Winston the Pig

Many of you know we bought a pig. For the many of you who did not know, we bought a pig. His name is Winston, though he has many, less friendly, nick names (Beans, Bacon, Pig, Hamlet).

We got him because Bee was really pressing me to get a dog. She knows I am not a dog person, sure I will pet and play with other people's dogs and have on occasion watched dogs for people while they are away but I am not interested in owning a dog.

She goes through phases of wanting a pet...usually it is a few months after we finally get rid of a pet that she can't stand when she starts wanting another one. This time she was really excited about getting a mini pig; and sure enough, she was already done with Winston after only having him for a month or two. It is more than likely do to the fact that we did not take the time to properly train him after we got him.

He is a pretty good pig though, at least, he is now. Before he was neutered he did his thing all over the place...with everything he could find; worse than a dog- and it was absolutely offensive to the nose! Anyway, he is much better now and is getting big. We have had him almost a year now and he is probably close to 40 pounds. The last time we weighed him was about two months ago and he weighed 31 pounds. It is funny because we were looking through some old pictures of Lil' Bud the other day and saw one with him and Winston and he was such a tiny little pig in the picture. I forgot how small he was when we first got him.

I have enjoyed having him around but Bee still can't stand him. I am not sure why. He is practically self sustained. He has a small house in the back yard (I converted the chicken house into a pig house), he eats grass all day from the yard, and all I have to do is fill up his water bucket once in a while and clean up his poop. He really isn't a bad pet. We can leave for weeks at a time without worrying about him. He follows Lil' Bud around the yard. He will never roam too far from home and he can always be found in his little house at night. He most always comes when I call if he is in earshot. My favorite is seeing him run up to the fence when he sees my truck pull into the driveway after work.

He loves scratches on the belly and behind the ears. Bee wants to turn him into bacon but I don't think he will ever get big enough for that.

Easter and a new egg

Bee and I are excited to announce this Easter that we are expecting a new little egg to hatch this September. We look forward to sharing more of this little Peep with you as we find out. Stay tuned! We love you. We love our Savior. We are grateful for the new life he provided each one of us, and for the new precious life Bee and I have been blessed with the opportunity to bring into this amazing world. Hallelujah!

Family Home Evening (FHE)

The Backstory (ie: the explanation, ie: the girl version [for the summation, ie: the guy version, skip to Couples Night]):
As a young adult, while still living at home, my older brothers and I would host Sunday evening sing-alongs (for lack of a better name) in our back yard. Most Sunday evenings there would be a church sponsored fireside for young adults ages 18 to 30. A fireside is basically just a devotional were you sit and listen to a speaker talk on a spiritual or developmental topic. Sometimes they are more interactive and sometimes not. It depends on the speaker.

Anyway, after this fireside we would invite friends over for, basically, an after-fireside-fireside. We would actually have a fire though. :D  We would sit around and socialize and sing hymns. Our friends would often invite their friends and it was a way to meet new people and socialize in a more intimate setting. In fact, it was at one of these sing-alongs that I met my first girlfriend.

So why did my brothers and I host such an activity? I remember before we were doing this at our house we would go over to another friends house Sunday evenings and do a similar thing. Mostly it was just to hang out and socialize. We did not see one another enough during the week and at the hour long church fireside we did not do much socializing because we were busy listening to the speaker. So this was a way to spend time together and visit.

Some in our group of friends were musically talented. They would strum their guitars or play the keyboard. One such friend would sing songs she wrote and rehearse amusing childhood stories.

Well, that group and that location just seemed to fizzle out. I am not really sure how or when, just that it did, and a few years went by. So not by any grand plan or goal we started inviting people over to our house after firesides and slowly it got more constant and the group got bigger. We would tell stories and muse, but after a while the evenings started to center around singing hymns. We kept a stack of hymn books and again we found a guitar player within our group, and every now and then a piano player, and we would sit in our back yard around a small fire and sing the evening away.

They were some good times. I think part of the reason we did it too was because we in my family are somewhat natural party planners. We come from a large family and our parents would often be involved in coordinating church or scout or school activities so it is just something we grew up observing and in some of us it stuck. It stuck in me anyway. I enjoy hosting parties and coordinating events. It is not something that often comes easy for people but I have always seemed to enjoy bringing people together.

