Hello out there!

Nothing huge or exciting is going on right now with the Tyler Household, but I just wanted to write and let you all know that we have not forgotten everyone. ha.

The pool has been cracked open, after a long week of battling to get the vaccum to work and get the water clear and ready to swim. Then the heater crapped out, but with the solar cover it keeps the water around 75 degrees, so with the sun out, it is very swimable. The heater should be fixed next week to make the water perfect. 

I will admit, there were a few times that curse words flew out of my mouth and I regreted buying a house with a pool, but once I got it open and was able to float around, it was worth all the heartache! I am looking forward to Sunday to be able to float and spend all day in the pool with my lovely wife!

This weekend the Tylers are heading off to Kansas City for the Musick's reception: There were married back in February. It is always nice to spend time with Brandon and Cassie, they are a great people and some of our best friends. 

• Last night, playing softball I badly bruised my heal, which has made walking an extremely tedious task, so I spend most of my day sitting on the couch. 

• Emily will be done with school June 2nd, and then June 4th she will start teaching summer school for 3 weeks. Then by July she should be able to relax and do nothing: at least until she looses her mind from boredom. She says her kids are crazy as the school year winds down. 

• I am still rolling with Fill N Thrill, and really enjoying it. It is such a cool advertising product and who doesn't love working from home!? We are moving very fast to get them up around St. Louis. 
  

• We still have Planet Cash, but things actually seem to moving forward...finally. We are just waiting on the counter offer from the other lawyer. Hopefully have things wrapped up within the next month. 
  

• Winston is still 8 lbs over weight, and really not seeming to loose any. He is content just being King Fattie of the Tyler house. He spends most nights staring out the window barking at the neighbor kids playing street hockey. He is awful tough let me tell you. And yes, Truman has managed to survive a whole year

• Emily and I are very excited to be an Aunt and Uncle again! We have been spending a lot of time with Norah. We pick her up every Tuesday around 4:00 and have her for the evening, really enjoyed it. No kids for us yet, I know everyone keeps wondering. 

So, those are the quick updates for the Tylers. Hope all is well with everyone else. Keep on keeping on!!

updating continues

Over the past month, the Tyler pad has gotten some major upgrading! The previous owners loved country blue and plants. We, hate country blue and plants are nice, but way too much maintence and if you know us, we are maintence free types of people! We, mainly Emily, has spend much of the past year pulling out over grown plants and bushes that they just let ride, she has worked very hard in the yard to get it up to speed.

The siding is a bluish grey color, but with the old blue shudders, and black front door, it made the house look very blue. We didn't want to replace all the sidding now (we are in a recession), so we decided to try to change the shudders to black, and paint the front door and mailbox black to give the house more of a grey look. And, as great of bargin shoppers Em and I are, we found custom shudders at Home Depot that someone had ordered, and never picked up, so they were marked down 75% and they just happen to be the size we needed!

We tore up the plants, (and by we I mean hired it out) and mulch, had to rebuild the wall since it was falling over, planeted new bushes and threw down rock. We are very happy with the result. 

Here is a before picture of the house. It is hard to see the blue with the big tree that was full of ants and bees right in front of our house. 

 After:

Here are some pictures during the landscaping construction:

keep on keeping on!

The Windy City

This is a little late, but figure I would still write about it any way since I had such a good time!

Once again, all pictures can be clicked on for a biggie size

Easter Weekend Emily and I went to Chicago to visit Andy, her brother. It was my first time in Chicago, so I was pretty excited about it. I always enjoy spending time with Andy, we are a lot alike and only a year apart, but when he comes in town, it is tough to hang out too much. So, I was excited to spend some time with my brother-in-law and see the Windy City.

Our flight was scheduled for 7:00 on Thursday, so we get dropped off at 5:15 and eat dinner at the airport and head to our terminal only to find out we have a 2 hour delay. Our plane was coming from Oklahoma City and there was 55 mph wind there, so it was not able to take off.  Me and Airports have not gotten along recently.

