Andy and Jaime Matthews - This is true love, you think this sort of thing happens every day?

Lizards!

on May 22 2008 at 02:15 PM by: Jaime Matthews

File under: General

Lizards creep me out. I see them when we visit Florida, and there were tons when I was in Puerto Rico. Crawling all over the walls, and the locals acted like they didn't even notice. Some people try to liken them to squirrels, but squirrels will run away if you go anywhere near them. A squirrel would never come up on the porch while I was sitting there, like a lizard did yesterday. At my house! In Nashville!

I had no idea until this week that Nashville was home to any variety of lizard. Someone wrote on our local listserv that they had seen some and wondered what they were. The discussion went on about how they eat bugs and to leave them alone, and one guy said they have only gotten into his house a few times and the dogs usually take care of it. WHAT! Lizards are supposed to be behind glass, like at the zoo, or in the desert maybe. I can handle seeing them in Florida, mainly because I don't live there. But this has been the week of the lizard around here. We saw one at the zoo the other day sitting on one of the paths, but I reasoned he was there because it's a very wooded area, lots of bugs. But one on my porch? That completely broke me down.

They are technically called skinks, I guess. You can see a picture of what the one on my porch looked like here. For an even more disgusting picture, click here. Hopefully our pest control people are doing a good enough job that the nasty things won't find too many bugs and will move on. If I see many more, I won't be able to get to Illinois soon enough!

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May Day

on May 01 2008 at 08:28 AM by: Jaime Matthews

File under: General

Happy May Day, everyone! I don't know why that ancient holiday has stuck with me since I learned about it in grade school, but every May 1 I remember it. If you aren't familiar, it used to be tradition that people would put together little baskets of flowers and goodies and hang them on the doors of their friends and neighbors. A very cute idea, I think, but I fully understand why it's not so popular anymore. Our friends are scattered across the country, and we rarely know our neighbors. I am always amused on Halloween that we all willingly go to our neighbors and ask them for candy when on October 30 we might not even wave to them as they get into their car.

The idea of May Day reminds me of something Andy and I did a few years ago for the first day of fall. Andy was in a bad mood because it was his birthday and we had gone to a movie, and while we were inside his car got broken into and all his CD's were stolen. Again. I was looking for a way to cheer him up, and remembered that the next day was the first day of fall. I hauled Andy with me to the grocery store to buy a bunch of little pumpkins and gourds, and we came home and made little cards that said "Happy First Day of Fall" or something like that. We then went out (around 11 PM) and put these little packages on the porches of all our friends for them to find in the morning. We had a great time making them, and it was fun for our friends, too.

I wish that traditions like May Day were still alive. There have been times when I wanted to do something for a neighbor but stopped myself because "people just don't do that kind of thing." I've seen those little storks in someone's yard announcing that they just had a baby and thought about sneaking a package of diapers or a basket of fruit onto their porch. Maybe next time I will force myself to follow through, in honor of May Day.

Comments :3: - View comments

Let's not wait Jaimes. Let's make it a point to do it sooner than that.

Andy Matthews - May 01, 2008 01:29 pm

What a great idea, nothing wrong with spreading ramdon acts of kindness around! The world needs more of that. Rock On!

Mom M. - May 02, 2008 05:52 am

May Day as you call it is actually a very big holiday in Sweden. We call it "F??rsta maj", which is translated to "May 1st", and lots of political demonstrations take place on this day. Charity organizations sell May Flowers to raise money to their causes and so on. So May Day is certainly not dead, just not very active in the United States :)

Jesper - May 12, 2008 12:37 pm

I have a new blog!

on April 11 2008 at 08:01 AM by: Andy Matthews

File under: General, Andy

No no, don't worry...Andy&Jaime.com isn't going anywhere. But all of the coding and techy posts that I've been making over the last year or so are going to have a new home.

That's right...I purchased yet another domain name, but this one's really legit. It's my name Andy Matthews. At the moment, the only thing there is a splash page because I just bought the domain name last night, but give me a month or two and I'll have a blog there up and running.

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We need to have more posts, on this one as well as the new one.....we grandparents crave more news about the family..... love and kisses

mom - April 12, 2008 06:39 am

DV-ARGH!!

on February 05 2008 at 06:18 PM by: Jaime Matthews

File under: General

We love our DVR (Digital Video Recorder for those of you still not in this century) with all our hearts, and we've come to rely on it almost exclusively for our TV watching needs. We always have one episode of each of Noelle's favorite shows at the ready, and we never have to worry about when something is on because it will just be taped for us to watch at our leisure. We never have to watch commercials, and we can pause and rewind live TV. Amazing.

This past season, we decided we had way too many shows recording and felt like we needed to cut some out. We used a system of giving each show a priority rating and then cutting out the ones at the bottom. There were some shows that we had a hard time letting go of even still, though, so we thought of a new idea. Tape the entire season, then save it to watch all at once later on when the current shows stop playing new episodes. Brilliant!

Except that our DVR messed up. We started watching Amazing Race last night, and realized that mysteriously the first 4 episodes were no longer there. Then several other episodes were mostly cut off by 60 Minutes running over into the time slot. So basically out of 11 episodes we had about 4 hours total taped. Awesome. DVR, you disappointed me. I'll still never leave you, though.

Comments :2: - View comments

Why DVR? Why did you let us down like that? We're still glad that TK & Rachel won Amazing Race, but we would have loved to see more of their positive attitudes, and their laid back spirits.

Andy Matthews - February 06, 2008 07:16 am

You can see some of the episodes (in 5 parts) on youtube. Search for Amazing Race 12. We missed some of the endings because of football delays...argh is right!

Mom B - February 06, 2008 01:36 pm

"Customer Service"

on January 29 2008 at 06:12 PM by: Jaime Matthews

File under: General

I don't know if I'll ever stop being surprised by terrible customer service. I've had two instances this week, both of which were more inefficiency and stupidity than the typical rudeness and unhelpfulness that happens on a pretty regular basis.

