Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Journaling My Kids

When my daughter was born I started a journal and wrote to her almost every day. As she got a bit older the number of entries began to diminish. When she was 3 my son was born and I started again, but with 2 kids I quickly faded in my commitment. A few days ago I read her a few entries and she loved it. It really made me want to journal again. It also made me feel like I cheated my son of the same effort.

My thoughts this time is to create a blog for both of them. Not really mentioning their names, but keeping an almost daily journal of what is going on in their lives. This way grandma could keep up as well. I don't think I'd share the site names with anyone other than my mom. I probably wouldn't let anyone comment either. I just was a permanent, CONVENIENT, documentation and record of what is going on in their lives right now that they can read about later.

PLUS, this would most likely be my memory someday. I'd probably print them out each week and start a binder as well.

Anyone else journal to their kids?

Monday, February 23, 2009

Is It The Shoes

There is a shoe place in town called Run On and I've always wanted to go and get fitted, but I knew it would be a little more expensive than what I'm used to. My idea of buying shoes is going to the Reebok outlet and paying abou $100 for 2 pair of shoes.

With $90 birthday money in hand I went to Run On this past Saturday. My friend B met me there and really just observed the process. First they have you walk down and back without shoes on. Then he measured my feet to determine a size. He then put a Brooks on my right foot and a New Balance on my left and had me walk thru the store. The Brooks felt better. He then put a Saucony on my left foot and had me walk again. Still the Brooks.

He then asked if he could box it up and I asked what the price was. $125. OUCH! At least $25 more than I was thinking. With tax I walked out $135 lighter. My dad paid 1/3, my mom paid 1/3 and I paid the rest. The most expensive shoe I had ever purchased.

I did get personalized service. I found out that I have a neutral foot, with a D width. I also found out that I had been purchasing shoes that were too small. I normally buy 8 1/2 to 9 and the guy who assisted me said I was a size 10. I wore the shoes for the first time today to work out.

At least now I wont feel so bad paying $70 for some of the top shoes at Academy Sports or Sports Authority.

069 Update

Pulled up to our drive way after lunch to see our neighbors out talking. My neighbor who went for the ride on the car hood was out as well. He let us know they caught the guy who tried to run him down. It was one of the teens from the party that was busted up. This kid told his parents that his windshield got busted out while he was at the movie theater. He told them that some big guy just jumped them. So his parents called the police and made a report. Ironically the officer who responded was the same one who was in my front yard. When he saw the car with the flashlight sized smash he put 2 and 2 together.

My neighbor pressed charges so we'll see what happened. It also appears one car hit the lamp post and a different one tried to run down my neighbor. The lamp bulb from the post is what his the intoxicated teen in the head as well. I was also told that the 4-5 boys sitting curbside Friday night past midnight all had to wait for parents to come pick them up.

Interesting!

Also today I felt like I was on the SS Minnow because I took a 3 hour nap instead of a 3 hour tour.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Only in the 069

Last night my wife and I were lying around watching Good Will Hunting. Around 11pm she asked what the sound was. She does this often so I dismissed it and said it was probably me coughing or the the dishwasher kicking off. A few seconds later we heared a police car come down the street. It stopped right outside my house.

I quickly put some shorts on and went outside. This is a rough sketch of what happened.

Down the street there was a party going on in the cul de sac. An off duty police officer returned home to find a bunch of teens drinking outside the house next door and in the street. He either called the police or just ran them off. A skirmish somehow took place outside my house. The neighbor across the street came out with his police edition flashlight and watched as a car tried to run over a 17 year old boy. It backed into the kid knocking him flying and the car hit the lamp post in my yard. That's when my neighbor stepped in front of the car and tried to block it from taking off. He flew on the hood as it took off. He held on and smashed the windshield with the flashlight. He fell off and the car sped away.

When I went outside a senior police officer was questioning the teen that had been hit. The kids admitted to drinking and was examined by the fire department-2 trucks and a chief SUV showed up as well as about 5 police cars. 2 firemen examined my neighbor who had a knot on his head and was somewhat scraped up. When he couldn't remember what month it was and he said it was 2008 they insisted on taking him to a hospital.

