Merry Christmas Eve and Merry Christmas! I am using a post Carrie made on her Instagram page of our Christmas tree as I thought it was perfect for a Merry Christmas greeting. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas. It is hard to believe that 2023 is coming to an end as it seems like the year just started, but here we are at the end of the year.
Enjoy the day and be sure to reach out to your family and friends this holiday season.
A short update for this week. I did not get this posted on Sunday per normal. My back went out Saturday morning and been battling the pain. I have never had back pain like this before. I was moving a cooler to clean it out Saturday morning and my back immediately started hurting. Carrie had to help me in and out of chairs. I actually spent the night in my recliner Sunday evening as it is so difficult to go up or down stairs.
I took off work today as I can barely walk around. I did make it to the doctor today, so I received a shot for pain and prescription medication to take over the next few days to help with pain. It is a waiting game at this point to let the swelling in my back go down. I can tell a different after the shot, but my doctor warned not to get too aggressive with things as it is helping with pain, but the pain will still be there when the shot wears off.
We had a fun weekend planned in Lawrence to do Christmas shopping. Although I went in with Carrie, I ended up staying in the car for most of the time we were in Lawrence.
That is all for now as I am going to rest some more and hopefully be back up walking around here soon. Until next time...
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| Mom Celebrating 90 Birthday |
Our family got together to celebrate my Mom's 90th birthday. She turned 90 on December 6. A few months ago, we started discussing and figuring out what we would do to celebrate her birthday. Mom did not want a huge party, so we knew we had to keep it small to our immediate family. However, Betsy had the idea of doing a card party for Mom. So, the announcement was sent out and people started sending in cards to Mom. I know Carrie and I sent nine cards and others also sent multiple cards. She loves it and getting cards daily for the past two weeks has been great. We read through some of them when we celebrated which was fun to do.
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| Group Family Photo |
I ended up taking the pictures with my phone as we had some technical issues with Betsy's Android phone to get it to do a timer countdown. I think we got some good pictures of the whole family.
See all the pictures from the celebration on Flickr.
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| Beautiful Sunset |
Beautiful weather for the birthday celebration. Carrie snapped the picture to the right of the sunset. Amazing weather for December 9. Carrie and I took our fire pit and had it going most of the afternoon into the evening. It was nice to have a little heat to stand around while we were talking and enjoying one another's company. The forecast for earlier in the week was rain and snow, but that never happened and it was a great celebration.
A small group of us remained and kept Mom up late into the evening (midnight) talking and telling stories. Mom was sharing stories from when she was little which was interesting. Tim started the question asking and then Carrie and I chimed in and started asking questions too. Questions such as how Dad proposed or favorite meals from her childhood. It was really interesting and some stories I had not heard before.
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| Oliver Went to Quiet Room |
Oliver went off by himself at one point in the evening as he had enough of family time. He did well overall, but did not like having a one and half year old try to pet him. So, we had to keep Oliver separated from Hayes. It was so good to meet the little Haverty's that attended the gathering.
So happy with how the celebration turned out. Mom had a great time and we kept it only to immediate family. I hope we are all able to get together again soon just to be together.
Until next time, have a great rest of your Sunday and a wonderful week...
Fantasy sports are fun... well, most of the time. It is amazing how quickly a "good" season can change. In one of my fantasy football leagues, I was leading the division and had won a series of games in a row. The past three weeks, I am on a losing skid. I dropped from leading the division to third place in my division. At this rate, I have a chance of barely getting into the playoffs with two weeks left in the regular season for fantasy football.
The Chiefs Kingdom league I have been an owner since 2016. It is a great time as we do a live draft in-person at the start of the season. I have not won this league yet, but I have had some good seasons. This year, I was progressing with a good team and suddenly the wheels fell off and I am not sure where I will end up. We have had different league owners win over the years and the past two years for the first time we had a repeat winner. This league is a lot of fun and banter is shared between owners.
The Beer Gut league, I have been a member since 2011. This league has shrunk and grown over the years from ten teams back up to twelve teams. There have been multi-owner winners in this league. I won the league in 2014 and 2017. We had our first three-time winner with the 2022 season with that league owner winning 2012, 2015, and 2022. The league has been around a while, so it is not surprising that we have multi-owner winners.
I also enjoy playing fantasy baseball, but I have really struggled through the years in fantasy baseball. I enjoy both but I have had better "luck" in fantasy football. I am hoping to get my first win in Chiefs Kingdom this year, but it does require luck to make it to the playoffs and win. The years I won in Beer Gut I did not think I had a chance those years and some how managed to the playoffs and win in the playoffs to win the league. It all takes a lot of luck no matter what and all we can do is hope we put the correct players in the game to be active to earn us points.
Football and baseball are the only fantasy sports that I play. Even when my team is not doing well, I enjoy the process.
Have a great rest of your day and a wonderful weekend...
