Happy New Year!

Good bye 2008.

What a year that was. As I sit here and go through the year of 2008 I shake. Most from the financial meltdown that affects me greatly. I feel very sad about the people I laid off, the people I known that passed away, families that have had to leave their houses. This has really gotten to me.

I come home most days after a 12 hour workday grumpy as hell. I have an extremely hard time to hide my worries about putting food on the table and a roof over our heads. We live nice, we do enjoy a thing here and there but in modesty, no crazy debts, no car or credit card payments. Still, I'm stressed out, I guess a few unrented houses doesn't help ( If you need a place we got one for you).

I did have some great moments this past year which makes me very happy when I think about them. We had a wonderful vacation with my Spanish family, Alex is excelling in school and sports, Fia is the wonderful little Fia as only a little Fia can be, Milu is feeling better and Marta is the best support a husband could ever have. And we are all healthy and we love each other a lot. I'm a blessed man.

So for 2009 I take with me a lot of fear and uncertainty, I swear I will work even harder, look out for people in need. I have a lot of hope for 2009 and I'll try, I'll try so hard that one might not recognize Jonas come 2010.

Who's in my yard

I bought a bigger deer that moves it's head for our Christmas decorations out side. Milu hasn't made up her mind yet whether she can tolerate it or not. If she was a male dog I bet she had shortened the circuits by peeing on it by now.

Skateboard

Alex got, to his mothers delight, a skateboard from his Uncle. He's getting pretty good at it too.

Christmas

It has been very poor blogging here lately and it might be so for awhile.

I've got a lot on my mind and very challenging tasks to deal with that sucks all energy out of me.

It supposed to be the joyous season and who says it better than good old Inga from Sweden.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Christmas parade

Alex's first parade. He is one of the snowflakes, everybody is unique.

Park party

We had Alex's party at the park this year. I had a great time and I believe that all the kids did as well. They have a pretty great playground and a big open field next to it. We played football and soccer, had cupcakes and drinks. It was cold, really cold even though the sun was out in abundance.

That's the spirit

The way a redneck would appreciate.

Two buddies

We have had a couple of days with some warmer weather. Our two buddies came right out of hibernation, or I guess they hadn't fallen asleep yet this season.

The bird house is almost as tall as I am so I guesstimate the big one to be about 10 feet long, the other one about 7 or so, click on the picture to see better, it's to the right.

And they were both so cute when they were little. We've known them since they were about 2 feet long.

Alex's birthday

I dropped and picked up at school, his biggest concern was if I remembered to bring the cupcakes for his classmates. He got to wear the birthday boy hat, they all sang for him and had cupcakes.













We stopped at the store Teach and Alex got to pick two presents from Mom and I, two puzzles were chosen. We went down town to Rue De Juan for lunch. Alex had shrimp and pasta, Fia grilled cheese sandwich and fries and I had a blue cheese burger. Oh, Marta was not there, birthdays are me and the kids only ( until they don't want to hang with silly Dad).















Then we went to the Children's Museum.















We had the place to ourselves, normally it is packed but on a rainy Wednesday afternoon in December, well it makes up for the annual membership dues.

And after a Pizza dinner with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle John and Aunt Kim we finally made it back home to lay one of his new puzzles.

Christmas party at the office

This year is looking pretty bleak for the event of a party. I've been to a few both with my job and with Marta's.

I'm relieved that we don't have a party this year but for the ones of you that will I found some good advice for you.

NFL

Not really but Alex had a great time. He scored 2 touchdowns and played really well in defense. The opposing team had a hard time to get past and to move the ball down the field.















Score is not supposed to be kept but the general understanding was that the Bears (Alex's team) kicked some serious butt.

We've got a great coach this season so we are pumped.














A funny thing we have noticed is that given his choice Alex picks jersey #6. We have 3 different jerseys with that number on from his previous teams.

12 days

How to get into the Christmas spirit?

Just listen to Straight No Chaser, brilliant!

Tired

I've had a long weekend and I'm dead tired. Can't wait to go to work tomorrow so that I can rest a bit.

