OK, I said I would put up some pictures from the beach, so here they are. There are more, but I didn’t have all of them with me, so there is hope that maybe they will appear another time on the pictures page.

Click on the images to enlarge.

As you can see we had a great time on the beach playing in the water and sand, playing football and some of us even did a little skinny-dipping in the pool. We hope to be able to go back again before we leave. I guess we will have to wait and see.

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For those of you who have seen Zoolander may recognize Cooper’s pose. We had a great time at the beach for Thanksgiving. I will add some more pictures later.

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Happy Birthday to the most beautiful little princess, Emma! We love our little Emma so much. We are so excited the terrible 2s are over (we hope). She has grown up so much over the past year. We can’t believe all of the things she says and does. I imagine we will be even more surprised in the coming year.

Emma is so excited for her princess party today. Her friends are coming over dressed in their princess costumes, so it should be a blast. We will be sure to post pictures of the festivities as soon as possible.

She is also very excited to be getting presents. It was kind of torturous for her to watch her cousin Sophie and her friend Kenna get a presents at their own party. She just is so possessive and stubborn that it didn’t really work for other people to get stuff and not her. Well now it’s her turn. Kristin thinks we (when I say we, I mean her) have over done it on presents for her birthday. With Christmas right around the corner, that may be even more true, but it will be fun for her.

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Well last Saturday was my first real fishing trip. Matt’s dad was in town and wanted to go fishing and I was lucky enough to be invited to go with them. Matt had chartered a boat down in Lafitte, Louisiana (about 30 minutes from here). We got out there about 6 AM and it was a little chilly at that point as we raced out to our spot at 45 mph. Once we got to our spot though, it was nice. Not too cold, and the fish were biting. Matt, in fact, on his first cat reeled in a nice trout. It took me a few casts, but it wasn’t long before I had caught my first fish. It didn’t take me too long to wrestle it in, but when we finally got it in the boat it was too short, so we had to throw it back. That was alright with me, because as most of you know, I am not much of a fish eater. We did have a great day though, the weather was beautiful and we ended up with 29 fish. We caught another 2 dozen or so, but threw them back because they were too small. I have included some pictures from the day, including the 19 pound Red Fish Matt’s dad caught. I was going to take credit for it, but figured none of you would have believed me – or cared for that matter, so it wasn’t worth the effort.

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-The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.
-No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.
-Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes.
-You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.
-Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older.
-The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley’s gum.
-The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache.
-A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother’s first flight.
-American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating 1 olive from each salad served in first-class.
-Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
-Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.
-The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
-Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.
-Marilyn Monroe had six toes.
-All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn’t like being seen wearing them in public.
-Walt Disney was afraid of mice.
-Pearls melt in vinegar.
-It is possible to lead a cow upstairs…but not downstairs.
-A duck’s quack doesn’t echo, and no one knows why.
-Turtles can breathe through their butts.
-Butterflies taste with their feet.
-In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all of the world’s nuclear weapons combined.
-On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.
-Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump.
-It’s physically impossible for you to lick your elbow.
-The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because
when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
-A snail can sleep for three years.
-All polar bears are left handed.
-An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
-If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall. Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.
-A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
-The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
-Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.

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I am actually taking advantage of the “blog from the throne” feature in Alph and Amy’s house. My mother would be so proud of me multi-tasking!

Well, anyway, I had my interview today at Mizzou. It went really well. I got along well with all of the residents, including Alph, and had a good time. The program director seemed to like me, so it looks like if we want to come to Columbia, we have a good shot at matching here.

The interview process is long and draining. Kristin and I did get to stay at a nice bed and breakfast last night. We even got to have the kids stay with Alph and Amy so we had a little bit of a vacation. We went out to dinner last night with a couple of residents (not Alph). It was a good meal and it was free. Kristin didn’t talk too much, but we weren’t very surprised with that. She is really looking forward to the 6 more times she can do that.

This morning I got a bunch of tours and got to interview with several different people. We all got along and I think they liked me. All of the other programs are going to have to be pretty impressive to be better than here. We’ll also have to see where Kristin decides she actually wants to live.

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Happy Birthday! You know that we care because we were the only ones that made a special trip to be out here for your birthday. We apologize for Emma wanting to take all of your new toys. She is just trying everything out to see what she wants for her birthday. We appreciate your patience. Emma expects you will be at her party in a couple weeks.

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I have finally updated the homepage! (You may need to refresh it to see the changes) It had been way too long since I had done so, but most of my energies have been on the blog (as far as the website goes). I have also fixed the pictures page. The old galleries are up there as well as the most recent halloween gallery. I apologize for the long inconvenience. The movies still don’t work, but I will hopefully fix that, as well, soon.

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I just heard from Utah Valley, so that leaves just McKay-Dee that I haven’t heard from. The Utah people will be very pleased that another Utah program has decided to interview me.

We head to Missouri in a couple of days to interview and get “recruited” up there. We are excited to see Alph and Amy and the kids. Emma is super excited to see her cousins and Sabine. We will keep you posted on how the trip goes. I am certainly not looking forward to the airplane!!

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