Sleep Tight: Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite.

When I was a child up until 5 years ago, I would wake up a few times a year in a “blood curling” scream. I will have to paraphrase my brother on this one, because I do not remember waking up screaming. He said that he never understood the expression of “blood curling” scream until he heard me screaming. We shared a room until I was 12 and I woke a few times during the night screaming and Justin said that it was one of the most freighting things he has ever heard. Justin would just cover his head and pray that whatever was getting me, would not hear him breathing under the sheets.
The one time that the horrible scream actually woke me up was my sophomore year high school. I was at a party and ended up sleeping on the floor next to a bed of three girls. I wake up with this blood-curling scream and of course the girls wake up screaming. My scream did not wake me up, it was the girls screaming that woke me up, and scared me, so I am now screaming in a normal, “manlier” scream. I realized what happened rather quickly and just played stupid. The girls were trying to describe the horrible noise they just heard, and none of them would even think that such a horrible, high pitch noise could come out of a guy, so I played it off and said that I heard it as well and had no clue what it was. At this time everyone else in the house had ran up to see what the hell we were screaming at, the whole time, I am just playing stupid.
I am not sure what triggers these horrible sounds, but I have not had an “episode” in over 5 years. I have warned any roommate that I have had: just in case, and Emily knows about them and I really do feel sorry for her if I wake up screaming in the middle of the night: I really believe Emily will piss the bed and pass out.
So, moving forward. The past few weeks I have found myself waking up doing crazy things. Most of them I do not remember, but Emily tells me about them the next morning. Two weeks ago I woke up begging Emily not to move her elbow since our elbows were connected. This went on for a few minutes. Emily says that I seem wide awake, I scarcely remember this happening, but I remember that I was truly terrified that the skin on our conjoined elbows were going to rip apart.
Last week I woke up Emily yelling and pointed up at the ceiling fan. Emily tried to ask me if the fan was going to fall and I mumbled yes and fell back asleep. Last night I thought that I cut my self and woke up holding my right arm telling Emily that I am bleeding, and I do remember Emily handing me a tissue so not to get blood on the sheets. I turned the light on, expecting to see a bloody mess on my arm: nothing. I am laying in bed holding a tissue for my "bloody" arm feeling like an idiot.
I am going to wake up once and there really is going to be a problem and Emily will be convienced that I am just having issues. All the while, the evil monster in the closet will get her first.
Justin also has had issues with waking up and doing weird things in his sleep, so I am not sure if something is crazy in our mind, or if Mom just gave us booze for nap time and it is rattling around up there. I don’t want to dive into Justin’s crazy night terror, that is a whole different blog that he needs to write.

Stuck in the Elevator with you.

Emily and I went to the Cardinal game on Saturday with some friends, which we lost, but we had great seats and it is always nice to be outside. After the game we grab dinner with our friends and go out to some bars downtown. Emily and I do not drink and drive, so we had arranged to stay at the Missouri Athletic Club downtown (MAC). After a night of bar hopping we head back to the hotel around 1:30am. Our room was on the 10th floor so we hop in the elevator. Two feet from the 10th floor the elevator stops and all the lights go off. Emily, myself, Sara, Chris and Hollie and Jason are now all stuck in an elevator at 1:30 am. Luckily we had stopped at the gas station to get beer, so we had something to drink. 3 guys and 3 girls stuck on an elevator could be a plot of a crazy porn movie, but I keep that thought to myself.
Emily is claustrophobic, and being stuck in an elevator with 5 other people apparently is not a good situation for a claustrophobic person. Emily had to breathe slowly so she would not hyperventilate. I myself was freaked out at the thought of the cable snapping, but I kept that to myself also. Since we all have been drinking; we all had to pee. We were to the point of peeing in bottles. And, to top the whole situation off, Chris is throwing a fit about not being in our wedding party. (Quick side note. I have too many friends. Picking a wedding party was a very hard thing to do. I have friends that deserve to be in the wedding, but only so much room. And I have friends who think we are much closer than we really are…but I digress).
So, 5 drunk people, Emily who was sober, all had to pee, stuck in an elevator listening to Chris tell me how disappointed he is and how much he loves me and is appalled that he is not in the wedding party, oh yeah, all the lights were out as well. This went on for an hour. For an hour we all try to just relax and not think about the crappy situation, but we 6 people are crammed into an elevator with all the lights off, there is not much else to think about.
Needless to say, when the fire department finally shows up to pry the door open, Emily had lost the good mood and was ready to go home.
For some reason the MAC lost power for a few hours, it was the only building downtown that lost power and as of this morning, they still have no clue what happened. Emily and I packed back up and heading home at 3:00 am. The whole experience was just crazy, that is really the best way that I can describe it. The moral of the whole story is, make sure you don’t have to pee before you get on an elevator.

You can see just how happy Emily was!

Tis the season for flooding!

