First things first.....

It snowed last night. Now, Im not totally opposed to snow, however, if it is to snow here, I want it to be the kind that you can do somthing with. I want it to be the kind that cripples the city, which would only be like 3 inches. A dusting is just enough to piss you off. Anyway.....

So I have been a busy boy lately. Carolina went ahead and gave me my birthday present early this year, since she had it budgeted into this paycheck. I got a 36 gallon bow-front glass aqueon aquarium kit on Wednesday. It had a good deal of the things I needed. It had the tank, the water filtration system, the lid/light, and the heater. Now, my goal is eventually to get into the saltwater hobby. But to see if I even like the hobby or not, I decided to go freshwater first. Sorry Cheryl.... Well, so far I LOVE IT!!! I spent the first 3 days just setting the aquarium up, getting the water right, reading and studying what I need to do and tips, etc... I even went to an aquarium store in Gastonia (Wet Pets) and spoke with the owner of the store. He asked what all I had, and gave me some pointers. Turns out that since I used aragonite for the "bedding" that is would raise th ph levels to the point that I could only have one type of freshwater fish, African Cichlids. I was a little bummed until he showed me what he had, and they are some pretty fish!!! They are tropical afterall, so they come in many different varieties and colors. Once I got the water right, Sunday afternoon I bought the fish. I bought 6 to start, two yellow ones (Johannis) two blue ones (Socofolis) and two white and black striped with yellow accents (forget the names). Carolina loves them, I love them, and I cant wait to add more. With the size of tank I have I can have around 12 or so in there. African Cichlids love to be with other fish....Im looking forward to it!!!

As for other news today, lets wish Barak Obama the best of luck, send him our prayers, and hope that he can turn this economy around.

Here I am!!

I just liked this picture of her.....this is one of the first pics with the new camera.....

I am here to officially blog!! Yes ladies and gentlemen, I know it has been a while and some of you have been eagerly anticipating the next segment in Steve's Life - The Blog. So, without further delay, this is it. You will be caught up from Christmas to today (which was a huge day.)

So Christmas came, it was awesome, it left and never looked back. Isn't that always the way it is. We love you Christmas, we prepare for you and celebrate you and bake you cookies. All you do is wave as you pass bye and throw us some presents to distract us as you sneak out the back door. Ahh, who am I kidding, I love you. You were especially good to me this year. I had a "Gadget Guy Christmas" that will extend on into my birthday thanks to Mom and James. I will start with what you see, my camera. Carolina got me a new camera!!! I am now snapping pictures left and right with a Canon Powershot SX110 Is. It is an awesome camera. 9 Megapixels with 10x optical zoom (up to 40x, but with lower resolution.) Dad and Anne got me a toy I have yet to stop playing with also, a GPS for my car. Now I have tricked this thing out with all kinds of vehicles thanks to Garmin. I am currently setting sail on the map with the Black Pearl, mate. I even use this thing to get places I already know how to get to, sad. And for a combined Christmas / Birthday present, Mom and James got me a PS3. Obviously, my thumbs have gotten a workout. Now I will say I haven't gotten to play as much as I want, life just kind of gets in the way of my slacking off. Christmas overall was just awesome. I didnt have to work like I thought I would, I got to spend good quality time with my family. Nothing like champagne at breakfast, paw paw! New Years was pretty cool too. Brought in the New Year with Carolina and some of her friends, so you know we brought in the New Year LATIN STYLE!! It was REALLY cool. Hispanic people are just awesome to be around in a FIESTA atmosphere. They are so loving and joyous. Grown men I had never met before were giving me bear hugs saying
"Feliz Ano Nuevo!!" Hope everyone's 2008 was awesome, and youre 2009 is blessed!

Now onto today.......the car situation. Carolina's car had to go BACK to the shop this morning. It seemed to be slipping to the point where Carolina did not think she could get home from work, let alone drive to school, Columbia, clinicals....etc. "Just let her use your car" you say?? Sure lets just see how much hers will cost to get is fixed.....what? 1600? Well if you add that to the 600 we just put in it a month ago, thats 2200 dollars......yeah, we thought so too. So it was off to get a new car. Before we found out the death sentence for Tighty Whitey (Carolina's car's name) Carolina had actually laid the ground work for the new car by doing a little internet research, talking to a couple dealers, etc... We decided to stick with Hyundai because they have been good to us, and they are reasonable cars. If you haven't been in a Hyundai lately, check em out. Like Virginia Slims, theyve come a long way baby. So initially she thought about getting another Accent, since she liked hers so much. But after much thought and prayer, she came to the decision that this time around (her ex husband picked out and bought her last car,) she wanted to get somthing she liked, somthing she wanted, and somthing that would be functional for lifes little changes in the future (meaning children.) I know, came as a shock to me too. She always wanted an SUV, wanted black or red, and wanted to stay around a 300 per month payment. Well, she got all that in a 2008 Hyundai Tucson. Now we have a Tucson and an Elantra. We are a Hyundai family!!


So thats all for now, hope you enjoyed. I will get busy on here. I apologize for my lack of effort lately.

Things are getting back to normal....

I have really neglected this lately. With all of the hustle and bustle of the Holiday season, the news presents to play with, and now getting into a new work schedule, I have a lot of posting to do. So once I get all of the pictures uploaded to the computer I will post Christmas, New Years and so on....

a meaning of Christmas.....

So, I am going to admit that Cheryl was first to hit on this topic, however I feel it necessary for me to give a different viewpoint.

Christmas is obviously a special time for me, as you have seen from my blog. This year is feeling a little down, a little dreary and not-so-special. I have to work on Christmas day, for the first time in my life. Ever since I found this out, I have been down in the dumps.

Tonight, I went and finished the little bit of shopping I had to do. When I came home, I decided I would not let this work thing "get me down." So, I popped Emmitt Otter's Jugband Christmas in the dvd player, wrapped the presents and soaked in the crinkly, ribbony, awfully wrapped splendor of the moment. Right now as I write this, White Christmas is on the tv. Life is, afterall, good.

After the comedy of wrapping I performed, I decided to check Cheryl's blog. I was choked up from the moment I read about the hard candy that Maude used to have every Christmas. Thinking about Grandma sitting on the couch and handing us ornaments to put on her tree. Thank you Cheryl for reminding me what Christmas is about. The memories of Maude and Poppy, Grandma and (wish I remembered him more) Grandpa. Christmas Eves with Dads family, Christmas days with Moms. After the divorce, as wierd as it may sound, I think fondly of the trips between North Carolina and Ohio. While it wasn't conventional, it was Christmas.

Like Cheryl said, our parents always did an awesome job of making our Christmas special. While they were together, since they have been apart, and blessed us with more parents, Christmas has never had a dark cloud. This could really translate into a "Thank you for all you have done" to our parents, but that is another blog. For now I just want to thank them for making the "season bright." I love you.

My Week

So I had a rough start to my week. I was hit with the stomach virus that has been going around the North Carolina Piedmont region. Sunday night I got home and started feeling bad. "Why dont you go to the bathroom and try to throw up?" Carolina says. "Because I dont want to throw up!" I replied. Well, want in one hand and.....lets not go there. I was sick as a dog. Carolina had never heard a Schley guy throw up before, so she was in for a looooong sleepless night. When we Schley guys do our business, WE DO OUR BUSINESS. It aaaaall comes out, like it or not. i puked so hard, I burst a blood vessel in my right eye. So I was up and down, up and down, back and forth to the bathroom all night. I was so cold and shaking so badly, it was just awful. I really felt bad for Carolina because she did not get a wink of sleep all night thanks to me. Monday was better. No throwing up, however I was still making a path in the carpet to the bathroom all day. My body was achey, I slept most of the day and Carolina was awesome. Bought me Sprite, made me eat soup, made me take immodium and pretty much took care of me. Usually she treats me like Nurse Carolina, but since she and I had a discussion about this, she still took care of me, but in less of a harsh "do what i say" manner. So then Monday night came and MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL where there was a HUGE matchup between our Panthers of Carolina and the Butt Pirates (Buccaneers) of Tampa Bay. AWESOME GAME!!! Panthers won big and won 1st place in the NFC South. Now if they just win the rest of thier games they have a 1st round bye and home field through the playoffs.

On Wednesday, Carolina, Mom and I went to Biltmore House in Asheville to see it all done up for Christmas. I had never been to Biltmore, it was AMAZING. That house is freakin' HUGE! There is no reason to have a house that big. But since it's there.... It was beautiful and worth going back to see again. Mom paid for our admission, so I bought our breakfast on the way there, and Carolina paid for our lunch. Also, for only 25 dollars you could purchase a one year pass to Biltmore, so Carolina and I will be going back. It gets you a lot, free general admission to the house, the winery, and all of the grounds. It gets you two free passes for guests during a certain time period, and discounts on all other tickets. Discounts in the gift shops, discounts on pretty much everything. Ok, enough. You get the idea.

So other than that, Carolina is done with school for the semester and it is awesome to think of the time I am going to get to spend with her until January. I love spending time with her more than anything. She is going to pick up hours here and there, but nothing crazy.

Work has gotten.......less stressful, but still stressful. Layoff fear has subsided, however they are really hammering sales like never before. I am not the most stellar of salespeople, so it creates friction. I dont know why I am so opposed to selling, it just gives me an awful feeling in my soul. I LOVE people and talking to them, but when it comes time to start selling to them, I just feel slimy and "used car salesman." I feel like I am taking all of that conversation and trust building I just made with them and saying "I was just buttering you up so youd buy insurance from me." Enough of that too.

Well thats enough for now. Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Ready for Christmas.....

I would say that I am ready for Christmas, but in a sense, Christmas is already here. I mean, what do we think of when we think of Christmas? Time spent with family, decorations, specials that we grew up with on TV, all the great food and presents under the tree. Well, check check check check check! Christmas is here!!! I love this time of year and am so glad it is here. It will be a sad day on the 26th when it is all over.

Carolina needed a break from her studying the other night, so we went over to Dad and Anne's and helped decorate the tree. Cheryl insisted that I post the pictures, so here you are!

Speaking of Carolina's studies, she passed her final exam with an 87.5!!! I cannot begin to explain how proud I am of her. She sacrifices so much for studying and school. I just wish I could reward her for that. I know we say "Her degree and future are the reward," but I think we all agree a little immediate gratification is sweet. I love her, am proud of her and am so excited for her.

Breakdown

So yesterday was an interesting day. First of all I called in sick to work....but thats another story. Carolina had a long day of studying ahead of her, so I had the bright idea of going to Cracker Barrell and getting a good breakfast. You know, a little brain food. Nothing like eggs, bacon, toast and pancakes to start your day right. So we drove to Hickory, ate, started to head home and then it happened. What we had all been predicting would happen eventualy happened. Carolina's car went kaput. We were going up the ramp to get on 321 (for those of you familiar with the area) when her car just would go no more. I eased it onto the side of the road, listened to Carolina freaking out, and just sat there wondering what the problem was and what to do next. The car had a full tank of gas, so that wasn't the problem. Transmission had been acting funny when going into 2nd gear lately, like it was jumping a little or reving to high and long before shifting. Maybe that is it. So, thinking Dad was close by and not busy, I called him. He advised me to call the auto shop across the street from my house and have them dispatch a tow truck and have them take it in. Meanwhile he would head our way and pick us up. Turns out he was on 16 not to near us, and somewhat busy to boot, so THANKS DAD. He did make impressive time though!! He took us to the house, dropped us off and headed back to work. So thinking more and more about her car, we wondered, should we just buy a new one, or get this fixed? If it was to cost 1000 or more to fix, no way, not worth it, just buy a new car. When he called us to tell us it was the timing belt, and with tow cost would be around 600, we decided to get it fixed. 600 and it may last at LEAST until Carolina graduates and gets a new job. That is the point when we wanted to get her a new car anyway, so pray that this is the only problem we face with her car until after May. Thats the update!!