Holiday Wars by John Fischer

I was thinking about writing about this very topic , but I can't say it as well as John Fischer did. I take absolutely no credit for this posting. This is from the December 22, 2005.

Click the link to read what he said. I agree absolutely with John.

Holiday Wars by John Fischer

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The Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotional.

Christmas Program

Dec. 11 my daughter was in her first Christmas program. Thank goodness that her dress stayed down. She never pulled her dress over her head like you see in some programs. One down and few more to go.

I have attached a picture below.

Christmas Program 2005 

Power... Finally

Well, we finally got power last night at 7:40. That means we were without power 84 hours. The good news is that I cleaned the freezer last night. The bad news is I had to throw out about 5 pounds of shrimp. We spent about 2 hours cleaning the house and trying to get back to some sort of normalcy. I still have a co-worker without power and he said he heard it was going to be Wednesday before he had power.

Thank-you Duke Power for working very hard !!

What a week

What a week this has been. First the movie "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, The Wardrobe" came out last Friday. I wasn't able to watch it until Monday night but it was worth it. I went Sunday afternoon to the theater but it was sold out.
Sunday morning was Bethany's (my daughter) first christmas program. It was cute. But the story of the week is the "Ice Storm".
We had a nasty Ice storm hit us on Wednesday night. We lost power Thursday morning around 8:00 am. We live near a university and if I lose power they usually lose power which means I get my power back on quickly. Well not this time!! The powerline was damaged between us and the university. According to the power company it will be Tuesday before we have power. Ouch !!! Nice and cold. This morning I put about 2 inches of cold water in the bath tub and setup my turkey frier. I filled it full of water and boiled it and then brought the water into the tub so I had a warm bath. It wasn't to bad. Currently it is about 50 degrees in the house. Thankfully my mother-in-law has power so I took the baby to her house so she can at least be warm. I guess we will be finding some place to live for the next couple of days. Oh well. I am not the only person in this boat so I guess we will all suffer together.

PONDERISMS

Some people are like Slinkies. Not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.

Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, "I think I'll squeeze these dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out?"

If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, then what is baby oil made from?

Who was the first person to say, "See that chicken there? I'm gonna eat the next thing that comes outta its bottom."

Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?

Four Years

On her way to becoming a surfer. 

Boo in the Zoo - Greenville Zoo 

Let me on that slide!!! 

Biblical Curses

What would we do without the internet?

You wouldn't be able to look at sattelite pictures of places overseas. You wouldn't be able to write in Leet.
|) |23VV
You certainly couldn't write in Binary.
01000100 01110010 01100101 01110111
Now the latest, you wouldn't be able to insult people with biblical curses!!
Thou shalt be as welcome as a fart in the queen's bedchamber, O thou relative of Herod!
Listen, thou dabbler in abominations, for you will be cast onto a steaming dung-heap!
I hope you will be trampled by a herd of stampeding pigs, O thou sad Pharisee!
http://www.shipoffools.com/curses/index.html

Injury Update

I guess it had to happen. Yes, I got injured. Not while breaking two boards with my hands or breaking them with my feet. Not even while trying to knock my Instructor's head off while sparring in Tae Kwon Do. No, I got injured while playing a kids game, FRISBEE! Now we play it a little different, Ultimate Frisbee. I lunged to intercept the frisbee from someone and all 175 pounds,( okay 215 pounds) came crashing down on my ankle. I walked it off and played some more (probably a very bad thing to do). I even got an assist on a goal. Oh well, that was 2 weeks ago today and I am still hobbling around. I finally decided to visit the doctor yesterday. You know one thing about doctors is that they don't believe you when you tell them something is hurting. No, they have to poke and twist your ankle in all different ways to REALLY make sure you are telling them the truth. I think doctors really enjoy giving out pain. Anyways she tells me that I have a serious sprained tendon and that I need therapy. Man, she really is smart if she knows I need therapy!!! I have been needing therapy for about 15 years. So I have been placed on the Injury Reserve squad for the SWU Frisbee league. Oh well, I guess my old body will heal in a few months. The worst thing about this is that I was supposed to test for my half black belt in Tae Kwon Do. I was on pace for a Black Belt Test in June. I guess that is now OFF!

