White boys can't dance

My brother in law Paul loves to dance...dance...dance. He bought the dance pad for his Playstation 2. He says that he got it because his daughter Elise loves to dance on it. But the only time I have ever seen him use it is after Elise was in bed. The sad thing is is he is pretty good at it. His wife Laura is worried that soon Paul will get bored with using the dance pad and start going out clubbing.

IVR Cheat Sheet

My Dad found this great IVR Cheat Sheet. It gives you all the short cuts so that you can actually talk to a human being when calling customer service lines.

Christmas with the In-Laws

We spent Christmas day with Beth's side of the family. Libby loved being held by her Aunt Laura. We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa Bartman's around 1 p.m., and had the thermostat turned down and windows open 5 minutes later. Everyone knows that it will be hotter then Hades at their house so they try to dress appropriately. Rudi must have forgotten.



In his haste to cool down, he drank all four beers (bud light nevertheless) before dinner was over.


My niece Elise received a cool popper machine that plays a song as she drags it around. I got a great monkey ornament from my Aunt Rhonda.



At about 4 p.m. we packed up and headed over to Grandma Bonner's house. We ate again and then opened presents. Rudi got a beautiful handmade poncho just like Martha Stewart wears. Beth's Aunt Margie and Uncle Brian and her two cousins Hilary and Breque came up from Florida. We hadn't seen them since Errin and Rudi's wedding and they hadn't met Libby yet.



This is a picture of all of the Bonner girls. For some reason, only girls are born into this family. Beth is the oldest grand-daughter at 31 and Libby is the newest great-grand-daughter.



This is the greatest picture I have ever seen. It hangs at Grandma Bonner's house. Everytime I see it I wonder how that awkward girl in the middle could become my beautiful wife. Every year the girls all say they are going to get the picture retaken so that this one can come down. Hasn't happened yet, and if it does I will make sure the picture hangs over my fireplace.

Christmas with the Kurts

Because of my paranoia about missing my flight and it being a busy travel weekend, we left a good 2 hours and 15 minutes early for the airport. We ended up finding a parking spot immediately and the airport shuttle was right there to pick us up and drop us off at the terminal. It took us no more then 5 minutes to get through security. So we ended up sitting at the gate for about an 1 hour and 55 minutes. The flight was very uneventful and we got in to Detroit about 20 minutes early. My brother Dan picked us up at the airport and was nice enough to allow us to use their car the entire time we were up there.

You can read about the rest of the Kurt Christmas celebration here, here and here. Also you can see a ton of pictures here.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Reason #214

Reason #214 why internet dating usually isn't a great idea.

It's a Christmas Miracle

An image of Jesus was found in a nacho pan. You can read the entire article here. I'm happy that they have decided to stop using the pan.

It's ON!!

I challenge Rich to a Google Fight!!

To the Docs we went

Libby had her 4 month well check visit today. Dr. Geiger was very happy with her weight gain. She now weighs 13 lbs 1.5 ozs and is in the 45th percentile. She is 23 1/2 inches long which puts her in the 25 percentile. Her head is also getting bigger; where once she was only in the 5th percentile, she is now in the 25 percentile. Libby was very good for most of the appointment, until the Doctor attempted to put her cold stethoscope on her chest to listen to her heart beat. Libby started screaming and screamed through all 3 shots. Libby fell asleep in the car before we had left the parking lot and took a 3 hour nap when we got home.

I hope this picture is acceptable to my brother Dave.

JDLR

Today I went to the Dermatologist's office to have a mole that J.D.L.R. Dr. Beard removed the mole because she didn't like the cut of it's jib. It was a bit of a challenge bringing Libby along. She was very good in the waiting room, smiling and cooing for the nurses and receiptionists. But as soon as we got into the exam room, she screamed like a howler monkey. Luckily I was able to calm her down by the time the doctor came into see me. Because I had not put anything down for employer or a work phone number, she knew I was a SaHD. She told me that her husband is also a SaHD and that it was supposed to be just for three months, but that was 2 kids and three years ago.

My Buddy and Me

Libby's cousin Elise gave her a dolly last time we were up in Michigan. Libby loves it. She has named her "LeeLeeLeeLee". Libby loves to bite LeeLeeLeeLee's pigtails and arms. She also tries to give it big kisses, but ends up just eating LeeLeeLeeLee's face. Click here to see some of the biting.

My Bad

My apologies to my brother in law Rudi. In a past post I told the world that our Grandma didn't make him a stocking like she has for everyone else. I was wrong. His wife Errin sent me this photo today of Rudi's stocking. I know it may look like it is made of newspaper, but Errin assures me that is just bad lighting. And as for the spelling error, it is an easy one to make, I've done it myself. I also know the photo is legit because it was taken on top of the couch that Beth and I gave them when we moved to Memphis.