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| Oliver and His Friends |
Would you believe that I did not take any pictures of the prep or completed turkey that I made on Thanksgiving? Well, it happened again but the turkey turned out great. Had good color and tasted good. Did two turkey breasts that took about three hours and thirty minutes to cook. Carrie and I realized at the end of the day that we had not taken any pictures throughout the day. We hosted this year having a total of eight adults and two children in our home. It was a great day!
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| Mom and Family |
Oliver has the best time at my Mom's house. He thinks he owns the place, so when another little dog was there, there were a few times when Oliver was growling and they got into a little battle at one point. All was good and no blood was lost.
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| Carrie and I After Game in Snow |
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| Birthday Dinner |
We went out to North Star Steak House Saturday night to celebrate Eddie's birthday. With the snow storm, we were the only ones in the place for most of the evening. The food was really good and we have leftovers for us to enjoy this week while working. I got a Kansas City Strip and then there was a really good dessert we all split. It was a fun night!
Sunday we have lounged around and preparing for the Chiefs game. I think we are going to bring up some holiday decorations to get ready for Christmas.
A lot packed into the past few days. It has been a fun few days off of work, being with family, and then of course eating really well throughout the last few days.
Until next time, have a great rest of your Sunday and a fantastic week!
We had a quiet weekend as we spent most of Saturday preparing our house for Thanksgiving where we will be hosting family and friends. We did watch the Kansas State vs Kansas football game which did not end the way we were hoping. More on the game later. The Chiefs play Monday night football, so Sunday is spent keeping track of NFL games throughout the day and watching my fantasy teams struggle.
It seems as though this past week that the leaves on the trees in our yard all decided to drop at the same time. We just had our leaves picked up a week or so ago which was a big cleanup and I already have another cleanup scheduled for Monday or Tuesday this week. When we first moved into our home back in 2006, I used to do the leaves. I had plans to do leaves this year, but it is just too much having to do yard clean up at least three or four times in the fall and these are major cleanup efforts with leaves up to the ankles. I went with a new company this year to do our leaves who helped with shrub trimming over the summer and they have worked out great!
Right now while writing this post, I am watching Ichabods soccer where we are playing Jennies in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Washburn soccer played Friday night and won in overtime, so it has been fun to watch. We are playing in Topeka, but I am watching the game in the warmth of home.
This is not only Thanksgiving holiday week but it is also feast week for college basketball. My sister, Dina, takes off the whole week so she can watch basketball as there are games throughout the week. Monday night is not only the Chiefs games, but it is also the start of the Maui Classic in Hawaii. I know I will be flipping between football and basketball Monday night. Should be fun and likely a late evening with Kansas not tipping off until 8 pm.
As I jump around on this post, I go back to the Kansas State vs Kansas game from Saturday night. We did not have our starting quarterback play, so the third string freshman did good. We started off the game getting up to lead, but mistakes kept Kansas State in the game and we ran out of time. Disappointing to say the least and Kansas has one last regular season game to play against Cincinnati.
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| Oliver Found his Chicken |
It is not an update unless I post a picture or something about Oliver. Oliver found his chicken where he hid it at some point and paraded around the house with his chicken. He even took it outside but eventually went to the couch to take a nap with his chicken. Gave us a good laugh as we watched him parade through the kitchen to the family room carrying his chicken. Funny guy!
A short post for this week on this rainy Sunday afternoon. I hope you have a great Sunday and week. I am hoping to do another post prior to next Sunday with pictures and updates on Thanksgiving gatherings.
Until next time...
Last week was a busy but it also flew by which can happen when it is a busy week. The weekend consisted of going out Friday night for drinks and dinner. When Carrie and I returned home Friday night, Oliver just wanted to relax and get tickles on the couch. We sometimes say that Oliver would be happiest if we were to lay around with him all day long and pet him. When we are not touching him, he throws little fits or paws at us with his paw to get us to tickle. Poor guy!
Saturday we went to the last home Washburn football game of the season. We won the game 45 - 14 to get our second win of the season. It was a rough season, but hopeful that we will bounce back next season. I went to all of the home games this season except for one when I was out of town. Carrie went to all the home games this season with me. We had a fun time throughout the season. For this last home game, Carrie made chili and hotdogs were made by Greg that we enjoyed throughout the day. We had beautiful weather for a game in the middle of November.
Basketball season has started and the first home game for Washburn is November 18. Carrie and I have season tickets and will be attending the games this season. We have a fun time attending Washburn basketball throughout the season as we have had season tickets now for a few years.
Disappointing Kansas football game yesterday that Greg and I were following while at the Washburn game. Next weekend will be fun to see Kansas State vs. Kansas, but hoping we have Bean back in the game for Kansas. Bean went out of the game yesterday and so we had a freshman quarterback leading the Jayhawks. KU lost to Texas Tech yesterday 16 - 13 moving to 7 - 3 overall and 5 and 1 at home. Two games remain in the season.
Not a lot of pictures from me this weekend, but we had a good time Friday and Saturday. No Chiefs game Sunday as it is a bye week for us this week. Chiefs play again on Monday, November 20.
Until next time, have a great Sunday and a wonderful week...