Saturday was like this, 8.30am left the house for breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa, 9.45 on the field for Alex's flag football game. 10-11 game, socialized with the coach and his family afterwords for a bit then to a Christmas market to make an appearance so that our friend felt appreciated. Ran in to a bunch of people we know. Bought two birthday presents and rushed home to change Alex out of his football gear. 1.45-2.05pm at our house. Ran late to a birtday party. We had a blast and went straight from there to the Christmas Boat Parade at 5.30pm. Watched the parade and had dinner at 5 guys burgers and fries at 7.10. Met Marta at Walmart to get Alex's invitations at 8.05. Kids went to bed 8.40pm or so, myself shortly there after.

Today, made church for the early service at 9.00 am. Sunday school and some fellowship later we had brunch at Acme at IOP ( Marta called and asked if we were coming home for brunch, I was supposed to tell her and she waited and was a bit hungry by then, angry too). Returned some stuff at Target, filled gas and came home at 1.15pm. Left at 2.10 to get some appetizers for a Christmas party later and headed to Auto Zone for some light bulbs, our Volvo goes through them right know. Made a 3.00 o'clock birthday party, rushed from it to a Christmas party (hence the appetizer purchase). The kids again had a great time and they were totally tired when I dropped them off at the house at 6.50pm so that Marta could give them a bath. I then went to the golf course and finally made it home at 8.18pm.

So, I hope all of you had as good of a weekend as I did but right now I am over and out.

Have a good night where ever you are!

Fruit

Marta; Jonas have some fruit.

Jonas; I'm having fruit.

M; That's not fruit.

J; It's made of grapes and grapes are fruit.

M; Wrong color.

J; I switch to red after this glass.

No reply from Marta.

J; I think this is the first time ever I made you speechless.

And she gave me some tangerines from Spain.

Marta-Jonas 1-1.

Do it right

We just watched the Christmas tree lightning in New York on TV.

A good bit of celebrities and classic Christmas music.

One thing I have to give the people in USA, when they do something they don't diddle fiddle around. They go all out.

The tree at Rockefeller center, not only is it completely covered in lights, classy and beautiful, the dang tree is 72 feet tall.

That's what I call a Christmas tree.

Only in SC

Do we have tax free days on weapon purchases. You got it right. Our fine legislation has decided that that a few days per year no sales tax on fire arms.

I wonder how their thought process worked that day?

The Retret

We have one nice town home up for grabs. All the stuff one can imagine for entertaining if your a couple. Just imagine the good times and the business connections one could make here.

Last night

Marta and I went and saw Carlos Mencia's show at the Performing Art Center. The show started at 7 so we decided to eat after it was all over. Well, the show was great and went on until a little after 10.

Not so many places to go and eat, at least what we were in the mood for so we stopped at Walmart and got frozen taquitos. What a gourmet meal.

Boat parade

December 6th the Berg family will be out on the water to watch. I figure in a few years we will join the fleet of cheerful.

Give thanks

Our day started with myself sleeping in to a little after 8.00 am. Couldn't tell you last time that happened but a fair guesstimate is before kids. Marta served up a wonderful brunch ( or is 9.30 am still considered breakfast?) which to we were accompanied by Grandma and Grandpa. Macy's Thanksgiving parade on TV, eggs, bacon, freshly made from scratch biscuits, coffee, tea and me, a great start on a great day.

After brunch myself and my three little ones went outside and started to decorate for Christmas. I now have so much stuff it takes me a good two days to get it right. We also played some football, drove the Jeep and finished with baseball. Meanwhile Marta made a pecan pie and a pumpkin pie.

Went over to Uncle John's and had way too much food. Two turkeys, one deep fried and one had been in a brine before the oven. Stuffing, jams, mashed potatoes, green been casserole, salad, wine, beer. Oh, we were 7 adults and 2 kids so of course we ate it all, right.

I left the party and went downtown to Crisis Ministry men's shelter. It is a shelter for the homeless here in Charleston. I volunteered my services a while back and we served up a good old Thanksgiving meal to about 100 homeless. The max capacity of the shelter is about 100 but lately they have taken in 150-180/night. We anticipated about up to 250 people would come tonight but thankfully we were way off in the right direction.

