Aren’t we the coolest?

Happy birthday to my wonderful wife yesterday!

I got her some sweet flowers, took her to dinner at Olive Garden and we both got these awesome cell phones!

What a great day!

While in South Carolina for Christmas, we did not have the benefit of a typical Indiana “White Christmas”. Today, however, we woke up to the wonderful whiteness in Bluffton, Indiana during our “Garrett Family Christmas”!

Pretty, huh?!
After enjoying some of the white-scenery and being the first to wake up and get ready, it was time to open presents with the family.

Rich (brother-in-law) and I both received the Lord Of The Rings: Return of the King extended version DVD from Mom and Dad Garrett, along with some sweet zip-hoodies and of course, pajamas!

Rich and I couldn’t help but notice a sweet scarf that we just HAD to try for ourselves:

Don’t we look fabulous?
Of course a Garrett-family photo was taken and here are the “orginal” Garretts:



We left Mom and Dad Garrett’s sometime after 2 and did some “around-town” visiting. We even got to stop in and visit a bit with “Uncle Matt and Aunt Melanie” who were temporarily housing Great-Grandma Payne:

Next stop was “Uncle Brett and Aunt Jodi’s” and then an across-town hunt for Uncle Brett and the girls who were “sledding”. Sledding in Indiana doesn’t usually include any hills, though it DOES include a 4-wheeler and a “train” of sleds attached! Incredible.
After our time in Bluffton, we jumped back on the road to Ft. Wayne for an evening with the Pates. Wes and Ellen met us at Old Navy and our evening included shopping, a movie (“Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events”), dinner at Logan’s Roadhouse, and a drink at Starbucks.

We always enjoy our “evenings with the Pates”. Tonight was no different.

When we arrived back in Warsaw, we were warned that Warsaw, too had been snowed upon.

That was no joke.

before.


after.
It was a fun-filled weekend in Bluffton/Ft. Wayne. It’s good to be back and good to be tired.

Big day tomorrow. Go Colts!

The “One For All Universal Remote URC 8810” is an incredible $20 purchase from Wal-Mart.

Craig Helfrich purchased this remote from Wal-Mart and it has been nothing short of a “miracle worker” in their home! What was a fiasco of looking for the right remote (DVD, Satellite, TV, Receiver, OTHER Satellite, etc.) is now a “pick it up and go” situation with this one single remote.

The URC 8810 allows for up to 8 input devices to be controlled by one remote!

The package claims that this remote contains the most inclusive Infra Red Code library and that proved true as every single device we set up in the Helfrich home was either listed in the handbook or found through a simple “search feature” on the remote itself.

One problem we found was that with Craig’s ONKYO receiver, we couldn’t switch to the DVD inputs, though we could change to all of the other inputs with the remote. This was going to be a problem until we read about the “learning” feature of the remote. Through this feature, we were actually able to “teach” the new remote to switch to the DVD inputs by programing it to learn how the “old” remote performed this function! Incredible.

For a guy who LOVES technology and is always trying to stay immersed in the latest/greatest, this remote blew me away!

Check it out on One For All’s website here.

We were pleasantly awoken by a phone call this morning from the famous Craig Helfrich of yesterday’s post.

His message? “Hey Dude, go back to sleep – there’s no school”

HURRAY!

I could sleep in and so could my wife! (Thursday is my day off from the office)

After our sleeping in, we hit up the local Bob Evans with our Helfrich comrades and then it was a shopping fiasco at Wal-Mart. We were supposed to merely be shopping for satellite speaker stands for Craig’s new surround sound, but is that all we got?

Nope.

We did have fun, however, and were finally able to head back to the homestead to set things up.

The Helfrich’s now have 600-watts of pure Surround Sound goodness pumping through their living room. Included in that home-theater are two satellites, a DVD player, a TIVO video recorder, and one of the largest televisions in the United States of America.

Speaking of the US of A, this morning I was singing “My Country Tis of Thee” in the shower.

How’s THAT for random?!

I also “hooked a brotha’ up” with an ALL-IN-ONE remote control that kicks my butt! It’s incredible. From one little remote control with 4-AAA batteries, one can control the WORLD. Well, atleast the Home Entertainment Center at the Helfrich residence.

Tonight’s movie enjoyment: TROY.

Amazing. Review possibly by Friday.

Speaking of movies. FINALLY the day has come for us all to cheer!

Why?

Because there is a trailer promoting the NEW Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory!

Where is this trailer?

Here.

Freaky preview.

I can’t wait!

Tomorrow night we head to Bluffton for our Garrett-Family Christmas. Should be a fun/slippery trip to Bluffton tomorrow after work. Pray for us!

We’ll be back on Saturday evening.

Oh, one more thing. If you’re going to scrape your wife’s car at 10 o’clock in the evening after a day of sleet and now, make sure you carry atleast THREE ice-scrapers, just in case the first two break.

Yep, happened to me an hour ago. Cheap Wal-Mart ice-scrapers.

Note to self: next time, use a fire-breathing dragon to remove ice/snow from the Buick.

When I was in Junior High School back in Rochester, New York, a teacher of mine – “Coach Cooper”, I think it was made “Cooper Bucks” – they were slips of paper – in money-format and we were given them for doing “good things” like getting A’s, and helping in the classroom.

My buddy (and 5th grade teacher) Craig talked about doing the same thing.

I present to you the Helfrich Bucks:

Available in 5’s, 10’s, 20’s, 50’s, and 100’s
For a small fortune I would be willing to give the originals to any current or future Helfrich student!

Just don’t tell Craig.

In other news, it stopped snowing/icing/raining.

Nothing’s falling from the sky, but the roads look pretty yucky. Warsaw schools already have a two-hour delay, so Jess, Craig, and Lindsay are pretty excited.

I’m suffering from “no BOX” anxiety this evening – I can’t imagine being tired enough to go to sleep. I usually have been drained by forty teens by this time and am just now heading home on Wednesday night.

Jess and I stayed in this evening and enjoyed The Bourne Supremacy. Possible review on that tomorrow for the “archives”!