25 things about me.

1. I am a dreamer. I dream of things I want to do, but rarely find the time to do any of them.2. My wife calls me bowling ball because she says the only place I gain weight is in my belly.3. I am most always happy and it's really not fake.4. My life was threatened by a black guy at Macy's in NYC because I pushed my friend Jon Castle and he bumped into him. We both lived.5. I recently dreamed that I was peeing and when I woke up... well, you know the rest!6. When my wife and I got married in Hawaii I had to stop the ceremony because I forgot the ring about 50 yards down the beach. It was a fake one that I purchased at Walmart in Hawaii because I forgot the real one at home.7. I have more compassion for animals than I do for humans.8. I love to play tricks on people. My favorite is cover up the laser on my coworkers mice so they won't work. They've already figured this one out. 9. I can't sleep unless my leg is lying on my wife's back. When she is gone I stack up two pillows to simulate it.10. I used to pretend I was Zack Morris. I still watch Saved by the Bell everyday.11. I am scared to death of bugs. I know it's a little girly, but the Praying Mantis is horrifying.12. I almost drown at Waves of Fun in Hurricane, WV when I was 13, but i never told anyone, until now.13. I slept in the floor by my parents bed until was 6. I was joined by Teddy Ruxpin and My buddy.14. I was picked up by the police when I was 15 for throwing eggs on Halloween. Coach Sexton was there when I was released. He was yelling, "What kind of bird don't fly?" at me for 10 minutes.15. I am slowly going bald and I have psoriasis on my scalp. Talk about a double negative. lol16. I only require 5 hours of sleep and regularly get less than that. It makes everyday exciting.17. My wife and I make up our own dances to popular songs. You should see our "Single Ladies" dance.18. I have always wanted to be a teacher even though I require much more money than I would ever get paid.19. I was once attacked by a chicken and spurred in my back for picking up it's little chics.20. My dad had me convinced when I was younger than he could turn out the sun with a button in the car. Later I found out he could only do it when we went through a shady place on the road. 21. I could jump and grab the rim in High School with little effort and barely grabbed the net recently at the YMCA. 22. I was stripped to my underwear and forced to swim across a freezing cold river for initiation in baseball my sophomore year. I earned the nickname, "The wet spider", then. 23. I was bug bitten in a private area when I was 10 and it swelled up like a balloon. My dad is caught on video camera telling everyone at the All-Star game.24. I think I divulged too much on number 24. 25. I hit a bear last year and totalled my car. On the way home in the wrecker these too large hairy men asked me if I had any cash. I was sitting in the wrecker inbetween them. I was petrified. They took me home down a back road that I wasn't famimliar with. I had no cell phone service nor did I have any cash. I prayed a lot. I finally made it home with my wallet and dignity. I was relieved. I told them I would drop off a tip at the wrecker shop when I got some cash. I never did. Sometimes at night, I hear the wrecker in the driveway. This is all true.

Tax Time!

I finally received my w2 today! I am excited to get a little money back, however I am sure it won't be near as much as last year. I did lose a significant amount of my commission income this year. I still owe the state. I have to pay them every year. I desperately need to have more money taken out of my check this year. I loathe cutting them a check each April.

Today was a long day at work. Our internet was out until 3:00 and that affected our phones because we have Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP). That is basically the same as Vonage or Magic Jack which means our phones run through our internet. I'm sure it saves the company a ton of money. It also saved me 6 hours today! The Verizon technician was able to get everything working in about 10 minutes once he showed up. I asked him if he could make sure they would go out next Monday, too, but he didn't think it was as funny as I did. He could have been a good sport, at least.

I guess we are supposed to get a lot of snow tonight. I never believe all of the hype until I see the white flakes piling up myself. I miss the blizzards from when I was younger. They weren't really blizzards, but honestly we amassed more snow then now. My friends and I used to tunnel through the piles in my yard. It's a wonder we never suffocated from a collapse. I think it was back in 1993 when we got hammered with like a foot or more. I remember being out of school for a week. I had the best time ever. I would give anything to go back to those days. I miss being care free and just believing the world was so pure. I had the best upbringing anyone could ever ask for, but I guess that's another story for another day.

amanda, me, dad, and momma

I miss being in shape!

Amanda, Carlie, Katie, and I have been playing Wii Fit this evening. It's definitely strange that Nintendo can actually get those of us that loathe excercising to actually enjoy it. The Wii Fit can actually get me sweating in about 15 minutes. My girls are all downstairs doing the balance games as i type this and it's almost my turn. I going to win at every game. Actually, I won't win at all. I find it hard to beat my wife at many of those crazy games. I think she takes losing even harder than I do.

On other news, I am planning on having my parents a 40th anniversary party in March. We are in the early stages of planning so if anyone has any ideas let me know. Oh, and if anyone reads this that knows my parents or my loud mouth brother don't tell them. I hope all goes well and we are able to get everything we want ready for the big day. My parents have done so much for me over the years it makes me excited to be able to surprise them with something.

I guess I'll go back and play some more Wii before we watch Narnia: Prince Caspian. I've never seen Prince Caspian and am extremely excited about it. We all watched the first Narnia in the theater when it first came out and it was awesome. I am pretty pumped to see it tonight. It's nice that there are still great family movies out there. I am about sick of the filthy comedy movies that come out every other week.

Until next time.......

To Teach or not to Teach?

I have been thinking a lot about teaching lately. I have thought a lot about it for the last few years, but now I'm becoming more obsessed about it. I have always wanted to be a teacher and several of my friends already are and this just intensifies my desire. Lately, the mortgage industry isn't doing the best and though I wouldn't leave my current profession just because the state of the economy, I could plan for an alternate career in the off chance that Obama isn't the savior that everyone seems to be painting him to be.

Circuit City announced on Friday that they would be starting liquidation effective the next day and I learned that several of my friends would no longer have a job. Circuit City provided a lucrative career for many. In fact, 34,000 people will be without a job in the upcoming days. I don't foresee the end of the economic downturn in the near future. But, I do expect that a new flat screen could end up on my wall if the liquidation decided to drop a few more percentage points in the upcoming weeks.

This morning we got to church on time despite the sudden ice storm we encountered. We actually parked in a spot closer to church than we normally get. However, my wife, as usual, attempted to hurry across the road before the crossing guards let the next line of traffic through and fell in the middle of the road. Thankfully I managed to catch her before she hit too hard, but she did get a dirty knee. I'm sure her arm will be a little sore in the morning too because I yanked on it rather hard while she was falling.

Friday night we had a party for my friend Michael Wooten. He is leaving WSAZ (http://www.wsaz.com/) effective January 28 and will be working in Buffalo, NY. We all hate to see him leave, but he knows what he wants and we all wish him the best. The party was fun and all us guys sure had a great time making fun of one another as we do best.

Amanda and I watched Paul Blart: Mall Cop before I went to the party and it was hilarious. I knew Kevin James would be able to last in a feature film. He was as funny as he was in every King of Queens episode I have ever watched. I'll definitely be renting that movie as soon as I can.

I suppose I should go help with the dishes now. We fixed stir fry for dinner today and we are both stuffed. I am missing much of the game right now too. If any has any suggestions on teaching please don't hesitate to let me know.

The Holidays are over!

My Sunday is coming to and end. My final day of not being at Beneficial will be over soon and then back to business as usual. I hope this week is productive. I also hope it goes by as fast as possible. I'm finally starting to realize that the holiday season is over. This will be my first full week of work in about 4 weeks. I hope I can make it through the week. I usually get run down around Wednesday.

I've been working out with the Wii Fit pretty hard. It seems humorous that this game is what it has taken for me to do something other than sit at my desk, but it works. The exercises seem easy, but once you start doing it it gets progressively harder and it's quite fun! I'm actually sore today, but I know that it doesn't take much to get these muscles to ache. My neighbors are probably wondering what's going on next door when Amanda and I are hula hooping.

We have been taking all the Christmas decorations down today and have condensed 4 boxes into one. We have thrown out so much stuff. I should have probably put a lot of it on eBay, but the thought of all that work for a couple of bucks didn't seem worth it to me today. I'll probably regret it after the garbage truck wakes me up again in the morning. We slept late today and missed Church so I've had more time to do some things. I do hate missing Church though so I have read a few chapters in my Bible. I'm trying to read a lot more than I used to. I know it's important. It's funny that the Bible stories that I've always known are different when I go in and read them for myself. I guess when I heard them as a child some parts just got left out. It's like that game that children play in Elementary School; you know when you whisper a secret in one child's ear and as each child whispers it to the other it gets completely changed before the last child says it aloud. I do love reading the Bible though and hope I continue.

I should get downstairs. Amanda is still down there wrapping each ornament from the tree individually for fear of one of them getting broken. I would just cram them in a box and hope for the best. That's probably why I'm not allowed to help with it. I could find something else to do though. It's hard to pry me from the computer when I have a free minute.

A New Year

I should start by saying that I've never had a dedicated site for a blog. I posted some things on my myspace page www.myspace.com/jonathankyle and the pre myspace website www.xanga.com/drroop04, but never a page directly for writing. This could be good for me because I do enjoy writing (though I'm not very gramatically correct) and I have a journal at my bedside, but tend to never find the time to write. It's easier to type than look at my grotesque hand writing.

I still work for Beneficial, but I've move to the Southridge location. And while I'm thinking about it I should mention my new friend Jesse (yes, he's a guy) for turning me on to this site. I am relieved to be out of Beckley and closer to my wife, parents, friends, and most important, Church. We need to start looking for a house, but aren't in too much of a hurry. It will definitely be nice when we can get out of East Bank a purchase something closer to Charleston or Boone to cut down on the driving time and finally settle in something of our own. I'm definitely ready!

Amanda is gone to Cleveland to see her family this weekend. I am home alone and bored. I made chicken stir fry tonight and rented the latest Harry Potter movie. She won't watch them with me so this is my only chance! And I should mention that the stir fry was delicious. I may have found my calling. I hope to work out with the Wii Fit tonight, too. It has been chastising me a bit for being overweight. My BMI was 25.23. I guess sitting at my desk all day for 3 years with minimal exercise is playing its toll on me. It's finding time to exercise that's the problem.

I suppose I should go finish up some laundry and exercise for at least 45 minutes before Harry Potter. Tomorrow will result in much of the same, but Amanda will be home in the evening and I won't have to stack up pillows on the right side of the bed to put my leg over.