The Treasure Fine

Notable Day

2011-07-12T01:07:00.001-05:00

Today is a day I’d like to remember for a couple – no, make that a few – reasons.

1) Later today we (my wife and I) will be visiting our “shortlist” of three houses here in Singapore, as we intend on making a final decision within the next 1-2 days. We’re living through our own little version of HGTV’s “House Hunters International”. Pretty fun, actually!

2) It was 7 months ago today that I received the phone call that would change our world forever; my now-current boss called me out of the blue on a December Saturday night at our home in Olive Branch, MS, and asked if I would be interested in coming to work for him in Singapore. And here I am. J

3) This morning I put on the most expensive pair of shoes I have ever owned in my life. I’m still in a bit of shock as to how much they actually cost – it’s a 3-digit number, and the first digit is a “2” – but they are supposed to be some of the best shoes money can buy. And I’ve been told that they’ll last me for a very long time (they better). And I’ve been told that they will be incredibly comfortable (so far so good). And I’ve been told that they look really good (I think I agree). And it was not easy finding a pair of Size 12 anything here in Singapore. They’re made by Loake (http://www.loake.co.uk/Shop/Default.aspx). I wanted to be sure that I documented this day, so when I eventually have to replace these shoes, I’ll have an idea of how long they lasted…

That’s it – just one day out of my life, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to chronicle things like this from time to time…

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)...

2011-05-27T17:12:00.000-05:00

The earth seems to rotate a bit faster in times like these – months fly by as though they were weeks; weeks like days, and days as mere hours. What was at one time a distant speck of land on the horizon, with a vast ocean between here and there, is now a giant rock wall that we are about to hit full force; and we got here in what seems like the blink of an eye. Somebody skipped a few chapters forward on the DVD, right?

Just over five years ago, my wife and I, along with our two young children, packed up our belongings, and our little family of four moved from San Diego (Escondido, CA) to Memphis (Olive Branch, MS). The catalyst that moved us from A to B was a great career opportunity, but the real reason we made the move was to be near family. Specifically, we wanted to be close to my mom and dad (with a sister, her husband and two little nephews nearby as an added bonus). We were also going to be much closer to Jackie’s family – icing on the cake. In general, we wanted to give our kids a chance to know their grandparents outside of a 2-3 day visit once or twice a year; and we wanted to give our parents a chance to get to know their grandkids. And, hey, I would have been lying at the time if I had said I wasn’t interested in forging a deeper relationship with my mom, dad and siblings.

Five years later? Success! (I won’t say, “Mission Accomplished”, because, of course, relationships last a lifetime – and then some – so we’re never done growing closer to one another; at least not in my book.) Since our arrival in Spring 2006, our family has grown. We’ve added our own third child to the mix, one of my sisters has moved into the area along with her husband and child, and my sister-in-law joined us in Olive Branch last fall. Our house has been two miles away from my folks’ place for nearly five years. We never quite reached “Everybody Loves Raymond” status – there were no unannounced parents barging through the front (or back) door – but we certainly did get close (and that’s a good thing). Impromptu drive-bys would turn into lengthy, heartwarming conversations between father and son. Phone calls from my dad would turn into Grandpa + Grandkids sharing an ice cream cone at McDonalds. Unplanned encounters at Walgreens, gas stations and Kroger happened on occasion, which always made me smile. Countless post-church family meals took place over the years at Costco (hot dog combos and cheese pizza slices FTW!), Back Yard Burger and Mi Pueblo. The kids will forever cherish swimming in the inflatable (yet nearly always patched and still leaking air) pools in my parents’ backyard. And still more memories: Dad coming to my rescue when my car was broken (again)… Mom saving the day when we needed a last-minute babysitter… I could keep going on and on, but A) you would probably get bored, and B) I would probably start tearing up again. (That’s tearing as in “moisture in the eyes”, not as in “ripping something”).

In short, our stay in Memphis/Olive Branch has been an amazingly wonderful experience on so many different levels. The family bonds that have been built, the memories that have been created, the lessons learned, the laughter shared… it’s been priceless.

And yet, here we are.

Even before we left San Diego, we knew that this day would come; we knew (or had a VERY strong hunch) that Memphis was not going to be our “forever home”. But knowing in advance that something is going to happen doesn’t necessarily make it easier to handle when it actually does happen. And it is happening now.

We’re leaving. Next week. Yes, we will miss our home (our first ever house), our church, and our friends. And we will terribly miss our siblings, our nieces and nephews. But to be honest, that’s the easy stuff. What’s presenting quite a challenge to me is saying goodbye to my mom and dad. I’ve of course said a big goodbye to them before – 19 years ago when I moved 500 miles away for college, and again five years later when I moved to Seattle. But this goodbye is proving to be harder. A lot harder. Our lives have become so intertwined over the past half-decade… that departing now is beginning to feel a bit – and at times, a lot – like the tearing of some pretty high-quality fabric.

I love my parents. I value their wisdom, their discernment, their company, their laughter, their unconditional love. I love just hanging out with them. I love serving God alongside them. I love how they’ve been there for me whenever I’ve needed anything – whether I was 3, 11, or 31 – whenever I’ve fallen and scraped my knees (both real and proverbial), they have showered me with love, affection, guidance, discipline, comfort, encouragement… And I know that my wife and kids have become kind of hooked on them as well.

And yet, now is the time to say goodbye. Granted, it’s not like one of us is dying, or as if we’re never going to see each other again. We’re “just” moving away to the opposite side of the world. Not down the block, not to the next city or county, and not even an airplane ride away. We’re moving three airplane rides away – even if someone’s in a hurry, they’re not going to get from Memphis to Singapore in less than around 30 hours. Yep – the other side of the world. But, hey, as Rich Mullins once so eloquently sang:

“Well the other side of the world

Is not so far away as I thought that it was

As I thought that it was so far away

But the other side of the world

Is not so far away

And the distance just dissolves into the love

Into the love…”

And yes, we have cell phones and e-mail and Facebook and Twitter and Skype. But no technology can replace 3 year-old Jude running to meet Grandpa at the church entrance on Sunday mornings… or Jordan feeling like a princess as she hangs out at one of Grandma’s jewelry shows… or Jonathan kissing his grandparents goodbye and goodnight – as we prepare to make the 4-minute drive home after a family gathering at their house.

Yep – that chapter in our life is coming to a close. Rapidly. Still, we count the past five years as an amazing blessing – we have created memories that will last a lifetime. In fact, I know that, years down the road, my kids will be able to look back on the years 2006-2011 with great gladness in their hearts, as I do the years 1985-1991, years when I lived as a child in relatively close proximity to my cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents. (In fact, in a way, I think our move overseas could be a bit of karmic retribution for my parents – they moved away from their parents as newlyweds, stayed away 15 years, moved back for six, and then moved 800 miles away when their three youngest children were 16, 13 & 9.) ;-)

So, yes, I’m sad about having to say goodbye to Mom and Dad. And I’m sad when I think about not being around them for awhile. And I’m sad when I think about my children not getting to see Grandma and Grandpa several times a week. But what really forces me to fight back the tears right now is when I stop and think about the fact that our departure is making my parents sad. The last thing I ever want to do – in fact, just about the last thing I’ve ever wanted to do in my entire life – is make life harder on my folks. They’ve given so much over the past four decades of parenthood, sacrificed so selflessly, that all I want to be able to do is give them the world. And instead, right now, I’m in a sense cutting out a big chunk of their world and taking it 10,000 miles away.

Over-dramatic? Possibly – but this is at least what it feels like right now.

I know that they’ll survive. And we’ll survive. Life will go on. The tears – on both sides of the Pacific – will only last for a short season. The earth will slow down to its normal rotation speed. And before long, we’ll all be settling into our new, respective “normals”. Our house on the corner will be filled with tenants, but I’m guessing that Dad will still drive by from time to time, remembering when… Jude will ask where Grandma and Grandpa are, and it’ll probably be awhile before he’s old enough to understand that Singapore is not just a van-ride away from their house. And we’ll all learn how to incorporate Skype-ing into our regular routine. Perhaps we’ll even have a standing “Skype Date” – maybe Friday nights/Saturday mornings at 8 PM/9 AM? We won’t be able to share homemade Chef Boyardee pizza, but laughter and stories and memories can still be had through the magic of webcams and microphones.

Physical proximity may be about to change for a few years, but that distance between us will not be able to erase the closeness we share… a nearness that didn’t exist five short years ago.

Thanks, Mom and Dad. It’s been a blast. Now it’s time to hurry up and get that passport, Mom – we’ll keep our Guest Room ready and waiting for you. See you soon.

Love,

Jon

Two Things

2011-04-24T08:24:00.000-05:00

I've done a fair amount of traveling over the past few years -- since 2006, I've logged in a trip to Arizona, a trip to New Hampshire, countless trips to Connecticut, and seven trips to Singapore... and that's just for business. Add in personal trips, and you can throw California, North Carolina, Indiana, Michigan, Georgia, Missouri, Vermont, and New York into the mix.

[Completely irrelevant thought - I'm laying poolside at the Singapore Marriott right now, and a quick glance up to the sky revealed a big cloud that just happened to look like a Chinese dragon. Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled program...]

That's a lot of suitcase packing, itinerary planning, hotel check-ins, boarding pass printing, etc. And through it all, I've gotten pretty good at a lot of things..

I can navigate myself through the Memphis, Hartford, Chicago, Hong Kong, and Singapore airports with ease
Customs and immigration - no problem
I know when and how to pick the best airplane seats (including upstairs on United's 747s)
I'm practically an expert at forcing my body to adjust to a 13-hour time change with little side effect
I'm on a first-name basis with the employees at the Singapore Marriott Executive Lounge
I know when/how to ensure that you get the picks of the best cars at BDL's AVIS lot
I've become ultra-efficient at filling out expense reports

And on and on I could go. Now, of course, I'm certainly not an "expert traveler", and there are certainly a lot of people who travel a whole lot more than I do. My point is this -- you learn a lot when you travel for business.

But there are two things that I still haven't figured out.

1) How not to miss my wife's companionship.

You know, I can make it for a few days before I start to get lonely -- maybe even longer, if it happens to be an incredibly busy business trip. But after the 4th or 5th day of waking up alone, eating breakfast alone, riding in taxis alone, eating dinner alone, exercising alone, walking the streets alone, etc. - it starts to get a bit challenging. Perhaps that's why I struck up a conversation with Luca (an Italian guy I met at T.G.I.Fridays the other night), and with Thor (a German guy I ended up sitting next to at the restaurant last night). And why I look forward to hanging out in the Executive Lounge -- at a bare minimum, the wait staff will ask if I need anything, which sometimes yields the first conversation I've had in hours. But none of that's the same... and I find myself, more than ever, reminded of how much I cherish and treasure the best friend that has been faithfully with me for the past 13 years. (Psst, that's you, Jackie -- I love you immensely!)

So that's the first thing. Here's number two:

2) How to answer my 3 year-old when he asks, daily, "Daddy, where are you?"

This is a tough one. Harder to cope with, emotionally, I think, than #1. Jude, at three years of age, has no way of understanding why I'm gone, where I am, why he can't see me (Skype just doesn't really cut it with him), when he'll see me again, how far away I am, etc. He just knows that his daddy's not there. I sense that he might be a bit irritated with me -- and I don't blame him. I can't say "I'll see you soon", when I know that it's going to be 6 or 7 more days before I'm home. When I talked with my family on the phone earlier today (it was Saturday night state-side), Jude was telling me that he was hoping to see me at church in the morning. :-( I know he'll cope, but, geez, it's hard for me to know that I can't really do much to comfort him or help him understand what's going on...

Now please understand, I'm not looking for sympathy here -- I am incredibly blessed, and my travel has not been in vain; the net result of all of my business travel over the past 5 years is this: my family and I are getting ready to move to Singapore with an amazing Expat package from my company! (Not to mention all of the other perks - the cultural experiences, the frequent flier miles, the hotel points, etc.) And my wife, and my children, have all been amazingly supportive each and every time I've had to leave home -- whether it was a quick 2-day trip, the more common 4- or 5-day trip, or even the occasional 2-week overseas adventure.

And any feelings of loneliness or sadness are temporary; heck, by the time some of you get around to reading this, I'll already be on my way back home. And, to be honest, God's been helping me deal with all of this in His own way... helping me find increased comfort in Christ as my ultimate companion -- the one who never leaves my side, no matter where I am. And by the same token, I need to ratchet up my faith level and rest in the knowledge that God will give peace and comfort to Jude (and the rest of my family) when I'm not around -- I am certainly not their Savior; God's already taken care of that in a pretty big way. ;-)

So where am I going with all this? Nowhere, really. I just wanted to share what was on my heart. But in conclusion, I think I should leave you with this rather appropriate section from scripture. Here's some verses from Psalm 139 (NLT):

1O Lord, you have examined my heart
and know everything about me.
2You know when I sit down or stand up.
You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
3You see me when I travel
and when I rest at home.
You know everything I do.
4You know what I am going to say
even before I say it, Lord.
5You go before me and follow me.
You place your hand of blessing on my head.
6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too great for me to understand!
7I can never escape from your Spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!
8If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I go down to the grave,^a you are there.
9If I ride the wings of the morning,
if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
10even there your hand will guide me,
and your strength will support me.
11I could ask the darkness to hide me
and the light around me to become night—
12but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
To you the night shines as bright as day.
Darkness and light are the same to you.

Selah.

Transition

2011-04-17T11:55:00.000-05:00

So, just like that, without much (actually, not any) pomp, circumstance or ceremony, one chapter in my life has ended, and a new one has begun. After 4 years, 11 months & 2 weeks, I had my last day at my "old" job on Friday. (It feels slightly dishonest to say that I worked that job for 5 years, since I was technically 2 weeks shy of that benchmark... but over time, I'm sure I'll be just fine getting rid of the 4-, 11- & 2- disclaimer). The last 5 years have been amazing in so many ways:

We moved from Southern California in April 2006
We moved into a house just 2 miles away from my parents, in the Memphis area
Our children went from: 2 kids (aged 5 & 1) to 3 kids (aged 10, 6 & 3)
We've made some wonderful lifelong friends
Our lives have been transformed, more and more, into the likeness of Christ through the community of believers with whom we have been fellowshipping
I received my MBA
My job was incredible -- tough work, but I loved it!

And now, as of yesterday, one additional step in our transition was completed. After a couple of months of talking, planning, filling out forms, reviewing and processing paperwork, etc. - I have now officially become an Expatriate; I'm now on my corporation's "international" payroll.

I'm actually on my way to Singapore now (sitting in a place that has become oh-so-familiar over the past few years -- Chicago O'Hare's United Red Carpet Club Lounge in Terminal C); my flight to Hong Kong departs in just over an hour. After a brief layover in HKG, I'll be on to what will soon be our new home -- Singapore. I'll be arriving at my hotel about 24 hours from this very moment.

I'm going to be spending a couple of weeks in Singapore this time around -- I'll be starting my new job on Tuesday, working for ~10 days, working with real estate agents to narrow down our choice of homes, and then I'll be back home on May 1st. I will be essentially "working from home" back in Memphis for most of May as we wait for the kids to finish up school. The packers show up on May 31st, and we'll be flying out on our "final move" trip on June 3rd.

These are crazy, but exciting, times. I am incredibly blessed, and this adventure that we call life just continues to blow my mind. :-)

House-Hunting Trip: Days 0-1

2011-03-25T23:46:00.000-05:00

Late night arrival at Changi Airport

It's been around 43 hours since we left our house in Olive Branch, MS on Thursday morning at 4:40 AM. (We were supposed to get picked up at 4 AM, but the Taxi service apparently thought that when I said we "needed to be at the airport by 4:30 AM", that I actually meant "It's okay if we stroll into the airport at 5:15 AM, just 45 minutes before the first leg of a 30-hour international trip"). But that's distant history now. We successfully made it to Chicago, then to Hong Kong, then into Singapore late last night.

We were pretty worn out once we arrived at the Marriott, but not exactly ready to go to bed right away, so -- as has become somewhat of a tradition of mine when I travel on business -- we headed down to the "Crossroads Cafe" at the base of the hotel and had a little 1 AM snack/drink. Then it was time for bed -- 9:30 AM came early, but at least we weren't wide awake at 4 AM and unable to fall asleep, as can often happen the first day or two after traveling 13 time zones away. Thanks to my recent upgrade to Marriott Gold Elite status, we were able to enjoy a leisurely breakfast in the Executive Lounge on the 27th floor; fresh yogurt, fresh fruit, pink guava juice, eggs, bacon, sausage, pastries, cheeses, cereals, cappuccinos, etc. Yum. Plus a lovely view of Orchard/Scotts Road.

We then tried Skype-ing with our kids; but for some reason (slow internet connection?), they couldn't hear us or see us -- although we could hear and see them just fine. It's a bit rough -- Jordan (10) and Jonathan (6) were clearly missing us, and pretty sad that they couldn't see us. Okay, it was sad for us, as well -- sad that we could tell that they were sad that they couldn't see us. ;-) But we know that they'll press on, and they'll survive. We do miss them, and we recognize that they can't fully grasp that we had to come so we could start putting together the pieces of our new family life here in Singapore.

On the agenda for today? Nothing, really. It's been a LONG time since we've had absolutely no meetings, appointments, places to be, things to do, etc. We plan on spending the day meandering along Orchard Road, possibly heading down to Raffles and/or possibly a River Boat Tour. Tomorrow will be church (although we're still trying to figure out which one to check out tomorrow), and dinner w/one of Jackie's old acquaintances from her former life here (back in 1997-98).

Monday morning begins our "official" agenda of visiting schools and getting an orientation of the general area, while our "official" house-hunting begins on Tuesday morning. I'll do my best to keep you posted on our adventures this week. In the meantime, if you happen to be back "home", please give our kids some extra hugs and kisses if you happen to run into them -- they could certainly use some extra TLC while we're away.

A Rare Few Moments of Solitude

2011-03-19T11:26:00.000-05:00

We had a 9-girl sleepover last night for our daughter's 10th birthday party. A bit crazy, but nothing too abnormal for the craziness that is typically life around our house. :-) Now, this morning, we're preparing for Part II of the party -- a BBQ at the local park with family and all of the girls. My role in the preparation? Head to the park early in the morning to reserve a couple of picnic tables. So... I've been hanging out here in the ~68 degree partly cloudy fresh air, defending our picnic area, while also getting some nice devotional time... and working on upgrading my blog template. (My real goal is to figure out a way to get my blog posts to automatically publish to my Facebook page -- this here post is another piece of that effort. I'll know soon enough whether or not I've been successful...)

Anyway, it certainly has been nice, having these couple of hours of quiet -- definitely a rarity these days. Most of you know that I recently accepted a new position within my company, which is giving us the amazing opportunity to relocate to Singapore for a few years. Moving overseas has been a dream of ours for several years, and someday I'll have to share the amazing journey that has brought us to this moment in our lives. But, for now, here's a quick update into what's about to happen.

In just 5 days, my wife (Jackie) and I will be heading to Singapore for a school/house-hunting trip. We'll be gone 8 days (8 days without our kids!!!), and we have some amazing friends (thanks, TC & AC!) who will be moving into our house to watch the kiddos during that time. Once we get back (on my 36th birthday), we will have 2 weeks to accelerate our moving/relocation preparation... and then in mid-April I officially transition into my new role. Between April 17th and June 1st, I'll be bouncing back and forth between Memphis and Singapore a couple of times -- working over there, then working over here, etc. Once the kids finish up school (at the end of May), the packers/movers will show up, and sometime in early June we will officially launch -- all 5 of us -- to our new "home".

In the meantime, we're juggling:
-Trying to go about our "normal" routine
-Researching school and house options in Singapore
-Filling out multitudes of paperwork related to our relocation (self-assessment forms, questionnaires, banking information, housing/school application forms, housing/insurance evaluation forms, etc.)
-Preparing for an initial meeting with our property management company, as we plan on renting out our home while we're gone
-Making plans to sell our vehicles
-Researching new church options for us in Singapore
-Purchasing luggage
-Figuring out what to do about existing cell phone plans, satellite TV contract, cable/internet packages, etc.
-Arranging travel dates
-Setting up "intercultural awareness training" for me, Jackie & Jordan
-And much, much more!

In addition, my work life is now consumed with attempting to maintain my current work assignment, train my successors, close out long-overdue open action items, juggle a multitude of International HR-related issues, all while starting to pick up bits and pieces of work related to my new assignment.

All of that to say that, well, life has never been more exciting -- or as busy -- as it is these days. Which makes these few moments of peace and quiet here at the Olive Branch park all the more wonderful.

So I pause, take a deep breath, glance around at the sunshine, the ducks in the pond, the kids laughing on the playground -- and I realize that it's likely to be awhile before I get this much "downtime". And I am thankful, and blessed, and truly enjoying these moments today -- as well as this season of our lives. It's not all easy, but it is all definitely worth it.

The earth is hard, but the treasure fine...

Still Testing...

2011-03-17T20:55:00.000-05:00

So I'm still not convinced that I've got my Blog feeding properly into Facebook. It took almost a full day for my last post to show up on my Facebook page, so I've tried tweaking a few settings, and I'll see how long this takes to show up on FB. Thank you for your patience...

Time to Dust This Thing Off...

2011-03-16T20:52:00.000-05:00

Okay, so it's been about 9 months since I've posted anything to my blog. No excuses this time -- I frankly just haven't taken the time to manage it. For a variety of reasons, however (not the least of which is the fact that our entire life is about to change in a VERY big way as we prepare to move overseas), I want to dust this blog off and start utilizing it in a new way.

But first things first -- I need to see if A) I still know how to post, and B) the blog is properly feeding to my Facebook page. So if this test is successful, I'm hopeful that you'll be seeing more frequent updates from me as we begin this new season in our life. More to come...

Blogging from 35,000 Feet!

2010-06-14T10:06:00.000-05:00

This blog has been around awhile. I've had my seasons of posting a lot... and other seasons of posting, well, basically nothing for months at a time. I've had posts discussing airplanes and air travel, but never have I actually posted from in the air. But today, for the first time ever, thanks to the wonders of Gogo Inflight Internet (via Delta Airlines, and free access code courtesy of FedEx Office), I am actually connected live, to the internet, from 35,000 feet (+/- a few thousand feet -- I haven't' been listening to the captain's announcements, as I've got my headphones cranked listening to Adam Again's "Homeboys/Dig" compilation).

I'm in transit from Atlanta, GA (ATL) to Hartford, CT (BDL) for the week on business. I've been up since 4:15 AM, but I'm feeling pretty good so far today -- a free upgrade to 1st Class on the ATL-BDL leg of the journey certainly doesn't hurt. One thing about early morning flights and tight connections, however, is that by, oh, say right about now, one starts to get rather hungry. Don't get me wrong -- the "Perfect Oatmeal" from Starbucks at 5:45 AM was pretty good, but that was already 4+ hours ago. I'm looking forward to lunch. And sleep. Yes, I'm pretty sure I'll sleep well tonight after ~4.5 hours of sleep last night. Why then, you might ask, am I sitting here blogging instead of sleeping? Well, the bottom line is that it's easier for me to get online while sitting in an airplane than it is for me to fall asleep in one...

So, anyway, I better click "Submit Post" before the flight attendant tells me it's time to turn off all portable electronic devices, otherwise I won't be able to truthfully claim that I blogged while in flight. Not that you'd ever really know, of course...

How to Make 14.5 Hours Fly By...

2010-04-27T06:14:00.000-05:00

I think it was technically a 14 hr 38 min flight, but even if you just call it a flat 14 hours -- it's still a long time to be trapped inside a hollow aluminum cylinder at 35,000 feet. Thankfully, though, company policy dictates that I fly "Business Class", which gets you some pretty nice digs on United's 747-400s. So what does one do to make the time go by? Here's my list:

Chat with your 'seat-mate', Bob, who travels about 10 times as much as you do (this is his 4th trip to Singapore already in 2010, and he's headed to China after Singapore... having just returned from Munich less than 2 weeks ago).
Scroll through the entertainment system, to see if there's anything worth watching/listening to. Decide you want to watch "Sherlock Holmes", but then decide to wait to start the movie until the flight attendants/pilots stop making announcements in 3 different languages over the intercom, every 2-3 minutes.
Read the book of I Thessalonians.
Take 2 Tylenol PM. Sure, it's 1:30 PM Central, but it's 2:30 AM at your destination, so you need to get sleepy.
Start watching "Sherlock Holmes" as your appetizer (bread & butter) before lunch (dinner? Fourth meal?) is served.
Abruptly wake up to the flight attendant asking if you want the "assorted cheese/fruit plate" or the "cheesecake" for dessert. You say you want the cheese, but then you think "Wait, why am I getting dessert -- I haven't even had my dinner yet!" And then you realize that you actually DID have dinner... and the memory of the beef and the mashed potatoes starts to crystallize. Boy, that Tylenol PM (okay, plus the glass of red, plus only 3 hours of sleep on Sunday night) will knock you out pretty quickly...
Eat your fruit and cheese, pause the movie, put on the blinders, insert ear plugs, fully recline seat, and fall asleep for as long as you can...
...Which in this case, turns out to only be ~3.5 hours. You're disappointed, so you try to fall back asleep, but it becomes clear that that is not going to happen.
So you decide to trick your body into thinking it's morning time (which it is at your destination). Black coffee...
Finish watching "Sherlock Holmes", which you find very clever and entertaining.
Pull out your laptop and try to play the new computer game that you bought on clearance at Walmart for $3 (Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Rebel Heroes).
Determine that your laptop doesn't have enough horsepower to run the game -- everything happens in s l o w m o t i o n . . .
Decide to put the game away, and do actual work for about 90 minutes.
Get up, walk around, stretch, and look for the "mid-flight snacks" that are left out for our at-will consumption.
Eat said mid-flight snacks.
Select another movie to watch. In this situation, you decide to watch "The Men Who Stare at Goats" because it sounds peculiar, plus, hey, it has Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges & Kevin Spacey in it, so it can't be bad, right? You're wrong, and you don't enjoy the movie, but by the time you realize that you're not going to like it very much, you've already committed to it, and you're not one who can leave a movie half-watched.
Try out one of the video games in the in-flight entertainment system; it's kind of like "Space Invaders", but you only last about 5 minutes before getting bored, so you decide to play around with the musical offerings in the system. You listen to some "White Stripes" and "Led Zeppelin" in an effort to keep you alert and awake, followed by a listen of the first half of the "Pirate Radio" soundtrack.
Decide to watch something else, but there's only around 2 hours left in the flight at this point, so you may not have time to watch another movie. So you watch an episode of "The Office" (one you hadn't seen before, about the "Employee of the Month" scheme and "Scott's Tots" -- very painful [but enjoyable] to watch).
You eat another light meal, and watch an episode of "No Reservations" with Anthony Bourdain.
Finish up the flight by reading some more of "Going Rogue". You really like the book, and you're almost done with it... and you keep thinking of all the people you know who need to read the book. Unfortunately, those are all probably the same people who would never read it without some form of coercion or torture.
Pack up your stuff as the airplane touches down in Hong Kong.

So, there it is. Next time you need to fill up a 14.5 hour flight, feel free to follow the simple steps provided above...

You Know it's Early When...

2010-04-26T05:14:00.002-05:00

You know it’s early when…You’re at the airport and Starbucks isn’t even open yet! Yep, I arrived in C Terminal at MEM at 4:35 AM, breezed through check-in/security, and went to get some early morning food/beverage – and… nothing. No Starbucks. No Einstein Brothers. So I’m sitting here waiting for my 6 AM flight after 3 hours of sleep. Hungry, and a bit tired, but energized and excited for the trip. It’s been 17 months since my last trip to Singapore – this will be my 4^th ever visit. A great country, great people, great food… but it certainly does take a long time to get there! Roughly 30 hours from my house to the Marriott on Orchard Road…

I’ll be making an effort to blog throughout my trip to keep folks updated on the status of my adventure. For now, though, it’s shortly after 5 AM, and I’m seeing people start to arrive at the gate w/coffee in hand, so I think I’m going to head over and get me a nice, hot Decaf. Yes, Decaf. I’m going to make the effort to start getting my body on Singapore time ASAP – they’re 13 hours ahead over there, so 5:10 AM in Memphis translates to 6:10 PM in Singapore – it’s dinner time, baby! No caffeine for me. But maybe a decaf Americano will help do the trick – my “it’s early and I’m tired and I want caffeine” side will think it’s getting it’s morning fix, but my “it’s time to start getting ready for bed” side will rejoice that it’s not going to have to fight to go to sleep once I board the 747 in Chicago. We shall see…

A Return to Once Upon A Time...

2010-01-16T16:04:00.000-06:00

Once upon a time, there was a guy who thought he'd start a blog. And he did. And pseudo-blogger guy blogged intermittently for nearly four years. Then the guy got incredibly busy with family life, work, church activities, and -- most significantly -- with school. So he stopped blogging.

Almost a year has gone by since the blogging stopped, and the guy has recently really started to miss his blog. So much so, in fact, that he often writes virtual blog posts in his head throughout his busy days; he never has time to stop and type them up, but he is satisfied knowing that the time will come when, once again, he will be able to blog once more.

And that time is almost here. In just over seven weeks, the pseudo-blogger guy will be done with school. No more late nights of studying. No more staying at the office until 10 PM to write a paper. No more deserting his family for hours at a time on the weekends to work on group projects and analyze case studies and do homework problems. Alas, as of March 8, 2010, the MBA will be his. And while simply being done with school will be a reward in and of itself, pseudo-blogger guy is also looking forward to the opportunity to return to his pseudo-blogging days of yore.

Nothing super profound. Nothing that will change the world. Just some occasional thoughts and musings about fatherhood, politics, music, God, and other interesting facets of the world in which we live. So stay tuned -- The Treasure Fine is coming back. Soon. And whether or not anyone ever visits the blog, ever cares to read a post, or ever gets anything out of it, pseudo-blogger guy is certainly excited to finally get back in the swing of things.

A return to once upon a time is fast approaching...

It Just Ain't Right...

2009-02-13T09:00:00.000-06:00

http://www.drudgereport.com/flashpr.htm <http://www.drudgereport.com/flashpr.htm>

--snip--
"Rep. John Culberson, TX claims the "stimulus" bill must be urgently voted on today -- because Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leaving at 6:00 PM for an 8 day trip to Europe! ...In the rushing, Democrats have now broken their promise to have the public see the $790 billion bill for 48 hours before any vote. <http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=30697> "
--snip--

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?print=yes&id=30697 <http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?print=yes&id=30697>

http://cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=43478&print=on <http://cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=43478&print=on>

...but, sadly, I guess I'm not too surprised...

P.S. If the formatting of this note ends up being strange, it's because I'm testing something out...

The Password

2008-11-27T07:47:00.003-06:00

Growing up, I can recall our home phone ringing bright and early on Thanksgiving morning. Until I was 10 years old, my family lived in Massachusetts, while my grandparents and most other relatives all lived back in Michigan. Well, since we typically did not travel back "home" to Michigan for Turkey Day, my dad's parents -- in an effort to help us be a part of their Thanksgiving family gathering -- would ring our phone whenever the turkey went into the oven on Thanksgiving morning. (My dad can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the idea was that "ringing" the phone would not induce any long distance charges -- my, how times have changed...). This was back in the day before caller ID, of course, but there was never a question about who was on the other end of the phone line when it rang at 6 AM.

The tradition of the Thanksgiving AM telephone ring continued even after we moved back to Michigan in the mid-80's, and then I was eventually able to carry on the ritual myself. When Jackie and I were living out west away from family, I would "ring" my parents when we put our turkey in the oven. It was always something that brought a smile to my face -- knowing that my parents and I had this little holiday "inside secret"; when the phone rings once or twice on the fourth Thursday in November, both parties know what's going on -- no need for words to be exchanged.

Years have gone by, and my paternal grandparents are no longer alive, but the tradition continues. This morning, Thanksgiving 2008, my cell phone rang at 5:45 AM. Evidence of how times have changed, however, it wasn't actually a phone call, but a text message from my dad saying that the turkey had just been placed in the oven. We'll be joining them at their house (just 2 miles down the road) in a few hours for a wonderful thanksgiving feast.

(As another sign of the times, my phone rang again at 6:07 AM -- but this time, it wasn't a family member. A contact at one of my supplier contacts in Singapore had a problem with some paperwork that somebody in Lisbon was supposed to provide but didn't. I had the pleasure of shifting into "work mode" for an hour -- jumping into Outlook to send some urgent e-mail messages and such -- to get things resolved.)

Anyway, now it's time to move forward with the day. Rolls are "proofing" on the kitchen counter, waiting to get placed in the oven in a couple of hours. Jonathan is bouncing around the house, watching "Sid the Science Kid" on PBS while eating "Marshmallow Treasures" cereal (hey, it tastes almost as good as Lucky Charms, costs less, and as a bonus, there is a picture of an octopus on the box -- he loves 'em!). Jackie is sifting through the newspaper as we plan our strategery for whittling away at our Christmas shopping list on Black Friday. Our oldest (Jordan) and youngest (Jude) are still sleeping, leaving me with some time to enjoy my coffee and reflect on all that I am truly thankful for (quite a lot, actually).

Pretty soon our day will be filled with bustling about, getting ready to load up the minivan for our long journey over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house. (Technically, it's a 5-minute drive on suburban, paved streets -- no rivers will be crossed, and no woods will be traveled through. Oh, well.) My 94 year-old maternal grandmother is staying with my parents right now, so this will be the first Thanksgiving in a very long time that I've been able to spend with her. One of my sisters and her family will be there. The kitchen will be packed with food everywhere, the house will be filled with delightful holiday scents (I hear that my grandmother has made some of her famous pies), the house will be abuzz with little kids, the men will probably try to watch a little football at some point, but most of all there will be lots of laughter and lots of memories made -- along with the likely antics of Jude falling down, screaming to go outside, wanting to climb on the table, etc. (Hey, he's 17 months old, that's what he does!)

So as you each enjoy your Thanksgiving Day 2008 in your own special way, amidst the hustle and bustle of whatever it is you're going to be doing be sure to take some time to pause and truly give thanks. Perhaps this passage from The Message will help you out:

Psalm 100

1-2 On your feet now—applaud God! Bring a gift of laughter,
sing yourselves into his presence.

3 Know this: God is God, and God, God.
He made us; we didn't make him.
We're his people, his well-tended sheep.

4 Enter with the password: "Thank you!"
Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
Thank him. Worship him.

5 For God is sheer beauty,
all-generous in love,
loyal always and ever.

Yikes

2008-11-17T22:37:00.002-06:00

Wow, it's been almost 2 months since I posted. Well, what can I say? Three kids, crazy busy job, flying all over the world, and getting my MBA -- I had a feeling something was going to have to give... and it looks like that something was posting to my blog.

I'm not giving up on this, though. My postings may be infrequent, and most likely lacking in much depth and creativity, but I'll still hop on here from time to time. At least until March 2010, when I finish up my last class of my Master's. Then I might be able to return to a more regular posting schedule (as regular as it ever was before, anyway)...

In the meantime, if you feel so inclined, you can catch up with me on Facebook -- it's not quite the same as blogging, but it does allow for me to keep up with more friends in a rapid-fire sort of way. I can post quick little snippets, comments and photos (in between getting the kids to bed, working on my latest Economics paper, having an in-depth discussion with my wife about some deep spiritual truth, etc.) without needing to invest the same amount of time that is typically required of a full-fledged blog post.

So that's it, I suppose. The Treasure Fine won't be going away -- in fact, I still don't think I've ever really explained the reasoning behind my selection of the title of my blog, so I definitely can't go away until I've at least done that. Check in from time to time, but for more "real time" updates, look me up on Facebook. And perhaps you'll see a new, refreshed The Treasure Fine back up and running at full steam in the spring of 2010; it'll be here before we know it...

Oh, by the way, I need to share with you one incredibly wonderful website: The Rabbit Room. Go there often, and spend lots of time in there -- your life will be enriched.

From the Other Side of the World, Part 1

2008-09-20T04:35:00.004-05:00

Well, it's 4:30 AM back home in the U.S.; my wife and children are sound asleep in their beds, the first glimpses of sunlight in the eastern sky still nearly two hours away. But for me, on the other hand, I'm working really hard and tricking my body into believing that it's 5:30 PM...

I loaded my luggage into my car just over 24 hours ago, shortly after 4 AM CDT on Friday. Thankfully my car started (that's another story for another day), so I made it to the off-airport parking lot without a hitch. Check-in was uneventful, but making it through Security was more "exciting" than usual. I made a stupid rookie mistake -- a last-minute decision to pack an extra carry-on so that I could fit a few more "comfort items" (i.e., one of those big, squishy horseshoe-shaped neck pillows, etc.) -- but I wasn't thinking (perhaps because it was not even 5 AM?), and left my toiletry bag in my 2nd carry-on item. Oops -- I got "caught" with hair gel and shaving cream over the 3 oz size limit, so I had to toss them. (That was some nice hair gel, too. Man, what a waste. But I digress...)

Thankfully I didn't have to suffer any humiliating body searches or anything -- they just tossed my "contraband" in the garbage and I moved along, looking for a bite of breakfast. I tell you what, Einstein Bros. must have paid a pretty penny for their location at the MEM airport -- they are located straight ahead after you walk through security, and it looked like the only thing open at such an early hour, so they had a line out the door. After getting my bagel breakfast sandwich and some mediocre (read: Not Starbucks) coffee at Einstein, I walked towards my gate... and sure enough, passed a Starbucks right there in the terminal. If only I had known! In fact, I considered tossing my coffee and getting the real thing from SBUX, but I decided not to waste the money. Yeah, it'll be expensed, but it would still be a waste.

So my 6:05 AM flight to Chicago was smooth and comfy -- not to boast, but I was in seat 1A, which had me channeling my inner Ron Burgundy. You know, I'm a pretty big deal... While on the flight, I decided to be disciplined, so I read a chapter and a half in my Managerial Marketing textbook. When I got to Chicago, I had about 4 hours to kill before boarding for my next flight -- I got a 24 oz raspberry strawberry smoothie, ate a banana, checked my e-mail, then read some more. And I people-watched; big airports like O'Hare are great for people-watching. So many interesting folks in our big, big world...

My strategy for this trip was to work as hard as I could to try to adapt to Singapore time -- 13 hours ahead of U.S. Central -- as early in the trip as possible. So my 6:05 AM flight out of Memphis was actually 7:05 PM in SIN. My 12:20 PM flight out of Chicago was actually 1:20 AM in SIN -- so my idea was to try and sleep as much and as early as I could on the flight. Being that this is a company trip, I am flying in Business Class -- and let me tell you, I am very thankful for that. Tons of leg room on this 747-400 (even with my legs stretched out in front of me, the tips of my toes barely touch the seatback in front of me); personal TV/video screens, seats that recline almost to flat. Even so, despite the comfortable seat, I've never been one for sleeping on planes; I think I slept for about 2 hours. (And that was after a very long and drawn out lunch, during which I got to watch all of a movie -- "Leatherheads" I think it's called? About pro football back in the 1920's, with George Clooney and John Kraszinski -- Jim, from "The Office". Not a bad flick.) During the rest of the flight, I listened to some music, worked on some MBA homework for a little while, watched a movie on my laptop ("Batman Begins"), got another couple hours of sleep, and then it was time to have a light lunch (dinner? breakfast? 4th meal?) before descent.

Anyway, the flight in total was just over 15 hours long. Our route had us fly from Chicago up through Canada, a few hundred miles shy of the North Pole, down over Siberia, Ulan Bator and Mainland China before landing in Hong Kong. My first impressions of Hong Kong (the airport, anyway)? Very clean, very quiet, very humid, and everybody appears to be very friendly. Oh, and 1 USD is equivalent to just under 8 HKD -- I found that out when I went to purchase replacement hair gel and shaving cream.

It's also very beautiful here; at least from my vantage point. I'm sitting in the United Airlines "Red Carpet Club" (for 1st and Business Class passengers) up on the upper level of the airport, glancing out an expanse of glass windows, watching the planes come and go. I've never been to Hong Kong before, and unfortunately on this trip I'm not going to be leaving the airport. But I must say that I wasn't expecting it to look so much like, well, kind of like Hawaii. The airport is right on the water, and their are green, rolling hills not too far off, their peaks covered by clouds. Anyway, I'm just finishing up a cappuccino -- at this point I'm trying to infuse enough caffeine into my body so that I can stay awake for the duration of my trip. My next flight leaves here in at 7:50 PM (it's 6:11 PM now -- yes, I've been typing for almost 40 minutes. Sorry if I've bored you!), and it's about a 3.5 hour flight to Singapore; we're supposed to land around 11:35 PM. I chose my seat assignment on this next flight -- it's another 747, and there were some empty Business Class seats on the Upper Level; I've never been "up top" on a -47 before, so I'm looking forward to that aspect of the flight.

Once I arrive in Singapore, my goal is to clear customs, get my luggage, get some cash out of an ATM, and head for the Taxi stands. Straight to my hotel, where I will likely take a shower to refresh -- by the time I get to my room, it will have been about 32 hours since I left my house in Olive Branch, MS. Even with the 13 hour time differential, I am hopeful that I will be so mentally and physically exhausted that I will be able to fall asleep for a good 6-8 hours...

I'll check in again sometime tomorrow (Sunday), likely from my room at the Marriott. I still have some school-work to get done, so I plan on spending a few hours doing MBA-stuff in my hotel before launching out to do some sight-seeing around town. I'll post some pictures up tomorrow as well; I've taken several, but I left the USB transfer cable in my checked suitcase, so I don't have access to it right now.

Well, that's it for now. I better sign off and go freshen up a bit, so as not to scare my fellow passengers too much on the Hong Kong-Singapore flight. And I might grab another cappuccino. After all, I think I've slept for a total of about 8 hours in the past 48 hours, and I need to try to stay awake for another 6 hours or so before I can crash land (err, probably not the best term to use right now!) on my bed in Singapore.

Have a great Saturday, everyone!

Adventures in Parenthood

2008-08-18T22:46:00.003-05:00

I've been a dad for over 7 years now, and, while every day is an exciting adventure, every once in awhile something happens that makes me think, "Wow -- parenting is truly an experience like no other." No, I am not about to launch into the philosophical wonderment of the blessing involved in rearing a little person. I'm talking about those moments in life that make those who don't have children cringe in complete and utter disgust. Here's a sample of a few of the crazy, sometimes disgusting, always exciting parenting situations that I've had the privilege of experiencing over the past several years...

Junk in the Trunk
This first tale occurred shortly after the birth of our first child, Jordan. We were attending the wedding of our good friends Jay and Angie in La Jolla, CA. It was a chilly and rainy day, as I remember it -- I had Jordan (at just a couple of weeks of age) snuggled up against my chest in one of those Baby Bjorn baby-holder thingies, as I held an umbrella up to shield her from the elements. And then it happened -- an explosion, of sorts, in her diaper. Nothing too exceptional, of course. That's what babies do.

So I trekked back up to the car (my black 2000 Grand Am GT), and began changing her diaper in the only place available -- the trunk. I began going through the standard diaper-changing procedure, and then it really happened. In that brief moment between pulling away the dirty diaper and sliding the fresh, clean one in, another explosion occurred... and subsequently a large portion of the upholstery in the trunk was suddenly spattered with a lovely substance, shaded a nice hue of yellow-brown.

I did my best to clean it up, but there's only so much that baby wipes can do. I still often wonder if the next owner of the car, after my lease was up, ever wondered what those colorful splotches were on the trunk carpeting...

Trigger-Happy (or There Will Be Blood)
Jordan was a couple of years old. We were enjoying a beautiful, sunny day in our condo in Escondido, CA, when we decided to step out onto the patio and catch some fresh air. I sat in our little patio chair, with Jordan bouncing happily on my lap. We had a spray bottle out there; I think we used it to water the plants or something. It just had water in it, so when Jordan reached for it, I didn't hesitate. She was playing with the bottle -- hey, anything to keep the kid happily occupied, right? -- and then she started sucking on the nozzle. No worries. She's enjoying the refreshing liquid without a care in the world.

Until she reached her hand up and squeezed the trigger... while her lips were still wrapped around the spray tip... and then she released the trigger. It took me a couple of seconds to realize what had happened -- but then I saw it. When she let go of the trigger, the yellow plastic mechanism snapped back into place, and pinched a nice chunk of her lip in the process. Lots and lots of blood started pouring from her mouth. Along with a lot of screaming.

