Trick Or Treat…Without Me

Jack-O-LanternAs many of you know I am a travel some for work, and whenever there is something I really want to do, I end up being out of town that day.

Well, tomorrow, Halloween, is one of those days.  It is Ace’s first Trick Or Treat and there is a very good chance that I will miss out on it.

I got a call today informing me that I have to be in Baltimore, MD on Halloween day.  I can’t say no…it is my job.  This kind of thing is expected, but still sucks!

However, I am not giving up hope.  From what I’ve been told, this should be an easy job.  My flight gets in to Baltimore at 9:30 AM and I should be in the jobsite around 10:30 or 11:00.  If I work for three hours and get the machine fixed I can catch a flight out at around 4:00 PM and be home around 6:00 PM when Trick-Or-Treat starts.

My fingers are crossed…

Oops…..my bad!

Tonight was Momma’s first evening at work.  I was in charge of dinner and all of the bedtime activities.  Simple enough eh?  I thought so…

Our neighbor watched Ace for about an hour between the time that Momma left for work and I got home from work.   When I got home from work the babysitter went home and I put Ace in the truck.  We drove around town and ran a few errands.  We got back home and Ace did the normal night time stuff…play on the floor, drink a bottle,  get grumpy, and go to bed.

Momma was scheduled to be home a little after 10 o’clock, so I was trying to keep Ace awake so that Momma could see him before he went to bed.   However, that did not happen.  When Ace wants to sleep there is no stopping it… 😀

So, Momma got home and of course asked me how everything went.  I told her everything I did, but there were some thing I guess I didn’t do quite right…  Now remember that I did not see or talk to Momma after I got home.  I had no idea what she expected me to do other than the usual…

  1. Ace was supposed to have some baby food for dinner and a bottle.  I didn’t give him the baby food.  I don’t remember Momma giving him baby food after I get home from work on a normal basis.  I guess my memory is not that good… 😀
  2. Ace was  supposed to have a bath before bed tonight.  Oops…no bath.  Again a bath at night is not a regular thing.  It does happen every now and then, so I thought that Momma usually gives him baths during the day while I am work.  Wrong again…
  3. Ace was supposed to be in his pajamas when he went to bed.  He was wearing a long-john type onesie.  I figured the whole reason for wearing pajamas was to keep him warm.  Long-johns are warm, right? So I just let him sleep in his onesie.  Why wake him up and make him mad to change his clothes?  I’ve slept in my clothes on more than one occasion and I am still hear to talk about it…

Well, about 30 minutes after Momma gets home Ace wakes up.  This is not normal.  Ace usually goes to bed around 10 o’clock and sleeps till the morning.  I go to the kitchen and make a bottle, and Momma goes upstairs to get Ace.

When she comes back down with Ace he has one arm and shoulder protruding through the neck hole of his onesie and he is PO’d!  He looked right at me, and I could read his mind…”Pajamas! Pajamas would have prevented this…dumbass!”

After changing his diaper, putting on some “real” PJs, and a bottle  it is lights out once again…hopefully until morning. 😀

Do Kids Affect The Car You Buy?

I’ve always driven a truck except for the past few years. I bought a Ford Ranger 5 or 6 years ago and my wife bought a Ford Taurus. When I took on this last job we switched vehicles…she drove the Ranger and I drove the Taurus.

I have never liked the Taurus, but drove it because I couldn’t drive the Ranger for work. It was too small. I carry tools and luggage on a regular basis and it just wouldn’t fit.

When we had Ace, we traded in the Ranger on a Ford Explorer. The Ranger was not big enough for all three of us. Plus it is not safe to have a car seat in the front seat. And I stuck with the Taurus.

The Taurus finally started to show it’s age. We bought the car with 13,000 miles and it now has 127,000 miles. It was a great car. I never put the first part on it. Just the routine brake pads, tires, and oil changes. Recently the check engine light came on, it didn’t like to start all of the time, and sometimes would almost die when accelerating hard. So we decided that it i time for me to get a new vehicle.