Now, I want to back this story up to Thursday afternoon before we got picked up.  I was packing up my lap top to bring along, since every time I fly I always get delayed and always kick myself for not having something to do. So, I asked Emily to pick out a few movies so we can pass the time if we get delayed. Emily convinced me that it was only a 50 minute flight, we won’t get delayed: yadda, yadda, yadda. So, I listen to my wife and head off to the airport.

So, back to the story. We have a 2 hour delay, sitting in the uncomfortable airport chairs, only crappy cartoons are on the only TV in our waiting area and Emily says, man I wish we had brought the laptop. Not only that, there are a line of power strips to plug a laptop into plus a wireless station 20 feet away. The airport was saying, “Ha…should have brought your laptop, look how easy it would have been to watch a movie or surf the internet for 2 hours.”

Once we knew our plane had left OK City, we headed off to the bar for a few drinks with our new friend we had made: Brandon. He was also flying to Chicago. We started talking about football, as I tend to do, and I told him that I love the 49ers. Brandon says: “well, you’re going to shit: my buddy who is picking me up is the nephew of the owner of the 49ers!” I peed my pants right there!

Southwest was very cool about the delay, and even gave us free drinks on the 50 minute flight. So, Emily, Brandon and I made sure we got our free money’s worth of drinks!

I really enjoyed Chicago, although it was much colder than I had anticipated, I had to buy a long sleeve shirt on Michigan Avenue, which was a very cool street.

Me, freezing my butt off on Michigan Ave

 

We took this picture for Pat!

Andy lives in Lincoln Park, and there is something to be said to be able to walk to everything you want, and only 100 yards from the L (train system). Granted, you have no yard, and rent is through the roof, but I did enjoy it. It was a very young, trendy area, nothing like St. Charles. 

Friday night we went to Second City,which was the absolute highlight of the trip! If you ever get the chance, go to the main stage. One of the funniest shows I have ever seen. These are the guys who are steps way from making it. Some big names came through there.  John Candy, Dan Aykroyd, Eugene Levy, Steve Carell,  John Belushi, Chris Farley, Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, just to name a few. One of the actors, Joe Canale, the waitress informed us that that was his last show and probably heading to SNL. Lots of fun there!

Saturday we lounged around a bit: had breakfast at the best bagel place I have ever had and then went back downtown. We went up in the Trump Tower, which was the nicest hotel I have ever been in. Granted, I tend to stay in middle of the line hotels, but this was amazing! We went up to the 16^th floor which was all a bar, just to have a drink, which was $20 for 2 for beers; but hey, memories kids, memories!

1 of 2 "wall-o-wine"

Trump Tower from a distance

Emily in front of the Trump Tower

Me, drinking my $9 beer and not fiting in. 

One of my favorite things about the trip was the food. Emily and I through our healthy living out the door. Probably the best weekend of food I have had in a very long time. The bagel place, Friday we ate at a Tappa's restaurant, which was just awesome. Saturday we ate lunch at a great soup place, where you could sample all the soup before you bought it, and then of course we had a Chicago hot dog! I gained 5 lbs over the weekend! True story. 

At Dinner with my lovely Wife!

Our flight Sunday was at 3:15, so at 1:30 we packed up and headed towards the airport. At 2:30 we were only ½ way there due to traffic, which was absolutely horrible, just horrible,  and Andy makes the realization that he is taking us to the wrong airport, and Midway, the correct airport is in the complete opposite direction, which just about made Emily pass out. So, we turn around, and sit in traffic some more. We make it to correct airport at 3:07, and started running. Luckily Southwest you can check in with your phone, so we printed off our boarding pass, checked our bags and ran. People at the airport were real cool, they saw us running and let us go in front and moved out of our way, Thanks! Run through security, Emily takes off holding her shoes and makes it to the gate at 3:16, and yells for me to run faster. I make it onto the plane and the door shuts. The last two times I have flown home I had to all out sprint through the airport to make the flight. Of course, our luggage didn’t make it, which we couldn’t expect it to.  Who says you have to be at the airport an hour early! 

Next trip: Dallas, Texas in May. 

