Getting Ready For Our Trip (Nov. 23 & 24, 2009)

Yup... we were planning on a trip over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. It wasn't a 'small' trip either. We were heading out to south-western Kansas... to a town called Garden City. My grandparents on my dad's side live there, and that's where my dad grew up. Our trip was for the celebration of birthdays of both my dad and his twin brother. They were turning 50 on Thanksgiving day!

Monday was a busy day for me. Work and then quartet practice. I was anticipating not working on Wednesday, that it made the day a little slow!

Tuesday was pretty much the same way... I couldn't wait to get off work! We packed the clothes for the trip and Lydia worked on homework for class on Wednesday. We both got to bed a little late. But there were so much stuff to get ready......

~Matt


"Sometimes the best helping hand you can give is a good, firm push."

Pinewood Derby (11/21/09)

This was it... the yearly Pinewood Derby at Hillside. This was one of the big activities for the kids. Everyone is given a kit that includes instructions, 4 nails, 4 wheels, and a block of wood. It is then up to the imagination of the kid's parents to figure out what to make out of this block.

Once again, I was faced with this challenge. No... it was a double challenge. I got the responsibility making both Mysia and Malachi's cars.

Mysia wanted a purple and pink race car, no question about it. Malachi, on the other hand, just wanted a block on wheels to play with. I decided, after encouraging Malachi, that we make an old fashioned fire truck. We also only painted each vehicle with one color (a lot easier).

On Saturday morning, Lydia and I woke up and got ready. I tried to make sure we grabbed everything. Taking the church van, we picked up M&M and then started picking up the van kids. I thought we were going to be at least 15 minutes late to church, but we actually made it there with 20 minutes to spare!

I adjusted the M&M's cars, adding weights and straightening up the wheels. We entered the cars in, and then tried to help calm all the kids down. We're teachers, so that's our responsibility... to make sure the kids don't kill each other! lol!

The races went well. Mysia and Malachi both got quite a bit of run time on their cars, and even got to race each other. For lunch we ate corndogs and french fries... yum! I did the devotion, and Malachi won an award for car design!

It was a neat activity, and like always.... it was fun!

I posted pictures on facebook!

~Matt


"Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said."

Date Night (11/20/09)

Finallly...! It had been a while!

Friday night, I was able to take Lydia out for a 'Date Night'! Well, actually, seeing that she's been doing the driving lately (since it's a pain for us to be constantly adjusting the seats), I guess I should say that she took me out!

Our first stop was to drop M&M off with their aunt Lycia. They spent all night with her! Whoo-hoo! Lydia and I then headed off to church to pick up the van since I'd be driving for the Church's children's activity on Saturday morning.

After dropping the van off at home, we headed downtown to a place called Riad Mediterranean Cuisine. Lyida had heard that their food was good, so we decided to try it. We picked the Gyro Platter from the menu... it was great! We also had two glasses of Dr Pepper to go with the meal. The atmosphere was neat, and we had a window view of the downtown square.

Seeing that it was getting late, we decided to hurry off and head to the mall. There were some winter clothes Lydia was wanting to pick up for the kids. We didn't have much time before the mall closed, so it was a quick shopping trip.

On our way home, we picked up a movie from redbox to watch. I had a great time out with my beautiful date!

~Matt


"Insanity is hereditary. You get it from your kids."

Mysia's Tongue - UPDATE

For those who may have been wondering, I'm happy to report that Mysia's tongue has healed. The sore is gone!

Boy... are we glad. Having a four year-old girl in pain because of a huge sore in her mouth, is not fun! Hopefully, we won't go through that again!

Gargling salt water really seamed to help the most! So I need to keep that in mind, just in case!

~Matt


"God heals, and the Doctor takes the Fee"

A Week In Review (Nov 16-19)

This is basically a rundown of our evenings, since during the day I go to work, Lydia to school, and the kids to daycare.


Monday
Us guys (and Abigail) had quartet practice at the church. We're trying to get ready for our singing in Monett, MO on the 29th! We're also running over a few Christmas songs, but we're not to sure if they'll be included in the program. We shall see!


