Christmas in California

Traci and I boarded flight 102 on Friday evening and headed for California. This is where I am originally from and I make every effort to make it home at least 2 times a year. Christmas is always a good reason to visit and I can always count on one of my sisters to plan an "event" to bring us back a second time. My hometown is about 100 miles North of Sacramento and is named Paradise. The town was named for the gambling that took place during the gold mining years.

We spent Friday night with my sister Linda and had the opportunity to catch up with her and the Molina family.

Linda and Bill

It's always great to see the little ones in our family and see how much they have grown. Most of them are at the stage where they are just learning how to walk, talk and remember faces. Unfortunately, since our visits are so infrequent, the remembering faces is not working out so well and we end up having to re-introduce ourselves to the younger nephews. Linda and Jason worked with Noah prior to us arriving and when we walked in, he knew us as Uncle Bill and Auntie Traci; however, when morning came, we were the new people.

Saturday morning Jason, Noah and I took Noah's new tricycle for a spin in the parking lot. This wasn't the same tricycle I had when I was a kid. Mine was all metal with hard tires. Noah's tricycle had pressurized tires, a wooden deck on the back for push kicking and a ringer to warn people he was about to run them over.

Noah and Bill

Saturday we drove to Paradise and had an early lunch with my aunts, uncle, sister Brenda and mother. My mom is an incredible cook and loves to make me a meal when I come home. It is a good thing I only come home for about a week or I would ended up looking like the blueberry girl from Willy Wonka... Good home cooking will do that to a person. :-)

While at my mom's, Traci and I had the opportunity to "try" and bond with another nephew. Issac is the very tall 22 month old child of Brenda who had just woke up from a nap. Traci was able to engage him in a level-5 game of peek-a-boo and I got him to stand still for a quick photo. He is such a smart kid. A few of us were going to watch a 70s band play at the local casino and were going to leave Issac with Grandma. He could sense that we were going somewhere and that the key to us not leaving was to keep Brenda within arms reach.

Brenda got him to sit down and watch "Cars" and then said she needed to go into the other room. Her plan was to sneak out the back door but Issac knew better... He jumped up, hugged her legs and began to moan and groan about her leaving, I let him know he was lucky that he was staying home with Nana and watching a great movie. He looked at me with his squinty little eyes and shook his head back and forth very slowly. :-) We ended up making making a run for the door and enjoying a night of 70s music and getting caught up.

Chocolate covered Issac

We are looking forward to our remaining days in Paradise.

A "Wild Night" in the midwest

This past weeked we had a few people over for drinks, music and "Cat Entertainment". If you do no have a cat, you really do not know what I am talking about... So allow me to explain.

Cats are very needy... when they want to be. They will come around when they need love and attention and stay at arms length when they have had enough. Saturday night was a night when Connick and Asia needed lots of attention.

The night started off with Connick climbing up the middle of the Christmas tree and wedging himself between two branches. His favorite thing to do is to get into tight places and make himself fat so that it is just about impossible to pull him out. There is only one sure way to get him to come to you and that is to shake his favorite toy. The toy is pole twith a string attached to the end and on the end of that string is a stuffed mouse with a bell inside of it. He loves to chase it, chew it and lay on it.

Connick in the Christmas tree

He is not budging

When he really gets going, we can get him to jump a few feet in the air. Asia has been watching for the past few months and if starting to get into the act. The cats are good for about 10 minutes and then need a quick break to catch their breath and then are ready to pounce back into action.

Traci and Cora warming up Connick

Super cat

Asia giving it her all with Connick cheering on in the foreground

Needless to say, if you have a party and want to liven it up, you will need the following:

1. Cat toy --> on a stick.

2. (2) Cats that need lots of attention.

3. Friends who have nothing better to do that sit around with you on a snowy Saturday night, drink beers, eat food, and watch the "Cat Entertainment".

