Jesse's POW (May 30, 2010)

WHEN: June 3, 2010

WHERE: Elizabeth River, Norfolk, VA

See where this picture was taken, here!

Receipts

WHEN: June 10, 2000 WHERE: 6301 University Ave., Cedar Falls, IA Do you know what you bought ten years ago today? I do. I bought 2 pairs of gym shorts, a whoopee cushion, and a pool flotation...among other things. How do I know and why do I care?? Glad you asked!

Receipt for my gym shorts from June 10, 2000

For over a decade I have been retaining/saving/hoarding my receipts and keeping detailed records of everything I've bought. For everyone in my family this is no surprise and for those outside my family, our friendship may currently be in question. I understand. On June 10, 2000, I finally decided to keep track of my money and numerous other things that a barely 17 year-old who just finished his sophomore year of high school need not be wasting his time on. But that was me. I don't really recall what started it but I think it had to do with yard work. In a recent post I described how much I love working in the yard and have since I was a young'n. I did so much yard work that I felt I should keep track of everything that I did each year. "Recording" my work was always an idea but never materialized. That is until January 1, 2000. I thought, what better time to start recording things than on the first day of a new millennium. I was 16. I know, I know - I needed a girlfriend! It started only with noting one or two events of each day for the first couple of months. There was no semblance of any real "record keeping" but for a sophomore male in high school it was something. I wouldn't be embarrassed to say I kept a journal, but this was not a journal. It was 25-50 words of chicken scratch per day, written in mechanical pencil in a random notebook left over from my freshman year. A quick synopsis of the day, it highlighted the main (usually useless) events that I felt needed recording for future nostalgia. I will admit it may have turned "journalish" between 2002-2003 but was highly abbreviated once again after college started and time became scarce. I have kept up with this "journal" since January 1, 2000 and have made note of daily events for over 10 years. I had a notebook/s I wrote in for each year until I started "writing" digitally (Word/Excel) in 2004. It is quite entertaining to look back on what happened 2, 5, 10 years ago, and laugh at what I thought was worth noting. It can be time consuming, but I'm glad I have a copy of the last one third of my life.

The notebook that started it all!

Doing my records on November 14, 2002

On June 10, 2000 I felt the need to record more than just what had happened each day. I guess beginning my first day at my first substantial job (Hy-Vee; a grocery store chain) on June 1 and turning 17 on June 8, gave me reason to start recording what I bought and the money I made. It wasn't long before the term "records" became part of every day lingo with me and my parents and, eventually, my girlfriend. Yes, even through all my hours spent recording every detail of my life, Stacie Jo dated me for 6 years. I knew this girl was a keeper ;) Today I keep all my receipts and hard-copy "records" in three filing cabinets (I mean, it's confidential - I can't tell you where they are housed) and the rest are digital. I probably have around 3,000 receipts and that's not counting bills, check stubs, and the like that I have kept. Perhaps it's a threat to personal security/identity to keep all these documents but like Pringles says, "Once you pop, you can't stop!" I've tried. But how do you wean yourself off of a "habit" you've succumbed to every day of your adult life? At least I developed this habit and not smoking.

The oldest receipt I have in my possession (July 21, 1998). It was for my first and only fishing pole I bought when I was 15.

Receipt for balloons and flowers I got for Stace for our 1-month anniversary. Steph, you may or may not have sold these to me? You did an arrangement for me at one point when Stace and I first started dating.

My first check stub from Hy-Vee in June 2000

I have tried to scale back through the years but it's kind of been a struggle of "one step forward, one step back". It seems as soon as I stop "recording" one thing, I find something else to replace it. This really is starting to sound more and more like a smoking addiction. Yikes. I've stepped up the battle this year, however. For one, I figured, I started this madness in 2000 so I might as well start anew in 2010. I have cut back or "dumbed down" many facets of my records this year and I've received involuntary setbacks elsewhere due to our new computer we bought in January. Windows 7 and Office 2007 made sure that most of my records were plagued with unwanted changes and I have made neither the time nor care to change them. But I'm OK with that. I've always known that too much of my time was spent recording (mostly) nonsense, and that work, marriage, and (eventually) children should not have to compete for my time. I'm learning. I'm fighting. I'm changing. If you would like to contribute to my fight against this disease, please call 1-800-GET-HELP to send money (or just get me a paper shredder). If you would like to exacerbate the problem, please express interest in my records or ask me to provide a receipt from some time in our past together. Either option would be acceptable. POST SCRIPT Steph - this post was conceived with you in mind. You asked for receipts, you got 'em (although your request also seemed a slight). I forgive you :) And when you're the lone commenter on my blog, you're kinda the boss.

