Counted Votes

Well...after all the corruption of the vote count, the Shepherds Pie is done and dusted. We hope that everyone enjoyed it and with Rosie being away for nearly two months we will have to make do with Lasagna, Beef Stroganoff, and Parmesian Chicken. I'm sure that some time soon we will find something to tag Todd and Christina with as well. Maybe Suicide Wings or Grilled Hamburgers. Come to think of it Kristin and the Skinners haven't made dinner in a while as well. Of course, I suppose we should keep in mind that they haven't partaken in a while, but that doesn't always matter anyway.
The hit of the show tonight had to be lil Mayberry with the fairy wings and Brielle with her baby in Everett's car seat. Did anyone get any pictures? We thought of it after everyone had gone.
It was nice to have Faith with us as well.
I think Rosie is missing Mom and her dish washing ways... :0

John's Malaysia Trip

John recently went on a trip to Malaysia as he usually does about once a year for work. He loves to travel and this trip was shorter than most. He is usually gone for 2 weeks and this trip was only one week. We're not sure if it was the short trip or the fact that he is now forty that has been so rough but he had an abnormally difficult time with jst lag this time.

It made him pretty productive for about a week becuase he would wake up at 2am ready to go. By 7pm he was crashing. During that week a lot got done on his game though.

The trip consisted mostly of training new people to his group but the reason he really loves going to Malaysia is because they have the best food in the world. He didn't take many pictures (no camera), but others took some and one was at an outdoor seafood restaurant that one of his suppliers like to take him and his group to while he is there. Its called Bali Hai and they have about 50 big aquariums of fresh fish lined up along the wall to choose from. The restaurant is right on the water. It's so close in fact that when the tsunami hit the south of Asia a few years ago the restaurant got flooded. Here's a picture of him and some people from his work group.

The island they visited is pretty small considering Intel and a bunch of other tech companies all ahve plants there. Here is a picture of the east coast of the island which is the more developed side of the island.

Here are more pictures of him in the office after a day of training.

The only drawback to the travel is that Intel no longer pays for business class and he has to travel coach, but at least he gets to fly on Singapore Air which, in his opinion, is the best airline bar none. Any other airline is a distant 2nd and all of the domestic airlines are way down toward the bottom of his list.

Buddy's Big Day!

Last Saturday we took Buddy to the Groomer's for a good ol' fashioned haircut. He was badly in need of one since all we've really been doing is trying to keep him washed and he hated being brushed. He had all kinds of tangles and we were starting to think he was going to become our Rastafarian Dog soon. When we got there the groomer gave us a pretty good chastising for the way he looked. They said he was really good about the whole event and he looked great afterward. The only thing was he didn't look like buddy. He looked like a Dalmation which is funny because when Kendra and Jay had him Kendra thought he looked like he was half dalmation and we didn't understand why, but now we do because you can really see how spotty he is with the short hair.

This is a picture of Rosie & Buddy outside of the store after the haircut.

We love that dog more than ever now and he has even taken a little bit more to being brushed. Now just to keep him looking good.

He has also taken over the "love sack" in our family room which actually shows a decent picture of him prior to the haircut.

