Mr. Neal

Yesterday was J's first official day of teaching official students. He's going to make a great teacher. He is really excited about teaching and wasn't even nervous on his first day. I can guarantee you that if it were me, I would have been peeing my pants often out of nervousness. I probably would have faked 'sick' on my first day teaching. (and probably every day after that, too).  I guess that's why he's the high school teacher, and not me. 

Here are a few other reasons why I could never be a high school teacher:

*Frequent use of the words tardy and unit.

*I might show up to school in a midriff because of my need to fit in with high school girls.

*Drinking milk from cardboard cartons makes me dry heave.

*Inappropriate crushes on high school boys.

(and this is the short list)

oh yes, and in true high school fashion, i would like to dedicate this song to J from V. I think you're really cool and we should hang out sometime. 

Time to Start Thinking About Dentures and Hip Replacement Surgery...

Jared turned 31 yesterday! And the reason that I didn't post this yesterday was because we were too busy having lots of fun without kids.
I surprised J by having his parents take the kids for the WHOLE weekend. We went to the movies, the symphony, shopping and had lots of chatter-free, tantrum-free quiet meals together.
And I'm going to try not to make too much fun of him for turning 31, because I feel genuinely bad about how old he is. On that note, when I finally went to the urgent care last week because I was so sick (turns out I have a double ear infection, sinus infection, some sort of virus, and pharyngitis) the doctor asked me if I needed an excuse note for school.......seriously?
Love you Jared!

Old Man Winter in a Choke-Hold

Yesterday, J stated his intentions to me about this winter (which has seemed incredibly long, dark and cold here. Everyone hates it.)
He said, "This winter will never end! I'm giving it two weeks.....And then one of us is going down....I guess that will probably be me."
Out of curiosity about my impending widow-hood, I looked up the forecast, but I could only find a 10-day, so it's just too close to call.

Couples Quiz

Yay, I got tagged by my good friend kim (who btw just started a blog and I’m giddy about it). I say Yay, because I really do like doing quizzes about myself. I think that probably most people who have a blog probably do. I think it’s the same kind of person who blogs, and who likes quizzes (about themselves or others). And this quiz seems especially appropriate for the time of year... happy valentine's month!

How long have you and your significant other been together?
Well, this is kind of a tricky situation, but I think we might have been a love at first sight sort of thing. Although, we sort of act like it wasn’t….complicated dating of his best friend sort of situation. And it’s hard to say when we actually got together because we had our first kiss before our first date. So, I think we should count from the kiss, which was August 4, 1999. Which puts us at 8 ½ years, right?

Who eats more?
Depends on the food. J generally eats more at meals, but I definitely eat more in-between-meals sort of things. And I can put him to shame in the sweets department. I put most people to shame in that department. I am ashamed.

Who said "I love you" first?I really can’t remember. But it was definitely either me or J.

Who is taller? Jared, by about 8 inches.

Who sings better? Wow, that’s a toss up, we’re both pretty terrible. J says that I’m a good singer, but I think he might be blinded by love. Maybe he loves me more than I love him because I still say he’s a pretty bad singer.

Who is smarter?
I think we are probably pretty comparable. It’s all about who applies themselves. J definitely applies himself. He’s is such a great student. He has a 4.0 gpa for crying out loud! And well, I change diapers and microwave chicken nuggets.

Who does the laundry? Me. When it gets done. ☺

Who does the dishes? We sort of share this duty, with me being the primary dish-doer. J knows how much I loathe doing dishes, so he does them whenever he’s able.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Right side when you’re looking at it, or right side when you’re in it? I’m not sure. But it’s definitely one of us.

Who pays the bills? Me.

Who mows the lawn? Both of us, but it’s usually a fight for who gets to do it. I love to do it. J doesn’t love it, but I think he’s worried that the neighbors will think he’s a slave-driver of a hubby if I’m always doing it.

Who cooks dinner? Most of the time, me, but J is often my sous chef.

Who drives when you are together? Usually J.

Who is more stubborn? Let’s see…..yeah, that would be me.

Who is the first to admit when they're wrong? Usually me, but I think that’s because I’m wrong more.

Whose parents do you see the most? J’s. They live only about an hour away.

Who kissed who first? I very uncharacteristically kissed him first. He actually didn’t kiss me back. That’s right. He said it was bad timing for me (emotionally) to be kissing anyone….and he was totally right, but still. Then we kissed for real about 5 minutes later.

Who proposed? Technically J did. But we made the decision to get married, together.

Who is more sensitive? Anyone who knows us can easily answer this question. I am about as sensitive as they come. And J is well, not.

Who has more friends? Definitely me.

Who has more siblings? Me.

Who wears the pants? We both have one leg in. It looks pretty stupid.