Finished the day at the Clubhouse, the busiest day of the year is tomorrow so we like for it to be at it's best. Came home a few minutes ago, 9.45 pm and kissed my wife, petted our dog and opened the doors to two little bedrooms just to hear the noise my kids make while asleep.

I've pored myself a glass of Gran Feudo rosado, well chilled and as this day have passed by and I reflect back upon it, I realize I'm a lucky guy.

So, I'd like to say Thank you to all of you who are very dear to me and to all of you that forms me to who I am to become.

God bless you.

Gobble gobble

Happy Thanksgiving!

Let's eat too much and i will be back later tonight with todays status report.

The shoe is on the other foot

Last night while channel surfing I caught a glimpse of a 16 year old birthday batch. I found my self dumbfounded. This girl had virtually nothing on and the little she wore was tight and did not leave much for ones imagination. To top it of the moves she made in synchrony with her dancers would have made Jenna Jameson jealous.

Who was this girl, Miley Cirus or Hannah Montana. Either way I felt sick.

Marta off course piped up; You were all like that growing up. Like she wasn't. I guess we all were but not my little Fia. Oh no, she will be different.She will not prance around to attract boys. Or maybe the only difference would be that I'll be serving life for murder.

All I hear in my head is a song from one of my favorite bands, Iron Maiden. Favorite no more.

Burn it down?

We've been in this house for 5 1/2 years. During these years I have eyed our fire place, which is of a vent less type that runs off natural gas, since I have respect for gas we have never lit it.

Saturday was my first attempt ever which totally failed. I couldn't even get the pilot lit. The kids and I took off to run some errands but it bugged me that I couldn't get the fire going.

We came back home and I started messing with it again. This time I got the pilot lit and gave out a reassuring ; Aha!

Marta sat on the couch behind me reading to the kids and I turned the switch from off to low. Low my ass, the flames was filling the whole fire place but what a nice glow and comfort factor. In the seconds that followed I saw us all in front of the fire with hot chocolate, playing games and singing Christmas carols.

I turned around and stood up on one knee and proudly proclaimed: See, I got it and how nice....

That's when our fire alarm went off and my great success turned in to a frantic fire drill. Everybody outside and Milu was slightly panicking.

I guess 5 1/2 years of dust and dog hair really smokes.

So, no one is home but me, I will light the fire again and let it burn off all the stuff that smokes. If this blog goes quiet for a while I most likely burned down the house.

WTF?

Who the hell hired this guy? A f****** chip monk could sell our product better than this dude.

I'm still to be impressed by the Queens people. They can stuff their Top of the morning, Jolly Good and High tea up their ass.

Just to piss me off even more he wears a Henry Loyd jacket ($200) with a logo. All I get is Walmart.

Passion

Passion is something I wish everyone had. I don't care what your passion is/would be, I won't judge you for it.

Mine is simply

One sailboat
Lots of wind
Open ocean
Big seas

Awful condition but the only way to make that boat fly.

A big wave astern
Slight wind shift
Quick trim of the sails
A jerk on the rudder
The boat starts to groan and tremble
Rig is humming

All you feel through the helm is as you're one with the ocean, spray is flying all over, you're loosing control, the moans and shriek of the equipment is deafening but you feel it in slow motion.

Yeeaah! Hell yeeaah!

Let's do it again.

Campilla's

As you all know I'm married. I could have stopped here but it's not in me tonight. My wife has the great ability to bring the best or worse out of me and today is no different except for one thing, It is my sister in laws birthday and that makes me think.

Happy 25th again Ana!

And I will blame her for this instead of as usual my wife ( Ana you're now considered special).

I have the great privilege of having all 3 of Marta's siblings judge me for who am I to be married to her and what the hell am I thinking and not the least their nephew and nice can't possible have anything good from me, it has to all have come from the Campilla.

Let me break them down for you.

