Saturday was a somewhat of a debacle. Scott and Sarah left early to go to Cole Camp, MO for the day and Will and Kat left fairly early for home, so they were out of the equation. That left 8 of us to decide what the plan was. With the weather still being uncertain, a couple people went shopping, others went to grab coffee and the rest of us just stayed around the house trying to decide what to do. We finally decided to go back to Krissy’s parents’ lakehouse for a little while so Krissy could say hi to her parents and we could swim off the dock. When we were finished there, we left for home and everyone ended up back at our house around the same time. That left 10 of us to sit around and be indecisive.

We reached a decision around 3:30om to go out on the boat, and Steph, Scott, and Sarah stayed at the house. We got everything loaded up and were on our way. We found an almost empty cove and dropped anchor. We stayed out for a couple of hours swimming around and drinking then decided to head back. That’s when the fun really started. Upon starting the boat we were met with a shrieking noise coming from the engine compartment. I opened it up and tried to see what was going on. Turns out I don’t know anything about engines.

After a couple of phone calls, we decided to try to swim the boat out of the cove (which was deserted at this point) to flag someone down. Pat, Yao, Becky, and I were trying to pull the boat by ropes while Matt used an oar to help us along. Krissy stood watch with a flag, an airhorn, and her screaming to get other boaters attention. While all of this was happening it started to rain pretty hard. With not much progress made in moving the boat and no progress made in getting any other boat’s attention, I decided to get everyone back on the boat and just try to start it and run until we got to someone’s dock that might be able to help. This new strategy worked with minimal damage to the boat (I hope) we ended up sitting at this dock for almost two hours while we waited for Krissy’s uncle to come to our rescue.

The owners of the dock were awesome, and even let us leave our boat there so we wouldn’t have to tow it in the dark. We got to see fireworks on the way back to our dock, but right before we got there a torrential downpour began. We all unloaded the boat, jumped off, waved goodbye to Krissy’s uncle, cousin, and dad, and headed towards the house. We were greeted by Scott, Steph, and Sarah with all the towels they could find in the house. We got settled back in the house and got to enjoy a tremendous amount of food ordered by Scott while we were on our way back.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful and we all went to bed fairly early (trying to pull a 25 foot boat can really take it out of you). Sunday was filled with goodbyes and a little bit of shopping. After everyone cleared out, Krissy and I did a little cleaning and just relaxed. We loved having everyone down and had a blast. Aside from almost being stranded in a remote area of the Lake of the Ozarks, it was a pretty great weekend filled with drinking, eating, fun, and friends. Thanks everyone.

We had quite the holiday weekend come to a close yesterday. Our weekend started with Scott and Sarah arriving Thursday night, and it was really nice to just hang out with them and catch up for a whole night. Friday was also fairly uneventful. Will and Kat joined us, but we missed our window of opportunity to go out on the boat in the morning due to inaccurate weather forecasts. So we ended up going up to Krissy’s parents’ lakehouse. Her aunt and uncle generously let us crash their lunch, but we didn’t stay that long because not everyone was having the best time. We got back to our house and people started to trickle in. We had a great time hanging out, eating, and playing ping pong and bags. By about 2:30am our lasts guests arrived bringing our total to 10 people to enjoy 4th with.

I’ll post the rest of the weekend later tonight or tomorrow. I don’t think there is anyone that reads this often enough for it to matter, but it would have been way to long for one post. Tomorrow’s will be horrendously long.

I am so excited that it’s almost time for the big Fourth of July weekend at the lake! It’s been a long time coming and I know that Kenny and I are both excited to see everyone who’s making the trek down here to hang out. For some, like Scott and Sarah, it’s an 8 hour ordeal. But we are happy to host and can’t wait to get the weekend started. The Theriaults will be the first to arrive this evening and then more and more people will be trickling in as the weekend gets going. Looks like our finally tally will be right around 13, just enough to still fit on the boat. I can’t wait to see all your smiling faces (Kenny that includes you!) and have what I know will be a great time this weekend. Yay for friends! And for those of you who can’t make it, we’ll have a celebratory drink or bite of yummy food in your honor. And if you change your mind, give us a call, grab your swimsuit and hop in your car and head on down!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th and I wish you could all be here to celebrate with us!

Krissy and I have done quite a bit of moving and shaking recently.

I finished up my semester a while back and found out I did pretty well. In my time off, I did a couple of things around the house, then we had to make our way to St. Louis for Krissy’s sister’s wedding. I didn’t really have anything to do, but Krissy was kept pretty busy over a four day span. Just before Memorial Day, Krissy and I went down to FL and got to just relax, hang out, and shop. Bob and Jen joined us for the first two days of the trip, and we spent a couple of days at Disney after that. We even got to see a Up while we were on Disney property. We got back from vacation and Krissy had a bunch of catching up to do and I had to get ready to start my grad program.

I just finished my first day of the program, and this weekend it’s back to St. Louis. Hopefully, things will be slowing down soon, but with an intensive summer session for grad school, designing a new showroom, and an impending move all looming I doubt that’s the case.

Anyone that’s a fan of The Lonely Island and Sesame Street should love this. Anyone that doesn’t know what The Lonely Island is, this is a warning that this is explicit.

Update: By the way, this will be the anthem of the last summer at the lake.

With finals coming up next week, it’ll be nice to just spend some time at home. I’ll get a chance to study between my sessions with the DVR and PS3. Plus, my mom and dad are coming down this weekend for Mother’s Day and we might get a chance to take our first boat ride of the year.

One more day of class and four finals left. Then it’s into the Master’s program in about 3 weeks.

So this past weekend we were lucky enough to have Bob and Jen down for a visit. It’s always fun when they come down to hang out because they’re like family and there’s no pressure to entertain. The four of us are enough entertain ourselves. Friday night we grilled and just relaxed and watched the Blues game. Jen and I went to bed and the boys stayed up for a while to play FIFA.

I had an appointment Saturday morning at 10:00, so everyone else slept in and afterward, we hit the outlet mall for some shopping. We took a break for a little while during shopping to grab a bite at one of our favorite restaurants el Jimador (yum) and then we headed back to the mall to finish up. Jen got talked into buying one Coach bag in exchange for another. Yeah, like I was going to let her leave with out buying something! All in all, not too much damage was done with us all only buying a few things. The rest of the day we hung out and watched the Cards game and snacked on some good food. We had some fun making fun of each other and some strange people competing on the Food Network’s show Chopped. Then Bob and Kenny capped off the evening with more FIFA.

Sunday morning began with our traditional visit to Kay’s. We had a bit of a long wait since we can never get there at the right time, but it was worth it. They really do have the best breakfast. After our venture into Food Comaville, we watched a little t.v. before Bob and Jen took off for the big city again.

All in all, a great weekend with some great friends. It doesn’t get much better than that. Ka-chunk.

It’s hard to believe it, but we’ve been living at the lake for 2 years! I missed the anniversary of the official move on April 2nd, but today marks the 2nd birthday of our store opening on April 10th. On one hand, it seems like we’ve been here for an eternity, and on the other, it seems like it’s flown by. We’ve enjoyed seeing the water everyday and taking the boat out and of course all the visits from friends and family. But we miss a lot of people and events being down here as well. Hopefully we’ll be seeing all of your smiling faces very soon! In other words, get your arses down here and visit!

I found out I got into the SMAR2T Program on Tuesday. This means I haven’t wasted a semester at school taking four math classes. It also means I’ll be a middle school math teacher in the fall of 2010. I’ll be in a very intense program during the summer and then student teaching all next year. Wish me luck.

Great weekend with great friends in Vegas.

One lowlight: Vomiting more than I ever have in my life.

Many highlights: I learned to new fun games, Craps and Crazy 4’s Poker. Scott hitting on the wheel and Kups hearing us half way across the floor. Matt making a huge run at the Craps table. I think 3 of 5 of us ended the weekend up. In-N-Out Burger. Samba Brazilian steakhouse. The Hard Rock Casino (minus the excessive alcohol consumption). Nate getting great news about his company from the Yankees. Pat randomly throwing $5 on 3 and hitting, Scott giving up on life and putting the rest of his chips ($45) on the same number he’d been playing all weekend and hitting (that’s a $1500+ win). Stepping up to a Roulette table and then seeing a bejeweled hand reach out on to the table a couple minutes later. Getting to play Roulette with Flava Flav and seeing him go nuts on a big hit (he’s the same in person as on tv). Flying home on Southwest with Steven Jackson on the plane; yeah that’s right, Steven Jackson on Soutwest.

I’ll say it again, great weekend with great friends.