Found: Puppy

We had a puppy hangin' around our house yesterday and it was really hot (and cute) so we gave it some water. While the dog was chillin' out getting hydrated, Mel and Caleb knocked on doors in the neighborhood trying to reunite the puppy with it's owner, but to no avail.

We decided that it was probably hungary and would be able to find it's way home, so we released him in the front yard and he took off with a purpose. We figured he was homeward bound for puppy grub. We didn't see the puppy for hours after that, so all was well, right? No.

Around 8pm we get a knock on the door... "Are you guys missing a puppy?" the couple asked. We recounted the day to the concerned couple and they listened as they released the puppy in our yard and slowly backed away.

Without going into gory detail, there's a dog that roams free in our neighborhood that has been known to kill a small animal or three. So, we decided to put the puppy in our backyard and give some food and a safe place to sleep. We are going to the store soon for sign-making supplies in effort to find it's owner. However, we don't feel too positive given that we didn't see/hear anyone looking for their lost dog yesterday.

So, long story short... does anyone want this beautiful puppy? I reckon it's about 3-4 months old, but that's an uneducated guess. It seems really healthy and has a wonderful temperament. We would be interested in keeping the dog ourselves, but we have long been making plans to get a pug and that may happen as early as next weekend. Please checkout the pics and pass them along if you know anyone that may be interested. I may put a listing up on craigslist today, too. If so, I will add the link to this posting.

Thanks for reading.

mlf jr.

Today, I plumbed.

So, last weekend I'm outside playing with my new air compressor and Mel comes outside to tell me water is leaking out of the back of our house. There are two pipes that come out the back of our house that I know are drains, but to be honest, I hadn't thought much about. Turns out that one of them is the drain pipe to the leak-pan of our gas water heater and the other is the drain pipe connected to the Pressure Relief Valve of said water heater. The valve is pretty important, because it prevents the pressure in the water heater from building up and pushing hot water/steam through your pipes and exploding.

So after some diligent research (read: I called my dad) I came to the conclusion that my Pressure Relief Valve was bad and needed replacement. Just as I always do with a house emergency... I quickly went out to the local Lowe's and bought the wrong part. Then I promptly went to work and didn't see daylight for three days. My next step was to go to Home Depot and buy the correct part and a pipe wrench, because chicks dig pipe wrenches (and my dad told me I would probably need one).

Today I finally got the opportunity to tackle the water heater. It really wasn't too bad. I made a watery mess in my attic, which I hear is not a good idea, but I did it anyway. And I only used a swear word once (out loud). The valve came off without much problem (thank you pipe wrench) and I was able to replace it fairly easily.

So... today I plumbed and conquered.

mlf jr.

Corn Maze Field Trip

Thursday, I took the day off work and Mel and I chaperoned the kids' field trip to the Corn Maze in Port Allen, LA.  Nine acres of corn fields with a maze all through it.  It was a lot of fun.  There were games for the kids and even pig races.  We all had a great time and we couldn't have asked for better weather.  I put some pics up on our Flickr page, so check them out if you would like to.

mlf jr.

Oh, yeah... and you may have noticed that I changed the name and address of this site.  Due to a mix up with my domain registration co. I lost mikefreyder.com.  I like this one more anyway.  ;-)

Viva la Futbol!

Yesterday, Kailey and Caleb played their first organized soccer match. It was hot as Hades, but they were very excited and played very well. MawMaw and PawPaw came to watch and we all had a great time. Here are some photos...

mlf jr

Galactic Sunday

IMG_0116.JPG, originally uploaded by mfreyder.

Today we took the kids to the Louisiana Art and Science Museum to see the planetarium show... Coral Reef Adventure. It was a good movie and we also spent some time exploring the museum. Fun for all.

mlf jr.

For Adoption...

For Adoption..., originally uploaded by mfreyder.

... at Sherwood South Animal Hospital... if you dare!

mlf jr.

Sent from my iPhone

iCat

iCat, originally uploaded by mfreyder.

I got this nice, soft mat so I won't scratch my new iPhone on my desk as it charges.. It looks uncannily like our cat Isis.

mlf jr.

Sent from my iPhone

Vacation Photos

I've been meaning to post this now for a couple weeks, so here we go...

