Flour Children!

Yesterday evening, not more than 15 minutes before she was going to leave the house to come pick me up from work, Lydia went and sat down for five minutes in the living room to look at a part of her homework. She heard the kids playing, but didn't think much of it... Until she went into the kitchen!

Malachi and Mysia were having a food fight with the flour!

What a mess!

~Matt

Chats with God

I like to chat with friends and family on occasion. It's a lot of fun, and it is good to keep up with those I chat with. Sometimes I wish more would chat, but then again, keeping up with more than one conversation at a time can be challenging!

I've heard it mentioned by some that they like the idea of the old days, when people would go out on their porch and the end of a long day and talk. And how with the invention of the tv and computer, no one hardly does anything like that anymore....

Well, I'm gonna have to beg to differ on that one. With the internet, at the end of a long day (or during the day) I can talk to friends and family that I wouldn't get a chance to by sitting on my porch.

So I guess it all depends.

Now a thought had hit my mind a couple of weeks ago... wouldn't it be interesting to sit down and all of a sudden God pops on your chat? Lets say he starts the conversation,  or you have something weighing on your mind that you want to run past him. Wouldn't that be cool?

A funny thought would also be, what if those in the Bible had a the ability to chat with God...

Just imagine a chat between Moses and God:

GOD: Good Morning, Moses!
MOSES: helo
GOD: Have you been doing all that I've asked?
MOSES: uh.. yes lord. but i do have a qustion, how do i know thsi is u?
GOD: I AM THAT I AM
MOSES: ok. thanx. sometimes i afraid the egyptians r pllaying tricks on me. the're very advanced u know
GOD: Oh Moses, you needn't worry, for I am with you. However, I am concerned about your typing capabilities!
MOSES: Sory God. i'm not teh best at when it coms to this comunication stuf. Im a little slow
GOD: Well, for starters, there is a feature called "spellcheck"...
MOSES: it wont turn intoo a snkae will it ?
GOD: No... it won't. Please learn to use it. Oh, when the time comes to send out a press release in MY name, promise me that your brother Aaron types it out for you!
MOSES: yes lord, i will



LOL!

Anyway, if you want some humor... you too can chat with God! I stumbled across this site! (Just remember that you need a sense of humor please, and do NOT take this site seriously!!)

~Matt

A job for Lydia... but car troubles!

Tuesday (9/22/09) was a very interesting day! It started out pretty good, but then things started happening as the evening approached.. but I'll get to that in a bit.

The day started out pretty normal. I've been working overtime, so I new it was going to be a long day. We dropped the kids off at daycare, Lydia dropped me off at work, and then she headed over to college. Before my first break of the day, Lydia sent me a text telling me she got the job at OTC!

Now, for those who don't know, Lydia found out that OTC hires students as work studies. Which means she can work in-between classes, answering phones etc, and get paid for it! Every little bit helps, you know! She doesn't know when she'll officially start, but it should be soon!

That news got me excited. We had been praying about it for a while, hoping that she'd hear soon. However, all my excitement got shot down around 3:45...

Lydia called and said that the car wouldn't start. Every time she turned the key, there would be a clicking sound. I immediately thought it was the battery, but she reported that the lights and radio worked. She had just finished giving plasma and was going to pick up the kids from daycare and then head home.

She was able to walk over to Palen Music Center, were Sam was working. He graciously gave her a ride to pick up the kids and then drop her off at home. He then picked me up and we went to go look at the car. We jumped the battery, and it started! So we headed over to O'Reilly Auto Parts to get the battery and alternator checked out. When we arrived, and I turned off the car, I tried to start it again... wouldn't turn over.

We had one of the guys come out and check it with their hand-held machine. Sure enough, it said "Bad Battery". Great... Fortunately, Sam had a brand new battery in the bed of his truck, it was from his old truck that had died. We asked if that would work, and the guy admitted that it would, but that I'd have to splice the cords in my car to extend them to reach the plugs on the new battery since they were on opposing ends.

I called my dad and asked him to come out and help.. and bring some tools. He did, and we got it in and working! Of course, I owe Sam for the battery... but it has saved me an immediate charge of $90+!

When I finally got home... it was after 9pm! What a day!

~Matt

PART 2 of Lydia's Laptop Woes ("Ka-Bluey!")

On Monday, Lydia was working on a speech/paper on her laptop after her last class at college. She had gotten about 2 hours into it, and "Ka-Bluey!" Her laptop crashed! Unfortunately, she hasn't learned to save, and save often, and relied on Word's auto-save!