Tuesday
We visited my with my parents for a while. Sam and Dad showed me a little on how to work that map program that works with the GPS I had recently bought. Mysia and Malachi played with Abigail, and listened to Christmas music!
Afterwards we over and visited with Lydia's mom. Lycia and her boyfriend Samson was there, so we got to visit with them as well. They had just finished putting up and decorating their tree!

Wednesday
We had Master Clubs at church, as usual. There were several more kids than usual, and many were a bit rowdy! But, that's what hapens when you get a bunch of kids in one room!

Thursday
We watched a movie... ELF. We had seen it before, but it had been a while. And yes, we are starting in on the Christmas movies! Yippee! I'm looking forward to "White Christmas"!

~Matt


"I do not need a parachute to skydive. I only need a parachute to skydive twice."

Sunday (Nov 15, 2009)

Sunday was yet another busy one. Because of the sore in Mysia's mouth, Lydia decided to keep Mysia home. Since we didn't know what was really causing it, Lydia wanted to keep her from passing anything to the other kids.

That left me taking Malachi with me during the van route. Rush, rush, rush.... and we made it to church in time to meet with the others in the van ministry. We ate breakfast and Malachi was very well behaved.

Now Evangelist Ronnie Warren was to be at our church during the morning services, and since I'm his web designer, I wanted to be sure to get as much pictures and video as I could. So I was trying to be sure the van route would be quick and we'd be back at church with time to spare.... yeah right. This ended up being the week that we was going everywhere.

I ended up getting to church 10 minutes late. But I was still able to catch most of the Sunday School service! Ronie was great, and really did a good job presenting the message as well. I'll be posting some of the videos on youtube soon.

That afternoon, Malachi and I stayed at church to help with the kids in getting their Pinewood Derby cars cut and painted. Unfortunately, I don't think I was much of a help. After an hour, I ended up taking Malachi in one of the back rooms so he could nap. The guy was so tired, he slept almost all the way till time for choir practice!

Lydia went ahead and brought Mysia to church for the evening service, which was a good thing! That's when we found out the news that her brother Silas and his fiance Kristi moved up their wedding date to December!
How exciting!

~Matt


"We never really grow up, we only learn how to 'act' in public."

Christmas Lights and More! (Saturday, 11/14/09)

Ahhhhh... Saturday! Our day of rest. At least... for the first part of the day!

One of the things I like to do on Saturdays is sleeping in... and I have found a solution on doing so. When the kids wake up, I make their juice, give them a little breakfast, turn the tv on, and go back to bed for an hour or more! Hey... It works!

That's what we did Saturday... it was nice. With Lydia staying up and doing her homework, and I trying to stay up out of consideration, being able to sleep in is soooo nice! However, I will admit that I don't stay up as long as Lydia... I end up dosing, and she tells me to go on to bed! lol

After sleeping in, we did the morning routine of getting ready for the day. I worked on a couple of videos I had put on my laptop, both home videos from the camcorder and some from VHS. I also cleared away some of the 'computer/work junk' that had started piling up near the desk in the living room. Lydia worked on the grocery list and homework. The kids played and I even had them on Mario Kart 64 for about 45 minutes. I'm teaching them how to play. See.... I'm such a cool daddy!

Later in the afternoon, toward the end of M&M's naps, Lycia and Jordin stopped by for a visit. Jordin is Titus' girlfriend, and it was nice to finally meet her! We talked, visited, and tried to get Mysia and Malachi to stop being shy. (I don't think they got that from me)

Malachi was excited that I brought in the tree from the shed later that afternoon. He was trying to help me out as I set it up in the living room. Now if you think we're crazy, setting up the tree before Thanksgiving.... hear me out. It has been our personal tradition to bring it out two weeks before, and just enjoy the tree without the decorations. We will put them on after Thanksgiving! The tree is beautiful to admire with just the lights. That's one thing nice about a pre-lit tree... except for this year, and the top of the tree was out. Not only that, we were out of spare Christmas lightbulbs!

While Lydia and Malachi left for the grocery store, Mysia and I tried pulling out the outdoor lights. Since the weather was so nice and it was going to get cold, I knew it would be a good time to get them out. However, those lights made me mad. The strands were all messed up and not working!

