!!!!!HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

• We celebrated New Years with a wonderful roast pork and sauerkraut lunch and then made chili cheese dogs for supper. It was a nice quiet weekend. We took down the Christmas decorations Sunday afternoon. All in all, we had no Y2K problems. Not that we were expecting any, but it was a good idea to be prepared.
• Work is picking up and we are planning our trips for this year. Keep checking back with us here to see what sort of things we get into this year.
• Our Trip to Florida this year was full of fun and seeing some new sites. We went to Sea World, Universal Studios, Blue Springs Manatee Preserve, and the Daytona Speedway. We managed to get down and back with great weather and we were snug as a bug in our condo when the second snow storm of the season came to dump snow on top of our heads.
• We had hoped to have a really nice Super Bowl Sunday, but the stomach flu hit us pretty hard. We did have a nice time watching the game even though we had to postpone the spicy food till we felt better.
• Karen bought me a new Epson 660 printer for printing off the digital pictures from the camera. It works and prints beautifully.

February

• Karen, Rebecca, and Jackie worked very hard to surprise Julie with a wedding shower for her friends and family here on the East Coast. Julie was stunned and everyone had a great time. As you can see in the slide show from the party, Paul and Julie got to practice cake cutting and cake wearing :)
• Happy Valentines weekend.... My baby got herself some very nice perfume from Macy's and bought for me a hand mixer and a self stirring coffee mug for my hot chocolate. Her love over these past 12 years has made me the happiest man in the world. I am blessed to have her as my best friend, wife, and lover.
• Work is picking up and I am learning to program in Java. It should be very good for my career and it keeps the daily office grind from getting boring.

March

• Celebrated 12 wonderful years with my beautiful wife. Sorry honey for having to work the weekend but it allowed me to be with you in St. Louis. Thanks for the wonderful dinner at Red Lobster. You spoil me.
• Drove out to St. Louis for Paul & Julie's wedding. We had a really nice time. The drive out was nice. We stayed on the West Side of Indianapolis. We managed to find a Dog-n-Suds drive in. Will have to make a road trip some day for lunch. We have not seen one of those for more years then I care to count.
• St. Louis was different. We had a surprise snow storm with 4 inches of the white stuff on the ground. It didn't deter us from the Botanical Gardens and the Orchid show. The indoor exhibits were eye catching. We enjoyed the Bible garden where we were able to see many of the plants that are described in the Bible.
• After viewing the gardens we drove out to the country to the winery district. On the way we stopped off at Daniel Boone's last home. Grabbed a fast lunch at Annie Gunn's (A nice pub with a very full menu and what proved to be one of the best hamburgers Karen and I have had at a restaurant).
• The wedding went off with out a hitch... well Paul & Julie were hitched... but you know what I mean. It was the first Jewish wedding I had seen and it was wonderful seeing the love shining in their eyes.
• We decided that since it was only about a total of 16 hours for the drive out, that we would leave the hotel early Monday morning and push to make it back to New Jersey in one day. We left about 7:30 AM Central Time and arrived in New Jersey at 12:30 AM Tuesday morning. It was a long ride, but we made good time and had a nice trip. Becca was the entertainment coordinator and she handled the job well. I think that she was able to surprise George when she showed up at the house instead of calling him from the hotel on the road.
• The rest of the month passed in a blur... of late nights and Saturdays working to make the schedules. I am finally getting the hang of Java with all that I have been doing.

April

• The Trenton Thunder opened the 2000 season. We had to give up our tickets to friends since we had other pressing needs to take care of. We hope that they enjoyed the fireworks that were put on after the game.
• We drove down to Washington to visit with our dear friends. It is our goddaughter's birthday this month, so we asked what she wanted to do for her birthday. We went to the Chesapeake Bay to hunt for fossilized shark teeth in the sand. The kids had a great time... and really good eyesight to find some of those really tiny teeth they found in the sand. We then had lunch at the Chinese buffet. I think we made one girl happy for her birthday.
• Sunday morning found a wonderful surprise ( note the pilot has turned on the sarcasm light ). There was a power outage in the area... no lights, no heat, no phones, no walkup call, No Hot Water... and the water was very cold. When we checked out, the computers were down, so we had to leave the charges on the credit card and the clerk did not give us even a breakfast certificate for our next stay. We will be sending a letter to the corporate headquarters. We were lucky that we had a flashlight to see to clean up at the sink. There was a skim of snow on the cars and the temperature had dropped to 36. We had 80 at the bay the day before. We did have a nice visit with everyone and had a smooth ride back up I-95.
• We received our new Sprint PCS phones. We left Bell Atlantic Mobile with a very nice discount offered to Lucent Employees from Sprint. The phones work great and we are glad that we switched.
• We went to Paul & Julie's for Passover. We had a really nice time sharing the Passover Seder with them.
• We tried to make it to Amwell's Good Friday service but the weather worked against us. We had to participate via E-mail to send our message on one of the seven sayings of Christ on the Cross. Easter morning we were up and on the road by 4:50 AM so that we could enjoy the wonderful Easter Sunrise Service followed by a very nice breakfast. It was very wonderful to be able to share communion on the best Holy Day ever. Thanks to God for sending Jesus to die for our sins.