Hope your Saturdays are as exciting as ours. :-)

Bill and Traci

The Wedding "South Dakota" style

It has taken me most the day to begin feeling "normal". Traci and I attended Jamie and Mitch's wedding in Baltic and then reception in Brandon at the Holiday Inn express. The wedding ceremony was perfect! It was held in the Lutheran church in Baltic and about a 100 people were in attendance. The only thing that could have made it better was warmer temps outside. It was about 10 degrees out and all the roads in Baltic had a sheet of ice/snow on them. Jamie is Traci's sister's husband's sister and Mitch is.. Mitch. :-)

Jamie and Mitch

Traci, Hunter and Saige braving the cold for a picture

The reception was about held about 20 miles away in the city of Brandon. http://www.brandonsd.com/ The food was great and there was about 2 hours of open bar and two kegs when that was gone. This was the first reception I have attended where I stayed until the last dance and had the lights come on after... That is always a scary event! Bright lights combined with sweaty people, running make up and the effects of alcohol on every one's smiling faces. EEEEKK!!

Bill and Traci at the reception

Bill and Hunter on the dance floor

Did I mention that it was an open bar?

Alex VanHangover and Jimi HenDrinks showed up later that night

Dave, Saige and Zoe cutting a rug

We spent a short amount of time in Mitch's parent's room drinking beverages and getting to know each other (this was the first time I met them). After that, it was off to the gas station in about 0 degree weather to pick up a bag or Doritos for Dave (my new BFF and Nikki's Husband) and a Rice Crispy treat for Traci. By the time we walked back Traci was ready for bed and Nikki (Traci's sister) was already 1/2 asleep. Dave and I spent the next hour munching on the bag of chips and surfing all 75+ channels on the T.V... I believe that is something that only men would find enjoyable. I finally crawled into bed about 3:30 and got up around 9am to a knock on the door. It was my two nieces Saige and Hunter with a plate of food. The food hit the spot and I was back in bed within 10 minutes. I called down to the front desk around 10:30 and requested a late check out of noon as we were a bit behind in getting packed up. You can request a late check out at most hotels without an extra cost to you.

4 hours later we ended up at Debbie and Richard's house where I mosied off to our room for another 2 hour siesta. :-) I woke up to the smell of Prime Rib and other foods being cooked up in the kitchen. As I mentioned yesterday, we are celebrating Christmas early and part of the Dybvig tradition is a family dinner. Unfortunately, Grandma Dybvig was unable to make it do the extreme cold weather and the fact that she fell a few days ago. she didn't get hurt in the fall only a bit bruised.

Dinner was excellent, as Debbie is a fantastic cook, and the company couldn't have been any better. After dinner, we sat around, opened gifts and enjoyed watching the kids tinker with their new toys.

Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day. A big ice storm rolled through Kansas City and most of the cities that we will be driving through received snow tonight and will continue to accumulate snow until about 4am. We roll out of here about 8am and will take our time. I will report on the drive and post some pictures from the wedding and our early Christmas when we get home.

Bill

One more time

We made the long drive to South Dakota again. This time for a wedding and an early Christmas with the Dybvig and Wirkus families. Everyone agreed to an early Christmas as we will be in California on the 25th and the wedding made it convenient to celebrate early.


The drive up was not as bad as the last trip. It snowed last night but the road crews did a fantastic job of cleaning the roads and the trip was not as scary as our last one. We saw about 10 vehicles in the ditch... there was everything from small pick-up trucks to a huge U-haul pulling a car all on their sides and covered in snow.

Last night Traci insisted on driving since she is 1/2 Eskimo and knows how to drive in the snow and ice but conceded this morning when the roads looked pretty good. I was thankful as I am pretty much a control freak when it comes to driving. I am confident that the control freak comes from being in too many accidents where I wasn't driving.


Today was also a celebration of our 1 year engagement anniversary. It was difficult for me to decided what day to ask her to marry as I needed the day to be easy for me to remember and also one that Traci would not guess (she is a very good guesser). Pearl Harbor was the perfect day as it is a day that I can remember and one that Traci did not guess.