When I found this out, my heart sank! I have personally learned to always click "save" when I have a pause, or when I hit a major part of a document... like the end of a well-written paragraph!

When Lydia brought up Word, after restarting the computer, it didn't recover her document. Boy, was she frustrated.

I wasn't too happy either. Here I thought I had fixed the problem! I guided her through the steps to see if the Windows Update was turned off... it wasn't! Somehow it turned itself back on. Well, she turned it off, but before she could do anything... "Ka-Bluey!" So she had to redo it again!

I then surmised that due to the slow internet speed at the college, it took forever to get to that "36%" of download... which is why it took almost two hours before crashing on her! Go figure!

When Lydia picked me up from work, you could see the frustration still on her face. I wasn't too happy either.. I knew it meant that she'd have to make up all that time she lost on her document. Ugh!

When we arrived home, I went straight to her laptop and come to find out, firefox had crashed so bad, I had to re-install it! MORE FRUSTRATION! But it didn't take to long, and all was working well. I then went to the folder to find the temporary files of Word's auto-save. Low and behold... there was a document last saved at 3:45.. right before the crash!

it was an ".asd" file. I tried to open it. No good. Word kept saying it wasn't able to read it. I searched on the internet to see if there was a program that would open it. All I could get was that it was a Word file! It wasn't helping my mood. I paused, thought for a moment, and changed the extension from ".asd" to ".txt" and opened it in notepad.

Voilà! It worked!!!

There was a bunch of miscellanies characters around the main copy, but all of Lydia's work was there! Talk about a "hero" moment! I felt like I had conquered a great feat!

Anyway, Lydia was able to finish her work, and we installed "Service Pack 2" by downloading the exe file my brother had given me the link for. Hopefully the laptop crashing is over!!!!

~Matt

Malachi's B-Day Party

On Sunday afternoon, we had Malachi's b-day party. The poor guy, with his birthday on Tuesday, he had to wait until the weekend for his gifts. But in fact, he had gotten a bike with training wheels on Friday from Grandma Taylor and Uncle Dallas (technically my uncle, less you all get confused).

Lydia and I spent much of Saturday night in preparation for the party. We made and iced cupcakes, and then spent most of the time stuffing balloons with candy and HotWheels. It's not the easiest thing to do with balloons. I held them open, while Lydia shoved the items in.

After morning services, I quickly did the van route while Lydia made the pizzas and got the decorations in place. I arrived back at church just in time... all the pizzas were finished. Everyone ate and talked before cleaning up. We all headed over to the junior church room for the kids to play. They popped the balloons and we let Malachi open up his gifts.

We also ate cupcakes and ice cream! It was a good party!

~Matt

Lydia's Laptop Woes ("Ka-Bluey!")

Poor Lydia..... On Friday, her laptop was giving her fits.

She was at school, and she tried to do some homework, and the laptop just froze. Crashing on her! "Ka-Bluey!"...as I'll refer to it from now on!

This happened to her for the rest of the day, even giving her the blue screen of death before restarting on it's own. Lydia was getting frustrated!

After she picked me up and we arrived home, I immediately started looking at her computer. I'd get firefox running and... "Ka-Bluey!"

Within 10 minutes of anything, it just sitting there.... "Ka-Bluey!"

I was getting frustrated too!

I eventually discovered that if I turned off the wi-fi card, it wouldn't crash. But that meant that there was something going on with the internet connection. Was it the driver for the wi-fi card? A virus that needed the internet? Malware? I didn't know. I tried the driver. It told me that it was current, so I attempted to see if I could need updated by searching the internet... "Ka-Bluey!"

Arg! My next step was to scan her computer for a virus, and fragment her hard drive. There was some minor cookies that it didn't like, but still, when I connected to the internet... "Ka-Bluey!"

I decided to download "ad-aware"... but when I did... "Ka-Bluey!" I downloaded it on my computer instead, and transferred it to the hers via my thumbdrive. A scan (plus 45 minutes later), and nothing! I was really getting frustrated now!

I then decided to see if Windows had any updates, thinking that perhaps that would fix the problem. Sure enough, 'windows update' had the service pack 2 available. So I tried it. At 36% of the download completed... "Ka-Bluey!"

Come to find out, it was the update running in the background when connected to the internet, that kept crashing the laptop!!! I finally went into the preferences and changed it to "ask to download updates"... and all is working fine! I got it all figured out y 10:30 that night!