Homecoming 2005

New Definition of Patience

I have found a new definition of patience. It is taking your sick child to the Dr.'s Office and waiting 45 minutes with the other sick children. I have been Mr. Mom this past weekend. My wife went on a "Girl's Weekend Out". Her family (mother,cousins, aunt, sister) usually go one weekend a year to the mountains.

I kept our 19 month old daughter while my wife has been gone. Thursday night I drove to Georgia and stayed at a friends house. My friends watched her on Friday while I went to Alpharetta, GA for a day-long meeting. Came back and picked her up Friday evening and had her all weekend. I even gave her a bath on Saturday night. We even made it to church on time. Her outfit fully matched. Monday a another friend watched her while I went to work. Well last night she had a fever of 100.7. That means no day-care so Mr. Mom had to stay home. I went to the doctor's office learned a lot of patience and my daughter got the diagnosis of an ear infection.

I couldn't go get the medicine because I didn't bother to bring a bottle for lunch. Who would have thought it would have taken that long. So, I come home feed her and put her to bed. I guess another trip out to town will be necessary.

Man I miss my wife !!!

My Birthday

This may be a bunch of crap, but you never know.

Your Birthdate: October 14

With a birthday on the 14th of the month (5 energy) you are inclined to work well with people and enjoy them. You are talented and versatile, very good at presenting ideas, and you are also very good at organization and systematizing. You may have a tendency to get itchy feet at times and need change and travel. You tend to be very progressive, imaginative and adaptable. Your mind is quick, clever and analytical. A restlessness in your nature may make you a bit impatient and easily bored with routine, and rebel against it. You have a tendency to shirk responsibility.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

I Love My WIFE !!

Yesterday my wife went shopping and brought me home 2 CD's. Switchfoot- Nothing is Sound and Kutless - Strong Tower. I listened to them a little last night and they both rock. My wife even liked the Kutless CD. Praise and Worship Rock Style. Man I love my wife !!!

Flash Earth

Last week I received an email that had a link to www.flashearth.com. It combines Google Maps and Microsoft's Virtual Earth in one Web page. Zoom in and out on these links. (probably better with highspeed internet) All links will open in a new page. You might have to move the map around depending on your screen resolution.

Here a few interesting places I have visited in my lifetime.
Victoria Falls, Zambia (Widest falls in the world)
Voortrekker Monuement, Pretoria South Africa
South African Administrative Offices, Pretoria South Africa
Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA (you can see the VAB building and the launch pads.)
Experimental Prototype Community Of Tommorrow (EPCOT) Florida, USA
The Washington Monument (The White House is north)
Fort Sumter, SC

Other interesting places to see from space
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (Airplane Graveyard) Zoom this one in!
Hoover Dam
Burning Man
Area 51
Statue of Liberty
The Pentagon
Niagra Falls

Learning a new language..

I am learning a new language called l337 (Leet). Definition Here
Here is a conversation in l337

AF : j00 a43 teh gh3y!
scv: bi73 m3
AF : lol
scv: y00 s33 i c@n l3@rn l337
AF : j00 can
AF : UNFz UNFz UNFz UNFz
scv: 3@s13r 2 $p3ll 7h3 n0rm@1 w@y th0ugh
AF : y3p
scv: 7h$ i$ h@rd 2 r3@d
AF: j00 g37 u53d 70 17.

SWU Spiritual Emphasis

Today started SWU's Spiritual Emphasis. I went to the service this morning and tonight. The speaker this week is Darren Earlewine. This morning he spoke on "The Primal Life". He is a very interesting speaker. He talked about how churches were created. Go breathed life into the church. One of the main points that stuck with me from this mornings service was about churches. He said something like this. "If a church is being relevent they are being reactionary. Churches must be revelational not relevant"

I went tonight. I am going to try to go tomorrow, but if I can't I'll get the .mp3. The school has started to record all chapels digitally so I can listen to it later on if I can't get to chapel.

