Week Rundown! (06/13/10 - 06/19/10)

(I meant to post this on Monday, but forgot to click 'send')

Sunday:

What a nice day! Weather was pretty good, and services were great!

We had lunch with our associate Pastor and his wife at McDonald's. The kids played for a while i the play area before we got the food. After eating, Mysia got to talk to them about her salvation, assuring us all that she understood. We also talked about her baptism... more on that later though!

Evening service was good as well! 


Monday:

When we got home, the kids were already tired from a fun day at daycare. Lydia had to run off to a honors program meeting. I got the kids showered and ready for bed. I got Malachi in bed, and received word that Gampa (Lydia's dad) was going to stop by. So I got Mysia finished up by the time he showed up, and let Malachi get up.

They both got to wrestle with Gampa and even had story time. I believe they had him read at least 6 books in a row! Of course, he won them over the second he came in the door.... he had bags of candy!

After Gampa left, we put the kids to bed. They were now super-tired! But I'm glad they got wore out!


Tuesday:

Lydia got a call from her sister, Adria, saying she's wanting to stop by. So Lydia picked the kids up from daycare earlier, and met Adria at the house. Mysia and Malachi enjoyed that, and got to spend some time with their Aunt for a bit.

They picked me up from work, and we had supper. I then went out and mowed the lawn... and I picked a good time to do it. It was nice and cool compared to the previous days!


Wednesday:

Well, nothing too much out of the ordinary happened today! I went to work, Lydia went to school, and the kids went to daycare!

Lydia picked Mysia up early from daycare, thinking that today was the day for Mysia's Daisy Group's field-trip to the YMCA. It's actually tomorrow! But since they were there, and our family has membership, they went swimming anyway!

We had church in the evening... but went to Walmart afterwards! What was supposed to be a quick shop, took us two hours! I got a fishing license and some food items for the trip. Lydia got some items she needed, and we picked up some flag shirts.

When we got back home, the kids were tired, and so were we!


Thursday:

The Daisy Group field-trip was today. Mysia got to rock climb, swim, and even canoe in the pool! She was so excited to tell me about it!

For supper, Lydia made a new dish. Rice with Mediterranean chicken. It was good! The kids were hesitant at first, but I got them to eat it!

Lydia Bio-Life (to give plasma), so while she was gone, I took the kids outside to play... I was sleepy, so I relaxed on the swing and watched them wear themselves out!

After we put the kids to bed, we watched the movie "Glory Road". It's basically "Remember the Titans" with a basketball theme. It was a good movie.


Friday:

We slept in until 8:30! M&M had actually gotten up earlier, and tried to wake us up. I knew if I told them to go play, they'd get into stuff. So I told them to pick up their rooms... so what did they do? They played! :P

After getting up, I started packing for the camp-out. I had taken the day off work specifically for this activity! There was still a few things I needed from the store, so I had to make a quick run before heading out.

Malachi and I left house at 11:30. We picked up my friend Doug, and got to David's house (he lives on Stockton lake) at 12:45. Malachi had taken his nap in the car! We were hungry, so we cooked lunch on the grill and set up camp. We decided to do some fishing... Malachi quickly got bored with that, and ended up playing in the lake. Doug and I didn't catch anything, and since it was pretty hot (93 degrees with hardly any wind), we headed back to camp. We visited, ate supper, and Malachi played in the pool. I too got in the pool! It was cold, but it sure felt great!

As it got dark, others joined at the campsite. We sat around and talked, even played on our phones. Yeah... we were roughing it! We even had fans in our tents! lol! We had marshmallows over the fire, and before bed we had devotions. Malachi fell asleep during prayer. I visited for another hour before turning in shortly after midnight!

Meanwhile... back at home, after us guys left.... Mysia took nap, Lydia did homework. Mary (Doug's wife) came over around suppertime. She stayed over with Lydia, that way they had a "girls night". They ate pizza and visited. They got the idea to gym and swim, unfortunately, the pool was closed. So they went went to Jordan Valley Park and played the water there.  Came home around 9, did toenails, talked, and watched movie. Lydia said she didn't get to bed until after 3!

We all had an eventful day!


Saturday:

Mysia got up at 6:45, Lydia let her watch cartoons. The gals cooked breakfast.. omelets! They watched a movie and according to Lydia, they were "pretty much lazy" for the rest of the afternoon!

For us guys, things were pretty good. I woke up when the sun shone through our tent, but seeing Malachi was still asleep, I went back to sleep as well. There was some talking outside the tent, and he stirred a few times. But it wasn't until he heard one of the other kids talking did he get up!

We had had wonderful breakfast! Eggs, bacon, biscuits & gravy.... yum!. We decided to pack up a few things before it got to hot, but several were headed out on the pontoon boat and we got the invitation to come along. So the tent was abandoned and we climbed an board! Several of the little girls were there (our host's Granddaughter's, Malachi's age), and Malachi played with them instead of riding in the boat. Go figure! hehe!

I had a nice time on the lake. Unfortunately, I didn't catch anything! We came back to camp in time to prepare lunch... fried fish! We packed up what was left, ate lunch, and then headed home. Poor Malachi was tired, so he slept in the car!

At home, I unpacked the car and got a little rest. Malachi cuddled with Lydia for twenty minutes before we took our showers!

That evening, we dropped the kids off at my parents and we attended an important concert! It was a tribute concert, in remembrance of the Cathedral Quartet! Wow... what a concert! It was soooo good! Definitely worth the money for the tickets! We got to hear some classics. I knew every song that was sung! In fact, I think I sang along with each one too! I wish I had a recording of the concert......

