I just became a business owner/operator. Here are some pics of the new music school I, along with two other music instructors are opening Feb 2.


Waiting area











Looking out from the bathroom











Looking in from the waiting area.

Back in Black



Enter Sandman

On Halloween, Rehn's school has the students dress up as a character from a book they like. She went as Ladybug from "James and the Giant Peach."


Trick or treat!!! This year there were a ton of trick or treaters out. I haven't see so many since I was a kid.


Sunday evening Christian participated in the Liturgy as an Alter Server. Normally we wouldn't have a camera in Mass, but it was his first time. :)

I understand that no one who pays this blog any attention will care about this video (some might be offended), but I'm posting it anyway. Fr. Corapi is pretty awesome.

Our trip was a huge success. Traveling 5,900 miles through 11 states in 20 days we enjoyed the Rockies, the PNW, the Columbia Gorge, Portland, Puget Sound, the redwoods, the Pacific coast, the California Coastal Mountains, Mohave Desert, Las Vegas, the Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon and numerous, beautiful, empty highways. We saw wild elk, bald eagles, a California Condor, chipmunks and a fox.

Deb flew up to meet us in Idaho and we spent a couple of days in the gorgeous town of Coeur d'Alene before driving to Vancouver, WA. The 7 days she was with us passed by so quickly but, one highlight from that part of the trip was seeing our old friend (and former neighbor) Erika and two of her three boys. They just happened to be on vacation in Washington State (from Norway) and we spent the day with them in Tacoma. Christian was thrilled to see his oldest friend Jonah for the first time in 7 years.

Most important to our trip was the help we received from our friends. Pat in Coeur d'Alene, Betty, Eric & Ben in Vancouver and the Eckerts in Tacoma made us feel at ease in their homes. Jamie was a key piece of the puzzle giving us weather updates. She probably saved our lives in Wichita Falls, TX by keeping us posted on the severe thunder storms in the area. Of course Deb kept me sain with several phone conversations through out each day. She also helped with directions and reservations. Thanks to you all.

2 nights in motels, 5 nights in a tent, 5 nights in cabins, 7 nights in friend's homes seemed to be just enough to make us miss home enough to come back. :)

And, we did make it back in time to spend another awesome 4th of July with my parents and sister.

Click here for a bunch of pics.

This weekend was pretty busy. Saturday we went to a matinee of "Law of the Sea" at the Wortham Theater. It's an annual play put on by lawyers for charity. Pretty good. After that we headed to Last Concert Cafe for some awesome Tex-Mex and beer. Finally, we went to watch the Astros get destroyed by the Cardinals at Minute Maid Park.

Today we headed to St. Anthony's and heard an inspiring homily about Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration.

Later, I gave Teacherman a mohawk.

We had a pretty good Memorial Day weekend. Unfortunately much of it, for me, was spent in a sleepy fog. Late night gigs Thursday, Friday and Saturday took a lot out of me. I don't really remember what we did Saturday. (?) I spent most of Sunday in front of the TV watching the Astros lose, dozing between pitches. But, Sunday night I was forced to move myself and we headed to a drive in movie in Tomball. I haven't been to a drive in movie since ... the late 70s. We'll be doing that again soon.

Monday morning we headed to a nearby lake and fished. I'm adding fishing to my list of things we don't do enough of.


One of about 10 she caught.












I'm shaving his head in early June.












Deb caught the most. Actually, I'm not sure how many she caught. But, we all know Deb doesn't like to lose, so let's just pretend she caught 10,000.





This awesome bird hung out on the opposite side of the lake for the first couple of hours.








These ducks attempted (several times) to get caught in our fishing lines.









When the kids took a break from fishing I gave them the camera and told them to walk around taking pics. Lots of cool birds and turtles and stuff photographed butt they think this is the best shot they took.

We had a busy weekend. We spent most of Saturday and Sunday at the park playing tennis, the kids and I washed a car and had a soaking water fight, I did bunches of yard work while Deb did some spring cleaning in the house, we had an awesome meal at the Cheesecake Factory and a couple games of chess.

Oh yeah, and we got married again...

Don't get your feelings hurt if you weren't invited. No one was, except our witnesses. Don't get your feelings hurt if you weren't asked to be a witness. This was a Catholic blessing of the marriage and though non-Catholics could attend (duh), we had to have Catholic witnesses.

I married a ginormous dork.


927pm












929pm













945pm













957pm. Done.

The kids were baptized, confirmed and received their first communion at the Easter Vigil Mass. They're now more Catholic than I am. Doh! I need to catch up.

It was a shame about the weather...












The kids with their God Parents.












Rehn's baptism.


















Christian getting a wet head.

















After the baptism the kids got dressed up for their confirmation and first communion.















Rehn's confirmation.












Christian's confirmation.












Rehn's first communion.













Christian's first communion.













Father Tom and the kids just after the 3 hour Mass.

Last weekend the fam and I went hiking in Jones State Park. This was our first time there which is weird since it's only five minutes from our house and we've lived here for 10 years... Anywho, it's pretty nice. Lots of trees, birds, deer, rabbits etc. and very few people.

Lots of walking. I suppose we walked about 2 miles. There are a lot more trails we need to get back to and explore.





At Middle Lake we actually saw several people (maybe 5). Most of them were on horseback.





Let's pretend this is my backyard.












Fun for all.















Chillin.
















As you can tell, the kids had a horrible time.