Couples Night:
Bee and I have several couple friends here in our church congregation that we enjoy spending time with. However, there never seems to be enough opportunity to spend time together and during the hours we are at church together we are busy listening or teaching and we do not have much time to chat.

I decided since we have a small fire pit it would be fun to invite some of our friends from church over to have a Family Home Evening together. We would sit and converse, and sing hymns, have a quick spiritual thought and enjoy s'mores together. And that is exactly what we did. Not all of those we invited were able to make it the other evening but we all still had a wonderful time, at least, I know I did. I really enjoy people, friends most especially.

Thanks to those who were able to make it and for those that missed out this time I hope we can do it again some other time and have you there. We love you all!

Practically Mexico

We miss Korea and many of our friends there. Fortunately some of our friends from there are not too far away. We decided that for this 4-day weekend we would venture on a road trip to visit some good friends of ours from Korea who currently reside in El Paso. So we headed out on our 7 hour car trip and made it to their place by mid evening. Lil Bud did much better in his car seat on this trip than he has done previously.

It was a wonderful weekend with our friends. They too have a young son. His name is Brandon. He was born just a few months after Lil Bud and it seems they get along splendidly.

...actually, this is what happens when we stick them close to one another. They are both in that stage of not sharing and Lil Bud was convinced that all of Brandon's toys were actually his toys and became very upset when Brandon would play with one of "his toys." Oh well, kid has to learn...hopefully sooner than later.

While we were there we were able to go to the El Paso Zoo, visit a dairy/petting zoo, eat amazing home-made Mexican food, go for evening walks and play games together. In fact one evening the four of us were planning on playing Taboo but for some reason or another the ladies never made it to the table so Mike and I ended up playing just the two of us for over an hour, just going back and forth seeing if the other could guess the word on the card. It was a blast.

The kids probably enjoyed the trip to the El Paso Zoo the most though the petting zoo was a big hit as well. There were many animals to see all weekend. At the zoo we saw bison and tigers and bears and llamas. Lil Bud and I tried really hard to get this one llama to spit. I think we got really close but we couldn't quite put it over the edge. We spent several minutes making funny faces at it. Mostly I just think it didn't like my face. That's okay little llama, I still love you; even if you do start with two L's.

We were able to see and do may things with our friends while we were there visiting but the best part was just being able to spend so much time together visiting, catching up, and reminiscing about the good ol' days in Korea. We spent so much time together I worry a bit that we wore out our welcome before we left. If we did than that is just too bad. :D

We love you M&S and Brandon!

The Great Migration

As per my family's request, my immediate family put together a family reunion. After having been in Korea for forever they are excited about getting together more frequently. And yet some how we are still the ones to travel the farthest. We are spread across NC, SC, FL and TX. Any who. My parents own a bit of land in the middle of nowhere large enough to accommodate me and my four other siblings and our families. It was a pretty neat set up because it was a nice getaway from it all. At night you could even see the Milky Way. A far far cry from Seoul Korea

The giant slip and slide was a popular activity and kept the early birds happy while we waited for the stragglers to make it in. Hunny and I brought our bow and arrows as a fun and different activity. Then Dad had to one up me by pulling out his guns. ;) They set up a mini shooting range and everything. While walking by one time Hunny told me my family was Redneck, all of them sitting around shooting guns and makeshift targets. But hey, it's what they do. And most of them are proud of it. I will stick to my quieter bow.

One evening, my mother pulled out all of these random balls and outdoor toys and most of us played together outside. We had tee ball, badminton, and lacrosse, and other random balls being thrown around by littles. It was so nice and fun to all just be playing together.