Rosie's Birthday Celebration

In my last post I said that I would have a future post with what my plans were for Rosie's birthday. They didn't exactly happen according to plan, but Rosie seemed very surprised nonetheless.
First off my plan was to get home early from work and take her to Olive Garden for dinner. She loves Italian food and I guess I have to admit that she told me shortly after returning from Malaysia that they had the AYCE pasta bowls back again and that may have had something to do with the decision to go there. None of this first part worked out. I didn't leave the office until 6pm anyway and then when I got home Rosie said that Laura had taken her out to Italian for lunch. 0/2 so far. So as she was telling me the story of what had transpired for lunch she mentioned that she had seen an "English Pub" near the place they ate.
The 3rd part of the "Birthday Plan" was to go to Coach to buy her a bag. People that know Rosie know that she loves her bags and really loves the Coach bags. Crazy about them! I can not overstate this fact. So with the restaurant idea aside now we headed to Coach at the San Tan Village to make sure we at least made it there in time to get her birthday gift.
She still didn't know we were headed there until we got out of the car and started walking in that direction. As I opened the door for her to the store, she looked at me and whispered, "Are you sure you want to do this?" It was then that I stopped breathing. Anyone that knows me knows that I'm as cheap as Dad. Pennies have nothing on us when it comes to squeezing the copper out of them. Or is it zinc? Anyway, cheap, that's me.
Rosie makes a beeline for where she thinks her bag of choice will be and then finds out from a store associate (or whatever they call them there) that they don't have her bag there.
I must fill in here that I had taken her there with a bag in mind. I almost bought her a bag in Singapore on my way home from Penang, but thought better of it. As it turns out she liked the bag that I almost bought,but the cheap in me came out and I figured it would be cheaper in AZ. And I was right.
I found the bag that I had in mind and Rosie liked it, only it was the leather version of what I had picked. Rosie put it on her shoulder and pranced around a bit to see how it looked on her or maybe how she looked with it, I'm not sure which. Then she went and looked around the rest of the store.
Now here is where it gets interesting. She started looking at key chains & little trinkets that apparently you can put on the bags or something. A key chain seemed to catch her eye that when you buy it they give 20% towards finding a cure for Breast Cancer. For some reason I couldn't understand, she said, "What if I just get this?" :0
She left the store with no bag!!! No BAG! You see we are planning for her to go back home to spend time with her mom who is recovering from surgery and she said that she wants to save the money so she will have money to spend on family while in England.
I've always known the kindness of her golden heart. It was one of the first things Aiden told me about her many attributes when we first met and started dating, but to see this put her into a whole new realm of thoughtfulness (have I stated how much she loves Coach bags?).
We left the store and I started to breath again and the color returned to my face. I was so surprised and impressed with Rosie.
We then went to the "English Pub" that Rosie had talked about and she had her Bangers & Mash (you can ask her about that) and I had a Cornish Pasty. They weren't as good as England but all in all it seemed to satisfy Rosie's desire for Bangers.
We returned home with gift and leftovers in hand. I will post a picture of Rosie with her birthday gifts later (she received other gifts from Friends and Family).

I was a happy 0/3 with my plans for her birthday but I don't think I could have been happier with how things turned out and Rosie seemed happy though the rest of the night she kept saying, "I left Coach without a bag?! I'm a muppet!" I have to admit after we got back in the car, leaving the Coach store, I checked her temperature.

Rosie, I love you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART!!!

Today is Rosie's Birthday! She turned 21 and is as beautiful as ever. I have plans for her this evening (that will be for a future blog). She said she was going to blog about what she wants for her birthday so I will leave all that for her to write. The picture is from my iPhone on our 5th anniversary in May so the quality isn't this best, but I wanted to post something since I was out of the country for a week and haven't posted anything for quite some time and needed to post something about her birthday. I LOVE YOU BABE!

Family Dinner @ Ours

Tonight we had the weekly family dinner at our house that we usually share at Mom's. We had planned on cooking, but plans changed when all of mom's house got upended and there really wouldn't have been enough room for everyone that showed up. Originally we were going to cook Pork brisket and potatoes, but the Rowley's guilted us into making Rosie's famous Shepherd's Pie (sorry Skinners, but as always you are always invited but never show up because you're out of town :) ). We also had the O'Hare family over for dinner this week which to us seemed a special treat. We always like having people over for dinner and games. John especially liked it because he suckered volunteers (Jay, Hollie, and Todd) into playing his game. Sorry Christina and Bret for taking your spouses away so much, but there help is greatly appreciated and so is your patience! Rosie is a great wife and very patient and supportive of John's "craziness". It was a fun night and buddy definitely enjoyed the kids being over to play tag with. Congratulations to Tyla for figuring out atricky way to get Buddy to come near enough to tag.We look forward to many more family dinners in the future and maybe we'll even remember to take a picture or two. Maybe even get a digital camera in the near future.

Happiness in Life

Yesterday we went to Mom's house to help tear out old carpet and move stuff for the installation of the new carpet. The argument could be made that John only went to play his game with his relatives.
While we were there we had a funny experience with Aiden, Hollies oldest boy. He had lost his "puppy" (a little stuffed dog he apparently got in a happy meal) and was looking for it behind a pile of Mom's Chaos. He got in a bit of trouble when he got caught by his uncles on top of the chaos. He was greatly disheartened with the argument that we would find it later. His argument in reply was, "But that is the only thing that makes me happy!"
His Uncle John had to laugh, but Auntie Rosie felt his pain with her own empathetic and somewhat cheeky reply that Dr. Pepper makes her happy.