Ok, who to tag. How about...
Jaime S.
Lara
Pam
Sara S.
Sarah C.
Jessica
Is that too many people?
oh wait, how about Alisa P, too.

This is us on our first date (that's my bff sarah - love you sarah!...p.s. start a blog!)

Pappa's got a brand new bag

So since V and the kids are visiting family out of town and without internet access (the withdrawal headaches are starting to go away), I thought I, being the responsible husband I am, would commandeer the family blog. That is what the title of this post references, although perhaps I should not have used it since I am not entirely sure of it's implications. Maybe I should have said "there's a new sheriff in town" or something like that. Well as you can tell I don't really have much to contribute to the blog, which is why V keeps me away from it normally. My main reason for posting is so that the New Year's Eve picture of me will no longer be on the top of the page. V and the kids come home tomorrow so I guess I can come out of hibernation, shave and shower for the first time in a week and a half, and throw away all the frozen burrito wrappers strewn around the house.

This is How We Roll...

...On New Year's Eve.

Happy Christmas!

Neal Family Christmas Letter 2007 ahead!....

I know what you’re thinking. You are thinking, I don’t need to read their Christmas letter, don’t I know enough about the Neals? I mean, I read their blog, what more do they want from me?
Here is the answer to that wordy question. This year, I sent out Christmas post-cards instead of actual Christmas cards with a letter.
1. Because they only require a post-card stamp, and I am cheap and don’t want to pay full price postage. I feel like 41cents or whatever the outrageous price of postage is these days, is just that. Outrageous. So, post-cards are my way of beating the system. At least in my own mind.
2. I thought that maybe postmen and women might secretly be thankful when people send post cards so that they could do a little light reading while on their mail route.
So, I thought that I would whip up this little diddy of a Christmas letter just in case, and I did say, in case, you might be looking for a little more information about us than you obtain from this blog. And if this is not the case for you, you are excused from reading this letter.

Ok, so J first:
He is in his last little bit of his masters program. He just has student teaching, which starts in January. I am extremely proud of him for how well he has done in school. He has a 4.0 GPA. I honestly don’t know how in the world he does it with a wife and two kids, I know that we are a huge pesky distraction to him sometimes. Also, he actually seems really excited about what he is doing. A couple of months ago, he came home from teaching one of his first lessons in a school, and told me how invigorating it was to teach about art to a group of students, and how it made him feel really alive. I think that’s great. I can tell you for a fact that not one of my high-school teachers felt alive or invigorated by teaching me about anything. He’s going to make a great art teacher.

Then there’s me:
I just pretty much hang out at home, do some laundry, cook some meals, basic damage control around the house. Pretty ordinary stuff, really. Oh, and I also have a part time job at Bath & Body Works. I work a couple of shifts a week when J is home. For some reason, I’ve always sort of dreamed of working there. (I know, I should probably set my goals a little higher in the future). It just always seemed like a really fun environment. And it is, but some people take lotion a little too seriously in my opinion. While I’ve enjoyed my time working there (sort of), I will be glad when J graduates and I can go back to just being home full-time again. The hardest part about working is that I really miss my kids when I’m away.

Miss G: She is great. I really love being her mom. Ever day is interesting and fun. (and sometimes frustrating and overwhelming). But mostly just lots of fun. She is at a great stage right now where she is just so anxious to learn new things. J is teaching her to read and she is picking it right up. She loves to cook with me and has even filmed a cooking show of her own. She is very social and is always asking to “play with a friend”. When the answer to that question is ‘no’, she just plays with her brother. She is a great big sister to him, she is very protective of him and they are very loving toward each other. I love it. We have also been able to spend a lot of time with family over this past year. G absolutely loves both sides of our family and is constantly talking about different family members and asking to see them. She adores her grandmas (grandma rosemary, grandma marcia, and great grandma) who are probably the only people still reading this.

Bubba: He is crazy. To me, I feel like there is a big difference with this boy child compared to my girl child. He is constantly destructing or thinking about destructing. On a great note though, he is happy 99 % of the time. People tell me all of the time that they have never seen a kid smile as much as he smiles. It’s true, he is pretty much always smiling. He's a very sweet boy and we love him very much. He loves singing, looking at books, squeezing things, and did I mention destructing?

So, that’s us this year. We are counting down the days (171) until J graduates and we are really looking forward to getting out of student-mode and back into regular-mode. We have been really reminded this year of how much we love our family and friends and the support they’ve given us while J has been in school. We also know that the Lord has really watched over us and blessed us during this time in our lives, and we are so thankful for that fact.
We hope that everyone has had a great year! And thanks for reading our blog! I love to read other people’s blogs, so if I don’t know that you have one, post a comment so that I can find it! And if you don't have one, and maybe you also don't have a new year's resolution, you should resolve to get a blog this year!
Merry Christmas!
Love from,
The Neals

My Offspring, Future Leaders of the Fashion World

And why wouldn't they be, I mean, look at their dad....(3rd from the left). If he is not at the pinnacle of fashion, well, then, I don't know who is.
He did the 'snake as an accessory' thing way before Britney Spears.

