Bugs Palace!

New year, new plans. And what a pile of plans we have. We’ve decided to turn our main floor laundry room closet into a shower, and open the main bathroom up to the edge of the hallway to accommodate it. Not a massive amount of work, but will significantly change the main floor. Once that is complete, we’ll be repainting the entire main floor. Main floor should look brand new when we’re done, and will also net us two fully usable bathroom as our kids get older and start needing the extra shower.

This year we will also be semi-formalizing plans for our addition that we hope to finally break ground on in the spring of 2018. Lots of drawing, tweaking and hoping for that. Plan is an oversized attached garage bay with a storage loft above the garage door and high ceilings to accomodate a hoist as well as a laundry/mud room behind it.  Been a long time coming but finally starting to become a reality.

Subaru has had a busy month. I finished the installation of the reverse camera a few weeks back and it works quite well! I’ve also ordered a new A-pillar gauge pod and additional gauge. Parts should all be on hand within a week or so. Then its just finding time to install it. Lastly I had the timing belt changed yesterday. Costly service, but necessary. I actually hope to keep this car for a while, so I figured get it done before it’s too late and I end up having to buy a motor.

Not much else happening. Starting to look at holidays and plans for the summer. I think we’ll be taking it somewhat slower/quieter this summer as we are heading on a Disney Cruise in October which we are all busy counting down to. In the meantime, I’m sure we’ll do some small fun family trips again this summer. More camping, the falls, go-karting, swimming, etc. Also, if money allows Shannon and I are toying with the idea of hitting a couple baseball games in Minnesota and Milwaukee if money allow. Be a whirl-wind 2-3 day road trip, but fun. Just depends on if finances will allow it.

Warm winter air has been a welcome change. Hovering around the 2-5degree mark really makes me hopeful for a spring like we had in 2011. I was on my motorcycle on February 14th, and didn’t have to put it away again until December. Fingers crossed for mild, snow/salt free remainder of the winter and spring.

As for the Star Wars / Awakening title….. Be patient. More news to come from our ever busy home….

As the subject indicates, a new year is upon us! What a year 2016 was. Frankly, it started out pretty horrible. Thankfully as the year progressed, things slowly and steadily seemed to improve. As terrible as the year started, by the end of the year I find myself hopeful for the future again. After the way I felt back in the early spring, that alone is a pretty big win.

This year, I will continue working on myself, my family, and simply having a better year. Shed a couple pounds, be healthier, and hopefully see 2017 end in even better financial state then 2016. Fingers crossed, prayers answered and a lot of luck, things will keep getting better.

Quick garage update: little to report. I finally spent some time in the garage polishing the bike. Wish I would have gotten it done when it was warmer. Bike looks like a million bucks. Battery tender plugged back in and a sheet tossed on to keep her clean. For the Subaru, I started installing a rear view camera. The camera is mounted, and cable run from the license plate to the inside of the truck and zip tied along the factory wiring. Just need to find some time and a warmer day to run the connecting wire from the trunk to the back of the head unit. Not a lot of work to do, just haven’t had the time or desire to do it given the cold weather. The Jeep is continuing racking up the kms (140,000 now) and the Beetle is continuing its winter nap. Still have lots of plans for the, but I suspect they will be a March break type of thing.

House has seen some updates in the last month or so. We tried to bring a new couch into the basement. No amount of coercion would get it in. Wrecked some drywall and had to pull a door frame apart before we decided to give in. Now I have some work to finish up. I’ve been slow to get to it, but its getting there. To make it up to us, we bought ourselves a new mattress. Our old one is beyond done. Given my shoulder and back problems which seemed to have worsened over the last 2 years, I’m hopeful this will lessen the pain and increase quality sleep.

Another Christmas is officially in the books. For the most part, it’s been a very good year. I had my amazing family around me, plans to see most of my friends in the coming weeks and we got to see a Star Wars movie. How is that for a good holiday season?