The first experience was for a magazine that we've received sporadically since we moved in, addressed to the former owner. He had a recording studio, so I guessed that it was a complimentary copy that he just failed to stop. My original e-mail to them included his name, address, and every last digit on the mailing label. They wrote back: We are unable to locate the account with the information provided. Please resend your inquiry including publication name and the address information as it appears on the mailing label. If possible, also include the account number listed directly above the name and address.

I sent it again, adding that I wasn't sure how much clearer I could write it out. Then they wrote: We appreciate your inquiry and welcome the opportunity to serve your needs. To comply with your request please contact our main switchboard number at 212-767-6000. I called, and was told that I needed to call the number for subscriptions. I called. Then I was told I needed to call the number for COMPLIMENTARY subscriptions. Finally after 2 e-mails and 3 phone calls, I'm off the list.

The other experience was with Proctor & Gamble. I wrote to them about a product that I've been buying for a long time and for the first time ever I'm having an issue with it. I figured that I might get a coupon, or a rebate, or something along those lines. Instead, today I got this e-mail: I'm sorry you're disappointed with our product. We have many checkpoints along our manufacturing lines to ensure the quality of our products, so we'd like to get yours back to better understand what happened. I'm following up with mailing materials so you can return the product to us, postage paid. Look for these within 2-3 weeks.

And I wrote back: Unless you're also going to follow up with a free product, I won't be sending this back to you. It doesn't work perfectly, but I paid for it and won't pay to replace it.

I mean, really? They want me to just ship it back to them with no offer to replace it? Thanks for offering to pay the shipping, guys! I'm glad to pay $6 for an inferior product, then ship it to you so you can figure out what went wrong! Ridiculous.

Comments :1: - View comments

Boy, do I agree with you on the acute lack of good customer service now days. There is nothing that irks me more that getting the run-around....call here, no you have to call there, no actually you must call over there......AUGGHHHHH It is enough to make you want to reach through the phone and throttle someone, anyone!!

Carol - January 31, 2008 06:11 am

Holding on to Hope

on January 10 2008 at 09:07 AM by: Jaime Matthews

File under: General

Excerpts from "Holding on to Hope" by Nancy Guthrie

So many people are afraid to bring up my loss. They don't want to upset me. But my tears are the only way I have to release the deep sorrow I feel. I tell people, "Don't worry about crying in front of me, and don't be afraid that you will make me cry! Your tears tell me you care, and my tears tell you that you've touched me in a place that is meaningful to me - and I will never forget your willingness to share my grief."

When others shed their tears with me, it is as if they are taking a bucketful of sadness and carrying it for me. It is, perhaps, the most meaningful thing anyone can do for me.

Even now I can't say I'm healed. Part of my heart is no longer mine. I gave it to Hope and she took it with her, and I will forever feel that amputation.

Before losing Hope, I never really understood why people found such comfort in knowing their loved one is in heaven, but I do now. When you lose someone you love, heaven becomes much more of a reality, much more than a theological concept or theatrical cliche. I have come to the place where I believe a yearning for heaven is one of the purposes and one of the privileges of suffering and of losing someone you love. You see, a piece of me is there. I now see in a much fuller way that this life is just a shadow of our real life - of eternal life in the presence of God.

I read through this book yesterday while I was organizing the office. It was given to me after Charlotte died, along with several other books about loss and infant death, but for a long time I was unable to read any of them. We are having a difficult time waiting to become pregnant with baby #3, and I feel like I'm grieving all over again. Or I never stopped. The author of this book lost a daughter and then a son, both only lived about 6 months due to a genetic disease. Put Charlotte's name in place of Hope's and you will know exactly how I feel.

I have had several friends and acquaintances completely stop talking to me since Charlotte died, and some that will talk to me, but not about Charlotte. It hurts. I don't blame them. Before I lost Charlotte, I don't think I could have very easily gone there with a friend either. I just wish that everyone knew that it's okay to cry, or to make me cry. I wish that people didn't look at me so strangely when I say I have one daughter here and one in heaven. Why is it so difficult for us to carry each other's burdens when it comes to death and loss? Are we just so scared of it happening to us that we don't want to think about it?

The last paragraph I quoted from the book is really true for me. I didn't think about heaven much at all until Charlotte died, and now even though I love my life here and want to have 3 more children to love and raise on this earth, I see that my life will never be just as I want it to be until I get to heaven. My family will never be complete as long as Charlotte is separate from us. Even if I live another 70 years, my life here is just a blip compared to eternity in heaven.

I will continue to tell people about my daughter in heaven, even if it makes them squirm, because maybe if all of us who have lost babies before they breathed on this earth would claim them as our children, people would start to value life at conception like they should. Maybe if I remind them of heaven and that our loved ones are there, they will start to develop a deeper view of what God has in store for his children. Romans 8:18 says, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us." Charlotte helped me understand how true that is.

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Maybe, just maybe, that's the reason that the Lord took Charlotte from us Jaimes. Maybe he realized that this was a subject many people, including the two of us, are very uncomfortable with.

These days, no one wants to talk about death because it's not as common as it used to be. even as near as 50 years ago, infants died more often than they do now. People lost babies more than they do now. But people also talked to each other more...friendships and family ties went deeper.

Here's to hoping we can use Charlotte's passing to grow closer to our own friends and family.

Andy Matthews - January 10, 2008 09:31 am

I don't believe the Lord took Charlotte from you, but I do believe He can/will and is in the process of redeeming the darkness you have felt because of it. Life happens... medical flukes happen... evil is out there. Although I know He could if He wanted to, I will never believe that the God I serve chooses to take children or purposely cause tragedies. Why He doesn't prevent loss from happening is another question, but I do know that He is faithful, His promises are true and He WILL REDEEM these dark days of grief. We love you and are praying for another niece or nephew soon!

Melinda Bartling - January 10, 2008 09:12 pm

Thanks for sharing your heart. I'm so glad that there are books out there that have been written out of someone else's pain that help. I agree with Mindy that God didn't cause this to happen. The amazing thing is that there is no waste in God's economy. He has promised to take the very worst things that have happened to us and turn them into good if we let Him. Not that there is anything good about losing Charlotte...but good has already come out of the author's experience in losing Hope. You read it, you identified with it, it gave you a voice to share your experience. We love you guys...and we miss Charlotte too. Wish I could be there to hug you!!

Mom B - January 11, 2008 08:01 am

The Pros and Cons of Traveling in the Night

on January 02 2008 at 09:53 AM by: Jaime Matthews

File under: General

Better late than never. We traveled to Brandon, Florida for Christmas this year. Google says it is a 10 hr, 50 min drive. That's of course without a toddler, two dogs, and a husband with a small bladder and a knee that acts up if he sits still for too long. So, knowing it would take us closer to 13 hours to make the trip, we decided to leave in the middle of the night. That way the roads would be a little clearer for a while, we'd get there much earlier in the day, and Noelle would sleep more of the time. Right? Well, two out of three of those thoughts were true.

On the way there, we left at 3:15 AM. Noelle didn't go back to sleep until 5:15 AM. Then at 6 AM, Andy had to get out and stretch (remember that knee I mentioned?), thus ending the "nap" Noelle and I were taking. Noelle did not fall back asleep for even one minute for the rest of our 13.75 hour trip. She did fairly well, though. She always does okay in the car, only complaining when she's super bored or hungry. We arrived in Brandon at 5 PM central time. I felt so disgusting the whole time. I had forgotten to leave my hairbrush out, so I didn't get to brush my hair before we left at 3. I also didn't brush my teeth or wash my face. But, we made it.

The way back, I remedied some of the mistakes I had made the first time. I brushed my teeth and hair, washed my face, and felt much better. We left at 4:15 AM this time, since we'd be gaining an hour. This time, Noelle fell back asleep within 15 minutes. I'm sure it helped that she was sick and hadn't slept well the whole time we were in Brandon. The down side to that - we hadn't slept well either, since we shared a room with a coughing baby, so driving in the middle of the night was not as easy. We had stopped 3 times already before 8 AM. At one point, we stopped at a rest area, put in a DVD for Noelle, and tried to nap for 30 minutes. It really didn't help enough. We made it home by 4:30, so we beat our trip down, but it was the worst 13.5 hours of our lives. Thankfully we were kind of slaphappy for part of it, which at least made it sort of fun.

So, if you're going to drive in the middle of the night, make sure you get some good nights of sleep leading up to the trip. Bring lots of snacks, a DVD player, some good music, ibuprofen for that knee, and leave the dogs at home. I think we'll fly next time.

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We're getting the band back together!

on January 01 2008 at 12:03 AM by: Andy Matthews

File under: General, Andy, Friends

Yes, yes, I know it's been a long time since we made a post. Yes, I also know that we skipped right over Christmas in Florida with the Matthew's family, Noelle's birthday, and the grueling 13+ hour drives to and from Tampa.

We'll get to those, never fear. I'm coming to you with a story of a scrappy rock band named "Assh@t" that was founded this evening deep in Old Hickory, Tennessee. What's that you say? "What" hat? Founded where? I'm talking about Rock Band, the video game for the XBOX 360 which allows up to 4 people to play "musical instruments" simultaneously. Assh@t? That was our band name.

Maybe I should start at the beginning. Today my boss, Aaron West mentioned that he was going over to the house of a mutual friend of ours to hang out and play Rock Band. Now I've been reading lots about this game, and it's parent, the monster hit Guitar Hero, but I've never had the chance to play either. When I mentioned this to Aaron, he invited me to come over. I double checked with "the home office", got the necessary requisition forms and I was off.

It's quite enjoyable actually, but pretty tough. There are 4 available instruments: guitar, drums, bass, and surprisingly the microphone. Each instrument has it's own settings, difficulty level, and buttons (except for the mike). When a song starts up, you're presented with a train track looking thing. This represents the notes you'll have to play. On each instrument (again excepting the mike), are 5 notes, or in the case of the drums 5 drum pads. As the song progresses, notes scroll towards you in the column representing the note you need to play on the instrument.

Never fear, this isn't a note for note representation, nor could it be with only 5 notes to play. BUT< it is enough to give you a real feel for the song. And it's freaking awesome to play. I was able to cycle through all of the instruments tonight and liked each of them. The drums were the hardest due to the setup and the angle they were at, plus I've never played drums. I have played guitar, bass, and I sing so that's not too bad. Out of all of them I had the most fun with the guitar and the bass. They actually make Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii and I'd like to pick that up after I finish off 2 games I'm playing now.

So, until the Assh@t reunion tour, I'll see you guys later. I'll leave you with this screenshot of Rock Band in action.

Comments :1: - View comments

I recieved Guitar Hero for Christmas from my husband. When we held the Christmas staff party for his company someone brought it. I played it, loved it, and wondered why we didnt own it. I can't wait to try rock band. Love your site.

Zoe - January 02, 2008 05:17 am

Christmas in...er....December!

on December 14 2007 at 11:08 AM by: Andy Matthews

File under: General, Andy, Family

We're traveling down to Tampa for Christmas this year. It's going to be great having all that time with my parents. Plus Noelle is changing and growing at an almost daily pace now. I can't wait for my mom and dad to see her and talk to her.

The good thing is that we'll get to spend almost a week with my parents in Brandon. The drawback? Not getting to see Jaime's family on one of the more special days of the year.