Last month, as soon as the kids got out of school, my wife's parents took us on a great vacation to Disney World in Orlando, FL. We all had a really fantastic time and as you can probably guess... took tons of pictures. The weather was perfect, we ate some good food and even met some new people. It was really great. Check out the photos and see for yourself.

mlf jr

Happy Mother's Day (long post)

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there. I'm not the 'mother' of this household, but I think we had a pretty good day. Caleb woke up early this morning to prepare a special Mother's Day breakfast. This breakfast consisted of Applejacks and Cookie Crisps cereals, a Shrek rice krispie treat, some Nerds candy, a 'Go-Tart,' Cheeze-It crackers, Milk Duds and peanut butter cheese crackers... all in a ziplock freezer bag. It was quite the morning treat. Kailey gave Mel some 'treasures' from her toy collection and some drawings all collected together in a makeup bag and I gave her a brand new set of knives, nicer and sharper then we've ever owned. I know, I know... You're not supposed to give your wife something for her kitchen for Mother's Day. However, she has been asking for a nice set of knives and it was better than her other request... A new dust buster. I wasn't going to be the guy that gave his wife a vacuum for Mother's Day (bad, bad husband).

We didn't really have any plans for the rest of the day except to go out to eat, so she also wanted to finally plant some sunflowers we've had growing in pots. The kids got the sunflower seeds from the LSU Ag Center Garden Show in March and we've been watching them quickly outgrow their containers ever since. We wanted to make a nice little sunflower garden in the backyard and today was good as any to do just that. Needless to say, it was much harder work than I anticipated and it wore us out. We were, though, happy with the outcome. It was a small project, but our first attempt at gardening since we moved into our house over four years ago. Only time will tell if it was a success, but we enjoyed ourselves. Here are some pictures of the new garden (before and after pics).

After our gardening experience we cleaned up and went out to eat. I wanted to take Mel and the kids to a new Japanese restaurant that I had an opportunity to try recently. She and the kids agreed, so we went to the Tokyo Cafe in Baton Rouge (Bluebonnet at Perkins). They're primarily a sushi and hibachi restaurant and not being sushi connoisseurs, we were there for the hibachi experience. It was a great meal. Entertaining to watch them prepare and delicious to eat. The service there is very friendly and the prices are good (relative to other hibachi meals). The kids really enjoyed watching the hibachi chef work his magic. Though, if I were to recommend a visit to the Tokyo Cafe, I would suggest going for lunch. The lunch menu is less than half the price, but the portions were comparable to dinner.

After a quick trip to the bookstore, we're back at the house and enjoying the Incredibles on DVD and some buttery popcorn. All-in-all, I think it was a good day.

mlf jr.

Kids Graduation

This past Thursday, Caleb and Kailey each graduated from their Kindergarten classes (click link and scroll down for a couple photos). I took the day off work to be with Mel and the kids and attend the ceremonies and my parents drove in to town to be there, too. It was a great day for all of us. It really seems like just a few weeks ago we were in that same cafeteria for Kindergarten orientation! The year has really flown by. We've got some exciting things coming up this summer, so I'll keep you guys updated with tons of pictures and stories.

mlf jr.

Catchup Post

We've been pretty busy lately. Just in the past month, my cousin Dana got married (Congratulations, Dana & Charlie! Sorry we missed it!), our kids turned 6 years old, we had a visit from our parents from Reno, we visited the Audubon Zoo, did the St. Patrick's Day parade, took the kids to the LSU Garden Show/Chili Cook-Off and wrecked our new Toyota minivan (not necessarily all in that order). Now we have Easter coming up, two birthday parties, another cousin's wedding ('tis the season) and some crawfish to be boilin'.

Oh yeah, and kickball season has started! At first, our season was in jeopardy when BREC had notified our league commissioner that we had been blacklisted by the park commission for 'misbehaving'. However, the commish met with and compromised on a deal to get the league back in action just in time to start the season (only one week late). Just like last season, we (the Super Atomic Monkey Balls) started off with a big win, emerging victorious (4-2) against the proven Bayou Ball Busters. Next week, another formidable opponent... Team America. I'll let you know how we do (hopefully with pictures this time).

mlf jr.

Link to new pictures.

Some New Pics...

I know it's been awhile since my last post and I don't have much to say today, except that we've been busy. I have a few new (and some not so new) pics to share...

Trystin celebrating Mardi Gras at school.

Lisa's Birthday Party.

My youngest cousin, Kaitlyn.

Morgan & Megyn's Birthday Carnival.

View all my pics...

Later.

mlf jr.

New Year's Eve

I know these are a little late, but here are photos from our New Year's Eve...
New Year's Eve Photos

mlf jr.

Merry Christmas

IMG_7058.JPG
Originally uploaded by mfreyder.

By the looks of this photo you could never tell we had a great Christmas, but we did. Hope all of you did, too.

Happy holidays!

mlf jr & family.

Christmas Party Time

This past weekend was my office's annual Christmas party. We shared a great dinner and many cocktails with a lot of great people. Thanks to Meg & Kurt for watching the kids for us while feeling under the weather (understatement).

Also, Mel and I were invited to attend the kids' kindergarten Christmas party at school today. So, I took the day off work to spend time with Mel before we went to the elementary school. However, I woke up feeling very sick myself and spent most of the day in bed. When it was time to get ready to go I took a big dose of medicine to hold me over for the party.

