According To Us...

SURPRISE!!!!!

2008-01-29T20:10:00.000-06:00

Bet you weren't expecting to see a new post did you? Before you get too excited you need to know that this blog is now retired. I will no longer be posting on this site...I've moved. My new blog is called As I Was Saying or http://rcravatta.wordpress.com. Stop by and check out my new digs!

I Can Explain...

2006-12-17T20:30:00.000-06:00

Ok...bout now you're probably wondering: 'Hey, I thought you said you we're going to update more?' If you did then you're correct but there is a good reason why I haven't lately. My computer died - I just don't mean died but it died a painful, agonizing death. The hard drive was totally spent - beyond repair. I thought about replacing the hard drive but the cost of a new computer wasn't much more that buying a new drive. So I had to buy a new computer. Then I had to wait for it to arrive and set it up. It took me awhile to get the internet setting setup to access the internet properly but now I'm good to go. So that's it - I'm just now getting back online. So you forgive me don't you???

Happy Thanksgiving

2006-11-23T11:21:00.000-06:00

Kiel is home from school. Katlin is home and enjoying his brothers company. Kathy's father (Warren) and his girlfriend (Jean) are up from South Florida as well. My parents will be here shortly. The pies have been baked- I hear patatoes being peeled and the ham and turkey are in the oven. I also hear the Macy's Thanksgiving parade on the TV and know that football will soon follow. The house smells wonderful and everyone is enjoying each others company. I'll soon put my 'stretchy' pants on I'll be ready!

It's not been an easy year in many respects: surgeries, stress and the daily challenges of life. It's not a complaint and I know it could be far worse but at times life can be difficult. But not today - today is the day we are Thankful for all of it. The good - the bad - the happy and the sad. Today we are Thankful that we are here and have made it through together by God's wonderful grace and mercy.

Enjoy the day and appreciate ALL that you have been given. Happy Thanksgiving!

Metal Mouth No More

2006-11-20T12:26:00.000-06:00

Katlin got his braces taken off earlier today. Kat went back to school after he got them off so I haven't had the chance to see him yet but I heard his teeth look great. Kat was pretty excited all weekend knowing that his braces were coming off today. He had wore braces for nearly two years so I can understand why he was excited. Now that his braces off we'll get his teeth cleaned and whitened so he can have his Senior pictures taken. Hope he smiles big....I'm sure he will.

Hey there...

2006-11-16T19:46:00.000-06:00

Hey there...you remember me don't you? It's been awhile since we've talked hasn't it? Let me catch you up on some of the latest happenings around here. Last Friday we went to Tallahassee for concert - we met up with some of the kids from the church and had alot of fun. After the concert we drove down to Orlando to see Kiel. We spent Saturday and Sunday with Kiel and his girlfriend Vanessa, again we had a good time and enjoyed seeing them. They've been together now for six months - that's gotta be some time of record for Kiel. Another reason we went to Orlando was that Katlin got accepted to UCF (same school as Kiel) and we went down to look at it a bit. He hasn't decided if his is going to go there are not - time will tell.

Thanksgiving is next week in case you didn't notice. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year, yes even more than Christmas. I think I like the focus of it...no not the food. But the idea of being thankful and having my family around me makes me happy. Kiel will come home on Wednesday and Kathy's dad and his girlfriend will drive up from Sebring. Along with my parents we have a pretty nice Thanksgiving tradition going. I think we've all been meeting at our house for Thanksgiving for well over the past 10 years. As always I'm ready.

Kat's winding down his senior year. He's been busy with school and work. He got nominated for Homecoming Court - so went to all the activites associated with that. We ordered Graduation announcements the other night - made his graduation seem much more real. Kat has a lot to look forward to the rest of his senior year. He's done taking all his ACT and SAT's for college - he got the scores he wanted for his scholarships. Now he just needs to decide what he wants to major in and where he wants to go to school. He'll figure it out - he always does.

Kiel is well - loves his classes and studying digital media. Kiel is going to be moving into another apartment after the first of the year. Some good friends are losing a room mate so he is going to move in with them. It's only a couple of buildings away in the same complex so it's not to big a move. Kiel still is enjoying his internship at Ross Marketing - he is there graphics guy. All in all he seems to be enjoying college. (I think having Vanessa close by helps too).

Our puppy rules this house. Nothing seems to happen without running it by her first. I'm kidding but that dog really thinks she has to be involved in everything. Next week Kathy is taking her to get 'fixed' - I'm sure she'll be made at us for awhile. Kathy is good - working and taking care of me and Kat. I'm good - very busy at work - too busy actually. I thought as you got older you were supposed to work less? I wish that were the case.

Enough for now, I don't want to use up my daily allotment of words. Take Care.

The Way I See It....

2006-11-07T18:04:00.000-06:00

I've created a new blog called "The Way I See It". It's actually an extenstion of this blog. I'll continue to update this blog with information about what we're doing and what we're up to. But the new blog will be more for writing and expressing my thoughts and ideas. Anyhow I started out with a very simple and non-controversial subject: Election Day/Politics

Anyhow, for me the distinction will be good. It will be easier for me to update this blog if I know that I can simply write about the everyday goings on in our family. I'm lazy like that. Plus I like the idea of keeping the content of the two separate...don't ask me why but I do. Anyhow check it out, keep in mind it's new and it's work in progress. Check both of them out as I promise to post more.....(yeah right)

Coup

2006-09-20T21:48:00.000-05:00

My immediate supervisor is in the far east reviewing manufacturing systems that our parent company uses. First he went to Japan and then on to Vietnam. After Vietnam he traveled on to Thailand. As luck would have it, he arrived in Thailand on the same day that a military led coup to overthrow the government took place. He arrived around lunch-time and the coup happened around 11PM that evening. Since the coup happened late in the evening, he was unaware it had happened until he woke in the morning. He watched a story about it on the BBC World News as he was getting cleaned up for the day. After hearing about the coup on the news, he then looked outside of the window of his high-rise Bangkok hotel room to see the streets lined with tanks and soldiers. To say he was surprised by what he heard and saw would be an understatement. He was supposed to tour the manufacturing facility today but has been advised to stay in the hotel and fly out tomorrow to Japan as planned. He said everything is fairly quiet and seems normal within the confines of the hotel. Hopefully he won't experience too many difficulties trying to get out of the country and the coup will stay non-violent as it has been. He's very fortunate that it has been peaceful to this point. It will be interesting to speak with him when he returns to Los Angeles later this week. And you thought you had an interesting day....

Mexico Beach - Labor Day

2006-09-06T21:28:00.000-05:00

We spent Labor Day weekend in Mexico Beach with my parents. We got there last Thursday and left on Monday. Kiel came up from Orlando with his girlfriend Vanessa. We rented a house on the beach that was absolutely wonderful. The entire weekend couldn't have been better. The beach was clean, the gulf was clear and the weather was perfect. We didn't get to go last year cause of 'Red Tide' but I feel like we more than made up for it. This was our eighth year going to Mexico Beach. We plan on going again next year, but this time for a week. I really had a hard time pulling myself away. Anyhow, I did and it's back to the grind now. But only for a few weeks before we leave on a crusie with Kathy's brother Dave, his wife Sharon, Kathy's Aunt Gail and Uncle Jerry - we're really looking forward to it. I put up a new photo album called 'Mexico-Beach' under our photo album if you care to see more. Hope everyone is well....

You call this a post?

2006-08-06T20:15:00.000-05:00

Pffffffff - (sound of dust being blown off the keyboard).

Hmmm...where do I begin. After nearly two months of not posting, I've decide that I probably should post. Awhile back I read that if you want to keep your 'blog audience' that you should post frequently. While I'm not sure that I ever had a 'blog audience', I'm almost certain that if I did, they are long gone by now. Anyhow, if someone just happens to stumble in here's an update of what's been going on as of late:

Kiel turned 21 in June - Katlin turned 17 in May - I turn 40something in a couple of days
Katlin went on a mission trip with our church to New Orleans
We all went to Iowa over the 4th of July and visited Kathy's family - We drove, Kiel flew.
Kiel stayed in Orlando over the summer, took a summer class, worked and got a girlfriend (Vanessa).
Katlin went to summer camp
When not on a trip of some kind Katlin worked bussing tables and hosting at Fridays

Other important items to note:

Football season is almost here - preseason started today. Life without football is meaningless.
Deep Fried Green Beans are incredible - TGI Fridays now offers them. You must try them
I find out everyday, that I still don't understand God's Grace. In the swimming pool of understanding God's Grace, I realized that I have only stuck my pinkie toe in the the shallow end of the kiddie pool.
I work alot.
Kathy is the only sane one in our family. The rest of us need professional help.
Kathy loves her puppy - while my feelings towards her could best be described as 'lukewarm' (towards the puppy, not my wife).

That's all I got - I'm spent . I'll try harder next time, I promise. Don't hate me.

Barely Legal

2006-05-31T21:20:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe that this chubby jowled, rooster-haired baby will turn 21 this Friday! Where did all that hair go??? We're all off on Friday to go see this guy and spend the weekend with him in Orlando. I'm not sure of everything he has planned but I do know we're going to MGM Studios on Saturday, it's also Star Wars weekend at MGM which is why he chose to go. We're looking forward to hanging out with him, even if he isn't this cute anymore. I'm kidding Kiel - you're sort of cute in a strange sort of way. Happy 21st Birthday and we'll see you Friday.

The View From My Beach Chair....

2006-05-27T20:56:00.000-05:00

I know, I know - "It's not pretty" but hey...it is what it is....the view from my beach chair. Like it or not this is what I saw. We went to Cape San Blas today with my cousin Mike. It was absolutely beautiful as you can tell (except for the large hairy legs). Anyhow, there was hardly anyone at Cape San Blas and it was incredible. Everytime we go there, I tell Kathy that I fell like I'm in Mexico - makes me feel like I'm on vacation. Hope everyone is well and is enjoying the long weekend as much as we are. Kiel is home this weekend and we're having Katlin's birthday party tonight. Take Care....

17

2006-05-23T21:30:00.000-05:00

As we sat waiting at the resturant, I couldn't help but stare at him. As I looked at his young face, I couldn't help but find myself thinking about him, his future....his life. We talked about the past year - we talked about the summer, what he planned to do and where he planned to go. We talked about his upcoming senior year of high school and all he had to look forward to. Mainly he talked and I nodded and smiled. I smiled not at what he had to say but because I was proud. Not proud in arrogant way. Not nessecarily proud of what he has accomplished or plans to do, I am proud of those things but that's not why I was smiled. But proud of who he's becoming - a young man. His own person - with his own sense of right and wrong.

My mind wandered back to that morning 17 years earlier. I thought about his birth and being the one to cut his cord. And here I am now, on the cusp of doing it again. Getting ready to cut him loose and let him go. But he's no longer an infant who can't care for himself. He's growing up and is learning to take care of himself. 17 years - where did they go? Soccer practices, trips to the golf course, toting his drums around town, watching him fret over his grades and studies. Would we trade any of it? Not for a second - these and many other things helped shaped who his is, who he's becoming.

It doesn't get any easier watching them grow up and take off. I was hoping it would but I'm finding it doesn't. 17 years...simply amazing.

Happy Birthday Kat-Kat....we love you...and are very proud of you...mom and dad

Check it out...

2006-05-22T19:49:00.000-05:00

I had a pretty crappy day all things considered.

Then I watched this video and it made me smile.

I feel MUCH better after watching it.

If you wanna smile too, then CLICK HERE

Colorado Pictures

2006-05-16T21:49:00.000-05:00

This a picture of Echo Lake near Idaho Springs. Probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever stumbled upon. If you're really bored and want to see more photos of our trip click on 'Our Photo Album' to the right. Once there you'll see a album called 'Colorado Trip - May 2006'. There are quite a few photos (40 to be exact), so don't say you weren't warned.

Back to this picture for a moment. Kathy and I left Denver drove out to see Red Rocks Ampitheater. We got done and had some time to kill before we needed to be back for dinner. So we got on the interstate and headed into the mountains. We didn't have much time so we stopped at the first little town we found called Idaho Springs. We stopped by the visitors center and asked the little old lady who was running it what was nearby that we could see. 12 miles later at nearly 10,000 ft. we ended up here - Echo Lake. It was windy and cold but well worth the trip. We had the entire lake (and mountain) to ourselves. If I ever see that little old lady again I'm going to give her a big hug.

Colorado - Rocks!

2006-05-15T21:47:00.000-05:00

This is the main entrance to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. The mountain in the background is Pike's Peak. As you can see the scenery and weather was beautiful on our trip to Colorado. We had a wonderful time seeing the sights as well as visiting friends and family. Even though we only had a few days after my conference - we did quite a bit and took in quite a few sites. I'll be posting a new photo album of this trip in a couple of days. Some of the pictures we took turned out really well (if I do say so my self). Of course when you have natural views like this, it's pretty hard to mess them up (even for me). Hope everyone is well. Will post more later. Glad to be home...sort of.

Mona Kat Kat

2006-05-05T20:11:00.000-05:00

I was searching for an image I had saved on my computer when I came across this. I hadn't seen it and thought it was pretty funny. Katlin had Photoshoped his face over the Mona Lisa - silly boy. Anyhow, Kathy and I leave for Denver in the morning. Going to software conference then a few days off in Colorado Springs. Mom and Dad are going to watch Fancy. They're going to have fun with two puppies in the house. Hope everyone is well. Will write more after we get back from our trip. Hope you enjoyed your Cinco De' Mayo!

Beirut

2006-04-24T12:18:00.000-05:00

Take a look at the video(above) that Kiel and production class mates made. Couple of things, the name of this video is about "Beirut" - not the city in the middle east. But more commonly known as "Beer Pong". Since this was for school, it couldn't advocate or promote drinking - so they came up with the name Beirut to get around it. Also, this video was shot in Kiel's apartment and Kiel plays the nerd-boy Eddie. And finally Kiel was the Director/Project Manager for this video. Kind of funny - pay attention to the "Ninja" in the kitchen and what he's doing. Nice to see where my son's college tution is going huh? Enjoy.

At the Kennel

2006-04-23T20:25:00.000-05:00

Home Coming picture of kathy holding Fancy at the breeders. To see more photos of our latest addition, click on "Our Photo Album" and the album called "Fancy Photos". Fancy is doing well and adjusting to her new home.

MIA

2006-04-09T22:19:00.000-05:00

It's pretty obvious that I haven't posted in awhile. I won't bore you with how busy I've been or when I have had the time to post that I just haven't felt like it. However, lots has been going on as of late. Been traveling with work for the past couple of weeks. Katlin spent a week in New York on a school trip. Kiel came home this weekend. Haven't started on our taxes yet. Got the new puppy on Friday. Kathy and I are going to Denver in a few weeks. So basically things are the same - perpetual chaos. Have tons of pictures to post - again it's the whole time vs. energy thing. I'm still here...don't give up on me.

'Fancy' Pictures

2006-02-25T18:35:00.000-06:00

Earlier today we drove up to the kennels to take some pictures of our soon-to-be new Maltese Puppy. Her registered name will be 'Lil Miss Fancy Rose' but we'll just call her Fancy. The picture above shows Kathy and Fancy being held by the breeder. Fancy is only 12 days old right now. So we still have about 6 more weeks before we can bring her home.

2006-02-25T18:34:00.000-06:00

Here Fancy is smiling big for the camera.

2006-02-25T18:30:00.000-06:00

This is Fancy's Mom - 'Tiffany'. The heat lamps to keep Fancy and her brothers warm cause this picture to have a red hue.

2006-02-25T18:29:00.000-06:00

This is Teddy - Fancy's father, the man who got the job done.

Charlie

2006-02-18T22:17:00.000-06:00

Funny how things work out sometime isn't it? Today was one of those days where things took a very unexpected turn. We met my parent for breakfast like we have for about the past month. However, earlier in the week I called my parents and told them that after breakfast we need to go to Veron. I told them that there was a lady who is selling Maltese puppies that we wanted to look at. Let me step back for a minute. For the past few months we have been looking for a Maltese puppy (female). Well over the past few weeks we have been looking quite seriously. Anyhow we found a breeder of Maltese nearby in Vernon and decided to look at them. My parents went along mainly for something to do.

We get to the kennel and check out the puppies. The Maltese that we are interested in is only 5 days old. Looks like a small rat. However, besides breeding Maltese this Kennel had a breed of dog know as a Bischon Frise. To me it looks very similar to a Maltese. The breeder had two of these puppies, a female and a male who were nine weeks old. I was fairly interested in these puppies cause I had heard a little bit about them. The breeder asked if we wanted to hold one of the puppies. Which surprisingly my mother did. Anyhow, to make a long story short and after a bit of faux complaining by my dad, my parents ended up buying the male Bischon Frise. That's him in the pictures above, his name is Charlie. We spent the whole day with mom and dad buying things for him. We had a lot of fun playing with Charlie. He's a cutie.

And by the way. We bought the female Maltese. We get to pick her up in about 7 weeks. Her name is 'Fancy'. Funny how things work out.

1972

2006-02-05T21:29:00.000-06:00

Believe it or not that's me sitting on my dads motorcycle. It was 1972 and I was all of 11 years old. My dad an I were just about ready to embark on a trip. My dad had just bought this new motorcycle and decided that he wanted to break it in. Disney World had just opened in Orlando a year earlier and I had been talking about wanting to go. So for the bike's shake down cruise we decided to take it from Thomson Illinois to Orlando Florida. I was recently reminded of this trip as I recently went to the Disney World area with my family. As we drove towards the entrance I remembered being there some 30 odd years ago on the back of my dad's Harley. So when we got home from this trip I asked my mom if she had any pictures of dad's "old" bike.

The bike I'm sitting on is the one we originally started on. However, we got about 3 hours from home near Peoria, Illinois and the engine blew. Dad called the dealer, he picked us up and brought us home. Not to be deterred my father had the dealer take the blue one back and he then bought a red one. We regrouped and then a short while later headed for Florida on the red Harley. Keep in mind that it was the early 70's so the speed limits were not what they are today so it was a long trip. We also didn't have the Weather Channel back then (only 3 channels - 4, 6, 8) and being true Midwesterners had no concept of what a Hurricane was. But we would.