So, rather than not get to see us on the 25th, Dean and Diane are driving to Nashville to see us THIS weekend! They're already on the road, and should be arriving sometime this evening. It'll be nice because with this being Noelle's first Christmas (that she'll actually "get"), they'd miss a lot otherwise.

So bring it on! We can't want to see them and spend time with them.

Comments :1: - View comments

How great can that be. Dean & Diana, I'm glad that you will have the fortune to be with them. I can not tell you how much it meant to us to be able to be with you all and I'm sorry it didn't work out that we could all be together again this year. I wish you all a very Mery Christmas and son, looking forward to see your family here with us this year.

Dad in Brandon - December 14, 2007 01:23 pm

Back from thanksgiving, and boy am I giving thanks!

on November 26 2007 at 08:52 AM by: Andy Matthews

File under: General, Andy

Jaime, Noelle, and I travelled up to Northern Illinois for the Thanksgiving break. We left Wed afternoon at 4:20pm and didn't arrive in New Lenox (where her parents live) until 1:30am. That's right...we were on the road for over 9 hours...for something that should only be a 8 hour trip max!

Our time in New Lenox was great though. We had a great time with family, and friends, Jaime and I spent some time with fellow Whiskerino-ians Chad (monkey boy), and Tony (hey Zeus), and we ate lots of good food. And then it came time to drive home.

While the trip back to Nashville went FAR better than the trip UP, it was still excruciating. I love road trips, but lately my knees have been giving me grief, and on long trips where I can't stretch out my legs, it's tough. Not to mention having an almost 2 year old in the car.

We made it back though, and in good time (left at 12:30, got back around 9:00). So I'm back at work, and giving thanks for not having to drive again for another few weeks.

Oh, and we're DEFINITELY buying a portable DVD player for Noelle before we make the trip to Florida for Christmas.

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We have a DVD player for the car if you want us to send it to you. It even has dual screens. LUVU

Mom - November 26, 2007 08:04 pm

What's wrong with this picture

on November 08 2007 at 10:52 AM by: Jaime Matthews

File under: General

To go along with Andy's weight loss goals, we just bought a new bathroom scale. Our old one was not digital, and it's really old and not all that reliable. The new one I bought comes with a free 6 month subscription to Weight Watchers Magazine. All you have to do is mail in this subscription form along with a copy of your receipt from purchasing the scale.

My receipt has these three items on it:
Bath scale
Milk Duds
Raisinets

I obviously wasn't thinking about being caught red handed buying CANDY while I'm asking for a weight loss magazine. Oh well! I guess that's why I need it.

Comments :2: - View comments

Totally busted.

Andy Matthews - November 08, 2007 12:20 pm

I am laughing out loud on that one, may even share it at Weight Watchers next week. The ladies will all get a kick out of it for sure.

carol - November 08, 2007 03:00 pm

Daylight Savings Time visits the Matthews Household

on November 07 2007 at 01:50 PM by: Andy Matthews

File under: General, Noelle Jordan, Andy

Twice every year the United States, and many other countries around the world, perform a ritual dating all the way back to the ancient Romans (that's even older than my parents). This practice, known alternately as Daylight Savings Time (DST) in the US, "summer time" in the United Kingdom, requires us to adjust our clocks forwards or backwards one hour depending on the time of year.

"Spring forward, fall back" has become a common mantra for those of us who have difficulty remembering which way is which. In spring and the summer we get an extra hour of daylight in the evenings, while in the fall and winter months, it gets dark as early as 5pm (here in Nashville at least). While this can be a good thing during the summer months, it really can play havoc with us in the winter. There's a 4X higher incidents of traffic accidents in the fall/winter, farmers have less time in the fields, and my daughter Noelle wakes up one whole hour earlier than normal.

You heard me. We finally got her trained to sleep through the night (only took us 16 months). Then we finally got her to start waking up sometime around 7pm reliably and now the US government perpetrates this on us? She's woken up earlier than 6:30 every morning since DST went into effect. Now mind you, I enjoy spending time with Noelle, especially since she's getting a personality, and I can interact with her. But when you're used to sleeping in until around 7, waking up an hour early is a jarring thing.

Also, in addition to her early rising habits these days, she's learned how to take off her pajamas. That's added an entirely new suite of things that could greet me when I walk into her room in the morning. For example, twice so far this week I've heard her talking to herself saying "my zip, my...zip". This is a bad sign as it means she's managed to unzip her pajamas to some degree or another. Usually she's only gotten the zipper down to her foot, but it seems she's learned how to completely take her pajamas off. What do I see when I walk in but a mostly naked baby with a diaper that's half off. Luckily it was just a wet diaper or I would have started off the day with a bath.

Anyway, just wanted to share with you the joys of parenthood and children who are early risers.

Comments :6: - View comments

So your little Houdini is now getting out of her PJ's.....At least she hasn't taken her diaper off with the PJ's. I agree about DST...I hate that it is not dark right after I get home, or before.

Mom - November 07, 2007 02:10 pm

She may not have taken the diaper off completely, but the half off she's mastered could do damage as well! Andy neglected to mention what was all over Noelle's hands this morning.

Jaime Matthews - November 07, 2007 03:01 pm

Yeah...actually decided not to mention it. But Noelle had poop on her hands this morning. She apparently reached down the back of her diaper and got it on her fingers.

Andy - November 07, 2007 03:41 pm

YUCK!!! Good luck with that situation. I don't have any words of wisdom on that, hopefully just the smell would discourage her from doing it again.

mom - November 08, 2007 05:44 am

I seem to remember that happening with a little girl that lived in my house.

Mom B - November 08, 2007 07:03 am

Well, she definitely didn't like it. She was holding her hands away from her like she didn't even want them to be attached to her. But then again, this is the second time she's done that so who knows. She kept saying "look daddy, what IS it?".