And then the main event. One evening we played capture the flag with water balloons. We had two stations set up and a hose and balloons at each one. If someone got hit by a balloon they were out. Since I had Lil Bud I had balloon making duty which was also protecting flag duty which really got my adrenaline going. We totally lost the first round. But made a comeback on the second. Then of course we had to have a tie breaker. And it was the closest thing you would have ever seen. They stole our flag and I'm calling out to my team to catch him when I see one of ours busting it toward our station with their flag!! I keep watching him come closer willing him to cross before the other team gets to theirs. To my view, it looks as though our team won. And when we go down in our excitement to celebrate, the other team is saying that they were the ones that won. But there is no way! I watched my team member cross before you were near yours! We ended up in a crowd yelling, screaming, and laughing at each other. Mostly arguing with some pointing and laughing. Yelling and explaining how their team is the one that won.

The debate never got settled. We ended with a prayer to get things calm. Yet later getting ready for bed and reminiscing, turns out that my dad, the ref, SUGGESTED to the other team to move their station!!!! O.O WHAT?! TALK about cheating and giving his 'favorites' a tip! When I confronted him about it he was TOTALLY unrepentant and even found it funny!!! Talk about lighting my fuse!

The next day we played some more water balloon games. First we placed a bandanna on the pig (that's right, our pig!) and told the players that their team had to get the bandanna off the pig and back to their base without getting hit. At first Winston was excited to have so many people coming to give him love and attention but then quickly realized he was going to be getting more attention than he wanted and run under a car. Unfortunately a cousin on the other team got it and ran to his side before anyone could stop him! GAH!

Since the pig was a bit traumatized from the first round we decided to leave it at that and move on to the Hunger Games. We were gonna make it more elaborate but a few of us were on a different page so there was some mix up. So what we did was each player chose a previously filled regular balloon filled with water (so they were much bigger and a bit sturdier). That was then their "life". Once their balloon popped they were dead. With no weapons this was tricky, for me at least. But my sister-in-law had no problem running up and grabbing people's balloons! AH!! I got out about halfway and then threw water balloons at the survivors to make it more challenging.

Then we hugged and said bye. The end

Roadside Service

Lil' Bud and I woke up early on a Saturday morning and headed out to let mommy sleep in. We went out to help a local community organization pick up trash along the side of the road as part of an Adopt-a-Highway campaign (except here in Texas it is called Don't Mess With Texas...of course it is...).

It was a fun little project and Lil' Bud seemed to like it. I strapped him to my back in the Tula and we went to work. We walked down the side of the road with the group and slowly fell toward the back of the group. Every time I would bend down to grab trash Lil' Bud would get a little squished as my shoulders came forward pulling the Tula tighter against my back. He must have liked it because after a while he would start to laugh a little each time it happened. He is such a happy baby. I am so grateful for him and his personality. I am glad I was able to take him out and show him service and also let mommy sleep in. She deserves it. She takes such good care of Lil' Bud and me. Thank you Mommy!

Anyway, we finished with our stretch of road and made our way back to the start where we threw the bags of all the trash we collected in a pile and took a group picture. It was a terrific start to a good day.

SeaWorld

Dear SeaWorld,

Thank you for letting my Bee and I, with our Lil' Bud, visit your park in San Antonio for over 75% off regular prices last week! We really appreciate the greatly discounted rate and thoroughly enjoyed our visit.


We got to the park a little later than we anticipated because it was a long trip down to San Antonio but we had a fun day visiting the park, checking out the variety of shows performed and trying the food at all the cafes you offer with your All-Day Dining deal. We love food so that turned out to be a wonderful deal. All you can eat, when ever you want, at your participating cafes! I was especially delighted with your deal when we walked into your Shamu's Smokehouse; brisket, pulled pork, sausage, chicken and ribs- whatever I wanted, as much as I wanted, yes! So what if I can only take one entree at a time, just hop back in line for seconds and thirds. Especially when most of those plates were running $12 a pop. That alone made up for the cost of the All-Day Dining. I would love to see other parks offer such a deal.

We ended up missing your power packed ski and boat show because of the smokehouse but I think we hit all the other shows you offer throughout the day. Our favorite was probably your Pets Ahoy show. I know Lil' Bud liked it a lot, he finally figured out how to clap by the end of the show and was excited to. It was fun, upbeat, and he loved watching all the animals zip back and forth across the stage, especially the pig and the rat. It was fun and well put together. The performance taking place in an air conditioned theater was a bonus. We also really enjoyed the acrobatics and beluga whales of the Azul show. Very impressive learning about the requirements for becoming a performer in that show, the swim test alone sounds daunting.

