lets hear if for the boys!

Congratulations Jon, It is about time a guy won this thing!!!!

Car Rentals

OK, so, when I went to rent a car this week, they were out of the little sub-compact fuel efficient piece of crap that my company had so thoughtfully reserved for me, and I was upgraded to this instead.  Does that seem right to you?

I want to be this awesome!

Christmas Gift Ideas

On Christmas morning a woman told her husband, "I just dreamed that you gave me a beautiful diamond necklace.

What do you think it means?"

"You'll know tonight," he said.

That evening just before opening presents, the husband came home with a small package and gave it to his wife.

Delighted, she opened it only to find a book entitled "The Meaning of Dreams."

 

 

Ludwig's and Britt's proposal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7N_Wo5tnyA

Just follow the link

You know you wanna!!!

Howdy Y'all!!!

Can you believe there are only 16 days left until I'm in North Carolina!?!?!?  Oh, and Ludwig too, but my guess is y'all are more excited about me... I mean, you haven't even met Ludwig.

Anywho! This post actually has a very important point.  We are coming in "early" on Saturday November 17th in order to have dinner with y'all!  We understand that not everyone will be able to make it out for this dinner, but we would really love it if you could!  This will be your first chance to meet Ludwig and see me!  We will both be around until the day after Thanksgiving.  And of course we will be in attendance at the big ol' Thanksgiving get-together in Raleigh.

So, back to the real point.  We are planning on having dinner around 7:30pm at The Pit in Raleigh.  You can either meet us there, or meet at the parental's place and carpool with us!  I need an RSVP by text message or phone call!!  I'm serious, I really need an RSVP since I'm going to be making a reservation!

I would really love to see you all there!  Let me know if you can make it!!  (and I think L is excited too)

Love y'all!
Britt

Happy Birthday Jaycee, I love you

Rusty

9 years today, I would do it all over again.
Thanks Jaycee

Name Exchange Reminder

Just a quick reminder about who has who for Christmas exchange this year.  I will be bringing my gifts to Thanksgiving since I won't be in North Carolina for Christmas, but that does not mean I expect my gift then (so don't rush Becker).

Anywho, here it goes. Bryce and Jon somehow managed to get each other.  Bailey and Brandon you are purchasing for Ray and Brianna respectively.  Ray and Claudia you are shopping for Brandon and Bailey respectively.  Brianna you have Becker and Becker has Britt.  And of course, Britt has Claudia (I know I didn't really need to post this one, but I wanted my name to be in a pretty color too!)

Okay, that's it!  And let's make sure we don't have a repeat of the underwear fiasco of 2006! Let's just say I'm really glad Jon is shopping for Bryce this year and not me!

And don't forget to buy a little something for the new additions to the family!  Maddie and Caleb definitely need gifts from their aunts and uncles!

Fantasy is back!!!

The namesake of Newton's Law of Forward Motion and rightful heir to the McLeonard Trophy

Hello, everyone!  Long time no blog! (Countdown to accusation from Mom begins now)

I have officially set up the fantasy league for the upcoming season.  NFL.com has added a nice feature where you can just re-activate leagues from previous seasons, so it was a nice an easy process.  But that would be too simple for me, so I decided to make a bunch of changes for the betterment of my chances at a championship..err...I mean the betterment of the league.

I have not made any changes to scoring from previous years, but there are logistical changes I have made.  First of all, I have removed Brianna from the league, as she has a child now and her team was exclusively controlled by Jon anyways. I plan on replacing her with Chris, if he chooses to accept. I know some other couples in the league may be tag-teaming, and if that is the case, please let me know and I can make you both co-owners of the same team rather than giving you two teams to work with.  For it is in the Lord's very own prayer, "Lead us not into temptation", and I do not wish to lead anyone into the temptation of using one team to stack another.  However, being the power-hungry dictator that I am, I have changed the trade veto policy from a league vote to a managerial (dictatorial) veto. I have never used this power before, and I don't intend to unless I can determine that someone is trying to take advantage of a less-informed player (like trading a player on IR for instance) or that someone is attempting to stack their team.

Another change I made is that the playoffs will now occur on weeks 14, 15, and 16 rather than 15, 16, and 17.  This should help prevent me from losing the championship.

Oh, you want a better explanation?  Fine.  Frequently star players, such as Aaron Rodgers on Brittany's team last year, end up not playing in Week 17 because their team has nothing to gain as far as playoff positioning is concerned.  It seems rather unfair for someone to lose the championship game because one of their best players is so good that he doesn't even have to play week 17.

Another change is the addition of "Keepers".  I am giving you people the illusion of democracy by allowing you to vote on this proposed addition.  There is a poll in the bottom right of the League's homepage, which is located here: CLICK ME, PEONS!.  I will decide how many keepers each team gets to designate based on the results of the poll (you know, if I like the result).  For those that don't know, a "keeper" is a player that was on your team last year that you get to keep; so he will be on your team again this year, without you having to draft him.  I think it is a great addition as long as it's not overdone.  I think keeping 1 or 2 players would be optimal, as it would allow people to hang on to their favorite superstar, and it gives the worst teams a reason to keep paying attention even when they're in the loser's playoffs.  The reason they should keep paying attention if we have keepers is that when it gets to crunch time, a playoff team might drop a superstar player who's injured for only a week or two because they need the roster spot to win now.  One of the teams who played poorly could then pick this player up and designate him as a keeper for next year.

Apart from those things, everything else should be the same this year. However, I did notice a few new features that I might play around with this year.  For instance, I have the ability to modify the scheduling before the season starts so maybe I could set up some family "rivalries" that get to play each other 2 or 3 times every season.  Also, I noticed that there is an option of a "League Reward".  If we really want to ramp up the stakes here, there are a few options.  For $100, we could have the league winner get a customized championship ring.  For $150, we could get an authentic autographed football, and for $300 we could get an authentic autographed jersey.  Just something to consider, because split 12 ways those numbers aren't very big.

Finally, If there is significant interest in it, I have toyed around with the idea of doing an offline draft.  This means that we would have a family get-together and everyone would have to attend, or at least have a representative there to draft for them.  I would take care of providing the draft board and all the necessary materials, and then entering the information into the league afterwards.  However, seeing as we haven't been able to get even half the league for a single online draft so far, I doubt that you lazy excuses for royal subjects  could be bothered to come to Raleigh for one.  Maybe if we made it coincide with another holiday....like Ray's birthday or something.

Anywho, that's all for now.  Leave comments with feedback if you want to continue deluding yourself that you have a say in your fantasy football governance.  You may proceed with droll lives in perpetual sub-ordinance.

Here he is,,,, first time on the family Blog
Caleb

My favorite painter, Leroy Neiman, died yesterday.  Thanks to my parents, I have loved his work since I was a child.

The irony takes a minute to sink in

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!!!!

To a great Dad! We love you and hope you have a great fathers day!

It's Happening... Whether You Like it or Not!

Hola todos! Como estan?  Mi espanol esta saliendo muy bien!

However, I'm not going to torture you all with an entire post in spanish.  Plus, I don't have accent marks... so really, what I just said makes no sense anyway.  What I want to discuss does involve my spanish counterpart though.

As you all know, we will be getting married sometime in the (near) future.  If that is news to you then, seriously, where have you been?  I know I'm 3000 miles away, but goodness... So, the other news is, even though he hasn't actually proposed, the date is set.  September 21, 2013.  So quick, plan some vacation on that date so none of you are there to embarrass me!  Kidding.... sort of.

The real meat of this post is still coming though.  I have seen several ideas for wedding invitations and rsvp cards online (read: on Pinterest) and I would like to incorporate one of those ideas into my own cards!  I want to create a Mad Libs RSVP card.  There are two examples of this here and here.  Of course I don't want to copy these exactly, but I would definitely like something that people can have fun with!!

This family has lots of wordsmiths in it, so I was wondering if I could enlist y'all to help!  Let me know if the comment section if you would be willing to help!  I would really appreciate it!  Maybe those willing to help could collaborate on it.  And obviously we have plenty of time before I need these, so no rush!  Just let me know!

Love y'all!

Ok, the blog is getting stale and I am board, so until someone comes up with something better, (or anything with Maddie in it) I am going to start posting signs that I have recently put up in our break room at work.  Read em and weep.

Jaycee and I purchased our first painting the other day. 

Her First Joyful Noise!

I took the infant sling out of the baby bath tub, and sat Maddie down into the water. She loved it! She splished and splashed and smiled too! And then... she laughed for the first time! And then she started crying because she scared herself lol! We got the whole thing on video!!!!

Went to the Comedy Club yesterday, to see Mickey Schroeder. 

He was awesome.

The Sisters

Dedicated to Breezy and Jon!

Ran across this last week! Enjoy!

CAMPING TRIP DETAILS...

In case you hadn't figured it out yet..this camping trip is Rusty and my time to reconnect with all of you "kids", get to know possible future "kids", and love on new members (babies) of our ever-growing family, without the distractions of schedules, TVs, computer games, pizza delivery boys and the likes. We really can't think of a better way to celebrate Mother's and Father's Day (and Easter this year too), and we want to thank you all for indulging us.

To make things easier this year, I have split the groceries up and am sending each of you a list of the ingredients you are responsible for bringing, by email. The amount is based on how many meals you will be partaking with us, so those only coming for a day will have just a few items.

I know all of you are grown now, but I am a planner so I have put together a short list of things that you should remember to bring......

Tent (the only person I know we need to provide one for is Katie)
Air mattress - Walmart has some twin size for about $12, we have a pump if you need
Blankets - You will need some for both under and over you. The under is for insulation between
you and the cold air in your mattress. Trust me! Of course you can use sleeping bags as well
Pillows
Flashlights w/extra batteries
Toiletries - There are shower houses w/hot water and electricity within easy walking distance.
Clothing - You're on your own. We are on a lake and if you really think you could bear the temps
this time of year, by all means bring a swimsuit!
Towels
Reading materials
Sports Equipment - I hear Bryce hasn't sprained his elbow yet.
Dog food, dishes and leashes - For Bryce and Chris only (as long as we are keeping them tied up,
I thought we should probably feed them too ;-)

Note to Brandon and Bailey - I know you don't have a very big car, so I was thinking that we
could bring our Pack 'n Play, swing, stroller, whatever you need, in order to give you more
space for the diapers and other baby related needs.

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW - CAN'T WAIT!

Maddie and Her Pacifier

Camping Trip Details

Below is my original post from early December, as I believe most of you missed it completely...
2012 Camping Trip

It's official, our campsite has been reserved! April 5th - April 9 we all shall convene @ Jordan Lake Parker's Creek Group Campsite #254 for the 3rd annual Mother/Father's Day/Easter celebration and tent one-upmanship competition.

It's going to be a marshmallow roasting, game playing, ball throwing, ankle spraining, fire poking, frog catching, great eating, trash talking, egg cracking, bug swatting, book reading, coffee drinking, deep discussing, daydreaming, laughing, crying, singing GOOD TIME! So start preparing now to take a day or two or three off work as to maximize your time participating in the above frivolity.

More specific info to follow...

NOW FOR THE SPECIFICS....

There can't be any specifics until I know exactly who all is going to be there and when. A LOT of planning goes into this trip on my part and I need to know PRECISELY the Whos and Whens. So please comment on this post ASAP to let me know those specifics. Chris and Katie (and Ludwig) are welcome to join us and we have an extra tent or two that we could loan them if they don't have their own. Please include them (if they are coming) when you respond.
After I get all the info, I will be able to put together an ingredient list for each person/couple to purchase and bring with. Thanks.

Mad Maddie

needs video

Heeerrrrres Maddie!!!

Mom Dad and Baby are all doing fine

Happy Valentine's Day

To my wonderful wife, Happy Valentine's day, you are the best.

I knew it all along

It's a ????

It's a girl

As many of you know, Jon and I have a bet on wether his baby will be a son or daughter. I am betting on daughter. here are some things i might do with Jon's dollar.
1. become an equal partner in Frozen Pond.
2. Buy one bite of someones pizza
3. Put it down as extra principal on my mortgage, and pay off the house 0.000000000001 years earlier.
4. Extravagant confetti.
5. Doodle a moustache on Washington
6. Fill my tires with air
7. Travel back to 1885 and pop it in a savings account
8. Double it every day, I'll be a millionaire in just 20 days

Everyone Except Rusty Was Right

And this is the proof

That is all.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Don't Gooooooooo!

Don't forget to set aside Thursday the 4th, to meet with Britt, eat with Britt and talk her out of going. Sorry Ludwig.

Congratulations to Muchoprego

Everyone please join Jaycee and I in congratulating Muchoprego on winning the McLeonard family Super Bowl.

Last night in Raleigh.

Thursday is going to be my last night in North Carolina. So, we are doing dinner at 7pm at some location to be decided later. Let me know if you want to come as it may affect the dinner location. Hope to see you guys there, I'd really like to see you one more time before I leave!