Andy - November 08, 2007 07:03 am

Let the time of the bearding now commence!

on November 01 2007 at 11:44 AM by: Andy Matthews

File under: General, Andy

Those of you who've followed our website for at least two years know that I participate in a bi-yearly male bonding ritual known as Whiskerino. On the surface, it claims to be a "beard contest", but at it's core, Whiskerino is a celebration of masculinity, a chance to be "a dude", a way to "stick it to the man" (for those participants who work in the corporate world), and finally it's a way to avoid shaving for an entire FOUR MONTH period of time.

This will be my 3rd Whiskerino and I've been looking forward to this since the close of the last. You can see what I ended up with on Feb 28, 2006, as well as see all of the pictures I took during those 4 months. You can follow my progress during this year's contest if you like.

On a more serious note, I'm planning on using Whiskerino2007 to begin working on a personal goal as well. I'm a big guy, anyone who's seen me can attest to that. But over the past 5 or 6 years, I've been letting myself get too lax in my physical well-being. Part of the problem is that I sit at a computer for 8+ hours a day, the other part is that I eat too much. I'm just thankful that I have a good metabolism or I'd weight a lot more than I do now. Anyway, I want to lose weight, but more importantly I want to get in shape...to be able to walk uphill with Noelle without stripping the bark off trees because of my huffing and puffing.

So, bring on the beard, bring on the exercise, bring on the low-fat, low-carb, high-protein, high-fiber diet, bring on the absence of sodas. But most of all, bring on the support from my friends and family.

Comments :8: - View comments

I'm so tempted.

Richard McElroy - November 01, 2007 02:17 pm

Do it, Richard! Chad Griffin and Tony Mason are on there, too. All the cool kids are growing beards.

Jaime Matthews - November 01, 2007 07:14 pm

Sadly it might already be too late Richard. They appear to have already put a cap in place, right at 300.

Andy Matthews - November 02, 2007 07:17 am

Let the games begin!! You do soooooo need a beard to cover up that baby face...

Mom - November 02, 2007 11:42 am

Your Mom did and so can you, go for and keep it up.

Dad - November 02, 2007 12:26 pm

Mom grew a beard? I'd say she should join the contest, except that it's already closed. And there are no girls allowed.

Andy Matthews - November 05, 2007 07:02 am

Rob and I have been talking and if it is closed then maybe we will have to do one on The Experience. Now if I could just convince Kari of the merit. . .

Richard McElroy - November 07, 2007 09:32 am

VERRY funny....about the beard and me... I think he was talking about the weight loss in the latter part of your post. We need to talk about that.

Mom - November 07, 2007 01:13 pm

West End Women's Expo

on October 30 2007 at 06:30 AM by: Jaime Matthews

File under: General

Hello! I am one of the organizers of a Women's Expo at my church, coming up this Saturday, and I wanted to let you know about it. I'm not sure how many of my regular readers live in Nashville, but it's worth advertising anyway! We have some really neat vendors coming, and this would be a great place to jumpstart some Christmas shopping. I hope to see you there!

Jaime

The Women's Expo is back and right before the Christmas season!

Come support Nashville business women Saturday November 3rd from 11-4pm. Enjoy all the shopping you can get done for your family and friends while avoiding the traffic and crowded malls during the Holiday shopping rush!

Products such as hand-made gifts, jewelry, purses, candles, embroidery, sewing, quilting, make-up, skin and health care, soap, candles, baby apparel, children's books, Pampered Chef, Tastefully Simple, Homemade Gourmet, Southern Living Home, clothes, as well as services like catering, photography, teeth whitening, massage therapy, home repairs, scrapbooking, children's music lessons and more!

Visit www.westendexpo.com for a chance to win a basket full of goodies from the vendors. There will also be door prizes given away at the event. Admission is FREE and delicious snacks will be sold by the Youth Group!

The event takes place at West End Community Church, 235 White Bridge Road.

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Noelle and the Giant Wooden Castle of Fun

on October 23 2007 at 08:45 AM by: Andy Matthews

File under: General, Noelle Jordan, Andy

A friend of mine, Daniel Isenhower, is moving out of town this week. Some his friends were having a going away party for he and his wife Lindsay. So I decided I wanted to go and wish him well in his journeys. Problem is that I planned my attendance when I thought Jaime and Noelle were going to be out of town. After I picked the two of them up from the airport, I realized that I had Noelle for the rest of the day (this past Sunday), but still wanted to go.

So I packed up Noelle and took off for Two Rivers park over by the Opryland area. When we arrived, there were just a few people hanging around under the park pavilion so I let Noelle down to play. That worked for a little while, but after about a half hour she got bored so we decided to walk over to the playground. The closer we got to the play area, the more excited I got. It looked REALLY cool, big wooden structures, with lots of kids.

Noelle was so eager to get in there, it was really cute. She ran all over the place, to the swings, to talk with other kids, it was great. My favorite parts though were when she started climbing up into the castle. It was full of little passageways, perfect for tiny little bodies. I even got a picture of Noelle peeking through the slats.

Anyway, we had lots of fun and she didn't want to leave. View the rest of the Two Rivers pictures.

Comments :1: - View comments

I love the pictures, especially the one of her looking through the slats....Reminds me of one of you looking through a fence. Sounds like Daddy and Papa need to build her a smaller version in your yard... Hummm!!??

mom - October 23, 2007 02:51 pm

Why am I up at 1:30?

on October 21 2007 at 12:31 AM by: Andy Matthews

File under: General, Andy

So why am I up and posting at 1:30 in the morning blasting Operation Ivy?

In part I suppose it's 'because I can', followed closely behind by 'because I'm painting the kitchen'. Jaime and Noelle are out of town right now so it doesn't matter how much noise I make, and I can technically go to sleep when I want, so why not do as much as possible to the kitchen while I can right?