Ana; 25 years old for who knows how many times. Married to one funny tall guy. Mrs know it all and she does know it to my despair. Has a heart bigger than is good for her own best.Mother of two beautiful kids that I'll do anything for. Her door is always open and a dinner will be served. I very much like.

Javier; I always thought that we wouldn't get along, very protective of Marta. Worries about all other humans before himself, takes his shirt of his back in no time to accommodate you. The absolute best Godfather/Tio anyone could possible dream of. As a side note he's some what talented at taking photographs..

Cris; she's only turned 25 once so far. The artist, the free spirit. Pirulina, whom I had to prove myself even more worthy to be Marta's husband. We connect through passion, we both have/are dedicating our lives to it in different fields. Well, as of late we both spend a lot of time with German Shepards. She also have this thing for a tall dude.


So in conclusion.


1. I need to wear high heel shoes visiting Barcelona.

2. Not to forget dog biscuits.

3. Play more with my nice and nephew.

4. Never ever forget to tell all of them that I do love them.

Marley & Me

Is a book by John Grogan about his dog. It is a very well written book that makes me as a dog owner laugh and cry.

If you haven't read it I highly recommend it, dog owner or not. Or just be lazy and wait until Christmas when the movie comes out.

Spacious new townhome

For rent, 1550/month with a one year lease.

2 bedroom 2 1/2 bath. Stainless appliances, granite counter tops, great open kitchen, great for entertaining. Spectacular views and a FREE VIP golf membership!

Located in a peaceful secluded section at Charleston National Country Club.

Contact me if interested.

Spain on the road again

As I was channel surfing tonight I stumbled upon an excellent show, Spain on the road again. It is broad casted on ETV, the only network worth watching, unpretentious, informative and the only channel available for my kids to watch cartoons on without me supervising right next to them.

Big kudos to ETV for their efforts in making great TV.

Back to tonight's show, some celebrities showing us Spain in a leisure way during 13 sessions, I love it. Just the mere fact that the hot spanish chick Claudia is from Barcelona, icing on the cake. Then again, Barcelona women is IT.

Spain has so much to offer and I am really happy that some one else is catching on, I have known this for 10 years and married to it for 8.

Viva Espana!

Emil

When the kids got home I off course made a big spectacle about finishing # 129 on my to do list. They were so impressed that I treated them to a little movie night, flatter goes a long way.

We watched a Swedish movie, Emil i Lönneberga by Astrid Lindgren ( who should have won the Nobel price in literature by the way) which all of us love.

Fia fell asleep on top of me, what a nuisance, and Alex pointed out that Emil is as bad as Fia. I guess it takes a menace to recognize one.

Nice

It turned out pretty good. For the record, I have found single small lights on white strand for
years, lights have been red not white however.














I've really liked them , still do. Marta how ever thinks that they only compliment an adult movie.















What's so wrong with that?

Lights

After a five year search I found what I've been looking for, clear small light bulbs on white wire in a single row. Marta wants this on the back porch for year round.

Today I found them at a great price, Walmart thank you!

Marta is out with a girlfriend, the kids are messing around in one of grandpa's golf carts and Milu and I will surprise everybody with Christmas lights on the back porch ( # 129 on my to do list).

I am so in the spirit so if I had some glögg I would drink the whole bottle, well maybe some gingerbread with Stilton blue cheese to go with.

Come on over and hear me sing this song over and over until I'm done, I might even treat you to a Yuengeling.

Yes we can

Yes we can is a sentence used often by Barak Obama, so often that it is now the slogan for a changed (soon to be) USA.Every time I hear yes we can I come to think of another dude that use it a lot. They might have more in common than one first think.Who else would there be to fix it? Yes we can!

Last game

# 11 was the best, scored and defended really well.

Today's editorial

In today's Moultrie News was an editorial that made me laugh so much I got the hiccups.

Accompanying this letter was a picture of two scarecrows portraying Obama burying a Lady Liberty. Set with Halloween spider web and all in a man's front yard. It reports that the setting was vandalized at least twice, the head on Mr. Obama went missing once, was painted white the other time and it also states that a NRA sign had been stolen that said " I'm bitter gun owner and I vote". The dude that so tastefully put this display together, brace yourself, his name is Bubba G.