May

• Enjoyed two ball games with Trenton Thunder.
• Helped serve the Daughter's banquet at church in honor of Mother's day. Everyone pitched in I think that the daughters had a great time and a really tasty meal.
• Went to Donna’s for a picnic for Memorial Day and have a great visit.
• Karen volunteered at the nursing home in the activities department at her old job. She enjoys getting to see the residents and her old friends on the staff at the nursing home.

June

• Had a really nice BBQ at John & Lorraine’s home in Flemington. It is always so nice to get together with our friends from church and have a long chat.
• Karen once again was doing the volunteer thing this month. I think that she is slowing down on that route for the summer.
• Helped gather supplies for vacation bible school. Looks like they will have a lively two weeks

July

• July was a busy month. We went down to Lou & Sami’s and picked up the kids for the week over the 4^th. Traffic was terrible but we had a really nice, so it was worth it. We all went to the Trenton Thunder with Dawn and Max for the game on the 4^th. The fireworks were wonderful and lasted over 20 minutes with a constant barrage of rockets in air. Old Navy sponsored it and we had a really neat time. We are definitely looking to do this again in the future. I took the entire week off from work. We took the Dustin and Cody, along with Chris, to the movies. They wanted to see Scary Movie. Their parents said it was ok with them. We could not find any reviews of the movie so we were glad when the lady at the ticket booth said about the nudity in the movie. We then looked over the selections and decided to see The Perfect Storm. That movie was wonderful, the kids did not move for the entire time. I was still hoping that they would get back home until the credits started rolling. Oh well ever hopeful is me…. We hit the swing time arcade for a lot of fun playing video games and playing ski-ball. We visited a very nice Japanese restaurant in Toms River called Hana. We will definitely be back to visit. We all had a really nice meal and the show was very well done. All in all, we had a really nice time and we were glad that the kids could visit.
• We had Bob & Margaret over for dinner. We went to a Cajun place in Belmar. The food was wonderful and we had a nice visit with them. We had missed getting together with our friends for Bible Study on Wednesday nights.
• At the end of the month was the surprise Baby Shower for Nicole. She is having twins. There was a bunch of people at the house to help the new parents get ready for the new arrivals.

August

• We finally had a chance to try the new Jackson China Buffet. We went with our dear friend Renee and her grandson. We had a good time chatting with her. It had been a while since we could just sit and visit.
• Karen had been planning for about a month for a surprise birthday party for Dawn. She made throwing her the party really hard to make sure that she came to the BBQ at Mike & Marla’s. Everyone was there and I think we surprised the pants off of her when she opened the door. We cooked in the rain and just had a really great time. I will have pictures from the party on line soon. Check back soon and there should be a live link to take you to the pictures.
• We were finally able to get together with John & Lorraine and also Bob and Jean for lunch after church. We had wanted to reciprocate for the nice meals that we have had at John & Lorraine’s house. We went to Shogun somewhere on Route 22 (I think). The food was wonderful and we had a really great time with everyone. It is a bit far north to go for us when we are at home, but it was a short ride from John & Lorraine’s and the food and fellowship could not be beat.
• Gary & Nicole proudly announced the birth of the twins. They came a bit early but are now home and doing well. We were hoping to get down and see them over Labor Day weekend. Unfortunately Karen's gall bladder decided that to cause a whole lot of trouble. She went through the procedures and surgery to get it all fixed. She came through it will flying colors. She has some resting and healing to go through in the mean time.
• We would like to thank all of our friends for their calls, cards, visits, and prayers during Karen's hospitalization. Thanks for helping us to remember how many friends we have and how much love there is in this world. Here are the flowers that Paul & Julie sent, the balloon from Andy, Jackie and Sammy, the flowers from Dawn & Max, and from Inez & Cork and the lovely pup from John & Lorraine.

September

• Karen came home from the hospital on the 1^st and is doing well. I am so glad that she is now home and can get better.
• Visitations  by John and Lorraine, Pastor Bob, Andy, Jackie, and  Paul were very much appreciated.
• Karen's birthday slipped by quietly. She and Gina celebrated together with home made pizza and cake (Thanks Lorraine!)
• The youth rally for the Amwell Church of the Brethren was held on the 23rd of the month. Karen and I helped to paint the booths that John created. I think that the booths came out really well and the kids that came to learn about the youth program at Amwell had a really great time.
• Bible study started up on the 13th. We are still in John but we are in Chapter 14 and will spend some time with the love feast story as that is important to the Church of the Brethren.
• Rounding out our month was a dinner that we had with our neighbors Rob & Jeanne on the 29th. We had a great time getting to know them better.