I had to re-squeeze the trigger to free her lip from those horrid plastic clenches, but the damage was already done. Thankfully we had some popsicles on hand, and the swelling went down after a few days. But I was careful to never let her (or any of her future siblings) play with a water bottle again.

That is NOT a Snickers Bar
When children are young and innocent, I don't see any problem with letting them bathe together. Hence, Jordan and Jonathan often would enjoy taking a bath at the same time. Laughing, playing, giggling, blowing soap bubbles at each other, etc. On more than one occasion, however, the "fun-ness" of such an event was ruined when Jonathan decided that he had to go #2, right there in the bathtub.

What to do, right? The logistics of such a situation are actually pretty complex. You have two kids who were in the bath in an attempt to get them cleaned up. Now you have two kids sitting in poop-filled water. You can't just get them out and dry them off. But you can't exactly pick them up and carry them to another bathroom, dripping less-than-clean water onto the floor/carpet/tile. And then you, of course, have to drain the icky water... but draining the water isn't enough -- you have to somehow dispose of the "solid waste". And then there are the toys that were in the water, that are no longer fit to remain in the bathtub. Not to mention, of course, that you now went through a minimum of two extra towels that night, which doesn't help with the laundry situation.

And then there's the emotional trauma for the big sister who just had her little brother go potty while she was with him in the tub. Oh, and did I mention that he once just stood up and peed on her?

Time to Clip the Fingernails (or There Will Be Blood, The Sequel)
Fast-forward to present day. Earlier this evening, in fact. I was home alone with the 3 kids. Jordan was in bed early, doing a bit of reading before lights-out. I was trying to keep the 2 boys entertained in the living room, so we were just being goofy -- the usual rolling around on the floor together, making each other giggle, etc. Nothing too unusual.

Then I did something that I've done dozens, perhaps hundreds of times before. Jude rolled over onto his back, and I climbed over on all fours facing him. I started kissing his neck and face, making him laugh, and he was loving every second of it. And that's when it happened. In the blink of an eye, he forcefully shot his 13-month old hand up into my face, fingers extended -- and one of his fingers shot straight up into my left nostril. Deep.

It actually hurt quite a bit. I immediately winced in pain and jumped to my feet, my hand reflexively shot up to my nose to assess the damage. Sure enough, his fingernail had managed to slice open the skin deep within my nose, and blood began dripping onto the palm of my hand. I ran to the bathroom to grab a washcloth; none to be found, only a nice, clean white hand towel. I couldn't risk staining that, so I turned around and ran to the kitchen. Of course, my neck was craned backwards and I was staring at the ceiling in an effort to stop the bleeding... so I didn't see that Jude had followed me down the hallway. I completely knocked him over.

So Jude is crying, my nose is bleeding, and Jonathan is trying to figure out what just happened. I grabbed a dishcloth (that unfortunately had already started to get that icky old-dishrag smell) and put it under the tap water, trying to make a cold, moist compress for my nose. (Of course, it takes our sink about 30 seconds to produce cold water, which just added to the frustration of the situation.)

Thankfully, Jackie arrived soon after the traumatic event. I think I'll survive; no permanent damage done.

So, there's just a little glimpse into the fun it is to be a parent. Most of you who already have kids have probably already experienced many similar situations in your own personal lives. And for those of you who have yet to enter the blessed state of parenthood... consider this fair warning. :-)

Woah, We're Half (of Half) Way There... Almost.

2008-08-17T15:38:00.003-05:00

Hello there, my friends. (Whoops -- I started channeling Senator McCain for a minute there... sorry 'bout that).

Anyway, it has been some time since I've posted on here. One can only do so much in a day, and I haven't had the time or mental capacity to spend on blogging lately. Plus, social networking priorities have been rearranged a bit -- Facebook has eaten into a lot of the time I used to spend poking around on Blogger. And now I have a cadre of friends trying to get me to sign up on Twitter. (Yes, I used the word cadre -- and in this instance, I think it fits. "Cadre - A tightly knit group of zealots who are active in advancing the interests of a revolutionary party." Those of you familiar with the Twitter-pated friends of which I speak will no doubt agree that they fit that definition...). I've resisted the urge to sign up so far, but I feel myself beginning to get sucked in...

So what's up with my blog post title? Well, for one, Bon Jovi was cool when I was a teenager. Second, as of tomorrow at 11 PM CDT, I will be 25% of the way through my MBA program. (Remember 4th grade math...? 1/2 X 1/2 = 1/4...). Not like I've been keeping track or anything (cough!), but when my current "Applied Managerial Accounting" class ends tomorrow night, I will have completed 23 weeks of class, out of a total of 90. Four classes completed. It's a good feeling...

On an entirely different note, I just thought I'd point out a couple of new "blogs of note" that I will be adding to my Blogroll. First, R&B American Tour -- one of my cousins (Mark -- he's the "Brown" of "redandbrown") and his college roomie are making a 2-month journey across the US this summer, and they're documenting it all online for the world to see. They will be swinging into Memphis later this week, and I'm looking forward to getting together with him -- it's been a decade since we last saw one another.

The second blog of mention is the creation of an old San Diego buddy of mine, Brandon: Simple Christian. Brandon loves to think, and he always has an interesting (and often unique) perspective on things. Plus, he and I share a lot of the same musical interests (you know, Larnelle Harris, Sandi Patty, etc.), so that automatically places him in the "cool" column.

Alright, that's it for now. Take care, everyone. And if you're not on Facebook yet, go ahead and sign up. It's really not painful, and I think you'll like it.

Daddy-Daughter Date

2008-07-18T23:33:00.003-05:00

Parking on the street at a meter after 6 PM in downtown Memphis: Free

1 Adult and 1 Child ticket to see "The Sound of Music" on the big screen at the historic Orpheum theater: $9.00

1 Large Popcorn, 1 Large Coke, 1 Box of SourPatch Kids, 1 Package of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, 1 Large Jamaica Me Crazy frozen slushie drink: $17.50

Paying off the homeless guys who offered to wash my car windows after we left the theater: $3.50

Listening to my 7 year-old daughter humming "Edelweiss" as I carried her up to bed at 11:15 PM: Priceless

"A Life of Humble Virtue"

2008-07-12T23:49:00.003-05:00

I never had the opportunity to meet Tony Snow. I enjoyed watching him on Fox News over the years, I can recall chuckling when I'd see him toss out witty remarks to the White House Press Corps, and I have memories of listening to his radio show a time or two in my car several years back. I can't say I knew a lot about him -- but I could tell he was a good guy. He was a man of principle, integrity, character. He loved his country. He loved his family. And he loved God.

And even though I didn't really know the guy, I was very saddened when I found out that he died this morning. You can get all of the pertinent information at either of these links: here or here, but I think that the best insight into his life is here -- an article from of Christianity Today entitled, "Cancer's Unexpected Blessings", that I strongly urge you to read. I can't post the whole text here due to copyright reasons, but here's a snippet:

"The moment you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change. You discover that Christianity is not something doughy, passive, pious, and soft. Faith may be the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But it also draws you into a world shorn of fearful caution. The life of belief teems with thrills, boldness, danger, shocks, reversals, triumphs, and epiphanies. Think of Paul, traipsing though the known world and contemplating trips to what must have seemed the antipodes (Spain), shaking the dust from his sandals, worrying not about the morrow, but only about the moment.
There's nothing wilder than a life of humble virtue—for it is through selflessness and service that God wrings from our bodies and spirits the most we ever could give, the most we ever could offer, and the most we ever could do.
Finally, we can let love change everything. When Jesus was faced with the prospect of crucifixion, he grieved not for himself, but for us. He cried for Jerusalem before entering the holy city. From the Cross, he took on the cumulative burden of human sin and weakness, and begged for forgiveness on our behalf."

Prayers go out to Tony's family and friends tonight. Thanks, Tony, for the fond memories, and thanks for the great example of faith and courage while walking in the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

Whole Numbers

2008-06-23T19:35:00.006-05:00

Well, it was going to happen sooner or later, and it just did -- yesterday, in fact. We no longer have -- nor will we ever have again -- a child whose age is expressed in "months" or "weeks". Our youngest child, Jude -- born on June 22, 2007 -- just turned 1. We are moving out of the realm of having a baby, and into the realm of having 3 actual kids. Oh, certainly, Jude still has another year or so of using diapers. He's still not quite self-sufficient (although I'm working with him on that). And he still can't quite use a steak knife (and I am not working with him on that - yet). But, gone are the "hold the cute little baby in your arms and rock him to sleep" moments.

Jude is a full-fledged "toddler" now; he took his first steps 2 weeks + a day ago, and now he likes to "toddle" more than crawl. I'll never again have a child who isn't old enough to walk. I hope I'm not sounding too dramatic; it's just that, well, another phase of parenthood, of life, has begun. Of course there are still plenty of "firsts" to come -- Jude's first true "words" (beyond"Da")... the first day Jonathan starts kindergarten... the first day of high school for Jordan, our oldest, in a few years (7, to be exact -- but it will be here before we know it!)... and so on and so forth. But it struck me recently that, at just 33 years of age, I'm beginning to witness some "lasts" as well. In another week or two, we'll put Jude into the "6 week - 12 months" nursery at church for the last time. In a few weeks, we're going to move from bottle to sippy cup with Jude -- never again will I have to go searching for a rubber nipple (and whatever you call that thing that gets inserted into the bottom piece of the bottle) in the bowels of the dishwasher. In another year, we'll transition Jude to a toddler bed, and I'll take down the crib -- for the last time.

There's a time and a season for everything. People who are older (and wiser) than us often say how much they miss "these days" of having young children. And I'm certainly sure that they're right. (Although, they probably don't miss the 1 AM feedings and the poopy diapers and the finding-a-sippy-cup-filled-with-3-week-old-milk-in-the-backseat-of-the-minivan type of things). Anyway, I guess I'm just trying to say how much I love today. And I loved yesterday. And I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that... as I continue to grow and learn and laugh and love with my wife and our 3 amazing, incredible kids.

Happy Birthday, Jude. Welcome to the World of Whole Number Year-Olds.

And I hope you enjoyed your piece of Coldstone Creamery Ice Cream Cake.

I know I did.

:-)

6/22/07

6/12/08

6/22/08 - Da Boyz @ The Water Park (Suggs Park in Collierville)

Back @ Home, about to eat his 1st B-day Cake!

Yum. Coldstone Creamery Ice Cream Cake.

Sugar Shock!

40%?

2008-06-14T00:31:00.003-05:00

Okay, I have to ask the question -- How can all of the online weather services say that there is a "40% chance of thunderstorms" for my zipcode, when I am sitting here in the living room, with a horrific thunder, lightning, rain and hail storm going on right outside of my window? I really think the chance of thunderstorms is more like, um, 100%. Hello, weather forecasters?

And, what's really troubling, is the fact that one of my favorite movies of all time -- The Hunt for Red October -- was on, and right at the climax of the movie, the storm knocked out the DirecTV satellite signal. The TV just came back on, and the movie is over. I hadn't seen the movie in YEARS, and there it was (in HD nonetheless!), and just like that, I missed the ending. Grrr....

Prepare to Be Amazed!

2008-06-08T16:25:00.004-05:00

If you've seen the 2007 Disney movie "Meet the Robinsons", you're likely familiar with that quote from Bowler Hat Guy: "Prepare to be amazed!" I'm not sure why, but I think that line -- along with several other quotes from this villain -- is incredibly funny. If you haven't seen it, then you can just move along...

Anyway, I want to prepare you -- yes, you -- to be amazed. We just made a new electronics purchase at Costco this afternoon -- a new digital camera, the Panasonic DMC-TZ4. Our old digital camera, which we have had for several years, was good to us while it lasted, but it's been on its last legs for several months now. The video-making function stopped working awhile ago, and recently the zoom feature was only working intermittently. And with our desire to capture every possible cute moment of our children as they grow (and with an upcoming family vacation, not to mention our 10-year wedding anniversary cruise coming up in October), we decided we needed to take the plunge and drop a couple of C-notes on a new camera.

We haven't taken it out of the package yet, but Jackie and I have a plan to open up our new digital wonder later tonight after we get the kids to bed. Then, beginning tomorrow, I'm guessing that we'll start having a bunch of new kids photos and videos that we'll start sharing with the world (both on this blog and on our Facebook accounts). I recognize that many of you may not care, but for the few of you who do... prepare to be amazed! ;-)

Oh, by the way -- Jude, who is 2 weeks away from turning 1, took his first steps today! It was after church, hanging out in the lobby. Nobody else but me saw it -- I was sitting down on the carpet next to him, helping him stand up. I let go, he stood there for a second or two, and -- instead of falling over or sitting down like he usually does -- he took 3 steps towards me and then fell into my arms. Exciting times!!!

Like Bulls in a China Shop

2008-06-02T13:48:00.000-05:00

My wife called from Walmart just a few minutes ago, asking me a question
about a halogen light bulb that had recently burned out in one of our
nightstand lamps. She had to pause in the middle of our conversation to
address our kids who were, of course, there at the store with her. Here's
what I heard:

"No, no, NO! We are in the Light Bulb aisle -- you do NOT bang the cart
into the shelves..."

I really think that my wife deserves to make an annual salary at least
equivalent to mine for the work that she does on a daily basis...

At the Sea, I'll Wait on My Knees...

2008-05-27T22:18:00.004-05:00

Jenny, one of my friends from San Diego (also a Blogger, and now a friend on Facebook), asked me a question about one of my favorite songs the other day. I don't know that I've ever commented about this on my blog, so I thought I would share. Here is how the exchange went:

Jenny: "I was listening to an old Jars of Clay CD this week and on the song "Dig" they sang ... "the earth is hard the treasure fine" ... I was amazed because I had never noticed it (before your blog, of course). So, I was wondering if that what your inpsiration?? But, now I see you acknowledge Adam Again... which came first ... Adam Again lyrics or the Jars of Clay lyrics? :)"

My Response: "Jenny, "Dig" was originally written by the group Adam Again back in the early 90's; it was the title track on their CD, "Dig", released in 1992. I had discovered the band while in college (Yep, I'm that old - started college in 1992), and pretty much love everything they've ever done. Jars of Clay did their cover of "Dig" back in 2003 (I think); I've actually never heard the Jars of Clay version! You can check out some more information on the band (Adam Again) at these links:
http://www.phileasphogg.net/reviews/adamagain_chrono.html
http://www.amazon.com/Dig-Adam-Again/dp/B00000313O

Oh, and yes -- the lyrics to this song are deep, amazing, melancholy, hopeful, etc. The reality that, no, life on earth isn't always beautiful and pretty and happy -- in fact, the digging is sometimes pretty tough -- but the hope that we have in our Savior makes the digging worth it: The earth is hard, but the treasure fine... One of my favorite phrases, hence the title of my blog..."

So, in case you've ever wondered -- that's where the name of my blog came from. Or, in case you didn't know, now you know...

***BREAKING NEWS!!!***
I finally found a place on the 'net where you can listen to the song "Dig", as a free streaming mp3 file. Click on this link, then press the little white arrow in the red circle. That, my friends, is "Dig". Close your eyes, listen close, and be moved.

Facebook

2008-05-20T22:25:00.002-05:00

Well, it has begun. My wife and I finally jumped in and created Facebook accounts yesterday. My, how crazy that is. Names and faces of people I haven't even thought about in more than 15 years are suddenly my "friend" again (not that that's a bad thing -- I'm just saying it's a bit strange), right next to people that I knew during our decade of living on the West Coast, along with buddies from college, along with people that I currently go to church with. It's all very cool, though.

I don't think I'll abandon this blog; this is still a nice place to come and post pictures, random thoughts, etc. It's not nearly as interactive as Facebook, but that's not a bad thing either.

In other news, in case any of you are interested, I read the other day that the International Space Station was going to be "especially bright" in the skies over Europe and North America this week. So, I went to Spaceweather.com, plugged in my zip code, and found a listing of when you can go outside and see the ISS (and other satellites) in the sky overhead. And, voila! At 9:17:32 PM tonight, Jackie and I stepped outside, looked up into the SSW sky according to the "directions", and there it was -- a very bright object -- the ISS, moving steadily across the night sky. If you've never seen a man-made object floating out in space with your naked eye, it's a cool thing.

Or maybe I'm just a nerd.

Or perhaps both statements are true?!?

Playing Catchup

2008-05-13T22:52:00.007-05:00

Yes, it's been awhile since I've posted, but no apologies here. I knew when I started my MBA program back in February that my already busy schedule was going to get even busier... and it has done just that! Work, then dinner, then studying until very late, then dragging myself to bed to do it all over again... has become my typical Mon-Fri schedule. Then, on weekends, I'm basically glued to my Study all day on Saturdays, reading, writing, reading some more, then writing some more. Then Sundays are filled with church, and then reading and writing some more...

I'm taking a few minutes tonight, however, when I should really be revising my portion of my Group Project paper (that's due tomorrow evening), to give you all a quick update. As indicated above, things are crazy hectic with school, but I can't complain. I am really enjoying my Master's program -- the workload is heavy, but just the fact that I'm going through this process is a huge blessing (especially since my company is covering 100% of the cost). And once I finish up this week of assignments, I'll be done with my 2nd class, and I get a whole week off of school before I start up my next class (Essentials of Accounting). I am certainly looking forward to a week off. I'm really hoping that Jackie and I will get a chance to watch our Netflix movie that has been collecting dust on our mantle since -- no joke -- January 8th!

The kids are doing great. Jordan has less than 2 weeks to go in 1st grade, so Summer is officially just around the corner. I got Jackie a membership to the Zoo for Mother's Day, so while I am holed away in my Study over the summer, she'll be able to cart the kiddos to the zoo for some entertainment on a fairly regular basis.

One of the other gifts I gave Jackie for Mother's Day was a new CD -- Shane and Shane's "Pages". While I'm about 8 months behind Jenny, I'm still incredibly happy with the purchase -- it really is an amazing CD. The opening track is simply breathtaking -- check out a live performance of "Vision of You" here.

In other news... we're finally getting a fence put up. Thank you, President Bush, for our tax stimulus package thingy!

Alright, I need to go back to work for a little bit before heading off to bed. I'll leave you with a few recent family pics. Jude, by the way, is 10.5 months old -- he's not walking yet, but he's doing a lot of "cruising", and I'm pretty sure he'll be waddling around by the time his 1st birthday rolls around next month.

MBA Haiku

2008-05-05T14:42:00.000-05:00

Finishing midterm
Then group project -- lots of work
Break comes in two weeks

Quote of the Day

2008-04-19T23:45:00.003-05:00

"I can feel my buttocks changing shape..."

I think it might be funnier if I just left it at that, but I suppose I better explain (to avoid any misconceptions that might be surfacing in your minds)...

So here's the backdrop. In light of my "The Biggest Loser" post from earlier this month, I've been trying to exercise more. Three times a week, to be exact. Week One -- I worked out twice at home and once at they YMCA. Week Two -- I worked out Monday and Wednesday at the Y, and then the weekend approached. I had a huge amount of schoolwork to get done -- three writing assignments due by 11 PM tonight -- and I couldn't figure out how I was going to squeeze in a trip to the Y on either Friday night or Saturday. And it's a good thing I didn't try -- as it turned out, I was incredibly strapped for time; I submitted my final assignment at 10:57 PM, just about an hour ago. Whew! Done with my MBA assignments for the week... but I hadn't worked out since Wednesday.

Luckily, as I emerged from my Study, Jackie had flipped the TV to FitTV, where my new favorite workout partner was on. Oh yes, I am referring to none other than Gilad Janklowicz, from FitTv's "Gilad's Bodies in Motion". Determined to get in my workout for the day, I threw on my tennis shoes, stripped off my long sleeve shirt and started "sculpting my body". (Jonathan was up late -- we had a lot going on today in addition to my schoolwork -- so he and Jackie thoroughly enjoyed watching me lunge and kick and jab and punch). I lasted through about 30 minutes, but by 11:35 PM -- after a very long week and a very long day -- with sore calves, triceps and thighs, I was done.

Before we could flip the channel, however, Gilad had moved on to some other exercises. Suddenly, we heard these words -- "I can feel my buttocks... changing... shape..." (as he started in on some glute work, obviously).

Perhaps it was only funny because it was 11:45 PM, and perhaps by the time I re-read this post in a day or two I will recognize that it wasn't funny at all, but for now I'm just going to post it. I don't get too many opportunities to post these days, so when I find myself even the least bit inspired, with a few minutes to spare, I need to jump at that chance to get something posted on here.

Finally, if you haven't yet had the privilege of joining Gilad for a workout, you can get a taste for him and his style right here. And remember, the next time you exercise, you are most definitely not working hard enough if you can't confidently say, "I can feel my buttocks changing shape"!

1 and 1

2008-04-16T19:59:00.001-05:00

One week in... and I'm down a pound. Woo-hoo!

The Biggest Loser

2008-04-10T15:54:00.000-05:00

So... As I mentioned in a recent post, my wife and I are heading out on our first-ever cruise in October to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary. In preparation for our trip, we have embarked on a friendly husband-and-wife "biggest loser" type "competition". We started up this past Monday, April 7th -- exactly 6 months to the day before our last "weigh-in", the day before we leave for New Orleans (our cruise departure port). I have a goal to lose 25 pounds over the next 6 months; I've never done anything like this before, so this should be quite the adventure. To give you some background...

I'm 6'2". I grew up a really skinny guy. If you look at my wedding picture, I was a stick -- I think I weighed right around 185 lbs. Just before we got married, I was regularly exercising -- doing the stair-master, treadmill, weight-machines, etc. -- so I was skinny, but "buff". (Yeah, right.) Well, I guess a better word is "toned". As the years have gone by, however, I have, well, "bulked up". Or "filled out". Or, to be quite honest, I've gotten rather "pudgy". I've made several attempts to get into a regular work-out routine over the past decade, but nothing has stuck. I might have gotten into a committed routine for, oh, about 2-3 weeks, and then I've dropped off. And as far as my diet is concerned -- I haven't been gluttonous... I'm not one to eat cheeseburgers and fries every meal, and I have made an effort to eat "low-fat" foods whenever possible, but I've never really bothered to pay too much attention to my intake. So, over the past few years, I have grown. I think 10 years ago I was at a 32" waist; now I'm at 38". A few months ago I weighed myself at the YMCA -- and I was up to 231 lbs. Yikes! Then I started really looking at myself in the mirror. Double-yikes!!