In the mean time: Keep on Keeping on!! Mrr

18 doors & 4 gallons of paint=crappy Spring Break

During Emily’s Christmas break we decided to paint all the trim and doors white on the main level. There were only 6 doors, so it was pretty easy. At the same time I swapped out the outlets to white and changed the door knobs to brushed nickel. The thought at that point was to tackle a room at a time for the upstairs since each room has 2 closet doors and an entry door: Our Master Bedroom alone has 7 doors. For each room we would have to move furniture around to be able to paint the trim, then that room would be out of commission for a day while it dries. So a room a week was the pace we had decided so we didn’t over whelm ourselves again.

Emily’s Spring break started and our pace of one room a week never even made it past taping one room. So, Emily decided to tackle this whole project in one week. Normally, I would have been around to help during the day, but the past few weeks have been real busy, which is good for me, bad for Emily. We have an appointment setter now, so I have 2-4 appointments every day and on top of that Herman has been out on personal leave for 2 weeks and we are still not sure when he will be coming back. We are switching software at Planet Cash and Justin is trying to close out 2008, so every spare minute he has is spent on that, and with no day off, Justin has been a little ball of stress lately. I have been trying to spell Justin off as much as I can to give him time with his family or to work on the books for 2008. Everything just seems to be hitting at the same moment. So, I have been driving around quite a bit. Arnie and I have been spending quite a lot of time together. He knows he is getting ready to be replaced, so he has been on his best behavior.

Any who: I digress. I decided that since we were going to replace the door knobs, we should replace the hinges, and if we were going to replace the hinges, I will just take ever door down and bring it to the garage: should have kept that thought to myself. Emily spent her spring break taping all the rooms and painting both sides of 14 out of the 18 doors with double coats. I spend Saturday and Sunday changing out the outlets, hinges and door knobs. We are finished, Emily did 80% of the work, which I feel bad that I was not able to be around, but hey, someone has to pay the bills. ;-) She worked her butt off on all those doors and I greatly appreciate all she did. I was real proud of her; she learned out to use a cordless drill, and now wants a pink one.

The previous owners loved country blue and pink and it has been a long fought battle to rid the house of those colors; but we are winning. We do still have some pink blinds, which are hideous, that we hope to trash soon. For now we are done working on the inside of the house, we are moving to the outside, working on the yard and landscaping: you know, all the manual labor stuff that I love so much!

Keep on keeping on....mrrrrrrr

Noodle goes to Puerto Vallarta

Hello all, this is Noodle. I recently took my first international trip to Puerto Vallarta for Brandon & Cassie's wedding. JET will post more wedding pictures later this week, but for now, here is my trip.

I was excited about seeing Bear, we had not hung out since New Year's. Bear, as most of you remember, saved my life in Arkansas. JET and EM forgot me in Arkansas and Bear and Amy brought me back home. I lived with them for a few months and Bear taught me to golf, and found me a wife...Chick. So, the Chick and Noodle team was formed.

This was the frist time away from Chick for a long long time, but I was ready. Chick was supposed to go to Springfield, MO for the girls weekend, but once again, she was left behind (I don't think that EM likes Chick, she is jealous of her hair).

All the pictures can be clicked on to see a larger me!

Here I am packing my bags.

All buckled in and ready for the trip.

I ran ahead to ring the door bell while JET grabbed the bags

This is Bear's seeing me through the peep hole

HI BEAR!!

He was so excited to see me!

Trying to get some sleep for our 5:00 am flight




Can't really read the clock, but it is 3:15 am

Eating some breakfast in Atlanta.

JET and I in the Puerto Vallarta airport



Here I am getting ready to shower up for the night

Asking for a towel

I had a little too much to drink, I threw up off the balcony

Back in the room, throwing up some more

Bear and I spooning, not sure how this happened

JET & I on the beach

Me & Ol Boy just chilling

JET & I again

Me with Brandon's Family. There are very nice people

Mackenzie, JET & I waiting for our cab to the airport

Have to stop and smell the flowers

I had a wonderful trip and can not wait to go to Riveria Maya with JET & EM this summer! Hopefully Chick can come with me.

