Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Today I want to say thank you to my wonderful wife. You are the most amazing person I've ever met and I thank the Lord for everyday that I have to share with you. You always make the day seem brighter, just with your presents and beautiful smile. I know that I could not have made it this far in school with out your love and support. To say the least, I would be 20 lbs heavier. Happy Birthday sweetheart.
This letter will be counted as your coupon for an all expenses paid ski trip over Christmas break.
I love you hottie,
Toby

Happy Birthday Daddy!

The other day I was very stressed out. It was a day or two away from taking my Part IV Boards. I was very near to the braking point. I needed Dad, he was all I could think about and the only one I wanted to talk to. I wanted to ask him how he kept on going all those years. When the world seemed like it was closing in on you and the stress level could not be raised any further. I needed some advice on how he did it. I decided to pull myself from my studying that wasn't getting accomplished anyway and get some fresh air. Finding myself alone in a ally way the feelings of abandonment and just plan old missing him could not be pushed away. I broke down like the moments after I first found out he was gone. I called mom/dads cell phone a couple of times just to hear his voice. If only I could have one more moment with him. I did feel his presents there as I cried but this time it wasn't strong enough to make me feel better, but it did help to remind me that he watches me and is with me more than I realize.
Needless to say I made it through that awful day and I know I was able to get through it because of Dads help. May we all be able to find strength in the life he lived and not the last moments of it, is my wish and my prayer.
To my Dad: I miss you everyday. I think of you everyday and I will never stop trying to be the man you want me to be. I love you! Happy birthday.
Your son,
Toby

Yabba Dabba Doo... you love it?

For the last two years we have been lame on Halloween. We have dressed up as nurses or doctors and wow big stretch that was. We went to parties and everyone had cool costumes and there we were, cheap lame costumes. This year we decided to turn over a new leaf. Ok, who am I kidding it was all Sandra. She just bought costumes without asking me. That's how you get things done around scrooge. She totally pulled a play out of Moms playbook.
WE GO TO THIS PARTY ON HALLOWEEN dressed up as Fred and Wilma Flinstone and we were the hit of the party! CAUSE NO ONE ELSE DRESSED UP! Peckers! (sensor for your children)
We didn't feel stupid enough so we made a quick trip to WALMART to get some groceries for Sunday. Some guy said, "I love your costume. Can I take a picture?" Which is code for, you guys are idiots and I'm going to post your dumb mugs on peopleofwalmart.com
Good news we're not on the website yet. It was a very memorable last Texas Halloween. Thanks Sandra!

Goodbye Grandpa "D"

This is my sweet Grandpa Driebergen, he passed away saturday August 15th, peacefully in his sleep. Grandpa D was such a wonderful, amazing man who loved his family so much and loved his sweet wife more than words can describe. We will miss you Gramps! We love you so much!

Florida to NC pictures

This is the drive from Dallas to Florida and our stay in Florida

Technical Difficulties

I am sorry everyone, I know y'all want to see our pictures from our trip to D.C. but we are currently experiencing some technical difficulties. The pictures are having a hard time loading, (probably cause we took too many) but I hope to soon have them on our blog sooner than later. Wish me luck!

Our Crazy Trip!

So here is the story behind our madness: Toby and I decided one day to play with mapquest and plan pretend trips. One of them being D.C, we have a friend that lives there and thought lets just see how far it would be to drive there, not thinking anything of it because honestly who would be crazy enough to drive that far. We played around with mapqest for about a week and became dead set on this D.C. trip, we could not get our minds off of it. Toby's break was coming up from school and we normally go home, but decided we would take a leap and go somewhere we have never been. We wanted to explore the east coast before we moved and decided why not now. We officially were nuts! We maped it out one last time, not the direct route (because that would be the easy thing to do), but the scenic route. With all our stops and detours the total round trip was about 3700 miles. Yes I said 3700! We were able to hit 18 states in a week and a half. We could of drove from California to Maine in less time and mileage then the trip we took. We were crazy! But it was the best trip of our lives! I would recommend it to anyone! Driving is so much better (if you don't have kids and alot of time) than flying because you get to see so much. And WOW the east coast is so beautiful!
Honestly the driving was not that bad at all, our longest day of driving I think was about 12 hours and it flew bye so fast because we just talked and talked. I learned so much about Toby on the trip that I never knew previously, who knew that could be possible! I thought I knew everything about him. I think what also helped was stopping alot, it breaks the trip up and makes it more interesting.