Boy.. did I feel discouraged. I called Lydia and told her about my dilemma! She said she'd pick up a few more sets. What a sweetheart of a wife!

She got home, we unpacked the groceries, and got the kids ready for bed. I caved in and promised Mysia she could watch one of the animated Christmas movies, so they watched Frosty the Snowman as I went outside to decorate the house.

By then, it was dark. But that didn't matter. I'm hanging up lights! It didn't take me too long to complete either! However, it's the first time I was ever bit by mosquitoes when hanging up Christmas lights!

Oh, and for those who live in town.... it's no good to drive by and see them just yet. I won't be turning them on until after Thanksgiving!

~Matt



"Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly, and for the same reason."

Poor Mysia....

Over the length of the week, Mysia had been complaining about her tongue hurting. It was really brought to Lydia's attention Thursday late afternoon after daycare. Mysia had a sore on the left side of her tongue. It was bad. Poor Mysia would cry when trying to eat. So yogurt and milk was the remedy.

She still has the sore, and it is doing much better now. She's been gargling salt water, which seems to be helping a lot.

One good thing about all of this... she's stopped sucking her thumb (a habit we've been trying very hard to break)!

~Matt


Pun of the Post: "If something 'goes without saying,' why do people still say it?"

Graphic Design: Logo fun

Several months ago, I was playing raround with some retro logo ideas. This is what I came up with!

~Matt

Tech Post: My Laptop A GPS Unit!

For a few years, I had thought it would be cool to own a GPS unit. It would help when running the vans for the church, and it would be nice to have if we ever traveled anywhere. It definitely would have been nice for our Anniversary Get-A Way back in September.

About a year ago, I had read on a tech blogs that there were "USB dongles" that would turn your computer into a GPS unit. What a cool idea. But I didn't think that it would really be worth it, so I didn't really give it too much thought.

God has allowed us the finances and to be able to travel to Kansas this Thanksgiving weekend for a "family reunion" on my dad's side. We're excited, and it gave me the thought that the USB GPS/Laptop idea would be nice. So to the internet I went!!!

I did a google search and found one for $25! Wow... not bad! Especially since it came bundled with a map program (2008). Most of the others included a map more than $70! I was excited about the product, but I decided to get a second opinion. I emailed my brother BJ...

He liked it, but did his own research and found one that was for 2009 for only $5 more! Now that's a deal! "DeLorme Earthmate GPS LT-40 - GPS kit" I spoke to my dad, and ended up ordering two, one for Sam and I.

Well, they came in on Monday. I installed it, and from the dinning room table it works! I did say that my house was moving 0.02 miles, so I wonder if it's floating away! lol! I'm hoping to try it out Sunday during the van route! It'll be cool!

~Matt



Pun of the Post: "When filling out an application, in the part that says "If an emergency, notify:" I put "DOCTOR". What's my mother going to do?."

Internet Problems

Last Wednesday (11/4), Lydia called me around 3 to let me know that our DSL internet was not working. She had tried everything to get it going. All the lights would work on the DSL modem, but the internet lights would blink instead of being steadily on. She was getting really frustrated, mostly due to the fact that she had a lot of homework to do. And that's the main problem... most of her stuff for college is on the internet! So, there is more proof that we can't live without it!

It still wasn't working by the time she picked me up that evening from work, but we headed straight to church, so I didn't get to look at it until we got home later that night. Sure enough, it still wasn't working! We put the kids to bed and Lydia headed off to McDonald's to take advantage of their WIFI, while I called AT&T.

So much happened during my time on the phone with their customer support... it drives me crazy just thinking about it! Needless to say, I spent an hour doing things like changing the modem password, restarting my computer several times, restarting the DSL modem, unplugging and replugging the phone cords.... nothing worked. Our "session"ended and she put me on hold to talk to a "level 2" technician.

20 minutes of waiting, I finally got to talk to "Chan" from "Cow-lih-forn-ya"... yeah sure! And I'm from the moon! Anyway, besides trying to translate what I was saying, and figuring out what he wanted, it was found out that the problem was on their end. He told me that they'd put a ticket out for a guy to come and look at the lines, etc. I asked when it would be done, he asked what time it was here and I said 10:30. He says, "Oooo, that is very late." (I knew he wasn't in California!)

He assured me that it would be fixed in the morning, sometime around 8 (so he said), and gave me the ticket number and a 1-800 to call. Almost two hours on the phone!!!!! Lydia got back at midnight, and only had a few more things to do at school the next day.

When we woke up the next morning, it was early, and of course, it still wasn't working. So off to our places we went.

I had a dentist appointment at 3, and got off early for that. It turned out that the dentist had messed up on the chart and I didn't need anything done. It was nice that now I didn't have to pay for anything, but not nice in the fact that I took of work for nothing!

Anyway.... the internet still wasn't working! ARG! So when I got home, I called. Got a lady from St. Louis, and I could actually understand her! She did some tests and said that the problem was on their side, that a router needed reset! DUH!!! I asked her how come it wasn't fixed earlier as promised, and she said that they had to confirm it, and wasn't able to until just right then! (yeah right)

I then asked how long it would take. She said it would be fixed within 24 hours? What??? I wasn't happy.. She reassured me that it's company policy that that say that, but is should be fixed sooner. I asked if they could call me when it's up and running, and she said that it was something that they always do.

I got off the phone, and wasn't happy. But what could I do? We figured that Lydia would end up having to go back to McDonald's to complete any online homework she had.

Frustrated... I sat down at my laptop to complete some of the projects I had been working on. About twenty minutes later, I noticed that the weather was on my desktop! We had internet!

So far no more problems!

UPDATE: As of the posting of this, I still haven't received a call saying that my internet is working again! ARG!

~Matt


Pun of the Post: "God must love stupid people. He made SO many....."

Sorry for the delay...

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't posted in the past several days. I've been busy! But don't work, I'm still keeping log of what's been going on. So hopefully soon, I'll be able to get them completed and posted!

So yes, I'm still alive. Just keeping busy!

~Matt

Digital Transmission...

I miss analog tv......

You may ask why, and that's fine. I'll explain my position.

A year ago, our box tv died. So we forked over the money and bought a flat-screen digital tv. Some stations in our town were already broadcasting digital transmissions, and it was neat, but also very problematic. On the git-go, we noticed that occasionally when something disrupted the signal, the screen would pixelize and we'd loose audio and video. How annoying!

We had the tv situated in a certain postion in our living room and was able to get most stations. However, I wasn't too satisfied with the arrangement and I changed things around. Unfortunately, we lost half of our channels.

We also have problems with the train. Every time one passes by, it disrupts the reception! Arg!

Well, I got tired of missing out on channels like PBS. So while at Wal-Mart I bought an extension for the antenna.I'm happy to report... it works!!!

I still have problems with the train, but I don't think I can stop that! Go figure!

~Matt

Internet Churches?

I read an article about Online Churches. These aren't churches that just have a website for members to meet up during the week, but churches that are strictly online only. That means this is not a local church you can physically congregate with, but one that meets online.

A new thing, some of them go so far as to have a button on there site to accept Christ as their Savior and become a believer! Not only that, but even baptismals are done on your own.....

Although, I admit it's a neat concept, especially for those in countries where it's illegal to meet for church. Or those in remote places. I can even see it helping missionaries who long for those home services. But, I don't think just meeting online is going to really cut it.

You can call me a stick in the mud I guess. But just interacting socially online with other folks, while at a computer, is not the best way to grow as a Christian. I feel that one needs to be physically present with other believers. A true "local" body of believers.

I don't have any real answer on whether this would be wrong or right. For example, foreign missionaries are members of their sending church, and they don't get to physically attend for several years at a time while they're on the field.  With that in mind, technically, even us laymen are missionaries to our own local area. Remember, the 'great commission' applies to all believers! So would it be wrong and un-scriptural to be a member of an online assembly of fellow believer?

Anyway, I see this bit of news as a good discussion piece amongst fellow Christians.

~Matt


Pun of the Post: "Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle."

Skating, B-day Party, Grocery Shopping... and more!