Because of the concert, we got home late. We didn't stay up much longer, we were all tired!


~Matt

Ouch! Glass in my Foot (Friday, 06/17/10)

Today, I took a nice walk at lunch, which has became a new routine for me. I was on my way back to work and the sun was beating down on me as I trekked along the road in the 90° heat! I wasn't really paying attention to the road before me... my mind in the clouds I guess. All of a sudden, there was a crunch, and a sharp pain in my left foot. I immediately hopped on my right leg and gasped in pain. Oh, did it hurt!

I had stepped on a piece of glass that went through the sole of my shoe and into my foot! It was tightly logged in the tread of my shoe, and I couldn't pull my foot out due to the fact it piercing my foot. Not the best situation while on the side of a road with a good amount of traffic, and no sidewalk!

I bit down on my teeth, enduring the pain, as I wiggled the glass out of my foot and shoe! The glass was fairly large, and was surprised that it had easily found it's way through my shoe! I ended up limping my way back to work, hopping that there wasn't too much blood. When I got back to my desk, I cleaned and bandaged my foot!

The one complaint about the whole ordeal though.... a good sock has a hole in it, thanks to the glass!

~Matt

Tech Post: A Fix for Low Signal on the iPhone (Tuesday, 06/15/10)

I really like my iPhone. I depend on it more and more. I use it for notes, contacts, and keeping up with everyone. It comes in handy for everything... and like the advertisements say, there truly is an app for that!

Here in town, I get great signal. AT&T's has really raised the bar here. But when I get out of the area, that's where the trouble begins. Even at church, which is outside city limits, can be spotty. Our new auditorium seems to block the signal, it just can't penetrate the steel I guess. So I often get 'no signal' or I'm on the "edge" network. It's not like I need to be browsing the internet during services, but before and after is nice!

Well, while doing some searching on the internet for neat tips and tricks for the iPhone, I came accross a thread that gave me an answer. It appears that the iPhone tends to have trouble switching over to "edge" at times, and keeps searching for 3G when it's not available. The website said to go under options and turn 3G off, therefore forcing the phone to just use the "Edge" network.

So, I gave it a try... and it works! Yay!

So the next time we go to Branson, I'm testing this out!


~Matt


BTW.. here's the website!

Week Rundown! (06/06/10 - 06/12/10)

This week flew by... nothing too specific to write about on some of the days I guess! So some are just notes on what happened that day!



Sunday:

Drove van for church. That afternoon, Lydia attended a wedding shower for a couple in our church, Ike & Holly, while I kept an eye on the kids.


Monday:

Lydia started classes! Whooohoo! :P

Later that evening I practiced with the quartet. We're gearing up for our sing on Saturday!

Tuesday:

We watched "Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And the Wardrobe". The kids actually got to bed later than usual, but it was good to have some family time together.


Wednesday:

A normal busy day. Of course, we attended church services.... When we arrived back home and it didn't take long for us to go to bed! Ha!


Thursday:

I had sick day... blech!

However, later that evening, the quartet had one last practice. We worked on a few of the songs that needed a little more practice!


Friday:

Lydia rushed around for the day, doing errands and grocery shopping.

After I got off work, we rushed home got ready, then headed to a friend's wedding. Ben & Ana were there, so we them for a bit. The wedding was beautiful! Lydia's sister, Lycia was there, and as she passed by after saying hi, Malachi looked at me, pointed to her, and said, "I love her....!" He's such a card!

After the wedding, we visited with a few people we hadn't seen in a while and then headed over to the funeral home down the street. Edith, a close neighbor to my parents and grandma, had passed away. She had lived a long life, but we'll still miss her!

We went back home, organized the living room a bit, got the kids to bed, and then tried make sense of our "organization" attempt. lol!


Saturday:

Time to sing! We all met at Sam's Club and carpooled to Persimmon Hill Farm in Lampe, MO. Lydia had dropped me off and took the kids to visit her grandmother. They had a good visit, and M&M got to play too!

The quartet had fun, and it was an interesting setting. It was outside, the mics were sensitive, and we had to adjust a few things. However, it turned out pretty good, and we enjoyed singing to all that was there! I have pictures, and had originally set up the video-camera, but for some reason it didn't record!

I got home after 3pm, and Lydia was wore out with the kids being as energetic as they were! We ate supper and watched some tv! Later that evening, Lydia and I still worked on re-arranging the living room!


~Matt

Malachi: “Oh Wow” (Friday, 06/11/10)

Malachi is a smart 2 year-old! Every day he surprises me with something he says or does. He seems to notice things that I wouldn't think a kid his age would, and he has a great mind for figuring things out!

His words and sentences are also "big" as well. For example, the other day while Lydia was driving the car and we were heading home, Malachi piped up and said, "Daddy, I thought you were going to drive..." That stunned me! I'm always assuming simple sentences coming from his mouth.

Well, there is one thing that it special (or specific) about Malachi's way of wording things. And if you are around him quite a bit, you catch on. But let me explain...

It all started when he first started doing things, like crawling and saying words. When he would make some accomplishment, whether great or small, Lydia and I would comment with "Oh wow!" We obviously also used it at the end of sentences when pointing out something. For example, let's say we were pointing out a hot rod while driving. We'd say, "Hey Malachi, look over there at that cool car. Oh wow!"

I guess this has caused Malachi to add the phrase to the end of most of his exclamations! When coming to show us something, he'll explain it, and then say "Oh wow!" It's funny. He'll add it all the time. It's now an expression that is constantly used for everything. So if you're around him sometime, take note. It's pretty neat. You'll never know what he'll come up with!

Oh wow!

~Matt