The Elder Scrolls V: SKYRIM ! My Prayers answered!

Oh yes indeed, there WILL be another Elder Scrolls game soon, say, 11/11/11.

I'm SO spoiled!!

Yes, it's my birthday, and YES I AM spoiled!

I have a beautiful new home, I have a beautiful wife, who's given me 2 beautiful boys we both adore...and one on the way!  heh....heh...

Last Sunday we found a PERFECT and HUGE Christmas tree, from our favorite tree farm now just up the windy road from our house. Had some nice apple cider after cutting down that mammoth beast! The boys had lots of fun trampling around the hillside full of trees.

As soon as I get off work we hope to go out my Fav German Restaurant Gustav's, for some awesome atmosphere and some fine German Bier.

Continuing this spoiled-ness, Fred Myer has had a nice sale last weekend, and we found a new, freshly arrived shipment of the new Nintendo Wii bundle there, the RED Super Mario Bros. one!  YEAH!, with a nice discount off with a sale coupon to boot!  My wife and I couldn't wait to dig into that game, we tried the Wii sports and Mario the other night, and WOW, what a quality piece of Hardware, and fun fun game! Instantly brought back all kinds of nostalgia.

Just last week, I found a decent lightning deal on amazon for a PS3 bundle, which had a couple games that will be great for gifts for the kids, and a credit for me to get....hmm, either Gran Turismo 5, or a couple cool games...haven't decided yet!

We used the Fred Meyer sale to get my step daughter the new, hard-to-find Nintendo Dsi XL/Mario Kart bundle! yeah...that's right, 3 gaming systems in 2 weeks..!!  Like my wife said, I think we just opened up a whole can of worms...for in spite of my every growing library of epic PC games, now there are HUNDREDS other new games I/we/kids will want!  It's gonna be a gamer-tastic Christmas around my house this year, to be sure!

Can a guy get any luckier? I submit that they can NOT!  :)   It has been a good year.
 Happy Holidays everyone!

Sweet new Wii Bundle! 25th Anniversary 'New' Super Mario Bros.Edition!

Here it is folks! I've decided it IS now THE time to stop holding off on purchasing that Wii for those kiddos, If you are as nostalgic as I about playing the good ol’ Mario games of yore, you might wanna check this new Bundle out.

Here we have a bright RED and shiny new 25th Anniversary (Of Mario Bros.) Wii bundle, but this one has both controllers, the nunchuk and the main remote, which is the upgraded remote with the new Wii motion technology [Remote Plus]. Of course, it wouldn’t be a 25th anniversary Mario party without a complimentary game from the extensive Mario world, so…that ‘s what they give you. The NEW Super Mario Bros. game, in addition to the standard Wii Sports package! All for the same price as the standard package! Not to shabby!

I’m seriously talking to the wife about this one….the kids would love it, but so would WE. I was just gazing upon all those old Mario Games with fond memories of my youth, and wishing I could go back and play them all over again…It looks like Nintendo is now giving us the chance to do just that! I’ve played all of the old NES and Super NES games, up until Nintendo 64, which I never ended up getting. Around this time, I was becoming a…er..adult, and had responsibilities I had to tend to.

If we do get it, there is another Mario game I’ve noticed getting rave reviews-I’ve seen video of the Super Mario Galaxy, and sequel (2), and they both look really amazing.

Though, I’m still loaded up on my PC games, and we’re STILL planning on getting the PS3 soon [GT5 here I come!]…but, might have to delay those a bit….I need to dig in my pockets and see what kind of change I can muster up here…

Oh yes, GT5, I WILL have you soon...

Black Friday Mayhem! Thanksgiving Shopping Havoc! -It comes early this year!

Well happy turkey week everyone! That's right, it's my 3rd annual Black Friday Post! -wow time is flying by.

This year, I have both Turkey day and Friday off of work, so we will have to plan accordingly. We also are on a fairly tight budget this year, as [you may notice from previous post] we now have a brand new home that needs plenty of it's own little necessity's. Indeed our home may be the one making off like a bandit this year.

But alas, i'm sure we may brave the shopping madness and hopefully score some sweet deals.

I am looking forward to our first holiday in our new home...relaxing a bit from a hard move, drinking some nice wine, having some ham, and sweet 'tater pie with the kiddos! ....mmmmmmm....pie....