So now it's time to get down to business. I've calculated it out. If I'm able to drop a pound a week over the next 6 months, I should reach my goal of losing 25 lbs. So my approach is two-pronged -- eat less/eat healthier, and exercise. Pretty basic, right? Well, I'm a pretty goals-oriented person, so I need details. I found a website called My Calorie Counter, and I opened up a free account. I've started tracking everything that I eat; at my current size, my "normal" daily intake should be around 3,000 calories. To lose a pound a week, I need to cut about 500 calories a day. So, over the past 3 1/2 days, so far so good. More fruits and vegetables, less Toaster Strudels, peanut butter cookies, no more half & half in my coffee, cut out the candy bars and ice cream, etc.

And I also need to exercise. So Monday morning, I worked out with FitTV from 5:30-6:00 AM. And yesterday, oh, yesterday... I attended my first-ever workout class at the Y -- a one-hour "Cardio Training" class (basically, step aerobics) that nearly killed me. It was painful. Really, I wanted to die. Several times. The pounding bass, the driving beat, the fitness guru shouting out commands over her microphone. Ladies shouting out, "Oh, yeah", and "Come on, work it!", without sweating a drop. 37 mostly in-shape women. 2 burly football player-type black guys. And pasty, white me, desparately attempting to keep up with all of the steps. I'm pretty convinced that I exceeded my target heartrate about 10 minutes into the class. My heart, my lungs, my legs were not at all happy with me. But I stuck it out. Okay, so I had to reduce the height of my step after about twenty minutes, and there were several times when I had to stop to catch my breath to avoid passing out, but I didn't leave. Of course my face was as red as a tomato for about 30 minutes afterwards, and my calves are in intense pain today, but I did it. And according to that website referenced earlier, I burned almost 900 calories in the process. Woo-hoo! And my goal is to do another 30 minutes to FitTV tomorrow morning at 5:30 AM.

So anyway, that's what's going on. I'll keep you posted on my progress. I actually had Jackie take a "before" picture of me this past Sunday -- but I'll spare you the horror of posting that picture. If I actually -- I mean, when I reach my target weight, and I'm back in shape in October -- I may post the "before" picture along with an "after" picture, but we'll wait and see...

Test E-mail Blog

2008-04-08T07:06:00.002-05:00

Okay, so my corporate security network has finally got around to blocking Blogger as a "Social Networking & Dating" website, so it's been blocked from accessing while at work. Therefore, I am required to either blog from home, or not blog at all. OR, I can blog via e-mail. At least, I think I can. That's what the Blogger Help pages told me. So, here is my first test. I am typing this message from my Hotmail account, and I have my top secret blogger e-mail address for my blog in the "To:" field. If this post shows up on my blog after I hit send, we will have success.

Here goes...

More immediate than e-mail? Get instant access with Windows Live Messenger.

Countdown

2008-03-28T12:46:00.001-05:00

Okay, so yesterday I mentioned that Jackie and I will be going on our first-ever cruise in October to celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary. Needless to say, we are excited. So anyway, I found this little "Cruise Countdown Ticker" online, and until I figure out how to get it formatted to fit in my blog template properly, I thought I'd just post it here for now...

It Was a Very Good Friday

2008-03-27T16:25:00.005-05:00

Last Friday (Good Friday), we had an extended-family day at the Children's Museum of Memphis. It was our first time going -- and we were joined by my parents and my sister and her two boys. Here are a few pictures of Jordan (in the pilot coat), Jonathan (in the dog suit) and Jude (with some weird-looking guy). ;-)

The Love Boat

2008-03-27T15:11:00.005-05:00

It is finished. After days and days of websurfing, researching and multiple phone calls with multiple travel agents, it is official -- my wife and I have just booked a cabin on our first ever cruise! We will be celebrating our 10-Year Wedding Anniversary this coming October with a 4-night cruise through the Western Caribbean on the Carnival Fantasy. It's more than 6 months away, but the countdown clock has begun to tick -- at 4 PM on 10/9/08, our ship will be sailing away from New Orleans, headed to (hopefully) sunny Cozumel, Mexico. Woo-hoo!

What are we going to do with our 3 kids while we're gone for 5 nights? (Four on the cruise, probably one additional night in New Orleans prior to sailing). We have no idea. Well, that's not entirely true -- we have some ideas, but we have to sell those ideas to parents, siblings and church friends to make it all happen... :-)

And, given the fact that there will likely be lots of sun and swimsuits involved in a cruise to Mexico, there is another countdown clock ticking -- I have just over 6 months to lose some weight and get myself back into a condition wherein I won't be embarrassed to show myself in public wearing a Speedo.

Just kidding. No Speedos here. But still, my recent weigh-in at the local YMCA -- not to mention the daily view I get looking into the mirror -- points to the fact that I could definitely stand to lose a good 20-25 pounds. So, Jackie and I have a deal -- beginning on April 7 (6 months to the day before our last chance for an official weigh-in before we depart) we are going to start a friendly little game of The Biggest Loser: The Spouse Edition. Rules haven't been set yet, but lets just say that me secretly replacing her Fat-Free Hazelnut Coffee Creamer with Heavy Whipping Cream is probably not going to be allowed...

So, in summary: 195 days until we cruise, and 10 more days to eat whatever I want until the weight loss challenge begins...

In the meantime, if anyone feels like spending a few days in Memphis in October to watch some of our adorable kids for us, don't hesitate to let us know!!! :-)

Spring Break!

2008-03-20T15:05:00.000-05:00

I've got one week off of school this week, so I'm going to try and post a couple of times before my life gets completely-crazy-hectic again on next Tuesday. Right now, things are just hectic, which is a good thing. :-)

Anyway, getting ready to log off and head home from work for a nice 3-day weekend. Tomorrow is Jordan's 7th birthday -- I think we're going to take her and the kids to the Children's Museum of Memphis; we've never been, and I'm thinking everyone will enjoy it.

On Saturday, I'm hoping to do a bit of Spring cleaning -- our garage is in desperate need of some TLC, so before I need to break out the lawnmower for the first time this year, I need to do some sweeping, organizing, etc. Saturday night we're hanging out with some of our Nigerian friends from church for dinner; should be a fun time.

Sunday after church we're going to do a family Easter dinner. Honeybaked Ham, anyone?

And in case you get bored over this long weekend, let me help you kill some time and boost your brain cells with one of the most addictive "games" I've found online in awhile. It's called the "The Traveler IQ Challenge" -- I made it to level 10 (after several attempts), with my highest score to date being 314,615. See if you can top that! ;-)

Quick Update

2008-03-04T11:50:00.005-06:00

I'm two weeks into my 25-month MBA program at IWU... and so far, so good! While we are still adjusting, as a family, to my additional responsibilities as a Master's student, I think the adjustment is going fairly well. The next two years are definitely going to be crazy, but I am excited at both the opportunity and the challenge that lies ahead. My final class ends on March 8, 2010, and if all goes according to plan, I will receive my MBA degree on May 1, 2010 -- mark your calendars now, because I'm guessing that we're going to be partying like it's 1999 once I get my diploma in hand...

Updates on the rest of the family... Jackie is doing a phenomenal job picking up some of the extra home-responsibilities now that I am spending many evening and weekend hours locked away in my study doing schoolwork. Jordan will be turning 7 in just a few weeks; she continues to amaze us with her reading skills -- she's currently half-way through "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader". (We had a great laugh the other night as we were doing some bedtime reading; the book often refers to the "Dawn Treader"'s "poop deck" as just the "poop" -- as in, "the children climbed up to the poop"...) Which brings us to Jonathan, who at almost 3 1/2 loves making us laugh as much as possible, including his near-constant determination to make use of the words "poop" and/or "poopie" in as many conversations as possible. *Sigh*... Jude is now 8 1/2 months -- he's sitting up and rolling over like crazy now, and he is at the "rocking on all fours" stage... not quite crawling. He is an incredibly good natured baby -- he loves to giggle and smile, and, in our humble opinion, is quite possibly the most adorable baby on the planet. :-)

Well, in a nutshell, that's it for now. I'll put up a few fairly recent pics of the kiddos; they're a few weeks old, but I guess that should be sufficient...

Jude at ~ 8 months

Jordan and Jonathan making cookies

----------------
Now playing: Hillsong - Sing (Your Love)
via FoxyTunes

That's Great, it Starts With an Earthquake...

2008-02-18T22:07:00.005-06:00

...Thus begins one of the great songs of the 80's -- "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by REM. Strange lyrics? Most definitely. Do I have any idea what the song is about? None whatsoever.

Is the song title an appropriate phrase for how I'm feeling right now? Absolutely. For tomorrow, yes, tomorrow, February 19, 2008, my life changes. In a big way. I'm going back to school. Sounds crazy, eh?

Full time job? Check. Wife and three kids? Check. Active involvement in local church? Check. Crazy busy on a regular basis? Check. Ready to take on a 25-month MBA program on top of all of the above? Bring it on.

Tomorrow begins a 2+ year adventure in my world. A Masters of Business Administration degree (with a focus in "Applied Management") awaits me in May 2010, assuming that I stick to the schedule as laid out in front of me. My school is Indiana Wesleyan University -- no, I haven't suddenly relocated back to Indiana -- I'm taking my courses via their IWUonline program.

I'm excited to begin... but obviously a bit nervous. It really struck me tonight as I was going through the first course's "Pre-Work" activities, one of which was a university entrance survey. Several questions into the survey, I saw the question -- "How long has it been since you have taken your last college course?". And I realized that it's been over a decade, yeah, OVER A DECADE since I've taken any college courses. I graduated with my Bachelor's degree in December 1996, so it's actually been more than 11 years since I was a student.

Wow, a lot can happen in 11 years. Since I got my degree, I've lived in 3 states, been employed by 4 companies, had 3 children, and on and on it goes. But now it's time to re-focus. Back to school, baby. Reading, studying, homework assignments, research papers, exams, grades, Diet Mountain Dew... and eventually, a degree! Just like my time at Purdue in '92-'96. Um, only now I've got all the other stuff mentioned above going on at the same time.

Well, anyway, I'm not looking for sympathy. We have been praying about this endeavor for many years, and the door opened, the timing was right, and now the day is here. How am I going to manage it all? I honestly have no idea... except for the grace of God -- really, I mean that.

So with that, it's time to sign off. It's nearly 11 PM. I need to get a good night's sleep (relatively) to prepare for the big day ahead. Tonight's the last night I will go to bed as a working adult with "only" an undergraduate degree. (From here on out, and for the next couple of years, I'll be able to fill out the "some graduate school" bubbles on any surveys that I take.) If my blogging becomes more sparse in the coming months (how could even that be possible?), you'll know why.

As of tonight, it's the end of the world as I know it. But you know what? I feel fine... :-)

----------------
Now playing: The Lost Dogs - Honeysuckle_Breeze
via FoxyTunes

Flip That House

2008-02-06T09:14:00.000-06:00

My youngest sister, Christine, and her husband, Torrey, have just started up a brand new blog to document their latest endeavor -- renovating their newly purchased home. Their blog is called "Flip That House", but by the looks of the pics/video on the site, I'm wondering if it should be renamed "The Money Pit"... ;-)

Speaking of flipping houses... thankfully, our house was not flipped during last nights storms. Severe thunderstorms, including multiple tornadoes, swept through our region yesterday afternoon/evening/night, but as you can see by the map below, our city (Olive Branch) was spared any direct hits by tornadoes. It was a pretty bizarre evening, however. I left work a bit early due to the weather warnings -- Jordan's school was let out an hour early due to the same -- and while driving home, the sky was a bit gray... but nothing that indicated the severity of the storms to come. I made a quick stop at Target (if you must know, Jonathan is fully potty-trained now, and as a reward, I picked him up some "Cars"-themed underwear at his request), and then planned on hitting Blockbuster to pick up a movie for the kids, figuring that we would be holed-in for the night (we are Netflix subscribers, but I have a "1 Free Movie per Month" card @ Blockbuster). As I was about to head into the video store, however, the Emergency Alert System tones sounded on the radio, telling me that there was a tornado warning for my county, and that a severe storm was headed our way at about 60 mph. So I decided to go straight home, where we gathered up supplies and got ready to hit our "tornado shelter", aka our master bedroom closet.
We have a really good view of the southern sky out the back of our house, so I kept one eye on the clouds and another on the TV -- the local weathermen were in meteorological heaven, finally getting to use all of that fancy computer radar imagery software that must go unused for months, even years, at a time. Meanwhile, the kids were understandably antsy -- talk of severe storms on the news, tornado sirens blaring, bright and bold lightning strikes taking place outside, churning black clouds in the sky, Mom and Dad running around lighting candles, etc. In the end, however, the biggest tornadic systems (a new term I learned yesterday) passed by us both to the west and the east. We got some heavy rain, wind and thunder/lightning, but the nearest tornadoes were several miles away. The storms were real, though, and people were killed and injured, and many nearby properties were damaged.

So today is pretty much back to normal, save for the traffic disruptions on the way into work this morning. It's also back to cold -- yesterday's 79 Degrees F set a new record for high temperature (previous high was 75 Deg. set back in 1890!), and today it's back down in the 30s this morning.

That's it for now. Hopefully I'll be back on here again soon...

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Now playing: Steve Taylor - Jesus Is For Losers
via FoxyTunes

Quite a Week!

2008-01-25T15:20:00.001-06:00

It's Friday afternoon, and I'm finally taking a few minutes to post a quick something or other...

Sunday - A great morning at church, followed by a fun afternoon of watching football, and then an evening of food and fellowship at my parent's house. While I'm bummed that "my" San Diego Chargers couldn't defeat the Patriots, I was happy to see the Giants advance to the Superbowl. I'm torn, however -- my New England roots have me leaning towards rooting for Tom Brady and team... but I don't really like Tom Brady (or their coach). And at the same time, I always have a tendency to root for the underdog, which would have me leaning towards rooting for New York in the Big Game. Still not sure which way I'm going to go, but I do know it's going to be a fun afternoon -- we're expecting a few dozen folks at our house for a big party, watching the game in HD on our widescreen LCD...

Monday - After work I had dinner with a couple of business guests in-town from Singapore at a new(er) Italian restaurant in Memphis, Spindini. Food was great, service started off good but ended off crumby (after the establishment got slammed with guests), and my business guests were kind enough to buy me an extra dessert to take home to Jackie. Very nice.

Tuesday - The zipper on my warm winter coat broke, and just after that the leather strap to my nice leather briefcase/laptop bag/man-purse busted. Minor inconveniences, but inconvenient nonetheless. Then, for the evening, it was my turn to handle the kids Mr. Mom style for a few hours. Jackie went out and got her nails done, then headed to a womens' jewelry party. While she was out, and just when I was about to get the kids to bed, we had an unexpected visitor arrive at our house -- in the form of a stray cat on our back patio. The cute little kitten was at our back door meowing and clawing incessantly, and after a couple of calls to some local animal shelters (all closed for the night) and PETCO, I decided against leaving the animal out in the cold. I donned some latex gloves (who knows where this cat had been, and what diseases it might be carrying?) and carried the cat into our garage, where I figured it would at least be out of the sub-freezing temperatures for the night. Long story short, we ended up bringing the cat into our laundry room after awhile -- it was getting really cold inside our garage -- and an animal shelter came by and picked up the cat in the morning. Not sure where the cat is now, but due to the somewhat sickly condition (it was limping, and had a big scar on its tail), and due to the fact that the animal shelter doesn't provide veterinary care, my guess is that our visitor is now in feline paradise... I'd post a pic of the cat, but I haven't yet been able to figure out how to transfer photos from my new cell phone to my PC.

Wednesday - My car died. It actually didn't "die" exactly, but when I got into my vehicle to head home for work I simply couldn't turn the key. Like, as in, I would put the key in, and it would turn about a 1/4-turn, but nothing more. I couldn't even get it to the Accessories setting. I called a co-worker buddy of mine who came and picked me up and drove me home... and I had to leave my car overnight. After getting home late, I was supposed to get to bed early so I could get up at 4:45 AM for an extra-early morning conference call with Singapore. The "getting to bed early" part didn't happen.

Thursday - I played "car swap" with my wife, except she just swapped her car to me, leaving her car-less at home. After my morning meetings, I had the tow-truck come and load up my car and take it to the repair shop. (The lead mechanic called me today -- the entire "key tumbler" needs to be replaced... plus the power steering pump sounds like it might be going bad... plus I have a broken "spring seat" that needs to be replaced). After dinner, Jackie and I stayed up late working on song selections for the One Hour of Praise & Worship that we are leading at church Wed. night. I had to call it a night by about 11 PM or so... Jackie was a trooper and stayed up till about 1 AM. Oh, yeah, and I found a cool new (at least new to me) website, Songza -- check it out!

Friday - Well, it's been a very busy day here at work so far... nothing too exciting on the home-front yet, but there's still a good 7 or 8 hours left in the day, so we'll see what happens...

Okay, gotta run. More posting to follow. Soon. Maybe.

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Now playing: Adam Again - The 10th Song
via FoxyTunes

Select a Candidate - 2008

2008-01-15T09:54:00.000-06:00

So, I finally made it a priority to watch the Republican Presidential Debate a week or so ago. I find myself in a quandry -- the guys I like the most are not doing so well during this Primary season, so I fear that I may end up needing to hold my nose and vote for someone that I'm not really thrilled about.

On a side note -- the debate I watched was on Fox News, and our base-level "Family Package" on DirecTV does not include that channel, so I had to improvise. Thanks to technology, I was able to log in to FoxNews.com on my laptop, hook it up to our LCD HDTV, and watch the debate on our TV anyway. I love being alive in 2008! :-)

Anyway, back to the issue at hand -- politics. Rather than launch into commentary on all the candidates, and what I like/dislike about all of them, I'll just post the results of an online quiz that I took this morning. This website runs you through a short quiz about most of the hot topics being discussed right now, and based on your selections, the quiz results display the candidate that is most aligned with your personal views. If you were a fly on the wall in my house, you would know that I've always stated that a "Thompson/Hunter" ticket would be my dream, and my quiz results strongly support my political leanings. Unfortunately, though, unless something drastic and unforeseen takes place in the political arena, the chances of such a ticket coming to fruition seem pretty unlikely. Only time will tell... My results are below -- take a look, and then go try the quiz yourself; feel free to post your results in the Comments section of this post -- I'm curious as to what my blog readers come up with.


	Duncan Hunter Score: 58	Agree Iraq Taxes Stem-Cell Research Health Care Abortion Social Security Line-Item Veto Energy Marriage Death Penalty Gun Control Environment	Disagree Immigration Education
	Fred Thompson Score: 58	Agree Iraq Taxes Stem-Cell Research Health Care Abortion Social Security Line-Item Veto Marriage Death Penalty Gun Control Environment Education	Disagree Immigration Energy
-- Take the Quiz! --

So Much to Say, But...

2008-01-04T13:22:00.000-06:00

Well, Happy 2008, everyone! It's been nearly a month since my last post -- a month filled with lots of end-of-the-year work activities, Christmas shopping, church activities, family get-togethers, playing with the kids, etc. Yes, December was a very busy month, and it was jam-packed with just about everything -- except blogging. You know what, though? I'm not too worried about it. I realized long ago that it was not in the cards for me to become some uber-blogger that sends up multiple posts a day and attracts thousands of readers to his site, so my blogging resolution for 2008 is: I'll post when I can, and I won't worry about it when I can't.

So now that the Holidays have passed, and I've jumped back into "normal life" again (sleep, wake, eat, work, eat, sleep, etc.), what is there to talk about?

Work? Well, busy as usual -- a lot of activity right now, a lot of tension in the air, so it will prove to be an interesting and likely exciting year. I will likely be traveling domestically and internationally a few times in 2008, but no specifics yet.

Politics? A lot going on, obviously. But I haven't really been able to get all that excited about the race yet. I'm very clearly a conservative, so I will end up voting for whoever gets the Republican nomination, but I'd be lying if I said I was thrilled with any of the top contenders for the GOP right now. So I guess I'll wait and see how things shape up in the coming months. Four years ago I was incredibly worked up and energetic about seeing GWB re-elected. But right now? Not so much...

Church? God? Religion? Always a lot going on deep inside, but I guess I'm not very good at expressing all that's taking place. Suffice it to say that I am a blessed man, and on a daily basis I am reminded of the goodness and sovereignty and wisdom of God and His Word.

Music? Well, music is one of the constants in my life. I'm always doing everything I can to expand my music/CD/MP3 collection, and I almost always have Windows Media Player on while working in my office -- usually randomly shuffling through the 2,538 songs on my laptop.

Family? Ah, that's an easier one. It was a joy getting to spend so many consecutive days at home with my wife and 3 children over the Christmas break -- 10 days in a row, in fact! I've got an amazingly cute and adorable family unit, and I'll post a few recent pics here to prove it... :-)

So, having said all of that, what does 2008 hold for the Owens family? Here's a very brief look:
- Jon and Jackie will both turn 33
- Jordan will turn 7 in March, she'll finish up 1st grade in the spring... and we're still praying about where she will spend 2nd grade (Public, Private or Home School). She is doing incredibly well at school, reading far above her grade level (she is reading through the Chronicles of Narnia right now -- she's already finished the 1st two books, and is well into the 3rd -- I don't think I was able to read/comprehend those books until I was 8 or 9...), doing great in math, etc.
- Jonathan will turn 4 in October. He is a goofball of the highest order -- he makes us laugh constantly, and he is definitely going to be a handful for whatever teacher he ends up getting in school (possibly preschool, or "K4", this fall, or definitely Kindergarten in Fall 2009).
- Jude passed the 6 month mark in December, so he will be sitting up and crawling soon. 2008 will see him turn 1 (in June), begin to walk, etc. I can't wait!
- October this year will mark mine and Jackie's 10-year Wedding Anniversary. I'm praying for some major work bonuses or something to come in this year so we can do something extravagant for this celebration. If anybody wants to donate to our Anniversary Travel fund, please let me know!
- Speaking of Anniversaries, August will mark the 40th Wedding Anniversary of my parents. Forty years -- how cool is that?!?
- Also, probably set to be one of the defining things of 2008 -- I am making plans to start my MBA within the next month or two. As if I wasn't already busy enough...!

I could probably go on and on, but I need to get back to work -- lunch is over. Here are a few recent family pics, as promised earlier. Enjoy -- and again, Happy New Year!