4 Days x 100 Degrees = 400 Years

WHEN: June 3-6, 2010 WHERE: Southeastern Virginia

I'm baaaaack! After a blogging hiatus (aka, unaccomidating schedule) I am back with the latest news in time and space. The usual "guilt" of not blogging has crept up on me almost daily during the past two weeks but I've also come to accept that not Every. Single. Aspect. of my life need be published for the WWW community. I felt a betrayer last week when I did not even publish a Picture of the Week and even worse when my only post in 12 days was a half-hearted acknowledgment of Stace and my anniversary. There has been no shortage of events to write about lately. Rather, there have been too many to allow me to write about them. For one, we have had guests at our apartment the past two weekends while at the same time Stace has been fighting off a virus/ailment she has had for the past 11 days and on Friday we found out we were to be aunt and uncle to our first nephew - Carter Travis Armstrong. But I would chose any day to have my blog suffer in the wake of my life rather than vice versa. Blogging is supposed to be fun, not crippling. But I will fill you in on some of what has transpired, mostly in the past four days. When pictures are worth a thousand words and your typing speed is measured in words per hour, a photo-saturated blog post is the obvious choice. I just hope your mouse scroller isn't broken, and I apologize for when it will be by the time you reach the end of this post. Leta and Jay visited us last weekend for Memorial Day but due to the bad weather and our poor history of taking pictures together, I have little to report on. I do know that we bought far too many sweets while they were here and that we convinced each other to each buy games, which came in useful over a wet weekend. They had planned to come down for a beach weekend and just in time for our pool/grill/fire pit to open last Saturday but that all fell through the floor. The weather was uncooperative and we later found out that our grill (which was promised by November of last year) was only available for the office to use for the "community events". Note: we have had ZERO "community events" at our complex in the 9 months we've lived here. Classic property management fraud! That's a post for another time.

The rest of the weekend/week was spent taking trips to Urgent Care. Stace was there twice and has been on prescriptions since. Stace was feeling well enough Memorial Day to let me leave her at the house and head off to the beach to enjoy the beautiful day. But her virus was no where from being finished and is still working its course. Enchantment of the Seas made its sixth visit to Norfolk this spring on Thursday so I strolled down to Waterside to eat lunch. The cruise ship returns Saturday for one more visit before cruises to Norfolk end until October. I will miss seeing these beautiful giants. Up close for the departure

Thursday night Philip and Beth arrived after spending several days in DC over Memorial Day. The three of us drove up to America's Historic Triangle Friday while Stace stayed back for work. We visited the Jamestown settlement, Colonial Williamsburg, and Yorktown.

Powhatan Indian village at Jamestown

Scale models of the three ships that brought over the first permanent English settlers, 403 years ago. This is the Susan Constant.

The 7-month journey taken by 103 colonists

Inside James Fort (recreated based on archeological digs on nearby Jamestown Island).