We hope all is well with you and Merry Christmas (early).

Getting into it (The Chrismas spirit... that is)

Last week Traci and I spent some quality time putting up lights around the house, staging lighted reindeer around the yard, and putting the finishing touches on the tree.

This morning I decided it was time to get a picture with Santa. It is a surprise and Traci has no idea that I took Jezebel to meet with the white bearded man. Santa Paws is an event that is held by the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City. They fly Santa into town for about a week to sit with all the good cats and dogs from the KC area. The print out and put the picture into a card for $7 and will send you a copy for an additional $10. All the money that is paid, goes to a good cause.

For those of you who have not met Jezebel, she is our runt Min-pin that has been a part of Traci's life for about 8 years and mine for 2. She loves walks, burrowing in her favorite blanket and hanging out with her brother and sister Connick and Asia.

I figured it would be safe to post the surprise on here as I know Traci doesn't read our blog as often as I write in it. ;-)

Hope you all are getting into the spirit of the Holiday season. If you are not, maybe the photo below will help jump start it.

Bill

Jezebel and Santa 2007

UofA vs K - WHO

Yeah...

So, we purchased tickets and went to the KU vs AZ game in Lawrence, KS on Sunday night. KU was nice enough to set aside a handful of seats in the uppermost corner of they gym. :-)

Before the game we went to the JayHawker in downtown Lawrence for a prep-rally. The rally included 15 - 20 UofA Alumni, an autographed basketball giveaway and a motivating speech from the interim coach O'Neill. He really did a great job of laying out our current situation and appeared pleased to be visiting with us.

Coach O'Neill telling us how it is

Kyleen won the autographed ball... Lucky!!


We entered the gym about an hour early to watch the Cats warm up and locate our seats, in the event that they were had to locate. We went to the game with the knowledge that KU was ranked 4th in the nation and that our chances of getting annihilated were very good. Arizona ended up holding their own and caused the game to go into an overtime. There were two moments in the game that I wanted to point out as I won't soon forget them.

1. A KU player completely missed the basket and we did our best "AIR BALL" chant that we could muster and got the attention of the crowd on our side of the stadium. The look on their faces said "Who and the heck is... oh, yeah, I almost forgot they were here".

2. The 1/2 time show consisted of a man dressed in an Indian costume connected to 4 dummies all in various village people costumes. As he moved about the other dummies moved in unison. He entertained us for about 15 minutes of dancing, singing and doing the hand and arm signals to YMCA. During one particular line in YMCA... 'You can do whatever you feel..." he seductively rubbed the dummies shoulder in front of him. YIKES!!

A view from the rafters at Allen Fieldhous

Oh the memories!!

Bill

The Thanksgiving kept giving and giving...

**NOTE: As you are reading this, please keep this in mind, Traci and I are home and safe and sound.



Our Holiday weekend started on Tuesday night with Traci baking some cookies and me packing for our trip to South Dakota.

The weather, during the day, on Monday and Tuesday of last week averaged about 70 degrees. As we were heading out of town at 3pm, the weather began to chill and we were heading directly into bone chilling weather. A storm was passing through parts of Iowa, Northern Missouri and Nebraska as we began our journey. The storm ended up dropping a minimal amount of snow but left the roads slick as heck and as night fell, so did the temperatures.

We decided it would be a good idea to grab a quick bit to eat from one of the many truck stops. We each loaded up a hot dog and jumped back into the car. The "quick meal" from a truck stop was our biggest holiday mistake.

As we entered into Northern Missouri, the temperature gauge that displays the temperature on the outside of the car began to plummet. As we came upon the first of many bridges, we notice several emergency vehicles and approached with caution. As we drove on the overpass, our tires began to slip and spin and we immediately knew it was going to make our normal 5.5 hr drive into a lifetime as the bridge was covered with black ice. If you are not familiar with "black ice" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_ice, you are fortunate. It is hard to detect and slick as heck! It also forms on bridges quickly because air can travel underneath the bridge and cool the bridge super fast.

