Mike and Nicole Peterson

Today is my birthday.  I turned 32 today.  I can’t believe that I’m 32!  The family when out for dinner with me.  I chose Ci Ci’s Pizza Buffet because I haven’t been able to eat a lot and pizza sounded good.  Claire entertained us at the table and my dad told stories about the good old days of Steven and I as kids.

But now for my bad story of the day.  Someone hacked into my XBox Live account, charged 500 microsoft points on my credit card and changed my gamertag.  I had to spend all night talking with tech support who after about 4 or 5 hours told me since no other info was changed, that it was my fault and no refund would take place.  What a bunch of crap!  I am so mad right now.  So, then I message all of the friends that this punk placed on his friends list after deleting all of my friends, and asking them what was going on.  So if you have an xbox live account, be careful since people can get into them as well.

Even though I was mad, this really didn’t ruin my birthday since I got eveything fixed and I’m over it.  I will be posting more pictures on flickr soon.  You will have to see our bathroom project which is another story for later.

Good night

Mike

Well, it has come to an end. On July 27, 2008, my dad retired from 36 years as a pastor.

On Saturday, the members of St. Matthew and Silver Creek threw a great party for him. I have posted pictures from the day on the flickr page. I hope you enjoy them.

Thank you all for the memories that we have made over the last 14 years in Almena. Thank you to everyone who took care of my dad after my mom died.

We will miss you all.

Mike

I know, it has been a long time since I have published anything. I’ve been lazy and have been playing to much X-Box 360 and watching baseball. Sorry, I know that everyone wants to know what goes on in our awesome lives but we have to slow it down for baseball.

Speaking of baseball, the Twins have taken the weekend over the Brewers. We are now a game out of 1st in the central! If you had asked me about this in April, I may have laughed at you. With my dad moving down here, he as gone to a few games with me. I know he enjoyed the Red Sox weekend in May. I don’t agree with his ideas on how to manage the team or the bullpen but at least he is cheering for the right team.

In other news, Nicole has been hired at Best Buy in Eagan. She is still working at Bed, Bath and Beyond but needed to pick up more hours since her’s have been cut. It is a great bonus since Best Buy is my favorite store and that means, DISCOUNT!!! I had always joked about her getting a job that would benefit us like at a grocery store or a pet store, but I never thought about Best Buy. We do buy a lot from there since I always need computer parts or cds or dvds or video games or presents for people. In fact, I wanted to register there for our wedding but at that time, they didn’t offer it. Now they do.

Speaking of weddings, we celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary on the 21st. We had a nice little party at our home. Nicole and her mom made all of the food. I think that Claire was the biggest hit at the party. The best part is that our dogs didn’t get all jumpy and were very good with all of the people coming in and out of the house.

Ok, now for the most important part of this post. I just watched a documentary called Maxed Out. As many of you know, I am a movie buff and love all types of movies. I had read about this movie and it happened to be on Showtime, so I recorded it on our dvr. I was so blown away with this movie, that I order you to run out and rent this movie.

I have watched other documentaries like Super Size Me and that didn’t do much for me. This movie since it hits so close to home, we have had problems with over spending and racking up balances on credit cards, that I am going to think twice about pulling out my Boston Red Sox’s Master Card (they didn’t have a Twins one at the time and even though they have one now, I don’t want another credit card).

The interviews with some of the collection people made me sick, because the ones that they show are from Minneapolis and I have heard about their ways in dealing with people before I saw the movie. The stories from the people who’s lives have been ruined by credit debt is so heartbreaking that even some of them have said they’ve thought about suicide and few have taken their lives.

I truly recommend this movie for everyone. It deals with what is going on right now and how the middle class is fading into the lower class.

That is it, my rant is done. Go and watch this movie. One of the best documentaries I have seen beside Ken Burn’s Baseball.

PS One last thing, don’t buy Suzy Orman books, follow Dave Ramsey. I think he is a better person to listen to. I have bought a Suzy Orman book (funny how you need to save money but you spend $25 dollars on a book that tells you how to save money.) and after learning about her from this movie, I think I’ll burn it.

I have to say, today was a good day for me.  I was feeling crappy this morning.  I had to do an interview for my magazine this afternoon and it was also the St. Paul Art Crawl.  I didn’t think I was going to make it, but by the time we left, I felt ok.

Nicole and I went downtown St. Paul today for two reasons.  One, I had the interview and Two, to make buttons.  I’m sending buttons to people who donate to my company.  So check out Wok The Dog and make a $3 dollar donation and get a button.  We have 6 different designs.  If you donate $15, you get all six buttons.

Nicole and I were going to try to sell them to the crowd at the art crawl today, but only here in Minnesota, it started to snow.  So, we wondered around the lowertown area.  For those who don’t know, Lowertown is where Nicole and I made our first home.  We visited our first home and then wondered around to visit and see how it has changed since we lived there.

Part of me misses living downtown St. Paul, other part doesn’t.  So, as you may have guessed, we didn’t sell any buttons, but had a great time.

But, as fate would have it, I got tired and we had to leave.  That is one thing I have to remember.  Once I get tired, I need to stop and take a break.  I did have a good food day since I have not felt sick to my stomach at all.  I’m glad for that.

For all of you that are wondering, my father’s closing went well.  He is now a home owner.  He has even started to move some of his things into the house.  I have not gone over yet to see the boxes but I will have pictures up as soon as I go over.  Zoe and Abby will be sad since next time my dad comes down, he may stay in his new house and Libby won’t get to stay over.  I think Zoe and Abby like the doggy slumber parties they get when Libby is here.  So, email my father and tell him congrats on buying a house.

That’s all I can think of.  Remember to listen to my internet show on Fridays at 7.

Mike, Nicole, Zoe and Abby

Hello Family and friends:

As many of you know, for the last few months I have felt ill.  Day by day I feel good and I feel bad.  Last time, I had written that I was about 60% better and I was hoping that it would climb to be 100%.  It never did.  I felt worse as the days went on.

I went to the doctor since I didn’t see myself feeling better.  After a few test, I found out that I have what is called Fibromyalgia.  I’ve set a link to the wikipedia page that explains what it is.

I’m glad to finally find out what is wrong with me.  I have a lot a head of me to not let this take over my life.  I have put myself on a very strict diet and work out schedule.  I have been very tired the last few month.  I have been in pain since my nerves fire at random times and my joints hurt.  I also cannot keep food down some days or I get very sick to my stomach other days.  The last few months, I have eaten baby carrots, saltine crackers, sprite, apple juice and oatmeal.

I’m positive that I will get through this and will be able to lead a normal life.  I was told that I might have to chage careers and I don’t want that to happen because I really like what I do.

I will keep you posted as the weeks and months go by.

Mike

PS Congrats to David and Hope on the birth of the son!  Just to let you guys know, you have now taken both of our choices for boy’s names.  We have such good taste, don’t we!  Congrats!