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without some drama. 11pm December 23rd, Shannon was busy wrapping gifts while we watched Christmas vacation and she asked “Where are the kids Xmas Eve Jammies?!”. I thought she was kidding. She was not. I spent the next hour flying through the house trying to find them. Failed. Panic now set in that we would have to find a special pair for each kid – on Christmas eve. They both wanted these funky onsies that are only really available in a couple places. Went to bed, got up early the next morning and started calling around. Thankfully two places had them. A shop in Barrie and one in Niagara Falls. Off to the falls I went, as Barrie sounded like a bad idea Mission accomplished, catastrophe averted, and two happy kids later that night.

Shannon and the kids headed to her moms while I did the running around and had a nice visit before we all met back up at home for Pj opening and some pictures around the tree. Loaded up the Jeep and then headed out to the Shoups for an evening of laughter and comfort food. Still one of my favorite traditions is the Christmas eve get together with my aunts/uncles/siblings and as many cousins as we can fit! After a few hours we headed home for bed.

Christmas morning was no shortage of magic. Kids came downstairs to a tree bursting with presents and smiles as big as our tree. Few more pics and we loaded all the presents up in the jeep and headed over to my parents place to meet up with my immediate family and begin the present opening bonanza. Everyone seems to get what they wanted and then some! Lots of lucky little people with big smiles and giggles. Once that finished up, most of us sat down for a huge breakfast complete with fancy table settings and cinabons 🙂  Probably could have finished eating for the weekend at this point, but where is the fun in that?!

Hugs and headed home to get cleaned up and ready to go. Next stop Dave and Mary Janes for more gifts and Christmas spirit! Kids were spoiled even more! Joe is a lean, mean present opening machine! We loaded the Jeep up once more and headed across the mountain.

Next stop was Jeff and Cathys for yet another present opening event. At this point I’m really starting to wonder where we are going to put everything. Kids spent some time playing with their cousin Cory while Shannon and I chatted away with Jeff and Cathy and eventually loaded up – again – this time to head home to get ready for dinner.

Off to the Shoups for dinner! We alternate years between Shannons dads house and my Aunt/Uncles house for dinner. This year is my side. I think I ate my weight in stuffing and mash potatoes. Several hours of more laughter, playing with all the kids and reminiscing about my Grandpa who passed away and the family members who were sadly absent this year. All I know is those who were absent – were missed. Hopefully next year this can change, but we will see. Eventually we called it a night, and took our tired monkeys home and put them to bed before heading up ourselves.

Boxing day we finally slept in a tiny bit. Boy did we need that! Got up and unboxed a bunch of the kids stuff and cleaned up around the house. Showered up and headed to Jeff and Cathys for the Woodall Christmas dinner. Nothing like beef and yorkshire pudding to put the cap on a week of over eating. Shannon cousins were there along with some family friends. Very nice seeing them as we don’t all get together as often as my side given the distance that they live. Kids had fun beating up on Jake and Josh as always and of course, collected a couple more presents! As the night winded down we headed back to Hagersville and popped back out to my aunt and uncles as my cousins step-daughter was there and Abby really wanted to see her. It was a short visit followed by home for some much needed sleep.

Finally December 27th a handful of us headed to Ancaster for part of our now two-year-old tradition of going to see Star Wars! This year was Rogue One! Awesome movie, in my opinion. Very different feel from the other movies, but excellent in its own right. Kids loved it too! Afterwards most of us headed to the Works (kids choice) for dinner and to talk about the movie. This tradition is kind of a re-boot as Uncle Shoupie and Aunt Linda started me down my  Star Wars craze 35 years ago by taking me to see Return of the Jedi in theatre, and renting the previous movies for me when I would go visit them when I was very little. Fast forward 35 years and now we all get together to bring in the latest from LucasFilm/Disney. From the sounds of things, new movies coming yearly so this will hopefully be a long-term tradition!

Now, to enjoy the remainder of our holidays with quiet time with the kids and some more adventures to be determined in the coming days.

To everyone who contributed to making our Christmas as bright as it was, thank you. It wouldn’t be Christmas without you!

And to my beautiful wife and children, I love you and thank you!