Once again, I'm sorry Rudi

Move over Kevin and Errin

There is a new teacher in the clan. On Thursday Beth was bestowed the title of "CLINICAL INSTRUCTOR" at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. Beth would now like to be called Doctor Professor Beth.

Christmas in Memphis

It is finally up and decorated! The usual tradition in the Kurt family is to go out the day after Thanksgiving and cut down your Christmas Tree. But since I didn't feel like hauling the tree all the way to Memphis, Beth and I had to go out a few weeks later and pick it out down here. We went to this great little tree farm out in Cordova, TN. Not sure why, but trees are much more expensive down here, we put out almost $200 for this one. It looks great though, well worth the money. As a matter of fact we have had alot of people say the tree looks so good that it must be fake.



All of our stockings, except for the dog's, were made by Beth's Grandma. You are officially received into the family when your stocking arrives in the mail. The only person on Beth's side of the family who hasn't received theirs yet is Rudi. Grandma says that she is going to wait a few years because she isn't sure the marriage is going to last (her words, not mine). So hopefully next Christmas Rudi will be part of the Bartman family.

Gone but forgotten?

My sister Boom does such a great job of making us feel missed while we are living down in Memphis. This week Gabe and Allie each send us a card they had made. The top one Gabe made for us and the bottom one is Allie's. Both sides of the envelopes were covered in beautiful stickers. Also every once in a while Susan sends Beth short movies she makes of the kids singing or dancing around. Beth LOVES watching them. At random times when she is studying on her laptop in the other room I will hear the movies being played over and over again.

Apparently others in my family don't miss us as much as my sister does. My oldest nephew had a birthday party on Saturday and we didn't even receive an invitation, we didn't even know it was going on until my parents called us on their way home. I realize that there was no way we could have made it up to the party, but it would have been nice to have been invited. I even thought maybe I was being a bit sensitive about this, but when I mentioned it to Beth, she felt hurt also. Beth always thought she had a special bond with the nephew's mother. Beth said "I always thought we were more then just sister-in-laws, I always thought of her as my oldest sister." The entire family was there having a good time. It really would have lifted our spirts to have at least been included in the celebration by having received a phone call or something.

Maybe after Beth's three year fellowship we won't move back to Michigan. Apparently we are gone and forgotten by some of the family.

Good Eats

Libby had her taste of "people" food today. She ate about 2 tiny spoonfulls of rice cereal and she GOT MORE ON HER THEN IN HER. Click here to view more of the meal.

Libby's new Glasses

Everyone always asks who I think Libby looks more like, me or Beth. Well I have figured it out, Libby is definetly her momma's baby. Not only is she already wearing glasses, they are kinda big on her, but she will grow into them. She also has stinky feet and toots just like her mom.

Crock Pot Recipe

My sister in law Cathie is really starting to become a pretty good cook. Her Creamy Chicken Stew is one of our family's favorites. She wanted to post it on her husband Dave's blog but he wouldn't allow it. So here you go Cathie:

Creamy Chicken Stew

3 boneless chicken breasts cut into small pieces
1 1/2 cups chopped carrots
1 1/2 cups chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 26 oz can Cream of Chicken soup
1 10 3/4 oz can Cream of Celery soup
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp black pepper
garlic powder to taste

Spray inside of crotchpot with butter flavored cooking spray. Place chicken in cock pot. Add carrots, celery, and onions. In a bowl, combine soups and spices. Spoon over chicken and veggies. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Stir and enjoy.

It can be served over dumplings, rice, mashed potatos or biscuits.

Nothing tastes better on a cold winters day.

**For larger familes recipe can easily be doubled.

Picture Day

We took Libby in to Sears to get her Christmas/3 month picture taken. We had a 4:30 appointment, which was pushing it in terms of her good and smiley time. Libby is the happiest and smilest baby in the world, except from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. each day. It is better for her to either be eating or sleeping during that time. As usual (from what my sister has told me) Sears was backed up and we didn't get in until about 5:20. While Libby didn't cry at all, she didn't smile and was not at all interested in getting her picture taken. So after 10-20 medicore pictures were taken, Beth and I decided to reschedule the pictures on Monday morning when Libby will be more cooperative.

As we were waiting in the waiting room, this guy was sitting in a childs chair reading a kids book. When his 1 year old daughter came up to sit on his lap and read with him, he pushed her away and told her that it wasn't a book for her. What a tool.

Peanut Butter and Jelly

Rudi's parents can now stop calling him useless and saying he has done nothing with his life. Because of his blog I now know what they were talking about on the latest episode of Family Guy. You can read an article here all about this fun Peanut Butter and Jelly song. Watch the Family Guy clip here. It really is the best show ever.

The only time it is good to yell "I have diarrhea!" is when your playing scrabble. Because it is worth a crap load of points.