As most of you know, we bought this house and immediately caused ourselves much anguish by tearing it apart and then putting it back together. Now, well over a year after moving in, we continue to work on projects as we can get to them.

My latest project was a little more on the fun and entertainment side, which is nice to do once in awhile. Back in June or July, we bought a new TV for our bedroom. It was a nice upgrade to move from what I believe was a 14" TV to a 26" - you can now actually tell who people are on the TV! Since then, the TV has just been sitting on the dresser, but I had had some plans to change that, and the last couple of weekends we put the plan into action.

Last weekend, Josh came over and helped me install a wall mount for the TV. I ended up using a Peerless brand mount. It was a little bit more expensive, but had very good reviews on Amazon. I didn't want to take a chance on the new TV dumping into the floor!

We still had been using plain rabbit ears antenna on this new TV until this weekend, when I completed part two of the plan. Friday night after work, Justin came over, and he and I crawled around in our attic. After what I can only describe as an acrobatic move that was probably disturbing to watch (ask Justin), I ended up over where the TV is mounted. We ran both a network cable and coax cable for antenna down to behind the TV.

For the final piece, I connected to the network cable an Xbox 360 that I just bought. I didn't buy the Xbox as a game console, but because of how it works as a Windows Media Center Extender. A few updates later, we are now able to watch live and recorded TV off of our media center computer in the living room! Anyway, like I said, this was more of a "fun" project, but I'd like to think that at least some of the networking I'm adding to the house makes it a little more "updated" in case we decide to sell it sometime in the future.

Now just a note for you crazy kids out there: I didn't go buy this stuff on a whim - we actually saved for quite awhile before buying, so yes, we are trying to stay with the Dave Ramsey principles.






--John

Well, tonight was the big night! Several weeks ago Emily and I agreed to be the children's education ministry leaders at church. After several weeks of planning and learning, the new quarter started and we were "officially" on the job.

I have to admit that we didn't want the job the first time it was mentioned to us, but figured out soon that our ability to organize (to a point of it being a sickness?) may actually be useful. So far our abilities have served us pretty well, as have all of the friends at Church who have offered kind words, advice, and lots of help.

So here's to one night down, and many good ones more to go! And since we are speaking of Bible Class, here is a picture from the archives of Esther attending her first Bible Class.




- John

As usual, I am well behind on my posting. I just seem to get so busy anymore playing with all my toys and just enjoying life!

I turned two recently and I have changed in many ways! I talk a lot, I sing, I count to ten (except I leave out nine). I also find new ways to entertain Mommy and Daddy; for example, I now can reach the light switches. I also watched Mommy and figured out how to unlock the storm door!

This Summer seems to have gone by so fast, but I am looking forward to the Fall. I think I will enjoy the State Fair more this year and I am looking forward to visiting my Nebraska cousins, Fischer and Garrison, in a few weeks.

Sadly, due to my busy schedule, all good things must come to an end. I am going to give up the life of an author and just try to be a full-time toddler. The exciting news is that Mommy and Daddy want to write about me and several other topics as well! Maybe, just maybe, they will be able to update you more than I have. Very shortly, my website will begin forwarding to their blog, but until then, you can begin accessing it directly. They hope to have new stories posted soon and the good news is that all of my old posts will be there too! The address is http://johmily.blogspot.com . Hope to see you there!

Me and Grandpa Mike at Roaring River:


Visiting Uncle Jace and Aunt Randy in Arlington:


My birthday party with my friends:


My friends party included swimming!


Lots of presents at my family birthday party: