Merry Christmas??

Did you all have a Merry Christmas? My family and I had a great Christmas getting to visit friends and family. Building new hoiday memories is always a good time. Hope you had a great holiday as well.

A Christian Comedian

Never heard him myself. But he is a friend of a friend who is trying to get started. So if you need a Christian comedian for an event, check him out. Then let me know what you think.

Anna's first snowman

Busy!!

Been really busy lately with my new job. Mainly because I am learning everything there is to know on my own. So I am spending my whole day reading, finding more stuff to read, and trying the things I have read. It is certainly different then my previous job and feeling a little out of the loop. But that is okay. I think I will like this job once I have figured out what all I need to do and get a schedule down. I probably won't be able to update as much for a little while unless I do more from home which I may since work was nice enough to supply me with a laptop to use. But please be sure to stop in on me once in awhile and leave some encouraging comments. Hope you all are doing well. God Bless!!

I love my girls!!!

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my girls? Ella will laugh at the drop of a hat. (Literally and figuratively) She is so quick to smile and melt my heart. Anna while she can drive me absolutely crazy at times is total sweetheart. I put her to "bed" last night. (I say "bed" b/c she refuses to sleep in the bed and prefers the floor?) She begins to play rather than lay down so I lay my head down on her pillow and pretend to sleep. She then gets real quiet and begins to get her covers together and cover me up and tuck me. She even goes over and turns off her night light. She then covers herself up gives me a kiss and says "I love you daddy. Goodnight daddy." She is soooo cute!!!

*Bonus

I was trying to think of something to blog so I blogged about my new job just moments ago. Just as I was finished one of my best friends calls me and leads me to this following picture of one of my other best friends he took while they stopped at Disney World on the way back from a business trip. It was just too funny not to post. So here is Lee.

SEO

I may have a new job with the same company before too long. I will be in charge of SEO, which is search engine optimization. The easy explanation is that I try to make sure that when people do a google, yahoo, excite, etc... search that our site for our company comes up as at least one of the top 10. It is challenging and I won't have direct interaction with customers anymore. Plus I will probably not be in the mix of all my colleagues but rather in my own space. But I think I will enjoy the challenge and if not they said I can always come back to where I am. So wish me luck as I venture into this new area of work.

Trick or Treat!!

Some more pics of the girls

The girls in their matching sweats.

Anna picking out a pumpkin.

Ella's fist cereal.

Anna "helping" Daddy.

Anna being silly!

I Wonder...

...how much or what I would need to blog to deserve one of these???

New Blog Fad

My blog is worth $564.54.
How much is your blog worth?

Goose Egg

That is what is on Anna's head today. She thought my e-z chair was a trampoline last night. As I went to get her off she turned to try and avoid and cracked her head hard on the corner of the wall. I was so freaked out. I am so glad that Amber was there. I cannot handle to see my little girl in pain. I picked her up and I ran and got the ice. I let Amber handle it from there. God must make toddler's head nice and thick. She was okay after just a couple of minutes.

Blue Like Jazz

Besides Greta, has anyone read this book? Or even one of his others like "Searching for God Knows What"? Just curious what others have thought. I think I am going to buy it here soon.

Fun @ Work

We have a warning sign on the door into our work area. It is a yellow caution sign that read "Watch For Flying Objects". We have 2 of these poofy balls and 2 of the regular foam poof balls that we play catch with. Or hit people with depending on our mood. The cool part is our boss participates too. How many of you can throw a ball at your boss why he is not looking and not get in trouble? It is still by far the not the best job in the world, but all things considered, it's not that bad.

Off to Pizza Hut with the guys today. Please be praying for a friend of mine. A long story, but his name is Ron, God knows so just pray. Thanks.

The Chiropractor

So I went to the chiropractor for the first time the other day. It really wasn't painful at all in spite of the picture. I had a real bad pain in my shoulder the other night and mentioned to the massage therapist. (We get massages every other week at work!) She thought my shoulder felt out of place and suggest I see a chiropractor. So since we have been taking Ella and she has been doing so well. (Here is that story) So I decided to give it a try. Turns out I had two misalignments. Supposedly this could be the reason for a lot of my headaches as well.

So the table adjustments were no big deal. The weird part was when he is holding my head and says to relax...no problem. Suddenly....my head is being twisted and making noises the bad guys necks make when Segal is twisting their neck. Except they don't seem to go...Wow that feels better thanks!!! They just don't seem to move anymore??? But it turns out I was still able to move afterward and everything was okay. Just not sure I could relax as well if their were to be a next time???