Wow... Saturday (10/31/09) was a busy day!

We got up, and were out the door by 7:25 in the morning. I had the church van, and was in charge of picking up kids for the skating party that started at 9! Talk about rushing! Lydia was so tired that she napped in the passenger seat!

Our church had rented out Skateland for two hours... I had the privilege of being in charge of what music got played. So I had made a list of fast moving, upbeat, SG music. Samuel was in charge of the games, and used my list of songs to fit them in. It worked out well.

Mysia and Malachi had a great time skating. Both fell several times, but got used to it pretty quick. It was fun watching them and helping. Malachi ended up skating with Lydia for most of the time. At times, he is definitely a mama's boy! Mysia got to skate with both her Uncle Sam and Aunt Abigail quite a bit as well. Mysia was my partner during the game of "four corners". We almost won!

After taking everyone home and got home ourselves, we quickly put the kids to bed for a nap. We knew time would be short before rushing off to Abigail's birthday party at 2pm. Boy, were we right! Before heading over to the park where the party was held, I made a mad dash into WalMart to grab the gift for her. Unfortunately, it was a mad-house in there!

Speaking of how full it was, there was also some interesting characters there! Come to find out, WalMart allows it's employees to dress up. I ran into Jack Sparrow and a vampire that worked there while getting the gift! But the most interesting sight was after I finished purchasing the gift! As I was walking out, a VERY pregnant woman, WalMart employee, wearing a short, bright lime-green dress, walked by in front of me. I couldn't help but staring. She had this striped stockings on, that where bright, rainbow colored. Her hair was short with mini pony-tail braids in them. Then she turned around.... "She" had an beard! An unkept beard!!! I just stopped and stood there. A man standing nearby, looked at me and said, "yep, that's my thought too!" lol!

Anyway, we headed over to Doling Park where Abigail's party had already started. She had friends from church and her homeschool Co-op there. It was quite a crowd of teens!!! Mysia and Malachi played on the equipment, while the teens played the games that were organized for the event! Abigail ended up with a number of gifts. By the time 5 came around, we were ready to go. The kids were wearing down, and so were we!

When we arrived at home, Mysia got her bath while Malachi and I attended the front door for trick-or-treaters. Lydia and I also used this time to finalize the grocery list. It was decided upon that I would do the grocery run when the list was completed... oh... what... fun...! But while we were doing so, I decided to pop on an old VHS, it was shows from the late 80's. It was a hoot! The commercials were just as funny as the tv shows!

I left for WalMart around 8:30... the store wasn't as crowded as earlier in the afternoon. It was quiet, and there were some strange characters roaming the isles. Other than that, nothing too out of the ordinary. Grocery shopping didn't take me too long, and soon I was back at home watching more 80's tv shows with Lydia... oooo... scary!!

~Matt


Pun of the Post: "A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience."

Sump-pump Worries!

After all the rain we had on Thursday, I was sad to find out Friday morning that the sump-pump was again running overtime! Arg! How I hate having to go under the house to grab whatever is keeping the thing going!

This time, I came up with a plan! I had noticed on my last trip under the house that the electrical cord for the pump went up under the floor of the sink. That meant that it was plugged up somewhere there. I remembered seeing a few thing plugged up under the sink when installing my garbage disposal about a year ago, and I knew one of them was the dishwasher.

So, I looked under the sink, unplugged one, and sure enough... the sump-pump stopped. Well, that would at least give me a while so the sump-pump doesn't overheat or something. So Friday night, after work, I plugged it back up. Everything seemed to go pretty well, it would pump and then stop on its own. I then started hoping that whatever it was that was blogging the pump from stopping got "washed" off to the side or something.

Saturday morning, the pump was running "overtime" again, so I unplugged it. I decided to wait for a while this time, hoping that maybe I can get that piece "washed" away.

This time I waited until Sunday night. Sure enough, after 15 minutes of pumping all the water out of under our house, it stopped on it's own! Hooray!

Unfortunately, I woke up this morning with the sump-pump continuously running and no water coming out! ARG! I guess I'll have to go under there sometime soon!

~Matt


Pun of the Post: "If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried."