School bus fun!

I havent been on a school bus in 20 years! We are heading out to camp for 3 days and it is cold! This brings back the memories.

Softball season starts!

Last night, we were at the mall getting needed items for today's softball practice. Mainly shoes and a helmet. I ran into my high school buddy Scott Matthews at Hibbet's in the mall. Tidbits are as follows:

Him: Hey man!
Me: Hey!
Him: What's going on?
Me: Just looking for softball equipment.
Him: Me too. I'm playing for First United Methodist. Who are you playing for?
Me: {strange look, followed by a couple seconds of silence}
Me: Oh, I'm not playing this year, my daugther is.

{follow introductions of family}

Me: We gotta find her some shoes
Him: Well the ones that have less color on them are cheaper!
Me: Now that's what I'm talking about!
Him: Remember, back in the day when we played there were only 2 colors, black or white!
Me: I know! It's amazing all the choices they have these days!

Anyways, we filmed his brother's wedding 2 weekends ago, and I got to thinking about how the vast majority of my high school friends have turned out to be pretty dang successful.

Scott's a doc, his bro Chris is a pharamacist, Kyla B is a doctor, Paul V is a doctor, Gene A is a doctor, Heather H is a doctor, Kam H is a successful engineer, Carrie B is a successful engineer, Leslie B is a successful engineer, Andy is marketing executive, Constantine graduated from the Naval academy, Brian C is an engineer, Brian S is an engineer, Phillip S is a one time brainaic turned famous guitarist, Lisa R is making it in the studio recording world, Jeremy N. is in grad school...

It's funny, I mean, we all pretty much knew we were all going to be very successful in whatever we chose to do, and now to see it all come to fruition some 15 years later is a really cool thing.

I guess for me, my junior and senior years were major pivot points in my life, for the better. I could not have asked for a better group of friends to share those 2 years of my life with. I am pretty sure they don't really know what a huge impact they had on my life. We had almost 300 in our graduating class. I was ranked 13th academically, with an overall GPA of 3.97. That should give you some idea of the competition among us at the top of the class. We worked our tails off, night and day!

In life though, that's what it is all about. Working and doing what you love to do at the same time.

Little rosies

Enjoying lunch. Can i see ur green card? Woooo!

35 years

Just got back from a friends retirement party. I cant imagine working that long!

Remembering Al

After Jeff's birthday party at The Olive Garden Saturday night, we received word that Jawana's father had passed away. He had been battling lung cancer since shortly before out wedding in November. Things have been somewhat somber in recent days as we move forward through this time of grief. Thank you so much for everyone who has sent us wishes and prayers. We appreciate it! Tonight we got together with family at Logans's and ate dinner to celebrate his life. I think a good time was had by all.

All Baby Systems Are Go!
Today we also went back for another ultrasound for out baby this morning. Good news! Everything appears to be progressing along nicely, and we are having a boy! Hallelujah! The pressure is off! It's like so crazy thinking I'm going to be a daddy and everything. I mean, me. Sometimes I wonder about all that. I mean good heavens, I'm turning into my parents.

Game On!
Saturday during the day, we had band practice. I recorded the entire 2.5 hour practice session (which is short one, compared to the usual 3.5 hours) and took this sample off of it. I just love this intro to this song by Rush. Subdivisions We are still in need of a singer, so if you know of anyone who likes to sing progressive rock, please send them my way! We are doing a lot of Rush, Dream Theater, The Police, Genesis, Deep Purple, as well as some Jimi Hendrix and maybe some SRV.

Valentine’s Day Gifts. . .

I hope everyone enjoyed their valentine’s day! What did you get? What did you give?
For several weeks my wife has been proclaiming she wanted a pizza cutter. So Wednesday during lunch, I ran to Wal-mart to look for one. To my surprise, they had a 2 for $3 special on pizza cutters, ice cream scoops, peelers, and kitchen scissors (why do we need a special class of scissors for the kitchen?) Anyway, I got her a V-day card and the pizza cutter and ice cream scoop. What can say, “I love you” more than providing the means for her to eat her 2 favorite food groups: pizza and ice cream!

Death is all around us. . .
The tornados that hit North Alabama were devastating to say the least. We learned, the one that hit over by Moulton was on the ground for nearly 20 miles as it closed in on Decatur. Fortunately for us, it lifted off the ground 2 blocks. . . yes; TWO BLOCKS from our house. If it had stayed on the ground a couple more minutes, we would have been in a bad place. It was an F4 that was about ½ mile wide according to the weather reports the following day. It is really scary to think about how close we came to dying. You can see the picture below of us huddled in the bathroom. Freaky Freaky Freaky. The next day, we learned a dear friend’s parents and brother were killed in Moulton by the tornado. What a horrible tragedy.

School Shootings on the rise. . .
Why is it that we are hearing about more and more school shootings these days? Something interesting about the shootings at the Illinois college campus is, it’s a gun free zone. If students would have had concealed carry permits, this creep would not have killed 6 and wounded 17. Do you own a gun? If not, you should. To protect yourself and your family and friends from these creeps. It’s been proven that anti-gun laws do not work. Those who want guns will get guns. Those who abide by the law won’t have guns. And they will get slaughtered. For goodness sake. Get a gun and take a training course on how to use it properly!

Get out of Debt. . .
We are working hard on paying off debt. While I do believe and have some faith in the US Economy ‘s long term growth potential, times are about to get tough based on everything I’m reading. T he best thing you can do for yourself and your family is to get out of debt and stock pile some cash, outside of the stock market.
You need to continue to invest in mutual funds for your retirement plans, but you also need to be saving cash in a separate money market account for emergencies which may arise during this coming 12-18 month period.

The Digital TV shift
In February 2009, broadcast stations will stop sending out analog signals (the kind your old trusty rabbit ears have been receiving for like 50 years) and convert to all digital signals. This will leave approximately 13 million “minorities and poor” people without a TV signal according to this article I read this morning. You know, this is probably the best thing that ever happened to them. The last place a poor person needs to be is in front of a TV set. They should be out working and going to school to learn something new so they won’t be a drain on society.

Hunkered down.

Praying the tornado doesnt hit us at 3 am this morning.

Jon huntsman

I just became a fan of him. Glenn was talking about the fund raiser he had recently for a family where all 4 kids have MD and the dad is also sick. The mom will outlive her entire family. Glenn raised $100,000 for them and then jon called and matched his amount. Then ted nugent called and said he would take the kids hunting because that was their favorite sport. The overarching message was about how much better things are when we as Americans band together and help each other. Indeed, the government is encroaching on our freedom under the guise of ';taking care of us';. Dangerous territory. That is socialism, and that is not what this country needs. We need conservative leaders with morals and backbones to build a fence to close our borders, cut social spending, implement the fair tax, and restrict government involvement in our daily lives. The problem is, i don't see any presidential candidates exhibiting those traits. All i know is avoid hillary and obama! They won't solve anything.