A thought from Albert Day

From The captivating Presence:

"I came to a new understanding why Jesus passed up the religious establishment of his day, the economically secure, the socially prestigious, and sought out the poor, the outcast, the sinner, the broken, the sick, the lonely. He felt, as we so often do not fell, their sorrow. He was acquainted, as we too seldom are, with their grief. On Calvary he died of a broken heart. But that hear was broken long before Black Friday, By the desolation of the common people. "In all their afflictions he was afflicted."

Most of the time we are not. We seem to have quite a different conception of life. We avoid as much as possible the unpleasant. We shun the suffering of others. We shrink from any burdens except those which life itself inescapably thrusts upon us. We seek arduously the wealth and power that will enable us to secure ourselves against the possibility of being involved with another's affliction. Lazarus sometimes makes his way to our door step. We toss him a coin and go on our way. We give our charities but we do not give ourselves. We build charitable institutions but we do not build ourselves into other's lives."

Sorry for the deeper than usual post...but I felt I needed and many of you may have needed it too?

Gran is coming to town

I go to pick my mom up at the airport in a couple of hours from now. She is flying up for a week to spend sometime with her very missed granddaughters. She is coming up from Florida and is really excited about seeing her granddaughters again. She has not seen Ella since the week she was born. I know, she lives in FL why aren't we going to see her. Answer, it is a lot cheaper to bring one person up here then to take 4 of us down there. Hopefully this summer we will make it down.

One Year

A Year Ago I found out what a blog was. This how I started this one...

I don't really have deep thoughts, but hopefully they are not shallow thoughts...thus Med. depth thoughts. Thoughts like, if your 18 month old daughter is quiet for too long before going to sleep, check on her she may have taken her pants and diaper off and have a left a mess for you to clean.

Thoughts like, despite doing things like that, there is nothing greater than seeing your daughter's big smile just because you came into the room. I know every parents says this but, I really have the cutest little girl in the world. Once I figure out how to post pics on here I will put one on of her.

12 months later I have a 30 month old girl and an almost 5 month old girl. They are still the cutest girls in the world. And there is still nothing greater than seeing them smile. Except now instead of just a smile, Anna RUNS from one end of the house to the other, arms out, screaming ...DADDY'S HERE!! There is no better way to start your evening when you get home!!!

16 years

It was 16 years ago today I lost my best friend, Tim. I wasn't even 16 yet when it happened. It is hard to believe that more years have passed since than year I had yet been alive at the time. He is still one of the largest influences on my life. If you want to know more about him you can click on Tim's Stories under my links. I will mark the day as I always do and have some pretzel sticks and iced tea. And call Lee to talk about old times.

I took some great pictures of the girls last night. I will try really hard to remember to get them posted later today.

The Chase for October

Okay so I am a huge Phillies fan. But since living in Ohio and having several friends who are Indians fans and having gone to several games with them, I have become a huge Indians fan too. So much so that while my wife was watching her season premier last night,(and since we have only 1 tv, 1 too many really, but anyway..) I couldn't get the Indians game on the radio inside so I went out to the van to listen to the game until her show was over. In case you are not aware, the race to get into the post season is close as ever in both leagues. As few as 1/2 to 2 games separate 3 - 4 teams from wild card spots or even division leaders. It has never been a better time to be a baseball fan!!!

Ouch

We are all feeling better now. Except I have an infected syst on my arm. Hope everyone else is doing well. Promise to put a real post up soon, just been really busy lately. Being praying for me, I preach on October 9.

*addition to the events

Somewhere along Monday afternoon I was alone with the girls for a couple of hours. Anna came out with a basket on her head and showed me her hat. Ella was laying on the floor looking up at me and giggling. And I decided I am so ready to be a stay at home dad. Now if I could just figure out how to afford it.

Very Ill

Series of events:

Months ago we plan to take Anna to the rides @ a local festival on 9/10.
Amber starts feeling sick Thursday night.
I start getting a sore throat on Friday afternoon.
Saturday morning my voice is gone.
A few hours later, Anna and Ella have fevers.
The rides for Anna are now cancelled.
Saturday early afternoon Amber thinks she is feeling better.
Later the same afternoon things get worse for her.
Sunday morning Anna seems to be better.
Sunday afternoon Amber thinks she may have an ear infection it hurts her so bad.
Sunday evening Anna's fever comes back.
Monday morning the doctor's office has no appointments.
Monday evening we all seem to be doing not too bad.
Tuesday we are all at work and baby sitters still feeling the effects of the weekend.
Tuesday afternoon you all read this and pray for us.
Tonight we will all feel better!!! Thanks!!

