So, this past weekend, i went with three of my brothers, three nephews and one cousin to Algonquin Park.
We left early Friday morning and returned late Monday night.  Camping in Ragged Lake and had typical Algonquin September weather.  It started raining Friday night around 10 pm and didn't stop until Sunday morning.  Despite the rain we had an awesome time.  Caught loads of fish, ate lots of them, and spent many hours just chillin' around the fire - which we had to keep feeding firewood (and i mean lots of firewood)
Here are some pics of our weekend trip.

This past weekend, we had our annual family get-together (the Katerberg side...)  We had an awesome time!  Beforehand i put this 'chart' together to show some interesting stats about our family.

If you click on the image it will download a hi-res pdf of it.

Enjoy!

So... the year of SUPER SAVING!
wow... like Dave Ramsey has said... as soon as we decide to make drastic and good financial decisions... guess who comes knocking!  MUR...PHY!!!!!!!!!!!!
And wow was that ever true for us!

This month...
Van Repairs: $1,089.35 and $650.61
Bathroom Tub Repairs: $115.26
Prescriptions: Lisa and Alexis: $241.50
TOTAL: $2,096.72
None of these 3 things were part of our budget...
but we had the money! -

2 major repairs on our family van...

If you were to enter our home after December 31st, you would see lots of fridge magnets that look like this...

November 9th and 10th was a special weekend for us.  Friday night the kids stayed at my brothers and also at Lisa's parents.  We had dinner out at the Breadalbane in Fergus, then Saturday had breakfast with my whole family at the Gorge Country Kitchen in Elora.  Afterwards the two of us went to the mall to do some Christmas shopping for the kids research, visited Chapters, then had lunch at Zehrs! 
I picked up 3 new books to read - Wohoo!  I am a big fan of the tv shows on CBC - Dragon's Den and The Big Decision.  So the three that I purchased were from the Dragons themselves.  Looking forward to it!

So here goes... the very first blog post...  well since it is me doing the talking here, how about a little info regarding myself.

Born in the mid 70's, youngest of 8 kids, married in my mid 20's, my wife (Lisa) and i knew each other since we were kids.  We now have 4 children (Faith, Ben, Alexis and Amy). We love the church we attend together and are actively involved there!

We own a business ... Alpha Graphics and Signs, which we are expanding  through two different avenues - Photo Gallery Wraps and Graphics/Signage for churches.

I enjoy trips to interesting places such as Killbear Park, Algonquin Park, or little known Inn's or Resort's.

Sports is a great stress-reliever for me. Either watching games on TV or playing with the guys.

Spending time together as a family is a huge part of my life.  I especially love weeks when i am home most nights and get to hang out and play with the kids and chill with Lisa.

So... Take a look around my site and explore some of the things i like!
               
                                                                                                thanks for reading!