The dust settled outside my house, but back at the cul de sac the police had 5 boys sitting curbside. At one point I could hear the officer threatening to take them in to the station. This went on until about 12:30AM. I imagine a few parents had to come and pick them up.

I just want to know what really happened. Someone is riding around with a dented rear bumper and a busted windshield. AND this person could face attempted vehicular manslaughter chargers. I'm not sure I'd ever be jumping on the hood of a moving car.

EASTSIDE!

Sunday, February 08, 2009

First Week In February

This is the 2nd year in a row that I've come up with a pretty hefty illness involving my sinuses during February. Last year is was sinusitis that really knocked me silly. This time it is acute bronchitis. I do think My son started with this about 10 days ago which he passed on to my wife. Now I've got it. I went to the MinuteClinic at CVS this morning and was diagnosed. I was given an antibiotic although it appears antibiotics rarely help. We'll see. I didn't fall asleep until about 4am this morning. I was given the okay to go to work with the condition that I wash my hands often, which I do anyway. We'll see if I make a full 5 day work week.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

It's Only a $1

I took my son to McD's today and ordered him a kids meal and I ordered the #13, a fish fillet meal. I grabbed our cups and filled our drinks as they put together our order. I saw a kids meal on a tray with a chicken club sandwich sitting beside it. I sat there for a few minutes waiting for managerial help and finally one of the managers made eye contact. I told him I asked for a fish meal, not a chicken club. He took the chicken sandwich and slid it back in the ready food area and said he'd bring out the fish sandwich.

After he gave me the sandwich I investigated that I actually got overcharged $1. My dilemna was whether to try to explain that they owed me a dollar, ask for an ice cream off the dollar menu, or to just let it go.

I sat there and figured it wasn't worth the hassle. It made up for Wednesday night at Chick Fil A when we were given an extra 6 piece nugget box in one of the kids meals. That was about a $3 gift IN our favor that time.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Down with the Sickness

I am doing my best to avoid getting sick. My son missed 2 days last week. My whole family missed church on Sunday. My daughter is actually do okay. I just came home Tuesday night feeling it a little bit. Took some Sudafed and ended being wide awake about 1am this morning. My best sleep came between 6:45am and 7:15am. I did okay today, but was a little bit irritable. I did boost my fruit and juice intake today.

Giving my testimony tomorrow night at a men's basketball devotional. Maybe I'll post it tomorrow.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Selling Jesus

A while back I compared having Christ in my life as a valuable assett that I should be trying to sell to everyone else. At my home church in St. Louis I got pretty excited about designing t-shirts that we could wear that would draw attention and basically make people read a small bible verse and possibly engage someone into conversation. I thought we should approach life as selling Jesus all the time. We have the bible as our sales tool and the Holy Spirit as our guide.

I was pretty excited about today's message at Hope Fellowship. The following is the introduction piece I posted on my Cravetheword blog.

Jesus For Sale
Imaging selling the best product ever made. No defects, no competition, beyond a lifetime of guarantees. That would be Jesus. Today's sermon at Hope Fellowship (http://www.hopefellowship.net/) was the first installment over Jesus For Sale. The following are the outline notes to the sermon.

Matthew 5:13-16Salt and Light
13"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

I salt just about everything I eat, even without tasting it. You can definitely tell the difference between the regular Morton's table salt and that low sodium Accent 60% less sodium substitute. Why bother. I think the same can be said about a Christ follower who goes to church on Sundays and really doesn't commit to developing that relationship and growing deeper in faith. This person is like the Accent salt substitute that can really turn some people off. I think vs. 14-16 basically say if you have Christ in your life don't hide it. Let everyone see how your life has changed and let it attract others to Christ as well. And a final note: Your relationship with Christ should produce good deeds, not good deeds proving that you are a Christ follower.

I'm really excited to be a part of this church. Every message is applicable in my life. There is never a condemning or guilted message. We found out today that when our new expansion opens in 2 months we will go from having 4 services with a seating capacity of 400 to having two services with seating for 1000. This eliminates that nice option of going on a Saturday night and sleeping in on a Sunday, but it will be a lot easier to recruit the people necessary to make thing run so smoothly.