Earplugs, Wipes, and $3.99 per Minute?

You'd be amazed at what these children of ours get into when left unsupervised for mere moments. Yes, those are earplugs in her nose. Yes, she was very proud of herself. And no, I definitely did not put said earplugs back into Chris's junk dish so they may or may not be used again.


"Huh? Who, me?"



"Flee the scene, Maguire, don't just sit there and smile at her!"


Somehow the boys figured out how to pop the top of the wipes container this morning and proceeded to basically empty the whole thing. At least we've got plenty more, since we buy those packs of 5,000 from Sam's Club, right?


Needless to say, we are keeping busy while Chris is learning the ropes at his new job in Huron. On top of getting bids for painting and roofing jobs, shopping for new appliances, and trying to decide where to start de-junking the house, I accidentally called a phone sex hotline the other day.


Yep, you can go back and read that one more time. That's really what it says.


For anyone out there considering portable storage rental, consider yourself warned that the number for PODS Storage is most certainly not (800)766-PODS.

2008: Year in Pictures

January

February

March

April

May

June

July




August





September

October

November

December

Happy New Year's Eve!

We Made it Home!

I never thought I would utter these words, but thank God for vans! We may need a trailer next year.

Kidding.

Maybe.

I am still busy sorting through all of the pictures from our week in MN. For now, here is a sampling of our week.....

Travel.

Presents.

Snow.

Dress-up.

More presents.

Decorating.

Playing.

From Our Home to Yours....

Merry Christmas to you! We have been exceptionally blessed in 2008 -- we pray the same for you and your families in the coming year.

Love,

Chris & Carrie

Ellie, Alex, and Maguire

My Favorite Christmas Gift: A New Job!

So remember a few days ago when I said I didn't have a job and my wife really wanted me to start getting a paycheck? Well, I've once again listened to my wife (Because I always do), and got a new job! It's really an answer to prayer (and thanks to all who said one for us too by the way), because it's worked out really well.

I applied for a job about two weeks before I was laid off from KSFY to be the Legislative Director at the South Dakota Farmers Union. It's a non-profit group that represents farmers and ranchers in the state. I interviewed for the job last week, and they called me back the next day. But they said they wanted me to be their Communications & Marketing Director instead. So today (Monday) I called and accepted the offer!

But there's one little catch to the whole thing; I'll have to move the family to Huron, South Dakota, at some point. It's about an hour and a half from Sioux Falls, and it's a lot smaller town. About 12,000 people live there (The Sioux Falls area is about 150,000), so it's not tiny by any means. But we'll be leaving a lot of great friends behind, so the feelings are somewhat mixed. We're very excited to start fresh in a new town though, and to make some new friends. So in the end it's a wonderful thing. I was only out of work for a total of 21 days, and it's been a really nice paid vacation!!

Thanks again to all of you who lifted us up during this time, your prayers definitely worked!!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas....

We finally got our tree up last weekend! Some of you may remember from this post last year, Chris hates with the fire of a thousand suns loves assembling our Christmas tree. But he took one for the team and powered through.

Daddy and Ellie playing with the Nativity scene. This year, Dora's spot at Jesus's birth was filled by two My Little Ponies, Cinderella, Belle, Ariel, Snow White, and Prince Philip from Sleeping Beauty.



We have been taking advantage of Chris being home during the day to get outside and play. Although we now have at least 6 inches of snow on the ground and temperatures are hovering at a balmy 4 degrees as we speak, last week was not too bad.




"You want me to do what? Shovel the driveway?"



Finally, Ellie had her Christmas program last weekend at church. We apologize for the poor lighting and camera work, but here is a little sample of her mad singing and choreography skills.





Also, the babies got passed to some friends during the program, so I was able to shoot a little video of Maguire grooving to the music. Whenever there is music playing, the kid flaps his arms like a tiny chicken and screeches. Funny stuff, but probably not so amusing to the audience members in front of him.

'Tis the Season for Red, Green...and Pink Slips?

Alright, it's not really pink, but this piece of paper might as well have been. If you look close it says, "Employee Termination Report." It should've said, "Merry Christmas, Chris! Love, KSFY." But they'd probably leave out the "love" part, I suppose.

That was the fun surprise I got after work on Monday morning. I say 'after work' because I came in and worked 11:30pm to 7:30am and then they informed me that I was being laid off immediately. It would've been nice if I hadn't had to work all night before it happened. But my response was, "So I don't have to come to work tomorrow? And you're going to pay me for awhile? I'm cool with that."

So my career as a TV star (a term used very loosely) is over, and I couldn't feel better about it. I had a job interview the very next day that was very therapeutic. She asked me questions like, "What do you want to do Chris?" and "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" They're questions that I don't think about too often. I don't know the answers to those questions just yet either, so that'll take some thought. But at least I'm trying to answer them.

And really, I can do anything I want now. There's no binding contract holding me back. I've started to grow a goatee if you look at the picture close. I haven't been able to have one of those since college because I was on TV. So I can truly do anything, even grow facial hair. But when I say that, Carrie cringes a bit (the 'do anything' part, and the facial hair, too). I usually hear, "You can do what you want, but you do need to get a paycheck for it." She's not that harsh of course, but you get the picture.


I guess the moral of this story is be thankful for what you have, because it could be gone tomorrow. But the other moral is that everything happens for a reason, and it'll all work out in the end. God's always provided for our family, and we know he will provide again and again. So we're not worrying about the future and trusting that a bigger and better job is out there just waiting for me. And if you know of that bigger and better job don't hesitate to let me know...because my wife says I have to get a paycheck!