New things for the Tyler Household

Maybe it was growing up poor that made me thrifty, or cheap; which ever you like to call me. I like thrifty. I have always enjoyed a good second hand product, be it furniture, clothes or a car.

I love searching craigslist for a good deal. Most of it is crap, but you never know when the rich folks want to up grade! And when they do, I am there for them!

Any who: I digress from the main point of the blog. Emily and I have been looking for a new kitchen table. Mom gave us her old one, and it is nice, but it only has 3 chairs and it is not really our style, but it has served us very well the past few years. We have been saving and were looking to spend around $700-$800 for a decent table. I could not find a table we liked on craigslist for months.

Last week, Renee, a friend of ours, called Emily and told her that she has a dinning room set that she thinks we would like. If you don't know, we have a dinning room that just sits empty. The pets have taken over the dinning room since that is where the sun shines the most and it is the only room on the main level with carpet. Emily and I decided a few months ago that we will forgo the dinning room set and just get a nice kitchen table that has a leaf so we can fit 6 people. But, we figured what the hell, let's go look at the dinning room set, for the right price we could be persuaded.

We show up and it is perfect, it is the color that we like, the right size everything. It came with a buffet table and hutch, plus 6 chairs and 2 leafs. We asked her the price and it was the same price we wanted to pay for a new kitchen table. Call me thrifty, but we loaded the whole set up and proudly whooooed and ahhhheed over it for 20 minutes.

So, now we can have more than 1 person over and all sit at a table. We had Mom, Justin, Meg & Norah over Tuesday for our first "official" dinner at the new table. We were quite happy. And we now have some where to put my Great Grandmother's china besides the basement.

The other thing that I have been really been wanting were bar stools, but have not been able to convince myself to spend $70-$100 a piece for decent stools. Current we have been using the bar stools that Justin gave us that go with the pub table. There are only 3. So, I have a huge bar and only 3 stools. I have been looking on craigslist for months and if I do find nice stools, there are only 2 of them and I need 5 or 6. I was starting to get discouraged and almost bought stools on sale for $60 and Emily talked me out of it. Then Friday I hit the jack pot. 6 stools for sale in St. Charles all very nice and only $25 a piece. So, as fast as I could I emailed and got her address and headed over.

So, now I have room for 6 at the 2x4 and 3 at the pub table. All I need is a touch screen game and a TV and we are in business!

And, we finally got a new pool cover. If you never saw the old one, it was horrible. It was just a large blue tarp. Picture a motel where the pool has not been opened since the 80's. I spent more time messing with the pool cover than I did cleaning the pool in the summer. Every time it rained, or the snow or ice melted, I had to go out and try to get the water off the cover, which was a huge pain. The cover was held on by water bags, well some of them froze and busted, so in the interim I put a statue of the Virgin Mary that the previous owners so graciously left us, to hold the cover. Well, the water froze and the wind blew ol Mary into the pool and it shattered. It was nice and tacky. I felt like cousin Eddie from Christmas Vacation.

The cover is a safety cover, which means you can not fall through, which is good for Winston and Norah and when we have kids. So, March has been quite the expensive month for the Tyler house hold. It makes me sick to spend a lot of money, but if I am going to do it, might as well just get it over with.

Keep on keeping on...mrrrrrrrrrr

Valentine's Day with an enemy.

Valentine’s Day: the one day of the year that we have to cram 364 of screwing up into one big flower bouquet or a box of candy. I have always tried to do something different each year, flowers and candy just doesn’t cut it for me, I try to be creative and mix things up, and this year was no different.

Em & I decided to not spend much at all for Valentine’s Day since we had plans to surprise Mom at the Lake (I will get into that in a little bit). So, I had to think of something that did not cost much money and she would love.