Fantasy Football

I had two live drafts, two nights in a row. One with a group of 10 guys, mostly from my softball team. Another with 7 others from my church including my wife and 2 other ladies. All 3 ladies managed to get the first 3 picks last night and did pretty well for claiming they did not know what they were doing. We shall see. Here is a list of my starters for my two teams in case anyone is interested.

The league with only 8:

QB - D. McNabb
WR - P. Burress
WR - A. Lelie
WR - H. Ward
RB - T. Barbar
RB - W. Parker
TE - A. Crupler / H. Miller Will both get starts
K - D. Akers
DEF -Philadelphia

The league with 10:

QB - B. Roethlisberger
WR - D. Driver
WR - D. Mason
RB - E. James
RB - T. Barbar
TE - T. Gonzalez
K - D. Akers
D - B. Dawkins
D - M. Strahan

Christian Confession

Click here to read A Christian Confession

Hurricane thoughts

I haven't posted in a week. There just seems to be more important things going on in the world. I found this post on one of the blogs I highlighted on Blogger Day. I usually try to write simple poetry to get my thought out as well. But Chris did a great job of expressing my almost exact feelings I am just reposting his post here. Hope Chris doesn't mind. You can find his blog here.

so this morning I sit, thinking about it all,
some days its enough to just stand without one fall,
what is my purpose and why am I here?
why does my heart fill with so much fear?
i don't like what I see and I don't like where I am,
and if i thought of the right changes, do I believe that I can?
doubts and questions, ponderings for sure,
there is no guarantee that makes this life secure,
darkness and beauty exist in the same breath,
while somewhere in New Orleans the air wreaks of death,
its not about hope, seems more to do with faith,
just some mornings i wonder how much more i can take,
so today the heart is heavy, i hardly even know why,
i wish i had the time to just let myself cry,
brokeness is not evil, most times it leads to good,
often leads me to the thoughts and the actions i should,
some days its just a battle, the reality is war,
its time for me to wake up for the Enemy is at my door,

may you find peace in your ponderings today,

Blogger Day!!!

Today is blogger day and everyone is suppose to post 5 other blogs for people to check out. I am only doing 3...

Greta's Blog

Ordinary Community

Lucy's Blog

A Big Step for Anna

Anna was being babysat by one of Amber's friends the other day while Amber and I finally were able to go out on a date. Well when she woke up from her nap the daughter of the Ambrose friend noticed that she was not too wet and thought she might need to use the bathroom and took and put her on the patty. I don't think her daughter knew that she was not really potty trained. Not from lack of trying. She knows how to get undressed, sit, use the tp, flush and wash her hands. But just will not actually "go" while on the potty.

Well lo and behold with no fuss, no singing of songs Anna did "go" when put on there by somebody else. And wonderfully she did again the next day when Amber put her on. She has not got down to ask to go yet, so there is a ways to go. However, the end of buying two sized diapers may soon be at an end.

Lonely Lunch

Amber is a teacher. So she has had the summer "off". So for the summer almost every lunch hour I would come home to my beautiful wife and two wonderful girls. The best part was always when Anna realized I was home and would scream "DADDY S HOME!!" and come tearing across the whole house to give me a hug. Now I open the door and the pile of laundry I kick by the washing machine is about the only thing that notices me coming in. It is so dreadfully quiet at lunch now. Kevin and Mandy were nice enough to endure me over at their house the first day. I tempted to go to the babysitter's house on my lunch. But I am afraid that will get Anna too upset when I leave? So for now, maybe I will make my wife happy and greet the laundry by picking it up and getting it started in the wash at lunch.

Architecture

Three more pics I took of downtown during the Festival:

Dan Emmet Festival

Every year our little city of Mount Vernon has a music and arts festival. It is named after Dan Emmet who was a M.V. resident and writer of the song "Dixie". (You know, the song that plays when the General Lee plays its horn as it jumps every bridge that is out in Hazzard.) Well we went to it again this year and I did something I have wanted to do for a long time. (Besided eat the 2" porkchop, which I could have done twice but oh well. Thanks anyway Ron.) I have always wanted to just have my camera hanging from my neck and take random pictures of people without looking at the view finder. But it has always been a bit expensive to do with film cameras for one or two good shots. But using a digital camera I was able to take over a 100 pictures and came up with at least these 8 that I kind of like. What do you think of them?