Chasing

2007-12-11T13:03:00.000-06:00

In my last post, I mentioned that I went to an Andrew Peterson concert back on Dec. 2nd; I also mentioned that I had won the "door prize" at that show. It wasn't until a couple of days ago, however, that I found out what the door prize actually was. Get this -- because I took 5 minutes of my life to walk over to a sign-up table and put my e-mail address on a slip of paper, I received a package consisting of the following AP items:

-"Carried Along" (CD, 2000)
-"Clear to Venus" (CD, 2001)
-"Love & Thunder" (CD, 2003)
-"Behold the Lamb of God" (CD, 2004)
-"Behold the Lamb of God" (DVD, 2004)
-"The Far Country" (CD, 2005)

How cool is that?!?!!! I haven't received this much free music since I won a contest on the Christian radio station in Seattle back in 1997 and received something like 25 CDs (I got every CD that was represented on the WOW 1998 double disc set). Now, granted, I already own "The Far Country" and the "Behold the Lamb of God" CD, but still -- 3 new CDs and a DVD. I have been in Andrew Peterson heaven for the past 48 hours...

Of course, I recognize that the bulk of you reading this have very little knowledge of who Andrew Peterson is, why I like him so much, etc. I don't have time to go into all of that here, but let me point you to a couple of things:
1) Andrew's Wikipedia bio -- It's a good summary of who he is, what he has done, and what he is working on.
2) Andrew's website -- Well, it's his website. Enough said.
3) The Rabbit Room -- Andrew and his friends muse about stuff.

And finally, if none of that floats your boat, click here. No, really, I mean it -- CLICK HERE. Make sure your computer speakers are turned up. That link is a streaming version of the Christmas CD, "Behold the Lamb of God". It's a Christmas CD unlike any other, and I just can't listen to it enough. You can also listen to some of his other tunes through streaming audio at this link -- just scroll around until you see the word "listen", and click on it!

Okay, so, do I sound like a freak? AP, if you somehow ever read this post, please know that I'm not a stalker. I'm just a 30-something father of 3 like you (2 boys and a girl, even!), making my way through this "far country", trying to figure things out as I go... and I happen to love good music and good poetry.

Speaking of good music/poetry, one of the songs that has captured my attention over the past day or so is a tune called "The Chasing Song"; it's off of the "Carried Along" CD. You can read through the lyrics here, but the summation of the song comes in these simple lines:

Well, they say a race can only have one winner
And you know you've got to pull out front to win
God knows the only time I'm winning
Is when I'm chasing Him

The Bottom Line -- by listening to AP's music, you really get a glimpse into his soul. And you can tell that he's really just a regular guy with a passion for Christ, a passion for his family, a passion for music, and a passion for life in general.

And his music makes me think.
It makes me ponder.
It makes me reflect.
It makes me smile.
It makes me cry.

It makes me want to chase God.

Behold the Lamb of God

2007-12-04T15:01:00.000-06:00

I took Jordan up to Bellevue Baptist Church on Sunday night to see Andrew Peterson in concert -- he was doing his "Behold the Lamb of God: The True Tall Tale of the Coming of Christ" Christmas tour. I can't, in words, describe what an amazing experience the whole evening was. If you've never heard Andrew Peterson's music, you HAVE to check him out. And if you're tired of the same old, same old Christmas music, you need to get your hands on "Behold the Lamb of God".

I first heard AP about 3 years ago -- I think one of his songs, "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks", was on a Christmas compilation CD back in 2003 or 2004 -- I knew from that first listen that I needed to find out more about this guy. I picked up "Behold the Lamb of God", and went crazy over it -- so innovative, so fresh, so touching, so new, so genuine. Since then, I've picked up his "Appendix A" and "The Far Country". The first time I heard "Land of the Free" (the first track on "Appendix A", lyrics here) I was in tears.

Anyway, back to the concert on Sunday night. The show started with Andrew introducing his fellow band members/vocalists, and he had each of them perform one of their own songs. I had heard of Sara Groves, Jill Phillips and Bebo Norman before, but Andy Gullahorn and Andrew Osenga were new to me (by name, at least). Each one of them did an outstanding job, but I was especially moved by Andy Gullahorn's "Burning Bushes" -- wow, what a tune.

After each individual artist did their bit, they went through the entire "Behold the Lamb of God" album -- as rich and powerful as it is on CD, it was even moreso in person. I can't say for sure, but even from the 2nd row of the balcony I think I caught Andrew Peterson fighting back tears as he began singing the title track, which falls towards the end of the show. He was apparently very moved -- and him being moved caused me to be moved as well!

Jackie was unable to make it to the show -- she stayed home with the boys. She really likes AP's stuff, too, but I'm a bit more of a music freak than she is, so I simply had to make it to the concert. In trying to explain the "feel" of the evening to her, I mentioned something along the lines of, "These artists seem so real, so genuine -- they're all just a bunch of moms and dads who love Jesus -- and happen to be amazingly gifted in singing/playing/songwriting. It's almost as if it could be me and you and my college buddies hanging out up on stage... that is, if we had even a smidgeon of the talent that AP & Co. have."

Not sure if that makes sense or not, but I walked away from the evening with my spirit lifted, feeling like I had moved at least one little step closer to understanding the beauty and mystery of what happened when our Creator sent his Son into this world some 2000 years ago.

"So sing out with joy, for the brave little boy
Who was God, but He made Himself nothing.
Well He gave up His pride, and He came here to die like a man..."
-from "Gather Round, ye Children, Come" on "Behold the Lamb of God"

P.S. Check out this site -- I signed up to get on AP's mailing list after the concert. My name was selected from the bucket, and I won a prize! Not sure what I'm going to get, but, hey, I won! :-)

24 Hours and 5 Minutes of My Life

2007-11-27T11:38:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, Nov. 26th, 2007
5:55 AM – Alarm goes off; I hit snooze.
6:00 AM – Backup alarm goes off; I hit snooze.
6:05 AM – 1st alarm goes off again; I hit snooze.
6:10 AM – 2nd alarm goes off again; I finally turn off the alarms and get up.
6:20 AM – I walk upstairs and wake up Jordan (who also slept through her alarm).
6:21 AM – I start getting Jordan ready for school, make a pot of coffee, start making my breakfast.
6:30 AM – Jonathan wakes up, wants juice, wants his blanket on the couch, wants to watch “a movie”, which translates into watching “Oswald” or “Dora the Explorer” on Noggin.
6:45 AM – Finish getting Jordan ready; tie her shoes, finish packing her backpack.
6:50 AM – Jonathan wants breakfast; heat up some leftover pancakes.
6:55 AM – Jordan’s bus picks her up.
7:00 AM – Jonathan and I eat pancakes.
7:05 AM – I start getting ready for work (shower, pack a lunch, etc.).
8:00 AM – I leave for work.
8:45 AM – I get to my desk at work, and find out that my computer’s not working – I can’t get into my e-mail.
11:00 AM – I finally get a call back from our computer techs, and I spend the next 3.5 hours on the phone trying to get my laptop fixed.
2:00 PM – While my computer is down, I hop onto a co-workers computer and join a teleconference, and try to get some work done. All while “my” computer tech is working remotely on my laptop in my office next door.
2:30 PM – “My” computer tech has to go home, so I spend the next 3 hours running disk defrag, scan disks and diagnostic tests on my PC. All while trying to get some work done (not very successfully).
6:00 PM – I finally leave work, after identifying the fact that my laptop hard drive is hosed.
6:05 PM – I call an old college buddy (TK) and catch up with him on my drive home.
6:45 PM – I get home, we all sit down for dinner.
7:00 PM - Jordan asks, "Can we put up the Christmas tree tonight?" I laugh. She is not amused. We try to explain to her that it takes a lot of planning to do that, and that, start-to-finish, it's like a 2 hour job, minimum, and we'll need to plan it for another day. She doesn't buy it.
7:25 PM – Dinner is done; the kids want to play, so we spend about 30 minutes playing:
-Ring around the Rosie
-All Around the World (some game that Jordan learned at school). The game involves everybody (me, Jonathan & Jordan) standing in a line while Jackie asks us each a question. If we get our question wrong, we have to go to the questioner and whisper a question in their ear, and the questioner in turn then asks one of the remaining contestants that question. Jonathan really got into this, and at one point ran over to Jackie as if he had a question for her. He leaned in really close to her, cupped his hand around her ear, and whispered, "Poopie".
-Airplane – Where I lie on the ground on my back and fly my kids through the air on various missions. Somehow, when I was flying Jonathan around, Jordan got the idea that she was a “bullet”, and “shot” Jonathan down. (I think she’s been watching too many military documentaries with me on PBS, The Science Channel, National Geographic Channel, etc.)
8:05 PM – Now that I’m physically worn out from playing with my 6 & 3 year-old kids, my wife and I try to garner enough strength to get our kids into the bath and ready for bed. But first, Jonathan begs to read a story on the couch. We say, "Yes", and he runs and grabs his VeggieTales Bible Storybook. I proceed to sit on the couch with the kids and read a few passages about Christmas, and then started to ask them some of the book's "fun" questions about various VeggieTales episodes. Most of the questions were too hard for Jonathan, but Jordan kept raising her hand excitedly, going "Oooo, ooo, ooo -- I know it!". Then I'd call on her, and she would bumble around for several seconds trying to come up with the answer. Meanwhile, while waiting for Jordan to answer, Jonathan started doing this thing where he would roll his eyes, fall back into the couch, tilt his head up, close his eyes, open his mouth and start to snore -- feigning boredom. It was VERY funny.
8:15 PM - Run the bath, find the bubble bath soap, find PJs, grab clean towels. We divide and conquer – Jackie takes Jordan, I take Jonathan – thankfully the baby was asleep during this routine. Get Jonathan dressed, brush his teeth, search the house for Jonathan’s blanket, find it hiding behind the living room chair, diffuse an argument (Jonathan saw Jordan reading a VeggieTales book that he wanted to read - The Slobfather), read Dora’s “Dance to the Rescue” book for the 13,005th time to Jonathan, then it’s “Can we read just one more story, Daddy?” so we read another story, then it’s time to pray, then it’s lights out and “Can you lay with me for a minute, Daddy?”, then as I start to drift off to sleep in his bed I have to force myself awake to go “start my evening”…
9:00 PM – The kids are down, now it’s time for the next project – finalize the grocery list. We were out of town for 8 days, so our cupboards are pretty bare.
9:30 PM – I grab the grocery list and the stacks of coupon flyers and head out the door to Walmart.
9:40 PM – I sit in the minivan listening to Mike Savage while sorting through dozens of pages of coupons looking for $.50 savings on soup, Ziploc bags, etc.
10:00 PM – I grab the 4 coupons that I found, and head into Walmart.
10:40 PM – I check out; and then realize that I forgot to give the checkout lady my coupons. Customer Service Manager gets flagged down, comes over, and states emphatically that “I ain’t never done this before. Call Janice.” Janice calls and steps the two ladies at Checkout Terminal 5 through the process of giving me my discounts, while customers line up behind me, glaring at me for daring to hold them up. Mission accomplished, and I get my $2.00 back. Score!
10:50 PM – I load up the van and drive across the street to Taco Bell to pick up Fourth Meal for me and my wife. I eat my chili cheese burrito on the drive home.
11:00 PM – I arrive home, unload the groceries, rescue Jackie from Jude, who has been eating and fussing for the past 90 minutes.
11:05 PM – I plop down on the couch and try to watch The Tonight Show (it was a re-run of the June 29, 1992 show with Tom Hanks, Delbert McClinton, and some NBC news correspondent) over the sounds of Jude screeching. (As a side note – who needs the Writer’s Guild? I would enjoy watching these old re-runs – it was a blast looking back at what was cool in pop culture 16 years ago, when I was just graduating from high school).
11:35 PM – Conan O’Brian comes on; Jude is still wide awake. Jackie is almost done putting away the groceries, cleaning up dinner dishes, putting away clean dishes from the dishwasher.
11:50 PM – I finally lay Jude down in his crib, and he only cries for a couple of minutes. Success!
11:55 PM – Time to load the dishwasher and wash the hand-washables.
12:05 AM – Dishes are done, and I give in to my nightly temptation for ice cream. (And I wonder why my weight has been ballooning…)
12:15 AM – Verify the doors are locked, set the alarm, turn off the lights and the TV, grab my stack of my folded clothes in the living room, put away my clothes, get ready for bed.
12:30 AM – Crawl into bed, arguing with myself over what time to set the alarm(s) for Tuesday morning. “How late can I set my alarm and still get Jordan ready in time for the bus and me ready to get into work for my morning meeting?” I win the argument and set the alarm for 6:00 AM.
12:35 AM – Try to stay awake long enough to pray and talk with my wife for a few minutes.
12:45 AM – Lights out. I’m done.
5:00 AM – Jude wakes up – he has flipped over in his crib upstairs, kicked off his blanket, lost his pacifier, and he is not happy. I go upstairs and get him, bring him downstairs, change his diaper, Jackie gets up to find a change of clean clothes for him, I dress him, lay him back down. He cries. Loudly.
5:15 AM – Jackie takes Jude into bed with her; he quiets down. I crawl back into bed in an attempt to squeeze a little more sleep in before my alarm goes off.
5:45 AM – My phone rings. Yes, rings. I think it’s my alarm, so I try to hit snooze, but really I just hang up. The phone rings again – same result. Finally I realize what’s going on and let it ring the 3rd time. One of my co-workers forgets that I work in a different time zone and leaves a voicemail.
5:50 AM – I listen to the voicemail; it was not critical, and could have waited.
5:51 AM – I fall back asleep.
6:00 AM – My alarm goes off. I hit snooze…

Cover Girl

2007-11-14T12:53:00.000-06:00

Now here's something that doesn't happen every day... Our daughter, Jordan, showed up on the cover of the local "DeSoto Times" newspaper. (Okay, so it's not exactly the New York Times or Washington Post, but still pretty cool nonetheless.) We were attending the "Fall Festival" at her school this past Saturday, and a reporter snapped Jordan's photo while she was getting her nails painted. I figured that this reporter was probably taking dozens of photos, and that the likelihood of Jordan's photo getting selected were slim... but not only was it selected, but she made FRONT PAGE NEWS! Here's a link to a larger image (or in case the paper's home page has been updated and her photo removed).

Needless to say, Jordan is ecstatic, Jackie and I are very proud, and I think my parents went around town snatching up every last copy of Tuesday's paper to do who-knows-what with. Me? I need to figure out how to frame a newspaper... and how to keep this new-found "stardom" from going to a 6 year-old girl's head...

An Attempt to Play Catch-Up

2007-11-08T10:27:00.000-06:00

I know, I know, it's been a long time since my last post. Well, I did have that one brief pseudo-post a couple of weeks back about the San Diego wildfires, but other than that it's been over a month since I posted. It hasn't been for a lack of wanting to blog, it's just that, as often happens, I find it hard to log in to Blogger and type up a post when I have so many other more critical and urgent things that I need to be doing.

Like work, for example. I think I can state, in all truthfulness, that I have worked harder in the past 30 days that at any other point in my 10-year professional career. Major projects, deadlines, presentations, stay-up-until-1 AM-crunching-numbers-in-Excel-two-nights-in-a-row kind of intensity -- reminds me of my senior year at Purdue, actually. Except that now I have a wife, 3 kids, a mortgage payment, etc. -- there's a whole lot more riding on my performance today than just a grade point average...

Don't get me wrong -- I'm most definitely not complaining. I've probably said this on my blog before, but my job truly is exhilarating and very fulfilling. It just obviously ends up taking precedence over blogging during certain seasons... and the past month was one of those times...

So, other than crazy busy work, what's been going on? How's the family? Where are the adorable pictures of your kids? I know those are the questions that have been burning deep down inside of you for the past month. And I'm not one to leave the thousands of daily visitors to my blog (cough) disappointed, so here goes...

I spent 9 days in early October up in Connecticut on a business trip. A pretty typical trip, really, with lots of meetings and training sessions -- until Day 5, when Jackie and Jude arrived. Yes, my wife and our youngest flew up to meet me, while our two oldest kids stayed behind with Grandma & Grandpa. It was sort of a pre-Anniversary getaway -- we got to spend the weekend together enjoying New England in the fall. We spent a day driving a few hours north up into Vermont, where we got to see some beautiful fall foliage, and we spent another day at a new outdoor shopping mall making use of my anniversary gift to my wife (a big fat gift card).

Once we all got back home to Memphis, my intense work projects kicked in, and then we also began preparing for Jonathan's 3rd birthday; we had a small family celebration at Cedar Hill Farm. Jackie baked a fantastic cake -- it's becoming an annual tradition for Jonathan's b-day; a chocolate pumpkin cake w/orange cream cheese frosting. Yummy.

Then we got ready for Halloween -- Jordan was a veterinarian, me and the two boys were pirates. Arrrgh!

A whole lot more happened, obviously, in the past 30 days. Those were the big hitters, however, and I wanted to try to get everyone caught up. I'll try to get back to my regular 2-3 times/week posting frequency here in the near future. (Don't hold me to it, though -- I said "I'll try", not "I promise"...)

Pray for Rain

2007-10-22T15:25:00.000-05:00

(No, not these guys).

I just got off the phone with one of my good friends from Escondido, CA (in San Diego County) -- he gave me a first-hand update on what is going on with all of the wildfire activity out there. This morning's "Today Show" had primarily mentioned Malibu and Los Angeles as the problem areas, but until I hopped on San Diego's website a little while ago, I had no idea how critical the situation was in our old hometown.

I'm now browsing the various San Diego area websites and gleaning all sorts of information. It's strange seeing all of these locations -- street names, buildings, etc., that were once a part of our daily lives -- now being listed in the news as areas being hit by this monstrous fire. Memories of living through the Cedar fire from 4 years ago are running through my head. Here are some of the locations in the path of the current fire, and their significance to me:
-"More than 120 patients from Pomerado Hospital were evacuated earlier this morning..." -- Our two oldest children, Jordan and Jonathan, were both born there!
-"The San Diego Wild Animal Park was evacuated at 5 a.m Monday..." -- We lived less than 10 minutes from there, and spent many, many weekday evenings and weekends there when Jordan was 2 and 3 years old.
-"I-15 closed between Hwy 78 and Hwy 56..." -- I drove that stretch of I-15 every weekday to and from work for 5 years.
-"The fire continues to pose a threat to southwest Escondido..." -- The area defined in this press release is literally within walking distance from where we used to live.
-"Dozens of home in Rancho Bernardo are burning and there are now reports that some homes in 4S Ranch are also on fire..." -- The bulk of our friends, and our former church, are all in this area.

Pray for rain, indeed...

My YouTube Pick of the Day - 10/03/07

2007-10-03T17:08:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I know that YouTube has been around for quite awhile, but up until a month or two ago I couldn't access it on my work computer (company security policies), so I'm a little late to the game, so to speak. It's only been the last few weeks that I've really spent any significant amount of time poking around at the plethora of video content avaialable on that site. But in those past few weeks I've found what I consider to be some true gems -- some videos that are funny, some that are moving, some that are just plain cool -- and I thought I would help spread the joy that I have been discovering.

So, in addition to the stuff that I typically post on here, I'm going to start adding a YouTube Pick of the Day from time to time. Here is the first...

Title: "The Stand"
Description: A cartoon (hand-drawn computer animation) video of the Hillsong United song, "The Stand"
How I Found It: We sang "The Stand" at church this past Sunday, and I was singing it around the house while making lunch -- it's just a great worship song. My laptop was nearby and I thought I might be able to find a video of that song on YouTube. Sure enough, I found several -- but this one caught my eye.
What I Like About It: It's creative, clever and makes me smile. It also, by the way, turned out to be a favorite among our kids -- Jordan and Jonathan begged me to play it over and over again. I'm able to hook my laptop up to our HDTV, so we spent a good amount of our Sunday afternoon watching this and the other videos created by YouTube user "upendy".

Enjoy!

Little Monkeys Swinging On a Tree

2007-09-27T21:03:00.000-05:00

My first ever video post! Here's a little clip of Jordan (6) and Jonathan (almost 3) singing the other evening. The lyrics are something like this:

"Four little monkeys swinging on a tree,
Teasing Mr. Alligator, 'Can't catch me'
Along came Mr. Alligator quiet as can be
And SNAPPED that monkey right out of that tree."

Jonathan has a bit of a cold right now, so he sounds a bit stuffy, but still terribly cute nonetheless (in my humble opinion)... :-)

Tickle-Torture

2007-09-18T10:30:00.000-05:00

Okay, so last night was a REALLY big night at our house. Weeks of anticipation and excitement finally culminated with all 5 of us gathered around the coffee table eating carry-out while watching the world premiere of the first-ever made-for-TV one-hour Backyardigan's movie: Super Secret Super Spy. There was much fun to be had -- dancing and singing and laughing along with one of the most creative kids' shows out there. The Backyardigan's never fail to deliver great entertainment.

The only problem -- we were playing outside after the movie, and Jordan (our daughter) wanted to be Agent Secret (the "good guy" -- no problem), but Jonathan wanted to be the "bad guy", which was actually a female -- the "Lady in Pink". I hope that we don't run into any emotional issues with him down the road stemming from his desire to be an evil pink-wearing super villain.

I love watching how cute childrens' shows treat "evil" and "meanness" -- it's not like you can do anything really bad to a character without scaring the target audience. So how did the evil super villain torture the good guys in "Super Secret Super Spy"? Tickle-torture, of course. It reminded me of one of the great VeggieTales stories (Esther: The Girl Who Became Queen) -- at one point in that movie, Haman (the bad guy) gets banished, and the grim-reaper (armed with a feather) comes to take him away to the Island of Perpetual Tickling. You gotta love it.

So, it's probably time to add this latest Backyardigans' movie to our kids' Christmas list. Another movie that we need to add to our wish list (er, I mean, our kids' wish list) is the upcoming VeggieTales DVD "The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's". According to this article, one of the DVD special features is going to be Mr. Lunt singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" -- I can't wait! In addition, one of my favorite artists, Andrew Peterson, has a couple of his new songs featured on this movie... including the new Silly Song "Monkey"; I'm sure that this movie will be played endlessly in our house (and minivan) for many years to come.

What would we do without Backyardigans and VeggieTales DVDs?!? Although I'm still not sure who enjoys them more, the parents or the children...

Quick Update

2007-09-07T13:49:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy couple of weeks around here. Labor Day weekend was a great 3 days of fun and activity -- in addition to getting the lawn mowed, hanging out with the kids, trying to find an extra half-hour or so of sleep here and there, etc., we joined a big group of friends and family and headed to the Delta Fair. Here's a pic of all of us hanging out.