Details about the trip:

The beginning of the trip we caravanned to Daytona Beach, Florida, with some friends of ours who have a home there. We stayed and played there for 2 days, then we drove to Charleston, SC. We stoped and toured around there and got to watch the sunset. Our next stop was Chapell Hill, NC, where we visited UNC and Duke University. Duke was amazing! The campus was so beautiful I felt like I was in a movie, the buildings were really pretty. Most if not all their buildings were cathedral like. Their administration buiding was a huge mansion like home, as well as all the other department buildings. It definetly is not like any normal campus you have been to.


Then on to D.C. This place is a blog in itself. It was amazing and so breath taking. It was so green and beautiful. We were fortunate to be able to go through the D.C. temple when we got there. It is our new favorite temple. The outside is so pretty and the grounds are so huge. The temple has stainglass windows that just shine. The pictures we took did not turn out very well which was unfortunate. We got to see just about all the monuments, some at night, which was amazing. We went through a couple museums, saw the Capital, almost got arrested at the capital (will explain later) and got to see the White House. I am going to do a blog just for D.C. so I will go into more detail later.

While we were staying in D.C. we took a bus up to New York and spent the day there. Saw a broadway show, "Wicked," loved it!! Saw a bunch of celebrities at the Revalon Race for Breast Cancer, we ran in it sort of, we ran for about 5 blocks, because we were not registered, and then darted. We walked around all over, saw 911 memorial, Lady liberty (from a distance), Central Park, and Time Square. We had alot of fun!

After New York we went back to D.C. and headed for home. We drove the long way home, through Maryland to West Virginia, to Kentucky to Tennesee. We stopped in Nashville and Memphis, then on to Arkansas and finally Dallas.

Of course this is the short version of our trip. But the pictures will explain alot. Enjoy!

Coming Soon!

Our Ultimate Road trip To D.C!!!

Tyler, Texas Campout

So I know, I win the slacker award. I tried to be an avid blogger, and obviously I failed. Well lets try again. This summer my life will slow down a bit with all my extra actvities, that maybe just maybe my blogging will be better. We will see, no promises. Here we go!

As you know, the Shaffer's just can never stay still. We love to be crazy and we take any and every opportunity to leave and explore the wild outdoors. Well we did just that and decided to attempt camping here in Texas. We have to say we were really surprised how fun it was and how it was similar to camping at home, minus the mountains of course. Texas really surprised us!

We camped at Tyler State Park in Tyler, Texas. Tyler is really pretty, lots of green hills! The park was really nice. They had a nice lake, which we went kayaking on and an awesome swim area. They have really nice hiking and mountain biking trails as well.
We lucked out because the weekend we went Tyler was putting on their annual Azalea days (I did not spell that right). What this is,is people plant these azalea flowers and one week of the year in spring they are in full bloom. You go around to all these homes and look at the pretty flowers. They also had tours of plantations, which we went on. The homes were so beautiful and huge! At each home they had these high school girls dressed in fancy old dresses, greeting all the visitors. They were called Azalea Bells. Toby had fun getting pictures with all of them!:)
During the weekend they also had a Civil War reinactment. It was pretty funny and cool!

Here are some photos from the trip;



The Civil War reinactment

Really?! Now that is funny!

They have these crazy trees, you can climb them

like you would a rope. We had too much fun swinging

on them!

Here is my monkey boy. Look how high he is!

This is the backyard of someones home. This was featured in

the Home and Garden Magazine. Aren't the flowers so

beautiful!

These are the cute Azalea Bells

This is one of the plantations, that was on our tour.

February Polar Bear Dip

Yes, we did do it again. We made a pact, a pact that can not be broken regardless of what happens. We must do it once a month until June! Luckily this time the water wasn't 40 degrees. It felt more like 60. We also got a couple videos. They are quite funny. Only one would upload, I will try to upload the others later. Enjoy!

Who needs Organization?

Apparently I do!
I was so excited about my project I finally completed, I just had to blog about it. I am trying to be a better blogger and keep everyone happy with new blog posts, so I am coming up with any and every excuse to blog! So my project was to clean my office and organize it. I have had this goal ever since we moved into our apartment (last june) and of course I always tell my self, "I'll do it tomorrow." I soo discovered tomorrow was never going to come. Things kept pilling and pilling up. Those of you that saw it, you knew how terrible it was, I am sorry for subjecting you to such madness. Well I had finally had it, I was so frustrated and so imbarrassed that so many people had seen it, that I finally did it, I got down to buisness!

Look at the beautiful pictures, it definitely looked worse in person and it looks better in person as you can navigate the room and take in all its amazeness.

Before

After

"Little Mag Pie"

Toby and I watched our friend, Shara's Maltypoo(sp?), Maggie, over the weekend why she was gone. We had so much fun with her. Toby nicknamed her Mag Pie. She is the cutest little thing! While I was cleaning our office she would just lay in my lap and cuddle, it was so cute! I felt pretty special. Toby kept her nice and energied by running with her outside in the grass, and at night she would cuddle with us in bed while we watched a movie. She was such a good little girl the whole time. We only had one accident, but it was luckily an easy clean up! We just love her so much! Thanks Shara for letting us play and cuddle with her. Maybe soon we can get a little doggie like Maggie. Oh wait, probably not, it took Toby 5 years to want to even think about having kids. Crap there is no hope!

Polar Bear Dip 2009

So, Jenn, Toby and I, one day decided we would make this crazy pact that we would start a new tradition for 2009, a polar bear dip. This new pact involves jumping into the pool, regardless of what the pool temp is, once a month until summer. We started this on January 21st, the warmest day of January. You think maybe the water would be bearable, ya no not really. It was soo cold we could not even take a breathe until we were out of the pool. We tried getting in the hot tub right after, but wow it hurt soo bad! It was nothing but pins and needles. Who knew?

1,2,3 jump!

Happy and Warm!

So Toby and I could not get enough, we jumped 3 more times. Not by choice. We were planning on just jumping once but Jenn kept messing up on the picture. We finally got a good one on the third try. She did it on purpose, she just loved laughing at us! "Not Funny" -Toby

Jump 1

Jump 2

Jump 3

K we have had enough Jenn!

Christmas Vacation

Toby and I were able to go home to Boise during our Christmas break, and be with our family. It was a much needed break and it was so fun seeing all our friends and family. It snowed the whole time we were there, we were so excited! We were praying for a white Christmas and we sure got it! We almost thought we were going to get snowed in, but it stopped before that happened. Our flight this year was perfect, we had no delays. Quite different from last year. Last year we were delayed leaving DFW, our flight was suppose to leave at 6:30am. We got stuck in the salt lake airport. There were no flights going out to Boise for 2 days. We luckily found a flight out to pocatello. Once we got to pocey at 10:30pm, we had another 3 to 4 hour drive to Boise. We had a nice 18 hour day of traveling! No fun at all! So needless to say we were very grateful to have made it on time with no delays! We did try to give up our seats for 2 free tickets, but no success. Here are some fun photos of our trip.

Christmas day with my family:

Toby and Cody (my nephew), These two were

inseparable our whole trip!


How cute are we! Toby's lovely present to me! He wraped it 4 times! Luckily the present was worth it. It was an mp3 player.

Every year one of the grandkids dresses up as an elf and hands out presents. This year Carissa got to do it.


What a mess!! I'm out!

Our Christmas time with Toby's family

Toby and the boys planned a tickle attack against Toni!

Me, Toby, Tobe's sister Toni, Mom Shaffer, sister Terri
and husband Ryan, and brother Todd and his wife Mandy

Toby and his family

The grandkids put on a concert for us. They did an awesome job! It was so cute, they had an autograph signing booth after the concert. They had a cute picture of the three of them that they signed. Very creative!

I just loved this picture of Toby and his girls!

Toby is the best uncle!


You think Toby is crazy, look where he gets it from! What did I marry into?!


Mountains, oh how I miss the snow covered moutntains!

We had so much fun! Family is the best place to be! We love our family and can't wait to go back and visit.