I was planning on mowing the lawn Friday evening... But since I worked on Lydia's laptop, I decided to put it off until Saturday. Well.. it rained! :(


I talked to my brother BJ last night, and he sent me the link to download the 'exe' file of the update... so I'll be trying it that way sometime this week! Oh.. and so far... no more crashes reported!

Hooray!


~Matt

Our Birthday Boy (Sept. 15, 2009)

Tuesday was Malachi's birthday. He turned two! When he got up, we started singing happy birthday to him, and he ran back into his room with a smile on his face!

Lydia had made cupcakes the night before, and we took them to his daycare to share with all of his friends.

When we got home that evening, we ate supper, gave him a shower, and then pulled out the video of his birth. Both Malachi and Mysia were glued. Lydia and I still couldn't get over the fact that it had been two years! The video showed Lydia before the birth, after the birth, and then in the hospital room showing baby Malachi off to friends and relatives. The funny part was that Mysia was two when Malachi was born! In the video, she looks like Malachi with pigtails!

The greatest moment captured on that video was when we brought Malachi home. Lydia has him laying on our bed, and she's getting ready to change his dirty diaper. I'm filming, and Mysia is standing near Lydia. As Lydia pulls open the diaper, Mysia takes a peak, and gives this look of disgust with "ewwww!". Her face was reminiscent of Lucille Ball's look that she often gave! It was funny! We all laughed when watching the video.

This Sunday, we are planning to do a party with family and friends at church...

~Matt

A FAULT?

Now there is some local news that freaks me out a bit!

It appears that there is a fault line near where we live! Three articles, (here, here, and here) explain that there is a fault line causing a bump in the highway no more than a mile away from where we live!

My thoughts....? We've dealt with an ice storm and a few tornadoes within the same distance. Oh, and not to mention that our yard floods during a heavy rainfall. So what can I say? I guess we should move..? lol!

~Matt

Weekend in Review (Sept. 11-13)

Wow... once again we had a busy weekend.

I had been working overtime all week, so when I got home on Friday, I was tired. I started putting that Gold City footage I had shot at SDC the week before on my laptop. While that was running, the kids watched veggietales, we ate supper, and played a bit. After the kids went to bed, I edited a few songs for upload on to youtube... they took for ever!

On Saturday, we were being lazy. Lydia and I tried sleeping in... the kids didn't let us! But we did get some sleep. BJ called and let us know that they were coming over for a visit. So we quickly got dressed and enjoyed the visit. The kids got to play with their cousin for a bit, which really thrilled them.

That evening, I picked up Noah, and we met Sam and Greg (and his family) at Snyder Music Park near Halltown, MO. We had been asked to sing for 45 minutes at George & Friends First Annual Homecoming. We seen a few others that have heard us sing, got to visit with a few people, including the Bryants themselves. Oh, and our set went very well. I was able to get it on video, and I have posted one of the songs on youtube.

On Sunday, it was the usual. Vans in the morning. Morning services. Home for lunch. But, later that afternoon, Sam picked me up and we headed to Strafford, MO for their Route 66 Days festival. We had the privilege to sing at their main tent at 3pm for 45 minutes. There weren't very many people in attendance for our singing, but we had several people stop by and peak in. I think they were wondering what they were hearing! lol! While there at the festival, Sam and I got to visit with our former employer Chris Fortner at the Pineapple Whip stand that was located right across from where we were singing. Amazingly, we were able to make it back to church in time for choir practice, and then evening services.

Like I said... what a busy weekend!

~Matt

Our Anniversary/Branson Trip (Get-A-Way)

I meant to post this over the weekend, but I hadn't gotten it finished, and then I forgot. This trip happened Labor Day weekend!

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For our wedding anniversary (Sept. 2), we were given free reservations for The Suites at Fall Creek in Branson. It is a nice resort. The place were were given to stay at had two master bedrooms, to bathrooms (with Jacuzzis), a full kitchen, dining room, living room, and two screen balconies/porches! It was awesome.

The resort had an outdoor and inside pool, a put-put course, sand volleyball court, plus many other things! Each room had a big tv with cable, and above the beds say an iHome... so I was able to put in my iPod and we could listen to music! We didn't use it as an alarm clock, we decided to sleep in!

Our trip went well. Paulette came over and watched the kids while we were away. She took them took them to church on Sunday.

