i explained to her that the fish wouldn't bite it if it was moving. So we cast again............. a little longer that time bobber just got wet and its in again. So I help her one more time and tell her she needs to leave it out there. By this time I had reeled mine as well and was going to walk over 20' or so on the other side of this tree and try there. Well I got over there and her curplunk. Wasn't sure what it was didn't pay to much attention to it. (as long as Alexis was still on the shore) Few seconds later I hear it again so I look over and Alexis was reeling in as fast as her little hand could go and then casting it back out just as fast. I was so shocked and impressed that I couldn't say anything to her. Could not believe that in just the few times I had helped her cast it out she picked it up and was doing a good job at to. Keep in mind that we were fishing on the side of a pond that just had a few little openings and the rest was trees and bushes. I just thought that was pretty cool. Even if she did only last about 20 min. and was ready to go. i guess I don't need to tell you that we didn't catch a thing.

I did get yelled at for going off roading in the golf cart. Me and the girls went for a ride in the woods and I guess just because the golf cart will fit down a path doesn't mean you can take it down all the paths something about the real paths are gravel .

Camp fires... Camp fires have to be the best part about camping. Nothing like sitting around a camp fire playing a good movie on a 20" flat screen and drinking coffee. Yeah we had movie night at the camp grounds and didn't want to sit inside the cabin so we brought it all out side. I love camping. I know there are some real campers out there who are probably disgusted with all this but I just cast see how sleeping on the ground and taking shower in a shower house with freezing cold water can be fun. Getting up in the middle of the night and having to walk around outside in the dark to look for a place to go to the bathroom, no thanks. Well its not quite how I wanted to blog about my vacation (still cant believe the internet service was down) but you guys get the idea. We had a great time to bad it will be a year before we get to do it again.

Wow that was long. Is there a rule on how long a post should be? I'm sure if there is I am going to hear about. (yeah I'm talking about you)

Rocky Start

I know I was planning on blogging everyday while I was on vacation. Trust me I am not happy about not being able to. Our vacation has started out a little rocky. First we had some car trouble the day we were leaving but that worked out. Then....(I know this is going to be hard to believe) we get to the cabin and no Internet service. Crazy I know. How do you camp without Internet service. I think we are going to survive the week but it hasn't been easy.

I ran into the shop today just return some calls, check e-mail, and post really fast just to let everyone know things are great. There will be some more detailed posts in the future to let everyone know how our vaca. went.

Few things off the top of my head. My middle daughter and I did get to go fishing, her first time. That was...... lets just say it was fun. (more to follow). The weather has been better than we could have asked for. Thank you God for that. They had 10" of rain over the week before we got there. Lots of swimming and hot dogs going on. Great camp fires and marshmallows too.

Well that's about all I have time for right now. Need to get back to my vacation.

Still Looking

With the car audio market changing everyday I have been thinking about and looking for something else to get into. I am really wanting to get into real estate investing. Started looking and wanting to find a house to rehab last year and didn't really have much luck finding a good deal so I kind of put it in the back of my mind and quit looking. Winters are kinda crazy at the shop with remote start season and can be a great time of year so I wanted to concentrate on that. Well its summer again and I have started looking again.

I thought I had found it. The start of my new adventure. An old 3 bd. 1.5 bath "diamond in the ruff" just waiting for me to turn her into a beautiful palace that anyone would love to call home. The price was right, decent neighborhood, big yard, and the deal was all mine. You know, a brand new investors dream come true.

I had already driven by the house just to check it out make sure it was'nt leaning to one side waiting to fall over the next big storm we had or that the house still had windows and the roof was still on. It didn't look to bad. Of course it needed some paint and the landscapeing was well.... it needed some curb appeal. Not a big deal though if it was already in great shape it probably wouldn't be in my price range or any kind of deal for me to make any money at. So I set up an appointment to look at the house. Now I'm not going to go into great detail about this house but as soon as I walked through the door I new if I took this deal I would have been in way over my head. Did you know that there were houses with the electric run on the outside of the walls? Maybe I'm showing my age or have just led a very sheltered life. Maybe I just never paid attention before and have been in houses like this but either way I was a little shocked.