My grandfather (my dad's dad) was afraid that I would fall asleep on the back of the bike and fall off. My dad assured him I wouldn't. Now I did fall asleep but I was wedged so tight between my dad and the tour pack on the back of the bike that there was no way I would fall off. Once again we headed towards Florida and for the first day and a half it was an uneventful trip. I remembered driving through downtown Atlanta in the early morning thinking that we would be in Orlando in no time. As we got past Atlanta and towards southern Georgia it began to rain. We tried to shrug it off but the rain became more intense. Then came the wind. Then came the pain. When your 11 years old, in shorts, on a motorcycle and you get hit by Hurricane force rain - it hurts - big-time. We stopped at a Shell station to get out the rain and I remember the guy who was working looking at us like we were crazy. He informed us that a Hurricane was making landfall and that we were driving right into the middle of it. I looked at my dad who said "Sorry son but gotta get away from this storm".

As disappointed as I was, I agreed. So we got back on the motorcycle, turned around and headed north. We went back through Atlanta and went to Chattanooga, Tennessee. We decided that we would hang out in Chattanooga until the storm passed and then head back towards Orlando. Our time in Chattanooga was really cool. I remember we stayed at hotel that had a pool. Again, this was the early 70's and before the big hotel chains and before pools became common place. Our hotel was at the foot of Look Out Mountain and to this day I remember being in the pool looking up at the mountain. Anyhow, the storm passed and we once again headed back towards Orlando.

We got to Orlando, which was really not much of a city back then. Instead of staying in a hotel near Disney my dad decided to find a hotel in the middle of no where. In this case the middle of no where was an orange grove. I kid you not, it looked like a square was cut out of the grove and the hotel was placed there. Once again I begged my dad for a hotel with a pool. To which he obliged me….sort of. Technically this dump, err hotel had a pool. I excitedly put my trunks on, grabbed a towel and headed towards the pool. I'd leave the luggage to my dad - he didn't care. As I reached the pool I couldn't believe my eyes. I am not eggarating when I say that the entire pool was covered in green moss. Dejected and disappointed I returned to my hotel room. I told my dad about this travesty to which he replied "You asked for a swimming pool so you're gonna go swimming. Come with me!" I couldn't believe what I had heard. Surely once he saw this disaster he would understand. We reached the pool and he said "Well….?" I thought to myself "Well What?" - A few moments later he said "Well aren't you gonna get in?" - I remember the words "Dad" coming out of my mouth. The next thing I remember is coming up for air in middle of the pool and thinking if you just don't touch anything you should be Okay. And don't swallow the water! Then to ensure that I would swim my dad pulled up a chair and watched me…for hours. This is where I perfected the "dog paddle" with out touching any of the carpet like moss that covered the pool. I also learned to never ask for hotel with a pool again.

The drive into Disney was one I'll never forget. The miles of pine trees that led to the entrance seemed like it would never end. We got to entrance and it seemed like no one was there. That's because there really wasn't - the hurricane had detracted many of the wood be visitors. So it was quite empty by today's standards. It was also when Disney sold ticket books. Instead of paying one price, getting into the park and riding all the rides - you got a book with tickets. You then exchanged the tickets for the ride you wanted to go on. They rated the rides from "A" to "E". When you got to the attraction you wanted, you used the corresponding ticket to get to the ride. As you can imagine the "A" tickets were for the lame rides i.e.. Tea Cups, Mister Toads Wild Ride etc. While the E tickets were for the cool rides like Space Mountain and the Haunted Mansion. Of course they gave you mostly "A" tickets and only a couple of "E" tickets. With the idea that you could purchase more single "E" tickets if you wanted. So of course I got to ride "It's a Small Wold" about a dozen times while the time wondering what "The Pirates of the Caribbean" were doing. I later realized that this was my first real experience with capitalism and frankly I've never gotten over it. Nor have I forgiven the fine folks at Disney for this fond memory.

On the way home we stopped to buy some fireworks. We stopped in either Georgia or Tennessee - not sure which one. Anyhow, we boxed up all our clothes that were in the saddle bags and tour pack and mailed them home. We then filled the saddle bags and tour pack with fire works! And I mean hundreds of dollars of fireworks - as many as we could pack. This also means the clothes we had on were what we wore for the remainder of the trip (ripe). A funny note about the fire works. We took these fireworks to my Aunt's house for the 4th of July only to have my cousin through a match in the whole box and watch them go off in about two minutes. Everyone had to duck and hide as bottle rockets and roman candles went off in all directions. At the time it sucked, but looking back on it now it's pretty funny.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. No more blown engines. No more Hurricanes. No more mossy pools. No more fireworks. And no more "A" tickets. That's okay though - years later I realize that this trip with my dad was the "E" ticket vacation of my child hood and I'll never forget it.

Hmmmm...

2006-01-24T22:07:00.000-06:00

Always remember, that when you "point the finger" at someone that you have three pointing back at you. Think about it. (Now sit there and try like I did and you'll see its true).

the more i know, the less i understand

2006-01-22T23:44:00.000-06:00

It's always humbling to realize that you don't know as much as think you do. That's kind of how I feel tonight. I was reminded that my past experiences are not always the best way to evaluate a situation. It's embarrassing to admit to your self that you can be closed minded, even though you have promised and swore to yourself that you never would be. It's always important to listen to all thoughts and ideas first - then talk, especially when you think you've got it all figured out. I should know by now that the times when I think I have it figured out are actually the times where I'm most likely to end up way off base. I am grateful for subtle reminders and for people who have forgotten more than I'll ever know. I'm also glad that I was reminded that I can learn from anyone - regardless of my preconceived thoughts of them. Experiences are great and knowledge is cool but wisdom is what I need.

New Photos

2006-01-20T22:41:00.000-06:00

I just added a new photo album under the "Our Photo Album" link. The name of the album is called "Orlando-Jan06". It has some pictures of our recent trip to Orlando to visit Kiel. If you're really bored check them out. Later.

The Printers Daughter

2006-01-18T20:31:00.000-06:00

I read a story earlier today that has really stuck with me. It was during the time Martin Luther was having the Bible printed in Germany. The printer who was printing the Bible for him, had a daughter. This girl knew nothing about God except fear. One day she was cleaning up her fathers shop and she found fallen pieces of Scripture on the floor. On the paper she picked up it said "For God so loved the world, that he gave.....". The rest of the Scripture had not yet been printed. But it didn't have to be - this was enough. The idea that God would give her anything moved her from fear to joy. Over the next few days her mother noticed a change in her. She asked her daughter what had caused this new found happiness. The daughter showed her mother the piece of paper with the partial scripture on it. Her mother read it and asked her daughter "What did he give?" The daughter thought for a moment and then said "I don't know but if He loved us enough to give us anything we should not be afraid of him."

I love the heart that the printers daughter had. The idea that God, the creator of the universe would give to us is simply amazing. The one who hung the stars in the sky and created all that we see and know - gave to us. And not just "anything". He gave us the very best he had - he gave us His son. The thought that he would give us "anything" blows my mind. The thought that he gave us His son blows me away. I hope and pray that for the rest of my time on this earth that I can have a heart like the printers daughter. I simply want to live a life that is grateful for anything that my God is willing to give me. I want the idea of anything from God to be enough.

Oh yes...the picture. Last February I wrote a post called "The View". In this post I described a place that I drive by on my way home every evening after work. This view is one of the things that I feel God has given me each and every day. After being asked by a few of you, I have finally gotten around to taking a picture of it. Actually, Kiel took the picture when he was home at Christmas. Anyhow, hopefully you'll get a glimpse of what I was talking about when I wrote that post. Hope all is well and everyone is good.

Party Saver

2006-01-12T21:51:00.000-06:00

I was replaying the events of my day in my head when I was reminded of something I had heard years earlier. You may of heard this popular Bible story from John 2: 1-11. It’s the one where Jesus performs his first miracle. Jesus goes to a wedding feast with his disciples and during the celebration the host runs out of wine. Jesus’ mother approaches him and tells him about what happened. See in that time weddings feasts were these week long affairs with huge banquets where the whole town was invited. Much planning went into these events. To run out of wine during one of these feast was more than just embarrassing; it broke the unwritten rules of the day concerning hospitality. Anyhow, Jesus’ mother told him about the problem and after some interesting comments to his mother, Jesus turned the water into wine. We’re not talking about cheap ripple either; we’re talking about some fine vintage stuff. By turning the water into wine Jesus saved the host of the party a tremendous amount of embarrassment by not running out of wine. And by not running out of wine the guest did not leave and the party continued.

Basically…Jesus saved the party.

When thinking about the events of my day, that's what I realized had happened to me. Jesus had saved my party. He didn't turn my water into wine or perform what most would consider a miracle. But he did save me from what could have been a potentially embarrassing situation. I’ll spare you the boring, technical details but He saved my “professional” party. I’m working on a huge software upgrade at work that is very demanding. Anyhow, through a series of events and discoveries that I take no credit for, I was shown where we were not fully prepared for our next upgrade. I was operating under the impression we were – but I found out we weren’t. Being responsible for this upgrade, I’m glad I found out now instead of later. It would have been very embarrassing and very costly ($) to the company. Jesus saved my party only the way he can.

Perhaps you’ve had Jesus save your party. You’re at a stop sign, you’ve looked both ways and you start to pull out. Suddenly out of now where is another car or a kid on a bicycle – for the life of you, you can’t figure out how you missed them. Or maybe it’s the end of the month and the check book is bottomed out. Your output is greater than your intake – you don’t know how you’re going to make ends meet. Then from out of the blue you get an expected check or receive a timely gift. Whatever it is you’ll take it and the bills get paid. Jesus saved your party. By now you get the point and you can probably think of times in your life where you were in a bind. You and only you know the depth of the pile dodo you stepped into. You can’t see a remedy and no solution is in sight. You close your eyes, grit your teeth and brace yourself for impact. But then….nothing. Slowly you open one eye and think “What happened? Why didn’t I ….”. It’s at that moment you realize you’ve been rescued; you’ve been saved from yourself. You’re the only one on this earth who knows all the details of your situation and you know there is no way this should have happened. The outcome should be different. There’s only explanation: Jesus saved your party. If you've every had your party saved you won't forget it.

Often times our first and natural reaction is to say “Wow, I sure was lucky!” Frankly speaking - luck had nothing to do with it. Personally, I think luck gets far more credit than it deserves in situations like these. Luck runs out – Jesus doesn’t. Anyhow, today I realized that my party was saved. One final thought concerning this and I’ll shut up. In the last verse (John 2:11) regarding this story it says “…. He thus revealed his glory and his disciples put their faith in him.” Two really interesting things happened when Jesus turned the water into wine and saved this party. First, it “revealed his glory” – it showed who he was. And second, by revealing his glory it caused his disciples to “put their faith in him”. When Jesus saves my party the same thing happens to me. His shows me who he is (his glory) and I’m reminded to put my faith in him. All I know is that I’m grateful that he thinks enough of me to intervene in my life – he’s invited to do so at anytime.

Enough about that – we’re out of town for the long weekend (MLK). We’re going to go see Kiel in Orlando - should be fun. I think Kathy’s dad Warren is going to come up to Orlando on Sunday and hangout with us. Hope everyone has a great weekend. We’ll try to take lots of pictures. Take care!

Debut

2006-01-06T23:09:00.000-06:00

Tonight was extremley cool. Tonight the kids from our Youth Worship Band at church made thier public debut. The played at the coffeehouse at our church, they opened up for the church house band - "Piece's of the Wreck". (Yes our church has a house band) Anyhow, the guys from the youth group opened up before hand and did an INCREDIBLE job. I can't tell you how proud we are of ALL the guys in the band - Joe, Jake, Kyle, Steven and Katlin. I think they really impressed alot of folks tonight with the talents and abilites that God has given them. I've heard them many times before myself, but tonight was thier best performance by far. Take a look at the following pictures.

2006-01-06T23:06:00.001-06:00

Kat playing his drums....

2006-01-06T23:04:00.001-06:00

The Eastgate Youth Worhsip Band aka "Crash". Left to Right - Joe (Bass), Steven (Guitar), Kyle (Keyboards), Katlin (Drums) and Jake (Guitar).

2006-01-06T23:04:00.000-06:00

Kat (middle) and Jake (to the right w/ all the hair)

What The $%#! You Doing????

2006-01-04T19:51:00.000-06:00

I have a knack for getting myself into awkard situations. I don't know how, I guess it just comes naturally. Usually I say or do something stupid and before I know it I'm in the middle of embarrassing myself. Well I found myself in the middle of one of those situations yesterday but this time I wasn't the one who caused it. Actually, I was minding my own business for once - hard to believe I know.

Anyhow, I was at working away in my office when the phone rang. As I often do, I put the call on speaker phone so I can continue to work on my computer while talk. Rude I know but I must multi-task. I start speaking to the person on the other end of the phone as he begins to describe his computer problem. I start asking him questions to diagnosis the problem. About two minutes into the conversation, the guy across the hall comes into my office and sits down at my desk. I nod my head and acknowledge him and continue my conversation on the phone. Out of now where this guy does the strangest thing. He begins tapping his fingers on the top of my phone. Keep in mind I'm on a speaker phone and his fingers are inches away from the microphone. I do my best to act as if nothing is happening. I can tell that the person on the other end of the phone is distracted by this guy. I look at this guy with a "What the..." kind of look. But he just grins and keeps on tapping. I think I'm gonna kill him.

Finally after about 30 seconds of this I can't take it any longer. I stop my conversation with the guy on the phone and look this guy dead in the eyes. He can see it coming but he can't speak - his eyes get really big - he knows he's about to get nuked. Firmly but fairly calmly I say "Don, what in the hell are you doing?" - He smiles a nervous smile and says "Oh, I just thought I would come in and give Charlie a hard time." I look at him and inform him that I'm not talking to Charlie but that I'm speaking to someone else.

His face goes completely blank and his smile disappers. The tapping stops - he gets up and can't find the door to my office quick enough. About an hour later he works up the courage to come back in my office. He chuckles and says "I guess I made an idiot out of myself didn't I?" I tried to stop myself but I couldn't. "You certainly did - didn't you?" Once again, the chuckle disappears and a quick exit ensues.

Fast forward about three hours later. Again, I'm minding my own business and I'm working away. The same guy comes back into my office. I don't look up but I do see him out of the corner of my eye. Suddenly and quite spastically he starts swatting a fly swatter. He starts beating the crap out my walls, then my desk, then the door. He doesn't say anything - he just continues swatting. I stop working and look at him. He senses this and says "I'm not bothering you am I?" Once again I ask him the same thing I did earlier "Don, what in the hell are you doing?" He stops his swatting and says that he's been after this fly all day and he has chased him into my office. He then resumes his spastic activity - just as I was about to have him committed he swats the fly on my wall. He proudly says "He's soy sauce now!!' (haven't quite figured that out yet). He then turns and walks out leaving dead fly matter on my wall.

I have got to start locking my door.

You Would Never Know It But...

2006-01-03T21:18:00.000-06:00

You would never know it but I actually do have a lot to say. I know that you would never know it cause I haven't posted much lately. However over the last several days I have found that I have alot rolling around inside of this empty head of mine. I think that I probably have too much to say and don't know where to begin. Other times I have things I want to say but I am just too tired to sit down and write. I'll simply start here and say this: God is good and nothing matters more than Love. Nothing. Happy New Years!

New Toy

2005-12-29T10:26:00.000-06:00

As you can probably see we got a digital camera for Christmas(Thanks Lana). Here is a picture I recently took of my family. This is of Kiel, Kathy and Katlin at the Old Spagehtti Factory in Atlanta. We took a short road trip to Atlanta the day after Christmas to check out the new Georgia Aquarium. We had a lot of fun hanging out together. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and is looking forward to the New Year. Will post more later - I've been quite a slacker in terms of posting.
Happy New Year!

X Factor

2005-12-08T21:33:00.000-06:00

I believe it was Will Rogers who said “Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects”. I think I would have to pretty much agree with that statement. There are certain subjects that I am completely ignorant about. The areas of medical science and engineering immediately come to mind. But because I know that I’m ignorant about such things – I try to keep my mouth shut when the conversation turns to such subjects. I simply don’t see the point of making an idiot of yourself and talk about something you know nothing about. I can’t say I’ve always done that or always do that but I do recognize (as my father says) that “I shouldn’t’ be talking just to be talking”.

I had this happen to me the other day and it really got under skin. Kathy and I were with some folks from our old church. The topic turned to the subject of Christmas trees. We put a real Christmas tree every year. Kathy can’t quite cross over to the dark side and buy an artificial one yet but I’m working on her. Anyhow, these folks asked us where we bought our Christmas tree from. We told them that bought from the Boys & Girls Club in front of Sam’s Club. This couple kind of looked at each other and collectively went “Ohh…” The husband said somewhat smugly “Yeah we saw that place but we didn’t buy ours from them”. His wife said “That’s right. That’s’ the place that had 'the sign' ”. Now I was intrigued and asked “What sign?” The husband proudly said “The one that said “X-Mas trees” instead of “Christmas trees”. I stood there ready to say something but before I did he continued: “You know Ron, sometime you just have to take a stand. We have got to keep “Christ” in Christmas.” I thought to myself: “This is exactly why I no longer go to your Church”.

I said nothing to this man, in hindsight I probably should have but I didn’t feel like getting into a contest with him. He’s not the type of guy who likes to be corrected, particularly in front of his wife. Sometimes it’s easier and perhaps better to say nothing at all. Anyhow, let me explain why this got under my skin. Many folks, particularly those who profess to be people of faith assume, the term “X-mas” is meant to take “Christ out of Christmas”. When in fact that is not the case, X-mas is simply an ancient abbreviation for Christmas (first cited in 1551). It comes from the Greek word ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ (transliterated is Christ's) which is Greek for Christ. The “X” in “Xmas” is a symbol for Christ, from the Greek letter chi (X). Check your dictionary by the meaning of the letter "X" and you'll that it says "Christ". So back in the day, Christmas (which literally means “Christ’s Mass”) was abbreviated using the symbol of Christ (X) to Xmas then over time to X-mas. Many folks, like my friend, think that the “X” in “X-Mas” is part of a secular conspiracy to “take Christ out of Christmas”. Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.

In the course of normal conversation I refer to Christmas as Christmas. I don’t run around saying “Merry X-Mas”. Personally I prefer to use Christmas over X-Mas. But I don’t get offended by the usage of the abbreviation “X-mas”. The reasons are simple: because I know its origin plus I like what the 'X' means. But at one point in time I didn’t know, so I looked it up in a dictionary and found out what it meant. I was then no longer ignorant as to what X-mas meant. That’s all this guy had to do to – was to look it up – find out for yourself – do a little research. Instead we settle on and listen to the opinions of others instead of finding out for ourselves. Like they used to say on X-Files – “The Truth is Out There”. We just need to be willing to look for it.

And another thing. Not buying a Christmas tree from the Boys and Girls Club (a great organization in my opinion) because they used “X-Mas” on their sign, is not “taking a stand” for the cause. That kind of “we need to take a stand” attitude albeit for safe and convenient issues is a joke. The whole idea that we fool ourselves into thinking that we are somehow noble for standing up as something ridiculous as this is laughable. But to me it points to a larger problem. It comes from a mentality that is created and fostered in many of today’s church’s. If you’re not out there reminding people that their going to hell and that you’ve got all the answers – well then your not a Christian. I gotta tell you guys, I am sick and tired of this mindset. I’m tired of us claiming to be one thing and then living another way. Then to appease our conscience, we do “things” that appear outwardly ‘righteous’ but don’t amount mean a hill of beans. By the way, everything I’ve just mentioned – I’ve done too – so I’m convicted by my own words.

I’m just tired of us talking about things we know nothing about. I’m tired of us jumping to conclusions. I'm tired of us thinking we have to know all the answers. And I’m tired of us thinking that we’re something we’re not. All I know is that I’m a work in progress, who doesn’t have a clue, that needs to keep his mouth shut and is done pretending to be something he isn’t. I'll just have to rely on the 'X' Factor to help make it through.

The Odometer of Life

2005-11-22T21:06:00.000-06:00

As you have probably noticed I haven't updated in awhile (Thank you for that insight Cpt. Obvious). Actually there is good reason, I've been out of town for the better part of the last couple of weeks. I was working out of our facility in Newnan, GA - about 30 miles south of Atlanta. Anyhow, because of this I haven't had the opportunity to update like I wanted. But I'm back now and things are getting back to normal. Well as normal as 'normal' is.

On my drive home from Newnan this past Friday I ended up doing something a little different to pass the time. The rental car that I had been driving was pretty new. When I picked it up it only had a little over a thousand miles. As I began my return trip I checked the odometer to see what the starting mileage would be. I noticed that as I was leaving the hotel it said "1958". I kind of chuckled as I headed towards the interstate. A couple of minutes and looked down and saw that it now read "1960". Again I sort of smiled to myself and thought that in one mile the mileage of the car would be the same as my birth year - "1961". Sure enough "1961" came around on the odometer. As I looked at my birth year on the odometer, I started thinking back to that time. I started thinking about my birth, where I was born, the stories I had heard about it etc. When I glanced down again I noticed the odometer now said "1962". Again my wind wandered back to the year 1962 in my life. I thought of the stories I heard, where I lived and so on. I'll be the first to admit the years 1961-1965 a bit fuzzy to me since I was only a child. But anyhow I continued watching the odometer play back each year of my life. And each new year that appeared took me back to that time in my life.

When "1972" came up I remembered being in 6th grade and that our high school basketball went to state. When "1977" came up I remembered getting my drivers license and cruising around in my car. Then "1981" rolled around, the year I met Kathy. Then "1982" the year I joined the Air Force and moved to California. "1983" brought a smile to my face as I thought about our wedding and studio apartment that we moved into. "1985" was another banner year as we moved from California to the St.Louis area and Kiel was born. I thought of moving to Belgium when "1987" appeared. I couldn't believe it when "1989" appeared, that was when we moved from Belgium to Panama City and Katlin was born. When "1992" rolled around I thought of how I got out of the Air Force, got a new job and bought my first house.

This little exercise continued up until the present "2005" and I thought about all the things that happened since "1961". I remembered both the good and the bad - the happy and the sad - all of it. I remembered things that I haven't thought about in years. Keep in mind this whole process took about 45 minutes. I was also amazed at how fast it went by and I'm not talking about the miles odometer. As quickly as the miles rolled by on the odometer so have the years of my life - they've just flown by. And that made me a bit sad. But then something interesting happened, I kept watching the odometer. When "2007" appeared I remembered thinking that would be the year Katlin graduates from High School. "2011" appeared and made me wonder if Kiel would be married or if I would be a grandparent. It also reminded me that I would be 50 years old! When "2018" appeared I thought about my kids wives and children. I thought of how old my boys would be, where did they live - and wondered if they would be happy. As I watched the "future" go by, I became happy again. I was excited of all that is before in my life. I thought of all I have to look forward to in the coming years.

Somewhere between "2041" and "2061" - I realized that it was probably over for me. And I thought about that as well. But even then I couldn't help but think about my kids and my kids kids and where would they be during that time and point in their lives. All of it made me think that it's been a good life and that I am very fortunate and blessed. I can't help but be thankful for every minute of it. If you get a minute, particularly during this time of year, take a couple minutes and think back on the odometer of your life. I'll think you'd agree that a lot has happened and that you have been blessed. But I think you'll see that you also have a lot to look forward to in the coming years.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Closer To Home

2005-11-08T22:22:00.000-06:00

Last night as I was driving, I suddenly realized that I wanted to go home. Not to my house but I wanted to go home. I’m talking about the place that I was made for, the place I was meant for. The place created for me – built for me with love and blood. The place that I realized…I long for. And it all started with a song:

Your letter said that you were leaving - but you didn't know how long
I have never stopped believing - That one day you would return

I hadn’t picked up this particular CD in years. I really didn’t care for it much after I bought it so I rarely listened to it. And I cared even less for this particular song. Normally I would “skip” through this song when it came on, but not today. Why I was now listening to this song was beyond me. Maybe that’s what it was: Maybe I had heard this song before but I had never listened until now. Regardless, I’m glad that I chose to listen today.

And though the waiting is the hardest - Part of everything I do
I do confess it's getting better - Knowing I will be with you

As I started listening to the words, I started to feel sad. You know how you feel when you miss someone really bad and you want to be with them but you can’t? That’s how I felt – I was sad because I missed my home. For about ten seconds I had this overwhelming feeling of wanting to be there – with Him. I also had feelings of sadness, separation, longing, expectation and happiness all rolled into one thinking about Home. It was almost to much - both my soul and eyes welled up thinking about it. At that moment, at that instance – I longed for home.

It's alright - It's okay - I won't worry about tomorrow
For it brings me one more day - Closer than I was to you

I do long for home, I also long for more. More than this world has to offer. More than sickness and pain. More than heartache and troubles. More is out there and it was speaking to me. It was letting me know to whom I belonged and where I belonged. More reminded me that I don’t belong here and I don’t belong to this world. The Bible says that He “Has set eternity in the hearts of men”. Frankly speaking that’s what I felt: eternity set on my heart. I felt eternity calling to me, reminding me of home. Calling me to where I belong. Calling me to More. It was like a summer breeze washing across my face. It was like catching a glimpse of something – you’re not sure what you saw but you know you saw something. It was like a gentle touch on the shoulder but you turn around and no one is there. You can’t see it but you can feel it and you know it’s there. You also know it’s real. That’s what I felt: the realization that eternity was reminding me my Father loves me and wants to be with me.

Now the question isn't "will you" - What I want to know is "when"
If it's one day or a million - I will wait for you 'til then

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a death wish. Actually I hope and pray that I have many more years here in this place. There is so much unfinished work - so much to yet see and do – I don’t want to leave just yet(Lord Willing). I want to see my kids finish school, fall in love and marry. I want to see them have children. I want become a grandparent. I want to retire and travel. And I want to grow old with my wife. There is so much that I want do that I don’t want to leave just yet. But I also want to go home. I know that day will come soon enough so I’m not rushing it. But home is calling me, reminding me that’s where I belong. Not here, this world is not my home.

So I'm holding on to your words - And the promises you've made
There is not one you have broken - There's not one I didn't take

So in the meantime, I'll keep living the life and I’ll keep looking towards home. I'll keep reading His letter and I'll keep clinging to His promises. I’ll also remember that home is out there – I won’t forget it. I can’t forget it. How can I? How can I forget what I was created for? How can forget my destiny? My destiny is to be with Him – forever. Home with my Father.

Your letter said that you were leaving - But you didn't know how long
I will never stop believing - I know one day you will return
It's alright - It's okay - I won't worry about tomorrow
For it brings me one more day - Closer than I was to you

Each day is one day closer to home...

"It's Alright" words and music by Third Day

Weekend Update

2005-11-06T20:38:00.000-06:00

We just got back from visiting Kiel in Orlando a couple of hours ago. What a trip and weekend it was. The entire drive home I thought of what I was going to write but I didn't come up with much. Not that a lot didn't happen cause it did. Actually the opposite is true. So much good stuff happened I'm just not sure I can do it justice. To say we had great weekend visiting Kiel would be a serious understatement.

We left real early Friday morning (4:00AM) and got to Orlando around 11:00AM. We met Kiel at his apartment. Keep in mind this is the first time we have been back to Orlando or his apartment since we dropped him off in August. He said he had cleaned his apartment but we debated him on that point. (Sorry Kiel - had to "bust your balls" one last time). After giving Kiel a hard time about the cleanliness of his apartment and some hygiene issues, we decided to go get something to eat. Kiel took us to one his new favorites "The Pita Pit" - a build your own Pita sandwich place. It was pretty good. After that we decide to go shopping for a bit. Kiel needed some new clothes since his room mates ink pen exploded in the dryer and got all over his clothes. So after shopping for a few hours Kiel took us to our hotel room. Since it was Family weekend and Homecoming weekend all the hotels near campus we full. Kiel was able to get us a room at the Marriott near the airport all the while taking advantage of his employee discount. Kiel and Katlin went back to Kiel's apartment from some 'brother time' while Kathy and I checked out the hotel and got ready for dinner.

The boys came and picked Kathy and I up for dinner. Kiel had made arrangements for us to have dinner at the restaurant where he works. Kiel works at a restaurant called "Primo" and it is located in the J.W. Marriott Grand Lakes Resort. I want to try describe this dinner experience without expounding on the truth or bragging - but I don't know if I can. The resort where Kiel works can only be described as incredible. It's not the type of place that I am accustomed to visiting or staying at - it is very beautiful and very, very expensive.

Primo is an amazing restaurant. Everything is organically grown on the grounds of the hotel. So everything and I do mean everything is fresh and natural. That's very important to understand cause if you don't you can miss the full impact of this place. Let me stop here and say this. I am not an expert on food nor do I claim to be. However, over the years I have traveled on business and pleasure a fair amount and been to my fair share of "nice" restaurants. If you would have asked me before this evening if I knew what "Fine Dining" was I would have laughed at you and told you Yes. I can only say I thought I knew what Fine Dining was - this experience would set a new standard in dining that I didn't know existed.

Kiel introduced us to his friends and co-workers at Primo. Most notablely was Kiel's boss and Primo's Matre De - Eddie. Eddie was the person who hired Kiel and has taken him under his wing so to speak. Eddie also made sure that our dinner on this evening would be nothing short of perfect. Eddie and the entire staff went to great lengths to make this one of the most memorable - if not the most memorable meal we've ever had as a family. I simply don't think anything could have any better than what it was.

I would descibe to you what we ate but I'm not sure I know. But here's what I can tell you for sure. I tasted the best olive oil I have ever had - from Tunisa I believe Kiel said. We all tried Caviar for the first time - different. We ordered a couple of appetizer - but since Kiel worked there the Chef of duty pulled out all the stops. Besides the appetizer we ordered they brought out a couple others for us to try. By the time our entrees arrived we had eaten half the stuff on the menu. We were like kids in a candy store. It was fun. Have you ever had one of those experiences where everything was just right? By that I mean you're with the right people, in the right place and eveything works together perfectly. This was that type of evening.

Anyhow Kiel and Eddie gave us the best dining experience at a restaurant we've ever had. The meal was fabulous and the service was impeccable. Kiel is very fortunate to be working with a great group of people and in such amazing environment. Can't wait to go back again sometime. After dinner we went to a late movie - dinner took 2 1/2 hours. Went and saw "Jarhead" - it was a very different movie. If you've ever been in the military you could relate otherwise I'm not sure you would get it. Got home late and we crashed.

On Saturday we shopping again. Kat wanted to go to the "Guitar Center" which is a music store and buy some stuff for his drums. He was in heaven and didn't want to leave. Kat parted with much of his hard earned money and bought a bunch of cool drum stuff. Kiel then took us to a very upscale mall where we hung out for a few hours. We ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory - and it was okay. During dinner we decided to go to the UCF Homecoming football game at the Citrus Bowl. We made it to the game and got there at the beginning of the 2nd quarter. The game was fun and UCF won and is elegible for a college bowl game. We enjoyed watching all the drunk kids and cheering for UCF - it was alot of fun. We got back to the hotel around 9:30PM - the boys went back to Kiel's apt. for some video games and late night Hot Wings. This morning we met the boys at Kiels and then got something to eat at the California Pizza Kitchen before heading back home.

The entire weekend was great. Kiel is a great host - who went to great lengths to ensure we were comfortable and content. Thanks for all you did Kiel - it was great. Anyhow it was a blast and I can't wait til we go down and seem him again. But back to work tomorrow. I leave Wednesday for Atlanta for a few days. I have two days of meetings to go to and will be back sometime early Friday evening (6ish). I'm not looking forward to it but I am well rested from this weekend so I should be able to get through it. I'm sure I've bored you enough but I wanted to get this posted. Hope everyone is well and I'll post more later....

Ramblings

2005-11-01T19:26:00.000-06:00

It's cold and rainy out tonight. My wife is working late. So my son and I had chilli for dinner, which is strange cause I don't like chili. But it's cold outside and it sounded good. Chili, frito's and cheese becomes Chili Pie. Chili is hot and eating something warm sounded good. But it's still chili and I don't like chili. Should of made beef stew.

Halloween has come and gone. I'm pretty ambivilent(sp) when it comes to Halloween. Really don't care about it one way or another. Not that I have a problem with it cause I don't. But it does nothing for me nor do I get upset by it. Just another day as far as I'm concerned except the kids asking for candy are wearing masks.

Saw a complete rainbow today. I mean complete - from end to end and the whole arch. It was incredible. I saw it from my office. I sat and looked at and remembered that a rainbow is God's sign(covenant/promise) He made to never destroy the world again by a flood. But more than that I sat there looking at this rainbow remembering that He's a God of His word who will never break His promise. Any promise. I liked that rainbow - I liked what it made me think of.

I feel very matter of fact tonight (in case you couldn't tell). Tried writing something that was on my mind but my heart wasn't into it - so I said forget it. Need to go - my wife's home. I think she had a long day. Probably needs her feet rubbed. Oh yeah - it's beeb a year ago today that we closed/moved into this house. Maybe if she's not too tired we'll open the champagne I bought last year to celebrate buying the house that we never drank. It's probably aged and better than what it was last year....kind of like me (kidding).

I'll try this again later...

And The Winner Is....

2005-10-29T11:19:00.000-05:00

I think it's time to put this fish naming thing to rest. After not being able to think of anything really clever to name this fish, we have settled (by default) on Ryan's suggestion of calling him "Alfie" which is short for "Alfie Betta" - remember he's a Betta fish? Anyhow we've racked our brains, looked at names for fish and pets on the web and couldn't decide on anything. Actually I liked the name "Hendrix" as in Jimmy Hendrix but it didn't go over well in my house. But when it was all said and done it came down to "Alfie" and "Blue/Blue Too". But since we already had a Blue we decided to try something new. I actually tried calling the fish by different names but Kathy has been calling him Alfie so long that it didn't feel right calling him anything else. So Alfie it is. Ryan - the Filet-O-Fish is yours my friend.

The other night I was sitting on the couch in the living room and I heard Kathy come home from work. She was in the kitchen and I heard her say "Hi sweetie how you doing?" to which I replied "Fine" but I'm not sure she heard me. In her "sweet voice" she continued by saying "I missed you sooo much - How was your day?" - I thought to myself "Wow - this is cool!" - thinking something special was in the works I replied "I missed you too honey - my day was good." Then suddenly her tone changed and she pointedly said to me "I wasn't talking to you - I was talking to the fish!". Oh...that was embarrassing. Least I know where I stand now. So I guess this means this fish is now part of the family.

Been a wild and crazy week - work is nuts. Kathy had her 2nd flat tire in 3 weeks this week. Gonna start buying tires in bulk if this keeps up. Next weekend we are going to go to Orlando and see Kiel. Since we didn't get to go last weekend because of the hurricane we are going next weekend. Family weekend has been rescheduled for then too. We're all looking forward to seeing him and spending Friday, Saturday and Sunday with him. Not much else except Katlin is going to go to New York City in March for a week with school. He got invited to go by one of his teachers from the school TV station. He's pretty excited (he's never been) plus they'll be doing and seeing some pretty fun stuff. That's all for now...

Well...

2005-10-20T21:03:00.000-05:00

I haven't updated in a while. Let me see:

The garage sale went fine last Saturday. We got the garage cleaned out and have actually been parking Kathy's van in the garage since Saturday night! We sold quite a bit at the garage sale and what we didn't sell went to Good Will. We made a $150 on the garage sale. I gave $100 of it to my mom and dad so they could go buy me some sod. I'm extending my front yard a bit and need some more sod to bring it out. The remaining $50 went to buy a shelving unit for the garage. So much for all the profits. Kathy had a weird moment during the garage sale. She was outside by herself watching over the garage sale. While my mom, dad and I were inside the house (eating breakfast). This man about 60 years old came to sale and thought Kathy was there by herself. He started hitting on her in a very lewd way. He couldn't quite convince Kathy to abandon the garage sale and run away with him. I won't tell you what this guy was saying and insinuating to Kathy but suffice it to say there are some sick people in this world. He made her feel very uncomfortable but finally left when we started getting suspicious and he saw activity in the house. He got out of there before dad and I had a chance to thump on him.

This weekend was supposed to be Family Weekend at UCF. We were going to take off in the morning and drive to Orlando for the weekend. However, since the hurricane will be hitting Central/South Florida this weekend our plans have changed. UCF has canceled Family Weekend and moved it to sometime in November. We are not going to be going to Orlando this weekend because of the storm. Instead Kathy's dad (Warren) and his girlfriend (Jean) will we coming up from Avon Park to stay with us. Chances are that their house will be in the path of the storm in some fashion.

We not sure what Kiel intends to do concerning the storm - whether he will come home or not. He started a new job at the Marriott/Ritz Carlton Grand Lakes Resort near Disney earlier this week. Since it is a huge resort they may stay open for the duration of the storm. If so they will need all the help they can get to support the resort. What this means is that they will let the employees(Kiel) stay on property at the hotel in a room. And then work them to death the duration of the storm. Kiel normally works in a restaurant called 'Primo' but during the storm he may stay and work at the Starbucks they have in the hotel. He's not sure what he's going to do yet - he said he would decide tonight after his shift at Primo.