October

• We attended the christening of the twins which was followed by a nice party. Unfortunately, the disk with the pictures has been lost. If/When I find them the will be loaded. Right now we have a scanned picture of Ethan and Jordanna at 8 weeks. They are getting bigger every day.
• We vacationed for my birthday out at our condo in Du Bois, PA. We welcomed as a traveling member my Big Sister Donna who enjoyed herself during the vacation. We surprised Donna with a day trip up North to Niagara Falls Ontario. We took Donna around to see the sights and basically had a really nice day. Pictures are available here.
• While in Pennsylvania, we headed down to south central PA where we visited with our parents and my brother Dave and his family. We had a really nice time and it was nice to see that everyone was doing well.

• We had a wonderful dinner and afternoon of conversation with John and Lorraine. We have such a great time visiting them and Gina. Also, thanks to Lorraine for a great Chicken Chianti recipe. We loved our visit with you.
• Since Lorraine shared her recipe, we had to have Andy and Jackie up to try it out. Karen's came out wonderfully, full of flavor and it was enjoyed by everyone.
• Bob and Margaret had us over to a wonderful Turkey dinner. Margaret's sister Dorothy was there as well. We had a wonderful meal and lots of great stories of our Holidays past.
• Margaret had taught Karen how to make pie crusts and they also made bread. Now that we received the Kitchenaid mixer, we had to make some braided egg bread for Thanksgiving. It came out beautifully and we enjoyed a loaf with Thanksgiving dinner.
• Speaking of Thanksgiving, I picked up Dad at the train station on Wednesday. The trail was only about one and a half hours late. We were not able to make the Thanksgiving Eve service at church. Maybe next year. Dad's ride out was nice and we are enjoying our visit together for the long Holiday weekend.
• On Black Friday, Dad and I went down to South Jersey to visit. Dad had not seen the twins yet and it had been a while since he has saw Heather as well. We had a nice visit with everyone and had some good pizza and Donna's favorite... fried mushrooms. Karen didn't make it as she was not feeling well. She was missed and everyone looks forward to our next trip down when she is feeling better. Here are the pictures from our visit. Press here if the slide show does not work(such as webTv users...:)
• On Saturday we dropped off Dad at the train station so that he could catch the train back to PA. We all enjoyed his visit and look forward to seeing him again soon.

December

• My baby went into the hospital with low blood iron. She was able to get out 5 days later and is doing fine. I am glad that she was able to get better so quickly and that she has been feeling fine ever since. Thanks for the cards, thoughts, visits, and prayers for both of us during Karen's hospitalization.
• After my baby was out of the hospital, we were able to do our Christmas shopping in just two trips out to the stores. Did have to do some chasing of presents late at night but then that is what makes it fun. It was nice to be together again and enjoy the Christmas Spirit.
• We journeyed to Pennsylvania where we celebrated Christmas with our parents. Karen and I had a really great visit with my Mom in the nursing home. She was in a great mood and knew that I was someone close to her even if she could not remember my name. We then went across town to visit with Dad. We took him to lunch along with my Uncle Howard and Aunt Joan. It had been a really long time since we had been able to visit with them and we enjoyed our visit. After lunch we went back to Dad's apartment and visited for the rest of the day. We spent the night at the Ramada Inn and got an early start to Karen's parents on Sunday. We had a really nice visit and spent the day with them and enjoyed Inez's home cooking. We got back home late Sunday night with lots of happy memories from the weekend visit.
• We had Andy & Jackie up for a delicious dinner and then we drove up to the Garden State Arts Center for the Christmas Light Show. We had a great time listening to the Christmas music on the radio. The light displays were awesome and we all enjoyed the section with the religious displays. They helped to make people remember the Reason for the Christmas Season.
• We also joined the Amwell Church of the Brethren as members. We finished up the membership classes back in November, but December 17^th was the first time that everyone would be there to participate. We are glad to be a part of the Amwell Church of the Brethren and we look forward to growing in the Lord's presence there.
• We enjoyed our first Caroling outing with the church on the 22^nd. We went to a senior living center and then to a couple of our members who are home bound. Everyone had a really great time and I think we sounded pretty good. Lots of Christmas Spirit was shared along with the Christmas story from Luke. I hope that we will be able to do it every year.
• We had to scrap our plans for New Years in the Poconos with our friends. We wanted to make the New Year's Watch at the church and everything worked against us making the trip to the Poconos. Karen and I were sad to make the decision not to go, but we felt that it was the best answer to all the things that are going on in our life. Maybe everyone can get together another time for a fun weekend. We hope and pray that everyone has a safe trip and great time. We will be thinking of you.
• Since this is most likely the last update to the Daily Diary for 2000, I want to take this opportunity to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from both of us. Take care and God Bless.
• Ok... so we had a great snow and I wanted to show how much snow is on the ground about 10 AM. Please press here to see the pictures.

Of course there are no guarantees that this will be updated on a daily basis... Monthly will be more like it. Today's update is as of December 30, 2000.