I hate buying a new vehicle. I hate car salesmen. I hate the whole sales approach thing. How hard is it really? I told them what we were looking for, how many miles it needed to have, how old it could be, what we could pay per month, how much we could put down, and how long the loan term could be. All they needed to do was show us the right vehicle.

Sounds simple, right? Wrong! Our salesman found us the “perfect” truck.  I liked it.  He assured us it met all of our criteria. We took the truck on an overnight test drive and I fell in love with it.  We went back the next day and they couldn’t meet all of my criteria.

Finally after many hours of visiting car lots and negotiating with the dealers we found the perfect truck.

Now that we have Ace, we had to consider a few more things. Will a car seat fit? How would the vehicle do in an accident? Would it be safe?

The biggest challenge for us was finding a truck that would fit a car seat. Trucks with big extended cabs or quad cabs tend to be pricey! However after being very persistent we did find the perfect truck that met all of our criteria…

We are the proud owners of a 2004 Dodge Ram 1500 SLT 4×4…

2004 Doge Ram 1500 SLT 4×4

2004 Doge Ram 1500 SLT 4×4

Happy birthday to me!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Go KartYesterday, 10/26, was my birthday!  I turned a whoppin’ 29 years old!

We went out to dinner with some friends, then to Magic Mountain to ride some go-carts, and then our younger friends were tired and went home.

Momma and I drove down to the local bowling alley, laced up our bowling shoes, and bowled about three games before heading back to Grandma’s to pick up the little man.

We made it all the way to midnight, unlike our younger counterparts who called it a night at about 10PM.

I may be getting older, but that is not going to stop me from having a good time! By the way, since when does bowling make you sore the next day??? 😀

Meme Mania

I’ve been tagged by two different people recently to complete a couple memes.  I was tagged by Tot’s Mom at Toddler Humor.  Here goes…

Post 5 links to 5 of your previously written posts. The posts have to relate to the 5 key words given below.

Link ONE must be about FAMILY : Pick one from the Family Category
Link TWO must be about FRIEND : I don’t have any 🙁  Momma is my best friend.
Link THREE must be about YOURSELF : The Traveling Dad
Link FOUR must be about your LOVE : Where’s Daddy At?
Link FIVE can be ANYTHING YOU LIKE : Super Baby or Super Dad?

The next meme is a bit more involved and I was tagged by Jen at My 3 Boys and I to complete it.  Each list was supposed to contain eight items each.  However I only got about three hours of sleep last night so I am going to stop at three items.  Here goes…

Three Things I Am Passionate About

  1. Momma and Ace – What would I do without them?
  2. Enjoying Life – I believe in work before play, but when the work is done…watch out!
  3. Putting Off Memes – Memes are not the most fun thing I can think of to do with my time, so they usually get put off until I am really bored (like right now) 🙂

Three Things I Want To Do Before I Die

  1. Go Skydiving – This has got to be the most awesome rush a person could get!
  2. Buy A Farm – What’s better than the smell of fresh manure first thing in the morning?
  3. Finish This Meme – Eventually it will happen…

Three Things I Say Often

  1. “What’s up little man?” – Talking to Ace of course…
  2. “What’s wrong little man?” – Again, talking to Ace…
  3. “Blah, Blah, Blah” – Fits every boring situation.  Try it!

Three Things That Attract Me To My Best Friends

  1. Ability To Have Fun and Laugh – Boring friends…what’s the point.  I can bore myself.  I don’t need friends to do that for me. 😀
  2. See #1
  3. See #1

Three Things I Have Learned This Past Year

  1. Babies are not easily breakable – I am extremely surprised at how flexible Ace is and how he can fall smack on his face and not even care.  I think I would tear a few things (including my pants) if I stuck my foot in my mouth.
  2. When your wife is in the delivery room, in labor, and pushing…do not answer you cell phone…even if it is your Dad calling because he is lost and can not find the hospital. 🙂
  3. Blogging is pretty darn cool!

 Three People Who Should Do This Meme

  1. Anyone who thinks George Bush is a good president
  2. Anyone who thinks Britney Spears is a good Mom
  3. Anyone who is as bored as I was before doing this meme

Blah, Blah, Blah. 😀

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