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Cancelled shows

on October 18 2007 at 08:21 AM by: Jaime Matthews

File under: General

I certainly don't understand all the ins and outs of television programming, with ratings, advertising dollars, paying the actors and crew, etc., but I really can't stand it when a network pulls a show that's been on for a good run without giving it a real finale. Surely they could make the decision to end a show before they film a cliffhanger "season finale" that ends up really being the series finale with no closure. It's just irresponsible in my opinion. It's not like I'm going to quit watching that channel or write letters, though, so I guess they know they can do it with no real consequences.

This has happened to two of my favorite shows recently. The first was Veronica Mars, and now this fall it is Crossing Jordan. Of course, I can't find anywhere online where the network themselves admits they have cancelled the show. If you go on Crossing Jordan's page on NBC.com, there is no indication that the show is never coming back. It's all other media telling what they've heard. But seeing some of the main characters acting on other shows (Bionic Woman, Carpoolers) kind of gives it away for me. I know it's just tv, and I've already moved on, but it just would have been nice to have a true finale. I guess all I really want is for the network to tell me, the viewer, what is going on.

Another thing that bugged me recently about a tv show was something they did on the soap that I watch, (yes, I watch a soap) All My Children. So one of the actresses was ready to quit, but they weren't ready to let the character go. Their only choice at that point is to replace her with a new actress. They've done this before, of course, but the way the replaced this character just really threw me off. They had Babe hug her mom, and as she pulled away from the hug, BAM! She's the other actress. Huh? I was so confused, because again, THEY DIDN'T TELL ME! Do they think maybe I just won't notice? There have been a few times before when an actor was sick and replaced by someone else for a few days or so, and when that happens, at the beginning of the episode they say "so and so is being played by so and so." That's all I'm asking for, people. A little heads up to say hey, something about this episode is going to be a little different. A lot of things can be overlooked in this life if you just tell people what's going on. I just wish that tv execs would learn that!

Comments :9: - View comments

Jaime just can't handle surprises well. She's GOT to know what's happening.

Andy Matthews - October 18, 2007 02:07 pm

I totally understand. Kari and I were crushed when CBS canceled Joan of Arcadia out from under us(we named our cat after here), that we stopped watching new CBS shows for 2 years. If you are looking for new shows to supplement the recent rejection you have felt from the networks, I would like to suggest Pushing Daisies, and Journeyman.

Richard McElroy - October 18, 2007 05:19 pm

We LOVE Pushing Daisies! Journeyman I couldn't get into in the first 10 minutes, and I kind of gave up.

Jaime Matthews - October 18, 2007 05:55 pm

Oh, and we named our DAUGHTER after Crossing Jordan. At least my namesake, the Bionic Woman, is back on tv.

Jaime Matthews - October 18, 2007 06:07 pm

Kari was the same way, but I made her watch the whole first show(because I badly wanted to like it) and by the end it got a lot better. It did start really slow though I understand that.

Richard McElroy - October 21, 2007 03:13 pm

You should try it out again. The first half hour actually was pretty slow, but I'm glad we stuck with it.

Richard McElroy - October 21, 2007 05:08 pm

Do my comments keep getting deleted? It's weird

Richard McElroy - October 21, 2007 07:40 pm

We're looking into the vanishing/reappearing comment situation.

Jaime Matthews - October 22, 2007 06:27 am

I'll try one more time. :) As I've said a couple times now(the first time I questioned if I had forgotten to "speak!"), you should give Journeyman another chance. We had the same feelings even up to a half hour into it(the characters were hard to connect to), but I wanted so badly to like it, that we finished the whole pilot(which did not happen with Viva Laughlin), and we both ended up enjoying it a lot. I think the pilot wasn't very good for making an instant connection, but it's a pretty good show.

Richard McElroy - October 22, 2007 07:20 am

New pictures, you've been asking for them!

on October 13 2007 at 11:08 AM by: Andy Matthews

File under: General, Family

So we've been neglecting the photo section for quite some time now. But not really though. You see, we've been using Google's Picasa service to store our photos online. It's only just today that I took the time to write some code that would display all our galleries from Picasa on this website.

So browse away everyone, and enjoy. If you're interested in signing up for Picasa, here's a link for you. Did I mention that it's free?

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Loving my job!

on October 12 2007 at 07:14 PM by: Andy Matthews

File under: General, Andy, Coldfusion

I really love my job. I love almost everything about Dealerskins; from the people, to the work. What I love most about it is that I'm able to go to work everyday and do something that I love. There's not to many people that can say that.

One of the best things about Dealerskins is the open environment there. Just today I got to participate in an impromptu 30 minute hallway meeting with the our Director of Operations, our Product Manager, and the Development Manager (my boss, Aaron West) regarding the future of our Enterprise level company. I really feel like I'm respected and appreciated there, and that's such a shot of adrenaline in the arm that it makes me want to work all the more harder.

It's really cool because I get to be involved in almost every aspect of the lifecycle of our tools (or web applications as they're called in the biz). I get to help plan the project, then I get to write the code for it, and lastly (in some cases), I also get to be involved in rolling it out and seeing people use it!

I realize that I am truly blessed by God to have a career in a field that I love, doing work that I eagerly look forward to, with people that are great. That's a rare occurrence and I hope that it's not something that I take for granted. Thank you Lord!

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The Good Old Days

on October 11 2007 at 08:27 AM by: Jaime Matthews

File under: General

I just got back from the grocery store, where I purchased milk, bread, and cereal. Total bill: $16.67. Are you kidding? I even used a coupon! And the cereal is generic!

Now, I will say that when I buy milk for my family, I buy 2.5 gallons. Andy drinks 2%, I drink 1%, and Noelle drinks organic whole milk. But along with tax, the average price of each item I bought today is $3.33, and that is just really ridiculous in my opinion. I know that I could make my own bread for a lot less money, but I just can't see that happening. And other than that, there really isn't anything I can do about the cost of these staples. So I'm just frustrated this morning at how expensive it has become to meet the basic needs of my family. And my husband has a great job where he makes good money, and I bring in a little bit of spending money on my own. Not everyone is nearly that fortunate.