Commercials

I love watching commercials at times. This is one of the funniest on TV. It is the Hardee's Milkshake commercial. For those that don't know Hardee's is a fast food restaurant like Burger King. Here is the commercial if you want to watch it. Click Here to watch.

Tired...

Man, I am one tired puppy. I am a volunteer Fireman and we have been busy this past few days. It started Thursday evening late when we got called for Mutual aid with a neighboring Fire Department. They had a structure fire and needed help. It was after midnight before we were done. Then we had an incident (can't give any details) early Friday morning (7:15). Saturday was spent helping the youth group from my church with a car wash. Then I came home and mowed the yard. The high temperature in Clemson was only 99 F.

Sunday was another hot day with the high being 102. A nice thunderstorm blew in and lightening struck an apartment building close to my house. At that time it was a cool 82 with 100% humidity.

This morning we had another mutual aid call to another structure fire. The temp was only 92 with about 56% humidity.

Needless to say, I didn't get to Tae Kwon Do today, but I have already had a good workout these past 24 hours.

Undefeated

Yes, that is right I am undefeated! This week I started playing Ultimate Frisbee with some of the students at SWU (Here are some pictures from the games last semester). I guess they decided that they needed a good laugh so they invited me to come play. I haven't ran that much since my soccer days at SWU (12 years ago). Tuesday night my team won 7-5. A great match. Then today we played 2 games and my team won the first match 7-6 and then we switched up teams and I was on the team that was losing but a couple of guys left so the other team invited me to come over so I did and then we won that one. Undefeated!!! I guess I should quit while I am ahead, but it is a lot of fun. I am exercising, trash talking and hanging out with some great students.

I also started back working out 4 days a week so I am really hurting right now. Since school is back I am doing Tae Kwon Do at lunch four days a week. I am currently a red belt with a black stripe. If I stay healthy I will test for my half black belt this semester (Black belt with a white stripe). I will then have to really work hard and hopefully test for my black belt next spring sometime.

I AM A QUITTER

In the words of a new book I am reading I am a quitter. I picked up a new book this weekend "She Calls Me Daddy" by Robert Wolgemuth It covers, "Seven Things Every Man Needs to Know About Building a Complete Daughter". I picked it up this weekend at Promise Keepers, more about that later. In the book he talks about starting projects and never completeing them. We ALL do it at times, therefore we are all quitters. The problem is that raising a daughter (or boy) is a project that we can't afford NOT to finish.

I uploaded 2 new pictures of my Daughter. They are below. A couple of my friends that have blogs use a website called Flickr. I might try it out and start uploading my pictures there.

Ok, back to Promise Keepers. I went to the Promise Keepers event this weekend in Charleston, SC. Nobody else from church was going (that I knew of) so I went by myself. I knew of a group from another Wesleyan Church so I met up with them.

Saturday Morning I was sitting there and someone else from my church walked by. It was great that he was able to be there with his son. We all had a great time.

If you have never been to a Promise Event then you should go. They have 10 more conferences left in the states and 1 in the Bahamas (good time for a vacation). Register at this link. I am already trying to figure out which conference I will go to next year (the closest one conflicts with our Church Family Camp).

The speakers were great and really challenged the men. Here is the list of the speakers:
Dave Roever
Phil Chapin (Dave Roever's son-in-law)
Mike Silva
Buddy Owens
Steve Farrar
Rick Rigsby and of course
Brad Stine. Brad is "america's conservative comedian". He entertained us and at the same time he challenged us to be better and stronger Christian men.

I went to San Diego, California in June for a work related conference and got to experience my first earthquake. I was sitting in a meeting and it felt like my chair ran over a speed bump. The floor of the convention floor just rolled. I thought it was pretty neat, but others didn't feel that way. An aquaintance was on the 17th floor of the hotel and said it swayed. He obviously didn't feel the same way I did.

The highlight of July was Table Rock Family Camp. I was the person in charge of the media and powerpoints for the services and singing. I love doing that. Even though it is computer related it is so different from work that it is fun. I took a week of vacation and spent the whole week with Julie. Grandma came and borrowed Bethany for a couple of days. That gave Julie and I some time to just enjoy the services. We were quite busy though with Julie being on the praise team and me working behind the scenes. It was a lot of fun.