That horrible scene that we had just encountered was repeated another 3 times in the next 45 minutes. We saw a total of 17 cars in ditches and as we passed each car we said a quick prayer that each person was be joined with their family shortly.

After driving for 2 hours at 45mph and using a death grip on the steering wheel, the danger had passed and we finally relaxed and could enjoy our drive.

We arrived into Baltic, South Dakota http://baltic.govoffice.com/ about 10pm I was more than ready to drink a few beers with Dave, Traci's brother-in-law. My first beer went down very smooth and I started in on my second one. I got the hick-ups and started feeling "not-so-well". I noticed that Traci looked a bit peaked and thought that maybe the long drive had worn us down. We crashed out and ended up getting up throughout the night feeling ill. The next day brought no relief to our stomach pains and we determined that the culprit was a bad hot dog from the truck stop.

Thanksgiving dinner was spent at Richard and Deb's house. (Traci's dad and step-mom). The guest list included: Grandma Dybvig, Richard and Deb, A.C and Patty, Molly and the Wirkus clan. Our feast included all the trimmings and was given the honor of carving the turkey. Traci and I were still feeling ill but managed to eat a portion of everything. :-)

We turned in at 7pm that night so that "we" could get up at 3am and go stand in line for 2 hours in the 12 degree temperatures. 3 am came around and Traci popped up, got ready and headed out with her sister, to wait for the stores to open. I crashed out, work up at 7am and spent the next 21 hours staring at the t.v. wishing I could rip my guts out.

Once the shopping was done, Traci gave into the illness and jumped back into bed.

We got up this morning, still reeling from the "bad dog", and heading back over to Richard and Deb's for a Saturday morning snack. Once the meal was complete, we said our goodbyes and headed for home. As we drove by the truck stop, we both vowed to never stop there again.

We are still not operating at 100% and remain hopefully that we will wake up ready to take on the world... or at least feel well enough to enjoy going to the KU vs Arizona game in Lawrence tomorrow.

Holiday tips:

1. Black ice is bad stuff and should be avoided. If it cannot be avoided, do not use your brakes when you hit it.

2. Hot dogs from truck stops are bad news!!

Hope your Thanksgiving was as memorable as ours!

Bill and Traci

Christmas in November

3 posts in one day... Wow, this surely won't happen everyday. :-)

It seems to me that Christmas starts earlier and earlier every year. Here in Kansas City, one of the radio stations started playing Chrismas music on Halloween day. I try to avoid this station as much as possible but seem to get sucked into it whenever I ride in Traci's car. I pretty much refuse to think about Christmas until at least Thanksgiving day.

One of the good things about being married to Traci is that she has Christmas in her heart year around. Keeping that in mind, today was spent putting up decorations and setting up lights in the yard. We are not sure if the association will allow the lights this early but Traci is willing to take the risk.

Big hair day

Traci loves the lighted Christmas trees

They do look nice!

In case you were counting, there are 37 days left

Yesterday

Yesterday was a pretty signficant day in our lives.

1st, our little Connick is another year older and 2nd Traci and I celebrated our 2nd year together. How many days are couple supposed to celebrate? I can think of three signifcant ones, but wonder if there is a rule: 1) Date we started dating 2) engagement, and 3) wedding. I suppose it is not a bad thing to enjoy each one of those event.

Connick at 3 months old

Connick at 2 years old

First Post

I cannot believe it has taken me so long to set this up. I have always had "best intentions" of creating a blog but never pulled the trigger on it. There have been so many events in the past two years that I have wanted to share with everyone and have resorted to e-mail and letters.

This is our opporunity to send out up to date information on a day to day, week to week, and month to month happenings of our lives. I will make an effort to post pictures, thoughts and misc. ramblings (I should be pretty good at that).

Thanks for taking the time to read this and we look forward to sharing some of our life with you all.

Bill and Traci