I'm still going to take tomorrow (Friday) off since Warren and Jean will be coming up. I also need to lay sod in the front yard. Hopefully I'll get it done early so Warren, Kat and I can go play some golf. The weather is perfect for playing golf. Not sure what else we'll do this weekend - maybe go to Destin for some shopping, dinner and a movie.

Haven't decided on a name for the fish. I don't like the name 'Gus' - that name has been spoiled. Some folks we know have a little boy named Gus and I don't want my fish named after him. What's up with this Fuzzybritches and BaitBreathe crap? That ain't happening either. I like Alfie Beta and Blue Too but still not completely sold on either. Kathy's dad suggested 'Jaws' - made me laugh. I know they have baby naming books - anyone know if they have fish/pet naming books?

That's all I got.

Attorneys, Garage Sales and Nameless Fish

2005-10-12T20:26:00.000-05:00

Well, I went to meet with the attorneys on Monday. We were going to go over my deposition and what questions they were going to ask me in court. I went to the hotel (netrual ground) to meet the lawyers. I hung in the lobby for a bit and no one was there. After about 5 minutes or so I went to the front desk asked if they knew where they were. The lady at the desk said "You must be Mr. Cravatta?" I told her I was and she gave me message to call the attorney's office. I called and the lady on the other end told me that both sides had reached an agreement and had settled. Would have been nice if someone would have let me know. Another reason why I love attorneys (sarcasm). Anyhow, all this means I don't have to go to court and testify. But I am keeping my $25.

Garage Sale this weekend, at least Saturday morning. My goal is to be able to park a vechile in the garage by the end of the weekend. Think it will happen? I don't, but it is a goal - something to shoot for. I think we're going to have the sale at my parents (our old) house. Great location on a very busy street - great place to sell stuff.

We (Kathy) bought a beta fish. Our neighbor brought hers over for us to 'fish sit' and Kathy decided she wanted one. I think I'm gonna take a picture of it tomorrow and post it here on the blog. Then after seeing him, you guys can help us pick a name. Sort of a name the fish contest - except there's no prize - so it's not really a contest. Oooo - I know. The winner would get a gift certificate for a Filet-O-Fish Sandwich. I love irony. Name the fish, then eat one - how cool is that?

That's all I got - be thinking of name for the fish!

Time For Change? Nah, Just Bored

2005-10-08T07:23:00.000-05:00

As you can tell I changed the background of this thing. Why? I don't have a clue. I guess I get tired of looking at the old background after about six months. But I also believe that I was just bored sitting here so I changed it. I have to tweak some things on it, like my links but it will have to do until I get bored again. Oh well.

Kiel made it home for the weekend. Got in yesterday afternoon. We're going to go to breakfast on the beach in a little bit. A fairly new place Kathy and I went to last weekend called 'Andy's Flour Power Bakery' - the omlettes and baked goods are great. After that I'm not sure what we're gonna do. Just hang out with the boys I'm guessing.

Hope everyone's well and enjoy the weekend. Time to go wake up my wife...

'Blast' From The Past

2005-10-06T21:58:00.000-05:00

Here's a 'Blast From the Past' so to speak. So five (5) years ago, in August of 2000 Kathy and I went to dinner with some guys I work with. There were a total of six of us - us and two other couples. We were working a project and my co-workers were in town to do some work. Anyhow this particular evening we decided to go to a beach front restaurant called Schooners. If any of you have ever visited here then we've probably taken you to Schooner's. It's a pretty neat place, the food is decent, the beer is cold but the view is spectacular.

Well on this night back in 2000 it was a windy night and had been raining. We sat on the deck so we could look at the beach and the water. Schooners has a tradition that they stole from Key West where they shoot off a signal cannon at sunset to celebrate the end of another day. A signal cannon is a fully functional, miniature brass cannon except they don't shoot a cannon ball. At the time, the would choose someone from the restaurant to shoot the cannon. On this particular night they choose this guy who was a Marine Corp helicopter pilot to do the honors. When normally lighting the cannon they use a long lighter, like the kind you use to light a BBQ grill. But since it was so windy this particular evening they passed. Instead they had the guy use a lit cigarette/cigar to light the fuse. Well, the guy bent down and lit the fuse the first time and nothing happened. Upon seeing it wasn't lit the guy bent over a second time to light the fuse. When he did, the cannon went off in his face. Unbeknownst to him, the fuse was lit from the first time he had bent down and lit it. Anyhow, he caught the full back blast from this cannon directly in his face. He was in bad shape and they had to call an ambulance and take him to the hospital. Found out he was burnt pretty bad on his face and lost the use of an eye. Because of that he lost his flight status and could no longer fly helicopters.

A few months later Kathy saw an add in the paper looking for anyone who may of witnessed this. We called and gave a phone interview to what we saw. About eight months later we were asked to give depositions. We gave the depositions four years ago next Monday. As you probably figured, the guy has decided to sue Schooners for what happened. Since so much time had passed and we hadn't heard anything we thought that they had settled out of court. Nope. Last Friday Kathy is at work and a guy shows up asking for her. He ask her to step outside cause he wants to speak with her which scares the crap out of her. He tells her that the case is on and that both her and I have been subpoenaed to appear before the judge and testify in this case. We go to court next Monday, October 10th to testify - which is four years to the day from when we gave our depositions.

It looks like we are considered to be defense witness's. Which is kind of hard for me to believe, since I think the guy was a moron for lighting an explosive device with a lit object hanging out of his face. Actually I think both sides are culpable and bear some negligence - but hey that's not my call. I'm just there to tell them what I saw. Anyhow, since we have to go to court, if not we would be in contempt of court. Kathy and I were each given checks for $25 to cover some minimal expenses. They didn't over do it did they? To me it only seems appropriate that we cash the two $25 checks and take our $50 and get appetizers and a couple of drinks at...where else....Schooners....at sunset….....but without the cannon. Whatdaya think?

So......

2005-10-03T12:12:00.000-05:00

I got a very unnerving email from Kiel this morning, here it is. Click on the link to read what happened.

-----Original Message-----
From: kiel cravatta
Sent: Monday, October 03, 2005 6:41 AM
To: Ron Cravatta
Subject: Fireworks?

I thought it was fireworks.. :( and yes it was right under me...

http://www.local6.com/news/5048616/detail.html

This is Kiel's apartment building and happened below Kiel's room. Kiel's room is on the second floor and the rooms that got shot were on the first floor. So this is what I know. He was awake and studying for mid-terms at his desk (1:30AM). He said he was listening to music and heard what he thought were fireworks. At the time he didn't think much of it and went to bed. When he woke up this morning he heard a lot of activity outside of his building. He went outside and saw all the yellow tapes and cops and then found out what happened. He gave a statement to the cops about what he heard. He also had to talk one of the cops into letting him get something out of his car for classes. The cop reluctantly agreed and gave him a minute to get into his car. He then left to catch the shuttle to go to the main campus and go to class. As he rounded the corner of his apt. building he was swarmed by TV cameras crews wanting to interview him. He said he was interviewed by about 4 different TV stations. After returning from class Kiel said that he cops still had his apt. building on lockdown. They didn't want the neighbors talking to each other about what happened and still wouldn't let them near their cars cause it was still considered a crime scene. Kiel said now since he has had time to think about it he's a bit shaken up by 'what could have been'. But…all praise and thanks to God who kept him safe.

Half a Lifetime

2005-10-01T07:09:00.000-05:00

So what's up with this? Two post on the blog in two days? I better slow down or I'll run out of things to say.

Well I've gotta hand it to my wife. I don't know how she does it. She should get a medal or some type of award. But I don't see that happening. Instead I think dinner and movie in Destin will have to do. Not much of reward but it's best I see in her future. My motto is "Nothings too good for my wife (and nothings what she'll get)" - kidding. In case you didn't know today is our 22nd wedding anniversary. Which is why I think she deserves a medal for patience, perseverance and just for being able to be in the same room with me. As most of you would easily guess, she puts up with a lot being married to me. ::Make your jokes about Ron here:: Hard to believe we've been married 22 years. I've now been married half my life, which is simply amazing to me. Last night I told Kathy that and she asked if it was the best half or the worst half of my life. Of course, I said it was the best half. I had to she was sitting right there, what was I supposed to say? Again I'm kidding, it's been an awesome journey so far and I'm just glad that Kathy has chose to experience it with me. I just hope the next 22 years together don't go as fast as the last 22 years.

We're going to celebrate by spending the day together and going over to Destin. I think we'll do some shopping, catch a movie at the Rave Theater and then go to dinner at The BoneFish Grill (our favorite restaurant). Nothing to special - we usually save that for anniversaries that end in zeros and fives - the big ones. I say that…but next year on this date we are booked to leave on a seven day cruise on the Royal Caribbean ship the Mariner of the Seas to the Eastern Caribbean. We were not really planning on doing a cruise until our 25th Anniversary, but then through a series of only-God-could-do-this events did I get a great,great deal that I couldn't pass it up. It's not so much an anniversary cruise but a cruise that just happens to fall over our anniversary. So...If anyone's interested in going along let us know and I'll give you the details about the cruise (we're serious). Anyhow I'm sure we'll celebrate it up big time next year since we'll be on the boat.

I've got some post that I have written and then for what ever reason haven't posted them. I'm thinking that I'll knock the dust off of some of them and post them next week. Plus we have a very strange event going on in our lives that I want to write about. Hope everyone is in good health and spirits. Take care and enjoy your weekend.

What's Your Number?

2005-09-30T16:12:00.000-05:00

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

2005-09-26T19:44:00.000-05:00

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..."

2005-09-25T20:49:00.000-05:00

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.....

2005-09-22T20:39:00.000-05:00

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

2005-09-07T20:12:00.000-05:00

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

2005-09-02T21:27:00.000-05:00

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.

Katrina, Kiel & Labor Day

2005-08-30T19:27:00.000-05:00

Talk about considering yourself lucky, we certainly do. We feel very fortunate to have not experienced much of Hurricane Katrina's wrath. We got a little wind and rain but certainly nothing compared to the folks in New Orleans or Mississippi. While we feel lucky for not having damage we feel bad for the folks to the west of us. If the storm would have came east another 100 miles or so - it would be a completely different story. We'd be having some major problems right now. Everytime I watch the news I keep thinking that could have been us. Keep these folks in your prayers, they have a tremendously difficult road in front of them. I can't imagine how they are feeling or where they start to pick up the pieces. Unfortunately I'm of the opinion that we're going to see this situation become worse before it gets better. Kathy had lunch with Kiel's friend Liz today. Liz lives in Slidell, LA (near New Orleans) with her parents. They evacuated because of the storm. Liz told Kathy that thier house is flooded, along with her car. All she brought with her was three pairs of clothes. Kathy said even though they face the prospect of losing everything, Liz seemed in good spirits. Pray for her as she has a lot decisions to make regarding her life and this storm.

Spoke to Kiel today, he got sick last night. He was throwing up and had to get some medicine. I asked him if he was hung over or drunk and he assured me he wasn't. Said his throat is sore but he is doing better. He missed his first class of the morning because he was trying to deal with being sick. But like I said he's doing better and is recovering. I still think it's the 'Bottle Flu' - just kidding Kiel.

This weekend is Labor Day, which means three days at Mexico Beach. We'll go out Friday. I should say that Kathy and I will go out Friday. Kathy is off on Friday and will go out Friday morning. I'll go out Friday afternoon after I get off work. My parents however, are going out Thursday morning. So by the time I get there Friday afternoon they'll have the place wired for sound. Which reminds me, anyone who cares to join us at the beach on Saturday is more than welcome. We'll be staying at the El Governor in the annex, which is the low-rise buildings next to the high rise building. We are in the first two units in the annex next to the swimming pool - we get the same two rooms every year. The weather is supposed to be awesome this weekend so we'll be hanging out at the beach and pool all day Saturday. If you come out, bring your swimsuit, towel and a beach chair. We'll even feed you a burger (if you're good). So if you're in the area and you want to come out, please feel free.

I'm really looking forward to going to Mexico Beach. Each year we go is different and takes on a different personality than the previous year. Last year, there was a Hurricane on the way so the play was basically empty and we had it ourselves - which was kind of fun. Don't think that will be the case this year. It's always fun and I'm really enjoy our time there. Hope everyone is well and has a safe Labor Day weekend. Take Care….Ron

Date Night

2005-08-26T11:41:00.000-05:00

Well tonight's date night. With Kiel gone and Katlin working tonight that just leaves me and Kathy. So we have decided to go on one of our favorite dates. We'll both get of at 4:00PM and then go home and change clothes. We'll then head towards Mexico Beach where we'll stop at Toucans. We'll hang out on the deck, look at the gulf, talk and have a drink. Then we'll go to the Sunset Coastal Grill restaurant in Port St. Joe which is probably our favorite restaurant in the area. We try to make it over there at least once every summer and have dinner on the porch and watch the sunset. It's a little bit of driving to Mexico Beach and Port St. Joe but it's fun to do once a year. Tomorrow (Saturday) we're going to work on turning Kiel's bedroom into a spare bedroom. Need to touch up some paint, move some furniture, buy a couple of things and then put it together.

There is a Hurricane in the gulf and it looks like it is heading our way either late Sunday or early Monday. Not sure what we intend to do yet but we'll keep an eye on it and react accordingly. Hope it's just rain but it looks like it could strengthen and be somewhat of a problem. Just looked at the latest from the National Hurricane Center and it could be a bad one. We may to leave.

I miss Kiel but I gotta tell you I don't miss him on my computer. I spent the whole evening last night cleaning up our computer with all of Kiel's crap. I worked on it for about four hours. I removed unused/old software - must have been half a dozen Star Wars games. Not to mention all the poker games. Plus there was a ton of Ad ware and Spy Ware on there too from many of the web sites he frequented. So I removed what I could - installed all updates it needed and just preformed some general house keeping. It's running much better now and I can actually get on the Internet without waiting for everything to load. I still have some data files of his to remove but by in large it's running much better than what it was. Sorry Kiel but you did have a ton a crap on there.

Got an email from Kiel this morning and he's doing fine - just really busy and adjusting to his first week at UCF. Hung out with new friends last night and is going to do the same tonight. Perhaps he'll leave a post on this blog or his blog letting everyone know what's going on (obvious hint).

Oh well, keep us in your thoughts concerning this storm. Take care and we'll keep you updated as what we intend to do.

PoKE Day 2

2005-08-23T22:00:00.000-05:00

Today was better than yesterday. Well for me anyways. Kathy had to relieve this weekend with her customers and co-workers - makes it difficult to get past when you constantly have to explain it to people. But tonight we laughed more, smiled more and played around more. The three of us had a great dinner together and of course the bottle of Merlot didn't hurt. But normally or what is going to be normal from now on could be felt.

Then at about 8:30PM we spoke to Kiel. Which is great, I love to hear of his adventures of what he did and who he met. I love hearing about his classes and what kind of projects he'll be working on. Even the challenges and obstacles that arise easy to swallow. This whole experience is kind of like watching him learn to walk all over again and take his first steps on his own. It's very cool but much bigger. I can't tell you how happy and excited I am for him. That far out wheighs any anxiety I may have from missing him. And I do miss him...and I always will. But watching his life unfold is amazing to be apart of, even if I do have to hear it over the phone. But it's gonna be okay. Today was much better than yesterday. And hopefully tomorrow will be better than today.

PoKE

2005-08-22T19:29:00.000-05:00

Today is the first full day of what we will now call 'PoKE' (Post Kiel Era). And I must say we haven't been afraid to branch out and try new things. Kathy actually cooked something she's never made before. For some crazy reason she decided to make some Thai type of dishes. Which is really strange considering she's never ate Thai before (I have) - I thought it turned out pretty good. But that's what happen's in the 'PoKE' you try new things to keep your mind occupied.

Kathy is actually working on Kiel's room already, I don't have the courage to go in there. I walk down the hall and peek my head in and see what she's doing but that's about it. But I can't stay for long. I also realize that I can't write about it either. This doesn't count, this isn't writing - this is rambling. I'm talking about seriously writing down how I feel and think. I tried and it was the worst I felt since he left. Or maybe it was because the air conditioning was on the blink. Regardless, I'm not ready to go there yet. Must of picked up the phone a dozen times to call him today and I did twice. He sounds good and he's excited - who can blame him. Kat's working tonight too - so it's pretty quite around these parts tonight.

It's gonna be okay - it's just gonna take a little time to adjust.

Move In Progress

2005-08-17T20:37:00.000-05:00

Sorry about the incoherency of my last post. The past weekend really was something else, I guess it caught up with me Sunday night. I told my friend Rob earlier today that you should never post on your blog when you're overly emotional or if you've been drinking. He said he that if his wife sees him walking towards the computer after he's had a couple of beers she tackles him. I thought that was pretty funny. The visual on that one is awesome.

We all went to dinner with my parents tonight to Po Folks. Kind of a last supper/goodbye thing with Kiel and his grandparents. Kiel is going to finish packing tomorrow and leave for Orlando real early, like 4:00AM on Friday morning. We're not going to be quite as ambitious and will leave after we've had our required 8-10 hours of sleep. Actually we'll leave around 8:00AM or so and get into Orlando in the early afternoon. Kiel can check into his apartment beginning at 9:00AM and that's what he intends to do. More power to him. We'll come back Sunday afternoon after we go to church.

We have plenty to do when we get to Orlando - books, parking permits, buying software, getting additional stuff (food) for Kiel's apartment etc. So it's defiently going to be this bittersweet thing happening. I guess if I thought last weekend was emotional - I ain't seen nothing yet. Oh well - it's time and it must be done. We will surely miss him though.

I've been writing quit a bit lately - I just haven't finished anything. I'll be working on something then think of something else to write and then I'll go work on it. So I have about six works in progress but none are done. That's so me I guess. Frankly, half the stuff I write I never post anyways. Alot of it is just for me. This way I get to say what I want and get stuff of my chest without offending or hurting anyone's feeling. Strange I know but it's cheaper than therapy.

Hope all is well with everyone. We'll let you know how Kiel's move goes. Gotta go 'Over There' is on.

2005-08-14T21:39:00.000-05:00

"God, give me the courage to risk, for I know that I start to die when I stop taking risks. I must remember that I don't need to prove anything; I only need to obey You."

I woke this morning to my wife reading this to me. This from one those inspirational flip things that we keep in our bathroom. Sometimes you just need to hear what you need to hear. This is what I needed to hear - on this day, at this particular time.

This past weekend has been one of the most interesting and amazing weekends I've had in a long time. I am totally and completely exhasuted - I am wiped out. But at this weekend was so (and I hate to use this word) - rewarding. I know that sounds so much like a cliche' but every second of the past three days was great. We had a birthday/going away/poker party at our house Friday night. About 20 kids showed up - it was alot fun.