Anyways, I will try to keep this blog up to date and not be a quitter. I'll try not to wait 5 months between posts.

Teaching her Hippo bear how to play the piano. 

Trying to turn up the sound on her DVD. 

1st Birthday

Tuesday was our daughter's first birthday. We celebrated it today. Some of our friends came and celebrated with us. She liked the cake! I hooked up the webcam so my parents in Canada good celebrate with us. They got to watch her smash the cake and make a mess. It was a great time. Kids sure grow up fast. See pictures below.

I think she has successfully destroyed the cake. 

What a messy baby! 

I think she likes it. 

Bring on the cake! 

I think she likes the present. 

Not a new toy, but she crawled up into this by herself. 

Countries I have been in.

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

States I have visited as of 3/15/05

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Back to Blogging

Well, it has been a while since I posted to the blog. A lot has happened since the last post. We had a great trip to Canada. My parents flew in from the Ukraine to be home for my grandfather's funeral. All of my aunts and uncles also were there. Most of them I hadn't seen in probably 15-20 years, so it was good to see them. We didn't have a "funeral". My grandfather was cremated and so we had a visitation at the funeral home. I was asked on behalf of the grandchildren to say a few words. I got a lot of stories from the others that were there and talked about all the good memories we had. I think I did a good job. My grandmother gave me all my grandfather's World War II medals. I think that was pretty cool. I am going to get a few more military things from her and get them framed. A buddy of mine does framing so we will work on it together.

I took a Tae Kwon Do test last week. I am now a 2nd Gup (red belt with a black stripe). I did ok on my test. I was very nervous since I hadn't tested in a while. I had to do a combination multiple break. That means a I had to break multiple boards and combine two breaks. I broke two boards with and elbow strike and then immediately did a step side kick and broke 3 boards. I had never done that before so I thought it was pretty cool. If I stay injury free and continue to work I will test for my Black Belt sometime in the fall of 2005.

My daughter is growing up very fast. It seems like she will be walking any day now. She discovered the piano the other day so now she will walk over to the piano and play the keys. I guess it was only a matter of time since her mother plays. I will include the picture below this post.

This week is spring break at the school which means I get to do upgrades on one of the servers since the students are gone. It is going to be a very busy week (then again they all are busy).I'll try not to wait so long between posts next time.

Starting piano lessons at an early age. Work on that music scholarship! 

Not even one and already taking out the mailbox. And you are going to drive my car?

Off to Canada

Well, I am off to Canada in the morning. My grandfather passed away Jan. 6 so we are heading up to the funeral. It will take us 24 hours of driving to get there. Our van just started to mess up so I am not sure how the trip will be.
My grandfather served 23 years in the Canadian Armed Forces. I knew he was in the Korean war but I never knew he served during WW II.
My parents have been working in the Ukraine for the past 4 months and they have gotten a flight out so we will be able to see them while we are home. Hopefully we will have a good trip.

10th Wedding Anniversary

Friday, Dec. 31 was our 10th wedding anniversary. I surprised Julie (my wife) by taking her to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. She had no idea where we were going. I created a scavenger hunt for her that included clues. By the time the hunt was finished (over a week) she had a pretty good idea where we were going. We dropped our 9 month off at grandma's and headed to the mountains. We had to stay in Pigeon Forge since Gatlinburg was packed. We enjoyed our stay. I had purchased tickets to a New Years Eve party at the Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies. It was a semi-formal to formal occasion. There was live music and heavy hors d’oeuvres. We ate until we couldn't eat anymore. At midnight we went out to front of the Aquarium and watch the city of Gatlinburg ball drop and they shot fireworks off of their space needle. We had a very good time. We drove back on Saturday afternoon and picked up our sick daughter from grandma's. Today Julie took her to the doctor: double ear infection and RSV. Welcome back to reality. Below are some pictures from the trip.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park 2 

Great Smoky Mountains National Park  

New Years Eve Party at the Aquarium of the Smokies. 

Jelly Fish in the Ripleys Aquarium of the Smokies 

Overlooking Gatlinburg.