hoose.

So the house deal is in the process of falling apart. The appraisal didn't come back very well. That makes me a bit nervous. I won't about the quality of the house.

Anyway... we are working between the buyers, realtors, mortgage company, etc... I don't see good news on the horizon though. But I'm a pessimist.

Miranda is irritated at me about the whole deal (and I can't say that I blame her).

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Patrick

Today I offered Patrick the choice between Lucky Charms and Shredded Wheat and he picked Shredded Wheat. *sigh*

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Nellie

Yesterday, I was attempting to watch some football (I didn't have much luck because the internet streams weren't very good). During one of the commercial breaks, a commercial for electric razors came on. Nellie said, "Dad! That's what you need for your chin!" Subtlety isn't a strong point for children.

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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!!

Rab

Christmases

Here's our itinerary for the holidays.

Thursday night is our Christmas (Patrick, Nellie, Miranda, and I) and we will have the children open up our presents to them. That will be fun.

Then we get up on Friday and head to Vinita (about 9:00 or 9:30). Spend the day with my parents and have the Allen Christmas on Friday night. Then on Saturday, I think we are going to Paul and Janes. I'm not sure though. The Christmas with them is on New Years and we are having it in Wichita at Aaron and Lindsay's hoose.

Overall it will be an enjoyable holiday but a lot of travel.

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Cigs

Due to high taxes in some states and low taxes in others, cigarette smuggling has become a big business. In New York, taxes are $4.35 per pack and people are making a killing by smuggling cigs in from lower tax states. It's a replay of Prohibition except the leading player is cigs instead of booze.

In Missouri, taxes are $.17 per pack. In Kansas, taxes are $.79 per pack. So each time I drive to work, I have a new possible revenue stream. Except I know no smokers.

Rab

Merry Christmas

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IMPORTANT!

My DNA results came back. Some fairly staggering news. It said:

• Percentages above 2% are considered significant indicators of your family’s origins.
• Percentages above 4% may be interpreted as highly significant indicators of your family’s origins.

Here are the ones that matter:

• England - 2%
• France - 2.1%
• Iceland - 2.1%
• Northern Ireland - 2.7%
• Scotland - 2.5%
• Switzerland - 2.9%
• U.K - 2.1%
• Wales - 2.2%
  

The Switzerland one confuses me.

I do have some close to 2%:

• Denmark - 1.7%
• Germany - 1.6%
• Ireland - 1.8%
• Netherlands - 1.9%
• Norway - 1.6%
• Spain - 1.6%
  

But overall, the northern part of the U.K. (Scotland/Ireland) appears to be the major factor in my ancestry.

I hate the cold too. I think something was lost in my DNA somewhere. Iceland??? Brrr....

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for Dad

Haggis flavored potato chips are coming to America

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Patrick

Patrick still talks about Grandma Jeanne and her being sick. The other day he kept saying that Grandma Jeanne wasn't sick anymore.

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last night

Lots of interesting stuff happened last night.

1. Miranda has some personal health issues (that won't be discussed on the blog).
2. I threw out my back. My leg had been hurting and I couldn't decide what it was. When I was drying myself off, it went out.
3. Our washer broke. We called out a repairman and the problem was a piece of dog food that a mouse had put in the braking mechanism. It was just in the right place where it didn't get ground down.

Miranda has a doctor appointment, I'm going to try to get one today, and the washer cost us $64.50.

What a day.

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for everyone.

I can't hear today. My sinuses are raging again. So speak up or get prepared to hear "What?" a lot.

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house

In the movie, "Gone With The Wind", she says "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again". When we get into our new house, I'm saying the same thing about cold showers. We have a 5 gallon hot water heater. At least it seems like it's 5 gallons. I'm wanting to look into tankless water heaters or a BIG water heater. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 gallons.

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program

Today is our church Christmas program. I REALLY dislike being in church Christmas programs. But such is my life.

We only have a few more steps in getting our house. I sent in the final batch of paperwork and now they have to get it appraised and then to the underwriter. Then we set a closing day. Exciting stuff.

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Monett

Off to Monett today.

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Christmas programs.

Patrick and Nellie's Christmas programs are over. They were both nice but Nellie's was hilarious. It was mostly 2 year olds that didn't want to be up there. The first song was lost in the cacophony.

Next program is on Friday night and it's the high school.

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holidays

This week is going to be a very busy week for us. Christmas program with Patrick on Monday night, program with Nellie on Tuesday night, and High School program on Friday night.

We mostly finished up Christmas shopping yesterday. We are ready for Christmas.

I get off the 24th and the entire next week. So we are having our Christmas with Patrick and Nellie on the night of the 23rd or the morning of the 24th. Then late morning/early afternoon on the 24th we are headed for Vinita. 25th late morning/early afternoon, we will head out to Scammon.

It's going to be a fun holiday. I wish we were in our house!

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Great News!

Olympique Marseille now has official jeans! Unfortunately they are 59.90 euros which comes out to be about $80.

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