Friday afternoon I bought 65 balloons and one very large Valentine’s Day Balloon that I would fill her car with while she was at school. I planned a head and called the school to let them know that I would be in the parking lot for an hour blowing up balloons and please don’t call the cops on me. I was not sure how seeing a man sitting in the car in the parking of an elementary school would look, but I did not want to ruin Emily’s Valentine’s Day surprise by going to jail. It took me about an hour, and 3 almost pass outs, to blow up all the balloons.
It worked perfect for me. Emily went all day seeing other teachers getting flowers and she had, for the first time in 6 years, not gotten flowers from me on Valentine’s Day, needless to say, she was a little bummed. Here are the balloons back at home.

All the pictures in this blog can be clicked on to see a bigger size



Saturday morning, bright and early, we headed down to the Lake to surprise Momma T for her Valentine’s Day. We stopped and got a balloon and a rose and placed it on her first door step and knocked on the door. When she opened the door she saw the balloons and Winston came running in. Seeing Mom’s surprised look was worth getting up so early!

We spent the day shopping, seeing Grandpa (who is doing amazing. It was the first time in 4 months that I have seen him without tubes and out of the hospital), and an old enemy. Emily wanted to see our old Lake house where I lived when Dad passed away. Cindy, Dad’s 2nd wife, still lives there with her new husband, so I knew there was a chance that Cindy would be home, but we forged ahead. For those who do not know, Cindy and I have not spoken in 11 years. We never got along while Dad was alive and certain things happened after Dad’s passing that will forever leave a small scar for Justin and me.

When we pulled up we see Cindy outside with her dogs, and I knew at that point that we have crossed the point of no return: we had to say hello to the woman that I had grown to despise. I walked down the hill towards her and she immediately says: “Josh? Is that you? “At this point there are so many different things running through my mind. All the bad things that I have said, and written about Cindy ,the many fights that we had and the long battle for Dad’s attention. Cindy at this point has two options: kindly ask us to leave, or be as nice as possible, and as I was slowly walking down that hill, I expecting her to be curt with us and ask us to leave.

I introduce her to Emily and the conversation begins. Mom, Cindy, Emily and I chatted for about an hour about Dad, family, what we are doing, and no mention of bad times were brought up. Now, part of me believes that that Cindy was very nice because Emily was there, but, no matter, she was very nice and I hate to admit it, but I enjoyed the conversation and am glad that we stopped. I feel a certain closure now. I know that Dad was watching on pins and needles as well. Sipping his Hamm’s beer and just waiting for the fireworks to happen. We went inside and I was able to show Emily around and tell her some stories about the house. We went through old pictures and Cindy gave us any pictures that we wanted, so questions asked. She even gave us one of Dad’s old Ion Electric hats, which was Dad’s electrical company.

I left the old house with mixed feelings. Here is a woman that I have worked so hard to despise, but was a large part of my life for 13 years, and that is hard to ignore. I am not saying that next time I am at the Lake I will swing by and say hello, but that day, Cindy could have been a huge bitch like I remembered her, but instead she was as nice as good be, and I am glad to have a little bit better memory of the woman that my Dad was married to. Here are 2 of my favorite pictures that I now have.

This is one of the last pictures we have of Dad. This is him working on the MASSIVE all marble shower at the Lake House. That is Cale, our Scottie at the time: Winston is the 4th Scottie in the Tyler family.

Yes, Dad thinks he looks good here. Style was not one of Dad's strength: At least he smiles big!

Justin, Dad and myself. I am around 10 there. It is a great shot of the 3 of us!

That night we surprised Mom again, with dinner at J’ Bruner’s. Which, if are from the Lake, you know precisely what I am talking about; if not, you probably just think it is just another fine dining restaurant. They have the best steak and lobster that I have ever had: hands down! Granted, you pay the price for it, but it was worth it. We always start the night off with the best onion rings in Missouri. Mom always gets the deep fried Lobster, and I used to get that until my stomach decided that it does not want to put up with me anymore, so I have opted for the boiled lobster, which is still good.

It was a great Valentine’s Day; probably one the best that I have ever had. Emily and I had a great day with Momma T and a great dinner: couldn't’t ask for much more than that! Later this week I will post pictures of Emily and I’s Valentine’s Gift to ourselves (we have to wait for the rest of the family to see it; it’s a surprise)!
Keep on Keeping on…..mrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr