Wardle Reunion 2011

This year the Wardle Family had their family reunion at Downatta Hot Springs.  Of course, I bring my flip video along to record the events.  It looks like we just ate food most of the time but in reality, we did do other things.  I don't remember any of the other things but I'm sure we did something.  Just Kidding!

Black Friday?

Yesterday we looked through the humongous Thursday paper (just a reminder that we still have a paper route) to see what kind of deals we could find for Black Friday.  Deanna put together a plan and toward the evening, she invited me to come along and check out the lines.  I grabbed my coat and said "Sure" and jumped in the car. It was about 8:30pm. We drove out to BestBuy and was amazed at how many crazy people were standing out in the cold to wait for the doors to open at midnight to go in and get some great buys on electronics.  As we passed by we decided that we probably wouldn't get any good deals in there since there was already a huge line around the side of the building.  We then drove by Target and looked at that line. Again, a few loons standing out in the cold.  Deanna then suggested we drive by Walmart to check it out.  Happily, I drove the car around the corner and headed to Walmart.  We arrived and didn't see a line at all, however, the parking lot was almost completely full.  If you know Walmart parking lots at all, you will know that there is a huge gigantic selection of parking stalls to choose from on a regular shopping day.  So, seeing this outrageous amount of cars parked should have given me a clue that the relatively calm exterior was no indicator of what might be happening inside.  We parked out in the "back 40" and walked around a mile and a half to get to the front doors (or so it seemed).  We entered and that is when the mayhem began.  We were given a map with dots and locations.  The dots had numbers which indicated which sales items would be sold at which locations and at what times.  I happily looked around and was glad that I wasn't too involved at that point.  I thought we were just going to walk around and look at the crazy people and head home.  Well, Deanna had other plans.  There were a couple of great deals that would be occurring in that store that night and she wanted to take advantage of them while we were still there.  So, we walked around and found the enterances to the maze of  isles that would be selling these particular items.  We entered one particular set of isles that had been roped off and the Walmart attendant notified us that we were about the 30th in line and that we were guaranteed one of these items.  We entered the maze and navigated ourselves to the back of the line.  "What time does this item actually go on sale?" I wondered to my self. So, I leaned over to Deanna and asked, "What time does this item go on sale?" hoping and praying that she said 10:00pm.  She fumbled through the papers and maps and said, "12:00 midnight".  Without being too frantic, I looked at my watch.  8:45pm.  My heart sank, my countenance shuttered and my back began to hurt.  I then realize that I was there for the long haul and not just a visit and that I had become one of those "crazy" shoppers I was gawking at just seconds earlier.  I was going to be sitting on this hard tiled floor until midnight and probably much later.  Thank heavens for Angry Birds!

Below is one of my "breaks" from sitting in line on the Walmart floor.  If you can spot Deanna in these shots, you win a free trip to Walmart where you can sit on the floor for over 3 hours.

Return Missionary

Most of our family traveled to Portland Oregon to see Blake Wight after he returned from his mission to Moscow Russia. Blake is looking good and seemed to adapt well to the change in culture after returning to the US of A. The kids loved hanging out with cousins and the adults enjoyed sitting and talking with each other. The night before Blake's talk in church, we sat down as a family and had a chance to ask him questions about his mission and had him share his testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was great to hear some of his stories and experiences. I think his example will help other prospective missionaries solidify their desire to serve. The video below is the little unofficial reception after church.

two events

This photos shows 2 important events at this point in our family's life.  First, it shows that our furnace has died.  A few days ago, our furnace stopped blowing air through the ducts in our house.  I went down to the old furnace to see if I could figure it out.  The fan belt had broken so we needed it replaced.  We called the "heating and air" guys to check it out.  He replaced the belt and left.  A day later we heard this really loud squealing noise from our furnace and the furnace wouldn't shut itself off.  It just kept running and running.  We called the heating and air guys again to check it out.  Well, the ball bearings were going out on the fan shaft (it's all ball bearing these days).  Plus, our thermostat wasn't working to shut off the furnace properly.  Fixing these couple of issues would put us at around $800 to repair.  So, we decided to buy a new furnace.  While we were waiting for the new furnace we borrowed a couple of space heaters from Kim Critchfield.  So, Savanna is sitting in front of one of these space heaters.  So, this photo is to help us remember our week of living like the people on "Little House on the Prairie".  Wearing sweats around the house instead of shorts and wearing stocking caps to bed at night.

Secondly, this photo was taken at 4:30 in the morning.  This is when we get up to do the paper route.  All of the papers have been folded and are laying on the ground ready to be delivered.  We have now been doing this paper route for over a year.  I can't believe that we have done it that long.  I am definitely ready to quit the paper route but my two kids don't want to give it up.  They like the money more than they like the early mornings.  Good for them.

Pumpkin Smashing

When I was young, we would leave our pumpkins out all night on halloween and some teenage pranksters would grab our pumpkins and smash them in the streets. None of these hoodlums came down our street this year so I had to smash them myself.

 

Here is the link for my facebook friends. http://youtu.be/EhNovWCCASg

Pumpkin Run

This fall Deanna and Katie signed up for an event over at CSI called "The Great Pumpking Race".   All of the participants received a cool orange shirt made of that under armor material.  So, Katie ran the .5 mile race and Deanna walked the 5k walk.  Katie decided to do the 5k walk with Deanna but got a little anxious and started running.  So, she would run ahead, then turn around and run back to Deanna, then run ahead and back.  In any case, they both got a lot of exercise.  I was there with my flip video to document the whole thing.



Below is a link for my facebook friends.
http://youtu.be/lXolvzRVu50