Then on Saturday we canoeing with they youth group from our church. About a dozen of us went and it was a complete blast. I'm sore from head to toe. I'm even sporting a small black eye that I got from my canoe paddle. The kids had a great time and I enjoyed hanging out with them.

And today...well today was defintely different to say the least. Today was everything that I fear and love all the same time. For me (not for some) it was challenging, risk and difficult. But when it was all said and done it was wonderful. I forgot how kind and understanding people can be they see you step out of your comfort zone and try something different. It was simply awesome to be shown that kind of love. Then tonight we went back to church for youth group. Again it was great - watching the kids and hanging out with them.

This past week (not just the weekend) has been this incredible journey. I've went from the feeling completely useless to feeling like I was on top of the world. And just about every feeling in between. But when you step out of your comfort zone and risk doing something different that happens. I was feeling so low earlier this week that I just about threw in the towel. But then something interesting happened - I quit relying on myself. I was in so deep - in so far over my head that I there is no way I could get out by myself. So I let go - I had to. I realized that if I was going to do this thing that I felt God was leading me to do, he was going to have to show me how to do it. I had to let go of every thought and notion I had of how I thought it should be done. It wasn't until then that things started to turn around.

This weekend was not perfect by any strectch of the imagnination. There were alot of miscues and mistakes on my behalf. I was so exhausted this afternoon that I layed down to take a nap. As I laid there I thought about the day. I started thinking of all the things I had done wrong - I started thinking of all the mistakes I made. But then a voice inside me told me that it was Okay and that everything had went as it was supposed to it. Things went how they were intended and it wasn't meant to be 'perfect' like I had wanted. Because if things would have went perfect - no misktakes, no miscues - I would have thought that I made them that way. I would have felt compelled to take credit for something I didn't do. But it wasn't perfect - today had many, many flaws - but at the same time it accomplished what God intended. And because of that I don't deserve nor can I take any credit for anything good that happened today. Well, on to the next challenge. Kiel leaves Friday for college - which is four days. I think I see another interesting and hopefully rewarding week in front of me.

God is good...He really, really is..

Another Trip Around the Sun

2005-08-08T21:22:00.000-05:00

I'm another year older (whoo hoo). Had a good day and better evening. Happy Birthday to Gail - Kathy's Aunt. We share the same birthday - I knew there was a reason I liked her. Sorry I haven't post much lately - got a lot happening right now. Maybe we'll have Kiel post one of his Czech stories. Hope everyone is good. Take Care.

Czech This Out

2005-08-05T16:43:00.000-05:00

Here is Kiel's post about his trip to the Czech Republic.

Well I've been back for a few weeks now from the Czech and I suppose its time to let you all know how it went. As most of you know we left on the 4th of July and it was all good because we actually left a few hours then we were suppose to so we didn't have to wait around and be bored all night. The Flight was good, I really enjoyed the Atlanta to Paris flight because every seat had a dvd monitor so we could watch movies and such. I fell asleep and slept most of the night and when I woke up I realized i had missed breakfast but it was no biggie.

Once we got into Prague we were picked up and taken to the Klika's (Sponsors) house. There were a few students there waiting to meet us and we ate dinner with them which was cool. We had about 3 days before camp to prepare our cirriculums and do a little sight seeing. We went into Kutna Hora which had a church made completely out of bones. It was pretty neat to go in and see it and all. We also went through some cathedrals and castles as well looking at all the old paintings and altars were pretty cool too. When it came time to go to camp we left a night early to do some last minute preparations to the grounds so we left and got up to the camp around 10:00 Friday night when the kids would arrive the following afternoon around 4.

That night Brandon, the band, and I all worked on some of the worship songs until like 12:00. We made some progress but knew we needed to work alot harder at them. We woke up the next morning and went straight to work. When the kids arrived around 4:00 they got room assignments and what not. They moved us from these awesome rooms to these cabins where the beds were like 3 foot long and there was no way I was gonna be able to do that. Luckly there was an extra bed in one of the rooms so I nabbed it as soon as I could. We all ate dinner and did our evening program then did some night time swimming and then put all the kids to bed.

The next day we had breakfast then started our lessons. After our lessons we ate lunch then had free time till around 4:00. During the free time they had arts and crafts going on or some sort of athletic activity going on such as volleyball or football (European Football that is). The first day I was in charge of the games so we played some old camp games I was familiar with from my days at Wiregrass camp. We played Hold on to your brother (Or Hold on to yer Mate) where the object is for the guys to all get on the floor and interlock arms, hands, legs, and bodies. Once situated the girls had 10 mintues to pull the guys apart from one another. It was a great bonding experiance for the guys as you could see them holding on for dear life to there friends. We did the evening thing again just like the night before.

The rest of the week was pretty much based on the same schedule with a some really funny highlights. One night we had an indoor "snowball" fight. We had taken balls of newspaper and wrapped them with packing tape before we got to camp but Mrs. Klika would not tell us what they were for. Basically it was a 30 minute free-for-all with these brown balls of destruction tearing through the halls of the rooms. I got hammered one time as all the kids turned on the Americans... unfortunatley.. Me and Janelle were the only ones playing. After getting hit by like 300 balls I stood up and regained composure. Another fun night was when we had the disco because none of the kids had any rythm so me and ben had to teach them how to dance and that was pretty funny. One of the worst things about camp was that after playing in the hott morning sun we had lunch which is served with hot soup everyday and the only thing to drink is hot tea so here we are sweating in 85 degree weather then on top of that we have to drink hot tea AND eat HOT soup... talk about trying to get you as hot as possible.

Camp was fun though I bonded with alot of the students and learned some czech as well. After camp was done we had a few days left before coming home so we spent them shopping and sightseeing. The flight back was good and everything went well. I have a few funny short stories I will be writing about so that My dad can have something to post in these "dry spell" periods.. lol jk dad. But Thank You to everyone who helped either with funding or Prayers they certainly helped us alot. Thanks Again...Kiel

Drive Thru

2005-08-02T19:36:00.000-05:00

I don’t do well at the drive-thru. Actually, I suck at the drive-thru. I’m not kidding, just ask my family. They’ll tell you that I wilt like a week old bouquet of flowers when I pull into a drive-thru restaurant. I know it’s not a difficult task – you pull up to the little speaker, tell them what you want, pull forward, give them your money, get your food and leave. Sounds simple doesn’t it? But for some reason, when I pull up to the drive-thru it becomes an adventure in stupidty.

It all starts when I hear the words “Hey, let’s pickup something to eat!” At this point I’ll start to make excuses about how I’m really not that hungry or that we should go and have a sit-down dinner. My family will immediately see through my ruse and lets me know that we’ll get through this ordeal together. But once I pull into the drive-thru lane my palms get sweaty, my heart starts racing and I have difficulty breathing. That’s when all hell breaks loose. As soon I pull up to the little box I can’t understand what they are saying through the speaker. Whoever is in that thing might as well be speaking in Chinese, and maybe they are, because I can’t understand what they are saying. While I’m trying to concentrate on what the guy in the box is saying, everyone in the car starts yelling out what they want. “I want extra pickles, mayo and no ketchup on my burger” “Yeah, me too – no wait a minute I want extra ketchup and no pickles and mayo on mine” “I want a small order of fries with that – Hey will you split some with me? You will? Okay change that I want my fries Super Sized” “I want a small Coke with no ice” “Not me, I want a large Coke with extra ice”. All the time these instructions are being shouted at me, I too am trying to decide what I want. But I can’t think because there is too much information coming in and not enough going out. Then my mind starts racing …Do I have the enough money? Can I get rid of some of this extra change? Am I make the guy behind me mad cause I’m taking to long? Be careful when you pull ahead don’t rear end the guy end front you. Then the guy in the box starts in again “Sir, may I take your order?...Sir…Excuse Sir but may I take your order…Sir!!!”.

It’s at about this time that veins start popping out of my neck and I feel like I’m ready to explode. A stroke is not far behind. It’s the stinking drive-thru for goodness sakes, it shouldn’t be this traumatic! So now I do the only thing I know that will bring this entire situation under control – I yell. And I don’t mean I yell – I mean I YELL. “Everyone Shut Up! Just Shut Up and tell me one at a time what you want! And you in the little box, I better not hear a single word out of you or I’ll crawl in there and kick your ass! I’ll let you know when I’m ready to order…You got that?” Now that I’ve scared the crap out of everyone no one wants to speak, including the guy in the little box. Slowly mumbling begins from the back of the vehicle but nothing coherent. My wife now senses a nervous break down is imminent. She gently pats my leg and says “Honey, maybe I’ll just order for everyone. You just sit there and relax”. With my jaw open wide, I nod in agreement because I can’t speak because the left side of my body is numb. She then proceeds to order everything in about six seconds, pulls out the exact changes, gives me a fake smile and tells me to move forward. What the....how in the world did she just do that?

Now I’m embarrassed. I pull ahead to the window. This is where the guy in the little box lives, actually more like the fourteen-year-old-with-a-work-permit in the box lives. I can’t even look this kid in the eyes because I think I used to be his soccer coach. I glance over to look at him…yep...it’s him, I was his coach. I give him the money all the while looking straight ahead. I don’t want to make eye contact with him but I think I’m going to have to. I pay him and he gives me our bags of food and asks if we want extra ketchup or sauces. I don’t know what to do so I turn to my wife who just nods her head up and down. I think that means yes. I turn back to the kid and imitate my wife's nod. I flop my hand out and he fills it with various condiments all the while he’s probably thinking…”Wow coach is a real idiot”. I give the hand full of condiment packets to my wife who in turn disperses them to the rest of the family. Then we leave. Wow - that sucked! If that scenario has happened once, it’s happened a hundred times. I fall apart every time we go to the drive-thru, I simply can’t do it. I guess that’s why I like to order pizza so much…because they bring it to you.

No Shortcuts!

2005-07-28T18:28:00.000-05:00

I can't tell you how much my computer users disappoint me at times. Just when I think we're making progress, BAM they do something stupid. I installed a new server and started moving data files from the old server over to the new one this week. I let my users know that the data had been moved and that they would need to recreate any 'shortcuts' that pointed to files on the old server. It was very depressing for me to find out that several of my users didn't know how to create a shortcut. I was saddened to see how many users copied files from the server to their machine thinking it was a shortcut. They had placed a copy of a the file from the server on their Desktop and were working on it thinking they were working on the server. Then after they were done they told others they had made changes to the file. Well when others went to look at it on the server the changes were no where to be found. That's because they hadn't been made on the server - only on their computer.

Due to a comedy of errors, it took me most of yesterday afternoon and this morning to figure out what they had done. I even woke up in the middle of the night last night thinking about it! Note to any future computer types: Never believe computer users - they lie. I thought something was 'wrong' with the server or sharing privileges I had set up. Come to find out, there was no 'real' problem. Well I guess there was a problem, some people forgot to pull their heads out of their butts and couldn't see what they were doing. But what was really funny was how upset these people were that the 'new server sucked' and 'wasn't working properly'. They even talked about it in the morning production meeting and how I needed to get the server fixed because we were unable to schedule boat production. A couple were even were calling for me to move the files back to the old server just so we could schedule boats. "Fix it over the weekend" they said - Yeah right. Needless to say they were quite embarrassed when I showed them what they had done wrong. They also didn't like having to explain what the real problem was. Sorry to rant just needed to vent - but it really got to me today. Guess I need to work on my patience (as always). Have a good evening and the weekend is almost here!

The Date

2005-07-24T22:00:00.000-05:00

As they entered the restaurant all eyes were on them. He was a true southern gentleman, complete with a seersucker suit with a red bow tie. And she wore her best dress with a bright floral corsage. The opportunity to go out to on a date was no small affair, particularly at their age. He was well into his eighties but was still quite spry. She may have been a few years younger then him but needed the assistance of a cane to walk. Everyone quickly noticed how kind and generous he was towards her as they slowly made their way towards their table. Conversations stopped, nods were given to tablemates as if to say “Look at this” and meals that were being eaten were temporarily halted – everyone stopped to watch. He spoke no words but his actions spoke volumes. He ensured her path to the table was clear by moving anything in their way. He then gently put the palm of his hand in the small of her back to help guide her to their table. Once at the table he made sure her chair was pulled out and helped her into her chair. Then once she was seated, he made sure she was comfortable. Everything he did, he did with tenderness and grace. His actions let her know that this night was all about her. And it showed. She was beaming, happy to be there but mostly proud to be with him. She was proud to be his girl and he was proud that she was.

As she sat in her chair, he unfolded her napkin and gently placed it in her lap. She looked up at him and smiled and he smiled back. But before returning to his seat, he leaned over and tenderly kissed her on the forehead. After returning to his seat, he reached across the table and took her hand. He then told her how lovely she looked this evening – she blushed like a young school girl and said “Oh, stop you…” By this time the waiter had brought them their drinks. Anxiously, she raised her glass to toast with him. He picked up his glass of sweet tea and gently bumped his glass against her water glass. “To us” he quietly said. “To us” she repeated. At that point I realized that I was intruding and had no right to look on. I had to look away.

My wife and I looked at each other and all we could do was smile. What do you say when you’re in the presence of this kind of love? For me it was humbling to think that after all these years that you could still care for another person the way they did. Finally after a couple of minutes we were able to speak. My wife said “Now that’s love”. And of course in my infinite wisdom I could only respond by saying “Well, it’s definitely not about the sex…” Idiot. My wife humored me by laughing and saying “Definitely not about the sex”.

But then what was it about? How much had they been through over the years to get them to this point? How much heartache, tragedy, joy and happiness were behind their words? Raising Children, Lost Jobs, War, Death - the complete unfairness of life - how much of it had they seen together? How many good times and bad times where behind their smiles? What did they see when they looked at each other? They knew each other only the way you could after being with someone for decades. I wanted to know what they knew. And hopefully someday I will but it will take a lifetime. I realized that someday I want to be that old man. Someday I want to walk into a restaurant and help my wife to the table. Someday I want the whole restaurant to stop, watch and know she’s my girl and that after all these years I'm still proud to be with her. Someday I want to sit at that table and see our life spent together reflected in her eyes.

And someday...I too want some guy who’s been married for over 20 years to realize that he still has alot to learn.

Jesu Juva

2005-07-21T17:53:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago Katlin and I went to the Cornerstone Festival in Illinois. Cornerstone is this really cool, four day, Christian festival on a farm in the middle of the Illinois corn fields. Cornerstone really has a lot to offer – from camping to concerts and everything in between. Katlin enjoyed listening to some of his favorite bands, while I liked going and listening to the different seminars and speakers they had. One of the more interesting sessions they offered were Q&A times with Christian bands. Frankly, some of these guys were quite full of them selves and considered themselves to be full on rock stars. However, others were quite humble and were very interesting to listen to.

There was one kid in particular who really had some interesting things to say. His name was Jason and he was with an up and coming Canadian pop-punk band called “Hawk Nelson”. About 15 minutes into the Q&A someone in the audience asked him what he did to maintain the balance between the demands of being in a high profile band with being a Christian. Without missing a beat, he held up his right forearm, pointed at it with his left index finger and said “Bach” - as in Johann Sebastian Bach the composer.

Jason went on to say that on his right forearm he had a tattoo of the initials “JJ”. He explained that before Bach would begin writing any of his musical compositions he would write the initials “JJ” in the upper left hand corner of the first page. The initials “JJ” are the Latin abbreviation for “Jesu Juva” which means “Jesus, Help” or literally translated means “Help Me Jesus”. Jason explained that he found that life on the road was difficult and that it was very easy for him to lose focus and get caught up in the rock star lifestyle. He said that he knew that he couldn’t do things himself or live the way he was called without help. Hence the tattoo, a visual reminder that was always with him. Every time Jason wakes he sees the tattoo and is reminded that he needs Jesus' help to make it through the day. Every time he picks up his guitar to play on stage he sees the tattoo and is reminded to pray a simple prayer: Jesus Help Me. Every time he sees it, he’s reminded that help is never more than arm’s length away.

You may consider what Jason did to be a bit extreme. I know I do…but I have to tell you that I like where this kid’s head is at. Actually, it’s probably more accurate to say I like where his heart’s at. I too struggle with the same thing that Jason does as I often try to do things on my own. And when I do things on my own…well let’s just say the outcome is not pretty. I also found out that Bach put the initials “SDG” on the last page of each manuscript. SDG is also a Latin abbreviation for “Soli Deo Gloria” which means “To God Alone the Glory”. It’s said that he put this SDG abbreviation on before he began working on a composition. To me that’s significant. The thought that before he writes a single note, he gives all credit and glory to God for the masterpiece that is about to be created is incredible. Not knowing how his composition was going to sound or how it was going to be received by others didn’t matter to Bach. Bach knew that God was going to show His Glory through his music and that God deserved the credit. All this shows me that Bach had faith - faith in a faithful God. Bach also knew to give credit where credit was due. I can learn a lot from guys like Bach and Jason. It’s my goal to someday have a heart like theirs. That before I do a single thing in my day I’ll simply say “Help Me Jesus cause I can't do it without you”. And before I know what the day brings, come hell or highwater - good or bad - I’ll give Him all the credit.

One final thought: I also found that in between the “JJ” and “SDG” that often times (not always) Bach would put “INJ” on each individual sheet of music. INJ is Latin for “In Nomine Jesu” which means “In Jesus Name”. This means book ended between the “Help Me’s” and the “To God Be the Glory’s” are pages of “In Jesus Name”. Each page that Bach composed was dedicated to his King - "In Jesus Name". That’s how I want the days of my life to be, I want it to be like one of Bach's musical masterpieces. I want it to begin with me relying on Him and asking for His help (JJ). Then before I do a single thing, I want to give Him credit and honor for what He is going to do that day in my life (SDG). And then I want each day(page) in between to be dedicated in Jesus Name(INJ). Now that would be a masterpiece.

Maybe Jason wasn’t as extreme as I initially thought. I think I might go get a new tattoo.

New Pictures

2005-07-19T22:36:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to uploading pictures of our recent trip to Iowa to our photo album. If you're interested in checking them out just click on the link to the right that say's "Photo Album".

Kiel called from Atlanta earlier this evening to let us know that he would be arriving later tonight. His flight is delayed and is now supposed to get in around 11:50PM (uggh). Gotta go, I think it's gonna be a late night. Later....

Home Again...This Time for sure!

2005-07-17T21:56:00.000-05:00

I made it home from the boat show in Sarsota. What a long drive! Who knew Florida is so big? Anyhow, the boat show was great and went very well. I left very early this morning and got in around 12:30PM, just in time to sing the last song at church. Haven't had a chance to relax much since getting home, it's been a busy day. Katlin leaves in the morning for a youth trip to a theme park in Georgia, he'll get back some time Tuesday night. Kiel also get's back from the Czech Republic late Tuesday night. Looking forward to Kiel returning so we can hear all about his adventure.

This will be short and sweet since I'm very tired. I'll post more later, I still have a lot on my mind concerning some things that I experienced on vacation. But for now all I can think about is sleep.

Home Again....well at least for the night

2005-07-12T22:17:00.000-05:00

We made it home without any problems. We left Chicago at 7:45AM and arrived at our front door at 1:30PM. Everything went well and we encountered no problems with any of our travel. We spent the afternoon working on the yard and putting every thing back in place from the hurricane. There was quite a bit to do so it took us a few hours but the place is back to looking normal again. It was just so stinking hot today, with the heat index it was well over a 100 degrees. Kathy rearranged all her appointments on the drive home from the airport. Her cell phone was glued to her ear the entire way home from Ft. Walton Beach. But I think she got it all worked out. She also put everything back on the screened in porch this afternoon. It needed alot of attention after the storm.

Kathy is booked solid for the remainder of the week at work. She'll have some pretty long days in front of her. I have to leave for Sarasota either tomorrow night or early Thursday. Getting back from vacation late has hosed my plans for leaving for the dealer meeting. I was supposed to leave tomorrow but I'm not ready. I had planned on prepping for my trip this past Monday and Tuesday but since I wasn't in town I couldn't. So I'll either prep tomorrow and leave in the evening or leave really early Thursday. Hopefully I can sneak out late (10PM) on Saturday night so I can be back for chuch and Surf & Grill(Church Beach Party) on Sunday. We also went picked up our new vehicle, acutally it's used, tonight. We bought a 2004 Ford Explorer right before we left but just picked it up tonight. It's very nice and I'm looking forward to driving it once I return.

Everyone has been asking if have heard from Kiel. We haven't heard from Kiel since he left for the Czech Republic last Monday (8 Days ago) but then...we finally got an email from him today. I'll let you read it for yourself - it's kind of cryptic in a Kiel kind of way - but I believe you'll get the point. Hope all is well and I'll write more later....

Yo pop a locks its kiel just wanted to let you know I made it here safely. Camp is going well its so crazy here with the language barrier and what not. Ive learned alot of Czech and its so hard to type on this crazy keyboard ... well not anymore Tom fixed it haha. Well I've done it... I had a beer... or 3 .... in different sittings since i've been here. Pilsner twice and velvet once. Nothing to serious though. I've almost lost my voice so it's very hard trying to lead worship and what not. I herd about the hurricane and hope all of you are safe if you don't evacuate. I know dad will most likely want to though and the most important thing is that you all are safe. Well I am going to go eat some snacks and then go to bed....3 other guys in like 4 beds pushed together but dont worry its nothing bad... hey I say if the Czechs can do it why cant we, right? If I dont write you again before I get home then be safe and I love you... hope the house was ok when you all got home... dang the keyboard is reset its crazy czech writing time...

c-ya

Kiel

As of now...

2005-07-11T10:20:00.000-05:00

The way it stands right now we are flying home tomorrow (Tuesday, July12th) arriving at the Fort Walton Beach(FWB) airport around noon. The FWB airport is closed and will reopen at 2:ooPM today (July 11th). Once we get to FWB it may a bit tricky getting home since many of the roads we took are flooded. So we'll probably have to take the long way home. That is if Kathy's van is still okay. We are leaving for Chicago in a while and will spend the night there and catch an early flight in the morning.

We are a bit concerned about reports of flooding in our neighborhood. Both bridges we must cross to get to our house our flooded and not open. So we're not sure if our neighborhood is open or if we had any flooding damage to the house. My parents are going to try and check on the house if they can get to it. That's all for now will post more once we get home on Tuesday.

Change of Plans

2005-07-08T17:34:00.000-05:00

We are having a great time on vacation - so far it has been great hanging out with family and playing on the river. However, there is a hurricane heading towards the panhandle/Panama City area. We were supposed to fly into the Ft. Walton Beach airport on Sunday afternoon. But that's during the time the hurricane is supposed to hit. I called the Ft. Walton airport and they told me that they will be closing down at 10:0oPM Saturday night and would reopen once all was clear. I called Delta and we rescheduled our flights to leave Tuesday morning out of Chicago. Hopefully all will be fine by then, if not we'll try again. We leave out of Chicago pretty early on Tuesday so we are going to head into Chicago on Monday and spend the night. Still need to get my rent a car extended as well.

My parents have went to our house and picked up everything in the yard that could possibly be blown around. So there's really not much for us to do or any reason to return. If we went home at this point we would simply have to turn around and evacuate. So we'll just extend our vacation out a couple of days. I'll update more later but for now that's what we know. Take care and we'll keep you updated....Ron

July 4th and Beyond

2005-07-05T19:04:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Independence Day - in more ways than one I believe. We spent the day at Kathy's parents on the river. They had a huge party - lot of friends, family and fireworks. Mike (Kathy's step-dad) smoked a couple of turkeys (wild & domestic) and everyone brought something to share. The food was awesome, the company was great - got to see lots of family on Kathy's side which was cool. Means we don't have to drive to see everyone. The only thing is that the weather didn't cooperate, it rained most of the morning and day so we didn't get to get out on the river and play like we had wanted. However, by late afternoon it had cleared up and it was beautiful. We didn't go to see fireworks - we shot off our own. Mike went to Missiouri earlier and bought a bunch that him and the kids shot off. They were actually quite impressive. All in all in was a great 4th of July.

Kiel left for the Czech Republic yesterday and as of yet we haven't heard from him. They caught an earlier flight so they would have more time in between connecting flights so they wouldn't feel rushed. I'm sure alls well and we'll get an email from him in the near future. Hope he had a good flight and didn't drive rest of the passengers batty with his restlessness.

Today (July 5th) was another river day. Dave (Kathy's brother) and his family came over and we were going to play on the river. The weather was absolutely perfect. Mike has an old 1956 wooden Century boat. It hasn't been in the water for nearly 7-8 years. They have put a lot of time, money and effort getting it seaworthy and it looked tremendous. They took it out on it's shake down cruise and all was well until the engine started smoking - we believe they blew a head gasket on the engine. So we took the boat out of the water and Mike took it to the repair shop. While he was gone, we got in the fiberglass open bow boat and decided to go the beach(sandbar). There were six of us in the boat and two people on the jet ski. We went to the beach and played. On the way home, the engine started making strange noises and seized up. Right in the middle of the channel of the Mississippi. We couldn't get it started so we had to have the jet ski tow us to a nearby town. We called Mike and told him that we had killed his other boat. He came got us and the boat. He just got back from taking that one to the shop too. We went through two boats in one day...that's pretty bad.

We're cooking at home tonight and will spend time together before everyone heads back to work tomorrow. We are heading for the Thomson/Savanna Illinois area tomorrow for a couple of days. We are going to play some golf, eat some pizza at Manny's and see some old friends. It should be fun and I'm looking forward to it.

That's about all I have from here, will fill you in with more later. Need to go see if I can help with dinner (i.e snag something to eat) Take care. Later.

Having Fun

2005-07-03T22:25:00.000-05:00

I must say that I have been having a good time since I've been in Iowa. Kat and I have played a couple of rounds of golf - which has been fun. We also spent a couple of days at the Cornerstone Festival in Bushnell, Illinois. Cornerstone was incredible, far better than I had imagned. I have alot on my mind concerning Cornerstone and will post more about it later - really enjoyed it. Until then I'll just say that the seminars/lectures/teachings were great as well as the music. Katlin really loved the concerts and bands. He was front row for all of his favorites and survived the mosh pits. Today we hung out at Kathy's parents and got ready for tomorrow's big July 4th Bash. Lot of people coming over. Mike (Kathy's step-father) made prime rib on the spit and it was incredible. The weather was great so we sat on the deck overlooking the river and ate dinner.

Tomorrow all the family is coming over in the morning so we can play on the river before the party starts. We plan on getting both boats out and skiing, tubing, jet skiing etc. Should be fun and if that's not enough we plan on playing the river again Tuesday. But now I'm wore out and ready for bed. Hope all is well and will update more later. Take care and enjoy your Independence Day!

Is This Heaven?....No it's Iowa

2005-06-29T22:37:00.000-05:00

The line above is from one of my favorite movie "Field of Dreams". It is defenitely not heaven but we have arrived in Iowa. Our trip was fine and without any major incidents. We got to Kathy's parents in Le Claire at about 4:30PM. We went to dinner at Sneaky Pete's in Le Clarie, as always it was great. We are very tired and are now going to bed. Kat and I are up early to play a round of golf then go to the Cornerstone Festival in Bushnell, IL. It's going to be a long but fun day. Kathy is going to help her mom prepare for the July 4th bash they will hosting. Hope all is well and I'll update you on our adventures on Saturday. Later....Ron

Recess

2005-06-28T19:36:00.000-05:00

Hear that? That was the bell signaling that it's time for recess, my favorite class. Kathy and I are both finished and don't have to be work until 11 July. Vacation has begun...actually tomorrow, tonight is all about packing and lists. We have to get up at o-dark-thrity to drive to Ft. Walton Beach so we can catch a plane to Chicago. Once we are there we'll pick up a car and drive to Iowa. We are going to stay at Kathy's mom's. Kiel will stay behind until he leaves for the Czech Republic on the 4th of July. But we are really looking forward to coming home and seeing our friends and family. We have alot planned, but as usual we won't even do half of it. I am going to try posting from Kathy's mom's (if she lets me). Hope all is well and I'll post more later. Take Care....Ron

Heard these words earlier today and they have stuck with me all day:

"What can seperate us from the love of Jesus Christ?....It's a mystery that I will not chase."

Something New

2005-06-26T15:32:00.000-05:00

In trying to keep this blog semi-interesting I have done something new. For awhile now I have been wanting to create a photo album and link it to our blog. Well...I've finally got around to doing it. You'll notice in the right hand column a new heading called "Photo Albums" and underneath that you'll see a link that says "Family Photos". If you click on that link it will take you to our photo album on Yahoo. At this time there is only one photo album and it is called "New House". As the name implies it contains about 36 pictures of our new home. If you decide to look at the photos, I suggest looking at them in "Slide Show" mode.

I wanted to get a photo album set up and linked to the blog before leave on vacation this Wednesday. It's my hope to load some pictures to the photo album while we are home on vacation. Check out the pictures and let me know what you think. Later...Ron

Life's Too Short To Drink Cheap Beer

2005-06-25T12:06:00.000-05:00

I had a huge limb down in my yard this morning. I had to go over to Dad's and borrow his chainsaw to cut it up just to put it in the bed of my truck. I got that done and then had to pick Kat up from a meeting a work. On the way home I was thinking about what I was going to do with the rest of my morning since Kathy was working til noon and then she was going to go get a pedicure and manicure. I decided that since I was already hot and sweaty from clearing the limb, I might as well cut the grass. I normally like to cut the grass in the middle of the week but since we're leaving on vacation Wednesday and I had the time, I figured I might as well do it now. I also like to have a beer after I finish working on the yard. There's just something about being hot and sweaty and drinking a beer (or two) that I enjoy. So I decided I needed to stop by the mini mart a buy a beer to drink once I had finished working on the yard.

As we were driving up Hwy 77 towards our house Kat found a Christian CD that we had been looking for. He put it in and we both started singing to it quiet heartily. As we got near the mini mart this conversation ensued.

Me: "Sorry, but I got to stop singing about Jesus so I can go buy a beer."
Kat: "Ok, cool."
Me: "Do you think he'll mind?"
Kat: "Nahh, you guys are good."
Me: "I've got two bucks on me, so I'll have about 27 cents left - Do you need anything?"
Kat: "Naw, I'm Okay."

I pull into the mini mart, go buy a beer and come back to the truck. Thinking I got a great deal, I proudly show Kat a 32 ounce bottle of Natural Light.

Me: "I believe I bought this based on quantity, not quality. All the 'good' beers were over 2 dollars or were smaller."
Kat: "Wow - that's a lot cheap beer!"
Me: "What?"
Kat: "Yeah, that's some serious redneck beer you got there Dad!"
Me: "Well...it was only a $1.60 and I did get 32 ounces!"
Kat: "Shoot - bottled water is more expensive than that! You know you're drinking cheap beer when water's more expsenive. That's very rednecky dad!"
Me: "What do you mean!"
Kat: "I mean those huge bottles of Natural Light are the kind you see rednecks drinking after they've been four wheeling or hunting racoons. Those bottles are all over the side of the road!"
Me: "Oh..." (slightly embarrassed)
Kat: (realizing that I'm slightly embarrassed) "Maybe it won't be that bad..."
Me: (sensing hope) "Yeah...Maybe if I get really, really hot working in the yard and I get the beer really, really cold I won't notice it's cheap beer."
Kat: "Uhh...sure dad...don't get you're hopes up".

I didn't get my hopes up and it was pretty bad...but it was really, really cold. A beer slushie.

Where Did I Put My.....

2005-06-21T21:34:00.000-05:00

This past Friday night we were at my parents and were discussing how forgetful we have become as we have gotten older. I told them that earlier that day I had went home for lunch to make a sandwich. I explained that I got in the refrigerator and got out all the stuff to make my sandwich. I started to make my sandwich and was going to put butter on it but couldn’t find it. I looked on the kitchen counter but I didn’t see it, but I remembered taking it out of the fridge. I went back to the refrigerator and looked again – still no butter. I searched the entire house for about 10 minutes looking for the stupid butter container. I even checked in the bathroom. Why? I don’t know. I went back in the kitchen and went to open the fridge and there it was. It was sitting on top of the fridge just where I left it. I immediately remembered that I put it there because my hands became full getting the other items for my sandwich.

My dad then told of the time that we lived at Tyndall AFB and he went out to clean the windows of his truck. He said he took a roll of paper towels and a bottle of Windex from the kitchen and then went about his task. Later that day Kathy went to get something out the refrigerator. She was very surprised to see the bottle Windex that my dad had been using sitting in the fridge next to the milk. For some reason he put in the fridge when he was finished. Dad’s story reminded me of the time that I recently went to throw something away in the trash. I opened the lid of the garbage can and there sitting on the top trash can were my wallet and keys. Instead of placing them on the counter, I threw them away. Why? Because I’m getting old.

But the best episode of forgetfulness goes to my mom. My mom likes to play bingo. When my mom plays bingo it is no small affair. She will start playing earlier in the afternoon and go until the wee hours of the morning. Less than a year ago my mom went on one her bingo binges. About three o’clock in the morning the phone rings. I don’t know about you but whenever my phone rings in the middle of the night I immediately think the worst. I answered the phone and it was my mom. I could tell by her voice that she seemed a bit shaken. She asked if we had been by the bingo hall with dad to get the truck and I told her no. She went on to explain how her truck was missing and had been ‘stolen’. I told her to hold tight and that I would be right there. I hung up the phone and told Kathy what was going on while I got dressed. I got in my truck and drove about 15 minutes to the bingo hall. As I pulled into the parking lot, I began looking for my mother. As I did, I saw a large vehicle flashing its lights at me. I stopped my truck and this vehicle started coming towards me. It pulled up next to me and I soon realized that it was my mom in her truck. I was a bit puzzled by what was happening. We rolled the windows down and she told me what happened. She said that the bingo hall was fuller than usual that evening and she wasn’t able to park in her normal spot. She had to park further away than normal in a very poorly lit part of the parking lot. When she came out she looked in her normal spot and didn’t see the truck. She also couldn't see the truck in the dark area of the parking lot where she had parked it. So basically she forgot where she had parked her truck. Good one huh? We haven't let her live that one down yet. Getting old is no fun, the forgetfulness is right up with all these new aches and pains I keep discovering every day. Oh well it could be worse....

Man Hands

2005-06-17T22:43:00.000-05:00

Ever see the Seinfeld episode called “Man Hands”? It was the one where Jerry was dating this girl and he liked everything about her except that she had the hands of a man. She had these huge man hands complete with thick man fingers and ugly, rigid veins poking out. I'm talking about the kind of hands you see on a construction worker or automobile mechanic. Her hands were not feminine in any fashion and didn’t go with the rest of her body. Seinfeld just couldn’t deal with her hands because they weirded him out. Well…I encountered my own version of “Man Hands” today and it totally freaked me out.

There is a gas station across from my work that has a lunch counter in it. Like many business’s, Friday is our casual dress day. Since its casual day we usually go pickup breakfast sandwiches and bring them back to the office. This lunch counter has the absolute best sausage biscuit’s I’ve ever had, plus they are really cheap. I look forward to getting one every Friday and feel deprived when I don't get one. It’s also important to know that where I work is north of town about 12 miles, so it’s kind of in the boonies. Some would even say that this area has its fair share of red necks. So to some, the gas station and lunch counter would be considered questionable. It is to me, but the biscuit’s are so good that I’m willing to take my chances.

I went in and walked up to the lunch counter and then ‘she’ appeared. For a red neck woman she looked fairly normal (or so I thought). She asked me what I wanted and I told her I wanted the link sausage breakfast biscuit. This place has a glass deli case that they store the food in to keep it warm before it is sold. I didn’t notice anything unusual until she reached in the deli case to get a sausage for my biscuit. That's when I noticed 'them' - her 'Man Hands'. I looked with disbelief into the glass case as she grabbed the sausage with her BARE hands, placed it on the cutting board, cut it in half and placed it on the biscuit. (Where's the Health Department when you need them?) The entire time she is doing this, I can't help but stare at her ‘Man Hands’. Like Seinfeld was, I am now completely weirded out by her hands. I don’t want to stare at them but it’s like a car wreck, I can’t help myself.

She placed my sandwich in a bag and handed it to me. As she handed it to me I made sure we didn’t touch hands. She then walked over to the cash register to check me out. I walked over to the cash register as well. She said that it would be $1.59 so I gave her a $1.75 – actually I set it on the counter so she would pick it up. Again, I was hoping not to have to touch those hands that were bigger and uglier than mine. I wasn’t as lucky when she gave me my change back. Instead of dropping the sixteen cents in my hand, she ‘pushed’ her hand into my and opened her fingers to release the change. When she did this the palms of our hands slammed together and touched. She smiled and said “Thank You”. At this point, I thought I was going to pass out. I could no longer see my hand because it was completely engulfed by hers. Her hands felt like dry, cracked feet. Uggghh. I then got the ‘willies’ through my whole body and stumbled towards the door.