A Great Softball Game

Okay I am not normally one to do this. But I was inspired by a friend who bragged about a situation that made her so happy that it made me happy to read it. So in hopes of making others happy, I am going to brag a little bit.

This week has been our church softball playoffs. On our first game of the week on Monday I struck out swinging at my first at bat in slow pitch softball. (This is obviously not the bragging part.) How do you strike out swinging in slow pitch?!!? Anyway, I did pretty well the rest at bats and my good friend Scooter (aka Ron) hit and out of the park homer with 2 men on. It was pretty awesome.

So Tuesday night is our second game. I went 3 for 3 with a walk. I hit a double that should have been a single but I just ran straight through and threw of the fielders who obviously were not expecting me to go to second. Then then when I was on second the next ball was hit to the 3rd baseman. I went half way expecting a throw to first but it never came. The 3rd baseman bobbled the ball and was a good 5 ft off the bag. So I raced him to the bag and took a long hard slide under his tag. Then managed to tag up for a run on the next hit.

Last inning of the night, we are hometeam, and the score is tied. The bottom of their line up hits back to the pitcher for out 1. The next batter is the top of their line up. He has all night done like I do at the top of the line up and hits hard shallow hits and runs out throws to first. So I am playing left center and I come up to play him shallow hoping to rob him of a blooper shot. He hits a line shot my direction, but deeper than he has hit all night. I start to back peddle realizing I will never back peddle fast enough I stop and jump for all I am worth. (Which is like 2 inches probably) I manage to snag the ball out of the air for the 2nd out.

The third out was made by our shortstop who normally plays outfield. He made a great grab as the ball almost went by for the 3rd out. Our at bat. We are the bottom 2 of our line up. The first girl up hits the ball just over the 3rd baseman's head. The next hitter pop ups to the second baseman for out number 1. I am up next. I manage to hit a shallow shot to right center and the girl on second holds up too long thinking it is going to be caught and gets thrown out at second for out number 2. 2 outs bottom of the last inning tied score. The guy behind me after watching 2 pitches one a strike and one a ball, he gets a hit to shallow left field. I am rounding second as the shortstop and the left fielder are deciding if either one of them can get to it and who it should be. So I take off for third. Apparently they both either ran into each other or ended up standing there looking at each other too long to figure out who should get it that my whole team is yelling for me to come home. So I round third and am up easy for the game winning run. It was a pretty cool night.

We shall see how tonight's game goes!?!

An Evening at the Park

Our local Rotary Club has built a 1/4 of million dollar playground at our local park.





Anna Loved It!!!









But of course she loved the 20 year old part as well





Little Sis, Not So Much!!

Ella's Blog

Ella's friends have blogs and this one has a lot about Anna so I started one for just Ella and about her story of her birthdate and her friends.

5 Wonderful Years

I guess I would be a bad husband to let the day go by and not mention today is my 5 year anniversary of being married to the best wife in the world. I love you Amber!!

Back from Delaware

We were suppose to be back by Tuesday. But just as we went to leave we realized the van's brakes were bad enough that we had better get them checked out. Which they were bad enough they needed work thus we were not able to go until Wednesday. But a big thanks to Mr. Bailey for taking care of my repair bill.

Mr. Bailey is an 80+ year old retired minister who went into the real estate business as well a long time ago. He is the kindest most generous man you would ever meet. He took my parents in when they first moved to Delaware over 30 years ago and helped take care of them as a young married couple. Today over 30 years later he is taking care of me and Amber.

He is starting to have health problems that are a little more serious than in the past. His wonderful, dear, English wife Dorothy and I were talking about his longevity. She is convinced it is because he doesn't have a hateful bone in his body. She says that when we hold grudges and anger in it eats at us just like stress. He doesn't hold grudges and doesn't stress over things. He has gained and lost two businesses and continues to go as if nothing had ever happened in the past. He has been burned by people in business and in the church. The only slightly disparaging remark Dorothy said she has ever heard him say is he understands that for the business people, it is business, they have an excuse.

I owe a lot to Mr. Bailey. Not just because of bags of free food and money every time I go home. But for life lessons, for getting my parents so involved in the church in their first month in church and never looking back, and more that I probably don't even know about.

Well this started out as a brief entry about being back. But I am happy with the turn it took. I hope you all have a Mr. Bailey somewhere in your life.

Going to Delaware

Going the next 4 days to Delaware!! It's not California or NYC, NYC!! But it is going to be fun to see friends and family again. Have a great weekend everybody.

A Night of Catching Fireflies

You can have a lot of fun with dollar store bug catcher.