No kidding. Bubba, who else could come up with something like this. It's such a classic lowcountry mindset and I laugh rather than cry.

Bubba, and we have plenty of them here. You've got to love life in the South.

Change

We're in for a change here in this country. A lot of people went to the polls and voted, a big change since people that can vote normally never shows up. I also noticed a change in attitude among voters, an upbeat come on let's vote. People high five each other and in general optimistic and excited , great to see.

Then, what and how much will change? The one that lives will see. I find it amazing how people in other countries sat up late and watched the outcome until early morning. I guess I never have realized the impact the US has on the world.

I don't know about you but I've sent a prayer or two about that Mr. Obama will lead and govern this country in the right direction, and that he wakes up our congress and senate.

Great parenting

I'm the best parent ever. Click on this pic and you will see 3 different kinds of adult beverage in front of my 2 year old.

And the price for the best dad ever goes to.. ta da.. drumrolls.. Jonas!

Lollipop

With all this candy that I'm stuffing myself with I come to think about my absolute favorite band ever.

It is soooo the 90's.

They were the best I thought.

I still do.

Why, oh why did you guys split up?

Sabbatical

I tend to try to talk Marta in to a sabbatical year more and more often. I would like for us to sell our stuff, jump on Katie and spend a year or so in the Caribbean and there abouts to come together as a family.

We are together all right but some of the memories and skills and fights and hard times we would have to deal with is a thrill I'm searching for.

Ultimately I would like to sell all we have and go around the world on a 3-5 year voyage. Marta knows this and promised me before we were married that she's on board with it. I never gave her a time frame nor did she give me one, we're not dead yet and in all honesty I had after kids in mind.

Then I came across some articles about cruising with kids and I met some cruising kids and their parents.

We had a long talk about it the other night and Marta listened to me, had some really good points of why not and promised to think about it.

The next day she tells me that if I really want to I can take a year off by my self and her and the kids would be right here to welcome me back.

Not what I had in mind but I will hold this against her if I ever get this opportunity, because this I will do in a heart beat with a big smile on my face.

Why I love my wife

All she does is read a book. And just to watch her react to it makes my heart pound and my stomack tickle.

No one else in this world is so simple, honest, caring or more beautiful than my Marta.

I find it fascinating and I whish I had a tiny bit of it in me.

I was lucky to capture this moment on camera, most I have in my memory.

And for every one of these moments I find myself to love her even more.

Happy Halloween pics

Happy Halloween

A Buzz Lightyear and a Witch that came back home with tons of candy.

A poor turn out down our cul-de-sac has left us with about 8 pounds of candy left.

My stinking neighbor out did me again ( the guy that has the LED lights for Christmas), he showed Halloween cartoons on his drive way, he had his stupid projector upside down in the window above the garage.

Did I mention he had surround sound in the yard?

I did as best I could screaming from our yard, we have the good candy not the cheap stuff.

No effect on the kids what so ever.

Or could it be that grandpa drove his limousine and parked it in our drive way?

Maybe more people than he thinks don't want to be associated with the darn thing.

We all know grandma rather run naked down the street than being seen in the limo.

First frost

I had to sit and wait in Betty this morning due to some ice on the windshield. The fair starts tomorrow and as a letter in the mail it has got cold.

Long sleeve undershirt, a t shirt, fleece sweater and long pants. Haven't worn that since March.

Jeep on steroids

I bought the kids a used battery operated Jeep last year from an add in the paper. It has reverse and two speeds forward, slow and a tiny bit faster.

Well, the battery died and it has been sitting in the garage unused, Alex has bugged me for a while to fix it. He tells me that real Vikings would have had it fixed a long time ago. He's right about that so the three of us went this weekend and got a new battery.

Now the darn thing has reverse, not so slow and way too freaking fast. I also have a new dent in Betty thanks to Fia ( you can't possibly blame me for this, she's the one who drove into it with the Jeep).