We left the house around 5pm on Saturday evening and headed straight to the resort to check in. After we checked out our "apartment", we headed over to Silver Dollar City. Gold City was there for the Southern Gospel Picnic. I took video and pictures.

We got to the suite, ate pizza and went to bed. We slept in the next morning. It was great not having the kids! Around noon we went to Panara bread to get us a frozen mocha and use their wi-fi (we're nerds). We visited a few shops, went swimming, enjoyed the whirlpool, watched a movie, and enjoyed the day together.

On Labor Day, we took the kids to SDC and let them ride the rides. Before leaving, we saw Brian Free & Assurance. The kids slept trough the concert. When we arrived home, we were tired...

Lydia and I had an enjoyable time, and wish we could get a way again... sometime soon. Unfortunately, I think this is a one-time-a-year thing!

~Matt

Tagging your Facebook status!

According to an article put out by the AP yesterday, facebook will soon allow you to "tag" your friends in your status posts! It's just like what you can do with photos!

This can be a useful tool, and yet... an annoying one!

The coolness factor:
When mentioning a friend (or true relative) in your status, by tagging them, both the friend and their friends will be able to see it. Everyone is able to keep up with each other. I can see it also helping out couples, like Lydia and I. I make a status update about us both doing something, tag her, and it updates on her page as well. Cool.....

The annoying factor:
You get tagged in stupid status updates! You know those updates like the false amber alerts? I can see them being this... "An amber alert has been released for ____, abducted by green truck, plates _____!!! Tag all your friends!!!!"

*groan*

And so the facebook wars will ensue! There will be those who hate the feature, but will put:  "bring back the old facebook (tag all of your friends!)" lol!

~Matt

Update on Mysia's Forhead

It's been over a week since Mysia gashed her forehead on a table at daycare. So I figured I'd better post an update.

Mysia's forehead is doing good. She visited the doctor on Wednesday and got the sticker/bandage off. The Doc said that it has healed up nicely, just like it would have with stitches, and that there is a good chance that there will be not much of a scar.

I'm happy that it wasn't serious. Right now, Mysia is sporting a band-aid!

~Matt

What Obama is reading now....

"The Faith of America's Presidents" .... now wouldn't that be interesting read for our President!

Unfortunately, the photo is a misrepresentation. I did some photoshop work on it, using a book authored by my friend Daniel Mount. I did it for fun, and to make his day! All I did was change the cover of the book.

The thought of "photoshopping" this image came about when I received an email about Obama reading a "pro-muslim" book! The email went on to say that the book is against America, etc.

So, I did research, and the photo attached to the email was real, not altered. The president is holding the book: The Post-American World

However, the book's description given in the email was wrong. Here's what I've found:

"In the book, Zakaria argues that, thanks to the actions of the United States in spreading liberal democracy across the world, other countries are now competing with the US in terms of economic, industrial, and cultural power. While the US continues to dominate in terms of political-military power, other countries such as China and India are becoming global players in many fields."

Perhaps this is what he should be reading!!! (but I wonder if he just was holding it for show...)

Of course, I think he ought to read my friend's book as well!

~Matt

Local School District Opts Out On Obama's School Speech

Two days ago I mentioned the news that Obama will speaking to public school students nation-wide over a webcast next week. The news has drawn a lot of controversy, especially on the web. Some fear, that since it seems to promote kids to ask themselves how the can be better followers of the president, that the idea is too much.

I also found out that some parent's are not allowing their kids to participate, but some schools are forcing students to watch!!!

I agree that there are pros and cons to the issue, but the fact that it seems to be required curriculum... is downright scary!

Or so I thought!

Nixa Public Schools has decided not to air the speech to the students. They're leaving it to the parents! I applaud their decision!

~Matt

Mysia's Head Injury... (update)

I mentioned in yesterday's post that Mysia gashed her head while at daycare. Well, according to her, she was laughing about something funny with her friends, and her head went down and struck the table. Obviously, she didn't cry initially, and it was the other kids that brought it to the teachers' attention. They said blood was streaming down her face. Now the tables are round, and the wound is not from a corner, it was from the edge of the table!

Lydia was able to get Mysia to the doctor, who tried to put stitches in. The Doctor, a nurse, and Lydia tried holding Mysia still.... didn't work. She wouldn't have it. So they glued the wound shut and applied a tape that will come off on its own.

Mysia went back to daycare, and Lydia when back to school. Mysia's playing caused it to bleed a little more, so they put a band-aid on it to help keep it from coming off!

