The Garza Grapevine

2007-07-09T09:44:00.000-05:00

Well, I know it's been quite awhile since I've posted an update on the Garza family, so here goes.
The kiddo's are growing very fast, and staying on top of them has been quite a chore...for Tracy. ;-) Just kidding, I have a heck of a time with them...as I have no patience.
Anyway, Eli is now 4 years old and in another month the twins will be 3! How time flies!
I finally have my entire yard fenced in. And I think it looks good for a bunch of amateurs putting it up. Luckily we were able to finish on July 4th by around 5 p.m. so that the kids could be out and running about!
The sad part is that the day I went and purchased all the materials at Lowe's, Tracy calls that the kids had climbed over the old fence. That's right, the little monkeys can climb over and do on occasion! The imps.
Here are some pics of the fence/yard and some recent one's of the kids all thanks to Tracy.

February 2007!

2007-02-12T16:45:00.000-05:00

Can you believe that it is already February 2007? How quickly did 2006 seem to fly in a blink! Sheesh.

Anyway, I have a few less bills than last year, but not much. I'm still going to IWU (Indiana Wesleyan University) and taking Business Management courses. I should graduate in December if I can squeeze in three more classes between the summer and then to get all my credits in time to graduate with the majority of my class. Luckily so far I've been able to hold down a 4.0 in this track and I'm finally over the 90 credit hour hump! Woo-hoo!

Tracy created this collage of some of the pictures of the kids and their cousins. Hopefully you can see this good enough.

Take care and I'll try and update soon.

One holiday down, another on the horizon

2006-12-12T16:28:00.000-05:00

Getting three toddlers to pose for a picture can be H-E-L-L!!!

Thankfully Tracy has managed to get a few from the dozens of "attempts" that she's tried to capture over the last couple of weeks.

I hope everyone takes the time to think of those in need and our troops overseas this time of year.

I know I'm thankful to them.

Halloween has come and gone, how time flies!

2006-11-07T12:04:00.000-05:00

My three little monkeys made it out for Halloween!

It was a little chilly so luckily their outfits kept 'em nice and warm.

Unfortunately, Reagan is a poster child for ADHD. He was trying to run away around people's houses. The imp would not listen, so I had to bring him in a little early.

My doodle-bug, ain't she a cutie pie?!

So now we're getting ready for a few out of town visitors that Tracy has invited to visit.

Oh, and I've managed to keep a 4.0 in school, a job, my wife and kids (though they stick around not because they're happy, but because we don't have anough money for Tracy to leave) and still keep my girlish figure...

Our fence is junk?!

2006-08-07T12:17:00.000-05:00

What the heck?!

We talked to one of the developers in our neighborhood this past Saturday while we were out touring our up-and-coming neighborhood. He mentioned all of the difficulties he's been having trying to appease everyone's expectations relating to code. Well, during his talk he happened to mention that a few of our neighbors (4 or 5 according to him) have already called him to complain that our fence looks "trashy."

TRASHY?!

They also complained that because our fence is trashy, that they're property values were being affected.

What we've done...

Tracy called three local real estate agencies (one of which has scheduled to do a free assessment of our property sometime this week) and they've all informed us that any fence will add value to a property, never decrease value. However, that a vinyl fence would actually increase that value quite a bit more. They were flabberghasted that anyone would complain that a white picket fence would look "trashy" or that it would devalue anything?

The primary reason we chose to go with vinyl is because it withstands weathering a lot better than what most everyone here is installing, wood or aluminum (yeah, some idgits have installed aluminum, like that won't rust!).

So what do y'all think?

BTW, I've uploaded pics of the kids playing.

Louisville

2006-06-15T12:18:00.000-05:00

Ron had to go and do this, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

We live in Southern Indiana, so most of our time is spent there. I'm the only one that comes into Louisville, and in fact we've only gone to nearest Olive Garden (in Louisville) once.

"Put the freakin' fence up, daddy!"

2006-06-07T07:38:00.000-05:00

Eli can no longer tell me that...after weeks of promising to put up the fence, I began the "chore" of doing so over the Memorial Day weekend.

19 holes is what I had to dig...in the state known as the "Granite State." To which I can now faithfully agree that yes, the granite is there.....everywhere!

So about a week after having the utilities companies come out and paint multi-colored lines in my yard, I was set to begin putting "the freakin' fence up."

1st hole - dug with a post hole digger for about 30 mins to get down to about 1 1/2 feet, and promptly hit a small water pipe that had not been marked anywhere on my property (in fact, the nearest utility marked was about 20 ft away). After saying, "uh-oh" I saw that there was water filling the hole under the pipe, to which my next phrase was a little more vulgar.

So there I am trying to explain to the utilities (800 center) that I hit a water line that was on my property and having them be a little condescending about my "responsibilities" I finally was able to get out of them that it was "the home-owners problem"...in other words, mine. So after a few more vulgar outbursts I went outside to look at the watering hole I had dug up, I noticed that the water level had only filled up to about 3-4 inches only. That was odd, because if I had hit that water pipe and broken it, surely by now the water would be much higher. AND the water was clear. After bailing out the water and smelling for any hints as to whether I had struck a water line or sewer line, I found that the water had no smell to it...I had struck a spring! Both good and bad news...ah well, at least now I didn't have to pay for anyone to come out and repair a pipe. :-)

Having learned my lesson and now having a sore shoulder to show for it, had Tracy call around and see about getting a hold of a power auger, to which she was able to get a loaner from our neighborhoods landscapers for free! So there I am all happy that I could now save my shoulders some pain and start drilling these holes in no time.

2nd hole - started up the brand new auger (had only been used once before) and promptly dug down to about two inches before hitting the first of many rocks (many granite stones, but also some large pieces of black shale). So now I have to grab the shovels, and pick axe to break it up and dig it out. So I spend the next hour or so digging down to about 8 inches before hitting soft earth...Yay! and two inches later hitting more rock....yup, another 2 inch layer of loose granite rocks. This one hole took me 2 1/2 hours to get down to 2 ft! AND now my left hand hurt because ever time the auger would hit a rock, it would stop the drill-piece to stop and the handle/engine part to spin instead...jerking my hand around visciously...sheesh!

3rd hole - spend about an hour digging (and about 4 hard jerks on my left hand as the machine rotates clockwise, but when it stops all the kinetic energy forces the handle bars and motor to spin counter-clockwise) to about 4 inches and gave it up for later...

4th hole - more of the same, but this time I'm able to hit compact dirt/clay mix at about the 5 inch mark and have smooth sailing....to about the 1 ft mark, and hit a large piece of granite! It is too deep for the pick axe to make any headway, so I have to use the shovels to dig around it and get it out...

Now my day is gone and I've only managed to dig one hole to the required 2' depth! AND the weather has gotten progressively hotter, so now I've managed to get a sun burn and have lost about 10 lbs in sweat!

The next day is too hot to do much work other than in the morning and evening, so there I am going back to hole 3 and dug it down to about the 1 ft mark after about an hour of sweating profusely, more hard jerks on my arm/hand and plenty of profanity! So I give up on ever digging 19 holes in my rock-filled yard!

Sunday before Memorial Day arrives and I have in-laws moving in for two weeks while they wait for their house to be completed. At least I gain my brother-in-law's help in digging holes, right? Wrong, this day is a wash...first, it is too hot, and second, he has other things he's "required" to work on...so I spend my evening sweating up a storm in muggy 90 degree temps at 7:30 p.m. (it doesn't get dark in my neck of the woods until after 9 p.m. and we're Easter Standard Time even).

5th hole - at least I'm able to get the fifth hole dug down to 2' with my neighbor's help...I guess he felt bad that I was sweating so much....either that, or he was tired of hearing me cuss so much! ;-)

6th hole - with my neighbor's help my hopes are that since the 5th hole is next to the 6th hole that this hole will go smoothly are dashed within the first inch! This hole (or maybe it was the 7th...by this time they're all running together) took the two of us over an hour to get down to the one foot mark...

So there I am, I've taken three days off over the holiday weekend (to make it 5 days) to work on my fence and I've now gone through three and have not even managed to get to the half-way point!

To wrap it up, all the other 11 holes (yup, only made seventeen instead of the required 19) were just as bad...but my whole holiday weekend was spent on these 17 holes! and I only managed (though barely) to get the poles inserted into the ground and concrete set...here are pics of the finished fence, which I managed to get all done this past weekend......except for the gate, I still have to dig those two holes and put that up....and now Eli is telling me everyday, "Daddy, put the freakin gate up!"

Imp.

Latest Family photo

2006-05-23T11:22:00.000-05:00

Here is the latest family photo I have on file; however, this photo was last taken in February 2006. The twins are a little taller and Justin is about a foot taller (just kidding!).

My how time passes when you're busy

2006-04-15T13:48:00.000-05:00

It's almost another year in my life gone by and all I can remember about the last year has been how busy work has gotten. I've been on three business trips already, one to DC, another to Jackson, MS, and recently to Annapolis.

If I ever thought that going on business trips would be fun, those naive feelings have definitely been squashed. Every time I've had many an hour or two before having to get to bed to get up for the next day of work...ah well, maybe in the next couple of years I can get them to send me to Alaska, Brazil, or Thailand...no luck so far.

Anyway, the twins have been teething pretty badly in the last couple of months...err...actually since January and all they've got to show for it are a partial tooth (Elisabeth) and more lumps on his head (Reagan). Eli has been talking quite a bit and his favorite words to say when I yell at him or correct him in any way is for him to run to Mommy and say, "Mommy, Daddy's making noise" or "Mommy, tell Daddy to go to work and make money."
Children...what else is there to say about the little leeches?
So this year, Eli turns 3 on May 1st and the twins turn two on August 10th...

I've recently found a cool new software called Fantasy Grounds that allows me to DM or play in D&D games like the old tabletop games we used to have...so far only Paul has played, but we both seem to like it better than not having the opportunity to play together again.

Justin got in trouble a couple of months ago in school and was taken to Jouvie (sp?) hall for having sticky fingers...the bum took stuff he already had and had no reason to explain this brain fart to either myself or the judge other than "I was wondering if I could get away with it"...shows you where he is in his developmental stage...

In the next three weeks I begin intense classes (4hrs on Wed nights) weekly for then next 16 months at Indiana Wesleyan University, but that should finally get me my Bachelor's in Business Management. In the meantime, I'm supposed to get my CompTIA A+ and Network + certifications for work, as well as be on my way to get my MCSA certification within the next year. On top of that I will be online playing D&D once a week to relieve some of this stress I'm sure will be piling up.

The house is great, except for one thing that keeps bugging us, this past week has finally seen us having to put on our AC in the house and once again (the fourth) time we'll have someone come out and work on the dern thing again (and it is only 2 1/2 yrs old!). AND this past weekend we had a heck of a storm that brought us pingpong sized hail that damaged our siding and now we have 17 holes in it of various sizes...so more moeny to dish out. Ah, the joys of owning your own home...

I think that's about enough for now, I'll try to update this post in a couple of weeks. If I don't just remind me. :-) Later.

The holidays are over, now the bills arrive...Argh!

2006-02-01T13:13:00.000-05:00

Just when I thought I'd left the Holidays behind, I'm reminded of how much I should have NEVER spent. I think I'm going to be sick!

Work is ever so much of it. Although I do have a small respite from school. You see I realized that I shouldn't kill myself over the next two years and 3 months going to a public university four nights a week. Especially not when I can just go one night (for four hours) a week for 18 months at a private university and accomplish the same dern thing. So I took the belated plunge and withdrew from IUS and have been accepted (suckers!) into Inidana Wesleyan University starting end of this month.

So the time comes for Uncle Sam to fork over all the money I sent him throughout the year (by giving me a refund on my taxes) only for me to have to turn around and pay all of those Christmas trolls that lent me their funds to purchase all those "necesities" during the holidays. Ah well, easy come, easy go. At least I do not have to worry about homework for a couple of weeks. :-)

Later.

December

2005-12-11T16:16:00.000-05:00

Wow, how time flies when you're busy.

Work... we've had to bust our bums over a proposal that was supposed to go out on Dec 9th, only to have it extended by a month on Dec 8th...Thank God for small miracles. I was getting frazzled there for a bit.

School...has been somewhat busy. I've had to turn in two research papers, one for English (Business writing course) and another for Sociology (Social Problems course). I received a 97 on my Sociology paper, and I believe I did well enough for an A in my Enlish paper, but not sure yet. Now I have to study for a comprehensive Business Calculus final, Sociology final, and Computer Science, final. The latter was at least a take-home exam. Good thing, because it has already taken me over 2 hours of work and I'm still not done. What is worse, is that I'm the one with the highest grade in the class; I have no idea how our professor thought we'd ever get it done in a 1 1/2 hour class period. Especially given some of the oafs in my class. Boy, I thought soe of the newbies when I was in the service were idiots... I'm glad to say that I've found a lot more freshman/sophmores in Southern Indiana... :-)

Christmas is just around the corner and I'm about tapped out myself. I have no idea how much money my wife has spent, but now she wants us to help out my sister-in-law who now finds herself in a $500 hole that she and her husband dug themselves into. This wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't taken out a loan about a month ago for them worth $3500...and it's not like they haven't been working either... Makes you wonder who's smoking the money???

Hmm....enough of the bad news................

Ah well, I thought I had some good news...must've been confused. :-)

Christmas Lights

2005-11-29T11:14:00.000-05:00

So there I was last week on a 400-ft ladder putting up Christmas lights around the roofline of the house using Wal-Mart brand clips. I just knew they were not going to stay up there for long, especially if a stiff wind came along, but did I do anything about it then? No.

Well, guess what? Yesterday a very stiff wind blew out from Paul's home area and knocked an entire side's worth of lights from our temporary lake-front house (yeah, we had about 10-ft of water in our yard). So now I have to rent another 400-ft ladder from Home Cheapot again....

This time, I'm going to get liquid-nails and make sure those plastic tabs stay up there. It's bad enough to have to climb 10 stories up once, without having to dread doing it again. Sheesh.

So why don't home builders just install "Christmas Light" receptacles/hooks on the home? I'd sure pay an additional 10k just for that option.

post-Thanksgiving message

2005-11-26T23:50:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone, this is the first blog from Larshan's point of view.

1. Thanksgiving 2005, this year I was thankful for:
a. A job transfer within the same company;
b. My family's move from Maryland to Indiana;
c. My children's healthy ages from 1 (for a set of boy/girl twins), a 2-yr old brother, and a much older 13-yr old son; and,
d. A new home (1st time new homebuyer).
2. This year also brought a sudden death of my step-father whom I dearly loved, thankfully I was able to tell him that I loved him before he passed away.
3. My full-time attendance at Indiana University began this Fall Semester, and I plan to end the term with a 3.5 GPA.
4. The world has seen many interesting and foreboading events this year, and it makes me nervous to think of what will follow next year.
5. My heartfelt thanks go out to my former brothers/sisters still serving in the Armed Forces as well as those "newbies" that have joined since I left the Air Force in 1998. God Bless y'all and God Bless America.

L.