Last weekend found Emily and I heading to Branson to spend time with the Kings. John is my youth minister from High School. Well, actually I did not attend his church at all: Here's the story.
I met John through Emily Scott, who attended his church. It was the year anniversary of my Father's death and I was feeling pretty down. Emily invited me to go to their Wednesday Night service. To be honest, I did not really want to go, but I figured it couldn’t really hurt. I sat through the youth service and was spacing in and out and as soon as it was over I was ready to go. At this point in my life I had turned my back on religion, I was mad at the world and no one was going to make it better. This is how I felt on the inside: on the outside, I was the same happy go-lucky kid that I always had been.
I was trying to leave and John stopped me. He asked me if everything was okay, and I lied and said yes and thanked him for the service and turned to try to leave. John put his hand on my shoulder and told me thanks for coming and asked if he could give me a hug. As soon as he did, it was like the flood gates opened and I started to cry like a new born. John and I spent the next few hours together, just talking. From that point on John and I spend a lot of time together. He has been a major part of my life, inspirational wise and he is my mentor in life. The greatest thing about John is that he does not judge anyone or try to beat the bible into your head, he just loves people. John has really taught me how to love people better.
Emily has grown to love spending time with John and his wife Mikala, who is a burst of fresh air. Spending a weekend with them really rejuvenates us both and helps us forget all of our troubles for that weekend. So, after months of trying to make it to Branson, we finally all 4 connect on a weekend. We head of for our 5 hour trip.
We did get to eat Cheaders in Springfield, which is one of Emily’s favorite restaurants. We use to eat there quite a bit while we were there.

The weather ended up being cold, rainy and windy all weekend, so it put a stop to our Silver Dollar City Plans. We did manage to make it to see Table Rock Dam, which if you have not know, has been flooding pretty bad. This is the first time in its 68 year existence that all flood gates have been opened, and still, Lake Taneycomo was bursting over the top. I have never seen anything quite like it.

You can click on all the pictures to see a bigger shot.
This is a picture from the Springfield News Leader of an arial shot. You can see the Lake at the rim.

You can see the water splashing over the top of the dam. The floods gates are open so the lake does not flood, and with all of them open, it is still flooding.

This is another arial shot from the Springfield News Leader.

This is a shot that I took.

John and I had to climb down a little ways to get a good shot.

This is the parking lot. Where the trees are, there is a 10 foot drop that leads down to a little river walk.

Here are the stairs that lead down to the walk

This is a little pavilon that is under water


After the dam trip we headed back to the house to relax. It was very nice to sit around with nothing to do. John felt bad that we didn’t do enough stuff, but we loved every minute of it. Emily and I very rarely get chances to sit around and do nothing. In St. Louis there is always something to do that keeps us busy and not spending good quiet time together. We did get back out to see Horton Hears a Who, which, was a very funny movie!
All in all, despite the miserable weather, we had a wonderful weekend. Every time we spend time with the Kings we wish we could do it more often, but alas, such is life.

Can we get a church?

It seems that our life has slowed down just a little bit, but not for long. Emily and I are forging ahead for our wedding on August 29th. (warning religious implications to follow)We are in a little bind to find a church that we can use. The issue is that we are having John King, my youth minister from Camdenton, and one of my greatest inspirational people in my life, officiate our service. John is a Baptist minister, which has shut the door on ½ the churches from the start. I have even called Baptist churches here and they have no interest in letting a person get married in their church with their own minister. I am a pretty religious man: I was a religion minor at one point and during college have worked as a youth minister at 2 different churches, and this is the reason that turns me away from church..not relgion..church. We have a young couple who loves the Lord and wants to get married in a church for the obvious religious implications and because we have our own minister to officiate the service, no church will work with us. Doesn’t seem very Christian to me, but hey, who am I to judge?

Alright, so off the religious talk. Yes, Emily and I are still in St. Louis, and we still have no clue when we are going to leave, if at all. We finally got to a point that we were ready to move ahead and purchase the store in Kansas City and the territory, so we called our investors, who a month and ½ ago were on board, and now they have seemed to get gun shy. So, we are back looking for investors. After 3 months of sitting around waiting, I am moving forward with the assumption that we are staying in St. Louis. On a personal level it is great. With Justin and Meg here and Mom hopefully on her way, and Emily’s family also. But, on a business level, Kansas City looks amazing, but just can’t seem to get everyone on board. My business partner has said that he will find an investor come “Hell or High Water,” but that water is rising awful fast.
Before this McAlister’s deal came about, I was looking into investment property and I once again open that door. Yes, yes, I know, now is not the time to sell. But, now is the time to buy and then rent. Justin has purchased a house that he be flipping and then renting. We will see what pans out for me, but it seems that is the direction I am heading.

Branson

This weekend finds Emily and I heading off to Branson, MO. We are going to strap on our cowboy boots and hats and watch 30 shows this weekend. No..not really. John King, who I mentioned early, is a youth pastor at a church there. We have been talking about going for 8 months, and this is the first weekend all of our schedules jive. I met John 8 or 9 years ago in Camdenton and we have remained in contact. Truly, one of the nicest people I have ever met. Emily and I enjoy the refreshing weekend of just watching him and Mikala together and to see how much they love each other. We really cherish the time we get to spend with the Kings.