I guess I am thankful for knowledge I have gained by owning my own business for the past 10 years and that my enthusiasm about starting this new venture didn't get the best of me and that I didn't just jump into something I am not prepared to handle yet. But at the same time I feel a little like I may have chickened out. I think that's just a guy thing though wanting to think I can do anything.

So I guess you can say I'm still looking. I know that great deal is out there just waiting for me to find it. If nothing else Ill just chalk this up as experience. After all I did learn a few new things in just trying to see if this was the deal for me.

Where Do They Get This Stuff

Yesterday the family and I were doing are normall Sunday after church lunch at Turtles. Nice place to eat the food is good and the best part on Sundays kids eat for a $1. So if you are ever in the big town of Morris and need a place to eat I would recommend it.

Anyway me and Jen had pretty much finished up and were waiting on the kids to finish talking about who knows what. We look over and our youngest was eating her spaghetti with both hands and just shoving it in her face like we hadn't fed her in days. As I type this out I can laugh about it. I can picture her face covered from ear to ear with sauce, cheeks bulging, and a couple noodles that didn't make it all the way in still dangling between her lips. Like I said funny now... not in a restaurant full of people.

So me and Jen proceed to ask her what she is thinking and remind her that she knows better. Wow I just made that sound like we are just the best parents in the world. If I remember right those words were used but not in such a nice way and a bit different tone. Of course she cant answer because she has a face full of food. So this goes on for a minute as we clean her up continue to ask "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU" and say"I CANT BELIEVE YOU" "YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THAT' "EATING LIKE AN ANIMAL" ETC... (no we weren't yelling just wanted to get the point across that we weren't being exactly nice either)

After all that my 3 year old daughter looks up at me smiles and says in her sweet little innocent voice "I was just getting attention". My wife and I looked at each other with our mouths on the floor and were like where does she get this stuff. The best part of it if you know (knew) my girls at all you know they are the farthest from needing attention. I live with three princess's just ask them they will tell you. Sorry for the long post just to tell a one liner from my 3 year old I guess its a parent thing but it was a good one so I had to share it.

Phase One Complete

Finally finished phase 1 of my deck. I must say it was a great feeling as I stood back and looked at what I had done. Sure I make things all the time and put things in cars that are definitely cooler than a deck but this is more (for a lack of better term) manly work. Not that what I do in cars is easy by any means. I guess its more that I am not a construction guy at all. For one I don't like to work that hard. I give huge props to construction workers after doing this section of my deck. All the digging, hanging boards, mixing concrete, and screwing boards down is definitely harder work than I am used to. Maybe that is the reason for the great sense of pride I felt when I looked at what I had created.

I do have to give out a few thank yous. First of all I am so proud of my (girly) wife Jen who stepped it up the last couple days I was working. And helped quite a bit with screwing the deck boards down. Did pretty well if I might say. My dad did an awesome job of cutting some angled boards for me. Then Jen's brother Randy he tried to help more but we got rained out last Sat. Still he busted his butt on Sun. and saved me a lot of time.

Ok so you are probably wondering what phase one means or how there are phases on a deck. So here is the low down on what I an trying to do. The overall deck is going to be 12'x22'. Its going in the back yard (you never know). We have an attached garage so in our back yard the house is like an L shape. The deck goes out 12' feet to the end of the house and then 22' wide along the garage. If you walk out the back garage door you walk right on the the deck. The first phase of the deck was a 12'x12' section that is about 8" off the ground pretty much even with the door. That is the part that I finished. "phase one" I will have to try to figure out to get some pic's on here but that will have to be another time. Phase 2 is going to be 12'x10' section that is going to be about 15" higher. It will meet right up with the lower section and have a step up to it. This section is going to have a lot more work to it though. It is going to have a privacy wall and some railing around it to make it a little private getaway. Phase 3 will be a peeked roof over the higher section. Hoping to have that complete this summer but not sure if the time will be there. I guess we will see what happens. Ok well this has been a long one so its time to go. Stay tuned for pic's of the deck and progress reports.