In all it was a pleasant trip and I am glad we were able to do it. We did hit up two of your roller-coasters before we left, the Steel Eel and the Great White. I was not a big fan of the Steel Eel with it's simple ups and downs but the Great White was an enjoyable ride. I think I like rides where you hang below the track better than ones where you sit in a car on the track. I did like (as well as a little surprised) that the lines for the rides were so short. I know it was a weekday but I did not think they would be so short. Thank you also for offering your Parent Swap option so that Bee and I could both enjoy the rides without having to re-wait in the line. It was nice to hand her Lil' Bud when she got off the ride and me hop on the ride immediately. Next best thing to us both going on the ride together...which will not happen again for a very long time now I imagine.


It was a successful visit. We were all wore out when we got back to our car and ready to crawl in bed when we finally made it home. I can't say that we will be back anytime soon, just because it is so far away and I kind of feel like we have now "been there, done that" but it was definitely a worthwhile trip and are happy to share our experience with others.

Gratefully,

your satisfied guest.

Happy 4th of July

Happy Independence Day!

One of the Hunny's family 4th of July traditions is to help set up and take down street barricades for the local parade. If you haven't caught on that they like to incorporate service in all their holidays you haven't been paying close attention. ;)

Though we didn't help set up any barricades this year her in Texas we did attend the local 4th of July Parade. It was packed! Guess people really like their parades. There were a few floats, a few boy scouts, lots of ladies with tiaras, cars, horses, and firetrucks. There were a few marching bands, and few families with floats of their own. It just seemed like the parade kept coming. There was even an old WWII bomber that circled over head a few times. My favorite was the gigantic shopping cart by the HEB (Texas version of Walmart). After two hours it finally ended and we took our hot bodies home and took a nap. Yep, I'm not afraid to admit it- this momma took a break.

Toward the end of the parade we got a slice of watermelon and introduced Lil' Bud to it's juicy, watery, goodness. He seemed to enjoy it very much. It was nice and juicy and he had no problem munching into it, getting it all over his face and hands, and sharing with mommy and daddy. He loved taking little bites and storing them in his cheeks. He does that with a lot of food.

That evening a coworker of Hunny's invited us to their get together/grill out they were having. There were a surprising few people there. Neighbors, coworkers and friends. Quite the blended bunch. We had a good time visiting, eating and playing around. They had a cornhole game going on and a trampoline for the kids.

When it was getting late and Lil' Bud needed to get bed the fireworks were just about to start. But we decided it was best to go home. There were fireworks going off all around us (despite it being illegal in our city). So we decided to do what any 'normal' Pinnegar would do. We all got up on the roof and enjoyed the 360° view of the fireworks. I will admit I was a bit nervous climbing up there. I was even more apprehensive of Hunny taking Lil' Bud up there too. But we grow by stepping out of our comfort zones. And we all had a splendid time. And it turned out perfect because then we could watch all sorts of fireworks, far enough away that they weren't too loud and scary for Lil' Bud, and then we could be inside for bedtime as soon as we needed to instead of having to drive home.

We are still getting into the swing of our holiday traditions but I think it was a fulfilling day. It was pretty adventurous for being our first Independence day as a family in the grand ol' USofA. Holidays overseas just aren't quite the same as they are in the states. So what about you? What do you do for Independence Day?

Cave or Cavern

Is it a cave or a cavern? What's the difference? On the way into the Inner Space Cavern our tour guide informed us that a cave has an opening while a cavern is just a bubble underground.

We recently made our way down into two different caverns. It seems like the thing to do in the hot, Texas summer. They were not extensive, more like a nice, underground hike. We had pretty entertaining guides too. That always makes a difference. We also learned a bit. There are 'soda straw' stalactites that are hollow in the center. Flow-stone which looks pretty neat. And my favorite helictites which are variations to the stalactites. The formations just go haywire and jump in any direction with no rhyme or reason. Really cool stuff!

