What's Your Number?

As soon as I picked up the phone in my office I noticed them. “Where did they come from?” I wondered to myself. As I spoke on the phone they stood in the doorway to my office and stared at me. I tried concentrating as I spoke on the phone but their presence was somewhat distracting. Seeing small children at my office was not a usual occurrence. Actually, our company usually frowns on bringing your children to the office. Not that I blame them, a manufacturing environment is not the place for little kids to be running around. As I spoke on the phone the little girl stared intently at me. I waved at her as if to say hello and she shyly waved back. The little boy was less interested in me and more interested in my office. In my office he saw an adventure.

The little boy was about five years old and she was probably two or three. I finished my conversation and hung up the phone. I looked at them and “Hi - What’s your name?” She started to speak but the little boy overwhelmed her and said “I’m Trace!” He continued and said “That’s Sierra my little sister”. I said “Trace and Sierra – those are fine names.” The little boy must of felt comfortable because he said “I can write my name on our your board if you want me to?” I have a white board in my office that I use to keep notes or reminders. "Sure go ahead" I said and he proceeded to write his name on my board. He then asked me my name and how to spell it. I told him and he wrote that down as well.

I asked him how old he was and he said six. I asked his sister how old she was and she held up four fingers and said “Two”. I smiled and laughed and said I bet you’ll be three soon. She nodded her head up and down, I’m not sure she understood what I said. Then Trace said to me “Hey mister, what’s your number?” I was confused for a second because I didn’t know what he meant. “What’s my number?” I said aloud. Trace then said “My number is six” and he proceeded to write down a "6" next to his name. Now I knew what he meant: How old am I. I looked at him and said “My number is forty four – that would be two fours.” Slightly puzzled he looked at me and said “Two Fours? That’s a lot isn’t it?” I laughed and said “Yes it is, two fours is quite a bit”. He then wrote two backwards fours next to my name. He looked at me and smiled and I smiled back.

His mama called his name and said it was time to go. They said goodbye and I told them to come back again and they promised me they would. As soon as Trace got by the door to leave, he turned around and ran back to the board. At first I thought he had forgotten something. He once again picked up the marker and began to draw. Over both our names and ‘numbers’ he drew a heart. After he drew the hearts he filled them in with the marker. He closed the marker and headed towards the door again. On his way out he said “I almost forgot to give you a heart…” I told him thanks and that I needed a heart. He kept walking and without missing a beat said "I know".

Soundbites

I decided to try something a bit different. Instead of telling you in detail about our weekend, I decided that I would condense it down to significant quotes or soundbites. Hey...if they can do it on the news why can't I? Hopefully you'll get the jist of what happened this weekend.

"Two new pairs of shoes and a haircut - what are you doing, getting ready to go back to school?" - What my wife said to me after buying me new work and tennis shoes then giving me a haircut.

"Do it again Mr. Ron, Do it again!" - what the three year old would say after I shot his nerf gun, wrestled with him and tickled his feet with my beard.

"I Don't Like Him…." - First words from a three year old upon meeting Katlin

"Shoot him, not me" - what the three year old would say (while pointing at Kat) when I pointed the nerf gun at him.

"Shallow Hal" - A comment that was made by someone (not me) who saw someone who had a very wide butt that reminded them of the movie Shallow Hal. Harsh but accurate.

"I already went!" - What the three year old said after I asked him if he needed to go the bathroom….dohh!!

"Okay, bye, thanks" - comments from the three year old upon hearing the door ring and immediately realizing it was his mother to pick him up and take him home.

"So what do you want to do today?" - Me asking my wife what we were going to do with our Saturday since we didn't have to spend it at the soccer field for the first time in 15 years.

"What do you want?" - What the young lady at IHOP said to us after calling our name over the loud speaker letting us know our table was ready.

"Wow! Only $20 for Dinner" - Me after getting dinner bill on Friday night (pizza). It was just Kathy and I, we had no children with us - I didn't realize that you could eat that cheap.

"Kids are expensive!" - Me after getting our $20 Dinner bill and realizing two people could eat out cheap and that kids are expensive.

"Cool" - My remark to myself that $20 Dinners would become common place in the near future.

"That reminds me, I want to go on a hot air ballon ride someday." - What I said to my wife as I couldn't help but notice our young waitris's boob job.

"You Spit" - what the three year old told me after I got excited from playing with him and accidentally spit in his face.

"I can't wait to be a grandparent" - what I said to myself after the three year old left my house after our play date.

"You're only 23?" - What I said after meeting my new neighbor and finding out that he was only 23 years old, a deep sea fishing charter boat captain, owned his own 51 foot fishing boat, drove a desiel extended cab truck and had bought the brand new house next to mine.

"Where did I go wrong?" - What I said to my wife after meeting my new 23 year old neighbor.

"Do your dogs bite?" - What I said to my new neighbors after finding out he had two full grown chocolate labs.

"Are you going to build a fence?" - What I asked my neighbor after I found out that his dogs did indeed bite.

"Where you going?" - What our new and somewhat nosey female neighbor asked us when she saw us leaving our house on Saturday night.

"Are they black or white?" - My moms first question upon hearing we got new neighbors.

"Uggghhh" - My response to my moms question upon hearing we got new neighbors.

"I'm never eating at McDonalds again" - What we both said after watching the movie "Super Size Me". It's a movie about a guy who eating nothing but McDonalds three times a day for thirty days. Disgusting.

"You licked me!!!" - My response to the three year old after he licked my eye ball. His mom said he learned it from the dogs.

"Aww Crap!" - What the three year old repeated after he heard me say it.

"I'm very sorry" - What I said to the three years old mother after I told her that I said "Aww Crap!" and that her son had repeated it.

"Suplex Me!" - What I made the three year old say if he wanted me to suplex him.

"How come you got flowers?" - What I asked my wife after the three year olds mother brought her flowers for watching her son, when in actuality I was the one who watched him.

"I like beer" - What I told my wife I liked in lieu of flowers for watching the three year old.

"You scare me" - what my friends daughter said to me after noticing my haircut made me look like her dad.

"You're my baggage" - What my wife leaned over and said to me when asked by our pastor to list any "baggage" we may be caring around. Nice.

"What a day, God is good" - What I said to my wife as we laid in bed reflecting on our day before falling asleep last night.

"I Don't Like Him..."

WARNING: The following is a somewhat disjointed post after a long day of intresting spirtiual experinces. After reading it I realized it is somewhat hard to follow but so was my day....Ron

Ever have one of those days where you realize that you're in the middle of something but you're not quite sure what you're in the middle of? By that I mean, events happen and at the time they seem unreleated but at the end of the day you realize in some weird way that they were all linked together in some weird comsic way? If you've never had that happen then you probably don't understand what I'm talking about. If you do then...well you understand. Anyhow, that's how our (Kathy and my) day went. And it was pretty cool. Frankly, I attribute it to God and that He has a plan and the 'weird' things that happened were all part of that plan. You can agree or not but that's what I believe.

I'll spare you the details, if you weren't there it would be hard to understand what happened and would sound boring. But I will say that the timing of todays events were so surgical that a few seconds either way and we wouldn't have experinced what we did. And because of that I know that God's hands were all over it. One of the unexpected things that happened today was that we ended up baby sitting for some friends. He is deployed to New Orleans and she is staying home with their 3 year old son and adopted dogs. They adopted about 5 dogs that evacutaed from Hurricane Katrina. Anyhow we saw here after church and she looked wore out. I mean she was beat up and exhausted. We asked if we could do anything and she asked if we could watch her son for a few hours while she went to a play with a friend. We said no problem.

The little guy came over at about two this afternoon. For those of you who know me, you know that I'm not a very talented guy. But...I can play with a three year kid like a trained professional. There is probably nothing I enjoy more than playing with small children. (Go ahead and say your jokes and get them out of your system). Well this little dude brought a mini nerf gun with him and that's all we played with for three hours (besides wrestling). I had so much fun. And that's probably because it brought back memories of playing on the floor for hours with my boys. Ever time I looked into this little boys eyes, I saw my sons when they were that age. It was really cool to roll around on the floor playing all afternoon.

Anyhow the little guy loved me (not bragging, just a fact). About four this afternoon, Kat got home from work. From the beginning the little guy didn't care for Kat - which suprised me. He came running to me, made the sourest face I ever saw, pointed to Kat and said "I Don't Like Him!" The way he said was hilarous. To some degree Kat was hurt because he hadn't done anything and just wanted to play with the little dude. After keeping an eye and his distance from Kat for about an hour he realized he was okay. By the time he left, you would of thought he'd known Kat all his life. He warmed up to him and was all over him.

At one point Kat asked me "Don't you ever get tired of playing with him?" and I responed and said "No, I never got tired of playing with you". Kat said "Really?" and I told him "Yeah because playing with a child doesn't last forever. Either they'll get tired and stop or they'll no longer be a child, so you have to play with them when you can." Kat looked at me and smiled as if he actually understood what I was saying. He just said "Cool". Which is good enough for me.