Also, I've had some computer issues lately, but my system was tweaked a little bit and I'm finally able to visit and view YouTube from my machine -- woo-hoo! Given that, I want to once again try to point you all to a great "new" artist on the Christian music scene. Jeremy Horn, the Worship Pastor at our church, released his album "Atmosphere" last month. If you haven't heard/seen Jeremy's music yet, check out this video -- it's his live performance of the title track to his CD, as performed at his CD Release concert back in early August. I can't stress enough how you need to go purchase this album! Enjoy the video...

I'm headed out of town this weekend for a work-related training workshop in New Hampshire. It should be a fun (but intense) week from what I hear, but it sure will be hard being away from my wife and kids for 6 days...

28 Days

2007-08-27T10:55:00.000-05:00

"The weatherman say it's gonna be warm today

What I'd give for a little rain...

The weatherman say it's gonna be the same today

What I'd give for a little change..."

- lyrics from "The Fine Line", Adam Again 1999

Well, the weatherman did in fact say it was going to be warm today -- in fact, today is the 28th straight day with a high temperature of > 95 degrees F here in the Memphis area. What I'd give for a little change indeed...

Anyway, here are some long overdue family picture updates. I'm sure you're asking yourself, "Is this what The Treasure Fine has turned into -- a place for Jon to just post pictures of his family?" I know, I know -- what happened to the witty commentary about current events, or the pensive ramblings of incoherent thought on subjects ranging from theology to fatherhood to what I ate for lunch? Well, I assure you, those non-family-picture-related blog posts will return at some point in the not-so-distant future. Having a newborn, as many of you know, has a way of sucking that thing called "free time" into a galaxy far, far away...

So, until such time as more thought-provoking blog entries return, here are a few select photos chronicling our life over the past couple of weeks:

Jude Alan Owens, at 8 weeks

Jonathan, with friend Ella -- in his sport utility vehicle, cruisin' to 7-11 for a bag of Frito Lay's (my thanks to VeggieTales)

Jordan, enjoying the summer sun and sand (the closest thing to a beach we have here in Memphis).

Jonathan, doing his best impersonation of a sweaty rock drummer. Ringo Starr, eat your heart out!

Jordan and Jonathan, getting creative inside during the triple-digit temperatures outside. They made a boat, using kitchen spoons as oars...

A Day of Firsts

2007-08-13T11:06:00.000-05:00

Today:
-Our 6 year-old daughter's first day of first grade ("Now, Billy Joe McGuffrey was a really crazy kid..." -- if anyone gets this reference, please leave a comment, as I would love to know who you are!)
-In addition to it simply being the first day of 1st grade, it was her first day at a public school and her first time riding a school bus.
-For me and my wife, it was our first time waving goodbye to our "baby girl" as she was whisked away by a complete stranger. Last year she was at a private, Christian school, and she was a car-rider, so this is definitely different. (I must say, though, the bus looked brand spanking new -- so if my daughter's going to ride the bus, this is definitely the way to go).

So today it's just my wife and "the boys" at home without "big sis" around until around 2:30 PM. I realized the other day that with Jonathan's birthday falling in October, he won't be eligible to start kindergarten until Fall 2010 -- that means it's going to be Jackie, Jonathan and Jude hanging out at home together for the next 3 years while Jordan progresses through 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades. What a blessing that the two boys are going to get all of that quality time with their mother before they head off to school.

But then as I fast-forward 5 years from now (and Lord knows, it truly will go by quickly), Fall 2012: Jordan enters 6th grade, Jonathan enters 2nd grade, and Jude will be entering kindergarten. Crazy stuff. Will I really be old enough in 2012 to have 3 children in school?!? (Short answer -- Yes, and I am already getting the gray hairs to prove it.) :-)

Music, Music, Music...

2007-08-07T10:22:00.000-05:00

We had a busy, but great, weekend. It all started on Friday night with a great Worship Concert at Hope Church in Cordova, TN. The Worship Pastor (Jeremy Horn) from our church (Christ the Rock) opened up with a great set of songs off his new CD (Atmosphere, which is being released nation-wide today). Jeremy's set was followed by a concert by Brenton Brown -- you may not know the name, but you likely know his songs... he's written some very popular songs that are sung around the world, like "Lord, Reign in Me", "Everlasting God" and "Hallelujah (Your Love is Amazing)". Brenton and his band did a fantastic job, as well.

On Saturday, I went back up to Hope Church for a Worship Workshop that was chock full of some great, intimate panel-type discussions with Brenton Brown, Bruce Carroll, Jeremy Horn, Jon Reddick, and Brenton's band. Brenton shared some great wisdom on his approach to song-writing... Bruce, Jeremy & Jon shared some practical insight into all of the various aspects involved in leading worship in The Church today. Jeremy shared some solid, scriptual-based thoughts on how to create "flow" in worship. Then Brenton and his band spent some time chatting about the whats and hows of playing and singing worship music. The day lasted about 5 hours, and included a lunch -- I got to sit across the table from Brenton and Jeremy, and we had some fun, down-to-earth discussions about life and music in general.

On top of the great information that was shared, it was fun to just sit down with some of these "big names" in the Christian music industry and realize that, hey, these folks are real, regular people, just like you and me. I found out that two of Brenton's band members were from San Diego -- Jonathan Macintosh and his wife Sarah are worship leaders at Horizon Christian Fellowship. After I chatted with them for a little while about life "back home" in Southern California, I found out that Sarah used to be the lead singer in a now-defunct band called "Chasing Furies" (I happen to own their wonderful CD "With Abandon"), and Jonathan used to be a part of the band "Luna Halo" -- I don't own any of their CD's, but their single "Superman" is on a sampler CD that I have.

Anyway, here's some additional information on the new CD by Jeremy Horn. First of all, his new website is up and has lots of really good stuff on it -- go here and check it out. Second, Jeremy was on a local TV broadcast last week -- go to this page, and then scroll down and click on the link for "Live at 9 Wednesday, August 1". Your media player should open up, and you can jump to 27:45 in the broadcast to see his first song, and then he closes out the show beginning at 53:55. Finally, and most importantly, you need to buy a copy (or two or three) of his new CD, "Atmosphere". You can pick it up on his website here (and your copy will be autographed!), or you can get it on Amazon.com.

By the way, I was the first person to write a review of Jeremy's CD on Amazon -- it's my first CD review ever! I hope I didn't blow it...

A Great Visit

2007-07-25T16:09:00.000-05:00

One of our friends from San Diego, Jael, visited us last week. She took a gazillion photos of her trip, which she has posted on her blog. There's lots of photos of our (mine and Jackie's) adorable children, and even one less-than-flattering photo of me with the caption "James Dean anyone?" -- not sure what that's all about... ;-)

We had a great time -- she chronicled the trip in her post, so I won't repeat the details. Just know that to all of our San Diego friends... you're welcome to come and visit anytime. Jael, come back and visit again soon!

Atmosphere

2007-07-24T10:17:00.000-05:00

Well, here we go. I've been wanting to post on this for awhile, but general busy-ness has kept me from doing so until now. Jeremy Horn is the worship leader at our church, but he is also a great friend of mine, and he is about to have a studio album launched nationwide. You can get a bunch of information from his website, which also includes a few singles off his new CD, "Atmosphere" -- go there and have a listen... I guarantee you'll be blown away. He is a an all around great guy, very humble, and he has a great passion for worshipping God and leading others into His presence. His music is powerful, anointed, and just plain good stuff to listen to.

So I urge each of you to check out his site and his music, and then please head to your local Christian music store on August 7th and pick up a copy of his CD. And if you happen to live in the Memphis area, he will be in concert, opening for Brenton Brown, on August 3rd -- go here for more information on the show.

A Monday Morning Update

2007-07-16T11:02:00.000-05:00

Just a few things...

-A good friend of ours from San Diego (and fellow blogger) -- Jael -- is arriving here in Memphis tomorrow for a bit of a summer vacation. She's never been to "The South" before, so we will do our best to introduce her to life in the land of Tennessee/Mississippi. A visit to Beale Street and a day-trip to Nashville are currently in the works...

-I saw an interesting article this morning from Chuck Colson entitled "Moving the Equator South", about the rise of Christianity in the southern hemisphere. Interesting stuff...

-The Next Food Network Star. Okay, I admit it. We're kind of addicted to this show. I may have mentioned it before, but The Food Network seems to be the one channel that all 5 of us can sit down to watch A) without fear of any blood, violence, bad language or sensuality and B) that keeps us all entertained. (Well, okay, so Jude, at the age of 3 weeks, isn't doing much watching of anything.) (Oh, and regards to the "sensuality" issue, we do have to sometimes distract Jordan when the occasional Cialis or Viagra commercial pops up. Ahem.) Anyway, we all love The Food Network, and their latest reality series has captured all of us. It airs on Sunday nights at 8 PM (Central), and the finale is coming next Sunday. Before I put the older kids to bed last night, I had to log in and cast our family's vote for who we think should become "The Next Food Network Star". We think it should be Amy, the self-proclaimed "Gourmet Next Door". Rory, the other finalist, likens herself to be just "the girl next door who cooks good", but Jackie likens her to be "the girl next door -- who happens to annoy everybody". So go here and cast a vote for Amy...

-Baby pictures. Some people have been requesting that I upload some more pictures of our new addition, Jude. I'll get to it, I promise. We have some pictures on our digital camera, but I need to take the time to sit down with my computer, the camera and our USB cable and upload the photos. Sounds easy enough, I know, but finding time to do anything outside of keeping our children (and ourselves) fed, our house straightened up, our lawn maintained and our bills paid is quite an undertaking these days...

A Series of Unfortunate Events

2007-07-10T12:19:00.000-05:00

I learned a few things while in the kitchen this past Sunday afternoon, and I thought I’d pass these tips along to you…

When making a sherbet smoothie for your 6 year-old daughter in a blender, just stick with sherbet and ice. Adding cranberry-grape juice just makes it look like, well, juice with ice in it.
Also when making a sherbet smoothie in a blender… don’t add the sherbet last – it won’t blend very well.
If you happen to to be making a sherbet smoothie in a blender and you do add the sherbet last, and the lumps of sherbet aren’t blending very well, don’t stick your stirring spoon down towards the blades to help stir it up. Especially if your stirring spoon is made from white plastic.
If you do happen to use a plastic stirring spoon as described above, and you accidentally let the tip of the spoon touch the sharp blades spinning at a high rate of speed, the spoon will shatter into lots of tiny white plastic pieces.
If you’re making a sherbet smoothie in a blender and the tip of the plastic stirring spoon shatters into lots of tiny white pieces, it’s not worthwhile to try to fish all of the little white pieces of plastic out of said smoothie – there’s just too many of them.
If you get frustrated while trying to fish out all of the little white pieces of plastic out of a sherbet smoothie because you stuck your stirring spoon into the blender blades, don’t bother trying to pour the concoction into a little cup-sized strainer to attempt to strain the plastic pieces out of the juicy icy sherbety plastic shard-filled smoothie – the smoothie will likely dump out of the blender in one big stuck-together lump, spilling all over the counter and then onto the floor.
If you find yourself with smoothie all over your counter, the cabinets and the floor, it will take approximately 5 minutes and 12 paper towels to clean up the mess.

In the end, I luckily had some extra sherbet still in the carton. After cleaning out the blender (and wiping up the counter and the cabinets and the floor), and after tossing the busted spoon into the trash, I tried again. Sherbet (added first), a little ice, and a wooden spoon that wasn’t stuck into the blender blades, and – Voila! – a perfect fruity smoothie for Jordan.

Then I made some really strong Starbucks coffee and tossed it into the blender with some Starbucks Java Chip ice cream, and my wife and I enjoyed a very nice, cool and refreshing homemade "frappucino" of sorts. Perfect for a hot Memphis Sunday afternoon. And a perfect way to unwind after a series of unfortunate events that was the sherbet smoothie disaster.

The New Normal

2007-06-26T23:05:00.000-05:00

So, it's now Tuesday night... the house is quiet. My wife and my THREE children are all sound asleep, and I'm sitting on the couch, Letterman is on in the background, and I'm trying to find a few last moments of energy to write a quick post on here before I crawl into bed myself. We left the hospital yesterday, on Monday afternoon, and headed home. Jude -- despite him being a good-sized baby at 9 lbs. 9 oz. -- looked like a little tiny thing when we stuck him into the carseat for the first time. But we got him home safely, and Grandma & Grandpa brought our other two kids over, so we had our first evening at home last night with the new and improved family of 5.

Everyone is doing great -- the older kids can't get enough of their little baby brother. Constant requests of "Can I hold baby brother?" and "Can I kiss baby brother?" and "Can I watch Daddy change baby brother's diaper?" never get old. Our first night was a bit rough -- you know, waking up every 2 hours to change diapers, burp the baby, get Jackie her pain medication, etc. -- but we made it through. God's grace is sufficient... :-)

Our friends and family have been -- and continue to be -- incredibly supportive. A constant outpouring of prayers, well-wishes, congratulations, and food continue to stream our direction. We are truly blessed.

It's been fun listening to my parents share stories of what it was like when they brought their 3rd child (my sister, Amy) home from the hospital -- my parents were 32 (just like me and my wife), I was 3 1/2 (about a year older than Jonathan is right now), and they were still figuring out the parenting thing, just as we are now.

It is an amazing thing, really, having this new person now living in our home. All of the months of preparation and planning, the "I wonder what he's going to be like" discussions, the late night prayers for a healthy pregnancy and delivery, it's all over. And now he's here. Our little guy. Our little Jude.

One thing that I found particularly interesting. On our drive home from the hospital, we drove by a "memorial park", and there was a funeral service/internment going on. Here we were, rejoicing and glowing in the new life that has just been given to us -- and yet, at the same time, in the same town, there was a large group of people mourning a life that had just been taken. A real-life reminder of Ecclesiastes 3:2...

Anyway, amidst all of the diaper changes and breast-feeding (I can't claim any portion of that effort), we're working hard to help Jordan and Jonathan adjust to the "new normal". I took them for a walk around the neighborhood yesterday -- Jordan rode her bike, while Jonathan rode his cool little electric John Deere tractor. And then today I took them both to Walmart to pick up a few things -- turns out that the skies opened up while we were in the store, and we had to make a mad dash to the minivan to avoid getting thoroughly soaked (it didn't work, despite the kind cashier's assistance in giving J and J a little plastic bag to cover their heads). Tomorrow I think we're going to all take a trip to the movie theater -- the local cineplex is having a fun summer "kids" thing where we can see "older" kids movies for $2.00; tomorrow's showing is "Charlotte's Web".

Well, that's it for now. It's almost 11:30 PM, and I need to try to get some sleep before the little guy wakes up for his next feeding...

A Tale of Three Babies

2007-06-22T21:42:00.001-05:00

I guess it's something all families do -- try to figure out if all of your babies look similar or different to one another. So, in an effort to try and figure this out... I threw a quick collage together -- one picture of each of our three kids, each photo taken when our kids were just a few hours (or less) old. What do you think...?

Welcome to Our World

2007-06-22T19:24:00.000-05:00

And now, introducing to the world...

JUDE ALAN OWENS

Jude entered the world today, June 22, 2007 at 2:16 PM CDT, weighing 9 lbs 9 oz, and 21.5" long. Baby and mommy are both doing great. Big brother (Jonathan, 2 1/2) and big sister (Jordan, 6) are loving their baby brother. And I, well, I am ecstatic. Beaming. Blessed...

(Methodist hospital in Germantown, by the way, has been great -- fantastic facilities, great nurses and doctors, etc.)

So, anyway, here are some photos from the past few hours -- I'm sure I'm a bit biased, but I think he's adorable.

More pics will come, I'm sure, in the coming days and weeks. But in the meantime, join us as we all sing a rousing chorus of, "Hey, Jude"... :-)

And We're Off...!

2007-06-22T10:14:00.000-05:00

To the hospital, that is. Check-in at noon, surgery (C-Section) scheduled for 2 PM... Baby J should be in my arms shortly thereafter. :-)

I'll keep you posted -- name announcement, pictures, details, etc. will be up here on my blog as soon as I can get Wi-Fi access from at or near the hospital.

Next time we talk, I'll be a father of 3! :-)

Ready for the Plunge

2007-06-12T09:08:00.000-05:00

T-10 days and counting.

June 22nd.

That date has loomed on the horizon for several months. And now we're just 10 days away. And counting.

I've gone through a variety of emotions over the past 8.5 months... probably nothing quite so different from what other fathers feel when they are contemplating the arrival of their 3rd child. I think the progression of sentiments have gone something like this:

Month 1: Denial -- "No way, this isn't really happening, is it?!?"
Month 2: Shock -- "How did this happen?!?" (Umm, yeah, pretty obvious, I know...)
Month 3: Dread -- "I can barely handle two, how am I going to handle three?!?" (Or, as a friend of mine put it, we will now have to make a switch from "man to man" to "zone" defense...)
Month 4: Reluctant Acceptance -- "Okay. We're having another baby. Yikes."
Month 5: Nervous Anticipation -- "I think I can do this... I think I can do this..."
Month 6: Moderate Happiness -- "Hey, wow, this actually might not be such a bad thing..."
Month 7: True Excitement -- "Hey, you know, we're doing a pretty good job with the first two, and sure, they are a lot of work, but the rewards do truly exceed the effort, so, yeah, this is a good thing."
Month 8: Panic -- "Um, the days are going by really fast, and, um, am I really going to have enough time to get everything ready before our new one arrives?!?"
Month 9: Exhaustion, Serenity, Sheer Terror, Incredible Joy -- Yes, all at once.

:-)

It's truly been a crazy roller coaster ride, getting ready for Baby J3, but now that the day is fast approaching, I think I'm ready. Or at least as ready as anyone can be.

Actually, now that I think about it, the past 8.5 months has not been a roller coaster ride -- it's really just been like those first 30 seconds or so of a roller coaster ride. We stood in line for awhile, it was finally our turn to get in the car, we sat down and got buckled in, the car started to lunge forward with a jerk, we rounded the corner, and for months now we've been making that long, slow climb up the first hill.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

We're now approaching that crest of the hill -- you can see the ground far below you, but there's no more track in front of you. We've started to level off, the "clinking" has stopped, and there's a brief moment of silence, right before we drop off into nothing but thin air. There's nothing I can do now but get ready for the plunge. I know it's going to be a big and fast drop; terrifying, and yet exhilirating at the same time.

The only question now is, grip the bar tighter and close my eyes, or just throw my hands up in the air and scream with a smile on my face?

I opt for the latter.

See you in 10 days, Baby J.

10K

2007-06-07T12:42:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to the person who visited this blog yesterday afternoon at 1:18:52 PM from somewhere in Houston, TX. You were the 10,000th visitor to The Treasure Fine! Now, you obviously didn't like what you saw, because you stayed at my blog for a grand total of zero seconds... but congratulations, nonetheless! ;-)

Do We Live in a Safe Place?

2007-05-29T14:26:00.000-05:00

Yikes! More than 2 weeks since my last post. Sorry 'bout that... It's obviously been busy around here, and I've been neglecting my blog as a result.

Last week I had a full week-long Business Review with my customer here in Memphis, and I spent the week scurrying around Memphis, escorting guests (my boss, my boss's boss, etc.) around Memphis, putting together and giving presentations, eating at lots of yummy restaurants, and yes, playing golf. And the week prior to that, I was busy getting ready for last week.

But that's all over now, and my focus has now shifted to the next big event in our lives -- the arrival of Baby #3. We're less than 4 weeks away now, with the scheduled C-Section all set up for Friday, June 22. My "Stuff to Do Before the Baby Arrives" list is lengthy, but I was able to knock out three of the items yesterday -- I got all of the showers and toilets scrubbed, I got the crib moved upstairs to the nursery, I got the valence hung over the window in the nursery, and I got some pictures hung in Jordan's room.

Speaking of yesterday, I feel like a failure as a good American parent. No flag-waving or parade attending or moments of silence for fallen American heroes in our household -- I was so busy cleaning and working around the house yesterday that my job in educating my children about the importance of Memorial Day was condensed into about a 60-second conversation around the dinner table...

Me: "Jordan (our 6 year-old daughter), do you know what Memorial Day is, and why we celebrate it?"
Jordan: "No."
Me: "It's a day when we (are supposed to) remember the soldiers who have fought and died for our country while protecting America from our enemies."
Jordan: "Who are our enemies? Oooh, like England?"
Me: "Um, no, not exactly [as I stifled a chuckle]. That was the Revolutionary War, a long time ago."
Jordan: "Well, who are our enemies now?"
Me and Jackie (my wife): "Terrorists."
Jordan: "Who are terrorists?"
Me: "Umm... well... people who don't like us and want to hurt us."
---a few seconds of silence---
Jordan: "Do we live in a safe place?"

Ooh, how to answer that question... I paused for a moment, as various thoughts went through my mind. Are we in a safe place? Did the folks going to work at the World Trade Center on 9/11/01 think they were in a safe place? Did the folks in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995 think they were in a safe place? Do I tell her, "Sure, we're safe." -- and then tomorrow we see some story about a terrorist attack in [enter name of random US city here] all over the news? Or how about the 6 murders that took place in our very own metropolitan area over the weekend?

Anyway, I think we were able to reassure our daughter, and we moved on. But the conversation definitely generated some food for thought, and it wasn't exactly how I expected our "Memorial Day" talk to go.

It's surely an interesting gig, this parenting thing...

Yes, We Like to Talk to Tomatoes...

2007-05-12T21:49:00.000-05:00

Okay, so if you're waiting on the edge of your seat for me to post Part II of my "Happy Birthday, 2U" post, sorry -- you'll have to wait another day or two.

It was a busy day today (Saturday)... but fun. The highlight had to have been all four of us (#5 will be arriving in less than 6 weeks!) driving over to our local Family Christian Store to meet Bob and Larry. The Chick-Fil-A cow was there, too. Here's a couple of pics to tide you over until I get back to continuing my U2 saga...

Happy Birthday, 2U - Part I

2007-05-10T23:04:00.000-05:00

Today (May 10th) marks the 47th birthday of Paul David Hewson -- better known to most of the world as Bono, the lead singer for U2.

