First and foremost… MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR to ALL!!!  Ohh man ohh man.  Am I ever bad at this blogging thing.  I used to be better, but I’ll blame it on my… health this time.  First off I’m just going to ramble to get it all out and then go back and reiterate if necessary.  I had an awesome vacation so far.  It started off on Thursday November 15th, with my dad’s birthday party at the 75th street brewery that evening.  It was great to be with all the family and eat a hearty meal.  The cake was awesome and I think Dad really enjoyed his 60th party, especially since he has been a little immobilized.  He hasn’t had the best of luck this past month, but he is taking it in stride and doing really well.  He still continues to be an example setter for me.  I’m so way far behind!    We followed it up through the weekend with Dana’s birthday.  Daffodil is her new little friend, or should I say child of the family.  We brought her home the week before Christmas, and she is surely a cutie!

I myself (I think Mrs. Willette taught me that you don’t put those two words together) wasn’t able to escape a vacation without injury.  Although not as bad as my dad’s, I can’t remember a time that I’ve been in worse pain.  Seems that through some sort of doing by myself, I upset one of my upper spinal discs and cause a nerve to pinch.  For me, pinch is an understatement.  It caused my neck to bend toward my shoulder, basically laying on my shoulder for some time.  The muscles in my upper arm spasmed, and now after 2 weeks of PT, I’m feeling just a tad bit better.  The pain isn’t as sharp, but I think through all the workings I’ve gone through, my muscles are sore and tired.  They hope to have me all better by the end of January!  JANUARY?!?!?  Arghhh…

And to add insult to injury, I think with my disability, I let the festivities of Christmas get a little out of hand, and drowned my sorrows in food and drink!  Ohh what a wonderful Christmas Eve at Grandmas, and followed that up with a beautiful and warm Christmas Day at moms!!!  I so love a good holiday with family.  But between my injury, food, and drink, and stupid personal issue, my sugars and blood pressure took a turn for the worse.  My sugars are settling down a bit, but it’s my BP I’m really worried about right now.  Dr. Winegarner is going to be upset with me   BUT… again, I must say that I can’t complain.  My moms long time friends husband had a stroke the week before Christmas.  Even before this came on, he is set to retire from being a Surgeon this coming Wednesday.  They attribute the stoke to nothing more than high BP.  It must have been some time since he had his BP checked, so anyone else that might be reading, I can’t stress enough how important it is to get your BP checked and if it’s high, simple meds can make the difference!  I understand he is back home now and recuperating.

~ So easy for what God may give, for God to take away ~

Dana took the week before Christmas off (it fell on a Sunday this year), and she only works 3 days this week (Tue – Wed).  We are off Mon and Friday of this week.  I’m really looking forward to a great New Year and some resolutions to really take hold.  I pray for ALL of my family and friends, close and far for their safety and happiness for the New Year!

Looking back, it was a rough year for a lot of people.  I think I can say that most everyone that ventures to read this post came out ok for the most part, and for that you have a lot to be thankful for.  There are definitely a lot of people that turned out worse than I, in the blink of an eye, lost their homes, family, friends, and jobs.  There are some that I know that are just scraping bye, but still see the good in life.  Some I’m sure are in a perpetual numbness, not knowing what to do or how to feel.  I pray for everyone that they find their peace and comfort within their life, even if that life is less than perfect.  I’m not the best person when it comes to advice or help, but I’d like to offer anyone that needs an ear to send me a note… and I’d be eager to listen and offer my perspective; or… just listen.  I myself (sorry Mrs. W) feel that I’ve come close to seeing it all throughout the years, and I really do try to put myself in others shoes sometimes.

I’ve spent most of this week (when I’m not doing my PT exercises for my neck) reminiscing about all the people I’ve met and can remember during my life so far.  It’s weird but when you do that, you can conjure up some folks that you never once thought you would ever remember in life.  I start in preschool at Alpha Montessori, Red Bridge Elementary,  (I talked to Mrs. Comstock this past year in an email!), Center Jr. High, and High school, Cass Midway High (lots of good memories here), Longview CC, all the 20 + different jobs I’ve held and local cities I’ve been both Kansas and Missouri, and many of the different cities throughout all the states I’ve been to during my travels.  I’ve met a LOT of people!  A LOT OF WONDERFUL people!!!   It’s so weird how some of the stuff from way back can just seem like it happened yesterday.  There are a lot of friends on FB that I wish I kept better tabs with but I’m just glad to be reconnected even if it is through FB for right now.

I keep a high head, and thank the Lord for all he has given me.  I have a good home that keeps me safe with a beautiful wife and children and with beautiful family from both sides.  I have 3 great dogs and if all that isn’t enough then I don’t quite know what is.

Again, Merry Christmas my friends and Happy New Year to All!!!!

Saturday the 7th was Grandpas 81st birthday bash. It’s so awesome that he is still able to enjoy all the days that go by. He had a pretty good turnout, as A&B, L&T, Mom, dad, T&B&S, B from Arkansas, and all of our kids were able to make it.

Memorial Day has come and gone… snif-snif. A great beautiful weekend! Yeah, it may have rained every day, but that didn’t stop the Fox family from having fun and enjoying all that God has to give.

We had a late celebration for D’s 14th birthday. We partied-hardy at the home. Grams, Gramps, Mom & Dad attended, and Chris and Randy made an appearance as well. Our Saturday evening was spent eating some BBQ’d hamburgers and hot dogs. What better way to spend a memorial day weekend! Everyone left stuffed as usual and I had my normal “bload-and-almost-get-sick-becuase-I’m-so-stuffed” party afterwards.

Sunday my outdoor thermometer read 96 degrees! So we decided to go fishing and get sunburned too! It was a lot of fun. Evan had the catch-of-the-day landing a nice size cat. It put up a little ‘fight’ for him too!

Monday I tried out the Jalapeño recipe that I posted earlier this month. Here are some pictures (as promised) with a condensed recipe.

Get a Jalapeño Corer. (You can find this at Cabellas or on-line)

Stuff some creme cheese into a cake decorator bag. One bar of creme cheese will fill about 12 med to large size Jalapeños.

Cut them tops off.

Fill’er up!

Wrap’em with bacon, stick’em with toothpicks, and lay on a foil sheet.

Grill’em for 30 minutes over indirect heat. Bacon should be crispy. Enjoy.

Okay, this has been a very weird week. Last weekend at this time, it was beautiful, sunny, and getting warm. Now the forecast for Saturday is SNOW! Don’t get me wrong, I love the snow. But I was almost sure old-man-winter was gone for the year.

My stupid allergies started acting up over the week. I was in Pittsburgh Tuesday and Wednesday. Thank goodness I took a Southwest flight. Poor American Airlines passengers! Over 100,000+ (edit on 4/12/2008 – make that 250,000+ ) stranded this week because of FAA regulatory inspections.

The week went fast even though. E has hockey practice tomorrow, and then we are going to party it up at Moms for her belated birthday! yeah!! Mom loves Birthday parties. I think she told me one time that birthdays are her favorite time! Looks like everyone in the fam is going to make it too! I can’t wait. I’ll be grilling hamburgers in the snow!

Till next time!