As I headed out the door towards my truck I realized that I now had a dilemma; do I eat the world’s best sausage biscuit that ‘man hands’ has just man handled or do I throw it away and try my luck again next week with the hopes of getting a different server? I thought about this as I drove back to my office. I got back to work and I immediately went to the bathroom and scrubbed my hands with anti-biotic soap until they hurt. I then went to my office and tossed the bag with my sandwich in it on my desk. I sat in my chair and just stared at the bag. My mind kept going back and forth between those thick, meaty hands of hers and the taste of this awesome sandwich. This was a really tough decision and I didn’t know what to do. Now I know for many of you it wouldn’t be a difficult decision. You would simply pick up the bag and throw it in the trash. I wish my mind worked like that. I wish I could detach myself from the emotions that I have concerning food but I can’t. So...as you probably guessed, I sat at my desk and ate my sausage biscuit that man hands had fondled. I simply couldn't help myself. It tasted okay, but I just wish I wouldn't keep burping it up. Tasting it over and over again just keeps reminding me of those hands...

Ceiling Fan

2005-06-15T12:05:00.000-05:00

I’m notorious for wrestling with my boys. Anyone who knows me or is familiar with my family knows that my reputation for wrestling with my boys precedes me. When my boys were little, I believe we probably wrestled in some manner every day. And that’s not an exaggeration. We would have the most incredible battles. Sometimes they would dress up in whatever wrestling attire they could make work. They would even have their own entrance music complete with masks and championship belts (pretty sad huh?) Our old house had a huge living room so they would cordon it off and make a wrestling ring out of ace bandages in it. We would even have cage matches. We would put a baby gate up in the doorway to the family room. Whoever could make it over the top of the ‘cage’ first would win. There was no end to my boy’s creativity when it came time to wrestle. My personal favorites were the ‘foreign objects’ they used to hid in their ‘trunks’ or around the ‘ring’. It would be anything from a Hot-Wheels car stuffed in their shorts to a strategically placed whiffel ball bat hidden under the couch. They would use anything thing that they could to try gain the advantage over me and win the match.

Now as they get older we still wrestle, but not nearly as much as we used to. It’s not as much fun when the kids can put up a legitimate fight. I liked it better when I could dominate and control the matches. Now I can’t, especially when they decide to double team the old man. I simply get an old fashioned butt kicking. No doubt that I deserve it and I expect no sympathy (Lana). And after you read, there is no doubt that you’ll agree that I did/do need my butt kicked for what I’ve done. But I’m just at the age where I’m afraid of getting seriously injured. And believe me; we have had our share of injuries. Without a doubt, the worst injury by far was the ceiling fan. I got in a lot of trouble with this one. Actually I still think I’m in trouble over this one.

It was early Saturday morning and Katlin and I were watching TV in our bedroom. Kat was probably about six or seven years old at the time. As often happened, we would be lying on the bed watching TV and we would start wrestling. We would play “King of the Bed”, the object being to keep the other guy off the bed. From there it turned into a full-on fight for survival. Now we when fought we prided ourselves on being able to ‘put moves’ on the other guys. Not just beating on each other but proving to the other that we indeed had skills. I decided I wanted to put a move on Katlin. Kat and I were fighting and he was on the floor next to the bed. I sat on the side of the bed and leaned over to pick him up. This is where things go horribly wrong. I picked him up and decided to suplex him. This is where I lift him up over my head and he lands on his back on the bed. Unfortunately for Katlin, I forgot that he had grown and that there was a ceiling fan above our bed. When I executed my move I threw Kat feet first into the globes on the ceiling fan. Fortunately he had socks on it could have been much worse. But it did cut the bottom of his right foot. I’ll spare you the gory details but it was a pretty bad gash. It was so bad that I immediately realized that he needed to go to the emergency room.

As luck would have it, Kathy was not home at the time, she was at a ladies retreat on the beach that our old church was hosting. She was going to be home later that afternoon and then we were all supposed to go to Tallahassee to see ice hockey. I rushed Kat to the emergency room and they began working on him. This was not just a cut on the bottom of his foot but an actual chunk of flesh was missing. In order to fix this they had to put him under using general anesthesia. Not good. Now I had to explain to the hospital what happened thinking all the time that child services was going to come take my child away. But then I became fearful of telling my wife what happened. We didn’t have cell phones back then so I had to call the hotel where the retreat was being held and they had to track her down. I called my wife and explained to her what I had done to her child and where we were at. Telling your wife that you have screwed up royally and hurt her youngest child is not an easy thing to do. It was one of the most embarrassing and difficult things I’ve ever had to do. I also don't think Kathy particularly liked telling all the ladies at the retreat that she needed to leave because her bone-headed husband tossed her child into the ceiling fan. The looks I got from those ladies the following Sunday were downright nasty. If looks could kill I would have been dead fifty times over. None of them talked to me for a month. Ever piss off fifty 'church ladies'? Not a wise thing to do. I was defiently on the outside looking in.

After working on Katlin for quite awhile the doctors realized they could not sew his foot up because there was really nothing to sew. It would just have to heal naturally. They put a huge bandage on the bottom of Kat’s foot. Problem was that it prevented his foot from draining properly. Because of this the bottom of his foot became one huge blood blister. Every time his little heart would beat the bottom of his foot would thump. In the middle of the night we had to take him back to the emergency room and have it looked at again. The doctors realized what they had done and drained his foot, finally giving Kat some relief from the pain. Ultimately, his foot healed without any problems and Kat now has a nasty scar on the bottom of his foot to show for it. As you can imagine, I felt incredibly guilty and terrible for a really, really long time afterwards (which I should of). For the longest time afterwards I would not wrestle with the boys because I was afraid of hurting them. That is until Kat’s foot got better and he enlisted help from his brother to launch a full scale sneak attack on me to get retribution for what I had done. I deserved it and I took my punishment….big-time.

No Omelete For You!

2005-06-11T17:28:00.000-05:00

Tropical Storm Arelene was a bust - which is a good thing. A little wind and a fair amount of rain. Other than that it was an excuse to stay home and watch DVD's all day. We slept in and then watched two movies. We were slugs. Kathy said she was going to make omeletes at about 10:00AM - it's now about 5:30PM and still no omelete!

Ooops - I'm busted. Kathy caught me in the middle of typing this. And said in a VERY colorful way that there was 'No Omelete for You!' - that's not exactly how she said it but I think you get the point. Looks like I'm taking her out to dinner...again...I'm thinking breakfast-dinner.

Same Song, Second Verse

2005-06-10T17:15:00.000-05:00

Well it's that time again...hurricane season that is. And believe it our not we have our first storm of the season.....Tropical Storm Arlene. As luck would have it, Arlene is coming our way. She is expected to make landfall somewhere between here and Pensacola within the next 24 hours. However, this storm is primarly a 'rain event' with most of the rain coming in well before she makes landfall. This basically means crappy weather weekend beginning now. They are predicting between 5 to 10 inches of rain. There is a possiblity that Arlene could become a minimal hurricane. So we'll keep an eye on her. Need to go out and get something to eat and grab a DVD to watch before the rains come. Later.

Snake

2005-06-08T20:52:00.000-05:00

So we're in my office today - me and two other guys. We all finish looking at my computer screen and wrap up our conversation. As one of the guys turns to walk out my office he goes "Oh Sh*t! - Ron did you know you had a snake in your office?" At first I thought he was teasing but I got up and looked on the other side of my desk and there was a snake. Again I thought it was joke cause it didn't move but then it slithered and slipped it's tounge out. It was about two feet long and thin - it was pretty young. Then the other guy goes "Hey, I believe that's a baby rattler!" Right about then one of the production guys walks by and says "Hey! A baby rattle snake!" He then quickly walks up behind the snake and grabs it from behind. "This one won't hurt cha' - he's just a baby!" This one? What about the other ones I don't know about? After they all left (including the snake), I sat in my office and tried to figure out how a baby rattle snake got in my office. After about 20 minutes, I discoverd a hole about the size of a silver dollar behind my book case. I'd never seen it before and didn't know it was there. I called maintenance and we realized that he (or they) must be up in the ceiling and came down the wall and out through the wall. Comforting huh? The rest of the day I was afraid to open any of my desk drawers! I just kind poked at things waiting for something to hiss at me. Anyhow I did the manly thing and wadded up a bunch of paper and stuffed it in the snake hole. So how was your day?

Twenty

2005-06-02T12:14:00.000-05:00

I’ve never seen a lightning storm like it – not before or since. This wasn’t your typical electrical storm. No flashes of lightning just long bolts that looked liked a spider’s web when they lit up the evening sky. What made this storm unique were the frequency of the bolts and the duration of the storm. The long strands of lightning would run from one end of the sky to the other. And as soon as one bolt finished running across the sky, another one would begin. This light show lasted for many hours – it didn’t just pass through but it lingered so all who saw it knew something special was in the works.

And that’s how I felt; to me this wasn’t just an electrical storm, it was a sign. A sign that something so incredible had just occurred that even nature couldn’t contain itself. And something incredible did just happen; my first child had just been born. I’ve always felt that the storm was a sign from God and that he was celebrating my child’s birth with me. You probably think I’m crazy when I say that but I don’t care. I don’t believe in coincidence – I just don’t. I don’t believe this storm just happened right after my son was born. To me it was more than that – this night was special. It was a night unlike any other night. It was night that has since become party of our family folklore.

We were in the Air Force and we’re stationed at Scott AFB in Illinois. Scott is located about 30 miles of St. Louis, Missouri. We had just moved to Scott about a month before and didn’t know anyone except for my new boss. My new boss’s wife was pregnant as well. Both his wife and Kathy were ready to deliver at any time. Actually both of them were past their expected due dates. Being guys, (which often means not being very bright) we decided to take these two overly pregnant women to dinner. Not only dinner but to eat spicy Mexican food. As soon as we sat at our table my wife told our sever “Give me a Margarita cause I’m gonna have this baby tonight”. I was kind of surprised because my wife hadn’t drank during her entire pregnancy. But before I could say anything she looked at me and I saw the look in her eyes that said ‘Don’t question me on this’. And I didn’t. She was right and the Margarita worked. We went home after dinner and soon thereafter she went into labor. Eighteen hours of labor later at 6:28PM on June, 2nd 1985 – Kiel Warren Cravatta was born. (That’s right - exactly 20 years ago today).

The birth went without any problems but the labor had been long and tiring. Afterwards Kathy was very tired and very hungry. Actually Kathy was starving. So much so that she asked me to go get her something to eat. Now when she asked this I initially thought she meant from a vending machine or from the hospital cafeteria. I was mistaken she meant for me to drive into town and get her something. She was actually more specific and said she wanted a roast beef sandwich from Arby’s. When she said this and I just put on a generic smile. The nearest Arby’s was 20 miles away and I could hear the beginning rumbles of thunder outside the hospital room. I thought to myself that “This woman’s lucky she had just given birth to my child or I would tell her what to do with her Arby’s roast beef sandwich.”

Being a fairly obedient husband I obliged her request. I went to the car and began my 20 mile journey for her sandwich. As I left the Air Force Base the storm began. I drove the 20 miles in awe and wonder – thinking about the birth of my son and thinking about the incredible storm I was in the midst of. I pulled into Arby’s and I was a mess – I had never cried because I was happy before. I gathered my composure made my way into Arby’s and it was packed out. It seemed that everyone had pulled over where ever they could to escape the storm. I stood in line for what seemed like eternity. I finally got Kathy’s food and left. The storm was now much worse than before – the rain was now coming down in sheets, the kind where you can’t see when you’re driving. I inched my way back to the base and hospital. I was now soaked to the bone. As I entered my wife’s hospital room, I was quite proud of myself for braving the elements and fulfilling my wife’s request.

I went to speak but I couldn’t. For the first time since his birth, I saw my wife and son together. My wife looked up from trying to nurse our son and said “Hi Daddy.” I stood in the doorway and swallowed the lump in my throat. I walked over and handed my wife her sandwich. Unconsciously she took her sandwich from the wrapper. She took one bite of it and said…”Ugghh…I’m not hungry anymore.” She then threw the sandwich, wrapper and bag in the trash can next to her bed! I stood there in total disbelief - I couldn’t believe she just did that. I wanted to get mad but I couldn’t. Kathy apologized and then said the most profound thing she has ever said. She grabbed my hand and said "Let’s just enjoy and love our son.” And that’s what we’ve been doing ever since.

Happy 20th Birthday Kiel! We Love You!

Sweet Sixteen

2005-05-23T16:34:00.000-05:00

The long (4 day) weekend has been nice. We went to orientation/apartment hunting at UCF (Orlando) for Kiel on Friday. Went well, too much information thrown at you at one time. Then we went to Kathy's dad (Warren's house) in Avon Park on Friday night. We played golf with him on Saturday and out to dinner that evening. We drove home Sunday and got in early evening.

But today is the big day. Katlin turned "16" today. I took the day off and we went golfing with some folks from church. Acutally one of the guys works at a very nice golf course. It's the kind of course that we would never go to because it is just too expensive to play ($100+ per person). So we both really enjoyed and appreciated him having us over to play golf. Then Kat and I went and ate at "Flamingo Joes" - they only have the best grouper sandwiches on the planet. We're going to get cleaned up and then all of us our going to go out to dinner and celebrate his birthday.
It's been fun day hanging out with him today. Can't believe he's 16 though. Hope all is well with everyone. Will update more later....

Six Weeks Later....

2005-05-17T20:54:00.000-05:00

It will be six weeks tomorrow that Kiel had his car accident and we finally got his car back today. Needless to say he is quite happy to have it back and no longer has to drive my truck. I believe my truck wasn't quite his style. I'm also happy to get rid of the ghetto-cruiser of a rental car I had. It was a great car....to buy crack in. Anyhow, Kiel's car looks good and so far rides good - we'll see if we have any problems with it. Kiel is going to drive to Tallahassee tomorrow so that will be a good test for it. He going to go see an mid-night showing of the new Star Wars movie with some friends. (I don't get it, so I won't pretend that I do.) But to each his own. Later....

Whole Bunch of Nothing

2005-05-15T22:14:00.000-05:00

We kept the weekend pretty quite and simple. Didn't do a whole bunch of anything except for today. We went to late church and then afterwards we went to 'Surf & Grill'. Surf & Grill is basically a cookout/hangout at the beach that our church does in the summer months. You know you're church is cool when you have a beach party after church. But the cool part is that we do Baptisms in the Gulf of Mexico during Surf & Grill. It's pretty cool and I always enjoy being there to watch them. I always look forward to going to Surf & Grill. We left a bit early cause Kathy wasn't feeling well. She felt nausated and her joints were sore. About half way home I started feeling the same way. We came home and slept cause we both are feeling like crap. She went to bed early and I'm on my way. Hopefully we can sleep this off.

We can't be getting sick, we've got a really busy week. We leave after work Thursday for Orlando. Kiel has orientation at UCF on Friday and we're going to look at apartments for him as well. We hope to see Kathy's dad in Avon Park on Saturday and play some golf with him. We'll head home on Sunday sometime. We found a church in Orlando that Kiel is interested in so we'll check it out on Sunday before heading home. Next Monday the 23rd is Katlins birthday (16). I'm going to take the day off and take him golfing. So I've got a four day week and a four day weekend which is very cool.

I'll try to write more later, I just haven't had the time lately. Later.

Live and Learn

2005-05-12T12:03:00.000-05:00

Well, I thought I would like having music on blog. Come to find out I didn't like it for several reasons. After trying it for a couple of days, I realized a few things: it seemed too teenagerish, it got annoying hearing the same song start/restart each and every time the blog loaded. But then as someone pointed out, not everyone likes to listen to music while they read. I don't want people dreading to come to the blog because of a song that may bother them. I also don't want people to hit the Escape key each time to stop it from playing. Too much work to have fun. This blog can be annoying enough without adding music to it. So I removed the music and the post regarding it (sorry Kiel, we tried). What the heck? No blood, no foul. I gave it a shot and it didn't work out. Live and Learn.

He's Ready

2005-05-11T18:22:00.000-05:00

I'm unsure if it's the end of an era or a new beginning. Perhaps it both. All I know is that I can sense change. I can feel it in every ounce of my being. I can hear it in his voice. I can see it in his eyes. I see it when I look in the mirror. He sense's it too and there's nothing we can do about it, except ride it out. This change is inevitable. But that's okay, things are meant to change. There is a natural order of things. There's a progression to life that can't and must not be stopped. Seeds become flowers. Caterpillars become butterflies. Puppies become old dogs. And children become adults…and leave home. It's all part of the way things are meant to be.

But it feels different than I thought it would. It feels strange. Not bad, not upsetting - just strange. But he's ready to go, he knows it's time. Sometimes I feel like he's too ready to leave. His new life is calling him and he is ready to knock down the door to greet it. And I can't blame him. It's part of his nature, it's built into him. He's been hardwired for this adventure since his birth. He's anxious, eager and confident. He's ready. But then there are the times when he let's his guard down just long enough for me to catch a glimpse of his insecurities. I can tell he wants to be free but he's not quite sure what he'll do with his new freedom. He wants to be independent but he's afraid of being alone. He wants to make his own decisions but he fears making mistakes. He's anxious to make a new start, in a new place with new friends but he longs for the old places and familiar faces. I see it…when he lets me. Sometimes I think he shows me just so I can reassure him that he's going to be fine. But he's ready...am I?

Happy Mothers Day

2005-05-08T21:15:00.000-05:00

Hope all you 'mothers' had a great day today....wait that doesn't right. I think what I meant to say was 'Happy Mother's Day' to all you mom's. We had a great Mother's Day today, acutally the whole weekend was great. Today we went to church and then out to eat afterwards. Then this afternoon Kathy went to the Spring Arts Festival with her friend, while the boys went golfing. With everyone gone, I was free to take a nap! Everyone finished up early (including the nap) and we went to an early movie. We went and saw 'Crash' - I'm not a movie critic and normally don't give my opinion about movies but this movie is outstanding. I believe it is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. This is not a feel good movie by any means but you will leave the theater thinking. I think Kiel described this movie best when he called it 'raw'. The acting in this movie is solid all the way through and the story is extremely well done. I don't want to give too much away but I recommend seeing it. We'll buy this one when it comes out on DVD - something I don't do very much but this one warrants it. If you see it let me know what you think.