Many of you may not realize it, but I am a pretty big fan of U2, and in the past couple of years, I've become an even larger fan of Bono. I haven't mentioned this topic much -- if ever -- on The Treasure Fine, primarily because it's kind of a complex issue. U2 is kind of a complex band, and Bono is that as well... to the nth degree.

(This is probably going to turn into a really long story, so it'll probably get broken up into multiple posts.) So lets get started, and let me see if I can explain...

I grew up in a Christian home, where I was basically exposed to two kinds of music at a young age: Christian music (i.e., The Imperials, Evie, Jimmy Swaggart, etc.) or Oldies (i.e., Elvis, Johnny Rivers, Chuck Berry, The Supremes, etc.). Not that that was a bad thing, but I remember getting into Jr. High and I began to hear all of this, well, non-Christian music. And I kinda liked it. A lot. (B-52s, Soft Cell, Pet Shop Boys, Van Halen, Genesis, etc.). And I could go to my 8th grade dance, jam to "Rock Lobster", and then head back home and pop in a casette tape of Michael W. Smith and be happy. There was a clear distinction in my mind -- there was "good" music, that a "good Christian" was supposed to listen to, and then there was all of the other stuff. And for whatever reason, I had made the determination that since I was a "good" kid, it wasn't right for me to let on that I liked listening to secular music. No big deal, since most of the people in my immediate sphere of influence (family, friends at church youth group) listened to the same stuff I did.

And then came Nino.

To be continued...

Devastation

2007-05-08T13:17:00.000-05:00

I don't have lots of spare time to sit around and watch the news very much these days -- so I hadn't really seen photos of the aftermath of the tornado in Greensburg, KS last week. Until I stumbled upon this link:

Aerials of Greensburg Tornado Damage

Wow. Very, very sad.

295 hours, 15 minutes

2007-05-03T10:36:00.000-05:00

That's the amount of time astronaut Wally Schirra spent in space. One of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, Mr. Schirra died at the age of 84 today. As an avid follower of all things aviation/aerospace-related, I just thought I'd share this news (and several links with more information) with you.

As a side note, I didn't realize he lived in the San Diego area -- all those times I drove from Escondido to Del Mar, right through Rancho Santa Fe -- I was probably just a mile or two from his home...

Here are some links with some background/biographical information...

Encyclopedia Astronautica
Wikipedia
News Story from AP
WallySchirra.com

Rest in peace, Wally.

For the First Time...

2007-05-01T08:35:00.000-05:00

For the first time... last week, I bought my very first, very own lawnmower. The Lawn-Boy 10682. It's a beautiful machine, and we got a killer deal on it. MSRP? $349. My price at Home Depot? $149. Score.

For the first time... last week, I bought my very first, very own weed trimmer. The Bolens BL 150. Also a wonderful machine.

For the first time... over the weekend, I realized how easy it could be for one to become obsessed with maintaining one's lawn. You see, our lawn is still a baby. We moved into our house in late September last year, right around the same time that our sod was laid. We watered and watered the lawn, and mowed it a couple of times last fall (borrowed my dad's mower), but there wasn't much growth. Then winter came, and there wasn't really anything we could do except watch the weeds grow. And watch what grass was there turn brown and shrivel up.

Then came Spring. And more weeds. Seriously, the greenest (and tallest) things in our lawn were the weeds. I finally got around to selecting a lawn care service (I'm still questioning that decision -- I know I'm new at this whole lawn care thing, but do I really need to pay someone $40-something dollars to come out and spray/sprinkle something on my lawn that I could do myself?) Anyway, our first "application" took place about 10 days ago, and our weeds appear to be mocking us. The lawn care "specialist" told us that it would probably take a few "applications" to kill the weeds -- but I'm not convinced that they will ever go away. I think they've taken control of our lawn, and they're happy there. I'm pretty sure that they like gazing down their long green noses at the scrawny little yellowish-brown grass blades struggling to grow in the hot sun -- and then they laugh. If you listen real close in the evening time, I think you can hear them snickering -- "Ha, you puny-little-excuses-for-grass! Barely made it through another hot day in the blistering sun, eh? Having trouble getting enough water? Those roots having problems going deep enough? Aww, poor little grassy-grass..."

*Sigh*

Well, after trying out our new mower and weed trimmer, I was able to cut the weeds down to the same size as the blades of grass -- unfortunately, the weeds grow about 5x faster than the grass, so I'll need to get back out there and mow my weeds again in a few days.

So anyway, I realized over the weekend how easy it could be to start obsessing over one's lawn. After I had mowed, after I had trimmed and edged, I then set out the sprinklers. And I gazed at "my" beautiful creation. And then I caught myself glancing from my lawn over to my neighbor's lawn. Then I turned my head the other way and looked at my other neighbor's lawn. Then I looked back at my own.

And I smiled.

Seriously, it's fun to be able to stand back and look at something that I've shaped and sculpted with the sweat of my own brow. I'm going to need to check myself, however, lest I become prideful about the state of my yard. Being a first-time homeowner, and thus a first-time lawn owner, I never before realized the obsession that some people have over that green stuff growing outside one's house. But now I see it. Ever so clearly. I want my yard to look nice. I want it to sparkle. I want it to glow. I want it to shine.

Is that so wrong?

On This Day in History, April 24

2007-04-24T11:51:00.000-05:00

Just for fun...

2006 - I was finishing up my last two days of work in San Diego, CA, before heading off to Memphis, TN for my new job. Jackie and the kids were already in Memphis, after we had all spent a weekend in Kansas City, MO for the wedding of my youngest sister. In addition, on this date in 2006, I canceled our Sea World membership.

1995 - The last Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 was produced. (Ref. The History Channel)

1985 - My family was getting settled in our new house in Rochester Hills, MI. After living the first 10 years of my life in the Boston, MA area, we moved in April 1985 to Michigan. I was likely sitting in my 5th grade class-room getting ridiculed for speaking with a funny New England accent and saying things like "wicked neat" a lot.

1975 - I was 23 days old. I probably slept a lot, drank a lot of formula, made a bunch of dirty diapers, and kept my parents from getting a full nights' sleep.

1899 - Two women and one son lived to tell the story of being picked up by a tornado and carried more than a fourth of a mile, flying far above the church steeples, before being gently set down again. The young boy and one of the ladies said they had the pleasure of flying alongside a horse. The horse "kicked and struggled" as it flew high above, and was set down unharmed about a mile away. (From weatherforyou.com).*

*This story from 1899 leads me to so many questions. Where did this take place? Only one of the ladies said she "had the pleasure of flying alongside a horse" -- what about the other lady? Did she not find the experience pleasurable? The horse was set down unharmed -- what about the 3 people? They "lived to tell", but were they injured? So many questions...

Church of the Week

2007-04-16T20:30:00.000-05:00

Hey, check this out! My aunt and uncle* were on TV! And more importantly, they are spearheading a great ministry out of a great church in Flint, MI (where both my mom and dad were born and raised).

*The article references Steve Krefeld -- that's my Uncle Steve, my mom's sister's husband...

Pause. Take a Deep Breath. Now Exhale.

2007-04-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

You know how your DVD-player remote control gives you the ability to fast-forward? Not the ">>" button -- that one just skips/advances by chapter. I'm talking about the ">>" button -- you press it once, and your DVD-player will speed things up to 1.5x speed, press it again and you'll get up to 2x speed. Another click gets you up to 4x, and it goes up from there (8x, maybe even 16x, 32x... not sure where it stops).

Well, for the past few weeks, I think my life has been on about 8x or 16x speed, but in the past few days things have calmed down. I think I'm back down to a pretty manageable 2x speed right now. After Jordan's b-day party back on 3/24, we rushed around in an effort to find and purchase a new car, fix/repair our lease vehicle that we had to turn in last week, get our taxes done, celebrate my glorious 32nd birthday, prepare for Easter, "do" Easter, and I was prepping for a big business trip to Singapore. We accomplished all of the above with pretty good success -- we are now the proud owners of a "new" used minivan, we bid adieu to our 2003 Pontiac Grand Prix GT and turned it back in to GMAC, I had a happy b-day, we had wonderful Good Friday and Easter Sunday services, cooked and ate a lovely Easter turkey, and we got our taxes done last night. As far as my trip to Singapore... that trip got cancelled/postponed. (So instead of traveling overseas next week, it turns out that I'm just making a trip up to Connecticut for some training.)

Breathe.

So now we're back to our typical, busy life. Not exactly kickin' back with our feet up -- we still have school and church activities, still need to get our new car registered, still need to buy (and use!) a new lawnmower, still need to get ready for Baby #3 (10 weeks, 3 days and counting!), still need to finish potty-training Jonathan (he's getting really close -- we've only had to change one stinky pull-up in the past couple weeks! Hallelujah!), etc. -- but things are settling back down to a somewhat manageable level.

God never promised an easy, simple, chillin' all the time life. Many days are busy, crazy, and even frantic at times. Unexpected bills show up. Cars get flat tires. Kids fall off the toilet and bump their heads against bathroom trash cans. Sinus infections flair up. But God has promised to give us rest, strength and wisdom to push through it all and live victoriously. And He gives us joy. In fact, the joy of the Lord is our strength. If we lose sight of how blessed we are, then we lose our joy, and then our strength goes buh-buy -- and we can find ourselves trying to lift a 500 pound weight when we barely enough energy to drag ourselves out of bed.

I love my life. I love my family. I love my job. Sure, it takes a lot of work, and often a lot of digging -- sometimes with your bare knuckles in really hard dirt, and sometimes your fingers get a bit bloody -- but what you find hidden beneath the soil makes it all worth it.

Yes, the earth is hard... but, truly, the treasure is fine.

What I'm Listening To Today, 3/28/07

2007-03-28T16:12:00.000-05:00

Here's a glimpse into my current, randomly generated playlist in Windows Media Player. Why? Just because.

A Pirate Says, "Arrgh!"

2007-03-27T09:46:00.000-05:00

Jordan's birthday party was a huge success on Saturday. Something like 23 kids (23!!!) and a couple dozen parents and younger siblings overtook our house from 10 AM - 12 PM on the 24th. It was a fun time -- the theme of the party was a "Dora the Explorer" treasure hunt. I dressed up as a pirate and led the treasure hunt from our living room (Pin the Tail on Boots the Monkey), to our mailbox (an outdoor kids horseshoe lawn game), to the upstairs playroom (beanbag toss). The treasure, hidden in the toychest marked by a big "X", was a candy-filled pinata (how do you do a "tilde" on Blogger?).

I think we've got the house cleaned up now, and now all that's left is to send out the myriad of thank you notes. Oh, and Jordan still hasn't opened up all of her presents. I mean, she unwrapped them all at the party, but there were so many gifts that we haven't even opened up all of the packages. (On a side note, how many of those plastic twistie-ties do the toy manufacturers have to put in their packaging? Is it like a contest amongst themselves, to see how much pain they can cause the parents who have to get the toys out of the boxes while the kids watch impatiently?)

Anyway, I'm not sure if we'll be doing such a major birthday celebration every year. It was a pretty major undertaking, but everyone had a great time. And the kids were, overall, very well-behaved. I only had to force a couple of them to walk the plank.

2,192 Days

2007-03-22T12:48:00.000-05:00

That's how many days I have been a parent. (In case you're wondering how I got there, that's 365 Days/Year x 6 Years + 1 Day [Leap Year 2004]). Oh, plus 1 more day since I'm writing this post today instead of yesterday. That's right, yesterday (March 21, 2007) marked the 6th birthday of our first child, Jordan. I can't begin to tell you what a treasure she is -- beautiful, brilliant, loving, kind, witty, cute, tender... these words only begin to scratch the surface.

We celebrated by waking her up for school on Wednesday morning -- me, my wife and our 2.5 year old son sang Happy Birthday to her while she laid in bed. She -- 5 going on 16 -- promptly rolled over and wanted to go back to sleep. And Jonathan started asking for birthday cake.

I decided to have a special daddy-daughter date by taking her out for breakfast before school. But... since we left the house a bit late, we had to settle with take-out McDonald's, eating McGriddle's in the car. Not exactly a profound, intimate father-daughter interaction, but she really liked the McGriddle nonetheless!

Jackie brought ice cream and chocolate chip cookies to Jordan's classroom for their afternoon snack. I'm sure that the custodial staff at the school had to put in some extra time in her classroom yesterday -- I'm guessing that the aftermath of 14 5 or 6 year-olds making and then eating homemade ice cream sandwiches left quite the icky sticky mess on the carpet/tables/chairs.

After school/work, we met my mom and dad for dinner at Outback Steakhouse -- one of Jordan's favorite food items on the planet is Outback's cinammon + brown sugar topped sweet potato. Then it was on to church for the evening...

Our big celebration is planned for Saturday morning -- we're having a major party for her at our house, complete with the grilling of hotdogs, the hunting for treasure, outdoor lawn games, a pinata, etc. We're expecting 35-40 people. (Needless to say, the Honey-Do list for the next 36 hours is lengthy... but well worth the effort!)

Jordan, we love you. Thank you for being so wonderful!

Torn

2007-03-18T15:16:00.000-05:00

Just call me Benedict Arnold.

My alma mater, Purdue University, is currently playing Florida in the 2nd Round of the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament. Florida is a 1 seed, and Purdue is a 9th seed team (the underdog), so I'm rooting for the Boilermakers, right? Umm... well... I want to be going for Purdue, but... I picked Florida as the winner in my office bracket... so I want Florida to win.

Even though I'd love to see Purdue win.

(By the way, as of 5:25 AM today, I was actually in First Place in my office pool. Me! In first place! Imagine that!)

Anyway, I feel kind of like a turncoat. A traitor. An unfaithful friend. I've let my Purdue family and fellow alumni down... all for what? So my bracket pick would win? Yep.

Is that really all that wrong?

(Don't answer that).

Pretending to Be A Sports Fanatic

2007-03-15T12:33:00.000-05:00

For the first time, I think, since I was a college student, I have filled out an NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Bracket. The group that I work for is having a friendly little contest/charity fundraiser, so I thought I'd participate. Those of you who know me will know that I'm not a huge basketball fan, but I do enjoy following the March Madness fever.

So what are my chances of getting all of my bracket picks right? I would say "slim" to "none". I know very little about very few of the teams, so I basically just picked the obvious ones, picked my favorite teams to do better than they probably will make out, and threw in a couple of underdog upsets just for fun. Here's what my bracket looks like (click for a larger view):

What Vacation Days are All About

2007-03-14T08:55:00.000-05:00

1) Making Brownies (from scratch!)

2) Going to the Zoo to help our kids enjoy the wonder of God's creation.

Of course, the interesting thing -- or perhaps "disturbing" is a better word -- about our trip to the zoo was that our son spent more time staring at the ice cream, Dippin' Dots and snow cones that other people were eating than he did looking at the animals. A typical exchange:

Me: "Jonathan, check out the majestic lion, roaring at the top of his lungs. Isn't that cool?"
Jonathan: "I want treat."
Me: "Hey, what about that monkey up there? Isn't that neat the way he can climb and swing and jump?"
Jonathan: "I want nah-no*." (*"Nah-no" is a word of uncertain origin that has come to mean any and all things sweet and sugary, such as ice cream, brownies with whipped cream, birthday cake, etc.)
Me: "Jonathan, we'll eat a bit later. Look at how BIG the elephant is! Do you want to go play with the elephants?"
Jonathan: "No. I want a bite."
Jordan: "I'm hungry. When are we going to eat?"

So the last half-hour of our 2 hour zoo trip was spent sitting outside of the Zoo's "Backyard Burger" restaurant, snacking on potato chips and Cheetos.

In truth, we really did have a fun time. I just wonder if perhaps the fact that my kids can (and often do) watch various nature shows on The National Geographic Channel or The Science Channel from the comfort of our living room couch, on a 42" HD LCD TV, makes the experience of going to the zoo not quite as thrilling as it was in times past...

A Model Weekend

2007-03-10T16:38:00.000-06:00

So, I'm thinking that this is what a weekend is supposed to feel like. It seems like it has been ages since we had a weekend without multiple commitments (i.e., birthday parties, numerous church activities, massive house-cleaning in preparation for dinner guests, etc.) -- and it feels really good.

After work on Friday I drove home, and arrived at my house to the sight of my kids playing out in our yard. Jordan and Jonathan were hovering around our water spicket, Jordan filling up a little toy garden/plant waterer (is that what they're called?), and Jonathan -- his shirt and pants soaked through -- filling up (and dumping out) a plastic sippy cup over and over again. Jackie was sitting on our back patio chatting on her cell phone, and the kids and I then spent about 30 minutes playing tag and kicking a variety of balls around the backyard. Jonathan has this little mischievous side of him, where he will grab one of the balls and, with a sly grin on his face and a twinkle in his eye, he will toss the ball towards the edge of our yard -- he loves it when I have to break out into a full sprint to keep the ball from rolling down the hill and into the street. It's a wonderful thing to have a beautiful house with a beautiful yard with 75 degree weather. After nearly a decade living in an apartment (Seattle) and a condo (San Diego), I think last night was actually the first time EVER that I can say I "played with the kids in our own backyard".

When it finally started to get dark, we went inside, gave the kids a bath, and ate a yummy Asian-themed dinner of eggrolls, rice and stir-fry vegetables. After dinner, we did our night-time routine -- I read Jordan some Bible stories, and then laid down with Jonathan and read him some of his favorite books (lately it's been "A Very Hungry Caterpillar", "King George and His Duckies" and "God Made You Special" -- the latter two are wonderful VeggieTales stories).

With the kids down, Jackie sat on the couch working on her Sunday School lesson -- she's the lead teacher for the first time this Sunday, introducing a great new curriculum for the 8-12 year-olds -- and I worked on the dishes, all while watching one of our favorite shows, Numb3rs. At 10 PM, the table was clear, the dishes were done, and we flipped off the lights and watched the first half of our latest Netflix flick -- Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl. (We also have the Season 6 Premiere of '24' on DVD, and we've only watched the first two 'hours', but we were ready for a little break from Jack Bauer).

After a great night's rest -- Jonathan only crawled into our bed twice -- we had a wonderful breakfast of Cream of Wheat, grapefruit and bacon. Then it was off to the YMCA -- Jackie and I got in a good workout (while I watched Memphis beat Houston in NCAA basketball), and then Jordan took her swim lesson while Jonathan and I played in the adjacent pool.

Subway sandwiches for lunch, and then Jackie headed off to church to finish preparations for her lesson tomorrow morning. The kids laid down for a nap, and here I sit on the couch, checking my e-mail, doing some blogging, and watching NASCAR on TV. Me, watching NASCAR? Well, I do live in Mississippi now -- I have to adopt at least some of the local culture...

Anyway, we definitely live a blessed life. God has been good to us, and we continue to rejoice in His neverending faithfulness. Baby #3 is due in just over 3 months -- Jackie and J_______ are healthy and happy (and I felt our son "kick" for the first time a few days ago)!

On the horizon...
-Jordan has Spring Break next week -- I'm taking Monday off of work, so we're probably going to head to the Zoo.
-Jordan's 6th birthday is on the 21st, and we are (correction -- Jackie is) planning a blowout b-day party at our house. I think we're expecting something like 20+ kids accompanied by another 20+ parents.
-I booked my tickets yesterday for my late April business trip to Singapore -- I'm excited about the trip, but I can say that I'm not exactly thrilled at the idea of being away from my family for 10 straight days...

In closing, let me just say -- I can only wish that I could write like Andrew Peterson. If you've never listened to his music, you're missing out. And if you're a parent, you absolutely must read his latest journal entry -- The Tick of the Clock. Have some Kleenex handy...

Another Catch-Up Post...

2007-03-05T16:35:00.000-06:00

Yes, I know it's been two weeks since my last post, and I apologize for letting my blog get a bit stale. I've got soooo many posts partially written up here in my brain, but as I have lamented previously, it's difficult finding the time to get those posts translated into 0's and 1's via the keyboard...

So, instead of a few deeply intellectual posts, you're going to get another one of my "potpourri" postings. Here goes:

-Politics. 20 months to go before "Decision 2008", and the only candidate I can really get enthusiastic about right now is Duncan Hunter. Duncan who, you might ask? Well, he's not a "Tier 1" candidate -- yet -- but I think he has the core principles that are most inline with my own. And hey, he did finish 3rd place in last week's Spartanburg County, South Carolina Straw Poll, just barely behind John McCain and Rudy Giuliani. More information on Hunter's stance on issues can be found here.

-Global Warming. "An Inconvenient Truth"? I don't think so -- try "A Convenient Lie".

-Highway 19 Ministries. Huh, you ask? One of our former pastors from The City Church in Seattle, WA started a new ministry last year. He and his family just recently moved to Israel -- check out the very cool "send off" video on their website. Pastor Steve is actually the pastor that married me and Jackie back in October 1998. Best of luck, Pastor Steve -- we'll be praying for you!

-Curly blonde hair. It's been cut. Jonathan's hair had gotten to the point where it was hanging in his eyes, and grandmothers were complaining, so Jackie snipped it off last week. Before and after pictures are below. Does it get any cuter than this?!?

"I Knew This Day Would Come!"

2007-02-19T14:35:00.000-06:00

Those were the words uttered by Jordan, our 5 year-old daughter, last Friday evening as we wandered around the Walmart parking lot looking for my car. It was cold, it was getting late, and we had been out shopping for quite awhile, on a mission to find the one, final item that I needed for my wife's birthday. As we headed out into the parking lot, I honestly couldn't find my car. I knew I had parked facing a certain orientation, but I didn't see the car anywhere. Jordan looked up at me as I dragged her around the blacktop, and with a 5-going-on-15 look on her face she said, "See, I knew this day would come! You should have bought that thing!"

To which I replied: "What thing?"

Jordan: "That thing we saw on TV. I told you that you needed it."

Me: "I still don't know what you're talking about. Now where is my car?"

Jordan: "That's what I mean. You should have bought that thing that you can talk into, and it will tell you where you parked your car."

Ahhh, it all came back to me in a flash. One of the gazillion infomercials that had come across our TV screen a good 2-3 months ago. At the time, Jordan had implored me to get them -- the "My Lil Reminder" -- it's "only $9.95, Daddy" -- but I had, as usual, told her that, "We don't really need those things, Honey. These things that they sell on TV aren't really as useful as they make them seem."

Until it's 10 PM on a cold winter's night and you can't remember where you parked your car.

There is no way I'm going to be able to keep up with this kid as the years go by... ;-)

A Fungus Among Us...