Some other neat things in a cavern are when they turn off all the lights and it is pitch black and when they point out how old things are. And I don't mean how ancient the formations are. I think that after a certain age we lose connection with it. I like when they point out the etchings from the 1920's. Now that is cool. It is long enough that it is way impressive but close enough that we can still connect with it.

Anyway, we had a fun time and we seem to enjoy exploring caverns and will probably go to a few more before summer's end. How about you? Have you been to a cavern? Are there any close by?

Watering hole

It is getting hot out here in Texas. The other weekend we were driving around looking for a good way to cool off, no particular plans but a few ideas, so we thought we would check out a local water park. The one closest to us was closed because of vandalism. Lame! We went to Belton and found one there but it was super packed and a line out the door. We were driving home when I saw a park with a creek. When I was a kid I lived near a park with a creek, every town should have one. We stopped at the park and let Lil' Bud play in the creek for a while. He had A BLAST!!! He is such a water baby that it's crazy. He LOVES playing in the water. This water was especially awesome because it had rocks at the bottom that he could play with and put in his mouth. Yum!

So we started out under the bridge to stay shaded but we soon migrated out into the sun a little bit onto a small rockbar (not a sandbar). I dug a little crater next to the island for Lil' Bud to sit in and splash. It was fun to dig out underneath him and to watch the water flow in and out of the little hole I made. By the time I was done moving rocks around it looked like a little dinosaur nest; or at least that is what it made me think of. Lil' Bud had fun climbing in and out of it and finding the 'perfect rock' to put in his mouth. I think he was mostly clueless of my digging. I didn't care though, I was having fun. :D

There were also some small fish near by that I tried chasing into my little crater I had made. I was successful in getting about three or four fish in but they quickly swam back out before I could close off the entry/exit point. The whole time Bee sat on the island with her feet in the water enjoying watching her boys have fun.

We knew it was time to go when Lil' Bud started turning red. We probably should have left a little before that but it worked out. Fortunately he did not get burned but he had started developing a nice tan. It is not super noticeable but you can really tell when he is not wearing a diaper.

It was a great little find and we know we will be back in the future to splash and play again sometime.

Baby fishes

A while back we got some fish. 2 Mollys, 2 yellow somethings, and 1 red something. Unfortunately, our tank had the "ick" and our fishes were dying off pretty quickly. We finally caught the problem and managed to saved the last two; one yellow and one red.

The red one is Joe and the yellow one is Carla. And though we aren't the best at cleaning out the tank we finally got around to it one day and Hunny calls me over and tells me to take a good look at the tank. I looked in and squint and lo and behold, Tiny baby fishes!!!! How exciting! We counted up and had about eight or nine. But because they were so small some got sucked up in the cleaning. Then Hunny probably shocked a few more adding Freezing Cold Water! to the tank. So now we are down to three.

It has been fun watching them get bigger and bigger. Not sure if they are from before the dying off or if Joe and Carla look past differences and saw that it was up to them to repopulate the tank. Either way, yea for baby fishes!

 Lil' Bud is so fascinated with watching all the fish!

Chocolate Strawberries

As some of you know, Bee and I have two festive days in the month of February. We have both Hearts Day (most know it as Valentine's Day) and our anniversary in this cold but wonderful month.

I have never much been into Hearts Day, and because of our anniversary in the same month Bee and I have agreed that there are no special requirements for Hearts Day. I was thinking about getting her a few chocolate covered strawberries anyway because I know she likes them and it is hard to see all the chocolate and sweets all over and not get any. So as I walked into the grocery store to get some dipped berries the first thing I saw was that packages of strawberries were on sale. So I grabbed two packs! Then I had a great thought; which is better: buy a few chocolate covered strawberries for my wife, or buy some chocolate chips and go home and MAKE a bunch of chocolate covered strawberries WITH my wife? Why, to MAKE them WITH her of course!!! (in retrospect, it may have been better to just buy a few because we then had a whole bunch of chocolate dipped berries with no self control and a tummy sick evening. ugh!)

So I got the goods and went home to my wonderful wife. We both had a blast making our tasty creations. They were delicious. We shared them with our neighbors and a few people from my work and we all lived happily ever after!