We took my mom out for Mother's Day last night and then went back to parents and watched boxing on Showtime. My dad, Katlin and I believe we may have watched the best boxing match any of us had ever seen. The ending to this match was simply incredible. My mom made us all desert with the intent of giving us stomach aches. Particularly with Katlin, she made him the biggest milk shake I've ever seen. To his credit he drank it all but paid for it the rest of the night. It was quite funny to see him rolling around on the couch and floor trying to get comfortable after downing that thing. Not much else new. Kiel is done with school. Kat finishes school in a couple weeks. Then on to a busy summer for all of us. That's about all for now - I'll ramble on again later. Hope all are well and you enjoyed the day with the mom in your life.

A Grievous General

2005-05-07T07:19:00.000-05:00

This was Kiel's final art project at Gulf Coast. For those of you who don't know Kiel is a HUGE fan of Star Wars. This is General Grievous one of the villians in the upcoming Star Wars movie. Kiel printed this off poster size so he can hang it in his room at UCF.

Brotherly Love

2005-05-03T21:28:00.000-05:00

Since I'm feeling somewhat melancholy this evening, this picture seemed appropriate. Someone (not sure who) put it in Corel Draw and came up with this. We figured it out and this was taken nearly 11 years ago! Kiel was nine and Katlin was five...and it seems like yesterday. Does anybody know where these guys went or remember them back then? Where does the time go?

Autumn's Fall

2005-04-30T19:24:00.000-05:00

Kiel did this in Corel Draw last night in about two minutes. I thought it was kind of interesting. You may want to click on the picture to make it larger so you can see it better.

God's Politics

2005-04-29T11:37:00.000-05:00

"While the Right in America has hijacked the language of faith to prop up its political agenda - an agenda not all people support - the Left hasn't done much better, largely ignoring faith and continually separating moral discourse and personal ethics from public policy. While the Right argues that God's way is their way, the Left pursues an unrealistic separation of religious values from morally grounded leadership. The consequence is a false choice between ideological religion and soulless politics."
Quote from 'God's Politics' by Jim Wallis

They (whoever 'they' are) say you should never discuss religion or politics (and probably cat hunting) at a dinner party. Fortunately for me this isn't a dinner party. Regardless of that, I still feel that I'm probably in over my head on this one because I'm actually going to discuss both religion and politics at the same time. I'm pretty sure that this post has the potential to piss off and alienate me from both Republican and Democrats alike. Please know that when I write a post my goal is not to convince. I'm not here to persuade anyone to agree with me. In particular when I talk about matters of faith, I'm not trying to convert anyone - I'm just trying to express what my faith means to me. It's not my intent to be pushy or beat people over the heads with a Bible. Honestly, I don't feel that I do that and would hate to think that I did. But conversely I'm not shy or ashamed of how I feel about my beliefs particularly when it comes to my faith. I'm now finding that beliefs on faith and politics have intersected and have become one in many instances. Even though I didn't want them to, they crossed paths and are forcing me to examine both my beliefs on faith and politics. Let me explain.

I bought what appears to be an interesting book over the weekend; it's called God's Politics (Why the Right gets it wrong and the Left doesn't get it) by Jim Wallis. Actually Katlin found it while we were in Target and suggested I buy it. How weird is that? He obviously sees something in me that needs fixing and thinks that this book can do it. Anyway this book hits on a subject that I have really been struggling with recently. My particular problem is that I'm having a real difficult time understanding how the Republican Party has come to claim that they speak for God. Before I get in too deep and my Republican friends think I'm a traitor, let me make a couple of things clear. I'm a Republican; I have been for quite awhile and probably will be for the rest of my life. I wouldn't say I'm 'disillusioned' with the Republican party and would consider switching to the Democratic party, because I'm not and I wouldn't. Overall I feel that the Republican Party represents my political views far greater than the Democratic Party ever could. But frankly I am concerned how the Republican Party has misrepresented Christianity and matters of faith as I see them. I'm also very concerned with the misconception that in order to be a Christian you have to be a Republican (and vice versa). In particular, it seems to me that this mindset has become 'unspoken doctrine' in many of today's churches. Because of this, it appears that many people now think that Christianity stands for something other than what it was intended to be. I don't needn't look any further than this past Sunday and the theatrics called 'Justice Sunday' to be reminded of this. This is the problem I have with both today’s church and American politics. They misrepresent the God that I see and read about in the Bible, which really angers me to no end. Hopefully I made myself clear about how I feel and didn't lose too many friends in the process. I know that I should probably stick to writing about my mis-adventures as a husband or parent but obviously I'm not smart enough to do so. Now that everyone is sufficiently offended to some degree we can all take a deep breathe and relax.

Getting back to the book, I guess this book has been out for awhile and was on the New York Times Best Seller List for awhile. I haven't had a chance to really 'get into' this book yet, I haven't had the time. I've only read a few pages. However, the parts that I have read, like the quote above have really struck a chord with me. Let me say, that I'm glad to know that I'm not alone on this issue. I take great comfort knowing that others see their faith as being misrepresented. What I do like about the book so far is that it does appear that he is gives it to both the Right and Left with both barrels. He gives it to the Right for thinking they are God's elect and he gives to the Left for not including God and faith in political discourse. For those of you who don't know Jim Wallis(bio) is a Liberal. He is also the editor of a leftist religious magazine called Sojourners. I'm sure that some of you will question that if I'm a conservative how I could read a book by a liberal. To me it's ultimately not about being a liberal or conservative, or being on the Left or on the Right or being called a Republican or a Democrat. Ultimately it's about being person of God and living according to His will. And please don't think I mean that in some sanctimonious or holier-than-thou sort of way because I don’t. If a book, regardless of who it was written by can promote positive discussion of faith/politics and help me examine my belief system - then I'll read it. I guess if that bothers some folks that his political party is different than mine, then they can sue me. And don't think is an endorsement of Wallis' book cause it's not that either. There is no doubt in mind that I will disagree with many things that he says. So don't worry, I'm not being brainwashed or being taken over by the dark side. I'm not 'going liberal' on you. Regardless, I'm sure Bill O'Rielly would be disappointed if he knew I was reading this (lol). But on the surface it appears that Wallis raises some good questions and makes some valid points. I guess we'll see as I work my way through this read, I may feel differently after I finish reading it. But passages like the ones below, lead me to believe that he might be on to something that needs to be discussed. Again, you may or may not agree with what Wallis is saying - I'm not sure I do completely. But at the very least what he says is interesting and to some degree challenging. And because of that it causes me to re-think, not question, but re-think what I believe and why.

"Of course, God is not partisan. God is not a Republican or a Democrat. When either party tries to politicize God or co-opt religious communities to further political agendas, it makes a terrible mistake. The best contribution of religion is precisely not to be ideologically predictable nor loyally partisan. Both parties, and the nation, must let the prophetic voice of religion be heard. Faith must be free to challenge both the Right and the Left from a consistent moral ground.

"God’s politics" are therefore never partisan nor ideological. But God’s politics challenge everything about our politics. God’s politics remind us of the people our politics always neglect - the poor, the vulnerable, the left behind. God’s politics challenge narrow national, ethnic, economic, or cultural self-interest, reminding us of a much wider world and the creative human diversity of all those made in the image of the creator. God’s politics remind us of the creation itself, a rich environment in which we are to be good stewards, not mere users, consumers, and exploiters. And God’s politics plead with us to resolve, as much as possible, the inevitable conflicts among us without the terrible destruction of war. God’s politics always remind us of the ancient prophetic prescription to "choose life, so that you and your children may live," and challenge all the selective moralities that would choose one set of lives and issues over another. This challenges both the Right and the Left, offering a new vision for faith and politics in America and a new conversation of personal faith and political hope."

Goings On

2005-04-26T21:10:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in a week, not because I haven't wanted to. I have a post that I have been working on but I'm having a difficult time getting it posted. I won't bore you with the details why, hopefully I'll get it worked out tomorrow. We've got a lot going on it seems. Well let me see what kind of stuff I can bore you with. We finally heard from UCF admissions and Kiel got accepted to UCF. It took 3 months to get a decision on his admission, instead of the 3 weeks we were initially told. Anyhow he is very happy. Now all the real work begins. We are now working on going to orientation on 20 May at UCF. But in order to go to orientation we have a ton of stuff to do. So alot is happening with Kiel's move to Orlando. In addition, we found out that there was about $6,500 worth of damage to his car. It was about $2,500 from being totaled. His car is now at the shop, the replacement parts have been ordered and the repairs should begin soon. It will probably be about another 2 weeks before his car is fixed and we get it back. Glad we have rental car and I'm glad I'm not paying for it. So with school winding down, his car getting fixed, his upcoming trip to the Czech Republic, preparing to move to Orlando and start school at UCF - Kiel's plate is full. He's also working two jobs on top of all this stuff. The next three months are going to be busy helping him transition out of here.

School is winding down for both the boys. Both have big projects they are finishing up and finals/AP exams to study for. I am impressed with how much effort both boys are putting into school. They both are really trying to finish strong. Kiel graduate from Gulf Coast Community College in a couple of weeks, he'll get his A.A. in Pre-Art. However, he has decided to skip the graduation ceremony and not walk. His ceremony will be when he gets his diploma at the mail box. Kiel really doesn't seem to think it's a big deal and said he'll wait to he walks from UCF to walk. Katlin will turn 16 in less than a month and get his licence. He's starting to get excited about that. For the second year in high school Katlin kept his GPA above a 4.00 for the entire year and got some huge award medal at school. Katlin is incredibly hard worker when it comes to his studies, I'm glad to see he was recoginized for it.

Kathy and I went to an awesome concert in Tallahassee last week. Saw a guy by the name of Chris Tomlin. The guy is an incredible talent, particularly when it comes to song writing. He has written many of the new worship songs you now find many churches singing. I really enjoyed listening to him, it was worth the drive. Kathy is thinking about having a garage sale this weekend - I hope it rains. I love the idea of clearing out the garage so we can finally park the van in their but the work of a garage sale really scares me. Not much else to speak of for now. Hope everyone is well. Time for some pain reliever(beer), I've had a killer head ache all day. Later.

Grace - Worship - Service

2005-04-20T17:26:00.000-05:00

I get a weekly email devotional from the Max Lucado website. For those of you who don't know, Max is my favorite author. I believe that I have just about every book he has written (except for the ones I gave away). I pretty much buy his books on blind faith believing that his newest book will be better than his last. Since using this approach I've never been disappointed. If you haven't ever checked out any of Max's writings or teachings, I highly recommend them to you. I don't believe you'll be disappointed. Anyhow, back to the email I received, the devotional was based on Ephesians 2:8,9 which talks about grace vs. works. The jest of the email was basically about how the supreme force in our salvation is God's grace and not our works, talents and strengths. The reminder I got from this email was awesome. The subject of grace vs. works is something I have been thinking about quite a bit over the past few days. Because of my legalistic based background I have to guard against slipping back into a works based mentality. Needless to say, I found the timing of this email to be incredible. I wanted to forward this email to everyone I knew. But I quickly realized that it probably wasn't a good idea, so I tempered myself. I don't want to be known as 'the guy who always forwards stuff to my email'. But this email and the subject of grace and works reminded me of the best lesson on this subject I had ever heard. I didn't hear this 'lesson' in church or during a sermon. I actually heard, overheard is more accurate, this lesson at a restaurant. It really affected me and has helped me more than I could have ever imagined.

A few years back I was working on a project implementing a new computer system at our facility in Newnan, Georgia. As we would normally do, the project team would go out for lunch and discuss the status of the project. When going to lunch we try to choose a restaurant with a menu that has a variety of choices to accommodate everyone's different taste. On this particular day there were about six of us going to lunch so we decided Ruby Tuesday's was the best choice. As we were being seated I noticed that the restaurant wasn't very busy, actually it was dead. Besides our party, there was only one other group in the restaurant. It was a booth with three ladies and about five pre-school aged kids, needless to say they were packed in the booth. As you can imagine the kids were also quite loud.

I didn't pay to much attention to them as we passed by, probably because I was trying to navigate the strollers that sat in front of their booth. We were seated at our table and I sat with my back towards their booth. There was only one empty table between us so I was able to hear the kids and the ladies conversation if I tried. Again, I didn't pay to much attention to them because we had things to talk about. We ordered our food and started discussing the status of the software implementation, in particular the data conversion. Somewhere in the middle of the our conversation I heard one of the ladies behind me increase the volume of her voice, hit the table with her hand and say "I don't think you guys get it! This is not what it's all about!" No one else at my table seemed to notice her and the conversation at our tabled continued. However, I was now intrigued by what she said and began listening to their conversation while trying to seem engaged in ours. Not an easy task for a novice but fortunately for me I have this art mastered. Years of marriage have enabled me to seem like I'm listening to my wife all the while I'm listening to the TV in the background. So being able eavesdrop during a business meeting in an empty restaurant was a piece of cake….or so I thought.

She continued by saying "You guys have got it all wrong! It's not about plans or programs!" Now she really had my attention because I immediately knew what she was referring to (church). I nodded my head in agreement towards my co-workers although at this point I no longer knew where we were in the conversation. My ability to listen to two conversations at once had failed me, she now had my complete attention. I then heard her say "Look you guys, it comes down to this: Grace, Worship, Service". She then started repeating this: "Grace, Worship, Service". She must of repeated this a half a dozen times. Finally she became frustrated with her friends and bluntly said "Let me break it down for you. It's about Grace, Worship, Service. Once you understand and accept God's gift of Grace you are going to want to Worship Him. Once you Worship Him, you'll see who He is and what He's done for you. Once you see who He is and what He's done for you you'll want to Serve Him out of gratitude. It's a natural progression towards Him. It's not about what you can do, there are no plans or programs it's just Grace, Worship, Service". I don't know who was floored more, me or her friends. I was stunned. What she said made so much sense that I just wanted to turn around, hug her neck and tell her thanks. I wanted to tell her that I couldn't believe that I just heard the greatest Sunday School lesson this side of church. But I couldn't.

"So what do you think Ron?" I heard my boss ask. In that split second I thought "If I told you that what I really thought, you'd think I was crazy and fire me!" I kind of tossed out a "Huh…I'm sorry…" My boss continued "I said, what do you think?" I must have had a deer in the headlights look because he threw me a bone by saying "About the data conversion that we've been talking about for the last 10 minutes, what do you think?" Oh yeah, the data conversion….now I remembered why we were here. I quickly gathered my thoughts and proceeded to talk about the data conversion. All the while I was hoping that the ladies at the table behind us would be there when I finished. I wanted to go tell her how much I appreciated what she told her friends. But I wouldn't get the chance, they had finished eating and left before I could get to her table. I never got the chance to speak with the lady I overheard. I never saw her face, I don't even know which of the three ladies it was. She never got to know how much I appreciated what she told her friends and how much I needed to hear it. But someday she will. Someday she'll learn that her words were planted in the heart of someone she wasn't even talking too. Someday she'll learn that her words deeply touched a legalist who had no concept of amazing grace. Someday she'll learn how much she was used by God in a Ruby Tuesday's in Newnan Georgia when she thought no one understood her. Someday I will get to hug her neck and tell her thanks....and she'll be surprised.

And someday I hope I get it like she does: Grace, Worship, Service.

What's That Smell?

2005-04-19T11:57:00.000-05:00

We have a small trailer at our plant that our Customer Service Department works out of. This trailer reminds me of the portable classrooms that I see at our schools throughout the county. Anyhow, I came into work this morning and everyone from Customer Service was standing around in the front office. I thought this was strange to see them all gathered together in our office instead of theirs, so I asked them what was up. They told me that the couldn't work in their office because the smell was unbearable. At first I thought they were kidding me but upon further discussion I realized they were serious. It appears that an animal of some kind has found its way into their trailer and died. The stench from the decomposing animal carcass is horrible and has run them out. The problem is they can't find the dead animal. They have searched high and low and can't find it. So now our maintenance department is literally taking this trailer apart piece by piece to search for this thing. Lovely. It's probably a cat (huge grin).

The Weekend is Here!

2005-04-15T12:18:00.000-05:00

I haven't been so thankful to see a weekend since I can remember. I'm just glad it's over. Hopefully next week won't be as eventful. We don't have alot plans this weekend. Probably go out to dinner and then go watch some softball tonight. Katlin has a soccer game in the morning, we're planning on going to breakfast before his game. Having some freinds over tomorrow night to hang out for a bit. Then we'll go to church to Sunday. So a pretty uneventful weekend is in store for us (hopefully). Will try to post more this weekend. Have a good one...

"Cat Hunting"

2005-04-14T12:09:00.000-05:00

I was a bit disappointed to see that the Wisconsin Legislature 'shot down' efforts to legalize cat hunting. No joke. This really saddens me to no end that they voted against it. Personally I thought this idea was probably the single greatest idea I've ever heard. I was already making vacation plans and hired a guide to help me on a cat safari. However, I did find out that both South Dakota and Minnesota do have a cat hunting season. So my plans to 'pop a cap in cat' may not be thwarted after all. As you can tell I'm not a big fan of cats - I know that many of you are. If you are please take my anti-cat rants with a grain of salt - know this is joke and I'm kidding around. But before you cast a judgemental eye on me, know that I have probably the best reason ever to hate cats that you've ever heard.

When I was very little, like 3 or 4 years old. My parents owned an ocelot - now we couldn't a normal pet like goldfish or a dog. We needed an ocelot, a glorified house cat, yet with killer instincts. Unfortunately for me, this thing was jealous of me. Why? I'm unsure, but it was jealous. This 'cat' would hide on the top of the couch and wait for me to walk through the door. Once I did, I became his prey and he would attack me! Full on, jump on my neck, go for my throat, wrestle me to the ground and attack me! Needless to say after this happened about 50 times my parents decided they had had enough and got rid of the ocelot. Took them long enough didn't it? But the damage had been done - I was forever scared and since then have had a major dislike of any kind of cats. Know that my loathing of cats runs deep and I believe is justified. This is why support any and all types of cat hunting(wild and domestic). So if after hearing my story and you're interested in joining me on my quest to help control the world's feline population, let me know. (lol)

Here is a story about Wisconsin's bid to legalize Cat Hunting.

Maybe I'll start a petition to legalize Cat Hunting in Florida? Hmmm....I'll need to think about that. By the way, if you need me to 'cat sit'...I'll be more than happy.

NOTE TO READER: Please know this is written tounge in cheek. I had a picture of a 'cat hunter' up that I took down cause someone was upset about it and left me a nasty comment. Everyone in my family told me to leave the picture up and ignore the squeaky wheel. Those of you who know me know that this is meant to be funny. You can make up your own mind about this issue. I seriously don't like cats but I would never kill one, I don't even own a gun nor do I hunt. I just find this whole debate on cat hunting to be rather strange and unusal. If you 'don't get' or appreciate my sense of humor...that's cool. But don't make it personal by leaving ugly comments, simply leave.....and don't come back.