So it's been awhile.....

Well…by the looks of it I haven't updated this blog in over two weeks. That is by far the longest I have went without putting a post up. We've been pretty busy lately which is part of the reason. The other part is that I was lazy and just didn't feel like posting anything. My Aunt Francie and Cousin (Mike) we here visiting from Illinois. They were here for over a week and stayed at my parents house. We had a good time while they were here - enjoyed seeing them again. But frankly I was glad to see them go cause we ate A LOT while they were here (kidding).

Everyone seems to be doing well. Kiel seems to be adjusting to school, his apartment and work. He likes his classes but he can't wait til he gets into his main Digital Media classes. Loves his apartment and being on his own away from mom and dad. He started a new job the other day at Barnie's Coffee at a Mall in Sanford. He says its just like it was when he worked at Starbuck's. He had another interview with a restaurant (Primo) inside of a Marriott Hotel Resort in Orlando. So we'll see what happens there. He says he's eating, watching his money and meeting some folks. Kiel also created a new blog/xanga - just click on the link to the side to get to it. So far he has been updating it quit a bit lately. He even had the nerve to tell me that I needed to update. Check out Kat's blog/xanga too - he has a couple of new post as well.

Not much new really. Just working and adjusting to Kiel being gone. I am and will be watching a lot of football on Sunday afternoons. My most lovely, incredible, wonderful, beautifully kid wife got me he NFL Sunday Ticket for Father's Day. Basically it's ALL Pro-Football games for the whole season. So I can watch whatever game I want whether it's being shown locally or not. Very Cool. It also has some nifty features which makes watching SEVERAL games at one time fun and easy. Hey - I'm shallow and I know it. What can I say. We had some new friends from church over this past weekend to eat Mexican food and watch football. It was a great opportunity to get to know them and hang out.

We need to have a garage sale soon cause it would be great to park a car in the garage at some point in time. The idea of using a garage as a garage instead of a storage shed seems appealing to me. But we need to get all the junk out of there first. Hopefully the weather will cool down in a few weeks and we sell all that stuff. I do promise this: Once it leave the garage, it ain't coming back. Wheter it gets sold or not - it ain't coming back. We also have some things we want to do around the yard this fall. Again, we it needs to cool off but we do have some things that need to be done. We want to extend our driveway a bit, we also need to get a couple pallets of sod and lay some sod. Then I want to put up a privacy fence in the back yard. I'll spare you the details but we're now able to get some of these things done. It will be nice to have some projects to work on once the weather cools off a bit.

Not much else for now. Maybe I'll post something with a little substance next time.

Post Labor Day Update

Even though we didn't go to Mexico Beach over Labor Day, the three day weekend was still great. First off, I was a co-conspirator with Kiel. He came up with a plan to come home and surprise everyone. Which he did- the plan was flawless and all were surprised. Big Time. So Kiel was home from Friday evening until Monday morning. We enjoyed having him here. Also, our friends Luke and Angela from Savannah, GA were in town over the weekend and stayed at our house. We enjoyed having them stay with us. Thier little boy (5 months) Jackson is awesome - it was great having a baby in the house.

We really didn't do a whole bunch over Labor Day. Just hung out, resupplied Kiel and bought him a couple things for his apartment. On Sunday night after youth we hung out for awhile. Saw a movie on Monday - "Four Brothers". Nothing special just hanging out with people you don't get to see very often - so that made it very cool.

My Aunt Francie and Cousin Mike will be coming down from Illionis for a visit to Florida. They'll be staying at my parents. So we'll hang out with them over the weekend and a bit next week. Looking forward to seeing them and spending time with them. I haven't seen Mike in years so that will be cool to catch up and hang out.

One thing we did do over the weekend worth mentioning was on Monday morning. We have many displaced people in Panama City from Hurricane Katrina. Most of them were staying at the Fair Grounds and sleeping on cots. We have a good sized Christian retreat on the beach that opened thier doors to these folks. However, before they could get in the rooms they needed to be cleaned. So about 40-50 people from our chuch went and cleaned rooms for these people. It was awesome to see that many people show up and to be a part of something like that. It was very cool.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying the short work week. Need to go shower and then register for Fantasy Football. Yeah Baby, it's football season!