I couldn't find exact figures, but from my best guess, this exact same grocery list would have cost around $6.50 back in 1979 when I was born. I'm not asking for it to be that cheap, but $3.88 for a gallon of milk just makes me shudder.

Comments :2: - View comments

I agree....think what the difference is from when I was little! I really don't understand how some of these families make do!!

Carol - October 11, 2007 02:18 pm

It's the fault of the COWS. They give it away for $1 per gallon at first, then when you're hooked on creamy delicious milk they jack up the price on you. Now what are you supposed to do? You could give it up, but it'd be better to knock over a gas station for milk money.

Andy Matthews - October 11, 2007 02:18 pm

Comments now available...

on August 25 2007 at 09:33 PM by: Andy Matthews

File under: General, Andy

Just wanted to let everyone know that you can now make comments on each post. If you have something you'd like to say to Jaime, or Noelle, or I. Just click the "Add comments" button below each post.

That is all

Comments :4: - View comments

Fun!!

Diana - August 26, 2007 11:31 am

Yeah...I thought that it was about time we allowed our friends and family to speak their minds.

Andy Matthews - August 26, 2007 02:04 pm

Finally, a place to comment. Great idea kiddo. By the way, you do need to Blog more than once or twice a month. Don't you know it is the parents lifeline to what is going on... Love you, See you on Friday. Noelle, Grammy loves you!!

Mom - August 26, 2007 04:17 pm

Yeah, we knew it would just be Nana and Grammy commenting though! Haha.

Jaime Matthews - August 27, 2007 04:04 pm

Waited too long

on August 08 2007 at 06:27 PM by: Jaime Matthews

File under: General

The bad thing about putting off writing a blog post is that inevitably more and more things happen that you want to write about, and then it just gets really overwhelming to even think about, so what usually happens is that I just put it off even longer. There are a ton of things that I could have written really nice posts about since my last one.

For instance, our trip to the lake with my parents, brother and sister-in-law, and nephews. It was a great weekend spent partly in a 3 bedroom condo we shared and partly on my dad's boat. We played games every night after the kids went to bed, went to a horrible beach one day, swam in the resort's pool, took my Grandma's sister to dinner, and just had a really good and fairly relaxing weekend. As relaxing as it can be with 3 kiddos!

I could write about how ridiculously hot it has been, 100 most days, and how at 10:30 at night it's still over 90. And we think our air isn't working in the office and garage, so we have to have someone come out on Friday to check it out. I'm thankful we have working air in the rest of the house, I honestly don't know how people survive in this kind of weather without it.

Also, Noelle has been pretty goofy lately, and we've had some good days together. I'm glad that I got a funny kid, although looking at her parents you could expect that. She's currently obsessed with "icy pop?", a name she created herself for the freezer pops my mom brought to the lake. The other day I asked her what she wanted for lunch and she said "something new." Where does she get this stuff? She's also becoming more interested in what is hers, and today wouldn't let me read her a book because it was "MINE!"

We also have a pretty much brand new kitchen, and although it isn't finished yet, it's looking pretty good. We had some issues with the workers along the way, but most everything got resolved. Now we just need to tile the backsplash, repaint, finish organizing the cabinets, and then a little later on we will pull up the floor, refinish the hardwoods, and replace the rest of the cabinets.

So there has been a lot going on already this month, and hopefully now that I'm caught up I can get back on track with the blog. Thanks for your understanding! :)

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The joys of owning a home...

on June 26 2007 at 10:50 AM by: Andy Matthews

File under: General, Our House

One of the joys of owning a home is being responsible for fixing things that need fixing.

Case in point...we have a stone retaining wall in our side yard that prevents our neighbor's yard, and pool, from merging with our crawlspace. When we had the home inspected, our guy told us to keep an eye on it. So for the last 2+ years, everytime I mowed the yard, I'd eyeball the wall to see if it was okay.

Over the last 6 months I've been noticing that it seems to have bulged slightly and I started getting concerned. I don't particularly care for our bedroom to have pool in the middle of it. So I've been asking people how I would go about finding out who "owned" the wall. I mean, if it's on the border of my property, then it's also on the border of someone else's property right?

So I took Noelle out to walk in the front yard yesterday. We were out there for a few minutes when I looked over and saw a complete disaster (see attached picture). Apparently all of the rain we've had recently piled up behind the wall and just caused it to totally collapse. It's only about a 10-12 foot section but it's demolished.

So, what I've got to find out is:
1) Who is responsible for fixing this
2) If we're responsible, does homeowners insurance cover this?
3) What sort of company do I even call to look at this and fix it?

And to top it all off, I'm going out of town for 5 days. Luckily, the insurance company has my cell number. Gotta love owning a home right?

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RSS

on June 14 2007 at 11:09 AM by: Jaime Matthews

File under: General

I had Andy add an RSS Feed link to our website. For those of you who don't know what that means, basically it is a way to alert you when we've written a new post as opposed to having to stop by every day to check. I certainly don't know a lot about RSS Feeds, but I can tell you what I do know.

If you have installed Internet Explorer version 7 on your computer, you will see in your toolbar somewhere across the top a little red-orange square. If you put your mouse over it, it will tell you that you can view feeds on this page. Click it, then it will tell you that you can subscribe to our feed. When you subscribe, IE7 will add a "Feeds" list where your Favorites are kept up on the toolbar. To see if any of your feeds have new posts, you just go to your favorites, choose feeds, and see if any of them are bold. If so, you can click on the name and it will take you to the new post.

If you don't have IE7 or you want to view feeds another way, you'll have to Google it or ask Andy. There is a button at the bottom right of our site that you can also click to add us as a feed if it's not in your toolbar. I just wanted to add this feature because I know that all of you check our site daily and are overwhelmed with sadness when we haven't written a new post. Thanks to RSS, you don't have to go through that every day any longer.

