Piper Olivia Miley is Here!

Piper was born on 2/2/2010.  She was 7lbs & 7oz, 20.5 inches long. 

Here are some pictures…

Top camara-phone pictures from over the past several weeks…

This will be a pretty weak post, but I have to slowly get back into the swing of things…

Here are the top camara-phone pictures from December & January…

 

The view from my new office…

Ava being silly in December

silly still

Mina made me a giant peanut butter cookie for my birthday in December

Giant peanut butter cookie!

Ava and Thomas in Chattanooga in December

Thomas & Ava in Chattanooga

Thomas & Ava in Chattanooga

Thomas started Upward basketball this year

Thomas at Upward basketball

Thomas at Upward basketball

a few weeks ago, our media guy at church drove up with his car on fire!

Media guy’s car on fire!

Media guy’s car fire!

Media guy’s car fire aftermath…

New Updates Coming Soon!…

I am going to try to start blogging again real soon. I think that the birth of Piper will help to motivate me to start again.
In the meantime, here is a picture of Mina, Thomas, & Ava in October that I just pulled off of my computer background…

Ok, the resolution looks terrible.  My computer got a virus on it last week.  I do not have Photoshop to change the resolution, but will try to get that up and going soon so that the pictures can be seen better.

Interesting…

Catching Up with Some Pics…

Check out some pictures that I took of Thomas and Ava on Thursday…

I took them to the Battlefield Park less than a mile from the house.

Making Progress…

Check out the progress on the built-ins…

Circus Fun…

We went to the 67th Annual YAARAB Shrine Circus Carnival tonight. 

It is amazing how many different ways that they nickle and dime you…still, it was fun.

Thomas and Ava wanted to do a little fishing to win some prizes…

It cost us $6 for them to win a really cheap Ninja Sword and a really cheap Barbie Phone.  (but how could we resist their proud faces when they caught the fish)

The circus part was really amazing.  One guy juggled fire while walking around a spinning ‘death wheel’.  He was really high in the air.  They also had highwire acts and motorcycle stunts…

Play, Work, & Bargains!

On Saturday, Mina pulled out a really crazy looking octopus water sprinkler…

The kids had a good time with it…for about 3 minutes.  The legs of the octopus were really good at shooting water right into their eyes at about about thirty miles per hour…we are excited about using him to water our grass, if we can ever get any.

After the three minutes of play, they wanted to wash stuff like their red car and the cooler…believe it or not.

 

While they cleaned their car, I continued to work on the built-ins…

In the midst of building and installing the built-ins, I have also run new wiring to replace the old 1940’s ungrounded wiring.  I have added things like a wired smoke detector, canned lights over the built-ins, and spot lights on the painting that will be over the fireplace.

While running the wires for these changes, I also ran wire for lighting the crawl space and the attic.  I went to the Home Depot to buy some flourescent lights to install in the attic.  I found a crazy deal on some…a penny each!  I am talking about the actual housing that holds the lights.  Normally they are $40 each.  They had them marked down to $5.50 each.  At the register, the guy told me that he was going to give it to me for a penny each!  I paid a total of $0.04 four my attic lights!…

 

Work & Play…

We took the kids bowling today.  Yesterday, Ava asked specifically to go bowling and eat pizza at the bowling place.  We had a coupon, so we went…

They rolled the ball so slowly that they had to wait for the ball to reach the end a few times.   They just chilled…

I failed to post earlier that last weekend, Thomas took the initiative to climb a rock climbing wall.  We were at a community club house play ground for Mina’s sister’s baby’s birthday party.  (check out her blog here)  Thomas was pretty good at it…

That’s Mina’s brother, Taylor, watching Thomas.  (Check out his blog here)

I have also been working on the built-ins…

Restaurant Review…

Today, I had to take Mina’s van in to get new front brakes.  The service station said that it would take two hours.  Needing to get a great amount of work done, I decided to walk a little less than a mile down the road to a cafe called Aroma Cafe.  I had noticed it while driving by several weeks ago…

I really just wanted a place to sit down and drink a cup of coffee with free wifi.  Walking in, I noticed that the place was extremely clean…and empty.  The guy behind the register had a head mic going from his ear to his mouth…not sure why.  I told him that I wanted a cup of coffee.  As I said that, I noticed that the coffee was sitting in regular coffee pots behind the counter…much like the one at my house.  My expectations were pretty low.  A lady came out from the back at this point and asked if I wanted cream and sugar.  I said yes.  She asked if I wanted the dark roast.  I said yes. 

I told them that I was going to be taking it out to the patio.  Upon hearing this, they rushed out and cleaned all of the tables outside and set up the umbrellas into their stands. 

I got settled, and took my first sip of their coffee.  INCREDIBLE.  It actually tasted better than Dunkin Donut’s coffee!  (and I love dunkin donuts coffee)  After finishing the cup, I went in and asked where their coffee came from.  She told me Columbia. 

I was completely impressed with the environment, the service, the free internet, and most of all the coffee. 

The sad part is that the entire two hours that I was there (12:10 – 2:10pm), they had one customer besides me.  I’m afraid that they may not last very long.

I feel like starting a campaign to keep Aroma Cafe alive, but I won’t.  Still, you have got to try a cup of their coffee…before it’s too late.  2655 Cobb Pkwy NW Ste.201; Kennesaw, GA 30152.  678-594-4688.