...and we're back!!

Quick update...

If everything works out OK, we will be down to one house. We will have sold the house that we remodeled and will only have the house we live in left. Whoo hoo!!

The Jolio will be starting a new job when school starts, working for the preschool that runs out of our church. That will be a big change for us, but I think she will find she enjoys the adult time away from home.

I am still in the same job. It sucks most of the time, but it pays well, and I am learning a lot. I just don't like working in general.

The Punk is about to start his second season of football. Coming off an all-star season last year, the expectations are high. However, this year he will be playing in the 6-7 grade league, and he will be the underclassmen. We'll see how he handles it. He will also be starting band and has chosen to play the trombone. They also start pre-AP classes this year, and he has elected to take Social Studies, Literature, Math and Science, all in pre-AP. This will be in place of his GT class that he has been in the last 4 years.

The Claw is just coming off her first year of kid pitch softball. The team got better as the season went along, but no post season this year. She has her first boyfriend at school (which obviously makes me insane and gives me a lot more gray hair. I think it shall be a long teenage time with this one.). She is going to take time off of sports for the fall, but will play basketball in the winter. She is going to start 4th grade this year, and seems to be OK with it.

Both kids just got back from Church Camp and Camp War Eagle. They had a great time at both and can't wait to go back again next year. It is nice they can start building some memories. I have some great camp memories of my own to this day.

The dog is still awesome. We also have a frog and a fish.

Well, talk to you in another 6 months....

Howdy....

Well, yep, hmm hmm, ok....Sorry, just trying to figure out what to say. Basically, things are about the same. Same two houses, same job, same weight (well a little bit less for both of us. Actually, the Jolio has lost 11 pounds and I am down 10 lbs. and back to where I started), etc.

We have had one significant change. I think we have finally found a home church!! We started attending Bentonville Nazarene Church and almost immediately felt at home. We already knew some folks there, which helps. My sister and her family go there. The best part is the worship. It is the first church that we have visited since we left Lowell that do similar worship to what I was doing. Also, there are several other families in our same demographic (close to our age with kids our kids' ages). They also have great kids programs. Overall, we are very pleased and can't wait to get involved and going with the church. I have already had a chance to talk to the Music Minister and let him know my background and passion for worship. He said when I was ready to let him know, and we will see how I can contribute.

The Punk and Claw are both in the middle of basketball season. I am coaching the Claw's team, and we are getting better every game. The Claw is pretty much the best player. She is fun to watch. The Punk is the best player on his team, also, but sometimes he forgets that he is not playing football and gets a little rough.

Well, that is about it. See you in a few months....

Christmas is over...

Indeed it is. In my opinion, we probably had the best Christmas we have had as a family yet. The kids were excited about what they got. They thanked us and appreciated the sacrifices that we made to get them the things we wanted. The Jolio and I both got what we wanted as well, even though we said we were not going to get each other presents. We went and had our normal brunch with my parents and then we had the Jolio's family over to our newly remodeled house for a Christmas dinner. We had a great time at both.

Anyway, now we look forward to a new year. The Punk and Claw are both playing basketball, which starts in a couple of weeks. I am coaching the Claw's team this year. I owe her. I only coached her for one season in soccer. I have coached the Punk for 6 seasons of soccer and 1 season of basketball, so I am trying to catch up. She is excited. I love basketball. If there is anything I know it is basketball and music. So that part should be easy. The only thing I am worried about is the shirts they give the coaches to wear. I am not an "off the rack" kind of guy when it comes to sizes. I asked for the biggest shirt they have, but I know it will not be big enough. Oh well. It is my own fault. I will put on a happy face for the Claw and figure something out.

We hope to move out to our newly remodeled house soon. We will probably wait until closer to Spring, though, unless we sell this one first.

Happy New Year...

Getting Close, Getting Ready...

Well, we have finally come to it. We may be getting close to moving out to our remodeled house in the woods. I can hardly wait. We just came from there. It has a porch that stretches out in front of half the house. There was a cold rain in the air. You could almost smell the air. Does anyone else know what I mean? You know, when the air is cold and crisp, and you take a deep breath and it just fills your lungs. At that point right there, I can almost smell air. I am not talking about the smells that you usually find in the air. I am talking about smelling the air itself. Anyway, tonight standing on my porch in the middle of the woods, I could smell the air. I knew then that this was meant to be.

Moving on...Hopefully, we will get to move out to the house in the next few weeks. No, unfortunately, we still haven't sold this one, but we decided we were ready to take the plunge. We'll see what happens.

Smell you later...

Can we get back to simple...

It seems that with every passing day, I long more and more for life to be simple again. Now mind you, I am not looking for Amish/Mennonite plain, but I feel like I am more and more "out of the loop" everyday. And, the strange thing is (strange to the rest of the world, anyway) I am embracing it. Allow me to explain...

Let's start with face-to-face conversation etiquette. When did it become OK to, in the middle of a face-to-face conversation, answer your cell phone, turn and walk away leaving the person with whom you were having a face-to-face conversation just standing there looking foolish? Is it just me or could that not be considered one of the rudest behaviors in the history of mankind? (OK, that last bit may have been a little dramatic, but you get my point.) I mean, for crying out loud, I am standing right here in front of you. What could be so freaking important that you stop mid-sentence with no explanation and answer a machine that apparently deserves more attention than a living, breathing human being?!