And I've certainly rocked my fair share of overalls in my lifetime, which we all know are always at the height of fashion.

Now this is some edgy couture fashion here. Let me see if I can explain this right. You see, her top is actually the bloomers attached to the skirt. The whole thing is upside down with the crotch (eww) buttons over her shoulder. One would really have to have a mind for fashion to have come up with, let alone, execute this.

Two words. Doo. Rag.

And little bubba here has fashioned himself some shoes out of your common swim diapers. Ingenious.

Lipstick on lips is really highly predictable. Here, S is really re-inventing the 'face' of make-up, by suggesting an alternative location for lipstick.

What's that you say, this post wouldn't be complete without a mashed potato turkey? I agree.

Buckeye Football Is The Stuff

I have never seen anything quite like the team spirit centered around OSU football.
J gets football tickets since he is a student...he gets two tickets b/c he is married, but I only reap the benefits of being spouse of a student once a season. J takes friends and other family members to the other games. My game this season was the Northwestern game. We had a lot of fun, the weather was nice, and the buckeyes did not disappoint. They really opened a can on Northwestern. Final score was 58-7. I seriously felt bad for them. I thought maybe the Buckeyes could just let them get some points. But I guess that's not how things work in sports. (so J tells me).

Excellence

Recently, J achieved Excellence. (pictured). This Excellence was a result of an ‘Excellent’ score on his Praxis test that he had to take to become a teacher. Way to go J.
He seemed surprised by his Excellence. (I tried to capture said surprise in the photo, but apparently I’m not good at capturing emotion on film). It makes me sad to think that J doesn’t associate Excellence with himself. Because I’ve always felt that he possessed a good amount of Excellence. I like to do word associations (this is typically done with someone else administering the start word, and you then giving your word association to that word. But since I am alone, I will be giving and answering).
Rain…….Umbrella
Cow……..Hamburger
China…….Chinese Food
Jared…… Excellence
See, what I mean. For me, J and Excellence go hand in hand. If asked to describe him in 6 words, this is how it would go……
Ruggedly Handsome (1)
Funny
Relaxed
Hard-working (1)
Kind
Excellence
J, my advice to you is to embrace your inner Excellence. Especially now that you have a folder emblazoned with the title. You need to live up to your folder. I don’t think the people that gave you that folder would expect anything less from you.

Has it been that long?

Wow, Jared and I just recently celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. Time has gone so fast, and I'm so happy that I've spent this fast flying time with Jared. I've never been so happy in my whole life as I've been since we've been in love!

The NWF (Neal Wrestling Federation )

G and S's favorite thing to do with their daddy is wrestling. It's one of those activities that I do not particularly enjoy, and without them actually saying so, I know that they would really prefer that I not join in. Maybe you didn't know this about me, but I'm apparently 'no fun'. However, there are a few things that I love about the NWF.


1. The uniforms. G's is her flowered-dress swimming suit. (not to be confused with her 12 other swimming suits-you see, G's normal attire for the day is always a swimming suit; which one gets worn is decided on what activities she has planned for herself that day.) So, it's not just any swimming suit, it must be this one, worn with cream-colored tights and a cream colored t-shirt underneath. J can wear whatever he wore for the day, but he must wear a cape. (this is our tan down throw blanket).

2. The wrestling names. G has given each member of the NWF a name to be known by in the wrestling world, they are as follows:

G- her name is Wressa the Wrestler (Wressa for short). I like it because its simple and descriptive, while at the same time achieves the purpose of a wrestler’s name, which is, of course, to strike fear into their opponents.

S - G has lovingly named him ...are you ready for this......Weiner. We do not know why. But she says it with a straight face, which I have yet to master.

J - J has the most noble of the names, he is called "The Great Ricoco". And while I am not a huge fan of the use of quotation marks, (or am I?) because of the rampant misuse of them, I feel that a title such as this really deserves some sort of formal punctuation.

J – You’re probably wondering….hey, wait, why is he listed twice? He actually plays the part of two separate wrestlers depending on who G is in the mood to wrestle with. The name of the second wrestler is Man-Fro. Something special about Man-Fro is that Wressa only addresses him in a southern drawl.

On the rare occasion that I am invited to play, I am known as Tracy, which may seem like a lame title, but when G explains my name, it actually sounds like a compliment...no, an honor. She says it rhymes with Gracie. nuff said.