This will be the third year shopping on black Friday, so we are going to arm ourselves accordingly. We have a strollers for Rowan and Aidan, which will be equiped with an ample supply of snacks, diapers, toys, to (hopefully) curtail the inevitable tantrum throughout the business. We have a list of the family members and a rough idea of a budget to work with. I have my best gel-inlaid sneakers and probably will strap on a powerful set of elbow and knee pads. Hey! It's a JUNGLE out there!

I will take no prisoners.

I fear for the worst, and expect that it will be bumper to bumper roads, and near-misses in the parking lots that day. Good thing we have decent insurance!

"i said that was MY spot!"

A funny thing came up when I was thinking of what I wanted to get for my wife for x-mas. Exactly how would I spy something, get it in our cart, pay for it, and get it into our car without her noticing? I can't. So I think we will have to have two separate carts, I may have to force her to run away until I get something hidden amongst all the kiddy toys etc. or maybe I just jot the items down in a little notepad and when WE have gotten everything for everyone else, I have her check out and go through the cashier and to the car, then I run around like a mad chicken and speed shop my wifes gifts??  sigh, last year I had to go BACK to the stores, and try to grab the stuff I wanted to get her...it wasn't easy.  There is also the question this year, of "shall I get her a 'ok' priced gift, and lots o' small ones, or just get her that one big, nice expensive one she's been wanting for years? "[there are multiple options of these as well]

What do you you all think?? Does anyone have any ideas?

I will leave it at that for now, did I mention yet that I luv the holidays?   ;/

-And just so I didn't completely waste your time reading excerpts from my personal life, here's a few links to get you on your way. I'm sure they will be happy I led you there.

#1 sites:  http://www.blackfriday.info/  and http://blackfriday.com/

http://www.bestbuy.com/

http://www.amazon.com/ (my personal fav)

http://www.target.com/ (my fav local store)

http://www.frys.com/

http://www.fredmeyer.com/ (for you Oregonian/Washingtonians)

http://www.walmart.com/ (if u really have to..ugh)

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/

http://www.toysrus.com/

http://www.babiesrus.com/

http://www.sears.com/ (for that angle-grinding,circular sawing,super-sanding, Makita-drilling, Tim Allen-worshiping dude on your list)
http://www.oldnavy.com/

-and last but not least!

http://www.tylenol.com/ (the most important one for this holiday season methinks)

HAVE FUN!

Mission Completed - First House!

So besides all the facebook mentions, and much thankful congratz from our friends and family, I thought i'd make a quick post for our first home, which we FINALLY closed on November 9th.

I'll use my wife Heather's quote, as I think she said it best: "Once upon a time back in...gosh, March? My husband and I decided we wanted to make one of our biggest dreams a reality, and after many months of planning, hard work, downfalls, tears, anxiety, and one final large hump, we can safely say as of last week that we are now HOMEOWNERS! The house began as a lot and is now a home!"

Indeed, we have been through a lot with this one, with many lessons learned on the mortgage loan-obtaining part. Looking back, we had a number of things stacked up against us, and somehow, through sheer determination and brute force, we managed to plow through the obstacles and accomplish this one, ever so important goal for our family. It's still all a bit unreal, and all the homeowner responsibilities are lurking just under the surface, waiting to take a great majority of my time...but I tell you this: I won't mind it a bit. I'm so proud of this house, and I am looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas and many many more years of holidays and memories to come. 

Here's how it turned out!                       Construction -  Aug. 4

 Breakfast Area

 Shiney new Kitchen! All maytag appliances.

                     Center Island sink/dishwasher, w/ Aidan showing off the spacious living room.

 Master Bath Tub, (Shower is on right)

Completed - [Sept] Nov 2010

For anyone interested [in this area], The builder was Stone Bridge Homes NW, via Don Morissette Realty.

We ended up with a respectable 4.5% Fixed 30 Yr Rate with a VA Home Loan. Of Course, we couldn't have accomplished most of the icky parts of this without our exhausted and relieved mortgage broker, Mark Wilson @ Innova Mortgage!  If you haven't used your VA loan yet, the market is still perfect for you to get a home now! It's not easy, but if you can make it through, it's the best time to buy in a long time, and the future can only go up right? 

                                Now I gotta get a Lawn Mower! (among a hundred other things!!)