While we are on the subject, let's talk about the cell phone itself. Are you sitting down? Can you handle this? I have a cell phone, but I DON"T HAVE IT STRAPPED TO MY PERSON AT ALL TIMES!!!! I don't have it in my pocket and I don't carry it around. Do you know where I have it? I have it in my vehicle in case of emergencies, and it is charged about half of the time. And guess what? I still manage to get through my day at work, home, church, etc. without it. Can you believe it? In my humble and, I am certain, solo opinion, the cellular phone is the black plague of our times. It has infected the majority of the inhabitants of the earth, with the exception of Africa who is not far behind the rest of us. These pestulants are everywhere--causing car accidents, interrupting meetings at work, interrupting sermons at church, interrupting the overpriced movie you paid for, interrupting the face-to-face conversation you were just having....and that is just the ring and answer part of it. Then you have the actual talking.

But, the most annoying part of it all is the text message. Not only are we too lazy to get out a piece of paper and a writing instrument and write a letter, put it in an envelope, put a stamp on it, and mail it, nor can we have a face-to-face conversation, nor can we pick up a telephone and talk to someone, but we are going to open up this little, bitty machine and type in a bunch of abbreviations, not words, just abbreviations so we can communicate about things that are more than likely not even important in the large scheme of things. Soon, we will resort to grunting and pointing to communicate, but not in person, of course.

I know this sounds hypocritical coming from a guy typing on a computer into a blog, but at least I am using words (They may not be big ones, but they are words) and putting thoughts together. This is the only way that someone else may read this, since they no longer recognize penmanship and stationary, but only this mindless drivel called blogging...in cyberspace. It is not even a real place. You can't even leave it to ignore the conversation you are having with someone...

I'll be back to whine some more later...

Yep, we're still here....

Well, once again I am 7 months late with an update, but here goes.

I did get the management job I was after. I have been in the position since June. It is going well. Also, God asked me to leave my post as Worship Pastor at the church. We left there in July. We have been looking for a new church since then, but I think we may have recently found one.

We still own the two houses. Not fun, my friends, not fun. We are still trying to sell the house we are in, so we can move out to our remodeled house. It is slow going. The market is terrible.

The Claw got to go to the State Softball tournament with her team. They ended up taking 5th place overall. They had to play 7 games in a row on a very hot day. But, it was a great experience for her, and she had fun.

The Punk played his first year of football this year and made the All-Star team. They got to go play a tournament in Oklahoma. They lost two games in a row, but he has finally found his sport. He loves football!! He is a lineman and loves to hit people, so it is a good fit.

I recently started up a new band called One of Ten as my musical outlet. It is a worship band that is doing all of the original songs I wrote while at the church. The Punk is the drummer and some close friends are on keyboard and bass guitar. I am on acoustic and lead vocals. You can check out our MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/oneoftenworship. Hopefully, there will be a picture and a sound sample in the near future.

Well, that is about it.

See you in 6 months...

Uhhhh...Yeahhh.....

This is for Yu. Yu know who Yu are....

Once again, I forgot that I had a blog, but since I remembered and was sitting here with nothing better to do, I thought I would update it.

Life on the home front has been 3-4 weeks of chaos. We bought a house!! It is about 15 minutes from the city we currently reside in. It is on 3 acres and is basically set in a spot that was cut out of the woods. Who knew that there were so many different bird sounds. Where we currently live, we have one kind of bird song. Very boring. But, the quiet. How can I explain the quiet. Let me try. You know how it feels when there is no noise. None. Zero. Nada. Yeah, I didn't either. But, now I do. The only thing you can hear are the birds and the wind rustling through the leaves. Now, I'll admit every once in awhile you can hear a jumbo jet or so or the chicken houses gathering eggs, but other than that it is nice and peaceful and quiet. It is wonderful.

However, with all of that "wonderful" there is the chaos. Let me explain. The chaos involves us deciding to completely remodel this new house. The house is about 20 years old. So far, we have replaced the roof, removed the lightning-rod antenna that was attached to the side of the house, removed all of the early-80's dark paneling from the walls, the Jolio scraped all of the popcorn ceiling off in the entire house, we have removed all of the trim in the house (baseboards, doors, windows), the kitchen has been completely gutted (no cabinets or appliances), we have replaced/patched sheet rock and sprayed the entire house with texture, we have had electricians come out and put in a new, larger service and install canned lighting, etc., we have removed all of the interior doors and fixtures, we have new windows and exterior doors ordered and they should begin being installed this week.

That is about all we can do until we sell this house..That's right. We currently have two homes!! Insane my friends, insane. This is the cause of the chaos. We have been splitting all of our time between work, working on the new house, trying to keep the old house "show ready", baseball/softball fields and trying to figure out what we want to do with the new house. Do we want to move there or do we want to flip it?!

To make our decision even harder, we just found out that the Claw made it into the Gifted & Talented program for next year at her current school. Her brother, the Punk, has been in this program for 3 years, and she has been dying to get in. They tested her again this year, and she made it in. She is so excited. Unfortunately, if we move to our new home, she will be in a different school district and would not be able to attend the class. So, the Jolio is thinking about getting a job within the local school district, so the kids could remain in this school district.

We just had a couple from Utah look at the house for a second time (the husband liked it so much, he went and got his wife from Utah and brought her down to look at it), so, prayerfully, we will get an offer this week.

As for me, I am trying to break into the management ranks at the big WM. I had 4 interviews on Thursday and Friday. Very stressful, but necessary to secure the job I want. If I get the job I want, it would take an enormous amount of pressure off of our finances.

Other than all of that, everything is pretty much the same.

Happy trails....