I took the picture before heading off for evening services at church!

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On another note... yesterday morning I accidentally left my razor out on the counter. Well, sometime after 4pm, Mysia came to Lydia saying her lip was bleeding! Mysia had tried to use my razor on her face. Lydia went into the bathroom to put it away, and there was Malachi using it on his cheeks!  Oooooh those kids!

 ~Matt

News: National and Family

As I have posted before, I love browsing the news. Yes, it can be depressing at times, but facts are always interesting, and I love a good story. Sometimes the news will cause me to do a little research in the story itself, or will make me research other topics that comes to mind while reading an article.

Anyway, today has brought several things to my attention that I thought I'd share!

First off, there is a school in Idaho that is suing the state for illegally banning the Bible for use as a textbook. The article says that the school wanted to use the Bible "as a primary source of teaching material, but not to teach religion" and the they have been prohibited by their local school commission! Now that would be a case I'd like to keep tabs on!

And speaking of Bible and schooling... how about the latest on the 10-year-old home-schooled girl that has been ordered to attend a public school by a court? All because the girl was sharing her mother's religious beliefs! Wow... other home-schoolers watch out! Actually, if a court can deem that a problem, what will stop them from saying that making your children attend church regularly will cause them to "lack some youthful characteristics"?

Now I get to the highly controversial news!

There is talk about giving the President the right and control to pull the plug on the internet! Now add that story the fact that he is going to speak to all the kids in public schools about their civic duty and obeying the President.... This is getting a bit too scary!

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On a much lighter note, and news from our family...

Today celebrates 6 years of marriage to Lydia. Which means that for 6 years she has put up with my jokes, puns, strange facts, and quirky humor! Happy Anniversary Lydia!!!

This morning at daycare, Mysia hit and gashed her forehead on a table. I got the call, and Lydia (having the car) left college and took Mysia to the doctor. The doctor tried to put in stitches, but Mysia wouldn't hold still. So they glued the wound shut. I haven't seen it yet, so I'll try and post a picture tomorrow.

~Matt

Our Visit to the Dentist

Yesterday was our our 6-month dental checkup. Mysia was excited. Like usual, the strange child that she is, she couldn't wait to go to the dentist. Our appointment wasn't until 8:30, so we dropped Malachi off to daycare before heading to the dental offices.

Our dentist is located on the 10th floor of one of the building here in town. In fact, that's the highest floor of the building. So it is a special treat for Mysia, since there aren't many building we visit that have elevators.

Once checked in, I was first to be called back. Not soon after, Lydia was placed in the rooms nearby, and Mysia stayed with her. Even though my teeth were being cleaned and checked, I could her Mysia from the other room. She was asking questions, talking about Malachi, sharing stories, etc... Mysia knows no stranger.

It took them a little longer with me since I had to have x-rays done. So while I was sitting in the chair, I got to hear that it was Mysia's turn. You could hear her squeal in delight, and she was still talking. After a while, she was quiet as they were cleaning her teeth.

Then it happened....

The moment that made me almost fall out of my chair in laughter!

One of the other nurses stopped by her room, and said, "I haven't heard a word from you in two minutes Mysia... are you alright?"


~Matt 

Our Singing in Fairplay

As some of you know, Steppin' Out was asked to sing in Fairplay last Saturday evening! Like every concert before, it was different and unique... None of them have been the same experience! .. and that's not a bad thing at all!

It was a smaller church, an according to the sign in the auditorium, their attendance last Sunday was eleven. As we were setting up (I got permission to borrow a portable sound system form my pastor), people started trickling in. By the time services started, there were 47 people total.

They started out with a few congregational songs, and then had their people sing and play specials. There was a piano and guitar duet, and several young women who played flutes. It was then our turn, and we sang 9 songs. After that, we took a little break as they took up the offering, and then we were back up to finish with 6 more.

There were two times that we (noticeably) messed up while singing. Both times we got ahead of the soundtrack. The good thing is that us guys stayed together... lol! Unfortunately, one of the times was my fault! I had started in too quick on the second to last chorus of Just A Little Talk... I need to be more careful!

When the services ended, we were invited to for cookies and soda, which we did. We also had the opportunity to visit with most of the folks that attended.

Overall, it was a blessed evening, and I'm glad we had the chance to sing.

~Matt



PS   The picture above was taken from the back of the auditorium with my cell!