2007-02-16T12:28:00.000-06:00

I'm 31 years old. Father of 2, with #3 on the way. Happily married for 8+ years. I have a degree in Aerospace/Aeronautical Engineering from one of the greatest Engineering schools in the world. I am a Program Manager of a multi-million dollar contract between two giant aerospace companies.

And yet, I'm sitting here at lunch, poking through my "Smart Ones" Chicken Carbonara in an effort to pick all of the mushrooms out of my entree.

How silly is that? There are (were) three tiny bits of mushrooms -- believe me, I searched my food thoroughly and successfully retrieved them all -- and the largest piece of fungus was about the size of the fingernail on my pinky finger. How ridiculous that I am so paranoid of this food that millions of people happily enjoy eating every day! I just can't stand the taste, the texture, the look, the smell, etc. of mushrooms. Makes me wonder if I'll ever outgrow this food preference... or if I'll be the grumpy 87 year-old guy in the nursing home cafeteria complaining that "they've gone and put those dad-blamed mushrooms in my chicken casserole again"!

An Interim Un-Post

2007-02-09T10:45:00.000-06:00

I've been trying to get a post together for a few days now, something that's a sort of sentimental, personal-type of post. But I've just been too wrapped up in work, and too busy at home, to get it done. (3 of the last 4 evenings, I've been on the phone with Singapore). Anyway, in an effort to keep my blog from getting overly stale, I figure I'll follow this principle: If you can't come up with anything original, then ~~don't post anything at all~~ just post links to something from somebody else.

So in that spirit, here are a couple of links that will point you to some very good reading.

First, my former pastor from The City Church in Seattle, WA (where I was in the '97-'99 timeframe) has a great post up on his blog called "Nobody Likes War". It's a pastor's perspective on what's going on over in Iraq (and in the overall GWOT). Pastor Wendell is a wise, compassionate leader (and just an overall great guy), and I highly value his words of wisdom. Check it out.

Second, on a very loosely-related note, I stumbled upon this article about a guy named Joel Surnow. Name sound familiar? Nope, not to me, either. But come to find out, he's the co-creator and executive producer of "24" on Fox. If you have ever watched the show, or if you're teetering on the brink of Jack Bauer-addiction (as some might classify me and my wife), you'll be interested in this article. It's a long read -- print it out and read it over lunch? -- but here it is: "Whatever it Takes: The Politics of the Man Behind '24'". (I especially like the insight into Surnow's favorite bumpersticker -- “Except for Ending Slavery, Fascism, Nazism & Communism, War Has Never Solved Anything.”)

Okay, that's it for now. More to come in the near future.

The Big Game

2007-02-04T15:30:00.000-06:00

Since I spent 4.5 years living in Indiana (while at Purdue), and since Jackie's family is from Indianapolis, I've gotta say...

GO COLTS!!!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like...Christmas?

2007-02-02T15:48:00.000-06:00

Groundhog Day. February 2, 2007. And the suburban Memphis area woke up to snow on the ground! That's right, about 1" of snow fell on our home in Olive Branch, MS overnight. Not only did it look really pretty, but our kids got their first opportunity -- ever! -- to play in the snow in their own backyard. Pictures for your enjoyment below...

Baby #3...

2007-02-02T13:27:00.000-06:00

...is going to be a boy!

We think.

I mean, during the ultrasound yesterday afternoon, the doctor said, and I quote, "I think those are boy parts". The kid's only about 6 inches long right now, so I can't blame the Dr. for not being 100% certain at this moment in time.

But we're going to move forward under the assumption that Baby #3 will join Jonathan as the 2nd younger brother to Jordan. And Jordan's okay with that, because she's confident that "Mommy's next baby" [i.e., Baby #4] will be a girl.

Lord, give me strength.

Full Plate

2007-01-31T10:50:00.000-06:00

I see that I haven't posted in 2 weeks. My lapse in posting has not been intentional... it's just that "Post to my blog" has been falling off of my "Prioritized Daily Task List" in my FranklinCovey Planner. Lots going on. Here's a quick snapshot of some of the stuff that has been going on lately, in an effort to get you caught up...

-Work has been busy. Four days of meetings with my customer last week -- good stuff, but very mentally draining. I'm on the phone a lot. For instance, a minor crisis arose on Monday night, and I spent a good hour on the phone with Singapore at around 10 PM, and my cell phone was ringing with a call from Singapore at 7 AM the next morning. (I still absolutely love my job, by the way, but it definitely has been a huge lifestyle change, being on call 24/7...)

-Jordan is doing great in kindergarten. She's the best reader in her class, and her teacher has been giving her "special" homework/reading assignments. Just the other night we spent about 30 minutes working on her homework -- she had to read a book and then come up with an alternate ending. She wrote a couple of sentences and then had to draw a picture to depict the scene. I think her ending was, "Moth flew so fast that she got stuck in the web. Frog got Moth out of the web and shared the bug with her." Now how is a kindergatner supposed to draw that? Luckily, Mom and Dad were around! I drew the tree branches, Jordan drew the web, and Jackie drew the moth and frog. We are truly a talented family. ;-)

-Jonathan. Wow, what an amazing little boy. Although he's not that little anymore. He's just 2 years, 3 months old, but as every day goes by it seems as though I look at him and can already see him as an 18 or 20 year-old. He has such a loving and compassionate personality, and yet at the same time he is an absolute goofball. We always thought his sister was going to be a silly goof, but as cute and funny as she is, Jonathan is already the "class clown" of our family. He is also talking a lot. It struck me last night how odd it is -- my youngest child is now speaking in complete sentences. In other words, all 4 of us can sit around and have actual conversations. I mean, we're not discussing the 2008 Election or the latest news in hybrid vehicle technology, but bring up a discussion about LarryBoy, choo-choos (trains) or trucks (all cars are "trucks" to him) and he'll start talking. You might need the super-secret 2 year-old language translation decoder to understand him, but he will talk.

-The Food Network. We watch it a lot. Not that we're all glued to the couch, sitting and staring mindlessly up at the TV. But on weekends when clothes are being folded, or when lunch/dinner is being prepared, or when dishes are being washed late in the evening -- we usually have our DirecTV satellite tuned to the Food Network. Alton Brown's "Good Eats" or "Feasting on Asphalt", Marc Summers' "Unwrapped, Giada de La-something's "Weekend Getaways", "Iron Chef America", "Ace of Cakes", Rachel Ray's "$40 a Day", etc. -- these are some of our favorites. It's one of the few channels on TV that we feel comfortable having on without having to risk exposing our kids (or ourselves) to icky stuff. (By "icky", I'm talking about "immoral, sensual, violent-type content" -- not "icky" as in "how to prepare squid/okra/oysters/etc.").

-Cleaning. Cooking. Company. Last week we had 3 different families over for dinner in the span of 4 consecutive nights. A family of 5 came over on Thursday night, a family of 2 (Hi Mom and Dad!) came over on Saturday night, and another family of 5 came over after church on Sunday. We love opening up our home to guests, but it definitely requires a lot of energy and time to prepare and clean up...

-Car shopping. Our 2003 Pontiac Grand Prix GT lease is up in just 2 months. We've got to figure out what we're going to do for our replacement vehicle. With Baby #3 on the way, we're going to need something bigger than a 5 passenger sedan/wagon...

-Dancing. Not like salsa or ballroom dancing or anything like that. Dancing as in -- after dinner, and before the kids go upstairs for a bath, the kids have begun requesting that we all dance. So a rather new, but fun activity in our household is popping on a CD (usually one of my choosing -- typically a pretty up-tempo rock song with a good bass beat and some good guitar riffs) and blaring it through the speakers as we dance around the living room. Jordan does some very creative interpretive dances, while Jonathan grabs his toy electric guitar, scrunches up his face, bounces up and down and does his best rocker schtick. Me and Jackie, being the professional, conservative people that we are, definitely do not do anything like jump crazily around the living room singing at the top of our lungs while playing the air guitar. No, we definitely do nothing of the sort. Ahem.

-Worship. Me and Jackie are leading worship for the first time at one of our Wednesday night services this evening. We're taking the next 5 weeks. Should be cool. We're excited to get back into playing/singing/worshipping/leading.

Okay, so that's a summary of a few things that are keeping us all busy of late. In our "spare time", me and Jackie are allowing ourselves to catch up on "24". (Thank you, Netflix!) We are currently sitting at 2 AM in Season 5; just 5 more episodes to go. Then we're going to catch up on "The Office", followed by catching up on "Prison Break". We have decided that our schedule is simply too hectic to try and stay current with TV shows real-time. For the forseeable future, anyway, we will be 6-12 months behind our favorite current TV shows, but we're okay with that. We can watch them on our own schedule, without commercials.

Last but not least -- tomorrow we are going to find out if Baby #3 (due June 22) is going to be a boy or a girl. Check back in tomorrow evening -- I'll let you know!

Talk About a Christmas Bonus!

2007-01-17T12:58:00.000-06:00

Dental Office Grinning Big After Boss' Big Gifts

Very nice! My boss is a great guy, but I haven't been given a set of car keys... yet...

Cars

2007-01-16T10:16:00.000-06:00

After my business trip to Connecticut last week, I flew to Indianapolis to meet up with my wife and kids, who had driven up from Memphis to spend some time with her family. We drove home on Sunday -- a 475 mile, 9+ hour drive through rain, rain and more rain. The trip actually was not that bad; the kids were well-behaved, Jackie and I had lots of time to chat, and overall some fun family memories were created. One of the things that helped make the journey enjoyable was the use of our portable DVD player, hooked up so that the kids could watch movies in the back seat. Not "movies", I guess, but just one movie -- Pixar's "Cars".

For those of you who have seen the movie, you know that it's cute, it's fun, and full of lots of cool, um, cars. It was great hearing our 2 year-old son shouting Lightning McQueen's staple line, "KA-CHOW" from the back seat...

Anyway, as I was visiting one of my favorite auto blogs (appropriately named Autoblog.com) earlier today, I stumbled upon a fun post which contains a bunch of actual car photos that have been "photochopped" to look like cars from the "Cars" movie. Take a look -- it should give you a chuckle.

A Long Time Ago, in a Lifetime Far, Far Away...

2007-01-15T15:54:00.000-06:00

My last post, Nowhere Else, generated several comments from some of my best buds from college. My days at Purdue University were filled with some amazing times, and after my last post I realized that I have only made occasional references to those days. Some of my experiences from college are not worth repeating. Other experiences, were I to write about them, would render me unfit for any future political office or executive/leadership roles in corporate America were I to divulge them on the internet, so I shall refrain. There are, however, a lot of great memories from those years, 1992-1996, and I suppose I should take some time every once in awhile to share some of those memories with all of you.

Again referring to my last post, one of my friends, Ryan, commented on "bula hour". What, you might ask, is "bula hour"? Close your eyes and picture yourself sitting in an outdoor grass/thatched-roof lounge, just a few yards from the ocean. You're on an island resort, white beaches and palm trees all around. The sun is setting, casting a warm, red glow on everything. A native Fijian band is playing and singing nearby, their beautiful island music completing the scene. You're sitting with your best friends in the world, amazingly colorful cocktails in hand, snacking on a tasty concoction of complimentary savouries, as you watch a torch-lighting ceremony take place along the beach. It was sort of an "I can't believe we're actually here" kind of a moment. (You can actually click on this link for some actual pictures from the resort where we were staying).

I'll have to dig through my photo archives at home to see if I can come up with any photos of us in Fiji, but in the meantime, I'll post this photo that was taken on the same trip. It's the entire PVGC (that's Purdue Varsity Glee Club) in Sydney, Australia... See if you can find the young, naive and roughly-40-pounds-lighter version of this blog's author in the pic...

Nowhere Else

2007-01-08T20:58:00.000-06:00

About 14 years ago, in June 1993, I found myself lying on a beach in Nadi, Fiji. I was with 3 of my best college buddies: Ryan, TK and JK. We were traveling with the Purdue Varsity Glee Club, and after a couple of weeks of "tough" touring through Australia and New Zealand, we were rewarded with a few days of mostly rest in a wonderful beach resort.

That night there was a full lunar eclipse, and we decided to take advantage of the situation by sleeping on the beach under the stars. We grabbed blankets from the room, dragged some reclining beach chairs to the waters' edge, laid down and gazed up into the gorgeous night sky. After watching the moon disappear into a sea of red, and then disappear into nothing, everything went dark. The black of the sky was the blackest I've ever seen, and the stars were brighter than I have ever seen, before or since.

After listening to the gentle lapping of the waves for awhile, TK and I pulled out a Walkman (yes, we were still using cassette tapes back then), and using a headphone splitter, we popped in one of our favorite "tapes", The 77s "Sticks and Stones". The second song on the album is a beautiful love song -- to either a woman, or to God, depending on your interpretation -- that contains these lyrics:

The moon blew through the valley
Carried away the clouds
The stars seem so much brighter this night
Orion's belt is shinin'
The big dipper's upside down
Over us it's pourin' out it's light

You slip your arms around me
Draw me to your side
The full moon's shinin' so clear
Is that music in the distance?
For a moment of time
There is nowhere else but here

There is nowhere else I'd rather be
Than in your heart
There is nowhere else I wanna be
But in your eyes
In your arms...

That song so perfectly framed that night. There truly was "Nowhere Else" that I would have rather been at that moment in time.

So many years later, I find myself not lying on a beach in Fiji, but sitting alone in a hotel room in Connecticut, traveling on business. Although I love my job, and I do enjoy traveling, right now the place that I would really love to be is at home, with my wife and kids. As I grow older, it gets harder and harder to kiss them goodbye at the airport and head off for a week. My family is just so precious, and it's challenging being here, when I'm so used to being there, despite the craziness and business of that comes with the daily routine -- making dinner, putting the kids to bed, doing the dishes, etc.

Honey, if you're reading this, just know that right now, there is nowhere else I'd rather be, than in your heart, in your eyes, in your arms...

See you on Friday.

LiveBlogging from the Kitchen Table

2006-12-29T10:22:00.000-06:00

I've been out of touch for a week or so -- somewhat intentionally, as I've wanted to be able to enjoy my vacation as, well, a vacation, as much as possible. I did have to do about 4-5 hours of official "work" over the past couple of days, but that's out of the way now, so I still have another 3.5 days left of vacation.

So now we find ourselves in that wonderful, glorious stretch of time that exists between Dec. 25th and Jan. 1st. I know, I know, that period of days and weeks leading up to Christmas is supposedly the "most wonderful time of the year". But I think I'm beginning to truly treasure the week between Christmas and New Year's as even better. The rushing and busy-ness of Christmas programs, Christmas parties, Christmas shopping, Christmas budgeting, Christmas wrapping, Christmas cooking, etc. -- it's all over. I'm off of work, Jordan's not in school, we're not traveling anywhere that's more than 20 miles from our home. In short -- it's family time.

And right now, it is 10:22 AM on Friday. My wife is out running some errands and getting ready to have lunch with a friend. Jonathan, Jordan and myself have so far this morning enjoyed the following:
-An early morning bowl of Lucky Charms, along with some grapefruit and bananas
-Playing "airplane" on the floor of the living room
-A couple of rounds of "Bible Story Bingo"
-We watched some VeggieTales on our new TV (yes, we finally got one -- more on that at a later time)!

And now, we're sitting at the kitchen table playing with Play-Doh. The children are creating masterpieces, and I'm just enjoying this time, watching their brains mold and shape little blobs of whatever, and occasionally arguing over who gets the red Play-Doh, who gets the little purple tool that can cut the Play-Doh "pizzas", etc. Right now Jordan is asking me to help her make the forked tongue for her pink Play-Doh snake...

So now, live from our kitchen table, it's.... our children!!!

P.S. Are any of you out there strict "no mixing of the Play-Doh colors together" people like I am? ;-)

A Random Recent Pics Post

2006-12-19T21:19:00.000-06:00

Here's a few random recent pics... just because I can't help but share the adorableness that is my children!

That's Jordan holding a lovely paper flower that her Uncle Loic made for her on Thanksgiving morning.

Okay, I know, we're cruel parents. Some day Jonathan is going to NOT be happy that A) I tried to make his bath towel look like a toga, B) I took a picture of it, and C) I posted it on the WWW for the whole world to see.

Jordan, Jonathan and their cousin, Jeb

Jordan participating in one of her favorite pastimes (reading, that is -- not sitting in a car seat on the hard cement sidewalk).

That's it for now...

If at First You Don't Succeed...

2006-12-17T19:09:00.000-06:00

Jenny left me a comment in my previous post, stating that the link to the fabulous singing reindeer didn't work. Well, she was correct. At some point between the time I made the post and now, the link has died. Poor little link.

Anyway, I found another link that -- at least, at this moment in time -- works. I updated my post below, or you can just click here to see the fun.

Enjoy!

The House Has Officially Been Warmed

2006-12-15T23:02:00.000-06:00

Tonight we had our official "Holiday Housewarming Party" -- which means that a whole bunch of people that we know from church and work came over and ate lots of yummy food. And which also means that we (me and Jackie) are way tired from working for basically the past 3 months to prepare for this night. But we are also way blessed. I'm sitting here considering posting a few pics from the night, but to be honest, that would require that I stand up, walk down the hallway, grab my USB cable, come back to the computer, etc. I don't think I could physically make it. I'll report back in again later.

Oh, by the way, if you haven't seen this, you need to. Turn up the speakers, and click here. I absolutely LOVE the reindeer soloist -- he's the best. :-)

This Means War

2006-12-13T09:28:00.000-06:00

There is a war going on. More intense than "Saving Private Ryan", grittier than "Blackhawk Down", dirtier than "The Dirty Dozen". The enemy in this war is sly, cunning, and continues to outsmart the good guys. The number of insurgents continues to grow, and they are spreading.

The Victors launched a fairly major offensive last month and had some success. This success, however, led to arrogance, and the enemy -- instead of retreating in defeat -- simply pulled back in order to regroup, multiply, and prepare to strike again.

And strike again they did. In the past 2 days, there have been multiple enemy sightings and even a few skirmishes. The insurgents are typically too fast for the Victors to capture or kill, but new resources are being added to the arsenal in an effort to once and for all route the enemy for good.

This is real, folks. More real than any Hollywood movie could ever get.

The battleground: our new home.
The enemy: Mus musculus, otherwise known as...

The common house mouse.

That's right. It's Us against Them. Humans vs. Rodents. And it is war.

Current Casualty Listing:
Humans = 0
Mice = 4

Yes, the enemy is growing in numbers. But I am watching. And I am increasing not only my weapons cache, but also my intelligence. I'm studying Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" -- he states,

"Speed is the essence of war. Take advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness; travel by unexpected routes and strike him where he has taken no precautions."

And though the enemy may have won some recent battles... we Will - Not - Lose - This - War.

To quote Raoul from "The Phantom of the Opera",

"So, it is to be war between us! But this time, clever friend, the disaster will be yours!"

So look out, mice. I'm coming after you.

In Case You Didn't Know, Now You Know...

2006-12-07T15:30:00.000-06:00

Baby #1, Jordan: Born 3/21/01 Baby #2, Jonathan: Born 10/18/04 Baby #3, TBA: Scheduled to Be Born 6/22/07

I don't know about you, but I think that he/she looks just like me! ;-)
I guess I need to add this "Baby Bag for Dad" to my Amazon.com wish list...

All I Want for Christmas is...

2006-12-06T11:28:00.000-06:00

They say that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at their checkbook. (And, actually, "They" are really just paraphrasing Jesus in Matthew 6:21). But I would like to propose a new theory -- that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at their Christmas List. I think you can gain great insight into what a person is all about by taking a peek into the types of gifts they would like to receive. So, in order to prove my theory, I am willing to offer up myself as the first experimental specimen. Have a look at my Amazon.com Wish List and let me know what you think. Do the items on my list give you any insight into my personality? Does it allow you a glimpse into who I really am? Or does it tell you that I just have crummy taste in presents? ;-) Well, click this button and judge for yourself:

And now that you've had a chance to look at the above, I would like to provide you with an opportunity to become more holy. Yes, Acts 20:35 is very clear when it quotes Jesus himself as saying, "'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'", and since I'm always one to encourage others to do what the Bible says, feel free to go back to my Amazon.com Wish List and purchase an item or two for me. (Let me know if you need my mailing address).

How about that? How often does reading somebody's blog give you the opportunity to get closer to God...?

Ahem.

;-)

The Treasure Fine

Notable Day

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)...

Two Things

Transition

House-Hunting Trip: Days 0-1

A Rare Few Moments of Solitude

Still Testing...

Time to Dust This Thing Off...

Blogging from 35,000 Feet!

How to Make 14.5 Hours Fly By...

You Know it's Early When...

A Return to Once Upon A Time...

It Just Ain't Right...

The Password

Yikes

From the Other Side of the World, Part 1

Adventures in Parenthood

Woah, We're Half (of Half) Way There... Almost.

Daddy-Daughter Date

"A Life of Humble Virtue"

Whole Numbers

40%?

Prepare to Be Amazed!

Like Bulls in a China Shop

At the Sea, I'll Wait on My Knees...

Facebook

Playing Catchup

MBA Haiku

Quote of the Day

1 and 1

The Biggest Loser

Test E-mail Blog

Countdown

It Was a Very Good Friday

The Love Boat

Spring Break!

Quick Update

That's Great, it Starts With an Earthquake...

Flip That House

Quite a Week!

Select a Candidate - 2008

-- Take the Quiz! --

So Much to Say, But...

Chasing

Behold the Lamb of God

24 Hours and 5 Minutes of My Life

Cover Girl

An Attempt to Play Catch-Up

Pray for Rain

My YouTube Pick of the Day - 10/03/07

Little Monkeys Swinging On a Tree

Tickle-Torture

Quick Update

28 Days

A Day of Firsts

Music, Music, Music...

A Great Visit

Atmosphere

A Monday Morning Update

A Series of Unfortunate Events

The New Normal

A Tale of Three Babies

Welcome to Our World

And We're Off...!

Ready for the Plunge

10K

Do We Live in a Safe Place?

Yes, We Like to Talk to Tomatoes...

Happy Birthday, 2U - Part I

Devastation

295 hours, 15 minutes

For the First Time...

On This Day in History, April 24

Church of the Week

Pause. Take a Deep Breath. Now Exhale.

What I'm Listening To Today, 3/28/07

A Pirate Says, "Arrgh!"

2,192 Days

Torn