Blogrolling

Hey you guys....

anyone know why my blogroll isn't updating new blog entries? I know it has something to do with "pings" and such, but I have no idea how to fix it.

Anybody?

-OD

Christmas Day

Yep, we made it all the way through Christmas night. We had a wonderful Christmas holiday. Thanks to all the fam for fitting us in! Still one more to go on the 1st.
The theme this year for the big gift give-a-way, "If you build it, they will come." You're gonna want my present!

-OD

Merry Christmas!!!!

Just got home from my 3 service Christmas Eve gig. I decided to blog tonight since I wouldn't have any time tomorrow (ummm, today). We had two more Christmas celebrations today and had a wonderful time at both. Oda Mae is very much liking the whole opening presents thing. Here are a couple of pics from the days activities.







Warning!!! Sappy Christmas Message...

This evening on my way home in the rain, I saw a very terrible accident. It reminded me that I/We need to take the time to think about what Christmas means. There is one and only one reason we celebrate Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ. We give gifts to each other in remembrance of what God has given to us (if we choose to accept that gift). Most people tend to forget that. All the lights, decorations, celebrations have meaning other than they are just pretty and fun. It is my hope that everyone who reads my blog will at least give some thought this year about what Christmas really means.


Now, I have to go to my "second" gig tonight. I think Santa is going to come to my house very soon!


MERRY CHRISTMAS!

-OD

Christmas Eve Eve

One down, four more to go...

"The Jones'"

Here is a pic I took of our neighbor putting up Christmas lights. Ha Ha Ha.....He makes me laugh.


-OD

Christmas Lights 2006

Just in case you're wondering....18,701.

What does Oda Mae want for Christmas?

Click HERE* and find out.

*Or you could just contribute to her college fund.

(Okay, that's all I'm saying.)

-OD

Choo, Chooooooooo...

The Oda family went to see The Trains at Northpark tonight. Oda Mae has wanted to see the choo choo trains for ever! We met Uncle Rob, Aunt Kip, and Gee Gee at the mall as well. We all had a great time. The display that they have is really amazing. All kinds of stuff to see and not enough time to see it. We can't wait to go again. As a matter of fact....it's possible that Oda Daddy wants a model train and a little city for himself. :)

To Eat or Not To Eat?

Oda Mae is typically a pretty good eater. She likes vegetables a lot, she used to like chicken. Occasionally we give her a hot dog or a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch if we don't have leftovers or something better to give her, but that really is fairly rare. Lately, she has been becoming more and more picky. Suddenly, she doesn't like chicken. She has never really liked any kind of noodles and now she seems to hate everything we try and give her.

The other day I made a new Mexican casserole (which was really good by-the-way) that had chicken, pimentos and corn tortillas, etc. She wouldn't touch it. A couple of weeks ago we had a Mexican fiesta with tortillas, rice and beans (We love us some Mexican food around here!) She wouldn't eat that either until she saw me putting rice and beans on a tortilla. I noticed that she was trying to do the same thing as her Daden. So I gave her 1/4th of a tortilla with some rice and beans on it and rolled it up like a burrito and she went to town. Ate the whole thing, she did. I tried the same thing with the new dinner a couple of days ago and she got wise. She started taking the "stuff" out, and just eating the tortilla. There went that idea!

So here is my dilemma, do I let her go hungry trying to teach her to eat what is in front of her or do I just give her stuff that I know she likes? I bailed out this afternoon and gave her a tortilla so she would eat something. My gut feeling is to let her get so hungry that she forces down whatever we give her. What do you suggest?

HERE is an mp3 file of some words that Oda Mae has recently started saying.

TRANSCRIPT:
Tortilla (her first 3 syllable word)
Yellow
Blue
Light
Eddie
People
Puppies
Daden
Momma
Uncle


Have fun.

-OD

Santa 2006

We went to the local mall tonight to get Oda Mae's picture taken with Santa Claus. She did very well! We got a picture with her smiling and everything...


She asked Santa for Balls, Pooh, and a Doll. Then he gave her a candy cane.


Some of you may be wondering why I'm not blogging very much lately. (It came to my attention that some people have actually noticed.) Well, probably a mixture of several things...
1. I'm just tired.
2. A bit tired of blogging (not that I'm going to stop).
3. It's the holiday season and I'm trying to get the house in shape.
4. It's the holiday season and I'm working about every other night until after Christmas.
5. My spare time has been taken up by running and practicing (more on that later).
6. It takes a lot of time to get a good post together. (Did I mention that I'm a little tired?)
7. Oda Mae isn't doing anything special these days.
8. Okay, #7 isn't true.
9. I can't keep up with all of the cool stuff she is doing.
10. #10 is true!

It's actually very difficult to decide what to blog about really. Oda Mae is talking a lot now days. She has managed to put together a few simple sentences. At little gym, she is becoming more sociable. All this stuff deserves its own blog entry I know. But, did I mention that I'm a little tired this time of year?

I've lost 14 pounds in the last 3 weeks. I've been running twice a day (most days) in order to get down to an acceptable weight according to the United States Marines. I've got an audition for "The Presidents Own" at the end of January, so I've been practicing a lot. This will be my first audition in almost two years. For those of you who are a little slow, Oda Mae is almost two. There is a reason those two time frames are about the same.

That's all I've got for now. I promise to post more often. :) maybe.

To all a good night.

-OD

FREE NUTCRACKER TICKETS

Got a some comps for the Metropolitan Classical Ballet's The Nutcracker.

EDIT: ALL THE TICKETS HAVE BEEN SPOKEN FOR...THANKS FOR PLAYING!

You can have either Friday night at 8pm or Saturday night at 8pm. I have two tickets for both nights and they are up for grabs. You gotta make sure that you come see me in the pit though.

-OD

I'm Cute!

Okay, here's a hint...Turn up the volume and refresh the Oda Mae blog.

I'm Cute!!!!!!

End of a long weekend...

The Oda Family had a very nice Thanksgiving holiday. My family came over, Oda Momma's family came over and we all ate way too much. Here is the picture we sent in our invitations...

Oda Mae had a ball. She got to see all of her favorite people on the same day. How's this for a crowd of crazy people?

Friday morning, Oda Mae went with Aunt Sis to go shopping (an annual tradition). Friday evening we went out to the parade of lights in downtown. Oda Mae loved looking at all the floats, horses and lights. She was very tired at the end of the day.

Saturday, we just hung around the house relaxing. Same thing today. We needed a couple of days to recuperate.

Here are some pics of the house this year. I'll have a video up sometime in the next few days. That will show off my electrical/artistic ability a bit more than the pics, but this should tide you over.

I missed my mark this year. I only have 18,701 lights on the house. I wanted 20,000+. Maybe next year. I already have a vision for what I'm going to add next year. It should be fun. Anyone know where I can get an "Eat at Joe's" sign?

We had a very good welcome to Christmas weekend. Hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving as well!

-OD

Funny...

what a difference a year can make...

November 17, 2006

November 17, 2005

Oda Mae....Get to work!

Get all those leaves in a big pile...

Yes, you heard me. Get up there...

We need more lights on that top branch...

Okay, you've got 5 minutes to rest up, then we work on the side of the house...


-OD

Here we go...

Now THIS is what I need. Should I go for the pre-assembled model or should I do it myself and "kick it up a couple notches"?

Check out the PHOTOS.

Alrighty Folks...

It's official, Thanksgiving is only TWO weeks away. Invitations go out tomorrow for the big bash here at our house (start checking your mail this weekend). If you read this blog and don't get one, don't think of it as "we don't want you to come". Think of it as more of a game. You have to figure out where we live and get here at the right time. See, we're just making things more fun for you.



Oda Mae and I will finish the two new dedicated circuits for the lights tomorrow. Then comes the fun part. Oda Mae and I get to get up on the roof and start putting up Christmas lights!!!!! Woo Hoo!!!!!!! :)!!!!!!! Yea!!!!!!!!!!

-OD

P.S. Anybody know where I can buy a snow blower thingy?

The Social Butterfly

Today was "friend day" at the Little Gym. The object was to do the play activities and skills with a friend today (if possible). Now, the "Beasts" class includes kids ages 19 months to 3 years. Oda Mae just turned 19 months and is one of the younger kids in class. Most of these kids (even the older ones) aren't really into playing with others yet. They pretty much play with Mommy (or "Daden" in my case) or by themselves. So, getting any of them to play with another child is just about impossible. Today, however, during ball time, Oda Mae found a friend. We'll call her "Olga" for blogs sake. Olga was sitting down playing with ball when Oda Mae found a little ball and went to give it to Olga. When Olga's mom and I saw this we went in for the opportunity. Olga got turned around and I helped Oda Mae toss the ball to her. For about 5 minutes Olga and Oda Mae rolled the ball back and forth to each other. Olga had to get a little help from her mommy, Oda Mae tossed the ball right back to her every time without my help. Good for her!!!! After they played, Oda Mae decided that it was time to put all the balls away into the container even though it wasn't really time yet. That's her favorite thing to do...put things away.

I knew they were somewhere...

Muahahahahahahah ....

All Hallow's Eve

Oda Mae went as a pumpkin this year, see...

Ain't she so cute?

For a rookie, she did pretty well going Trick-or-Treating.

After we went to the "old man's" house she got kind of scared. We hit up one more house for some candy and walked our way home.

This year I carved a pumpkin in the shape of "Igor" from Young Frankenstein. That's the movie we watched this evening (a classic). It turned out descent. Luckily, I got some pictures of it before some good-for-nothing, low-down, pimple-faced, teenage, hoodlum took off with it while we were watching our movie. They must have thought it was pretty good.


We're pretty tired now that the Halloween weekend is over. We might try to reschedule Little Gym tomorrow and sleep in.

On a different note. I took some time off from blogging. I'm sure you were all waiting by your computers to see when I would post again. Last week's Race for the cure went well. Unfortunately, Oda Mae got pretty sick the night before and was not able to attend. I met up with Aunt Sis though and we didn't come in last!!!! Yea, for not coming in last. We had a great time besides the fact that we got lost. I don't know where all those other people went, but we managed to find our "race mates" eventually.



-OD

The Race is On

Yep, that's right you've got less than 12 hours to sponsor Oda Mae and me in the RACE FOR THE CURE.

If you decide not to donate. That's okay. Oda Mae wont cry for long...

BUT, if you decided to donate even $5.00. She would be soooooo happy...


You can watch the race tomorrow morning on FOX. Oda Mae and I are due to start at 7:45am.

Thanks again to those of you who have made a donation!!!!!

-OD