Blacksmith's shop

Lunch greeted us inside one of the colonial homes, although I think he was looking for lunch from us. Definitely not shy. Although we enjoyed the experiences of our trip, I don't think we could have picked a hotter weekend to go. The heat index in Williamsburg on Saturday reached 104°, and we were outside most of the day, walking around for 6 hours. The low temperature Saturday was 78. The humidity across the southeast was stifling. Dew points are a measure of humidity (the point at which dew forms - precipitation). To illustrate how high the humidity has been in the southeast this weekend, only two days in five years has the dew point reached 80° in Miami, FL; a city obviously known for its humidity. Many areas weren't far from 80 this weekend and some were above. Our next stop was at colonial Williamsburg; the country's "capital" beginning in 1699. The original capital building in Williamsburg For Jay & Leta ;) Hee-haw! A ginormous live oak Our last stop was Yorktown, where the Revolutionary War was officially won by General George Washington and the colonists in October 1781. Holding a ridiculously heavy musket after a high-decibel demonstration. This nightmarish tool was used to drill holes in soldiers heads when they were shot, to drain the fluids built up behind their skulls. Sharing love for Carolina Our first stop Saturday morning was to show Philip and Beth the Virginia Beach oceanfront. The high-octane, 2000 horsepower thrill ride "Rudee Rocket" The next stop was Cape Henry Lighthouse. Stace stayed at sea level because of some joint pain, while we trekked up the stairs for a great (but sweltering) view - think a greenhouse in 95° heat with no air circulation. A cruiser patrolling the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay We spent 3 hours at the beach on Saturday and first I needed to dig a hole for our umbrella. Of course, we never ended up using it either days. Stace was not able to go to the beach with us because she had to turn around and go home to get ready for her class' graduation Saturday afternoon. I felt bad I was missing it, especially when we drove by it on our way home from the beach. I quickly showered after we got back and caught the last part of the ceremony. Unfortunately I missed the stellar speech I heard she gave for her kids. I am so proud of her - in so many ways! Stace with one of her kids on the front lawn of their school. We grabbed a bite to eat at the Rudee Inlet Marina restaurant, just in time for sunset. And we didn't even mean to match.

After church Sunday morning, we all took much needed naps before heading back out to the beach for an even hotter day still. Stace joined us this time and was content to sit on our beach chair in the surf to stay cool. We spent most of our time in the water which was wonderfully refreshing and made it possible to even be outside.

We ended our stay by erecting a monument to memorialize our busy weekend (and to zap any remaining amount of energy we had left).

We finished the weekend with 13 games of Chickenfoot, just in time for bed at 12:30a.m.

Somehow I stayed awake at work today and now I'm staying up late to write a perpetual post. A long story for a long weekend. It was great to have friends and family visit us and its great to calm down and return to reality as well. It's time to wrap this weekend up and go catch up on some sleep.

God Gave Me You

WHEN: June 1, 2007 WHERE: Prairie Lakes Church, Cedar Falls, IA Today is Stace and my 3-year anniversary. Three years ago we said "I do" in our hometown, the place we met, fell in love, and got married. Three years ago we were surrounded by our family and closest friends. Three years ago was the best day of both our lives. So far today, Stace and I have both spent our day at separate jobs, Stace went back to work for a teacher's meeting tonight, and now she's eating a bowl of cereal for dinner. Typical classy anniversary type stuff. Stace is still getting over some virus she's had for 5 days, I have a stack of bills in front of me I have to take care of tonight, and we have a house/refrigerator/weekend to get ready before we have guests staying with us in 48 hours. I think this is one of those anniversaries that will be thrown into the "worse pot" of the "for better or for worse" dichotomy. It's all a matter of perspective and I know it could be far worse. One day we will look back at this anniversary (if we even remember it) and realize we will have had even crazier anniversaries. I'm just thankful we are together, we are both (relatively) healthy, and that we are still more in love than we have ever been. In three short years of marriage we have both learned there are far more challenging days than there are blissful ones and that that is just the way life is. Yet God has blessed me with a loving wife to be there with me every step of the way, in good times and bad. Sharing every facet of life together, especially the challenges and heartache, only strengthens our bond and the love we have for each other. Stace is truly my best friend and has been for over 8 years. Our situations (and personalities) have drawn us together in unique ways and because of that we have had to rely on each other in many ways, and in many ways as each other's best friend. Stacie Jo Brass means so much to me on many levels and I am so thankful she is who God chose for me to share my life with.

June 1, 2010

We WILL celebrate our anniversary/my birthday next week so don't think our romance has died. I know you were worried. Mostly, because you thought there would be no pictures/stories/romantic things I did for Stace/expensive electronics Stace bought for me/etc. to share. They will come. For now, I need to go have a spoonful of peanut butter for dinner and start licking some envelopes.