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Yesterday's Mishaps

on June 13 2007 at 07:28 AM by: Jaime Matthews

File under: General, Noelle Jordan, Jaime

Yesterday I encountered a series of mishaps that left me feeling frustrated, and laughing at the same time. First, we had received a meal from a friend during Bible Study in the morning, and as I tried to fit it into the refrigerator I knocked over a glass of fruit tea I had saved from the night before. Fruit tea all over everything in my fridge. It took me about 15 minutes to completely clean up the mess I had made, and I couldn't help but think how wrong it was that a meal given to me to free up my time caused this mess that was taking up my free time. Well, the meal and my clumsiness.

Later, after Noelle woke up from her nap, I went to change her diaper and as I pulled off her shorts, poop came flying out onto her changing table and my hand. There was definitely a lot of poop, but the main reason it overflowed is that her diaper apparently got put on a little crooked in the nursery or somehow wiggled around so that it was not completely covering her behind. So I stripped her down, trying not to get anything else dirty. Then as we stood in front of the bathtub while it filled up, Noelle of course being naked, she peed on the bathroom rug and floor.

Then we went to play with some friends at a local sprayground, and while pretty much everything went just fine, Noelle hit the back of her head pretty hard while going down the slide. And after daddy got home, he scraped Noelle's foot against the screen door coming in from the pool, causing many long seconds of a silent cry before an eruption of screaming.

At the end of the day, I went over to a friend's house to pick up some snacks she had made for us, and along with some very yummy treats, she gave me of all things - a pitcher of fruit tea. It's kind of nice how it all comes back around. It's almost providential.

Kind of like how last week, Noelle kept asking me for an apple and I had to tell her we were all out, and that I was sorry. Then maybe 10 minutes later, the doorbell rang and I was being given a basket of fruit and goodies, and all of a sudden I had an apple. I know those things are not that big of a deal, but I also know we have a God that meets the needs of his people. Even the silly ones.

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How Do They Stay In Business

on May 30 2007 at 08:20 AM by: Jaime Matthews

File under: General

I have certainly come across poor customer service in the past, but it never ceases to amaze me how some people can stay in business without seeming to have any consideration for their customers. The past few weeks I have had 3 different businesses either arrive very late for an appointment or just stand me up altogether, none of which got me a courtesy call.

First, we made an appointment with a roofer because we had a leak recently after some really hard rains. They were supposed to come at 1:00, and finally at 1:50 after sitting perched on the loveseat for 45 minutes hoping to catch the truck and get the dogs outside before they barked and woke Noelle from her nap, I decided to call and see what was up. "Oh, well we are on this other job that's taking longer than we thought, and we aren't going to be able to make it over there today." And you didn't think it might be a good idea to CALL ME? I honestly have no problem with someone having to cancel or reschedule, as long as they pick up the phone. They came the next day, and did a fine job, but then said they would drop off a paper estimate for the work and I haven't heard from them since. This was 2 weeks ago.

Then, I hired someone to mow our lawn. They said they'd be here at 8:30 in the morning, because they wanted to get started before it got too hot. At 9:30 I called them. "Oh, the thing of it is, we have to take some things to the dump first, and it will probably be another hour, hour and a half before we get there." Thanks for letting me know!

And finally, yesterday we had scheduled a company to come and refinish our tub. Our appointment was at 1:30, and because of my recent experiences, when they weren't here yet at 1:45 I decided to give them a call. No answer, but I left a message. I called again at 2:45 and left another message with my cell phone number. I was so mad, I just needed to leave the house. I never heard from them at all yesterday, and it's 9:30 AM now and still haven't heard from them today.

Update: I just called the tub company, and apparently she wrote down our street name incorrectly, so the guy couldn't find our house, and she wrote down our phone number wrong, so he couldn't get ahold of us, and she didn't get either of my messages yesterday. What?? They brought the price down, so we're giving them another chance. Seriously, how do these companies stay in business? I guess because like me, people think they've already gone through all this hassle, and the next company will probably treat me the same way, and they gave me a bit of a deal, so let's just get it done. Oh bother.

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Naked day is over...

on April 06 2007 at 05:22 AM by: Andy Matthews

File under: General, Andy

move along...nothing to see here.

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It's NAKED day!!!

on April 05 2007 at 05:55 AM by: Andy Matthews

File under: General, Andy, Web finds

CSS naked day that is. That's why our website looks the way it does right now. For those of you that don't know what CSS is, here's a description in 2 sentences.

CSS is a set of instructions which describe how a website looks. It offers nothing in the way of structure, it's only for appearance.

In the past, websites were thrown together with lots of hacks, bad code, and more importantly incorrectly USED code. Web standards, recommend separating your structural code (the HTML that so many of you kids know about these days), from the presentational code (the aforementioned CSS). When this is done correctly, the benefits are many.

So enjoy my nakedness for a day...it won't happen again until next year...or until I next take a shower.

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The View From Our Picture Window

on February 02 2007 at 09:00 AM by: Jaime Matthews

File under: General, Our House

This morning we woke up to this lovely sight out of our massive picture window in the living room. SNOW! Finally, for the first time this winter. Well, we've had "flurries" before, but nothing that even really landed on the ground. Andy was very excited, as he's been looking forward to snow all season. We didn't have any in Chicago for Christmas, and he was beginning to think that he wouldn't see any at all this year.

All the schools in the area are closed today, and some people are taking off of work so they don't have to drive in these hazardous conditions. For those of you in my home state of Illinois - no, it's not deeper than it looks. It's just about an inch of snow, maybe two. This kind of snow in Illinois wouldn't change anyone's day. I frequently had to walk several blocks to the bus stop in 4 or more inches of snow (uphill b

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