CRAZINESS

After weeks of looking for a new house, Emily and I found a house that we BOTH love. Both is what makes house hunting so hard, we would find things that I love, but didn't have something that Emily loved. It will be 4 1/2 miles from Justin and Meg's new place, so we will be closer, which was very important to us. They bought a house closer to us before we did, so we wanted to make sure to stay in the same area. The entertaining aspect was the biggest thing we wanted: open floor plan, finished basement, and an in-ground pool, so I am hoping that Noodle can finally come home. As soon as we bought it, they pulled all the pictures down, so this is the only picture I can get, more will follow.

Here is where the craziness in St. Charles starts: We close on our house August 7th, (a 23 day close) I leave for my bachelor party August 8th, and so that weekend Emily will paint the house. The 11th, she starts meetings at school, so I will handle the movers. The 14th we leave for Branson for our pre-martial counseling session with John King. The 18th, Justin and Meg move (granted I have the easy job of babysitting Norah all day)! And then we get married the 29th. All while I am looking for my 2nd investment property and Justin is finishing up his 1st and already purchased his second house: oh yeah, we still have a business to run. Come August 29th, I will need a rather large drink!
I tend to handle the stress rather well: I actually tend to work better when I have 10 things going at once, and Emily does good as well, except when a kink happens, like trying to sell our house. We have done as much as possible to plan ahead, so that when crunch time happens, we are ready for it. Most of the wedding has been planned for months, preparing for a quick move, which takes a lot of stress off Emily. The thing that keeps us rolling is that in 2 weeks, my fat ass will be floating in our new pool!

Noodle welcomes Bear home after a long flight

Noodle flew down to Dallas to visit some family and Bear had to pick him up at the airport. Noodle is awful tired here.

Noodle Golfs

Bear & the Noodle

When we down to the Lake of the Ozarks, I picked up an over priced Noodle at a gas station with the intention of floating around. We ended up never really getting in the water and just floating on the Styrofoam for hours. Me, being the cheap ass that I am, brought the $5 Noodle back home with me for future use. When we loaded up for Arkansas Noodle was the first thing that was packed.
Noodle really served us well in Arkansas. He made a lot of friends through out the 3 day weekend. Here he is being a beer bong for everyone: he really enjoyed doing that.

Emily and I left early Sunday morning, hours before anyone else woke and in the mix of things, Noodle was left to fend for himself and find his way back to Missouri. Noodle asked Bear for a ride home and much to his delight, Bear took him back to Missouri.

Bear, being the concerned person that he is, has decided to take Noodle under his wing: teach him some things about life. Noodle has expressed interest in riding a bike and traveling more.

Here is Bear teaching Noodle how to gas up a car.


More Noodle adventures will follow

A country boy can survive

A country boy can survive.
For the 4th year in a row we headed down to Arkansas for the 4th of July. A good friend has a large cabin right on the water and their parents spend a ton of money on food and fireworks, and along with some cold adult beverages, it makes for one hell of a weekend!
A weekend that involves Emily, floating on the water, no cell phones, no e-mail and a bunch of great friends is my type of weekend. I could float on a raft on the water every day and die a happy man. I started looking forwarded to this 4th of July weekend July 5th, 2007.
A few months ago Bear started the planning process of finding us a place to stay. After many phone calls and e-mails, we found a place that was right across the water and a good price, and had 10-12 rooms available for all of us. As you can see from the map, just a quick shot over the bridge and we are there.

5-8 minute drive, even quicker if the boat drops us off. We are proud of our selves for getting this rolling and call all our friends and have them book rooms. Then the flooding started.
We found out 2 weeks before, and after the rooms have been paid for, that the bridge that we needed to take to get to the cabin was flooded and there is no way to get a boat to the cabin since the water is too high, it wouldn’t fit under the one bridge that remained open. So, as you can see from this map, we had to take about a 45 minute detour.

So, needless to say, we only made it over to the cabin once.
Emily and I packed up Thursday and left in her new car and made the 5 hour drive down. When we pack for a weekend like this, we only bring things down that we know might not make the trip back: $5 sunglasses from Wal-Greens, cheap folding chairs, old shoes, shirts that need to be donated anyway. And I am proud to say, everything except for the noodle, made the trip home, minus a few thousand brain cells.
Thursday night we made our way into Eureka Springs night life, which I hate to call a life, but we still made our own fun. The beauty of Eureka Springs is the variety. You can find the biggest dive bars with $1 bills all over the ceiling and it only takes cash, and walk 2 minutes to a nice martini bar, granted not my cup of tea, but none-the-less, diversity in Eureka Springs.
Friday and Saturday we spend all day on the boat. We didn’t even drive around, we found a nice cove, dropped the anchor, grab a life jacket and proceeded to float and drink. A funny thing happens once you get a few beers in, everyone just begins to pee themselves, and it stops being discreet. Early in the day they might float away, but as the sun beats down and the beer flows like wine, people just let it ride. And once you step back and think about floating in your friends pee for 2 straight days, it sounds pretty gross, but at the time, it’s just what you did.
Bear and I ventured off on the SS Minnow, which was a super cheap raft, for about an hour to a water fall that we noticed off in the distance. Because of the high water, a nice water fall was created back in a cove and it looked like just adventure we needed after 3 hours in the sun. We made the trip and sat on the water fall, awful proud of ourselves after the 30 minute swim. After 20 minutes we were rudely informed by someone that he owns this waterfall and we are not allowed to be on it. So, Bear and I pack up the SS Minnow and paddle, up stream, back to the boat with hopes that they didn't leave us.
Saturday Night finds us back in Eureka Springs for another eventful evening filled with hippies and transvestits.
I will have to say that Emily is quite the trooper! I have some country left in me and love weekends like these. I love the outdoors, camping, fishing, all that stuff. Emily on the other hand loves the city, her AC, nice comfy bed, etc. So, when she was ready to head home Saturday night, she ponied up and stayed one more night: granted the 8:00 wake up call was no good, but we made it. So, a big thank you to Emily for putting up with us all weekend and relaxing and having a good time!
Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Emily and I with our very dear friends Bear and Amy

Emily and I on the boat

Bear and Emily after a long day in the sun

Me driving the boat

Floating in the water: What we do best!