Change O' Plans

Well…there's be a MAJOR change of plans as it concerns our Labor Day weekend. My parents(Ron) went to Mexico Beach to the El Governor Hotel to begin setting up for the weekend. When they got there they encountered what's called 'Red Tide'. Basically Red Tide are algae beds with toxins that cover the gulf. This algae basically suffocates the water and kills fish. In addition, Red Tide is very irritable to the eyes, throat and breathing. So when mom and dad got to Mexico Beach that started feeling the effects of Red Tide. In addition, it had killed thousands of fish that had washed up on the beach in front of our rooms - so it smelled really, really bad as well too. Mom said that access to the beach was cut off because of the Red Tide and the dead fish. So mom and dad made a decision not to stay because of the Red Tide and dead fish. They called me and told me that they were going to come back home. We also decided that we will not be staying in Mexico Beach this weekend either. We've decided that we'll just stay home instead. Oh well…some things just can't be helped. So if you we planning on coming to Mexico Beach to see us…forget about it.

Been watching what with what has been happening in New Orleans and Biloxi/Gulfport area. Over years I have spent a lot time in the Biloxi/Gulfport area. When I was in the Air Force I did all my training at Keesler AFB in Biloxi. I figured it up and with all the training courses I've attended, I've spent about nine months of my life in Biloxi. Plus the weekend trips to see friends, going to New Orleans for work and vacation etc.all means that I'm quite familiar with the area from Biloxi to New Orleans as well. So it kinda of has special meaning to me. I'm incredibly sadden by what I'm seeing. First the devastation from the Hurricane is beyond anything I have ever seen. My mind just keeps reminding me that - that could have been us. Second, what is happening in New Orleans is just sickening. And when I say that I mean that on so many different levels. There's the total flooding of the city and all the people who are stranded and can't get out. What they are going through is simply horrendous. Then there's the armed gangs and lawlessness. If I didn't know better I'd swear I was looking at third world country when I see the news. Hard to believe that all this is happening just 300 miles away in New Orleans. Get involved in this one folks cause this situation is going to need all of our attention.

For those of you who are interested in finding out exactly what's happening in New Orleans may I recommend a couple of web sites. The first one is http://www.nola.com - Quite simply this one will break your heart. This website normally covers 'All Things New Orleans' - since the hurricane it's function has changed. Message boards have been put up concerning looking for missing people, people letting others know they are okay and people offering places to stay. And pleas for help from folks still trapped in the city. Many have contacted loved ones outside the city who then post on the site. Some of these posts are simply to much for me. I am humbled and overwhelmed when I read something's that are happening and going on in this city. Another site worth looking at is one called http://www.katrinacentral.com very similar to the other site and serves the same function. If you do check this sites and read this, remember these are real people. It's easy to forget in today's world of blogs and websites. But these are some really desperate people. Also, I recommend reading the comments on my previous post. My good friends Brian and Tina Franc posted their story of Hurricane Kitrina - please check it out. Enough of the PSA.

Gas is outrageous. Went home from work on Tuesday and the gas station across from me was $2.53 per gallon for regular. The next morning it was up to $2.98 per gallon!. It went up 45 cents per gallon overnight - simply unbelievable. Because of that I have decided to no longer go home over lunch. The cost is one thing but the availability of gas is another. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find a place to get gas. Our area depends on getting gas from the Gulf of Mexico and the Intercostals waterway. Again, because of the storm the Intercostals is difficult to get through. Causing gas to become scare or waiting in lines for very long times. Even Kiel said he waited nearly an hour in Orlando. Anyhow, I figured that I would save nearly 5 gallons of gas or $15 a week by not going home at lunch. So today I brought a couple of packs of crackers, a Pepsi, my Bible (The Message), a couple of other books and a Chris Tomlin CD. So during lunch I closed the door to my office, listened to my CD, ate my crackers, drank my soda and read. First I read from The Message - great paraphrase/translation of the Bible by the way. If you're ever found the bible difficult to ready check out the message. I then read a book, that oddly enough I picked up in Biloxi last year after we returned from our cruise on our way home from New Orleans. The name of the book is called 'Epic' by a guy named John Eldridge. What's ironic is that it's a book called 'Epic' but it's very small and only has 104 pages. Plus it's in pretty big print too - so it's a very easy and quick read. But it's a book about the Story of our lives. I read some of it before. But with everything that is happening in the world and my life right now I decided to go back and read/finish it. It's pretty good. Anyhow, I like my new lunch hour routine. But it does seem to make the day seem a bit longer by not having a lunch outside of the office to break it up. Oh well I can deal with it.

Enough rambling for now. Have a safe and fun Labor Day weekend.