We all had lots of fun. One of the things that was sad to me when the kids started school was that there is this whole part of their day that I miss out on. I only get to hear their interpretation of it when I get home (and let me tell you, most days they even forget what they ate for lunch). So, it was great to see them in their element with all the friends they tell me about everyday.

Here's the breakdown of how the party went:

• Asked by a kindergartener who I was = 8 times
• Gave out high fives = 15 times
• Nearly tackled to the ground by a large group of kids = 4 times
• Spanked = Lost count (Don't tell me parents no longer spank their kids. These kids were pros at it.)
• Punched in a very sensitive area = 1 time and that was enough.
• Photos
  

This evening we took the kids out to dinner (Chinese food) for being so good this past week (plus Mel and I were too tired to cook). So, all in all it was a great day. No work and lots of fun makes me happy. :-)

mlf jr.

Kickball Photos

I've added a few more photos to my S.A.M.B. (Super Atomic Monkey Balls) Flickr photoset...

mlf jr.

Lots of Photos!

We have also been busy doing lots of fun family things. Here are a bunch more photos...

Kindergarten Field Trip

Gone Fishin'

Boo at the Zoo

Halloween 2006

mlf jr.

So Onto The Next Sport...

Kickball. That's right, I said kickball. Not some strange deviation that you may see on an obscure cable channel between episodes of Welcome Back Kotter and Mr. Ed. It's the sport we all played in third grade P.E.

Baton Rouge (like many cities) has an adult kickball league, RSAK. I was quite disappointed to learn that the term 'adult' kickball league simply means that only adults are allowed to join, but I digress. Our team name is Super Atomic Monkey Balls. We got jerseys, too. Anyway, we're now 1-2 and not happy about it. See just how 'not happy' we are about it right here. More pics later.

mlf jr.

Few More Kindergarten Pics...

We brought Trystin to school on Friday, so I snapped a few more pics. Here they are...

mlf jr.

Phase One... Complete.

The kids have passed into the next phase of their existence... KINDERGARTEN! It's both a wonderfully happy and slightly sad time for Mel and I. We're so proud of them, but it's such a big step towards becoming big kids, our babies are growing up (too fast, just like everyone said they would). They have done extremely well and are so excited to be starting school with "big kids."

They do it a little different in kindergarten these days. The boys all started on Monday and the girls went by themselves on Tuesday. Wednesday was the first real day of kindergarten with full classrooms. So, having the boy/girl twins like we do, we essentially had THREE DAYS of 'first day of kindergarten.'

We took some pictures, as any overzealous parents would and posted them to the site... First Days of Kindergarten.

mlf jr.

Swim Days

I know it's the end of the summer, but I'm not one to pass on a great deal. Mel and I bought a pool for the kids to finish their summer off right. It was at Wal-Mart for 40% off and I figure they'll be able to use it well into September atleast. Anyway, I posted some pics of the kids, Kailey, Caleb and Trystin, enjoying the new pool.

mlf jr.

4th of July

It's Independence Day and we spent the evening at Meg & Kurt's house eating a great dinner and shooting fireworks. Took some pictures of the fireworks if anyone wants to see them...

mlf jr.

Beach Vacation, June 2006

We spent the last few days down in Gulf Shores, AL. We all had a great time and got some much needed R&R. We have more pictures, but these are the ones I took with our digital camera...

Beach Vacation, June 2006.

mlf jr.

Weekend Fun

When I changed my blogging from Movable Type to Blogger the idea was that it would be easier to update and maintain my website. I planned on updating it atleast once a week. As it stands right now, I have 10 posts in approx. 14 weeks. Not too bad, but no posts at all since April 24. Geez.

I'm totally & completely blaming it on my work schedule. Working the crazy schedule that I have recently not only gives me little time to update the site, I also have very little time to do things worth posting about. So, this weekend I wanted to spend some time with the family.

After sleeping in on Saturday, I woke up to find my kids in the backyard splashing around in their new blow-up pool. I scarfed down some food and went out to join them. We went out for dinner and they watched a movie before bed. Today, we're taking them to see the new Pixar movie, Cars. They've been talking about it for like a year.

Here's a quick slideshow from yesterday's "pool party."



mlf jr.

Some New Photos...

Today was a busy day. We went to a local park to fly some kites that the kids got for their birthday. We all had a great time and stayed at the park afterwards to play on the slides and swings. We went home for lunch and a little rest before venturing out on a bike ride. The kids love riding their bikes in the neighborhood.

I've posted pics of the kite-flying, as well as a couple pics and a video from their school play last week.

Kite-Flying & School Play Photos

School Play Movie

Best of 2005...

This is a gallery that contains my favorite family photos of 2005.

Best of 2005.